(Since it seems the war is coming to ahead, I've decided to accelerate my own little plotline. Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for...)

SERVICE CORRIDOR, DECK 4, MARATHON STATION, NEW COLUMBIA SYSTEM

Gairns looked up. "Hey, did you guys hear that?"

The guards turned towards the entrance to Lab 4-Delta. Something was up.

Then they heard the voice...

"It's complete... at last, it's complete... There is only one way to salvage this wasted sector, and that is to remove those warmongers who have torn it apart!"

The blast door into the lab suddenly exploded in a rage of fire. The guards turned to face the intruder now leaving - Doctor William Larings.

He was barely recognizable. He had been working for months on end with little time for food or sleep. He seemed to be a withered figure... a withered figure, mind you, with glowing eyes and a silver bracer clasped onto his right wrist.

"Now..." he grinned, "Soldiers... behold the power of Promotheus!"

He raised his hand. The bracer around his wrist began to glow, and the lights dimmed. Energy raced across the hallway, flowing into the bracer. One of the guards fired his blaster.

The bolt dissipated into Larings' hand.

"Die..."

Energy streamed back out of the bracer, sending the security officers sprawling onto the deck. Gairns felt his mind being drained out, slowly but surely, leaving him paralyzed on the deck.

"You fools aren't worth my time."

Larings, his hand glowing with the energies drained from the guards' neurons, turned and let a golden glow surround him. Ethereal arms reached out, folding the deck into something... something huge...

Gairns managed to regain some of his composure, and reached for his comlink. "Command, this is Security Officer Henry Gairns..." he spat, struggling against the flow of life from his slowly dying body, "...Hostile on deck."

CONTROL ROOM, DECK 1, MARATHON STATION, NEW COLUMBIA SYSTEM

Regin heard the voice over the com. "Dammit... Larings..."

One of the control techs turned to him. "Sir? What's going on?"

"Larings... He's finished Promotheus... he's extended his own mind into the world around him. He can control the flow of energy."

"Huh?"

"He's become a bloody PSYCHIC! An insane, vengeful, incredibly powerful psychic with a grudge against the entire galaxy."

"Oh... no..."

"Dammit. Mobilize the Security Fleet! Don't let him get away!"

BRIDGE, ATS DESTINY, OUTSIDE MARATHON STATION, NEW COLUMBIA SYSTEM

"What the hell is that?"

The bridge crew turned as one to the glowing, bulging form of Deck 4. Suddenly, the deck exploded away from the station... and began flying from it at high speeds.

"How's it doing that?"

"Sir, I'm picking up a large drop in temperature on the ship's hull... I think he's using waste heat from Marathon, Acadia, Halifax and Fairfax to power his ship."

"Sir, incoming transmission..."

"Put it through."

"Captain, this is Samuel Regin. The object breaking away from Marathon has been declared hostile. Destroy it!"

"Confirmed. Rotate ship seven degrees starboard! Weapons officer, prepare to fire Hermes Cannon!"

"Awaiting response from Styx, sir.... Confirmation granted. Bay is cleared."

"Firing solution is Starboard 327, Down 532. Lock into targeting computer and prepare cannon."

"Confirmed, we targeting complete. Firing cannon!"

A bolt of blue light burst from around the bridge as the Hermes bolt descended on Larings' ship. The enemy vessel vanished.

"Kill confirmed.... huh?"

CONTROL ROOM, DECK 1, STYX STATION, CORTEZ SYSTEM

"Receiving red from ATS Destiny, bay 3."

"Rerouting bay 3 towards star. Enemy has arrived, vecolity is confirmed. Kill regisetered."

"Um... sir?"

"What is it?"

"Something's wrong with my scanners... I'm getting some weird readings from the star..."

The star went nova.

BRIDGE, THE KORANGAR, LOW STELLAR ORBIT, CORTEZ SYSTEM

Larings grinned as he deflected the energy washing over his new ship. This was it. The reckoning had begun.


A madman, and an ultimate superweapon. Time to obliterate the universe in a raging inferno of war.