In the cold night sky in Guam, some kind of floating object glowing behind the clouds. That's the only visible thing but suddenly, a wide light portal opens and a clicking sound can be heard.
From out of the clouds, a cloud of brightly-coloured cubes can be seen. They loop down from the stars and form a stream in a tight formation.
The cubes turn and fly down a dirt road. Their intense force senses waves of powerful wind through the trees. Almost everything they pass by turns pixelated, disintegrating. The cubes zoom past a sign that reads where they heading, Anderson Air Force Base.
Eddie arrived at a mansion in Georgetown and then walked to the door. He was about to push the doorbell but then a pug walked through the doggy door. "Hey, little guy," Eddie said as he immediately put down the board that he holding.
The pug's tail wagged excitedly as it approached Eddie, who bent down to greet the little dog. It sniffed Eddie's hand enthusiastically as if welcoming an old friend. Eddie gave the pug a friendly scratch behind the ears, smiling warmly.
"Well, aren't you a friendly one?" Eddie said, his earlier tense demeanour easing in the presence of the cheerful dog. He stood up, glancing at the grand entrance of the mansion before him. The elegant façade seemed to reflect a life quite different from the one he led now.
"She's a sweet little girl, isn't she?" Eddie looked up to be greeted that supposed to be his customer and he immediately got on his feet along with his board.
"Oh, it's a girl. What's her name?"
"Milky. You're the tech guy, right?"
"Yeah, I am. You're William Jonas, right?" Eddie asked and William nodded.
"Okay. You ordered a service for setting a... gaming area?" Eddie asked as he read down the paper on his board. "Is it for your son?"
"Nah, it's for me. Come on in," Mully invited him and led him to the living room.
"So, what am I installing?"
"Uhh... 90-inch smart TV Full Array LED 4K Ultra HD, PS5, Nintendo and 11.1 surround-sound speakers," William said as he showed all the boxes of the stuff that William wanted Eddie to install.
"Okay, that's a lot of stuff. I'm on it." Eddie said as he started assembling the equipment in the living room, focusing intently on the task at hand.
The base is bustling with the sound of keyboard typing and conversations of some military personnel. A sailor staring intently at a monitor when he noticed something. An array of colourful shapes appear on the monitor and it's moving towards the centre of the screen. The sailor's face fell and then he shouted for his captain.
"Captain Devereux! You need to see this."
A tall tough, middle-aged hatchet of a man with a crewcut, walks up to the sailor and looks the monitor over the sailor's shoulder. His eyes widen in shock. "We're under attack."
Once everything was in place moments later, Eddie turned to William with a smile. "All done! Would you like to test everything out?"
William's face slightly lit up with excitement. "Sure!"
Eddie handed William the controller for the PS5 and the remote for the TV. William eagerly sat down and powered on the system. As the TV screen came to life and the surround sound filled the room, William let out a delighted chuckle.
Chaos disrupts the base. Servicemen run out to man their posts. Fighter pilots run down the tarmac towards their jets. A pilot stops before getting in his plane and looks up the air to know what is his and his friends' facing head on. When he looks up, he confused to some flying cubes and attacking the base.
"What the hell are those things?"
The sailor earlier runs out to see what's going on. He's stunned as he suddenly bathed in light. He raises his pistol and begins firing upward.
Suddenly, the pistol disintegrates into pixels, followed by the sailor's hand, his arms and then his whole body. The pixels rise up... disappearing into the light.
"Okay. Everything's working, the sound is great, it's smooth and all. Thanks. How much-" William was about to ask when he got a call. "Hello?... Yeah- Wait what?"
While William is talking on his phone, Eddie also gets a call and groans when he sees it is Grant. He was about to reject the call but picked it up anyway.
"What do you want? I told you don't care about me."
"No, I'm not talking about what we talked about earlier but can you come to the White House?" Grant asked. Eddie's eyebrows were drawn together in confusion by the invite.
"Um... what exactly did you get me involved in?"
"Eddie, just come. This is important just come here."
"Fine. In 15." Eddie said and hung up. He turned around to see William already gone and a stack of money with a note said "no change" beside it. Refusing to take it all, he took only the amount that William needed to pay and left the change before got in his van. He drove, speeding to the White House and stopped at a red light. He hears a horn beside him and looks over to see William in his car and signaling Eddie to slide the window down.
"Are you following me?" William yelled.
"No, I'm not," Eddie replied and peeled out when the light turned green. Eddie looks in his rearview and sees William is right on his tail. Eddie was confused and scared a bit but just continued driving. They both eventually pull up to the gate of the White House. Eddie inhales in relief when William shows his card and realises that William actually goes to the White House instead of following him.
"Go right on in, Lieutenant Colonel ." The guard said as he stepped aside and let William in and then Eddie.
Both Eddie and William walk quickly down a hallway in the West Wing. Eddie notices the White House is in havoc. Everyone is worried, panicked and very much in a rush. A woman sees them and approaches them.
"Colonel Jonas, you can go right into the Situation Room." She said and William was about to walk off but was stunned when he heard what the assistant said after it.
"Mr Saucedo, the President is waiting for you in the Oval Office." She said and Eddie nodded and walked to the office.
Grant leans against his desk, worried. He looks up when he hears a door closing. "Can you at least change, bro?"
"You told me to come right over, fool! Grant, what's going on? It's crazy out there like baby spiders." Eddie said as he walked to the desk. Grant sighed.
"Our naval base in Guam was attacked tonight."
"By who? Israel after you destroy the country?" Eddie asked.
"Not sure but I'm sure it's not from this fucking planet and that's why I'm asked you to be here," Grant said as he sat on his chair and gestured for Eddie to stand beside him. Eddie intrigued, goes to the desk and stands beside Grant to look at the monitor that Grant has on his desk. Grant hits play on a video and they see grainy, shaky footage of the Guam attack. The ships and the bugs. Eddie recognized the distinctive noise from it. Eddie is amazed as he watches.
"Ain't that sound familiar to you?" Grant asked.
"Yeah, too familiar to my liking and the situation in the hallway. Hold it and stop." Eddie said and Grant immediately paused the footage. "Can you zoom in and enhance a bit?" Eddie said and Grant zoomed in and enhanced it.
"Is that I think it is?" Grant asked as he pointed at the bright cubes on the footage.
"Yeah, unless we're in a simulation like Gaege always said back at our school." Eddie then interrupted by a door opening and they both look up to see Grant's assistant walks in.
"They're ready for you, Mr President."
"Okay. Now I have to explain that we're invaded by a fucking arcade to bunch of boomers. Watch it again, Ed. See if you can find anything else that might help us. Not just us, a whole fucking country."
"Can I sit on the chair?" Eddie asked. Grant stopped and looked around the office and then gave him a thumbs up before closing the door. Eddie giggled excitedly and sat on the President's chair.
