Inside the sea, Zara and Drako watched the two huge objects on their radar. They knew the battle wouldn't be easy, even with all the experience of Commander Merko.

"My Nick's in danger, away from me. I could be there now helping them in this battle. But since our ship is scientific, it doesn't have the armaments to give the necessary support, we would be easily destroyed. And my dear can die without me even being close to him. I think I'll teleport there and help them as I can."

The doctor had a strange feeling that something bad was going to happen. Sweat dripped from her forehead, wetting her red hair. Drako read her thoughts before saying:

"Don't be like this, Zara. You must obey Sivoc's orders and remain on this ship. We prepared an ambush for him and his military on the eastern side of the planet. Don't worry, we'll be able to defeat Mirov like we did before."

"I think we should help them somehow..."

"I received orders from Sivoc and Merko to take care of you, so that you would only monitor the battle. We can't do anything to help them other than using the information in our system if they need it, or in the need of medical treatment, if there are any injuries. We also need a ship ready to go back in case Star Hunter ship is damaged."

"Nicholas never entered a battle. I'm afraid he'll get hurt."

"Don't worry, Merko will protect him."

Zara was a little bit calmer after talking to her friend Drako, but the feeling wouldn't leave her, that bad feeling.

"Is Helen okay in the future? The temporal paradox doesn't allow us to communicate with her", she thought. Maybe it was about the rest of her family that she should be worried.

Little Wolf, the robot dog, walked toward Zara. It approached her, licked her left hand's fingers to show affection, and raised its ears. Then, it barked three times. She smiled a little uneasily, passed her hand on its head and, as if she knew what the machine meant, she replied:

"I know they'll be back too." She looked through the large hatch to the outside of Science spaceship. She observed the fish and aquatic animals that swam next to the ship and ran her index finger in her eyes to wipe away the tears that fell.

***

The battle cruisers yoked and the robots of the two ships were at the peak of the battle. Some of them stood near the built base to protect it from enemy fire. Bob was among them.

Crom and Tibor came out of the landing platform, each with an attack ship and a robot flying beside them. Other soldiers entered smaller ships and set off for combat.

Merko stayed in Star Hunter spaceship with the rest of the crew. Sivoc teleported together with the engineers and, in seconds, they were on the command bridge. Smaller ships began to leave the two mother ships and attacked the enemies, trying to destroy them. Bursts of projectiles were fired from the scout ships under Captain Kirubi's command successively, creating clouds of bright sparks that covered the skies.

"Destroy everything you see in front of you", ordered Mirov. "I don't want any survivors."

The robots attacked each other and each punch emitted a more deafening noise than the other. They launched laser beams through their eyes and mutual shots through their cannons. Nicholas, connected to the robot, instructed him to strike the rivals, causing the metal to collide with powerful blows. The iridium shells tinkled, echoing through the noise of the war.

Several ships on both sides fell when they were hit, some exploded. Shots ripped through the skies like lightning. Breakdowns and deaths covered the floor with blood. The devastation was enormous, the thunders didn't stop and the wreckage spread through the air. The damages of a war with multiple losses on both sides could already be seen.

"Merko! We need to go down to help our friends." Sivoc, nervous, closed his fists in such a way that his fingers went white.

"Let's go, my friend. We'll take the attack armor and use their cannons."

They both went down with their combat suits. The two commanders materialized on the battlefield with the special armor and assault rifles with which they fired to all sides against the enemy forces. In addition, they used the cannons of rockets coupled to the costumes that had great firepower. Nicholas didn't lose the opportunity and went after them. Far, they saw the robots destroy each other and fall out of combat. Soldiers on both sides were wounded and dead. Bob was still standing, because instead of continuing to fight, it commited to protect Nicholas as soon as it felt he was on the battlefield.

But as much as the robot was an effective weapon, in a short time two scout ships of Mirov surrounded the Terran. The young man knew that, even with Bob there, his chances were almost null. So, he put his weapons on the ground and raised his arms in a sign of surrender. However, when he saw Nicholas on the screen of his ship, Mirov knew he couldn't accept letting him live. He wanted Merko to watch his son be slain by his ships. He would at that moment relish his revenge for losing the throne and see all those he hated succumb.

Before he gave the final order, the unexpected happened: a rocket crossed the air over Nicholas' head and, accurate, destroyed one of the ships. The young man threw himself on the ground when the ship exploded, twisted wrecks flying all over the place.

Like lightning falling from the sky, Bob took the lead. After firing the vigorous cannon on the ship, it invested against the other, grabbing it by the rear and turning it towards another ship that approached, at the command of Mirov. They both burst like bombs as they collided.

From the bridge of his ship, Mirov observed in disbelief the sequence of events that had saved his near-victim. That only made him angrier.

Bob, at last, approached his master. Nicholas thanked him and climbed on his back to fly up to Star Hunter spacecraft.

Mirov with his cane and Kirubi with his spear got out of the ship and walked towards the commanders Merko and Sivoc. Mirov used the staff as a walking support, but that was also a powerful weapon. One of its points had a bluish sphere that emitted lethal rays on his enemies, among many other devices.

At this point, there were few combatants left on the battlefield. Merko and Sivoc's cannons pointed their pipes at them. The villain's hood loosened from his head, because of the strong cold wind of the region. For a moment, everyone looked at his frightening features, the wrinkled face with dark blue veins like varicose veins framing the contours of his skin, his naked forehead bulging over the shape of his brows, almost hairless and with piercing eyes. Those were mirrors of a soul tormented by hatred.

There was no time for conversation, since Kirubi shot a ray at Sivoc. This one dodged the first shot and began firing his rockets at them.

The two enemies also turned, getting rid of the projectiles that hit the rocks. Two more of Mirov's soldiers appeared, teleporting by surprise, and fired at Sivoc. One of them hit him in the abdomen, causing a serious injury.

Meanwhile, Merko shot everyone while he waited for someone to appear to help them. He couldn't give up.

Nicholas finally appeared. He jumped off the robot and ran to Kirubi's encounter, hitting his chest with both feet in a leap, as Tibor had taught him. The captain fell and was stunned, but he managed to get up.

He charged at the young man and applied some blows at him, which were defended. Then, they began to exchange punches, in a fight of life and death.

Merko paused for a moment and tried, unsuccessfully, to use the telekinetic powers to attack Kirubi and protect his son. The effort was in vain, since the electromagnetic network that Mirov's engineers had installed around the Earth prevented Captain Merko from interacting with the planet's gravitational field.

Mirov and his soldiers began to attack commander Merko, who had to defend himself from them.

At that moment, the fierce fight between Nicholas and Kirubi continued.

"It'll be easy to slaughter you, human", said Captain Kirubi.

"I'm not afraid of you. Words don't win fights", said Nicholas.

Bob flew to help Nicholas and two ships began to shoot at him, shifting the focus. It needed to fly so as not to be destroyed and it fired cannons against them. The young man tried to drain the telekinetic forces that could help him as he had been taught, but it was in vain. All that was left for him was to use all his strength against the ferocious enemy. He suffered numerous blows from the captain, to which an ordinary human being would succumb.

"Definitely, this young human is not an ordinary person," Kirubi thought as he watched his rival fall and get up several times. Without wishing to delay the end of the combat, Kirubi took the spear to exterminate Nicholas. In one last effort, Nicholas managed to reach out and take the pistol that had fallen.

He turned to Kirubi, and before the captain wore his spear, Nicholas hit him with a right shot, in the middle of his forehead. The captain's body twisted back and collapsed, lifeless, on the ground.

Meanwhile, Crom hit several soldiers with his rifle. When one of them was going to shoot Tibor, the soldier gave him a right shot, saving his friend, who looked at him and nodded his head, thanking. They also struggled to defeat Mirov's well-trained military. The fight was really very difficult.

Merko fought and destroyed several ships with the shots of his powerful rifle and the cannons of his attack armor. Almost everyone was wounded and tired, when Merko and Mirov stood face to face on the battlefield. The other participants decided not to intrude: those on Merko's side because they thought it would be easy to destroy Mirov, and those on the other side because they trusted their mentor's plan.

"Finally, I have you in my hands, Commander Merko. After all these years..."

"You should be a counselor and stand next to King Zador at this time. If you were loyal, all of this would be avoided. Many lives would have been spared. Look at all these bodies scattered across the bloody ground of the battlefield. This is all your fault."

"I don't care about massacres. What should have happened in fact was me being now on the royal throne, if you hadn't betrayed me. You will now have what you really deserve: your ruin. You'll die on an unknown battlefield and no one will ever know who Captain Merko was. You are doomed to nonexistence."

The captain's attack armor opened. He stepped out of it and Mirov fired at him, who dodged the ray and fired back with a shot from the pistol he took from his holster. Mirov placed his staff in front of the fired beam, neutralizing the attack. Everyone stopped, watching the final battle between the two enemies. Nicholas, wounded in the shoulder, thought about intervening, but it was late...

The tyrant looked at the ship and a ray was shot in Merko's direction, hitting his right arm.

He put his hand on the blood that gushed, and thought of using his telekinetic powers against the spacecraft. However, nothing had any effect. He concentrated his mind and felt that he was incapable of reacting.

"What's going on? My powers don't work here. I've always been able to destroy my enemies with telekinesis", Merko thought, feeling surprised.

Tibor and Nicholas rushed toward Merko to help him. They didn't believe what they were seeing and Zara, inside Science spacecraft, felt a pain in her stomach that made her twist.

"What happened, Zara?" Drako was worried.

"I feel a strange pain. I think something's not going well with Nick!"

"I'll take you to the infirmary. You need care."

The battle cruiser Genesis fired at Captain Merko and he defended himself as best he could, shooting with his rifle at it. Mirov took advantage of Merko's moment of distraction and fired at him, hitting him in the heart. The captain's eyes widened, and he fell back on the floor, languid. Poor Merko, he thought Mirov would be fair sometime. But to him, all that mattered was winning.

The young man stood immobile in front of that scene. For an instant, he looked down at his father's body fallen on the ground. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Merko was indestructible! This can't be true."

Nicholas looked at Mirov and said:

"You killed Merko!"

Everyone looked at the young man, not believing what they were witnessing, but even with his eyes full of tears, he knew there was nothing more to be done. He wanted to at least hold his father's body in his arms, but he couldn't get close to him. He needed to fight back and protect himself.

The Lieutenant Colonel Crom fired at Mirov, who quickly escaped, teleporting to his ship from where he ordered, in the safety of his command bridge, his subordinates to make a massive attack against the Star Hunter spaceship. It exploded, making a great bang and a great cloud of dust. The gigantic battle cruiser, which had carried out great missions for the good of the universe, was destroyed, as was its commander.

The snow came down from the nearby mountains due to the clashes of the firing of the cannons. Crom was also struck by the powerful weapons of the enemy battle cruiser, and Sivoc was already agonizing on the ground. They both were badly wounded on the battlefield.

Tibor and Nicholas destroyed Mirov's soldiers on land, when Tibor telepathically told Nicholas:

"Boy, shoot your spear together with me and send a ray to the region of the ship where I'll mark with a red laser dot. There's the hydrogen nuclear reactor and a concentrated attack on that part will cause a destructive chain reaction. Ask your robot to help us by attacking with all its firepower. Together, we'll destroy it."

The two fired at Genesis spacecraft together with Bob, as Tibor had planned, and the ship also exploded like a volcano in flames, when Nicholas saw everything go up in the air carrying Mirov and all his subordinates with him.

The young man looked around him and everything smelled of death. The bodies paved the ground of the Siberian region, which now served as a graveyard for so many courageous defenders of humanity.

Tibor and Nicholas approached Sivoc, Crom, and Merko to see if they were still breathing, but the worst had happened. The three of them were dead.

Nicholas knelt, laid his head on his father's chest, hugged him, and cried. There was no life left in that body, and a part of the son had also been lost. The emptiness he felt in his heart was of full love that was fading. He discovered in the absence what the presence had never been able to reveal to him, that besides admiring his father, he also loved him deeply. Nicholas looked up at the sky and lamented:

"Why? Now, when I had finally gotten a father. What happened? Why did our powers fail?"

He looked at Tibor, who was also crying, and they approached Sivoc and Crom, who were inert, lifeless. Tibor placed his index and middle fingers over his commander's and Crom's carotid artery. Sad, he pressed his lips together after realizing the misfortune. He shook his head as a sign that they were both dead.

"I can't believe I lived to see this. They were great men." Tibor spoke with sadness.

"Crom is dead too!" said Nicholas.

"He just saved my life, and I couldn't do anything to save him", Tibor said.

Nicholas had never imagined in his young life that he would see a misfortune of that size. He hadn't thought about the possibility of losing the fight, let alone seeing everyone dead.

"It can't be true!" He screamed.

"Everyone's dead! We accomplished our mission at the cost of irreparable losses", Tibor ramped.

The whole region was devastated. The level of radiation in the place was very high and dangerous. The reactors of the destroyed ships released many harmful products. It was time to leave that place.

"Bob, disintegrate all that is left. Use the insect nanorobots and sweep the place," ordered the Terran.

A compartment on the robot's chest opened and several insect nanorobots left it to do the cleaning. They could leave no trace of their presence on Earth. Bob destroyed everything that was left in the area.

Before they left, they disintegrated all bodies. They looked, thoughtfully, for a few seconds, at the mountains that surrounded the place... Then, the two survivors pressed their teleportation bracelets. In a few moments, they arrived at the scientific ship. The robot executed the order and, after the cleaning, took flight leaving for the only remaining ship, Science.

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