Earth-717: Fantastic Four Vol 2

Chapter 6: Pariah

Reed watched intently as the wide, circular holographic display table created a three-

dimensional hard-light hologram image of the battlefield, consisting of both the city of Arima and the

surrounding area. Susan, Johnny and Ben were also present, along with Rhomann, Myla and a couple

dozen more Nova Corps officers.

Herbie was floating near Reed's shoulders. Rhomann tapped a button on the table's control

panel, causing it to finish loading all of the units on the field, displaying their movement in real time.

Susan gulped upon looking at the Pariah that was encroaching on the capital city. Tapping another

button, Rhomann then activated the zooming feature, which focused the table's display on the Mekkan

supply base outside of the city limits.

“According to the data we have, defenses around the Mekkan base have lightened,” said

Rhomann. “They've been pulled out and added to the offensive on Arima. The pressure's getting to be

too much. Those defenders won't be able to hang on much longer.”

Several members of the Nova Corps started to murmur amongst each other, clearly distressed by

the news. Myla frowned for a moment, before folding her arms and putting on as straight of a face as

possible.

Johnny then stepped forward.

“So . . . . why not just march right up to their door with everyone and go in guns blazing? Cause

that's what I'd do.”

Susan threw her arms up in the air.

“Johnny!”

“Actually,” said Rhomann, “that's exactly what I was going to propose.”

Johnny smiled before turning to Susan.

“See, Sue? Obviously I'm the tactical genius around here.”

Susan grumbled and folded her arms. Rhomann waited a moment before continuing.

“Without that Mekkan base, the offensive will be pinned, and they'll be cut off from their

supplies. We pool our resources into a full assault, and I think we can take it. No more hitting and

running. General Morrat might finally have his work cut out for him.”

“Hell of a risk,” said Ben.

“It's a risk we have to take,” replied Rhomann. “Arima falls, the planet falls. Simple as that.

And I'm not gonna let a Senate homeworld be taken without doing everything I can to defend it.”

Reed narrowed his eyes for a moment.

“When were the defenders moved?” he asked.

Myla pulled out a datapad and looked at a set of number streams on it.

“Recon says they were moved . . . . middle of the night. Would've been about seven hours ago.”

“That's after you found us,” said Reed.

Susan turned to Reed and looked at him with concern.

“What are you thinking, Reed?”

“That this might be a trap. Morrat would know by now that his fighter squadron was taken out.

A new variable got added to the scenario. Us. He knows that the base is a priority target. I think he

might be trying to draw you out. Do you have a location on him?”

“No,” answered Myla, shaking her head. “Many of our mapping nodes were destroyed. We

don't have recon over the entire planet. His Pariah could be anywhere in the unknown zones, but it's not

near Arima, that's for sure.”

“He's been combing the continents personally,” said Rhomann. “He's probably still out in one of

the jungles, searching for hidden outposts.”

“Are you sure?”

“What I'm sure of is that we can't sit around anymore,” said Rhomann, pointing at the

hologram. “Arima's on its last legs. We don't do this, and in a day's time, it's all over. If it's a trap . . . .

then it's a damn good one, because we really don't have another choice.”

Reed nodded.

“I understand.”

Rhomann turned back to the table, putting both of his hands on it.

“Nova Corps, listen up. I know you're exhausted. I know you're scared. I know that these last

couple weeks have been the worst we've ever faced. But this is the point when we turn this around.”

Some of Nova officers started to stand up a little straighter.

“Morrat thinks he's won already. He's always been a smug bastard. He killed Centurion Torthar.

And he's killed more of our brothers and sisters than we can count. But he hasn't killed us. And even

though he already thinks this battle is won, he's failed to account for what the Nova Corps can

accomplish when we set ourselves to it.”

Ben and several of the Nova officers started to nod in approval of Rhomann's words.

“Cause that's who we are. Defenders. Protectors. That's the job we signed on for. And if there's

any doubt in your mind, or any fear in your heart . . . . think about how the civilians must feel. We have

weapons. Training. Equipment. They have nothing. Nothing but hope . . . . hope that we can get them

out of this.”

Rhomann then turned to Myla.

“You said you were newly married, isn't that right, Officer?”

Myla nodded.

“His name's P'Tol,” she said, stammering out her words. “He, uh . . . . he's Rigellian. He . . . .

heh. He's a finance analyst. Never held a gun in his life.”

Susan blinked a couple times. She felt her heart sink in her chest as she listened to Myla speak

about her husband.

“Those are the people we're doing this for,” said Rhomann, turning back to the table. “Think

about them. The ones who can't fight back. The ones you care about most. Friends. Family. Loved ones.

Think about what would happen to them if we fail.”

Rhomann paused for a moment.

“Prep your gear. We're moving out at midday.”

* * * *

“Report!”

The Mekkan officer turned away from his console to look at the command chair. Morrat was

sitting there, slumped forward in his seat. His right hand was leaning against the armrest, his fingers

repeatedly clicking against the end of the material. Morrat met the Mekkan officer's gaze.

“General. It appears that the Nova Corps have mobilized as anticipated.”

Sitting back upright, Morrat then held his hands together, touching the tips of his fingers from

both hands.

“Is that so?”

“Indeed. Even they cannot mask this many energy signatures at once. They've pooled

themselves into a large armada, and are heading straight for the Mekkan base. They'll be in combat

range in just under fifteen minutes.”

Morrat broke into a loud laugh, his synthesized cackle eerily reverberating all throughout the

room.

“Centurion Torthar's little underlings have taken the bait. They've no idea that they've sealed

their own fate. What a pity. Denarian Dey is about to make his final stand.”

Morrat continued to laugh as the blips representing the Nova Corps' forces on the hologram

screen moved closer to the Mekkan base.

* * * *

“Approaching the target,” said Myla. “Two minutes out.”

Hundreds of Nova Corps fighters, which had been pooled together from scattered outposts all

over the planet, lined up in formation as they raced over the jungles of Rigellia. While the people

piloting the starfighters varied when it came to gender or species, they all had one common goal: to do

everything they could to save this planet.

Rhomann's fighter was at the very front of the pack, leading the charge as the rest of them fell

into an angled formation behind him. The Venture was right behind Rhomann's fighter, Johnny was

flying to his right, and Susan was soaring on a force field disc to his left. Reed was inside the Venture,

piloting the ship with Herbie floating next to him.

Meanwhile, Ben was sitting in the back of the ship, huddled behind the back seats. Herbie

turned around to look at him.

“Are you quite sure about this, Benjamin?” asked Herbie.

“Yeah, Herbs. Sure as I ever been. Always gotta kick outta stunts like this.”

“I can see the target,” said Rhomann.

The Mekkan base came into view. It was a blue and silver mechanical construction, shaped like

a circular pyramid. Numerous turrets were placed around it, as well as ground forces consisting of

tanks and foot soldiers. While a majority of the defenders were Mekkan, there were also many Skrulls

amongst them.

Turning his head to the right, Rhomann could also see Arima further away, on the distant

horizon. Thousands of lasers were flying back and forth between the attackers and the defenders, with

the biggest defense cannons still lobbing golden artillery shots on the offensive line. One of them

struck the Pariah that was leading the attack, causing it to stagger and take several steps back.

When he saw the seemingly unstoppable war machine forced back, he felt a rush of adrenaline

shoot through his chest.

He knew, in that moment, that there was a chance they could win.

His resolve doubled, Rhomann faced forward and clutched his triggers even tighter.

“Nova Corps! Prepare to fire on my mark.”

“There's my cue,” said Ben. “Hey Stretch!”

Reed looked over his shoulder.

“This'll make a great story one day, right?”

“Long as you live to tell it,” said Reed, with a smirk.

“Eh. Always the sourpuss.”

Ben then pressed a button on the ship's side. The top cover of the Venture opened up, and Ben

put one leg on the edge.

“Them Skrulls better all have updated their wills . . . . cause it's CLOBBERIN' TIME!!!!”

Ben jumped out of the ship, holding both of his fists high into the air. Reed quickly closed the

ship's cover and pressed his hand to his right ear.

“Rhomann! Ben is airborne!”

“You heard him, Nova Corps!” shouted Rhomann. “Open fire!”

“Open fire?” said Johnny. “That's my kinda talk!”

The Nova starfighters did as commanded, firing golden lasers directly at the base. The base's

defense turrets started returning fire. As this happened, Susan held her arms out wide, creating a thin

barrier that provided a shield to dozens of ships. Once she absorbed the turret blasts, she let the barrier

dissipate, and the starfighters pressed the attack.

Falling to the ground, Ben roared as he landed right on top of a Mekkan tank. Swinging his fists

downward, he flattened the vehicle with the force of his punches as well as the weight of his landing.

The nearby foot soldiers immediately trained their weapons on him, but their laser shots had little effect

on his impenetrable skin.

Ben chuckled as dozens of lasers struck his body.

“Heh, heh. Tickles! You'll have to try harder than that!”

Seemingly in response, one of the Mekkans aimed and fired his rocket launcher, blowing Ben

off of the tank and sending him crashing to the ground. Grunting, he quickly stood back up.

“Now that's more like it!”

As Ben continued to battle the forces on the ground, Johnny weaved his way through a hail of

laser fire as he closed in on the turrets. Emitting fire streams from both hands, Johnny quickly started to

melt the cannon of one of the turrets. The slag metal then broke off and scraped down the side of the

base, searing the outer plating.

Johnny laughed and pointed at some of the Skrulls that were standing on one of the base's

nearby balconies.

“Ha, ha! Totally messed your base's paint job! Yeah!”

The Skrulls aimed their rifles at him.

“Shoot him!”

Johnny ducked and moved side to side to dodge the laser shots.

“Hey! What did I ever do to you?!”

The remaining turrets focused their fire on the attacking aerial units. The Nova fighters

launched salvos of missiles and shots at the base, only to be repelled by the base's shielding. As the first

wave of fighters flew over the base and turned around so they could make another pass, a handful of

them were shot down.

“I'm hit!” yelled one of the Nova pilots.

The smoking fighter smashed into the ground, causing an explosion. Rhomann cringed and

shook his head. While some of the fighters stayed in the air, others transformed into ball forms, known

as their divebomb mode. The pilots ejected with jet packs strapped to their backs, and allowed the

fighters to rocket directly towards the base.

Several of the fighters exploded as they collided with the base's shields, causing damage to the

kinetic barrier systems. The ejected pilots then soared to the ground, using their wrist gauntlets to fire

golden energy bolts at the foot soldiers.

Inside the Venture, Reed looked over at Herbie.

“Ready to take control, Herbie?”

“Absolutely, Doctor Richards!”

Herbie bobbed up and down as Reed let go of the controls. Herbie's systems, which were

integrated into the ship, then took over automatic flight control. Opening the cover hatch, Reed then

leaped out, stretching out his torso so as to slow his descent as he glided to the ground. As he got

closer, he stretched out his arms and took hold of a Skrull soldier from behind, flipping him over his

head as he landed.

Some more Mekkan tanks fired blue blasts into the air, trying to shoot down the Nova fighters.

The organized ranks of the starfighters broke into scrambled messes of random flight patterns as they

tried desperately to avoid the barrage. Seeing that one of the fighters was about to be hit, Susan quickly

formed a barrier shield around it, absorbing a tank shot.

Letting go of the barrier, Susan then flew downward, creating a disc shield in front of her.

Blitzing forward, Susan smashed her way through a full line of Mekkan and Skrull soldiers, knocking

them all to the ground. Ben, who was at that moment smashing the heads of two Skrull soldiers

together, looked at Susan in dismay.

“Suzie! You're gonna ruin my high score!”

Susan chuckled in response as she formed a barrier around a Mekkan tank right before it fired.

The cannon's blast doubled back on itself, causing the tank to self-destruct. Reed slithered his way

along the ground, weaving himself between the legs of several soldiers before rising upwards, tripping

them all up.

Standing near Ben, Reed then stretched out his left hand to punch a Skrull soldier in the face.

Using his right hand, he ripped the rifle out of a Mekkan's hands as Ben swung downward with a

hammerfist, smashing the Mekkan apart. As the two friends fought back to back, Ben heartily laughed.

“Just like a good old Yancy Street brawl!”

“I don't recall ever being part of any of those brawls, Ben.”

“Well, then you ain't lived, Stretch!”

* * * *

“General. Come quickly.”

Morrat sneered as he stood out of his chair and marched up to the Mekkan officer.

“What is it?!”

“Some unpredicted variables have arisen in the battle for the Mekkan base.”

The officer tapped a button on his console, and a video display appeared showing an aerial view

of the fight. Morrat narrowed both his biological and mechanical eyes as he held his hands behind his

back, surveying as much of the video feed as he could.

“The Nova fighters are deliberately ramming the base to try and disable the kinetic barriers,”

said Morrat. “Interesting.”

“There is another complication,” said the officer.

The video changed to another view, showing the Fantastic Four working together during the

fight. Reed and Ben were on the ground, battling foot soldiers. Johnny and Susan were flying around

them, providing aerial support with fire blasts and force fields. Morrat felt his anger rising as he saw

them make short work of a whole squad of soldiers.

The Mekkan officer held his hands together as Morrat pointed at the screen.

“Who are they?”

“Unknown, General. They do not appear to be of any particular Nova Corps species. As well,

their abilities are uncanny. I have never witnessed anything of the sort.”

“I have.”

“What?”

“I'd hoped to draw the battle out longer to whittle down their forces,” said Morrat. “But things

have changed. Send us down. Now.”

“As you say, General.”

Morrat turned around and sat down in his chair, folding his hands together.

“And send a message to the Queen,” he ordered. “Tell her that I am officially requesting her

presence. She'll want to see this.”

* * * *

Johnny tossed another flame blast at the ground, knocking out two more Skrull soldiers who

had been attacking one of the female Krylorian Nova soldiers. As she looked up at him, he winked and

snapped his fingers at her.

“So, what are you doing after this?”

The woman raised an eyebrow at him.

“JOHNNY!”

Johnny rolled his eyes upon hearing his sister's yell. He then once again smiled at the woman.

“Talk to you after.”

Boosting off, Johnny returned to his team, who were continuing to push against the defensive

line. Myla and a squad of Nova fighters dropped a salvo of missiles on the Skrull and Mekkan forces,

blowing apart some and forcing the rest back. Susan quickly formed a barrier around her and the

nearby Nova ground troops to shield them from the missile explosions.

Letting the barrier fade, the Fantastic Four and the Nova ground troops charged forward,

quickly breaking through the weakened defensive line. Holding his fist back, Ben then threw a

haymaker punch at another tank, easily cracking it in half and scrunching up the metal he connected

with.

Flying overhead, Rhomann and some of the other fighters continued to fire blasts at the Mekkan

base, but the shields were still holding.

“Richards!”

Reed spun his arms around as he answered, smacking away two Skrull soldiers.

“I'm here, Rhomann.”

“We've weakened the base's shields, but they're still holding. Your team have anything that

could break through?”

Reed looked at Ben, but then quickly turned his head around to look at Susan.

“I think so. Susan!”

Covering another Nova squad with a momentary barrier, Susan then turned to look at Reed, who

beckoned her over. She flew next to him.

“We need someone to get through the base's shields. Up for it?”

Susan looked at the base and slowly nodded. She then punched her fists together and gave a

confident chuckle.

“Think I got a good idea. Been hoping to try this.”

Holding her hands out, Susan formed a spherical barrier around herself, suspending herself in

the air. Closing her eyes, she then focused all of her energy into making the barrier as thick as possible,

reinforcing it. Putting on her game face, Susan then shouted as she boosted forward, turning herself

into a missile.

As her barrier collided with the shields, an electrical ripple tore across the base's entire exterior.

The shields were completely overloaded by the force of the impact, but it didn't stop there. She tore

right through the exterior wall with such force that multiple sections of the base started to break apart,

the internal mechanisms ripped apart from the inside.

Several fires sprung up as Susan stopped, pulling herself back. The Skrulls and Mekkans started

to retreat away from her due to the amount of damage she had caused. Letting the spherical barrier

dissipate and returning to her regular force field disc, Susan then turned around and smiled as she put

her hands on her hips.

“How'd I do?”

Johnny threw his fists into the air.

“Woohoo! Damn, sis! Guess your powers don't suck after all!”

Ben scratched the side of his head.

“Suzie's a better battering ram than yours truly. It's humiliatin'!”

Reed looked at Susan with a wide smile, and she finally saw the spark in his eye that she had

been waiting for.

“Susan . . . . that was amazing.”

Susan's heart fluttered.

“Thanks.”

Rhomann's voice then came in over their earpieces.

“Nice work, now, we just have to . . . .”

Myla's voice interrupted him.

“PARIAH!!!!”

Everyone turned around and looked up in horror as a Pariah fell out of orbit, landing right

behind them. The sound of impact deafened everyone for a moment, and a wave of dust emanated from

the cracks that it caused in the soil. Standing up, the Pariah then sounded its horn before charging up its

main laser.

“EVERYONE RUN!” shouted Rhomann.

The Nova fighters started shooting at the Pariah as the Nova ground troops fled towards the

Mekkan base. The remaining defenders and turrets, rallying around the Pariah's arrival, started to fire at

their enemies, cutting down many in the confusion. The Pariah then fired into the sky, its sustained

laser blast swiping through the air and slicing apart several of the fighters.

The last fighter to get hit was Rhomann's.

“Agh!”

Myla, whose fighter managed to dodge the laser, yelled as she saw Rhomann's fighter start to

fall to the ground.

“Rhomann!”

Rhomann's fighter, still relatively intact because the laser had only grazed its wing, smashed

into the ground near the Fantastic Four. Reed immediately stretched over to the downed fighter,

grabbing at the cover with both hands. He tried to pry open the cover hatch, to no avail. Ben then

rushed over.

“Lemme!”

Ben punched the cover, smashing right through it. Grabbing the crumpled metal with both

hands, he tore it off to see Rhomann inside, coughing. Reed quickly stretched his arms to undo his seat

harness and pull him out. Johnny and Susan joined them, only to look up as the Pariah started to fire its

laser into the crowd of fleeing Nova troops, incinerating dozens of them in one attack.

Rhomann's eyes seemed to glaze over as he stared at the Pariah.

“Rhomann?” said Reed. “Rhomann!”

Blinking, Rhomann then pressed his hand to his ear.

“Myla!”

“Sir?”

“Get the fighters out of here! All of them!”

“But sir . . . .”

“NOW!”

Frowning and shaking her head, Myla then opened up her communications channel. Her voice

was empty, and she almost choked as she forced out her words.

“All remaining Nova pilots, this is Corpsman Myla. Denarian Dey just gave the retreat order.

Form on me and disengage.”

The order given, the remaining Nova fighters all flew away from the Pariah, heading back

towards the jungle. The Pariah then turned back to the ground forces, and prepared to fire another laser.

Reed gulped.

“Susan!”

Susan formed a barrier around the five of them. The Pariah fired, sweeping its laser across the

ground and towards the barrier. As it struck the force field, Susan screamed in pain, louder than she

ever had. After a moment, the barrier exploded, and the resounding cracking sound was so powerful

that it knocked all five people to the ground.

The Pariah stopped firing, taking a couple steps forward. Reed reached for Susan, but found that

she was completely unconscious. Johnny's flame had been put out, and Ben was crumpled on the

ground, his muscles to weak to move. Only Reed could look up in fear as the Pariah continued to

march towards them.