chapter 1.1

Dragging her hand over her mouth, she took a cautious breath and coughed. She had to get out of the smoke. Summoning all her strength, she managed to will herself to flop and roll across the blackened grass until the air entered her lungs a little easier. She wanted to rest, to sleep, to give

in to her overwhelming sense of fatigue, but the screams had gone silent, and it unnerved her. Staggering to her feet, she pulled herself to her full height and squinted through

the hazy air.

Rrrr. Rrrr. Rrrr.

Through a tower of smoke emerged the deadly white form of a robot, and its weapon-arm was pointed directly at her.

“Up! Up! Come in, Up!”

The lieutenant coughed and reached blindly for his

crackling radio. “This is Up.”

“Thank dead God you survived. We saw that blast from up here – how’s the rest of your team? We can’t get them on the line.”

Up raised his head. He was on his belly on the ground. All around him were the charred remains of seven human bodies. The G.L.E.E. insignia was still visible on the chest of the one nearest him, but he couldn’t tell who it belonged to. He turned away, feeling ill. “There’s just me.”

A pause on the other end. “All right, Up, get yourself back here. There’s nothing more you can do for these people.”

“Got it.” Up winced as he stood, battered but not really injured, and took in his surroundings. He had only taken a couple of steps in the direction of the pickup location when he heard a scream. A terrible, human scream, raw and edged with anger and fear, but more than anything, defiance. It

was a girl.

His soldier’s instincts made him turn back.

The scene was bizarre as any he’d come across. Half a dozen robots in a circle, dead bodies and spilled cake and in the centre, trussed and hanging upside down from the branch of a tree, the girl. She spun slowly, giving the same dreadful battle cry with each twist of the rope. She was

wearing the remains of an elaborate, smoking dress, and her tangled black hair fell loose, reaching for the ground. Her face was blackened and swollen. She had put up a fight. She hadn’t noticed him yet, and neither had the robots.

One stepped forward, tapping a two-by-four against its palm as if it was a piñata stick. “Hush, little hu-mahn,” it said. “We are just wanting to play a little game with you.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha,” deadpanned the others.

“I’ll see you all burn in hell! Hijos de puta!” the girl

bellowed, and the force of her efforts turned her again. Her eyes met Up’s, and widened. The robots turned.

Up moved. It was quick, and if they had been human, it would have been bloody, but that wasn’t a problem when your enemy was made up of soulless automatons. It was over in less than a minute, and amidst the smouldering metallic remains, the soldier turned to the girl piñata.

She was watching him with very large eyes. He was breathing heavily, and it sounded far too loud in the sudden silence. Finally she said, in a thick Mexican accent, “Aren’t you going to cut me down?”

He did so, making sure he was close enough to catch her before she hit the ground. She was tiny, featherlight, and in pain, that he could tell from the gasp that escaped her when she landed in his arms. “Are you all right?”

“What the hell kind of question is that?” she asked,

gritting her teeth. He looked around. He supposed it was adumb question, she’d just been strung up by robots and they were surrounded by the bodies of likely everyone she knew.

She closed her eyes, took a breath, and looked at him.“Who are you, anyway? Where did you come from?”

“I’m-” Up swallowed and wondered why he was feeling so thick-headed all of a sudden. “I’m Lieutenant Up, from the Galactic League of Extraterrestrial Exploration. I’m a – I’m a Starship Ranger. My platoon landed nearby to try and

curb this attack, but I’m afraid we were too late.”

There might have been the chance of a tear in her eye, but she blinked it away. “I’m Taz,” she said. “Put me down, I can walk.”

He complied, setting her down as gently as he could. She still seemed too delicate for words, but her fiery eyes, taking in the scene around them with a frightening lack of emotion, told him otherwise. “Walk? Walk where?"

“Wherever you’re going, Starship Ranger,” she said.

“I’m coming with you.”

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