Why did Jaruka keep the satellites from them?

The news announced the attack on Langley once Jaruka had left the winery. As a journalism major, Katie was overwhelmed as she tried to keep up through her cellphone’s web browser. The banter between Scott, Deryl and Mathews did not help her concentration. All the articles made the terran threat a whisper compared to what had happened.

The internet showed a quarter mile circle of forest gone, northwest of CIA headquarters. Gone, no life, just black soil. Security footage and cellphone video captured a column of red and yellow light from the sky and there were mentions of shockwaves and intense heat. The time of the attack coincided with Jaruka’s arrest, and once the cuffs came off, the laser disappeared. Mathews said that it was coincidence, but Katie was sure that he was scared out of his pants.

NASA published intimidating photos as Katie, Scott, the totems, and Deryl were in the SUV driving toward Veil Lake with the small military squad following behind. A military satellite had captured pictures of the alien weapon in orbit over Virginia. The weapon was twice the height of the Eiffel Tower, wide at the top and slopped down to a narrow barrel, the hull was sleek metal, colored gold. A droplet hole showed the exposed power core, but Katie knew that shielding would protect it. Three more of the inverted cones were spotted by radar over Australia, United Kingdom, and North Korea.

Katie heard Mathews talking to NASA, confirming that the satellites were not there two days ago, but they were there now. They had to have arrived recently.

Why did Jaruka not tell the truth?

The terran couple wanted to know why the satellites had attacked, and needed to make sure that Mathews did not try to cuff Jaruka again in the event that the attack was linked. Mathews had wanted Katie and Scott to stay back at the winery, but another look from their glowing eyes told him otherwise.

Another perk for terrans: intimidation at its finest.

Deryl shared the couple the Galactic Council’s conditions once Scott had asked him for the fifth time and the couple’s words of the rules were not favorable.

----------------------------------------

They were traveling on a dirt road with recently fresh tracks when Katie saw the military near the ship next to the lake.

“Ah, shit,” Mathews said. “Who the fuck told them to come?” He kept on driving closer until Katie could see the reason for his comment.

Cars, trucks and camper trailers were parked in front of the military, along with people who might have outnumbered the soldiers, but they kept their distance. Their base of operations was set up just as the SUV stopped and parked.

Maybe Jaruka was right about their mixed priorities, she thought. Maybe the president had made the order, or not; Mathews did not mention him, but his superiors must have. Maybe, they did not want to deal with what had happened to her and Scott and risk sparking another confrontation with the country’s citizens.

Let me scope the area, Arana said in Katie’s head.

Good idea. See if Jaruka arrived already.

Katie opened the car window and stuck out her left hand. Blue mana streams came from her skin, collected themselves, and then formed Arana mid-flight over the military presence.

“What was that?” Mathews beamed. “Better not be—”

“That’s my totem,” she said. “She’s just flying.”

“More like spying.”

“Now your tone is annoying,” Deryl said in light of Katie’s feelings. “It’s bad enough your need to arrest him was proof enough.”

They left the SUV and joined the military holdout a hundred yards from Jaruka’s dropship. No soldiers were mixed in with the citizens as they surrounded the dropship, searching for ways to look inside and find a way inside. Two news trucks were next to a pair of Humvees broadcasting the commotion, but soldiers were already cutting their airtime.

Katie and Scott walked up a small hill for a better look, along with Deryl, Mathews, and Keeji when he materialized from Scott’s right hand.

“Oh, boy,” Katie said.

People, from hippies to scientists, crowded the area, touching the hull, examining the side thrusters and anti-gravity pods, and peeking through the bridge’s window. Some sat in music circles, religious communes, and one group even treated the gathering as a massive party, but everybody was there to see the evidence of life from space.

Arana flew back, landing on Katie’s shoulder. “I counted a few dozen people, some with guns I suspect. Jaruka’s Howler Cycle is here, but not Jaruka himself,” she said.

“Take a good look,” Mathews said beside Katie. “That alien has no sense of secrecy. Look, he made a pubic example of his stay. This must be part of his plan.”

“Really? A faction?” Scott shook his head. “I don’t think that’s like him. Maybe. Could be. No.”

“What else why? It has to be.”

“How about a hangover and stunk like hell!”

The terrans, totems and humans turned around as the mercenary walked towards them from the temporary communications truck. “I forgot the cloak, but I’d be damned to forget to lock it.” He showed them a black cube than pocketed it. “Mathews, you’re ridiculous.”

Every soldier kept their eyes on him and their distance far. Jaruka did not care if they had gotten the order to keep away or heeded the warnings unlike Mathews, but they seemed to understand the issue.

Jaruka walked up to the group, managing to keep himself from being seen by the civilians. “Wonder who tipped them off about where I was?” He eyed at Mathews.

“Perhaps you riding that thing you call a motorcycle,” Mathews scorned, and then spotted the commanding officer. “Captain Britt, you had orders to clear those crackpots from the ship hours ago. I see no movement. Explain.”

The mid-forties man folded his arms. “Sorry, sir, new orders came. I love this country but I’m not liable to turn it into a scorched desert. Those alien conditions might apply to the ship.”

“Just me, Captain, no technology,” Jaruka said, then muttered, “like you could listen to that.” Looking back at the dropship, the little bug behind his neck told him the hull or the bridge’s glass would not hold the civilians back any longer.

Mathews mentioned containing Jaruka again, but Britt was wise enough to disagree. Soon the group fought for an agreement as to what to do with Jaruka, but he tuned out the fight as he focused on the squabble at the ship.

Come on, think, big guy, he thought. Think of something. His eyes moved from one group of humans to another, he spotted a few terrans but they were not an issue. Negotiations were out, the moment he showed himself to them everybody would run at him. The military was of no use to him.

One solution came to mind and he remembered what Nova Company had installed.

Jaruka went back to his Howler Cycle, parked behind a tree; the terrans and agents had not noticed him leaving. He detached and lifted the seat; the storage compartment had his wet clothes in the trash bag, but he went for a weapon he rarely used. His plasma rifle and katana were his default choice, but the pistol was a better choice for his current circumstances.

The plasma pistol was a heavy-duty revolver-type gun, custom made, and used the same plasma bullets as his rifle. Under the rubber grip wood frame dangled a woven leather lanyard ending with a Vyroken cog. He pushed the cylinder to the right, checked the ammo, and clicked it back into place.

A few soldiers were watching him by the time Jaruka noticed and a short stink eye made them look away. After mounting the bike he revved the engine alive, opened the throttle and sped past the military and the couple without kicking dirt at Mathews.

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Over the hill and with some airtime, he landed and fired his pistol in the air screaming, “Out of my way! Pissed off drunk coming through!”

The crowd turned and then panicked. The people were confused, scared, and curious: the military would need riot teams to subdue the chaos. A few religious followers bowed to him, while the rest got out of the way, clearing the way to the dropship.

One human shot at him, but white light appeared and blocked the bullet from his body.

Somebody’s courageous and stupid, Jaruka thought

He jumped off the motorcycle, rolled in front of the hatch, and let the Howler Cycle drop to its side, nearly colliding with some people. As Jaruka stood up the humans started to run at him.

The cube was shaken. The hatch door opened. Jaruka jumped inside as the hatch quickly locked itself closed. People banged on the door and hull, yelling, but Jaruka did not want to see any of them.

“Dude, check out his bike! That’s some Akira shit right there!” A hippie said.

“You touch my baby, your head goes straight into a rocket!” Jaruka yelled.

He ran for the bridge after tripping over crates and clothes and banging his head on a shelf, managing to sit down as the terminal came on. The bridge was not covered and people spotted him and started banging on the glass while others just stared at him. Jaruka saw one person lift a finger at him, and Jaruka returned the favor. He had to look up what that really meant, or if that finger meant what he thought it did.

Jaruka typed several commands on the terminal and then pricked his finger on a small device on the terminal. Three beeps followed.

Screams came from outside. A man, probably religious, raised his gun at the bridge’s window. Jaruka smirked as the man fired.

The bullet ricocheted off the thick space-rated glass and punctured through the man’s right foot. There was more screaming, but the man’s screams were drowned out. “I have to kill him! He will bring doom to us all!”

“How about you, dumbass?” Jaruka said.

“DNA signature catalogued,” the terminal said. “Activating repulsion shield.”

A white shield rippled into existence an inch off the ship’s hull and windows. People that were banging on the hull were pushed back a few feet from the recoiled force. The shield shifted and expanded outward, pushing humans and vehicles back like a bulldozer pushing soil. The dome shield extended out a hundred feet then shimmered away, invisible, but still present. No humans or human tech were left inside the dome.

Jaruka said, “Thank you, Nova,” while patting the terminal.

He came out of the dropship as he stuck his pistol behind him in his pants. The humans and the few terrans gasped at his appearance. So many eyes. Is this how it’s going to be for two years?

“Now who’s got the high tech stuff, huh?” Jaruka asked smiling. “Bang all you want and see all you can, you will never get to me.”

Even his words held value to them. Scientists wrote and recorded everything they saw and heard, hippies were stunned, religious nuts preached, still, and curious citizens either stood still or walked away, not sure what to believe. A few curious bunches touched the invisible shield only to be pushed back and off their feet.

Jaruka spotted the terran couple and the agents pushing through the crowd and stopped a foot from the shield.

“I knew it. This is a public spectacle. Secretary of Defense will be furious over this,” Mathews said with scorn in his eyes.

“Impressive, huh? Nova uses this tech every time on missions. Just for assurance, this croger is tough as diamond shields.”

“But how are you in there and not everybody else?”

“It’s a selective force field,” Jaruka explained. “My DNA and alien tech is catalogued in the terminal, and allowed. You on the other hand aren’t because, well, you’re an ass.”

Mathews cursed and walked off to settle the crowd with Captain Britt.

“What about us? We’re your friends,” Scott said. “Let us in.”

Other people asked as well, including one religious nut palming a blade.

“Alright, alright!” Jaruka yelled and the crowd settled. “Give me a sec.” The crowd began to complain as he walked back to the dropship.

So much for being alone for a while, he thought.

He came back with a handheld device from the terminal, as big as a credit card machine. He watched the device carefully as Scott and Katie added their blood samples, making sure that no one else got their DNA into the device. Deryl was added after Scott’s fervent reasoning. Mathews wanted inside as well, but Jaruka let him sit anxiously as he pretended to think about it, long enough to irritate the agent before accepting Mathews’ blood sample.

“Walk on through,” Jaruka said.

At first the humans and terrans hesitated, and then simply slipped through as the shield shimmered. One homeless woman grabbed Katie’s arm, she had a Celtic glowing tattoo on the back of her left hand. Scott removed the woman's hand and pulled Katie inside before she tried again.

“Please,” she said with tears down her cheeks. “I need answers. Tell me. Does it hurt? Do you lose yourself to the pain? I need to know!”

Scott and Katie did not answer even though they were simple questions, Jaruka wondered about their silence briefly. Arana flew through the shield and other terran’s totems tried but were kicked back, Jaruka surmised that it was because the totems shared their host’s blood, but it was something that he would have to look into further.

Mathews and Deryl looked over the ship. “Impressive,” Deryl said. “Never believed I’d be standing in front of one in my lifetime.”

Mathews did not relish the sight. He went to the open hatch and peered inside. “And I thought aliens were extremely disgusting,” he said. “This is a petree dish of potential viral pandemics.”

“Look up immunity nanites,” Jaruka said. “You got your look. You see how I can protect myself. What more do you want?”

“What about them digging under the shield?” Mathews asked.

“This penetrates through solid mass. Don’t ask for any technical stuff, I’m not the inventor.”

The couple joined in and Scott said, “Jaruka, now’s the time to talk about the spires. Deryl explained it to us.”

“Yeah, what’s really going on?” Katie asked.

Before Jaruka could answer, an alarm went off in the dropship. “Of all the distractions!” He yelled. The particular alarm caught his attention, it was a quick on-off alarm, an incoming attack. “Hold that thought,” he said.

He walked into the ship as Mathews failed to order him to stop. In the bridge, red lights flashed on the terminal. The radar on the center console showed multiple targets coming from the south.

Jaruka squinted at the twelve target’s descriptions, than dropped the DNA device. Scott and Katie joined him in the bridge. “If there is a reason for not telling us, forget it,” Scott said. “So stop acting so closed off and tell us.”

“Crog,” Jaruka cursed.

“Now the defensive act?”

“No, not that,” Jaruka said and pointed at the screen. “That.”

There was no Halcunac to English translation. “I don’t get it,” Katie said.

“Does a Mogaran mudpig shit gold bricks?” Jaruka asked.

Scott blinked. “Mudpig?”

“Gold bricks?” Katie asked.

“Stay inside.” Jaruka pushed past the couple. “I have a bone to rip out.”

“Hey, watch it!” Katie yelled.

“Computer, activate secondary shield, three hundred feet, biological entities and technology allowed.”

“Acknowledged,” the computer said.

Jaruka left the ship as the second shield appeared, larger than the first and covering most of the crowd. He pushed Deryl aside and grabbed Mathews by the jacket, lifting him up eye level. “Hey, what the hell! Put me do—”

“Listen here, you sniveling bug,” Jaruka said, “there are a dozen missiles heading our way and if you had anything to do with this, consider yourself the croging traitor of the year!”

He threw Mathews to the ground and ran toward the crowd. Some were leaving the shield out of fear. “Stay in the shield! Look up! Get inside! Say under the shield!”

Soon the missiles passed over the Palomar Mountain range. The crowd got the message and ran under the shield.

The military far from the shield became frantic, dropped their tasks, and sprinted for the shield. A few brave souls sought shelter in the vehicles but were dragged out by others.

Jaruka—still mad that he had no chance to tell the couple about the spires—hated interruptions. “Cover your ears,” he yelled. He dropped to the ground and plugged his earholes.

The first two missiles hit. The first blasted half of the temporary military camp to scrap and fire. The second hit the shield directly. None of the heat or force penetrated the shield and the dome merely shimmered, but the ground-shaking sonic boom filled the air.

Mathews ran inside the ship for cover as Scott and Katie came out with fingers in their elf ears, but the next three missiles made them run back inside. Deryl found shelter under the ship’s port-side thruster.

Trucks and cars were destroyed and propelled into the air and plant life was obliterated. The communication trailer opened up like a flower of twisted metal, spitting fire and sparks from its center. Three more missiles slammed into the shield and Jaruka saw it flex a bit from the force.

Strong and reliable Vyroken tech.

It was a good thing he had kept the lifesaving technology before befriending the senior engineer, or else he would not have been standing on Terra Firma without his eardrums blowing out.

The last four missiles came late, laying waste to the unprotected ground.

Jaruka opened his eyes and stood, pulling his fingers out of his ears. Inside the shield, frightened and stunned humans stood in safety, looking grateful.

Outside the shield, the land was a war zone. Jaruka swore that he could see several charred bodies in the rubble. The citizens must have had little sense of what real explosions did, the shock on their faces would last for a good long while, followed by smiles for being alive. Soldiers sounded off their status and all of them were alright save for some ringing ear drums.

Jaruka turned back toward the dropship.

Deryl came from under the ship. “Tha-Those were ballistic missiles,” he said. “Short range. Jesus.”

“They came south. What’s in the south?” Jaruka asked.

Deryl blinked. “Pendleton. San Diego. Army and navy bases. Who the hell did this?”

Jaruka looked back at the dropship and spotted Mathews in the port-side window. “I have a hunch.”