Marvel: Empire of Power-Chapter 114 - 113: Siberian Salvage, a Wraith’s Debut, and a Cosmic Cold War

The Siberian taiga, a vast, snow-dusted expanse of frozen forest and unforgiving wilderness, became the unlikely new front in Elias Thorne's clandestine war. The flaming descent of the crippled Kree Bird-of-Prey and the scattered Skrull escape pods had not gone unnoticed by Soviet radar and long-range patrols. Even as Elias's Nightfall deposited Logan, Miller "Argent," and Elena "Scythe" Petrova near the Kree frigate's impact crater, and Bucky "Wraith" Barnes made his solo, ghostly approach towards the Skrull pod landing zones miles to the east, the Russian bear was stirring, its own special forces and scientific teams already mobilizing.

The Kree Wreckage – A Feast for Wolves:

The Kree frigate had plowed a fiery furrow several miles long through the ancient forest before coming to a devastating, twisted halt. Logan, Miller, and Elena approached the wreckage cautiously, their enhanced senses alive to the scent of alien fuel, scorched metal, and Kree blood. The frigate's power core was still intermittently discharging violent bursts of energy, making the area unstable.

They found Kree survivors, perhaps a dozen, heavily armed and attempting to establish a fortified perimeter around the ship's command module, clearly trying to destroy sensitive data or send a distress signal. Their blue skin was stark against the Siberian snow, their expressions a mixture of desperation and Kree imperial arrogance.

The ensuing fight was brutal and swift. Logan, a berserker reborn, his adamantium claws, now capable of channeling focused kinetic energy, tore through Kree battle armor with terrifying ease. Miller, his cryo-resonant bone talons perfectly suited to the frozen environment, moved like an avenging winter spirit, his resilience shrugging off plasma bolts that sizzled through the trees. Elena Scythe, from a vantage point overlooking the crash site, provided pinpoint kinetic scythe support, her attacks vaporizing Kree energy weapons and creating openings for Logan and Miller's assault.

The Kree, trained for ordered interstellar warfare, were unprepared for such primal, focused ferocity. They fell quickly.

[KREE FRIGATE SURVIVORS (SIBERIA) – NEUTRALIZED. COMMAND MODULE SECURED. ADVANCED KREE WEAPONRY/TECH (PARTIALLY DAMAGED PLASMA RIFLES, PERSONAL SHIELDS, DATA CRYSTALS) SALVAGED BY O'MALLEY'S DRONES (REMOTE DEPLOYMENT FROM NIGHTFALL ORBITAL OVERWATCH). Prime Essence Shards Acquired: +1.2 (from elite Kree warriors & frigate's residual core energy). Total Shards: 3.0/5.0.]

Elias now had another critical Shard infusion, bringing him closer to either another True Legionnaire or a much-needed personal augmentation to better handle the escalating cosmic threats.

The Wraith's Hunt – Skrull Secrets: frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

Miles to the east, Bucky "Wraith" Barnes, moving with the preternatural silence and efficiency of his Winter Soldier training, now augmented by Elias's deprogramming and System-enhanced reflexes, tracked the Skrull escape pods. He found three, two of which had crash-landed hard, their occupants deceased. The third, however, had made a relatively soft landing in a remote, snow-filled valley.

Wraith approached with extreme caution. He knew Skrulls were master shapeshifters, infiltrators by nature. The occupants could be anywhere, anyone. His upgraded bionic arm, a marvel of O'Malley's reverse-engineered Kree/Hydra tech, whirred silently, its multi-spectrum sensors scanning for anomalies.

He found them: three Skrull warriors, attempting to camouflage their pod and establish a hidden camp. They were not the brutish soldiers Logan had encountered on Mars; these were clearly intelligence operatives, their forms lean and agile, their eyes constantly scanning, their personal cloaking devices already active, making them shimmer like heat haze against the snow.

Wraith didn't engage directly. His mission was to secure, to acquire. He used his knowledge of infiltration and counter-infiltration, setting subtle traps, observing their routines, waiting for an opening. It came when two of the Skrulls left to scout the surrounding area, leaving one to guard the pod and its contents (likely sensitive data or specialized equipment).

Wraith moved like a whisper of the arctic wind. A precisely aimed EMP burst from his bionic arm temporarily disabled the Skrull's cloaking device. Before the surprised alien could fully react, Wraith was upon him, a blur of motion, his takedown swift, silent, and brutally efficient. He didn't kill the Skrull; Elias wanted live subjects for study, for potential System integration if their shapeshifting could be controlled or replicated. He subdued the Skrull with a potent, fast-acting neuro-toxin developed by Finch. The other two Skrulls, returning to find their comrade incapacitated and their pod compromised, attempted a desperate firefight. Wraith, using the terrain and his superior marksmanship, systematically disabled them with non-lethal (but deeply incapacitating) nerve-gas pellets.

[SKRULL INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVES (3) CAPTURED ALIVE BY ASSET "WRAITH." SKRULL ESCAPE POD & ADVANCED CLOAKING/INFILTRATION TECHNOLOGY SECURED. Prime Essence Shard Echoes Acquired: +0.7 (from elite Skrull operatives – unique psionic/shapeshifting residue). Total Shards: 3.7/5.0.]

Bucky Barnes had passed his first solo field test with chilling aplomb. He was no longer just the Winter Soldier; he was Elias Thorne's Wraith, a scalpel in the Siberian shadows.

The Russian Bear Stirs:

As Elias's teams were mopping up their respective salvage operations, Soviet forces began to converge on both crash sites. Long-range reconnaissance aircraft buzzed overhead. Spetsnaz ski troops, hardy and ruthless, were detected moving through the forests. This was now a race against time.

Elias, coordinating through O'Malley aboard the Nightfall (which was providing orbital sensor data and comms relays), ordered immediate exfiltration. Logan, Miller, and Elena, along with O'Malley's drones laden with Kree tech, were extracted via grav-lift just as the first Soviet patrols reached the Kree frigate's still-smoldering crater.

Wraith's exfiltration was even more precarious. He had three subdued but still dangerous Skrull prisoners and their escape pod to secure. Elias authorized the use of a "Blackwood Skunkworks" prototype – a small, heavily shielded, VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) transport, disguised as a Soviet geological survey craft, which O'Malley piloted remotely into the valley. Wraith managed to load his prisoners and the pod just as Soviet Mi-24 Hind gunships, drawn by the earlier firefight, appeared over the ridgeline. The VTOL's advanced cloaking and ECM (Electronic Countermeasures) allowed it to slip away into the vast Siberian wilderness, leaving the Soviets to find only empty shell casings and lingering, unidentifiable energy signatures.

Elias Thorne had played a dangerous game in Siberia and won, though narrowly. He had acquired invaluable Kree and Skrull technology, several live alien specimens for study, a significant boost to his Prime Essence Shard reserve (now at [3.7]), and further proof of his operatives' deadly effectiveness. Logan was a re-energized cosmic brawler. Miller was an unkillable Feral Legionnaire sentinel. Wraith was a master infiltrator and shadow warrior. His Alpha Legion was a globally deployable super-team.

But the Kree blockade of Earth remained. The Skrull response had been a temporary disruption, not a decisive victory. Admiral Varr-Gohl and his Kree vanguard were undoubtedly analyzing Earth's unorthodox defenses, preparing for a more systematic, more brutal subjugation. S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Soviets were now acutely aware that something powerful and unknown was operating within their spheres of influence, snatching alien technology from under their very noses. Captain America, back in the US and grappling with his own government's secrets, was an unpredictable force whose path might soon intersect with Elias's own.

The cosmic Cold War had just begun. Earth was the prize, its fate hanging in the balance between ancient alien empires, terrestrial superpowers, and the unseen hand of Elias Thorne, the boy landlord who now commanded gods and monsters, his ambitions reaching for a throne not just of Earth, but of the System itself. His Shard reserve was climbing. His power was consolidating. The next move would be his, and it would undoubtedly shake the heavens.

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