First Wave (1998)

By now you all know how close the end could be. A massive alien force known as the Gua are quietly preparing to invade the Earth and snuff out humanity. Cade Foster and I had been trying to stop the Gua before it was too late, we were desperate, something had to be done. My name is Eddie Nambulous. These are my journals. At least, now they are. As faithful readers of this site you know this is where Cade wrote about the alien threat week after week. And you were all there at the end. Calling in your support. You were part of the worldwide audience who saw Cade shot and killed on live television. I pulled the trigger. And I don't know if I'll ever be able to explain why. Not the way I want to. But know this. Cade's death was not in vain. He's a martyr to our cause. And I've sworn to fight on. With all of your help of course. Things are a little out of whack. Kinda all over the place. And there's a new alien in town. His name is Mabus. The third Anti-Christ predicted by our buddy Nostrad

Things are about to change here on Earth. YOU are the hunted. You are Gua. You don't know me. But I am here. We're all here. You think we're not ready. You think you're smarter. Quicker. Harder. You think yourself superior. Wrong again. We are strong. Stronger than you can possibly know. And you created us. The force that will stop you. The force that will rise up to destroy, not to be destroyed. And we don't just want to send you home. We want you to die. And we want it to HURT. Afraid yet? You should be. There was another who opposed you. Another you created. You know his name. These are his journals. I don't write this for his supporters, I don't write it for those who follow his memory now. Because he will always be one of us. He will always be the man who exposed your evil plans. You called him 117. But he has a name. It's Cade Foster. And his death only strengthens our resolve. I address you here only because I know you will read this. It's what you do. Putting us under a microsc

""Quatrain 88, Century 8. In the arsenal of an emerald city / the smallest of creation becomes great / Horses four will trumpet the end, born on the devil's breath."" The Emerald City is Seattle, where a converted armory housed the labs of Vio-Zor, a company that specialized in microbiology. Mabus is the leader of the alien invasion here on earth. If he's the devil referred to in the quatrain, then somehow Vio-Zor plays a part in the Gua's plans for our destruction. Eddie uploaded a computer bug into Vio-Zor's software. I went in to fix the problem, posing as Jay Rollins, a software technician I planned to find out how Vio-Zor might be connected to the aliens. I entered through the airtight seal and met Dr. Kelly, the Program Director of Vio-Zor and her staff, Dr. Jagger and Dr. Samuels. Seems a guy they affectionately referred to as ""Tim the Rat-Boy"" was missing. It was my first clue that something was up. On our way to the computer lab we passed through a decontamination chamber Kelly

Quatrain 83, Century 7. ""The traitor sits in a hidden world, waiting for the man Twice Bless'd. Joined in desperate moments, to push the rock over the peak of time."" I believed the traitor Nostradamus spoke of in this quatrain was Joshua, an alien who has helped my cause on numerous occasions. The Gua build hidden worlds known as ""quantum pockets"" - Eddie's learned to penetrate them. Recently, I busted into a pocket, believed Joshua was to be found there and if he was alive, I had to get him out. Everything in this particular false reality suggested the aliens had been defeated, my wildest dream come to life. But I knew it wasn't real. Out in my world the alien leader named Mabus seeks to enslave humanity. The key to his defeat could be Joshua. Found my sometimes ally in a desperate situation. Joshua believed the aliens had launched a neutrino bomb toward earth - a final desperate move to cover their humiliation at having been defeated by humanity. Joshua had the code to abort the mis

Quatrain 73, Century 6: ""A daughter of war meets the gallows when darkness' spirit takes flight. In the land of the Eye of the Stag, savior and devil come together as one."" Even though I'm flying the Airstream solo these days I promised to keep up Foster's fight. So I'm doing the usual, scanning the quatrains and looking for matches in the real world. Thought the ""Eye of the Stag"" sounded like Ohio, the Buckeye State. So I checked for odd stories in the place that's ""round on the ends and hi in the middle."" Came up with a girl named Lindsay Tilden, a cheerleader facing the death penalty for murdering her dad, Alistaire. Death penalty. Gallows. The clues were adding up. Spicing up the pot was the fact that Lindsay's late Dad worked for Rocom Industries, a high tech weapons design firm and prime target for the Gua. Could Lindsay be the ""daughter of war"" the Big N had mentioned? All signs pointed that way. So it was Eddie to the rescue. Solo. Or so I thought. Posing as Jack Reynolds from

""Quatrain 77, Century 9. Redemption is offered by a woman of scarlet, for the twice bless'd to seek out. Enter the belly of the beast and become one."" There's no more reason to hide. The ruse is over. The way I see it, we didn't have a choice. Eddie received a computer tip from a user known only as ""Red."" She said she knew about the Gua and that she'd found the true file on Hannah's murder and that the ones read at my trial were a fake. Traced the e-mail to a PD in Chicago, I had no choice but to go undercover. A convicted killer walking into a cop station sounds crazy, especially for a ""dead"" convicted killer. If I was recognized it would be feeding time at the zoo. I'm writing this now, so you know that's happened. But I couldn't stay away, the prize was just too huge. There was a secretary in Operations with red hair who hadn't been seen for a few days - she was our best lead. I had a few things going for me there, since the assassination of my clone on live TV the cops weren't look

Quatrain 92, Century 8. ""The mighty shall be laid low, impaled on the fine honed sword of truth. A voice of justice is stilled, as nightmares take earthly form."" Judge Carlton Levy was a respected district court judge for 23 years, a true voice of justice before sudden insanity laid him low. Levy had been a regular visitor to the Paranoid Times website, claiming to have information about the aliens who've infiltrated this planet. Was the judge really mentally ill, or did his nightmares simply ""take the earthly form"" of the Gua? Time to go undercover to protect one of our own. Posing as Lukas Johnson, Associate Director of Human Resources down at the court I went to see Carlton's wife. Didn't even need the false I.D., she wasn't interested in talking to me until I mentioned aliens. Told her I wanted to help her husband, that I believed he spoke the truth. Eddie didn't believe that Levy had snapped, felt responsible for one of his readers who'd put his neck on the line for us. Now the Ju

Quatrain 72, Century 5. ""Hallowed eyes burn through the line to the fifth in colonies of old. Malevolence awaits a perfect division, as four makes five for apocalypse."" A killer struck twice in New England recently, a place Eddie and I took for Nostradamus' ""colonies of old."" The police did their best to keep details confidential but reports leaked. The victims were said to have their eyes burned out of their skulls. Malevolence could be a reference to Mabus. Suspected the killer could have been Gua. Could the murders have something to do with the coming apocalypse? Cops had turned up short on leads. Couldn't stop me from starting my own investigation. Posing as Lafayette County, Field Evidence Tech ""Fozen"" I checked out the second crime scene, claimed the detectives on the case needed some new angles on the clues. Up on the ceiling near the pipes I found a strange symbol É could've been written in blood. Wasn't the only one working the case for our side. Eddie was at the local police

Quatrain 28, Century 3. ""Tainted streams flow into fields of stone / As the vanguard rises from hope / On the path of least obstruction / The evil one is crowned."" An operative for the Raven Nation, Alana MacAfee, disappeared while investigating an anonymous posting to the Web site. It claimed that the aliens were active in the small mining town of Hope, Montana. Could've been the ""hope"" mentioned in the quatrain. Always wanted to see Big Sky country. Alana was one of Jordan's soldiers, so she was taking this personally. We decided to make the infiltration a team effort. Jordan set off to check out a local motel, questioned the clerk there, a woman named Sheryl Nelson. Told Sheryl we were a couple and were supposed to be hooking up with Alana to drive to Bozeman together later that day. Sheryl told us Alana had already checked out. Jordan was antsy, hadn't heard from Alana in three days but knew her agent had been onto something when they last talked. I told her how a cop had tailed me

A faction of Gua generals, working with Joshua, seek Foster's help in a plot to assasinate Mabus. ----- The prophet Nostradamus has foretold the arrival of an alien antichrist who will bring about the apocalypse. He calls himself Mabus, and he's out there right now ... somewhere. The prophecies of Nostradamus guide us and help us fight the Gua, but we have yet to get close to Mabus, we have yet to strike a blow that will stop the impending invasion. Until then, we prepare. Call it a crisis of faith. Eddie was desperately searching the quatrains, trying to get us closer to Mabus but we were running out of angles. Jordan tried to bolster my spirits - told me our plan was working. We would continue to take the Gua down one by one, each step bringing us closer to finding the Guahead. Jordan believed we were gonna get him and win the war. While sifting through quatrains, Eddie received an encrypted message from Joshua requesting a meeting to discuss Mabus. He wanted me to come alone. Eddi

Quatrain 15, Century 5. ""The message precedes the messenger, a sudden link to darkness. Betwixt the glare and the chasm, the child is freed with shadows behind."" The Paranoid Times gets thousands of hits a week, all from the growing contingent of believers who know that aliens threaten our world. Most of these e-mails voice support, but when one tipped us to a Gua bomb set outside a United States Federal Office, we had to check it out. That e-mail saved hundreds of human lives, but who sent it? A disgruntled alien, a human with knowledge of Gua plans? The e-mail was traced to a residential address. With backup courtesy of Jordan's Raven Nation, I set out to see if our mysterious cyber-tipper was truly a friend ... or possibly a foe. Posing as Timothy Murray, a Compustar Internet Service employee I met Anne Berman, Aunt and guardian to Emily ­ the intense little girl who lived at the house and the only one to ever use the computer. Made no headway, Anne said Emily was sick and she wasn'

Quatrain 17, Century 4. ""Through the ancient north it shall pass, ship to ship the power of powers. All strength to those who unearth it, joined together will earth itself be consumed."" A Gua intelligence communiquè intercepted by the Raven Nation mentioned an all-powerful weapon the Gua have spent years searching for, and now we were close to finding it. A search of archeological dig sites turned up an excavation of a Viking settlement in Nova Scotia. Crossing the border into Canada was a risk, but one I was willing to take. The dig was stationed out of a bus graveyard. Yesterday's settlement was today's dump. I had to go in low profile - this time posing as Clyde the tow truck driver who wandered into the wrong place. But that's why I have Eddie and Jordan. Eddie posed as a big-shot archeologist named Dr. Charles Channing. His partner in the dig would be a man who made searching for ""The Hammer of Thor"" his life's ambition ­ an uptight, hefty guy named Dr. Samuel Spiedel. Jordan was

Quatrain 22, Century 4. ""When twice three years and twice again, find secret skill in darkest hour. ""Tween Blessed and Cursed a Third will come, or world's consumed in battle's fire."" Nightmares. They were stealing my rest. Making it impossible for me to sleep. In them, I'm twelve years old, in a white room, strapped to a chair and there's a man there. He gives me a gun, commands me to shoot. I do it. And then I wake up. And I'm terrified. Don't even like to admit it. But Jordan and Eddie were noticing and thought I needed help. Didn't want me becoming a liability in the fight. Eddie keyed into the quatrain, thought Nostradamus was talking about me all those years ago. Even if the prophet was right I figured the news was about sixteen years too late. Jordan disagreed. Mentioned a Raven Nation regression therapist, thought I should check him out - he could take me back, help me relive my past. But my childhood wasn't any picnic - and living it once was enough. Wanted to let it go but th

Quatrain 11, Century 9. ""Nobles gather on a midsummer's eve / and the Raven grasps the curse of legacy. / Look to the traitor's haven / as the beast prepares for Apocalypse."" When Jordan got an invitation to a midsummer bash at a mansion owned by her late parents, Eddie linked the party to the words of Nostradamus. Did this ""curse of legacy"" refer to the Radcliffe family? Could the traitor possibly be Jordan's father, a man she both loved and respected? Jordan wouldn't rest until she knew the truth. Neither would I. If ""the beast"" was Mabus, then I wanted to do my part to find out how the Radcliffes fit into his preparations for the Apocalypse and I wanted to stop him. We knew of a secret vault within the mansion, so while Jordan made a grand entrance to join the rich and famous, I was breaking in upstairs to crack a safe. Some things never changed. Had to be tough for Jordan. Once the Gua enter your life it changes forever. I'd lived it, and so had she. But Jordan was good at putting

The Raven Nation is an army of believers from every walk of life: cops, teachers, salesman, parents, and scientists - all touched by the lethal hand of the Gua. Dr. Pierce Malcolm was a highly renowned geneticist before the Gua killed his only son. Soon after, he joined the Raven Nation and brought his genetic expertise to our fight. I'm usually encouraged by the determination shown by people like Dr. Malcolm to beat the Gua. So why did I have such a bad feeling about the Doc and the lab he'd invited Jordan, Eddie and I to visit? Maybe it was because it would be the site of our latest trial - a real nightmare. Jordan gave Malcolm one mandate: to find weapons that would give us an advantage over the aliens. The Doc claimed we now had that advantage. He did a test on some blood samples, one human, one Gua - from a prisoner Malcolm had in his lab. He changed the Gua sample green - made it distinguishable from the human sample. It was an indisputable method for telling who was Gua and the

Quatrain 41, Century 4. ""At the inception of the millennium / machines of the new age deliver devastation in war. / From a throne under 13 faceless warriors / the invader king wields power."" ""Inception OS"" is an operating system used by almost every computer in the country — ""the machines of the new age."" Max Stareman is president of the software empire who planned to release the program to a massive media and consumer blitz. If Inception software was the weapon that ""delivered devastation"" then we had to stop it. And first we had to get to Max Stareman. Eddie figured tapping into Stareman's home base computer qualified him as nuts and who was I to argue — Eddie'd always called himself ""crazy,"" my plan helped validate the name. Way I saw it, the world's top computer programmers worked for Stareman, and any one of them could've been Gua — even the billionaire himself. Wondered what the Gua wanted with an operating system anyway? Eddie figured the answer was easy: control. Most of the wo

Quatrain 26, Century 9: ""As the Apocalypse draws near the adherents are summoned. Down to the catacombs they flee, pursued by an enemy none can see."" We had to warn the Raven Nation. But they weren't about to believe anything they read online -- not something this important. Using information Jordan shared with only a trusted few I would send a top-level distress signal - it would trigger a failsafe plan. The Raven Nation would assemble. They'd be expecting war. Probably would've been easier news to deliver. Mabus was living inside Jordan, controlling her body and mind. There was no way of knowing what he planned to do. The Code 13 was sent. As part of Jordan's self-designed security measures the four top Generals of the RN didn't know each other. They didn't even know what the others looked like. The one thing they did know was the secret roster of militia in their zone. Four Generals with four separate cells, it was a brilliant way to make sure no one could cripple their ranks. But I

The Gua have struck hard. Mabus has entered the body of Jordan and taken over. The army of the Raven Nation has fallen. Its generals are dead, the survivors scattered. Even after everything we've worked for, I can't expect defeat. I choose to believe in the future. In spite of everything, we can still win this fight. I have to believe it. They're the words I posted right before we were attacked. The entire Airstream was taken down in a hail of bullets and I was suddenly on my way to a specially planned visitation with my one time partner and friend - Jordan Radcliffe. A woman we now call Mabus. I'd been hit in the attack on the trailer but a Gua Empiricist healed me. Couldn't figure it out, Mabus wanted me dead, so why were they fixing me up ... even I knew the truth -- I was on my way to hell. The answer came from the Guahead himself -- my journey had come full circle. He wanted to have the pleasure of breaking me. It was the conclusion of the same human will experiment that had sta

Omega Quatrain 2. ""In the west, near the rock mount, a load stone pulls opposing sides closer. The fallen signals war and guidance for the coming maelstrom."" A loadstone is a magnet, which may connect to a powerful magnetic anomaly Eddie detected in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. We suspect it's the source of several mysterious satellite blackouts that have been baffling authorities. Could the loadstone be a Gua weapon designed to disable earth's defenses? I was starting to have doubts, until something dropped out of the sky. Had a feeling ""the fallen"" that ""signals war"" just made its first appearance. With Eddie complaining all the way, we hiked deep into the mountains. Found a device putting out high-magnetic readings but no one running it. Left the device and headed in the direction of the crash site. Found a fire, something had crashed, could have been a satellite or maybe a ship? Couldn't tell which yet. And we found something ... or someone, too. Joshua -- nothing like a little dest

Joshua said it best - we needed to understand the extent of Mabus' fist strike and the clock was counting down to the Second Wave. Checked out a lead that didn't pan out. Searched the woods in the dark, but it was a trap -- the Gua came after us - a fleet of assassins targeting us with laser tags. We split up, lost Joshua in the dark. Eddie fell behind me and then there was a blinding flash of light. And suddenly, I wasn't in Kansas anymore - it was some kind of void, howling snarls echoed throughout the place. Walls of crystal, maybe ice. Could hear Eddie calling for my help in the distance and then suddenly there was ""another me."" That same ""other Cade"" who rescued me from the Gua as a child - the first time they messed with my head. The quatrain which lead us to that discovery said ""When twice three years and twice again, find secret skill in darkest hour. 'Tween bless'd and cursed, a third will come, or worlds consumed in battles fire."" This other Cade appeared as my ""adult self"" t

Final Omega Quatrain. Eddie called it the last chance. ""Into the void must go the Twice Bless'd Man. Seek the hammer, as the seeker has sought before. In the courage to end, find the beginning, or death and darkness befall mankind."" The hammer is the ultimate Gua weapon, able to move matter through a vortex in time and space. It could deliver an alien army to our doorstep in a heartbeat. Our only salvation was that the hammer had been lost in a vortex, beyond Mabus' grasp. Or so we thought. Joshua intercepted a Gua transport carrying a locator, a device meant to help the Gua locate the missing hammer. Our only hope was finding the weapon before Mabus did. Eddie and Joshua rigged a device to get me into the vortex; once inside, the locator would lock onto the energy of the hammer and guide me toward it. Downside: There was no way back. Only the hammer could bring me home. It was succeed or die. And if Mabus got there first, there wouldn't be much to come home to. Joshua asked me if I wa

Would everything end where it begins? That's what I was wondering in the final hours. Stuck in a psychiatric ward, integrated by doctors who believed I was crazy. I believed they were human, if they weren't I would have been dead. Not that it mattered, the invasion was upon us and humanity didn't want to know a thing about it. One thing was for sure; they'd know when the war was upon us. Kept telling the Shrinks that 19 million people would die on the first day and that we were all screwed. Told a new Doc about the alien anti-Christ named Mabus. She wanted to know how I'd survived my fights with the demon if he was really so all-powerful? I didn't have an answer - they had me talking in circles. Were doing the same thing to Jordan, trying to convince her the Raven Nation didn't exist. Telling her she'd been manipulated by me, pulled into some grand lie. They told Joshua he wasn't an alien at all. Said he was a staff sergeant for the U.S. Marines, told him he had kids. Eddie was just pl