EN ROUTE TO THE VEGA CLUSTER

July 15, 2092 - 12:01 P.M.

“Oh, come on!”, Lira breathed through gritted teeth. She reflexively yanked the steering wheel as a collision warning rang through the cockpit, and a bright red strip lit up around her windshield.

She felt the shuttle’s frame vibrate as a similar craft headed the other way scraped its belly. As she steadied her course, she saw the horizon fill with hundreds of little metallic shapes, all rushing towards her at breakneck speeds. Lira pulled the wheel back even further, hoping to gain some altitude against this exodus of vehicles scrambling away from the chaos in Vega. Several VLF shuttles scattered in evasive maneuvers behind her, with a few opting to dash through the counterflow instead.

Lira flicked her right wrist, coaxing a blue glow from her communications bracelet. A perky female voice asked, “Who would you like to call?”

“Transport Department,” Lira grunted as she eased off on the wheel. After two rings, Lira heard a slight click followed by a raspy voice.

“Ms. Fa —”

“Secretary Holt! We need your men on Route 186. It’s complete chaos out here!”

“’Out here’? But what are you doing there?! Are you —?”

“I’m on my way to Vega now. Traffic’s gone berserk and the airways have collapsed. We need to rein in all these people before someone gets hurt!”, Lira fumed as she swerved to avoid another shuttle coming at her.

“But I — right, we’ll send men over.”

“Thank you, and please coordinate with the gendarmerie as well. Over and out,” Lira said as she flicked her wrist again.

“Be careful —!”, she heard before the line cut out.

Lira floored the shuttle, steering it towards a massive white cloud that was blooming on the horizon. As Vega’s plates dissolved into view, Lira saw plumes of smoke streaming out from the crumbling outer structures. On the ground, Lira could vaguely make out entire families rushing towards open space, struggling to outrun the debris from collapsing buildings.

The collision alarm blared again, this time painting the right side of the cockpit red. When Lira turned, she saw a swarm of shiny objects careening through the Venusian atmosphere. Each one started out as a minuscule dot, growing bigger and bigger by the second. It was almost too late when she realized what they were.

On instinct, Lira pushed the wheel forward and dropped the shuttle into a nosedive. She felt her stomach squirm as she turned around in her seat, just in time to see the objects slam like cannonballs into the plate just behind her. The stream of mass driver projectiles hit the base of a three-story residential building, damaging its foundations and causing the entire structure to tilt. A flurry of electric sparks danced across its face, followed by a stream of white smoke from its busted gas pipe system.

Another alarm jerked Lira back to attention. Realizing what it meant, she pulled on the steering wheel with all her might. A broad stretch of grass and cobblestones from one of Vega’s many recreational parks rushed up to meet her dive. Lira felt tears well up as the shuttle responded to her straining arms, leveling and finally showing a slice of the yellow horizon through its windshield.

But her relief didn’t last long. A second later, Lira’s vision flashed white as the shuttle’s frame buckled with a loud crash. The vehicle failed to clear the ground before turning up on its ascent, and its tail end smashed into a footpath. Lira felt herself lose control as the shuttle recoiled from the impact, first struggling, then failing, and then tumbling violently across the park in a shower of small stones and chipped metal. The airbags failed to deploy in time, whooshing into action only at the height of a particularly dizzying somersault.

After what seemed like an eternity of rolling, she felt a slight nudge as her vehicle slowed to a stop. It had plunged into a row of hedges along one of the park’s borders. Barely conscious, Lira strained through the airbags and tapped the red emergency release button above her, causing the entire canopy to blast off. The balmy park air filtered in and touched her skin, and Lira breathed a painful sigh of relief.

Before she could get out, she heard a familiar voice.

“Fari! Can you hear me?”

It was Callahan, leading three of his men towards the wreckage. They all had their coilguns drawn and trained at their surroundings. Callahan dashed forward and gave Lira a hand as she stumbled her way out of the shuttle.

“Here, hold on. Those damned shells are still coming!” As if to prove his point, Lira saw another stream of shiny cannonballs arcing through the air high up behind Callahan.

“… Cluster Townhall… we need to get there!” Lira panted as she steadied herself against the twisted metal.

“We won’t all fit in our transport, and I’m not leaving any of my men here,” Callahan replied as he stared at the wreck, as if wondering how he can make it fly again.

As he did so —

“Lira!”

Everyone looked up as another shuttle sharply descended, its canopy wide open. Before it could land safely, Xander leapt out from the driver’s seat and started towards Lira. A sharp ping came from his comms bracelet, responding to the wreck’s GPS beacon.

As he ran, his left hand flew towards his jacket pocket. He was about to pull something out when Lira held out her hand to stop him.

“Xander! I’m fine! They helped me.”

Xander stopped in his tracks, facing the nearest VLF soldier. The latter wore a bewildered face, his coilgun still just halfway towards Xander's direction.

"You're slow," Xander smirked that the soldier, who responded with a glare. His hand then slowly eased back into his pocket.

“Well, you’ve got good timing, kid,” Callahan broke the terse air. “But we’ve got places to be, so let’s beat it!”, he barked before sprinting the dozen or so meters back to his group’s vehicles.

Xander’s eyes narrowed as they followed the soldiers. Then, he turned to Lira and cradled her face in his hands. “Are you sure you’re okay?”, he asked as he looked her over.

“Yes! I am... But quick, Vega’s Townhall,” she muttered weakly as she took his arm. “And be careful!”