Josh stood on the bridge, his face dark as he stared through the open armored window.
Outside was the place he had told Loki and Howard Duck about—the base of the Ranger Fleet. He had originally wanted to name it the "Pantheon," a secret planet on the edge of the galaxy with early signs of life, labeled D-01.
In his plan, when he returned here, he had expected to see a lively, busy construction site—starports being built, mines and factories being set up across the planet.
But just an hour before his return, his squadron suddenly received a distress signal from the Ranger Fleet.
And now, one hour later, with the squadron arriving at full speed, everything Josh saw was a scene of devastation.
The newly-built starport had become a pile of space debris.
Over twenty main warships of the fleet had been reduced to wreckage. Only one or two remained mostly intact and still had some power, but even they were occasionally bursting into flames.
As for the space fighters, their remains were scattered everywhere. Only a few survivors were still flying around, searching.
On the planet, smoke was rising from the mines, factories, and military stations.
Large numbers of robots, stormtroopers, and centaur-like aliens in fleet uniforms, along with a few strange-looking cosmic beings, were working all over the place to help with rescue efforts.
"What… what happened here?" Margaret's voice was shaky—not because the scene was too tragic, but because this was their own property. The loss was huge, and it hurt her heart.
Next to her, Peggy Carter frowned deeply and secretly glanced at Josh several times, feeling a little worried.
She had just decided to support Josh as the future leader of humanity, and now something like this happened—judging by the size of this base, this must've been a major part of his forces, right?
The fastest to react was Thalorien. Without waiting for Josh's orders, he had already started organizing the squadron to help with rescue efforts.
Only Howard Duck remained calm—after all, he had just arrived and didn't really know what was going on.
"Josh…" Carter stepped forward, trying to comfort him when she saw his cold, stiff face.
But before she could speak, Josh beat her to it.
"Sorry, I need to step away for a bit." As he spoke, he opened a portal. On the other side was the vast, starry universe.
He stepped through, and the portal closed behind him instantly.
"This…" Carter frowned even more. She turned to Margaret and asked, "Aren't you worried at all?"
"Don't worry. The losses are big, yes, but to us, losing just one fleet isn't that serious. It's far from being a fatal blow. If you're really that concerned, you can join me in the rescue efforts," Margaret replied calmly, trying to reassure her.
Carter was both confused and shocked.
A fleet this massive… and it still wasn't considered a serious loss?
So just how powerful had Josh become?
Peggy Carter felt that things had already gone far beyond what she could imagine.
But her confusion didn't last long—just as they were working near planet D-01, countless glowing dots suddenly appeared in space not far away.
"What's that?" Carter, who was on a transport ship with Margaret helping in the rescue, was the first to notice the unusual sight in the sky. She tensed up instantly.
"Don't worry, Ms. Carter. We just received a fleet-wide transmission—it's the Second Vrykul Fleet, arriving under the leader's command to support us!" The pilot up front answered before Margaret could respond.
"Second Vrykul Fleet?" Carter's eyes widened in shock. No wonder Margaret said the loss of a whole fleet wasn't a big deal—they had a second fleet.
If there's a second, does that mean there's also a third… or even more?
And then…
"Why is it called the 'Vrykul' Fleet? That name sounds kind of weird." Carter couldn't help muttering.
"It's because the main members of the Second Fleet aren't humans, but an alien race called the Vrykul. They're much larger and stronger than humans, and extremely fierce in battle. Josh managed to subdue a group of them and brought them under his command," Margaret explained casually.
"Ah, now I remember! Back when we were at the Collector's place, one of the species Josh sold him was called a Vrykul mummy… but I thought Josh said that race was already extinct?" Carter quickly recalled.
"How could he sell it for a good price if he didn't say that?" Margaret replied smoothly, without the slightest surprise.
Carter was left speechless. That explanation… actually made a lot of sense.
Just as the pilot and Margaret had said, the glowing lights appearing in space were indeed the arrival of the Vrykul Second Fleet led by Josh himself.
This fleet's main combat force—besides the standard robotic units—was a race of flesh-and-blood Vrykul, the ancient ancestors of humans from the world of Azeroth.
The first-generation Vrykul, like the ancestors of the dwarves, were created by the Titans when they first arrived on Azeroth, built as tools to serve them.
After being cursed by the Old Gods with the Curse of Flesh, they evolved into flesh-based Vrykul and dwarves.
Later, when the Titans returned to Azeroth and discovered that their original creations had been corrupted, they created a second generation—Iron Vrykul and Iron dwarves—designed to better resist the curse.
Gnomes, on the other hand, were a next-generation creation made by the Titan keeper Mimiron.
Because of the Curse of Flesh, the first-generation Vrykul gradually weakened from their originally powerful and tall forms. As they started to resemble weaker humans, the Vrykul king at the time, Ymiron, issued a cruel order—all weakened Vrykul infants were to be destroyed to preserve the race's purity.
This caused many Vrykul to flee south, eventually becoming the ancestors of modern humans.
The remaining Vrykul, facing dwindling numbers due to the curse, had no choice but to use magic to place most of their population into deep sleep, hoping to avoid extinction.
In the original timeline, after becoming the Lich King, Arthas discovered these sleeping Vrykul, awakened and enslaved them, turning them into a powerful force that gave the Alliance and Horde massive headaches during their campaigns.
If not for the fact that the number of Vrykul had already been drastically reduced by the curse, the Northern Campaign against Northrend would've been much tougher than it actually was.
But now, thanks to Josh's interference, Abbendis's expedition fleet—or rather, his privateer fleet—reached Northrend over a decade earlier than the original timeline's Ner'zhul or Arthas did. Under Josh's guidance, they found the sleeping Vrykul people ahead of time. (TL/N: Privateer fleet allows sovereigns to multiply their naval forces at relatively low cost by mobilizing privately owned armed ships and sailors)
From that point on, things became simple.
All the sleeping Vrykul—including King Ymiron and Queen Angrboda—were handed over to Josh by Abbendis through a trade.
After being transferred to Josh, the Vrykul were gradually awakened.
However, the Vrykul were essentially just barbarians—similar in nature to the Vikings of Earth: wild, violent, and not easily tamed.
But that wasn't a big problem for Josh.
Because while the Vrykul were violent, they also respected power.
And Josh was far, far stronger than they were.
In front of tens of thousands of watching Vrykul warriors, Josh easily killed King Ymiron and Queen Angrboda. Aside from a few loyalists who chose to die, most of the remaining Vrykul quickly pledged their allegiance to him.
From then on, Josh gained a powerful Vrykul legion under his command.
To maintain the stability of this Vrykul army, Josh deliberately didn't assign human officers to lead them.
Because, due to their massive size and proud nature, these Vrykul would never obey humans—unless that human was stronger than they were.
And the harsh truth was: most regular human soldiers, even with the Super Soldier Serum, couldn't defeat a single Vrykul warrior. Only a few elite fighters with exceptional agility could match them.
So, to fully control this Vrykul force, Josh needed an even more powerful and disciplined set of commanders.
And Josh happened to have the perfect candidates—another race that was strong, intelligent, and also brutal when needed: the Transformers.
Over the past few years, Josh had kept his word in his deal with Starscream. He helped him obtain the AllSpark, the Matrix of Leadership, the Staff of Power, and other Cybertronian relics—all of which were on Earth and relatively easy to acquire with Josh's resources.
During this time, with Josh's help, Starscream succeeded in eliminating his old boss, Megatron. He then found Jetfire and managed to persuade him. With the aid of a few clones of Yuriko lent to him by Josh, they also defeated the shadowy, ancient Fallen and recovered the Matrix of Leadership.
And when they finally got their hands on the Matrix, something happened that even Josh found ridiculous.
Unlike in the movie, where the Matrix crumbled into dust when Sam picked it up, Starscream—this sneaky rascal—was somehow recognized by the Matrix and became Cybertron's new Prime.
It was truly bizarre.
But after becoming the new leader of Cybertron, Starscream's personality seemed to shift under the Matrix's influence—after all, it contained remnants of the will of the original six Primes who sacrificed themselves.
Under Starscream's guidance, Cybertron officially signed an alliance with Earth in his universe, joining forces with humanity to expand into the cosmos.
With help from the humans, Starscream easily located the ancient Cybertronian Knights' ship—and with it, the Staff of Power.
Now possessing the Staff of Power, the Matrix of Leadership, and the Star Harvester left behind by the Fallen, Starscream officially mastered the ability to mass-produce Transformers.
In comparison, the AllSpark became the least important of all the relics.
Because the Fallen's Star Harvester was, in essence, designed to create AllSparks.
Thanks to Josh slightly improving Starscream's spacefaring technology—and with Starscream himself cautious of Josh's stance—he didn't need to target Earth's sun. After all, the universe was filled with stars, many far larger and more powerful than the Sun.
The reason the Fallen originally chose Earth's sun was simply because it was close to Cybertron.
So, Earth and the solar system remained untouched in the Transformers universe. In fact, many humans responded to Starscream's call and joined Cybertron's mercenary forces.
Starscream began building energy-harvesting machines in other star systems, creating more AllSparks and rapidly expanding his army.
Eventually, AllSparks even became a major trading item between Starscream and Josh.
Of course, crafting AllSparks was still difficult and expensive—so far, Josh had only received two.
But even two were more than enough to build a massive Transformer army.
And because Josh had also learned the correct method for using the AllSparks from Starscream, the newly created Transformers had a very high initial loyalty to him.
However, Josh didn't go overboard with production. Too many units would mean a drop in quality. Just look at the cannon fodder Transformers in the movies—human weapons could easily wipe them out.
Such low-quality troops were meaningless to Josh.
Instead, he used the AllSparks to create a batch of elite Transformers to serve as commanders over the Vrykul warriors, forming the powerful Vrykul Second Fleet.
Faced with Transformers that were even larger and stronger than themselves, the proud and violent Vrykul didn't dare resist at all.
However, because of the unique nature of both the Vrykul and the Transformers, the Vrykul Second Fleet wasn't normally part of Ouroboros's official military structure. Josh had always kept it hidden in the system inventory as a reserve secret force—and until now, he had never needed to deploy it.
But with the Ranger First Fleet nearly wiped out and other fleets still en route, Josh had no choice but to use this fleet as an emergency response.
First, to quickly and effectively rescue what was left of the First Fleet.
Second, to prepare for any possible follow-up attacks from the enemy.
And third, to figure out exactly what had happened to the First Fleet in the first place.
Where was Fleet Commander Vereesa?
"Commander, we've found General Vereesa. Her condition is not good!" came a report from Thalorien, not long after Josh began coordinating the rescue effort with the Second Fleet.
Soon, Josh arrived at the planetary base and saw the heavily injured, unconscious Vereesa inside a medical pod.
"What happened? And… who's that child?" Josh asked Thalorien, who had arrived earlier—his gaze falling on a small centaur-like child with blue skin standing nearby.
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Next Goal - 300 PS ( Remember, this is the last Powerstone Event of this fic )
If we reach Top 10 I will release 10 Chapters in one go.
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