Invaders

www.AntonioGarciaBooks.com
“Okay! Formation, two by two!” the sergeant ordered.

The men obeyed and began to move forward, facing off the massive opposition.

The war Against the aliens was into its third year and showed no signs of letting up.

Men fell by the dozens as thermal grenades and bombs went off all around.

They continued to move forward, but it wasn’t the first time they made headway, only to realize they had only begun. It was if they were just fighting around the globe in an endless circle.

The creatures didn’t seem to have a language of their own, so negotiations weren’t a viable option. They also never showed any indication that they wanted to talk.

From the moment the planet was invaded, it was full on war with no end in sight.

Sergeant O’Neil rallied his men and encouraged them to keep fighting.

The creatures looked like a cross between giant mantises and spiders. They had four legs, stood up from their torsos, with claw-like appendages. Their spider features were in the eight eyes, and thick hair that covered their bodies.

It wasn’t long after the invasion that they were able to kill one and claim the body for research. Once the body was dissected and analyzed, they began modifying their weapons to better kill them.

The aliens didn’t seem to have any weapons to speak of. Except for their size and numbers, they didn’t seem to pose much of a threat. But they were still a threat.

Most scrimmages consisted of a hundred human soldiers against a thousand alien creatures.

The soldiers would start strong, using their advance weapons and firepower to overwhelm the alien intrusion. The bodies of the aliens would litter the battlefield and by the time they even reached the humans, they would be climbing over their own dead to get to them.

The tide of the battle would start to change when the soldiers ran out of rounds in their magazines and had to switch them out.

As his men were forced to swap out magazines, the aliens would easily close the distance and at times overwhelm them.

In the end, the soldiers were usually able to push them back, but there were times when it was close, or even too overwhelming, causing them to retreat.

The Sergeant couldn’t figure out how there were so many of them. No matter how many they killed, they seemed to be replaced by double the number.

The soldiers got better at finding ways of winning more battles by using terrain, tactics, and sheer will power in some situations.

And yet the war continued.

“C’mon men!” The sergeant yelled, pushing his men forward. “We need to take this hill! It could lead to a faster victory!”

His men cheered as they pushed on. They knew the sergeant was right. For all their blood, sweat, and tears, they were gaining ground.

If they took this hill, there was a chance to end the war and finally be rid of those disgusting aliens they were fighting.

The soldiers threw grenades and fired more rounds than had ever been used in any war before, and slowly made their way up the hill.

The creatures fell by the dozens, then by the hundreds, yet they kept coming. They were relentless. They were determined.

For the first time in a long time, the soldiers were motivated that the war could very well end soon. They could finally take this final hill and be the heroes they saw themselves as.

All of humanity would thank them for what they had accomplished. There would be parades. There would be celebrations, and there would be rewards.

Smoke from their weapons filled the air like fog, and the cries of the creatures could barely be heard over the crackle of the human weapons.

Close to the top, they were close enough to the creatures that changing their magazines could lead to death.

Just as the time came to change their magazines, the sergeant yelled, “Second wave!”

Suddenly, another platoon came out of the cloud of smoke and began firing. The first wave of men fell back to change magazines.

This time the creatures didn’t stand a change. Though the creatures had the numbers, the humans had the technology.

The second wave pushed up the hill, finally reaching the point where the enemy bodies littered the ground. They struggled to maintain their balance as they stepped on or over the fallen alien bodies without letting up on their barrage of weapons
fire.

Finally, the men reached the top of the hill, pushing the creatures down the other side.

Sergeant O’Neil stood at the top of the hill and marveled at the sight he was witnessing.

The creatures had been pushed down into a valley, and the other units had also taken their respective hills, so that the human army now stood on each hilltop.

The command was given, and all units fired in unison on the creatures, decimating them.

As he watched on, in one of the corners of the valley, the sergeant saw some of the creatures escape through some tunnels. That did not make him happy. He had hoped to be done with those creatures once and for all, but it now looked like he would have to venture underground to finish them.

After all the creatures lay dead, the valley changed from a constant sound of weapons fire, to that of cheering from all the men standing proud on top of the hills.

The commanding General’s voice boomed from all their radios.

“Congratulations men!” he started. “We have won a great victory! God himself gave us this land! These creatures thought they could take what was ours. They thought they could drive us out! They thought they could dominate us and kill us! They were wrong!”

The entire valley erupted into cheers.

While the rest of the men were celebrating, Sergeant O’Neil gathered his platoon to follow him into the tunnels to kill the few remaining creatures.

“Men,” he said loud enough for them to hear. “Our work is not completely done yet. A few escaped into some tunnels down below. We must follow them down and exterminate them. Then we can finally go home.”

The men were weary but resolute in finishing off the creatures once and for all.

Once they had reloaded their weapons and gathered their gear, they followed the sergeant as he led them down the hill.

Their confidence waned a little when they reached the tunnel entrance, but the sergeant’s resolve gave them strength.

“Alright, men,” he started. “breakout your lights and follow me. When we come back out, our God given land will be free of these disgusting creatures!”

The men quietly cheered and followed him into the tunnel.

It was so dark inside, they could only see what the lights shone on directly. Fortunately, there were enough of them to light most of their surroundings.

They moved as silently as they could, listening for any sounds from the creatures.

The deeper they went, the more they could hear the rustling of movement getting closer. Wherever the creatures were gathering, the men were getting close.

Finally, they came to a large opening.

The men swung their lights around looking for the remaining creatures but didn’t see them.

“What are those?” one of the men asked the sergeant, shining a light on an object.

Sergeant O’Neil moved in close to examine it.

“It looks like an egg,” he said.

He shined his own light around the rest of the chamber, revealing that it was filled with thousands of eggs.

“This must be how the creatures reproduce,” he said.

“What do we do?” the same soldier asked.

O’Neil took his time deliberating, but in the end, he knew what they had to do.

“We destroy them,” he said, flatly.

He could hear the men gasp behind him. Killing the creatures was one thing, but destroying their eggs was another.

“But sergeant,” the soldier said. “That’s genocide.”

O’Neil turned to face his men.

“Yes it is,” he said. “But this is our home now, and there’s no place for these creatures.”

The men looked at each other, unsure.

Seeing their reluctance, O’Neil walked to one of the eggs and stomped on it, crushing it beneath his boot. Most of the men looked on with horror but resigned to their duty.

“How should we destroy them, sergeant?” another soldier asked. “Should we crush them with our boots to same ammunition or shoot them all.”

“It would take too long to crush them ourselves,” he explained. “Use your weapons.”

The soldier nodded and took half the men to the right, lined up, and began to shoot. Another group broke off to the left, lined up, and also began to shoot.

A few soldiers stood there dumbfounded, torn between duty and what they felt was wrong.

O’Neil, seeing some of the men not following his orders, started to walk to them to chastise them, when suddenly they all heard a screech from a small group of creatures running towards them.

Not needing to be ordered, the men opened fire on the oncoming creatures.

There were many more than just the few that escaped down there, but not as many as they had faced in the past.

The men fired as the creatures zigged and zagged, flanking them.
Their movement was unlike what the soldiers had seen before. Before, the creatures would attack straight on, relying solely on their numbers. Now that their numbers were smaller, they changed their tactics for the first time.

The soldiers continued to shoot as many as they could but being taken off guard from the creatures new tactics, weren’t able to keep them from closing.

The creatures began ripping through the soldiers, as the soldiers continued firing, even while dying.

O’Neil watched on with horror as it looked like the creatures were going to overtake them, but as his men fell, they continued to take out the few remaining creatures, until in the end, all his men were dead, and only one creature remained.

They stared at each other, both waiting to see what the other would do.

Finally, O’Neil moved first by aiming his sidearm at the creature and pulling the trigger.

All he heard was a click.

Realizing that the sergeant’s weapon was empty, the creature attacked while O’Neil reached into his pockets and pulled out all that he had left.

His right hand pulled out a knife which he used to stabbed the creature with, as the creature impaled his torso with one of its mantis-like’s claws.

They both fell to the ground, the creature on top.

It raised its other appendage above its head when suddenly, it stopped at the sight of the human smiling.

Opening his left hand, O’Neil revealed what he had pulled out of his other pocket.

A grenade.

“This is our home now,” he said with a smile and pulled the pin.
He was still laughing when the grenade went off, killing him, the creature, and taking out a large chunk of the eggs in the large cavern.


Hearing the explosions, more soldiers entered the large cavern to see the thousands of eggs that were left.

They looked around, unsure what they should do, when an officer entered the cavern to asses the situation.

After a short moment, he ordered, “Destroy all the eggs!”

He became irritated when no one moved.

“You know what these will become!” he yelled, so all could hear him. “This is our home now, and we do not share what we conquer!”

Hesitantly, the men began to fan out, none wanting to be the first to start.

The officer pulled out his side arm, pointed at one of the eggs and fired.

Seconds later, the entire cavern erupted into gunfire as the invading army finalized their assault of their new world with the utter destruction of the last of the indigenous inhabitants.
This was their planet now.