Visitors’ Arrival

“Director,” one of the officers in the communications section, called out amid the flurry, “Commander Assan from the Asteropian auxiliary base is on-comm!” “Open,” Director Baptise commanded while bringing up relevant data on the situation. The projected image of the commander of the Governance’s headquartered-base within the Asteropian asteroids was small. The contact was meant only for Director Baptise. “Robert,” the young woman said perfunctory; her head swiveling as she talked, due to her base’s own activities, “they’ve already taken out half our Colliders!” A few officers working close to Baptise’s station glanced at one another with absolute fear! “Bloody hell,” the director responded; freezing on the spot for a few seconds. “They just flashed into Asteropia out of nowhere and broke off into what I can only call teams,” Commander Assan stated as she gestured commands to her officers that were out of the line of sight. “That’s what the first report on them out of Pluto said they did. I’m activating the whole damn field troops, Etnah…and Etnah—both of our teams will have to throw the whole house at them, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll go ol’ Morning Glory on them…you got that?” “Understood, Sir,” the commander said; her voice clearly not sounding enthusiastic about the likelihood of having to self-destruct her base! The comm-line was then cut. Those same officers working nearby Director Baptise were also not thrilled about the ‘Glory’ option, either. Baptise could see it out of the corner of his eyes, but he had a job to do. “Cornwell,” the director called out to his second-in-command; whom was at the weapons bank, “all those Colliders set?” “Already synchronized and tracking those bastards, Sir!” Baptise snapped his head out of approval. He, then, punched into his communications to broadcast to the entire planetary Watch station. “All personnel manning Colliders are to strike Visitors upon immediate detection…should our defensive posture not work Watcher 2 will engage Morning Glory option…Baptise out!” As soon as the director closed off his communications-link to the entire station, the sounds of high-powered guns were heard loading photonic-missiles! Even in the heat of battle, everyone in the command chamber froze. And all eyes were on Director Baptise…two of those officers that worked adjacent to the director, whom showed disapproval in his commands, each had those guns trained right on his head from behind! During the complete silence, the comm-system still blurted out other soldiers’ communications within Watcher 2 and those out in the field inside their fighter spaceships. Some were awaiting a response from Director Baptise. He slowly turned around to see who was causing the confusion.