Hearing Thanos declare that a major war was imminent, Cull Obsidian felt a massive surge of adrenaline.
Among the five generals of the Black Order, he was undeniably the most bloodthirsty.
The prospect of an unprecedented, galactic-scale conflict naturally thrilled him to his core.
“My Lord, I request to lead the vanguard,” he rumbled eagerly.
Thanos completely ignored him, simply gesturing for his attendants to open a secure, synchronized comms channel with all five generals.
Seeing his Lord’s grim, unyielding expression, Cull Obsidian opened his mouth to press the issue but ultimately swallowed his words.
Now was absolutely not the time to act on his own violent impulses.
A moment later, the holographic projections of his top lieutenants flickered onto the main screen.
Thanos set the Mind Stone aside and rose from his throne.
“The battle will be upon us shortly.
I am issuing new combat directives!”
Although he possessed a Titan-class dreadnought that gave him overwhelming firepower in a head-on clash, the Asgardian fleet outnumbered them two and a half to one.
Cosmic warfare was a completely different beast from planetary ground combat.
On the ground, space was strictly limited; once an army reached a certain size, sheer numbers became a logistical nightmare rather than a tactical advantage.
But interstellar warfare was a true, three-dimensional battlefield.
Enemies could strike from above, below, left, right, front, or behind.
In the infinite expanse of the void, tens of thousands of warships could easily spread out into complex, lethal formations.
So while a Titan-class dreadnought was an incredible asset, it wasn’t an absolute, guaranteed win condition.
Besides, at his current power level, tearing a Titan-class dreadnought apart with his bare hands wasn’t exactly impossible.
He was certain Odin could do the same.
Following his new orders, the Black Order began mobilizing their respective fleets toward their designated coordinates.
Thanos remained firmly in position, holding the line with his personal vanguard of two thousand five hundred ships.
…
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Milky Way.
Fully clad in his gleaming golden battle armor, Odin stood in the command center of the Asgardian flagship.
Gripping Gungnir tightly, his one good eye stared coldly at the main monitor.
Displayed on the screen was Thanos’s Titan-class dreadnought, Sanctuary II.
Anyone laying eyes on Sanctuary II for the first time would be struck with profound awe, and Odin was no exception.
He hadn’t expected that after sealing off the Milky Way for a mere millennium, the technological advancement of the wider universe would skyrocket to this degree.
To think an external faction had managed to construct a warship of such catastrophic scale.
He couldn’t help but wonder how it managed its internal gravity, its propulsion systems, or how a mass that large achieved interstellar jumps without ripping itself apart.
Standing right behind Odin, Thor wore a fiercely eager grin, his blood practically boiling for a fight.
Looks like a decent challenge.”
Even though his recent exile to Earth had matured him quite a bit, his innate battle-lust remained completely untamed.
‘With a ship that massive, it’s going to take more than a few swings with Mjolnir to smash it to pieces,’ he calculated inwardly, gripping his hammer.
Odin remained silent.
He was busy thinking that utterly destroying a vessel of that magnitude would be a massive waste.
He had to find a way to capture it intact.
Noticing the All-Father’s silence, Sif, who stood beside Thor, chimed in.
“Prince Thor, I think capturing it for ourselves would be quite fun.”
She looked at him with deeply affectionate eyes.
She knew Thor didn’t currently see her that way, but she wasn’t about to just give up.
After all, he was the future King of the Nine Realms.
Even if she couldn’t be his queen, securing a place by his side was still a tremendous victory.
Thor’s eyes lit up with excitement.
“You’re right!
We definitely shouldn’t destroy it.
I’m going to take it for myself!”
Hearing this, the Warriors Three eagerly joined the banter from behind.
“Exactly!
Only a warship like that is truly worthy of Prince Thor!” “I call dibs on leading the boarding party!
Don’t even try to beat me to it.” “Oh, please.
Whoever storms the command bridge first gets all the glory.”
For a moment, the Asgardian warriors were already divvying up the spoils and glory, acting as if Sanctuary II was already theirs.
Seeing their bravado, Odin merely gave a faint smile and kept his thoughts to himself.
He knew this war was not going to be nearly that simple.
Still, letting those three lead the initial charge to test the waters might not be a bad idea.
Suddenly, the flagship shuddered violently.
Everyone stumbled slightly before quickly regaining their footing.
A sharp, professional female Asgardian officer strode over and bowed respectfully to Odin.
“All-Father, we have exited the spatial lane.
We are currently ten light-years away from the target.
One more hyperspace jump will put us right on top of them.”
Spatial lanes were specialized cosmic infrastructure that every major power installed within their own territories. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
An unassisted hyperspace jump required an astronomical amount of energy to tear through the fabric of reality and enter sub-space.
However, by anchoring spatial-tear generators between two fixed points, the energy cost was drastically reduced, sparing the fleet’s own reactor reserves.
They had used these fixed lanes to rapidly close the distance to the enemy’s sector, intending to use a final, localized hyperspace jump to cross the remaining gap.
Odin nodded.
“Captain Lucy, initiate the jump.”
Lucy bowed and retreated to the helm to execute the maneuver.
Every warrior had their specialty.
While Odin was the supreme All-Father, tactical naval command wasn’t his strongest suit, so he left the piloting entirely to his most capable officers.
Lucy was one of the few Asgardians who had earned the rank of Captain purely through her impeccable combat record and genuine skill, earning Odin’s complete trust.
But a moment later, Lucy returned, looking deeply troubled.
“All-Father, local space appears to be locked down.
We cannot initiate the jump.”
Odin frowned in confusion.
“We are still ten light-years away from the target.
How could they possibly lock down the space from that distance?”
Lucy shook her head uncertainly.
“They must possess long-range spatial interdiction technology that we aren’t aware of.”
Odin’s lone eye narrowed as he fell into deep thought.
It seemed he had kept the Milky Way isolated for far too long, allowing Asgard to fall completely out of touch with the wider universe’s technological advancements.
Once this war was won, he really needed to consider reopening their borders to the cosmos.
Thor crossed his arms impatiently.
“If the space is locked, just pump more power into the engines and bust right through it!”
The core mechanics of a hyperspace jump involved tearing a hole in space, while spatial interdiction simply reinforced those dimensional barriers.
Technically, Thor wasn’t wrong—with enough raw energy, they could absolutely punch through the blockade.
But looking at the Prince, a fleeting flash of disdain crossed Lucy’s eyes.
Of course, she hid it perfectly before anyone could notice.
“Prince Thor, if we burn through our reactor reserves now to break the interdiction, our energy levels won’t recover in time once we reach the destination.
We would be caught completely off guard.”
Honestly, that was putting it mildly.
If they arrived running on fumes and the enemy opened fire before they could raise their energy shields, they would literally be delivering themselves to the slaughter.