Tanks Versus Aliens

Chapter One

Tanks Versus Aliens

Chapter 1

On Planet Tratacor, when the Kragons invaded, everyone who was able, got off the planet as quickly as they could. Those few that remained hid in the mountains and forests.

The Kragons were only interested in taking the resources of the planet so they left the people of Tratacor alone, pretty much.

In a hidden mountain village called Hoopla, lived two boys who had been born after the invasion so they didn't know any other life. Their names were Fargo and Haboy and they were brothers, Fargo being the oldest.

They had never left the valley that the village of Hoopla was in, in all their lives and as they grew older they grew more curious. However, every time they went down the valley or up the river, a grown-up would see them and bring them back to their parents.

'It's not safe!' their mother would say.

'There are horrible aliens all over the planet,' their father would say, 'And they kill people on sight. The Kragons would kill you in an instant. They have Giant Killer Robots you know.'

'What about our army, dad?' Fargo would ask, 'You said they were strong.'

'Yes,' he would say. 'But there were not enough of them. The army had these really intelligent tanks that could destroy the robots easily. It was just that we couldn't build them fast enough. Now run along. You have homework to do.'

The village was small and there were only ten other children. This included their little sister, Wabbles. The next day at school, the teacher was giving them a history lesson on the computer.

'The Tratacorian Army had many tank factories during the war, but the Kragons destroyed all of them. Once our army had been destroyed or run away then they found it very easy to conquer the planet. Most of our people got into special spaceships and went to the next star system.'

'But we stayed, didn't we?' asked Haboy, who was the talkative one.

'Yes, that's right. And we are lucky to have such a nice valley to live in that has lots of food and sheep in it and is nice and sheltered from the weather and hides us from the Kragons. You know, just a few miles away from here there used to be a tank factory, but it was destroyed in the invasion.'

'Where was it?' asked Fargo, suddenly very interested.

'Well, I remember very well,' said the teacher. 'My wife worked there as an administrator. All you need to do is follow the old road out of the valley and it leads you to the factory. This village used to be full of factory workers, you know.'

That night, in bed, Fargo and Haboy were whispering.

'Let's go and look at this factory!' said Fargo quietly.

'When should we go?' replied Haboy.

'Tomorrow is the weekend. We could go in the morning. Let's tell our parents that we are going to look at the sheep and to talk to Joyan the shepherd. We do that all the time anyway.'

'How will we get past the guard post at the bottom of the valley? The sheriff is always there.'

Fargo didn't know, but he really wanted to see the factory, 'We'll think of something.'

In the morning they packed some bags full of food and water and headed off down the valley. Their mother waved at them as they left, it was not unusual for them to be exploring the valley at the weekend.

'Just don't distract Joyan from his sheep, boys! We don't want to lose another one to the wolves!'

The boys nodded and ran off.

At the bottom of the valley they said hello to Joyan, who was a teenager and in charge of looking after the sheep, but they did not stay too long. Instead they kept on going right to the bottom of the valley where the guard post was. The sheriff was sitting at the doorstep of his house smoking his pipe.

'Hello boys,' he said. He was a friendly old man.

Fargo thought about telling the sheriff that Joyan was fighting wolves near the sheep and that he needed the sheriff to come with his rifle, but he didn't want to tell a lie or get anyone into trouble. Instead the boys went to the river and started throwing stones into the pool by the big rocks. It was something that they did all the time, they even swam in the pool on nice days, so the sheriff did not think it unusual.

When he went inside, to get more tobacco, or a cup of tea or something, Fargo said to Haboy, 'Let's go!'

They then ran as fast as they could down the valley and into the forest that lay beyond it.

They had never been in the forest before and Haboy was scared, 'Do you think there are wolves in the forest, Fargo?'

'I dunno, probably.'

They were following a path that had once been a road, but which was now covered in young trees and weeds.

'Do you remember when we heard the hungry wolves howling last winter? And dad went out and shot one of them?' said Haboy, talking because of his fear.

'Yes, but best be quiet. We don't know what else is in the forest. Maybe aliens!'

Haboy walked as close to Fargo as he could.

'We'll just take a look then go home Fargo?' he whispered.

'Yes. No one will even notice we are gone.'

An hour of walking brought them to the ruined factory. To the boys it was a marvellous sight, something way beyond their experience. It had once been a massive brick building, covering acres of land and four storeys tall. It had then been flattened somewhat by the Kragon invasion robots and then overgrown by twenty years worth of weeds and bushes.

'Let's look in one of the sheds,' said Fargo as they walked in through the collapsed gates.

Haboy was curious now too, 'Do you think there will be any tanks?'

'I don't know, but the teacher said they kept them in bunkers, big concrete things. Maybe like that building over there.'

The doors to the bunker had been blasted open and as they walked in they could see that it was empty.

'Huh,' said Fargo, 'Maybe the aliens took them all.'

'Look over there though,' said Haboy pointing at a doorway at the back of the bunker. There was light coming from it.

The approached the door as quietly as they could and looked through it. It lead to a metal stairwell. Silently they decided to go down it, their feet making feint metallic sounds as they went.

At the bottom there was another door and it lead to a bunker much like they had just come from, except for the fact that this one had a tank in it.

It was a wonderful thing for boys to see, who had only ever seen them on the computer before. It was big, painted in green camouflage, had a squat round turret and a long main gun. Mounted on the side of the turret was a machine gun and smoke launchers. The whole tank looked in perfect condition.

'Wow!', said Fargo, 'Let's take a look!'