Chapter 15

Friday November 28^th, 2014

"What the fuck are we doing here?"

"what we are told," the other replied wrapping himself in his blanket.

"this is so fucked up, we should have disappeared with the others when that asshole took over."

"I know what you mean, but we would've never gotten our wives out of there and you know that."

"Yeah I know, I hope they are OK The bastard said no one would touch them but we both know that doesn't count for him. And the thought of him on my April makes me want to vomit."

"I feel the same way. I told Jessie to go into hiding and to take April with her. The other women said they would hide them and I have no choice but to trust them."

the other nodded his head in conformation. "Thank you for trying to help. I just hope it was enough. Why don't you go ahead and get some sleep. Nothing is happening out there. I don't even know why we are here?"

"Because that lunatic showed up spouting that this is all some sort of alien conspiracy and that the head alien dude was down there when he left." one man said while pointing to large piles of rubble.

"But everyone was gone when we got here and he had the place leveled. Why are we sitting here staring at broken buildings, no one in there right minds would bother coming back to this dump."

"Hey what the hell is that," one man said pointing into the darkness.

"I don't see anything, what did you see?"

"I'm not sure, I thought I saw something shiny but my eyes must be playing tricks on me. Get some rest, I'll take first watch." one slipped further into his cold weather gear sleeping bag while the other settled in for a long night. He could of sworn he'd seen a metal leg of some sort but he wasn't going to tell his partner that much. No sense in having him think I've lost it.

Monday December 15^th

"Hey Derrick you know what this is about?"

"Not a clue Mike, but this'll be the first time I've seen him in four weeks. Not since the debriefing and the meeting of that Valcun Yessenia."

"How is she?"

"not good, she spends most of her time in her room alone. The little she does come out she is at one of the parks surrounded by guards."

"How are the others reacting to the news and her presence?"

"I explained her situation and everyone is reacting differently to her. Some seem to show compassion but most just show indifference. It's as much as can be asked for now." I nodded my head on agreement. The people here would have a lot of hard feelings toward the Valcun's and the fact that they weren't showing outright rage was a good thing. We followed along the corridor until we reached the launch pad for the fighters. Derrick and I approached the foursome waiting beside the the ship the two arrived from out of space in.

"Afternoon ladies," I heard Derrick ask Blondie, Jane and Ally.

"Hey Derrick," Ally and Jane said in unison. It was funny sometimes how alike they really were even if 4 years separated them by age.

"Good afternoon sir," Blondie responded in her normal formal tone.

"And how are you sir?" Derrick asked taking his hand. I followed suit as he responded, "I've been very busy."

"And what have you been busy doing?" Derrick asked.

"Well, if I told you that it wouldn't be a surprise now would it?"

"i guess not," derrick replied laughing.

"Are you ready to go?"

"And where are we going? Never mind, if you told me it wouldn't be a surprise." he said in a monotone voice as we followed the foursome up the ramp. We were soon on the bridge and I heard the slight hum as the engines activated. Our only indication that we were air born were the scenes coming from the view screen.

We circled the city for a while and Jane informed us that two men were in a building about 200 yards from the edge of the campus. I wondered why they were there and so did Derrick. It was our host that seemed to have the best idea of why though.

"I would assume that they are a lookout for Jake in the event that you return to your former home."

"Are you serious?" Derrick asked surprised.

"Don't be surprised," I interrupted. "Jake definitely seems to be the fanatical type. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought that he could sneak up on you if you did return."

"But why would I return, he destroyed the college we were staying at. That was as close as you could come to secure in this city. Everything else is wide open. I doubt we'd get the chance to put a fence up like we did the last time."

"There would be no need for you to put a fence up this time," our space bound friend replied.

"and why is that?" Derrick asked.

"Because your city no longer exists." he replied as calmly as if he were reporting the weather.

"Why do you mean it doesn't exist?"

"Well, the spiders have two functions really, one is to build things..."

"And the other?" Derrick asked after waiting for him to continue.

"the other is to tear things down."

"You tore up the city?" I asked incredulously.

"Not exactly," he replied. "The spiders break things down to their base elements and store them. It uses those base elements in order to build new things. So I had them build massive storage containers to hold all those properties."

"And what do you plan to do with all that?" Derrick asked after visibly calming himself.

"Well, I'd hoped you like to build a new city, one that hasn't been destroyed, worn down and wasn't infested by zombies."

"I would like that very much," Derrick replied now looking pleased.

"Well then, why don't you and I go over some pictures of some of the cities from my home planet. They were some of the most beautiful in the Empire."

at that point Chris motioned for me to follow her off the bridge and I did. I hadn't realized that we'd landed until she led me down the ramp. That's when I got my first real look at my surroundings. The entire landscape for as far as the eye could see was level and covered in a beautiful sheet of Kentucky blue grass. The sun was high in the sky so I could see for what seemed miles around. "It's beautiful," I said thinking aloud.

"Yes it is," I heard Blondie reply by my side. I looked at her and saw her for the first time what kind of beauty she really was. Everything about her was perfect. "Come on, I've got something to show you," she said taking off at a brisk walk. I followed along like a lost puppy for about 10 or so minutes. She pressed a button on a remote she'd pulled from her pocket and an elevator lifted from beneath the ground. I was surprised as I hadn't noticed or expected it. "you coming or what?" she asked as I realized that I'd stopped when the lift had emerged. I quickly step in and the doors closed and I could feel it begin to descend into the earth.

The doors opened after a moment and Chris led me into a darkened room. I could barely make out her form as I tried to keep pace and watch my step at the same time. "Lights," was all I heard before my eyes, which had begun to adjust to the darkness, were blinded once again when every light on the planet seemed to power on at the same instant. It was several moments before my eyes cleared and when they did I almost pissed myself.

There before me stood history in the making. 40 foot tall, just under 100 tons stood the mighty Mad Cat Mark II. "She has two type 3 rail guns as it's primary weapons and carry around 1000 rounds each with a range of over 800 meters. Those have been paired with type 3 medium lasers which have a range of about 400 meters and a recycle time of three seconds. On her shoulder mounts are two 15 round LRM packs, those have a range around 1000 meters and carries 45 rounds each. There are also two independently aimed type 2 rapid fire lasers along with four type type 1 light lasers located on the main body. Recycle time for those are just under a second, each. It's armor is constructed by means very similar to the Chobham Common armor commonly used for armor of your military vehicles but I've used metals used by our military which are much denser than the ones used here on earth making it much tougher and lighter. This machine only weighs 70 tons. So, what do you think?"