Adrift Across the Stars

Ch 2

“Kid, you’re lucky we brought you, don’t complain and gather some damn fire wood,” the voice of Cass Nolan rang out through a brightly lit clearing.  The form of Cass could be seen stretched out lazily in the clearing, he had a slight, athletic build, and his shoulder length hair hung lazily around his face.  Behind Cass were two other young men.  Andy, the largest of all the boys yelled with a grin “That’s right you’re real lucky, you should have known you would be doing this kind of work when we told you that you were coming on this little trip.” He shot his friend Cass a quick high five and flopped down on the grass next to him. Cass’ brother Daniel looked at them both exasperatedly; it was very clear there would be no change in their opinion on this matter.  He gave the last of the three boys, Johnny, a hopeful look.  Johnny shrugged and smiled helplessly and then went back to assembling a tent for the other boys. 

As Danny stalked off mock-grudgingly into the woods, Cass and Andy began to laugh.  “Ha-ha-good thing we brought him, right,” chuckled Andy. “Told ya it would be worth it---God forbid we do any work around here right?” Cass responded.  “Ya, that would just be a tragedy, wouldn’t it?” exclaimed Johnny from across the camp.  He then threw one of the tent poles at Cass like a spear.  Cass gracefully dodged it with a roll and laughed as it hit Andy in the chest.  Andy shot Johnny a mock-hurt look and wound up for a retaliatory throw which missed spectacularly and buried itself into a tree.  “All that power but no direction” mocked Cass.  “You would have been a great soldier on the front lines of some Ancient Greek battle,” he continued. At this Johnny snickered and said “By that he means great at absorbing arrows so that the real soldiers don’t have to.” 

With this Cass got up and a walked across the oak clearing to begin helping Johnny set up the tent.  The only sounds that could be heard were the sounds of the birds and that natural ambient sound of wilderness that is only obvious to those who are not used to it.  The three friends conversed easily and naturally, they had been friends for years, and every conversation between them was like a sparring match, where they attempted to play on each other’s insecurities, which were obvious to people who knew each other so well. 

The fourth boy Daniel was just as much a part of the group as the other three, and he knew this, however he was also very good-natured and put up with the occasional exertion of authority by his older brother.  The brothers both trusted each other and were content with the dynamics of their relationship; there was no need to fight for authority.  Cass and Daniel had a third brother, Sawyer, who was significantly younger and not brought on the trip… and predictably he was thoroughly enraged by this, but that is another story.  Danny knew he had become physically stronger than his brother, and it was apparent when they stood near each other, Danny had at least five inches and twenty pounds on his older brother, but it would never come to a test of strength between the two, they never had reason to fight in such a way, and Cass had no intention of ever causing such a fight.  Plus Danny avoided fighting whenever possible.  One time he was accused of being unwilling to hurt a fly.  Danny had responded “I wouldn’t hurt a fly… unless it bites me…”

Back in the clearing the three boys were attempting to decide what to eat for dinner that night, and though Cass had planned this expedition, it went without saying that Johnny would be doing the cooking; the other two constantly trusted Johnny to deal with technical details like that.  Johnny did not resent this role, because he knew that the easily distracted Andy and the unwilling Cass would not do well with this responsibility.  As they casually discussed this, a loud vibrating sound began to hum in the air, even the trees seemed to be shaking.  Cass looked up; the ambient sound of the wild was gone.  Cass noted this and wordlessly began to walk towards the cliffs he knew were a few hundred meters from where the boys had made camp.  The chatter between the three boys stopped… the three moved like predators now… gracefully... as a unit.  They scanned the area for any signs of movement as they silently crept closer to the cliffs.  As they crested the hill leading up to the cliffs they were greeted by the most horrific sunset in the history of Humankind.

History books would later record this sunset as The Sunset of the Swarm.  But these history books would not be doing it justice.  In the soft orange-pink light of the sunset Hell descended on Earth.  Thousands of spacecraft were landing all over Earth, though the boys could only see hundreds; this was happening everywhere, Humankind was being taken by surprise and very successfully.  The spaceships did not look like any of the space capable crafts Humans had constructed.  These vessels were spindly and black; they looked like poison in the sky.  For many Humans across Earth, this would be the last sunset they would ever see, as some of the ships were beginning to ravage the landscape of Earth with some sort of concentrated energy weapons.  Other ships still appeared to be transports that were carrying ground troops.  And it was this kind of ship that shot a path straight toward three young men standing on a cliff-top together.

Cass’ mind whirled with thoughts as the ship grew closer; he began to go through every possible situation in his head.  He could see that this threat was widespread; he knew that his parents would never attempt to get to safety without knowing the fates of two of their sons.  His mind reached the only logical conclusion it could.  For his family to live: Danny had to escape.  One thing to know for sure about Cass, he is not the self-sacrificing kind of guy; he is far too fond of himself for that.  But he has faith that he, Johnny, and Andy could survive in the wild after giving Danny time to escape.  After that, well he had no time to consider what would happen after that, he knew he would be fine with his friends at his side.

“DANNY, RUN TO THE CAR NOW, DON’T LOOK BACK, DON’T COME BACK, AND GET TO MOM AND DAD…. GO NOW!!!!” Cass screamed.  Danny who was farther down the hill could see the ship and knew his brothers thoughts exactly.  At this point Danny was incredibly conflicted. He wanted to stay and face what seemed to him as an inevitable end with his brother.  But then from across the hill Cass said so silently Danny could barely hear it, “please,” and Danny turn and ran the opposite direction as fast as he could, he could be at the car in under an hour.  As he ran through the clearing, tears ran down his face, but his eyes were determined, though he might not see Cass and his friends again, he would make sure he carried out the last agreement between brothers.  He would make it back to his family, and he would get them to safety, he swore it as he ran through the sunset-lighted wood.

Cass pulled a large hunting knife out of a bag.  “We let them see us and then we run… away from the car, we cannot allow them to head after Danny.” He said. Andy and Johnny were holding the tent poles like spears.  Cass did not intend for it to come to combat, but he would be ready if it did.  The other two nodded gravely, both overcome with the sudden gravity of the situation.  The boys raced along the path back to the cliff top.  When they reached it, they realized they had made a mistake.  Cass had underestimated his enemies, these creatures had already disembarked.  The look of them was burned into Cass’ brain, he would never be able to forget these monsters for the entirely of his life.  They stood roughly seven feet tall, and stood wider and stouter than a man.  They were reptilian looking and had spiny bone Mohawks that seemed to grow out of the top of their head… They seemed to be wearing some kind of ceremonial armor that had many gaps in it.  They seemed a bit impractical to Cass however he was intimidated nonetheless.

As Johnny looked around he noticed they were surrounded, and he groaned as if this was his personal failure, that they had ended up in this trap.  Instinctively, the three boys had made a formation so that they were back-to-back and left no spot exposed to these alien enemies.  Cass noticed the aliens discussing them in a guttural language; they seemed amused by the boy’s tactics.  One harsh guttural command was barked out and one of these aliens stepped into the middle of the circle and raised a ceremonial looking energy cannon that was attached to its arm, and aimed it right at Cass. 

Cass was at a loss, this was beyond anything he had ever dealt with in his leisure filled life as a student and an athlete. He watched as the cannon filled with energy, when out of nowhere Andy threw his tent pole as hard as he could toward the alien… as before the pole missed spectacularly but, the alien did a dodge roll nonetheless.  Cass saw his only chance; the alien was rolling and focused on Andy.  Cass sprung toward the monster with the speed and grace of young man in his prime.  He lunged with the hunting knife at a gap in the monsters armor around the abdomen.  Cass was rewarded when he felt the knife rip through skin and muscle tissue, and the boy rolled away covered in the monster’s black blood.  The monster roared and turned and aimed the cannon toward Cass.  Cass smiled cockily, that was the best he could do, but that monster wouldn’t forget him any time soon.  But he was saved by another commanding bark.  The monster stepped back without question.  Then a larger alien with more practical dark armor walked out toward Cass.  Cass glared into the eyes of the monster and laughed. He saw the monster reached for some kind of weapon, and he lunged for his neck, which was the only exposed part of this alien’s body. The alien reacted so quickly Cass barely even saw its movements, the next thing he knew the alien touched his fore head. And then Cass Nolan’s world went black.