Miller slowly pushed himself up from the floor. He looked down the empty, blackened bridge. He looked back at Oliver, sitting calmly in the center of the destruction."You turned our shields into grenades," Miller whispered in pure awe. "You didn't even use a gun.""Guns are just tools," Oliver said flatly. "The mind is the weapon."But Oliver looked at the purple radar on the floor. His supercomputer brain noticed a tiny, terrifying detail.The radar showed that the front of the bridge was clear. The back of the bridge was clear.But right in the exact center of the glowing circle, right next to the green dots representing Oliver, Miller, and Davis... a new red dot appeared."Anomaly," Oliver whispered."What is it, boss?" Billy’s voice suddenly crackled weakly over Oliver's internal helmet radio. The hacker must have found a way to boost the signal from the distant ship."There is an enemy unit inside our perimeter," Oliver stated smoothly.Miller and Davis spun around, aiming their

Oliver looked at the map. He zoomed his mind out, searching the deep underground tunnels miles away from his current position. He found them.He saw two large green rectangles floating on a wide river of dark magic. Those were the armored boats.He saw the tiny green dots standing on the boats. General Vega, Captain Ren, Billy the hacker, Rax the mutant, and the twenty-two terrified civilians.And all around the green boats, the river was completely filled with glowing red dots."There are exactly sixty-four enemy units," Oliver announced over the radio. His voice was a cold, perfect anchor in the storm of their fear. "They are swarming the hulls of your boats.""We can't hit them, Commander!" Captain Ren shouted over the radio. "They swim too deep! When we shoot the water, the plasma just boils the surface! The lasers don't reach them!""Do not shoot the water," Oliver ordered sharply. "Water diffuses plasma energy by ninety percent. It is a waste of ammunition.""Then how do we kill

The Wraithborn King sat on his throne of white bones. He smiled down at Commander Oliver. The King looked like a dark, terrible god. He waited for Oliver to attack. He waited for Oliver to make a mistake. But Oliver did not attack.Oliver stood perfectly still. He held his sharp titanium combat knife in his left hand. His right arm, made entirely of pitch-black alien metal, rested at his side. The glowing purple veins in his metal arm pulsed slowly. Thump. Thump. Thump.Oliver’s human gray eye looked at the black glass walls. But his burning red Wraithborn eye saw something completely different.Oliver’s supercomputer brain ran the math instantly.Variable A: The walls of this room are perfectly smooth.Variable B: My red eye detects deep air currents flowing through the walls.Variable C: The King is sitting on a throne, but his feet are floating one inch above the floor."You are not sitting on a throne," Oliver stated calmly. His metallic voice echoed in the air. "And this is not

The ash merged into a massive, twisting tornado of black dust. Then, the dust hardened. It formed a brand new shape. It was not a spider. It was not a Goliath. It looked exactly like a human being.It wore a perfect replica of Captain Iris’s white military uniform. It had her face. It had her beautiful blonde hair. It had her exact eyes, but they were perfectly, softly blue. They were not glowing red.The clone of Captain Iris walked slowly toward the blue energy shield. She held her hands up. She looked terrified. She was crying."Oliver!" the clone screamed. Her voice was exactly Iris’s voice. It sounded so human. It sounded so broken. "Oliver, please help me! I escaped! The Overlord dropped me, and I ran! Please, let me inside the shield!"The human soldiers stopped shooting. They lowered their guns. They stared at the woman."Captain Iris?!" Sergeant Miller gasped. "She is alive! She made it down here!""Hold your fire!" Davis yelled. "It is the Captain!"Oliver stood perfectly sti

The heavy rumbling of the crushing planet slowly stopped. The thick white walls of the Builder bunker protected them from the pressure."Is everyone breathing?" Oliver asked. His metallic voice echoed in the small, bright room.Miller groaned and sat up. "We are breathing, Commander. But we are in a box. We are buried alive.""A box is a highly defensible position," Oliver said cleanly.Oliver walked to the center of the room. He looked at his soldiers. They were broken. They were exhausted. They had no food. They had barely any water.Oliver knew that humans needed hope to survive. But Oliver did not have hope. He only had plans."Sit against the walls," Oliver ordered. "Check your weapons. Count your bullets. Do not speak unless necessary."The soldiers obeyed. They sat down heavily against the clean white walls.Oliver did not sit down. He walked to the far corner of the room. He stood facing the blank wall. He reached into his pocket. He pulled out the black coin again.The coin w