"The spaceship is about to take off! Final call!" The stewardess announced.
The crowd outside looked on with tearful eyes as they bid farewell to their loved ones.
The ones outside would be leaving in the next batch of flights.
"50% of mars population is already evacuated. With this batch, we'll be crossing the 50% limit."
The announcement by the military officer overseeing this district reached everyone. Contrary to the depressing atmosphere, his voice was cheerful.
But the Martians only felt dismayed at this announcement.
Skyla clenched her fists.
As high general Skad's daughter, she knew the elderly officer who was supervising this district. He was a strict man who rarely smiled.
So, for such a man to be cheerful over this announcement only meant one thing.
'They didn't expect we could pull even this off! Just how dire is the situation? Is father going to be fine?' Skyla's chest tightened as she felt suffocated.
As her heart pounded against her chest, she felt an intense stare and turned her head.
Her husband, who heaven knows when had changed into a military uniform, was waving at her.
Giving her an affectionate smile, he shifted his gaze to her bulging belly.
'Take care of our child.'
He mouthed.
Skyla's eyes widened as she realized what he was going to do.
"No!" She yelled, but under the emergency announcements, her voice was drowned out.
"Stop there!"
A while ago, she volunteered to stay behind, but when her husband was leaving her to fight the abyssals alone, Skyla couldn't take it.
But as the nursing bots injected her with special potions to calm her down and keep the child safe, Skyla realized she couldn't move too much lest she hurt her baby.
So, she could only watch the back of her husband grow distant.
Taking a deep breath, she yelled. "Survive!"
He gave her a thumbs up without turning around and kept walking.
Seeing his confident gait, Skyla finally smiled before her face quickly paled.
Turning to the clouds in the direction of the planetoids, Skyla gazed at the horizon. Her chest suddenly felt constricted as a sense of loss overwhelmed her.
Losing. She was definitely losing something or someone precious to her.
Since her husband's back was vaguely visible and her child was perfectly safe, then…
"Father…" Skyla muttered as she recalled the man who rarely spent time with family due to his missions.
"Father!" Skyla wailed as tears streamed down her cheeks.
She recalled the short but sweet times with her father. Every moment that she cherished.
Skyla's vision blurred and her heart grew heavy with pain. She knew that her father could retreat even from Mirage Queen.
But since he didn't, she felt that he must have sacrificed himself.
He sacrificed himself to save other families and orphaned his own family.
"Why?" Skyla bit her lip. "It's not fair."
Skyla touched her protruding belly as she felt the life in her stomach. Caressing it with a bitter smile, she said. "You promised you'd see him. Is this how you break promises?"
It was then that an eerie chuckle reached her ears, including everyone with her.
"Hahaha! Mars! Humanity's extinction will begin with you!"
Hearing that beautiful voice utter those chilling words, Skyla felt a shiver run down her spine.
She held her stomach in a protective gesture instinctively while looking out of the window.
Despite being a level 6, she couldn't spot anyone in the clouds. But a depressing atmosphere spread across mars.
It's as if it was the planet was feeling something ominous. Even the air started to feel heavy.
"Could it be…" Skyla's face paled like it was drained of all blood.
As if confirming her suspicions, a chuckle reached the minds of the three billion Martians at the same time.
"This Queen will end your pathetic lives once and for all."
Skyla guarded her unborn child as she glared at the invisible enemy.
She was relatively calm. But most people weren't. They panicked, caused a ruckus, and started running for their lives.
The order that was hard maintained by the military broke down and mars descended into chaos.
"Sir, what do we do?" A young man in his late twenties, one of the military officers tasked with overseeing a district's evacuation, asked his superiors through comm.
"…Pray."
"Sir?" Even though he knew this was a dangerous mission, the man felt a lump stuck in his throat at those words.
"Pray, Sergeant. Whatever we could've done, we have. Now, we can only pray for a miracle."
"I…" The young man opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. The corner of his eyes turned wet, but he quickly rubbed the tears away before they could even form.
Taking a deep breath, the man straightened his back and his eyes shone with a resolute gaze.
"Sir, please tell my son…tell him that I'm sorry for not being there for him. Tell him that I love him. T-Tell that to my one-year-old son when he grows up. C-Can you do that, Sir? I don't want him to hate me."
"I will, even if it's the last thing I can do." The voice on the other side of the comm sighed. Then, in a tone filled with sincerity and respect, it said. "It's an honor working with you, Alreigh."
"The honor is mine, Sir." Alreigh ended the call and looked around.
The crowd was causing a ruckus as they recklessly ran, fought, and screamed.
Alreigh narrowed his eyes and a gravity wave rippled from him and washed over the crowd.
Suddenly, everyone froze in their tracks.
"The chances of survival aren't zero. But if any one of you moves, I'll leave you behind and you'll surely die. So, follow my instructions. Do I make myself clear?"
The crowd was still shocked at the heavy gravity binding their feet. When they heard the cold and cruel words of the officer, they subconsciously replied.
"Yes!"
Alreigh nodded and led the crowd into spaceships one by one.
Not all spaceships flew out of mars, some went to spaceports where the people went to other planets using teleportation formations.
Even though the teleportation formations were already under tremendous pressure, Alreigh decided to send as many people as he could.
As he took four spaceships and reached the overcrowded spaceport where more than a million people were already vying for teleportation formations, an ominous chuckle reverberated across mars.
"Enjoy your last two minutes."
