“Captain Jester? Rembrandt here.”
“Go ahead, Lieutenant.”
“We have a situation here. I thought I should alert you as soon as possible.”
Phule felt a sinking sensation in his stomach, but kept his voice calm.
“Very well. What’s happened? Start at the beginning.”
“Well, Do-Wop took a shot at a lizard …”
“A lizard?”
“It sort of looked like a lizard … only bigger. Currently unidentified. Anyway, it shot back at him, and-“
“It what?”
“It shot back at him, sir. Hit him with some kind of a stun ray. He’s alive but unconscious. We’ve got a force of previously unknown aliens in the swamp. Intelligent and armed.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Journal #153
I had the privilege of being the only civilian present at the confrontation with the “alien invasion force.” This is not to say that I had any actual role in the proceedings or had any real business being there, but when those Legionnaires not on active duty for the initial contact scrambled to join their comrades in the field (leaving only Mother at The Club to serve as a communications link with the settlement), simple curiosity got the better of me and I decided to tag along. Normally I believe my employer would have sent me back, but he either decided he couldn’t spare anyone to provide transportation or simply didn’t register my presence at all. He was rather preoccupied at the time.
The bulk of the company was scattered along a one-hundred-meter line, crouching or flattened behind what little cover the swamp provided, as Phule huddled with Brandy and Rembrandt for his briefing. As they spoke, they kept their voices lowered to a conspiratorial whisper, occasionally raising their heads or leaning to one side to peer around the hummock they were kneeling behind.