As Jon finished relaying MIC's message, a bright light streaked across the horizon and the ground began to tremble. The pulsing light darted back and forth, covering several miles with each pass. Anton, still looking up into the air at the falling debris, watched the new light and glanced down into the crater.
"Hey uh... I don't suppose that's the cops?" He said loudly, backing toward an alleyway alongside the street. "Don't really want to be around for this."
He kneeled down behind a dumpster and peered out from one side. The bright light was moving closer in what seemed like a rhythmic pattern. Had Anton been paying better attention to the conversation, he would have noticed that the strange light moved every time the distant radar that MIC had detected sent out a ping. Whatever the case, time was short and with the latest ping the light was on top of the group. Nearly everyone had rushed to some sort of cover as the light approached, not that it was doing much good.
The source of the light roared like a monster and caused the very bricks of Podunkville to tremble. Anton and the others looked up at the strange flying object and for the first time were able to spy four large jet engines and a myriad of lights and sensors of all types. The machine itself was the size of a small house and it leveled out over the crater in downtown Podunkville before emitting a series of clicking noises. With another bright flash the light of the jet engines lessened and the contraption began to descend. Three large legs folded out from the side and it carefully touched down in the middle of a nearby four-way intersection.
A final loud snap echoed throughout town and the jet engines went silent. Anton looked around at the others in their hiding places and then back to the machine. A tall door had opened up in the side and a ramp was lowered. What could best be described as a grayish light poured out from the opening and a human-like silhouette appeared. It walked down the long ramp accompanied by several others and when they had all arrived on street level the door closed, extinguishing the bright gray light. As Anton's eyes adjusted to the darkness of late-evening he could see that the occupants of the flying machine were absolutely human.
The human in front was an older man in red-tinted goggles. He wore a plain sky blue flight suit and a black beret on his head. The others around him were dressed in similar uniforms, though they also had large, imposing weapons in their hands. Details were hard to come by in the low light. None of them were locals, Anton and the others knew that for sure.
"It's around here somewhere. There were at least three alive on the scanner in the immediate area." the older man spoke in what sounded like an Indian accent. "Find the source of that radar and shut it off, then deal with the witnesses. I don't want this town to become a problem."
Giving their commander a salute, the contingent of six soldiers marched off down Main Street heading directly towards the most recent impact site. Anton watched them in silence as they passed but ducked down suddenly. As the soldiers passed into the distance he could still see their commander standing at the end of his ramp. The commander pulled his radio close and spoke to his men once again. Anton could hear the distant echo from the soldiers' radios.
"Sensors are picking up something else. It's faint and masked and messing with the accuracy of our scans. Possibly some kind of advanced prototype. Be on guard, this one might be intelligent. If you see it, shut it down like the others. That radar takes priority, though. We need ALL bands silent. Over and out."
The commander turned on his heel and stalked back up his ramp. Unlike last time, the door simply slid open and shut as the man walked through, no light or show. Even though it was only for an instant, Anton thought he saw something else moving inside the ship.
Meanwhile, at the soldiers' destination, SB-5 was just pulling himself out of a junk pile and getting his bearings.
