Riptide

The light of the flaming ship left a trail of rubble against the darkening night sky which burned into the eyes of those watching as they went to investigate, traveling through the dark forest so late at night was never a wise thing to do, this haunting task simply confirmed their beliefs. Yet, orders were orders and fear was out of the question. The men and women wearing hazmat suits edged closer to the wreckage. “Ready?” a tall and slender woman with bright green eyes asked the crowd of agents under her control as she held up her blowtorch.

They nodded and prepared for the worst, loading their guns. She burned through the unrecognized metal and kicked down the entrance she had created, allowing the rest of the agents to step into the ship. They searched it carefully before finding what they had come for. The Baltoid lay dead on the ridged metal floor in the shape of an attractive young woman with thick black hair and a red dress on her skinny, ageless body.

The green-eyed agent pressed a button on her headset to contact her superiors. “Yes sir,” she said. “The Baltoid is no longer a threat,” she, looked down at the lifeless body of the shapeshifter with smug eyes as if it was a victory to see it cold, dead and released from its lonely prison.

“Excellent job, Agent King,” said the voice of a middle-aged man on the other side of the headset who undoubtedly sat in his comfortable chair watching television while his men and women risked their lives for his strange obsession. “Get the alien and the ship over to Headquarters and cover your tracks, we don’t want any civilians getting curious or stumbling across the tech.”

“You got it, Chief,” the young man no older than eighteen who stood beside Agent King said excitedly into his own headset as if he had finally received the excitement he had craved when he signed up for the dangerous job. The team of specialized agents then began to do their job of hiding their discovery from the rest of the world, as ordered by their alienated superior officer.