NationStates Jolt Archive

Palomar Mountain Deep Space Observatory
0130

Night was always the best time to focus on the heavens, the mysteries of deep space. Galaxies, novas, quasars, the things that make astronomers smile-all lit up in deep space to open wide man's new frontier for all probing eyes to see. But there has been a question never answered in all of humankind's history, a question that many have always inquired of space, of the Gods, of reason, of rationality...a question that people have often wondered will ever be answered. Is man truly alone?

No one has ever stopped to answer a similar related question: Is that a question man wants to answer?

On this sleepy Friday night, when most of man takes off, parties, enjoys time with family, or other leisure-the astronomers of Palomar Observatory were just getting settled into their passion-the stars, the heavens. The things that man can see but not reach. The Observatory had seen busier days, for sure, but tonight was fairly active. The 120 inch telescope was out, the observatory main shielding doors open as the giant lens looked into the sky to peer into God's own kingdom. Tonight, there were more than angels...there were demons.

The astronomers at Palomar had had a relatively free night so far. Nothing unusual was really out yet-but the night was still young. The telescope was currently being trained on Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter (and also the largest system moon). Debates about ice on the rocky body were all over the scientific community, and the possibility of spreading life to Ganymede-besides the obvious members of Mars, Titan, Io, Europa, and Triton-were tantalizing to the scientists. However, a rude awakening on the meaning of life was awaiting the astronomers tonight.

"I've got some interference on the deep-scope, I think," the current observor, astronomer David Martin, said, standing from the computer screen showing a readout of the scope.

The head astronomer of Palomar, Thurman Goodell, walked over to see the matter.

"What seems to be the problem?" Goodell inquired.

"Well, there's a few blotchy spots across Ganymede's surface," Martin replied, pointing to several blotches on the readout. "The lens was just cleaned on Wednesday, so it's not routine."

"Bring up the diagnostics," Goodell said.

Martin punched several buttons on the console, bringing up the Wednesday cleaning routine.

"Everything checks out," Martin said. "Is it some sort of spacial anomoly?"

"Not like that," Goodell said. "That kinda thing doesn't happen like that."

"Broken moon? Were there any uncharted asteroids recently?"

"We've been scanning Ganymede for several days. We woulda caught it."

"I don't have any better explanation that what I have put up..."

"Nor do I. But neither seems to fit out."

Both astronomers sat and looked at the resolution again.

"Bring her in and out of focus," Goodell said.

Martin did as told. The scope jarred blurry, then cut into focus. What showed up was not as Goodell thought.

"What the hell?" Goodell said.

What focused up was slightly odd. They weren't at all little blurs or blotches anymore-the high-powered telescope, capable of clearly seeing through the solar system, was showing defined shapes. Not neccessarily geometric, or anything precise-that was beyond Palomar's capability-but ovoid shapes were clearly visable. It wasn't clear how they were formed exactly, but the overall sense was clear. It didn't seem natural.

"I think we may be part of something," Goodell breathed.

Orbit of Mars

"You are our blade, Commander. You have long served our forces with honor. Go forth, Augury-and bring victory once more to our glorious salvation, that the Premievals themselves bless upon our very heads."

The Zealot stood to his full 8'9" height-slightly tall for the reptilian race.

"I will carry out the campaign against the humans."

"Tell me, Augury," said one of the Progenitors, coming into view astride four arboreal mammalian legs. He was the youngest of the four Seers, most high of the Amalgamation itself. "You are our only experienced one with truth. What does the Amalgamation face against as we approach Vesta?"

This question was well suited to the Zealot. He had been the only one who had ever set foot on Vesta-the planet the native "humans" called "Earth"-and walked off of it alive. It had been many years since then-forty-odd years ago, when an interceptor had gone down and had not been spotted again. Though he had not found the crew, the newly-appointed Harbinger-the Blade of the Seers-had learned a great deal about the natives. Recently, several humans had been taken off of a boat in the primary ocean of the planet-and taken back for study-and the only one of the crew that had been assigned to do it spoke now before the Seers.

"They are weak," the Augury said, responding to the Seer of Renewal's inquiry. "Physically, they are no match for all but our Infectors and the Torrent. They are somewhat of a strong race mentally, but if we kill enough they will crumble. We will pave our way through their race in the humans's own blood. They are but a Class Seven species-their technology is inferior, their war machines spent. Even worse to their miserable kind, the humans are divided, and constantly at war with one another. We need only to split our crucible on their heads to topple what order reigns."

The Seer of Candor-the de facto head of the Council of Veracity-walked forward, bending his head down from the elevated position that the four Seers took up.

"And of these humans," Candor said, slight malice in his voice. "What do they know of the Orb?"

"Little to none," the Augury replied. "They know nothing of its location, muchless its presence entirely. We have pinpointed it precisely," -a glowing hologrid formed up behind the Zealot- "to here, twelve kilometers outside this human city they have named 'Moscow'. As we speak, plans are being drawn up."

"Excellent!" cried the Seer of Wisdom, from behind Candor, as he and Constant joined the other two. He was considerably older, and his mammalian hair that hung down from his body sparkled smooth grey and silver. "We shall eradicate these humans and leave the survivors to the Infection as we release the Premieval spirits to salvation!"

Candor bypassed Wisdom's preaching to continue his inquistion of the Augury.

"You mentioned their divisiveness," Candor continued, a slight hot tone entering his voice as the icy one slipped away. "What of a potential to unite against a foreign foe? Clearly, these humans know nothing of true potential."

"That is partially incorrect, Sacred One," the Augury replied. "We lost three Spectres over Vesta fifty-nine years ago. The humans recovered our fighters-and the unsanctified bodies of the pilots. They surely know, if nothing else, at least a slight."

"And of the pilots..."

"They were two Druges and an Enigmat, Sacred One."

Candor frowned: "Then we will deal with the problem as it arises. As it is, let victory come forth as our only outcome. It is your destiny to bring us to glory that we are so close to achieving, Harbinger-dead or alive."

"It is my destiny that I fulfill such, Sacred Ones," the Augury bowed.

The Augury stood back up, turned, and left, his armored feet tramping on the steel floor of the Sacrosanct Nexus-the command chamber of the Core Habitat, the epicenter of the Amalgamation.

"Indeed you will-but more likely dead," Candor muttered to himself.

The Augury walked out of the Nexus as the massive doors to the antechamber closed behind him, giving the Seers their privacy that they revelled in. He had barely walked three meters before a growling voice came up behind him.

"What were you discussing with the Seers?"

The Augury turned and scowled, disgust visable on his sectional reptilian face. Another of the Amalgamation mammals-an Enforcer, a member of the cetacean race that had long been the rivals of the reptilian Zealots. They were technically cetaceans, but looked little the part-Enforcers looked somewhat more like the same type of arboreals as the Enigmats and Progenitors were, albeit with somewhat smoother skin, a lack of hair, and glands that released oil across their bodies-making them nearly impossible to grab hold of. Facial-wise, they looked just like apes-albeit, large ones. This one was particularly large and nasty-he was their chieftain, going by the name of Lethe, toting a nasty-looking, oversized rifle.

"Discussing important matters, Lethe," the Augury replied.

"Should I be referring to you as Commander or as Augury now?" the Enforcer disdainfully replied. "Your title matters not to me. You and your pathetic race had lived too long in favored status of the Progenitors. The Enforcers will see to it that that does not stay for long."

"If you try conspiracy, the Seers will have your head. Emotions overcome your rationality, chieftain," the Zealot said more seriously.

"Until they actually discover who we are up against," said Lethe, smiling a bit, portruding yellowed razor-sharp teeth.

Behind Lethe, a creature-one that the Harbinger had never seen the likes of before-ambled up, rather aimlessly. It was a disgusting hob-job of body parts and tentacles.

"This was one of our human subjects," Lethe said sinisterly. "I let loose an Infector on her as she was screaming wildly from our testing. You have here our first human integral-quite interesting, indeed."

"Do you plan to make Vesta entirely a breeding colony?" the Augury said. "Take some sense, Lethe! This is our founding world! The Orb is underneath the surface of this planet-we can not let loose the ancient enemies of the Premiers themselves on this planet, even if we do control them."

"It matters not," Lethe replied. "The Premiers are dead, Augury! It is the Progenitors now who lead the revolution into the future! The Infinite Shadow is at hand when we break the Seal of the Orb, and the humans are powerless to stop our victorious advance, trekking through hundreds of species and cultures throughout this cluster to give us the final taste of infinity when we take Vesta!"

The Augury was taken aback: "You lack the respect even of the Premiers themselves, Lethe!"

"No! I see the future!" the Enforcer said, turning around and walking away as the Infected loped along behind him.

The Augury spat a blob of red digestive fluid on the ground. The entire attitude of the Enforcer race-from disrespect for the Premiers, the traditional religious icons of the Amalgamation itself, to the sucking up to the Progenitors-was not good for the reptilians of the Amalgamation as a whole.

Another Zealot, clad in yellow, walked up to the Augury as he mulled over the Enforcers.

"We have two humans awake and are working on mentally restraining them," the Zealot said. "Lethe Infected the older female, but we have the older male and younger female still intact."

"Show me," the Augury said.

"It's in the Containment Ward, since we still have casulties of the Slaughter of the Helots still in the recovery chambers," the medical Zealot replied. "They seem to have no idea about their present location."

The Augury nodded, but said nothing. He had had plenty of encounters with humans-albeit, underneath his own improvisations so that he looked human when on Vesta itself-and had a better understanding than anyone in the Amalgamation about the species. It didn't hurt that he was possibly also the most powerful Zealot around, both in title and potentially in ability. He glanced down at his dark-violet armor that now clad his persona-the mark of the Harbinger, armor passed down from each of the select Zealots to the next over time.

"This way,Augury," the Zealot said. Apparently, word of the 'promotion' was getting around fast.

<Attention. Spacial Jump in place to Vestan lunar orbit in two minutes.>

"We are jumping? Too soon, if you ask my opinion," the Augury said to an invisable audience.

The two Zealots walked along the expansive halls of the Habitat as they neared the medical quarter of the massive station-ship. The ship vibrated for a brief second, then spun normal-a jump into extra-space to reach Vesta's moon quickly. The jump lasted but a minute before the location was reached-holding lunar orbit, with the green-blue planet nearby, close enough to be easily seen by any human equipment.

"In here, Augury," the medical Zealot said, guiding the Harbinger into the medical bay. They weaved their way through the various injured of the Amalgamation, veering into the containment center. Dozens of Quartering Cubes-giant transparent metal cubes containing bluish fluid and several Infectors each-lined the walls and floors, assisting in healing damaged Infectors, who had to be kept from other beings during healing procedures.

Ahead, though, through a narrow passageway-just large enough for an Enforcer-an orange light bled through, bathing an erie sight.

"Through that door, Augury," the medical Zealot said, going in first.

The Augury followed quickly, entering through the small passageway. All sorts of medical testing equipment lined the walls-nothing like anything a human would have ever seen. Some of it looked downright dastardly-others were more benign in appearance. To the right and left of a central column that held most of the supplies, a high-riding table-about five feet off the ground each-stood, bare metal in appearance.

The one to the right held the older man, and the Augury moved to that table. Another medical Zealot stood by.

"We have managed to crack their language for the most part-we had a linguistical expert in here drawing out vocal patterns, and putting together basic words. We don't know much yet, but we are compiling. As long as we talk in our tongue, they have no idea what we are saying."

The Augury nodded as he looked down at the older man-who seemed tense. The linguist was nearby, clad in red armor-that of the noncom of the military-with his long arms folded.

"Please-just release the both of us!" the man on the table said. Two energy restraints were punctured into his back, keeping the man from moving off. "I just want my daughter alive!"

"Speaking of which," the physician told the Augury in the alien tongue, "we have compared the genetic sequence of both this male and the younger female-we believe both to be of the same patriarchal unit."

"Than close the field," the Augury said.

The physician nodded and punched a button on the central pillar. A quick flash of light accompanied an energy field going up that surrounded the left side, where the young human female lay alone. An Infector entered the right side-the small insectoid clicking in native tongue. Of all the Amalgamation creatures, only the Infectors did not speak the common language.

"I saw Lethe had converted one," the Augury said. "I want to see it again."

The Infector clicked an affirmative reply, doing what the insectoid race did at its best. It jumped up on to the table-nearly twice the height of the diminuitive creatures-and approached the chest of the man on the table.

"No, please, whoever you are, I'm sure our government will arrange something..."

"Delusional," said the physician to himself.

The Infector clicked several times, than clambored onto the man, probing with its six spiky legs into the human flesh as the man sweated profusely. It drew a spotch of blood up, stirring the blot with its leg. With that, the little creature went into a clicking frenzy.

"I don't know what you're going to do, but please release us!"

The Infector, oblivious to the talk, ignored the human-and plunged its two, harder spiky legs straight into the man's chest. Blood began spurting as the man screamed-but the Infector had other ideas. The small insect began burrowing into the man's chest cavity, its form becoming amorphous as it oozed what had once been a hard shell and outer exoskeleton into the man's torso. The Infector dug its body in as the man's own life began fading, and then sealed the hole it had made with the man's own organs-reduced to a gray dusty material by the Infector's acidic paste.

"How long did it take the first to mutate?" the Augury inquired.

"Two minutes. It will be fast."

Already, the effects were forming. The human male, dead on his own accord, began transforming into what was not a human. The head began caving in, the face distorting, falling into the torso. The hands were sharpening and splitting out, lengthening into longer appendages, and then growing razor-sharp. The legs tickened out, incorporating some of the excess mass that was leaving the arms. The creature began growing bulkier, thicker, sturdier-stronger and more powerful.

Within two and a half minutes, the transformation was complete. The creature was no human any longer-it was a monstrosity, somewhat shorter than the Zealot but about the rough height of a human. It was coated in a thick grey skin, tentacles and tendrils sticking out of it. The entire head was missing, folded into the body, as three large appendages stuck from the body.

"This is its form?" the Augury mused. "Interesting indeed...I should hope Lethe has no plans to turn the whole world into a festering pit."

With that, the Augury raised a weapon-a Needle Pistol. The Infected Human seemed a little unstable as the Infector was getting used to the body-better to take it out quickly. They would get DNA from the younger human to spread across the Infector banks for incorporation. The Harbinger pressed down on the trigger, letting loose four blue elongated bolts from the pistol. They slammed into and through the Infected, leaving large, bloody, green marks on the floor. The Infected crumpled to the ground, the holes blasting straight through the spot where the Infector itself was still controlling the human-leaving both sentients dead.

"Lower the field, and get a Drudge to clean this up," the Augury said.

The energy field surrounding the left side dropped, and the physician and the Augury walked to the other table. The young female human was wide awake, and apparently terrified. The area had been sealed off from the test on the other side, so that wasn't the cause-however, as with the male, it seemed that she had no idea where she was. The Augury decided to try and probe out some language, so he removed one of the needles from his pistol. Holding it out, he prodded the girl in the neck, drawing blood.

The human writhed, letting out a light cry as the energy restrainer prevented her from leaving the table completely.

"Not particularly responsive vocally," the Augury mused.

Just as the Zealot said that, the girl began speaking-albeit, somewhat weakly.

"Please I just want to go home," she cried softly.

"Can you translate that?" the Augury asked the linguist, standing off to the side.

"Slightly. I believe that was an inquiry to return to Vesta."

"Are you capable of responding in their speak yet?"

"No, but we are in the process of implementing what of the language we do know into vocabulators. It is nowhere near a complete list, but we are getting closer. I recorded that last bit, even."

"Then I will see what I can do to get more out," said the Augury. He looked down again at the girl, letting loose in the native tongue of the Zealots. He had nothing particularly important to say, but he wanted to provoke a reaction.

"I spoke with Commander Rumas today about his forces, and he assured me that they would be 100% operational and recovered from the Helot purge when the Vestan conquest begins," he said, looking directly at the human.

The girl looked up wide-eyed, having absolutely no clue what the Zealot just said: "I...I live in San Jose. I...uh..."

"I think the human believes you just asked details about her Vestan location," the linguist replied.

The Augury was beginning to have a little fun out of taking advantage of the situation-and at the same time, helping his linguistics crews out.

"The Torrent were gathered around their food nipple voraciously today," the Zealot said.

The human was in no position to hear that the Harbinger was talking about the insectoid race feeding, and continued on in trying to explain herself, even though that wasn't at all the Zealot's inquiry: "It's...you go to California...I-15...could I get up, please?" she asked, softly.

"I think the human wants to be loosed from the energy restraint," the linguist said. "Besides that, I'm not sure of the rest yet, but I recorded it."

"I'll get more later," said the Augury, feeling bored. "Go ahead and release the human-but keep it in here, and post Torrent on sentry. Keep getting your linguistical data."

"I will get what I can, Augury."

The Augury stepped out of the medical chamber as the physician released the energy restraint on the human girl, freeing her from the table-and letting in several Torrent, the man-sized insectoids toting energy carbines and taking position inside the field. The linguist and physician left, and the energy field of the door went up again-keeping those inside in.

"They will surely see us jumping the gun like this," the Augury said, referring to the jump to Vesta so soon. "Foolish move-we should have held position outside the red world, rather than arrive before launching."

OOC: I'm going to say that they start to cross the moon, maybe one of their guys fell asleep at the controls, and accidently drove across the face. You can have him be exiled, and join Earth if you want, or have him be killed. Miller will be my main character in the alien RP. He's gonna get shot down over Copenhagen, but then get a new plane and be smarter with it the next time. And Luna will show up again too, especially if the aliens mount a ground attack. He's going to end up dying though.

SIC/IC (I dont know which to use):

Outside the Rathaus in Berlin

Master Sergeant Hector Luna was one of the soldiers standing guard at the Rathaus, or City Hall, in Berlin. Inside was Attorney General John Richards, who was attending to the state affairs while Richtoff and some members of the Germanic High Council were in the WEF. It was a dark night, but it was still bright outside due to the full moon. Slowly, a shadow crept over the face of the Moon.

"What the hell..." Luna muttered to himself. "Shit! The AG's gonna want to hear about this." He turned and ran inside, soon emerging with Richards and a few more guards. They all stared upwards at the sky.

Richards broke the silence. "Now what the hell do we do?" No one had an answer for him, so he continued. "OK, well, Richtoff is in the WEF and I am under strict orders not to call him. I guess I'm gonna have to wait til he gets back. On the other hand... pulls out a cell phone and punches him a few numbers Hello, General Klischten?... Yes, this is John... Hey, we have a situation... Umm, look at the moon... Yeah, holy fuck is right... I figure begin the mobilization of our air force. We don't know what the hell that thing is, but its obviously in space... Yeah, just keep 'em fueled and loaded. hangs up the cell phone All right boys, get back to work. walks off and begins muttering to himself When Richtoff gets back we've got some seroius shit to do... "

At Visby Naval and Air Force Base on the Island of Gotland

Planes were being loaded and refueled. JAS-40 Gripens were being evenly distributed across the GGA landscape, but Visby was recieving the most shipments, among with the bases around Berlin. Bases were going "undercover", camoflauging themselves as best a major military installation might do. The same process was being repeated all across the nation. At Visby, eager young pilot Daniel Miller was climbing into one of the Gripen 40s. He was willing to die for his nation, and but knew that with his skill set, he would take down a hefty number of the enemy first.

Himalayan Observatory, Napal

One of the highest peaks in the world; Napal as place of splendid beauty and at the same time one of the most inhospitable places on earth It was also the site of the main observatory; manned by no more than a crew of five. Doctor Radek Zelenka on lone from Czech republic; a rather tall man with scruffy hair and glasses he was enjoying his coffee. The warm feeling for the godly liquid spreading through him; everything was cold up here. Even in doors and with 24 hour thermal heating it could get rather cold. His Assistant Laura McKay was sat reading the displays; with her feet up on the desk. Goodness knows why she chose this assignment; one of Animarnians brightest scientists; working at such a remote post; Zelenka could only assume she had upset someone at the Science Institute to be landed here.

"Doctor" Laura, said with a curious expression on her faces; her wonderfully Irish voice breaking into her tone.

"Yes Laura?" Radek replied sipping from the white mug.

"Could you take a look at something for me?" she replied with a bright smile; her dark hair coming down to frame her face perfectly; Radek being 39 was far too old to date a 28 your old woman but still felt that Laura was a very attractive woman. Even if he would never admit it to himself of her; he had a small crush on her and one of her smiles could melt his resolve and make him into doing anything.

The Doctor got up from his desk and walked over to the computer monitor Laura was staring at with such curiosity and with such intent; there were supposed to be cataloguing a survey of the moon surface. In a few years the Government was planning a manned trip to the moon so landing sites would be selected well ahead of time but this was no landing sight; funding withstanding of course.

Radek looked over the picture closely; the fuzzy angular shapes looked resembling at least in part to the American F-117A Stealth Aircraft but on a much larger scale.

"Could it be an NEA Doctor?" Laura asked trying to rationalise in her own mind; NEA being internal code for Near Earth Asteroid.

"How many Asteroids have you ever seen that look like that Laura" Radek replied.

"Then…you're thinking what I'm thinking"; Laura asked a hint of fear creeping into her voice; fear of being mocked for her thoughts and fear that she might be right; she honestly wasn't sure which one scared her the most.

"I'm not sure what that is Laura; but it is no Asteroid that is for certain" Radek spoke; "have Callum contact the Science Institute and forward a message to the Russians asking if they know what this is. I heard that they were working on some new space project; heavens help us this could be related to that…if not…well we cross that bridge when we come to it"

URAF Observation Satellite Vor-32

The satellite drifted through the vastness of space. It was viewing a star cluster which was slightly beyond the moon, but its orbit brought it directly in the path of the earth's celestial neighbor. This is when the bad news came in.

URAHQ, Moscow

The URAF airman sprinted down the halls holding a bunch of papers moving in towards the main conference room. He burst in the door and threw thepapers on the table in front of three Air Force generals.

"Look at this!" he exclaimed. "This just came from Vor-32. No longer than ten minutes ago."

The generals looked over it and looked at each other. One of them sighed and reached into his pocket retrieving a cell phone. He speeddialed a number and waited a few moments.

"Yes?" came the voice of Rovanovic on the other side.

"Sir, Ragnarok has begun." said the general in a stern voice. "What are you going to do?"

"I want Ark implemented immediately. Move the military on high alert and begin depopulation. I want Suomi and Ural on high alert. Tell them to prepare for ressettlement immediately."

"Da, Chancellor. It will be done."

Across the UR...

Military forces were put on high alert with secret camps in desolate areas being opened up. Resettlement was to commence in a few days, but Rovanovic was worried it might not happen in time.

(OOC: Australia and New Zealand are already in the midst of a UFO scare as described on page 14 of the general IC thread. See link below.)

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=523239&page=14

The first report was from a 14 year old boy in Christchurch, New Zealand who said he saw something moving across the Moon. The report was called in to Project Skywatch and released to the press immediately.

Unlike most countries at this time, the Federation of Australia and New Zealand was very jumpy about UFOs and there were already rumors of an alien invasion going 'round. The first report made national news and within minutes thousands of amateurs with primitive telescopes and binoculars turned their attention to the moon and did, indeed, see a shape silhouetted against it. Nobody knew what it was. Lots of people jumped to conclusions.

Professional astronomers refused to comment on the matter to the press until they had more time to investigate, but this conservative position was undercut by Peter Anderson, Director of Project Skywatch, who held a press conference and said that professional astronomers had, indeed, "seen something extraordinary," but he would not describe it further.

He did, however, publicly announce that he would be asking the Prime Minister to confirm a nationwide alert and mobilize military forces.

Before the Prime Minister's office could respond with an announcement that the Prime Minister was not mobilizing anything as yet, a large portion of the country began to panic. Thousands of people began panic-buying food, water and emergency supplies at stores. Some began to flee from major cities into the outback.

The first reports had come at night. By morning, the Prime Minister was issuing a public call for calm and trying to reassure everyone that there was no indication that aliens had landed in Australia or New Zealand or would any time soon.

Liberal Party leader Barry Phillips managed to get on a syndicated talk show repeating recent Liberal accusations that the entire UFO scare had been whipped up by Labour Party propaganda for the sole purpose of scaring voters into approving the recent referendum on Federation. He blamed the panic and the growing chaos on the Labour Party and Prime Minister Cliff Patterson. He said that his party had an informer from inside the Prime Minister's Office who would soon go public with his own eyewitness account of how Labour Party political operatives seized upon one unconfirmed report of American aircraft shooting at UFOs to concoct a last minute campaign of scaremongering to influence the referendum vote. "The PM doesn't even believe in UFOs", said Liberal Party leader Phillips, "We've got a witness who will say so. This is going before a parliamentary hearing before the end of the week."

It was in this atmosphere of increasing panic that the sighting of strange lights in the outback followed the next morning by the arrival of a few strangers in the small town of Bullabulling near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, led to calls to Project Skywatch which led to an alert being sent out by Project Skywatch's new "Aerospace Emergency Command" (AEC). The exaggerated reports failed to mention that the strangers appeared completely human and left the impression that aliens had landed.

Though the AEC could not mobilize FANZ military forces without approval by the Prime Minister, AEC could send information directly to the military. At 0811 Hours Canberra Time, AEC sent this alert to all FANZ military commands:

UFO Landings Reported at Bullabulling, Western Australia
Reports received that UFOs were observed on the ground last night near Bullabulling by numerous residents. Some witnesses report seing humanoid figures coming from the direction of the UFO landing area. At 0725 hours residents reported arrival in town of strange persons carrying weapons of unknown design and capabilities. AEC assessment is high probability that alien recon force or main landing force has begun arriving in Western Australia in the vicinity of Kalgoorlie. Skywatch ground observer force has been dispatched to the site and has not reported in.

After reading this report, the commander of the Royal Australian Air Force put all combat aircraft on alert first and asked questions later. Some army commands were also put on alert.

Meanwhile, a convoy of no less than twenty khaki land rovers with sirens, flashing lights and armed personnel from Project Skywatch raced down the rural highways towards Bullabulling and the AEC advised the local police to apprehend the strangers if possible.

On the ship

Yevgenniy awoke in a drowzy daze and tried to get up and walk around. When he pulled up he found that he was stuck to the table by some sort of beam. Then he remembered everything: the crab ship, the attack, and the abduction. All of his crewmembers and friends...dead. His ship...dead. His year's pay...gone with the sea. A newfound anger welled up inside Yev and he looked up at the two creatures standing in the room. With a bout of rage, he broke into a harsh Russian-spoken rant.

"You dirty bastards!" he screamed. "You killed my friends! My crewmates! All of my years pay! All gone! I am going to whip your dirty asses from here to Moscow if I have to, you rotten pig-dog freaks! Burn in hell! All of you! I hope all the bad things in life happen to you! And noboy else but you and your filthy alien scum. When Moscow finds out about this, your asses are as good as dead! Now let me go so I can rip out your rotten intestines and hang you with them! Mother Fuckers!"

He noticed that his shouting had gotten the aliens' attention and continued.

"I don't know who you are or what you want, but for all I care, you can kiss my Russian ass!" he shouted again. "The Russian war machine will run down your sorry asses like we did the Hitlerites! Utter destruction! I'm going to beat the living hell out of both of you, and take pleasure doing so. Then I'm going to take your ugly heads and place them on that step over there and have you taste the flavor of cold steel while my boot meets the back of your fucking head! For the Union! For the Modina Rat!"

He quivered for a moment and then out of blind patriotism broke out into the Hymn of the Union.

"Rossiya, rossiya...."

OOC Note: Cleared beforehand by Honako, ya'll.

IC:

Lunar Orbit

A trio of Shadows jetted across space as light began to shine upon Europe and West Africa-the dawning of a new day of the Western Hemisphere. The dropships angled towards Core Habitat-the massive Inverted-dumbell-shaped station-ship holding position amidst a sizeable fleet around the bright side of Earth's moon-a full moon on Earth, but now blocked by artificial design. A squadron of Wraiths pulled in for escort, guiding the Shadows into an expansive hanger bay of Core Habitat. Lethe, Chieftain of the Enforcers, stepped out of the lead Shadow as other Enforcers and Enigmats emerged forth. Another day in the neighborhood.

Lethe didn't waste time-he quickly moved towards his locale-the Sacrasanct Nexus, the command center and Holy Core of the Core of the Amalgamation. The residence, full time, of the Seers. Indeed, a place of great importance-and one where Lethe would find favorable eyes watching his actions. He quickly bypassed several sectors of the ship-incluidng one where one of the two live subjects-the mature male one-was shouting to a group of Drudges.

Various loud curses were going out, but a Zealot linguist was busy trying to translate as the Drudges probed the man with questions in Amalgamation tongue, provoking elicit responses from the male. It did not speak the same language as the younger female-and was a good deal less cooperative; hence, the Drudges were keeping him restrained from getting up. The Zealot was appearing to have a considerably harder time trying to decipher the man's harsh and rowdy language than it had done with the female-whose language was almost completely compiled in the translators. The Drudges continued to try and get out productivity-and while they were getting plenty of words, it didn't seem to be helping the reptilian.

Lethe chuckled to himself. He didn't like either race-as a mammalian of the Amalgamation, he was completely dedicated to the Enforcers and the Progenitors, with a slight spot for the arboreal Enigmats. He intended to one day wipe out the Zealots as a race-but he wanted to win over the Council of Veracity first. Lethe didn't imagine it a completely difficult thing to do-they were all mammals, as well, and Candor particularly didn't like the Zealots as a race, either.

The doors of the Nexus clicked open, the massive entrance folding into the high, upwards-curving ceiling. Two Zealots-the special ops commander Cygnus, one of Lethe's dark spots, and a ship commander, walked out. Cygnus spat a blob of red digestive fluid on the floor in front of Lethe, but continued on his way. He had plenty of brawn for a Zealot, and was intimidating enough that Lethe didn't particularly gun for a fight before the Seers-especially outnumbered two-to-one with the other Zealot there.

As the door shut behind Lethe, the Seer of Candor sighed: "Tensions. So troublesome. The Zealots make matters difficult for this council, commander."

"The Enforcers were eventually find their solution," Lethe said encouragingly.

"Yes...but your mission, commander. Allow me the details."

"It went smoothly, commander," Lethe said. "We hit during the night aboard a Prowler as the Humans slept," -a holomap came into view behind Lethe, with the map focusing in on London, WEF- "we struck this building, here-and were met with minimal resistance. Silence was kept throughout the operation. This building was supposedly a key building of these particular Humans, and we managed to kill one of their females who was apparently important to the running of their organizational structure. We were not seen on reentry to orbit."

"Indeed..." Candor said smoothly. "I have a somewhat different task to ask of you. Assign one of your Enforcers-have him keep an eye on the Augury. He has seemed somewhat of dubious faith-this council questions his motive."

"We will watch the Zealot, Sacred One," Lethe replied.

As this happened, an Infector in the room-overlooked by the others inside-quickly slipped out via airduct-moving along the passage quickly, out of sight.


Bowels of Core Habitat

The Augury didn't particularly like this section of the Amalgamation capital. It was overgrown with Infectors-but for good reason. It was the "home" and command base of the entire Infection-led by the secretive one, Crypt. Cygnus was with the leader of the Zealots, the two soldiers walking down the insectoid-ridden halls with drawn weapons. Despite being "subjects" of the Amalgamation, the Infection were always treated with a slight ill-at-ease mentality-and justifiably so. They had the potential to take over the entire Habitat-the entire civilization-in a heartbeat, and were infinitely more devestating than the other races of the Amalgamation combined.

The two Zealots rounded a corner, into another darkly-lit hall, before a voice reached out from the shadows.

"You seek answers...and I have answers."

Both soldiers recognized the voice-the deformed, monstrous commander of the Infection, almost a Hive-mind, that could instantly send any number of commands or updates to the entire plague. Crypt was his name-and he was both cryptic and of the lifeless quality the name implied. Two stalks had moved forth from the shadows, reaching out towards the Zealots-and increasingly getting longer. They were not tentacles-they were not soft and pliable-but they were capable of the "Amorphous" quality of all Infectors, able to bypass atomic structure and change form at will.

"We do seek answers, Crypt," the Augury replied to the shadows boldly.

"My beacon shines-but at a price for your mind."

"We will accept it."

The stalks withdrew into the darkness of the expansive hallway, and twenty little dots of lights shone out from the shadow-the light-bearing eyeholes of the giant monstrosity itself. It half-crawled, half-oozed out of the shadows, a giant amorphous bug. The head seemed to be one giant mouth, besides the numerous eyes, which fell back into a long neck and a longer body-over 50 feet in length, and over 27 feet in height. Crypt was something unique in a culture where order was preserved.

"You question the Induced Ones...and rightly so," the mouth uttered, referring to the Seers by Crypt's own derogatory name.

"Indeed we do, Contagion," the Augury replied. Although that was Crypt's derogatory name-the race as a whole was often called the Plague-the Infection's overlord actually did not mind the referance.

"They plot against you," Crypt replied, "And not unfounded do my accusations go."

A holoimage, generated from where neither Zealot could answer, formed, showing what the infector in the Nexus had just witnessed.

"I don't trust that beast," Cygnus said to more himself than anyone, but Crypt was still paying attention. The Infection commander had a significant more like for the Zealots than any other race.

"The Oily One is deluded," Crypt said, referring to Lethe. "His mind out of mind. He is not a key of concern. This one is more concerning," -Crypt indicated Candor with an extending stalk.

"The Clairvoyent?" the Augury inquired, almost dumbstruck.

"Indeed," replied Crypt. "You are not the jewel of his orbs. As we talk, as we listen, he acts in opposition."


Space

The massive fleet began moving-away from the Moon. Rather, the fleet positioned itself in the midpoint between Moon and Earth-enough to cause, in essence, their own solar eclipses as the fleet and station-ship slowly revolved the planet, far away from orbit but maintaining their own revolutionary period. The sheer size and number of the group blotted out light when crossing the sun, blotted out the moon when crossing the lunar body. It was a harbinger-only one.


Los Angeles

"SWAT! Hands where I can see them!"

"Come on, let's get 'em!"

The surging crowd rushed forth, Molotov Cocktails and automatic weapons fire crackling off. LA SWAT opened fire in return-with more than the old SWAT teams ever had even dreamed of. M8 rifle fire cracked open across the police lines, with some units having M26 grenade launchers and M29 IOCW rifles opening fire on the massive Californian mob in downtown Los Angeles. Though no longer called "California", the residents were somewhat nostalgic-and the traditionally-most chaotic region of the country was going at it again.

The sun was shining this day, but it wasn't shining completely. A large, blurry blotch etched an image into the sun's bright spot in the sky-causing a dusky effect to fall across the land. It was bizzare, unreal, something never seen-not a full ecplise, but a dulling effect. Additionally, it was setting the volatile inhabitants of Los Angeles off. A scuffle with police had grown into a brawl, which had quickly grown into a full-scale riot.

Grenades lobbed across the police line as an M2 Bradley moved up in the background, clad in the black and yellow of LA Special Weapons and Tactics unit-more of a full battalion. The SWAT officers were everywhere across the street as the rioters engaged with AK-47s, old M16s, and other nasty weaponry-everything from using and jumping out of speeding cars to particularly innovative shrapnel throwers.

Kiev, Czechalrussian Federation

Thousands of people walk out into the streets of Kiev to view the strange sight of a shadow over the moon.

The city stands still as it's citizens gaze upwards into the heavens to view this strange sight.

The Czechalrussian Government knows what this is, after the incident with the Moskva they fear that they know what this is.

The Czechalrussian Armed Forces are put on high alert, reservist are called in for duty. Air patrols are ordered to be increased.

the Government knows it's only a matter of time. . .

OOC: POST 1000 WOOT!!!!!!

IC:

Berlin

By this time, Richtoff had arrived back in Berlin, and was catching up on the breifs from his lead officers. They were standing outside, and at that moment, a dusky haze fell over them. Richtoff looked up and saw the ships. "That them?" he questioned.

"Yessir. Thats them all right."

"You think it's the NAR? No, it can't be. They don't have this technology. None of us do. And if it was them, why would Los Angeles be rioting?" Richtoff stopped to ponder his own questions. "Lets go underground. I have a bad feeling about this..." The whole group walks into the nearby bunker. Richtoff turns to question his leading general. "So, General Klischten, How are we going to stop what is sure to come?"

"I'm not sure what you mean, sir."

"Don't give me that bullshit. That fleet of whatever the fuck it is is going to attack the world. You know it, I know it, every citizen of the GGA knows it. Now, as I see it, we have two choices. Choice A, we ignore it like a normal citizen, put it off, say 'That would never happen to us' and all that shit, or, choice B, we do something about it."

"But what if it's a fluke, sir?"

"Well that's a chance we're going to have to take now, isn't it!"

"Yes sir. Well, I figure we mobilize all our air and naval forces. We need to protect our most valuable assets. No fuckin thing is gonna set foot there. I figure we do everything possible to safegaurd Germany and Stockholm."

"Sounds good. Now your thinking." He turned to address his number 1 manon the homefront. "And how are the people taking this?"

A small smile, almost inappropriate for the situation, crossed the face of the secretary of the interior. "You couldn't have appraised the situation better, sir. The citizens are simply putting it off, not letting reality set in."

"I suppose that is for the better. The last thing we need is a Los Angeles right now. Not only will we have these aliens on our backs, but then the whole world would be calling us 'oppressive dictators.'" Richtoff then turned back to Klischten. "What DEFCON level are we currently at?"

"I believe 1, sir. We haven't gotten around to changing it since the KoE affair was resolved."

Richtoff sighed. "Now that's a lucky break. If we had changed our DEFCON level, our citizens would suspect something. Panic would sweep the nation. Since we are already at level 1, we can achieve full support without alerting the populace. Everything you have just heard is codeword material. Call it Bethesda. I want as few people to know of this as possible. Now, about our defenses..."

"Yes sir?" Klischten interrupted.

"I want every anti-aircraft weapon known to man defending our cities. You hear me?"

"It will be done, sir."

"Good. As of now, this meeting is dismissed. Good night, gentlemen." On his way out, he pulled aside General Klischten. "How many troops do we have that were preparing to invade Cyprus, but never got the chance?"

"Roughly 5,000 of our elite."

"Good. Whenever the shit hits the fan, and these boys come down, I want our men to be inserted. It will be overlooked by the international community, and we will gain a new strategic point."

"Yes sir." With that, both men parted. Neither would speak of this again until the time was upon them.

As the shadow overtook the moon, astronomers across the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere went mad with excitement. The military was not quite as ecstatic...

"Colonel, get over here!" yelled the strident voice of the General-in-Chief of all the GEACPS military.
"Yes, sir," was his aide's reply.
"We are currently in DEFCON Two, correct?"
"Yes, sir," was again the response."
"Well, we're about to move up to one."
"Why, sir?"
"Just do it, Fujiwara."
"Very well, sir."

As General Katsumoto stared out into the dark reachs of space, he wondered where the hell these invaders had come from.

Emperor Akihito ordered all armed forces to be on high alert, and all anti-missle defenses to be in place.

Grozny, Chechnya, UR

The crowd of muslim extremists marched down the street carrying banners and shooting guns in the air, all while chanting "Allahu Akhbar!" The sight of the ships in the sky had prompted another insurection in the nuslim lands of Russia. Grozny had gone to hell again with the Chechens attempting yet another time with the help of forieng Mujahadeen to free itself from Russia. Elements of the 2nd Field Army had moved in from the Transgeorgian Republic and the Azeri Republic to assist in putting down the revolt. The ensuing violence looked somewhat like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dZxdTZOcx4

(You can probably guess who the muslims are being played as...and nevermind all of the talk of the baby, it's irrelevant to the situation.)

New Delhi
New Delhi; was an extraordinary city; home to millions of Animarnians; it was midday when the sky started to darken; the large black spot across the sun creating a kind of dusk effect across the city and indeed the entire nation. It wasn't normal; it wasn't human; this was something else; with the dark came a certain forbidding feeling for every citizen.

Every street was eerily silent as cars were just stopped in the middle of freeways as people's eyes cast skyward standing in place trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

At the Palace things were a lot more active as Secret Service started to Rush the Queen and the government to the emergency command bunkers built outside the city underground and linked to the palace by a secret tunnel. The Bunker itself could take a direct hit from a "City Buster" 2 Megaton Nuke and still keep the people inside safe; with all the technology and communications systems to rival the US Pentagon the Emergency command bunker was one of the most secure facilities on the planet.

The Queen quickly sat down in the situational briefing room; large flat panel displays showed information from across the world; Animarnia didn't have spy satellites like the large superpowers but had an extensive human intelligence network that was almost just as good.

"Report" the ordered.

"Ma'am; in response to the…unknown objects our neighbours have moved up to DEFCON 1. They haven't shown any aggressive moves yet but reports of some kind of attack in London are starting to filter through from our agents there; though there is no clear information yet on what or who was attacked but there were reports of casualties" The minister replied quickly.

The Queen nodded in understanding; "Take us to DEFCON 1 and have our nuclear forces put on high alert; I want our armed forces prepared to defend ourselves as quickly as possible if these…aliens prove hostile "

"As you wish highness"

Already outside the main council building demonstrators were gathering waving home-made placards; the Aliens had been dubbed "visitors" and the usual crowd of nuts and idiots were already protesting in favour of 'meeting' the aliens and how humanity should embrace the visitors. There was a strong police presence and SWTA units had been deployed to critical areas in case the protests turned violent but so far there were peaceful.

Of course in the more Militarised cities there were protests calling for the government to "nuke the fuckers" and "Show 'em what humans are all about" time would only tell who would be correct.

Midpoint-Earth and Moon

Eight Summit Supercarriers held position outside Core Habitat as several more capital ships primed to go in the massive station-ship's primary hanger bay. One final Summit, the Radient Splendor, lay quietly, on passive ignition, as legions of soldiers and armored vehicles boarded its expansive carriage ability. From a higher point in the hanger, the two leading Zealots of the Amalgamation watched the process. This particular supercarrier was the flagship of the species, unofficially, and crewed exclusively by the insectoid and reptilian races. It was partly that the mammals didn't want to be in such quarters with those they considerably disliked (particularly amongst Zealot-Enforcer tensions), and partly because the reptilians didn't want that either. Other ships were integrated, but not the respective command vessels of each side-the Splendor for the Zealots, and the Decisive Judgment, Lethe's personal command supercarrier.

"These tides bode dangerous for our kind," Cygnus said as he and the Augury watched the final loading. They would be the last two aboard. "I know not what the Seers plan for us, or what the Enforcers have in mind."

"We cannot make the first move, brother," the Augury said. The use of "brother" was simply a special term from one Zealot to another. "We surely will be branded with the wrong mark if so."

"Or face extermination the other way," Cygnus replied gloomily. "What if the Contagion sides with them?"

"He is no fool," the Augury returned. "If tensions were to break down, he may not take our stand, but he would certainly not aid the Enforcers."

"I have my doubts about the Plague," Cygnus motioned. "Certainly the Premiers listed them as a tool. But even tools can be broken. If the Contagion breaks free from the Seers..."

"Then the Premiers help us all," the Augury replied quietly. "They would overwhelm us with force unrivaled. The Humans would be gone too...and Vesta would turn into a breeding ground."

"The Humans are too weak to overcome that-much less our own," Cygnus said. "But let us put the issue behind for now and board."

The two Zealots entered a grav elevator, descending to the ground floor for final preparations.


Medical Quarter

Lethe was prowling about Core Habitat, biding time until he was to report to his command vessel for final prep. He wanted to see if he could coerce a little from the two Humans who were captive. Moving about the Medical Quarter, the older male seemed to be completely insane-ranting and raving chaotically at the Drudges who stood outside the male's energy-sealed space. Stupid Humans couldn't learn, apparently. The other, the younger female, was quiet-and Lethe decided to see if provocation could draw out a little information on what he needed.

He carried his weapon of choice-a massive, energy-tipped spiked club, developed from an alloy that allowed Lethe to beat straight through medium armor with his massive swings, coupled with the energy-charging process. He toted it menacingly as he approached the Human.

"You are a prisoner of ours, Human," Lethe growled at the girl through a Universal Translator that he had attached to his bandolier, now attuned in both English and Russian, thanks to the prisoners, "but you can secure your freedom," -four holo-maps, of the Earth cities of Washington D.C., Tokyo, St. Petersburg, and Oslo formed in the background- "by telling me the weaknesses of these cities, and how to best strike them. Your race has already failed you-pay them back a little, and turn them over to salvation."

The girl looked at the holoprojections, but gave a blank stare.

"I...I live in San Jose...I haven't been to Washington...or any of those other places," she said, frightened by Lethe's consistent glare.

The cetacean-primate grunted, than paced a few steps, before turning on her with a snarl.

"Do not lie to me, Human. Your race fought the Premiers-even thrown back several Special Levels, Humans are not as deluded as you make yourself out to be. Tell me what I want to know."

The American girl backed a few steps up, towards the rear wall, away from the Enforcer Chieftain: "I swear, I don't know anything. Please, I just wan-"

Lethe vented his rage, swinging with his left arm and throwing the girl into the rear wall with all his force. She crumpled to the floor, then crawled abckwards into the corner as the Chieftain let his rage out.

"Your species is doomed, Human-but that is only a taste of what you can feel. You could have won yourself a ticket our of their own demise, but instead you will feel a messier fall than what your race as a whole will."

Lethe stalked out, turning on the energy field that shut the room off from the rest of the Habitat as the Torrent guards took their place again.


Outside Core Habitat

The battlefleet was forming up, but a smaller group was going in first. Four Pinnacle battleships-to unleash the first hell upon the Humans. Ten supercarriers, along with a horde of smaller ships in everything from corvettes to more battleships, formed up behind in what would be the second wave, once the first targets were annihilated. The battle plans had been drawn, and the four battleships began moving out-towards the planet. Reaching Earth orbit was quick, only taking about a half-minute from their position. One of the battleships slammed through a WEF satellite as the four ships moved out towards their respective cities, the fragments of the metal slamming into the vessel's shields.

The vessels burnt into the atmosphere, the very air around them burning as they planned a descent vector. Each craft broke through the stratosphere into the Troposhere at different locations-one over Miami, another above Naples, a third over Istanbul, and a final over Taipei. They were high above land-but not high enough so that they couldn't be easily seen, each almost two kilometers in length, their curved, sloping black designs cutting through the skies. All four were heading North...towards their destinations, which didn't seem apparent yet.

-Pretoria, The Dominion-

"Sir! These reports are all conclusive. Something, most likely Extraterrestrial is in space near the moon. The Facilities on Ascension, Diego Garcia, and Madagascar all point to this one conclusion." The General Said. The President's face paled, which was hard because he had very dark skin. He thought deeply and very hard. This situation was one for the Prime Minister not him, but since Charles was in New York he had to step up.

"General, how long would it take to get the rest of the military up and ready?" The President said.

"Not long sir, since the conflict still rages on in Angola, the rest of the military and portions of the Reserves have been put on a state of increased readiness. They would be ready in a matter of weeks, perhaps days." The General said.

"Do it, and do it fast. We may not have weeks or even days." The President said. Suddenly the door to his office burst open and three men in black suits walked in. The President didn't know who they were and was immediately fearful for his life.

"Mr. President, we are with DSID, Dominion Special Information Division. We have come here to brief you on some of the things that have been going on since the Prime Minister left for New York." The lead man said. The President's face went from one of fear to one of confusion.

"Since the end of the Assimilation of Ascension Island, we have operated a R&D research center there for the distinct purpose of training the perfect assassin. Only five months into the Project, the center reported they were successful in creating such a Weapon, but have been unable to replicate the experiment or the weapon." The man said. The President was stunned by this information. Did the Prime Minister know about this? Did he even give it his support? These were the questions running through the President's head.

"The researchers call these weapons Vampyrs. Poor-Copies of the true-Vampires that walk the night." The man said again. The President's face did a double take. 'Did that man just say Vampires?' He thought.

"Now, Mr. President before you do anything else I wanna tell you this. This project maybe the only hope the Dominion, possibly the world, has at defeating this Aliens." He said.

"What? How do you know these aliens are hostile?" The President asked.

"They have already killed the WEF's leader, even though the WEF is trying to cover it up we were able to figure it out after we found out what's happening in space right now." The man said.

"What do I have to do make sure this.... Project works?" He asked after a moment of contemplation.

"Nothing, we are currently diverting some of the Militaries Funding to the Project. Don't worry, it's nothing major. Just around 20 Million." The man said.

"Ok, but... do we have a chance at all?" The President asked.

"A small one, but as long as we can produce more Vampyrs it will grow." The man said as he left with his two partners. The president just sat back in his chair, emotionally and spiritually drained.

President's Office, Executive Palace, Niisel Khuree

President Khoonbish Altangerel was not necessarily a religious man, nor did he consider himself a Christian by any means, but he was well-versed in the concept of the Christian Apocalypse nonetheless. Had he not known better, he’d have decided that the end times were upon him, after all.

“End times” or no, something was happening. Reports were coming in from amateur stargazers all over Mongolia – being quite the empty, nomadic nation, the skies were quite clear – of strange objects obscuring the light of the Moon. Those with more advanced stargazing equipment claimed that they were man-made. Those with more radical tendencies believed that they were aliens.

Either way, as it was clear that something was indeed happening, the order had been given to ready the armed forces, begin activation of the Civil Defense Force, and to recommission the Army’s overabundance of outdated Soviet armor and equipment, which had been rotting away in military warehouses for decades. Altangerel doubted heavily that Mongolia would be an initial target, if “they” were targeting anyone at all, but, as the War Minister had reminded him, better safe than sorry.

It had been hoped by many, Altangerel dimly recalled, that the 21st century would be an era of peace, in which “freedom” and “diplomacy” would reign supreme. That notion had already been torn to shreds by the recent actions of the world superpowers. And now this? Aliens? The world really is going to Hell, Altangerel decided.

The radio had been Altangerel’s traditional method of calming his mind; so he hoped it would be now, flipping the power switch and searching for a good station. As was happening too often nowadays, however, it only gave him a new worry:


Nekhiig Radio Broadcast

…reports are now indicating the death of WEF High Commissioner Mrs. Laura Harding, only a week before their national elections. Some claim that this was act of murder -


Altangerel’s listening was suddenly interrupted by his secretary, who had poked her head into his office. “Mr. President?”

Grimacing, Altangerel grunted, “Yeah?”

“The Prime Minister has convened a meeting in Meeting Room #2. He also asked me to say… ah… ‘Whipping Post.’ He said you’d know what it meant.”

“Whipping Post” was codespeak, an in-joke from a past Prime Minister, illustrating that the meeting dealt with issues vital to national security. Altangerel was up and out the door immediately, wondering what was coming next. The world is definitely going to Hell in a handbasket.

Vatican City, Rome, 14:53pm

A scene like this had never been witnessed in the WEF before. In its history it had been full of content citizens, and until the Portuguese riots of last year no mass protest had ever taken place about WEF policies - but something major was happening in the Vatican, and the government were pissed off.

Over 1,000,000 lined the streets of Rome, some inside the Vatican, the rest trying to get as close as they could. The Pope, Pope Benedict VI, had called an emergency meeting for the world - and the WEF Commission knew what was coming. With Mrs. Laura Harding dead the countries had gone into frenzy, mostly in the Catholic quarters - it was a well known fact now that many believed she had paid for her hostile sins in Yugoslavia - that the sightings in the sky were the beginning of an Apocalypse.

For two days now the moon sightings had been barely visible by eye, but clear by telescope - and the obvious reactions had began - mass buying of foods, minor riots, and some freaks even trying to 'get in contact' with the lifeforms. However, it was still believed that most of the public thought it was a 'stray meteorite', which was the excuse the WEF Intelligence Agency had provided the government with. But if the Pope, a man who was known to be somewhat erratic in his judgements, somewhat senile, said to the people there was an Apocalypse - millions, not just in the WEF, would worry. Of course, most of the world would not believe him - the WEF mostly were agonistic now anyway, but it would certainly hit home there was a danger.

And the government did not want this to happen. Military Helicopters circled the skies over the Vatican, and armed teams lay waiting inside - they were to evacuate the Pope and take him to some rural place in Northern Italy to be safe from what he thought was an 'Apocalypse', he was a hazard to the peace of the world.

Five of Italy's most powerful Commissioners had been pleading with the Pope since 1am, and two hours ago they had got impatient - if he caused a panic they would shut down the cathedrals (something they would not actually do for fear of public backlash), stop what little government funding went to the church, and most importantly not overlook the numerous police investigations that went against the Catholics' - dodgy money lending and possible Mafia connections were things the church had been accused of in recent years, and even though they were most likely not true, just the WEF following them up would be a tarnish on the Catholic's reputation.

But, he could not be stopped - the WEF had tried, but they could not stop him with force - the WEF Intelligence Agency had done some bad things in the name of peace and democracy, but they couldn't kill the Pope. And so, to a crowd of millions and a worried television audience of billions the Pope on Primetime gave this speech. Extracts included "I have seen the darkness that looms near the moon, the whole world has seen it - and the government is trying to cover up the impending doom that faces us. I will not be silenced" and "Mrs. Laura Harding was killed by whatever lies up there, whatever judges us, because of her willingness to go to war with Yugoslavia - we did not want to see her dead, but God has spoken - and he will bring judgement to all of us if they come to attack. Catholics, people of the world, now is the time to pray, now is the time to be without sin, because it has come...".

These were peaceful Catholics, there were no riots. Though by the looks on there faces the WEF could already see the damage was done. Therefore, the news was clogged that night by a long winded speech by Marcus Brixton that told the people one thing – this is just a stray meteorite, science can back that up, Mrs. Harding was not killed by what lies up there, there is no Apocalypse.

Moscow, UR
0600 Hours

Klaxons and air raid sirens blared through the cloudy air, causing mass bewilderment on behalf of the people travelling to work. BMP's and main battle tanks rolled down the streets and announced over mounted loudspeakers for the populace to evacuate the city. Hind helicopters flew overhead shining spotlights down on the streets while A fighter group of Su-37's flew overhead to the north towards Arkhangel'sk. Many forces were being thrown their to protect the mass driver and the rest of the Plesetsk Cosmodrome facilities.

Similar scenes could be seen at all of the other major cities of the UR including Minsk, Helsinki, Riga, Tallinn, and Almaty. At. Petersburg had been cut off from the alarms due to a power failure and was much slower in the evacuation process than the other cities.

Meanwhile, in the Ural Mountains...

Fenrir squadron was rushed out of the laboratory and moved onto the Fortress Ural tarmac. Their planes were sitting there in wait, but something was different. Fenrir 4 and 5 had recieved Su-47's instead of their usual MiG-1.44's, something that they had been waiting for a long time to recieve. Their current orders were to move over to St. Petersburg, but due to engine problems in Fenrir 2's plane, their flight was delayed another half hour.

Istabul Military District, UR

"Fire!" shouted an officer on the ground. "Shoot, shoot, shoot! Keep shooting!" A large group of Russian and Finnish SPAAG's fired up into the air at the ships in entry, lighting up the ealry morning sky with tracers and exploding flak. Numerous SAMs were also launched up at the ships, but little seemed to be happening to them.

Core Habitat Medical Bay

"So you want to know something about St. Petersburg, you monkey bastard?" asked Yevgenniy. "You know, Ivan would have been able to tell you. He was our cook on the crab boat. Unfortunately, you sons of bitches killed him!" He stopped for a second and looked at the girl cowering in the corner. "Leave her alone you communist fuck! She didn't even do anything to you!"

Yev knew a little English and turned his head to the girl.

"Little girl, don't answer anything these apes ask you! We're going to die anyways, so don't give them the information to kill thousands more!"

He turned back to the ape and started ranting again.

"You will never be able to destroy Russia!" he spat at him. "Try as you might, our hate of you will only make us stronger and more united! The Spetsnaz will come up here and rip out your hearts and slaughter your children! By the time were through with you, you communist fucks will be a pile of burning ash on the ground!" He noticed a guard look his way and make a face at him, making him even more pissed.

"What are you laughing at?" he shouted. "Huh? What's wrong? You think I'm funny? Let's see how funny I am when I rip of your ugly ass head and take a shit in your throat! Then what, funny man? I don't think you'd be laughing after that!"

Addis Ababa, UEAN
0830 Hours

President Zenawi sat in his office, located in the East Wing of the Presidential House. It was the beginning of another quiet day as President of the United East African Nation. President Zenawi was looking through some reports, as he usually did. One of the reports had caught his eye. Many citizens had caught sight of something moving across the moon. One military base had even gotten a picture. President Zenawi closely looked at the picture of the moon. There was defiantly a shadow across it. Some had said it was a UFO, others an illusion. President Zenawi put the photo off to the side and sighed.

He needed to see if there were other sightings across the global. These pictures worried him. Personally President Zenawi did not believe in UFOs, but this picture had sparked something. He needed to be secretive about it, so the public would not be alarmed and panic. President sat in his office, located in the East Wing of the Presidential House, stunned.

WEF War Room, Underground Bunker, Strasbourg, France - 17:10pm

A mass evacuation of political leaders had begun, with now the five hundred most important people in the WEF being transported to a bunker in France. There were bunkers like these in all military bases for nuclear attacks (there were other bunkers however which could probably hold millions due to government schemes, though they were less protected than these heavily fortified ones), though only enough to fit around 5,000 - 10,000 people - and with WEF policy, these would most likely be the rich, powerful and most useful (scientists, doctors etc.) when they got out.

And so they planned and plotted what to do. It was time to take action. Marcus Brixton, the leader of the WEF until elections, had been flown in from Rabbat, Morocco, still injured, to be safe - he had ordered the country onto DEFCON 1 though, had prepare all nuclear missiles, ballistic missiles and chemical weapons and mobilized the entire countries reserve force, active force, and air force and naval powers. No one was certain what was going on yet, no one was certain what was up there - but they were preparing for the worst.

In the war room, discussion was heated, but finally Marcus briefed the whole room on the situation.

"Something is up there, and I do not dare to try and see what - we will wait, wait until it does something, and then strike with the full force of one of the most powerful militaries in the world. I know, this is a foolish plan, we should try to lay low, but these creatures are most likely merciless things - and we should follow, in essence, America's lead - they will be the main fighters I believe. I have raised the full force of the military up from it's sleep, and all our weapons, by placing us in DEFCON 1. This is mostly due to the disturbing close sights over Naples - the Pope is right, this truly will be terrible, and our judgement day - a satellite was destroyed like it was fly by these aliens, shattered into a million just by this one ship - and god only knows how many there are..."

“Sir, what do we do about the people, do we order an evacuation like Russia?”

Brixton fell silent – they were not in danger currently, though whatever was up there could easily be hostile, and attack whole cities. But, a full scale evacuation would be costly, time consuming, and possible not necessary.

“Warn the Commissioners in each State Capital, we shall wait until other nations but Russia make a move…but prepare, prepare the cities of Milan, Lisbon, Paris, London, Reykjavík, Rabbat and our Yugoslavian friends capitals for evac…”

Naples, WEF State Of Italy - 17:15pm

Thousands flocked to the highest points in Naples, and millions watched on the news - worldwide ships in space could be seen, things that the world's population could only describe as something out of a movie, sighted in America, Italy, Turkey and other countries. It was a worrying sight that could not be denied - something was heading North, and fast.

(OOC: I know I’m not in the first wave of attacks, though I want to prepare.)

Meeting Room #2, Executive Palace, Niisel Khuree

Prime Minister Nergui Borjigin hit the assembled Ministers and the President with an opening bombshell: “The alien vessels have begun to move into the Earth’s stratosphere.”

“Is it confirmed then?” the Foreign Affairs Minister questioned warily. “They are, indeed, aliens?”

“I told you so, Ogtbish,” the Finance Minister snickered. "Aliens. Who would have thought?"

“No, it’s not confirmed per se,” the Prime Minister continued, “but is it not blindingly obvious at this point? Last time I checked, no human possessed the technology to construct such things. We would, at least, know that much. Look, I do not care what it is. What I do care is that we are prepared to face it, if it is needed.

“All options are on the table. If this is some kind of alien invasion, we can assume that they will strike at heavily populated areas first, which, mercifully, leaves us somewhat out of the way.”

Chuckles were heard from around the table. The Mongolian Republic was, after all, the most sparsely-populated country on Earth. “All the same, we share borders with two of the largest nations, China and Russia. Russia’s population centers are all in the far west, so not much to worry about there. China, however, is a worry. If Shanghai or Hong Kong comes under attack, their residents will flee south. If Beijing or Nanjing come under attack, however, they will most likely flee to the Korean peninsula, towards Russia, or… us. In other words, we can expect a mass exodus of Chinese citizens into our lands in the event of an attack on Chinese soil. This will, as you can imagine, present several problems.”

He outlined some of the basics – the huge population growth, the inevitable struggle to maintain law and order, and the difficulties of feeding so many new mouths. “We must, of course, not turn these refugees away. Russia will inevitably do so. As for the GEACPS, I honestly do not know. What I do know is that, with proper planning, we will be able to provide for so many people. We must, however, start now.

“One more thing. Gentlemen, at this point, all options are on the table. Isn’t that so?”

The assembled Ministers nodded in affirmation, but President Altangerel frowned. What was Nergui driving at?

“Then,” Prime Minister Borjigin said, “I humbly submit the following.”

He withdrew a small package of papers from his suit jacket and placed them on the table in front of him. “In the eventuality of an attack on China – and believe me, given its sheer size, there will be an attack on China – it is my full intention to execute Operation Rising Force.”

President Altangerel’s jaw dropped.

Ever since the initial independence of the Mongolian nation from the Chinese in 1921, it had been the intention of the government to guarantee the eventual independence of Inner Mongolia, the other half of the traditional Mongolian heartland, and annex it in order to create a large pan-Mongolian state. China managed to hold onto that province, however, and the dream of reuniting the Mongolias faded into obscurity as the Republic of China further strengthened itself. The dream, all the same, was still alive, and of course plans were made to take the province back at some point in the future, when the time was ripe. Operation Rising Force was the current codename for this attack.

Back in the conference room, the Internal Affairs Minister sputtered, “Do you… do you even realize - ”

“Yes?” Borjigin asked, frowning.

“We can’t spare the military for something like that at a time like this! We need them here, in the damn country to keep law and order – as you said, we’re going to have a hell of a problem with the Chinese citizens crossing our borders to flee the attacks! And hell, even if we somehow magically manage to keep everyone civil in all of the confusion, that mass exodus from China might damn well make us an appealing target! In that case, you know, it just might be a good idea to have our military in the country for defense - ”

“That’s what the Civil Defense Force is for,” the War Minister smoothly interjected. He loved this idea already. “We should have the numbers to keep order. We’ve already began the reactivation of all our old Soviet equipment for a similar purpose anyway. So they’ll handle things back home, while the Republican Army moves forward and recaptures our lost territory. Hell, with luck, we won’t even have to fight! They might just accept us with open arms.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Prime Minister Borjigin continued. “It’s only natural to want to protect our Mongol brothers and sisters across the border, is it not? The Communist Chinese government will have enough on its hands already; if a popular rebellion just happens to flame up in Inner Mongolia, and we move in to provide defense against lawlessness and the alien threat, then who can fault us?

“Remember, gentlemen, I am only putting all options on the table. With luck, these visitors will prove to be friendly, and we don’t have to worry about anything. What with the way these ships are acting... that, regrettably, will most likely not be the case.”

President Altangerel could swear that, as Borjigin finished his sentence, he could see the faintest traces of a grin in the Prime Minister’s face.

Above Earth

The battleships continued moving North, passing over major cities-quietly collecting data on Rome, Paris, Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Kyoto, Osaka, and Moscow...especially the last one. Supposedly, where twelve miles out underground was the Orb-the key to Salvation for the entire Amalgamation. The one thing the Humans-the Hugon-were hiding, wanted to keep for eternity, to prevent the release of the spirits of the Premiers since they had defeated the early race so long ago.

<Get into firing position, but hold fire until word comes through,> came through on the ships's TacNet.

An affirmative came from each of the four Pinnacles, as each took up a position over its respective city. Soon, darkness swept across the faces of Oslo, Washington D.C., St. Petersburg, and Tokyo...a darkness irremovable, that stretched out a length of 1.8 kilometers. The vessels held position, each over the tallest structure of the city. The one over Washington, however, held position directly over the Pentagon. A massive traffic jam had come up over the once-capital of the USA before Chicago had become the epicenter of the nation-and now, fleeing it was a priority for all but the several-thousand strong party of wackos that had come out to the Pentagon-now swarming the abandoned structure.

Aboard each battleship, the crews waited-waited for the word to bring the opening salvos upon the long-dreaded, long-hated enemy, waited to unleash the first of their destruction and to begin their own salvation on the gloriously-lit path. Guns were being warmed behind the shields of each battleship, missile tubes and MACs loaded with ordinance. They waited-waited-and waited. They let the Humans below think about their fate, as each battleship hung over its respective city...simply waiting.

Oslo, GGA

The air raid sirens began a horrendus wail. Citizens rushed out of their homes and workplaces to see the horrible sight of the looming ships. A mad frenzy began rushing to the bomb shelters. Air defenses began to prepare to fire, waiting only for the aliens to fire first. It was a bad choice.

Visby, GGA

Miller and his squadmates taxiied to the runway. They had been ordered, along with many others, to defend Oslo.

"This is Delta Zulu squadron requesting permission for takeoff. Heading for Oslo."

"Permission granted Delta Zulu squadron. May your missiles smite the enemy and..."

"My plane evade the hand of death. Thank you." His plane, followed by his squadmates, shot down the runway and joined the massive formation heading to Oslo.

Berlin, GGA

Fuhrer Richtoff was back in the bunker with the Germanic High Council and his top generals. "General Klischten, I need our troops to begin attack on those aliens the minute they open fire!"

"Sir it would be wise to.."

"NO! We will not attack first! Also, are our troops in position around Cyprus?"

"Yes. Insertion points have been designated around the whole of the island. They will be surrounded, and forced to comply. It will be covert, and the worlds nations will not know we are there until they have succumbed to our will."

"Good. First, I will be sending them a message to surrender. Also, how are our citizens reacting to the Pope's message?"

Someone else interjected. "They could care less. They have a long standing hatred for the Pope ever since the protestant reformation. Anything the Pope says tends to be disregarded here. We have had no issues."

"Good." He turned back to Klischten. "Have our land forces hole up in our major cities, and around them. I have a feeling that our Leopard 2 PSO's are going to get an extensive field workout. We'll see if they really are better for urban combat or not."

St. Petersburg, UR

Thousands of people made a mad dash for the edge of town with the massive warships looming overhead. A small SPAAG detatchment had been pumping rounds up in the air at the ships for about two hours now and numerous Tu-160's and Tu-22's had been launching cruise missiles at the craft for the last ten minutes.

Fenrir was on its way, but it would be another three hours until they finally arrived. What was left of Grabacr was on the scene attempting to get at the ships. They had found out that they had a shield, so all they could do was fly by and watch as the ship prepared to do its work.

While the people of Taipei stood in awe of burning piece of satellite streaking through the sky, the people of Kyoto and Osaka watched in terror as the huge battleships loomed ominously over their cities. Police and military attempts to keep them indoors failed horribly, as the enforcement themselves were just as stupefied.

Emperor Akihito had ordered the missles not to fire until the alien craft opened up their attack, as he did not wish to provoke them.

Animarnian Emergency Command
The Screens were now showing live media reports of the huge Alien ships flying north first over Taipei then Osaka and Kyoto finally stopping over Tokyo. AIA Agents were reporting from all over the world about the Alien ships sending in live feeds. Reports of the death of WEF Leader were starting to make sense as eyewitness accounts seemed to point to alien interference

"I want to begin an immediate Evacuation; of as many people as we can; scientists, doctors, people with skills we need first to North-pole; once that’s complete Evac as many people as we can; Women and children only" Queen Katriana ordered.

"Ma'am; Northpole is a classified facility…" Director Fisher began; Northpole was in fact a secret research base 2 miles under Nepal; a self contained underground city that could maybe support 200,000 people.

"Save it Director; our people come first; I want to Fighter squadrons in the air and patrolling our airspace for anything; I want the National Guard and army deployed; Start drafting Citizens; we still have a large stock of the old AK-47's"

"Yes Ma'am" The respective Generals replied and went to carry out there orders.

"I hope for the sake of humanity that I am over reacting; but my instinct tells me these aliens are not friendly" she spoke.

All over the country army tanks and other armoured vehicles started to roll down the streets taking up positions while troops searched house to house evacuating those they could by HELO while fighters patrolled the skies above. Air defences all over the nation began silently tracking threats in Animarnian Airspace.

Animarnia had been preparing for a potential war with China for years so ammunition was in no short supply stockpiles of assault rifles; grenades, bullets and other explosives were in abundance. The National Guard started drafting makes between 18-49 and giving them basic shooting causes and an AK-47; thousands of reserve soldiers were called to base and issued rifles and ammunition as Law Enforcement. FIS and SWTA were placed under the control of the army. The entire nation was mobilising for war.

A public service message was sent across the major cities of the WEF - it would clogged the radios, the TV's, the newspapers, everywhere, continiously for one week - after that, the WEF Intelligence Agency believed attacks could of already started. Paris and London was ordered to be evacuated by the military using all nearby forces, and people in all cities of over 500,000 people were advised to leave immediately, with military evacs commencing in those cities within the next 48 hours. Marcus Brixton had ordered even more men into the army.

Most would be dispersed into the countryside, small towns or villages, where they would stay in halls, in refugee camps and possible with a luck few peoples homes. The rest would either go to a network of underground bunks which had been built by the WEF during the world wars and with the increasing nuclear threat, though these could only hold a few hundred thousand, whilst the rest would stay in the city, in subways and tube stations, and small one story buildings. It would cost the government billions for this evacuation, and they were worried - they hated spending money - but they had no option, if they did not, the people may die.

CLASSIFIED SECRET MESSAGE TO - Military Of The GGA

The skies of Oslo have been cursed by the same horrific "ship" that was seen over Naples, Rome and Paris in recent times. This is going to be a war, a war with something we do not have any idea of what it is. GGA, for your own safety of your citizens - we call for you to evacuate all the capitals of the GGA's countries, especially Berlin, save as many as you can, we have already done so in Paris and London, and we are progressing onto the others. This is serious - you must get your people into safer areas - they are aiming for the most powerful, highly populated cities we believe.

We, my allies, have not forgotten you. We as much as you want these aliens removed, before they can attack you and us, and the world. Therefore we are sending squadrons of our best planes and one of the best in the world the Dassault Rafale, plus larger amounts of the Dassault Mirage 2000. We wish to help you remove this shocking threat; though will follow your strategy of letting the aliens make the first move. Good luck.

- Commissioner of Defence, Francios Chirac

OOC: I'm only sending a small amount of Dassault Rafale, as most of them are likely to be destroyed if they engaged (which they may not even once they see your planes get destroyed, it’s likely it will be more of a mission to see the power of the aliens). Mass production of the Dassault Rafale has begun, so I have much much more than the French do currently (they're one of my most populace plane types, in the hundreds, mostly because AB said they were good)

IC:
Berlin, GGA

Richtoff grabbed the message from the WEF and read it hastily. He scribbled down a reply and gave it to a messenger.
Classified Reply to the WEF
Thank you for your concern. Evacuation of our cities is to begin immediately. However, several of our larger cities such as Oslo, Berlin, Stockholm, etc, have an extensive shelter network. These were created during times of extreme fear, shortly after WW2. These should suffice to protect the citizens. We also wish to thank you for your military support.

(OOC: Basically, the GGA is going to find out the hard way that these shelters will not work. They won't be so neive the next time.)

"They want us to leave our cities. I think the shelters will suffice for the larger cities. Order all the main cities to get in the shelters. Tell all the others to evacuate. There is no time for lagging."

Skies Nearing Oslo, GGA

Miller and his squad were approaching Oslo. The alien ship grew larger still on the horizon. Miller went throuh a cloud and lost sight of it. He emerged and the ship was even bigger than before. "Holy shit... Pull up squadron! Pull up!"

OOC: Ah, ok, so I'm guessing you want (well, will accept) much destruction of Oslo etc. :p I'm trying to keep my destruction and death minimal (well, compared with some) - which will no doubt see me having an influx of immigrants after it's over that will have to be pushed back in order to save my economy…anyway, Lisbon and Rome are my alien targets, and they have no defensive underground areas either, and they are secondary priorities on the evac list, which means there will be death and problems - though they are for the second round of attacks.

Also, when you have time can you write a short speech for the Laura Harding funeral - no one else cares! You said you wanted to, and it only has to be a paragraph long really.

WEF War Room, Underground Bunker, Strasbourg, France - 11:24am

Marcus Brixton read the letter with the Chirac, and his face paled with the shock.

"They are fools, these old WW2 shelters will be destroyed by the aliens, they were not meant for something of this power..."

"Shall we try and warn them, prevent them?" Chirac asked.

"We already have. We'll just have to hope that some survive - send in the planes, though keep them back - I want to them to observe what these aliens can do to the GGA - say, twenty planes should do. Warn them not to attack if the aliens overcome them, we can't afford too many loses of our best planes." Brixton winced. He felt a pain in his chest - he still had not recovered from his injuries in Morocco. The order was given, and Chirac moved on.

North American Republic

There were too many people and too many large cities in the Republic to evac them all-but distribution was being commenced. Smaller cities and towns, such as Des Moines, Syracuse, Lansing, Birmingham, Tacoma, Green Bay, Topeka, and other cities were swelling from citizens abandoning such major cities as Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, New York, Winnipeg, Toronto, Washington, and Seattle-and others. The largest of the American cities-particularly Washington, Toronto, NYC, and LA-were experiencing massive waves of citizens leaving-D.C. was now nearly bare, except for the poorest citizens who could not escape and the crazies who sat atop the Pentagon, waiting for the massive behemoth above them to do something.

Military bases across the country, from San Diego to Anchorage to San Antonio to Norfolk were being mobilized in preparation for the eventual expected advance, and the Chancellor and most of the important governmental people had already been moved-the Chancellor to Nellis AFB, where a massive command center had been erected (and also due to OMI's insistence...despite their non-informal of the proximity, much less the existence, of Area 51 to Nellis), and the Vice Chancellor to Fort Meade.


St. Petersburg

Russian cruise missiles slammed into the shield banks of the craft, emitting fiery pulses as they detonated their warheads into the energy fields. The commanders aboard were getting amused from the fun, but a transponder code appeared at the bridge of the vessel.

"Bring it up," the Zealot commander ordered.

"It's the assault code," another said, "our permission to begin their purge and our own salvation."

"Begin acquiring targets. Start getting pilots to their fighters."

"Affirmative, commander."

In the vessel's expansive hanger bay, Drudges and Enigmats-the premier pilots of the Amalgamation-began filling into the fighters that covered the hanger floor, walls, cieling, and space in between. Tractor fields began picking individual ships when they would launch. In the gun rooms, individual buildings were being acquired for the first salvo, when the guns and missiles would rake down upon St. Petersburg's land.

The commander of the vessel recieved another transponder code, looked at it, and nodded-more to himself than any other.

"Commence fire," he said roughly.

One MAC gun crew was the first to recieve the order as it flowed down electronics screens, getting a split second jump on other crews. The metal projectile was locked into place on the massive magnetic accelerator, clicking in the slug with the firing mechanism. The magnetic coils around the barrel charged into full power, lighting blue as each prepared to go. Outside the ship, the vessel, almost as if in pause, seemed to light up a bit.

"All batteries."

The first MAC slammed forth its shell, a bright flash accompanied with a powerful blast of sound as the slug flew forth. The plasma and energy cannons opened up, along with the other MACs. The energy flew forth towards the ground, gigajoules of energy moving forth to slaughter as over one hundred fifty cannons ripped asunder.


Washington

The guns focused in on the Pentago as the rabid crowd below bellowed forth to the Amalgamation vessel, crying for their chance to meet the aliens. Meet them they did-a powerful wave of plasma ripped into the Pentagon and crowd alike with the opening fire, shattering the innermost segment of the military command facility with the first shots into flaming fragments.


Oslo

The ship began sweeping with its guns across Olso's landscape, ripping open the air itself with energy, heat, and metal. The Amalgamation was taking no quarter with this attack, showing its might against the old enemy that haunted the dreams of every Amalgamation citizen for thousands of years, the ones they had lusted to fight and kill for so long...and now were tightening the noose on.


Tokyo

This ship actally was moving, unlike the others, blasting its ventral and side guns towards the Tokyo ground and cityscape as it cruised low and slow over the cosmopolitan ground, throwing out Azrael's calling itself as the Amalgamation looked on and on, content so far. The vessel looped around as it hit the edge of the downtown, turning back in to blast apart the downtown sector again and again-to inflict damage, to kill.

Oslo, GGA

The alien shots were taking a massive toll on the city. Buildings were being leveled left and right. Lights shut down as power sources were destroyed. Around the city, troops began to fire upwards at the ship. Mobile artillery were aimed at the ships underbelly, and all MANPADS systems were being used. Among these soldiers was Master Sergeant Hector Luna. He saw the GGA planes closing in. I pray to God they come out alive.

Inside the shelters, all hell was breaking loose. The alien weaponry ripped straight throught the protective barriers that was designed to stop the USSR's largest nukes. Civilians were being massacred left and right. Those who survived cried out to Jesus, Allah, whoever thy believed in, if only for the first time.

Miller and his squadron saw the guns firing and the destruction pulse outwards, like an earthquake except more than 100 times more powerful. "Geez, guys, look what those bastards are doing! Lets give 'em hell!" He shouted, charging blindly in, all the while not knowing what to shoot at.

Berlin, GGA

Fuhrer Richtoff looked at the screens showing the initial report. Hundreds of thousands of dead civilians. The others didn't stand a chance. "Move everyone out of the shelters and to remote locations. These bunkers just aren't cutting it. But we have to stop this madness. Attack that ship at once. We need to bring it down, and tell everyone else how to do so." He sat back, and a tear rolled down his face. Despite his gruff facade, Richtoff cared deeply about his citizens. That he had just committed millions to their slaughter cut him to the core.

St. Petersburg, UR

As the shells rained down on the city below, the true scope of the tragedy had been realized. Only about half as much people as planned had actually made it out of the city with tens of thousands of people still trapped inside. As the city blazed, Fenrir and Grabacr flew towards their target.

Across the UR

All military personell had been called to arms,\ and were immediately thrust into their army groups. People were drafted by the thousands and were armed with AK-74's, TT-30's, RPG's, RPD's, and numerous other ex-soviet small arms. They were organized into Relief Army Groups and were charged with a support role of the main trained fighting force.

Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Arkhangel'sk, UR

With the new threat of the aliens realized to be true, the space program had been granted top priority. Workers began pushing extra hours to get the Mass Driver Dane, as well as put the construction of the Oka Nieba on overdrive. The way Command saw it, the "Eye of the Heavens" could be the only chance that humanity had to bring the war to the Amalgamation.

Imperial Broadcasting Corperation

"We bring you live now with Chelsea Loraine inside the National Parliament for more on these new developments."

"Thank you Peter, It has appeared that our governement is finally reacting to the apparent unstopable machines in the air that have just obliterated the Cities of Oslo, St. Petersburg, Tokyo and Washington. This morning, the government has officially annouced that the cities of Mexico City, Tlaquepaque, Monterrey, Guatemala City, Puebla, San Juan, San Salvador, Tegucigalpa, Managua and San José are to be evacuated in order to minimize the deaths if the machines ever come to the Central American Empire. Most of the Senate along with other government officials have been moved to the Queenston Military HQ. Currently, Parliament has not released the whereabouts of Prime Minister Jackson along with the members of the Emergency Council.

"Now Chelsea, the government cannot expect citizens just to calmly evacuate in large cities such as Mexico City. Does the government have any plans on this?

"Peter, many of the citizens who live in the cities have already left due to mandatory evacuations of the same cities during the war with the North American Republic. However, the government has well inticipated the expected confusion and so Parliament has invoked the War Measures Act. The act give allows the authorities to take special temporary measures to ensure safety and security during national emergencies and to amend other Acts, allowing them to arrest anybody suspected as a risk to national security, within Constitutional reason of course . With Parliament invoking the act, this makes it the first time in history, that this act has been invoked during peace-time, if that is what you would call it anyways. Many citizens have already had already had an experience with the act with the recent conflict. Many politcal analyst say that this might be the final straw that Parliament may have on Jackson. With much criticism on his handling of the Pan-American War, and these recent events, Parliament might call for a motion of no confidence".

What of our military readiness?

"Well Peter, the military has pretty much been on high alert since the ending weeks of the war with the North American Republic. Much of the army has been placed near the NAR-CAE border, with the majority of naval vessels in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thank you Chelsea. Now here are some tips to stay safe from this onslaught.

Washington, D.C.

The former capital of the United States was burning, the whitewashed monuments that had stood through time on fire from burning plasma fire and magnetically-accelerated kinetic weaponry. The former White House, once the office of the president (the last to serve the great Ronald Reagan) looked like a crushed muffin, its top crunched in from a wave volley of rocket fire. The Washington Monument stood only twelve feet high; the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials completely destroyed. The former Congressional building was a heap of scrap, and the urban segments of D.C.-including George Washington University and Georgetown, two of America's prestigious centers of learning, along with the Smithsonian National Museum line-were in the process of being consumed in the fiery conflagration.


Oslo

The German fire-and subsequent fighters roaring towards the capital ship at top speed-were blindly obvious targets for the battleship on its TacNet. As commands flooded down from space and the MidPoint Locale that the fleet had taken up, and as Oslo-a city of only around half a million-went up in flames that were quickly spreading like wildfires, targets began to get shifted. Early artillery fire was simply splashing on the shield banks, shells impacting with blue splotches on the field that stretched several millimeters off the ship's hull.

"Deploy fighters," the ship's commander ordered, "Focus on the enemy air contacts. The guns will engage the units on the ground."

The Hanger doors opened, a force field stretching over the massive gaping mouth of the bay as an armada of fighters sat inside. The first squadron began gearing up as others began detaching from their racks behind, anti-grav engines kicking in in the atmospheric hanger.

<Deactive the force field.>

The field around the hanger door dropped, and Wraiths and Specters shot out of the hanger bay, descending slightly before moving into a wide, scattered formation. The battleship, meanwhile, was directing all anti-fighter guns towards the German aicraft quickly closing.

"Open fire, all guns on the Humans."

The flak cannons and plasma cannons of the battleship's fore ripped open a thick column of air as the weapons shot their loads forward, kinetic energy sailing forth at speeds never before generated in Earth atmosphere. The flak weaponry approaching the fighters drew near, then blew open-thousands of armor-piercing needles flaring open as they blew, the plasma globs coming in directly behind.

Towards the ground, MAC cannons and triple-stage lasers ripped open a massive volley, tearing towards the ground to inflict mass devestation. The battleship's four Seismic Disruptors shot four blue-white streams of energy towards the ground, nearing the center of the armed forces on the ground. The weapons hit, smashing into the surface of the ground and beginning their seismic work, the very ground upheaving.


St. Petersburg

The ship continued unloading, ringing fire around the city to surround St. Petersburg in a halo of fiery death. Those inside the city would soon have no way out-the ship lighting the very countryside around the city afire, as well as shooting at nearly everything inside of it, gunnary crews reloading as fast as possible.

OOC: Time for more character building...

Feel free to keep RPing your Russian sailor, Candistan.

IC:

Core Habitat

After personally overseeing the operations commence on his flagship, the Augury had returned to the command station-ship to continue to monitor events via the personal wing of the Habitat dedicated to the command structure of the Zealots-of which none was higher than the Augury. He fell out of the Shadow gunship via a reverse gravlift, Cygnus right behind him. The Augury's longtime friend and number two in rank had his own matters to attend to-namedly, to arouse some of his elite soldiers, the Paramount, on an operation Cygnus was already planning, one of infiltration to get information on the Orb. Though the Augury had already committed, he wanted to see phase one go through smoothly. The second phase would then commence-with a far greater wave of capital ships hitting atmosphere. Once a good portion of the large urban settlements were out of the way, the route to a ground invasion was clear.

The Augury left the expansive hanger bay as a Spire corvette geared up to move off into space, Cygnus going his own way. The Zealot commander navigated through the ship calmly, without a trace of doubt on his face about the success of the operation-it would be easy, it would be without concern. The second phase could be of concern-though what was not of concern to the Augury there would be what happened to the ships of the Enforcers. Let them die-the Zealots were not going to overestimate another enemy-the Purge of the Helots had cost the Amalgamation trillions because of that flaw. Lethe's successor had had his entrails publically ripped out by Lethe himself due to it-atop the Monument Obelisk, the giant spire that stood above the massive city that formed the inside of Core Habitat's top section, complete with its own atmosphere, weather, power source...and above the atmosphere, the giant metal dome of the top.

The Augury weaved through the Medical Quarter, which stood perpendicular to his path to the Zealot Command Center, where his most trusted aides stood awaiting his presence. However, he was slightly unsettled as he made his way through it. Bad enough that several Enforcers lay dying-as little as he cared about the race, the fact that the cetacean-primates didn't even care for their wounded, but rather left them to long, drawn-out deaths at potentially-fatal injuries, was not only wasteful but cruel. The Zealots stood for honor-not crueltly-and that sort of action was anything but honorable.

Besides that, it was the humans. The Augury had taken under his responsibility the first part of trying to coerce language out of them, for amusement more than anything-but he was beginning to see that they were not the heartless demons that the Progenitors portrayed them as. Rather, the two humans captive seemed to have emotions-the male of pride and anger, the female of sadness and longing. It troubled the Augury-how these Humans did not seem like the soulless, heartless beasts the Progenitors claimed they were.

He passed the two containment cells-the male didn't seem up to much, while the younger female lay on her stomach, staring into a wall. The Augury stared towards both somewhat in an out-of-body experience. After all-why, not like every other race, had the Humans not been at least studied, and then offered the chance to integrate? Even if they were the ancient Hugon-even the Infection had integrated, albeit through force. The Drudges, the Torrent, the Enigmats, the Predators, the Seekers-all had joined the Amalgamation after seeing its power. Did not Humans deserve the second chance? It was clear they were not anywhere near the potential of the ancient Hugon, who had devestated light-years with the Premiers, locked in battle.

What troubled the Augury was almost a more primal feeling. The humans seemed to familiar...they seemed too much like Zealots. Unlike the Enforcers, or the spineless Torrent, or deeply loyal and friendly, though dedicated Predators, the humans had balance, they had emotions, they had mental ability-just like the Zealots did. And the Augury was their commander, the one the entire race looked up to as an icon. And yet-he had his doubts about his entire operation suddenly.

The human female looked up as the Augury stood staring, giving the Zealot commander a bit of a worried glance, as if she expected something bad to come out of it. Even to a beat she seemed familiar-seeming to have the same troubled emotions that the Augury's own son had had, before he had met untimely demise at the hands of an angry Enforcer four months before. The Augury had looked past the incident-it was unfortunate, but he was a commander-he could not show such emotion in public. However, this human female cut into his emotional side-she seemed out of place, now an orphan due to both Lethe's and the Augury's expiramentation. As part of that, did he not owe the Human something-especially as she experienced what was probaly her final days, away from her natural habitat on a very alien setting?

The Augury turned, but his head remained fixated on the two humans. He gave a final glance before moving on, the female's brown eyes following him out of the medical quarter. He was unsettled all of the sudden-a feeling probaly unique to his race amongst the starfaring civilization. It was something he did not like, going into both the second phase and the commando mission with Cygnus.

He would settle it later. There were Human cities to be flattened first-the will of the Progenitors be done.

Skys above Oslo, GGA

Miller looked left, and then right. All of his wingmen were gone. It had happened so fast. The aliens had opened fire on his squad, and the man on his left had been shattered by one of the flak cannon rounds. It had exploded right underneath his plane. He had no chance. Relatively the same thing had happened to two other men. They had been following their leader, and flak rounds burst, tearing apart ones engine, and ripping through the cockpit of the other. His other two squadmates had managed to maneuver through the flack rounds, when the plasma globs hit. The man on his left had been enveloped by the glob, and simply vaporized. The last man on his right had narrowly avoided being hit, but the superheated glob melted the bolts holding his left wing on, and he plummeted to the ground.

But this was not the time to reflect. If Miller was to stay alive, he needed to be sharper now than ever before. He felt the anger bubbling up within him. I'll show those aliens to ever fuck with humans again... He darted left, then back right, narrowly avoiding being shot out of the sky. He looked ahead, and there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of alien fighters lifting off to try and down him and his comrades. Holy shit

Ground around Oslo, GGA

The shots fired at the ground were having a massive effect. Troops were being slaughtered left and right. Panic broke loose among the GGA lines. Men broke from their posts, and the officers simply ran along, instead of stopping them. Luna saw them running, and realized that it was in his best interests to do so too. He reloaded his MANPADS, and fired one last shot towads a fighter emerging from the hanger of the alien ship. He then threw down his weapon and took off. Instead of fleeing for the wilderness like most of the soldiers, he took off for the ruins of the city, realizing that there was safety in solidity. And there was obviously no one in the city...

Oslo (http://www.mlms.logan.k12.ut.us/~ckircalli/hiroshima/the-destroyed-city-of-hiroshim-4.jpg)

Tokyo

This ship actally was moving, unlike the others, blasting its ventral and side guns towards the Tokyo ground and cityscape as it cruised low and slow over the cosmopolitan ground, throwing out Azrael's calling itself as the Amalgamation looked on and on, content so far. The vessel looped around as it hit the edge of the downtown, turning back in to blast apart the downtown sector again and again-to inflict damage, to kill.

As soon as the spaceship opened fire, Tokyo's citizens broke ranks and fled in droves from the city. All of Tokyo's anti-aircraft guns began to pound away at the alien craft, and every kind of missle imaginable was launched at the great mechanical beast.

General Katsumoto watched the battle from the hills beyond the city, having already been evacuated from his bunker. He had long since ordered the bombardment of the cruiser, however, though, when asked to commit the air force, he decided against it. He feared the ineffectiveness of the planes against a flying monster such as this, and did not want to risk lives in a vain attempt.

Troops and government officials alike were leaving the city, as the officials had no interest in becoming the extraterrestrials first casualties, and Katsumoto was all to aware that the assault rifles of the army would prove to be no match to the UFO.

(Also, AB, could you devise an alien plan to kidnap the Emperor?)

OOC: Plan's been sent to you via TG.

Also: in the following few paragraphs, make sure to look for your respective cities on the order of battle!

IC:

Core Habitat
Command Center 2

The Augury was used to his base of operations-the blue -ringed, expansive cylindrical facility that shot high and tall, as well as having a giant radius of the entire room. A gargantuan holographic 3-D image hung in the room's center-a spherical layout of Vesta, all its continents, and the major cities and attack areas of the humans. It was well-done-even individual corvettes and fighter squadrons were detailed on the massive hologram, with known human units in a yellow hostile indication.

The field expanded slightly, allowing in for the fleet in the Lunar-Earth Midpoint-gearing up for later attack as the first battleships mopped up their respective cities and moved on. A large attack fleet was now moving in on the planet-vaporizing orbital satellites as they moved in with plasma weaponry.

"Bring up seperate maps," the Augury said as he came in.

Several of the command crew-the entire center restricted to the Zealot race-were quick on it, multiple blank planes coming up, replacing the spherical world map, which retreated into a smaller view. The Augury stepped up to the higher level of the room, quickly meeting with several subordinates, and clustered around a holographic console. Each tapped off several icons, before the next round of maps focused in on the holographic viewer.

Cities now began popping up across the holographic viewer from across the world. The first two up were Chicago and Beijing, quickly followed by a whole slew-Mexico City, Novograd, New Delhi, Seoul, Lisbon, Johannesberg, Algiers, Bamako, Kinshasa, and Stockholm. Several cities came up on smaller maps, denoted in green-San Francisco, Moscow, Dhaka, Osaka, Rome, Lagos, Hong Kong, and Vienna. Moscow had several yellow indicator icons come up to it, and subsequently, a map of New York City also popped up. Starship icons began moving to the maps of the cities-a battleship here, a supercarrier there. Icons representing ground armies began moving to the smaller maps, Moscow in particular. A massive group of fighter wing icons flanked to the map of NYC.

Cygnus entered the command chamber, a flanking group of Zealots-clad in the dark maroon armor fit of special ops soldiers-right behind him. He spoke quickly to the Augury, a quick passage going back and forth, before they both departed.


Earth

Over the planet, the starships continued to descend, now banking off as they recieved their respective targets. Two Supercarriers by themselves began moving towards Moscow, support ships in tow. Meanwhile, the four capital ships over Tokyo, Washington, Oslo, and St. Petersburg began mopping up their duties.


Washington D.C.

The city was in tatters-completely on fire, nearly shot into plasma if the fire could burn any hotter. The former capital that had burned in 1812 was burning again-for its last act. From the battleship, however, the entire complement of fighters began to deploy. Assault fighters, bombers, and interceptors all began to shoot out of the ship-knowing that reinforcements were coming from above. The target was North.


Tokyo

The missiles were smashing against the energy shield of the big capital ship-though with so much ordinance hitting the shield, small depletion was going on. The ship's commander was angered-it was time to take some retribution out on the petty humans on the ground of the smoking city. Without any aerial attackers on long-range sensors, anti-air guns were focused on the ground for general bombardment. The big guns were being tracked on the defenders.

As the shields began to fall to around 60%, rockets began soaring out from the battleship at high speeds, antimatter charges loaded to explode with an efficiency never the likes seen before on Earth. The battleship opened up with its four Seismic Cannons-the literally ground-shattering weapons firing blue beam weapons-kinetic weapons, despite their appearance-into the ground. They were more shock weapons than anything, but the massive seismic upheaval that each Seismic cannon inflicted-forced into a ten-minute recharge after each shot-was terrifying to a race that had never seen t (as the Helots had shown), and would still inflict massive damage to anything caught in the way.


Oslo

Luna was a lucky man this day. The capital ship was getting bored with the flaming city-Oslo falling apart as the day passed. As the men by the hundreds fled into the countryside, Luna was overlooked-and the vessel opened upon the Norwegian forests, plasma and energy weapons slamming forth from cannons to burn down the centuries-old trees that had stood up to the Vikings-but not this.

It appeared that one fighter had stayed alive through the massive torrent of fire that had enveloped the German air horde. It volleyed off another series of two dozen rockets, before letting the fighters to their own devices. The Wraith interceptors pulled in hard, quickly accelerating to over Mach 3, their typical combat atmospheric speed. Several of the interceptors lobbed off postrion rockets, but they were closing in on Miller's fighter-their shorter-distance weapons ready to fire.

OOC: Basically, Miller is going to stay alive long enough to test the capabilities of the alien fighters. Then he is going to get shot down and eject into the city ruins. Get one of the aliens to go ahead of him, so he can test its sheilds and stuff.

IC:

Skies above Oslo, GGA

Miller heard the next wave of rockets coming before he saw them, and his instincts took over. He took the plane straight up, thrusting foward on his engines, taxing them of the fuel he would need to make it back to Visby. If he made it back... He looked over at his gauges, and the speed rose steadily. Mach 1.9, 2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3. He leveled his Gripen off. He looked around to see three alien fighters swinging in behind him with amazing dexterity. SHIT! he thought, his mind racing through his possibilities. He dove hard left, eclipsing mach 2.5, said to be the max for the Gripen. He then nailed his airbrakes. Hopefully the aliens would race ahead...

Above Oslo

Even at Mach 2.5, the Wraiths were quickly closing on Miller's Gripen, speeding ahead at Mach 3, combat speed. As the Gripen jerked on the brakes, two of the fighters split hard, banking and rolling, as the third shot ahead of the Gripen, letting loose a shield flare as the fighter tried hard to slow from accelerating past Mach 3.2. The others banked around, trying to acquire Miller's Gripen back on plasma crosshairs.


30 Miles Outside Moscow

The area-a large plain 12 miles from the outskirts of Moscow-had been planned out and scanned by the vessel that had taken out St. Petersburg. The humans of the city, however, did not seem to take the Amalgamation lightly-defenses were already on the rise. The Humans didn't want to seem to want to give up the prize they knew nothing about easily-which is why the Seer of Candor had this one planned out very well. Besides accomplishing their objective, it could also serve as a demonstration to the rest of the Humans.

Daybreak broke-December 12th, 2008. Winter in Russia-never a great prospect, but the cold couldn't even penetrate anything in the technological arsenal of the Amalgamation. Two Supercarriers had taken position to the East of Russia, 30 miles from the city that had stood before the Nazi advance 66 years before. These enemies were different-and today, the two supercarriers were disgorging land forces onto the Russian soil. It was not the usual attack on Moscow-through history, attacks had come from the west, from aggressive European sentiments. Now, Moscow's far side was the target-though the city itself was not even the true target.

But rather than obviously point out the goal of salvation, buried underground 12 miles outside Moscow to the East and never even discovered by Humans, the Amalgamation had put down further. They could easily drive to the site, leave behind a strong picket, and continue on to devestate the city. The Orb would still be in Amalgamation hands. And now, as artillery tanks, armor, infantry by the truckload, and aerial support all came out of the two carriers-accompanied by corvettes and frigates, holding position in the atmosphere slightly above, the task for the Human defenders seemed certainly daunting.

But defenses didn't always need to come from the inside...sometimes, it needed to be sought out.

Moscow, UR

The huge GAZ and DAZ trucks drove supplies into the capital of the UR, including loads of sandbags, diesel generators, wood and sheet metal. Two regular armies, one Guards army, and three provisional armies were on the scene, assisting in the trench digging operations. The city was to be completely surrounded, trenched in, and secure. The Moscow Metro was now solely for gov't use, transporting workers and soldiers across the city. Command set up HQ there, and began to graph out the defense of the city.

Meanwhile, topside, droves of wounded were coming in from St. Petersburg. Only the critically wounded were brought to Moscow's hospitals, while the lesser wounded proceeded to the refugee camps. An Air Fleet of Antonov transport planes had been shipping in tanks and artillery all day, but the new shipment in the ten Il-72's was different. Chemical weapons, VX and GB to be exact, were being transported in their respective rockets and artillery shells waiting to be used in defense of the city. With the 2S7, 2S19 and 2S5 artillery, along with BRDM-2's BM-21, and the next-generation BM-30, the city was to have a good 26km net of defense.

Skies above Oslo, GGA

The manuever had worked as planned. Miller could now take down one of the aliens... or so he thought. Miller looked at the fighter. It was moving even faster than he was. I wonder how fast these things can go? He shook off the thought, and got back to the issue at hand. Acquiring visual lock... Fire! Miller shot off one Sidewinder, and began rattling off rounds from his Mauser.

Canberra, Australia


Prime Minister Cliff Patterson had been out on a fishing trip and left instructions not to be bothered by anything unless it was an emergency and not by any UFO reports even if they were supposedly emergencies.

Upon returning to the office, he found the place in an uproar. "What's going on?" he demanded.

Deputy Prime Minister Niel Warren came rushing up and grabbed the Prime Minister by the arm and hustling him towards the conference room, "We've got a crisis here, thank God you're back."

"What's happening?" Prime Minister Patterson asked.

Niel Warren said, "Let's get the team together in the conference room and I'll explain."

Minutes later, "the team" was assembled in the conference room. It consisted of the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Home Affairs, the Attorney General, the Treasurer, two media consultants, the Federation Labour Party's senior domestic policy advisor and a dozen ministerial assistants.

"What's happened?" Patterson demanded.

"It's about as bad as it can get," said Allen Kimball, the domestic policy advisor said, "Barry Phillips wasn't bluffing. It's all over the news. He really did have an informant in your office."

"Who?" the Prime Minister asked.

"It's Spencer Atkins."

"Oh my God."

"He's got documents, planning documents from the referendum campaign."

"Is there any way to shut him up?"

One of the media consultants, a woman named Gail Townsend, said, "We're doing out best to tout the UFO theme and we've gotten a boost from some foreign reports, but the reporters are very suspicious that the whole UFO thing is all being cooked up by us."

"Which it is," said Kimball, "and it's not going to hold much longer."

"What can they do," the Prime Minister asked, "We've already won the referendum. Under the new constitution, we don't have to hold another election for five years."

"They've got parliamentary hearings scheduled for next week already," Niel Warren said, "and under judiciary committee rules, we can't stop that."

Prime Minister Patterson said, "But we've got a parliamentary majority. They can't do anything until there's an election. They can't force an election if our MPs stand together and in five years a lot can happen. I doubt anyone will still even remember the UFO scare in five years time."

The Attorney General said, "If directed to do so by any member of the house judiciary committee, I am required to open an investigation."

Prime Minister Patterson said, "So investigate. Was there a crime? We didn't invent the UFO thing entirely out of whole cloth. There really was that report from the American air force. What can we be accused of, criminally, I mean? Overreacting? That's not a crime."

The Attorney General said, "No, it's probably not criminal, but it's going to look very bad. It will haunt us in the elections, I'm afraid."

Kimball said, "He's right. People are not going to forget. It's a panic out there. People have been killed. They've cleared out all the food and bottled water from the grocery stores and are fighting over places in line at gas stations. The whole country's terrified. If it comes out that we cooked up the whole UFO thing to boost our polling numbers in the referendum vote..."

"It's five years! Anything can happen!" the Prime Minister interjected.

Niel Warren said, "Sorry Cliff, but it's not five years. Maybe your party will keep discipline on this, but I've got at least five MPs from New Zealand who are ready to break ranks if this is true and vote for no confidence in the government. It will force an election in thirty days."

"WHAT!" Patterson exclaimed.

Kimball said, "That's what I've been trying to tell you."

Just then, the Prime Minister's personal secretary came in the door and said, "Mr. Prime Minister, Peter Anderson is on the line from Project Skywatch. He says he's been trying to reach you ever since you went on your fishing trip and its urgent."

"Yes, I didn't answer his calls. Is it more guff about UFOs?"

"I got that impression, yes. I think it has to do with all the reports on the news from around the world that..."

"Well tell him to bugger off. We've got a REAL emergency here to deal with," the Prime Minister interrupted.

"Yes, sir," the secretary said and left.

"Right. What can we do for damage control?" the Prime Minister asked.

Kimball said, "I've already assembled some focus groups to run hypothetical scenarios past them. The only thing that works is if you resign."

"What! Niel, if this is your doing..."

Niel Warren said, "I had nothing to do with it. I'm trying to get my boys to vote with us when this blows up."

Just then, a young man rushed into the room and whispered something in Allen Kimball's ear.

Kimball broke into a huge smile.

"What is it?" Prime Minister Patterson asked.

"It's a miracle. We're saved," Kimball said in a strange tone.

"What?" everyone asked.

Kimball said, "We told everyone there were aliens that might attack us. The Leader of the Opposition is trying to destroy us because he can prove we made that up to influence the referendum vote. But... I think there is a God and he's a member of the Labour Party."

"What are you babbling about?" Patterson asked.

"There really are aliens. Not only that, they're actually hostile! Our lie came true! Barry Phillips can't touch us now."

"What do you mean there are aliens?" Patterson demanded.

The young man who had whispered in Kimball's ear finally spoke to the group and said, "It's on the TV, huge ships have appeared over major cities all over the world."

"I saw that," said Niel Warren, "I thought that was your doing, Gail."

Gail Townsend said, "It is. I've had my people pull every UFO story they could find from every news servince in the world and put them on the wire with e-mails to our reporters to cover them."

The young man said, "They've destroyed Washington DC! They're bombing Tokyo! They're attacking everywhere, it's not made up!"

Patterson said, "Are you sure?"

The young man said, "Turn on the TV! There's pictures of Washington DC in flames!"

Patterson looked at Kimball with an expression of complete disbelief.

Kimball said, "It's a miracle. We're saved! Barry Phillips and the Liberals can't hurt us now!" Kimball laughed.

The Prime Minister said, "But it's impossible. There aren't any aliens! We made them up!"

Meanwhile, the Attorney General turned on a television set that was in one corner of the room. It was already turned to a news channel and suddenly, on the screen, were images of cities in flames and gigantic space ships, not just mysterious lights.

Kimball kept laughing and pointed at the screen, "Look at that! Phillips can say we made it up, but look! We'll just say that was a cover story and we knew it was real all along. We can justify Project Skywatch and the military alerts, everything!"

Patterson just looked at the screen as it showed enormous skyscrapers falling in Tokyo as strange blue beams blasted the city. The sound was turned down, but over Kimball's joyful laughing, the Prime Minister could hear screams and panicked voices coming from the TV.

"I think..." the Prime Minister said, but it took a moment for everyone to quiet down, "I think it's time to stop talking about politics and get John Collins in here."

"Collins?" Kimball asked, "His district is in New South Wales. They're solid Labour. We've got no problem there and he'd never vote for no confidence. He's a cabinet member!"

"Yes," Patterson said with annoyance, "He is a cabinet minister. He's the Minister of Defense." The Prime Minister took out his cell phone and muttered, "I should have taken his calls earlier..."

Moscow, UR

A massive flight of transports and fighters moved into Moscow Int'l and began unloading its cargo. TOS-1 MRLS saunchers, the top of the line in the Russian Army, debarked and moved to the supply depots set up near Red Square. The Biopreparat Facility began releasing barrels of VX, GB, Tabun, and Chlorine for loading into the rockets while truckloads of thermobaric and high explosive rockets and shells were unloaded off of the planes fresh from Kirov.

Moscow's Shield, work in progress 1 mile outside the City Limits

Even though it was a cold, stormy night, the soldiers and engineers kept on working away. Now that the main trench line had a start, bomb shelters and dug in bunkers began to be set up. They may have been crude, built into the hills supported by wood and sheet metal, but they would hold for now. Concrete was beginning to be poured into the floor of the trench and into the cinderblock walls to make a more stable surface while artillery, MRLS launchers, and MBT's all began to line up in their positions.

Vladimir Putin Medical Center, Moscow, UR

Large amounts of badly wounded victims of the St. Petersburg attacks were being brought in by the hundreds. Blood was on the floor where doctors attempted in vain to stabilize patients with wounds ranging from 1st degree burns to missing limbs and shrapnel wounds. NKVD personell were stationed at the hospital trying to keep it secure, for the doctors' own good. They didn't know what was coming for them...

OOC: Stendaria, would you like an attack?

IC:

20 Miles outside Moscow

The Amalgamation advance had proceeded rapidly-Shadow gunships/dropships had been moving along infantry from locale to locale as the armor had been advancing fast. The two supercarriers had stayed put 30 miles out, but the smaller cruisers were advancing with the rear of the ground forces-their true purpose was not to provide ground support, however. It was to dig-and dig with firepower, deep into the ground. 12 miles out from Moscow-8 miles out from the advance.

The alien army group was taking a slightly slower pace now, a more relaxed gait across the terrain. No resistance had been encountered in the ten-mile advance across a large area-armor proceeding with shields at half to conserve energy, troops at ease for the moment. However, sensors from the rear-stationed corvettes was still active-continuously looking for contacts. So far, there was nothing...and the Amalgamation proceeded onwards. The full moon was shining-but it was not full. It was speckled...Gabriel's face itself shining down in glamour.


4 Miles out from Moscow

A fighter convoy, however, was proceeding at full thrust-running at Mach 4 towards the massive city. It was going to test the perimater-and buy some time. Above, a single Prowler was coming in hot, full cloak active-and the fighters were drawing off any source of awareness. The Prowler was one of three, but it was obsentiously the most important, gunning for a central intelligence matrix supposedly located at the center of the city. The other two were out by the Ural mountain range, heading to two seperate targets-but they were coming in slightly late.

The fighter armada-seventy-six fighters, a small part of a supercarrier's load, but still substantial-was bearing down, mostly Specter Balanced Fighters, but also including some Phantoms and Wraiths. They were angling in on what seemed to be a large fortification sticking out from the city-about a mile out. Better yet for the air, it seemed under construction from long-range visuals-a perfect target for the fast-moving fighters. Missile locks began getting acquired by the fighters, rockets loaded in for firing-the Wraiths with their small but speedy and destabilizing Ion warheads, the Phantoms and Specters with their antimatter-loaded, damage-intensive Positron warheads, designed to explode with a substance of 100% efficiency. Even though Positron rockets contained absolutely miniscule amounts of antimatter-in this case, the positively-charged positrons, opposite of real matter electrons-antimatter contact with matter sparked an explosion nearly seventy-five times greater than a nuclear blast, which had a 1.5% efficiency. In such small amounts, the rockets still were able to inflict considerable damage, albeit in an "explosion" that resembled a minituarized nova-in atmosphere.

Two miles out, the fighters unleashed. No doubt they were on enemy sensors-or whatever the humans used, eons back technilogically from the ancient Hugon of scripture foretold-but it was no matter. Shields went up across the line, energy fields visably raising several millimeters up off of fighter hulls, a slight transluscent white color, barely visable but noticeably there. Rockets blasted out from missile launchers located within the hulls, blasting forth on booster engines that quickly accelerated the warheads up to their respective speeds-the Ion Rockets boosting up to over Mach 8 as they shot ahead of the denser, stronger Positron rockets. Though Ion Rockets were deadly against air cover-they easily shorted out electronics, due to overloading systems with a torrent of ionized particles (they technically carried a far greater charge than positron rockets), they were effective really only against electronic systems and the state of fear on the ground, really only inflicting damage to infantry when including them in the direct blast radius of the ionized particles-which killed through sending a massive charge through the soldiers.

The warheads moved on, seeking in low to the ground as they sped towards the defensive line of the Russians.


Thirty Miles above Moscow

The Prowler Stealth Transport was unescorted-for a reason. Not only could it suitably defend itself, but unless the humans had some seriously advanced sensors, there was no way the humans would pick up the cloaked vessel. It did warp the appearance behind the craft a slight bit-but only an eye trained to look for such distortion would find that. It was not newfangled technology by any stretch of the mind-a basic form was already in the hands of mankind-but the Amalgamation had created a feasible stealth field. However, it did prove slightly troublesome, and it was a good thing that the Amalgamation had strong sensors-inside the field, the transport was blind to visual looks. A black field stared back from the visual monitor-the Prowler was relying on sensors alone.

"Let's see what the humans are up to," one of the Zealots said, twisting a knob-bringing up a human-bound radio frequency.

The big shit's poppin', "WHAT?" and da' little shit stoppin' "YEAH"
The big shit's poppin'-

"Not military band, I suppose," the Zealot commented, flicking it off.

The Prowler continued its cloaked descent...as the first fireworks shot below.

Moscow's Shield

"Cover! Take Cover!" screamed the ground force commander over the loudspeakers.

Missiles began impacting everywhere, destroying parts of the trench and killing many engineers and provisional conscripts. SPAAG's opened up while SAM batteries that were being moved in began to try to get locks and fire.

"All forces, move into position! This is not a drill!" reported the commander over the loudspeakers. "I repeat, this is not a drill. We are under attack."

Air raid sirens went off across Moscow, sending the few civi's left into panic. The sky was lit up with tracers and rocket flares from the air defense sectors, turning the sky above the city an eerie orange glow. At the hospital, patients began to panic in a huge wave of chaos, not wishing to experience their nightmare in St. Petersburg again.

URAHQ, Moscow

"Field Marshal, we have satellite imaging of a, uh, enemy ground force moving into the Moscow general area." said an Intelligence worker.

Koslovic had a disgruntled face on before, but now he was pissed. "Hit them." he growled while chewing on the butt of a cigar. "Hit those murderous sons of bitches with everything. Artillery, rockets, even the chemicals. Just kill them. I don't care how, find a way."

"Da, Field Marshal." replied the Intel worker.

Back at the City Limits

A squadron of TOS-1 MRLS tanks moved up with BM-21's and BM-30's, setting up for their shots. The massive 2S9, 2S5 and 2S19 Artillery drove up and dug in a trench to back up into, then waited for the supply trucks with the ammo.

The GAZ supply trucks began filing out onto the plain to each of the artillery crews, delivering rockets, shells, and charges to the seasoned crew members. Five Su-25's flew overhead and released five Kh-55M cruise missiles, modified for poisonous gas delivery. They flew overhead the targets, then opened up a hatch and began spilling out Chlorine gas while it descended towards the earth. Command wanted to save the Nerve Agents for when the situation was most dire and therefore had kept the Nerve dispensing munition at the depots. The yellow gas drifted down to earth, like a dark cloud in the snowy winter night.

Moscow Int'l

The five pilots sat around a table, playing poker.

"What you got, Vlad?" asked one of the pilots, Fenrir 5.

"Kiss my ass, Mikhail. I've got shit. I fold." he replied.

The other three sat and laughed for a moment. Vlad always had the worst of luck when it came to cards, and he usually expressed it in a funny way. In these trying times, every good moment had to last.

"You always have shit, Vlad." said another pilot, a tall, black haired man.

Vlad clenched his grip on the vodka in his hand. The bottle creaked, then shattered, spilling the contents on his hand and the table.

"Oh, no! Look what you made him do, Nikolai!" said Mikhail.

"Fuck!" swore Vlad. "These goddamn modifications are hard to get used to. I can't even shake someone's hand anymore without risk of breaking something."

"Oh, poor Vlad. He doesn't even know his own strength anymore." chuckled a woman on the other side of the table.

"Alexandra's right, Vlad. Control yourself." laughed Mikhail.

Alexandra was a beautiful woman with medium length blond hair. Not only that, but she had won the Ms. Russian Army award last year, and was shooting to win it again this year.

"Sometime's I hate all of you..." said Vlad as he wiped up the mess on the table.

"We love you too, Vlad." the other pilots said in near unison. But then the fun was over. The air raid sirens were going off, and they knew that meant one thing: Aliens.

They rushed out of the lounge and ran to their planes, hopping in and saying some last questions to the mechanics on the ground. The five Su-47's taxied down the runway, then prepared to take off. Other pilots followed suit, hopping into their planes and firing up the engines.

Emergancy Command Center
Currently without satellite imagery to help; they were relying solely on human intelligence and news reports from all over the world showed the horrors of the alien's first wave attack; they had lost more than one good agent that day in the initial blows. It was like one horrible movie but this wasn't science fiction; this was real life. From the Seiren beauty of Saint Petersburg to the metropolis of Tokyo; all were hit equally.

"Commander; how go the preparations"

"We have Arjun Tanks and T-90's rolling out onto the streets; only 1000 Arjun's have been upgraded to the new Mk II standard but they'll do. We're throwing out everything we can; evacuation is still preceding best we can; North Pole is reporting its full and can't support any more refugees so we're having to set up refugee camps" General Davis spoke chewing a Stewgie.

"We're taking a leap from the Russians and building large trenches around the major cities and we've got scattered reports of ground troops landing in Russia but no where else yet. These Alien bastards are hitting the Russians hard I wish there was something we could do to help" the General continued.

"The Russians are a proud people General; they will fight and die alone; and they will do everything in there power to slow them down and its our own job to do the same; humanity must survive even if that means we must die. We make them fight for every inch"

"Yes ma'am; we're military men; we understand what is expected of us" the General said.

"We've placed The HMS Morgana LeFaye and the HMS Arthur Pendragon either side of Port Blair to Air cover for the south and have started establishing a defence line with Artillery and tanks and infantry. We've also started we've also started a northern line on our afghan border; its going to take a few hours to get things set up"

"We need a victory; something to spur humanity on and show them that these bastards are not invincible" The queens unusual frankness was something of a surprise; "what about those battleships?"

"Well they seem to have some kind of energy barrier; so far nothing thrown at them has had any effect" General Davis spoke as he brought up a picture of the Pinnacle class battleship. "So far we've been able to deduce that the main guns are on the forward and aft sections of the ship; with secondary guns on the ventral surface. The ship appears to also have aft and port batteries some kind of energy weapons we haven't been able to specify a type yet but the news broadcasts showed them cutting through GGA fighters like a hot knife through butter"

"Draw up your attack plans general; I want to bring one of these bastards down; whatever it takes" she ordered to which he nodded.

This is Channel One News, Nairobi, Kenya. And now the news...

Jomo Nzibo, President of Kenya, today issued a statement to quell irresponsible rumors that aliens are destroying the world.

(The screen shows President Nzibo reading a document.)

"It remains the position of the government of Kenya that there are no such things as Vampires, Were-wolves, Were-tigresses, Elves or aliens. For this reason we do not recognize the existence of the so-called United Socialist States of Wagdog. We don't believe in the Easter Bunny, either. Not only is it our position that none of these exist, we note that all of these are derived from European myths. We not only consider the belief in such things to be superstitious nonsense, we consider the prevalence of such myths in South Africa and the South Pacific Islands to be a relic of European colonialism. It is not a coincidence that the founders of the so-called Wagog regime of the South Pacific are people of European ancestry from America. This idea that European people can come to any part of the world and rule over the native people there is the very essence of colonialism.

We have now been free from direct rule by European colonialists for nearly half a century. But until we free our minds from European ideologies, European culture and European superstitions, we are still colonized in our minds.

We have seen how the Europeans have used various boogeymen to scare us into continuing to cling to them for security. First it was the communists they told us to fear. Then it was the terrorists. Now it is green men from outer space. What will they think of next? And when will we stop being like children who believe in such fairy tales?

Certainly this latest threat seems very real. But so did the communists. So did the terrorists. But what threat were any of them to us? We are analyzing the recent news footage of alien attacks to see what Hollywood special effects have been used. This cannot be real. The Holy Bible describes the creation of the world. It tells of the creation of man in God's own image. It tells of the creation of the beasts of the field and the fish in the sea. It does not speak of the creation of any aliens on other planets. For our people who are Moslem or who follow traditional ways, where in the Koran or in the teachings of our ancestors is there any mention of aliens? Are we to believe that God forgot to tell us? Are we to believe that the ancient stories from the wise elders about the creation of the world left out an entire race of aliens so powerful that they can smash us whenever they wish?"

"This cannot be true. It is not true. Have faith, my people, and we will be protected from such lies. Who in Kenya has ever seen one of these aliens? In all the world who has seen them? What do they look like? Are they monsters with tentacles? Are they shiny golden robots? Are they fish with feet? Are they purple bunny rabbits bouncing on springs? No. There is no such thing. All we see is images of things flying in the sky."

"Have faith my people, there are no aliens."

One of the large screens was brought up showing the speech from the Kenyan leader prattling on about god and faith while denying the existence of the aliens whom as he spoke were levelling earth metropolises. The people in the Animarnian war room looked on in shock; for a moment the busy expansive room came to a complete halt as everyone struggled to comprehend the mans obvious lack of intelligence or sanity. Not quite certain which the man lacked more

"Is he mad?" The Queen asked finally breaking the silence.

"I…would say so your highness"; General Davis said trying to fathom it; "I wonder if his faith will protect him like a mystical force field when the aliens come to wipe out Nairobi"

"I doubt it" replied a bystander.

And so it was decided that if the aliens attack Kenya; the nation of Animarnia would not lift a finger to help after all why help them against aliens that 'didn't exist'

War Room, Near Strasbourg, 2:00am

London, Paris, Madrid and Milan were fast becoming ghost towns. These were seen as the most important cities in the whole of the WEF and so were #1 priority, with other major cities - Strasbourg, Lisbon, Rome, Lyon, Napoli, Manchester, Glasgow, Dublin, Barcelona, Porto, Reykjavík, Rabat, Belgrade and Zagreb all to follow. So far around half these cities listed had been evacuated with military force, Lisbon, Rome, Dublin and all Yugoslavian capitals, though still some remained. The WEF had chosen to adopt a more lax attitude to these cities - all citizens in direct danger in London, Paris, Madrid and Milan had to be relocated, whereas the citizens of the 'second cities', unless in the centre, had more of a choice - and in some as many as half the population had chosen to remain. Massive refugee centres were sprouted up everywhere.

Marcus Brixton was up discussing what to about the evacuations and a recent statement by Kenya at the early hours with his advisors. There were no days and nights for him anymore, he had seemingly been up continuously for over a week. The War Bunker he had been in, located twenty miles off Strasbourg but protected against nuclear weapons and high classified, was stuffy and he had not had fresh air for five days. He was moody and impatient.

"Kenya, fuck Kenya!" Brixton shouted loudly. No one in the room had ever heard him swear before, and they were quite shocked "We don't have time for there messages of Propaganda against aliens and us, Europe! They will realise they have made a fatal mistake in what they are saying - Nairobi is a large city, and will likely be bombed - without evacuations millions could die. They are foolish to think otherwise.

"Marcus, what about the situations in Lisbon, Rome and Dublin in particular to do with the lack of people leaving. I really do think it's time we forced them to go..." A tired General said.

"How many people have refused to go?" Marcus replied angrily.

"Well, in nearly all of our secondary priority cities around 85% of the population have gone - it is merely the cities of Lisbon, Rome and Dublin that pose a problem. We have begun relocated nearly 30 million people over the past week, yet in these cities only around 40% are prepared to leave, that is too little. I suggest we order the military we have in there to do what we have done in London and Paris etc. - order a full forceful evacuation."

"Just do it." Marcus said wearily. "I've heard there will be problems in Lisbon and Rome with this though."

"Well...yes.." He picked up a document. "You see, in Rome almost 100,000 people have surrounded the Pope - and they will not leave, not even if we threaten them with guns. I feel we can get everyone out of Rome minus them. And in Lisbon traffic is terrible, over 60,000 are trapped on the roads and major bridges, and if we order a full military evac that figure could double."

Marcus sighed and said "Get everyone out of Rome and Dublin now. Use force, scare them - whatever, we need them safe. I want Rome empty but for those 100,000 within two days, they will run once the attacks begin, trust me." He paused "As for Lisbon - order the forced evac, the roads will clear up soon enough; I don't see it as our first target anyway."

And so it began. Military troops, airforce etc. were all injected into the four major cities and a few second cities. Nuclear weapons, WMD’s, Chemical weapons and all types of previously unused horrific attacking weapons were readied. Marcus's decisions were good, and within days tens of millions of people would begin to move out of the remaining #2 priority cities. Though he had made one bad choice - he thought Lisbon would clear up, and he thought it was not a target. He was wrong.

["SIZE=1"]OOC: Now Lisbon has to be your first target of mine ;). Rome won't be completely empty for when you attack as that would be boring, though the pop. will go down quite a bit.["/SIZE"]

Video Transmission to Kenya from the UR

Field Marshal Koslovic appeared in his combat dress, a very angry look on his face. After removing his cigar from his mouth, he began.

"Who the fuck do you think you are? How in god's name can you actually announce to US that there are no aliens? I don't know about you, but hundred's of thousands of people, Russian, Finnish, Belarussian, and Baltic, have been slaughtered by this extraterrestrial onslaught. I don't care what you say, but to me, each and every one of those peoples' lives is ten times as important as a Kenyan's.

"If you don't believe that these aliens exist, take a look at this, asshole!"

The feed gets linked to a clip of St. Petersburg being destroyed by the massive alien ship, fires and explosions erupting everywhere. The feed switches to another clip of the Moscow Hospital in which two soldiers are dragging a severly wounded man into the surgery ward, a blood trail in the man's wake. Moans and cries are heard in the rooms with soldiers, doctors and nurses rushing about helping horribly wounded people to their surgeries and beds.

"Like I said, they exist! If you honostly don't believe us after that, then I won't waste my time on your pitiful regime. Hopefully you can realize your mistakes before it's too late and your people are the ones being cooked alive and killed.

End Transmisson.

Tokyo

The missiles were smashing against the energy shield of the big capital ship-though with so much ordinance hitting the shield, small depletion was going on. The ship's commander was angered-it was time to take some retribution out on the petty humans on the ground of the smoking city. Without any aerial attackers on long-range sensors, anti-air guns were focused on the ground for general bombardment. The big guns were being tracked on the defenders.

As the shields began to fall to around 60%, rockets began soaring out from the battleship at high speeds, antimatter charges loaded to explode with an efficiency never the likes seen before on Earth. The battleship opened up with its four Seismic Cannons-the literally ground-shattering weapons firing blue beam weapons-kinetic weapons, despite their appearance-into the ground. They were more shock weapons than anything, but the massive seismic upheaval that each Seismic cannon inflicted-forced into a ten-minute recharge after each shot-was terrifying to a race that had never seen t (as the Helots had shown), and would still inflict massive damage to anything caught in the way.

As missles were continuously being flung at the ship, General Katsumoto finally and reluctantly ordered the planes into the sky, seventy-seven Mitsubishi F-1 Fighters,two-hundred and twenty-three McDonnell Douglas F–15J Fighters, forty-eight McDonnell Douglas F–15DJ Fighters, ninety-six McDonnell Douglas Improved F-4EJ Kai Fighters, and eight-six Mitsubishi F-2 "Viper Zero" Fighters. He realized the alien ship was focusing its anti-air guns on the ground now, and, as it was his number one priority to defend the citizens, he knew the pilots must make the ultimate sacrifice.

The Anti-Matter was destroying the hopes and lives of the Japanese at amazing rate, and General Katsumoto himself lost his will to fight as he watched unbelievable amounts of human life be obliterates in seconds. He now realized to the fullest extent the futility of their resistance. He closed his eyes to avoid being driven insane by the sights of charred corpses, and covered his ear to stop himself from screaming due to the groaning and moaning of the poor, helpless, and pitiful victims of the extraterrestrisal war machine.

Then, the seismic cannons opened up. The General was flung a short distance through the air, despite his distance from the city, and this only furthered his belief of the futility of their existence as compared to these aliens, and he appeared to have been driven crazily mad, as he began to dance around, scream nonsense, and blunder his way into his guards and transport vehicles.

Buildings crumbled underneath it, Mount Fuji opened up for the first time in centuries, blowing its top, releasing debris into the already smoke-filled night air. Lava poured down its sides and was launched into the sky, turning the beautiful grass and trees of the countryside into burning remnants of their former selves. Earthquakes were also triggered by the blasts, and the ground opened up underneath Tokyo, causing thousands of citizens and soldiers to fall into the fiery, hellish pits of the Earth.

Emperor Akihito and the royal family, had, to this point, been able to avoid detection as they escaped via jeep. Arriving at Yokohama International Airport, they boarded their own private jet, and attempted to avoid the alien capital ship as they took flight to Hiroshima. Once aboard the plane, the Emperor received a transmission of the Kenyan's speech, and sent this reply.

I understand it is hard to believe there are such thing as Vampire and Elves, good sir, but you must accept their existence, as we are by no means European, but do recognize said creatures. Either way, it is unrealistic to deny the sovereignty of a state just because they are partially populated by elves. Not to mention, unlike your nation, the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere has never been, as a whole, colonized by any European power, and Japan itself, our capital province, has never once been ruled over by a foreign entity. Thus, I find it disappointing that you mention the Europeans, but make no mention of us.

I think it's laughable that you believe the Europeans want to protect you, as they have quite enough problems of their own. I also cannot help but notice the irony in the fact that you use religious superstition to counter pagan myth, as neither has more value than the other. I am disappointed that you do not accept that my people, as we speak, are fighting and dying against a superior foe, and that their plight will go unnoticed by the people of Kenya. If we both survive this, good sir, I assure you, your denial will not soon be forgotten. I hope that this alien species that is here, attacking us currently, will presently assault you as well, since you seem to think your people will go unpunished by this extraterrestrial threat.

Following the completion of this message, the transmission switches to that of an Imperial Guard's video camera, which, aiming out of the plane, looks out upon the destruction of Tokyo.

If that cannot change the man's mind, Akihito thought, I don't know what will.

OOC: Symptoms won't show immediately, so for now I'll just confirm the deploy of the gas-next post will begin to show effects.

And everyone: Make sure to look for a city of yours on the list several theaters of action down! I've got nine cities targeted.

IC:

Moscow Defense Line

The SAMs shot upwards towards the fast-incoming wave of fighters. Some scored hits-but one missile was only enough to bring down the shielding of a fighter. Several went down with multiple missile strikes, but the rest kept right on coming as the ZSU cannons flared up the sky with bullets and tracers. The Amalgamation was ready to respond for a second time with their own fire.

The Phantoms came in low, pouding away with their plasma shells and MACs as they dove just above the fortifications, the sky ablaze with green fire. The Wraiths and Specters followed in at a tee, plasma cannons and the light lasers blasting towards targets and noticeable deviations in the defenses.


19 Miles Out from Moscow

"Aircraft-shoot them down."

Guardian missile tanks began filling up the sky with rockets homing on the heat signatures of the Su-25s that had dropped the poisenous gas across the lines.

"Double time, get the pace moving."

The armed forces began driving through the aerial gas-the gas spreading out to fill through the middile of the forces, while the outside edges remained relatively clean of the Chlorine. They were driving harder now, the armor and gunships transporting troops and ammunition quicker-seven miles to the destination.


Oslo

The Wraith weaved past the Sidewinder missile, the warhead slipping past the interceptor. The craft manuevered into position, quickly accelerating to keep pace with the missile, and slammed a volley of plasma, detonating the warhead in an explosion. The Mauser rounds began smacking the shield bank of the interceptor, absorbing into the shields with green impact ripples into the energy field.

The other two Wraiths were coming around, diving now from above towards Miller's fighter. The first opened up a salvo, though was not in ideal firing position, coming in at a high angle, ripping out green plasma bolts towards the Gripen.


New York

NYC, though it had been evacuating people as fast as possible to Trenton and Syracuse, was still jam-packed ith civilians trying to escape via traffic jams across the cosmopolitan air. It was a perfect target for the aerial wolves coming down to prey-but unlike D.C., this time they would not go unopposed.

The Wraiths were quick, the lithe, teardrop-shaped interceptors diving in towards America's largest city and the world's economic pinnacle. The American fighters were still 2 minutes ETA-enough time for the opening salvo to take full effect. The Wraiths dove in towards a mass of civilian cars along 7th avenue, diving into the winding canyons of the towering city. The American motorists were too late to take action, especially with the massive congestion taking hold-allowing the Amalgamation pilots all the time they needed. A torrent of plasma shot forth from the interceptors, raking along the crowded streets as some civilians ran from their vehicles, others going up with their cars in emitting flame and explosions. The Wraiths soared through the urban ravine, taking shots indiscriminately, taking lives countlessly with ease and quickness.


Inbound on New York City

His squadron had suffered weeks before outside of Hawaii, but Chad Durant-now commanding officer of his own squadron, designated Onyx-was still feeling the reminders of what three of the small interceptors had done to his flight of F-22s. Now, around a hundred of them were cruising through the streets of New York City-and he was a part of a mere sixty fighters-five squadrons-based to oppose them.

Naval support was on the way-the USS Enterprise's Carrier Battle Group was close in, and he had been assured three squadrons of F/A-18Es and a squad of F-23C naval fighters in for backup, but the five squads now on intercept-three of Raptors, including Durant's own, and two of Fighting Falcons-was nothing spectacular. Especially with their combatants.

"I have contacts on radar, acquiring a lock," Durant radioed in. "Lock up, Onyx squadron."

"Affirmative, lead."

"I have contacts."

The five squads burned in to th iconoclastic city that had been transformed from New Amsterdam into theoretically the capital of the world-and now invaders not of this world were coming to take it away. The most storied city in American history, with contacts across the world, was becoming a battleground.

"Target acquired. He's riding high, broke the skyline."

"Onyx 3, Fox 1."

The wingman on Durant's left rattled off an AIM-152 ALRAAM-the successor missiles to the highly-successful AIM-54 Phoenix long-range air-to-air missile. The AIM-152 burned hot towards the city, hitting its boosters as it narrowed in on one Wraith that had gone a little too high. The interceptor didn't even see it coming-and the indicative white snap emitting from the fighter showed shields down.

"Pull into engaging manuevers, let's take them down by the book."

The Wraiths were bubbling up from the city streets now, angry at being disturbed, and moving in one the fighters at high speeds.

"I've got Enterprise's flight on long-distance."

"Copy that. Missiles, let's hit 'em."

From the five-squad flight, AMRAAMs, ALRAAMs, and Sparrows began cutting loose, smoke shooting into the sky as the missiles burned out a trial towards the Wraiths. The interceptors were quick to respond before the American missiles could close, a huge volley of blue rockets streaming back towards the Americans.

"Break formation, they're firing."

The fighters began carrying out evasive manuevers as the Amalgamation rockets began finding marks.

"Punchin' out, I've been hit!"

"I've g-AGUGHH!"

Two Raptors and Three Falcons went down with simply the opening volley-and not one Wraith had suffered a loss, though shields had been lowered on several of the fighters.

"Pull around, 3-2C."

Onyx squad-so far without a loss-began executing basic manuevers taught from Raptor flight school, breaking around the Wraiths as the Interceptors shot in at Mach 4.2, blowing past the Raptors. The F-22As turned around at just over Mach 1, accelerating back to attack speed-but the Wraiths, slowing a Mach less, were already banking as well, at considerably faster speeds.

"Shit, how do they DO that?"


OOC: Make sure to look for your city on this list!

IC:

New Delhi, Lisbon, Kyoto, Algiers, Johannesburg, Bamako, Kinshasa, Mexico City, and San Francisco

It was a sight that had already been replicated four times, but now was spreading out in intensity. Over nine cities across the globe-New Delhi of the Kingdom of Animarnia, Lisbon of the Western European Federation, Algiers of the Empire of Futuris, Kyoto of the Global East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Johannesburg of the South African Dominion, Bamako of the Empire of Deurem, Kinshasa of the Central African Empire, Mexico City of the Central American Empire, and San Francisco of the North American Republic-the sun began to shine no more. A shade covered the star during the day-a shadow blotting out the landscape. For those cities at night, the moon ceased to shine over the land, somethign covering it up. A giant shape appeared in the sky, curving angular, something foreign-something unhuman. It was coming for blood.


Just above Moscow Cityscape

The Prowler soared above Moscow with the cover of night-still 3AM in Russia, the sun not due up in what was almost Winter until several more hours. The Prowler banked low-the city streets practically deserted with so much action going on outside the city as the Amalgamation ground force tried to push through the final miles to the Orb Locale. The Augury was not tense, though-he was the only one with true experience with these humans, and he knew their actions. His crew was well-trained-the best of Cygnus's special ops crew.

The black inside of the cloak showed out the viewing screen-a dull reminder of the secrecy of the mission. Two other dropships were coming in at the Ural mountains-at two different sites. This Prowler, however, was faster in getting to the target than the other two, and was nearing what supposedly was a giant intelligence complex-dubbed by a giant symbol of a red cross on its edifice. It would supposedly be the easiest target, with so much action going on outside the city.

The Augury gazed off into nowhere as the other Zealots and Cygnus were busy reviewing plans. He was thinking-too much for such a high ranking member of the Amalgamation.

"Where does it come from, this quest?" he murmured to himself. "Thsi need to find life's mysteries...and our own salvation from life's elements. Why do we pursue the unknown? Perhaps we would be better of not looking at all. Not yearning to uncover every rock and stone, not delving beneath each scripture. So much struggle for meaning, for purpose. And in the end, we find it...simply within each other."

The Augury's previous human experiences had left him with more than the "unthinking, unfeeling beast" image that had persevered as the humans to the rest of the Amalgamation-even his own race. He knew more that they had feelings, had thoughts and dreams-and his experience with the two captives aboard Core Habitat reinforced that verification.

But now was not the time for philosophical thought-touchdown was beginning.

"Contact, Augury," came a voice over the speaker connection with the dropship's troop hold. "We'll be back as soon as you indicate pickup-we must leave the premises temporarily."

The ventral hatch opened up, exposing the blackness from the cloaking field again. Though it would be hard to spot the SpecOps Zealots in their dark violet armor, the Augury in his silver, the Prowler would become all too visable if it uncloaked. The Augury attached his energy saber to his bandolier, his energy pistol on the other side as he held a Needle Rifle, and quietly jumped forth down the hatch.

The darkness suddenly blurred into real color as he exited the cloaking field of the Prowler, and the top of the building came into view right below him. The Augury steadied his feet as Cygnus came, lost his balance, and tumbled down next to him, carrying a Plasma Rifle.

"It's our time now, Augury," Cygnus said quietly.

Moscow Shield

The Su-25's began to attempt evasive maneuvers from the Amalgamation missiles. Unfortunately, two planes were hit off the bat with two more pilots punching out and the final one getting away.

On the ground, the artillery began to fire away. Droves of troops walked by the TOS-1's and 2S19's as they fired their salvos at the Amalgamation ground force, some warheads filled with thermobaric warheads, some filled with various chlorine, Sarin and VX mixtures. MANPADS fired up on the enemy aircraft along with the SAMs, trying to down as many of the aircraft as possible. While the main bulk of the army sat in the shelters awaiting the order to defend, more reserves rushed in from behind to fill the gaps.

At the Hospital

Boris Almatavsky sat at the surveillance station at the top floor of the hospital with several other NKVD soldiers. None of them had gotten much sleep with all of the screaming and moaning going on below, and all were extremely aggravated.

"Boris, would you like a smoke?" asked one of the soldiers.

"You know we can't smoke here, Gefreiter." he replied.

"Then we'll go on the roof." said the soldier. "C'mon."

Boris contemplated the offer for a bit, then answered. "Okay, let's go. The rest of you don't do anything stupid, okay?"

The others nodded and went back to their business of cleaning their guns and playing cards. The two soldiers unlocked the stairwell door, walked up a flight of stairs, and opened the roof access door. They walked out onto the roof and lit up.

"I love these new Turkish imports." said the soldier.

"You pussy. Imports aren't half as good as the domestic." scoffed Boris.

The other soldier blew out a smoke ring, then his face contorted as though he was about to sneeze. "Ah, damn. What the hell smells?" he asked. "If that was you I swear to god, I'll jam this cigarette up your ass."

"Nope, I haven't eaten anything all day." said Boris. He looked over at the Gefreiter who blankly stared behind him. the soldiers cigarette dropped from his mouth into the snow and he fumbled for his Bizon-2.

"Boris! Behind you!" he shouted as he unholstered the weapon. Swinging around, Boris saw the horror behind him.

"Shit!" he yelled as he grabbed his TT-33 and brought it position. "NKVD!" he yelled. "Put your hands in the air, Shitbag!"

Skies above Oslo, GGA

Miller shook of his disbelief. He had a clear lock on that alien, and the missile went right by him. The dexterity the ships possesed was amazing! All of a sudden, Miller felt the plane jerk right. Shit! He yelled. A plasma bolt had skimmed off the wing. I can't keep this up! If I'm going down, so is one of these bastards! The alien in front of him was continually slowing down, so Miller dove down. He pulled the plane back up in an amazing climb, the vertical G's thrusting him back his chair. He fought off the urge to black out. He was bursting up through the clouds again now, and was right under the alien. He acquired another lock, and fired a second Sidewinder, then once again fired up his Mauser.

Skies Above Oslo

The Wraith weaved as it lost track of Miller's Gripen, sniffing about the air like a canine. However, it was unprepared for the fighter barrelling up from the dark cloudbanks below. The Wraith tried to dodge, but a launched missile from the aircraft slammed out right below him. Too late the Wraith tried to move as the missile hit its bottom, the shield grid snapping in a white flash. The bullet fire poured in afterwards as the Wraith manuevered out of the way-

And smack dab into one of the other Wraiths coming in for support. The shielded Wraith slammed up as its shield broke, not destroyed but dazed. The attacked Wraith was not as fortunate-the shielded interceptor had sheered right through the vehicle's frontal firing spikes and into the electronics in the fore. The ship spun off, propulsion failing, and with smoke pouring forth began a long, fiery descent towards the ground below.

The remaining undamaged Wraith turned on Miller's suddenly unprotected fighter as it shot upwards, targeting its bottom. It's fire was slightly skewed, but plasma bolts shot forth, vectoring towards the Gripen's rear.


Moscow

The Augury was quick-he sidestepped into a better firing position as he squeezed the trigger on his needler. In the blink of an eye, ten sliver-thin needles, coated in a plasma sheath for better penetration, shot forth towards the NKVD guard with the gun up who had just yelled. A Predator had just dropped down from the Prowler, but rather than using his impressively large Laser Assault Cannon, the Predator went for a more subtle weapon-a simple Energy Bolter, a small pistol that barely even made a sound. The Predator, shielding several of the Zealots with his massively-armored body, began popping off laser bolts towards the NKVD guards. One of the Zealots bounded past the Predator as several of the others began firing with plasma rifles, and gripping an ignited Energy Saber, lunged at the throat of one of the NKVD guards, his head lowered and body profile revealing only the composite armor that covered his body.

OOC: Got anything other than plasma bolts on those things? If so, use em.

Skies above Oslo, GGA

Miller saw the first alien begin to plummet. Dickhead, serves the fucker right. It only pissed him off more that his missile hadn't destroyed him, but the alien was only hurt when the alien dodged into one of his friendly craft. He saw the green bolts coming too late at his unprotected rear. One of the bolts hit, then another. Soon, his left engine had been riddled, was on fire. Shit! Miller screamed. Activating fire extinguishers for engine one. The fire went out, but a readout on Miller's display showed that he was only recieving 45% power from that engine. If I don't get more power I'm fucked! He modified the fuel amounts to both engines, and his power for enginge one rose to 60%. OK, now I might have a chance. He shot through the sky, and headed closer to the city. He had to get those aliens off his tail, or else all was lost...

OOC: Certainly. Got two other weapons systems on the interceptors. The plasma cannons are essentially the "X-Wing Laser Cannons" of these guys, which is why I use 'em in prevalence.

IC:

The Wraith followed on a dive, matching speeds with Miller's craft to maintain a favorable distance. A small retractable stalk emerged from between the two plasma spikes-the laser repeater, a lighter weapon meant to deal primarily with infantry or transports. However, with Miller's weakened fighter-compounded to the fact that the Gripen had no shield generator-the weapon could do fine in such a scenario, and pump out a far greater quantity of shots, albeit with less energy per shot, than the primary cannons.

The Wraith closed slightly, than brought the Gripen square between the crosshairs. The Enigmat pilot jammed down on his trigger for the repeater. As the craft jockeyed for position, transluscent violet bolts-while the plasma cannons shot forth easily visable globular shots, the laser repeater fired small, violet-tinted clear streaks (the violet tint for visual aiming for the pilots)-shot forth from the craft at a rapid rate, much like a machine gun overhyped on steroids. The laser tore through the sky, the sleek little energy bolts striking out towards the Gripen as the Wraith indiscriminately fired. As the fighter ripped open, the Enigmat pilot primed a second ion rocket into the missile tube. With a flash, the rocket disengaged from its lock, shooting out of the tubular launcher system. In a fraction of a second, the weapon's internal guidance computer had independently picked up the Gripen's heat signature, and bore down, quickly accelerating to Mach 5.

OOC: Miller will be in Vienna, maybe...

Skies above Oslo, GGA

Miller recognized the missile before he did the lasers. He followed his instincts, diving right, and deploying chaff. Unfortunately, the alien pilot was firing lasers in a large radius. The first laser hit shook the plane, and smoke began to emerge from engine two. Miller felt the loss of power shake his rudder pedals. Come on... Don't die on me now, he pleaded. Then, a second laser shot rifled through the plane. This one struck a feul line, and suddenly the entire rear end of the plane was engulfed in flames. FUCK! Miller yelled, and realized it was too late to save the plane. He ejected from the cockpit, and began plummeting to the earth, down toward the city beneath him.

Oslo, GGA

Luna saw the plane erupt into planes. Shit, man. That was our last plane up there. I hope that guys all right. Suddenly, he saw a parachute deploy in the skies. He is alive! I gotta go get him! He noted the wind speed and directon, and took off towards where the pilot should land.

Skies Above Oslo

As Miller ejected, the Wraith shot past-then quickly somersaulted around, coming in for another pass just as the pilot's chute opened up, catching the air for a slowing descent. The Enigmat piloting the vessel was not amused-the mammalian had a thirst for blood, and was looking for the kill. He kept his trigger thumb on the repeater. A torrent of the lithe, nearly silent purple-clear bolts shot forth, tearing all around Miller-making the very air itself directly around each bolt burn. Not enough to make Miller catch on fire-but enough to make things uncomfortable.

The Wraith shot past-but it shot right over Miller, catching its right firing prong on the very edge of the parachute. Going at just under Mach 2, the fighter kept going, taking a piece of chute with it.


Skies above Tokyo

The pilots were accomplishing one hope-diverting the cruiser's objective from smashing the city apart into one of self-defense. There were more fighters in the air than in the battleship's hanger bay, but nonetheless, the Pinnacle unloaded its entire hanger as it brought around its anti-air cannons to bear, the stronger weapons still focused on what ground defenders remained active. All missile launchers bore up from the ground, beginning to track the fighters on sensors.

The fighter swarm began forming up after disgorging from the hanger, one-hundred and fifty interceptors and balanced fighters-the assault fighters were remaining behind, not suited best towards air-to-air engagement. The fighters in the air began tracking with missiles, acquiring targets before engaging.

The capital ships, meanwhile, opened full fire. Flak cannons and Plasma turrets began shooting out blindly into the air-too long to do any real damage, but instead serving a provocative message to the fighter screen of the GEACPS, indicating their fate if they came closer. The ship's commander, however, was having second thoughts about staying behind. The other three battleships had met little or no resistance-this kind of organized defense was not in the first wave's intended work, and with shields down to 60%, the probability of staying behind and risking serious damage to the battleship was not a pleasant one. the commander decided to stick around-and see how the opening attack fared.

Moscow

Boris was hit by the needles and groaned in agony. Seconds later he was cut down by the sabre, his head falling into the powdery snow. The other soldier who had started backing up was hit by the bolter and fired off hsi entire clip wildly as he stumbled backwards, falling off the edge of the building towards a Zhig below. The men in the security room, hearing the commotion, snatched up their guns and inserted fresh clips of ammo and readied for whatever was on the roof to come down.

On the bottom floor

Three Naval Infantry soldiers stood by the Zhig, smoking cigarettes and checking their watches. An exchange of gunfire was heard, then a scream.

"What the fuck was that?" asked one of them.

"Sounded like it came from..." he was cut off by the NKVD Gefreiter's body smashing through the roof of the Zhig they were by, crunching with a lour thud.

"Oh, shit! Call up DefNet!" yelled a soldier as he cocked back his AEK-970 and ran into the hospital. One of the soldiers ran into the hospital after him with the third radioing DefNet, Moscow's defense network, and reported what was going on.

Oslo, GGA

Miller was genuinely afraid for his life. Fear was something he had never experienced before, but then again, he had never come so close to being clipped by a plane, spacecraft, whatever it was, before. Now he was plummeting towards the earth at a frightening speed. He saw the ground rushing up underneath him, and then, wham! he stopped. But he was not on the ground. No, a streetlam had snagged hsi parachute, breaking his fall, and perhaps saving his life. He began unhooking himself from his seat when a GGA soldier ran up. It was Luna. "Master Sergeant Luna, Sir! Are you OK?"

Miller thought about it a second, and then replied. "Yeah, I'm fine. Bastards!"

"I know how you feel," Luna said. "Half my division got wasted. I got seperated from the rest, and I don't know if they made it."

"Look, Luna, I need to get back to Visby. Or some other base. I can still fly a plane."

"Well calm down, sir. I don't even know your name. And there is no way we are getting anywhere fast."

"Sorry sir. Names Miller. What about that?" He pointed to a motorcycle. It was half buried under a garage roof, but the engine was in the open.

"Let's check it out!" The soldiers ran over and pulled it out slowly. The key was missing, but it appeared workable. "Shit Miller, no key!"

"Don't worry about it." Miller walked over to the motorcycle, and fiddled with a few wires. Soon, the engine was purring. Both men hopped on. "There is a town 3 miles north of here. A family friend of mine lives there, and he's got a Cessna. From there we can get to where ever." The bike motored off into the distance...

OOC: Should I RP the plane trip and stuff, or can I just skip to when they arrive in Visby?

Nairobi, Kenya
Presidential Palace


President Nzibo relaxed, smoking a cigar on the verranda.

General Kabar entered cautiously, then came on in when the president motioned for him to enter.

"I didn't realize anyone outside Kenya watched Channel One Nairobi," President Nzibo said with a chuckle.

"They watched that broadcast," General Kabar said.

"I know, I've been getting angry responses from around the world all day," President Nzibo said, "You'd think with an alien invasion going on and cities blowing up, that they wouldn't have time to bother with speeches in Kenya. That is, IF there were really an alien invasion going on."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Mr. President," General Kabar said, "We now have reports of those flying things over Johannesburg, Bamako, Kinshasa and Algiers. I realize that there are no aliens, I'm not questioning your judgement, it's just... I think the military should be put on alert."

The president laughed, "You don't question my judgement, you just don't believe a word I say."

"I'm not saying they are aliens, I'm just saying that our own people in Johannesburg have seen this thing. something is there."

The President said, "What would our people think if I tell them there is nothing to worry about, but then I call out the army? A move like that would undermine the government. I absolutely forbid it."

"There is already... some concern by the people, Mr. President."

"Then let this be a test of their faith. I am not worried. Do I look worried?" President Nzibo said.

"No, Mr. President, you look utterly unconcerned."

The President shot a suspicious glance at General Kabar, but seeing only an innocent expression on his face, he decided not to take it as an insult. "Well then" the President continued, "I shall set an example for our people and as long as they see that I am not afraid, they will not be afraid."

A long moment of silence passed as General Kabar tried to think of something to say, but could not. In the distance, he could hear car horns honking.


Outside, on the streets of Nairobi was the worst traffic jam in the history of Kenya. Thousands of cars filled every road, all trying to leave the city. Tens of thousands of people on foot were passing by the cars, carrying their belongings in bundles and baskets balanced on their heads or carried in their hands.

Stores were being looted of food and other supplies. A few police were trying helplessly to keep order, but most of the police had walked off the job to join the spontaneous evacuation of the city.

On every road out of Nairobi, Mombassa and every other city of any size in Kenya, long columns of refugees were already making their way into the countryside. As they passed by the churches, they could hear small groups of President Jomo Nzibo's most dedicated followers praying and singing hymns.

The skies over Lisbon were dominated by an horrific sight – a warship of giant proportions, containing something no-one knew of. Over 60,000 people were trapped on the streets - these were the last people left in Lisbon – and these people were screaming, running from there cars on the two massive bridges, fleeing into buildings, underground bunkers etc. – many of these bunkers had been made in the WEF’s most important cities, though they knew only a few could take the pressure of these attacks which would follow.

A squadron of 20 F-16 Fighting Falcons, most likely the best plane you’d find in Portugal, were prepared as a last resort in a nearby base. However, firstly the WEF would spring it’s military on the ground into action – anti-air defences had been ordered to bombard the ship with everything they had, and as soon as the first strike was made by the aliens, they would launch a torrent of missiles at what they believed to be this massive ships weakest points, it’s most central areas, and it’s outer areas. Tanks and soldiers on the ground were only there now to save as many people as possible, but once the real fighting began it was likely most would flee, 7,000 soldiers rushing out of the city like cowards.

Brixton had pondered the use of WMD’s, nuclear missiles, everything on these bastards once Lisbon was lost – and they were all ready, these were the real last resort.

Skies above Tokyo

The pilots were accomplishing one hope-diverting the cruiser's objective from smashing the city apart into one of self-defense. There were more fighters in the air than in the battleship's hanger bay, but nonetheless, the Pinnacle unloaded its entire hanger as it brought around its anti-air cannons to bear, the stronger weapons still focused on what ground defenders remained active. All missile launchers bore up from the ground, beginning to track the fighters on sensors.

The fighter swarm began forming up after disgorging from the hanger, one-hundred and fifty interceptors and balanced fighters-the assault fighters were remaining behind, not suited best towards air-to-air engagement. The fighters in the air began tracking with missiles, acquiring targets before engaging.

The capital ships, meanwhile, opened full fire. Flak cannons and Plasma turrets began shooting out blindly into the air-too long to do any real damage, but instead serving a provocative message to the fighter screen of the GEACPS, indicating their fate if they came closer. The ship's commander, however, was having second thoughts about staying behind. The other three battleships had met little or no resistance-this kind of organized defense was not in the first wave's intended work, and with shields down to 60%, the probability of staying behind and risking serious damage to the battleship was not a pleasant one. the commander decided to stick around-and see how the opening attack fared.

The Royal Family's plane attempted to fly around the extraterrestrials and avoid them all together in the escape. Emperor Akihito looked out over the destruction of his great city, and sighed. He could only hope that his brave soldiers could defeat the menace, and claim a glorious victory. Glorious, he thought, who am I? and what am I thinking? Thousands if not millions are dead, and I consider it glorious? I'm just as pathetic as the invaders. Before he could bash himself anymore, though, he was jarred back into reality by a warning of the capital ship's hangar opening, and ships being released.

The planes did not venture any closer to the craft, instead, they launched their payloads at the gigantic beast and its fighters, and turned back for another run. Missles rocked the shield of the cruiser and bullets riddled the fighters of the cruiser, and the Japanese were beginning to actually believe they had a chance.

Except for General Katsumoto.

He ordered the entire navy to Japan, and those that were already in Tokyo Bay were commanded to attack. The army , too, was ordered to begin a SAM assault, but the General was still half-crazed and mad about the whole thing, saying it was "unfair," and begging and pleading with the aliens to "let him live."

Guided Missile Destroyers from the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere's Imperial Navy now made themselves noticed, one Atago class, four Kongō class, two Hatakaze class and Tachikaze class all opened up their SAM missle launchers and unleashed their fire on the battleship. Soon, the Destroyers followed in the form of: five Takanami class, nine Murasame class, six Asagiri class, and eleven Hatsuyuki class. Firing in concert with their peers were the Helicopter Destroyers, two Shirane class, and two Haruna class. The last to enter into the fray were the Destroyer Escorts: six Abukuma class, two Yubari class, and the INS Ishikari.

Now starting to become organized after the earlier debacle, the ground forces began to open up amidst the lava and ash. Forty-one Type 87 SPAAGs started to unleash their fury, three Patriot batteries, eighty FIM-92A Stingers, sixty Type 81 Tan-SAM, two-hundred ten Type 91s, ninety Type 93 Kin-SAM, and three Type 03 Chu-SAM all followed suit.

OOC: I think I'll have the first one destroyed above Tokyo (as the Americans are having absolutely zero success against 'em)-but don't consider Japan out of it yet, there's still the big guy over Kyoto too ;)

More big shit coming here, Las Vegas theater and Nairboi get to open up a bit, as do the Ural Mountain Range and Rome areas.

Kamp: Go ahead and put him at Visby, don't bother with the plane trip.

IC:

Moscow

"Open them up."

The Predator moved towards the closed access hatch, kicking it open with one of the reptilian's large, clawed feet.

"Flare!" shouted Cygnus as he tossed a lit Incindiary grenade down the hatch-its countdown down to two seconds. A brilliant light shout out of the hole, followed by a wave of heat.

"Get in there!"

Two of the Zealots dropped down the access hatch, their rifles up-looking for any hostile targets that hadn't been cleaned out by the grenade's sanitizing fire.


Lisbon

The scene was glorifying for any warrior of salvation-the humans, the long-time enemy, with fear in their eyes as they stared skyward towards the monstrosity that had laid down shadow to the streets of Lisbon. And now, retribution stronger the Mjolnir of the Vikings would be laid down on these Portuguese people. One time, they had been a cog of colonial importance, establishing settlements in Brazil-but now, divine resurgence itself was coming to lay down the law.

The commander of the vessel, a younger Enforcer, gazed lustfully towards the viewscreen as several of the vessel's magnetic accelerator cannons targeted a large, spanning bridge. Others were targeting another-aiming towards structural weak points. The populace seemed to be trying to flee across the bridges-and bringing down thousands with a few shots was absolutely making the commander salivate.

"Engage them," he huffed to several on the bridge, "spare none."

It was an order that was simply met. Charges went into cannons, the four seismic cannons aboard the ship charging up to level the center of the city with a quick blast.

"Fire."

The MACs targeting the Vasco de Gamma bridge opened up first, a giant salvo coming forth from the magnetic accelerators. The 17.2 km bridge, longest in Europe, was under fire-heavy fire from the sky. Those targeting the 25 de Abril bridge were quick to side, blasting open a momentous salvo of metal towards the bridge.

The seismic cannons charged up, glowing blue as they zeroed in on the center of the city's downtown for maximum effect. Each cannon fired on the same spot, four blue beams striking into the ground to do their work-cause massive seismic upheaval in the ground, and throw the center of the city into disarray, chaos, and ruins.


Skies above New York

Three Wraiths banked around Durant's fighter as the F-22A banked and dove, angling towards the steel canyons below.

"Let's see how you fuckers can do," Durant muttered to himself.

The Raptor spun through and past and exploding Falcon as the F-16D plummeted towards the city and smashed into a building. Durant plowed his fighter into 6th Avenue, burning at speeds he shouldn't have been going down a city like this. The Wraiths were quick in pursuit as the battle above the city waxed and waned, more American fighters going down than Amalgamation fighters. The naval craft seemed to be taking the worst hit-already, fifteen Super Hornets were casulties, along with four Black Widow IIs.

For every move that Durant pulled off, nearly knocking himself into a blackout, the Wraiths seemed to be taking easily-veering between the streets and intersections faster than the Raptor could and closing distance without a problem. Clearly, despite what the Church said, technology was the future. Durant was getting desperate with the craft closing and stray plasma bolts striking city buildings. He accelerated the craft towards the Chrysler Building-standing with the Empire State Building and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center as the pinnacles of this city.

"God help us all," Durant muttered.

He placed the Raptor into a telekinetic spin-the jet plowing forth like a crossbow bolt. The Wraiths were taken aback slightly by the manuever-until the pilot broke out of the spin right before the Chrysler Building. Two of the Wraith pilots had enough reflexes to juke out, but the last of the trio didn't pull up in time-ramming straight into the towering skyscraper, fire blasting out the other side of the structure. The Chrysler Building teetered on its now blown-through levels, the building above that swaying dangerously. With the creaking of steel and cement, the entire top of the structure went over-toppling down many yards below towards the ground as the entire structure began to topple down.

Durant didn't even look back as the Chrysler Building went, but instead dove back into the canyons. New York Harbor was a battleground now-Enterprise's task force had entered right in and was saturating the air with flak and SAMs. Some of the Wraiths, finding plenty of success against the American air assets, were turning their attention towards the naval ships now. It wasn't boding well for Enterprise.

Durant's fighter blasted past the carrier as launchers sent several ESSMs after the two Wraiths on Durant's tail. Only one hit, dropping the shields on one of the Wraiths as it tried to spin away. Another blasted past the other interceptor, vaped in a flash of laser energy. The Wraiths were coming in, but they were not alone anymore. Two Super Hornets were on their back, their angular frames following the Wraiths. The interceptors were becoming the hunted.

Durant cleared his fighter underneath Brooklyn Bridge and past the Morgan Center as the Wraiths followed his move, trying to break any sort of missile lock by the Super Hornets as Durant slowed his fighter. He was trying to buy time-trying to give the Hornets enough speed to catch with the Wraiths and take them out. To his luck, one of the Hornets popped a Sidewinder at the sheildless interceptor-and by chance, the fighter didn't evade it in time. The craft exploded, fiery pieces raining down into New York Harbor.

The other Wraith was quick to respond. In a manuever no human could perform well, the craft did an acrobatic loop, landing behind the Hornets. Though it bought enough time for Durant to bank off his craft, the Super Hornets were dead planes. The Wraith took out one with a well-placed homing rocket, and then blasted out the engines of the other Super Hornet with a torrent of repeater fire from its fore-based laser cannon.


Skies above Oslo

The fighters had ignored Miller now-the escapees running into the forests around the burning city were of more importance. The Wraiths buzzed the countryside around ruined Oslo as the battleship pounded the forests with its energy cannons, lighting everything ablaze.


Skies above Tokyo

The main seismic cannons of the battleship were charged back up again-enough to cut loose. However, the ship's commander was now at a crossroads. Target the seas and cause tidal uproar to knock out the naval group, or target the land and try to wipe out as many of the ground defenders as possible? The commander settled with land, though failed to understand the potential of naval warfare.

The seismic cannons angled towards a group of the anti-aircraft vehicles and mobiles, the blue energy charging up again. However, a lucky volley by the Japanese vessels managed to do the near impossible. Two SAMs shot upwards, the first smashing into the shield bank. Like usual, a small hole opened in the shields for a split-second, and would be compensated a fraction of a second later by shield acclimation. However, the other SAM came in just after the other one-splitting through the hole in the shields and slamming forth-right into the seismic cannon generator system.

With an explosion, fire vented out of the battleship as the seismic cannons went offline. A tragedy for the ship.

"Get engineers on that NOW!" roared the commander of the vessel-but it was too late. That would require work at Core Habitat's shipyard facilities to repair.

The commander, now filled with blind rage, turned his attack against the Japanese forces as missiles came in from all angles. The fighters in the air dove towards the naval vessels, opening up with rockets and laser and plasma fire towards the ships. As the battleship's own plasma and flak cannons tried desperately to serve as point-defense while the shields dropped to 21%, the Pinnacle ripped open multiple salvos from MACs and Plasma Shell launchers, as well as a full salvo of missiles towards the ground defenders.


Las Vegas

The ship had come as the sun had set, a ghost in the night-and it had struck with ruthless efficiency. The one consolation to the Americans in the area was Nellis Air Force Base-now less than an AFB and more of a multi-stage command center, with tons of forces on standby from one of America's largest bases. The Vice Chancellor himself, Sam Brownback, had been relocated to Nellis-and as the Supercarrier that floated over Las Vegas continued pounding on the city of Sin's civilian quarter, a massive force of ground forces of the Amalgamation was steaming towards Nellis.

To meet them was an equally impressive force-a giant mass of Republic tanks, artillery, rocket launchers, and soldiers, along with aircraft at the base itself, stationed in the sands and rocks of the desert as the Amalgamation advanced. It was a long line behind hastily-erected defenses-but the aliens oncomign seemed to have no intention of setting up a position and firing. They seemed to be coming on, headlong.


Rome

Another scene was occuring at the Papal City. A Supercarrier had taken a position outside the city's outskirts-however, it was not attacking via the sky, as the cruiser over Vegas was. Rather, a massive force was disgorging and organizing outside the city-and there was one target for this giant force. The Vatican-a place of traditional Holy power, that supposedly, according to the Scriptures of the Amalgamation, also had a place of Premier power that had to be uncovered. Nothing like the Orb outside Moscow, but buried below the Vatican's modern gates.


Nairobi

As the African city wavered on the line between belief and disbelief, a force was coming from the sky-from above-though it was still several minutes out. However, radar could easily spot them-a force of around seventy fighters of the Amalgamation, coming on a preliminary attack run. It would not be enough to cause the type of mass devestation seen earlier in other locales, but it was coming to test Nairobi's defenses-to see what was in store.


Ural Mountain Range

Two dropships came in cloaked as the night progresses-a busy night across the globe, from the day in Tokyo to the evening in Vegas. It was about 5 AM in the Ural mountains-still around two to three hours before the sun broke. It was enough time, however, for the cloaked Prowlers to go about their business. One was headed to some intelligence agency dubbed "Fortress Ural" by the humans-supposedly to have enough information to give quality data about the Orb, if hacked correctly. The other was going to a massive center of a military complex-supposedly-to try and get more details on intel.

The first stealthship banked off towards Fortress Ural-it would be a quick operation, and while Cloaked, nothing would be seen-until the forces dropped out. The other banked off, heading North-towards the supposed military base. Several minutes later, at full thrust, the stealthship had arrived.


Ural Refugee Camp

The massive refugee camp was on the other side of a large hill, and the stealthship-without visuals, because of its cloak-descended on the far side of the hill.

"We'll go out first," Lethe briefed inside the dropship to a group of Enigmats, Enforcers, and Zealots, indicating the mammals. "The Zealots will follow behind once we give the all-clear."

The few Zealots inside were relieved. They hadn't wanted to go on with the Enforcer Chieftain, but due to a lack of Enforcer SpecOps units, spread across the fleet, they had been pressed by Cygnus to go along to ensure things went smoothly-and also to keep an eye on Lethe.

The mammals dropped out of the cloaked dropship-twenty-six of them in all, with four Zealots aboard the ship. They were the best of the best of the Enforcers and Enigmats-and failiure was not an option. They mounted the hill as the Prowler sat behind, and looked out across the landscape. What showed was not a military base...

"It's...a civilian camp," one of the Enforcers said. "Refugees?"

Lethe simply smiled, and cocked his repeating cannon. "More for the slaughter."

Moscow

"What the hell was that?" shouted a soldier in the room.

"Open up the fucking door!" yelled another one pumping his shotgun breech closed. A soldier kicked open the door. Smoke and a strong burning stench entered into the room.

"Oh, Fuck! Look!" shouted one as he fired up the stairs with his Saiga-12. The other soldiers followed suit, blasting up the staircase with their guns.

Fortress Ural Command Center

In the Control Room of the most advanced base in the UR, all seemed somewhat normal. Sensors showed green, intel workers milled about, and surveillance cameras showed the scene outside. Then the problem started. A thermal sensor, a motion sensor, and a laser scanner all turned red and alerted a klaxon. A soldier ran up and checked where they came from, then turned to the commander in his chair.

"They're all from Mount A-23!" he shouted.

"What do the cameras show there?" asked the commander.

"Uh, nothing sir!" replied the soldier.

The Commander adjusted his collar, then spoke again. "I want all of the 'shredders' online. Get some Naval Infantry out there!" he ordered. "Shredders" were the 30mm AK-630 CIWS systems mounted around the mountains. Spitting out DU Armor piercing shells, they could tear apart just about anything.

Meanwhile, at the main gates, a platoon of naval infantry moved out into one of the hidden bunkers in the mountainside and waited for whatever tripped the sensors to show up.

(OOC: I'll get to the refugee camp later :))

OOC: I think I'll have the first one destroyed above Tokyo (as the Americans are having absolutely zero success against 'em)-but don't consider Japan out of it yet, there's still the big guy over Kyoto too ;)

Skies above Tokyo

The main seismic cannons of the battleship were charged back up again-enough to cut loose. However, the ship's commander was now at a crossroads. Target the seas and cause tidal uproar to knock out the naval group, or target the land and try to wipe out as many of the ground defenders as possible? The commander settled with land, though failed to understand the potential of naval warfare.

The seismic cannons angled towards a group of the anti-aircraft vehicles and mobiles, the blue energy charging up again. However, a lucky volley by the Japanese vessels managed to do the near impossible. Two SAMs shot upwards, the first smashing into the shield bank. Like usual, a small hole opened in the shields for a split-second, and would be compensated a fraction of a second later by shield acclimation. However, the other SAM came in just after the other one-splitting through the hole in the shields and slamming forth-right into the seismic cannon generator system.

With an explosion, fire vented out of the battleship as the seismic cannons went offline. A tragedy for the ship.

"Get engineers on that NOW!" roared the commander of the vessel-but it was too late. That would require work at Core Habitat's shipyard facilities to repair.

The commander, now filled with blind rage, turned his attack against the Japanese forces as missiles came in from all angles. The fighters in the air dove towards the naval vessels, opening up with rockets and laser and plasma fire towards the ships. As the battleship's own plasma and flak cannons tried desperately to serve as point-defense while the shields dropped to 21%, the Pinnacle ripped open multiple salvos from MACs and Plasma Shell launchers, as well as a full salvo of missiles towards the ground defenders.

(Well, at least I'll have the honor of destroying the first!)

The Japanese pilots cheered, as they realized they had achieved some kind of success. The time to celebrate was limited, however, as they quickly had to get back to blowing shit up. The ships hurriedly switched their fire from the main battleship to the incoming fighters. The navy was taking heavy damage, as many craft could simply not hold up to the plasma weaponry employed by the aliens. Several of the lighter destroyer escorts began to submerge under the water, casualties of the extraterrestrial onslaught.

Overall, though, most of the combat was becoming easier for the Imperial Troops. With the Seismic Cannons knocked, out, the SAM batteries and those who operated them could aim with more focus, and continuously launched missles against the ship. They now faced more familiar weapons, and their adrenaline, and, not to mention, training, began to kick in. Soldiers on the ground opened up fire with their assault rifles, and General Katsumoto was beginning to regain some semblance of his sanity.

The Imperial Family's plane was now out of reach of this capital ship, but they were unknowingly headed straight for another death trap, in the form of Kyoto.

The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th fighter Squadrons call signed Hell Knights, Black Thorns, Wild Cards, Angry Angels, Blue Fangs and Jolly Rogers flew towards the lumbering machine of death still 300kms from the target. The two hundred and ten (210) Su-30MKI fighter jets were carrying a full load of Air to Air missiles and flying in a large spaced formation. The Wing Commander Annabelle Batz was leading the squadrons into battle. As they got closer to the target she opened the radio to all her pilots; "A Small Prayer; Lord; guide our missiles in this humanity's most desperate hour and deliver us for destruction at the hands of our enemies. And though we may walk though the valley of the shadow of death; we need not be afraid for we are the baddest mother fuckers in the valley, Amen"

"Amen" all her pilots replied.

Artillery guns, rocket artillery, tanks, and anything else that could fire had been positioned ready to fight off the aggressors at New Delhi. The defences literally ringed the city like a large trench with bigger towed guns and SAMS weaving in and out of buildings and on streets it was like something out of lord of the rings.

General John J Sheridan was in charge of the defence forces as he spotted the black machine of death heading towards the city. 150kms out from the city; "Alright you apes; we fight and we die for this city; we might be outgunned; we might be out manned, we might be out classed but we will make them pay before we die!" he yelled to the troops.

We're gonna twist off there head, shit down there neck and, unleash under upon our enemy the kind of nightmare they can't even imagine. We will dance with them inside this Ring of Fire and drive them from this place far and fast now! Let's send one message loud and clear! GET OFF OUR FREAKING PLANET!"

As the troops cheered weapons were rendered live; guns were loaded; rockets were fed guidance information. Everyone is waiting for the order to fire from the General. An atmosphere of anticipation built up; they had trained for this and though the enemy was not china it didn’t matter; they had an enemy to kill.

"All Batteries; Time on Target; Fire" the General ordered.

"All Squadrons; Fox 2, Fox 3" Commander Batz ordered

At 38 Kilometres from New Delhi all hell broke loose; simultaneously the Su-30MKI's fired off two Air to Air Missiles Each at the Alien Battleship totalling some four hundred and twenty missiles aiming at the port side of the ship from 138 kilometres away the maximum range of there missiles. While at the same time; Artillery guns firing a mix of standard and Thermabaric shells started to open fire. Followed by the rocket artillery to saturate the top of the battleship over twelve hundred self propelled 155mm Howitzers; two hundred and forty 200mm GRAD MBRL and one hundred and Eighty Pinka 300mm MBRL units opened fire; raining down missiles and steel like a firestorm of destruction. They were quickly followed by the launch of over 100 Surface to Air missiles and almost 2000 Towed 155mm Howitzer cannons targeting the nose of the alien battleship.

If all went right; the order of events should be something like this; the missiles from the aircraft slam into them; followed by the thermobaric warheads in the aftermath after the overpressure wave has passed the normal artillery, rocket artillery and SAM's start slamming into the ship. Over 6240 rounds of artillery and over 12,800 rockets would be slamming into the ship. the Arty focusing on the Main guns and what looked like a command spire; while the rockets and SAM's focusing on the ventral earthquake guns and the fighters missiles hoping to hit the fighterbays before they could get anything in the air.

Then they die; gods willing.

OOC: Want to make a ground invasion of Vienna too?

Visby, GGA

Miller and Luna landed right on the main airstrip. Originally they had been nearly shot down by the security, but when Miller identified himself, they were granted passage. Miller and Luna were rushed to the commanding general for each to give his account of the alien.

Late in the meeting

The General arose. "Boys, we have seen more aliens moving towards our cities. We suspect that they may try and hit Vienna. I'm going to reassign you there. Your knowledge of these aliens may prove invaluable."

Luna and Miller responded in unison. "Yes sir."

"Your plane arrives tonight. If you have any qualms, tell me."

Bullabulling, Australia

The local police and the team from Project Skywatch had arrested five men who were seen coming into town from the direction in which unidentified lights had been seen in the outback the night before.

The men were dressed strangely and carried what appeared to be high tech equipment and weapons. One of them spoke English with a strange accent and the others only spoke in a foreign language.

The men had been arrested on suspicion that they were aliens, but the one who spoke English at first said they were not aliens. Then, later, he said that in fact, they were not only from another planet, but from another universe. He said the device used for such travel remained in their own universe, but could bring them back.

After hearing this, the senior police officer on the scene turned to the senior Skywatch officer and said, "I presume you guys will want to keep this secret so as not to cause a panic or something."

The Skywatch officer snickered and said, "Are you kidding? Our mission is more like the opposite. We're supposed to publicize every UFO sighting. I don't know if this qualifies as a UFO or not, but I figure it's time to tell the press.

It hit the news within half an hour.

Algiers

The shadow that moved across the sky, that threatening darkness that overwhelmed the people's sense of fear and doom was growing closer. Evacuations were already underway, but it would take time to completely rid the city of 5 million people. Stores were all but empty, and the nearby railroads were riden both legally and illegally, heavily overcrowded, as they carried passengers to safer places in the Empire. If there was a safe place on Earth these days. Not from The Darkness. That is what it was called in the Empire - The Darkness. Not just "aliens" or some other lame thing like that. No, these "aliens" were much more terrifying than that. Nevertheless, the Empire had already made a decision to fight. And fight they would.

On the outskirts of the city, lay 20 MiG 29's, their engines silent for now. The pilots that would soon fly these planes were sitting around idly by the campfire near the runway, talking of old times, looking at pictures of family and friends. Their's was a strained conversation - each man knew that the probability any of them would be alive in two days was next to nothing. They were the best of the best in the Empire - but here, they had been found by someone who was simply better. A few of the pilots walked around, stretching, silently contemplating their mission. As the sun finally set behind the horizon, they approached each other - a fiery light in their eyes, their bodies set, their minds one. They held out their hands, until they formed a star over the fire, much like the millions of stars above them. A few of them looked up at the sky, expecting to see the stars, only to find The Darkness, ever present, ever ominous. An anger leapt into their hearts, an anger so fierce and loyal, that was handed down to them through generations of warriors loyal to the Empire. They stared at each other, before one of them, the leader of the squadron, whispered, "For the Empire." A momentary pause, before in unision the other 19 voices whispered back, "For the Empire."

Algiers

The 20 MiG 29's that had just last night awaited their call to battle were warming up. Engineers and techies were filling them up with fuel and weapons. They were improved in any way possible, to lighten the load, and improve flexibility. The MiG's weren't 100% stocked with weapons either - that would only increase the weight, and those bombs and missiles wouldn't do anything if the fighter was shot down. The existing missiles were even improved by the engineers there - any space inside the missile, and outside that could be spared was filled with highly explosive material. The twenty MiG's would soon be 200% ready to go. Just a few more hours.

The leader of the squadron, Ali, was chatting with some officers that had come from Lagos. They were outlining the strategy for the attack, which was to begin in a few hours. The ship above the city wasn't doing anything yet. The city beneath was almost entirely evacuated from civilian personnell. The EF troops had layed extensive decoys of anti-air batteries all around the city in important looking places. Some of them even fired dummy missiles, so that the ship would aim its cannons at the decoys, while the real deal would be coming from other places outside the city - and the air. One of the Spruance class destroyers, the EF Freedom was stationed a few miles from the city, hidden for now. The destroyer's multi-missile capabilites would soon be used against the ship, but for now, it would wait.

Several hours later

Just as Ali was about to give a talk to his squadron, and official ran up to him, out of breath.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Sir, they have postponed the attack. It will commence at (censored). This will also give more time for the city to prepare itself."

"Very well. We will wait."

Mosque

At the main mosque in Algiers, a single white flag was raised from the highest perch, its fabric flailing in the wind. All around it, the nine buildings that surrounded the mosque raised up red flags. Whether by quirk of nature or miracle, the red flags lay silent and drooping, while the white flag alone flapped in the wind, proud of the peace the mosque represented.

OOC: You can probably start to do some stuff with the ship - not attack yet, but maybe "spotting" decoys and labeling targets. If you don't mind, I would want to maybe "strike" the first blow, or die trying.

OOC: Go ahead and have the first strike, Futuris.

I'll do more NAR RPing later.

IC:

Algiers

The battleship cut through the sky tranquilly, a swath of atmosphere trailing behind its four engine ducts. It would have protrayed Transcendentalistic qualities perfectly-the battleship was truly sublime in its appearance, knifing through the brilliant red and orange sunset calmly. However, the rumble it caused, soaring over the desert, was anything but calm and tranquil-it was a forerunner to the things that could come from a peaceful appearance.

However, the bridge of the vehicle was anything but calm. On a giant holographic targeting map, the city of Algiers was displayed, weak points in the city, large structures, and other points of attack being put up. Anything but tranquil.


Tokyo

The Pinnacle above Toyko was not faring well. As it tried to keep up fire, the stress on the shields was simply getting overwhelming by all the fire it was taking. The fighters were now beginning to suffer, as well-multiple craft falling or exploding, casulties to the naval fire, as they continued their assault on the GEACPS fleet. It was moderate success, but it wouldn't last forever.

As a swarm of missiles struck the shields, something original on Earth happened. With a bright white flash, the shield bank, unable to power the shields under this assault, snapped brightly. A few more missiles came in-and right into the hull of the battleship. Flame plumed out, spreading around the plasma bolts that continued to sail out. The shield was down-the ship remained. But damaging it was now clear-it was not invincible by any means.


Kyoto

A battleship had parked itself over Kyoto, though it wasn't doing anything in particular-simply sitting, as if waiting. What it did do, however, was more aggressive. The battleship opened up its hanger bay, dumping out a massive swarm of fighters and interceptors that came pouring out like bugs from a wet hive. With that, the cannons on the underside of the ship began to glow blue, aiming towards the center of Kyoto's metropolitan urban setting.


New Delhi

As the ordinance came towards the battleship, the craft responded with a massive swath of fire of its own. Flak cannons rippled out with fire, the explosives streaming towards the incoming projectiles and missiles before blowing up, sending out dangerous and high-speed shrapnel across the local area, aiming to destroy the projectiles. Some was successful, but others weren't-some ordinance still got through. The ones that did rippled against the shield banks, green pools forming at impact strikes. The shields held firm; the opening attack wasn't particularly damaging. It would be a long fight, though.

As the first impacts hit, fighters began pouring from the battleship. Mostly interceptors and balance fighters, but also some assault fighters came out, though they were capable of engaging in the air too. The battleship itself also began to retaliate as the fighters grouped up fast and released a wide-spread volley of ion and positron rockets towards the Animarnian aircraft. The capital ship aimed towards the ground as flak cannons continued to spit repellant fire, blasting out a wave of rockets, MAC fire, and plasma shells in coordinated bursts. As it kept approaching, the underbelly seismic cannons began to charge up, ready to deliver their terrifying blasts.


Ural Mountain Range-Fortress Ural

The Prowler manuevered slowly into a gulley in the mountain-a large rock face with ledges for the infantry. The sensors had done a decent job-the access hatch was right above a ledge. The hatch opened, and several Enigmats dropped out, followed by Enforcers, a few Seekers, and two Predators. The Prowler began moving off, still under the cloak, as the pilot commed back.

"We'll be back for you-we must move off for now."

The team cocked weapons, and as day began breaking, began to move around the slopes.


Moscow

The Zealots dived as the bullet fire ricocheuted around the small entrance segment, and the team's only mammal-an Enigmat-took the entire brunt of the first wave of fire. The bulles riddled past a gap in the arboreal's armor, sending out splashes of maroon blood. The creature fell, gasping. The Seekers in the room-three of them now-began to move into natural camoflauge, their scaly skin pattern beginning to phase into that of the surroundings-not a great job with all the smoke, but decent enough to reduce their visual appearance. The Zealots, throwing up some hasty cover-one even using the dead Enigmat as a shield-began firing back, plasma and lasers shooting around.

Fortress Ural, UR

Two Mil Mi-28 Havocs took off from their position in the Fortress and flew out over the slopes, searching for what made the signature, their IR sensory array scanning the area. The CIWS were put on full active, only not firing for friendly-tagged IFF signals on the Naval Infantrie's BDUs. The IR had picked up a whisper on a slope, causing some alarm from the pilots.

"Bank over there." said one of the pilots.

"Roger, let's check it out." replied the other. The two helicopters made their way over to the whisper beaming their spotlights on the rocky slopes below.

Hospital

three of the five were down, raked by plasma. The other two, very wary of their chances of survival, threw in a frag and slammed the door. After shoving a large desk and some chairs in the way, they bolted down the stairs to the main surgery ward, running as fast as their legs could take them.

Tokyo

The Pinnacle above Toyko was not faring well. As it tried to keep up fire, the stress on the shields was simply getting overwhelming by all the fire it was taking. The fighters were now beginning to suffer, as well-multiple craft falling or exploding, casulties to the naval fire, as they continued their assault on the GEACPS fleet. It was moderate success, but it wouldn't last forever.

As a swarm of missiles struck the shields, something original on Earth happened. With a bright white flash, the shield bank, unable to power the shields under this assault, snapped brightly. A few more missiles came in-and right into the hull of the battleship. Flame plumed out, spreading around the plasma bolts that continued to sail out. The shield was down-the ship remained. But damaging it was now clear-it was not invincible by any means.

The soldiers of the GEACPS Imperial Armed Forces were empowered with a new vigor in their blood. The destruction this beast had caused was enough to make them bloodthirsty, and they could sense the upcoming kill. Amidst the mangled, destroyed bodies, the SAM batteries continuously fired at the battlecruiser, as did the ships at the fighters. The fighters in the air again assaulted the large ship, firing missle after missle into its shieldless hull.


Kyoto

A battleship had parked itself over Kyoto, though it wasn't doing anything in particular-simply sitting, as if waiting. What it did do, however, was more aggressive. The battleship opened up its hanger bay, dumping out a massive swarm of fighters and interceptors that came pouring out like bugs from a wet hive. With that, the cannons on the underside of the ship began to glow blue, aiming towards the center of Kyoto's metropolitan urban setting.

With so much focus on Tokyo, Kyoto was not so well-defended. The anti-aircraft installment began an attack on the ship and fighters, and those who had not already evacuated began to flee the city center.

Unknowingly, the Imperial Family's plane was flying right into this trap filled with aliens...

OOC: Here's your activity, Candistan :P

IC:

Moscow

The Zealots cursed as they dived, the grenade bouncing around. The explosive blew, sending shrapnel across the room. It hit and lodged primarily in the armor of one of the Predators, though some actually stuck into the flesh of the large reptilian. It did little more and anger the massive hulk, though-the thick skin of the reptilians could withstand small amounts of plasma fire and not split open.

The Seekers reverted to a normal state as the Amalgamation soldiers moved through the area. The Augury looked down at the three dead as he loaded a new chamber into his needler, making a mental salute to their sacrifice. The team was quiet-they were in full action now. The Enigmat's death was little to worry about-the mammals were not even an afterthought to the reptilians. However, the humans's death in the line of duty was honorable, to say the least-defending their intelligence facility.

The Predators moved up to the door, one standing in the front. With a roar and a swing, the reptilian smashed an arm into the door, the metal frame literally cracking in. Another swing did the job-the door collapsed completely, breaking apart. The Zealots took position around the door, rifles and needlers out, eyes scanning the opening as smoke filtered out through atmosphere.


Fortress Ural

"Human vehicles-prepare heavier arms," one of the Enforcers said.

One of the Enigmats shouldered a Laser Assault Cannon-the primary weapon of the two Predators, as well. As the helicopters scanned around the cliff, the others bunkered down. The Enigmat stood off to the side, out of the line of sight, and opened fire, the beam piercing through the air towards the copters. The two Predators, their bulk in the shadow, also opened up.

Tokyo

The behemoth above Tokyo was struggling now, flailing around fire across the burning city blindly. Sensors were being hit, and a conduit in the ship opened up with a blast. Bodies fell from the conduit-several hairy bodies falling fast towards Earth, propelled by gravity towards the planet of their demons of religious past. The missiles kept hitting as more weapons went off-line, the fighters racing around to try and provide as much damage as possible to keep the battleship up as long as possible.


Kyoto

The fighters at Kyoto were picking up a new blip on sensors, coming in aerial from some distance away-an unknown presence. A human one...

Meanwhile, the ship was in preperation to fire. A tiny gap in the shield opened up for a split second as a blue rush of energy spat down from the battleship, a giant beam of force from four seismic cannons, slamming down towards the city center, registering in the Terajoules-looking to provide ultimate destruction as spats of anti-aircraft fire splashed into the shields.

Fortress Ural

"Shit hit the deck!" shouted the first pilot as he pulled up avoiding the beams. The other Havoc wasn't so lucky, catching a beam to the tail, blowing it out of the sky into the side of the cliffs.

"Fortress Command! I have a target! Engaging!" shouted the pilot as he made a pass over the Amalgamation firing his GSh-30mm autocannon at them. He pulled up and away, retreating back to base.

Meanwhile, 78m up the slope, a camouflagued turret came to life.

"Turret 132 is online sir! It has contacts!" shouted a controller inside the fort.

After a few scans and bleeps, the 30mm DU-spitting cannon turned towards the Amalgamation force and waited patiently for them to reach the 40m mark.

Hospital

The hall before the Amalgamation was spattered with blood and tattered clothes. A body lay on the ground, severely burnt and disfigured, missing a leg and some fingers.

"Hurry, we need to stailize the burn victim!" came a voice down the hall. Three doctors ran up the hall, turning to meet the Amalgamation force that stood in the doorway. The burnt body turned to the Amalgamation, looked up, and spoke.

"W...wa...water?" it whispered. "P...please!"

Nairobi

The alien vehicles appeared on the radar screens of the air traffic controllers of Nairobi International Airport.

The air traffic controllers did not know what they were. Thinking they were human aircraft, the air traffic controllers called them on the radio. It was odd that they were first detected at such a high altitude and dropping so fast, plus that there was more than one aircraft there, but the air traffic controllers followed normal procedure.

"Unidentified aircraft at altitude of 75,000 feet heading 91 degrees, this is Nairobi International Airport. Please identify yourself. We don't have any flight plan for anyone flying that high today. Are you off course?

There was no response. The air traffic controllers continued to try to contact the unidentified aircraft on various radio frequencies.

As they did so, more and more unidentified aircraft began to show up on their screens. All of them were at the maximum altitude the radar could detect. The the number of unidentified aircraft coming down fast from high altitude reached three dozen, the air traffic controllers notified the Kenyan Air Force. Then the number of UFOs on the screen increased to four dozen, five dozen, and more.

The same aircraft were quite obviously visible on the radar screens at the nearby Kenyan Air Force Headquarters.

A female Air Force Lieutenant answered the call from the airport, "That many contacts is probably a flock of birds."

The air traffic controller said, "It's too high for that. These don't look like birds. I think they are aircraft. Or maybe spacecraft coming down."

"Spacecraft? Are you trying to say you think they are aliens? Don't you know there aren't any aliens?" the Lieutenant said. Then she hung up.

Elsewhere on the air force base, pilots were lounging around playing cards and waiting for an alert. Some of them were worried that maybe the aliens were real. But no alert came.

Meanwhile, the teardrop shaped Amalgamation fighters dropped lower and lower into the Earth's atmosphere until they could pick out targets on the ground.

The streets of Nairobi were mostly abandoned by now. Most of the people did believe the images they saw on their television screens of foreign cities around the world being devastated.

In what used to be one of the busiest streets in the capital, not a moving car was in sight. A dog wandered down the center of the street while the wind blew a newspaper along bearing the headline, "President Says Aliens Not Real".

Overhead, dozens of alien spacecraft were now clearly in view. Somewhere somebody screamed. The dog looked up and watched them pass. Blue bolts of plasma reached out from the spacecraft and struck buildings. The dog flinched at the sound of explosions.

Now there were more screams. Smoke began to rise over Nairobi.

At the army barracks, men trained to operate surface to air missiles heard about the attack and rushed to the arms bunker to retrieve their weapons only to find that the only two officers who had the keys were both off the base.

At the Air Force headquarters, pilots listened on the radio to confused reports of the attack.

"What is going on?" someone said.

"It's aliens. They're attacking us! They are real!" one fighter pilot said fearfully.

"Should we go to our planes?" another one said.

"There's no orders," said a third.

The first fighter pilot went to the door and opened it. Then he stopped in dismay because he could already see dozens of alien spacecraft coming in low over the airfield. Blue bolts of plasma shot out while he watched.

Kenya's mostly obsolete air force started to go up in flames as the enemy began blasting everything on the base.

"RUN!" the first pilot shouted and leaped out the door.

"Run where?" the second pilot asked, "for the planes?"

Someone else looked out the window and said, "I think he meant run for your lives."

Just then a volley of plasma bolts hit the building and killed or injured all the pilots inside.