Patter sat in his hover chair enjoying his view over The Capital. Dirt was proving to be a good little investment. His office door whooshed open and he turned to face Trotter with a smile, “How is everything going Trotter?”

  Trotter raised his tablet and reported, “Profits are up at all our hunter planets since the renewed campaign following the start of hunts on Dirt.”

  “And what about Dirt, specifically?” asked Patter.

  “Yes, Dirt,” said Trotter, “Hortense was successful in cleaning up the problem with the Dirtling Space Station. There were never any records of that ‘anomaly’ in the our systems, so everything now matches the classification of NC.”

  “Excellent,” said Patter, rubbing his paws together, “No issues?”

  “There was only a few minor operational issues,” said Trotter slowly, trying not to think about Harrick’s blocking efforts, “The Hunter Safety Team successfully deployed after the removal of the obstacle and retrieved the two hunters. Apparently, the hunters lost their communicators when they fell down some hole or other.”

  “At least they weren’t captured by this ARRG group. That could be a problem,” mused Patter.

  Trotter shook his head in agreement, looking purposefully at his tablet.

  “Hunts are now resuming after the delay,” continued Trotter promptly, “The week’s free entertainment went down well, and with the resort full of a double portion of hunters, we are sending down more hunts per day for a week or so. We’ll be back on schedule soon.”

  “Very good!” said Patter, waving Trotter away, “It’s always good getting positive news.”

  Trotter turned quickly and exited. He knew that bad news was not always received quite as well.

  ****

  “John,” said Father Pacioli over his secure communication to John Simmons, “We have an idea to reduce casualties from the FOP hunts. It looks like the hunts will be an ongoing issue, but perhaps we can set up some kind of universal warning system to let everyone know if a hunt is detected?”

  John leaned back in his swivel chair and said, “Why don’t we discuss this in our forum? There are lots of clever people there that can help us.”

  “Can’t do that,” said Father, “I don’t want this to be spread too far until we can put it in place. The forum isn’t necessarily a secure space.”

  “Okay,” agreed John, “How about I ask a few others in private messages? That should be more secure. I have some ideas. Most people have mobile or cell phones. Even the poorest farmers in backwater areas have a cheap device. The issue is how do we detect a hunt arrival, and make the broadcast direct and not limited by local politics or controls?”

  “We have found there is a weird energy spike when a group materialises or dematerialises. The tech boffins here say it is some sort of gamma wave distortion or something. Not my area,” said Father, “But if we access the GPS satellite system, the spike is enough that we can get a blip on our detection device. We use that to notify the nearest ARRG team and for us to activate the damage and rescue groups.”

  “Why not use the Cartwright Network? He has thousands of those satellites all providing internet coverage around the world? I reckon that’ll work! Let me chat to someone,” said John thinking furiously. Without pausing, he cut the connection and made a new call.

  Father Pacioli looked at the dead connection and smiled. “That went well,” he thought.

  ****

  Kent sat up as he completed his exciting call with John Simmons. He would see Johnny Cartwright straight away!

  He ran out of his room and turned into the corridor and skidded to a halt in front of Johnny.

  “Whoa there!” Johnny said with his hands outstretched in front of him, “What’s your hurry?”

  Kent paused to get back his breath, looked up at Johnny and said, “We can save more lives when the aliens are hunting!”

  Johnny stared at Kent for a moment and then put his hand on Kent’s shoulder and said, “Come to my office.”

  A short while later, Kent was at a whiteboard in Johnny’s office explaining the idea that John Simmons and he had worked out, “Using the Cartwright Network, linked to ARRG’s alien hunting detection system, we can send a localised message to all phones and devices warning of a hunt. That will give everyone a chance to run and hide.”

  “Or some will arm themselves and go towards the danger,” added Johnny, “But that’s good too.”

  “Hang on Kent,” said Johnny, “Who is ARRG?”

  Kent grinned and answered, “It’s the Alien Rapid Response Group network. Most countries have one of more ARRG groups of military personnel on standby to respond to the Alien attacks - or Hunts as we are pretty sure these attacks really are.”

  Johnny sat forward in surprise, “Hunts? That sort of makes sense. And who are ‘we’ Kent? What are you part of?”

  Kent was pretty excited and said, “I am part of an online forum group with alien and UFO enthusiasts. It used to be pretty fun looking into mysteries. All very interesting and a fun hobby. But once the Federation of Planets decided to declare Earth as Non Compatible and start hunting…”

  “Stop,” said Johnny, “We need to have a longer chat.” He reached to his intercom and pressed a button, “Lana, can you arrange for some lunch for Kent and me? We’re going to be here a while. Also, please cancel my afternoon’s meetings. Call in Rudy. We need his input about the Cartwright Network. Thanks!”

  Several hours later, Johnny, Kent and Rudy had worked out a plan.

  “Gentlemen,” said Johnny, “I need to call people in appropriate positions of authority to make this work. There are lots of potential conflicting areas of authority to bypass to make this happen. But it will work! It must work. There are lots of innocent lives at stake.”

  Kent and Rudy stood up, ready to leave. Johnny held up his hand to Kent, “Kent, get in touch with your friend - John Simmons, wasn’t it? Tell him to get his ARRG contacts to call me. We’ve got to make this whole alien hunting thing public, or our plan will never work!”

  ****

  The news of the Federation of Planets and Earth’s first alien contact was broadcast throughout the world in a co-ordinated press bombardment. All politicians and country leaders backed up the message and footage of some of the hunts were included to show the veracity of the claims.

  A few days after the initial news and at the height of the initial reactions, a co-ordinated message was repeated on television, cable, internet, newspapers and radio.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Various headlines attracted the attention of everyone. As always, the headlines varied depending on the medium, but the underlying message was the same. “When you get the Global Warning System (GWS) message, you should run, hide or fight. In that order.”

  Headlines included:

  “First Contact. Will it be your last contact?”

  “Best fashion tips when aliens arrive.”

  “How to survive an alien attack. Click for more.”

  “King recommends to Stay Calm.”

  “Aliens are real. Here’s what we know.”

  “Run, Hide, Fight. The best weapons for you.”

  “Secret Cabal pretending to be Aliens. What are the signs?”

  “Masks will protect you from an Alien attack. Get yours here.”

  “Movie stars react to reported alien hunts.”

  “What Science Fiction films were correct?”

  “What is the government NOT telling us about the aliens?”

  “Are those videos real? Click here for the full story.”

  The actual GWS Message was:

  “WARNING. Alien Attack nearby. Run, Hide, Fight. Click here for map location of arrival point. Click the ? for more information.”

  On non interactive services, a map location was shown on screen, or the address included in the text message.

  The map link used the device’s inbuilt default map software and showed where the hunting team arrival was detected. The information link provided the following information:

  ———

  AN ALIEN HUNTING TEAM has been detected. The aliens are not here to make friends. They are here to hunt you. Your best option is to:

  1. Run - move away from the arrival point as quickly as you can using the fastest option you have. Do not take any possessions. Run.

  2. Hide - if you are in view of the arrival point or too close, hide in the safest place you know. The aliens have powerful weapons but cannot see through walls and buildings.

  3. Fight - if you are discovered, fight. Aliens do not show mercy. They want you dead. Make it hard for them.

  ———

  The specialists of ARRG worked hard on the message. They wanted to make sure that everyone understood the danger and took it seriously. There were experts in the group who had experience with warning messages for those in areas that faced natural disasters like fire, flood, earthquakes, tornadoes and more. Too many warnings were overly long and conditional. In this case, they knew the hunts were short lived. Some had been as long as a few days, but most were over in under four hours, some completed in ninety minutes. The key was to act with no delay.

  The experts knew of people that died in wild fires because they wasted time gathering possessions or trapped by floodwaters because they didn’t heed the warning signs.

  There was a lot of heated discussion about what they wanted the public to do. In countries with guns, Run, Hide, Fight was the recommended sequence. In others the message regarding a terrorist incident was Run, Hide, Call. The option to call was dismissed quickly as one of the experts said, “When seconds matter, help is minutes away.”

  The same expert’s opinion ending up being the prevailing result, especially amongst those on the front lines of the ARRG teams that had responded to hunts, “If you’ve gotta go, you may as well go out fighting. Those FOP hunters aren’t going to wait, so hit them hard with whatever you’ve got.”

  The pervasiveness of the Cartwright Network of satellites meant almost the whole of the Earth was covered.

  Johnny Cartwright watched the news spread across the world on his multitude of screens in his meeting room with Kent, Rudy and other engineers around the discussion table.

  “Well, the message is out there. Do you think it will work?” Johnny asked his team.

  Rudy and the engineers said the system was working as per the designs and their tests showed that the message was localised to ten miles from the arrival point. If the hunt went past ninety minutes, a further message was broadcast to anyone within ten miles of the last known sighting of any of the hunters.

  Kent nodded and added soberly, “It all depends on those receiving the message. Some will refuse to believe it and stay put. I guess the resulting news will help convince others.”

  They all nodded in agreement.

  Johnny added, “Now let’s see it in action. Can’t be long now.”

  ****

  The control centre at ARRG HQ in Warsaw, Poland blared.

  “We have an arrival! It’s near Srocko a short distance from Czestochowa. Confirming…”

  The operator lifted the plastic cover over the newly installed red GWS button. A second confirmation arrived and she pressed the button hard. She touched the image of the Black Madonna which sat beside her monitor and sent up some prayers for everyone’s safety.

  The GWS message was sent and devices within a ten mile radius of the detected arrival blared the warning.

  The ARRG commander said quickly, “It’s midway between Krakow and Warsaw. Send ARRG teams from both. The aliens are in the woods on the outskirts, but still too close to the main city.”

  The monks from Jasna Gora, home of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa reacted as phones and devices throughout the pilgrimage site all started ringing and buzzing simultaneously. As everyone reached into their pockets or bags and read the GWS message, everyone started moving quickly. In moments, one of the monks announced over the loudspeakers for all pilgrims to leave and move West, away from the alien arrival point. This was repeated in multiple languages, as the thousands of visitors were from many different countries.

  Attendants at the front of the monastery directed traffic, yelling fluently in various languages so that in a short space of time, the car parks were clear and the traffic jams a short distance away began to grow.

  “Father, what will we do?” asked one of the monks to the Prior of the Monastery.

  “Running is not an option for us,” he said hearing the chaos of blocked traffic, “But hiding we can do. Close all the gates and let us move to the hidden recesses.”

  “If they get here, do we fight?” asked the monk nervously.

  The Prior pointed up at the framed Black Madonna, with prominent twin sword slashes across her cheek, “We’ll let Our Lady fight for us. Let’s go quickly.”

  The monastery closed down and all doors were locked. The monks gathered in the many small hidden recesses and rooms that had been built over the seven hundred or so years since the monastery was first founded. This wasn’t the first time they had been invaded.

  The KrakowARRG team arrived at the Eastern side of the forest outside Srocko in just under an hour, wth the Warsaw team arriving at the Western edge. Neither could see immediate evidence of the hunters, so each landed with three squads and advanced cautiously from each direction towards the known arrival point.

  Captain Marek was leading his Warsaw ARRG troopers. His brother was one of the monks from the Jasna Gora monastery and he was glad that the hunters hadn’t reached this far yet. He directed his troopers to move forward in teams of four, covering each other as another team moved forward. The lead troopers suddenly stopped and directed everyone to drop.

  Captain Marek crawled quickly next to the lead trooper.

  He quickly saw the situation. A short distance ahead a group of wild boars were surrounding a set of trees. A couple of boars were dead on the ground, some burned, others with bullet wounds. Father Marek looked up and saw an alien in the lower branches of the tree, pointing its communicator at the boars like it was taking pictures. One of the troopers laughed but Captain Marek quickly silenced him with a stern wave.

  “Watch. Be ready for danger. The boars are doing well so far,” ordered the Captain.

  One of the boars suddenly burst into flame as it was hit by a laser bolt from a charging alien, coming from a path behind the tree containing the other alien. The tree-bound alien jumped in surprise and dropped his device on the ground below. It clung to a tree branch as the other alien raced in and fired again, wounding another boar.

  The boars scattered, running in all directions and the new alien, a lizard like thing, held up his weapon in a heroic pose and looked at the alien in the tree.

  Captain Marek was proud of his troops. No one had fired yet but he could see they would fire in an instant if required.

  The alien in the tree, a blobby green thing with multiple limbs that seemed to grow or shrink as required, gingerly climbed down and picked up his fallen device. The lizard alien then stood in the previous “heroic” pose, holding up his laser pistol while standing with one leg on two of the dead boars and the blob thing took his picture.

  A loud snort from a massive Boar sounded behind them and charged directly at the lizard alien. Both aliens jumped and ran back into the forest, with the massive boar charging after them.

  “Quick, we follow,” said Captain Marek, “If they encounter people, we stop them. For now, we monitor.”

  About thirty minutes later they saw the badly wounded aliens disappear in a blue shimmer.

  The Krakow party had to fight some other aliens. It seems the party had split at some point. The Eastern side aliens had encountered some empty buildings which the inhabitants had evacuated upon receiving the GWS message. One older resident, a one hundred year old survivor of World War Two refused to leave. He had fired at the aliens with his old rifle, wounding one. The ARRG troopers arrived just as the aliens had blown open the veteran’s door and were about to enter. The fusillade of fire from ARRG killed one and the other ran back in to the woods, chased by the troopers.

  “Well done boys,” said the Veteran, “Damn Russians weren’t going to get me this time!”