And with that, the alien leaped down upon Jason swiftly and knocked the pistol out of Jason’s hand with its other hand. Then attempted to rip the helmet off of Jason’s head. “NO!” Jason yelled as he pushed the alien off of him with the strength coming from the adrenaline and fear that had rushed into his body. Both he and the alien leapt on to their feet quickly and glared at each other. 

“Tell me what happened,” Jason demanded. “I need to know.”

“Why would I do that? You are just a human and I am a Neptunian. We have been studying your race for some time as ours has lost the natural resources it once had due to our technological advances that you humans have not even nearly attained. The things you have yet to learn about this world are so many. The first is to realize that there are other races out there that are able to ruin your lives in an instant,” The Neptunian replied.

“So you came here to take over the human race…Well I won’t let you do that.” Jason said quietly. 

The human and the alien ran at each other at the same time and locked arms with great force. The alien had a much more finely toned body, but Jason was able to pull strength from the adrenaline rush. But Jason was still weaker and had to push away from the Neptunian. He scanned the ground for his gun, but realized that they were both located behind the alien. 

All of a sudden a swarm of zombies grabbed Jason from behind yanking at his limbs and then forcing him to faceplant on the ground. “Your overconfidence has become your downfall, little one,” the alien said calmly. “Now join your companions as one of the first outsiders to become one of the many slaves of the Neptunian  on planet Earth.”

Jason struggled and struggled, but was unable to move the mass of zombies that were pinning him to the floor. The alien kneeled down and grasped Jason’s helmet firmly. “The radiation coming from that rock over there will turn you into one of them soon enough.” 

Suddenly, a burst of gunfire could be heard as the Neptunian  flew over the wall of one of the cubicles. Dozens of military units swarmed in from all around the room. It turns out there had been dozens of secret entrances located near the the fake entrance the reconnaissance group had been told about. Gunfire clattered through the room as hundreds of zombies were slaughtered in minutes throughout the enormous room. 

With a sigh of relief when the zombies on top of him were killed, Jason pulled himself up with the help of Lieutenant Brennly. “Sorry, sir. It was a piece of bad judgement from me,” Jason said sheepishly.

“Well at least you’re not dead, private,” Brennly said. “You sure deserved to die going in by yourself, but it turns out that that was what the military expected you to do. They wanted you to extract whatever information you could get from that alien.”

“So they put my life on the line for such a ridiculous task? Why would they think that the alien would talk to me?” Jason asked.

“I don’t know, kid. I’m only a lieutenant and I’m not told everything. We’re just glad you’re okay. We only just got into the secret entrances a few minutes ago which was just in the nick of time. Now you’ve gotta report your findings to the captain,” Lieutenant Brennly said.  

With that, the mission of C.O.R.E. was over, but the war between the humans and the aliens was far from. Years later, a prepared Earth was attacked by an entire army of Neptunians. The ending has yet to be discovered, but if it wasn’t for Jason Crane’s expedition to C.O.R.E., the entire world would have been decimated in seconds. Thankfully because of this brave soldier, Earth was given a fighting chance against the invading Neptunians.