Alien vs. Alien

in some way. Did my best not to look at the nonmobile people and also tried to ignore the screams. They were farther away, but still, not all the innocents were safe. But I had enough rage, and I couldn’t let despair back until this was all over.
    Now that I knew the Gower girls were creating shields, I could just make them out—a slight shimmering around every building.
    Which was good, because several of the supersoldiers were down, and every one of them had let a superbeing loose.
    The supersoldiers that weren’t taking the Z’porrah laser hits were fighting the superbeings. It was sort of a fair fight, but as I watched, a superbeing sliced through a supersoldier. And released a new friend. At the rate this was going, we were going to have more superbeings than supersoldiers fast.
    Speaking of which, the Z’porrah had brought a whole slew of parasites with them. Somehow, they were still held in their protective bubble, but shots were being fired at and around them. Our aircraft weren’t firing at the parasites—the Z’porrah ships were. It dawned on me that ACE had to be who was keeping that protective covering around the parasites, and the Z’porrah were trying to release them.
    ACE might be powerful, but he wasn’t limitless. Like the Gower girls, ACE had to be close to tapped out.
    The Z’porrah ships started to take an interest in our jets. Our jets were nimble, small, and well piloted, so they were hard to hit. But the flying saucers could shoot from what seemed like any part of their saucer rim, so they could make up for a lack of precision by just flinging a lot of shots all over the place.
    Tried to keep track of the jets I was sure were flown by my guys. It was a lot like΀ watching a shell game, and I lost them here and there.
    Falling debris forced me to run away from the Lincoln Memorial. I backed into some trees. I was good with hiding for a moment and figuring out where Jeff was, along with my next move. Running around being a target seemed stupid and futile.
    I was in trees but had a pretty unobstructed view of the air. Five jets converged on one Z’porrah ship. As they zipped around it in death-defying ways, all their firepower focused at the dome on top, I knew without asking that these were my guys.
    One of them hit the magic spot, and the Z’porrah ship started to crack. The jets took off as the flying saucer exploded.
    “Yeah! Take that!” I jumped up and down. One small victory was still better than none.
    Flying saucer debris rained down, and I hugged the trees. Another downside of this fight was that the debris wasn’t just hitting the Mall. I had no idea how much of it was falling on D.C. and the surrounding area, but I had to figure quite a lot.
    My flyboys were at it again, targeting another Z’porrah ship. This time, they knew where the weakness was, and they hit it much faster. Another flying saucer broke apart into a lot of smaller chunks.
    Wanted to call someone and tell them the rest of the jets needed to do this same technique. If we could get enough up there, we’d have the Z’porrah on the run. And I might have tried to reach Reader or Tim as the flyboys went after their next target.
    But before I could decide if a call or text right now would be the height of bad timing or just what the doctor ordered, several Z’porrah ships released a barrage of firepower.
    Three of the jets sheared off, spinning and flipping themselves in the air. They were safe, and I didn’t think they’d taken a hit. I looked for the other two.
    They weren’t doing as well. The Z’porrah had blocked them, and they were having to maneuver between flying saucers, laser fire, and each other. They were doing a great job, but all it was going to take was one good hit and they were toast.
    My guys were the best pilots out there, though. I didn’t need to worry or hold my breath. But I was doing both.
    Another Z’porrah ship came down from above just as the two jets were making a break for the sky. The Z’porrah’s shots hit. One jet was on fire, and one had a wing sheared off.
    Even hit, the pilots were the best of the best. They managed to maneuver away from the laser shots. But they were both crashing.
    I judged their trajectories and was pretty sure they were trying to hit the tidal basin the Jefferson Memorial overlooked. It was filled with water, and would have far less water traffic than the Potomac.
    But they were coming down fast, and even if they managed to hit the water,