Silence

“Fire the nukes.”

“Sir?”

“I said, fire the nukes.”

“Yes, Mr. President.” The suitcase was brought around. Passcodes were inputted. Keys were turned. And finally a call was made.

Somewhere in the US or within its sovereign waters, missiles were being launched and flying high in the sky. Racing to get to their targets in space.

Twenty of the most destructive weapons ever created by humans on Earth would actually be implemented for its defense against alien lifeforms. Who would have thought?

Meanwhile, tanks, trucks and other vehicles were quickly getting closer to the meeting location after having been secretly brought into Africa. In the air drones and fighter jets would take a little longer since they were being launched from bases further away. And the US’s armada were quickly getting to full speed in order to avoid any retaliation from the alien ships.

Leete broke the silent angry stares, speaking to Prince StoneTooth. When the Prince nodded Leete looked into the open bay doors of their ship, raised his hand and made a strange hooked gesture with his arm high in the air. If they looked real close the world leaders would have seen one of their many soldier raise his arm high in the air before repeating the gesture and running off somewhere on the ship.

In space, the alien ships received word from the flagship on the planet's surface to only take defensive measures by deploying their mana shields. The nuclear missiles detonated upon the shield but no visible damage was seen after the explosion and bright light faded away. Only the bubble of their shields could be seen before fading back into space after bleeding off the excess energy.

On the ground, the alien ship seemed to gather light at the front of the ship before a beam of light was fired off into the distance at an approaching dust cloud with the sound of heavy vehicles. Smaller, similar beams of light were fired into the air presumably at the planes, jets and drones.

Explosions could be heard even from this distance. The US President didn’t speak. His hands in tight fists.

His secretary delivered the bad news.

“Fire all of them.”

More missiles left. This time from not just missile silos but also from submarines and prototype space capable jets. Over 4,000 nuclear missiles were launched at the alien ships.

Prince StoneTooth raised his sword again, sending out another pulse from his body.

All around the United States missiles started to fall back down to the planet. Their rockets no longer firing, circuitry disrupted by the planet’s very own electromagnetic sphere.

Almost like he was trying to calm a frightened little dog, Leete walked closer to the world leaders with his hands in a lowering gesture. “No idea-uh… bad, bad idea. If Prince StoneTooth die, World Heart die with him. If World Heart die, world die.”

“What?” More than a few of the world leaders were shocked to hear that.

“Prince die, World die.” Leete couldn’t make it any simpler than that. “We greater than you. Weapons stone, magic greater.”

A reporter in the back was use to talking to other people with a broken understanding of languages. He spoke into his microphone to his viewers, but at the same time he was loud enough to be heard by everyone there.

“I think what the Mage Leete is trying to say is that our weapons are considered weak and primitive in the face of magic. That no matter what weapons we employ we would never be able to defeat them and arrest or confine Prince StoneTooth. And unless I’m wrong, any attempt to harm the prince will result in damages to the planet. Earlier the Prince showed the ability to speed up the rotation of the Earth, it’s possible that he shares a link with the planet and what affects one will affect the other. This is very bad… uh, sorry.”

When he noticed the stares of everyone around him he lost strength in his voice and shut up.

“We will never surrender.”

Leete pretty much gave up looking through the books to find what he needed to say. Tossing the English for Idiots book into the air he exclaimed “No fight. Prince StoneTooth has World. Listen, die. No other.”

***

The reporters on the scene were constantly live streaming everything that had happened.

Business around the world was frozen. Factories and machines were left idle as everyone watched their televisions and monitors or listened to radios and podcasts.

Everyone became afraid when the world spun faster and day turned into night and then back into day or vice versa. People were especially terrified when they heard the president of the United States order the launch of nuclear missiles.

Some of the world lost the ability to find out what happened as the detonation of nukes release an electromagnetic pulse and wipes out electronics for nearly 1/5th of the world. In those areas they didn’t know how effective the missile salvo had been, but after they see the trails of more missiles followed by that strange pulse shockwave and then the missiles falling to the ground, panic struck the people.

Riots, looting and murder became rampant in the major cities. People fearing the missiles would detonate in their own backyard or the retaliation of the aliens believed their lives to be over. So they fell upon their baser instincts.

In the areas where people could still watch and listen to the live news, they were frozen. Unable to tear their complete apt attention from it. Unable to process what was happening.

The strongest military weapons were useless. Thousands of them had been launched but they had no effect. The second largest military might in the world had its vehicles wiped out before they could bring weapons to bear and its president stood there, impotent.

“What do you want?”