Kings of Macedonia

When the Coldhearts invaded there was panic, we had been invaded by other races and universes before, but it never gets easier. We all went to our pocket bunkers, and the army took up defensive positions all around the world, but this time it was different. We always lose people if we can't negotiate, and usually they do too, but this time we lost too many. The government never sent the all clear, most people are still in their bunkers.

The government was supposed to tell us when it's safe to return to our normal lives, when the threat is gone. Most times it's fast, in fact it gets faster every time, or it did. For the first year nobody left, we all stayed in the pocket bunkers like good little citizens. But once the year was over, a lot of people started to worry, they never take this long to send the all clear, something must be wrong. And we were right, something was wrong. Even still it took most of us a few more months to decide to go against protocol and leave.

When I first stepped out of the pocket bunker, the air had a strong taste like vanilla, and a smell of vomit. I looked around the house, the ground floor was covered in a thick layer of dust. The portal burned behind me, always so deafeningly loud. When the portal closed and I got out of the house, I finally realized our beloved purple sky was gone. Replaced by the dark and uneasy black flames. It took me so long to concern myself with being able to breath, my mind focused more on cleaning, or studying the flames that had engulfed our sky. Something about the air, changes you. What little gas is left on the planet, the Coldhearts changed it somehow, now our lungs don't need oxygen, (I'd love to get a look at their bio chem labs, but now’s not the time). Perhaps they made it that way so they can kill us themselves.

After ensuring I wouldn't die due to lack of oxygen, I headed to my place of work, Advanced Science Inc. after being locked up in a bunker for so long, and with the all clear still not being sent, I needed to make sure my projects were not stolen, or destroyed. As the top of the building entered my view my first observation was the fact that there was a massive ship attached to the side of the building. A big semicircle made of ice with a massive stone bridge between it and a window one of my coworkers must have left open. Its clear that they did not kill all of the invaders, if i still had mine i would have jumped back into the pocket dimension i had been living in the past year, but capitalism says that these bunkers have to be one use, and you cant have more than one per person.

I turned heel and ran as fast as I could, my family would still be inside their bunkers, I told them to stay there, that I would search for a reason we were still stuck in the bunkers. As I reached the house I looked into my pocket for my comms pad, but it wasn't there. Damn sweat pants must have fallen out while I was running. Finally I had a chance to see what the world had become, no selfish distractions. The culde sac I once called home, reduced to rubble. All the two story houses had been reduced to one room, the safe room. Reinforced to withstand anything we can think of. Then it hit me, Oh god how could this happen, where is the army, why haven’t these monsters been driven back? I did the only thing I could think of, I grabbed my father's shotgun, and I set off for the SafeCo­™ factory, I needed another bunker and comms pad. I stepped into the tube for the transit system, I loudly announced the place I was going, and nothing happened. I said it again.

“SafeCo manufacturing plant 167” I shouted. Nothing. I tried six more times before giving up. As i left the teleportation tube i heard an odd zooming sound, the icy craft flew overhead at a speed that i knew was too fast for flight inside a real atmosphere. Looks like I have to walk to the plant. I walked fifteen miles, by the time I reached the factory it was midnight. You wouldn't think it was because the sky still burned as bright as it was when i had left the house. I pulled open the massive chain link gate. Just passed the gate I saw the factory a massive brick building full of huge smoke stacks, exhuming rings of uranium ash. From the outside it seemed like the factory was still running. But I knew that couldn't be true, all the workers would be inside their bunkers. I had a look around the area, making sure i wouldn't be surprised by the Coldheart. Then it was time to head inside. I grabbed the shotgun off my back, and began walking the parking lot between me and the massive open door in the loading bay. As i climbed up the huge concrete pad I heard the whizzing of the ship fly back over me, I took cover inside as quick as I could, I swear I could feel my heart jumping out of my chest. Then just as quick as it started, the noise stopped. They landed, here. I returned the gun to my hand from my back, and got ready to shoot these bastards to hell. I knew from the public tours that I took my kids to, they keep the completed items on the top floor for testing and QA.

I looked for any kind of stairs, I wanted to keep quiet. If the Coldheart are here then i want to get the jump on them. In the far corner I saw a set of concrete stairs, that's my best bet for a quiet way up. As I reached the top of the stairs I heard muffled voices, they sound familiar, but I need to keep low and quiet. I had never fired this gun before, it had never been a priority. After all, scientists aren't even allowed to handle weapons, for two hundred years this gun has been sitting above the fireplace with nothing but the occasional dusting. I'm just hoping that the old gun will fire. I crouched low to the floor, making as little noise as possible. I rounded a corner and found the QA room. A large room full of one way walls, perfect, I can see who is inside and they can't see me. I peered into the room, inside I saw a Coldheart, a large humanoid creature, searching the bins around it. Inside them is all the tech I need to get to safety. I held my breath waiting for them to leave, until it became clear what it was doing. It grabbed a bunker from the bin, and reached out with it. The beast pushed the button on the bunker opening the portal, then he stepped through, seconds passed and the Coldheart emerged from the portal, with a body over each shoulder, and one in each hand. Blood pouring out of recent wounds in the corpses. He set them down on the floor in a row, head to toe. He pulled a blue stone from a sack he had hanging on his shoulder, and shoved it into one of the bodies. Quickly the body began to freeze over, getting covered in a dark blue ice. As the Coldheart shoved another blue stone into the chest of the next corpse, the first rose from the dead. Covered in ice and barely recognizable as something that was once a human.

Once the rest of them had risen the original one gave them all bags, and signaled for them to follow. They began to leave the room, and just before they reached the door a loud bang rang through the entire building. Voices of soldiers filled the halls, and it was time for me to hide in a better place. I dove into an air vent nearby and waited for everything to pass. As the soldiers moved up the stairs, the Coldhearts took defensive positions at the top. The marching stopped and the voices went quiet. It was almost calm, almost. Then the fighting started, as a scientist it's rare to even hear a weapon go off, much less be so close to the fighting. I heard the soldiers falling, it's hard to take them down, but somehow the Coldhearts did it. As I hid there in that vent, I felt useless, hopeless. How could we survive if the Coldhearts could kill a Shoreman? At that moment I decided to do what I could to help my people. I stepped out of the vent, grabbed my gun, and pointed it at the closest Coldheart. Before I knew it the gun was exerting the heat of the sun out of the barrel, completely melting the closest two Coldhearts.

A pile of water and god knows what else now lay at the feet of four severed legs. Horrified, I fled to the safest place I could find on the floor I stood on. I heard footsteps behind me, one of them was following me. Terrified I picked up my pace, no chance to look back at my pursuer. I had to continue running. I reached the opposite corner of the factory and saw the unmanned craft. Without a second thought I jumped through the window and began pressing buttons randomly. I smashed my hand down onto the console and the craft encased itself in a thick carapace of ice. I turned my head and saw the thing that was chasing me, the top half of a Coldheart lay inside the ice covering the ship, the bottom half nowhere to be seen. I examined the console and on it was a panel of buttons, two holes full of an unknown substance, a spike attached to the panel by a long chord, and a book. I opened the book and it was full of strange runes, some sort of writing. I assumed it was a language, but it could have been anything.

Before I could contemplate the true meaning of the runes another loud explosion interrupted me. This time it struck the craft, I was thrown to the floor. The craft was damaged in some way, and began plummeting to the ground. As it hit the ground it encased me in the same blue ice, keeping me safe from any harm that I could have encountered during the crash.