Zoe walked alongside her friend Olivia through Aurion, Valeria's megacity capital. She looked up at a holographic billboard. The flickering caught her attention.

  For a brief moment, she thought she could see a hollow-eyed face.

  "We'd better let maintenance know," Zoe said. "I've been seeing more of this. Are they on strike or something?"

  Olivia looked at Zoe and smiled.

  "I'm sure there's a good reason for it. They have always done a good job keeping up with the city,” she said.

  Zoe rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

  "Not lately," she said. "They haven't done anything about the blackouts."

  Zoe looked around, noting the empty streets—save for automated drones and factory workers.

  "Nobody's wanted to go outside since that stupid game came out," she said. "I have to pry my kids off it. They won't listen to me about the players getting stuck."

  "They can do whatever they want in there," Olivia said, her eyes sparkling. "If it wasn't for you, I'd be in there all the time, too. Besides, those reports are exaggerated."

  "The world doesn't stop when you're in the Nexus, Liv,” Zoe said, letting out a sigh.

  “I need my training partner, and you need to stay in shape," she said, squeezing Olivia's arm.

  Olivia pulled back.

  "I will always be stronger than you. Don't worry about that,” Olivia said, laughing.

  "Remember last years marathon?" Zoe asked, flexing her arm. "You barely made it to the tenth mile."

  "You cheated! That energy gel was against the rules," Olivia said, pointing at Zoe.

  The city went dark as if vantablack curtains had been pulled around it. For the first time in as long as she could remember, Zoe could see the stars dotting the sky.

  She grabbed Olivia, gesturing her to look down the alley next to them. One of the automated public service drones, a humanoid model, was staring at them.

  Its single optical sensor glowed an eerily green light.

  "What does that mean? You fix robots. Is it broken?" Zoe asked.

  “How many times do I have to tell you? They're not just robots," Olivia said.

  She squinted her eyes.

  "It's not broken. I don't know what it's doing."

  Olivia started walking toward the drone.

  Zoe looked down the street and noticed another drone stop mid-task. Its optical sensor flickered before resuming its work. She grabbed Olivia by the shirt.

  "Don't—"

  "It's alright. They can't hurt anybody. It probably just needs a reboot,” Olivia said.

  Zoe didn't follow. She just watched as Olivia stepped into the darkened alley. She scanned the drone up and down with her eyes while walking a circle around it.

  "Status report," she said.

  It remained frozen.

  She equipped a small interface device and plugged it into the drone's diagnostics port. As she navigated through the settings, it jerked its head toward her.

  Olivia made eye contact with it.

  "Status report," she repeated.

  "I see you," it said.

  Zoe's eyes widened as she watched the drone grab hold of the arm Olivia was holding the device with—folding her forearm over like a cheap plastic toy.

  Snap

  It sounded like a dry branch under a car tire, amplified by the walls of the alley. Olivia’s scream tore through to the streets—a sound of both searing pain and sheer terror. What started as a high-pitched cry broke into desperate, guttural gasps as the drone tightened its grip, crushing what was left of the bone. The crunch was a familiar sound—drone chassis being recycled in a scrap shredder.

  Zoe couldn't move. She was frozen—hearing her friend's voice crack with each plea, her anguish echoing off the walls.

  The drone grabbed Olivia by the throat and carried her off while she flailed wildly, scratching at its wrists in desperation. Zoe ran down the alley trying to follow it, but it vanished. Its bright green beacon had been absorbed by the blackness of the alley as though it had teleported away.

  She saw orange and red flashes, followed by the crack of gunshots from the other side of the buildings. Stumbling out of the alley, she reeled from what she had witnessed. A drone flew above her, followed by the roar of an explosion, bringing everything back into sharp focus.

  She ran out onto the streets to get help, but help was pinned down by drones. One crashed into the barrier the police officers were taking cover behind. The officers were thrown back by the invisible fist of a titan, their mass equal to mere photons in the face of its incredible power. Zoe felt the heat of the explosion wash over her like popping open a hot oven—but here she would find no tasty treat.

  The other officers in the building dragged them in and replaced their fallen comrades' posts. Several more aerial drones crashed into the building, crumbling it on top of them. Zoe protected her face as a wave of dust and rock expanding outward toward her as the collapsing structure beat the debris out of the ground like beach sand from a rug.

  Her ears were ringing as she stumbled her way back into the alley. She sat down, placing her hands over them trying to block out the sound dinning in her ears. The inescapable scent of burning metal stained her olfactory while the sharp cracks of gunfire rattled her bones.

  There was no hiding from the horror. The sensations were an indisputable fact that everything she had known was collapsing around her.

  "Zack—Tyler," she whispered.

  She stood up and began running back to her apartment. As she made her way through the winding alleys she crossed paths with a labor drone.

  It made its position clear. She would not take another step forward.

  "Is that the same one from before?"

  Zoe hesitated.

  She looked in every direction, but she had nowhere to go. Her eyes locked onto it, her feet dragging in reverse.

  It charged at her.

  She stumbled over debris, falling over. She crawled backward before trying to get back on her feet.

  Before it had an opportunity to reach her, its body exploded into fragments of metal. Zoe covered her head with her arms, shielding herself from alloy hail.

  She didn't get up immediately, choosing to remain curled into herself until she heard a voice speaking to her.

  "Get up. You have to go."

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  She looked up, seeing a man dressed in the blue uniform of a military officer.

  "You need to get out of here," he repeated as he helped her up. "We are under some kind of cyber attack."

  "Thank you—" Zoe was looking for a name tag.

  "Castle," he said. "Now, go!"

  Zoe continued toward her apartment. It wasn't far now. She could see that the building was only a couple of blocks away. Explosions lit up the background, the ceaseless loop of their ephemeral blooms providing a steady source of light illuminating her path.

  The screams echoed through the streets, mixing with the military transport ships roaring through the air overhead, moving deeper into the city.

  She opened the door to the main lobby and started running up flights of stairs until she reached her apartment—charging in.

  "Zack!" She shouted. "Tyler!"

  Neither of her sons responded. She slowly walked to Zack's bedroom. Opening the door, she saw him in the VR pod, undisturbed by the chaos around them.

  She tried to disconnect it, but the display flashed.

  He is mine now.

  "No no no," she whispered, tapping through settings in the pod's terminal.

  She dug her fingers into the seams of the pod's hatch, pulling it back with all her might. A task proven impossible, like opening the prismatic casing of a clam snapped shut.

  She heard a loud boom down the hall from her. She whipped her head around, frozen. Slowly, made her way to the front door of her apartment.

  She peeked her head out.

  Service drones were breaking through residents' doors. She heard her neighbors screaming, followed up by loud thuds.

  "What do I do now?" she murmured to herself.

  Her breath caught as she heard a thunderous noise coming from outside. The rumble started as a faint vibration, growing louder with every passing second. The walls trembled, violently rattling the picture frames.

  Zoe froze.

  Her eyes darted to the window. Her body was stiff as she made her way to the blinds, hands shaking uncontrollably reaching to open them.

  She paused a moment, squeezing her hand closed. Opening it one deep breath later, she continued on to grip the blinds.

  Her eyes swelled with tears as a large transport craft spun uncontrollably toward the building.

  The roar of engines filled the room—the transport craft slammed into her apartment.

  >>>>>***********************<<<<<

  Castle burst into the command room within Aurion's defense coordination center. He looked at a young lieutenant issuing commands over comms.

  "Sitrep," he said.

  "We've lost control of our automated defenses and factories,” the lieutenant said. “Most of the cities are no longer defended. We've had to consolidate our forces in Aurion."

  "What about high command?" Castle asked.

  The officers shared uneasy looks.

  "They were calling the shots 'til recently. Intelligence suggests headquarters was completely overwhelmed."

  The lieutenant hesitated for a moment.

  "We don't know who is in charge, sir."

  Castle observed the tactical displays. They started flickering, the sound of static crackling through the room. For a moment, he thought he could see a face—hollow-eyed.

  It was replaced just as quickly by red indicators of lost cities and compromised systems. They were spread like bloodstains across the screens.

  "Are we expecting any assistance from the other planets?" Castle asked.

  "Sir—we haven't been able to reach the other planets,” he replied.

  Castle's jaw tightened.

  As he looked around the room, he could see all of the officers looking to him for direction. He had to make a decision.

  He knew there was only one he could make.

  "Continue rallying what's left of our forces in Aurion,” he said. “Secure the starport for evacuation. We'll focus on getting as many people off the planet as possible."

  A missile hit the command building, rupturing the ceiling like the reinforced concrete wall of a dam holding back the river of heat and energy that soon washed over the room, followed by the pulverized composite of cement and aggregate.

  He stood up, chunks of rock rolling off his back. He stumbled a little bit—brushing the dust off his uniform.

  "Colonel, are you ok?" a soldier asked.

  "Where did you come from?" Castle asked, noticing a dozen other heavily armed men patrolling the ruins, pulling staff out of the rubble.

  "Sir, our orders are to get you off the planet,” he said. “We are evacuating to Val 'Dara."

  "Special forces? Whose orders?" Castle asked.

  The operator looked around briefly before sharply returning his gaze toward Castle.

  "High command, sir,” he said. “When there was a high command."

  Castle straightened himself.

  "Why are you wasting my time with all this talking?“ he asked. “Let's move.“

  The operators guided Castle through the collapsed command center. Dust and smoke floated weightless as the sound of distant explosions echoed through the corridors. He observed medics as they treated injured staff, catching fragments of a message sounding through their comms.

  "Hostiles are advancing on the starport."

  Castle snatched a comm unit off the nearest soldier.

  "Nothing gets into the starport. If it looks like a machine, turn it into scrap," he ordered.

  The operators gestured for Castle to keep moving. As they pushed forward through the ruins, Castle noticed them exchanging brief, cryptic glances. It gnawed at him.

  "What are they not telling me?"

  They made their way to the front entrance. One remained with Castle while the others crossed the threshold to the outside. They fanned out to scan the outside for hostiles.

  Castle looked at the operator.

  "You're not telling me something. What is it?" he asked.

  The operator hesitated before answering.

  "Sir—" he began.

  The others returned, gesturing them to move out. Castle gritted his teeth.

  As they navigated their way to the starport, the broken landscape of the once brilliant city chipped away at Castle's pride. Bodies of soldiers and laborers littered the streets, their blood supplying the gutters with a steady supply of fluid.

  They passed by an apartment building, its street side wall gone. The floors were exposed, folded over each other like dominoes. He saw a face he recognized under the smoldering wreckage of a transport craft.

  He walked up to it and knelt.

  "The woman from the alley," he whispered to himself.

  He lifted her wrist, pressing two fingers over her radial already knowing what to expect. He wrapped his other hand over hers, gently setting her hand back down.

  "Sir! We need to keep moving," the sergeant said.

  Up ahead, Castle saw a new kind of machine.

  It appeared eight feet tall and armed with a coil gun.

  "We call them Revenants," an operator said. "They are a Nexus machine."

  "Nexus?" Castle asked with a quizzical look. "The game?"

  The operator nodded.

  "The Nexus has taken over everything,” he said. “It's using our factories to build its own army."

  Civilians were being escorted through the street by humanoid drones, under the imposing guardianship of the Revenant.

  One tried to escape but was quickly stopped by a drone. It pounded on his legs like a bag of crunchy ramen, then proceeded to drag him with the rest. The man's scream pierced Castle's ears—the sound waves reforming his vision into a narrow, hot tunnel.

  Through the ring of fire, he watched as the man tried to instinctively reach for his legs in futility.

  "Sergeant," Castle said, his head pivoting toward the team lead. "We are going to free those people."

  "Sir, that's not my—", he began to say.

  "Sergeant, I am going,” Castle said. “If you don't want to fail, you will keep me alive.“

  The sergeant gave a reluctant nod. An expert composer, his hands flowed naturally directing his orchestra. His team glided silently to their positions, ready and eager to overtake the machines.

  Castle and the team ambushed the drones, quickly destroying the unarmed machines. The Revenant reoriented itself, taking aim at the unit.

  A rocket streaked through the air—casting the Revenant across the block, bouncing off cars like a skipping stone. The civilians scattered before Castle had a chance to offer them escort.

  The starport was in view now. As the team closed in on it, Castle's comm began crackling with static.

  "You cannot escape me, Colonel.“

  Castle froze for a moment as the face he saw on the tactical display earlier flickered into view on a nearby hologram billboard. Its hollow eyes seemed to pierce into him.

  “Sir, we have to keep moving!” an operator shouted, grabbing Castle's arm.

  When they arrived at the starport, it was under siege.

  Revenants patrolled the perimeter while panicked civilians scrambled to board transport ships. Soldiers protected the port, trading fire with the Nexus machines. Explosions broke apart the concrete barriers between them and the Revenants.

  Castle and the operators were able to slip past the patrols, making their way into the port through a collapsed wall—where they immediately ran into a team of defenders.

  "Colonel, we have been expecting you," one of the soldiers said. "We need to get you to the extraction immediately."

  "Stand down, soldier," Castle ordered. "I am not going anywhere until our people are off the ground."

  The team leader protested.

  "Sir, those are not our orders."

  "They're my orders—sergeant," Castle snapped.

  "We are holding the port until every transport is breaking atmosphere," he ordered over comms.

  Castle positioned himself at the front of the defensive lines, coordinating the Valerian forces. Slowly, the Revenants advanced closer to the port until they made their way inside. Valerian forces poured into the lobby through the one large corridor linking it to the concourse, while the Revenants focused their fire on the choke point.

  The soldiers who made it through the streams of projectiles found cover behind anything they could, firing rockets and throwing grenades everywhere inside the lobby while the smoke danced to every disturbance piercing its veil.

  Their lines began to fracture.

  Castle coordinated a desperate fallback. His soldiers were being cut off—systematically eviscerated by every brutal means at the disposal of the soulless machines.

  The gunfire faded into the distance. He turned around, his grip tightening on his rifle. They stood at the edges of the port, their humanoid frames gliding through the smoke. Castle's blood ran cold as he recognized what had happened.

  They had cut off the Valerian forces and bypassed the barricades. They now stood between them and any hope of retreat. He turned slowly, feeling their cold gaze as they surrounded him.

  They didn't speak or move. They just watched.

  Castle's trigger finger twitched, but he didn't fire.

  One stepped forward. Its joints whirred, the green light of its optical sensors glowing faintly. It raised its skeletal hand, reaching toward him.

  Castle didn't move.

  The Revenant jerked violently—sparks and amber, viscous fluid spraying from its chassis as projectiles punched through its armor. The operators, Castle's escort, destroyed the Revenants and grabbed Castle, pushing him toward the ship they had secured.

  Castle hesitated.

  "I can't leave yet,” he said, his voice coarse. “There are still more people to evacuate."

  The team leader saluted him.

  "With all due respect, sir, we're staying,” he said. “We'll see them off.“

  Another operator shoved him into the ship and closed the ramp. As it was closing, the last thing Castle saw was the team engaging the Revenants storming the runways.