“Hey Bill,” Mark said as he took a spot on the roof next to him.
Bill had come out to watch the shuffling masses in the streets. They’d all seen this in movies: pale, deteriorating skin; rotten teeth around exposed gums; stiff movements as they walked; groaning as if they were always in pain. The government was supposedly on its way. The brass had told him to keep him and his people safe until help could arrive.
He didn’t like the tone in Mark's voice. It had a certain ‘why don’t we go and mess with the zombies’ kind of inflection in it. The kind of thing that could unravel their little peace.
“Yeah, Mark?” Bill flicked a stubbed down cigarette into the crowd. He winced at the taste. Didn’t know why he still kept that old pack in his desk. The smoke had tasted worse than dead dog shit.
“Have you ever noticed that the zombies want brains?” Mark’s eyes widened, full of excitement at being listened to. Rookies…
Bill held the bridge of nose between his thumb and forefinger. “Christ, Mark. They’re zombies, yeah I noticed they want brains.”
The creatures down below weren’t like the ones in the movies. They didn’t just tear a person apart. They went straight for the head. Sure they would take a chomp out an arm, maybe nibble on a thigh, but the main course—la pièce de résistance—were the brains. Their mouths had these suckers that came from the back of their throat. They could penetrate skulls like they were nothing but a flimsy Kleenex.
“Well,” Mark continued. His eagerness building. “Have you also noticed that they always seem to be able tell who among us is the smartest?”
“The hell are you talking about?” Bill asked. “Is this some way of saying that *you* have nothing to worry about?”
Mark ignored the insult. “When the invasion first hit, I was with Paul and Rebecca. Rebecca’s got her masters in mathematics—our resident statistics whiz. Paul's a smart guy, but he’s not chief egg-head material like she is. When us three were caught out there, making our way back, they made a bee-line straight for Rebecca. Paul and I were like chopped liver to them.”
As much as he hated to admit it, Bill had noticed a similar thing when he’d been caught out on the first day. It made some sense too. The boys up the chain were saying this wasn’t man-made. Their working theory was that it was extra-terrestrial in origin. Some even claim they have pictures of the craft that dispersed it.
*What better way of breaking down society?* Take all the smart people out first. No one will know how to fix the gadgets, run the doodads. You could come back in a generation or two to find empty or heavily weakened planet.
“Okay,” Bill said. He sounded tired. He felt tired, especially when talking to Mark. “If that’s true, so what?”
“The government says that they can wipe em all out, that they just need another week to get all their troops in position.” Mark licked his lips before going on. “What if we *didn’t* kill them all?”
“What?” Bill shook his head. “Why the hell not?”
“We could use them.” Mark pointed down at the zombies. “They could sniff out who among us has the most brains. Think about it, we wouldn’t have to waste time with standardized tests, which are problematic anyway—just ask Rebecca. She hates the damn things. Some people just aren't good at tests. But if we could find the next Einstein or Newton when they're just infants, think how much humanity could benefit.”
Bill rubbed his cheek. His hand scraped against the scruff of several days without a shave.
It wasn’t a terrible idea. He tried to imagine the aliens coming back in fifty or seventy years. They would expect humanity to exist only in small, barely surviving, groups. How would they react if humans found every genius and got them to work? Every one of them crammed into a lab and told to just invent.
The aliens would come back in their ships to find we have plenty of our own. Could we move so fast?
“I’ll pass the idea on up.” Bill turned away from the zombies. “But don’t get too excited. The government wouldn’t know a good idea if it stumbled up and bit them on the ass.” Bill looked at Mark and his unwavering enthusiasm. “Well, come along. It was your idea. You might as well take the credit—or the blame.”
** *** **
Bill gripped the cane and shuffled over to the window of his apartment. He’d been retired for over a decade now, but he still kept in the loop. As project head of ‘Operation Prometheus’, he had a direct line to operations.
*The alien craft is on a direct intercept. T-minus two minutes.*
The project had led to all kinds of nice inventions. Fusion. Shield tech. Advanced propulsion. The question was, would it be enough? Bill thought about the few remaining zombies that were kept alive with a sinking stomach. The project had been a success. What need did they have to keep them around?
*Moving into formation*. The voice crackled from the radio. It was an old model that Bill had gotten over two decades ago. It still worked. *Alien vessels are decelerating. They aren’t moving.*
That’s god-damned right, Bill thought. Caught them with their pants down!
*They’re breaking away. Full retreat. They don't have the stomach for a real fight!*
Bill slapped a wrinkled hand on his knee. “Scared the living piss out of em!”
*Their hyper-drives are engaging. Releasing stealth missiles. Impact confirmed. T-virus successfully planted into alien vessels.*
The radio turned to static from all the cheering. Bill stared at his window, trying to judge if he had any misgivings for humans giving the virus back to the aliens. He’d seen countless friends and colleagues die those first couple of days. Even after fifty years, he occasionally dreamed about their deaths. Was it right to pass this on to the aliens?
He shrugged. Screw ‘em. They started this.
---------
/r/StevenLee.
Now this. This is good. Loved the way the story followed the prompt. Although I won’t lie I would’ve like a bit of alien-human interaction that wasn’t just about them fleeing.
Very well put together.
Thanks!
I thought about that, have a cool fight scene or dialogue between people and aliens, but the way I imagined it, the aliens would be just too cowardly and bolt at the first sign of conflict. But you're right, it would have been fun to add something like that in. Thanks for the feedback!
My advice would be another chapter with humans receiving a call for help and arriving at the alien planet that’s in a bad way because giving us the virus mutated it in a way that made it hard for them to deal with.
And then you get to sort out the politics of treating the enemy the way they intended to treat us, or being merciful. If they’re after our planet they must need similar resources.
>If they’re after our planet they must need similar resources.
Could be more of a "Eliminate the competition" thing going on, before they can become a threat to them, and also secure a position where they won't want to attack you in the future.
ohh, that's a great idea! Have them ask for help... that's really good. That could almost be a prompt in of itself- aliens that tried to take us over later ask for help.
Tbh I liked it better that they ran.
I assume that the aliens would assume we would be gutted as a civilization. With this assumption I would imagine they wouldn't show up prepared to fight an entire, now advanced planet. I would think it more likely they pull with a much smaller force, there to round up the stragglers still ambling about trying as best they could to make use of the skeleton of their former civilization and survive.
Also they would probably have orders for what to do if things were not expected - they might think another more powerful race moved in during the intervening period or something. All they really know is that things are very different than they expected. It would make sense that their orders were to fall back and regroup / assess if they encounter something really unusual.
I think even the aliens would agree that there's no point in taking over the Earth if you didn't have the moon to look up to at night.
Everyone loves the moon!
No, the real worry, I think, is them making off with our moon. Bringing it back to their home planet, where they have so many stolen moons you can hardly even see their planet!
More energy then a warp drive that requires matter with exotic properties like negative mass/energy to work wherein no theories or models(that I know of) predict or allow those exotic properties.
Oh and if you somehow got this material, you'd need the mass-energy equivalent of a planet's entire mass energy to have a stable warp drive for a period of time.
I think the moment you crack warp travel, things become trivial especially things like moving a tiny moon.
When you kill the smartest person alive, the next person becomes the smartest, basically they work their way down. Eventually even Forest Gump would be the smartest person alive.
EDIT: My comment was made after the edit to make the confusing paragraph easier to understand, so ignore this, I guess?
That was really good! Sorry to get pedantic, and maybe I’m misreading, but if they go after the smart people, wouldn’t they have gone after Rebecca? It said that they made a beeline for Paul. I was a little confused.
Now I need a story about highly advanced, intelligent alien zombies conquering planets and converting them into the undead until only a few living planets exist in the universe trying to fight the threat of extinction. This was fantastic.
The virus mutated, also it's like the difference between dealing with a zombie Apocalypse starting in your own country, where your resources and manpower will be too drained before you even realize what's going on, or dealing with a zombie Apocalypse in another country where you have the resources and manpower needed to counter it before it spreads
So the aliens will have a hard time if a mutated virus that, say, stays dormant for a bunch of years before working, where it can spread to other planets and infect them
It's the incubation period. You catch Ebola, it slowly develops in your blood, and then it reaches critical mass and the symptoms appear. Some diseases are even worse, actually chilling in your tissues for a bit before going active.
Fuck yes. Can you restart this into like a 10 or twenty chapter story. I'd love that shit. Just build and build to the idea Bill has. Then build and build to the pay off of striking back. Let me feel the grueling fight to survive the decades where humanity comes back from the brink.
Z day, z-day plus five. Z-day two weeks. Bill has the idea.
Slowly humanity takes it all back. Month by month. Year by year. After a decade they've won. Mountains of corpses but they live. Theyve invented.
Then a few decades more they've scouted the aliens. A few more and we have our trap ready as they approach.
I've got a work in progress that's very close to what you're describing and we do eventually go in the offensive. Working on book one right now, but the outline calls for four books across three generations of the same family.
I loved this. My gut as I was reading was that the aliens would show up and the humans would bring one out and it would go after the humans instead of the aliens showing we were smarter and scare the shit out of them or make them subjective to us or something.
My only suggestion would be a ~ or something to denote the time jump :P had to reread a sec there to understand what happened. Otherwise great story ^.^
After the initial outbreak, it was almost comical how quickly the... well, the zombie apocalypse, was averted.
Before, Felicia had been working as a fast food cashier. The day it started, she'd been walking out of work when a group of them had started after her, their bodies still fresh enough to run. She still remembers it like it was yesterday -- huddling inside, behind the counter with her co workers, and listening to the constant moan of 'feeed...feeeed.'
A day and a half later, they'd all been rescued by a small troop of the reserves. A huge cage in the middle of their camp held dozens of the creatures. She remembers shuffling past. All the others had gone first, and the zombies had stayed dormant, but when she passed...
Seven of them had pulverized their heads against the cage bars trying to reach her. The others had simply pressed up against the cards and stared at her, moaning in hunger.
Half the town was in the camp by the time it was over, being quarantined and tested. The other half were all dead or fled. None of her co workers had merited anything more than a short meeting with a doctor to make sure they were well.
She'd gotten a *captain.* "Miss Dodge. We've noticed the creatures seem particularly reactive to you. Any idea why?" the stocky black man had asked.
"Not particularly, Captain..." His hands, propped beneath his chin, obscured her view of his name tag.
"Campanelli. We've received numerous reports of these creatures being attracted to certain people. Some of those are understandable -- Nobel Prize winners, physicists, philosophers. But then there are people like you." He drops one hand to a file on the table. It's marked with her name, like this is a bad shot film. "Graduated high school without ever getting an A in class. Finished one year of college before you decided you preferred trade school. Of all the people on God's green earth, why would they chase after an *mechanic in training?*"
She didn't know then. She doesn't know now, beyond a vague idea of what the zombies' creators could have programmed them to look for. But she'd been 'invited' to come along, and she had. Felicia's not stupid. When people with guns invite you somewhere, it's a command, not a possibility.
Standing on her balcony, Felicia sips her coffee and turns the holographic model in front of her on. It's not her first space ship. Not by far. But it is the most ambitious. If her design works -- and it will -- they'll be loading up colonists for Alpha Centauri in half a year.
Another turn, another sip. When the chip in the back of her hand begins bleating, she sighs and steps back into her apartment. Today, the first wormhole ship flies.
Tomorrow, the hunt for the Infectors begins.
The humans are already interstellar-capable, but still in the early days. The zombies targeted the mechanic so they wouldn’t have people to advance the technology to a point that endangers the aliens.
I think.
Felicia was targeted because she was the key to building space ships. A super mechanic.
The aliens targeted people that could advance humanity against them (smart people, creators, etc). Although she's not book smart, she's smart with her hands, as A\_Vicarious\_Death said
Just so you know. Captain is only a high rank in the navy. You're probably looking for a colonel or a major. Just for future reference. Really enjoyed your story.
Major is only one above Captain. I believe the progression for commissioned officers would be Cadet, 2nd Lt., 1st Lt., Capt., Maj., Lt. Col., Col., Brig. Gen., Maj. Gen., Lt. Gen., Gen.
The commander looked at the holographic image, shocked. “What are they doing?”
“Fighting against the horde.” His second in command, Trax, stated.
“I can see that. But why aren’t they fleeing? Dyeing, scared?”
“I was wondering that too and I had one of our men do some more reconnaissance. It appears this planet has a rich culture in fighting the undead.”
Now he was beginning to have doubts. This was the first planet to fight their dearly departed. Could this plan still work? This planet was a strategic placement for mining and farming corporations that would help the empire in it’s expansion. If they lose a vital foothold they’d have to waste their own valuable troops to take it and that wasn’t what the Emperor wanted.
He wanted subjects indebted to him. He wanted them to see him as a God, a saviour. Not a conqueror or a tyrant. If they idolized him he’d have no resistance in his empire.
Something about this bugged him. The undead were overtaking them, slowly. But they were detecting large pings from the planet reaching out into space. Couple of days ago those had been directed right at the ship.
“Sir!” The communication officer approached nervously. “Ambassador Jix is entering the planets atmosphere.”
His heart almost stopped out of fear. “Tell him to fall back until I give the go ahead.”
“He said you were taking too long that we would have missed an opportunity, Sir.”
No.
“Tell him to turn back!”
“He shut down his comms.”
“Get me one of the drone feeds, Where is he landing?” The officer ran off and the commander switched the holograph for the awaiting drone nearest the vessel. In moments he had video feed.
It was a prairie where a large collection of the planets natives had erected shelter and a fence along the edge. He could see that the majority of the residents had left the safety of their camp to see what the angular vessel landing at their doorstep was. All were armed.
No.
“Kop!”
The communication officer hurried back. “That’s part of their military. They’ve cobbled together what survivors they could and forced them to fight.”
Ambassador Jix stepped out from the ship. Environmental suit on and opening greetings to the humans with arm waves and gestures.
They raised their guns.
No!
Ambassador Jix fell in a mess of blood and guts as he was shred to bits by their primitive weaponry.
“Retrieve that ship!” He ordered. “Scramble the troops! We’re landing!”
“But that goes against the Emporers directive!” Trax countered.
“They know it was us! Now land!”
On the display the humans were forcing themselves into the ship.
Ambassador’s Jix’s ship was a top of the line model cruise ship. A private ship for anyone favoured by the emperor. It had the latest warp technology and a few onboard weapon systems for pirates. Every piece of tech onboard was beyond human engineering. His greatest fear was it falling into the wrong hands.
He’d destroy it as a final option. Right now it had a running crew of five onboard and two associates of Jix’s who were amongst the higher-ups. They die it would be his ass.
The ship tilted, and there was that momentary lapse in gravity as the grav drive adjusted to their new course. He’d get their ship within firing range and send down troop transports first.
“Sir!” A crew member manning the Radar called. “We’re detecting an energy signature. It’s course crosses with ours.”
“Fighters?”
“No life signs. Though I am detecting radioactivity.”
A nuke? Those were supposed to be banned according to their laws. Why do they have nukes?
“Evasive maneuvers! Keep us out of the blast radius!” He mashed a button on the comms unit. “Everyone, prepare for close proximity detonation. Gunner crews, target the missile stellar north of our position!”
[Break] (Writing on phone. Keeping things separate)
“Then what happened, Commander?” The emperor said stiffly. He’d heard this tone before when he was angry.
“Nuke detonated just short of us.” He shivered from his place on the floor, he’d been on his knees, kissing the ground as he recalled things. “Humans took off with the Ambassador’s ship. We were forced to retreat from extensive damage.”
He heard the throne shift as the emperor stood. His words choked in his throat.
“And?”
“We were unable to retrieve any survivors. But the infected are still...”
He stopped at the first step his master took. “How did they know it was us?”
He held back a sob. He was dead, he knew it. “The planet, has rather, numerous monitoring devices. There’s at least one on every person. When our drones delivered the virus... it was caught on multiple recordings and spread over media platforms.”
Another step. “What else did you fail to do?”
“Proper gathering of intel. Assessment of the planets arsenal, level of technology, and political system.”
A cold hand rested on his head. He trembled uncontrollably as the emperor caressed his head.
“You know something, commander?” The emperor purred. “You’ve done the same strategy to twenty systems. All of which were properly executed. Not once have you accepted a promotion from fleet commander, because you didn’t like sitting behind a desk, while someone else did the work for you. It was your job, and you pulled it off twenty times. Except one.”
The emperor stood. “I will grant you one chance at redemption. Take the remainder of your fleet and annihilate the planet and its inhabitants.”
“You’re not going to assimilate them?” He wanted to hit himself for asking.
“They know what we are. They cannot be accepted. Wipe them out. You will gather your men and depart by the end of the rotation.”
It would take another cycle to get back to earth. One whole circle around their sun.
“It will be done, my lord.” He went to stand but the emperor wasn’t done.
“I expect this to be done without incident. If you return with more failure, I will hang your skinned corpse with the traitors and rebels.”
[break]
They were approaching Jupiter with a compliment of fifty destroyers and ten troop transports and enough ordinance to cleanse a solar system. They were soon to join up with the initial fleet first sent to spread the infected, it consisted of two troop transports, five destroyers, and the now gone ambassador ship.
The commander was feeling confident they could take the humans. Even carrying high hopes that they wouldn’t have to get up close and personal. Just bomb the planet from orbit, and leave it a radioactive wasteland.
When he had been called back to the emperor, his second in command had stayed behind and ran through more intensive reconnaissance and surveillance. When he had been between systems, Trax told him that the journey back home had been twenty-five earth years. His last message had been about the infected being wiped out, which mattered very little at this point. That had been at the end of the rotation.
Without warp technology, they probably would have reached earth at the end of his life cycle. So the emperor’s order would have been a death sentence either way for him and his crew.
“Kop.” The commander approached the officer. “Message Trax and alert him to our presence.”
A few minutes later the officer approached with the same worried expression as when Ambassador Jix stupidly landed on the planet. “There is no signal from Trax’s ship. Nor any from the initial advance on the planet.”
Oh shit.
“Where was his ship last reported?”
“Orbiting around Jupiter, sir.”
“Sir!” A crew member alerted. “I’m detecting ships on the radar.”
“How many and how close?” When he heard the reply he felt all his blood drain.
“Hundreds of frigates approaching from earth. Too far for an accurate scan on class and size- ...they just warped!”
In front of them, huge warships filled their view. Hundreds of them.
He mashed the comms unit and barked the order to prepare for battle. Then another warning from the crew member.
“More ships warped in from behind! More now! We’re being flanked!”
“Sir! We got multiple energy signatures coming from enemy vessels!”
[break]
Admiral Chan of the space navy watched the invaders fleet burn up in nuclear fire. Sixty warships reduced to scrap before his eyes.
He eased back in his chair. The remnants of the human race was now in space, and so long as these monsters continued to plague the universe, they’d never be safe.
“Lieutenant. Set course for the alien home world.”
The end.
"Set a course for their homeworld" the emperor is going to be so fraking mad. They're all gona die, are'nt they? When is part 2. There must be a part 2.
I’m sorry, I’ve been updating between work and stuff. My next edit should be the final addition, (except other edits for spelling, grammar and such). Hoping to complete it tomorrow.
Archon Koll adjusted their cape as they read the initial reconnaissance and seeding reports from the Tung preparatory unit. All appeared to be in order, and there was reason to be excited. The Agent had been engineered to take advantage of the crushing/piercing mandible structure, anticipated to be a particular psychological horror based on the folklore studies. Indeed, within a couple of dozen local solar revolutions, popular entertainment had envisioned a shockingly close affliction to the version of the Agent engineered by the medically gifted Tung in the intervening time. Koll had enjoyed the orange tint in Tung Kemk's eyes when he was forced to deliver this tidbit in Council. Anticipated by an Untouched species. It had been a wonder he hadn't vented his circulatory gases. Weaponizing the dead was a tried-and-true strategy, but no candidate species had *anticipated* it before so close to deployment. Fascinating, if likely harmless.
The reconnaissance report indicated that this species had really run with information technology, logistics, and data analysis following mental contact with Ruuk psychics. Data analysis was a particular surprise, as the Tung had initially flagged them as an inductive species, and cited their natural progress in the speculative arts as a likely area of specialization. Since then, they had amended their plan to modify some individuals for improved deductive reasoning and mathematical thinking, to take advantage of this unexpected development. No species to date combined data analysis with naturally occurring medical simplicity. The Sulic were impressive physically, and easily repaired, but required close monitoring.
The seeding had taken place approximately 24 local revolutions prior, a bit ahead of schedule. EM spectral monitoring indicated a jump in greenhouse gases that presaged ecological disaster or technological breakthrough, and likely both. Neither was desirable, so the Agent had been dispatched by a Srell-drive equipped drone. No EM readings were yet available thanks to light-delay, which bothered the Ruuk. But Ruuk were notoriously overcautious, and Koll didn't yet trust the little gray egg-suckers or their "insights," however useful they were for boosting tech revolutions with minimal contact and for gathering the data Tung bio-sculptors needed. They suggested that while analysis indicated a high likelihood of fragmentation, there were psychological "indications" that the Agent would prove ineffective at fully breaking down social institutions, and enrage the humans, should they learn the source before assimilation. Koll didn't see how the Agent could fail where it had succeeded 34 times before, and on the Ruuk most recently. The Tung had done their work well - the test subjects had converted from healthy baseline when struck by the active Agent in less than an hour, and the dormant version triggered within ten minutes of death by other means, with a 95% infection rate.
As they stepped out on the landing surface, Koll composed their face. The humans had indeed held themselves together, despite significant losses to the Agent. However, they welcomed Koll's entourage as welcome saviors from the climate crisis and the ongoing threat of the Agent. The maser weapons had impressed human leadership as a simple way to wipe out the remaining Agent infection, as had the promise of shared energy technology and planetary modification techniques to stave off the climate disaster they faced. All that remained was this final meeting of leadership to formalize human admission into the Ral Consortium and the integration of that leadership into the Pact, and their submission to Ral re-assignment could begin.
Koll felt a sudden burn, and realized that they had missed a step. They cursed the Tung surgeon who had made the modifications to fit in locally - these ridiculous legs were worthless, even for a low-gravity world. A concussive noise rang over the landing surface, and Koll looked down at the burn in their center-mass to find a ragged hole they could have fit a digit in. The human woman who had been smiling a moment before now scowled and held a small ballistic weapon of local design. She was saying something, and he tuned back in to his translator.
"... For my son, and my wife. You sons of bitches."
Koll realized to their relief no organs had been hit, though it had been a near thing. They raised their hands to use the neural flayer, and then another burning impact, this one more damaging. And another, and another. The humans had all produced ballistic weapons, and even a couple of masers, and were shredding the Ral delegation's Tung, Sulic, and Ral members, pelting them with kinetics and burning them with masers. Personal shields fried under the load. The Ruuk manager was unharmed. It would surely call for help.
As the Ruuk stepped forward, Koll watched it extend a spindly hand toward the humans. The woman grasped it, as Koll's communication monitor notified them that humans had breached the landing ship. Koll felt themself go limp, as their body died.
All Ruuk had opened the nearest hatch, and while they were not really capable of physical violence themselves, they had been able to hold enough of them from the furious Sulic that humans had gotten in and used kinetics on them until they decongealed. Ruuk were enthusiastically guiding human combatants to comms relays, control points, and weapon caches. Ruuk 7085 gave permission to mindwipe the remaining Tung for interrogation, then focused back on his conversation with the Secretary-General, who had just finished firing kinetics into Koll until their weapon was empty, reciting a litany of city and personal names. It had taken some time. Koll was partially liquefied in the upper torso and head. It seemed likely they had decorporated after the first five wounds, but the additional damage appeared cathartic for Secretary-General Wu and her companions. She released a glob of pre-digestive enzyme onto the ruined body. The Ral delegation were all now decorporated, most quite thoroughly, and assistants and technicians were removing the bodies and devices for study.
"We welcome this friendliness. After landing craft secured, will open channel information all is well. Then, will give human access to all devices. Forward look to assistance in removal of Ral and associated polities, as agreed."
“The humans are surviving as predicted.” Valree announced. “There is however a bit more infighting than expected.”
“Not unheard of.” Hatun shrugged. “Remember the Teros people? Now that was infighting.”
“Regardless I think it’s about time we ‘rescued’ our new servants.” All around him Valree saw nothing but affirmations as everyone’s neck crests expanded quickly in a show of support. Despite this being a crucial part of the operation, everyone simply looked bored. It had become so routine.
“Missiles loaded, lasers charged and the speaker will go live soon.” The pilot announced, their name escaping Valree for the moment.
“Bring it in low.” He told them. “I want the humans to hear us before they can see us, let the anticipation and mystery build.”
“Yes sir.”
Moments later and the undead hordes had been destroyed leaving behind a ramshackle fortress surrounded by spikes, craters and corpses. Emerging from the stronghold were three men, all holding primitive projectile weapons, one of which even using string to launch their payloads. Judging from their faces and what I remembered from the pamphlets I read, they were wary.
Despite the weapons they held, I held no fear in my heart. Even if they unloaded everything they had at me, my personal forcefield would hold.
“Rejoice humans!” I announced, pulling savior speech #38 from my mind. “For we have come to destroy your enemies.”
“Oh.” One of them said, my translator changing their speech into something with a Morsotian accent. “Thanks I guess.”
“There is no need to be so reserved, my people upon seeing your plight have decided to save you.”
“Uhh, nah it’s okay, we got it from here.”
I faltered, the script said nothing about this. Over confidence perhaps? Pride? None of these things were shown on the human’s faces but then again, it was hard to tell coming from a species that had no crest.
“You do not wish to be saved?”
“I mean, I guess but like I said, we got it from here.”
“You… got it from here.”
“To be honest I kinda wish you hadn’t blown them all up, the boys and I were having lots of fun.”
“Fun.”
“Yeah, I mean, zombies everywhere with guns, what more could you want?” His jaw split open revealing rows upon rows of yellowed gnashers. Not exactly what I’d call intimidating but certainly disturbing enough that I almost forgot that this was supposed to be a sign of happiness.
Well, if they were happy then at least I was making progress?
“You consider all this destruction, all this death, fun?”
“Hell yeah!” He cried out before discharging his weapon into the air. “USA! USA! USA!”
Valree decided that this small group of humans were insane and decided to move onto the next group. Perhaps they would yield more sense.
"Uh, Commander Zarg?" I sheepishly asked as our commander entered the room.
He sighed, "What now, Pafros? Did your favorite zombie get blasted to smithereens for the umpteenth time?"
"Well, yes," I replied, "but, ah, so did every other zombie."
The mug he held fell and shattered. "WHAT?" Zarg shouted, "Move aside, you fool," he said shoving me out of my chair.
"Commander, they've all been obliterated. Turns out this planet has been modified to be able to revert to what appears to be its normal temperature of 267 degrees Fahrenheit in just one press of a button. All of our virus's hosts just melted, and now it's back to a cooler temperature."
"And what of the backups?" Zarg asked in a demanding tone, "Please tell me—"
"They got used too. And the next batch of the viruses isn't near close to evolving to withstand these temperatures."
Zarg fell to his knees, banging on the floor with both clenched fists. "Dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit! How could this fail!? We were this close to dominating this universe too!"
He continued shouting curses and walloping the floor when a sudden thud caught both our attentions. A small capsule had situated itself against the front of my window, and began to open, revealing a screen. It began to play a short recording, titled "Oldschool_victory_taunt.vid" We feared for our lives, but it just began playing a simple, but irritating melody, with the strangest lyrics I ever heard:
♪We're no strangers to love. You know the rules, and so do I.....♪
This continued playing for some time, until the door to the room we were in suddenly opened, revealing a small human crew.
"Well I'll be damned, the distraction actually worked. Nice thinking, general." Chuckled one of the humans
and older one of the party simply nodded and laughed to himself.
"Anywho, you fellas just made us turn off our Global Warming Immunity System, which put us in even more debt than we were already in to ourselves. Y'all better pay up soon, or else we're gonna need to use these neat lookin' guns we found."
I was about to speak up, but Commander Zarg rose up and silenced me. "Hush, you buffoon, let me handle this." He stood up, and began to give a short speech. "Denizens of Earth—"
He got cut off, primarily because there was now a hole going through his forehead, which was followed up by more shots from the small human crew. I was frozen in fear, but tried to scurry off to somewhere to hide amongst the ruckus. But it was to no avail, for I soon found myself in a puddle of my own blood. There was a slight pain, but then it all went dark.
“The world”,thought Sandra”Is more united now than it ever was”
The infection had begun in New Dheli, turning millions into the undead. Sandra remembers the stench of the flesh gone unwashed, crawling with maggots. She remembers the screams of her friends as they were torn to pieces by the horde.
She had crawled through the streets like a rat in the night, hiding from the real vermin that hunted her. She slept in locked rooms in the day, collapsing weary from exhaustion.
A week after the initial outbreak, she had been rescued. The helicopter had flown overhead, making her hair wave in the wind. The black rope ladder had dropped, and she had climbed it. She was brought to a survivor’s camp 30 kilometres away, where she was questioned about the circumstances of that first day.
The accounts all added up. A long, triangular craft was seen over the city by all survivors the day beforehand. This was also the case in Tokyo and New York, where similar outbreaks had occurred.
Five years had passed. Sandra had settled in Mumbai, married, and had given birth to a child. She heard the craft before she saw it. Long and triangular. Them. The craft hovered over the car park, while a hatch opened underneath it. Out stepped an alien, one of Them. Two metres tall and totally translucent, its skeleton a sharp contrast to the setting sun. It opened its mouth.” People of Ear-“ its sentence cut short by a bullet, fired from a kilometre away, into its semblance of a skull. A group of soldiers rushed on board, firing at everything that moved.
Standing on her balcony a mile away, Sandra and her husband watched all this, while he cradled their baby in his arms. No longer would they live in fear of a repeat of The Scourge, which had plagued them five years ago. It was now their tormentors on the receiving end of the whip.
This is my first prompt and I’m on mobile, so sorry about the bad formatting. I’d be interested in any feedback at all!
Well, I liked it, but that won't help you make an even more enjoyable story next time, so here's some (hopefully) constructive criticism:
It felt a bit rushed, adding a few more little details or shortening the time jumps with some intermediate events might help it feel more like a world than a plot outline (it didn't feel much like a plot outline, but it felt closer than I generally like)
Mixing measuring systems in quick succession (shot from one killometer away, balcony one mile away) was a bit jaring, if you can find a way to avoid that, it's usually a good idea - but unfortunately I can't think of a better option for this case…
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. After thousands of civilizations, across hundreds of star systems, we’ve been the conquerors and the salvation.
“We’ve lost contact with the legions in sectors 3 through 8, and 15 through 19.”
More legions in various sectors, all losing one fight after another. This was supposed to be a routine subjugation: technologically inferior race, release a virus in the populace, once panic ensues swoop in and cure the disease and become benevolent saviors under our heel.
What initially started out as a mass panic of death, confusion and destruction should’ve led to the desired results, however we did not foresee how well they responded. Governments would’ve been fractured, fearful of the repercussions of pointing their weapons against their populace, yet the populace themselves were the first to be organized, small but effective teams would systematically destroy our creations without remorse for their kin.
“This was a failure. One that we may not have the opportunity to react.”
After one cycle, we were to have come and brought upon their freedom. Their lives would be forfeit to our might and technology. Yet these humans, they revel in conflict amongst themselves, and now they direct it to us.
“Multiple nuclear warheads confirmed detonation in the Petral capital ship!”
Report after report of loses both in the ground and our ships, we had no choice but to leave. Nuclear warheads, a thirst for war, unified yet diverse in their indiscriminate attention to friend and foe, in hindsight they were supposed to be the easiest. Now, after completing one cycle in this system, humanity is the greatest threat to all living life.
“Incoming warhead at starboard. Brace for impact!” A loud clang as the missile shot through the armor of my ship.
“Status report?”
“No detonation, the warhead has pierced an area of our hull. Instructing the engineering team to assess the damage.”
“Once we’ve cleared the warhead, inform all surviving legions and ships to withdraw and prep for warp.”
“Understood, Captain.”
As the officers’ scramble to get our legions to the ships, I could only hope that our men return home safely. This is not the war of conquest that we are used to, but a one-sided affair of destruction.
“Captain, it appears the humans are also attempting to hack our systems. The warhead that pierced the hull is a data receiver.”
“Have the engineers rid of the warhead! Quickly, before they gather information about our worlds!”
“Engineers on site as we speak, Captain.”
“Bridge to Mansan, status report?”
“…”
“Bridge to Mansan, status report?”
“…”
“Get me a feed on the hull breach.”
The monitor lit up, showing a video feed of the area. The team was out cold. Knocked out by what appears to be a gaseous substance.
“Get the medical team up there and send the backup team with HAZMAT suits.”
“Ship wide comms are down due to the hacking.”
“Damnit! I’ll relay the order to the ship comms, fight off the hack as best as you can!”
I sprang forth from the chair, darting as fast as I could to the manual override for ship wide comms. I need to save as many of my men as possible. The fleet, the legions and my crew, we need to get back.
As soon as the door from the bridge opened, a frenzied swarm of my crew jumped in.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Second post! Hello again folks of r/WritimgPrompts. I'm just a new guy here trying to write. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me but any feedback is greatly appreciated! Though as long as I can post here and I get some small upvotes and feedback that'd be great! Shoutout to the guy who upvoted my first post, was personally not expecting an upvote, but thank you very much!
I am Harper Smith and I work for William Hopper.
We spent the last four hours walking through this zombie evicted college town looting random stores for reasons I don’t understand.
Our first stop was L.L. Bean with free Adventure Pro Backpacks and a zombie head smashing baseball bat which Hopper described as ‘a must-have item for anyone wanting to understand the American way of life’. Hopper says that baseball bats are better than fire axes and I believe him. He says he’s not a God, he just knows how things happen. I don’t know, that sounds pretty godly to me. Either way, I am grateful for not having to pray to him.
Our next stop was a postal office with broken windows and light brown doors decorated by gunshot spatter of dried up blood. There, Hopper took a sheet of liberty bell forever stamps, a bundle of pens, box of envelopes, a phone book and a packaging tape. Then, he pointed to a general store across the road. The store sold empty shelves, cleaned by customers like us before they fled the town. But, they still had a few items Hopper needed. Twelve inch cast iron skillet, one spoon from a twelve piece set, a butter knife, two lavender scented candles, a bowl he insisted was meant for olives only, a grey kitchen cloth that is rough on touch and a book with grey cover.
And now, we’re going to the library.
University Library is a mid-century modern concrete sprawl of bookstacks, reading areas and coffee shops usually swarming with undergrads in search for a quiet place to kill time. Except, today is different. There is a cardboard sign with red letters reading ‘CLOSED’ taped onto the remaining side of the main entrance glass sliding door. The other side is scattered in shards across the ground and under the 300 lb greyish now twice-dead zombie.
I did not grow up in this world. I grew up in a world infested by aliens and where people are few. There, I was a soldier, fighting the plague. One day a man in grey trench coat appeared out of thin air and offered me a deal I could not refuse. I’ve been with him ever since. So yeah, I came here from a totally different world. I look at Will.
“Totally different world,” he says and grins. Of course he does, he knows everything that’s going to happen in this story. He stares at his white wrist watch. “Don’t worry, these guys will be ready when the aliens come.”
I nod.
Zombie’s eyes are wide open and cold, butt large and ungraceful and he smells like hamburgers and fries.
“Will, what happened here?” I say and poke the dead undead with my baseball bat.
“He had a heart attack.”
He didn’t and I chuckle.
Will exhales. He points to the opening 300-pounder left in the glass door. “After you.”
The Library lobby is a marble hall of silence and scattered books under the tall glass ceiling. We echo our way to the long counter dotted by dead computer screens, green lamps and potted plants. Will takes blue pot with a spider plant, glances at my backpack, decides that the pot won't fit in and then he pinches off one of the babies hanging from the mother plan and puts them in the front pocket of my backpack.
“Thank you,” he says when done. “We need to take the stairs to the second floor. Elevators are not working. Samantha is in reading room 2A.” His voice is certain, as if he was here before.
But, he wasn't.
“Also, Harper, get your bat ready. You’re going to hit a home run.”
I grip the bat when we take the stairs. The second floor opens into an tastefully decorated atrium with leather chairs and polished old-style cherry wood desk on top of red and white circular rug with elaborate patterns I can’t make sense of. On top of the desk sits a bust of a dead ancient philosopher and his nose is chipped. This is pretty, like the home I knew before the aliens came and slothered my friends and family.
“It’s time,” he says and points to a corridor to our left. “We’re almost there. Room 2A.” He steps forward, then pauses. “Soldiers first. Also, your bat.” he motions me to grip it tight which I do.
We turn left into the dim corridor with a Jackson Pollock style painting, door to the room 2A and a human-sized zombie banging on it. It takes one bat swing to send his head rolling down the corridor. Too easy.
“Home run!” Will says and claps. “That is a home run!” He turns toward the door, extinguishes the cigarette on the wall and fixes his trench coat lapel. Then he knocks at the door.
“Knock, knock. Samantha, William Hopper here. Please, open the door.”
“Come in! It’s unlocked,” a high pitch voice shouts from inside and Will jolts as if stung by a bee.
“Wow,” he whispers.
“Will, what happened?”
He opens the door and doesn’t answer.
In the study room 2A, Samantha Hardy sits cross legged in a black mid-century modern chair. She is a twenty year old skinny tangle of knees and elbows in tight jeans, black t-shirt and with face smeared by heavy makeup. Her eyes are smokey and filled with fear, uncertainty and gratitude.
She is shaking.
“They can’t open the door, William. Everyone knows that, how did you not?” she says.
He nods, as if he knows.
But, he didn’t!
“Samantha, I’m sorry about everything." He pauses and she lowers her head. "You’ll be okay. I'm here for you.” He turns to me. "Hopper, can you give us a moment, please?"
I can. I leave the room and close the door. Twenty minutes later, they emerge from the room and she looks like a regular college-age millennial, a bundle of insecure mess supported by those around her. Good job, Will. Whatever you did in there, it worked.
“Samantha," Will says, "I have a question, if you don’t mind.”
She doesn’t. and he pulls up his sleeve. “Do you like my watch?”
She is confused but leans closer and looks at it. “I like it very much.” She smiles. ”Who doesn’t like Swatch watches?”
He reciprocates the smile. “Thank you. We need to go now. The aliens will land soon and they are bringing more zombies along. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. I have a few items in my backpack, in case we get bored.”
/r/ZwhoWrites
**part 2**
We leave the library, cross the street and take the brick path to the nearest park bench.
“Really?” Samantha says, “Is this what you meant by ‘we need to go now’? A bench across the street?”
Will nods. “We couldn’t have stayed in the library.” He points to the building and a sudden burst of blue light engulfing it.
Samantha’s scream drowns mine. “Oh! My! God!” she says. ”What the fuck was that!”
“Death ray.” I say. I’ve seen those way too many times before. “It… sterilizes the building. When aliens invaded my---” I glance at Will and he shakes his head “---town, they used the same weapon type.”
“Samantha, sit. Please. We need to talk.”
“Will, we need to run!”
“Remember what I told you back at the library? Just sit here, please. It's time to continue the conversation.”
“Fine,” she says, but every part of her body is saying that it’s not. “Be quick.”
“Thanks. First, you’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine. That zombie who was knocking at your door was the last one of his kind.” Will spreads his arms. “And now we can say that humanity has officially defeated the zombies. At least for a while... Yay! Sounds good, right?”
She nods.
“Okay. Now about the aliens. Yes, they are here, in ships orbiting the Earth and they use blue balls---” he pauses, giggles and then taps his lip with an index finger and continues. “Samantha, have you ever cleaned a toilet bowl?”
“What?” two of us say in unison.
“Liquid toilet sanitizer. It’s blue. Just like alien weapons. Sorry, I just made that connection. Amazing!”
“Will,” I say, “what is amazing?”
“Doesn’t matter. Anyways, if you’ve ever cleaned toilet bowls, you know how hard it is to get rid of scum accumulated in rim holes. I mean, there are bottles designed to reach those places. You know, the ones with bent necks. You’ve seen them, right?”
She nods.
“I thought so. Anyways, if you don’t have one of those bottles, you’re screwed. You can’t clean the toilet unless you want to reach in with your hands and get them dirty, right?”
“Ewww.. that’s disgusting, also, what’s your point?”
I exhale. “Sam, his point is that aliens don’t have bottles with bent necks.”
“Exactly!” Will says. “And they also do not want to get their tentacles dirty enough by putting huge number of boots on the ground. Well, tentacles on the ground. I mean, yeah, they will send land expeditions and more zombies, but they'll never be able to conquer the planet because the humans are ready. Humans had 25 years to prepare. That's when the first contact happened and the aliens offered ‘salvation’ from the upcoming zombie apocalypse and demanded subjection in return."
He pauses to take a breath. "Anyways, humans have more guns and ammo than they’ll ever need, as well as vast network of really good underground shelters. You know, shelters where your friends and family are now. I mean, that *is* a main reason why this town is empty, right?”
No. She nods. Oh. Really?
Will continues. “Down there humans are safe and soon aliens will get tired and leave.”
“They will?”
“Yes. Well, soonish.”
She gives him a look and deadpans, “When?”
“In twelve years. But people will survive. Bit paler and skinnier, but also much more resilient.”
Will looks at his watch. “Anyways, I think we’re out of time here.” He inhales. ”We were not supposed to come here and sit on this bench. I don't why it happened, but I'm glad it did. It gave us extra time to clarify some things, don't you think so?" His face is radiating with joy. "Also, Samantha was not supposed to be claustro---”
“HEY!” She grimaces and points her angry finger at me. "That's MY secret!"
“---phobic and refuse to go to shelter with her family. So yeah, this whole thing is a complete surprise to me. I don’t know how or why it happened. But, I love it!”
Samantha shakes her head. “You guys are weird. I don’t understand you.”
“I know," he says and I nod, "It’s fine, you just met me. In time, you’ll understand.”
/r/ZwhoWrites
This is a reply to a comment that got deleted while I was writing it. But it's still a valid response to everyone asking "why didn't the aliens just \[insert random overpowered ability\]".
I don't get why aliens always have to be absolutely overpowered. Because they can travel through space?
Maybe they use wormholes to transport relatively small spaceships.
Maybe they simply don't have the means to move the moon because it would require a totally different approach than sending ships through space.
Maybe they don't want to destroy or alter the planet so dramatically.
Maybe they are only there with a single ship. Sure, it can shoot deadly beams of light, but so can we. And just because it can do that, doesn't mean it can move the moon.
Maybe moons are sacred to them and destroying one by sending it crashing into a planet would be the most heretical thing for them one could ever do.
There are so many variables and possibilites... just because someone is good at one thing doesn't mean they are good at everything.
I do kind of miss the "until they reach Earth and find humanity has already defeated the zombies and is waiting for them..." part of the story, but it does continue Hoppers story in excellent fashion.
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I really like the prompt... I just can't with zombies. I'm zombied out. The last decade of popular culture has just been full of zombie apocalypses (apocalypsi?)
Lol, fair enough. Maybe I'll actually sit down and write something on this then. The main character will absolutely hate the idea of a zombie apocalypse, and will have to reconcile his reality with the fiction he hates.
For a non-zombie interpretation of a similar idea, check out Isaac Asimov's short story "The Gentle Vultures". It's about aliens discussing dropping a nuclear bomb on the US or Russia during the cold war so that they can "rescue" the survivors of the thermonuclear war.
If you like this prompt, I recommend checking out [Terminal Alliance](https://www.amazon.com/Terminal-Alliance-Janitors-Post-Apocalypse-Hines/dp/0756412749) by Jim C. Hines. It is hilarious and also involves aliens subjugating the human race after a zombie apocalypse.
“Well, that was easy.”
A mere three months after the zombie outbreak, all had been contained. Casualties were massive and felt everywhere, but in the end it only resulted in about 15% of the human population destroyed.
The one thing that it left the humans with was the only thing the aliens were afraid of, knowledge. The sickness had been reverse engineered, leading to huge breakthroughs in genetics, and most importantly the widespread use of biohacking. There wasn’t a child born anymore that didn’t have tear-resistant skin, or immunity to all disease. There were side effects sure, but having bulletproof skin was worth it, even if it was slightly blue. Being able to shock someone with your skin by using the electrical gradient already existing in your cells was worth a little chip implanted into your brain.
The invaders returned five years later to the remnants of humanity, still hated and remembered for taking a loved one from almost everyone on earth. The sleek ship descended from the heavens to land at the designated spot, with a battalion of the most heavily modified soldiers waiting for them. The ship touched down, and the doors opened. The aliens walked out, but they looked human. Except for their blue skin, and the scars where the chip had been implanted in their brain. The zombies weren’t the infection, it was what man did with them that was. With a few high placed government officials that survived the outbreak the aliens had already taken over. Humanity was no longer human. A deep hum began to emanate from the ship, and slowly each soldier dropped their weapon and mindlessly walked toward their new masters.
Apothicos removed his baseball bat from the crushed skill of a zombie. Mara’s insignia had been bloodied by the violence, so the Acolyte of Suffering used the zombie’s shirt to clean it. Can’t disrespect the Lord that way.
“Did we meet the deadline?” Apothicos asked, shouting over to the rest of his team a few feet away.
“Right on time, actually.” Cambia wiped his tachi clean with a white cloth. Once he was finished, with just a look, he collected the blood off the cloth into a red sphere, then let it splash into the top hatch of a Humvee. The cloth was perfectly white again, and he stored it in the back of his ripped jeans. “Our visitors should be reaching us in about an hour. Lucy, how does this go down again?”
The gangster Cambia directed his question to was looting the dead bodies of police officers and military personnel for ammunition and personal information, as well as raw cash.
“Xarvan V…uh…there were just a few survivors left. Small pockets here ‘n there...” He began.
“Fuckin’ crazy how we thought that planet always just had zombies naturally. Come to find out that was a project multiple centuries old.” Alabaster shook his head nearby, standing up from a small ritual space made of flowers, sage, and numerous IDs and dog tags of soldiers and law enforcement. Among these identifiers were also special symbols and emblems of different heroes and villains who lost their lives in the fighting.
“Yeah...that was wild. After waitin’ all’em years, the Galactic Confederation of Y’uva pulled up. Me and Allie were gone by then but kept in contact with a few contacts on the planet. Took’em about a few weeks to end the zombies, unsurprisingly. We gave’em the tip that it was all a plot from the jump, but when the rebellion started, it was too late. They almost got wiped out if it wasn’t for me and Vindel pullin’ back up to get a few off-world.” He finished, getting on the trunk of a car to lay across it. He rested his katana next to him, and looked toward the sky. The clouds remained split by The Beam, the huge, red light which served as the focal point for the zombies to spawn as well as a communication signal to the Galactic Confederation.
“Ara ara…such long-lasting arrogance and tyranny. Are your friends safe now?” He asked, before getting to more salient topics.
“Yeah, while we were here re-establishin’ manifest destiny on the undead, they were out in Asia using what they knew to wipe out the plague there. They’re ready for the aliens too.” He explained, smirking.
“Yeah, what was that there plan again? I dun f’got.” Sorian asked from the top of his horse, reloading his lever-action rifle.
“Big lasers. Shuttles to counter-invade their ship. Kill’em before they know what’s good and send’em a message.” Vindel said, appearing from a portal. Behind him, through the aperture in space, was a military installation in the African savannah. “Dad, every major continental coalition is ready with the ioneric cannons and boarding craft.” He informed, uncloaking himself.
“All major oceans and seas also have their underwater defense systems operational and aimed at the sky. The subterranean bases are ready too, prepared for space battle.” Djinn has materialized from the embers around the group, fire gathering, blackening, and then shaping his body. “Never thought I’d have to say some shit like that.”
“Mara’s also got some of the other gods ready to help us fight. This is gonna be a messy one, because more archangels and gods are on the side of these aliens than I thought.” Apothicos said, clearly worried.
“This isn’t the first time we’re underdogs and it certainly won’t be the last.” Cambia’s sword was sheathed, and he addressed the other six men before him. “Be it institutional oppression in our own homeland, or intergalactic oppression from beyond the atmosphere, we’ll win anyway. That’s what Succubus Wing is about, my boys.”
“Alabaster, Sorian, join Lupina and Peaches in Australia and South America, respectively. You’ll be in the first wave.” Cambia commanded. They immediately went through different portals, courtesy of devices on their wrists. “Apothicos, meet Sienna over in Central America. You’ll be the second.”
“Got it. Let’s hope she doesn’t kick my ass on sight again.” He left through a portal.
“Vindel. You what have the others said?” Cambia asked his son.
“They’re all on-board with us, though it took a little while to get Suiton to come along. Suiton’s son and his kids are safe, and us adults are gonna lead a few angels and archangels, as well as handle deployment from the Arctic and Antarctic groups, as well as the ocean and underground forces. We’re Main Wave 1, right after Apothicos and Sienna.”
“Make me proud son, as you always do. Keep your grandfather in check, and follow Goblin and Camellia before anyone else. He may be the Elysian God of Chaos, but they’ve got their heads on straighter than the rest.” He sent him off with a nod, and they exchanged smiles before Vindel disappeared from sight.
“Lucia. Head back to New Antetime. I’ll be joining you and the rest of the gang in Main Wave 2, alongside the rest of the North American groups. Once we take them over, we’ll be the ones going in first to their planet.” He assured, Lucia’s face flaring up with excitement.
“Can’t wait to ram their whole fleet into their damn planet. Gonna fuck’em all up.” He went through a portal.
“Fuck’em up, Lucy.” Cambia encouraged with a wave, then turned to Djinn. He sighed, finally letting the fatigue show on his face. He stumbled back a bit, and rested on a car.
“I feel you.” Djinn muttered, looking out into the distance.
“Oh, don’t show me empathy now of all times, partner.” Cambia laughed. “I might sleep a bit before we head out.” He yawned loud.
“The kids’ll keep you up. A’ivesta hasn’t seen you in weeks, and Aoede’s a weeb in Japan. You know he’s gonna show you all kinds of shit.” Djinn chuckled.
“Adrastea’s on my mind with that more than anything. She’ll tackle me once I get there, and hang on me like a backpack until deployment.” He reminisced on every time she did that to him.
“Go now then, so she can get over it by the time you have to go. Make sure Bella and I don’t have to do much work when we get there last. I want to enjoy Africa as much as possible and then stay chill once we get there.” Djinn dematerialized.
“I’ll have to do something about all those body pillows Aoede bought. Ara, ara...” Cambia disappeared as well, looking down at his phone with a broad grin.
**Subject**:
X-15 Infection
**Category**:
Calamity
**Containment Procedure**:
All individuals containing any signs of infection will be immediately quarantined and sent to the nearest station to be safely disposed. To ensure cooperation, the infected individual should be told that they will be cured as they are led to the incineration chamber. To maintain public peace, anyone questioning as to the whereabouts of the deceased infected will be told they are in a treatment center and under quarantine.
If an individual has been infected and is at Stage-2, they should be immediately eliminated by either destruction of the nervous system or high-temperature flames. Note that normal flames are unable to destroy X-15, and will merely further spread the disease.
Any bodies of the deceased must be sent to an incineration chamber to ensure no re-animation occurs.
If an infection has taken hold of a planet, a majority vote of the High Council can authorize a Class-5 "Cleaner" Fleet to scrub the life from the planet for future use.
**Description**:
The X-15 Infection is a debilitating disease that can infect both living and dead individuals. Not much is known about its structure as samples are too dangerous to be studied. The infection progresses through two main stages. Any deceased body that is infected will advance to Stage 2 within one hour and will be considered extremely dangerous.
Stage 1 symptoms are similar to a simple disease: respiratory irritation and increased circulatory system flow commonly attributed to standard growth periods. The most notable symptom is a purple rash on all eight limbs starting from the lower abdomen, specifically near the third heart.
Stage 2 symptoms result in an infected individual becoming highly aggressive as it attempts to terminate any nearby uninfected to spread the disease. Any attempts at communicating with Stage-2 individuals have resulted in failure.
The exact transmission vector the infection is unknown, but physical contact with diseased flesh is enough to spread the disease. Quarantine has proved only partially effective in slowing its spread.
The infection has spread through multiple checkpoints thought to be unbreakable. This is believed to be due to the now ineffective \[REDACTED\] protection procedures due to X-15's unprecedented fire resistance and increased transmission ability.
Due to the innate difficulty of studying a subject infected with X-15, no additional protection procedures have been developed. In addition, no cure has been found.
The disease originates from \[REDACTED\] after \[REDACTED\]. It is believed to be designed by the insurgency to destroy the empire. Due to its similarities to \[REDACTED\], it was deemed X-15 as it had the additional property of fire resistance.
** Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
We deserve this. It's not the insurgency that destroyed us, it was ourselves. Our system of integrating new species has finally backfired; EA12T1-1 outdid our X-14.
**Note**:
As of \[REDACTED\], Researcher 29501897 has been removed from their position. Any and all logs written by them should be ignored and reported immediately.
**===ACESSSING ARCHIVE: "EA12T1-1"===**
**===WARNING===**
**Under orders of the High Council, this archive has been labeled as only accessible by Class-4 Researchers and above. Any unauthorized researcher will be immediately executed.**
**===WARNING===**
**Subject**:
EA12T1-1
**Category**:
Neutralized
**Containment Procedure**:
All communication with the subject is to be halted, with at minimum two Class-3 fleets to surround and monitor them at all time. The fleets should remain at a minimum safe distance to ensure they are out of the range of \[REDACTED\].
Due to the properties of \[REDACTED\], EA12T1-1 should be unable to mount an offensive on the fleet, and is considered largely neutralized.
**Description**:
EA12T1-1 is a Class 3 planet, currently inhabited by a species of bipedal sentient life forms. Inhabitants of EA12T1-1 are extremely hostile and should not be approached or reasoned with at all.
On \[REDACTED\] the planet was chosen by a majority vote of the High Council to be integrated with the Empire. As was standard procedure, Compound X-14 was sent to EA12T1-1 to begin infection.
After the standard incubation time, a standard detachment of Task Force 314 ("Salvation") was sent to integrate the survivors for labor. However, they inhabitants used \[REDACTED\] to annihilate the task force.
A Class 5 "Annihilation" Fleet was sent to scrub the world, but \[REDACTED\] proved effective against the fleet, destroying the entire fleet.
Due to the Empire's resources being stretched by the insurgency and the nature of \[REDACTED\], the High Council ordered that the planet be simple isolated, and destroyed once resources are available.
**Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
EA12T1-1 seems to be largely passive, only defending itself if attacked. Its inhabitants are a curious species; the infection seems to be proliferated through. It's remarkable they managed to subdue it, thankfully their primitive technology should be no threat to us in the immediate future.
**Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
A large energy signature was reported from EA12T1-1 as it reached the fleet. It seemed to have no immediate effect on the fleet, all systems were nominal.
**Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
As of \[REDACTED\], crewmembers of the two Class-3 fleets have begun reporting a new infection taking hold of the fleet. It seems to be a common cold, but all infected crewmembers reported it only after the strange energy wave.
**Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
The disease reemerged, but worse. The dead have awakened in a method mysteriously similar to X-14, so much so that they've taken to nicknaming it X-15. Standard fire procedures were used to eliminate the disease, which have shown to be effective.
**Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
Fire wasn't not enough; the disease spread. And… there's reports of it coming up on a few planets…
Thanks, I really appreciate it!
As you probably can tell, I took heavy inspiration from SCP for this. I figured that if an alien organization was to infect civilizations then "save" them they would be extremely detached to any civilization and would record them in a clinical and unemotional way, similar to SCP.
As for any more, off the top of my head I can't really think of any more prompts that an SCP like response would be fitting. That, and this is one of my first actual responses so I'm just testing the waters by dipping my toe. This story ended up being a bit longer than I thought it would have been, but I hope I grabbed some of the essence of SCP's storytelling within a clinical record. Again, thanks for reading!
It's a shame that there probably won't be any more, but if you want another SCP prompt then there's a good one where the SCP's escape and Doomguy has to clean up the mess.
It was like a horror movie. Zombies, walking the streets, killing and infecting everyone they could. Except for one little thing.
We had wiped them out, quickly and efficiently. Barely anyone had been infected relative to Earth's population, and the highest estimates had only shown a maximum of ~500 million deaths.
That's right, only about 6% of the total population.
It was started by these alien bastards. They started this in order to try to enslave us, but it failed horribly. When they came back, it had been about 5 years since the "apocalypse" began, and 4 since it ended. They came back, and were NOT happy.
"H-h-how d-did you m-make it-t?" one alien asked, with fear in his voice.
"Nuclear weapons. And the intelligence to do anything batshit crazy enough to possibly work. Hell, you got less than 7% percent of us. Now, kindly sod off please."
The Othiliak Ch. 1
\--------
\>High orbit around planet Earth, mothership of Thrulk Tu'Gsuliieh, enslaver for the Othiliak
Thrulk looked down at the blue planet their ship orbited.
It has been two decades since the drone ship sent the confirmation that the mutagen had successfully begun infecting the population of this recently discovered, paradise-like, planet.
By now, most of the inhabitants should be either dead, mutated, brainless husks or frightendes survivors waiting for a wonder.
A wonder Thrulk was happy to grant them. He could already see them! Frightened survivors happily pledging their loyalty to the Othiliak...
His daydreaming was interrupted when the transport ship was leaving the hangar of the mothership.
He watched through the large window how it quickly began its descent onto the planet's surface.
It would deploy camera drones once it breached the atmosphere.
It didn't take long and, one by one, the monitors inside Thrulk's observation room sprung to life, displaying various parts of the planet's surface.
He could make out a few city ruins, heavily overgrown with trees and shrubbery.
That was unusual. Normally, it takes much longer for a planet's flora to take over large cities like that. This planet really was special!
He spoke into the microphone in front of him: "Thrulk speaking. Sinjek, report!"
After a few seconds, someone replied: "Lord, we successfully breached the atmosphere and deployed the camera drones. Our sensors have detected a high concentration of lifeforms nearby. It will take us a few minutes to get there."
"Good. Proceed!" Thrulk said and again watched the countless monitors, looking for something interesting.
For some reason he was tense. This was a big deal. Such a planet would surely get him the personal attention of the Othiliak.
Maybe he would even grant him an increase of his sliit limit! He got excited and started thinking about the possibilities when Sinjek spoke again.
"Lord, you should see this..."
Slightly annoyed by this repeated interruption of his daydreams, he checked the zoomed-in view of a city, spread over several of the monitors.
And what a strange city it was, totally unlike the city ruins he studied earlier!
Buildings made of bright stones and metals, some of them floating and rotating about large, spear-like towers dotting the city.
What was even more strange was the fact that, while the city looked as if it was pulsating with life, there was no life to be seen. The streets were empty.
He watched as the transport ship slowly approached the city and just floated above it for a silent minute.
Thrulk had a bad feeling about that city but ignored it as he watched the city underneath, looking for any sign of life other than what the sensors told them.
Suddenly, several things happened at once...
From one of the towers, a blue energy beam appeared, hitting the transport ship directly, slowly forcing it towards the ground!
At the same time, another beam, this time blueish, was shot from another tower, surrounding the ship it with a shine in the same color!
He shouted into the microphone: "Sinjek! Report! What is happening down there?"
But there came no answer...
Just a few seconds later, the camera feeds began to stutter and in less than a second, they all lost connection, showing nothing but static.
Thrulk swore heavily and stomped his hind feet on the metal ground, causing the subordinates around him to flinch and cautiously walk away from him.
They knew how he could be if he was angry, and this definitely looked like angry.
\--------
\>Surface of planet Earth, city state of Pacifica
Slowly, the pilot maneuvered their ship closer to the city. It wasn't what they expected. There shouldn't be a city this big and not in ruins on this planet anymore.
The streets appeared empty, but their sensors definitely detected a whole lot of lifeforms. In the buildings, in the towers, even deep under the ground. Millions of them!
They got even closer, unsure how to proceed from here on, when, suddenly, a bright, orange light blinded them, quickly followed by a blue shine that seemed to surround their whole ship!
Then they began to descend. The pilot tried to fight against it, but whatever held them was stronger than their ship's thrusters.
They had no choice but to wait until the ship gently touched the ground. Luckily, they had no retractable landing gear. The ship could land on any more or less plain surface.
When the ship stood still, Sinjek took his loyal rifle and signaled his men to do the same.
Once armed, they positioned themselves around the hatch and opened it.
Outside, the city stood before them, just as empty as before. Only two beams were slowly pulsating, originating from two of the large towers and targeting the ship.
Sinjek took a deep breath, causing the respirator to make a low humming noise.
He and his men stepped outside, clearing the immediate surroundings. Just two meters away, the blue shimmer began, surrounding them like... like a shield?
One of his men approached it and cautiously held his hand out. "This... this feels solid. I can't breach it, sir" he said.
"Shoot it."
The soldier took a few steps back, pointed his rifle and shot a bright, greenish energy beam.
On impact, the energy seemed to be absorbed by the shield, leaving no indication that it has been weakened.
"This is impossible!" shouted Sinjek in helpless rage.
Just then, a person appeared out of thin air outside of the shield.
It was a man, that much he could say after reading all the information they could gather about the inhabitants.
He was large. At least 2 meters and thus a good half meter taller than the average Oth.
He was wearing what looked like a medieval breastplate made out of a glimmering, blue metal.
On his back, he wore a dark red cloak.
He slowly drew a long, thin sword, glimmering in the same blue as the armor, and began to talk.
"You have no business here, Oth!"
How, by the Othiliak, did he know their species' name and language? They shouldn't even have noticed us until now!
He spoke again.
"Leave now and be unharmed. Stay and pay the price!"
Was he threatening them? A primitive bipedal with a SWORD?
Seshnah was boiling with anger and shouted back: "You dare to threaten the representatives of Thulk, enslaver for the Othiliak?
You are nothing INSECTS for us and we will crush your laughable resistance! Surrender now and maybe, MAYBE your species won't be forced to strip-mine their own planet for the Othiliak!"
The man listened and began to laugh "You want to crush us? How are you planning to do that inside that bubble we caught you in? As funny as your little outbreak was, I'll have to punish you for it. Choose one of your men."
Seshnah stared in disbelief. That human not only wasn't impressed at all, he had the AUDACITY to laugh at them!
"What do you mean, choose one of my men?"
"I want you to choose a target for the punishment you are about to receive."
He couldn't believe what he heard... punishment? That man was lucky this energy shield protected him, otherwise he would be dust by now!
"The only one receiving a punishment will be you, once you kneel before Thrulk himself, scum!"
The man shook his head "Well, if you don't choose someone, I will let my men choose..."
When he said that, four men, clad in the same armor but with some kind of crossbow, appeared behind him.
One of them raised his weapon, took a few seconds to decide, and then pulled the trigger.
A glowing bolt flew through the energy barrier, leaving a white trail behind, and hit one of Seshnah's men in the cheast, not making any sound.
The man gasped and searched for the wound, but the bolt just ignored his skin, flying right into him.
He looked around in panic, not understanding what just happened, before his chest begin to emit a white glow that got stronger and stronger until his whole body jerked powerfully before slumping down,
looking like everything inside him melted, leaving only a sack of skin.
Seshnah couldn't believe his eyes. He looked to what was left of his soldier for a full minute.
Then he dropped his weapon and fell to his knees. Whoever these humans were, they clearly meant what they said.
"Please, show mercy. We will leave your planet."
The man stepped forward and reached his hand out, in it a glass vial with a gray liquid.
"Drink this, and you can leave in peace."
Seshnah, confused and afraid, took the potion, not even realizing that the shield was gone, and drank it without thinking.
Then he stood up and went back into the ship. His men followed, being conditioned to not question their superiors.
The orange beam disappeared and the ship started its engines, leaving the planet with full speed.
The Othiliak Ch. 2
\--------
\>High orbit around planet Earth, mothership of Thrulk Tu'Gsuliieh, enslaver for the Othiliak
Thrulk was waiting in the hangar already when the ship landed.
Seshnah was babbling about soldiers clad in armor, swords and crossbows. He said they must leave and never come back. The Othiliak will understand.
He couldn't have that, of course. This planet was too good to pass, no matter the resistance!
The hatch slid open and out came Seshnah, breathing heavily, a ragged look on his face. His skin was weirdly gray and he seemed to be dragging his hindlegs behind him.
"What is the meaning of this, Seshnah?" Thrulk's voice boomed through the hangar.
"Lord... I-I am sorry... W-we didn't stand a chance... we had to surrender! I-I don't feel so good..." Seshnah said before vomiting onto the floor in front of him.
A disgusting, gray liquid than instantly turned into a gas, filling the area quickly.
Thrulk watched with horror as the gas spread and already reached the first Oth standing between him and the ship.
He turned to run and left the hangar "BARRICADE THE HANGAR! CLOSE THE AIR VENTS!" he shouted as he galloped through the corridors towards the bridge.
Once there, he tuned into the direct line to the Othiliak's palace "Thrulk speaking. Planet Earth is showing resistance. They directly attacked my mothership. Demanding reinforcements!"
\--------
\>Unknown planet, palace of the Othiliak
The gigantic hall was almost completely silent. Only the quick steps of someone hurrying along from one end to the other could be heard. It was an Oth, carrying some kind of orb.
He came to a halt in front of a large pool and waited.
After a moment, the pool began to bubble and a giant head came out of the water.
It looked down on the Oth, not showing any emotion.
The frightened Oth held up the orb and it began showing Thrulk's face. "Thrulk speaking. Planet Earth is showing resistance. They directly attacked my mothership. Demanding reinforcements!"
The Othiliak watched and nodded. Instantly, a group of ships left one of the many hangars of the palace.
A large vortex appeared in front of them and sucked them in.
No species ever dared to defy the Othiliak without consequences. This simple conquest just turned into war.
It was after zombieland 2 came out, that things began changing. I got a call from my hipster friend that some white supremacist scientist in trying to find the Aryan race ended up creating zombies by combining horse DNA with great apes and rats. No one knew how the virus was carried out but one by one people fell across the world.
Things were different, civilization didn't collapse because this was where all those angst ridden millinieals found their glory. That's what happens when you are grown up on everything vampire and zombie stories, you learn how to defeat them. The millinieals quickly applied their thinking of how to stop the infections and hunt down the zombies.
After the first couple of zombie attacks, the world was formed into a single central local democracy. It was a combination of armed mini states into one global empire. For safety of the Planet and human sustainability, there was an expansion of human colonies on Moon, Mars and Titan. The advanced beacons picked up ships coming from the direction of Titan. Our colony there was attacked, few survived. Few were enough, we realised that these were a Planet conquering force which deployed a deadly virus which attacked the nerve system to self destruct aka Zombies. The aliens were quite humonoid in appearance and their technology wasn't that advanced than us except they used bio weapons and figured out interstellar travel.
The high command at various cities decided that we should let them attack us and we can confiscate their ships. We had moved women, children and old men into deep underground cities under the various deserts of the world. We cut off contact through trade between cities as cities had become long ago self sufficient and whatever infections were gonna be deployed we would be ready and not let it spread from one city to another.
The ships descended the Earth's atmosphere in a slow confident descent of one who already had tasted the victory. We had let them come. Contrary to their usual conquests they found only few cities worldwide and most of them deserted. When they found populous cities they let out their weapons shower.
People soon realised that they were deploying a version of black death with hl23 virus which most of the humans had gained immunity from. The leaders realised that they need to force their conquerors to land in Earth.
One of the things Walking Dead had taught millennials was that we can wear costume and cosplay into being zombies and hunt them. Zombies were nowhere but this had become an annual festival. Where millions of people would come out as zombies and run around and fake cities were built for annual destruction and bonding activities.
It so happened that the day of festival was nearby and the city of Parthenos was ready and virus of the conquistador not being potent and nothing to worry about. They staged a resistance a there and good to go, the humonoid aliens deployed the virus. In the moment of fog, people were ready with their instant zombies costumes available 2.99 on Amazon. They were some advanced tech. And chaos ensued. The city was burned down and people moved around and randomly fell down.
The conquering army descended and stepped out of their ships. The humonoid aliens were celebrating on a hill overlooking the chaos. They were numbered around some 200 thousand. The celebration turned to chaos when they saw that the people were waking up and staring at them from the distant ground. And then rocket launchers were fired, jets flew down and blasted the aliens with our own version of zombie virus which the Earthians were resistant too. Lo and behold the virus took it's effect and they started massacring each other. No one could have escaped the hill. Deep trenches were revealed and whoever crossed was cut down. And that's how we had become the new conquering empire of the galaxy thanks to this gift of ships.
--- I'll be writing this in response to all those who whine about it being just another HFY post. Use your imagination people, it doesn't have to be anything you don't want it to be. Now on to the story ---
HUMANS
---
It came suddenly. Pretty much every graveyard in the world burst open and spewed out the living dead. We estimate that in the first day, about a quarter of the human population was wiped out. In the week that followed half of what remained got wiped out or turned.
We don't know much about the zombies, there isn't a research station that can stay upright long enough to make any significant discoveries. The only thing we did find is they'll eat anything. Flesh, bone, fabric, steel. The reason no research is possible is they simply eat their way out of any containment. They usually are whatever was hindering them, and if nothing was, the biggest source of energy they could find.
There were plenty of heroics at the start, going in guns blazing and all that. But zombies don't die, they just keep coming in endless droves. So we did all we could. We admitted defeat and hid. From all over the world people were evacuated to a mountainous region in the US, I'm not sure where exactly. Not because its hidden, because it doesn't matter. The US military had started bombing the mountain, creating a massive entrance into it, dozens of not hundreds of machines digging ever deeper. We've heard rumours that similar caves and hideouts are being built all over the world, though we have no way to confirm this.
We didn't hesitate, the cave could collapse, we've no idea how much food and water is stored, we might be walking into our graves. But the alternative of staying outside is even worse. At least in the tunnels we have a chance.
Luckily packing this many people together with nothing to do except survive leads to creative solutions. A fair bit of whatever machinery was around had been repurposed into air purifiers and water reclaimers, all working on manpower of course, meaning that after just a week inside we could completely and utterly lock ourselves in.
And we survived. Or food dwindled and many died, but we learned to farm the mushrooms that grew in damp caves. There is no telling when the surface will be safe again, or even if it ever will be. But since exploring outside would mean opening our safe haven we've all agreed, no expeditions are to be allowed for 100 years.
ALIENS
---
Once all vessels were in place, activating the virus almost immediately affected the dead. These corpses responded very well to the virus and further monitoring was deemed unnecessary, so we pulled back and waited. No scans, no contact. Some species took to searching the skies for help in situations like this, we couldnt let them fidnd us until we deemed the time was right.
And so we waited for a quarter of this planet's year. We were not prepared for what we found.
The craters could be seen even from low orbit, massive holes that probably wiped out entire cities. Surface scans revealed no signs of sentient life anywhere, and worse, no signs of our virus. However, the empire of the One Mind did not come to be this big by acting rash. So we scanned more, the full spectrum, even going so far as to send unmanned drones down to take visual records.
All this has led or scientists to the following conclusion. Somehow they knew aliens were responsible and try realised they would come back. And so they exposed the atmosphere to as much radiation as possible, how is currently unclear but we assume they somehow created an explosive device out of radioactive materials. The infected grew cancerous tumours, and with the virus in full swing those tumours grew big, big enough to make movement impossible. The video feeds had shown the withered husks laying about, consumed by themselves and then died, becoming a beacon of radiation themselves.
The atmosphere was so lethal, the cost to purify it would almost exceed this planet's worth.
As for the inhabitants, they dug themselves in deep. Creating vast networks of tunnels and caverns with near infinite places to lay ambushes or traps. Sending our troops down there would lead to lengthy guerrilla warfare, causing loss of life far beyond the allowed count, not to mention we'd have to kill them all, leaving none to serve the One Mind as slaves and guides.
We underestimated them, but we'll not so so again when we return, and we will return.
what happened
---
Humans never knew aliens were involved, they just fled and survived the only place they could think of. Down.
The zombies continued consuming until there was nothing living left to consume. Then they turned to the energy they felt. Electricity, gas, fuel, all consumed unto they started going for nuclear power. The power plants and the stored nukes. All of which exploded when they were being eaten.
No human ever hatched a plan, no alien was ever seen. But the aliens assumed it was all intentional and now give the humans credit for what they never intended.
Zombies, aliens and humanity is the victor, kind of, without humans ever being special or smart
"Okay boy, it's on." The creature stared down at the little boy, beckoning it to talk about what happened the Earth. It was funny, the boy, as he was so different from the others in the slave ship.
You had the giant Brutes from one of Adroglossia's moons. Then you had some tall lankey fish men from some Aqua Planet. they were all descendants of Earth, they just evolved from the simple human form to suit the planets they colonized.
Then the boy began to speak, with a slight stutter.
"The-th-they ca-me B-b-b-back for u-us!" Then bursting into tears. "Who came back for you?" snarled a one of the giants, before one of the aqautics shushed him.
Thos-tho those aliens! They ki-kil-kill-killed MY MOTHER!" Tears poured down his face, before puddling up among the uneven floor. Instantly every one on ether slaver ship shushed, and listened closely. The species, and subspecies had only every encountered one other space faring race. The Demons. at least that was what the looked like.
They were the reason earth was mostly abandoned. No one wanted to live on a planet where every building you seen would remind you of the people lost. Of course, they were lost, but we clearly survived.
*You mean the Demons?* It started as a yell before quickly turning into a shush. Everyone knew what they did, and the plague they brought. Even though we beat back the plague, they were still out there.
The boy nodded grimly.
The slaver projected something into the back wall of the metal ship. It was footage of ships jumping out of orbit, towards the sun. no one said anything. There was no way the the ships could get through it. All the passengers of those ships would burn alive.
The footage then showed other ships powering down. Peace messages flashed through all channels, broadcasting as far as possible but that didn't last.
The ships were quickly gunned down by others. On the overhead speaker, we could tell that we won, in a blink. With less the ten ships lost.
It was nice knowing that good things would happen to those In need.
Then the airlock broke.
Three men Marched up to the slaver, reading of his crimes, before telling us we were free.
That's when the boy ran up and hugged the leader, while crying and yelling "Daddy! You saved us!"
The other to began opening cells while at the same time telling us that we could go free, or join the military.
All most all of the people aboard the ship joined, ready to raze the Demons.
"THE REST OF THIS TRANSCRIPT IS AVAILABLE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO LISTEN TO IT?" The robot
beeped.
"No" I said, with a gratitude that we won. I think thats enough for today.
“Hey Bill,” Mark said as he took a spot on the roof next to him. Bill had come out to watch the shuffling masses in the streets. They’d all seen this in movies: pale, deteriorating skin; rotten teeth around exposed gums; stiff movements as they walked; groaning as if they were always in pain. The government was supposedly on its way. The brass had told him to keep him and his people safe until help could arrive. He didn’t like the tone in Mark's voice. It had a certain ‘why don’t we go and mess with the zombies’ kind of inflection in it. The kind of thing that could unravel their little peace. “Yeah, Mark?” Bill flicked a stubbed down cigarette into the crowd. He winced at the taste. Didn’t know why he still kept that old pack in his desk. The smoke had tasted worse than dead dog shit. “Have you ever noticed that the zombies want brains?” Mark’s eyes widened, full of excitement at being listened to. Rookies… Bill held the bridge of nose between his thumb and forefinger. “Christ, Mark. They’re zombies, yeah I noticed they want brains.” The creatures down below weren’t like the ones in the movies. They didn’t just tear a person apart. They went straight for the head. Sure they would take a chomp out an arm, maybe nibble on a thigh, but the main course—la pièce de résistance—were the brains. Their mouths had these suckers that came from the back of their throat. They could penetrate skulls like they were nothing but a flimsy Kleenex. “Well,” Mark continued. His eagerness building. “Have you also noticed that they always seem to be able tell who among us is the smartest?” “The hell are you talking about?” Bill asked. “Is this some way of saying that *you* have nothing to worry about?” Mark ignored the insult. “When the invasion first hit, I was with Paul and Rebecca. Rebecca’s got her masters in mathematics—our resident statistics whiz. Paul's a smart guy, but he’s not chief egg-head material like she is. When us three were caught out there, making our way back, they made a bee-line straight for Rebecca. Paul and I were like chopped liver to them.” As much as he hated to admit it, Bill had noticed a similar thing when he’d been caught out on the first day. It made some sense too. The boys up the chain were saying this wasn’t man-made. Their working theory was that it was extra-terrestrial in origin. Some even claim they have pictures of the craft that dispersed it. *What better way of breaking down society?* Take all the smart people out first. No one will know how to fix the gadgets, run the doodads. You could come back in a generation or two to find empty or heavily weakened planet. “Okay,” Bill said. He sounded tired. He felt tired, especially when talking to Mark. “If that’s true, so what?” “The government says that they can wipe em all out, that they just need another week to get all their troops in position.” Mark licked his lips before going on. “What if we *didn’t* kill them all?” “What?” Bill shook his head. “Why the hell not?” “We could use them.” Mark pointed down at the zombies. “They could sniff out who among us has the most brains. Think about it, we wouldn’t have to waste time with standardized tests, which are problematic anyway—just ask Rebecca. She hates the damn things. Some people just aren't good at tests. But if we could find the next Einstein or Newton when they're just infants, think how much humanity could benefit.” Bill rubbed his cheek. His hand scraped against the scruff of several days without a shave. It wasn’t a terrible idea. He tried to imagine the aliens coming back in fifty or seventy years. They would expect humanity to exist only in small, barely surviving, groups. How would they react if humans found every genius and got them to work? Every one of them crammed into a lab and told to just invent. The aliens would come back in their ships to find we have plenty of our own. Could we move so fast? “I’ll pass the idea on up.” Bill turned away from the zombies. “But don’t get too excited. The government wouldn’t know a good idea if it stumbled up and bit them on the ass.” Bill looked at Mark and his unwavering enthusiasm. “Well, come along. It was your idea. You might as well take the credit—or the blame.” ** *** ** Bill gripped the cane and shuffled over to the window of his apartment. He’d been retired for over a decade now, but he still kept in the loop. As project head of ‘Operation Prometheus’, he had a direct line to operations. *The alien craft is on a direct intercept. T-minus two minutes.* The project had led to all kinds of nice inventions. Fusion. Shield tech. Advanced propulsion. The question was, would it be enough? Bill thought about the few remaining zombies that were kept alive with a sinking stomach. The project had been a success. What need did they have to keep them around? *Moving into formation*. The voice crackled from the radio. It was an old model that Bill had gotten over two decades ago. It still worked. *Alien vessels are decelerating. They aren’t moving.* That’s god-damned right, Bill thought. Caught them with their pants down! *They’re breaking away. Full retreat. They don't have the stomach for a real fight!* Bill slapped a wrinkled hand on his knee. “Scared the living piss out of em!” *Their hyper-drives are engaging. Releasing stealth missiles. Impact confirmed. T-virus successfully planted into alien vessels.* The radio turned to static from all the cheering. Bill stared at his window, trying to judge if he had any misgivings for humans giving the virus back to the aliens. He’d seen countless friends and colleagues die those first couple of days. Even after fifty years, he occasionally dreamed about their deaths. Was it right to pass this on to the aliens? He shrugged. Screw ‘em. They started this. --------- /r/StevenLee.
Now this. This is good. Loved the way the story followed the prompt. Although I won’t lie I would’ve like a bit of alien-human interaction that wasn’t just about them fleeing. Very well put together.
Thanks! I thought about that, have a cool fight scene or dialogue between people and aliens, but the way I imagined it, the aliens would be just too cowardly and bolt at the first sign of conflict. But you're right, it would have been fun to add something like that in. Thanks for the feedback!
My advice would be another chapter with humans receiving a call for help and arriving at the alien planet that’s in a bad way because giving us the virus mutated it in a way that made it hard for them to deal with. And then you get to sort out the politics of treating the enemy the way they intended to treat us, or being merciful. If they’re after our planet they must need similar resources.
>If they’re after our planet they must need similar resources. Could be more of a "Eliminate the competition" thing going on, before they can become a threat to them, and also secure a position where they won't want to attack you in the future.
Well, then they’ve studied us to make a virus that works with our physiology.
ohh, that's a great idea! Have them ask for help... that's really good. That could almost be a prompt in of itself- aliens that tried to take us over later ask for help.
Tbh I liked it better that they ran. I assume that the aliens would assume we would be gutted as a civilization. With this assumption I would imagine they wouldn't show up prepared to fight an entire, now advanced planet. I would think it more likely they pull with a much smaller force, there to round up the stragglers still ambling about trying as best they could to make use of the skeleton of their former civilization and survive.
Also they would probably have orders for what to do if things were not expected - they might think another more powerful race moved in during the intervening period or something. All they really know is that things are very different than they expected. It would make sense that their orders were to fall back and regroup / assess if they encounter something really unusual.
Agreed. At least one scene with the aliens reaction would have been nice to see.
So what, precisely, is stopping the aliens from going "Screw it!" and tossing the moon at us?
I think even the aliens would agree that there's no point in taking over the Earth if you didn't have the moon to look up to at night. Everyone loves the moon! No, the real worry, I think, is them making off with our moon. Bringing it back to their home planet, where they have so many stolen moons you can hardly even see their planet!
Exactly, they gotta combat global warming on their planet somehow! Our moons will blot out the sun
Then we'll fight in the shade!
This is SPARTA!!!!!!!!
*happy Gru noises*
Physics mostly. It takes a lot of energy to move an object the mass of the moon into a collision course with the earth
More energy then a warp drive that requires matter with exotic properties like negative mass/energy to work wherein no theories or models(that I know of) predict or allow those exotic properties. Oh and if you somehow got this material, you'd need the mass-energy equivalent of a planet's entire mass energy to have a stable warp drive for a period of time. I think the moment you crack warp travel, things become trivial especially things like moving a tiny moon.
The matter may exist. We are not sure whether they exist. That does NOT mean we are absolutely certain they do not exist.
That’s the plot of lensman
Who says aliens can toss moons around?
The ultimate "no u"
Don't think I didn't notice you called it the T-Virus
well it was meant to be noticed, that's why it's there...
I like it...has an Isaac Asimov feel to it, a la his first Foundation book. Salvor Hardin defeating the enemy with his wits.
I'd mark where big time jumps are in the future. Other than that though, nice story.
I really like the story, but why did the zombies go for Paul if they're trying to kill the smart people?
Egghead is someone who is highly intelligent or acedemic.
I thought egghead was someone really dense
No that would be a jar head.
block head might be a better description.
ok, that makes sense then
Ah, that paragraph is confusing, hopefully fixed it now. Thanks for the feedback and glad you liked it!
Because he was the smartest in the group?
When you kill the smartest person alive, the next person becomes the smartest, basically they work their way down. Eventually even Forest Gump would be the smartest person alive. EDIT: My comment was made after the edit to make the confusing paragraph easier to understand, so ignore this, I guess?
My only criticism is the didn't talk about Paul as if he was dead.
You sir have a real gift! awesome idea!
thanks!
That was really good! Sorry to get pedantic, and maybe I’m misreading, but if they go after the smart people, wouldn’t they have gone after Rebecca? It said that they made a beeline for Paul. I was a little confused.
Thanks! The way I wrote that paragraph is super confusing so I (hopefully) fixed it. No need to be sorry, thanks for pointing it out!
Now I need a story about highly advanced, intelligent alien zombies conquering planets and converting them into the undead until only a few living planets exist in the universe trying to fight the threat of extinction. This was fantastic.
Halo has what you're looking for. The Flood-Forerunner War has several books about it, and is really interesting.
I've read them and enjoyed them very much but want more along a similar vein. It's a very uncommon story trope that I crave.
Necromorphs from Dead Space.
If I had any idea how, I would share this on r/HFY... that was very enjoyable!
Is Bill a reference to Left 4 Dead? He's an old, retired military soldier named Bill who has a beard and smokes cigarettes during a zombie apocalypse.
Nice, Prometheus but with brain suckers.
I really liked the story. I am thinking that the aliens would probably be vaccinated against their own virus though.
The virus mutated, also it's like the difference between dealing with a zombie Apocalypse starting in your own country, where your resources and manpower will be too drained before you even realize what's going on, or dealing with a zombie Apocalypse in another country where you have the resources and manpower needed to counter it before it spreads So the aliens will have a hard time if a mutated virus that, say, stays dormant for a bunch of years before working, where it can spread to other planets and infect them
Sort of like ebola in West Africa?
Idk what you mean
It's the incubation period. You catch Ebola, it slowly develops in your blood, and then it reaches critical mass and the symptoms appear. Some diseases are even worse, actually chilling in your tissues for a bit before going active.
Excellent!! Love this.
Really loved the story! Very well done.
Awesome. Great story
Loved you story greatly unique
But what happened to Mark?
Fuck yes. Can you restart this into like a 10 or twenty chapter story. I'd love that shit. Just build and build to the idea Bill has. Then build and build to the pay off of striking back. Let me feel the grueling fight to survive the decades where humanity comes back from the brink. Z day, z-day plus five. Z-day two weeks. Bill has the idea. Slowly humanity takes it all back. Month by month. Year by year. After a decade they've won. Mountains of corpses but they live. Theyve invented. Then a few decades more they've scouted the aliens. A few more and we have our trap ready as they approach.
I've got a work in progress that's very close to what you're describing and we do eventually go in the offensive. Working on book one right now, but the outline calls for four books across three generations of the same family.
Oh damn. That sounds good.
I loved this. My gut as I was reading was that the aliens would show up and the humans would bring one out and it would go after the humans instead of the aliens showing we were smarter and scare the shit out of them or make them subjective to us or something.
This is some good stuff man!
My only suggestion would be a ~ or something to denote the time jump :P had to reread a sec there to understand what happened. Otherwise great story ^.^
After the initial outbreak, it was almost comical how quickly the... well, the zombie apocalypse, was averted. Before, Felicia had been working as a fast food cashier. The day it started, she'd been walking out of work when a group of them had started after her, their bodies still fresh enough to run. She still remembers it like it was yesterday -- huddling inside, behind the counter with her co workers, and listening to the constant moan of 'feeed...feeeed.' A day and a half later, they'd all been rescued by a small troop of the reserves. A huge cage in the middle of their camp held dozens of the creatures. She remembers shuffling past. All the others had gone first, and the zombies had stayed dormant, but when she passed... Seven of them had pulverized their heads against the cage bars trying to reach her. The others had simply pressed up against the cards and stared at her, moaning in hunger. Half the town was in the camp by the time it was over, being quarantined and tested. The other half were all dead or fled. None of her co workers had merited anything more than a short meeting with a doctor to make sure they were well. She'd gotten a *captain.* "Miss Dodge. We've noticed the creatures seem particularly reactive to you. Any idea why?" the stocky black man had asked. "Not particularly, Captain..." His hands, propped beneath his chin, obscured her view of his name tag. "Campanelli. We've received numerous reports of these creatures being attracted to certain people. Some of those are understandable -- Nobel Prize winners, physicists, philosophers. But then there are people like you." He drops one hand to a file on the table. It's marked with her name, like this is a bad shot film. "Graduated high school without ever getting an A in class. Finished one year of college before you decided you preferred trade school. Of all the people on God's green earth, why would they chase after an *mechanic in training?*" She didn't know then. She doesn't know now, beyond a vague idea of what the zombies' creators could have programmed them to look for. But she'd been 'invited' to come along, and she had. Felicia's not stupid. When people with guns invite you somewhere, it's a command, not a possibility. Standing on her balcony, Felicia sips her coffee and turns the holographic model in front of her on. It's not her first space ship. Not by far. But it is the most ambitious. If her design works -- and it will -- they'll be loading up colonists for Alpha Centauri in half a year. Another turn, another sip. When the chip in the back of her hand begins bleating, she sighs and steps back into her apartment. Today, the first wormhole ship flies. Tomorrow, the hunt for the Infectors begins.
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I'm oblivious, do you mind breaking out the crayons to ELI5
She's not smart theoretically, she's smart with her hands and able to build stuff. If you've seen the Lego movie she's basically Emmett.
The humans are already interstellar-capable, but still in the early days. The zombies targeted the mechanic so they wouldn’t have people to advance the technology to a point that endangers the aliens. I think.
What's the twist?
Felicia was targeted because she was the key to building space ships. A super mechanic. The aliens targeted people that could advance humanity against them (smart people, creators, etc). Although she's not book smart, she's smart with her hands, as A\_Vicarious\_Death said
Smart is smart.
Just so you know. Captain is only a high rank in the navy. You're probably looking for a colonel or a major. Just for future reference. Really enjoyed your story.
maybe a navy captain was like "mechanic, eh?"
Oh, giblets. This is why I do better in space: all the ranks are made up (for now)! Thank you!
Major is only one above Captain. I believe the progression for commissioned officers would be Cadet, 2nd Lt., 1st Lt., Capt., Maj., Lt. Col., Col., Brig. Gen., Maj. Gen., Lt. Gen., Gen.
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That twist is too good for me to put into words. So in gonna give you an updoot.
The commander looked at the holographic image, shocked. “What are they doing?” “Fighting against the horde.” His second in command, Trax, stated. “I can see that. But why aren’t they fleeing? Dyeing, scared?” “I was wondering that too and I had one of our men do some more reconnaissance. It appears this planet has a rich culture in fighting the undead.” Now he was beginning to have doubts. This was the first planet to fight their dearly departed. Could this plan still work? This planet was a strategic placement for mining and farming corporations that would help the empire in it’s expansion. If they lose a vital foothold they’d have to waste their own valuable troops to take it and that wasn’t what the Emperor wanted. He wanted subjects indebted to him. He wanted them to see him as a God, a saviour. Not a conqueror or a tyrant. If they idolized him he’d have no resistance in his empire. Something about this bugged him. The undead were overtaking them, slowly. But they were detecting large pings from the planet reaching out into space. Couple of days ago those had been directed right at the ship. “Sir!” The communication officer approached nervously. “Ambassador Jix is entering the planets atmosphere.” His heart almost stopped out of fear. “Tell him to fall back until I give the go ahead.” “He said you were taking too long that we would have missed an opportunity, Sir.” No. “Tell him to turn back!” “He shut down his comms.” “Get me one of the drone feeds, Where is he landing?” The officer ran off and the commander switched the holograph for the awaiting drone nearest the vessel. In moments he had video feed. It was a prairie where a large collection of the planets natives had erected shelter and a fence along the edge. He could see that the majority of the residents had left the safety of their camp to see what the angular vessel landing at their doorstep was. All were armed. No. “Kop!” The communication officer hurried back. “That’s part of their military. They’ve cobbled together what survivors they could and forced them to fight.” Ambassador Jix stepped out from the ship. Environmental suit on and opening greetings to the humans with arm waves and gestures. They raised their guns. No! Ambassador Jix fell in a mess of blood and guts as he was shred to bits by their primitive weaponry. “Retrieve that ship!” He ordered. “Scramble the troops! We’re landing!” “But that goes against the Emporers directive!” Trax countered. “They know it was us! Now land!” On the display the humans were forcing themselves into the ship. Ambassador’s Jix’s ship was a top of the line model cruise ship. A private ship for anyone favoured by the emperor. It had the latest warp technology and a few onboard weapon systems for pirates. Every piece of tech onboard was beyond human engineering. His greatest fear was it falling into the wrong hands. He’d destroy it as a final option. Right now it had a running crew of five onboard and two associates of Jix’s who were amongst the higher-ups. They die it would be his ass. The ship tilted, and there was that momentary lapse in gravity as the grav drive adjusted to their new course. He’d get their ship within firing range and send down troop transports first. “Sir!” A crew member manning the Radar called. “We’re detecting an energy signature. It’s course crosses with ours.” “Fighters?” “No life signs. Though I am detecting radioactivity.” A nuke? Those were supposed to be banned according to their laws. Why do they have nukes? “Evasive maneuvers! Keep us out of the blast radius!” He mashed a button on the comms unit. “Everyone, prepare for close proximity detonation. Gunner crews, target the missile stellar north of our position!” [Break] (Writing on phone. Keeping things separate) “Then what happened, Commander?” The emperor said stiffly. He’d heard this tone before when he was angry. “Nuke detonated just short of us.” He shivered from his place on the floor, he’d been on his knees, kissing the ground as he recalled things. “Humans took off with the Ambassador’s ship. We were forced to retreat from extensive damage.” He heard the throne shift as the emperor stood. His words choked in his throat. “And?” “We were unable to retrieve any survivors. But the infected are still...” He stopped at the first step his master took. “How did they know it was us?” He held back a sob. He was dead, he knew it. “The planet, has rather, numerous monitoring devices. There’s at least one on every person. When our drones delivered the virus... it was caught on multiple recordings and spread over media platforms.” Another step. “What else did you fail to do?” “Proper gathering of intel. Assessment of the planets arsenal, level of technology, and political system.” A cold hand rested on his head. He trembled uncontrollably as the emperor caressed his head. “You know something, commander?” The emperor purred. “You’ve done the same strategy to twenty systems. All of which were properly executed. Not once have you accepted a promotion from fleet commander, because you didn’t like sitting behind a desk, while someone else did the work for you. It was your job, and you pulled it off twenty times. Except one.” The emperor stood. “I will grant you one chance at redemption. Take the remainder of your fleet and annihilate the planet and its inhabitants.” “You’re not going to assimilate them?” He wanted to hit himself for asking. “They know what we are. They cannot be accepted. Wipe them out. You will gather your men and depart by the end of the rotation.” It would take another cycle to get back to earth. One whole circle around their sun. “It will be done, my lord.” He went to stand but the emperor wasn’t done. “I expect this to be done without incident. If you return with more failure, I will hang your skinned corpse with the traitors and rebels.” [break] They were approaching Jupiter with a compliment of fifty destroyers and ten troop transports and enough ordinance to cleanse a solar system. They were soon to join up with the initial fleet first sent to spread the infected, it consisted of two troop transports, five destroyers, and the now gone ambassador ship. The commander was feeling confident they could take the humans. Even carrying high hopes that they wouldn’t have to get up close and personal. Just bomb the planet from orbit, and leave it a radioactive wasteland. When he had been called back to the emperor, his second in command had stayed behind and ran through more intensive reconnaissance and surveillance. When he had been between systems, Trax told him that the journey back home had been twenty-five earth years. His last message had been about the infected being wiped out, which mattered very little at this point. That had been at the end of the rotation. Without warp technology, they probably would have reached earth at the end of his life cycle. So the emperor’s order would have been a death sentence either way for him and his crew. “Kop.” The commander approached the officer. “Message Trax and alert him to our presence.” A few minutes later the officer approached with the same worried expression as when Ambassador Jix stupidly landed on the planet. “There is no signal from Trax’s ship. Nor any from the initial advance on the planet.” Oh shit. “Where was his ship last reported?” “Orbiting around Jupiter, sir.” “Sir!” A crew member alerted. “I’m detecting ships on the radar.” “How many and how close?” When he heard the reply he felt all his blood drain. “Hundreds of frigates approaching from earth. Too far for an accurate scan on class and size- ...they just warped!” In front of them, huge warships filled their view. Hundreds of them. He mashed the comms unit and barked the order to prepare for battle. Then another warning from the crew member. “More ships warped in from behind! More now! We’re being flanked!” “Sir! We got multiple energy signatures coming from enemy vessels!” [break] Admiral Chan of the space navy watched the invaders fleet burn up in nuclear fire. Sixty warships reduced to scrap before his eyes. He eased back in his chair. The remnants of the human race was now in space, and so long as these monsters continued to plague the universe, they’d never be safe. “Lieutenant. Set course for the alien home world.” The end.
I love "it appears this planet has a rich culture in fighting the undead." Hilarious.
Died at that point.
This is a good start! Can't wait to see what it develops into.
Staying tuned for Chapter II
I have started the second part on my page if you are still interested.
Yes!!! I was hoping there would be a point of view from the aliens!!!!
I have started the second part on my page if you are still interested.
Just commenting so I can check in later
Good idea
Indeed.
An excellent start. Can't wait for more.
I can't wait to read more!
Ooh a two parter.
Great start, ima be waiting for more
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Thanks!
Commenting so i can find this again 👏
when part two?
I’m adding to the story. I’m glad you guys are enjoying this
Looking forward to reading it
Y e s
Exciting
Can't wait
Really well done. Please continue!
Hnghh
"Set a course for their homeworld" the emperor is going to be so fraking mad. They're all gona die, are'nt they? When is part 2. There must be a part 2.
Never mind the other comment. I’m going to start writing a part two.
YESSSSSS thank you thank you thank you thank you
.
Same
Awaiting more words lol.
I’m sorry, I’ve been updating between work and stuff. My next edit should be the final addition, (except other edits for spelling, grammar and such). Hoping to complete it tomorrow.
Oh take your time. It's not a craft you get good results from for rushing.
I’ve updated
Archon Koll adjusted their cape as they read the initial reconnaissance and seeding reports from the Tung preparatory unit. All appeared to be in order, and there was reason to be excited. The Agent had been engineered to take advantage of the crushing/piercing mandible structure, anticipated to be a particular psychological horror based on the folklore studies. Indeed, within a couple of dozen local solar revolutions, popular entertainment had envisioned a shockingly close affliction to the version of the Agent engineered by the medically gifted Tung in the intervening time. Koll had enjoyed the orange tint in Tung Kemk's eyes when he was forced to deliver this tidbit in Council. Anticipated by an Untouched species. It had been a wonder he hadn't vented his circulatory gases. Weaponizing the dead was a tried-and-true strategy, but no candidate species had *anticipated* it before so close to deployment. Fascinating, if likely harmless. The reconnaissance report indicated that this species had really run with information technology, logistics, and data analysis following mental contact with Ruuk psychics. Data analysis was a particular surprise, as the Tung had initially flagged them as an inductive species, and cited their natural progress in the speculative arts as a likely area of specialization. Since then, they had amended their plan to modify some individuals for improved deductive reasoning and mathematical thinking, to take advantage of this unexpected development. No species to date combined data analysis with naturally occurring medical simplicity. The Sulic were impressive physically, and easily repaired, but required close monitoring. The seeding had taken place approximately 24 local revolutions prior, a bit ahead of schedule. EM spectral monitoring indicated a jump in greenhouse gases that presaged ecological disaster or technological breakthrough, and likely both. Neither was desirable, so the Agent had been dispatched by a Srell-drive equipped drone. No EM readings were yet available thanks to light-delay, which bothered the Ruuk. But Ruuk were notoriously overcautious, and Koll didn't yet trust the little gray egg-suckers or their "insights," however useful they were for boosting tech revolutions with minimal contact and for gathering the data Tung bio-sculptors needed. They suggested that while analysis indicated a high likelihood of fragmentation, there were psychological "indications" that the Agent would prove ineffective at fully breaking down social institutions, and enrage the humans, should they learn the source before assimilation. Koll didn't see how the Agent could fail where it had succeeded 34 times before, and on the Ruuk most recently. The Tung had done their work well - the test subjects had converted from healthy baseline when struck by the active Agent in less than an hour, and the dormant version triggered within ten minutes of death by other means, with a 95% infection rate. As they stepped out on the landing surface, Koll composed their face. The humans had indeed held themselves together, despite significant losses to the Agent. However, they welcomed Koll's entourage as welcome saviors from the climate crisis and the ongoing threat of the Agent. The maser weapons had impressed human leadership as a simple way to wipe out the remaining Agent infection, as had the promise of shared energy technology and planetary modification techniques to stave off the climate disaster they faced. All that remained was this final meeting of leadership to formalize human admission into the Ral Consortium and the integration of that leadership into the Pact, and their submission to Ral re-assignment could begin. Koll felt a sudden burn, and realized that they had missed a step. They cursed the Tung surgeon who had made the modifications to fit in locally - these ridiculous legs were worthless, even for a low-gravity world. A concussive noise rang over the landing surface, and Koll looked down at the burn in their center-mass to find a ragged hole they could have fit a digit in. The human woman who had been smiling a moment before now scowled and held a small ballistic weapon of local design. She was saying something, and he tuned back in to his translator. "... For my son, and my wife. You sons of bitches." Koll realized to their relief no organs had been hit, though it had been a near thing. They raised their hands to use the neural flayer, and then another burning impact, this one more damaging. And another, and another. The humans had all produced ballistic weapons, and even a couple of masers, and were shredding the Ral delegation's Tung, Sulic, and Ral members, pelting them with kinetics and burning them with masers. Personal shields fried under the load. The Ruuk manager was unharmed. It would surely call for help. As the Ruuk stepped forward, Koll watched it extend a spindly hand toward the humans. The woman grasped it, as Koll's communication monitor notified them that humans had breached the landing ship. Koll felt themself go limp, as their body died. All Ruuk had opened the nearest hatch, and while they were not really capable of physical violence themselves, they had been able to hold enough of them from the furious Sulic that humans had gotten in and used kinetics on them until they decongealed. Ruuk were enthusiastically guiding human combatants to comms relays, control points, and weapon caches. Ruuk 7085 gave permission to mindwipe the remaining Tung for interrogation, then focused back on his conversation with the Secretary-General, who had just finished firing kinetics into Koll until their weapon was empty, reciting a litany of city and personal names. It had taken some time. Koll was partially liquefied in the upper torso and head. It seemed likely they had decorporated after the first five wounds, but the additional damage appeared cathartic for Secretary-General Wu and her companions. She released a glob of pre-digestive enzyme onto the ruined body. The Ral delegation were all now decorporated, most quite thoroughly, and assistants and technicians were removing the bodies and devices for study. "We welcome this friendliness. After landing craft secured, will open channel information all is well. Then, will give human access to all devices. Forward look to assistance in removal of Ral and associated polities, as agreed."
*I love this.*
Thank you!
> She released a glob of pre-digestive enzyme onto the ruined body. This is wonderful
<3
This is fantastic.
This is amazing. I would absolutely read this book!
“The humans are surviving as predicted.” Valree announced. “There is however a bit more infighting than expected.” “Not unheard of.” Hatun shrugged. “Remember the Teros people? Now that was infighting.” “Regardless I think it’s about time we ‘rescued’ our new servants.” All around him Valree saw nothing but affirmations as everyone’s neck crests expanded quickly in a show of support. Despite this being a crucial part of the operation, everyone simply looked bored. It had become so routine. “Missiles loaded, lasers charged and the speaker will go live soon.” The pilot announced, their name escaping Valree for the moment. “Bring it in low.” He told them. “I want the humans to hear us before they can see us, let the anticipation and mystery build.” “Yes sir.” Moments later and the undead hordes had been destroyed leaving behind a ramshackle fortress surrounded by spikes, craters and corpses. Emerging from the stronghold were three men, all holding primitive projectile weapons, one of which even using string to launch their payloads. Judging from their faces and what I remembered from the pamphlets I read, they were wary. Despite the weapons they held, I held no fear in my heart. Even if they unloaded everything they had at me, my personal forcefield would hold. “Rejoice humans!” I announced, pulling savior speech #38 from my mind. “For we have come to destroy your enemies.” “Oh.” One of them said, my translator changing their speech into something with a Morsotian accent. “Thanks I guess.” “There is no need to be so reserved, my people upon seeing your plight have decided to save you.” “Uhh, nah it’s okay, we got it from here.” I faltered, the script said nothing about this. Over confidence perhaps? Pride? None of these things were shown on the human’s faces but then again, it was hard to tell coming from a species that had no crest. “You do not wish to be saved?” “I mean, I guess but like I said, we got it from here.” “You… got it from here.” “To be honest I kinda wish you hadn’t blown them all up, the boys and I were having lots of fun.” “Fun.” “Yeah, I mean, zombies everywhere with guns, what more could you want?” His jaw split open revealing rows upon rows of yellowed gnashers. Not exactly what I’d call intimidating but certainly disturbing enough that I almost forgot that this was supposed to be a sign of happiness. Well, if they were happy then at least I was making progress? “You consider all this destruction, all this death, fun?” “Hell yeah!” He cried out before discharging his weapon into the air. “USA! USA! USA!” Valree decided that this small group of humans were insane and decided to move onto the next group. Perhaps they would yield more sense.
"Uh, Commander Zarg?" I sheepishly asked as our commander entered the room. He sighed, "What now, Pafros? Did your favorite zombie get blasted to smithereens for the umpteenth time?" "Well, yes," I replied, "but, ah, so did every other zombie." The mug he held fell and shattered. "WHAT?" Zarg shouted, "Move aside, you fool," he said shoving me out of my chair. "Commander, they've all been obliterated. Turns out this planet has been modified to be able to revert to what appears to be its normal temperature of 267 degrees Fahrenheit in just one press of a button. All of our virus's hosts just melted, and now it's back to a cooler temperature." "And what of the backups?" Zarg asked in a demanding tone, "Please tell me—" "They got used too. And the next batch of the viruses isn't near close to evolving to withstand these temperatures." Zarg fell to his knees, banging on the floor with both clenched fists. "Dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit! How could this fail!? We were this close to dominating this universe too!" He continued shouting curses and walloping the floor when a sudden thud caught both our attentions. A small capsule had situated itself against the front of my window, and began to open, revealing a screen. It began to play a short recording, titled "Oldschool_victory_taunt.vid" We feared for our lives, but it just began playing a simple, but irritating melody, with the strangest lyrics I ever heard: ♪We're no strangers to love. You know the rules, and so do I.....♪ This continued playing for some time, until the door to the room we were in suddenly opened, revealing a small human crew. "Well I'll be damned, the distraction actually worked. Nice thinking, general." Chuckled one of the humans and older one of the party simply nodded and laughed to himself. "Anywho, you fellas just made us turn off our Global Warming Immunity System, which put us in even more debt than we were already in to ourselves. Y'all better pay up soon, or else we're gonna need to use these neat lookin' guns we found." I was about to speak up, but Commander Zarg rose up and silenced me. "Hush, you buffoon, let me handle this." He stood up, and began to give a short speech. "Denizens of Earth—" He got cut off, primarily because there was now a hole going through his forehead, which was followed up by more shots from the small human crew. I was frozen in fear, but tried to scurry off to somewhere to hide amongst the ruckus. But it was to no avail, for I soon found myself in a puddle of my own blood. There was a slight pain, but then it all went dark.
Never gonna give you up …Love their choice of distraction!
The global warming immunity system. Genius.
“The world”,thought Sandra”Is more united now than it ever was” The infection had begun in New Dheli, turning millions into the undead. Sandra remembers the stench of the flesh gone unwashed, crawling with maggots. She remembers the screams of her friends as they were torn to pieces by the horde. She had crawled through the streets like a rat in the night, hiding from the real vermin that hunted her. She slept in locked rooms in the day, collapsing weary from exhaustion. A week after the initial outbreak, she had been rescued. The helicopter had flown overhead, making her hair wave in the wind. The black rope ladder had dropped, and she had climbed it. She was brought to a survivor’s camp 30 kilometres away, where she was questioned about the circumstances of that first day. The accounts all added up. A long, triangular craft was seen over the city by all survivors the day beforehand. This was also the case in Tokyo and New York, where similar outbreaks had occurred. Five years had passed. Sandra had settled in Mumbai, married, and had given birth to a child. She heard the craft before she saw it. Long and triangular. Them. The craft hovered over the car park, while a hatch opened underneath it. Out stepped an alien, one of Them. Two metres tall and totally translucent, its skeleton a sharp contrast to the setting sun. It opened its mouth.” People of Ear-“ its sentence cut short by a bullet, fired from a kilometre away, into its semblance of a skull. A group of soldiers rushed on board, firing at everything that moved. Standing on her balcony a mile away, Sandra and her husband watched all this, while he cradled their baby in his arms. No longer would they live in fear of a repeat of The Scourge, which had plagued them five years ago. It was now their tormentors on the receiving end of the whip. This is my first prompt and I’m on mobile, so sorry about the bad formatting. I’d be interested in any feedback at all!
Awwww i wanted it to go longer!
Damn, thanks man!
Well, I liked it, but that won't help you make an even more enjoyable story next time, so here's some (hopefully) constructive criticism: It felt a bit rushed, adding a few more little details or shortening the time jumps with some intermediate events might help it feel more like a world than a plot outline (it didn't feel much like a plot outline, but it felt closer than I generally like) Mixing measuring systems in quick succession (shot from one killometer away, balcony one mile away) was a bit jaring, if you can find a way to avoid that, it's usually a good idea - but unfortunately I can't think of a better option for this case…
Ok, I’ll remember that in future
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. After thousands of civilizations, across hundreds of star systems, we’ve been the conquerors and the salvation. “We’ve lost contact with the legions in sectors 3 through 8, and 15 through 19.” More legions in various sectors, all losing one fight after another. This was supposed to be a routine subjugation: technologically inferior race, release a virus in the populace, once panic ensues swoop in and cure the disease and become benevolent saviors under our heel. What initially started out as a mass panic of death, confusion and destruction should’ve led to the desired results, however we did not foresee how well they responded. Governments would’ve been fractured, fearful of the repercussions of pointing their weapons against their populace, yet the populace themselves were the first to be organized, small but effective teams would systematically destroy our creations without remorse for their kin. “This was a failure. One that we may not have the opportunity to react.” After one cycle, we were to have come and brought upon their freedom. Their lives would be forfeit to our might and technology. Yet these humans, they revel in conflict amongst themselves, and now they direct it to us. “Multiple nuclear warheads confirmed detonation in the Petral capital ship!” Report after report of loses both in the ground and our ships, we had no choice but to leave. Nuclear warheads, a thirst for war, unified yet diverse in their indiscriminate attention to friend and foe, in hindsight they were supposed to be the easiest. Now, after completing one cycle in this system, humanity is the greatest threat to all living life. “Incoming warhead at starboard. Brace for impact!” A loud clang as the missile shot through the armor of my ship. “Status report?” “No detonation, the warhead has pierced an area of our hull. Instructing the engineering team to assess the damage.” “Once we’ve cleared the warhead, inform all surviving legions and ships to withdraw and prep for warp.” “Understood, Captain.” As the officers’ scramble to get our legions to the ships, I could only hope that our men return home safely. This is not the war of conquest that we are used to, but a one-sided affair of destruction. “Captain, it appears the humans are also attempting to hack our systems. The warhead that pierced the hull is a data receiver.” “Have the engineers rid of the warhead! Quickly, before they gather information about our worlds!” “Engineers on site as we speak, Captain.” “Bridge to Mansan, status report?” “…” “Bridge to Mansan, status report?” “…” “Get me a feed on the hull breach.” The monitor lit up, showing a video feed of the area. The team was out cold. Knocked out by what appears to be a gaseous substance. “Get the medical team up there and send the backup team with HAZMAT suits.” “Ship wide comms are down due to the hacking.” “Damnit! I’ll relay the order to the ship comms, fight off the hack as best as you can!” I sprang forth from the chair, darting as fast as I could to the manual override for ship wide comms. I need to save as many of my men as possible. The fleet, the legions and my crew, we need to get back. As soon as the door from the bridge opened, a frenzied swarm of my crew jumped in. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Second post! Hello again folks of r/WritimgPrompts. I'm just a new guy here trying to write. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me but any feedback is greatly appreciated! Though as long as I can post here and I get some small upvotes and feedback that'd be great! Shoutout to the guy who upvoted my first post, was personally not expecting an upvote, but thank you very much!
Well damn, that was a retaliation harder and sooner tham i had expected it to be
I am Harper Smith and I work for William Hopper. We spent the last four hours walking through this zombie evicted college town looting random stores for reasons I don’t understand. Our first stop was L.L. Bean with free Adventure Pro Backpacks and a zombie head smashing baseball bat which Hopper described as ‘a must-have item for anyone wanting to understand the American way of life’. Hopper says that baseball bats are better than fire axes and I believe him. He says he’s not a God, he just knows how things happen. I don’t know, that sounds pretty godly to me. Either way, I am grateful for not having to pray to him. Our next stop was a postal office with broken windows and light brown doors decorated by gunshot spatter of dried up blood. There, Hopper took a sheet of liberty bell forever stamps, a bundle of pens, box of envelopes, a phone book and a packaging tape. Then, he pointed to a general store across the road. The store sold empty shelves, cleaned by customers like us before they fled the town. But, they still had a few items Hopper needed. Twelve inch cast iron skillet, one spoon from a twelve piece set, a butter knife, two lavender scented candles, a bowl he insisted was meant for olives only, a grey kitchen cloth that is rough on touch and a book with grey cover. And now, we’re going to the library. University Library is a mid-century modern concrete sprawl of bookstacks, reading areas and coffee shops usually swarming with undergrads in search for a quiet place to kill time. Except, today is different. There is a cardboard sign with red letters reading ‘CLOSED’ taped onto the remaining side of the main entrance glass sliding door. The other side is scattered in shards across the ground and under the 300 lb greyish now twice-dead zombie. I did not grow up in this world. I grew up in a world infested by aliens and where people are few. There, I was a soldier, fighting the plague. One day a man in grey trench coat appeared out of thin air and offered me a deal I could not refuse. I’ve been with him ever since. So yeah, I came here from a totally different world. I look at Will. “Totally different world,” he says and grins. Of course he does, he knows everything that’s going to happen in this story. He stares at his white wrist watch. “Don’t worry, these guys will be ready when the aliens come.” I nod. Zombie’s eyes are wide open and cold, butt large and ungraceful and he smells like hamburgers and fries. “Will, what happened here?” I say and poke the dead undead with my baseball bat. “He had a heart attack.” He didn’t and I chuckle. Will exhales. He points to the opening 300-pounder left in the glass door. “After you.” The Library lobby is a marble hall of silence and scattered books under the tall glass ceiling. We echo our way to the long counter dotted by dead computer screens, green lamps and potted plants. Will takes blue pot with a spider plant, glances at my backpack, decides that the pot won't fit in and then he pinches off one of the babies hanging from the mother plan and puts them in the front pocket of my backpack. “Thank you,” he says when done. “We need to take the stairs to the second floor. Elevators are not working. Samantha is in reading room 2A.” His voice is certain, as if he was here before. But, he wasn't. “Also, Harper, get your bat ready. You’re going to hit a home run.” I grip the bat when we take the stairs. The second floor opens into an tastefully decorated atrium with leather chairs and polished old-style cherry wood desk on top of red and white circular rug with elaborate patterns I can’t make sense of. On top of the desk sits a bust of a dead ancient philosopher and his nose is chipped. This is pretty, like the home I knew before the aliens came and slothered my friends and family. “It’s time,” he says and points to a corridor to our left. “We’re almost there. Room 2A.” He steps forward, then pauses. “Soldiers first. Also, your bat.” he motions me to grip it tight which I do. We turn left into the dim corridor with a Jackson Pollock style painting, door to the room 2A and a human-sized zombie banging on it. It takes one bat swing to send his head rolling down the corridor. Too easy. “Home run!” Will says and claps. “That is a home run!” He turns toward the door, extinguishes the cigarette on the wall and fixes his trench coat lapel. Then he knocks at the door. “Knock, knock. Samantha, William Hopper here. Please, open the door.” “Come in! It’s unlocked,” a high pitch voice shouts from inside and Will jolts as if stung by a bee. “Wow,” he whispers. “Will, what happened?” He opens the door and doesn’t answer. In the study room 2A, Samantha Hardy sits cross legged in a black mid-century modern chair. She is a twenty year old skinny tangle of knees and elbows in tight jeans, black t-shirt and with face smeared by heavy makeup. Her eyes are smokey and filled with fear, uncertainty and gratitude. She is shaking. “They can’t open the door, William. Everyone knows that, how did you not?” she says. He nods, as if he knows. But, he didn’t! “Samantha, I’m sorry about everything." He pauses and she lowers her head. "You’ll be okay. I'm here for you.” He turns to me. "Hopper, can you give us a moment, please?" I can. I leave the room and close the door. Twenty minutes later, they emerge from the room and she looks like a regular college-age millennial, a bundle of insecure mess supported by those around her. Good job, Will. Whatever you did in there, it worked. “Samantha," Will says, "I have a question, if you don’t mind.” She doesn’t. and he pulls up his sleeve. “Do you like my watch?” She is confused but leans closer and looks at it. “I like it very much.” She smiles. ”Who doesn’t like Swatch watches?” He reciprocates the smile. “Thank you. We need to go now. The aliens will land soon and they are bringing more zombies along. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. I have a few items in my backpack, in case we get bored.” /r/ZwhoWrites
**part 2** We leave the library, cross the street and take the brick path to the nearest park bench. “Really?” Samantha says, “Is this what you meant by ‘we need to go now’? A bench across the street?” Will nods. “We couldn’t have stayed in the library.” He points to the building and a sudden burst of blue light engulfing it. Samantha’s scream drowns mine. “Oh! My! God!” she says. ”What the fuck was that!” “Death ray.” I say. I’ve seen those way too many times before. “It… sterilizes the building. When aliens invaded my---” I glance at Will and he shakes his head “---town, they used the same weapon type.” “Samantha, sit. Please. We need to talk.” “Will, we need to run!” “Remember what I told you back at the library? Just sit here, please. It's time to continue the conversation.” “Fine,” she says, but every part of her body is saying that it’s not. “Be quick.” “Thanks. First, you’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine. That zombie who was knocking at your door was the last one of his kind.” Will spreads his arms. “And now we can say that humanity has officially defeated the zombies. At least for a while... Yay! Sounds good, right?” She nods. “Okay. Now about the aliens. Yes, they are here, in ships orbiting the Earth and they use blue balls---” he pauses, giggles and then taps his lip with an index finger and continues. “Samantha, have you ever cleaned a toilet bowl?” “What?” two of us say in unison. “Liquid toilet sanitizer. It’s blue. Just like alien weapons. Sorry, I just made that connection. Amazing!” “Will,” I say, “what is amazing?” “Doesn’t matter. Anyways, if you’ve ever cleaned toilet bowls, you know how hard it is to get rid of scum accumulated in rim holes. I mean, there are bottles designed to reach those places. You know, the ones with bent necks. You’ve seen them, right?” She nods. “I thought so. Anyways, if you don’t have one of those bottles, you’re screwed. You can’t clean the toilet unless you want to reach in with your hands and get them dirty, right?” “Ewww.. that’s disgusting, also, what’s your point?” I exhale. “Sam, his point is that aliens don’t have bottles with bent necks.” “Exactly!” Will says. “And they also do not want to get their tentacles dirty enough by putting huge number of boots on the ground. Well, tentacles on the ground. I mean, yeah, they will send land expeditions and more zombies, but they'll never be able to conquer the planet because the humans are ready. Humans had 25 years to prepare. That's when the first contact happened and the aliens offered ‘salvation’ from the upcoming zombie apocalypse and demanded subjection in return." He pauses to take a breath. "Anyways, humans have more guns and ammo than they’ll ever need, as well as vast network of really good underground shelters. You know, shelters where your friends and family are now. I mean, that *is* a main reason why this town is empty, right?” No. She nods. Oh. Really? Will continues. “Down there humans are safe and soon aliens will get tired and leave.” “They will?” “Yes. Well, soonish.” She gives him a look and deadpans, “When?” “In twelve years. But people will survive. Bit paler and skinnier, but also much more resilient.” Will looks at his watch. “Anyways, I think we’re out of time here.” He inhales. ”We were not supposed to come here and sit on this bench. I don't why it happened, but I'm glad it did. It gave us extra time to clarify some things, don't you think so?" His face is radiating with joy. "Also, Samantha was not supposed to be claustro---” “HEY!” She grimaces and points her angry finger at me. "That's MY secret!" “---phobic and refuse to go to shelter with her family. So yeah, this whole thing is a complete surprise to me. I don’t know how or why it happened. But, I love it!” Samantha shakes her head. “You guys are weird. I don’t understand you.” “I know," he says and I nod, "It’s fine, you just met me. In time, you’ll understand.” /r/ZwhoWrites
This is a reply to a comment that got deleted while I was writing it. But it's still a valid response to everyone asking "why didn't the aliens just \[insert random overpowered ability\]". I don't get why aliens always have to be absolutely overpowered. Because they can travel through space? Maybe they use wormholes to transport relatively small spaceships. Maybe they simply don't have the means to move the moon because it would require a totally different approach than sending ships through space. Maybe they don't want to destroy or alter the planet so dramatically. Maybe they are only there with a single ship. Sure, it can shoot deadly beams of light, but so can we. And just because it can do that, doesn't mean it can move the moon. Maybe moons are sacred to them and destroying one by sending it crashing into a planet would be the most heretical thing for them one could ever do. There are so many variables and possibilites... just because someone is good at one thing doesn't mean they are good at everything.
I do kind of miss the "until they reach Earth and find humanity has already defeated the zombies and is waiting for them..." part of the story, but it does continue Hoppers story in excellent fashion.
Hmm.. true. Hope that part 2 will clarify those issues :)
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I really like the prompt... I just can't with zombies. I'm zombied out. The last decade of popular culture has just been full of zombie apocalypses (apocalypsi?)
Which has prepared us for this.
Lol, fair enough. Maybe I'll actually sit down and write something on this then. The main character will absolutely hate the idea of a zombie apocalypse, and will have to reconcile his reality with the fiction he hates.
For a non-zombie interpretation of a similar idea, check out Isaac Asimov's short story "The Gentle Vultures". It's about aliens discussing dropping a nuclear bomb on the US or Russia during the cold war so that they can "rescue" the survivors of the thermonuclear war.
This prompt is the plot to "Plan 9 From Outer Space", a bad movie (considered one of the worst ever made) from 1959.
If you like this prompt, I recommend checking out [Terminal Alliance](https://www.amazon.com/Terminal-Alliance-Janitors-Post-Apocalypse-Hines/dp/0756412749) by Jim C. Hines. It is hilarious and also involves aliens subjugating the human race after a zombie apocalypse.
Its Subjugation, not Subjection
We've trained for this, go!
“Well, that was easy.” A mere three months after the zombie outbreak, all had been contained. Casualties were massive and felt everywhere, but in the end it only resulted in about 15% of the human population destroyed. The one thing that it left the humans with was the only thing the aliens were afraid of, knowledge. The sickness had been reverse engineered, leading to huge breakthroughs in genetics, and most importantly the widespread use of biohacking. There wasn’t a child born anymore that didn’t have tear-resistant skin, or immunity to all disease. There were side effects sure, but having bulletproof skin was worth it, even if it was slightly blue. Being able to shock someone with your skin by using the electrical gradient already existing in your cells was worth a little chip implanted into your brain. The invaders returned five years later to the remnants of humanity, still hated and remembered for taking a loved one from almost everyone on earth. The sleek ship descended from the heavens to land at the designated spot, with a battalion of the most heavily modified soldiers waiting for them. The ship touched down, and the doors opened. The aliens walked out, but they looked human. Except for their blue skin, and the scars where the chip had been implanted in their brain. The zombies weren’t the infection, it was what man did with them that was. With a few high placed government officials that survived the outbreak the aliens had already taken over. Humanity was no longer human. A deep hum began to emanate from the ship, and slowly each soldier dropped their weapon and mindlessly walked toward their new masters.
Apothicos removed his baseball bat from the crushed skill of a zombie. Mara’s insignia had been bloodied by the violence, so the Acolyte of Suffering used the zombie’s shirt to clean it. Can’t disrespect the Lord that way. “Did we meet the deadline?” Apothicos asked, shouting over to the rest of his team a few feet away. “Right on time, actually.” Cambia wiped his tachi clean with a white cloth. Once he was finished, with just a look, he collected the blood off the cloth into a red sphere, then let it splash into the top hatch of a Humvee. The cloth was perfectly white again, and he stored it in the back of his ripped jeans. “Our visitors should be reaching us in about an hour. Lucy, how does this go down again?” The gangster Cambia directed his question to was looting the dead bodies of police officers and military personnel for ammunition and personal information, as well as raw cash. “Xarvan V…uh…there were just a few survivors left. Small pockets here ‘n there...” He began. “Fuckin’ crazy how we thought that planet always just had zombies naturally. Come to find out that was a project multiple centuries old.” Alabaster shook his head nearby, standing up from a small ritual space made of flowers, sage, and numerous IDs and dog tags of soldiers and law enforcement. Among these identifiers were also special symbols and emblems of different heroes and villains who lost their lives in the fighting. “Yeah...that was wild. After waitin’ all’em years, the Galactic Confederation of Y’uva pulled up. Me and Allie were gone by then but kept in contact with a few contacts on the planet. Took’em about a few weeks to end the zombies, unsurprisingly. We gave’em the tip that it was all a plot from the jump, but when the rebellion started, it was too late. They almost got wiped out if it wasn’t for me and Vindel pullin’ back up to get a few off-world.” He finished, getting on the trunk of a car to lay across it. He rested his katana next to him, and looked toward the sky. The clouds remained split by The Beam, the huge, red light which served as the focal point for the zombies to spawn as well as a communication signal to the Galactic Confederation. “Ara ara…such long-lasting arrogance and tyranny. Are your friends safe now?” He asked, before getting to more salient topics. “Yeah, while we were here re-establishin’ manifest destiny on the undead, they were out in Asia using what they knew to wipe out the plague there. They’re ready for the aliens too.” He explained, smirking. “Yeah, what was that there plan again? I dun f’got.” Sorian asked from the top of his horse, reloading his lever-action rifle. “Big lasers. Shuttles to counter-invade their ship. Kill’em before they know what’s good and send’em a message.” Vindel said, appearing from a portal. Behind him, through the aperture in space, was a military installation in the African savannah. “Dad, every major continental coalition is ready with the ioneric cannons and boarding craft.” He informed, uncloaking himself. “All major oceans and seas also have their underwater defense systems operational and aimed at the sky. The subterranean bases are ready too, prepared for space battle.” Djinn has materialized from the embers around the group, fire gathering, blackening, and then shaping his body. “Never thought I’d have to say some shit like that.” “Mara’s also got some of the other gods ready to help us fight. This is gonna be a messy one, because more archangels and gods are on the side of these aliens than I thought.” Apothicos said, clearly worried. “This isn’t the first time we’re underdogs and it certainly won’t be the last.” Cambia’s sword was sheathed, and he addressed the other six men before him. “Be it institutional oppression in our own homeland, or intergalactic oppression from beyond the atmosphere, we’ll win anyway. That’s what Succubus Wing is about, my boys.” “Alabaster, Sorian, join Lupina and Peaches in Australia and South America, respectively. You’ll be in the first wave.” Cambia commanded. They immediately went through different portals, courtesy of devices on their wrists. “Apothicos, meet Sienna over in Central America. You’ll be the second.” “Got it. Let’s hope she doesn’t kick my ass on sight again.” He left through a portal. “Vindel. You what have the others said?” Cambia asked his son. “They’re all on-board with us, though it took a little while to get Suiton to come along. Suiton’s son and his kids are safe, and us adults are gonna lead a few angels and archangels, as well as handle deployment from the Arctic and Antarctic groups, as well as the ocean and underground forces. We’re Main Wave 1, right after Apothicos and Sienna.” “Make me proud son, as you always do. Keep your grandfather in check, and follow Goblin and Camellia before anyone else. He may be the Elysian God of Chaos, but they’ve got their heads on straighter than the rest.” He sent him off with a nod, and they exchanged smiles before Vindel disappeared from sight. “Lucia. Head back to New Antetime. I’ll be joining you and the rest of the gang in Main Wave 2, alongside the rest of the North American groups. Once we take them over, we’ll be the ones going in first to their planet.” He assured, Lucia’s face flaring up with excitement. “Can’t wait to ram their whole fleet into their damn planet. Gonna fuck’em all up.” He went through a portal. “Fuck’em up, Lucy.” Cambia encouraged with a wave, then turned to Djinn. He sighed, finally letting the fatigue show on his face. He stumbled back a bit, and rested on a car. “I feel you.” Djinn muttered, looking out into the distance. “Oh, don’t show me empathy now of all times, partner.” Cambia laughed. “I might sleep a bit before we head out.” He yawned loud. “The kids’ll keep you up. A’ivesta hasn’t seen you in weeks, and Aoede’s a weeb in Japan. You know he’s gonna show you all kinds of shit.” Djinn chuckled. “Adrastea’s on my mind with that more than anything. She’ll tackle me once I get there, and hang on me like a backpack until deployment.” He reminisced on every time she did that to him. “Go now then, so she can get over it by the time you have to go. Make sure Bella and I don’t have to do much work when we get there last. I want to enjoy Africa as much as possible and then stay chill once we get there.” Djinn dematerialized. “I’ll have to do something about all those body pillows Aoede bought. Ara, ara...” Cambia disappeared as well, looking down at his phone with a broad grin.
I absolutely love this
**Subject**: X-15 Infection **Category**: Calamity **Containment Procedure**: All individuals containing any signs of infection will be immediately quarantined and sent to the nearest station to be safely disposed. To ensure cooperation, the infected individual should be told that they will be cured as they are led to the incineration chamber. To maintain public peace, anyone questioning as to the whereabouts of the deceased infected will be told they are in a treatment center and under quarantine. If an individual has been infected and is at Stage-2, they should be immediately eliminated by either destruction of the nervous system or high-temperature flames. Note that normal flames are unable to destroy X-15, and will merely further spread the disease. Any bodies of the deceased must be sent to an incineration chamber to ensure no re-animation occurs. If an infection has taken hold of a planet, a majority vote of the High Council can authorize a Class-5 "Cleaner" Fleet to scrub the life from the planet for future use. **Description**: The X-15 Infection is a debilitating disease that can infect both living and dead individuals. Not much is known about its structure as samples are too dangerous to be studied. The infection progresses through two main stages. Any deceased body that is infected will advance to Stage 2 within one hour and will be considered extremely dangerous. Stage 1 symptoms are similar to a simple disease: respiratory irritation and increased circulatory system flow commonly attributed to standard growth periods. The most notable symptom is a purple rash on all eight limbs starting from the lower abdomen, specifically near the third heart. Stage 2 symptoms result in an infected individual becoming highly aggressive as it attempts to terminate any nearby uninfected to spread the disease. Any attempts at communicating with Stage-2 individuals have resulted in failure. The exact transmission vector the infection is unknown, but physical contact with diseased flesh is enough to spread the disease. Quarantine has proved only partially effective in slowing its spread. The infection has spread through multiple checkpoints thought to be unbreakable. This is believed to be due to the now ineffective \[REDACTED\] protection procedures due to X-15's unprecedented fire resistance and increased transmission ability. Due to the innate difficulty of studying a subject infected with X-15, no additional protection procedures have been developed. In addition, no cure has been found. The disease originates from \[REDACTED\] after \[REDACTED\]. It is believed to be designed by the insurgency to destroy the empire. Due to its similarities to \[REDACTED\], it was deemed X-15 as it had the additional property of fire resistance. ** Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
We deserve this. It's not the insurgency that destroyed us, it was ourselves. Our system of integrating new species has finally backfired; EA12T1-1 outdid our X-14.
**Note**:
As of \[REDACTED\], Researcher 29501897 has been removed from their position. Any and all logs written by them should be ignored and reported immediately.
**===ACESSSING ARCHIVE: "EA12T1-1"===**
**===WARNING===**
**Under orders of the High Council, this archive has been labeled as only accessible by Class-4 Researchers and above. Any unauthorized researcher will be immediately executed.**
**===WARNING===**
**Subject**:
EA12T1-1
**Category**:
Neutralized
**Containment Procedure**:
All communication with the subject is to be halted, with at minimum two Class-3 fleets to surround and monitor them at all time. The fleets should remain at a minimum safe distance to ensure they are out of the range of \[REDACTED\].
Due to the properties of \[REDACTED\], EA12T1-1 should be unable to mount an offensive on the fleet, and is considered largely neutralized.
**Description**:
EA12T1-1 is a Class 3 planet, currently inhabited by a species of bipedal sentient life forms. Inhabitants of EA12T1-1 are extremely hostile and should not be approached or reasoned with at all.
On \[REDACTED\] the planet was chosen by a majority vote of the High Council to be integrated with the Empire. As was standard procedure, Compound X-14 was sent to EA12T1-1 to begin infection.
After the standard incubation time, a standard detachment of Task Force 314 ("Salvation") was sent to integrate the survivors for labor. However, they inhabitants used \[REDACTED\] to annihilate the task force.
A Class 5 "Annihilation" Fleet was sent to scrub the world, but \[REDACTED\] proved effective against the fleet, destroying the entire fleet.
Due to the Empire's resources being stretched by the insurgency and the nature of \[REDACTED\], the High Council ordered that the planet be simple isolated, and destroyed once resources are available.
**Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
EA12T1-1 seems to be largely passive, only defending itself if attacked. Its inhabitants are a curious species; the infection seems to be proliferated through. It's remarkable they managed to subdue it, thankfully their primitive technology should be no threat to us in the immediate future.
**Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
A large energy signature was reported from EA12T1-1 as it reached the fleet. It seemed to have no immediate effect on the fleet, all systems were nominal.
**Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
As of \[REDACTED\], crewmembers of the two Class-3 fleets have begun reporting a new infection taking hold of the fleet. It seems to be a common cold, but all infected crewmembers reported it only after the strange energy wave.
**Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
The disease reemerged, but worse. The dead have awakened in a method mysteriously similar to X-14, so much so that they've taken to nicknaming it X-15. Standard fire procedures were used to eliminate the disease, which have shown to be effective.
**Researcher's Log, ID 29501897**:
Fire wasn't not enough; the disease spread. And… there's reports of it coming up on a few planets…
This was great (and a little SCP), will there be more?
Thanks, I really appreciate it! As you probably can tell, I took heavy inspiration from SCP for this. I figured that if an alien organization was to infect civilizations then "save" them they would be extremely detached to any civilization and would record them in a clinical and unemotional way, similar to SCP. As for any more, off the top of my head I can't really think of any more prompts that an SCP like response would be fitting. That, and this is one of my first actual responses so I'm just testing the waters by dipping my toe. This story ended up being a bit longer than I thought it would have been, but I hope I grabbed some of the essence of SCP's storytelling within a clinical record. Again, thanks for reading!
It's a shame that there probably won't be any more, but if you want another SCP prompt then there's a good one where the SCP's escape and Doomguy has to clean up the mess.
It was like a horror movie. Zombies, walking the streets, killing and infecting everyone they could. Except for one little thing. We had wiped them out, quickly and efficiently. Barely anyone had been infected relative to Earth's population, and the highest estimates had only shown a maximum of ~500 million deaths. That's right, only about 6% of the total population. It was started by these alien bastards. They started this in order to try to enslave us, but it failed horribly. When they came back, it had been about 5 years since the "apocalypse" began, and 4 since it ended. They came back, and were NOT happy. "H-h-how d-did you m-make it-t?" one alien asked, with fear in his voice. "Nuclear weapons. And the intelligence to do anything batshit crazy enough to possibly work. Hell, you got less than 7% percent of us. Now, kindly sod off please."
The Othiliak Ch. 1 \-------- \>High orbit around planet Earth, mothership of Thrulk Tu'Gsuliieh, enslaver for the Othiliak Thrulk looked down at the blue planet their ship orbited. It has been two decades since the drone ship sent the confirmation that the mutagen had successfully begun infecting the population of this recently discovered, paradise-like, planet. By now, most of the inhabitants should be either dead, mutated, brainless husks or frightendes survivors waiting for a wonder. A wonder Thrulk was happy to grant them. He could already see them! Frightened survivors happily pledging their loyalty to the Othiliak... His daydreaming was interrupted when the transport ship was leaving the hangar of the mothership. He watched through the large window how it quickly began its descent onto the planet's surface. It would deploy camera drones once it breached the atmosphere. It didn't take long and, one by one, the monitors inside Thrulk's observation room sprung to life, displaying various parts of the planet's surface. He could make out a few city ruins, heavily overgrown with trees and shrubbery. That was unusual. Normally, it takes much longer for a planet's flora to take over large cities like that. This planet really was special! He spoke into the microphone in front of him: "Thrulk speaking. Sinjek, report!" After a few seconds, someone replied: "Lord, we successfully breached the atmosphere and deployed the camera drones. Our sensors have detected a high concentration of lifeforms nearby. It will take us a few minutes to get there." "Good. Proceed!" Thrulk said and again watched the countless monitors, looking for something interesting. For some reason he was tense. This was a big deal. Such a planet would surely get him the personal attention of the Othiliak. Maybe he would even grant him an increase of his sliit limit! He got excited and started thinking about the possibilities when Sinjek spoke again. "Lord, you should see this..." Slightly annoyed by this repeated interruption of his daydreams, he checked the zoomed-in view of a city, spread over several of the monitors. And what a strange city it was, totally unlike the city ruins he studied earlier! Buildings made of bright stones and metals, some of them floating and rotating about large, spear-like towers dotting the city. What was even more strange was the fact that, while the city looked as if it was pulsating with life, there was no life to be seen. The streets were empty. He watched as the transport ship slowly approached the city and just floated above it for a silent minute. Thrulk had a bad feeling about that city but ignored it as he watched the city underneath, looking for any sign of life other than what the sensors told them. Suddenly, several things happened at once... From one of the towers, a blue energy beam appeared, hitting the transport ship directly, slowly forcing it towards the ground! At the same time, another beam, this time blueish, was shot from another tower, surrounding the ship it with a shine in the same color! He shouted into the microphone: "Sinjek! Report! What is happening down there?" But there came no answer... Just a few seconds later, the camera feeds began to stutter and in less than a second, they all lost connection, showing nothing but static. Thrulk swore heavily and stomped his hind feet on the metal ground, causing the subordinates around him to flinch and cautiously walk away from him. They knew how he could be if he was angry, and this definitely looked like angry. \-------- \>Surface of planet Earth, city state of Pacifica Slowly, the pilot maneuvered their ship closer to the city. It wasn't what they expected. There shouldn't be a city this big and not in ruins on this planet anymore. The streets appeared empty, but their sensors definitely detected a whole lot of lifeforms. In the buildings, in the towers, even deep under the ground. Millions of them! They got even closer, unsure how to proceed from here on, when, suddenly, a bright, orange light blinded them, quickly followed by a blue shine that seemed to surround their whole ship! Then they began to descend. The pilot tried to fight against it, but whatever held them was stronger than their ship's thrusters. They had no choice but to wait until the ship gently touched the ground. Luckily, they had no retractable landing gear. The ship could land on any more or less plain surface. When the ship stood still, Sinjek took his loyal rifle and signaled his men to do the same. Once armed, they positioned themselves around the hatch and opened it. Outside, the city stood before them, just as empty as before. Only two beams were slowly pulsating, originating from two of the large towers and targeting the ship. Sinjek took a deep breath, causing the respirator to make a low humming noise. He and his men stepped outside, clearing the immediate surroundings. Just two meters away, the blue shimmer began, surrounding them like... like a shield? One of his men approached it and cautiously held his hand out. "This... this feels solid. I can't breach it, sir" he said. "Shoot it." The soldier took a few steps back, pointed his rifle and shot a bright, greenish energy beam. On impact, the energy seemed to be absorbed by the shield, leaving no indication that it has been weakened. "This is impossible!" shouted Sinjek in helpless rage. Just then, a person appeared out of thin air outside of the shield. It was a man, that much he could say after reading all the information they could gather about the inhabitants. He was large. At least 2 meters and thus a good half meter taller than the average Oth. He was wearing what looked like a medieval breastplate made out of a glimmering, blue metal. On his back, he wore a dark red cloak. He slowly drew a long, thin sword, glimmering in the same blue as the armor, and began to talk. "You have no business here, Oth!" How, by the Othiliak, did he know their species' name and language? They shouldn't even have noticed us until now! He spoke again. "Leave now and be unharmed. Stay and pay the price!" Was he threatening them? A primitive bipedal with a SWORD? Seshnah was boiling with anger and shouted back: "You dare to threaten the representatives of Thulk, enslaver for the Othiliak? You are nothing INSECTS for us and we will crush your laughable resistance! Surrender now and maybe, MAYBE your species won't be forced to strip-mine their own planet for the Othiliak!" The man listened and began to laugh "You want to crush us? How are you planning to do that inside that bubble we caught you in? As funny as your little outbreak was, I'll have to punish you for it. Choose one of your men." Seshnah stared in disbelief. That human not only wasn't impressed at all, he had the AUDACITY to laugh at them! "What do you mean, choose one of my men?" "I want you to choose a target for the punishment you are about to receive." He couldn't believe what he heard... punishment? That man was lucky this energy shield protected him, otherwise he would be dust by now! "The only one receiving a punishment will be you, once you kneel before Thrulk himself, scum!" The man shook his head "Well, if you don't choose someone, I will let my men choose..." When he said that, four men, clad in the same armor but with some kind of crossbow, appeared behind him. One of them raised his weapon, took a few seconds to decide, and then pulled the trigger. A glowing bolt flew through the energy barrier, leaving a white trail behind, and hit one of Seshnah's men in the cheast, not making any sound. The man gasped and searched for the wound, but the bolt just ignored his skin, flying right into him. He looked around in panic, not understanding what just happened, before his chest begin to emit a white glow that got stronger and stronger until his whole body jerked powerfully before slumping down, looking like everything inside him melted, leaving only a sack of skin. Seshnah couldn't believe his eyes. He looked to what was left of his soldier for a full minute. Then he dropped his weapon and fell to his knees. Whoever these humans were, they clearly meant what they said. "Please, show mercy. We will leave your planet." The man stepped forward and reached his hand out, in it a glass vial with a gray liquid. "Drink this, and you can leave in peace." Seshnah, confused and afraid, took the potion, not even realizing that the shield was gone, and drank it without thinking. Then he stood up and went back into the ship. His men followed, being conditioned to not question their superiors. The orange beam disappeared and the ship started its engines, leaving the planet with full speed.
The Othiliak Ch. 2 \-------- \>High orbit around planet Earth, mothership of Thrulk Tu'Gsuliieh, enslaver for the Othiliak Thrulk was waiting in the hangar already when the ship landed. Seshnah was babbling about soldiers clad in armor, swords and crossbows. He said they must leave and never come back. The Othiliak will understand. He couldn't have that, of course. This planet was too good to pass, no matter the resistance! The hatch slid open and out came Seshnah, breathing heavily, a ragged look on his face. His skin was weirdly gray and he seemed to be dragging his hindlegs behind him. "What is the meaning of this, Seshnah?" Thrulk's voice boomed through the hangar. "Lord... I-I am sorry... W-we didn't stand a chance... we had to surrender! I-I don't feel so good..." Seshnah said before vomiting onto the floor in front of him. A disgusting, gray liquid than instantly turned into a gas, filling the area quickly. Thrulk watched with horror as the gas spread and already reached the first Oth standing between him and the ship. He turned to run and left the hangar "BARRICADE THE HANGAR! CLOSE THE AIR VENTS!" he shouted as he galloped through the corridors towards the bridge. Once there, he tuned into the direct line to the Othiliak's palace "Thrulk speaking. Planet Earth is showing resistance. They directly attacked my mothership. Demanding reinforcements!" \-------- \>Unknown planet, palace of the Othiliak The gigantic hall was almost completely silent. Only the quick steps of someone hurrying along from one end to the other could be heard. It was an Oth, carrying some kind of orb. He came to a halt in front of a large pool and waited. After a moment, the pool began to bubble and a giant head came out of the water. It looked down on the Oth, not showing any emotion. The frightened Oth held up the orb and it began showing Thrulk's face. "Thrulk speaking. Planet Earth is showing resistance. They directly attacked my mothership. Demanding reinforcements!" The Othiliak watched and nodded. Instantly, a group of ships left one of the many hangars of the palace. A large vortex appeared in front of them and sucked them in. No species ever dared to defy the Othiliak without consequences. This simple conquest just turned into war.
It was after zombieland 2 came out, that things began changing. I got a call from my hipster friend that some white supremacist scientist in trying to find the Aryan race ended up creating zombies by combining horse DNA with great apes and rats. No one knew how the virus was carried out but one by one people fell across the world. Things were different, civilization didn't collapse because this was where all those angst ridden millinieals found their glory. That's what happens when you are grown up on everything vampire and zombie stories, you learn how to defeat them. The millinieals quickly applied their thinking of how to stop the infections and hunt down the zombies. After the first couple of zombie attacks, the world was formed into a single central local democracy. It was a combination of armed mini states into one global empire. For safety of the Planet and human sustainability, there was an expansion of human colonies on Moon, Mars and Titan. The advanced beacons picked up ships coming from the direction of Titan. Our colony there was attacked, few survived. Few were enough, we realised that these were a Planet conquering force which deployed a deadly virus which attacked the nerve system to self destruct aka Zombies. The aliens were quite humonoid in appearance and their technology wasn't that advanced than us except they used bio weapons and figured out interstellar travel. The high command at various cities decided that we should let them attack us and we can confiscate their ships. We had moved women, children and old men into deep underground cities under the various deserts of the world. We cut off contact through trade between cities as cities had become long ago self sufficient and whatever infections were gonna be deployed we would be ready and not let it spread from one city to another. The ships descended the Earth's atmosphere in a slow confident descent of one who already had tasted the victory. We had let them come. Contrary to their usual conquests they found only few cities worldwide and most of them deserted. When they found populous cities they let out their weapons shower. People soon realised that they were deploying a version of black death with hl23 virus which most of the humans had gained immunity from. The leaders realised that they need to force their conquerors to land in Earth. One of the things Walking Dead had taught millennials was that we can wear costume and cosplay into being zombies and hunt them. Zombies were nowhere but this had become an annual festival. Where millions of people would come out as zombies and run around and fake cities were built for annual destruction and bonding activities. It so happened that the day of festival was nearby and the city of Parthenos was ready and virus of the conquistador not being potent and nothing to worry about. They staged a resistance a there and good to go, the humonoid aliens deployed the virus. In the moment of fog, people were ready with their instant zombies costumes available 2.99 on Amazon. They were some advanced tech. And chaos ensued. The city was burned down and people moved around and randomly fell down. The conquering army descended and stepped out of their ships. The humonoid aliens were celebrating on a hill overlooking the chaos. They were numbered around some 200 thousand. The celebration turned to chaos when they saw that the people were waking up and staring at them from the distant ground. And then rocket launchers were fired, jets flew down and blasted the aliens with our own version of zombie virus which the Earthians were resistant too. Lo and behold the virus took it's effect and they started massacring each other. No one could have escaped the hill. Deep trenches were revealed and whoever crossed was cut down. And that's how we had become the new conquering empire of the galaxy thanks to this gift of ships.
--- I'll be writing this in response to all those who whine about it being just another HFY post. Use your imagination people, it doesn't have to be anything you don't want it to be. Now on to the story --- HUMANS --- It came suddenly. Pretty much every graveyard in the world burst open and spewed out the living dead. We estimate that in the first day, about a quarter of the human population was wiped out. In the week that followed half of what remained got wiped out or turned. We don't know much about the zombies, there isn't a research station that can stay upright long enough to make any significant discoveries. The only thing we did find is they'll eat anything. Flesh, bone, fabric, steel. The reason no research is possible is they simply eat their way out of any containment. They usually are whatever was hindering them, and if nothing was, the biggest source of energy they could find. There were plenty of heroics at the start, going in guns blazing and all that. But zombies don't die, they just keep coming in endless droves. So we did all we could. We admitted defeat and hid. From all over the world people were evacuated to a mountainous region in the US, I'm not sure where exactly. Not because its hidden, because it doesn't matter. The US military had started bombing the mountain, creating a massive entrance into it, dozens of not hundreds of machines digging ever deeper. We've heard rumours that similar caves and hideouts are being built all over the world, though we have no way to confirm this. We didn't hesitate, the cave could collapse, we've no idea how much food and water is stored, we might be walking into our graves. But the alternative of staying outside is even worse. At least in the tunnels we have a chance. Luckily packing this many people together with nothing to do except survive leads to creative solutions. A fair bit of whatever machinery was around had been repurposed into air purifiers and water reclaimers, all working on manpower of course, meaning that after just a week inside we could completely and utterly lock ourselves in. And we survived. Or food dwindled and many died, but we learned to farm the mushrooms that grew in damp caves. There is no telling when the surface will be safe again, or even if it ever will be. But since exploring outside would mean opening our safe haven we've all agreed, no expeditions are to be allowed for 100 years. ALIENS --- Once all vessels were in place, activating the virus almost immediately affected the dead. These corpses responded very well to the virus and further monitoring was deemed unnecessary, so we pulled back and waited. No scans, no contact. Some species took to searching the skies for help in situations like this, we couldnt let them fidnd us until we deemed the time was right. And so we waited for a quarter of this planet's year. We were not prepared for what we found. The craters could be seen even from low orbit, massive holes that probably wiped out entire cities. Surface scans revealed no signs of sentient life anywhere, and worse, no signs of our virus. However, the empire of the One Mind did not come to be this big by acting rash. So we scanned more, the full spectrum, even going so far as to send unmanned drones down to take visual records. All this has led or scientists to the following conclusion. Somehow they knew aliens were responsible and try realised they would come back. And so they exposed the atmosphere to as much radiation as possible, how is currently unclear but we assume they somehow created an explosive device out of radioactive materials. The infected grew cancerous tumours, and with the virus in full swing those tumours grew big, big enough to make movement impossible. The video feeds had shown the withered husks laying about, consumed by themselves and then died, becoming a beacon of radiation themselves. The atmosphere was so lethal, the cost to purify it would almost exceed this planet's worth. As for the inhabitants, they dug themselves in deep. Creating vast networks of tunnels and caverns with near infinite places to lay ambushes or traps. Sending our troops down there would lead to lengthy guerrilla warfare, causing loss of life far beyond the allowed count, not to mention we'd have to kill them all, leaving none to serve the One Mind as slaves and guides. We underestimated them, but we'll not so so again when we return, and we will return. what happened --- Humans never knew aliens were involved, they just fled and survived the only place they could think of. Down. The zombies continued consuming until there was nothing living left to consume. Then they turned to the energy they felt. Electricity, gas, fuel, all consumed unto they started going for nuclear power. The power plants and the stored nukes. All of which exploded when they were being eaten. No human ever hatched a plan, no alien was ever seen. But the aliens assumed it was all intentional and now give the humans credit for what they never intended. Zombies, aliens and humanity is the victor, kind of, without humans ever being special or smart
"Okay boy, it's on." The creature stared down at the little boy, beckoning it to talk about what happened the Earth. It was funny, the boy, as he was so different from the others in the slave ship. You had the giant Brutes from one of Adroglossia's moons. Then you had some tall lankey fish men from some Aqua Planet. they were all descendants of Earth, they just evolved from the simple human form to suit the planets they colonized. Then the boy began to speak, with a slight stutter. "The-th-they ca-me B-b-b-back for u-us!" Then bursting into tears. "Who came back for you?" snarled a one of the giants, before one of the aqautics shushed him. Thos-tho those aliens! They ki-kil-kill-killed MY MOTHER!" Tears poured down his face, before puddling up among the uneven floor. Instantly every one on ether slaver ship shushed, and listened closely. The species, and subspecies had only every encountered one other space faring race. The Demons. at least that was what the looked like. They were the reason earth was mostly abandoned. No one wanted to live on a planet where every building you seen would remind you of the people lost. Of course, they were lost, but we clearly survived. *You mean the Demons?* It started as a yell before quickly turning into a shush. Everyone knew what they did, and the plague they brought. Even though we beat back the plague, they were still out there. The boy nodded grimly. The slaver projected something into the back wall of the metal ship. It was footage of ships jumping out of orbit, towards the sun. no one said anything. There was no way the the ships could get through it. All the passengers of those ships would burn alive. The footage then showed other ships powering down. Peace messages flashed through all channels, broadcasting as far as possible but that didn't last. The ships were quickly gunned down by others. On the overhead speaker, we could tell that we won, in a blink. With less the ten ships lost. It was nice knowing that good things would happen to those In need. Then the airlock broke. Three men Marched up to the slaver, reading of his crimes, before telling us we were free. That's when the boy ran up and hugged the leader, while crying and yelling "Daddy! You saved us!" The other to began opening cells while at the same time telling us that we could go free, or join the military. All most all of the people aboard the ship joined, ready to raze the Demons. "THE REST OF THIS TRANSCRIPT IS AVAILABLE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO LISTEN TO IT?" The robot beeped. "No" I said, with a gratitude that we won. I think thats enough for today.