by M. D. Krix
Hundreds of wyverns were dead in front of the tribunes, but the incoming flow was inexhaustible. Some soldiers had been posted down there, armed with guns in case some crazy activist would try to attack Puhi or another leader. They did their job as bodyguards and shot wildly towards the sea.
They were not members of the garrison, though. They couldn’t see the monsters. I don’t think they took down a single foe.
The Shooters from the fort couldn’t hold the enemy anymore, and the wyverns reached the tribune. The President of the Great Republic was among the first to die. Everybody watched his head flying far from his body and hitting the First Lady of the Free Western Territories, knocking her out. This had been live on TV, the entire world saw it. At that moment, humanity understood its mistake, and those in Worldsend Beach were overwhelmed by fear.
Millions had come to attend the event, and they were now stuck at the tip of the Karabia Peninsula, where the Great Ocean meets the Valkyan Sea and the aliens were attacking relentlessly. Death was coming from the south, and cliffs blocked the flight towards the east or the west.
Millions of men, women and children ran for their life towards the desert, which was already overcrowded. Disaster was bound to happen.
Footage showed children being trampled, women crushed against fences and men stabbed in the back to make way for those who were following behind. Those who didn’t run fast enough were caught by the wyverns and disappeared between their formidable jaws. Body parts were flying in the air while aliens’ claws were slicing left and right.
It was absolutely dreadful.
Some of those who were with their car in the desert and moved fast managed to escape. After this, the highway became crowded, and traffic difficult. A first accident happened, then a second one and the only way out of Worldsend was blocked.
However, the situation was not desperate yet.
***
It was common knowledge by then that the creatures couldn’t make it inside our buildings. Too big to enter through a door or a window, but not powerful enough to bring down a wall, they couldn’t reach those who managed to hide. There was a reason why Worldsend Garrison had been a fortress made of steel and concrete.
Despite the panic spreading everywhere and the death of President Puhi, Nacer Cornelius and all the world leaders, mankind was not lost yet and still had motives to hope. Many had found shelter inside houses and malls. Worldsend Garrison was still standing and doing its best to fulfill its mission of protecting people from the alien invaders.
Then, everybody realized that the Dark Shadow had not left the rocks only to say hello or admire the work of his minions. He had brought something, and it was bad news for us.
***
This raised once again many questions that will never have any answer.
Did they develop such technology by themselves or did they copy ours?
Do the aliens have the raw materials in their own world, or did they collect it from ours during centuries?
I have my opinion about it. For almost a thousand years, they’ve been harvesting the bodies of those men who died defending the garrison in Worldsend. And this is now clear that their purpose was not to regenerate them and bring them back to life.
No. I’m convinced they studied us and our weapons. They gathered the swords, arrows and helmets from the first soldiers. They looted the guns and rifles of those who fought centuries later. Then, our technology started to give us a definite advantage and our losses decreased drastically. Under Empress Theodora, it was decided to build Worldsend Cemetery and the bodies were not left anymore for the monsters to pick them up.
They still managed to take one or two who fell during battles, yet not nearly enough to learn from us and copy our designs. I have no proof to back up my theory, but this is so far the best explanation I came with, and I spent plenty of time thinking of the matter.
By the times of Empress Theodora, steel and black powder were state of the art in terms of military technology. During those times, rifles and canons were widely used.
I do not believe in coincidences. How likely is it that two civilizations separated by billions of kilometers developed the exact same kind of armament?
My conviction is that the Dark Shadow stole our steel and powder, and copied the most advanced weapon he had ever been able to observe closely.
That’s why he brought canons with him.
***
He carried hundreds of them. Unlike him and his creatures, they were perfectly visible to anyone. Journalists and telespectators alike discovered them on the screen, and wondered. Such an antic weapon? Is it all their technology? Do they truly plan to exterminate us with this?
This seems unbelievable now, but some laughed at this. I especially remember one of the anchormen saying, “What do they want to do with canons when we have rockets and missiles?”
The Dark Shadow didn’t make it until the beach, stopping well before the shore to observe from the distance, far from the fire coming from the fort. The cannons were brought by the wyverns to the stretch of sand behind Worldsend Garrison. Then, they opened fire.
They barely scratched the stronghold. The walls were six feet thick and were made to resist.
Worldsend Garrison launched the first rockets, and dozens of cannons exploded, along with hundreds of aliens. They were no match for our defense. Confidence came back on our side, and guided missiles were even sent towards the Black Monster. Some hit their target, yet he didn’t flinch. I don’t know what his limbs are made of, but they are far from being as fragile as they seem.
Wyverns and canons kept on arriving from the rocks. Most were heading towards the garrison, but some had started to aim at the city of Worldsend Beach. The buildings were not as strong as the fort, and some began to crumble. Then more of them fell.
The men hiding there met their fate under the debris. Those who escaped were picked up by the wyverns. Methodically, the aliens moved through the town, destroying and killing. Their advance was slow, but steady. They were winning the battle there.
***
Things were different at Worldsend Garrison. Our rockets were far too powerful, and the alien’s losses were huge. Their canons made it to the shore, fired once or twice, and were pulverized. But they kept on coming, never giving up.
I stood up all night, watching the battle for the fort. I had started to worry well before midnight, and when the sun rose up above Karabia, I knew we were doomed.
We were outnumbered.
We could kill millions of them, it was pointless. More appeared to replace the fallen ones.
We could destroy thousands of canons; more would be coming.
Those had begun to take their toll on the exterior wall of the fort. They had been designed to resist the explosion of a bomb and were not shaken by the impact of a cannonball, or ten, or a hundred. But it had been tens of thousands, and some cracks were appearing.
Worldsend Garrison was not unbreakable.
In the morning following the Day of Intergalactic Friendship, even the presenters on TV had understood that the issue of the battle would be decided not by skills or strategy, but sheer resources.
Did the Black Shadow have more minions, or did the soldiers have more bullets?
Did the aliens have more canons, or did the fort have more rockets?
I knew the firepower of Worldsend Garrison, and it was quite impressive. It could have stood an assault from both the Valkyan and the Free Territories armies. People were confident at the beginning, but the more time passed, the less sure we were of our victory.
As it happened, we had underestimated the enemy.
At 12:37 AM, the last missile was launched from the garrison. Immediately, thousands of cannons fired towards the southern wall, which was already badly damaged.
At 3:23 PM, Worldsend Garrison was breached and thousands of wyverns rushed in. The men caught in there fought back. They still had plenty of bullets. Not enough, though.
Canons kept on shooti
ng towards the fort, and it collapsed bit by bit. I saw the guard towers dwindle and fall. The barracks, quarters and laboratories were destroyed. Before nightfall, Worldsend Garrison had been reduced to ruins.
The city was overwhelmed. The helicopters sent as back-up had been easily taken down by the wyverns, and no more help came from anywhere. Soon after the collapse of the fort, the last filming drone was damaged, and images of the battle stopped being available for the world to watch.
They were not needed, though.
Worldsend Garrison had fallen.
The Karabia Peninsula had been taken.
The invaders were now free to roam in our world.
Chapter 7 — The Fall of Worldsend Garrison
The rest is history. If you already know about the events that took place, you do not need to waste precious minutes deciphering the scribbles of an old man whose hand tired after so much writing.
However, in case some things have been forgotten by the time those words are read—if they are found one day—, I must tell the weeks that followed the Great Invasion.
Something terrible had happened on that day, and the world was shaken. Millions had perished, including most of our rulers and the enemy was now upon us. But all hope hadn’t been lost among the inhabitants of our planet. New leaders emerged in the Great Republic, Valkya and the Territories. People rallied on Virtualia and wanted to fight against the alien.
They still had plenty of guns, rockets and missiles waiting to be used everywhere in our world, and billions of human willing to annihilate the wyverns and their Black Lord.
I was not among them.
I am no coward, but I knew something they didn’t. We had no chance. Worldsend Garrison had fallen. It was now only a matter of time until the war was over, and I understood it would not end up well for us. For centuries, the fort had been the first—and last—, defense against the aliens. It had kept mankind safe.
The best men and the best weapons had always been there. Since the old age of the Empire, it had been the mightiest stronghold in the known world. Not even the Imperial Palace by the time of Niklas the Sixth, when the Empire was at its strongest, could have resisted as long as Worldsend Garrison.
The moment its northern wall crumbled marked our final defeat against the alien forces. This is when we lost the war. Our best (only?) defense against the invaders had failed and we were condemned.
Sure, there would be plenty of other battles. We might even claim some victories locally. But we were outnumbered and couldn’t fight back. We would never succeed in sending the enemy back to where it came from.
I knew that all too well. I left Otezalp for a cabin lost in the Karpi mountains.
***
I had all the comfort I needed back then. Electricity, running water, television, even access to Virtualia. I was not cut from the rest of the world, and I followed attentively the course of the events, with the intention to document them to the best of my abilities.
The city of Karabia had been devastated already, and the aliens were moving north, towards the capital of Otezalp. Every town on their way became a battleground turning into a bloodbath. No matter how many wyverns were killed, more were replacing them. Their canons were no match for our rockets, but they greatly outnumbered us and their firepower proved higher than ours in the end.
Some TV channels tried to dispatch filming drones to where Worldsend Garrison had stood proudly for centuries, but they were ineluctably destroyed far before they reached the tip of the Karabia Peninsula.
Warships were sent, heavily armed, with the order to fire all their missiles towards the rock formations marking the door between our planet and their world. None of them came back. I doubt they sank because of the treacherous currents there.
We didn’t know what was happening in the Karabia Peninsula, but it was not the biggest of our worries.
The aliens had been heading south as well and reached Valkya. People living there had been friendly merchants for many years, and their army was no match for the wyverns. Peace Corps had been called back to the Great Republic with the order to defend Otezalp. The Free Western Territories did not send help, considering they couldn’t spare a single man in case the creatures decided to cross the Great Ocean.
The Southern Kingdom of Valkya didn’t last long. It might be that some humans are still living there, hidden in forests or mountains, but it had become Wyvern territory even before the battle for Otezalp started.
***
If it lasted three days for Otezalp to be wiped from the face of the world, this is only due to the sheer size of our old capital city. Our enemy advanced slowly and methodically, not hurrying while killing and destroying. Soldiers of the Peace Corps were close to useless, and the rockets launched caused more casualties among our citizens than the aliens.
They were not residents of Worldsend Garrison. They had no training and, more importantly, they didn’t have any special capacity. They couldn’t see their opponent, and were fighting blindly.
The wyverns sliced through our defenses the way a sharp blade cuts through butter.
Then, the canons started to roar and Otezalp was destroyed
***
This was the last blow on people’s hopes. After this, the end came quickly. TV programs were shutting down, but I had time to see that the aliens had crossed the Great Ocean and the Free Western Territories were under attack before all channels went black.
Virtualia worked for some more days, even if getting information there was proving increasingly difficult. Those were always the same news, though. This city has fallen, then that one…
The only interesting fact that I learned came from Keeroonah. There, men had left to the Wet Lands of Cuatemoc, heading for a secret base. Some said they had advanced technology hidden there. No great weapons to save us all, but spaceships that could lead some lucky individuals to a new world, free of wyverns.
I do not believe in those tales. I would have been aware of it if such base had existed.
But I swore to transmit the facts as I know them, so I have to write about this supposed exodus of people from the northern regions. Maybe it is true. I’m afraid it probably was just a wild hope that appeared in the last days of Virtualia.
Then every communication was shut down.
***
The wyverns hadn’t reached the Karpi mountains then, and Pastezu was still standing. If not for the lack of TV and Virtualia, life was almost normal. There had been no looting or things like this. Most of the residents didn’t believe that their small town would be attacked soon. They were unshakably confident that a solution would be found quickly.
They didn’t accept that the end of the world had arrived. I knew they were wrong, but didn’t waste time or energy trying to tell them.
I came down to the city on a daily basis with my pick-up. I had started stockpiling food, weapons, gas, candles, tools and anything that could prove useful. I was getting prepared for years of isolation, and this saved my life.
During one of those trips, I saw two puppies on the side of the road. They were scared and hungry. When I stepped out of my car, one of them fled but the second one came to me. Parashootix had found me.
I began adding kibbles and dog toys to my daily purchase.
***
For twenty-two days I had been going down the mountains every morning with an empty truck, and I had been planning to do the exact same thing on that day. The sky was clear and I could see perfectly until the horizon. At the foothills of the Karpi range, Pastezu was waking up, unaware of the cloud heading in its direction from the south.
I didn’t mistake it for morning fog and recognized immediately the wyverns. I was too far to observe them distinctly, but their way of gliding through the air is unambiguous. They were plenty and had brought canons with them.
At this point, I realize you might be wondering what I mean when I say that I watch them, after having insisted many times that the aliens are invisible to the human eye. Neith
er can they be detected with thermal lenses, as they are cold-blooded.
Well, years of drinking Polobragi gave me the faculty to See. Afraid that I might lose this gift, I’ve been brewing my own elixir since I arrived at the cabin, extracting the essence from the flowers I pick up.
This saved my life on that day. Had I not seen them coming, I might have been caught in the city when they assaulted it. Perhaps I could have escaped with my pick-up and made it back to my hut, but most likely I would have died down there, as did thousands of men.
By noon, the town had been wiped out. The enemy strategy was simple yet efficient. Wyverns killing, cannons demolishing, moving forward, repeating. Fighting them had become useless, as we were by far outnumbered. Pastezu didn’t even try to resist. For sure, guns and rifles were shot, and maybe a dozen aliens fell, but not a single falconet was destroyed.
The invader had defeated Worldsend Garrison, then taken the Southern Continent and smashed Otezalp in only three days. A small provincial city had no chance. All its inhabitants died, and the wyverns moved further north, killing every man, woman and children on their way, reducing any hamlet to ashes.
I assume they made it until Keeroonah, and their urban area met the same fate as Pastezu. I wonder where they stopped and turned back. They are very systematic. It will take them some time, but they will destroy any town, any village, any settlement that ever existed on this planet.
We have lost the war.
Chapter 8 — The End of Everything
From the moment Worldsend Garrison was razed to the ground, our only chance of survival was to hide. I did it in the Karpi mountains, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one. I heard shotguns more than once and I doubt that aliens fancy hunting.
It seems that people from Keeroonah headed for the Wet Lands of Cuatemoc and I assume that all over the world the same thing happened. Families, groups of friends, even small communities found cover in forests, caves, highlands, bogs…
Most of them died within a year, for sure. Surviving in the bush is not easy. Lack of drinkable water brings diseases and starvation threatens those who do not know how to hunt and pick up berries or mushrooms.