Helen stood up, walked towards the front of the room, and started her overhead slide presentation. “Thank you John. I know we can agree that this has been an interesting past couple of weeks. We have finally concluded our initial negotiations with the Creytes and President Ratherson has issued orders on how to deal with the Oria situation. Today’s agenda will cover what we agreed to with the Creytes and the implications of Ratherson’s orders concerning Oria. If you have any questions, please feel free to interrupt. This next slide highlights the key components of our agreement with the Creytes. The Creytes have agreed to help us improve our medical care technology, improve our power generation and
distribution, and to make many new improvements to our agricultural base. We also have a trade agreement that will enable us to directly trade with the United Creyte Republic. In addition, we will begin sending teams to the United Creyte Republic to receive training and learn about their food system. In exchange, the Creytes will have access to some of our natural resources and we will have our country become a member state of the United Creyte Republic. Our military will become an operational unit under theirs and training will initiate once the agreement is ratified by Congress.”
John Wilson was horrified at the proposition Helen had just presented. He wasn’t convinced that the Creytes could be trusted in even a normal relationship between states, and was even more concerned when Helen spoke of making the U.S. defense an arm of the Creyte military. He raised the first question. “Ms. Marshal, we see that you have been busy. I think everyone in this room would like to gain access to their medical and other technologies. Our major concern is ‘can the Creytes be trusted?’ Are we moving too fast to form this type of alliance?”
Helen smiled back at John. “Good point Mr. Wilson. That, of course, is the key question. I can point to evidence that overwhelmingly says yes. Yes, the Creytes can be trusted! My next slide addresses this key question. First, the Creytes have already provided us a number of technological capabilities, particularly in the area of medicine. In addition, just this morning, the Creytes provided us a series of pictures showing an alien starship capturing our space shuttle, a starship under command of the criminal Oria. Let’s step through some of these overheads on the screen showing this evidence”.
Helen slowly ran through a series of slides clearly showing the space shuttle’s capture by a large starship. The final slides showed the shuttle’s release and its detonation. She closed with a slide showing the gruesome remains of human body parts and clothing. One of the jackets contained Major Brown’s nameplate.
Helen let the room focus on the last slide for several minutes. She waited for the horror to sink in. “I see everyone appears as upset by these photos as I was. With these horrible images still in mind, let’s look at the Executive order released by Ratherson this morning. It declares Oria to be an enemy to the state and guilty of crimes against humanity. We must capture or kill Oria on site. Anyone knowingly supporting Oria is a criminal and we are immediately required to arrest them. Ratherson was quite unhappy to read about our military operation in West Virginia last night and the total collapse of the Laser Watch operation. The list of murders committed by Oria continues to grow. He killed an innocent civilian in a bar brawl that he instigated. He escaped from jail, and now is responsible for the destruction of a U.S. space shuttle and the murder of its crew. Laser Watch is terminated and anyone involved in last night’s failed military strike is to be arrested.”
9:00 AM: Laser Watch Situation Room
A dozen MP’s entered the Laser Watch situation room finding Bronson and Sloan discussing how to stop Helen Marshal from destroying their operation. One of the MP Sergeants interrupted the two generals. “Are you General Bronson and General Sloan?”
Bronson roared back. “Yes Sergeant, what can we do for you?”
“Sir, I have to place the two of you under arrest. We will be rounding up the rest of your team this morning and arresting them as well. Laser Watch is finished. Our orders are direct from the President. Sorry sir.”
The MPs rounded up the rest of the Laser Watch team and put them into the Pentagon lock-up. Finally, the MPs sealed the Laser Watch situation for evidence.
Bronson knew that this was going to be a bad day. He just never envisioned jail as being part of it. He feared that the latest development not only destroyed him, but those who worked for him as well.
10:30 AM: Hikers find body parts
Dan and Sue loved the fresh mountain air. It was a beautiful sunny day with a clear blue sky. They had just reached a small trail leading to one of West Virginia’s beautiful mountain views. Sue ran ahead of Dan and was about to reach the view when she suddenly stopped. She let out a loud scream as she saw a pile of human bones and half-eaten human bodies. Dan’s heart raced when he reached the horrible view. The dead and half-eaten people were still warm and killed only a short time ago. What horrible creature killed them and where was it? Dan and Sue both consumed by a primordial fear.
Dan reached for his cell phone. He was shaking so badly he could barely dial 911.
A dispatcher answered. “Is this medical or police emergency?”
Dan replied in a shaky voice. “They’re dead. There’s a pile of half-eaten dead people. Please help. We’re on Pete’s Bluff. I don’t . . . . “
Durinea saw a couple calling for help. He had only left for a minute. What were they doing here interrupting his meal? In anger, Durinea attacked the couple and paralyzed them with his stun gun. He quickly called Retilia and asked for further directions. He didn’t have a choice this time. He had hoped to keep his habit of eating local campers a secret from Retilia. He knew Retilia would disapprove. Retilia did not want to compromise their mission.
Retilia arrived with several other Creytes. As Durinea expected, Retilia was livid over the event. His only hope was to try to clean up the mess before anyone else came along, particularly the police. Retilia ordered his Creytes to pick up the remains including Dan and Sue. They would take the entire mess back to their hide-away.
Officer Hamilton was flying his helicopter looking for speeders when heard the dispatcher’s call. He swiftly changed course and headed towards Pete’s Bluff. When he got there, he saw a small group of strange creatures stuffing two humans and several other half-eaten bodies into a sack. He turned on the chopper’s video cameras and started relaying pictures back to the dispatch center. As he approached the peak, the creatures saw him and dropped the sack holding two human bodies. They disappeared quickly down the side of the mountain. Hamilton flipped on his infrared sensors and saw the pack head into the mountain.
Sheriff Bill Larson was attempting to catch up with some paper work when one of his deputies led him into the dispatch office to see films from their lone helicopter. He watched in horror as he saw several strange creatures devouring what used to be humans. The footage showed the creatures looking up, dropping uneaten humans, and darting down the mountainside. Larson had seen enough. He wasted no time in calling all his deputies together to converge on a spot within a mile of the creatures’ hide-away. It was 11AM when Larson finally ordered his team to a 1PM rendezvous.
1:00 PM: Sheriff’s deputies attack Creyte stronghold
Larson and his deputies had all reviewed the video by the time they met at the designated rendezvous point. No one had any idea of what these creatures were. As a result, they were packing as much heavy weaponry as they could carry. The team had dynamite, M16’s, and a mixture of other semi-automatic
and fully automatic weaponry.
Larson led his men to a location within 100 yards of where the pilot saw the creatures disappear into the mountainside. The team stopped and examined the site through binoculars. They wanted to be ready with a plan for whatever lay ahead of them. Slowly, the team started to head towards the Creyte stronghold. They hadn’t even covered more than a couple of
steps when the ground in front of them exploded in a burst of flame. These creatures were firing at them with some high tech weaponry.
Only two out of the six deputies made it back from the hailstorm in front of them. Those that survived crawled not feeling the pain from their severely burned bodies. They only felt pain from broken bones piercing their flesh and from their internal injuries.
Larson reached up and felt his face. It had no feeling of its own. He was shocked to pull flakes of charcoal where there used to be flesh. Larson knew that death was close as he discovered charred flesh coving most of his tortured body. With a final effort, Larson managed to turn on his radio’s microphone. “Base, this is Larson. Our mission has failed. The creatures attacked us. Four of my men are dead. Tom and I are the only ones left. You need to bring in SWAT, or the Guard. We can’t hold out much longer. They’re armed.”
A blackness swelled up inside of Larson, that blackness was death.
2:00 PM: Sheriff Department calls in SWAT Team
Ellen Thompson was on dispatch when Larson’s last message came in. She had seen some of the earlier footage and had a bad feeling about Larson’s operation. She had even suggested calling in someone from the outside. Larson, with his big ego, would have nothing to do with that. Now he was probably dead.
Ellen called the state police dispatcher and informed him of the disaster in West Virginia. The state police dispatcher, Carlos Brown was a big friendly black man who frequently kidded Ellen about working for a small township. He wanted her to become a State Police dispatcher. When Carlos heard the distress in Ellen’s voice, he knew something bad happened. Ellen had worked as a dispatcher for so many years that not much upset her.
“Ellen, slow down. What happened?”
“Carlos, everyone’s dead! Larson took all of his deputies out this morning to investigate some creatures that killed and ate a bunch of people.”
“What? What do you mean a bunch of creatures?”
“Carlos, we have it on video tapes. I’ve never seen anything like it. Apparently not only are they vicious, they are heavily armed.”
Carlos heard what Ellen was saying. He even understood her, but he had a hard time believing what she was telling him. “What do you mean
they are heavily armed? What you’re saying doesn’t make sense.”
“I know Carlos, I know. Let me email you a copy of the video. One of the last things Larson said before his signal went dead is that they are armed, call SWAT or the Guard.”
Carlos was just receiving the first of the pictures Ellen emailed. He double clicked on them and could not believe what he was seeing. Carlos decided quickly to inform the Officer of the Day of the situation.
3:00 PM: SWAT Team is destroyed by Creytes
Captain Lee was just about to start his unit’s normal Saturday afternoon drills when his cell phone rang. It was Deputy Chief Lewis.
“Yes Chief. What can I do for you today?”
“Captain, I’ve just downloaded the situation into your briefing book. You and your two teams need to head to a cave just below Pete’s Bluff. From the looks of it, you better pack some heavy artillery.”
“We’re ready. What’s the skinny?”
“Sheriff Larson and a team of deputies were annihilated by some alien looking creatures earlier today. It appears that these creatures eat humans and Larson took his men and tried to stop them. We have received several reports of a massive explosion near that location. We believe that and his men are dead. Several hunters were able to get close enough to see Larson. They threw some stones a few feet in front of them and triggered another explosion. I don’t know what you’re going up against, but it doesn’t look good.”
Lee assembled his men and went over the pictures downloaded into his electronic briefing book. The team discussed the situation for only a few minutes and then headed towards Pete’s Bluff.
Lee sent one team above the cave opening. The other team approached from below, tracing Larson’s earlier steps. Lt. Miki commanded the team coming down the mountain. Lee headed the team coming from below.
Lee and his company approached the site where Larson still lay, burned to death. About 10 yards in front was a large burned area. Lee tossed a small knife into the center of the burn area. Before it reached ground, he saw a light burst from the cave and moments later the knife was in the middle of a large explosion. If Lee had stood there, he would be dead, the same as Larson.
Miki was approaching from above the cave entrance. Retilia detected his approach. He knew that he would have to destroy this team the same as the last one. Durinea’s disobedience certainly had revealed the Creytes’ true nature. It was only a matter of time before Helen Marshal and Ratherson knew of their propensity to eat humans. They would probably figure out the White House break-in as well. Retilia figured they could defend themselves against any weaponry that Earth possessed. The problem was Oria. Oria still lived and was free. If Oria managed to join the fight or managed to pass on some technology, Retilia’s small group was doomed. His small force was no match for an Azortec starship! Retilia knew he had to plan his escape from Earth.