Foreword:
As the summary states this is the story of the FS Canon characters set in my remake timeline that I started in FS: Korea.I plan on running this story up to mid-December(in-universe time) at which point it will merge with one major branch of "Our Hearts, Half A World Away" (or whatever I end up renaming that story once it gets going.) and subsequently around the end of s3-s4 timeframe that story will merge with FS :Korea or its direct sequel until the end of this continuity is reached. Being that this in an AU it will not be a direct retelling of events recounted in the comics or referenced in the series. Certain facts and events will deviate from canon here for the initial invasion and the first two seasons with the main cast the differences will be akin to that between TWD the comics and TWD the TV show to give you a frame of reference. From that point onward however forget what you know because it is going to be a whole different animal.Two things I can give out without spoiling anything are that there will be no Espheni Queen in this continuity (I hated the finale and the ridiculous deus ex d**do that was used to quickly slap an ending on the series.) The aliens will be getting far more depth in this continuity (I'll be trying to capture more of what the show was angling towards in the beginning of the series, especially S2) World building was my favorite part of the show and sci-fi/fantasy franchises in general and as such my writing tends to focus on that. The other part I can give away is that the Ben-Hal-Maggie love triangle thing will not be happening (most fans I've come across couldn't stand that subplot) There may still be a ?-Hal-Maggie triangle at some point but it will not contain Ben.If you want clues to the direction I may take with Ben and Maggie there's some strong indications in my aborted S4 rewrite "Beyond The Reach"That being said, this is a different continuity and could totally turn out differently, all of those characters may not even be alive at that point. All that being said, one thing I am trying to stay as true to canon as possible is with the character's personalities and their connections to each other prior to the invasion. Also going to keep with the theme of Revolutionary War parallels for this arc (something the series dispensed with later in it's run. . . We got the battle of Trenton parallel at the end of s3 but I was so wanting to see the Battle of Yorktown's space-based equivalent, sigh) It's been a while since I last watched the show so I've probably forgotten quite a few things, so if you spot anything like that or have suggestions on how to better portray a character please do call me out on that. (One I can think of that I'll probably botch horribly is Matt, unlike Hal and Ben who had their own distinct personalities Matt was just "there" to me.) Another thing I am uncertain about is whether or not to have multiple independent plotlines running at the same time or if I should have separate stories for each group i.e. Tom and his family, Weaver and the military, Pope's group, Anne's group and Anthony's group as some of these groups will not end up meeting each other until after the merger point with "Our Hearts". If it doesn't slow down the story too badly I am more inclined to keep it all in one volume but am interested to see what other people's preference is. I probably will end up revising the first 4 or 5 chapters several times before I get it just the way I like it. I'm still moderately new at writing fanfiction with less than 6 months under my belt so this may still be a little rough to get started (and oh boy do I suck at opening chapters!) but once it gets going I am hopeful that it will improve.Apologies for the long intro/explanation passage here. Any questions, suggestions or comments are welcome and most appreciated.
Cheers!
Update 13 Feb 2016: I am starting a re-formatting of this story (along with FS: Korea and others) it will be a slow process and I will still try and manage regular updates on both stories while I am doing this.
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Chapter I: The Day the Sky Fell
4 Oct 0800 EDT
Somerville, MA, United States
"I can't believe you dragged me to school on a Saturday." Hal remarked as his girlfriend, Karen led him up the stairs by the custodian's office that went up to the roof.
"Oh hush you; if we don't go know we might miss it and who knows, we may never get to see something like this again in our lifetime." Karen replied.
She was referring to the immense alien spaceship drifting towards the Boston metro after reports started coming through the major news networks and the internet that the ships were leaving. It wasn't as if they didn't have a big mysterious object in their own backyard. There had been a silvery disc close to 700 meters in diameter hovering quietly over central Boston since sometime in August. Karen and Hal had already seen that one several times, snapped a few photos and went home. Alien spaceships were nothing incredibly new to Boston but this one was different, for one it was bigger, much bigger. Secondly the level of detail visible on the exterior of the craft was far greater than the sleek smooth silver surface of the Boston disc.
At home, with all the houses blocking the view in their neighborhood it was hard to get a clear view of the city skyline but on top of the school building, positioned on a ridge towards the outskirts of the city proper, they could see straight over the houses with a clear line of sight towards the downtown skyline on the horizon. They reached the rooftop and hurried over to the eastern edge of the building where they stood next to a large ventilation pipe while scanning the skies. They hadn't been allowed downtown after the first spaceship came down over the city due to the civil unrest that had frequently flared up once the news broke so the only glimpses either of them had seen of an alien mothership was at a distance or on TV. Karen hoped that the apparent trajectory of the new alien craft would put it directly overhead for a time allowing them an up close view of the underside of the visitors' ship. Karen was strangely giddy with excitement to witness something even larger and more impressive than the Boston mothership was. This was one of those "I was there" moments to Karen. This was a moment she could tell the grandkids, Hal's grandkids if they worked out in the long term, about. She looked over at Hal who was gazing up at the empty sky. Hal realized he was being watched and looked back at Karen and smiled, blushing a little which irked Karen into playfully shoving him for the sappy expression on his face. He stood back up and looked around.
"So where is it?" asked Hal.
"Be patient." Karen replied.
Karen took hold of Hal's hand and the two of them waited. It wouldn't be long until the visitors became manifest from their vantage point on high. Sure enough after a few minutes the ship that they had been expecting appeared coming from the southwest. Indeed Karen was right; this one was different from the plain shiny silver disc that had hovered over downtown Boston for the past month and a half. It was presumed to be one of the grand capital ships from either New York or D.C. that had begun to move away from those cities earlier in the morning. Hal and Karen had seen this ship on the news before but it was nothing compared to seeing it in person. TV despite the high definition moniker, left out several details that were clearly visible in a different fashion in person. It was an immense vessel in the shape of a perfect equilateral triangle as thick as a skyscraper that cast its shadow over the whole of Boston. Its sides were dotted with steady and flashing lights and all matter of protrusions and portals. The top was smooth flat and featureless and was colored a dark gray, almost black. On its underside were three evenly spaced hemispherical domes glowing bluish yellow on each end of the craft. Tiny structures also dotted the landscape of the underside of the triangular monstrosity. What was most curious about the vessel was that it was completely silent. The craft itself made no sound audible to the human ear, only the sounds of the air currents moving around it and blowing through the trees on the ground could be heard.
The Boston mothership, now dwarfed by its new companion moved towards it and entered into a port that had opened up on the underside of the new gargantuan vessel between the three hemispheres and disappeared into the larger ship's internals. This opening then closed up seamlessly behind the disc as it ascended into the triangular ship. The triangular craft was so large that several ships the size of the mothership could fit within its hold. Hal and Karen stood there awestruck at the sight, relieved and disappointed at the same time that the aliens were going home.
Karen had been particularly excited about the aliens ever since they arrived and frankly was let down that nothing had really happened since then. She had hoped to at least see the face of one of these otherworldly beings on the news, perhaps shaking hands with the president or vaporizing him with a death ray. Alas her curiosity received nothing more once the spacecraft were in the atmosphere. The ships just came out of the sky, launched smaller ships and sat there over cities and towns worldwide for weeks on end. The governments of the world, utilizing the best minds mankind had to offer, tried all the cliché methods of communicating with the aliens, all to no avail. The used mathematical code, world languages, binary, and so forth; they even used the flashing light trick from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. None of that stuff worked at all. Either the aliens were unable or unwilling to be contacted. The whole time no one, publicly or off the books within the deepest most clandestine organizations, had even seen what the creatures piloting the craft looked like, if there was even anyone piloting them at all. It had been speculation among some scientists and engineers that the ships were actually automated probes sent to gather information about distant worlds and that the real aliens may or may not be on the way. There were of course the cranks and the people who had claimed to be abducted by the aliens who came forth and made their rounds on the talk show circuit but there had been no conclusive contact between earthlings and the visitors beyond seeing the outside of their ships hulls. The drawings these people produced yielded no images that people hadn't already associated with aliens before the arrival; from mind-bending greys to lizard people to Klingons, it was all old hat.
"There's one of the big questions we can cross off our list now. Are we alone in the universe? No, check; now on to finding out the meaning of life." Hal joked as the triangular craft stopped and gathered up several other smaller vessels.
"You think they could have at least poked their heads outside and said hello." Karen said.
"They might have heard War of the Worlds and were afraid of all the nasty Earth germs here." Hal suggested.
"Spacesuits Hal, duh. They don't have to breathe our air." Karen replied.
"Besides didn't your dad say concerning disease that in reality it would be more like the European settlers and the Native Americans with us being the natives in which the colonists diseases were more deadly to the natives than vice versa. " Karen said remembering a comment Hal's dad had said one evening she had stayed for dinner with the Mason family.
"All I know is that if this is all a marketing stunt by Disney to promote some new movie a lot of people are going to be bummed out." Hal said while he and Karen watched the ship rise straight up through the clouds and into the stratosphere.
"That would be so lame. I wouldn't watch another Disney movie ever again." Karen said.
Hal looked at her with the "are you serious?" face and they both laughed. Karen paused, bit her lip and smiled.
"Maybe not ever, more like for a month." Karen confessed.
"Hey, at least we got out of school for a week before the alien spaceships were all like the new normal." Hal said optimistically.
"E.T. Go home." Hal playfully said in the voice of E.T. from the old movie "E.T." leading Karen to sock him in the chest.
Both of them sat down and looked up at the sky. Hal put his arm around Karen's shoulder and she leaned her head down on his chest and snuggled into the warmth radiating from his body in the crisp cool air of early autumn in New England. The alien vessel continued to rise straight up into the sky effortlessly accelerating away from the Earth's gravity. In no time the image of the titanic triangular craft shrank into a tiny speck and vanished from their sight. For a time it seemed the aliens had left.
4 Oct 0800 EDT
Cambridge, MA, United States
Elsewhere Hal's father, Tom Mason was in his study preparing his lecture series for the coming week. He was history professor at Cambridge university which had shut down for longer than the public schools had on account of the aliens so his classes were more than slightly behind. He also wanted to slip in some discussion on the beings from afar albeit that was more in the realm of the Science and Philosophy departments than for a class on American History. Nonetheless it was history in the making, and this time people knew it as it was happening. It former times many great men and moments might not have been recognized for their significance until times long after. Little things like the weather, a misstep here or there and just being at the right place at the right time made a world of difference. No one probably thought Sam Adams would leave the mark he did on the world not to mention a great tasting local beer named after him, back when he was just a ruffian riling up the rabble in 18th Century Boston. This time the moment didn't belong to one man, or a group of men and women, but to all mankind. This was something like the moon landing where you knew it was going to be big before it happened. Anyways, Professor Mason refocused his attention on his history lesson and less on current evens when all of the sudden the lights in his house flickered and died. The sound of passing cars on the street ceased abruptly and was replaced by the clang of a handful of fender benders as the vehicles rolled slowly to a stop. With it being morning and the sun shining outside the lights that had been left on since Tom had started his work at the crack of dawn he barely noticed the power going out. He did notice the commotion outside as people got out of their vehicles and began conversing with each other. It seemed to be a peculiar amount of activity outside for this time of day he thought. The notion that something was afoul with the situation hit home when he heard the distant sound of multiple cars smashing into each other reached his ears. He peeked out the window and looked at the people standing around next to their cars. It was a quiet residential street so there weren't too many vehicles on the street to begin with. The car crash he had heard was nowhere to be seen. It must have been pretty bad for him to hear it from the distance he presumed he was. Outside it wasn't chaos but confusion that had fallen upon his sleepy street. The people who had just been driving looked confounded after realizing that all their cell phones were dead and they couldn't call for help.
"Are you alright? Need a jump or anything?" Tom asked a balding older gentleman standing by his beige Buick.
Before he could get a response a deafening roar shook the neighborhood, jostling the houses down to their foundations. The vibrations shook Tom off his balance a little forcing him to take hold of a nearby dresser. Accompanying the sound, a pressure wave shot through the air and tremors rattled along the ground from all directions most notably the north and the southeast. It felt like an earthquake although an earthquake would be highly unusual in eastern Massachusetts. Leaves fell off the trees, some windows shattered and several of Professor Mason's books were shaken off their shelves. As the shaking continued Tom staggered back and almost fell down before the rumbling stopped. Little did he know but a heavy bombardment of meteoroids launched at relativistic velocities had slammed into the earth. Those he felt the strongest was comparatively the small impact from Camp Curtis Guild to the north that had turned that military installation into a molten hole in the ground. A larger strike which took out Joint Base Cape Cod further to the southeast also contributed its share to the rumblings in the Boston 'burbs. What Tom had felt was the residual shockwave from both of those blasts converging on his location. Other asteroids had fallen into the Atlantic and points near the coastline which generated massive tidal surges which wiped out military installations and their communities up and down the coast. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Newport Naval Base and Sub Base New London were among those targets annihilated in the New England region. Fortunately Boston was not near one of the targets of these tsunami bombs. While the areas closer to those communities now looked as if hell had broken loose upon the world here in Tom's quiet neighborhood it had just given them a bit of a scare. The damage here was minor, no fires, no massive building collapses, nothing that would lead the people to realize the scale of the event that had just occurred.
Once he regained solid footing Tom left his study and immediately ran into his youngest son Matt who had been awoken by the rumbling of the house.
"Dad, what happened?" Matt asked.
"I don't know but I'm going to find out." Tom told him.
Matt followed his father down the stairs where he ran into his middle son, Ben.
"The TV went out downstairs. I swear I didn't do anything, honest." Ben said.
"I know. The power is out on the whole street. It must have been that earthquake." Tom said.
Ben joined Matt and Tom as he came down the stairs and into the dining room where he looked around for his keys. The two boys watched him curious as to what his plans were.
"I'm going to go get your mother. Where's Hal?" Tom asked the boys.
"He went with Karen earlier this morning. They were going to the high school to watch the spaceship leave." Ben answered.
Tom took a second to think it over, but only a second.
"Alright, change of plans; I'm going to go get Hal first then we're going to get your mom." Tom told the boys.
Tom then hurriedly went back upstairs to his study after finding his keys leaving Matt and Ben waiting in the dining room. He looked around the room as if he had forgotten something but his thoughts were so jumbled that he didn't quite know what he had forgotten. He snatched up the notes for his lecture, folded them up and put them in his pants pocket. "Why did I just grab those?" Tom thought to himself. Was he really going to be able to rehearse a lecture while looking for his family, of course not. Then for no apparent reason he took them out and set them back down on his desk before he grabbed his overcoat off the back of the chair, which was what he had come in here to get in the first place, and put it on. Tom then stopped on his way out and looked at an old Revolutionary War era musket hanging over an antique bookshelf in his study. It was a family heirloom passed down through the generations as long as there had been a Mason living on this continent, going all the way back to his distant relative George Mason. He began to connect the dots; an earthquake, the spaceship leaving, were they under attack? He thought about taking the gun with him for a minute. It was something of great sentimental value but it wasn't like he could fire it, he had no powder or anything to shoot out of it. In terms of utility all it would be was a walking stick or with its bayonet affixed a short spear. In his haste Tom decided against taking the musket and went downstairs to his boys and together all three of them went outside.
The neighborhood was aghast in confusion as Tom and his sons went for their car. He tried to start the car but turning the key had no effect. It didn't even click; the starter solenoid was dead Tom thought. He muttered unintelligible frustration and pounded the steering wheel.
"Looks like we're going on foot then." Tom told his sons before exiting the vehicle.
Ben and Matt followed their father out of the vehicle and onto the sidewalk where people were standing around, gathering in small groups to talk with each other. Some of them also attempted to help start each other's cars all with no success.
"You've got a handful of blown fuses down here ma'am." one man said as he checked out some of the more common problems with a blue Toyota belonging to a professional looking blonde woman.
"I think my starter is fried." another man called over to the first guy from under the hood of his silver Audi.
"The aliens engines might have messed with the power grid I heard some scientist speculate they could have operated using magnetism. That could screw with electronics right?" one man asked another.
"Maybe there was a lightning storm up there when they went to warp?" a middle aged woman suggested.
"What if their engines acted on the earth in a way that made the ground shake like that?" someone else mentioned.
"You don't actually think the government was dumb enough to nuke them as they were leaving? You know with that war monger those yahoos down south just squeaked into the White House." a thin pale elderly man in a Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts remarked.
It seemed like blaming the aliens for what just happened was the popular thing to do out here. All along there Tom was trying to give the visitors the benefit of the doubt. There was a general sense of insecurity among all the people here and Tom could feel it too. He now found himself actually missing the National Guard patrols that had come through near the university after a student protest got out of hand a few days following the aliens' arrival. They didn't stay long after the protest was disbanded however and for a time, until now things returned to normal. His quiet, upper-middle class neighborhood didn't have the problems with riots and looting that much of the city did following the alien arrival. It was mostly families and seniors that lived here and just about everyone knew each other so they had little to be scared of; that is except for the aliens. While the police and National Guard units were understandably in the locations that needed them the most prior to the bombardment their presence sure would have been comforting to this shaken community left largely to fend for itself.
Despite the chaos in areas less than a mile away here people still behaved like neighbors to one another. Paul Dixon, Tom's next door neighbor came outside in his robe and fuzzy slippers to see what all the commotion was about. Paul was an engineer who had moved here from Georgia ten years ago and made his living maintaining the vessels of several fishing fleets and private yachts. While his one man firm wasn't the best paying job out there it provided for him sufficiently enough to afford a modest home in this neighborhood. He and Tom were cordial with each other and knew each other well. They jokingly referred to the dividing line between their properties as the "Mason-Dixon" line though it was a line either of them was welcome to cross. Paul envied Tom's relationship with his children; all of his kids were grown up and had families of their own out of state. He saw them on Christmas and on weddings, funerals and new births but most days of the year it was just him and the Mrs. "Enjoy these days while you can, they grow up so quick." he would often tell Tom. The two of them were both avid history buffs and antique collectors, something that strengthened their bond and would have spent a few nights sharing tales of yesteryear by the fireplace.
"Any idea what in blue blazes is going on? I was reading the paper and all the sudden the whole world moves beneath me." Paul asked.
"I have no idea. It might have something to do with the aliens leaving." Tom replied.
"Damned aliens, I was right to be skeptical of those things." Dixon half-jokingly commented.
"Where's your oldest? He still inside?" asked Paul upon noticing only two of Tom's kids with him.
"He snuck off to the high school with his girlfriend. We're actually on our way to go get him." Tom replied.
"In that case don't let me hold you up." Paul said.
"Thank you. We'll come back and visit later." Tom said as he started off at a brisk walk again.
"Take care of everyone here while I'm gone." he half-jokingly turned around to Paul and said.
"I will. Now you don't be too hard on ol' Hal, remember what it was like at that age." Paul replied back to him.
Tom and his two sons continued on past their block and headed towards the school to find Hal.
4 Oct 0800 EDT
Boston MA, United States
Officer Anthony Welker reported for duty at the headquarters of the Boston PD downtown carrying in a box of Dunkin Donuts for his colleagues.
"Morning Anthony." a fellow officer greeted him as he went down the hall to drop the donuts off in the breakroom.
"Cops and Donuts, how cliché. Eat up little piggy pig pig pig." sneered a burglary suspect being booked as Anthony passed by.
"Just shut up and cooperate and we can get this over faster." one of the two officers booking the suspect instructed him after his remark.
Anthony shrugged it off; a donut joke was mild compared to the usual slurs tossed around on the streets, especially since the riots broke out. To some people the police could simply never do right by them. He had called every nasty name in the book by one dirt bag or another. He set the donuts down in the breakroom where he ran into Jeff Wu, a detective who worked in homicide, as he was getting himself a cup of coffee.
"For me Tony, aww you shouldn't have." Wu jokingly greeted him.
"Save some for the rest of the guys Jeff." Anthony playfully reminded him.
"You still working on the Delgado case?" Anthony asked Jeff as the two of them walked out of the break room referring to a case in which an older couple was killed walking home when a riot broke out during a protest over the accidental death of a teenage boy by the police who was being apprehended for petty larceny.
"Yeah, I think I have a lead on a couple possible suspects. I'd have to bring the daughter back in to get a positive ID though. She's still pretty shaken up over the whole thing and won't really talk to anyone outside Father O'Brien and you know the priest's lips are sealed." Wu answered.
"They take an oath for that shit." Anthony remarked.
"I feel sad for the girl, comes here to start college and get a taste of the American dream and some knuckleheads gotta go and do this." Anthony lamented.
"Yeah, the spaceship flying around seems to have given everyone with an axe to grind reason to burn the city down. We can't be everywhere and they know it." Wu remarked.
"People were doing this kind of stupid stuff before the spacemen came. Knuckleheads get involved with a legit peaceful protest and think they can get away with jacking stuff up because there is a crowd." Anthony said.
"In this case they think they can literally get away with murder." Wu added.
"Heck some folks do it when their team wins the championship." Anthony said.
"Tell me about it, I expect that kind of nonsense from L.A or Chicago but I thought we were a little more cool headed up here in Bean town." Wu remarked.
"I always found that ridiculous. So you're going to light stuff on fire and roll over cars when their team wins? It would make more sense if they were sore losers and did that, but winners?" Wu said.
"Crazy times we live in, crazy times." Anthony said.
"Catch you around later bro." Anthony continued as the two of them parted paths in the hall and went about their business.
Anthony sat down next to one of his best friends as Chief Matthew Kelly was about to go over the duty assignments for the oncoming shift of street level officers.
"I hear the ETs are moving off this morning. I caught footage this morning of the ship over Chicago before I left the house." his friend Reginald "Click" Johnson told him.
Click was a plain clothes officer who worked the beat with Anthony several times on undercover drug busts.
"You know what that means?" Click continued.
"All these knuckleheads can stop with blaming the aliens for them acting the fool and go back to living their lives the way they used to." Anthony answered optimistically assuming that once the external problem was removed people would mellow the heck out.
Click laughed and he and Anthony bumped fists and smiled. Click was accustomed to working deep cover. He was the one who got in with the gangs, dealers and pimps and tipped off the officers like Anthony who actually made the arrest, that way Click never blew his cover and could operate frequently in many of the same neighborhoods. He was given the nickname "Click" because of the way he could click with the folks in many of these inner city crime ridden neighborhoods, something that was a huge boon to the department due to the natural distrust of the authorities that was prevalent in these neighborhoods. Before the arrival the two of them worked often together and had been friends for a long time. Today however, wasn't business as usual, Anthony was in uniform while Click remained as the sole officer present in civilian clothes. Since the aliens showed up enforcement on drug crimes was relaxed due to a reassessment of the department's priorities. Now they needed every available officer out to keep the peace after the city was shocked by three or four violent flare ups. For the most part the Boston riots and many of those around the country had absolutely nothing to do with the aliens. Yes, they had started shortly after the spaceships appeared in the skies over the cities but quickly morphed into something entirely different. There were a few yahoos out there demanding the government disclose the "truth" about aliens and some religious fanatics who had cast off their faith in rage on account of the aliens but the majority of the disorder came from one radical group or another seeking to capitalize on the moment to draw attention to their cause. These fringe groups' aims and agendas along with the intensity of the incidents varied largely depending on the region of the country. In Boston it was the extreme environmentalists, animal rights activists, race-based street agitators, internationalists, the revolutionary Trotskyites and others that were stirring the pot. Elsewhere in the country other groups spearheaded these movements; skinheads in Ohio, secessionist anti-government types in the Carolinas, and Anarchists/Anarcho-Communists up and down the west coast. This was just the beginning; the politically motivated riots were the least of most law enforcement departments concerns. It was what came after that was the real concern. Regardless of who initiated it the result was frequently the same. As always these typically small incidents swelled when the street urchins, gangs and criminal elements got involved and therein was where most of the damage occurred. Several unconfirmed terrorist attacks had also been attempted in the chaos. There wasn't one opportunistic asshole that didn't see the fear and disorder wrought by the extraterrestrials' arrival as an open invitation to let loose. These initial riots and the responses to them spurned other unrelated incidents such as the massive flare up which Anthony and Jeff were discussing earlier. The Jamaica Plains riot as it was being called for now, came as quite a surprise for the department as the city had been calm for quite some time before it happened. If not for that one incident the thought of civil unrest might have faded from the Boston PD's mind altogether by now. So much for business as usual, thought Anthony when it occurred.
With the memory of the Boston Marathon bombing still fresh in the mind of the law enforcement community there the response in Boston was swift and measured. As a result the city fared better than many others such as Los Angeles, Minsk and Caracas which literally burned themselves to the ground. Still other places like Wellington, New Zealand were completely unaffected by terrestrial violence. The activation of the Massachusetts National Guard and the situation on the ground becoming tepid in the past couple weeks allowed some of the officers to start working other cases but largely the Boston PD was still devoted to ensuring the citizens felt secure in their city and didn't panic just because of the mysterious visitors looming overhead.
As Anthony and Click listened to the Chief going over their patrol routes and assignments for the morning the lights flickered once and died. The bulbs all burnt out at once and several of them even burst. Startled conversations broke out among the officers but were quickly silenced by their superiors.
"Everyone remain seated the backup generators should be coming online shortly." the Chief assured the officers.
Only moments later a sound like thunder only a thousand times stronger accompanied a shockwave that shock the police headquarters to its very foundation. Some of the officers fell over, others clung to their chairs. Files, papers, pens, office supplies and folders fell down. A man being brought in for questioning used the commotion to attempt to run away. A pair of officers gave chase and went after the suspect who plowed through another officer on uneasy footing before bolting out the door. Anthony slipped off his chair and fell into Click's lap, who was already on the floor. The two men helped each other up in the darkened room, lit only by the light shining in through the small windows high above the floor. Across the room there still was a commotion as the officers regained their composure.
"Not the coffee! Take me but leave the coffee! No!" shouted an officer as he watched a mug full of freshly brewed black coffee, with not a drop of cream or sugar in it, fall from a desk to the ground and shatter.
"Everyone outside on the double!" the Chief ordered and the officers quickly evacuated the building in an orderly fashion.
Outside there appeared to be little structural damage to the police HQ and surrounding government buildings and offices. A few windows on the higher floors of some of the larger buildings nearby were shattered but overall the city was intact. What was unusual is that the busy streets and highways packed with cars had been seemingly frozen in place. Rear end accidents and fender benders were commonplace as nearly all the vehicles on the road had shut down suddenly. A handful of rather severe accidents had piled up in some places and a vehicle fire burned far off in the distance. Anthony noted a man getting out of a car and walking towards another man that came out of the vehicle that rear ended him. The second man tried to apologize to the first man but in rage the first man came to blows over the damage to his new Jaguar, instigating a fight. It was a foolish move considering they were right in front of a police station.
"Stop! Police!" Anthony shouted but he was beat to the punch by another officer running off to break up the fight.
Other people getting out of their cars were more cordial with each other while still others got into shouting matches. Overall the sense of fear and anxiety that had fallen over the crowd exacerbated the situation. There was a dreadful sense of anticipation in the air. Both the officers and general public alike could feel it. Tensions were reaching their limit, the city like a pot of water just about to boil.
"Good lord what just happened?" muttered the chief.
After pulling aside a handful of officers to guard the headquarters and finish processing the prisoners in their holding cells another officer handed the chief a bullhorn and he got on top of the steps outside the department HQ to address the officers.
"All of you not working on the generators or in dispatch are to assist with disaster recovery. There are a lot of frightened people out there that need our help. Now get to it!" the chief ordered them.
The officers dispersed and went to assisting the citizenry starting with those nearby. They stopped and checked with each individual and made sure they were ok. If they required medical assistance they pledged to send for help, if not they asked about family and loved ones and promised to help them in any way they could. Any incidents of violence were broken up and quelled. The aggressors were bound with heavy duty zip ties and left on the sidewalk to simmer down if they remained belligerent after being restrained. Vandals, thieves and looters that were encountered were dispersed but not pursued or arrested. Those who pulled weapons or attempted to assault the officers were arrested brought back to the station to be held until the crisis was over and charges could be formally assessed. With no knowledge of exactly what happened there was no need to evacuate the population anywhere at the moment.
"The radio is dead Chief." one of the officers nearby reported after leaning into a police car.
The chief took out a handheld radio and all he got was a squelching sound, something was interrupting the signal. "Damn it! We'll have to do this the old fashioned way." the chief complained.
Meanwhile Anthony, Jeff and Click went off together as a unit in performance of their job duties. They helped an old lady out of her car and calmed her down, leaving her with a group of friendly individuals gathered on the sidewalk. Two of the men in the group were playing with their cell phones trying to get them to turn on.
"Can you call my Doctor? I'm having trouble breathing." the old lady asked Anthony.
"We don't have way of calling for help either, our phones are no good same as anyone else's but we're heading to the closest hospital and will be sending help immediately. Please try to relax and take deep breaths." Anthony calmly instructed the woman.
The three officers continued on, helping those who needed it along their way to find the nearest hospital.
"Trains have stopped too, we won't be getting anywhere fast." Anthony noted.
"Mass General isn't too far from here. We could still manage to get there and bring folks back in time to help that old lady." suggested Click.
"Lead the way brother." Anthony replied.
"I will, I will, we just gotta get around all these cars." Click said.
As the three of them walked through downtown Boston tending to the fears and concerns of the populace trapped by the sudden loss of power and locomotion a swarm of alien fighter craft dropped down out of the sky. The ships spread out after reaching a certain altitude over the city and soared over the immobilized citizens, terrifying an already shaken populace. The simmering nerves of the city's citizens had now flashed to superheated steam in an instant. The mob broke and ran in all directions. Like a tsunami of human flesh the crowd pushed through the cars and swallowed up any who were not fast enough to stay ahead of them, knocking down and trampling several people in a desperate attempt to flee.
"Looks like ET didn't go home after all." Anthony commented.
Before Click could reply with a witty remark one of the fighters launched some sort of projectile towards the ground some distance to the southeast of the police station. A bright flash lit up the sky followed by a pillar of fire that bloomed into a small scale mushroom cloud.
"They took out the port!" Anthony exclaimed.
The three of them went from a walk to a run ahead of an onrushing tide of civilians at their backs fleeing from the blast.
"That was where the Army had set up the overflow detention center right?" asked Jeff as they ran from the expanding fireball past the skyline behind them.
"Yeah, and the relief supplies were being stored there." Anthony answered.
It was a good thing that all three of them were in good shape and able to keep up a sustained sprint because those who lagged behind and were too slow were being pushed aside and trampled. Fear had overwhelmed the better judgement of the crowd. Men and women were but animals now, stripped down to their most basic instinct, the will to survive. A succession of smaller blasts took out bridges and overpasses to the north and northwest, further isolating the fleeing throng of humanity.
"Are we still going to Mass General?" asked Jeff.
"Forget that, we're just getting the heck out of here!" Anthony declared as the three of them turned down a street to the south hoping that they would not be completely trapped.
Another blast took out the last bridge to the northeast turning more of the panicked crowds in the direction that Anthony and his companions were running in.
"If we can get past the I-90 underpass and get on the 9 we can get out of this fishbowl into the southwestern 'burbs." Click suggested.
"I'm with Click. Move it or lose it Jeffy." Anthony concurred.
Anthony and Click took off at a faster pace leaving Jeff struggling to keep up a few yards behind them. As they ran for their lives all across the Boston metro and beyond the cloud of alien fighters began a surgical bombing campaign. A multitude of explosions peppered the city throughout. The largest of these blasts came from east Boston, behind the area which the aliens had sealed off from the rest of the city. The entire district was consumed in a nuclear fireball, irradiating and consuming all the poor souls who were trapped within it. The police station which Anthony and company had left was in the shadow of that blast as its deadly effects spread through east and south Boston, devouring what was left of the port as well as Logan International Airport. As Anthony's group passed near Historic Fenway Park and got onto the route they hoped would lead them away from the destruction they knew there was no going back.
4 Oct 0800 EDT
Concord, MA, United States
It was breakfast time for the general population at Massachusetts Correctional Institution Concord. One of the inmates, John Pope, a long haired scruffy individual doing time for 2nd degree murder was in charge of cooking for his fellow prisoners. "What is it this time Cheffie, eggs a la Pope?" asked one of the inmates. "Mind your manners cueball or you'll be eating the powdered slop that the last guy made you." Pope snidely commented. "What you are looking at here gentlemen is one mean Denver omelet. Given the most meager ingredients at my disposal you should find it quite delectable." Pope told the inmates as he fixed each of them a plate as they passed by. "He's right, this beast will rock your whole mouth." one of the inmates seated near the serving line shouted out. "I appreciate the compliment Whitey but next time could you say something that is not a line from a Fruity Pebbles commercial." Pope mockingly joked back. "Your cooking always gives me gas." remarked Epifanio Lopez, another inmate doing a 5 year stint for manslaughter and resisting arrest. "I thought you Mexicans were supposed to like spicy stuff?" commented Pope. "I told you already I'm not Mexican, I'm Puerto Rican." Lopez corrected him. "Whatever, Mexicano, Cubano, Puerto Rican-oh all the same thing. Don't get your green card in a wad." Pope mocked him in his usual manner. "Puerto Ricans don't need green cards you douche! We're US citizens." snapped Lopez. Pope rolled his eyes as Lopez went down the line to pick up a milk carton and Pope went on to serving the next inmate. After he was done Pope fixed himself a plate and sat down next to his crew. "So how is it that Billy is still a free man while you're locked up in this joint." asked an inmate who knew both Pope and his brother from the outside several years ago. "Because you can get a girl to shut her trap a lot easier than you can dispose of a body in plain view. Any more dumbass questions?" Pope replied. The lights then went off and the ventilation fans stopped running. The prison cafeteria went from mildly comfortable to dark, stinky and warm real quick. "Yeah, I got one. Who turned out the lights?" asked Cueball. "Damn it Lopez did you just pass gas?" Pope asked. "No." replied Lopez from out of the darkness. The prison's backup generators did not start up as they were intended to so the prisoners were left in total darkness until the guards with flashlights arrived. In the meantime a few prisoners had thrown some blind punches, copped a feel and stole food off another inmate's plate under cover of darkness. The prison then vibrated and shook causing several trays to fall onto the floor. "Lopez, you did fart!" Pope exclaimed when the rumbling was over. Little did the prisoners know that what was a mild tremor to them was the dawn of the apocalypse outside.
4 Oct 0814 EDT
Woburn, MA, United States
An Army Reserve MRAP was heading northbound I-95 on ahead of an M113 APC. Inside the APC Captain Daniel Weaver was coordinating with his unit commander back at Camp Curtis Guild. Captain Weaver was a recently retired Army officer that due to first contact with alien life worldwide was immediately activated on his reserve commitment following his retirement from active duty. Being called up to duty again wasn't disagreeable with Weaver, without the Army honestly he wouldn't have known what to do with himself. He was a career soldier serving as an enlisted man in the first Gulf War and as an officer in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The benefit of being a reservist with such an extensive career of service behind him was that he was not deployed to some foreign theater but rather stationed at home. His request of duty station to New England allowed him to once again be close to his estranged daughters who lived with his ex-wife in Boston though he hadn't got to see much of them because of the strained relationship with his former spouse and the crisis going on in the city. "We're about five miles out sir; we should be back to base soon." Weaver reported over the radio.
As the military vehicles came within sight of the 128 overpass all the cars around them abruptly shut down and stalled on the road. The army vehicles slammed on their brakes and narrowly avoided a collision. "Correction, we'll be delayed. All the traffic has come to a complete halt." Weaver said over the radio to no response. "General Tennant? Brigadier General Tennant come in? Are you there sir?" Weaver repeatedly asked over the radio. After a minute or so of silence Weaver gave up and hung up the receiver. "Communications are shot." he grumbled. "Can we still move?" Weaver asked the driver. "We're fine sir but we can't go anywhere with all the cars broke down out there." replied SGT Healey. Weaver climbed towards the driver's seat and looked out the front window at the scene ahead of them. As some of the people outside got out of their vehicles to examine the situation a faint red streak of light came down in the east. It hit the ground with a flash of light brighter than ten thousand suns. A shockwave preceded the thunderous boom of the impact and leveled multitudes of structures ahead of the military vehicles to the west. The people standing around outside were knocked to the ground or tossed backwards with tremendous force. The cars on the overpass were knocked off by the blast wave and fell onto the vehicles down below. Glass shattered and some of those smaller vehicles not pinned down by falling cars from the overpass were picked up and flipped over backwards. The larger cars that were not lifted up by the shockwave were slid back into other vehicles causing a massive crumpled mass of traffic that pinned everyone in place. A pickup truck launched from the overpass collided with the MRAP ahead of the APC. When it hit a rear tire was severed from the truck and flew backwards and bounced off the side of the APC near the roof. Weaver and Sgt. Healey ducked down instinctively as the flying storm of debris from the vehicles and structures further out battered against the armored hull of their vehicle.
When the rattling and shaking subsided outside Weaver stood up and gazed out the window upon the destruction. While the cars looked to be a mangled mess they were at the edge of devastation, most of the buildings nearby were still standing with only minor damage. He was concerned about the crew of the MRAP after it was struck by that truck. "Let's go check out the MRAP Sergeant, make sure our boys are alright." Weaver instructed the driver and the other soldiers inside the APC. They climbed out the top hatch and descended down the pinned in and overturned vehicles around them. The soldiers checked for survivors and began working to free those who were still alive and trapped in their vehicles. Weaver stood on top of the APC with Healey surveying the damage and collecting his composure before setting off towards the MRAP.
"I'd wager that blast came from Camp Curtis Guild. Remember what I've been saying all along. I was right; the god damned aliens are attacking." Weaver stated judging by the direction the shockwave had come from. "That doesn't make sense. I felt nothing coming from the west, if they hit Curtis why didn't they take out Hanscom?" asked Sgt. Healey. "Hanscom is practically deserted since the Guard deployed in Boston. Aliens probably assumed it was a civilian airport." Weaver postulated. Though Camp Curtis Guild was a small training installation it had swelled in numbers when a large contingent of the Army Reserves had been relocated there for a rapid response to the crisis in Boston should it have exceeded the Massachusetts National Guard's ability to contain. These additional forces would have made it appear to an outside observer to be the more significant of the two small installations within close range of Boston. The two of them made their way to the MRAP and helped its crew get out into the open. Fortunately aside from a couple scrapes and bumps the crew was alright. Weaver then directed the other soldiers to aid the trapped motorists before he himself started to assist in their efforts. The wounded were gathered together on the south side of the interstate while the survivors who were largely unscathed joined in with the rescue efforts. "You two, go find help. These people need medical attention. We'll need to relocate the wounded into a more open area for when help arrives." Weaver instructed a pair of his soldiers who helped some of the wounded up and began heading towards the nearest onramp to the south. The wounded were being relocated to a Walgreens pharmacy where the unit's medic tended to them with supplies from the pharmacy while the other two soldiers went on seeking emergency personnel to assist them. As the ongoing rescue effort continued Weaver turned to the south at the sound of multiple thunderous echoes booming in the distance. There he saw a squadron of alien fighters twinkling like fireflies in the morning sky, darkened by the cloud of dust and ash drifting overhead from the remains of Camp Curtis Guild. The second wave of the invasion had begun.
