The Autumn War Vol. 01: Invasion

"T-they're killing everyone!" she hissed, choking back her panic. "W-why?"

"They're between us and the station," Nimi said, checking the map that was stored on her wrist device's memory. "We'll have to find another way around."

Xipa was glad of her strong nerves. Nimi always managed to keep the flock together when there was an emergency. She was their rock.

"Shouldn't we try to do something?" Noyo protested. "All those people are-"

"Do what?" Nimi snapped. "We're being invaded. That much is obvious now. We need to meet up with the rest of the city guard and pray that they have something better than fucking stun guns."

"Oh, no, no!" Xipa squealed, covering her mouth to stifle her voice. Across the street, half a dozen of the aliens had separated from the group and were headed for a residential building. They lined up in a row as they prepared to breach it, one of them raising a pronged pistol to fire at the door. The metal slagged under the bolts of energy, melting inward, glowing red like it had been subjected to the heat of a cutting torch. The insects raced inside, the sound of screaming carrying across the street, flashes of green lighting up the dark interior.

"They're going door to door!" Xipa gasped. "We told people to stay inside their homes, but they're-"

"There's nothing we can do!" Nimi insisted. "Back down the alley," she added, waving them along hurriedly as she turned around. "Quickly! Those things are coming this way!"

Xipa couldn't stand the thought of leaving all of those people to their fates, but Nimi was right. They were powerless to help. She turned to follow her flock as they made their way down the alley, exiting onto the adjacent street just as one of the creatures appeared at the other end. Its green eyes glowed in the shadows as it searched the narrow passage between the two buildings, then it continued on its way, a procession of them following behind it.

They had no choice but to press on, watching the skies for any sign of more pods. Those things had come down all over the city. Xipa had seen that giant ship fire dozens of them, hundreds. Nowhere was safe anymore.

They located another scooter rack, and Nimi was able to get this one open after some fiddling with the wires, the flock riding the two-wheeled vehicles down the street. More than once, they came across a road that had been blocked by fallen debris and even an empty pod that had already disgorged its troops, having to check the map to find a way around the obstacle. Whenever they came across survivors, they warned them to hide as best they could and to refrain from going outside. Xipa knew that it wouldn't protect them if the alien soldiers came to their door, but there was nothing else they could do. Kerguela was a relatively peaceful moon, with no weather so severe that shelters were required. There was the occasional radiation storm from the gas giant, but those just made the comms a little fuzzy for a few days. There was no dedicated place where the citizens could take refuge - there had never been any need for one.

The guard station finally came into view, a squat, wide building that contrasted with the tall spires that surrounded it. More red and orange bushes were cultivated in planters along the paved path that led up to the door, an information kiosk sitting on the street just outside. Fortunately, there was no sign of any damage.

The flock pulled up nearby, leaving their scooters behind as they approached the building. Xipa could see movement beyond the two windows that looked out onto the road, the door sliding open as they approached, one of their fellow guards poking her head out with a flash of relieved green.

"Get inside," she hissed, waving them in. The four women piled into the small lobby and were greeted by maybe fifteen of their colleagues, all of them wearing the same uniforms. Some of them were fully suited up, wearing gloves and boots, along with full-faced helmets. Their feather sheaths were slotted into long tubes that hung down from the backs of their heads, sensors translating the movements of their feathers into patterns on light panels that ran down their length. There was a single male, a receptionist who was standing behind a desk, his vibrant feathers puffed up in a display of perpetual unease as he repeatedly tapped at a touch panel on his desk.

"Some more stragglers," the woman who had opened the door announced. "We've been hoping that more guards would make their way here," she added, turning back to Xipa and her flock. "With all of the communication networks down, there's no way to put out an alert."

"We have to start evacuating people right now," Nimi said, stepping forward. "There are...things out there, riding down in the pods. They're killing everyone."

"We know," the woman replied solemnly. "Not all of us made it back to the station..."

"There should be enough of us now," another of the guards said, her voice coming through tinny on her helmet speakers. The mirrored visor was closed, and she was pulling on her gloves. The suits could be sealed in an emergency, such as a fire or a gas leak, and they were equipped with air filters.

"Enough of us for what?" Xipa asked.

"The plan is to start evacuating the district," the first guard began. "Tlazo rode the maglev down from the spaceport when that alien ship started firing," she said, gesturing to a colleague with tan scales. "She says the Ensis and a lot of guards are already there, and they're setting up a temporary HQ. There are shuttles in the hangars that can make orbit under their own power, enough to get us off this rock and up to a jump-capable ship. We figure the rest of the districts will probably come to the same conclusion, even if nobody can get word to them. We'd hoped to have more guards - there are a lot of people to move - but we can't wait any longer. If we don't act soon, there won't be anyone left to evacuate, and all the ships will be gone."

"We're evacuating the city?" Xipa asked in disbelief.

"No, we're evacuating the colony," the guard replied solemnly. "The last report that the Ensis received from Kerguela control before the comms went down was that there were ships over several other cities. It's not just happening here."

"There's no way there are enough shuttles to evacuate the entire city," Chala said, but the stony face of the guard told her that she knew that fact all too well.

"Here," one of the guards said, tossing a helmet to Xipa. "Suit up. We saw them using chemicals, flooding the street with some kind of poison gas."

Xipa turned it over in her hands, then slotted her muscular sheaths into the two tubes, securing it over her head. She popped open the visor, opening it up like a pair of jaws, balling her fists to stop the trembling in her hands. She was a peacekeeper, not a soldier.

"Do you have a plan?" Nimi asked, taking another of the helmets from a nearby rack. There was a hermetic hiss as she sealed it to the collar of her suit. "What's the consensus?"

"We're responsible for our district," one of the guards replied. "We have to get as many people out as we can, in as short a time as possible. No small feat, I know, but we have a narrow window here. We're going to cover as much ground as we can, and have one of the flocks escort each group we find back to the station where it's safe. We're going to gather as many people as we can find, then try to lead them to the spaceport."

"How are we supposed to fight those things?" Chala asked, brandishing her stun gun. "All we have are weapons designed to incapacitate. Who knows if they'll even work on an alien? Those creatures were wearing some kind of...armor or shell, I don't know."

"Might as well gear up now," another of the guards replied. She was an older woman with weathered scales in dull green, Xipa recognizing her as Commander Tepa, a member of the senior flock of their guard station. Her companions were also present, identifiable by the rank insignia on their green armbands. "Come on, we can't wait around for any more guards to turn up."

She led the group deeper into the building, turning to a set of stairs that led down to the basement level of the station. This was where the holding cells were, along with the contraband lockers. They were all empty right now, as crime was uncommon in the city. A guard's duties were usually limited to responding to accidents and ensuring that city by-laws were followed. The only confrontation that Xipa could remember was an instance where a flock who had hit the hookah too hard had crashed their scooters and had resisted arrest in their inebriated state.

At the end of the white-painted corridor was a locked door with a keypad, the commander quickly tapping in a combination of some thirty numbers from memory. There was a click as what sounded like a heavy bolt slid back, the door swinging open on a set of hinges. The lights inside came on automatically as the group funneled through, Xipa's eyes widening. The four walls were covered in racks, each one laden with weaponry. These weren't stun guns. They had bulky, polymer housings in matte black, each one sporting a long barrel with a domed lens on the end. They were connected to battery packs via thick, insulated cables that were hanging from straps beside them.

"I never knew that the station had an armory," Nimi marveled. She paused to examine one of the guns that was sitting on a nearby table, the weapon partially disassembled. The housing was open, revealing a mess of wires and capacitors. "These are...laser rifles. Military surplus from the homeworld. Why do we have these?"

"Nobody knew whether Kerguela would have predatory megafauna like Valbara," the commander explained. "The colonists brought these here just in case any native wildlife tried to eat them. They've just been gathering dust ever since."

"Do they still work?" another of the guards asked.

"They haven't been fired in probably ten rotations," the commander replied. "We just come down here every few seasons to make sure none of the batteries are swelling."

"I'll take whatever I can get," Nimi said, reaching for one of the weapons. She pulled it from the rack, sliding her arms through the straps on the backpack, hefting the weapon in her hands.

"You know how to fire one of those?" the commander asked.

"I've seen movies," she replied, raising the weapon to look down the telescopic sight that was mounted on top of it. "Just pull the trigger and keep the beam on target, right?"

"You won't be firing at anything with no charge," the commander added, pulling an extensible cable from the pack. She plugged it into a socket on the wall, a worrying electrical hum filling the room. "And don't point these at anyone's face, even when they're turned off. These are neodymium lasers. You could burn out their retinas."

"This thing isn't going to explode, is it?" Nimi muttered as she gave the pack a worried glance over her shoulder.

The commander waved her feathers in a shrug, hauling another pack off the rack and handing it to the nearest guard, who sagged under its weight.

"Start charging them up," she ordered, the rest of the group fanning out into the armory. "There's no time to waste."

***

The group of guards left the station, stepping out onto the street. Along with Xipa's flock of four, their group was nineteen strong, each one equipped with one of the dusty laser rifles. Their weight was oppressive, the straps on the battery pack digging into Xipa's shoulders through her suit, but it was a relief to not feel so powerless. She had never fired such a weapon before, but she had studied her people's history in school, and war was not an entirely foreign concept to her. It had been assumed by philosophers and historians that any civilization advanced enough to develop jump technology would have no need to appropriate the resources of other species, and would have evolved beyond armed conflict as the Valbarans had. In a Galaxy of limitless resources and innumerable planets, why wage war? Clearly, their logic had been flawed.

Noyo stopped beside her, following her gaze to the hulking spacecraft above. It was still hovering there, the occasional burst of green fire from its guns raining down on the city. There were no more pods - it might have fired them all off by now. There could be thousands of troops on the ground already. As she watched, something else separated from the belly of the craft, dropping down from beneath its jointed legs. It looked like a bulbous insect, its six legs tucked beneath it. It had no wings, metallic thrusters that belched green jets of flame flaring as it righted itself, starting to fly away from where Xipa was standing. Two more followed after it, remarkably agile despite their lack of aerodynamics, taking up formation as they soared over the rising plumes of smoke.

"What do you think they want?" Noyo whispered.

"I can't guess," she replied, gripping the padded handguard beneath the barrel of her rifle more tightly. "The way they attacked everyone when they came out of their pod...it was like they expected to face resistance, like they didn't even know the difference between someone who was firing back and someone who wasn't. Whatever they want, I don't think us being here is part of their plan."

"Set your comms to local mode," the commander said, gesturing to her helmet. "We'll be able to keep in touch at a reasonable distance, even if the city's network is shot."

Commander Tepa and her flock of two took the lead, the rest of the guards following behind them in a loose column. Xipa just wanted to run as far away as she could, maybe hide in the forest in the hopes that the aliens would just leave when they were done with whatever they were doing, but she had a duty to the people of the city. They were the only ones who could do anything to help right now, and if they didn't, then nobody would. Her mind kept wandering back to the male who had been clutching his baby in his arms. Could they make it all the way back to that restaurant, or was it already too late? There was no reason that her thoughts should linger on a single person when so many lives were at stake, but still...

The streets here had remained relatively untouched by the aliens, and they were mostly clear of debris. No pods had come down in the vicinity, so it was safe to have the nearby inhabitants proceed to the station on their own. The guards split into two groups, buzzing the doors on either side of the street and having those who answered head to safety. Xipa found it hard to explain that they had to leave all of their belongings behind, as nobody who hadn't seen the aliens slaughtering people really grasped the gravity of the situation. Those who had were probably dead already.

As they proceeded deeper into the city, the damage became more apparent, the raging fires consuming entire buildings with no emergency services available to manage them. Xipa paused to gape at a skyscraper, a dozen of its upper floors billowing black smoke into the air, its facade covered in black marks where the ship had harried it with gunfire. Whatever their weapons were, they seemed to burn, like some kind of plasma. There was rubble strewn everywhere, the guards having to take a winding path between the structures, turning to alleys where the streets were cut off. They came across bodies, some blackened by weapons fire, others crushed beneath the debris. Xipa tried to keep her eyes off them.

Many citizens had already fled the area, and what few they could still find cowering in their homes were escorted back to the station. There were so few guards that they had no choice but to split up, the constant back-and-forth slowing their progress, but it was the only way to ensure the safety of their charges.

They found another group of survivors trapped in a residential building. The upper floors were burning, and fallen debris had blocked access to the main door from the street. Together, the guards were able to clear enough of the rubble to free them, another twenty people pouring out onto the street. Some of them were coughing, suffering from smoke inhalation, being supported by their flockmates. Another four of the guards peeled off to help guide them back to the station, coordinating over the short-range radios, the remaining fifteen continuing on their way.

As they exited another alleyway, turning onto one of the straight roads that radiated out from the city center, they came across a pod. Xipa bristled, shouldering her weapon, aiming the lens at the mass of metal and chitin. It had cratered into the street, knocking down a row of decorative trees like twigs, partially embedding itself into the wall of a building.

"It's alright," Nimi announced, gesturing to the piece of plating that was lying in the street. "The cap has been popped already."

"They could still be close by," Tepa added, waving them forward with a flash of red from a light panel on her sleeve. "Keep moving."

"I don't think I've ever walked this far in one day," Chala panted, struggling to keep pace with the rest of the flock. "I can't believe soldiers really used to march around with these things on their backs."

"Can't ride a scooter and hold a gun at the same time," Nimi replied.

There was a cry from somewhere ahead, the guards bristling as a pair of women came racing out of an alley. A green bolt of energy shot out from behind them, catching one of them in the back, sending her skidding to the ground. The second paused to turn around, trying to help her companion, but a trio of shots followed up the first. They melted the road around her fallen friend, splashing against the asphalt like a liquid, one of them finding its mark. The survivor wheeled around again, her claws skidding as she made for the guards, a brief glimmer of hope in her violet eyes.

From the alley behind her emerged a procession of insects, their shells reflecting the glow of a pile of burning debris nearby, sparkling in its light. They were so colorful, their waxy carapaces gleaming as they turned their green, compound eyes in Xipa's direction. She felt a swell of fear as they began to raise their strange, alien weapons, realizing that she was about to take part in a real firefight. This wasn't a VR game, it wasn't a movie, it was really happening.

Time seemed to slow down as she watched the woman stumble towards her, her arms outstretched, Xipa's fear turning to resolve. How dare they. How dare these creatures slaughter innocent people. Before she knew it, she was bracing the stock of her rifle against her shoulder, feeling the resistance of the trigger on her finger as she squeezed it.

From the lens on the barrel of her gun lanced a brilliant beam of light, seeming to sparkle as the emerald laser refracted off motes of dust and droplets of moisture in the air, painting a burning line towards an alien that was raising its resin rifle.

The beam burned into its chest, melting its blue-green carapace like plastic exposed to a magnifying glass. The creature lurched back, its four arms flailing, smoke starting to rise from its charred innards as Xipa held the laser on it. The longer she kept the beam on target, the more it burned through the creature, whatever material its armor was made from starting to glow red-hot. Boiling alive in its shell, the thing fell twitching to the ground, smoke rising from its mandibles.

"Ha! They're not invincible!" Commander Tepa shouted triumphantly.

What happened next was chaos, the guards scattering, moving to cover as they fired their laser rifles at the insects. The glittering beams danced through the air, burning their targets wherever they found their mark, painting scorched trails on the facades of the nearby buildings. One hit a tree behind the creatures, its leaves bursting into flames. The aliens returned fire, bolts of burning energy flying from the metal prongs of their weapons, sizzling as they shot past inches from Xipa's head. She could feel their heat, even through her helmet, giving the aliens another few pulses from her rifle as she dove into the cover of a pile of rubble.