48 New life at the end? (2/2)

The palace shakes another time. Seems like the automatic defence against long range weaponry works.

The door opens and Drem enters the room. ”Your majesties! You have to evacuate! An army suddenly appeared in the city and started to employ long range weaponry. The palace's shield isn't able to stop that for very long.”

”How many?” -Me

”At least ten thousand my king! They are marching in this direction. Our army is completely out of place. We can't stop them before they take the palace down.” Drem says with an urgent voice.

”Leave the palace with everyone you can find and retreat to safety. I will teleport my family out of here and join you later.” -Me

Drem nods and runs out of the room. ”I will go too. I need my generals.” Arthur turns to leave.

”Stop! Are they inside the palace?” I stop him.

”No? It's late they are at their homes for sure. We didn't expect this at all.” -Arthur

I give the baby to Celes and heave her out of the bed.

”Then it's better if you leave with us. It would be stupid to collect at a point where the enemy already has a strong foothold. We give them the palace, it's just a stupid building.”

Another explosion shakes the palace and a little dust is coming from the ceiling. It's time to get out of here!

I teleport Celes and the healer, just to immediately return. Next are Ireth and Katrine. On my third trip I take Rose and Arthur.

When I reappear for the third time to get Nicosar, I am in the air..... falling! ”Stone Skin!” I experience a second of weightlessness and impact on the ground. ”Ouf!”

I get to my knees and see that everything is in ruins. Apparently the shield was broken and the private part of the palace was targeted first! ”Nicosar!”

No answer! I turn around and can see a hand under the rubble. A swipe of my hand frees the geezer, who is already half healed up again, while the mist is reforming his body.

I grab him at the neck and teleport just a moment before another white ball curves down on our position.

When I reappear, I drop Nicosar to the ground. ”Where are we?” I hear Arthur's voice. ”It's dark, I can't see!” -Ireth

”Light!” I speak the command and the room is bathed in light. ”You are in my research lab. It's the safest place I could think of.”

”Safe? Wouldn't they attack the vital installations first?” Arthur is shocked. I run up to a console and hit a button.

The face of a technician appears on the screen. ”Your majesty! We already wanted to contact you, but the communication line into the city was cut. A few people tried to gain access to the facility. The guards dealt with them. We didn't leave our posts because we feared to leave the installation understaffed.”

”Good work. Man the control room. Power up all systems. The City is under attack.” I cut the line before he can answer.

”I need to get to our military.” Arthur stops me. ”If you can tell me where they are likely to gather, I'll teleport you there. Otherwise you stay put.” My answer baffles him and I walk past him and out of the room.

The whole facility starts to wake up and people run past me along the hallway. I walk about twenty meters and enter another room with a big door. Inside are already a few workers at their consoles.

A big screen is on the opposite side of the room.

Some are clearly controlling drones, while others are supervising my energy plant. On the screen is already a pretty good tactical map of the city.

”How is the situation?” I ask one of the officers, who are studying the big screen.

”It seems like they managed to teleport a big army right into the city's central park. Afterwards they set up heavy air defence and artillery. The palace is bombed to rubble and the little military we had in the city took a heavy blow. They knew exactly where they had to aim their first shots. Caserns, power and communication lines where taken out with the first volley.” The man answers.

”This looks bad.” Arthur says from behind and I turn around to see that Arthur, Celes and Katrine followed me. It seems like Ireth and the healer stayed with Nicosar.

I turn to take a look at the screen where a big red dot is spreading out into smaller dots while covering my city.

”No.... They sure have bad timing to do this on my son's birthday.” I say with a grim expression on my face.