The ship began to scream with a red siren.

  This was it; they had finally arrived.

  As Dane portalled to his transport bay from the chow hall, he almost forgot his bowl of cereal. One of the new recruits looked in disbelief as he saw what, from his perspective, was a severed hand grabbing the dish and disappearing into thin air.

  "Get a move on, Private. Those lights mean we have ten minutes to get strapped in.”

  It started as a subtle vibration as the vessel pierced the upper atmosphere of Vespara, and the steady hum of the engines deepened into a throaty roar that resonated through the transport bay like distant thunder rolling across a valley.

  The viewport glass along the deck slowly brightened as the clouds peeled away beneath them. Stars and the blackness of space were fine, but it was nice to have a change of scenery, even if the sky was green here.

  Dane stepped closer to the window, resting one of his hands on the metal frame while the other still held a half-empty dish that barely passed for a bowl.

  The planet unfolded below.

  Vespara was mostly black sand, with sparse greens, violets, and reds thrown in by the scattered plant life that somehow survived in the harsh terrain. Two pale moons hung in the sky despite it being daytime. The sun was nearly twice the size of Earth's, but still produced barely half as much light, leaving the already sickly green planet looking as though the entire world had been placed behind tinted glass.

  Smoke columns rose from the surface.

  Dozens of craters littered the harsh landscape.

  Some climbed in thin, controlled plumes that marked landing zones from other ships, but others spread outward in thick black scars that bled across the terrain, which was likely the result of mana erupting into the environment during the cataclysm.

  Dane watched the surface grow larger beneath them, and as the carrier continued its descent, the scale of Earth's operation slowly revealed itself.

  Massive cargo haulers held position in stable orbit while transports like their own moved in slow arcs toward the surface, smaller escort craft darting between them, and from the bellies of the larger vessels, long cables lowered containers and prefabricated structures toward the world below.

  Even from this height, Dane could see the shapes of camps already forming.

  Perfect squares carved into the desert.

  Someone beside him whistled quietly.

  "Damn," the soldier muttered under his breath. "They're building a city already."

  Dane didn't say anything; he got the impression it was more of a statement than an attempt to strike up a conversation.

  His eyes followed a convoy of drop ships descending toward a wide clearing carved into the desert below. The ground there had been flattened in a near-perfect circle, the surrounding terrain pushed outward in dark rings where excavation equipment had torn through the sand, and the surface beneath them was already filling with long rows of tents, supply depots, and medical units that moved with the organized chaos of an operation that had clearly begun long before his transport had arrived.

  Even from the air, Dane could see thousands of small figures moving between the structures.

  The Native population.

  The carrier shuddered again as its descent slowed, the engines adjusting their pitch while the massive vessel aligned itself with a landing tower rising from the center of the growing camp. Magnetic clamps along the transport deck snapped into place one after another with sharp metallic clicks, and the interior lighting shifted from red to white as the rear ramp began lowering with a long hydraulic groan.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The moment the seal broke, hot air rushed into the transport bay.

  Vespara didn't smell like Earth.

  The air carried the dry mineral scent of heated sand mixed with something metallic that Dane suspected came from the planet's mana saturation. It wasn't unpleasant exactly, but it had the strange quality of making the back of his throat feel slightly numb the longer he breathed it in.

  Soldiers began filing down the ramp in organized lines, boots striking metal before they stepped onto the landing platform below.

  Dane followed with the rest of his unit, still holding the half-empty bowl that had survived reentry.

  Someone had already erected a reinforced command structure near the center of the clearing, surrounded by antenna arrays and portable generators that hummed steadily beneath the constant roar of engines and construction equipment.

  A soldier standing near the entrance waved Dane's group toward the building.

  "Command briefing. Unit leads inside." Ethan gave him a nod and motioned for him to come. He was still getting used to being a co-lead, but the position suited him. He wasn't anyone special, but would assume command in the event that the large man fell in combat. He was surprised that Juliet had given him the responsibility, but some people had different approaches to leadership. Some preferred to surround themselves with competent people and excelled at putting people in the right role. Corporal Sloan was definitely this type of leader.

  The interior was noticeably cooler.

  Portable climate units lined the walls, humming loudly as they pushed chilled air through the structure in a losing battle against Vespara's heat, and a large projection table filled the center of the room where a three-dimensional map of the planet hovered above its surface in shifting shades of green and blue apparently the whole planet wasn't desert but just the part that they had landed on.

  Several areas pulsed red. Signaling Mana density. The more mana that was in an area, the more intense the mutations and thus the more powerful the monsters. Those zones were lost causes for the population.

  An officer stood beside the table waiting for the room to fill, gray threading through his hair and the insignia on his uniform marking him as part of Earth's expeditionary command.

  When the last of the unit leaders stepped inside, the officer tapped the projection.

  The map zoomed inward.

  "This," he said, gesturing across the display, "is Vespara's western continent."

  Several sectors lit up. All of them flashing red.

  "Our objective here is stabilization."

  The officer pointed toward the clearing outside.

  "This landing zone will serve as the primary refugee intake and logistics hub. Civilian populations displaced by the incursion are already moving toward this location."

  Another section of the map shifted from red to blue.

  "We are not repeating the mistakes made during Earth's integration."

  A quiet ripple of murmurs moved through the room, though Dane remained silent as he studied the map.

  The officer continued.

  "Local populations are to be protected and integrated where possible. Cooperative settlements will receive aid, medical support, and provisional citizenship under Earth's system framework."

  Someone near the back of the room raised a hand.

  "And if they refuse?"

  The officer didn't hesitate.

  "Then they are operating outside the protection of Earth's authority."

  He paused briefly before finishing.

  "Which makes them hostile."

  The map shifted again as several sectors flashed yellow and deployment markers appeared across the terrain.

  "Unit assignments."

  Names and designations began populating the projection.

  When Dane located his unit's assignment, his eyes lingered on the map for a moment longer than usual.

  Their sector sat far from the main camp, deep within a stretch of desert bordering one of the largest mana zones on the continent. From the terrain, it seemed the only place hospitable enough for Farmland.

  The officer pointed directly at it.

  "Ethan, your team will establish the first refugee perimeter here."

  The region expanded on the map.

  "Recon indicates multiple abandoned settlements and significant monster activity. Civilian displacement is expected to be high. Your objective is to secure the area, eliminate hostile monsters, and begin construction of a refugee camp."

  Someone muttered quietly behind Dane.

  "What level are they?"

  The officer ignored the comment.

  "Deployment begins at first light."

  The projection faded, and another took its place. This went on for the better part of an hour, with command informing units of placement, mission, and allocated resources. The briefing concluded as Dane spaced out for the third time.

  Unit leaders began filing out of the structure, and Dane stepped back into the heat of Vespara's afternoon, where transport vehicles were already lining up along the rough road leading away from the camp.

  The entire operation had the feel of something long-planned rather than hastily assembled.

  It reminded Dane of something he had seen before. The elves had called their invasion of Earth a test. Earth called this integration.

  Dane wasn't certain the difference mattered much to the people living here. But he would do everything in his power to make sure that his team operated fairly. It still rubbed him the wrong way that if the Natives refused aide they would be branded as enemies of Earth. He felt a flicker of a fire he thought had snuffed out when the world saved itself.

  Later that evening, he climbed a low ridge overlooking the edge of the desert beyond the camp. The fading sunlight filtered across the black sand while the distant glow of generators cast a pale halo around the refugee settlement behind him.

  The desert stretched endlessly toward the horizon. He could feel something out there. It pulsed in resonance with his core.