X-Men: Red (2nd series) #5

Planet Arakko, the Great Ring:
Standing before the members of Arakko’s ruling body are Abigail Brand, Cable, Magneto (also a member) and Nightcrawler. Brand gets to the point: Krakoa’s had a precognitive warning that the Eternals are going to attack mutantkind soon, perhaps even today. She’d consider an immediate future reading on the source 98% accurate or even higher, but she understands if Arakko’s own top precog wants to verify.

When none of the Great Ring members react, she directly addresses said precog Idyll, who does not answer. Ora Serrata interjects that, as an omega seer, Idyll can see the true future but cannot act to alter it. Even before Tarn stole her tongue, she gave no clues. All they can do is interpret the notes of her silence. She would say in translation: “An empty heart beats hardest. An empty hand deals the impossible blow. And the stalemate ends with victory’s loss.” Isca the Unbeaten (who occupies the Seat of Victory) observes that Ororo usually ends stalemates here. Where is she today?

Magneto explains she is giving the Quiet Council of Krakoa perspective. Nightcrawler, meanwhile, joins them with the Krakoan view. So, princess Ororo reigns elsewhere today, Isca observes, while she studies her nails. All to the good, this is not the Table Day’s business. This is the Dawn’s time. A war council…

Cable suggests talking strategy as he shows them files of the best-known Eternals. The Eternals won’t want Arakko coming to the rescue, so they can expect them here, as soon as they attack Krakoa. They’ll exercise restraint on Earth, maybe even keep the fight on the astral plane, but here on the red planet they can expect overwhelming force. And the best way to counter that is to be prepared beforehand. He is interrupted by a flashing light. Incoming! he shouts.

Nightcrawler urges the others to get to safety. Magneto tells him that is not their way. He orders Isca to be ready. With her powers, she needs to act first against the enemy.

They look at Isca, who has just killed Idyll and holds her head. That’s just what she is doing, Isca states. Sobunar pronounces what they are thinking: Isca’s power is not to lose. If she has switched sides, that means… … That someone must take her off the board, Nightcrawler decides and teleports away with her.

The object that caused the flash lands hard. The being announces he is Uranos. They have deviated excessively. And he has one hour to correct them.

The Armories of Uranos have landed on several points of Arakko. Once he left the Exclusion, they were activated. Now they open like flowers. In the air above Port Prometheus, the air shimmers. A nightmare machine blots out the sun and disgorges horror.

In the art community of the Morrowlands, the air shimmers. Bio-metallic slime emerges to infect and consume.

Nightcrawler and Isca materialize over the ocean west of Arakko Prime, where Isca dislocates Nightcrawler’s arm. In the distance, the air shimmers.

In the Valley of the Fallen, the air shimmers. A thing of light and monstrous angles bursts forth to burn the eyes from the pilgrims.

In all different places on Arakko, the air shimmers followed by horrors.

At the Great Ring, Ora Serrata doubles down, blasting Uranos. The eye of the law is on him and he… No, Uranos cuts them off. There is no law but the three principles coded into him and no vision of that law but his own. He walks toward Ora Serrata, in spite of being blasted. He hits them. That is the law he sees and now they see it too.

He looks upward. What has gained his interest is the appearance of Legion. Outside, Legion orders and Uranos flies upward to join him. Wouldn’t want to break the furniture.

After 6:28 minutes, there is a momentary lull in hostilities. Brand announces she has lost contact with Station 2. She has to assume the KEEP is down, maybe destroyed. But they confirm multiple attacks across Mars. No need for her machine eyes, Lactuca announces. She sees all. The enemy has arsenals. Many machines of death sail across the world. And they will fight without him. A challenge to all, Sobunar announces. And the seats of Day have responsibilities to the world, the sea and the sky.

What’s happening up there? Cable mutters. Magneto fears the worst and orders Lactuca and Sobunar to defend the broken land. They will keep him busy here.

Less than 30 seconds later, Uranos returns and David Haller is gone. “You bore a brave boy, Charles,” Magneto mutters. So much for that, Uranos announces. Where were they?

Magneto order Lodus Logos to give him metal, and so metal emits from Lodus’ mouth and is directed to attack Uranos.

In the settlement at Argyre Planitia, the Brotherhood of Mutants join the fight against the self-replicating machine army. Together they hold the line.

Above Port Prometheus, Nova fights to protect civilians from a dozen worlds as they evacuate. “It’s all up to me,” he thinks. He thinks that too often. Alone, he holds the line.

After her victory over Nightcrawler, Isca the Unbeaten fell into Sobunar’s ocean. Now he besieges her there, his creatures are many and they fight to the last. They try to hold the line. But against some, the line simply cannot be held.

Uranos is mildly impressed. Between Magneto’s magnetism and Cable’s telekinesis, they are actually fighting him. Magneto groans that he is everything he has ever fought against. Uranos smirks as he notes that it is personal in some way. His condolences. He blasts all the shrapnel back against his foes. He states that it must be heart-rending. Uranos grabs Magneto and tears out his heart.

13:23 minutes into the hour, Magneto falls.

Brand panics. Cable cuts her off. They will mourn him tomorrow, if there is a tomorrow. He accesses his computer, ordering to bodyslide in the omega one from his weapon cache. The omega one pulse rifle is the most powerful weapon in Cable’s arsenal. It fires bullet of ultra-dense solid light along a tunnel of hard radiation that can melt osmium. In the year 3877, it will be classified as a weapon of absolute destruction and banned from use in warfare. It weakens Uranos. That’s all.

After three and a half minutes of constant fire, the omega one overheats and jams. Uranos’ weapon does not as it kills Cable.

Lactuca seals a breach to a dimension of pure destructive force but it comes too late to help the hands in the KEEP.

Xilo unleashes the invertebrates and insects that form him. They can scour a human body to the bone in seconds. They manage to disgust Uranos.

By now, partial evacuation in Port Prometheus has been successful but all the Krakoan gates have been destroyed. Seven Kymellian priests die by fire, before Nova can save them.

In the markets below, the Arakkiii regulars fight alongside the alien vendors to save what they can.

With laser eyes, Uranos methodically reduces the collective that is Xilo to 13.5 % of its mass. A few seconds later, Abigail Brand tries to flee to avoid entering the Resurrection Protocols. She fails and Uranos strikes her down.

On the dark side of the planet, the Fisher King feels the wind change. It is time.

On Argyre Planitia, the Arakkii are forced into strategic retreat. Yielding the field is not yielding the fight, they remind themselves. Yet the taste is bitter.

In the Great Ring, there is silence. All of this has occurred in twenty minutes. Uranos still has 40 minutes left. He uses the time well. When the hour is over, so is 98 percent of life in a fifty-mile radius.

Uranos is teleported back to his prison in the Exclusion. He has felt no need to check his work. He should have made sure.

Lodus Logos awakes with a gasp. He has been hidden by green vines from what is left of Xilo, who assures Lodus he meant no insult. Lodus Logos calms them. This way he fights again and can take revenge. He takes no offense for wise tactics. How long was he out? Xilo doesn’t know, as their memory store has been damaged. Others may be alive. Lodus examines the great eyeball of Ora Serrata. She was gouged in the eye but the body is unharmed. She has survived worse, but her weapon will require healing. And Uranos’ weapons still roam unchecked. They must strategize.

No, comes a new weak voice. Such strategies are not for the Table Dusk. There is a war. A war they are losing Still standing, his power keeping his body alive without his heart, Magneto announces: and so the Seat of Loss takes command…