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| - This is Private Blake Aaron of the U.S. Special Forces, I’m stationed outside the city of Los Angeles with what is left of my original squad and I am recording the events that I have just witnessed in the hopes that someone finds this report if we don’t make it out of here. This report itself will be dedicated to my fallen comrades and my big brother Dan Aaron, who I suspect is dead. Dan was a news reporter doing a story on the very event I’m going to talk about before he was attacked. We are dealing with dangerous beings that possess powers no military force could have prepared for because they’re not of this world. The information on these attackers is said to be classified, but let’s face it, no one knows what the fuck they are. My experience started after my team was scrambled at sundown and sent to L.A. after a supposed riot broke out, and we were to take control. A large S.W.A.T. team had been sent in before us, and these “rioters” had overwhelmed them, and it was our job to save the day. We expected to get the situation under control in no time, but when we arrived at the scene by nightfall, the whole place had already been transformed into a chaotic battleground after only a few hours. Buildings and cars were on fire, there was barely anything left of the S.W.A.T. team, and there were tons of citizens out on the street yelling and screaming. Our first instincts told us to get those people to safety, so we tried to establish order, but we soon found out that the people on the streets were actually our enemies. My squad and I all of a sudden started to hear shouting from people who had barricaded themselves into the nearby buildings, and we realized they were warnings, saying that the seemingly ordinary people outside were evil, and that we should engage them. As you can imagine, this caused a lot of confusion, but that’s when we looked around and noticed the remains of the squad that went in before us. It had been a riot-control team, and riot-shields, helmets and pieces of body armor littered the streets. Some massive force had to have done this, and the only suspects around were harmless-looking citizens. We all thought we’d show up on the scene guns blazing, but we just stood there with no plan. Suddenly, shots were fired into the crowd from three surviving squad members that had been hiding behind an over-turned van. Since they were on riot-control, the bullets in their guns were rubber, so the crowd wasn’t too affected. Then I saw a frail, old woman walk up to the three troopers, open her mouth and let out the worst noise I’ve ever heard, followed by a blast of energy that shot out of her body and reduced them to ash. Our team leader, Frank Hobsen, then gave the command to open-fire before he too was vaporized by another member of the crowd. I held down the trigger on my machine-gun and instinctively grabbed a riot-shield as I ran for cover while more blasts of energy came my way. Four more members of my squad were gone in seconds, and the rest of us took cover behind wrecked vehicles of all kinds. Tobey Gearhart, my squad’s second-in-command, immediately radioed for back-up, and emphasized that tanks and helicopters were needed. The rest of us took shots at the crowd, and although some of them were going down, it didn’t seem to do much good because more of them were coming from a portal that had opened up far off in the distance. To make matters worse, the ones that had been shot started to get back up, and although it was hard to see through all the smoke from the nearby fires, they didn’t seem to have any bullet-wounds. You read correctly, these living weapons came from a portal that just opened up without warning, that’s the only way I can describe the phenomenon. The eerie light that shoots out of their eyes and mouth would be astonishing if it wasn’t so terrifying, it’s a very interesting method of attack that simply should not be possible. What’s even more interesting is their appearance as human beings, and they must have been studying us for a very long time to mimic us so well. There’s another thing about their appearance that’s even harder to believe. I was blindly shooting at these things, pointing my gun through the car window that I was hiding behind, but then I decided to look up over the car, and that’s when I saw the face… of my wife. Alisa Aaron, the woman I’ve been married to for six years, was standing amongst the crowd of invaders, screaming my name and crying with joy. I released the trigger, and so did two others when they also saw people they recognized in the crowd. Her presence in the battle-zone was impossible, but for some reason my mind didn’t even question it. The urge to drop my gun and run over to her was almost too much to resist. I would have given in to this urge if I hadn’t noticed that the faces of the other people were constantly changing depending on who they were looking at. It then became all too clear that their plan was to beat us by getting into our minds and playing with our emotions through shape-shifting. I remember calling out, “It’s a trick, they’re not our loved ones!” to my comrades before putting a hole in my wife’s head, who just returned fire in my direction moments later. Despite this, some of my comrades still refused to fight, one of them being none other than Tobey himself, the toughest bastard I’d ever known who surpassed me in every military training session I could think of. The guy literally stood up, dropped his gun, and abandoned us because his emotions would no longer allow him to shoot at people that looked like those he cared about. With two of our leaders gone, I volunteered to become the new team leader, even though I knew we would be fighting a losing battle. I ordered my men to fall back, and by doing so I could not only get them to a safer place, but I was also expecting the evil crowd to follow us so all the people hiding in the buildings could sneak out and possibly escape the city. My plan seemed to work, but that also meant we had to run like hell as energy blasts were fired at us. Those things began to chase us down the street, and they made horrible screeching noises as they did so, which were unbearable to listen to. One team member couldn’t stand the noise any longer, and he covered his ears and fell onto his knees, making him an easy target who was killed quickly. I believe the man’s name was Jerald, the youngest of the group who was very recently added to my squad, and seeing his skin burn away and bones disintegrate made me think just how hopeless our struggle was. All I could do then was continue to flee for my life, not knowing how many of my teammates were still with me. We briefly hid behind a diner to return fire, and as I shot at the killers some more, I gazed further back past the crowd to see a group of survivors leaving their building and running to safety. A couple of them, however, were not so lucky, as they fell for the same trick I almost did. Several beams of the eerie light shot the diner, setting it ablaze, so I gave the orders to keep moving as the armies of the strange beings hunted us. We ran down the doomed streets as fast as our legs could carry us, and nearly got ran over by some vehicles heading far away from Los Angeles. It was around that time that we heard the buzzing of helicopters, and the rumbling of several tanks that were headed our way. Once the tanks became more visible, we ran into the nearest alleyway out of their line of fire. One chopper flew over our heads, shined a light down on us, then landed away from where the invaders were. There was nothing more we could do, we had to board the helicopter and leave. As we ran for the chopper, we heard loud booms behind us that shook the ground hard. Once we were in the air, I caught a glimpse of the battle scene that I’ll never forget. Dozens of invaders blasted a tank all at once, causing it to melt. The other tanks fired many shots that sent the enemies flying back, and bullets rained down upon them from the other helicopters. I never got to see if those that were hit stood back up, but I’m sure at least some of them are finally dead, assuming they’re able to die at all. The view from the chopper of the dark city below was haunting, to say the least. Nearly all the lights were out in every building, with only the glowing of the fires to illuminate it. An evacuation was underway, and all exits leading away from the city were clogged with cars. Our pilot reported back to base that he could spot more armies of the invaders marching towards the nearby neighborhood. There were other teams standing by to help with the evacuation, and we would need all the help available to us to get citizens far away from the extermination squads that were in full force. We were flown to a camp that had recently been set up in an area overlooking the city, with plenty of vantage points in case our enemies tried a sneak attack. This camp is where I’ll be sleeping tonight, and I’ve been told to stay put and wait for further instructions from the people now in charge. The boys and I only have one TV set up, and I’ve been watching reports from newscasters on this disaster from literally all over the world, I shit you not. It’s on one of these reports that I heard my brother’s last words. One of those things got into the building where he was hiding, and from experience I know that you can’t survive if they get too close. There’s something I’ve been trying to talk to people about, but they won’t listen to me, so I’ll just put it down right now: I know what these beings really look like. When one of them invades your mind and tries to make you lower your defenses, you get brief flashes of their true face. It must be like your minds are becoming one. Their skin has a metallic silver shine, their eyes are large and diamond-shaped, and they have razor-sharp teeth and no noses. The weirdest part of them is their eyes because they’re vertical, and that image will never leave my memory. I must say that there’s something very strange about the people we’re now taking orders from, the first thing being that they don’t seem to be with the military. There are troops marching around with black armor like Darth Vader, and they won’t even make eye-contact with me. Someone keeps radioing in about what sounded like an unsuccessful attempt at capturing one of the invaders. So far, I’ve at least been able to talk to Agent Matthews, the person who seems to be running this operation. He informed me that my men and I were relieved of our duties for the time being, but to stand by anyway. Agent Matthews is a shady character, and I get the feeling he knows something the rest of us don’t. There’s an odd calmness about him, even though we’re at the brink of an apocalypse. He and his men were quick to respond, almost as if they knew these invaders were coming, and that makes me want to ask more questions, but I know that will be frowned upon. I’m not here to have questions answered, I’m here to fight when told to because I’m just a grunt… although because of my recent actions, there’s talk that my status as a Special Forces operative might change soon. That doesn’t matter much, however, not after the mass-exterminations of humans everywhere. One more thing I’ll mention about Matthews is that he’s constantly on his cell-phone with someone he keeps referring to as “Master”. I’ve been in the military for a long time, and I haven’t heard the word “master” uttered as a military term. Obviously there’s someone far up the chain who put this operation in Matthews’ hands, and to fuck it up would lead to a harsh punishment. The only time the guy ever seems to get anxious is when he’s on the phone receiving orders. Maybe someday I’ll get to actually meet this mysterious person, because I’d sure like to know who I’ll be fighting for. You can bet I’ll be sleeping with my machine-gun tonight, even though I have the feeling that I’ll wake up dead. Whatever traveled to our planet is here to stay, and it won’t be easy to stop them when they already know all of our weaknesses. If I don’t make it through this nightmare, and someone happens to stumble upon this report, please find a way to let my wife Alisa and my son Colton know that I fought my damn hardest to save what’s left of this world.
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