Read Star Raiders and the Lost Expidition Online
Authors: M. Shaunessy
“…
To bring you up to speed, Mars has been invaded by an unknown alien force. As you can see,” The picture changed and they saw at least two space cruisers. To John they looked like giant pinecones coated in metal. Its spikes shot out like deadly randomized positioned porcupine quills. It was nothing John had ever seen. “There are two space cruisers out of five floating around the red planet. Their demands are unknown as they speak in alien language we cannot understand. What you are about to see may shock you. This is the message we got.” The picture changed again, this time to a fearful nose less alien. It had three liquid black eyes, his rust-colored skin was wet, reptilian-like, but he had a human-like figure. When he talked, he had razor sharp teeth that would cut steel. His dialogue was a mix of Arabic, Japanese, German, and Spanish. It was nothing of the three men had heard before. The alien spoke for no more than a few minutes. The picture then froze it was pulled back in a mini box next to the newscaster. “The top dialect and language professors try to decipher the strange tongue, but they had no luck,” he paused for a moment, “We had just received that the alien force has taken a young human man as hostage. And we are being,” The screen began to scramble and flicker as the alien returned. This time he was holding the young human man with its hand gripping on his head. The young man seemed unconscious as the alien twisted and snapped his head.
The three gasped as John’s Vidphone rang again. He answered it, as it was his wife on the other end one more time.
“
John, are watching the broadcast?” She said sacredly.
“
Yeah,” he just answered still stunned.
“
What’s going on?”
“
I don’t,” the alien interrupted him as he began to talk this time in complete English.
“
People of Earth, I am Mi’Tuk, Emperor of the Xatu galaxy and of this one,” he started, “You will kneel before me as your new master or die a horrible death. You have seen what I have done to the people of Mars. I have spared their planet, but will I spare yours? That is up to your loyalty, if your leader does not respond with proper respect that is. You have twenty-four earth hours. Xata!”
Mi’Tuk had taken the human and absorbed his memories. That is how he knew the English language and that planet was Earth and everything else the human knew. The screen went back to the newscaster at the news desk. Like him, everyone around the world was in shock. They could not believe that this was the day, an alien force known as the Xatu threatened the entire Earth that day.
“
John? John you there?” His wife called.
John replied looking back at the screen, “Uh, yeah I’m here.”
“
John I’m really scared,” she said fearfully, “Come home, please, I need you.”
“
Yeah, I’ll be home as soon as I can,” he replied still shocked, “Don’t worry ok? I love you.”
“
I love you too,” she said as the screen went black.
He looked to his two colleagues and said, “I have to go you guys.”
“
What about, the…” Ganu started to wonder.
John interrupted him as he headed for the door, “Shut everything down, I’m going home to my family, you guys better do the same. We’ll resume when this threat is over.”
At the New United Nations building, now located Baltimore Maryland, after a group of terrorists destroyed the one in New York, during the Terrorist Wars, the group of nations was arguing on how to deal with this new menace. They only had less than twenty-three hours left to give Mi’Tuk an answer.
A tall African-American woman stood up and faced the other leaders, “Ladies and gentleman, please settle down.” The entire group stopped talking and looked towards her. Everyone knew her as Pauline Jones, the recently elected President of the United States. The threat took them by surprise. “Now as acting council leader, I propose that we do not take steps upon his threats. If he thinks that we will be followers, then he has not seen what we are capable of.”
“
Then what do you propose we do?” The Japan emperor inquired.
Then the Arabic president replied, “If he threatens our freedom then we must go to war!”
“
That’ll be the last thing we need to do,” Pauline said, “I suggest we negotiate with him. I mean he is a leader, and I hope a respectable one at that and not some dictating bully.”
“
And if he does not cooperate?”
“
Then we will have to go to war.”
However, she was wrong. Once she made contact with Mi’Tuk, the only thing he wanted is their sworn loyalty to the Xatu Empire. She did not like the idea the she would be reduce to a peasant to this new Emperor. The United Nations voted and declared war. Even though they did not have enough time to prepare a defense against the alien army, they must fight for their freedom.
Prologue Part Three
Two of the five Xatu space cruisers finally reached Earth and started the attack. Ten of thousands of crescent shaped ships emerged from the two ships like a swarm of mosquitoes and flocked dawn to the green planet. The war had begun. They first attacked major cities around the globe. The human’s defense was not even enough to fight back. The Xatu technology was far beyond what they expected. They were using lasers blasts, as the humans were still using bullets and missiles, not even enough to break through their shield technology. The defense researchers, was working around the clock before the alien invasion trying to develop new types of weaponry. The first design was a heated laser gun, but it design was only specially for the star ships to fight their fleet. Since the Xatu destroyed their lab, they did not have enough time to complete it.
“
The Xatu has landed! The Xatu has landed!” Some cried as everyone in the Lincoln area scrambled to the local airport/spaceport. They had to get on one of the transportation ships, but the Xatu had started to either kill or take them as hostage. John, Samantha and Michael were stuck in an insane crowed trying to reach their ship. Panic was all around them as local authorities tried to calm the crowd.
“
John we’ll never make it in time!” Sam cried as she held Michael’s arm.
John was holding a few black carrier bags as he replied harshly, “Don’t worry, we will.”
They pushed and pushed through the crowd until they finally got to their gate. There was a male Leopard Felinis guard at the gate. He was checking I.D.s and to see if they were cleared to pass.
The Felinis looked up at John and said, “Identification?”
John swiftly dug in his pocket and withdrew his wallet. He then flipped it open to his driver’s license as the Felinis looked at it. He saw that he worked for the WSA research facility and knew that he cannot board.
“
I am sorry sir, I cannot allow you board,” the guard said.
John could not understand as he wondered, “What? Why?”
“
You work for the government, and I have orders to not allow government officials to board at this time,” he replied.
John did not understand it he looked to the guard and asked, “What? I don’t believe it! You have to let me aboard, if not then let my wife and son go.”
The Felinis looked at Samantha and to Michael and saw that they were confused and terrified. He then nodded to John and allowed them to go ahead, but Samantha did not want to separate from her husband.
“
No John, I am not leaving you!” She protested.
John held her and replied, “I don’t want to leave you either, but you have too. I promise you I will catch up to you two later ok?”
“
Well, what if you don’t and? I’m just scared that I might lose you,” she said scarcely.
“
You won’t,” he said bravely, and then he kissed her ever so deeply. Then he looked to his son and knelt down to meet his eyes.
“
You commin’ wit us daddy?” Michael asked.
“
Yes, but I will see you later, daddy has to do last minute errands. Here I want you to take this,” John quickly dug through his coat, withdrew a flash sick, and handed it to his son, “When the time is right, use it in your computer ok?” Michael did not understand, but nodded as John hugged him. He then realized that he had never going to see him again. “And remember, this, energy is in the heart. I love you son.”
Michael looked back to his father as water filled his eyes, “I wuv you too daddy.”
John hugged him tightly, as if he would never see him gain. Suddenly, Sam noticed two humans shoving their way through the huge crowd. It did not bother her at first, but suddenly as they were inching their way. One of them spoke in gibberish she could not understand. They then drew their alien like guns. The crowd panicked and ducked as they aimed it at John. Sam eyes widened and saw in horror.
“
John! Look out!” She cried fearfully.
John spun his head quickly to see the two men, but before he could say or do anything, they shot the guardsman and he went down. He noticed that the blast that came from the gun was not truly lethal, as the Felinis did not bleed, but then again, he was not truly educational on Xatu weaponry.
He turned to his beloved wife and cried, “Take Mikey and get out of here!”
“
No! I won’t leave you,” She shot back, but before John could say something back, she heard a strange electronic buzzing noise, and her husband fell down. Sam’s eyes widened and cried, “John!”
Michael looked at his father in shock and cried frightfully. “Daddy!”
The two men ripped their faces off to reveal that they were Xatu soldiers. At the same moment that the guard and John was hit, Ganu and other awaiting passengers down at the end of the gate, heard the commotion and looked. Ganu saw that his human friend was in trouble he started to run down the gate and saw that he fell down.
Sam looked at her son and said to her, “Go Michael,” she looked at the end of the gate and saw Ganu. She looked back to her son and said franticly, “Run to Ganu baby, I’ll be right behind you.”
“
I don’t wanna leave you,” Mike said to her scarcely.
Sam was on the verge of tears, but said again, “Just do what mommy said ok?” She saw that the two aliens were close by maybe several feet, she could not truly guess. She then said to her son franticly, “I’ll be fine, just run!”
Michael nodded, looked towards Ganu and simply ran down the gate as fast as he could. He heard the same noise stopped, turned and saw his mother lying down next to his father. Fear froze him, as he could not move. One of the aliens looked up at him as Ganu grab Michael and scooped him up in his scaly arms. Michael squirmed to get free but Ganu held him tight. Ganu frowned as he listened to Michael’s cries. The Lizzian ran back down to the gate as fast as he could. Michael was crying out to his mom and dad but it was too late. The Xatu army had besieged the space/air port and dragged Michael’s parents away. The two Xatu soldiers continued to fire at Ganu but he barely slipped under the security blast shield as it slid down deflecting the laser blasts.
Ganu and Michael raced towards their departure ship called
Mayflower 18
. The ship was huge, maybe four times bigger than the space shuttle that they used back in the last century. The design however did not change. As they boarded, Ganu saw in the sky tiny bursts of explosion and frowned, as he knew that the war was never going to end.
High above the Earth’s atmosphere, one of the spikes underneath the Xatu star cruiser, opened up like blossoming flower. It emitted a bright yellow glow, and then a laser beam shot down on the planet. As the
Mayflower 18
took off, Ganu looked out the window and saw horridly the beam hit somewhere out in Midwest. Ganu figured that the beam must have been two hundred miles wide in radius. It was big enough to destroy one city, but it did not move. It puzzled Ganu as the ship ascended into space, and then he realized that beam was cutting into the Earth’s surface. The Xatu was targeting the core. If that beam reaches it he thought, it would oh no, destroy the planet entirely. They had to get safe distance if they were going to survive the explosion, but they are not out of the woods yet. The
Mayflower 18
must get past the two star cruisers.
A fleet of crescent winged Xatu ships called B’tars, changed its course as the leader saw the transport ship departing. They flew behind it at incredible speeds firing its pulsar bolts at it trying to damage it. The pilots inside the
Mayflower 18
could not shake them. The navigator was trying to plot a course to the planet of Cian, but the pilot was too busy avoiding hits by the Xatu fleet. The pilot told the navigator that they must enter Hyper Flight to escape, but the navigator said that the ship must be in the right position. The pilot did not care. They needed to leave before Empire sliced their ship into Swiss cheese, so he then pressed the Hyper Flight button on his control panel and the
Mayflower 18
disappeared. It was at that moment the Earth began to break and crack as thousands of volcanoes erupted all over the surface. Then it happened. The Earth, destroyed in a violent gigantic explosion. The shock destroyed all of the Xatu fleet, but the star cruiser sustained minimal damage because of its strong force shield.