by Hatchett
There were no immediate replies, as everyone thought about it.
“They must have weapons which defeat our shields,” Thaejah said eventually.
“But they can’t be that good,” Manaejah pointed out.
“What do you mean?” Kinaejah asked.
“Well, they’ve only taken out a few drones. They haven’t touched a Battlecruiser.”
Kinaejah thought about it. Eventually he turned to Kasaejah.
“Did you send a Battlecruiser to all the places where a drone disappeared?”
“Yes, except for the one in South Africa…which I was about to do,” he added hastily.
“Send it there, but let it hover and monitor the area. Release some stellated cubes to search the buildings.”
Kasaejah started relaying the instructions as Kinaejah and the rest of the Elders quickly adjusted their screens so they could watch what was about to happen.
37
In a coffee shop off Bird Street in Stellenbosch, South Africa, some twenty kilometres from the outskirts of Cape Town, Annika Le Roux, Hendrik Pieters and Klass Van Niekerk dragged the remains of the drone they had destroyed down some wooden stairs into the basement of the shop. Martijn Claassen was the last to enter, slamming the heavy metal door closed behind him and locking it before following his friends down.
Annika owned the shop and the apartment above it, and as soon as the panicking, rioting and looting started, her three main friends had made a beeline for the shop, knowing that they could hide in the large, secure basement which was normally used as their HQ. It was an ideal place to hole up until things settled down.
All four were in their twenties and keen conspiracy theorists and met up in the basement three or four times a week to go over the latest news and stories from around the World.
A section of the basement was like an office with desks, communications equipment, and PC’s. There were various maps, pictures and cuttings pasted to boards along the wall with handwritten post-it notes, and bits of string tacked between some of the pictures and places on the maps.
They spent a lot of their time hooking up with likeminded groups around the World, discussing theories and sharing information. They had heard of the Underground and similar organisations in other countries and had joined a South African initiative along the same lines called the Springbok Scientologists.
They heard the original reports about aliens hiding in plain sight amongst the indigenous population and that electricity would kill them off, and whilst they were a bit sceptical at first, they spent little time getting hold of as many stun guns and batons as they could lay their hands on.
Then, with some judicious recruitment of other trusted friends and acquaintances, they had formed a small vigilante group and shared out the weapons.
Using the knowledge that the Laakuu inhabiting human bodies could be detected by their smell of rotting leaves combined with body odor, and the fact that they had silver flecks in their irises, they had taken the fight to the Laakuu in Stellenbosch and surrounding areas.
With only around twenty thousand inhabitants, Stellenbosch was not a very big town, but the group had managed to track down and kill off half a dozen or so Laakuu. Of course, they had made a few mistakes and electrocuted some innocents along the way, but they’d live, and it was a small price to pay to make sure.
Once they had covered their own town as best they could, they travelled into Cape Town to help with the effort going on there.
The past twenty-four hours since taking out the Laakuu in human form had been a bit of a rollercoaster of events; the skies seemed to rain metal, quickly followed by communications and electricity going down. Then the Laakuu had made further attacks on infrastructure and the airwaves were filled with panic and prophesies of doom. The four had been a little surprised and disappointed when their other friends had failed to turn up at the HQ but continued to listen to the reports and eventually picked up the advice for attacking drones.
Despite being scared and less than confident it would work, they’d given it a go and followed the instructions to the letter, and here they were, with a lump of damaged metal that looked a bit like a big silver fish with hexagonal scales. The blueish light had gone out and the device was completely stationery.
“Well, that was a rush,” Annika laughed as she took in some quick shaky breaths.
“You’re fucking mad, woman,” Hendrik replied, starting to laugh himself but sounding a bit desperate. “We could’ve been killed.”
“It was mad,” Martijn added, as he caught up with them, “but look what we caught.”
The four stared at the drone for a few seconds.
“We best get some tools,” Klass suggested, “so we can take a closer look.”
Klass started walking in the direction of one of the benches, then stopped abruptly and said quietly, “guys?”
The other three took their eyes off the drone and looked across the room to see Klass pointing at a monitor showing CCTV footage of the shop and the immediate area outside.
“Fuck, what is that?” Hendrik asked worriedly, his voice a little shaky.
Annika ran over to a keyboard and hit a few buttons until just a couple of CCTV feeds filled the screen.
“Looks like Big Brother has come to find Little Brother,” Martijn suggested.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. I knew it was a bad idea,” Hendrik said.
“Ssh!” Annika hissed. “Watch!”
The four of them stood around the monitor as a Battlecruiser hovered unmoving ten feet above the road outside. Then a number of small stellated cubes seem to detach themselves from its body.
“I don’t like this,” Hendrik said. “Maybe we should throw this one back out.”
“No chance!” Annika spat. “That thing doesn’t know we’re here and we’re not going back up to say hello.”
“What are those things coming out of it?” Klass asked what the rest of them were wondering.
The cubes spread out then darted off in different directions.
“Shit! I think they’re some sort of spy device,” Annika stated, “and they’re searching for that,” she added, pointing to the drone.
“Let’s give it back,” Hendrik almost pleaded.
“You go up there and it’ll give us away and then we’ll probably be killed,” Annika warned.
She pressed a few more keys and brought up more CCTV images. They could see that a couple of the cubes had entered the shop and were moving all around, looking for the drone.
“They can’t get in here, can they?” Hendrik asked, worry written all over his face.
“The door has seals, so I don’t think so,” Annika replied, watching the screens intently. “Keep quiet in case they can pick up sound,” she said in a whisper.
“What if they can pick up body heat or something?” Klass whispered.
Annika just shrugged.
She saw one of the cubes split into around ten smaller cubes, which could only have been about a centimetre across. She pointed to the screen so the others could see the same thing as she was seeing, then clicked a couple of keys so that there was just one larger picture on the screen, and then they could all see the smaller cube more clearly.
“Definitely a spy,” Hendrik whispered.
“More of them and smaller so they can cover more ground and get through smaller gaps,” Martijn suggested. “Are you sure there are no gaps by the door?”
“Nah,” Annika replied, then stopped and looked around quickly.
The others wondered what was going on as Annika suddenly ran towards another bench and grabbed a heavy towel.
She turned back and seeing the confused looks on the faces of her colleagues, mouthed ‘ventilation’.
The other three looked around the basement and spotted a grill near the ceiling on the far wall.
“Give me a hand,” Annika ordered, as she ran towards the grill. “Get a stun gun,” she added.
Martijn ran and caught up to Annika and took o
ne end of the towel. They both stood on boxes and each hurriedly tucked the towel into the slats on the grill until it was fully covered. Martijn kept his hands placed flat against the towel to stop it being pushed from the other side. Klass then handed Annika a stun gun and kept one for himself.
“Lights,” Annika whispered.
Klass looked up the steps to the switch next to the door and shook his head. He wasn’t going anywhere near that door.
All four kept silent, breathing as slowly and quietly as they could. It suddenly felt enclosed and clammy in the basement and they all started to sweat.
Martijn felt some pressure from the other side of the towel and strained to keep it in place. After a few seconds, the pressure went away and he sighed, wishing he could take his hands down because they were beginning to shake, and he really wanted to wipe the sweat away from his face.
Annika saw Martijn’s discomfort and quickly removed her t-shirt and used it to mop his brow. She indicated that she would take over from him but Martijn shook his head.
They waited for another couple of minutes in complete silence until Hendrik whispered that he thought the coast was clear.
Annika stepped off the box and, pulling her t-shirt back on, walked back to the monitor as Klass quickly swapped places with Martijn to give him a break.
Annika peered past Hendrik, who had been momentarily distracted by the sight of Annika in just her bra and studied the screen. Annika indicated that Hendrik should vacate the seat and he quickly got up and stepped aside, allowing Annika to take the chair.
She saw the smaller objects re-group back into their original and larger stellated form then move swiftly to re-merge with the Battlecruiser.
Annika let out a sigh of relief and turned towards Klass and Martijn.
“It’s OK. I think they’ve finished,” she said.
“Annika?” Hendrik said, quietly.
“What?”
“I think you better look.”
Annika quickly turned back to look at the monitor. Where the stellated cubes had disappeared, there were now four silver balls with a bluish hue, about the size of a tennis ball. Suddenly, these balls flew off towards the shop and left the screen.
Annika quickly hit some more keys to bring up other images but was distracted when there was a succession of sizzling sounds from the metal door at the top of the stairs.
She turned to look and saw that the silver orbs had entered the basement, unscathed and trailing wisps of smoke behind them. They swivelled as if getting their bearings, then shot across the room and straight through the heads of Martijn and Klass and the abdomen of Hendrik.
The men’s bodies remained upright for a couple of drawn out seconds as time seemed to slow down. A stunned and horrified Annika could see the far wall through the perfectly cylindrical tunnel running through Martijn’s head. She noticed that there was no blood, so the orb must’ve cauterized the wound as it went through. Then the bodies of Martijn and Klass slumped to the ground in unison.
Hendrik was starting to scream, blood and guts falling to the floor in front of him before he fell to his knees, trying to scoop up his intestines and push them back into his body.
Annika’s horror turned to shock as she looked down and realised that one of the orbs had also passed straight through her mid-section, and like Hendrik, there was no cauterizing of the wound. Her blood and guts began to ooze slowly from the hole and slide along her thighs before falling and splattering on the floor by her feet. In slow motion, she reached down and tried in vain to hold everything back.
With Hendrik now mewling on the floor, the orbs regrouped a metre or so in front of her face, as if watching to see what she would do.
Annika smiled, beginning to feel light-headed and separated from reality as the remaining strength ebbed from her body. She could no longer feel any pain and felt like she was watching events unfold as if in a dream.
She felt her right arm slide off her thigh onto the seat and brush against something cold and solid. She glanced down to see what it was and recognised one of the stun guns.
With the last of her remaining strength she slowly picked it up, the gun feeling much heavier than it had done before. She looked back at the orbs and strained to aim the gun at one of them. She then smiled and fired.
The bluish light of the orb she had targeted winked out and it fell heavily to the floor.
Within a split second, another of the orbs had literally wiped that smile from Annika’s face.
38
Kinaejah sat back with a broad smile on his face. He had thoroughly enjoyed watching the scene in South Africa, first through the eyes of the stellated cubes then the orbs, especially the reaction of the woman when her friends were killed, and even better when she realised that she had also been hit. It was just a shame the bitch managed to get off a shot with whatever she had picked up because it had caused the loss of one of the orbs. Still, it was a small price to pay for the intelligence gained.
“Make sure none of the drones get sucked into ambushes,” Kinaejah ordered. “Send in cubes to check first then orbs to clear the way.”
The Elders in the room played with their screens to ensure the new orders were followed.
Kinaejah wondered what these humans might try next. He had to give them some credit; although they were weak, they didn’t give up. It would be fun breaking their spirit once and for all, but first he needed more of them killed.
One of Kinaejah’s floating screens identified an incoming message, so he brushed his claw through it and the face of the Laakuu from research appeared.
“Sir,” the researcher started, “we think the humans are using radio technology.”
Kinaejah thought about it. Yes, the humans liked their radio transmissions, but he thought everything went via their satellites or radio masts which had been destroyed. Obviously not, as they clearly had other transmitting and receiving capabilities on the ground.
“Can we destroy their ability to use radio waves?”
“It would be impossible, sir,” the researcher responded. “It would mean destroying every aerial and transmitter in the world, and many of these are sure to be indoors or hidden.”
Kinaejah thought about it. There were aerials on pretty much every building and every vehicle, so it would take forever to get rid of them all. Even if they were destroyed, it wouldn’t be too difficult to cobble together replacements. No, Kinaejah didn’t have the time or the patience to try and get rid of them all.
“Forget that,” Kinaejah said. “Can we block them?”
“Again, extremely difficult, the researcher replied, “although if you used some more pylons it would likely cause some disruption. But there is some good news.”
“And what’s that?”
“We can listen in to some of the unencrypted communications.”
“Can we trace specific communications?”
“We may be able to if there aren’t too many, but at the moment there are far too many and we wouldn’t know who was communicating what to whom. So, it would be random and trying to look for something specific would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Kinaejah cut the link and considered his options. Listening to the human’s plots and plans would be useful. He would be forewarned of any attacks, and forewarned was forearmed. Tracing them would be ideal as he could send in the Battlecruisers and get rid of these troublemakers. No, this could come later. He really wanted to get on with the cull and the less humans there were out there, the less likely they would be able to communicate or fight back in any case. What did the researcher say? Pylons would cause disruption. He should have thought about them earlier.
Pylons were effectively two-metre-long thick silver poles which would extend like a telescope to ten metres long once deployed. Then they could link and form a grid of forcefield walls which the humans would be unable to penetrate. The forcefield walls were a bit like the prison cells they conjured up on the Mothership, but far larger and on the groun
d. Perfect. Pylons would shut the humans off from each other and prevent them moving very far.
Kinaejah turned to look around the other Elders.
“Thaejah,” he said, causing Thaejah to look up quickly from his screens.
“Yes Kinaejah?”
“Deploy Pylons around every major city,” Kinaejah ordered.
“But Kinaejah, that could take months,” Thaejah pointed out.
“I don’t care,” Kinaejah spat back. “Start with key Capital cities and then move on to the rest. It will stop the rats from moving or running.”
Thaejah nodded and turned back to his screens. To do otherwise would mean certain death.
39
The first four Pylons released from the Mothership arrowed down towards the ground like sleek air-to-ground missiles, changing direction as they headed for their programmed destinations.
The first landed near Wembley in North East London, buried itself one metre into the ground then extended to its full ten metre length. The second landed near Hackney in North East London, the third near Peckham in South East London and the fourth near Fulham in South West London. The four Pylons formed an almost perfect square and effectively cut off Central London from the Greater London area.
Once all four were in place and extended, Kinaejah gave the command to turn them on. Immediately an opaque bluish forcefield wall nine metres high above ground and one metre deep below ground and one inch thick shimmered into life between the Pylons. It was possible for forcefield walls to stretch between Pylons fifty kilometres apart, but in this case, it was just a few kilometres.
Everything that happened to be in the way of the forcefield wall was immediately sheared in two, whether it be cars, houses, train lines, roads or other obstructions. In some homes, families were separated from each other by the forcefield wall and others were stuck in the room they happened to be in, unable to escape unless they jumped out of the window – if there was a window.
Nothing could get through the forcefield walls unless it resonated with the right frequency just like the spacecraft moving through the outer skin of the Mothership, and the only things which had the right frequency were Laakuu Stormtroopers or craft which carried the necessary fragmentation devices, although this was largely immaterial for the craft as they could fly over the forcefield walls in any case.