The sky over Meridian City had never burned before.
Not like this.
At exactly 02:17 local time, the stars fractured.
To most humans, it looked like a meteor shower — bright streaks tearing across the heavens, vanishing behind clouds and mountains. Social media would later call it beautiful. Scientists would call it impossible. Governments would call emergency meetings and lock their doors.
But to the FALLEN, it was the sound of defeat screaming through the atmosphere.
Commander Orion Vale felt the hull tear apart beneath him.
Alarms howled in a language long forgotten by Earth, red glyphs flashing across shattered screens. Gravity failed. Fire bloomed where oxygen still clung to life. The command ship — once a crown jewel of the Virex Armada — was now a dying beast plummeting toward an uncharted world.
"Structural collapse at eighty percent," a broken voice announced.
Orion tightened his grip on the crash harness. His armor was cracked, scorched black where enemy plasma had kissed it moments earlier. Around him, his people — what little remained of them — clung to survival.
They had lost.
Not the battle.
The war.
"For the last time," Orion ordered, voice steady despite the chaos, "kill all transmissions. No signals. No trails."
A young technician hesitated. "Commander… if we don't send something, we may never be found."
Orion's eyes burned silver beneath his helmet.
"That," he said quietly, "is the point."
The enemy did not conquer.
They erased.
The ship broke apart before reaching the ground.
Escape pods scattered like seeds across continents — forests, oceans, deserts, cities. Each pod carried a FALLEN warrior, scientist, or child. Each pod buried itself deep into Earth's skin.
And then… silence.
Three days later.
The FALLEN hid.
Their technology — far beyond anything Earth possessed — allowed them to cloak, to mimic, to adapt. Injured and low on power, they did what their enemy would never expect.
They became ghosts.
Among humans.
They took on human forms, learned human languages, studied human fear and hope. Some hid in slums. Others in forests. A few, dangerously close to power, slipped into cities and governments.
Commander Orion chose the hardest path of all.
He walked openly.
Not as an alien.
But as a man.
Lucas Reed was late for work.
Again.
He sprinted through the empty streets, backpack bouncing against his shoulders, breath fogging in the cool morning air. The city was waking slowly — vendors setting up stalls, minibuses honking, radios buzzing with static-filled news.
Every station talked about the same thing.
Strange lights.
Unidentified objects.
No confirmed threat.
Lucas skidded to a stop when he saw the man standing in the alley.
Tall. Too still.
He wore a long grey coat despite the heat, his eyes sharp and searching like someone listening to a sound no one else could hear.
"You okay, man?" Lucas asked.
The stranger turned.
For a split second, Lucas felt something twist inside his chest — like standing too close to lightning.
"I am," the man replied.
His accent didn't belong anywhere.
"My name is Orion."
Lucas nodded awkwardly. "Cool. Uh… welcome here?"
Orion studied him. "This planet," he said slowly, "does not know what is coming."
Lucas laughed nervously. "Yeah, well — neither do we most days."
Orion's gaze softened.
That worried him more than anything.
Across the galaxy, far beyond Earth's fragile stars, a massive structure drifted through the void.
The Obsidian Seat.
Within it, a thousand screens lit up at once.
A signal.
Old.
Broken.
FALLEN.
The chamber fell silent as the enemy leader rose from his seat — a towering figure wrapped in living armor, eyes glowing with cold purpose.
"So," he said, voice echoing like a grave closing shut, "they survived."
A commander stepped forward. "The signal originated from a Class-M planet. Primitive. Human."
The leader smiled.
"Set a course," he ordered.
Then, after a pause:
"Send them a message."
The skies above Earth darkened.
Satellites failed.
Oceans stirred.
And every radio frequency on the planet screamed with the same translated words:
"SURRENDER THE FALLEN."
"OR FACE EXTINCTION."
Lucas dropped his phone.
Orion closed his eyes.
The war had found them.
And Earth was no longer neutral.