The alarm inside Olympus screamed through the chamber.
Red warning lights flashed across every screen.
ALIEN SCOUT APPROACHING TARGET
Adrian shot to his feet.
"Oh no—no, no, no."
The live feed from the International Space Station filled the central display.
Outside the station's window, the alien scout accelerated toward them like a silver predator.
Inside the station, the astronauts floated in stunned silence.
One of them whispered into the radio,
"Houston… the object is moving."
Adrian clenched his fists.
"How fast?"
Elara checked the telemetry.
"Four kilometers per second."
"That's way too fast for a peaceful visit."
The scout suddenly slowed as it reached the station.
The alien vessel hovered just a few hundred meters away.
The astronauts stared at it through the window.
Its surface shifted slightly, almost like living skin.
Adrian shook his head slowly.
"That thing is definitely alive."
Elara's voice remained calm.
"Olympus is scanning it."
The internal scan revealed the same organic technology they had seen before.
But now there was something new.
The alien ship was extending structures from its hull.
Thin tendrils of metallic tissue.
Adrian frowned.
"What are those?"
Elara zoomed in.
"They're probes."
The tendrils moved slowly through space toward the station.
Inside the ISS, the astronauts backed away from the window.
One of them whispered,
"Houston… it's reaching toward us."
The probes touched the outer hull of the station.
Olympus detected energy spikes immediately.
Adrian swore under his breath.
"They're scanning the structure."
Elara nodded.
"Yes."
Another alien signal appeared.
The translation formed quickly.
FOREIGN STRUCTURE ANALYZED
Adrian folded his arms.
"They're dissecting it."
Another line appeared.
TECHNOLOGY LEVEL: PRIMITIVE
He sighed.
"Great. We're cavemen to them."
The alien probes continued scanning the station.
But then something changed.
The probes suddenly shifted direction.
They began targeting the station's life-support module.
Adrian's voice hardened.
"Elara."
"Yes."
"That's not observation."
"No."
The alien message confirmed it.
BEGIN BIOLOGICAL EXTRACTION
Inside the station, alarms started ringing.
The astronauts scrambled toward emergency equipment.
One of them shouted,
"It's cutting into the hull!"
A probe had begun drilling into the outer panel.
Adrian slammed his hand on the console.
"That's it."
"What?"
"We're not letting them kidnap the first humans they meet."
Elara hesitated.
"We don't have orbital weapons yet."
Adrian looked at her.
"But we do have satellites."
Her eyes widened slightly.
"You're thinking about kinetic strike."
"Yes."
She pulled up the orbital satellite network.
Thousands of satellites circled Earth.
Most were communication or weather systems.
But some were much heavier.
Old Cold War defense satellites.
Adrian pointed at one.
"That one."
Elara read the file.
"Mass: three tons."
"Perfect."
She quickly calculated the trajectory.
"If we deorbit it…"
"It becomes a kinetic missile."
Adrian grinned slightly.
"Exactly."
The council members watching through Olympus shouted at once.
"You can't do that!"
"That satellite belongs to the European Union!"
Adrian shrugged.
"Pretty sure alien abduction violates the warranty."
Elara's fingers moved across the interface.
Olympus took control of the satellite.
Orbit calculations adjusted.
Thrusters ignited.
High above Earth, the satellite shifted course.
Adrian whispered,
"Here we go."
Inside the ISS, the alien probe had already broken through the outer hull.
A small hole formed in the metal panel.
The astronauts struggled to seal the compartment.
But the probe pushed deeper.
Adrian watched the countdown.
SATELLITE IMPACT: 47 SECONDS
The alien scout continued its operation.
It showed no concern.
No hesitation.
To them, the station was just a biological sample.
Inside Olympus, the satellite entered the atmosphere.
Friction ignited its surface.
It became a burning meteor.
Adrian grinned.
"Hope that alien thing likes fireworks."
IMPACT: 5 SECONDS
Elara tracked the trajectory carefully.
The satellite streaked across the sky like a comet.
And then—
Impact.
The explosion flashed across the orbital feed.
The alien scout was hit directly.
A burst of energy and debris spread through space.
Inside the station, the astronauts stared in shock.
The alien vessel spun out of control.
Adrian leaned forward.
"Did we get it?"
The smoke cleared.
The scout's hull was damaged.
Large sections of organic material had been torn away.
But the ship was still moving.
Adrian cursed.
"It's still alive."
Elara zoomed in on the internal scans.
The alien tissue inside the ship was regenerating.
Cells reformed.
Structures rebuilt themselves.
Adrian shook his head.
"Of course it heals."
The alien scout stabilized.
Then slowly turned toward Earth.
A new signal transmitted from the ship.
The translation appeared.
HOSTILE RESPONSE DETECTED
Adrian muttered,
"Well, yeah."
Another line appeared.
BEGIN PLANETARY THREAT EVALUATION
Elara's voice dropped.
"That's bad."
"How bad?"
"Very."
The scout's energy levels suddenly spiked.
Adrian's eyes widened.
"What is it doing?"
Olympus ran the analysis.
Then displayed the result.
WEAPON SYSTEM ACTIVATING
Adrian whispered,
"Oh no."
The alien vessel extended a glowing structure from its hull.
Energy built rapidly inside it.
The astronauts aboard the station watched in horror.
"It's pointing something at Earth."
Adrian stared at the weapon's trajectory.
The beam was targeting the Pacific Ocean.
Elara's voice was tense.
"That's not a strike on the station."
"Then what is it?"
The weapon fired.
A brilliant beam of light shot downward.
It hit the ocean surface.
And the water exploded upward in a massive column of steam.
The shockwave rippled across the sea.
Adrian stared at the damage feed.
"That was a warning shot."
Elara nodded slowly.
"Yes."
The alien signal appeared again.
PLANETARY RESISTANCE CONFIRMED
Another line followed.
HARVEST PROTOCOL ACCELERATED
Adrian swallowed.
"That sounds bad."
The final message appeared.
MAIN FLEET ARRIVAL UPDATED
The timer changed again.
Adrian looked at the screen.
Then whispered,
"You've got to be kidding me."
The countdown now read:
FLEET ARRIVAL: 4 MONTHS
The aliens had just cut the invasion time again.
And humanity had only fought a single scout.