Bright Horizons

Chapter 9

10 January 2043

“Yes General, the report I sent you is real. It is not a joke. The timetable has been clarified within the last hour. We are looking at the invasion fleet nearing earth within forty hours. Yes. That is correct. No, we recommend that you abandon your military bases and heavy equipment. Yes… well… I know. We think they will bombard the military bases from orbit before landing near our cities. I know, but you can check your reports and see that we are doing the same. Thank you. Good luck to you to.”

Kyle switched off the phone and rubbed his eyes.

“Do you think he will do it, Colonel?” Major Kitch asked.

“I’m not sure Kitch, I hope so. General Moseved seemed to believe me, but whether he can convince the High Command in time will be the bigger question.” Kyle yawned and looked at the clock. “Looks like we are within the forty hour mark. Have you heard back from Langley yet? We need to have dependents moved from our installations within four hours.”

“Yes sir, everything looks to be good except for a glitch near Aviano.  Apparently the local government is worried about why we are moving our people off the base. I guess the info hasn’t filtered down to that level yet,” Kitch said without looking up from her display.

“Ambassador Thomas will be breaking in on all networks in a few minutes, I guess they’ll learn with everyone else. Well, speak of the devil.” Kyle picked up the remote and turned the sound up on the TV panel on the wall. A news anchor was introducing Ambassador Thomas as he approached the podium at the UN.

“James Thomas is a former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Great Britain and China. He is President emeritus of the Council of Foreign Relations and was the key negotiator for the U.S. in the settlement of the Indian war. He has called for an emergency broadcast, and he is speaking…”

“Thank you Secretary General, Ambassadors, members of the media, the people of the U.S. and the people of the world. A little over a year ago, the U.S. received communications from an alien race.” Thomas had to stop for a few seconds to quiet down the questions being shouted to him.

“Please, please, all of your questions will be answered, but it is vitally important that we get this information out to you. Due to circumstances beyond what we have time to explain at present, another alien race has declared war on us.”

At this point the cacophony was overwhelming. Even Kitch looked up from her screen. She looked at the pandemonium on the screen and then over at Kyle. “Looks like they are taking it pretty well, Colonel,” she said as she poured another cup of coffee.

“That they are, Kitch, that they are.”

A few minutes passed before Thomas was able to be heard clearly again. In fact he was shouting.

“Yes, we have a plan! Yes, we are trying to get information out! Here is the long and short of it, a race called the Iltia’cor have decided to invade Earth and enslave humanity. But we won’t go down! We will fight them where they land and drive them back to the stars. But we don’t have a lot of time. They will be here in less than two days and we need to prepare. Each government has been given information that will help them. The U.S. military will aid in any way we can. But as much as we must fight as a world, we must fight as individual nations, as individual cities, as individual families and as individual people.”

“Each of us, individually, has a stake in this. Each of us, individually, can make a difference. If you see an Iltia’cor come into your village, into your neighborhood, into your home, you need to make sure that he will not kill you, your children or your neighbors. We will not be conquered and we will not be taken!”