The streets of Mercy had never been more inviting than they were this time. After months away from home, we were all quite happy to be back among friends and family. Mia and Ben had gone to a family dinner with her parents and his siblings. The brothers had gone to a bar as they had no living family aside from each other, and Miles was visiting his niece. Jerla was likely seeing her clan for the night. Kayla and I were on our way to my sister, Lizzie’s place, where Kayla’s father, Colonel Lawrence Miller, was planning to meet us. It would be nice to see my nephews, Matt and Chris, again, especially now that the twins were celebrating their 19th birthdays. I wasn’t even sure if her husband, Will, would be there as he usually had the Tuesday shift at the precinct.

  As we got to the door, we saw the Colonel’s truck in the driveway next to Will’s own pickup; we knew the night was going to be a lot more interesting. Will and the Colonel always had the same military versus police argument. It seemed to pick up where it left off over the last two years we’d been together. The Colonel always brought up that police units, no matter their mission, were inherently less suited to the understanding of battle and urban assault than military units. Will had been a detective third grade last December but was recently promoted to Lieutenant in charge of SWAT. He now had a bit more room to discuss the tactical precision needed for police in an urban setting, as far as the rest of us were concerned. We’d get to see it firsthand before the day was over.

  As we came in the door, Will greeted us with his usual smile, half-hidden behind a scruffy mustache. Usually, it wouldn’t be allowed as it was outside the regulation length. Still, like special ops soldiers and narcotics officers, SWAT followed different grooming standards in an attempt to prevent them from being identified as law enforcement in certain circumstances. He wore his graying hair longer than average, and his mustache had telltale white around the fringes. He handed us both beers and led us out to the backyard, where the rest of the family was gathered. Will’s well-worn sleeveless top hung around his athletic frame, loosely draped over his basketball shorts and lounger shoes. He was the epitome of a dad at a barbecue, and he lived for the stereotype.

  As the group chatted and enjoyed their reunion, another group was quickly approaching, with dark intent. Though they had not been specifically targeted, the more hardy and trained of the group would see no distinction between wanton terror and a personal vendetta.

  “I’m just saying,” Will interjected, “cops deal with a more domestic sort of villainy than soldiers. You guys look at the bigger picture, while we’re down here in the day-to-day muck of the world.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you that for SWAT or Vice,” the Colonel argued, “but no beat cop or detective sees the world from the same point of view as a soldier.”

  “You know,” I said, adding my two cents, “I think being in the muck and seeing the scum of the galaxy is probably the only thing really tying the four of us together.”

  “What about the badass weapons you’re all trained with?” Chris jumped into the conversation, entirely unprompted, receiving bewildered looks and then a chorus of laughter.

  “Okay, yeah, kiddo. I can agree to weapons, however,” the Colonel said, changing his tone, “I don’t think anyone worth their salt *wants* to have to use a weapon against another being, sapient or otherwise.”

  “But, Colonel,” said my other nephew, Kyle, “what about hunting Martian elk?”

  Will got a bit more serious, “Honestly, boys, I don’t think killing anything for sport is ever the right idea. Now, killing something in self-defense or because you need to eat are really the only ethical reasons.”

  Suddenly, there was a loud bang, like a truck backfiring. That was unlikely since internal combustion engines had been outlawed in the Colonel’s youth. Everyone at the barbecue dropped to the ground out of instinct, even the twins. It didn’t take long for the all of us who had been debating a moment ago to switch gears and silently communicate with each other with little more than glances.

  Colonel Miller shot a look from Kayla and I to the back door of the house. I nodded and log rolled over to the concrete pad in front of the sliding glass door. I then moved to a crouched position, slid the door open and moved inside, and motioned for Kayla to follow. As I watched her do the same, I pulled a sidearm from my hip and started checking around inside. As I looked back, I saw the Colonel crouched, making the hand signs for “I hear shotguns” and “move faster”. I gestured for the others to get it in gear and all of the attendees followed suit. I moved over to the front window, staying low, and saw a wall of sentinel droids patrolling through the streets, followed by an armored assault vehicle. Several scared civilians came up to the Sentinels and requested aid. My eyes went wide and my breath silently burst from my chest as I watched a Sentinel drop their shotgun to waist height and fire point-blank into Will’s neighbor, immediately creating a new hole in her abdomen and a pink mist, as well as throwing her back several feet. A pool of blood quickly surrounded her. Her naturally light blonde hair soaked up a portion of the blood. Others who had been behind the neighbor backed up immediately and began running after the initial shock wore off.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  I spun around as the sliding door closed, momentarily forgetting my surroundings after the carnage I had just seen on a previously idyllic street. Even with my focus pulled back to my loved ones, I could hear the automatic weapons fire, shotgun blasts, and metallic sounds of AAV treads and Sentinel footsteps in the streets. I slumped my shoulders and shook my head, as a warning for the others not to look out there. As Will finally moved inside, he led the others directly toward the master bedroom. As the cohort came to the end of the hall, I could hear the shotgun blasts outside growing louder, as the phalanx of Sentinels grew closer. Just as Will reached up and turned the knob into the master bedroom, Colonel Miller and I heard a knock at the front door followed by the electronic voice of a Sentinel.

  “Citizens! Come to the door at once. Hostile forces have entered your area.”

  “Do not answer that door,” I whispered as seriously as he was able to. “They’re killing the neighbors. Who knows what will happen if they spot an off-duty cop and three former OA soldiers.”

  Silent nods were shared all around, and then a loud click and the telltale hiss of an airtight door unlocking. Suddenly, Will’s voice came out from inside the bedroom.

  “Everyone in here, now. Armor up and arm yourselves,” Will nearly shouted, “and I mean everyone. If Devon’s right, those are my Sentinels. You aim for the joints, especially the neck. After that, chest and head. Don’t hesitate, because they damn sure won’t.”

  The look Lizzie gave Will I hope to never see again. It was a mix of extreme worry and grasping for hope.

  He took it like a Centurion of old. “I know, baby. We’ll talk about it once we get through this. Now take this,” he said, handing her a vest and a Bickler Mark 3 laser pistol.

  “Oh, shit,” Chris exclaimed, “what do we get?”

  “Come over here and take your pick,” Will said, “everyone needs something to defend themselves and the people around them.”

  The boys didn’t hesitate. They each strapped a vest on and took a weapon. For Chris, it was a Benelli KR and a drum magazine of extra shells. For Matt, it was an M4L automatic rifle. Kayla took a moment and grabbed a couple of extra sidearm clips, a Hyperion rifle on a sling and bipod, and then a box of rounds. The Colonel took a look inside, smiled at Will, and took an automatic rifle. Looking in, I took two speed-loaders with incendiary rounds, two flashbangs, and a tactical sword. Will reached in after and took a submachine gun for himself and a sidearm.

  As though on cue, we heard a Sentinel smash through the front door, at the far end of the house. I grabbed a 12 gauge shotgun with Dragon’s Breath shells from the armory, and got into position. Will, the Colonel, and I moved to the edge of the room, and each peered through the door, down the hallway. It took a few seconds that seemed like minutes for the metal behemoth to move into visual range. As it did, I crouched and lay on my side, looked down the iron sights of the revolver in my hand, aimed at its left knee, and squeezed the trigger. A sabot shell ripped through the mechanism and hydraulic lines forming its knee and it lost balance, stumbling forward. Its weight caused it to crack several slats in the wooden floors of the hallway.

  “William Joseph Marion!” I heard Lizzie exclaim, “Why do you have ammunition that can do that?!”

  “Don’t worry about why,” I said, trying to save my brother-in-law, “just be glad that he does. You didn’t see what that thing did to your neighbor.”

  As their mother grumbled through her misplaced anger, the twins took their opportunity to fire at the metal monstrosity. Chris pumped a round into the chamber and fired a shot into its shoulder. Matt followed suit and poured a couple of three-round bursts into its exposed knee, as it attempted in vain to get to its good foot. I breathed a sigh of relief that Will hadn’t skimped on their time at the range. The Colonel, never one to back down from a fight, walked over to the Sentinel, still holding itself up by one good arm and a single leg. He stood straight, pulled his automatic rifle into his shoulder for a firm grip, spit in the thing’s cyclopean eye and let out a hail of bullets.

  “I knew you fuckers were too good to be true,” his words like venom as the light left it and it fell limp, “you ugly metal bastards.”

  Will stepped up and offered a hand to help me to my feet. I grasped it and he pulled me upright.

  “Thanks for that. You know how she can get.” Will wasn’t one to try to argue with Lizzie, especially when she had a valid point.

  “I do,” I replied, “but you’re not out of the woods yet. Before this is over, I think we’re all going to need to know why and how you have this sort of stockpile. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad it’s here, but at some point, I’ll need to know why it’s here.”

  Will nodded and clapped my shoulder. We headed into the hallway and started toward the front door with the others, the Colonel leading our ragtag group. I saw the look of concern on Kayla’s face as she looked back at me, for our safety as much as the others in our squad out on the town visiting family or just enjoying their shore leave. While I was sure Miles and the twins were fine, and I could count on Ben to take care of Maya, it was Jerla I was really concerned by. But I had to keep my head at the moment, a wrong move or a slow reaction could mean not just my safety but that of the others around me. Keeping them safe and getting to my people was all that was going to push me through this. I had to see them again, to push them in the right direction and get to the bottom of what’s happening here.