by D F Capps
“They landed, shut down, and cooled off so we wouldn’t see them on our sensors,” Diane said. “Except now the falling snow is colder. We can see them again.
“Jink to Squadron One: All units return to protect the base. Break off and return to protect the base!”
She whipped around and pushed the thruster control higher.
“Most of the squadron is at least two to three hundred miles from the base,” Ryan said. “We can be back in thirty seconds.”
Her heart was pounding. “Yeah,” she said. “And in that short time, disaster can strike.”
* * *
“Transmitter facilities are all under attack,” Captain Jakovic said. “Particle-beam-equipped ships are engaging the saucers. Holding their own so far.”
This was the first time Hollis had been in the middle of a real battle. Everything before had been simulations or training exercises.
“Any activity in Russia or China?” Hollis asked.
“Affirmative, sir. Reports of multiple saucers attacking both bases are confirmed. Fighter craft responding.”
Hollis blinked hard. This is too soon, he thought. I don’t know if they’re ready for a major assault. I don’t know if we are, either.
* * *
Something smashed into the ground in front of Sean, sending dirt flying at him through the snow. He slammed on the brakes, sliding to a stop only three feet from the object. He slowly got out of his car to see what it was. His mind flashed back to the code name files that Charlie had given him to read.
I’d say this looks like a flying saucer, he thought.
He set his camera for wide angle and took several photos. The booming sound was almost continuous now, but still off in the distance. He held his hand up close to the saucer-shaped thing. He touched the smooth surface. It felt warm to the touch. He wandered around the thing, examining it in detail.
If it’s some kind of flying saucer, he thought, there has to be a door somewhere.
He returned to the rental car and opened the glove compartment, retrieved a small LED flashlight, and then returned to the thing stuck sidewise in the ground. As he was examining the object something heavy landed in the brush about sixty feet off the road. He headed over to find out what it was.
* * *
Diane keyed the radio. “Jink to base. What’s happening?”
“We have approximately two hundred fifty saucers lifting off the ground and inbound at low altitude,” Hollis said. “The cannons aren’t able to shoot at the ground. We need help, now!”
Diane swore under her breath. “On our way!”
She tried to imagine what the base would look like under such a heavy attack. She skipped over the mountain pass and banked north, up the valley toward the base, Buddha right behind her. Whatever she imagined didn’t prepare her for what she encountered.
Dull flashes of light penetrated the snow storm in front of her. She cringed at the loud cracks from the Zeta Grey saucers. They’re firing at the cannon emplacements in the mountain, she thought. We could already be too late. Motion on her navigation display indicated multiple targets charging directly at her. The targeting radar located and locked onto six new bandits.
“This is it, Ry, we’re goin’ in.”
She started firing and hitting saucers as fast as she could.
“Give ’em hell!” Ryan yelled.
She banked and dipped to exaggerate the jinking effect as the saucers opened fire at her. She fired back, hitting one after another. With so many targets in front of her, it was hard not to hit one. Fighter craft from her squadron flooded over the mountains, in from the north end of the valley and filled in behind her. The front layer of saucers accelerated to engage the inbound fighters. One saucer seemed to fly directly at her. Even after it was hit, it tried to collide with her. Diane jerked the control stick at the last moment to avoid the collision. The belly of her craft scrapped against the saucer as she passed by it.
This is intentional! Diane realized. She struggled to regain control over the rising panic in her chest. Her hands were trembling as she tried to stabilize her craft.
“Jink to Squadron One. Saucers are trying to ram us. Heads up. Don’t let them get too close!”
She went into a roll to avoid another collision, firing and hitting three more saucers. She heard a sharp metallic crack and felt the strong jolt on the left as her craft went into a tight spin.
“Jink is hit. Going down!”
Another light flash from a saucer hit them on the right side. They were already low and the spin made ejection risky. She grabbed the ejection levers and paused, letting her intuition guide her.
She pulled the levers and the cockpit exploded from the fighter craft. The drogue chute deployed pulling the main chute out and open. They slammed into the ground shortly after they felt the jerk from the main chute. Stars floated in her vision from the impact and everything around her was spinning.
* * *
Sean found an orange and white parachute draped over the bushes. He heard motorized screws running and then the sound stopped. He was breathing hard, trying to contain the panic spreading through his body. He cautiously approached with his small flashlight illuminating the limited area in front of him. He stopped when he saw two figures in chrome suits and bowling ball type chrome helmets climb out of an oblong container with a clear lid. He froze.
Aliens, he thought. What the hell do I do now?
One of the beings removed the helmet and said, “We need your car.”
“What?” Sean said.
The being without the helmet looked human.
“We need to borrow your car.”
Sean’s mind froze for a moment.
“You speak English.” He glanced back at the crashed saucer. “How do you . . . ?”
The other one also took off the helmet.
“Sir, I’m Lieutenant Dunlap. We need to borrow your car. National security. We have to get back. Now.”
Sean’s mind was scrambling, trying to sort everything out. “I can drive you.”
Dunlap shook his head. “No. You can’t go with us. They’ll take control of your mind.”
Sean was about to ask, Who are “they?” and then thought better of it.
“It’s all of us or none of us,” Sean said. “. . . unless you’re going to kill me to get the car keys.”
The two people in chrome suits glanced at each other. “Sir, it’s a secure area. Authorized personnel only.”
The Ceti Research ID card from Charlie, Sean thought. “I have authorization,” he said. He pulled the ID card out of his suit pocket and handed it to them.
Both of them examined the card. “You know the director?”
“Yes,” Sean said, as he recalled the image from Charlie. “Theo, tall thin guy, Dr. Shugart.”
They whispered with each other for a moment. “Okay, but I drive. They’ll make you crash the car.”
Dunlap handed the ID card back to Sean. “Wear this around your neck. It might stop somebody from shooting you by mistake.”
How reassuring, Sean thought. He looped the lanyard over his head.
“The keys?” Dunlap demanded.
Sean handed the keys over and led them back to the car.
* * *
“Ry . . . Ryan, you okay?”
Diane’s speech sounded a little slurred to her.
“Ahhh . . .” came from behind her. “Is this what it’s like to die?”
“No. Pain is the one true indicator that you’re still alive. Pop the canopy. We need to get out fast!”
The screws unwound and the canopy rose. She unbuckled, disconnected the master connector and climbed out to the right side. Diane reached back in and grabbed the flash gun. She took the .45 automatic from the survival kit and handed it to Ryan.
“What are you going to use?” he asked.
She held up the flash gun. “I’ll get you one as soon as I can. Then you can ditch that antique.”
Ryan released the master c
onnector and harness and climbed out of the cockpit. They scrambled under some scrub brush and crawled away from the cockpit shortly before it was hit by a blast from a saucer. They were still a mile from the base, trying to stay under cover.
The snow was letting up. She looked at the sky. Fighter craft and saucers darted up, down, and to each side in a violent fight to the death, flashes of light filling the night sky like too many fireworks. Diane stood and watched for a moment. This was the first time she had been able to watch the jinking of the fighter craft from the ground. Even though both the saucers and her squadron glowed bright white in the night sky, the jinking made her teammates both obvious, and difficult to follow. They moved in fast random patterns that made it look as if they weren’t really there, but some kind of a rapidly shifting mirage. No wonder the saucers were having so much trouble hitting them.
Ryan touched her on the arm and motioned toward the base. The moonlight filtering through the snow gave them enough illumination to see. Saucers and fighter craft were falling out of the sky at an alarming rate, with the downed saucers outnumbering the fighter craft by about five to one. Her squadron had now penetrated the outer defense layer of the scout saucers and was engaging the ones shooting at the cannon batteries.
But the hope rising in her chest was dashed as she saw more saucers pouring over the mountains to the east.
Chapter 61
Diane and Ryan moved quickly on foot toward the stricken base as more and more saucers and fighter craft fell from the sky. By the time they had covered the first half mile, the battle above them was over. Not a single fighter craft remained in the air. The saucers took up protective positions around the base as three transport saucers glided over the mountains and landed in the valley near the mine entrance.
She and Ryan located several empty ejected cockpits with main chutes tangled in the scrub brush.
“Where are they?” Ryan wondered.
She pointed toward the base.
Someone in a chrome flight suit stepped out from the scrub brush and waved.
Three more team members emerged from the brush. Helen was one of them.
“What now?” Helen asked.
“Now we try to save the base,” Diane said. “You still have your weapon?”
Helen showed her flash gun.
“Good. Time to go hunting.”
The group of six worked their way through the brush and an accumulating array of crashed saucers and fighter craft littering the valley floor. Some fighters had crashed with the cockpit intact, holes blasted through the clear cover. Others lay with the canopies open and the flight crew not far away. By the time they were a quarter mile from the base entrance, the group had grown to around twenty people, half armed with .45 automatics, the rest with nothing.
“Stay here,” Diane said. She and Helen crouched and moved quietly through the brush. Within fifty yards they spotted a Zeta Grey walking, apparently on perimeter patrol.
“What do you think?” Helen whispered. “Is this weapon going to work silently?”
Diane nodded. “Silently, yes. But the Greys will see the flash, especially in the nearby area.” Huh, she thought. They don’t know we have any flash guns. They’ll think it’s another Zeta and come to assist. This can work!
Helen looked at the flash gun. “So we’ll have company?”
Diane sighed. “In short order.”
Helen looked at Diane. “So what do we do? Hit it with a rock?”
A rock? Diane thought. “Actually a rock isn’t a bad idea. How’s your throwing arm?”
Helen shook her head. “Not worth beans, yours?”
She looked around at the ground. There were rocks, but they were under an inch and a half of snow.
“I can manage. Sneak in closer. I’ll find a rock and move to the left, see if I can lob it over its head. When it turns, use the narrow beam kill function.”
Helen rotated the collar to the right on the flash gun. “Got it.”
Diane moved slowly through the brush, picking the widest path to avoid making any sound from her flight suit rubbing on the sagebrush. She picked up a stone the size of a baseball. This should work, she thought. She moved as close as she dared in the light snow, watching the Zeta. It turned in her direction. Diane froze, her heart thumped in her temples. The creature seemed to look at her for a moment and then looked away.
The suit’s working, she thought. There’s enough light. It must be the reflective coating on the outside of the suit. It’s reflecting the snow and bushes around me. Without infrared, it can’t see me very well.
When it turned away from her she threw the stone. It landed on the other side of the Zeta. The creature spun quickly and fired its flash gun into the brush. A flash from Helen’s weapon dropped the creature to the ground. Diane ran from the brush, snatched the flash gun from the little creature and pointed to Helen’s right.
Helen darted to the right as Diane ducked back into the brush and moved left. Fifteen seconds later another Zeta came running between the bushes. She pressed the kill button and the flash dropped the Zeta in its tracks. A second later she caught Helen’s flash in her peripheral vision. She grabbed the weapon from the Zeta and headed back to meet Helen.
“Okay, now we have five weapons. Let’s get back to the others.”
They handed out the three new weapons and showed their teammates how to use them.
“Let’s spread out,” Diane said. “There’s a Zeta patrol line about fifty yards ahead. You’ll have only about fifteen seconds before another Zeta shows up, so be prepared for company. Each Zeta will be carrying one of these. Make sure you get the weapon and then go for cover—the next one will be coming in fast. Try throwing a stone over their heads to get them to turn away. Keep in mind that they have very good vision at night, so throw the stone only when they’re looking away. They shoot as soon as they see or hear anything. You don’t want to be in front of them.”
Diane thought of something else. “And one more thing. If one looks at you, stand perfectly still. Don’t move when they can see you.”
The group spread out and slipped between the bushes. At fifty yards in, Diane and Ryan encountered another Zeta, standing still, facing them. It raised its arm and pointed the flash gun in their direction. She and Ryan froze. A flash from the left drew the Zeta’s attention. It turned and pointed the flash gun to her left. Diane pressed the kill button and the Zeta fell to the ground. She rushed forward and picked up the Zeta’s weapon, but instead of heading back, she went forward with Ryan right behind her.
“Now you’ve got a real weapon,” she said as she handed the flash gun to Ryan, and showed him how to use it.
They moved silently through the brush until they came in view of the first of the three transport saucers. It was a hundred yards across and fifty feet tall with dozens of Zetas walking around the open ramp. Light filtering from inside the transport silhouetted the Zetas against the shadow of the saucer.
“Any ideas?” Ryan asked.
Diane took a quick count of the Zetas. “Nope. Too many of ‘em to take on directly.”
Ryan sounded like he was breathing hard. “So, let’s wait.”
It’ll give him a chance to rest, she thought. “We need to give our team time to get into position.”
After a few minutes the saucers high in the night sky started moving north.
“Look at that!” Ryan said.
Diane smiled. “I think the cavalry is arriving.”
Ryan stared at the saucers disappearing to the north. “But we lost all of our fighter craft.”
Not all of them, she thought. “My guess is that’s Nikolaev’s squadron from Russia.”
Ryan turned to face her. “They came all the way over here to help us?”
Ryan sounded surprised. “Yep,” she said, “and the squadron from China should be right behind them.”
She watched overhead as fighter craft engaged the saucers high in the night sky. More saucers than fighters were falling to the g
round.
“Not bad,” Ryan said. “Someone put their time into training.”
A new group of fighter craft flew down the valley from the north.
“Chinese Space Command,” Diane said as the fighters opened fire on the three large saucers on the ground.
Zetas ran in every direction, firing their flash guns up at the fighters, which were still well out of range.
“Attack now,” Diane ordered as she bolted from the cover of the scrub brush.
She and Ryan ran for the transport saucer through the short scrub and sagebrush along with a dozen of their teammates, all firing flash guns into the panicked group of Zeta Greys. The Zetas fired back, killing several small groups of her teammates before the last of the Zetas fell to the ground. As they closed in on the transport saucer, more Zetas poured down the ramp. Diane and her teammates opened fire, dropping one Zeta after another in the rapid strobes of flash gun discharges. Diane and Ryan rushed up the ramp and into the saucer, shooting Zeta after Zeta on their way inside.
As they peeked above the floor of the saucer from the ramp, two tall Greys were running at them with flash guns.
She pressed the kill button and dropped the two tall Greys to the floor.
The inside of the transport saucer consisted of multiple rows of bed-like small imprints for Zeta Grey bodies in them. Ryan checked around the inside of the saucer, excitedly waving her over.
“Look, storage bins,” he said.
Ryan held up more of the Zeta Grey flash guns.
“Hand ’em out. We can use ’em.”
She looked around. “No more Zetas inside.”
Ryan stepped close to her. “Look at all of the recesses. There must be room for two or three hundred of the small Grays.”
Diane’s heart sank. “Yeah,” she said. “And right now they’re all inside our base, killing our people.”
* * *
Sean rode in the back seat with the two people in chrome suits and helmets in the front. With the helmets on, Sean couldn’t talk with them. Questions flooded his mind as the car raced on into the night. The car came to a skidding halt as two more people in chrome suits stepped from the brush to the road.
