Free Aegis Incursion by S S Segran

hands callused and seasoned like a sailor’s. A scar ran from the side of his nose to his cheek from a mishap during his teenage years. His amber eyes, hidden under his cap, shone with youthful curiosity and the resilience of a man who’d overcome numerous hardships in life.
    He guided the trailer toward the barn and aligned it by a bale elevator that extended to the hayloft where two young farmhands were waiting to stack the hay. He turned off the engine and hopped out to load the bales onto the elevator. The men conversed as they worked, laughing and bantering as they often did to make the routine job go by a little faster.
    “Hugo!”
    The older man turned around to see a woman with her graying hair in a side bun standing behind him. A yellow Labrador retriever sat by her side. The man smiled and reached down to stroke the dog’s head affectionately, then looked at the woman. Removing his cap, he bowed playfully.
    She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Oh, don’t you do that now. How many times do I have to call you in for supper?” Her voice contained a hint of the Portuguese accent that he too carried.
    Hugo leaned closer and gently kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry, meu amor . I wanted to get as many of these stacked before calling it a day.” He nodded up at the hayloft. The young men who were in the loft grinned and waved down at the couple.
    The woman placed her hands on her hips. “Has he been holding you hostage?” she called out to the farmhands.
    They laughed and one of them called back, “No, ma’am! We’re just happy to help a great fella like your husband. You’ve both been very good to us since we began working for you.”
    Hugo beamed and his wife gently cuffed him before addressing the farmhands again. “Go home, dears! You can help Hugo finish this up tomorrow.”
    “Yes, ma’am!”
    As the woman took Hugo’s hand, he waved at the young men as they exited the barn and locked its doors. “Have a good night, boys!”
    “You too, Mr. Sanchez!” They smiled and headed to their cars, then drove off the property.
    Hugo laced his fingers with his wife’s as they walked toward their two-story home situated on their large plot of land. The Labrador trotted ahead and entered the house, then waited patiently for the couple to come inside.
    Hugo closed the door and took a deep whiff. “It smells so good in here.” He removed his checkered shirt and went to throw it into the laundry basket.
    “It’s just corn and roast beef,” his wife said, though she sounded pleased.
    As Hugo walked through the living room toward the kitchen, something on the television caught his eye. “Julia, have you seen this?”
    His wife came to stand beside him while wiping her hands on a dishcloth. She frowned and tucked some loose strands of hair behind her ear. “It’s the crop failure we keep hearing about, isn’t it?”
    Hugo reached for the remote and turned the volume up. “ . . . the phenomenon appears to be spreading rapidly. Reports from the last few hours indicate that major crop failures have been observed across Kansas, the Dakotas, and now Oklahoma and Texas.”
    Julia gasped. “It’s spreading so quickly?”
    Hugo regarded the television, eyes narrowed. Having worked the fields for decades, he had never heard of simultaneous crop failures such as this. He listened as the reporter discussed the occurrence with a panel of experts. The crop failures that had begun in the farms of the Midwest did indeed seem to be spreading across the country at a frighteningly quick pace.
    Julia looked up at her husband, eyes searching his. “Hugo . . . our crops.”
    He looked down at her, then gathered her into a hug. “Shh, we’ll be fine.”
    “A number of fields around here have already been destroyed . . . You heard how badly the Jacksons were hit in Baldwin City. And the Moores! They’re not too far from here and they lost all their crops.”
    “Julia, please, don’t worry.”
    “It’s