by SD Tanner
A nuclear blast would create an electromagnetic pulse that could damage their trucks and gear, so they pulled ten miles back from the fence line and waited on the road, ready to watch the show. It took NORAD several hours before they advised them that the missiles were in flight heading towards the target. Not understanding anything about the ship, they’d elected to use nuclear warheads aimed directly into the center of the oval. No one knew if it would work or if the ship could defend itself, and they stood waiting, worried that their last and most powerful weapon might fail. Even if the blast was successful, the people in the city and surrounding areas would die of radiation poisoning, the critters would multiply into their smaller selves, and the ship would crash to the ground. It was definitely the choice of last resort, but he figured they had nothing left to lose. The people in the city were dead whether they bombed it or not. Boris had been right and now he too was convinced that there was no other option.
The explosion was blinding and the screens inside of his visor flashed white, but he didn’t need his vision to know when the ship was down. Even several miles from the city, a vibration travelled under his feet as the enormous ship crashed to earth.
“Go! Go! Go!”
Scrambling into their trucks, they drove at breakneck speed towards the ship. Now his visor was working again, he could see that the ship had landed flat against the land, crushing everything beneath it.
“That’s it?” Hood asked in disbelief. “We can just nuke ‘em?”
“We could this time, but that doesn’t mean it’ll work twice. You know how they learn.”
Quickly making their way through the fence line, they began navigating around dust covered cars and the rubble caused by fallen buildings. Closer to the ship, he could see it hadn’t crashed cleanly and sections of the orange surface had wide cracks. Using his advanced viewing, there were pink blobs he knew to be people running from the city. Not everyone had been transformed into the pale creatures, but these survivors would now be dying from radiation poisoning.
Lexie asked, “What about the survivors?”
“We need to get to that ship now.”
“What’s the rush? It’s crashed.”
“The critters might defend it, so I wanna get inside now just in case we can’t later.”
Heading to one of the larger cracks on its side, the critters had already split into thousands of miniature versions of themselves. The entire ground was covered with their vibrating movement and he stepped out of his truck, crushing them underfoot. Clearly confused by the explosion, the critters were running aimlessly, clambering over one another in a dense mass of directionless movement. The buildings around the crashed ship had partially collapsed with the impact, and had they not been driving all-terrain vehicles, it would have been impossible to get as close as they were. People were trapped under the rubble and he could see they were still alive, but buried under a mountain of broken buildings.
Walking towards the ship, he muttered to himself, “One problem at a time.”
The ship presented a wall at least fifty yards tall with a six-foot wide crack down the middle curving upwards. The orange metallic looking skin on the ship was a foot deep and beyond it was an eerie glow that he assumed was the goo. Beneath his feet, the tiny critters were running excitedly in and out of the opening, creating a blurry movement that hid the dusty covered concrete beneath them.
“What now?” Hood asked.
“I guess five of us should go inside and the rest can watch the perimeter.”
“What perimeter?”
If he hadn’t been wearing his full helmet, Hood would have seen him rolling his eyes. “We can’t all go inside so you, Leon, Tank and Lexie can come with me.” Dismissing Hood with a shake of his head, he asked, “Bill, are you getting all of this?”
“Yeah, just get in there and show us what you’ve got.”
The foot-thick orange walls encasing the dimly lit interior appeared to be solid, making him wonder if the ship was made of metal at all. Placing one gloved hand on the wall as he stepped inside, a vibration travelled along his arm causing his spine to tingle. Another step led him beyond the wall and opened into what appeared to be a wide corridor lit on either side by the transparent goo. Beneath his feet, tiny critters were nimbly running beside him. He trailed his hand along the goo-covered wall, feeling it sink into it. It was a surprisingly short corridor that ended abruptly after no more than fifteen feet. The critters by his feet and on the walls on either side of him were disappearing into the goo.
Turning to face the four Navigators now inside of the ship, he said, “End of the road.”
“How can this be it?” Hood asked in disbelief.
“It’s not,” Lexie replied, and she pushed her arm into the goo, making it disappear up to her elbow. “I think we have to walk through it.”
As much as he didn’t like the idea of walking through the goo, he gently penetrated the wall with his arm. The goo eased apart and then wound its way along his shoulder, acting as if it were alive. Placing his other arm into the goo, he took another step forward, allowing his helmet to be encased. With his reality viewing, his world became a milky white with small areas of glossiness.
“Err, I guess Lexie’s right. We’ll have to walk through it.”
“What’s on the other side?” Leon asked.
Taking another step so that his whole body was buried inside of the goo, he replied, “Nothing. Just more of the same.”
“I can’t see you,” Lexie complained.
“Are you inside of the goo?”
“Yeah, but I can’t see you anymore.”
“Stand still and I’ll find you.”
The goo was like a compliant jello, offering little resistance to his movement. Reaching to where he’d last seen Lexie in the corridor, his hand ran across something hard.
With a sharp squeal, Lexie asked, “Was that you?”
“Yeah. We’re gonna get lost in here. Grab hold of the person in front of you and we’ll walk as a chain gang.”
One-by-one they grabbed onto one another’s gear and he led the procession through the goo, counting each step and the direction he was taking. “Bill, keep track of this so you can lead us back out.”
“We’ve got you.”
The ship didn’t seem to have anything inside of it other than more goo, making him wonder what the skin was made of. Goo was produced by the critters and they were derived from transformed people, which meant they were effectively organic. Was it possible that the ship was just another transformed species, turned into something it was never meant to be?
Continuing to walk through the goo, he was only finding more of it. It was so thick it created a cloudiness that he couldn’t quite see through. Flicking his visor to various spectrums, the green blobs of tiny critters were scattered throughout the goo, but eventually he saw a faintly pinkish shape ahead of him.
“Bill, can you see that?”
Amber answered for Bill. “Yeah, I think it’s a person.”
Changing direction so that he was now heading towards the pink body, he reached out to it, grabbing it by what he assumed was an arm. When he tugged at it, the body easily slipped through the goo until it was next to him. His inability to see clearly was frustrating and he ran his hands along its thin limbs. Judging by the shape of the person, they’d been transformed, but he couldn’t see clearly enough to be sure.
Letting go of the body, he moved forward again, followed by the other Navigators. Ahead, he thought he could see more of the pinkish blobs, only these were densely packed. Intent on finding out what they were, he pushed ahead, forgetting to count his steps. Losing track of how far he’d travelled, he guessed he was heading towards the center of the ship. The pinkish blobs became clearer and he realized he was looking at thousands of people; all transformed into whatever it was the aliens wanted them to become. At first, he was able to walk past the bodies, reaching out and touching them so that they drifted slightly inside of the goo, but
eventually that became impossible. There were so many pink bodies ahead of him that they formed a wall. Pushing against the ones in front of him, they drifted away, colliding into the bodies around them. Continuing to shove at the shapes so that they floated away, he walked on until he was surrounded by a sea of pink.
“How many are there in here?” Lexie asked in wonder.
“Tens of thousands and the ship isn’t anywhere near full.”
“What are they doing to them?”
He didn’t know so he didn’t answer. Surrounded by so many bodies, he realized every single one of them represented a life lost. Each drifting pink blob had once been a person, but now they were barely human and being taken away. He was effectively standing inside of the largest cemetery he’d ever seen.
Taking in the enormity of the loss of life, his damaged mouth set into a grim line. “This ends now.”
CHAPTER TWELVE: Not on my watch (Leon)
Amber guided them to retrace their steps so that they left the ship the same way they’d entered it. Knowing that this was the future for every city, they’d silently marched out of what he now thought of as the death ship. This was the alien’s endgame, to transform them into something that they could use, just as they’d done when they turned their people into the critters. What kind of species would use another to benefit themselves? He supposed they were no different. As the dominant species on earth, mankind had used every other living creature in some way. Perhaps to the aliens they were so low on the totem pole that they were as expendable as a chicken was to a man. With their knack for transforming cells into something they wanted, they were certainly smart enough, plus they appeared to have mastered space travel.
Reaching the exit, he was relieved to be outside in a world he understood again, one where his species was dominant. Walking through the crack in the hull, the other Navigators clustered around them.
“Now what?” Bill asked through his headset.
It was Dayton who answered first. “Now we know what they’re doing. They’re transforming some of us and they plan to take us from the planet. It’s the ultimate in organ harvesting.”
“Is that what they want us for?” He asked. “Are you sure about that?”
“It doesn’t matter what they want us for, the fact is they’re…standardizing and then taking us. It’s like…it’s like what we do when we use embryonic cells. We use them because they’re…empty and we can apply them to anything.”
“Are you saying that we’re no better than they are?” Lexie asked in disbelief.
“No, I’m just saying that they’re using us as a source for something else, just as we do when we re-use organs or cells. It’s the same thing, they’re just better at it than we are, but who’s to say what we’ll be able to do in fifty or a hundred years.”
“We’d never do this,” he said defiantly. “We’d never seed a species just so we can harvest it later.”
“Yeah, we probably would,” Bill replied dourly. “When you’re the dominant species you don’t have a lot of regard for those that aren’t.”
Ark was conspicuously silent and he moved to his side, patting his armor with his gloved hand. “What do you think?”
“Look around you. The people in this city are dying,” Ark replied quietly. “We killed them when we brought down the ship.”
For the first time since they’d left the ship, he changed his visor to advanced viewing and saw the pink blobs buried inside of the buildings. “Dayton, is there anything we can do for them?”
Dayton’s grim voice came through his headset. “No, they’re going to die no matter what you do. They’re already suffering from severe radiation poisoning. Anyone in the city will already be disoriented and dizzy, which will lead to bloody vomit and diarrhea. They’ll die badly. The people further out will also suffer the same effects, but it’ll take longer to kill them.”
Sounding dismayed, Lexie asked, “Isn’t there anything we can do for them?”
“Not really. There’s only fifteen of you and thousands of them. We don’t have the facilities or the drugs to treat them. They’re on their own.”
“Shit! Shit! Shit!”
It was Hood who was shouting at the top of his voice, making his ears hurt. “Cut it out, Hood.”
“I will not cut it out! Do you have any idea of the mess we’re in now? If we bomb the cities to get rid of the ships, we’ll kill anyone anywhere near it. If we let the ships take the people then we’ll lose almost everyone. Nothing we do is gonna make any difference. Everyone is gonna die.”
Although he hadn’t thought it through as clearly, he did know they were in a dark place now. Whatever they did, they were screwed. Tapping Ark’s armor again, he asked, “Ark, what say you?”
Still sounding defeated, Ark replied, “Now that they’re dying of radiation poisoning we can’t help the people here, so bombing the ships once they’re over the cities is not a solution.”
Bill’s voice came through his headset sounding surprised. “Are you suggesting that we allow the aliens to take our people? That’s not acceptable either.”
The sound of overlapping voices filled his headset, each shouting loudly in an effort to be heard, but underneath their words was an air of growing panic. They’d just learned what their enemy wanted and how easily they could take it. In the eyes of their enemy, they were no more than cattle being processed for their needs. Maybe they were a mistake. Perhaps they were supposed to be docile and content with their lot, but they weren’t and nothing in his life had prepared him to be the inferior species of another. Seeing himself as livestock didn’t rest well, but he couldn’t see how he was anything more to their superior enemy. The panicky voices continued to shout in his ear.
“The radiation will kill us all.”
“We can’t destroy the planet.”
“We need to send a message that we won’t roll over.”
Feeling as defeated as Ark had sounded, he sat heavily on the remains of a wall, leaning his elbows against his knees. If he could have, he would have removed his helmet, but given the radiation it wasn’t an option. He was sitting in the middle of a city they’d ruined, surrounded by the dead and the dying. Avatars were flashing on the screens on his visor, telling him which speaker was talking. One after another flicked by, showing that everyone was still shouting and no one was listening. Feeling tired, he lifted his gloved hands to his helmet and rested his head against them.
An even louder voice cut through the others and it was Lexie. “Amber, shut down the grid so only Ark and I can talk.” One-by-one the voices cut out until there was only Lexie and Ark on the grid. “Ark, what do you want to do?”
He didn’t reply immediately, but then he began to speak in his usual steady tone. “Bombing the ships isn’t an option. It’ll destroy the planet and we don’t know how many ships there are, so we might not have enough useable missiles. This all started with the things in the nest. I think they’re the problem. They control the critters and they called the ships. We need to get into the nests and destroy whatever the things are at the bottom of them. This is about survival of the fittest and to date we always have been. This is the first time anything other than ourselves has challenged our supremacy of this planet. I don’t care if we were seeded. I don’t care if we’re a mistake. We’re being tested and I say we fight back with everything we have. If we lose everyone doing it then the last thing the good men and women of NORAD can do for us is to destroy anything that’s left.”
Lexie gave a sharp laugh. “What are you saying? If we can’t have the planet then they can’t either?”
“No matter what, we will not lose. They can kill us all, but they’ll gain nothing from us.”
When Amber opened access to the grid again, no one said a word until Bill asked, “Okay, so how do we do this?”
“We’ll send the squads out with one order. Destroy the nests at any cost. I don’t care how they get into them and how many people they lose doing it, just get in there and bl
ow the crap out of it. If we take down enough nests then maybe they’ll think twice about kidnapping our people. Maybe they’ll realize we’re not worth the trouble we’re gonna cause.”
Ark’s confidence was catching, and finally taking his head from his hands, he walked back to the team. “We’ll need C4, RPGs and any other explosives we can find.”
Hood nodded. “We’ll also need to coordinate the squads. We can expect our losses to be considerable, so just sending one into each nest won’t work. We should put them into teams of four squads.”
“The squads will need to coordinate supplies,” Bill said. “We’ll issue everyone with locations for the various bases. The shadow navs can direct squads so that they don’t overlap when they scavenge.”
Amber spoke next. “We can set up records and keep everyone up-to-date on the status of the squads and munitions.”
Jo asked, “Are we going all in?”
It was Ark who replied, and in a voice filled with anger, he said, “Hell yeah. I don’t give a shit what these assholes do anywhere else, but this is our world and only we get to fuck with it.”
Ark’s answer made him laugh. As a species, they might have argued over every little thing, finding differences where none really existed, but when push came to shove, they were a unified force that wouldn’t allow anything else to take control of what they usually took for granted. Humans dominated earth and they would fight to maintain that position until there was no one left to argue. If no one were left alive then aliens still wouldn’t get to rule mankind. To his surprise, he wasn’t alarmed at the prospect of his likely death, but was invigorated to know he would die standing his ground. This was his planet and no bug-like alien was going to take it from him while he was still alive.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Last call (Bill)
“We’ve got around five hundred navs in various stages of training. It gives us about one hundred squads, and if we put them into battle teams of four that’ll give us twenty-five teams.”
Ark gave him a dissatisfied look. “But we think there’s about a hundred nests. Assuming only half of them complete their mission, we’re barely scratching the surface. I think each battle team can only have two squads.”