Dreadnaught

There were no warnings, no signs or energy fluctuations. One moment, the skies over Tokyo Bay were clear, the bright sun shining over ship packed seas, reflecting over rolling waves in a Pacific breeze. Then, it appeared, suddenly with no sound and no visual cue. Nothing but the screams of a few thousand people as darkness and the slight tinge of electric tension suddenly filled the harbour. It laid there in the sky with no noise or movement, shaped like a thick pole with two pop cans attached to its ends with rings revolving around its two bases. Still there was no noise. It sat unmoving in the sky as reporters started to gather within the harbour, army officials moving their warships and planes towards it. Crowds numbering in the tens of thousands nervously watched the anomaly as its four rings orbited around its ends.

The silence itself unnerved the general audience, now with reports being broadcast all over the city as well as the world itself. Humanity had now encountered something beyond its own doing. It had encountered its first true alien. Leaders around the world were informed quickly of the situation and gathered to discuss what was to be done. No one knew what to do; no one knew what to say. It was an alien spacecraft, simple as that. Scholars and mathematicians, scientists and engineers from around the globe gathered as well, gathering as much information as they can about the anomaly. Hours passed and the crowds gathered, now numbering close to ten million upon the shores of the Japanese harbour just to watch the strange craft. Religious fanatics and politicians alike set up shop, hoping to gain attention via the strange occurrence. Humanity was captivated.

As day progressed into night, the bright city lights of Tokyo somehow illuminated the structure, its constantly spinning rings moving in unison with each other. With the darkness, people could now see the deep blue energy that powered the craft, with lines crisscrossing the hull, turning in perfect right angles; veins for a massive, metallic beast. Still, the crowds gathered and news reports still poured in. Spotlights were erected, shining upon the massive structure as news helicopters and reconnaissance aircraft few underneath it and above, sending data directly to those who wished to study the craft for different purposes. Time passed as the millions that now gathered witnessed the craft's first movements. Upon the large, revolving rings opened what seemed to be vents, and out of the openings came large, wireframe structures; antennae. The human race held its breath at the next sign of movement, but there came none. That was it. For the remainder of the evening and into the next day, the ship stopped any form of movement, save for the revolution of its rings. Governments and agents searched for any hidden signal emanating from the vessel, finding almost nothing of the sort, save for a few stray numbers. No big deal.

The United Nations then announced a mandatory gathering of world leaders within Tokyo to discuss further actions to be put into effect. They had much to discuss as each of their most brilliant minds had attempted to find reasoning to this anomaly.

"Destroy it!" called out a representative.

"Attempt to contact it," yelled another.

"Board it," suggested one, "And we'll see if there's life within."

"You would not expect anyone to do such a task," scoffed a militarily dressed man. "There is no way on this earth that such an event would take place. Hell, not even North Korea would dare try anything on this!"

"That is an insult to our great country!" shouted a delegate from the dictator ruled country. "Our Great Leader would definitely attempt such an ac-"

"Shut the hell up, stir fry," another man remarked, earning him a glare from the delegate.

"Settle down, gentlemen," a woman grumbled. "There is no need to fret. We can have a manned mission to the craft. Make it a world wide effort to finally make contact. People have been asking us to do it already. Why don't we give the people what they want?"

"But who would want to go into the ship? It is like going into the void of space once more!" a heavily accented man shouted. "Who would want to face certain death at the hands of God knows what lurks within that vessel?"

"NASA already has a crew pulled from the world's combined space and aeronautics programs," the woman replies.

"Who gave you authority?" the accented man boomed.

"The entirety of the western world's governments, banks, and most of all: the President himself," the woman growled angrily. "The launch will be in a day, ladies and gentlemen. Announce it to the world. We're making contact."

Even at that point, the shouting continued within the meeting, with countries agreeing and disagreeing with one another and tensions rising higher and higher. It lasted for hours, nearing to the end of the day where Tokyo's city life illuminated the still levitating object. The crowds still gathered upon the harbour, now even more feverish and eager to see the massive floating structure. Now massing over ten million, the harbour hadn't seen this many people walking upon its docks. Banners and tents were erected. Effigies of the structure were built. Religious leaders condemned. People yelled and screamed, as if they saw something move upon the anomaly, always finding that it was a stray bird or a trick of the eye. Spotlights now shone directly onto the massive metal monstrosity, illuminating it once more, bathing it in an ivory finish. More and more aircraft few around the massive anomaly, as if flies were buzzing around the girth of an elephant. Boats floated underneath the structure, their passengers reaching up, wanting to touch the anomaly high above them.

The Tokyo cityscape also illuminated the western world's pride: a sea based launch pad for their astronauts heading into the anomaly. Surrounded by battle cruisers coming from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Panama and almost every other country bordering the western seaboard, the floating vessel was protected if in any case tensions rose to their utmost highest. From their meeting point, the leaders of the world watched as the fleet assembled into the harbour, forming a firm barrier between the people watching and themselves. Even from the boats, the men onboard could feel that electric tinge that flowed through their very bones, as if every eye was now fixated upon them and not upon the ship. A few captains even tried to look upon the docks themselves to see if this was correct and eerily enough, it was.

All eyes were now fixed upon the vessels, blank faces with wide eyed stares.

Those above, within the United Nations, even saw this as the activity within the crowds died down abruptly. Those few who listened and watched the news reports now saw the reporters themselves stare at the screen right into their own eyes. The electric tinge of excitement was now clearly washed away with the essence of nervousness. The woman who had declared the launch earlier within the day leaned against a pillar, staring out into the crowds outside, the faint glows of a few torches and the bright city lights illuminated against her glasses.

"Still going to launch? The world seems to have its eye on you," the delegate from North Korea snidely remarked as he walks up to the glass that separated the air conditioned room, reporters' eyes seemingly following him.

The woman shivered, closing her eyes tightly. And for that moment, she saw something. She screamed, her perfectly polished nails digging into her hair. Her shrill screams seem to have broken whatever had captivated the world as everything resumed. No staring. No blank faces. Everyone went back to their normal selves, save for the woman. She continued screaming, the other leaders and delegates either walking out of the room unnoticed or trying to calm her down as the news blared on from the TV. The crowds outside were now stirring, as if their patience had been worn down enough to finally show a bit of grief. The woman yelled, tears streaming down from her face, crying out loud, speaking in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and other biblical languages. She screamed and yelled, causing a few delegates to call the security guards while others told them to be off, thinking that they had the situation in control. Her condition worsened as she started to convulse, spitting at the air and tearing off her clothing, biting at the bare skin. She broke her glasses into two, clenching the metal frame tightly and jabbing it into her neck. The wound immediately poured out blood. She stopped, her bones cracking and snapping into disjointed forms. Cocking her head, she turns slowly, staring the North Korean delegate in the eyes. Her manic, almost animalistic eyes stared at the usually calm and collected man before rolling back into her head. She cracks a smile, slowly as she revealed growing rows of teeth. Not sharp and jagged, but normal human teeth. Arranged in rows within her mouth she gapes, her jaw dislocating, earning her the scream of the delegates within the room. The blood still poured from her wound as she closed her mouth.

She smiles once more, that demonic and unholy smile before speaking in an ungodly voice. A mix of the softest of whispers and the dragging of chains through broken glass, her voice slowly grew as she spoke her words, reverting back to English.

"He counts on our curiosity," the woman croaks in her hellish voice. "We will launch and He will be sated."

A bullet smashed through the back of her head and out her forehead, downing her in the pool of blood that she herself created. The security guards immediately filed in, paramedics starting to wrap the body of the demonic woman. The delegates were shaken, not in the mood for any interview that would inevitably follow the meeting of the United Nations; all of them retreated to the apparent safety of their hotel rooms within the same building. They could not believe what they had seen. Then again, who would believe that would even happen? As the night progressed into early dawn, gunshots ringed out from every corner of the building. Furniture was being knocked over. The dead hung from rafters and lay in the crimson essence that once gave them life. Outside, the planes launched from their mobile base, the same wide eyed stares washing over the crowds once more. They stared with their eyes open and unblinking; mouths gaped opened much wider than usual as the planes circled the massive anomaly.

It starts to move.

Upon its main hull, it extended a platform, casting a shadow directly over the entire fleet much like the mountains that dwarfed Hannibal's armies of old. Taking the lead, the planes made their descent and landed upon the platform given to them. It took five minutes for every pilot to get off of their planes and when the first human step landed upon alien metal, the crowds shifted once more, yet their eyes still stared above at the anomaly, and towards the ships as a rising sun casted a new dawn upon them. A young boy screeches, his scream turning into something that no human had heard before, a hellish tone that would mimic that of a thousand souls crying out into the darkness from the pits of Hell itself. His infernal screaming is soon joined in by hundreds more as the crowds start to become uneasy.

The pilots moved closer to the source of the platform as a passageway appeared suddenly upon the hull.

"Welcoming us in with open arms," remarked a pilot as millions of news stations worldwide tape the footage live, well aware of the crowds starting to become altered.

Closer and closer the pilots walked towards the darkness of the ship's interior. Every single one of them felt that electric tinge of nervousness, that gut feeling that there was something dangerous lurking within the shadows. Human nature. One more step. They felt that cold chill within their spines, shivering within their specially designed suits. The crowds start to screech louder and louder, swaying from side to side in random swathes, heads banging violently against each other. The pilots' walk ends right at the doorstep. Their leader gulped. They walked in.

At the United Nations hotel, the dead were still being identified. The woman lay where she fell, being examined by the security guards and forensic investigators as they pried into a relatively new corpse. One moved strands of her dark hair from her disfigured face and she sways back up into a standing position.

"Humanity shall meet God," the woman croaks, her infernal voice gripped every ear within the room. "And they shall become His angels."