Occupied (Just another day in the office, part 2)
(Author’s note: if you haven’t read the first part, “Just Another Day At The Office”, you should read that first before enjoying this story.)
JOURNAL OF SAMUEL T. ZUCKERMAN
Man, that sounds so lame. Nobody calls me “Samuel” except my Mom. And I haven’t kept a journal since I was a kid and even then I didn’t do it for very long. But with all that’s happened since the Drekons arrived, I felt I’d better keep some sort of record. I’ll start with today and see where this goes. It’ll give me something to do anyway.
OCCUPATION OF CESTUS III, DAY 20
The title sums it up, we’re living (if you can call it that) under occupation. The Drekons arrived just about 3 weeks ago and things have gone downhill fast. Best estimates are that over a million died the night of the invasion in New Liberty alone. And it didn’t end there.
Once a day or so the Drekons go on a raid – usually in the larger cities, but it could be anywhere – and people die. New Liberty is a ghost town in ruins. Most folks – myself included – are pretty much holed up at home waiting for their food to run out. Power has been out since the night of the attack, and comms haven’t come back up either.
Speaking of the attack, Joe Waxie from down the street claims to know someone who got a visual on the Antimatter Plant site. Or maybe heard from someone who heard from someone, I forget. Anyway, the rumor is that there is a crater several MILES deep in the ground where it used to be. That’s not coming back online any time soon.
Anyway, what I can’t figure out is: what do the Drekons want? No one that I know of has actually seen a Drekon or talked to one. Their ship – yes, there’s only one that we know about – is parked on the front lawn of Parliament House in New Liberty. When it’s not on a raid, that is. Anyone who has gotten too close has gotten dead pretty quickly. They don’t communicate with us at all, so what’s the deal with the daily raid? Why are they even here to begin with? What do they want from us?
That’s enough for today, too depressing...
DAY 21
Ramen for dinner today. Again. Today’s daily Drekon terror attack hit the west side of New Liberty again, we could hear the screams all the way out here in the ‘burbs. Oh, did I mention that it’s been confirmed that the IGCBCS building was destroyed the night of the initial attack? I can only imagine what might be happening online since we can no longer log in to the Inter-Galactic Computer-Based Combat Systems. We’re probably getting hit hard. My fleet was parked on the [CSTS3] blob with everyone else’s, but by now someone has probably crashed the jump gate. The first few days I had some serious withdrawal symptoms, actually getting agitated and nervous about the fate of my “space boats”. With everything that’s going on, that seems a bit silly now. Our planet has bigger problems than virtual combat, we’ve got real death and destruction.
It’s not just me not going to work any more. Even though the raids seem to mostly target the planet’s medium-to-large cities, it’s not a given. They hit way out in Tiddleton last week, rumor has it. That place has what, 500 people in it? What kind of threat did the Drekons see there? Seems somewhat random to me. As a result of not knowing where the next attack might be, no one is going about their business any more. Everyone is holed up someplace, either at home or in a cave somewhere I guess. The planetary economy must be ruined. And the food is going to run out, it’s just a matter of time. I’ve taken recently to scavenging the empty houses of my neighbors who have fled the area, and I am by far not the only one doing so. Thankfully I was able to store away enough canned goods to last a while if I stretch things. Good thing I have no kids to feed. And good thing I happen to like cold Spaghetti Ring-Os and Ramen noodle packets. Reminds me of my college days!
Like I mentioned, some of my neighbors are still around, and we talk. There is a lot of speculation and rumor. Like: there has got to be more than one Drekon ship. They certainly brought more the night of the invasion! Where did they all go? Surely they are not holding this occupation with a single fighter! Most folks figure that they’re being cautious and keeping the bulk of their fleet in orbit. We can’t tell because there’s no power and no way to fire up the scanners.
I don’t know why they would need to be cautious though, it’s not like we can fight back. Oh, we’ve tried. Our police and security personnel have lost many people trying to hit that ship with projectile guns, flamethrowers, lasers, and even sharp pointy sticks at one point. One guy got close enough to attach an explosive charge. Nothing they tried even made as much as a dent in the armor. And those who tried were vaporized. It’s not a surprise; the weapons on that thing are powerful enough to level buildings in one shot. Which they have done on many occasions, I might add. On that happy note, time for bed, the light is fading fast.
DAY 23
You’re not going to believe this! (I’m talking to my journal like it’s a person, I must be going crazy). Someone over in Freetown managed to fire up the old Solar Plant! We must be tied to the same grid, because guess what? My freaking alarm clock woke me up yesterday morning! Can you believe that? Scared the crap outta me. But then I did my happy dance, because it meant that the power was back! Well, sort of. It’s not on all the time, and it’s not what you’d call reliable. It doesn’t work at all at night, I guess the capacitors at the Solar Plant are shot. Not a surprise, given that it hasn’t been maintained for years since we built the vastly more efficient Antimatter Plant (which is now a giant crater). But this is the best news we’ve had since the invasion, or D-Day as I’m calling it (D for Drekons of course).
I didn’t write yesterday because of the other good thing that happened. I ran into a guy who also used to work at IGCBCS, and he told me that he heard that the DRF (Data Repository Facility) in Fairmount is untouched. That means that – in theory – there is a backup of the IGCBCS systems as of the night of the attack. That’s the good news. The bad news is we can’t get to it. First of all, Fairmount is 2500 miles away. Secondly, the DRF was kept in an underground vault with its own power supply, but no facilities for staff whatsoever. Nobody actually worked there, everything was done remotely. So it’s entirely isolated from the people who need it. Who thought up this backup plan? Geez! With the comms down and power unreliable we can’t connect. Yet. I have an idea, and I’m gonna try it tomorrow if the power stays on long enough...
DAY 24
EUREKA! I actually managed to connect to the DRF facility and log into the IGCBCS system! Let me back up a bit first.
I had this idea that maybe the wireless comm systems weren’t totally wiped out like the land-lines were. Most of the towers have backup power of their own, and the Drekons seem to be targeting people and not infrastructure when they raid. The tower in our neighborhood is still standing and the little blinker at the top is still blinking every night. So I used the opportunity this morning when we had power from the Solar Plant and charged up my mobile. Sure enough, I was able to use it! The first thing I did was try to contact Fred. No luck. I wasn’t expecting it really.
About Fred. A few days after the invasion I biked into New Liberty – scared witless! - and went to Fred’s house. He wasn’t there. Nor were any of his neighbors. But the house looked empty, not burglarized or anything. And his street looked unscathed; I guess the Drekons haven’t hit his neighborhood yet. I really hope he got away to someplace safe. If there is such a place.
Speaking of the damned Drekons: another question we all have is why are they apparently on a schedule? They attack roughly every 24 hours, sometimes a little longer between raids, but never – ever – less. In fact, they’ve never attacked twice in a single 24-hour period, starting with the night of the invasion. Do they need to recharge or something? Some folks have been getting bolder and are going scavenging right after a raid. And so far none of them have died. Interesting...
Anyway, back to the wireless thing. After a lot of effort, and routing the connection halfway around the world, I managed a weak but stable connection to the DRF. The connection was so slow it was almost unusable. It made me miss my old work terminal again. But hey, I had nothing better to do, right?
So anyway, I logged into the system and found something unexpected. Actually several unexpected things. Firstly, and most important, my mobile fleet was still alive! And so is most of the guild, still sitting there on the blob. Wow, I thought for sure we’d be debris by now. The other thing is, I’m not the only one who managed to log in. Some guy in [CSTS3] going by the handle of “Speedy” managed to connect yesterday and moved his fleet off the blob. I’ve sent him a message to find out more about how he managed to connect and what life is like where he’s at. Hopefully he’ll be able to log in again and write back.
I sent some private messages to folks I know in other guilds letting them know what’s happening to Cestus III, and most of the responses were the same. They were shocked. They were outraged. They were sympathetic. But they can’t assist us. No one has any “real” military ships that could help us. I expected that answer but I had to try. It felt good to be able to log in to the IGCBCS again, even if it was painfully slow, and only for a short while. Who’d have thought I actually missed work?
DAY 27
Sorry I haven’t written lately. The comms have been improving, but our online situation has hit rock bottom. Remember those PMs I sent the other day? Well, somehow our real-life situation leaked out to the folks on Vendakar and their good buddies on Eminiar 7. And they teamed up to hit us – HARD. The mobile fleet I had the other day? It’s gone. As is pretty much everyone else’s in the guild. The balance of power online has now changed dramatically. Our fleet numbers and level dropped tremendously. Or, to put it another way, we’re screwed both online and in real life. I was naive to think that posting for help with our real-world situation would accomplish anything. All it did was help destroy our guild’s hard-fought position online.
Meh, I’m sure it would have happened anyway, with most of our guild showing the “inactive” tag. Somebody would have crushed us eventually. I just wish it wasn’t those losers from [VNDKR] and [EMNR7]. I hate those guys! If we ever get through this, I will personally lead [CSTS3] in a revenge op. That’s almost enough motivation to keep on living! Ha!
No word from “Speedy” yet, but whoever they are they now have the largest fleet in [CSTS3]. Hope they moved it someplace safe, or sent it on a really really long trip...
DAY 29
What a day. The Drekons did their daily thing again. Only this time they raided the temporary capitol complex in South Liberty. The news from down there is that President Julatsa is dead. She was in an underground command center but they blew it up along with everything above ground for six blocks in all directions, or so the story goes. Vice President Batte was sworn in and taken away to an “undisclosed location”. That makes me feel safer already. Not!
In other news, Joe Waxie told me today he’s heard about a “resistance movement”, and asked if I would join it if he did. I told him I was interested, as long as it didn’t involve going anywhere near New Liberty and that blasted Drekon ship.
DAY 30
Get this: the “resistance” is holding a meeting at West Liberty High School tomorrow. A meeting! My first thought was that we shouldn’t congregate in one area and give the Drekons a juicy target. But these guys had apparently thought of that. The meeting time is listed as “2 hours after the Drekon raid”. Interesting! Since the Drekons have been keeping to their approximate 24-hour schedule, I suppose it’s probably safe to go. Heck, even old lady Trillian was out working on her vegetable garden yesterday 10 minutes after the Drekon ship came back from its raid! What have I got to lose? (I probably shouldn’t ask that).
DAY 31
“Hope”. That’s a word I haven’t used for a while. But I have some now. The meeting was *amazing*! Well, parts of it were. Mostly it was a lot of shouting, arguing and some crying. But there was a good part – maybe a great part.
The speaker – some kid named Eli – went on about how there is a planet-wide movement to come up with a way to counter the Drekons and return us to some sort of normal. Of course, he had no specifics he could give us, which made a few folks walk right out of the meeting. I stayed though. And boy am I glad I did!
Eli mentioned that the movement has a leader. A man he called “J”. a man who used to work for IGCBCS, claims to have “seen this coming” for years, and tried to warn us. Seriously? Could it be crazy old Jeremiah? This is supposed to give me confidence in the resistance movement? A crazy homeless dude is the leader, great – we’re saved! (That was sarcasm, it doesn’t come out well in journal entries though.)
So anyway, I hung out after the meeting and waited to talk to Eli alone. I asked him if I could meet this mysterious “J” and he said no way, too dangerous. I mentioned my suspicion that I knew the guy, and that I too was an IGCBCS employee (or ex-employee anyway). He still seemed reluctant to give out any more info. What convinced him was when I told him about how I used to talk to a man named Jeremiah outside Starbuck’s in the morning before work. His eyes lit up. “You’re the guy from the coffee shop?” Apparently Jeremiah (assuming that’s who “J” is, and I’m 99% sure) remembered me and told Eli about it! And he’s been wanting to get in touch with me.
So, Journal, it may be a few days before I write to you again. Eli has agreed to take me to meet “J”, but it’s several days’ hike from here. But for the first time in over a month, I have hope. I don’t know what meeting with crazy old Jeremiah and his “resistance movement” will accomplish, but I feel like I have a little bit of a purpose now. I’ll write again as soon as I can!
TO BE CONTINUED...