“So what are we going to do? You know the general I was talking to on the phone?”
Deborah nodded.
“He wants me to kill the aliens.”
“What?”
Mitch grinned. “And you think I’m paranoid.”
“Why is it that you men are so distrustful of these aliens? Estabrook sounded like he wanted to kill them, too. You guys watch too many movies. I’m sure not all aliens have the intention of taking over our planet.”
“But what if this one does?” Mitch asked.
“So you think we should kill the rest of them?”
“No, but I think we should be prepared. I’m going to tell Estabrook to get some high powered weaponry, just in case.”
Deborah followed Mitch into the elevator. Neither spoke. Inside of the conference room small groups had converged with scientists on one side, public relations and communications people huddled in another group, and intelligence officers off to another corner. Estabrook and the SEALs stood front and center. Mitch could tell by the perpetual scowl that he wore, that Estrabrook wanted to be in the middle of the action.
“Pete, come with me for a second.” Mitch briefed him on the arrival of the third alien. “I think we should be prepared in case of hostile actions by the extraterrestrials. I want you to gather men and heavy artillery. Get grenades, rocket launchers, automatic weapons. If something happens, on my order, I want you to launch a counter assault. Hopefully it won’t come down to that. But, just in case…”
Estabrook nodded. “We’ll be ready.”
“Good.”
Once he returned to the conference room, he resumed the meeting. Sam Mapp asked to be given the opportunity to talk to the Minister of Science. Mitch saw a crazy gleam in his eye, and he would bet that Mapp would give his first born just to talk to the alien. Mitch denied his request. He could picture Mapp letting the Minister out.
Mitch fielded questions while watching the clock. Each tick brought him closer to the freedom from making decisions. He only hoped his superiors had the wisdom to make sound judgments.
Mitch had an ominous feeling when he received a call on the radio. Under the current circumstances, any call would either be bad news or additional complications.
Mitch recognized the panicked voice of First Class Torpedoman Charles Amato. Loud roars sounded in the background. “Sir, we have a critical situation at ground zero.”
“What’s going on, Amato?”
“A new batch of aliens have appeared and are still materializing. They’re overrunning us. We’re trying to hold them back, but there are too many and they’re too powerful. Holy shit!” What sounded like an airplane roared on the radio, followed by machine gun fire in the background. “This situation is out of control.”
“Are they attacking?” Mitch thumped his foot furiously.
“What the hell…aahh.”
That was the last he heard from Amato.
Mitch yelled, “We need reinforcements immediately! We are under attack.”
Mitch ran out of the room, pulling out the service pistol he had taken from the weapons locker in the Quarter Deck. Based on what he heard, it would do little good. He called Estabrook on the radio as he ran down the stairs. “Pete, whatever you got, we need it now.”
“What’s the situation?” Estabrook asked.
“The aliens are attacking.”
“Okay, we’re coming. Try to hold them off.”
“My understanding is that there are many more now.”
“Oh, Christ,” said Estabrook. “All right, we’ll be there.”
By the time he finished talking to Estabrook, he was outside. A mammoth winged creature flew overhead. It was dark blue and had two sets of wings. Mitch ducked as it shot out streaming blue jets from its eyes. The shot obliterated a parked military vehicle.
Mitch ran toward the motor pool. Before he got there, the blue alien with four arms and four legs was hovering over a guard whose face was covered with blood. The alien hammered its fists into the defenseless man. Mitch fired several shots from his pistol. The first shot hit the alien in the shoulder, causing it to turn around. The next shot hit it in the throat and the final two went into the alien’s head. It fell to the ground.
Mitch ran toward what he believed was the source of the alien entrance onto the planet. Acrid smoke and the heat of flames covered the air. Nearby, a shed was on fire. Two more dark blue, winged aliens flew past him like fighter jets.
He stopped in revulsion at the sight of a giant slug, twelve feet in length with light green skin, which had the overall appearance of a mass of fatty tissue, swallowing a soldier whole. The man’s entire upper torso was inside the slug. His legs, which were immobile, hung outside.
Mitch was going to shoot, but decided against it. The man was certainly already dead and he did not have the time or the bullets to waste.
Near the storage area, a number of SEALs and other Navy personnel were engaged in a firefight with the aliens. The humans were losing badly.
A winged alien deftly avoided machine gun fire and picked up a soldier with its talons. Mitch watched in horror as it tore the man’s head off. The head dropped to the street and rolled along the asphalt.
Not far away, a Jeep was driving with two men in the back firing machine guns. A dark blue winged alien soared from above with high speed and shot out a blast from its eyes. The Jeep exploded upon impact, killing its passengers.
Mitch cried out. His morning had started off so well. He was finally going to propose to Deborah, and now this.
He continued moving, his head clouded with confusion. What could he do to counter this massacre?
When he finally reached the fenced in area, it was as if the gates of hell were opening. Every few seconds, a new alien appeared at the opposite end of the fence. They were coming from a milky, semi-translucent square about ten feet in height and twelve feet in length. Different species of aliens appeared, all looking capable of inflicting considerable damage. Some aliens came out in land or air vehicles. Others flew or traveled on foot. One alien had the appearance of a moving plant. Its skin was the color of grass and it appeared to have a long stem with tendrils that swirled in the air.
A group of aliens working in concert overtook three soldiers firing machine guns. He still had not seen Estabrook and his men. What difference would it make? They wouldn’t be able to stop the aliens. They had to regroup.
The best thing that Mitch could do was contact others in the Navy and other branches of the military so they could mobilize against the aliens.
An alien with the appearance of an armor-plated elephant without a trunk charged at Mitch. It was bronze and had massive hoofed feet. It gave a deafening roar.
“Christ almighty,” Mitch muttered. It would trample him if he did not do something soon. He took a shot at the elephantine alien, but the bullet bounced off. He turned and ran as fast as he could, hoping he could outrun the large predator.
The elephant alien emitted another loud roar. The ground trembled as the creature followed him. He glanced back. It was going to overtake him. As he turned to make a final effort to evade it, he collided with one of the alien’s large legs. Time slowed as he spiraled in the air. He did a seven hundred twenty degree rotation. Chaos surrounded him in every direction. He had no control over his body as he tumbled to the ground.
Mitch landed on his hip with a crunching thud. He let out a cry of agony as searing pain crippled his body. His instinct was to get up and move out of the alien’s path, but he could not move.
He screamed. He saw what was about to happen, but was powerless to stop it. His entire body lifted off of the ground as the alien’s massive leg connected with the surface. One more step and it would crush him. Desperately, he tried to turn his body, but could not evade the armor-plated ET. Its hoofed foot connected full force with his shoulders and the back of his head. Spinning all around him. His face slammed against the asphalt. Gravel filled his mouth. His eyes closed as darkness enveloped him.
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