Excerpt from Moving the Pieces

The first warning they had was the general alarm.WARNING, BRUSTEN IS UNDER ASSAULT. DEMONIC FORCES AT LEAST TWENTY FIFTHS IN NUMBERS HAVE GATED ONTO THE PLANETARY SURFACE. MOST SEEM TO HAVE ARRIVED IN AREAS NEARBY BUT OUTSIDE MAJOR CITIES. SPACEBORNE UNITS ARE ENGAGED, PLANETARY SURFACE UNITS ARE RESPONDING TO INCURSIONS BUT ARE SIGNIFICANTLY OUTNUMBERED. EXPECT TO BE ON YOUR OWN FOR AT LEAST THREE HOURS. ARM YOURSELVES AND SHARE INFORMATION. STAY ALIVE!Masson was an agricultural tender, so his family lived far from the Brusten's major cities. It wasn't an onerous job, in the sense of the farmer from time immemorial, but it required he be present to supervise and repair the automata and monitor the pests and the output. With converters supplying most food, agriculture of any kind was a legacy serving those with extra money to spend, so it was moderately lucrative.He paid close attention to the alert, so he wasn't alarmed until his northern fence was trampled under and monitors showed thousands of manesi swarming over the property line in utter disregard for his crops - except to eat them as they trampled over what they left. Then suddenly his datalink was saturated with warnings of anomalous activity, which in this case meant misshapen hippo-sized omnivorous demons roaming his fields and eating his crops and everything else in utter disregard for his property. His defense drones, meant to defend the crops against animal intruders, were swiftly shot out of the sky.Not that he had pinned any hopes for self-defense on the drones. He grabbed his two children out of bed and forced his wife Lamira to abandon her duties shepherding the weather for the region and head for the portal. "'Mira, we need to run!""I know! I'm just making sure the invasion alerts have triggered!""You can do that from your datalink! Let's go!"They ran out of the house for the portal, only a few steps distant. Before they could step through, however, power died."What now?" his son asked."The hauler! It's just around the corner of the barn!" He picked up his daughter to run, but before they got there, four of the huge asymmetrical demons rounded the very corner they were headed for.The children screamed, but it did them no good.Mouths full of jagged triangular teeth gaped in front of them.