by Isaac Hooke
“Well, apparently it is,” Rade said. “The question is, if it is a hack, who would want to cause such destruction? Essentially attacking every country in the world... what would they have to gain?”
“I don’t know,” Shaw said. “But here’s something else. The InterGalNet seems to be down. According to the news channels, we’ve stopped receiving data from the rest of the system. But the planet-wide Internet is still up.”
“It would have to be,” Rade said. “Since I was just in touch with Tahoe. Have you been able to reach your parents?”
“Yes, they’re holed up in the International Hotel,” Shaw said. “Marseille was hit by hail and high intensity winds, and the port was ravaged by high waves, but nothing more thankfully. They heard about the tornadoes ravaging the countryside, but I lied and told them we hadn’t seen any.”
“They’ll learn the truth soon enough,” Rade said.
“Yes,” Shaw said. “But I don’t want them rushing out here all worried, just to be close to their daughter and grandkids. Who can say if we’ve truly seen the last of this terrible weather? The tornadoes could return at any time as far as I’m concerned.” She eyed the ominous dark skies uncertainly.
Rade and the others finished their search and left the neighbor’s estate empty-handed. On the return trip, the jeep got stuck in the muddy rut, forcing Rade and the robots to get out and push. When the vehicle was free, Shaw put garbage bags over the seats and floors for them, and then they drove back to the chateau.
The rain had stopped entirely by then. Though power was out across the estate, the water still worked, so Rade showered off and changed.
He joined Shaw in the kitchen for a dinner of nonperishable goods gathered from the pantry. Rade tried feeding Alex peas from a can, but the boy spat them out. Rade made him a cheese and bread sandwich instead; Alex ate half of it, and Rade devoured the rest. Shaw managed to get Sil to eat the peas after much coaxing.
The news channels forecasted calm weather, but that night Rade and Shaw decided to sleep in the cellar, just to be on the safe side.
Rade had Algorithm and Brat bring down the small toddler beds, and they set them up in one corner. Rade ordered the combat robots to keep watch upstairs, with orders to alert him if another storm began.
But the robots never did, and Rade slept the full night.
In the morning, however, he was indeed wakened by the voice of Algorithm, speaking to him over the comm via his Implant.
“Rade, are you awake yet?” Algorithm asked.
“Now I am,” Rade said.
“You might want to take a look at the local news live stream,” Algorithm said.
Rade started to pull up the aforementioned feed, and the three-dimensional graphics of the interface overlaid his vision. “Why? Do we have another storm on the way?”
“No,” Algorithm said. “Worse.”
“What’s worse than the storm we had yesterday?” Rade asked.
“An alien invasion,” Algorithm replied.
four
Rade activated the news live stream labeled “local” on his Implant overlay and positioned the video into the upper right of his vision. Shaw was just waking up, rubbing her eyes beside him; he transmitted the feed to her as well.
A weary-looking female announcer sat in front of a blue screen. Her eyes had large bags under them, and Rade had the impression she had stayed up all night.
“All residents have been ordered by the police and military to remain indoors,” the announcer was saying. She spoke in French, but Rade’s Implant translated in realtime. “Paris, Marseille and Lyon are under lockdown. While the objects have shown no interest in humans or specific buildings as of yet, I cannot make this plainer: do not fire at them from your apartment suites, or do anything else to antagonize them. Though they seem more curious about us at the moment than anything else, aggressive action on our part could change that in a heartbeat.”
The camera switched to a view of the Seine River in Paris. Flying above the river, between the neoclassical architecture that lined either bank, was a silver, oval-shaped object. Metallic tentacles trailed along in the air behind it.
The Franco-Italian military presence abounded on the surface below: armed combat boats filled the waterway. Tanks resided in the streets beyond. Mechs and combat robots perched on the rooftops of the buildings that lined the banks. Fighter jets crisscrossed the skies. Gunships hovered in the air above the riverbank. All of them observing... waiting, watching. Ready to attack at a moment’s notice.
“Communications attempts have been ongoing,” the announcer said. “President Jeanneret has issued a statement asking all residents to remain calm during this trying hour. He seems to believe that the situation can be resolved diplomatically.”
Rade zoned out as the announcer read out the full statement. Rade glanced at his kids, still asleep in their toddler beds and happily oblivious to all of this. Overnight, the world had changed.
Rade was starting to wish that he had chosen another planet for liberty. Any planet, except Earth. Apparently, the world had a big red target plastered on it. Then again, maybe the newcomers actually were peaceful.
Rade had to wonder why the world governments allowed these craft to reach Earth in the first place. Most of the planet’s nations were an antagonist, distrustful lot, and it seemed unlike them to allow unidentified vessels to arrive unchallenged. He wondered if there were motherships of some kind in orbit.
That question was answered a moment later when the announcer came back on screen.
“If you’re just joining our broadcast now, the mothership showed up on our sensors for the first time at three thirty A.M., when it began launching the alien objects that now fly above our streets. Neither the seventh and eighth fleets, nor the fleets of any other galactic governments, reported seeing any signs of the mothership before the InterGalNet went down and we lost contact with the rest of the system. It is not currently known if the mothership traveled here by means of the Gates, or utilized some other method of interstellar travel.
“Also unknown is whether the newcomers were involved in yesterday’s hack of the weather grid that caused powerful storm systems to sweep across the globe. If this mothership has the ability to tap into our communications systems, then it’s possible it could have initiated the hack long before reaching orbit. Cybersecurity experts insist that unless these newcomers had help, they would have had to study us and our technology for years in order to achieve such a hack. Consider the scenario: if these are alien beings, first they would have had to learn our communication protocols. Then our languages. Then our software interfaces. Then our programming languages. Then seek out backdoors and other exploits. Definitely not something that could be done overnight.
“Surface to space defenses planet-wide are down, because of the storms. Orbital defense platforms have also malfunctioned, not because of the storms—evidence points to another systematic cyberattack. We’ve also lost contact with ships and bases throughout the system because the InterGalNet has gone down. It seems obvious that the newcomers are the cause of all of this, but our military has not fired on them as of yet.
“It is obvious our nation is exercising restraint in the hopes of a diplomatic solution: we don’t want to provoke the newcomers into staging an all out attack. But the big question is, will the rogue states of the world exercise the same restraint, and hold back their fire? We’ve been monitoring the media of the North Syrians, and they seem convinced this is some probing attack by the United Systems. Similarly, Cambodian dictator Ghan Xi has already stated he plans to launch nuclear missiles at the United Systems if these objects attack his people or bases, as he believes this is all some ruse to distract the world while the United Systems topples his government.
“What do these aliens want? Are their intentions peaceful? Will other nations exercise restraint? To help answer these questions, I’m joined now by Charles Matterhorn, leading researcher and professor at the Institute For Advanced X
eno Studies. Thank you for joining us.”
A bespectacled, bearded man appeared on screen. “Thank you for having me.”
“So what do you think, Professor?” the announcer said. “Are these aliens peaceful?”
“Of course not,” the professor answered. “It seems a strange coincidence, does it not, that the mothership arrives shortly after the worldwide weather grid produces storms of disastrous proportions? It’s an obvious act of war. If I were a military commander, I would be urging my government to strike immediately. Cripple them before they can cause more damage.”
“But what if you’re wrong, Professor?” the announcer said. “Cybersecurity experts have stated that it would take many years for aliens to hack into our grid, especially considering all the different protocols and software implementations employed by the different countries.”
“Well, it seems awfully convenient that we’d suffer such a catastrophic grid failure hours before invaders arrived,” the professor said. “Maybe they’ve been watching us for quite some time. Or maybe they didn’t actually hack into our grid, but deployed their own. Maybe they have co-conspirators hidden in our midst. Maybe...” He droned on for at least another minute before the announcer cut him off.
“But wait a second,” the announcer said. “Consider very carefully what you’re saying. Are you really calling for war against an alien race that we know nothing about? I agree with you that the timing of the grid failure is questionable, but what if the intentions of these aliens are peaceful? Perhaps they did cause the storms, as you suggest, but isn’t it at least possible that they did so accidentally? Maybe the advanced power system they used to reach our planet unintentionally interacted with our grids and manifested in the storms...”
“Well that’s simply absurd,” the professor said. “Of course the aliens—”
“I’m sorry, professor,” the announcer said, touching her ear. “I have to cut you off.” She paused, and her eyes defocused, as if she was receiving something on her Implant, then she looked directly at the camera. “I have some breaking news. Reports are coming in that the Sino-Koreans have opened fire at the objects. Apparently—” Her eyes defocused once again. “The local objects are changing course!”
The Seine River view filled the feed once more. Two objects swooped down toward a nearby rooftop in unison. Three mechs crouched on that roof toppled, apparently struck by invisible lasers. The other mechs and combat robots dropped for cover. Missiles launched from the rooftop.
The two objects plunged toward the city, spiraling rapidly. Were they hit?
The pair smashed into the asphalt several meters apart.
The camera zoomed in. Combat robots and large walker units approached the blast craters. Dust and smoke partially obscured the view.
Shapes emerged from both pits. They were indistinct, because of the dust surrounding the blast craters. Troops, Rade guessed.
The robots and walkers began to fall; the emerging shapes were opening fire, no doubt.
Streaks appeared in the sky beyond the buildings. The camera zoomed in. Those were other alien objects, preparing to impact. More troop pods, no doubt.
Rade quickly cycled between live feeds of Lyon and Marseille next. He witnessed similar scenes of invasion in each city. Pods continually crashed into the streets. Troops emerged, obscured by the dust clouds. Mechs and Centurions engaged them.
No doubt Shaw had tuned into the Marseille feed, because she said, quietly: “Ma and pa.”
“Boss!” Algorithm said. “There’s something hovering above the vineyard!”
Rade dismissed the news feed and accepted Algorithm’s video request from external camera 3C. His view was replaced with the vineyard outside. He saw a large oval with trailing metal tentacles floating above the estate; a craft identical to those he had witnessed on the news channel.
It was moving slowly, the rear tentacles outstretched in a fanlike pattern as if scanning the surroundings—either watching, or listening. The craft seemed headed in the general direction of the chateau.
“Algorithm,” Rade said. “Have all the robots on watch upstairs drop by the weapons locker and grab as many rifles and blasters as you can, and come down to the cellar. Now!”
“Roger that,” the Centurion replied.
Unlike a starship, which had multiple such lockers, the chateau only had one.
Should have built a few more as soon as I arrived.
But he never expected a vineyard in a peaceful country like France to be attacked. Let alone by aliens.
Even if he had, there was the small matter of procurement: Rade hadn’t dared attempt to smuggle any weapons into Marseille after landing in the shuttle. The country’s strict customs controls were renown for their thoroughness. Those weapons in the locker upstairs were acquired by Shaw’s father over the years in a piecemeal fashion. Her dad was somewhat of a gun collector, and several of the weapons were probably antiques. Rade wondered if any of them would even work: he doubted any of the weapons had a charge.
Algorithm and the Centurions on watch upstairs arrived, and Rade reduced the external video feed to a quarter of its size, and placed it in the upper right of his vision. The object was still incoming.
The robots distributed rifles to the other robots that had remained in the cellar with Rade and his family. Algorithm tossed Rade a rifle.
Rade checked the weapon. It was a laser rifle of some kind. He looked into the scope. The reticle was lit up: a good sign. The power indicator showed the battery at half charge.
“Amazingly, my weapon has a charge,” Rade said.
Shaw nodded. She had accepted a rifle from Brat. “My father usually recharges them all once a year. In case of an emergency, he says.”
Rade had the other units call out their power levels. As Shaw had predicted, nearly all of the weapons were charged to at least half full, save for two that had no power whatsoever. The power cells in the latter had probably gone bad. Rade had the robots discard those in one corner.
Rade turned to the non-Centurions, which were readily apparent because of their thinner frames and smaller servomotors, their bodies lacking innate armor of any kind. “Farm units, if you haven’t already, I want you to download the latest combat programs from my Centurions. Some of you won’t have the strength and speed to enact some of the more specialized routines, especially the hand-to-hand combat portions, so keep that in mind when selecting a program to use against an opponent.”
Rade himself probably wouldn’t be able to engage in any hand-to-hand fighting if it came to it. Without a jumpsuit, he had the strength of an above-average human, which wasn’t really all that much at all, at least compared to the Centurions. Shaw was even worse off. But like him, she could wield a laser rifle with the best of the robots.
“Algorithm, split up the robots,” Rade said. “I want coverage of either entrance. Shaw, you get the house door. I’ll take the cellar entry. Robots, move the casks and racks away from the walls, and position them for optimal cover.”
Rade placed himself near the bend in the L-shaped cellar, wedging his body in front of a rack so that his backside was protected from any attacks from the house entrance, and he aimed up at the sloping barn doors at the top of the stairs on the far side. Those doors led directly outside.
He glanced over his shoulder at Shaw. Positioning herself squarely in front of the toddler beds, Shaw lifted her rifle to eye level to cover the door at the top of the stairs that led into the house. The beds were wedged in between two wine casks, and wouldn’t be readily visible to any attackers stepping in from the house.
The combat robots meanwhile pulled out the racks from the walls, forming barricades in front of either entrance to use as cover. Several bottles of wine fell from the racks in the process and broke.
“Your parents aren’t going to be happy when they see what we’ve done to their precious wine stores,” Rade said.
“Trust me,” Shaw said, “they’ll be happy just to find us alive.”
Algorithm placed one of the racks in front of Shaw, then ducked down behind it to aim at the house entrance with her. Other robots similarly crouched behind the repositioned racks on either side of the cellar bend, covering both entries as Rade commanded.
Rade glanced at the video feed in the upper right of his vision. The oval pod had reached the chateau by then, and was so close that it had flown inside the line of sight of the exterior cameras. Rade cycled through the cameras of the adjacent outbuildings, but none of them had the necessary angles to get a bead on the object.
He heard a distant scraping noise upstairs, like a shutter tearing away, then a crash as a window broke. That was followed by a distinct bump.
He glanced at Shaw.
Something is upstairs, Shaw texted directly to his Implant.
five
Rade nodded slowly. He heard a scraping sound a moment later, as if a table had moved somewhere in the room directly above.
He looked over his shoulder and leaned out to one side to glance between the two casks that shielded the toddler beds. The children were awake, and wide-eyed. Cora remained at their side, speaking very softly, somehow keeping them quiet; like Shaw, the combat robot was ready to protect them if the fighting broke out.
Rade returned his aim to the exterior cellar door. He heard planks creaking above as the intruder—or intruders—crept through the house. He found himself wishing he had installed security cameras in the different rooms, in addition to the cams the chateau already had attached to the exterior.
Should have followed the lessons learned from my training and years of experience.
And yet he couldn’t blame himself for not setting up proper surveillance. None of this was supposed to ever happen, not during a time of peace. Burglars never came out here. Let alone invaders from another planet.