The visual gravity of the approaching behemoth completely stripped the breath from Elias's lungs. He stood frozen before the thick viewing glass of the 10th Division transport, his silver eyes dilated as they reflected the massive, interlocking metallic tectonic plates and the harsh, blinding flares of the golden propulsion engines lining the fortress's lower hemisphere. For a long, suffocating moment, he couldn't speak. The sheer mathematical impossibility of a planet this size layout before him like a physical threat.
"Holy shit... it's enormous," Elias breathed, his voice a low whisper that barely cut through the anxious hum of the ship's bridge. He gripped the edge of the console until the synthetic leather groaned under his strength. But then, a slow, sharp smile broke across his face, his silver eyes flashing with a sudden, dangerous spark of raw excitement. "Well... things just keep getting interesting."
Behind him, the rest of the 10th Division was staring into the same dark abyss, their expressions varying from grim determination to absolute dread.
As the massive automated fleet of reconstructed vessels began to tip their noses down, aligning their thrusters to breach the dark, gaping structural chasms of the moving planet, Vela threw her head back in absolute despair. She stared at the colossal mechanical hangar gates that looked like the jaws of a cosmic leviathan waiting to swallow them whole.
"So we are seriously going to enter that?" Vela wailed, her hands flying to her helmet as she slumped backward into her seat. "Hell na! Turn this ship around right now! I did not sign up to go inside a giant metal ball that looks like it wants to digest us!"
"Well, you don't exactly have a choice," Renji countered bluntly. He stood beside her, his arms crossed over his chest plating as his eyes remained locked onto the approaching threshold. "The trajectory is locked, the cloaking fields are engaged, so Keep your element secured and get ready to draw your weapon."
The fleet crossed the threshold. The transition through the dark kinetic field didn't just feel like crossing a barrier—it felt like reality itself was being violently re-stitched. The hum of deep space vanished, replaced by a massive, vibrating resonance that shook the hull of every transport ship.
And then, as the ships cleared the inner crust of the moving planet, the entire armada collectively froze.
The communication channels went completely dead silent. Nobody spoke. Nobody breathed.
They weren't inside a hollow fortress or a series of industrial military corridors. They were looking at an entire, impossible cosmos contained within a shell. Floating within the vast, dark interior of the moving planet were other literal, fully formed planets. Continental spheres, swirling gas giants, and burning ancient stars hung suspended in a synthetic gravitational web, forming a dark, stolen solar system caged inside the belly of the moving planet.
"Shit... what the heck am I looking at?" Drakye Void muttered, his imposing figure stiffening as he stepped toward the very edge of the command platform. His deep, unyielding voice carried a rare, raw trace of complete disbelief. His dark cloak swirled slightly in the pressurized cabin air as he stared up at a swirling blue world hanging upside down directly above their fleet.
"How did they even get into the planet?" Cipher whispered, his fingers freezing over his tactical visor "this is impossible,it breaks every law of the universe".
Deep within the core of the synthetic solar system, perched upon a floating throne of obsidian and compressed gold that drifted beneath the artificial sun, the ruler of this impossible domain opened his eyes.
His name was Malkor, the controller of the moving planet and the historic destroyer of a thousand worlds. His skin was the color of cooled volcanic ash, and probably gold and his single, burning golden eye reflected the tiny, cloaked signatures of the invading human fleet. He didn't look angry; he looked entirely amused.
He had watched empires rise and fall within his hull, and to him, the five million Xenocides were nothing more than insects stepping into a spider's web.
Malkor smiled a cruel, wide smile as he felt the subtle vibration of the human ships landing across his lower internal continents.
"Everyone... kill them all," Malkor growled, his deep, rumbling voice broadcasting directly into the minds and comms systems of his endless legions.
"YES, SIR!" The response was a deafening, terrifying roar that vibrated through the metal foundations of the moving planet.
Billions of alien soldiers—brutal, armored warriors from a hundred conquered species—screamed in absolute unison as they scattered out from the barracks, launching themselves into the skies and corridors in search of the Xenocides.
Malkor leaned back against his throne, turning his gaze toward the shadows beneath his platform where ten imposing silhouettes stood completely motionless. "My elites... go have fun too."
"Thanks, master," the lead elite replied, his voice a sharp, clicking hiss.
These ten elite warriors were one of the strongest forces in the entire galaxy, possessing raw physical conditioning and power that could easily rival the legendary Zethrian commanders.
They moved with a terrifying, silent speed, vanishing from the throne room to join the hunt.
Across the lower internal crust of the moving planet, the human ships finally made planetfall, their heavy landing gear slamming onto a strange, grey-brown metallic dirt.
Tyson had managed to guide his transport into the same localized drop zone as the 10th Division, stepping out of his ship with his weapons drawn alongside Elias and the others.
But when they looked up, there was absolutely no sky. There were no clouds or stars. Instead, looking straight up revealed the curved underbellies of other stolen planets hanging in the air like gargantuan moons, their continents glowing faintly in the synthetic twilight.
But before anyone could form a defensive perimeter, the entire world beneath their feet groaned.
A loud, grinding mechanical roar echoed through the ground as the moving planet suddenly began to rearrange its internal structure. The metallic plates beneath the squads shifted, sliding apart at hyper-velocity speeds. The synthetic gravity flipped violently, pulling people in entirely different directions.
"Hold onto something!" Tyson shouted, reaching for Elias's jacket.
But it was too late. The spatial distortion fields tore through the landing zones, completely separating all the captains, the vice-captains, and the individual members of the divisions. Within a fraction of a second, the five million soldiers were ruthlessly spread across the vast, labyrinthine interior of the moving planet. Some squads were pulled down into the mechanical maintenance shafts, while other individuals were thrown entirely onto the surfaces of the captured inner planets.
When the dust finally settled, Elias found himself lying flat on his back on a hard, crystalline ground. He pushed himself up slowly, shaking the static from his brain as he looked around.
The 10th Division transport was gone. Tyson was gone. Vela, Renji, and Captain Drakye were nowhere to be seen. He was completely alone in a strange, violet-tinted forest under the shadow of a massive metallic ring.
Elias quickly reached for his communications array, tapping the side of his helmet with his gloved fingers. "Hello? Tyson? NYX ? Can anyone hear me? Cipher, do you copy?"
Nothing but loud, empty static hissed back into his ear. The signal was completely dead, suppressed by the planet's internal interference.
"Damn it," Elias muttered, dropping his hand as his jaw tightened. He looked out across the vast, unfamiliar landscape, his silver eyes narrowing as he realized the absolute scale of the mess they were in. "How did that even happen? I have to find everyone... but first, I seriously need to find Cipher, because I'm seriously bad at navigation ".