The Alien Invasion

Prologue: The Invasion of the Insects

Prologue: The Invasion of the Insects

The fleet was destroyed.

The Alliance fleet, the only thing protecting the League of United Planets and its allies in the June Directorate from the Insects, had been destroyed. There was supposed to have been an armistice held at Vitalics, where the Alliance and Insect fleets would meet and the peace treaty would be signed.

Instead, the fleet was lost in an ambush; a fleet, built up over hundreds of years, was destroyed quickly, easily, in the space of several minutes, by a mysterious technology the Alliance had never seen before. That left all the planets of the League, as well as the Directorate, open to invasion.

Very little was known about the Insects; not their planets of origin, not even their proper name for their own species (unpronounceable for any human), not even why they were attacking us. What was known was that they looked like insects, large, seven foot tall ones. It was also known that they had their own language, were undoubtedly intelligent, had access to advanced technology, and for some reason, they felt compelled to enslave humanity.

The invasion of the League and Directorate planets began with little or no advance warning.....

Part I: Clifford Croft's Story

Part I: Clifford Croft's Story

Chapter 1: The Fall of August

Chapter 1: The Fall of August

They were incredible.

One of them could shoot fire from her hands.

One of them could move objects with his mind.

One of them could see into the future.

One of them could create illusions, see through walls, and turn his right hand into almost any object he wanted, but usually, it was a large wooden spoon.

They were also, in many ways, neurotic or borderline mentally retarded.

The one who could shoot fire from her hands was named Red Sally. She had the power to burn enemies, but also a constant urge to burn everything, which, combined with a hair trigger temper, made her almost as dangerous to allies as to enemies.

The one who could move objects with his mind was called The Clapper. He had the intellect of a ten year old, and had the constant urge to clap his hands, far from ideal in missions requiring stealth.

The one who could see into the future was named Mongo. But he could only see possible futures, and his predictions were far from certain. Furthermore, he was very difficult to deal with, because of anti-social tendencies which led him to feel that everyone around him was ungrateful for his services.

The one who could create illusions, see through walls, and turn his hand into almost any object was not one but three separate and totally opposite personalities, each with their own skill. The primary personality was known as Crazy Rob. He could create illusions. But he was also paranoid, and was convinced that everyone was out to get him.

A secondary personality was called Matt. He could see through walls. He was actually the easiest to get along with, although he was kind of dreamy, which made it difficult to get him to focus on important matters in time sensitive situations..

The third personality was named Bender. He could turn his right hand into objects, but the object he usually chose was a large wooden spoon. With coaxing he could turn it into other things, but Bender, who was clinically depressed, was not the easiest person to work with. Or should I say the easiest personality?

And the master of ceremonies in this four ringed circus was none other than myself, superspy Clifford Croft.

I'm a spy.

Not a discussion leader.

A spy.

Not a social worker

A SPY.

Not a psychiatrist.

A S-P-Y.

That means I spy on people. Sometimes, I commit espionage. Occasionally, and this isn't my favorite part of my job, I have to shoot people, usually ones shooting at me.

Nothing in that job description even remotely relates to mental counseling, does it? And yet here I am, in Column HQ, running a discussion during "community time" for the Column's "Gamma Operatives", those with special abilities.

The Chief picked me. He said that the doctors were having trouble getting through to them, and that they might listen to someone they respected.

That still doesn't explain why he picked me.

"Stop hitting me!" Mongo squealed.

"You tripped me!" said the Clapper.

"You're making me hot!" said Crazy Rob, sweating.

"Stop putting snakes in my lap!" said Red Sally, frantically brushing away empty air.

"Stop!" I said. They continued to argue. "STOP!" I shouted.

They still ignored me, arguing among themselves, seated in a circle while white clothed orderlies watched from a respectful distance.

I sighed, and drew my blaster. I adjusted the setting. To maximum.

I fired at the ceiling. There was a tremendous noise, and large chunks of plastiform fell around them.

That got their attention.

"Hello!" I said. "Let's handle this one item at a time, shall we?"

I turned to Mongo. "What's your problem?" I noticed two guards standing behind him. Mongo was currently confined to the detention center, and had only been let out temporarily, under guard, for this "therapy session". I idly wondered what he had done to wind up in so much trouble. Again.

Mongo pointed a bony finger at the Clapper. "He is hitting poor Mongo! Ow" He said, his head jerking to an imaginary slap.

I turned to the Clapper. "Stop that."

"He tripped me!" said the Clapper, clapping. (Clap clap!)

"No," said Mongo. "Mongo only tells him he sees a future where he trips."

"Yes, and when I actually tripped, it was because you tripped me!" said the Clapper.

I turned to Mongo. "You can't expect to hurt people without getting some kind of negative response."

"He never appreciates Mongo," said Mongo accusingly.

"Well, now he appreciates how you can hurt him," I said.

I turned to Crazy Rob. "What's your problem?"

"This heat is sweltering!" said Crazy Rob, and I saw he was sweating. He glared at Sally. "She's doing it!"

I felt the air around him. It was hot. I sighed. "Sally, stop."

Sally was still brushing imaginary objects off of her lap. "I will when he gets rid of these snakes!"

"Rob?" I said. "You want to do something about the snakes?"

"They're not really there," said Crazy Rob defensively.

"And I have no reason to really be here," I said. "But if you stop, perhaps I can persuade Sally to."

"It's all a conspiracy!" said Crazy Rob, glaring at me. "You put her up to it! You're making her do it!"

"Yes, Rob," I said, playing into his conspiracy theory.

"You--what was that?"

"Yes, you're right, I conspired with Red Sally to make you feel hot. Now that you've exposed the conspiracy, can you lighten up on the snakes?"

Crazy Rob looked startled, as if he hadn't been expecting the conversation to take this turn. He considered, and then nodded, and Sally suddenly relaxed and stopped brushing away the air around her.

"And now, Sally?" I asked.

"He deserves it," she said glaring at me. Her hair was now blonde with a slight pink tinge to it. The more she used her power, the redder her hair became.

"Yes, but he uncovered our conspiracy, and there's no sense in continuing," I said.

"What conspiracy?"

"Sally."

"All right," Sally sighed, and the air around Crazy Rob suddenly cooled.

"I want to know more about this conspiracy," said Crazy Rob. "Were you all in on it?"

"We can get back to that later," I said. "Does anyone have any idea why I'm here today?"

"To entertain us!" the Clapper squealed, clapping.

"To show appreciation," said Mongo.

"To annoy us," said Red Sally.

"This is all a diversion for something else," Crazy Rob said.

"I'm here because you're all having some difficulties with interpersonal relations," I said diplomatically.

"And they sent you?" said Red Sally contemptuously.

"I don't light people on fire when I get angry," I said.

"You just shoot them," said Sally.

"This isn't about me, this is about you," I said.

"Chief orders it," said Mongo, getting a far reaching look. "I sees it yesterday. Chief says to the Croft, she says to the Croft, you must do this. The Croft protests, he protests he does not like us-"

"That's not true," I said. "Whatever future you were seeing, that wasn't the real one. It's not that I don't like you, it's just...." I paused, momentarily lost in liespeak. They looked at me, awaiting my response. I changed the subject. "Let's talk about you, not me. Wouldn't it be nice if you could interact more easily with other people?"

"If other peoples were nice, yes," said Mongo.

"Yes, let's start with you, Mongo," I said. "You feel that you're underappreciated."

"Yes, yes!"

"But maybe if you appreciated other people more, they would do the same for you."

"Why would Mongo appreciate others?" Mongo asked. "Can others see the future too?"

"Well, no, but seeing the future isn't the only nice thing a person can do for someone else," I said. "Take your food, for example. If someone goes through the trouble to prepare a special dinner for you-"

"Is nothing compared to seeing future," said Mongo.

"-so you do see the similarity," I said, doing my duty in a purely perfunctory way. How could the Chief really think that I could help these people?

I turned to Red Sally, who was next. "Sally, I think you could get along better with people if you didn't light them on fire."

"You TELL me to light people on fire," said Sally.

"Enemies, in combat, yes," I said. "I was referring to people here, like the orderlies in this room."

"Who?" said Sally. "I haven't burned anyone."

I sighed. Was this really necessary? I turned to the staff. "All right, those of you who have been burned by Sally, at one time or another, raise your hands.""

Two orderlies in white slowly raised their hands.

"Come on, the rest of you, don't be shy," I said.

All the other orderlies cautiously raised their hands.

Sally looked around at reality, and temporarily readjusted. "Well, I don't mean to, but...."

"Exactly. You need to control your temper," I said.

"I'll try," said Sally. "But people have to try not to get me so angry."

I turned to the Clapper. "And you have to learn not to push people around with your mind."

The Clapper clapped, giving an idiotic grin.

"People don't like being slapped, even if by an invisible force."

The Clapper, still grinning, clapped again.

"And don't think they can't figure out who's doing it, because they can."

The Clapper kept clapping.

"And if you get them angry enough, they might glue your hands together."

The Clapper stopped smiling, and his hands, clasped together, suddenly stopped moving.

I turned to Crazy Rob. "Causing hallucinations won't win you many friends either."

Crazy Rob, his head drooping, said, "Why should I care?"

I suddenly noticed that his right hand had changed into a large wooden spoon. He had changed from his Crazy Robert personality into his Bender personality. Bender was merely depressed; he didn't actually bother anyone. There was no sense in talking to Bender about Rob, since there was no connection between the two.

I was actively debating how to fill up the rest of the hour when the building-wide alarm sounded.

A speaker blared. "Condition 44! All agents, report to the nearest conference room immediately! On the double."

Condition 44? What was that? Probably someone's laundry caught fire in the sanicleaner. But it was a sufficient excuse for me to leave and evaluate the situation. "Sorry guys, we'll have to continue this at another time," I said. I made a quick exit before I could hear more than a few of the bizarre comments aimed towards me.

As I quickly left, I passed through several layers of security guarding the Gamma Operatives and went to the Column HQ's main elevator bank. As I stepped into the elevator, I opened up my datapad and thumbed through my seldom-used Column handbook database.

"Condition 42... listening devices on premises... Condition 43... agency wide barbecue on the roof... Condition 44...' I almost dropped the pad. "Invasion."

The elevator doors opened. I headed for a conference room at a brisk pace, followed by Preston, a fellow agent.

"What happened?" said Preston.

"I guess the peace treaty didn't go quite as planned," I said grimly.

We had almost reached the conference room when I was stopped by an urgent beeping on my comm. I looked at it.

"What is it?" said Preston.

"The Chief wants to see me."

"Now?"

"I don't think there will be time later," I said.

I went back to the elevator and went up to the executive suite. As the elevator climbed the more than 200 floors to the penthouse level, I tuned into the general Column frequency on my wrist comm. The broadcast was chilling.

"-tracking has picked up a large Insect fleet on the outskirts of the August system. Nearly the entire navy has been ambushed and destroyed at Vitalics. August is about to be imminently invaded. We must assume that our headquarters here is either insecure or won't be secure for much longer. We are purging our databases as we speak; you are all to go to ground and operate in small combat cells. Each cell will have one contact with an adjacent or higher level cell. Although you may receive orders from above, you are to act semi-autonomously in small groups to harass the enemy, as well as gathering intelligence and commit acts of espionage and sabotage"

The elevator doors opened to the top floor. The Chief's formal office. Rare sunlight streamed in through the large open windows.

Security around the Chief had been quadrupled, with worried faced bodyguards eyeing me as I made my way into the Chief's office.

R.M. Stanton had been Director of Column Operations for the past 20 years, but was already quite old when he had taken the job. Since the anti-aging vaccination allowed one to appear to be any age, it was my conclusion that the Chieflikedlooking old.

The Chief was sitting around a table with several shimmering holofigures who were talking. I recognized several of the holograms, including Vice President Novacan and Battle General Tenor Markov, who was in command of the August military district. Sitting next to the Chief, in the flesh, were five of the top Level One agents in the Column known as the Eight.

The Chief motioned for me to sit down.

"What's happened?" I whispered.

"The Insects are invading," said the Chief. "They've already taken several League planets."

I was stunned. "What about the peace treaty? What about the fleet?"

The fleet had been dispatched to neutral territory, the empty system of Vitalics, to sign the armistice with the Insects.

"Apparently the fleet was destroyed at Vitalics," said Stanton.

"The fleet? The entire fleet?" said Croft.

"Yes," said Stanton.

"That is merely a rumor which I would not appreciate your spreading," said the holographic image of Martin McPlease, the deputy secretary of foreign affairs.

"Not a rumor," said the Chief. "War Admiral Norman North reported-"

"-a rumor," said McPlease. "War Admiral Norman North was not at Vitalics. War Admiral Norman North does not know any more than we do what occurred there."

The Vice President watched this exchange closely.

"Don't you think it is odd that we cannot get in touch with the fleet?" said the Chief.

"Not at all," said McPlease. "It was well known that the interference from the Vitalics pulsar would prevent long range communication."

"But they were supposed to leave Vitalics and report in several hours ago," said the Chief. "And War Admiral Norman North's fleet was attacked by the Insects. That's a firsthand report, Mr. Secretary."

"Perhaps it was a rogue element among the Insects, intended to sabotage the moderate faction's peace efforts-"

An aide rushed up to Stanton and handed him a data pad.

Vice President Novacan spoke for the first time. "What is it?"

"Mr. Vice President, I have reports of Insect landings on four of our colony planets," said the Chief, rattling off their names.

Novacan looked stunned. "Do you have confirmation?"

"Confirmation? Are dozens of broadcasts screaming, 'We're under attack' confirmation enough?" said Stanton.

"This is not the time for sarcasm," said the Vice President.

"We must recall the fleet to defend us," said McPlease.

"The fleet is destroyed," said General Markov.

"All of it?" said McPlease.

"Only one ship reported back from Vitalics," said Markov.

"What of Admiral North's fleet?" said Markov.

"I've already spoken to him," said Vice President Novacan, looking grim. "He refuses to come to our aid. He's mutinied, and run away."

"He only has a few dozen ships under his command," said Markov. "Our outbound sensor net indicates an enormous fleet of several hundred ships heading this way."

"Are there no other ships to recall?" said McPlease.

Markov shook his head. "The President sent all our other ships to Vitalics. A 'show of peace and strength', remember, Mr. Secretary?"

McPlease looked stunned.

"We can engage in recriminations later, gentlemen," said the Vice President. "For now, we need a plan of action."

"We can attempt to negotiate," said McPlease. "Perhaps this is a misunderstanding."

"The destruction of our fleet and the invasion of our planets are a misunderstanding?" said the Chief.

"Perhaps if we talk to them, find out what they want-"

"Mr Vice President, I suggest you evacuate to a safer location," said the Chief.

Safer location? I marveled at the statement. What could be considered safe now?

"Nonsense," said Novacan. "Even if they are invading, it will take them some time to reach August."

The image of August loomed large outside the windows of the Insect super dreadnaught.

The throne room of the Insect Queen, Zsst, was full of chittering activity. It was from there, on her powerful flagship, that she monitored the invasion forces making their way throughout human occupied space.

"Our occupation forces have made landings on several League and Directorate worlds. So far, we have faced little resistance," said an aide.

"Excellent," said Queen Zsst, twitching her mandibles. She sat on her thrown, looking confident, for a bug.

Too confident, perhaps. She was reprimanded by a hooded being who stood in the shadows to her right. "Don't be so proud of yourself yet," he said.

The aide took a step away from the hooded figure and shuddered. The hooded creature's name was Baraki. His name was more than most Insects wanted to know about him. Insects steered clear of him. They felt the stirrings of fear when merely standing in the same room with him; walking near him moved any Insect to outright panic.

Only the Queen appeared unruffled. Outwardly, at least. The Queen twisted an antenna towards him.

Baraki spoke in a whispery, hissing voice. "You haven't landed on June. You haven't landed on August. And the Graftonites will be especially difficult to take."

"Once we get past their feeble orbital defenses, June and August will be easy pickings," said Zsst dismissively, referring to the capitals of the Directorate and the League respectively. "Their civilian population, by all reports, are weak and sheeplike."

"But they have military ground forces as well," Baraki reminded her. "And what of Grafton?" Grafton II, was a sparsely inhabited planet, but almost every person on the planet, to a man, was a superior gunman, with super fast reflexes that allowed Graftonites to be more lethal than their numbers let on.

"I have dispatched my best insect troopers to take all three worlds. Not to worry," said Queen Zsst. "In a few hours our troops will land. And in a few hours after that we will begin to process every human pest on those planets."

"We are now in standard orbit around August," said an Insect officer.