23 April, 2015
Novo Mundo Labs
Somerset County, Maryland, U.S.

Conner stumbled out of the meeting room, bored out of his mind. Seven hours discussing what he was already intimately familiar with, what a waste of time. At least he didn't have to do any extra work. 

He began to walk tiredly towards the elevator. En route, he passed by several new specimens, locked up in massive containment units.  All but one were of standard-order breeding castes. The other one, however, was much larger. It was a drab, nearly featureless behemoth of life. It had large claws, large limbs, and a terrifying face with large, soul-piercing eyes and a vast mouth used to contain god knows what. Conner knew of these upper-class soldiers, so called "Dominators" from photographs. They had killed several explorers on Damnation, as their world was called, and chased many more away. Conner turned to a scientist.

"I thought we were saving these for next week".
"Were" Answered the scientist calmly. "We decided to ramp up our efforts to impress the boys upstairs. I hate it, but i can't do a damn thing".

It confused Conner how anyone could axe funding for a program that was exploring an inhabited planet. Perhaps theocratism wasn't as dead as he thought. He picked up his work from his desk and strolled into the elevator. Along the way amidst the assorted babble emanating from equally tired colleges, he heard of a systems test occurring later that night. He though aloud in the elevator:

"That's a recipe for disaster. I just hope I'm not...."
"On-call, Aubrey"?

Conner nearly jumped at the sound and turned around to see no one but his boss, Rogers in his iconic black suit and stoic expression. 

"We've got a shortage of scientists tonight, Aubrey. You'll likely be needed. Call me at 9:00, OK"?
"Yes, sir".

Upon reaching his car, Conner led out some choice words under his breath and drove back home. Sometimes he liked the peace of being a bachelor, and this was one of those times.

Later that night......

For some people, Conner included, there was no better feeling than hitting the sack and forgetting all of your problems. He had fallen so deep into the zone that he had ascended into another dimension. Forget Rogers.....forget the program.....forget anything to do with the real world.

His moment of brief Nirvana was promptly interrupted by the ringing of his phone. It was from Rogers, and the time read 11:00. Conner calmly picked up the phone and asked:

"So, I'm fir..."
"Not now Conner, i need you here NOW" was the very hurried reply.

Explosions rang in the background, and several inhumane screams were heard before the call ended.

Still not taking the situation seriously, Conner took his time in putting on his clothes and going out. It was 11:20 by the time he hit the road. Arriving at the labs minutes, later it's easy to say he was surprised at the site.

Armoured vehicles and National Guard troops lay destroyed and dead around the complex. Survivors were fleeing with all of their might or laying down, trying to fein death.

"Of course they'd screw it up. Oh well".

Suddenly, lights shone down from the skies onto the grounds. Anything that moved was promptly gunned down by the mysterious flying machines or by the Race members that had emerged from the compound. The latter spotted Aubrey and started to fire.

"Maybe cutting funding wasn't such a bad plan after all" he remarked as he fled.

Hopping into a small sedan with its drivers skull blasted open, Conner pulled the corpse out and started driving. Looking up, he couldn't help but notice a battle between the flying machines and the USAF. The disk-like creations tore through the F-22s' and F-35s' like paper, and turned their attention onto the ground, firing on hastily-formed army blockades. In the sky, more machines could be seen hovering down towards the labs. Conner quickly drove onto the freeway, nearly devoid of traffic due to the time, observing battles as he went.

"Damn.....what now"?
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That was the first real part of my series! All feedback is appreciated!
The prologue can be found here: https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=80790