the agency

So dudes, did you like your first week of training here at the Agency? Too hard? Oh come on, you're the best of the best, that's not hard for you.
Hard is a nice underestimate for what will hit you in the field at the end of this training. Yes. You will WISH it was ONLY hard. It will be far worse.
Yup. Aliens. They told you and you still don't believe it, eh?
No, it's not a joke. No, it's not a movie. No, we probably won't get out of this with our sanity intact.

How do we know it? Oh... that's a good question, one that you won't ask to your trainers, but here, in this warm evening, with a good beer in our hands... yes, that seems to be the best time to tell some tale. Some tale of a long time ago. Things I remember.
Please, sit down, and let me tell you what I remember of that night. Like this night, but so far away in time... I remember.

Yes. I remember. I do remember. After all this time, I still can't forget even the smallest detail. Everything, I mean, everything, seems to be there, like colours on a painting. The stars, the stillness of the desert night, the noises. Everything. Damn, I say... I still can't understand why such things happen, and why such a thing should come to happen to me.

Of course, from the beginning. That would be... that would be the only way. Yes.

It was such a tremendous period if you loved UFO and conspiracies, that one. Yeah, you should have seen it. I mean, aside from the present one, of course. Except that now there is no conspiracy, because aliens are here. And they are not kind. Not this time. Where was I? Oh, yes, the beginning.

The Agency was recording an unusual peal of unidentified flying activities. A lot of things went boom in the night. And whirled. And zoomed, as well. A lot of people was calling the cops, and the cops called us on, and on. It was like living in a sci-fi book - and, to be honest, no one really believed it at the beginning.
Yet on it went, on we went, until that fateful night.

Me and my partner here, Agent S, we were patrolling a strip of asphalt in the middle of nowhere... well, actually it was in the middle of somewhere deep in the New Mexico, but you already know it. And it was nice to say so. Come on, it's but a joke! OK, again. Me and Agent S, we were going around our beautiful black car. It was the Harmonicats on the radio, yes, it was them. Men, beautiful song - Peg o' my heart. I've always loved it. So there we were, in our car... oh, yeah, I've already been on that part.

All of a sudden, everything goes dead. The radio, the car, the lights, pretty much everything. And sudden silence.
You know... how strange is the sound of silence. The stars were so bright, in the desert. So bright. We opened the doors, and placed our feet on the road, in the coolness of the desert night. Not a single noise. Not a singe damned noise. Just we, our breaths, and the stars. Everything seemed to be... well, like a damned painting, if you know what I mean.

Me and S, we looked each other in the eyes, and drawn our guns. And then, out of the blue... we didn't see it coming, men... a damned spacecraft, a flying saucer, as they called them on those days.
I still remember the bright light, white as... well, white as the whitest thing you can imagine. So white that it hurted.
Then a lot of different lights, we were on our knees at that time. The lights overpowered us, slammed ourselves on the ground. A strange noise, a sort of hiss, like a breath of a gigantic dragon. And then a humming, constant, low buzz. The spacecraft landed exactly in front of our car. We grasped the car to get up on our feet again, but dared not to take a single step towards the strange vehicle.
Then something moved inside the lights, and a sort of airlock went open. And from it... hey dudes, let me tell you, from it came something really really weird. For those times, I mean.

Now, it was like us. I mean... how they say... humanoid. It was shorter than us, however. It wore strange stuff, a weird metallic outfit, reflecting the lights of the craft. It wore gloves, as well, which emitted strange reflections, almost lights. And boots, and also what I thought was a breathing system, or a backpack, or whatever else, on its back. I can't tell you if it was male, or female, or whatever they use out there. But its head was bare, a light grey in coloru, with distorted human-like appearance, and large, black eyes, deep as the night above us. And he stood there in front of us. Men how I clutched at my gun and my sanity to stand there under its gaze. I think it was a second. Or hours, I don't know.
And then it smiled.

It was a smile. We were sure. We sort of... relaxed, me and S. We both gave out a breath of relief. And it was then that S managed to say the first word since the car stopped.
"An... alien"

I just managed to say "Yes...".

When I recall that night, how stupid it seems to be. I mean, we should have come out with some epic quote, some glorious words to mark the first encounter of our race with another. The proof we were not alone.
And yet all that we come up with were those three stupid words... damn, it I could go back in time...
and then I think we would have done the same, again and again... too flabbergasted we were.

The alien moved a step, then another, then another, towards us, its hands outstretched. We stood there, as firm as stone, and the creature got closer and closer. And then, it spoke.

Well, if you was there with us, you wouldn't have heard a single noise, maybe not even its steps on the ground - yes, that's the only thing I can't manage to remember, that is... if it ever made a single noise. So weird... however, yes, he sort of spoke. In our minds.
Its lips, or whatever else it had, never opened, just stayed there, in a sort of smile. We understood it was a smile, yes, but... who knows...

So it spoke in our minds. It said a lot of things I will not report you here and now. Things you will learn later in the training. Things so frightening you will never be the same again, and never, ever have a full night of rest again. Not until this will end... in a way or another.

But one thing I can tell. The creature spoke of a race, an ancient one, a predatory race, who scoured the stars. Wars have been waged, some won, some lost. But this race has never been exterminated. They come to a world, they attack, they take what they want. Sometimes, if you're lucky, they leave the planet with some intelligent lifeform still alive on it. But other times, so our "grey friend" told us, some other times, nothing remains.

This race has knowledge we don't even dream of. They have abilities we cannot imagine, and they can merge flesh with metal. They can create living machines, and even tinker with the DNA - or whatever else they have in their damned cells. They are capable of using powerful energy devices to move themselves from place to place. They can teleport themselves. They have weapons and armors of incredible power and efficacy.

And they're coming for us.

Are you afraid? No? You should be. You will be. Scared. Yes, scared so that you'll wet your damn pants.

Fear. And maybe terror. That's what hit us that night, as the alien "spoke" through our mind.

But then it said something else. This wicked race has enemies, and how's said... the enemy of our enemy is our friend. SO we have friends. Friends that will help us. That helped us, in fact, to set up the Galaxy Defenders. They gave us some toys, some advice, things to fight fire with fire.

The invaders could be surprised, taken off balance, hit hard, and repelled. Maybe even defeated. Our "friend" said it has happened several times, and it will happen again, but that will be on us. It said that if we were prepared enough, we could be ready for them, and kick their bioma... bio... how's the word... oh, yeah, kick their biomechanical butts out of this planet.

And so it began.

Since that day, our grey friends come and go, helping us in our training, but never too directly. But then scouts arrived. The first scouts from the enemy. And now we know it's just a matter of months, maybe weeks, before the first raiding parties scour our planet.

Damn, dudes. It's dirty. Polluted. The football championship is no longer exciting, and the beer - let's face it - is worsened. but it's still our fu**ing planet, here! And these alien scums better keep theyr steely claws off of it, lest we'll have them eat lead. Good Earth lead. Good Galaxy Defender lead.

Now go to sleep lads. Tomorrow it'll be training. And pray. Pray that you'll be training more and more, for you will never be prepared enough to what you will see in the field.
But you are Galaxy Defenders.
And you will win. Period.
Because there's no other option.