Alien Versus Nerd Page 8

  The sight I peered through my helmet display came from long, legged figures that seemed to move awkwardly against the darkness.

  The whole scene was unfolding in my mind like a Star Wars movie packed with armored units and turbo-lasers attacking along the entire perimeter of the defense.

  “If George Lucas could see me now, he would die of envy, I guess.”

  Within seconds, the sky burst into a mass of fire. “I won’t stay long if this keeps up. I thought.” I tapped in a flurry of commands and only took ten seconds to drop icons on the map, indicating where the targets were.

  It sent the data to all wearable computing devices on the battlefield. The jittering red icons moved swiftly as a mad swarm.

  Then the screen lit up with a glowing blast.

  After a quick rumble of threads and unsettling hum of machines, bolts flashed out of half-dozen tube-like weapons.

  As the turrets slewed, the advance broke into a run. Overwhelming numbers of the enemy moved in, launching a fierce counter-attack.

  I gazed at all those alien contraptions coming toward me and said. “I had only one option; employ all of the relevant weapons and it has to be now.”

  The total mission time was two minutes and forty-eight seconds. By knowing that, I punched in another command, and waited for things to happen.

  Suddenly the radio came alive, a voice broke through the infantry network.

  “Hang on tight, the cavalry is on its way.”

  “Piper? It’s about time.”

  “I got trapped inside the cyberspace, I’ll do it as quickly as possible.”

  I turned to the screen, just to see targets sparkling on a map and waiting for something to happen.

  In an instant, a swarm of drones converged on the same area, launching all the bombs over the target in one single sortie. The Air Force deployed robotic wingmen to escort their manned fighters into combat, causing the aliens to counter-attack it.

  Many of them were nowhere to be seen or delivering EMP attacks.

  Triangle crafts zoomed across the sky and burst into flames, drawn into a harsh run-in with them UAVs.

  Amazingly, Piper has become some sort of Skynet-type system, assuming command of all drones and tactical systems, launching all of our weapons at once.

  In a split second, bombs dropped from space, and vaporized an area of almost one-mile square. Between the first and second volley of missiles, there was only a trifling halt.

  As soon as the cruise missiles headed with max-speed for the same azimuth, it triggered off an unbroken string of explosions like a lightning storm on a summer night.

  Seconds later, the command screen reported that all targets had have been hit with an estimated accuracy of one-hundred percent.

  “Mission accomplished.” I sighed with relief.

  “Did you miss me?” said 9.0 with a quick smirk, turning off her cloaking device.

  “Oh oh.”

  She edged toward me. “Have no fun without me.”

  I scrutinized the terrain around and glanced back down at my arm-computer, trying to see the weapons that had been left. I was punching in another code when I had a sudden brainwave.

  “I’m done with this alien.” I gazed at dozens of enemy soldiers de-cloaking in front of me. “I’m going nuclear.”

  However, after checking the list of weapons, I got surprised. Not available now appeared on the screen.

  “What do you mean with not available now?” I bawled angrily. “This digital assistant is cracked.”

  She gave a wry smile.

  “What a pity. Run out of ammo? Uh, it makes me so sad to see you like that.”

  Without hesitation, I went to the second list.

  “Must have something left,” I presumed.

  “I think you’d better run,” suggested the alien.

  The status of all weapons was far from encouraging. 9.0 directed menacingly her extraterrestrial gaze to me.

  “I think I’m getting a little bored here.”

  She observed my reaction and beamed a signal into the alien network, using our own sky as a huge advertisement not only to a stunning audience, but to brand it on a global scale.

  “So, we came to the grand finale. “Ready?”

  “Let’s get it away with.”

  We went toe to toe, blasting away at each other. I punched her in the face and she fought down with mighty force. I jerked back and threw an airburst shell.

  She dodged it and lunged at me.

  “Don’t you ever shut up.”

  I moved into her attack, blocked her arm with one hand and pulled out a gun with the other. Before I could pull the trigger, she grabbed my wrist, causing me to drop the gun.

  She caught me off my guard and smacked my face, throwing me into a car.

  “Is that all you got?”

  “I’m just getting started.”

  She blasted a row of cars behind me and flung a gun turret at me. I bent down and sent off another smart shell. 9.0 snapped and smashed my gun.

  “I won’t be kept down by you or anyone else. Your hi-tech wizardry won’t save your ass this time.”

  9.0 landed me a lethal blow. The laser beam knocked the wind out of me.

  A state of total weariness overwhelmed me, my body was stretched out on the floor and my skin began to burn, I tried to get up, but I was too weak to respond.

  She glanced at me with a spark in her eyes.

  “If you really foresaw the future, then you know how all this will end,” she said mockingly.

  While she decided what she was going to do with me, I drew a gun but I dropped it off my hand. Still stunned by the side-effects caused by the laser beam, I fell on my knees trying to get to my feet and reach for the gun. It didn’t work, she struck me over again, this time more intensely.

  Under a sharp pang and stiff muscles caused by the electrical discharge, I lifted my head hard enough to glimpse the handheld device out on a pile of rubble.

  Though I was unable to get back on to my feet, I finally got around to reach out and kept a-grabbling and fumbling as a last-ditch effort to drag it with my fingertips, without diverting my attention from her.

  Every time I tried to move my hands, the pain increased as if several needles were piercing my body.

  I reached it down, flipped it open and pressed the command buttons. The screen came to life, showing a rapid line of green codes. The rugged device was already running on backup power.

  “Here’s my terms. Contact your command network and have them stand down all military activity.”

  With that in mind, I punched out one last command. The countdown was at one minute and fifty-three seconds. XCOM 3 Cyber Raid 1 Hot appeared on the screen.

  It was pretty much my last chance, since all weapons had run low. 9.0 delighted at the sight of my body lying on the floor.

  She came up with a self-effacing air.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll find some purpose for humans to survive. I guess we might use them as batteries.”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you are breathtaking?”

  “In fact, they did.” She smirked wickedly.

  She was confident at the sight of my body extended to the floor apparently defenseless.

  “How does it feel to know that your death is about to be on-screen via satellite across the planet? The great hero of the earth beaten by a little girl? Oh, you must be devastated by this,” she said in a slight tone of irony. “Before I finish with you, I will crush you and smash you, and finally break you into tiny little pieces.”

  Looking up the holographic projection screen overhead, I realized that the event was being streamed on-line for the entire planet.

  “Hey, we’re live,” I said while establishing a link with the Global Defense Network.

  “In that case, everyone will watch you agonize to death in real time. What do you think?”

  9.0 projected a series of holograms around her. The first scene focused on what appeared to be two huge UFOs hoverin
g in the sky over a small town, in northern Italy.

  “As you can see is already happening.”

  Holograms succeeded very quickly. The same scene repeated in various parts of the world with infantry units surrounded on all sides.

  Positioned on their flanks, the soldiers directed a large volume of fire against the aggressor, but it was clear that our weapons were no match for them.

  Game Over

  The countdown was still decreasing when more robotic machines started to arrive, outgunning our troops. We were now losing on all fronts.

  The hologram shifted to another image.

  NATO remaining units launched a fierce offensive in a desperate attempt to ward off an alien force, but the ground troops were easily wiped out by the invading army.

  However, the most frightening scene came about seconds later, a beam of light went straight down to the ground and illuminated the streets.

  Terrified, the crowd saw a giant army of alien machines rising from the shadows, by knowing that the countdown for them had begun too.

  “This time, you can’t save the earth, or the lives of your friends,” she threatened, showing a new image.

  This scene displayed a group of humans captured and kept in a state of suspended animation into large tubes filled with liquid inside a cylinder-shaped UFO.

  Watching closely at the second row that extended from the wall, I recognized right away it was Kevin in one of those isolation tanks, and a little further to the left was Camila alike, and on the other side of the room, Amanda kept enclosed in a tube and had wires attached to all over her body.

  Seeing her again brought me relief and anxiety at the same time. I thought about the suffering they were experiencing there. That’s enough for me to gather new strength and get a boost.

  The extraterrestrial gave me a puzzled look, completely surprised by my reaction

  “You know what will happen to them, right?”

  The situation resembled that of Star Wars: Episode VI, especially the scene where Luke Skywalker meets himself trapped in the interior of the Death Star, face to face with the Emperor while his friends languished against the imperial forces in a fate that seemed unpreventable.

  I was in the exact same situation, and the only thing to do was to use some old Jedi mind trick. Suddenly the screen emitted a signal.

  9.0 approached me with an inconceivable air of superiority.

  “Game over.”

  Those few seconds I had left, I saw the movie of my life pass before my eyes. The battle seemed lost. There was nothing else to do.

  For those who watched the scene around the world, it would all fade into a dazzling glare, dooming the fate of our planet forever.

  Not in this life.

  The clock displayed twenty seconds now. After that, the world would end, and we had gone forever. A holographic screen brought up dozens of weapons in orbit preparing to attack us.

  Astonished, I watched a rapid succession of scenes playing like a movie. There were only twelve seconds left. All I needed now was a clear shot with a foolproof capability and surgical precision.

  The screen showed the last message before it went black.

  “Ten seconds to target.”

  “Only one more question.”

  “What?” She sighed, slightly annoyed.

  “I just wanted to know how it feels to be in the crosshairs of an airborne laser.”

  9.0 shook her head nervously.

  “Wow, you almost got me.” She turned to me with a grin on her face. “But we both know that you’re bluffing.”

  I just waited a few more seconds and brought up my ace in the hole.

  “I wouldn’t bet on it if I were you. You were unable to picture one thing.”

  “What I was unable to picture?”

  “The B-21 Raider.”

  The B-21 was a low observable flying wing outfitted with a directed energy weapon, designed to avoid detection and able to strike anywhere in the world without an enemy even knowing a bomber was there.

  She sensed the danger. “I guess I underestimated you,” she muffled in a choked voice. 9.0 watched the holographic screen in amazement. “Well, next time, I will...”

  Even before she could finish her nasty speech, a beam of light came down, vaporizing her in less than four seconds.

  “Send my regards to Darth Vader, you space bitch.” I shouted, delighted as I watched her image to become an amount of scintillating photons.

  At last, we won the war.

  A new image now showed a peculiar scene, and featured dozens of small alien crafts falling throughout the entire planet.

  The same scene was repeating itself until the last hologram lost focus of the image, and finally went out, leaving only the light from the stars.

  Most streets were apparently empty, and the image seen came from a ghost town.

  As I sneaked through the pile of debris stretching from one block to another, a point of light moved across the sky. From its axis shone a very bright light, forming a circumference about one-hundred meters max.

  Suddenly it shifted, approaching fast. Without understanding what was happening, I stood rooted to the same spot just watching the passage of the object through the sky.

  As soon as I decided to move toward it, two soldiers blocked access to the street, preventing me from going.

  “Sorry, sir, but we have orders not to let anyone pass from this point,” he said in a cautious tone.

  A second soldier gesticulated with his arm, seconds later, a combat team came out of the shadows and quickly took up positions on the corner.

  “Sir, that thing is coming back.” The second voice belonged to a third soldier.

  “Hold your positions!” Ordered a squad leader, ready to fight.

  The rest of the squad moved cautiously down the block, and one by one was raising their weapons.

  “Prepare to engage.”

  I crouched behind a car and I caught a glimpse of half-dozen antiaircraft guns targeting the incoming object. The craft had a white light and a blue light that alternated with an orange light in the background.

  After giving off an intense glow, the object hovering in the air described a spiral light in the sky down to the ground while cornered.

  The impact with the surface of the object resulted in a strong burst of light enough to blur our vision. A bright yellow sphere emerged on the street.

  Dozens of figures slowly were coming out of the light, and ganging up to the corner.

  Extraordinarily more of them were popping up to fill the street with their presence.

  Upon further observation, we all realized they were people who have been caught for previously abduction, and that somehow had gotten to force their way out of alien’s grasp.

  To my surprise, the light outlining the circular shape of a UFO went off completely, leaving in its place a crowd disoriented and gathered at the same point, without knowing exactly what had happened.

  A combat team watched the scene, and saw as if by magic, most locals were back, implying that everything had gone back to normal.

  A little quieter and more confident, the soldiers began to approach the landing area. Again, we spotted other lights in the sky flying low very close to each other and flashing continuously.

  As they were closing in, one deduced the noise it wasn’t UFOs but of rescue helicopters. Then a white beam of light shone from two lead Blackhawks and focused on the crowd.

  “Let’s move out. Those people need our help!” Ordered a squad leader to his group.

  “Alfa team set.”

  “Bravo ready to move on.”

  “Serge, help the locals now.”

  As rescue teams moved carefully to the victims, a high-ranking officer standing in a vehicle, was informed via radio about more people being brought back to the surface, seemingly transported by the same luminous spheres that everyone had spotted a few minutes ago.

  “Apparently they are coming down everywhere. No, sir. We don’t
know how it happened. They seem to be fine, we’ll start counting residents within an hour.”

  He turned off the radio and exited the vehicle.

  “I’m the lieutenant Lopez, 82th Airborne. Nice work, kid. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. I think these things won’t come back to our world anytime soon,” he said excitedly.

  “I hope so.” I nodded.

  Lopez greeted me and raised a foot to step up into the hummer, asking his driver to take him to the landing zone.

  I moved past an ambulance, trying to see if I recognized any familiar face among the abductees, but saw no sign of my friends.

  Bayville was overflowing with reporters and TV cameras, para-medical and intelligence agents collecting information. Air Force personnel came shortly after, cautiously exploring the surrounding area.

  They found a city in a panic.

  Many residents have been through an unusual experience. Some of those people barely made it onto their feet and others seemed to be in a trance, trying to understand what had happened to them.

  As I walked down the street, I stumbled upon people of all types being examined and questioned.

  The activity was intense, and a few other people were all there talking at once. Far ahead, I met another group of people receiving medical care, I watched a little more closely and had a cheerful and encouraging vision.

  “Kevin? Camila? You okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Kevin nodded his head. “We’ve been abducted by aliens, what do you think?”

  “Have either of you guys seen Amanda?”

  “She was right behind us when we landed and...”

  As more crews were brought in to the raid-stricken area to aid in the search for victims, it dawned on me that many people have been dematerialized during the event and probably would never come back.

  She could be among the casualties. On the other hand, some abductees were appearing randomly in various parts of the town.

  Several ambulances with back doors open parked in front of the State Main Building while a group of paramedics lifted a victim onto a wheeled stretcher.

  “We found something.”

  Sirens wailing. Crews dashing from one spot to another. I peered, dazed, at a figure of a girl standing on the corner. I went to her, sneaking, and shoving people.