Author's Note: This will be the last component to my Falling Skies remake AU. It is set in the same continuum as FS: Korea, FS: Japan and The Boston Massacre and will feature scenes linked through one of the character's relatives to show what is happening in India as well. This one begins roughly a month after the invasion as I have already covered the initial attack from three different points of view. (Korea - military with direct bombardment, Japan - civilians with indirect bombardment, Boston - both military and civilians but no bombardment) This story will probably advance quicker than Korea and Boston Massacre because it is only told from the perspective of one group, at least for the first dozen chapters or so. Later on this will merge with my other story arcs in this AU so that in the end a more global perspective emerges. As always any feedback is most appreciated.
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Chapter I: Divide and Conquer
1 Nov 1940 GMT
Near Brampton, UK
When the visitors turned hostile it did not take long for Great Britain to fall. London was occupied within twelve hours and other major cities fell soon after. Within three days all organized military resistance against the invaders had been squashed and much of the civilian population had been taken captive. Those who escaped made their way north into Scotland. For a time it had appeared they would be safe there; for whatever reason the aliens left the humans in Scotland alone. The people had prepared for and expected an attack that never came. Without fear of extermination some people began talking about a return to lower England but caution held the day and the people waited. In time the alien fighters no longer appeared in the skies over Glasgow at night thus giving rise to the rumor that the remnants of the Army and Air Force had struck back and driven the aliens off the British Isles. A sense of complacency began to take shape and the people living in Scotland began to rebuild.
It was all a ruse. While the humans in the north started settling back into normal lives the aliens had been building a wall much along the very same lines as Hadrian's Wall bisecting Britain in two. It wasn't until an expeditionary force into lower England was mustered two weeks after the retreat that the wall was even discovered by those in the north. It was incomplete but heavy alien garrisons along the gaps in the wall made any attempt to break through a futile endeavor. At that time it appeared the people who had fled north were trapped in what had seemingly been, for whatever nefarious purposes, set up as a safe zone by the aliens while those south of the wall were abandoned to their fate.
Among those hardy survivors who remained south of the Scottish Reservation, as it was called, was a group of soldiers and civilians led by Lt. General Edward Newburgh. This evening they resided in an abandoned country estate surrounded by unkempt fields sown before the war whose harvest had been left to wither in the cold autumn air. Behind them was a vast expanse of fields and woodland before one would reach the town of Brampton to the south. Ahead of them lay a river and beyond that the faint blue glimmer of the alien wall could be seen on the horizon. Overhead the twinkling lights from routine flights of small alien transport craft and fighters going north and south could be seen.
General Newburgh sat on an old rocking chair outside looking north while his people finished their dinner of cold beans in tomato sauce inside the farmhouse. He looked off into the distance towards the faint glow of the wall separating him from the majority of the island's surviving population. He wondered if they knew what was happening in the rest of the country, or the rest of the world. He wondered if they knew about the massive structure whose scaffold had been erected in London. He wondered if any of them even knew he or any of the others south of the wall existed. He had come up here hoping to find a way through to warn them of the danger they still faced and try to enlist their aid in the ongoing fight in England, a fight they were losing badly. Manpower was something the reformed Royal Military was badly in need of. General Newburgh knew of sixteen other resistance groups loosely linked together by a system of couriers and banner relays. There were about 24 people in his company which was about standard for all the other resistance cells except for the headquarters unit in the vicinity of Birmingham which had roughly 100 soldiers and 1100 civilians in their number. He had been stationed in Birmingham with that unit before he had assumed command of the northern expeditionary force on this most important assignment. While he contemplated the logistics of a foray into the north and how this would be achieved his second in command on this mission, Colour Sergeant Stephanie Curtis came out of the house and approached him. Lost in thought the gray haired soldier was surprised when she had seemingly snuck up behind him.
"Whoa, I didn't see you there." said a startled General Newburgh.
"I'm sorry sir. I didn't mean to be sneaky." Curtis apologized and stood beside him, transfixed by the same eerie glow.
"Do you have family on the other side of the wall?" Curtis asked after looking off in silence for a few minutes.
"No. My wife passed away years ago and my daughter Jenny was off on holiday when it happened." Newburgh replied rubbing his weathered chin.
"My sister Kimberly is out there. At least I hope she still is. I have no idea of what kind of awful stuff is going on behind that wall." Curtis told him.
"Don't get all worked up just yet Sergeant. It might not be that bad. We could be the ones on the foul side of the wall. It could be utterly delightful over there." General Newburgh replied.
"Utterly delightful? This is Scotland we're talking about over there." joked Stephanie.
"What's this you're saying about Scotland lass?" chimed in Peter McKeegan, a civil engineer and native of Glasgow, as he came out to stargaze with them.
The plump, bearded fiery orange haired man jovially laughed and walked over to the General and his second in command.
"Lord, I wish we could just knock that thing down." remarked McKeegan.
"We first have to get close enough to see what it is." commented Stephanie.
"Professor Singh has a few theories on how it might work." mentioned McKeegan.
The aforementioned Professor Jyothi Singh was a particle physicist from India. He had come to Oxford for a conference and was left stranded in England when the attack happened. He wasn't much of a fighter but he was very clever and his knowledge into things theoretically possible yet beyond the capability of human engineering made him a valuable asset to take along with them on this mission. He wasn't the only non-combatant among there number. Dr. Terrance Potter, a former orthopedic surgeon was their medical officer and his daughter Sherry whom he insisted remain with him at all times had come. The others, while not all former military were all fairly capable of handling a weapon and engaging in unarmed combat to some extent as well.
"We'll send a small team tomorrow at midday to investigate more closely. Something keeps telling me these spider fellows can see better in the dark." General Newburgh said.
The General stood up and yawned. "For the mean time set a watch around the environs and have everyone turn to their beds. We need to be rested and not make any mistakes when we do this." General Newburgh turned around and told the others before going inside.
McKeegan followed closely behind the General and relayed his command to those inside. Meanwhile Stephanie looked back out towards the wall as if staring off into her own future. Past the source of that glow, somewhere in the distance beyond the horizon her sister was still alive, she knew it. It had to be true, Stephanie told herself. Tomorrow would be a first step towards finding her and all the others that had been imprisoned in the north. They had to succeed in their mission, not only for her sister, but for England and for the world.
"I know you're out there Kim. We're coming for you, I promise." she whispered.