Woods said, “What the hell happened? These things all of a sudden take up an attraction for our cars?”
Donemore said, “You certainly have a knack with words, Woods.”
The leader said, “Actually, Woods is correct. The other Collectors we analyzed didn’t show any signs of being magnetic. This one, for some reason, is an extremely powerful magnet. We didn’t realize it until the first two cars arrived on the scene to investigate and the drivers couldn’t stop their cars. The huge ship just sucked the metal cars to it from over a thousand feet away. When we saw what was happening, the rest of the teams stopped way short.
“We watched as our colleges jumped from their cars being pulled onto the Collector. As they jumped out, every bit of metal they had on them was sucked right off their bodies, such as keys, necklace, earrings and guns. Some of them had to struggle to free themselves from belts and holsters because the force was so great on the buckles and guns.
“Everyone’s okay, but you guys don’t want to get to close to this one unless you strip off all metal.”
Woods said, “So it’s only this one then that has the fetish for metal? Have you checked the other one that was brought down in this area?”
The leader responded, “Yes, the other ship is approximately a quarter of a mile from here and shows no signs of being magnetic.”
Donemore said, “That’s weird, why do you think this one has such a magnetic personality?” She looked at Woods and smiled.
The leader replied, “I investigated one of the first downed Collectors, and the other new one close by. Both have a gapping hole in the side or bottom from where our F-10s hit them with missiles. This one doesn’t seem to have any damage. We investigated the whole ship and there is no sign of damage at all, as a matter of fact. Of course we can’t tell about the top because it’s upside down, but this Collector seems still to be fully operational. That would mean, wouldn’t it, that it is normally magnetized, but when they’re damaged or penetrated like the others, they lose their magnetic force?”
Woods started pacing back and forth as he seemed to be in deep thought. The more he mulled things over, the more he paced and the wider the pace became. As he took his last step and turned, he felt his gun in his chest holster pull toward the ship. In a second he was turned directly toward the ship, which now applyied full force on his gun belt and began dragging him toward the ship.
Woods yelled to Donemore to help him remove his gun or unstrap the chest holster.
Donemore noticed that Woods was being slowly dragged toward the alien space ship, but was in no great danger. She again seized the opportunity to get in her digs. “Woods, I can’t believe you’re being swept off your feet by some alien space ship, but I’m certainly not going to step between you and the new skirt in town. She might be the jealous type and zap me with a light ray. You have to handle these strange attractions on your own, you know.”
“Come on, Donemore, you know you don’t want this thing to sweep me off my feet and out of your life forever.”
Donemore knew he had had enough, and she carefully removed all metal objects on her, then hurried over and released the strap holding his gun holster. Once free, the gun flew through the air and everyone heard the loud noise as it hit the huge Collector ship. Once Agent Woods was free, she whispered, “You certainly attract the weird ones.”
Woods whispered back, “That’s why we work so great together. I guess I owe you one. Thanks, Donemore.”
Woods then immediately turned to the leader and told him to have his team try and find out why this Collector was so different from the other downed Collectors. As he spoke, Donemore’s phone rang. When Woods was finished talking to the field agents, she said, “The General wants us back at the center, ASAP.”
18
CAPTAIN STEWART HAD HIS PERSONNEL AT THE center work some magic and had a display of Mother Earth shown on the big screens. As Woods and Donemore came in, they noticed the General and the rest of their group studying the display screens.
Woods was first to ask, “What’s going on?”
The General stopped gazing at the display and said, “Jeff just got word from his contact at NASA. He said that at the current rate of acceleration, we only have two days left before we start to die. He also said that if there was some way we could slow the acceleration down, we could gain valuable time. Knowing this, we have no choice but to try and slow down the Collectors. We can try this in a number of ways, first we can put our entire fleet of attack fighters in the air to search and destroy as many Collectors as possible. Captain Stewart has received reports from his F-10 pilots that the Collectors can still be easily found in severe thunderstorms. Our allies around the world have confirmed this.
“Our other option is to have our new LASER satellites lock onto the Collectors as they fly by in their never-ending circling of Earth and destroy them as fast as possible. We can do one or the other, or both at the same time. The big question is do we fire our two new Ion Warhead Missiles at the alien Mother Ship while we’re shooting down the Collectors or do we hold that in reserve?”
There was dead silence in the control room as everyone stood watching our planet being circled by the alien ships. “Two days to live,” Janet said, stoically. “Not two days before I die or you die. Two days before mankind dies! A billion years of evolution down the drain!”
The General said, “I’m going to go around the table and ask each of you to give me a short opinion. Keep it extremely brief, as we don’t have that much time. Jeff, you’re first.”
“I don’t think I’m qualified to be giving military advice, but if my friend says mankind dies in two days, I say throw everything we have at E-1.”
Janet was next, “I can’t imagine what E-1 will do with his death ray once he finds out what we’re doing, but if we can gain some time, I agree with Jeff.”
Donemore said, “Time is what we need. Let’s not wait until we don’t have any.”
“Do everything at once,” Woods said, “one big shot. “Maybe we’ll surprise E-1 by shooting down as many Collectors as possible, especially the ones circling the Earth. Let’s hope that he’s so surprised that while he concentrates on his attempts to stop us, our Ion missiles go unnoticed and do the deed. Not to sound corny, but may the luck of the Irish be on our side.”
“I’m with Woods,” Captain Stewart said. “Let’s hope we get lucky. Our planes, indeed, aircraft around the world are ready to go. General, you just say the word and our pilots and I’m sure the pilots from the rest of the world’s Air Forces will be extremely happy to shoot down as many Collectors as can be found.”
The CIA Director was last to comment. “I know this will not affect your discussion General, but I just received some more information about the Collectors. Our specialists have been working on a definite pattern to their activity and have determined that there is one. The Collectors leave the Mother Ship, fly to Earth and return in a three-day rotation. This means that the Collectors spend approximately three days doing whatever they do down here, then fly home and lock onto the Mother ship for three full days.
“To answer your question directly, our satellites can lock on to the aliens and feed all that information to your military LASER satellites so they can take out as many Collectors as possible. With five LASERS firing, hopefully you’ll be able to take out five to ten Collectors before they make a full rotation around the Earth. I’m for hitting E-1 hard now with both the LASERS and our fighters from around the world.”
The General thought a moment while looking up at the display screens that showed the alien Collectors circling Earth. He then stood up straight, gave a quick tug on his uniform as if to straighten it out, and announced, “Captain, I want you and Michael to coordinate your attacks. When your pilots have sighted any Collectors, I want them shooting at the same time as the LASERS are activated. We need numbers, gentlemen. The more Collectors we take down the longer mankind lives. Make sure your people know that.
“Let th
em also know that we have no idea how E-1 will respond to this, but when I give the order to attack, they will continue to attack until I say stop, no matter what happens. Spread the word around the world what we are doing and ask any country that wants to see the sun rise in two days to join in. All reports are to be fed into this room. Good luck gentlemen.”
The control room instantly became noisy, and Captain Stewart manned the phone, “Blue Base Control to all bases, we have a go. Repeat, we have a go. Report any sighting to Blue Base Control. Over.”
Michael was telling his people to feed all summary information to the U. S. Air Force, as General Stormer told his people to use the information to lock-in as many Collectors as possible with the information they were getting from the CIA quadrants. “Do not fire the LASERS until Captain Stewart’s pilots have sightings and I give the go ahead.”
“Blue Base Control, this is Air Blue Eight, I have visual over Sector 275— Blue Base Control, this is Air Blue Twelve, I have visual over Sector 876.”
Within minutes, our pilots were reporting sightings all across our country.
Captain Stewart responded, “Pursue, but don’t fire until I give the order.” He then looked over at the General and said, “Pilots have lock-ons. Ready when you are, sir.”
The General replied, “The satellites are locked-on. I just wish we had some response from other countries. We need to take down as many of these Collector assholes as possible the instant I give the go ahead. It would be nice to know if someone else is going to help.”
It seemed like his wish was an order that was heard around the world. Suddenly Captain Stewart was receiving calls from countries all over Europe and Asia. They all had sighted one or more of the alien ships and were waiting to be told what the General wanted them to do. Captain Stewart had all the calls transferred onto the control room speakerphone.
General Stormer heard what the Captain was doing and addressed everyone, “My name is General Stormer of the United States Military Command and I’ll be very brief. We have knowledge that alien Collector ships you’re either tracking or have in your sights are trying to kill mankind off, permanently and completely. I don’t have time to explain all the details, but in a few minutes I will issue the order to shoot down as many of these flying maggots as possible and as fast as possible. The urgency for speed and accuracy cannot be stressed enough. At the current rate these ships are deteriorating our atmosphere, we’re all going to die in two days—no more mankind. This means that for every ship you shoot down you gain precious time for us to live on and hopefully find a way to rid us from the true enemy, the Mother ship.
“I can’t tell you what will happen once the battle begins and how E-1, the alien, will respond. I can tell you the Collectors you see are unarmed robot ships and can be brought down by firing Mavericks or almost any air-to-air missile. You’re in no danger from the targeted ships, but we don’t know what the Mother ship will do.
“So be careful, stay alert and expect the unexpected. Once you start firing, call into this control center when you know the ship you’ve targeted is going down. Don’t leave the area until you confirm, spacecraft down.”
The General glanced around the room from Jeff, Janet, Woods to Donemore, Captain Stewart and finally Michael. He studied their eyes, hoping someone would speak up and say General this is a bad dream, wake up. He turned a final time to the display screens and watched them while saying, “This is General Stormer. You now have a go. I repeat. You have go. Commence firing. Fire at will. Report everything back here. Good luck and God speed.”
With modern Earth technology, Captain Stewart was able to show many different things on the huge display screens. Orbits and positions of the five LASER satellites, our fighter jets around the world, locations of foreign countries’ aircraft, and the last screen displayed in big letters, “Number of Kills = 0.”
The zero didn’t stay very long. The five LASERS had time to lock-on and fire twice before the formation of alien spacecraft went underneath them and out of range. But the ten LASER shots were effective, as the Director of the CIA confirmed ten Collectors were no longer in formation.
Number of Kills = 10.
“Blue Base Control, this is Air Blue Nine, Mavericks fired and confirmed kill at Sector 367.”
“Blue Base Control, this is Air Blue Twenty, Mavericks fired and confirmed kill at Sector 157.”
Captain Stewart looked over at Display Screen Five and read Number of Kills = 22. He turned and commented to the General, “Our pilots are taking the Collectors out fast.”
The General said, “Yes, but I haven’t heard from any foreign pilots. I hope they’re not having problems.”
“Ah, General, one of big flying aliens no flying anymore.” It was the broken English of a Russian pilot and a huge roar went up in the room. Even General Stormer was pumping his fist like he was Tiger Woods and just made an eagle putt to win the Masters.
Reports were coming in from around the world now and Display Screen Five read, Number of Kills = 65.
The five LASERS were contributing to the kill board the fastest, taking out ten Collectors at a time on each pass the alien formation made around the Earth. The fighters were a lot slower because they had to visually find a Collector using infrared goggles and then confirm the hit.
As the battle continued, General Stormer kept asking Captain Stewart if anything new was happening with “Mother.” Before the battle started, Captain Stewart had positioned some of his people to watch the Mother ship and report any reaction, especially a color change, back to the control room. “So far everything is going our way, sir.” It seemed the alien home base was not yet aware of what was happening or was not responding at this time for whatever unexplained reason.
The General said, “Let’s hope it stays that way for a while longer and we can rack up some more kills.”
At five minutes into the battle the display screen read, Number of Kills = 465, when the shit hit the fan. Over the speakerphone came a voice of panic. “Air Blue Nine to Base, I have a bogey on my tail. It came out of nowhere. There was nothing on my radar. Then this thing shows up right on my ass. Can you confirm what it is?”
Captain Stewart replied, “We don’t show anything on our screens. Have you checked with your wingman to see if he has a visual?”
“I tried, but I couldn’t make contact.”
The pilot didn’t finish and Captain Stewart knew why. All of a sudden he watched in horror as his display screens started lighting up with thousands of red dots near our fighter pilots. Voices in panic kept trying to report in, but never finished their report before communications went dead.
The General was hearing the same thing over and again and knew it was time. He walked over and pushed a button on one of the control computers. A few seconds later, a voice came over the speakerphone. “All Ion missiles from both platforms have been successfully launched, sir. We are currently tracking them and estimate impact in five hours.”
Everyone in the room knew what was happening. The destruction of the alien Collectors had been discovered by E-1 and he had taken action to stop it. No one knew exactly what he would do, but they knew he would take counter measures to stop us. Everyone knew E-1 had protective fighters, but who would have guessed they numbered in the thousands and could respond so quickly.
The battle was on and the General knew the Ion missiles had to be fired while E-1 was responding to our attacks. The question now was would E-1 recognize the lethal missiles approaching or would they be overlooked while he was busy shooting down our attacking aircraft? It was a sacrifice in military equipment and lives, a carefully thought out gamble that had to pay off. “Let’s hope E-1 thinks these are just returning Collector ships. Each of these Ion missiles has five warheads, each containing a one gig-a-ton Ion bomb, and when they get close enough, each missile will open and fire their warheads at different times and speeds. This is designed to confuse the enemy regarding location. That means if the twenty Ion missiles make it fa
r enough, they will fire one hundred warheads at E-1’s home base. If only a fraction get through, we should still see the new moon in our neighborhood go supernova. Right now, that would be the prettiest sight in the sky.”
While they watched and waited, they heard report after report come in from our pilots saying they had fast moving enemy aircraft all around them. All the reports finished with static disconnections. Our pilots were being shot down all over the world and there was nothing the General or Captain Stewart could do about it. Display Screen Five showed, Number of Kills = 1162. The numbers were still climbing but our men were paying the ultimate price for it. General Stormer knew if he ordered the fighters to break off now, it might give E-1 enough time to pick up on the incoming Ions. Besides, we had two days to live and each Collector shot down now might mean that much more precious time for mankind. Maybe not a moral decision, but it was the only play we had.
Then came word over the control room’s speakerphone that everyone did not want to here. “She’s turning color, sir. Gone to a light red, now a darker red. My god, it’s a brilliant orange like the morning sun and five white streaks from its surface are heading toward Earth.” There were a few moments of silence then, “The bolts look like they went on each side of Earth, but not down toward the surface.”
The General looked around the room and seemingly asked the walls, “What the hell are you up to, you neon glowing scum bag?”
The answer came soon enough, “General, the five LASERS are no longer functioning,” the CIA Director said. “There is either a malfunction, or all five have been destroyed.”
“How can that be? They were working just fine and now they’re gone? E-1’s lightning bolts couldn’t have hit them, as they’re on the back side of the Earth, away from his spaceship.” The General explained in a tone that seemed more to reassure him than convince anyone that E-1 was incapable of bending light rays around corners.
BAD RAIN: A SCI-FICTION THRILLER Page 20
