Interstellar Age



Celestia stared in a state of absolute bewilderment for several moments. She had just finished watching the ambush on her brother and her elite Banshees, yet despite seeing the attack with her own eyes, she did not dare believe it was true. 

After all, from the moment the Germanic Star-Empire's naval forces were disabled, Celestia had dispatched her special forces to infiltrate the planet well in advance of the main landing force, so that they may provide intelligence about the enemy's defenses. 

Yet shortly after landing, before one of her teams could even plot a course of action, they had been suddenly ambushed and eliminated by none other than the silver-haired man who had caught the Alfheim Empress's fancy. 

There was no mistaking it, this man was indeed the one which the Sage's had prophesied, for only someone with the gift of foresight would be able to detect her Banshees, whose stealth technology was well beyond that of the Germanic Star-Empires sensors. 

However, Celestia wanted absolute proof of this, and because of this, she realized that there should be a communication log regarding Erich's deployment to the landing zone. Thus, she was quick to order the advanced artificial intelligence which operated her warship's computers to search for that recording.

After all, her forces had sliced into the Germanic Military's comms from the moment this mock battle began. The AI made short work of finding the communication between Erich and his team, where he had ordered them to deploy to the landing zone. And just as Celestia had suspected, the man had begun deploying to the area before the ship had even landed, and from quite a distance away. 

However, what she did not understand was why this communication was a mere thirty seconds before the drop ship landed. Was his foresight so stunted that he could not even see a minute into the future? If that were the case, then there was no way that this man would ever become capable of setting the galaxy ablaze in his wars of conquest. 

Still, this man most likely had some form of foresight, which made him a threat to the Alfheim Dominion, and because of this, Celestia could not tolerate his existence. She sighed heavily, before speaking her thoughts aloud, completely forgetting that she was currently sitting in her command chair, surrounded by an entire bridge worth of officers. 

"It is such a pity, you were so my type...."

Nobody who heard the Princess's words had a clue who or what she was talking about, nor did they intend to ask. They simply let this awkward statement exist, while Celestia opened up a communication channel to all of her banshee's who had yet to be deployed. 

"Change of plans. Your target is one Captain Erich Jaeger, he is currently deployed at the following coordinates."

After saying this, Celestia listed the exact coordinates where Erich was located before completing her orders. 

"Do whatever it takes to eliminate this man and make sure to leave no witnesses! After all, if this operation were to ever be revealed to the Galaxy, it would forever tarnish the reputation of our glorious empire! "

With this said, Erich and his new team had just become the targets of the Alfheim Dominion's most elite special warfare operators. All of which were given permission to use lethal force. Something that if the Germanic Star-Empire were to ever learn about would cause a rift to form between them and their suzerains.

---

Erich had no idea that his location had been marked immediately after stunning the Banshee team, which had landed closest to him. However, if there was one thing he had learned during his training to become a WRAITH. It was that he needed to constantly be aware of his surroundings, and to use his gift of foresight as often as possible. 

Thus, immediately after securing the area, Erich looked into the future once more. It was just a mere thirty seconds, but that was more than enough to save his life, and that of his team. What he saw in those thirty seconds was a battle that was about to take place, however this was not a mock battle, it was the real deal. The Alfheim Banshees intended to kill them all, as they used live weapons instead of the petty little stun guns he and his men were equipped with. 

Realizing that they did not have enough time to escape, Erich shouted out his commands over his comms. Hoping to give his men a warning before they came under attack. 

"Hostiles are inbound for our location, eta 30 seconds until arrival. Get ready for contact, boys!"

After saying this, Erich jumped over thirty feet in the air, before landing behind a large boulder which he intended to use for cover. He then used his cyberkinesis to push Tia's operating abilities into overdrive, as he gave her a simple command. 

"Tia, you are my eyes and ears out here. I need you to use this boost in power, and put it all towards your sensors. I want to know where the enemy is!" 

Tia was no longer sporting a schoolgirl outfit. Rather, she appeared to be dressed in her own set of fatigues as she saluted her Master in the style that was so common among the Germanic Star-Empire before confirming his orders. 

"Yes, sir!" 

Erich did not have time to contemplate how cute the Artificial Intelligence was being, and instead used all of his mental energy to focus on Tia's words, as well as the future. Finally, Tia spoke up before Erich could do so. 

Hostile detected, three hundred meters, at your nine o'clock!"

Though Erich could not see the enemy, he randomly fired at the location, which Tia had marked on his heads up display. She had even added a rough outline of an Alfheim banshee's figure to give Erich an idea of what he was looking at. 

The Banshees were caught off guard when one of their own went down like a bag of bricks. Stunned by a single shot to the chest. As far as they were aware, there was no way for the enemy to see them, or pick up their signatures with their sensors. Because of this, their entire plan was to sneak up on the WRAITHs and take them out silently. 

While Erich began to open fire on the Banshees, who took cover behind trees and rocks. He ordered Tia to boost the range of his sensors, and to relay the detected hostile signatures to the rest of the team, so that they could see the enemy as well. 

Because of Tia's boosted ability, that was a result of Erich pushing his cyber kinesis to the limit, both sides had lost the advantage of their stealth, and were now freely engaging in a firefight in the woods. 

While Light Elves were physically gifted beings, despite their lean figures. They did not practice a strict policy of Eugenics and Genetic augmentation like the Germanic Star-Empire did, and because of this, the WRAITHs had an immediate advantage in physicality. 

Erich combined his foresight with his enhanced reflexes to enter a state he referred to as acceleration, and nimbly dodged the Banshee's fire, as if the live particle beams were traveling in slow motion. All the while, he expertly rained down a torrent of automatic fire at the enemy, stunning five or six Banshees in a span of three seconds. 

After doing this, Erich ran full speed at another Banshee and slammed her into a tree. The impact of a Germanic male clad in power armor ramming into you at one hundred and twenty-eight kilometers per hour was no small amount. And if not for the natural resilience of the Light Elven body, the Banshee he struck would have clearly died on the spot. 

The fact that the bitch survived, albeit mangled beyond recognition, was a testament to the Light Elven species and their superhuman bodies. This attack clearly showed Erich's hostile intent to the Banshees, who had opened fire on him and his men with live weapons. And thus, they immediately reacted to it by firing on his position. But Erich had swiftly escaped the line of fire while retaliating with his own. 

With the enemy's stealth capabilities negated, the WRAITHs quickly turned the tables around, especially with their fearless leader, recklessly charging through the gunfire in a vicious onslaught. Eventually, those Banshees who remained unstunned or uninjured broke off and fled from the landing zone in a desperate attempt to regroup with the next wave. Leaving Erich and his team bewildered by their sudden aggression.