System Wars: Here Comes the Heroes!-Chapter 34: Crashing in Hot.

[Activating innate skill: Heroic Heart]

...

"...why not both?!"

"Indeed, my liege!"

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"Hell yeah!"

From where they were falling in, SK could determine that the surrounded civilians and the floating warship were too far apart for him and the superheroes to deal with them both in one fell swoop.

In other words, now was the time to divide and conquer.

"Tin Star, can you hijack, clear out, or destroy that warship? I get the feeling that's one of the main objectives of this emergency quest," SK conveyed through his link with the pistol-packing vigilante.

"No problem, Sheriff," Tin Star assured him. "I just need to find myself an opening. See you later!"

Once he was given his orders, Tin Star proceeded to roll through the air until he was directly above the warship and pushed himself further.

SK Had no idea how the cowboy was going to land, despite creating the man, but he had faith in him.

It was a superhero's duty to make miracles, after all.

"Platiknight, we need to—"

"Rescue the civilians and stop the villains? No problem!" Platiknight exclaimed while preparing to use his [Platinum Aegis]. "Allow me to provide us with a landing platform!"

"Actually, there's something I want to try," SK said with an unusual amount of courage. "So prioritize protecting the people down there."

"Are you sure?"

Using the System interface, SK summoned the inventory and pulled out the [Rock Body II] skill crystal.

...

[Item: Skill Crystal (Rock Body II)]

Description:

This is a skill crystal that bestows the upgraded version of the Rock Body skill to anyone, including the user itself.

The Rock Body skill allows the users to turn their body into stone, sharply increasing their strength and defense at the cost of agility. The upgraded version allows the users to draw in external sources of earth to make their bodies bigger and stronger.

There is a small chance that the skill crystal will bestow a weaker or stronger version of the skill.

...

"I probably should've used this while somewhere significantly safer, but fuck it," SK concluded while holding the skill crystal. "If memoery serves me right, I just need to crush it."

Crack!

Soon after SK crushed the skill crystal, a surge of energy entered his bbody,and he felt as if his brain was on fire as a new ability embedded itself into his very being.

And then did something weird.

[Skill Crystal (Rock Body II) has been activated.]

[Notice! The effect of the title: Star Reacher has been activated. The Rocky Body II skill will be upgraded into Gaia Guardian skill.]

"Oh hell yeah!"

As this new skill merged with his being, SK could feel his body growing in size and density.

"Time for a hero landing!"

______ Landing zone imminent... __________

"You monsters!"

"Your view of us is irrelevant to the bottom line."

"We are people! Not resources!"

"Incorrect, everything is a resource, especially lives."

"May the crystals damn your souls!"

"The only divinity is profit."

Surrounding a caravan of a hundred or so Lumenlithic civilains, a dozen or so salbanbo hover tanks and their crews had their weapons drawn and aimed at the huddling masses.

None of the weapons they were using were energy-based, as lumenlithics were able to manipulate light and would be able to nullify or outright bend the beams back at the soldiers. Instead, every single Salbanbo soldier was armed with a sonic rifle that was able to launch a devasting pulse of kinetic energy in the form of weaponized sound.

Needless to say, the ones with customized or more expensive-looking weapons and armor were the leaders of this army of money-grubbing bastards.

And the one on top of this heap was known as Regional Manager Alpha-887.

Like any good Regional Manager for the Salbanbo Empire, Alpha-887 was noticeably larger than the regular rank-and-file, had significantly more chrome and gold used in his implants, and had a personal firearm that was fully customized to his liking.

Not only that, but this titanic lizard was sitting in a personalized hover tank that was just as gaudy as the chrome in his limbs.

"Evaluator," Alpha-887 rumbled through a synthesized voicebox, "what is the possible profits from this harvest?"

Seated on a tier below him, a salbanbo accountant began exercising his implanted eyes and brains in looking over the surrounded lumenlithics.

"Initial estimates calculate the value of this harvest to be 801997266 units," the evaluator announced. "However, this estimation is based on incomplete data."

"Oh?"

In order to answer his superior's query, the evaluator climbed to a higher level of the hover tank in order to point.

"Two adult specimens are attempting to hide an adolescent. Noticeable interference."

As soon as these words were shared, the aforentioned Lumenlithic family visibly braced themselves.

From an outsider's point of view, one could clearly see a pair of elderly lumenlithics attempting to cover up one that looked to be a young adult.

Noticing this strange behavior, Alpha-887 released a synthetic growl before readying his weapon.

"Activating extractor."

Bwoom!

"Ah!"

"Bisma, no!"

"Let her go, you foul cretin!"

Alpha-887's blaster released a beam of energy that bypassed the elder lumenlithics and captured the young female lumenlithic behind them.

Retracting the beam, Alpha-887 brought the girl to his tank so that his evaluators could get a closer look.

"Evaluator, calculate."

"As you order."

"You foul beasts! HA!"

Inside of the barrier, the Lumenlithic woman attempted to blast through the barrier with a concentrated laser beam but failed to pierce through.

The evaluator circled her twice over before finishing his task.

"Calculation complete. Specimen appears to be a rare Astra Lumenlithic variant."

"Oh? Interesting," Alpha-887 growled in a pleased tone.

A majority of Lumenlithics develop their bodies based on the minerals of their homeworld, Bendana-7. However, like every planet in existence, Bendana-7 was occasionally struck by meteorites containing metals and minerals from off-world.

When these meteors make impact, it is not an unusual sight to see Lumenlithics attempt to bury their loved ones' crystals or their soon-to-be-formed children inside of these chunks of space rock.

The Lumenlithic born from them are known as Astral Lumenlitics, and are said to be to develop abilities unusual for Lumenlithics due to the cosmic radiation innate to all meteors. Needless to say, this also meant that the AI cores refined from Astra Lumenlithic crsytals were dramatically different from regular ones.

Not only that, but the Astral Lumenlithics were noticeably prettier than their regular counterparts.

"Evaluator, how much of a return can we expect if we process her core?"

"Twenty percent higher than what we estimated from previous calculations."

"What if we sell her as a slave?"

"Fifty percent increase."

"And if I wished to keep her as a prize, but process the rest into cores?" Alpha-887 asked with unmasked desire in his eyes.

Needless to say, the Lumenlithic woman shuddered at the feeling.

"Calculating...thirty percent over the original estimation."

"Good enough for me. Agents prepare to liquidate!"

"Application, accepted."

"No!"

Heeding the orders of their executive, the Salbanbo soldiers readied their rifles and prepared to release sonic hell upon the Lumenlithics.

In open defiance to their fate, several of the Lumenlithics attempted to blast the Salbanbo soldiers with whatever energy blasts they could muster, only for the attacks to fail due to their latter's energy shields.

"Ready..."

In a few moments, the only things that were going to be left of them after this moment were going to be rubble and crystals.

"...aim..."

Now realizing the futility of this moment, many of the Lumenlithic civiliains simply lost all hope.

"...FIRE!"

At the executive's command, hundreds of sonic rifles fired a flurry of sound bullets that...

"I DON'T THINK SO! PLATINUM DOME!"

THOOM

PING! PING! PING!

"What?!"

...did absolutely nothing because they were blocked by the sudden appearance of a dark blue energy shield dome that seemed to be generated by a strange circular device located at the top of it.

Needless to say, everyone present was shocked out of their minds.

"Incalculable!"

"Wasted energy! Wasted units!"

"By the Celestials..."

"Where did this shield come from?"

Clang!

"Huh?"

In the midst of all of this panicking and surprise, a strangely armored warrior landed on top of the dome with his legs in a bow stance, one of his fists touching the shield and while his other arm was spread open.

The Lumenlithic couldn't help but feel a sense of hopefulness from this sight for some odd reason, while the Salbanbo soldiers had this strange feeling of dread.

"Evaluator!" Alpha-887 roared once he managed to get his wits back together. "Identify and evaluate. Who is this interloper and what is he wearing?!"

Granted, he only got his wits back once he realized that the strange armored warrior in front of him had more illustrious cybernetics than his own.

"Calculating...ERROR! ERROR! I am unable to to determine the identity and value of the target."

"What? Elaborate!"

"Armor appears to be composed of unknown platinum alloys and makes use of unidentified technologies," the evaluator explained. "This is an undiscovered intellectual property."

"What?!"