Author's note:
Sorry for the wait! This started off as a normal story but kind of exploded into 520,000 words across four volumes. I'll be posting each volume a day apart, so they'll hopefully make it through the review process pretty quickly. It's by far the largest story I've ever written, both in its word count and its scope, so I hope you'll enjoy it!
PROLOGUE: THE FALL OF KERGUELA
Sickly-green lightning flashed, illuminating the roiling storm clouds that hung over the skyscrapers, blotting out the light from the suns. They were joined by the smoke from the fires that were raging all around the city. Great plumes of it rose into the air, burning embers floating on the wind, the acrid taste stinging Xipa's tongue with each breath that she took.
The clouds parted as something massive descended, larger than any craft that should have been able to fly under its own power. Like a monster from a half-remembered nightmare, it was a mess of impossibly long, segmented limbs, all of them tucked beneath its bulbous belly like some kind of ocean-going crustacean. Along its flanks were engine nozzles, amalgams of organic and mechanical parts, spewing jets of emerald flame as they flexed and swiveled on their muscular mounts to keep the thing steady. Still shrouded in the smog, it was hard to make out any more of its features, but its sheer mass was oppressive. It must have been near a kilometer long and half as wide, bearing down on the city like a falling moon.
The backwash from the engines was incredible, tearing at Xipa's uniform, blowing her feathers like a hurricane as their thunder deafened her. The gale whipped up clouds of dust from the street, stripping some of the nearby trees of their red leaves. Was it trying to land right on top of them?
A series of loud cracks rose over the roar, her eyes tracking a barrage of objects that launched from the near side of the behemoth, sailing over her head. They were teardrop-shaped, their surfaces a blend of off-green flesh and chitin, overlaid with protective plating that reflected the orange glow of the fires with a metallic sheen. As they arced towards the ground, membranous parachutes deployed from their tapered ends, catching the air to slow their descent. Still, they moved like missiles, Xipa watching one of them slam into the facade of a nearby skyscraper. It cratered into the side of the building, sending fragments of broken glass and twisted metal raining to the streets far below, the nearby onlookers letting out wails of dismay. Another of them came down directly on one of the raised maglev lines, glancing off it to land somewhere out of view, severing the magnetic rail. Some of the supports gave out, and it collapsed, keeling over with a sound of tearing metal as it dragged another few hundred meters of track along with it.
"Come on!" Nimi said, taking her by the arm. "We have to get out of here!"
Xipa turned to glance at her, the alarmed yellow hue of her feathery headdress snapping her out of her stupor. The rest of the flock was behind her, Chala and Noyo looking on in confusion. They were all wearing matching uniforms, the white and grey tones of the city guard contrasting with the greens of their scales.
There were civilians running all over the place in a blind panic, some retreating to the nearby buildings for cover, others standing with their jaws agape as they stared up at the unbelievable scene that was unfolding before them. It must be the same all over the city. How were they supposed to maintain order in a situation like this?
"Where are we supposed to go?" Noyo demanded, the trailing feather sheaths on her head and forearms erupting in a display of frustrated red. "The city is under siege!"
"What
are
these things?" Chala wailed, flinching as another salvo of pods was fired from the alien craft. "Why are they doing this?"
"It doesn't matter!" Nimi insisted, steeling herself. "We have a job to do, so we're going to do it. We can't allow ourselves to be paralyzed by indecision right now."
"W-we're supposed to go back to the station when an emergency is declared," Chala stammered. "Then, we wait for further instructions."
"Our job is to get these people to safety," Nimi corrected her, glancing at the gaggle of civilians that packed the street. "There are people who need our help right now. Half of the city is on fire."
"We should make our way back to the station, but help whoever we can along the way," Xipa finally said. Nimi released her arm, her feathers rustling in a show of approval. "We need to find out what's going on. I can't get a connection to the city's servers," she added, giving the touch panel that was built into the sleeve of her suit a frustrated tap with her three-fingered hand. "It's not a radiation storm this time. The whole network is down."
"What should we do about all these people?" Noyo added. "Should we tell them to take shelter in their homes?"
"That's probably for the best," Nimi replied with a nod. "At least if they're inside, they won't be hit by any falling debris."
The rumble of an explosion made them all duck reflexively, the four women glancing up into the sky to see great bolts of green fire raining down from the spacecraft. A torrent of what looked like crackling energy was pouring through the cloud layer, hammering the city relentlessly, striking a target on the far side of the skyscrapers. All the while, more pods fell to the ground like shed scales, impacting all around them. The great vessel was extending its mass of spindly, insect-like legs now, spreading them out as though it intended to make landfall.
Nimi leapt up onto a nearby information kiosk, rising above the crowd as she fanned her arm-feathers to get their attention.
"You all need to return to your homes!" she yelled, her voice barely rising above the din. "Please stay inside until the city guard gives the all-clear!"
The rest of the flock did their best to help, trying to guide people off the street and into the nearby buildings.
"This way," Xipa said, helping along a frightened male who had a baby bundled up in his arms. The child was barely old enough to be out of the incubator, its tail tightly wrapped around one of its father's limbs, its little hands taking fistfuls of his tunic. Every time there was an explosion or a loud noise, it would let out a shrill yelp, its underdeveloped feathers flashing in displeasure. "Where is your flock?"
"They're...they're at work," he replied, looking on in bewilderment as the crowd slowly began to disperse. "They're hydroponic farmers, down in the industrial band. I tried to call them, but I couldn't reach them. The networks are all down."
"Try to get underground if you can," Xipa advised. "Do you have a basement? It will be safer there."
They were interrupted by another loud noise, looking up to see an aircraft doing a low pass between the towering buildings. It was a skimmer, its rounded hull painted white, held aloft by a rotor mounted atop the craft. They were short-range vehicles usually used for transport or as air ambulances. It was a relief to see that emergency services were responding. As Xipa watched, a green bolt lanced forth from the monstrous ship, striking the skimmer. It erupted into a ball of flame, practically disintegrating in the air. The burning hulk immediately began to fall, smoke and droplets of molten metal trailing in its wake, the wreck landing somewhere out of view.
"W-why did they do that!?" the male lamented, holding his child close. "That was an ambulance!"
"Get off the street!" Nimi called out again, Chala and Noyo hurrying people into whatever buildings were nearby. "Get off the street and stay under cover!"
"Come on," Xipa said, steering the male into the door of a nearby restaurant. The patrons all had their scaly snouts pressed up against the long window that looked out onto the street, craning their necks to watch the spectacle. "All of you, get down into the cellar if you have one!" Xipa barked as she leaned through the doorway. "Take cover!"
Being yelled at by a city guard was enough to get them moving, and the owners of the establishment began to wave people towards the back of the room. Hopefully, they had some kind of underground storage area for their food.
Once everyone was off the street, the four guards turned tail, their boots pounding on the road as they ran past the neat rows of native trees that had been cultivated to provide shade. Whenever they encountered another group of confused civilians, they ordered them back inside, trying to get as many people to safety as they could.
The once pristine, white buildings rose up to either side of them, some of them so high that their peaks skirted the clouds. Each one of them was a work of architectural art in its own right, sporting ornate buttresses or flowing sculptures, ensuring that no two were alike. There were balconies and terraces on every floor, more curious citizens leaning out to get a look at the stormy sky. It was as though they didn't understand the danger they were in, but Xipa had no way to reach them from the ground. Some of the skyscrapers further towards the city center were scarred by weapons fire now, the carbcrete melted like soft plastic where it had been struck, uncontrolled fires raging on the upper floors. The city was arranged into a series of concentric rings - residential, industrial, and cultural - each one separated by a band of parkland. There were no defenses save for the high perimeter wall at the outskirts, no anti-air guns, no landing strips for fighters. Why would there be? There hadn't been a war on Valbara for generations, so why would their burgeoning colony have needed to be so heavily defended?
The four women tired quickly, ill-suited to traveling such distances on foot. They peeled off the street, taking refuge in an alley between two of the buildings, its far end blocked by fallen rubble. It was even gloomier here, but a nearby neon sign cast them in its glow, its pink hue hinting at the kind of entertainment it promised. It was hanging above a set of stairs that led down below street level, probably into an abandoned basement some city planner had overlooked, later converted into a lounge. It was the kind of establishment that a city guard might investigate under normal circumstances, but it was probably one of the safest places to be right now.
"We need to find a vehicle," Noyo sighed as she locked her digitigrade legs, catching her breath. "We'll never make it back to the station on foot."
"Never a scooter rental around when you need one, right?" Chala chuckled bitterly.
"I wouldn't trust the maglevs rights now," Xipa added, fiddling with the panel on her wrist again. "There's a terminal nearby, but one of those pod-things took out the line." The screen displayed an error message, and she struck it angrily, making it waver for a moment. "Worthless thing!"
