The Sky Ignites

Emma's boots crunched glass from the shattered lab, her father's notebook clutched tight. Chloe gripped her brother's photo, Mira's pendant glowing as they fled Thal's claws through Blackwood's roots. In a backup lab, monitors flickered, grainy footage of insect-like craft flooding newsfeeds.

"That was too close," Emma whispered, hands still trembling from their narrow escape. The reinforced door hissed shut behind them, its locks engaging automatically. "Without the forest's help..."

"The roots," Mira confirmed, her voice soft but steady. "They responded to my pendant, to the WoodDust within it." She placed her palm against the wall, a faint glow spreading beneath her fingers. "Even here, the essence pulses."

The backup lab hummed to life around them, dust-covered equipment illuminating as Chloe activated emergency protocols. The place had been her brother's secret workshop before the logging collapse took him. Now it served as their sanctuary, hidden beneath an abandoned research station miles from Blackwood's edge.

Outside, scout ships circled, searching. Thal's rage burned through the night.

---

It started as scattered whispers. Grainy footage from shaky cell phones, blurry clips uploaded to news stations struggling to keep pace. At first, no one knew what they were seeing, but the pattern was undeniable.

Across Earth, something was descending.

Insect-like craft, sleek and angular, cut through the atmosphere in eerie silence, bypassing satellites and defense systems without triggering alarms. They moved with precision, selecting only dense forests—Amazon jungles, Siberian taigas, North American woodlands—places where trees stood ancient and undisturbed. No bombings. No casualties. Just systematic harvesting.

Governments remained silent. Officials scrambled behind closed doors, likely as confused as the public.

Emma stared at the monitor, pulse hammering as the latest broadcast filled the lab. The reporter's voice wavered with barely contained panic. The backup lab's scanner hummed, echoing Blackwood's thrum. Chloe's monitor flashed a Zogarian signal: "Wards fail, essence our only hope." Emma's pulse hammered—Zogar's desperation mirrored their own.

"Unconfirmed reports are flooding in of unusual aerial activity. Witnesses describe insect-like craft engaging in unprecedented harvesting operations."

Emma's hands shook, clutching her father's notebook, its smudged ink urging: "Protect them." She traced the worn pages, his research into forest anomalies suddenly clear—he had suspected something all along, perhaps sensed the coming storm before anyone else.

Beside her, Chloe sat rigid at the desk, fingers hovering over her keyboard. The monitor's glow reflected off her violet hair, giving her a ghostly appearance. Her usual sharp, quick-witted energy had vanished, replaced by cold realization. Chloe's fingers fumbled her brother's photo, violet hair falling as she typed: "He died for this world."

Mira stood by Emma, her pendant pulsing as she decoded Kai's chip: "Zogar's wards fail." Across continents, Thal, Vren's commander, led the harvest, his sister's dust driving him, Zar's rage burning.

"Their world is dying faster than they anticipated," Mira explained, her mixed heritage allowing her to translate the encrypted data. "The atmospheric processors failed last cycle. Emperor Zar has exhausted all alternatives." Her eyes met Emma's, shadows of grief passing through them. "Kai risked everything to warn us. Zogar believes Earth is their only salvation."

None of them spoke further. The disbelief that had clung to them hours ago had evaporated. There was no room for doubt now.

Emma swallowed hard, forcing herself to think beyond shock. "They're not just cutting trees," she murmured. "They're extracting something essential. The WoodDust."

Chloe's fingers flew across the keyboard, pulling up forestry satellite data. More blips. More pulses. Activity spreading faster than seemed possible.

"The Amazon is disappearing at speeds that defy explanation," Chloe said, voice tight. "Acres gone in minutes. This isn't conventional logging."

Emma turned to her desk where wood samples pulsed faintly beneath the scanner. The strands of energy within them hummed like living beings, resonating at that same unusual frequency she had detected earlier. With each pulse, the cells restructured, ancient patterns awakening. Her father had documented similar anomalies years ago, his notebooks filled with warnings that had gone unheeded.

It wasn't just wood they wanted. It was something inside it.

"Chloe." She met her assistant's gaze with newfound resolve. "We need concrete proof to convince authorities."

"Something undeniable," Chloe agreed, already understanding. She touched her brother's photo once more, determination hardening her features.

Emma grabbed the nearest sample, mind racing through possibilities. "Their technology must leave traces—energy signatures, atmospheric disturbances, something that can't be explained away."

She tapped rapidly on her tablet, pulling up a map of reported incidents. "If we cross-reference these harvesting sites with our spectral data..." Her voice trailed off as patterns emerged on screen.

"They're working systematically," Chloe realized, leaning closer. "Not random attacks—they're targeting specific forest compositions."

Mira's pendant flared suddenly, its glow intensifying. "The oldest growth first," she whispered, eyes widening. "Where the essence is purest, most concentrated." Her fingers traced a pattern on the map. "These forests share a common ancestor, an ancient root system that predates human civilization."

Emma nodded grimly. "Which means we can predict their next move." She overlaid the spectral analysis with global forest density maps. One location pulsed brighter than the others. "Here. The Great Bear Rainforest."

"Within hours," Chloe confirmed, calculations scrolling across her screen.

Mira's pendant hummed in harmony with Emma's wood sample. "The forest is responding," she said. "It's defending itself. Look." She pointed to satellite imagery showing strange root patterns emerging around recent harvesting sites—ancient defenses awakening after millennia of dormancy.

The lab fell quiet as all three women processed the implications. They weren't just observers of an unprecedented event—they stood on the frontline of an invasion that humanity had yet to recognize.

Emma's scanner suddenly flared with activity. "Energy spike," she warned, moving toward the window. "Something's coming."

Outside, the night sky lit up as a Zogarian craft descended, its hull glowing with harvested essence. More followed, a fleet materializing above the hidden lab.

"They've found us," Chloe whispered, pulling emergency equipment from beneath her workstation.

The lab shook, Thal's craft tearing the roof. Roots surged, piercing metal, red glow flaring. Mira's chip crackled—Kai's voice: "I'm free." Chloe's signal cut, claws closing in—war roared.

Emma clutched her father's notebook as the ceiling began to crack. Three women, bound by loss and purpose, faced the coming storm. Above them, Thal descended, vengeance and desperation driving him forward. Below, ancient roots stirred, Earth's silent guardians awakening at last.

The forest had chosen its defenders. Now humanity would learn what had always grown among them.