Wáng II
Orderlies come in to give Wáng his lunch. There are no utensils involved; they give him a protein shake and vegetable smoothie, holding it up to his mouth to drink. His hands are never unbound during the whole process. As I am later told, he once managed to hide a broken sliver of chopstick in his mouth, then used it to pick the locks.
Once his meal is finished, we continue with the interview.
Q: You mentioned that you joined the military shortly after Cassini's final photographs were made public. Would you care to go into detail about that time?
A: Of course! Truth be told, the six years before the invasion were not too troublesome. I was made a medic due to my previous background, a role I was more than happy to fill. Aside from the training, which was more than a little grueling for a slim schoolboy such as myself, we mainly focused our time into support work. Preparing shelters, instructing rural citizens on possible ways to defend themselves should they fall under alien occupation, and so on. Thankfully, I was not sent into the quagmire that was Tibet, though I am sad to say I lost more than a few friends there.
Q: Where were you on November 21st, 2020?
A: Mobile. Once the observatories detected the entry burns of the starships, we were shuffled away from our bases in case they were made targets. I found myself leaving the base near Fúzhõu in the dead of night, as jittery as some of the addicts I'd seen in the streets.
It was very soon after that when the nuclear devices were initiated in the upper atmosphere. One of them was directly over Chéngdū, not four hundred kilometers from my home. Even though I knew it was an attempt to disable our electronics more than anything else, I still felt a great deal of fear in that moment. I still remember the distant flash of light in the sky, briefly giving the illusion of sunrise, followed by the strange aurora effect that followed.
A few of the shoddier electronics in the city failed, but for the most part everything held, thankfully. Our ears were practically attached to the radios as we attempted to make sense of the influx of communications. There were many false alarms during that time. Race has landed in the heart of Tiān'ānmén! Race troops are on the move in Chóngqìng! Oh, it was a nightmare, trying to make sense of it all. Thankfully, the rumors were swept aside within twenty minutes.
That was when we saw the first of the killercraft.
Q: Would you care to elaborate on that?
Wáng's face hardens.
A: It was a single killercraft that flew over our heads. At first, we thought it was one of ours, until someone pointed out that the shape was all wrong. The squadron of J-13s following after it just a few moments later solidified the realization for us. I would later learn that it was a straggler, who'd been caught off from his poor excuse of a squadron after they'd attempted to secure air superiority in Shànghâi.
After that, we'd received official orders from the higher-ups: "A Race landing force has been repelled from outskirts of Bêijīng, but another is in Shànghâi. All available forces, converge."
Q: And that marked the beginning of you.
A: Indeed. I must admit, when I received that report, I felt a strange mixture and dread. Hope, because we now knew the Race was not invincible, that they could be beaten. Dread, because I knew it would still not be easy, that it would be a painful war that followed.
How right I was.
-/-\-
Yeager II
General Yeager ushers me over to his study, where he pulls up some old maps and files he kept during the war. He pins a map of the United States to the board, with faded lines and dots made in marker.
Q: I'm surprised you still used pen and paper.
A: We in the US Armed Forces like to pride ourselves on redundancy, and our ability to be prepared for almost any scenario. As soon as the reports of the starships came in, we tried to minimize electronic communications, in case they managed to knock out our power grid.
Q: So, what were you doing during the very beginning of the invasion?
A: Sitting in a room with a bunch of equally tired generals and the President in NORAD, poring over every bit of new information we got. We'd moved in once we officially declared war on the Race, and made sure everything was in working order. We exchanged information with our allies nearby and overseas as well, picking up reports from each others listening posts.
It was us and the Chinese who spotted the reentry burns of their starships first. Once we did, we alerted everyone else, from the French to the Russians to the Nigerians.
Q: Was that also when the Race detonated their nuclear payloads in the upper atmosphere?
A: Initiated.
Q: I'm sorry?
A: Nuclear warheads don't detonate. They initiate. But yeah, that was when they initiated their 'explosive metal bombs'. Fried a bunch of the older satellites, along with some of the more outdated power grids here and there, the ones people didn't have the time or money to get to. Thankfully, the most vital parts were protected. It looked like our preparations had paid off.
Still didn't keep us from almost shitting our pants on the spot. As soon as the reports of the initiations in the atmosphere over parts of Africa and Asia came to our attention, we immediately jumped down to DEFCON 2.
Yeager holds up his index finger and thumb, nearly pinching them together.
We were this close to a retaliatory strike. The President had the nuclear football ready, and the boys in our missile silos and subs were all on high alert.
Q: What ultimately prevented a retaliatory strike?
A: When the Russians reported that they'd taken down some Race killercraft with SAMs and noticed radioactive debris. That was when we realized it was their flimsy aircraft that were delivering the payloads, and not some mass missle strike. Much easier to defend against.
So, we scrambled our jets and primed our Ow guns, and got ready to tear them a new asshole.
Q: How effective was that?
Yeager grins.
A: We didn't get a single initiation over American soil. On the other hand, they lost nearly seventy killercraft, along with two of their precious starships. Not gonna lie, there was plenty of cheering when we saw the flaming wrecks tumbling through the stratosphere and into the Atlantic. Same went for the Chinese at Beijing, though they didn't stop the landings at Shanghai. There was a bit of a celebratory mood, even if it didn't last. The alien bastards came, and we'd kicked them back into orbit.
Q: Wasn't there still worry over the successful landing sites?
A: Unfortunately, yeah. It took a while to cut the wheat from the chaff, but we were able to figure out where they'd touched ground.
Yeager pulls up a world map, pointing at the various dots.
Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Cairo, Mogadishu, Johannesburg, Tehran, Ulaan Batar, and Zanzibar. We didn't know right away, but they'd shat out eight and a half million troops in less than twenty four hours into these areas. To put in context, Operation Barbarossa was the biggest invasion in human history, and that was less than half of the Race's numbers.
Yeager pulls up another map, showing red blotches of varying sizes in each spot.
By the time the Christmas season began, they'd captured an area the size of Texas. And it was only going to get worse from there.
-/-\-
Oyuunchimeg I
Tsaikah Oyuunchimeg has lived the same lifestyle as her parents, and their parents, and their parents' parents. Tracking her down for an interview was very difficult, as she migrates alongside her livestock. Finally, however, I was able to catch her twenty miles north of Ulaan Baatar, where she and her extended family have set up their ger. Once inside, I am sat down and offered some horse stew and a creamy cup of tea.
The interview is a difficult process. Oyuunchimeg is a proud individual; she refuses to use the translating software I have offered her, and instead I am forced to brush up on the little Mongolian I know, with help from her sons and daughters, many of whom speak English and Chinese. Once I make my purpose clear, she goes into a lengthy monologue, allowing me little questions.
A: I was the same back then as I am now; only that I have more wrinkles.
Laughs.
I traveled with my horses, and I lived by them. I wear their furs. I drink their milk. I eat their meat. Sometimes, I would travel to the capital and trade my horse products in the market for spices and other goods. I lived with my mother and father during this time, learning all that I could from them, just as they had from their own parents.
Despite my isolation, I still knew of the star-lizards coming towards us. It was all the people in the city talked about, whenever I came in to trade. Many were jubilant, and many were afraid. To much stir in my family, my father bought a radio and portable television, so we could watch the news. I was a young woman then; I was curious about the world, so I would sit and watch with him.
Q: Were you afraid like the others?
A: Yes. No. It did not take long for us to learn that they came to take the world from us. My father grew very worried during this time. He would sit with my mother after a day's work, and talk about what we were to do if the star-lizards came to our country and took our homes. He still remembered the stories his own father used to tell him, about living under the Soviets.
Another laugh.
I was more knowledgeable about the world during this time. I knew that the Americans and Chinese and Russians were preparing to fight, and encouraging everyone else to. Our own country even began to conscript the few able-bodied men we had. My two brothers were forced to go to the army bases and learn how to fight.
But I was not worried. After all, we have very few people, and little to offer. Were the star-lizards really going to come here to take our horses, instead of fighting America or Russia for their precious resources? Were a people who could travel the stars really going to risk lives for our farms and milk?
And if they did, we could simply do what we were already doing, and move away. If they took the west, then we would simply take our horses east. If they took the north, then we would move south. And if they took everything... well, there was no point in worrying over something I could do nothing about.
Q: Where were you when the Race landed in Ulaan Baatar?
A: In the city outskirts, coming back from the market. I was married, then, and living with another family. It was my husband and father-in-law who saw the flashes first. Light, bathing the city and surrounding mountains in white, then red. There was panic in the streets, then. I saw people shaking broken streetlights, or trying to make their old cars work.
It was half an hour later, when we were leaving the city behind us, that we saw the first of the fighting. I saw planes flying over the mountains, chasing each other past the horizon, bombs darting through the air. I later learned that it was our paltry air-force, taking on the invader's planes. We destroyed twenty of them, but we numbered only twelve, and the pilots were killed to a man.
I still remember the sight of their great metal ships, descending into the heart of the city on spears of fire. One of them landed six kilometers from us, and I saw its belly open up, and spill out the star-lizards. Thousands of them, looking much like men from a distance. I saw their tanks rolling towards the city, where much smoke was rising. I can still remember the sounds of their guns as they engaged our soldiers.
We fled after that, moving past the mountains. We met with other families, and two of them had radios that still worked. While we cowered during the light of day, we passed the time by listening to the radios, listening to the news from the city.
We learned that Ulaan Baatar fell that same night. More than ten thousand had been killed, and now the star-lizards were cementing their hold over the city, while moving towards the Chinese border.
All seemed lost. Our soldiers had been routed throughout the country-side; we even met with a few lost envoys, and gave them the best hospitality we could. They told us of how the lizard-men looked, with their scaly skin and bulging eyes, and we shuddered to think of what they were doing to those still in the city. We didn't know that they were relatively kind to those they conquered; we only knew of the destruction they had wrought doing so.
A week after the landings, the soldiers left. The Chinese could not help us, as they were fighting in the slaughterhouse that was Shanghai, but the Russians were coming down from the north, gathering our stragglers and preparing a counter-offensive.
She gives another wry laugh.
Once again, the Russians were invading our country. But this time, it was to fight an even worse foe.
-/-\-
Wallafess III
Wallafess hails a self-driving car, and we leave the Race Free Zone behind. We are silent for the most part during the ride, save for some commentary on the locals. Twenty minutes later, we arrive at a pier at Salt Lake, where he has a small canoe. Hopping inside, he gestures for me to follow, then gently begins to row away from the shore. Once we are some distance out, he pulls out a fishing net and hands it to me.
A: I've grown to really like fishing. Never could do it on Home; the nearest sea was a few light years away.
Q: You do realize that there are almost no fish in Salt Lake, right?
A: Considering that I've been here for fifteen years, yeah. I come here for the brine shrimp. Tasty little morsels.
He absentmindedly sweeps the net through the water, pulling up a yellowish clump. He takes a bit out of the mush, then dumps the rest in a bucket.
I think you'll find it relaxing.
I also start collecting brine shrimp. We work for a few minutes, then I continue the interview.
Q: You say you were stationed on the Yower, correct?
A: Yep.
Q: Would you then care to talk about the landing in Shanghai?
A: It shall be- sure thing. Sssss... Well, I definitely remember being scared out of my mind. When the order to land came through, the officers told all of us to strap in, and get ready for a hell of a ride. Rastin and I made some lame jokes while loaded our guns and grabbed the handholds. Last minute gossip about what you guys were hiding, and all that. Rastin even bet me that we'd just find some mud huts.
Q: You were given no intelligence reports on the city?
A: Well, we didn't exactly have any doctrines for that kind of thing. The briefing basically consisted of "If you see a Tosevite with a weapon, shoot it. If it doesn't have a gun, tell it to surrender, then shoot it if it refuses." I still remember having to practice the word I had to say. Tóuxiáng. Tóuxiáng. It was the only phrase they taught me.
The ride down was bumpy. We were as quiet as the grave when we began slowing down through the atmosphere. That was when we heard the dogfighting.
Q: Dogfighting?
A: I didn't know at the time, but the Chinese sent a bunch of fighters after us, trying to engage the ships in the stratosphere. We had a hundred killercraft accompanying us down, and we lost seventy of those trying to divert them away. The only reason we didn't lose them all was because the Chinese were more focused on stopping the landing in Beijing. Still, we lost the Ssazama to SAMs. To think that if we'd been first, it would've been the end...
Anyway, the Yower had a big jolt, and we realized we'd actually landed. Didn't have any time to let it sink in before the doors opened up, and we had to haul tail-stump out of there.
Q: What was your first impression of Earth like?
A: Cold. That was the first thing I felt when I ran down the ramp after the landcruisers. Cold air in my face, and freezing ground under my feet. We'd landed in the middle of some major park. It think it was Shìjì Gōngyuán. I mean, Century Park. I remember stepping out in a clearing, surrounded by... well, an alien place. I just spent a moment gawking at everything. The trees, the grass, the pathways and benches... it was all unlike anything back Home.
Then my superior barked at me to hurry up with the rest of my squad, and do our job. It was hard to keep track of everything going on. Tens of thousands of us, spilling out in all directions, just rushing forward. All of our remaining killercraft and helicopters were flying overhead, doing reconnaissance and bombing anything that looked threatening.
Q: Did you experience any combat that night?
A: For the most part, no. I think we'd kinda caught the Chinese by surprise when we landed directly in the city, instead of more tactically advantageous positions. In retrospect, it was a smart move on Fucklord Straha's part, especially considering what happened to the ships that did land in the outskirts.
We were ordered to meet up with the forces of the Jahasev, which landed closer to the famous part of the city. We got shuffled into a troopcarrier, and drove through the city. Me, being the unlucky one of the bunch, had to hang off the side.
I saw my first Tosevites when we were leaving the park. Some other squads had found a bunch of them, and were herding them into manageable circles so the intelligence officers could begin questioning.
It... it wasn't what I was expecting. Even after learning how much you'd advanced as a species, I kept on imagining filthy brutes wearing rags and brandishing swords, grunting in gibberish as they just charged into a hail of bullets. Instead, I saw... people. Taller and bigger than me, and definitely ugly, but they were clean and wearing neatly-made coverings. They were all huddled together, visibly scared. Instead of soldiers, I saw innocent civilians who'd had the bad luck of enjoying a night in the park when we came. There were crying children, and wrinkled old folk who were trying to comfort the others.
The city was chaos. Chaos. Most people had been forced into shelters when our ships were detected, but there were still plenty out in the streets, trying to either fight back or get the hell out. I saw a bunch of automobiles smashed into each other, and people running through traffic. And the screaming... I didn't know sentient beings could make noises like that.
Wallafess scoops some more brine shrimp into the bucket, then hisses in mirth.
I guess this is how I kinda felt then.
For the most part, I just watched the chaos. I pointed my gun around, as though to try and scare them, but I didn't shoot. When I saw their fear, I couldn't bring myself too. I just kept on shouting "Tóuxiáng!" like some egg-addled idiot, like that would do anything. I learned later that I was speaking Standard Chinese, not Shanghainese, so a lot of them wouldn't even understand what I was saying.
It was maybe half an hour after landing that we got reports of clashes with the Chinese military that was rolling in from surrounding bases to take back their city. The Zassawa, Ffalasa and Grajaw were three of the unlucky ones that'd landed in the outskirts up north, and it was then that we realized just how screwed we were.
Q: Care to elaborate?
A: I see you're a bit of a sadist.
Our forces in that area had over three hundred landcruisers and four hundred aircraft. A smaller Chinese force kicked their stumps all the way back to the landing site. They literally maneuvered circles around us, trapping those they couldn't just immediately flatten with artillery or bombing runs. I think that little battle cost us three quarters of our forces in the area, while the Chinese lost a tenth.
I think it was the next night that we lost the Grajaw.
Thankfully, I was away from that meat-grinder. I was simply going through panicked streets, shooing civilians out of the way while we tried to meet up with the Jahasev. The crowds and little herds our troopmales made only got bigger as we progressed into the financial district. I remember gawking up at the all the skyscrapers. Home's architecture is a lot more... uniform. You've got simple domes and columns, with the occasional elaborate hall. But your skyscrapers were big, and I mean big. And shiny. Rastin took a few photos while were going through.
We had a skirmish with some heavily-armed cops not long after that. I'd disembarked from the troopcarrier, and was simply standing guard for a crowd we'd captured near one of those nice fountains they have. Then, Pfiraloss noticed the police, rolling towards us in their own troopcarriers. We had a pair of landcruisers on standby, and they took out three of them, but the others just kept going forward, until they shot out canisters of white gas. I didn't understand what was going on, until it touched my eyes, and I felt like I had a nasty headcold.
Q: You're saying you were teargassed?
A: Yes. I have to say, it was pretty crafty of them. I couldn't see anything past the tears, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I got scared. I started thinking I was going to die. It didn't help that the teargas also caused the civilians we'd rounded up to scatter as well. I nearly got trampled in the chaos, and I panicked. I fired a shot into the air, then some human slammed into me. We rolled around for a bit, until I pulled out my sidearm and put two rounds in its shoulder.
Thankfully he landcruisers took out the other troopcarriers, and the teargas started dispersing. I felt sick to the liver when I finally stood up and began to wipe my eyes clean.
That was when I looked at the human I'd shot. Some girl, probably in her twenties. She was clutching the wound, and sobbing. It probably means little to you, but the sounds you make when you cry is one of the most disturbing sounds I've ever heard. Throaty, meaty gasps...
I just stared for a moment at the blood leaking from the girl. I think what really got me was that it was the same color as mine. She was some big ugly alien, but she had the same stuff inside as I did.
Q: What did you do?
A: I just kept on saying "I'm sorry", like she'd even understand what I was saying. I was still mumbling it when some medics came to take her away to the ship for study.
There was a moment of... something, when I stood in that public square and watched them take her away, then looked at the blood on the pavement. In that single point of time, I was just thinking one thing: what am I doing? Why am I just on some alien planet, leaking mucus from my eyes and shooting scared people?
He puts the net away.
I asked myself that a lot. I still ask myself it.
-/-\-
Joshi I
Mamta Joshi agrees to meet me at a tea shop in New Delhi. Despite being nearly forty years old, her face is still youthfully smooth, and there are no grey streaks in her thick black hair. A nervous boy of ten approaches shortly after she and I sit down, and receives an autograph from the famous author.
Q: Thank you for agreeing to this interview.
A: It is my pleasure. I've read your prior work, and found it immensely intriguing.
Q: Now, I know your time is limited, so I'll be quick. Where were you when the Race landed in Mumbai?
A: My, that is rather to the point. I suppose I need to elaborate a little about my life before the invasion. I am not sure how much you know about the cultures here, but my family name is of the Brahmin caste. Do you know much about the old castes in India?
Q: I'm afraid not.
A: Castes have been around for millennia, here. I won't go into much detail, but I'll simply say that there's quite a bit of ugliness regarding the whole thing. Upper castes treating lower castes like garbage, violence directed against people of a certain caste... and that's not even getting into the dalit... the untouchables. It was worse in the rural areas than it was in the cities, but even in 'cosmopolitan' parts the system held much sway. You're expected to marry within your caste, and even socialize within it, in extreme cases. The government tried to mitigate it, but their reservation acts made it even worse in some aspects.
Q: How does this play into your experience?
A: It plays strongly into it.
Mamta takes a sip of her tea, and closes her eyes for a few moments, as though lost in thought.
I was a student in the University of Bombay at the time. When the Race came, their massive starships descending from the heavens, the city went into a panic. I must commend our armed forces for their preparation; they actually managed to shoot one down. I still remember the sight of those explosions in the sky as I was shuffled along a disaster of an evacuation route.
Mumbai'i was a big place, you must understand. Not just in population, but in area. So, while our jets darted about the skies, trying to gain air superiority, and the troops went to where the first ships landed, they couldn't respond that well to the other landings. Three of the ships touched down in Dharavi.
Q: Dharavi?
A: Dhavari was this massive, fetid pile of a slum city. It was actually biggest in the world at the time, I believe; there was up to a million people living there before the landings. The Race faced no resistance there when they landed and let their troops swarm out. Even the people who wanted to fight had no weapons, and many could scarcely bring themselves to do anything but huddle and pray that the demons would not harm them.
The military started pushing them back in other areas, I recall, but the entire slum was firmly in their hold within a single hour. A few policemen went to fight, but they were slaughtered, along with anyone stupid enough to try and arm themselves with rocks and knives. Then they destroyed the police stations, and began bombing away at the army across the river, near where I was.
They cut off the evacuation routes by the University with their landcruisers, and I was trapped behind the frontlines. Before I knew it, I and two hundred others were held at gunpoint by their troopcarriers, and slowly ushered towards Dharavi. I still remember that night. The smell of smoke, the wailing of sirens, the distant explosions as the battle for the skies continued...
I found myself staring at the faces of the Race as they forced me towards the slums. It was the first time I had ever seen an alien before, though it would be far from my last. I was captivated by their scaly faces, and their swiveling eyes. I was surprised by the Hallessi the most, with their gangly eyestalks that looked as though they would snap in the wind.
The journey was a miserable five hours. Imagine being pressed together against people of all shapes and sizes, including children who couldn't control their bladders and bowels for so long. Some man tried to grope me, only for someone else to break his fingers. There was crying, moaning, prayers... we'd cower and flinch whenever aircraft flew overhead, or when there was a nearby explosion, but we were still pushed onwards.
We merged into more groups along the way, as we were pulled deeper and deeper into their claws. By the time we arrived in Dhavari, there were thousands of us. We were all hot, tired, and terrified. Many of us were sick as well. I had to walk over puddles of vomit and other... fluids.
The Race had made Dharavi into a base of operations while their troops fought with ours for the city. They'd flattened many of the buildings, replacing them with prefabricated bunkers and barracks and everything else they needed. Latrines, canteens, even medical centers.
I received a surprise from them, as I was guided into the slums. I saw them helping people. They'd brought over the doctors from the hospitals, and were working alongside them to provide relief to many of the people there. I saw them giving children bandages for infected wounds, and providing starved beggars with food from the stores and warehouses they'd raided.
Q: What was your night there like?
A: They soon learned that I could speak their tongue, and so I was made into a translator for everything they needed. Which meant that I was constantly being shuffled from spot to spot that night, frantically providing them translations for patients and the people they were shuffling into the barracks. A few people called me traitor that night. One even spat in my face, only to get his nose broken by a burly Rabotev guard.
Tensions were high in that camp. People of all sorts of castes and classes were being forced shoulder-to-shoulder; millionaires had to share barracks with the lowliest of beggars, Hindus with Muslims, Muslims with Christians, and upper castes with lower castes. There were shouting matches, and even full-on brawls that needed to be dispersed with a few shots into the air.
There was one moment that night that I still carry with me. One of the Race officers, some Hallessi with blue paint on his chest, called me over to help him handle a situation.
Q: What kind of situation?
A: Some man with a fat belly had attempted to take a ration pack from a child whose ribs I could see, only to be caught. He promptly spat invectives at the troopmales, and I had to translate for this bastard.
"Why did you try and take the girl's food?" the officer had me ask. "She clearly needs it more than you."
To that, the man had given me a rambling response that essentially boiled down to, "I'm a upper-caste (I can't remember which he said), and she's dalit. I should not be forced to share with her."
I still remember the Hallessi officer turning one stalk to the girl, and the other to the man. Then, how he pointed his stalks at each other, which I learned was their way of expressing laughter.
"I only see a fat man and a hungry girl," he had me say. "Take her food again, and you'll be thrown in a cell."
That still sticks with me. To think, that an alien imperialist culture, who'd come to take the planet from us and make humanity loyal to their Emperor, displayed more compassion to that little girl than my own culture ever had.
-/-\-
You have been reading:
Worldfall, Chapter Two: First Landings