by Jesse Wilson
“What are you doing here?” he asked them.
“I’m Madison. This is Janine and Randall. We’re just along for the ride, literally; that’s all,” she replied to him and he narrowed his eyes.
“I’m sure you are. You three picked some strange company,” Xule replied and Madison glared at him.
“There is more than you know going on here,” she shot back at him.
“Oh, right. You’re the one who freaked out back in that town about the deal being shot down. I remember,” Xule said, and Madison only glared in response.
“That was harsh, you walking suitcase. Do you know why she did that?” Randall said to him and Xule was about to talk.
“Kids, please, pipe down. I have something to say and show you over here,” Terra said to them at once, raising her voice. No one was brave enough to argue with her.
Terra turned on a screen that was a simplistic view of Earth and the space around it.
“Observe humans. A fleet of ships is coming this way,” she pointed at the strange blips approaching the earth.
“That has to be the alliance, coming here to destroy you no doubt,” Xule said, never taking his hand off hit blaster.
“I thought that too at first, but a deeper scan revealed this little space gem,” she continued, pushing a button to reveal another, much larger red dot approaching Earth; it was much closer to the planet, right over Nevada.
“By deeper, I meant more intense. This thing was invisible. Lucky for you, humans know how to detect trace amounts of radiation. This thing is what the fleet is coming for, not me,” Terra said and looked away from the screen.
Xule shivered and took a step back.
“Garmonbozia, it can’t be,” he said in a whisper.
“But it is, my lizard friend. It is your old shame coming back to haunt you and destroy this planet entirely because of me, but someone called it and didn’t know what they were doing,” Terra replied. Bruce shook his head.
“Well, I guess we will see if the world can handle other life forms or not. Too bad the world had to come to an end before we opened up to the rest of the galaxy. Typical luck,” Bruce said.
“What in the hell is a Garmonbozia anyway?” Janine asked anyone who might know.
“Garmonbozia is a planet-killing weapon created in the Xeloid Wars as a last resort. We didn’t know how to turn it off; the best we could do was put it in standby mode. It was never used in actual combat. We hid it and all of its probes in deep space outside of the Time Stasis systems. It should be millions of years old by now and dead. It was the finest thing we made together as a united species alliance, our greatest accomplishment,” Xule said, trying to explain what it was, but his quick description of the thing just wasn’t enough for Bruce.
“Planet killer without an off switch? And they say humanity is stupid. Wow,” Bruce said, frustrated.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Xule replied. Phil began to slowly succumb to panic; the world was going to end, and everyone was taking it way too casually.
“They have my core body here, but it is DNA locked. Only you can open the cage, so it’s a good thing I didn’t kill you. But I have an offer,” she said to them. She also knew that there were plenty of ways to unlock her body, even if she had killed him.
“You open the cage so I can get back to my full self again, and I’ll help fight the planet-killer with the rest of you. In return, I’ll leave this planet and find a different one to play with when the fleet leaves. Time is running out; make your choice fast or it really won’t make a difference either way and you will all be dead,” she said to them and crossed her arms.
“Nope, I don’t trust it,” Xule said, raising his weapon to point it in the face of his enemy. Terra stepped forward into the barrel of the weapon as everyone watched the situation escalate.
Bruce took a step back in order to not get blasted on accident; however, Phil rushed between the two. He pulled Xule’s arm down and pushed Terra back at the same time without even thinking about it.
“No, you two are going to stop fighting. My whole world is going to be killed and you two don’t care, but I do, you understand? I swear, I will do something really bad if you don’t stop this,” he said to the both of them not thinking clearly.
“Oh, the human is going to do something bad, to me. Cute,” Terra said and looked over at Phil’s hand, grabbing his wrist lightly with her right hand.
Phil was shocked at how cold Terra’s body actually was, and it snapped him back into realizing what he just did. Xule withdrew and lowered his weapon.
“Look, we have to work together because apparently, we’re all about to die. According to this, your planet-killer thing is about to land in four minutes just outside of Vegas somewhere,” Bruce said as he never took his eyes off the digital-tracking map before them. Everyone in the room was looking at it now.
“Why is it landing there?” Terra asked as she let Phil go.
“Story goes that Garmonbozia is connected to the one who asked for it, or as close as it can get. Heather and her friends in for the surprise of their lives,” Xule said and they all watched the giant green dot come closer to the ground.
“You know, you sure like to mention random facts as we go. Anything else you’d like to add? Or is it going to be like this until we die?” Bruce asked him.
Xule shook his head. “Yeah, I only know what I’ve heard. It’s the same as knowing what a weapon is compared to knowing everything about it. Yes, my people helped build it. Yes, I’ve seen it. No, I personally didn’t help build it. I only know what is considered general knowledge on my planet. So, if I remember anything else useful, I’ll be sure to share it; otherwise, stop getting on my case about things. It’s getting really old,” Xule said in frustration and put his blaster away.
“Well, you don’t need to get snippy about it. I was only wondering. Sorry I asked anything,” Bruce replied to him.
Chapter Fifty
“Prepare to launch the neutron bomb,” Commander Spiri ordered as she checked the distance to the target. The pilot flipped a few switches then the alarms began to blare all over the airplane.
“What in the hell is going on?” the commander demanded.
“It’s the proximity warning,” the pilot said in a very worried tone but could see nothing from their point of view.
“Just ignore it. There isn’t anything to run into up here; it must be a malfunction. Proceed with the mission as—” The commander stopped talking as something blotted out the sun.
“Oh my God, it’s—” The pilot was cut off as a massive metal hand tore the plane in half, causing it and its payload to explode with a violent bright blue light immediately upon impact, sending shards of metal and fire to the earth below.
***
General Benton and everyone in the camp who was able to see watched the exploding plane above their camp and the spreading streams of flames. It looked like a firework going off. The black shape burst through the flames a second later, and people were transfixed on the thing that blotted out the sun. At first, it looked like a giant meteor…before its arms spread out.
“What is that thing?” someone standing near the general asked.
“I don’t know, but it just saved all of our lives. How bad could it be?” he replied as he watched it fly, almost falling from the sky away from them. He swallowed and narrowed his eyes. Despite saving all of them, watching this thing burn across the sky didn’t make him feel good in the slightest.
***
Heather and the others were driving down the road in the convoy when suddenly the car in front of them came to a halt. Cory slammed on the breaks to avoid running into the back. As soon as he did, all of them were thrust forward.
“What in the hell is going on?” Heather almost screamed.
“I don’t know, everyone just stopped,” Cory replied, and Bob was about to ask on the walkie when the blood went out of Cory’s face, leaving him looking like a ghost.
Heather
didn’t notice it at first, but once she did, she didn’t know how anyone could have missed it. She saw it land, and the minute it did, all of the cars shook violently. It was so close, so tall, that she tried to look up to see its face, but the roof of the van was getting in the way. The impact was so great that seconds later, the lead RV sailed over the convoy and landed behind the van with a great crash.
“Oh, my God,” Alex said to himself.
Jeff slid the door open, he’d caught the whole landing event on camera and continued to film. Rose was right behind him and got right into reporter mode, brushed her hair back and did the best she could to make herself presentable to a camera.
“This is Rose Ardale reporting live for WTNV News. Something has just landed just outside of what was once was Las Vegas,” she said in the most professional voice she could summon, talking to no one but a camera. The cameraman whirled around to face the thing that had landed.
The others got out of the van as well. They were concerned with the thing that landed; everyone else was running towards Boz’s RV in a panic.
“It’s a goddamned giant robot; look at the thing. It’s massive,” Bob said as he put his hands over his eyes to block the sun to get a better look, but all he could see was a silhouette of what looked like a massive human-shaped thing…barely.
The thing’s eyes lit up bright red and fired a beam down over the whole convoy, turning everything a blood red. The van’s radio came on just then.
“Contact established. You will be helped. You have twenty-four hours to evacuate this planet,” said a voice that sounded surprisingly pleasant; not what anyone would have expected. As soon as this message was delivered, the massive humanoid robot’s left arm began to move and stretch out; at the end, five fingers extended.
Bright blue-and-green electricity chained around the black fingertips. With a crack of thunder, a bright bolt slammed into the ground beside the convoy. It was so bright no one could look directly at it. When the flash faded away, the massive figure was nowhere to be seen.
There was, instead, a black metal tower that had to be at least fifty meters tall, but it was nowhere near the height of the original machine that created it.
It gave everyone an idea how big this new invader really was.
“Hey, you new people, quit your damn gawking and get over here and help us get Boz out. He looks hurt!” someone screamed at them. They had looked over and saw the RV; it was crushed as if a child had carelessly thrown a fragile toy.
“We can investigate the tower later. Let’s get that guy out of the RV if we can,” Bob said to them and started to run back towards the crushed RV to see if they could help.
“Well, look at that; it disappeared and left a tower in its place,” Bruce said sarcastically and turned to look at the others. Xule had a terrified look on his face.
“You don’t understand; those towers are conducting towers. The weapon will teleport around the planet and make one every so often. The towers will do a chain energy thing, ignite the atmosphere, and burn everything until there is nothing left,” Xule said and Terra just nodded in agreement.
“Chain energy thing. I’m glad you can get so technical with your descriptions,” Russell said.
“Lizard boy is right, as far as I know. That’s the story most of these things, or st least those who know it, agree on,” she agreed with him and Bruce sighed.
“Let’s give your alien armada a chance to do what they are going to do,” Bruce said and walked away from the map. “Tell me how to get in touch with your people so we can coordinate our efforts,” Bruce finished and Terra glared at him.
“You do realize I can just take you over right now and force you to do what I want,” she said to him and Bruce smiled.
“You easily could, but what’s your hurry? We are all in the same boat now. If I were you, I’d wait for the other aliens to wear it down a little bit first before taking this thing on,” Bruce said to her.
She thought about it for a minute and decided he was right.
“Fine, we’ll let them do their thing,” she agreed with him, at least for now creating a tense situation between all of them.
“You’ll need the right frequency for communications. Here, let me help you figure out what it is on this machine you’ve got here,” Xule said to him and walked to a panel to see if they could figure out what could be done.
James, Logan, and everyone else watched the plane explode as the humanoid robot thing became their unlikely savior. They all watched the flaming pieces of the plane fall away from them. “What in the hell was that thing?” James asked no one really.
“You’ve got me; I think we were just saved, but I don’t think it was on purpose,” Phoenix replied to him. All of their eyes were still pointed towards the sky when a low rumbling sound began to echo from nowhere.
“Is it some kind of a sonic boom or what?” James said, looking around to see the source of the noise that had quickly attracted the attention of the entire camp.
“Look!” Someone pointed into the sky behind them, and there were twenty burning slashes in the sky, as if comets had all lined up in a row to come to earth.
“They must be with the giant robot,” James figured out loud to himself. Despite how far away they appeared to be, it became obvious to everyone that this was no meteor shower.
The line of ships leveled out, but each one was clearly a different color and shape. This reflected off of the sunlight for all to see.
“This has been a weird day,” Logan said as he and everyone else watched them fly away. He soon wondered if he was hallucinating all of this because of being sleep deprived all this time. As soon as the strange ships flew over and out of sight, a wave of exhaustion came over him. He slumped down into a nearby chair and put his face in his hands.
“You’re going to be okay, man, we are going to be alright. Get some rest, and I’ll wake you up if anything changes,” James said to him. He was just as tired as Logan was, but an overwhelming sense of responsibility was haunting him; and guilt too. If he would have followed orders, he would have been dead right now.
Maybe they should have been dead. There was no way for him to be sure. All he knew was that if anyone found out they ran instead of fought, life would be very different, and not in a good way.
Chapter Fifty-One
“Sir, we’re getting a transmission from Earth,” the communications officer said to Ulrix.
“Just us or everyone? Details, lightscale; now is not the time to be dim,” Ulrix demanded from his chair.
“All the ships are getting it. It’s from Captain Williams and—” Ulrix cut him off. “And put it through already,” he replied. The officer touched a few buttons and Bruce and Xule appeared on the screen.
“Hello, Captain, congratulations on the promotion. I expected you to be dead!” Xule said, his eyes lighting up as he smiled.
“I should have been, but a few years after you got thrown out, I managed to get the rest of this planet into the index. It was the least I could do after all. You look great for being thirty-five million years old, give or take a couple centuries,” Ulrix said and Bruce shook his head.
“Alright, I’m breaking this up right now. We have a problem. Your boy here claims this thing is a plane- killer, and since you’re here, I believe you’ve come here to help. We need to work together, so fill me in on what we’re up against here, Ulrix,” Bruce said to him and the commander smiled.
“Right to the point as always, Captain, or should I say, General, now?” Ulrix replied sarcastically as Terra walked into the frame. Instantly, Ulrix knew what it was. “Why is this scum standing next to you?” he demanded to know, growing angry.
“Scum? Lizard breath, I want you to know that my core body is trapped in this metal bucket of a base. I’m not just a client, I’m the president of the club you’re talking to. The only reason I don’t kill you right now is because we have a bigger problem to deal with than little old me, so if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate a
little respect. I’ll be one hundred percent sooner or later, and I never forget anything,” she said and her eyes flared a deep yellow as she did.
“Hey, enough. There is a giant thing out there that is going to deep fry my whole planet, so let’s make a plan here. What are we going to do about it?” Bruce said, breaking up the fight.
“Our fleet is going to track down the machine, unload everything we have into it, and hope it’s enough to break it down for good. It’s really the only plan we have. If you want to join in on this party, feel free, but don’t come unprepared. Innocents are going to die. We are tracking it now; it’s east of where it landed, about one hundred miles, charging itself up to create another tower. It’s going to move in a straight line from there until it makes a full circle. Once it gets back to the initial tower, it’s game over for everyone,” Ulrix replied and Bruce sighed.
“Alright, I’ll get my people on the line and tell them what you told me. In the meantime, try not to cause too much panic. It’s been a strange and stressful day for planet Earth; they might be a bit nervous if they see you,” Bruce said. Ulrix smiled and cut off the communication.
“I need my body back. They won’t be enough to stop this thing and we all know it, so stop stalling and unlock my core, now,” Terra said to Bruce. It almost sounded like she was pleading with him to do it.
“Done. Don’t make me regret this,” Bruce said and continued. “Follow me; you guys stay here and mingle or something.” He walked off, and Terra followed him out of the main chamber.
Xule and the others stood there staring at one another.
“So, welcome to Earth,” Randall said, doing his best to break the silence. “Thanks, but I think I like Nurid better. When all this over, Sippy and I are going to take a very long vacation to all points nowhere,” Xule replied to him, but didn’t smile.
The biggest threat he’d ever known was about to be made whole, and everything was so different from when he woke up from the ice. Now two planet destroyers were about to fight for the fate of a world neither of them belonged to.