In the safe room, Kaylee paced back and forth behind the couch, frequently wringing her hands and running them through her hair, doing anything to keep herself busy despite the protests from Zayne to relax for a while. Xaleyp and Rach still sat at the table, a new game of chess just starting, so blissfully unaware of what was going on around them. Zayne sat in a chair watching, his feet on the table and leaning back. He was beginning to grow as restless as Kaylee from the lack of activity when a news alert came through on their CAMs.

Thousands dead, more injured after explosion in residential building.

Her breath catching in her throat and with dread surging in her, she opened the article.

Hours after an unknown transport, believed to be from Hyperia, docked at Art’Yen Spaceport, an explosion shook downtown Mornage.

The explosion occurred at approximately 4:15 PM in the Wind District, just a few blocks away from the Capitol and Art’Yen Spaceport.

The building, which is the metropolitan residence of the Commander, currently leans against the Galactic Trade Federation’s office in Mornage. Both are currently undergoing evacuation by disaster response units.

Commander Skylar Vah’Aris was last seen entering the Capitol half an hour prior to the attack. He was unavailable for comment.

The cause of the explosion is currently under investigation.

Her heart skipped a beat and the roaring of blood reached her ears. She knew it, she knew something was wrong, she could just feel it in her bones, somehow, that something happened. Why now? Why them? What did they do to deserve this?

Panicking, she changed the page to look at the pictures. One skyscraper was wedged into the other. Smoke was billowing into the sky. A small fire was still raging where the base had once been. The rest of the pictures were more angles of the destruction, followed by a picture of the transport docked at the spaceport.

Tears swelled in her eyes as she looked around the room. The kids didn’t have CAMs, and there was no way for them to know what was happening. Zayne, however, had planted his feet on the ground and looked at her.

“Kaylee,” Zayne said, walking up to her. He grabbed her by the arm and guided her away from the children, perhaps rougher than was really necessary. “Something’s happened at the Capitol.”

“The explosion, I saw. How could they do such a thing?”

“No, not that.” He shook his head and glanced over his shoulder back at the kids. Both were looking at him. He lowered his voice to be almost inaudible. “The guards there sent a distress signal. Something happened to them.”

“Have you heard from Skylar?” She tried to keep her voice just as low, but found it more and more difficult with each breath she took. “Is he okay?”

“Don’t panic, he made it up to the meeting with the delegate. If they were going to do something, I doubt they would’ve let him get that far.” The tone of his voice and the small bit of perspiration on his upper lip told Kaylee that was a lie, but she didn’t call him out on it. She was willing to believe anything in the hopes her husband was alive. “His secretary told me that he made it before the signal went out, so we have to hope for the best.”

As he finished the sentence, the whine of an engine pierced their ears. An explosion rocked the house, rattling the different pieces of furniture in the room and knocking Kaylee off balance. Zayne’s eye twitched as he read a message on his CAM. His face sunk, perhaps a little too convincingly.

“Shit.” He grabbed her and forced her towards the back of the room. “They’re attacking. We need to find a way out for you three.”

Muffled screams and gunshots came from somewhere in the estate. Another explosion rumbled through the room. Zayne walked over to Rach and Xaleyp, who stopped playing and looked up. Their eyes darted around the room, trying to figure out what was going on.

“It’s alright, but you guys need to get in the corner and stay there, okay?” He smiled at them, trying his best not to frighten them further. “Just be brave.”

Zayne walked over to the cabinet and typed in the combination. It chimed and opened, revealing a cache of weapons and tools. He grabbed a rifle, loaded it, and brought one of the smaller devices to Kaylee.

“It’s a plasma torch. Hold the button on the front and press it against that wall.” He pointed to a spot opposite the door that would bring them out under the deck. “Make a circle big enough for you to squeeze out. I’ll hold them back.”

“Where do we go once we’re out?”

“I don’t know.” He turned the rifle’s safety off and rested his finger on the trigger. “Anywhere that’s safe, where ever that may be. Find Skylar, he’s the only one you can trust.”

She nodded and rounded up Rach and Xaleyp. They moved to the wall, and she pushed the torch up against it. A warm sensation went up her arm as the device cut through the metal. It was slow. Too slow. They would never make it through in time.

Kaylee had barely cut halfway before there were bangs on the door. There was a muffled conversation before gunshots pierced the air once more. An explosion tore the door off its hinges. Zayne fired at the intruders, the barrel of his rifle flaring with each shot. His bullets ripped through the wires and electronics of the soldiers. Two of the bodies fell to the ground with thuds before they returned fire. A bullet caught Zayne in the shoulder, just in between the pieces of metal covering his upper body. He jerked backwards and yelled in pain. A swarm surrounded them, disarming Zayne and keeping their rifles trained on him.

Seven robotic soldiers with another dozen small, spider-like contraptions were in the room. They were idle, waiting for the order to strike. Zayne put his rifle down and held up his hands. A few seconds passed in silence, guns aimed at them, before Colonel Ire walked in. He stepped over the sparking and twitching soldiers Zayne shot and into the room. Ire’s gaze immediately landed on Zayne, and a knowing smile touched his lips.

“Well, well, well,” he said, clasping his hands together. He gestured to Kaylee, who was trying to quietly continue cutting through the wall. “What have we here? Take that torch away from her.”

A spider skittered over and grabbed it with one of its claws, zapping her wrist to make her let go. She yelped in pain at the shock, shrinking away from the machine. Ire took the small tool and turned it over a couple of times.

“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting you to put up a fight like that.” The Colonel shook his head. “I lost a lot of soldiers.”

“A lot of robots,” Zayne said through gritted teeth. He held his hand to the opposite shoulder, stemming the flow of blood. “I lost good soldiers out there. You lost nothing but pieces of wire and code, hardly deserving the accolade of being a soldier.”

“Precisely… I’m sorry, what is your name?”

“Zayne.” He shared an insidious look with the Colonel and nodded slightly. His lips curled just enough at the corners to form an almost imperceptible smile. “Captain Zayne Alcatar.”

“Captain Alcatar, that is exactly why I’m here. I need more soldiers like that. It is a shame I lost so many here today. But that is going to change. I need to take the young ones with me.”

“No!” Kaylee yelled out, pulling both of the children to her. “You can’t take them.”

“Kaylee, just do what he says.” Zayne looked her in the eyes, pleading with her to concede. “It’ll be easier that way.”

“That’s interesting.” Ire cocked his head to one side, thinking, as he looked over the children with an inquiring glance. “I thought you had just the one child, Missus Vah’Aris?”

“She’s not mine,” Kaylee said, trying to maintain composure. “She’s a friend’s daughter. Please, let her get back to her family, they deserve to know what’s happened to her.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.” Ire twitched his eye to check his own CAM. He scowled. “Behind schedule. We need to hurry this up. Now, Missus Vah’Aris, we’re going to be injecting you all with a mild sedative. You may feel slightly woozy as it goes in, but it will do you no harm. I just ask that you do not panic.”

Several spiders skittered forward and, before any of them could react or say anything at all, plunged syringes into each of their necks. The last thing they heard before unconsciousness overtook them was the roaring of a ship’s engines approaching the house.