Commander Dat stared at the faces sitting around the table. Olivia, Jilly, Hambone, Tiny, Sterns, and Tiana were all there. Also in attendance were their three captains, Barbara, Kenneth, and Juan Carlos. He knew that these people trusted him with their lives. He just wasn’t sure how far he could push that trust.

“Let me start by saying that we’re not fighting an army. We’re fighting one alien.”

“One?” Several of them gasped in disbelief and confusion.

“We’ve all seen and fought many overseers. You yourself have killed many, commander.” Tiana shrugged. “What’re you talking about?”

Daniel held up his hands, saying, “Let me lay it all out for you guys, then you can hit me with your questions. There’s only one. He calls himself the Overlord. The people at Alcatraz work for him and sent me to see him through a power circle.

The Overlord isn’t even here. He controls everything from his home world. The overseers are some kinda super-advanced robots that he’s in mental connection with. They don’t come down into the tunnels because he loses that connection underground. I’m not sure why the communication travels through so much space, but not through ground.”

Daniel walked back and forth with his hands on his hips, wondering just how much he should relay. Honesty seemed to usually work best, especially with friends.

“This thing planted us on the earth. Once we spent generations creating and building and digging up the resources, it returned to reap the benefits of our labor. We’re nothing more than worker ants to this Overlord, to be used as he sees fit. It’s emotionless and meticulous, concerned only with efficiency and its own goals and purpose. It’s cold and efficient. The concepts of sympathy, empathy, or love are foreign to it. The Overlord will show no mercy and his end game is the death of our world.”

When Daniel finished, Olivia spoke, “Okay, well , , , that sucks. So, what do we do? Seems like taking out the overseers won’t accomplish much. We have to get to this Overlord, but with all his technology, can we even kill him?”

“It’s true that he is more advanced than us, but not really by far. He uses plastic, rubber, and metal just like us, even if his is much stronger. And he breaths the same air, and can die just like us,” Daniel assured them.

“It doesn’t add up,” Sterns shook his head, “Why not have his robots dig up minerals that he needs.”

“This creature likes to be master. He calls us primitives. He has an incredible superiority complex feeding his giant ego. I think that the Overlord likes to play God.” Daniel shrugged, sharing his opinion.

“Same question.” Olivia frowned. “What do we do?”

“Dat has a plan. He always does,” Hambone said. “So lay it on us, Commander.”

“Yes, I do have a plan, but you guys aren’t going to like it,” the clan leader sighed. “In order to win this thing, we have to take out the Overlord. I need all four of our groups to go to the Eastmont Town Center here in Oakland within six days. Oakland Clan, Frisco Clan, Sacramento Clan, and the Horse Clan.”

“Alright! We’re going to launch a major attack!” Tiny exclaimed.

“No, quite the opposite. You’re going to be attacked,” Daniel revealed. “The Overlord requested that I turn ya’ all over in exchange for my wife.”

“Daniel!” Olivia gasped while others shook their heads, with more still frowning.

“Just wait,” Daniel raised his hands again to silence them. “Once you are there, I’ll be in Alcatraz waiting for Andrea to arrive. When she does, I’m going to go kill the Overlord. That should end this. But I can’t get to him if you guys don’t agree to bring your entire clans to Eastmont as bait.”

“Everybodys? Even womens and childrens?” Juan Carlos asked.

“Everybody,” Daniel answered.

“What if you fail?” Jilly asked what everyone in the room was contemplating.

“Then we’re all dead,” their leader simply stated, refusing to sugar-coat it.  

Daniel’s last comment caused the room to erupt in discussions that quickly led to arguments. He let it go on for a bit, gathering his thoughts, before he silenced them.

“Look, I know that I’m asking a lot of you. Using you all as bait is the last thing that I ever wanted to do, but this isn’t just about you, me, or us. There are thousands of worlds implanted with our race by this Overlord. A few are being harvested like us, right now. Other planets have already been obliterated, while the rest are just waiting for the Overlord to come and destroy them at his will. If we manage to pull this off, we aren’t only saving the remnants of our planet. We will be saving billions of lives.”

Daniel paced back and forth again, letting those words sink in, then finished with, “We have come a long way together. Many of you have put your trust and lives in my hands more than a few times. I’m asking you to do it one more time. One more time for the win. So, I need to know who is with me?”

This caused a long silence, where several people let out deep sighs. Daniel thought about saying more, but he remained quiet, giving them time to mull over the entirety of what he was asking. Finally, Olivia spoke.

“Oakland Clan is in. I trust you, Commander Dat. You won’t let us down.”

He smiled at her, then Jillian spoke, “Well, who would’ve ever thought that a stripper would be given a chance to help save billions. Sacramento Clan is behind you, although I don’t relish the thought of your wife returning and taking you away from me.”

“Well, the Frisco Clan is a mess. Won’t be losing much if we get blown to pieces. Count us in.” Tiana’s declaration sent all eyes on Juan Carlos.

“Geez, I just becames a captain,” he chuckled. “Ah hell. We’re all dyings anyways. Might as well happens in Oakland during a magnificent and glorious last stands battle! Only this times, we Mexicans will be the Alamo! Let’s do it.”

With that they were decided. Commander Dat briefed them on the details of his plan. They all agreed that it was their best shot. Everyone headed off to prepare for their upcoming roles because there was much to be done. That is everyone except Dat, Hambone, Paco, and Captain Kenneth from the survivalist compound. They went and took naps.

The four men headed out on horseback, right as the sun reached the middle of the sky, leading riderless horses with them. As the four horsemen rode, Daniel couldn’t help but feel like they were ringing in Armageddon from Revelations in the bible.

Their target was just over fifty miles to the northeast. Daniel was leading them back to Fairfield. They needed to make that distance by morning, so they took Interstate 80 at a good pace.

The only time they stopped was when Paco spotted an approaching drone. They used the occasion to switch out horses. Once the drones passed, the group continued at a trot. Dat’s second horse was Ocioso, who gave him no trouble. She was a good horse. The men reached Fairfield a bit before dawn, and arrived at their target a half hour later.

Travis Airforce Base sat just east of the actual city of Fairfield. The base had been staffed by 15,000 military and civilian employees, so wasn’t considered large by comparison to other California bases.

There was a medical center on base, but more important, it housed the 60th Air Mobility Wing, largest air group of the Air Mobility Command. Air mobility units were used by the air force to transport supplies and personnel all over the world. This base focused primarily on the Middle East.

Daniel led his three partners through the destroyed front gate, past some large buildings, and straight to the headquarters building. They found several piles of clothes outside of the front doors. After dismounting, Daniel dug through the piles and pulled out access cards on lanyards, that probably had hung around the victim’s necks.

“Look for these cards and bring me any that you find. We are looking for a specific one,” he ordered, dropping the two that he had picked up. “It belongs to the base general. It should be in, or around this building.”

The base had no visible seeker damage, although it was apparent that looters had been there. None of the clothing piles had weapons, although many had holsters. For about forty-five minutes, Kenny, Paco, and Hambone brought various badges to Daniel, but he discarded each one.

“Over here!” Kenneth shouted from a nearby parking lot.

Daniel went over and saw the survivalist digging through a pile of belongings in a driver eat of the car. “Got it!” he said, holding up a scan card that identified the man as General Richardson.

It was the card that Daniel wanted. The men mounted up and rode out onto the runway. Here they found overseer damage. Huge, charred marks and blown-up planes littered the tarmac. Daniel passed by all of that, as well as the major hangers.

Their commander led them to a series of non-descriptive aluminum buildings that looked like maintenance facilities, where Daniel dismounted. Here, the men saw their first seeker, prying on the aluminum siding on one of the hangars.

The bald man was tossing the aluminum sheets into a brown power circle that was open behind him. The group dismounted, and Kenneth walked up behind the seeker and put a bullet in the back of its head with his .44 Magnum.

Daniel approached the hangar next to the damaged one, which had a padlock on it, along with a sign that read “Runway Supply Building.”  The commander pulled out his .357 and shot the lock which stayed on.

“That only works on tv,” Kenneth said, and grabbing the dead seeker’s pry bar, he managed to tear the lock off. Paco and Daniel slid the two huge double doors open. 

Just behind the sliding doors was a large bunker that stood about twenty feet high. The bunker had a normal sized steel door with a scan pad beside it. The entire aluminum building was concealing the bunker within. On the steel door read “Authorized Personnel Only. This is a Restricted Area.”

Daniel pulled out the general’s card and inserted it into the scan pad. The three red lights on the pad turned green and the steel door slid open. Daniel told Kenneth, “Go check the other hangars to see if they hold anything of value.”

The remaining three men entered the bunker. Daniel flipped a switch and to his companion’s surprise, lights came on. “Solar. The lights and scan pads are all powered from cells on the roof.”

 The bunker held row after row of weapons, causing both of his companions to let out low whistles. Various armaments from M-4 assault rifles to 9mm pistols lined the numerous metal gun racks.  There were also stacks of crates marked as various types of grenades and rockets.

“This isn’t even the good shit.” Daniel walked past all the shelves to another fenced in area at the very back of the bunker. They had to pry off a second lock there. Inside were more crates and a large metal square cabinet, that looked to be about the size of a bank vault.

 Daniel searched around the caged area until he found two long rifle cases. “We’ll need these,” he said, handing both to Hambone to carry up to the front of the hangar.

Daniel pulled out the general’s card again, and explained, “A handful of the other cards would have gotten us this far into the bunker, but this’s the only card that can open the special weapons vault.”

With that, Daniel stuck it in a card pad on the side of the cabinet and with a hum and a click, he was able to open the door. Inside were several metal briefcases with keypads on them and digital screens. Daniel looked at a couple, and then grabbed one marked “TH-B662-04.” He exited the special weapons box, and closed it back up.

Now the men just needed to grab an assortment of other weapons to help their cause. Unfortunately, the horses could only carry so much weight, but at least they still had extra mounts that they could pack up.

When they made their way back to the front of the bunker, Kenneth came in excited, sweat glistening on his bald head. “Come on guys, you gotta see this!”

They followed the muscular man to a nearby hangar, where he showed them a completely intact Bell UH-1 Huey. For an old chopper, it looked to be in great shape. Kenneth ran up to it and slid the side door open, showing them the interior.

“Must have been one of the ranking officers ‘pet’ projects,” Daniel guessed. “Sure wish we had a pilot.”

“You do!” Kenneth exclaimed. “I flew one of these babies back in the day. If I can get her fired up, then we could take her. Shouldn’t take much. These babies could fly through think and thin.”

“I can co-pilot. I flew a traffic chopper after I got out of the military. I think that I could handle this one as well,” Hambone offered. “Holy shit, Dat. We could take a lot of these much-needed guns back! We should’ve come got these sooner.”

“It was in the works. I just wasn’t sure how we’d transport such a load, and food always seemed to be the more important priority,” the commander answered.

“Well, now we have a way.” Kenneth seemed excited. “We’ll probably need to fly this baby during the day though, so I can see where we’re going and so’s our lights don’t attract too much attention.”

“What about the horses?” Hambone asked. “It would suck to lose eight beauties like these.”

“We could have Paco take the horses back,” Kenneth suggested.

“Okay, let’s do that. We’re all tired, so we’ll sleep the rest of today. Tonight, Kenneth’ll work on getting this bird running while the rest of us’ll load the Huey with weapons. At first light, Paco will head back with the horses, and we’ll take off in the chopper,” Daniel instructed.

When the group stepped back out onto the tarmac, a red power circle nearly struck Daniel, fired from a drone. The sky was full of them, maybe twenty. The three men retreated back into the relative safety of the Huey hangar.

Two drones managed to follow the men in before Kenneth and Hambone were able to slide the hangar door shut. “Rat . . . tat, tat, tat . . . rat, tat, tat, tat, rat, tat, tat, tat, tat!” Paco unloaded a full mag of M-4 rounds into them, sending both flying machines smashing to the ground in smoking heaps.

The four men pulled on hoods with eye holes that they had in their packs. They had made them for just such occasions. They couldn’t have drone photos revealing them to the Overlord and destroying their plans.

“They have us trapped boss,” Hambone said.

“Eighteen drones are too many to attack out into,” Kenneth surmised.

Paco spoke some very fast, excited Spanish, seeming to agree with them.

“I need to get back over to the bunker and get a weapon that can take them out,” Daniel told them.

“It’s a good forty yards,” Kenneth advised.

“We won’t make it half that!” Hambone scoffed.

Again, Paco was speaking fast and with excitement.

“Maybe you three can hit the drones at the front while I make a break for it out the back,” their leader suggested.

“I’m sure that they’ll have all sides covered, boss,” Hambone assumed.

“No doubt. We have to be smart about this,” Kenneth added.

“Mira! Mira! Mira!” Paco was yelling and pointing now.

“What’s he saying?” Daniel asked.

“He’s pointing at those barrels . . . oh my . . . he’s right! We can use those barrels to get out of here. They’re full of oil.” Hambone ran over and inspected them. There were at least eight full oil barrels lined along the wall, plus two with fuel.  

“We’re going to need a lighter,” Daniel said.

Paco flipped his thumb igniting a flame, showing that he already held one in his closed fist. He had a huge grin on his face, exposing his two golden teeth. Daniel walked over and warmly slapped the Hispanic man on the back. He was really starting to like this fella.

They rolled the oil barrels over to the hangar door and stuffed rags into the small holes that were on each of the lids. While Paco lit each one, the other three men slid the door slightly open and rolled them out. Within seconds, the sky was filled with rolling plumes of black smoke, because oil burned dirty.

The men gave the burning oil some time to spill into puddles on the tarmac and watched while the huge streams of billowing black smoke blocked out the sun. No worries about alerting anyone as to their presence, the enemy was already here.

The four men left the bunker in a tight diamond formation, with Daniel at the point. They were hacking and gagging by the time that they reached the weapon’s bunker, but at least they didn’t encounter any drones.

When the wind shifted about an hour later, the four men exited the bunker in a line. Each carried a belt fed M60 machine gun with long ammunition belts dragging along the ground behind them. The drones started to come in fast, when the gun-toting warriors opened up.

All four men shook while the powerful weapons chewed through and spitting out the belt fed rounds. After about fifteen seconds, all four M60’s fell silent, their bullets spent and their chambers smoking. The eighteen drones had been shot to pieces. The hooded men went back into the weapon’s bunker and Daniel secured the iron door.

The group slept the rest of the day. That night, after making sure that the tarmac was clear, they got to work. Kenneth worked on the helicopter while the other three loaded it with weapons and grenades. Daniel secured the TH-B662-04 case under one of the rear seats, along with the two rifle cases that he had initially grabbed. The men had finished in just half the night.

After securing the special weapon’s bunker, they went to the chopper and waited for morning. Captain Kenneth had easily got the chopper running. It was in great condition. He had also hooked up a runway tractor to the platform dolly that the UH-1 sat upon. He actually had more trouble getting the tractor started than anything. Once that was done, they were ready to go.

“So, how’d you know about this place commander?” Hambone asked. “I thought that you were stationed down south in Camp Pendleton before the war.”

“Yes, I was a member of a small Marine Security Forces Detachment,” Daniel answered. “We escorted special weapons to various bases.”

“Yes, you jarheads always guarded the nukes, or so I heard,” Kenneth interjected, all three of his companions now paying very close attention.

“Not just nuclear weapons. More advanced stuff as well.” Daniel smiled wryly.

“Is that what’s in that metal case that we came for?” Hambone questioned. “Something more advanced?”

“Did you guys ever hear about the Russian briefcase scare in the late 90’s? When our intelligence agencies thought that the commies had lost some of their nukes?” Daniel asked.

“Oh yeah! That was a big deal.” Hambone snapped his fingers. “I read about it. It was believed that they’d lost over a hundred nuclear bombs that were the size of briefcases.”

“Is that what we have Daniel, a nuke?” Kenneth asked, apprehensively eyeing the seat that the case was under.

“No, this isn’t a nuclear authorized base. But the Russian scare got our country thinking, and working. Our weapons scientists developed several briefcase sized weapons in response to the threat.”

“I, for one, am glad that it’s not a nuke. We’d all be glowing by now,” Hambone smirked.

“In our case we have a thermobaric bomb, also called a vacuum bomb. It basically uses the oxygen in the air around it to create an explosion, multiplying the shockwave and overpressure. It crushes a person to death, causing major damage to internal organs, and ruptures the lungs. It also smashes structures. The Overlord breaths oxygen the same us. It’s the perfect weapon to take him and his complex out,” Daniel explained.

“How’d you know it was here?” Kenneth asked.

“I was on the security team that brought it, and a few other items to Travis, just about a month before the invasion. I was hoping and praying that it was still here,” he answered.

“Can’t help but feel that we’re the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, carrying that thing around,” Hambone solemnly stated.

“I don’t think that the Bible had them in a chopper.” Daniel chuckled, then added grimly, “Besides, it isn’t our apocalypse that we’re delivering.”

By first light, they were ready to go. Kenneth removed the tiedown straps that secured the helicopter to the platform dolly, and jumped in the tractor and began pulling the chopper out of the hangar, while Hambone started the pre-flight checklist. What none of them expected was the rows of overseers lined up on the tarmac, just on the other side of the still smoking oil patches.

“Get this thing running!” Daniel ordered.

“I’ll try,” Hambone said, while flipping switches and pushing buttons. The craft fired alive, with loud engine noises and a belch of smoke.

When the helicopter was halfway out of the hangar, Kenneth jumped from the moving tractor while red blasts exploded all round him from the enemy batons. He turned to run when a red power circle struck him in the back and enveloped him. With a fizzle, Captain Kenneth Zumbolt was ash.

“It’s on you now Hambone. They just took out Kenneth. Get this bird in the air or we’re going out with him.” Daniel jumped in the now-empty front seat beside the red-haired man.

Paco was on the .50 cal. machine gun that they’d mounted at the door last night, just waiting for a clear shot at the overseers. The propeller was rotating fast now, so Hambone pulled back on the throttle and with a shudder, up she went.

The sound of the .50 cal. exploded in their ears, alerting them that Paco now had a clear shot. The chopper swung along the line of overseers, with Paco screaming out in delight whenever he struck one of the enemy. Red bursts exploded all around the chopper, coming from above!

A cylindrical shaped object, made of the same white material that the pod walls were made from, flew by. It was about the size of the helicopter and had made the blasts from above. It was an overseer airship, like the one that Daniel and Hambone had seen at Chico. Hambone accelerated hard, sending the Huey skimming along ten feet above the ground, straight south.

They were all surprised to see the overseer aircraft, because they were so rare. Paco began exchanging bursts with the pursuing craft. It didn’t fire power rings. It fired red energy blasts, that they knew would blow them from the sky. Hambone weaved the chopper back and forth, keeping it from being struck.

Paco would have been thrown to the earth if he hadn’t smartly put on his safety strap. Several of his rounds struck the enemy craft, but merely bounced off it. Daniel climbed back into the rear of the chopper and popped the latched on one of the crates. He removed a FIM-92 Stinger. These man pads were known as air-to-air rockets and could be fired from choppers.

Daniel had it operational in seconds, and after a near miss from a red blast, he put it on his shoulder, shouting, “Turn!”

When Hambone came around, Daniel had a clear shot at the overseer craft. “Clear!” he shouted once his target acquired indicator locked on, and pulled the trigger.

The heat seeking missile shot out in a puff of smoke. It zeroed in on the alien craft which did no evasive maneuver. The missile exploded on contact, sending the overseer craft spinning towards the earth. They did not see it again.

In about twenty minutes, they were setting down on the Mills College Campus, near their base. Even with the loss of Kenneth and all six horses, the mission had been a success . . . and then some.