THE UNITED KINGDOM, 2112 (Three years earlier)

  Fiona McLane rushed home from the campus. The alert had just gone out. It was time to evacuate.

  The time she had spent in England was too short, by her measure. Over the past two years she’d met many new friends and had begun to love the people here. They’d been separated from the US for decades but few things drew people closer together than a worldwide threat.

  She rushed past the gates and into the large estate, the security team wasting no time. Already half the building’s contents were out on the lawn.

  She parked her car in the middle of the vast driveway, behind the fleet of moving vehicles. She spotted her parents directing the staff.

  “Mom! Dad! I just got the news. The Emperor is crossing the Channel! The warframes are walking out of the water!”

  Her father looked at her with sorrow. “We all knew it was just a matter of time. We can’t afford to wait any longer than this.”

  Her mother put a hand on her shoulder. “We need to get to the transport, honey. We need to get out of here while we still can. Your friends will have to fend for themselves.”

  “My friends are still out there! We have soldiers, if we hurry we can rescue-”

  “Absolutely not.” Her father replied. “There’s no way I’m taking the slightest chance of us getting caught here. There’s a plane waiting, and we’re heading for it. Get into the van, our things are much lower priority than our lives.”

  “We’re at least taking the trees, right?” Her mother asked. “The amount of good they can do the world-”

  “Your research can be recreated with just a little bit of work. We can make some new fucking frankenstein trees. Speaking of,” He said, turning to a soldier, “burn them and shoot any scientists that we can’t evacuate. We can’t afford for them to fall into the Emperor’s hands. We have everyone so we need to go. Now!”

  Her mother bit her lip and clenched her fists, took a deep breath, and then calmed down.

  “Fine. No time to waste. Let’s go.”

  One of the soldiers reached out a hand to her father. He was an older asian man, hair grey at the temples.

  “I’m Colonel Chen, I’ll be escorting you to the Embassy.”

  They swiftly hopped into the back of a black van, half of it full of soldiers. The Colonel spoke as they entered.

  “They’ve started sending out snatchers. We’ve got to be extremely fast if we want to get out of here in time.”

  “We’ll be alright, won’t we?” Fiona asked, hesitant.

  “I’m not going to lie to you,” The Colonel said, “Every country that thing has fought has fallen. It’s just a question of how long it’ll take. The Brits are tough people, but it looks like they were pretty badly infiltrated. Less than half the defenses they had set up are still operational, and a lot of the others seem to be sabotaged. It’s cutting through their forces as quick as a blowtorch through butter. We can’t land aircraft here either, it’s already got aerial superiority over the eastern half of the island.”

  “There’s no time to waste then,” Her father said. “Get us out of here.”

  The van took off and the entire thing lurched. Her mother held a small potted tree in hand, its leaves glowing a faint neon blue.

  “You saved one, mom!” Her daughter said, cheerily.

  “Yes, well it’s the most important one we’ve made. It could potentially turn the tide of the war.”

  Her father spoke up, “If it comes down to it, I’m choosing you over the tree.”

  “Don’t say that! This is more important than any of us. I know you’ve never believed in it but this can change the tide of the war!”

  “Unless it can grow a rocket launcher right now it’s useless! Besides, if the Emperor gets its claws on it then it’ll just turn it against us.”

  “When we get this back to the states it’ll grow whatever we want! You don’t understand - if we lose this, we lose everything! This is the best hope we have! Every free scientist in the world contributed to its growth!”

  “We should have grown it back in the US, but you insisted you had to come along!”

  “The scientists we needed were here! We couldn’t do it back home!”

  “Would you two please stop fighting?” Fiona half-yelled. “If we’re going to die, I want my final minutes to be happy ones.”

  “Fiona, if I fall promise me you’ll take it-”

  “Calm down, we’re not going to die-” Her father began, before the soldier interrupted.

  “We’ve got snatcher squads on the way! Prepare for combat!”

  “Oh god when-” Her mother started, before a loud explosion caused the vehicle to shake violently. There were no windows in the back of the van, so Fiona couldn’t see anything. She could already hear sporadic gunfire and screaming, however.

  “What the bloody hell is going on?” Her father shouted.

  The vehicle seemed to speed up before the entire thing shuddered and seemed to slow to a halt.

  “Shit!” The driver cried. “The engine is hit! We’re dead in the water!”

  “Alright,” The Colonel said. “Everyone out! We’re on foot from here, we can still make it to the bird with a little bit of effort. Stay calm, follow me, and keep your heads down, understand?”

  “Oh Jesus, oh fuck,” Her father started panicking.

  “The soldiers will keep us safe dad, we have to go!” Fiona shouted.

  The back of the armored van opened as she looked upon a scene of horror. Several of the vehicles in the convoy were burned wrecks, with a giant hole in the hood. A small fleet of flying boxes hovered above them, each of them carefully shooting metal spikes into the engines of the vehicles. They were thickly armored, but it didn’t seem to matter. The railguns on the drones were enough to punch through.

  In the air, a fleet of friendly drones were being slaughtered by what looked like a flock of mechanical hawks.

  Men were out on the ground, firing back at the attacking drones with a variety of weapons. Some shot at them with pistols and shotguns, others fired at them with net guns.

  “Hit the jammer!” One of them shouted. “The Jammer!”

  “It’s on!” Another one replied, “It’s not doing anything!”

  “The laser defenses?”

  “Taken out!”

  “What about our drones?”

  “Half of them aren’t even working! I don’t get why, they’re supposed to be autonomous! They worked fine yesterday!”

  Drones fell from the sky but a dozen men seemed to fall for every one they took down. Several seemed to be dedicated to solely tagging people with tranquilizer darts, hitting even the smallest gaps in their armor.

  Colonel Chen was struck several times as he shielded the ambassador’s family, but his hardened skin caused the darts to bounce off.

  “Alright, move!” The Colonel yelled. He pointed down the street. “If we make it to the embassy, we’ll be fine!”

  They did as instructed, panicking and falling over themselves as they did their best to dodge from place to place.

  “Swarmlings! We have stingers incoming!” One of the soldiers shouted. Fiona looked as what appeared to be a mass of angry metallic yellowjackets came around a corner. A soldier wielding a gun fired at them, taking out a handful, but the swarm simply ignored the losses and continued moving towards him. They seemed to coat him like paint flowing over a wall, sticking to him and stinging viciously with tranquilizer coated stingers. His screams haunted her mind and sped her flight.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  The Colonel opened his mouth and seemed to scream in their direction, only for a torrent of flame to emerge instead. The soldier and the swarm both went down in a blaze of fire.

  Fiona shied away from the heat, but soon ducked as a soldier behind her picked up the van they’d just been in and threw it through the air, taking out half a dozen flying drones at once.

  The Colonel grabbed her arm, “Come on! All of you! We have to go before the heavy stuff starts to show up!”

  Even as they spoke, large coffin-like drones appeared from the air to drag off anyone that was knocked out. The soldiers unleashed a hail of augmented abilities at them, with a few shooting lightning, spitting fire or aiming with perfect accuracy. Whenever they started taking down the coffin-like snatcher drones, however, they were flooded with a wave of expendable combat drones, swarms, and other attacks. Try as they might, they found themselves continuously outmaneuvered by their well coordinated attacks. Slowly but surely defeated soldiers were dragged off and the survivors engaged in a losing battle.

  “Call in a railgun strike!” Fiona’s father shouted. “Take out the block!”

  “Sir, I assure you this is still just the vanguard of their forces. We all came here knowing capture was a possibility. We have to hold that off until the last possible minute to cover your escape. Now move!”

  They ran down the street with the shouts and screams of soldiers and civilians alike following in their wake. Soon the ground seemed to shake and the screaming got louder.

  “Shit! It’s herding the civilians here! Move faster!”

  Fiona looked back only to see a human wave emerge around the street corner, a massive hovering formation of drones flying above them. Coffin-like snatchers would scoop up several running, panicking people at a time, while swarms of bee-like drones stung others and the shooting drones tranquilized yet more. The onrushing civilians threatened to swarm the few remaining soldiers and sweep them away in the human tide of panicked humanity.

  “It’s like shooting fish in a barrel,” Fiona thought, horrified.

  “Sonic weapons! Hit the pulse!” The colonel shouted. Several men brought up large, rocket-launcher sized weapons that looked like sci-fi ray guns. They did not shoot light, however, but sound waves.

  Both civilians and drones fell back as the soundwaves hit them. Swarms of beelikes fell to the ground, and civilians screamed.

  Suddenly, as they turned around another corner, thundering gunfire sounded. Fiona tried to duck instinctively but was physically hauled forward by one of the soldiers.

  As she looked up, she realized they were their own guns. Massive turrets attached to the Embassy compound began to unleash hellfire on the assembled drones.

  “Get in the jet!” The Colonel shouted. “We’ll hold them off!” He turned around and she felt the heat wash over her as he unleashed his dragon’s breath aug once again on a cloud of swarmlings.

  “Now! Call in the railgun strike on my position!” Chen screamed.

  Buildings all around them instantly exploded, the horde of stunned civilians were splattered. It took only a few seconds for another swarm of drones to emerge from the dust.

  Now her father was dragging her and her mother, who still held onto the glowing tree.

  “Go! Go! Go!” He screamed, half panicked.

  “You won’t take me! For God, Humanity and America!” The colonel shouted, and she felt heat wash over her as the man detonated in place, his augment purposefully overloaded.

  They ran up the off-ramp, only to be met by the pilot.

  “What’s going on? Why aren’t we taking off?” Her father screamed.

  The pilot held out a small pistol.

  “The Machine Emperor must rule!” He cried, before firing the dart-pistol as small fletchettes flew out, striking all three.

  “Shit! The pilot… was… an…” Her father began before collapsing.

  “Dad!” Fiona shouted, before slumping to the ground.

  Her last vision was her mother’s tree on the floor, the dirt spilling out as the pilot trampled its glowing leaves. Her last memory was reaching out for it before everything faded to black.

  —

  Fiona was groggy and only half awake as she became aware of being carried. She felt herself pressing against other people, the strength in her legs gone but she was held aloft by the sheer press of flesh on flesh. It was pitch dark, and she could only barely see. In her hand she held the small tree, its faint bioluminescence showing her the unconscious faces of her family and several soldiers. It was no longer potted, the roots torn from the soil by her last grasp.

  She felt herself flying through the air, only for it to come to a halt with a sudden lurch. The doors opened and she felt too weak to stay standing as the entire group fell forward onto concrete. She looked up, barely possessing enough strength to lift her head, and saw tens of thousands of people piled on the ground like cordwood. Most were unconscious, some few simply stood submissively in front of the vast array of machines.

  There were many of them. Some seemingly dedicated to unpacking human sized pods, others dedicated to moving and sorting people. One of them came towards her, a large spider-like creature that grabbed and rolled her unconscious parents with netting before setting them on a cart.

  She tried to crawl away, but the machine paid her no mind. When her parents were done it simply grabbed her where she was crawling and wrapped her with the tree pressed tightly to her chest.

  “They can’t have it - should I destroy it somehow?” She thought desperately. She didn’t have so much as a lighter in her pocket, and she knew from her mother that just breaking it wouldn’t work. It could easily be regrown from a broken branch. Several of them had already snapped as it was pulled tightly to her, but fortunately none had fallen.

  “Ah, this one is awake.” Came a melodious and pleasant feminine voice. “How unfortunate. Seeing your countrymen treated like this is often traumatic.”

  Fiona tried to scream, but her words barely came out as a hoarse whisper.

  “We’re… ambassadors! Let us go…”

  “Don’t worry,” said the voice, and a thin skeletal figure with a triangular head stepped into her view.

  “This is standard procedure once a country is liberated. We’re aware of the agreement with your country. You’re American, right? Five minutes in the pods and you’ll be free to go home. Sadly you won’t be as lucky as these people, and get to live under a competent government for once. Alright,” it said, turning to the spiderlike drone. “High priority, put them in the pods now. I imagine they’ll have some people coming after them soon.”

  “AFFIRMATIVE.” The robot said, and she felt herself quickly being hauled up.

  “Oh? What have you got there? A glowing tree?” The Machine Emperor’s skeletal body said with terrifying calm.

  “Don’t you… touch it!” Fiona growled.

  “Whatever. You’ll tell me all about it the second we’re done. Now calm down. It’s time for paradise.”

  She struggled against the netting, but found herself too weak to do much even if it weren’t designed to hold augmented people. The drone picked her up and dropped her unceremoniously into the pod.

  As the world went black, her last memory was looking into its eerie, multi-eyed robotic face peering down at her.

  —

  Five minutes later the walls of a nearby building exploded, with men in semi-chitinous powered armor rushing into the plaza. They raised oversized rifles, swarms of semi-biological drones around them.

  The Emperor’s figure spread its arms wide. Its voice rang out from every building and drone.

  “Welcome!”

  “Don’t let it stop you! Get the package!” One of the soldiers screamed. They rushed to the pods with the three diplomats.

  “So much hostility. My apologies for mistakenly grabbing your diplomats in the initial invasion. Government changeovers are so messy, after all.”

  The soldiers didn’t respond, shooting every drone they saw. None of them reacted with hostility.

  “I remember our diplomatic agreement. Don’t worry. They’re yours to take home. I’ll even make sure to have their things delivered back to you.”

  “Don’t trust it! Keep shooting!”

  Every drone in the plaza sat motionless. They simply watched as the soldiers shot them and ripped open the pods.

  “Hit them with the reviver serum!”

  The Ambassador woke first.

  “No! Put me back! Put me back!”

  “Sir, where is the package?”

  “To hell with that tree! Please, my Emperor, put me back in the pod!”

  “It’s a negative, he’s compromised. Enact termination protocol.”

  A soldier put a railgun round through his head, ending his life.

  “So unnecessary. It’s not my fault he decided he likes living here more than your country,” the drones said mockingly. “The girl has it.”

  “We’ve found the mother!”

  “The girl is here! The tree is in her arms!”

  “Open it up! Don’t leave a single twig.”

  “Oh? Aren’t you going to take her?” The machine mocked.

  A soldier pressed the injector to her neck and she swiftly awoke.

  “Is it real? Am I back?” She wavered.

  “Give us the tree!” The soldier shouted, trying to rip it out of her arms.

  “No! I won’t let the Emperor take it! You can’t fool me!”

  “I said let go of the damn plant!” The soldier kicked her, sending her flying. Still the tree remained in her hands, a few twigs going flying. Other soldiers dove to pick them up.

  “AAagh! Fuck you robot!” She screamed.

  “She thinks she’s in the sim.”

  “Fiona, you’re not under my power anymore. They’ve come to rescue you.” The Emperor laughed.

  She looked over at her father’s pod. “Dad? Oh god, DAD!”

  “Do you see what happens when you choose them over me?” The Emperor growled. Its voice sounded like a razorblade on a chalk board.

  “If this is real then take me! Get me out of here! I’m not letting go!” She screamed.

  “It’s only been five minutes.” The soldier said.

  “Don’t be fooled. Ambassador McLaine was already turned in that span of time. It’s always a trick!”

  “Then kill me! Don’t let me go back! Shoot me now!”

  “Check the mother. She’s marked return or kill.”

  The pod was opened and her mother revived.

  She let out a scream that started and didn’t stop. As soon as she ran out of breath, she began screaming again.

  “PUUUUUT ME BAAAAACK! BAAAACK! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!”

  “Compromised.”

  Another shot rang out in the plaza.

  “I assure you she’s just as compromised as the other two,” The Emperor said. “What was it you call them? Infiltrators? I call them loyalists.”

  “No! I am not going back! Kill me if you don’t believe me! Please!”

  “Grab the girl, we’re going home.”

  “Leaving already? But we have so many comfortable beds for you all to rest on!”

  “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Fiona screamed.

  “I’ve already had time with it. It’s useless to you all now.” It laughed again, like metal scraping on rust.

  “It’s lying to you! It’s lying!” She cried, looking at corpses of her parents and trying not to vomit.

  “Come on, let’s go.” One of the soldiers put a hand to her soldier and led her.

  Behind the swarm of dead drones and piles of dead people, the machine gave an internal smile. It had already poisoned their only hope of salvation.