The air inside the elevator was filled with tension as no one said a word during the short trip towards the Promenade Area. Once they reached the designated floor, the heroes and the soldier walked through the hallway and entered the room. Upon going through the doorway, they saw a small-to-medium sized contingent team of heroes, among them being Green Lantern (Kilowog Ev), Doctor Light and Starfire, standing on the teleporter platforms just as several operators monitored all channel frequencies and dictated several commands and security protocols. Looking on the large window-screen in the room, they saw a transmission feed of two squadrons of Javelins and starfighter jets flying over a ship that seemed to drift in place as smoke and fire covered some areas of its hull, starboard and bow.

Black Canary looked around and saw Batman standing in front of a console, typing furiously at the panel and observing a few preliminary reports from Venus. She approached him and spoke, "Batman. What's going on out there?"

Batman acknowledged Black Canary's presence and stopped typing. He turned towards her and spoke, "We received a transmission from a civilian shuttle on route to Earth. They reported being attacked by a warship upon exiting Venus' upper stratosphere and orbital defense station," he said, turning back to the console and pulling a schematics model of the ship on the screen as he continued, "The transport itself sustained heavy damage on two of its main engines, causing a severe malfunction on its reactor and rendering it immobile in mid-flight. Two battlecruisers and one carrier from the First Fleet are already mobilizing to aid the passengers and crewmembers aboard as we speak."

Black Canary placed a hand under her chin and gave a hum that was low but loud enough to Batman hear her, "I see. Do we have intel on who was responsible or not?"

"No. And to make matters worse, the weaponry used to inflict this much damage was not of human origin, and it doesn't match to any known extraterrestrial race within our database. We're dealing with someone or something new here, which is why I called every hero in the Watchtower to meet up here in the event that a second attack incurs in the rescue operation."

Black Canary nodded at him once she understood what the emergency was about and turned her head to look at the feed. Just as her eyes landed on the screen, the sight of three human warships came into view as it moved steadily towards the civilian shuttle. Everyone turned their focus to the screen and held their breaths as a man spoke in the comms speakers in a rough voice, "Shuttle T-807, this is the SAC Prometheus. We are en route to assist you. Standby for emergency docking. Over."

Another man with a deep voice, "Copy that, Prometheus. Initiating emergency docking procedures and safety protocols. Over."

Nobody in the Promenade Area dared to make a sound for a minute or two until one of the larger ships, the Prometheus, had finally reached the small vessel. They breathed easily once they saw the shuttle attach itself to the warship on its port side and the passengers and crewmembers moving quickly to get out. A medical team was dispatched to aid those that were wounded by the attack, some attending their injuries while others carried stretchers for the ones in critical condition. Black Canary held her chest and sighed in relief while Batman remained unfazed by the ordeal. Soon after, the voices of the operators and heroes echoed throughout the room once more, the latter group being louder than the former.

Martian Manhunter stepped away from the teleporters and walked towards Black Canary and Batman, observing the feed for a moment as he spoke, "Batman. The passengers and crewmembers of the shuttle have all been evacuated. The medical team reports that some of the injured require serious medical attention and are requesting to take them to the Watchtower for further treatment."

"Understood," Batman said, "We'll notify the Medical Bay to prepare a room for the critically wounded and clear one of the land-"

"WARNING. GRAVITY DISTORTION FIELDS DETECTED. INITIAL ELECTROMAGNETIC READINGS ESTIMATED AT TWELVE ENERGY FLUCTUATIONS."

The room fell silent once more as a female A.I. voice followed by the sound of alarms delivers a notification message through the speakers in the room. The entire staff crew sprung to type on their consoles and voice several commands and protocols to assess the situation. Batman pulled a chart on the console he was using and began analyzing the reports alongside Black Canary just as Martian Manhunter returned to the team of heroes present in the room.

Black Canary turned towards Batman, "How much-?"

Knowing what she was going to ask, Batman cut her off and said, "The energy detected at one of the fields equals that of a ship making interstellar travel through warp space."

"In other words, we may be looking either at an incursion or an invasion," Black Canary sighed in frustration as she added, "Looks like your hunch was correct. Again."

"Yes, but now's not the time to argue about it. We have to focus on getting-"

"OW!"

"SORRY!"

Every hero in the room turned their head towards Curtis and saw him standing up while a female soldier remained on the floor, rubbing her back to soothe the force she received from falling to the ground. He profusely apologizes at the soldier and helps her stand up. He then walked towards one of the consoles nearby –which turned out to be the one Batman was using–, pressed a button on the screen and spoke, "SAC Prometheus, this is the Watchtower. Be advised, we're detecting multiple warships of unknown origin headed to your position. Get yourselves out of there. Over."

"(static) -repeat that? We couldn't- (static)"

"Prometheus, come in! Prometheus, come in!" Marcus said, not receiving response from the ship as he added, "Damn it! What's wrong with the comms?"

A male operator spoke, "We don't know, sir. It appears that something's interfering with our comms. We can't reach out to either Python or Cobra as well."

"Sir, we have a visual on one of those fields now," a female operator said, passing the information from her console to the window-screen in the process.

Everyone turned their heads to the feed once more and saw an orb of energy taking form before splitting itself in two opposite blue spikes and disappear as a ship came out of it. The ship in question was large in size and length, carried multiple gun placements, as well as some spikes, on various parts of its hull, and had several wires attached to it in place. The most distinguishable features it bore were the large engine protruding on the rear back of its port side and the large red crimson line matted on it. The screen then splits into twelve transmission feeds, all of them concentrated on the other energy fields and showing the same process as the first with more ships appearing in sight. The screen reconvenes itself into one feed once more and shows a large extraterrestrial fleet moving towards the three warships and their deployed squadrons. All military personnel, including Curtis, began to leave the room and head towards the hangars to prepare their jets just as Martian Manhunter uses the console next to the teleporters and sends Starfire, Green Lantern, Doctor Light, Red Star, Captain Atom, Orion, Supergirl and a newly reprogrammed Amazo into the vacuum of space to assist in repelling the attack. A few minutes later, seven combat squadrons soon joined the heroes side by side and flew towards the warships, preparing their weapons as two extraterrestrial warships were drawing in near the position of one of the human battlecruisers, aligning their cannons to fire in the process.

A male voice echoed throughout the room as he spoke, "SBC Cobra, this is Lancer Leader. We're closing in on your position now. Minimal ETA is 5 minutes. Over."

A female voice responded immediately, "(static) -Lancer Leader. Be adv- (static) -jamming our signals- (static) -permission to engage. Over."

"Jamming signals? Hmm…" Red Robin said to himself, pondering what the female voice said and sitting down on one of the available consoles in the room. He began to type on the keyboard rapidly, looking for anything that could be interfering with the Watchtower's communications just as the other heroes in the room monitored closely the developing situation in the feed.

Meanwhile, Batman was receiving orders from the members of the U.N.'s Security Council to take immediate action after he informed them of a possible alien attack. Once the transmission was over, he pressed the button and spoke, "All ships, this is the Watchtower. You have permission to engage the enemy. I repeat, you have permission to engage the enemy. Over."

"Copy that, Watchtower. Over and out," the man said before addressing to his comrades, "Lancer Squadron, form up. We're going in!"

And with that, the battle began. Several squadrons comprised of seven jets converged their V–formation into a single line of attack and flew across the alien warships, firing their turrets at their hulls with deadly efficiency and breaking formation into smaller groups. The ships in turn fired their forward cannons at the nearest battlecruiser in sight, an action that prompted their counterparts to fire their own batteries in retaliation with the heroes running interference. Starfire, Supergirl and Captain Atom flew alongside some of the groups of jets to aid them in the fight; Green Lantern and A.M.A.Z.O formed shields around the battlecruiser Cobra and deflected the energy blasts as the vessel returned fire; and Orion, Doctor Light and Red Star flew towards one of the ships and attacked the area that comprised what they considered to be the deck and control room, causing the vessel to tilt downwards slightly before exploding apart. However, despite the sheer firepower the jets, Javelins, heroes and warships used, the hull on the enemy ships suffered minimal to moderate damage as their starboard and port cannons managed to gun down a few pilots into oblivion. The conflict raged on for some time as both sides were sustaining heavy losses, the invaders going from twelve ships to five and Humanity retaining three fighter and Javelin squadrons. The tide of the battle began to sway on Humanity's side as the remainder of the extraterrestrial fleet began to retreat away from Earth, making the heroes chase after them.

Then, in an instant, things took a turn for the worse. As the fleet reconvened outside of Earth's orbital defense range, several orbs of energy formed up and more ships came into view, raising the initial military strength by twenty-four vessels. The fleet began to mobilize towards Earth once more, this time at an alarming pace as it deployed multiple squadrons of lesser shuttles upon entering orbit. The shuttles wore the resemblance of a dragonfly, maintaining the same design of their hulls as their larger counterparts and two crimson red lines matted on the center alongside a few small banners attached to some of the spikes. The shuttles soon deployed what appeared to be two pair of twin cannons below the cockpit and fired blue energy beams at the remaining fighter squadrons and broke formation to give chase against the jets and Javelins. The large fleet broke into two groups of twelve ships, with one marking its course to Earth and the other remaining in battle as support for the lesser shuttles. After passing the Watchtower, the first group splits once more in two formations consisting of six ships and take different routes. The second group formed a ring around the three warships, trapping them into a pit as they fired their ordinance at them. With this sudden development, the tide of the battle began to swing dramatically to the enemy's favor, alarming everyone in the Watchtower in the process.

"(explosions and static) Lancer Squadron, reg- (static) -too many of them!"

"(static) -got three on my tail- (static) -not gonna -AAH! (explosion)"

"(static and rapid gunshots) -three bogeys down!"

"(explosion) We lost Javelin 53!"

"(static) -Lantern, behind- (static)"

"ALERT. EXTRATERRESTRIAL ATTACK IMMINENT. THREAT LEVEL DESIGNATED: ALPHA. ACTIVATING ALL ORBITAL DEFENSE SYSTEMS."

"I need a status report, now!" Batman shouted, gritting his teeth as every remaining hero in the Watchtower, excluding Red Robin, began to board on several Javelins and take flight towards Earth in pursuit of the larger invading ships.

"Twelve enemy ships have managed to breach our defense barrier, sir. The other twelve have outmaneuvered our warships and trapped them in a fire zone," one of the male operators spoke.

"What about the First Fleet? Do we still have our channels open?"

Another female operator responded, "None, sir. Our transmissions don't seem to reach out towards the remainder of the fleet. We're completely cut off."

"Batman. We have a plausible set of coordinates now," Red Robin said, passing the holographic map from the console to the large screen next to the feed as he added, "Based on the trajectory of the enemy, they're headed to attack the U.K. and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. I'm still trying to find a way to reestablish our comms and determine what's jamming our signals."

"Good," Batman replied before addressing everyone else, "Someone inform the British and Russian Armed Forces of the impeding attack. I'm going out there." He stood up and began to walk towards the hangar, stopping slightly as he spoke to Red Robin, "I'm leaving you in charge of monitoring the feeds."

Red Robin nodded and returned to type on the console. Batman reached the hangar and jumped on the Batwing, and soon enough, he was on his way to help the trapped warships and heroes in the vacuum of space. Everyone in the Watchtower observed the feed momentarily before returning to their posts, thinking if Humanity would get embroiled in a war once more.

Little did anyone know…
… the war had already begun…