I looked back at my friend's face being displayed on the screen of the robot beside me. He appeared to be inside of some sort of structure. The ship that he had used to get to wherever he now was probably.

"Jacob," I said, still very confused. "Where exactly are you?"

He seemed to stumble a little bit, losing his footing. And then I could hear a strong loud hum coming from wherever he was.

"Remember that asteroid we were mining, 16 Psyche?"

"Yes, is that where you are with the people of Kadorath?"

"Well not exactly, I'm on a smaller rock that was once nearby. I brought two J-3's here with me as well. Backup in case I needed it. But they are carrying out missions of their own now."

"What mission Jacob. . .what exactly are you doing out there?"

"Do you remember that other project I was working on?" He asked me.

"The antimatter?" I replied. "Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well you see, I needed a stronger fuel source for this job. Stronger than what even the nuclear fusion reactors could give me, and I found it. A miniature particle accelerator. It's fascinating James! Creating it was the real reason I spent so much time away. Most of the other things could have been handled by the J-3's but not this. You should have seen the power it can generate James, it's phenomenal!" He looked back at lady Izla again. "I imagine if you had more time to create an accelerator of your own this fight would have gone very differently."

Her eyes narrowed at him, she was just as confused as me, but I think the reality of what was happening began to dawn on her.

Jacob appeared to stumble again, and the rumbling around him grew louder.

"Jacob, what's happening there?"

"I'm coming home old friend." He laughed but I could see anxious sweat build up on his brow. He took a deep breath in just then.

"James, I want to thank you."

"Stop, whatever you're doing just stop Jacob!" I yelled, attempting to interrupt him.

"You've always had my back James, since I was that scrawny little shy kid at our camp. You always made sure to protect me, and you never stopped. I think it's time I return the favor, yeah?"

"Jacob, stop! We need you here, please just stop whatever you're doing. There's gotta be another way!"

"There isn't James, I'm sorry."

I could see tears beginning to well up in his own eyes, he was scared. As soon as I saw this, the tears began flowing like a river out of my own.

"James, listen to me. My craft is fixed to an asteroid. We are moving fast and will continue to gain speed before we slow down. Two other smaller asteroids are moving with me from different locations, both with accelerators of their own. My new friends and the J-3's that came with me were kind enough to start the process on the other two. The asteroids. . . they are all set to detonate twenty thousand miles outside of Earth's atmosphere. They will shatter into millions of pieces none larger than a car. But they will be coming fast towards the planet and everything around it."

"NO!" Lady Izla howled from the ground. Even the J-3's holding her down looked up at Jacob just then.

"But Jacob, what about us . . . what about Morales, she–" I began.

"I know James." His face grew peaceful then as he looked at me with the kindest eyes I had ever seen. "Take care of her, take care of my child. Take care of everyone for me. It's up to you now. Destroy whatever is left of the Ark on our world, every piece of itself that it may have hidden away. Help rebuild the world better than it was. If anyone can it's you. Now get inside! Some of the pieces may still reach the surface."

"Jacob no!" I pleaded.

"Thank you Ja–" The screen went dark.

"JACOB!"

J-1's pixelated face came back just then. "Come Mr. Olivera, we need to hurry inside."

"No no, wait, bring him back on!" I yelled at the robot.

"I'm sorry the signal has been lost. We need to get inside now!" The robot said with an uncharacteristic urgency. And then he looked to the J-3's who were securing lady Izla. "She will remain outside, if anything is left of her, we will do what we can to help remove the remnants of the Ark within her brain."

"NO! NOOO!" She screamed wildly as the hulking robots continued to hold her in place.

"Come James, please." The robot said to me in a strange, almost human-like manner.

I was hesitant. I didn't want to leave yet. It didn't feel right that he should have to die alone out there.

"Why did it have to be like this?" I asked under my breath, unable to hold back the sobs. And then I saw it, Jacob's asteroid. Followed by the other two which veered off towards different directions of the globe. Only for a second was I able to glimpse the rock that Jacob had propelled towards Earth at such immense speeds. And then, a blinding light. A light that outshined even that of the now setting sun. My breath caught in my chest as I squinted at the glare. It died down quickly but what followed were countless shining streaks that shot across the outer parts of the atmosphere. Meteorites from Jacob's asteroid, just as he said. Some burning up in a fraction of a second, others appearing to break through and rocket towards the ground. Before I could even process the magnificent and terrible image, two more flashes burst into life, far off in my peripherals, almost out of sight. The other two meteors had detonated, their massive expulsion of energy added to the millions of burning rocks above me set fire to the sky.

Such a light that I had never seen. It was so strange, so terrifying, coming from all angles. In that moment no shadow existed in the world around me. A terrible noise followed the dying of the light, like an immense vacuum had been born from the silence, the roar of it was beyond disorienting. It was the sound of innumerable particles breaking the sound barrier as they passed through our atmosphere.

I could not bear to look away on my own, and J-1 began to pull me towards the cabin.

"What about them?" I yelled, hardly able to hear my own words. "What about J-3!"

"They will remain here with her." He looked at the robot who lay limp on the ground, still pulling me towards the front door. "That one cannot be helped. The Ark's data will have corrupted every component of its body. I am sorry."

I saw the other J-3's raise their weapons to the robot who lay defenseless on the ground. I wanted to look away, but I could not help to watch as they unloaded their armor piercing rounds at its motionless body.

How much more could we lose? I thought to myself. I only needed to look up for the answer to that question. The light had dissipated enough to reveal something else. The ships of the Kador. They had been torn to pieces by the barrage of meteorites that engulfed the space surrounding our planet. And they were falling into Earth's gravitational pull. I haven't had this feeling in so long; Deja Vu. Usually, it's hard to ever connect what brings on that sense, but in this instance, I knew without a doubt. A dream I had not long ago, in it all the sky was falling down towards us, and all I could do was huddle in fear with my daughter and wife, exposed and waiting for the end.

A piece of rock hit the Earth hard, mere miles from where we stood, shaking the ground violently, and throwing debris high into the air. This snapped me part way out of my state of shock, and I stopped resisting J-1 who was tugging at my arm. I ran with the robot to the secret door in the cabin. The ground continued to shake beneath our feet. J-1 locked the door shut behind us and the deep stairwell grew quiet. A dull vibration shook the concrete walls around us but for the most part mitigated the roar of the outside world. The walls were thicker than I imagined.

We walked hastily down the multiple sets of stairs until we reached the bottom level and the large metal door that separated us from the grand entrance way of the bunker. I could hear J-1 access the keypad and then begin to twist the large iron wheel. But in my head, I was somewhere else. Breath after breath I took trying to remain composed, I knew my family would be waiting on the other side, I simply could not escape the recurring images of what I had just seen.

"Mr. Olivera," I heard J-1 say. I had been staring at the floor. I looked up to see a concerned expression on the robot's pixelated face. It had its hand on the door and was poised to pull it open. I held my head high and did my very best to gain my composure before seeing them.

J-1 opened the large door, and Oshie came running forward past the robot, nearly knocking me down as her arms clasped tightly around my waist. Tomiya's face was the next thing I saw. She was running towards me too, but she stopped short as soon as she saw my horribly disheveled look. She glanced back briefly over her shoulder before she came forward to embrace me. It was only a quick hug and then she moved to block my face with her own. When her eyes met mine, I could tell that she knew right away. Her lips quivered and she shut her eyes tight with her forehead pressed against mine and tears began to stream down her cheeks. Only for a moment did she stay there, and then with a soft and gentle kiss on my cheek she moved off to my side.

Past the door in the grand entrance of the bunker one other person was waiting to greet me. Only then did I begin to realize that I did indeed have some functional thoughts as J-1 and I made our way down the deep stairwell. This was the image that was replaying in my mind before the robot opened the door.

Our eyes connected from a distance. There Morales stood grasping the railing at the bottom of the large double staircase. Even from here I could see the heartbreak as her hazel-colored eyes went wide with agony, and she slumped down onto the bottom step with one hand still gripping hard onto the rail. Tomiya ran to her side. No words needed to be spoken for either of them to know that Jacob was gone.

"Daddy," Oshie said with a raspy voice. I didn't even notice that she too had been crying until just now.

"Yes baby?" I knelt down to her eye level.

"Thank you for coming back."

I hugged her tight, and taking her hand, I led her into the bunker. J-1 sealed the door shut behind us.