Chapter 6 "Events From The Inaugural Mission" Part C

...She then commands Spc. McDermott to secure their alien prisoner while she and Sgt. Hillary deploy the life rafts. Everyone else is to continue engaging the enemy until the rafts are ready or they run out of ammunition.

Mara and Alec have the rafts set up in less than five minutes. She orders the men to the rafts while she and Marcus lob out the smoke grenades. Lt. Moore runs to his side, he is still returning weapons fire to the enemy, the only one left with ammunition.

Marcus seizes fire, reserving his last few shots for when the bullets might be needed. He then shoulders his weapon and takes five of the ten smoke grenades from Lt. Moore. Together, they remove the safety pins from the smoke grenades. One by one the lieutenants toss the grenades over the dune, just along the shore line. Each one pops and shoots out it’s contents into the air. It takes only a brief moment for the grenades to fill the area with enough smoke cover.

The soldiers scurry to the rafts. The first life raft containing all of the specialists and sergeants pushes out into the Gulf of Mexico. Sgts. Hillary and Aleman take a hold of the paddles and begin rowing the group further out. Emphatically, they separate themselves from the shoreline. Marcus pushes the second raft into the water. Soon after Mara lobs her last grenade and joins him in the raft. Together they begin paddling the raft out into open waters.

Lt. Moore, the good leader she is, scans the opposite raft to insure that all of her troops are at sea. Everyone is accounted for, also it appears the alien forces are still attacking the sand dunes. The enemy must have thought the smoke screen to have been irrelevant. Little do they know that the humans have abandoned the beach behind that grayish-white cloud of smoke.

As they paddle further out, Mara begins to feel as if something is wrong and out of place. The thought gets to her and is unable to shake it. She looks over to Marcus to ask him his thoughts.

“I feel like we forgot something,” she states.

“Did you forget to turn off the coffee pot, dear?” he says playfully.

“Not funny, lieutenant,” she answers, then states, “I really feel as if we forgot something.”

For the sake of the lieutenant’s sanity Marcus takes another look around the rafts. He still does not notice anything odd. He looks around a second time. In his mind Marcus checks over things, ‘The life rafts are full of the men, the smoke cloud is still thick, the beach… the beach!’

“Lieutenant, I found your missing link,” Marcus says to the troubled Mara.

“What,” she replies, “where is it?”

“Behind you,” Marcus answers, “on the beach. Someone forget the prisoner.”

“Damn it!” shouts Lt. Moore.

As she turns to look back she can see the alien they had captured standing in the shallow waters on the beach. The once captured alien is standing in between the smoke, the team, and alien squads. It is not alerting it’s fellow aliens to them, but only watching as they float away.

“What is it doing?” asks Mara, “Why is it just standing there?”

“I don’t know lieutenant, but we need to get rowing. The smoke is fading,” states Marcus. “Staying alive is our number one priority now, remember?” he adds quoting what Lt. Moore had said earlier.

Marcus resumes rowing once more, this time with both paddles. Mara is still looking at the alien they had captured earlier on the shore.

Something very unusual occurs, the alien begins to walk further out into deeper waters towards them. It places it’s arms in the air much like a person surrendering to authorities. The alien walks out into waist deep waters.

“Marcus, look!” says an excited Lt. Moore and asks curiously, “What’s it doing?”

“It looks like it wants to come with us!” suggest a stunned Marcus.

“Don’t think about it!!!” screams Sgt. Hillary forty feet away in the second raft.

“You won’t get back out to sea in time!!!” adds John Aleman.

Marcus and Mara’s eyes lock. They both are thinking the same thing, and they both know it by the looks on their faces.

“Its up to you, Mara. I’m behind you all the way,” Marcus tells her.

“Then lets move, Marcus,” she orders.

Lt. Dillard turns the raft around with haste. Lt. Moore takes the second paddle away from him and helps him row. They move their arms as fast as they can to get to the alien prisoner some two hundred feet away. The team is at a loss of words by the lieutenants actions. However, they quickly gather themselves and cheer their leaders on. Spc. Dugan does not care for the alien, but does for his lieutenants and joins in the effort.

Spc. McDermott warns them to keep an eye on the smoke. Lt. Dillard looks to the ten smoke grenades, they have completed dispensing their contents. The breeze has died to a still calm though, allowing the smoke to linger close to the ground and remain thick.

The alien has now wondered out to a depth in the water that is up to it’s neck. It begins to flop trying to swim, but must not know how to. For some inexplicable reason it is trying hard to get to the lieutenant’s raft.

“Hurry!” yells Mara, “Its drowning!”

From a distance away Sgt. Hillary shouts, “Lieutenant! The smoke screen is lifting!”

Mara and Marcus row faster and harder as they observe this. They row to a distance close enough to reach out and pull in the would be prisoner. They put the paddles to the side and allow the currents to move them the rest of the little way needed.

A few of the alien soldiers have wonder threw the smoke cloud. As they break threw the smoke they have to rub their eyes a little and allow them to readjust. It does not take long for an enemy alien to discover the floating rafts out on the water. They vile enemy calls for it’s alien mates to rally on him. The platoon reorganizes immediately and begins firing towards the lieutenants and the alien prisoner. Florida coastal waters run shallow far out from the beach front. This allows for a good distance between the alien platoon and the humans.

Many of the shots fly out wildly in the air, many land in the waters near the raft. As the plasma strikes the Gulf waters it reacts in a never before seen manner. As the intensely hot plasma gasses collide with the salty ocean waters, it causes a profound bluish glow before it flash boils the water it had came in contact with. After the glow and boil a hot steam raises up from the point of impact.

The fellow soldiers in the second life raft are screaming at the top of their lungs for their lieutenants to hurry. The sergeants choose to yell obscenities at the alien platoon in hopes of maybe drawing some of the fire away from the lieutenants.

However, the aliens are not swayed by the second raft. They know the other raft is much too far out of range fro their plasma rifles, so they continue to concentrate their weapons on the closer first raft. Even though they are inaccurate the enemy alien platoon is relentless in their goal of hitting Mara and Marcus.

Finally, the pair have floated close enough to the peculiar alien straggler. Marcus and Mara both reach into the chilly waters of the Gulf of Mexico to pull out the prisoner, they know it is too heavy for just one human to muscle out. Together they grab a hold and pull it out of the water, casting it to the opposite end of the raft that they are on.

　

Without a second thought of the enemy or a thought of securing the prisoner, Lts. Moore and Dillard begin paddling the raft further out to sea. By this time the smoke screen has lifted supplying enough time for a safe exit, but proving difficult for a desperate retrieval and narrow escape. They are lucky to have succeeded and to have come out of this both alive.

Tired and worn down from the time spent paddling vigorously, the lieutenants keep up the effort until they are a safe distance away from the enemy fire. Once they rejoin their team mates in the second life raft they finally relax and allow the currents to pull them deeper into the gulf.

The reconnaissance and espionage team is safely flowing along the currents of the Gulf of Mexico. Nightfall has graced the soldiers with it’s presence providing dark cover from enemies, and no bright sun to bake the human’s. They are thankful to all be alive after such a long day of battle against the invading aliens.

The entire team rejoiced as the alien platoon seized fire and watched as the humans escaped them. The entire team was astonished by the courage and bravery their senior officers heroic effort to retrieve the prisoner from the shallow waters. Even Spc. Kyle Dugan, who showed his disdain for the alien earlier in the day, was amazed by his commanders’ feat. The two also showed great strength after rowing for so long, without rest, against the waves, tides, and currents of the Gulf.

Now the team is relaxing as the very same currents guide them somewhere in the general direction of Texas or Louisiana. A rope was used to bind the two life rafts together to prevent the split teams from floating away from one another. The rope is pulled tight as the lighter raft of Mara, Marcus, and the prisoner wonders out a head of the heavier raft. Alec Hillary, John Aleman, Rafer McDermott, Kyle Dugan, and the console from the alien orb tower occupy the heavy raft.

Mara and Marcus are the only members of the team still awake. They remain awake in order to watch the alien prisoner, who is also still awake. Everyone else sleeps in the rear raft as the lieutenants guide them along in the front raft.

The alien sits motionless observing the lieutenants. It has not made a single noise since being pulled aboard. The alien appears to be showing no aggression. Meanwhile, Mara sits next to Marcus shivering from the chilled autumn air blowing over the Gulf of Mexico. Marcus feels her body’s vibrations lightly shaking the raft.

“Are you alright?” he asks concerned for her.

“Yes,” she answers somewhat truthful and then adds, “I’m not quite use to the cool air.

Confused by her reply and where she is from Marcus asks another question, “I thought you were from England? Shouldn’t you be accustomed to the cold?”

“I haven’t been home since they invaded it. Shortly after arriving back our battalion was pushed back into France. From there to Spain, then Morocco. Before we knew it we were in the southern Sahara of Algeria when we received the orders to regroup here in America. I haven’t been in a cold climate in well over six months now, I have to get readjusted to it,” Mara says to an interested Marcus.

“I see,” he replies to her story.

After a quick thought about how to help her, Marcus tells Mara to come to him. She asks to why. Marcus shifts his legs and pats the bottom of the raft and tells her that he will warm her up.

Mara grins at him as she has every time that he has done something kind for her. Happily she scoots herself into Marcus’ lap, she crosses her arms to trap body heat. Marcus wraps his own arms around her, hugging her to assist in keeping her warm. She then leans her head into his cheek, so Marcus snuggles closer and tighter with her. She warms herself very quickly in his arms and falls asleep.

Once he notices that Mara’s asleep he gently shifts his head not to awaken her, but to keep

watch on the enemy alien prisoner. Marcus finds something different going on with the captured foe. It has been observing the humans ever since it’s capture but this time a unique and definable look is in it’s face. It is a look of curiosity and innocent inquisitiveness, but not threatening. Once noticed by Marcus with this look it turns and looks out to the vast midnight blue sea.

Marcus as well looks away, but to the stars instead of the ocean. As he has many nights before, he takes fascination to the multitude and brilliance of stars. One would figure after an alien invasion that a person would not revere space, not Marcus. He continues to this day to be awestruck by the artful creations of a higher power, God.