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Chapter 303: A Starship? Like a Toy
🕑 Added 2025-09-04 14:50:31 +0000 UTC
Whoosh!
A figure flashed by, bursting out of the railgun’s beam in the blink of an eye. His body cut through the raging torrent of destructive energy like a meteor streaking across the heavens.
So majestic. So unyielding. So utterly heroic.
Who else could it be but Alex?
“He’s… still alive?!”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“What kind of monster is this?!”
Nakel and the other Skrull soldiers, who had been so certain Alex was reduced to ash, nearly popped their eyes out in disbelief. Their jaws slackened, their green skin paling. The control room filled with stunned silence, punctuated only by the alarms blaring across the consoles.
That was a railgun. Not just a weapon, but the weapon—an apex creation of galactic warfare, designed to obliterate warships, not men. With a single shot, it could vaporize enemy vessels into space dust. Entire fleets trembled before its power.
Yet here was Alex—unscathed, his body untouched, emerging from the blast like he was simply walking out of the morning mist.
If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, no one aboard would have believed such a thing was possible.
“Why is this happening?!” Tuja’s voice cracked, his face drenched in sweat. His usual calm, calculating composure shattered into pure panic. “How can there be such a terrifyingly strong being on C-53?”
Even Abo, usually quick to sneer and scoff, was mute with terror, his throat bobbing as he swallowed hard.
The highest-ranking officer, Nakel, wasn’t much better. His battle-hardened expression twisted, equal parts fear and disbelief. Though he wanted to deny it, he couldn’t escape the truth.
Their starship. Their weapons. Their entire trained crew. None of it—none of it—could stop one man.
“Sir, even the railgun is useless. What should we do now?” one soldier asked in a quivering voice.
Nakel’s fists clenched, his mind racing, but every path ended in the same wall. He had no answer, because in his gut he already knew.
The truth was unbearable: Alex Winters was beyond their ability to deal with.
“Quick!” Nakel snapped at last, forcing steel into his voice. “Maximum speed! Head for the jump point! Once we reach it, everything will be over!”
Run.
At this point, there was no other option. Against an enemy like Alex, the only strategy left was to flee. They couldn’t kill him. They couldn’t contain him. But if they reached the interstellar jump point, they could escape into the stars, leaving Alex stranded behind on this primitive planet with no ship to pursue them.
It was cowardly, yes—but it was survival.
“Sir…” the pilot’s trembling voice cut in. “The ship’s speed… it’s already at maximum.”
“What?!”
Nakel’s face froze, his breath catching in his chest.
Already at maximum?
His eyes darted instinctively to the projection of Alex. The distance between the human and their starship was shrinking—fast. Too fast. He was about to catch up!
Whoosh!
The control room seemed to tilt as cold sweat streamed down Nakel’s forehead. His chest heaved, each breath sharp, shallow. The weight pressing down on him was suffocating.
They couldn’t kill him. They couldn’t shake him off. And now, he was nearly on top of them.
“What are we supposed to do…?” Tuja muttered in a hoarse whisper. Abo met his gaze with wide, hopeless eyes. The rest of the crew shifted nervously, gripping their consoles like children clutching blankets during a storm.
“Fire!” Nakel barked, desperation bleeding through his tone. “Keep firing! I refuse to believe he can survive forever!”
And so—
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The starship’s railguns roared to life again, vomiting blasts of blinding energy. The void outside lit up as if a thousand suns had burst all at once. Explosions chained across the sky, dazzling and terrifying, a storm of fire and fury that would have turned lesser beings into nothing more than stardust.
The Skrulls stared at the projections, eyes wide, hearts pounding, silently begging to see Alex’s body finally consumed by the onslaught.
But time after time, hope shattered.
Through the fire and thunder, Alex emerged unscathed. Always unscathed.
He soared closer, his body wrapped in the glow of destruction, as though he was not defying it but commanding it.
They threw everything at him. Their ship’s entire arsenal. But it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough.
And then—
Bang!
The entire starship shuddered violently. The projection blinked, went static, and then refocused—just in time to reveal Alex no longer in pursuit.
He was standing on the hull.
Panic ripped through the crew. They didn’t need the projection to know it. Every man and woman in that control chamber could feel it. The vibration, the metallic groan, the instinctive dread—Alex was out there.
Ssssss!
A brilliant beam of red-hot laser vision sliced through the ship’s hull from above, carving a perfect glowing circle.
“Take cover!”
“Fasten your harnesses, now!”
The crew scrambled, chaos erupting in the chamber. They knew what came next. Decompression. Vacuum. Death. Soldiers dove for safety, buckling into their seats, strapping themselves to rails, clinging to anything solid.
Energy rifles snapped into hands, barrels all pointing upward at the glowing circle that widened by the second.
Bang!
With a final strike, the metal plate caved inward, crashing to the floor and denting it into a crater. The ship groaned under the pressure as suction roared through the chamber, dragging loose papers and debris toward the breach.
But the Skrulls had prepared. No one was sucked into the void.
Instead—
Boom!
A blur dropped from above. A figure landed heavily in the center of the chamber, the floor cracking beneath his feet.
He didn’t move. He didn’t need to. His very presence was enough.
He stood there, calm, cold, an invincible king who had just walked uninvited into their throne room.
Alex.
The air grew heavy. Even armed and armored, the Skrulls felt as though they were the ones at gunpoint.
“Alex, listen.” Nakel’s voice broke the suffocating silence, though his words were rushed, pleading. His face was tight, every syllable an effort. “I know you think we stole something, but you don’t understand. This is actually a good thing for your planet. The Kree are searching for the same object. Once they—”
Bang!
A sonic boom split the air. Alex moved faster than eyes could follow.
Nakel’s words ended in a choking gasp as his body crumpled, crashing to the floor like a discarded puppet.
The chamber froze in horror.
Alex straightened, his crimson eyes faintly glowing.
To the Skrulls, the starship no longer felt like their fortress.
It felt like a toy in the hands of a child who might, at any moment, decide to break it.
