"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned..." -- W.B. Yeats, "The Second Coming" Operation: Phoenix, Falls the Shadow, Part 1 by J-Rock, jjr5020@rigel.tamu.edu # They Might Be Giants "Pencil Rain" _Lincoln_ B'Harne was skipping along the corridors of the X'hirjq Mothership, with what most Spongins would call his usual (saccarhine) grin on his face. And for good reason: The Blood Jihad Space Fleet had been chased out of Earthspace, and soon the bulk of the Lyran-X'hirjq fleet would be emerging from hyperspace to complete the task already begun. There was one setback, however: the B'Harnate Host sent to take the TRES Corps HQ had failed, crushed at the very courtyard of the HQ by TRES and the remnants of the Doberman Empire. B'Harne refused to let that bother him, for the culmination of all of his plans, hopes, and dreams was at hand. And he was just way too damn happy. At length, he had reached his destination: the Hall of Audience of the X'hirjq Empress herself. With a loud swoosh, the doors parted to reveal the Empress sitting upon her throne, resplendent in the blindingly bright white robes that only she was allowed to wear. She sent, "What brings you here, B'Harne?" "Well, your majesty, I have a suggestion to make," B'Harne replied. The Empress paused for a minute, apparently to field a report from the bridge. "It will have to wait. The ship will be emerging from hyperspace very soon." As if on cue, B'Harne felt the gut-wrenching disorientation as the Mothership exited hyperspace. Before he could speak again, the Empress replied, "I know what you want to do. You want to cover the entire planet in your Purple Cloud, but you don't have the strength to do it just now." How did she know _that?_ he wondered, pushing aside his momentary surprise. "Even you must agree that it is the toughest test those accursed Jihaddi will have to face," he said. For the next minute, nothing save silence permeated the chamber. Then the Empress spoke. "I have decided. You shall have your Cloud, B'Harne." She closed her eyes for a few seconds before reopening them, showing little to no signs of spellcasting drain. "It is done." **************************************************************************** INTERCESSION [Author's note: The music plays over a montage of the Purple Cloud boiling up to obscure the sky as the X'hirjq ships land, disgorging troops who proceed to chew up the US forces on the borders of the Continental U.S. -- J-R] Did you see the frightened ones? Did you hear the falling bombs? Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue sky? Did you see the frightened ones? Did you hear the falling bombs? The flames are all gone, but the pain lingers on Goodbye, blue sky Goodbye, blue sky Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye -- Pink Floyd "Goodbye Blue Sky" _The Wall_ TWO HOURS LATER... I was sitting in a section of the cafeteria with Bob, basically discussing life in general and the progress of the invasion. And it was progressing all right... in the wrong direction. Despite having turned the Lizards back here at TRES HQ, the rest of the Jihad was being mauled badly. For starters, the Lizards' orbital forces had finally put Confed and the rest of the BJSF to flight, forcing them all the way to Venus's orbit. And now Malcalypse had apparently bought it fighting off that last push. It was almost way too much to take, I thought, biting into my bacon cheeseburger like it had attacked me. And then, the unusual happened. My little mental jukebox had cued up the Dark Hymn for some inexplicable reason, and it took a supreme act of will to exorcise it. Just then, Bob said, "I don't know about you, but I've got a sudden craving for carrot sticks and milk." "No you don't," I said, as I tossed a french fry into Bob's mouth. "Here, have a french fry." The odd thing about it was that I had the same craving too. This was way too... Spongin to believe. But there we were, suddenly entertaining Sponge-like thoughts for no reason whatsoever. As I raised the burger to my mouth, I happened to steal a glance out of the outside window. The whole sky was _purple._ The burger fell from my hand to the plate as I continued to gaze out of the window in a state of utter shock. The sky may be blue or gray in the middle of the day, but normally it was never _purple!_ This was not The Way The Universe Was Supposed To Work, to say the least. And then a song quote forced itself out of my mouth: # Def Leppard "When The Walls Came Tumbling Down" _On Through The Night_ "'On the first day of the first month in some distant year, the whole sky froze golden. Some said it was the aftermath of the radium bomb, while others told of a final retribution, a terrible revenge, of the gods.'" "What was that, J-Rock?" Bob asked. "Just the opening monologue to an old Def Leppard song," I replied. "I remembered the sky being purple over Denver in those orbital shots before I came here. You're not thinking that they're gonna try taking this place again, are you?" "Rock, I'd say that's a certainty." "You don't know the half of it, guys," Nina's voice said. Turning in my seat, I saw Nina's CRAIT-Cart situated right next to our table. She must have just got here, I thought. Bob said, "Well, Nina, what don't we know?" "I just downloaded a series of scans from JihadHigh One." Her icon disappeared to reveal the pictures. The cloud was covering the entire planet! I said the only thing I could say, having seen those. "Mein Gott!" "That's not all," she said as the North America shot grew to take up the whole screen. "B'Harne's sent a force of 22 large planetside." "22,000 shouldn't be a problem," Bob said. "Bob, 22 large in this case is 22 _million,_ including six million armored Lizards," Nina replied as her icon, now a full-length shot, entered from stage right with a pointer. She then indicated landing sites on both coasts, Canada, and Mexico. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu........." I said, unable to get the first word past the lump in my throat. Swallowing hard, I continued, "You gotta tell everyone about this, Nina." "I've already left email with CyberPyro on the HQ's local net. I'll see if I can raise Galand." "You do that. I gotta check my local email." With that, I took off for my quarters, leaving my meal laying forgotten on the table. I'd already lost my appetite anyway. **************************************************************************** # Soundgarden "Fell on Black Days" _Superunknown_ After doing the local email thing, I was walking back along a corridor when I noticed P-Chan sitting on the floor with headphones on her ears. Naturally curious as to what she was listening to, I listened closer and picked up the strains of Morrissey's "Get Off The Stage." She was trying to wall off the constant stream of Spongin thoughts, but Moz's voice could eliminate them no better than the Rancid I was listening to while reading my email. "How you holding up, P?" I asked. "Oh, slightly better than I was in Pasadena," she replied. I remembered her telling me that she was in one of the Rose Bowl parades. Five miles of Hell, she had called it. But that was long before she had hooked up with us. "You?" "Like I had a truckload of hay fall on me." Easing myself down next to her, I continued, "CyberPyro tells me that anyone under that Cloud is subject to constant spongification attempts until he gets out from under it. As you might already know, the worse news is that the Cloud covers the whole planet." "Yeah, I know. Nina told me everything, including the bit about the Lizards launching their main surface invasion. I just wish there's something we could do about it. Besides, I'm getting tired of listening to the Dark Hymn inside my mind." She smiled a sad little smile as she said that. "Maybe there is. CP's called a video meeting of some of the Jihad high commanders in about, oh, ten minutes from now, so we'll see what we can do then." Just then the intercom rang out: "Admiral J-Rock, turn on the nearest comm panel. Admiral J-Rock, turn on the nearest comm panel." Wonder of wonders, a working comm panel right above me. Standing up to turn it on, I said, "J-Rock here, what's going down?" "One of the visiting Evil Geniuses has gone Sponge and is headed for DownBelow Command. Consider him armed and dangerous." "Can't Security handle this?" "He just mowed through a checkpoint two minutes ago." They're redshirts, J, I told myself. Go fig. "I'm on my way," I said as I turned off the panel. "C'mon, P, duty calls." I took a moment to power up a backpack containing a Solar Ishtari anti-grav sim-skating array before heading off, P-Chan following close behind. # Therapy? "Screamager" _Hats Off to the Insane_ I have to admit, I never liked the Solar Ishtari anti-grav skating array on their soft-suits. I thought then -- and still do -- that it was one of the most hare-brained ideas to come out of Solar Warrior's mind. But having to use it on several ops with the Skate Valkyries led me to keep it as an optional module for the TRES suits. This module is normally used for those situations when speed and manuverability are at a premium as opposed to traditional combat movement. Like, say, this one. Weaving through the twisting corridors at high speed, I shouted "Make a hole, make it wide!" as I came across a group of Ensign-trainees. Obediently, they jumped out of the way as I zoomed past, with P-Chan "Ranma running" a few seconds behind me. Even with the speed boost gained by this physical adept manuever, it was all she could do to keep up with me. At length, we came across a security checkpoint. What was odd about this one was that they were motioning us to stop. "I am Admiral J-Rock, and I'm on urgent business here!" I said, only slowing. Then they opened up on me, giggling like schoolgirls on nitrous. Great, now they've gone Sponge as well! That cloud was Bad Pookie, Big Time! I promptly ducked and three-turned as I came up to the makeshift barricade, firing force packets to keep their heads down. The backpack holding the anti-grav array also had a power booster, so I could fire my zaks without taking power away from the other systems. The zaks had the desired effect, and I slipped in behind one of the redshirts and snapped his neck with one swift motion. The other guard had brought his AK-5700 to bear on me, but P-Chan pulled the rifle down before he could squeeze off his shots. One fist-elbow- crescent-kick combo later, he too was laid out on the deck. "Thanks, P," I said as I picked up the first guard's XRifle. She gave me a curt nod as she handcuffed her guard. "J, you might wanna check this out," she said, picking up a Sponge Gun. "WEDJEE Despongification Weapons. Cool!" I said, taking the pistol- sized weapon from her and rooting through the dead guard's pockets for any extra clips. I found some clips in a thigh pocket, as well as another Sponge Gun lying forgotten on the floor near the barricade. "Evidently, these were issued to stop nouveau Spongin from running amok," I continued. "Guess it didn't work that well." Pocketing the clips, I got to my feet to find P-Chan holding a Bubblegum Blaster in her hands. "You ready?" I asked. "I was born ready," she answered, and the two of us hurtled down the hallway neck-and-neck. **************************************************************************** We sped down the rest of the way to the hangar, encountering no further Spongin resistance. Those that we saw turn Spongin along the way were promptly silenced by their buddies. But just seeing something like that sent chills down my spine. Would one of us have to silence the other? Lieutenant Ford waved us over from where she was crouching with a small security detail, keeping an eye on the scene in the hangar. "Got a sitrep for me, Lieutenant?" I asked as me and P joined her. "Our Evil is there, all right," she said. "He's got a Pulse Cannon and about 3-4 assorted Sponges with him, possibly Marines. We managed to seal off DownBelow, however." "And the bad news?" "They started shooting randomly at techs a few minutes ago. Don't worry, sir, we got most of them out. Now they shoot at anything entering the hangar." I took a deep breath. "Ok, here's what I want you to do. I'll go in and see if I can't make the odds any better. Give me a twenty count and come in, er.. guts out." I didn't want to say "balls out" in this company, at least not yet. "P, wait five seconds after I go in, then sneak inside and see if you can't peg anybody with that gum-shooter." "Got that," she replied. "And keep your head down." "I'll be fine. Remember the Light 'Mech Driver's First Rule?" I asked, smiling as I took a few steps back and settled into a speed-skater's ready position. "'That which moves fast, lives.' I remember." Holding both pistols in my hands, I began my run into the mouth of Hell. Almost immediately after I'd crossed the threshold, plasma bolts singed the air around me, and it was all I could do to not get hit. # Iron Maiden "Be Quick or Be Dead" _Fear of the Dark_ Looking around the hangar, I saw that the Marines had taken up positions in cover behind various objects. That was no problem, I thought before settling into a wide turn, watching the plasma blossom all around as they tried to hit what appeared to be a slow moving target. But there was a method to my madness. I had managed to get to one of the Marines' flanks and jumped on top of an intervening Sulla. I then jumped over the Marine's head, firing my pistols as I flipped through the air. Only one pellet hit his exposed skin, but it was enough. Sponge Gun pellets are coated with this stuff called Clearix, which affects one's system like about four Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters in ten minutes. The Marine crumpled to the floor, passed out as I started to get back to speed. However, another Marine drew a bead on me and fired, hitting me in my right hip. I fell onto the floor, skidding for a good ten feet before I could check the damage. The shields had stopped a good deal of the damage, but a nice scorch mark on my soft-suit told me I shouldn't try that again. And then he did something stupid, as if you'd actually expect a Spongin to be smart. He broke cover to check up on me. I then dropped him with a well-timed shot, followed almost instantly by a stream of bubble gum entangling his legs. The E.G. caught sight of this and fired his pulse cannon at P-Chan, who nimbly dived behind some conveniently-placed boxes. I checked for the other Marines, only to see one of them disappear in a hail of green Jello-shots. "Good thing you know better than to listen to me on counting, Lieutenant!" I called out. "I gave you the whole twenty, sir," replied Ford. "It just seemed sooner for you." She was right, I noted as the Spongins concentrated fire on the detail, which left me free to get up and skating again. I zoomed in towards the E.G., pistol pellets pockmarking his combat armor. "Pick on someone your own size!" I shouted as I tried to hit exposed skin in vain. The E.G. then trained the cannon on me, but bubble gum coated his head and pasted his arms to his side, making him drop the heavy weapon. "Nice shot, P," I said as she came into view. She merely said, "Thanks," as we waited for the scientist to chew his way back to sanity. But something had gone wrong. Maybe it took him entirely by surprise, or maybe the corruption had run deeper than we were led to believe. Anyway, his body started twitching, then convulsing as he tried to breathe. I said, "Somebody get a medic over here!" as the E.G.'s body went limp. I tore through the gum to clear his airway, but it was too late. When the medic got there, he tried mouth to mouth for about a minute before looking up at me and shaking his head. Dammit. Yet another death in all this madness. Lieutenant Ford walked up next to me and said, "We have the last Marine in custody, sir." I merely waved her away, not feeling much like talking. P-Chan simply stood there in a minor state of shock. "What could make somebody so Spongin that he'd rather die than chew through bubble gum?" "More than likely that ...thing above our heads," I replied, trying to console her as best as I could. "Something must be done about that," she said, her voice taking on a bit of an edge. "Agreed," I answered. "But what does CP have in mind?" To be continued... All material copyrighted by the original author.