Eagle Base

Today’s Genre Writing Challenge from The Haunted Wordsmith

Response should use the photo prompt given
Response should be in specified genre

It doesn’t have to be good!
It doesn’t have to be right!

HAVE FUN WITH IT!

Today’s genre and image: Spy-Fi (tales of espionage with SF elements, especially the use of high-tech gadgetry)

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

OK, so this is more “sci” than “spy” but the final instruction is to have fun.

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Eagle Base

The connection broke just as Ben heard the familiar whistle-hum of a fragment bomb crashing through the atmosphere. He checked his watch. 14:34. They’re early, he thought as the bomb’s impact shook the room. He clicked the mic and tried to restore the connection. “Eagle base to Triton. Eagle base to Triton.”

Nothing.

He checked the radar and noticed a large cluster overhead. “Snails,” he said referring to what could only be an advance fleet of invading S’Naali.

“I sure would have liked to have heard those orders,” he said.

This was exactly the type of situation Ben Jorman had been trained for and he didn’t waste time. He entered his security code and flipped the lock on the command console and pulled back the cover to reveal the control module. He powered it on and entered the activation code and released the fleet of Idesi X31 Octocopters. Small but quick, these machines could, in the right hands, do more than fully armed ships 10 times their size. A quick glance at his wrist display confirmed that the tracking chips were operational and the monitor showed the Octos in flight. Ben took a deep breath and prayed that his were the right hands.

“Time to play,” he said.

He lowered the headset and brought a 1,000-mile radius of everything outside Eagle base into direct focus in front of him and he began choreographing control of the Octos in what he hoped wasn’t a last defense of Earth.

Sensors showed a fleet of 240 Snail ships. Not a great match for his 50 Octos but, he thought, odds didn’t matter at this point. He focused his headset and flew into battle.

Ben was down to four Octos and one of those was sending back failure signals but by the time that last Octo went down he had held back the invaders for over eight hours.

He never saw reinforcements arrive because a cluster nuke took out Eagle base shortly before they arrived. He also never saw the monument that was built to commemorate Earth’s final battle against the S’Naali or the statue that honored the man who held back the invaders and made sure that battle could be won.

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