Here is chapter 24, everybody.
Chapter 24: Stonehenge/ Freak Show.
The Aces and Mother Goose One has arrived at the Stonehenge Turret Network. It's been a long time since Brian had seen that facility. The last time he flew over, it was during Operation Stone Crusher when he and the ISAF Air Force commence an air raid at Stonehenge, which was under Erusean control at that time, and Brian managed to destroy the railguns. Not to mention being the first ISAF pilot to shoot down a member of Erusea's feared and legendary Yellow Squadron. That was 11 years ago. Anyway, Mother Goose One and the Aces has landed at the air base next to the facility. Once everyone is out of their planes, they are greeted by an ISAF Air Force Major.
"Mr. Secretary. President Wilford, President Forrest, President Grezzi, Mr. Prime Minister, General. I am Major Bishop. Welcome to the Stonehenge Turret Network. Please follow me." Bishop said.
After a few minutes, everyone is now at a underground facility at the base.
"We're now 24 floors beneath the surface, and here's our main research facility." Bishop said.
"Let's see it." Donaldson said.
"I'm sorry, sir. It's a clean room. We have to keep it static-free. If we'll all go to decontamination-"
"Open the door."
"Yes, sir."
After turning a special key and entering the passcode, the two glass doors open allowind everyone to pass through, before another set of glass doors open, letting them inside the research facility. Inside the facility are reseachers in white clean suits with masks on. They were all looking at the leaders, generals, staff members and aces walking through the cooridor.
"My God. General Harris, why the heck wasn't I told there was a underground facility at Stonehenge?" Donaldson said.
"Two words, Mr. Secretary: plausible deniability" ISAF General Harris said.
"I hope the Eruseans didn't find out about this when they occupied Stonehenge 11 years ago." Brian said.
"I don't understand. Where does all this come from? How do you get funding for something like this?" Forrest asked.
"You don't actually think they spend twenty thousand zollars on a hammer. Thirty thousand zollars on a toilet seat, do you?" Chris said as everyone look at him like he's crazy.
A doctor then approached the group and Major Bishop recognized him.
Mr. President, this is Doctor Beckham. He's been heading up the research department on this project for the last 15 years." Bishop said.
"How do you do." Donaldson said as he shakes Beckham's hand.
"Mr. Secretary." Beckham said excitedly. "Wow. This-What a pleasure. As you can imagine, they don't let us out much. Well except during the war."
"I can understand that." Donaldson said.
"Well, Mr. Secretary. President Forrest, President Wilford, President Grezzi, Prime Minister Nikanor, Harling, everyone else, I guess you all like to see the big tamale, huh? Follow me." Beckham said.
Everyone started following Doctor Beckham until they reach the end of the cooridor. Once the doctor's assistant enters a code, a huge door opens, revealing a huge room, where workers are working on a big alien spacecraft. The spacecraft appears to be 20 meters in length, bigger than an average fighter jet. It also match the description from a pilot that took part in the battle against the aliens before he lost his life. The Aces couldn't believe what they were saying. It's like watching a sci fi movie.
"Wow, look at that." Nagase of Scarface said.
"She's a beaut, ain't she?" Beckham said.
"Can you tell us anything about it?" Brian asked.
"As you can see from the repairs, we've been trying to put her back together since the late 1980s." Beckham said.
"Don't tell me you've had this for 40 years and you don't know anything about them?" Brian said as he and Guy approaches the craft.
"Oh, heck, no. We know tons about them. But the neatest stuff has only happened in the last few days." Beckham said. "See, we can't duplicate their type of power, so we've never been able to experiment. But since these guys started showing up, all the little gizmos and gadgets inside turned on. The last 24 hours have been really exciting."
"Exciting? People are dying out there. I don't think 'exciting' is the word I'd choose to describe it." Brian said as he is upset over the doctor's choice of words.
There was a eery silence before Guy ask...
"You guys are hoping to fly this thing, huh?"
"You said you can repair their technology. Can you tell us anything useful about them?" Brian asked.
"Yes. Well, I mean, they're not all that dissimilar from us. Breathes oxygen. Comparable tolerances to heat and cold. It's probably why they're interested in our planet." Beckham said before an idea came to his mind. "Hey, wait a second. You guys want to see them?"
Brian looked at Beckham with a 'what?' expression on his face. Drake and Larry look at each other with 'what the heck' expressions.
A few minutes later, Doctor Beckham lead everyone to a room in another part of the underground facility.
"Okay, this- This is the vault, or as some of us have come to call it, 'The Freak Show'." Beckham joked.
After Beckham entered a code, partof the wall lifts up, revealing three large tubes with liquid fluid, and inside those tubes are corpses of the alien invaders. Some are a little decomposed after being in these tubes for over 40 years, but everyone can see how they look like. The aliens have a slender, quasi-humanoid body with three-jointed limbs. They have two arms with hands and two large fingers. Their feet are curved backwards with two toes or extra set of fingers. Their skin seems slimy and bony. The back of their heads is enlarged and their eyes are long gone. They also have no mouths. Their skin color appears dark brown due to the lights.
"When we found them, they were wearing some sort of enviromental biomechanical suits, but once we got them off, we learned a great deal about their anatomy. Eyes, ears, no vocal chords. We're assuming they communicate with each other through some other means." Beckham said.
"You're obviously not thinking about hand signals and body language." Guy said.
"It's some kind of extrasensory perception. Telepathy." Beckham said.
"So...It's an organic life form." Brian said. "Can they be killed?"
"Their bodies are just as frail as ours. These two died in the crash. This one, a few weeks later. You just- You have to get through their technology, which is, I'm sorry to say, far more advanced." Beckham said.
"Mr. Stewart, you unlocked part of that technology. You cracked the code." Wilford said.
"Oh, no, no. All I did was stumble onto their signal. I maybe a jammer operator, but I don't know how helpful I can be." Guy said.
"Mr. Stewart. You're gonna have to show them what you've discovered so far, figure out what they haven't thought of yet. We're counting on you." Grezzi said.
"Yes, sir." Guy said.
With that, everyone starts to leave, but not before Beckham asked.
"What code?"
That's the end of this chapter. Please review.