The aurora city
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| Cassiopia and Scott, I need you at
the lab immediately. There is a private jet landing at Orlando Executive Airport in 30 minutes. Please do not delay. Cassiopia, I promise you this aircraft will not have any problems. A car will be waiting your arrival. –John Paul
Cassiopia sat opposite Markman, a stolid expression on her face as she listened intently for trouble with the aircraft’s engines. Markman looked up inquisitively from his phone. “You’re not still worried we might…. “What the hell…” “You are, then. Will you relax … please?”
“Easy for you to say, Mr. Amnesiac.” “We’ll be there in forty minutes.”
“An eternity of probabilities” “A spiritual sojourn.” “My ass.” “There you go talking dirty again. What are you trying to do, start something?” Cassiopia eyed the curtained sleeping quarters at the back of the airplane. Markman looked back to see what she was staring at. He turned back with his usually naive’ countenance. Her expression had become one of daring. “I think I’ll try lying down in the back.” Markman watched her rise and gather up her things. She looked down at him annoyed. “Are you coming or not?” It still took Markman a moment. “Oh…yes. Yes, definitely.” On the ground, a black SUV was waiting. John Paul was not in it. A single MIB was present to drive them. He was not talkative. For some reason, the ride to the lab took on an ominous, somber atmosphere. At the lab, Cassiopia and Markman took the elevator down and entered the hallway just as John Paul emerged from the lab, staring down at a tablet. He looked up at the sound of the elevator doors, gave a faint smile, and waved them to follow. As they passed the commissary, he glanced back and spoke. “I called you in because it has begun. We should not be surprised. We knew it could happen at any time. We’re lucky it wasn’t sooner. Still, I somehow find myself taken aback by it.” “What? What are you talking
about?” asked Cassiopia in earnest. John Paul stopped and turned to them. “The invasion. They began emerging from the same vortport in the tunnels of New York where the two of you first encountered them. At the same time, there have been indications of other vortports materializing around the world. It’s the big one, the all-out invasion. Come this way.” Cassiopia and Markman followed in stunned silence. John Paul continued on past the medical lab toward the hallway’s dead-end. He came to the blank metallic wall and to their amazement passed right through it without even slowing. Markman looked at Cassiopia, shrugged, and pressed himself through the wall. Cassiopia followed. The room beyond was a small
vestibule. Two silver sliding doors with a key code lock, and card reader waited. John Paul stopped and turned to his charges. “It’s the implants. For anyone else that wall would be as solid as a rock.” He turned back to the silver sliding doors and as he approached them, they slid open, no pass code required. The room beyond was another wonder. A long meeting table sat in the center of the expanse. At the far end of the table was a beautiful globe, six-feet in diameter, a representation of the Earth, turning slowly in real time. The globe was semitransparent and detailed beyond belief. Topography was accurately colored and shown in fine resolution, even beneath the translucent ocean currents. Waves and other surface dynamics were there, as
well. A series of flashing red dots were located at various points around the world. Smaller diamond shaped symbols were also present and numerous. The rest of the chamber was filled with monitors showing different areas of the continents. John Paul took a seat near the middle of the table and motioned at Cassiopia and Markman to sit. He leaned back in his seat and looked like a man who was trying to give the impression of being relaxed though he clearly was not. “This is the War Room. It’s not central command, of course. It’s just a sub-station, but we get all the data up to the second. If I bring the globe around out of sync, you can see the flashing red circle there in the New York area. That’s showing us a Salantian invasion has been detected
there. By studying the vortport we already knew about, we found tiny cracks in the rock surrounding its large outer ring. The materialization of that vortport actually had left hundreds of hairline fractures. We were able to calculate the seismic footprint that made those fractures. Using that, we have been networking all the seismographs and other quake detectors on the planet and adding more. Fed into a master monitoring computer, we can detect where and when a new vortport is opening. Obviously we don’t have complete coverage, but what we have is pretty good.” Cassiopia interrupted. “So can’t you just destroy each vortport as you find it?” “Yes, we could. Demolition teams
could go in and plant charges large enough to damage each vortport beyond repair, but unfortunately that would accomplish only one thing. It would tell the Salantians we had found that site and that they must move on to another, and they would know we are able to detect vortport formation. That would not stop them. We would be wasting our resources chasing new holes in the dam, so to speak. The only way to convince them that an invasion of Earth is not worth the trouble is to have combat troops in position, let them come through the vortports, and then engage them and do so much damage that they eventually decide Earth is too costly an objective.” “But your people cannot be everywhere,” countered Cassiopia. “Our ambassadors have secretly
been approaching every nation on the planet. Most countries have listened. We show them photos of everything from the last Salantian invasion, and in some cases we had to take their representatives to New York to see the real thing to make them believe. This has been going on since way back when Scott located that first lair. Most nations are cooperating. A few are not. North Korea has dismissed this as a trick to gain concessions. Iran and Libya will not listen at all. Venezuela wants concessions from the U.S. to participate. Several other countries are borderline. It may be too late for those countries already. Unfortunately it is their people who will pay the price.” Markman said, “I know this sounds ugly but couldn’t you send bombs back through the vortport and attack them
at the other end before they even get here?”
“The vortport is a one way channel, Scott. It can be set to go in either direction, but only one direction at a time. We think the Salantians have some crude form of two-way communication through the vortport, but transiting though it is strictly one- way.”
“What will happen to the countries that refuse to listen?” asked Cassiopia. “We will warn them as vortports open in their territories, but they will probably not be ready to respond, and will not understand what they’re up against. Salantian soldiers will emerge from those vortports and spread out over their population centers. At that point, we expect them to finally begin requesting help. When they do, we will
immediately bomb the open vortport coordinates, set up containment on the borders of the provinces being overrun, and let the invaders come to us to engage them.” “But those people will be massacred,” said Cassiopia. “Yes, but no cooperating country will be willing to send in foot solders to flush out widespread Salantians and face them on open ground. We would not ask our own assault teams to do that, and the enemy will be too spread out to use mobile or heavy artillery.” “This is unthinkable,” said Cassiopia. “Even worse,” added John Paul. “There will be Salantian soldiers in some areas in such mass that battlefield nuclear weapons will be needed to control them.”
“Oh my god!” Cassiopia looked at John Paul as though he was not serious. John Paul’s expression remained somber. He continued, “So the small, silver triangles you see on the globe represent our seismograph network. The red spots are where incursions are taking place. “There is more than one already?” asked Markman. “There are more than a dozen so far. One in the Sayan Mountains in Russia, another near Portugal, the rest scattered around the planet. Those are already well contained. Countries once considered bitter enemies in some cases are now fighting side by side. Weapons systems and resources are being openly exchanged and shipped around the globe to be ready if needed.
But, this is just the beginning. We expect hundreds of new fronts. New symbols appear on this map regularly.” “What’s the situation in New York?” asked Markman. John Paul’s expression remained solemn. “We have four assault teams in position. We had to hold back for a while to let their scouts check the caverns before the main force began to come through. The Alpha and Bravo units have now contained them at each end of the tunnel. We do not seem to be having any trouble holding. Those particular tunnels give us the ‘300’ advantage; too small a passageway to allow a large force to mass. Our teams are able to dispatch the enemy as he tries to come through. The battle is in full engagement, as we speak. I can bring up the Alpha leader head cam,
but you should brace yourself. This is war. It is not pretty.” John Paul gave a last look of warning and touched a control icon on the table in front of him. The main view screens on either side of the room came to life with a silent portrait of violence. Alpha team members in black battle gear were positioned around hard rock tunnel walls. They were firing automatic weapons almost continuously. Their demeanor was one of pure resolution and deadly intent. As the jittery helmet cam swung around, the enemy came into view causing Cassiopia to gasp. There on the monitors were creatures as black as night. They were the size of small compact cars. They ran on four spiny legs like spiders except the spider’s head was an upright human-styled
torso with a human-like head atop it, eyes glaring red. The lower half of the face was partially covered by some form of breathing apparatus with tubes coming out of it connected to a chest plate. Similar twin tubes were also embedded in the neck. The creature carried some form of beam weapon in human-like hands and arms. On either side of the creature there were also large crab claws which snapped at anything in reach. The attackers could kill with their claw arms or the weapons they carried, and when possible they could do both at the same time.
Cassiopia was beside herself. “Oh my god! I don’t believe this!” “We believe this particular attack is in its final stages. The flow of attackers keeps ebbing and taking
longer to resume each time. We expect the Salantians to cut their losses here and move on to a different location. I would like to send the two of you to this site to evaluate it. I need two of my people on-site who can evaluate the incursion and report back to me first-hand. I’d like you, Cassiopia to monitor an operations station in one of the command trailers. Scott, you can join the backup Delta team. They will not be involved in combat. They are backup for any invaders who might break through. None have and we no longer expect any to. The Delta team is the same team you originally led down to the tunnels way back when you first discovered the Salantians. I would like the two of you to simply observe while you’re there. Watch everything going on. Come back and tell me what is
different from the last time you encountered them. See if there’s anything unexpected.” Cassiopia stammered, “You want us to go there?” “Yes, but you both must remain within the safety of the back up teams. This is your decision, of course. I want you to gain as much knowledge as possible and add it to what we already possess. Our group here has been one of the leading teams working on the Salantian threat. Now that the invasion has begun that job doesn’t end, it takes on even more urgency. We need to gain as much intelligence on the Salantians as possible. I believe you could be a vital element in that intelligence gathering and analysis, Cassiopia. That, along with Scott’s special skills, make the two of you
extremely valuable assets in defeating this enemy. As I‘ve said however, it is your decision. You can return home and wait if you’re not comfortable with this. In that case, I will still keep you advised of the situation.” “I’m not going home and just wait around,” insisted Cassiopia, and she cast a perplexed stare at John Paul, and then wondered why she had said that. “What about your father?” asked Markman. “I’ve given the Tel instructions to watch over him carefully.” “Oh, the poor man” replied Markman. Cassiopia glared. “Well anyway, I’m in,” said Markman, matter-of-factly. “Good,” said John Paul. “The same
aircraft that brought you here is waiting. I will repeat this once more for Scott’s sake. You both are to remain back and withdrawn from any combat. A few seconds ago I got a report that the influx of Salantian soldiers was waning, and the Alpha and Bravo teams have begun moving forward to secure the vortport chamber. So, you should be safe. You should be able to evaluate the invasion site quite thoroughly. Remember to use all your senses, sight, sound, smell, touch, instinct, even taste, if there’s a certain flavor in the air of that place.” The thought made Cassiopia sit back in repulsion. Markman nodded his approval and stood, ready to go.
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