Starhold Vesta

Chapter 6.2

My whole body surrenders to old movements that my muscles perform from memory. I check the sky. I inhale, tasting the air.

I register the distinct scent of burning metal. I identify it as easily as I recognize my face in the mirror.

Frozen in place, I take stock. This world is so similar to my home planet, my memories snap over reality like a filter. Instead of a busy port with gaggles of civilians and travelers scurrying toward shelter, I'm standing on the broken roads of an old world that was burned to the ground. I lift my sticky boot with liquid human remains caked on the bottom. The roving debris orbiting the atmosphere breaks and I am rewarded with a few seconds of moonlight before I'm enshrouded in darkness again. My friends and family melt under the lethal light of the Invader beams.

Without thinking, I spin around to face Kai who is staring at the sky with wide eyes. He finds my gaze.

"What the fuck are the Invaders doing here?" he shouts into the comms.

There's no response to assure him that I'm any more aware of what's happening than he is. How they followed us here, why they're above our heads despite being an entire galaxy away from the destroyed planet where we met them last. But every alarm in my body blares, desperate for one thing.

I expect them to appear any second. I watch the sky from my crouched position in the shadow of a tall structure. Kai matches me on the other side. Before I know what I'm doing, I press the shell of my ear to ignite my comms, but there's nothing there. I bend my finger to frantically find the right channel to find orders from Scope, but with crushing realization, I remember that my PAHLM is basically shards in a junk drawer somewhere on my ship docked inside the HMS Valediction.

I'm not on Earth anymore. There's no URE to retreat to. I need to get everyone under cover.

"Run!" I scream in my Earth language to the crowds still lingering in the street. Most don't get the message, so I grab my pistol and shoot the sky.

They scatter, some gargling in their native languages at the Tadj, most likely to report me or demand they do something about the maniac waving her weapons around. They don't realize what these beings are capable of. Don't they realize this is their doom?

Kai orders the Vesta crew back to their ship. When he turns around, we're face to face.

"What are you doing? We need them." I say over the wind that picks up, kicking dirt and pebbles in my face.

"They're Vesta people. They don't know what they're up against."

He's right. None of them were on Earth when this happened. I check for Nuna and Moon who are out of my sight and realize—yes. Them too.

"How did no one mention that it was The Fucking Invaders who have been raiding our drop-offs?"

"Was Coodi Topside?" Kai shouts over the screaming wind. We have comms, we should use them, but we're so used to this kind of communication instead.

"She was SOCOM VIPER—Never Topside."

He gives me a look that says, does that answer your question?

The wind whips the sandy roads. The Tadj evacuate the people to the safety of strongholds while many appear as backup to address the situation.

"Retreat to your ship," the closest one to me says. "This is Port Security's responsibility."

"These are the Invaders," I shout at her. "There's no way you can stop them."

She doesn't listen. I grab the bony part of her shoulders that distinguish the females of their species. "You have to get everyone out. They're going to destroy the planet."