The hike to town proved uneventful, but with each plodding step, Warren’s thoughts continued to grow darker. His sister had been captured by the aliens. The same aliens who had leveled half of Sayers Mill with their fiery beam weapons. At this very moment, they could be inflicting all sorts of terrible tortures on his sister.

  But despite his mounting worry, he had a growing respect for Valentina’s resilience. For most of the trip, they had kept to the dense underbrush growing along the road. He’d been sweating and tired before they reached the halfway point. But she hadn’t complained once and kept a steady pace, even with a minor stab wound in her back.

  He slowed as they crested the hill overlooking the town. A few wisps of smoke rose to the sky from the charred ruins dotting the main street, but little further damage had been inflicted since the invasion yesterday. Aside from the handful of buildings destroyed in the initial attack, the town appeared relatively unscathed.

  He’d been worried that he’d see mounds of rotting corpses when they arrived. But he didn’t see a single body. While the aliens had no problem killing humans, it looked like they weren’t engaged in genocide.

  At least not yet.

  He spotted a group of townsfolk in chains being led down the street by one of the horned aliens. It took every ounce of self control he had to not summon his combat deck and attack immediately. He had to remind himself he only had one minion and a sword. If he wanted to save his sister, he needed to be stealthy.

  And a battle in the middle of Main Street was the opposite of that.

  Beside him, Valentina lifted a pair of binoculars and peered down at the town. She took a deep breath. “I can’t believe little green men are attacking us. This is like one of those Japanese cartoons my little brother used to watch.”

  “Believe it,” he snapped, before softening slightly. “Sorry. I’m just worried about my sister.”

  “I get it,” she said. “If it was my sister, I’d be kicking in every fucking door down there. But these things have weapons way better than ours. We’ve got to be smart.”

  Maybe more advanced than yours, he thought to himself, his gaze flickering over to the icon for his combat deck.

  Valentina lifted a radio and fiddled with the buttons before sighing with frustration. “Why isn’t anything working?”

  “My phone stopped working before they arrived,” he commented absently. “Do you think they took out the satellites?”

  She shook her head. “I doubt it. It’s like there’s a jamming signal or something.” While she spoke, she lifted her binoculars again and swept the hills surrounding the town. This time, her sigh was deeper. “My squad should be here. Why aren’t they here?”

  Warren had a good idea why her squad hadn’t shown up, but he wasn’t about to say it out loud. Most likely, they had either been killed or captured by the aliens. He’d seen firsthand how useless basic weapons were against the invaders. And he doubted the other green berets had been carrying anti-tank weapons like the one he’d used back at the cabin.

  The sound of a horn made them both duck low. It repeated, once, twice, and then a final time, the bellowing noise echoing across the hills. As the horn faded away, a stream of aliens poured out of buildings and raced in their direction.

  “Shit balls,” Valentina whispered. “I think we’ve been spotted.”

  Warren furrowed his brow. How had the aliens seen them? They were hidden behind the crest of a hill over a mile from town. Numerous bushes and trees obscured them from sight, and they had barely moved since they arrived.

  He cursed himself as his view fell upon one of the landing craft still half buried in the street. Both turrets were pointed directly at them. It only made sense they had advanced targeting technology on the spacecraft. Maybe they had a heat sensor or something. But regardless of how’d they done it, the aliens had discovered them.

  The purple skinned humanoids waved their weapons as they flooded down the streets in their direction. They carried a bizarre assortment of beam rifles, swords, and axes. Many of them were dressed in gleaming black armor, while others wore little more than loin clothes, their exposed skin covered in intricate tattoos.

  Valentina pushed herself back, while keeping low, and swung her rifle around. “Oh Jesus. Why do they look like crazy barbarians?”

  He could only shrug his shoulders in reply. So much about the aliens didn’t make any sense to him. From the whole combat deck thing to melee weapons in modern combat, he couldn’t understand their motivations.

  At the rear of the army, he spotted a flash of silver. “Let me see your binoculars.”

  “Are you fucking crazy?” Valentina whispered, her eyes widening. “We need to get out of here.” But after a second, she grumbled and handed him her binoculars.

  Warren lifted the field glasses to his eyes and peered toward where he’d seen the flash of silver. After scanning the ranks of the aliens, he spotted a male wearing shining armor. The alien’s head sported massive horns, almost like overgrown deer antlers, with a grisly trophy hanging from each point; one sported a skull, while another had a bone covered in rotting flesh. The other trophies were indecipherable from such a long distance.

  Stolen story; please report.

  This had to be their leader.

  His suspicions were confirmed when a name plate appeared above the alien’s head. It read:

  Faction: Daskian Empire

  Squire, Level 11.

  But his heart stopped as he spotted movement behind the alien—a large group of captured humans were being led down the street. And in the front of the line was the unmistakable figure of his sister. She was wearing the same jeans and t-shirt from yesterday, and though her hair hung over her face, there was no mistaking her.

  Warren knew he was outmatched and outnumbered, but this might be his only chance to get his sister back. If he had to carve his way through the entire army of aliens, he would do it to save Lisa. He would kill every last one of them with his bare hands if necessary.

  He rose to his feet and started to march down the hill. A hand grabbed his arm, but he shook it off.

  Valentina let out a cry of frustration and raced after him. She caught up with him after a few paces and grabbed his arm again. This time, he couldn’t shake her off. “What are you doing?” she exclaimed. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”

  “I saw my sister,” he said through gritted teeth. “And I’m going to get her back.”

  “Would she want you to die?” Valentina yanked on his arm and spun him around. “Well? Would she? Do you think she’d want you to do some kind of suicidal charge?”

  “I can fight them,” he grunted, though he felt his resolve wavering.

  “With your pea shooter?” Valentina snorted. “They shrugged off everything my squad threw at them. I may as well have been using harsh language.”

  “Just leave,” he said. “I’ll handle this on my own.”

  “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

  He stopped at her words. “What do you mean?”

  “Are you willing to let me die?” She lifted her chin defiantly and crossed her arms. “Because I’m not leaving some civilian behind so he can get turned into paste. So, you stay, I stay. Got it?”

  Warren glanced down the hill—the aliens had almost reached the halfway point to them. They would be in beam weapon range at any second. If Valentina didn’t leave soon, she would almost certainly be collateral damage.

  “Damn,” he muttered. “Alright, let’s get the hell out of here.”

  With Valentina in tow, he scrambled back over the hill and down the others side. Once the invaders were out of sight, the black rage clouding his mind receded like the tide going out. Had he really been about to take on the entire alien army himself?

  “We’re going to get her back,” Valentina panted as she slid down the slope in a mini avalanche. The displaced rocks and clods of dirt bounced down the hill. “I promise you.”

  “She’s the only family I have left,” he replied. “I can’t leave her with the aliens—"

  “Contact!” Valentina shouted as she threw herself at him. She hit his side, and they tumbled down the slope in a tangle of arms and legs. A second later, a fiery beam carved a deep channel where he’d been standing.

  As they rolled to a stop, Warren pushed himself upright. He followed the direction of the beam weapon to see a group of five horned aliens emerging from the forest in front of them. Only the leader carried a beam weapon—the others grasped wicked looking axes. They completely blocked their path back to the cabin.

  Valentina swung her weapon around and snapped off a shot. The bullet went wide, and the foliage exploded next to the lead alien. She shook her head and then shouldered the weapon to peer down the iron sight.

  The next shot slammed into the horned creature’s eye. Blood sprayed into the air as the alien toppled over. A cry of rage went up from the other attackers.

  Warren stood frozen, unsure if he should call upon his combat deck. Once he used it, it would only be active for 15 minutes. But if he delayed, they may lose any chance of escaping.

  “Don’t you know how to use that thing?” Valentina called over to him. She squeezed off another shot, and a female alien with spiked hair went down screaming. When he didn’t reply, she shouted, “Your rifle! Shoot one of those twat waffles!”

  He blinked his eyes, rousing himself from his indecision. Another group of aliens was emerging from the forest to their right. He knew they couldn’t shoot their way out of here. He’d have to use his combat deck.

  Warren concentrated on his deck until two cards materialized in his vision. At the same time, a shield shimmered to life around him. The text read:

  Shield Toughness: 1.

  Turning his attention back to his combat deck, he ignored the card Blade of Deimos and instead selected Nocturne. What they needed right now was a distraction to help them break through the alien lines.

  A second later, Kassandra appeared from a storm of darkness and landed right in the midst of the aliens. The horned warriors shied away as she rose to her feet. She then shot a glance back at him. “Are you having trouble with aliens again, Warren?”

  “Maybe a little bit,” he replied, lifting his rifle. “I’d appreciate a bit of help.”

  Valentina lowered her weapon, making the sign of the cross. “Mary, mother of God, what is going on? Who is she? And what the fuck just happened?”

  “I’ll tell you once we’re safe,” Warren said. “I promise there’s a good explanation.”

  As a group, the aliens charged Kassandra. But she moved almost faster than the eye could follow. She ripped the curved blade free from its sheath on her toned thigh and slashed it across the throat of the nearest alien. Dark blood sprayed across her face.

  She spun around as another Daskian charged at her with a raised axe. Her foot lashed out, catching her attacker square in the face. A terrible crack echoed across the hillside as the creatures’ jaw deformed around her boot’s toe. The alien collapsed to the ground, its face reduced to a bloody pulp.

  “Holy cow!” Kassandra cried out. “I think I know karate!”

  Warren snapped off a shot at one of the Daskians charging at Kassandra from behind. His round hit the alien on the side of the head, and it dropped like every bone had been removed from its body. His next shot went wide.

  After her shock seemingly wore off, Valentina added her own fire to the battle. She was a surprisingly good shot, and every squeeze of the trigger downed one of the invaders. Soon, the hillside was filled with dead or dying aliens.

  None of them had even reached them.

  The remaining Daskians broke and fled, leaving their comrades to their fate.

  Warren glanced behind them to see the first tattooed warriors from the town cresting the hill. He shouldered his weapon and sprinted over to Kassandra, who stood in the center of a pile of corpses. She might only be considered a poor quality minion card, but she was still incredibly deadly.

  As he ran, he noted a new notification blinking in the side of his vision. But he didn’t have time to deal with all the combat deck crap now. He stumbled to a stop in front of Kassandra, who was taking in her handiwork with a shocked expression on her face.

  Kassandra lifted her blood-stained dagger. “I-I don’t know how I did all of this?” Her expression hardened. “Not that they didn’t deserve it. I… think it was kinda of like autopilot?” She shrugged helplessly, her latex outfit crinkling.

  Valentina trotted up next to them. She eyed Kassandra before turning to face Warren. “We’ve got to get moving.” She stabbed her finger at him. “But then you’re going to explain everything to me. A woman popping out of clouds is crazy. Even more crazy than little green men.”

  “I promise I’ll tell you everything,” he replied. “Assuming we make it back in one piece.” He looked back to see more Daskian swarming down the hill. Hopefully, they could lose them in the forest. Otherwise, they’d have to find a place to make a stand.

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