SODIUM:4 Gravity

by Arseneault, Stephen

  With our Brazilian operation complete we headed back to San Francisco for our updates. When we were over the skies of the bay Shepard let out a yell. There was a giant swell of water moving into the mouth of the bay with another one a kilometer or so behind.

  The island of Alcatraz was soon inundated with huge waves which spread rapidly outward. Fisherman's Wharf was quickly underneath 20 meters of water. The swell spread throughout the bay area washing over everything in its path.

  The second swell followed soon after the first, pushing the walls of water further inland. Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond perished in heavy flood. Waters ten meters deep spread as far south as Fremont and Sunnyvale. In less than twenty minutes, more than five million souls were lost in the Bay area.

  The aliens had devastated the lowlands surrounding the bay without risking any of their troops. Word spread around the globe and the immediate evacuation of coastal cities was begun. Only minutes after San Francisco fell victim to the alien tsunami, Hong Kong and Shenzhen suffered the same fate with another 8 million lives taken. Within an hour Kuching and Brunei in Malaysia were engulfed by walls of saltwater destruction.

  The aliens had a new strategy that we had no counter for. The alien forces attacking Japan soon turned and dove deep into the Sea of Japan, abandoning their assault on Nagano. But the tsunamis brought a new threat to their citizens. Anxieties changed from a fear of death by crushing to a fear of death by flood and drowning.

  The seventeen million citizens of Tokyo were racing northward towards the hills of Kamagaya. Authorities feared it was only a matter of time before an alien tsunami would strike. The tides of war had once again turned and this time the invaders held the advantage.

  Chapter 10

  With the Bay area devastated we were sent southward to the hangars at Long Beach. When we landed a team of technicians boarded and soon surrounded my chair. An extension was added to my glove that partially surrounded the BHD with an active skin. The alien forces in Japan had used detection of the BHD to track and annihilate the BGS Marines there.

  The new BHD shield would limit detection to when the BHD was aimed directly at an alien craft. Our new instructions were to fly at angles at all times or risk the same fate as the Japanese warriors. It did not take much to convince me.

  The Marine BGS squad that had fought so fiercely in Brazil was soon sent around the world to the Chinese mainland. The Black and Caspian Sea forces continued their ruthless destruction of the croplands of China. The Marines engaged the enemy and within minutes began to lose soldiers. The BHD shields were only partially effective.

  The Marines continued their assault, altering their tactics. They would lay in wait on the ground until the enemy was within range. They would strike hard and then fly off always heading away from their foe. The adjustment limited their exposure, but greatly reduced their ability to fight.

  The invaders abandoned their quest and raced to the security of the South China Sea. The eight remaining Marines in the BGS squad were soon landing in Long Beach. Debriefings followed with tactics discussed and again sent around the globe.

  For an hour there was silence. The alien forces were hidden in the oceans. Evacuations continued and arguments ensued as to how best to counter the devastating tsunami threat. I waited with my team circling low over the city. The silence did not last long.

  The next wave of assaults started with Da Nang, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City. Twenty-two million Vietnamese citizens were lost as wave after wave washed deep into the coastal cities. Singapore saw the next assault where nine million of their citizens became victims of a violent wall of water.

  I again yelled at Command to give me orders to attack, but there was nothing to target. The aliens remained hidden behind their liquid curtain. A major swell was soon detected off Malibu. I watched in horror as it slowly rolled towards Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles.

  My attention was then turned to my tactical screen with a single green blip screaming down from the mountains near Angeles National Forest. The blip quickly passed the incoming swell and then detonated in a bright flash and fireball directly over the area the swell had originated from.

  My tactical screen showed an alert of a similar explosion off the coast of Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City. The fireball rolled up quickly into a mushroom cloud and the nuclear alerts on our screens showed red. We then received orders to go to and dive down at ground zero. Command wanted to know if our new tactic had been successful.

  The first swell that was generated by the aliens came ashore from Santa Monica south to Torrance. A 10 meter tall wall of water washed inland annihilating everything within a kilometer of the coastline. A second smaller swell generated by the blast followed but the outgoing wash from the first countered its destructive power, leaving the remaining lowlands unscathed.

  As I approached ground zero I had to pull up hard to avoid the green fog that was bubbling to the surface. Shepard then reminded me that with our active skin the green fog would have no effect. Command soon determined the nuclear strikes to be as deadly to the aliens as their tsunamis had been to us.

  The Singapore strike had taken out an alien cruiser and two alien destroyers. The strike off L.A. another destroyer and the Ho Chi Minh bomb another cruiser and two more destroyers. The alien forces attacking our world had been cut in half. The enemy's aggression again went silent.

  I had to marvel at the thought of our old conventional weapons being the ones that were most useful against our alien foe. They could hide unseen in the ocean's depths but they could not hide from the violent concussion released from a one megaton neutron warhead. The ocean waters carried the shock and delivered a deadly blow.

  As we patrolled over the skies of Long beach a full day passed without any further attacks. I had been on station for nearly 72 hours without rest but my spirits were energized and my body strong. Word then came of the alien fleet exiting the central Pacific waters and shooting skyward. I received orders to shadow their departure.

  I pushed the throttle to full and within seconds I had video of the enemy on my holo-screen. Our sensors returned a count of one cruiser, two destroyers and four carriers. The heavily reduced alien fleet was followed by 5,168 fighters.

  The alien fleet joined the mega-ship and carriers at a position about twice the distance of the Moon from the Earth. We stayed far away and let our sensors do the dirty work. Command followed up with orders to observe and report.

  The populations of the world began the grizzly task of locating and identifying the dead. The initial tally came in at over 500 million of our brothers and sisters. Many of our major cities had been devastated or completely destroyed, but we had held.

  We had held against a superior force, making use of our ability to reason and adapt. I wondered what the carnage would have been like had the mega-ship joined in on the attacks. Whole cities would have been at its mercy from a distance beyond the reach of our guns.

  The west coast of the United States had been hit hard, but much of the rest spared. My grandfather and parents had not had to endure the terrors of the Northwest. I took a moment to imagine the quiet peaceful beauty of the farm, of a warm spring breeze coming in from newly planted fields.

  I then began a discussion with my team about all that had transpired. We talked of hundreds of millions of our citizens who had been killed. We talked of our changing tactics and the BGS with a BHD. We then moved to the topic of neutron bombs.

  It was an aging weapon whose only purpose had been the continuing threat of mutual destruction. This day, one of the most hated, feared and least used weapons in our history had probably saved Mankind.

  We then talked of what the aliens might do next. Would it be a new assault utilizing the powerful beam of the mega-ship? Would they come up with something entirely new? Or, would they turn and head back towards Epsilon Eridani?

  As the discussion continued I again began to dream about home. I was growing weary of the death and destruction of war. I
had seen incredible sights and had accomplished fantastic tasks, but the excitement was beginning to fade. I then began to think of Zack.

  My mind wondered about what it would be like to have a real date with the young man that had captured my fancy, if for only a brief meeting. Would he be a gentleman? Would he be kind and attentive? Would he be strong and forceful if the circumstances called for it?

  I then came to the realization that I was dreaming about life, a life that had been foreign to me since joining the Corps. I leaned back in my chair twirling my finger on the armrest as my mind wondered. My life had been anything but living.

  The alien vessels sat motionless for weeks while Earth licked her wounds. Our factories continued to churn out weapons and our teams of Defender crews continued to train. The alien threat still loomed large on our tactical screen, but it somehow seemed diminished. Little did we know that our cheery outlook would soon change.

  Chapter 11

  As we sat on station observing our foe, nearly two months had passed. The alien fleet continued to sit idle with the only activity being a number of fighters on patrol. During our daily discussion Randy spoke of how much enjoyment he would derive by being aboard one of the alien ships in our new BGS. I switched on my QE comm and made the suggestion to Command. To my surprise the order came back to use my discretion.

  We talked out the possibilities of getting on-board. We could not drift with our ship as the aliens knew how to detect us. Shepard soon came up with a solution. We would fly our GAF in the direction of the Moon where I would exit the rear door and begin to drift.

  She had worked out the calculations and angles needed for me to use the Moon's gravitational pull to slingshot around towards the alien fleet in my BGS. It would take 22 hours of drifting in space to reach our foe. I would only use my glove hand BHD when I had arrived at the alien fleet, to stop my forward progress.

  There was one big drawback to Shepard's plan. If I missed passing through one of the big ships I would have to continue drifting for five days before I could be safely picked up. I didn't hesitate to punch in the waypoint numbers and set the speed of our GAF to that which Shepard had derived.

  I then rose from my chair and changed out my power, food and filter packs. I took a second full power pack and slid it into a zippered pocket on my right thigh. Shepard did a thorough scan of my suit and weapon as a last check of preparedness. Both were in perfect order.

  I turned command over to Shepard and moved to the rear hatch. A low buzzing sound on the holo-display told us when the time had come. The active skin of the ship shut down, the hatch opened and I stepped out into the void of space without a tether. As the rear hatch closed I looked longingly at my team and at my ship disappearing when the active skin re-enabled.

  The hours floating seemed endless as I watched a counter ticking down on my helmet display. But the lonely hours soon passed. I could feel the pull of the Moon's gravity with the active skin of my BGS set at its lowest level, where mass and inertia still had an effect.

  When I rounded the Moon an alert flashed in my helmet display that it was time to set my active skin to full. I now had 17 hours to drift before reaching the fleet. I entered seven hours of sleep into my suit parameters and was soon unconscious.

  When the stimulants kicked in I was wide awake in seconds. I had ten long hours left to contemplate my existence. I thought of my grandfather and how he and my parents were now safe from the invaders. I thought of what I might do when I reached my target. I wondered what carnage I could bring forth when face to face with our enemy.

  I then thought of Zack and what being in his arms might feel like. The hours passed quickly as I drifted and dreamed. The counter ticked down and I soon had a visual of the enemy fleet. As I floated ever closer I began to get nervous about what might come.

  Would I somehow be detected and crushed before reaching my target? Would I be captured and the BGS and QE comm technology compromised? Would I float inside one of the ships and then freeze up not knowing what to do? The questions kept coming as my anxiety level rose.

  I prayed hard for the strength and determination to perform to the best of my abilities. The ships were immense and crowded with the enemy and I was but one soldier. I determined that I was aligned with the lone cruiser as its dark gray outer walls quickly approached.

  I passed through into the interior which was lit brightly with the bright green color of seawater. I was in a giant hangar that had row after row of the small alien craft floating at the ready. The occasional squid swam past on their way to perform some daily task. I continued to drift inward towards a bulkhead and whatever may lie beyond.

  As I looked about there were sub-tugs pulling long chains of containers. There were workers moving about and there were thousands and thousands of the alien fighting craft. I was then startled when a squid swam through me from behind swimming in the same direction as I drifted.

  It was a graceful animal in its habitat and its bright green skin and brown spots gave it a friendly if not cartoonish appearance. I wondered if our foe could one day be our friend. I wondered if they could be persuaded to leave in peace. I then patched my QE comm through to Command and back to Shepard on-board our GAF.

  I sent a message requesting a download to my suit computer of the latest translation work from our linguistics specialist. I had no intention of talking to the enemy, but I wanted to be prepared if I needed to know what they were saying. When the download was complete I switched on a passive audio sensor and listened for any sounds in the waters around me.

  I was soon enthralled at attempting to discern the meaning of a broken conversation by two squids as I drifted nearby. They were talking of battle and of the wonders they had seen. They talked of the richness of our oceans. I imagined it was much like a conversation our own troops might have had if the rolls of our species had been reversed.

  As I passed into and through the first bulkhead I was startled at what lay beyond, thousands upon thousands of sleeping squid. They were bunched together in pods of more than a dozen each. I had the sudden urge to start blasting, but I thought the intel being sent to Command over my video link might be a better use of my time.

  I soon came to another bulkhead and when I passed through I came into an aquarium teaming with sea-life from our oceans. I then had no doubt that they were studying our planet for occupation. Once through the aquarium the next section was set up for industrial work. The squids in this chamber moved about carrying materials and assembling the beginnings of what looked like more of the skimmers they had used in their assaults.

  The chamber that followed had aquarium after aquarium of strange sea creatures and kelp like forests. The creatures appeared to be two distinct types of fish. One moved slow and was fat with big bulging eyes while the other, eel-like in appearance, squirmed about in massive pods darting from one location to another.

  As I watched, a bale of the kelp plants was released among the eels followed by a pod of eels being released among the slow fat fish. I reasoned that I was witness to the alien's food chain where the fat fish would soon be made into meals for the squid masses.

  When I then floated through a bulkhead to the next chamber I was aghast at what moved into my view. Row after row of glass bubbles lined the walls of this chamber and in each bubble was a human. My psyche was again shaken when one of the human captives moved.

  I was now faced with a dilemma. If I was to start blasting squids would they retaliate against their captives? And, if I were to reach the inner workings of the reactor core of the cruiser would I have the nerve to try to destroy it knowing these men and women would perish by my hand?

  In a moment of panic I verbally asked the question of Command "What should I do?" Until that moment my communications with Command had been digital texts silently sent across the QE comm. But, my voice was anything but silent and soon drew the attention of every squid scientist in the chamber.

  They were soon swimming circles around my location while lookin
g at what appeared to be electronic gadgets of some sort. One of them uttered a word that I could only imagine was an expletive as they all turned at once and fled.

  With my cover blown I enabled my BHD and headed towards what I expected to be the center of the ship. After a short BHD micro-burst I again drifted silently, now in a new direction. The next chamber was a corridor with yellow lights flashing on the walls in either direction. Groups of squids swam quickly past carrying some type of small arms weapons. I was sure they were being scrambled to the research lab to deal with my detection.

  I drifted through the wall of the next chamber and again encountered something unexpected. It was a large room filled with air. I checked my sensors and it was breathable, but with high levels of sulfur. The smell would be repulsive like the volcanic steam vents found on Earth, but it was breathable none the less.

  A humanoid type alien then entered the room with five smaller but similar creatures in tow. It was over two meters in height with a yellow scaly skin and six bright white eyes. The smaller creatures hopped and shoved and squealed at one another in a high pitched tone. It was evident they were offspring of the larger creature.

  The yellow humanoid had an anxious appearance to it as if worried. My conscious thoughts told me that it indeed should be worried, worried that its life was at an end, worried that its children would not survive the wrath of the intruder that had infiltrated their ship.

  As I looked around the room it appeared to be opulent, adorned with shiny bobbles and soft cloths. The humanoid was dressed in bright red apparel. Its long shining golden hair protruded from the multitudes of bumpy nodules on its head. The adult then herded the youngsters into a corner area, sat in a blue chair and looked downward at them.

  Two more of its kind then entered the room. They had a gruff appearance to them that spoke of soldiering. Each had a bright blue uniform and carried a weapon in their hands. A gold belt that stretched from the right shoulder down around the left waist was adorned with what looked like medals on the chest. The belt held several shiny hand weapons at hip level that looked ornamental but sharp and deadly.