《Contact - Humanity Screams Book 0》


 Prologue

    August 31, 1992 - University of Hawai¡¯i UH88 Observatory - Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA


    ¡°Are you seeing this?¡± Dr. Luu said to Dr. Jewitt. ¡°These three images were taken of the same spot in the Kuiper belt.¡± Dr. Jewitt looked at the series of images with wonder. ¡°This large object here just appeared and hasn¡¯t moved?¡± Dr. Luu gave Dr. Jewitt a look before replying, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s right by the object we discovered yesterday, and it¡¯s roughly the same size.¡± They both sat in silence for a few minutes mulling over this discovery. ¡°We should share this finding and see what our peers think of this. An object, even in deep space isn¡¯t going to suddenly appear at the same magnitude as an object unless we¡¯ve inadvertently discovered a new star. Surely the Hubble would have found it first,¡± Dr. Luu said. ¡°I agree, get NASA on the phone and we¡¯ll fax over the images.¡±


    March 11, 1993 - North American Aerospace Defense Command - Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA


    Airman First Class Yates stared at his computer terminal in an attempt to make sense of what he was seeing. Reaching a decision he called for his commanding officer to come take a look. ¡°Sir, we just picked up an object at the edge of the solar system that appeared just beyond Pluto and is now passing Neptune. Is this a glitch in the software?¡± The commanding officer looked thoughtful for a moment before asking ¡°How big of an object are we talking?¡±. The airman read some data from the screen before replying ¡°It appears to be about 300 meters long, and 50 meters in diameter. Sir, the object is approaching Saturnand starting to decelerate.¡± Both the airman and the CO stared at the screen in worry. Finally the CO said, ¡°We need to send this up the chain,¡± shouting he added ¡°somebody get NASA on the phone and patch me through to the Pentagon.¡±


    11:41PM April 29, 1994 - 37.65¡ãN, 82.5¡ãW - Kentucky, USA


    Scott Spaulding awoke to the ear-splitting sound of a sonic boom. The night sky was lit up like a spotlight, just before a thundering crash caused him to fall out of bed. Disoriented from being woken up so suddenly, his vision was filled with spots intermixed with darkness. As his eyes adjusted and the initial shock of being awoken suddenly wore off he crawled out of bed and tried to turn on his bedside lamp. To his dismay the lamp failed to turn on so instead he groped in his nightstand looking for a flashlight.


    Armed with his flashlight he fumbled through his house to the circuit breaker in the kitchen and flipped the main breaker. Surprised by the lack of a sudden appearance of light, he tried several other breakers before grumbling to himself about a power outage. Remembering the reason he was awoken in the first place, he trudged outside to investigate the noise. He was greeted with a dull orange glow to the southwest of his house and a column of smoke rising above it. Cursing to himself he ran back inside to call emergency services to report what surely must have been a plane crash. No sooner had he reached the phone when the unmistakable sound of helicopters could be heard coming over the mountain. Surprised by the quick response of the authorities he headed back outside since the small field on his property was the closest place a helicopter could land.


    As the helicopters closed in on his property and began shining searchlights down before descending to land, Scott realized these were not emergency services, but military or government. As the pair of helicopters landed, soldiers began exiting and pointing their firearms at everything and nothing which included Scott. Paralyzed with sudden fear, he could only stand in horror as several of the soldiers began shouting at him and rapidly approaching, blinding him with their high powered rifle-mounted torches.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    12:02AM April 30, 1994 - 37.65¡ãN, 82.5¡ãW - Kentucky, USA


    Staff Sergeant Green repeated his order to the civilian, ¡°I said get down, hands on your head!¡±. When it was apparent the civilian wasn¡¯t going to comply, he motioned to the corporal to his right. ¡°Detain him.¡± Turning to the rest of his platoon he started barking orders. ¡°Sanchez, take your fire team and secure the landing zone. Peters, Brady, and Franks, secure the tree line. If you see something move, you are weapons free. I repeat, you are weapons free.¡± Turning back to the civilian he gave the glassy-eyed individual an appraising look before motioning to the house. ¡°Jones, take your team and sweep and clear the house.¡±


    He turned back to the civilian when he heard him starting to stammer something. ¡°Speak up, who are you and what did you see.¡± The man seeming to regain his senses looked up to Green and spoke finally, ¡°Scott, my name is Scott and this is my property. I woke up to that plane crash over ¡®yonder, but I didn¡¯t know it was a military plane, honest.¡± He fidgeted nervously while Sergeant Green gave him a thoughtful look. ¡°Corporal, keep him out of the way.¡± Green turned away and pulled the radio off his shoulder and spoke into it, ¡°Foxtrot, this is Raven Actual. Arrived at the LZ and secured the immediate perimeter. Requesting instructions for approach to target, over.¡±


    He waited patiently for a response when one of the helicopters exploded violently, throwing him off his feet and into Scott. Coughing, he scrambled for his radio and stammered, ¡°Raven Actual to Foxtrot, under fire. LZ is compromised. Unknown hostile force. One chopper down. Requesting fire support.¡± He flicked a button on the radio and relayed to the remaining helicopter pilot, ¡°Liftoff and provide air support, MOVE, MOVE, MOVE.¡± He watched as the helicopter began to lift off before it vanished in deafening fireball, shrapnel falling back with a crash. ¡°Fall back! Retreat into the house!¡± he screamed unable to hear his own voice.


    Half pulling, half dragging the civilian who had fainted, he got into the house as the rest of his team piled in behind him. ¡°Sound off!¡± he cried. ¡°Here,¡± he heard from Peters, Brady, Franks, and Jones¡¯ team. ¡°Sanchez?¡± Everybody looked around grimly as realization set in. ¡°Alright, set up in the windows toward the tree line. Peters, get the civilian to the backside of the house. If he refuses to stay, restrain him using any means you deem necessary. The rest of you, stay frosty. We don¡¯t know how many hostiles we¡¯re facing and headquarters still hasn¡¯t radioed back. Switch from night vision to thermal, the burning wreckage is going to pollute our NV systems.¡± Everybody started swapping out optics on their rifles before taking up positions.


    They didn¡¯t have to wait long. ¡°One contact, 200 meters.¡± Jones said. ¡°Target has below average body temp but is showing up on thermal.¡± ¡°I see it,¡± Green said, pulling his radio back down. ¡°Raven Actual to Foxtrot; contact with hostile. Appears to be one combatant. Capability unknown but both transport destroyed with no warning. Requesting air support and immediate evac, over.¡± Green swore at the static that remained on the radio. ¡°I think we¡¯re alone out here. Peters! Set up with the Mk32, you get a clean shot, take it.¡± Peters moved to comply while the platoon waited nervously. The sudden report of a rifle heralded that Peters had taken a shot. ¡°Clean hit, target appears to be unaffected. Christ man, what kind of body army can stop a 7.62 at this range.¡±


    Before Green could respond the window Peters was aiming from disintegrated as hundreds of flechettes tore through the window, Peters, and the wall behind him leaving a red mist in the air as the remains of Peters slumped to the ground. Everybody was frozen with shock at the sheer violence that had just taken place. ¡°Fall back, get out the rear and head for the trees!¡± Green shouted as he recovered. Panic ensued as everyone tried to escape at the same time. Green held back ushering everybody on when a sudden, out-of-place beeping could be heard from the hole left in the window. Glancing behind him he had the brief thought that what ever that is, is going to be bad news before the entire house disappeared in a blinding flash of white and a small mushroom cloud.

 Chapter One

    May 11, 1994 - Nellis Air Force Base - Southern Nevada, USA


    General Hammond surveyed the twisted wreck before him with interest. ¡°This was everything recovered from the incident site?¡± he asked Dr. Eiselstein. The elderly gentleman nodded somewhat absentmindedly. ¡°It¡¯s marvelous isn¡¯t it?¡± The General grunted noncommittally with a wave of his hand, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say marvelous. We lost a platoon, an innocent civilian, had to cover up a small nuclear explosion, and we failed to recover whatever it was that flew the damn thing. I look at this and see nothing more than a twisted hunk of metal and scraps. Do you think there is anything to learn out of this wreck?¡±


    Dr. Eiselstein looked the General over critically. ¡°There is always an opportunity to learn something. For instance, there isn¡¯t any apparently ablative material evident. This could indicate the alloy here doesn¡¯t require heat shielding, or it could indicate that the ablative technology used is far superior and we just can¡¯t see it yet. This will take years to study General. Years.¡±


    Hammond looked thoughtful for a moment. ¡°The question doctor, is do we have years to study this, or is this just the beginning of something larger that we aren¡¯t prepared for yet.¡± Eiselstein was quiet for a moment before turning to the officer, ¡°General, that is a question for your pay-grade, not mine. My expertise is in metallurgy, not astronomy or xenology - which before this wasn¡¯t even a branch of real science, although I expect that to change quite soon. I suggest you talk with NASA or one of the other space agencies and astronomical societies who watch the stars for a living or pleasure. Give me time and we¡¯ll figure out what we can from this and how it can be used.¡±


    Hammond nodded and turned to leave. ¡°One more thing, General.¡± Hammond glanced over his shoulder. ¡°I suggest we start preparing for the worst.¡± Hammond barked a dry laugh, ¡°On that we agree Doctor, make no mistake about it. Good day Doctor.¡±


    August 22, 1996 - Headquarters of the United Nations - New York, New York, USA


    Madeleine Albright composed herself before picking up the folder and opening it. She gave a quick glance at General Hammond before starting to read the documents. After a few minutes she gasped and looked up. ¡°This is real? Not only evidence of extraterrestrial life, but a salvaged wreck? And it happened years ago?¡±


    Hammond nodded, ¡°Yes Madame Ambassador. The President has decided this is no longer a matter for just The United States to handle and it should be brought to the attention of certain governments in the UN. We tasked a few observatories around the world to keep an eye on the vessel orbiting Saturn, and when possible taking images of the larger object still in the Kuiper belt.¡±


    ¡°So far as we know, this one ship that crashed is the only one to come here to Earth, unless more crashes have happened around the world. We only detected the crash in Kentucky after the ship started to burn through the atmosphere. We got lucky with predicting where it was going to crash and had some birds in the air before it landed.¡±


    ¡°How did it crash General? This report doesn¡¯t say,¡± she said glancing at the General. ¡°As best we can tell from the wreck, we think the ship was struck by a small asteroid which damaged its flight capability. We believe the craft wasn¡¯t even meant to enter the atmosphere and land. The damage was extensive, and beside the materials it¡¯s made of, we have been unable to determine anything about how it operated, its capabilities, power source or anything else.¡±


    ¡°We suspect the alien sabotaged everything before trying to flee. To this date we still have not found the alien and do not know if it¡¯s alive or dead. If it¡¯s alive, it¡¯s either living in the woods, or has somehow integrated itself with a human population - a terrifying thought. As I said, Madame Ambassador, this has become a global concern and it is now your job to read in who you think should be read in. At the end of the packet you will find a list of nations we believe would be amenable to the situation.¡± He stood to leave, ¡°Let me stress the importance of this one more time. These are not some friendly visitors and they have already taken American lives. Good luck to you.¡±


    The Ambassador exhaled slowly as she leafed through the information packet. This is going to be some very interesting conversations, she thought to herself. Most of the information was reports on the devastation at the Kentucky crash site with some supplemental satellite images.


    The photographs were hard to look at. Did they really need to take photos of the mangled bodies to include in this report? The rest of the packet was incomprehensible science on the wreckage recovered. I doubt any of the other ambassadors will understand this any better than I do.


    Speaking of which. She turned back to the last page to see who the General recommended she speak with. Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Brazil, Italy, Australia, France, Russia. It looks like every county that¡¯s had or has an interest in space or are close allies. She reached for her phone and hesitated before picking up the receiver. This is not going to be fun.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    April 11, 1997 - Undisclosed Meeting Room - Headquarters of the United Nations - New York, New York, USA


    ¡°I still don¡¯t understand what it is this committee is supposed to accomplish. We¡¯ve debated this for months and we have yet to come up with a resolution that makes sense,¡± Chairman Takasu said. The gathered ambassadors whispered amongst themselves, occasionally glancing around the room.


    Finally, Ambassador Richardson from the US spoke up, ¡°I realize I am just a freshman on this committee as I¡¯ve only recently taken over for Ambassador Albright, but why don¡¯t we consider this. This is eventually going to become a global threat, if it hasn¡¯t happened already. We know for a fact that with our current technology we can¡¯t detect these things before they enter our atmosphere. Only then do their heat signatures become detectable - until they cool off enough that we lose them again due to a lack of radar returns. So far none of the countries read into this program have reported sightings or potential sightings, and most of Africa and Asia don¡¯t even have the facilities to process this in the first place.¡±


    ¡°Therefore, I propose this for consideration; we create a division inside NATO dedicated to this threat and secure the necessary funding and personnel from member nations. Let me be clear: this is a black operation. Not only can we not afford for the general public to become more aware than key sectors already are due to both the possibility of widespread panic, but we also do not need a repeat of the Heaven¡¯s Gate incident last month.¡±


    The group sat in silence, digesting the last part of his statement. Finally Ambassador Campbell from Australia spoke up, ¡°And what exactly would we be funding?¡± Before Ambassador Richardson could answer, Ambassador Lavrov from the Russian Federation spoke up, ¡°Obviously it would be military, research and development, communications, media suppression, and all the other trappings that come with clandestine activities. FSB is quite adept at it, as I am certain your own Intelligence Agencies are. Before we could agree to any such resolution we would have to discuss with our heads of state. I am certain we all understand that there will be strings attached if this happens. No one country would agree to this with out benefiting from the dividends of the investment.¡± There were murmurs of agreement from around the table.


    ¡°Then let us adjourn this session now that we have a clear idea of what needs to happen. We will reconvene in one month. Let us not be blinded by the negotiations that are about to occur all across the globe. The possible fate of our entire species could be on the line. If you cannot get your respective Governments to agree with reasonable concessions, we will be forced to proceed without their involvement,¡± Chairman Takasu said, giving each assembled ambassador a knowing look in turn. ¡°Meeting adjourned.¡±


    May 11, 1997 - Undisclosed Meeting Room - Headquarters of the United Nations - New York, New York, USA


    ¡°The terms set forth are as followed,¡± started Chairman Takasu. ¡°The project will remain a state secret shared among the member nations signing the accord. Each signatory nation agrees to participate in funding of the project with budgetary items rolled into their military or clandestine budgets, with no line items to appear on any official document that could be made public. Each signatory nation agrees to commit personnel both civilian and military who can be held to the highest standard of secrecy for the project. Due to it being the rough geographical center between all points of participating countries, a site in Turkey will be construction as the headquarters of this organization, and the President of Turkey will be read into the program. The nature of the program will remained classified at the highest levels.¡±


    ¡°The following nations have agreed to the proposal in whole: Japan, The United States, The United Kingdom, France, India, Australia, Germany, and Italy. The following nations have asked for the amendment that all research and scientific information that results from the program be disseminated to all member nations in whole: Russia, China, and Egypt. The following nations have decided to withdraw from the program: Brazil, South Africa, Israel. Lastly the Ambassador from Switzerland has agreed to the mandated secrecy and will appointed a rotating three person panel to act as arbitrators for any disputes that arise between nations as a result of this project.¡±


    ¡°Are there any objections to the stipulations put forth before the committee by Russia, China, and Egypt?¡± No one spoke up, but the chairman noted a few shared glances between the Ambassadors from the US and the UK. ¡°As no one has raised an objection the amendment will be added to the document. Are there any last minute proposals or additions?¡± He glanced around the room and was met with silence. ¡°Then let us vote. ¡°All in favor?¡± Every hand raised. ¡°The project is approved with unanimous agreement. Starting tomorrow, Task Force Omega will become a new reality. I expect nominations from all involved parties for department heads for the three primary branches, military, engineering, and science, by the end of the week.¡±


    ¡°We will meet again after the August General Assembly and vote on the candidates. I know there will be a heated discussion revolved the military side of things, so I would like to make a suggestion that you all look at officers already tasked to NATO and start there. This is it gentlemen. The course of human history is forever changed from this point forward.¡±

 Chapter Two

    June 12, 1999 - 40.5N, 31.8E - K?ro?lu Mountain Range - Bolu Province, Turkey


    The V-22 Osprey¡¯s rotors began to spool down as the aircraft hit the ground with a thump. The assembled passengers began releasing straps and buckles to disembark and begin preliminary work on what would become one of the largest secret undertakings in the world. Talanova Ilyinishna looked around at the other members of the engineering and planning crew. As head of the construction and design it was her responsibility to do things right, and nothing would let her bring shame to her Mother Russia.


    Tala hurried down the back ramp and immediate starting to assess the landing area for a place to put up the temporary shelters for the initial wave of people coming to work on the project. Another V-22 was scheduled to arrive in an hour and would contain most of the geological sciences team to assess the selected mountain site. Then more crews would be arriving with heavy duty mining equipment, demolition teams, and more headaches than she cared to think about. This was a huge undertaking, and trying to keep it all a secret was going to be both an exercise in patience and a challenge in organizational skills.


    ¡°Get the tents set up over there under that tree line, and start piling the supplies out of the way. The science team will be here soon and the rest of the prefabs will be delivered over the next 24 hours,¡± she shouted to the group. Everybody hustled to get things moving so the Osprey could lift off. The pair of soldier deployed with the engineering team, a US Air Force Combat Controller and a Combat Weatherman, moved off to get setup and prepare the area for night landing operations.


    Satisfied at the lack of complaints directed toward her, Tala went to the supply crates at a brisk walk. Rummaging through one of the boxes with her name on it she dug out a theodolite to get to work.


    Several hours and two transports later the site was starting to take shape. Many of the prefabs were up and most of the camp was set up and ready for use. Already the science and engineering teams made progress in determining the best approach to construction on the base. The mountain was primarily igneous in nature so heavy mining equipment would be required to bore into the mountain and get the foundation started. The site had promise for internal non-nuclear power due in large part to the highly volcanic area around the tectonic plates.


    As darkness closed in, the on-site team gathered for an evening meal of military MREs which yielded no small number of complaints from people accustomed to eating ¡®real¡¯, prepared food. Dr. Kayode and Dr. Opeyemi were in a heated discussion about thermal power generation, while Dr. Ishikawa stared off into space, her MRE untouched. Tala leaned over and nudged her shoulder. ¡°Penny for your thoughts?¡±


    Dr. Ishikawa blinked a few times glancing at Tala before staring at her MRE. ¡°I was hoping for a lollipop for after dinner, but I forget to pack any and this,¡± she paused ¡°food, doesn¡¯t have a desert option. Is this normal for soldiers? No sweets?¡± Tala stared at her for a moment before releasing a full belly laugh. She patted Dr. Ishikawa on the shoulder, ¡°Aiko, I¡¯ll make sure some lollipops are in one of the next supply shipments.¡± Aiko smiled mirthfully and turned to eat her dinner. ¡°I still have to say. This is quite an exhilarating experience is it not? On the frontier of something like a grand adventure into the unknown.¡±


    Tala smiled before nodding. ¡°It sure beats working back in the homeland that¡¯s for sure. Did you have to leave any family behind?¡± Aiko shook her head, ¡°No, that¡¯s partly why I was a selection candidate. Most of my family has passed on and I never had the interest to start a family of my own. There¡¯s always too much to learn and do and never enough time.¡± Tala nodded knowingly, ¡°I think that¡¯s the case with most of us. No ties to the world that could jeopardize the Project. Still, it would be nice to have some comforts from home.¡±


    Aiko looked ponderously for a moment before asking, ¡°Well why can¡¯t we? Are we also responsible for design of the project? Who¡¯s to say we don¡¯t need some comforts from home. Everybody needs some time to relax. I¡¯m sure the soldiers are used to living in a barracks with little to entertain them. What¡¯s wrong with setting aside some space for rest and relaxation?¡± Tala thought for a moment before standing up, ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a moment.¡± She went into the first prefab that had been set up as a headquarters for the building and construction teams and grabbed the initial draft of the blueprints and took them back to the mess tent. ¡°If we make some adjustments here, and here we could probably set up something like a commons.¡± The two talked into the night as they made plan after plan.


    January 3, 2001 - 40.5N, 31.8E - K?ro?lu Mountain Range - Bolu Province, Turkey


    ¡°I have to say, using the rock we¡¯ve mined out of the mountain and crushing it locally to make concrete has made this project a hell of a lot easier.¡± Dr. Alfred Broughten said to Tala. ¡°If we had to ship in the amount of concrete we¡¯re using, the cost would have been exorbitant.¡± Tala grunted in agreement. ¡°We¡¯re already over our yearly budget and we still haven¡¯t finish constructing the damn thing. You¡¯d think after nearly two years we¡¯d have more progress than we have.¡±


    Alfred nodded, ¡°We¡¯re behind schedule significantly. On top of that we only have a single platoon of soldiers as our base security, and no real ability to defend against anything dangerous.¡± Alfred frowned as he gazed at the tunnel entrance. ¡°We still aren¡¯t even remotely close to getting the catapult systems built since that section of the mountain hasn¡¯t even started to be cored out.¡± He turned to Tala, ¡°For being a first strike capable installation, we¡¯re failing in every respect. The Omega Council is breathing down our necks to get everything finished, and yet here we are, still unable to start brining in anything beyond construction equipment.¡± He spat on the ground.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.??¡°Cheer up Alfred, it¡¯s me they¡¯re yelling at. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll get the facility finished before the Aliens invade and destroy everything. I hope anyway.¡± She glance to the sky nervously. Can you believe it¡¯s been almost 8 years and there still hasn¡¯t been a second recorded incident? That ship is still in orbit around Saturn. What could they be waiting for I wonder?¡± Alfred joined her gaze at the sky. ¡°I don¡¯t know Tala. I just don¡¯t know. What ever it is, I¡¯m sure it¡¯s going to be bad for us. All the more reason to get this project finished. I¡¯ll see you at lunch?¡± Tala nodded with a smile. ¡°Lunch it is, dosvidaniya.¡±


    February 16, 2003 - Adi Ghar Cave Complex - Kandahar Province, Afghanistan


    ¡°Sir, you really need to see this.¡± Shouted Specialist Nathan Green as he motioned with his rifle toward a stack of crates. ¡°What did you find Green? More weapons?¡± asked Staff Sergeant Alan Parsons. The Specialist shook his head, ¡°No sir, I¡¯m not exactly sure what this is I found, but it is definitely out of place.¡± Parsons walked over and inspected the crates. ¡°I don¡¯t see anything unusual here, Green. What are you referring to?¡± Green pointed behind the crates, ¡°Back there, sir.¡±


    Green moved the top crate out of the way and pointed to Parsons. ¡°That, sir.¡± Green was pointing at a skeleton, but the proportions were all wrong and the skull looked very misshapen. ¡°We probably shouldn¡¯t touch that. That looks like something a scientist would fiddle with, not a soldier. Catalog it as unusual remains and continue with your work.¡± Parsons walked back out toward the mouth of the cave and pulled out a satellite radio. Looking around to make sure he had privacy he dialed up the only number the phone would connect to. ¡°Switchboard¡± came the reply on the other end. ¡°X-Ray One Actual. I think we found it, and how it got here I have no idea. Co-ordinates are attached.¡± ¡°Noted, secure and detain.¡±


    Parsons grimaced at the order. ¡°Yes, sir. X-Ray One out.¡± Parsons re-entered the cave and moved back to the crates. ¡°Green,¡± he said, ¡°have you shown this to anybody else?¡± Green nodded, ¡°Just the rest of our squad. Why?¡± Parsons sighed and shook his head imagining the nightmare this was going to cause. ¡°Green gather the squad and bring them all here. Say nothing other than I said get here on the double.¡± Green nodded and ran off. ¡°Just my luck that out of all us read into the program, I¡¯d be the one to find the damn thing. At least it isn¡¯t alive.¡±


    Green came back with the rest of the squad a few minutes later. ¡°All present and accounted for sir,¡± said Green. Parsons nodded, ¡°All right here¡¯s the situation. This area is now under a NATO lock down. We¡¯re lucky this is just a small tunnel used for storage so it¡¯s going to be easy to secure. As of right now our sole mission is to prevent anybody from coming into this cave branch until a specialist team arrives and authenticates themselves.¡± The soldiers glance around to each other.


    ¡°Sir, why?¡± said Private First Class Yates. ¡°Because of what was discovered behind this crate. I can¡¯t say more than that because you all don¡¯t have clearance, but because you were all told by Green here, you¡¯re all considered contamination of information.¡± Everybody gave nervous glances around before Green spoke up. ¡°Did I fuck up something? Sir?¡± Parsons shook his head while keeping an eye on the tunnel mouth. ¡°No son you didn¡¯t, but your life, all of your lives, are going to be a lot more interesting from this point forward.¡±


    Green peered behind the crates, ¡°Sir what is it that we found?¡± Parson stared at the specialist long enough that Green didn¡¯t think he was going to get an answer before Parsons finally spoke up. ¡°Something that isn¡¯t from earth. I won¡¯t say more.¡± Excited murmurs came from the squad before Parsons quited them down. ¡°Don¡¯t attract more attention over here than is necessary. There isn¡¯t anyone else on this mission with clearance for this. And settle in boys. We probably won¡¯t be returning to base.¡±


    February 20, 2003 - 40.5N, 31.8E - K?ro?lu Mountain Range - Bolu Province, Turkey


    Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Feltcher looked at the squad seated around his desk. Most of them looked nervous and kept glancing around to each other. The squad leader however sat casually. He must be the one read into the program. Marcus leafed through the report on his desk before addressing the soldiers. ¡°By now you¡¯ve all figured out that you¡¯ve stumbled into something sensitive enough that you were unable to return to your regular unit before a debrief. Most of you already have secret level clearance as part of being in Special Operations, but this issue goes beyond Top Secret. You¡¯re lucky that your Squad Leader, Parsons, not only holds the correct clearance, but was already a part of the program.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll break this down as simple as possible. You found the remains of an Extra Terrestrial that we¡¯ve been trying to find for almost 10 years. Yes, like an alien. As in from outer space. Or as I suppose the scientists here like to remind us grunts, Extra-solar entities.¡± A small round of nervous chuckles went around the room. Marcus smiled as the tension in the room seemed to drain with that remark. ¡°So it comes down to this. All of this is obviously classified at the highest level, so you have a choice. The 9 of you besides Parsons can return to your regular units and never speak of this again, or you can join the Program. Let me be clear, if you opt to join the Program you¡¯re going to think all the special training you took to earn your place among the special forces was a walk in the park. Our failure rate makes BUDS look easy by comparison.¡±


    Marcus grinned, ¡°And for the 7 of you who haven¡¯t already qualified as a SEAL, you will go through BUDS along with every other special tactics training offered by the best militaries in the world.¡± He glanced at Parsons, ¡°This means you as well.¡± Parsons blanched before agreeing, ¡°Yes sir.¡± Marcus nodded, ¡°Then you all are dismissed for the time being. There is a small commons down on level 3 with a cafeteria and other luxuries. You are not to partake in the luxuries but get some food and think it over. You have until 20:00 local time tonight to make your decisions.¡± The squad stood, saluted and exited to office. Marcus spend a moment looking after them before sighing and turning to the paperwork this was going to generate.

 Chapter Three

    April 13, 2004 - 40.5N, 31.8E - K?ro?lu Mountain Range - Bolu Province, Turkey


    ¡°Room, ATTENTION!¡± shouted the soldier by the door as Willow MacKenna strode into the hanger that was still being constructed. She swiftly walked up onto the makeshift stage toward the podium that had been set up for her, before turning to the assembled soldiers before her. More than 200 soldiers from 23 different nations were standing ramrod straight, eyes forward. She briefly glanced at the other commanders of the program behind her before adjusting the mic and addressing the crowd.


    ¡°At-ease. My name is Brigadier General, NATO Designation OF-6, Willow MacKenna. Each and every one of you have been selected from your nation¡¯s tier one special operations teams to undergo advanced training in a joint classified NATO operation. Those of you who pass muster will have your security clearances upgraded to the highest level on the planet and will be fully briefed on the program. Those of you who fail or tap out will be debriefed and you will return to regular duty in your home military. Until such time, your ass belongs to me.¡±


    ¡°Many of you have probably noticed something you aren¡¯t used to seeing in your respective fields of expertise. This is a co-ed program, and gentlemen the women standing within your ranks deserve to be here just as much as you do, as they have earned their way into this program. I will say this only once. A single report of misconduct and I will bounce your ass out of the facility so hard you will be lucky if you¡¯re able to return to military life.¡±


    ¡°You will also no doubt notice the large crowd seated to your right. These are civilians with the project and will also be evaluating how you handle working alongside non-military assets, both on base and in the field.¡± She gave a hard glance around the room and was pleased that the consummate professionals didn¡¯t bat an eye at this information despite how she knew they were processing it in their head.


    Civilian contractors didn¡¯t typically have a place in the field on combat operations with tier one operators unless it was because they were the target of the operation. The hard reality of the program was the civilians, scientists, engineers, biologist, pioneers in branches of science that were still being invented to deal with the threat looming darkly overhead, and were every bit as necessary as soldiers who could pull a trigger.


    ¡°Now, I know not all of your are boots on the ground operators. Many of you are pilots, air crew, or other specialties that support ground forces. Every person in this program will go through the same basic training. And by basic training I mean a program that will make most of your special qualification schools look like kindergarten. Due to the sensitive nature of the program, all of your training will take place here. By now you know this facility doesn¡¯t have an official designation anywhere. In training, any time it comes up your instructors will refer to it as ¡®The Project¡¯ until such a time as an official designation is deemed necessary.¡±


    ¡°These people behind me are your overall commanding officers and will oversee their respective branches of your training. Colonel Marcus Feltcher, United States Marine Corps, NATO Designation OF-5 Director of Ground Operations.¡± Marcus stood as his name was called and took a step forward. ¡°Colonel Ariel Hawthorne, Irish Air Corps, NATO Designation OF-5 Logistics, Communications, and Base Operations.¡± Ariel stood and took a step forward. ¡°Lastly, Wing Commander Jonathan Hewitt, Royal Air Force United Kingdom, NATO Designation OF-4 Aerial Operations.¡± Jonathan stood and stepped forward. As one, the three officers saluted before stepping back and sitting down.


    ¡°The Officers and Enlisted personnel to your left are your instructors for the next 3 years. Due to the nature of the program we can¡¯t simply send you off to the training schools around the world, so we brought the schools to you. With few exceptions your life now only exists in a 250 kilometer bubble around this facility. Training will include BUDS from both the US Navy and Russian GRU; US, German, and Japanese Air Assault schools; US, Irish, and Italian Ranger schools; US and Canadian sniper schools, and those of you who cannot qualify as a sniper will qualify as a spotter, no exceptions; as well as qualifying in both the US Army¡¯s and the RAF¡¯s combat medicine schools.¡±


    ¡°There are a few other specialized schools which will take me far longer to list than necessary, but I thought I would mention the more prestigious ones. Those of you from your home units who are represented in training here are not excused from being put back through the selection schools processes again. You are all the elite of the elite and we expect you to act like it. At any point, any trainer, including those from the more basic schools like the mountaineering division or the orienteering school has the full authority to fail you out of the program and any point during training, including the middle of an exercise. If you are failed out, and I expect at least a third of you will, you will be air lifted out of the training area and immediately brought here for a debrief before being returned to your original unit with-in 24 hours.¡±


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.??¡°Schools will rotate based on your original specialties, in example if you¡¯re from the US Navy and have already been assigned to a SEAL unit, you will not be taking US Navy BUDS first, but instead will take GRU BUDS. Once schooling is done and you¡¯re a full-time part of the program, you will have an additional six months of classroom schooling with the civilians based on your aptitudes in various areas.¡±


    ¡°There are 16 of you who have completed medical school as well as special tactics trainings. We have a few instructors from the USAF¡¯s new Special Operations Surgical Teams who will be your trainers for most of the duration here, and will be exempt from the 250 kilometer bubble as most of your training will be live field training in the current conflict zones of Darfur, Iraq, and Pakistan. You will be treating both soldiers and civilians. See your instructors for more details.¡±


    ¡°Lastly everybody will qualify as a helicopter pilot on one of three aircraft, the V-22 Osprey, the MH-60S Black Hawk, or the MH-74 Chinook.¡± MacKenna nodded to the soldier by the door. He bellowed ¡°ROOM ATTENTION.¡± The room thundered with the sound of every soldier snapping to attention. ¡°Order, ARMS.¡± The room saluted MacKenna with one fluid motion. MacKenna returned the salute and said ¡°Dismissed.¡± Soldiers began to break up into groups as they filed out of the hanger, however the officers on the stage remained.


    MacKenna gave a long glance to the construction going on behind the stage before asking Hewitt, ¡°Is the system going to work? I know on paper it¡¯s supposed to, but we don¡¯t exactly have many F-35¡¯s if something goes wrong.¡± Hewitt eyed the system critically. It was a gradual sloping ramp that was designed to take a fighter plane from horizontal to vertical using a modified catapult system from a naval aircraft carrier.


    ¡°Our eggheads assure me it will work. The pilot is going to experience more acceleration G¡¯s than are typical for a catapult assisted launch than typical, but it should accelerate a fully loaded jet with expanded fuel pods to flight speed with out stalling out the aircraft.¡± MacKenna glanced to Hewitt with a raised eyebrow, ¡°Fuel pods?¡± Hewitt nodded. ¡°Fuel is heavier than the missile payloads we¡¯ll be using. If the system can handle the added weight of all the fuel, it can handle the armaments.¡± MacKenna blanched, ¡°Doesn¡¯t that mean if it fails on the test we¡¯re going to have one hell of an explosion in here?¡± Hewitt chuckled, ¡°Naw, we¡¯re going to fill the tanks with water. Uh Ma¡¯am.¡±


    MacKenna chuckled with a shake of her head, ¡°Don¡¯t stand on formality if it¡¯s just us four. Rank be damned. We¡¯re trying to grow what is essentially a whole new military comprised of the most die-hard adrenaline junkies in the world. Speaking of which, Ariel have you heard back from NATO on if we¡¯re going to get any of the naval assets I asked for?¡±


    Ariel frowned, ¡°Ma¡¯am, you asked for four aircraft carriers and other support ships to be permanently reassigned to us. So far only the United States has been willing to commit any naval forces, and even then only decommissioned ships out of service. They¡¯re sending us two retired Iwo-Jima class Amphibious Assault ships, which admittedly will work for allowing squadrons to be stationed at further points so our helicopters will have a faster response time from the Pacific, but they aren¡¯t willing to commit crews as of yet, and most of the electronics have been stripped from what I was told. They will tug them out to sea to a spot of our choosing, but we still don¡¯t have an established naval port yet.¡±


    ¡°Essentially we¡¯ll have to rebuild them and then appropriate crews. That¡¯s fourteen hundred more people as part of the program, and that¡¯s assuming we don¡¯t have reserve crews to rotate in and out. We can take care of the rebuilding in under a year, so well before any of our troops are ready for deployment, but finding crew is going to be problematic. We¡¯re already so far over our yearly budget that some nations are already threatening to withdraw from the program. With no new incidents, Governments aren¡¯t seeing the need for this program anymore despite the threat looming in the darkness.¡±


    Willow nodded as she¡¯d seen the same reports. ¡°I hate to be a warmonger, especially because of what it would mean, but an attack would do wonders to breath the life into this program we desperately need if we¡¯re going to keep going. We really need at least two full aircraft carriers if we¡¯re going to have effective global coverage with out relying on regular air forces to handle incursions.¡± The others nodded grimly. Marcus spoke up, ¡°Enough of this depressing chatter, let¡¯s go eat lunch.¡±

 Chapter Four

    June 3, 2005 - 1992 QB1 L5 Lagrange Point - Kuiper Belt - Sol System, Milky Way


    The monitoring system of the satellite array clicked on. A heat signature was detected. The array quietly hummed as it transmitted. What the array was seeing was essentially the following: At approximately 01:21:04 GMT the object that it had been monitoring in deep space started to glow a dull red as thermal imaging detected rapid heat build up. Over the course of the next three hours the object continued to bleed heat at an increasing rate, the images turning from red to orange and finally to white. At approximately the three hour, five minute mark the thermal imaging cameras experienced a complete white-out as a blinding flash emitted from around the object. When imaging recovered the object had vanished and a large sphere with significant spacial lensing was all that remained behind.


    5:00AM June 3, 2005 - North American Aerospace Defense Command - Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA


    The conference room was in chaos as everyone present was talking over each. Eventually an older man in uniform entered the room and the chatter quieted. ¡°Is The Project on the line?¡± he asked of a technician sitting quietly by a computer terminal. ¡°Yes, Sir. General MacKenna? We¡¯re all present.¡± The small black speaker was inset in the middle of the table had a tinny quality as MacKenna spoke up, ¡°We¡¯re receiving you on our end. Present personnel are the base commanders, the directors of engineering, R&D, and a few members of the astronomical research team. We¡¯ve synced with your presentation feed so we should see everything on our end. If your tech would be kind enough to start the slide so I can confirm?¡± The man nodded to the technician and he punched a key on the keyboard. ¡°We¡¯re receiving you, presentation has been started.¡±


    The man sat down and nodded to a scientist in a lab coat who stood up. ¡°At roughly 3:25AM GMT, the object we¡¯ve been monitoring in the Kuiper Belt underwent a massive heat buildup and then vanished in a flash that temporary blinded our satellite. In it¡¯s wake is a spherical area roughly five kilometers in diameter with significant spacial lensing.¡±


    ¡°Several theories have been presented by members of The Project. The prevailing theory is the anomaly is the creation of an Einstein-Rosen bridge, a ¡®wormhole¡¯, if you will. If this is true, it¡¯s possibly the reason we¡¯ve seen no activity in the last decade regarding the extra-solar entities. The amount of energy required to manually create such a bridge is currently incalculable by our current understanding of astrophysics, let alone our complete lack of understanding of the process.¡±


    ¡°This leads us to believe that whatever it is that was in the Kuiper Belt was nothing more than a precursor, building up to this event. The ramifications of this event are likely dire. Unfortunately, with our current propulsion technology we have no way to simply go take a look, and both Voyager 1 and 2 are heading in wrong directions for an observation.¡± He sat down and the room remained in silence until the the tinny voice of MacKenna spoke up. ¡°Convene the Project Council, and get everybody to Geneva. It looks like it¡¯s time to activate the contingencies.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    June 7, 2005 - Palace of Nations - Geneva, Switzerland


    ¡°I need those goddamn naval assets, now more than ever.¡± MacKenna fumed at the assembled Ambassadors. ¡°We¡¯ve been arguing in circles for days now. When you picked me for this fucking job, you said it was because you valued my strategic flexibility to adapt to a given situation. Now we know the damn thing has opened up a highway to drive on over to us, and I still don¡¯t have the ability to tactically intercept anything outside two thousand kilometers of the Facility. With the two refitted Iwo-Jima¡¯s the United States sold to us, we at least have a response time of 20 fucking hours to anything requiring ground intervention unless we get lucky and don¡¯t have to move the ships.¡±


    She took a deep breath trying to calm herself before continuing. ¡°Look, I¡¯m not asking for active service naval vessels to just come my way for our use.¡± She turned to the Ambassador from the UK, ¡°Your country is planning on decommissioning a light aircraft carrier next month, correct? Sell it to us. List it as scrapped on a line item for all I care, but we can use it. Yes we still need to find qualified crew for it, let me worry about that. We¡¯ve already procured several fuel tankers, so our fledgling navy doesn¡¯t have to find a port to refuel.¡± She sighed heavily, ¡°Which also means we need something like the old Canadian Navy¡¯s Cape Class maintenance ships. So long as we don¡¯t have to dry dock anything, we can just service everything at sea.¡±


    Her anger started to rise again, ¡°Which brings me to my next point, we still need a permanent naval facility. I know we¡¯re already straining our yearly budget just trying to get our primary facility finished, which¡­¡± she glanced at her notes, ¡°should be finished by January. The power generation facilities were deemed too high risk and required significant overhauling. On the bright side, the electrical generation will be nearly twice our original estimates. We were able to utilize the volcanism of the area to produce dry steam vents, so in addition to the nuclear reactor, we have two geothermal power stations also in the bowels of the facility.¡±


    She glanced at the clock and saw her time to speak was running out. ¡°In closing, we simple need more resources than we have available. You¡¯ve all heard from the scientists, cosmologists, and other -ologists about what¡¯s out there and what it could mean, so I urge you to also listen to your military adviser. It¡¯s been eight years and we still aren¡¯t prepared. Thank you.¡± She sat down and eyed the assembled members of the council.


    Chairman Aundrey Denisov exhaled slowly. ¡°Thank you for your colorful presentation, General MacKenna. As always we¡¯ll take your words under advisement.¡± He looked around the room at the faces staring back at him. ¡°I¡¯m sure we all understand the potential grave nature of this event. But the fact remains we don¡¯t know what really happened up there, other than the object is gone. We still have the object in orbit around Saturn that hasn¡¯t shown signs of anything since it was discovered. Quite frankly I think we should be reducing the budget for the program, not expanding it. But that isn¡¯t my decision to make, and must be debated by the member nations.¡±


    ¡°General MacKenna, esteemed members of the scientific communities, you are excused from these chambers. General MacKenna you may return to your post and you will be informed of the decisions made here at our earliest convenience. We adjourn for lunch.¡±

 Chapter Five

    July 9, 2005 - Port-aux-Fran?ais - Kerguelen Islands - French Southern and Antarctic Lands - Southern Indian Ocean


    MacKenna stepped off the gangplank of the Marion Dufresne II and headed toward the waiting truck at the end of the dock. ¡°Bonjour, G¨¦n¨¦rale MacKenna! Welcome to Port-aux-Fran?ais. My name is Dr. L¨¦on Dupond, and I¡¯ll be your tour guide, so to speak. I must say I was surprised to receive a phone call from the Ambassador to the UN to expect an Irish G¨¦n¨¦rale on the next supply run. He wouldn¡¯t say anything more, and directed me to answer all your questions.¡±


    MacKenna smiled to the Frenchman as she hauled herself into the truck. ¡°Please, Just call me Willow. It¡¯s nice to be somewhere where I can hear my first name being used for once. I get enough of General and Ma¡¯am back home.¡± L¨¦on chuckled and put the truck into gear. ¡°Alright then Willow, I was told to show you the Satellite Tracking Facility first, and that you would probably have questions after that point. I can¡¯t promise I can answer all of them, but I¡¯ll try my best. And if I can¡¯t, I¡¯ll find somebody who can.¡± He smiled at her as the truck bounced along the road, turning east from the docks.


    Ahead, the spherical domes of the satellite tracking array dotted the landscape with a few buildings clustered near a tiny parking lot. ¡°Tell me L¨¦on, is this facility linked with any other tracking stations, to allow for continuous satellite communication?¡± L¨¦on gave her a sidelong glance while they continued up the road. ¡°Yes, a few facilities around the globe all link together to track data on the Deep Space Network satellites up in geostationary orbit.¡±


    MacKenna smiled broadly, ¡°That¡¯s very good to hear. Very good indeed. I don¡¯t need to tour the facility, so we can head back to the town. Was that a McDonald''s I saw? I didn¡¯t eat lunch on the boat since I knew we were disembarking today.¡±


    L¨¦on chuckled mirthfully and turned the truck around, ¡°It was indeed, one of the only luxuries on the Islands.¡± They road in silence until they reached the restaurant and parked. After a quick lunch they returned to the truck. ¡°Where too now? As you can see, there isn¡¯t really much else here that might interest a G¨¦n¨¦rale unless you¡¯re here for the fishing.¡± He grinned comically.


    ¡°Sadly my visit isn¡¯t recreational. I¡¯m here with the authority of France via the United Nations to ascertain the viability of utilizing the area for military purposes.¡± She glanced to L¨¦on as his face took a sobering visage. ¡°Mademoiselle Willow. I am a scientist, how could I possibly be of use for deciding on something relating to matters of military interest?¡± Willow chewed her cheek thoughtfully before replying, ¡°I understand your field of study isn¡¯t related to Astronomy, but rather radio bathymetry?¡±


    L¨¦on looked at her sharply with surprise, ¡°Yes, yes it is. What could the military possibly want with that kind of science out here? Surely you have your own scientists who study such things in your navies.¡± ¡°We do, but we don¡¯t have scientist who live here and have been studying the surrounding waters for a few years. We wish to establish a long term, permanent military presence here, and the depth of the water is of chief interest in this facility. In short, we want to establish a small naval servicing facility that can handle either a dry dock or floating dry dock that can handle displacements of up to eighty-thousand tonnes and drafts of up to twelve meters. Additionally we plan to construct the airstrip France planned but never built. The ability to land aircraft here year round will not only be vital to our plans, but it will also make resupply and servicing the regular scientific community significantly easier. Also it would allow scientists to fly here rather than spend a week at sea, which if they¡¯re like me I¡¯m certain they would prefer that.¡±


    L¨¦on whistled sharply. ¡°You¡¯re not asking for much are you. Why would you want a facility like that out here in the middle of nowhere? Sure a floating dry dock could be towed or built, but the dock you arrived on can only handle ships with a draft up to eight meters. The quay can handle maybe ten meter displacement at high tide, but look around? Even the the Marines stationed here don¡¯t adhere to regular military life. Life is laid back here.¡±


    Willow frowned briefly before remembering she wasn¡¯t here to police lazy soldiers. ¡°That will likely change, and change quickly once plans for here are set in motion. This facility is going to happen, and the regular Marines will be integrated into the facility. Furthermore, we have a vested interest in some of the sciences being studied here and on the surrounding islands. The use of the tracking station and the personnel that work there are also of prime interest.¡± L¨¦on gaped at Willow. ¡°Why does NATO have an interest in tracking satellites from here? Surely there are NATO facilities around the world with radar tracking that can follow satellites around the globe.¡± Willow pressed her lips firmly in a line before responding, ¡°I¡¯m not at liberty to say, but I have a feeling you¡¯ll find out soon enough. How about we head to the hotel, it¡¯s going to be a long week for both of us, I think.¡±


    August 11, 2005 - Guiana Space Center - Kourou, French Guiana


    Tala and Aiko stood quietly side by side in the operations center for the European Space Agency at Guiana Space Center. Aiko rolled her lollipop around in her mouth as she wrung her hands nervously. Tala placed a hand on Aiko¡¯s shoulder to calm her. ¡°It will be okay Aiko. Everybody involved with preparing this launch knows about the additional payload on board and where control of it is coming from. All we need to do is hear that it¡¯s successfully deployed and the technicians back at the Facility will handle everything from there.¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.??Aiko glanced at Tala before removing the lollipop from her mouth, rather than trying to talk over it, ¡°I¡¯m not worried the secrecy aspect of the payload. I¡¯m worried about the actual launch. You do know this is the maiden flight of the Ariane 5 heavy lift right? Everything could go horribly wrong and we probably won¡¯t get a second chance at this until our own facility has the ability to launch rockets.¡±


    Tala looked at her thoughtfully. ¡°You know we never actually discussed building a rocket silo, but now that you bring it up¡­¡± Tala tapped her finger against her chin in thought. ¡°We probably could easily put a silo in. It isn¡¯t like there isn¡¯t an entire mountain range to play with. It comes down to money, just like all our other woes. Still, we have the mining equipment and the support personnel free with most of the planned facilities built.¡±


    The clock on the wall finally reached T-10 and the pair held their breath as the final countdown was called, ¡°Dix, nuef, huit, sept, six, cinq, quatre, trois, deux, un, d¨¦collez!¡± The ground rumbled as the platform disappeared in a massive fireball as the rocket soared into the sky, trailing smoke all the way. Aiko cheered along with everybody else while Tala simply smiled and tugged her arm. ¡°Come, it¡¯s in the air which means it¡¯s time for us to leave.¡±


    August 11, 2005 - 35,000 Kilometers above Earth - Sol System, Milky Way


    The payload successfully detached from the host rocket with slight lurch as the decoupler blew to eject it into space. A short pair of puffs from the maneuvering thrusters oriented the miniature rocket for the initial burn to put it in the proper inclination. A few seconds later a brief flare of electricity ignited the chemical propellant of the lowest stage and the rocket was on its way.


    After the chemical propellant burned out, a few more puffs had the rocket turned around and it drifted toward the next burn point. A few thousand kilometers before that point of no return the rocket ignited it¡¯s second stage to slow the rocket down. After the stage expended its fuel the rocket trigged the next decoupler to finish brining the rocket to a halt in space.


    The thrusters puffed again orienting the satellite for its final burn phase and ignited the last stage. The rocket spent the next half hour burning through its fuel supply before finally ejecting the spent stage. The satellite made some adjustments with its thrusters to orient itself to face the distant object in the Kuiper belt and began deploying its on-board systems.


    A pair of solar panels extended first so the battery system could begin recharging. Then a pair of telescopes deployed from the sides of the cube-sat and positioned themselves to watch Saturn and 1992QB1. Lastly, a small communications dish deployed and began transmitting the encrypted signals back toward Earth.


    August 15, 2005 - The Facility - K?ro?lu Mountain Range - Bolu Province, Turkey


    Ariel hunched over the shoulder of the technician staring at the screen as data scrolled by. ¡°It looks like the connection is stable Ma¡¯am. The Molniya orbit will keep the satellite over the Port-aux-Fran?ais monitoring station for about eight out of even eleven hours. If we could put more satellites in orbit, we could keep round the clock coverage, especially if we can put a constellation out there.¡±


    ¡°If we had a budget that could support a rocket program maybe, although Tala and Aiko seem to seriously be planning out a rocket silo so maybe that isn¡¯t too far of a stretch in a few years. Keep me updated on the data the satellite returns. She tapped her chin thoughtfully before adding ¡°Monitor the data from the monitoring station as well, we never know what they might find.¡± She glanced at her watch. ¡°If anybody needs me I¡¯ll be in the officer¡¯s mess having lunch.¡±


    As she stepped into the hallway from the communications center she ran into MacKenna and immediately snapped to attention and rendered a salute before falling in beside the General. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I didn¡¯t realize you were already back from French Antarctica. I was just heading to lunch, care to join me?¡±


    Willow smiled tiredly to Ariel. ¡°Sure, so long as there is coffee involved. I was never meant to serve on a ship and the boat ride there and back was horrible. I¡¯ve barely slept this week. Well, less than normal.¡± Ariel nodded knowingly.


    ¡°I feel I should warn you before Doctors Ishikawa and Ilyinishna ambush you. They¡¯re planning on building a rocket silo now since apparently we have almost everything on hand to do it, and the mountains aren¡¯t lacking for space. I think sending them to the spaceport wasn¡¯t the best idea for our budget.


    Willow grimaced before sighing loudly. ¡°Our budget is always in constant peril enough as it is, the last thing I need is more line items I have to try and justify to the council. Especially since our quarterly budget meeting is later this month. Russia and China keep threatening to reduce their budget contributions since we¡¯ve yet to produce anything scientific they can exploit against the rest of the world.¡±


    It was Ariel¡¯s turn to sigh in a tired way. ¡°Despite all the nations knowing that there could be a potential world ending threat looming over us, all they care about is what advantage they can gain from it. It¡¯s times like these that I¡¯m glad we don¡¯t have a single country acting as oversight and we don¡¯t exactly answer to NATO either. Can you imagine the bullshit politics that would create around here if every officer reported to their own country instead of you?¡±


    ¡°I really don¡¯t envy your job Ma¡¯am. None of us really have an easy job, but at least I don¡¯t have to report to anybody but you. Anyway enough about work for the moment. Let¡¯s eat lunch and you can tell me all about the boat rides.¡±


    Willow grinned and elbowed Ariel playfully. ¡°Let¡¯s see you spend a few weeks at sea. I¡¯m sure you joined the Irish Air Corps because you wanted to live on a boat.¡± Ariel scoffed, ¡°I joined the Air Corps because I didn¡¯t want to end up marching everywhere unlike you,¡± she looked at Willow pointedly, ¡°Ma¡¯am.¡± They both laughed as they entered the officers mess for a well earned lunch.

 Chapter Six

    August 22, 2005 - The Facility - K?ro?lu Mountain Range - Bolu Province, Turkey


    MacKenna sat at her desk reviewing an information packet that had been sent to her from The Council. The proposal she had introduced before her fiery speech about naval assets had born fruit and now she had a few decisions to make. She had proposed increasing the size of available forces in The Project by starting at the source: selecting candidates from around the world who had already enlisted to serve in their respective country¡¯s military, but had yet to attend basic training.


    The requirements she¡¯d laid out were fairly strict, so the overall potential recruits worldwide still wouldn¡¯t be very high. The potential candidate had to be able to speak English to a reasonable degree, as the bulk of the program was conducted in English. They had to have little to no familial ties, so recruits that would be typically turned away from countries such as The United States or France for being the last surviving member of their family name would find themselves suddenly eligible.


    Lastly, they needed to be selected based on their likelihood of service retention; recruits that might wash out of training for one reason or another needed to be weeded out ahead of time, which meant a more strict psychological screening process. That was one of the major hurdles with the plan due to the inability to screen every person in the participating countries in The Project. Apparently the Council decided the solution was to target recruitment centers in medium population areas, where volume of recruitment was high enough for there to be a large enough applicant pool, but small enough that the screening process could happen without bogging down regular recruitment.


    Canada had stepped up to the plate and immediately offered to host the basic military training since their armed forces already went to a combined training facility for all three branches of service and were already a bilingual training facility. Selecting sites for advanced training for the three branches of service became the second hurdle. The Project had very specific needs which meant the training needed to be very specialized.


    Ultimately, it was decided that once basic training was completed, ground forces would immediately be transfered to The Facility and put through the thirty-six month training program, with anybody unable to complete the initial eighteen week physical training portion being trained as support personnel instead. Air forces would be transfered to Eglin Air Force Base in Valparaiso, Florida, USA for training for on F-35Bs. Naval Forces will train at the various Class A schools in Canada before being transfered to Port-aux-Fran?ais for final training and briefing.


    Interestingly, the council unanimously decided that the basic training regiment would be segregated from the rest of the regular Canadian forces training and would include training instructors from various militaries in the Project. Apparently nobody wanted the forces to harbor a loyalty to any one country.


    Willow snorted at that thought. Loyalty to the Program is all that these soldiers will know by the time training is over. She paused and reflected on that thought. Sic Semper Tyrannis? She shook her head to clear it. I need to make sure I always stay grounded in the purpose of the Project. The power I could wield with no oversight to stop me is terrifying. She glanced at the clock on the wall noting how late in the evening it had become and raised her hands over her head, stretching with a yawn. She could finish reviewing everything in the morning.


    January 9, 2006 - Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School - Saint-Jean, Quebec, Canada


    David Smith was pulled from his quiet contemplations as the bus pulled into the receiving station at the base.  The entire ride had been fairly subdued since the bus was mostly empty.  When his Army recruiter back home in North Carolina had told him that he had been selected for a special program he hadn¡¯t expected to be flown to Canada for his basic training.  The rest of the people on the bus were also from the United States, but that didn¡¯t mean much because there were only six others besides himself.


    The sun had fallen hours ago, and judging by the crowd gathered they must have been the last bus to arrive.  Grabbing his backpack with the few belongings he brought with him, he filed off the bus.  Immediately he was rushed into line by the uniformed personnel and instructed to place his bag at his feet. He gave his name when requested and held his place in line while the staff continued to take names.


    It became quickly obvious that several people around him weren¡¯t speaking English or French and he spared a glance around at the rest of his fellow recruits.  He saw every shade of skin and shape of eye that he could think of. He caught a few words of languages he recognized: German, Japanese, something that sounded like Russian - and many more that he didn¡¯t.  He realized somebody was shouting for quiet at the head of the group and he turned his attention in that direction.


    ¡°My name is Sergeant Samuel Harding. I am your senior training instructor.  From this point forward everything that comes out of your mouth will be proceeded by the statement ¡°Sir, Trainee, your last name, reporting as ordered. You will use this phrase no matter the statement. If I ask you is the sky blue, you WILL preface by saying that statement before you say yes sir. Am I understood?¡± A chorus of voices repeated the phrase and surprisingly nobody got it wrong.


    ¡°By now, unless you have the brain capacity of a single celled organism, you have realized this training squadron is not what you might call typical.  With the exception of the Canadians present each and every one of you signed up to serve your country and expected to be trained somewhere within her borders. It must have been quite a shock to be told as you¡¯re shipping out that you¡¯ll be flying to Canada for your training. I do not care about your expectations. I only care that you meet my expectations.  There are eighty-eight individuals standing before me. At the end of training I expect to see one combined unit with eighty-eight working parts.¡±


    Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.??¡°You are not permitted to fail. I know it¡¯s been a long two days for most of you just getting here. You are permitted one last night of comfort before your asses belong to me.  Follow your assigned training instructor to your barracks, and get some rack time. Misery begins at 04:30.  Fall out!¡±


    March 13, 2006 - Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School - Saint-Jean, Quebec, Canada


    Willow, Marcus, Jonathan, and Ariel all sat in a conference room with Sergeant Harding sipping coffee while they waited on their sixth participant to arrive. The silence was broken when a man entered the room, snapped a quick salute and sat down in the last chair. ¡°Lieutenant Felice, so good of you to join us.¡± Willow said stiffly. ¡°My apologies Ma¡¯am, I was held up by Major Butler who thought he could order me to tell him why he wasn¡¯t invited to this meeting with ¡®Those visiting officers¡¯.  Personally I think he wanted to schmooze politically more than actually caring about the meeting details.¡±


    All the commanders frowned at the same time. Jonathan spoke up, ¡°That¡¯s just what we need. All our little secrets spilled by some upstart officer who just wants to score political points for promotion rather than putting in good honest hard work. I had to put up with enough officers like that in RAF before I was transfered, I certainly don¡¯t need to deal with any now.¡±  There was a round of nods from the assembled officers.


    Willow turned to the sitting Sergeant. ¡°So tell me Harding, graduation is in a week. Are we going to get a full compliment from this first detail?¡± Harding nodded, ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am. And it¡¯s looking like the following four squadrons are on track for full graduation as well.  ¡°Excellent news Sergeant.¡± She glanced at the clock on the wall. ¡°It¡¯s about time, have the army recruits been separated out and moved someplace we can address them?¡±


    The Sergeant nodded. ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am.  If you¡¯ll all follow me, we kept them in the barracks while the rest have been given time to go to the BEX to pick up any thing they¡¯ll need to take with them to their next duty stations.¡± The group stood and filed out to head toward the barracks.


    As they approached the door Sergeant Harding presented an ID card to the window. Shuffling could be heard inside as a recruit shuffled an authorized list of persons.  The recruit pushed the door open for the Sergeant and immediately snapped to attention, ¡°Officer in the Barracks, ATTENTION!¡± The sounds of people shooting to a standing position and boots clacking together echoed through the dormitory area.


    ¡°At-Ease.¡± MacKenna sounded off. ¡°Everybody into the main bunk area, on the double. Find a bed and take a seat.¡± The assembled recruits, thirty-two in total found places to sit and settled down. Sergeant Harding spoke first, ¡°Recruits, I told you at the start of your training that for the next ten weeks, your asses belonged to me.  At the end of the week you all will graduate from trainees and qualify for technical training. At that time, I will relinquish possession of your posteriors to these officers behind me. At that time your asses belong to them for the next thirty-six months.¡± Some of the recruits exchanged glances before one raised his hand.


    Sergeant Harding pointed to the recruit. ¡°Sir, Trainee Smith reporting as ordered.  Sir, did I hear you correctly? Thirty-six months? Didn¡¯t you mean weeks, sir?¡± Harding started to speak but Marcus placed his hand on Hardings shoulder, and the Sergeant yielded to the Colonel.


    ¡°You heard right son, your asses belong to us for the next thirty-six months.  I don¡¯t know what job your recruiters promised you, most of them are full of shit anyway, but the reason you did not complete your basic training a regular duty station in your home nations was because of the special selection that occurred before you were set to ship out.¡±


    ¡°Every one of you signed up for either your regular army or your country¡¯s version of the United States Marine Corps. What you¡¯ve been selected for doesn¡¯t exist on paper except as some line item with a benign name. I¡¯ll let General MacKenna explain, and you folks should feel privileged she¡¯s here in person. The other training squadrons won¡¯t get that kind of special treatment. Ya¡¯ll are the first and we wanted you to feel special about it.¡± Marcus stepped back and nodded to MacKenna.


    ¡°You folks were all selected based on some criteria that doesn¡¯t really matter right now for a program that doesn¡¯t exist as far as the rest of the world is concerned.  The reason you are all getting to find this out now is because the training that comes next for you all is at my facility. The other squadrons will find this all out the hard way; by showing up on my doorstep.¡± She gave a hard look to each recruit, making sure to maintain eye contact for a few seconds.


    ¡°You¡¯re joining the ranks of some of the most elite soldiers on the face of the planet and following in the footsteps trail-blazed by special operators all over the world.  Not all of you will succeed at the grueling training ahead of you. Those who can¡¯t take the training will be retrained in roles supporting those of you who pass.  Not everybody is destined to be a tier one soldier, just as not everybody is destined to be a load-master or parachute rigger.¡±


    ¡°When you leave this base next week you¡¯ll be flown to Turkey and from there, on to our facility.  I¡¯m putting trust and faith in you all by giving the inaugural class a little forewarning about the future. I¡¯m asking you to place your trust and faith in me by keeping it to yourselves until you¡¯re physically in my house.  Don¡¯t worry, the cadets you¡¯re trained with will all find their way there eventually. Our facility just isn¡¯t equipped for handling the training of pilots or naval crews.¡±


    ¡°Get any nerves you might have out of your system by this time next week, because the next three years are going to be hell. We¡¯ll see you in Turkey. Dismissed.¡±  The recruits moved to the other bunk room and talked quietly among themselves as the gathered officers filed out of the barracks.  Ariel leaned over to Willow and asked ¡°Do you think you scared them?¡± Willow snorted, ¡°I sure as hell hope I did.  Learning to act in spite of your fear is what makes you stronger.  If half of them make it through the operator course I¡¯ll take it as a win for us.¡± She gazed up at the sky pensively, ¡°I just hope we have three years left.¡±

 Chapter Seven

    April 9, 2009 - Port-aux-Fran?ais - Kerguelen Islands - French Southern and Antarctic Lands - Southern Indian Ocean


    Electronic Warfare Technician 3rd Class Jonas was checking his data for the third time since it first appeared on his monitor. The orbital satellite that his team was responsible for monitoring had, for years, been returning images of a spot in deep space that looked distorted. The satellite took four pictures per hour and frankly, he thought, the pictures had changed very little the initial readings had come in all those years ago.


    The last hour¡¯s series of images, however, had shown something significantly different. The first image in the series showed an unusual spot on the peripheral of the sphere that was easy to miss. The second image showed more unusual spots, and by the third image the entire circumference of the sphere was a different color. The fourth image was the most disturbing and contained what had actually caught Jonas¡¯ attention.


    Surrounding the sphere were hundreds of new objects in space. The moment he saw the fourth image and rechecked that it wasn¡¯t an anomaly, he called for his supervisor to come over. He had just finished his third check when the supervisor, a civilian doctor named Dr. Guirade, approached his station.


    ¡°What did you find?¡± He asked the seaman.


    ¡°This series has significant anomalies in the image. The computer says it isn¡¯t an error and I tripled checked the data. Sir, I think this is what we¡¯ve been hoping against happening.¡±


    Dr. Guirade was quiet a moment while he studied the images. ¡°I think you¡¯re right.¡± He quickly walked over to a panel that contained a single button under a glass cover. He lifted the cover and took a deep breath to steady himself. ¡°May God help us all.¡± He pressed the button.


    April 9, 2009 - The Facility - K?ro?lu Mountain Range - Bolu Province, Turkey


    MacKenna was sitting in her office sipping coffee while reading the daily brief when all hell broke loose. The lights dimmed and red rotating hazard lights kicked on while a tonal siren began oscillating over the base intercom. A few seconds later a voice spoke along side the siren ¡°This is not a drill. Alarm Red. This is not a drill.¡±


    Dropping her coffee to the floor she sprinted out of her office and down the hall to the control room. ¡°Status.¡± She barked as she entered the room.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am, Port-aux-Fran?ais triggered the alarm, we¡¯re receiving the images from the satellite any moment now.¡± The main screen in the middle of the far wall switched from a map of earth to the most recent image from the monitoring station. Audible gasps could be heard from all over the room.


    MacKenna recovered from her initial shock and started shouting orders. ¡°Somebody get NORAD on the phone and see if there has been any change in the Saturn situation. Get somebody from the Council on the phone and apprise them of the situation. And turn that damn siren off.¡± She stared at the image on the main screen with fear in her eyes.


    An Airman with a phone in his hand called over to MacKenna. ¡°General, I have NORAD on the line. It appears the Saturn situation has become fluid.


    ¡°Give me that phone,¡± she said as she jogged over to it.


    ¡°General MacKenna, this is Colonel Daron. It appears the object at Saturn has started to move to Titan, one of Saturn¡¯s moons. It¡¯s difficult to tell, but we think it¡¯s descending to the surface.¡±


    ¡°Task a satellite to watch Titan as much as possible. What¡¯s the orbital period on that moon?¡±


    ¡°Around thirteen days Ma¡¯am. We can keep an eye on it for about five of those.¡±


    ¡°Keep us apprised of the situation. If the thing lands and we can get an image of it from Hubble do so. Task another satellite to watch the region of space surrounding Saturn and if one is available task one to watch the path of Neptune.¡± She glanced at some real time celestial data. ¡°Keep an eye on Jupiter as well.¡±


    ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am.¡± The line went dead.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    April 9, 2009 - The Wormhole - 1992QB1 - Sol System, Milky Way


    As the satellite back in a Molniya orbit continued to take pictures at it¡¯s new assigned rate of one image every ten minutes, a clearer picture of what was happening started to take shape.


    In the span of six hours alien spacecraft continued to pour through the wormhole and gather in a large cluster. Various different ship configurations began to attach to one another as more and more spacecraft funneled into the solar system. Eventually the flood of ships slowed and the interconnecting of ships stopped. In the wake of the flood of craft, a giant space station had been left that was now slowly orbiting the wormhole.


    Meanwhile the satellites tasked with watching Titan discovered that the craft had indeed landed on the moon, but details of what was happening were still a mystery as the resolution from the satellites wasn¡¯t significant enough to see. Everyone watching back home on Earth sat with bated breath, waiting to see what horrors were coming.


    April 11, 2009 - The Wormhole - 1992QB1 - Sol System, Milky Way


    Large spacecraft roughly twice as large as a container ship began exiting the wormhole. Some started to taxi toward the space station, while others turned toward the outer Kuiper belt or toward the Jovian planets. Dozens of the vessels had docked with the newly-assembled station by the time the flow of ships slowed down to a trickle. The watching satellite ran calculations as the last of the ships began a trajectory, and it determined that if they maintained their current speed, the outward-bound ships would intercept Saturn in roughly a month.


    April 11, 2009 - North American Aerospace Defense Command - Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA


    ¡°Sir, we¡¯re tracking several hundred ships breaking away from both the space station and the wormhole, and heading toward Saturn.¡±


    Colonel Daron watched as the radar was updated in real time. ¡°They must be huge if radar is picking them up. Didn¡¯t the ship that crashed in the nineties elude tracking via radar?¡±


    ¡°I believe so sir, but you¡¯d have to ask somebody higher up the chain. I don¡¯t think anybody here was serving in the nineties.¡±


    ¡°Forward the information to General MacKenna. Her team is significantly more qualified to parse the information and what it could mean.¡±


    ¡°Yes Sir, uploading the data now. Sir?¡±


    ¡°Yes Airman?¡±


    ¡°Sir, this is only a speculation, but I think those might be supply ships and I think that thing on Titan is the beginning of a base of operations.¡±


    Daron looked at the airman with a raised eyebrow. ¡°What makes you say that, son?¡±


    The airmen looked a little embarrassed, ¡°Well sir, I play a lot of strategy games when I¡¯m off duty. If I had a space station to act as a refueling point between two long distances, I¡¯d want to establish a proper base before I launched an attack on something. If I can¡¯t always count on reinforcements from point A, point B needs to be only to replenish the fleet.¡±


    Daron looked thoughtful for a minute while giving a critical eye to the airman. ¡°Include your analysis, we set up our own forward operating bases when we go to war, I don¡¯t see why an alien civilization would do things any differently.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±


    May 20, 2009 - Titan - Saturn - Sol System, Milky Way


    The sprawling complex on the surface of the moon spluttered to life as the structure powered up. Small craft lifted off from the surface and flew toward the planet, skimming through the atmosphere before returning to the moon to land in berths that appeared to be made specifically for that craft to land in. Other small craft lifted off and and headed for the Kuiper belt or turned inward toward the asteroid belt.


    As the larger craft began to arrive and land on the moon, the complex started to take a more defined shape. The satellite humming away taking pictures showed a pair of clear docking areas for large or small craft and a building that was generating a huge amount of electromagnetic radiation that must have been the power plant. A small swarm of ships were working on constructing something above the base with a purpose as yet unknown.

 Chapter Eight

    July 26, 2009 - International Space Station - Earth - Sol System, Milky Way


    The crew of the ISS were busy with their daily tasks when a warning siren blared to life. The crew scrambled to their assigned stations to see what was the problem.  A Russian Cosmonaut was looking at the radar telemetry station when his eyes widened in horror.


    ¡°Tracking an inbound object on a direct impact trajectory. Size of the object appears to be 3 meters in diameter.¡± His face held an expression of horror. ¡°It¡¯s going to tear through the center of the station.¡±


    ¡°How long do we have to evacuate?¡± a Japanese scientist asked.


    The Russian looked over the data and the color visibly drained from his face. He somberly turned toward his fellow crew and uttered ¡°It has been an honor serving wi-¡±


    The space station erupted in a nuclear fireball as the alien missile impacted the Zvezda Service module sending burning chunks down into the atmosphere.


    July 26, 2009 - The Facility - K?ro?lu Mountain Range - Bolu Province, Turkey


    ¡°Ma¡¯am an air burst explosion was just reported over Africa and NASA is reporting the ISS has just gone dark.¡±


    MacKenna frowned at the view screens. ¡°So it finally begins. Did we detect anything leading up to the impact?¡±


    ¡°No Ma¡¯am,¡± replied a radar technician. ¡°No monitoring station or space agency reported has anything either, at least not on any official channel we¡¯re part of.¡±


    ¡°Issue a recall of any personnel currently on leave, assuming they aren¡¯t already on their way here. Patch me through to Port-aux-Fran?ais.¡± She drummed her fingers on the console by her chair while she waited.


    ¡°Port-aux-Fran?ais here. We¡¯re seeing the news right now if you¡¯re calling about the loss of the ISS.¡± Dr. Guirade said as his image appeared on one of the screens. ¡°French news stations are calling it a freak accident, and I presume the rest of the world is reporting something similar.  We¡¯re fairly certain it was an attack.  I¡¯m not sure how I feel about this finally happening. It¡¯s been nearly twenty years. On one hand the waiting is finally over. On the other hand, we¡¯re realistically no closer to being prepared than we were on day one of the Project.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s to stop them from attacking the rest of Earth like they just did with the ISS?¡± he continued. ¡°Unless we¡¯ve greatly overestimated their level of technology, they could destroy us and there isn¡¯t anything we could do.¡±


    MacKenna sighed at this old argument. ¡°We¡¯ve been over this before. They¡¯re probably after resources and we¡¯re just in the way.¡± She paused with a thoughtful expression on her face, ¡°Or we¡¯re the resource.  We simply won¡¯t know until their fleet shows up on our doorstep.  We¡¯ve not detected anything larger than those small craft in the asteroid belt leaving Titan yet, but we didn¡¯t detect the first ship back in ninety-two until it was burning through out atmosphere.  I don¡¯t know if their warships just have better technology to avoid radar returns or something more exotic is preventing us from detecting anything, but we¡¯ll have to wait and see.  Keep us updated, MacKenna out.¡±


    August 1, 2009 - The Facility - K?ro?lu Mountain Range - Bolu Province, TurkeyStolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    The base alarm system started blaring out Alarm Red as the command room launched into action. The communications officer responsible for the hitting the alarm reached over and hit the button for the base intercom. ¡°Alarm Red.  Radar Contact within Atlantic Theater of operations. Alarm Red.¡±


    MacKenna reached for her phone, hit a few buttons and waited on the line, before a voice acknowledge the call.


    ¡°Get planes in the air and have the NPS Freedom on stand-by. Get two teams prepped and ready for insertion if we manage to bring it down. Have the NPS Hercules on stand-by for a potential water recovery.  Have the Hercules ready for salvage recovery either way. We might be putting that modified container ship to use.¡± She couldn¡¯t keep the excitement out of her voice. Seventeen years of preparing, training, and building up the assets necessary for this one pivotal moment. She got up and left her office heading for the command center.


    August 1, 2009 - Flight Control Tower - NPS Viraat - North Atlantic Ocean


    ¡°Our birds are in the air. Flight is en-route to target, ETA 11 minutes.  Bogey is moving at roughly Mach 3 and on an intercept vector with the flight.  That thing is fast, sir, faster than our boys can fly.¡±


    ¡°Has the target change course since it came through the atmosphere?¡±


    ¡°Yes sir, when we launched our fighters, the target veered from it¡¯s original course and moved to intercept.  It¡¯s pretty agile, sir. It will be in missile range in eleven minutes.  Can I voice a suggestion, sir?¡±


    ¡°Go ahead Seaman.¡±


    ¡°We might want to talk to the R&D folks back at The Facility and see if they can modify some SR-71 Blackbirds to be combat capable.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a good idea. If this is indicative of their usual flight speed, we don¡¯t have anything else that can match it.¡±


    ¡°Aircraft are entering engagement range sir.  Communications, do you have the radio feed?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, want it on the control room intercom?¡±


    ¡°No, just relay anything important to the Captain.  Commander, they¡¯ve loosed their sidewinders.  ETA to target twenty seconds.¡±


    The Commander and the Seaman watched the computer readout that was giving nearly real time data. The icons for the four missiles in flight were closing in on the UFO. Two missiles appeared to have missed the target and detonated behind the craft, while two appeared to be direct hits.  The icon was still there since as far as anybody knew they weren¡¯t using any kind of IFF system. The seaman turned to the radio operator.


    ¡°What are they saying? Was the target destroyed?¡±


    ¡°Negative, two direct hits, one partial deflection that appeared to stagger the aircraft with out knocking it out of position, one miss. Pilots are loosing their AMRAAMs at short range before engaging with the vulcans.¡±


    They all watched as the second salvo of missiles streak across the short distance of only a few miles before they all impacted successfully.


    ¡°Pilots report target is going down. Repeat Target is crashing.¡±


    The Commander reached for a red phone nearby, ¡°Where¡¯s the landing, sea or land?¡±


    The radar tech did some calculations before responding, ¡°At it¡¯s current rate of descent, it¡¯s going to impact somewhere in Newfoundland, Canada.¡±


    The commander reached for the phone to contact the Freedom when the radio operator spoke up.


    ¡°Sir! The craft launched a pair of missiles from rear launch tubes on it¡¯s way down. Sir, we¡¯ve lost our birds in the air.¡±


    ¡°Confirm, both birds are grey.¡± Said the radar tech.


    The Commander swore under his breath before picking up the phone. ¡°NPS Freedom? Get the ground team ready. We¡¯ve lost our boys. If anything survives that crash, give them hell.¡±

 Chapter Nine

    02:01AM August 2, 2009 - 3km above Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada


    ¡°Approaching target, ETA twenty minutes,¡± came the crackle over the headset of each member of the drop team.


    Staff Sergeant Alastr¨ªona Mac Cormaic double checked the straps on her parachute amid the green glow of the night operations lights and noted the rest of her team was doing the same. Everybody had been constantly rechecking their equipment since they left the NPS Freedom, evidence that the entire squad was feeling a little nervous about the operation.  For six years her team had been training, drilling, and preparing for this, but everybody remembered the history lesson that was taught before training began. The story of the incident in the Kentucky backwoods, where a crack special forces team was obliterated by a single alien was constantly brought up during training to keep the elite of the elite from ever forgetting that the best the world had to offer at the time had already been defeated.


    She keyed up her mic to go over the plan one more time, ¡°Alright listen up, this will be the last time we go over this before go time.  We¡¯ll be parachuting in one click north of the crash site which is going to put us close to the western edge of the town of Badger.  I seriously doubt the town slept away the crash, so be prepared for civilians both in the town and near the crash site. Canada has fairly stringent firearms laws so we shouldn¡¯t have to deal with an armed mob if things have already turned deadly.¡±


    ¡°The craft that crashed is roughly the size of a small yacht, so if we¡¯re dealing with things the size of a human we could be expecting as many as ten hostiles. Initial satellite images show the craft to be mostly intact, but what we¡¯re calling the ¡®engine section¡¯ is a pretty twisted wreck. Command thinks one of the missiles got lucky and hit a power source of some sort. A crash of this magnitude would have disintegrated any of our aircraft, so we don¡¯t know the condition of the crew. They could be all dead, or all alive.¡±


    ¡°Load up subsonic and keep your suppressors on until otherwise told to swap. Harrison and Lane, find a spot with a good view on the way down and set up for precision cover fire. The area is lightly forested so hopefully gunfire is kept at a minimum and you have good line of sight.  We¡¯ll stick to night vision goggles, hopefully if there¡¯s a fire down there it works to our advantage, but since we don¡¯t know anything about these alien¡¯s physiology I could be wrong.¡±


    Lane chuckled at her, ¡°Look at the Sergeant using the big words.¡± Everybody laughed and the tension eased from the group. ¡°We¡¯ll keep an eye on ¡®ya Alex, don¡¯t you worry your head about it, we know our roles and now we¡¯re going to put them to use for something besides training.¡± There was a hunger in his eyes reflected by the rest of the squad.


    ¡°Alright liven up, it¡¯s about to be go time,¡± she shouted over the sudden wind as the rear ramp began to lower.  The light flicked to amber and everybody stood up and faced the rear, tension starting to build up again. The light flicked to green and the soldiers practically flew down the ramp, jumping into the night.


    02:21AM August 2, 2009 - 1.5km West of Badger, Newfoundland - Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada


    At six hundred feet twelve parachutes snapped open with a crisp thwack and a rough jerk for each individual tethered to one. Thirty seconds later the squad was on the ground and pulling the clutch to cut-away the chutes. Quickly the twelve person team regrouped and made ready to move out. Alex glanced at each member of her team making sure everybody was wearing their night vision before setting out to the south.  The orange glow of a large fire could be seen in the distance but didn¡¯t look bright enough to be a fully-fledged forest fire. Harrison and Lane broke away to the west as the rest of the team continued toward the objective.


    At half a kilometer from the target, Alex pulsed her infrared illuminator to signal a halt to the team.  Pushing her goggles up, she swapped to a pair of IR binoculars and scanned beyond the end of the tree line.  What she saw momentarily took her breath away. A small group of humans were surrounded by half a dozen things.


    They were bipedal but that was were most of the similarities ended. The bodies appeared to be covered in some kind of chitin and the legs were digitgrade in function, each ending in a foot with two forward toe-like claws and a rear spur. Two spindly arms sprouted from the torso that ended in large hands comprised of two large fingers and a thumb. The head was the most disturbing thing about them. Two large bulbous eyes made up the majority of the face with no apparent nose or ears. The mouth had the shape of a hagfish with the teeth of a leatherback sea turtle rolled into one horrifying package. All of the abomination-creatures were armed with something that resembled the shape of a rifle, but that¡¯s where the similarities ended, and the distance was too great to make out any details beyond trigger and barrel.


    They seemed to be waiting on something while they milled around keeping an eye on the humans in the middle. It was unclear if any of them were injured because of how alien the anatomy was but Alex did notice one appeared to limp every time it turned around to scan the tree line.  Another one held some kind of device up to its mouth and she assumed it was speaking into it, as the creature¡¯s mouth was moving.


    She stowed her binoculars and pulled her goggles back down before turning to her squad and triggering her throat mic. ¡°It looks like some locals got curious and are now under guard. I count six hostiles, all armed with¡­ something, and one that might be in possession of a communication device.  They¡¯re some ugly motherfuckers so don¡¯t freeze up when we engage.  Priority one is eliminating the aliens, priority two is rescue of the civilians. I know this doesn¡¯t sit well with any of us, but our mission isn¡¯t regular military and the civilians are acceptable collateral damage. But so help me if any of you shoot one, I¡¯ll put a bullet in you myself. They¡¯re still people.¡± Everybody grumbled at the reminder. Nobody in The Project liked that standing order, or if they did, nobody voiced it.  The reality was any survivors would be evacuated along with the squad and probably wouldn¡¯t be returned to the regular population for quite a while.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.??¡°All right. Tree line ends in a hundred meters. When we reach the line, form into fire lines and give ¡®em hell. They look to be insectile so aim for the eyes. Ready? Move out.¡± The soldiers crept through the remaining underbrush toward the end of the tree line when one member stepped on an innocuous twig, no bigger than a pencil. The snap was barely heard by the squad, but the reaction from the aliens was nearly instant. All six turned toward the tree line with weapons raised and took a lowered position, putting the civilians between themselves and the trees.


    ¡°Shit¡± a soldier at the far end of the line said aloud, and instantly all six alien weapons were trained on his location and discharged without warning. Plumes of fire erupted from the end of each weapon, and the soldier was engulfed in a fireball as each projectile impacted at the sane moment, burning away large chunks of his body as he collapsed to the ground, dead. Alex had a brief moment of shock at the raw savagery of the weapons before her training kicked in and she screamed ¡°WEAPONS FREE!¡±


    The staccato puffs from each rifle filled the night as lead found their marks against the enemy combatants. One fell, screaming a most unholy sound as both eyes ruptured into a putrid looking slime. Others took hits to the body, but the subsonic rounds failed to penetrate the alien¡¯s chitin.  One alien pulled the screaming causality behind the group of humans as they all crouched low, their heads intermixed with the civilians.


    ¡°Fuck, take cover. Their weapons must not be capable of rapidly firing,¡± Alex shouted as she dove behind a tree. Keying up her mic so she knew everybody could hear her, ¡°I don¡¯t think their eyesight is all that great despite the size of those eyes, but their hearing appears to be insane. The one we shot in the eyes is also still alive based on the screaming, so I¡¯m guessing that eyes aren¡¯t a vital spot.  If they don¡¯t come up from behind those civilians we¡¯re going to have one hell of a problem on our hands.¡±


    ¡°We have a shot on one of them,¡± Lane¡¯s voice came over her ear piece. ¡°If the eyes aren¡¯t a weak spot, we could put a round through its neck and see what happens.¡± Alex mulled it over for only a moment before responding in the affirmative.


    The neck of an alien at the edge of the group exploded as chitin was sprayed toward the crashed ship, a sharp report followed a moment later. The alien let out a blood curdling shriek, dropping its weapon and falling to the ground clutching its neck. Mercifully the sound ended a few moments later and the aliens begin a frenzied conversation among themselves. After a moment, one of the creatures stood up, pointed its weapon at a civilian in the small crowd, and pulled the trigger.  The head of the man disappeared in a cloud of blood and brain matter. Without missing a beat, the alien hunkered back down behind the rest of the group.


    ¡°FUCK!¡± Alex screamed. ¡°Hold fire, HOLD FIRE.¡± She pulled the cover off her wrist mounted palm top and fed her radio through it. ¡°Project Command, this is Kestrel Actual. We¡¯ve engaged the hostile force and have taken out one combatant. Hostiles have a captured group of civilians and have just executed one. They¡¯re using them as human shields. Please Advise, over.¡± She spared a glance around the tree to keep an eye on the situation. After a few moments her radio crackled. ¡°Gimme the damn radio if you won¡¯t relay the order. Kestrel Actual this is General MacKenna.  Termination is top priority. Human casualties are at an acceptable minimum. None of the aliens survive, you hear me? Take whatever necessary actions are required to meet that outcome. MacKenna out.¡±


    The color drained from Alex¡¯s face as she listened to the order she¡¯d just been given. It went against everything she had trained for in her regular service as well as what she thought she was fighting for with The Project. Biting her lip while she decided on what the right course of action would be she finally reached her decision. ¡°Sanders. Deploy the RPG-7.¡±


    ¡°Excuse me but what the fuck ma¡¯am. Did I hear you correctly? You want me to fire a rocket at them? That will kill all the civilians at minimum. Ma¡¯am I¡¯m sorry but that isn¡¯t a lawful order and I refuse to follow it.¡± Alex gave a look toward Sanders before motioning to him. ¡°We¡¯re not under any national command, there is no such thing as a lawful or unlawful order. Gimme the damn thing I¡¯ll do it.¡±  Sanders wordlessly passed over the RPG and a rocket.


    Alex fit the system together and took aim from around the tree bend. ¡°I¡¯m going to hell for this,¡± she muttered before pulling the trigger. The rocket sped across the four hundred meter distance and impacted in the middle of the clustered group. Viscera, chitin, and other bits scattered around the area as a plume of fire and smoke rose from the ground. Nothing was left upright at the impact zone. As she peeked around the corner again, she couldn¡¯t help but notice the expressions of horror peeking around the night vision goggles her squad wore.


    The carnage was absolute, and nothing large enough to immediately identify at her range could be seen.  She started to wave everybody forward when a screech of metal on metal could be heard and a section of wall partially buried in the earth started to slide away, revealing another pair of aliens, but this time unarmed.  Immediately they started animatedly talking to themselves before depressing a switch on the wall. The door started to close again but jammed and refused to finish cycling.


    Swearing to herself, Alex motioned for everybody to circle around and approach the craft from what she hoped was a blindside from the doorway. Keying her mic she asked, ¡°Lane, can you see the door from your position?¡± It took a moment to receive a reply, ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am. We can see everything from here.¡± Shaking her head she simply said ¡°Cover us,¡± and took off to lead the way around the craft.

 Authors Interlude

    As is evident, I haven''t posted a chapter in many months.  I wanted to address this. I haven''t abandoned this project of mine, but I haven''t had motivation to write in a while.  The current chapter is half done and I felt lost in the weeds on where I wanted to go, so I put it down to think on it.  Procrastination being what it is, and life in general not being full of motivators, it''s sat and stagnated.  I''m not going to return to writing any time soon, but I hope to continue the story after the summer heat gives way to fall in my area.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    See you fine folks in a few months.