The Rain: The End by Marietta Standlee (good summer reads TXT) 📕

"They are on to us." One of Briggs's soldiers states neutrally.

I look at the man sharply, his face, a mask of concentration does not show any fear or any other emotion, other than single-minded focus on the screen in front of him. He tabs furiously on it.

We bank again, and something zooms by before locking in on whatever it is the soldier ejected. Both explode on top of a skyscraper, almost taking it down. I feel useless being forced to watch all these soldiers concentrate on their work while all I can do is try to keep my balance and stare out the screen to watch the drama unfold. Several other ships have launched as well as anti-air missiles. I guess the Gorongiaths didn't send all their AF out to fight the Phinaruhs. Pity.

Colin walks over to me, and I dive under his arm; if we are to die, I at least want to do so in his arms. A missile sent from one of our ships hits an enemy, and the vessel crashes into the streets, taking parts of several buildings with it before it explodes.

Staring out the double windows, I can't distinguish friend from foe. I don't even know how many alien ships are in the air. My eyes fall on another soldier's screen. I watch different colored dots on it with interest, some red, some yellow, with yellow being the predominant color. I sincerely hope the yellow dots represent us. Not for the first time I wish I had paid more attention during one of the many meetings I was forced to attend, sure this was discussed in detail, but unable to recall the information.

Briggs' soldiers continue to unload bombs, hitting and decimating buildings. While at the same time fighting off alien ships and anti-missile strikes. The rest of our fleet follows the same pattern, and soon, the damage we inflict becomes clear as the once sprawling city begins to look like a wasteland of rubble.

Briggs changes course. For a few minutes, we fly over brownish mountains before another city comes into view, and we start the same process over. Attacks on us peter out as the aliens lose their few ships one by one, and all that is left is their anti-air-missiles.

"What's our damage?" Colin asks.

"Eleven down." Briggs answers. "And nearly fifty of the aliens," she adds with a forced grin.

"Alright, let's go to Koboyotan," he orders.

Briggs relays the order to the other ships, and we pull up back into the atmosphere. Leaving a trail of destruction and devastation behind.

As before, we bomb several cities, causing as much panic and havoc as possible. Our goal is to leave a wave of terror the Gorongiaths won't soon forget. A wave bringing so much hurt that the Gorongiath citizen will cry out to their leaders to leave Earth for fear of another attack.

Many cities remain untouched; it would take weeks, maybe months, to destroy every town on the three planets. But our goal wasn't to utterly destroy the triple planets; we just need to send a message. And from the looks of the devastation, we surely did.

We repeat the same process on the last planet. Between the Russians and us, we lose a-hundred-seventy-four ships and countless lives, but we did it. If the aliens don't retreat from our world after this, I don't know what it would take to make them do so.

Chapter 9

"Have you lost your minds? You killed millions of people!"

"Gorongiaths." Colin corrects the President dryly. "Remember the aliens who killed billions of our race?"

McFarland's face turns first white and then red as it contorts into a mask of rage on the screen in front of us.

"Millions! We were just getting somewhere with them. I don't understand what possessed you to execute such an unbelievably horrific attack."

I exchange a flabbergasted look with Blake. We suspected the President would not be too happy with what we did, but we assumed the majority of his anger would stem from us leaving him in the dark on our plans.

This, however, we did not see coming. For two minutes straight, he has yelled at us through the screen. I watch Colin's twitching hands amused, knowing he is itching to turn the connection off.

"I have a mind to have you all arrested, and court martialed." He looks at Farnsworth.

Farnsworth leans back in his chair, his head propped against his folded arms behind it. His expression is one of a child who is reprimanded for doing something bad but not really caring.

Colonel Pheng looks equally unfazed. McFarland looks from one to the other. "You can't tell me that you condone these actions?"

"With all due respect, Mister President," Farnsworth answers wearily. "The results speak for themselves. Every single Gorongiath has left Earth."

We returned yesterday and went straight to Fort Lewis to report to Farnsworth and Pheng. Both men appeared thrilled after our briefing. Even more so when we watched the aliens leave Earth on our radar screens. We were warned the President wasn't happy about our rogue mission, but we didn't expect this kind of outburst.

"Yes, they did." McFarland agrees. And continues between clenched teeth, "do any of you have any idea what kind of logistic nightmare this leaves for us to clean up?" The President's eyes challenge every single person in the room.

"Of course not." He sighs snidely. "Did you know the alien's kept all nuclear plants, around the globe, running?" McFarland continues.

"With slave labor!" Colin says, irritated; McFarland's tirade is getting to him. I put my hand reassuringly on his leg and can feel his tension drain somewhat.

"They kept them running is my point." The President snarls in open anger. "Our already thin spread troops are scrambling to stop the slave laborers from leaving and having the reactors burn down. You think the flowers are an ecological disaster? Watch a few of the reactors meltdown."

I look from Colin to Blake and shrug my shoulders. While Colin wrinkles his nose and