Skeleton Wars (11 page)

He paused for some seconds and looked at
them. They all seemed to be absorbed in thoughts, as they tried to
integrate his message. “Dear colleagues, if we want to rebuild our
planet, we must start with earth. We must first go back to earth
and rescue the human race. It is then that we shall be able to
reunite when we come back to Ghostia. It seems to be suicidal but
we have no choice. If they conquer earth, they will use it as a
base to destabilize us here. Therefore, we need some of you to join
us in this counterattack. Others should remain here and guard our
planet such that no one robs us of our success again.”

All the warriors voluntarily crossed to the
side of the Ghoes and were willing to escort them to earth even
though it meant fighting their colleagues. They moved straight to
the underground facility and pulled out all the weapons and
aircraft that had been reserved for their force. They were joined
by more ghosts from the general populace, especially those who were
former soldiers on earth. Among the volunteers, came the skeleton
of Dr. Christine. After being shot to death by her husband, her
soul had travelled back to Arcacidia and was dressed in a new
skeleton. Lord Ghost did not bother following to re-arrest her
because he had no time for that. This scientist was ready to go and
help with the destruction of the Chemical and Biological weapons
which Lord Ghost had carried to earth.

They first marked all their aircraft with
white stripes before leaving for earth in order to distinguish them
from Lord Ghost’s fleet. The aircraft ascended into the skies
amidst cheers from the ordinary ghosts who were watching from the
Ruthst Square. The Ghoes were doing everything in a hurry because
for every minute they delayed, dozens of humans were being killed
by Lord Ghost’s team. Even the plan which they were to follow on
their mission was discussed by the team en route!

As soon as they entered the solar system the
skeletons on earth noticed them. At that time Lord Ghost was in the
laboratory supervising the progress of his scientists, but he was
hurriedly called back to the Pentagon’s war rooms. “It’s a coup,””
he shouted when he saw the fleet of what resembled their aircraft
on the computer screens.

“Shoot them down before they reach low earth
orbit,” he ordered.

However, Gen. Cov also knew that they were
being observed because he was the one who had designed the war plan
they were following. He thus ordered two aircraft to fire
air-to-air missiles at the International Space Station, which was
the main computer control center of Lord Ghost’s team. By the time
the skeletons on earth orientated their three space based killer
satellites to start shooting down the invading aircraft with laser
beams, the two missiles had already passed their position. They
were able to shoot the station and it exploded at once. Even the
twenty computer specialists on board perished.

The loss of the station disrupted the
communication systems of the ghosts on earth. They had to shift to
other satellites more so those they had launched themselves. Gen.
Cov also ordered the computer specialists of the invading army to
hack into these satellites and take full control over them. This
resulted into an intensive Cyber-attack from both sides. To weaken
them more, Gen. Cov ordered his pilots to shoot down five of the
seven miniaturized satellites that belonged to Lord Ghost’s team
before they entered into the US airspace.

Due to the great pressure that had started
mounting on their side, Lord Ghost ordered for the launching of the
ICBMs against humans, in order to deter Gen. Cov's group from
advancing further for fear of hurting more humans.The first to be
launched travelled hypersonically at Mach 40 and hit Ottawa the
capital of Canada. Its killer prowess was not in the powerful
explosion nor the great structural damage that resulted because
these were minimal. It was the gaseous mixture of poisonous
chemicals and biological pathogens that came from it which were the
most deadly. The fumes were twice denser than air and hence
travelled near the ground and saturated in the ventilation systems
of many houses in the city.

Once inhaled, the victim would take in
programmed HMX12 bacterial spores which Prof. McDonald and his team
had engineered from the normal Helicobacter pylori strains. These
bacteria had been programmed to produce solutions that stimulate
the secretion of gastric juice in the stomach. This would result
into increased acid content in the stomach. The acid secretion
would continue and in a period of one minute only, the victim would
start regurgitating it hence causing a very painful heartburn.

The more the acid would increase in the
stomach, the more the multiplication and action of the bacteria
would increase. Five minutes later, the bacteria would start
invading the gastric mucosa, resulting into inflammation of the
stomach lining. This would be followed by progressive swelling of
the stomach, reaching almost twice its normal size in only three
minutes. Distention of the stomach would inflict a sharp piercing
pain to the victim. He or she would lose strength and would fall to
the ground and start rolling over.

Simultaneously, the inhaled gases would pass
quickly to the alveoli of the lungs. After building up a good
partial pressure there, they would dissolve into the blood more
especially in the pulmonary veins which transport oxygenated blood
from the lungs to the left atrium of the heart. The gas would
stimulate the action of platelets and the clotting factors in
blood. Small clots would start forming and after a short time
emboli would form which would obstruct the flow of blood in these
great vessels. This could even result into total blockage of these
blood vessels after some time.

The result would be labored breathing and
pain during inspiration. At a point of total occlusion of the vein,
the victim would start coughing up blood before they would die. The
combined effect of the bacteria and the poisonous gas would take
less than an hour to cause death to an individual. Each bomb could
produce enough fumes to kill over two hundred thousand people.
Though the victim would not die in just seconds, the pain they
would fill before death was enough to deter other nations from ever
thinking of rising against the ghosts.

The ghosts launched many more missiles which
were aimed at almost all major European cities, but none of them
reached their destinations. After hitting Ottawa, Gen. Cov’s
computer specialists fought hard to gain access to the ghosts’
killer satellites which they used to shoot down all the other ICBMs
before they could leave the US skies.

The hackers also took over the world’s
communication system from Lord Ghost’s team and used it to guide
their aircraft which had already started entering the US airspace.
An intensive dogfight between the aircraft on Lord Ghost’s side and
those on the side of the Ghoes ensued immediately. Lord ghost had
more aircraft than the Ghoes but many of them had expended most of
their ammunition in their fight with the US fighter jets.

The white striped aircraft were also fighting
in groups which increased their chances of destroying the target.
Two or three of them would attack a single aircraft at ago. They
would then fire their missiles at the target simultaneously.
Although the alloy that had been used to build their bodies was
strong enough to resist blasting, it could not survive explosions
from multiple missiles. Many of them started exploding after being
hit and they could be seen descending towards the ground.

After shooting down a good number of them,
some skeleton pilots on Lord Ghost’s side started ejecting their
seats in the same way human pilots had done at the start of the
aerial combat with US fighter jets. Within only two hours, more
than fifty percent of the aircraft on Lord Ghost’s side had been
shot down. But even with that success, the remaining aircraft on
Lord Ghost’s side were still more than those on the side of the
Ghoes. The Ghoes thus decided to descend to the ground to seek
man’s help.

Three white striped aircraft headed straight
to Pentagon to conquer it from Lord Ghost such that they could use
it to communicate to the world. These aircraft began by shooting
all the missile installations the ghosts had erected in the central
courtyard before landing there. As soon as the first missile from
these aircraft hit one of their structures, Lord Ghost started
panicking. Quickly, he rushed to the laboratories on the last
basement level of Pentagon . By then, even the scientists had made
much progress in their experiments. They had managed to synthesize
almost all body organs and tissues. Their next and last experiment
was to coordinate these organs into functioning body systems.

Lord Ghost ordered the scientists to
hurriedly perform the next experiment on him. He was badly in need
of a new arm and a human body and he could not stand to lose the
battle without gaining them. Before climbing to the operation
table, he ordered his special bodyguards, the most trained of all
the skeleton warriors to move to the central courtyard and arrest
or shoot down any ghost that could set foot out of the three white
striped aircraft which had landed there.

These warriors quickly surrounded the whole
courtyard and aimed their firearms at the doors of the three
aircraft. They were only waiting for an order from their commander
to shoot down any skeleton that would come out of the aircraft. But
to their surprise, when the doors opened, the skeletons that came
out were very different from all the other skeletons. Their
skeletons were very white and were putting on shining golden crowns
on their skulls. Their appearance was made even more beautiful when
the yellow rays of the sun’s light touched their crowns and
skeletons.

These warriors were so much impressed by
their angelic appearance that they even feared to shoot a single
bullet at them. Surprisingly, their commander raised his weapon
high up in the air and shouted, “They are the Ghoes! Don’t shoot!
Don’t shoot….!” He later dropped his weapon and ran towards them.
He was then followed by many of his juniors. However a few others
refused to join them and instead ran back to the level B to report
to Lord Ghost what their colleagues had done.

Upon learning that they were the Ghoes who
had attacked him, Lord Ghost was stricken with panic again. ‘’Who
has released them?” was all he said as he jumped off the operation
table. He quickly ran to one of the lifts which carried him
straight to the last floor of the Pentagon building. From there he
climbed to the rooftop of Ring E from where he was able to see the
Ghoes for himself. He became even more furious after seeing the
Ghoes interacting with some of his bodyguards.

Without saying a word, he raised his arm in
his usual style and pointed at the sky. Immediately, the sun became
covered by a dark cloud which obstructed the sunlight. There was
total darkness allover Arlington which scared both the few human
soldiers and the skeletons who were still clashing on the streets.
They ran to different areas to hide away from the phenomenon which
they could not understand. The darkness had filled every place in
Arlington County except in the middle of the Pentagon’s courtyard
where the Ghoes were standing. Their skeletons were giving out
white light which was covering a small area near them. Also, the
yellow light from the crowns on their skulls had formed a beautiful
hallo over them which could be seen by anyone who was nearby.

The Ghoes moved closer to each other and
formed a concentric ring, with eight of them on the circumference
and the other two in the middle of the ring. When a roaring
thunderstorm from the skies started threatening, Gen. Cov, who was
one of the two Ghoes that were standing at the center of the ring
put off the crown from his skull and threw it at Lord Ghost. Even
as it moved in the air, the crown continued emitting its yellow
light which made it to look like a moving fireball. Lord Ghost did
not see it coming his way because he had concentrated all his
attention on the sky. It was not until when it reached near him
that he noticed it. He tried to move away from its way but it was
too late.

The golden crown collided with the black
crown off his skull and knocked it off. Both crowns fell to the
ground, but the black one continued rolling on the floor until when
it slid off from the rooftop and fell to the ground. When it
touched the ground, it exploded like a bomb and broke into three
pieces. Lord Ghost had tried to run after it but when it slid off
from the rooftop, he gave up on it and decided to run back into the
building. But before he could enter, he was struck by a flash of
lightning from the black cloud but his skeleton was never burnt up.
Instead, he lost strength and fell down on the floor of the
rooftop.

As soon as Lord Ghost fell down, even the
skeletons that had arisen from the graves lost their strength. They
dropped all the weapons they were holding and stood still for two
minutes. Within those two minutes, the lightning intensified into a
strong thunderstorm but there was no property nor life lost despite
its strength. When the thunderstorm faded away, windstorms formed
throughout the whole country. All towns and cities in USA became
wreathed up in strong whirlwinds which lifted up most of the
infantry skeletons. The skeletons were blown back into their
respective cemeteries. Upon reaching the graves, the whirlwind
would drop the skeletons into their former graves before
dissipating away. The skeletons that were not lifted up ran after
the whirlwinds and also fell back into their former graves.

At Pentagon, a strong whirlwind enveloped the
whole building and pulled out many of the skeletons that were
inside it. Many of them were blown back to Arlington cemetery where
they had come from. The few that remained were those that had come
via the aircraft of the second and third divisions. They were left
with no option but to surrender to the Ghoes and started following
their orders. Gen. Cov sent a team to the rooftop to bring back his
golden crown and to arrest Lord Ghost in time before he could
regain his strength.