The creature threw its hands up, as if to surrender, and three shards of light burst from a device on its chest. Williams, Johnson, and Taylor were violently thrown against the wall and slumped to the floor. Snap knew they were dead. The creature stood over him. He tried to raise his DE rifle, to no avail. The shard of light cut through Snap’s armor and flesh like a hot knife through butter. Everything faded to black as Snap lost consciousness.
Snap’s eyes popped open and he jolted out of bed. He was in a large hospital room with multiple beds. His chest was on fire, and his throat was dry and itchy. He looked around the large room to see the rest of his team lying in medical beds. None of them are wearing armor; rather they were wearing traditional hospital gowns, and hooked up to medical monitoring devices.
“Soldier, you got your ass whipped,” barked General Benjamin Paxton. The General was standing in a doorway, a few feet from Snap. “You are going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that if we are going to win the next war.”
“Yes Sir, what was that thing, Sir?” Snap asked.
“That was an Ondagra. He and his kind are from a planet called Botacoure. His name is Ater, and he is working with us to help get you boys ready for the next war.”
“What?” Snap asked, with a dumbfounded look on his face.
“We have a lot to discuss, Major Slade. I want you and your squad in my office in one hour.” The General surveyed the hospital bay. “Make that two hours.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Hill Air Force Base, Utah
General Benjamin Paxton’s office was seven levels below the surface of Hill Air Force base. The structure was referred to as a Deep Underground Military Base, or DUMB for short. The General’s office had a large desk, conference table, and a dozen chairs. The only people present were, the General, his chief of staff, and Snap’s squad.
“Men, you just encountered your first extraterrestrial, or alien, if you will. His name is Ater Velens, and if you had met him anywhere but in a training exercise, all of you would be dead,” General Paxton said from behind his desk at the front of the room.
“When your team came here from Delta Force on a special duty assignment, you thought you were here to perform field tests on new equipment. While that was part of the reason you were here, we were testing you, to determine if your squad had what it takes to be a part of our command. You passed the test, and now, you are one of the few people on this planet to have knowingly seen an extraterritorial. You are about to be read into a program that is so far above Top Secret that the last five Presidents didn’t even know of its existence.” General Paxton reached into his desk and retrieved a laser pointer.
“Your team has been training for several months with the next generation FALOS suit. You are now aware of many of its advanced functions. What you don’t know, is that, in addition to all the functions you have been training with, the suit is outfitted with electrochromic plates and light emitting diodes that create a chameleon effect, giving you a cloak of invisibility.” The General strode out from behind his desk to the table where the men were sitting.
“The problem is this,” the General cleared his throat. “You are not even close to being the most advanced combatant on this planet. Even with these advantages, you are still the underdog when facing Ondagra battle armor.”
Snap and his squad were dumbfounded. You could hear a pin drop.
“Another thing you need to know, the FALOS suit that you have been training on, was not designed by human scientists. The FALOS suit was developed by Nordic aliens that work with us on this and other secret facilities. The MMFR, fusion technology, that powers the armor is only made available by our alien benefactors. Without special light elements, that are not available here on Earth, we would not be able to generate enough power to operate the FALOS armor.”
“You have got to be shitting me,” muttered Justin Thomas from the second row.
“What was that soldier?” General Paxton barked.
“Nothing Sir”
“You will all have the opportunity to ask questions at the end,” General Paxton assured them.
Paxton continued, “These Nordics, as we call them, are from our own Milky Way galaxy, about 620 light years from here. They refer to themselves as Vitahicians and call their home world Vitahic. There are a few thousand of them here on Earth. Most of them live on U.S. military bases. They have been visiting our planet for hundreds of years, but they contacted the government about 70 years ago. The Nordics and the Government have a good working relationship, unlike the Ondagra. The Ondagra you met in the training exercise has defected and now helps us. Part of his job is training new recruits, like yourselves. From this point forward, your squad will be working closely with Ater Velens and the Nordic aliens. Any questions?”
Senior Master Sergeant Justin Thomas stood up, while partially raising his hand. “I have a question, General.”
“Yes, Sergeant Thomas.”
“So, all the UFO stuff we see on the internet is real? Roswell, New Mexico is real?” Justin sat back down.
The General cleared his throat. “Yes, for the most part, all the stories you see on the internet are real. Of course, some of them are faked or exaggerated; but, generally speaking, they are true. The government has spent billions of dollars trying to discredit the UFO crowd, you know, make them look like crack-pots. The reason we do that, is to keep the public in the dark. Yes. The Roswell incident happened. We recovered an alien space craft and made contact with an alien species. Any other questions?”
Snap stood.
“Major Slade.” The general pointed at Snap.
“Presumably, we are in some kind of war with the Large Gray species, or Ondagra as you call them, and we are being recruited to engage them. Given that their technology is advanced far beyond our own, how do we fight them?” Snap asked.
“Excellent question, Major Slade. Tomorrow you begin combat training with Ater Velens. He will teach you how to exploit their weaknesses - their very few weaknesses.”
Senior Master Sergeant James Martin raised his hand. “How many of these Ondagra are operating on Earth?’
General Paxton shook his head. “Truthfully we don’t know. We believe the number to less than 1800, but we can’t be sure. On the top end, 2400. But, if they learned to reproduce? Who knows.”
After a few more questions, the General said, “Okay, we have several days of orientation to go through; we don’t need to solve all the world’s problems this afternoon. Keep in mind, everything you learned today is Top Secret SCI. More details will follow in the next few days. Tomorrow, you are to report to Dugway Proving Ground for training with Ater Velens.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Dugway Proving Ground, Utah
Dugway Proving Ground, or DPG, sits about 85 South West of Salt Lake City. DPG is adjacent to Utah Training and Testing Range, also known as UTTR. DPG is almost 800,000 acres; together, DPG and UTTR cover almost 3,900 square miles of land.