Chapter One: It Begins

Cairns, Queensland, Australia, 1:30pm, January 11, 2068

Helicopters flew overhead, supporting the ground troops moving towards the captured outpost. By now, the Tallentiri had declared open war and Humanity, having no star fleet at all, was screwed. It was quickly apparent however that they were intent on capturing Earth instead of destroying it. Russia had been abandoned due to invasion and use nuclear weaponry, part of Asia had been successfully captured by the Tallentiri and now they made moves onto Australia. The captured outpost was actually a research station.

‘Alright guys,’ said a caucasian man with short wavy brown hair, blue eyes and wearing a clearly military uniform;  Black jacket, flak vest, long black pants boots that went half way up his calves. ‘, The invasions of other countries began this way. Tech and research facilities were taken first and then lowly branched out to cities. Our job,’ he stopped again outside the entrance to the station watching it carefully. ‘, Our job is to make sure they don’t take this one. Liberate it or die trying. We’re going to coordinate an assault on this lace from four directions, forcing them to barricade themselves deep into the structure; at that point I’ll call for the airstrike. Everyone clear?’ he asked.

‘Yes sir’ everyone replied.

‘Teams of ten, watch your asses these things are fast, let’s move out’ he said. The group immediately divided into four groups and headed to their various points he walked up to a panel next to the steel door and input a code but panel just beeped at him. He tried again. Still the panel beeped at him.

‘Sir, I’ll override the door’ one of the soldiers said.

‘Good Lieutenant’ he said as he raised his Aug A3 and aim carefully at the door, waiting for it to open. After a few seconds the door opened and a wide corridor faced them. Dead bodies lay strewn across the floor. The Tallentiri had obviously taken no prisoners in their capture; the walls were covered in blood.

‘Ok. Move in’ he said. As soon as they stepped over the threshold an overwhelming stench consumed them, similar to the smell of rotten meat and yet completely different at the same time.

‘What’s that smell?’ one of the soldiers asked. The man turned to look back.

‘They’ve been breeding’ he said as he turned around. He turned back and led his team through the structure, which gradually grew darker and darker with each step they took and yet they encountered nothing. It wasn’t a door shut behind them that they knew they were screwed.

‘Back to back everyone, you see something move out there, don’t ask, just shoot’ the man said.

‘Are we gonna die in here Colonel?’ of his soldiers asked.

‘Negative sergeant’ the Colonel replied, pushing his back against the sergeant. Suddenly the lights went out. It was pitch black and all they knew was that they were in the centre of the room.

‘Flares, now!’ the Colonel ordered. Within seconds the room was illuminated with a harsh red light and they saw several hundred Tallentiri attached the walls, their dark, black eyes staring at them.

‘Hold your fire,’ the Colonel said. ‘Don’t fire unless they attack’, and sure enough they launched themselves off the walls. The sound of gunfire rang throughout the room, and did the smell of ammonium nitrate in the gunpowder filled the room.

‘There’s too many of them Colonel, we’re never going be able to shoot them all down’ another soldier said.

‘Patience Lieutenant’ the Colonel said taking a small package out of his pocket and tore off the end.

‘C4 are you insane? It could destabilise the whole place!’ the Lieutenant said.
'We’re not gonna be here when it blows. When I throw it, run for the door’ the colonel said. And with that he threw it as far as he could across the room and the soldiers fled, still firing at the Tallentiri who had somehow managed to grow in number. The Colonel was the last to make it to the door, closing it behind him, breathing slowly and steadily. Then he heard the explosion. The force of the explosion sent Tallentiri flying everywhere, dead. But the gaseous ammonium nitrate set off a secondary, very powerful explosion causing the outer corridors to collapse. When the corridor the soldiers were in collapsed suddenly, there was nothing that could be done. When the smoke cleared, the colonel was lying flat on his back, his legs pinned. The soldiers tried to free him. First by trying to move the debris of the collapse, but it was too heavy to move. So then they tried to pull him out, but he screamed in pain.

‘STOP!’ he yelled. ‘You need to go. Don’t worry about me. You only have as long as it takes them to find us again.

‘Sir…’ the lieutenant began but the Colonel looked at him.

‘You’re in charge,’ he said. ‘But I do have a final order for you. Get these people to safety and call for the air strike…’

‘No sir…’

‘That’s an order, Lieutenant’ the lieutenant swallowed.

‘Yes sir’

‘Go. Now.’ The Colonel said pulling out two standard edition pistols.

‘Alright people, you heard the man. Let’s move’ and they left, just like that. He waited a few second to make sure he was alone.

‘Come on,’ the Colonel yelled. ‘Bring it! I know you’re here’ and sure enough, Tallentiri crept around corners and the Colonel opened fire. Knowing the airstrike was maybe less than a minute away. As he ran out of bullets he switched back to the Aug A3 and opened fire, decimating the Tallentiri numbers and the structure rocked.

The last thing the soldiers saw was an explosion where the lab had been. A huge fiery cloud rose into the air and everyone knew, then and there, that nothing could have possibly survived.

I'll be posting a new chapter every week as they take a fair amount of time for me to write.