The stars shone with a cold and distant fire, their hostile alien light bringing the promise of terror to the planet below. They hung uncaring over the darkened plains, ignoring the whine of invading velocifighters and the detonations that fired city and hill in their wake. Not even the desolate plains were spared the army's relentless march. The quantrons consumed and continued, fearsome and unstoppable.

Another explosion rocked the sandy dunes, blasting rubble and burning slag in every direction. Flames leapt into the sky as the lasers ignited the very air, fading out just as quickly and leaving smoky blackness in their wake. Open eyes teared and failed, unable to penetrate the acrid curtain. Still more had been forever closed by the sweep's deadly attack, and lay now untroubled by the debris and smoke.

A shadow detached itself from the cloud of ash and brimstone, struggling toward the ridge and cleaner air. One by one, the survivors dragged themselves free, regrouping in a shadowy ring of black on black. Timmin was limping, and Lyris' breath rattled in his lungs. Kris' weapon, empty of charge, had been tossed aside in disgust, and Jenna's formerly blond hair was grey in the unforgiving starlight when she paced silently to his side.

"Word from Mirine," she whispered, her eyes sliding restlessly over the surrounding plains. "Eltare's reinforcements arrive within the hour."

While she looked back, he stared ahead, gaze riveted on the seething city just beyond the ridge. It had been in the capable hands of the militia when they left to organize the surrounding region's defense, but wave after wave of velocifighters had overrun it in their absence. Dawn would not be soon enough for the people below--nor would it save them from another attack like the one they had just endured.

"Too long," he rasped, his voice thick with the stinging smoke that made Lyris cough. "The sweepriders will be back long before then."

Jenna passed the word and the force began to creep over the ridge, dark and undetered. Not a one questioned the orders that would bring their vastly inferior numbers into direct conflict with the army below. The city was on its knees, and they were the only ones that stood between their families and the final killing blow.

The smoke trailed after them as they melted down the opposite side of the ridge, death come calling for the countless quantrons that now occupied their homeland. The night seemed to embrace them, wrapping these angels of vengeance in its own darkness to conceal their slinking approach.

Like wraiths, the soldiers closed in on the city they had left scant hours before. Fires tore through the once peaceful settlement, turning earthen adobe into a raging inferno and setting showers of burning sparks loose upon the wind. The drone of low-flying velocifighters was all but overwhelmed by the hiss and boom of their repeated strafing runs, and counterfire was inaudible within the crumbling city.

Quantron silhouettes were visible, ringing the perimeter and broadcasting incursive menace by dint of sheer numbers. Their whining speech carried on the air, above the crackle of fire and through the short distance that separated city from saviors.

He held up one hand, and the darkness around him became motionless. He felt someone touch his awareness as he hesitated, and Lyris’ normally gentle nature impinged on his own. The gentleness had turned to stone this night, but his friend’s voice was as distinctive as ever.

*Where we go one, we go all. You've led us better than anyone could, Saryn. No one has any regrets, so let's show those quantrons what it means to threaten a Border world.*

He turned his head and found pale blue eyes staring back at him from the darkness. Their gazes caught and locked briefly before he looked for Jenna. She too was watching him, and when he glanced her way she gave a small smile and made a heart with her fingers.

He held up his hand and gestured. Two fingers right, then left, and then he waited while his teammates slid away into the night. Kris signaled when she and Timmin were in place, and Lyris let him know when his people and Jenna's were ready. He heard the roar of returning sweepriders in the distance, and the fires of the city reached out as if to engulf them while they stood poised on its edge. The last battle was upon them.