It started with a sound no one could explain low, deep, and trembling like the growl of a sleeping beast waking up.
At exactly 04:07 AM, satellites orbiting Earth went dark, one by one, as if some unseen hand had reached up and crushed them. Skywatchers in Iceland, Chile, and New Zealand reported the same thing: a sliver in the sky, glowing white-hot, tearing through the stratosphere like a blade dragging across glass.
And then came the breach.
The clouds didn't ripple they split. Something emerged, something massive. It didn't fall; it descended with purpose. The sky turned violet. Birds scattered. Power grids blinked across continents.
At the center of it all was Sting deep inside the Artificial Intelligence Command Center, or AiC. The command deck was already alive with alerts, screens flashing red, holographic data flowing like rivers of light. Scientists shouted over each other, throwing theories into chaos.
But Sting stood quiet.
He was always calm. Always calculating. To his technicians, he was their leader the genius behind the AiC, the one who made machines obey thought and taught algorithms how to learn fear. But to the world outside, he was only known by one name.
Veil.
Sting's eyes, sharp and precise, followed every frame of the descending object. "Run temporal lag feed. I want three seconds before and after contact with the troposphere."
One of the assistants barely twenty ,fumbled at the command console.
Sting raised a hand.
"I'll do it."
He moved with ease through the lab boots silent against the glass floor, white coat flowing. In one swipe, he split the data, revealing a clearer image: a figure. Ten feet tall. Humanoid, but not human. Its skin rippled like a storm cloud, glowing with cracks of blue fire. No wings. No ship. Just… falling.
Until it stopped mid-air. Hovering just above Manhattan.
"Activate blackout protocol. Civilian news feeds must not catch this," Sting ordered.
The room went tense.
Outside, the city was waking up but inside, the war had already begun.
Twenty minutes later.
Smoke trailed the rooftops. Sirens howled. And in the heart of the financial district, the alien had touched down. Its arrival didn't cause an explosion.
It caused silence.
The kind of silence that bends air.
People stood frozen in the streets. Some tried to film, but their devices fizzled out. Lights dimmed. The atmosphere grew heavier.
The being stood still for exactly sixty seconds.
Then it moved.
One step.
Cars flipped.
Two steps.
Glass burst across buildings like rain.
By the time military drones arrived, three city blocks were gone.
Meanwhile, at the AiC sub-chamber.
The lights dimmed.
Sting stood in front of a reinforced vault.
Inside waited the Duranium suit his masterpiece. Built from the most resilient synthetic alloy known to man, it didn't give him power.
It sharpened it.
The suit wrapped around him like liquid metal, molding to his body with surgical precision. He flexed once. The nanofibers reacted instantly, mapping his muscles and adjusting tension for maximum movement.
The helmet formed last locking with a hiss, HUD booting.
Veil was online.
Ground Zero.
The alien moved with eerie grace arms sweeping slowly, eyes glowing a steady white-blue. Its chest pulsed, sending rhythmic waves through the ground. Military units opened fire, but their bullets vanished in contact, absorbed by its energy field.
Then a blast.
The alien roared not from its mouth, but from its entire body. A shockwave swept the street, disintegrating anything standing.
That's when the sky cracked again.
A streak of silver slammed into the ground, sending up a storm of debris.
Dust cleared.
And there he stood.
Veil.
Calm.
Straight-backed.
Silent.
The alien turned, sensing a threat for the first time.
Sting's voice echoed through the helmet: "Target locked."
Then he vanished.
What followed was blur and impact.
Veil reappeared behind the creature, fist glowing, landing a direct hit to its ribs. A second punch to the neck. Then a spinning elbow that knocked it off-balance.
The alien snarled and retaliated, swinging with monstrous force but Veil ducked under, twisted, and landed a kick that sent it crashing through a building.
Civilians nearby gasped.
This wasn't a soldier.
This was something else.
The alien burst from the rubble, enraged, its body now glowing like a furnace. It charged.
Veil opened two of his chi gates his body accelerating, reflexes razor-sharp. He side-stepped mid-charge, launched into the air, and came down with a thunderous leg strike.
But the alien caught it bare-handed.
Slammed him into the ground.
Veil coughed, armor dented.
His internal systems flashed warnings.
Unstable pressure. Abnormal power level detected.
He stood again, slower this time.
The alien marched toward him but stopped when Veil raised one hand.
He wasn't surrendering.
He was signaling.
A lightning arrow exploded into the alien's back, knocking it forward.
From a rooftop, a figure flipped into view sleek, dressed in dark hood, bow in hand.
The Tranquiliser.
Then came the second dropping like a meteor, his body glowing gold-white, landing with a seismic thud.
The Raid.
The crowd gasped again. The three stood aligned Earth's last wall.
The Annihilation had arrived.
The Battle Began.
Tranquiliser moved first, launching red lightning arrows each one dancing mid-air like a serpent, targeting joints, weak spots.
The alien roared, lashing out but ,The Raid charged forward, fists glowing, each strike detonating on contact.
Veil joined next, his strikes faster now, exploiting every delay in the alien's movements.
It was no longer one-on-one.
It was a storm.
Blow after blow.
Combo after combo.
Until finally ,Veil launched his final move.
Both feet glowed.
He whispered: "Third Heaven Strike."
And dropped from the sky like a god.
The impact shattered the ground.
The alien didn't get up.
Silence returned.
Smoke filled the streets. Then
Applause.
Civilians poured from hiding spots, cheering, weeping.
Veil stood there, chest rising slowly.
The Tranquiliser lowered his bow. The Raid cracked his knuckles.
But Sting turned toward the sky again.
Because he knew something.
This wasn't the end.
It was the beginning.
He removed his mask, face calm, eyes sharp.
"This is just the first battle," he said, almost to himself.
"There's more to come. We need to be ready."