Aliens are back

Chapter 1

‘Are they back again?’

‘No Sir. It’s just some explosions to the south’

General Hertz sat back in his chair, relieved at the thought that no attack was imminent but for how long was that going to last for? Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he silently prayed to himself for the relief that he was promised would arrive. That was a few hours ago and so far, no one had turned up. Not one solitary person.

He looked around at everyone in the room. Tired, they all were, gaunt as well; not having ate anything for the past day now. Covered in red dust, with darkened streaks where tears had rolled down but were now long dried. Hardened soldiers they were but he didn’t blame them for the tears, he’s cried enough for all of them himself.

It was just a few days ago when the first attack began. Ships as black as a starless night arrived and floated in the sky, hovering silently above as cities rejoiced. Scientists and politicians taking the credit for the arrival of the visitors as they recalled the many attempts to make contact with others, just to answer the question: ‘Are we alone out there?’

It was just over 6000 years ago when their first satellite left their solar system. Packed full of information about their home planet, where they were in the universe, detailed anatomical drawings of themselves, along with music, writings, etc. Was that satellite anything to do with this? Did they invite these invaders? Why didn’t we go out and pick that thing up? Stupid idea sending that thing out.

Ah well, if there was one good thing that came out of this, it was that most politicians were dead. Killed instantly when the ships started a choreographed bombardment all the world’s parliaments. At least, he didn’t need to listen to them anymore, but he did need to listen to his superior officers, if any survived and for news as to what’s going on.

Standing up, he walked over to the hole in the wall where a window used to be. Some officers tried to move him away from it in case a sniper was trained on it but he brushed them away. He no longer cared about any possible sniper, even if the aliens thought that way, he doubted they had any. They were probably in their ships, having parties about how easy that this planets inhabitants were in being defeated, hey maybe they were drunk. He smirked to himself that now was probably the best time to counter attack, if he had anything to counter attack with.

Looking out of the hole in the wall, he stared at the dark sky, not exactly sure if it really was dark or if it was daylight. It had been dark since the attack first began, the only light available provided from the fires that were slowly burning out. Probably the dust that was kicked up in that attack was still floating in the air, blocking out the sun, he thought. He wasn’t sure though, a good soldier he was but also a lousy scientist.

Why hadn’t they attacked again? That confused him! These aliens, whoever they were launched a massive initial attack and then stopped and nothing since. Perhaps they knew they had won and this was them playing with him. Oh, he didn’t doubt for a moment that they knew he was there, they were just waiting but on what?

He remembered a book written a long time ago about an alien invasion were the aliens suddenly died thanks to some germ, perhaps this is what has happened here. Maybe they stopped because they are all dead. Oh how he wanted to believe that but he didn’t. If they were dead he thought; why have their ships not crashed? Then again, if they are that advanced, they’ve probably already thought about it. Perhaps that dam satellite that scientists and politicians delighted in sending up all those years ago told them what to expect and they were prepared for it. Whose bright idea was it to send that thing up in the first place?

‘Sir, we getting a signal?’

General Hertz turned to the speaker, sergeant what’s her name…. He couldn’t remember anymore as he had so many sergeants over the past few days, he gave up on their names and just called people by their ranks.

‘Are you sure?’ he turned, surprised at what he just heard. Perhaps it’s the relief he was promised. ‘Who is the signal from sergeant?’

‘It’s from us sir, a light from over that hill flashing Morse code. I remember it from the academy’ the sergeant replied, pointing to the hill in the distance.

General Hertz squinted in the direction that his sergeant pointed but couldn’t see anything. ‘Where’re the binoculars’ he shouted and the rest of the officers in the small room looked around for them, with one shouting when he found a pair, covered in dust and cracks in both lenses. They would have to do.

General Hertz looked through them and found the light through the distorted lenses. It’s definitely artificial he thought. He couldn’t understand what it meant however; he was never interested in learning about such forms of communication, why bother as they could communicate via video at the touch of a button! He now realised that that was a mistake. For a student of history, it was a galling mistake but one that he would rectify but that didn’t help at this moment in time.

‘Do you understand what they are saying sergeant?’

‘No sir’

‘Well, try and find someone who does’

‘Yes sir’

The sergeant turned and started talking to the other officers, followed by all of them shaking their heads, and turning to leave and try to find someone out there who understood Morse code, leaving General Hertz in the room all by himself

He suddenly felt strange but realised quickly why. Silence! He had almost forgotten what it sounded like. Sticking his head out of the hole, he felt the cold hit his face from a strong wind. ‘God, it was cold’ he thought, much colder than usual as it felt more like winter than summer. Just last week, he was on the beach, swimming in the ocean playing with his grandchildren. It wouldn’t surprise him if that beach was now rock hard, under a sheet of ice.

Thinking of his family made him stand up straight. He didn’t know of they were still alive or dead but whatever they were, he would fight. Fight to save them or fight to revenge their deaths, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was going to kill as many of them as possible.

Suddenly he smiled. Thinking about revenge reminded him of that old saying: ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold’ He looked out of the hole in the wall at one of the black ships in the sky, grinned manically and spoke out loud: ‘Yes, revenge is a dish best served cold and for you lot, it is going to be absolute zero.

General Hertz turned and looked around at his command headquarters, well, what was left of it. The light from a small fire built in a corner providing the only light in the room. Dark, dirty, broken equipment, glass strewn across the floor, dust everywhere, he realised that he had just got used to the mess, as it no longer bothered him. Too many dead bodies to care about anything anymore as he walked away from the hole, kicking the larger pieces of glass away as the smaller bits quietly crunched under his feet.

‘Sergeant’ he shouted but there was no reply. He walked over to the old wooden door, yanked it open and looked down the hallway but it was quiet, eerily quiet as once again, the realisation hit him as to how many people had been killed in the initial attack. He had just sent out the only people he had seen in the last two days to look for someone who knew Morse code. Not many people knew Morse code at the best of times, what chance did they have of finding someone who knew it now.

At least, there were others who were still alive. The person with the torch, whoever that was, was one of them, and if someone ordered them to send a signal, then others were also alive. Then again, it could be a trick from the Aliens, whoever they were. Nothing electrical had worked since the attack so how did whoever it was send a signal? It could be the aliens.

That was the real problem, through, wasn’t it? He thought. How exactly do you fight Aliens? It was bad enough fighting an enemy that consisted of humans but how exactly do you fight an enemy that you don’t even know looks like. Hell, until a few days ago, you didn’t even know if there was intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. It was always possible after the discovery of complex life on Europa 5000 years ago but still, a life form with spaceships? That was new, and so is trying to figure out how to fight them.

‘Fuck!’ he shouted, kicking a chair that hit another chair and landed on its side. Too many questions, not enough answers. Why hadn’t the scouts he sent out returned yet? Are the aliens prowling the streets picking of humans? Is that why they have gone silent? How…

‘FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!’ he shouted, his voice rising with each word, kicking the remaining chair that stood upright, sending it crashing against a wall, breaking one of the legs of. More fucking questions and still no fucking answers. ‘I NEED ANSWERS’

He began to think again about the torch. No, it had to be humans sending the signal. Morse code was only used in Earth’s past, and was consigned to the history books. If the Aliens had researched humans before the attack, it is unlikely they had heard of, never mind considered using something as archaic as Morse code. Didn’t put that on the satellite, did we? What was the name of that satellite? He suddenly laughed out loud at the thought that it he wouldn’t have considered using Morse code either and he was human.

Finally, he heard some noises from the hallway as he turned and looked out the open doorway. ‘Dam’ he thought, ‘I didn’t realise I had left that door open, must be getting tired.’ He pulled out his handgun instinctively and pointed at the doorway, only to jerk it backwards when his sergeant walked in and raised her hands.

‘Dam it Sergeant’ he bellowed. ‘Next time, give me some warning that it was you coming’

‘Sorry Sir’ she replied.

‘Well?’

‘Nobody on base knows about Morse code sir. Some of them hadn’t even heard of it’

‘How many people did you speak to?’

‘I spoke to 9 people sir. The others haven’t come back yet, maybe they will get lucky and find someone’

‘Yeah, maybe’ he replied. He was expecting that answer but not the answer that at least 9 had survived. At least that was some good news, as he wasn’t expecting that much.

‘How many of them are from this city sergeant?’ he asked.

‘No idea sir.’ I could find out.

‘Wait until the others return, maybe we will strike it lucky and find someone, we bloody well need some after what’s happened recently’

‘Yes Sir’ came her reply.

‘Sit down sergeant. We’ll wait. Those bastards up in those ships aren’t doing anything yet. Probably in shock at how easy it was to kick our arses. We’ll use that time to figure out what the signal is, or how we can find out. Maybe someone somewhere has figured out how to fight them, cause if they haven’t, we’re fucked’