The Great War

The Eve of The War

Years ago, there was a "Great War", one that the world had never seen before. One that changed and shaped humanity from that point forward. It changed the way we saw our lives and our world. I was living alone and was maybe only 17 or 18. The news came on late one night while I was watching something and seemed different. There was a sense of urgency in the way the reporter was talking that i had never felt before. I know why it was like that now, but back then? I would never have guessed that we were being invaded by otherworldly creatures. I would never have guessed that somewhere out in space so close to us, would inhabit life, hostile life at that. The reporter began to speak, "There have been sightings of what seem to be meteors falling and hitting all over the world! They have touched down in places like Japan, Russia, Australia, Africa, America, and many other countries! If you see what looks to be a meteor falling towards the ground, take shelter immediately!"
The news would cut off abruptly and the show I was watching came back on. "What the hell?" I wondered to myself, "something like this has never happened before."
I got up and wandered outside, people were in the street talking. I could hear some of their conversations, some being a highly intellectual type, while others were conspiracies. "It's the Russians, they're trying to start a war with us." was something I heard while walking down the street.
"Something like this happens every hundred years or so, I did a 16-page assignment on it back in college. It really isn't something to worry about." someone else said

A bright light started emitting from the clouds, piercing the sky. The meteor was huge, nothing that would devastate us but it was large in size, looked to be about the size of a passenger jet. It got closer and closer to the ground until it finally hit close-by. The ground shook violently and we all were nearly knocked off our feet, some even did fall. A large plume of smoke began to emit where the meteor hit the ground. Some of us started to wander in its direction, some went inside and stayed there, assuming that more were bound to hit closer.
I joined the people moving towards the fallen meteorite. As we got closer, we could hear what sounded like metal hammering from the crash site, the sounds of machines working away at something. Parts of the meteorite had been burned away, revealing a silver cylinder underneath the rock coating. My eyes widened in horror as I realized that this wasn't just a meteorite; it was a weapon or machine of some sort. Suddenly, rock was flung in several directions and steam started to shoot out of holes where the rock once was. I turned around and ran. Whatever this was, was being activated. I didn't care whether there was a person inside operating a machine or if it was just a missile, getting ready to explode.

Once i got back to my house, I quickly gathered up a few things, just in case the worst happened. I grabbed a flashlight with spare batteries, my old handheld radio, a few bottles of water, a few different types of food, and a few other things. I stuffed all of it into my old hiking bag and brought it down to my basement, along with a thick jacket i had on a rack. It felt like i was down there waiting for hours. Through my basement window, i could see the cloud of smoke where the meteorite was. Every hour or so, i could hear more meteors falling to earth, landing nearby. The night grew closer and closer, and with it, so did the impending sense of destruction.
I started to grow tired and i eventually fell asleep. In the middle of the night, i awoke to a bright flash and violent shaking from a meteor touching down so close that i could feel the heat. The loud sound of an explosion had me wide awake. Then there was another and another. This wasn't just a meteor touching down, something else was happening. Something nearby was causing explosion after explosion.
I raced over to the window that looked out to the street and then I saw it; a giant war machine. It was nearly 7 stories high, and it stood on 3 metal legs. On the bottom of its head, it looked as if there was some sort of advanced weapon. When the weapon was fired, it emitted a green glow, alongside a green bolt of energy. The face of the machine sat on a piece that could rotate 360 degrees horizontally. Before i could get a good look at the face itself, the machine let out a deafening sound, and another machine called back to it. The machine began to walk down the street towards the edge of town, and soon enough it was out of view.

The sound of its metallic marching soon became quiet, and i went upstairs, wondering if leaving my home to try and find refuge with the military was the right choice. The military had to have already been deployed right? Wouldnt they already be fighting back against these invaders? The entirety of the US seemed to be under attack so what if we didn't have enough firepower? What if we ran out of soldiers? These thoughts clouded my head as I walked up my basement stairs with my bag on my back, ready to leave my home.