Terror on Arrival: An Apocalyptic Science Fiction Novel

One of the soldiers ran up to Jayde and Alexi from the group. They seemed prepared for their endeavor.

The soldier saluted Jayde and spoke to Alexi. “Sergeant, our meeting has been completed, and I believe we are ready to get it on, Sergeant!”

Alexi looked concerned. “It sounds like you are a little too ready for this exercise.”

Jayde looked at the soldier in a scolding motherly way. “Didn’t I just say being gung-ho about this mission would be detrimental to your life!?”

“Yes you did, Ma’am! I apologize for my choice of words, Ma’am! I will rephrase it to, our discussion has been completed, and we are ready, Ma’am!” the soldier corrected his attitude.

“Tell the Scouts to wait for orders, and the rest are dismissed,” Alexi said.

The soldier returned to the group, and issued the orders.

“You may have to work overtime in controlling these overzealous soldiers,” Jayde said to Alexi.

“It will be difficult to deprogram these soldiers. Their commanders have been beating over-zealousness into their heads ever since basic training,” Alexi said.

“You’ve trained people how to endure the weather in Siberia. I think Siberian blizzards beat American basic training attitude any day,” Jayde said.

“The one advantage I had over my people was just that, they were my people. A Russian soldier can respect his superior. I have never seen an American soldier respect a Russian superior,” Alexi said.

Jayde was disgusted at his presage. “Oh wah, you big baby! You remember that sticks and stones adage?”

“I know names will never hurt me, but your troops not respecting you can get you killed,” Alexi said.

“These are United States military warriors. They respect their superiors. In the Air Force, when we execute any sortie in the Middle East, even if a colonel is the squad leader, he will acquiesce to an Israeli second lieutenant, if he joins us. We know, no matter how much training you’ve had, and what rank you are, you’ve been practicing with paper targets. An Israeli pilot has been in war. They know what they’re doing. Rank means nothing against shedding blood in the mud,” she explained.

“How many soldiers know about the Moscow theater, and the Beslan school hostage crises?” Alexi asked.

“Everybody here watches CNN, so I believe all of them know,” Jayde said. “We listened to the Saudi’s and Libyans in the Iraq War. They knew what they were doing. If it weren’t for them, we’d just be babes in the woods. They will respect you.” She eased his concern.

Jayde was a great speech writer, but she couldn’t quell his feelings. He felt the same way about those soldiers, before he met Jayde. He knew of their scorn, because he possessed it himself. Unless an avalanche hits your belief, it was impossible to budge. He was not only fighting the soldiers, he was fighting his former self, and that opponent was kicking his ass.

Jayde thought she got through to him, then she saw the look on his face. She could read him like a book.

“The Doc told me something a long time ago. ‘Que sera sera’. That means...”

Alexi cut her off.

“Whatever will be, will be,” he completed her saying. “You are my supervisor. All I can do is follow your orders.”

“All I’m ordering you to do is be that Spetsnaz ass sergeant you always have been, and stop acting like a little bitch, Sergeant.” Jayde got harsh on him. At this time, she didn’t need his worries.

“Yes, Lieutenant.” Alexi settled back into the Spetsnaz soldier he was.

He turned to the remaining soldiers, and walked towards them. “Who is the head scout?”

A soldier stepped forward, and saluted. “Chief Petty Officer Wylmen at your service, Sergeant!”

“You will be Squad Leader, Chief Petty Officer Wylmen. You will report your findings to me. Since you are a special request from the Navy, and SEAL stands for a Sea, Air, and Land team, you can spot these critters in the ocean,” Alexi said.

“We do have tactics, and military Sea Rovers equipped with adequate SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) gear, Sergeant. Our only challenge is success, and we don’t like calling an order a challenge, Sergeant!” Wylmen was confident.

He said exactly what Alexi wanted to hear. “Excellent Chief Wylmen. Report back your findings on the epsilon zed frequency. I will issue further orders upon your easy report.”

“We’re booted, suited, and ready to get this mission executed, Sergeant!” Wylmen yelled.

Alexi was feeling it; the dangerous excitement. He felt like he was leading an operation in Russia. “Dismissed Chief Petty Officer Wylmen, and Chief? Do me proud.”

Wylmen had a smile on his face. “Yes Sergeant!”

Wylmen turned to his team to tell them where their rovers were, and they began to head to the docks.

As they left, Jayde walked up to Alexi. “I witnessed everything. They didn’t prejudge you in any way.”

“It was different with them,” Alexi said. “They were the same rank, and in Special Forces. We have a certain alliance we callkinship.”

“Yep, you’re, definitely, a man,” she said. “You make up excuses in order to be right all the time.”

“Let us go over those blueprints the doctor has.” As they walked to the laboratory, Alexi had a grin on his face.

As they entered the laboratory, they saw the doctor working feverishly on the 3-D hologram blueprint of the creature. It looked like a large medieval legend animal floating over a table. The doctor looked like he was dissecting a frog in high school.

“Did you come up with anything new, Doc?” Jayde asked Chalet.

“I vas aboot to koontakt jou,” Chalet said. “Eet ees dere digesteev zysteem. Eet shares the zame teeoreez az a black ’ole.”

“Everything it eats moves to another dimension!?” She was alarmed.

“Eet ’as to go zome vhere,” Chalet said. “Zince zey are garbohje deespozalz, I vill call eet ze Landfill Deemension.”

“That’s why there’s no evidence of waste,” she speculated.

“Zey ’ave no eliminazion tract or resiviour een zere zysteem. Zey ur not equeeped veet rectums,” Chalet said.

“These creatures don’t follow carbon laws,” Jayde said.

“Being zilicone bazed allowz dem zat luzuree,” Chalet said.

“I don’t think them being silicone based has anything to do with it, Doc,” she said. “These things were designed perfectly in their simplicity. We should rename them Circles.”

“Yes, a circle is simply perfect,” Alexi added to the conversation. He wanted to participate also.

“Does this augment our diversion of them, Doc?” Jayde asked.

“No. Eet just kunfirmz vhy ve should not try to keel zem,” Chalet said. “Reemember ven I zaid ze zilicone ’az deefrent properteez onlee a zientitizt vould be conzerned vit? Zee zilicone outer bodee ’ouzez zee dark matter digesteev zysteem. Eef zat eez destroeed, zeir dark matter, oonleazhed,eet vould deestroy zis planet.”

And they say nerds don’t rule the world,” she said. “These things have a perfect defense, like those acid for blood xenomorphs in that movie. The only way we can kill those things is a nuclear attack, destroying the planet in the process of killing those creatures to save the planet. Can you say Catch 22?”

“Just be lookee jou don’t ’ave to keel zem,” Chalet said.

“All we have to do is wait for the SEALs to contact us,” Alexi said.

“Let’s just hope those things are resting around the corner,” Jayde said.

“Vun probleem vit jour ’ope. Zee Chauzek do not rest.” Chalet sounded ominous.

“We have patrolled this area, Chief Wylmen. We don’t even know what they look like!” a petty officer said.

“Once we see something that doesn’t look familiar, Stangler, we’ll report! Until then, our job is to become exactly what they call us!” Wylmen yelled over the roar of the Rover.

A Coast Guard rescue helicopter passed quickly over them.

“Was that a Sikorsky HH-60 Chief!?” Stangler asked.

“Yep, follow that Jayhawk! Odds are they’re not just sightseeing!” Wylmen said.

They moved down the Nicaraguan coastline, towards the Panama Canal, after the Jayhawk. They knew something was about to happen, they just didn’t know what. As they were traveling to the canal for a few minutes, the Jayhawk came screaming back! It slowed, and hovered over the SEAL team.

“Revert back North to 37 degrees! Rouge bogeys are advancing!” the Sikorsky blared from a speaker.

They must have known they were in a form of Service, because of the garb and colors they wore. How else would the Coast Guard know they knew of degrees, and the term ‘bogeys’?

Just then, a herd of... something came barreling off the coast of Puerto Limon, and into the Caribbean Sea!

The creatures were bizarre wangdoodles that had Komodo dragon like features to them. They obviously weren’t indigenous to this planet.

“Choctaw, drop underwater, and track their movement!” Wylmen yelled.

As Choctaw put his goggles on, he answered, “I’m on it, Chief!”

Choctaw placed an air tank valve in his mouth, and dropped into the water.

Wylmen grabbed his walkie-talkie and dialed it to the emergency frequency. “Jayhawk, this is SEAL Team 4, over!?”

The Coast Guard answered. “This is Jayhawk, SEAL Team 4, come back.”

“We’ve been looking for your bogeys for over an hour! We are squared away! Thanks for finding them for us, over!” Wylmen said.

“I’m glad you know what they are, SEAL Team 4. I’ll just report them as exotic anomalies, over,” the Jayhawk pilot said.

“We’ll take over from here Jayhawk. SEAL Team out!” Wylmen signed off.

That was when Petty Officer Choctaw broke the surface of the water. He took the valve out of his mouth.

“They changed from those lizard things to fish things Chief!” Choctaw yelled over the Rover engines.

“We know they’re aliens, Choctaw. Where are they going!?” Wylmen asked.

“Their heading is not favorable, Chief! They aren’t going back towards Belize! They’re new destination looks like Jamaica, Chief!” Choctaw yelled.

Choctaw was a Native American tracker, before he became a Navy SEAL. Wylmen trusted him more than he did a compass, or himself.

“I have to report to the Sergeant! I need to tell him they are heading to a tourist hot spot!” Wylmen told Choctaw.

Wylmen dialed the EZ frequency.

“When we find then, what are we going to do then?” Alexi asked Jayde.

“The rest of the regiment is preparing a net impregnated with a diamond filament. They’re going to set it up between two Destroyers they bought with them. It won’t hold them long, but it should be long enough to transport them to Cape Canaveral in Florida. After that, Cheauflux will direct NASA,” Jayde explained the plan.

“How are we going to get them in the net?” Alexi became the Devil’s Advocate.

“Don’t you guys have rodeos in Russia?” she asked. “No matter where they are, we’re going to call in some ‘Puff The Magic Dragons’ to coral them to the net.”

“I know of your Hueys, Blackbirds, and Predators. What is this Puff aircraft?” he inquired.

She knew Alexi was only in Special Forces since 1992, so he would have no idea about the Vietnam War. It was time for her to educate him. She became the teacher again.

“The first aircraft nicknamed Puff the Magic Dragon was a Douglas AC 47 Spooky. I know your question is, “What is a Spooky?” she said, in her version of a Slavic accent. “They’ve been mothballed. I’ll show you one in a museum one day. That aircraft was a gunship. It was equipped with three 7.62 millimeter General Electric miniguns to enhance better aerial fire power. When they fired all at once, they produced an iconic cloud of smoke, hence the nickname of Puff the Magic Dragon.”

That was the first series. Have you heard of the Vietnam War?” She asked.

“Have you heard of the Russia-Georgia War?” he asked sarcastically. “I am in the military. I know of famous wars.”

She looked at him with feigned disgust. “Okay Commando, as I was explaining, before you became sarcastic, we modified the Puff aircraft to that Huey you know. It didn’t have General Electric miniguns on it. They put three M61 20 millimeter Vulcan cannon rail guns, with the fire rate of 6,000 rounds per minute on the helicopter. When it fired, it turned dense jungles into airstrips, and enemy troops into red mist. We never needed them in the desert, but we still have them for special occasions.”

“So the Unites States Air Force has a squadron of these Dragons available?” Alexi asked.

“Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” she said.

“SEAL Team to Sergeant Doshmononov, over,” a voice rang out from the transmitter on the far side of the room.

Alexi walked swiftly over to the transmitter, and grabbed the intercom. “This is Sergeant Doshmononov, SEAL Team, report.”

“They looked like lizards coming off the coast of Puerto Limon. When they migrated to water, they transformed into fish-like creatures, over.”

“At least they’re in the Caribbean Sea, Chief. Are they coming this way, over?” Alexi asked.

“Negative Sergeant, their trajectory is the Jamaican Islands. Tourists from around the world will be terrified, Sergeant, over,” Wylmen said.

Alexi was shocked. Up until now, this exercise was contained. Now civilians would know, and panic would ensue.

“Tell them to return, Alexi. They’ve done their job,” Jayde said.

“You do not want them to pursue the Chauzek?” Alexi asked.

“Not if they don’t want their Rovers eaten, and to be turned into blood soup in the ocean. Tell them to return,” she instructed.

“Good job, SEAL team. Rendezvous at the Belize dock, and wait for further orders, over,” Alexi told Wylmen.

“Acknowledged Sergeant Doshmononov. Returning to Belize forthwith, over and out.”

Jayde dialed the transmitter to MacDill Air Force base in Florida.

“Come in, Cadre from MacDill, come in,” she spoke into the intercom.

“MacDill Cadre present, over” The cadre responded.

“This is Lieutenant Farrow from the Belize Air base. Confirm with your superiors, over,” Jayde said.

It took a minute for the Cadre to respond.

I’m calling in the Cowboys,” she told Alexi.

“Status confirmed, Lieutenant Farrow. What do you need, over?” the cadre asked.

“I’m going to fax your target to you. I need a squadron of Puffs for this sortie, over,” she said.

“The Puffs need to be fueled. Where is this target, over?” the cadre asked.

“It’s a school of these targets heading for Jamaica. According to our sources, they should be in the middle of the Caribbean Sea in two days, over,” she said.

“The Hueys will arrive in thirty four minutes Lieutenant Farrow, over,” the cadre announced.

“Tell the Hueys to fire towards Belize, I repeat towards Belize, over,” Jayde transmitted the vital information. “If those Puffscan divert them from tourists, this mission can remain covert.”

“Acknowledged Lieutenant. They will fire at the targets towards Belize to keep your mission need to know, over,” the cadre said.

“Lieutenant Farrow over and out.”Jayde placed the intercom on its holder.

“They do not need to keep firing at the Chauzek?” Alexi asked.

“The Doc said they don’t have reasoning skills. The Puffs can’t kill then, but they can turn them. Those monsters will just follow the herd like cattle,” she explained.

“So just fire upon them, and wait,” Alexi summarized.

“They have to know what they’re shooting at first. I have to fax a picture, so they can detect them on their FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red) RADAR,” she said.

They both went down to the laboratory. Chalet gave them a page of the Chauzek in their aquatic form, and Jayde faxed it to MacDill. She grabbed the transmitter in the lab, and confirmed they received it.

“I wish I was there to see it,” Jayde said.

“You have seen the Puff in action before,” Alexi said.

“The reason I know what they are is because I retain information when I read. The last time they were used in combat was in Vietnam, before I was born. I’ve read about them. I’ve never actually seen them in action,” she explained to Alexi.

“The reason you teach is not through experience. You can just talk a good game,” Alexi summed it up.

“I’m a scientist. I need to know a little something about everything,” she said.

“Well, let us hope your education is sound,” Alexi said.

The intercom in Jayde’s room rang out an hour later. “Huey pilot to Lieutenant Farrow, over.”

Jayde grabbed the intercom. “Lieutenant Farrow to Huey pilot, report, over.”

“These things are divergent, Lieutenant,” the pilot said. “We fired upon them with a full complement of Vulcan cannons. That was eight Hueys with three cannons each. That didn’t turn them into the expected soup. They just turned around like they were annoyed, over,” the pilot said.

“Are they heading towards Belize, over?” she asked.

“That was the order, Lieutenant, over,” the pilot said.

She turned to Alexi. “Prep your regiment. They’re headed this way!”

She addressed the Huey pilot once more. “You did excellent. As much as you expected for the terminal to happen, they cannot be destroyed, over,” Jayde said.

“I didn’t enlist to ask questions, Lieutenant. Is there anything else you scientists need, over?” the pilot asked.

“Your mission is complete. Return to MacDill for a debrief, over,” Jayde said.

“Acknowledged Lieutenant, pilot out,” the pilot said.

Jayde replaced the receiver. “This is going like clockwork!” Jayde was excited.

“I am going to tell my regiment to equip a generator to the net so we can electrocute them, and put them to sleep,” Alexi was getting into his command.

“Didn’t Russians have basic science in high school?” Jayde asked, rather irritated. “If you electrocute a silicone based life form, it doesn’t knock it out, it heats it up!”

“You cannot shock them?” Alexi asked.

“If you want to turn this into a Godzilla movie, be my guest,” she said. “That’s why you need me. You’re not a scientist, you’re just good at lifting heavy things.”

Alexi felt stupid for a second. She may know the theory of relativity, but I can shoot relativity in the head at a thousand meters.

“I will tell my regiment to hurry, and attach the net to the Destroyers,” he said.

“I’m sorry Alexi, I know you aren’t a scientist, and can pull a pirate’s spine out through his nostrils if you needed to. I just have this hang-up about hearing inaccurate science information from somebody I like,” she admitted.

Alexi had a grin on his face. “I am sorry, Lieutenant Farrow, your apology is not accepted. I will have to spank you later.”

At least he knew what sarcasm was. “We have to stop these Chauzek first. When that’s over, you can spank me all you want.”

“You are thinking of the future. That’s healthy. I guess we better stop those Chauzek. I will order my regiment to execute.” Alexi walked out of her room.