Cassidy stepped off the bus into the sunlight. She turned to the bus driver standing at her side 'what time is it?' the driver looked at his wrist. 'Noon' he replied she nodded and surveyed her surroundings. She recognized the town as Arim, a town her family had been to a few times in the past. She started to walk to the bus when the driver called to her 'make sure your back in a few hours so we can get going.' She waved to him as she continued to walk.

She strolled through the town looking at everything, taking every detail in. The small birds flying to and from, the smell of people cooking out in the open, all of it was so familiar to her. She looked at a building to her right. It was a large government building her parents often went to while here and she realized where she was. She took off at a sprint running down the street. As she ran she saw people going on with there lives, oblivious that there was something coming to Atargatis.

She came to the end of the street and took a sharp right at the corner and stopped. In front of her was a huge metal gate and beyond it were large grassy hills with people milling around on them. She looked up to stare at the gate. A top the gate sat the name Arim Park. She had been here before with Kav when they wanted to get away from their parents while they went to that boring government building.

She rushed into the park and silently walked the laid out path. She passed by a pond with people swimming in it. A memory of her and Kav swimming in the same pond entered her head.

She shook her head to clear it of the memory. She continued on passing a family that was sitting on a blanket eating some food. She watched the family for a moment and the little girl that was sitting on the blanket waved. Without waving back, she continued on her walk. The path made a right and she followed it and came to a green bench.

Another memory entered her head. While at this park, when she was just eight and Kav was eleven. A boy, older then Cassidy stole her doll and Kav sat her on this bench and told her to stay there. Kav then ran off and five minutes later came back with her doll in his hand and a black ring around his left eye. She leapt from the bench and hugged him for what seemed for hours.

The memory was too much and she sat down on the bench and started to cry. A couple passed in front of her and was about to ask her what was wrong when a screech shattered the sound of sobs. Cassidy clamped her hands to her ears again and awaited the blackout. It never came. She was shocked to see that the couple in front of her had their hands to their ears as well. When the screech subsided, she looked to the couple 'you heard that too right?' she asked and the couple nodded.

All hell broke those in a matter of seconds after that screech.

Cassidy stood up as she heard an inhumane screech. This was not the same screech as before but it was similar. Across the park she watched as people crested hills in full flight. Some tripped and tumbled down the hills. Some got up, some laid motionless at the bottom of the hills. 'What are they running from?' she questioned aloud.

Her question was answered as multiple insect looking organisms crested the hill in pursuit of the fleeing people. 'Emperor's blood' she whispered. The tyranids were here.

She pulled the las-pistol from her pants and began to retrace the path to the gate. While running, she noticed the couple was following her. 'Keep up' she yelled at them. She ran down the path at full speed looking in both directions watching for stalking bugs. She passed the blanket the family had been eating on moments ago and now it was covered in blood. She looked a little farther from the blanket and spotted the body of the young girl face down in the grass. She suppressed a gasp and kept running as fast as her legs would carry her.

She passed the pond and heard a shriek from behind. She turned and watched as bug half the size of a human tackled into the girl following her. The bug and women tumbled into a heap of flesh and carapace. The guy yelled in anger and charged the bug. As he reached the tussling pair, a second bug crested the hill next to them and slammed full speed into him. Cassidy heard a sick snap as the bug collided with the man and she watched as the man and bug went tumbling into the pond. By that time the women was dead, she had been split open from her left collarbone to the right side of her pelvis. That same bug now charged Cassidy and she screamed and fired her pistol. The first shot went wild soaring over the tyranid's shoulder. She fired four more shots. The first missed again the others burned into the creature's armor shell. Still it charged, She repetitively fired and finally it went down at her feet. Holes dotted the entire front of the body.

Gasping for air and filled with adrenaline she sped off to the gate. She reached it just in time as more bugs flooded into the park. She was about to run into the street but she stopped. They were everywhere, the tyranids were on the street killing everyone that they came across. They were on and in the buildings. She witnessed a man jumping from his third story window to escape the bugs and to die smashing into the ground. We are landing at a town farther away from the capital. The man's words entered her head and she wished he would of been more specific as to which town they were landing. A screech from the park told her it was time to get to the bus. She ran as fast as she could, ignoring the scenes of death everywhere. Limbs were scattered everywhere in the streets, numerous bodies littered the street as well with an assortment of fatal wounds. She turned to go down the street she originally came from and a bug leapt at her. She raised and fired the pistol with speed she never knew she had. The shot burrowed into the tyranid's skull and it smashed into the ground. A thought entered her head, where were the PDF forces? If on cue gunfire echoed from what sounded like a few blocks away. The gunfire continued for a few seconds before stopping. She knew that was a bad sign and pushed herself to move faster.

Finally, the bus was in sight, the driver in the seat waving to her. She was going to make. A few thunderous footsteps sounded near her. A large black and red beetle slammed into the bus. Using its large blades, it flung the bus as if it weighed nothing. The bus smashed into a building and exploded.

She froze on spot. Her bus was just destroyed, her only means of getting to the next town and probably salvation. In the smoke, she saw the silhouette of the giant beetle. She pointed her pistol at it and opened fire on it. She kept firing until the gun was overheated and refused to fire. The beetle burst from the smoke roaring in rage. Its monstrous legs ate up the space between her and it.

Here is where I will die, she thought.

Suddenly she heard a new sound. Shrieks pierced her hearing but she noticed these were different from the bug's screech. Objects blew by her and slammed into the giant bug engulfing it in explosions. Overhead she heard multiple roars but she could not see what made the sound because of the smoke.

Gunfire suddenly deafened her ears and figures burst from the smoke overhead and gracefully landed on the ground and continued to fire. The large bug screamed in pain as chunks of meat exploded from it. It let out one last mighty roar and collapsed into a heap in the middle of the street.

As quickly as the figures arrived they disappeared, darting into the smoke. She stood in the smoke not certain as to what just happened. A breeze swept into the town and the smoke went with it. Standing across from Cassidy were two figures in gray armor. One carried a long spear and had his brown hair pulled into a long ponytail. The other bared crackling claws on each fist, his hair was black and cropped short. The two were caught up in a conversation. Cassidy tried to call out but could not find her voice so instead she ran to the giants in gray armor with a wolfs head on their shoulders.