The ebony giant approached the Earth with the promise of annihilation.

U’ntrall was a planet only 39 lightyears from Earth in what astronomers called the Trappist-1 System and was the birthplace of the U’ntari race. 40 years ago, an U’ntari fleet made contact with the Earth and was subsequently destroyed by Rex Robinson. As the ships went down in flames, information was beamed directly to their homeworld and since then, a much larger and more dangerous fleet had been on a course to Earth.

As a Type II civilization, the U’ntari harvested Neutronium from a dying star, using it to not only create super soldiers but power Dyson Spheres allowing for lightspeed travel among other things. The ship hurtling toward Earth was a long, black cylindrical structure with multiple rotating modules surrounding it, the top module housing a detachable AI satellite which was used to navigate while the one million crew onboard were in hibernation. Nearly the size of Australia, the ship housed multiple Commander Class vessels which contained Fighter Class ships and one-man Gliders. It also housed an army consisting of super soldiers, infantry and an elite assassin unit called Silencers. This fleet was large enough to perform a three step process to eradicate a civilization’s defenses, eliminate all governmental entities and remove any natural resources.

The ship was called the Retribution; it was not designed to destroy a planet. It was designed to punish one.

The crew woke from hibernation a year prior to reaching Earth and studied the latest information received by their AI satellite, then took over piloting the ship the rest of the way. U’ntari were the size of humans with brown, reptilian skin, pug noses, yellow or green eyes and a series of ridges and short horns along their foreheads. The infantry wore gray armor with reinforced chest and shoulder pieces while officers wore sleek black uniforms with sashes denoting various ranks. The leader of this fleet was Supreme Admiral Batu Kull who was older than most members of the fleet and wore a white uniform with gold trim, black gloves and a medal on his right breast showing his rank. By his side was the Grand Captain Shujai who wore black, sleeveless armor and had a set of tusk ridges on his forehead that resembled a set of furrowed eyebrows.

Shujai was far taller and more muscular than most U’ntari, having been selected while an embryo to be a super soldier and given considerable power. His social rank was due to his genetic makeup which was also the reason why he was chosen as the planet’s primary protector. His genes allowed for a high dosage of Neutronium which granted a great deal of strength, flight and the ability to generate bio-energy blasts. He stood alongside Kull in front of the view screen on the bridge as the stars flew past them. “Eight clicks from Earth, Supreme Admiral,” a bridge captain announced as they approached. “Good,” Kull said with approval, “Keep us cloaked and just out of orbit.” Seconds later, Earth zipped into view and came to a rest. Kull was silent as he studied the planet. It was no secret that his wife was a member of the fleet that was destroyed in 1981 but he didn’t make mention of it as he gazed at the planet in front of him. The silence was soon broken, however.

A hailing signal echoed through the bridge, indicating another ship wished to communicate. This was curious as few advanced races made it out this far. A holographic face appeared on the bridge, which was the representation of their AI satellite who was named Council. “Supreme Admiral,” Council greeted him in a monotone voice, “We are being hailed by a Skaleen tribal vessel.”

“The Skaleens?,” Kull furrowed his thorny brow, “What the hell are they doing out here? Bring them onscreen, Council.”

A hologram of a shell-like ship appeared along with the image of the tribal chief, Mulkos. “Greetings, this is a Skaleen vessel. I am Mulkos, a tribal chief who has observed this planet for quite some time as it has been declared Skaleen space. Please state your business.”

“I am Supreme Admiral Batu Kull of the U’ntari. My fleet is on a military mission but not one that has any business with the Skaleens. What is it you want with us and please be brief.”

“We concern ourselves with the separation of inferior lifeforms from more advanced civilizations such as ourselves and the U’ntari. We are aware the U’ntari made contact with Earth in the past which disrupted their way of life and we do not wish to see this happen again. We respectfully ask that you take no further action.”

“If you are aware of our past experience with Earth you would be aware, Chief Mulkos, that one Rex Robinson of Earth took down an entire fleet of our ships over 40 Earth years ago. It goes without saying this is a very serious matter and we are not going to waver. Our business, once again, is with Earth, not the Skaleens so please stand aside.”

“Our people are not at war with one another, nor are any other tribes as far as we know. We do not wish to-”

“The feeling is mutual,” Kull’s voice lowered and he folded his hands behind the small of his back, “My crew and I have been in hibernation for many years and the jarring sensation of coming out of deep-sleep is enough to make an old officer absolutely crazy even a year later, so you’ll excuse me if I’m a bit curt. I aim to retaliate against an act of war inflicted upon my people and I am in no mood to further explain myself. We will be launching the first phase of our strike momentarily and I respectfully ask for your assurance that you will not interfere,” his demeanor shifted but only slightly as he added the honorific, “Chief Mulkos.”

“That promise cannot be made, I’m afraid. We have deemed that this planet will have no contact with advanced civilizations whether it be militarily or diplomatically.”

Kull clenched his jaw tightly, “It appears you are not meeting my request and I can only assume you wish to respond with force if we were to continue with our mission. Am I to understand this?”

“Your vessel is much larger than ours but know this, any act of aggression from your fleet will be considered an act of war between our worlds.”

“Not to worry, not a single ship from my fleet will attack the Skaleens” he turned to Shujai, “Grand Captain, there appears to be an obstruction in front of us. I don’t want to see it again.”

“Yes, sir,” Shujai moved to a nearby elevator which led to an airlock.

“We do not want war!,” Mulkos shouted angrily.

“If you didn’t want war, you shouldn’t have stepped foot on a battlefield,” Kull snarled and turned off communication.

Minutes later, an airlock opened and a figure flew out of the ship, the vacuum of space and the lack of oxygen doing no harm. Shujai used a personal radar to locate the Skaleen ship, finding it approaching from the opposite hemisphere of the planet. As he was a small target, he counted on getting past their offensive capabilities easily enough. He didn’t want to fight them but as they were in the way of what he felt was justice, they had to be treated as an enemy. Besides, orders were orders. He could see the bottom compartments of the ship opening as a row of canons emerged. The ship cloaked as the pilots likely spotted him. He began strafing back and forth, looping and spinning in hopes that the Skaleens couldn’t target such a small and unpredictable projectile. A violet pillar of energy the size of an interstate passed under him. He looped around the opposite direction with his radar indicating he was closer. Another beam passed by. With the Skaleen ship cloaked, he knew they couldn’t raise a shield in tandem which he used to his advantage.

Green energy surrounded his hands as he charged himself with bio-energy and he fired his strongest blast, which resulted in space rippling, indicating where the slightly damaged ship was. He flew in as quickly as possible with both fists forward. Inside the ship, the inner hull was punctured as a figure burst inside, the vacuum of space sucking a few crewmen into the void. From there, Shujai began punching and blasting his way through the levels, giving no time for the Skaleens to formulate counter measures (not that their armors’ canons could do much to him). On the bridge, Mulkos and his crew felt their ship trembling as sirens began to go off. “Seal the bridge!,” Mulkos called out just as an explosion erupted underneath him, destroying his armor and disintegrating the small slug-like organism inside. Outside, the ship became visible as the cloaking mechanisms went offline. The ship tilted listlessly as it lost power, punctures clearly visible throughout its hull. Eventually, an engine blew, the explosion bursting through the tail of the ship and sending it catapulting toward the Earth. The massive chunk of metal mostly made it through reentry but left a long smoke trail before hitting the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

In New Jersey, the robotic being known as Astra Machina sat on the couch with her friends, Kim and Wally, happily watching TV. Moments before the Skaleen ship plummeted from orbit, a binary code had been sent directly to Astra, warning her of the coming danger to her world. She perked up and let out a quick, “Oh no,” which got the attention of her friends.

“What’s wrong, Astra?,” Kim asked.

“Mulkos just sent a distress signal to me,” she explained, “The Skaleens are in trouble.”

“The guys who keep trying to kidnap us?,” Wally said incredulously, “They’re sending us a distress signal? They expect us to help them?”

“Not exactly. I think they might be dead at this point so they don’t expect much,” Astra said in a worried voice, “They seemed to be warning me about a threat to the Earth. One second… I should send a message to the IMD.”

Astra Machina met agents from the Interpol Metahuman Division shortly after her first encounter with the Skaleens and they had given her a communication channel in case of an alien threat or other crisis.

In Lyon France, Sean Pierce, the director of the IMD, was looking over a case file at his desk when he was alerted of a personal message. A moment later, a holographic screen popped up, displaying Astra with Kim and Wally nervously sitting in the background. “Hi, this is a message for Sean Pierce of the IMD. I’m Astra Machina, I met some of your agents recently? So I’m sending you this message to let you know I just received word the U’ntari have returned.” Pierce sat up in alarm at the mention of the name, as did the two civilians in the background.

“Wait, the guys who invaded us in the 80s?,” Wally shouted from the background.

“Yes, the Skaleens said it was them,” Astra turned away and helpfully offered the information to her friends.

“Okay, please turn off the thing and talk to us,” Kim told her, which ended the transmission.

As awkward as the message was, Pierce wasted no time and quickly got up from his desk and raced to his Surveillance Room. “Kisi,” he called to the Ghana woman floating in the sensory deprivation tank in the middle of the room. While she did not outwardly display any emotion, he heard her voice in his head cautiously say, “I know, sir. We should act immediately.”

Outside the atmosphere, The Retribution opened its modules, the chambers spreading out like a fan. Commander Class ships began to emerge. They were round vessels, as wide the average city block with each containing smaller Fighter Class ships designed for aerial combat. They spiraled out with each one going to a strategic location. Council had gleamed as much information as it could regarding Earth’s targets and from there, a plan was formulated. Shujai and Kull watched silently as the invasion began.

At Interpol headquarters, Sean Pierce had gathered all agents in the Debriefing Room. “I’m not sure how real it is but we can’t take any chances,” he told them, “Jones, I want you personally teleporting to each member of the Elite Squad. We need them on this.”

“Yes, sir,” Lowanna Jones answered, then added, “We’ll probably need a lot more than just them.”

“Meanwhile, I feel this building will be a target, so every civilian and non-combat personnel is to be evacuated immediately. I’d like them all on a helicopter within the hour,” he brought his hands together as he dismissed them, “Godspeed, Badges.” In the Surveillance Room, Kisi Yeboah raised her head as the wall of screens in front of her began to change, displaying footage of ships descending from the sky at different parts of the globe.

In Boston, Ryan Bennings stood in his lab, gazing at strange readings in the atmosphere and wondered what they could mean. His questions were soon answered as he began seeing satellite images of advancing Commander Ships.

In New York, Michael Hawkwood was interrupted from his work when he heard sirens going off in the city and panicked screams from the street below. He looked out the window and saw a Commander Ship coming through the clouds over the city. He quickly sprang from his chair and rushed to the suit of armor in his apartment.

In the town of Winghaven, Farrell Creed and Alysa Saraki sat in their PI office, listening to music on the radio until they received an alert, “We interrupt this program for an important announcement. There is a potential Invasive Aircraft Alert in effect. Unidentified aircrafts have been reported over the skies of several metropolitan areas…”. They looked at each other with silent alarm as they listened carefully.

In Washington DC, the members of the Upstarts ran through an obstacle course in a military base. As they were all on Summer Break, the military asked that they begin their training. A film crew was allowed to be on site as Craig Levison felt it would be great footage for the second season of their show.

“I don’t even need to exercise,” Da Mutt said as the team rested on the inside track, “I’m already swole. This is pointless for me.”

“So? Most of what you do is pointless,” Alexis Grey told him dryly as they laid in the lap of Kaley Chen.

Suddenly, their drill instructor rushed to them, “We need all of you in the briefing room now!”

“What is it?,” Kyle Jackson asked as he stood up.

He got his answer when Dante Greer pointed at a nearby window and simply shouted, “Oh shit!”

They looked out just in time to see a Commander Ship ominously drifting overhead. In the distance, they could hear sirens.

Rex Robinson’s ship, the Hyperion’s Light, floated near his private lab in the Catskill Mountains. He watched a series of news broadcasts and satellite feeds showing the ships descending on multiple cities around the globe: Tokyo, Paris, New York, etc. He wasn’t surprised, nor did he appear nervous. He simply folded his arms and said to himself, “Time to get to work.”

The Resurgence Reading List

The Resurgence Prologue

The Resurgence #1

The Resurgence #2

Formerly Known as Brain Boy #8

Winghaven #20

The Cavalier #21

The Badges #12

The Resurgence #3

The Resurgence #4

The Resurgence #5

The Resurgence #6

Astra Machina #10

The Resurgence #7

The Upstarts #11

The Resurgence #8

The Resurgence #9

The Resurgence #10

The Resurgence #11

The Resurgence #12

The Resurgence Epilogue