Invasion

“Yes, sir,” the aide said. “At last report, they’ll be there in at least half an hour, unless the traps and snipers delay them more than expected.”

“True,” General Ridgley agreed. “Send the signal to the President, son; tell him that I intend to put the Omega Plan into use.”

“Yes, sir,” the aide said, and vanished towards the field telephones at the back of the bunker.

General Ridgley watched him go. He hadn’t wanted to discuss that with the President, not personally, because it was a decision that only the man on the spot could make. Athens, Texas, had once had a population of over ten thousand, a little irony that the General knew the aliens wouldn’t understand. Now, the citizens had been moved out and replaced with thousands of booby traps and a small army of Special Forces operatives to give them a hot reception. The small units that had been deployed around the city to harass the aliens wouldn’t stop them – nothing short of the 1^st Armoured Division would stop them, and that particular unit no longer existed – but hopefully they would lure the aliens into a city fight. Athens no longer had any innocents, it no longer had anyone to get mashed in the gears…and it had a final, unpleasant surprise for the aliens. If they reacted as he’d hoped…

They’d regret the day they chose to land in Texas.

“That was the President, sir,” the aide said. General Ridgley looked up, expectantly. “He said to hang fire as long as possible, then make it count.”

General Ridgley nodded.

***

The building had once been a fairly typical General Store, holding everything from canned food to clothes, guns and camping equipment. The citizens of Athens had gone through it in the days before the aliens had landed, buying the store out of almost everything, although Nguyen Gia Thai had been amused to discover that they’d abandoned some cheese that looked to be a violation of several anti-biological warfare treaties all by itself. The Vietnamese-American carefully climbed to the top of the store, following the safe ways his small unit had built into the structure, and watched as the aliens started to advance towards the city. The noise of fighting could be heard, drifting over the city in the dry air, and he hoped that the aliens were taking a beating. The briefing had strongly implied that no one, not even the commandos, would get out alive, but Nguyen had dared to hope. It looked, now, as through the hope had been misplaced.

Nguyen’s father had been a citizen, ironically enough, of North Vietnam. His sister had married an American soldier, who’d taken her and her family over the seas to America, after they’d realised that North Vietnam was hardly the paradise the Party promised. He’d learned English, taken on American jobs and married another Vietnamese exile, bringing up seven children, of whom Nguyen was the youngest. He’d been fascinated, at first, when he’d heard tales of how the United States had been beaten, even if he’d later discovered that the United States hadn’t lost to the Vietcong, or even the North Vietnamese Army, but to propaganda pushed out by Hanoi and eagerly licked up by American youth. Nguyen had joined the army during Desert Storm, been transferred to the CIA three years later, and then spent years helping other underground movements. It hadn’t been a rewarding task and he’d retired, only to be called back to service for war with an inhuman foe. It would be the crowning glory of his career.

“Come on,” he muttered, as the aliens probed up towards the city. They’d be expecting to be engaged at once, but apart from a handful of booby traps, the defenders had almost abandoned the outskirts of the city. The aliens had learned a little, however, sending in their infantry to flush out any possible attackers. They had to be a little mystified at the sudden absence of opposition, but…

BOOM! The explosion shattered an entire block. The defenders had carefully rigged up enough explosive in the sewers to shatter the area…and kill as many aliens as possible. The shockwave was so powerful that it knocked Nguyen to the rooftop, where he lay while the alien helicopters made their sweep over the city. He’d dressed to blend in with his surroundings, but without proper precautions, they might see him. They had other targets, however; the decoys they’d left around the city, showing up brightly on their instruments, were drawing fire. The aliens didn’t know it, but they were expending their ammunition for nothing. He rolled over to the side of the building and glanced through a crack towards the crater the explosion had left. It looked large enough to swamp an entire alien division.