Eden, Missouri - April, 2199 - Eddy

I was offered a job a couple months after Tucker joined the UGDF, and I was acknowledged for my vast knowledge of astrophysics. I began working in the laboratory in Berlin for the remaining year, and moved to Eden after receiving a promotion in February. Me and Samantha continued going on dates, and eventually we got engaged. Having been together for almost a year, she decided to move with me to Eden, and we got a beautiful house a few miles from the UGDF Command Center. We lived luxuriously, having some of the best accommodations. I worked for over $20,000 biweekly, but the pay somehow felt small next to the inconsistent weather of Missouri. I missed the rainy days in Berlin, but there were far more opportunities here in Eden. The only other downside was the size of the city. Eden was fucking huge, way bigger than Berlin! But even with the large city and the ever changing weather, it was still well worth it.

I sat on the porch early in the morning, watching the cars drive by. Looking up at the sky I notice a strange light in the sky. It was still, yet brighter than the rest of the stars. I dismissed it as a star anyways, and smoked a cigarette. The morning air smelled of rain, and the sun was just barely coming up. The sky glowed on the horizon, and stars and clouds filled the west. I couldn’t help but feel this weird sense of dread, like I was about to die or something. Eventually, I got up and drove myself to work.

Something about today was off. I had a lot of work to do, but nothing amounted to what we were about to find. I was running the telescope in hopes to map out the solar system and exactly where we could put an OCS so spacecrafts could get needed repairs before continuing their journey. OCS stood for Orbital Checkpoint Stations. Essentially they were meant to orbit the sun just like any other planet, but there would be 2 checkpoints on opposite sides of the orbit. Oftentimes I would be interrupted by coffee breaks and donut runs. Still worth the interruptions, but something led me to discover a strange shuttle when I refused the donut run that day. It had just passed Pluto when we saw it. We zoomed the scope in a bit further, and noticed a ship emitting green light. We noticed a second fleet of much larger ships 3 lightyears.

I had a weird knot in my stomach when I noticed the ships. They were wrong, they looked nothing like the ships we had been sending out into space, even the warcraft carriers weren’t the size of these ships. They were almost like asteroids the size of Texas, but they were created so effectively that it seemed they had barely been traveling a month. I reported my findings to the lead scientist when they came back from their break. He then came to look for himself.

“Son of a bitch, you really weren’t kidding.” The lead scientist said, barely able to stand.

“What do we do? Should we contact the General?” I asked, nervously.

“How fast is it moving?” He asked.

“I’m not sure, I can’t clock in a reading, but it looks to be at least 1.5 Light Years from the rest of the Fleet.” I claimed, trying to hold back my fear.

“Fuck, I’ll contact the general and tell him what we found today. Go ahead and clock out, we need the lab secure before we proceed.”

The lead scientist dismissed me, and I began to clock out. I began walking to my car, smoking a cigarette on the way. I sat down in my car, and punched in the coordinates. After about an hour or so, I was back home. I made my way inside, and sat down on the couch. Samantha rushed into the living room after hearing the door shut, and greeted me with a gigantic hug. She looked up from my chest and kissed me.

“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” She said, noticing my distant expression.

“Nothing, just saw something at work that has me a bit worried.” I said, trying to dismiss it.

“Come on, tell me what happened.” She begged

“I can’t, it’s classified for a reason.” I said, wishing I could just tell her.

“Ok, just try not to let it bother you then, ‘kay?” She said, smiling at me.

“Okay…” I said, leaning back on the couch.

Stolen story; please report.

I sat there for a few hours, wondering how the UGDF would handle the alien situation. Those shuttles were far too advanced to belong to another country. We hadn’t even figured out how to travel a light year in less than 10,000 years, let alone what seemed like a few years. We had no idea how long they had been traveling, or how long before they would arrive on earth. My worries went from thinking about the aliens and how they would affect the planet, to thinking about Samantha. We had been together for over a year now, and we’ve never been happier than we are now. I had asked her to marry me 2 months ago, and to my surprise and excitement, she agreed. She went from being my best friend, to being my fiance in just over a year. It’s strange how love works really. But how would the new world affect our livelihood?

I stopped thinking about it when it came time for dinner. Samantha cooked dinner that night. We had steak, salad, and mashed potatoes with gravy. The food was great, and her company was even better. We spent that evening watching comedy movies in the living room. We eventually got tired and went to bed. I wish I hadn’t slept that night.

I fell asleep, and woke up in a military shelter. The walls were made of concrete and had steel supports lining it. Samantha was nowhere to be found and my brother whom I hadn’t seen since I went to Berlin was laying in the bed across from me. I stood up and began getting dressed, putting on a lab coat and a black jumpsuit.

I began to make my way to the main hall, passing the female dorm on the way. Samantha was already in the cafeteria when I arrived for breakfast. I sat down, and I could barely eat. Something happened that made me overly worried about everything, but something in my dream blocked me from knowing what it was. We finished breakfast and lined up for roll call. I watched as the soldier began listing names, and waited patiently to hear mine called.

Once we had finished the roll call, we were allowed to return to the dorm and sleep until lunch, or find something to do in the main hall. I opted to go to sleep, after hugging Samantha and reassuring her everything was going to be okay. I woke up again a couple hours later and went to eat lunch. Once I had finished eating, we had yet another roll call. Once they were finished, they guided all of us to the front gate, and the gigantic metal doors began to creak open, revealing a burned and dead wasteland, devoid of all life. I felt sick to my stomach. After stepping foot on the black and tan ground, I woke up.

I leaned up and let out a gasp, finding myself drenched in sweat next to Samantha. She rolled over a bit, but didn’t wake up. I slowly and carefully got out of bed, put on my robe, and walked outside to smoke a cigarette. I smoked half a cigarette before Samantha came outside to check on me. She had a look of concern and worry on her face when she saw me. I sat down on the bench by the back door, and she sat next to me. I leaned over and rested my head on her lap before I started sobbing. I was so stressed out and I only wished I could tell her why. Eventually, my heart outran my judgment and I started to tell her what I saw.

“I saw a ship that was far too advanced to be a human shuttle. It was traveling so fast that it outran the rest of the fleet and it was making its way to earth.” I said, tears running down my face.

“Why are you letting it get to you so bad? I wish you would have told me sooner, I could have done more to comfort you.” She said,

“You being around me is comforting enough, this just has me a bit too worried is all.” I said, cuddling her.

We made our way back inside and went back to sleep.

Morning came quickly, and I began to get ready for work again. Before I left the room, I kissed Samantha on the forehead, still sleeping peacefully. I crept downstairs, picked up my keys, and made my way to the car. I unlocked the car and put in the location for the UGDF ground control facility, and sat back and enjoyed the ride. I ended up falling asleep, and waking up to the toll indicating the car had arrived at the destination. I got out and began walking into the control center. I scanned my keycard and punched my card to clock in. I walked into the control center to find the general standing in front of everyone. I sat in my seat and found a donut and a cup of coffee next to my terminal. I drank the coffee and ate the donut as the general spoke.

“As you all know, we discovered an extraterrestrial space shuttle making its way to earth. Based on our calculations it left its fleet to make contact with Earth approximately a year and 6 months ago. We received a transmission last night that seemed to have translated itself upon arrival.” The general said, playing the transmission.

Attention people of Earth. We are a race known simply as the Insideans. We come from a distant galaxy over 100 lightyears from your location. We intend to make peaceful contact in approximately 10 months. Your planet has been found to be a habitable place for our race to live, and we intend to live peacefully with your race. Awaiting your response…

We waited patiently for some time before the general spoke once more.

“We will set a perimeter to defend against possible threats and scan the Insidean race upon arrival. We will be relying on your feedback as to where they might land and how quickly they will reach our atmosphere.” the general said, pausing to take sips of coffee.

We began to track its directory based on movements and speed of travel. We projected that it would land in Oregon, and would enter the atmosphere in 8 and a half months. Everyone was anxious about the coming of the Insideans, whether it meant war or peace we had no idea, but we hoped for the best. The general and his armies however, expected the worst. We waited patiently for this day to come.