Read Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 9): September for Free Online

bizarre configurations rose, taller than anything that had once existed there.  The Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, for some bizarre reason, though the bridge had been destroyed, the two halves curling back on themselves, were otherwise unmolested.  Two lonely examples of Humanity-that-was among what clearly had to now be Terraformer territory.  “I have no fucking idea how long they took to build it, whether they drove the Shadow away or it left willingly, so don’t bother asking.  All I know is what you can see here.  Sydney is not ours , not anymore.”
     
    The way he said the words implied that even with the Shadow in place it was still once a human place.  Now it was truly alien.  Jester zoomed in, showing various creatures that could never have existed on a Human Earth.  Swarms of insectoid critters scuttled about the place, everywhere.  Their chitinous exoskeletons shone in rainbow hues as the sunlight reflected off of them.  As we watched, the swarms constructed a new building, stacking themselves one atop the other, shining a bright white for a few seconds before reconfiguring themselves into walls, floors, ceilings for whatever was giving them their orders.
     
    Everywhere we looked, all we saw were these Builder Bugs, skittering along, forming new structures atop those already present.  “I think,” The Boss mused, “That we’re watching the final stages of their construction now.”  She turned to me.  “And now we know something about these Terraformers.  We’re going to need bigger bombs.”  She turned away from the screen in disgust and stalked from the room.
     
    noon
    We took it in turns to watch the alien insects create their structures, metallic, yet somehow crystalline when finished.  They created familiar configurations as well as bizarre, so we were able to surmise that whatever was programming them at least had a means of excreting their bodily waste as sewers built themselves, forming into corridors and rooms.  Some of these rooms were for obvious purposes, there was a clear mess and kitchen setup, as well as what seemed a military barracks.  Finally, after several hours of staring at the screen alternated with rubbing our eyes from the strain, we saw one of the Terraformers.
     
    Just under two metres tall, wearing a uniform not unlike those around me, though skinnier than a human, the Terraformer strode into what could only be a freshly constructed command centre from an elevator.  The chest was broader, deeper, more massive even than Wall’s, but the legs were narrow as a toothpick, the lower abdomen bulging at the middle to accommodate the enormous torso.  A mane of thick, bristly hair encircled a head sprouting three horns from a brownish looking, scaled dome.  As it walked, I noted that the alien’s knees bent backwards, and that it had a kind of secondary elbow midway down the forearm, allowing for a greater range of motion.
     
    “Call The Boss,” I heard somebody say to a nearby Viking, realising a moment later that I, myself, had given the order.  “She needs to see this.”  My friend darted from the room, returning a less than a minute later, Apocalypse Mum following in his wake.
     
    “Now we’ve seen the enemy.”  Her words were delivered in a grim tone.  One of the technicians began to suggest that they hadn’t seemed remotely aggressive towards us so far, only to be silenced by a glare.  “They may have not been overtly aggressive, no.  However, they still seem to think that they’re entitled to our planet.  As far as I’m concerned, that fact alone makes them a hostile species.  As the highest ranking member of any military organisation that I am currently aware of, it makes it my responsibility to kick their sorry arses off-world, back to where they came from!”
     
    The Boss’s little speech was met with general applause, The Colonel most exuberant amongst them.  Apocalypse Girl and I joined, but I could see in her eyes that