Alien Attack

Alien Attack

A Story By

Philip R Benge

Smashwords Edition

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Published by

Philip R Benge on Smashwords

Alien Attack

Copyright Philip R Benge 2019

Cover Art Copyright Philip R Benge 2019

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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author`s imagination and used fictitiously.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One: The Attack Begins

Chapter Two: On to Mars

Chapter Three: The Reptoid Ark

Chapter Four: Battle in Space

Chapter Five: Escape from the Ark

Chapter Six: Battle above Mars

Other Books by the author

Alien Attack

Prologue

The astronomers of a reptilian race living on the planet Reptoid, which was in a planetary system over 100 light years away from Earth, had discovered that while most stars had a retinue of planets, not many of them were capable of sustaining life. The Reptoids, being a particularly aggressive and militaristic people, wanted the limited number of planets that were capable of sustaining life for their own race, and without a thought for the rights of any life that already existed upon these planets. The Reptoids were olive green in colour, leathery of skin and reproduced by laying eggs, otherwise they were otherwise much like the people who lived on Earth. Back in the Victorian age on Earth, near to the end of the nineteenth century, a drone was sent by the Reptoids to investigate our solar system and it went in to orbit around the Earth. It unfurled its solar panels, made use of all of its advanced technology along with its eavesdropping equipment and it sent back masses of data to its home world via the Reptoids first forays in to their travel through hyperspace. Although their chosen planet, Earth, had been found to be inhabited, this did not deter them, for they saw that the inhabitants were semi-barbaric and moreover, they were a lowly mammal race. The drone conscientiously reported back for decades until its power was almost exhausted, then, after reporting this fact back to its Reptoid creators, it went off the air and became the first piece of space junk to orbit around the planet.

Chapter One

The Attack Begins

Many years later, in the year 2085, as measured on Earth, a gigantic Reptoid vessel entered the outer edges of the Sol solar system, the vessel was in fact a hollowed out asteroid measuring 900 feet in diameter, one which had been turned in to a space Ark. This had been the third of such vessels, the first two having been sent to colonise two other planetary systems, exporting their own particular culture to these planetary systems. One was inhabited by a people still in their Palaeolithic age, the second world did not have any intelligent life upon it. The mass and size of the three space arks meant that they could not utilize the newly created Stardrive engine, and so they made use of the Ion Drive, which meant that the journey took more than one lifetime.

One of the reasons why they took so long to arrive at the Sol solar system was because it took them a long time to hollow out the asteroid and then to convert it in to a space ark. Especially one that had six accommodation areas which included washing facilities, eating areas and recreational areas, they were levels six to eleven. The large hold filled level twelve while the top three levels of the Ark were used for their hydroponics farms, as were levels thirteen to twenty-six. The large hanger bay was on the fourth level, within it sat a single fast attack vessel and six large transport vessels and an aging freighter. The main task of the latter seven vessels would be to transport the colonists and their goods down to their new home, Earth. The Ark itself was meant to stay in orbit around Earth to act as an enormous space station.

The large command area within the Ark was in the forward section of level five, it was much like the bridge of a Hollywood starship. It was filled with computer consoles, a large view screen dominated the inner hull bow wall, the area for the helmsman and the navigator was just before it, the captain’s command chair behind them and the science and engineering consoles were to the left and right of him. The engineering section itself was at the rear of level five, it contained two massive Ion drive engines. In the mid-section of level five was the large environmental section, which had to supply clean air, water and heat for the colonists and the hydroponic areas. The space ark’s massive store of water ran through miles of pipes and surrounded the accommodation area of the hollowed-out asteroid, giving additional protection to the crew and its passengers against cosmic radiation. The solid rock of the asteroid was the Reptoid’s principal protection against the abundance of radiation in space and also against any micro-meteor strikes.

The original voyagers were now dead, and it was their descendants who inhabited the craft after a journey of 70 Earth-years. Originally there had been just 500 couples, all under 30 years of age, except for the original four command members of the crew; the commander, his 2nd in command, the senior doctor and the chief engineer and five civilians, the consul, who was in overall command of the colonists, and four scientists. These nine Reptoids all ranged between 30 to 50 years of age and were all male. Their replacements came from amongst the offspring of the colonists, and of course their own offspring, none of whom had ever known another life except that of life inside an asteroid. At present, there were 750 couples, many of them only young children, but already paired up, some were nearing 70 years of age, and they had agreed to accept an early death as more children were born, for 1500 beings was the maximum number the Ark could comfortably accommodate. These older travellers were hoping that they would soon be living upon the planet Earth, and so they would not need to give up their lives for the younger Reptoids.

The Reptoid Commander of the Space Ark was a six feet tall heavily built male creature named Hierz Bramzs. The Reptoid race was now tailless, and so he resembled a human, being, an upright biped with two legs and two arms. Bramzs was resplendent in his red jacket and black trousers; he was sitting in his command chair looking at the forward view screen as their vessel took them passed Saturn.

His 2nd in command was named Mystra Artegon, his jacket was blue denoting his rank. Artegon was slightly shorter in height than his captain and not so heavily built, but compared to a human he was a veritable Hercules. Artegon was sitting at the science console, his task, to ensure that there were no surprises in store for them as they moved nearer to this system’s star, our sun.

Demi-Major Briestz was standing next to him, another giant of a creature, his jacket was black denoting that he was a pilot, he was in command of their fast attack vessel. As he too did not want to encounter any surprises when he took his vessel out of the vast hanger bay on the Ark, he was checking the same screen as Artegon.

The helmsman and the navigator were the remaining members of the crew currently within the command area, both wearing brown jackets, denoting their junior rank. The balance of the crew on this watch comprised three male Reptoids, they were in engineering and so wore yellow sweatshirts. A senior doctor commanded the medical department, it consisted of three other male doctors and eight female nurses. They were in the large clinic one deck below, on level six, and wore clinical white, at the moment there were no serious cases requiring their attention. They were listed amongst the many scientists who were part of the elite amongst the Reptoids, all of whom were watching one of the smaller view screens, their attention was fixed upon Saturn and some of its many moons.

Amongst the colonists were 100 Reptoids who were skilled in the various trades needed to keep the Ark operational, such as in the environmental, electrical, plumbing, engineering or scientific departments. There were also 120 Reptoids who were trained as a rapid reaction hit squad, if needed they would be used against any humans who had not been disabled in the first 24 hours of the actual invasion of Earth. Although Earth had a population of eight billion, this small number of aliens was considered by them to be quite enough to handle the human population, who, after all, were only mammals. Of course, the Reptoids were actually counting on the advanced technology to win the planet Earth for them, and amongst it, they possessed one terrible weapon.

Many of the colonists worked in the hydroponics farms, which supplied the travellers with all of their food. The female colonists worked either in the kitchens, or as cleaners, as orderlies helping in the clinic, as teachers at the schools and nurseries, it was easy to see that the Reptoid race did not believe in sexual equality. The sex of each individual, limited the number of jobs or professions that they were offered or chose, as did their social position. The colonists spent half of their free time training, although lately they had also been learning about their new home and the creatures that populated it, including Man.

As the Ark passed by Jupiter, the Reptoid’s despatched a small ultra-fast stealth drone which carried a telescope and a communications system. It would listen in to the strongest radio signals coming from Earth and relay them back to the Ark. It would also keep watch on the human race, using its telescope. Its primary mission was to orbit Earth at a distance of two million miles and to warn the Reptoids if Earth launched a spaceship in search of them. The Reptoid’s knew that they would have to destroy the present civilisation on Earth, before they could take the planet for themselves, but they saw no problem in genocide followed by a planetary-wide slavery of the remaining humans, mixed in with farming the necessary animals needed for food, this included the human population.

They declared war as they neared Mars, although they did not notify anyone. Bramzs looked across at his 2nd in command.

Mystra, launch a Silencer drone and take out their communications. Bramzs said in a deep guttural voice which was usual amongst this race.

Moments later a stealth drone was launched from the Ark, it looked so small against the immense size of the Ark, but it was packed with advanced technology. It moved passed the red planet and went in to a position 150,000 miles away from the red planet, in an orbit that would always keep it between Mars and Earth. It then began to operate, any radio messages, or streams of data, travelling between the Earth and Mars were now being jammed.

Bramzs looked at his personal computer screen, it showed him that the drone was operating as required, he had personally started a war, but he did not feel exultant, he felt sick, for they were about to destroy an advanced civilisation. He knew that he was not as able as his father had been, but with his father’s early death, his years of development had been cut short and he had been propelled in to the rank of exalted commander.

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On the planet Earth, the people at NASA, and also in various other space faring nations, suddenly lost contact with their bases on Mars. The two American bases were Mars One and Mars Two, and they also included people from many other countries including the UK. The other bases were operated by the Russians, the Chinese and the Indian nations.

Mars One, the largest base on Mars, was mostly underground, to not only protect the team from the harmful radiation that constantly bombarded the planet, but also from any micro-meteorites that were also visitors to Mars. The team there were still in contact with their satellites and robotic devices on the planet’s surface, but Commander Michael Patel had lost contact with Earth in mid-sentence. He had been speaking to James Bartlett, the NASA administrator. Luckily, Mars One had a back-up transmitter that made use of laser technology, it continued to operate as it sent its streams of data on a different wavelength to that used by the radio. It had one problem, it could not be used when bad weather covered the skies above the sender of the recipient of the data, such as Kennedy Space Center, but today the weather was fine. Otherwise, in an emergency, it could be used to contact the Moon, assuming a Martian dust storm had not covered the base.

Wondering why contact with Earth had been lost, Michael Patel switched over to the laser communications system and resumed his conversation with Bartlett. Resumed was not quite right for at the moment there was an eight-minute delay before he heard Bartlett’s replies to his own comments. He reported that nothing exceptional had occurred on or around the red planet, apart from them losing contact with the inner solar system. Moments later and Bartlett received a report from one of the scientists at the Kennedy Space Center.

"Michael, I have just been informed by Dr Singh here at the space centre, that we are no longer in contact with