Martian Empire-Sol Alliance War

The Martian Empire-Solar Alliance War (also known as the Battle for the Solar System, Terran-Martian War, or the Fourth Martian War) was a massive, devastating war that took place from 2025 to early 2026. The conflict, while relatively short, was massively influential on the Solar System and led to various political shifts across all its members, but especially Mars.

## Background

Earth and Mars had been rivals for over a century by the time the Martian-Alliance War first began, but the actualy leadup was focused on events in the late 2000s and mid 2010s. Though Mars lacked the strength to attack Earth following the disasterous loss of Infi-Knight, Mars's strongest warrior, and his fleet, Emperor Bog continued efforts for many years to weaken Earth in the meantime. From then on, Bog and the Martian Special Intelligence on Xenoactivities division aided multiple organizations with the intent to destabilize Earth, including Chitzok's Holy Army, the Area 51 raiders, Rob's Jupitriad Clan, HADES, and various smaller pirate groups.

Despite the investments from Mars, these various groups were always thwarted by the International Peacekeeping Force or regional militaries, however they did succeed in inflicting damage on the IPF's forces. Bog was still dissatisfied, however, as the damage done was, with the exception of the Area 51 raid, always below his expectations. Even HADES, who were provided with two airborne drone carriers the Martian Navy had designed and secretly built on Earth, only managed to cause a short-lived communications blackout.

For all his failures, however, Bog did put the results of the Area 51 raid to good use. Though the majority of the prisoners rescued in the raid were Martian soldiers stranded after Infi-Knight's death, a good number were mercenaries and terrorists from across the solar system. Included in the mix were former members of the Venusian Confederacy's Black Hand, Titan's special forces, Jupitriad gangsters, and Europan pirate leaders. The Rememberancer convinced Bog to return these captives in safe condition to their respective factions, rather than interrogate them on what they had learned about Earth. Though skeptical, Bog agreed, and ordered S.I.X. to quietly return them to their various factions.

This resulted in a massive boost to Mars's credibility in various circles almost overnight; Rob increased the amount of arms and ammunition shipped to the Martian military, Titan agreed to discuss the possibility of a defense pact in the future, and various Europan pirate guilds offered their services to the Martian cause. The Black Hand members, who had no country to return to after the Venusian Civil War, agreed to stay at Mars and train the Martian Army's special forces division.

### Escalation of Tensions

Tensions between Mars and Earth remained frosty up to 2014, when Emperor Bog was unexpectedly contacted by B-Bop A-Luna who claimed to have extremely important intelligence on Earth's military capabilities. Bog, who had assumed B-Bop and his friends to have perished in 2005, was both interested in the intelligence and happy to see what he though of as an old friend. Shortly after, B-Bop, 2T Fru-T, and Do-Wah Diddy landed in the capital of Third Olympus along with three masked bodyguards.

Unbeknownst to Bog, the group had actually defected to Earth, and were preparing to assassinate the Emperor they once counted as a friend. The operation came close to succeeding, until Dr. Damage managed to find out the group's intention and trap them in a sting operation, saving Bog's life. The group managed to escape, though lost one of the human bodyguards with them, and the Martian Navy was unable to capture them after they fled the planet.

Though his life was saved, Bog was deeply affected. Despite breaking the truce separating Mars into two halves set by the Butt-Uglies many years ago, he had thought the group understood that his actions were for the greater good of Mars. As a result of the emotional whiplash of finding thought-dead friends, only for them to attempt to murder him, Bog became both paranoid and reclusive for years. Due to the lack of activity by the Emperor, and the seeming absence of his interference into Earth, the IPF Specialized Intelligence Division began to belived that Bog might have died and the Empire chose to conceal this fact. This hypothesis was strengthened by the fact that B-Bop A-Luna informed the Division that Dr. Damage planned to betray Bog in the future.

In reality, Damage's coup failed after Electrocutioner intervened to save Bog's life, causing Damage to go underground and adopt the identity of Dr. Disrespect, an alien mercenary loyal to Mars. The true reason for Bog's seclusion was that, following the assassination attempt, Bog became deeply interested in ancient Martian religion, to the point that he became a devout worshiper of the god Mars. Bog became obsessive and fanatical, to the point of believing that he could hear Mars whisper commands in his ear, and he required a prayer to the war god at every government meeting. When Bog met Damned Daniel, the Martian explained to the demon that Mars has foretold this encounter, but Daniel did not take note of this.

### Mystery in the Asteroid Belt

In 2021, Bog suddenly returned to public life, wherein he announced the expansion of Mars's space exploration program. Bog indicated that he intended for Mars to map out the edge of the Solar System, and explore even further beyond into deep space. This came as a surprise to the United Nations and the Republic of Venus, who had a few years ago formed the Solar Alliance in preparation for possible Martian invasion. Despite their fears, it now seemed Mars wanted to begin peacefully exploring space, something Earth and Venus had stopped doing after repeated attacks from Mars's Navy. This started a Solar Space Race of sorts, wherein Venus and Earth began a new joint exploration program in order to reach further than Mars.

However, the reality of the matter was that Bog wanted to distract the Solar Alliance with this artifical Space Race, both to draw their focus away from military matters as well as to keep them focused on the outer Solar System. Bog made token efforts to explore Pluto and beyond, but in secret he had S.I.X. focus on exploring the asteroid belt, saying that it was ordered by Mars himself. Though some felt these orders were strange, Bog had long since purged the upper echelons of Martian society who disagreed with his new theocratic government.

Efforts to explore the asteroid belt were slow, as doing so required covering such a large area in addition to remaining undetected by the Solar Alliance or any other independent faction, and S.I.X. did not turn up any valuable results for years. Bog, remarkably, remained completely calm about these results, assuring his subordinates that they weren't on a time limit and were free to take a decade if it meant finding what Mars had wanted Bog to see.

Matters went awry in 2024, however, when a passing trader vessel found a large asteroid in the Belt to land on in order to make repairs to their ship after an electrical failure. After repairing the ship, the crew noticed something strange about the asteroid: it was emitting a faint but consistent and clear radiation. The chief trader, believing this to simply by an asteroid rich on some rare mineral, went on to sell this information to prospectors after docking at the Yuri Gagarin Spaceport on Earth's moon. The information did not fetch favorable prices among high buyers, however, so the trader simply sold the coordinates and his readings at low prices to as many buyers as he could find.

Among those that bought this information were informants for both the IPF's Divison and the Martian Empire's S.I.X., who went on to relay this to their respective superiors. As expected, the IPF didn't pay this much mind, but the United Nations Solar Charting Initiative was interested, and sent a small unit to catalog the ores of this asteroid. When the information reached Bog, his attitude immediately changed from benign to visibly anxious. Though there wasn't any evidence to indicate that this was what Mars had wanted him to find, Bog began to worry that his lackadaisical attitude towards the search had just cost him what should've been his discovery.

On August 19th of 2025, the UN-SCI discovered that the anomalous readings from the site where due to some sort of large, deactivated device that had somehow become encased in space debris until it became an asteroid. After this, the Solar Alliance began a large project to begin drilling into the asteroid and discover what was inside. Bog shortly thereafter discovered the extent of this operation, and became fully convinced that the Solar Alliance had stumbled upon what he was meant to find.

Immediately, Bog became distressed, feeling he had failed Mars, and contemplated destroying the asteroid to keep it out of the Alliance's hands. Before he could take any action, however, Mars appeared in a vision to Bog, and convinced him that finding what was in the asteroid would secure victory for Mars and allow Bog to ascend into divinity. Afterwards, Bog held a close meeting with the leaders of the Martian military and S.I.X., and ordered them to come up with a strategy to defeat the Alliance within a week. Though uncomfortable with such a short timetable, the leaders had no choice but to follow Bog in fear of execution.

### Opening Blows

On August 28th, Alliance personnel that had set up a basic facility on the asteroid's surface suddenly found themselves being jammed by an unknown source. Before they could react, the lights throughout the facility suddenly went out and alarms began sounding within the walls of the shelter. Without warning, the airllocks that led into the facility were hacked, and two squads from opposite side of the building entered. Emergency power was restored, revealing to the researchers and security that they were being attacked by Martian commandos.

The security tried to mount a defense, but were quickly overwhelmed by the Martians' superior firepower and training. The researchers that did not resist or attempt to flee were detained, while the others were quickly gunned down. The chief of research managing the facility managed to barricade himself in the overseer's quarters just long enough to activate a series of beacons installed into the facility. The beacons shot wildly in multiple directions, too small and nimble to easily track. A few moments later, the commandos breached the room and gunned down the chief.

Five hours later, the beacons automated programming began, broadcasting a stock emergency signal that was picked up by a passing UN-SCI scout ship. The message was relayed back to Earth, where General Erection, fearing attack by pirates, ordered the IPF *Apollo*, a cruiser-class starship, to inspect the site and rescue survivors. Unbeknownst to the crew and Erection, the first true battle of the Solar Alliance-Martian Empire War was about to begin.

## Invasion

The IPF *Apollo* was on patrol at the time, and thus it managed to reach their initial destination within 16 hours of being deployed. The crew of the *Apollo* were largely relaxed and unenthusiastic, as they along with most other IPF space vessels had not experienced any form of combat, allowing them to slip into complacency due to a perceived lack of danger. Once the *Apollo* was in long-range hailing distance, it sent out multiple requests for a sitrep from the researchers on the asteroid, but received no answer. As long-range hails were still unperfected by Earth technology, this was not especially notable, but Captain Frank Saunders quickly became suspicious nonetheless.

Captain Saunders ordered the ship to continue its approach, advancing over the course of an hour to enter close-range hailing distance, but before doing so ordered a handful of fighters scrambled from the *Apollo* to scout for threats and intercept potential enemies. Though only a portion of their total fighter wing, this succeeded in subtly alerting the crew of the ship to prepare for possible combat, but this also indicated to the Martian forces secretly monitoring them from the asteroid as to their capabilities. Unbeknownst to the *Apollo*, two Martian frigates were hiding in wait for the cruiser to reach into their range.

The Martian frigates remained undetected by the *Apollo*, using stealth technology that masked almost all of their ship emissions and made them appear to be space junk, but Captain Saunders quickly became suspicious of the situation upon reaching visual range of the asteroid. After failing to reach the researchers aboard the asteroid with close-range hailing, Saunders broke protocol; instead of preparing an search party of Marines, he immediately ordered the reserve fighters aboard the ship to scramble, and engineers began routing power to the ship's weapons.

A few minutes later, the Martian captains panicked, lowering their stealth systems and rerouting power to weapons and shields as quickly as they could. Saunders's gambit had been a success: by tricking the Martians into believing they were discovered, they blew their cover rather than attempt to remain undetected. This gave the *Apollo* and its fighter wing a 90 second advantage while the Martian ships had to power up. Immediately, Saunders gave the order to fire on the ships, aiming to disable them and capture their occupants alive. Thus, the first true battle of the war had begun.

### Last Stand of the Apollo

With their initial advantage of just over a minute, the *Apollo* was able to launch dozens of small-diameter meter swarm missiles at the ships, the sheer number of which quickly overwhelmed the frigates' point defense systems, allowing the IPF fighters to preform strafing runs on the ships and disable critical systems. However, the frigates still managed to survive long enough to reroute their power, and immediately brought up their shields and anti-ship weaponry. Immediately, the two ships launched a barrage of torpedoes and lasers at the *Apollo* forcing the ship to reroute power to its shields in order to survive the brunt of the blast.

After analyzing the situation, Saunders decided to use the *Apollo* superior range to fight the frigates from a long distance, as the enemy vessels were now slowed immensely due to critical damage to their thrusters and engines inflicted by the IPF fighters. At the same time, the comms team aboard the bridge attempted to forward a priority message to the United Nations, but were unable to make contact. The electronic warfare team aboard scanned the area, and realized the frigates were jamming the communications of the *Apollo*, preventing them from warning Earth.

After discovering this, Saunders immediately changed the rules of engagement, ordering the weapons teams aboard the ship and the fighters outside to begin attacking the Martian vessels with intent to destroy them completely. Within minutes, the fighters outside had whittled down the shields of the frigates, allowing the *Apollo* to let loose a volley of railgun fire. The initial volley cut through the furthest frigate, ripping through its hull and causing a chain reaction that destroyed a large portion of the ship.

The nearest frigate managed to evade much of the fire, and its captain ordered the ship to pursue the *Apollo* aggressively, and switched the electronic warfare systems onboard to interfere with the weapons of the IPF cruiser, preventing their guidance systems from tracking the Martian frigate. This allowed the frigate to approach the *Apollo* for close range combat, where Martian weaponry had the advantage. The *Apollo* crew took this chance to send out an emergency report to Earth while the weapons teams failed to hit the Martian frigate again and again.

In desperation, Saunders ordered the fighter wing to unleash their anti-ship missiles in close range, despite the danger this could present to the fighters themselves or the *Apollo* if misfired. Several ASMs missed as the frigate prepared to ram the cruiser, but a few connected, hitting near the bridge and causing damage to the Martians' systems long enough for the *Apollo* to move to an advantageous position and use their close range pulse lasers to land a finishing blow on the ship.

With the battle ended, Saunders requested a status update on their transmission to Earth, to which the comms team informed the Captain that the message had been fully sent, but would take a few hours to reach Earth's satellites. After this, Saunders was informed that there were still life signs aboard the asteroid's research facility, and debated sending in a search party to look for survivors. Before he could make up his mind, however, his crew detected a sudden spike in energy above the asteroid, quickly recognized as the signature emitted by an incoming faster-than-light warp.

The signal was extraordinarily large, greater than most battleships, causing Saunders to order the ship's weapons and defense systems to full power. After the vessel exited into normal space, the crew aboard were befuddled by the ship, nothing like it in design had ever been seen before. The sheer size of its main gun, around which the ship seemed to be built, immediately intimidated the *Apollo* crew, who had little time to form a strategy as its dozens of anti-ship turrets began firing wildly at the *Apollo*. The cruiser's shields absorbed much of the initial volley, but the ship was still shaken and its crew tossed around by the force. After this initial attack, Saunders realized the ship must be the rumored *Bog Star*, the personal flagship of Emperor Bog himself.

Saunders had hoped to return alive with his crew, leading the defense of Earth, but upon seeing the sheer power of the vessel, realized that he had no hope of escaping the engagement. Hoping to buy Earth as much time as possible, Saunders ordered the ship to unleash its four tactical nuclear warheads directly at the dreadnought. The warheads directly impacted on the ship's shields, but the low-yield warheads failed to completely take down any portion of the shields. The *Apollo* continued to attempt evasion of the ship's fire, but ultimately was destroyed by the overwhelming force of the handful of blasts that impacted the cruiser. The fighters, too small for the anti-ship cannons aboard the *Bog Star*, managed to evade and escape the battle.

The *Apollo* had failed to secure the site or delay the arrival of the *Bog Star*, but had still managed to relay a warning to Earth. The Martian forces were fully aware of this, and Bog ordered S.I.X. to begin executing their plans to destabilize the Solar Alliance's response. The *Bog Star* remained in proximity of the asteroid, while the Martian Navy mobilized its offensive fleet, preparing for an invasion of Earth and Venus. Bog remained aboard his flagship, keeping a close eye on the research operation on the asteroid, which was now under Martian control.

### Alliance Defensive

On August 30th, Supreme Commander Erection was awoken late at night by a pair of IPF officers, interrupting a normal night of sleep at the International Peacekeeping Force General Headquarters in Japan. Immediately, he was able to infer that there was an urgent situation, and quickly dressed himself before leaving his room. Afterwords, Erection was escorted to the VIP elevator, which took him to his personal office near the top of the building. Walking into the room, he was greeted by an already in-progress call with member of the UN Security Council, as well as representatives from the Venusian Self-Defense Force.

Erection, upon taking a seat at his personal desk, was briefed by the IPF officers escorting him and Admiral Boris Belikov of the IPF 3rd Star Fleet on the situation on the asteroid belt. Though the signal was short and hastily made, it was clear that the *Apollo* was in great danger, and with it not reporting again it seemed clear that its crew were either killed or captured. More urgently, it was clear that this wasn't a proxy attack by a mercenary fleet, but a decisive and unprovoked first battle of a war. Immediately, the members of the Security Council demanded the IPF's three star fleets be brought back to defend Earth, but Erection objected to the idea of assembling all of Earth's fleets into one place.

Rather than bringing together Earth's ships, Erection brought to the Council members a program that had been kept under wraps for the duration of his career as Supreme Commander: the Revengancers Initiative. Erection proposed bringing together a special ops unit composed of the Butt-Ugly Martians and Mike, to be used in specialized strike missions against Mars and its assets. The members of the Security Council were extremely skeptical, both worried that these Martians could betray Earth and annoyed that Erection had not already arrested them on suspicion of espionage. Instead, the members of the Security Council demanded Earth's fleets be brought into a defensive stance, while the Venusian representatives requested they join with Venus's to form a united counterattack.

Erection had little time to plan, and worried that the Security Council may use their power to deny the IPF use of their respective nations' facilities and communications networks if he frustrated them, and chose to order the star fleets into defensive positions as a compromise: two fleets for Earth and one for the Moon. Admiral Belikov was visibly annoyed that Erection did not order him to directly counterattack, but chose to remain silent for the moment. Erection himself also wanted to launch a campaign to battle Mars's fleet, but he also knew that the Alliance's knowledge of Mars's fleet structure was outdated and charging in could result in a massacre if they were unknowingly outclassed.

After announcing his decision, the Security Council members agreed after a moment, exiting the call to report back to their own nations, while the VSDF representatives exited to prepare for their own military's action. Erection called up Admirals Hannah Chen of the 1st Star Fleet and Zachary Charles Hill of the 2nd Star Fleet to inform the three Admirals of their respective roles, Belikov would defend Luna, as his fleet was largely made up of cruisers and battleships, best suited for defensive warfare. Hannah Chen, whose fleet was led by the star carrier *Garuda*, the largest Earth ship ever created, would spread her fleet out as a barrier and patrol Earth's orbit. Charles Hill, whose fleet was composed mainly of destroyers and frigates, would actively move between Earth, Luna, and the various Lagrange Points around Earth where the IPF had built satellites to act as early detection systems.

With their respective orders, the Admirals exited the call and went to order their fleets to fulfill their missions, assured by Erection that this defensive strategy was only temporary. Meanwhile, on Venus, the admirals of the fleet were divided on whether to take up defensive stances or begin a counter-invasion of Mars's sphere of influence. However, this division would not last long, as S.I.X. had already put into motion plans to prevent Venus and Earth from responding to Mars's advance.

### Conflict on Venus

The Venusian Self-Defense Force's first response to the outbreak of conflict was splitting its navy into three groups: the 1st Armada would patrol Venus for incoming ships, while the 2nd would patrol further across the Alliance controlled parts of Sol. The 3rd Armada, composed of the most warships, broke off and was ordered to wage a counterattack against Mars. However, unbeknownst to the leaders of Venus, S.I.X. had already managed to smuggle in thousands of mercenaries and former Black Hand operatives onto vital areas on the planet using disguised transport freighters.

Before the Venusian military was any the wiser, these Black Hand-led mercenaries launched blitz attacks on key strategic targets across Venus, and contacted remnants of the Venusian Confederacy that had continued guerilla warfare against the Republic for years. These remnants not only attacked Venusian Army installations, but also emerged from hiding with a small fleet of warships thought to be destroyed, allowing them to engage in hit-and-run attacks against the Venusian Navy. Though the combined strength of the mercenaries, Black Hand operatives, and Confederate Remnants was decisively outmatched by Venus, they still succeeded in wreaking havoc across Venus.

On September 4th, a large mercenary unit captured the Vespene Mining Site of Ha-jil, devastating the security forces there before detonating explosives that destroyed the facility after they were finished. With Ha-jil destroyed, the Venusian fleet lost its largest source of Vespene Gas, endangering any prolonged war effort. This prompted Venusian command to order its 3rd Armada to cancel its invasion of Martian space and simply take up a defense patrol across Alliance space.

After the destruction of Ha-jil, the anti-Venusian partisans suffered more defeats over time, due to a lack of proper leadership or supply routes, but this only made it more difficult to completely defeat them as there seemed to be no end of individual rebel cells. At this same time, S.I.X. forwarded an extraordinary payment to the Europan Pirate Fleets, in exchange for which they began executing hit-and-run attacks against Solar Alliance targets; asteroid mining facilities, independent trader ships, and small military patrols all faced attacks from pirates throughout September.

### IPF Mobilization

After seeing the continued attacks on the Alliance's assets, while also noticing the lack of a true Martian invasion, General Erection convened with member of the IPF and the three admirals to discuss a new strategy. Erection believed that the Martian Empire was largely stalling for time, based on the fact that their large military seemed to have not moved from their own space, and that their covert backing of rebels was meant only to distract the Alliance so that they could not mobilize. With this in mind, Erection proposed that the International Peacekeeping Force implement a new strategy to turn the tide of war.

Erection's new strategy was controversial at first, but began to become more amenable after further discussion and planning from his advisors: the IPF 1st Star Fleet and their flagship, the *Garuda* would break rank and leave Earth to attack vital infrastructure being used by the Martian Empire. This would result in an inevitable counterattack, so in order to prevent either Earth or the 1st Star Fleet from being overwhelmed, the 2nd Star Fleet would act alongside the Venusian 3rd Armada to launch direct attacks against the Martian Navy and its facilities.

Erection chose to bypass the UN Security Council, and directly made contact with Venusian Command to discuss this new strategy. After a thorough explanation and a presentation of the IPF Specialized Intelligence Division's knowledge of Martian targets, the VSDF agreed to this, after a period of hesitation. On September 19th, the IPF 1st Starfleet, IPF 2nd Star Fleet, and VSDF 3rd Armada all set off to fulfill their respective duties. Meanwhile, the IPF 3rd Star Fleet was forced to spread itself further in order to fulfill its duty as the sole defender of Earth.

## The Battle for Earth

In the weeks following the new Alliance strategy, conflict escalated from simple proxies to all-out brawls between fleets. Emperor Bog had expected retaliation, but was taken aback by the sheer numbers of ships the Alliance sent across the asteroid belt. Fortunately for himself, it seemed the Alliance was not interested in sieging the asteroid that now had a significant fleet defending it in addition to the Bog Star. However, this also meant that the ships needed to protect the excavation site were not either defending Mars or attacking Alliance fleets.

Throughout late September and early October, the 1st Star Fleet struck several vital targets aiding the Martian war effort throuhout the Sol System, including the destruction of a major shipyard orbiting Saturn, resulting in a crippling blow to the Europan Pirates that were hiding there. However, the *Garuda*'s crusade was not without its downfalls, as despite its heavy armament and sturdy build, it was not made for close-range combat. Most notably, on October 22nd, the supercarrier was ambushed at Neptune by the Martian battleship *Tartarus Supreme* while its escorts were out searching for signs of enemy activity. Though its fighter wings were able to aid the flagship long enough for its escorts to rescue the vessel, the *Garuda* suffered both major hull damage and the loss of numerous personnel, both fighter pilots and ship crew.

During the 1st Star Fleet's battles. the 2nd Star Fleet and 3rd Armada, now reorganized into the Alliance Battlegroup Alpha, engaged in dozens of battles with the Martian Empire's grand fleet. Combined together, Battlegroup Alpha consisted of 28 IPF vessels and 75 Venusian ships, with the IPF fast battleship *Helios* serving as its flagship. Against them the Martian Imperial Navy, in addition to the Bog Star, was made up of 249 warships. Battlegroup Alpha relied heavily on coordination between the IPF vessels, which specialized in long-range torpedo and missile attacks, and VSDF vessels, which focused on short-range plasma weaponry.

Though the Empire's leadership was fanatically loyal, Emperor Bog quickly realized that the lack of progress perceived by common soldiers and officers could quickly spiral out of control. Bog's only goal was the excavation of the asteroid his fleet guarded, but given time lower officers could attempt to pull a coup against him if Mars continued to lose battles to the Alliance. In order to give the Martian military a sense of progress, Bog chose to order a significant portion of the Martian Navy and Army to launch a direct invasion of Earth.

On November 3rd, a fleet of 59 Martian warships crossed the Asteroid Belt, headed to Earth with armies of Martian soldiers in tow. In response, Erection ordered the Alliance units still in Martian-controlled space to continue disrupting Martian operations, in hopes that the invasion force was a bluff that would be recalled if the Alliance did not answer. Unfortunately, the IPF leadership quickly realized that this was not the case; Mars was now fully ready to invade Earth.

### Raid on Luna

Upon arriving in range of Luna on November 6th, the Martian fleets engaged in a ship to ship battle with the IPF 3rd Star Feet, which was composed of a dreadnought, 7 battleships, 13 cruisers, and 27 corvettes, in addition to the several fighter squadrons based on the Moon. Initial fighting favored the IPF, as their first few volley struck far beyond range of Martian retaliation, but once Mars's ships closed the battle quickly became one of bloody attrition. The defenses of Luna, mainly railguns based on the SENTINEL Orbital Defense system on Earth, inflicted damage on Martian ships and destroyed a few smaller vessels, but were unable to last for more than a few volleys each once they were targeted.

During the battle, Martian ships released several ground vehicles that landed on the Lunar surface, attacking the military installations and spaceports on the Moon. Once Martian troops pushed into Luna's facilities, close quarter battles broke out between Martian and Human soldiers, resulting in high casualties on both sides in addition to the death of multiple civilians caught in the crossfire. During this, the 3rd Star Fleet continued to suffer damage against the numerically superior Martian forces who denied them a long-range advantage.

After realizing the full extent of the situation, General Erection ordered Admiral Belikov to retreat and conserve his fleet's strength in order to counterattack at a later date. Belikov's fleet was suffering continued fire, preventing a retreat, and thus ordered his dreadnought to directly charge the Martian vessels in order to buy time for an IPF retreat. After blocking the path of the Martian fleet, the IPF *Osiris* continued to fire relentlessly at the attacking ships, thus allowing the other IPF vessels to warp away. Without any support, the *Osiris* was ultimately destroyed after continued fire. After the fleet's retreat, the IPF's ground forces and coast guard on Luna accepted the terms of surrender demanded by Lt. Penkhan.

### Invasion of Earth

After capturing Luna, the Martian fleet, which now held 45 ships after the previous battle, prepared to move in to began a ground invasion of Earth. However, of the 45 ships, 30 of them were lands meant to move the Martian armies onto Earth, while the remaining ones were responsible for defense. This left the offensive force in an uncomfortable position; the force could either land all in one area and risk being surrounded, land in multiple regions and risk being divided or picked off by the remaining fleets, or attempt to devastate Earth's surface which could take days before Earth was adequately pacified. In addition, S.I.X. had credible intelligence stating the the VSDF ground forces had secured Venus, and the Venusian 2nd Armada would soon depart the planet to aid Earth.

Lt. Penkhan ultimately decided to divide his invasion fleet into six groups that would each invade a different region; the eastern seaboard of North America, Japan and China's coastline, the British Isles and Western Europe, Central Africa, the Amazon, and the Malay Peninsula were chosen as the six regions for their importance for Earth. To cover the descent of the landing ships, the 15 warships would divide into groups of 3 that would each attack the SENTINEL Orbital Defense cannons that would attempt to shoot down the landers before they touched ground.

The warships set off to their five locations: the batteries in Kenya, the United States, Australia, Pakistan, and Bolivia. The ships descended into the atmosphere, flying a fair distance apart and in haphazard patterns in hopes of evading incoming fire, and began firing laser weapony at the batteries. During this time, the landing ships entered the atmosphere together, before splitting apart during their descent to cover more ground. Some of the SENTINEL batteries managed to fire on the landers despite being assaulted, and a total of 3 were destroyed and 9 damaged during the initial invasion.

Once the invasion craft hit the surface, they faced immediate retaliation by the IPF's air and naval forces, in addition to the armies of the nations they attacked, but the armies inside were protected by automated weaponry outside the massive landers and the assault walkers that exited the ships upon landing. After the Martian armies were fully departed and establishing their respective foothold, the warships escorting them left atmosphere and returned to Luna. By the end, only 4 warships survived their escort of the Martian Army. As of November 9th, Earth was now at least partially under Martian occupation.

### Creation of the Revengeancers

> "*There was an idea: to bring together a team of Humans and Martians capable of fighting the battles no one else could. The Revengancer Initiative."* ~General Erection, addressing the Butt-Ugly Martians
>
>

Amidst the chaos of the invasion of Earth, many notable figures attempted to find some way to aid in the defense of Earth, to varying results. Rem Lazar tried to reform the High Guardians after they were released earlier in January, but the other members had no interest in doing so. Sailor Mars bought an AK-47 and killed multiple invaders in Tokyo. Mobius One, at the age of 52, chose to leave retirement and fight against alien fighter craft in his own F-20A Tigershark. However, the most notable of these rising heroes were none other than the Butt-Ugly Martians.

In the first days of the initial Martian invasion, New York City, where the Butt-Uglies were living for the time, had yet to be attacked by Martian invaders which were still fighting mainly in Virginia and Pennsylvania. 2T Fru-T wished for the team to somehow fight Emperor Bog directly, but knew this was impossible at the moment due to both Bog likely being heavily guarded and the International Space Elevator being too risky to use as a way to leave Earth due to Singapore being under siege. Mike was neutral, believing that the Alliance would be able to defeat Mars without their help just as Earth had defeated Mars twice in the 20th Century.

Before a debate could begin, however, B-Bop A-Luna was contacted by Cedric, his tech officer, informing the group that General Erection was on his way to New York to speak with them about working together once more, the first time in a decade the aging leader was going to meet with them. Escorted to New York onboard the IPF *Albatross*, which had been updated but was on the verge of retirement, Erection arrived to Mike's apartment on November 11th along with the IPF special forces guarding him.

After first meeting, Erection explained that he needed the Butt-Uglies and Mike to join together with the IPF to form the Revengeancers, a unit that could undertake dangerous missions capable to turning the tide of the war, and that the IPF *Albatross* would serve as the flagship of this team. 2T Fru-T agreed to the proposal, as well as B-Bop and Do-Wah Diddy. Mike agreed to join because everyone else was doing so, and Shaboom Shaboom also joined after receiving a text about the situation while she was on vacation in Canada. With this, the Revengeancers were formed, in addition to their ally in Japan who would join them later.

### Battle for Tokyo

After agreeing to join, Erection and the Revengeancers loaded aboard the *Albatross* and made their way to Japan, where the International Peacekeeping Force General Headquarters was trying to defend Japan from waves of Martian invaders spreading across the country. The *Albatross* finally arrived in range of Tokyo on November 14th, surviving multiple attacks by Martian fighters attempting to stop them along the way, where the flying carrier immediately scrambled Black Knight Squadron and Stinger Squadron to provide air support for ground forces in the city.

The Butt-Uglies and Mike prepared to board their V-22 Osprey that would transport them down to the city where they would rescue the IPF and JSDF units surrounded by Martian assault walkers, but Erection stopped them before they departed to introduce their newest member. Suddenly, a mechanical man arrived from the sky, landing on the carrier next to the group. He introduced himself as Jet Jaguar, an IPF superhero that had been aiding Japan for the past days but needed the aid of others to save the city. Mike said he looked dumb.

And so, the group departed and flew down to the city, where they saved civillians and allied soldiers from near-death situations time and time again. In one notable instance, Jet Jaguar flew up to a Martian walker before throwing it into the air, after which Mike summoned Lucifer and used Morning Star to destroy it in mid-air. This proved to be a massive morale boost not just for soldiers in Japan, but allies across the world who saw this event on live TV. Ultimately, this caused Sailor Mars to temporarily join the group, and later Ken Ichijouji arrived to the city via bike and summoned Omnimon, which inflicted great damage against the Martian armies.

With the aid of their temporary allies, the Revengeancers turned the tide of the Battle of Tokyo, which had gone from a bloody stalemate to a winning defensive battle. Upon realizing that the battle was going to be lost, Lt. Penkhan ordered that all Martian fighters abandon air support roles and fly at the IPF *Albatross*, using all their weapons before ramming it in a desperate move to sink the airship. After multiple missiles from the fighters broke through the *Albatross*'s point defenses, Jet Jaguar flew up to it and used his secret ability to stop the incoming fighters from ramming it: Jaguar grew to multiple stories tall. and swatted most of the fighters out of the sky to prevent a collision. Some fighters still rammed the vessel, but too few to inflict any series damage.

After this failed attack, Penkhan retreated from Tokyo and the Martian armies in the city either broke rank and withdrew or surrendered to IPF capture. Over the next hours, ordered was restored and the JSDF defeated the remaining Martians that continued fighting while the IPF forces left to aid other parts of Japan under siege. For their bravery and heroism, Prime Minister Goro Majima awarded the Revengeancers with the Medal of Honor, which was made of gold folded several times over. Mike lost it on the flight back.

### Battle for New York

Upon hearing the results of the Battle of Tokyo, Emperor Bog was remarkably nonplussed, though still clearly disappointed in Penkhan's leadership. In hopes of gaining a new edge in the battle on Earth, Penkhan requested that Klaktor and his robotic legions be sent to act as a force multiplier for his own armies, which Bog quickly authorized. Officers in the Martian military were still perplexed by Bog's decisions, namely his choice not to send in more armies to Earth that could overwhelm the forces there.

Bog justified his decisions by correctly noting that the armies would be captured or killed by Alliance warships if sent alone or with limited escort, and that Mars would be open to counter-invasion if Bog devoted a larger fleet. Many officers were still annoyed by his devoting a significant chunk of the Martian fleet to defending a seemingly insignificant asteroid, but feared for their lives if they spoke against him. With this, the Martian military continued to follow their orders, the fleets continuing to engage Battlegroup Alpha and their allies attempting to sow chaos on Venus, to limited success.

Though Penkhan meant for Klaktor's legions to reinforce multiple armies, the android instead followed orders from Bog to cause as much chaos as possible across New York and the regions surrounding it, and it landed in mid-November along with thousands of robot soldiers in the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada. In reality, Bog only wished to cause destruction in the areas the Butt-Uglies were known to inhabit, with no mind paid to strategy. Though he did not voice any objection, in secret Penkhan became highly agitated by this mindless tactic.

Upon learning of the offensive, the IPF *Albatross* moved to New York with the Revengeancers in tow, entrusting the safety of Japan to the local forces there. Meanwhile in the United States, New York City staved off initial attacks thanks to the aid of the IPF Warlock and Sigil Squadrons, as well as US forces. The Klaktor Legions which landed in Canada faced heavier resistance, as a blizzard was in progress that stranded multiple units apart and made them easy prey for Canadian Mounties.

Once the *Albatross* arrived in range of New York City on November 21st, it was greeted to a chaotic and disastrous war zone, seemingly fought only to cause damage rather than to hold territory. Klaktor's flagship, the *Deus Machina*, was circling the city and launching drone fighters to aid the Martian and Robotic warriors in the streets, and multiple buildings were burning amidst the chaos. Immediately, the *Albatross* launched Black Knight and Stinger Squadrons to launch tactical strikes against positions being used by the Martian forces, and released a swarm of a few dozen drones based of the drones used by HADES in 2012. The drone swarm proved successful in executing rapid attacks against the Martian fighters in the airspace, preventing them from coordinating their attack.

Again, the Revengeancers departed from the *Albatross* to help save the city, but were shot down by a Martian surface-to-air laser and crashed landed into Times Square. Surrounded by waves of robot soldiers, the group fired back with their own weapons to buy time for Jet Jaguar to recharge, but were quickly overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite army. Just before the Martians could run out of ammo or Mike could run out of SP, bolts of lightning struck at the robots, leaping from droid to droid and destroying them. Once the group climbed out the analyze the situation, they immediately saw an old foe long thought abandoned.

Rem Lazar flew down from the skyline in front of the group, causing Mike to search for an item to negate electric attacks. Before the Martians could use a gun against him, however, Rem explained that he had reformed after discovering Astrology in prison, and now wished to protect Earth once more. B-Bop was suspicious, but agreed to temporarily ally with the ex-superhero. Once Jet Jaguar awoke and requested a new battery from 2T Fru-T, Rem used his lightning to strike the mechanical man, charging him to full strength. Mike zoned out and used his Discharge Ointment anyway.

After gathering themselves, B-Bop planned out a strategy for the group to execute, with each member having a part to play in order to stop Klaktor's carnage, and the group subsequently split apart. B-Bop would use his spec ops skills learned from Agent John Kill to stealthily assassinate squad leaders among Martian forces. 2T Fru-T and Shaboom Shaboom would track down a high-level droid in order to capture it and hack its systems. Do-Wah Diddy would run across the battlefield with his One Man Army kit, which allowed him to swap out a seemingly infinite supply of weapons, and directly fight Martian soldiers with his M4A1's underbarrel grenade launcher. Jet Jaguar would fly across the battlefield destroying Martian tanks, both disrupting their offensive and drawing attention away from the other members. Rem would fly into the air and use lightning to destroy Klaktor's drones.

For over an hour, the team each fulfilled their missions, defeating hundreds of Klaktor bots and saving endangered civilians while the allied forces turned the tide against the Martian invaders. Mike, who had accidentally not recieved a mission, walked around Manhattan using his high level Jack Ripper to defeat multiple Martian warriors that happened to cross his path. This caused Klaktor himself to leave his ship and confront Mike directly, dropping into the streets of Manhattan with his new armor that towered 15 ft high.

Klaktor and Mike battled each other furiously, causing a spectacle that caught the attraction of both civilian and soldier alike, until Mike decided to summon Mothman and hit Klaktor with lightning and knocked the robotic overlord now. Immediately, Jet Jaguar, Shaboom Shaboom, and Do-Wah Diddy arrived to support Mike and preform a relentless attack on the stunned droid. After sustaining so much damage, Klaktor fell and began surging with energy. Erection, monitoring from the *Albatross*, informed the team that Klaktor was beginning to emit levels of energy that could destroy the island of Manhattan, and perhaps even the entire city if this continued.

Rem Lazar arrived and attempted to absorb Klaktor's electricity, but this proved too much for the imagination diety, and he fainted attempting this. All the while, Klaktor still began to charge energy, now enough to destroy a large chunk of the state of New York, causing the android to gloat to the group. Jet Jaguar hesitated for a moment, before silently nodding at Mike. Then, Jaguar grabbed Klaktor and flew high into the sky with the droid, rising above the city's skyscrapers away from attack. Just as Klaktor was about to hit critical mass, Jet Jaguar shrunk by several magnitudes along with Klaktor, thus compressing the blast and exploding harmlessly above the city.

The massive explosion could be seen by all in the city, and across the horizon for miles. Erection informed the group that Jet Jaguar's signal had gone entirely silent, causing Rem and Shaboom Shaboom to mourn for their fallen friend. With Klaktor's destruction, the drones and robots in the city immediately ceased functioning and turned the tide of the battle in the IPF's favor. By the dawn of the following day, the allied forces had secured most of New York City, with only a handfull of small units continuing to resist capture by the IPF.

Though they had lost a valued member, perhaps their strongest, the Revengeancers had also made a new friend in Rem Lazar. Erection authorized Rem as an official member following the battle, and he integrated into the team smoothly. Meanwhile, Lt. Penkhan reported to Bog aboard the Bog Star, informing his Emperor of the failure of the new offensive. Again, Bog showed little interest in the battle on Earth, seeming to be more interested in the structure beneath the asteroid that had just recently been largely excavated.

Frustrated, Penkhan explained his issues with Bog's strategies and the continuing failure of Mars's offensives, causing Bog to think for a moment. After weighing his options, Bog agreed to supply Penkhan with one final weapon to use against Earth, causing Penkhan to recoil in shock after Bog indicated which weapon he meant. After this, Bog departed the Bog Star along with his honor guard to the asteroid, leaving Penkhan in charge of the Bog Star. Meanwhile, Electrocutioner would be responsible for maintaining Mars's fleet while the Emperor was away.

### Earth Victories

After recoiling from the initial shock of the invasion, and regaining vital footholds in New York City and Tokyo, battles that had once favored the Martian Army began to shift into even playing fields between Martian and IPF forces. After it had left New York City, the IPF *Albatross* chose to depart to Western Europe to aid the forces there, while the Revengeancers were dispatched separately to investigate Martian activities in the Amazon. Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, the Martians had managed to secure vast swathes of territory including Singapore, but were bogged down by the tens of thousands of guerilla fighters, consisting of both soldiers cut off command and civilians who had taken up arms, forcing the Martians to halt their advance in fear of being caught in a pincer between the guerillas and forces from India and China.

In Kenya, the Martian armies there had spread across much of the Eastern African seaboard, causing the IPF to authorize the use of the F/A-17 Avalon, a prototype fighter-bomber that had been partially abandoned until now. Magpie Squadron arrived from Russia with the Avalon being used by their flight leader, and the aircraft's unique fuel-air missile devastated several bases being used by the Martian Army. After several strikes on Martian facilities using the Avalon, Magpie Squadron returned and allowed the local allied forces to turn the tide on the ground.

Upon arriving above London, the *Albatross* managed to turn the tide of the battle there almost immediately, thanks to the deployment of the squadrons aboard it, and the air superiority provided by its squadrons and the *Albatross*'s weaponry allowed the Rapier and Claymore Squadrons, who had been providing close air support for days on end, to temporarily withdraw and finally get proper repairs for their craft. Eventually the Martians brought in a heavy gunship, nearly as large as the *Albatross*, to bombard the Royal Navy ships providing support at Hastings. Fortunately, Mobius One appeared and flew through the gunship's core, dropping a bomb near its command facility and causing it to fall into the sea.

Meanwhile in the Amazon, the Revengeancers arrived to the IPF's regional command center, the partially-underground base of Jaburo, and found that the forces inside had been forced to lock themselves in and fend off wave after wave of Martian warriors. Upon fighting their way into a side entrance of the base, the Revengeancers discussed matters with Brigadier General Tacito Verde, who informed the group that Jaburo housed numerous prototype weapons that the IPF needed in order to turn the tide of the war in Earth. Among them was the F/A-27X Valkyrie, a one-of-a-kind fighter that had been developed in Japan was was being tested in South America.

After establishing the situation, 2T Fru-T received permission to use the craft to retaliate against the Martian vehicles harassing the site while the forces inside and the remaining Revengeancers would distract the warriors on the ground. After taking off from a hidden runway that led away from the base, 2T turned around and began using the tactical laser aboard the Valkyrie to destroy Martian fighter craft and assault walkers while evading fire from the ground. Once the warriors below were focused on the Valkyire, the Revengancers and the IPF soldiers charged out, some in light vehicles or bipedal tanks, and cut through the Martian line. After this initial blow, fighting resumed between the two armies, leading to mass destruction and chaos throuhout the Amazon. There were multiple cases of friendly fire on both sides, and environmental damage was high, but about 4 days later the IPF reported that the Martian warriors were retreating to the central lander being used as their main base.

After the Battle of London, General Erection chose to reinstate Mobius One as an IPF pilot and moved him aboard the *Albatross*, which still held a special catapult on its deck for Mobius One's F-22. Afterwards, it moved to France, both to make contact with Artemis Squadron and destroy the central lander being used as the Martian's base. Upon arriving to the French coastline, Erection sent out Mobius One, once more in his customized F-22, to scout out the area for potential threats while the *Albatross* prepared to head to the ongoing battle in Paris. However, while the ace pilot was patrolling the countryside, he was fired upon by a surface-to-air missile fired from the plains of France.

Unbeknownst to him at the time, the assailant was none other than Jonathan Stockmyre, who had prepared for the arrival of the ace and stocked up on Stinger missile launchers. In fact, the 37 launchers purchased by Stockmyre with his drug money had been modified to fit on tripods, and all 36 that were resting on the tripods fired at once, causing Mobius One to fly in unpredictable patterns to avoid the attack. After avoiding the barrage of missiles, Mobius One searched the ground for Stockmyre, but the shape shifter managed to transform into the image of a French farmer to avoid being detected. After this, Mobius One returned to the Albatross and the airship proceeded to Paris.

Once arriving in the French capital on November 30th, the *Albatross* and its squadrons engaged in precision bombings to destroy major Martian formations that did not endanger civilians. After their arrival, Martian warriors began deliberately staying close to civilian shelters or large buildings that may have had civilians in them. To counter this, the *Albatross* decreased its altitude to provide precision information to allied forces with its spy equipment, however this was a part of the Martians' plan. Once the *Albatross* had lowered itself, it was immediately fired upon by several assault walkers and Martian rocket soldiers, who had staged the gambit in order to destroy the *Albatross*, which had been designated as a priority target by Penkhan.

Upon realizing the scope of the Martian attack, Erection commanded the Albatross to turn hard to North, away from the city, and raise its altitude, but by this point the carrier had sustained heavy damage to two of its engineers and had another one completely inoperable. Erection saw no choice but to use the crew's final moments in ordered to steer the craft north and avoid civilian casualties, but Mobius One requested that Erection evacuate the crew and steer north at the same time, while he would provide covering fire for them. Erection hesitated for a moment, but went with the suggestion on instinct.

For several minutes, V-22 Ospreys ferried crew members out while the marines onboard directly jumped out and parachuted into the chaos below. Against all expectations, Mobius One's cover destroyed nearly all of the Martian heavy forces, allowing the *Albatross* to safely evacuate its crew rather than sacrifice them to save civilian lives, and finally Erection himself was ferried out in his personal Osprey after the *Albatross* had placed itself to crash outside the city. After the *Albatross* had gone down, casualties were limited to the few personnel killed by the Martians' attacks themselves and many of the Marines that landed into Paris, a vast improvement over what would have been the death of most or all crewmembers aboard the *Albatross*.

Though losing the *Albatross*, a decades-old symbol of Earth's military, was a huge boost to Martian morale, the forces on the ground had still failed to take out the actual fighters aboard the ship, and the IPF planes managed to quickly secure air superiority. After this, the French Army managed to deploy several squadrons of attack helicopters, which provided air support to the forces below and turned the tide of the battle. The squadrons that were aboard the *Albatross* were forced to return to England, having to refuel along the way, and landed in Hastings to await further orders.

On December 1st, a squadron of Martian bombers attempted to fly through Kazakhstan to strike at a large IPF command center in Russia, hoping that the nation would not interfere with them after it had seceded from the United Nations. However, these hopes were quickly dashed when Kazakhstan's own network of supermassive laser towers incinerated the Martian forces, causing Penkhan to designate Kazakhstan as a no-fly zone for his own forces.

### Next Strategy

Upon being recovered and brought back to London, General Erection authorized some IPF forces, including Mobius One, Black Knight Squadron, Sigil Squadron, and Vulture Squadron, to return to the IPF GHQ in Japan in order to plan the next move for the allied forces. In reality, Erection did not know what the IPF should do next, as Mars's strategic plays seemed at times unpredictable. He worried that the light armies deployed by Mars were only a distraction, and that Mars would soon make a move that could change the tide of the war, but he simply couldn't imagine what.

Upon arriving to the Japanese GHQ, Erection was relieved to see that the Revengeancers had managed to return on their own, along with the Valkyrie from Jaburo. After discussing matters with the IPF corps of engineers, he authorized the Valkyire to be modified into a new design template that had been only just completed before the war began. After this, Erection and the Revengeancers entered into the GHQ's central planning room, where they hoped to discuss their next move.

Upon reviewing the movement of the Martian Army, Erection came to realize something: most of the Martian armies were retreating to the central landers, whose defenses prevented easy destruction and locations discounted the use of nuclear weapons. However, the Martian forces in Southeast Asia were instead retreating to Singapore, where they had captured the city and taken control of the base of the International Space Elevator. Before even an hour of speculation had passed, Erection received an emergency transmission from the Venusian Intelligence Bureau: the Bog Star had disappeared and its location was unknown.

Immediately, Erection connected the dots and came to the conclusion that the scattering of Mars's armies was all a distraction, and the true plan was for Mars's ground units to distract and whittle down the IPF's forces until the Bog Star could arrive, take control of the spaceport at the top of the Space Elevator, and use it to land as many soldiers as Mars needed. As the destruction of the Space Elevator would most likely destroy Earth's satellite network and result in massive environmental damage, the IPF would surely never attack it in a meaningful way if Mars captured it. In truth, Erection was correct that the Martian armies were focused on Singapore, but the exact reason was different than he expected.

After this realization, B-Bop and Erection agreed that the IPF should move to secure Singapore, but worried that a massive movement of the IPF's armies and navies would trigger the Martians into changing their strategy. Mike interjected, and asked if he could call up some of his friends to assist in the battle, as they all promised to help the person if it was ever necessary. B-Bop agreed, not really paying attention, and continued to discuss strategy with Erection. Ultimately, Erection chose to organize a task force of multiple IPF units for the battle: Task Force 118 and the Revengeancers would infiltrate the city and fight alongside local soldiers and guerillas to secure the ground, an IPF cruiser and its escorts would approach from the south, the squadrons that had escorted Erection to Japan would provide top cover, and the 3rd Star Fleet would prepare to ambush the Bog Star as it arrived to dock at the Space Elevator.

After this, Mike called all the friends he could think of and asked them for a favor, to which all agreed.

## The Battle of Singapore

Before the beginning of the battle, General Erection transferred himself to an E-767 Airborne Warning and Control craft to monitor the battle, where upon he chose to designate the AWACS as "SkyEye". Meanwhile, the IPF Cruiser *Tanager* and a handful of escort ships sailed north to approach Singapore, carefully maneuvering in a way that instead made it seem like they were headed to IPF-controlled territory. Upon receiving the signal from the IPF's Division, the guerila cell in Singapore quickly attacked a few stations being used by the Martians to monitor Singapore, allowing several Task Force 118 units to HALO jump into the city under cover of nightfall.

On December 9th, the Bog Star began to new the Space Elevator's docking station in orbit, causing 12 Corvettes and 3 Cruisers from the 3rd Star Fleet to warp into range of the Bog Star and open fire on the massive dreadnought, while the Task Force 118 members below detonated multiple charges they had set up the night before across the city of Singapore, destroying several surface-to-air weapons and anti-ship weapon sites. Immediately a battle began on both fronts, as the small but nimble IPF starships battle against the enormous Bog Star while the IPF ground forces began attacking confused Martian warriors until the air and naval forces could arrive.

Initial fighting did favor the allied soldiers, but even with their local allies they were outnumbered and had very few vehicles to support them whereas the Martian occupiers had assault walkers and hovercraft to patrol the city. Using the short time they had before the enemy could respond, Task Force 118 operators called in several sites, mainly landing platforms for Martian craft and heavily fortified buildings being used as barracks by the Martians, thus allowing their allies to be able to deliver critical strikes against Martian facilities when they arrived.

After a few minutes, Martian forces began fighting back against the allies in the city, though they were still confused enough that they did not score many kills in the first half hour of fighting. A V-22 Osprey carring the Revengeancers approached from the north to assist, but was shot down by a single surface to air railgun that allied forces had missed during their sabotage. The VTOL craft was shot down and crashed outside the city, but fortunately it was flying low enough that all aboard survived. After recovering, Mike used a Bead Chain to heal everyone, to which B-Bop chided him for being wasteful.

### Reinforcements Arrive

> *"This is AWACS SkyEye. All International Peacekeeping Force Aircraft, report in."*
>
>

> *"Black Knight 1 through 4 on standby."*
>
>

> *"Magpie 1, 3, 4, and 5 on standby*
>
>

> *"Sigil 2 through 6 on standby."*
>
>

> *"Copy that, all aircraft, follow Mobius One. Put an end to this war once and for all."*
>
>

After an hour of fighting, the allied forces in Singapore had suffered multiple casualties, and were being forced to constantly alternate between retreating to safer territory and hold to defend against Martian warriors. Some smaller units considered surrendering, fearing they would be abandoned, but were proven wrong when a series of cruise missiles suddenly impacted multiple locations across Singapore, destroying Martian barracks and supply depots. The *Tanager* had arrived in range to assist allied forces, while the destroyers and Aegis vessels surrounding it prevented Martian fighters from attacking it.

A few minutes later, all of the IPF's chosen squadrons arrived in the airspace, led by Mobius One who now piloted the XFA-38 Mjolnir, the end result of several modifications to the F/A-27X Valkyire. The Mjolnir flew throughout the battle, armed with a laser cannon and an assortment of micromissiles, in addition to a built-in electronic support system that aided allies which flew around him. Together, the IPF united squadron tore through the paltry hovercraft providing air support for the Martians below, while the *Tanager* continued to approach closer and closer to the city in order to provide more support.

Meanwhile in space, the Bog Star continued to defend against the IPF ships, which evaded most of the dreadnought's attacks but did almost no damage to the Bog Star's shields, which seemed to be constantly regenerating. Eventually, one of the IPF cruiser's crewmen realized the Bog Star was emitting a strange energy, and relayed this information to High Command while they continued to try to wear down the ship's shields.

After a short while, the Revengeancers arrived in the city, where they began aiding the allied forces however possible. Shaboom Shaboom used martial arts to knock out multiple martian warriors, Rem flew throughout the skies using lightning to attack Martians below, Mike used his Jack Ripper to murder a few Martians, and the three main Butt-Uglies stole a Martian tank, using it to cause destroy several Martian vehicles in the confusion. Despite all this, however, the Martians were still outnumbering the allied forces, and their proximity to civilians meant that after the designated sites were destroyed, the Navy and air squadrons were unable to launch any more strikes against ground targets.

Eventually, the Revengeancers regrouped to discuss their next action, all the while trying to defend against the hundreds of Martians moving on their position. Suddenly, a large portal opened in the street where the group was talking, causing Mike to say something along the lines of "oh hey dude" as Sailor Mars walked out. After Rem asked the sailor scout why she was here, she informed the group that Mike had asked her to provide a way for his allies to come to help. B-Bop was confused, not knowing which allies the young girl meant.

Suddenly, more portals opened across the streets, bringing with them countless allies: Bob and his biker gang members, Ken Ichijouji and several digital monstars, Cedric and his armada of remote control drones, Snarl and his family of Snarls, Barry B Benson wielding an AK-47, MC Ride and the other members of Death Grips (except for Zach Hill, who was aboard an IPF ship in space), Rinko, Rabbit wielding his epic gamer dubstep gun, Angela, and Hazel Middleton. In addition, Sailor Mars also recruited several allies besides Mike's own friends, including Koo Foo, DOG, Tyler Klause and his fellow Kamen Riders, JonTron (Axe Form), Ronald and several GIGN members, Thomas Jefferson, Bibleman, Ninja, Hurricane, and Jonathan Stockmyre (in disguise as an IPF secret agent).

Upon the arrival of these dozens of allies, the battle almost instantly turned in the favor of Earth. In the chaos, the heroes called by Mike slew hundreds of Martian occupiers, and once more Rem led the High Guardians in one last battle to save Earth. Tyler Klause's Kamen Riders and Sailor Mars's Sailor Scouts cooperated greatly, using their abilities to take down dozens of Martian warlords leading their own units, while Hazel Middleton cast hexes on the Martian warriors they caused them to be distracted long enough for Snarl to eat them. MC Ride and Death Grips stole nearby cars and turned them into technicals, with which they killed dozens of Martians with their TEC-9s. In the chaos, Jonathan Stockmyre kept a close eye on Mike.

Meanwhile, on Earth, High Command finally recognized the strange signal the Bog Star was emitting: the same radiation as the asteroid that begun this war. Initially this was thought to be residual energy, but this couldn't have been the case. Scientists realized that the energy came from within the asteroid rather than outside, and the Bog Star was emitting far too much for this to be residual. Suddenly, the Bog Star began glowing and emitting more energy, causing the 3rd Star Feet ships to break off in panic. There was a strange flash of light, and the Bog Star was suddenly gone.

On the ground, the battle continued to go well for the allies, as the fleet turned its attention to bombarding the Martian defenses on the island where the Space Elevator sat. Suddenly, a strange light was seen in the horizon, causing everyone who could see it to stop fighting and attempt to see what it was. Then, a flash of light swept across the area, and the Bog Star hovered in the distance. It began firing on the *Tanager* and its fleet with its large side cannons, destroying the vessels before they could fight back, while the IPF squadroms scrambled to respond.

### The Bog Star

> *"This ship has the means to end this war in a definitive and elegant manner. The human world, whose inhabitants were never meant to reach the stars, shall be stripped of their connection to the heavens and forced out of the void. This ship shall put an end to this war once and for all, condemning Earth to a permanent peace away from the glory of the Martian Empire"* ~Lt. Penkhan, from the command bridge of the Bog Star
>
>

After the Bog Star destroyed the IPF fleet, it began firing at Singapore and the Space Elevator's island to destroy allied forces on the ground. Several blasts caused massive damaged to the city, resulting in casualties to civilians, allied forces, and Martian warriors without care of accuracy. In desparation, the Sailor Scouts united their energy to form a barrier in hopes of protecting the city. The Kamen Riders and Rem Lazar joined them, amplifying their strength. The forces, allied and Martian, on the Space Elevator's island were all killed while the Space Elevator itself was protected by its armor and self-generating shield.

Erection ordered the IPF Squadron to attack the Bog Star, so that the other Revengeancers could have enough time to board the ship and stop Lt. Penkhan once and for all. Before Mobius One could lead the charge, however, he was suddenly attacked by Jonathan Stockmyre in an X-Alpha, a custom interceptor he had built himself and hidden in Singapore before the invasion. Mobious One and Stockmyre battled each other, forcing the other squadrons to attack the Bog Star on their own. Without Mobius leading them, the squadrons engaged independently and did not fly as aggressively as is typical.

As they headed to board the Bog Star's bridge in a Martian transport craft, the Revengeancers were ordered by Erection to focus on taking down Penkhan and that the IPF could destroy the ship itself once Penkhan was out. Meanwhile, the IPF fighters continued attacking the Bog Star, but their weapons could not penetrate the defenses of the 1.5 kilomer long ship and they were forced to withdraw and focus on evading for the moment. As the Revengeancer's transport headed to the bridge, avoiding anti-air fire along the way, 2T Fru-T realized the central gun of the Bog Star was charging, and relayed this information to Erection.

Mobius One turned to face the Bog Star, preparing to go down the barrel of the supermassive cannon and destroy it with the XFA-38's two cruise missles, but was surprised when Stockmyre flew in front of him and flew his own craft to the ship's cannon. The X-Alpha opened its underbelly railgun and fired multiple rounds into the cannon, causing minimal damage but creating an opening into the shield. Stockmyre flew his craft into the direction of the barrel, set it on autopilot, and ejected as the plane flew directly through the barrel. The X-Alpa flew down the cannon, before crashing into the laser generator at its base and causing the cannon to short out and stop charging. In addition, the shields of the Bog Star temporarily shorted out, allowing the IPF fighters to destroy a few of the turrets on the ship and the Revengeancers to safely cross where the shield would have blocked their path.

Using a grappling hook, Stockmyre hooked himself onto the ship being flown by 2T Fru-T, and climbed in through the side door. Do-Wah Diddy immediately put the shapeshifter in a chokehold, while B-Bop interrogated him as to his true intentions. At the same time, a badge on Stockmyre's chest lit up, and Penkhan's voice could be heard demandning an explanation. While 2T continued to fly the craft, Stockmyre explained the truth of the situation: for decades he had operated as a Martian double agent, who was operating under the guise of a drug dealer, but in truth he was actually a triple agent working for 30th Echelon, a secret military unit established by Agent John Kill to stop Mars from infiltrating Earth. When questioned as to why Agent Kill never informed his apprentice, B-Bop, about this, Stockmyre revealed that John Kill wiped his memory as soon as he gave Stockmyre his orders.

When asked about his various actions, Stockmyre explained the truth behind them all as well: He stopped Mobius One from attacking the *Black Olympus* in 2005 because Mike would have died aboard. He attacked Mobius One in France because he was aware of the Martian plan to destroy the *Albatross*, and knew that attacking Mobius One would cause the crew to become more cautious and alert so that their evacuation would go better. Finally, he attacked Mobius One just minutes ago because Mobius One would have either died colliding with the rail cannon or wasted his two cruise missiles destroying it. This cause Penkhan to go ballistic with rage, cursing both the Martians and Emperor Bog, who had sent him on a suicide mission all along.

After this, Erection chimed in an demanded Penkhan surrender and, in exchange, he and his soldiers would be treated humanely for the duration of the war. Instead, Penkhan began laughing madly, and ranting that the Bog Star would bring and end to the war and condemn Earth back to the stone age, causing Erection to order the IPF forces to continue the attack. Though the laser cannon aboard the Bog Star was destroyed, its power core remained active, and began charging rapidly. Immediately, 2T Fru-T realized that if it went critical, it could easily destroy Singapore and the Space Elevator, killing over 6.5 million in the city itself and millions across the world from the aftereffects of the Elevator's destruction.

### Battle with Penkhan

After realizing the full extent of Penkhan's madness, 2T Fru-T flew the transport vessel through the command bridge's window and full speed, hoping to kill Penkhan in the crash. The ship was damaged during the impact, and spun out across the inside of the bridge, the debris killing a few crewmembers on impact. Upon emerging from the vessel, the group realized Penkhan himself was not dead, and infact he seemed far stronger than the Martians remembered. Suddenly, Penkhan called out the name "Hydra" causing a monsterous entity compose of several serpents to emerge from behind him and begin attacking the group.

Meanwhile, Mobius One followed orders to attack the Bog Star's numerous engines to slow down the craft, but each engine required several salvos of missiles to destroy. Fearing that the ship's manueverabilty could interfere with the IPF's plan, Erection ordered Mobius One to use his cruise missiles to destroy the largest engines he could see. Stockmyre, however, requested that Mobius One keep at least one cruise missile to be used for an emergency. Though he had no reason to trust the shapeshifter, Mobius One decided to follow his advice and used only a single cruise missile, destroying one of the four superlarge engines at the Bog Star's rear.

On the bridge, Penkhan's hydra attacked viciously, using its heads to pursue each of the Revengeancers and prevent them from fighting back. What little damage they did do seemed to quickly regenerate, preventing them from doing damage over time. During the battle, Mike attempted to summon a demon from memory, but Hydra's largest head lunged for him, causing Stockmyre to push Mike out of the way and take the fatal blow for him. Mike, enraged by the loss of a potential Social Bond, summoned a demonic biker to unleash a barrage of flames on Hydra, causing the beast to be knocked back and stun Penkhan as a result.

Instinctively, Mike pointed a gun at Hydra and attempted to negotiate with it, before Shaboom Shaboom told him this wouldn't work, and instead Mike and the four Martians proceeded to all attack at once, destroying Hydra through their combined attacks. Penkhan immediately was thrown against the wall in pain, and began bleeding from the mouth due to his wounds. Upon defeating Penkhan, 2T Fru-T hacked into the bridge hoping to disable the core, but was unable to stop it, and instead settled for disabling its engines for the IPF.

Upon reporting back to Erection, the Supreme Commander ordered them all to evacuate within the next 30 seconds, as an IPF attack was incoming to destroy the Bog Star before it could go critical. B-Bop looked for Stockmyre's corpse, but was unable to find it. 2T Fru-T pointed out that Stockmyre must have accidentally shapeshifted into one of the Martians, making his remains unidentifiable, but Do-Wah believed he was alive. B-Bop, however, ordered the group to jump out of the bridge while Sailor Mars summoned a portal outside the window for them to escape out of.

Mike and the Martians jumped out, into the portal that led into the chaotic streets of Singapore, and looked back at the Bog Star. B-Bop counted down from the 11 seconds that remained, barely reaching zero before multiple bursts shot through the skies and impacted the Bog Star, exploding on impact and tearing parts of its hull apart. The Bog Star, however, was still partially active even after its core had shutdown from the overload of being hit by multiple SENTINEL batteries from across the world. Before anyone could panic, Mobius One flew towards the ship and fired his second cruise missle, which detonated near the core and caused a chain reaction which destroyed the ship.

### Aftermath

With the Bog Star destroyed, the remaining Martian forces panicked and surrendered, fled, or went on easily countered rampages. Mike, the Martians, and the dozens of summoned allies helped the IPF put down the remaining Martian forces quickly, while IPF fighters patrolled the Bog Star's crash site for signs of movement. Dozens of crewmembers were recovered from the Bog Star, but the rest of the crew numbering over 750 were killed upon the ship's destruction.

Once word of the Bog Star's destruction and Penkhan's death spread across Earth, Martian warriors immediately suffered from morale loss and disputes over the chain of command. Not helping matters was the rumor that Bog and his top lieutenants had left the Solar System, abandoning their loyal soldiers. Meanwhile, the VSDF arrived to Earth a few days after the battle, helping the 3rd Star Fleet secure orbital superiority and eliminate the few remaining Martian and mercenary ships in orbit.

On December 15th, Commander Heliat, who was leading the Martians occupying the Moon, surrendered to the Alliance after several days of negotiations. The space around Earth was now entirely Alliance controlled, and the ground war was now quickly favoring IPF forces who had already largely eliminated Martian resistance in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia.

Though the Bog Star's reactor was prevented from going fully critical, it still leaked radiation upon its destruction, most of which was blown away but some of which caused major health concerns in Singapore. The radiation was again confirmed to be similar to that of the asteroid the Bog Star was guarding only weeks ago, causing Erection to request the Venusian Intelligence Bureau to scout out the asteroid in question. Meanwhile, the Revengeancers took a break in Hawaii while waiting for the next Alliance strategy.

## The Gateway

Throughout mid-December, Venus conducted several recon missions to survey the asteroid being occupied by Martian forces, but found numerous obstacles which prevented their agents from doing so. A large fleet of small Martian ships, mainly corvettes, had taken up the duty of patrolling around multiple points that the VIB intended to use to infiltrate into the Martian perimeter. Occasionally a stealth shuttle would attempt to sneak through this web, but these were always countered by the corvettes' new electronic detection systems. The lack of progress caused some concern among the military leaders of the Alliance, while others wished to use this chance to stage a full invasion of Mars while it was busy guarding a seemingly meaningless site.

Aware that both the 3rd Star Fleet and Venus's two home fleets were becoming antsy while their comrades were directly fighting Martian fleets on the other side of the Solar System, often taking serious damage the home fleets wished to prevent, General Erection began planning with the VIB and the Division to organize a united plan in order to discover what Mars's intentions were with the asteroid they had seized so long ago. Deliberations lasted several days, with plans popping up and being shot down regularly. Ultimately, it was decided that a united fast assault on the site was the most practical option, if executed correctly. The corvettes patrolling were meant to pursue small vessels, not counter a dedicated battle group, and a direct attack could penetrate this barrier with ease.

### The Gateway Strategy

By December 22nd, all fleets participating in the Siege on Asteroid Delta-2024-04 were readied, and the Revengeancers were brought aboard the IPF Corvette *Jerusalem* along with a large unit of Task Force 118 special forces, in the event that they were needed to fight a ground battle. Two days before, the Venusian 3rd Armada split off from the Battlegroup Alpha, along with some ships from the IPF 2nd Fleet and the IPF *Helios*, to begin a series of fierce attacks on Martian targets throughout their space, mainly facilities around Jupiter serving as supply depots for Martian ships. This succeeded in allowing the other part of Battlegroup Alpha, now led by the IPF *Garuda*, to prepare to join in the assault on Delta-2024-04.

However, it soon became clear that the Martian Navy was not going to easily buy into bluffs, and very few of Mars's large ships left the area of the asteroid, as quickly noted by Venusian spies monitoring which ships left and entered the network of Martian defenses around the area. As a result, the Alliance prepared to commit itself to the largest battle in the war so far, and most likely the battle that would decide who won the war as a result. Battlegroup Alpha would approach from the Martian side of the Asteroid Belt, while the IPF 3rd Star Fleet and the VSDF's 1st and 2nd Armadas would form Battlegroup Beta to launch an attack from Earth's side.

On the *Jerusalem*, the Revengeancers prepared for the possibility of battling many Martian warriors, possibly even Emperor Bog himself, however they were informed that Electrocutioner was fortunately still on Mars, and would not possibly be there to fight them. B-Bop, 2T, and Do-Wah were still somewhat conflicted over the high probability that they would need to fight, and perhaps even kill, their once friend who had become a genocidal tyrant after decades of corruption. Shaboom Shaboom had little love for Bog, as he had ordered her family's death many years ago after her parents attempted to start a peaceful revolution against the Emperor. Only Shaboom and her father managed to escape Mars, and the two were separated for years until Mike managed to reunite them. Mike himself dozed off for the majority of the trip.

While Mike slept, however, he dreamed of a womanly spirit who told him to prepare for things to come, and that she would protect him through this time of crisis. Mike asked who she was, to which she giggled and answered "Aurora", before telling him that wasn't her true name. She then informed the young man that, at the end of his journey, she would reveal to him the truth of all this, but she could not do so now while her power was weak. After bidding Mike farewell, Aurora faded away and allowed the man to continue resting.

### Battle for the Gateway

On December 24th, both Alliance Battlegroups, arriving from opposing sides of the Martian defense network, began their final pincer attack on the asteroid. At first, the Martian corvettes presented no threat to the combined forces of the Alliance, allowing both fleets to push through, and the *Garuda* to deploy a stealth recon drone to scout out ahead for the Alliance. 94 minutes later, it returned, revealing that the strength of the Martian fleet was massive, enough to easily destroy either Battlegroup if they were attacking alone, and enough so to challenge both at once and stand a possibility of winning.

However, it also returned with something else astonishing: information on the asteroid. More specifically, the asteroid was no longer there, as it had apparently been destroyed by Martian forces to reveal that a massive construct lied in the center, emitting the same energy as the Bog Star but to an even greater extent. Though the Alliance leaders were not completely sure of the construct's use, they decided that it was too dangerous to be left in Martian hands, and began their pincer assault.

A few hours later, chaos ruled the space around the construct, which had been analyzed by Venusian scientists to be a Wormhole Gateway, a hypothetical supermassive device alowing instant transportation between two areas of space, no matter how far apart they are in the universe. Upon understanding this realization, General Erection formulated an emergency strategy to deal with the sudden turn of events. The battle between Alliance and Martian fleets was fairly even, and could last either a few hours or an entire day depending on how tactics changed or what reinforcements could arrive for either side.

Though they did not know what lie on the other side, the Alliance deemed whatever it was to be of vital importance to the Martian war effort, given how the Empire had sacrificed dozens of what could have been easy victories to protect it. Additionally, B-Bop believed that Emperor Bog's disappearance was because he and his inner circle had gone through the gateway, and that they needed to follow him in order to stop his plans.

With all this in play, General Erection ordered Battlegroup Alpha to launch a saturation attack with its fighters and bombers to disrupt the ships defending the gateway entrance, allowing the *Jerusalem* and two Venusian destroyers to take advantage of the chaos in enter through the gateway. The battle was intense, and cost dozens of fighter pilots their lives, but the strategy punched a hole through the corvettes defending a section of the gateway, and the three Alliance vessels pushed through while dodging intense fire with the Revengeancers in tow.

### Arrival

Upon exiting the gateway, the three vessels immediately moved to observe their location. The small fleet was in a foreign star system, containing nine planets, eight of which were barren. However, one of them, the fifth from the system's star, was unlike anything they'd ever seen. The entire planet seemed to be populated and alive, and much of it covered in cities and metropolitan areas. However after a survey drone from the *Jerusalem* returned with information, it revealed that the planet was actually largely barren, with no inhabitants other than parts of the Martian Army that seemed to be occupying the world.

At the moment, no other ships, Martian or Alliance, followed them through the gateway, but the *Jerusalem*'s captain worried this would change soon, and set off for the fifth world, named "Fifth Jerusalem" for the time being after the ship and its place in the system. Meanwhile, both fleets continued to battle for the gateway, costing thousands of lives on both sides, with no clear winner in sight for the moment. After approaching the planet, the three ships prepared to land on Fifth Jerusalem

## Fifth Jerusalem

Upon entering the atmosphere of Fifth Jerusalem, the Alliance ships were beset upon by a squadron of Martian interceptors, causing them to return fire with their point defenses. In order to avoid being distracted, the two Venusian corvettes agressively engaged the fighters, directly placing themselves in their predicted paths, while the *Jerusalem* descended to the surface with the Revengeancers and Task Force 118 operators preparing to drop into combat. The Venusian's plasma blasters proved deadly against the Martian interceptors, forcing them to engage from further away and limit their attacks to avoid being shot down.

The *Jerusalem* was hit multiple times by Martian anti-air batteries, but survived the main blows thanks to their shields during the approach. Once in dropping range, the Venusian corvettes moved in to provide cover while Task Force 118 and the Revengeancers dropped into the city below, aiming to land near the large pyramid seemingly being used as the Martian base. The *Jerusalem* released a dozen drones to strike Martian positions, destroying a few tanks and concentrations of Martian soldier below to allow the allied soldiers to arrive without being gunned down during the drop.

### The Battle for Fifth Jerusalem begins

Once the operators touched ground, they immediately deployed automatic support drones which flew around the largely empty city, providing information on Martian movements and scouting ahead for threats. After pinpoiting the exact location of some Martian batteries, the *Jerusalem* fired a volley of missiles, which homed in on the sites and destroyed or disabled them. After this, the Venusian corvettes came close to the city and dropped in dozens of VSDF special forces to aid the IPF soldiers on the ground. Together, the two groups coordinated to target vital Martian facilities in the confusion.

Meanwhile, the Revengeancers themselves landed in what seemed to be a large city center, where they used a destroyed Martian tank to take cover before beginning their attack. As they were surrounded, Mike summoned Dionysus to use Thermopolyae, boosting the entire team's fighting ability. Rem flew up into the sky, cloaked in lightning, drawing the Martians' fire while the other team members advanced. Multiple times, Do-Wah tried to convinced the Martian soldiers to stand down and surrender so they could live, but the soldiers seemed almost mindless in their fighting, not reacting to anything other than attempting to kill the team. At the time, B-Bop simply assumed this was due to their intense loyalty to the Martian cause.

After securing the area for the moment, the Revengeancers moved ahead across the bridge that led to the pyramid, but were suddenly stopped as Fleaboid arrived in front of them. The alien warrior told the group that he would stop them from interfering with Bog's crusade, prompting Rem to using lightning to attack the beastly alien. Before it could land, however, the blast was intercepted by a ghastly swordsman, before it faded into aetherial energy. Fleaboid explained to the group that this entity, Morbus, was his Vanguard Spirit, sworn to protect him and lend him power so long as he followed Bog.

The party attacked Fleaboid and Morbus, but their attacks were intercepted again and again by the frighteningly fast spirit. During the battle, Mike and B-Bop were knocked back, while Fleaboid was focused on fighting the remaining members. B-Bop tried to discuss a plan with Mike, before the world suddenly slowed to a crawl around them. Suddenly, Aurora reappeared, now visible to B-Bop as well. She introduced herself to the Martian, and offered them the strength to break through this dark fate if they desired.

### Awakenings

Suddenly, two more entities appeared, a young archer in front of B-Bop and a shadow in front of Mike. The shadow informed the young man that, at the moment, he could not wield his true power, but could lead the way for the rest of his team. The two accepted, and became suddenly filled with power as time resumed its normal pace. Instinctively, B-Bop called out the name of Apollo, and the aethereal archer appeared behind him. Opon realizing this, Fleaboid sent out Morbus to attack him, but his attack was intercepted by Mike's Dionysus.

While stunned, B-Bop used Apollo to launch a hail of arrows at Morbus, knocking him down, and causing the same damage to be inflicted on Fleaboid, much to the alien's shock. While he was down, the group again attacked all at once, striking Fleaboid while he was down. However, Fleaboid managed to barely survive, and released poison gas on the remaining fighters. Rem and 2T were hurt, forcing Do-Wah and B-Bop to heal them while Mike used his M1911A1 to once more knock down Fleaboid.

Mike prepared to give the order to strike as a group, before time slowed down once more, and the shadow appeared in front of him again. The shadow informed him that, even though he could not yet fight with Mike, he could lend the man some of his power. He informed Mike that he was a Thief of Fate, one who can take a doomed destiny and turn it into a future of his choosing. As Mike embodied the soul of a Thief of Fate, the young man could steal other things as well, the shadow added before fading away.

Suddenly, Mike halted the attack, and grabbed Morbus with Dionysus, before draining the Vanguard Spirit of its power. Suddenly, Fleaboid's entire demeanor changed into one of confusion, before asking where he was. However, the alien was still drained from the fight even though he had lost memory of it, and fainted upon standing up. B-Bop asked what this meant, before Mike explained he wasn't really sure either. After taking a moment to recover, the team continued onward to the pyramid.

### Entering the Palace

Upon entering the pyramid's entrance, they found it offputtingly lifeless, devoid of any Martian soldiers, the only movement coming from the strange advanced drones that flew throughout the facility, seemingly attending to matters the group couldn't comprehend. The group prepared to ascend up a large elevator, before they scattered to dodge a large fireball launched at them. As the smoke cleared, Gorgon suddenly emerged, using the group's surprise to attack B-Bop with a monsterous Vanguard Spirit, knocking the Martian leader unconcious.

Rem attacked the entity with his own electric blasts, while Mike used several of the demons in his personal collection to counterattack against the entity, which Gorgon announced as being named Orcus. The being absorbed almost all the attacks the grouped throwed at it, and resisted the ones it didn't absorb. Rem attempted to punch Gorgon directly, but was flung against the wall by Orcus's tail. As he recovered, the world slowed around him, and a ethereal man cloaked in white with flowers flowing around him appeared in front of Rem.

The entity offered Rem the power to call upon the hidden truths of this world and break through this battle, but warned him that some truths will cost too much for Rem to uncover. Rem accepted his offer, and time resumed as the superhero called out the name Hypnos. The Vangaurd Spirit appeared behind him, using its energy to revitalize the group and bring B-Bop back into the battle. Gorgon prepared to block an incoming attack, but instead Hypnos focused on Orcus for a moment before shining a light upon the beast.

After the initial spectacle, Rem informed the group that Orcus was vulnerable to Dark attacks, which Mike had lacked, causing the young man to panic and fuse Damned Daniel using Dionysus and Beelzebub. Mike then used Damned Daniel to launch a volley of cursed attacks at the beast, knocking down it and Gorgon. The group attacked at once, weakening but not critically injuring the alien. Mike requested Rem use Hypnos against Orcus, but was informed the Spirit did not directly attack.

Instead, Hypnos fortified the group's critical chance, after which Mike shot Orcus several times with the gun, to which Orcus resisted seven times before the eigth shot knocked down the warrior, causing the group to attack again. Orcus unleashed a volley of physical attacks, knocking down B-Bop again and nearly doing the same to Mike before Shaboom pushed him out of the way. After this, Mike used Damned Daniel to knock down Gorgon a final time.

After this, Mike sent out Damned Daniel to steal Orcus, draining Gorgon of his power and leaving him on the ground, faint from the battle. Hypnos refreshed the group's status, after which B-Bop questioned how the Spirit was able to uncover Orcus's weakness. Rem informed him that Hypnos intensifies Rem's dream powers, allowing him to enter the thoughts of his enemies and detect energies years after they were left behind. However, Rem informed him that something about this place blocked his ability to sense latent memories, and advised the group to continue on as fast as possible. B-Bop agreed, and they used the elevator to begin climbing to the top of the pyramid.

### The Battle Continues

Meanwhile, outside the palace, the allied forces had taken up positions to prevent Martian forces from regaining control of the local area, aided by support from the ships above by way of air strikes and combat information, but struggled to defend themselves and prevent Martians from charging the pyramid at the same time. Unbeknownst to the ground forces, the battle for the gateway in the Solar System had intensified, and there was still no clear winner.

During the battle, a dozen of Martian ships, mainly destroyers and corvettes, went into the gateway around an hour after the *Jerusalem* itself had gone it, and the Alliance responded by launching a direct assault through the Martian line to send in an IPF battleship and three VSDF cruisers. This tug of war over who could sent in a few more reinforcements through continued, and eventually the *Jerusalem*'s drones detected that over 40 ships were fighting outside of the gateway, not far away from Fifth Jerusalem itself.

While the threat of attack from Martian ships endangered the mission of the *Jerusalem*, it did allow the VSDF to send into dozens of marines to reinforce some allied forces on the ground. The battle soon began to circulate on news media across the solar system, its sheer brutality shocking many on Earth, Venus, and even some on Mars. Mysteriously, the Martian people who had largely supported war now seemed to be more divided, as if something had stopped them from thinking a certain way.

Outside The Remembrancer's mansion, a group of Martians suddenly organized and began protesting against the government, mainly its recent draft to support the war effort and the authoritarian measures placed on its people. Martian security forces outside forced the protestors to disperse by force, though they themselves began to wonder why their Emperor had left the planet with no explanation.

### Within the Palace

Upon leaving the elevator, the group proceeded down a hallway attempting to find their way to the top, before being confronted by two paths in either direction. After deliberating on which path to follow, it was decided for Mike and Do-Wah Diddy to go left while B-Bop A-Luna and Shaboom Shaboom went right. Rem elected to stay behind and use Hypnos to provide support for them while 2T Fru-T elected to stay behind to defend him.

Both paths proved to be quite long, each taking over ten minutes of continuous walking before either found anything. Eventually, B-Bop and Shaboom found what seemed to be a computer room of some sort, while Mike and Do-Wah had yet to make any notable progress. 2T Fru-T prepared to venture forth to aid in attempting to decode the computer the group had found, before Rem suddenly detected the thoughts of a new presence near Mike and Do-Wah.

With this warning, Mike barely managed to push Do-Wah out of the way of an incoming attack, like some sort of poisonous slime. Unfortunately, however, some of the slime managed to hit Mike, causing the young man to feel his flesh being burned and rapidly infected. From the shadows, Dr. Disrespect emerged, still in his disguise after his identity as Dr. Damage was discarded, with a black blob trailing behind him. He announced that he'd come here on Bog's orders, but still fully intended to kill the Emperor and take his place. Though they shared a common enemy, Do-Wah had no love for Damage's sociopathic actions and Damage himself craved revenge for the Martians making Bog too paranoid to assassinate.

Upon realizing the attack, 2T Fru-T departed from Rem's side, sprinting down the left corridor at high speed in hopes of aiding his friends before they were killed, while Shaboom and B-Bop decided to rush as well, but knew that they might come too late to help. Meanwhile, Mike summoned a Mothman to attack Damage, to which Damage countered by calling his spirit, Phobos, to absorb the attack. Damage then rushed and kicked Mike in the ribs, knocking him away and breaking multiple bones on contact. Do-Wah attempted to attack Damage with his katana, but Phobos swatted him away so that the alien could continue attacking Mike.

Do-Wah attempted to rise up, but found himself deeply injured, while Mike suffered from both broken bones and Phobos's posion attack. Suddenly, time seemed to stop, and a womanly warrior wielding shield and spear floated down in front of him. The spirit offered Do-Wah the ability to turn the tide of this battle, and many more, and to save those he placed his loyalty in. Unflinchingly, Do-Wah accepted the offer, and stood up once more as time resumed.

Damage, immediately sensing new power, rushed to finish off Mike then deal with Do-Wah, but suddenly Mike found his injuries healed and his ailment nullified. Revitalized, Mike managed to just barely dodge another attack from Phobos, while Damage looked back to Do-Wah. Believing his new spirit to be a simple healer, Damage rushed to attack him before Do-Wah called for the support of Minerva, who lept forth and knocked away Damage. The alien recoiled for a second, before analyzing his situation.

Before either party could attack, 2T Fru-T arrived to assist, attacking Damage with his plasma revolver, which Damage himself narrowly dodged while Phobos shot poisonous muck at 2T. In his shock, Do-Wah rushed to aid 2T, forgetting he himself had yet to heal, causing him to stumble and open himself up from an attack by Phobos, knocking him out by blunt force. Mike rushed in to strike Damage, but the alien rolled away to avoid the attack. For the moment, Damage and Mike fought alone, allowing Damage to focus on a single target.

Meanwhile, B-Bop and Shaboom had neared the halfway point of their corridor, they were immediately attacked by the attack of an ethereal cavalier, upon which Jax ο Πορθητής rode before leaping off to face the two. B-Bop's Apollo was unable to track the quick movements of Jax and his entity, who introduced himself as Cratos. Shaboom, using her skills, managed to avoid the blows sent her way by the two, while B-Bop was caught off guard and knocked against the wall.

Separated by corridors, Mike and Damage continued to battle, with Mike's attacks unable to connect while he was distracted by trying to cure 2T's poisoning, but was unable to do so without opening himself up to attack. During this, Mike devised a strategy while Do-Wah was still recovering, and began taunting Damage, causing the hostile martian to attack even more ferociously. Upon analyzing the situation, Do-Wah began to realize the greater strategy and used the opportunity to heal 2T while Damage was enraged. Along the way, Damage continued to use Phobos to boost his attack power more and more while Mike continued to dodge and taunt him.

Meanwhile, as Shaboom continued to fight Jax, she managed to land several blows on the alien warlord and his Spirit, but was unable to scratch his anti-Martian armor, and was ultimately parried by Cratos, and struggled to get back up. Time slowed down (i promise this is the last time i think), and Shaboom suddenly is confronted by a crystaline spirit, offering her the ability to freeze her enemies in fear so that she can strike them down and secure victory from the jaws of defeat. Shaboom accepts, summoning the power of Diana, and retaliating against Cratos with a blast of several dozen of ice shards.

After recovering from his own damage, B-Bop once more stood up, allowing himself and Shaboom to work together and each focus on Cratos and Jax himself, respectively. Cratos, despite its speed, was unable to dodge the flurry of arrows coming its way, while Diana cut through Jax's armor with a constant barrage of ice attacks. During the battle, Apollo scored a critical hit on Jax, and the two attacked at once, destroying the weakened Cratos and killing Jax himself as a result. Though unintended, the pair didn't mind Jax's death for his past war crimes against Martiankind, and left to regroup.

Meanwhile, Damage's attack power had reached his maximum, but Mike continued to dodge, until he eventually landed in between Damage and Do-Wah Diddy. Instead of dodging, Mike used this chance to call upon Damned Daniel and increase the critical chance of everyone present. Damage took this chance to launch a killing blow against Mike, seeking to cut straight through the young man and kill him instantly. However, as soon as Phobos's blow hit, it was immediately reflected onto Damage himself, blowing him across the hall and knocking him down.

Unbeknownst to Damage, as he was too busy attacking, Do-Wah had used the opporotunity to fortify Mike with Physical Reflection using Minerva, and Damage's supercharged critical hit nearly killed the deranged martian. With this out of the way, Mike prepared to absorbe Phobos, before realizing it was gone. Mike looked behind him, where Phobos was preparing to spew poison Muck on Do-Wah and kill the Martian, before it was suddenly shot by the now-awake 2T Fru-T with an M1911A1.

Upon realizing that he had no way to defend himself, Damage immediately began pleading for his life, saying he would serve Mike and the Butt-Uglies and help them overthrow Bog so they could rule Mars, to which Mike replied he didn't really want to rule Mars. After this, Damage then offered all his money and rare items, before Mike revealed he already had maximum amounts of everything he offered. Finally, he pleaded that he be allowed to leave because Mike was a hero, so he shouldn't kill a defenseless person. Mike replied that he didn't really care, and proceeded to summon Damned Daniel before using the legendary Seven Page Nae Nae, which caused Damage to die from the repeated Naeing. Due to Damned Daniel's ability to make attacks last longer in the perception of its victims due to its passive cringe amp, this seemed to take seven years to kill Damage from his perspective, even though in real time it only lasted thirty seconds.

After both groups finished their battles, the ended up again meeting where they had originally split up, with no real progress yet. With this finished, the group continued as a whole to the computer room down the right corridor, wherein 2T Fru-T hacked into the alien computer network to discover the pyramid's layout. After this, 2T used the computer to open up the hidden entrance to the side of the computer, where the group again ascended up to the pyramid, now seemingly nearing its apex.

### Ascension

A few minutes later, the group arrived in a large chamber, where across it was an entrance that lead to the entrance to the pyramid's top chamber, where they expected to find Emperor Bog, and hoped to force him to end the war, or at least reveal why this planet was so important to him. With this, the group began running across the bridge, before Mike stopped halfway, causing the other to do the same.

Mike looked up to a shadowy ledge, confusing the others, until Ben-Gucci emerged from the darkness, M1911A2 in hand. Ben then commended Mike for his skils of observation as he jumped several meters down before landing in front of the group, before informing them that he couldn't allow the group to leave this room alive. B-Bop asked Gucci to put aside his revenge against Mike, and allow the group to stop Bog and save Earth, and that the two could settle their differences afterwards. Gucci cut the Martian off, enraging, telling the group that he had aspirations of his own before Mike killed his original form, and that they didn't deserve any better.

Rem attempted to appeal to Gucci while using Hypnos to uncover his true feelings, causing Gucci to lash out with a spirit of his own, a large venomous snake with wings that hissed at the group. Rem dodged the blow, narrowly, while Gucci began to become even more enraged. Mike began to apologize for killing Ben-Tucci al those years ago, before Gucci then attacked to prevent him from saying any more, only wanting to satisfy his lust for revenge. Gucci began to cackle, shouting how he would slaughter Mike and his friends, before summoning his Quetzalcoatl once more and beginning battle.

With the battle begun, Rem tactically rolled away while 2T Fru-T shot at Gucci from the sidelines. Meanwhile, Mike, B-Bop, Shaboom, and Do-Wah moved in to attack. Outside the pyramid, the allied forces had suffered heavy damage on the ground, but were too close to the enemy for the Alliance ships above to provide close air support. Facing annihilation, the allies temporarily drew back and began to regroup, causing the Martian warriors to begin marching into the building. Alliance fighters strafed the Martians below, hoping to disperse them, but many still managed to break through.

As the fight drew on, Shaboom and Do-Wah were eventually felled by Quetzalcoatl's fierce wind and bless attacks, while B-Bop was repeatedly countered with Gucci's katana. Fearing his friend's might be slain if he did not act quickly, Mike drew his M1911A1 to attempt to shoot Gucci's sword out of his hands. However, Gucci had lightning fast reactions, and quickdrew his own GUN to shoot Mike with, who in turn moved to block it with his own GUN. Mike's bullet hit Gucci's hands, sending his GUN flying across the void. At the same moment, Gucci's bullet knocked Mike's GUN away, but then recoiled to hit Gucci's gun, leaving both fighter's weaponless.

While Gucci was dazed, Mike summoned Lucifer to attack him with a blast from the sky, knocking Gucci out but expending the majority of Mike's stamina. Gucci, defeated, began raving at the group, demanding answers for why Mike had killed his old self decades ago, howling that he could not fulfill his true purpose to kill Mike. Mike then finally explained that, all those years ago, he felt compelled to kill Tucci, but regretted it as if he was controlled by another force from beyond. Mike then apologized, offering to take in Gucci as an ally to defeat Emperor Bog together, so that they could then search across the solar system to find the truth.

Gucci was shocked by the sincere apology from Mike, and for a few moments seemed to genuinely consider Mike's offer. However, before any further conversation could take place, Martian warriors burst in and began attacking the group. Mike and the Revengeancers prepared to fight back, but suddenly Gucci jumped between the two groups and began driving back the warriors through the door they came in. Mike began to rush to aid his former enemy, before Gucci then yelled at him to find the truth before destroying the door's control panel, locking in himself and the Martian warriors.

Mike wished to go back and save Gucci, hearing the vicious fighting outside, but B-Bop convinced him that they would only be killed while Bog continued his plans, and the group continued onward. With this, the group marched onward to the stairway at the end of the chamber, where before them a large door separated them from the end of their journey. Rem healed the remaining wounds of the group, before they marched onward.

## The Final Battle

With all the group readied and fully healed, they marched on through the large door leading to where they hoped to find Bog. At first they found a stairway that went on for over a minute until they reached the top, where Bog himself was sat on a floating, crystal-like throne in the middle of a large darkened room with a triangular ceiling. B-Bop was the first to speak, telling Bog that he could still redeem himself by calling a truce and attempting to end the war before anyone else died. Bog quickly cut him off, however, stating that he had already won: he fulfilled the Prophecy of Olympia.

The group was confused, not familiar with anything called Olympia, in response to which Bog tapped a button on his chair, and the roof above them opened up, collapsing and revealing the open sky around them. A dozen flying robots surrounded them, and began filming the group, broadcasting the confrontation to the Solar System. Bog explained what had led him to disappear for years, before reemerging reborn and establishing a new era of his time as Emperor. After the Butt-Uglies attempted to assassinate him, he locked himself away in his private room and was inconsalable at the betrayal for several days. Soon, Bog was nearly starved and prepared to accept death, when a heavenly warrior appeared before him: Bog saw Mars, God of War, the legendary creator of Mars.

Mars explained that Bog's trials had made him ready to lead the Martian people into their destiny as rightful rulers of the universe, and his only remaining trial was that of finding the ancient homeland all Martians, Venusians, and Humans are descended from: the realm of Olympia, or the Jerusalem system as it was codenamed for the moment. With the arrival of the Martian Empire onto Olympia, Bog became blessed with the power of Mars, which he would use to takeover the Solar System and the Jerusalem System, reforming them into Neo-Olympia.

As he finished speaking, Bog extended his arms into the sky, calling upon Mars, who materialized behind him, sword in hand. The Spirit's aura was powerful, its very presense easily felt by the Revengeancers from several feet away. Across the Solar System, the spirit was seen by millions on Mars, Earth, Venus, and various other planets and moons. The Martians on their planet were awestruck, the intimidating figure causing them to stop protesting and rioting and kneel before whatever screen showed them the legendary figure.

2T Fru-T stepped forward, telling Bog that he wasn't thinking straight. He attempted to convince him that Mars was manipulating his former friend, and driving him even further to insanity, but Bog had no interest in listening. Upon considering 2T's words, Do-Wah Diddy asked Bog how long he's revered Mars, to which Bog seemed puzzled and admitted he began dabbling in Mars worship shortly after the group first left Mars and appointed him King of half of the Martian population, and only fully converted after the group's betrayal. Do-Wah considered his words for a moment, and attempted to explain that Mars was in fact a malevolent spirit rather than a God, and had been manipulating Bog's thoughts and turning him more towards tyranny over time. The other Martians agreed, using the fact that Bog turned from a benign ruler into a dictator after he first thought about Mars Worship.

Instead of convincing him to stand down, however, this enraged Bog, and he yelled at Do-Wah to silence himself, for he spoke blasphemy against the very soul of the Martian people. However, on Mars, some Martians began to doubt once more upon hearing this explanation, while others still held fast to Bog and the God of War. Riots between factions began, causing chaos across Mars. Bog declared that the Butt-Uglies' betrayal would end now, and he would use Mars to bring eternal peace and order to all life. Mike, brining forth Lucifer, declared that he wouldn't allow Bog to steal the Earth's future, or anyone else's. For a brief moment, Aurora appeared before Mike, congratulating him on finally reaching the turning point of his adventure and becoming a true Thief of Fate. She then vanished, and time resumed with no one the wiser.

Mars charged in to strike Mike's Lucifer, but was intercepted by a blow from Minerva, as Do-Wah declared that no false god would prevent them from saving Mars from the grips of Bog's tyranny any longer, while Shaboom and B-Bop summoned their own spirits. Rem focused the group's energy from the sideline, while 2T still lacked a Spirit but nonetheless stood ready to defend his friends until the end, katana in hand. As millions watched from across the Solar System, the final battle for Fifth Jerusalem began.

### Bog and Mars

After striking Minerva's spear, Mars stepped backward, unphased by the interruption, and turned to Do-Wah Diddy, who summoned a physical shield to defend himself with, while Apollo pelted Mars with dozens of aetherial arrows to seemingly no effect. Shaboom Shaboom used Diana to rain down a blizzard on Mars, but the godlike entity continued to resist the group's attacks. Mars rushed suddenly to Do-Wah, who prepared to tank the blow with his shield, but was instead struck by a wave of cursed arrows, knocking him across the floor and nearly killing him then and there. Taken aback by this attack, Mike quickly summoned Metatron, using his spirit to heal Do-Wah's wounds.

Bog and Mars charged once more, aiming to strike Mike while he was vulnerable, but he was stopped when 2T Fru-T took the Emperor by surprise and fought him one-on-one for a few seconds, engaging him in a sword fight. As a result, Mars was stopped just long enough for Apollo to shoot a trio of arrows directly at Mars, striking the Spirit's neck. Immediately, the damaged was returned, but Bog was in a berserker rage and ignored this long enough to strike 2T with his blade, causing him to roll away to avoid a fatal blow.

While Bog aimed to find his next target, Mike called forth Odin, who brought down a thunderstorm above the battle, striking Mars with dozens of bolts of lightning, forcing it to block the electric bolts with its sword. With this chance, Shaboom Shaboom sent forth Diana to strike a blow with its diamond sword, hitting Mars right in its torso. Though the worst of the blow was resisted by Mars's armor, it still hit hard enough that Bog recoiled slightly from the strike's effects on him, but he still stood.

Do-Wah rushed once more, lunging Minerva's spear at Mars while he brought out his own combat knight to fight Bog with, resulting in a paralell battle betwen Spirit and Spirit User. Mike then called forth Anubis, and attempt to bring down a rain of holy strikes against Mars, assuming it was the spirit's weakness, but the blows of light had no effect. Rem continued to use Hypnos to probe Bog's minds for weakness, but could not find anything in the chaos of battle.

Though Minerva had great strength, Mars ultimately held truly unmatched power, and every blow the two Spirits matched seemed to push Do-Wah back little by little. During this time, B-Bop called for Apollo to fortify the group's speed, giving Do-Wah an edge in agility that he used to allow Minerva to dodge Mars's strongest attacks. Once more Mike called forth another demon, Surt, who held into the sky his flaming sword and called down an inferno onto Mars. Do-Wah moved away so that Mike did not need to hold back, and a beam of pure heat struck from the sky, covering Mars in flames.

After the flames disapated, Mars stood once more, barely damaged from the blast. Bog spoke for the first time since the battle began, proclaiming that Mars was the strength and will of the Martian people. So long as Martians yearned for a strong, almighty ruler to provie them with an orderly existence, Mars could not be matched. Bog summoned forth a storm of hellish blades upon the group, striking all the party and their spirits. Mars stood still, having barely exerted itself the whole time. Millions on Earth and Venus began to lose hope, seeing their greatest heroes be defeated by a god while their fleets in space began to become disorganized by overwhelming Martian numbers.

Mike stood up, still heavily wounded and bleeding, barely managing the willpower to summon Damned Daniel one last tiime to unleash its full power on Mars, but its attack was blocked with ease by Mars. Bog proclaimed the he, here and now, had reclaimed the existence of Olympia and would take his rightful place as ruler of the entire universe. It seemed all hope was lost, but even so Do-Wah force himself upright, and stared Bog in his eyes while his blood dripped on the floor. Do-Wah proclaimed that Mars was a being of fear, fear that led him to accept domination by Mars and fear that he wanted to inflict on his subjects. Do-Wah continued, stating that he and his friends were guided by beings of hope, the hope to protected each other and end this war, and that the hope of everyone in the Solar System would triumph over him.

Bog admired Do-Wah's persistence, but ultimately stated plainly that their hope had brought them only to their deaths, and that when he ruled the universe neither fear or hope or any other emotion would be needed, only the orderly existence he provided. However, Mike once more forced himself up, and stated that he wouldn't let fate be ruled by fear, and he would use the power within him to steal away the Fate that Mars sought to condemn the universe to.

### Fate

Despite Do-Wah and Mike's words, people across Earth still were wracked by fear, seeming hopeless. In Singapore, thousands stared up at a towering screen broadcasting this battle, and all seemed paralyzed by doubt. Thousands of men, women, and children stood silent, only being able to look at their destiny in front of them. However, the silence was suddenly broken when a lone man began to cheer on Mike, telling him loudly to fight on and save the world. Thousands around looked at the man, MC Ride, who held up his fist in hopes of inspiring the crowd. However, those around him still remained in fear. Upon seeing this, Ride began shouting at the people around him, telling them that the Revengeancers had risked their lives over and over again to save Earth when it seemed Mars would take the planet over, but still the crowd was silent.

Ride fell to his knees, begging those around him to lend Mike their hopes so that he could change fate, but it seemed hopeless. Just as Ride fell silent, a voice rang out once more, cheering on Mike. He attempted to see who it was, but another voice began to cheer, then several more. This echoed, dozens, then hundreds began cheering their hopes for the future, and Ride stood once more, looking to the screen and shouting for Mike to use their hopes to win. A man spoke to Ride from behind, saying that he was supporting Mike too, causing Ride to turn around. He saw a well-dressed man, the name on his uniform reading "Erection", who told him that he always knew the Revengeancers could save the world. Ride agreed, saying that they probably weren't the only two that thought that way.

Several of Mike's and the Butt-Uglies' friends still in Singapore and beyond lent the group their own words of hope and encouragement, strengthening Mike's power.

(A list of each Social Bond's encouragement follows, assuming Mike achieves the Golden Ending by completing all of them.)

* *"You've all supported me for years, encouraged me to keep dreaming and helping people. I know you all can save the world, because I've seen you do it before! Don't give up!"* ~Cedric
* *"I taught you to summon demons because I knew you had a great destiny before you, so don't stop now that you're finally at the turning point of fate!"* ~Sailor Mars
* *"The spirits that haunt this world can only be put to rest when we move past the sins of the past. You taught me this is possible, and now you can make a better future so all our spirits can rest peacefully. Your journey is finally truly beginning"* ~Jibolba (ghost), only on true ending
* *"If it wasn't for all of you, I would've been crushed by despair and/or several tons of concrete! I know you can stop the future from being crushed by despair too, so what are you waiting for?"* ~Angela
* *"Snarl"* ~Snarl
* *"Keep flying forward, never look back. You taught me that, so I know you've already got what you need to win this battle. Don't let us down."* ~Mobius One
* *"I once thought fate was a prison, and my fate was to find revenge, but you showed me that fate can change! I know you'll never lose as long as you remember that!"* ~Hazel Middleton
* *"Despair can seem inevitable and destiny always look unstoppable, but keep on dodging and you'll make it through. I know you all really are true heroes, and I'm sorry I ever thought different."* ~Seinfeld (ghost)
* *"The mission isn't over yet, team. It's time you save this world, I have the utmost confidence that's what you'll do."* ~Agent John Kill (ghost)
* *"nice"* ~Barry B Benson
* *"You guys can't die yet! Animals within a Food Processor just released their newest album and you gotta hear it!"* ~Rabbit
* *"You set me up a blind date with my wife, so now you just have to set up a blind date with saving everyone! Does that make any sense?"* ~Bob
* *"I hate to admit it, but your teamwork really is superior at the end of the day. Just wipe that smug grin off Bog's face and get things over with!"* ~Dr. Disrespect (ghost)
* *"You helped me become champion of the Digital Tournament, so I know you can win a Spirit Tournament if you try! If there's not a trophy for that, I'll make you one myself when you come back, okay?"* ~Ken Ichijouji
* *"Pawgchamp. lol get it?"* ~Rinko
* *"Woof bark bark"* ~DOG

With the encouragement from Mike's and the Butt-Uglies's many friends, the whole of Singapore soon begins cheering on the Revengeancers. The broadcast of the crowd is soon spread across Earth, resulting in millions of people cheering for Mike and his friends, and this too soon spread to Venus and even parts of Mars, reaching Martians who are tired of war and oppression. With the hopes of billions behind him, Mike is renewed and feels an energy like none other seep into him. Immediately, he feels that no summon, spirit, or demon is beyond his control. Mike reachers into his pocket, pulling out his wallet and finding something he just now has remembered.

### Truth's Fusion

Mike pulls a slip of paper from his wallet, a fusion recipe that Piko Taro gave him long ago after their battle, but was at the time beyond Mike's power or ability to use. The world seems still as Mike understands that the time has finally come, and he summons several of his demons at once. Bog rushes to stop him, but is slowed down by the weak but desperate attacks of the rest of the team, including Rem Lazar. Behind Mike, the demons Lucifer, Damned Daniel, Surt, Thor, Odin, Hyperion, and Orcus form a circle, and Mike calls upon his power to merge them into one.

The light from the fusion is blinding, causing Bog and the rest of the party to look away in shock, and the cameras recording the event can see nothing but white. However, after a few seconds, the light disapates, and Mike's friends look up in awe, while millions watching are amazed at the sight before them. Bog looks, shocked, at the figure that floats behind Mike: seemingly a pale human with armor around his limbs, and what seems to be transluscent chains tethering him to Mike himself.

Mike turns to Bog, declaring his new Ultimate Spirit to be named Prometheus, the Avatar of Stolen Flame, He Who Brings Fire to Mortals. Prometheus, Mike states, is a representative of a friend's spirit, an embodiment of Piko Taro's interest in giving power to those who stand against fate, such as himself. Now, with Prometheus behind him, Mike proclaims he will steal the cursed fate Mars wishes to construct from Bog, and give the Fire of Free Will to everyone in the Solar System and beyond.

Bog attempts to send Mars forward, sword aiming at Prometheus's head, but chains reach out and strike the Spirit, and latch on to its sword before tugging it away, causing Bog's hand to erupt in a burst of pain, sending him kneeling to the floor. Still enraged, Bog calls Mars to unleash hellfire on Mike's friends, but a shield of yellow and green flames rise as a barrier, protected them from any attack while healing their wounds. Aghast, Bog orders Mars to charge in a final time, but blades of flame are shot from Prometheus's hands, sending the powerful Spirit to the ground, and Bog with him.

Bog, realizing his defeat, only managed to curse and condemn them, shouting at them for defying destiny, all while Mike and Prometheus come closer and closer. The team and billions of onlookers watch, preparing themselves for the sight of seeing Bog executed, while Martian loyalists erupt in horror and sorrow at their ruler's immediate fate. However, all are shocked when instead, Prometheus grabs tightly onto Mars, while Mike holds Bog himself to the ground. Immediately, Bog begins to panick, begging for Mike to kill him instead, while Prometheus forcible rips Mars from Bog's soul.

A few long seconds later, the conntection between the two is severed, and Prometheus locks Mars inside a cage of fire, before the spirit stops resisting and succumbs, agknowledging Prometheus as its better before being destroyed. B-Bop, remembering what happened to Fleaboid, stands up and walks to Mike's side and stares down at Bog, who seems to be paralyzed in shock. Hoping that Mike was successful, B-Bop asks Bog if he wishes to confess anything to Mars and everyone watching the broadcast. Bog, seemingly in a state of shock, says yes and slowly comes to his feet to face one of the several flying drones recording this. Bog, now completely separated from Mars's hold on his will, breaks down and begins profusely confessing all his crimes.

### Guilt

> *"I took power as King of half of the Martian people in hopes that I could protect them, But once I saw the power I held, all I cared about was keeping it. When I read about Mars, who ruled his subjects with an iron fist and was worshipped for it, all I could feel was envy. Somehow, someway, I knew I wished to be like Mars, caring only for myself and being worshipped like a god. I told myself I had to be strong so Mars could be strong, but it was all a lie! All I ever cared about was my own power... And for the sake of my power, I've allowed millions- no, I've sent millions of Martians, soldiers and civillians, to their deaths! I refused Earth and Venus while they begged for us to be their friends rather than fight more pointless wars, just because I wanted an enemy to use as an excuse for my overreaches! I used my power to institute a theocracy as an excuse to purge anyone who might disagree with me, even dozens of my friends and advisors who didn't agree with my decisions! Worst of all, I started this war just because I wanted to appease Mars, the god, all while I let Mars, the people, burn and die for my ambitions... I'm unworthy of being Emperor, and my refusal to name a heir for decades is proof that I cared only for maintaining my power rather than risk anyone taking it from me... Please, stop this terrible war that's a fault of only my ego! Execute me, imprison me, send me into the sun, do anything to me as punishment if it ends this war! That's all I deserve, so please, someone... Please... "* ~Emperor Bog, after being separated from Mars and its control over him.
>
>

After being separted from Mars, Bog began profusely proclaiming his guilt to the hundreds of crimes he commited against not just Earth and Venus, but also his own subjects. Afterwards, he immediately collapsed, begging to be punished for his actions, and quickly became inconsolable. When B-Bop asked why Mars wished for Bog to return to this specific location, Bog managed to maintain himself long enough to state that Mars wished for him to discover the Gem of Balance, which he then took from his pocket and gave to B-Bop before again collapsing, now unable to even be spoken to. B-Bop examined the gem, a red jewel that shined brilliantly, but did not seem to hold any practical purpose, before putting it in his own pocket to examine later.

Upon viewing this event, the people of Mars began intensifying their riots against the government, with several soldiers and law enforcement warriors joining them after the truth was revealed. In response, the Rememberancer left the Imperial Palace and fled to Jupiter along with several government figures, while Electrocutioner and his soldiers enforced order as best they could.

After viewing the message, dozens of Martian captains ordered a cease fire, as the riots cut off contact with Mars, and they assumed the war might be over. Other refused, and continued fighting, being destroyed by either Alliance ships or defecting Martians. On Earth and Venus, the broadcast was relayed to Martian warriors still fighting, forcing them to surrender in fear that Mars may disavow them if they continued fighting after the war was over.

In the city outside the pyramid itself, fighting came to a halt, as leaders on both sides attempted to understand the situation, before ultimately agreeing to end hostilities indefinitely on the planet. With this, the Revengeancers were now able to leave the planet freely, but stayed to guard Bog until a mix of Human, Venusian, and Martian soldiers landed on the roof to meet them, having agreed to take Bog to Mercury, a planet that was known for its neutrality and friendly diplomacy with most of the Solar System, until both sides could work out terms of truce and arrangements for a trial.

After the initial shock wore off, Mike remembered that Ben-Gucci might still be alive, and immediately left the group behind to run back to the hallway he sealed himself in. When Mike and the party reached the hall, however, there were only a few bodies, as the fighting had seemingly been pushed across the hall, up until they travelled several corridors to find a hole leading outside, into the chasm that was the abandoned city. The few Martian warriors left, now standing down, explained that Gucci had to use his Quetzalcoatl to punch through the wall to escape a Martian grenade, seemingly falling to his death. The news left Mike saddened, but still he returned to where he came, ready to come back to Earth once again. For now, it seened, Mike's journey was at an end.

## Peace?

Two weeks later, Mike and the Revengeancers returned to New York City, where they were greeted as global heroes by a crowd of thousands, and dozens of interviewers from across the world and Solar System attempted to approach the group as they landed in Times Square. Fortunately for the group, the International Peacekeeping Force spared a unit of guards to peacefully escort most of the group away, whie B-Bop and Rem Lazar stayed to occupy the reporters. After escaping the crowd, Mike proclaimed he was extremely tired, and returned to his apartment to immediately take a nap.

Two days later, Mike awoke, his wounds being tended to by Angela. After preparing a breakfast of Kraft Dinner, Mike turned on the news, where every major network was running stories about the truce efforts on both sides and the heroics of Mike and his friends. After Angela left, the IPF agents monitoring the apartment reported back to General Erection, who then called Mike from his room in Japan. Mike, still dazed, simply asked Erection if he needed to do anything else.

Erection responded, telling Mike that it seemed the Revengeancers wouldn't be needed anymore, as the war was currently over, and Emperor Bog was still peacefully allowing himself to remain detained on Mercury. Mike thought to ask who ruled Mars now, to which Erection responded that it wasn't currently clear: Bog never named a direct successor, so now there was a power struggle for who would rule the Empire. Electrocutioner held the loyalty of the Martian military, while the Rememberancer had a great amount of sway in the political cabinets of Martian government, and a civil war might erupt if the two could not settle their differences.

Mike was not happy about the prospect, but Erection promised him that the United Nations was doing everything in its power to secure peace on Mars, lest another era of war break out in the Solar System. Erection also informed Mike that, at the moment, the IPF's scouts still had found no trace of Ben-Gucci on Fifth Jerusalem, and he was considered likely dead due to the labrynthian structure of Fifth Jerusalem's cityscape. Mike sadly acknowledged this, and said his goodbyes to Erection.

Before Mike hung up, Erection told him that Mike was considered a hero by the world, and that he could do some major favor for Mike in return for his efforts. Erection offered multiple options, including ownership of a large estate in Tropico, the position of Admiral in the IPF Navy, Knighthood from the Queen of England, or the ownership of a spare IPF corvette to explore the galaxy in. Mike considered his options, but instead opted to request that Erection provide him with a new identity and a house in Canada, so he could return to living his life in peace, away from the press. Erection considered this for a moment, and agreed that he would begin arranging things for Mike to retire somewhere in Canada. The two said their goodbyes, having finished business with one another.

The peace negotiations between Earth and Mars continued to go along at a slow but steady pace, with military leaders on both sides working together to retrieve missing and wounded members, and identify losses on both sides. B-Bop brought the Gem given to him by Bog to Cedric so he could research it, while Do-Wah and 2T Fru-T attended numerous parties in New York. Shaboom Shaboom returned to her father and his ranch in Albany. Rem Lazar attended numerous meetings in Washington D.C., where he recounted the adventures with the Revengeancers to the Senate.

It seemed, while some issues remained, the Butt-Uglies had finally won: Bog was defeated, Earth was saved, Mars could one day soon have peace, and they had become heroes across space. Mike didn't relish in his fame, but remained calm until he could finally return to a quiet life.

**Thus ended the story of the Butt-Ugly Martians... at least, for the moment...**