A voice boomed out from over the German man’s shoulder, “Geneva Convention, what is that Sporrenberg?”
General Sporrenberg just shrugged his shoulders, “Never heard of it, finishes these weaklings off.” He ordered again.
The man stood just behind Sporrenberg gave a slight nod and the troops opened fire on the defenseless prisoners.
Hall let out a curse as he began to charge forward but he was hit with a deadly hail of burning Plasma, his burning body fell to the floor and he died there in agony, the rest of his men had no chance at all and they were all slaughtered.
Sporrenberg let out a smile. “The base is ours, get our bridgehead set up quickly.” Sporrenberg looked down on the dead bodies of the American’s, “Bury these scum in a shallow grave, then burn the bodies.” He smiled again then spat on Hall’s corpse.
The man stood on Sporrenberg’s shoulder shouted, “You heard the General, and you have your orders, get to it!”
The armor-clad soldiers jumped into action.
The battle of Wright Patterson Air Force base was over, it had only taken an hour and a half.
Dayton
Dawn was officially a couple of minutes away and Pamela’s groggy mind was not quite ready to wake up yet. The sound of commotion grew steadily around her, people rushing about in all directions finally forced her to get up.
The young student rubbed her sleep filled eyes, “What time is it?” She asked.
“Don’t know, all of our damn watches have stopped, must be near dawn though.” The man packing up his bedding from their tent replied.
“Shit we’re late.” Pamela said and she hurriedly put her bra back on, “Where are my pants Steve?”
“Not in my bedding, check under your sleeping bag.”
“Shit… shit… shit.” Pamela repeated, she did not want the convoy to leave without her.
Pamela was traveling with a large group of protesters who were on their way to make their feeling clear outside one of America’s largest air base, Wright Patterson Air Force base. The group who consisted mainly of students had camped out on the outskirts of Dayton, Ohio and were planning to start their protest at dawn.
The gang traveled in a convoy mainly made up of Volkswagen camper vans but any available van was commandeered from family members and then packed full to the brim with camping gear, alcohol and copious amounts of drugs.
The morning was not going to plan however as none of the vehicles would start, despite multiple attempts that caused some of the starter motors to flood. A lot of colorful language started to bound around and even some accusation of sabotage from the more wasted members of the group.
Pamela was up and out in the fresh morning air, they had got the tent packed up a were just eating some stale sausage rolls. Pamela looked up to the sky, it was still dark and pinpricks of starlight still dotted the area.
“That’s strange!” Steve said.
A brief image of Brooklyn Jnr flashed through Pamela’s mind but she quickly suppressed it.
“What?” She said.
“The lights in Dayton, they are all out, not one light is on, not even a street light.”
Pam looked over. Steve was right. “Power cut?”
“Must be.”
“Is that what’s wrong with our car?”
Steve shook his head, “Shouldn’t have any effect… that is something totally different.”
Pam sighed and looked down at her watch, It had stopped as well, “Steve, what time did your watch stop?”
He glanced down, “One forty-three.”
Pam looked up “Mine too, that’s weird.”
“Coincidence!” Steve shrugged.
Pamela was not so sure and went over to ask the other guys; she was shocked when their watches had also stopped at the exact same time down to the very second.
“Maybe it was some kind of interference in the atmosphere?”
“No way man, it is clearly a trick by the government to stop us from our right to freedom of speech!”
“Oh come on Franklin, how much crack did you smoke last night anyway?”
The group continued to bicker for a good twenty minutes and only snapped out of it when the first rays of sunshine crested the horizon.
“How far is it to trek over there and begin our protest anyway?” Steve asked.
“About ten miles, give or take.”
“We can’t walk that far, we have too much shit and we can’t leave it here unattended!”
“Alright… alright, was just thinkin’ out loud.” Steve huffed.
The sound of distant jet engines snapped the protesters out of their argument.
“Bloody pigs, out testing their death machines already!”
“Yeah, bastards.”
The group began jeering as the sound of jet engines got closer. Then the first jet was spotted, followed by another and the two more; finally, a total of seven jets were in view, streaking low towards Dayton itself.
One of the protesters had his binoculars up and managed to track one of the jets, it had a strange pink glow coming from the two engines mounted on the stubby swept back wings.
“That doesn’t look like any plane I have seen before?” He said.
“Must be a new prototype they’re testin’.”
The older man let out a deep breath, “Ya could be right but they sure are coming in fast and low over the town. People won’t like that when they’re sleepin’.”
“Another example of how our military doesn’t care about its citizens!”
More cheers rang out.
The jets splintered in different directions and moved fast. They shot up nearly vertically, flipped over and dived at speed towards the ground. The first plane let off a flash of dark purple light that arced down to earth and after a few seconds, it exploded in a brilliant bright ball that completely destroyed the building it hit and sent shockwaves over the others.
“Shit.”
“What the fuck was that?” Pamela said in a frightened tone.
The rest of the jets followed suit and dropped their bombs on targets in the town, the place was ablaze quickly and plumes of dark smoke billowed into the air, occasionally joined by the dazzling purple explosions.
The group of students and protesters did not know what to do, they were all in shock and the blood started to leave their extremities as their brains decided to either fight, or run.
One of the jets screamed overhead, and then turned sharply to face the large gathering of stunned people.
Pamela felt a shiver run down her spine and she dragged Steve away from the group of astonished onlookers and pushed him to the floor.
The air in between the plane and the people filled with a deadly stream of fire as the pink plasma rained down on the helpless students. The air crackled and sizzled as the superheated projectiles struck all around.
The Protesters had no chance and nowhere to run, they started to fall like flies as they were struck by the plasma, men and women fell to the floor, some of their charred bodies burnt where they lay. The sweet, unpleasant smell of burnt human flesh and hair overpowered the area.
As the jet went overhead a few of the surviving protesters saw their opportunity to make a run for it, Pamela begged them to stay down but they were far too frightened. They ran as fast as they could but the jet had turned around for its second strafing run.
Pamela watched as her friends, innocent people were struck down; they screamed in agony as they were burnt or bled to death, it was a nightmare.
Pamela and Steve were the only two survivors and they stayed hidden under the bloody corpses of their friends, bearing the almost unbearable stench of burning humans; they both wept.
The sound of explosions continued in Dayton, the residents screamed, shouted, prayed and ran in any direction they could but the enemies ground forces had arrived.