“Fuck!”, Simmons yelled after a bump in the road caused him to spill hot coffee all over his new red overalls, “We’re not even there yet and I’m already spilling shit!”.

“Ah don’t worry.” Davies chimed in, not even looking up from her magazine, “Its just the company coffee- I’m sure it’ll just turn to ash in a few minutes.”.

I try to sit back and tune out again but I can’t help but feel on edge. We weren’t briefed on where exactly we were going or what in the world we’d be doing once we got there- where ever “there” even is. Most assumed it was a routine search-and-rescue operation, but that wouldn’t explain why a military convoy was leading the way there or why we were given rifles. Davies keeps joking that we’re gonna go occupy and annex Atlantis but honestly, after all the preparation and commotion, it wouldn’t surprise me if we were.

All week I’ve been hearing news about mysterious trails of junk and debris scattered all over the place. In Siberia they apparently found some bodies too, although they wouldn’t release any pictures and the number of bodies found keeps changing with every report- which definitely doesn’t help my anxiety with this whole thing.

The truck came to a sudden halt throwing most of us forwards- thank god Simmons didn’t have much coffee left. I can’t tell if we’ve actually made it thanks to the completely blacked out windows of the van, but a sudden series of taps on the van doors soon answers that question for me. We grab our gear and Davies pushes open the van doors, sending a burst of white light into our unready eyes. I hop out of the van and as my vision adjusts I finally notice that we’ve somehow ended up in freezing, snow-covered mountains- a far cry from the rainy shores of Seattle where we started our journey from.

I look back towards the rest of my team and notice them all staring towards something in the distance- likely at the reason we’re here. I expected it to be something surprising, but what I didn’t expect was to see Davies, usually so apathetic about everything, with the look of shock plastered across her face. Once I saw what they were staring at however, I soon understood why even Davies was so surprised.

It was incredible. If it weren’t for the other teams already working on the thing I would’ve assumed it was some sort of hallucination or trick- but here it is. It was almost right out of some TV show or movie, but it was completely massive. It was THE classic UFO- something I’d draw as a little kid here, in front of me.

I looked over and realized that Simmons had completely dropped his mug, the coffee leaking out into the snow below him as he was completely transfixed by the object.

The commanding officer walked up to us, “Isn’t she a sight to behold? Omega Team, I want you to get started on th-“ he was interrupted by a gunshot that rang out from within the ship. After a moment of silence, a second burst out, followed by the silhouette of one of our men stumbling out of the ship, collapsing just outside. As the snow around him began to turn red, a medical team rushed over to take him away.

Somewhat sheepishly, the commander looked back at us, “...so as I was saying... I’d uh like your team inside the ship working on salvaging any navigation systems it may have onboard. I’m to understand you all brought your issued weapons? Yes? Very good. Once you’ve gotten settled please start on that immediately. Dismissed.”.

Simmons looked as if he was about to vomit and Davies’ face was still painted in the same mix of shock and fear.

I on the other hand, could not be more excited to get started.