Junebug swept the barrel of her rifle back and forth through the head of hologram experimentally. The picture shimmered slightly but showed no other sign of having noticed. York was looking at Neil with an expression she couldn’t read but didn’t seem to her to bode very well. Everyone else seemed frozen by the unexpected turn of events.

“What happened to the men who vanished?” Junebug asked, walking in a circle around the alien projection. No matter what angle she assumed it seemed to be facing directly at her but there was no transition whatsoever. 

“All non essential querants are to be terminated,” the hologram responded. Junebug glanced to Woods who looked grim but clearly hadn’t expected any other answer.

“Are we in danger now?” Junebug asked.

“All non essential querants are to be terminated,” the hologram repeated.

“Can N...er ‘the chosen one’ deem us essential querants?” Junebug asked.

“That is not the function of the chosen one. That functionality is not essential.”

“Why  do you…” the hologram flickered and vanished and the whole building shuddered. Dust rained down from the ceiling. A second later another hammerblow struck the structure.

“That’s orbital bombardment,” York noted, he rubbed at his chest and cast an irritated glance at Neil. The Chacedon ships must have either destroyed the November Sky or driven it back into the RIP long enough to resume their attack. The shield that had held the Terran’s off must have been immensely strong to prevent them from being instantly obliterated. Junebug didn’t want to think about what that meant for the Highlander right now.

“Neil, whatever the fuck you need to do we need to do it now,” she snapped grabbing Taya by the shoulder and pulling her away from the pilot. Seconds mattered right now and she couldn’t afford to waste valuable seconds calming the girl down.

“Wait just a min…” York began but Junebug had nonchalantly swung her weapon to bear on the spook. She didn’t make a point of it but it was obvious that the Terran recognised the threat.

“Not a discussion,” she said in a voice that held no more warmth than a blizzard. Woods and her surviving two marines shifted uncomfortably. Saxon raised his arm and Sven seemed to produce a knife from nowhere. It still wouldn’t have been great odds. Sayeeda was confident she could put down York but the angle would preclude her from taking any of the remaining three Terrans. It was possible that Saxon and Sven would put them down, but it was vanishingly unlikely they would manage it before the chamber was filled with an unsurvivable amount of gunfire. Another tremor shook the building, this one was worse than the last by orders of magnitude.

“Its not the Chacedons,” Neil said unexpectedly. Everyone paused and looked at the pilot whose eyes were very wide.

“Its starting to wake up.”