The Legend of Earth

planet and in spaceships who will be safe.”

“We can probably still get you aboard a ship and out of harm’s way, Mr. President.”

“Let’s not even go there, Bill. Let’s instead concentrate on sending everything we have up at these bastards.”

“Already underway, sir. But I really recommend we get you to a safe place. Your leadership will-”

Keller jerked the phone away from his ear as he heard a horrible screech blast from it. Then all the lights in the situation room went out briefly, before emergency backups kicked on. All the screens on the walls were filled with static. Admiral Keller was a high-ranking military officer in the nuclear age; he knew exactly what had happened.

EMP! Electronic Magnetic Pulse. The aliens had detonated a nuclear device, more-than-likely a high altitude detonation. Although a fair amount of the Pentagon’s deeper communications and electronics had been hardened against such attacks, Keller also knew that the rest of the country’s infrastructure was not, and that went for most of the world. As the EMP’s from the various explosions spread around the globe, the planet Earth would be cast into a new and literal dark ages. Computers, lights, generators, relays, cellphones and so much more would now be useless. And depending on the number of HEMPs, or High-Altitude Electronic Pulse devices the aliens had detonated, that would determine the extent and severity of the damage. And that was just from the EMP.

So it begins,

Keller thought. The beginning of the end….

Chapter 33

RM1 Caleb Cobb had been camped out in the radio shack for almost thirty-six hours. He had napped a little, but adrenalin was now keeping him going. Ever since warning the Earth of the impending attack, there had been a constant stream of incoming and outgoing messages. Sure, there was a four-hour delay, but this type of constant contact made them all feel more attached to their far-distant home.

Caleb queued up the latest message — just a routine update on the latest deployments — and began listening, when suddenly the link went dead. The speaker had been in mid-sentence when it occurred.

Panicked, Caleb quickly ran through his checklist; everything on his end was functioning properly. He replayed the message. Same thing, it just ended abruptly.

Caleb felt a cold shiver rack his body; his breathing grew short and he began to sweat. Vincent Holder, another of the radiomen in the shack at the time, had also heard the message and watched Caleb’s frantic efforts to decipher the problem. But when his senior petty officer looked over at him with wild, panicked eyes, Vincent knew what had happened.

Four hours ago, the planet Earth had been destroyed.

Chapter 34

Admiral William Keller walked calmly to the exit of the situation room within the Complex. With all or most of the electronics knocked out, and only dim red light to illuminate the room, he saw no reason to remain.

He led a parade of fourteen other solemn people out into the wide corridor; some were crying, even the men. Other than the sounds of sobbing, no one said a word. In the hallway, they were joined by more people, moving in zombie-like fashion toward the nearest exit. It took ten minutes before they were able to push open the security doors and step outside to join the hundreds of others who had already left the building.

As he stepped into the late autumn sunshine, he noticed that most of people in the vast Pentagon parking lot were staring upward. He followed their gazes.

There, far up in the sky, was a rapidly expanding circle of yellow and blue — the remnants of a nuclear explosion. Keller frowned; there was something strange about the circle. Others of his team noticed it, too.

The explosion was a distant circle, barely more than a dot in the distant sky. Keller knew that EMP detonations were effective at distances of three to four hundred kilometers, well out into space. But then he thought: why? Why attack with EMP’s when they had a clear path into the atmosphere, where the deadly heat, concussion and radiation from the explosions would be far more devastating? Electronics could be repaired; a radioactive planet not so easily.

Chapter 35

Xuv had not yet been born when the Klin first arrived on the planet the otherworlders would call Glasien-4. Neither were his parents, yet his ancestors of two-back had told the stories. To this day, Xuv and his people still called their world Giel, meaning the Soil of God. The Klin never called it that, which had always been a point of contention to many Gielians, like Xuv.

The tall silver creatures had appeared one day from the sky and proceeded to reassure the natives that they meant them no harm. All they requested from the Gielians was permission to establish a small base from which to carry out their explorations of this part of the galaxy. Giel/Glasien-4, they were told, was very similar to the Klin’s homeworld and they would very much welcome the opportunity to stay.

As otherworlders with advanced technology and knowledge of things beyond Giel, the natives gladly welcomed the aliens, hoping they would soon begin to share with them the wonders of their advancements. But that never came to be, at least not to any significant degree. There had been only minimal exchange of information, and most of that came after the intelligent Gielians began to piece together the workings of the technology they witnessed.

Rather than share with the natives of Giel all the wonders that the universe had to offer, the Klin simply used their planet as a galactic rest stop.

However, the Klin did introduce the natives of Giel to the Kracori.

These massive beasts outnumbered the Klin a hundred-to-one at the vast island base the Gielians had donated to the aliens. In fact, Xuv and many of his associates rarely saw a Klin in person, either on the base or out in the world. The Kracori were far more prevalent.

Xuv had no particular problem with the Klin, or the Kracori for that matter. He was actually one of the few Gielians to find work on the Island. He was an electronics expert, and as such, also knew more about alien technology than just about anyone else on his planet.

And so it came as a surprise to him when suddenly even the occasional Klin disappeared altogether, never to be seen again. He, and others like him, had made inquiries with the Kracori, who rudely informed them that the Klin were no longer in charge of the Island. From here on out, they would deal exclusively with the Kracori.

Three months ago, the Kracori had begun a drawdown of their forces at the base, until now only about fifty or so remained. Those left were highly skilled technicians in the process of prepping a small number of the flying disks for some unknown mission. They had enlisted the assistance of Xuv for the job, along with a few of his associates. That had been okay with Xuv; it meant more pay for him, as well as better acceptance from the remaining Kracori on the Island.

But then the Klin had contacted Xuv directly.

It had been four weeks earlier, and Xuv had been in his residence when the communication came through his terminal. The Gielians had fairly advanced planetary communications at the time, even without the help of the Klin. Yet what startled Xuv the most — other than the fact that a Klin was facing him on