Chapter Three - Night of the Second Day

Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two

Possible ebook cover (too soon?)

Chapter Three

Night of the Second Day

The US Army General climbed aboard the helicopter as the base was evacuated. Many of the personnel and soldiers had already died, their bodies dismantled and absorbed by the massive swarm alien robots. Already there were reports from other parts of the world about the same thing happening where the arrow-shaped landing vehicles had been allowed to burrow deep into the ground.

The alien soldiers of the second wave invasion had been a distraction!

The JH-60X Jethawk helicopter hovered high only momentarily while the jets kicked in and pushed it forward, the blades stopped spinning and acted as wiglets. The helicopter with the jet nacelles was able to move forward at speeds of 800 kilometers per hour.

The mass of tiny robots moved like a rug over the parking lot, leaving nothing behind. The buildings were left as concrete empty husks. The soldiers who were killed or wounded and unable to be rescued were consumed the same way.

The General opened a channel with the Pentagon. “These robot swarms must be collecting resources to manufacture more robots or weapons. I don't know at what point something like that becomes unstoppable. We need to launch Operation Doolittle as soon as possible!”

As the swarms of robots and the larger robots protecting them grew exponentially, even aerial bombardment was was unable to turn the tide. They were almost all deep inside civilian population centers, although cities in their paths were calling for evacuations.

The Pentagon itself was preparing for possible evacuation. The lowest level employees were already being told to get out of the area of the swarms. NORAD in Cheyenne Mountain was being put in charge in case communications went down.B-2 bomber sorties out of Whitman Air Force Base in Missouri were tasked with dropped ground penetration bombs where known alien ships had burrowed into the ground.

Captain Joel Cochran was at the controls of one of these flights, the other member of the crew was Captain Roger McDaniels. Flying just below the speed of sound at fourteen thousand members, their aircraft carried a payload of a single 14,000- kilogram bomb. On the display screen they followed way-points to their target, one of the alien landing ships burrowed deep in the ground.

The weight of the bomb and it's aerodynamic shape would build up quite a lot of speed being dropped from that altitude. The GBUX was designed to open the earth in front of it on impact and slice through the ground to a depth of up to 70 meters. This was not a huge improvement over the MOP or GBU-57 except that the warhead made up much more of the weight, nearly twice as much.

The US Department of Defense had only purchased two-dozen of the bombs, thinking they were overkill. Now there were twenty in the arsenal and all of them were being carried by the remaining fleet of B-2 bombers.

When Captain Cochran loosed the massive bomb at one of the alien ships burrowed deep in the ground near Alice, Texas just north of Dallas, the enemy robots had no idea what was about to happen. The explosion could be heard for many miles, windows were said to rattle in parts of downtown. Although this was unlikely. A large crater was left behind that would one day become a small lake.

While the destruction of many of the burrowed vessels could be considered a victory, the real damage was being carried out by growing swarms of robots. Entire major cities were being evacuated, as they seemed to be the main targets.

Aerial footage of the Pentagon being dismantled and digested by the swarm of robots showed that the world still had a long to go before victory over these aliens could be achieved.

…

Sgt Frank Gore, Lieutenant Pete Lowery (Royal Marines), Lieutenant Max “action” Jackson, Lieutenant Kim Lu-Hyun (Republic of Korea), Senior Lieutenant Igor Kerensky (Russian Federation) and Lance Corporal James Arlen had been briefed. They knew what was going on around the world. They also knew that the outlook was bleak. They all jumped at the chance to go on the first mission to Nemesis.

The ship would fly itself, they were passengers. The passenger compartment on the small shuttle-like vehicle was cramped, to say the least. First they would have to endure the launch. The Falcon HL2 was the largest and most powerful rocket since Saturn V, as was its predecessor. The XSR-75, looking a lot like a silver can with wins and a pointed nose sat on the top of the rocket, not latched onto the side like the old Space Shuttles.

The rocket itself was actually the main one at the center where the ship and the smallest rocket stage was attached instead of a nose and then there were four more rockets strapped to that one. Once in orbit the small remaining rocket stage would put them on their journey to Nemesis.

“We don't have time to give you much training. The ship is on automatic, it will get you there. You are soldiers, that part you can handle.” The Mission Director and a US Marine Colonel.

It was just a formality that Senior Lieutenant Igor Kerensky was appointed the leader of the mission. He did have experience fighting the Jihad in the Ural mountains. He was also familiar with the Russian equivalent of the backpack nukes.

“Find a good place to set off a nuke.” Lt. Jackson said sarcastically.

“Exactly, wherever it hurts them the most.” The Colonel said. Some lower ranked officers were conferring in a corner near the exit. Then one of them approached and handed the Colonel a slip of paper and whispered into his ear.

“The enemy is approaching. You will need to put on the uniforms we provided and climb aboard the ship for immediate launch.” The Colonel told them. “There is a swarm not more than six miles away headed straight for us.”

The six men entered the next room and took a look at the hodge-podge uniforms waiting for them.

“Hang on a minute. These are modified pressure suits, with alien armor over the chest!” he said lifting one up for closer inspection. “The last thing to wear this is dead.”

Lance Corporal James Arlen wondered if such a thing would hinder his sniping abilities. The gun he brought with him had a small display as a back up for the scope. If he had to wear a space helmet, the scope would be impossible.

The suits were not as heavy and bulky as the ones NASA and the others wore in space. These were not designed to be used in space. They were designed to be worn by astronauts for launch and landing. The team would wear them during the entire mission, because there was no room to change inside of the XSR-75.

Lance Corporal Arlen slung his modified sniper weapon to get a feel for it while wearing the suit, he saw Sgt Frank Gore picking up his 50 cal machine gun and the M32 grenade launcher. It looked cumbersome to say the least. It did not look as cumbersome when Lieutenant Jackson did it, he was a much larger and muscular man.

Soon enough the men were wearing the armored pressure suits and riding the elevator to the top of the massive rocket. Lance Corporal Arlen tapped the control on his helmet visor and got a closer view of the ground outside the base fence. A bus had just seemed to crush in on itself, but as he looked closer the carpet of silvery robots was noticeable.

The enemy was minutes away.

They climbed into the cramped quarters one at a time. There was no room to stand up, they simply found the person-shaped padded areas and strapped in. It felt like crawling under a house except there was a small porthole for viewing for each of them. As well as a flat screen against the extremely low ceiling.

“I feel claustrophobic already.” Sgt Gore grumbled.

“Not much room to scratch an itch.” The quiet Korean soldier said. It was pretty obvious that he was trying to sound more like the others. It was also obvious that the Russian could not care any less about fitting in.

“It will take a few days for us to reach Nemesis.” The Russian guy told them, “Try not to pukat, ladies.”

Lt. Lowery shook his head, “I'll be keeping my helmet on until after launch.”

Indeed they could all plug their breathing apparatus into the ship. There was no room for comfort but there was life support. Although the vast majority of the weight of the thin-walled ship was fuel. New composites allowed them to make the vehicle itself very light, but the fuel was a different thing altogether.

There was a bare few feet at the front of the ship for the crew and a few feet more for the life support in what was called the capsule. It was shaped a bit like an old space capsule but it was melded with the big booster and small wings were added to give it some maneuverability after re-entry so it could find its way to a landing site. A very large square parachutes would deploy and the computer could control their direction and descent.

Theoretically. It had never had a manned flight before.

There was no countdown, they were simply given a ten second warning. Then the incredible noise and vibration shook them until their teeth rattled. The rocket lifted off. Slowly at first and then gained speed. After about a half a minute they were pressed down by the thrust so hard that the built-in “beds” were a good seven inches underneath the “floor”. When the noise died down, they had passed he speed of sound, but the vibration, the sound of the air hitting the ship and the buffeting kept them wary.

The sky outside was replaced by pitch black, then they could see more stars than anyone on the ground could ever see. These were not twinkling. They could see the moon. It looked like a postage stamp while reddish Nemesis, although much farther away, looked more than twice as big.

Then the noise stopped. It was dead silent except for the murmur of air circulating fans. Suddenly the final stage booster shifted them sideways and aimed straight for the red planet. Normally you aim for where the target was going to be when you arrived, but Nemesis was still in relation to Earth.

The booster fired again. It kept firing until the fuel ran dry. Then it decoupled and separated with a wisp of air in reverse. It was now no more than space junk. The XSR-75 continued on its way.

“Okay.” Igor said tapping his flat screen. “Here is all that we know about the surface and possible underground cities of the aliens.”

Lance Corporal Arlen and the Korean Kim Lu-Hyun shared a look. How in the world anyone determined possible locations for underground cities on these maps was beyond them.

“Where is there any indication of the cities?” Lu-Hyun asked.

The Russian clicked through some more of the sensor and satellite images. “We think we detected a hive of launches around this rugged plateau. The so-called experts think this indicates there could be a city directly under this plateau.”

“We can detect launches on Nemesis?” Lt. Lowery asked, “Since bloody when?”

The Russian grinned. “Once the satellites arrived, we did it the same way we did when Americans launched things. The same way Americans watched us.”

“The aliens haven't destroyed the satellites?” Sgt Gore asked,

“A few have been lost to unknown causes but it seems like they are not shooting them down. It I possible they don't see them as a threat. Remember they evolved and think differently than we do, it might not have ever occurred to them that satellites are spies.”

Jackson spoke up, “If we make it to Nemesis. The chances of getting back are very thin. You gave me an idea, though. I wonder if we could steal a ship, maybe they never had thieves on their world and won't see it coming.”

Sgt Gore laughed, “Not exactly a joy ride.”

“Oh, if we are able to live through this and catch a lift home, I will be feeling joy.” Lowery replied.

------------------------

This ongoing blog story will be updated now and then.  You can help support this blog with a small donation or by buying a copy of New Arrivals.

Second Front: Second Day Interludes

Prologue
Chapter One

Second Front

Chapter Two

Second Day Interludes

A woman wearing blue jeans and a leather jacket was cooking something on the stove listening to the radio. Of course all they talked about was the invasion. There had been a battle nearby recently but it seemed to have been an isolated group of aliens, no cluster of landers in the area. She couldn't think of a good reason for them to hit rural Wyoming.

The radio announcer was explaining that officials thought the alien invaders were fleeing a dying world and that they were not really much more advanced that Earth in most ways. They might have been, a long time ago, before their planet was somehow pushed away from its parent star. Now they were just desperate, probably. Others didn't care why they were doing it.

Her newly-issued combat rifle was still leaning against the refrigerator. She had personally killed at least one of the invaders as a member of the volunteer Home Guard. Her son now thought she was “cool”. She hoped that the aliens stayed far away from Wyoming anyway.

The face of the alien was sort of like a bat, or a demon, but the coloration was way off. It had once been black but it also had gray and white splotches. How long had these beings been forced to live underground? How in the universe did their planet get out of a stars gravity in the first place?

She made breakfast for her son and left a note on his lunch box. Then she slung the 50 cal rifle over her shoulder, grabbed her purse and headed for work at the truck stop coffee shop. She doubted there would be much business outside of those stranded truckers.

…

The alien was cornered in the bedroom of the apartment. Sgt Mark Walter of the LAPD had wounded it with his shotgun. It was limping and one arm hung useless. It had broken into this apartment seeking refuge, jumping through the living room window. Before Sgt Walter, who was chasing it, had arrived the alien had already swung its bladed weapon and cleanly cut off the head of the woman who lived there.

Leaning against the wall next to the door frame, he pushed a few new shells into the shotgun. He could hear the labored breathing and a soft whining of the isolated alien hiding inside. The Sergeant planned to kill this thing before it could hurt anyone else. Then there was a loud scraping noise.

The LAPD officer turned and looked inside, there was a hole in the wall, the thing had dug through the plaster and drywall and was in the next apartment. The morning sun was shining into the room since there were no blinds covering them.

“Damn!” he cursed as he ran to the hole and climbed through. There was no furniture in the room on the other side. Thank God it was vacant. He walked toward the door to the hallway, listening for the alien. It might have gotten away already.

Suddenly he was hit from behind, tackled. Claws dug into his left side, where his body armor didn't protect him. Rolling on the ground together there was a furious pain in his shoulder as the thing bit him in the shoulder near the neck, like a vampire. Sgt Walter elbowed the creature in the face as hard as he could. It seemed to have been stunned so he did it again and the grip it had loosened.

He didn't know where the shotgun ended up, but still had his mace. He took it from his belt and sprayed it at the aliens exposed face. The scream should have shattered glass as it flung itself back hard enough to break drywall again. The officer pushed himself to his knees and pulled out his 45 from the holster and shot the freak in the face twice. It's limp dead body slid to the floor in a heap.

The shoulder wound made it painful to move his arm or head. That thing had gotten separated from the fighting in MacArthur Park and the downtown Los Angeles area. It had killed a lot of people who were no threat to it. Most people were locked in their homes because of the fighting, like the woman it had decapitated without a thought.

He was bleeding profusely from the wound. Sgt Walter found his radio and wondered if the alien jamming had been stopped.

…

Seoul National Capital Area

There was no school because of the invasion but Park Eun-Hee really needed to study for her upcoming math exam. She had left her book in her desk. Eun-Hee didn't have to walk far from the family's sixth-floor apartment to reach the school. Just a quick trip, no reason to ask her parents for permission. They'd just be worried.

The shops along the way were all closed. The streets and sidewalks almost completely deserted. The fighting was miles away but she could see a military vehicle blocking an intersection in the distance. The soldiers would protect them from any of the aliens, she believed.

The door was unlocked as usual but the building was so quiet it was eerie. She giggled to herself, probably had seen way too many movies about haunted schools. She climbed up to the third floor and found her classroom. There was the book, right where she had left it. Easy as...

There was a scuttling sound. Something was behind her. Please be a stray cat or a bird that flew into an open window, she prayed. When Eun-Hee looked into the darkened area behind her, against the wall, she saw it. It was one of the aliens, out of its armor and looking injured.

“Why did you come here?” She asked it. She sat at her desk. It blinked but otherwise did not move. It was carrying no weapons, in fact it was naked. It gave off a barely audible shrill whimpering sound.

“Is that your language? If so, I doubt we'll ever understand each other.” She told the alien.

She had seen the television footage of these things fighting. They were very agile. This one must be injured. The news reports said these things were viciously cruel, they had sent the beasts yesterday. Today they were invading.

“Your world has a new sun. It can heal over time. None of this was necessary was it?” Eun-Hee asked, although she would admit they might have a thousand reasons why it could not wait. “If you had just come peacefully...”

Maybe they had no concept of peace. She wondered if they could learn. Then she laughed at the idea of trying to teach this creature anything. Being in the school felt ironic. She would just slowly leave and then run home to report this to the authorities. It would be the right and proper thing to do. If they took it alive they could learn a lot about the aliens.

Internal injuries. Maybe it was just scared. It may have been forced to join the invasion against its will. Not all of the aliens could be the same. She always thought it was strange in books or movies where an entire alien race acted the same. Why couldn't they be individuals too?

The aliens were losing all the battles around Seoul. The aliens were doing much better near Busan and Jinju. There were reports that some of the landing vessels were burrowing into the ground, possibly digging underground bunkers.

They had lived under ground for so long. Eun-Hee looked out the window at the reddish world in the evening sky. When it was darker, and that would be soon, it would glow brighter. She pointed at the other planet.

“Dangsin-ui segye, i-e-yo?”

She saw the creatures eyes look at where she was pointing. It saw its home world. Another whimpering sound came from its throat. A very lonely sound. To her ears, Park Eun-Hee did not think this alien was like the others. It didn't seem like a soldier. Then again, didn't all soldiers long for home?

Finally she stood up from her desk and started moving toward the door. She kept eye contact with the alien. It watched her. She was in the hallway and she slid the door shut. She breathed a sigh of relief as she turned and started running toward the stairs. She heard a crash behind her and the noise of something chasing her.

She screamed but something hit her as she reached the end of the corridor. It slammed into her and she was crushed between it and the wall. Eun-Hee saw stars as vision faded. The thing was holding her up after her legs failed. She looked into its face and had no idea if there was an expression as she passed out.

…

The arrow-shaped alien lander was floating on the water. It was bigger than nearly every ship in the Argentine navy and its weapons had blown a submarine apart. The weapon had created a crater in the water, exposing the sub to the air as the alien ship blasted it.

“Firing one. Firing two.” The seaman reported as the anti-shipping missiles were launched. The deck of the San Juan had eight anti-ship missiles, half of those remained. The alien vessel had easily shot down the first two and now these two would be as useless.

The 3,400-ton destroyer was no match for the massive alien landing ship that had recently landed along with the second wave. There were several on the ground near Buenos Aires. They were putting up a good fight but there didn't seem to any long-term strategy by the aliens.

The Captain uttered an obscenity as the two missiles were destroyed in the air. “Fire all four remaining anti-shipping missiles, then full speed toward the enemy!” he ordered. The crew on the bridge were a bit stunned, surely he wasn't going to ram that thing?

…

Later...

“Mr. President. These things, the remaining landing ships, are burrowing into the ground. I do not totally understand why. Maybe they have some technology that can pull resources from the ground, possibly they have advanced 'printing' technology to build more weapons.” The General was telling the President on the phone. “I just do not see how they can hope to win, there are just too many humans for them to defeat.”

After a short silence he spoke again. “Yes, sir. Operation Doolittle is still a go. Won't be ready to launch today though. Might not even be necessary, looks like we can beat this invasion at the moment.”

Suddenly the floor shook. The General grabbed his desk. The phone was dead so he threw it down and went to a window. There were several large holes in the ground and something was coming out of them, many somethings. They looked like...

“Robots.” The General told himself. Hundreds of small robots that looked like spiders or crabs and some larger ones that carried obvious guns. This must be a third wave. The landing vehicles that burrowed into the ground were making robots. They've had a matter of hours and they built all this.

Soldiers and officers in the building were now running and shouting. It looked like chaos but they were doing their jobs. Armed soldiers rushed to attack the robots but the big ones fired back as the little ones scurried forward. They reached a car and within seconds had dismantled it and consumed it. As he watched they did the same thing to a soldier.

“Oh my God.” The General said.

Chapter Three

------------------

I will try to update this ongoing story 2-3 times a week, at least.

Second Front: Second Day

Prologue

Second Front

Chapter One

Second Day

We thought we could take them out the same way the black spheres had been. Their large ships didn't come any closer than the moon. We could not detect anything that had been launched from them, our nukes were useless. This was the first day of the second wave, the second day of the war. The Second Day.

The military truck stopped along the road, bracketed on both sides by fields of vegetables. The soldier in the turret scanned in all directions with the new issue binocular scopes, his mounted twin 50-caliber machine guns moving with him.

“Are you sure the report gave this location?” the Lieutenant was asking the Command Post over the radio. It was an urgent matter if one of the alien landing ships had touched down here in the middle of rural Texas. These aliens weren't as scattered as the first wave had been, they were now landing in groups and putting up a stiff fight all over the world. He was told that this was the place.

Just because you could not see anything did not mean it wasn't there. That is one of the reasons they had upgraded the night vision goggles, because you could see some trace of them even in the daylight with them. The upgrade was only hours old, it had been a simple thing, the instructions sent to all bases.

So there were a lot of bugs in it. Private First Class John Santos circled for the second time. Then he saw something. Just something. An unusual wisp, like steam from a teapot. In the middle of the field. He knew the rules of engagement had changed so he squeezed off a few dozen rounds from his guns at the anomaly.

“I saw something!” He told his buddies who were already exiting the back of the vehicle with their own guns. They laid down in a semi-circle and put their own 50 cal guns on tripods, one of them brought out a shoulder-fired anti-tank missile. Suddenly through their NVG's they saw the vague shapes of the enemy coming toward them.

All of them began firing.

“I need Fort Hood, now!” Lieutenant Paul Reese yelled into the radio, “We have engaged hostiles!”

The enemy soldiers had flashing lasers on their weapons to blind the human soldiers, but they did not know that the NVG's had been upgraded a couple years ago to block sudden blinding lights. Their flashing was used to subvert this upgrade but it was hit or miss for both sides.

The incoming rounds were exploding on impact all around the vehicle. The enemy didn't bother with small arms and their armored suits made it pointless to fire anything like a NATO round at them if you couldn't be sure of a hit to the faceplate.

PFC Santos was firing at the enemy troop concentration when he noticed there was some kind of movement to the right of him. The stealthy enemy had flanked them, the armored vehicle blocked these new soldiers from the rest of the squad. Santos turned the turret instinctively to engage them with his twin guns.

Almost immediately Santos was hit by several rounds of exploding ordinance tearing holes through his honeycomb armor and his body. The rounds also penetrated the windshield of the truck and the head of the Lieutenant inside who had been calling for reinforcements.

Three members of the squad picked up their gun and moved to the side of the armored truck to engage these new enemies. They found some cover fire when someone launched a grenade at the enemy, which usually did little but distract them. The three moving soldiers got the attention of the flanking enemy and withering fire exploded all around them.

They dropped to the ground, two of them rolled away from the vehicle to keep the three of them from being bunched together. Then they tried to bring their 50 cal machine guns to bear on the closing enemies. They took out several but there were just too many.

“We need to get out of here!” PFC Norris yelled and stood up to run, his back exploded. The body dropped to the ground and rolled off the road and down onto the field below.

The encroaching enemy was on top of them within seconds after that, impaling them with bladed weapons through their backs before they could react. The soldiers behind the vehicle abandoned their positions, now surrounded on three sides and tried to run up the lonely two-lane road they had come down.

They turned and fired at the aliens, one of them threw grenades before turning to run some more and falling to the ground with a hole through his chest and half his head missing.

PFC Christopher Wiles sat on the road and fired his gun at the enemy forces he could barely see, even without the tears and sweat getting in his eyes. Then he heard the whomp, whomp sound of an aircraft approaching. He knew that aircraft, it had a distinctive sound.

The Osprey was in helicopter mode as it swung into view firing it's new guns and the Maverick missiles slung under the wings. It had been an experiment but those upgrades were ordered for all Ospreys last night, forget all the red ink normally involved.

Before the enemy had a chance to get a bead on the aircraft the world exploded all around. Suddenly there were hits all over the place. Then he saw AH-64 IQ's passing overhead, the unmanned versions of the attack helicopter. The landing ship in the field was hit by the new Skyfire Missiles and its holographic stealth system failed.

It looked like a large flint arrow stuck into the ground now that it was entirely visible. There were still guns it trying to return fire. One of the Apache IQ's had gone down on the far side of the road and another was trailing smoke.

PFC Wiles dropped his heavy gun and surveyed around him. His entire squad was dead and there were several dozen alien dead. The armored truck had several large holes in it, but the wheels and motor compartment seemed intact.

The Osprey was landing in the field to his right and soldiers were climbing out. They ran up to him and started asking questions he couldn't make out. Finally he saw them collecting the 50 cal guns and the alien weapons and taking them back to the Osprey. The guns were needed elsewhere, the dead could wait a little longer.

Two of the men from the Osprey stayed behind and helped load the human bodies into the vehicle after putting them into body bags. One of them used a flame thrower to burn the alien bodies after cutting the armored chest plates from the ones where it was intact. Their armor was better, so we should use it too. The aircraft lifted off and moved away, PFC Wiles noted again the cursed red world in the sky.

A fighter jet came in low and dropped a larger bomb on the now-dead enemy landing ship. Just to make sure. PFC and the two other soldiers climbed into the armored truck and began to long drive back to the command post. PFC Christopher Wiles would have to tell his CO what happened, even though the vehicle had a recording device as did the corporal, whose body was piled in back.

“Tokyo was hit hard. It was one of the first to be invaded, we've learned a lot since then. Shanghai is a pile of crap. Some kind of explosion in the sewer system set off other explosions during the fighting. It's all a huge mess. The whole world is a mess right now.” One of the other soldiers was saying. Wiles supposed it was to get his mind off of everything, he appreciated the attempt, but it wasn't working.

They were dead. They were all dead. His buddies for two years since he joined the service and they died just like that. Too easily. Too quick, too soon. PFC Wiles thought he had seen enough war in Angola, against the Spear of Allah, but this was other level. The Jihadists had been ruthless, but they had hardly been the peer of US forces in real battles.

As soon as they arrived he saw a line of armored vehicles and their dragoons preparing to leave. There had been several landing vessels reported outside of San Angelo. There was heavy armor on the way from Fort Hood, but these guys were expected to slow down the enemy until the cavalry arrived.

PFC Christopher Wiles wanted to tell them not to go. He couldn't though. The whole world was at stake, everyone they cared about needed to be defended from this aggression. There was no telling how many civilians or militia members would be butchered before they arrived.

“Godspeed!” Wiles said, saluting a Corporal racing to climb into one of the vehicles. Then he turned back toward the large tent of the Command Post and rehearsed what he would tell his Commanding Officer.

--------------------------

Second Front: Prologue

Second Front

Prologue

On Monday 21 May 2033 sensors picked up something large entering the solar system, the radio astronomy observatories watched this object perturb the paths of known asteroids. The speed and direction of the object showed that it would head for the Earth. Eventually.

Scientists determined that a rogue planet, a wandering world with no parent star had been captured by the sun's gravity and pulled in. Many people were frightened and there was panic buying and selling in some parts but this very premature and rare enough to be an oddity.

It was soon determined that this new world was about the same diameter as the Earth and just a little less dense, but still making it the second densest planet in the solar system. It had an atmosphere of some type, almost as thick as the one on Earth.

On 14 August scientists held a press conference to report that the new world would enter into a proper orbit around the sun by the end of the year. The big news was that this planet would share Earth's orbit and would end up being close enough to see in our daylight sky. Especially at dusk.

27 November 2033, the planet was now a dot in the night sky. More big news was revealed by the global community of scientists. The new world had a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, much like our own and oceans, although shallower than ours.

4 December 2033, a whistle-blower revealed that radio signals were being detected from the other planet and that these were not natural phenomena. The new arrival had radio broadcasting systems although they had not been decoded. This was the most shocking news so far, of course.

7 December 2033, the FBI and other agencies raid and shut down a religious organization who were sending radio waves directly at the planet. They had the intent to convert these beings to Christ. The governments warned that we had no idea what might offend our new neighbors.

11 December, the new world was now almost as big as the moon in the sky although more than twice as far away. It did not orbit the Earth, it just stayed in a leading orbit. You could now see the world in the sky before the sun went down and a little while after, a large reddish planet. It was something that nobody had really imagined before.

23 December 2033. Multiple “falling stars” were reported across Asia as night fell, with many said to have hit the ground and the sea. Then live pictures were picked up from Nogura, Japan of a wrecked building. A black sphere sat amidst the rubble.

As the reporter watched police rope the area off to await the soldiers of the Japan Self-Defense Force, the sphere split in half and a black shadowy shape emerged. It quickly lunged at the nearest police and civilians and lifted them into the air, shook them and then threw them against the wall. A police officer fired several times from close range only to be lifted by his head and then his head was crushed by the claws of the creature.

The world was now alarmed as reports of these “falling stars” were now being reported in mainland China and later parts of western Russia. It was moving along with the side of Earth that faced this new world. North America had less than a day to put the military and the people of the country on alert. Highways and airports were closed, ammunition and firearms sold out wherever they were sold.

Reports of attacks from Asia were studied. The tiniest piece of information could prove to be valuable n repelling these invaders. Reports from India and countries farther and farther west were added to the pile as the day wore on. The beasts did a lot of damage but eventually they were killed by large caliber rounds.

Russia launched several ICBM missiles that exploded in space when the incoming spheres were detected. Radar had now been honed to find them, but the reaction time was short because radar could only be extended so far. The west waited for the news.

A smattering of the black spheres fell on eastern Russia, most of them did not split open. The Russian military cut one open and found an alien beast dead inside. It was brought to a secret location for study, the information they found was shared. Already, though, western Europe was faced with the decision,

The EMP from the explosions had caused scattered outages, this news emboldened the Europeans so that France and the UK fired their own nukes as a shield from invasion. It seemed to work, a few beasts survived but the military was ready and had dispatched them. They did a lot of damage, but they were mortal, they did die.

While North and South America awaited their turn, the new Space Station Terra was boarded by smaller beings. These beings wore space suits and carried weapons and killed the astronauts as the whole world watched. The last one they actually made sure was in front of a camera before they used a blade and impaled the poor man from behind, the blade coming out of his chest.

The United States used its ICBM arsenal to shield the America's from the wave of spheres, more or less successfully, reports were confirmed than a second wave of larger vessels had departed from the new world now universally called Nemesis. So while mopping up the surviving beasts of the first wave had been pretty simple, in relative terms, the worst was yet to come.

At a secret meeting in the White House basement a group of countries agreed that somehow a military force had to be sent to Nemesis. It might be a suicide mission, but if they could somehow hold off the second wave, it would be done. While the world awaited the new invasion, it secretly planned to invade the alien world in response.

To open a second front.

The aliens were about as tall and strong as we were. They were more agile but they were not any less mortal than us. They wore powered armored suits but this did not protect them from large caliber rounds.

Their skin was splotchy between gray and dark black, their eyesight in their red eyes was not great, but many of them had enhanced themselves with implanted visors. They had bat-like ears and could hear really well and they had claws on their three fingers and their thumbs.

Whether they had intentionally used their planet as a spaceship or not they had some technology far beyond ours, but in many respects they were peer competitors. Probes showed Nemesis was a barren wasteland, the trip through the void had probably taken generations. Without light and heat from a parent star nearly all the vegetation on their world had been killed. It was believed that the aliens lived underground.

…

“We need six-man teams. The idea is that we will send them to Nemesis.” The General explained to his peers from the UK, Russia, Korea and Australia.

“A bloody suicide mission, mate.” The Australian officer responded.

The others on the LCD screens were nodded. They were having their meeting over the military network of satellites, it was heavily encrypted.

“We know that. In all likelihood these men will never survive, the first ones there will face an environment unknown to them. We do not know what kind of germs and viruses that world has, for one thing.” The American told them.

“The bottom line is their world is dead, they want ours.” The British officer said, “Assuming the second wave can be handled, we don't know how many of their soldiers are on those ships, you will have all the volunteers you need, I'd imagine.”

“They will carry suitcase nuke, no?” The Russian General asked.

“Yes, we call them Man-Portable Tactical Nuclear Weapons. Or backpack nukes.” The American told them, “Each of the teams will have one or two of them, these devices weigh about 22.6 kilograms, they will be carried in separate packs by separate soldiers and assembled at the sites.”

“How do we plan on getting these teams to Nemesis?” The Korean General finally spoke up.

“That is a right good question!” The Australian said.

The American General touched some keys on a keyboard. The image of a small, blunt shuttle on the tip top of a large rocket was shown to them. “Meet the XSR-75. Quite capable of lugging a team of 6 into orbit and then to Nemesis without refueling.” The US General told them, “One of our secret projects turns out to actually be useful, for once.”

“I assume you want Marines for this.” The British officer said.

“Mostly.” he answered “We intend to send an Army Ranger or equivalent with sniper experience with each team.”

“We're about to have a bloody hell lot of soldiers with a fookun' lot of experience, General.” The Australian said, referring to the second wave.

“Yes, come to that, we all have better things to do than talk about what comes afterward.” he told them and the connections were terminated.

Chapter One

-------------------------

A new possible on-going story for this blog. This is just the prologue, expect part one in a couple of days.

Oasis gets new cover

Eamon Ambrose author of Zero Hour made me a new cover for my novella Oasis, and it looks a lot better than the home-made pedestrian  cover I had on it.


It looks pretty darn close to the location in the story, getting anything better than this would require some real $$$.

Thank you, Eamon, you did a great job!

Torik Chronicle: Final

Part One

Part Two

Part Three 

  Torik Chronicle

Final Part

The dragon shook his head from side to side, destroying more of the wall. Wood shards and parts of the rock façade flew around like a mighty storm had thrown them. Part of the roof fell on the dragon and with another shake it too was tossed away.

A mighty roar shook what was left of the room and left Meritor with a pain in his stomach, Suddenly the door was open and Malwort was standing there with a lantern. “The dragon is blind. They blinded the dragon so they could control it!”

Braccus pointed, “Chains! Around it's neck.”

Indeed there were chains, being held taut by someone down on the ground. They would have to pass the blinded and angry dragon to get to the men controlling it. Malwort reached into a pocket and came out with a handful of salt.

“Get ready to jump out there!” Braccus told his men.

Malwort took a few steps into the room and then threw the salt at the wounds where the dragons eyes had been. It howled in pain and pulled away from the house of Lord Jasper.

“Now!” Braccus gave the order and all four of the men reached the edge of the shattered room, three of them jumped down. Meritor found his bow and quiver and started trying to see the enemies who had brought the dragon. It was too dark. He was going to have to climb down too.

Just then the dragon backed into view and the tail nearly hits Meritor as it slams into the far wall and knocks that down completely. He could hear shouts in the darkness, it sounded like Lord Jasper's men were now joining the unseen melee.

Once he reached the bottom, Meritor pulled out his short sword. The bow would be useless in the dark when he didn't even know the enemy from Jasper's men. He could hear the loud shuffling of a distressed dragon and briefly wondered if anyone had been trampled yet.

He found Hodkins first. He had a man in the air by the throat while using his sword hand to keep another enemy back. Then the large burly warrior kicked away the man he had been holding in his left hand and gave his complete attention to the enemy, quickly striking him down. Meritor had seen this kind of fighting for a good while and it still frightened him a little.

The dragon gave a quick spin and he could see and hear men fleeing from the beast. He heard chains clanking on the ground, the dragon had gotten free from its handlers. Meritor did not know if this was good or bad, but not getting in the way seemed to be the smart thing.

Then he saw Kaster being held at bay by three men with spears or pikes. Meritor saw his chance to bring his bow into play and as he was pulling an arrow from his quiver a dragons tail swiped all three of the enemies off their feet. Kaster gave a shout and pounced on them to finish the job.

As his enthusiasm waned again, Meritor shifted back to the short sword just in time to be attacked by a tall, scar-faced man with his own short sword. One of his arms was covered with bright red patches. This might be one of the dragon handlers he thought to himself as he dodged a thrust and rolled to the right. The dragon handler could not be fooled with dodges or tricks, probably been killed by the dragon already if he could be.

Meritor kicked at the mans disfigured sword arm and then jabbed his own sword into the man's abdomen, pulling upward. At least he got one.

As he looked up he was blindsided by a tackle. He was hit so hard he could hardly breathe as the assailant rolled with him. He could hear the ground shake as something huge went by. The dragon was still on the rampage.

“We got them on the run!” Someone yelled

“Follow them! Find out who they're working for!” Braccus bellowed.

Meritor opened his eyes to see Hodkins. The huge oaf had saved his life from the dragon, but might have broken a few of Meritor's bones in the process. His ribs were on fire.

“Thanks.” He barely got out, wincing at the pain of breathing again.

Hodkins laughed, grabbed him by the shoulders and lifted Meritor to his feet. He really hated being reminded how much smaller he was than the rest of the team. “Let's go find the person who sent that dragon!”

If the dwarf was correct it was the Duke. Meritor still found it hard to believe that the short, fat and easily scared man they met was the mastermind of all this. Taking one look back he could see the missing top floor of one wing of Lord Jaspers house. Certainly Jasper wouldn't do this to his own house, at least Meritor thought.

He followed Hodkins through the dark night, he could hear the big mans footfalls even when he was out of sight ahead of him. Meritor had no idea where the dragon had gone, maybe his instincts would send him back to the mountains. He had heard once that these creatures could fly blind and know where they are going.

Soon they were chasing the men ahead of them through peppercorn fields, he could hear the occasional sneeze around him. To his right he could see the torches of the town of Torik, they were indeed vaguely heading toward Duke Willoughby's property.

Suddenly there were shouts and the sounds of metal on metal around them. One of the enemy approached carrying a long-handled hammer. Meritor had his short sword and was looking for an advantage when the man started spinning and the hammer reached out, it was connected to a chain.

Meritor was also struck by the flying hammer as it swung around. He had to back up several steps as the man swinging it came forward to get in range. Meritor pulled a blade from his boot and threw it at the hammer slinger. He had missed, it barely caught the man on the shoulder with a scratch.

Backing up farther he pulled out his bow. The assailant looked surprised and started trying to reign in his fast swinging hammer, but this took too long. Meritor's arrow plunged through the upper ribcage of the enemy fighter.

That was two, at any rate.

The remaining enemies took off running, again. Meritor joined the others in giving chase. This time the enemy fighters wasted no time and they ran directly up the sharp-inclines of the low plateau where the Castle-like estate of the Duke was located.

“The Crown Prince needs to choose better people to trust.” Kaster grumbled.

“The Prince didn't make this man a Duke.” Braccus reminded him. The four of them and a few of Lord Jaspers men took a more leisurely pace toward the slightly imposing edifice. At least in the very early light of dawn coming over it made it seem more imposing.

“A nice place like this needs a better Duke.” Hodkins said as they begun the short climb. As expected they met no resistance when they reached the top. The place looked abandoned and the quiet was a bit eerie, they shrugged and walked toward the main gate.

Meritor kept his eyes on the arrow slits in the tall keep. He saw no movement but this did not mean they weren't being watched. He saw nothing atop the wall either.

“Let us in or we will tear the wall down!” Braccus bellowed into the locked main gate. Hodkins kicked the wrought-iron bars, the whole gate shook.

A sentry appeared armed with a short spear. “What do you want?”

“We are here to see the Duke. Do not keep us waiting!” Kaster said.

The guard seemed unconcerned. “I will consult the Duke before I let you in.”

Braccus looked at Hodkins and nodded. A running start and Hodkins hit the gates hard enough to dislodge them from the rock wall. The sentry barely got away before being hit by the falling iron gate.

“We will see the Duke directly.” Braccus said as they calmly entered the property.

The main doors to the house were easily broken open, frightened servants were running in different directions. Meritor noted bits of peppercorn plant on the normally shiny tile floor of the foyer. Some of the men they had been chasing through the fields had come through here.

No one tried to stop them as they looked into the rooms on the bottom and then top floors. Meritor noted that the desk in the library was no longer clean but cluttered as if someone had rifled through the papers it held.

“Where is the Duke?” Braccus demanded of a few servants who were cowering before him.

“They took horses and the wagon and fled.” One of the servants finally got out in a whimper.

“I didn't think he was one to stand and fight.” Kaster said, “Once we report what happened here, the Duke will probably be stripped of his title and locked away somewhere.”

“The King can strip his title, but the Crown Prince cannot. We know what state the King is in, so he flees with his title and whatever wealth he could carry. He'll be penniless before too long.”

The foreman of the peppercorn workers was brought forward. Braccus charged him with managing the estate until the King sent representatives to take over. He had no idea when that would happen, but the Prince could probably manage to send someone.

“I wonder what happened to the dragon?” Hodkins asked. “Those scales are the heaviest armor I have ever seen. My sword bounced right off.”

Meritor doubted the man had gotten quite that close to the dragon. At least on purpose. After a few hours of issuing orders to the workers and servants, Braccus finally decided it was time to leave. At the busted front gate they were met by Lord Jasper, Malwort and two other men on horseback, they were leading other horses.

“We bring you your mounts.” Lord Jasper said. “Do you think the crown might put this estate up for sale? Seeing as how much damage my home took, I might be in the market.”

Braccus and the others accepted their mounts and climbed on. “I will be reporting directly to the crown that Malwort was a great help to us and should be rewarded.”

The dwarf looked surprised and a bit touched, although he glanced warily at his uncle.

“What did Malwort have to do with all this?” Lord Jasper asked.

Braccus laughed. “Only someone in his position would know and understand the servants and laborers all over Torik. He knows everything about what goes on here, it seems. Your nephew is quite a resource for Archlandia. This I will also report to the crown, with a recommendation that Malwort be made Sheriff of Torik.”

Lord Jasper seemed shocked and at a loss for words.

“Good day to you, Malwort. Thank you for your help.” Braccus said, turned his horse and started leaving.

“Thanks for throwing salt at the dragon.” Hodkins said and he too left.

“A real credit to Torik and Kingdom.” Kaster said as he turned and left.

“You will hear from me soonest, Malwort.” Meritor said, wanting to keep this dwarf as a contact of his own. He could valuable in future situations.

-------------------- end

My next e-book is at beta readers. Should be done in a week. I'll be thinking of a title in that time. You can help me afford a nice cover for it by donating a dollar at the sidebar or by buying New Arrivals.

Nobody ever expects....

Korean zombies

KBS Drama Special, "Live Shock".

Good news

I feel better, back to writing.

"The Fourth" (new title unknown) is going off to the beta readers soonest.

I'm hoping no major changes are needed.

Like I said, back to writing.