Chapter Thirty-Six: Red Sky
Anna and Marcus entered the Visitor Mothership, making their way through the gleaming hallways to the bridge.
"My queen, I have issued orders to depart Earth, as bargained with the Xilians," Marcus informed her.
"No," Anna replied.
Marcus stared at her quizzically "My queen?"
"We are not leaving Earth, Marcus. We've come too far just to throw away all of our efforts. Call off those orders."
"But my queen, do you not remember the last time we did this? We barely made it off of this planet alive! The humans are a weak race, to be sure, but with resolve, there are few things they cannot do. And now the Xilians are here, and they will want revenge. It would not be prudent to…"
Anna turned her head around and looked at Marcus in the eyes. As soon as she did, he began to back down.
"Marcus, are you questioning the orders of your high commander?"
Out from under Anna's skirt rose a long, green tail. It hovered menacingly over Anna's head and seemed to be looking directly at Marcus.
"N-no… my queen…"
"Good," Anna replied. "Now call off your previous orders. It is time for the Red Rain."
Marcus looked like he wanted to object, but knew better than to say anything further. He walked out of the room with an expression of concern.
Anna accessed the bridge's main control board and pressed a series of red buttons with her tail. Instantly, the clouds all over the world turned blood red. It was as if a giant cloak of some sort had been lifted from the Earth. People everywhere were staring at the altered sky in shock and confusion. Miyuki, who was feeding the twins, noticed the change from inside the house. Gordon, who was at EDF headquarters, heard somebody give a new radar reading. Appearing on the radar was thousands of Visitor ships, all positioned around the Earth. Nobody knew what this meant, as there was nobody left who was alive during the first Visitor invasion. Grover, however, knew what this was. Anna had told him about it when they first met. Not to mention, it was one of the things Anna had promised not to do when they made their bargain.
In his apartment, Grover made for the door with a few words in mind for Anna. He opened the door and two Visitor soldiers stood outside.
"I'm sorry, Grover Kilia, but you are not to leave this building. By orders of our queen," they told him.
"Fuck that!" Grover replied. "I need to speak with Anna!"
The soldiers drew guns and pointed them at Grover. "Please return to your room, Xilian."
Grover began backing into his apartment, hands raised. Just then, without warning, Mirza burst through the apartment wall, closing his jaws on one of the soldiers' heads. Using this as a distraction, Grover quickly punched out the other soldier.
"Good boy, Mirza! C'mon, we've got something we need to do…"
Back at the apartment, X approached Miyuki and Milo, who were watching Anna speaking on TV.
"There is no need for alarm. This Red Sky is a gift. When the Red Rain begins, it will repair the ecological damage done to the Earth's oceans and will reduce global warming. This is our gift to humanity for being so kind to us. We ho…"
X turned off the TV.
"She's lying," Milo said. "No doubt about that."
"But then what could this Red Rain be?" Miyuki asked. "There's not a person alive who knows about what the Visitors did last time they were here."
Zan entered the room. "There used to be," he interjected. "But he didn't leave us with nothing."
He inserted a disc into the stereo. After a few seconds, Sam's voice began coming out of the speakers.
"After much investigation, I have come to a conclusion of what Anna's plan is. Her methods are similar to, if not exactly like those that she used when she was here last. She has gained the trust of humanity and now plans on putting her plan into action with something called Red Rain. Red Rain is a biological agent that adds a phosphorus chemical to all humans that will eventually make them viable for breeding with the Visitors. The Visitors need to breed with humans in order to reproduce. That is why they are here. Anna likely knows that I know this, which is why she chose to blackmail Grover into help her assassinate me."
"B…blackmail?" X said out loud.
"If Anna succeeds in initiating the Red Sky, there will be only one way to put a stop to it. Anna must be overthrown. Her subordinates would only go through with this plan if she forced it upon them. She wants revenge on humanity for stopping her last time. And she knows humankind will have forgotten their last invasion by now. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it…"
The disc cut off, damaged by the attack.
"So that explains it," Milo said.
There was a sudden knock on the door. Douglas Gordon entered.
"Hey, you guys see that red shit in the sky?" he asked them.
They all looked at him blankly.
"…Guess so. How's Ozaki doing?"
"He hasn't woken up since the attack," Miyuki replied. "I think he's in some kind of mini-coma. He should come out of it soon."
"Good. I've managed to get the Gotengo back. We're planning an assault on the Visitors' Mothership and I need him."
"Don't, Gordon," X interjected. "The Gotengo wouldn't stand a chance. There's only one way to stop this, and I plan on taking care of it myself. Anna killed my father."
"Oh…" Gordon said, feeling rather awkward. "I'm sorry. You take care of it then. We can't afford to lose too many soldiers."
"But, X!" Kendra said, having just arrived. "If Sam couldn't beat Anna…"
"Sam surrendered," Zan interjected. "For Ozaki's sake."
"Oh…" Kendra replied softly.
X had left the room already. He entered Sam's office and closed the door. He began rummaging through drawers that were still intact, until coming across what he was looking for in a very hidden drawer in Sam's desk. It looked like some kind of key.
"Found it…"
X held out his wrist and his neural queue appeared. He stuck the key into his wrist. The tendrils of the queue wrapped around it. X turned the key several times and breathed deeply.
When X exited the office several minutes later, he found Kendra, Milo, and Zan waiting outside for him.
"X, don't go!" Kendra pleaded. "You'll get yourself killed… I don't want to lose you too!"
"I'll be back, I promise," X told her as he leaned down to kiss her. Kendra held him close, fighting back tears.