He warned us, for weeks he told us they were watching him but no one took him seriously. My little brother was always living in a dream world of his own creation. For him superheroes flew through the sky and fought epic battles outside his window and when the villains came knocking I was always there, I’d hear him cry out in the night and go to him without hesitation, mum regularly found me in his room in the morning cuddled up. I would always tell him the same thing in those early hours of the morning when the sun was yet to show it’s face above the horizon, “I’ll protect you little brother, no one will hurt you while I’m around”. But I failed, when he really needed me I wasn’t there.
They grabbed him on a Wednesday as he took the short walk to school, witnesses described such a stereotypical kidnapping that it didn’t sound real, a van pulled up, the side door slid open and before anyone could react he was gone. A parent near by got a number plate and the police arrived quickly but there was no trace, nothing. That was 13 years ago. The police investigation has never been officially closed but one detective working his way to retirement isn’t likely to find anything new. My parents fell apart after it happened, a happy marriage was filled with bitterness and sadness, it still took 5 years before my father decided he’d reached the end of the road and left. My mother kept frantically searching for 8 years, pouring everything she had into putting up posters and chasing down sightings but she never got anywhere and eventually her heart couldn’t take it anymore. I’m all my little brother has left.
It was hard for a teenage boy to find any useful information, it’s got easier as I’ve got older but finding the right type of criminals isn’t easy at any age. These people live in the deepest shadows but I’ve got closer with every step and now, tonight, I find myself sat outside a darkened warehouse on the outskirts of town. During the day this place is a hive of activity, shipping products out to waiting clients in their hundreds and thousands, at night my information suggests it’s used for very different purposes. As I watch a van approaches and two men get out before unloading several bundles in through the open doors of the warehouse, one of the bundles struggles as I watch but they don’t have the strength to free themselves from these people. I watch for another hour as other vehicles arrive and people make their way inside, as soon as I’m sure they are all inside I start work, I’ve been working in this warehouse for months so a lot is already prepared, securing the doors is easy enough. Turning the power off is quickly achieved and the work I’ve done makes sure the fire takes hold quickly and spreads fast. As the screams start to ring out from inside I move away and leave them in their suffering. My brother is long dead, of that I have no doubt, the children these “men” had taken probably could have been saved but justice must be swift and final. I made a promise, a promise I couldn’t keep, my new promise made stood in the spot where my brother was taken will be kept “I promise you little brother, they will all burn”
The creatures were huge and relentless, rushing the lines heedless of casualty’s. From the moment they had first made ground fall the war had been a constant cycle of retreats with little hope of success and then, just as all hope was lost the advance stopped. Odd skirmishs still took place occasionally but the aliens unstoppable advance had proven that “unstoppable” was actually the wrong word for it. Huddled in trenches up and down humanities last line of defence soldiers held their breath for hours, days then weeks waiting for the hammer to fall. Every minor incursion was treated like a full scale assault, tension constantly twanged like a bow string in every soldiers muscles.
The soldiers of delta squad, 4th company, were no different to any others, they had held the line and fought with all they had throughout the war knowing their very survival was at stake. In recent weeks they had become accustomed to the routine of watching and waiting so when their moment came they were ready. A single bug, apparently trying something new, rose out of the muck and detritus in front of delta’s trench line having burrowed forward under the surface. Massively, monstrously tall, carried on six gleaming chitinous armoured legs with a glowing energy weapon, that no one had successfully been able to analyse or explain, where it’s mouth should be it pushed forward towards the trench as delta squad with practiced skill opened fire pouring shot after shot into it’s torso in hopes of hitting or creating a weak spot that would allow them to bring this creature down. As the energy weapon at it’s front began to charge up ready for a shot that the squad knew meant almost certain death to any caught in it’s path they redoubled their efforts. Bellowing war cries some of the squad leapt from the trench and charged round to the flanks to try and distract the creature from their comrades still in place. Just as all seemed lost and the glow from it’s gaping maw seemed to be reaching a crescendo delta found their opening, a single armour plate buckled and then failed in the creatures flank and a shot found the soft flesh beneath, the creature bucked sideways as more shots found their mark and the roaring energy beam from it’s mouth blasted into the sky leaving the squad unharmed. The creature made one last effort to stand before slumping down dead and defeated.
Delta squad continued to hold the line in this way and like all of their comrades proved the fighting heart of humanity for another six months before the alien creatures finally made their last push and wiped out the last of the colonists on Selena Vega. Why their assault paused as it did no one can explain but that pause and those brave soldiers bought humanity time to devise better defensive strategies against the oncoming hoard. The war has cost us much but we have held the line, the bugs will not defeat us, delta and all their comrades will not have died in vain.
