Invasion (4.008 words)
"Peter, do you know where Stephen is?" Meriana asked. She was Peters wife and Stephens mom, she also had a daughter named Evy. Her brown eyes looked at Peters as she entered his home office. After fifteen years they came to this point where their lives began to get a bit more relaxed inside the colony city.
"Well the most logical place is school, I mean... it's Monday morning ten o'clock. That means school has already started."
"Ok, but school just called to ask where he is, Evy doesn't know either"
She laid her hands gently on his shoulders, as she watched what he was doing. Peter was an absolute genius with computers, but she didn't understand anything about those... Things. "Do you want some coffee by the way?"
"Yes please." he turned his head to look at his wife as he replied to the more serious question "If he isn't at school then I have no clue where he might hang out, relax Meriana... all kids rebel against their parents, especially when it's about school. but I will talk to him when he comes home of course."
Meriana left the room again to get some coffee for Peter and herself, Peter went back to work on his computer. Working as a server administrator was boring work sometimes, but at least you were allowed to work at home. Meriana brought him a cup of coffee, Peter smiled to her.
"I shall call hi.........."
suddenly she was interrupted by a heavy blasting sound that shook the very foundations of their house, then screams... Meriana rushed to the window to see what was going on. She froze by what she saw, the administrations centre on the other side of the plaza was utterly destroyed. Big pieces of concrete were flying through the air, people were screaming and running from the building with their hand above their heads. One man was crawling and clawing desperately with his hands while his legs were crushed under a big piece of metal, blood gushed from his wounds so that he would soon be relieved from this agony.
"what the F... server just went off-line."
Peter went over to Meriana and stood next to her looking through the window, he was nailed by the sight too. A shell came down from the sky, hitting the school right in the middle. Peter shocked by the sight of it "what the hell is going on" Meriana began to panic "Evy is in there, oh my god Peter... Evy is in there", her desperate voice hit him. Meriana sat back against the wall and was bursting out in tears. The colony Alarm went off, producing a high frequency tone followed by a male voice "We are being attack by an unknown force. All militia, gear up and head for the government centre. All women and children to the government centres underground bunkers.". The alarm barely ended his sentence when Peter saw gunfire on the edge of the colony, flashes of tracer bullets and shouts of desperate people. The attackers were shooting while they ran into the Colony, fleeing people went down randomly. Wounded people were dragged away and kicked into a truck, treated like stock readying for the butcher. Already some defenders were putting up a fight, their poor fighting gear would in no way protect them sufficiently.
"Meriana, go to the Government centre, I will gear up and aid the defenders."
Peter grabbed Meriana's arm and helped her back on her feet, she was crying and shaking. Another heavy blast, they were smashed against the wall "now Meriana, GO!"
"Yes Peter of course.... Just be careful" Meriana kissed him.
"yeah, you too darling, I'll look for Stephen and Evy, I'll meet you there. "
Meriana walked out of the room while she was grabbing her Phone, her hands began to shake when she found out that the connection was dead "come bloody piece of shit, just let me make a call". Peter unlocked his militia locker, and geared up. A helmet that kind of looked like a world war one helmet, but upgraded with a safety glass and augmented reality. A Semi automatic rifle, 200 rounds in 20 magazines and a bayonet. And for protection all militia had bullet protection Kevlar vests, at least it was some protection. With this poor fighting gear the militia were to hold the line until the Federal navy arrived, nobody could actually tell how long that would be. When Peter rushed outside other militiamen were putting up a heavy fight against the attackers which Peter could now identify as Sheromi, a human like race who split from humanity and cross-bred with another race into the abominations that they are now. Running toward the closest piece of cover proved challenging, he fell over a dead body, almost hurting himself with his bayonet. He quickly got up and ran forward. Another militiaman shouted "Peter over here", Although the sound of battle was very loud he still gave answer to that vague order. He instinctively went over there, there were some men he knew. The man who shouted was Bard, a neighbour. Unfortunately Peter never got the chance to say "hi", Bard was blown up by a Sheromi grenade. Bard's whole face was blasted away and three others fell as well. Peter was blown backward because of the shock, for a brief moment he looked at the sky and tried to overcome this sudden horror. He quickly grabbed his rifle, planted the back of the rifle in the earth to pull himself up and leaped into cover. Just where Bard was 10 seconds ago.
"dad!!!"
"Stephen, what are you doing here, where did you get that equipment."
A whistling sound and the explosion of a shell shook the ground, showering Stephen and Peter with dirt.
"grabbed it from a dead man." He nervously looked around while he held one hand above his head in a way of protection.
"Dammit son, I'm glad you skipped school... It's blown apart"
"I know, I went dirtbikeing with Brian and Donald, we heard explosions and gunfire in the distance. We went back here as quick as we could. Do you know where Evy is? I tried to call her but communications are off-line."
"No I don't know, but we better get out of here. Cover me while I try to look for others around"
Stephen peeked around the corner and saw the Sheromians running towards him. He pointed his weapon and "Bang!". Shot one Sheromian in the leg. He crumbled and the other two leaped into cover, leaving their shot mate lying in the middle of the street. He shot again, this bullet turned out to be a deadly one, blood spurted from his throadwound. The Sheromian went down and didn't move again, Stephen was a bit shocked about his sudden killer instinct but the adrenaline kept him sharp. The other two returned fire upon Stephen so he had to hit his cover again, just in time to hear a bullet fly by his ear. A heavy shell exploded on the other side of the street, the fear that one of those shells could hit him was undescribable. Dirt was showering down on Stephen, some of the dirt sticked to him. Peter was down the street, signaling that he found some others and waved his hand to Stephenn, "We'll cover you!". Stephen ran towards the others, they bravely got out off cover and lay a line of bullets through the street to give him safe passage. He made it, but two men were shot. Meanwhile the Sheromi had brought in an APC, which was now spraying bullets trough the street, more Sheromians stepped out from the back. "We have to fall back to the government centre!". shouted one of the men, a tall and muscled guy. The rest of them agreed and they turned around and began to run, leaving their cover behind to flee to a safer spot. Stephen was running right behind his dad, he saw at least 5 men beating the dust. What was left of the group turned right at the next junction, sweat was dripping down his back and made his outfit all sticky. After 50 meters they stopped and lined up. They could all hear the screams of the wounded militiamen who fell during their fall back run. Horrified screams and gunfire... then silence, the Sheromians had brutally finished them off. The first 12 men knelt down, and the other 12 stood behind them. All pointing towards where the Sheromians would be coming from. "get ready... here they come boys!" shouted the same man who gave the fall back order before. Everyone was nervous, most men couldn't hold still their rifles, their hands were shaking. The sun was shining brightly upon their bayonets and helmets, it made the bayonets look extra lethal. Stephen was breathing heavily and so was the man next to him, he was scared as well. Stephen tried to aim but his rifle was heavy, and his bayonet was making the whole thing even more inaccurate. At least 20 Sheromians came around the corner and all the militiamen opened fire, they screamed and shouted as their rifles shot the bullets. A hailstorm of bullets hit the Sheromians, two of them dropped dead to the ground, others were crawling wounded on the ground. Low voiced screams indicated that they were in pain, Stephen found it most satisfying and it made his ego rise. The Sheromians were shocked, they didn't expect their fleeing foe to face them right around the corner. Before the Sheromians could line up their weapons Stephen suddenly shouted "CHARGE!!!" and without question all the men charged the Sheromians head on. Stephen ran about 10 meters behind his dad, as he jumped through a small dust cloud. Suddenly a shell exploded right next to the spot where his dad was, Stephens heart skipped a beat. Peter was blown to the right, his left leg was gone and his face was crushed. Stephen went on charging, he jumped through the dust of the explosion. A Sheromian appeared right in front of him, he fired his weapon in a reflex and stabbed the Sheromian with his bayonet "Get down you Bastard!" he shouted. The militiamen who survived the charge clashed with their opponent. Now they were on the advantage because the Sheromians didn't have bayonets. The standing Sheromians were taken care off easily, their screams of pain echoed trough the street. He pushed a crawling foe to the ground with his boot and stabbed him, ending his life instantly. Stephen saw an incoming enemy just in time to dodge him, he quickly turned around his axis and stabbed the Sheromian in his underbelly, fired his rifle and kicked him off his bayonet with his boot. Stephen looked around him, As the last one of the Sheromian foot soldiers slid from the bayonet of a militiaman, he shouted "Now everybody! Get the hell out of here... Back to the government centre!" . All the men began to run towards the government centre randomly, there was no sign of any organization. The roaring sound from the Sheromian APC's engine could already be heard very clearly, but Stephen knelt down next to his dad to honour him. He stood up again with a lump in his throat. "I'll redeem you father, even if it's the last thing I do" He grabbed his father's helmet and began to run, he heard the rattling sound of the APC's heavy automatic gun, he looked back. What he saw gave him a shiver on his back, his mother Meriana... naked, Tortured, walking emotionless, she was being brutally pushed into the APC along with some others who were captured as well. Stephen looked ahead of him again and kept running, still in disbelief by what he just saw. "what are those bastards doing. what do they want from us... could they be slavers?"
Stephen now had a visual on the government centre, it was heavily reinforced already. The militia turned it into their head-quarters, "if I could just reach it!" A shell exploded just to his right and another one left in front of him. He was blown to the left, His sight was suddenly blurry and his hearing was muted. A high frequent beeping tone tearing through his head, he grabbed his head due to the pain. He was creeping through the field of corpses that lay in front of the government centre, Sheromian and human. "Curse those bloody Sheromians, I'll hate them forever" .Stephen pushed himself on his feet and wandered about towards the militia head-quarter, unaware of the battle around him, his sight came back to normal and his hearing was getting better but still dim. He heard vague shots around him and voices far in the distance, there was also a flashing light to his right, a hollow "boom" then wind and dust. "must have been an explosion" he thought to himself. He saw two militiamen in the doorway in front of him holding out their hands, one of them was saying something but he couldn't hear what he said. It was vague gibberish. Suddenly he felt a terrible pain in his right leg, he felt to the right as he tried to grab the hand of one of the militiamen. They grabbed him and pulled him inside. Another shot in his back, his body began to shake, and he was spitting some blood. He heard people screaming and shouting. Lieutenant's barking orders, and weapons were fired. Every few second there was a heavy explosion to be heard. "out of the way! we got a wounded here!" shouted one of the militiamen who carried him. He was laid down on a stretch bed en things began to fade, "I made it..." his eyes began to roll, everything seemed to be in slow motion. "Hey! stay with us son..." A man hit his hand against his cheek "You're not going to die on my watch" he said, he had a white bracelet decorated with a red cross, then everything went dark.
Stephen opened his eyes and looked around. The battle was still raging, "so it wasn't a nightmare." He got up a bit, planting his elbows behind him. Next to him he heard a familiar voice, "Hey little brother."
"Ah you're awake" said a doctor "what's your name son"
"Stephen Forrester"
"Do you know who is lying next to you?"
"My sister Evy Forrester"
They heard someone scream "MEDIC" in another room.
"Good, Good enough... I'll leave you then."
The doctor rushed away, leaving Stephen and Evy. Evy turned towards her brother, "I'm sick Stephen, I think I'm going to die"
"No you're not"
"Yes I am... those monsters tried to drag me away, then the militia came and scared them away. One of them injected something in me"
"Have you told the doctors about it?"
"No, now I get those weird seizures. I had three already, it gets worse every time" Stephen got off his bed but fell to the ground because he forgot he had a leg wound, down on the ground he grabbed his shoulder where the bullet left his body. He got back on his feet and walked towards his sister, she grabbed his arm. Suddenly a little a small stream of blood was coming out of her eye, "Stephen, I'm dying" She said scared and half crying. "No Evy Stay with me, Stay with me... DOCTOR HELP!!!" He pushed her to his chest, and stroke his hand through her hair, trying to comfort her even though he somewhere knew it didn't work. She began to puke blood on his clothes, The doctor ran inside. "Stephen don't leave me!" she screamed "I'm right here sis" there spurted blood from her mouth as she breathed heavily "STEEEPHEN!!! WHERE ARE YOU!!! I CAN'T FEEL YOU!!!" she threw up blood again "NOOOOO!!!!" she was clawing his back with her nails. Her body began to shake all over, another Seizure. Stephen held his sister close to his chest, then she was limp as a rag doll. Stephen began to cry, holding his sister in his arms. Laying his head on her head. "I'm sorry about your sister Stephen" was the only thing the doctor said before he was already being summoned by someone else. Stephen Laid his sister down and stood up, his body was hurting very bad. He stumbled toward a window, and looked outside, he was on the second floor. He saw the village square in front of the government centre, militiamen outside were putting up a fight, men were running aimlessly around and were shooting at the enemy. It was a complete chaos, men were falling by the dozens. Wounded militiamen were crawling around, body's were covering the entire square and at some places the corpses were three layers thick. Stephen saw a militiaman, his jaw was blown off. The man was wandering the square slowly, looking at nothing.
Stephen was given a rifle by a militiaman, carelessness overtook him as he realized that he had lost everything today. He took his rifle and put it on the window frame, he picked his target and shot "Bang!". Picking targets proved challenging, the Sheromians were taking good cover. He heard heavy gunfire from the roof, it was louder than everything else. Some militiamen managed to turn the AA-guns towards the ground, this way they could hit ground targets. Dull pops and tracer bullets came down from the roof towards a Sheromian APC. Within seconds it was filled with holes, he heard the men shouting on the roof as the APC exploded "Roo-ah, Scratch one!". They kept firing and some Sheromian infantry fell as well. Stephens ears began to mute again because of the heavy sounds of the AA-gun, but it was totally worth it. The point and shoot pattern repeated itself a few times. From the corner of his eyes he saw something that caught his attention. A young boy came running out of an alley towards the government centre. He was chased by two Sheromians, one of them shot the boy in his leg. The boy shouted in pain en fell on his knees, the other Sheromian hit the boy on the back of his head with his rifle. Stephen aimed at one of them and shot, hitting a Sheromians shoulder. The other one shot the boy through his head then they took cover. Some militiamen saw it as well and began to fire at the Sheromians, soon they were dead. But the boy was killed, he was too late. "Incoming rocket!!!", shouted a militiaman next to him. Stephen dropped to the ground as the rocket hit the window frame where the shouting Militiaman just was. Another rocket hit something just above them on the roof. Stephen heard the men screaming, apparently the AA-gun was destroyed and the men who operated were wounded. The first rocket completely destroyed the window frame and the man was blown away, his right arm ripped of his body. He was screaming, and looked shocked when he saw his arm was blown off. Stephen rushed over to him and pushed him to the ground "MEDIC!!!". When he looked down to the man he saw it was already too late, he was dead.
A loud noise shook the building, Bombers were flying over very low, loud explosions could be heard in the distance as they dropped their bombs. tanks rolled through the streets, firing their heavy main guns upon the Sheromians APC's. It appeared to be effective, "Finally the Federation has arrived" Stephen said to himself. Drop ships were dropping of Rifleman, who instantly attacked the enemy. optimistic voices and shouts were echoing through the building. It was an epic sight to see how many soldiers came to aid them, it was an entire army. Sheromians were fleeing in all directions... Humans had the Victory, but Stephen lost everything, He couldn't see the bright side of it.
Some moments later Stephen Forrester was sitting with his back against the wall, his elbows on his knees and his hands on the back of his head. His eyes staring emotionless to the ground. "what the hell just happened today, Mom died, dad died, Evy died, So many died... why not me?".Evy's Blood was still wet and all over his clothes, he couldn't tell if the bandages on his wounds were drained with his or Evy's blood. He heard footsteps closing in
"Hello soldier, how are you holding up"
"I'm not a soldier, I'm a mechanic, a citizen, a useless colonist... but a soldier... no"
"Well, you militiamen put up a hell of a fight. I'm Captain Neil Davids, I came down to check upon the survivors"
"Hmm... Survivor, yeah... I survived, but lost everything. My mom, dad, sister... everyone is dead. how many survived anyway?"
"237 people survived, 5.000 were killed, 47 wounded and 35.000 were taken prisoner, number is still rising"
Stephen wasn't reacting when he heard the number, The reality of it slowly got through to him. "way to many" He thought, Stephen wanted to go away from this hellish place. "Why so few wounded" he asked, "They took the wounded with them" Davids replied "probably slavers".
"I don't want to stay here any more, take me with you on your ship."
"Are you sure, the colony could really use a skilled mechanic with the rebuilding project."
"I most certainly am, I need to get out of here, everything I was died today"
"Hmm... Ok, Grab your gear and meet the others at the pick-up spot just next to this building."
Stephen grabbed his rifle, gave his sister a kiss on her forehead... he sat beside her for a brief moment. The pain she endured was still written on her face "Pure agony" he thought to himself. Then he stood up and walked away, he would never forget the sight of his sister. "She died in so much pain... and her eyes bled..." his stomach turned around about three times, he threw up all over the floor. "Hey easy son", it was captain Davids again "no man can see the things you saw today and be left untouched by it... it's ok, just take your time." Stephen was calmed down by Davids's words. He looked up, took a deep breath and wiped the tears from his eyes. "Thanks... captain" Stephen walked down the stairs and went outside. It was a complete horror scene, the smell of burning corpses was overwhelming, but Stephen did his best not to throw up again. When he arrived at the pick-up point, he sat down. He was playing with the grass a bit, "Hey Stephy, Tough son of a bitch huh..." Stephen turned his head
"hey Brian... Brian O'niel. You have no idea how happy I am to see you, So few survived... I was afraid I wouldn't see a known face again."
"You're not getting rid of me that easy"
"what about Donald?"
"Died..."
"I'm Sorry man"
"he was your friend too"
"Yeah I know... You Joined up the military as well?"
"Yup, what else should I do? Kill myself? No one I know survived today, my whole life blown to bits. Besides, Donald asked me to when he sacrificed himself, his exact word were: Make 'em pay Brian, don't make me die for nothin'. "
"The same goes for me... I promised to redeem my father."
Brian threw his gear next to Stephen's and sat down beside him. "Oh by the way." Brain took something from his pocket and gave it to him. It was a picture of him with his mom, dad and sister. "Where did you get it?" Stephen asked. "I saw your sister in the hospital... I'm sorry about her... but they found this picture upon her body and they said you left already, so I took it."
"Thanks man..."
The two didn't say anything for a long time, when finally the word came. They were Going.
Post
Fri Nov 15, 2013 3:52 pm
#1
A short story about war
Last edited by Tsjernobyl on Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:18 pm, edited 5 times in total.