The television buzzed. The 2D cat chased the 2D mouse with a rge frying pan.

  All of a sudden, the characters disappeared—faded into static.

  Radio Televisión Hispantina

  “We interrupt this program to report devastating news. Just now we’ve had reports of mass invasions across the country.” The dy reported, reading an autocue behind the camera.

  The screen cut to shaky helicopter footage—elevated above the city.

  “I’m here above the Valpara river.” The cameraman announced.

  The camera zoomed in—smoke bloomed from shattered buildings and cratered streets.

  “As you can see—”

  Whistles wailed as projectiles shot from the sky, carving through buildings. Bricks sprayed. The projectiles smmed down onto the streets, erupting into balls of fire.

  “Oh god… as you can see, the damage is severe. We urge everyone to—”

  “Incoming!” a voice yelled in the background.

  “—report to your nearest MEI—”

  A loud bang cut through the cameraman's commands. The footage began shaking violently.

  “Mayday, mayday,” the pilot screamed.

  “Oh god…” the cameraman’s voice shook, “I don’t want to d—”

  The broadcast stopped—cut to static.

  In another country, a phone camera filmed the horrors from the ground.

  “What is that?” the young woman behind the camera asked in a cry of despair.

  She spoke in Suryan, in an urban Daehara accent—she was clearly from the Han Surya Federation.

  The camera pointed to a rge structure floating beside a tall skyscraper. The structure was bck, with a massive circur apparatus on its underside. A cruiser.

  The cruiser was drifting towards the skyscraper. Fast.

  “Oh, my god…”

  Crash!

  A horrific moan rang as gss screamed and metal groaned. The skyscraper shattered.

  Gss rained down. A chaotic symphony of blood-curdling screams followed.

  The screen jolted as she sprinted, panting heavily.

  She panned back to the cruiser. The cruiser continued, burrowing through the building, penetrating the other side.

  Then let out a low mechanical howl.

  Doors opened from the round structure. From them, pods shot.

  One of them crashed onto the streets beside the camerawoman with a loud thud. Then followed by a hiss.

  The pod doors opened. A creature stood inside.

  All four of its eyes flicked open—blood red. A red light fshed on a bck metal colr around its neck. It growled, bearing its yered fangs.

  It shattered the shackles holding it in the pod as easily as snapping the stick of a lollipop.

  “N-no… g-g-g-get b-back.”

  The beast stepped out of the pod. The concrete road crumbled under its talons.

  “No…” the woman’s voice quivered.

  The creature sprinted to the camera.

  The woman screamed. The camera shook violently. The footage ended.

  The chaos continues; in the middle of a vast ocean, a rge cruiser hovered above the water. Alien fighters swarmed the main structure.

  Human ships floated on the water—littered across the ocean—looking up at the great feat of alien technology above.

  A fighter cut through the sky—two more followed behind.

  On their wings, the aircrafts bore the symbol of the Gallienne Armée de l'air: three golden fleurs-de-lis pced on a blue diamond.

  “Mother base, this is Blue-Bird. Closing in on Alpha,” the pilot said.

  “Copy that, Blue-Bird. Opening fire now,” a deep voice muffled through the pilot's headpiece.

  Artillery crackled. A barrage of projectiles shot from every human ship in sync.

  The shell whistled through the air. Stopped.

  A rge blue orb manifested around the alien cruiser’s hull.

  “What the hell?” The pilot yelled in confusion.

  The shells began to spin—faster. They rotated 180o and fired.

  “DISENGAGE!” The pilot screamed.

  The three human fighters diverged. One wasn’t fast enough—a shell smashed straight through its fusege. A human shell. The fighter exploded instantly—obliterated by humanity's own weapons.

  The pilot yanked the joystick sideways.

  Shells whizzed past it, barely skimming its wings.

  The pilot initiated a barrel roll. And that’s when he could see it. The sight of hell on earth.

  The ocean was a graveyard. Masts bent—tumbled into the ocean. Fireballs bloomed out of steel hulls, spewing debris across the air, spshing into the sea.

  “Who’s gonna save us from this hell?” the pilot mumbled.

  In a rge press briefing room, men up in rows—cameras in hand. The room rattled ever so subtly, every so often.

  Tosin Odeji stepped up to the podium and straightened his jacket.

  Cameras fshed. Odeji didn’t avert his gaze.

  The murmurs of reporters filled the room. He cleared his throat. Silence.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, today we face an unprecedented threat.” The words left his lips in a deep tone that demanded the undivided attention of everyone in the room.

  “In the past hour, hostile forces have unched coordinated attacks across multiple regions of the world.”

  Odeji paused. Tightened his hand around the podium.

  “But we are not unprepared.”

  Then took a breath.

  “Across the world, our agents have already been deployed to fight back against these foes. Brave men and women who will y down their lives to make sure every single one of you and everyone you love is safe.”

  “And they will not back down.” “Nor will they lose.”

  Odeji looked at the camera with a gentle smile.

  “Everyone, follow the instructions of your local authorities and report to your nearest MEI emergency station.”

  “We will get through this, together.”

  Gunfire fizzed overhead in the streets of Vinterholm, Nordnd.

  Felix (callsign, Viking) crouched behind a rge chunk of debris, rifle clutched tightly to his chest. Beside him were his squadmates: Splinter, Rico, Magma, Lodi, and Frost. MEI was on their shoulders, woven onto the fabric of their uniform.

  Burning cars littered the main road in front.

  Far up ahead, a group of alien soldiers took position.

  Felix was looking through a pair of binocurs.

  One soldier signalled to the others with a hand gesture. They nodded.

  They each pnted small metal boxes onto the floor and cranked a lever in unison. Metal shields shot up.

  A rge tank hovered behind them.

  Every so often, gunfire would be exchanged. But no one dared move. It was a standoff.

  “They’re fortifying their position,” Viking announced, “This means they most likely won’t make the first move.”

  “But how are we gonna get past them?” Splinter asked, “They’ve blocked the road, and we can’t fight our way through; we’ll be obliterated.”

  Felix grinned.

  “Look around us, we—along with them—are fnked on either side by buildings. We’ll use that.”

  “Hey, Rico,” Felix said, “you got any of them prototypes?”

  “Yes,” Rico said as a smile curled on her face, “four of them.”

  “Good, here’s the pn.” Felix announced, “Magma, Lodi, you stay here—keep them distracted—open fire on them every so often, stay in cover.”

  “Rico, you’re with me—we’ll fnk the left,”

  “Splinter, Frost, you fnk the right. Take one of the prototypes and let me know when you’re in position. We unch them on my signal.”

  Everyone nodded.

  “Rico,” Felix said, “hand over the prototypes.”

  “Roger that,” she replied.

  Rico grabbed her satchel and handed out the prototypes: one to Splinter, one to Felix.

  Felix held the prototype in his hand and rotated it.

  The prototype was a metal ball, slightly bigger than a tennis ball.

  “Here’s a quick summary on how it works,” Rico said, “inside, the grenade holds a small compressed, unstable aethesium shard. A small containment field holds the energy in. Pull the pin on top, and you have four to five seconds before the containment field fails.”

  “Got it,” Felix nodded.

  The tank in the distance groaned. A loud bang came from the armament. Whistling became louder and louder.

  It fshed overhead.

  Bang!

  The shell hit behind them—debris rained.

  “Shit, we’re running out of time. Let’s go,” Felix ordered.

  Felix and Rico crept through the dark corridors of an abandoned apartment block. Broken gss crunched under their feet. Muffled gunfire crackled.

  “Stay away from the windows,” Felix whispered, “they’ll see us.”

  Rico nodded.

  Felix heard a muffled bang. Followed by a whistle. Then a thud.

  “We need to hurry,” Rico whispered in a shaky voice.

  “No, we take our time. If they spot us, we die.”

  Felix opened the door carefully. A stairwell. The two climbed the stairs, each step calcuted.

  They stayed low as they navigated the walls below the windows. Gunfire became louder as they progressed. Felix occasionally peeked to gauge their distance. Eventually, they were right above the formation of alien soldiers.

  Felix whispered into a radio.

  “We’re in position, Splinter. Are you ready?”

  Splinter’s voice crackled through the radio.

  “Whenever you are, boss.”

  Felix slipped his hand into the small satchel at his hip. Grasped the prototype.

  He held it in front of his face.

  “Let rip.”

  Felix pulled the pin—tossed it through the broken window. Gunfire stopped.

  The soldiers looked at the two grenades.

  Light bent—swirled towards them.

  Debris lifted. The tank was slowly dragged towards them. Chunks of solid matter surrounded the grenade in a tightening shell. They melted into glowing gold chunks.

  Silence.

  One alien took a step back. Then the grenade crumpled into itself.

  Bright golden light fshed, expanding in a sphere. A loud shockwave shattered the windows. Everything that had been sucked into the grenade was bsted back away with violent velocity. The tank was obliterated. Bodies littered the street, groaning.

  “Open fire! Finish them off!” Felix yelled.

  Gunfire crackled from the windows of the buildings fnking what was left of the formation.

  Bullets ripped the bodies to shreds—green blood bloomed.

  One of the aliens raised their trembling hand. Bullets rained down on their body. Their hand jolted, then dropped to the ground. Lifeless.

  The gunfire stopped. The battlefield became silent except for the squads’ ragged panting.

  “We did it,” Felix breathed. “Holy shit, Rico—we did it.”

  Felix threw his arms around Rico—she embraced him back.

  “It was a great pn,” Rico said.

  Suddenly, four projectiles whistled from above. Four pods smmed into the ground. The road shattered—spewed into the air.

  The skirmish was over. The war for Earth was not.

  Grossaint was a shell of its former self. Cafes, bars and shops were in tatters and abandoned. The road was uneven—craters sprinkled the concrete.

  A rge metal van barrelled along the roads. MEI was printed on the side, as well as a new symbol: a skull with cherry blossom eyes and a red bandana.

  The Ghost-Line Six insignia.

  Inside the van, Himiko stared at a prototype rifle in her hands.