Ephemeral-D - Human Diaspora

Bunker

The bunker entrance appeared among the rocky landscape looking down on them like an angry Sphinx. Silence everywhere, the steps the lead to the bunker barred doors were long and down to the mountain base. There were no signs of life.

"How in the hell's name are we going inside Chet? This place looks deserted." Braden said.

"Every survivalist camp received a signal emitter that identifies us as being part of this hideout."

"And why did you tell me this important information just now? You could have died out there and we would be in a bad situation when need arises."

Chet placed his hand on Braden's shoulder.

"Although I don't share the same blood as yours Braden, you're my brother. I couldn't jeopardize the evacuation by sharing too much information. Sorry if I put everyone at risk but there was no time to rule all options out at that moment. All we can..."

A loud creak of interlocking engines interrupted Chet. The massive steel door moved revealing the crowded interior of the bunker. The reception group was a firing squad, ready to shoot, followed by General Furlong. All of them were holding an unknown assault rifle. Furlong greeted them smiling.

"Be welcome to my home survivors! I'm glad you made so far." He said.

"Let's go inside for debriefing, we don't have too much time under our sleeves Chet."

The War Room was full of people coming back and forth. Chet saw communications technicians trying to filter out radio messages from the Xemx, our alien allied. General Furlong explained the current status of the invasion and the perceived enemy strategy.

"Air and ground enemy forces sieged our major cities in every continent."

Showing the map with the latest reports from around the world.

"They first disrupted radio communications, entire networks are down, incapacitated anti-jam satellites, concluding, we can't speak or hear from ourselves."

"On the ground, Pemakan uses small scale nuclear devices in battle to deplete opposing counter attack human forces."

"Nuclear weapons?" Chet said.

"The Pemakan biology resists orders of magnitude higher doses of radiation than us humans, and they have extra protection from their vehicles and exoskeletons."

"In summary Chet, we as a race, can't coordinate our efforts against the invader without continuous communications with decentralized headquarters. We're back to tribal warfare, and so saying, in a far worse position from more organized forces." Furlong said.

"That is some terrible news General. What is the best alternative of survival?"

"Most of humanity are hopeless, but the Xemx prepared two colony spaceships for our retreat efforts. Totaling a capacity of seventy thousand people. But there is a catch, there is always a catch Chet."

"And what is that?"

"These spaceships are human manned, and their pilots need training time to operate the vessel. The Xemx couldn't tell how much time this training could take because they never done it before with humans."

"We have no time to lose General, will the Pemakan allow this to happen?"

"The Xemx don't inform us about their strategy in the grand scheme of things, all we can do is to fully trust them and hope for the best. So help us God!"

The situation is far worse than what Pythia envisioned, thought Chet.

...