The starry world (EXO-TERRESTRIAL-FORCES 7) E-Book

Jens F. Simon

• Herausgeber: S. Verlag JG
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Contact with the organic spaceship is successful. Paurusheya picks up Alethea in the Omega Centauri star cluster. Alethea still thinks that she will find Sigurd again in the Earth system of the year 2269. Almost a year has passed since the two of them crashed through the black hole. She is even more disappointed when Sigurd is not there. Sigurd lies in a coma in 2019, while Alethea searches for him in 2269. Sigurd has been placed under arrest! When it becomes clear that the aliens from Earth have stolen the data from the time capsule, Commander RReggchrah wants to leave for Earth to prevent the aliens from traveling back in time.

Leseprobe

EXO-TERRESTRIAL-FORCES

Legacy of OUTER-SPACE Nanites

Volume 7

The starry world

© 2025 Jens F. Simon

Illustration: S. Verlag JG

Publisher: S. Verlag JG, 35767 Breitscheid,

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-3-96674-763-9

The work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. Any exploitation without the consent of the publisher and the author is prohibited and will be prosecuted under criminal and civil law. This applies to electronic or other reproduction, translation, distribution and making available to the public.

Life means adventure. Only the brave finds their way to the stars.

Take your life into your own hands and don't wait for someone else to do it for you. Give your life a meaning, even if you do not know now where it really leads. Your own past gives you the best support for this. But if it lies in the dark, then you can only helplessly rely on your luck.

Table of content 

The outer space

City of a Thousand Stars

The power of the Neensziss

The last of its kind

The fuse autocracy

Later Past II

People unwanted

The power of the past

Escape back

The time capsule

Past times 2

The Great War

Painful truth

Aliens

Escape to the future

Error preprogrammed

The new awakening

The catacombs of Venus

Special unit ‘Alien Responsibility’

Attack on GLEESITT

Flaming Venus

Aliens vs. Aliens

The demons of AREA 51

Intervention

The real enemy

The saboteur

Classified GENXpl

SITT

Before the escape is after the escape

Majenna's memories

The assassin

Banishment

The outer space

The gondola of stardust shot through the opened shaft with increasing speed.

I clung fearfully to the armrests of my chair, not knowing where to look first, at the three-dimensional, frameless holographic screen that was directly in front of me or through the ceiling that had become transparent above me.

The dark gray walls of the excursion shaft just flew past the gondola, and before I felt nauseous, I turned to the screen.

Here, there was no sign of the speedy ride. It still showed the salt lake. I glanced a little uncertainly over at Takaarrath. He was sitting perfectly calm and relaxed in his chair.

I could only assume that he was steering this space boat solely with the power of his thoughts. In any case, there were no other visible control instruments around him, except for the holographic screen.

On the three-dimensional holo-screen, the image suddenly changed.

I could clearly see amid the vast expanse of salt the dark, rectangular abyss of the open excursion shaft from which our spacecraft was now shooting.

The shots were taken from a great height, I noticed immediately. But where they really came from, I did not know.

Was there perhaps another spacecraft above us? No, Takaarrath would have already let me know that.

Before I could ponder any further, the view changed again, and now the frameless holo-screen showed a dense collection of clouds moving sideways away from us. I had no doubt that the screen now showed our direction of flight.

"Takaarrath, I hope you know what you're doing!"

I had spoken aloud, not knowing if I was telepathically interfering with his mental communication with the pod.

The band of clouds we just flew through dissolved without transition and dark space lay directly in front of us.

Although, it wasn't that dark at all. Billions of stars blinked at us, in all imaginable sizes, colors and shapes. At first, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

From the earth's surface I had never been able to perceive such a splendor of colors. Everything seemed somehow fantastic and unearthly to me.

"The colors of the stars you see were of course colored by GELCKSITT according to their significance, distance and size. Normally, the light tends to be white, unless they were clusters of stars that appear to be a single, shining star because of the distance."

Takaarrath's loud, hissing voice snapped me out of my concentration.

"I don't think it was a good idea to leave the planet!"

My concerns grew the farther we got from Earth. Suddenly, I started to feel really creepy.

"The destination of our flight is the second planet in the solar system, right?" I tore my gaze away from the screen and looked closely at Takaarrath.

"Correct. That's where the 'City of a Thousand Stars' is located. At least, that's what GELCKSITT said!"

"But she also said that with the available energy reserves, only one more space flight is possible. That's what scares me. How do we get back?"

"I think the question is not how do we get back, but rather do we want to get back at all? Living conditions on the planet have been greatly minimized. You yourself kept talking about the 'path to the new worlds' that you were determined to find. Well, now we find ourselves on that path."

I was still staring at Takaarrath, trying to mentally process what had been said.

Somehow I knew he was right. But what about Majenna? Surely I couldn't leave her alone down there among the mutants.

When I thought of her, I was overcome not only with remorse, but also with melancholy and homesickness.

I had left her behind, that was true. But she wanted it that way, too. I shook myself and tried to organize my thoughts.

We were still only at the beginning of this journey. I had to concentrate on the obvious.

"The space pod has referred to you as the 'Grandmaster of the pod.' That means you're known to the spacecraft's control computer. Why? How on earth is that possible?"

Takaarrath's answer came in a flash of thought.

"I can't answer that for you just yet. I, too, was taken aback when I was approached like that. But I didn't question it, so as not to give the boat's computer brain any reason to become suspicious on its part. I don't know what would have happened then. In any case, it is a clue, to which I can tie up, to investigate further about my identity. But for me it is already certain that in my past I must have been in very close relationship with the legacy of the aliens."

I could not disagree with that.

"This is the backup autocracy of the space nacelle GELCKSITT. The conducted analysis of the previous conversations within the space nacelle revealed a knowledge deficit of the organic units. It is therefore urgently recommended to restore a congruence of the expertise!"

I was a bit irritated at first.

"That's a good idea. Marvin follows me to the back region. Don't ask any questions, it's for your own good!"

Takaarrath had already risen from his pilot seat, and I wordlessly followed him through the just-opening bulkhead into the rear region of the nacelle.

The knowledge oration lasted less than half an hour and I was fully conscious the whole time.

"Are you really sure that this machine has increased my knowledge in just such a short time? I mean, I can't feel hardly anything at all. Besides, I've been wondering all along how you suddenly know so much about these aliens. How come this space nacelle obeys your mental commands?"

Before Takaarrath could answer me, I saw the image of a Neensziss in my mind. Completely surprised, I took a deep breath.

"No, that's not me. But it is a very good representation of a Neensziss body."

"Takaarrath what are you saying? Of course you are, um, I mean of course you are clearly of the alien Neensziss people. That's already no more similarities, that's an absolute copy, what I see there in my mind's eye right now."

He had once again snooped into my mind, which was ultimately only possible because I wasn't shielding myself strongly enough. But since all communication was telepathic, I didn't care now anyway.

"Now I am also clear about a few things. You were not born on Earth, and you are certainly not a mutant, although certain similarities to other mutant human descendants may well exist. What else are you not telling me?"

Takaarrath had been back in the front area of the small spacecraft the whole time. This spatial distance did no harm to our telepathically conducted conversation.

Now he was standing in the open cabin bulkhead to the aft section, where I was just extricating myself from the helmet-like interface of the ZIVA.

"I didn't really know I was one of these people either until just now. You have more knowledge about these things than I do right now."

He stared at me with his huge googly eyes completely emotionless.

"I actually possessed a strong affinity for the dome building in the first place, and likewise for this space boat. Purely intuitively, I could do the right thing at the right moment. But I first glimpsed the image of a Neensziss in your thoughts. I know the name Neensziss also only from the stories of Sunny Conrad. You must believe me. I do not lie to you. My thoughts lie openly before you!"

I did not really understand a lot of things that were going on in my life now.

In any case, Takaarrath was not speaking the untruth, I could sense that as I focused on his mentally transmitted utterances.

"Wouldn't it make sense for you to undergo a knowledge oration as well?"

I slowly stood up and walked through the cabin bulkhead directly toward him. He was sitting perfectly relaxed in the pilot's chair, his hands resting on the wide armrests where the manual command input and control modules were also located.

"I had thought about that, too, but then discarded it. I don't want the imposed, artificial knowledge to deprive me of the possibility of retrieving my own knowledge of my past, which, after all, still lies dormant somewhere in my subconscious. I can't imagine if the memory of my whole life would be lost or buried."

I stood next to him and looked at the holographic screen.

At that moment, it showed only black space. Along the side edges, in a kind of graphical representation, the most diverse information about the flight was displayed, such as speed, beam pressure, distance to the target planet and so on.

"Yes, I think I can understand that quite well. I would also like to know more about my past!"

"Evaluation of body scan completed during octroying phase. The human individual Marvin is clearly a genetic mosaic. Conditional command authority is granted."

The telepathic transmission from the rum pod made me take a deep breath in amazement. Takaarrath had also heard it.

"Define the term 'genetic mosaic'!"

He looked at me with narrowed eyes, which gave me goose bumps. His huge, bulging eyeballs almost completely disappeared behind protruding flaps of skin.

"What did you do?"

This question of his confused me even more than the statement made earlier by the computer brain of the GELCKSITT.

"Mosaic" in genetics refers to an individual in whose body there are cells with different karyotypes and genotypes, where all body cells are descended from the same fertilized ovum; if, on the other hand, there were several individually fertilized ovules, we would speak of a chimera. Definition of the terms adopted from human language: Karyotype refers to the totality of all chromosome characteristics of an individual or a group of genetically related individuals that affect the cell structure. Genotype is the totality of the genes of an organism, i.e. the hereditary image of a living being. It represents its exact genetic makeup, which includes all hereditary traits present in that individual."

I tried to grasp the transmitted thought information mentally and to arrange somehow into my own imagination world. Takaarrath was a little faster there.

I heard his mental question, or was it a statement?

"There are Neensziss genes in Marvin's genetic makeup?"

"Positive. Further information about this is subject to the highest level of secrecy. A grand master of the pod does not have the necessary security clearance to query. GELCKSITT out."

My thoughts were racing. What did it all mean?

"You're half Neensziss! That's what it means!"

Takaarrath had once again read my thoughts. He could only do that because I had totally neglected my shielding.

"Now I also realize why we have been able to communicate with each other telepathically since the beginning of our encounter," I mentally returned.

"I wonder what Majenna would say about this turn of events," another thought popped into my head.

Now, of course, I wondered even more what my past had looked like.

I still possessed that darned memory gap, and my earliest memory was of waking up in the desert.

"Much more important is the question of how you came to have the Neensziss hereditary traits. The appearance of my race and the Great War were more than 200 years ago. That would mean that at least today Neensziss are still in the solar system and have paid at least one visit to Earth in recent years. Another question is, why did they abandon you in the desert?"

Takaarrath had not been able to stand it in the pilot's chair.

Now he stood close in front of me and looked at me fixedly, his eyes scrutinizing me from head to toe.

"Perhaps we will learn some of the answers in the 'City of a Thousand Stars'."

I was still a little in shock. The realization that I was at least half alien didn't let me settle down inside.

"Could be, could not be. I'm concerned by the fact that the city's central backup autocracy didn't respond to our space pod's attempt at communication. This behavior is not in keeping with the norm."

Takaarrath was still standing in the same spot, staring at me.

"In other words, it is quite possible that I will face more issues of your kind before long."

He didn't seem to mind my innuendo. He just kept staring at me. Slowly, I began to get nervous.

"Can you please look in another direction. My nerves are already on edge!"

When he still didn't respond, I turned away from him and sat back down in the second chair. Several minutes passed without him stirring. Slowly, I began to worry.

There was a strong mental affinity between the two of us, which made it possible to recognize each other's thoughts. I began to establish contact.

In my spirit the very own thought world of a species appeared immediately, which had not developed on earth.

Although I had to count myself now also to the part to it, it was nevertheless a very unusual experience.

Until now I had refrained from receiving and reading more than only the thoughts addressed by him directly to me.

Suddenly I saw myself standing in the middle of a group of uniformed Neensziss. At the same time, I heard Takaarrath's thoughts.

"General Paaraaktu, the prisoner is ready for execution. How shall we proceed?"

I was Takaarrath and he was me. I perceived the environment, the daydream, as himself. Takaarrath's arms had been tied behind his back and his mouth was closed with something I couldn't pinpoint. Only his eyes and ears were free.

"The execution is not to be delayed. It is to be carried out immediately!"

I still heard the officer's sentence, then the scene faded away like a cheap movie.

"What on earth happened to me? Where did this memory come from?"

I immediately severed the mental link with Takaarrath's mind. He didn't need to know that I had overheard him for a moment.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him slowly sink back into the pilot's chair. The brief memory spurt must have really taken a toll on him.

City of a Thousand Stars

The bright star shone towards us. Of course, it was not a star, but a planet. The second planet of our solar system, Venus was the destination of the interplanetary space gondola named GELCKSITT.

First data appeared on the mental-telepathic VR display, which suddenly appeared a few centimeters in front of the holographic 3-D screen in mid-air.

I knew, because of the knowledge Octroy, immediately what technology was being used here.

The 'City of a Thousand Stars' was located, according to the program memory, between the 45th and the 80th latitude. There existed a gigantic continent with a mountain massif, whose summit height was approximately 10,800 meters.

The data sets changed in quick succession, nevertheless I could follow them effortlessly.

The temperature was 490 °C near the ground. The surface pressure on the plateau, which was about 2.5 km above zero level, was 89.5 bar.

The density of the atmosphere was about 50 times greater at the surface compared to Earth.

There could be no life there, at least no life in the human sense. The atmosphere consisted of 96 percent carbon dioxide.

That was about five times as much as in the Earth's atmosphere. The space nacelle was shooting towards the surface of Venus at breakneck speed. Venus, the name seemed somehow familiar.

The designation had been adopted by humans; I could tell from the data that flashed on the VR display in rapid succession.

"See the snow caps on the highest mountain? They consist mainly of a thin layer of precipitation of the heavy metal salts lead sulfide and bismuth sulfide. In this mountain region is the 'City of a Thousand Stars', which is also called GLEESITT, the Happy One!"

Takaarrath had spoken very softly. He still seemed thoughtful.

It seemed as if some part of his past was awakening in him again.

"This name sounds similar to the proper name of the space boat GELCKSITT. Is that intentional?"

Despite knowledge oration, I was not familiar with the language of the Neensziss.

"I don't know for sure, but something tells me it has to do with faith and the ritual of procreation. I can't tell you anything more than that. I also think it relates to a taboo that people are trying to circumscribe with it."

That sounded downright mysterious. Especially coming from the mouth of a Neensziss.

"Something is wrong here!"

Takaarrath had spoken loudly. I literally winced when I heard his voice so abruptly. Our conversation so far had been on a purely vocal level.

"What do you mean?"

I, too, had now spoken aloud. The answer did not come from him, but from another side.

"GLEESITT cannot be located. Scans reveal non-existence of 'City of a Thousand Stars' at last known coordinates. Request instructions on flight path. Caution, energy storage is completely depleted. Emergency reserve is at 38 percent."

The telepathic averaging through the spacecraft's computer brain still lingering in my mind, Takaarrath was already reigning.

"Maintain course!"

That was all he uttered.

Our spaceship swung between two gigantic mountain massifs into the given direction. In the holographic 3-D screen, I could now see a wide expanse, framed by smaller groups of foothills.

"That's exactly where the 'City of a Thousand Stars' should be. I have instructed the GELCKSITT to maintain the originally intended landing site."

Takaarrath's words made me look questioningly at him. Like me, he also seemed somewhat helpless now.

"We'll land and try to conserve power first. At least the life support systems should last us for some time."

I turned back to the screen. The surroundings were reproduced in razor sharp detail.

Geologically, the plateau consisted largely of carbonate-free sandstone and basalt.

It was built up in numerous layered steps and appeared to be heavily karstified. To the east of the plateau were numerous smoothly polished basaltic yardang formations enclosed by high crescent dunes of bismuth sulfide.

Fine-grained loose material lay scattered on the ground everywhere. Absolutely nothing indicated that there had once been a major cluster of buildings here.

"What now?"

The two words came to my lips completely unconsciously. I had put all my hopes and expectations into this city. It meant for me the path to the new worlds.

All the greater was now the disappointment. I did not understand at first at all that the information, which I had received about the knowledge-obligation in relation to the 'city of the thousand stars', should not be correct all at once anymore.

"GLEESITT is not a fantasy, Marvin. Believe me. It has existed and it does exist. I even vaguely remember passing through it."

Takaarrath had once again listened in on my thoughts. I had not blocked them.

There were more important things to worry about now. I didn't even know how long the boat's power would last before the life support systems failed and we suffocated miserably.

"I'm going outside!"

Dumbfounded, I stared at Takaarrath.

What are you going to do there? If the instruments of the space nacelle found nothing, even more so will you find nothing yourself."

Takaarrath had stood up and moved slowly to the rear compartment. I glanced after him, and when no answer came from him, I rose as well.

"Takaarrath stop! If you go, I'll go with you."

I expected a defensive response from him but was completely surprised when he merely called out to me, "Put on this suit here. There are only two of them. If it doesn't fit at all, you'll have to stay here!"

He gestured to the open flap of a storage compartment. I didn't like the gruff way he spoke suddenly at all.

After all, he also had to know that the spacesuit adapted to the respective wearer. At first, the body size did not play any role at all.

Or did I once again have a greater knowledge of the Neensziss technology than he did due to the knowledge-obliteration?

No, as routinely as Takaarrath got into the suit, he was well informed.

Why then this clumsy come-on?

I now also squeezed into the suit, which felt like rubber and was correspondingly difficult to put on.

Only when I was already halfway in it, it began to develop a certain life of its own.

Everything seemed to suddenly start moving, except for a rectangular part of the outfit that extended across the chest area and into the back. This part remained static and did not change its shape.

The knowledge of this appeared directly in my mind after looking at the spacesuit.

The hardened section of the spacesuit contained the technology, including the energy supply, which built an energetic protective shell around the head.

However, it was a huge difference to put the theoretical knowledge into practice. In any case, it took me twice as long as Takaarrath until I had finally put on the spacesuit, and it fit reasonably well.

When the front part closed by itself, I noticed Takaarrath's stare.

He stood motionless next to the outer bulkhead. This middle part of the nacelle also served as an airlock.

He had already closed the security bulkheads to the cockpit and the rear compartment.

I actuated the closure sensor of the space helmet and noticed only a short flickering in front of my eyes, otherwise nothing.

I knew, however, that now a protective field consisting of form energy had put itself around my head and that the oxygen supply was carried out of the Clothes.

Also with Takaarrath I could recognize the energetic helmet only by exact looking. If one had no knowledge about it, it really looked as if one would be completely without head protection. It did take some getting used to.

"The surface pressure is almost ninety times higher than on Earth. Will the suit even be able to compensate for that?"

"You know better than that. The Neensziss knowledge in you should actually be able to quench your thirst for knowledge!" Takaarrath was right, of course.

The pressure equalization took place unnoticed, and before I knew it, the outer bulkhead was already wide open. I looked into a dim, slightly pink land formation.

The bottom seemed to be littered with sedimentary rocks.

Heavy-wave-like ground structures stood out to the sides, spreading across the entire visible surface in the soft, sandy substrate.

Further to the right, at about two kilometers, a mountain range rose.

The sky was cloud-covered and equally gloomy.

Where the little light that poured almost evenly over the plateau ahead came from, I could not say.

Takaarrath seemed completely unimpressed by it all.

With far-reaching steps he marched into the partly only dimly visible terrain.

I hurried to follow him. At first I thought he was moving completely disoriented and already wanted to address him.

He stopped several times, looked around and changed direction. His destination now seemed to be the mountain range.

"Takaarrath could you please enlighten me! What exactly are you looking for?"

I tried to find something in his mind at the same time and was surprised to come up empty. I had the feeling that he was no longer thinking at all. That's kind of how I imagined it when he tried to pry into my thoughts, and I blocked completely. So he didn't want me to follow his train of thought. Also good.

"I only have a hunch. I let my subconscious control me. Don't disturb me now!"

Silently I followed him. It was getting even darker as we now arrived at the foot of a steep mountain slope.

I had lost all sense of time by now and just hoped we didn't run out of oxygen. I hadn't finished the thought when I suddenly knew that the suit had technology that constantly renewed the breathing gas mixture we needed.

There was no such thing as pure storage in any kind of vessel, such as oxygen cylinders.

I was pondering how I even came up with the idea of carrying oxygen around in cylinders when I abruptly received a thought in my head from Takaarrath.

"That's it! Krrrhah...!"

It resounded so loudly through my mind that I literally flinched and tried to grab my head.

My hand didn't reach it, however, but was deflected by an electrostatic field just inches from it and pushed to the side.

I had completely forgotten where I was. The energetic suit helmet resisted in its own way, of course.

"Takaarrath, are you all right?"

I could still hear the lingering mental growl from him in my mind.

"Takaarrath, where the hell are you?"

I suddenly didn't see him anymore. Puzzled, I looked around.

A little more than five meters in front of me, rock rose steeply upward and merged into a rock overhang at a height of only five to six meters.

The longer I looked at the rock niche thus created, the more I noticed its regular shape.

The rock overhang cast a long shadow into the landscape, which was already very sparsely lit by the sun. In front of me there was only darkness. But exactly there had to be Takaarrath.

I could make absolutely no sense of what he wanted here, moreover, where there should be only darkness also for his eyes.

Why did he not announce himself and why did he act so mysteriously?

When suddenly white, glaring light stabbed into my eyes, I held my breath for a moment, startled.

Although I immediately averted my gaze, I was blinded for a few seconds.

Then I already heard the euphoric thoughts of Takaarrath: "I knew I would find it here. She must think she can hide from me. I'll have to break her of that habit. That disobedient stubbornness! Without me she would be nothing!"

I was quite stunned to hear the thoughts of the Insectoid Man. No, Takaarrath was certainly not an insectoid human. Now I knew it better.

The question now was, of whom or to whom had he just thought?

Despite the glare in my eyes, I had slowly taken a few steps forward.

Now I was standing at the entrance to what appeared to be a cave leading even deeper into the mountain. The walls consisted of raw, unworked rock. Only in the center of the room, which was about twenty meters in diameter, stood a structure that was obviously not of natural origin.

It looked like a table whose four legs were made of massive rocks.

The tabletop, however, was clearly artificial in nature.

The approximately fifty-centimeter-thick, metallic-looking plate, which was made from a single casting, was full of a lot of technology, which I could already see from the entrance.

Takaarrath simply stood motionless in front of the rectangular table, whose dimensions I estimated at about one meter fifty by three meters, and looked as if he were absent. In his thoughts, however, past events flashed over so quickly that I broke off the still existing telepathic contact.

I had already become dizzy even from it. Only now, when my gaze strayed to the floor, I noticed that the extremely bright light came from there.

The entire floor of the cave consisted of a smooth surface divided into equal squares with a side length of two meters, which illuminated the room.

"Takaarrath, I hope you know what you're doing!"

I had spoken aloud and immediately repeated the sentence again telepathically, not really knowing if he had understood me. Anyway, he still didn't respond, but his thought processes had calmed down again.

"The code has been cancelled, of course I know that. Those damned 'Guardians of the Stars'. They got me into this whole mess. The intrigue was well prepared, really! But now I'm back! GLEESITT, as your master builder I have of course left a loophole open, you know that. So I demand obedience from you!"

I heard his thoughts in my mind and was downright fascinated by them. What fantastic story was revealing itself to me at that moment?

I tried to remain calm inside, but I succeeded only partially.

Suddenly, Takaarrath's movements literally exploded.

With incredibly fast movements, his two hands flitted across the tabletop covered with alien technology, which abruptly began to glow with an ocher-colored light.

Then several things happened simultaneously that made me rethink my previous opinion of my friend Takaarrath for the first time. 

The power of the Neensziss

Earliest past.

Chariots of the Neensziss, huge spaceships in the form of spears with a thickening in their center, fell from the sky.

The mother ship, with the dimensions of a small moon, had come to a halt at 150,000 kilometers from Earth.

With an orbital velocity of a little more than one kilometer per second, it had assumed a stable orbit.

More chariots shot out of the countless hangars embedded in the rugged surface of the space body every minute.

The mothership had a diameter of 1250 kilometers, and even the layman would have recognized immediately that this was indeed a small moon.

In a tremendous technological feat, the Neensziss had once succeeded in taking over this celestial body, hollowing it out by two-thirds and making it airworthy by implementing a gigantic space engine consisting of one hundred and twelve individual units.

Two generations later, the more advanced faster-than-light engines were installed in the mother ship.

By this time, well over one thousand Neensziss were living and working here. Two hundred and eight new births were already recorded here with an increasing tendency.

One of these newly hatched Neens was named Takaarrath.

The governments of the earth of the year 2025 were totally surprised by the appearance of the enormous celestial body.

All governments? No! In Nevada, a US state in the western part of the United States of America, there was a military restricted area called AREA 51.

What really happened there since the middle of the 20th century, the public did not come along, and although there were enough speculations and rumors worldwide about the presence of extraterrestrials, it was denied by the government until the end.

In any case, the American government was prepared for the appearance of the small moon, theoretically at least. Practically, however, it had little to oppose.

It would not have had to do this at all, since it was initially a matter of a peaceful establishment of contact.

So it had been planned at least by the strangers flying into the solar system of the earth. However, before they could make contact at all, the beginning apocalypse had already been planned.

The advisers of the government, Alien, who were already known to the US government since the fifties of the 20th century, drove their own game.

They insinuated that the incoming Neensziss was an act of war.

They did not want their own grand plan of clandestine infiltration of leading militaries to be jeopardized.

Indeed, their takeover of planet Earth was imminent.

"Sergeant Mellburne, don't stand there all tensed up. Our guests will otherwise think you're up to something directed against you, and you and I don't want that, do we?"

"Yes Sergeant Major!"

Mellburne stood at attention, holding both arms outstretched against his body. Then his right palm, held as if by a spring, sprang to his temple in regulation salute.

For him it was the first time he would meet the alien guests, as they were officially called.

He had been detached from his company only a week ago and was now assigned to Sergeant Major Ungar's security platoon. His new location was the fabled AREA 51.

At a depth of one hundred and fifty meters under a huge salt lake lay his new area of operations.

The two days of safety instruction, including safety training, were burned into his memory. Hanging from the belt of his combat gear was a weapon that was not of this world.

It was the product of an extraterrestrial technology, which was not necessarily ahead of the human level of development, but which started from completely different basic knowledge and accordingly had also taken a completely different direction.

The weapon had the round shape of an ancient flashlight.

The diameter of the radiating funnel at the front end was only a few centimeters larger than the rest of the housing with the two sensor patches, which triggered the activation of the energy supply and start-up of the neural nerve connection.

Two very fine filaments, made of a material unknown on Earth, shot out of the weapon after activation, wrapped around the wrist and connected to the carpal tunnel.

Sergeant Mellburne didn't really understand how it worked, but he at least knew how to use it and what it could do.

However, he had to maintain absolute silence about this and much more. Just like his other 52 comrades who were on duty down here.

The only thing Sergeant Mellburne knew about the so-called 'alien guests' was that, in addition to their shyness, they were also particularly suspicious, and you had to think carefully beforehand about what you said and how you said it. Even about the appearance of the aliens he had not been informed so far.

There were no records of them, nor any other evidence of their existence.

The Pentagon was very meticulous about this, probably based on the clear requirements of the 'guests'.

The conference room was located on the lowest floor of the huge underground complex. Along the entire path, from the entry shaft of the cloaked hangar to the conference room, soldiers of the security stood at exactly fifteen meters.

The turbo-lift was an exception.

Sergeant Per Mellburne was the last in the line of saluting soldiers that stretched for almost half a kilometer and ended at a depth of one hundred and fifty meters.

Already a few minutes before the arrival of the 'guests', he felt a certain nervousness spreading among his comrades, which then turned directly into pure stress via a feeling of trepidation.

Sergeant Mellburne suddenly found himself under a veritable nightmare pressure as the delegation of three aliens walked right past him into the briefing room.

In their entourage were high-ranking military, he could still tell by the many stripes and medals on the uniforms, then he really felt sick.

It was not the sight of the aliens that could have triggered this reaction of his body, because their appearance was like that of a normal human.

From the hallway he heard loud choking sounds, and he too was already fighting with himself not to vomit.

There was something in the aliens' appearance that triggered this gag reflex. It was only a few minutes after the door to the conference room had closed that his condition improved again.

Mellburne wondered how Sergeant Major Ungar, and the other officers accompanied by the 'guests' could have stood it all this time.

At first, he himself was glad that he no longer had any contact with them. With mixed feelings, however, he thought of the time when they would leave the room again.

With relentless precession, ancient-looking solid-fuel projectiles came flying toward the Neensziss chariots.

From the entire portion of the planet facing the mothership, rocket launches could be seen almost simultaneously.

This type of interaction was not coordinated by any nation-state.

It was solely due to the 'alien guests' who had so far officially revealed themselves to only one state and there only to a few high-ranking military officers.

Even the President was very poorly informed about their presence and activities on Earth and in the solar system.

Each of these projectiles was a launch vehicle equipped with a nuclear bomb.

The projectiles were guided from the ground but reacted rather sluggishly outside the Earth's atmosphere.

They were not designed for close combat. About half of the missiles were still equipped with an impact fuse, some with and without delay, that is, they did not detonate on impact but only after the projectile had penetrated the target or just as a ricochet over the target.

For the Neensziss' chariots, this archaic way of warfare was no real challenge.

The mother ship had long since wrapped itself in an impenetrable protective shield.

As it continued its unflinching approach to planet Earth at minimum speed, the spear ships began firing their missiles.

Commander RReggchrah, Grand Master of the Chariots, and commanding master of the Mothership KO, tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

On the mental-telepathic VR display that set up in front of the holographic 3-D central screen, he was told all the details of the battle against the attackers.

He did not understand. Why were they attacked with such primitive means?

Why were they attacked at all, after all they came with peaceful intentions.

His eyes, bulging out from the top half of his round skull, opened, and closed in a convulsive twitch.