Invasion Day: An Oral History of the Veech War by Micah Gurley (good books for high schoolers .TXT) 📕

fall and disappear. I had my phone out, and I just stood there, hoping I could see another one. I thought it was a falling comet or something.

That's when I saw the water move like a shark was coming at me. Like when the water surges on both sides, with something big in the middle. I started to get scared at this point, but it all happened so fast. Then, suddenly, it stopped. I stood there for a few more minutes, my heart racing when it came out of the water. I didn't know what I was seeing at first.

It looked like a man, well, kind of. It looked like a weird-shaped man with an enormous head and glowing skin. I couldn't see details well because it was sparkly, like, umm, well, you know. It looked like it was covered in shiny plastic. I know now that it was a personal shield of some type. But at the time, all I could do was stare at it as it stopped about ten meters away from me. I couldn't move. I was scared.

We both stood like that, the alien moving his head from side to side, looking at the beach. It didn't say anything, not a sound, just kept looking. Then it looked at me again, turned and walked back into the water. I already had my smartphone out, with the camera open, so I took a quick picture, then it was gone.

I turned around, swam back, and hoped the thing wasn't following me. When I reached my friends, I told them about what had happened. Some of them laughed even after I showed them the picture! They didn't believe me or thought I might have seen a diver or something. Others thought it was a ghost, and that scared them much more than an alien.

Did you call the police?

He laughs again.

Nobody calls the police unless you have money to give them. They were more likely to take me to a crazy hospital than help me. No, I sat on the beach, next to my friends, and then put it on social media as any good Vietnamese youth would. (laughs.) Most people said the photo was faked or that I was trying to get likes. Nobody took it seriously. Now, I just feel lucky I survived. It still scares me to think about it. I still wonder what it was doing. It wasn't until later that I realized it was the first picture of the Veech. Of course, the whole world found out three days later.

Colonel Nathan Kratz

The Pentagon, Washington D.C.

Colonel Nathan Kratz's office is in a large room with unadorned walls. Bare fluorescent bulbs hang from the ceiling, filling the room with light. Clutter fills the office, with manuals lining the walls, chairs, and an old wooden desk. Behind the desk sits Colonel Kratz. He's a small man who doesn't fill out his Air Force uniform. Thin with short black hair and wire-rimmed glasses, he leans back in a leather chair, with a knee resting on his gunmetal desk.

You want to know what everyone else wants to know, right? Why didn't we know about the aliens? I don't have all the answers; you need to talk to someone higher – if you can find one left alive. Look, I'm a colonel, and I'm only thirty-eight, and that's because high command was gutted.

We lost thousands of admirals, generals, commanders, and colonels at the Pentagon. In short, they cut off our head. We had contingencies, but it left us reeling.

Most of the military people who knew earlier than the populace – and there weren't many of them – were here or in Houston, so they're dead. Shouldn't have placed all our brass in big cities I quess. I was based in NORAD at the time, so I got lucky, but our ranks were thin out there. I can tell you what I know, but others have pieced it together a lot better than me. I think most of it is unclassified now, so anyone can see it.

I'll give you the same answers I've given everybody else. We didn't see them. We didn't even know where they transitioned in at. Hell, we didn't realize you could transition because we didn't have the technology back then. We know now that you can only transition beyond the heliosphere, which is nine billion miles from Earth. Nine billion!

They could have hit a Lagrange point to transition into, which would have been a lot closer, but we've learned that most species won't use a Lagrange point without doing some very fine science to make sure it won't rip their ships apart. And to be honest, they didn't need to. All they had to do was transition far enough away that the chances of us seeing them were low, and even if we did see them, so what? We couldn't do anything about it.

We had telescopes that could see that far, of course, but space is enormous, and we weren't looking for visiting aliens. Anyway, the Veech transitioned in, then used good, old-fashioned propulsion to get here. Based on the information we've gotten from other space-faring races, the Veech might have been observing us for a while though, checking us out or laughing at us. Who knows? We know they launched a few stealth shuttles at us before launching their invasion, but we don't know much more than that.

I know I've said it before but the science was theoretical to us. We just didn't have the knowledge to understand it, much less expect it. The Planetary Defense Coordination Office finally picked them up at seven million miles, and it was reported immediately but got snagged at almost every office on the way up. People would see the report about an alien ship, think it was a joke, and either ignore it or ream out a subordinate for playing a stupid joke. Well, It finally made it up the chain but by that time the Veech were