“Heinz! Get up.”

Someone banged on the side of Rennziege, dull hollow thumps against the thick fibreglass.

“Wake up!”

Someone dragged him from the depths of a blissful sleep, disturbing his first night of rest in a week. His first full night in weeks.

“Now Heinz!”

This time he was able to make out that that someone was Rosa.

With a groan he shrugged off the last few chains of sleep. He threw on some clothes - more of a challenge than expected in the narrow confines with the boat shifting with every movement, and rushed out to see why Rosa was waking up half the marina.

“What-”

“No time. We need to get to the Docks.”

Heinz only got a glimpse of her frantic face before she turned to leave. She made it a few steps but stopped and turned back when she didn’t hear him following.

“NOW Heinz! Bring your weapon.”

Shit. He pushed up against the deck and jumped off the boat, crumpling two stanchions while he was at it. That was fine. The metal lifelines around the deck could be replaced. People couldn’t. Weapons were a last resort. What had gone so badly? Why when he just got home?

He grabbed his halberd and followed. No time for shoes, his feet wouldn’t feel the difference anyway.

Heinz wasn’t able to move quickly on the pontoon for fear of breaking through the wooden planks, but he caught up to Rosa as she sprinted through the town streets outside.

“Rosa,” He called, jogging up past her. “What’s going on?”

“Maggie sent word. Something’s about to happen at the Shop and they need help.”

“What? When?”

“I don’t know. Now.” Rosa said, struggling to catch her breath.

Heinz cursed then sped up. He ran in front of Rosa and dipped down as he showed her his back. “Hop on.”

Rosa cursed. She put a hand on his shoulder, paused then cursed again. She hopped up.

As Heinz straightened up and began to really run through the streets Rosa cursed some more. She didn’t stick to one phrase, curse or language, but 'I’m going to get her for this!' was the only thing he would repeat in polite company.

The Shop area was in a state of confusion. Reclaimers rushed towards it half armed, while others tried to move anything out of the shop radius and evacuate the area. It was a mess of shouting that Heinz pushed through. Everyone was as frantic as he was, but he didn’t run into much trouble. Between his halberd, still an intimidating weapon in a world of monsters given its size, and the fact he had one of the main organisers of the town on his back, people got out of the way quickly.

Maggie stood with her back to them besides four other figures at the centre of the Shop area. A middle aged man in a farmer’s jacket. An old woman in a knit jumper. A young pale faced man who was shivering. A teenager with a shot bob who looked uncomfortable and inched closer to Maggie as they approached.

“Maggie!” Rosa shouted. She patted Heinz’s shoulder quickly. She continued shouting as Heinz let her down. “What is going on?”

Maggie turned towards them and gave them a worried look.

The pale faced man before her swiped through the air before turning to his companions. “One minute left. We need to move out of here.”

The farmer nodded and began to shout. His voice was strong and carried over the chaos. “ONE MINUTE. GET AWAY. GET OUT.”

The others took up the shout as they split up. The cry spread to all those around. Whatever hadn’t been moved yet was abandoned as everyone fled the Shop’s radius.

Heinz grimaced. What the hell was going on?

Maggie ran towards him and Rosa. They all turned, fleeing the area as well. As they ran they were joined by Jack and Jamie. Both were better outfitted than Heinz, wearing their full reclaimer gear. Jamie was comfortable enough in the panic to look at his bare feet and laugh. It was a sign of how much crap they’d gone through that she could stay calm in this.

When they finally stopped behind a wall, Rosa rounded on Maggie and grabbed her by the shoulders. Maggie let herself be pulled around.

“What is going on!”

Maggie gave Rosa a weak smile. Her eyebrows drew up in the middle. She blinked quickly. “That thing I couldn’t tell you about? This is it?”

“What is it?” Rosa snapped back.

Maggie shook her head and looked back towards the shop. “I don’t know.”

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Rosa tried to turn Maggie back towards her, but Rosa was still in her first threshold. Her attempts didn’t move Maggie one bit. Cursing, Rosa tried to get her attention again, having more questions, but something cut all that out.

Everyone paused, reading the new message at the same time.

Settlement I38-KB

Cultivation Delegates have selected.

Evacuate Zone centre within 10 seconds.

They weren’t given any time to process the message.

Above them the sky opened. The purple wall that had held them hostage for so long split and for the first time in weeks, Kinmore saw the sky. It was early morning, barely dawn. The sky was dark, but with a hint of colour. It was the darkest of blues rather than black, with a shimmer of colour on the horizon.

There were still faint stars in the sky, small tiny lights that told of an infinite world, of infinite possibilities.

It was beautiful.

The chaos, the yell and the shouting went quiet as people stared. Then cheering began.

Around them people hugged and celebrated at the sight.

Maggie remained rigid and fixed in place, staring up.

The higher threshold Reclaimers saw it first. A dark shape brushing past the edges of the purple. Investigating. Testing. On the second pass the dark blob pushed its way in. A thick limb or tendril passed through the opening and tested the air.

It was kilometres above them yet it took up a significant portion of the sky. Larger than any plane, the tendril shifted easily.

As nothing happened, the limb pushed further into the hole.

More people could see it now and the celebration turned into fear and despair. The limb blotted out a significant portion of the hole in the sky now as it tugged at the edges, seeking to widen the gap and squeeze in more.

People began to run.

Where, Heinz didn’t know. If whatever that limb was attached to got in they were doomed anyway. There was nowhere they could hide.

“Maggie,” Heinz said quietly. “What do we do?”

He wasn’t afraid. No adrenaline, System or not, coursed through his body. He just felt cold. They couldn't fight this. The creature was too big. Too impossible. Their weapons wouldn’t even be needles to this creature.

“I.. I. This isn’t right.” Maggie answered, trembling.

This more than anything filled Heinz with fear. Something had gone wrong. This wasn’t the Delegate’s secretive plan, it wasn’t what they had kept secret all this time.

The edges of the hole began to flicker and shift. Sections began to crumple inwards as the limb expanded and pushed against it.

Then it shuddered.

A hollow thrumming filled the air. It sent people to the ground screaming in pain and clutching their ears.

Only later stage Reclaimers still stood, fourth threshold or later. And whatever that sound had been, it wasn’t even aimed at them.

The limb above them exploded outwards. It splintered as something smashed through and hurtled towards them. Dark flesh scattered across the sky like shooting stars and the purple walls around the hole began to advance.

The projectile continued to fall, a meteor to earth. It left a trail of white vapour behind. Purple lines snaked across its front as it fell towards them.

One last heavy thrum rang out above before the purple wall sealed fully again, locking the sky away.

The falling object did not slow.

Heinz broke from his stupor and grabbed for Maggie and Rosa. Jack and Jamie were starting to push themselves up but both Cultivators were slower to recover. Maggie might be nearly as strong as Jack and Jamie at this point, but they hadn’t earned the same reaction speed.

Heinz tried to pull them both away as the heavy mass fell towards them ever quicker. It didn’t break apart. Meteors were meant to break apart when they hit the atmosphere. The white left in the air behind it gained colour, faint yellow and red. Whether it was a heat trail or remnants of whatever that creature outside the wall was, Heinz didn’t know but he knew he didn’t want to be here when it landed.

There wasn’t time. They might make it behind a house by the time the wall fell, but that was it. They couldn’t get away. Anything moving that fast was going to make an impact.

“Shit. shit. Oh christ. Please God. Please.”

Heinz made one desperate last sprint, pulling the shocked Maggie and Rosa along with him.

There was no time.

He pushed them down and braced for impact.

There was a soft crunch and nothing.

Seconds passed.

Slowly, Heinz untensed and turned.

The meteor, a huge grey pillar had stopped in place as it met the ground. All momentum cancelled. It towered above Kinmore, six or seven stories tall. Purple lines snaked along its exterior, forming patterns and designs for brief periods before shifting again.

For a moment silence reigned. Then the shouting began.

Heinz breathed shallowly and spun Maggie around to face him.

“Maggie, What is that? What was that?”

“Ma-Manufacture.” Maggie trembled as she spoke, alternating between staring at Kinmore’s new skyscraper and the purple sky above. “It’s what all the credits have been going towards. What the town zone thing was about. It's from the delegate system.”

“What does it do?” Rosa asked. She pushed herself up. Blood snaked down her hands and forearms. Heinz in his desperation and the pavement had not been kind to her. She was shaking, but while her voice was high it was steady. “Do we make our own augments? Does it.. fight that?”

Maggie shook her head, cradling her hands around herself.

Heinz carefully reached for Rosa, grabbing an arm to inspect the cuts.

“Does it make everything cheaper?” Rosa asked again.

Maggie continued to shake her head.

Rosa pulled herself away from Heinz's hand and grabbed Maggie. “Then why? Why do this?”

“We didn’t know. There were only 300.” Maggie whispered finally. “Then they started to disappear from the system. One for every 27 million. One for every five Irelands, but there’s only one Ireland. We didn’t want to be alone.”

“Maggie!” Rosa snapped, trying to shake her and succeeding. Maggie was too disturbed to control herself.

That dark, giant limb had made a lasting impression. Heinz felt his hand shake.

“The first system message. Richard realised first. Exhausting. We didn’t know.”

Rosa looked at Heinz, asking with her eyes if this made any sense to him. He shook his head.

“Maggie, it’s alright, we’re safe,” Heinz said. He glanced at the skyscraper, the monolith of stone that had crashed into the pier. “We can figure this out.”

Maggie closed her eyes.

“We didn’t know, but.. we know one thing. The System. It’s going to leave.”