CHAPTER 1
It began as a mere pin prick of light in a part of the sky thatis normally reserved for the deep infinite darkness of space. Witheach succeeding evening, this pin prick gradually grew in intensityuntil it equaled the glow of a distant star. At first it drew absolutelyno attention from anyone, to include the banks of telescopes andsatellites that look outward into the heavens searching for theobjects that could well have the earth in its sights. Instead, it wouldbe an old retired astronomer who would finally point out this newanomaly. As the old man gazed through his backyard telescope,he noticed that not only was the light growing in intensity, itappeared to be wavering on its track. Assuming he'd discovereda new phenomenon worthy of reporting, he contacted several ofhis old friends at NASA. Shocked and amazed, they then pointedall of their resources towards this new object that was now clearlyhurtling towards us. Unfortunately, their efforts would be too little,and far too late, for us to avoid the inevitable events that wouldchange our lives, and the lives of our children, for generations tocome.
When the news broke, it was just another little blurb,something hidden in the SciTech portions of various news outletson the internet. For most, it was just another newly discoveredanomaly in our skies which, while interesting, was not somethingso unheard of to spark any foreboding or even significant interest.As a society, we were far too busy following our social media,the endless reality TV shows, and the 24/7 news cycles about thevarious wars and conflicts that always seem to circle our globe. Itwould seem that very few of us were interested enough to peer intothe dark void, or even show any curiosity about what was coming.This oddly shaped light with the wobbling track was just onemore light in the night sky. How could it compete with whethera star wore a certain bathing suit as she frolicked nearly nude onthe beaches of the Riviera, or with the latest marriage or divorceof another celebrity? No, we knew we were the masters of ouruniverse and, therefore, life was simple and devoid of any threatbeyond what we already knew about. As with most things, we werewrong.
The first real sign of trouble came when the light appearedto grow significantly in size to the few of us who chose to beobservers. I can recall standing out on my back deck, sipping ascotch and gazing into the sky, wondering at the power of theuniverse. Being somewhat curious, I was looking into the portionof the sky mentioned in an online article, with the hope of beingable to see this marvel of science. As I looked up, I would watchthe light and ponder what it could mean. I noticed that the intensityof the light seemed to change, and there was just a slightlyominous cast to it. For some reason, that to this day I can't explain,my observations triggered a small feeling of concern or sense offoreboding. Assuming it was just paranoia, I made it a point to startwatching this thing every evening. That first night, it was just thesize of a small star at a great distance, but I began to notice thatover the next several days, it seemed to be growing. While it grewis size, I would stand on my deck, sipping my scotch, and justmarvel at the show as this thing would almost "wink" at me in thedark sky.
That last evening, as the world slipped from its blissfulignorance into stark terror, I specifically recall that the light wasso eerie looking that I hollered for my bride to come see "thisdamn thing". It was much larger in the sky and had a rather oddcolor to it. While reflected light is one thing, this object seemedto be emitting its own color. As we both watched, it appeared toalmost change direction, as if it were being manipulated by someunknown force, and then return to the original course. We bothlooked at each other in an attempt to confirm what we had justwitnessed. Looking back on it, we were completely mesmerizedby what we were seeing and hardly noticed the incessant ringing ofmy cell phone.
I guess here it would be a good place to digress a little tomention our respective backgrounds. My lovely wife, Leah, is anEnglish teacher. Extremely academic, she is one of those specialpeople who can excel at anything she wishes to pursue. Her skillsin her "primary" field are easily eclipsed by her skills in bothmath and science. Skills that, over the course of the next few days,would serve us well and probably save our lives. In fact, it was herlove of the sciences that led to our standing outside on this warmspring evening to observe the newly found astral phenomenon. Myprofessional standing was more of a mixed bag. I had retired oncefrom military service and was attempting to pursue a second careeras an attorney. This new career lasted only for a short time beforea return to the old career was mandated by world events. In whatwould be two more wars and several new conflicts, I was now overten years older and still tied to the military as a Reserve Officer. Iwas far more fortunate than most in my new field of intelligence,since my progression led me ultimately to the temporary rankof Lieutenant General. I was quite resigned to the fact that thisrank was more honorary than meaningful. I was in charge of verylittle but, instead, a face to put out to our allies in an attempt tonegotiate or gather intelligence through the "back door." Mostof these efforts were focused primarily on several old friends inother nations, most of whom I had served with as a young specialoperator several decades ago in the darker corners of our globe.
So, on that fine April evening I was standing there on thedeck with that glass of scotch, just another old man who hadgrown weary from watching his fellow man constantly engage inludicrous acts for idiotic reasons. Simply put, I was an old soldierthat would always be ready to run towards the sound of gunfire,but who now could only run at a pace that would cause a youngerman to laugh. On that fateful evening, you would have found aGeneral without an Army, at the twilight of his career, watchingthe opening salvo in what would be the worst single military defeatin recorded history. Sadly, none of us knew or understood whatwas about to happen, but we all could see that what was comingwas not something normal. Oh, sure, we'd all seen the specialsand movies in popular culture about near-earth events, asteroids,meteors, and the trails of comets. Usually, these specials, and thediscussions that went with them, were all designed to scare peopleinto being more aware of the universe around us, and mainly toraise money to fund the projects that would detect and stop theseevents from ending our existence.
We had also seen movies about space aliens and alien predatorspervade our culture for decades. What we didn't see were thespecials and movies about what to do if this wasn't just a naturalevent or was, in fact, something quite alien in nature. In those days,before that spring evening, those who spoke of aliens or UFOs wereoften the subject of laughter or derision. Unfortunately, today thereis no more laughter about such things. Not anymore. Now thesestatements are simply acknowledged with just a nod of the head, orthe passing comment of "no shit!" On this fine evening, we just didnot see that the worst was coming, like a runaway freight train, orthat there would be very little that we could do to stop it.
As I looked at my wife, she finally broke eye contact, andsimply said, "Honey, your phone!" She looked back upwards and Idutifully answered the phone, while still casting my gaze back onthe odd light in the sky. It had grown now, and I noticed that it wasgrowing to the size of a very small rock. The voice on the otherend of the line was, well, in a word, panicked. The disbelief andthe tone of the caller immediately made me look away from thesky and focus on the conversation. "Sir, we've got a problem!" Theduty officer was slightly out of breath and, you could tell, quitescared. I asked him what was going on, and his response sent aninstantaneous chill up my spine.
"Sir, they have activated the COG plan, and you are to getyour family prepared to move within the next four hours, lessif you can swing it." I responded that I couldn't believe it. "TheContinuity of Government Plan? Really?" The duty officer said"Yes, sir," and then continued, "Sir, we are sending you a car,driver, and a force protection level IV security detail. Just packlight. Space is at a premium." Then, almost as an afterthought,he said, "OH, and the Chairman said for you to immediatelydeactivate your locator and keep your personal weapon handy.I'm also to tell you that you are to be prepared to assumecommand of NORTHCOM, once we can get you evacuated totheir headquarters." He then added a sobering comment, "Sir, wearen't sure of any details, but it looks as though there is somethingVERY weird going on in Washington. We've already lost track ofmost of our key personnel, and the Chairman is going nuts tryingto raise anyone at the Pentagon or anywhere else in Washington. Itis like they just disappeared off the planet!"
Naturally, I had a ton of questions, but could only squeak outthe response that I could be ready within the hour, and to keep meupdated with any changes. As I raced into the house, my wife wasasking me, "What is going on?" I gave her the same speech I wasgiven, and she scampered to grab our "go to hell bag." Somethingmy bride had always made sure we maintained around the housewas a pre-packed bag for just about any emergency. Whether itwas a hurried response to a death in the family or a hurricaneevacuation, my bride had it covered in one of several "go to hellbags." I finished throwing on a field uniform and tossed a few ofmy extra uniforms into my kit bag. Then I grabbed my web gearand began my weapon check. I chose several of my old standbyfavorites for personal protection, and then I took the time to check,load, and give my bride her pistol "just in case." Her pistol was theone I was issued when I was first promoted to Brigadier Generaland, frankly, I hated it. She, on the other hand, actually liked the9mm, while I preferred the more traditional and hard hitting .45automatic.
In the meantime, my wife had changed clothes and was nowdecked out in blue jeans and boots with her weapon alreadystrapped to her leg. I looked at her and asked if she was "headed tothe OK corral?" Her reply was anything but glib.
"No, smart ass, from what you've said, something not onlyisn't right, but right now my woman's intuition is off the charts."When she said this, and almost as an afterthought, I found my old12 gauge shotgun, checked it, and then tossed it into my kit bag.My only thought was that "you never know when a scatter gunwill make a difference." Again, I don't know what triggered thatthought but, as it turned out, it was a damn good choice that wouldprobably save us in less than 12 hours.
During this entire time, as we were getting ourselves together,millions of Americans, to include us, tried to listen to the newsto discover what was happening. I think what drove the severityof the situation home to me was that the news went from a clearsignal describing small but odd events, to simply no longertransmitting anything that you could watch or really hear. It wasobvious, even to someone that only followed the entertainmentnews, that something was wrong. Even the local channels werecompletely ghosting, with lots of static and just enough soundto convey the clear message that something unexpected washappening around the country and that the impact was huge. WhenI checked my cell phone again, it was completely useless.
Then, suddenly, the power went out. It was a complete failuretoo, not just the house lights and electrical things that plugged intoa wall, but a failure that included anything that required a battery.It had even taken out the regular phone lines. I listened as my wifemuttered a "Well, doesn't that suck! Hey, Mike, come take a lookat this?"
At this point, I was no longer curious about the power or thephone. There was no question that these were the clear signs of anelectro-magnetic pulse failure of any item that required electricityto function. Whether this was global or local, I had no way ofknowing. What I did realize was that our leaving with a driver, orthe arrival of a security team, just became very unlikely and that, ifwe were to survive, it would be on us to make it happen.
When my wife called to me, I stepped back out on the deck,and we both instinctively looked up. The light in the sky was nowabout the size of a small moon, and it was no longer wavering.Emitting from it were various other streaks of light that, at first,appeared to be like falling stars, but were moving much moreslowly and far too deliberately to be "falling." I recognizedimmediately that they were moving like aircraft and that the oddsof them being friendly were just about nil. I told my wife to "grabyour other weapon, grab your bag, and let's get the hell off thisdeck." Without a second's hesitation, she did exactly what I wasdoing, which was to put on my web gear, chamber a round in myM-4 carbine, and grab my kit bag. The only difference was thatshe was doing the same thing with my old 9mm, and at the sametime snatching her infamous "go to hell bag." Without any furtherhesitation, we were both down the back deck stairs, across theyard, and into the woods beyond in less than 2 minutes. Once wewere well under cover, we took up a vantage point near a drainageculvert that was within sight of the house and road, but still insidethe wood line. It was there that we took up our initial positions andwaited. As it turned out, we didn't have to wait long.
I had previously identified this as a good hiding spot if theneed ever arose to move quickly, but I had no idea that those fewminutes spent looking around several years ago would now be socritical. Within a few minutes of our assuming our positions, wenoticed that the sky was now completely black. We could no longersee the stars or the moon, but we could both sense that there wassome kind of movement right over our house. Something was thereand, even though we couldn't make out the size or shape exactly,it was above our home and not moving. A small shaft of lightbegan to sweep over the house, and began a sweep that moved everoutward. Immediately thinking of our own Infrared capabilities, Iwhispered to my wife to "get back into that culvert, and lie downas low as you can go in the water." What was obvious to me wasthat something or someone was now searching for us and, whileit was not a good solution, it was the only one we had at themoment. When we got settled in the water, we were each facingan opposite end of the culvert with our weapons ready. After whatseemed hours but was probably only minutes, we heard a rustlingright outside where we were hiding. The movement was hardlyperceptible, at least at first, but then it became more regular andwas clearly headed towards our hiding place.
Peering into the darkness, I was about to release the safety onmy weapon when a small house cat appeared at the entrance of ourcold, damp hiding place. Taking a deep breath and slowly relaxing,it was quite apparent that we weren't the only things that wantedto seek shelter from whatever was hovering over our house. Thecat was looking inside and seemed to make the decision that itwas going to climb into the culvert with us, when it suddenly justdisappeared, almost like it had evaporated or disintegrated. Sensingrather than seeing it, there was most certainly something outsidethat was observing or inspecting the concrete tube in which wewere hiding. I removed the safety and took aim at the approximatecenter of mass that comprised the opening of our concrete tube.When I did, I nudged my bride and pointed to the end of ourconcrete tube. She quietly assumed the same position, ready,aiming outwards in her direction. There was little doubt that, if wewere to die in place, we were going to do our level best to take afew of the bastards with us. We each took aim and waited for anysign of movement or even a little sound that would let us know thatwe were being observed. Again the minutes drug into what seemedto be hours and we waited. I could feel Leah's warmth against meand feel her breathing, otherwise there was nothing.
