The dandelions bloomed in their little garden, a hastily built container that extended a meter in each direction. The little square was the only patch of vegetation in the entire moon, and perhaps the only dandelions left in the entire system, if not the galaxy.

The rest of the moon was barren, salted to be precise. Decades ago, the satellite that was meant to terraform the moon into a little earth was destroyed in orbit and the dust engulfed the surface of Europa.

But the garden had a caretaker. Salvaging what could be taken from the fallen satellite, UNS Sniper-Class Stella set herself for the task of terra-forming the moon. Sure, the task would take around three thousand years, but time could be made. After all, her mission was to guard Europa until further instructions from Earth arrived.

Stella’s routine was simple. She roamed the moon in search of water sources and then returned to take care of her plants. If any Echos appeared, she shot them and continued with her task.

Today it was no different, some Echos appeared in Saturn.

[Warning - Radiation Alert]

‘They never get tired of it?’ She thought.

She aimed her rail gun at the blue sources of light as they began appearing in Saturn. Upon pulling the trigger, a huge beam of light eviscerated the surface of Saturn. Then the planet went dark. There was no more light, no more Echos.

‘Just how many Echos there is?’

Echos attacked in groups of twelve, in cycles of 48 hours. The reason behind the specific number, no one knew. Perhaps a trinket of their technology.

Which ever was the case, they never made it as far as to strike back. Supposedly, their weapons required a prolonged aim before they could fire. They just were no match for Stella’s Rail-gun.

“Excellent, I turned the Echos into dust. Huh?”

[Warning - Radiation Alert]

Despite destroying twelve Echos, another set of lights appeared in Saturn. “More? Have they finally gone mad?”

Upon eradicating the new set of Echos, even more appeared. Hundreds of them. Saturn was going to be a mass grave.

After shooting seventy-two times, Stella pulled the trigger one more time - but no bullet came out. UNS Stella laughed. “Hopelessly jammed.”

[Warning - Radiation Alert]

It was hopeless. The radiation in Saturn had suddenly skyrocketed to a level a thousand times more radioactive than the sun.

Forced to her knees, UNS Sniper-Class Stella looked at her phone’s screen one last time. ‘Last message from UNS Terra: 37602 Days ago.’

“Of course,” She said.

Seconds later, without a warning, Europa unceremoniously exploded. The dandelions were forever lost in the blast.

[End of Transmission.]