| Sector 3601 - September 3, 2013
The Manhunters were the Guardians of the Universe's first attempt at creating an interstellar police force to combat evil across the galaxy. Their name and much of their code of conduct were modeled after the Manhunters of Ma'aleca'andra, otherwise known as Mars.
For thousands of years, they served the Guardians faithfully. However, the Manhunters eventually became obsessed with the act of hunting criminals itself. Their code—No Man Escapes the Manhunters—became more important to them than justice.
That narrow and emotionless interpretation of justice ultimately led to their corruption.
The rogue Oan Krona secretly reprogrammed the Manhunters to prove to the Guardians that an emotionless police force was fundamentally flawed.
Krona's tampering caused the Manhunters to conclude that because all crime stemmed from emotion, and emotion came from organic life, the only true solution to maintaining order in the universe was the eradication of all organic beings.
The Manhunters descended upon the worlds of Sector 666, slaughtering every living being they encountered in what would forever become known as the Massacre of Sector 666.
The massacre brought the Manhunters into direct conflict with the Guardians, eventually culminating in the machines attempting to rebel against their creators.
The Guardians prevailed and decommissioned most of the Manhunters. Those who survived scattered across hidden worlds such as Biot, slowly rebuilding their forces and spreading their beliefs to other machines.
Since then, the Manhunters' overriding goal had been vengeance against the Guardians of the Universe and their replacements: the Green Lantern Corps.
Atros was a native of the planet Ryut in Sector 666, one of the universe's 3,600 sectors.
He lost his wife and two children during the Manhunters' massacre.
In the aftermath, Atros was discovered marooned upon his ruined homeworld by four other survivors: Qull, Roixeaume, Orphram, and Dal Xauex.
Like Atros, they believed the Guardians bore responsibility for the tragedy of Sector 666.
The four survivors convinced Atros to join their quest for vengeance, and together they became known as the Five Inversions.
For centuries, the Five Inversions battled the servants of the Guardians using cruel blood magic. Eventually, they formed the Empire of Tears, a network of planets within Sector 2814 ruled from the world of Ysmault.
After ruling the Empire for two millennia, Atros sought even greater power to fulfill his vengeance.
He manipulated Roixeaume into granting him deeper mastery over blood magic. From there, he kidnapped a Guardian and killed him with his bare hands. Using the Guardian's blood, Atros gazed into his own future and saw himself standing over the corpses of the Inversions upon Ysmault.
Many eons later, the Inversions were finally defeated by the Guardians through the might of the newly formed Green Lantern Corps. The group was left to rot upon Ysmault.
Knowing the prophecy had to be fulfilled, Atros murdered the remaining Inversions himself, becoming the last survivor of Sector 666.
Using their blood, he began unlocking the red light of rage.
From that blood he forged the Central Power Battery of Ysmault, a device filled with crimson light that could replenish the rage of any Lantern connected to it.
He then empowered the fury within himself and created the very first Red Lantern Ring.
The ring allowed Atros to weaponize his rage as light itself, replacing his heart in the process.
With the Central Power Battery and his ring complete, Atros became Atrocitus, the first Red Lantern of Rage.
Eventually, he forged additional rings that sought out the most hate-filled beings in existence, transforming them into the first members of the Red Lantern Corps.
Bathed in the blood of his victims beneath the shadow of the great Red Lantern, Atrocitus swore vengeance upon both the Guardians of the Universe and Sinestro—the so-called Greatest of the Green Lanterns and the one responsible for his imprisonment.
With the aid of his Corps, Atrocitus escaped Ysmault.
Soon after, he accidentally discovered that some Manhunters were still active. The Guardians had not only failed to make restitution for Sector 666—they had failed to destroy the Manhunters completely.
So Atrocitus made it his mission to wipe every last Manhunter from existence.
That was what the Red Lantern Corps had spent the past decades doing.
Hunting.
Even the chaos caused by the massive intergalactic unrest of recent years could not hide the Manhunters from Atrocitus' rage. Matters only worsened for the machines when powers such as the Citadel began identifying and purging them over the last two years.
In response, the surviving Manhunters retreated to Biot, fortifying the planet with countless defenses and safeguards.
Assaulting the world with only the Red Lantern Corps would be suicide.
Unlike the Green Lantern Corps, which famously maintained a fixed membership of 7,200 Lanterns—two assigned to each of the universe's 3,600 sectors—the Red Lantern Corps had no strict numerical limit.
Its size fluctuated depending on how many beings across the universe reached a level of boundless rage sufficient to attract a red ring.
But fewer than twenty individuals truly met that standard.
Bleez, his second-in-command.
Dex-Starr, a cat from Earth with limited intelligence who nonetheless ranked among the Corps' deadliest members.
Loran, a cleric devoted to spreading Atrocitus' doctrine of righteous vengeance against the Guardians.
Ragnar. Skallox. Veon. Zilius Zox. Haggor. Vice. Fury-6. Sheko. Ratchet.
And the newest recruit: Razer.
To compensate for their lack of numbers, Atrocitus had resorted to recruiting criminals from worlds like Rimbor and enslavers captured across the galaxy, forcing rings upon them.
Now, beyond the named leaders who retained fragments of their personalities and intelligence, there existed hundreds of nameless Red Lanterns.
Unlike Green Lanterns, most Red Lanterns were reduced to little more than rabid beasts by their rings, driven entirely by the burning "napalm" blood coursing through their veins.
Even with those numbers, however, assaulting Biot remained impossible.
Fortunately, Atrocitus was no longer alone.
Turning his gaze away from the gray-brown world of Biot, he looked toward the figures gathered to his right.
Members of a new force rapidly rising within the galaxy.
The Nova Corps.
They had burst onto the galactic stage with overwhelming displays of power, repeatedly crippling Citadel operations by striking worlds throughout the Vega System while also slowing the empire's relentless expansion.
More often than not, the Nova Corps defeated the Gordanites in direct conflict.
And the Citadel could do little to stop them, as the Corps possessed the ability to escape through subspace itself.
The Nova Corps was an intergalactic organization dedicated to maintaining peace across countless planets. Their base was Xandar, formerly known as Warworld before Mongul's overthrow. Apparently, the name meant Defender of the People in an ancient language from Sector 2814.
The source of the Corps' power was the Nova Force, said to be a nearly limitless energy field generated by the living supercomputer known as the Xandarian Worldmind. That energy was distributed among the Centurions at varying levels depending on rank.
The Corps had three primary directives: defend Xandarian civilization, protect and safeguard the Xandarian Worldmind, and maintain galactic peace.
The Nova Corps boasted roughly five thousand members divided into four ranks: Corpsmen, Millennians, Denarians, and Centurions.
Corpsmen were the most common members, fresh graduates of the Xandarian Space Academy with only minimal access to the Nova Force. Millennians ranked above them and wielded half the power of a Centurion, though they were unable to fly. Denarians possessed three-quarters of the Nova Force, making them considerably stronger and capable of limited flight. At the top stood the Centurions, the Corps' elite, granted full access to the Nova Force and command over the lower ranks.
Above even them stood Centurion Nova-Prime, who outranked all Centurions. The Corps itself was governed by the Prime Commandant, who also served as the monarch of Xandar.
The Red Lanterns were a cult-like Corps that worshipped Atrocitus, but Nova-Prime was spoken of like a veritable deity—omniscient, omnipotent, and unstoppable.
Few had ever seen Nova-Prime in person. He only appeared when threats exceeded the abilities of ordinary Corps members, but wherever he went, devastation followed. Every threat he targeted was utterly extinguished. If Nova-Prime appeared before you and you were the target, it was already too late. Escape was impossible.
The only thing distinguishing him from the other members was the red eight-pointed star emblazoned on his helmet. But by the time you were close enough to notice it, he could already reach you with ease. Because of that, every Nova Corps member carried an intimidating deterrent effect.
No government or empire had granted them authority to operate in their sectors. They answered to no treaties. Yet planets under their protection respected them enough to send their people to Xandar to attend the Xandarian Space Academy and join the Corps.
Numerous civilizations had already forged strong alliances with them.
That was why Atrocitus had approached them for aid.
Unlike the incompetent Green Lantern Corps, whose members were forbidden from killing, the Nova Corps merely discouraged it. Their widespread motto was:
Don't kill if you can wound. Don't wound if you can subdue. Don't subdue if you can pacify. And don't raise your hand at all until you've first extended it.
But once every other option had failed, they were permitted to eliminate threats.
Their golden helmets also recorded their actions, and every member was held accountable for abuses of power. Accountability—something the Guardians had always lacked.
If the Nova Corps had protected Sector 666 instead of the Green Lanterns, perhaps Atrocitus would have watched his children grow old beside him. Perhaps he could have spent the rest of his life with his wife.
Atrocitus crushed the regret before it could spread any further, rage once again wrapping around his mind like a warm blanket.
The man standing closest to him wore the standard Nova Corps uniform: a golden helmet and a dark suit trimmed with gold. The red six-pointed star on his helmet marked him as a Centurion.
Atrocitus recognized him immediately from the red dreadlocks spilling out beneath the helmet and the gray cybernetic arm.
This was the Centurion known as Wildfire, named for the way his Tamaranean powers caused his hair to glow and burn like living flame, leaving blazing yellow trails unlike the usual blue of the Nova Force.
Standing beside him were two beings that made even Atrocitus uneasy.
Denarians were already comparable in strength to the average Green or Red Lantern. Centurions stood roughly on Atrocitus' level himself.
But the Kryptonian duo surpassed even that.
One was a young adult dressed in a white skintight suit with a cape, leaving only his face exposed. A golden House of El crest rested on his chest.
The other looked slightly younger, wearing a black-and-red skintight suit with the same crest but no cape.
Match and Superboy.
Both wore masks covering the lower halves of their faces so they could communicate through comms.
"I still can't believe you're finally wearing a suit," Match joked. "Me and Joseph thought you'd never trade your jacket, shirt, and jeans for anything."
"Well, it beats constantly replacing my patches," Superboy replied. "And staying powered without a yellow sun is pretty neat. Plus, M'gann says I look good in it."
"Enough about that," Wildfire interrupted. "What did you guys get little Mar'i? I can't believe that little bumgorf is already turning two today."
*Cough. Cough.*
Atrocitus suddenly felt awkward as he interrupted the strangely relaxed trio—a stark contrast to the tense three hundred Red Lanterns and hundred Centurions gathered behind them.
"Right," Match said. "Let's get this over with quickly. We've got a party to get to."
For a moment, Atrocitus almost felt a chill.
The beings that had terrorized his sector for millennia were being treated as little more than an inconvenience. But these people possessed the strength to justify such confidence.
Their accomplishments—deposing tyrants, annihilating evil armies, liberating entire worlds—were known across the cosmos.
It was no wonder the Guardians of the Universe looked unfavorably upon the Nova Corps. Their fame was beginning to eclipse that of the Green Lantern Corps itself.
That thought filled Atrocitus with satisfaction.
Today, another threat to the universe would fall.
"Nova Corps!" Wildfire shouted. "Attack!"
The entire Nova Corps contingent vanished in a storm of blue blazes, descending toward Biot like living comets.
Atrocitus refused to let the Red Lanterns be overshadowed.
"With blood and rage of crimson red,
ripped from a corpse so freshly dead,
together with our hellish hate,
we'll burn you all—that is your fate!"
With that battle cry, the Red Lanterns surged forward after them.