The Lost Planet of Ko'sstahn (Winner - SFSD 8 Collection)

Alien Invasion (SFSD 8.1) Ch 3

Part 3

Washington was hit first. Then London, Moscow and Beijing. All in a matter of minutes, with no warning. Massive explosions, leaving nothing but clouds of dust where proud cities had once stood. Nuclear weapons shot to red alert around the globe, but no-one knew who to aim them at. No-one claimed responsibility for the attacks, except for a few crackpots from the lunatic fringe who were quickly rounded up and locked away, just in case.

We were still in a state of shock, when huge green-black spaceships appeared in the skies over each continent, like sharks moving in for the kill. The destruction of Earth's major cities was only the first wave. Long silver threads descended from the ships and we waited and watched fearfully to see what would happen next. Was this some sort of poison? A virus? People and buildings began to disappear, apparently without cause.

Fighter jets attacked the spaceships, but with no evident impact. They were handicapped by the ship's proximity to the cities beneath. No military commander was willing to fire nuclear weapons at a spaceship and annihilate their city as well. No doubt there would be top secret discussions about 'collateral damage' but no-one was prepared to take that final step. Yet.

Soldiers swarmed through the streets, weapons ready, but uncertain what to fire at. I, and millions like me, watched transfixed as the images scrolled across our computer screens. I spared a moment to wonder why the invaders hadn't knocked out the internet, but perhaps they wanted us to stay terrified, glued to our screens.

The news camera switched from a flashback of the ruins of Washington, to live coverage of the streets of New York. The nearly hysterical news reader was shrill-voiced as he tried to describe the scene before him. Something was cutting a swathe through the city, demolishing buildings in its path, like an old sci-fi horror movie.

Anxiously, I swapped news channels. Where was the local news? Australia had been lucky so far. Evidently Canberra was not considered important enough to wipe out like all too many other capital cities, but a space ship was hovering above Sydney, holding it hostage. Was the same thing happening there? All I could find was overseas coverage. Did that mean Australia was still safe? Or were the aliens simply controlling the broadcasts, focussing on possibly the most well-known city in the world?

With cold hands, I turned back to the pictures from New York. I could hear gun-fire now. Smoke and dust swirled through the streets. For a moment, I thought I caught a glimpse of a tall figure moving through the haze. I bent closer, peering at the screen. Had it been my imagination? I was just about to give up and try a different channel when - there it was again!

A tall shape, moving purposefully through the haze. It must have been about three stories high. As I watched, it extended a limb and touched the building in front of it. I swallowed as the building disappeared. Gun fire sounded again. I watched a group of soldiers fire their automatic weapons in a fanning motion across the area where the building had been but the creature appeared to ignore them. Why didn't they fire directly at it instead of wasting all those bullets in a sweep?

Now that I had spotted one, I could see others in the distance, dispersing outwards from the point beneath the spaceship, through the city. I knew then, the purpose of those silver threads. Not poison or a plague. The aliens had launched their ground troops.