“Clear!” Mallard said as she kneeled on her target, his rifle knocked well out of the man’s reach.

“Clear!” Jenkins crouched low over his man, his own weapon digging into the man’s neck, even as his right foot was planted solidly over the gunman’s weapon.

“Clear!” Savoy had his handgun out and was helping Hilliard cover the occupants of the shelter.

Major Brinks’s voice came over the radio, surprising Milla for a moment. “Confirmed. Milla, you’re clear to enter.”

Milla stepped into the room, looking nervously around. Gathering her nerve, she stepped more firmly into the shelter, looking around for someone who might be in charge. Everywhere she looked, she was met by fear as the people cowered away from her, leaving her confused by the reaction.

Suddenly, she remembered how alien her armor actually looked. “Oh! Mr. Savoy? How do I remove this helmet?”

Savoy stepped up behind her and pointed out the release catches that sealed the helmet to the suit. Twin hisses echoed through the room as the suit pressure was balanced, and Milla tugged the helmet off.

She looked around at the people, who were all watching her now, and held up her hands in a comforting manner. “We are friends. I’m from Ranqil. We just arrived in-system a few hours ago.”

One of the huddled survivors stepped forward cautiously, her face a mask that hid all but a small portion of her emotions. “You are from Ranqil?” Her voice was suspicious as she looked Milla up and down and then examined Savoy and the others.

Milla shook her head firmly. “I am from Ranqil. These people are not. They are not from the colonies; they are of the Others.”

Distaste ran across the woman’s features as she looked over the soldiers in the room. “We do not want them here.”

Milla looked over her shoulder to where the soldiers waited, their eyes scanning the crowd, even as their weapons didn’t quite cover the crowd. She thought about her own reactions to her rescuers. “You may not want them, but you do need them. They rescued me when my ship was destroyed by the Drasin. Now they come to rescue you as well.”

A shiver of fear passed through the huddled mass of people at the mention of the word Drasin.

Their spokesperson paused for a moment before speaking again. “So the rumors were true. Few believed them to be when we heard of the first Drasin attacks. It was a struggle to get permission to begin construction of this shelter. How many survived the attack?”

Milla swallowed before answering. “You are the only survivors that we’ve found. No life signs were detected, and there were no other signals from the planet.”

The silence in the room was palpable as Milla’s words sank into the collective consciousness of the group.

Savoy cleared his throat behind Milla to remind her that they had things to finish.

“We have to restore power to your reactor so that we can evacuate your people.”