“It was our company’s New Years party … it’s hard to believe that was already three years ago, I remember it like it was yesterday,” he looked off into the deep void of space; the dim red lighting of our command ship’s drop pod glowing against his face. His voice was calm, but commanding. “I had just gotten this lovely young woman to sneak off with me onto a balcony. It was considered ‘off-limits’,” he smirked. “And what was her name?” “Khaleesi, you know, like from the Game of Thrones series?” I chuckled, “Yeah, I know the one. So what’d you do with her?” I gave him a wink. His grin quickly faded, his thick black brows furrowing, “Nothing… That’s when they showed up.” “The Wayfarers?” I knew who he meant. “Their vessel- it looked so foreign, I didn’t even realize what I was looking at for a few minutes. It was as if the night sky was fabric and it had just been ripped open, releasing a mesmerizing white light. It was like nothing I’d ever seen,” he spoke as if he was reliving it, staring stoically into the great beyond for some time. At last he broke his silence, “I sat there, just staring at it for what seemed like an eternity. It wasn’t long before chaos ensued though…” I was nowhere near where the wayfarers had first made contact. Coming from a small town, we never had anything exciting take place around us. Alien contact was no exception. “So what happened? When the chaos ensued I mean.” A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. His finger tapped nervously. “What happened Max?” He let out a pained laugh and shook his head, “Nothing. The wayfarers did nothing. It was our own damned fault. Someone screamed from inside the party. Khaleesi ran inside, everyone was rushing to get to the elevator. There wasn’t anything I could do. I watched while she was crushed in the stampede… she wasn’t the only one,” Max’s foot tapped nervously. “The entire city went into a state of panic, everyone thought it was going to be like Independence Day or something. Thousands of people died, all by the fault of human instinct. Bodies had to be cleared for weeks.” “Wait…” “I know, the world governments blamed all of the deaths on the wayfarers. I was there though, I KNOW what happened. As you well know everyone retaliated, but to no avail. Their technology was advanced far beyond our own,” he sighed, “but we were great in numbers and had the time to acquire resources. That’s why they came to us.” The light in the drop pod began blinking. “We’re almost there!” I announced to our team. Everyone was getting focused, we’d been briefed, but really had no idea what to expect. No human had ever seen these enemy life forms in person. We readied our weapons. “Wayfarer technology better hold up like they said it would,” Max locked one of the shimmering blue cartridges onto his back. The drop pod began glowing a bright green. “Looks like it’s time,” Max stated nervously. The previously unlit walls showed rivets holding our pod together. Along with thin metal sheets, this was our only barrier from the vacuum of space. “You think with the preparation time we had we would’ve been able to build something a little sturdier,” I said half-jokingly. “Wayfarers gave us the means to build this ship… I think they know what they’re doing,” one of our squad mates retorted. Max hit the button to unlatch the pod. ”Let’s hope so.” I clutched my seat tightly. The on-board assistant started whirring. ENTERING THERMOSPHERE We felt a large thud against the pod. ENTERING MESOSPHERE Another thud. ENTERING STRATOSPHERE Again. A dent formed in the pod pinning our squad mate to his seat. He writhed in pain. ENTERING TROPOSPHERE Enemy fire was about to tear the hull apart. I looked over to see Max panicking. Lights in the pod were flashing and an alarm had sounded. 40,000 FEET I could finally see the planet. Its vegetation was a foreign purplish hue, its sea a deep algae green. It was unlike anything I’d ever witnessed. “I wish you could see this.” BRACE BRACE BRACE