Alien Dawn

The Alpha Leptons’ close encounter with planet Earth
got a little too close when one of their scout ships, UZB27
entered too far into the upper atmosphere, heating the small ship
beyond its design limits, and frying vital navigational controls.
They had little choice but to land, and their landing site
was a dense section of jungle in Vietnam, circa 1968.

Delta 9B and Delta 9D secured their ship and emerged
into the steamy jungle heat beneath a scorching summer sun.
The Leptons were not affected by heat, but they were affected,
under the present conditions on Earth, by light, especially plasma light.
In other words, they were very sensitive to the light of fire.
In space, and on their own world of limited atmospheric pressure,
the Leptons were squid-like, the consistency of gelatin.
Subjected to Earth’s atmospheric pressure however,
they were sensitive and physically vulnerable,
becoming somewhat translucent.
Still, they would explore.

They made their way through dense forest, shimmering and flashing,
at times frightening macaws and causing pythons to recoil in fear.
All day they ventured, then through the night, until the arrival of morning.
They then came to a road which at first was devoid of person or vehicle.
But then there was the sound of engines from beyond the bend,
and the Leptons noticed a cloud of dust rising up above the trees.
All of a sudden they watched a car chase a motorcycle down
the road and disappear among the jungle greenery.
Both Delta 9B and Delta 9D were puzzled.

As they watched from the verdant lush brush, their puzzlement grew
when they then witnessed a military convoy of jeeps, trucks and even a
M48 Patton tank rumble by.  To the Leptons, it was like a giant metal robot,
and they longed for the safety of their ship and of outer space.

Unbeknownst to the Leptons, this was war in which they had stumbled,
the unholy terror and tearing asunder of flesh and bone for ideology,
the firestorm of carpet bombing, napalm, hand-to-hand and hand grenade.
From beyond some hill unseen, a mortar lobbed a shell, hitting an oil truck,
and a fiery explosion lit up the surrounding jungle and the Leptons as well.
And then the Leptons, unaccustomed to such intense fire light under pressure,
succumbed to the forces on this world of thunder and flame.
They lost the integrity of themselves, dissolving into luminous bits
of energy and atomic matter scattered by the torrid winds,
merging with the dawn in a land beset by war.

40 Lines
Writer’s Cramp
June 15, 2013

Requirements:
--car chase
--giant metal robot
--hand grenade
--a fiery explosion