Captain Ramazan pulled a silver box from the lining of her vest and took out one of the only things keeping her together: a Derbaran Ruby Classic Cigar. It was her last one. She clipped the end with her combat knife, lit up, and waited for the rush.
The war was spreading. What had started as a pocket of small-unit ambush and sabotage operations had evolved into fully blown incursions with armoured units and air support. Her Desert Dogs had been fighting nonstop for days.
And now this.

The encampment in front of her was little more than a few tents and scaffolding thrown up around a crater in the desert. General Karmali had sent Ramazan and her unit here on what he claimed was the most sensitive mission of the rebellion to date, but when they arrived all they found was an empty camp guarded by a skeleton crew of Derbaran soldiers. There were signs that the camp used to be a major hub of military activity, but whatever had been here was long gone now. Fortunately, Ramazan’s unit had managed to capture one of the military guards and interrogate him, but all they could get out of him was the project codename: War Rock. Ramazan had no idea what the ‘War Rock’ was, but she didn’t like the sound of it: something about it gave her the feeling she was going to need more cigars.
One of her lieutenants ran up beside her, flustered and breathless.
“Captain, we found something in the village over the hill. Looks like military did a snatch operation - its deserted, or at least we thought it was. During our sweep we found a boy and an old man in a hidden cellar beneath one of the houses. They say they know why the military was here.”

The old man spoke rapidly, his eyes wide with fear. Between the man’s toothless mouth slurring his words and his native dialect, Ramazan couldn’t understand a thing he was saying. Luckily, the boy was able to translate.
“It was a star,” the boy said, “A big glowing emerald that fell from the sky.”
“A meteor?” Ramazan asked. The old man nodded.
“The army came soon after. Many soldiers in transport trucks with rifles. They built their camp around where it fell. Then the ones in the white suits and helmets came.”
Ramazan scowled.
“Zaripov’s scientists.”
She was definitely going to need more cigars.