The Olympus chamber erupted into controlled chaos.
Every screen showed the same terrifying reality.
Eleven alien scouts had locked onto eleven targets across Earth.
And every single one of them was charging a weapon.
TIME TO STRIKE: 29 MINUTES
Adrian stared at the countdown.
"Well," he said quietly, "this is officially the worst timer I've ever seen."
Elara stood at the central console, her connection to Olympus flooding her mind with calculations.
Orbital trajectories.
Energy signatures.
Weapon yields.
Eleven beams strong enough to erase entire cities.
"Olympus," she said calmly.
The system responded instantly.
GLOBAL THREAT ANALYSIS ACTIVE
The map of Earth expanded.
Eleven glowing red circles appeared.
Tokyo.
Los Angeles.
Moscow.
Paris.
Mumbai.
Beijing.
Sydney.
London.
Dubai.
Cape Town.
And one more target.
Adrian leaned closer.
"That last one…"
The screen zoomed in.
TARGET: OLYMPUS FACILITY
He sighed.
"They really hate us."
The council channel opened again.
This time the room was filled with world leaders shouting over each other.
"We must evacuate the cities!"
"Launch nuclear retaliation!"
"Disable the satellites!"
Secretary-General Kovac raised his voice.
"Silence!"
The room quieted.
He turned to Elara.
"Can Olympus stop them?"
She didn't answer immediately.
Instead she checked the Helios platform again.
The power gauge was still climbing.
But slowly.
Too slowly.
"Helios needs ninety minutes," she said quietly.
Adrian looked at the countdown.
"Yeah… we have twenty-nine."
Kovac asked the question everyone feared.
"Then what options remain?"
Elara's mind raced through Olympus simulations.
Thousands of scenarios.
Most ended the same way.
Mass destruction.
Millions dead.
But one scenario repeated.
Adrian noticed her hesitation.
"You found something."
"Yes."
"What?"
She hesitated.
"It's risky."
"Everything is risky right now."
She looked at the orbital map.
"What if we don't stop the scouts…"
Adrian frowned.
"Then what?"
"What if we redirect them?"
The council room went silent.
Adrian blinked.
"Redirect?"
"Yes."
"Olympus can manipulate orbital debris and satellite gravity slingshots."
He stared at her.
"You want to throw space junk at alien ships?"
"Not junk."
She opened a hidden file.
Adrian's eyes widened.
"Wait…"
The map zoomed in on something huge.
Something humanity had forgotten about.
An enormous abandoned satellite cluster.
A relic of the Cold War.
Thousands of tons of decommissioned orbital structures.
Adrian whispered,
"That's basically a metal asteroid field."
"Yes."
"If we move it…"
"It could collide with the scouts."
The council members exchanged shocked looks.
"But controlling debris like that would be extremely dangerous," a scientist said.
Adrian shrugged.
"So is extinction."
Elara began calculating trajectories.
Olympus took control of several heavy satellites.
Thrusters ignited.
Orbit paths shifted.
Massive chunks of metal slowly moved across space.
Adrian watched the projections.
"You're building a space minefield."
"Yes."
Meanwhile—
The alien scouts continued charging their weapons.
TIME TO STRIKE: 21 MINUTES
Adrian looked at the closest one.
"That thing's targeting Tokyo."
Another targeted Los Angeles.
Another Moscow.
Eleven weapons.
Eleven countdowns.
But now—
The orbital debris field began moving.
Thousands of tons of metal fragments drifted into the scouts' flight paths.
Adrian crossed his fingers.
"Come on…"
The first scout detected the debris.
It adjusted its course slightly.
But the field kept shifting.
More fragments moved into position.
The alien ships began dodging.
But now they were forced to move constantly.
Which meant—
Their targeting systems struggled to stay locked.
Adrian grinned.
"Nice."
But the alien scouts reacted again.
Their formations shifted.
Several ships fired small bursts of energy.
They began vaporizing the debris.
Elara frowned.
"They're clearing a path."
Adrian sighed.
"Of course they are."
TIME TO STRIKE: 15 MINUTES
The debris field slowed them down.
But it wasn't enough.
The alien ships kept pushing forward.
One of them broke through the field entirely.
Its weapon charge increased.
Adrian whispered,
"That one's about to fire."
The alien cannon reached maximum power.
WEAPON READY
Elara's eyes widened.
"No…"
The scout fired.
A beam of alien energy shot downward.
But the debris field altered its aim slightly.
The beam missed Tokyo.
Instead it struck the Pacific Ocean.
The explosion sent a massive shockwave across the water.
Adrian exhaled slowly.
"Close."
But the other scouts were still charging.
Ten weapons remained.
TIME TO STRIKE: 10 MINUTES
Elara looked at Helios again.
Power levels rising.
Still charging.
Still not ready.
Adrian whispered,
"We need a miracle."
But Olympus suddenly detected something strange.
Another signal from deep space.
Adrian frowned.
"Not the Titan again…"
"No."
She zoomed the map outward.
Something else had appeared.
A faint energy signature.
Approaching fast.
Very fast.
Adrian stared at the new object.
"That's not alien."
"No."
The signal matched human technology.
But far more advanced than anything currently deployed.
Adrian whispered,
"Who the hell is that?"
The object entered the edge of Earth's orbit.
A sleek black spacecraft.
Completely unknown.
Completely silent.
The alien scouts noticed it too.
Their sensors shifted.
The targeting beams moved.
Adrian stared.
"That ship just distracted them."
The unknown craft transmitted a signal.
But not to the aliens.
Directly to Olympus.
Elara opened the message.
A voice came through the speakers.
Calm.
Cold.
Familiar.
"Hello, Elara."
Adrian froze.
"You know that voice?"
Elara's eyes widened slightly.
"Yes."
"Who is it?"
The voice spoke again.
"You activated Olympus earlier than expected."
Adrian whispered,
"Expected?"
The unknown ship moved closer.
Its engines glowing faintly.
The voice continued.
"But don't worry."
A pause.
Then the words that changed everything.
"I designed Olympus to handle situations like this."
Adrian slowly looked at Elara.
"Wait…"
The voice finished its sentence.
"And now it's time for you to learn why."
The transmission ended.
Adrian stared at the unknown ship.
Then whispered,
"Elara…"
"Yeah?"
"I think we just met the real creator of Olympus."