The things were huge, almost four times her height at the shoulders, and they moved with a purpose. Their purpose was destruction, and they were good at it. Tsari winced as another storefront was trashed by a casual backhanded swing from an armored fist. She wasn’t sure what to do. But, by the Maker, this is my community, and I’m going to do something.

Nethan stared, goggle-eyed, as his normally sane and well-adjusted superior strode out into the middle of the street and pointed her empty weapon at the creatures.

“I don’t know who you are or what you are, but I want you out of my neighborhood!”

Cpl. Sam Deacon shook his head as the computer relayed the translation to his ear: “Brave lady, that one. Stupid as all hell, but brave.”

Beside him, his two squadmates nodded their heads. “You got that right, Sam.”

They watched from their perch on a building they’d used as a landing pad while the creatures actually paused mid-destruction and stared at the constable with a degree of confusion that was actually laughable. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long, and the team could see them aiming their weapons at the lady cop.

“Move!” Deacon ordered as he kicked off the building and launched himself into the fray.

Behind him, the two men didn’t bother to reply. They just followed his example and jumped from their perch into the middle of the battle on the street below.

Tsari entertained a brief fantasy that they were actually listening when the things looked at her, then each other. When they lifted their weapons toward her, she tried in vain to swallow and consigned her soul to the afterlife.

She certainly didn’t expect what happened next.

A sudden impact, a few feet to her left, jerked her attention to the side, just in time to see a blur of motion rebound off the ground and fly into her. She cried out in shock and heard the aliens’ weapons open fire at the same moment, charring the place she had been standing to a cinder. She hit the ground with a heavy weight pressing down on her.

“Stay here, lady,” the weight ordered as it got off her, slinging an odd-looking rifle from its shoulder and aiming it back down the street.

“Who are you?” she asked. Military…They must have arrived, finally.

“No time.” He triggered his weapon, causing her to flinch back in horror as it let out a whining roar and a flash of firelight.

What kind of weapon is that? She couldn’t place it. Certainly, it wasn’t on the police standard-issue books, or even any of the military books that she knew of. Tsari shook her head and tried to make sense of the strange figure in armor that was kneeling over her and firing an imposing weapon back at the things that had trashed her community.