In the Name of Earth

Chapter 12: They Came from the Sky

The Deven marketplace was bustling with activity, and the sight of the various aliens mingling and trading and eating and drinking was enough to spin heads. Dozens of the species Marvin had only read about were now standing right before his eyes, and not all the time in the world at Qui’Mal’s company could have prepared him for some of those sights. Even more mindboggling were the items on sale. Technological and artisanal trinkets of entirely alien design and a plethora of colorful plants, dishes and industrialized products probably from off-world.

And out of all those things Marvin was looking for corn… At least he did a better job at hiding the disappointment than Lud, whose attention was constantly stolen by random stalls. Maybe it would indeed have been better for the engineer to stay at the ship.

Marvin stopped by a shop ran by a large orange alien whose face was mostly concealed by metallic ornaments. He recognized that species, and was confident he could mimic their greetings. After an intricate series of arm twists, they were ready to barter.

“Greetings, friend,” Marvin started. “Would you happen to know where I can find corn?”

The alien barked an affirmative muffled by his breather mask, then turned around and returned with two cobs.

“Corn! Six credits each!”

“I will take two,” Marvin only really wanted one, but odd numbers were tremendously offensive to his counterpart’s species. “Would you have anything similar to corn, perhaps?”

“In what sense? Food or… other stuff?” the fat storekeeper whispered the last couple words.

“Uh… food,” Marvin conceived confusedly. “Anything as starch-rich?”

“Try store across the river. Two small Squigles working there. One green, one blue. Loud guys. Can’t miss it.”

Thanking for the information, Marvin continued on his stroll, almost stepping on someone’s tail and dodging two six-legged hounds running circles around each other on the bridge over the river. He stopped to watch the bioluminescent fish on the water, then stepped aside for a hovering cargo vehicle transporting crates of fresh fruit. At least they looked fresh. Hard to tell when seeing the stuff for the first time.

“Marvin! Man!” Lud came running to meet his friend over the bridge. He was munching on three cyan spheres impaled on a kebab of sorts and covered in red sauce. “You gotta try this stuff!”

“What is it?”

“I dunno, but it’s good!” Lud went for another bite, only to have Marvin slap the skewer from his hand, over the railing and into the stream below. “Hey!”

“You can’t just go eating stuff! You don’t even know if that’s safe for humans!”

“Hey, my mouth isn’t melting. It’s probably safe!”

“Have you learned nothing with the burrito episode?” Marvin asked, then rolled his eyes. “Just stay close to me and don’t touch anything.”

“Hey! Hey, Marv!” Lud tugged on his friend’s shirt as soon as they started moving again.

“What?!” Marvin asked through clenched teeth.

“Don’t look now, but that fat alien you were just talking to? He’s talking to a guy in a mean looking armor, and I’m pretty sure they’re looking this way!”

Marvin immediately turned, but was interrupted by Lud pulling him across the bridge.

“I said don’t look, Arschloch!” guiding his friend away, Lud himself took an inconspicuous glance over his shoulder. “He’s coming this way. Keep walking.”

Normally, Marvin would have dismissed his friend’s paranoia, but his father’s warning for care factored into him taking the matter all the more seriously. Then again, Lud did not have the best judgement track record in the EDS.

“Lud, if you cause a scene I swear…”

“I’m sure, man!”

“Like you were sure about your alien skewer? One of these days you’ll get yourself in serious trouble… and probably drag me along…”

Before Marvin could finish his sentence, a deafening explosion assaulted their eardrums, followed by a minor shockwave that rocked the marketplace. People were screaming, roaring and chirping in awe as everybody looked up to see a departing cargo freighter spinning uncontrollably, its rear engines on fire. As the ship’s crew failed to regain control of the flight, the vessel lost altitude until it crashed straight into one of the cultivation domes, purple glass shattering as the metallic infrastructure collapsed.

“For the record, I had nothing to do with that,” Ludwig said with huge eyes.

Immediately after the freighter’s fiery crash, however, another dozen ships popped up in orbit with several smaller crafts departing from them and raining laser fire over the colony.

Generalized panic ensued as tourists, locals and traders ran in all directions in search of protection, all the while red muscular aliens descended from the invading crafts to swarm the streets. Among the ruckus, though, the slender being covered from head to toe in shining silver armor continued pushing through the commotion, their helmet’s shiny blue visor locked on Marvin and Ludwig.

“Yup, definitely looking for us!” Ludwig pointed.

There was no need to say anything else. Spinning on their heels, Marvin and Lud hurried across the bridge, weaving their way through the incoming pedestrians. The sensible thing would be to return to the Jenkins immediately. Protocol demanded as much, but right now survival topped protocol. Getting away from the bridge was a priority.

The two men had done just that when a fighter craft swooped overhead and exploded the bridge—and the many people on it—with its laser shots.

“f**k!” Marvin cursed, the explosion wringing his ears. At least their armored pursuer would have been left across the river, if not outright evaporated, but danger was still far from over. “Keep running! Keep running!”

“Where?!” Lud asked while two red invaders gunned down civilians down the road. “They came from the sky! Nowhere is safe!”

Attempting to slow his breath and calm his nerves, Marvin studied their surroundings. They were an equal distance from the spaceport, where their shuttle was docked, and the Colony Administration Building, where his father, Alexa and Qui’Mal were. Coincidentally or not, those were also the two focal points of the invasion, dark alien ships spilling troopers over each of the structures.

“Back to the ship!” Marvin yelled. “We’ll use it to rescue my dad and the others!”

Lud nodded and the two started running back towards the spaceport, only to be cut off by another battalion of black-armored alien invaders wreaking havoc on the streets. Charging past them would be suicide! Unless…

A familiar electric engine hum approached, and the hovering fruit transport that passed by Marvin on the bridge sped down the burning market.

“Get in!” the diplomat yelled and ran for the floating truck’s open cart. Lud got there first, leaping inside and grappling his friend’s arms to help him onboard.

As the hovering machine crossed the ruined streets, the cacophony of laser shots, battle cries and desperate pleads surrounded them. Deven had descended into chaos, and they could only hope to make it out alive. They had just taken a tight turn when five invaders set their eyes on their transport, engaging on a violent pursuit.

“Who are these guys?!” Lud hurled a green spiky fruit at the pursuers, who fired back at them with inhuman, unintelligible shrieks.

“I think they’re Causers!” Marvin had taken cover behind a crate of fruits. “Very violent.”

“You don’t say!”

“Come on, we’re getting to the edge of town, time to jump ship,” verifying the pursuers were a safe distance away, Marvin edged to the rear of the cargo transport, only to be pulled back by his friend’s firm hands.

“Wait!” Lud point up to the spaceport. More specifically to a heap of burning debris that was once the EDV Jenkins.

Marvin was still trying to process that when their hitchhiked ride pushed through the city gates, leaving all the chaos and destruction behind. The burning houses were soon replaced by the red and yellow native flora as they delved into the forest. Marvin was still trying to piece together the next course of action, figure out the safest way out, when Lud pulled him back to the dire real world.

“We have to jump,” the engineer said. “Lose them in the woods. This truck is a target for air…”

Just as Lud formulated the thought, another laser strike erupted immediately in front of their transport, mud and scorched earth flying with a blast that left a crater on the road. The truck did not escape either, marginally caught on the detonation. The vehicle flipped and slid on its side to a skidding halt.

Marvin and Ludwig were catapulted meters down the road, helplessly rolling on the dirt, accompanied by a storm of fruits and wooden crates. The adrenaline rush was probably the only thing keeping Marvin from feeling the bruises that covered his skin, the sprained muscles and probably cracked bones. He pushed a large box from over him, shaky arms trying and failing to push him to his feet.

Lud was not far away, lying unmoving under a pile of shattered crates.

A few meters back, the hovering truck had been reduced to a burning wreckage. A green and a blue alien of the same species dragged themselves out of the mangled driver’s cabin. Both men were bleeding a green goo as they crawled over the dirt.

The invader ship that had blasted the truck rounded the crash site on the skies, then lowered and touched down right behind the ruined vehicle. Half a dozen invaders in their black armors filing out of the craft, laser rifles at hand.

Summoning whatever modicum of strength he had left, Marvin scrambled to his friend’s side. A quick pulse check confirmed Lud was not lost, but he didn’t seem capable of moving.

“Lud! Lud! Come on, man!” Marvin shook the limp body. “We need to run! Now!”

“Wha-?” Lud blinked, trying to grasp the situation. “Where… What…?”

Marvin had no time to explain. The invader had just made it to the burning truck and ruthlessly gunned down the squirming drivers.

“We have to go!” Marvin pulled Ludwig to his feet and limped away, only to collapse three steps down the road. He barely had the strength to move himself, let alone someone else.

They tried crawling away, but it was not long before two sets of dark metallic boots flipped them on their backs.

The red aliens stood over them. Broad jaws and broader shoulders casting dooming shadows over the helpless humans as predatorial red eyes studied their prey.

“Which one are we supposed to take?” one of the aliens asked.

“How am I supposed to know? Humans look all the same.”

“All the same?” Lud spat a mouthful of blood on the dirt beside him. “Dude, we’re literally black and white. Pay attention.”

“Quiet, human!” the first Causer barked. “I say we take both.”

“And who’s gonna clean after them? You?”

Lud opened his mouth to say something, but before Marvin could pinch him a symphony of plasma and laser shots erupted down the road. The two thugs spun on their heels, weapons ready, in time to see their four comrades drop dead. Each of them shot once, then both heads were simultaneously pierced by bolts of blue fire.

Once the captors collapsed to either side of the humans, Marvin and Lud sat up.

From the pile of dead raiders by the truck, holding two smoking plasma pistols, the silver armor from before approached them. Blue visor locked on the two young men until the helmet’s faceplate parted and slid back to reveal a gorgeous human woman, green eyes glimmering behind sweaty freckles.

“I’m looking for Marvin Grant!”