"We don't understand it all.

"How it happened is a mystery. We just know it happened.

"How we survived is a mystery. We just managed to survive.

"Without a doubt, the universe has been an interesting place since the discovery of the Confederacy.

"I kind of wish it had stayed boring.

"Is it weird that I look back on my makework at a factory beneath the hoofshoes of the Lanaktallan with slight fond nostalgia for the peace and quiet?" -- N.Trekstik, Galmaki Unified Civilized Species member, 29 Post Second Precursor War

**TEXT ONLY MESSAGE FOLLOWS**

**EMERGENCY BROADCAST FOR [HEADER CORRUPT] AREA**

**TEXT ONLY DO NOT PLAY SOUND OR VIDEO ATTACHMENTS UNLESS FROM A TRUSTED SOURCE**

--Attached are several text files for identifying sound systems and methods of initiating a factory reset. Upon factory reset, login and password should (95% of the time) default to Admin/password.

"Remember this, this can save your life.

If you are receiving this, you are not alone. There are other survivors out there, even in the city or planet you are on.

For those of you who are receiving these messages for the first time, this is the information you need to know:

One> Sodium Chloride, listed as "salt" in nutriforges or nanoforges, can be used to make barriers that the Shades will not cross. A circle will keep them at bay. It can be poured across doorways and windowsills to prevent Shades from crossing.

Two> Iron disrupts the Shades.

Three> The Shades appear to be color hesitant. Use color code 880808 on surfaces to prevent Shades from touching or moving through the surface.

Four> All nanoforges are unlocked. The BobCo menu has everything you need to survive.

Five> The touch of a Shade damages the nerves somehow. The limb will waste away. BobCo synthetic nerve graft injections will repair it temporarily.

Six> The sound of a dogboi howl will drive the Shades back, even make them dissipate. Recording of the various howls are included.

Seven> The Shades spread through visual medium. Stay away from screens and destroy them when possible. Even pictures downloaded through GalNet, if they have an image of a Shade upon them, can allow the Shade to cross from the image into meatspace and allow them to attack you.,

Eight> Purrbois. Download the genesis kit from BobCo and bake yourself up a purrboi kitten. They will hiss at Shades that are intangible and invisible. Their scratches or bites appear to damage the Shades.

Nine> Goodbois. Download a genesis kit and bake yourself up one. Their barking forces Shades to become tangible and visible. Their howls can drive the Shades away.

Ten> The Shades are daylight hesistent, sticking to the shadows and dark areas.

Eleven> The Shades avoid sodium lights and appear to be damaged by them.

Twelve> You are still alive. Each day is a gift.

Fight. Survive. Live to see another day.

Finally, the ansibles and needlecast systems are being destroyed. GalNet nodes and SolNet nodes are being destroyed.

If you can see uplink dishes or fields, do your part and destroy power to them or the dishes themselves.

Stop the spread.

"And lastly: This event is survivable. You can survive. You can stay alive. Do not lose hope.

"If you can hear this, stay alive. That's my message to you. Stay. Alive.

"Use text. Stay informed. Stay alive.

"Ave Imperator." - Recorded Broadcast from the front Lines of Iron Piglet; Journalist unknown (Presumed Killed in Action, remains unrecovered, file header damaged)

The starship had just landed and the passengers had just filed off, all milling around the waiting area to be processed and cleared. Before, it would have been quick and easy, but the Atrekna had attacked the system, perhaps recognizing its strategic importance to the former Council areas. The resulting fighting, both from the frantic defense and the Confederate counter-attack, had damaged almost everything.

Surprisingly, the space port had survived mostly intact.

The huge interstellar liner had docked at the station, entering the system even though it was still hosting combat between isolated Atrekna space units and the Confederacy. The shuttles, all five of them, carrying nearly a hundred passengers each, had swooped down, escorted by Confederate aerospace fighters, and landed at the spaceports landing field.

The passengers had left the shuttles, moving into the concourse and waiting to be questioned regarding their reasons to arrive in a war torn system and arrive at a war torn planet.

Dana'ahsh was a Hashenesh. Before the Big C3 he had worked in a factory checking people's ID's as they entered the factory for their workday. Once that was over, he had started working at the starport. For the last few years he had slowly moved his way up through the job ranking. He had taken classes and the like to learn to do different jobs.

Now, he worked in the incoming passenger/tourist/traveler section. He checked ID's, visas, and other forms of identification against lists.

When the Atrekna attacked and the sun went red, he'd still showed up for work. When the Confederacy had counter-attacked, he'd showed up for work.

He was in the middle of working, the sun having set outside the huge macroplas windows, checking IDs and asking the proper questions, when it all came apart.

Dana'ahsh had already been on edge.

Two of the passengers were slightly shifty looking to the Hashenesh.

One was a boxy robot with treads and a head that was mostly made up of lenses, with skinny arms with graspers. It was covered with scraped paint, although there was a pink 'heart' with some odd characters around it on one side.

The other was the one that really made Dana'ahsh worry.

The other was dressed in odd clothing. Denim pants, heavy leather boots, a hat pulled low over the eyes, denim jacket lined with wool, a gunbelt with a heavy magac pistol on it. The person leaned against the wall, smoking Treana'ad smoke sticks and pulling bottles of fizzybrews out of their pocket.

Worse, the person was some kind of Terran Descent Human labeled as an "Earthling", which made his panel light up with all kinds of warnings.

His supervisor, a lazy being, had just hit the override and gone back to playing a ranked ladder game of "Hearts of Warsteel" warfare simulator. Dana'ahsh understood his supervisor's reluctance to leave the game. There were sash ornaments and achievement trophies to be won.

Dana'ahsh himself had been knocked out of the "Sins of a Stellar Empire" ladder ranked match a week ago.

The line was moving slowly, a lot of people giving the Earthling odd looks, keeping track of them out of the corner of one eye.

The Earthling seemed to ooze malevolence and danger even though they did nothing but smoke Treana'ad smoke sticks and drink fizzybrew they pulled from their pocket. They even handed the bottles and extinquished smokesticks to the robot, which cracked open its forward chest panel, dropped the item inside, and vibrated, making grinding noises, for a few seconds before giving a whistle and a thumbs up.

Finally, the Earthling moved in front of Dana'ahsh.

"Name?" Dana'ahsh asked, feeling anxious even as the surface of his counter lit up, showing an outline of a hand.

"Blue Herod-38442," the Earthling stated, putting his hand on the outline.

The system had already been overwritten so no sirens went off but the whole counter still flashed red.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

**WARNING EARTHLING WARNING**

**PSYCHIC WARNING**

The being sighed.

Two weapons appeared on Dana'ahsh's monitor. The "earthling" had a 10mm magac pistol strapped to his hip on a leather belt, a knife hidden in the right boot as well as having a knife in a spring loaded holster strapped to his forearm.

The little robot was listed as unarmed, just having a Class-IV grinder and a Class-V creation engine.

"Yeah," the Earthling said.

The hat was listed as having a psychic suppression device worked into the headband.

Dana'ahsh decided to not ask the Earthling to remove the hat.

"Reason for visit?" Dana'ahsh asked.

"I'm checking the records for the sector GalNet and ansible traffic," Blue Herod stated.

Dana'ahsh frowned. "You can't do that virtually?"

Blue Herod shook his head. "The data might be altered. I need to check the source."

Dana'ahsh just shrugged. "All right. Length of stay?"

"A week at the most. If I don't find what I want by then, I'll have to look elsewhere. She'll know I'm here and adjust it accordingly," Herod stated.

"Anything to declare?" Dana'ahsh asked.

"Pistol, three knives," Herod stated.

Dana'ahsh frowned. "I only see two."

"One in the belt buckle," Herod said, slapping the belt.

"I see," Dana'ahsh stated. "Anything..."

Dana'ahsh was looking at the Earthling so he saw it directly.

The 2.5D monitors behind the Earthling suddenly flickered. Drawing of Terrans, white line-art, suddenly appeared in the images. Swooping in from the edges or standing up from the bottom. All of them were screaming.

Dana'ahsh saw a man, his face scored by white lines of bleeding gashes, reach out of the 2.5D monitor, slapping his hand on the painted ferrocrete wall, and pull himself out of the image. Other Terrans were pulling themselves free.

They were made of white lines, translucent in the spaces between the lines. They flickered and moved jerkily, spasticly.

"By Daxin's beard!" Dana'ahsh swore, jerking back even as he slapped the emergency button.

"Daxin didn't have a beard. He's clean shaven," Herod said, his voice sounding tired.

Four shades swept into the crowd, all of them descending on an unlucky Carikan. They touched the flightless avian, who screamed briefly and collapsed as the shades ripped something bluish out of him.

Herod turned slowly, one hand dropping to his waist as Dana'ahsh ducked behind the counter. People began screaming and Dana'ahsh could hear them panicking, stampeding away.

"Phasic shades? Here?" Herod said, his voice sounding only vaguely interested. "Yup. Guess it's more likely than I thought."

Dana'ahsh peeked back over the counter even as the screaming got louder.

His eyes visible beneath the brim of the hat as burning red lights, Herod was moving away from the counter, a weird movement where his legs crossed one another right to left even as he pushed the side of his denim jacket back.

More shades were pulling free of the 2.5D monitors that covered entire walls.

The crowd was in complete panic. The shades were attacking the edges, grabbing blue energy out of the bodies, which crumpled. The shades near the shade holding the blue energy would shriek in rage and attack the shade with the blue energy.

There were dozens of fights, all near bodies that had collapsed, unmoving, on the floor.

One swept toward Blue Herod and Dana'ahsh expected the Earthling to fall down dead as soon as he was touched, just like every other being.

Instead Blue Herod held out his left hand, hand cocked back at the wrist, fingers straight. Blue Herod put the palm of his hand against the forehead of the screaming male shade, even as his right hand dropped down to his waist, pulling the heavy magac pistol free, bending his arm at the elbow and firing two shots from the waist.

The shade stopped dead, somehow held back by Herod's hand. Clear fluid exploded from the back in two gouts as the weapon exploded loudly.

Dana'ahsh saw Herod turned and begin firing at the viewscreens. Sparks showered out from the screens as they imploded. Plas shards and internals exploded outward as the rounds fired by the pistol exploded in the walls.

Four shades swooped toward Herod who ducked underneath the swiping clawed hands, firing his pistol even as he pivoted on the heel of one boot. Four shots rang out, even though Dana'ahsh knew magac pistols should have been nearly silent except for the round going hypersonic. Smoke erupted from the pistol and Dana'ahsh saw flame erupt from the end of the barrel.

All four shades exploded into clear fluid that splattered around them even as Blue Herod did something with his fingers and open a cylinder that dropped from the side of the magac pistol. He pulled something out of his pocket, pushing something in and tossing something else over his shoulder even as he gave the pistol a snapping motion that caused the cylinder to close.

Blue Herod said something to the robot, which gave a double-thumbs up and started vibrating.

Blue Herod pivoted, firing at the ones attacking each other, the crowd, and ripping blue energy out of fallen or screaming victims. Silver streaks connected the end of the pistol to the shades, which exploded into steaming clear goo.

Hands over his sensitive ears, unaware he was making reflexive barking sounds as he gulped in air and triggered his barking sack, Dana'ahsh just stared as Blue Herod reloaded the cylinder and fired again.

The little boxy robot opened the panel in the front of the boxy body, reaching in and pulling out another gunbelt.

Herod grabbed it with one hand, throwing one end out. The belt somehow reached full extension then whipped around Herod's waist, until the end slapped Herod's belly. Herod hooked the buckle over the loose end.

Then drew another pistol.

"HIT THE EMERGENCY SIRENS!" Herod yelled, glancing once at Dana'ahsh.

Dana'ahsh realized that Herod's eyes were ice blue.

Dana'ahsh triggered the general alarm even as Herod kept shooting. Dana'ahsh had no idea how Herod was reloading the pistols when he had a pistol in each hand, but after six shots the Earthling was forced to reload the pistol in a strange smooth motion that never released the other pistol.

One of the things that Herod was discarding landed on the counter in front of Dana'ahsh and the counter flickered. A disk with a button on one side and six holes on the other. The counter circled it and ID'd it: "speedloader".

A shade lifted up through the floor, reaching for Dana'ahsh and he flinched backwards, scrambling away.

The Earthling took a step and kicked the shade in the face, sending it howling away.

Before it got ten feet the Earthling shot it in the back of the head and it erupted in a spray of ectoplasm.

The little robot beeped and the Earthling looked at it.

"How bad?" the Earthling asked.

The robot beeped some more as the Earthling reached out and helped Dana'ahsh to his feet.

"Do you have a car?" Herod asked Dana'ahsh.

Dana'ahsh nodded. The robot held out some kind of long gun and Herod grabbed it, throwing the carrying strap over his head so the long gun was across his back.

"Do you know where the ansible is?" Herod asked.

Again, Dana'ahsh nodded.

"Lead the way to your car, I'll cover you," the Earthling said.

"Wha... what's happening?" Dana'ahsh asked.

"Shades are loose in the system. They're moving through GalNet and SolNet," Herod said. "We've got to get to the ansible."

"It's almost fifty miles," Dana'ahsh said.

The Earthling fired twice more, killing a Shade running for a female Hikken that was screaming as she ran for the exit.

Herod sighed. "I can't believe I'm about to say this," he muttered.

Before Dana'ahsh could asked what Herod grabbed Dana'ahsh's shoulder.

"Come with me if you want to live," Blue Herod said.

Dana'ahsh just nodded frantically. "OK, OK," he said. He dug in his pocket, pulling out his keychain and the keychip for his car. "I'm out front."

"We'll have to run," Herod said. He frowned again. "Are the lights adjustable?"

Dana'ahsh nodded.

"Bring up the lighting controls," Herod said.

A shade rushed out of the wall and Herod held his hand out, stepping forward, stopping its forward momentum with his palm. The shade screeched and reached up, wrapping its hands around Herod's forearm even as Herod smoothly drew the pistol.

The Earthling shot the shade point blank in the face and holstered the pistol before the goo stopped spraying across the floor.

Working quickly, Dana'ahsh brought up the controls, even as the robot kept beeping and holding out other things. Another long gun, two bandoleers of bullets, and a pauldron that Herod pulled on and then attached a light to.

"Use the color code 880808," Herod ordered. "All the lights, across the whole building. Parking lot if you can," Herod said.

Dana'ahsh nodded, adjusting it.

It was red.

His favorite color.

"Hey, that's the same color as my car," Dana'ahsh said.

Herod looked at him, the Earthling's hands still pushing thick bullets into the long gun. "Our lucky day, then," he looked around as the lights went red. "Let's go."

There was enraged screaming from all around, coming from the walls, the wiring, the air ducts.

Dana'ahsh swallowed thickly as he went with the Earthling, heading for the parking lot.

Dana'ahsh cringed inside as they passed body after body.

"Why are they dead?" Dana'ahsh asked.

"Shades yank your soul out," Herod said. "Technically, they disrupt and remove the bioelectric field of living organisms, feeding off of it. Realistically? They yank out and bite big chunks out of your soul."

"That sounds terrible," Dana'ahsh said.

The Earthling gave a grim chuckle. "Yeah, you could say that."

"It didn't do it to you. I saw you touch one, saw one grab you. Why not?" Dana'ahsh asked.

The Earthling shrugged, which Dana'ahsh knew signified that the Earthling didn't know. "Probably because I'm an Earthling and a few other things."

"Oh," Dana'ahsh said. He looked around, the walls a lurid crimson. "Why aren't they attacking us?"

"They don't like the color red," Herod said. "It interferes with the wavelength they travel on."

"Oh."

"They don't like metallized mylar either," Herod shrugged.

"You know a lot about them," Dana'ahsh said, stopping and letting the escalator move him down to the ground floor.

"Dealt with them for a few centuries," Herod said. He looked down at the robot, which was holding onto his leg as it was canted perilously on two of the escalator steps. "Think we can fab up the phasic strobing system?"

The robot gave a couple of beeps and then a sad sounding noise.

"Yeah. Planet's different than a Dyson sphere," Herod said. He sighed. "Have to figure out something else."

Dana'ahsh hurried to the door that led to the parking structure. He peeked out the door and saw that the lights were red, but there was a lot of shadows and dark areas that he could see white forms flickering and jerkily moving around.

"There's a lot in there," Dana'ahsh said.

Herod nodded. "There always is," he said. He pulled around one of the long guns and nodded. "Open the door, let's head for your car."

"Wait," Dana'ahsh held up his keychain. He clicked the buttons.

A red car lit up as the lights came on and the electrical systems went live.

"Electric car?" Herod asked.

Dana'ahsh nodded.

"Crap," Herod said. "Make sure your radio, your dash cams, your viewscreens, all of it is shut down."

Dana'ahsh frowned but brought up the holographic menu and followed the instructions.

"All right, let's go," Herod said.

Dana'ahsh hurried out, unlocking the car as he ran.

Twice shades tried to sweep into the red light, reaching for Dana'ahsh and twice that long gun went off with a loud explosion and a gout of flame from the end. Each time the shade exploded into a shower of clear goo and dimples appeared in the glass and macroplas on the other side of the shade from Herod.

Herod pulled open the door and lifted the robot up, putting it in the back seat, then moved around the car as Dana'ahsh opened the door and got in.

The screen on the dash flickered and Herod smashed it with one fist as he got in.

"I won't know how fast I'm going or if someone is behind me," Dana'ahsh said. "I won't get traffic alerts."

"You also won't get a shade climbing out of it and ripping our guts out in the car," Herod answered.

"Oh," Dana'ahsh said. He pulled out.

"Go fast. Don't worry about speed limits," Herod said, rolling down the window.

"Why not?" Dana'ahsh asked as he went up the ramp that would lead to the freeway that would take them to the city.

"That's why," Herod said.

The city beyond was on fire. Smoke rising up from the skyrakers, skyscrapers, and buildings. Explosions blew out windows as entire floors of high rise buildings were destroyed. Grav-vehicles tumbled from the sky or moved back and forth.

Dana'ahsh could hear the screaming.

"Oh."