Date: October 17, 2045, Time: 05:45 UTC
The world was paralyzed. Country leaders froze in the face of the scale and speed of the assault. Others did not want to believe there had been an invasion. And still others gave conflicting orders, paralyzing their militaries in a bureaucratic and disbelief-fueled haze. The chain of command fractured. By the time they made decisions, it was already too late.
Date: October 17, 2045, Time: 06:30 UTC
Air forces on every continent took to the sky. Squadrons of fighter jets, bombers, and drones crowded the airspace, straining to mount a defense. But the Vexari ships prowled like predators – deadly silent, ominous, untouchable. Military weapons against invisible shields. Jets were cut in two by beams of plasma. Pilots screamed into dead radios.
Date: October 17, 2045, Time: 07:00 UTC
The slaughter began. Cities turned into graveyards. People fled through streets clogged with smoke and debris. Some tried to hide. Others fought back, creating resistance cells in basements and alleyways. They committed to fight to the death. And they did.
Date: October 17, 2045, Time: 08:20 UTC
Those who did not were overrun. Vexari hunters were quick, too fast, too inhuman as they ripped surviving defenders with energy restraints and pulled them towards containment vessels. The braves were not spared. Their defiance was recorded, logged, and became the basis of selecting subsequent runners.
Date: October 17, 2045, Time: 09:50 UTC
Others ran into forests, tunnels, and ruins. They'd somehow escaped the first wave, but the Vexari were relentless. Drones scanned heat signatures. Runners were trapped, dazed, and captured. The capture was no accident — it was curated. They wanted the elusive, the cunning, those who wouldn't die easily.
Date: October 17, 2045, Time: 11:00 UTC
Military bases fell. The combatants fought gallantly, but their methods were antiquated. EMP blasts shut down tanks. The gravity fields picked soldiers up and slammed them down, unconscious. Entire battalions vanished. The Vexari had taken them as if they were trophies.
Date: October 17, 2045, Time: 15:00 UTC
Haruki was captured after successfully fighting back in a metal suit he engineered against military regulations. He had tried to disappear into a collapsed building, and in a scorched suit and broken helmets.
Date: October 17, 2045, Time: 23:59 UTC
The invasion ended. Earth's infrastructure collapsed. Power grids failed. Satellites were gone. Governments dissolved. Corpses remained on the streets, unattended. The world was silent.
Period: October 18, 2045 - October 18, 2047
The Vexari scourged the planet for two years. They scavenged survivors and chose the strong. Stasis pods filled the skies. The weak had been discarded. The captured were recorded, sorted, and made ready for the hunt that would take place over 200 years later. Certain parts of the continents would be cultivated and transformed into ranches. At the end, Earth wasn't a planet anymore. It was a farm. And the runners were ready.