Part 01: One-Sided War
The sun was rising over the distance horizon, casting a pale orange glow over what was soon to become the first battlefield in the war for Earth. They were standing on a vast plane in Washington DC, watching the skies for any sign of approaching vessels. There was no time for words or tender moments right now. The satellites that The Rev had kept in place told them that a large squad of ships was approaching. They would be there any minute, a race of almost unstoppable beings... but they'd had a month to prepare.
Samantha 'Sam' Simpson clutched a modified automatic rifle in her hands, staring at the sky through narrowed eyes. She was wearing her green WOOHP jumpsuit, and her waist length red hair waved in the gentle wind as she waited. The weapon in her arms was modified to emit sonic pulses instead of fire bullets; something the scientists who operated the Ear Bleeder used in Moscow had cooked up from what they knew of the alien technology The Rev left behind.
Alexandria 'Alex' Navarro stood on her right, wearing her yellow WOOHP uniform and clutching her sonic weapon nervously in her arms. Her hair was shoulder length by now, and her dark brown eyes were scanning the skies. They were red and bloodshot after grieving for Mandy for the last few weeks. She had actually grown closer to Mandy than anyone else, and her loss had struck the Latino woman pretty hard.
Clover Taylor stood on Sam's left, her expression carefully cold and patient as she waited for the coming onslaught. Her platinum blonde hair had grown past shoulder length, almost longer than the weapon she held in front of her at the ready. She wore her red WOOHP uniform, though everyone who stood around and behind her was wearing more traditional army fatigues.
Suddenly the clouds seemed to darken, swirling around each other as a massive shape appeared through them. "Ready!" Sam shouted at the top of her voice in a tone normally reserved for high-ranking military officials. The entire squad of fighters raised their weapons in unison, including the three WOOHP spies. They watched the dark gray ship burst through the clouds, descending toward them at frightening speeds.
"Aim!" Sam shouted. Guns turned skyward, tracing the ship's movements down through the sky. They didn't stand a chance. Only a fraction of them were actually trained for combat. The majority of their force was comprised of civilians, and a number of them weren't even eighteen years old yet. There was no being picky about who helped them now.
The ship was only forty yards from the ground when Sam finally yelled, "Fire!" There was no sound, nor even any indication that anything was happening. But the weapons slowly began to vibrate in their arms, aiming toward the space ship. The ship began to rock, sparks running along its surface as the modified frequency sound waves went to work.
"It's working!" One of the soldiers in the back exclaimed gleefully. Others echoed the sentiments excitedly.
"Shut up and concentrate!" Sam shouted back, halting the premature celebration. Suddenly several hatches on the bottom of the ship flung themselves open, and several masses of flesh and tentacles fell to the grass below, rolling toward them at an alarming rate of speed. Several people in the back started to scream, and some turned their weapons on the new threat. "Keep your aim on the ship!" Sam screamed.
"Tell me something Sam. Did we really expect this to work?" Alex mumbled aside to Sam as the ship rocked from the force of their sound waves, but remained afloat.
"It was the only strategy we could come up with without knowing everything about the Zardexians, or having enough artillery to take them all out." Sam replied grimly. "We need to get a good look at what makes these things tick... we need a sample from one. Dead or alive."
"And the first one had to explode into billions of tiny space particles." Alex muttered sourly. The hailstorm of monstrosities was moving toward them, almost right on top of them by now while they kept their weapons on the ship. A good portion of their soldiers had already broken formation and turned to flee for their lives.
"I don't think this is working Sam!" Clover shouted over the screams of their comrades and the hideous shrieks from the abominations before them.
"Then it's time for OPERATION B!" Sam screamed. In unison every soldier in the group dropped their miniature sonic guns and whipped real AK-47's out of the straps on their backs. A storm of bullets washed over the Zardexians, slamming into their fragile-looking flesh, but not one bullet penetrated their tough hides.
Sam tried to aim into the creature's mouths, but that didn't seem to work either. It didn't look as if all the bullets in the world could stop them, as finally the monsters roiled into the crowds, needle sharp tentacles tearing through fragile human bodies like railroad spikes. The gunfire continued, but more and more soldiers began to break and run for their lives, going into a frenzied panic.
"Sam, it's not working!" Alex shouted over the roar of the monsters that now surrounded them.
"Damnit! Everyone, retreat!" Sam called to the crowd. Sam, Clover, and Alex turned to run with all their might away from their enemies.
Screams of pain and terror mingled with the horrendous shrieks of the rolling death balls as the three women weaved through the crowd. Alex stopped near a small teenage girl who'd tripped over a still human heart. The girl was staring at it in horror, but Alex grabbed her and pulled her to her feet. "No time to gawk! Get going!" She shoved the girl toward the helicopter transports that had brought them here.
"Alex watch out!" Clover screamed. Alex flattened herself on the grass to avoid a tentacle that passed right overhead. She rolled furiously to the side away from the ball, but it paced her easily. The gaping maws that covered the core of its body were dripping with anticipatory saliva. Alex screamed and tried to throw herself away from it, but one tentacle speared straight through her leg, pinning her to the ground.
"Aaaagh! No... nononono!" Alex cried and tried to grab at the grass in vain as the creature held her up by the hole in her leg, dangling her upside down in front of one of its many mouths. Alex gulped in pain and fear as blood dribbled from her leg up the front of her suit. "You... you guys will never win!" Alex shouted defiantly.
The monster let out something resembling a laugh and pulled her toward its massive, gaping maw. "Alex!" Sam screamed as she leapt at the monster, raising her gun over her head like a club. She slammed it into one of the sets of jaws, but it was impaled on one sharp tooth and stuck there.
"Alex, hold on!" Clover grabbed her hands and tried to pull her back toward the ground, ignoring the blood raining down on her from Alex's leg. "Hang on, I got ya... wagh!" Another tentacle swept her feet out from under her, sending her sprawling out on the grass.
"Come on you dentist's nightmare! You want a real meal, drop her and come after me!" Sam screamed, whirling to plant a solid kick to the gun lodged in the creature's jaw. The creature howled in pain and fury as the metal gun scraped against its comparatively sensitive jaws. It dropped Alex on top of Clover with a thud, turning its full attention to Sam.
"That's right puss-ball! Come on!" Sam backed away from the monster, holding her arms out to the sides. It rolled toward her, all of its tentacles held straight out from its body like spears as its wrinkly, shriveled ball of skin glowed bright red in fury. She waited for Clover to scramble to her feet and lift Alex off the ground before turning to run toward the helicopters. The monster gave chase, staying right behind her and lashing out at her with vicious impaling strikes.
All around them the monsters were rolling in puddles of blood. The grass seemed permanently stained red, though few intact bodies remained. They had mostly been devoured, or were being devoured by the Zardexian menace.
"Okay, we're here!" Clover shouted over the beating of helicopter blades to the wounded and dazed Latino in her arms as she jumped into the helicopter.
"Go go go!" Sam screamed, still running full speed toward the helicopter. The pilot saluted her and pulled the machine into the air, moving higher and higher with ever moment. Sam looked back at the creature right on her tail, then turned forward again and leapt into the sky as high as she could.
One hand gripped the bottom of the helicopter door. She dangled as it pulled higher. One tentacle lashed out, but she kicked her legs out furiously enough to avoid the grasping tentacle. She looked down to see the battlefield fade into the distance, stained with so much human blood... but not a single drop of theirs. What was she thinking, trying this?
She looked up when she felt a hand grip her wrist. "Come on, get inside." A battered and beat up looking officer yanked her up into the helicopter easily. She was impressively strong, but Sam didn't have either the time or inclination to think about that right now.
Sam leaned against the helicopter door, sitting on the floor and looking around. Clover had Alex sitting on one of the seats with her leg up across Clover's lap so she could bandage it up. Alex was wincing and grunting in pain. Other than the three spies and Sam's savior, there were only three other people in a helicopter that had ferried twenty-five to the site.
"Shit..." Sam clenched her fists, watching Alex tense up in pain while Clover struggled to halt the blood flow from her wound. "All this lost life and we didn't make any damn headway whatsoever..." She reached up to rub her head. "Why was I in charge of this operation? Anyone else could've done better... we didn't even learn anything useful..."
"That's not true." Sam's rescuer told her simply. Sam looked up to see her staring out the window of the helicopter side door. Sam pushed herself up to look out beside her. The Zardexians' ship had landed in the field and was smoking, shuddering as electrical energy ran through the hull. "We confirmed that sound waves do effect their technology. That must be why they made such a big sound wave cannon like the one used in Moscow. For civil wars."
"But what we used wasn't enough for any permanent damage..." Sam growled.
"If we use the original Ear Bleeder..." The officer began, but Sam cut her off.
"No! We're never touching that thing again." Sam glared at the officer venomously, who stared back. "It's too powerful to be used effectively in small areas. Besides, we don't even know if they're susceptible to sound, and THEY are the ones we have to worry about. Even if we destroyed every ship they've got, they could still massacre us all." Sam sighed and plopped down on the seat by the door, rubbing her forehead.
"Ow... ooohhh..." Alex groaned and bit her lip in pain as Clover pulled the bandage tightly over her wound. The white cloth was already stained deep crimson, and Alex was looking a bit pale in the face. "God that HURTS..." Alex grunted through gritted teeth.
"Well it's not exactly a flesh wound." Clover obviously tried to keep her tone lighthearted, but the seriousness of the situation was not lost on Alex. "Just relax, we'll get back to base and they'll staple manhole covers to your leg or something."
"Feels like they'll need to..." Alex gulped and leaned back in her seat when Clover finished tying the bandage off. From the other side of the copter a girl stood up and walked over to them. In fact, it was the girl from the field who Alex had saved.
"Um... I'm sorry I got you hurt..." She looked at Alex apologetically. Her skin was black and smooth as silk, with glittering beautiful black eyes. She couldn't have been more than fifteen years old. How she could've gotten on this strike force Sam didn't know. The cut off was supposed to be sixteen.
"Hey, don't sweat it kid." Alex waved aside the apology with a kindhearted, but tired smile. "I can't say I blame you. I was kind of squeamish too when I was your age." Man, hearing Alex say that made Sam feel like an old woman. And she was only twenty-six. Of course, she felt a hundred and fifty, so she supposed it balanced out.
"I'm Kira." The little girl held out her hand to Alex with a bit more confidence than she'd displayed a moment ago.
"Alex." Alex smiled up at her and took her hand in a rather weak handshake, but nobody expected her to be at a hundred percent after losing so much blood.
The helicopter faded into silence for the next several hours until they reached the London base where WOOHP was currently situated. Speed of travel had been one of the concerns of the Imperium, thus they'd made some pretty fast-moving vehicles. Jerry... unfortunately... had been in Moscow when the Imperium of Christ had used their Ear Bleeder to help obliterate the entire city's occupants. Sam had been elected to the office of new WOOHP director... and incidentally, new leader of the entire Earth's defense. This was way too big for her...
Of course, no matter how much of a danger the Zardexian threat was, there were still those countries that refused to follow the rest of the world. Most of the Middle East, though united by their common struggle against an enemy, refused to coordinate and work together. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' applied here... but that didn't mean they liked each other.
Sam just stared out the window as the helicopter lowered to the ground in front of Buckingham Palace, where the resistance against the Zardexians had taken root. Some countries had even refused to believe in the alien menace, believing that it was a cover for 'typical American treachery'. Of course, now that the invasion had officially begun Sam could only imagine what was happening to them now. More needless loss of life to human arrogance and stupidity. Were they even worth saving?
"Sam!" Sam was jarred out of her thoughts by Clover, who had Alex leaning against her shoulder while the others filed out of the helicopter. Kira stopped to help hold Alex though. "Come on, you should get to the throne room." Clover told her. Sam nodded numbly and climbed out of the helicopter after them. All of the other copters that had taken them to the battlefield were scattered around, ten in all. Each had carried twenty-five people out there... now the most one carried was ten.
Sam shook this out of her mind and went inside the palace, making her way toward the throne room through the aging and illustrious palace. They chose it because they needed a symbol of human architectural ability, and power. It wasn't much anymore though, bullet holes dotted the drapes and walls after the Imperium had overtaken it later on in the war.
Sam walked into the throne room to find Pamela Reynolds waiting for her there. After Jerry's death, the three senior spies had come to help them. Trained as spies much like Sam Alex and Clover, Pam Alice and Crimson had been undercover for Jerry for a long time deep inside the Imperium's army. But they'd all been fitted with mind-control collars, locking them into their roles. Now with the controller gone, they were free to help again, and they did with Pam serving as Sam's second-in-command.
"Don't even say a word." Pam sighed, watching Sam walk up the steps to the throne to plop down tiredly. "I know, it's being repeated all over the planet. Calls for reinforcements are coming in from absolutely every front we set up, regardless of what tactics they try to employ. Even those countries who refused to join are crying for help."
"Shortest war in history..." Sam muttered darkly and closed her eyes. "It'll be over in under twenty-four hours..."
"It's not over yet though." Pam reminded her, putting a hand to her chin. "If there's a way to disable their technology maybe..."
"Why am I leader here?" Sam asked suddenly.
"What?"
"Why am I the leader? You're the senior officer, you should have taken over for Jerry." Sam told her.
"I may be the senior officer, but I'm not the superior officer." Pam walked up beside the throne and knelt down so that they were at eye level. "You're the best hope humanity has left..."
"Then they're screwed... because I can't do this!" Sam shoved herself up from the throne and turned to leave. Pam ran up behind her and grabbed her arm, holding her back.
"You're going to abandon everybody? Let them all die hopeless without anyone to guide them?" Pam demanded.
"Why do they need anyone to guide them? Can't they think for their own damn selves!?" Sam shot back. "Isn't blindly following some authority figure exactly what let all of this start in the first place!?"
Pam surprised her by slapping her across the face and shoving her up against he wall to pin her there. Sam stared at her in shock. "Yes, it is! But that's the nature of the beast Sam! We NEED a leader, now more than ever! Without one, we'll all die apart. Human strength is unity... and we need YOU to unify us." Sam's eyes lowered toward the floor and Pam loosened her grip, laying her hands against Sam's shoulders.
"There's nothing I can do..."
Pam sighed and stared at her, then squeezed her shoulders. "Take a rest Sam... I'll send out retreat orders to all of the battlefronts. This is a big planet after all. If we can't beat 'em, we can hide from 'em while we devise a working battle plan." Sam nodded slowly, not in the mood to argue. She turned to leave, trying not to let her feet scrape against the floor as she walked.
She walked down the hall blankly toward her room, but she was only halfway there when she collapsed to her knees, tears sliding down her face. Everywhere she went, people died. And she could never do anything about it... the images that had haunted her since Moscow again returned. She hadn't even been able to see it... only the silent knowledge of its happening. The Ear Bleeder's hemorrhage-inducing blast had either killed or disabled everyone... the survivors had been slaughtered like sheep. The worst was the sight of an Imperial Colonel carving a giant 'ZERO' where once had been ten million...
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Sam slammed her fist into the floor repeatedly, until she was sure her knuckles had shattered from the impacts. Finally she stopped and leaned against the wall, the dull throbbing pain in her hand the only reminder that this wasn't all just one long dream.
"Sam?" A gentle, pleasant voice called. How did Alex keep such a gentle tone? Sam looked up to see Alex walking toward her with the aid of a pair of crutches and a thick white bandage wrapped around her pierced leg. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly. Sam couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head.
"Who IS okay these days?" She asked, wiping at her eyes. Alex stood on one leg and set her crutches aside so she could bend down and help Sam climb to her feet. "How do you do it Alex?" Sam asked as Alex reached for her crutches.
"Do what?" Alex asked.
"Stay so happy." Sam stated. Alex stared at her for a moment, then gave her a dry smile.
"Who says I'm happy?" She asked. Sam nodded slowly as she turned to walk down the hall again. Alex followed after her on her crutches. Suddenly a scream erupted from further down the hallway, followed by a massive crash that made the entire building shudder.
"What the Hell...!?" Sam charged down the hallway toward the front entrance. She skidded to a stop when she saw the massive rolling form of a Zardexian moving through the entrance, its tentacles ripping through the support structures and bodies of the guards like they were nothing. "How did it find us out here!?" Sam exclaimed.
"Uh... S... Sam... it's coming this way!" Alex backed away furiously as the Zardexian howled darkly and rolled toward them. Sam whirled and ran down the hall again, sweeping Alex up in her arms to carry her since the crutches would only slow them down. They charged through the hallway as fast as they could, with the rolling ball of disgusting death right on their tail.
Sam leapt over one lashing tentacle, lunging to the end of a hall and running up the stairs. The Zardexian planted its tentacles on the stairs to climb them like a centipede since it couldn't very well roll up them. "Hey... one of its tentacles has blood on it... Sam I think that's the one that attacked me in Washington!" Alex exclaimed.
"Thanks Alex, that's really useful information!" Sam growled sarcastically as she slammed into a wall to turn a corner at full speed. "Get out of the way!" Sam screamed at several other people in the hall. When they spotted the Zardexian they screamed and tried to reach a door, but they weren't fast enough.
The alien paid them no mind however, rolling right on past them after Alex and Sam. The shrieks from deep within its body were deafening and haunting, as its tentacles lashed out to try to get a hold of them. The walls around the two women were torn apart, leaving holes where the tentacles had plunged into them.
Sam charged toward a window at full speed, pumping her legs as fast as she could. "Sam...? What are you doing!? No!" Alex screamed as Sam charged out onto the balcony and leapt toward it. She sailed over the rail, then grabbed onto it tightly with one hand while the other wrapped tightly around Alex. They swung back and hit the side of the balcony hard as the Zardexian rolled out after them at full speed.
Like any rolling ball, it couldn't stop on a dime. It broke straight through the balcony rail right next to Sam and began to plummet toward the ground. Its tentacles whipped out to grab hold of them, but Sam whipped her legs around to avoid them and the creature fell to the lawn below. It hit the ground with a sickening thud and an enraged shriek before moving to head back inside to go up after them.
"Oh no you don't, you overgrown testicle!" Crimson shouted from a nearby crane as a massive black wrecking ball used for the demolition of too badly destroyed parts of the palace swung down toward the alien. The ball came down right on top of it, driving it into the ground like a railroad spike amid shards of cement that flew into the air.
The tentacles surged with a cry of fury for a moment before they finally went limp underneath the massive black wrecking ball. Sam sighed and closed her eyes, still dangling from the balcony rail.
"Well, if we could get an army of wrecking balls out there we might stand a chance." Alex quipped. Sam smirked, then looked up when several people grabbed her arms to help pull her back up onto the balcony. She and Alex sat on the balcony, looking down at the flattened ball of flesh far underneath them.
"Are you alright sir?" One of the former Imperium soldiers asked. Sam hated being called 'sir', but this was technically an army, so it was unavoidable.
"I'm fine..." Sam pushed herself up, staring down at the wrecking ball. "It's almost like it was hunting us specifically... or at least... Alex..." Sam looked down at her Latino friend. Alex's eyes went wide and she gulped. "In any case, we need to go into hiding too if they know where we are. Tell everyone except the doctor to begin evacuation procedures. Take the body of the Zardexian with you for research if you can. Move to Base Two in Greenland, but save us a copter. Alex, we're going to see the doctor."
"O... okay..." Alex nodded. Sam picked her up and carried her inside down to the makeshift infirmary in what used to be the palace kitchen. The doctor watched them enter from behind a pair of sharply pointed glasses that sat in front of kind, soft blue eyes.
"Hey, Doctor Lawrence. Look her over... tell me if you find anything unusual at all. Whether it's harmful or not." Sam set Alex on one of the small steel tables in the middle of the room. The doctor nodded and walked toward Alex while the Latino woman stared at Sam worriedly. "Relax... it's just a precaution..." Sam patted her hand before turning to leave and give them some privacy.
Clover rushed up to her quickly. "Sam, what's going on!? Everyone's evacuating, and they said Alex is hurt again!"
"One of the Zardexians found us... and I'm just having Alex looked over just in case." Sam replied. "You should leave with the others."
"Bullshit, I'm not leaving Alex here. We've been separated several times during all this, I'll be damned if I'm letting it happen again." Clover replied vehemently. Sam nodded and leaned against the wall to wait for the prognosis on Alex.
Hours whittled away, and the palace emptied with surprising speed until the three spies were left alone in the palace with the doctor still looking Alex over. Medical technology had suffered during the war, cast aside in favor of weapon research on all sides, but that didn't mean they were back in the stone-ages.
Finally as the night was beginning to dominate the sky outside the doctor emerged from the room, looking at Sam. "I suppose you knew what I was going to find..." He said softly. Sam swore sharply under her breath.
"What? What is it?" Clover asked.
"In 2007 scientists researching weapons in Alaska discovered a strange species of insect, that used a special kind of venom... not to hinder its prey, but to mark it with a particular scent. It then let the prey go back to its den... so that it could follow and devour the entire lot." The doctor told her smoothly. Clover stared at him blankly.
"Wh... what does that have to do with Alex...?" Clover asked.
"There's venom in her system that has much of the same consistency..." The doctor informed her. "Her body is giving off peculiar pheromones... that I can only assume until a study is done of the Zardexian body is easily detectable by the Zardexians."
"But you don't know that for sure. I say we go to the second base, and find out the truth." Clover stated.
"Agreed... but we can't take Alex with us..." Sam said softly.
"What!?" Clover demanded.
"For all we know she's a walking spotlight Clover." Sam said. "We don't know for sure, but that's not a risk we can reasonably take."
"Wh... well can't we get rid of the pheromones somehow? A blood transfusion or something?" Clover asked.
"Her body is already under stress from the wound on her leg. A blood transfusion would certainly kill her." The doctor told her.
"We're not leaving her here alone!" Clover screamed angrily.
"I never said we were." Sam replied. Clover and the doctor both turned to her curiously as she turned to the doctor. "Me, Alex and Clover will find another place to stay until you study the Zardexian and tell us whether or not these things really can trace the pheromones, or if it was just a lucky guess." She reached into her suit and handed the doctor a small paper. "This is the frequency my communicator will be on... use it to contact me once your research is done. And when you get there, tell Pam she's in charge of WOOHP now."
"Temporarily...?" The doctor asked. Sam didn't reply, staring at him. "Understood." The doctor nodded and turned to head toward the front doors of the palace. Clover watched him go, then turned to Sam with an admiring gaze.
"You know this is probably suicide, if they really can track her." Clover said.
"Like you said. We're not just telling her to get lost." Sam replied, looking back steadily. Clover nodded and they both turned to head into the kitchen, where Alex was just finishing zipping up her WOOHP uniform.
"Well guys? What's the diagnosis?" Alex asked nervously.
"We're staying here for a while." Sam replied. "Think of it as a vacation from the war..."
"A vacation?" Alex blinked. "Why...?"
"Don't think about that." Clover told her. "But we should get out of here and find another place to stay. Something tells me the Zardexians won't be happy when they realize we actually managed to kill one of 'em." Clover grabbed Alex's crutches and held them out to her. Alex still looked puzzled and worried, but she took them and stood up from the table.
"Agreed. Lets get going girls." Sam gestured for them to follow her as she turned to leave Buckingham Palace. Clover and Alex followed right behind her out into the starry night outside. They'd been on their own before, so this was really no trouble... the only possible problems were Zardexian revenge-hunts and the roving bands of lunatics that had claimed many cities around the world as the sane people gathered in the capitols to plan the defense of Earth.
Clover was right, it was suicide. But at this point, Sam wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Time would tell.
TO BE CONTINUED
The sun was rising over the distance horizon, casting a pale orange glow over what was soon to become the first battlefield in the war for Earth. They were standing on a vast plane in Washington DC, watching the skies for any sign of approaching vessels. There was no time for words or tender moments right now. The satellites that The Rev had kept in place told them that a large squad of ships was approaching. They would be there any minute, a race of almost unstoppable beings... but they'd had a month to prepare.
Samantha 'Sam' Simpson clutched a modified automatic rifle in her hands, staring at the sky through narrowed eyes. She was wearing her green WOOHP jumpsuit, and her waist length red hair waved in the gentle wind as she waited. The weapon in her arms was modified to emit sonic pulses instead of fire bullets; something the scientists who operated the Ear Bleeder used in Moscow had cooked up from what they knew of the alien technology The Rev left behind.
Alexandria 'Alex' Navarro stood on her right, wearing her yellow WOOHP uniform and clutching her sonic weapon nervously in her arms. Her hair was shoulder length by now, and her dark brown eyes were scanning the skies. They were red and bloodshot after grieving for Mandy for the last few weeks. She had actually grown closer to Mandy than anyone else, and her loss had struck the Latino woman pretty hard.
Clover Taylor stood on Sam's left, her expression carefully cold and patient as she waited for the coming onslaught. Her platinum blonde hair had grown past shoulder length, almost longer than the weapon she held in front of her at the ready. She wore her red WOOHP uniform, though everyone who stood around and behind her was wearing more traditional army fatigues.
Suddenly the clouds seemed to darken, swirling around each other as a massive shape appeared through them. "Ready!" Sam shouted at the top of her voice in a tone normally reserved for high-ranking military officials. The entire squad of fighters raised their weapons in unison, including the three WOOHP spies. They watched the dark gray ship burst through the clouds, descending toward them at frightening speeds.
"Aim!" Sam shouted. Guns turned skyward, tracing the ship's movements down through the sky. They didn't stand a chance. Only a fraction of them were actually trained for combat. The majority of their force was comprised of civilians, and a number of them weren't even eighteen years old yet. There was no being picky about who helped them now.
The ship was only forty yards from the ground when Sam finally yelled, "Fire!" There was no sound, nor even any indication that anything was happening. But the weapons slowly began to vibrate in their arms, aiming toward the space ship. The ship began to rock, sparks running along its surface as the modified frequency sound waves went to work.
"It's working!" One of the soldiers in the back exclaimed gleefully. Others echoed the sentiments excitedly.
"Shut up and concentrate!" Sam shouted back, halting the premature celebration. Suddenly several hatches on the bottom of the ship flung themselves open, and several masses of flesh and tentacles fell to the grass below, rolling toward them at an alarming rate of speed. Several people in the back started to scream, and some turned their weapons on the new threat. "Keep your aim on the ship!" Sam screamed.
"Tell me something Sam. Did we really expect this to work?" Alex mumbled aside to Sam as the ship rocked from the force of their sound waves, but remained afloat.
"It was the only strategy we could come up with without knowing everything about the Zardexians, or having enough artillery to take them all out." Sam replied grimly. "We need to get a good look at what makes these things tick... we need a sample from one. Dead or alive."
"And the first one had to explode into billions of tiny space particles." Alex muttered sourly. The hailstorm of monstrosities was moving toward them, almost right on top of them by now while they kept their weapons on the ship. A good portion of their soldiers had already broken formation and turned to flee for their lives.
"I don't think this is working Sam!" Clover shouted over the screams of their comrades and the hideous shrieks from the abominations before them.
"Then it's time for OPERATION B!" Sam screamed. In unison every soldier in the group dropped their miniature sonic guns and whipped real AK-47's out of the straps on their backs. A storm of bullets washed over the Zardexians, slamming into their fragile-looking flesh, but not one bullet penetrated their tough hides.
Sam tried to aim into the creature's mouths, but that didn't seem to work either. It didn't look as if all the bullets in the world could stop them, as finally the monsters roiled into the crowds, needle sharp tentacles tearing through fragile human bodies like railroad spikes. The gunfire continued, but more and more soldiers began to break and run for their lives, going into a frenzied panic.
"Sam, it's not working!" Alex shouted over the roar of the monsters that now surrounded them.
"Damnit! Everyone, retreat!" Sam called to the crowd. Sam, Clover, and Alex turned to run with all their might away from their enemies.
Screams of pain and terror mingled with the horrendous shrieks of the rolling death balls as the three women weaved through the crowd. Alex stopped near a small teenage girl who'd tripped over a still human heart. The girl was staring at it in horror, but Alex grabbed her and pulled her to her feet. "No time to gawk! Get going!" She shoved the girl toward the helicopter transports that had brought them here.
"Alex watch out!" Clover screamed. Alex flattened herself on the grass to avoid a tentacle that passed right overhead. She rolled furiously to the side away from the ball, but it paced her easily. The gaping maws that covered the core of its body were dripping with anticipatory saliva. Alex screamed and tried to throw herself away from it, but one tentacle speared straight through her leg, pinning her to the ground.
"Aaaagh! No... nononono!" Alex cried and tried to grab at the grass in vain as the creature held her up by the hole in her leg, dangling her upside down in front of one of its many mouths. Alex gulped in pain and fear as blood dribbled from her leg up the front of her suit. "You... you guys will never win!" Alex shouted defiantly.
The monster let out something resembling a laugh and pulled her toward its massive, gaping maw. "Alex!" Sam screamed as she leapt at the monster, raising her gun over her head like a club. She slammed it into one of the sets of jaws, but it was impaled on one sharp tooth and stuck there.
"Alex, hold on!" Clover grabbed her hands and tried to pull her back toward the ground, ignoring the blood raining down on her from Alex's leg. "Hang on, I got ya... wagh!" Another tentacle swept her feet out from under her, sending her sprawling out on the grass.
"Come on you dentist's nightmare! You want a real meal, drop her and come after me!" Sam screamed, whirling to plant a solid kick to the gun lodged in the creature's jaw. The creature howled in pain and fury as the metal gun scraped against its comparatively sensitive jaws. It dropped Alex on top of Clover with a thud, turning its full attention to Sam.
"That's right puss-ball! Come on!" Sam backed away from the monster, holding her arms out to the sides. It rolled toward her, all of its tentacles held straight out from its body like spears as its wrinkly, shriveled ball of skin glowed bright red in fury. She waited for Clover to scramble to her feet and lift Alex off the ground before turning to run toward the helicopters. The monster gave chase, staying right behind her and lashing out at her with vicious impaling strikes.
All around them the monsters were rolling in puddles of blood. The grass seemed permanently stained red, though few intact bodies remained. They had mostly been devoured, or were being devoured by the Zardexian menace.
"Okay, we're here!" Clover shouted over the beating of helicopter blades to the wounded and dazed Latino in her arms as she jumped into the helicopter.
"Go go go!" Sam screamed, still running full speed toward the helicopter. The pilot saluted her and pulled the machine into the air, moving higher and higher with ever moment. Sam looked back at the creature right on her tail, then turned forward again and leapt into the sky as high as she could.
One hand gripped the bottom of the helicopter door. She dangled as it pulled higher. One tentacle lashed out, but she kicked her legs out furiously enough to avoid the grasping tentacle. She looked down to see the battlefield fade into the distance, stained with so much human blood... but not a single drop of theirs. What was she thinking, trying this?
She looked up when she felt a hand grip her wrist. "Come on, get inside." A battered and beat up looking officer yanked her up into the helicopter easily. She was impressively strong, but Sam didn't have either the time or inclination to think about that right now.
Sam leaned against the helicopter door, sitting on the floor and looking around. Clover had Alex sitting on one of the seats with her leg up across Clover's lap so she could bandage it up. Alex was wincing and grunting in pain. Other than the three spies and Sam's savior, there were only three other people in a helicopter that had ferried twenty-five to the site.
"Shit..." Sam clenched her fists, watching Alex tense up in pain while Clover struggled to halt the blood flow from her wound. "All this lost life and we didn't make any damn headway whatsoever..." She reached up to rub her head. "Why was I in charge of this operation? Anyone else could've done better... we didn't even learn anything useful..."
"That's not true." Sam's rescuer told her simply. Sam looked up to see her staring out the window of the helicopter side door. Sam pushed herself up to look out beside her. The Zardexians' ship had landed in the field and was smoking, shuddering as electrical energy ran through the hull. "We confirmed that sound waves do effect their technology. That must be why they made such a big sound wave cannon like the one used in Moscow. For civil wars."
"But what we used wasn't enough for any permanent damage..." Sam growled.
"If we use the original Ear Bleeder..." The officer began, but Sam cut her off.
"No! We're never touching that thing again." Sam glared at the officer venomously, who stared back. "It's too powerful to be used effectively in small areas. Besides, we don't even know if they're susceptible to sound, and THEY are the ones we have to worry about. Even if we destroyed every ship they've got, they could still massacre us all." Sam sighed and plopped down on the seat by the door, rubbing her forehead.
"Ow... ooohhh..." Alex groaned and bit her lip in pain as Clover pulled the bandage tightly over her wound. The white cloth was already stained deep crimson, and Alex was looking a bit pale in the face. "God that HURTS..." Alex grunted through gritted teeth.
"Well it's not exactly a flesh wound." Clover obviously tried to keep her tone lighthearted, but the seriousness of the situation was not lost on Alex. "Just relax, we'll get back to base and they'll staple manhole covers to your leg or something."
"Feels like they'll need to..." Alex gulped and leaned back in her seat when Clover finished tying the bandage off. From the other side of the copter a girl stood up and walked over to them. In fact, it was the girl from the field who Alex had saved.
"Um... I'm sorry I got you hurt..." She looked at Alex apologetically. Her skin was black and smooth as silk, with glittering beautiful black eyes. She couldn't have been more than fifteen years old. How she could've gotten on this strike force Sam didn't know. The cut off was supposed to be sixteen.
"Hey, don't sweat it kid." Alex waved aside the apology with a kindhearted, but tired smile. "I can't say I blame you. I was kind of squeamish too when I was your age." Man, hearing Alex say that made Sam feel like an old woman. And she was only twenty-six. Of course, she felt a hundred and fifty, so she supposed it balanced out.
"I'm Kira." The little girl held out her hand to Alex with a bit more confidence than she'd displayed a moment ago.
"Alex." Alex smiled up at her and took her hand in a rather weak handshake, but nobody expected her to be at a hundred percent after losing so much blood.
The helicopter faded into silence for the next several hours until they reached the London base where WOOHP was currently situated. Speed of travel had been one of the concerns of the Imperium, thus they'd made some pretty fast-moving vehicles. Jerry... unfortunately... had been in Moscow when the Imperium of Christ had used their Ear Bleeder to help obliterate the entire city's occupants. Sam had been elected to the office of new WOOHP director... and incidentally, new leader of the entire Earth's defense. This was way too big for her...
Of course, no matter how much of a danger the Zardexian threat was, there were still those countries that refused to follow the rest of the world. Most of the Middle East, though united by their common struggle against an enemy, refused to coordinate and work together. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' applied here... but that didn't mean they liked each other.
Sam just stared out the window as the helicopter lowered to the ground in front of Buckingham Palace, where the resistance against the Zardexians had taken root. Some countries had even refused to believe in the alien menace, believing that it was a cover for 'typical American treachery'. Of course, now that the invasion had officially begun Sam could only imagine what was happening to them now. More needless loss of life to human arrogance and stupidity. Were they even worth saving?
"Sam!" Sam was jarred out of her thoughts by Clover, who had Alex leaning against her shoulder while the others filed out of the helicopter. Kira stopped to help hold Alex though. "Come on, you should get to the throne room." Clover told her. Sam nodded numbly and climbed out of the helicopter after them. All of the other copters that had taken them to the battlefield were scattered around, ten in all. Each had carried twenty-five people out there... now the most one carried was ten.
Sam shook this out of her mind and went inside the palace, making her way toward the throne room through the aging and illustrious palace. They chose it because they needed a symbol of human architectural ability, and power. It wasn't much anymore though, bullet holes dotted the drapes and walls after the Imperium had overtaken it later on in the war.
Sam walked into the throne room to find Pamela Reynolds waiting for her there. After Jerry's death, the three senior spies had come to help them. Trained as spies much like Sam Alex and Clover, Pam Alice and Crimson had been undercover for Jerry for a long time deep inside the Imperium's army. But they'd all been fitted with mind-control collars, locking them into their roles. Now with the controller gone, they were free to help again, and they did with Pam serving as Sam's second-in-command.
"Don't even say a word." Pam sighed, watching Sam walk up the steps to the throne to plop down tiredly. "I know, it's being repeated all over the planet. Calls for reinforcements are coming in from absolutely every front we set up, regardless of what tactics they try to employ. Even those countries who refused to join are crying for help."
"Shortest war in history..." Sam muttered darkly and closed her eyes. "It'll be over in under twenty-four hours..."
"It's not over yet though." Pam reminded her, putting a hand to her chin. "If there's a way to disable their technology maybe..."
"Why am I leader here?" Sam asked suddenly.
"What?"
"Why am I the leader? You're the senior officer, you should have taken over for Jerry." Sam told her.
"I may be the senior officer, but I'm not the superior officer." Pam walked up beside the throne and knelt down so that they were at eye level. "You're the best hope humanity has left..."
"Then they're screwed... because I can't do this!" Sam shoved herself up from the throne and turned to leave. Pam ran up behind her and grabbed her arm, holding her back.
"You're going to abandon everybody? Let them all die hopeless without anyone to guide them?" Pam demanded.
"Why do they need anyone to guide them? Can't they think for their own damn selves!?" Sam shot back. "Isn't blindly following some authority figure exactly what let all of this start in the first place!?"
Pam surprised her by slapping her across the face and shoving her up against he wall to pin her there. Sam stared at her in shock. "Yes, it is! But that's the nature of the beast Sam! We NEED a leader, now more than ever! Without one, we'll all die apart. Human strength is unity... and we need YOU to unify us." Sam's eyes lowered toward the floor and Pam loosened her grip, laying her hands against Sam's shoulders.
"There's nothing I can do..."
Pam sighed and stared at her, then squeezed her shoulders. "Take a rest Sam... I'll send out retreat orders to all of the battlefronts. This is a big planet after all. If we can't beat 'em, we can hide from 'em while we devise a working battle plan." Sam nodded slowly, not in the mood to argue. She turned to leave, trying not to let her feet scrape against the floor as she walked.
She walked down the hall blankly toward her room, but she was only halfway there when she collapsed to her knees, tears sliding down her face. Everywhere she went, people died. And she could never do anything about it... the images that had haunted her since Moscow again returned. She hadn't even been able to see it... only the silent knowledge of its happening. The Ear Bleeder's hemorrhage-inducing blast had either killed or disabled everyone... the survivors had been slaughtered like sheep. The worst was the sight of an Imperial Colonel carving a giant 'ZERO' where once had been ten million...
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Sam slammed her fist into the floor repeatedly, until she was sure her knuckles had shattered from the impacts. Finally she stopped and leaned against the wall, the dull throbbing pain in her hand the only reminder that this wasn't all just one long dream.
"Sam?" A gentle, pleasant voice called. How did Alex keep such a gentle tone? Sam looked up to see Alex walking toward her with the aid of a pair of crutches and a thick white bandage wrapped around her pierced leg. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly. Sam couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head.
"Who IS okay these days?" She asked, wiping at her eyes. Alex stood on one leg and set her crutches aside so she could bend down and help Sam climb to her feet. "How do you do it Alex?" Sam asked as Alex reached for her crutches.
"Do what?" Alex asked.
"Stay so happy." Sam stated. Alex stared at her for a moment, then gave her a dry smile.
"Who says I'm happy?" She asked. Sam nodded slowly as she turned to walk down the hall again. Alex followed after her on her crutches. Suddenly a scream erupted from further down the hallway, followed by a massive crash that made the entire building shudder.
"What the Hell...!?" Sam charged down the hallway toward the front entrance. She skidded to a stop when she saw the massive rolling form of a Zardexian moving through the entrance, its tentacles ripping through the support structures and bodies of the guards like they were nothing. "How did it find us out here!?" Sam exclaimed.
"Uh... S... Sam... it's coming this way!" Alex backed away furiously as the Zardexian howled darkly and rolled toward them. Sam whirled and ran down the hall again, sweeping Alex up in her arms to carry her since the crutches would only slow them down. They charged through the hallway as fast as they could, with the rolling ball of disgusting death right on their tail.
Sam leapt over one lashing tentacle, lunging to the end of a hall and running up the stairs. The Zardexian planted its tentacles on the stairs to climb them like a centipede since it couldn't very well roll up them. "Hey... one of its tentacles has blood on it... Sam I think that's the one that attacked me in Washington!" Alex exclaimed.
"Thanks Alex, that's really useful information!" Sam growled sarcastically as she slammed into a wall to turn a corner at full speed. "Get out of the way!" Sam screamed at several other people in the hall. When they spotted the Zardexian they screamed and tried to reach a door, but they weren't fast enough.
The alien paid them no mind however, rolling right on past them after Alex and Sam. The shrieks from deep within its body were deafening and haunting, as its tentacles lashed out to try to get a hold of them. The walls around the two women were torn apart, leaving holes where the tentacles had plunged into them.
Sam charged toward a window at full speed, pumping her legs as fast as she could. "Sam...? What are you doing!? No!" Alex screamed as Sam charged out onto the balcony and leapt toward it. She sailed over the rail, then grabbed onto it tightly with one hand while the other wrapped tightly around Alex. They swung back and hit the side of the balcony hard as the Zardexian rolled out after them at full speed.
Like any rolling ball, it couldn't stop on a dime. It broke straight through the balcony rail right next to Sam and began to plummet toward the ground. Its tentacles whipped out to grab hold of them, but Sam whipped her legs around to avoid them and the creature fell to the lawn below. It hit the ground with a sickening thud and an enraged shriek before moving to head back inside to go up after them.
"Oh no you don't, you overgrown testicle!" Crimson shouted from a nearby crane as a massive black wrecking ball used for the demolition of too badly destroyed parts of the palace swung down toward the alien. The ball came down right on top of it, driving it into the ground like a railroad spike amid shards of cement that flew into the air.
The tentacles surged with a cry of fury for a moment before they finally went limp underneath the massive black wrecking ball. Sam sighed and closed her eyes, still dangling from the balcony rail.
"Well, if we could get an army of wrecking balls out there we might stand a chance." Alex quipped. Sam smirked, then looked up when several people grabbed her arms to help pull her back up onto the balcony. She and Alex sat on the balcony, looking down at the flattened ball of flesh far underneath them.
"Are you alright sir?" One of the former Imperium soldiers asked. Sam hated being called 'sir', but this was technically an army, so it was unavoidable.
"I'm fine..." Sam pushed herself up, staring down at the wrecking ball. "It's almost like it was hunting us specifically... or at least... Alex..." Sam looked down at her Latino friend. Alex's eyes went wide and she gulped. "In any case, we need to go into hiding too if they know where we are. Tell everyone except the doctor to begin evacuation procedures. Take the body of the Zardexian with you for research if you can. Move to Base Two in Greenland, but save us a copter. Alex, we're going to see the doctor."
"O... okay..." Alex nodded. Sam picked her up and carried her inside down to the makeshift infirmary in what used to be the palace kitchen. The doctor watched them enter from behind a pair of sharply pointed glasses that sat in front of kind, soft blue eyes.
"Hey, Doctor Lawrence. Look her over... tell me if you find anything unusual at all. Whether it's harmful or not." Sam set Alex on one of the small steel tables in the middle of the room. The doctor nodded and walked toward Alex while the Latino woman stared at Sam worriedly. "Relax... it's just a precaution..." Sam patted her hand before turning to leave and give them some privacy.
Clover rushed up to her quickly. "Sam, what's going on!? Everyone's evacuating, and they said Alex is hurt again!"
"One of the Zardexians found us... and I'm just having Alex looked over just in case." Sam replied. "You should leave with the others."
"Bullshit, I'm not leaving Alex here. We've been separated several times during all this, I'll be damned if I'm letting it happen again." Clover replied vehemently. Sam nodded and leaned against the wall to wait for the prognosis on Alex.
Hours whittled away, and the palace emptied with surprising speed until the three spies were left alone in the palace with the doctor still looking Alex over. Medical technology had suffered during the war, cast aside in favor of weapon research on all sides, but that didn't mean they were back in the stone-ages.
Finally as the night was beginning to dominate the sky outside the doctor emerged from the room, looking at Sam. "I suppose you knew what I was going to find..." He said softly. Sam swore sharply under her breath.
"What? What is it?" Clover asked.
"In 2007 scientists researching weapons in Alaska discovered a strange species of insect, that used a special kind of venom... not to hinder its prey, but to mark it with a particular scent. It then let the prey go back to its den... so that it could follow and devour the entire lot." The doctor told her smoothly. Clover stared at him blankly.
"Wh... what does that have to do with Alex...?" Clover asked.
"There's venom in her system that has much of the same consistency..." The doctor informed her. "Her body is giving off peculiar pheromones... that I can only assume until a study is done of the Zardexian body is easily detectable by the Zardexians."
"But you don't know that for sure. I say we go to the second base, and find out the truth." Clover stated.
"Agreed... but we can't take Alex with us..." Sam said softly.
"What!?" Clover demanded.
"For all we know she's a walking spotlight Clover." Sam said. "We don't know for sure, but that's not a risk we can reasonably take."
"Wh... well can't we get rid of the pheromones somehow? A blood transfusion or something?" Clover asked.
"Her body is already under stress from the wound on her leg. A blood transfusion would certainly kill her." The doctor told her.
"We're not leaving her here alone!" Clover screamed angrily.
"I never said we were." Sam replied. Clover and the doctor both turned to her curiously as she turned to the doctor. "Me, Alex and Clover will find another place to stay until you study the Zardexian and tell us whether or not these things really can trace the pheromones, or if it was just a lucky guess." She reached into her suit and handed the doctor a small paper. "This is the frequency my communicator will be on... use it to contact me once your research is done. And when you get there, tell Pam she's in charge of WOOHP now."
"Temporarily...?" The doctor asked. Sam didn't reply, staring at him. "Understood." The doctor nodded and turned to head toward the front doors of the palace. Clover watched him go, then turned to Sam with an admiring gaze.
"You know this is probably suicide, if they really can track her." Clover said.
"Like you said. We're not just telling her to get lost." Sam replied, looking back steadily. Clover nodded and they both turned to head into the kitchen, where Alex was just finishing zipping up her WOOHP uniform.
"Well guys? What's the diagnosis?" Alex asked nervously.
"We're staying here for a while." Sam replied. "Think of it as a vacation from the war..."
"A vacation?" Alex blinked. "Why...?"
"Don't think about that." Clover told her. "But we should get out of here and find another place to stay. Something tells me the Zardexians won't be happy when they realize we actually managed to kill one of 'em." Clover grabbed Alex's crutches and held them out to her. Alex still looked puzzled and worried, but she took them and stood up from the table.
"Agreed. Lets get going girls." Sam gestured for them to follow her as she turned to leave Buckingham Palace. Clover and Alex followed right behind her out into the starry night outside. They'd been on their own before, so this was really no trouble... the only possible problems were Zardexian revenge-hunts and the roving bands of lunatics that had claimed many cities around the world as the sane people gathered in the capitols to plan the defense of Earth.
Clover was right, it was suicide. But at this point, Sam wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Time would tell.
TO BE CONTINUED