Revelations. It was late Saturday night and the Carson's were relaxing at home watching the original DVD presentation of "The War of the Worlds". Rachel had rushed to the kitchen to refill her glass with more soda and shouted to her husband Dave, "Honey.. want anything from the kitchen while I'm out here?". Dave hollered back that some string cheese would be nice. At that exact moment the power suddenly shut off. "Honey.. what's up with the power?" Dave heard Rachel query from the kitchen. Dave boosted himself out of his chair and headed for the front door. He stepped outside and immediately noticed that this blackout seemed different than other power outages he had seen in the past. It was somehow darker and more pervasive. Rachel came out the front door shaking a flashlight and accused Dave of leaving it on, the last time he was in the garage. Rachel looked about and said, "Now that's weird, I don't see any city lights at all. Perhaps the whole city is blacked out." It was then that a burst of light flashed near the house. The cone of light emanated from a disk like machine hovering silently above the street. The light illuminated a group of creatures directly under it. Rachel panicked and rushed back into the house while Dave just stood there, like a deer caught in the headlights of an on coming car. One of the creatures left the group and began approaching Dave with a fluid like motion. Dave slowly backed into the house, not able to take his eyes off the bi-pedal creature. It followed Dave into the house and began to peer about. The light from the ship outside gave illumination through the windows allowing Dave to examine his visitor. He noticed first that it's eyes were really huge and oval shaped. It seemed to lack any semblance of a nose. It was naked and seemed to be sexless. No real ears to speak of and a very small chin with no lips. The skin appeared to be a slightly blue metallic color and it's body almost seemed malnourished. Rachel choose that moment to enter the room and began waving Dave's pistol in the direction of the alien. It managed a weak smile and backed slowly out to the street while Dave begged Rachel not to appear so hostile. He relieved Rachel of the weapon and stuck it in the back of his belt. They both followed the alien outside and watched as it rejoined the aliens still grouped outside. There was a flash and a buzzing sound. In the silvery moonlight they could barely see that the ship and crew had vanished without a trace. Dave and Rachel sat down on the porch and reflected on the strange events that had just transpired. After a few minutes the sound of distant gunfire met their ears. Walking out to the street, they could just make out what would best be described as a riot, just a few blocks down. As the commotion grew closer they could discern that a large group of uniformed individuals were raiding each house in succession. On occasion, a resident would resist their home invasion with active gunfire, only to be met with a devastating flash of blue light from some kind of tank like machine in the street. This mobile weapon literally vaporized the hostile homes with nary a sound. As the action moved closer, Dave and Rachel could see that the uniformed aggressors were not human but very buff creatures with large bald heads. They had far more human characteristics than the earlier aliens and they seemed intent on total subjugation of every neighbor on the block. Any exceptional resistance was met with lethal and swift retribution. The reason behind the home intrusions became obvious shortly, as weapons were being gathered from each house inspected and deposited into smaller machines that rolled along side the hostiles. They were systematically disarming the entire neighborhood! Not a small task, given the number of Rednecks that lived in this community. Rachel and Dave quickly rushed back into their home, out the back door, and started climbing over backyard fences in a desperate attempt to place as much distance between themselves and the uniformed invaders. When they reached the next street, they found themselves cut off from escape. Every street seemed to be getting the same weapons sweep. Dave motioned to Rachel to follow him as he stooped into a gutter and began working vigorously on loosening a bar that covered a storm drain hole. Dave had worked for the city and, on occasion, been required to enter the city's rain drainage system to remove clogs of leaves and debris. He knew that miles of large square tunnels passed under their streets and this particular one released rain water into the canal next to Oakwood Park. It was pitch black inside the drain but fairly easy to follow the wall's cement sides with their fingers as they moved downstream. The sound of water dripping somewhere ahead was mixed with occasional shouts, screams and gunfire from above. The way the echoes passed through these halls, made it rather difficult to determine their distance from the action up at street level. After a mile or so Rachel stated she could see some light ahead. Dave agreed and added that it was probably moonlight shining into the passage at the tunnels exit point. At the exit they finally paused and rested. Rachel broke down into tears and Dave snuggled up close to her and placed his arms around her shoulders. "What's going to happen to us?" she whimpered. Dave said he didn't know but would do everything in his power to keep her safe. Dave asked Rachel to stay put while he surveyed the situation above them. Promising to be brief, Dave crept up the sides of the canal and peered into the park. It had been transfigured into a city of lighted tents. Everywhere he looked, he could make out the uniformed aliens bustling about like locust. He snuck through a hole in the safety fence and crawled towards the nearest tent. That's when he was spotted by an alien soldier who instantly trained a flashlight on him. Before the alien soldier could react, Dave jumped to his feet and raced back to the fence, dived through the hole and slid down to Rachel. "Run!" he shouted at Rachel, as he dove into a pile of leaves near the entrance. He could hear Rachel's rapid footsteps down the dark tunnel as the soldier raced into and began pursuit of the receding footstep sounds. Dave leaped at the soldier from behind, just as he passed, and hammered the alien's head with the butt of the gun taken from his belt. The soldier dropped like a sack of potatoes. "Rachel, come back!" Dave hissed in muted tones, hopefully loud enough to be heard by Rachel without attracting unneeded attention from above. By the time Rachel had returned, Dave had bound and gagged the unconscious soldier with pieces of cloth ripped from his uniform. Rachel and Dave pulled the creature deeper into the tunnel and into a side chamber. They were thankful the soldier had provided them with a working flashlight. While examining their prisoner, Rachel discovered something very strange. The soldier creature had a heart shaped tattoo on his leg, with the word "Mom" inscribed inside the heart. Rachel stood up and abruptly kicked the creature dead in the stomach. It stirred and let out a low snort. She turned to Dave and proudly announced, "This isn't an Alien, it's a human that's been altered somehow!". Dave pulled his gun out and stuck it into the soldiers nose, to show he meant business. Rachel carefully slid down the gag and demanded some answers, "What was he? Who was he? What the hell is going on?". The soldier appeared to be taking a full breath to shout for help. Rachel pre-empted the cry with an anticipated swift kick to a much more sensitive location on his body. The soldier took some time to catch his breath and slowly moaned "Ok.. I'll tell you what I know. I have no love for what I've been ordered to do". He related that he had been a Navy recruit and had been assigned to a space faring Battleship. From there he had been transferred to a lunar base, where they had done some sort of genetic modifications to his body. After that, he had been assigned to an underground bunker nearby and put in charge of overseeing thousands of tanks. Each tank had contained a human-alien hybrid clone. The clones where programmed, while in a partial state of awareness, with a fictitious story in regards to the important role they would be playing soon. That they would be instrumental in bringing peace to a world gone horribly wrong. Our own military had planned a faked invasion of Earth, in the hopes of unifying all the world's governments, via scare tactics, into a single military force united against the evil aliens conquest. The real aliens simply didn't want Earth to achieve space travel under paranoid and violent military control. Especially with all the weapons technology that had been acquired over the past decades in secret black-op military labs. Real aliens had been slowly acclimating the general populace to their existence for many years, against a constant backdrop of persecution and ridicule, instigated by the military and various other voices of authority. "We weren't quite ready for the master plan to be put into effect, you see..." said the soldier. "The real aliens acted first, in a massive display of presence, which forced our hand to launch the fake invasion plans prematurely. Beginning with a strategy of taking control of all power relay stations and blitzing all forms of communications, we needed to quickly disarm any resistance." The soldier tried to sit up, but Rachel pushed him back down and sat on him. The soldier next related how the alien looking human clones were released and ordered to be an active police force initially assigned to disarm the world's citizenry. A new world order would be launched and the entire Earth would fly just one banner, against the supposed invading alien armada. The populace would be under rigid martial law and helpless to oppose. Order would be restored over time and our military would eventually appear to win and take credit for defeating the aliens plans of conquest. We would then be protected and live under the ever watchful controls of a benevolent military organization. "Ok, I've heard enough!" Dave said as he rendered the soldier unconscious with a sharp blow to the head. Rachel and Dave made their way back to the entrance and sat in near silence, as they contemplated all that they had learned and planned their next moves. That's when the light show began. The sky filled with powerful beams, directed at the ground. It was like a massive laser light show at a rave. Thousands of flashes per second, quietly filled the night sky. This lasted for almost a minute. Then a shimmering in the sky began and a face appeared within the pattern of lights. It was the face of the President of the United States. A thunderous voice filled the air and stated "People of Earth, I am located in a spaceship just over the Pacific Ocean. I have been in conference and briefed in the particulars of the events that have transpired world wide this day. We are not, I repeat NOT, under a hostile alien invasion. The beams you have just witnessed was a mopping operation to incapacitate the armed forces that have attempted to seize control of our planet. The armed hostiles are cloned and modified humans. The invasion was launched by our own trusted military in an attempt to seize control of the planet. A space battle was waged between our renegade forces and our new found alien friends. The renegade military has just surrendered to the superior technology of our newly revealed galactic neighbors. Peace has been forced and aid is due shortly to everyone that may need it. Please stay at home while services are restored. Many changes will be installed, as our race recovers from this global catastrophe. The personal losses are great and this day will go down in historical infamy. Surviving world leaders are being picked up as I speak. We will find a way to unite. We will never again succumb to the powers of abused secrecy and elitist controls. I was not kept informed of these plans by our own armed forces, but will do everything in my power to see to it, that these recent events, can never again be repeated. Blessings to all and thank you for your patience, as we strive to make this world a better place to live for all concerned." Ten years have now passed since that fateful day. Rachel and Dave again sat on their front porch, looking at the night sky in a loving embrace. The recovery period was surprisingly brief. We had a lot of great new toys to play with. A lot of new places to go to. Immortality treatments against aging had been dispensed to all that wanted such. These also had the side effect of restoring the body to an ideal post puberty state. It was a young and almost magical world now, with plenty of everything for everyone and more time than anyone could hope for. The reconstruction of human society was well underway. Perhaps the most important lesson we had learned being: "That we had met our worst enemy, and it was us." The Beginning.. Dave :^)