Karn's Attack
KING KARAYE’S POV
I stood in the center of the grand hall, my hand still resting on the small velvet box. The pearl inside was a symbol of my victory, but the sudden roar from the sky told me the victory was being challenged.
BOOM.
The sound was deep. It felt like a giant hammer hitting a metal drum. The guests, those weak kings who called themselves my allies, were already falling over each other. They were supposed to be powerful rulers, but at the first sign of Karn’s fire, they looked like scared children. I looked at Xy’dar, the reptile king. He was hiding under a table, his four hands covering his head.
"Get up," I said. My voice was low, but it went across the room. I didn't need to yell. My authority was absolute.
"He’s going to kill us all!" Xy’dar wailed. "Kraye, you’ve brought the devil to our doorstep!"
I ignored him. I turned my gaze upward to the crystal ceiling. The sky of Planet 444 was usually a beautiful, deep purple. Now, it was streaked with angry orange and red. Those were Karn’s ships. He was throwing everything he had at my atmosphere. He was trying to scare me. He was trying to show me that his anger was bigger than my walls.
But Karn was a brute. He thought with his fists and his cannons. He didn't understand the science of defense.
"Commander Vane!" I barked.
A tall, thin alien with pale blue skin and four eyes rushed to my side. He was the head of my planetary defense. He was sweating, his eyes darting back and forth across the holographic maps that were now popping up all over the hall.
"Report," I commanded.
"Sire, it is King Karn. He has brought his flagship and three full fleets. He is firing Class D thermal shells. They are designed to melt through standard shields in minutes."
I smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. It was the smile of a predator watching a prey walk into a trap.
"Standard shields? Does he think I am a minor lord from a junk moon? Vane, activate the protocol. I want the Ten Layers of Iron."
Vane’s eyes widened. "The Ten Layers? Sire, that requires pulling energy from every single grid on the planet. The lower cities will have no air filtration. The transport tubes will stop. The people will be trapped in the dark."
"Let them be trapped," I snapped. I stepped closer to him, my shadow falling over his small frame. "The people exist to serve the crown. If the crown falls, they die anyway. Pull the power. I want the shields stacked. Now."
Vane nodded quickly and began tapping on his wrist console.
On the giant holographic map, I watched the magic happen. Planet 444 was already protected by a strong energy bubble. But now, new rings began to form. One after another, they appeared like the layers of an onion.
The first layer was blue. It was the Kinetic Shield. It stopped the physical shells from hitting the ground.
The second layer was green. The Thermal Barrier. It soaked up the heat from Karn’s lasers.
The third, fourth, and fifth layers were white. These were the Ion Nets. They would scramble the sensors of any ship that got too close.
I watched as the sixth, seventh, and eighth layers locked into place. These were the thickest. They were the Gravity Wells. They made the space around the planet feel like thick mud. Karn’s ships would find it harder and harder to move.
Finally, the ninth and tenth layers turned a deep, solid gold. This was the Iron Shield. It was a physical wall of super dense particles. It was the pride of my kingdom. No one in the galaxy had a ten layer system like mine. It made the planet look like a glowing sun in the middle of the dark void.
BOOM.
Another hit landed, but this time, the palace didn't shake. The sound was muffled, like someone knocking on a heavy wooden door. I looked up and saw a massive explosion of red fire against the gold shield. The fire splashed harmlessly away, like water off a duck's back.
Karn was hitting us with everything, and he wasn't even scratching the surface.
"He cannot get in," Vane whispered, looking at the screen in awe. "The energy readings are off the charts. He could fire for a hundred years and never break the tenth layer."
"Good," I said. I felt a surge of pride in my chest. "He thinks he can just barge into my house and take back his toy. He thinks he can ruin my dinner and scare my guests."
I walked over to the buffet table. I picked up a small, silver fork and took a bite of a blue fruit. It was sweet and cold. I chewed it slowly, watching the red streaks of Karn’s anger continue to fail against my golden walls.
"Vane, send a message to all our orbital towers," I said after I swallowed. "Tell them to hold their fire. I don't want to waste a single shot of our own. Let him waste his ammo. Let him burn through his fuel. Let him get tired and frustrated. I want him to realize that he is a dog barking at a mountain."
"And what about the human, Sire?" Vane asked.
"Aurora," I said her name softly. The thought of her made me feel warm. She was the reason for all of this. She was the prize that made the most dangerous man in the universe lose his mind. "She is staying right where she is. She is the Queen of a planet that cannot be conquered. She should feel honored."
I looked at the guest kings. They were still shaking, but they were starting to see that the palace wasn't falling.
"See?" I shouted to them. "Look at the sky! Look at the power of Planet 444! Karn is a child. He is throwing rocks at a fortress. Sit back down. Finish your wine. We have a wedding to plan."
Xy’dar crawled out from under the table. He looked up at the golden sky and wiped sweat from his scaly face. "Ten layers," he breathed. "I didn't think it was possible."
"In my kingdom, everything is possible," I said.
But inside, I knew I had to be careful. Karn was a beast, but a beast with no way out becomes even more dangerous. He wouldn't just leave. He would look for a crack. He would look for a weakness.
I turned back to the hologram. I saw Karn’s flagship, the Annihilator. It was huge and black, sitting just outside the tenth layer like a shark waiting for a drop of blood.
"You want her?" I whispered to the ship. "Come and get her. But you’ll have to break the world first."
I turned to the guards at the door. "Increase the guard on Aurora’s wing. I want twenty men at her door. No one goes in. Not even Elara, unless she is searched first. If a single person moves suspiciously, kill them. We are at war, even if the walls are holding."
I felt powerful. I felt like the smartest being in the universe. I had the girl, I had the shields, and I had the enemy right where I wanted him: stuck outside, looking in.
I picked up my glass and raised it to the sky.
"To the wedding of the century," I said to the red fire in the sky. "And to the end of King Karn."
The guests slowly started to return to their seats. The music started playing again, though it was a bit shaky. The robots began to clean up the spilled drinks.
Outside, the universe was on fire. Inside, I was the master of everything.