Leo was becoming more afraid that he has ever been in his life. The chaos that ensued in the town was so disturbing. First in the orphanage compound, there were about 30 people running madly into the shelter of their rooms. Dust erupted in the air as hurried feet moved against the floor. Everybody was screaming. Still, Leo couldn't see what was happening yet.
He rose from the floor and hit the door with his fists, calling on the seniors to open the door for him. But there was no move from the seniors. They were too scared to move even close to the door anymore. They had bundled themselves into a corner in the laundry room, cowering in fear.
Leo gave up banging the door and turned to run towards his own room. But the distance between here and his room was too long that he feared whatever was scaring the people will catch up with him before he got to his room. But he still ran anyway.
The dust in the air was so thick that he couldn't see more than a few metres ahead of him. He turned and twisted around different people, pushing and shoving when needs be. There were too many people in the compound. He didn't even know the orphanage accommodated that many people.
Halfway to the building where the shelter rooms were, he bumped hard against another figure that was running directly at him. He couldn't see he person properly because of the dust, hence the collision. The person was obviously a stronger one because Leo flew back a few inches due to the impact and landed with a loud thud on his back. The person only grunted and continued running the opposite way.
It was only when Leo tried to get up he saw what the threat actually was...
The day has suddenly grown brighter, and despite the thick dust, Leo could see it. It was coming down against them. It grew bigger with every passing second, and in little time, it was going to hit.
It was the red comet.
Well, that was what they thought the fiery ball in the sky was. But it wasn't actually a comet. It was a weapon.
A nuclear weapon has been launched on Earth by the Xollantes.
The fire fast approaching was now too close for Leo to do anything again. He only stood up from the ground and watched it drop. The ball of fire was too big to be true. Leo shied his eyes away from the bright glow. It was brighter than the worst afternoon sun.
"We are all dead," Leo said to himself. He was the only person still outside in the compound now. He closed his eyes and calculated the number of seconds remaining for the impact.
10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...
"Luxus warned me. I have failed Earth."
The ding sound came at the last minute in Leo's head.
2...1...
Bang!
It was too loud for the ears.
The world erupted.
***
Meanwhile, at the base of the Earth's Guardians, everyone was hyper active. Space pilots could be seen running about, gearing up and preparing to clamber into their space ships to take on the new threat that has been sighted close to Earth's atmosphere.
All space ships became fine tuned and about a thousand space pilots rushed out from their lodge to handle the ships. The large ship field was crowded both with pilots and air commanders and the ship controllers with their luminous baton waved wildly above them to signify take off. A thousand space ship was on the field. A thousand space ship was revved to life, and with the wave of the luminous baton, the ships all rose at once, shaking the ground with their immense take-off impact.
After the last of the ships was no longer seen in the sky, the Earth's space commander hurried into the base building. He was furious and obviously shaken. The captains and lieutenants rushed off after him. Together they all went into the control room.
"Never have I ever, in my entire life, experienced this kind of shock. How was this supposed to happen? What does this even mean?"
He was asking no one in particular, but even if he were, his captains and lieutenants have no answer to that. They were as surprised and shaken as much as the commander.
The control room was a very large space located at the 53rd floor of the 60 floors high skyscraper. The skyscraper was a massive sight to behold. It is so high with 60 floors and as wide as a standard sport stadium. The control room was filled with various machines lined at every available corner of the room. There was always constant beeping noise inside the room as experienced tech men and women inputs and receives information to and from other heavenly bodies. This was the power house of the Earth Guardians.
"I know I have asked this before, but can you signal-receiving fools tell me how we have the Xollante ships so close to us and we never noticed?"
Nobody spoke. Everybody in the control room was now concentrating on the screen before them, trying not to look in the commander's eyes. But he raged the more.
A man who seemed to be the leader of the control room tried to explain.
"We had a signal from our space allies, the planet Luxus that was sent many years ago. But due to whatever reason they may have, it didn't reach Earth at the predicted time. We only got to know of it five days ago after the Xollantes are close enough to catch us off guard."
"And you think that excuse will cut it out for me? The whole planet is in doom right now and you're acting cool, telling me you had no information... If you didn't receive the signals from Luxus, what about our own space detectors?! Didn't we launch one into space ten years ago?!"
"Well, sir... The Xollantes are millions of light years away, and our detectors can only scan as far as planet Yortiza which is a few light years farther than Luxus. We have absolutely detected nothing sir."
The commander was more furious that ever. "If they are millions of light years away, how did they get here so fast?!"
"They must have built faster and more advanced space ships since their war against planet Parallax..."
Just then, a loud beeping sound erupted in the control room. A female tech expert whose name was Lyn rushed to her space and wore her hi-tech headset. Right before her, she could see what remained of the one thousand space ships that was sent against the Xollantes. It has been reduced to a few hundreds and more was crashing even as she looked on. The Xollante's ships was too powerful for them.
Then she saw another object moving at a high speed into their atmosphere. It was a very large ball of fire sent by the Xollantes. Instantly, Lyn yanked the headset off her head and bowed her head in despair. She knows what is happening now and everyone in the room has a rough idea of what is happening.
The Xollantes has stopped attacking the Earth's space ships, and they are attacking Earth itself.
The beeping noise persisted and it grew louder by the second. A system voice in the control room raised a warning signal:
[Another incoming threat observed]
[Incoming threat approaching Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 500km/minute]
[Threat terminator cannot stop this weapon]
[Earth's threat terminator 1 has been breached]
[Earth's threat terminator 2 has been breached]
[Incoming threat approaching faster at a speed of 620km/minute]
[Earth's threat terminator 3 has been breached]
[Incoming threat speed has reduced to 350km/minute]
[Incoming threat has breached the Earth's atmosphere]
[Speed grows]
[Impact in 30 minutes...]
[impact in 30 seconds...]
[Brace for impact]
The world erupted.