Invasion Earth

by Philip R Benge

  “No, it is not. Just prior to leaving Houston I received a message from our Doctor Baris, he told me that the original clone ship, plus two that had just arrived, had all been destroyed by him, the clone ships are where my people create people such as myself. This single act of sabotage by Doctor Baris will have stopped any further clones being created for at least ten years. He also stated that the only Magentan space cruiser within seventy light years of Earth was also damaged, however Doctor Baris broke off his transmission suddenly, and I fear that my people may have killed him.” Furling said grimly.

  Just then, a call came in from Special Agent Rails. “Major Hernandez, I have just received a report from the White House regarding some trouble in China. The report is a little sketchy but it states that there was a purge of many of those associated with their space agency, and of the local authorities in their locale.” The call was on speaker so Furling also heard it. Will looked across at Furling who returned his gaze, for this report went some way in corroborating what he had been telling them. Unfortunately, the Chinese authorities did not have the information that the Rangers now possessed, and so they had decided to kill any who appeared to be an enemy agent, and not treat them as the victims they were.

  Chief Randall thanked the agent for updating him, and he now asked Rails to come to their headquarters, because they in turn had something to tell him, something that he did not want to speak of over the open airways. It would be another two hours before Special Agents Rails arrived, and they used the time to put Furling through a body scanner, what it told them merely confirmed Furling`s words, that he was most probably an alien clone, for his internal organs were in exactly the same places as the six dead men.

  On seeing this, Will asked an urgent question of Furling. “Mr Furling, should we not remove your implant, before your people decide to kill you?”

  Furling smiled at him. “No, it will not be necessary, for I do not have an implant. All the usual information that is supposed to come from my one is false, a small computer that I left hidden within my apartment in Houston provides them with it.

  “What about your life expectancy, our medical examiner has told us that the six dead clones only had a short life expectancy, within another year, or two at most, they would have all been dead?” Will asked with a weak smile appearing upon his face.

  Furling was shocked to hear this, but decided to put a brave face on it. “My team and I were some of the original clones that were created by Doctor Baris, he knew our purpose in coming to your planet, and I believe that he would have insured that we had a normal life expectancy for a clone, approximately one hundred years.” Furling replied.

  When Rails arrived, and was sitting down with a coffee in his hand, they told him their news, and then introduced him to Furling and the two women. After listening to more tales about an alien presence on Earth, he looked very tired indeed, but he attempted to shrug this off.

  “We had better bring the people from Homeland Security into this, and then do as Mr Furling suggests, begin the task of removing all of the implants from those who have been brainwashed, and finally deprogram them. We must set up a surveillance on all those suspected of being clones, until all of our own people are safe, and then we can move in fast and take the clones into custody. As for the alien off-world bases, and their starships, that we will have to leave to the military.” Rails said grimly, he seemed to have aged by twenty years since he had entered the Ranger`s headquarters, the proof of an extra-terrestrial invasion was now too much for even him to disregard.

  Rails returned to Washington to speak to Assistant Director Task, who sat equally stunned while listening to everything he was told. He then arranged a meeting with Homeland security, the C.I.A. and the President of the United States to co-ordinate a plan of campaign. Chief Randall, Major Hernandez, Will and Sally were also part of the meeting, along with Petras Furling. After much disbelief, Rails produced the results of the body scans and the autopsy reports, however it still needed the Chinese report and Sally`s own story to finally convince them that all that the people of the world were facing an unprecedented threat to their very existence.

  The Special Forces within the military assisted the civilian authorities, one week later, they attempted to apprehend and sedate all the humans who were on the first list. This comprised of the victims of the brainwashing machine, and the ones they managed to locate had their implants surgically removed. The hard work of deprogramming the victims could then proceed at leisure. Some work places were almost empty of workers, such as at the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center in Houston, many of the people who were left there were clones, and the Special Forces swiftly moved in and arrested them before they could run. Hurriedly transported to a local hospital, a body scanner checked their internal organs; it showed which people were in fact clones, and which were not. The bodies of the clones were seen to be the same as the six dead clones; their implants were quickly removed before their area commander could send a killing message to the implants. The clones now found themselves imprisoned in a top-secret facility, guarded by a full infantry company. They released those found to be humans, to return to their homes with a warning to say nothing of what had occurred.

  They also found in some of the properties attached to the bases a number of small grey aliens, they had come to Earth so as to be able to walk upon a planet once again, something they now regretted.

  Unfortunately, it was impossible to keep such a nationwide raid quiet, and although the media was prevented from mentioning it, the alien commanders in North America finally found out what was happening from one of their clones working in the news industry, and who had managed to escape before the authorities came for him.

  **********

  Phairlis snarled when told of the operation mounted against them in Northern America, and he immediately ordered the area commanders to terminate every one of the humans who had been brainwashed. However, he was too late to call for such a pointless exercise, he succeeded in murdering only five people, killed in the alien`s usual way, by remote control. These killings however only served to alert the authorities to the fact that that their enemy was aware of what they were doing. Phairlis now demanded to know of his area commanders just how all of this was able to happen, and without them hearing squat about it.

  He forced his anger down, hidden deep beneath the surface, and spoke to the assembled council of the Chosen Ones. He blamed Sally; once again, for this major setback in one of their key areas, he then explained how he had planned twin attacks on the people of the sixth planet.

  “I have chosen Special Agents Mallory and Ballinger of the FBI, whose whereabouts are currently unknown to the authorities, and who I have decided will not be terminated just yet. Their task, I have ordered them to kidnap Sally Jameson, and then to brainwash her into telling the authorities that she had made the alien invasion up. She will tell them that she was in fact working for the Russians, and that the clones had been ‘born’ there, in Russia. This, I assure you, will cause confusion and distrust amongst the governments of the sixth planet.” Phairlis declared confidently. Unfortunately, he did not know about Furling, or the contents of the other two lists.

  “The second part of my plan of attack is the delivery of our new mutation of the virus designated H5N1, it has already been released over China, just one hour ago. However, in the light of recent developments the release was over a much larger area. The Chinese government will immediately blame the Americans for an act of aggression against their people; the resulting tension will turn all eyes away from us while the Americans try to convince the Chinese that we were the aggressor. Tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions, of the people living in Indo-China will die before the virus mutates once again into a harmless one. In one month`s time we can decide where the next major outbreak will occur.”

  This was clearly in violation of his government`s ruling that their people not indulge in mass murder or genocide in this fashion, Phairlis had cut his team adrift
from his people.

  **********

  Earlier that day the attack craft Magenta flew in across the South China Sea, it was heading for the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. Within this highly populated area is the large city of Guangzhou, and just now most of its population was sleeping, further south are the cities of Macau and Hong Kong, an estimated population of 40 million live within the delta. The attack craft flew inland for just a few minutes before turning south and it was now, as it approached the city of Guangzhou that it began to release the virus.

  **********

  Mallory and Ballinger planned well into the night, and it was nearly two in the morning when they finally came up with a plan, of sorts. They would stake out the house, and when Will left, they would move in and kidnap Sally.

  Will was part of a nationwide team to launch a co-ordinated attack on the command centres of the alien headquarters, and any of the many clones who had not been taken in the previous raids within the US of A. He left a relieved Sally who was now looking forward to returning to Houston and the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center; she hoped that it would not be too empty of the other workers. She was just finishing with a few household chores when Mallory and Ballinger entered through the open back door, open to allow the early morning breeze in to cool the house.

  “Sally, how good to see you again.” Mallory said to her.

  Sally looked up in surprise, startled by the two agents’ sudden appearance; this was something that she had not anticipated. She saw the ugly looking automatic pistols in their hands and knew that for the moment resistance was useless, only death would follow such an action.

  “So, Richard, how nice of you to come calling.” Sally said in a calm voice that did not reflect how she was feeling. “Who is your friend, Special Agent Ballinger is it; I heard that the two of you were thought to be still working together?” Sally said turning to look at the other agent.

  “Enough small talk Ms Jameson, we need to be on our way.” Ballinger said as he moved towards her.

  Sally backed up until the solid kitchen wall stopped her from retreating any further. “Well do not let me delay you any more gentlemen, I am sure that you have much to do.” Sally said coolly, but fear was now biting into her vitals.

  “Oh you are coming with us Ms Jameson; now move it or I will hit you so hard you will still feel it next week.” Ballinger threatened, Sally looked to Mallory for protection, but he only offered her an apologetic look.

  “Guess you had better obey my partner Sally, he did not get that much sleep last night, and it is making him rather cranky.” Mallory advised, but then he moved forward, grabbed her by the arm, and they dragged her from the house.

  They forced her into a large Ford MPV; Ballinger took the wheel while Marriot got in beside her, his pistol pushed painfully into her side.

  “Look, Richard, you are two big brave men, both of you armed with nasty looking handguns, do you really need to push your weapon into me so painfully, I am hardly in a position to escape from you, am I?” Sally pleaded.

  “From what I heard there is a real need, you stunned one of our agents and captured another, and they were both armed with nasty looking handguns, so for the moment why don`t I just leave it digging in your side.” Mallory replied, his polite manner now gone, all that remained was a thug, somehow a switch had flicked over and there was no sign of her friend.

  Sally wondered if the brainwashing was not able to keep the real person from showing through, not forever, but its appearance was certainly not strong enough to stop her friend from kidnapping her. She slumped back in her seat and looked out of the window, they were soon in the country, and then they turned off down a dirt track, ahead was a rickety old building, and it was here that Ballinger stopped the vehicle.

  “We have arrived Sally, get out.” Mallory ordered flatly. Standing beside her, Ballinger had opened the side door to permit her to exit the vehicle; he then moved away from the vehicle, with his pistol pointed at her stomach.

  Not seeing much point in arguing, just yet, Sally got out of the vehicle and strolled over to the porch of the building, which to her surprise was not as flimsy as it had first appeared; beneath her feet, she felt solid wood, this place had been built to last. Ballinger moved past her to open the front door of the building, inside Sally saw a relatively clean room, and to one side she saw one of the fiendish alien mind bending machines, it had a chair next to it, awaiting its next victim. She almost fainted as she realised her fate, just as the battle was swinging towards a victory for the good guys, the aliens were going to brainwash her, how fair was that? Well there was no way she would allow that to happen without a fight.

  She allowed them to push her further into the room, head down and giving every appearance of defeat, or at least acceptance of her fate. Her eyes followed the two automatic pistols, with both of them out and pointing her way she still could not do anything but obey.

  “We might as well get it over with Richard.” Ballinger said and walked across to Sally, and holding her arm in a painful grip marched her over to the evil looking machine.

  Sally stumbled and would have fallen heavily into the machine, if Ballinger had not stopped her, she silently cursed him as he now steered her safely around the machine, she had hoped to damage the machine. From the way Ballinger was looking at her, he had obviously realised that.

  “Sit down.” Ballinger demanded and went to force her down into the chair when she hesitated to obey him.

  Sally brought her knee up sharply into Ballinger`s groin making him groan in pain, his grip on her arm loosening. She pushed him away while grabbing a hold of his pistol; she violently pulled his pistol from out of his hand as he fell to the floor heavily. Sally began to turn around while dropping down out of the way of any bullet that might be about to speed her way. It was then that she felt the end of Mallory`s pistol push into her head.

  “Give me the gun now, Sally.” Mallory ordered, for he had anticipated that she would attempt to resist, he now reached over and took the gun out of her hand. “OK, now sit in the chair Sally, don`t worry, it will soon be over, and it is only painful for a moment.” Mallory said gently, mister nice guy was back, even if he was still under the control of the aliens.

  Ballinger was getting to his feet, looking angrily at Sally, from the looks he was giving her he intended to get some revenge before the day was out. Mallory handed Ballinger his weapon back. “Cover me Tom, while I tend to the lady.” Mallory ordered.

  Mallory now lashed her arms and legs to the heavy wooden chair while Sally fumed in anger. “Richard, you must be in there somewhere, it is me, Sally, your friend, help me, please.” Sally pleaded, but it was no use, he took no notice of her.

  With her no longer a threat, Ballinger moved across and slapped her hard across the face, her head snapped around and she felt tears spring to her eyes, but she was determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. Sally turned to him and looked at him with disgust plainly written upon her face.

  “If you can hit a defenceless woman when you have been brainwashed, just what sort of an agent were you?” Sally asked contemptuously.

  “Put the helmet on her now Richard, let`s convert her, and be sure to give her a really long conversion, we do not want to disappoint the lady, I am sure that she wants to enjoy the process to the full.”

  Ballinger stood looking down at Sally as Mallory pushed the helmet over her head, then Mallory armed the device, however, he never managed to push to convert button.

  The front door slammed open just as Will burst in from the rear, his colt .45 aiming at Mallory. Mallory fingers never moved the few inches to start the conversion process, a bullet slammed into his arm stopping him. Mallory stepped back a pace, the pain seemed to break through the brainwashing, for his face registered astonishment as he looked down at Sally. Then his brainwashing took over and he reached down once again for the button, Will had never lowered his pistol, he fired again, the bullet slamming into Mallory, it hit the a
gent right in the centre of his heart, his body slumped to the floor, dead.

  Ballinger too was dead, he had attempted to fire at the Rangers who had stormed in through the front door; instead he went down with four bullets in his body.

  “Uncle Will am I glad to see you.” Sally sobbed as Will released her from the chair. “How on Earth did you find me?” She asked, her whole body trembling from what could have been.

  Will smiled at his niece. “I forgot my wallet, so I had to return home to get it. I saw you being forced into their vehicle and followed at a distance while calling up a team of Rangers.” Will replied.

  “But how come they did not see you, they were trained FBI agents?” Sally asked.

  “I put an implant of my own into one of your shoes, just in case something like this happened, so that I could find you, so I just kept back until they stopped.” Will replied.

  **********

  The authorities in the United States of America now began to arrest the people suspected of being an alien clone. Taken to a hospital, a body scanner checked their internal organs; it showed that their bodies too were the same as the six dead clones, and those taken in the raid on the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center in Houston. They now realised the time has come to contact the foreign intelligence agencies and start the hard task of making their story believed by all of the nations on Earth.

  Furling contacted his team of nine remaining agents; the tenth one had worked in China. He ordered them to send him the list of the brainwashed people in their countries, along with the alien clones and their bases. This information came up on Will`s computer, and after scanning through it he then emailed it back to the intelligence agencies of the respective countries.

  When told of the alien invasion, the Chinese government did not believe the Americans, and they immediately put their armed forces on heightened alert and sent their fleet to sea. World War three was now a real threat, and to try to prevent it from destroying the whole of Earth, President Chambers sent the Vice President to China to try to convince them of the truth, failure he told the Vice President, was not an option, not this time.