By Andrew Dylag
Based on an Idea by Andrew Dylag, Mike Gilday, and Joe Zukoski
I sped through the deserted room, running over to the room that housed the hub for the media center. The door was electronically locked, but I knew the code. The light beeped green, and I turned the handle and swung the door in. The room was dark inside, cluttered with a single outdated server and three hubs, all of them crammed to maximum capacity. I turned on the monitor and waited as it powered up.
This computer didn’t have an Internet browser, but it did have standard Windows applications – one of which included Telnet. Punching in the IP address, I offered up a silent prayer for the request to get through.
It didn’t.
I sat there, wondering what to do next. For a good two minutes I contemplated what I needed to do and what order I should do them in. I got up from the terminal’s seat, and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind me. Time for action.
Walking back into the video production room, I went over to the camera input system and found the wires for the remote cameras around the school. I dragged over the computer system and plugged an I/O cable into the back of it, to which I connected a camera, pointed at the main monitor of the unit. Anyone accessing this computer could see any of this. Jay barely noticed, he was so involved in his work. Then he looked up, and spoke a single word. "Done."
"Best thing I’ve heard all morning. Let’s get going." He stood and shouldered the rifle.
"Sure thing. Where to?"
"Down to the comlab." I said. "We have reboot the hubs and make sure that the Net is accessible."
We left through the door to the media center and Jay used another device on the handle – one strong enough to electrocute you if you didn’t know how to avoid it. From there we went down to the computer lab. Luckily we avoided patrols, as it seemed that the vast majority of the aliens were either in the gym, café, or auditorium. The comlab, however, was guarded. An alien scientist worked on one of the computers, and clones and two alien guards defended the room.
I pulled open the door quickly, and amid the shouts of surprise from the occupants, pulled out both pistols and opened fire. Two of the clones, all of whom looked like Gary Rosenthal, dropped to the ground first, followed by a guard, who took four shots to kill. A crack of the 30-.06 killed the other guard – a clean shot, right through the head. I dropped four more of the clones, and fired the last two rounds at the scientist. Both reflected off of some sort of body armor. He had gained his footing and removed a small device from his belt. Pressing a button, a beam seared past me as I dodged from the ray’s burning heat. Blade whistling out of its scabbard, I moved in quickly, striking at his head. He barely got his own shortsword, small and highly decorated, up in time. I parried his attack easily, and ran my riposte through his chest. I pulled the blade out and looked around. Jay joined me.
The main door to DeFeo’s office - which housed our destination - was locked. I walked around the wall to his window. Normally always open, it was shut and locked. Stepping forward, Jay said, "I’ve always wanted to do this." With those words, he smashed open the window with the butt of his rifle.
I climbed in carefully. From behind me, I heard the bolt being worked on the rifle. "Bad news," Jay said. "Only two rounds left."
"Not good," I grunted, squeezing through. "Alas, we’ll have to make do." I walked over to the computer console connected to the main server. Logging in, I launched Telnet and entered the IP address. Connection! "Router’s up and running!" I exclaimed to Jay. "Logging in now."
I grabbed the headset near the computer and put it on. "Voice identification, please," said a voice, female and measured – cool, calm, and definitely mechanical.
"Mother Lab, this is Alchemist. Authorization code Alpha – Gamma – Bravo – Delta – Alpha – Niner. Access needed, level Omicron. Awaiting confirmation."
"Alchemist, this is Mother Lab. Confirming code. Confirming voice patterns. Access granted. Transferring." This time the voice was human, but still diffident – these were well disciplined Marines I was dealing with.
The screen in front of me flickered and brought up the command prompt I needed. Typing in several areas, I outlined the detail of the invasion and the connection IP that I had set up for the remote camera feeds. Under the blank of "Suggested Action," I punched in Code 1 – Tactical deployment of nuclear warheads. Then I sent the file out. It went through cleanly.
"Done," I called back to Jay, mimicking his earlier response. I went the center of the hubs and rewired a bit, connecting the router directly to the cable that led to the library hub. This done, I climbed back out of the window and joined up with Jay. "Time to go."
Byron turned and led the way out, 30-.06 readied. We walked fast down the hallway back to the media center. A small patrol almost saw us, but we backed out of the way, ducking into an empty classroom. We were in the media center, about to open the door to the video room when a voice from behind said, "Stop. You are in violation of the code issued by the Overlords."
We slowly turned with our hands in the air. It was an elite alien guard, carrying some sort of strange device. I froze. Those sorts of devices would send you straight to the Mothership, an instantaneous teleport. Jay didn’t know that, though, so it was he who saved the day.
"Please, don’t go through this door! That’s where we’ve hidden all the evidence to send to our government against you!" Jay pleaded. The alien snickered and walked over.
"It will be I who is responsible for the ultimate defeat of the humans! The glory will be all mi-"
He was cut off in the middle of his spiel by enough electricity to electrocute an elephant. He collapsed, smoking.
I looked down at him. "Nice work, Jay. Now let’s get going on that transmission."
"Thanks," he said. "I’ll get the end of the plug over here." He walked to the camera and plugged in the cable, which I had run through the wall from the server station in the media center. Then we closed the door behind us, securing the video room just in time. Two aliens were outside, pounding on the door. I connected the uplink to CNN and sent it there as well as the secure FTP server I had put up while Jay revitalized the electrocution device on the doorway to the media center. One fried as he grabbed the handle. The other ran off.
"He’ll be back," I said, "and when he gets back it would be best for us not to be here." Walking over behind the countless stands of wires for the room I found what I was looking for. The back wall was in fact windowed, and it led into the courtyard of the school. Jay smashed a few windows with the rifle and we climbed out. Walking over to the other side of the courtyard we broke several more windows and climbed in through the shattered glass. We walked down the hallway we had created a new doorway to, and were just about to leave the building when two guards saw us. They yelled and charged down the corridor.
The first fell from a crack of the rifle as Jay quickly took aim and fired. The second paused, halting his movement. I rushed, swinging my sword low. Turning to run, he found that it was as if his legs vanished from underneath him. In reality, they were still under him, but severed from his body. I rested the sword point on his neck and pushed down.
We sped out of the building, and ran into the parking lot. Most of the cars were destroyed, so we couldn’t drive out, but we still could run. Down the hill and past the tennis courts we went, and it proved to be a beneficial move – three roars passed overhead as fighter jets fired missiles into the school. I dropped and rolled as I felt the heat upon my cheek as the explosions rocked the ground. The school was gone.
