The Invaders

The Invaders #1 “The Discovery” by Keith Laumer: Three TV episodes. In Part One, we meet David Vincent, a consultant engineer. He is visiting factories to assist them in managing their assembly lines and workshops more efficiently. He keeps seeing odd machined parts he can’t explain at some of the plants, and wonder what they are making, and for whom. He’s obtained four pieces, and after breaking into one of the offices, obtains diagrams of the object, and the notes attached with them. These he takes to his friend, Al Lieberman, a scientist, who believes it is some kind of dangerous weapon. David and Lieberman are captured, but Al is thrown out of a helicopter, and David is taken to a compound in the country. There he escapes, and in so doing destroys it and the aliens. The weapon has awakened a dormant volcano. Part Two: The Maniac finds David in a town where a UFO group is meeting. The speaker claims to have new evidence to prove the aliens are here. David goes to the meeting and runs into many different paranormal groups pushing their agenda, but one man starts up a conversation with him. He is Winifer Thrall, and he tells David that these meeting are likely part of the aliens’ program to distract the world from their real presence. David spots Dorn, an alien from the previous story, and the two follow him from the meeting, then the UFO speaker is killed, so they leave before the police arrive. Thrall takes David to his mansion, where the madness becomes evident in the man. David knows he must escape from Thrall, but Dorn and another alien have followed them, and are in the house also. Part Three: In The Counterattack David has discovered that a ship will be using a meteorite shower to bring a brood to plant on our planet. He contacts a couple scientists, who admit that there is a larger object among the meteorites, but that’s all, and posed no threat to Earth. He then contacts the AF, but is pushed out the gate there, too. However, Sergeant Joseph Anoti had overheard the conversation between David and the Major. He tells David to meet him later that night in town. Anoti explains his own encounter with one of the broods brought to our planet, and they decide to steal an Army track vehicle with a .50 caliber machine-gun on top and plenty of ammunition. With this they wait where the brood ship is to land and start a small war. The aliens are winning when the Army shows up with tanks and heavy weapons. They were out looking for the missing track vehicle. The alien named Dorn appeared in all three episodes and in each it appears he dies at the end, but not so. He survived the first two episodes, but again is killed in the third. A nice set of stories that I guess cover the first three TV episodes. It was a series I didn’t watch for some reason. The only problem I had with this story was the Army compound on the AF base, and all the weapons with the vehicles, and no security. A .50 caliber machine-gun and ammunition would be under heavy guard, and likely the compound would be guarded by Army MPs, even on an AF base. But overall the story was entertaining and fun. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THESE ALIEN SKIES