Chapter 6: Welcome to the war.
The song '“ Fortunate Son”' by the bad Creedence Clearwater Revival played over the speakers at the firing range as Boris put suppressing fire on several cardboard cut outs of Sectoids. Moments later Ramos rushed in behind them, snapping off two rapid fire shots. Ramos’s shots struck dead on with two of the cutouts being painted red by paintballs and a third being grazed.
As Ramos took cover from the sectoid’s “ reaction fire”, which really consisted of an invisible laser that would hit a small metal sensor somewhere on Ramos and beep loudly to indicate he was hit. A series of three paintballs slammed into the cardboard Sectoid. The rounds had come from Sato’s XM9 as he jumped out from behind a prop mailbox and the exercise came to a close with all targets eliminated.
“Okay everyone, good job. That’s enough for today,” Central said over the intercom as the three surviving members of the training exercise helped their five '“dead”' brothers get up and over to the armory to put away their training weapons.
Commander Cotton smiled as he looked upon the three new members of his Laser Squad from up in the observation room of the firing range.
“Those three along with Chavivi and I will make the perfect Laser Squad,” Cotton said. Chavivi was their Israeli long rifleman, or sniper depending on what you were talking about.
“The Laser Squad, sir?” Central asked as he turned to Cotton.
“You didn’t get my memo?” Cotton asked with a raised eyebrow. He hoped that he had remembered to actually send it.
“Oh sorry, Commander. I was busy and didn’t get a chance to look at it. You’re not actually going into the field are you?”
“How else can I be expected to command the respect of both foreign and local soldiers against an enemy that wants to wipe us out?” Cotton said as he turned around and began walking over to the exit.
“Commander, I must protest. You're one of the commanding officers of this base, if you were captured it would pose a massive security risk to our entire operation,” Central retorted while following him.
“That’s why I made sure that every Lightning squad member knows that if I am captured by the enemy, they are at full liberty to kill me.”
“Commander, how could you make such an order?”
Cotton held up a hand to Central. “Central, I am in command of combat operations. I know what I’m doing.”
Central clenched his teeth and decided to just let it go. Just as the two had entered into the elevator, along with several engineers, an alarm that resembled a seal shouting began to rise as yellow lights all along the base flashed.
“Central to Geoscape, what’s the situation?” Central said as he put a hand to his headset to listen to the officer on duty.
“Sir. We have a confirmed UFO contact nine miles out of Roswell and at high altitude.”
“Understood. Scramble Ravens two and three. Intercept the UFO and bring it down, preferably not near the town.”
Cotton nodded to Central and waited as the elevator quickly rose to the command center. Upon reaching their intended destination Cotton and Central both ran out to the holographic globe of the earth. It disappeared into billions of pixels to reshape into a basic satellite image of the UFO slowly making its way to Roswell, leaving a trail of red dots behind it.
*In the Crow's Nest hanger.*
Chelsea Mitchell finished moving up a small ladder next to her interceptor, which had a green furred; grim reaper with rabbit ears painted on the side, and buckled herself into her seat.
Chelsea slid on her helmet, lowered the HUD visor, and began activating it.
“Raven three reporting. I am fully fueled and armed,” Chelsea spoke into a small mike in her oxygen mask before securing it to her helmet.
“This is control. You are in queue for launch, stand by.” The flight control officers then prepared the ports to get her up in the air.
The platform where the interceptor '“L'” fighter was then began moving towards an opening in the side of a cliff face. A moment later mechanical doors opened to reveal the open air. Metal clamps then released the interceptor’s tires as the engine began warming up.
“Chocks away!” flight command said and Chelsea clipped on her oxygen mask as she activated her engine. She slowly began picking up speed as she made her way across the smoothed out tunnel until she reached the end. There was a split-second of free fall before she sped off into the night sky.
Several seconds later a second interceptor joined with her and the two fighter craft raced towards the location of the UFO.
Back inside the command center, Cotton and the entire staff watched their screens with mixed emotions as two green interceptors raced towards a red tinted UFO.
Chelsea flew above the clouds with her wingmen to her right. She made sure the plane was stable before turning her head to admire the insignia on her wingmen’s plane. On the side of the 'H' model interceptor was painted an elderly vulture with a top hat and monocle above the words, “We only eat the finest meat.”.
The two different models of interceptor raced towards the UFO at near sonic speeds. The mark 'L' interceptor was a smaller and lighter variant, armed with three Vulcan mini-gun pods, one on each wing and one in the middle of the plane under its nose. The Vulcan fired high powered explosive rounds.
The mark 'H' was the heavier model and carried a large Avalanche missile pod on each wing, a square box that contained up to twelve missiles. This also required the 'H' interceptor to have two crewmembers, one gunner and one navigator.
Together the two planes covered both ranged and close quarters aerial combat. The UFO would have two distinct threats and strategies to deal with when it came into contact with the interceptors.
“Raven-two to Raven-three, we are nearing visual contact range with the X-ray ship, over.”
“Copy that. Let me go in and get their attention, over.” Chelsea reported back as she went to Mach five speeds. She soon caught sight of the UFO calmly floating as if they were no threat, or it didn’t notice the two human fighters speeding towards it.
“Matching speed and soon in gun range, opening up!” Raven-three slowed her speed and lined up the targeting circle to hit the glowing energy shielded glass portions of the disc shaped UFO. So far they had been the only weak points discovered.
Raven-three fired its cannons at the UFO, striking the energy shield, causing it to flare up. The UFO took evasive action and suddenly started moving the exact opposite direction to avoid the fire. The enemy ship then fired bright green plasma rounds at Raven-three out of the shielded areas, a circular hole opening in the shield when it did so.
Chelsea had her fighter pull a barrel roll to avoid three plasma blasts before she let loose with her cannons on the belly of the ship. The alien vessel shook as it took damage from underneath and more plasma fired towards her, boxing Raven-three in.
“Fox two!” The gunner for the second interceptor shouted as several missiles streaked in from above and detonated atop the UFO, sending it spinning to the ground.
“Thanks, Lyons. I thought I was done for, over,” Chelsea said to the other interceptor’s gunner.
“Don’t worry ma’am, the Queen’s finest have got your back,” The British pilot said as they chased the UFO alongside their wingman. Chelsea kept up a constant stream of fire on the ship until its shields failed and another avalanche missile struck its bottom side.
The UFO attempted to pull up before it struck the desert ground but only ended up smashing and spinning out of control until it came to a halt amongst a rocky cliff.
“The first one bites the dust, over,” Chelsea said over her radio to her wingman. Lyons gave a fist bump to his
navigator who then reported back to the Crow’s Nest.
“Raven-two to Crow’s Nest, the bogey is down. I repeat, confirmed kill on bogey zero-zero-one.”
At the Crow’s Nest the control room was filled with the sound of joy and celebration. The staff began high fiving each other and cheering until Central shouted out new orders.
“This is no time for celebration! Get me recon satellite twenty-three to get an image of the craft.”
“Coming online now, sir,” said a crew member as the satellite zoomed in to produce a crystal clear image of the craft. It was fully intact and seemed to have surprisingly little damage.
“It’s still in one piece,” Central said, amazed at how the ship had survived so much.
“Sir, we’ve got readings coming from the ship. Some of the aliens are still moving.”
“Get Lightning-one to move out.” Cotton said to Central as he raced out of the room to get to the armory to suit up.
About ten minutes later the members of Laser Squad had all piled into the Sky Ranger and buckled in. The transport slowly began to rise vertically until it exited through an opening above it and sped off in the direction of the crash at high speed.
“Okay every one, helmets and HUD’s on,” Cotton said as the soldiers slipped on their combat helmets. They came with big glass like visors that allowed them to see the status of their teammates, contact locations, and other information.
When Cotton put his helmet on and closed the locks to keep it sealed in case of gas he was met with the pleasant glow of the Heads Up Display. It put a greenish outline on his soldiers with their names above their heads.
“Okay everyone, we are going in quick and fast, no fuck ups. Keep clear of everyone’s fields of fire. Show no mercy to the aliens because they sure won’t. The UFO is fully intact; Chavivi will stay outside of the ship with Boris to keep our backs clear. Sato, Ramos, and I will breach the ship and eliminate the contacts. Sato, you’ve got the med-kit and are the acting medic. Okay anyone, questions?”.
No one said a word. They were all trained soldiers and knew the mission. The Sky Ranger arrived at the destination but hovered in place about a mile and a half away from the UFO to avoid fire as the back door to the transport opened. The soldiers threw some rope out to rappel down and slid silently down the rope like phantoms. The Sky Ranger then pulled away and flew off to a safer distance of about another mile as the soldiers spread out and converged on the UFO’s location.
It wasn’t hard for the soldiers to locate the crashed ship. It had left a nice fiery trail of burning trees and carbonized soil where it crashed. Cotton held up a closed fist, silently ordering for his squad to halt. He then tapped two fingers to his throat, signaling to go silent.
Chavivi was then told through hand signals to take a position near some non burning trees and remain on overwatch. Cotton and his three other troopers then moved towards the crashed UFO, separating into two groups. Sato and Ramos went together on the left while Cotton and Boris moved up on the right.
The UFO was dug in fairly deep to the ground and seemed to have restored power as shielded areas were visible. Cotton and Boris took cover behind a fallen tree that gave them a good view of what looked like a door way and the right side viewing port where the plasma fire usually came from. Cotton made hand signals for Boris to set up his auto-cannon machine gun on the tree and cover him. Boris responded by putting a closed fist to his chest, the order was understood.
While Cotton could use the radio in his helmet, he chose to use hand signals instead because he wasn’t sure how easily the alien ship’s computers could pick up their communications. When Boris had set up Cotton made a hand sign to Ramos and Sato to head to the front entrance. The Three soldiers moved up in a quick pace, swinging their weapons around as they searched for enemy contacts.
When they reached the door Cotton was on the right side of the entrance while Ramos was in front of Sato on the left, ready to blow the sectoids to bits with his shotgun. Cotton silently counted down with his fingers from three for his team to breach the ship. They were about to make the sign for two when a gunshot rang out, followed quickly by the scream of a dying Sectoid.
“Commander! Sectoids and Thin men coming from the left!” shouted Chavivi through their helmet comms as he worked the bolt of his rifle, expelling a spent round and loading a new one in, before he fired at a Thin man who side stepped his bullet.
Cotton slammed his fist into a button shaped hologram in the center of the door and it opened up, just as a Thin man jumped over a rock and began firing a plasma weapon at the troopers. Cotton and his men rushed into the UFO for safety as Boris poured suppressing fire across the area the enemy was coming from. Chavivi took out another Sectoid with an aimed shot, splattering a rock behind it with its green brains as his bullet struck it above its eyes.
Cotton, Ramos, and Sato moved as a group into the small UFO and were surprised when they saw it was only one room. There was a large green power source in the center, surrounded by large holographic controls. One of which had a dead Thin man that seemed to have died from head trauma.
“Quick, to the side!” Cotton shouted out and the three troopers moved over to the broken glass window of the ship. They then came up behind three surviving sectoids and one Thin man holding an injured arm as they waited for Boris’s weapon to run out of ammo.
Upon seeing the humans come out of their ship, the aliens strangely seemed not to care -- as if they didn’t see them as a threat, or were expecting something. Cotton and the other two troopers sprayed the aliens until they all had to reload. By the time they were done they had failed to notice a new being silently forming behind them.
This creat ure was like no other, it was cold and calculating. It prioritized the threats inside of the ship just as it had been programed. It raised its weapon and aimed at the center of one of the human intruders, one who carried a small medical kit on his side.
“Com…ing….you!!” A garbled transmission came over the radio as Chavivi and Boris tried to warn the rest of their team about the creature that had formed behind them.
“Say again?” Cotton said before Sato screamed when a plasma bolt struck him in the center of his back and he fell to the floor. The sound of sizzling armor and flesh rose from Sato as he lay silent on the ground. Ramos was still loading shells into his shotgun as he turned around to face the attacker.
Cotton turned as well and aimed his rifle at the new alien. He fired a full automatic blast at it, but the creature was like a shadow, dodging his shots before blasting another bolt at him. The plasma bolt struck Cotton's gun and melted it, leaving him on the ground, writhing in pain. He clutched his hands to his chest, but it did no good. The plasma had burnt them so bad it felt as though they were on fire. The pain was so extreme that if Cotton wasn’t looking at his own hands he would have sworn they had been blown off.
Ramos racked a round into his shotgun and fired, finally pulling himself out of shock. He struck the creature on it’s shoulder. Instead of the wet mushy sound he had expected, when the pellets struck the new enemy they produced a metallic sound. Only then did he realize that they weren’t fighting an organic, but a machine.
*And now a special message from everyone’s favorite deity of chaos, Discord!*
“Well hello there, dear reader,. I hope your enjoying this little heroic tale of courage against insurmountable odds and all that jazz.,” Discord says as he looks through your screen, past the words and directly at you. With eyes full of malice and a smile that would make even the Cheshire cat nervous, Discord begins talking to you.
“Now you’re probably wondering why the writer has chosen to break the fourth wall and have me speak to you. Well you’re wrong. Discord is his own Draconeques of disaster and no one makes me do anything!” he says with blue smoke coming from his nostrils before he slicks his hair back and crosses his arms behind his curved S shaped back.
“I’m really contacting you all to let you know I’m not helping Earth to be nice. The reason I'm doing it is because it’s fun. And I have plans for the empire once their leadership is dealt with. But I am not a cliché villain so I won’t go spoiling my plans by telling you what I’m up to .”
Discord then grabs my hands through my laptop screen and pokes his face through until his forehead is touching mine. “No, stop!” I shouted as he looked directly into my eyes!
“And you, Mr. Writer, you better learn proper grammar and formatting or I will turn you into a piece of pie and leave you on an ant hill!”
He makes sure to leave a chicken on my head before returning back to his own universe. “My spy will be watching you, Writer.” he says with a dastardly grin before snapping his fingers and changing the scene.
*Several thousand light years from Earth, at a space port built above a gas giant.*
Discord cleared his throat and coughed up some cobwebs as he attempted his best Morgan Freeman impression.
“ Now you see, my dear readers, in an earlier chapter I recruited a Sectoid captain to begin a rebellion inside the empire, and to my horror I learned that it is nearly impossible to do so. The ruling council of the Sirius Empire has many fail-safes and plans to prevent such a thing from happening.”
A lone low ranking Sectoid sneaked swiftly to the loading dock just as three large Transport ships were docking to receive final supplies and troops heading to Earth and end the conflict there.
“So since I can’t have my rebellion, I will just have some explosions instead. Don’t ever think I’m just a jolly snake of a prankster. There are reasons I was sealed away besides just making it rain chocolate milk.”
The Sectoid saboteur hid behind some boxes as three large green alien guards patrolled around the corner from it. The Sectoid quickly ran behind another box and continued moving until it found what it was looking for.
The sectoid slipped a small plasma grenade out of a bag it carried and calmly walked over to a glowing green liquid Elyrium tank that was almost three times the alien's size. The power cells to the carrier ship’s main engines were all lined up in neat, precise rows next to each other. The sectoid primed the grenade for five seconds and held it gently against the cold glass of the power cell.
“You’d think that these big bad alien conquerors wouldn’t make such a dumb mistake as putting all their volatile fluids together with so little security. But they haven’t had a real war in millennia, and have grown far too careless.”
The grenade detonated, igniting the power cells and several other volatile elements in the loading bay. Causing a catastrophic chain reaction with a force so strong it blew out the carrier that was being loaded.
The crew of the carrier did their best to keep the ship under control, but it was to no avail as they smashed into a second carrier. Both ships were without their shields and ended up shredding each other apart before detonating in a marvelous blue and purple explosion that caused yet further chaos in the space port.
Hundreds of aliens screamed and struggled to hold onto anything as they were sucked out into space. They would soon die cold and frozen, or just explode from the decompression.
“How beautiful, isn’t it?” Discord says to you as two of the three carriers are destroyed, along with a significant portion of the space port. The closest port the Empire has to earth is now damaged extensively. If the attack force on earth requires more resources it will take anywhere from a month to a year to arrive. Leaving only one transport carrier left to head to earth and drop off supplies to the invasion force.
“Well now, that was fun. I loved the part where they got sucked out into space, and for those nay-sayers who say I’m out of character, well how would you like BEING JELLO!!?? ” he says as he turns anyone complaining about his character into a block of yellow Jell-O. Discord then smiles as he begins re-bricking the fourth wall and puts a finger to his lips.
“Shush, this is our little secret” He says and lets out his trademark laugh.
(Author's note: I would like to take this time to thank my new editor. He has been a great help in making my story better. He is also a writer himself so if you please could, go and check out his stories. He puts alot of effort into them and they are pretty good.
Please click this link to go to his page: WWolf's Page.