Incipient Strikes

"Our next course…" A few soldiers discussed.

"West Urban is the closest. There's also Bottom Shore, but its-"

"Past congested areas. Guess we'll have to head to Urban, then."

The other soldiers continued to look through the base, eventually finding that all of the supplies were indeed intact - untouched, even. They also searched around for clues on where the people in the base went, but could not find a trace of anything. Several soldiers radioed in that the base was abandoned, with the other bases noting that they had dropped off from communication half an hour prior.

C sat on a medium-sized supply crate to rest. A few other soldiers came and sat down as well, sitting on top of various other crates. One of the soldiers decided to start up a conversation with C.

"Hey, you're C, right?" The soldier asked.

"Yes?" C answered, startled by the sudden jump in noise.

"Name's Colten, nice ta' meet you. I heard from Fredrick that you saved his life twice."

"I did." C answered quickly, "He told you guys about me?"

"He told us a lot of things about you, hero." Colten said in a sarcastic, yet somewhat meaningful manner, "He always talked about you. Told us about how brave you are and stuff. Guess he wasn't kidding; you proved how courageous you are at the hospital."

"I didn't really do much," C said modestly, "You guys did most of the work against the parasites."

"How long have you two been friends? You and Fredrick?"

"We were friends since elementary years. We haven't really separated since then."

"Well, I heard you both talking about the aliens when we were in the hospital."

"Yeah. Do you guys know anything about them? Other than what Fredrick told me, of course."

"Well, I've heard something similar to them from old stories from Olodon." Colten put his hand to his forehead, trying to memorize something, "I think that they invaded Olodon too, long ago - before the whole Olodon 'n Earth link - but were driven out by these Olodonese deities. I think that part is exaggerated, but the alien part fits in perfectly with what's happening right now."

Colten paused again, recalling certain parts of the legend, "If I remember correctly… in the stories, the aliens first attacked in a massive wave of thousands and thousands, maybe even millions. The story records that the aliens had many types of different troops, some were able to blend into the shadows and were sent in swarms, while others were large enough to wipe out towns and were used like bulldozers, sent towards certain major cities. It fits perfectly with what's happening now."

"Blending in with shadows… wait- did they talk about their weaknesses? How did they fight them off?"

"Well, the legends weren't too detailed on that. They just said that humans with superpowers came and fought them off… not much we can relate to. But it gives us a light at the end of the tunnel, doesn't it?"

"That doesn't help much. It kind of just makes them sound a multitude more dangerous…"

Colten laughed, and patted C on the back, "Dangerous or not, they were fought off. They aren't indestructible."

"I guess…" C said, "But what about those that didn't make it? I keep thinking… they would have survived if we knew anything about the aliens."

"I… I feel terrible about being helpless, too. But don't dwell on stuff like that." Colten tried to encourage, "If you think like that in a situation like this, you'll end up face down in the mud crying your tears out of your eyes in record time. You've got to think optimistically, especially in times like these!"

After a short pause, Colten tapped C's rifle, "Besides, you have this with you. As long as you have a fighting spirit, then you can't lose. Especially not against those aliens."

C took a while to sit back upright, before thanking Colten for the morale boost, "You're right sir, uh, Colten is your name, right?"

"Yup."

"Thanks, Colten. These aliens, they seem impossible to overcome. But I remember why I went and searched for the military in the first place." C looked at his rifle, "You're right, we're going to beat these aliens, no matter-"

The conversation was interrupted, with C being cut off by sounds of horns echoing in the distance.

The soldiers looked around in confusion, trying to locate where the loud sounds came from. They went to find the source of the sound, but C already knew what was making the noise.

"Hey!" C tried to say past the tension in his voice, "Those're the aliens! We should h-"

C's warnings fell on empty ears, as the soldiers shushed him and advanced towards where the sound was heard. C had no choice but to follow them. Two soldiers approached the entrance of the base, when they heard a low, unnerving sound, as if something made of metal was growling at them. The noise was enough to make the soldiers stop and aim their guns. They went towards the entrance at a slower pace, aiming their guns forward towards the outside area. C stayed a fair distance behind them, preparing for the worst, as did Colten, noticing C's panic. As C expected, a large creature jumped down, seemingly from the sky, and stared the soldiers right in the face. C saw the creature and immediately recognized it: it was another one of the aliens that attacked him in the city.

The soldiers almost instantly pointed their rifles at the creature, preparing to fire. Oddly enough, the creature stood nearly motionless in the same pose it landed in, producing a faint growl as it stared at the soldiers. The creature's eyes were signified by a dark blue, glowing rectangle, as a lighter blue line within it, possibly being its pupils, slowly moved back and forth between the two soldiers closest to it. C then saw the creature's eyes lock on to him, before it emitted a ear-piercing noise similar to a loud electric alarm. The noise shook the group of soldiers, but they remained aiming steadily. C backed up, until he felt an ominous figure behind himself. He turned around, and saw that another one of the creatures had snuck up on top of one of the buildings. Looking in all directions, he realized that there were more of them, blocking every path around them: they were surrounded.

C hurriedly analyzed the situation; there are three soldiers and five of the aliens in the immediate area. C came to only one conclusion: run. The creature blocking the entrance leapt forward at the soldiers, prompting C to sprint towards the concrete building behind him. The sound of gunfire was cut short as quickly as it was started, followed by a couple of crashes onto the walls behind C. C then heard sharp scratching along the floor as he ran, signaling the creatures' pursuit. C made it into the half-opened metal doors, followed shortly by Colten. Colten pulled the doors shut just in time to block one of the creature's charge. They both looked around for cover, but the entire building was empty, save for a few columns on the exterior walls. C and Colten had no choice but to look for an alternate exit. The creature started to slam its entire body on the door, attempting to break it open.

Colten noticed a closed garage door leading out of the opposing side from where the creatures were. He thought of a plan. Colten went to the door's control panel, and opened the garage door just enough for crawl-space, firing his rifle to cover up the noise. He looked at C, and motioned him to come closer.

"Listen, C." Colten said, barely loud enough to be heard over the slamming at the other door, "You have to go under through here.

I'll stay in here to buy you enough time to get away from those things."

"Wait!" C objected, "You're the soldier here, won't you be more useful than me?"

"C." Colten said in a confident voice, "You've survived all this time on your own - look, not even a single scratch on you! Meanwhile, I had to rely on others to protect me, to defend me. Heck, I spent the entire invasion in the military, and not once have I killed an alien. Not even a parasite at the hospital."

Colten was momentarily stopped by a loud thud on the roof, "You'll do better against the aliens than me, C. That's that. I'll find my own way out. Now go before you run out of time."

C stalled for a second, trying to think of what to say, before he ran past Colten.

"Thank you, sir!" C managed to shout out, before going under the door.

As C crawled under the door, he heard Colten say one last thing, "Get out of here, and find a way to beat these aliens, hero!" 

C heard glass shatter from the roof as he slipped out. Without hesitating, he ran towards the outside of the base, towards the forest again. As he ran, he started to hear gunfire from within the building. C continued running, gaining distance from the base until the sound of gunfire eventually faded out.

C kept running a fair distance into the forest, until he slowed down to a jog and eventually to a full stop. He looked back, but saw nothing but trees. He clenched his fist. C, tired from his run into the forest, looked around to get his bearings. The mass of trees blocked his view and limited his choice in direction. He did not care, his goal was to get away from the base before the creatures catch up to him. He walked aimlessly through the dense foliage for a while, and soon noticed a cleared area of dirt ahead of him. He went towards it, and found himself on a dirt road. With this new, simplified path, C followed the road away from the base.

C trying to think of what to do next. C remembered that Fredrick was back at the base. He almost turned around, but he knew that doing so would be pointless. C felt like falling down to his knees in defeat; "If I could do anything against them at all…" C had race through his mind. But C realized that hoping would do little, instead, he tried to think of what could fight off the skewers - or possibly even the reaper back in the city.

C paused, and sat down next to a tree to rest and think. He took out his rifle and inspected the magazine - more specifically the ammunition inside of it. The bullets were standard 5.56 rounds. C reinserted the magazine, and started to think of a list. Rifle, turret, rockets; C stopped when he found how little he knew of more powerful weaponry. Yet, he felt that something even stronger was needed, more so than he could think of. It felt like such a weapon was on the edge of his thoughts: he could barely make it out, yet it was there. C got up, and started to walk down the path again in an attempt to jump-start his brain.

C started to walk again, when he suddenly heard heralding sounds, not to dissimilar to that of a chainsaw motor, from far off behind him. The birds that were on the trees nearby took off in the opposite direction, leaving the area in crushing silence. C darted back into the foliage, and took out his rifle. Running on instinct, he started to move parallel to the dirt road, but the echoing calls kept coming closer towards him. C turned to the left and went into the denser part of the forest. He ran faster, almost into a sprint, until he realized that the sounds were now originating from nearby - too close for him to keep trailing through the foliage. He dashed behind a tree, and tried to breathe quietly. The creatures closed in; C could now hear them going through the leaves of the nearby bushes.

C suddenly saw a massive, horizontal beam of light that fill the area around him. The light was similar in color to the glow of the creatures' eyes. The light waved up and down, until C heard something stab the bark right next to his underside. He over, and saw a stag beetle, caught by a corkscrewing blade of livid metal. The blade was reeled back by a thin, string-like membrane of some sort, taking the beetle with it. As C stared at the blade, he realized what the light was. C hid his rifle and thought over his options. He knew that if he stayed in place, they would easily find him. He also knew that his rifle would not help in directly hurting them as he witnessed just a while before. Once again, his only option was to run.