The Debacle. First draft completed.
Prologue
Every civilian eye on the globe was fixated on the live news cast. Traffic, businesses, schools, and nearly every aspect of human life across the globe had come to a standstill as all stopped to gawk at the nearest screen or listen to the sounds of the radio.
“People of Earth,” the world’s president greeted in a momentous tone of voice. The president was a man of sixty, with black skin, salt and pepper hair, and an inspiring voice who hailed from the state of South Africa. “History is made today. The deep-space exploration vessel, the Neil Armstrong has just reached the Gliese 581 system and is even now approaching the planet.”
Fifteen year old Kale Callaghan eagerly leaned forward in his desk. His teacher raised the volume on the screen and turned off the lights. Kale’s heart palpitated with anxiety and excitement. The class held their collective breath as the president continued his address.
“The Neil Armstrong was launched over twenty years ago. Now, on the eighteenth of March, 2073, our brave astronauts have arrived at their destination.”
The students all quivered with anticipation, but none more so than Kale. Their teacher had just been telling them about the Neil Armstrong’s gallant mission to explore planets orbiting a star twenty light years away that had the potential to support life. Although the planets had been discovered decades ago, humanity had only recently unlocked the secrets to near-speed-of-light travel. The Neil Armstrong was the first long-range mission to utilize the technology.
“Any moment now,” the president continued, “the Neil Armstrong will drop a sensor beacon that will show us what our astronauts see. Relayed via micro-wormholes, the images you are about to see are being displayed in real-time.”
Kale listened intently, his heart pounding in his ears. He was in the middle of writing a report on how the Neil Armstrong used micro-wormholes for one-way communication. In humanities search for means of interstellar travel, they had attempted to harness wormholes as a means of instantaneous travel. The experiments to create wormholes large enough for any object to fit through had failed miserably. However, during their experiments, scientists had learned how to create, harness, and control micro-wormholes that could transport data bursts. The technology wasn’t used on Earth as it was unnecessary, but it had been equipped on the Neil Armstrong to allow the astronauts and the ship to send messages and videos to Earth.
The president’s image disappeared from the screen and was replaced by the video footage from the Neil Armstrong’s beacon. The dark screen lit up as the camera was turned on, revealing the bolted steel storage compartment within the ship. Suddenly, as a door beneath it opened, the camera jettisoned into space. The beacon turned and began tracking the ship with its sophisticated camera.
The scene was breathtaking. Kale leaned forward even more, trying to absorb every minute detail of the moment and permanently commit them to memory. His highly active imagination burst into activity as he imagined himself there, aboard the Neil Armstrong. Ever the dreamer, he had been waiting for this day for years and could hardly believe that it had finally come.
The Neil Armstrong was a long, bulky craft, painted a light grey. The fuselage was a stretched octagon with the cockpit at the very front. The hull was smooth and unadorned other than the ship's name in big red letters and eight engine pods at the stern.
The yellow glow in the engine pods slowly dimmed as the engines cooled down from the last leg of the journey. The ship continued towards the planet. Kale finally tore his gaze from the ship and looked forward along the intended flight path.
A large, majestic planet floated in the vastness of space. The system's star was just appearing over the top of the planet. It was difficult to tell through the glare of sunlight, but Kale was positive he spied water on the surface.
Young Callaghan leaned forward with eager anticipation as the ship’s in-system drive powered up with an red glow at the rear end of the fuselage. The Neil Armstrong altered course and made for the planet, Gliese 581g. The beacon remained stationary and tracked the ship with its long-range camera, sporadically zooming in to keep the craft in sight.
All eyes in the world were locked on the sight of the Neil Armstrong approaching the planet. Kale was inspired by the sight of the craft propelling itself through space towards an alien planet, light glinting enticingly off its many arrays and edges. He was thrilled at the chance to be a part of such a globally monumental event. The world continued to hold still as the beacon’s camera tracked the Neil Armstrong’s flight.
The craft neared the planet and made preparations to enter orbit. Suddenly, another object in orbit came around from around the far side of the planet. Kale leaned even farther forward, nearly falling out of his chair as he tried to get a closer look at the foreign object. His mind whirled through all the possibilities: a probe, a satellite, a small asteroid, or even an alien ship.
The object continued its orbit around the planet and caught the light from the sun, glinting brightly for a moment before disappearing back into the shadows. The camera turned and zoomed in on the new object as the on-board system sought to discern the nature of the orbiting thing. A collective gasp could be heard around the world as the true nature of the object was revealed.
The alien craft was vastly different in design from the Neil Armstrong. Its dark green hull barely stood out against the stars. The menacing craft seemed to have several large spikes protruding threateningly from the front, as if the aliens intended to ram the Neil Armstrong like an ancient warship utilizing a devastating prow.
The two ships drew towards each other. Kale knew the image and scale was deceiving, the ships were both moving far faster than they appeared. The Neil Armstrong cut its engines and slowed. Kale imagined that the pilots were either debating what to do or trying to establish communication with the alien craft. Two spots of yellow light erupted from the alien craft, flashing briefly.
Dread filled Kale as he watched the two beams of light lancing towards the Neil Armstrong. The lasers hit the Neil Armstrong’s shields. Beneath the yellow lasers, the shield shimmered various shades of green and yellow, blocking the attack.
The alien craft continued its approach unabated and fired again. The Neil Armstrong’s shields, equipped only for near-light-speed travel, not battle, and worn out from the long voyage, gave way. Kale watched with horror as the shields failed and the yellow beams obliterated the Neil Armstrong's prow, the cockpit, and the two astronauts contained within.
The alien ship fired two more times, effectively obliterating the exploratory vessel. The craft didn’t slow in the least as it blew through the debris cloud and turned towards the beacon. Another flash of yellow light and the image went dark.
President Emmanuel returned to the screen. In just the three minutes of video, he seemed to have aged several years. The president quickly composed himself and stared confidently into the cameras. Behind him, a still image of the alien craft destroying the Neil Armstrong floated on the screen. The president remained silent for several minutes while the world took in the chilling image and the startling news it symbolized: proof of alien life, hostile alien life at that.
“Citizens of the United Earth Republic,” the president finally said working hard to remain calm. “We are on an unprecedented, unforeseeable precipice; a precipice of war with an alien race that just minutes ago we didn’t even know existed.”
The world silently took in the president’s words. Most were too stunned to speak.
“In the face of such danger, I call upon the senate to form a new branch of the military to act as the front line in the heavens, protecting us from any further aggressive actions by the alien menace. We must begin by building a fleet of spacecraft to operate within our solar system, with bases scattered throughout. We will need volunteers to man these coming ships and space stations and scientists to begin research on new, effective means of interstellar transportation so that we may quickly travel to the Gliese system if the need arises.”
Kale’s head was immediately filled with day dreams of joining this space force and traveling to distant star systems. He wanted to be a war hero, responsible for ending the alien threat to humanity and saving an untold number of lives.
The president shifted from business to a more inspiring tone. “Mankind has endured much over the millennia. We know that we are capable of overcoming staggering odds. Ten years ago we overcame our own differences and formed all nations of the world under a single banner as the United Earth Republic. We have been united since, and we will remain united in the face of this new evil. If war comes, we can, we will, win it for a united humanity.”
“Uno animo, uno virtúte,” the president proudly intoned the nation’s motto.
As the president’s image faded again, it was replaced by an image of UER’s flag, a red image of Atlas holding up the earth, over a black field. Superimposed over the image were the words Uno Animo, Uno Virtúte: One Mind, One Power.
The broadcast ended, but the world continued to stare at the blank screen, trying to process the unexpected revelations made that day.
* * * *
Events proceeded quickly following that first contact. The president's new military branch was quickly formed, christened the Peacekeepers, and three designs were created for the fleet; a spacecraft carrier, troop transport, and fighter. The simplicity of having only three types of ships allowed for mass production at a rapid rate and in less than a year Peacekeeper forces consisted of eight juggernaut-class carriers and the numerous armadillo-class transports and barracuda-class fighters that each carrier commanded. Along with the hundreds of Peacekeepers vessels, there were four military bases established throughout the system on Mercury, Earth’s moon, Titan, and Pluto.
With the massive buildup of Peacekeepers forces, the citizens of Earth finally relaxed. Earth, they thought, was now safe from any alien incursions. Life moved on.
Scientists, who had been working diligently for months, finally cracked the light-speed barrier. Once that particular challenge was overcome, progress was swift and within another few months Peacekeeper command was installing new engines in all their carriers and transports. The new engines would allow the fleet to travel at well over the speed of light, giving them the capability to reach Gliese in just a matter of weeks.
Kale followed the progress eagerly, checking the news feeds at least once every day. He daydreamed of life as a barracuda pilot and could talk of nothing else. After just a few months, his friends and parents were begging him to find some other obsession. Things like sports and games held little attraction to him though, in the face of his dreams.
When Kale’s seventeenth birthday came, he found himself glued to his computer screen watching another urgent broadcast. A news camera showed the view through the cockpit of an armadillo-class troop transport as it inched through space. A dispersed field of debris lay spread before the transport. Metallic pieces of all sizes slowly floated through the void among a cloud of vaporized dust particles. Most of the larger pieces were gray, some with Peacekeepers markings. Within the debris field, Kale spied a handful of large pieces of dark green metal.
A man stepped into the frame, standing behind the two pilots’ seats. “What you are seeing here,” he said grimly, “is the aftermath of a fierce battle between a full squadron of barracuda-class fighters and a single alien ship.”
Kale looked at the scene with a mixture of awe and terror. If just one alien fighter could take out a squadron of six barracudas, they were obviously more powerful than anybody had previously estimated. Not only were they powerful, but apparently capable and willing to travel to Earth. Humanity might just be in trouble, Kale had to admit, despite his belief in the Peacekeeper fleet.
“The Eagle squadron was out on training maneuvers when, according to brief com chatter, the alien vessel appeared and attacked. The Eagles returned fire. It appears that both sides destroyed each other in the fight. There were no survivors.”
Within two days, the president held another press conference to announce that war had been declared on the alien menace. Within another day of that announcement, half of the fleet jumped out of the system to launch a counter-strike against the alien home world. Humanity would take the fight to them, in the hopes that the battles would be waged far from home.
The war had begun.
* * * *
The war began with a massive assault on the alien planet. Peacekeeper forces, although heavily outnumbered, preformed spectacularly. They took heavy losses at the start, but quickly established a beachhead on the planet and began a long campaign against the enemy.
Kale now checked the news several times an hour, whether he was at home, in class, or even in the shower. He was completely obsessed.
The first images of the aliens were broadcast back not long later. When the aliens were confirmed to have features similar to those rumored to have crashed in New Mexico in 1951, President Emmanuel declassified the old and forgotten files, revealing that two of the Gliese aliens had indeed been to Earth before.
Fighting on Gliese raged on. Humans, not ready for to wage war across an entire planet, struggled for every square mile of ground. Fighting was fierce and casualties were high. The war dragged on and filled the news channels around the clock. There seemed to be no end in sight.
After nearly a year of fighting, Peacekeeper forces decoded alien files linking Gliese to another dozen alien planets. The intel indicated that the thirteen alien worlds had formed a Consortium, whose sole intent was the annihilation of the human race for attempting to conquer Gliese.
Debilitating fear gripped the world once more as humanity was forced to face the very real possibility of their own demise at the hands of a syndicate of malevolent alien races. The news of potential, impending human genocide became a dark shadow that hovered over everyday life. Humanity hadn't been gripped by such a common, overarching fear since the cold war and threat of nuclear annihilation.
As the first light of sun hit the ground on his eighteenth birthday, Kale stepped through the door of his local Peacekeeper recruiting office. “I’d like to enlist.”
Prologue
Every civilian eye on the globe was fixated on the live news cast. Traffic, businesses, schools, and nearly every aspect of human life across the globe had come to a standstill as all stopped to gawk at the nearest screen or listen to the sounds of the radio.
“People of Earth,” the world’s president greeted in a momentous tone of voice. The president was a man of sixty, with black skin, salt and pepper hair, and an inspiring voice who hailed from the state of South Africa. “History is made today. The deep-space exploration vessel, the Neil Armstrong has just reached the Gliese 581 system and is even now approaching the planet.”
Fifteen year old Kale Callaghan eagerly leaned forward in his desk. His teacher raised the volume on the screen and turned off the lights. Kale’s heart palpitated with anxiety and excitement. The class held their collective breath as the president continued his address.
“The Neil Armstrong was launched over twenty years ago. Now, on the eighteenth of March, 2073, our brave astronauts have arrived at their destination.”
The students all quivered with anticipation, but none more so than Kale. Their teacher had just been telling them about the Neil Armstrong’s gallant mission to explore planets orbiting a star twenty light years away that had the potential to support life. Although the planets had been discovered decades ago, humanity had only recently unlocked the secrets to near-speed-of-light travel. The Neil Armstrong was the first long-range mission to utilize the technology.
“Any moment now,” the president continued, “the Neil Armstrong will drop a sensor beacon that will show us what our astronauts see. Relayed via micro-wormholes, the images you are about to see are being displayed in real-time.”
Kale listened intently, his heart pounding in his ears. He was in the middle of writing a report on how the Neil Armstrong used micro-wormholes for one-way communication. In humanities search for means of interstellar travel, they had attempted to harness wormholes as a means of instantaneous travel. The experiments to create wormholes large enough for any object to fit through had failed miserably. However, during their experiments, scientists had learned how to create, harness, and control micro-wormholes that could transport data bursts. The technology wasn’t used on Earth as it was unnecessary, but it had been equipped on the Neil Armstrong to allow the astronauts and the ship to send messages and videos to Earth.
The president’s image disappeared from the screen and was replaced by the video footage from the Neil Armstrong’s beacon. The dark screen lit up as the camera was turned on, revealing the bolted steel storage compartment within the ship. Suddenly, as a door beneath it opened, the camera jettisoned into space. The beacon turned and began tracking the ship with its sophisticated camera.
The scene was breathtaking. Kale leaned forward even more, trying to absorb every minute detail of the moment and permanently commit them to memory. His highly active imagination burst into activity as he imagined himself there, aboard the Neil Armstrong. Ever the dreamer, he had been waiting for this day for years and could hardly believe that it had finally come.
The Neil Armstrong was a long, bulky craft, painted a light grey. The fuselage was a stretched octagon with the cockpit at the very front. The hull was smooth and unadorned other than the ship's name in big red letters and eight engine pods at the stern.
The yellow glow in the engine pods slowly dimmed as the engines cooled down from the last leg of the journey. The ship continued towards the planet. Kale finally tore his gaze from the ship and looked forward along the intended flight path.
A large, majestic planet floated in the vastness of space. The system's star was just appearing over the top of the planet. It was difficult to tell through the glare of sunlight, but Kale was positive he spied water on the surface.
Young Callaghan leaned forward with eager anticipation as the ship’s in-system drive powered up with an red glow at the rear end of the fuselage. The Neil Armstrong altered course and made for the planet, Gliese 581g. The beacon remained stationary and tracked the ship with its long-range camera, sporadically zooming in to keep the craft in sight.
All eyes in the world were locked on the sight of the Neil Armstrong approaching the planet. Kale was inspired by the sight of the craft propelling itself through space towards an alien planet, light glinting enticingly off its many arrays and edges. He was thrilled at the chance to be a part of such a globally monumental event. The world continued to hold still as the beacon’s camera tracked the Neil Armstrong’s flight.
The craft neared the planet and made preparations to enter orbit. Suddenly, another object in orbit came around from around the far side of the planet. Kale leaned even farther forward, nearly falling out of his chair as he tried to get a closer look at the foreign object. His mind whirled through all the possibilities: a probe, a satellite, a small asteroid, or even an alien ship.
The object continued its orbit around the planet and caught the light from the sun, glinting brightly for a moment before disappearing back into the shadows. The camera turned and zoomed in on the new object as the on-board system sought to discern the nature of the orbiting thing. A collective gasp could be heard around the world as the true nature of the object was revealed.
The alien craft was vastly different in design from the Neil Armstrong. Its dark green hull barely stood out against the stars. The menacing craft seemed to have several large spikes protruding threateningly from the front, as if the aliens intended to ram the Neil Armstrong like an ancient warship utilizing a devastating prow.
The two ships drew towards each other. Kale knew the image and scale was deceiving, the ships were both moving far faster than they appeared. The Neil Armstrong cut its engines and slowed. Kale imagined that the pilots were either debating what to do or trying to establish communication with the alien craft. Two spots of yellow light erupted from the alien craft, flashing briefly.
Dread filled Kale as he watched the two beams of light lancing towards the Neil Armstrong. The lasers hit the Neil Armstrong’s shields. Beneath the yellow lasers, the shield shimmered various shades of green and yellow, blocking the attack.
The alien craft continued its approach unabated and fired again. The Neil Armstrong’s shields, equipped only for near-light-speed travel, not battle, and worn out from the long voyage, gave way. Kale watched with horror as the shields failed and the yellow beams obliterated the Neil Armstrong's prow, the cockpit, and the two astronauts contained within.
The alien ship fired two more times, effectively obliterating the exploratory vessel. The craft didn’t slow in the least as it blew through the debris cloud and turned towards the beacon. Another flash of yellow light and the image went dark.
President Emmanuel returned to the screen. In just the three minutes of video, he seemed to have aged several years. The president quickly composed himself and stared confidently into the cameras. Behind him, a still image of the alien craft destroying the Neil Armstrong floated on the screen. The president remained silent for several minutes while the world took in the chilling image and the startling news it symbolized: proof of alien life, hostile alien life at that.
“Citizens of the United Earth Republic,” the president finally said working hard to remain calm. “We are on an unprecedented, unforeseeable precipice; a precipice of war with an alien race that just minutes ago we didn’t even know existed.”
The world silently took in the president’s words. Most were too stunned to speak.
“In the face of such danger, I call upon the senate to form a new branch of the military to act as the front line in the heavens, protecting us from any further aggressive actions by the alien menace. We must begin by building a fleet of spacecraft to operate within our solar system, with bases scattered throughout. We will need volunteers to man these coming ships and space stations and scientists to begin research on new, effective means of interstellar transportation so that we may quickly travel to the Gliese system if the need arises.”
Kale’s head was immediately filled with day dreams of joining this space force and traveling to distant star systems. He wanted to be a war hero, responsible for ending the alien threat to humanity and saving an untold number of lives.
The president shifted from business to a more inspiring tone. “Mankind has endured much over the millennia. We know that we are capable of overcoming staggering odds. Ten years ago we overcame our own differences and formed all nations of the world under a single banner as the United Earth Republic. We have been united since, and we will remain united in the face of this new evil. If war comes, we can, we will, win it for a united humanity.”
“Uno animo, uno virtúte,” the president proudly intoned the nation’s motto.
As the president’s image faded again, it was replaced by an image of UER’s flag, a red image of Atlas holding up the earth, over a black field. Superimposed over the image were the words Uno Animo, Uno Virtúte: One Mind, One Power.
The broadcast ended, but the world continued to stare at the blank screen, trying to process the unexpected revelations made that day.
* * * *
Events proceeded quickly following that first contact. The president's new military branch was quickly formed, christened the Peacekeepers, and three designs were created for the fleet; a spacecraft carrier, troop transport, and fighter. The simplicity of having only three types of ships allowed for mass production at a rapid rate and in less than a year Peacekeeper forces consisted of eight juggernaut-class carriers and the numerous armadillo-class transports and barracuda-class fighters that each carrier commanded. Along with the hundreds of Peacekeepers vessels, there were four military bases established throughout the system on Mercury, Earth’s moon, Titan, and Pluto.
With the massive buildup of Peacekeepers forces, the citizens of Earth finally relaxed. Earth, they thought, was now safe from any alien incursions. Life moved on.
Scientists, who had been working diligently for months, finally cracked the light-speed barrier. Once that particular challenge was overcome, progress was swift and within another few months Peacekeeper command was installing new engines in all their carriers and transports. The new engines would allow the fleet to travel at well over the speed of light, giving them the capability to reach Gliese in just a matter of weeks.
Kale followed the progress eagerly, checking the news feeds at least once every day. He daydreamed of life as a barracuda pilot and could talk of nothing else. After just a few months, his friends and parents were begging him to find some other obsession. Things like sports and games held little attraction to him though, in the face of his dreams.
When Kale’s seventeenth birthday came, he found himself glued to his computer screen watching another urgent broadcast. A news camera showed the view through the cockpit of an armadillo-class troop transport as it inched through space. A dispersed field of debris lay spread before the transport. Metallic pieces of all sizes slowly floated through the void among a cloud of vaporized dust particles. Most of the larger pieces were gray, some with Peacekeepers markings. Within the debris field, Kale spied a handful of large pieces of dark green metal.
A man stepped into the frame, standing behind the two pilots’ seats. “What you are seeing here,” he said grimly, “is the aftermath of a fierce battle between a full squadron of barracuda-class fighters and a single alien ship.”
Kale looked at the scene with a mixture of awe and terror. If just one alien fighter could take out a squadron of six barracudas, they were obviously more powerful than anybody had previously estimated. Not only were they powerful, but apparently capable and willing to travel to Earth. Humanity might just be in trouble, Kale had to admit, despite his belief in the Peacekeeper fleet.
“The Eagle squadron was out on training maneuvers when, according to brief com chatter, the alien vessel appeared and attacked. The Eagles returned fire. It appears that both sides destroyed each other in the fight. There were no survivors.”
Within two days, the president held another press conference to announce that war had been declared on the alien menace. Within another day of that announcement, half of the fleet jumped out of the system to launch a counter-strike against the alien home world. Humanity would take the fight to them, in the hopes that the battles would be waged far from home.
The war had begun.
* * * *
The war began with a massive assault on the alien planet. Peacekeeper forces, although heavily outnumbered, preformed spectacularly. They took heavy losses at the start, but quickly established a beachhead on the planet and began a long campaign against the enemy.
Kale now checked the news several times an hour, whether he was at home, in class, or even in the shower. He was completely obsessed.
The first images of the aliens were broadcast back not long later. When the aliens were confirmed to have features similar to those rumored to have crashed in New Mexico in 1951, President Emmanuel declassified the old and forgotten files, revealing that two of the Gliese aliens had indeed been to Earth before.
Fighting on Gliese raged on. Humans, not ready for to wage war across an entire planet, struggled for every square mile of ground. Fighting was fierce and casualties were high. The war dragged on and filled the news channels around the clock. There seemed to be no end in sight.
After nearly a year of fighting, Peacekeeper forces decoded alien files linking Gliese to another dozen alien planets. The intel indicated that the thirteen alien worlds had formed a Consortium, whose sole intent was the annihilation of the human race for attempting to conquer Gliese.
Debilitating fear gripped the world once more as humanity was forced to face the very real possibility of their own demise at the hands of a syndicate of malevolent alien races. The news of potential, impending human genocide became a dark shadow that hovered over everyday life. Humanity hadn't been gripped by such a common, overarching fear since the cold war and threat of nuclear annihilation.
As the first light of sun hit the ground on his eighteenth birthday, Kale stepped through the door of his local Peacekeeper recruiting office. “I’d like to enlist.”