The Black Lion - A monument to your sins. (Patreon)

Susan Storm, The Pathfinder – Mars

“Well then, here we are” said Reed with evident excitement, while the Pathfinder maneuvered toward the southern part of the planet, where according to the artifact’s records the alien ruins were located.

“It’s incredible that we will be the first humans on Mars,” said Johnny with excitement while observing the sky from the operations deck canopy, completely hypnotized by the red planet.

Susan could understand it perfectly; the moment they set foot on Mars, humanity would transform into an interplanetary species.

“Are the drones ready? Harrison gave the order to deploy them in orbit, they will take care of building an operations outpost for the future colonization,” said the beautiful blonde while continuing to review the final details of the insertion vector to the planet.

Although it was not as if that were really difficult, the atmosphere of Mars was so weak that the ship would barely feel it, even without the kinetic shields that her Harry built.

Quickly the digital terminal of the ship began to sound, it was an incoming call from the barracks.

“The Bridge here” said Susan at the same time that the image of Captain Quaritch appeared on the screen.

“Ma’am,” said the man while bowing his head in a gesture of respect, an act that Susan returned in the same way.

“Hello Miles, everything in order? I did not expect your call until we reached the ruins,” said Susan with evident curiosity in her voice.

“I was just calling to inform that the boys are ready and we wanted confirmation about the nature of the ruins in question, Mr. Evans gave us a huge arsenal of beautiful toys to test and we wanted to take the best possible selection,” said the man evidently excited to test the brand new line of laser weapons that Harry had built together with Reed.

Susan still remembered with amusement how Nat, who had been in charge of performing the quality tests on Earth, had demanded a pair of all the weapons for her private arsenal on Olympus Station.

In black, obviously.

“We still do not have a clear image of the ruins Miles, the ship scanners are calibrated and ready to sweep the place as soon as we arrived, once I have the information I will send it to you. How are the armors behaving?” asked the blonde with evident curiosity.

The man nodded with understanding at the commitment and could not help smiling with pleasure at the mention of the “combat skins” as they were affectionately called among the soldiers that worked for her man.

“They are incredible, beautiful and lethal, but they are still tools, combined with my boys there is nothing we cannot do. If there is any danger down there, we will take care of it without problem, isn’t that right dogs?” said the commander, shouting the last part toward the room and receiving a roar of jubilation from the soldiers.

Susan smiled with amusement and responded.

“Excellent Miles, any feedback about the performance is welcome,” said the scientist, only to be interrupted by an alarmed Ben.

“Shit…” said Ben from the pilot seat, while watching the holographic screens of the ship in absolute astonishment.

Susan looked toward Ben with surprise and some caution.

“What is happening Ben? Everything alright?” asked Reed while leaving his workstation and walking toward where his old friend was.

“Nothing is alright Reed, look at this!” he said visibly altered, at the same time he showed the first images where the ruins were supposed to be located.

And when she saw them… Susan could only agree with her friend.

“Oh shit,” she whispered, still incredulous about what her eyes were witnessing.

“They are… they are thousands,” whispered Johnny in astonishment, for the first time in his life without a sarcastic or stupid comment about it.

And Susan could understand him, what they were witnessing was… difficult to digest.

“This must have been a truly overwhelming battle, there must be at least ten thousand,” said Reed overwhelmed.

“Twenty thousand designated objects buried at low depth, two types of physical parameters, one with standardized design similar to physical patterns that we could designate as ‘squid’, if these were made of metal and measured one and a half kilometers in length. The other faction used right angles and heavy armor plating, considering the quantity of accumulated material,” said HERBIE while projecting the reconstructions of the two types of ships.

Everyone on the bridge watched with surprise and total silence.

Twenty thousand alien ships ready for study and recovery.

Alas, the surprises apparently were not finished.

“That is not all, there is one more object, enormous, it is surprisingly well preserved, made from an unknown material and approximately forty kilometers long,” said the evidently excited robot, showing what could only be an alien space station.

Although destroyed and devastated by the passage of time, evidently.

“Mega structure of alien origin, partially buried under Martian sedimentary deposits. The initial topographic analysis indicates that it is a massive spatial complex with radial architecture, whose main axis presents a central toroidal structure connected to five symmetrical structural arms that extend outward, big, very big” said Reed while updating the mission log, although the excitement on his face was more than evident.

“That is not all Doctor Richards, the Harrium levels are extremely elevated, all these ships functioned with the element that my father created,” said HERBIE, while showing the analysis of the collected data, focusing on a particular location within the toroidal structure, a kind of tower buried deep inside the station.

Where, to everyone’s surprise, a weak signal was still present.

It was cyclical and evidently it was on its last breath, but still present.

“We have work to do,” said Susan, taking control of the situation and beginning to give orders.

The blonde doctor activated her omni-tool and began issuing commands to all her scientists.

“Gwen, Peter, Sam, prepare your suits guys, we have work to do, I am sending the collected data from the bridge,” said Sue while walking toward the command chair with complete naturalness.

It was her place after all.

“Miles, prepare all your boys, we have a lot of ground to cover and if there is a signal coming from the ruins we may find resistance. According to the spectrum we expect a variety of chambers both large and small, adapt your team for any situation. Send your best elements to the bridge, the rest will be coordinated by Ben and HERBIE to begin planning the excavations.”

The commander nodded quickly, saluted and replied.

“Understood ma’am, I will send Sully, Anderson and Shepard to the bridge, my dogs and I will take care of the rest,” said Miles before cutting the communication, clearly preparing for action.

“The command chair suits you Sue,” said Ben with pride, while he, Reed and Johnny walked toward her waiting for orders.

“Your orders Doctor Storm?” asked Reed with a smile that the blonde returned.

“HERBIE, send a swarm of Snitch drones, I want a complete mapping of the entire zone, focus on the mega structure as the starting point. Once we have an idea of where we are getting ourselves into, we will go down there and find that signal.”

Susan’s orders were received with determined looks.

“Orders received. I will send a second swarm of Bludger drones to collect raw material for our replicators. I will increase drone production and begin deploying the observation station in low orbit, after that, I will dedicated resources to plant the Seed” said HERBIE with evident excitement.

Sue nodded, satisfied while looking at the screen again.

Toward the enormous ruins hidden beneath dust and stone.

Something told her that whatever was down there…would change the course of human history.

The expedition and colonization of Mars had begun.

Clint Barton - Unkown Location - Earth

“Report, Barton,” Fury said with his characteristic frown.

Clint simply snorted and, without even bothering to look at his boss, replied.

“The same thing as every day. The artifact emits the same signal in a cyclical pattern and seems to have a life of its own. Selvig and the rest of the eggheads seem fascinated and wary, but none of them are stupid enough to believe we are still working on clean energy,” said the archer, the reproach in his voice more than evident.

Fury did not bother to respond, he simply looked once more toward where the Tesseract rested.

As usual, the measurements indicated incredibly unstable fluctuations.

More unstable than usual.

“How long do I have to stay here? I was supposed to be on the Mars expedition with Harrison. Besides, I miss Laura and my kids, Director,” said the agent with a tired sigh.

Clint was not stupid.

It was more than obvious that what they were doing here was trying to find a way to neutralize or counter the immense technological and political power of the Black Lion.

Orders from the stupid Council most likely, Barton thought with veiled contempt.

A bunch of decrepit idiots who refused to accept that their importance and power had gone down the drain the moment the Black Lion appeared on the world stage.

And that they were willing to do whatever it took to cling to their fading authority.

However, Clint had a bad feeling.

A sensation of danger that refused to fade away.

Something in his gut kept telling him this place was a mistake.

“Doctor Selvig, taltk to me. What was it that was so important it required my presence?” asked Fury as he walked toward the center of the room, Barton following him closely.

The old astrophysicist looked at the director with a frown and simply said:

“I resign. This… thing is too dangerous. I have a very lucrative job offer with Evans Technologies. I could be working alongside Jane in astronomical cartography. This is… irresponsible.”

The old man’s voice carried both exhaustion and disgust.

Barton looked at the old scientist with genuine respect in his eyes.

Fury did not react outwardly, although Clint knew him well enough to see the understanding and respect hidden in the director’s gaze.

Meanwhile Hill frowned in irritation.

“Doctor, SHIELD is the most important organization in the world. Our duty to the planet—”

Hill’s words were interrupted by a snort from the doctor, who looked at her with open mockery.

“Oh for the love of God, who do you think you are fooling? I’m not a young and stupid agent like those who work for you. I recognize a desperate act when I see one. The experiments we’ve been conducting have nothing to do with energy production, especially not now that Stark Industries has begun selling energy cheaper than cardboard. Don’t try to make a fool out of me, Agent Hill,” Selvig spat as he stepped forward, confronting Maria directly.

Hill, feeling her authority challenged, stepped forward as well and prepared to argue with the old man.

“Listen ‘Doctor’, SHIELD has an important mission and the orders of the Council are—”

Hill’s words were cut off the moment the alarms of the complex suddenly activated.

The entire facility filled with the sound of warning sirens.

“What the hell is happening?” asked the scientist cautiously, looking toward the ceiling just as a violent tremor shook the entire complex.

And the Tesseract began to glow, brightly, almost eagerly.

As if something had awakened it.

A moment later Fury’s analog communicator — the only one that could function in this place — began to ring urgently.

“Fury here” said the director while looking at the device with suspicion.

“DIRECTOR! THERE’S SOMETHING OUT HERE— SOMETHING HUGE IN THE SKY! WE— AHHHH—!”

The voice of the agent was abruptly cut off and the transmission ended, at the same moment another violent impact shook the entire facility.

“What the hell is that?” Selvig asked again, this time with far more caution and a hint of fear in his voice.

“Trouble,” Fury answered with determination as he rushed toward one of the consoles, barking orders.

“Exterior visuals! I need them now!”

The agent sitting at the control station did not hesitate.
He immediately obeyed the order, switching through the exterior cameras.

One after another.

Each one appearing on the screens.

Destroyed.

Offline.

Dead.

“Forget the exterior cameras. Give me the outside view of the complex,” Fury ordered urgently.

One second later the agent pulled the requested image.

“Shit,” cursed Agent Hill, her hand instinctively moving toward her kinetic pistol, courtesy of Harrison.

Something Clint still considered deeply hypocritical.

“I don’t recognize those hostiles,” Barton said, watching carefully as the SHIELD agents fought the unknown attackers.

They were humanoid in size and wore uniforms colored green and black, with helmets with a clear Greek inspiration and carrying weapons that fired bursts of energy.

Barton watched with growing concern as the invaders began tearing through the agents.

Many of them killed coldly and efficiently.

Others with terrifying brutality.

“No… I don’t recognize those uniforms,” said Agent Hill with growing concern.

“But I do,” said Fury with sudden realization.

Slowly he pulled a small pager-like device from inside his coat.

Clint had never seen Fury hesitate before.

But this time…

He clearly was, for some reason.

However, before Fury could activate the device or do whatever he had in mind, the voice of the agent at the control station interrupted him.

“Sir! Agent Simons’ feed is active! We have visual on the target. It’s large… practically titanic. It’s directly above us. Three miles long!”

The night sky appeared on the screen.

But the sky was not what froze everyone in place.

Hidden among the clouds…

There was a colossal ship. its design was Spartan, utilitarian and Massive.

Blue lights running across its hull were the only thing revealing its presence above the laboratory.

For a moment nobody spoke.

Everyone simply stared.

Then a small blue point appeared in the central section of the ship.

Like a kind of…

Clint’s eyes widened.

At the exact same moment Fury shouted:

“GET DOWN!”

He grabbed Selwin and threw himself to the ground.

Just as the blue point became a torrent of plasma that crashed down upon the facility with terrifying efficiency.

The beam instantly vaporized every agent on the surface.

Then it continued downward.

Digging through the ground and carving through concrete, steel and flesh.

Nothing in its path survived.

The devastating strike caused the structure to collapse completely making that tons of concrete crashed down upon everyone inside the research facility.

“AHHHHHHHG!” Clint screamed as a massive steel beam slammed down onto his body.

The impact shattered his right hand instantly and leaves him trapped beneath the debris.

More rubble continued falling.

Slowly burying them alive.

Clint lost track of time.

Minutes, hours, maybe days.

He didn’t know.

The only thing in his mind was the overwhelming pain consuming his body.

And there when he was buried and helpless.

Clint watched helplessly as a blue-skinned alien, humanoid in shape and carrying a massive war hammer, stepped forward and lifted the Tesseract.

The creature looked at the cube with an expression of triumph and madness.

Too human for Clint’s liking.

SHIELD had made the greatest mistake, they had been ambitious and in the process they had placed the entire planet in danger.

This was only the beginning.