Her muscles burned, and her back and knees were about to give up, but she had to push on; the lives of her children and herself depended on it. The Krador had found them.

“Run Sheesa! Get the egglings to the caves! We will hold them for as long as we can!” a voice called out. It was Ssokssa, her mate.

Her scales rustled as her heart ached for what she knew would be the last moments she would ever see him. Their eyes met, and she saw the deep sadness in him as he flitted his scales in their private little way of saying he loved her, then he turned to face the advancing Krador. Theirs was not a predator species, but the scales and digging claws of the males offered at least some protection against the cruelty promised by Krador appendages.

So, she ran. She, and a thousand other females and males unable to fight, children barely older than egglings, ran. What survivors remained of their city ran as the sounds of their mates, sons, and fathers sacrificed themselves so they could live a little longer.

When she could go no farther under the weight of the dozen offspring on her back she collapsed. Exhaustion and despair hung heavy on the group. She was too tired for words. They were all too weary even for sorrow. Everyone was numb.

“Mada, I hungy.” One of her precious cargo whispered. “And I thirsty, Mada,” another said soon after. Gathering her wits about her she looked around in hopes of finding something to sustain them. She knew there would be little enough once they started crossing the plains to reach the hills and caves beyond. She began to get lost in a torrent of questions with no answers. How would she feed and care for them? What was she going to do? How long could she keep walking with all her children on her back? What if some of them didn’t make it? What if…what if…if…

Panic began to replace reason and she muttered to herself, “If only Ssokssa were here. At least he could help dig up some roots or maybe find some water. He is always such a good provider.” Her voice caught in her throat. She then corrected herself in barely a whisper, “Was. He, was, such a good provider.” A distant cry of deepest sorrow echoed through the exhausted expanse of her heart. The world went surreally quiet and she was lost in her own personal void.

Just then she heard a beeping sound coming from a thick patch of Kath trees nearby. They were thick, inedible things good for nothing but getting in the way of honest farm work. The fact they were here made her realize how close the group was to the plains.

There it was again, that beeping sound. It was not in her head it seemed. Working her way into the trees she discovered a crashed trade vessel with a Krador spike through one of the engines. It was probably hit and downed trying to escape when the insectoids first attacked.

Looking at the structure she recognized it as a Broda light trader. They were very large ships and fairly common. Even one of their light traders could carry supplies for an entire village when they…she froze in place, realizing what this ship represented. It could possibly have enough food and supplies inside to get them across the plains!

She went to the hatch and entered the ship. To her relief she found the cargo bay partially full of foodstuffs and water. She offloaded her egglings and got them all something to tuck into.

As they happily and single mindedly devoted themselves to nourishment she took a few meal bars and got the others. Soon the cargo bay was the center of a quiet feast of refugees. Nobody dared make too much noise in case there were any Krador lurking.

When she had eaten and collected enough provisions for the journey she decided to explore the ship. She wanted to know what happened to the Captain. A ship this size would only have one Broda captain usually. She had been on dozens in the past examining cargo and trade goods. The layout of this class of ship was quite familiar to her.

On reaching the bridge her scales shifted and shimmered in regret. The captain was dead at his console, slumped over the controls. Warning lights and on-screen notifications indicated the ship was damaged well beyond operation. Then she heard it again, the beeping noise. She looked over the controls and found a pulsing red panel that read, “Emergency Beacon,” in Broda. Apparently, the Broda had intended to call for help but was incapacitated before he got the chance. It was odd, however, because she had never seen a Broda distress signal in the past. It was not their way to call for help. Such an act would be considered tantamount to reckless endangerment given all they would do is put more Broda in danger. It was their way to run and not look back or to die in the serene state of the Death Trance.

Stepping up on the chair to try and get a better look at the displays, her weight caused the chair to rotate slightly and the massive bulk of the Broda shifted. His lifeless hand slid down the controls and rested over the emergency beacon panel, activating it. A new window appeared on the screen in front of her. It was the face of the Broda Captain. It was a pre-recorded message. It said, “This is Captain Boo’vaa of the light cargo ship Expansive Meadows, calling any Human forces. I am under attack by Krador and require immediate assistance. I repeat this is Captain Boo’vaa of the light cargo ship Expansive Meadows…”

The message kept repeating on a loop. She stared in confusion at the repeating message. A Broda was calling for help? What was a Human? Should she find a way to cut the message off? Could these Human creatures be trusted? The trust of the Broda was a hard thing to earn, so maybe she could trust them too?

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a large spark in the electrical system. With a flare of light the cabin went dark and quiet. She worked her way back to her egglings and her people.

One of the other younger females saw her come in and said, “What shall we do next?”

She began to form a protest to assuming leadership when she looked around the room and saw scores of eager, scared faces staring at her. Goodness, they were all so young. Were there no Matriarchs in the group to lead them?

She resolved herself and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, “We should go and make as much of the delay to the Krador advance as our Males provided. Take whatever food and water you can. We will get as far into the plains as possible before resting for the night.” At this, they all shimmered their scales in agreement and started filing out of the broken freighter.

A few hours later they were into the plains. When a few dropped from exhaustion she found a slight valley between two hills and had everyone bed down. She lay on her back with her children tucked in around her and with weary eyes and a racing mind stared aimlessly into the void of space and stars.

“What am I doing? I can’t lead these people. Surely there must be someone better suited to the task. I am only a young mother. I am not ready to take the title of Matriarch,” she thought to herself.

She became distracted from her self-doubt by a small flash in the night sky. It was an FTL drive. The distinctive light blue hue was a clear indication of what it was. It was so faint the ship must have been no bigger than the light freighter they recently discovered. She hoped whoever it was would be able to detect the Krador and get away unharmed. With exhaustion taking its toll she slowly closed her eyes to rest. Her last remnants of consciousness brought the whispered voice of one of her egglings to her, “Look Mada, a falling star.”

The next morning Sheesa awoke to pain in her muscles and joints. She was a city dweller and not used to the exertions of the past few days. Her scales needed a good scraping and her mouth was dry. As she was preparing her meager rations acquired from the Broda ship she realized that she could not quite place this grain she was eating. They were small, hard, yellow kernels that crunched quite satisfactorily between her teeth. She tried to remember if she had ever tried it before, but decided that no, she had not. This was an entirely new form of foodstuff to her. It would have made a fine cargo for the poor Broda to take home to the Herdmothers.

With her portion eaten she gathered her children on her back and passed them back their breakfast as she got moving again. The crunching of tiny mouths and satisfied little chortles brought her some small piece of joy as she walked across the seemingly endless plain. Her mind wandered to that morning last week when she was having the first meal of the day with her mate and egglings. It was so beautiful then. He went to the door before he left for the market and shimmered his scales in that special way to tell her he loved her and... Her thoughts were cut off as the reality that he was gone displaced her joy.

Minutes passed like hours and all semblance of time was lost as the day grew long and the heat of the plains became nearly suffocating. The dust kicked up by the small army of refugees made it all that much worse. Sheesa was last in the group, as was the custom of leaders. This ensured nobody ever got left behind.

One of her egglings squealed in a tiny voice, “Cyouds! Pitty Cyouds!” Shimmering amusement, she looked up at the sky to see what the little eggling was referring to. The sky was totally clear. There was not a cloud to be seen. Looking up she spun in a circle to look for them. She saw a column of rather dark looking cloud behind the group, and then her eyes, following it down, dropped to the horizon. There was a hoard of Krador running after them. She turned around to look at the backs of all the refugees in front of her, and in desperation screamed, “RUN!”

Shocked, many of them turned around and stared at her and then past her. Horrified looks and panicked expressions washed over the ragged throng and they all ran for their lives.

Her heart pounded loudly in her ears, and through the din of flight she heard one of her little egglings say, “Moda, Stop! She fell off!” Something switched inside of her and she was able to think again. She slowed and looked back to see one of her egglings crawling on the ground toward her. Crying and terrified, she was screaming, “No go Mada, No go!” Could she save her? Could she save any of them? She had to try! She took one step toward her eggling and the world changed.

Fire and destruction erupted all through the Krador hoard. Blue blood, gore, and random body parts were thrown into the sky to come down in a putrid rain. Sheesa had never seen something so destructive in her life. A moment later, her ears were filled with the sound of roaring engines and a ship dropped down in between the Krador and her fleeing band. Five small, metal clad bipeds jumped out of the ship. Two crouched down on the ground, one started toward her, and the other two stood facing the Krador. They pointed strange rifles toward the Krador in preparation to fire. She saw they also had swords, honest to scales swords, slung across their backs.

After dropping off the creatures, the ship pulled back up into the sky above the Krador and unleashed a second volley of fire and destruction. When the flying debris cleared the four soldiers opened fire with small bursts of explosive propellant.

While the others were occupied, the one that started toward her began running terrifyingly fast in her direction. It slowed and stopped at the eggling. Terror gripped Sheesa. Was it going to eat her little one? It turned its helmeted head down to look the infant then back at her. It slung its rifle and with great care gently picked up the screaming, terrified being. Cradling the little one in its arms it moved very carefully to Sheesa. She was Frozen with fear and had no idea what to do. To her confusion and relief it held out the eggling to her.

She reached out and took her child. She comforted and calmed it for a moment before slinging it back to travel with the others. Her eyes then focused past the creature in front of her and on the destruction in the Krador lines. The remnants left after the bombardment by the craft were being demolished by the weapons of these newcomers. They seemed to be some kind of slug-thrower. The explosive noise was made every time they fired. Within a minute everything was over.

She stared stunned and transfixed at the aftermath of the violence she had just witnessed. When the task was complete the four who had been demolishing the Krador secured their weapons and began moving back toward Sheesa. The creature in front of her took off its helmet and Sheesa finally came face to face with her rescuer.

Its skin was a dark brown, and it had dark brown hair on the top and sides of its head in small curls. It spoke to her, “I am Major Vanessa Smith. May I ask your name?” “Sh…Sheesa” she responded, surprised at its ability to speak her language. There was a pause and she saw the earpiece the Major was using. “How does your translator know our language?” Sheesa asked starting to make sense of the things.

“It is based primarily on Broda technology. Do you know the Broda?” The Major asked.

“Yes, we have traded with them for many years. We consider them close friends. Are…are you the Humans the Broda distress beacon called? I am sorry, but I activated that by accident. The Broda, Captain Boo’vaa, I believe, had already lost his life when the beacon was engaged.

A hint of loss entered her voice as the Major said, “Yeah, we found him and his ship.”

Losing the sadder tone to her voice and glancing around at the soldiers now standing next to her she said, “We decided to do an aerial recon of the area saw the Krador hunting you. It looked like you needed some help so we decided to drop in.”

Sheesa shimmered her scales gratefully, and said, “Yes, we certainly are in trouble. They have massacred most of our planet and they are hunting us even now as you have seen. You should flee while you can. If it is our people’s fate to pass into the abyss you should not be put at risk. Thank you for the extra time you have given us to enjoy life but ultimately, I feel it is futile. There will soon be no places left to hide.”

Major Smith looked over Sheesa for a long moment considering carefully her next moves. She looked to her left and right and asked, “What do you grunts think?”

They nodded to her, some kind of human expression Sheesa did not understand. “Major,” one of the soldiers said, voice slightly more mechanical through the helmet, “You know where we stand, and what we signed up for. Make the call.”

Smith looked at him solemnly, and then briskly jerked her head in a nod. She flicked something on her wrist console and said, “Skyfire, I assume you caught all that. How do things look up there?”

She keyed it so everyone could hear, and the reply came back, “I am seeing an army level force of poppers bearing down on your position. I would say they are maybe 4 or 5 hours out from your present location. If you head east toward the hills on the other side of those plains, you may be able to stretch that out some.”

Smith looked out toward the hills, barely visible in the setting sun, and nodded saying, “Roger that Skyfire. Your orders are to break orbit and rendezvous with command as soon as possible. Inform them of the situation on the ground and request immediate action to deter an extinction level event.”

She looked at the soldiers with her and continued, “You tell them that I see no other alternative toward those ends than an Omega level deployment.”

The crackle of the communication system was all that could be heard for a moment. A quiet voice of the clearly shocked Skyfire replied, “Major, please say again, did I hear you request an Omega level deployment?”

The Major looked at Sheesa then around to the refugees. Her voice was as solid as stone, “Affirmative Skyfire. Omega Level action requested immediately. Drop us a recon drone and get your ass to command.”

Skyfire’s voice came back, strong and steady, “Affirmative Major. Dropping recon drone and prepping for immediate FTL.” There was a pause for a moment and Skyfire spoke up again, “Major, it’s been an honor. When you ground pounders get finished down there, beers are on me at the hub.” With that there was a flash of light in the sky and the connection was gone.

One of the troopers let out a low whistle that became strangely modulated through his speaker. “In atmo FTL jump? Skyfire’s crazier than I thought.” The troopers all nodded as they looked at the fading shimmer in the sky where the charged particles were dissipating.

Sheesa looked at the humans and asked, “I do not understand. What just happened? What is an Omega? What is going to happen? Why are you helping us?”

With this last question, the Major turned to Sheesa as she was walking and said, “We are helping you because we believe it’s the right thing to do.”

Sheesa stammered, “But…but we have nothing to give you for this. We will not have any way to repay you.”

The Major stopped and Sheesa stopped with her. Sheesa’s eyes were pleading to understand. Her scales ruffed in frustration.

“Sheesa,” the Major began, “We believe if a good person does a good thing in hopes of a reward then they were not really a good person. The reason we are helping you is very simple. It’s because we can help, you need help, and we feel sympathy and compassion for you so we want to help. We need no more justification than that. However this turns out you owe us nothing.”

Sheesa could not believe what she was hearing. No species acted this way. No species believed the way the Major said Humans did. Yet, despite everything she knew, she believed the Major.

They silently began walking again. Some of the numbness and confusion was starting to wear off and Sheesa was soon lost in her thoughts. The weariness was still there but now she had a mental puzzle, these Humans, to work on. It kept her mind distracted for the next few hours.

The Major left Sheesa to her thoughts after handful of minutes and moved over to walk next to her soldiers. They would from time to time look at her sensor displays and speak in low tones to one another. Lately, they had done so and glanced back behind them.

The Aerial drone had been tracking the army of Krador since it was launched. Sheesa and her people had been moving as fast as they could for 6 hours and making good time for their species. The direction suggested by Skyfire was perfect. Every advantage had been taken to delay contact with the swarm.

Unfortunately that was over now. The swarm would be upon them any minute.

The full dark of night was upon them and the stars danced silently in the black sky. Then they heard them: screams in the dark. The Krador were enraged, and hungry.

The Major gathered her soldiers together and they spoke quietly together. After they were done, she jogged over to Sheesa and handed her the device that had been on her wrist. “This will let you see what the drone sees and monitor our life signs. Also, it will let my people know where you are. Now this next part is very important so listen carefully. When our forces show up say exactly these words and do exactly as I tell you. Are you ready?...”

After the Major gave Sheesa the instructions, Sheesa directed the refugees as quietly as possible toward a particular star to keep them on a straight path.

The Humans then formed up and stalked off into the night leaving Sheesa and her people in darkness. The Krador were getting closer but Sheesa did as she was told and kept moving. The drone showed the Krador to be a mere 200 Meters away. Had the Humans abandoned them? It would be their right to do so. They had done all they could she felt. Perhaps it was just her time.

Just then off in the distance five bright lights flared to life on the dark plain. Looking at the drone display she understood now. The Humans were drawing the Krador away from her people. Gunfire erupted and a chorus of rage bellowed from a hundred thousand Krador voices. This was no normal reaction by the Krador. They understood these were humans and it was clear they hated them.

Sheesa watched in horror, amazement, and disbelief as the Human soldiers started advancing, actually advancing, on the Krador! Weapons leveled and walking in step they killed countless Krador at range with their strange projectile weapons. The Krador could not, despite all their huge numbers, get close through the barrage of fire.

Eventually the soldiers ran out of ammunition. The Krador then began racing forward in a living wave of anger and malice.

She saw the Major draw the sword from her back and pointed it at the advancing swarm. The other four soldiers followed suit and together they charged the Krador. Their lights were soon mostly blocked out by the crashing wave of chitin over them. Blue flashes and pained insectoid screams were barely detectable over the excited noises of the Krador. After what seemed like an eternity the lights started going out. Rusteling her scaled in grief and sorrow Sheesa looked to the device Major Smith had given her. It showed the vitals of the humans. All five were somehow still alive.

When the first window turned red and all the indicators went flat she knew one of the Humans had fallen. A minute or so later another went silent and red. The remaining three fought for another few minutes until one of the windows began flashing yellow. A few moments later another began flashing yellow. There was a loud explosion and the yellow windows went solid red. Just one left. Just one hero standing alone against the Krador sacrificing themselves for them. The final window began to flash yellow then eventually fell to solid red. They were gone. All the humans were gone.

A deathly quiet fell over the battlefield as the Krador all went still. Perhaps they could not believe they had actually killed the humans. The silence was broken as a Krador soldier screamed a cry of triumph. Soon it was joined by the whole of the battlefield in a hellish cry of victory, celebration, and satisfied rage.

Sheesa knew her time was near. She knew her people would go to the abyss. She dropped to the ground and bent over placing her face in her hands. She had failed. Her children would die, her people would die, she would die.

Just then the tiny whisper of one of her precious little egglings said, “Look Mada, the staws are pitty!”

Looking up she could not believe what she saw. The entire night sky was filled with FTL flashes. There were hundreds, no, thousands of them. Some dim, indicating smaller ships, and some very bright…were those…capital ships?

She looked at the pad. It showed the Krador had surrounded them. They were so close. Could anything save them? Even with ships in orbit could they get here in time?

Her worry was broken by the pad indicating an incoming transmission. As the Major instructed her, she opened the comms. Crackling to life, she heard, “…repeat this is Fleet actual to Rescue 0351, do you copy? Rescue 0351, please report, this is fleet actual, what is your status?”

Being very careful to say it exactly like the Major told her she said the following:

“Fleet actual, this is Rescue 0351 actual. Reporting fallen star. All units lost. Danger close, requesting immediate support. Perimeter radius set to transmitter plus fifty, unlimited extension. Fire for effect.”

There was a moment of silence over the comms and the voice came back, “Rescue 0351 actual, this is fleet actual, please repeat last transmission.”

Sheesa saw that the Krador were a mere 100 meters away now and closing fast. She had no idea what all these words meant together, but she repeated them just as the Major had told her:

“Fleet actual, this is Rescue 0351 actual. Reporting fallen star. All units lost. Danger close, requesting immediate support. Perimeter radius set to transmitter plus fifty, unlimited extension. Fire for effect.”

The voice came back sharp and clear, “Affirmative Rescue 0351 Actual, commencing bombardment in five.”

Sheesa turned to the refugees and as the Major instructed her, screamed at the top of her lungs, “Get down and cover, NOW!”

Thousands of blue capital ship laser beams barely visible to Sheesa’s color perception struck the ground 50 meters away and formed a circular cathedral of protective, impenetrable light. It rose into the night sky as a beacon of salvation.

In every direction the beams seared and melted the ground for a moment then darted out directly away from the huddling refugees. The heat was so intense that nothing flammable even caught fire; it was just vaporized. When a beam darted away it would immediately be replaced with a new searing lance of destruction. In all directions away from them, like a hundred thousand spokes on a wheel, glowing furrows of melted earth, exploding stones, and vaporized Krador slashed out for miles across the plains.

The heat was intense inside the wall. Sheesa and her people had all dropped to the ground to at least partially shield themselves from it. Egglings cried, children screamed, and adults just held tight to their families.

After a minute of sustained fire, it was over. Sheesa stood up and beheld a softly glowing expanse. It was like they were standing on an island in the middle of a molten sea. The destruction started 50 meters away and extended off as far as the eye could see.

As for the Krador, they were, well, gone. All of them, just gone. No trace of anything living remained beyond the little circle the survivors were in.

As the land cooled and the glow dimmed to black her eyes adjusted to the stars again. Looking up she saw thousands of shooting stars all descending on her world. Scanning the sky she saw they extended from horizon to horizon. Just one of those saved her and the survivors with her. This many were hard to imagine. She wondered if the Krador had any idea what was about to happen to them. She hoped not.

Within fifteen minutes four rescue ships landed and set up a perimeter, tended to the injured, and supplied provisions to the group. It was real. They were finally safe.

After making sure everyone was taken care of, Sheesa went over to the officer in charge of the ships around her and asked, “What is an Omega level deployment?”

The officer looked up, with what Sheesa understood as surprise on his face. “Well Ma’am, that is a call for a fleet level action in defense of a planet. They are very rare, but you are in the middle of one.”

Her scales rustled randomly as she thought how to ask her next question. She continued, “What does it mean to communicate ‘fallen star, all units lost’?”

At this the officer stopped what he was doing. Turning to her he spoke in a gentle and sad tone, “It means that a high-ranking officer is in danger and all other units have been lost. When a Fallen Star is declared with a request for support it is a call for any and all available firepower to be brought to bear in defense of a single location. Now, by all, I mean all; from every capital ship to every corvette in range, everything we had in opened fire on this valley in defense of your position. Over two thousand ships turned this valley into glass, except that little area over there where you were. She wanted you to live. We, wanted you to live.”

Realization dawned on Sheesa. She quietly asked with shock and disbelief, “So, when Major Smith gave me those instructions, what to say, it was because she knew she would die?”

The young officer nodded solemnly and confirmed, “Yes, that’s exactly what she meant.”

Epilogue:

In the years that followed, the Humans helped reconstruct the crippled world. Sheesa’s people, in recognition of the new identity forged in the experience, took the name, “Say-veds,” a broken transliteration of the English “Saved.”

The Say-veds were the first to adopt the use of the Honorific title, “Apex,” for humans, a practice many others would imitate in the centuries that followed.

They made the Plains of Glass a planetary monument honoring the fallen humans that defended them from the Krador. Amidst a sea of glass a single round patch of soil, lovingly tended, sits fertile and lush. From the center rises a simple five-sided monument. Each side honored one of the soldiers who, by their bravery and ultimate sacrifice, saved them. Visible for miles, it became a pilgrimage shrine all Say-veds visit as a rite of passage.

Upon its base these words are written:

From the edge of the Great Abyss they stretched out their hands and drew us back into the light of life. May this remembrance forever stand witness that when the Apex stride the empty void, there is hope in a single falling star.