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shot directly into the seythra’s skull.
    Seraph winced and looked away.
    Across the road there was a loud bang, followed by a huge explosion. The buildings on either side began to crumble and crash to the ground with colossal force. The ground shook and Ret and Seraph were thrown backward.
    “Christ!” Seraph shouted. He scrambled back to his feet.
    His shoulder was aching The bullet had only grazed it, but had grazed it good. The bleeding was minimal, but the throbbing pain all over his body was going to slow him down soon enough.
    Seraph turned to Ret. “Guess our only shot’s the secondary military command post?” Seraph tried to sound hopeful, but he was convinced it had been overrun.
    “That’s where I’m headed. I think it’s our best shot,” Ret replied.
    Seraph could tell that he, too, was trying to hold out hope.
    Ret picked up the seythra’s assault rifle, checking it for damage. He still didn’t have a full grasp of everything going on. It felt like the apocalypse. He tried to disguise as much of those feelings in his voice as he could. Seraph saw right through it, but understood.
    Seraph and Ret emerged from the alley and kept to cover the best they could. In front of them, three othal lay together, two of them dead. The third was missing her entire left arm. She moaned and wailed. Seraph thought her scream was one of the most horrifying sounds he had ever heard. Seraph almost thought to grab her, to take her with them, but he chugged past her with Ret on his heel, pushing forward. They jogged to a small corner, keeping a watchful eye.
    Down the road, a large battle had broken out. A seythra group were holed up in a large apartment building, firing down on a mixture of soldiers and civilians. At least a dozen bodies were lying in the street.
    Ret stopped and turned to Seraph. “We have to help them.”
    Ret’s words echoed in Seraph’s mind. Vidron needed to survive; it was the most important planet in the universe. But Seraph also knew that they needed to organize a resistance. They needed the strongest forces and the best tactics to fight a war of this scale. Firing assault rifles in the streets was one thing, but the sooner they got to the military command post, the sooner they could organize bombs to drop from orbit and plan an aerial strike to counter attack. Both sides registered as necessary to Seraph.
    Seraph closed his eyes, letting the whole world fall away for a moment. He exhaled, and made his decision.
    He pointed at the building the seythra were holed up in.
    “We need to enter from the back. Let’s cross here, get the jump on them. Watch our six!”
    The idea was almost comforting to Ret. He’d heard of Commander Aydrian, and he felt confident following his lead straight into the heart of hell.
    They both moved across the street. A few stray bullets from the seythra landed near their feet. Seraph hoped that they were unintentional, as the element of surprise was all they had going for them at this point. They ducked into the alley and inched their way down, backs planted against the wall.
    They rounded the corner and found a small group of seythra guarding the rear entrance to the building. Seraph took cover behind a dumpster. Ret knelt and raised his assault rifle in one fluid motion and opened fire. Two of them went down instantly. The remaining four returned fire, and Ret scurried behind a series of crates for cover. Seraph tossed the shotgun to the ground and pulled his pistol from its holster. He peered out from cover and fired three shots toward the seythra. A storm of assault rifle shots forced him back behind the dumpster.
    Two of the seythra advanced on their position. Ret fired the remaining shots in his magazine at them, but only one of the bullets grazed one of the seythra. Ret tossed the rifle aside and pulled out his revolver. Seraph grabbed the shotgun and fired on both of the seythra in rapid succession. His first shot took off one of the seythra’s legs entirely,