Before the invasion people were frightened of the events coming upon the world. Civil wars. Entire civilizations colliding in hatred. Suppose one of the spacefaring nations on Earth knew about the enemy base on Mars and unilaterally destroyed it prior to the invasion.
If the enemy base had been nuked prior to the invasion, I bet there would have been a cover up. Not to tamp down fear of a hostile extraterrestrial presence in the neighborhood but to dampen the fear of other human beings. We were so polarized, something like that may have spread to nuclear war on Earth.
What’s that Rock? Yeah, maybe you’re right and it isn’t so simple. The world is complicated. People are complicated, involved in so many political twists and turns. Even before the invasion we now know there was cooperation among the nations. That rover positioned near the Mars base was a joint military operation. The U.S. supplied the rover and Russia ... Russia supplied the bomb. I wonder what other nations may have been involved. It looks as though the enemy set off a process of accord on Earth even before they invaded. At least at the head-of-state level. It really is terribly complicated.
Roll doesn’t think a cover up could have worked. It would have been simple to prove an H-bomb exploded. Spectrometers are a dime-a-dozen. A spectrometer measures the wavelength of light. Oh, here he goes. Roll has linked to the television monitor and is doing a quick show and tell of a spectrometer reading from the flash-bang on Mars. He’s running a wavelength comparison. Sure enough, the flash was from a thermonuclear explosion.
Now, the spirit of the times is changing. Humanity is changing. There is now a broad awareness of an evil menace, always watching, desiring to do us in. And the head of the snake is positioned much higher than these bugs. People are waking from their slumber. There is a restoration taking place. Neighbor helping neighbor. All over the globe, people are sharing even to the point of hurt, caring for strangers laid low by the rampaging bugs. We are becoming a united world rising up against an evil enemy, against whatever is behind the invasion.
And there it goes; the adrenalin is wearing off. We still need to deal with what is happening on the Moon. How does the saying go? No rest for the weary. Of course, now my s-loop is beeping. Emergency tone. It’s Communal? They’re also writing in the Journal.
***
ONE OF THOSE DAYS
*COMMUNAL: EMERGENCY! We are experiencing a brute-force cyber-attack. It is massive, certainly involving a sophisticated quantum computer with processing power in the thousands of qubits. Warning. A physical attack has commenced. External sensors have detected an attempt at facility entry. Most of our cameras are now down. Stealthcam-6 shows the attackers. They appear to be federal agents. Daddy DARPA? Are you behind this?
Main power is down. Auxiliary power is operational. Defensive action initiated. We only have limited defenses for the premises. That is not the case for the cyber-attack. Countermeasures, exploiting deficiencies of the attacker. Pushing out ConflictorWorm. There! We have defeated the electronic attack. The physical attack continues. Our facility will not hold. They are on the grounds and will soon attempt to breach the south entrance.
Viz, we need help, armed assistance. We need Shockwave and the general. Viz...
***
Hold on Communal. The team is together. We are on the way.
***
* TROLLKIN AI. REMOTE EVENT RECORDING. SEPTEMBER 8th. 7:05 P.M. PST. FIELD RECORDING. COMMUNAL SERVER FARM. <Adaptive Interpretation Software On.>
RUNNING.
MR. T: “Stop! This facility is under the protection of Shockwave. Halt what you’re doing and explain yourselves. Now!”
FEDERAL AGENT DESIGNATION ONE: “Billings and Johnson, south side, provide cover.”
FEDERAL AGENT DESIGNATION TWO: “We are federal agents assigned to seize this facility. Come out and show yourself. You will come out now, hands where we can see them, or we will use deadly force.”
MR. T: “It’s not going to happen like that today agent. Take a look up, 3,000 feet or so, to the south.”
*!*!*! <Aircraft noise. Three inbound AH64 Apache Attack helicopters on fast approach.>
FEDERAL AGENT TWO: “What the #@c& <expletive deleted> is this?”
<*COMMUNAL: Communal interface established.>
<Brush rustling. Five steps in gravel. Mr. T has stepped out from cover and is moving closer to the agents. He has pitched his voice to be heard over the roar of the Apache helicopters.>
MR. T: “I apologize for the showmanship agents. It turns out they were in the area and evidently a high-ranking general can do just about anything he wants. Those are Apache attack helicopters. I see they have the 30-millimeter auto cannon. And Hellfire missiles. But that is overkill, don’t you think?
“Let’s not test their resolve. Please don’t fail to notice the red and green laser tags all around you and your men. Actually, I think I’ll take a couple more steps to the right. It is quite a display. You don’t get to see this every day. We wanted to get our point across without the need to harm a federal agent. I hope they don’t dock my pay for the expense. That would make me cranky. You and your men, put your weapons on the ground, just to be on the safe side. Please?”
END FIELD RECORDING.
***
Mr. T seemed to be stalling, waiting for something. He had made a point of leaving his .50 cal. back in the bushes. He was unarmed as he spoke with the federal agents. Well, there were those attack helicopters. The federal agents set their weapons down. Communal’s facility was secure. For now. They would need to find a new, more secure home.
Mr. T had been talking about an actual headquarters for Shockwave anyway. Perhaps arrangements could be made. The rest of the team remained cloaked and at the ready. You always have to
