The Response

Dedicated to Dr. Strange

The Qa’arn had been arriving all Earth week and the human’s response had been total. Pre nuclear weapons were being deployed and at the beginning, significant destruction was wrought on the invaders. But, they adapted, arriving from deep space with the equivalent of Kevlar jackets encasing their vessels. More and more landed and their troops spread out, dug in and began inflicting heavy casualties on the indigenous population. Refugees ran from the conflict thinking themselves safe behind the faltering Army and Air Force. The Qa’arn just kept coming and each human knew in his or her heart that this could be the ‘End of Days’ for Earth for the invader was merciless and was taking no prisoners.

“We must use the nukes!” screamed Brigadier General Soames. “These bastards are too well protected for conventional weaponry!”

“But…sir,” whined Lieutenant Favers, Soames’ subaltern. “If we engage the enemy with the nuclear arsenal and they adapt to it, what have we left?”

“Sir,” a trooper stood behind the Brigadier General, awaiting recognition. “There is a very old man to see you.”

“What…?” spluttered Soames. “I haven’t time for visits. What does he want?”

The trooper looked uncomfortable, “well sir, he says that he can help us.”

Soames thought that he was going to have a heart attack, “he says…what?”

“I am sorry sir, but he said that it was important and I thought that if I turned him away…well, you might be annoyed.”

Soames took a deep breath and turned away from the trooper towards Favers, “start emptying the nuclear arsenals and issuing the weapons to the soldiers and airmen. We have no choice. Now…,” he said turning back to the trooper. “Show this tactical genius in!”

The man was the colour of mahogany. He was wrapped in an animal skin and round his neck he wore beads interspersed with small animal skulls. In his hand he held a long staff which sported a snake’s head at the top. The man looked incredibly old.

“I have come a long way, sir” whispered the man.

“Uh, you don’t say,” grunted Soames sarcastically. “Unfortunately I seemed a trifle occupied at the present with attempting to save the planet. Forgive me if I appear a bit pre occupied.”

“I have brought with me a way to rout your enemies,” the man continued. “Let me show you…”

At that moment, Soames saw in his view monitor a Qa’arn robot rise from behind where the enemy were amassing. It stood twenty feet tall and was soon joined by three other juggernauts.

“Do you see this?” he screamed at Favers. “We must nuke them right away. The Qa’arn are building these behemoths and we have nothing to match them!”

As he watched one of the robots picked up an Earth tank and literally tore it in half. Soames could see the occupants fall from the stricken vehicle and were engulfed by the waiting Qa’arn soldiers.

“Sir…” the native man whispered, a little louder this time. “Please…I can help…”

“Get that idiot out of here!” shouted Soames picking up a telephone and punching in some numbers. “And if he isn’t gone by the time I finish this call Favers, you will be facing a court martial!”

Through the following days Earth watched on in terror as the Qa’arn army marched over the surface of the planet killing, destroying and subjugating. The nukes had been neutralised as soon as they struck the invaders and the deadly radioactivity was contained. The enemy wanted to take over a relatively healthy planet, not a nuclear wasteland similar to their home world which had been destroyed by internecine battles and petty feudal bickering. The Qa’arn’s technology had been engineered to stop this ever happening again.

The mass destruction went on until on one of Earth’s largest continents was to be the scene for the final battle to decide one way or the other.

 The Qa’arns had no home planet to return to, as, in putting together this mighty fighting force they had utilised all their resources and had effectively burnt their bridges.

The inhabitants of Earth intended to go down fighting the intruder.

D’asqui Mountain was a fortress of huge proportions. Theoretically anyone inside could withstand a nuclear attack and survive. Earth’s forces had spread out in front of the stronghold to form a delaying tactic for the approaching enemy.This would give the refugees time to move into some sort of protection behind D’asqui. The extra time would also buy time for the filling of the walls of D’asqui with more armament. Soldier’s wives stood with their partners holding weapons or by reloading the guns.

All was silent as the Earthmen awaited their foe.

 A small songbird flew into the no mans land to deliver a song. Never had a bird’s voice sounded so sweet. It flexed its wings and filled its chest and sang.

Suddenly a large explosion flared up on the plain and the small bird flew off in terror. The Qa’arn approached and from what was visible from a satellite link before it was destroyed, the entire Qa’arn army was there. It had come to wipe Earth’s inhabitants of the face of the planet. No mercy! No quarter!

All day the battle raged. The massive robots smashed at the walls of D’asqui and large chunks of rock cascaded down the mountain. Poisonous mushroom clouds rose in the blue sky as winged Qa’arn were destroyed. Most of the Qa’arn heavy machinery carried filters to negate the fallout, but could do nothing about the destruction caused by the strike on them.

At one point in the fighting, it seemed as if the tide was turning and that the invader was being beaten, but a cloud of missiles destroyed most of the fortress’ rocket launchers and suddenly the end was near for the Earthmen.

Soames stood in the hundred metre deep ops centre within D’asqui. He was sweating heavily and looked absolutely exhausted. He took out his pistol and checked the magazine. It had three bullets in it. He would offer Favers one of them, if he wanted. Rather death than what maybe offered under subjugation by the Qa’arn.

“Sir…the old man is back,” the trooper who had introduced him first, said. “He wants to help, sir”

Soames gave a big sigh and collapsed into a chair. “Ok, let him in. I don’t imagine anything will help…now.”

He was as Soames had seen him the first time. A tribesman who was as ancient as Adam. He stood like a pillar of wood, tanned by the sun and smoothed by the wind. A man hardened by the desert.

“Well…?” said Soames wearily. “What have you to offer?”

The man held out some stones to Soames. They were covered with what looked like writing. An ancient script carved right into the rocks.

“Gift…to you…A…boon…needed by you,” the old man muttered.

“Yes, very nice, thank you,” Soames said taking the offered stones. “But what can you do for us?”

The man turned and with several waves back to the Brigadier General and the trooper, he left the ops room.

Favers entered the room. “Was that the old man we saw back…?” he started.

“Yes,” said Soames. “Our last hope…..”

Soames wearily pulled his pistol out again. “I have three bullets gentlemen, you are welcome to the two remaining after I have taken my leave of you.” He put the weapon to his forehead and looked at his colleagues. “God be with you.”

“Wait sir!” shouted the trooper. “The old man….”

He had walked out onto the empty space that was no mans land, looking tiny against the Qa’arn amassed army. He looked like a small wild flower standing up to a gathering of bulldozers – very vulnerable.

One of the Qa’arn robots lumbered forward and reaching down opened a massive claw to crush the old man. Soames and the other two men watched on in horror.

He must be mad, they thought, a feather against a tornado.

The old man stepped back and brought his staff down sharply against the metal pincer. Soames imagined a resounding clang that echoed and re-echoed over the field of battle.

The robot paused momentarily then it began to disintegrate from it metal hooves to its helmet. Soon the old man was surrounded by a fine metal dust which twisted and twirled in the prevailing wind.

“What the ….?” said Soames, lowering the gun from his head.

The Qa’arn multitude suddenly began moving, hoping that the destruction of the robot had been merely a glitch. Now the old man would have to meet the combined force!

Turning swiftly he drew a circle in the dust at his feet and then the ancient began to gesticulate at the approaching enemy, shaking his staff and swinging about his head.

Soames imagined he could hear the old man’s words in his head. He understood what he was attempting to do without knowing what the words meant. It was something innate. Something handed down genetically from generation to generation. Basic, but beautiful.

Before the invading army had reached the elderly shaman the sand outside the inscribed circle had begun to spiral up into the air. As one cloud reached up so another started to form until fourteen massive clouds occulted the Qa’arn army.

As they rose so to did they begin to harden into a form of crystal. Their forms were that of dragons and they towered over the robots. Then they began to move…..

Soames spoke of that day at rallies, at dinners and on the television. Our Earth and what we understood as civilisation saved by an old man who had carried a secret handed down to him by his father and in turn passed to him by his father.

The stones that had been gifted to Soames were given over to have the words translated. The scientists who analysed the material said that it was aeons old and the writing? Well you might say that the stones were his calling card for the carved words read: Awakener of the Guardians of the Earth.

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