Aftermath

Aftermath

         When Chris got back to the planet, he was greeted with a heros welcome.  There was a parade and a plantet wide celebration in what remainded of the cities.  The bombings had destroyed most of the planets cities but the Vus Tang were able to force the Yackvar into retreat, that is how Chris was able to get to the Yackvar planet.  The people who survived had hidden in the bomb shelters under the towering cities and because of this, there were very few casulties compared to what could have been if action wasn't taken quickly.  Some cities that had towerd out of sight had been flattend to their lowest levels but most had taken little damage since the Yackvar didn't have time to glass the planet.  Capital city was the largest and most important location on the planet because all of the government officals lived there and that was where most of the buisness had to go through.  Most people found it strange that the bombers had done little to it, although they were able to take down the top three levels before they were chased off.
Chris was given a large home on the top of the city where only the rich or important had residence.  The levels were rebuilt in a matter of weeks and Chris was able to move in within two days of the completion.  It was a somewhat quiet two months, until the day a soldier came to his door.  Chirs had just sat down to eat his lunch when the doorbell rang and echoed in the marble foyer.  His steps echoed was he walked to the tall, bronze doors that were heavy to open.  On the other side stood a tall, silver skinned figure dressed in military fatigues.
"Sir, your presence has been called for at the temple." he said.
"Yeah, sure.  Let me get my boots first and change into my..."
"That wont be needed, you will have time to change on your way to the drop zone."
"Drop zone?" Chris was startled "Is the planet under attack?"
"No sir but we must leave now, I feel that I have said too much already."
         Chris put his boots on and stepped out into the warm sun and looked around to see a jeep sitting at the front of his house.  The soldier was already sitting in the drivers seat and when he saw Chris come out, he pressed his finger onto the ignition and it started up.  Chris got in and they took off away from the saftey of his home and down the ramp twoards the fifteenth level where Chris got out.  The soldier asked "Do you know where to go?"
"Yes, thank you." Chris said.  The soldier drove off and Chris walked into the white, domed building.  The reseptionist gretted him at the door and told him that the meeting was being held in the main room that was down the hall and behind the main door.  He walked down the white hall with blue lights and a red rug woundering what was going on.  When he reached the door he opend it and walked into the circular room.  There were rows of seats going up six levels, with one row a piece, that were mostly full.  Chris chose a seat next to a general he knew from the parade and waited for a few moments when a figure, who was tall even for a Vus Tang, walked out of a door on one side.
"I see you have all made it.  Good, now we can begin." he started. "You have all been called here because we have been wrong about something.  After the Battle of Yackvar we thought that our forces had destroyed the remaining Yackvar fleet on their planet.  Current jump records show that there have been many large objects going to the planet and leaving abruptly.  Our intelligence has show that they had spent enough time there to see that the planet had been blockaided and the Yackvar taken off the planet.  But the news that startles me the most is that there have been a few jumps ending near Earth."
Chris' heart skipped a beat and his stomach dropped out.
"How do we know if it is even the Yackvar?" one man stood up and said.  "Our recon ships don't patrol that area because of all the space activity."
"But what else could it be?" another said.
"We need to take action now before another planet is lost along with billions of lives!"
Someone yelled out "But what if is nothing.  Should we risk revealing our presence too soon!"
"It is not our choice." another man said as he stood up.  He comanded the attention of everyone and the arguments stopped of a moment.  "It is our military leaders, Chris."
He motioned to Chris who was sitting, taking it all in.  His home might be attacked and everyone he knew killed if he didn't do anything, but if he did and there was no threat, then the entire world would be alearted to the presence of other beings in the universe.  It would cause mass histeria.
Chris stood up and looked around.  "We have to ask ourselves if we are willing to put the lives of many at risk by not acting.  If there is a threat and we wait, there will be certin death due to our lack of action.  Even if there is no threat..." Chris took a breath "even if there is no threat, we have to show ourselves sometime.  Why not now?  The planet is dying and so are the people."
"But they are the ones killing themselves." someone protested "Why should we give them shelter and find them a new home if they are going to destroy it like they are Earth?"
"But does the ignorance of a few in power mean that the ones who want to help should be forced to die as well?  Is that a fair punishment; guilty be association?" Chris was getting angry.  He had always been one for an argument.  "I lived there and I know who things work.  The government dosn't give a damn about the Earth or nature but there are millions who do.  Millions who care about where they live.  It's the ones in power keeping them from the attention of other planets."
"Agreed." said the figure at the front.  "We will take a vote."
A few moments later, it was decided my an overwheling majority to act on the situation.  The plan was to take cruisers loaded with landing craft to Earth space.  From there, the landing craft would land in large cities on Earth to pick up survivors.  They would be shuttled to the cruisers and dropped off, allowing the landing craft to go back for more.  The entire time there would be fighters keeping the Yackvar busy and away from the landing craft.  When the planet was evacuated the Yackvar ship would be destroyed and the Vus Tang would jump back to their own planet.  What they didn't know was that it sounded alot easyer than it would be.

The cruisers they borded reminded Chris of the battleships he saw on Earth.  They were long and gray, nearly ten times the size of a battleship, they had a flat top with the command bridge near the back.  Chris was to lead a team through a city and search for survivors.  There would be about one-hundred and fifty other ships doing the same around the world as fighters kept the Yackvar fighters from firing at the landing craft.  They would be taking fifteen cruisers loaded with one-hundred landing craft and fifty fighters each.  When they came out of the jump the ship jerked to a halt and Chris almost fell, he still wasn't use to the jumps.
"All landing crew, report to your ships.  Repeat, all landing crew report to your ships." the intercom blared.
Chris was already strapped into his ship along with the other four people who would be helping him gather survivors.  They were decked out in black battle suits and repeating rifles that fired lasers that could go through any unarmored foe.
"Are you guys ready?" the piolet called from the front of the ship.
"Yeah, let's go." Chris called back.
The piolet turnd to his controlles and they took off from the landing bay.  When they got upside Chris took a look around from the viewports on the side of the ship.  There was one Yackvar battleship orbiting Earth.  It was long, black, and menising.
"It will take some time to start glassing the planet." one of the soldiers next to him said. "They have to charge the weapons and since they have just broken out of their jump, they do not have the power right now.  Their ship looks rather damaged as well, their weapon systems might take a long time to recharge after each shot.  That gives us more time."
He was right, the ship did look like it had taken severe damage.  At that moment the shuttle shook and Chris almost fell off the bench.
They heard the piolet up front saying into the comlink "We are taking fire.  I need some of you to give me some cover, my weapons will have no effect on the class IVs."
There was a hiss of static then someone said "No problem.  Alpha squad following."
Three ships appeared next to their shuttle.  They were sleek with a silver paint job and a pair of laser cannons in the front.
"Piolet," the com said. "we are breaking off to engage.  Will you be able to make it?"
"I think so, thank you." the piolet said into the com.  He looked back and said "I am going to push the ship to the maximum speed, I hope you all feel lucky today."
The ship lurched as it enterd the atmosphere and the friction caused  a red glow to come through the viewports that bathed the shuttle in a blood red.  A few moments later the ship slowed as the landing gear opend up and the ship bounced a little as the landing gear set itself.
"Everybody out, I will hold my position here until you come back." the piolet said as he jumped out of the cockpit with a repeating rifle and swept the area.  "Clear."
They jumped out of the back of the shuttle and swept the area behind them.  It was clear so the team moved out down the street.  Chris was leading the team and when they rounded the corner he saw a group of Yackvar comming their way.  Chris spun around the corner and put his back to the wall.
"Your two," Chris pointed "go around the corner and take cover behind that car.  We'll give you cover."
The soldiers ran out, guns blazing, to the car.  They slid behind their cover and as the Yackvar were busy fireing at the two men behind the car, Chris wheeled around the corner and fired three shot burst at the group of enemys.  Two of them fell and the remaining three dived into a back alley.  Fire was still coming from the alley at the car but Chris and his partner couldn't see them.
"I have this one sir." he said.  The Vus Tang took an orange sized orb from his belt and ran behind the car.  While on one knee he lobbed it into the alley and ducked as an exploshion shook the ground and flunge concrete and brick out of the alley.  Chris came out from around the wall and met up with the rest of his team.
"I see you liked that sir." the one who threw the grenade said "Here take a few."  He handed Chris four of the orbs and he attached them to his belt that held things there magnetically.
"Thank you." Chris said.
"There is no need sir.  It is my pleasure."
They proceded farther into the city but more carefully this time.  Chris figured that the exploshion had probally gotten them some unwanted attention and that Yackvar would be swarming the area within minutes.  As they snuck down the middle of the street, a group of heavly armed Yackvar came around a corner about fifty yards away.  Chris tried to lead the team to the cover of an alley but when they reached the sidewalk one of the Vus Tang was shot in the ankle.  He fell to the ground but was able to crawl behind newspaper stand.  Chris knew he had to help the downed soldier soon or the Yackvar would get to him.  Fear rushed through Chris as he ran across the sidewalk and behind the stand but he knew he had to do it, this man would have done the same thing if Chris would have gotten shot.  Chris poked his head out and fired a burst at one of the Yackvar who hadn't taken cover, it would be the last mistake it ever made.  What happend next showed that Chris was one of the luckyist people in the world because the Yackvar he had shot was arming a grenade when he was killed.  It had rolled under the truck the others from his squad were hiding behind and detonated blowing the Yackvar apart.
"Clear." Chris yelled to his team who were giving him covering fire the whole time.  They came out and rushed over to their wounded comrade and administerd treatment to the wound in his ankle.
"He will be fine, the shot missed the bone.  The only problem is that we are out of medical supplys, we only brought enough to aid one." the one with the meds said.
"What were we going to do if there were wounded survivors?" Chris asked.
"We were supposed to take them to the cruisers and there they would be treated."
"Fine, let's just move out."
"Where to?"
"I figured that we should go to a place where people would gather during a time like this." Chris started "It isn't a good idea to roam the streets with all the enemys around.  I have a feeling that the people here would be hiding in the court house."
"Where ever you choose sir."
And with that they started off down the street and twoards the city center.  There were no more battles on the fifteen minute trip to the courthouse.  When they got there, the squad slowly went up the stairs, careful of enemys poping around corners.  Chris got to the door and reached for the handle, it was locked.  He pounded on the door, screaming to anyone inside that he was here ot help.  After a few minutes of yelling Chris sighed and started to walk away when the door creaked behind him.
"We wern't sure if we should have opend the door" a voice behind him said "but I see we made no mistake."
Chris turned around to see a tall, blond man standing in the doorway with a shotgun.  Behind him were people with rifles and handguns.
"Please sir, come in."

When they walked in they saw that the survivors had stockpiled guns, ammo, clothing, water, whatever they needed.
"What happend?" the man asked as they walked down the isle of the courtroom.  "One minute we were going about or day and the next... the next the sky turned dark and an enormous ship was over us."
They sat down and Chris explaned; "What happend was the Yackvar, an alian race, took their remaining military fleet and came to destroy your world.  Why we don't know but what we did was bring some of the Vus Tang fleet, the ones you see around you, to come and get you off the planet."
"Can't we destroy the Yackvar?" the man asked.
"No, they have the weapons to glass the planet." Chris said.
"Glass?"
"Oh yeah, sorry.  They have guns on the bottom of their cruisers that can drop large energy bombs onto the planet.  That raises the heat high enough to melt the dirt and sand to glass." Chris said.  At that moment Chris looked around to see the survivors standing around looking defensive.  It seemed to be that they were all looking at the Vus Tang with fear.  The man must have noticed because he said "Men, please relax.  These men aren't our enemys, they are here to help us."
They relaxed a bit and went back to their work.
"Thank you."  Chris said.  "Look, we need to get you all out of here.  How many are there?"
"About sixty, sixty-seven."
"Okay, if we hurry we can get you all out of here."
"How far?"
"About twenty minutes."
"How many will we have to fight?"
"Not sure.  We took out a few so they might be patrolling more heavely but you seem well enough armed to do fine."
"I'm not sure.  We have wounded, we might not have enough ammo.  What if someone dies, what then?"
"If you want to save these people, you'll have to be willing to take that chance.  Do you want to risk the lives of a few or stay here and have no hope.  If you don't leave now, the Yackvar will desimate the planet and you with them."
"Fine.  Men, get the wounded together, collect ammo, carry only what you need, we leave in fifteen."
The men around the court ran around trying to get their things together.  Chris and his men walked around and discussed what they would do.
"The Yackvar will take their forces out of an area they are about to bomb.  If we do not run into any resistance... then we will have no time to escape." one of them told Chris.
"We have to make it, there's no other option."
"We will be behind you the whole way sir." and with that, Chris left the group and went to the area where the wounded were at.  They were all in pretty bad shape, most had taken wounds from Yackvar fire but some had fragmentation wounds.  They were all laying on benches and were coverd in bandages and blankets.  As Chris was walking down a row, someone grabbed his leg.  He looked down to see an old man whos hair had grayed in age looking up at him with eyes sunk into a wrinkled head.
"Please help me.  It hurts to breath." the man said slowly, gasping for air.  Chris got down on one knee and moved the blanket.  Under it was the mans torso wrapped entirley in bandages that were stained red with blood.
"When I was running, one of those things threw an explosive and it blew chunks of sidewalk all over.  I was knocked over and when I looked at myself I could see that a piece hit me in the chest.  Son-of-a-bitch must have broken my ribs.  If it wern't for someone picking me up and bringing me here... well, I would have died." the man said between gasps.
"I'm not sure if I can do anything." Chris said as he rested his hand lightly on the mans wounds.  The old man winced and gasped and when Chris looked down he could see that his hand was glowing blue.  After another gasp the old man sat up.
"Boy, I don't know how you did it but I feel good enough to kill the bastard who did this to me." the man said.  When he tried to stand though, he almost fell over and he had to use the benches in front of him for support.  Quickly after seeing the miricale that had occured, the other wounded started trying to get the attention of Chris.  Seeing that he could do something for these people, Chris went to the next person and aided him, then the next, then the next.  Chris went on for twenty minutes finding out what was wrong then healing it.  Laser wounds, shrappnel, broken leg, whatever had happend, Chris was able to administer a remidy.  After everyone was helped, Chris stood looking at them all, making sure he didn't miss anyone.  The man who let them in came up to him and put his hand on Chrises sholder.
"It's great what you've done but there's only one problem.  We don't have the weapons to arm these people, we barley hade enough to arm the able-bodied." he said.
"Put them in the middle.  We'll have one group in the front, my men, half of the armed survivors, and I.  Take the rest of the armed people and put them in back.  We'll put all unarmed in the middle to keep them out of harms way." Chris answerd.
"Sounds good.  We'll be ready in five minutes so meet us at the door." he said and started to walk away.  He turned around and said "Sorry, I never introduced myself.  My name is Tony, I worked at this courthouse before, well... you know."
"The name's Chris.  I worked at a factory untill I was taken and told I was supposed to free the Vus Tang from the Yackvar, the ones running around trying to kill you."
"Well then..." Tony said, taking in what Chris just told him "nice to meet you.  Thank you for saving our lives."

When they left the building, they left in silence.  Chris did't like the idea of a group this large going down the street but what other choice did they have?  It was a quiet walk, the city seemed suspended in time as if waiting for something, waiting for the inevitable.  As they snuck down the street, trying not to draw any attention, a shadow engulfed the buildings.  Chris looked up the see the Yackvar ship above them.
"Run, damn it, run!" Chris screamed.  They broke out into a dead sprint, forgetting to keep the unarmed in the middle, it didn't matter now.
"Can they see us?" Chris yelled at one of his men.
"What?"
"Can they see us?  Are they targeting us?"
"I do not know.  It does seem like they are waiting to get closer to us."
That's when it happend.  Chris heard whump and then smelled burning atmoshpere.  He didn't have time to yell, to warn the others, the blast came crashing to the ground somewhere behind them.  The shock wave knocked Chris to his knees and as he was down, a piece of comcrete hit him in the back.  He fell over and coughed up blood.  It was starting to get dark, all he could hear was air rushing past his ears but then he felt something pulling him up.  It started to lighten up and his hearing came back and when he turned around he saw Tony helping him to his feet.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Chris replied "How many dead?"
"Fifteen didn't get up.  Most are wounded but they can still walk."
"Alright, let's go." Chris yelled to the people.  He took aside one the the soldiers and told him "I want you to go ahead and tell the piolet to get ready for take-off."
"Yes sir." he said and ran down the street.
"Alright, let's move." he told the survivors.
They had to walk because some of the people had to be helped of carried.  It was a long, grouling, walk because they all knew what would happen if they didn't hurry.  Chris wasn't able to heal people because it would have taken too much time.  Where some had died, they left their things to lighten the load but it didn't do much.  Then it happend again, the whump, the atmosphere, but his time Chris reacted.  He ran behind the group and as the bomb hit Chris waved his hand in a huge arc.  The bomb hit anyway.  The ground shook,steel and concrete flew, but noone was injured.  When Chris waved his hand he had made a transparent, blue shield ten yards tall, twenty yards wide that saved their lives.  Everyone stood stairing in awe at what just happend.  When the smoke cleared a little a huge creater could be seen where a city block once was, the ground around it was scorched black.
"Move!" yelled Chris.
They turned the corner three minutes later and Chris was relived to see the shuttle, humming, waiting for its load.  But when they got closer he saw the body of the piolet laying in a pool of his own blood.
"Yackvar must have snuck up on him." Chris thought "They shot him a few times but he wasn't going out without a fight," Chris looked around to see where an exploshion went off "he tossed a grenade and took them out."
They ran to the shuttle and started getting people inside, trying to hurry because now they were sitting ducks.  When the ship was finally loaded, the Vus Tang jumped in.  Chris took one last look around at the dead city and then jumped in.

The trip off of the planet was as hard as it was getting in.  When they had gotten almost a mile off the surface, the Yackvar dropped another bomb that shook the ship even with it being that high off the planets surface.  They broke the atmoshpere and flew twoards their cruiser with abandon for everything around them.  Chris looked out of the viewport to see the battle still raging on.  A few of the Vus Tang cruisers had taken some damage but nothing serious.  On the other side, the Yackvar ship looked worse now that it did before; it was nearly engulfed in flame and the engines had been destroyed as the shuttle carrying Chris broke out of the atmoshpere.
When they landind inside the cruiser, everyone looked out of viewports, hanger forcefileds, whatever they could to see the battle.  The Yackvar ship had finally taken too much damage but instead of exploding it was sucked down by Earths gravity.  All along the crashing ship there were small exploshions and the front of the ship took on a red color as it came plumiting to the planet.  Them it happend.  The nose of the ship hit, taking out all of Europe in a storm of fire.
"Thirty seconds to jump." one of the Vus Tang crew yelled.
The ship rippled along its sides and the front of the ship was gone, but it kept comming.
"Are all our fighters in?" one of the crew yelled.
"Yeah, the last one just docked." someone replied.
"Then jump, before we get caught in the blast!"
The fire that ate away where the ship crashed spread across the planet.  Fissures and canyons formed that were miles wide, you could see the red glow of the Earths core emitting from the wounds.  As they entered the white of the jump, the last thing they saw of their homes was Earth expanding, contracting, and exploding, making a small star in the blackness of space.
All the cruisers had made the jump in time to outrun the destruction but everyone on board had seen what befell the planet.  Chris looked around to see some people crying, some vomiting, and some stuck in an open-mouthed stare out the windows.  He walked twoards the back of the hanger, passing the weeping, the sick, and the stupified.  When Chris reached the back he saw the captian of the ship leaning aginst the wall next to the door.  Chris had met him a few time before at banquits and meetings.
"What do we do now?" Chris asked in a somber tone.
"I do not know.  I suppose the counsile will figure something out."
"And if they don't?"
"They will.  There is an entire planet without a home, they will find something."
"The hope hasn't died." Chris said.  And with that he walked throught the door and to his room where he imeditally threw up.


The End