1523 June 18th, 2020 CE

Mission Valley, Fremont, California

In his mind, the world seemingly slowed down. I am so dead. That thought coursed through Luke’s brain as he saw himself in slow motion raising his hands in an instinctive yet futile effort to save himself. He knew for certain that the spear of the monster would pierce right through him.

Then everything, suddenly, went back to regular speed as gunshots went off besides him. Luke’s hands went from futilely shielding himself to quickly covering his ears from the piercing noise. He blinked and looked to where the gunfire was from.

Standing just to his left, Hayden had grabbed the rifle on the ground. He fired another burst into the monster. The monster stopped charging, staggered a bit and roared. The bullets clearly were hurting it.

The creature turned its attention towards Hayden, its red eyes seemingly burning with hatred, and began its charge. Hayden, with a face that showed no panic, looked down the sights of the gun and fired a few more shots. This time, the shots hit the monster’s skull as purple blood flowed down its head. The monster slowed down as if in shock and collapsed

Luke stared in amazement, instantly forgetting about how close he was to becoming a meal.

“...holy shit. You know how to shoot a gun?” Luke looked towards the dead monster. “What the hell was that? Holy shit. This is California… where did you…”

Hayden had a sheepish smile on his face as he rubbed his neck with his left hand. “My grandparents live in Arizona. Getting a gun there is very easy. I have been on the range there every time I went.”

“You didn’t strike me as someone interested in guns.”

“It was nice to shoot targets and get away from the problems in my life.”

A classmate interrupted them. “Ummmm… I don’t want to disturb you guy’s conversations but we have more problems coming our way.”

They looked down the road where the dead monster laid and couldn’t believe their eyes. From further down the road, a dozen red, seemingly pissed off eyes stared at them. These ones were much larger than the one they had killed. They moved slowly towards them, seemingly incapable of going faster due to their size. But it was certain that they were pissed.

Hayden pulled up his rifle in position and aimed again. Steadying himself, he hit the trigger of the rifle. Instead of the expected gunshot sound, nothing happened. He hit a couple of times and then blinked. “Uhh…tch… no ammo. Do any of you see any magazines lying around?”

Everybody started looking around on the ground. As Luke looked around, he noticed that most of the students had finally recovered from being knocked out by the crash. Hayden called out again. “Check the soldiers. They should have ammo on them. Quickly.”

Luke tapped Hayden’s shoulder. “Hayden. I think they are slow enough. We have to run away.”

Hayden looked towards the monster and then turned his head back to Luke and the others.

“Are any of the soldiers awake?”

“The injured one is awake but I don't think he can help us that much.”

“We need some people to carry the soldiers.”

Together, a couple students tried to lift the unconscious soldier from the front seat of the cab. “I found some ammo! Catch!”

A magazine was thrown at Hayden and he caught it and slammed it into the gun. Just as Hayden aimed to fire, fiery explosions blinded him and Luke. The grounds where the monsters stood tore up. Everybody stopped to look at the scene in front of them. The shrieks of the dying monsters could be heard. In their panic to leave, they didn’t hear the whirring helicopters above them.

Two gray colored military helicopters hovered overhead as bullets spewed from them.

“Holy shit. Attack helicopters!”

The firing soon stopped and not a single one of the monsters stood alive. Trucks from their convoy pulled up. “Are you guys alright?”

A few minutes later

<<<“We are still unable to hold our position. There are too many of these monsters and we have multiple wounded. We are currently evacuating civilians that we found during our retreat.”

“Number of civiliams?”

“It was just the earlier reported high school students with their teachers and police escort. About 60 or so people.”

“Good work, Second Lieutenant. We can not spare both helicopters but one will provide overwatch and follow your convoy. Continue your retreat.”

“We are, at the insistence of the teachers, traveling to Levi’s Stadium.

“Continue on for Levi’s Stadium. Marines are moving out just south of there. You will be able to be reinforced there with other elements.”

“Will do.”

Above them, one of the two helicopters banked to the right and flew away whilst the other stayed above them.

Somewhere in the Pacific

A towering humanoid stood among the various creatures scurrying around. The ground was barren dirt that showed no signs of life and the seas surrounded their island. A soldier came up to him and bowed. “We adffe edfkvpering ghsviff resisvnvfhbha sdromdk thsfe sumands.”

It was a Regular so she could barely understand what he was saying. The soldier rambled on in what was to her, gibberish.

The more developed one was, the less they were capable of understanding the less developed.

Those ranked at the bottom of development, the Beasts, actually didn’t even have a language. It was a sort of instinctual understanding of noises. She couldn’t understand much of what those ranked lower than the Enlightened said but they could understand her. The Beasts only understood how to take orders from their lord and act on instinct. Although inferior in mind, she actually really liked the Beasts. They were good at giving hope to the humans that they were fighting a mindless horde. In reality, the true horrors awaited.

She calmly waited for the soldier to finish before she looked to her advisor, an Enlightened, on the right. “He has said that our invasion forces to the west are facing stiff resistance. It seems that the humans of this plane have peculiar weapons.”

“Has this impeded the advance?”

“Not at all, Great Lord. The Beasts are advancing albeit slowly.”

“Slowly, hm.”

“My fellow Enlightened advise you to allow our greatest creation to ascend.”

“Then we shall unleash it.”

“By your will, Great Lord.”

30 minutes later

A roar vibrated throughout the island and the ground shook.

1850 June 18th, 2020 CE

Washington D.C.

“The first of the Marines are arriving, Mr. President.”

“Get me in contact with their commander. I want to speak directly to him.”

A few minutes later

The man on the screen saluted. The background showed that he was in a hangar at an airfield. People in uniform scrambled around

<<<”Mr. President. Colonel Henry Weiss, commander of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.”

“At ease Colonel.”>>>

Before Ronell could say anything else, Henry spoke.

<<<“Mr. President, if I may speak freely.”

“Go ahead.”

“It is an honor to speak to you but I’m busy commanding my men and I really wonder if this is necessary.”

“I understand Colonel but your assessments will be vital to me.”

“Assessments?”

“How confident are you that you will hold San Francisco? With your current numbers and with more reinforcements.”

“Mr. President, General…”

Ronell interrupted. “No, I don’t want what the general said. I want your honest opinion. As a commander on the ground, what is your say on this?”

“With my current numbers… no, not at all. Colonel Gunn of the California Army National Guard has informed me about these demons we are facing. Unless we bring in armor, we will be pushed back. Even with more reinforcements, especially armor, it will still be a hard fight.”

Ronell nodded slowly. “... thank you Colonel.”

Somewhere in the Magus Imperium

Nick shook his head after coming out of a briefing. “What the hell is happening back home? San Francisco under attack?”

Brian nodded. “They are trying to get us back home as fast as possible it seems.”

Nick scratched his head. “The information they gave us wasn’t much. Is there any way we can find out more?”

“Well, seeing that we don’t have internet or cellular because this world hasn’t developed that yet, no. Well, it shouldn’t be long before we go back home though. They are rushing Marine units back. We will be there if whatever invading San Francisco is truly a threat.”

Nick snorted. “If we get sent there, then something’s wrong. There’s an entire Marine Expeditionary Force there.”