"In the grim darkness of the universe, there is only war"

~~~

Somewhere in the endless and mysterious universe, a Prometheus class space cruiser could be seen arriving above a yellow planet. Inside the small recon ship, a squad of men wearing oversized armor could be seen standing around the ship's main control, reading information on a screen.

[Planet 8753 - Class L]

[Elves Lower realm]

[Mission Objectives]

[Priority One: capture Cursaac, the Goblin Scientist, Dead or Alive.]

There were 8 men in this squad. They were all part of the elite force known as the space knights. A troop of chosen individuals, from countless different human worlds. They had been tempered through the finest and cruelest training regime, equipped with the best technology available, all in order to act as humanity's strongest fighting forces.

Seeing the information on the screen, one of the men exclaimed.

"Goblin scientist! That's a very rare finding, captain" He said, while looking at the squad's leader.

The captain was a burly man, wearing the same oversized armor as the others, but when he wore it, the armor had a different nuance to it. Across his face, one could see quite a severe scar, showing that this man was the real deal and wasn't someone you wanted to mess with.

Rubbing his chin, the burly man muttered with a low hum: "A goblin scientist… A creature that has one out of a million chance to appear and has even greater intelligence than a dwarf master. A truly rare target, indeed".

"I didn't know that there was such a rare mission in this desolate corner of the galaxy", said another man, surprised by the findings.

Hearing his subordinate words, the captain turned his head to his sergeant.

"What are we going to find down there, Sergeant?"

The sergeant calmly placed his finger on the bridge of his nose, as if there were glasses there. He then opened his mouth.

"Based on our earlier scan, there are half dozen elf collectives, orc tribes and human kingdoms. But most of them are primitive-level civilization, Captain."

"I see.. The goblins have been using this planet for their hidden experiment then."

The captain walked over to the helm, turned to his men and said.

"Attention!"

The soldiers immediately straightened their bodies as they stood there awaiting their captain's orders.

"Just like the usual, my brothers. We will jump in and bring hell upon all these creatures." the captain sternly said as his gaze swept across his men. "For the Empire!"

"For the Empire!"

The space cruiser made an entry into the atmosphere of the yellow planet and swiftly headed towards the intended target. The captain and his men were in the middle of preparation for the battle when suddenly an alarm rang off loudly, startling all of them. Right after the alarm went off, the ship shook violently as loud sounds could be heard outside.

Turning towards the sergeant, the captain said.

"What's going on, Sergeant?"

Hastily checking the situation, the sergeant's face turned pale as he looked at the information on the screen.

"I-I am sorry, Captain. It seemed that the target had a hidden weapon aimed at our spaceship."

"Weapon? What kind of weapon?" the captain asked calmly despite their current precarious situation.

"It's a high-energy beam cannon," the sergeant said. "The spaceship shield won't be able to withstand a few more shots, Captain! What's your order?"

The captain was silent for a moment, and his arms crossed over his chest as he tried to think of a solution.

"Stay on our course, Sergeant. We'll crash the ship to the target if we have to," the captain said with a ruthless glint in his eye.

As soon as he finished speaking, another shot hit the ship.

BOOM!

"It's dangerous, Captain! The ship could not hold on any longer," said the sergeant when he saw that the main thruster of the spaceship was hit by that shot.

The captain turned around, staring at his men, "I guess we are diving into flames, brothers!" he said while revealing a fearless smile.

Then he put on his helmet, grabbed his guns and sword as he walked over to the drop cabin. Checking his equipment one last time, he glanced behind, seeing his squad ready to join him. Letting out a faint smirk, he then roared through the comm, "Let's go!"

He slammed his fist at the drop cabin's gate button as the gate quickly opened. He then chose his target and jumped out of the ship, followed by the rest of the squad.

8 figures in power suits flew out of the burning spaceship, while the said spaceship continued to descend to the planet's surface. The 8 dots were seen diving in the atmosphere, speedly approaching the ground head first, while trails of fire began to come out due to their speed of descent. If one could see from the surface of the yellow planet, there were 8 shining lines moving across the sky like shooting stars.

When the space knights were about to reach the ground, the backpack on their suit immediately blew up as rocket thrusters started to run, enabling them to stop their momentum and fly in the air.

After ensuring that all his men were there, the captain directly led the squad to a dome-like facility seen in the distance. Using the scanner on his helmet, the captain quickly decided where he wanted to land. But as they landed on the facility ground, they were shocked when they realized what was filling the ground they were standing on.

A sea of blood filled by mutilated human corpses.

"What the hell is happening here? What a gruesome sight!"

"What are they experimenting with here?"

Upon hearing the reaction of his men, the captain saw something in the corner of his eye.

"Everybody, alert! We got company."

Multiple huge doors on the dome wall opened as hundreds of dark green skinned humanoid creatures came out and quickly surrounded them.

Eyeing those creatures, the captain informed his men through the comm.

"Those aren't normal orcs. Everyone, be careful."

[Identify Target]

[Uruk]

[Battle Power 80]

"Damn… those are serious muscles they have here," chirped the sergeant, when he saw how muscular these creatures were.

*GROWL* *GROWL* *GROWL*

Glancing at his sergeant, the captain sneered. "Let's hope that they are not smarter than you, sergeant."

"Captain!"

Ignoring his exclamation, the captain immediately ordered.

"Here they come. Light them up, boys!"

Each space knight fighter had their own specialized heavy weaponry equipped on their power armor. Some had dual machine guns in their arms, some were equipped with flamethrowers, and some had gatling guns that could fire hundreds of energy bullets, while some had long rifles that shot bullets that could easily pierce several orcs at once.

Rain of energy bullets immediately appeared as the squad began to unleash their heavy weaponry at the uruks. The Uruk has a harder skin compared to normal orcs but by the endless rain of piercing bullets from the squad, several of them fall each second. However, the hordes of uruk still managed to move closer to them, albeit slowly.

When the hordes of uruk began to close over to them, half of the space knights immediately took another of their guns out, while the other half took out their close combat weapons as they quickly charged towards the horde. Sword, spear, axe, and hammer could be seen in those 4 space knights' hands as they swiftly killed the approaching uruks. Each of these weapons had spirit power that could easily slash, puncture and destroy the opponent's armor.

Seeing the situation, the captain gave an order to one of his men, who had slightly slender armor, A female space acolyte. Within a moment, the woman's eyes turned white, while from her two hands appeared sparks of lightning.

[Greater Chain Lightning - Tier 5 Lightning Spell]

As the spasmodic sparks of lightning leaped towards the hordes of uruk, dozens of them within the 20 meter radius instantly burned to a crisp.

Although there were only 8 of them in this battle, these space knights never wavered as they fought against the uruks. They were standing in a circle formation, covering each other's backs as they continued to slaughter the incoming waves of uruks.

"We can do this all day long, hahaha! Bring it on!" shouted the sergeant excitedly. While on the other hand, the captain remained calm and continued to look around, waiting for what would come next.

Suddenly, a loud horn sounded from somewhere, echoing through the air. The uruk horde suddenly stopped advancing and took a few steps back, confusing the space knights.

They then noticed a figure walking out of the huge door in front of them, a little green skinned creature wearing glasses. It was their target, the Goblin Scientist, Cursaac.

"Dear honorable space knights, I welcome you to my humble abode. I apologize for my bad reception earlier!" said the goblin, opening its hands wide.

"I knew that these filthy orcs were not a match for you! So please… please…! Have a taste of my greatest champion!"

A group of goblins could be seen pushing a large glass tube filled with blood into the dome area. Within it, the squad could vaguely see a male figure, a white haired elf. A moment later, the blood in the tube was drained and the tube opened like a door.

The figure's eyes slowly opened.

[System - Functional]

[Tristan - 21 years old]

[Battle power - 100]

[Spirit Aptitude - S]

[Fire Element proficiency found]

[Spirit force - Non existence]

[Innate Skill - Blood Elf Monarch]

While the space knights were wary and surprised by the unknown variable, Tristan himself had only awakened after going through days of bizarre experience. "How could it suddenly lead to this?"