Treacherous Skies (New Work)
The Brent Soledad Alien Extermination Company
The start of book two by Ben Moreland
Back Cover: Brent has been investigating old records of alien encroachments on Earth. Since we are a big warm ball of water, we are special in the galaxy. Our tiny blue ball can be seen from quite a distance by aliens with at least our level of technology. Brent is contacted by the Office of Defense for the America’s. They need him to investigate some strange activity in the middle of the country. Reports from farmers that something or someone is planting and harvesting crops that we have never seen on the planet before. Brent encounters new and dangerous aliens. Finds many secrets and answers several questions.
Brent Soledad went everywhere with his parents, not the moody pre-teen that wanted to be alone or with friends. Brent genuinely liked, loved his parents. They went for drives, camping, sightseeing, people watching, enjoying life and each other. His dad loved his mother, there was never any doubt. Cindy returned that love wholeheartedly and both included Brent in the circle.
That was almost 22 years ago. Both parents had been ripped from Brent in an accident that should not have happened. A change was taking place that science, weathermen or the government could not explain. The evening skies were brooding reds and purples that were unnatural. Nights were becoming darker and all along the coast of the Eastern City that darkness caused an increase in crime, apprehension and outright fear to everyone.
Brent and his parents were returning from far up the Northern coastline, where they had traveled for a weekend getaway. They found people that did not want them there, refusal of rooms, closed camping areas and even the great wooded parks were closed with signs that stated “Danger — Do Not Enter”.
Returning home in the late afternoon, traffic became difficult, no that’s the wrong word, traffic became frenzied. People were trying to get wherever they were going and no concern was given for anyone else, right of way or traffic laws. The people drove panicked. As they neared the Middle City where they lived, the car communication system announced that the Mayor and Police Chief had ordered everyone home before dark.
It was just at that moment a large auto, driven by a wide eyed frightened woman, crashed into their much smaller vehicle and broke it in two. His mother and father were killed instantly. Brent, being in the back seat with the advanced protection devices, was protected in a cocoon. Not that he wasn’t shaken up, but the trauma was the loss of his parents. That moment changed Brent but did not destroy him. He found strength in the lessons learned from his parents. He wanted answers, and he wanted to fix this broken city where his parents died.
Chapter 1
Deep inside an archeological dig in Mexico, Brent was examining history written in stone. They told of strange people who came from the sky on frightening engines. The record showed tall beings who had their heads encased in clear domes. Brent recognized this as being some type of environmental suit. This alien was unable to breath the regular earth air. These ruins had been studied for centuries. He could have researched this from the network. Seeing them in person gave Brent stronger reasons to continue seeking the many aliens that likely visited Earth in the thousands of years since these stone writings were made.
Back on the surface, his communicator was demanding attention. The message was from Lieutenant C. McRyan in the Office of Defense. She asked Brent to contact her immediately on a matter of National Security. It was always something.
As they were leaving the jungle area and approaching the city, nine men dressed in all black stepped out of the brush and stood in the way of the small convoy.
It was clear they were there to kill them, or Brent at least. The Mexican military attachment that served as Brent’s transportation and guards responded instantly with deadly force. These nine were Worshippers of Darkness under the control of a living alien somewhere nearby. Because of the likely proximity to this type of alien, the guards were extra cautious and formed teams watching every direction as the group moved out of the jungle more slowly than before.
They had all seen or experienced the speed of the aliens. The damage they were able to do to humans in seconds was always fatal. Alien insects six foot tall move in a blur. An experienced soldier who is expecting them has a chance. In Africa and the South America’s soldiers had been lost because of the slightest hesitation.
The other problem was the insects could take limited control of willing humans through passing of pheromone packets. As these alien cells became fixed in the human host, they gradually started changing the recipient into an alien.
Brent called Mr. Davis, left a message that included their exact geographical position. He asked if the investigation team would look at the area for several miles and see, perhaps, if they missed a second ship landing or obvious signs of aliens in the area. The investigators were now excellent at finding traces of these insects.
Mexico City
Two hours later Brent Soledad is sitting in an office with three representatives of the involved governments, The City of the West Coast, Mexico and the American Farming Alliance (AFA) which controlled most of what used to be Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Kansas, Nebraska, and a huge midwest area from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
After the collapse of national governments, there was a period of uncertainty regarding food growing, harvesting, animal production and so many other things. There was no longer a strong national government to enforce regulations or do anything much. The areas most affected by the vacuum came together as did the Cities on the coasts, to fill the void.
The AFA informed the assembled group that farmers in the Midwest have been reporting certain crops mixed in with their crops that were alien in nature. Farmers watered and tended the crops alongside theirs but before they could harvest, someone came in and took everything away. They lost their whole crop plus the alien crop.
This scenario had repeated itself at several locations in what used to be Kansas and Colorado. The intrusive plant looked much like wheat, smaller thicker stalks with much harder fruit and distinctive blue-green color. The agricultural inspectors survey could not place the plant in known genus. Analysis of some plants taken early revealed that they were not poisonous, but humans could not survive on a diet containing much of it. Consensus was that the alien farmers could not live on wheat either. The only thing in common with wheat was the growing season and thirst for water. The farmers and inspectors began calling the plant Martian Oats.
Brent thought a vacation to the heartland farming cooperatives would be educational and fun for both himself and Julie. Last year, after an attack, they had acquired a trained police dog for personal protection. It was trained to respond to non-human entities aggressively.
Last year,
Julie walked into the kitchen and the cameras popped on with alerts of strangers approaching the house where they lived. Being a doctor, Julie didn’t panic. She hit the silent alarm which did several things. Police that were always nearby received the alert with video. Brent, still in the bedroom getting dressed instantly saw the situation and location of each intruder. The satellite crew received emergency coordinates and started looking close. Brent still traveled armed and dangerous, he represented both his parent security company and The City of the East Coast as an officer of the Coroner’s Office. He felt certain that his natural anxiety in these situations would be regularly tested. Pulling on his gun vest and picking up a semi-automatic rifle he started moving to intercept the persons attempting the garage entrance. He verified with Julie that she was now armed and covering the patio doors which might be the second point of attack. She told Brent the police squad had replied with a five minute ETA. They both knew it would be all over in five minutes.
Two intruders came in the side door of the garage. Brent busted through the house door at the same moment. He had the advantage because he knew where they were and they had only now learned his location. He filled the air with rifle rounds and could hear the dull explosions of them making contact with living things. Both went down and moved no longer. Brent turned and sprinted toward Julies location. dropping the used rifle clip and slamming in a new one, he made it to the kitchen just as Julie open fire on three that had forced the glass doors out of their track and onto the patio. It seemed Julie had that under control, he fired a couple of rounds just to complement her shooting and looked at the cameras for the locations of the others. The five remaining attackers were at the end of the walkway and had some type of bomb or incendiary device. Brent was not happy. He hit the button on the panel for automatic fire response from all the home systems. Then he went back out the patio doors to flank the group on the driveway. He motioned for Julie to watch and shoot from a gun port to the side of the front door.
Julie was in position before Bent. Whatever they were doing was interrupted by four fast rounds coming from the front door. Two of them dropped. Brent came through the back at that point and in a moment ended the three remaining attackers. The police were coming up the street full lights and siren. He met them at the end of the driveway.
“We don’t know if there is an actual alien with this group. Everyone get defensive and give us some support out back.” Brent said.
“Yes sir, everyone grab the explosive rounds. Be prepared to shoot, you have all seen the videos, it will be a blur headed in. Kill it, shoot until you know it’s dead.” The Sergeant told the officers.
Sunset was only a few minutes away. That made Brent and the Sergeant anxious that there may be a live alien with the group. They liked to work in the dark. In deep dusk it could be almost impossible to see an alien before he had killed three or four of the officers. Brent had modified his security system with special filters that not only cut through the darkness, they were specifically designed to reveal aliens.
Brents communicator signaled, it was someone from the spy group.
“Mr. Soledad, there is an alien life sign about 100 yards West of your present location.”
“Thank you all very much, will have to talk later.” Brent said, cutting the connection.
They could hear dogs barking up the street, coming closer as the alien moved toward Brent’s home. The officers were staggered across the cover outside on the West, scopes on the rifles had also been modified to show aliens.
“I see an alien at 11:00 o’clock. he is moving quickly but not super fast.” one officer announced. Within seconds two others affirmed they had targeted the alien.
“Fire when you have the shot.” the sergeant authorized the lethal force.
Almost instantly three rifles fired as one.
“We have a hit, two of us need to go and verify death.” an officer said.
Back to Today
That was the last direct contact Brent and Julie had with that particular group of aliens, until the jungle attack today. Every police and military officer on each continent was committed to hunting them to extinction. The problem was, they had used twenty-five years to become entrenched in the Earth to put an end to the human infection. But Brent did learn a good dog could alert to non-human threats and so a dog was found and adopted.
Several adventures back, he had developed a relationship with one Mr. Davis who ran spy satellites and drones for governments. Brent first used the service to review space records of unexplained or presumed meteorite falls in the last 50 years. Just one tenth of a percent of those meteorite falls were suspicious. That left thousands of possible alien landings for Brent and his team to review. While still in the meeting, Brent penned instructions to Mr. Davis staff for a detailed look at the areas growing Martian Oats.
Most of the governments had changed dramatically in the past 400 years. Fortunately access to information and old records had become routine. Brents staff obtained the not so secret government files on UFO’s for the America’s and most of Europe since 1942. It took many students months at the university of Miami to get the information into the computer. They obtained a massive download of information from Mr. Davis’ team of all the meteorite falls. After that it was weeks of processing looking at each data set to see if it was in fact a meteorite, or something else. A team of 25 students spent their summer criss crossing the country chasing leads.
There were not less than fifty suspicious landings in the areas of the Martian Oats. They were out there somewhere. Brent needed to find them and determine what to do about it. Brent and Julie found a nice secure private home for lease just out of Kansas City. Kansas City now spanned an area of ninety miles from each side of the river. The aliens could hide in a city that size and never be found if they did not draw attention to themselves. It wasn’t city dwellers they were concerned about right now. The how and why of Martian Oats was the focus.
Julie and Brent had a meeting with the AFA investigators and a couple people from the University of Kansas Agricultural Research Center. The research center was like a trip back in time. Consisting of large planted malls and tall stone buildings the University looked much older than the two hundred years it had been since it was rebuilt. The absence of staff or desks and phones was the main indicator of the modern building. The Network knew who you were and if you were to be allowed in and where. Your personal communicator would direct you to where you were expected. Someone coming without an electronic ID or communicator with valid access would be apprehended before they could actually get in any of the buildings.
Walking into the meeting the first thing Brent noticed was the hydroponic display, quite full of a blue green plant. There was a slight odor to the room and Brent was going to ask if that was the hydroponics or the Martian Oats. Sharon Stewart is an investigator for the AFA. She stood and met Julie and Brian as they entered. They met the two professors of research for the University, William Jeffery Commons and Linda Atencio. William shook both their hands and explained that most people called him Bill, Linda laughed and explained that many people here in the countryside had at least three names and went with a nickname or often their middle name.
“So, is this our Martian Oats?” Julie asked.
“Yes, we have been successful in growing them, but we want to make certain we can kill them as easily as grow them.” Sharon said.
“It responds very well to most of our common plant nutrients, it handles changes in temperature very well, but most every herbicide we have kills it.” Bill said.
