Invasion Read online

  “Don’t be afraid. What you are looking at is an alien race that will not hurt you. They are here with us to rescue your CEO. You are free to return to your homes and stay inside, no matter what you hear out here.”

  A less timid, older woman came forward, “May I ask who you are and what corporation you are with? We only just found out there were aliens in the galaxy and now we find there is yet another type. How do we process this?”

  “First, let me tell you that we are not affiliated with any corporation, we are part of a democratic republic,” Alaya could see the confusion in the eyes of the old woman. She was resolved to the fact that humans in corporate space would never actually understand non-corporate governance. “The aliens with us we call serpents and they are actually part of our government and live at all levels of our society. Not all aliens are like the Saltic. Now please find shelter, we have other humans to rescue in the train station.”

  As the humans dispersed back to their houses, many of them kicking the bodies of the Saltic as they walked past them, Alaya and Optio Brave Claw got messages in their ears indicating the maglev train was pulling into the station. Those above ground ran to the station entrance and went down the stairs until they were on the last landing before the stairs turned onto the platform. Alaya looked around the corner as did Optio Brave Claw. They saw five Saltic holding energy weapons on the humans while they all watched the train arriving. The interesting things about trains were the fact that they were large and impressive, so that even aliens were attracted to them and couldn’t help but stare. The problem with that is you are not watching your rear and that is what the serpents were waiting for. On the optio’s orders they charged down the stairs and ran at the Saltic. They first came upon three Saltic between the stairs and the humans. The serpents reached them quickly and ripped them open with their claws. A total of ten serpents went in, but the two Saltic on the other side of the humans had time to react, since the humans screamed at the sight of the serpents. The Saltic opened fire and hit two of the serpents, both of whom died on the spot. Before a third could be hit, the human legionaries opened fire on the Saltic and took them out. Medics ran to the downed serpents, but there was nothing to do for them. The energy pulse rifles had burned right through their bodies at chest height. Alaya came down and told the humans to be calm and move away from the train, which was about to stop. They could already see Saltic in all of the cars holding guns on the humans. They had not yet seen what transpired on the platform and they would not see it in time. After the maglev train came to a halt, the doors opened and a few of the Saltic guards came out to help with the new human passengers. As the guards came out, they immediately saw something was wrong, but it was too late. The Saltic had soft bodies and these were not wearing armor, since they did not expect any resistance. Within seconds they were torn open by the serpents as the human legionaries entered the cars and moved to neutralize the remaining Saltic guards. The humans were wearing their special reflective armor and the shots from the Saltic energy weapons did not have time to penetrate the shields. Since the Saltic were not armored, the humans used their projectile weapons with silencers and flash suppressors. There were six cars to the train, and two humans entered each of five cars with three serpents entering the last car. The serpents made quick work of the guards in the last car, though one serpent was grazed by an energy bolt and needed some medical treatment of the arm. The humans killed all of the Saltic but one was able to get off a shot that penetrated the face mask of a legionary’s helmet and the heat cause the brain to boil and the skull to rupture. Death was instantaneous. When it was over, two serpents and one human legionary were dead along with twenty Saltic and five human prisoners who were caught in the crossfire. The prisoners made it difficult for the Saltic to mount a defense, since they were in the way, but the Romani were trained to take advantage of the slightest opening to fire through. Alaya had also been right in her assessment, these were the lesser quality troops used by the Saltic. She felt the best quality may well be in the city.

  After the fighting was over, the human prisoners were told to exit the train and make their way home as best they could. Alaya went up to the engineer’s compartment and knocked on the door.

  “Who is it?” was the quick response from the other side.

  “This is Captain Alaya Slone of the of the Nova Romae scout ship Mary Rose. We are here to free your CEO if possible and we have killed all of the Saltic on the train. You are safe now.”

  The engineer opened the door and Alaya could see the fear in his eyes. “I am not safe if you expect me to drive this train into the city. They are waiting for this load of prisoners and when the train arrives empty, they will kill me.”

  “You do not have to drive the train; just answer one question for me. Does this train run on autopilot and will it automatically stop at administration square?”

  “Yes it will do all of that. When your people are aboard, I can set it to do that and give myself enough time to get off before it moves. Would that work?”

  “Yes that will work.” Alaya then stuck her head out of the side door and told the optio the train would be leaving shortly. She had put in a call to the Mary Rose indicating they had taken over the train and were heading into the city. She also told them they had casualties and needed some bodies picked up from the station platform. She left it to Tavia to determine the best way to do this. The group all entered the first car of the maglev train as the engineer set it on autopilot non-stop to the administrative square. The engineer then left the train and the doors closed automatically. A few seconds later the train began to speed up. They blew by several stations, all of which looked deserted. As luck would have it, they had found the last station used for loading prisoners. This suggested that the Saltic already controlled everything around the city and the city itself. After a run of about twenty minutes, the maglev train began to slow down and shortly thereafter, pulled into a station labeled ‘Administration Square’. As they pulled in, they could see several Saltic standing on the platform waiting for the train to arrive with its prisoners. Optio Brave Claw ordered her troops to duck down below the level of the windows so the Saltic would not see them. What they could not hide was the fact that the cars did not contain any humans. The optio ordered the human Special Forces to form a shield wall behind the doors. When they opened the Romani came out with shields up and firing their automatic rifles. The Saltic fired back, but they had not expected resistance and this resulted in a poor defense and they went down fast, but not before they took out another serpent that was moving out of the train behind the human shield wall. The Romani exited the train and sent two serpents up the stairs to scout out the square above. They came back and reported hundreds of Saltic in the square above, herding humans into shuttles for removal to the harvester ships. They also reported the returning ships brought back the naked bodies of the harvested humans and piled them up in the square. Alaya thought this odd, since they Saltic never had use for bodies before and would just dump them in space.

  Alaya went over to where the optio was standing along with the Brandenburger captain. “Captain Neumann, we cannot get to the CEO’s building by crossing the plaza. It’s full of Saltic. Is there any way we can reach it from down here?”

  Captain Neumann pulled out a tap node and asked it for maps of underground utilities. It projected a map of the utilities above the hand in which he held the node. All present looked intently at the map.

  “Captain, which of these buildings is the one we want?” Alaya asked.

  “It is this one,” Captain Neumann pointed to a tall building at one end of the plaza.

  “Can we fit into that utility tunnel, it looks like it runs parallel to the maglev line and then turns to cross the plaza,” Captain Morel pointed out.

  “We could use that for going in and out, but there is a problem. There is a foot of concrete separating the two tunnels,” Captain Neumann indicated.

  “I think we can cut through that,” Alay
a said and then conferred with the optio. “Optio Brave Claw agrees with me that we can cut through the foot of concrete with our energy blasters. Either way we cannot stay here. Eventually the Saltic will come down here and check what happened to the troops we killed. Let’s pull out and move down the tunnel.”

  “What about our dead serpent?” one of the human medics asked.

  “We will have to leave the body. If we’re lucky they will get the serpent disease from it,” Alaya said and asked the optio to lead the group down the maglev tube to where it was close to the utility tunnel.

  As they moved down the tube, Captain Neumann asked what was meant by the serpent disease. Slone clued him in, “When we fought the Saltic before we discovered that the serpents carry an organism that the Saltic are not immune to. Fortunately it does not affect humans. It took about a week after exposure for them to die. What we don’t know is if it is contagious from one Saltic to another and we are not sure if dead serpents can infect them or if only live ones can. I think we will have to see what happens here.”

  The humans in the group nodded and they all moved on to the area of the wall they needed to cut. About 1400 meters into the tunnel, the map indicated the point at which the utility tunnel and the maglev tube were only one foot of concrete apart. The optio ordered the human legionaries to move forward and fire at the wall below the side maglev magnets. This would allow further use of the maglev trains with no risk of it beginning discovered. The train they had taken was sent on its way to the end of the line on autopilot. Since the serpent females did not use ranged weapons, only the humans had modified rifles. Ever since fighting the Saltic, the Romani had developed a new rifle with an over and under barrel. The top barrel fired normal slugs used in combat against humans. The lower barrel was designed for energy bursts which burned through Saltic armor. They did not use the energy weapons against humans due to the fact that the crystals that focused the energy deteriorated with use and were only good for about 100 shots. For the present job, they needed the punch of the energy weapon. The legionaries stood abreast with their rifles out and their shields over their backs. On the command of the optio they opened fire. The energy blasts rapidly chipped away at the concrete and nine minutes later, they were through. Fortunately, the Saltic had not yet checked on their troops on the platform. Alaya hoped that meant they got there earlier than expected due to running as an express. She was also glad they sent the train away, since the Saltic would think they were still aboard. They would find the dead serpent, but there was nothing she could do about that. As the last fragment of cement fell away, the optio ordered a halt and had a look through the opening. She came back and said to Alaya, “Sss. Captain Slone, the area is clear.”

  “Very well. I suggest we all move into the utility tunnel and hope they don’t discover the opening.”

  Optio Brave Claw ordered everyone through the opening and also ordered two human legionaries to stand guard on the utility tunnel side of the opening as a rear guard. The rest of the group moved in the direction the map told them the administration building stood. The serpents went ahead, since they had perfect vision in the dark, while the humans formed the center with their utility lights and the rest of the serpents formed the rear. The tunnel looped around the square before turning sharply in the direction of the administrative building. Either the Saltic did not know about the utility tunnel or they didn’t see it as a danger. Either way, they were sloppy. The Romani would have at least set up some kind of traps. They reached the area of the administration building without incident and the optio called a halt. Alaya moved forward and the optio indicated she should look around the corner. She did and saw two Saltic guards standing on either side of an elevator. They were wearing heavy Saltic armor and were armed with the high powered Saltic energy rifle. From the quick look Alaya had, it appeared these were the first quality troops stationed aboard the harvester ships. They would be tough and the utility tunnel let out well clear of the elevator with no way to move forward in steps. They would have to run out and try to hit them with maximum firepower before they could set off an alarm or shoot back. That was a tall order.

  “How do you suggest we proceed?” Slone asked before his wife had a chance to ask.

  “Sss. The serpents will charge them. They will need shields from humans.”

  The human Romani gave their reflective shields to five of the serpents. The plan was for the serpents to break cover and run at full speed towards the Saltic guards. The sight of the serpents should slow the reaction of the Saltic, it was hoped. Once the guards were distracted, the best shots among the Romani would fire at the guards with energy weapons and take them down as quickly as possible. At a signal from the optio, the serpents raced out with shields up. The Saltic were startled and then got off a few shots that were deflected by the shields. The snipers came out after the serpents and opened fire on the Saltic with multiple pulses. The energy pulses flew past the charging serpents and hit the Saltic between the helmet and the top of the body armor. Since they did not have a neck, their soft bodies were seared by the heat of the pulses and they dropped. If there was any life left in them, it was taken when the serpents reached them and tore them to shreds. The Romani all assembled at the elevator and discussed the next move. It was decided that two of the serpents would blend into the background on either side of the elevator and the rest could take the elevator up to the CEO’s offices in hopes the Saltic were keeping him there.

  “Captain Neumann, any idea on which floor the CEO might be?” Slone asked.

  Captain Neumann looked at his tablet and keyed in some information. “There are two possible places they could have the CEO and control his movements. One is the board room on the 15th floor and the other is his office, one floor down on the 14th.”

  “Ok, then we should start on the top floor and work our way down. I think it would be safer if we use the stairs, rather than the elevator,” Alaya pointed out.

  “Sss. I agree Captain Slone,” Optio Brave Claw said and sent half of her remaining serpents up the stairs to the 15th floor. These were followed by the humans in the group and the other half of the serpents formed the rear guard. Though they wanted to move up as fast as possible, they had to make sure that each landing was clear of enemies with a quick check of the halls to be certain there were no Saltic in their rear. Even with all of the Saltic troops in the capital, they were still spread very thin and this worked to the Romani’s benefit. They reached the 14th floor and decided not to check if there were any Saltic in the halls, lest they tip them off. They finally reached the landing on the 15th floor. One of the serpent legionaries cracked the door open ever so slightly and sampled the air. She just as quickly closed the door and analyzed the smells. Serpents are able to take scents they capture on their tongues and visualize the present and the recent past. The position of both living and inanimate objects appears as bubbles of different colors in their brain. The stronger the color was, the more recent and closer the object to the sampler. There was no evidence of Saltic activity near the stairwell and no indication they were there recently. The serpents slowly opened the door and rapidly snuck in and blended with the background to vanish. Serpents were the ultimate chameleons, as long as they did not move they were invisible. The other advantage lay in the fact that serpents could see in the infrared and Saltic were warm blooded. There were two Saltic down the hall and around the corner that the serpents could sense in the infrared and some movement in a room beyond that. The optio sent two of the human legionaries down the hall and when they came to the corner, they placed a small camera on the floor that was no larger than a marble and could be pushed with a small rod far enough out to look down the hall. When it was in position, they could see a double door with two Saltic guarding and standing on either side. They knew this would have to be done quickly and efficiently if no alarm was to be given by the guards. The Romani looked to the optio who simply nodded her head. They then suddenly broke cover and each fired at one of the guards, who
were not wearing helmets. Their guns had silencers and flash suppressors which made them silent and undetectable. Before the sudden appearance of the Romani could even register on the nervous system of the Saltic guards, two bullets hit each guard and dropped them where they stood. As soon as this happened the rest of the Romani ran up to the door. The Romani scanned the door with the infrared sensors on their helmets and could see that all of the occupants of the room were of human shape. This meant that only the guards they just killed were present on the floor and the room had only this one entrance. The optio called the serpents back from the door to allow the humans to enter so the freed prisoners would see other humans first. Alaya tried the door and found it was not locked. She pulled it open and the humans in the room pulled closer to the far wall.