If you asked Millie what she was thinking about as she sat in ‘Mad Mike’s’ backyard under the darkening sky, she’d probably say “Nothing deep”.

  The only thought going through her mind was that she was dumb for not leaving earlier. Luckily she had her bike with her.

  When she got up and started walking Alice came stumbling towards her and said, “Hey, are you leaving now. You aren’t going to wait for a ride?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got to get home soon and I live close enough to ride my bike.” Millie replied.

  “Well, have a good ride then.” The other girl told her.

  She probably noticed that Millie hadn’t really gotten into any of the chat or had anything really to drink. Millie wanted to tell her that she wasn’t as uptight or straight edge as she probably thought she was but at this point it would probably be a lie, so she just nodded.

  As she continued to make her way out she saw Mike fussing over the apparently broken sound system that had stopped working half an hour ago. She hoped that it was going to give the creep headaches. What kind of guy just looked the other way while a bunch of sixteen year olds partied in his backyard?

  Of course, she was one of those sixteen year olds so she had no leg to stand on here and she just hoped that if Mike tried anything one of the dozen or so teenagers that were bigger than him would knock him out.

  She put the whole thing out of her mind, picked up her bike and started off.

  What a boring day that had been. She might have had some of the punch but she couldn’t because she had to ride home. The company wasn’t anyone she usually hung out with.

  The only reason Millie had gone is because Alice had asked her to and making a few new friends was something she had promised herself she’d try to do.

  Mission failed.

  Looking at the sky anxiously, Millie decided to take a shorter path. She had taken it before. It cut through a stream and got away from the cars.

  “If you don’t get moving, you’ll get there after Arthur does,” she said to nobody

  It was rough going for some time but by the time she reached the stream and began to move alongside it she was basically on autopilot.

  Her brain was split between the bike path and her day when a fsh from somewhere in the distance pulled her out. Lightning?

  The sky was completely clear. No clouds in sight.

  Millie stopped when more fshes lit up the horizon opposite of where the sun was now setting. More and more, brighter and brighter. After a few seconds regur faint booms could be heard. It was mesmerizing in a way.

  What pulled her out of it was when she realized that booms were getting louder and the fshes were getting closer. Streaks shot out of the center of the lightshow looking like shooting stars. Was it war? Pnes fighting? Air nukes?

  By the time the fshes and booms were coming from directly overhead, Millie had run to a tree and covered her head with her arms while making herself as small as possible. The booms were ridiculous and the fshes were blinding.

  During a small reprieve she took a peek and saw one streak of light coming close to where she was. She curled up like a pillbug expecting the worst and felt the whole world shake when something hit right where the stream was. She just kept her head down and prayed to whoever would listen to save her.

  The booms and fshes died down quickly after that and when she was sure it was safe Millie finally pulled herself up and took a look around. She saw devastation by a spot in the stream that had a lot of dirt and rocks kicked up. It was near the bike she had dropped and she hoped it hadn’t been destroyed by whatever that was.

  What was that?

  She felt her phone vibrate in her jeans pocket and pulled it out. Caller ID was Art of course along with two missed calls from him. She answered.

  “Millie, god, where are you?! Did you see that?! Are you OK?!” her brother asked.

  “Yes Art I’m fine. I’m on the road home and saw the whole show. What was that? Did it hurt you?” Millie said.

  “No, I'm fine. No idea what that was. I’m waiting for official crification before jumping to conclusions about it.”

  “OK, soon as I get home I’ll call you.” She said before cutting the line.

  Since she was whole, her first priority was the bike. After checking and seeing that it was fine she just about started off before seeing a bck and shining object near the impact.

  Millie spent a few seconds considering it but she eventually decided to pick up the weirdly shaped football sized rock. That incident was the perfect cap to close off the boring day and she’d like a souvenir for it. A weird meteorite would be the coolest thing she’d ever picked up.

  She took off her grey hoodie and picked up the rock with it in case it was hot but it wasn’t so she just wrapped it in there, secured it to herself and rode off.

  -

  Millie got home nearly an hour ter. Home sweet home. A bit run down, desperately needing some attention on the chipping paint in some rooms and the cobwebs where neither her nor Arthur bothered to clean. It was too big for just two of them but it had been her grandpa’s then her parents’ and then hers and Arthur’s now that they were gone.

  “You’re better off here than at Mad Mike’s,” she said to nobody

  After giving her brother a call she checked the net for any news on what just happened. No official statements had been made and everyone was specuting. Was it a meteor breaking up, some sort of drone battle or an alien spaceship?

  Nonsense came from every direction and she decided to log off and promised herself that she’d check up only when everything settled. She put her rock in a pstic bag, cleaned up and broke that promise by turning the TV to the news and seeing what they had to say about it.

  “Reports are coming in that this phenomenon has been seen over pces as far as India. A truly global show. Astronomers say that it’s likely a simir event to the Tunguska explosion in 1908 on a smaller individual scale but on a wider area.” Said a news anchor on one channel.

  “We need President Cross to take firm action. How can the real people of this country feel safe if China can just light fireworks above our heads. Next time it’ll be bombs.” Said a talk host on another.

  “Maybe it’s aliens?”

  “It’s probably not aliens, Mark.”

  “How will this affect the index fund?”

  “It’s the event! 2012 was only twenty two years off!”

  “We need evidence before we can make any statement. Saying anything, even to calm people down, would backfire on us if it turned out to be wrong. Trust in science is at an all time low.”

  “I thought it was the rapture but I’m still here so it can’t be.”

  “Meteors? If the big one is coming, are we too te? What’s NASA doing?”

  On and on it went and she just pyed another stream or changed to another channel when she got tired of one conversation.

  That was how Arthur found her. On the couch trying to focus on it and not get on social media to see what they were saying. She may not have self control but she knew that the trash that would be spewing there would make the mainstream news look like A css journalism.

  “You alright?” Arthur asked her.

  “Yeah. You?” Millie replied.

  “I’m good. I was safe in the office trying to get a manager’s computer to boot. He puts so much junk in it. Well when the fireworks went off, all the ‘active shooter drills’ from school came back to me and I went under the desk.” Arthur said.

  He headed towards his room but stopped when Millie said, “So…you think it might have been fireworks? From China or Russia?”

  “No, I don’t. Politics is as unstable as ever but it was a big show and I’ve heard that the whole world saw it so I don’t think it was humans.”

  “Then aliens,” she said with a grin and a failed eyebrow waggle.

  “Hah. I’ll wait for the actual astronomers to tell me what the science is. Now I have to change”

  Millie decided that she’d also had enough and started getting ready for bed. She entered her room but before tucking in she admired her collection on the shelf next to her bed.

  The pink rock she picked up from an out of town quarry. The beautiful variety of feathers she got from her own beloved Red Park forests, fastened to a cork board with cotton thread. The old coin she found in the stream. The silver looking stainless steel amulet she picked up from the beach when the family went to L.A. now still a bit corroded but polished nonetheless. All the small things she picked up and hoarded that had her parents call her magpie and her brother call her Smaug.

  And her newest prize. The shiny bck rock she got from a meteorite that she wrapped up in pstic and put in the corner of the room. She was lucky that the next day was Sunday. She’d spend the morning cleaning it and making it shine with all her love.

  When she id her head down, she was in a much better mood, the boring party forgotten, giddy that she had seen some weird stuff going on in the sky and had picked up a new treasure.

  “Goodnight,” she said to nobody.

  -

  She sat in her designated seat in the shuttle with the rest of Squad 7. The tension in the small space built up for the upcoming battle.

  What was it going to be? Pirates, cultists or maybe even an invasion force?

  The shuttle flew over the Nixian colony but the tech here seemed so primitive that they probably couldn’t pick them up.

  “We’ll be at the Aura emission site in thirteen ticks. Ten if we go at my speed,” said Farn.

  “Keep pace Merris,” Millie said to the pilot.

  Silence once again. Even the sound of Halvor polishing his polearm had stopped and only the light hum of the shuttle could be heard.

  Finally, the silence broke when Farn bared his huge teeth, hissed and said, “Wielder detected. Must be Third Circle for that amount of Aura emission. Heading right for us”

  So they decided to show themselves.

  Tension set Millie’s shoulders but also relief. At least she and Halvor would have something to do on this mission. She got out of her seat and walked with him to the depressurization chamber that they used to leave the shuttle.

  On the outside she and Halvor stood on the entry ptform and prepared. When they sensed the wielder close in, Millie used a fraction of her focus to Idealize her Aura with anti-gravity, maneuverability, speed, awareness, strength, basically the full set of Ideas needed for orbital combat. Another fraction of her focus was being used to track and assess the target as it got closer fast.

  The greatest part of her attention was being used to prepare her Techniques, her greatest weapons in the coming fight.

  She made the signal to Halvor and they both flew towards the coming target. They met it less than half a tick ter. They all slowed and met, the three of them floating and studying each other.

  Covered in bck material as it was, she couldn’t identify it exactly. It had four libs, a head and a torso and that could be any of a rge number of creatures. That pretty much described Merris and even herself. It was probably some kind of Nixian.

  Halvor looked towards her and when she signed her approval he readied himself. His coat of bck fur began to shimmer in the little light from the pnet's moon as he flexed. There was no use trying to speak to this creature. Too little air for sound to reach it.

  Halvor burst towards the enemy and opened the battle with a single swipe of his huge axe. The creature easily dodged it and tried to make distance between them but Halvor followed up with a continuous assault forcing it to keep moving back.

  As they went further away, the bck of the enemy and Halvor’s fur would become harder and harder to see with the naked eye, especially in the shadow of the colony world as they were. At the distances they were at, even the red and white of Halvor’s Star Ranger void suit uniform became impossible to make out.

  Millie understood the trick immediately and the moment her Aura sense picked a slight change she evaded the fist that came at her from behind.

  A white furred Nixian, wearing a blue robe, began to apply pressure on her with punch after punch. She dodged every blow aimed at her but it was forcing her to move downwards, towards the world that they fought above.

  When they reached a certain depth, some unseen signal was sent and bck chains of Power flew out and wrapped themselves around her. A technique that stopped her movement and restricted the use of her Aura. She looked at the caster and saw another Nixian, this one with brown fur that was less than it’s allies. Millie was now sure that the first creature was also a Nixian.

  As her Nixian turned to go deal with Halvor, she admired the pn they came up with. Move together as one so that only a single Aura emission was picked up, then surprise the enemy with multiple combatants, all of the Third Circle. Shame that they didn’t understand what a Star Ranger of the Third Circle was capable of.

  She called upon her Knowledge, infused it with her Power and performed the technique Stelr Burst. She pushed it in every direction and the technique manifested as a huge sphere of blinding white light that caught the chain Nixian and forced it to conjure a bright barrier.

  When it faded, she was free and immediately went after the fist Nixian. She aimed a Stelr Burst at him which formed a huge beam of white that forced it to stop and gave Halvor some room to adjust. Halvor used the opportunity to catch up with the bck Nixian again.

  He unched another swipe at it that the enemy evaded but when he came in for a counter it made the big mistake that four limbed people made whenever trying to fight Halvor. It forgot about his other arms. Halvor caught the Nixian by the wrist with one of his top hands and began to pummel the creature with his other. All the while his other two arms prepared the axe for a mortal blow.

  The Nixian was only saved when its ally managed to crash into Halvor, breaking the grapple and making it two against one again. This time Millie was confident that he would handle it. She put her focus on the st enemy.

  She flew at the Nixian, pushing her power for more speed. It tried to catch her with the chain technique again but she called her Cosmic Shell and the bck chains dissolved the moment they touched her. Millie picked up incredible speed with her flight and then flipped to feet first and delivered a devastating kick to the enemy’s torso, unching the creature downwards.

  The next technique she used had always been the most advanced and the toughest to do. Lightspeed let her move to a point at speeds that were unfathomable to even her senses at the cost of a horrendous amount of Power and requiring a huge amount of focus and technical ability. She was almost insubstantial and couldn’t nd a blow while doing it and disoriented for a moment after.

  It was the best move she had now.

  She aimed for a point beneath her opponent in the direction it was flying and moved there in a blink. After recovering from the movement, she released a Stelr Burst right into the back of the Nixian at close range. At that point they were deep enough into the atmosphere that the impact of the attack caused huge shockwaves to move through the world’s air.

  She took a moment to check on Halvor and saw that he was doing perfectly fine. He nded booming blows on the white furred Nixian and the one in bck was missing an arm. She focused again on her opponent.

  Millie had already won. The Nixian was injured and looked like it could barely keep in flight while she still had a lot of Power ready. One more offensive would give her the victory.

  And then something changed. The Nixian in bck came after her and though she was able to simply counter and knock it aside, it simply came back. The fist Nixian began to do the same with Halvor. The third flew away from both of them and began to do…something. She had no idea what but it wouldn’t be good.

  Whenever she aimed an attack at it she was distracted or pulled away and the two other Nixians were taking beatens just to distract her.

  It eventually became clear what they wanted to achieve when the Nixian raised its hands and a rge rip through space itself opened. An Aura whose power stunned Millie and seeped into the Auras of the Nixians. From that point on the battle turned.

  The Nixians were stronger and faster than the Star Rangers. Every punch that she dodged before came faster and nded with titanic impacts. She released so many Stelr Bursts that she drained her Well in a few ticks of the battle. They fought all across the sky of the colony world, even leaving the pnet’s shadow but she was a spent force soon.

  Eventually one attack reached her that she couldn’t mitigate or evade. She was caught by the bck chains of her enemy and the white furred Nixian then nded a cruel strike on her neck, almost severing her head from the rest of her body. Were she not of the Third Circle, that would have been fatal.

  It finished the job with a bde handed strike to her neck that decapitated her. Millie made a choice to completely withdraw from the rest of her body and pced all her Aura in her head. It gave her a small reprieve as they aimed for and destroyed the corpse with their attacks.

  She focused the little Power she had left into one Stelr Burst that she channeled through her third eye and released it when they came for her. It did work, bsting the Nixian away but the top of her head exploded in a huge fshy fashion. She hoped that they took that to mean that she had sacrificed herself in the st attack and it seemed to work since they all shifted their focus to Halvor. Poor Halvor.

  As Millie fell, she commanded her Aura to transform into a hard shell. She had to live and recover so she could report what happened here to Star Command. Rangers on some missions went many cycles without reporting and if the enemy caught the shuttle or found the Pathship, then this whole incident would be another lost squad and her squadmates would be dead for nothing.

  She smmed into the ground and then committed to picking herself up after she rested just a bit.

  That was when she was lifted up. Fearing the enemy she opened her senses and was surprised to see a small Nixian with pale skin and bck fur. She had seen this one before! In fact she saw her everyday when she looked in the mirror.

  -

  Millie practically jumped out of sleep confused and disoriented. She looked all around and thought about the vivid dream she just had. Did she watch too many superheroes movies recently?

  She picked herself off…the carpet and realized something was wrong. Her nose was bleeding. And why did she wake up on the carpet? She rushed out of her room to the bathroom and cleaned up while wondering what happened. Did Arthur take her out of bed and put her on the floor? She didn’t think so. She must have been sleepwalking. Was sleepwalking real? She thought it was made up for cartoons.

  When she got back she was disheartened to find that she had trashed her room and thrown her magpie collection all over the floor.

  “Wow, you could have at least avoided the feathers. Now it’s going to take work to put everything back the way it was,” she said to nobody.

  “Yes, well I apologize and assure you that this mess was not my intention,” Nobody answered back.

  Lordsilverwing