Part 4

March 7, 2084 22:50

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Just when I thought we were going to be able to have a good night's sleep.

We have large numbers of people and cameras watching these dimension gates at all times. The alien UFOs come under the cover of night to deposit creatures within our city. For the first time, we're prepared to defend ourselves.

Three large and two smaller UFOs come through the three gates. They were flying over the Transtellar starport, the hub of all intrasolar travel for Mega-Primus. Defending the starport is a high priority.

So we came at them with everything we have.

As the weapons impacted the hull of these UFOs, one thing becomes very clear - these ships are not metallic. They're not even made with some kind of plastic (as was seen in the second war). These ships almost appear alive. If these are some kind of organic ship, our biochem division will have to be putting in some long hours. How exactly would you perform an autopsy on a UFO? I'm sure they'll figure it out.

Our initial volley took down the first two large ships.

A smaller one was taken down by only a few plasma blasts. A missile would have vaporized the thing.

Stray weapons fire damaged some of the people tubes leading to the stadium of the Meteor Kings.

The last two ships exploded in mid-air and could not be recovered.

I sent our Valkyrie to capture the crashed UFOs. This is not a task I envy of them. An unknown enemy, on their turf, at night. Who knows how many aliens would be inside? Would there be an booby-traps? Dangerous chemicals or radiation coming from the damaged ship? I read a report earlier today suggesting that the casualty rate for rookies capturing UFOs would be at least 30%. I feared for our soliders.

So imagine my surprised when none of crashed ships contained a survivor. Not only that, the ships didn't even contain rooms.

Photos seemed to indicate that the ships were in fact some kind of organic construct. They remind me of organs. I'm thinking we've been lucky in the first two alien wars. When you enter an alien ship, you can immediately recognize certain things. The walls are metal, there's some kind of computer here, a chair there, the engine over here. It brings a certain familiarity that's comforting. I don't recognize a single thing in these ships. I shudder to think this, but maybe we're not fighting the alien threat we think we are. Since the first war, we use the term 'alien' to describe the races we've fought. Sectoids, Mutons, Lobstermen, all a part of a larger force we call the "aliens". We've forgotten the original meaning of the word. This race we're currently at war with are so completely different from the aliens we know, there may not be any connection to them at all. Could humanity be so unlucky as to encounter two separate hostile alien forces within 100 years?

It's been a hard day. We've had some setbacks, but the overall war effort has gone very well. I certain we've only been facing enemy scouts, but we've held our own. I think we're ready.

Just as I was about to stop this journal entry, I was handed a report by Dr. Strangleglove.

Herr Zander,

We have finished our reports on the AusländerMaßgatter, the dimension gate. I'm afraid we have no way of using the gates for ourselves or shutting them down. All our test craft are destroyed if they get near the gate. We will continue our research on the UFOs we've shot down for more information.

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