0814 June 18th, 2020 CE (Time at San Francisco)

San Francisco

Andrew put his police car, a Ford Taurus, at the parking lot of the beach. It was a familiar place since he had been to this beach many times with his kids. The view of the Golden Gate Bridge just to the right was impressive as always. Being a Monday morning, the parking lot only had a few cars and the beach was mostly deserted. A man with white hair came running up to him. “Officer!”

“Were you the one who reported the sightings of strange animals?”

“Yes. It wasn’t like anything I have ever seen. About the size of an elephant.”

“And where is it right now?”

“It went back into the ocean just a few minutes after it came out.” The man pointed over to a direction towards the left.

Andrew got out his notepad and a pen. “Alright. Can I get your name and what you were doing here?”

“Tony Coralles. My wife and I were just walking along the beach. I recently retired and it's not crowded at this time so I decided we could use a nice walk.”

Andrew nodded while scribbling on his notepad. “Thank you, Mr. Coralles. I’m Officer Andrew Molanos with the San Francisco Police Department. Do you have any photos or videos of the animal? Any other witnesses?”

“No. I didn’t bring anything that could have recorded it. Other than my wife and I, I don’t think anybody else saw it.”

“I might be able to get it on one of the cameras in the area but can you describe what it looked like?”

“Um. Hm… it was jet black, had a long sharp nose like a uh… like a swordfish, stumpy four legs.”

“Thank you. I would also like to see the exact location of where the animal came ashore.”

“Thank you for the information, Mr. Coralles. I recommend you stay clear of the beach for the time being.”

Andrew walked back to his patrol vehicle and sat down in the driver’s seat. The sand where Mr. Coralles led him was imprinted with countless large round holes. If it was an animal, it would have been about the size of an elephant. He picked up his car radio.

<<<“Dispatch? This is Officer Molanos.”

”Go ahead.”

”Just questioned the person who made the report. The animal seems to have returned to the ocean. I’m suspecting it's an unknown elephant-sized New World animal. I would suggest that people stay clear of any nearby beac…”>>>

Screaming cut him off. He looked outside of the window. “Shit.”

He rushed out of his car and drew his pistol.

Mr. Coralles was hanging in the jaws of an elephant-sized, jet black, four legged creature that had a long, pointed nose similar to a jousting lance and a long tail. The monstrosity’s front legs were bent in a fashion so that its mouth could get to Mr. Coralles without having its nose jutting into the ground. The creature crunched Mr. Coralles’s torso.

A few people ran past Andrew. He shouted to the horrified viewers. “Get off the beach!”

Andrew emptied the magazine of his Sig Sauer P226 at the creature. The .40 S&W bullets bounced off the scales of the creature. Andrew’s eyes grew wide as numerous similar creatures of varying size started coming ashore. Even more jet-black backs of the creatures started emerging from the waters and swimming towards the beach. The creature he just shot at looked up from its meal at him. Blood covered its mouth and dripped onto the sand, coloring it red. “Shit.”

The creature started lumbering towards him.

Running into the parking lot, he found it empty. He got back into his car, slammed the door shut, put the car in drive and slammed on the gas. The tire screeched on the gravel.

<<<“11-99! I repeat 11-99! This is Officer Molanos. Multiple large and dangerous creatures have come ashore at Bakers Beach. One of the creatures has eaten a man and is currently pursuing me. My pistol had no effect on it. I need help immediately!”

“Understood. More units are on their way. I’m notifying SWAT.”>>>

He got onto the main road. A few cars drove by and there were people walking on the streets. He switched on the lights of his sirens and the loudspeakers. >>

Down the road to the left, trees fell as one of the creatures emerged next to the road. A car swerved to the left to avoid it.

>>

The blaring sirens indicated that other units were nearby and closing in.

1134 June 18th, 2020 CE (Time at Washington D.C)

Washington D.C.

In the hallways of the White House, an aide ran up to Ronell. “Mr. President! Urgent report. San Francisco is under attack.”

“What? By whom?”

“Unknown jet black creatures came ashore at Bakers Beach. Local law enforcement are currently responding.”

Ronell stood there, rubbed his face and grimaced. “Fucking hell.”

Fremont, California

Luke played with his pencil as Mr. Johnson droned on about history. The PA system came on. >>

The class went quiet at that. Mr. Johnson frowned. “Alright. Seeing that this isn’t occurring in the school, we are going to continue with the lesson.”

Mr. Johnson went and locked the door before returning to the front of the room.

0905 June 18th, 2020 CE

Fort Irwin, California

Tate went up to the Staff Sergeant. “Staff Sergeant, why are we being deployed?”

“Some strange monsters are attacking San Francisco. Now, you two, get to your Humvee. We will get more information on the trip there. We have no time to waste.”

A few Humvees, M1A2 Abrams, and M2A3 Bradleys were already gathering on the concrete field.

1022 June 18th, 2020 CE

San Francisco

Andrew had retreated further inland with other police units. They had evacuated most of the civilians behind them. The creatures weren’t that fast but it took time to evacuate civilians and form a line of defense to hold the creatures back. Along the way, he got handed a police AR-15.

He stopped his patrol vehicle in front of a SWAT van and got out. The intersection of Kirkham Street and 19th Avenue in front of him was full of patrol vehicles. A line of patrol vehicles blocked the intersection. Dozens of police officers and SWAT officers were present. A SWAT officer approached him. Andrew greeted him. “Officer Molanos. I was told to report here.”

“We just arrived here too. Seems like we are gonna try to stop them here.”

“Stop them here?”

“We killed a few of them while helping with the evacuation. I’m sure your AR-15 will do fine. Pump a bunch of 5.56 in them and they will die. Their head is the best place to shoot. Avoid the nose though, bullets literally ping off of that”

Andrew frowned. “San Francisco isn’t that good of a place to defend. I heard they were coming ashore from the ocean all around the city.”

“We are forming a line of defense along State Route 1 up to the Golden Gate Park for the west side. A line on Page Street for the north side. And starting from Page Street going down, a line near US 101 for the east side. They are still units outside of this defensive perimeter trying to evacuate civilians though.”

Behind the SWAT officer, a police sergeant shouted at two other police officers. “You two, check those houses for civilians. If there are, tell them to leave immediately!”

“We got incoming!”

A single creature came barreling down the street. Andrew opened up with his AR-15. SWAT officers flanking him also opened fire. The creature took multiple hits to the head before going down. Cheers erupted but soon died down as screeches were heard. “We got more!”

Washington D.C.

The multiple screens in the Situation Room showed muted news channels. The channels were showing footage from news helicopters in San Francisco. Groups of the jet-black creatures were shown coming ashore in the San Francisco Bay Area. “Mr. President, they are coming ashore everywhere along the San Francisco Bay. We have reports of them on the airstrips at the Oakland International Airport. We aren’t sure of the numbers but it seems to be in the hundreds. Local law enforcement is being overwhelmed.”

Ronell furrowed his eyebrows. “Stephen, what military units are responding?”

The Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff responded. “The California National Guard has been alerted and their Quick Response Forces should be responding within hours from now. The Air Force should also arrive close to that time. The One Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton should arrive within 5 hours. The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment is currently preparing to travel to San Francisco. They will need more than 10 hours to mobilize and reach San Francisco. We are limited in our response capabilities since a majority of our forces are in transition to return after the Elven War.”

Ronell sat back on his chair. “Now, do we have any idea what these are… I guess you are here for a reason.”

Dr. Munoz nodded as Ronell looked at him. “Mr. President. I am certain that this is the Lancefish I was talking about. The nose definitely fits the bill. Of course, I guess the fish part of the name is not true now and it's most likely to be a reptile. Hm. Lancereptile… doesn’t have that nice of a ring to it. Lancefish is better.”

Stephen interrupted Dr. Munoz’s mumbling about the creature’s name. “From the reports from local law enforcement. It seems to take multiple bullets from a 5.56mm rifle to kill it. A .50 sniper round kills them quite easily though.”

A few minutes later

An aide entered the room. “Mr. President. We have various sightings of ships approaching San Francisco.”

“Ships? Civilian or military?”

“Um… we aren’t sure if we can even call them ships.”