Ami felt sincere doubt about the alien's claims. The United States had NASA, and that organization had a certain reputation for being overbudgeted underproducers. The Japanese space agency, JAXA, had made statements to that effect over the years. They'd even produced examples of how contractual obligations, labyrinthine politics, underbudgeting on some projects and bureaucratic waste on others, had turned the hope of a nation into some compromise agency. Compromises, as was also stated, were a solution that satisfied no one but completely dissatisfied the fewest possible.
She perked up upon hearing that internet connections to the United States were working, only to lose that brief hope when hearing that it was only a few connections available and that the responses seemed sluggish and somehow odd.
The count of vessels continued to increase. Now it was over two hundred Landers, the ships looking like polyhedrons and about the size of a football field and estimated at nine hundred and ten tons (by some sources at least). The vaguely HR Giger-ish city-ships estimated at something over two hundred thousand tons were now in excess of thirty.
"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" screamed Ami as someone was abruptly standing in the kitchen.
"WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed Sailor Pluto.
"Sailor Pluto-san?" asked Ami as her heartrate slowed down from what seemed like two hundred beats per minute.
"Ami. I really didn't need that," said Sailor Pluto. "Where does your mother keep her alcohol?"
"Disinfectant is in the bathroom," answered Ami.
"Not that kind of alcohol," said Sailor Pluto.
"Oh," said Ami, finding the cabinet. Then watching as Pluto took out a glass and looked at the bottle of sake, then just uncorked the bottle and took a swig apparently deciding the glass just wasn't going to cut it. "errr."
"I went to go look at what was occurring myself," said Pluto.
"So the aliens are..." asked Ami, not sure she wanted to know herself.
"The communications now coming from inside the blockades are altered, that country has been completely cut off. Their cities have become slaughterhouses and larders for the aliens," said Sailor Pluto, taking another drink. "I would have thought your mother could afford better stuff."
"She only drinks a little on special occasions," said Ami. "They're..."
"Telepathic carnivores," said Sailor Pluto. "The more intelligent the prey, the more they enjoy feeding."
"That means that..." Ami's voice trailed off as her mind tried to find something else to focus on.
"It's just a beachhead," said Sailor Pluto. "Once they've entrenched themselves and eliminated the resistance, they'll look for excuses to take more territory. Unfortunately, they're not stupid. They took out the most likely to be aggressive and intervene, and are actually likely to spend time consolidating their holdings before expanding if left alone. They apparently hope to make use of short memories and attention spans, as well as bribing or threatening others, to give them that time."
(Posted Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:55)
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