then, a murming begins to ripple through the people gathered outdoors, people that seem to have felt compelled to present themselves to the open afternoon sky. except, it doesn't seem like afternoon anymore, the ambient light is dropping quickly, and in minutes instead of hours it is dusk. perhaps an eclipse? but the sun isn't seen through the high-altitude clouds, only a pale, diffuse light surrounds us.
and then, people start noticing the large objects coming down from on high... it's an invasion of nearly-unimaginable proportions. air/spacecraft of various sizes and shapes are descending on the populous, and it doesn't take long to realize that their intent is sinister; small craft are leaving the larger ones, taking off in every direction like a net being dropped upon us all. oddly, there is a failure of panic, as people seem to be succumbing to something unseen that is telling them to just accept it, to give in to whatever this attack is.
I am among a small group of people unaffected by this psychic pacification , and someone is gathering us around, quietly shouting a quickly-cobbled plan to evade the attackers. we begin to run for more defensible ground while the invasion reaches our area, and troops of unfamiliar shapes disembark their transports to begin rounding up their human slaves. I find myself on a mechanical device, something like a skateboard or car, or both and neither, charging through barricades and deserted zones that have already been cleared by the invading forces. the efficiency of the operation only fuels my determination, and I charge on to be sure I maintain my freedom.
it is then that I am confronted by these soldiers from elsewhere, and I come to the realization that I am completely unarmed and unprepared. but I am not alone; resistance fighters have already begin to mobilize, and I am passed by a small group of heavily-armed people who engage the invaders. but is clearly a battle they will not win, and other resisters grab me and bring me away from the fighting.
for it is suddenly made clear to me that I seem to be one of only a few that is completely unaffected by the super/subsonic pulses that are being transmitted to zombify the bulk of humanity. I am in a small confined room, where everyone but myself is wearing something like headphone-helmets; protection from the sounds being used, they tell me. but I am free from the control naturally; the rumbling noise that sounds more like a steady wind is everywhere, and in that noise is something that has enslaved almost all of the human race in just a handful of hours.
I am not frightened by the news, instead I am more convinced that I have to join this fight, that if I am already uniquely positioned I must use it for something. it is not long before it is discovered that my immunity to the enslavement also makes me compatible with the invading forces' technology, things meant for dreams. from tools, weapons, and gear salvaged from defeated enemies, I am equipped with the ability to fly, to be invisible when perfectly still, to teleport in limited ways. more importantly, I am tasked with retrieving the resources being used to fuel the sound that has the human race trapped in zombie-like slavery.
from here the adventure begins. my first battle is at a small research facility up north, an underprotected place due to the enemy's certainty that humans cannot resist the intensity of their mind control here. as I break my way in, I see for the first time these non-human beings without their shock troop outfits... they are somewhat formless, but completely solid. something like bipedal creatures, but with a shape that shifts as light hits them in differet ways. they are unarmed and unprepared, but they are more vicious than any creature I have ever known. I am forced to defend myself as I am swarmed, and despite the slaughter they keep coming.
soon there are dozens of dark creatures that I cannot quite see laying on the floor of the lobby, and I proceed to my target: I am here to rescue some of the early resistance leaders, people that had learned much about how to fight off the attack, some of them scientists that had determined the details of what was happening. by the time of my arrival, their minds are jelly, and I am forced to use the teleportation that I hardly understand. it is painful, it is disorienting, and then it is done. I have returned to the mountain hideout of the human resistance with the five people thought to be able to form a serious counter-attack. but the teleportation has done something; one of them is coughing up blood, and in the minutes leading up to his death he explains that he was somehow tied to the device that was controlling humanity. the teleportation broke him from that connection, and he does not survive.
I am looked to as the only person who can survive the attack on the core of the alien colony on Earth, as there are reports of many resistant human factions that have fallen in their attempts to even enter the facility that the invaders have built. after some planning and discussion with the four surviving "minds" behind the resistance, I am sent on my way. I teleport to a hideout nearby the massive facility, referred to as the "hive," as this is where hundreds of thousands of human slaves have been brought. the facility has been established in a matter of weeks, and seems to be dozens of miles wide, with a peak at nearly a mile above the plains it has been built on. but it is not this central hive that I am approaching; the source of humanity's enslavement is inside one of the large ships that brought the invading forces, landed nearby but more heavily protected than anywhere else I have seen.
as I begin my stealth assault, I slowly discover that there is a leader to this invasion, a sole point of authority in charge of ensuring humanity's fall to the hands of these forces. in discovering this, I also find that this leader is possibly the most dangerous of them all. even more distressing is finding they have learned about my attack, and my immunity, and are on high alert for my attempts to disable their equipment. but my weeks of fighting has made me a more serious threat than they realize, as I am now deep inside the belly of the ship, so incredibly close to my target.
I enter a room that is like a large atrium, with open-air ramps criss-crossing the space in the middle, and netting set into the ceiling upon what appear to be a set of rocket-launchers; they have prepared a last-chance trap for me. but I am moving and stopping, employing the invisibility they they seem unable to penetrate even themselves, and I have nearly reached the source of the slavery... when something in the room, what appears to be a cross between a human and these formless creatures, begins to scream. I look to see it pointing directly at me, and the sound of troops rushing me is deafening. I make one last dash, eliminating several soldiers on my way, and enter the room.
I have found the things used to "tune" the slavery device. various pieces of equipment, all small enough for me to disconnect and place in my pouch. and then a human heart and brain; these from the scientist that died; they are said to be a hard-to-find sample that provides the perfect tuning to zero in on what can control the entire human race. they cannot base their device on just any set of these organs, as the subtle variances would prevent their equipment from working so throughly. and so these are unique, irreplaceable, the only items of their kind that enable the enslavement of the human race.
I stare in disbelief at the simplicity of the scenario, at the vulnerability to their plan, wondering how I could possibly be poised to end it so quickly and easily. and then, the leader of these forces, the most menacingly formless of the formless, enters the room. I hear and understand the creature, though there is not necessarily a speaking... I am being threatened but not killed, and so I take action. I cannot reach the organs, and so I teleport myself inside the tiny chamber that houses them. the creature is outraged, braking orders to bring him a teleporting device so that they can remove me. but their delay is too long, and I destroy each of the organs. I manage to make the closest thing to eye contact with the leader of the invading forces, just before teleporting myself out of the craft.
I am floating in the air a hundred yards from the craft, and the persistent rumbling sound is gone. in the distance, carried on the slight breeze, I hear angry shouting and screams.
I take off towards the hive city, slowly gliding over a mass of people that has formed on the outskirts of the enormous building. I can see a mixture of former resistance fighters, their headgear removed, and people that have come to after weeks of mental numbness. they are surging towards the city, but it is clear that this is not the end of the invasion. an open-roofed area at the edge of the hive reveals a surge of shock troops fighting back, and it is difficult to tell the tide of the battle, as thousands of people and invaders crush against each other in a massive wave of death.
I move further into the hive, mostly observing as the fight below seems to have no form to follow. it is not long before I find familiar places; the central city has been built into, around, and atop a former human city, changing the feel of everything to something more futuristic, something more alien, something wrong. everything here feels wrong, and I am finally drawn into the fighting below. I land in an open area behind some of the invading forces and I obliterate them, turning some of their more devasated weaponry upon them. it is then that I realize that these troops were not prepared for an uprising, and I am a warrior amongst farmers.
I proceed to hollow out the local neighborhood, removing every enemy troop within sight. it is not long before the presence of a safe zone in the city turns the tide of the battle, and the enemy forces turn tail and retreat. within hours the city is secured, and something loosely akin to a hiearchy begins to ref0rm as humanity awkwardly unifies its resistance, housed in the very city meant to keep them enslaved.
in the days that follow, the city springs to life as life there begins to resemble civilization again, complete with greed and theft and selfishness and murder. I retain everything I gained in the battle for freedom, and frequently leave the city to continue the fight against the invasion forces that are still trying to regroup, trying desperately to regain control of their prey.
the future is bleak, as the self-destructiveness of the human race is at an all time high, alongside an extra-terrestrial presence that shares the goal albeit for their own reasons. the balance has swung multiple times now, with humankind's once certain destruction averted, only to be replaced by the previous path towards total civil disintregation... and yet, the sum total of all efforts has gotten us nowhere. somehow, in this drastic shift of scenery, it seems that the end is now certain, and active, and we are all just drawing it out unnecessarily.
-B-
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