September 6
th
Year 1 A.Z.
morning
Jester was chomping at the bit to tell me something, but would not say a word until we got to the computer lab. For a little guy, he could surely move, Apocalypse Girl and I were having a hard time keeping up with him. Apocalypse Dog bounded between us, as if trying to hurry us along, sensing in some canine fashion what Jester was needing to show us. Or else just being doggishly excited. The two techs we knew vaguely were huddled over a counter, peering at a screen, muttering to themselves.
“What is it?” Apocalypse Mum, storming into the lab, demanded to know imperiously. “And for God’s sake, somebody bring in some coffee.” I couldn’t agree more. She acknowledged me with a surly nod, her daughter with a maternally disappointed look. One of the techs dashed out, returning momentarily with a steaming pot of liquid, pouring out several cups for those of us that required it.
“The Shadow Zone around Sydney.” Jester told us. “It vanished overnight. Now, look…” Sydney was no more. Shining metallic structures in bizarre configurations rose, taller than anything that had once existed there. The Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, for some bizarre reason, though the bridge had been destroyed, the two halves curling back on themselves, were otherwise unmolested. Two lonely examples of Humanity-that-was among what clearly had to now be Terraformer territory. “I have no fucking idea how long they took to build it, whether they drove the Shadow away or it left willingly, so don’t bother asking. All I know is what you can see here. Sydney is
not ours
, not anymore.”
The way he said the words implied that even with the Shadow in place it was still once a human place. Now it was truly alien. Jester zoomed in, showing various creatures that could never have existed on a Human Earth. Swarms of insectoid critters scuttled about the place, everywhere. Their chitinous exoskeletons shone in rainbow hues as the sunlight reflected off of them. As we watched, the swarms constructed a new building, stacking themselves one atop the other, shining a bright white for a few seconds before reconfiguring themselves into walls, floors, ceilings for whatever was giving them their orders.
Everywhere we looked, all we saw were these Builder Bugs, skittering along, forming new structures atop those already present. “I think,” The Boss mused, “That we’re watching the final stages of their construction now.” She turned to me. “And now we know something about these Terraformers. We’re going to need bigger bombs.” She turned away from the screen in disgust and stalked from the room.
noon
We took it in turns to watch the alien insects create their structures, metallic, yet somehow crystalline when finished. They created familiar configurations as well as bizarre, so we were able to surmise that whatever was programming them at least had a means of excreting their bodily waste as sewers built themselves, forming into corridors and rooms. Some of these rooms were for obvious purposes, there was a clear mess and kitchen setup, as well as what seemed a military barracks. Finally, after several hours of staring at the screen alternated with rubbing our eyes from the strain, we saw one of the Terraformers.
Just under two metres tall, wearing a uniform not unlike those around me, though skinnier than a human, the Terraformer strode into what could only be a freshly constructed command centre from an elevator. The chest was broader, deeper, more massive even than Wall’s, but the legs were narrow as a toothpick, the lower abdomen bulging at the middle to accommodate the enormous torso. A mane of thick, bristly hair encircled a head sprouting three horns from a brownish looking, scaled dome. As it walked, I noted that the alien’s knees bent backwards, and that it had a kind of secondary elbow midway down the forearm, allowing for a greater range of motion.
“Call The Boss,” I heard somebody say to a nearby Viking, realising a moment later that I, myself, had given the order. “She needs to see this.” My friend darted from the room, returning a less than a minute later, Apocalypse Mum following in his wake.
“Now we’ve seen the enemy.” Her words were delivered in a grim tone. One of the technicians began to suggest that they hadn’t seemed remotely aggressive towards us so far, only to be silenced by a glare. “They may have not been overtly aggressive, no. However, they still seem to think that they’re entitled to
our
planet. As far as I’m concerned, that fact alone makes them a hostile species. As the highest ranking member of any military organisation that I am currently aware of, it makes it
my
responsibility to kick their sorry arses off-world, back to where they came from!”
The Boss’s little speech was met with general applause, The Colonel most exuberant amongst them. Apocalypse Girl and I joined, but I could see in her eyes that she was feeling the same way as I about the situation; there was fuck-all we could really do about it. Whoever, whatever they are, they would outstrip our technology by a wide margin. Personally, I held little faith that we would hold out in a firefight, as they would presumably be armed with laser or plasma weaponry. At the very least, their projectile and missile weapons would be far in advance of our own, and in a hand to hand encounter, with their extra elbows and far greater mass, I was not liking our chances of survival there, either.
I did, however, agree with The Boss on one major point, though. These Terraformers were clearly hostile, clearly the enemy. We had to do something about them. Was it even going to be possible to kick them out, now that they’re actually here?
evening
Most of the base had heard the news by dinner time. The mess was almost empty, just the more hardened troops making sure that they get their last meal in. The ones that knew that any meal might be their last. Looking at Apocalypse Girl, I realised that we were actually there for the same reason. It felt strange to lump myself in with these guys, many of whom had participated in some of the more recent, ultimately idiotic conflicts amongst various races or cultures of humanity. Looking more closely, I realised that many of them might well have even been on opposing sides. The Dead rising made us all realise that human is still human, Living is still Living.
The Brigadier wandered in, almost in a daze, with a tray full of grub, and sat next to us. Shaking his head occasionally, he ate, clearly not tasting the food he shovelled into his gob. Every now and then, he would whisper something. Leaning closer I heard; “They really are aliens. Shit. We’re done for now.” He repeated the phrase over and over. Then, finished with the plate before him, he stood, saluted us all and all but fled back to his office. Some of the grunts began laughing derisively. As the ranking officer present, I felt I had to stick up for the poor guy.
“Look, you guys have all been through the shit, either before or after the Dead,” I stood on my table for effect. Many of the troops in front of me laughed as derisively as they had at The Brigadier. “And so have I.” Some in the back began chattering, telling people that I’d saved their bacon in and around Canberra. Many times over. Most of the laughter dropped off, the troops begrudgingly looking at me with respect. “He hasn’t. But, he still knows what’s what. He still knows that these fuckers are really out there. You’ve all faced death before, looked the Reaper in the eye. Respect the man for facing Death’s First Stare.”
Giant spoke out, saying that I was right. We had all seen that look, in ourselves and in each other. Just because he was an officer, unused to the prospect of an imminent and bloody demise, didn’t mean that he was less of a man. He had faced Death with dignity. She herself was going to his office to apologise in person. As she stood and left the mess, everybody followed, to the last man. Those from Canberra shared a smile and handshake for Apocalypse Girl and myself, first.
late evening
Just as I was about to turn in for the night, Giant came up to me. “He was almost ready to quit, you know.” Her expression, from what I could tell down here, at least, was grim. “When I knocked on his office door and walked in, he was putting his gun away. It looked like he’d had it in his mouth. I don’t think it’ll be a problem now though. Everybody apologised, one at a time, face to face. I think it’s done him some good.” I certainly hoped it had.
I opened the door to the quarters that I shared with Apocalypse Girl, hearing the radio chirp slightly as I did so. Snatching it up from the nightstand quietly, quickly, before she awoke to the noise, I scarpered out of the room, down the corridor, eventually ending up outside in the cold night air.
It was Smart Guy, asking us once again, almost pleading with us, to join him and his counterpart. He could still tell us nothing about where he was, not without our agreement to come directly to him, which I was unable to give. The more I learned about the way this world worked, the more I wanted to join our genius friends. The problem was, I had a duty here. He knew about the Terraformers, obviously, they had access to the same few remaining spy satellites that hadn’t been knocked out of orbit yet that we were using here.
All I could say was that if things get any worse, we would try to make our way to them. As Apocalypse Girl’s pregnancy progressed the likelihood that we were going anywhere became closer to nil.
September 7
th
Year 1 A.Z.
morning
I was clearly not the only one unable to sleep last night. Much of the population in the mess hall were comparably bleary-eyed, every few seconds someone yawned, setting off a chain reaction among those nearest. I myself was caught in three of these chain reaction yawns before making my way to the table at which my squad was seated. If not for Apocalypse Girl’s shoulder forcing me into a seat, I might have succumbed to the third, most vicious yawn-chain and passed out entirely. I had been thinking about my conversation with Smart Guy all night. And the Terraformers. And The Righteous. And Apocalypse Girl’s pregnancy. For fucks’ sakes, I was almost distracted enough that I nearly forgot about the Dead.
Naturally the main topic of conversation was the new extraterrestrial threat that had taken Sydney from the Shadow overnight. Their construction bugs were finally done and I was assured that I needed to have a look at the finished complex. Someone was passing photos around, mainly different angles of the single Terraformer that I saw yesterday. Wall was laughing at the suggestion that he might even lose against this thing in an arm wrestling match, though his chuckles sounded slightly strained. Giant just sat there, studying the enemy, a grim expression on her otherwise formidably pretty face.
Apocalypse Girl forced me to eat something, though I know not what, a mixture of exhaustion and trepidation stealing away what little ability my tastebuds had. The coffee was what truly mattered most, anyway. Blessed caffeine. With a half dozen cups of blackness under my belt I felt much more able to face the day.
noon
The Brigadier was in fine fettle today. He greeted the pair of us with a grin, thanking me for my words yesterday. He was fine, he told us, no more of that suicidal thoughts rubbish. No, his sidearm was for the Dead and aliens only, he assured us. Then, he was back to barking orders at subordinates while they scurried about like ants doing his bidding.
The computer lab was almost overflowing, no seats remained un-sat in, and there was precious little standing room. Every screen showed the newly grown Terraformer base that now occupied all of Sydney. The Harbour Bridge had now been incorporated into the main design, though the Opera House remained untouched. A ring of Terraformer technology encircled it but nowhere did it connect.
Zooming out we could see a sort of transportation network, tubes connected one part of the complex to every other section, what looked like large, dark figures speeding along inside. I could only assume that they were more Terraformers. Everything had a kind of sterile, metallic quality to it, as if a hospital turned into a city.
Still, it seemed as if everyone had to have a look. I saw The Colonel at one point, sticking her scarred nose into it, trying to gather what information she could. There was, unfortunately, nothing new to be learned. Just several thousand printouts of photographs to study and pore over for hours upon hours at a time. There really was nothing for the pair of us to do there, so we left. Apocalypse Dog was grateful that someone actually
came out
of the computer lab.
evening
Trying to take it easy was never a simple task, even before the world ended. Now it was all soldiers trying to take my time away from me. In this instance, it was Maori and Wall. The pair wanted to go topside and try to infiltrate The Righteous. They were easy enough to join up with, by all accounts, just a little rabid and territorial. They also didn’t like it when members of their organisation tried to leave. I still told them it was a bad idea. Grumbling about my decision, they nevertheless respected it and removed themselves from my presence, only to be replaced by The Colonel.
“Is there anything you can tell me, anything at all?” The small woman stalked about the room like a caged tiger. “I’ve been going mental without any news. Now, with Sydney, I just don’t know. How do we deal with these things?” I told her what I could, which was not a lot. Even then, I was yawning more than talking.
After The Colonel came an influx of regular troops, men that I had seen and served with around Canberra. It was amazing that many of these people were still alive, all things considered. There had been an awful lot of Dead encountered by both them and us in the intervening months, not to mention all the bandits and ghouls and mutants of various strains.
In the end, I was not able to make my nightly radio run. Just too damned tired for any of that shit. Christ, I can hardly keep my eyes open now as it is. Sleep beckons.