by Cliff Ball
The sergeant spoke into his radio and informed the others where they could find the commander of the Terran facility. Then he spoke to a corporal, “I want you to take Traynor back to the cargo bay with everyone else. As for the rest of you, let’s go.”
The Marine squads converged onto the Control Center, where Commander Lomanco and everyone else were caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the heavily armed humans from Earth. The Marines had all the exits covered so none of the Terrans could escape. The Major in charge of the Marines looked around the room at the captured Terrans, saw one who appeared to be in a high ranking military uniform, walked over to him, and asked, “We’re looking for Commander Gregor Lomanco, are you him?”
“Yes, and it would be pointless to deny it, considering I’m the only Terran in this room wearing a military uniform. Who are you?”
“We’re from the United States of America on Earth and you and your people are under arrest for spying, sabotage, and anything else considered terrorists acts by our Homeland Security Agency. You and your people will be sent to Earth where your fate will be decided. Your base is ours now, and although I would prefer to nuke it, my government wishes the base to be kept from harm.”
“This is totally impossible for you Earth humans to get this far out, you aren’t supposed to have starships yet! My government will learn of this and come down hard on your planet, you backwater barbarians!” said a confused and completely angry Commander Lomanco.
“Well, we have starships and we are this far out; and no, your government won’t learn of this, because we’re going to take care of that,” then to four other Marines, “take him and the others to the cargo hold and we’ll get them all to Earth shortly. The rest of you, get this base secured, find the location you’re assigned to, and get these computers back up and running.” ordered the Major.
Four hours later, the base personnel were put onto the two Terran ships, manned by the other one hundred Marines, with the help of the Terran engineers who knew how to operate the ships, after the virus had been purged from the systems of the ships. They were flown to Earth, where they landed at Area 51 in the dark, and the Terrans were taken to the underground complex to be processed by the United States government. On Mars, Lieutenant Woods and some other computer specialists from the Reprisal were erasing the virus from the base computers, and looking through the vast amounts of information stored in the database. There were lists of who had been on Earth in the past, who was currently on Earth that was being watched by the Terran powers-that-be in case they do something they shouldn’t do on Earth, the entire history of the Terrans, their enemies, their allies, and Terran military secrets. The Reprisal left a day later for the next phase in their mission.
Back on Earth, President O’Bana was finishing up his press conference, “We now come to the end of the flashback, ladies and gentlemen. The USS Reprisal is on its way to finish the rest of the mission I signed off on. I’m sure all of you are shocked by these revelations, and all of you more than likely have lots of good and meaningful questions you need answered. So that we don’t have chaos here in the Press Room, I want all of your questions submitted in writing, so that my staff and I can take the time to answer them in a clear and precise way without being misinterpreted. I promise you we will have the answers back to you within twenty four hours of the last submitted question. Now, I assume I have phone calls from nearly every major country on Earth, so if all of you would please excuse me, I need to get to work.”
As O’Bana left the Press Room, Vice President Jim Borden greeted the President, and said, “You’re right about phone calls from every major country on Earth, the red phone has been ringing off the hook since the moment you informed the world of the Terrans and the Ragnor. You may need to speak to Russia first, because they aren’t happy at all. Of course, neither is China, France, the UK, or the rest of the G-8. There is also some intelligence that Israel, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, and China have all increased their military readiness, including activating their nuclear missile sites. We don’t know though if they’re aimed at us or waiting for aliens to invade the planet, but, it would be a safe bet that they’re all completely and totally serious about defending themselves. You might just have to speak to all of them at the UN just so you’d have them all in one place.
“I have a question, Mr. President. What do you want done with Terrans here in the United States, like that talk show host in Chicago? I know she supported you, but she is an alien who seems to be gathering quite a power base around her, and brainwashing quite a few of our women in the process. She may very well threaten your power one of these days if we don’t put a stop to it. Or, what about that movie director/producer who made that successful cash cow of a science fiction movie franchise? Do you want Homeland Security or the FBI to round them up in a very public manner, or do you want it done quietly?”
“I want every Terran in the United States arrested and the famous ones arrested publicly, show their fans how phony they really are. Either agency can round them up, let everyone get some good publicity for once, assuming this whole thing goes right in the public opinion department. I also want those two Terran ships to be taken apart like the Ragnor ship was, then I want our best engineers and companies like Lockheed, to build us a fleet of starships that can defend the planet from a possible attack from any of the other species in the galaxy. Let it be known that no one messes with Earth but those of us who live here. Now, I have to go smooth some feathers with my colleagues.” O’Bana walked off towards the Oval Office.
O’Bana goes to his desk in the Oval Office, takes a deep breath, and phones Russia first. Russian leader Vladimir Putin answers the phone, hears who it is, and says, “You Americans have gotten us into what could be huge mess. Also revealing that the Soviet Union knew about the aliens and attempted to do something ourselves takes our relationship with your country back a few steps. I was KGB, we knew all about Area 51 at the height of the Cold War, we chose to do nothing about it, unlike your country that seemed to have interfered in our attempt at reaching the moon. Revealing to the entire world this secret is arrogant, it could get us all killed.”
“I did what I thought was best, exactly like you and your predecessors would have done. As for Area 51, I think the KGB heard exactly when most Americans heard about it, mostly through rumors, and you could probably never confirm those rumors until now, so don’t go all high and mighty on me, Vlad. So you think I’ve gotten the whole world into a mess by taking this fight to the Ragnor and the Terrans? This is a pre-emptive action and neither side will know we had anything to do with it, I can guarantee you that.”
“We all know about your countries’ pre-emptive wars, Mr. United States President, so I choose to be skeptical. I assume you’re calling the other leaders of the world, who will probably be as condemning or more so that I have been, so be prepared. Goodbye, Mr. O’Bana.” Putin hung up the phone.
The President sighed, dialed another number, and reached the French President. O’Bana was thinking that he wasn’t sure what the official French response would be, since they never seemed very consistent when it comes to supporting the American position, so he was pleasantly surprised when President Sarkozy supported the Americans and their endeavor, but asked if there was anything the French could do to help. O’Bana said support was all he needed from the French. Great Britain, who wanted to maintain close ties to the United States no matter what, also supported the decision, even offering military support, if needed. Unfortunately, the majority of the countries that O’Bana called, including China, Japan, South Korea, India, Mexico, and Australia condemned the action against the Terrans and Ragnor. Some even threatened to go to the United Nations and get sanctions imposed on the United States, which O’Bana knew the Security Council would never agree on, since the United States did have veto power and would nullify any call for sanctions. Now, all that was to be done was to wait for the Reprisal to return to Earth after the last mission.
&
nbsp; Chapter Seventeen
Six months later, the Reprisal arrived at the Ragnor solar system, still cloaked, while the solar system itself was invisible to the naked eye. Captain Kell asked, “Lieutenant Woods, if we were to bring down their cloak, do you think they’d know or would they still think they were cloaked?”
“I think the frequency we’re using to bring down their cloak will only let us see the planets and the sun, I don’t think they’d know or anyone else would know about us de-cloaking the star system. Once we can see their star system, we can go in and find the Ragnor home planet, and do what we’re going to do.”
“Proceed with the de-cloaking then, Lieutenant.” ordered Kell.
Woods typed in a series of commands on his console, which activated a device on the ships’ deflector array, and it began to transmit the exact signal to reveal the Ragnor star system to the humans. As the signal was transmitting for nearly twenty minutes, the star system appeared to ripple into existence, revealing ten planets, and a red star for a sun. Sensors revealed the fourth planet as the Ragnor home, because for one thing, it had a massive space station in orbit and a shipyard, which had ten starships in port, and dozens of satellites in orbit. Kell ordered Woods to fly the still cloaked Reprisal and approach the space station, and also ordered for Ostoro to be brought to the bridge.
Ten minutes later, the Earth starship was a few hundred yards from the Ragnor space station, just as Ostoro was arriving on the bridge, guarded by the two men who had been guarding him for the past two years. On the monitor at the front of the bridge was an image of the space station with the planet in the background, and the look on Ostoros’ face showed that he thought he knew exactly where the Reprisal had been going on this long voyage, “I thought we were going to the star system known to you as Alpha Centauri, since you had landed and taken the Terran facility on Mars. What do you plan on doing to my people?”
“Watch and you’ll find out, Ostoro. Woods, initiate the computer virus on the space station.” ordered Kell.
Woods typed in a sequence of commands and a Ragnor program popped up on his screen, he then said, “First step we’re going to do is initiate a virus written in Terran computer code so that the Ragnor will later assume that the Terrans invaded their star system. The space station and the shipyard will shut down in about fifteen minutes if my calculations are correct, while they’ll get all sorts of computer errors while the virus is working through the system. If done correctly, the virus may even be transmitted to the surface and affect all networked computers. If your planet is anything like ours when it comes to computers and networks, then the virus should affect nearly every computer on the planet. Your people won’t know what to do without access to computers, causing a panic of the likes probably never before seen on your planet. Ok, the virus has been completely transmitted; now all we have to do is wait.”
“I applaud you. That’s very impressive, for humans from a backwater planet. Is that all you plan on doing, giving a virus to the computers? You disappoint me, humans.” remarked Ostoro in his usual sarcastic tone.
“As someone on Earth once said, ‘You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.’ You’ll see what we plan on doing next, just you wait. We hicks from some backwater planet know how to bring you cosmopolitan aliens your just deserts.” said Kell, in a sarcastic tone herself.
Ostoro rolled his eyes and waited for whatever the humans were going to do next. Twenty minutes later, the space station and the shipyard did shut down. Lights could be seen all over the station blinking on and off during that time, while the beacons on the station blinked fast one time and really slow the next. What appeared to be a small shuttle started drifting through space, and a scan revealed that it was without power. Apparently the computers on Ragnor itself did become infected with the virus, because the humans could see the city lights on the dark side of the planet all shutting off, and causing total darkness for the Ragnor who were used to having electricity.
“Woods, initiate the next phase in our mission.” ordered Kell.
“With pleasure, sir.” answered Woods, who typed in some more commands on his computer, activating the electro-magnetic pulse cannon housed in front of the ship.
The EM cannon on the Reprisal was directly aimed at the space station and the fired, which fried the electronics on board the station, making any attempt at fixing the virus affected computers completely undoable. Those Ragnor who had the presence of mind to look out a window, only saw a bright energy beam come out of nowhere, and they weren’t sure what the beam of energy was supposed to be doing. Later though, some found out that anything electronic that was independent of the computer system didn’t work, and some even opened up the problem machine and found melted hardware. The shipyard was unaffected by the EM weapon so that the Ragnor would find out who had supposedly attacked their planet and hopefully, the humans reasoned, they would take their revenge on the Terrans. The Reprisal flew directly over the planet and used the EM cannon again, aiming it at population centers on the ground, causing every kind of machine run by or aided by electronics to fail. All communications, whether computer aided or the radio, failed and the Ragnor began to panic. The cloaking system for the entire solar system failed then too, because the main power source was on the planet and affected by the EM pulse, so it shut down the cloaking nodes throughout the solar system, letting the whole galaxy see where the Ragnor lived. What the Ragnor didn’t know yet was that worse was yet to come.
“Weapons control, this is Captain Kell. Launch the bio weapons and wait for my order to launch the others.”
Ostoro was completely horrified by what was happening, and then shocked even more when he heard the Captain order the bio weapons to be launched. “What are you doing? I thought you humans had a stigma when it came to using bio weapons!”
“Sure, on our own people on a planet we have to live on. None of us have ever said we wouldn’t use WMD’s on a species on a different planet. This is to guarantee our survival as a species, nothing more, and nothing less,” Kell said, then turning to the guards, “wouldn’t the two of you say Ostoro has outlived his usefulness to us?”
John and Matt looked at each other, and then John looked at Captain Kell and responded, “Oh, yes, sir, we think he has. What are your orders?”
“I liked your idea of shoving this alien scum out the airlock, where better to do it than orbiting his homeworld. Get to it gentlemen.” ordered Kell.
“Our pleasure, sir!” answered Matt.
“Wait! I demand my rights, you can’t do this to me!” screamed Ostoro as soon as John and Matt surrounded him.
“You think you have rights? What a laugh. You aren’t human, you have no rights,” Kell remarked, then said, “would you two shut him up and restrain him, because otherwise he’ll fight you tooth and nail.”
The two guards sprayed Ostoro with a small sleeping gas canister and he immediately went limp. They picked him up and left the bridge, headed for the nearest airlock. Meanwhile, one hundred massive bio weapon bombs were launched, in strategic locations around the planet, including in the one ocean the planet had. The weapons contained every biochemical agent known to man that mankind had ever been affected with and used in war, from anthrax to smallpox. Some of the diseases included in the bio weapons had never been known to the Ragnor, so millions died off in a matter of hours, while the soil of the planet became contaminated enough to where the soil could never be used again for hundreds of years. Kell then ordered the last set of weapons to be used when she thought sufficient time had passed for the bio weapons to be effective, thermonuclear bombs.
As the Ragnor were panicking and dying off from the biochemical weapons, millions of others died instantly as fifty small in size sixty megaton bombs, launched from the Reprisal, exploded over the cities of the planet, making the cities and its citizens disappear in an instant. The massive explosions could be seen from orbit, along with the shockwaves that extended to well over four hundred miles in all directions. The fallout from the
bombs went into the jet stream, causing the climate on Ragnor to be altered from all the radiation caused by the bombs, and whoever was left alive on the planet not directly affected by bio weapons and nuclear weapons, would soon be poisoned by radiation or would die off from lack of food from the change in climate. Dark, menacing clouds began forming over the planet and a nuclear winter occurred for the next few years, killing off animals, plants, and even more Ragnor as the temperatures on the planet plunged to below freezing.
Meanwhile, Ostoro woke up, looked around to see where he was, realized he was in an airlock, and saw the smiling faces of his two human guards. He knew what was about to happen next, but argued anyway, “You can’t do this to me, I want to live!”
“We can and are doing this to you and your whole planet. The Ragnor are a menace to the entire galaxy, we’re doing what has to be done. Good riddance to bad rubbish, as my grandma used to say.” Matt said, as he touched the manual override of the outer airlock door, the door opened, the airlock depressurized, causing Ostoro to fly out of the airlock, dying in less than a minute of exposure and lack of oxygen. A few minutes later, his body burned up in the atmosphere of his homeworld. Matt then signaled Captain Kell that Ostoro had been taken care of.
On the bridge, Captain Kell said, “I believe our mission is accomplished. The Ragnor threat to Earth has been dealt with and if the remaining Ragnor take the bait and attack the Terrans, the Terran threat to Earth should be over with as well. Lieutenant Woods, set course for Earth, we’re going home.” the Reprisal flew off towards the Sol System.
One of the orbiting satellites above Ragnor automatically activated a distress signal which was broadcast out into space for Ragnor starships to receive and then return to port. Hours later, fifty of the closest starships and their crews had arrived in orbit around the Ragnor planet, shocked at the obvious devastation seen from orbit. The flagship of the fleet, docked at the shipyard, and scanned the docked starships and the space station. On the starships, there were crews still alive, while on the space station, most of the station personnel were dead. Admiral Sudano ordered, “I want a full investigation of what happened here. I want teams to don spacesuits and board the space station and the ships docked here, and rescue as many of our people as possible. See if there were any eyewitnesses to this destruction. I need volunteers to land on our planets’ surface and find out just how much devastation occurred and how it was done, even though we know nuclear weapons were exploded. I want to know who did this and demand retribution for it. Get to work people.”