Horizon

War

HAAR's boats swarmed the site like ants on food left in the open. James Minton, a high ranking HAAR officer, watched as a ship pulled an alien canon from the rubble at the bottom of the sea. Several engineers used the most advance cutting tools to carve parts of the hull into a panels. The armor was so resilient, it took two hours to cut a one foot by one foot panel out, and these were the thin parts of the armor. Fortunately, the majority of the ship was in tact. Ultimately, three alien power cells, seven turrets, two cannons, 400 hull panels, three forcefield generators, two tons of alien fuel, and several alive but wounded alien were recovered, along with invaluable information and several flight and battle computers. However one of the best finds, was a fleet of relatively unharmed small alien fighters. The recovery proved to be turning point in human technological advancement. Interrogation from the captured aliens revealed how to operate the recovered alien equipment, several important alien attack plans, and general information on the background of many of the species in the aliens' empire. Oddly enough, no speakers were on board. However, even though HAAR was capable of operating the recovered alien technology, they choose to rather dismantle and reverse engineer the technology instead. Rathchild made the argument that, while the alien technology would be far more advanced than anything we could produce from it, if we used the alien technology outright it would almost permanently hinder human technological advancements. Why would we need to advance if we already had unfathomable power? However through reverse engineering the technology, humanity would learn more about the alien construction and thus flaws, as well as maintain a strive to advance technologically. Many disagreed with him, arguing we needed to keep the technology in top notch condition, for there was not enough time to advance on our own. Eventually, Rathchild's idea won the popular vote, and after months of covert engineering and small skirmishes with aliens, we became more than a thorn in the aliens' side. While the aliens' canons and turrets used plasma, the new human fighters focused their weaponry on high powered lasers. After all, lasers could pass through a forcefield as they were simply light, and the forcefields were mostly transparent. There were small turrets that fire plasma, but lasers were used primarily against alien ships. Eventually, with use of surprise attacks, the new human fighters brought down five alien ships, and this is when the true war began. A ship about twice as big as the others descended in the middle of Washington DC. Immediately, HAAR forces scrambled to surround the ship, but even though the fighters' lasers were so advanced, they could not puncture through the forcefield of this ship. Whenever a laser struck, that area of the forcefield immediately became opaque.

Läkvör descended from the belly of the ship. No apparatus held him, he simply slowly floated down. When he landed, he walked to the edge of the forcefield and spoke. His voice was heard by every human, "We appeared to Earth for our own purposes. You could have avoided this. You could have submitted. Instead you fought. We destroyed the inhabitants of Paris to assert dominance and quell rebellion, but instead you push more, even destroying six of our ships. When I saw the first ship explode into hellfire, I said, 'How can this be? How can they be so, unintelligent?' But then, instead of retaliating, I peacefully observed your fascinating animals. I saw bees, so feeble minded, aggressively attacking an aggressor they never can hope to defeat, for no reason other than to defend their worthless hive. Just. Like. You. I considered giving you another chance, proving that I was better than the bear who just destroyed and harvested the entire hive when attacked, but then you brought down five more ships. So I have lost my patience," Läkvör slowly reached up, and grabbed his hood with his slender arms, and pulled it down. For the first time, humans laid eyes on the face of a speaker. A strange, amphibious face. It appeared almost like the stereotypical "gray" alien, except it was a light purple, and its eyes were a small and cyan. All over his face were strange green patterns that appeared unnatural, but were nonetheless part of its skin. Läkvör slowly looked around at the crowd, and both the markings on his face and his eye began to glow. The crowd around him began screaming and flailing, then became calm. Läkvör called out, "It is unavoidable," and swiped his hand to the left. The crowd was flung to the left. A ramp descended from the belly of the ship, and an army of various aliens marched, and led by Läkvör, attack the city, exterminating all. The army consisted of "gray" aliens, speakers that were not wearing hoods, large brute like creatures, small blue creatures with wings, the gas creatures, and many others. It was clear now to the HAAR operatives, just how extensive this so called, "Empire of Horizon," really was. It must have incorporated hundreds of worlds to have so many sentient species in its army, but that raised a question: why Earth?