Sally slid to a stop at the crest of a hill. It looked like the town below had taken part in a recent war. Fresh blood lined the streets. Several buildings were smoking or had crumbled on top of piled bodies. Most of those still standing had stopped in place, frozen from continuing their battle - aside from one large and remarkably familiar plated knight.

  Her eyes switched from Humphrey to the thing that had drawn everyone’s attention. The massive oval shape eclipsed the sun and put the surroundings in its shade.

  “Looks like our spaceship,” Bully murmured.

  “Much bigger though,” she agreed. “The Radochs were showing up after all, huh? I was starting to think this was all for nothing.”

  Edward and Archie said nothing, for different reasons. The demon hadn’t quite recovered his eyesight yet, so was rather in the dark about the visuals of the looming threat. The cat had been rather silent after telling Sally the real reason they were here on this planet.

  The zombie sighed. “We’d better knock some sense into Pops and rally the others. Preferably before the aliens land. Is this their only ship?”

  Archie shook his head.

  “Cool, cool.” Sally twirled her dagger between her fingers. “Doesn’t look like we’ll get much assistance from the locals, given that we each murdered our way through most of the major factions in the world.”

  Edward grinned. “Such is the way of the Outsiders.”

  The zombie grunted and hopped down the hill to run toward the temple, where the combat still raged on.

  Jackie kept her eyes on the large spaceship hovering over the town. She winced every so often as Humphrey yelled or put his sword through another distracted opponent. For all-encompassing as the alien craft was in the sky, the rust bucket hadn’t acknowledged it in the slightest.

  Comparatively, the token force he had been slaughtering his way through had either been stunned in fear or were fleeing the scene.

  “Hells, where are the others?” She stood from the cover and flicked her cigarette to the ground.

  “Stand and fight, you… you…” The Death Knight slowed and lowered his sword. His left hand came up to hold the side of his head.

  “Perfect timing,” the mobster murmured. While the alien craft hadn’t done anything since its sudden arrival, it could only be a matter of time before the bastards arrived on the planet. Humphrey was probably the best Outsider to partner with her if the rest didn’t show up, assuming he came to his senses.

  //Sally: Coming into the northeast side of the town now.

  That was more like it. Maybe not the best of starts, but with the gang all together, the space bugs wouldn’t know what had hit them. If history were any measure, then the small group of Outsiders would carve a bloody trail through the cockroaches, and this world would be saved in no time. She’d be back with Fran and the tavern before she knew it.

  Jackie grinned and lit a new cigarette as she worked her way down the temple stairs. “Hey, you snapping out of it, tin can? We're about to have to beat up some mooks.”

  Humphrey shook his head and turned to face her. “Hmm, what's happening?”

  Jackie pointed up. “It's showtime.”

  The Death Knight followed her gesture and saw the large ship in the air for the first time, despite it almost causing the town to be entirely shadowed by its presence.

  On the underside of the spacecraft directly above them, a circle of runes illuminated in a flickering golden light. Over the course of three seconds, the circle filled with more intense illumination, looking something like a portal.

  Jackie rolled her cigarette from one side of her mouth to the other, exhaling smoke as she checked that her crossbow was fully reloaded. “Looks like they're about to teleport down, huh?”

  Humphrey scratched the side of his head, still confused. The edges of his dark armor picked up the golden light from above, as did the nearby buildings and trails of bloody bodies.

  Crimson flame flickered higher at the back of his helmet, realization striking him quicker than he could voice a warning.

  It wasn't a method of teleportation.

  Bright golden light flashed down, scouring the town with a pillar of intense radiant energy.

  Theo shielded his eyes from the sun. This world had been far too bright for him, on the whole. What he wouldn't give for some overcast skies and gothic architecture. The caw of a raven, and the deep crimson of Sally's eyes.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  He paused to lean under the shade of a tree to get his bearings. Against better judgment, he had decided to do a little solo exploring for a change. Nothing too dangerous, but it was nice to get his fangs stuck into the world at his own pace. Compared with his usual methods, he was taking it a little slower on this world.

  That didn't mean he was stopping to smell every rose along the way, but he wanted to meet the powerful Players here in good standing. Dying without getting them on board to join Sanctuary would be bad for both parties, but double for him. Failure wasn't an option.

  He raised his arm to check his watch. Another thirty minutes of navel-gazing and he had to meet Dee at the dungeon they were going to grind through. There was something about this world that almost took him back to the early days of Sanctuary. The exploration of something adjacent to the familiar.

  Not that some of the other worlds he had visited hadn’t given him that sort of feeling before, but there was something about this one that… felt like a return to where he belonged. A thought that was an odd contrast to only just griping about the lack of mood lighting and macabre furnishings.

  He smiled to himself and pushed away from the tree. A dungeon should at least be a little gloomy, so things were looking up.

  In fact, so far it had been a blast.

  Sally entered the outskirts of the town, burning with anger. The smell of scorched stone was thick, and it didn't take long before she saw signs of the damage the large beam attack had caused.

  Buildings on the edge of the blast radius were charred black and smoking. The stone road she ran down was still warm and cracking as it cooled. As she approached the temple area, the signs of destruction were more clear.

  Houses had collapsed to rubble, billowing dark clouds from within. The brickwork pathways were nothing but churned rock, covered in a layer of dark soot. Her eyes watered from the intense smell and residual heat.

  She had already seen the STAR message, but needed to see it with her own eyes as well.

  The zombie stumbled into the open clearing where the temple had once been. Near the direct impact zone, the place was basically a crater. Only the barest of shapes remained, hinting at where buildings had once stood.

  In the middle of what was once an impressive square, was the crouched plated figure of Humphrey.

  “Pops!” she shouted, approaching with even more fervor.

  A sliver of red flame wavered slowly behind the Death Knight’s helmet. Steam poured from his overheated metal plating, some of it still glowing orange from the heat. He turned his skeletal face to the side, his armor hissing from the effort.

  “Despite everything, it’s still me,” he confirmed, although his voice was slower than usual.

  Cursing to herself, Sally passed him and came to a stop by what appeared to be the remnants of stone steps. A charred skeleton lay back against them, a lit cigarette somehow still clenched between the teeth of the smoldering remains.

  [Jackie has died]

  Sally now dismissed the message. “Asshole roaches. They haven’t even shown their ugly faces, and we’re down twenty percent Outsiders.”

  Archie caught up with her, while the other two were a little behind. In seeing the corpse, the cat sighed. “I can confirm she has safely returned to the Omen. There is a silver lining, however.”

  The bright red glare the zombie shot him was almost enough to make his fur stand on end, but he continued.

  “From her position, she is able to use the subsystems of our ship to conduct reconnaissance across the world as a whole.”

  Sally tutted and shook off her ire. Instead, she stepped back over to the Death Knight. “Joy. Will that make it easier for us to find your bullshit MacGuffin?”

  “It… won’t hinder the search.”

  She didn’t respond but crouched down beside the steaming Humphrey. “How are you doing, Pops? Can you move?”

  He grunted and nodded his head softly. “Confused, but piecing together the events. The area I landed caused me to hallucinate. Things are a blur until right before…” The Death Knight strained and stood back up to his feet, turning his skeletal face to the sky.

  Sally followed his gaze. The Radoch ship was back to being inert gray again, having achieved whatever goal the blast was for. Maybe softening up the planet? They’d need to get out of Lunavaille and into the wilderness just in case it happened again. Losing any more Outsiders would surely make this more of a headache than needed.

  Bully and Edward caught up.

  “This place gives me the creeps,” the alchemist murmured. “I thought the Radochs were collectors by nature?”

  Archie snapped his tail back and forth as his emerald eyes glared up at the spaceship. “They are not here for the weak populace or even the land.”

  “No more chatter.” Sally clicked her fingers. “Everyone head out west to the woods. We’ll have to lie low until we have an invading force to skirmish with, as we’re going to be high-priority targets once the bugs realize we’re here.”

  They followed her without argument. With Humphrey heavily weakened and Edward blind, the death of the mobster had blunted their offensive edge dramatically. Bravado would only get them so far against an unknown enemy.

  Part of this expedition was to scout the aliens to see what they were capable of. In the back of her mind, Sally could only imagine a fleet of ships doing to all her friends on Sanctuary what they had just done to Jackie.

  Being able to respawn was one thing, but what would remain of the world against such an assault?

  She gnashed her teeth as her group left the town. Her vengeance would be swift and merciless.

  The zombie slid to a stop and turned as the alien craft made an almost deafening noise, shaking the treeline they were approaching.

  Jackie slumped down onto a chair and sighed. She raised an unlit cigarette to her lips before removing it and tossing it into the nearby trash receptacle. A waste, but she was far too annoyed to do anything but seethe.

  Blasting her from orbit seemed unsportsmanlike. There had been some overpowered shit back on Sanctuary throughout the years, but there had always been a fight worth having. A chance to roll the dice and beat the odds.

  She glanced back at the empty interior of the vessel. The walking tin can must have survived it. Something that both annoyed her further, but made her glad. Sally and her goons would need all the help they could get.

  With a second, louder sigh, she brushed her purple hair back and picked up a headset from beside the console. After flicking a switch, a large monitor appeared before her. She lowered the microphone on the side of the earpiece and ran her eyes over the information pooling in.

  A wireframe map of the world wrote itself into the center of the display, followed by dots representing the Outsiders moving from the outskirts of one of the Radoch ships.

  Jackie narrowed her eyes as she glanced around the entire world, counting up the number of ships.

  Partway through doing this, red dots appeared at these locations.

  Many red dots.