by Clayborn, JJ
Just then the Sergeant came sprinting back. “Colonel! The 20th is advancing. They are sending foot soldiers north through the woods along Tanglefoot Trail, vehicles are diverting further east to Central Avenue.”
“Understood, Order Alpha Team to set up a blockade, but not to engage, get my car ready.” The sergeant turned and ran off as Colonel Ryan addressed James. “Get your people ready to go. Drive your cars, especially this truck, over to the helicopters and talk to Lieutenant Vasquez.”
James nodded and the Colonel disappeared.
The Colonel sat in the front of a Humvee while Captain Thompson drove him toward the advancing troops. Colonel Ryan’s troops had set up a blockade and had taken up a position on the overpass along I-22. The 20th Special Forces Group was spilling out of the woods in front of them, both groups had weapons drawn on each other and confused shouting filled the air.
Captain Thompson drove to the top of the overpass to give the Colonel a better view. Colonel Ryan stepped out and produced a bull horn. “This is Colonel John E. Ryan, commanding officer of the 502nd Infantry Battalion, 101st Airborne. Tell your commanding officer to contact me on channel 8.”
After a moment the car’s radio burst to life. “Colonel Ryan, this is Lt. Colonel Nathanial Hill, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group. I must insist that you pull your men back and clear the way so that we can do our job.”
Colonel Ryan scoffed. “Your job, Hill? And what exactly is your job?”
“We have been activated by Governor Smith to track and engage a known terrorist unit in possession of a weapon of mass destruction. Our orders are to capture or eliminate by any means necessary for the sake of national security.”
“Terrorists? That’s what they’ve told you?” Colonel Ryan laughed.
“Those are my orders, Colonel. Move your men aside,” Hill demanded.
Col Ryan was not in the mood for his antics. “That’s how you want to play it, son? Sure, you’re Special Forces, but so are we. And we’ve been doing this game a lot longer than you have. I guarantee my boys have more experience and combat hours than yours. I suggest that you think twice about your position, soldier.”
“With all due respect, Colonel, my men will fight carry out their objective, with or without your help, by any means necessary.”
Colonel Ryan sighed. He nodded to Captain Thompson who stepped outside the car and started talking on a different channel. “Lt. Col. Hill, I must insistent that you stand down. The people you pursue are not terrorists. They are citizens of the United States and several of them are federal employees and law enforcement officers.”
“Many terrorists have been US citizens, Colonel,” Hill reasoned.
“Yes, but in this case they are not. They are trying to warn us of another threat, a more sinister threat. And from the sound of things, this is a threat that the Governor doesn’t want people to know about.”
“All the more reason to follow our orders,” Hill countered.
Colonel Ryan looked out and surveyed the bridge. His men were primed and in position, waiting for a signal or a threat. There wasn’t any hesitation – they would do their jobs if it came down to that. The Colonel nodded to himself. “Hill, you are mistaken. This is absolutely one threat that the entire world needs to know about. As of this moment, the entire group that you pursue is under the direct protection of the 101st Airborne. If you fire on us, you will be committing treason and be facing court-martial. You are more than welcome to try to take them, but you’ll have to go through us to do that.”
No sooner had Colonel Ryan finished speaking when four Apache helicopters approached from the north, hovering slightly behind the bridge, supporting Colonel Ryan’s position.
There was a long pause on the radio. Hill’s voice returned. “Very well, Colonel. I have no wish for bloodshed, especially those of our men. If you say that they are not terrorists, I have no reason to doubt you. The 101st would never knowingly endanger this country. My forces will stand down and…. Captain Jones? What are doing? Put that…” A loud single gunshot could be heard before the transmission cut out.
Colonel Ryan stared at the radio for a moment before the sound of gunfire brought him out of it. He jumped out of the car, but his men weren’t shooting. Running, he crouched low next to the overpass and stopped to peak his head over the side. The members of the 20th SFG were shooting at each other. Some of the men seemed resolute and invincible, the rest were scattering in every direction and chaos unfolded. Some of them ran towards the blockade. Ryan’s men challenged them, but the Colonel called them down. “Let them pass!”
From the south and east droves of people came slowly walking towards the Colonel’s position. They all walked with a slow, steady pace that reminded the Colonel of a March. And all of the civilians were armed.
“Colonel!” One of the troops on his right shouted. “Across the river!” The soldier ran up and handed a pair of binoculars to the Colonel, pointing where he should look.
Colonel Ryan raised the eyepiece to his face and scanned the horizon until he saw it. “Christ almighty.” A small army of shiny, metal robots was approaching along the interstate from the northwest. They walked with slow, methodical precision, just like the civilians below. Colonel Ryan started issuing orders. “Open fire! Fire on those soldiers and those civilians!”
For five solid minutes gunfire erupted from the bridge and the soldiers underneath it. The slow-walkers kept coming. Periodically one or two of them fell over and didn’t move. More often than not, one of them would fall over and start crawling forward.
The Apaches moved into position and started shooting at the robots. It was more effective than the soldiers weapons, but only slightly.
The encroaching army was about a quarter of a mile away now. Colonel Ryan made up his mind. He jumped on the radio. “Fall back, everyone fall back! Get the birds ready to fly!”
A rocket roared overhead. One of the Apaches fired on the bridge and the robot army crossing it. Many robots went flying in the explosion, but after hitting the ground, they simply stood up and kept coming.
A bright blue arc of something akin to lightning filled the air accompanied by a loud cracking sound. The first Apache went completely dead and fell surreally out of the sky in slow motion, slowed by its rotors. It crashed to the ground with a thud and the pilot crawled from the cockpit, running towards the James’ position.
Another Apache moved into place and it too was disabled by the blue lightning. It also crashed and the pilot managed to escape.
Colonel Ryan ordered the other Apaches off as the rest of his men piled into cars nearby and raced back to the airfield. About thirty men from the 20th SFG joined them, confused about exactly what had just happened.
Many of Hutchinson’s cars were abandoned and his men loaded into large military helicopters. The research truck was slung beneath a giant helicopter and lifted gently into the air. Hutchinson was called over to the Colonel’s helicopter and put inside with the command staff.
The helicopters lifted into the air and headed northeast, away from the robot army. Colonel Ryan stared out the window in disbelief. He had seen combat action in the Middle East, but nothing like this.
“This is far worse than I imagined,” Colonel Ryan said.
Tuesday, November 18th
James stared out of the window as the helicopter force retreated. The green swatches of forest and farmland disappeared beneath him as fast as they appeared.
The pilot radioed back over the helmet intercom. “ETA 15 minutes, Colonel.”
James wracked his brain. We haven’t been in the air long. Where could we be going that was only a 20 minute ride? There weren’t any military air bases nearby. His curiosity finally got the better of him. “Where are we going, Colonel?”
The other senior staff looked to the Colonel to see if he would actually answer. “The University of North Alabama.” He looked to the rest of his command staff. “This man,” he said pointing at James, �
��knows more about these aliens than all of us combined. I’m not about to start keeping him out of the loop now. I expect you all to keep him read in on this operation.”
A chorus of yes, sirs followed as the Colonel’s command staff acknowledged the order.
“Colonel, we need bigger guns,” Captain Thompson said. “Our weapons had little effect, and they brought down two of our birds with ease.”
James shook his head. “It’s not a question of simply bigger guns.”
“Explain that,” Colonel Ryan said. The other senior officers looked on.
“Well, bigger guns may stop the robots, but it would only be effective against the ones that you could tell were actually robots,” James explained.
“What do you mean?” Lieutenant Vasquez asked. “Are you saying they can look like us?”
Captain Thompson interrupted. “You weren’t at the overpass. They look exactly like us. It’s creepy.”
Colonel Ryan pressed the issue. “What do you know about this, Ranger?”
“According to the one we captured,” James explained, “they want to be us. At first we didn’t understand what he meant, but then we figured out that they can pass as human.”
“How do they accomplish this?” Colonel Ryan asked.
“Well, they use skin,” James stated.
“How do they replicate it?” Thompson asked, interrupting.
James shook his head. “No, you misunderstand. It’s not synthetic skin. It’s skin. Real, human skin.” The others looked at other confused, James continued. “They find a human, they kill it, skin it, and then wear our skin like a jumpsuit, adopting the identity of the deceased person.” James was quite certain this was the only time in his life he would see high ranking military officers stunned into silence.
After several moments Vasquez spoke. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
The pilots interrupted over the radio. “Colonel, approaching the LZ.”
James pressed on. “So, you could just use bigger guns on everything, but as you saw, they are starting to mix with the regular human populations. We have no way of telling the difference. Using bigger guns would result in a lot of unnecessary deaths.”
“Won’t the skin just kind of hang on a robot frame?” Vasquez asked.
“No, they use some kind of bio-polymer tissue to adhere the skin to their skeleton. It’s soft and acts just like muscle.
Captain Thompson thought the situation over. “Given the alternative, maybe collateral damage is acceptable in this case.”
James looked aghast and was about to speak when Vasquez cut him off.
“Maybe we actually can tell them apart,” the Lieutenant suggested.
The helicopter touched down in a grassy field and the door opened. The conversation paused as the group disembarked and headed for a nearby car that would take them to the campus.
Once inside the car, Vasquez continued. “I think I can tell them apart. You mentioned earlier that they communicate wirelessly, are you sure about that? Do you know what frequency they use?”
James shook his head. “I honestly have no idea what frequency it is. But I’ve seen it enough times to know that they have to be communicating wirelessly. In the first battle one of them sat watching us in the distance. Others turned off their eyes and ambushed us from both sides. They only way they would have been able to navigate the terrain is if they got telemetry data from the other one somehow. And they’ve been able to track the location of a specific robot, even if it’s isolated. As far as we can tell the effective range seems to be somewhere around 10 miles, give or take, but I’m just guessing there.”
As the Humvee pulled into the campus James could see several other Humvees spilling out in different directions to secure the grounds. The entourage moved to the science building and locked it down, evacuating all of the students and only allowing specific professors to stay.
Within moments the truck carrying the robot prisoner pulled up. Soldiers pushing a large cart ran over to the truck and carefully unloaded the robot, scurrying it inside. Dr. Kosnick was right behind them. As fast as they had appeared, the whole group disappeared down a dark hallway of the building. Lieutenant Vasquez nodded to the Colonel, spun on his heel, and walked out of the room off to join the robot prisoner.
“So what do we do now, Colonel?” James asked.
“Vasquez, your scientist, and a couple of the researchers here are going to take a look at the robot and see what can be done about defeating it. We can’t afford to lose too many more battles.”
James shrugged. “What about the rest of us? What do we do in the meantime?”
“I guess the first thing to do is call this in,” Colonel Ryan said.
“Colonel, before you do, can I can check on something?”
Ryan shrugged. “Be my guest.”
James walked to the speakerphone and dialed a number.
The phone rang a few times before a familiar voice came through. “Palomar,” it said.
“Dr. Dickhaut?” James asked.
“This is Chad, James, is that you?”
James smiled and relaxed a little. “Yes, it’s me.”
“How goes things in Holly Springs?”
James frowned and let out a mighty sigh. “Not well. Holly springs has fallen. The whole area has been overrun. We had a major battle with them and had to retreat to…”
Colonel Ryan interrupted. “That’s quite enough, Ranger! That is classified.”
Ranger Hutchinson whirled around pointing a finger at the Colonel. “Don’t! Don’t you even start that shit with me.” He pointed angrily at the phone. “Dr. Dickhaut knows more about what’s happening globally than anyone else alive. You know what happened at Holly Springs, but he knows what’s happening at the other sites.”
Colonel Ryan scrunched his face. “Other sites? What other sites?”
James scoffed. “See? This is what I mean. You need to trust my judgement in this matter. The impact site at Holly Springs is not the only place where the robots have landed.”
The Colonel softened momentarily. “Sorry, Ranger. I’m still trying to get up to speed on everything.” He turned to address the phone. “Dr. Dickhaut, is it?”
“Please, call me Chad,” the disembodied voice replied.
“Very well, Chad. What can you tell us about the impact sites as a whole?”
“Well, I can tell you that they have impacted all over the globe. I counted at least a dozen impact sites. There may be more. It was hard to see in the first place, and once I knew what to look for it was still hard to find them. It appears as though they’ve stopped. I haven’t seen any new impacts in a few days. So either they’ve stopped or I’ve missed them.”
Ryan tilted his head thoughtfully. “It’s possible that this is just a lull. In classic military tactics it’s common to send in a recon force to scout out the area and secure a foothold before landing all the rest of the troops. That’s what we could be looking at here – an advance force. What can you tell me about the individual sites?”
“Well, I have limited information on some of them. I know that one touched down in the Solnechny District, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. I know from some Russian astronomers that they sent a team to investigate, but I don’t know anything else.”
The Colonel took some notes as he listened.
Chad continued. “There was another that touched down just east of Turpan, in Xinjiang, China. My astronomer colleagues there have also confirmed that they have investigated it, but no further information is available.”
“There are also reports of another impact in the Esil District of Kazakhstan,” Chad explained, “locals reported a mist or a fog of some kind coming from the crater and have been too afraid to approach it. The government has ordered it quarantined. I don’t know anything else about it.”
“Have there been any unusual sightings?” Ryan asked.
“Not at those sites,” Chad confirmed, “but there are others. Another fell right in the middle of the
town of Kulykivka, in the Chernihivs'ka Oblast, Ukraine. Locals reported the same misty fog and people disappearing. Then locals reported that everything was fine. The Ukranian Government has blockaded the town and sent in a science team.”
Chad cleared his throat and continued. “Another fell near Poisieux, France. There are a lot of mixed reports coming from there. It seems like it’s general confusion. The last one in Europe fell in the Finnish state of Vaala. The reports from there have been sketchy.”
“What about in the US?” Colonel Ryan asked. “Any other impact sites I should know about?”
“Actually, all of the other sites are in North America. You already know about Holly Springs. There’s an impact site in the Yukon Territory in Canada. It’s so remote that no one has been able to get to it yet. A second one fell on the north shore of the Southern Indian Lake in Manitoba, Canada, but the ice is frozen over and the object is currently inaccessible at the bottom of the frozen lake. RCMP is going to investigate in the spring.”
“But what about the US?” Ryan asked, somewhat impatiently.
“One fell in Mount Hood National Forest, southeast of Portland. It was the last one in the US to fall. At my insistence the local authorities have evacuated the surrounding area and quarantined the site. Another fell at the base of Mt. Beirstadt just west of Denver. There are lots of reports of hikers, campers, and skiers going missing and then turning back up again, people generally acting strange. The Rangers there had it quarantined, but have since removed the restriction and are calling the site harmless.”
“That’s very peculiar,” Colonel Ryan observed.
“Actually, that’s exactly what happened at Holly Springs,” Hutchinson pointed out.
“And the last one fell in the Nantahala National Forest, in the southwest part of North Carolina. Some Rangers went to check it out and I lost contact with them for a while…”
“For a while?” James interrupted. “Have you heard from them recently?”
