As the unidentified object moved closer to Ile-Ife, a remote village located in Nigeria, those on board were seen preparing for the initial attacks.
They are the aliens!
Their target was simple and perfect—they are to destroy the scepter and await further instructions.
They had waited so long for the right time, the right opportunity.
War is inevitable. Humans had long deserved it.
For ages, humans had been putting the planet Earth in danger and misusing it through pollution, deforestation, mining, and the creation of dark energies from hatred, murders, wars, and all forms of evil.
Like the biblical blood of Abel calling for vengeance, Mother Earth had called out in pain. Humans must pay for hurting her.
Of course, there is always an option. Humans can accept the leadership of the Hoorays.
They will be reoriented and taught the divine rule. Mother Earth must always come first.
Humans are expected to resist, so they had come fully armed and prepared.
The Hoorays in the spaceship are fifty in number, led by one commander with the code name Shuri.
The aliens have human-like female hair but distorted faces. Their arms look exactly like human arms, with two pairs of strong, human-like legs on a locust body. They also have a tail that stings, filled with venom for which no human has an antidote.
Shuri is a foot taller than the other seven-foot aliens. All Hoorays are well-trained in martial arts but forbid the use of guns or chemical weapons that pollute Mother Earth.
Before the comet impacts, they will activate a kind of EMP that will stop all human inventions and technologies—cars, trains, planes, electricity, guns—everything humans had been enjoying at the expense of Mother Earth will be destroyed.
The world will be reborn. The remaining humans will be given a fair chance under the rulership of the Hoorays.
In the end, when humans learn the divine rule and mature enough to rule, then perhaps they will be given a chance to govern the Earth again.
Or maybe humans will never learn.
---
It's the year 2063, and the world is about to recover from the impact of the Third World War, which lasted for a good seven years.
Unbelievably, what started as a tussle of power between China and America had thrown the whole world into the bloodiest of all wars, lasting from 2045 to 2052.
Eleven years later, the comet appeared.
"They're coming fast," Tom Brady, principal engineer with the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies with Aerospace Corporation, said in the morning presentation with NASA's emergency space operations on CNN News.
"In some cases, we normally have two years or so warning on something like this. Unfortunately, this seemed not to be detected until a few minutes ago. A tiny sliver of something is plummeting towards our home star—something icy, something unimaginably old and big."
He had continued by highlighting the effects of the comet and the way to handle its eventual impact.
Simultaneously, another signal was disseminating from one remote village in Nigeria.
In Ile-Ife precisely, a village located in the western part of Nigeria—a country in West Africa and unarguably the largest in Africa.
The signal became more rapid and violent, like an awaiting time bomb.
A gathering of scientists was called to deliberate on the connection between the signal and the approaching comet.
While some claimed the area the signal was coming from is the location where the comet will strike, others argued the object transmitting the signal has something significant to do with the approaching comet.
After long talks, it was agreed not to leave any stone unturned in this crucial time.
Agents were immediately set up to investigate and do the needful.
---
A few minutes before departure, the five selected agents and pilots were seen talking beside a beautiful helipad.
Brenda, a stout six-foot damsel with blonde hair and blue eyes, looked at the four men in front of her with a grin.
They all looked muscular and tough—the exact type of her kind of men, except for the priest: a tall and thin, frail-looking fellow with jaunty skin and a shallow face.
His job was to perform any needed rituals at the shrine of the Scepter and find its spiritual connection to the incoming comet.
Brenda possessed the instinct of knowing odd people and reacting accordingly to them.
She was like a mirror, showing and relating to people exactly the way they were.
To her, the priest emitted a negative aura, and she had done all in her capacity to drop him, but she was told he was important to the mission.
Upon further investigation, it was discovered the object transmitting the signal was an ancient scepter believed to belong to a demigod.
Ridiculous.
Just a scepter and all these muses.
But her superior had given the order—a priest was needed to perform any rituals and to bring the scepter back safely.
"You have one hour before the comet lands. It takes approximately five hours to fly down to Nigeria in our fastest jet. The impact is expected in the next six hours. Make judicious use of your time," her boss had said with a salute.
Brenda watched the two pilots with little interest.
To her, they were of no importance.
Andrew was a retired paramilitary officer working as a flight training officer, while Brew, his assistant, was a first-class pilot with the CIA.
They were there to convey the team to and fro.
The last man was of great importance.
He had been an open admirer of Brenda and would die to protect her.
Of course, Brenda knew she didn't need protection from him or any man.
Still, it amused her whenever he tried to shield her from danger.
She had learned to fend for and defend herself in a lawless world where women were the easiest targets.
She could handle any type of weapon. Her favorites were her two black Berettas, swords, and knives.
A professional boxer, kung fu fighter, judo expert, and karate champion, few men could stand in her way. Few indeed stood.
Until Bobby came—a young veteran in the U.S. Army, posted to her team. Formidable, tough-looking, and loyal.
She had felt drawn to him immediately and taught him everything she knew about martial arts.
Unsurprisingly, he was a fast learner and had become her formidable partner in a few years.
Not quite handsome in any classic way—thirty years old, tough-looking with squinted eyes, a big nose, and wide lips with fleshy cheeks.
He was six feet tall and weighed 220 pounds.
Brenda truly enjoyed his company and always looked forward to it.
She truly wished she could take the relationship a step further as he wanted, though he never said it outright.
If only she felt secure enough to start a family in this insane world, then definitely, it would be Bobby.
Unfortunately, family was far from her mind. She wasn't able to protect those she once had.
Now they were all gone—her mom, dad, and younger brother were all killed during the world war. Why bring another innocent soul into a world she couldn't protect?
"I'm in command here," Brenda said loudly as the noise of the starting jet grew louder.
"And here is my second-in-command. His name is Bobby. Get us to Nigeria as fast as possible," she shouted at the pilots as the trio entered the beautiful jet.