The Sun Dwellers

A platoon of red-uniformed men was seen just outside of subchapter 32…

The shot fired appears to have been a warning shot, but subchapter 14 citizens have been warned to stay indoors, as far underground as possible…

She stacks the unread reports in a neat pile on the corner of her stone desk, closes her eyes, wonders whether she’s made a horrible mistake in sending her daughter on such a low-odds mission. You had no choice, she reminds herself. Everything is as it was meant to be, as it was pla

She’d never heard from the First Lady after that day. Then came the reports from the Sun Realm that President Nailin’s wife had disappeared mysteriously. Although she was glad the hooded woman had not returned to her abusive husband, she was somewhat surprised that she’d left her two sons behind, in the care of a madman. For a moment she wonders where the First Lady is now.

A knock on her door snaps her out of her thoughts. “Come in,” A

General Ross enters, his typically stolid face grim. His dark skin is like a shadow in the dim lighting. “Have you seen the latest reports?”

“I skimmed them,” she admits, waving at the pile on her desk. “But that’s all it took to get the picture. We’re screwed.”

“I’d consider tweaking that speech before you address your soldiers,” he says, his flat face hiding the joke.

She smiles, despite herself. Ever since the star dwellers generals were released from the President’s threat on the lives of their families they were growing on her. General Ross in particular.

“All we have to do is hold them off long enough for your daughter to come through for us. Without their leader, they’ll retreat. There’ll be chaos. We’ll be able to take advantage of it.”

She nods. “I know. Adele will come through. They all will.” But there may not be a Moon Realm left to fight for when they do.

A

Chapter Two

The eve of the Sun Festival brings dark thoughts for her. Earlier, President Nailin made an a

Her theory: better not to complicate things. For all she knew, the Festival would be cancelled and it would have no bearing on the mission, and even if it weren’t cancelled, it might benefit them by way of a distraction. As they agreed, Trevor will tell them all of that. It’s the same thing she would have told them beforehand.

But she could have just told them, so they were fully prepared.

Better not to worry them.

Should’ve told them.

Don’t complicate things.

Either way, she reminds herself, you can’t change things now. You have to trust they’ll adapt on the fly. They will.

Another distant Boom! shakes her bed, where she lies not to sleep, but to think. Despite the barricades and tripwire, it took less than an hour for the sun dweller army to infiltrate subchapter 1 of the Moon Realm, allowing them to wheel in their launchers and begin the assault. The bombing’s been nonstop for more than two hours.

There will be no sleep tonight.

Not for the Resistance, not for the moon dweller troops, not for the thousands of elderly, children, and disabled i

She closes her eyes and says a silent prayer, for the Moon Realm and for Adele.

Chapter Three

The bombing stops at two in the morning. The silence is loud and thick and rings in General Rose’s ears. She waits ten minutes to confirm that it’s not just a normal lull before another round. The rough whispers of hundreds of soldiers paint through the stale bunker air like an artist’s brush. The messages are obvious: eagerness, worry, determination, fear.

“What do you think it means?” the young woman beside her asks.

A

“They wouldn’t stop unless they had other plans,” A

“You think they’re coming on foot?” Maia asks.

“I don’t want to speculate,” she says, picking up the phone that’s bolted to the brown bunker wall. “General Suzuki? What’s the status in subchapter twenty-four?”

The answer crackles through her headset: The bombing has stopped.

“Do we have eyes on the borders?” she asks.

It’s too soon.

“Okay. I’ll call you if I have anything.”

Slipping the phone back into place, she says, “The bombing has stopped everywhere. We need a visual on the borders.”

“I’ll go,” Maia says without hesitation.

“No,” A

“But you’re the general.”

“Exactly. Stay here.”

“I’m coming with you,” Maia says, her voice firm.

A

As they make their way to the thick iron door that separates the bunker from the outside subchapter, A