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

Because of this belief, they wouldn't let the federal government be neutered until the Terran Space Command came into existence. Pre-invasion, the South made up roughly forty percent of the military, after all.

In my opinion, President Rosita should get the Nobel Peace Prize and every other award that can be given. Her ideas and contributions to the TSC were staggering in their reach and accomplishments. She was able to nurture a new military force that wouldn't have ties to any nation but to humanity as a whole. I'll be honest, I didn't think they could do it, but they did, and because of that, the world is a much safer place.

Yes, yes, I know the TSC can't interfere in world affairs, but just because of its existence, many countries de-militarized to a large extent. Even with the money America gives to the TSC, we still reduced our military spending by more than half. Not to mention, there was no real point in having a navy anymore, not when we could transport freight through space so much cheaper. I know China completely closed down the South China Sea, but they can have it now. No one needs it anymore. After the peace accords were signed by almost every country globally, I think everyone breathed easier. We all knew we had more significant worries out there.

There have been critics who complained you led the charge for states' rights due to the tobacco money coming in.

(He laughs.) Come now, young man, I expect you to know the answer to that already. The legislation for states' rights came before we even knew tobacco could be exported to our new alien friends. And I won't apologize for the success tobacco has brought to my state and other states in the South. Before our new alien friends sold us our new medical technology, I would have been first in line to recommend you stop smoking. I was a smoker myself, and I know the damage it can do, but that was then. Anyway, most of what North Carolina grows now goes directly to export and not use.

What do you say to those who say the legislation killed the United States?

Nonsense! The U.S. still exists, and we are still united, the difference being each state has more power to govern its people. We are more in line now with what the founding fathers wanted. Human rights is still a federal issue and many others, but the people now have more power than they've had in the last century, and that was the goal of all of this. I'm still proud to be an American, but I'm also pleased to be a Tar Heel.

Keith Oakley

Houston, Texas

Night has fallen in downtown Houston, but the city remains lit as construction crews work around the clock. The cadence of jackhammers and the rumbling of excavators and dump trucks pollute the air of the now almost deserted city that once was one of America's largest. Keith Oakley agrees to meet me at the site he's working at, telling me it's the only time he has.

Keith is the cliché picture of a construction worker. His blond hair, bleached almost white, clashes with his dark, tanned skin to give him the rugged, outdoor look. He's wearing a construction hat and safety vest over his flannel shirt, which is unbuttoned a few buttons. His blue jeans are tucked into his brown, steel-toed boots as he walks over bricks, steel, and dirt to meet me.

We walk to a small, FEMA-style trailer that's used as his office. He sits down, leans back, and waves me to a metal folding chair across from his blueprint-covered desk.

Alright. What do you want to know? An interview on what's happening with all of this? That's a bit strange, but whatever floats your boat.

Well, for me, this started about six months before the war officially ended, right after the 2nd battle of D.C. I think that was in May, but I'm not sure. The battle was over, we finished off the last of the Veech in the city, and a lot of us were hoping to go home. It wasn't to be. I was with 2nd Division, and we were ordered to cut through Pennsylvania and head to Delaware and New Jersey. We weren't happy about it, but we knew we needed to clear every state on the East Coast. That took another few months, but we had total control of the city by then, so it was a lot easier to pick off the stragglers. We encountered a few groups of Veech who were trying to make some trouble, but that was it.

Then one day, our company was gathered and our captain told us that we were disbanding. He asked for volunteers to help out in other places but told us we didn't have to. That was enough for me. I had been away from my family for almost a year since the final push started.

My family was still in the mountains, near Pilot Mountain, with thousands of other families. Conditions there weren't horrible, but they weren't great either. I wanted them out of those mountains and with me as soon as possible. So, I headed back to our home in Williamsburg, Virginia. When I got home, I found our house still standing, but a lot of the homes on the street weren't. Some had been burned, while others had just fallen into neglect and a few looked chewed up from gunfire. Who knows how any of it happened?

My background is in construction, so I found my tools and started to put my house back to rights. It wasn't that bad, honestly, so I decided to do something about the place next to ours when I finished. It was gone, burnt to the concrete foundation. The house had been a rental and was vacant at the time of the attacks, so I didn't think anyone would care if I cleaned it up.

I found an old excavator lying around, found