Reach was a diverse place to live in. There were few big cities, lots of forest areas and plenty of military activity all across the planet. A person could live a full life here without needing much else, especially for a military family.

"Why can't you just be a parent?"

Or not.

A young girl quietly snuck out of a modest home where her parents continued to scream at each other. She wore a pair of purple capris, a lavender floral print blouse and a hooded jacket to protect her from the sun. The girl tucked her raven bangs behind her ears and began to walk to the nearest park.

"Are you okay, Cassy?" a voice chimed from her wrist and she looked down at a watch-like bracelet. It looked like a fitness bracelet from decades ago, but this was a device meant for raising monsters called Digimon. Currently, a little hedgehog looking Digimon looked concerned at her from it's device home.

"Yeah, I just need to get away from it all," she said, reaching the park quickly and finding it empty. She decided to take a seat at the swings. "I wished they'd just get divorced and be happy. It's obvious they hate each other, Herrismon."

"But they did love each other at one point, right?"

"I guess..." Cassy sighed. She couldn't remember a time her parents didn't yell at each other for little and big things. Today's argument started because her mom forgot to pick her and her older brother up from school again and their dad saw them walking home. Her brother had immediately gone to a friend's house, leaving Cassy behind to whiteness the fall out. She was only ten years old and already she was having to do things on her own because everyone else were too busy to notice her.

"Hey, do you wanna play in Floatia?" Herrismon suggested.

"Yeah, I miss-"

A warning siren sounded, cutting Cassy off. Several distant booms made her look up.

"What's going on?"

"The Covenant...they're here!" She jumped up and began running back to her house, passing by other people stepping out of their homes to see what caused the alarm to sound.

"Where are you going? You can jump in the nearest terminal and be safe that way!"

"I need to make sure my family is safe!" she rounded a corner and found her father had already gone on his way to his battle station and her mother getting their bug-out bags in the car.

"Cassandra! Oh thank God!" her mother said as she hurried up to the car to get in. "Let's go get your brother!"

"Waiting on you," she climbed in the back seat and buckled up. Soon they were driving to the house her brother was supposed to be at, but found it empty. "They probably went ahead of us."

"Yeah...yeah, let's hurry to the evacuation point," her mother maneuvered the car to get them on the right path to the nearest space port. The older woman had tried the COMMs channel and only got static; any line of communication was a bust. They fell silent as they zoomed along the highway with only her Digi-Bracelet beeping once. "What was that?"

"Just my Digimon," Cassy gave Herrismon a 'be quiet' gesture. "He's just worried-"

The world flipped and Cassy jerked in her seat as the belt held her down. The next thing she knew, she was hanging upside-down and her mother was crawling out of the car. The older woman took one look at her, Cassy staring back at her, and ran away from the scene. She tried to call out to her, but a coughing fit prevented her from speaking.

"Cassy!" Herrismon called out several times until she finally got out of the seat belt and crashed into the roof of the wrecked car. "Are you okay? That was crazy!"

"I'm okay." She crawled out of the vehicle and looked at the chaos ensuing around her. People were running on foot; no cars were moving on the road.

"Did that lady just leave her kid?" She noticed several people nearby, standing there shocked at what they just saw earlier. One person, a young man, rushed up to her and asked, "Are you okay there?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, come on! You can follow us." He took her hand and began to tug her to his group, a couple of young adults that were just as concerned about her as their friend.

"Hold on! I need to grab my bag!"

"Where is it at?" he let go of her hand.

"In the back seat." She turned back to the car, but the man surprised her by grabbing all four bags from the wreckage and handing her her bag. All four bags were military standard rucksacks and each were marked with different colored ribbons to indicate which bag belonged to whom. "Thanks!"

"Alright, let's go!" He lead her to his group of friends, handed the other bags to two other members. One of the the ladies of the group grabbed Cassy's hand and they all began to hurry towards the nearest space port. The group of adults kept her in the middle, doing their best to protect her from being trampled and to stay together. "Oh God!"

An explosion rocked the street and in the distance they saw a plum of smoke rise up over the buildings.

"That was the port!" cried out someone. Bolts of blue light began to rain down on everyone in the streets and the Covenant made themselves known.

Cassandra was pushed to the wall of the nearest building and she slumped to the ground. She watched in horror as armored aliens gunned down people indiscriminately.

"Cassy!" Herrismon shouted at her. "Find a terminal!"

She looked and found an active screen just five feet to her left. She scrambled to her feet, held out her bracelet and jumped into the digital network just as a plasma bolt struck her left shoulder. Data flew by her in a chaotic mess with nebulas of light blossoming in and out of existence, unlike the many times before when she made a 'dive'.

"Herrismon!" She cried out, trying to find her partner.

"Cassy," her partner flew at her and latched on to her right side. "Hold on! There are too many Slipspace ruptures opening!"

They flew around, avoiding ruptures and trying to find the Digital World. They couldn't find communication lines with how bad things were becoming.

"Oh no!" They cried out when a rupture opened right in front of them. It was too close for them to avoid and they flew through the rupture.

Cassandra was violently ejected out of the network and she was flung across a metal room. She slammed into something and struggled to stay conscious. Voices shouted around her. Someone doused her with a fire extinguisher. It didn't take long for her to completely black out after that.