From Idler to Tech Tycoon: Earth

Richard flew towards the sky, his gaze fixed on the approaching Imperial Armada. High above the Sol System, on the bridge of the colossal Imperial Krill Capital Ship, the 4 Kings and their allied Dukes watched the live feed from Earth. The sight of Shuha'dar struggling, and Richard's defiant declaration, infuriated them.

"Zh'karr-a'th! (Enough!)" Vurmak roared, slamming a clawed fist onto a console. His multi-faceted eyes glowed with a cold, predatory light. "Na'kar-ak Krill'an-delay! (No more holding back!) Krill'an-fleet, full-attack! (Imperial fleet, full attack!) Xy'lar-ak Krill'an-destroy! (Kill the resisting humans!) Na'kar-ak Krill'an-harvest! (Do not worry about indiscriminate bombing!) Xy'lar-ak Krill'an-survive! (We will take the surviving humans!)"

Admiral Krinkak, a hulking figure beside Vurmak, gave a grim, reptilian smile. "Xy'lar-ak Krill'an-vengeance! (Their defiance has earned them our full wrath!)" The admirals and generals on the bridge nodded, their expressions grimly determined, their scales bristling with renewed aggression. Their primary objective had shifted from a careful harvest to overwhelming, unbridled force.

Then, the skies all over the Western Hemisphere erupted. Colossal lances of emerald energy tore through the atmosphere, followed by torrents of crackling plasma. The air itself seemed to scream as the bombardment began. Richard, a radiant white beacon over Los Angeles, held off most of the direct impacts, casting a massive psionic shield that shimmered with radiant white energy, deflecting and dissipating the worst of the alien fury. The city beneath him, though still scarred, was spared the immediate, incinerating touch of the alien weapons.

Meanwhile, cities that weren't protected by his immediate presence were plunged into unimaginable chaos. Explosions ripped through buildings, turning entire blocks into dust and fire. Skyscrapers crumbled like sandcastles, their steel skeletons twisting into grotesque monuments of destruction. The screams of the dying were swallowed by the thunderous roar of the bombardment.

In a UEDC bunker, commanders watched the live feeds in horror, their faces pale, their eyes wide with disbelief. "My God... they're not holding back anymore," a UEDC general whispered, his voice raw. "This is... this is what they were capable of all along." Another general slammed a fist on a console. "All this time, they were just playing with us." The chilling realization settled upon them: the Krill had been toying with humanity, their previous attacks mere skirmishes compared to this unleashed fury.

"Lina," Richard commanded through his comms, his voice a steel-edged whisper, cutting through the distant roar of destruction, "use all of our defense weapon systems. Warp Driver Cannon, if possible."

"Acknowledged, sir. Initiating full system activation," Lina's synthesized voice replied instantly, calm and precise.

Deep beneath the Amazon rainforest, the TRC's hidden arsenal roared to life. A low, guttural thrum vibrated through the earth as colossal mechanisms stirred. All Cerberus Lance Mass Driver Arrays activated, their massive barrels, previously hidden, rising from their subterranean silos with a grinding, metallic groan. Bio-chemical agents and nuclear fusion slugs slid into their respective rails with a low hiss and the click of locking mechanisms.

All Skywall missile silos opened simultaneously, revealing their deadly, plasma-tipped payloads to the sky. PCX-09 barrels spun with a high-pitched whine, ready to intercept any hostile crafts above the sky and barrage them with plasma bolts. Then, a massive section of the ground surface of the forest opened, and a very huge, multi-barreled defense turret, easily visible from miles away, slid upward with a hydraulic sigh, its immense form a silent sentinel of humanity's wrath.

All TRC's planetary defense weapons readied, their power cores glowing. The Warp Driver Cannon, its immense maw glowing with nascent power, aimed towards the main Krill capital ship, a distant speck in orbit. Lina prepared the driver, spooling the weapon, a countdown appearing in Richard's internal display: "15 seconds."

On the Krill's main capital ship, alerts blared, a cacophony of shrieks and warnings. A Krill bridge officer, his scales pale, slammed a claw onto his console. "Xy'lar-ak! (Energy signature!) Vurmak-ak, growing! (Growing exponentially from Earth!)" Technicals detected a mass energy signature, growing exponentially from Earth. The 4 Kings panicked. "Focus fire!" Vurmak roared, pointing at the energy spike on their tactical display. "All available orbital weapons, fire on that energy source!" The orbital bombardment shifted, a significant portion of the fleet's firepower redirecting towards the Amazon, a desperate attempt to preempt the unknown threat.

Detecting the shift, Richard sped towards above their base, moving at sublight speed, manifesting a shield just in time as the redirected Krill fire slammed into it, momentarily flaring with blinding light. "Lina, how much more time do you need?" Richard asked, his voice strained by the immense energy expenditure.

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1," Lina's voice counted down, calm and precise, a disembodied oracle of destruction.

Richard quickly went away, a blur of white light. The Warp Driver Cannon's colossal projectile ripped the space in its path, a terrifying distortion in reality, a visible tear in the fabric of the cosmos. All Krill projectiles nearby were sucked into the fabric rip, consumed by the tearing void, their energy dissipated into nothingness.

Unfortunately, the main capital ship wasn't hit directly. Lina's primary purpose for this shot was to disrupt the main fleet's formation, to sow chaos and create openings. As the WDC's wake dissipated, Cerberus Lance projectiles, now armed with nuclear fusion slugs and bio-chemical agents, began to spin cycles around the planet, releasing at a precise angle towards their destined targets. The Skywalls, meanwhile, targeted the armada that were in orbit, barraging them with nuclear blasts, turning the orbital space into a deadly shooting gallery.

On the main capital ship, alerts blared, a symphony of chaos. Some of their smaller ships around were getting sucked by the fabric rip in reality, torn apart by the gravitational anomalies, their metallic hulls groaning and twisting before imploding. The fleet shield, previously impenetrable, was greatly damaged, flickering erratically, its energy fluctuating wildly. Disruptions were all over the place: comms crackled with static, sensors went blind, energy conduits overloaded, and even internal ship's gravity fluctuated wildly, sending crew members stumbling.

Battleships and carriers exploded in balls of fire as the Cerberus nuclear fusion projectiles hit their targets, tearing through their hulls with terrifying ease, turning once-proud vessels into molten slag. The bio-chemical gas, however, hit the Harvester Motherships, seeping into their compartments, a silent, insidious killer. While most of the projectiles hit the colossal capital ship, one projectile having struck in the hull pressurized the ship and spewed a pathogen designed to slowly degrade the crew inside.

The Dukes and 4 Kings watched the crew from lower compartments gasp, their faces contorting with tumors growing rapidly on their scales, their multi-faceted eyes bulging with horror. A Krill officer stumbled, clutching his throat, his scales turning a mottled grey. "Xy'lar-ak Krill'an-pain! (The pain!) Na'kar-ak Krill'an-breathe! (I cannot breathe!)" he choked, before collapsing. The 4 Kings, their own scales pale, ordered to seal the lower compartments, successfully doing so with a series of heavy thuds, cutting off the infected sections and sacrificing thousands of their own.

They watched their forces in the planet's orbit getting destroyed too. Though most of the attack they received didn't take much dent in their overall fleet, a bridge officer, his voice trembling, reported multiple enemy ships detected on their sensors, appearing out of nowhere.

The 4 Kings and the Dukes couldn't believe the humans had such weapons, such range, such precision. The 4 Kings, their faces contorted with rage and disbelief, blamed the harvest leaders, the Duke's sons, for having failed to control human technological progress, for allowing such a primitive species to gain such devastating power.

Then, as their fleet shield restored, one of the Harvester Motherships ripped in half as outlines of light, the sleek forms of UEDC's hidden Chrono Aberrant Destroyers and Helios Banes, appeared on the Harvester's damage firing warp cannons at the Krill's fleet. From the Krill's perspective, human ships fired weapons that seemed to instantly reach their fleet, tearing through their vessels with impossible speed. No weapon can reach from Earth to their moon, it's impossible! they thought in disbelief, their minds struggling to process the impossible.

Then another barrage, most projectiles that hit their ship seemed to suffer little to no resistance before ripping apart in two, as if made of paper. The 4 Kings stared in awe and horror as they watched their crews panic, the Dukes' voices distorted by fear as they watched human ships tear their fleet apart.

Then, from the planet's surface, another space-ripping weapon fired near them, sucking smaller ships and destroying nearby vessels as the gravitational force attracted ships to each other, creating a chaotic maelstrom of destruction. One of the head Dukes, his voice raspy with terror, ordered the entire fleet to retreat to Mars. "Krill'an-retreat! (Retreat!) Mars-ak, now! (To Mars, now!)"

As they retreated, their fleet and Harvester Motherships were getting picked off like in a duck hunt. The colossal capital ship was struck again with a bio-chemical projectile, as it spewed gas. This one was different, barely anyone would notice the difference; it was a slow virus, designed to make them suffer, to degrade them over time, a cruel, insidious vengeance. Meanwhile, three slave Motherships, containing enslaved races as cannon fodders, floated inert as they were hit by Cerberus EMP slugs, their systems shutting down, their lights dying.

Meanwhile, on the surface, Richard was busy hunting and assisting surviving ground forces from bombardment from Krill ground invasion forces who had successfully landed. Lina's voice crackled in his comms. "Sir, shall we destroy their capital ship?"

"No," Richard replied, his voice cold and resolute. "Let the plague destroy their race. Force them to retreat to their homeworld. That way, the plague cleanses all of Krills in their homeworld. It's better to do it now, than make humanity suffer with Krill wars later on." Richard thought about already committing a mass extinction of the Krill race, a heavy, yet necessary, decision.

Lina acknowledged, firing the Warp Driver Cannon at the main fleet, picking off escorts and other ships to force them to go back to their homeworld, ensuring their infected capital ship would carry the plague home.

Back at the Krill capital ship bridge, the Dukes and 4 Kings were shocked that human weapons reached them this far, their weapons still hitting and destroying their fleets. The Dukes were already begging the Kings to retreat back to their homeworld. "Krill'an-retreat! (Retreat!) Krill'an-homeworld! (To our homeworld!)" they pleaded.

The 4 Kings watched the footage of their imperial ship debris, the destroyed vessels, while watching the humans still firing at their ships. Though they still had many ships, what was terrifying was that, human's capability of destruction, they had underestimated them. The 4 Kings, having failed their task to help their God Xa'Mharr descend in the body of their emperor, but now that their emperor was still nowhere to be found, faced a huge undertaking they must now account for. But they still had honor. They knew how to take a loss.

"Zh'karr-a'th Krill'an! (We accept this loss!)" they said in ceremonial unison, their voices grimly accepting their defeat in this engagement. The Dukes sighed in relief as the officers deployed the 'loss gift' to the humans, a pod that flew towards Earth. It was a Krill customary, to give their most advanced technology blueprint and knowledge to the winning opponents, a bitter concession.

As the 4 Kings ordered to open a wormhole to their empire capital, it opened, a swirling vortex. All remaining ships, from an initial 1500 total, jumped, with 1378 still surviving. But from that short engagement, it showed how terrifying humanity was, and the chilling promise of what was to come.