Invasion

Chapter 6 - First Encounter

8th June 2071

I awaken. My whole body is surprisingly warm, the Cryosleep Containment must heat up when the timer has finished. I spend no time lying around. I climb out of the containment, drips of liquid soaking the ship floor. I check the navigation system to see how far I'm away from Earth; Approximately 10,000,000km, around 9 hours left. I search out my window to see if Aurora has woken up as well, but her lights are off. I sit down in my piloting chair, and settle my feet on the dashboard. I grab my phone out of my pocket, I should plan some tactics.

***

I hear a sound from the cabin. I quietly sneak towards the door, and open it as slow as possible. I let out a sigh of relief. It's only my holovision, another message.

"Accept"

As the same as last time, the message disappears, but Aurora isn't there.

"Hello?"

"Oh, hi! Can you just wait a sec"

"How was your 9 day sleep? You certainly love to sleep in"

"I sure do. I'm ready for today's mission"

"What are you doing?"

"I don't know, something with the navigation system; and the heating system. They won't work"

"What are they doing?"

"The heating system is stuck on 35 degrees, this spacesuit's killing me! And the navigator, says I'm about to crash into the sun!"

"Yeah my heating system won't change from 30 degrees. Cheap Mars Infinity crap"

"How long till Paris?"

"I'll check my system"

"Okay"

...

"400,000km, about half an hour. The moon's coming up"

"Thanks, you gonna take photos?"

"Na, I've already got bad quality moon photos. No need for more"

"Well, I'm taking photos. I'll probably communicate to you through the radio during the fight"

"Alright then, talk to you later. Bye"

"Bye"

I switch off the holovision, and wait until I enter Earth's atmosphere.

I think to myself. No more practice, this is it. I will either live, or die trying.

***

The blue planet approaches me, and my ship begins to slow from 1,000,000km/h to only 1,000km/h. My body sways forward from the constant slowing motion. After a whole ten minutes of slowing, our ships reduce to 1,000km/h and begin re-entry to the Earth.

The atmosphere fades from a dark thermosphere, to a bright troposphere in minutes. I can see the sunlight piecing through the dense clouds below. It was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen, well, besides Aurora. The moment froze in time. Suddenly, a glowing object soared past me, I hardly saw it. The push up the throttle, trying my best to follow this thing. It disappears under the clouds, and Aurora contacts me.

"What was that?"

"I think it's an alien fighter. I'm gonna follow it"

I dash downwards, Aurora following me. My ship penetrates the clouds and I'm revealed the destruction these aliens do. Almost every single building had been damaged in some way, with outraged fires ruling inside. Hundreds of alien fighters are patrolling the city; shooting the hell out of their 'laser' weapons. Many human spacecrafts are fighting back, most of them losing. I search the ground for any action. Debris and dead human bodies cover most of the surface. I sight a spider-like shadow crawling out of a crash landed alien fighter. Another glowing object soars past me, with the rear end of the craft sighting damaged. A human spacecraft follows it, but fails to catch. The damaged fighter rapidly speeds up, and then disappears into nothingness with a white flash. Do these aliens have warp drives?