Author's Note: Immense apologies for the immense delay. I really have no excuse whatsoever...so I hope this double-chapter update can make up for it. These chapters were co-written by myself and Post. Expect the second update soon after the first. Enjoy.
Thresholding by CidGregor
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.
This fic is dedicated to Post, for all that he has contributed to its existence. (Haha, the movie's named TIT!)
Chapter 26
Tromand'r finished fastening a glistening, blue face mask. He tightened the straps to a slate gray breast plate and reached out towards the side for an electrical staff. He twirled the spear at ready, posed, and took a breath.
"All right, men. Feiriul'thraat de X'Hal!" He triggered the spear with a bright blue spark and shouted to the soldiers on his left and right. "For Terra Firma! For Tamaran! For Glory!"
"De X'Hal!" They all shouted through their face masks in military might. A grunting shout waved through them, and they all identically spun their staffs at ready.
Tromand'r charged a single star-bolt. He held his breath, narrowed his grisly gaze, and launched the blue energy pulse straight forward……into a wide-stretching pane of glass against the infinite blackness of space.
CRASSSSSSSH!
The window shattered. Before the thunderous sound could finish booming throughout the claustrophobic corridor, Tromand'r and his men were instantly sucked out into the nether. They held their breaths and charged their righteous powers of flight as they soared head-first into the potshot, explosion-splotched vastness of the Tamaranian-Gordanian space battle. They were like naked stones……skeletal birds streaking across an obsidian pond. And yet with their alien resilience and military courage, they managed to form a veritable living squadron of battle-ready fighters. Following Tromand'r's lead, they arced their way around the twirling hull of the Peley and made straight for the source of the Drendar Invasion Maneuver.
Inevitably enough, a solid line of bulbous, brown and green Gordanian fighters was sailing straight towards them, weapons already glowing a hot orange-red in charge.
One Tamaranian soldier shuddered and murmured to the Captain through the helmet's communication frequency: "SNkkkt—X'Hal, it is as if they are ready for us."
"We are too small to engage them!"
Tromand'r gritted his teeth and twirled a sparkling, blue staff as he zeroed in on the first of the streaming space craft. "My fury is larger than any putrid army of lizards."
ZAP! ZAP! ZAAAAP! Hot red lasers seared through the ice cold of space.
"RAAAAAAAAUGH!" Tromand'r twirled through, dodged them, and flew abreast the first fighter with his staff stretched outwards. ZZZZZZZT!.!.! He cut a deep ravine straight through the metal shielding of the emeny fighter. Sparks and shrapnel flew amidst the blue aura of wrath.
The following Tamaranians behind the Captain followed suit and shot a mixture of starbolts and electric beams into the exposed hull of the craft. POW! POW! POW!
KABOOOM! The ship exploded in a brilliant death ball of flame. The Tamaranians pierced through, breathed with renewed adrenaline, and descended full force upon the confused line of fighter craft.
"DE X'HAL!"
ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!
Star-bolts of varying rainbow colors of death rained down onto the fighters. After the first ship or two practically melted from the onslaught, the rest of the Gordanian crafts broke out of formation, swung around, and zeroed in on the Tamaranians from all sides.
Tromand'r flew to a stop in mid air, signaled the men to float in a circle around his patch of space, and started twirling his blue-streak'd electro-rod at a breakneck speed. The fellow soldiers followed suit. Soon, a shield of hot blue formed around them just as the bulbous fighters descended and fired—
POW! P-P-POWWW! ZIIIIIING! BZZZZ!
All of the energy blasts either ricocheted off the shield or were absorbed by the energy fluctuation. But the punishment forced the blue aura to dissipate, and not a minute after a Gordanian bomber flew in and launched two flaming torpedoes.
SHOOOOOOOOOM!
The projectiles pierced madly through the blue shields and bloodily sliced their way through two Tamaranian soldiers before exploding in a plasma cloud that absorbed the bodies of three more.
"AAAAaaaa----" FWOOOMB!
Tromand'r gasped……then snarled. His eyes flickered a hot blue as he spun around and soared along the exhaust trail of the launched missiles. He followed the torpedo paths and—as his fellow men watched—planted himself firmly on the nose of the craft that launched them. "NNNGHHH!" He raised his staff—sparkling—and stabbed it straight down into the glass'd pilot seat. "HAAAAUGH!"
CHUNK!
The cockpit flickered and flashed blue before turning the hot color of exhausted Gordanian blood. The bomber spiraled out of control. Tromand'r breathed against the fogged visor of his mask and leapt off just as—
BOOOOM! The bomber flew into the hull of a Gordanian dreadnaught several spans away. The huge battle ship sparkled and burned from the inside and began to reel in mid-space.
Tromand'r seethed……seethed……seethed in the middle of the giant space battle.
ZOOOOOOOM!
He spun, snarling. Through a barrage of star-bolts and electrical beams, a flank of enraged Gordanian fighters arced around and descended upon him. Their laser cannons glowed hotly.
Tromand'r's glowing eyes narrowed. In one movement he tossed his helmet completely off and twirled, twirled, twirled his staff---
POW! POW! POW-POW-POW! CLANG-CLANG-CLANG! Tromand'r mightily deflected the impossibly hot laser blasts with his weapon. His palms began to sting. He glanced down and saw his staff overloading with a sapphire heat.
SHOOOOOOOM! The three fighters zoomed in.
"NNNGH!" Tromand'r simply hurled the staff like a hot blue javelin.
FWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH! It sailed into the wing of one fighter and exploded---POWW! The Gordanian fighter spun like a top and flailed off into space.
The other two ships closed in.
Tromand'r burst straight forward in a living blue comet. "YAAAAAAAAAUGH!" In battle rage, he plowed head-first into the nose of the foremost fighter with a star-bolt pulse all throughout his body—
CRUNNNNNCH! Tromand'r burst through the nose of the ship, shot a ripple down the spine of the ship, and burst out through the engines with a bloodied Gordanian pilot writhing in his grip. CRAAAK!
Tromand'r hovered with the quivering lizard man in his grasp. He turned his smoking head and saw the last ship coming in.
SHOOOOOM!
He turned to the Gordanian. The lizard was reaching for a side-arm—WHUMP! Tromand'r headbutted him. WHUMP! Again, and spun around with a snarl—SWOOOSH!—releasing the reptilian warrior. The naked Gordanian flew headlong into the engine compartment of the last fighter. He exploded in a crystalline sphere of frozen blood before the erupting engine promptly evaporated it and everything left of the vessel itself—
POWWWWWW!.!.!.!
Tromand'r shielded himself with crossed arms of star-bolt power. He absorbed the blast, emerged through with mere singes, and saw an open space shattered through the line of the Drendar Maneuver. And dead ahead……was the foremost Gordanian flagship.
"MEN! WARRIORS!" Tromand'r half hissed, half shouted, fully charged. "BREAK ON THROUGH!"
"RAAAAAAAAAUGH!" They shouted in one accord and sailed in after him, more or less in one piece.
Wholly united. Unstoppable.
Brave.
POW! P-POWWW!
Galfore winced, struggling to keep his seat in the captain's chair as the Z'daan barreled through explosive space. Hundreds of Gordanian and Tamaranian fighters flickered across the static-infested view-screen as the ship flew a wounded path towards the Drendar wave. Officers shouted amidst a sparkling array of exploding consoles and short-circuiting computer systems in the background.
"Navigation is failing!"
"Energy reserves below thirty percent! We have to recharge off reserves in T-Minus two minutes!"
"A second wave of Gordanian fighters closing in! They're bridging a path for the enemy dreadnaughts to approach the Mother Ship!"
"All hands!" Galfore shouted. "Keep to your stations! We must hold in time for our backup fighters to draw into formation—"
"They're overwhelming us!"
"My lord! A THIRD wave from the flank!"
"X'Hal…they are relentless wastes of blood!"
"Bajaaluut mriul thriet! Silence, that is an order!" Galfore hissed. His brow furrowed as he glared at the chaos through the bridge's viewscreen. "……Our brave soldiers will hold out."
"Sir—SIR!" a Tamaranian cadet hovered excitedly above his computer console and signaled. "There is a break in the Gordanian attack! The right flank of the Drendar front is being shattered! There is a breach in their offense!"
"Relay the data to my map console!" Galfore howled back. Blip! The tiny screen abreast of his chair flickered to life and displayed a few dozen trace images streaking through the line of enemy fighters.
"X'Hal……"
"They are bare to the vacuum!"
"No fighters! Hardly any armor!"
Slowly, a smile lit the bearded face of the hulking warrior in the captain's seat. "Tromand'r……" A proud breath, and then he turned to shout at his Compatriots. "They are punching a line straight through the enemy! Their offensive is being broken!"
"By the Stars—it's working!"
"But they won't last long!"
"Sir! Shall we assist?"
"We are certainly in no condition to cross that length of space and assist…," Galfore murmured, then leaned forward with a dirty grin. "But who said today was a day meant for living?"
A cloud of silence hung over the soldiers, but all well and soon the whole lot of them saluted and stood at attention.
Galfore's fingers ran over a few instruments as he implemented a command to the entire Z'Daan crew. "Soldiers! Full speed ahead!" Galfore's eyes narrowed. "Tromand'r is leading a spearhead……he might as well get his spear……"
Tromand'r spun around burning derelict remains of Gordanian ships. Flanked by two or three Tamaranian soldiers, he twirled about and extended two flaming wrists of star-bolt energy. "HAAAAUGH!"
FWOOOOOMB! A blue beam sliced mercilessly through the hull of an incoming fighter. Shrapnel and debris flew everywhere. As the junk cleared, two Gordanian bombers flew in…dragging a red asteroid with tractor beams.
Tromand'r stopped in mid-flight to stare in caution. His fellow soldiers hovered in naked space besides him.
SHOOOOM! The bombers rocketed by, let go of the meteor, and flung it at the squadron of free-borne Tamaranians.
Tromand'r's blue eyes filled with the incoming sight of the twirling asteroid. He motioned wildly: "M'braat! M'braat! Drendar threatta—"
POWWWW!
Tamaranians screamed and yelled into their helmets as shards of debris flew every which way from the explosion. Then—from the core of the shattering asteroid—a wave of lance-wielding Gordanians surged forth, hissed a war cry, and charged Tromand'r's squad in jetpack suits.
FWOOOOOSH!
Tromand'r shook off the cobwebs, snarled, and welcomed two Gordanian astronauts with a massive, blue-heated uppercut. WHAM! He grabbed one, twirled, and spun him—suit and all—into a wave of reptiles rushing up from the flank. WHAP!
ZAAAAP! ZAAP! ZAAAP! The tips of the lances fired electrical bolts. One Tamaranian burned alive in the recesses of space. Tromand'r and two other soldiers blurred past him, arced through the air, and descended upon the lizard invaders with star-bolts flailing. FLASH! FLASH! FL-FL-FLASH!
Two of the Gordanians received heavy-hearted blows to the body and melted on sight. The other two snarled and rocketed upwards with lances outstretched.
"RAAUGH!" Tromand'r blurred forward and gripped the end of one lance. He yanked and flung his lower body down along the length of the lance, slamming into the reptilian wielder. He twirled the lance, pulsed it hotly with blue energy, and jabbed it to the side--THUNK!--skewering the helmet of a Gordanian officer. Blood-ice and steam jetted forth into space from the convulsing attacker's cranium. Tromand'r twirled the skewered soldier around like a club and sent him flying into an incoming fighter with plasma cannons charged. "RRRGH!" Tromand'r then twirled the lance, burned it hot, and flung it dead-center into the rocketpack of the quivering Gordanian.
POW!
The Goranian exploded—suit and all—forcing a sizeable chunk to form in the hull of the incoming fighter. The green, bulbous craft spiraled like mad and flew off into the distance, exploding. KABOOOOM! Hapless soldiers' bodies flailed and flew away from the blast.
The Gordanian soldiers hissed in dismay, angled around, and started to retreat. But in their wake, a dozen fighters soared towards Tromand'r and his men.
Tromand'r heaved. He formed a line along with his few men left floating in space. Starbolts and spears charged--but suddenly all of the soldiers paused and peered overhead just as—
THOOOO--OOOOOM!.!.! The beautiful image of the hulking Z'Daan throttled overhead, forcing the Gordanian fighters to scatter as it soared on a collision course for the nearest enemy dreadnaught.
On board the Z'Daan, Galfore braced his muscular self against the frame of his captain's chair and glared resiliently forward through the flickering viewscreen of the bridge. Strobing red lights flared across the interior and a persistent razzing sound emanated from every computer station as the Tamaranian vessel barreled its way towards the ominous sight of a Gordanian dreadnaught.
"Adjust the angle of movement!" Galfore roared above the tumult. "Aim for the broad side of ship! Down the center!"
"Shall I order an evacuation for all personnel, my lord?"
"NO!" Galfore sneered. "This is not a retreat……"
Everyone at their stations shifted nervously.
To which, the ruler immediately barked: "And neither is it a suicide run!" He tightened his fists. "We're going to teach these scaly abominations what it truly means to use one's head!" He brought a hand over to a console and spoke into an intercom program: "Engineering! Increase all reserve power to the engines and—on my mark—engage in hyperspace with the power systems programmed to reroute all energy to the forward shield banks twenty-milliseconds later!" He cut off the intercom before the confuzzled engineers could reply. "That should be enough time……"
"What is your plan, sir?"
"By the revolution of this Terran planetoid, these invaders will WISH we were so merciful enough to launch rocks back at them," Galfore grins a haggard mouth of teeth. "Oh no……We do not nibble away at our foe. We obliterate them! With the righteous fury of merciful X'hal!"
"X'Hal!"
"Three kilometers and closing!"
"ALL HANDS! BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Galfore raised a hand. "Ensign, on my mark……"
The Gordanian flagship enlarged in view. Bulbous green fighters attempted to intervene but were literally 'pummeled' away by the hurtling Tamaranian vessel.
"Two kilometers!"
"………"
"One and a half--"
"MARK!" Galfore threw his fist. "FIRE ENGINES AND REROUTE TO FORWARD SHIELDS!"
VURRRRRRRRRR-THOOOOOM! A cosmic slingshot effect hurdled the crew forward and instantly ceased in a blink of darkness. It took a second for light to catch up with the hyper-leaping ship, but already by then the vessel had closed the infinitesimal distance between itself and the Gordanian dreadnaught. The result—
FLASSSSSSSSH!
The Tamaranian ship bull-rammed the Gordanian flagship head on. Its forward shields flared in time for the contact to be absorbed through the energy field, and the resulting disruption ate its way centripetally into the aura surrounding the Gordanian dreadnaught. In the end, the Gordanian vessel soared back and flailed like a stunned shark in the depths of the ocean. Its lights flickered and its engines cut off as the entire craft went deader than a space rock and floated amidst the disrupted ranks of Gordanian front.
A murmuring arose in the Tamaranian flagship's bridge as everyone still reeled from the impact.
Galfore, however, was leaning forward by his own fruition. He smiled a ravenous smile and whispered: "Glorious……She's all yours, Captain."
"M'naa! M'naa! Gord'n liunai!" Two officers free-floating through the vacuum of space pointed with a shout. Besides them, Tromand'r flew. He blinked his blue eyes at the sight of the now-vulnerable Gordanian dreadnaught looming far above them. He stole a glance at the drifting Z'Daan……and then back at the enemy flagship.
And he smirked.
"Vaanasiul de X'Hal. Men, we may have ourselves a silver bullet."
"Could you repeat that, Captain?"
"Terran expression, English to be precise," Tromand'r murmured and looked around until his eyes spotted something of extreme interest to the far corner of his gaze. A red meteor—its rocky core exposed—drifted lazily through the infinite blackness. "It means that with the delivery of infinitesimal force, a great result can be achieved."
"Meaning what exactly, sir?"
"Lizard ship go 'kaboom'," Tromand'r flew straight towards the meteor, 'perched' on it, and slammed his fist mercilessly into its body. CRACK! He dug his fist in, reached far, and pulled out a black orb.
A soldier or two murmured in surprise.
Tromand'r palmed a vibrating, live, miniature black hole charge. He waved the black thing around in his grasp and shouted to his fellow warriors: "Everyone with a fighting spirit left within them to do damage to the enemy tonight would do themselves good to think twice about joining me in what I am about to undertake!"
"At least you can use a boost, Captain."
Tromand'r glanced at his fellow officer curiously.
She pointed towards an incoming Tamaranian scoutship, flanked by two of the first wave of fighters.
Tromand'r smiled, gave an alien salute, and jumped just in time to position his limbs on the front hull of the blurring scout ship. He pointed towards the Gordanian vessel looming overhead. The pilot inside nodded and signaled to his wingmen. Soon, the scout ship and its two escorts zoomed upwards at a maddening space. Tromand'r crouched on the hood like a blue-glowing ornament, squinting his resilient eyes against the cold space dust of the nether. At a breakneck speed, the three fighters arched around, twirled, dodged the firing fury of passing Gordanian interceptors, and spun, spiraled, zoomed the distance left between them and the dreadnaught. Tromand'r tensed his muscles and crept towards the very edge of his scout ship. Two missiles flew in out of nowhere. The scoutship spiraled once more to dodge, but one of the escorts wasn't lucky. It exploded in a brilliant ball of plasma that nearly sent Tromand'r plunging off his perch. But he gripped tighter. He clenched his teeth. He held the black hole charge in one hand and formed a furious star-bolt of blue energy in his other. The closer he zoomed towards the body of the Gordanian flagship, the brighter and hotter he enflamed his fist.
The dreadnaught drew closer. A few brave interceptors flew in on a collision course as a last ditch effort to stop the Captain's charge. But the one remaining Tamaranian fighter chased them off. The roar of the engines vibrated then against Tromand'r's incoming form. He pierced the nearby vacuum with his inner energy, strobing all over with the sapphire fury.
"Nnnnghhh!"
Bare meters…
The ship's structure loomed like a giant wall. A metal horizon of jagged green. Cannons were firing wildly at the incoming scout ship. Tromand'r's 'ride' twirled and spiraled desperately to miss the shots. His hair was tossed about in the zero g madness of the 'ascent'. And at the last second—
BLAM! BLAM! BLAMMM! The cannons along the drifting flagship's side burned at him.
The scout ship dipped away—but Tromand'r leapt mightily off the craft and flew as a living missile through the field of cannonfire. He zeroed in on the naked hull of the unprotected ship, and had a monumental star-bolt waiting for the inevitable contact.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"
SMASSSSSSSSSH!
Tromand'r plunged through the body of the Gordanian vessel. He soared through the hull like a hot knife through butter. He ate his way into the heart of the ship, one deck at a time with his hot fist faced forward. CRUNCH! CRUNCH! SLAM! And the vacuum followed him. The atmospheric interior of the ship rushed out and sucked all manner of chaos into space. Shrieking Gordanians, weapons, ship equipment, inner structure work to the flagship--and Tromand'r kept digging heart-ward through it all with his blue, fiery fist. SMASH! SMASH! CRUNNNNCH!
"NNNNNGH!" His eyes flickered and flared with the blinding charge, until at last—
POWWWW!
He burst in through the giant structural cavity formed around the hyperspace core of the vessel. He was greeted by gasping, howling reptilian engineers—just seconds before they shrieked and flailed at being sucked out by a merciless vacuum.
But Tromand'r's momentum had one last push to it. And as he wormed his burning way towards the core of the ship, he took a deep breath, raised the black hole charge, armed it, and tossed it violently into the fluctuating hyperspace drive of the Gordanian dreadnaught, which immediately began to crackle violently. He then crossed his arms, curled his body……and 'fell back'….
Thwoosh!—Thwoosh!—Thwooosh!—Thwoosh!Thwoosh!Thwoosh!Thwoosh!
One blinding corridor after another, Tromand'r 'sailed' the vacuum rush of air and barreled his way back out the huge gash through which he came. Halfway through the layers of shattered metal, he twirled his body about and straightened into a living torpedo. In a blue streak, he flew along with the stream of exiting air and swiftly rocketed himself back out into the recesses of space. And in so doing, he poured past flailing Gordanian bodies, debris, and other assorted outer space junk before once again being united with—
SWOOOOOSH! The Tamaranian scoutship flew by. Tromand'r grabbed hold of it and was yanked along just as—
VROMMMMMM!.!.!.!.! The black hole charge went off from deep within the Gordanian flagship's body. The result was a massive implosion—in which the hulking body of the ship violently shrunk in on itself—and straight afterward, the metal fragments were shot everywhere like celestial shrapnel as the energy core forming a ring around the miniature black hole erupted in every direction possible—before once again being sucked into the center by the monumental death spiral flower that was once the proud and mighty dreadnaught.
From on board the Z'Daan, Galfore had as perfect a few of this wonderful catastrophe as did the rest of his crew. The cheering that erupted from his fellow bridge officers was not delayed, nor was it subtle. Fists raised and eyes glowed in a hot spectrum of righteous fury.
The Emperor himself held his hands together and smiled a scarred smile. "Perhaps the grace of X'Hal falls on us at last." He furrowed his brow and murmured to the ecstatic air: "Well done, Captain……"
"Sir!" an officer shouted from the rear of the bridge. "The Gordanian line of offense is failing! The flagships are halting their advance at the location of the decimated dreadnaught!"
"It seems that we have stubbed the reptiles' toes….," Galfore stands up with his mighty fists raised. "How soon will the fighter squadrons be ready for deployment?"
"Sir! They are all prepared and presently forming a defensive perimeter by the Mother Ship!" They await your command!"
"Very well," Galfore nods and points. "Order a full-on-assault of the flanking Gordanian flagships at coordinates--"
"Snkkkt! With all good intentions, Lord Galfore, I suggest you hold off the ballgame for another day." The voice belonged to a human. Deep and commanding.
The officers look confused.
Galfore narrowed his eyes and gazed toward the bulkheads. "Who addresses me?"
"John Stewart, of the Green Lantern Corp, sir."
Galfore's eyes widened in recognition of the universally known warriors. "Green Lantern? What is the meaning of this--?"
"Snkkt—It's about time we Earthlings provided a little welcome wagon of our own. Something the Justice League and the United States Government cooked up. If I were you, sir, I'd move my troops away from the Gordanian fleet right about now."
Galfore's expression sharpened. He neither gasped nor trembled. In one swift motion he spun about and pointed with a shout: "Draw back! All engines! Command Tromand'r's fleet and the rest of the spare forces on the offense to do the same! Fall back to the Mother Ship!"
"Right away, my Lord!"
"Snkkkt—Fall back!'
"Repeat!"
"Fall back!"
"All forces return to the Mother Ship!"
The ship shook and tilted as the momentum of the turnaround forced the entire bridge crew to reel. Galfore remained fixed to the view-screens during the about-face.
Far beyond, where Tromand'r and his party resided……
The few 'limping' Tamaranian flagships could be seen swinging around and roaring their way back towards the line of defense around Terra Firma. The ships clustered safely around the huge mothership in the distance.
Tromand'r narrowed his eyes. Gazing. Curious……
"Where are they going?" Another officer murmured.
"They're pulling back! Why?"
Tromand'r gazed across the expanse of space. He saw something. Some things. His face grew tight. "We must go with them……"
"Wh-What?"
"Brothers! Sisters!" He perched atop one of half a dozen hovering scoutships and shouted with his fist pumping high. "MOVE! MOVE! AFTER MY LEAD!"
The Tamaranians shouted. The Tamaranians flew. With their weapons and their gear and their spirits firmly collected, they clutched to the scoutships and road the spacecraft Earthward.
Just then and there, two……three……five streaming missiles soared past them. Missiles that were being launched by the Watchtower from far away. The Justice League's satellite had just then pierced its way through the Tamaranian line to fire its projectiles.
And those very projectiles were frothing their rocket-propelled way towards the confused, Gordanian front. Flagships and fighters veered and pivoted to evade them.
But even Tromand'r knew—with a strange glint in his blue eyes—that nothing the Gordanian front vessels could do would be capable of avoiding the blow that was to come. "Soldiers!" He shouted. He turned his head earthward while riding his scout ship. "Avert your eyes! Leave the glory of our victory be blinding to the enemy alone!"
Obediently—though not quite so knowingly—the other soldiers turned their faces away.
And it was just in time too. For a brightness above that of the Sun erupted behind them. A burst of atomic energy swallowed the sound before any vibrations could thrust their way into their helmets. A halo of supernova energy frothed in a half halo between the Earth and the Moon……and then finally started to dim.
Captain Tromand'r and his fellow warriors were almost returned to the line of defense when they finally turned to look behind them.
The aftermath of five successive nuclear detonations billowed through the blackness of space where the heat of the battle had once been. Three Gordanian dreadnaughts that once roared with massive fury were no longer there. The chunks and sparkling debris of countless other flagships blanketed the event horizon. And the rest of the Gordanian fleet—wounded and leaking with defeat—were swiftly rocketing their way toward the surface of the moon. It was as big a blow—if not bigger—than the Drendar Maneuver had performed on the Tamaranian fleet. But it was so instantaneous, so vicious, so horrifically effective that it felt whole-heartedly like a victory.
The Earth was won.
Captain Tromand'r led the cheer. His fellow troops followed suit. And as his scoutship hovered amidst the company of the Mother Ship and all the Tamaranian fighters in orbit, the sounds of Terran communications squawked to life in everyone's helmets—
"Snkkkt!—That may not drive them back for good, but it certainly gives us an even playing field. Sorry we could not intercede earlier, Lord Galfore. It would seem they had us all taken by surprise."
"Snkkkt—I can only be thankful that your team and the Terran military forces worked together to provide us that righteous fist of fury, Green Lantern. Tell your allies that we owe you our deepest gratitude."
"Snkkkt—When it comes to protecting Earth, Sir, we are all in this together. Now let's draw up a plan to get them off the damn Moon."
"Snkkt--I already have one in mind, Lantern. Forces of Tamaran! Hear my call! To protect the Terran planet and the scared sovereignty of the Princess' royal bond, we must--"
POW!
POW!
POW-POW!
Four successive explosions flared from the surface of the moon.
Tamaranians gasped.
Captain Tromand'r's eyes widened.
"Skkkt—Captain! Captain, Report! What is going on out there?"
Tromand'r reached for another officer's helmet. He spoke into it: "Lord Galfore. There have been shots fired on the moon. Drendar Cannons—it seems. But not quite. Much bigger. And--" He paused. "………X'Hal--"
FWOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSH!
Four huge, hulking pieces of moon rock came hurtling through the Tamaranian defensive line. Each of them more than half-a-mile wide. Enormous. Hardened by millions of years of congealing gray stone. And they flew—undaunted and unstoppable—through the thick Tamaranian forces who were caught unawares.
SMASSSSH! SM-SMASSSSH!
CRKKKK!
Over half a dozen gigantic flagships were smashed to ribbons. Debris flew out into space in plasma bursts as a bleeding dust of bright gray blanketed the fleet with moonblood. Fighters shattered into sparking dust. Tamaranian bodies flew and were evaporated. Even one gigantic moon comet soared straight towards the Watchtower and—with hurtling speed—tore off a complete upper pylon to the Justice League's satellite---CRAAACK!
Debris and space junk was flying everywhere. The Mother Ship barely escaped. Four solid holes were punched through the Tamaranian forces. And Tromand'r and Galfore and everyone left alive to gasp could only look and stare breathlessly as the four comets pierced past the line and flew unchallenged into the planet.
Unto the four corners of the Earth.
Ablaze.