Alien Versus Nerd Page 7

  “Has anyone ever told you that you are such an evil hag?”

  “Well, I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said in an ironic tone.

  “We won’t surrender or retreat ourselves so easily. Right now, there must be dozens of troops underway, you know, they have those invisible planes equipped with glide bombs that can hit a target with a CEP of 16-feet. I bet at this point, the military should have already deployed dozens of missiles targeting this area and...”

  “Nice try,” forecasted 9.0. “Did you hear the roar of any engine? Funny. ‘Cause I’m not hearing anything, you know why?” She paused briefly. “Because they will not come. Indeed, I’ve got bad news for you. In fact, some of them are still fighting for now, but not for long, I guess. Honestly, I doubt very much that any Air Force might help you now.”

  Although 9.0 acted separatelly, she was the whole shebang, and all the weapons were linked to her.

  “See for yourself.” 9.0 projected a hologram.

  The aliens landed most of our aircraft and our space bombers didn’t even have time to lift off from the ground and were destroyed by EMP attack and explosion weapons.

  For a moment, she shared her consciousness with me implying that she’s bound up to me somehow.

  “Why don’t you quit while you still can?” She seemed to sense each one of my fears.

  “And let the wicked preppy girl from outer space destroy the entire planet? No way.”

  I would have to take on the role of battling her single-handedly.

  “We’re going to do exactly as in Independence Day. After we’re done with this place, we’ll raze your cities one after another.” The threatening tone of her words made me shudder inside.

  As she spoke, her thoughts materialized in the form of holograms around her, showing images of our conceivable annihilation.

  “Not on my watch.”

  “Alright then. We have established an agreement with United Confederation of Worlds. Basically, your challenge consists of five levels. If you can get past them, you win.”

  “Five levels? No trickery?” I nodded. “A piece of cake.”

  “If you win, we’ll initiate cease-fire and cessation of all hostilities.”

  “Done.”

  The battlefield had been chosen: Bayville, the perfect scenario for destruction.

  “I don’t need to remind you that no one has ever managed to get past the first level.”

  A tall figure right in front of me leaped into the air and seemingly rolled into a ball, darting out of sight as the others morphed into orbs and solid structures and mechanical objects.

  “Time to suit up.”

  I connected the subsystem interface to clothing and pulled down my helmet display, changing position and pointing the gun ahead of me. After that, there was a deadly silence.

  “External sensors on. Initiating thermal scan.”

  The camera panned around the area, but found nothing. Although this was a false impression, I turned to the street.

  “What are you waiting for? Come and get me, you freaks.”

  I activated my head-up display. A helmet-worn display device provided me a situational awareness of my surroundings so that nothing went unnoticed by my field of vision.

  I saw several luminous points, when combined, they started making up strange figures of varied size and appearance, forming what appeared to be a powerful army of motorized exoskeletons.

  They had low silhouette and unmanned turrets.

  I slid my finger over the trigger button and initiated a frontal attack, firing in rapid succession at close range to clear all targets in the front row. The attacking column split and gained a toehold along the street.

  I aimed through a helmet mounted display and fired shots in rapid succession, dodging enemy gunfire in close-quarter combat.

  “They had me surrounded. Switching to secondary weapon.”

  Smartly, I used a laser rangefinder to detect covert targets out of my field of vision and resorted to an airburst weapon. One by one the explosive shells started exploding above or near the targets.

  Carefully, I moved to the next corner and took a few steps ahead. I zoomed in. An enhanced imagery was beamed onto my glasses. Suddenly a door opened behind me.

  The first attack came from a rotating blade that nearly ripped my head off. The second attack came from a directed energy weapon.

  “Shield on.”

  With one hand, I raised a plasma shield, deflecting the directed energy, and likewise fought back with overwhelming force.

  While I moved from one spot to another with the aid of a powered exoskeleton, the enemy fired a hail of globular weapons that moved intelligently, razing half a block.

  A misstep and it would all be over.

  Most targets were cloaked and darted along fast hidden behind walls. In the next street, a black body, or a shadow popped up, having a large circle shaped cowling behind it moving at incredible speed within my line of sight.

  The creature wore some sort of robotic suit.

  While I moved forward, I could see in my display navigational waypoints overlaid on the real-world view.

  I hunkered down and saw a rocket, or something in the vicinity, only after I realized it was the same creature. The alien floated by means of some sort of tube-like craft.

  Every time he inched in my direction, his body became dark and seemingly colorless, indicating the apparel worn war able to disguise his real appearance, or maybe some type of electro-optical camouflage.

  Above the clad, there was a circular shaped window, it had a dark face with an eerie glow from within.

  I rushed back to the corner position and saw on my scope a towering man like figure. An elongated head with dark eyes at the top of it and claw-like fingers, which protruded from a metallic armored structure.

  I pulled the trigger and saw a flash of light when the vertical pipes detached from the main structure. The whole battle unfolded in hack-and-slash style, forcing me to engage the enemy in a dreadful close combat.

  He morphed into rocket mode, hovering over the main street, and launching a flurry of attacks at blazing speed toward the street far below.

  I noticed that he had an array of weapons aimed at me and a lot of gee-whiz tech attached to his body.

  I went stealthily and downed an alien with an air burst.

  I had reached the second level.

  Shortly after, I went backward to the previous position and hung a left.

  On the far end of the street, I came across a very creepy three-eyed robot, tiny head, and short arms, about nine feet, dressed in silver overalls and bronze boots and with a red disk in his chest.

  The robot was remotely controlled by two child-like beings, Greys. As I clomped around, scrutinizing the area, more cloaked and strange things emerged from the dark corners of the street.

  Some of the mixed-aliens had animal-like aspects as others had a phantom-type appearance. Triangular crafts were now de-cloaking at a fast clip. 9.0 pointing upward, wide-eyed, and excited.

  I went utterly silent, watching every move, knowing the extraterrestrials would literally clean our clocks.

  A new squad joined them, increasing the row of already-existing weapons, fortifying each position on the street.

  The Krill imperial guard was impressive and valuable.

  Cybernetic troops were interspersed between advanced weapon-geared detachments and hooded assault echelons scattered along.

  9.0 let out a sarcastic snort. “Sorry, but you lost.”

  To knock down the front door, the Air Force had a endgame plan. 9.0 snapped her gaze onto me and grinned.

  “Time’s up.”

  When the alien remote sensing network triggered an alarm, our standoff weapons were already reaching their targets.

  She was shocked.

  A sudden explosion of a nuke blotted out the enemy force in the air within seconds. Hypersonics were my go-to weapons in life-threatening situations. It only took me ten seconds to mar
k the remaining targets. 9.0 raised her head to watch a blaze spark on top of a seven-story wood-framed structure and burst windows in one building next door.

  Blond hair strands swayed eerily.

  9.0’s eyes, left in awe, watched in silence missiles breaking through the defenses and zapping most of their ground units. As debris fell into the street below, another explosion burst into a mixed-use building. The pin-head aliens exchanged looks of horror.

  Somehow their equipment had been jammed and most of their weapons were going haywire. Dozens of phantom aliens tried to get away, but they’re engulfed by the friendly fire.

  Triangle crafts were hovering at random, threatening to fall at any minute. 9.0 inched toward a building when a slender tailless flying wing lofted a bomb.

  The shockwave flung her away. 9.0 got up and straightened. She saw when the soldiers were at a trot, closing in on her.

  Six rangers exited a chopper and pointed their guns at her. Two small choppers stayed aloft. Two other fire teams dashed to the same area, weapons manned.

  I gazed at the Ranger squad.

  “Right on time, guys. Now take this girl to the...Area 51.”

  9.0 flipped out. The ground shook when her hands began to launch a volley of fire upon the troops.

  “Fan out!”

  She blasted one chopper and downed another with a thermal beam. She gazed at me, confident. “Oops, looks like things didn’t turn out the way you expected. Luckily, you have three levels left. I hope you enjoyed it.” She lifted a hand and beamed me up to the next level.

  I was somewhere between Taylor Creek and Level Road, on the other side of the town. Suddenly three hooded figures appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

  “Surprised, Alec?” said a female voice of a slender girl, pulling off the hood.

  “Amy? So, it was you all this time.”

  She talked her way into the street. “It was right in front of you, but you had eyes only for Amanda.”

  “What did you do with the true Amy?”

  “Well, she never existed, to begin with. At least not the way you think.”

  “Too bad I didn’t pick up on it.”

  “You’ve got plenty of brains but you’re a complete klutz when it comes down to women.”

  Amy morphed into something else. Her human-like features went missing and the eyes became larger than usual. Amy had now an elongated face and a sharp chin.

  “Amy, we still can...”

  “Sorry, but I’m getting real tired of your crap.”

  I thought she still could have something human inside her, but I was wrong.

  Amy I knew was gone forever.

  A force beyond this world had turned off her humanity completely and left something murky in its place.

  She was replaced along the way and now had a new body. A mind cybernetically conceived by occult designs.

  Two other hooded figures came out of thin air.

  “This time we came prepared,” Kelly O’Brien said, her eyes sparkling.

  They wore black tight-fitting clothing. Amy’s clothing had a glistening effect.

  “Nice outfits.”

  Veronica wrapped one of her arms around my neck.

  “You’ve been digging into some hidden places.”

  The others giggled.

  Amy turned back and got closer. Strands of black and purple hair slid smoothly on my face as she leaned her head on my shoulder, pressing her body harder into mine.

  “I think the danger excites him.” She sighed and pulled away.

  Kelly came on to me and licked my face. Her skin burning next to mine. She flitted behind me and glanced at Amy.

  “I think he still got a crush on you.”

  Amy stuck out her hand.

  “Welcome to your worst nightmare.” A saw protruded from her right hand.

  “A saw, really?” I claimed, a bit staggered.

  Veronica sneered mockingly. “Well, think of it as Mean Girls in slasher style.”

  “Hey, I expected a little more originality.”

  “How about this?” Her right arm turned into a rotating blade.

  I moved into her attack, the blade passed through empty air. I bent down and pointed the gun at Kelly’s frail body. Then a steel cable protruded from her left hand and snatched the kinetic rifle out of my hands.

  “My turn.”

  Kelly flung three spinning darts in my direction while Veronica ran rampage swiping with the blade. I dodged the frontal attack, but not the second.

  A kinetic projectile exploded and whacked my protective armor. Luckily, the front vest absorbed most of the impact, without passing through the critical layer. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have survived.

  Kelly lunged at me.

  I yanked away. Thanks to the motorized actuators on each leg, the additional weight was reduced, enhancing my kinetic skills, so allowing me extreme speed and agility.

  “He got skills,” she mumbled.

  Veronica cast her eye at me.

  “He’s just a guy in a suit. Now take him out.”

  I bowed my body back. Veronica’s robotic arm hurled hastily toward me. Once again, her blade passed harmlessly through empty space millimeters above my chest.

  In a reflex action, I dodged the attack and quickly rolled to my right. Kelly was even faster, sneaked up behind me and hit me with unexpected force, throwing me against a wall.

  She focused her sights on me.

  “Ready?”

  “Bring it.”

  With a quick move, I flipped over and grabbed the gun. A wall exploded behind me leaving only smoke and falling bricks, I leaped up and knock her block off. I dashed back to the street behind me, heading to an old depot. But Veronica found me first. A plasma gun jutted out of her arm. The explosive force pushed me back into a car.

  She edged toward me in a threatening manner.

  Her dark eyes blazing with anger.

  “What’s wrong with being confident?”

  “We’ve got you cornered. Nowhere to hide this time, soldier boy.” Ruled Amy supremely with a grin.

  Her metallic parts on her face gleaming menacingly.

  The three stepped forward.

  “Cut the crap and finish him.” Amy’s arm lifted, glistening.

  Veronica edged toward me.

  “If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”

  She kicked my body down. As I drew myself up, Amy acted quickly and hurled a scowling at me. Kelly whizzed along and swatted me away. Even though her arms darted back and forth, I was able to gather enough strength to blow her away. That was the last straw.

  “You know what; I’m done fighting. I’m going DEFCON ONE on these girls.”

  I hand-launched a hail of tiny missiles hitting all targets at once. They didn’t even have time to see what hit them.

  “Too easy.”

  Piper, Skynet and Robotic Wingmen

  After the last shot rang out into the night, followed by a strange lull, there was an apparent change of phase. With the finger on the trigger, I kept waiting for the next threat.

  The extraterrestrial intelligence acted quickly and dropped weapons all over the place.

  “Enhance it.”

  Examining closely, I noted that the first line has formed what appeared to be a regiment of squires, followed by three or four rows of rectangular infantry plus dozens of unspeakable things.

  I had only a few seconds to come up with a battle plan, otherwise, I’d be atomized. The degree of difficulty had increased to such a point that if I wasn’t fast enough, I would hardly reach the next level.

  “If I want to beat these guys, I’m going to need more firepower and a lot of far-out techs, I thought.”

  Soldier digital assistant; never leave home without it. After all, you never know what will be coming down. A wereable and display device basically designed to provide data and imagery to the warfighter.

  With it, one could consult electronic maps with overlaid graphics that projected the exact l
ocation of friendly and enemy forces through a display monocule.

  Red icons on a small screen marked the progression of each threat, showing the exact location of each target.

  After analyzing the tactical situation, I drew a square on the screen and marked each target with an icon and used the chat to send messages to other units nearby.

  All the units got the same picture.

  A digital buddy, some sort of virtual personal assistant came out and suggested to me to fall back on remote weaponry, including robotics and drones, and it was exactly what I did.

  A thrill shot through me. I watched the enemy force dashing around with blazing speed.

  As soon as the invading horde swung around, hanging menacingly upon my flank, all the weapons were trained on their targets, just waiting for my order of attack.

  The moment I yelled fire, dozens of weapons with multiple rotating barrels fired, delivering a massive firepower barrage over the most urgent targets.

  The gear allowed me to control robotic weapons via spoken commands.

  “Attack the second formation now.”

  As drone tanks backed up the sides and moved up on their targets, an unmanned flying wing pounded the entire area, launching a swarm of missiles, crushing their core units.

  Other extraterrestrial cyber-units threw themselves into the fray and raced across the fire-swept area, breaking through the defensive ring at several points.

  The following weapons attacked in the first line, then the second and the third and automatically turned to the remaining targets with quick bursts in sequence, converting all the invading force in a huge and terrifying cloud of dust.

  Although it didn’t hit all targets, I scored enough points to get through to the next phase.

  “Not bad,” said 9.0 emerging from a hologram, clapping, and congratulating me for my victory. “But if I were you, I wouldn’t be so excited. At this level, you’ll have to shoot much faster and more accurately, otherwise, you won’t be able to reach the endgame level. Oh, boy. This is going to be tight.”

  The hologram has faded in a fleeting respite and the whole thing set off as a massive quake. Suddenly a large column of robotic soldiers lurched forward.

  At this level, it was a replay of the previous phase but with a much higher degree of threats.