---

---

"ISS, This is Houston. Do you copy?"

"Go ahead." Josh Griffith answered.

"Mission abort. Repeat, mission abort. ISS, prep for immediate emergency evacuation. I repeat, prep for emergency evacuation."

"Copy all, Houston." Griffith said. "Kirari, immediate return to ISS for evacuation. Repeat, immediate return to ISS for evacuation."

"Copy that, Griffith." Yamaoka Kirari answered and began protocol for evacuation. While she was prepping for evacuation, she asked Houston to elaborate about the reason.

"Several unknown objects are traveling faster than a high-speed bullet towards your altitude. Do you copy?"

"Copy, Houston. Are they meteoroids?" Kirari asked.

"We don't know." Houston responded honestly. "Focus on evacuating, ISS. Do you copy?

"Copy that Houston. Prepping for immediate emergency evacuation aboard the Soyuz." Kirari said as she was floating towards the ISS station. Suddenly, she saw a blight light coming from the right side of her helmet. It wasn't the sun nor the meteoroids, but something else. And it was getting close towards her position and the station. Before she could notify Houston about the light, she turned and saw several more blight lights appearing near the first one.

"Houston, do yo-"

It was the last transaction between NASA and the ISS before communications were lost. Of course, they tried to reestablish communications until one of their satellites picked up a live feed of the destroyed ISS station. And the unknown objects had seemed to split up and headed towards the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean. Immediately, NASA contracted the Air Force to alert them of the coming objects.

---

The beaches of Los Angeles were filled with hundreds of people trying to cool off for the heat. It meant business for stores along the beach, especially the Anchor Bar. Lawson Ochoa was behind the bar serving drinks aside his bartenders to thirsty customers. He had been dealing with this amount of traffic during the summer for several years. The Anchor Bar was considered one of the popular bars that people went to during weekends. Ochoa was nearly finished with mixing the drinks when he saw someone entering the bar and said, "Guys, something's falling from the sky!"

And people, including Ochoa, immediately rushed outside to inspect the sky. When he got outside of his bar, he saw that several dozen people were looking up at the object falling from the sky. It only took seconds before it clashed on the ocean as the waves made its way towards the coast. Beachgoers began running away from the waves and towards land while the beach patrol ensured that everyone was safe. Some people started filming the whole thing on their cell phones. Inside the bar, he heard the news in the background and decided to investigate. The news anchor said that other objects also clashed into the water all over the world. Even NASA was scrambling to find out what those objects were.

Then, Ochoa heard strange noise that made him go outside again. He saw something coming up from the water that clearly wasn't man-made. It looked like a large industrial-like dome sitting in the middle of the ocean. It grew quiet for a moment until something emerging from the water. And it was clearly alien to everyone. Ochoa stared at the alien with curiosity and a bit of fear. Several more aliens also emerged from the water and stood near the shoreline. Some of the people walked slowly towards the aliens in the hopes of establishing peace, but the aliens unleashed hell upon them.

Everyone was running away from the aliens that were slaughtering people with ease. The beach patrol were outnumbered to fight them and joined the crowd of people fleeing. Ochoa ran inside the bar while several others also made their way inside. He ran towards the back to find his car keys and heard people using the back door to escape from the aliens. Before he could look at his office desk, one of his co-workers shouted for people to leave using the back door. Ochoa managed to find his car keys and bolted out of his bar while the aliens were sitting firing on everything that moved.

Everybody was running away, all the while Ochoa made his way towards the car. Once he got inside, he turned the car on and heard the radio talking about the attacks. According to the radio, the National Guard had begun their engage with the alien dome while the US government is planning on sending armed forces to deal with the threat. Ochoa drove away from the beach and planned on going back to his place to hide; but, the main road was filled with abandoned vehicles. So, he needed to find another way home.

---

The day was like every other day for Dash, or better known to his students as Mr. Miller. He had a lot going for him, a steady job as a High School English teacher at Beaumont Valley High School, where he was liked by the vast majority of his students, and a loving but also very out-of-his-league fiance. His third period was slowly winding down as he tapped away at the chalkboard, scribbling the next reading assignment.

"It's pretty straight-forward, you're assignment is to finish up to chapter thirteen and then write a half-page summary of all the things that Holden has done, along with a one-page reflection on how you would have handled being in his shoes." He said, finishing off with a smirk as he proudly stared at the board with his back still to the students. "And yeah, Hudson, you can read ahead."

The class erupted in giggles and laughter as one of the students in the front row pouted playfully.

"If there aren't any more questions then —"

Before he could finish and dismiss his class, there was a loud boom, followed by a small tremor. The school was near the ocean and they were in a prime spot for mudslides, earthquakes, and other ungodly natural events. Raising his hands to calm his students, Dash smiled. "Don't worry, I'm sure it was just a small quake."

Barely a minute passed when another boom, even louder than the last, thundered through the air, shaking the ground harder as it knocked books off the shelves and pencils off the desks. Panic began rising from the pits of his stomach as his kids began texting away at their phones for the newest update of what was going on. Dash bit his lips nervously as he followed suit, swiping away and scrolling at his feed as he watched videos of something huge crashing into the ocean with people screaming and shouting in the background. That's when something emerged from the back of the video and mauled the people in the video.

"What the hell."

"Mr. Miller! What's happening?"

Dash was speechless, he was dumbfounded at what he saw and it confused him to an extent that he never would have imagined.

"Pardon the interruption," the voice of Principal Wong said, cracking through the PA system. "Teachers please be advised to hold all students until further noti—"

The instructions were cut off by a third boom, this time louder and closer than the lasts as the classroom and the school began shaking violently. Sounds of large metal scrapping the pavement came after, this time urging the students to get up from their seats, and rushing out of the door. Screams erupted from the hallway as both students and staff began sprinting out the doors of Beaumont Valley High School.

With his keys in hand, Dash sprinted out with the crowd but was greeted by large, metal robots that all began firing at them instantly. Smoke, blood, fire, chaos, those were all the things that were happening as Dash rolled on the ground, coughing lowly as he was trying to catch his breath. He some of his students and co-workers lying lifeless on the floor as the robotic aliens were still firing away at the people still sprinting away.

Fear. Fear filled his veins with adrenaline as he picked himself off the ground, panting heavily, darting towards his car. Dash did his best, swooping whoever he figured had enough energy to run off of their backs and onto their feet. "Run, get home. Go!"

Dash wasn't going to go home though, he knew that he needed to find Georgia first.