Pleiadian Rescuer

by Benedict Stone

  “It’s all true, Jase… all of it. Come to the motor, I’ll show you something.”

  As they were walking, Archie heard a rustle in the treeline next to the road. Quietly, he asked Jason if there were any of his mob hiding nearby.

  “Yeah,” he said in a low voice. “Three blokes from my old unit.” They wouldn’t have heard what the pair had been saying, but it made Archie feel uneasy knowing that armed men were sitting in the bushes watching them.

  “Come to the drivers’ side.” Archie didn’t want to take any chances that they might be overheard. Opening the door to the car, he introduced Jason to the Pleiadian and explained that he was the alien that he had rescued from the ship.

  “Fuck off, Arch. You’re having me on,” Jason exclaimed. Archie couldn’t blame him; he wouldn’t have believed him either.

  Looking at Blondie, Archie asked the big man if he could do the same telepathy thing on Jason.

  “Okay, then do it,” Archie said as Blondie nodded. Turning to his friend, he said, “Shake his hand, Jase. But keep any thoughts you might get inside your head - don’t speak aloud.” As their hands touched, Blondie took a firm grip, and Archie knew his old friend got the message, as he looked blankly at him.

  “What was that?” he said, trying to keep his voice low. “How did you do that?”

  After Blondie gave him a quick explanation of the telepathy, Archie started quizzing Jason on the checkpoint; what was the troop numbers, their strength, their level of training, and where they were actually positioned; was their numbers what he could actually see or were there more in the bushes?

  “Why?” Jason asked, knowing he didn’t want the answer.

  “Because I think I’m going to have to kill them to get to the Henge.”

  “I had a feeling you were going to say that…” Jason thought for a moment, then continued. “I’ve got some good friends in those trees. We’ve been through a lot together. I can’t just let you kill, them, Arch.”

  “I can’t promise anything, but I will say this; if I can subdue them in a nonlethal way, then I will, but if I have to do it… another way, then…” Archie trailed off, knowing he was pushing his luck, but at the same time, he knew that lying about it might cause his friend to turn his allegiance away from him. He wanted Jason onside, now and in the future, and lying could jeopardise his integrity, so he left the words hanging.

  “I’m not sure, but for now, we’ll see how it goes,” Jason said. He knew that Archie was in the top tier when it came to martial arts and was more than likely to be far better in unarmed combat than even his friends from the unit. He just hoped that Archie didn’t have to take them out properly, he wasn’t sure he could allow that to happen.

  17

  Amesbury

  Wiltshire

  England

  “Pretend to be looking at that,” Archie re-holstered the knife before passing the map to Blondie. Turning, he said to his old friend, “Go into the treeline and distract your guys. Keep their attention on you, I’ll come in from the North and take them from behind, but I’ll tell you now, Jase, I’m not fucking about when we have to deal with the checkpoint. We need to get through it fast, and we don’t have time to piss about playing nice.”

  Jason nodded as he started moving towards the treeline. Archie began to walk to the back of the car and shouted back to Blondie that he was just going for a piss in the bushes before they left; all for show of course. He made his way about fifty yards to the North and slipped into the trees.

  As he moved slowly forward, Archie was hoping that Jason would do a decent job of distracting his three mates. They were Special Forces, and that meant that they were going to be as hard as nails, and if he didn’t do his bit right, he would have to kill them. Archie just couldn’t take the chance of any of them getting a round off and alerting the other soldiers in the area.

  His heart started pounding as he was stalking through the scrub. The beat in his ears got louder as he found himself getting closer to their position. At about ten yards away, he stopped and slowly squatted down. He could hear them talking as he readied himself for the conflict to come.

  “I told you, Smith, the orders are bollocks, mate. We’ve done plenty of Counter Terrorist jobs and never has anything like this shit happened before. I just don’t think that we’re here for the reasons we’ve been told. Something else is going on. Where are the CT team? Where are they? Why call us back? We’ve all been out for years now… it’s unheard of.” Archie had no idea who was talking, but two things were crystal clear. One, whoever the speaker was, was talking to Jason. And two, they weren’t convinced they had been told the truth.

  “Listen, I think you’re right, but there’s nothing we can do about it. You know what the Regiment are like, you’re never really out.” This time Archie could tell that the other voice belonged to Jason.

  Archie used the distraction of the conversation to start moving forward again. Easing his way closer to the group as quietly and as slowly as he could. Through the shrubs, he could see that they were all squatting down, and the only one facing his direction was his old friend. Jason had done his bit, now it was Archie’s turn.

  As he edged closer to the men, he held the bowie knife in his right hand, so that the blade was lined back along his forearm. SNAP! A twig broke under his foot, causing the three men to turn around. They saw him instantly.

  He had gotten himself into a position that was directly behind the guy in the middle, and as the man tried to bring his weapon up, Archie lunged forward, driving the base of the knife’s handle into the man’s shoulder, feeling the crunch from the fracture as his collar bone collapsed. He fell backwards and as he did Archie used the momentum to put the sole of his left foot into the face of the guy to the left, knocking him unconscious. He then brought the base of the knife away from the first man’s shoulder and forced it into his temple, instantly silencing him. Turning to the last soldier, Archie realised he was too late. The guy had his pistol pointed at his face.

  “NO! Drop it Steve – Drop it… NOW!” Jason had his weapon aimed at his comrade. “I’m not fucking around! I know this guy.”

  “What the fuck is going on here, Smith?” Steve wasn’t having any of it as he held firm, weapon steadily pointed at Archie’s head.

  Slowly the three men started getting to their feet. If Steve were a foot closer, Archie would have had him, but this guy was in the zone; far too switched on to make that kind of mistake.

  “He’s an old school friend, Steve,” Jase said. “I’ve known him since we were three years old, he’s okay.”

  “O-fucking-kay? Are you taking the piss?” Steve wasn’t convinced. “He’s just dropped two of the hardest men I’ve ever met. What the fuck is going on?”

  “It’s complicated, but I’ll tell you this, he’s no terrorist. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he ended up with information that… well, let’s just say that the government don’t want it to get out, and they’ll kill to keep it secret. He needs help. They’re hunting him down.” Jason thought for a moment before speaking again. “Think about it, mate. You said yourself, we were called back under strange circumstances. Well, this is why.” Jason paused for a moment. “The rest of the Regiment is probably sitting in ambush, waiting for him at Stonehenge and like us, they’ll just follow the orders they’re given. And I’ll guarantee you this, nobody within the unit will know what he knows.”

  “Oh yeah? What do you know then, son?” Steve asked Archie, pistol still pointing at his head.

  “I know that if he weren’t here,” Archie said nodding towards Jason, “you three would be dead. He told me not to kill you all. But now I’m wondering if that was a good idea. I also know that all this is about information control. I have knowledge that will completely destroy the paradigm that we live in. The world’s governments, religions, power elites, and a whole host of other institutions have been forcing us all into living controlled lives…”

  “What are you talking
about, you fucking prick?” Steve said, jabbing his weapon at Archie as if to emphasise his point.

  “Aliens,” Archie said, hoping to draw his opponent closer.

  Steve took the bait and stepped forward. “What the fuck is he talking about, Smith?” he said. “Is he on drugs?”

  “No, I’m afraid not. It looks like he’s telling the truth, mate,” Jason replied as he kept his own weapon aimed at the back of his friends head. “Come on, Steve put it down and listen.”

  Archie could see the dilemma Jason was in; on the one hand, he had his longest friend in a position where if he didn’t help him, he would probably be killed by government forces, and on the other hand, he might have to kill another one of his best friends to keep the first alive.

  “Listen, Steve, I rescued a benevolent alien from a crashed ship, that was shot down by a malevolent race of aliens. This race, the Draco, has been forcing the world’s governments to work for them since at least the 1800s. They have to silence me and kill the Pleiadian that I’m trying to save so that they can keep their dirty little secret. This really is about information control.” Archie took a moment to let Steve digest what he had said, before continuing. “The species that I am helping are trying to guide humanity out of this shit. I honestly don’t fully know what the powers that be are doing in all this, but I do know that for the past three days, I’ve been hunted like a fucking dog for helping someone in an emergency. Come on, even you can see that’s not right.”

  Steve took another step closer; it was his first and last mistake. With his left hand, Archie swiped the barrel of the weapon to the right and turned it back in the direction of his opponent in a wrist lock that forced the weapons release from Steve’s grip. In the same movement, Archie smashed the palm of his right hand into Steve’s face, putting him on his arse.

  “Sorry, Steve, but I had to do that. I couldn’t take the chance that you wouldn’t kill me.” Archie said as he squatted down in front of the shocked soldier. “Everything I’ve told you is true - every word of it. Now if you stay still and play the game, everything will work out for you, and you’ll walk away from this intact, but if you make a move on either of us, I’ll kill you without hesitation.”

  Standing back up, Archie pulled the silenced pistol from his waistband and pointed it at Steve as he moved back several feet. “What do you want to do now?” he asked Jason. “Do you want to come with us or what?”

  It was the first time he’d ever seen Jason suffering from indecisiveness, and if the situation weren’t so dangerous, he would have taken the piss out of his old friend and slaughtered him with laughter and ridicule. “I can’t really see any choice. I think I have to come, but what about him?” Jase nodded down at Steve.

  “You tell me what kind of man he is?” Archie asked. “Can he be trusted?”

  “Honestly, he’s a good bloke and an even better soldier,” Jason started. “I really think that once he sees what’s really going on, he’ll side with us. I think we should take him with us.”

  Archie thought about it for a moment. He hadn’t even contemplated the prospect of taking Steve along; he’d only been thinking about whether or not to put a bullet in his head.

  “What do you think, Steve? Do you want me to knock you out and leave you here with your mates, or do you want to come with us and wake up to what’s really going on in the world?” Archie asked, trying to gauge the soldiers' reactions.

  Steve was clearly thinking about the situation, and after a moment or so gave his answer. “I’ve said from the moment I got back to Hereford that something was off – it just didn’t feel right. The orders were all wrong. Nothing made sense. There was no paperwork for the recall, and we were kept away from the regulars. That shit is unheard of. So, now I think that maybe, just maybe you might be on to something. But, aliens? That bit, I’m struggling with, but I would like to find out the truth, so yeah, I’m in.”

  “Okay, fine, but be warned, it’s going to get messy. A lot of your old mates are going to try to kill us,” Archie said, trying to put things into perspective.

  “I’m in; if it’s them or me? It’s going to be them,” Steve said without hesitation. Archie wasn’t sure where the soldiers' loyalty would be when the rounds started flying, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. He would make sure that Steve wouldn’t get a weapon until he’d seen the Draco first. Once that had happened, the man would have no doubt about Archie’s honesty.

  After giving Steve a proper search, and tying the two unconscious men up, they made their way back the people carrier. Archie was amused to see that Blondie was still looking at the map book, trying unsuccessfully, to look inconspicuous. He looked as guilty as hell. Archie made his way to the passenger side and told the Pleiadian to get in the back with Steve. Jason took the front passenger seat, and Archie got in behind the wheel.

  The new plan was simple; drive up to the checkpoint, Jase would speak to the soldiers and get them through. They would then drive all the way to the Stones. There was a real chance that the group could make it to the heritage site without shooting up the checkpoints, but that didn’t stop Archie preparing for the eventuality that their ruse wouldn’t work.

  As he introduced Blondie to Steve, Archie gave the Pleiadian specific instructions to beat the shit out of the soldier if he so much as looked at the men working the checkpoint in the wrong way. Blondie offered his hand to Steve in greeting, and as they shook, Archie knew by the look on Steve’s face, that he was getting the message as the big man spoke to him telepathically. Steve’s eyes flickered and rolled up into his head for a moment.

  “What the…?” Steve said as the handshake broke. “Did he just… I mean…” his speech fell away as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. After a moment of contemplation to make sense of what just happened, he made it clear that they would get no problems from him. Although Archie believed what the soldier had said, he wasn’t ready to trust him enough to hand over a weapon just yet.

  When Blondie had used telepathy on him, it was in the form of mind to mind speech. However, Archie wondered if the communication could be done in the manner of showing images, as though the recipient was being shown stuff, rather than told things. He asked the Pleiadian as they started moving towards the checkpoint.

  “I cannot show them anything, I can only communicate in terms of speech,” Blondie replied. “I have told them what has happened so far and of the probable invasion by the Draconian’s.” Archie mulled it over as they approached the roadblock, and came to a conclusion that it seemed plausible that the two men understood the situation better because of the manner of how they were told… telepathically. After all, it wasn’t every day that a person could pull off a magic trick like that.

  Pulling up at the checkpoint, Jason opened the window and informed the soldier that he had received orders to move up to the staging area. It was a plausible situation. After all, the Special Forces were on a completely different command structure and communications system to the regular army. The guard just nodded, completely disinterested as he signalled them through, and directed them to the off-ramp for the A303.

  The cloud cover was thick, and it had started to rain again. As Archie pulled the vehicle on to the road, there was a clap of thunder, causing himself and Blondie to look at each other knowingly. They had just under two miles to get to the Stones, and it wasn’t going to take long to get there. Archie wanted to floor it and get there as soon as possible, but instead, he kept the speed within the limit and continued steadily towards their target. He didn’t want to attract unwanted attention to their vehicle any more than necessary.

  As Archie drove, the group saw a mass of complacent and disinterested soldiers milling around personnel carriers. But as they got closer to the Stones, they started to see men in black, carrying fancy weapons. This lot were anything, but uninterested; they were well switched on, and Archie thought they would be spotted any minute as the Special Forces watched the strange vehicle pass by. A moment later and
a thunderous roar emanated from the sky, which took attention away from them as all eyes looked up. There, sitting just in the cloud, was the underside of a massive Arrowhead shaped craft.

  “What the fuck is that?” asked Jase with no hint of panic. His voice carried concern, but no panic.

  “That is a part of what we’re up against, mate. It’s a Draconian Battle Cruiser,” Archie replied.

  “Jesus H Christ!” Steve had seen it too. “I think it’s time you gave me a fucking weapon,” he demanded. A moment later and all the cogs seemed to fall into place for him. “It all makes sense now. Jase, did you meet anyone when we got back to Hereford? I didn’t. The only person I spoke to was the C.O, and I was kept in isolation until he teamed me up with you and the other two. I didn’t even have to sign any paperwork for the recall, and I know that’s SOP. I fucking knew something was off. I’ve never trusted that wanker!”

  Jason sat for a moment, thinking. “Yeah, same here. I had a feeling that slimy bastard was up to something dodgy when he said there were no forms to fill in for the recall. Now that I think about it, he’s the only person who knows we’re even here, and that makes me think that we’re expendable. No, more than that, I don’t think we were walking away from this. He was going to make sure we got slotted.” Jason paused for a second. “If we get the chance, we need to put a couple of rounds into his head so that we don’t get any problems if we get out of this.”

  Archie looked at his new team member in the rear-view mirror, and although he felt that the man was on-side, he wasn’t ready to fully trust him just yet, “When the time comes, you’ll have your rifle, Steve.”

  “Arch how are we going to deal with that?” Jase asked, pointing to the clouds.