"Shades of Gray"
Created & Written By: BolianAdmiral
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"Shades of Gray"
PART ONE: "The Day The Saucers Came"
October 15, 2037
MARE CRISIUM - THE MOON
The light of the Sun illuminated the landscape of the Lunar surface, painting the low hills and ground a brilliant white, as a lone American astronaut appeared over the horizon, bounding upward, as the low Lunar gravity turned his small jumps into giant leaps. As the astronaut's feet again impacted with the soil, small clouds of white moon dust were kicked upward, appearing almost to hang in the air, before again returning to the surface.
Finally, the astronaut reached his target site, and braced his fall to the ground with his two hands, as he now was stopped, having placed himself right in the middle of a small crater, with low ridges. He rose upward, taking stock of the sight before him... the spectacle of the planet Earth, as it began to rise above the Lunar horizon.
He reached for the instruments in his pack that he would need for his soil samples, and recovered them, as he unraveled the pack they were enclosed in. He took out a soil probe, and lowered himself close to the ground, to begin taking his samples.
Through the reflection of the ground in his helmet visor, the image of his hands sweeping areas of soil away was seen, as he then placed the probe into the ground, pushing it in deep.
As the astronaut withdrew his hands, to examine his work, he noticed a shadow briskly wash over the illuminated ground. He thought nothing of it, resigned to the fact that perhaps a meteorite had just flown overhead. However, after a few seconds, another shadow rushed overhead, which was followed by another, and another, and so on.
He began to focus on the shape of the shadows... they were perfectly ovular, and smooth. Reluctantly, he turned around, as he stood up, and inside his helmet, his face began to grow a look of total and utter shock...
As the lone astronaut stood, small, in the middle of that Lunar crater, passing overhead, at a somewhat low altitude in the sky, was what could only be described as a small fleet of flying saucers. The saucers were not going fast, nor were they going very slow... they were merely flying by, at a comfortable pace.
The astronaut looked up at the small fleet, as he turned to follow them on their course... a course that was taking them right towards Earth.
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - EARTH ORBIT
The sound of the radio beeping was heard, as the Russian astronaut worked outside, on spacewalk duty, repairing a connection point on one of the station's solar sail arms.
The astronaut finished with one tool, and carefully lifted it to the side, and let go, letting the tool hang in zero-g in front of him, as he reached for another tool. He looked into his toolkit, as he fumbled for the new device, and after a while found it, and brought it out of the case. He then began to continue effecting repairs to the connection point, when he paused... he suddenly felt strange, as if he were being watched.
He decided maybe he needed a break, and without thinking, moved his hand across the top of his helmet, as if he were wiping sweat from his brow, but then felt foolish that he had forgotten that his helmet was there. Tired, he turned his head to his left, to try and get a nice view of Earth, but was treated instead, to the last thing he ever expected to see... a single saucer-shaped craft, right there, in front of him, standing absolutely still, mere meters away from him.
All color drained from the astronaut's face, and he wore a look of terror, as sweat beaded on his face, inside the helmet. Then, suddenly, the saucer began to initiate a complete roll, as it swept over him, from left to right. The astronaut followed the craft, as it rolled above him, and as the saucer completed its roll, it did so by settling into formation in the middle of a much larger group of saucers, which were on the move, flying towards the atmosphere of Earth.
The astronaut's mouth was agape with awe at the sight he was beholding, as he watched the one saucer which he had first seen remain still, as the rest of its kind kept flying by. It was as if the saucer were just as curious about him, as he was of it. Finally, the astronaut did the only thing he could think of... he waved at the craft.
As soon as the astronaut waved at it, the saucer moved backward ever so slightly, and then began to drift forward, now rejoining the rest of the fleet, on the way to Earth, as the astronaut looked on.
AIR FORCE ONE - SOMEWHERE OVER THE MIDDLE EAST
The majestic presidential Boeing Sonic Cruiser rose above the clouds, followed a second later, by the twin F-22 Raptors that were assigned to protect the plane belonging to the leader of the free world.
The President of the United States had just completed a diplomatic summit in the United Arab Emirates, and was beginning the flight back to Washington. The middle east was a very unsafe place in the world to be now, as decades of built-up tensions between the radical Islamist nations and the west were nearing the breaking point. The leader of Iran had been loudly calling for the total decimation of the United States for over a year and a half, and with the invention and release of the new Harbinger ICBM, Washington was beginning to take those threats very seriously.
PRESIDENTIAL SUITE - AIR FORCE ONE
An attractive young flight attendant handed a cup of hot tea to President Alan Bensen, as he sat in his seat, looking over diplomatic papers, on the polished wood seat tray in front of him. He accepted the tea with a smile, and thanked the woman, as she walked off.
President Bensen turned to his wife, First Lady Beverly Bensen, gesturing to her an offer to taste some tea before he did, but she declined politely, and just watched as he took a sip, and sighed, looking back down at his papers. Finally, she placed an assuring hand on his shoulder, as he looked to her.
"It's okay... just relax... the meeting is over. We're going back to take care of our part of the provisions, and they will hopefully take care of their part... we'll find out in two weeks, when you meet again at the United Nations." she said calmly, as the President just nodded.
President Bensen was an upper-middle aged man, in his mid-60's. His face wore the lines of age and experience, and his hair was now an almost white gray. His wife, Beverly, was in her mid-50's, and her hair was still almost totally black, but there were some highlights of gray as well. She was still a very attractive woman, and complimented the President well.
"GHOST EAGLE ONE" - F-22 RAPTOR ESCORT
From the cockpit canopy of the fighter plane, the pilot looked up to the underside of Air Force One, just as another two F-22 Raptors flew up into view, taking position in front of Ghost Eagle One, near the front of the President's plane.
"Ghost Eagle One, this is Ghost Eagle Three, taking position... standing by to relieve you... go get some fuel." the pilot in one of the new Raptors said, over the radio.
"Confirmed, Ghost Eagle Three... now moving off to--" the pilot began, but was suddenly stopped, by a set of alarms blaring in his cockpit, as he looked to the RADAR display, which now showed three fast-moving blips. "Oh, my god..." the pilot began. "Ghost Eagles, we've got multiple confirmed inbound... size and speed, plus climb rate are consistent with Harbinger profile!" the pilot said, audibly shaken. "All birds, redeploy, and assume attack formation!" the pilot concluded.
"This is Ghost Eagle Two... alerting Air Force One to assume maximum evasion altitude... breaking off to position beta." the other pilot said, over the radio.
"Confirmed, Ghost Eagle Two... Ghost Eagle Four, stay with Big Bird... we'll take the first strike." the pilot ordered, as he now looked to see the fourth Raptor beginning to lead Air Force One higher into the sky.
In the sky, the lone Raptor led Air Force One as high as the plane had ever flown, as below and behind the two planes, the other three Raptors broke off, and began to fly towards three long missile contrails which were rapidly getting higher and closer to them.
Suddenly, a mighty shockwave and a burst of electric blue light was seen directly behind Air Force One.
"This is Ghost Eagle Four... confirming Air Force One has just entered Mach 5... repeat... we are now at Mach 5." the pilot stated.
In the distance, behind Air Force One, the other three Raptors were now moving about, deploying chaff and flares, to try and divert the missiles, but the missiles were too fast...
"GHOST EAGLE ONE" - F-22 RAPTOR ESCORT
The pilot looked upwards in the cockpit canopy, to see the three missiles streak by, their cloudy contrails of white smoke trailing them into the far distance. As his Raptor passed through and above the smoky contrails, the pilot was shocked to now see four other craft holding position between his plane, and Air Force One... saucers... perfectly ovular saucers.
"Oh, my god!" he exclaimed, into the radio, as he watched the saucers now streak suddenly forward, and split off into two groups. The forward duo took position under each of Air Force One's wings, while the last two trailed the plane, moving to take position beside each of the two forward Raptors.
"GHOST EAGLE FOUR" - F-22 RAPTOR ESCORT
"Ghost Eagle Four to all birds... I don't believe what I'm seeing... I have company here... but that's not all... we have a problem... Air Force One has reached her maximum altitude... and it won't be enough... and she's now at maximum burn... one of us will have to intercept the incoming." the pilot stated, grim, into the radio, just as he looked to his left, to see the saucer beside him veer ever so slightly off, and drift upwards, to take a position right above Air Force One's right wing.
He could also see ahead to the other side of Air Force One, as the saucer on the other side now also moved up, and took position over the left wing of the plane. A second later, a flash of brilliant electric blue light washed over the side of Air Force One's fuselage, as if a giant xerox copier had just taken a scan of the plane.
"GHOST EAGLE ONE" - F-22 RAPTOR ESCORT
From behind and below the lead Raptors and saucers, the pilot watched, shocked, as with sudden and blinding speed, the two saucers, as well as Air Force One, went streaking forward, vanishing into the sky without a trace.
The remaining two saucers now also sped up, moving forward to intercept the missiles that had been getting so near to the President's plane, before it went speeding away.
Suddenly, two of the saucers came to a sudden complete halt, in midair, as two of the missiles struck them, head-on, beginning the detonation process.
The Harbinger missile was a new ICBM with a nuclear warhead... capable of delivering a yield of 75 megatons each. And two of them had just struck a set of targets, and begun to explode.
The brilliant white-hot flash that signaled a nuclear explosion was seen, as the weapons struck the saucers, but the explosion never grew much beyond that... almost instantly, as soon as the flash began to expand and grow, it quickly dissipated, vanishing into nothingness around a thin invisible "shield", that was wrapped tightly around the surface of both saucers.
Suddenly, the final missile shot past the area, the cloudy contrail zooming past the saucers, as both of them now resumed formation, and gave chase.
"GHOST EAGLE ONE" - F-22 RAPTOR ESCORT
As the pilot watched, both saucers opened fire on the final missile, with some form of blue energy beam weapon. As the saucers fired on the missile, the pilot noticed that the sky directly in front of the missile was now becoming distorted and blurred... as if the sky were a pool of water, and someone had stirred that water up with their finger.
Suddenly, the missile exploded, and as it did so, the resulting explosion passed through the area of sky that was distorted, and quickly dissipated, appearing to gradually fade from view, until the only sight ahead of the saucers was a clear and beautiful blue sky, dotted with fluffy white clouds.
The pilot shook his head, as if he were dreaming, or hallucinating. Suddenly, the two saucers reduced speed, and rolled down to escort his plane, as well as the other two that were with him. He looked to his right, as one saucer rolled into position right beside his plane, and kept perfect pace with it.
For a long second, he did nothing but stare at the craft, which somehow, had just taken a direct hit from a 75 megaton explosion, and emerged totally unscathed. Finally, something inside him compelled him to speak to the craft outside, as if somehow, deep inside his mind, he could understand that it was in some manner asking him a question.
"Yes... I'm okay." he said, nodding to the saucer.
As soon as he said those words, the saucer increased speed just enough to pull ahead of his Raptor, and take position in front of it, as he watched the twin saucers lead his Raptor group along.
AIR FORCE ONE - SOMEWHERE OVER THE EARTH
The plane was now high above the Earth... so high, that it was technically in orbit. The twin saucers held position on either side of the plane, as the curvature of the Earth, and the thin layers of atmosphere could be seen below, along with the continents and parts of the ocean.
PRESIDENTIAL SUITE - AIR FORCE ONE
The folders of diplomatic papers began to float upwards, and open up, in zero-g, allowing the papers inside to come floating out, as the President turned to his right, to look out the window.
What he saw stunned him... holding position just feet away, beside the right wing, was a single saucer. Beyond the saucer, he gazed ahead, into the vast expanse of space, able to see for the first time in his life, the true scope of the vastness of space, as it really was... alive with billions of stars, that on Earth, were totally hidden, by atmospheric pollution, and interference from city lights. He then looked to the left side of the plane, and sure enough, outside that window, was another saucer, beside the left wing.
In space, the saucers and Air Force One began to gradually reduce altitude, heading back down to the sky of the Earth.
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - CALIFORNIA
The four F-22 Raptors flew ahead of Air Force One, as the mighty plane came to a gentle landing, as the two escort saucers matched speed overhead of the President's plane, as the other two saucers came flying by, moving to land near where the Raptors were going to land, as the military brass and men and government representatives looked on, utterly shocked by what they were seeing.
AIR FORCE ONE - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE
The plane's mighty hypersonic engines powered down with a whine, as the door opened, and the stairs were deployed, allowing President Bensen and his guards to emerge from the plane. With a hurried pace, he walked down the stairs, as he was met by a waiting unit of Marines, who were cautiously holding their rifles in aim at the saucers which were now landed.
"Wait a minute." Bensen said softly, to the lead Marine, as he pushed the man's rifle downward a bit, to stop him from aiming. "I don't know what or who they are... but they just saved my life up there, as well as the lives of the Raptor pilots." he said, as he cautiously took three steps forward, before pausing, looking at the four craft before him.
Now that they were on still ground, and in the full light of the noontime day, he could fully make out the apperance of the crafts... they were all totally featureless, and perfectly oval and smooth. The entire surface of the saucers was a bright brushed aluminum or brushed stainless steel color, which gleamed brilliantly in the noon sun. There were absolutely no exterior lights of any kind that he could see, nor were there any windows. Only the four thin landing legs extended from each saucer, breaking the otherwise featureless and smooth look of the saucers.
-- TO BE CONTINUED --
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