Invasion Wars 1: Crimes of War (3 page)

Birds flocked by the window, several stories high. It’s roof was higher than that, with the high road above it; the support structures towering over the ground below. The sun shown brightly on the solar panels of the exterior, a feature that separated most housing towers from neighboring shops and buildings. The transit dome down below was one of the many in the city that allowed easy travel to anywhere nearby, something that Emich and anyone else in the city used on a daily basis. Thankfully, the twenty-four hour hover cab was automated, which is the only reason he was able to get home at all.

Emich lay in bed like a dead body, too hungover to hear or feel his alarm chip vibrating his pillow. He was barely sixteen, still in his rebellious years with his dirty blonde hair always covering his eyes; either lying down or standing up. Dried up vomit would have stained the carpet if there weren’t cleaning nanomites in the fibers. He barely got home that early morning after his night of celebrating nothing with his friends, a ritual they held every Sunday at a different part of town. Some things never change, no matter how much time goes by.

The only difference this time was that he had more to drink than he ever did, right there in that area between “dead drunk” and “legally dead”. Moaning to himself and huffing the hair away from his dry mouth, he smacked the alarm, silencing it. Pushing himself out of bed, he went about to his morning routine, beginning with brushing the traces of predigested food out of his teeth.  As people who worked for the government, his parents were always out for most of the week, leaving Emich on his own. It used to be him and his older brother, Konrad, who would take care of the house during their leave, only, Konrad joined the army to take care of global conflicts instead.

For all that Emich knew, his brother was already on the other side of the world; probably taking care of rebel NDA forces in China. They were always on the news, always the main problem that their parents would bicker about at the dinner table. One dealt with illegal trade policing, the other with illegal immigration, and both were always full of something to complain about. When they heard Konrad was joining the good fight by joining the E-Army, there was little reason for them to be proud of their little Emich and his slacker shenanigans. To them, he was just a leech until he turns eighteen and they can get rid of him for good.

It didn’t hurt to spend his weekly government allowance of credits until then.

Trudging towards the bathroom, he slide the mirror up to grab a medicine strip for his hangover — the see through square evaporating on his tongue once he closed his mouth. The ringing in his ears eased away, while the lights started to dim to a brightness that didn’t hurt his eyes. Heading downstairs, he tossed his clothes into the washing machine and put on a fresh pair that were already pressed and ready for wearing. The machine beeped once he closed the lid, turning on its inner sensors.

“Analyzing,” its robotic voice said. “Soil level: heavy. Time: 10 minutes. Starting.”

By the time he was done taking a shower, the time on the clock already passed two. He didn’t have much time to finish his school assignments for the day, something that didn’t really bother him. He wasn’t planning to do them anyway and was already planning on dropping out, so it didn’t matter in the slightest. He didn’t even notice that outside world was in chaos, due to the noise canceling barrier protecting the house from the constant racket of endless traffic.

He was oblivious to the city’s status.

Turning on the wall screen in the kitchen for some background noise, he poured some clean water from the faucet to drink while he looked for something to eat. While he lazily rummaged through the cabinet, the cold water he chugged down relieved the pounding in his head. The only food they had in the house was synthetic, which always made him suffer during hangovers due to the alcohol and flavoring chemicals mixing badly. Looking in his wallet, he had enough to walk down to the diner further down the building and get himself a real meal. Walking back to his room to get a jacket, he overheard something from the wall screen.

The person on the news was less human than the washing machine in the other room, but the female skin and clothes they added to it still gave off the illusion that there was life behind its android eyes. “... Germany is in a state of emergency after an attack from the sky. So far, not much is known about who or what has attacked the ERA capitol country, but everyone within the impact area is to be evacuated immediately.”

The screen of the android floated away while a new picture appeared. A big red circle in Germany, with the city he was in right there near the center. Emich took a step back, shaking his head to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. Live feed of cameras recording appeared around the map, the image of a massive structure set in the small forest nearby. He hadn’t seen a tree in so long, he nearly forgot what they looked like; the forest outside of their city only there for oxygen purposes.

Whipping out his cellphone, he tried to call up anyone he knew, anyone to see what was going on. Before he could tap on any of the icons, he saw that there was no service, not even internet to the house itself. There was no way of reaching out to anyone. The emergency broadcast continued as he put his useless phone away. The news screen was gone already, replaced with the one they use during states of emergencies, the one they only use when there is no connection to a media station anywhere.

“Attention, attention citizens of Annwn. An unknown threat has been detected in your area. The city is to be evacuated immediately. Please remain calm. Report to the nearest transit dome and await instruction upon arrival. All looting and violent personnel will be shot on sight. Attention, attention…”

The message continued to repeat as Emich hurried over to the window above his bed. Opening the blinds, he could see black figures floating around the city, mistaking them for birds at first. Pushing the glass open at the edge, the sound of low rumbling entered the room, quick booms coming from the far distance. Through the thickness of the tall buildings and layers of roadways, something flew by his window, nearly crashing into the wall he was leaning against. Sticking his head out after it passed by, he could see the glow of bright green strips on the back of an aircraft he’s never seen before.

It was small and shaped like a demonic tiara, but the cannon at its front was loud enough to shake everything in his room — everything in the house falling over, his father’s bookshelf crashing down in the other room. An orange beam of light split off into a helix by the time it made contact with the building it was targeting. The energy of the blast traveled all throughout the structure’s exterior, electrical bolts sizzling all around it. As fast as it was touched by the blast, the building was already crumbling to the ground and taking out everything below it. Whatever he
didn’t
see was what worried him.

It was whatever was behind the soon to fall buildings around him that made his heart sink.

Struggling to keep his footing on the vibrating floor, he scrambled his way to the front door, unlocking it with the finger scanner. Everyone else's door was already wide open and abandoned, no time to even close the door behind them as they headed exactly where Emich had his still foggy mind on. Thankfully, their unit was right next to the elevator, something he didn’t want to take with the way the building was about to topple over. Right when he opened the emergency door to head down the endless set of stairs to get to the actual emergency exit, the door dinged open to the elevator, surprising him. Nobody in there right mind would be going up to that floor unless they had a very good reason.

For the lone soldier, it was good enough.

“Don’t go down there!” The Kommando called out, charging into the hall’s end.

Emich knew that voice from anywhere, even with it coming from the helmet's muffling audio speakers. “Konrad, is that you?”

He ran in to give his brother a hug, Emich returning the favor. “I’m so glad to find you alive.”

His suit was bulky, covered in protective armor, electronics, and thick with the urban blue camo; but Emich could still feel the warmth from within. “What the hell are you doing here? What is going on?”

“I came in with a FS squad and split away from them on purpose. Their landing caskets went near the forest. I redirected mine over here. You’re just lucky mom and dad never moved the house to a different tower.”

FS squads, also known as First Strikers, were trusted Kommandos who acted as surveillance so the attacking forces can gather intel and get the best idea on how to handle the situation. Since the invading anomaly was unknown to any database on Earth, it was no surprise they sent them in as fast as they did. With the equipment they had, especially the UGV2 layout, Konrad had more maneuverability than was humanly possible. Most of its gear consisted of magnetic hooks, kinetic boosters, and grip treads on the joints and limbs. Emich leaned back, looking up at his brother and past all of the technology. The visor of his helmet was shaded and covered in transferring data and the edges, but he could still see his soft eyes within — as faint as they were.

“Did you find our parents? Where are they?”

Konrad glanced away, slowly letting go of his brother. Taking a step to the white bench beside the wall, he sat down and held himself up with his carbine assault rifle. Looking down, he put a gloved hand over the side of his visor. “... Mom and dad are dead. There building was one of the first to be hit. I know for a fact that it was… painless.”

Emich couldn’t feel his legs below him, using the wall behind him to keep himself upright. Knocking his head back, he covered his face. “This can’t be happening…”

Konrad stood up, returning to his brother to hold him by the shoulders. “Listen, there’s no time to think about this. None of the residential buildings have been destroyed yet, but it’s only time until they start. We have to get out of here. We’re being attacked by creatures of another world. They have some way to keep themselves concealed until they hit the atmosphere. By the time anyone could know what was going on, their main ship was already on the ground and unleashing everything it had. They’re planning on nuking it.”

Emich’s hands flew away from his face, his eyes wide in fear. “What?!”

“This is serious. We have to get out now, and we have to get as far away as possible. It’s already too late for our parents, but… it’s not too late for us. We’re getting out of here, I promise.”

“How are we going to—”

The glass of an opened room exploded nearby, getting both of the brothers’ attention. Crashing and banging came from inside the housing unit, with more windows being broken right after. A woman screamed, followed by the sound of a quick firing laser sizzling. Before either one of the guys could react to the commotion, something leaped out of the room and clung to the wall. Channeling between walls and hopping at rapid speeds, Konrad got his gun up by the time it was already lunging towards them.

Armor piercing rounds tore through the walls down the hall, most of them hitting their target in quick succession. The creature fell back in mid-air, its lanky arms wriggling to flip the rest of its body upright. Pulling out two small weapons from its back holsters, it opened fire, sending a barrage of bright yellow dots at the brothers. Konrad pushed his younger sibling into the wall before the hallway’s path, getting him behind cover. Using the grip treads on his feet to slide backwards, he leaned back to avoid the otherworldly gun fire.

The elevator doors disappeared from its center as the blinding hot ammunition ate away at its essence. Inside, it filled with static and bolts of electricity that burned through its metal frame and caused it to fall downwards. Using his way in as an exit was now out of the question. Konrad peeked out of cover to let out a quick burst, Emich staying low and sticking his back to the wall. The faceless creature flinched from a few bullets winging its left side, its gun going off into the ceiling as it misfired.

Seeing his enemy was quickly stunned, he sprinted out of cover and ran to the opposite wall within the hallways, leaping over the doorway to run along the wall above it. With its right arm, the pale blue alien aimed at the moving target, trying to get a shot off on him. Leaping left to right across the ground below, Konrad dodged the incoming shots, the dots swerving behind him, trying to intercept his charge forward. Using the kinetic boost of his boots, his last hop sent him flying into the alien’s slim body, quickly flipping forward to have his feet first. Slamming the alien into the ground and pinning its arms down with his boots, the two of them slid shortly, yellow dots tearing through the walls and ceiling around them.

Konrad aimed the barrel of his gun straight at the creature's skull, having no way to miss. “This ought to end you!”

Pulling the trigger, the smoothed over face of the creature vibrated violently, its leathery skin flying off in chunks. Bursts of deep purple liquid exploded from its head as its six big eyes were filled with bullets. Its dual guns clacked on the floor as it let go of its grip, it’s overly long fingers curling into its hands. Looking back, Konrad motioned his brother to follow him, seeing that the threat was handled. Meeting up, Emich followed the Kommando to their housing unit, making sure to lock the door behind them.

As Emich put his hand to the sensor to close off the door, another one of the creatures crashed into the door, coming out of the corner of his eye just in time to make him fall back. It continued to claw and scratch at the metal of the door, the scraping loud enough to drown out the still playing wall screen.

“Once it starts shooting, it’s going to get us,” Emich said in a panic. “There’s no way to escape these things!”

“Get away from there!” Konrad lifted his brother from the ground, practically carrying him as he got back to his feet. “Don’t make it easier for them.”

Blasts of yellow gunfire melted the door behind them as they went up the stairs just in time to have the lower steps chip away into nothing. The steps hung in the air, the metal at the top bending down from the weight. They braced against the railing, keeping close to avoid having one of them fall back. Grabbing his brother by the waist, Konrad gave the step a quick burst of his kinetic boosters. Flying up to the top and sending the stairs down to the floor below them, he landed into a run; Emich struggling to keep up.