August 31, 1992 - University of Hawai’i UH88 Observatory - Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA

“Are you seeing this?” Dr. Luu said to Dr. Jewitt. “These three images were taken of the same spot in the Kuiper belt.” Dr. Jewitt looked at the series of images with wonder. “This large object here just appeared and hasn’t moved?” Dr. Luu gave Dr. Jewitt a look before replying, “Yes, it’s right by the object we discovered yesterday, and it’s roughly the same size.” They both sat in silence for a few minutes mulling over this discovery. “We should share this finding and see what our peers think of this. An object, even in deep space isn’t going to suddenly appear at the same magnitude as an object unless we’ve inadvertently discovered a new star. Surely the Hubble would have found it first,” Dr. Luu said. “I agree, get NASA on the phone and we’ll fax over the images.”

March 11, 1993 - North American Aerospace Defense Command - Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

Airman First Class Yates stared at his computer terminal in an attempt to make sense of what he was seeing. Reaching a decision he called for his commanding officer to come take a look. “Sir, we just picked up an object at the edge of the solar system that appeared just beyond Pluto and is now passing Neptune. Is this a glitch in the software?” The commanding officer looked thoughtful for a moment before asking “How big of an object are we talking?”. The airman read some data from the screen before replying “It appears to be about 300 meters long, and 50 meters in diameter. Sir, the object is approaching Saturnand starting to decelerate.” Both the airman and the CO stared at the screen in worry. Finally the CO said, “We need to send this up the chain,” shouting he added “somebody get NASA on the phone and patch me through to the Pentagon.”

11:41PM April 29, 1994 - 37.65°N, 82.5°W - Kentucky, USA

Scott Spaulding awoke to the ear-splitting sound of a sonic boom. The night sky was lit up like a spotlight, just before a thundering crash caused him to fall out of bed. Disoriented from being woken up so suddenly, his vision was filled with spots intermixed with darkness. As his eyes adjusted and the initial shock of being awoken suddenly wore off he crawled out of bed and tried to turn on his bedside lamp. To his dismay the lamp failed to turn on so instead he groped in his nightstand looking for a flashlight.

Armed with his flashlight he fumbled through his house to the circuit breaker in the kitchen and flipped the main breaker. Surprised by the lack of a sudden appearance of light, he tried several other breakers before grumbling to himself about a power outage. Remembering the reason he was awoken in the first place, he trudged outside to investigate the noise. He was greeted with a dull orange glow to the southwest of his house and a column of smoke rising above it. Cursing to himself he ran back inside to call emergency services to report what surely must have been a plane crash. No sooner had he reached the phone when the unmistakable sound of helicopters could be heard coming over the mountain. Surprised by the quick response of the authorities he headed back outside since the small field on his property was the closest place a helicopter could land.

As the helicopters closed in on his property and began shining searchlights down before descending to land, Scott realized these were not emergency services, but military or government. As the pair of helicopters landed, soldiers began exiting and pointing their firearms at everything and nothing which included Scott. Paralyzed with sudden fear, he could only stand in horror as several of the soldiers began shouting at him and rapidly approaching, blinding him with their high powered rifle-mounted torches.

12:02AM April 30, 1994 - 37.65°N, 82.5°W - Kentucky, USA

Staff Sergeant Green repeated his order to the civilian, “I said get down, hands on your head!”. When it was apparent the civilian wasn’t going to comply, he motioned to the corporal to his right. “Detain him.” Turning to the rest of his platoon he started barking orders. “Sanchez, take your fire team and secure the landing zone. Peters, Brady, and Franks, secure the tree line. If you see something move, you are weapons free. I repeat, you are weapons free.” Turning back to the civilian he gave the glassy-eyed individual an appraising look before motioning to the house. “Jones, take your team and sweep and clear the house.”

He turned back to the civilian when he heard him starting to stammer something. “Speak up, who are you and what did you see.” The man seeming to regain his senses looked up to Green and spoke finally, “Scott, my name is Scott and this is my property. I woke up to that plane crash over ‘yonder, but I didn’t know it was a military plane, honest.” He fidgeted nervously while Sergeant Green gave him a thoughtful look. “Corporal, keep him out of the way.” Green turned away and pulled the radio off his shoulder and spoke into it, “Foxtrot, this is Raven Actual. Arrived at the LZ and secured the immediate perimeter. Requesting instructions for approach to target, over.”

He waited patiently for a response when one of the helicopters exploded violently, throwing him off his feet and into Scott. Coughing, he scrambled for his radio and stammered, “Raven Actual to Foxtrot, under fire. LZ is compromised. Unknown hostile force. One chopper down. Requesting fire support.” He flicked a button on the radio and relayed to the remaining helicopter pilot, “Liftoff and provide air support, MOVE, MOVE, MOVE.” He watched as the helicopter began to lift off before it vanished in deafening fireball, shrapnel falling back with a crash. “Fall back! Retreat into the house!” he screamed unable to hear his own voice.

Half pulling, half dragging the civilian who had fainted, he got into the house as the rest of his team piled in behind him. “Sound off!” he cried. “Here,” he heard from Peters, Brady, Franks, and Jones’ team. “Sanchez?” Everybody looked around grimly as realization set in. “Alright, set up in the windows toward the tree line. Peters, get the civilian to the backside of the house. If he refuses to stay, restrain him using any means you deem necessary. The rest of you, stay frosty. We don’t know how many hostiles we’re facing and headquarters still hasn’t radioed back. Switch from night vision to thermal, the burning wreckage is going to pollute our NV systems.” Everybody started swapping out optics on their rifles before taking up positions.

They didn’t have to wait long. “One contact, 200 meters.” Jones said. “Target has below average body temp but is showing up on thermal.” “I see it,” Green said, pulling his radio back down. “Raven Actual to Foxtrot; contact with hostile. Appears to be one combatant. Capability unknown but both transport destroyed with no warning. Requesting air support and immediate evac, over.” Green swore at the static that remained on the radio. “I think we’re alone out here. Peters! Set up with the Mk32, you get a clean shot, take it.” Peters moved to comply while the platoon waited nervously. The sudden report of a rifle heralded that Peters had taken a shot. “Clean hit, target appears to be unaffected. Christ man, what kind of body army can stop a 7.62 at this range.”

Before Green could respond the window Peters was aiming from disintegrated as hundreds of flechettes tore through the window, Peters, and the wall behind him leaving a red mist in the air as the remains of Peters slumped to the ground. Everybody was frozen with shock at the sheer violence that had just taken place. “Fall back, get out the rear and head for the trees!” Green shouted as he recovered. Panic ensued as everyone tried to escape at the same time. Green held back ushering everybody on when a sudden, out-of-place beeping could be heard from the hole left in the window. Glancing behind him he had the brief thought that what ever that is, is going to be bad news before the entire house disappeared in a blinding flash of white and a small mushroom cloud.