At this moment, Mobile Infantry units aboard the warship John A. Warden were conducting a full-scale sweep operation against the last remaining Arachnid bugs still infesting the ship.
Major Henry Vallow and Lieutenant Tony Daugherty led the two main squads—Team A-01 and K-12—with additional support from modern USS Mobile Infantry units, now under the global Underworld military command led by Selene, stationed at Fort Cassie. Together, they moved as a unified combat force, with one objective: to reclaim full control of the John A. Warden.
Backed by Red Queen, the high-precision military AI system, the troops executed a sector-by-sector purge strategy. Their movements were efficient, razor-sharp, and merciless. The Arachnid bugs never had a chance—every attempt to close in was met with brutal Autocannon fire, tearing the creatures into shredded remnants of flesh and chitin.
The operation was swift, orderly, and met with little resistance. Victory seemed inevitable—at least for now.
---
Inside the John A. Warden's command center, Kenthelion stood alone, eyes fixed on the tactical display, waiting.
Waiting for Carmen, Tia Durer, and Deborah to wake up.
The soft hiss of a sliding door broke the silence. Carmen emerged from the captain's quarters. Her steps were unsteady, her movement strained, one hand dragging along the wall to keep her balance. Her breathing was ragged, her body trembling from exhaustion. But the moment her eyes landed on Kenthelion standing in the command room, her emotions erupted.
Carmen:
"Kenthelion! You... you're a lust-crazed bastard! A fucking monster! A goddamn piece of shit!"
Her voice wasn't just full of rage—it was bleeding with pain. Carmen stepped forward, each movement fueled by burning resolve. Even though her body was on the verge of collapse, the fire in her gaze was sharp enough to cut through Kenthelion's soul.
Kenthelion simply looked at her. Calm. Cold. A small smirk played on his lips—not one of joy, but something cruelly ironic.
Kenthelion:
"Carmen, compose yourself. Your body is far too weak. You couldn't even last thirty minutes. Look at Deborah and Tia Durer... they held out for nearly two and a half hours."
His words landed like stones in an open wound. Carmen froze. She heard him. She understood. But it only added fuel to the fire that had already been ignited deep within her.
Carmen:
"You shameless bastard! How could you do this?! I... I never gave you permission! And you're still with Tia Durer and Deborah... as if nothing happened!"
Her voice trembled. Her eyes were red—not just from fury, but betrayal. Powerlessness gnawed at her soul. She loved this man. But all he returned was pain and devastation.
Kenthelion didn't flinch. His next words came out more like a tactical update than an apology.
Kenthelion:
"Fine. I was wrong. But we've arrived at Fort Cassie now. Major Henry and the Mobile Infantry are finishing the bug sweep aboard the John A. Warden. Once it's done, you can retake command."
His tone was flat. Too flat. As if everything that had just happened was no more than... "downtime."
Moments later, Deborah and Tia Durer appeared from the back corridor. Their faces were still weary, but unlike Carmen, they didn't need the wall to stand.
Deborah's eyes immediately locked onto Kenthelion.
Her expression wasn't anger like Carmen's—it was fear.
Deborah (softly):
"Kenthelion... are you still human?"
Kenthelion (cold, without hesitation):
"Don't be ridiculous. Why wouldn't I be? I'm still human—entirely."
Tia Durer stepped forward. Her gaze was sharp, but not from fear—it came from a curiosity that skirted dangerously close to admiration, barely concealed.
Tia Durer:
"In a place like this, you don't seem human. Who the hell can... last six full hours like that?"
Kenthelion met her eyes. He neither denied nor explained. Just one simple, nearly emotionless sentence:
Kenthelion:
"Like it or not... this is who I am."
Tia exhaled sharply. She turned away, grabbed her sniper rifle, and slid it back into the harness on her back.
Tia Durer (coldly, without looking at him):
"Get lost, you son of a bitch. Just this once..."
Without waiting for a response, she walked off.
Kenthelion turned his gaze to the three women.
Kenthelion:
"Now that you're all awake, come with me to Fort Cassie. I haven't seen what's inside yet."
His tone carried the weight of a command, though it was cloaked in mild curiosity. To him, it was essential to assess what assets the base held—especially if he intended to integrate it into the structure of the Imperium Caelestis. He trusted his forces to finish the Arachnid sweep without him. What he needed now... was strategic advantage.
Without asking, Kenthelion pulled Carmen and Tia Durer into his arms. Neither of them looked pleased, but he moved forward with a commanding presence that refused resistance. Deborah hesitated—but ultimately followed. Two guard soldiers immediately stood at attention, saluting, then escorted the group into Fort Cassie.
---
From the outside, Fort Cassie looked formidable—a dark gray steel structure with wide landing platforms and watchtowers anchoring each corner. A spacefaring military base with brutalist, utilitarian design. Kenthelion briefly wondered how a world like Starship Troopers—with its generally rudimentary tech—could produce such a massive and intricate installation on an asteroid.
Once inside the control center, Selene was nowhere in sight. Only Mobile Infantry soldiers and Terran Marine units busied themselves with battle data, logistics, and coordination.
A Terran Marine officer approached.
Terran Marine Officer:
"Sir!"
(He snapped a sharp salute, echoed by several others nearby.)
Kenthelion:
"Where's your commanding officer?"
Marine Officer:
"Reporting, Captain. Commander Selene is currently in the armory."
Kenthelion:
"The armory? What's she doing there?"
Marine Officer:
"Sir, we discovered several stockpiles of military-grade equipment—large quantities, by the look of it."
Kenthelion nodded and turned to Carmen.
Kenthelion:
"Carmen, you're coming with me. Let's see what they've found."
Kenthelion:
"Military stockpiles? Carmen, come with me. Let's see for ourselves what exactly they've uncovered."
His curiosity wasn't just a product of his rank or status—it was a tactical instinct. Valuable assets often hid behind dull inventory reports.
Carmen:
"Alright. Fort Cassie was one of the Federation's strategic outposts. It should be packed with weapons."
Tia Durer looked like she could barely contain herself. Her eyes lit up like a child entering a toy store. There was no question—she was a full-fledged weapons enthusiast.
After navigating the metallic corridors of Fort Cassie, the group arrived at the main armory—a massive hangar filled with stacked steel containers. Some had already been opened, revealing contents that made everyone pause for a breath.
Kenthelion stepped closer and opened one of the crates. Inside, lined neatly, were Mobile Infantry Powered Suits from the Starship Troopers units. Not far from that, racks of Morita rifles were stored in separate crates—clean, polished, and unmistakably combat-ready.
Kenthelion:
"This place was supposed to hold backup equipment... but this? This is enough to arm an entire legion."
Carmen nodded slowly, her eyes sweeping across the vast stockpile. What she saw went far beyond what she'd expected. It made no sense for the Federation to hoard this much firepower without a very specific reason.
Deborah:
"Maybe it was meant for the next wave of Arachnid invasions."
She examined one of the Powered Suits still dormant in its casing. There were no unit codes, no standard serial numbers. This wasn't surplus logistics—this was brand-new gear.
Deborah (continuing):
"But these suits have never been used. No markings. No deployment tags. Looks like they were built for an entirely new legion."
Kenthelion:
"Let's move deeper. There's still more to uncover."
With Selene nowhere in sight near the front section of the armory, Kenthelion immediately took initiative. He signaled the others to follow as they moved deeper into the complex.
Then, from behind a row of heavy steel containers, a commanding voice echoed—calm, but firm:
Selene:
"Seal everything. And nothing moves without my direct authorization."
Selene stared at the contents of the crates before her—rows of deadly weapons hidden in deceptively ordinary forms.
Inside were various types of tactical nuclear explosives: tactical nuclear grenades, mini-nukes, and warheads typically mounted on the Mobile Infantry's power armor. Some were known as hand nukes or atomic grenades.
Seeing all that, Selene felt a cold pressure crawling into her chest. If not handled properly, a single mistake could lead to a catastrophe of unimaginable scale.
Kenthelion
"Selene, what's in here? Why the lockdown?"
Kenthelion and Carmen heard Selene's words as they arrived to secure the warehouse entrance.
Seeing Kenthelion walk in with three women trailing behind, Selene immediately read the situation. One thought crossed her mind:
That bastard… he's going to die at the hands of one of them. Sooner or later.
Selene
"It's... nuclear bombs. A lot of them."
Carmen
"What? Nuclear bombs? Why the hell are those things here?"
Carmen froze, her eyes wide in disbelief. According to standard military protocols, weapons of this caliber were only to be stored and managed by specialized units. Their distribution was controlled from strategic bases under heavy guard.
Fort Cassie was merely a logistical outpost, not a storage site for weapons of mass destruction.
Yet what lay before them said otherwise:
Rows of tactical nuclear grenades, micro rocket launchers, and Mobile Infantry-grade heavy gear—folded armor, flamers, and reprogrammed auto-launchers.
Kenthelion
"Who managed Fort Cassie before this? You must know someone with the kind of access needed to stockpile all this."
Carmen's statement triggered Kenthelion's suspicion.
This had to be Carl's doing. It fit his mindset perfectly—excessive, dangerous, but always with a calculated purpose.
Carl.
"Carl. That bastard Carl."
Kenthelion
"Exactly. He wanted to study the Arachnid Queen, which means he needed to capture her. But the Queen is guarded by dozens of Warrior Bugs. Regular Mobile Infantry wouldn't cut it. So the only way—use small-scale tactical nukes."
Kenthelion was trying to deduce Carl's method for capturing the Queen at the beginning of Starship Troopers: Invasion (2012).
At that time, Major Henry had ignored orders and failed to secure the target. From Kenthelion's point of view, Carl should have first eliminated the biological guards—the Warrior Bugs—with limited-yield tactical nukes, then executed a direct capture operation.
It was a logical strategy: eliminate the Queen's escorts swiftly without damaging the primary target.
And Carl—cunning and notorious for bending the rules—likely had backup plans in place from the very beginning, never hesitating to use high-risk weapons for strategic gain.
Selene
"Kenthelion, when do we start moving all this?"
Her tone was firm. There was too much firepower here to leave it lying around.
Kenthelion
"After the Imperator Somnium arrives. I've summoned her entire escort fleet to this system."
He looked Selene in the eye.
"Go ahead first. Tell Alice to bring forces from Terra Aeterna to transfer the weapons and gear from Fort Cassie. Let the Adeptus Mechanicus handle all modifications."
Selene
"Understood. I'll go see Alice now."
She knew this operation would require hundreds, possibly thousands of trained personnel.
This depot must not fall into the wrong hands.
Kenthelion led the four women toward Fort Cassie's spacedock, awaiting the arrival of his Imperium Caelestis armada.
In the vast, empty void above, a terrifying phenomenon began to take shape—a Warp Rift slowly tore open near Fort Cassie's orbit. From that interdimensional crack, one by one, colossal warships emerged like gods of war descending from a higher realm.
At the front of the formation was the Imperator Somnium—a supermassive battleship stretching 57 kilometers in length. It resembled a gigantic gothic cathedral drifting through space, complete with towering spires and rows of heavy plasma cannons adorning its sides. Behind it followed an awe-inspiring fleet:
Dominion Battlecruiser
Emperor-class Battleship
Imperial I-class Star Destroyer
Imperial II-class Star Destroyer
And dozens more escorts—each representing the pinnacle of military engineering from different galaxies.
One of the larger ships—a Behemoth-class Battlecruiser from the Dominion fleet—executed a direct docking maneuver with Fort Cassie. Selene boarded swiftly, her steps sharp and unhesitating, eyes locked on her objective.
Moments later, a platoon of Terran Marines disembarked from within the ship in perfect formation. Without a word, they moved toward Fort Cassie's armory. The logistics transfer protocols began in tight synchronization—heavy weapons, defense modules, and combat gear were transferred one by one into sealed void containers.
But amidst the crates, they discovered something far more dangerous:
Mobile Infantry-grade nuclear warheads—tactical weapons of mass destruction, remnants of the brutal interplanetary war era.
For a moment, silence hung heavy in the air.
Then a firm voice echoed over the comms:
"Priority One. Full security protocol. No room for error."
Meanwhile, the three women who had followed Kenthelion—Carmen, Tia Durer, and Deborah—stood frozen, watching the endless stream of warships emerge from the Warp Rift.
A creeping sense of fear tightened in their chests. Never in their lives had they seen anything so massive, so alien, so terrifying.
Even the smallest of the arriving ships dwarfed most Federation vessels, measuring over a kilometer in length. And the Imperator Somnium...
That ship made standard Federation ships—like Carmen's John A. Warden, which measured only 800 meters—look like fishing boats floating beside a supercarrier.
Tia and Deborah remained speechless, their eyes locked on the slowly closing dimensional rift.
To them, it looked like a wormhole—but far more unstable. Far more unnatural.
Carmen, still shaken, tried to compose herself. Then she turned sharply toward Kenthelion, suspicion tightening in her voice.
Carmen
"Kenthelion… who are you, really? Why do you have this many warships?"
Carmen
"And… what was that just now? A wormhole? How the hell can you open something like that at will?"
All three were now staring at Kenthelion, questions piling behind their widened eyes.
Until now, he had seemed like nothing more than an eccentric man—strange accent, odd habits.
But now… now they stood beside someone who summoned fleets as easily as calling the wind—and those ships were unlike anything made by humans from their world.
Kenthelion
"That wasn't a wormhole."
He gazed upward toward the void where the Warp Rift had just sealed shut.
"That was a corridor through the stars... or as we call it, the Warp. And that place... leads to my world."
Carmen
"Your world? Then... you're not from ours?"
Carmen felt her thoughts unraveling.
Kenthelion's ships hadn't merely performed interstellar jumps. They had torn open interdimensional space—breaching the boundaries of reality itself. These vessels didn't come from any known part of the galaxy… They came from somewhere else.
Tia Durer and Deborah spoke at once, their voices barely whispers of disbelief:
Tia & Deborah
"You're… not from our world."
Their eyes locked on Kenthelion—not with curiosity anymore, but with stunned awe and a hint of fear.
Kenthelion met their gaze with calm—almost with a kind of gentle solemnity.
"Yes," he said softly. "I'm not from your world."
Then his voice shifted—still even, but laced with challenge:
"I come from somewhere else. A realm far beyond your understanding.
Would you like to see it?"
An invitation.
Tia Durer stepped forward without hesitation, her eyes gleaming with fascination.
Tia
"Let's go. I want to see it."
Deborah nodded—half enchanted, half defiant.
Deborah
"So do I. I want to see the kind of world that commands ships like those."
But Carmen didn't answer immediately.
The sharp-minded officer held Kenthelion's gaze, studying him, trying to decipher just what kind of being stood before her.
She didn't say yes. But she didn't say no either.
She just looked—deep, thoughtful, and wary.
Kenthelion didn't press her.
He simply turned slightly, voice steady but resolute:
Kenthelion
"Carmen, you can come—or not.
My fleet will wait until this entire transfer is complete.
The choice is yours."
Several quiet seconds passed.
Finally, Carmen exhaled slowly… and spoke.
Carmen
"Alright. I'll go. I want to see your world."
A faint smile tugged at Kenthelion's lips.
"Then come with me."
With a simple hand gesture, he led the four women aboard the Behemoth-class Battlecruiser.
—
Back at Fort Cassie, the massive logistics operation neared completion.
All Mobile Infantry equipment from the Starship Troopers universe—including tactical nuclear warheads, heavy armor, and experimental combat modules—had been secured inside Void-sealed containers, ready for transport.
The operation was silent, but charged with tension.
Awaiting them at the destination were Astartes Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, prepared to perform purification, integration, and modification rituals on this alien technology.
As the hangar doors sealed and power systems surged to life, the Behemoth-class Battlecruiser began to radiate strange energy. Warp glyphs and hexagrammatic seals shimmered across the hull.
Tiny cracks split the vacuum—like a mirror beginning to fracture.
Then, the Warp Rift fully opened—glowing like a wound torn into the fabric of reality.
With a soundless thunder and an echo that could not be heard, the titanic vessel slipped through—vanishing into that interdimensional breach… toward Kenthelion's world, toward the heart of Terra Aeterna, capital of the Imperium Caelestis.
A new world awaited them.
And perhaps… their destinies would never be the same.