Chapter 1: The Watch

Ignatius Antioch Bodyne III stared out the window of the speeding train. As it exited the darkened tunnel, the bustling, bright city of Manidextra Central came into view. Among the streets and causeways, Ignatius could see thousands of citizens going about their daily lives. Far off in the distance, massive, red, saucer-shaped cargo vessels graced the clear sky. The sight was a familiar feature of all the cities in Corpi, and Ignatius had grown used to their constant presence, regardless of which way the currents flowed. This stop was only one among many, though it would last longer than most.

Ignatius prepared to exit the train and bumped against Sam, a fellow Watcher who had traveled with Ignatius for several stops. Sam smirked. “Don’t be too impatient, Igg. At least you’ve got a few days in this city – my next ride leaves in five minutes, and I have to book it across the station to catch it!”

Igg chuckled. “Fair enough,” he replied, hefting his own tote. The train doors opened and he exited swiftly, moving out of the way of comers and goes before turning to Sam again. “It’s been a pleasure to ride with you, my friend,” Igg said, stretching out his arm in farewell.

Sam met him in the middle. “Same to you. I hope we meet again some day, by the currents’ will.” Igg nodded, then watched as Sam dodged around other civilians. He waited until the chaos died down before making his way out of the train station, planning to report in to the local HQ. He kept an eye on the civilians around him, though he didn’t expect any problems here. The outer extremities of Corpi tended to see the most action, and Igg himself had chased down a handful of invaders. But a central city like Manidextra rarely saw activity – some people said that the protective barrier had never been breached.

No, Igg’s watchful eye was a product of his time as part of the Innate Civilian Watch Program, a nationwide government initiative to involve its citizens in the everyday protection of its cities and way of life. Watchers were only meant to witness and report, as necessary; engagement of any invaders was strictly left to trained military forces. Igg had signed on a few years ago, and had since been keeping an eye out for trouble during his travels.  He had witnessed some small skirmishes: localized pockets of invasion that were swiftly and effectively dealt with. But today, Ignatius didn’t see anything out of the ordinary among the comings and goings around him.

Just as he was about to turn down the road towards the Civilian Watch HQ, Igg was hit by a sudden rush of vertigo, as if the pressure in the atmosphere had suddenly increased. He looked up to see…he didn’t have the words to describe it. Something larger than anything he had ever seen, anything he had ever even heard of, was pressing against the barrier protecting them from the outside world. The barrier hadn’t broken yet, but the pressure was forcing it closer and closer to the ground, and Igg knew instinctively that it wouldn’t last much longer.

His fears came true when, with a sudden release of the pressure that had been building up, the barrier was breached and the foreign…thing came crashing down onto the city. Ignatius watched in horror as entire buildings crumbled and burst beneath the object’s bulk, levelling the central part of the city. Fleeing from the destruction were hundreds of citizens, while some agents of the Natural Defense System swarmed around the foreign object. The entire scene was chaotic, and Igg could only stare at it, frozen, as if he weren’t really there at all.

The giant object stopped its descent and began, ever so slowly, to rise again. As it left the breach it had made upon entry, Ignatius felt another sense of vertigo, this one related to a decrease in pressure. Cargo vessels, pieces of destroyed buildings, and, to his horror, citizens, flew out of the protection of their atmosphere and into the space beyond their world. Igg felt a pull in the same direction and latched onto a nearby building. As all the currents around him exited through the hole in the sky, he saw great vessels crawl through it and drop onto the remains of the city below. Each vessel was the size of a small building, with long spindly legs and great flowing ribbons to help it move by land and sky. Igg could also see flags self-proclaiming them as foreign invaders plastered all over the vessels.

Another vessel entered the city, and one of its legs landed right next to Igg. He stared at it, wide eyed, and realizing that in this moment he had a decision to make. Though really, it wasn’t a decision at all, was it? He had chosen to be a part of the Civilian Watch Program, and he had known that not all invaders were small, individual attackers taken care of by local forces. He had sign himself up for a job, though he realized now he may have jumped in a bit over his head. But that didn’t change anything now, he supposed. He was here, and no one else that could help was in sight. With a great mustering of courage and energy, Ignatius left the safety of the building and leapt to the invader’s leg just as it rose from the ground. He latched on to one of the many flags attached to the vessel and secured himself. Then he pressed the button on his watch that turned on his GPS tracker, to let the military know where he – and the invader he had latched onto – was.

With a great heave, the leg moved swiftly among the broken streets of Manidextra, taking one scared and jostling Watcher with it. Well, Igg thought to himself, all that’s left to do now is wait. As they exited the city and followed the currents away from the extremities of Corpi, all he could think was: I hope they get here soon.

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They had been drifting for a while. The invading vessel had long ago left Manidextra Central and turned inward, following the currents into the center of Corpi. Igg had seen neither hide nor hair of anyone that could help him. He was completely on his own.

He could see civilians, smaller than infants from his vantage point,  running around on the ground below. The vessel ignored the tiny beings below, instead focusing on the structure around it. It seemed to be looking for something, but Igg didn’t know what it was, or what would happen once it found its target.

Igg suddenly felt the leg to which he was attached move. He found himself being pushed closer and closer to the barrier that separated the highway from the rest of the countryside. Panicking, Igg stuck his leg out and pushed against the nearing wall, desperately trying not to be squished between the two surfaces.

It should have been an easy victory for the vessel to overpower a tiny Watcher and break through the wall. And yet Igg watched in fascination as, instead of crushing him and the surface below, the leg folds around his body and molds against the wall. He suddenly realized that the vessel’s leg was made of the same fluid material that was used outline Corpi’s roads, walls, buildings, and bridges; it was no stronger than the barrier it was trying to break through. The vessel held its leg in place a little while longer, moving across the wall as if trying to find a pocket through which it could break through, and Igg continued to push against the barrier with all his might. Suddenly the leg retreated, flinging Igg through the current along with it, and the vessel resumed its pace.

How? Igg wondered, staring at the wall in awe. He should, by all intents and purposes, be dead, and yet here he was. Did I stop it from breaking the wall? No, that’s ridiculous. Something of that size wouldn’t be affected by something my size at all.

So why didn’t it break through?

Igg continued to ponder this question as they neared Coraz, the capital city of Corpi. But the vessel didn’t stop there, nor in Cargo Bay nearby, where all the cargo vessels stocked up on shipments to transport to the rest of Corpi. The vessel passed through the heart of the country without pausing, seemingly uninterested in everything around it.

They had crossed half of Corpi by the time the vessel turned from the main highway onto a smaller road. Igg felt both fear and hope, as the path it had chosen could take them to two places: Central Command, which would be very bad, or one of the largest military bases in Corpi, which would be very good. Igg checked to make sure his signal was still transmitting – even if they bypassed the base, they might come close enough for someone to notice it and find him.

He waited with baited breath, nerves rising to the surface as their pace seemed to slow to a crawl. Logically, Igg knew that the vessel moved with the currents; no faster, no slower. But right now, on the brink of being found, it felt like each second was a year of waiting. He could barely stand the tension, and his eyes stray between the blinking transmitter and the far horizon.

The first sign of change was the quiet sound of an impact. Igg couldn’t see much of the vessel from his point of view, but he was certain something had hit it.

“Hello?” he called out hopefully, wondering if his voice would rise above the sound of the vessel’s movement.

“–you–Watcher?” a distant voice asked.

“Yes!” Ignatius shouted, half in response, half in relief.

“-ey’re comi–” the voice shouted back. Igg couldn’t hear much of their words, but it was enough to know that backup was on the way.

He and his fellow Watcher didn’t have to wait long. Soon enough, the sound of another impact reached his ears, and another, and another. Watchers rained on the vessel like flies on the windshield, coming at it from all angles and strapping themselves on with practiced ease. One landed on the leg Igg was attached to and saluted him.

“Are you Ignatius Bodyne?” she asked. Igg nodded, beyond relieved to see another Watcher after what seemed like years of isolation. “We got your signal. The invader is approaching Base L; this should be over soon.”

The Watcher grabbed a communicator from her belt and radioed in. “We found the vessel. Ready for pickup.”

Igg felt a wave of relief sweep over him, and he relaxed against the vessel’s leg for the first time in his long journey. His job was done, above and beyond anything he had ever expected to do. In the distance, he could hear the comforting sound of something big headed their way, bigger even than the vessel that had trekked him halfway across the world. Soon enough, the military’s vessels were in sight: large, gleaming white ships that dwarfed the foreign vessel by comparison. Even from this distance, Igg could see the ship swarming with crew members, all ready to tear the invader apart and turn it inside out.

Igg straightened as the ships neared the vessel. Crew members on the nearest ship reached out for him, and the second they were close enough, he stretched his arm out to close the gap. Around him, he saw other Watchers doing the same, pulling the ship in with their combined strength. In seconds, the vessel was surrounded by the larger ship. Igg removed himself from the vessel’s leg and follows the other Watchers into a nearby passageway, then turned to watch the destruction of the invader from the safety of the ship. He watched with fascination as crew members systematically tore down the barrier encasing the body of the vessel. As soldiers broke through the hull to attack the mechanics within, the Watchers around Igg cheered, and he couldn’t help but join in.

Once the noise died down, Igg found the Watcher who had radioed in help. “There were other vessels,” he said. “They all attacked Manidextra the second the sky barrier was breached.”

“And they’ve been destroyed,” she assured. “This one was the last one remaining; no one knew where it had gone off to. Thanks to you, we found it, and who knows what damage it would have wreaked if you hadn’t stayed with it this whole time.”

“I just did what I was supposed to do,” Igg replied, somewhat confused.

“That doesn’t mean it didn’t take a lot of courage. Many Watchers reported the invaders’ whereabouts, but none dared hitch a ride to follow them. Except you. It’s the mark of a good watcher, Ignatius. You were built for greater things.”

Igg coughed and cleared his throat, not sure what to do with the praise. “So what now?” he asked.

“That’s up to you,” she replied. “You can keep your work as a civilian Watcher, or you can go all in – become a full-time Watcher. I already put the word in – they would love to have you as part of their permanent unit.”

Igg thought about his past assignments, all of the minor skirmishes he had witnessed. He thought about the terror he had felt when the invaders first entered Manidextra, and his harrowing ride across the world. Somehow, he had come out on top of it, and had helped bring down the final invader in their attack. Moreover, being a Watcher, keeping a close eye on the streets of Corpi, had always felt like the right thing to do.

In the end, there really was no decision. He shakes her hand. “I look forward to working with you.”

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