was about to happen. The soldiers split, one walking to the left of a bull, the other to the right of the other bull. The one on the left had just turned its head slightly as if to acknowledge a human next to it when both of the soldiers stabbed at the bull next to them with what looked like a metal syringe.
Gasps and shouts from the crowd rang out as the syringes found their way through the alien armor. Before the bull guns could even swing around, both of them turned rigid, their armor turning off within a second, their skin no longer a steel gray but an inky black. More cries of surprise came from the citizens gathered on the south lawn.
“Those two bulls were injected with concentrated methane. The effect, as you have just seen, is instantaneous. The bulls don’t even have time to react. The very second the methane enters their blood, an escalating system shutdown from toxicity is achieved.”
His words were punctuated by the puffs of dust and debris as each of the aliens in the clip froze up and fell over.
“Thanks to scenes like this that have played out all over the major metro areas of California, we have perfected both the methane compound as well as the delivery system. The bulls know what human weapons of war look like, and as you know, they’ll vaporize you on site if they see you with one.
“However, they have no idea what this weapon is. Since it isn’t feasible to attack each bull individually and on foot, we’ve also created a hydraulic-magnetic launcher, better known to some of you older folks who like science fiction as a railgun, as well as a kind of shrapnel bomb that explodes with methane-filled and methane-coated projectiles. All it takes is a single microgram and you have a dead bull.”
Colonel Hardaway gave the crowd a couple of minutes to discuss this revelation amongst themselves before going on.
“The complexes, as far as we’ve been able to determine, are some kind of molecular forge. The crushers from the cities unload whatever they’ve collected that they didn’t spit out the rear end onto dropships, and the dropships unload the substance at the forges. Once per month an orbital freighter picks up the refined substance from all of the forges in the area and takes it back upstairs to the main alien vessel.
“Same goes for the giant mining vehicles and the massive pit mines. We believe their crushers eat up our cities to extract raw materials that get separated in the crushers and then further refined at the forges. We still don’t know how accurate this theory is, but over the last seven years we’ve been watching closely, and we believe that we’ve got the right idea.”
“What I’ve called you all together for is to tell you that the United States Army is recruiting able-bodied men and women to train at our Crater Lake complex and begin taking the fight to the bulls. They nearly wiped us off the planet twenty three years ago, and we’ve been unable to do a single thing about it until now. We have, as you can see, gained a sliver of their technology during our incursions to their areas to test our weapon delivery systems.
“We don’t understand most of it, but we understand enough of it to build power packs like the one powering this projector. We also have full amenities at the Crater Lake facility. That means clean, hot, running water, electricity, hydroponic gardens, weapons manufacturing, climate controlled underground housing, computer and media systems including advanced instruction modules for learning both your Army job as well as a civilian skill, and a real network that doesn’t rely on word of mouth, horses and bicycles.
“I know that you people have done the impossible with your setup here in the central wastes. I saw a lot of farmland on our way up here. I saw a lot of good sentry and scouting activity. You people have done everything right to survive in a world gone mad, and have done it without a baron or a lunatic leading you at the point of a
Gasps and shouts from the crowd rang out as the syringes found their way through the alien armor. Before the bull guns could even swing around, both of them turned rigid, their armor turning off within a second, their skin no longer a steel gray but an inky black. More cries of surprise came from the citizens gathered on the south lawn.
“Those two bulls were injected with concentrated methane. The effect, as you have just seen, is instantaneous. The bulls don’t even have time to react. The very second the methane enters their blood, an escalating system shutdown from toxicity is achieved.”
His words were punctuated by the puffs of dust and debris as each of the aliens in the clip froze up and fell over.
“Thanks to scenes like this that have played out all over the major metro areas of California, we have perfected both the methane compound as well as the delivery system. The bulls know what human weapons of war look like, and as you know, they’ll vaporize you on site if they see you with one.
“However, they have no idea what this weapon is. Since it isn’t feasible to attack each bull individually and on foot, we’ve also created a hydraulic-magnetic launcher, better known to some of you older folks who like science fiction as a railgun, as well as a kind of shrapnel bomb that explodes with methane-filled and methane-coated projectiles. All it takes is a single microgram and you have a dead bull.”
Colonel Hardaway gave the crowd a couple of minutes to discuss this revelation amongst themselves before going on.
“The complexes, as far as we’ve been able to determine, are some kind of molecular forge. The crushers from the cities unload whatever they’ve collected that they didn’t spit out the rear end onto dropships, and the dropships unload the substance at the forges. Once per month an orbital freighter picks up the refined substance from all of the forges in the area and takes it back upstairs to the main alien vessel.
“Same goes for the giant mining vehicles and the massive pit mines. We believe their crushers eat up our cities to extract raw materials that get separated in the crushers and then further refined at the forges. We still don’t know how accurate this theory is, but over the last seven years we’ve been watching closely, and we believe that we’ve got the right idea.”
“What I’ve called you all together for is to tell you that the United States Army is recruiting able-bodied men and women to train at our Crater Lake complex and begin taking the fight to the bulls. They nearly wiped us off the planet twenty three years ago, and we’ve been unable to do a single thing about it until now. We have, as you can see, gained a sliver of their technology during our incursions to their areas to test our weapon delivery systems.
“We don’t understand most of it, but we understand enough of it to build power packs like the one powering this projector. We also have full amenities at the Crater Lake facility. That means clean, hot, running water, electricity, hydroponic gardens, weapons manufacturing, climate controlled underground housing, computer and media systems including advanced instruction modules for learning both your Army job as well as a civilian skill, and a real network that doesn’t rely on word of mouth, horses and bicycles.
“I know that you people have done the impossible with your setup here in the central wastes. I saw a lot of farmland on our way up here. I saw a lot of good sentry and scouting activity. You people have done everything right to survive in a world gone mad, and have done it without a baron or a lunatic leading you at the point of a
Similar Books
