Chapter Six: Breadcrumbs


June 10, 2016.

Daniel, alone, walked down the dark hallway, deep underground. The dim lights reflected off his face and beard, giving him a ghostly look. Which was also how he felt inside; dealing with the Children of Homeworld just earlier that year, and now aliens, it took it out of you.

A pair of guards placed beside a set of double doors said nothing as he approached, silently opening the doors without Daniel even needing to break his stride. The room these doors lead into was better-lit than the hallway that led to it, but traded off for a sterile white look that was almost as unsettling. This room's lone occupant, who was sealed behind a glass barrier, didn't seem to mind though.

Upon hearing the captain enter, the deathly pale prisoner turned around, grinning as he saw who it was, though his scowling, two-colored eyes showed he wasn't happy. "Ah, I see I have a visitor," said Aster White. "Welcome, Mr. Bridge."

"Good to see you again, Mr. White," Daniel said, the look on his face making it clear he was in no mood for games. "You seem uncharacteristically happy today."

"You will address me as 'The Radiant One', heretic," he said, his smile vanishing.

"I'll address you as whatever I like," Daniel shot back. "You're lucky I care enough to call you by name. Now, if you're in the mood, I have a few questions."

"Poor, simple nonbeliever," said Aster, shaking his head in mock sympathy. "You and your organization can't handle the responsibilities of protecting this planet, so you defer to me. If you had let the Diamonds' will take its course, we would not be in this situation right now."

"Yeah, we wouldn't be here at all," said Daniel. "Now listen: you and your nutty little club knew all sorts of secrets about the Diamonds and whatnot. Did any of your writings mention anything about beings from outside our world? Aliens, beings that weren't Gems?"

Aster made a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a scoff. "They've come, haven't they? Visitors from beyond the stars. Tell me, have they begun the invasion?"

Bridge was taken aback. He shot Aster a quizzical look. "How did you know about that?"

"I know many things," Aster said, shrugging. "I know that these visitors are giving BAINE quite a hard time."

"Not really," Daniel said. "Right now we're just trying to figure out who they are, and what they want. Which is why I came here. You seem like you know something; now spill it."

"I know more than you ever will," said Aster, "but the nature of these beings are unfortunately not one of them. I do not know who they are or what they want, only that they would come."

"And what exactly is your source on that?" asked Daniel.

"That I cannot say. Just know that I have no reason to lie to you."

"Oh? And why is that?"

Aster got to his feet, stepping closer to the glass. "You see the Children as a force of destruction. But we are so much more than that, Mr. Bridge. It is our sacred duty to protect this planet from all who would seek to do it harm. If a race aside from Gemkind would destroy it, we would be unable to ascend. If I knew anything to help save this planet from disgraceful annihilation, I would tell you so. But I see no need to."

"Oh, you don't think this warrants your cooperation?" said Daniel. "Where do you get off, acting like the epitome of human achievement?"

This comment seemed to hit a nerve, but Aster did his best to hide his frustration. "Because, as the Radiant One, I am exalted. I was chosen by the Diamonds to lead this world to salvation. My appearance alone should persuade you of this."

"Yeah, because being an albino with heterochromia automatically means that you get to decide the fate of-"

While staring directly at Daniel, Aster reached down and pulled the collar of his shirt to show his chest. This revealed a splotchy red birthmark across his skin. Looking closer at it, the seemingly random shape seemed to be a triangle, flat across the bottom. No, it almost looked like an upside-down diamond. A pink diamond. Daniel's sentence died in his throat.

"And now do you see?" Aster said. "I am the chosen. I alone decide the fate of this world, not you. The Diamonds decreed it. Unless an outside force threatens the human race, you will receive nothing from me."

Daniel slammed a fist onto the glass. "Is an alien invasion not enough of a threat for you!?"

Not taking his eyes off of Daniel, Aster sat back down. "It is as I said, Mr. Bridge: you know nothing."

Letting out a frustrated growl, Daniel turned his back on the prisoner, stomping out of the room. As he traveled back to the surface, he cursed himself for thinking that their old enemy would be willing to help.


June 19, 2016.

"Feels like just yesterday we were doing this exact same thing," said Gina, staring at the computer screen. It displayed the map of the world with all reported alien sightings. "Staying up late to stop the end of the world."

"I wouldn't go that far just yet." While Gina stood, Edmund sat beside her, sipping from a cup of coffee. "Whatever these things are, it doesn't seem like they're directly attacking anyone. Only when someone gets in their way."

"And what exactly is their way?" Gina asked nobody. "What do they want? Why are they here if they aren't invading?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," said Rhodes. "At the very least, we know more about them than we did the Cluster."

"Yeesh," said Gina, remembering the sleepless nights she had spent just trying to find a way to find the thing. "Now that was a cluster of a different kind, I'll tell you that."

Rhodes spun his chair towards the screen, which he scanned over. "Like you said, most of the sightings are near Polaris stockpiles. They're definitely after Gem tech."

"But that doesn't explain everything else," she said. "If they're after Gem tech, why land at an abandoned steel mill?"

"Well, there was a corrupted Gem there," Rhodes said. "It's possible they're going for anything Gem related. Maybe corrupted Gems are easier to handle than regular ones."

"That would certainly explain why there haven't been any sightings in the general Delmarva area," Gina said. "So, let's assume that whoever these guys are, they want to get their hands on Gem stuff. Right?"

"Right."

"And it seems like they have a pretty impressive way of locating it, because there've only been a few firefights involving them. They seem pretty good at finding the tech, getting it, and getting out. If they weren't, there would be way more encounters."

"Sounds about right."

"So what about all these other sightings? Siberia, the Gaza Desert, the middle of the freakin' ocean? No Gem tech left in any of those places. And these weren't just lights in the skies, either, these were reported as full-on sightings. Intel says these were just as quick and efficient as the other ones. What're they after there?"

"The ocean, huh?" Rhodes shrugged. "Maybe they like fishing."

Gina typed at the computer. "Heh, funny you should mention that," she said. "It was a fishing boat that the sighting came from. Apparently, that part of the Pacific is supposed to be rich in tuna." As she looked at the screen, something seemed to click in her brain. She began typing away furiously, looking closer at every corner of the map.

Rhodes noticed the sudden change in her demeanor. He stood up. "What is it? Did you find something?"

"I'm in the process of finding something," she said. "Aha! Look, there!" She pointed at the screen. "That sighting in Siberia? Apparently, there's an old nuclear material storehouse from the Seventies not far from that location. And the one by the Gaza Desert took place just outside an abandoned oil field. T-the more I look at it, the more it looks like these sightings aren't random at all."

She continued to scan the sightings across six continents, each one near something seemingly innocuous. Lumber mills, factories, and especially farms. The more remote, the more likely the beings were to show up there. "Cripes, it's a free-for-all," said Rhodes. "They're not after Gem stuff, they're after stuff, period."

"Exactly," said Gina. "Every single one of these sightings is near some sort of resource center. Fossil fuels, metals, nuclear materials, meat, even lumber-they're taking it all. This is great!"

Rhodes gave her an odd look. "Great?" he said. "The Earth's being stripped clean by spacemen, how is that great?"

Gina grinned. "It's great because now, we know how to find them. We can use this to figure out where they'll strike next."


June 24, 2016.

Each day, more and more sightings of mysterious lights in the skies poured in. BAINE did their best to cover them up, while simultaneously adding them to the database.

"Got a new one for ya!" Tablet in hand, Hester entered the room, where Gina and Edmund looked over their data.

"Thanks," said Edmund, glancing up at her. "What've we got this time?"

Hester placed the tablet down after sending the info into the main computer. "Got a farmer from Azalea who says some of his cows were stolen by, and I quote, 'a gol-dern crocodilly with a ray gun.' His words, not mine."

"So, they're rustling cattle now," Gina said. "There's no telling if or when they'll move up to abducting humans."

"You know," Hester said, leaning up against a nearby table, "you'd think an advanced alien race like this wouldn't need to steal resources from other planets. If they've managed interstellar travel, why would they need wood?"

"Who knows?" said Edmund. "The only way we're really going to learn anything about these beings is if we can find a way to communicate with them. And it looks like the only way we're going to be able to do that is to capture one."

"And to do that, we'll need to pinpoint exactly where it is they're going to strike," Gina said. Using the new data they had acquired over the past few days, she started to formulate a plan. "Alright, I think I have something. Look at this."

"What's up?" Hester and Edmund looked over her shoulder at the screen.

""There's more of a pattern here than we thought," explained Gina. The computer displayed a graphic of the sightings chronologically. "They started up north, and they're sweeping across the globe in an eastern and southern path. It looks like they're almost through with the states."

"Well, what happens when they're done?" asked Hester. "They just leave us alone?"

"Who knows?" said Rhodes. "All the more reason to ask them ourselves."

"And I think I know just how to do that." Gina zoomed in on an area in southern Lonestar; the site of an abandoned Polaris storehouse. "Hester, go and get the rest of the team-it's time we struck first for a change."