Divided (#1 Divided Destiny)

by Taitrina Falcon

  “Squad, to me, back to back. Conserve your ammo,” Leo ordered.

  Then Don was at his back. Even through the tactical vest, Leo could feel the warmth of his shoulder next to his. To the left, his remaining sergeant and the squad medic made the same formation.

  Leo raised his rifle at the approaching alien. He stood his ground even when the alien pointed his arm at him, and he aimed directly for the faceplate, squeezing the trigger gently for just a small burst. The alien stopped and staggered; it didn’t appear hurt, but it had at least given it pause.

  Don reached into his tactical vest and withdrew a grenade. “Grenade!” he yelled, tossing it at the alien.

  Leo turned his head to shield his eyes, and a moment later there was a loud blast. He whipped his head back to see the damage; the alien was on the ground, knocked off his feet.

  “Ooh-rah,” Don whooped, striding forward, intent on finishing off the downed alien.

  However, the alien was already scrambling to its feet. The explosion had knocked it over but still hadn’t damaged it. Leo scanned the area. They were close to being surrounded, and in another minute, they were going to be overrun. They needed to dig in somewhere; they needed cover.

  “Move out, find cover.” Leo tapped Don on his shoulder. “Come on, we’ve got to go.”

  Reluctantly, Don fired a few shots at the alien, trying to encourage it to keep its head down. The squad ran as one through the tree line, following Leo to the street beyond. The last thing Leo wanted was to fight around civilians. However, the aliens clearly didn’t feel the same, and several had already exited the park.

  Reaching the street, Leo saw there were overturned, exploded cars, thick smoke rising to the sky. The city was burning. People were panicked, running for cover, but they had nowhere to flee. The small ships were hitting the buildings just as much as they were firing on the street.

  Leo saw two uniformed police officers, frightened and clearly out of their depth but trying to corral the mob back into the buildings and away from the streets. Down the block, there was a welcome sight: a National Guard truck and a dozen men in camouflage uniforms, firing their weapons. Absently, Leo wondered if this same horror was being visited on the other six major cities targeted around the world. However, he couldn’t spare any concern for them; this was all about survival now.

  It was a scene from an apocalypse movie, a summer blockbuster. New York was always the target; it had been destroyed in fiction so many times. It wasn’t supposed to be real, but this was real life. This was actually happening.

  They took refuge in an alley, sandwiched between two buildings. It put a chokehold on the entry point. The suited aliens were firing at everything, but they were concentrating their attacks on the soldiers, on those that were fighting back. Obviously they knew they had to take them out to win. Plus, they likely didn’t want to kill the masses; if they did, there would be no one left to worship them, and that was what they had demanded.

  “We need to break through that suit,” Leo started, his tone surprisingly calm given his racing heart and scattered mind. “Suggestions?”

  “Get it on the ground, use its own weapon against it,” Don replied without missing a beat.

  “Good idea,” Leo agreed, right as two aliens came into view at the mouth of the alley. He reached into his vest and threw a grenade. “Ooh-rah!”

  The aliens were knocked to the ground, but the razor-sharp shrapnel from the concrete sidewalk did no more damage than the bullets. Leo dashed forward, Don at his side. He fired a short burst to keep them down, but it didn’t work—the aliens were faster. They were back on their feet. Leo dropped his assault rifle, letting it hang from the clip on his vest, and grabbed for one alien’s right arm.

  Leo twisted, pointing the arm at the second alien, right when the alien let loose several energy blasts. As they’d hoped, that did some real damage, clear blast marks appearing over the chestplate. It was the first thing that looked like it might have hurt. However, the aliens weren’t stupid, and Leo’s alien didn’t cooperate and fire again. Instead, he reached with his other hand, clamped down the metal gauntlet on Leo’s shoulder, and ripped Leo away, tossing him to the ground a few feet away.

  Don growled and all but pressed his assault rifle into the deep grooves, firing continuously, hoping to break through what remained of the suit and hit whatever alien creature lay inside. Leo had landed face first. He rolled over, horrified that the alien he had been grappling with was about to shoot Don. From behind him, the other two squad members fired, aiming for the faceplate, which distracted the alien long enough for Leo to pull another grenade.

  “Grenade!” Leo yelled.

  Don twisted away from the alien he had been shooting. He dove to the ground and covered his head. The grenade exploded and both aliens hit the ground, and this time only one of them got back up. Rather than attack the four marines once more, the remaining alien scrambled to its feet and left the alley, presumably to join up with another group.

  “I think we got one.” Don grinned; his teeth flashed white, and his eyes shone with bloodlust.

  “Hopefully,” Leo said. He gestured for Don to go around and make sure there were no incoming alien reinforcements. Then he signaled the sergeant and the medic to hang back and provide covering fire. He would approach the downed alien himself.

  Leo moved to the prone alien. The damage to the suit was now extensive; it was scratched from all the shrapnel and bullets, but the real damage had been done by its fellow alien’s energy blast and that final grenade. The suit had finally started to break apart. Gingerly, Leo reached with his left hand and pulled away the largest broken piece of chestplate.

  He saw gray skin and protruding ribs. It was much smaller than the suit, probably half the size. The suit looked to have an adjustable interior, which would contract or expand as necessary for the size of the wearer. The chest wasn’t moving; it didn’t appear to be breathing, but then maybe the alien didn’t breathe. Perhaps it had died due to contact with Earth’s atmosphere; maybe oxygen was toxic to it. Or maybe it wasn’t dead at all. That was what he had to discover.

  Leo pulled his Ka-Bar knife and pried off the dented faceplate. It appeared opaque, but from the alien’s response when they had shot at it, they could obviously see through it somehow.

  “Holy shit,” Don swore, looking down at the revealed face of the alien.

  It was a face they knew—a face the world knew. The large, oversized skull, the huge oval black eyes, the spindly limbs and gray skin. While not quite little green men, the Earth-named Roswell Greys were famous, and also not supposed to be real. It was a conspiracy theory; it was supposed to be something along the same lines as modern Elvis sightings.

  Perhaps Area 51 really had contained alien bodies. Perhaps this wasn’t the first visit they’d had. It would hardly be the first time the right hand of the government hadn’t talked to the left, although with the invasion not even a day old and him just being a lowly marine, it wasn’t like he would have been briefed on the truth regardless.

  “Sir, we’ve unmasked one of the alien ground troops.” Leo reached for his radio automatically; Captain Decker had to be informed about this. Maybe if they had been visited before, maybe they had some information in the archives about a weakness, something they could use against them. “Sir, they are Roswell Greys.”

  “Say again?” Decker’s terse response came.

  “Roswell Greys, sir, plain as day,” Leo confirmed.

  “Leo, incoming!” Don shouted from the mouth of the alley.

  “Jakeman, grab the body. See if you can’t find out how to fire that suit weapon,” Leo ordered the other sergeant, stepping forward to join Don. Before Sergeant Jakeman could do so, there was a change of plans.

  “Frasier, I’m ordering Ortiz and his squad to link up with you. Get back to the park, there’s another chopper inbound. We need that alien and his suit back here on the double,” Decker told him over the radio.

  “Copy that,”
Leo acknowledged. “Jakeman, O’Flynn, you’ve got the body. Don, take point. I’ve got your six.”

  The two marines clipped their weapons and leaned down, each taking hold of an arm under the shoulder. It was heavier than it looked, and they would be nearly defenseless. Leo grimaced. Two groups of two aliens were heading for their position, flanking them on either side of the alley. They needed Ortiz and his squad here now.

  “Drop it,” Leo told them quickly. “We’re going nowhere until Ortiz and his guys arrive. Same tactic as last time. Grenades to knock them off balance, then close quarters and get them to fire on each other.”

  “Piece of cake,” Don laughed.

  “Ooh-rah,” Leo roared back, but they only carried a couple of grenades each.

  He had one left and then he was out; it wasn’t a strategy they could keep up long term. Plus, getting that close was dangerous; one slip and they’d fire on each other, not the other aliens. Honestly, suits of armor just weren’t fair. Although at least they weren’t protected by an energy shield like the ship. That really would have sucked.

  “Don, take right. I got left. Jakeman, covering fire. O’Flynn, watch our six,” Leo ordered, reaching for his last grenade.

  When the aliens to the left got close enough, he threw it, twisting away before sprinting forward. Just like last time, he grabbed one of the alien’s arms as they got to their feet. Again, just like last time, the alien fired, presumably aiming for him, but Leo managed to divert it onto the second alien. This time, he managed to hit it in the faceplate, which made an immediate hole. The odor of charred flesh hit Leo’s nostrils. That was definitely the sweet spot.

  “Don, hit them in the face,” Leo yelled before, just like last time, he was thrown to the ground by the enraged alien he had just made commit friendly fire.

  Leo scrambled to his feet, just in time to dive to the ground again to avoid a hail of deadly energy bolts fired at him. He heard the chatter of gunfire as Jakeman tried to cover him, but the bullets did no damage, and the alien had learned that. It didn’t give it pause at all. Leo dashed for the side of an overturned car, skidding behind it as energy bolts splashed against the other side. However, he realized his mistake when he smelled gas. He ran and dove into the next alley just in time.

  Wary of follow-up fire, Leo got to his feet once more and ran back. The smoke from the exploded car filled the road, shielding his approach. He sprinted forward, pulling his Ka-Bar knife. He leapt over the twisted metal remains and onto the alien’s back. Leo stabbed into the metal mask with the knife, searching for purchase to pry it off as he had done once before. The alien bucked, trying to throw him off, but Leo dug in, refusing to relinquish his grip on the shiny, slippery metal.

  The faceplate moved and Leo dove to the ground. He aimed his rifle, but before he could fire, both Jakeman and O’Flynn let loose a burst, turning the alien’s skull into paste. It hit the ground. Leo looked over to where Don was struggling against his two. Leo had been lucky on his first strike, and that had made all the difference. As he watched, Don was forced to the ground, and the alien lifted his arm to execute him.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Leo saw Jakeman and O’Flynn whirl around. Leo raised his own rifle, but he knew with a sick feeling that he was going to be too late. He was about to watch his best friend die and there was nothing he could do. He was out of position and out of time.

  That was when Staff Sergeant Ortiz and his squad arrived. One of them, Sergeant Nicholas Carter, grabbed the alien’s arm, diverting the deadly beams right at the last second. The energy bolts hit the ground, kicking up the concrete but otherwise doing no damage.

  “Hit them in the face,” Leo screamed, repeating his earlier command.

  Don leapt to his feet to comply. Ortiz and his men joined the attack, and the aliens were on the floor, unmistakably dead, before Leo got there.

  “Nice timing.” Leo clapped Ortiz on the back.

  All around them, the city was under attack, but they had bought this corner a moment of peace. They needed to take advantage of that while they could. There were now five dead aliens and suits to choose from; they needed to grab one and get to the chopper. Let the scientists dissect the little gray alien and its technology.

  Leo looked around. “You’re one short?” he asked grimly.

  “Lost Corporal Demming to one of these bastards,” Ortiz confirmed.

  Leo met his eyes in sad understanding. That meant they had both lost a man under their command that day. It wasn’t the first squadmate Leo had lost in combat, but that never made it any easier. Above them, Leo heard the incoming sounds of chopper blades. He looked up; miraculously, the chopper had made it through the waves of small alien craft. It was intact and heading straight for them.

  “Let’s move,” Leo said, waving his arm forward. “Jakeman, O’Flynn, take an alien for the eggheads. Fan out. Let’s not keep our ride waiting.”

  They weren’t far from the park; it was just the other side of the tree line. The eight remaining marines moved as quickly as possible. When they burst through the trees, the chopper was hovering over the broken ground, and there wasn’t a suited alien in sight. At that moment, it was the most welcoming sight Leo thought he had ever seen. After the aliens had beamed down, they must have all moved into the city, leaving this park area.

  Within a minute, they were all onboard the chopper and it was rocketing back into the sky, banking hard and heading towards Jersey with all the speed it could muster. Leo tensed, waiting for the blast that would take them out of the sky, that would send them spiraling to their deaths on the unforgiving ground below. He was certain that they would not be so lucky as to all survive a second helicopter crash.

  The seconds ticked by, the chopper gained more distance and the sounds of battle faded. They had made it. Leo let out a sigh of relief. They had gotten lucky, very lucky, and this could hardly be called a victory. Not yet. The eight of them had escaped with their lives by abandoning the fight. Leo knew they needed to resupply, and the scientists needed this alien and its suit, but that didn’t make running away any easier to live with.

  Both the pilot and the copilot who had saved their lives earlier had been left behind. Leo had lost track of them once the fighting had started. He hoped they managed to find cover and made it out okay. People were dying back there, innocent civilians, while they were whisked away back to the military base and relative safety.

  If the scientists could reverse engineer the suit’s energy weapon, that would give them a better chance, but there were still so many. It would really take something special to drive the entire alien fleet away from Earth. For the moment, at least until more troops could be shipped in, they were outnumbered as well as outgunned.

  It was no comfort to know he had been right with his initial thought the day before. They really were in for the fight of their lives. This was only the first battle of what would probably be a very short war.

  Chapter Five

  With the discovery that the aliens attacking them were in fact Roswell Greys of conspiracy legend, Area 51 resembled a kicked-over anthill once more. The prevailing theory around base was that if Roswell Greys were real, then anything could be real. When Julian had first heard one of his colleagues state that, he hadn’t been able to hold back his snort. They had just been invaded by aliens; what difference did it make that they were Roswell Greys? Either the invasion itself made fringe science theories more likely, or nothing would. The revelation that the invaders were Roswell Greys changed nothing on that score.

  From the moment the booming voice had demanded their surrender, Julian’s quick mind had been ticking over the problem. Analyzing the data results from attacks on the energy shield was practical, but he was no fool. Even if they could bring one of the ships down, he was sure that the aliens would just recalibrate their shields. If they wanted to bring all the ships down, it would have to be a simultaneous attack, and that would only deal with the ships that were currently attacking Earth—if they were l
ucky.

  Julian knew with certainty that the aliens wouldn’t have committed their entire fleet to this. They would have had to be fools, or desperate, and their actions so far appeared calculated and planned. They appeared to be quite the formidable enemy. No, they needed something bigger than their conventional weapons. They needed an edge, and right now they had nothing.

  He had heard that one of the special forces units had recovered one of the alien ground troops. The body and the suit were being shipped out from McGuire. A few of his colleagues were practically salivating over it, but Julian was pretty sure the answer didn’t lie there. Given time—and it would likely take years—they might be able to reverse engineer the energy weapon and produce versions of their own. However, that was time the aliens would likely not give them.

  If the aliens were smart, and Julian believed they were, then they would start hitting the world’s infrastructure. They would attack transports; they would bring down the power grid. If the military couldn’t move people and resources around the world, it was going to be very hard to get anything done.

  Looking forward, it was easier to see a future where they were conquered—and maybe trying to fight a rebellion—than it was to see a future where they managed to successfully continue the war and eke out a victory. No, if they were going to win they needed something beyond standard alien technology. They needed a superweapon, or allies; it didn’t matter which.

  Surely, there must be more aliens out there in the galaxy than the Roswell Greys, and if the little gray men made a habit of attacking worlds that had done nothing to them, they presumably had a few enemies. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, Julian reasoned. If they found that enemy, then they might stand a chance.

  However, Earth hadn’t exactly put much investment into space exploration recently. After the excitement of the moon landing, funding had slowly dwindled over the years. The most recent space project had been the Mars probe, and that just wasn’t going to cut it. If they didn’t have the technology to reach up beyond the stars themselves, then they would have to find it elsewhere.