Ai-dan clutched the child to his chest and ran into one of the small abandoned shops lining the street and ducked behind the counter. Just in time too, the huge spider mech came crunching around the corner. He peeked under the blanket again, just to reassure himself what he saw in the incubation farm was real. The little girl smiled up at him and cooed. Instantly Mir-rand turned toward the shop.

“You can not run Ai-dan.” Came the translated voice of Mir-rand, the Cooterite war coordinator, over the mech’s loudspeakers. “This is our city. You and everything in it belongs to us! Give back what you stole and we will make your end quick, Ai-dan.”

At least she didn’t lie and tell him that they’d let him live. Not after this. A new female hadn’t been born in centuries. Ai-dan didn’t know what he’d do with the child, where he thought he’d escape to, but when he saw her he knew he had to escape!

Ai-dan prepared to run. He peeked over the counter just in time to see Mir-rand crashing through the front of the store.