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Stuart was determined that the
Migrators were not going to have such an easy time overwhelming them this time.

Jack meanwhile, was now in possession of a fantastic new airship or ‘blimp’ as he preferred to call it.

With that,
he kept up his flights tracking the progress of the Migrators, but upon returning from one sortie he quickly sought the opinions of both Stuart and Joan and immediately asked them to come with him, along with Professor Gregorksi, the man considered to be the leading world expert on insects.

‘You must come quickly, t
here are now some even bigger ones’ Jack uttered as he finally tracked Joan, Stuart, Jenny and Professor Gregorksi down.

‘What do mean, bigger ones?’ queried Joan as he dragged them
all off.

‘Let me show you all!’ demanded Jack as
he quickly rushed them towards his new airship.

‘Slow down, pleas
e, I’m not a young man you know’ complained Professor Gregorksi.

‘Sorry, P
rofessor, we’ll all slow down a bit’ Jack apologized.

Once into
the flight for a long while, when they came across the Migrators both Joan and Stuart could see exactly what Jack had meant.

T
he usual black Migrators were now all joined by a newer cousin, a much bigger red Migrator with some black stripes.

‘How big do you think these new ones
are, Jack?’ asked Stuart as he gazed out at them.

‘
Phew, I reckon fifteen foot high maybe’ replied Jack looking very stern faced.

‘Christ they’re
big
!’ uttered Jenny unable to hide the fear in her voice.

‘How do you
think this will affect us, Professor Gregorksi?’ inquired Stuart.

‘These look much faster’ commented the Professor
. ‘See how they’re quickly overtaking the others to reach the very front. These larger Migrators will reach our defences much faster than we anticipated’ he uttered as he shook his head in dismay.

‘Oh God, this is not good news’ uttered Joan in panic.

‘But it’s
worse than that, don’t you see?’ suggested the old Professor as Jack left the controls temporarily to listen to what he had to say.

‘Look at their backs’ he pointed.

‘NO! I
CAN’T
BE?’ suddenly shouted Stuart as he quickly looked through his binoculars.

‘Why? What
’s wrong?’ puzzled Joan as she began to look quite alarmed.

‘Here, l
ook through my binoculars’ suggested Professor Gregorksi as he handed them to her.

‘Oh my God
!’ Joan suddenly uttered in shock.

‘That’s right, they’re developing
wings
!’ nodded the old Professor.

‘Just as you said they would
’ nodded Stuart.

‘Oh Christ’ groaned Jack ‘that’s what I dreaded you’d say.’

‘And the ones you describe as ‘the big red ones’ I believe are the fighter drones’ explai
ned the old Professor. ‘If you notice they are quickly making their way to the very front in order to be the first into battle. They will lead the charge against us. They are definitely readying for battle’ the old Professor explained.

‘Will they attack us through the air do you think, Professor Gregorksi?’ asked Joan and
the old Professor just shook his head.

‘No, I do not believe so. They
are not fully developed yet. It is my assumption that they believe they can defeat us here and possibly rightly so. Once victors here, they will then feed until they reach their final stage of development. Then they will migrate either as a whole unit or possibly more likely, split into several large groupings to spread to other parts of the world. Much like soldier ants do after eating everything in one part of the forest, they then move on as a group to attack another’ he explained.

‘T
hen this means, if we don’t stop them here, soon nowhere on Earth will be safe from them!’ uttered Jack looking very downcast.

‘They’ll just be able to fly anywhere
they like’ agreed Joan.

‘Then the General
was right’ nodded Stuart ‘he said this could be mankind’s last stand, it’s looking likely that it
is
!’

‘At the present we have the advantage
, in that they cannot yet fly. So we can build our defences ahead of them’ explained Professor Gregorksi. ‘Once they fly though, we will not be so lucky as they will travel the world and attack us on mass in areas where we will have no defences to stop them.’

‘Then this
really
is
our last chance to stop them’ uttered Jack as he now looked very worried.

‘Yes
it is’ nodded the old Professor.

On their
way back they encountered a million or more people who had obviously been fleeing from the Migrators. They were stuck though, right at the Migrator’s clever cordon that just disintegrated anything that tried to pass through it.

As some people suddenly saw the large airship in the sky they all began waving at it frantically
, hoping to be rescued.

‘Oh, all those
poor people, can we do nothing at all to help them?’ pleaded Jenny.

‘God, it looks like a scene from Woodstock or something’ groaned Jack.

‘Jack, they all seemed to have stopped up ahead, do you think that’s where the barrier is?’ asked Stuart.

‘Yes, almost certainly
’ nodded Jack.

‘See if we can throw something at it at different heights
as if the barrier only goes up say ten or fifteen feet we might be able to build something over it?’ suggested Stuart.

Unfortunately though, as they threw things at the invisible barrier and things were simply
being disintegrated, they did discover a definite height existed of around thirty or so feet. It was also however, the same in depth.

‘Hell, I must have only just missed that myself sometimes when I flew
low over it’ commented Jack as he now looked quite shocked.

‘It’s going to be virtually impossible to build anything over that
as it’s just too deep’ concluded Stuart.

‘Couldn’t we fly them over
it somehow?’ suggested Joan.

‘But t
here are simply too many people’ suggested Professor Gregorksi.

‘Those poor souls
then’ Joan commented sadly ‘but couldn’t we save just the babies at least?’

‘They’d pull the airship down, Joan’ replied Jack
. ‘Can you imagine if I dropped a ladder down in the midst of that lot? They’d all be scrambling up it for their lives to escape from the fate of being devoured by the Migrators. I don’t think any polite ‘women and children first’ rule would apply down there, do you? It would more like a ‘survival of the fittest’ only.’

‘No, you’re
probably right’ agreed Joan reluctantly ‘I wish we hadn’t seen them all now’ she suggested.

‘I wish
we’d left Jenny back at the camp’ commented Stuart quietly.

‘Thank
you for coming along with us’ Jack thanked Professor Gregorksi.

‘You’re welcom
e and thank you for slowing down and being patient with me’ he smiled.

‘And if you think of
anything else, perhaps you can let us know?’ added Stuart and Professor Gregorksi just nodded.

‘I will
’ he replied ‘although I feel this is going to be a very hard battle for us to win, being honest’ he admitted.

He then looked down at the hundreds of thousands of stranded people as he looked thoughtful.

‘There is one thing that has occurred to me’ Professor Gregorksi suddenly smiled.

‘Yes and what is that, Professor?’ asked Stuart.

‘The Migrators currently can’t attack us with their own barrier in the way’ he nodded.

‘Blimey that’s right’ smiled Stuart
‘why didn’t I think of that?’

‘So what does that mean
exactly?’ puzzled Jack.

‘It means we may have a short window when all these people will be able to
freely move forwards’ smiled Joan.

‘Then we’ll need to be able to quickly allow them through if we can
, before the Migrators themselves arrive’ nodded Stuart.

Then he smiled at the old Professor.

‘Professor Gregorksi you’re brilliant!’ he told him.

‘Not at all young man, it is just you have all been working hard and me, an old man
, has more time to think’ he laughed.

They arrived back at the camp and rested for a short while b
efore reporting for their next planned meeting with General Iram.

They then reported all the civilians they had spotted.

‘Yes, they are already at our door
. We can now see them from the defence walls, but they can’t reach us due to the Migrator’s invisible barrier’ explained one of the General’s advisors.

‘You can see them?’ puzzled Stuart ‘I didn’t think we could see what was on the other side of the barrier?’

‘Well we can see them all right’ replied the
General ‘they’re all just trapped there.’

‘Then they are
all just sitting there waiting to be slaughtered’ commented one military man.

‘Then we must move forwards so we can protect them!’ suggested one of the scientists.

Professor Gregorksi now stood up.

‘NO! Y
ou must
not
do that!’ he insisted.

‘Why exactly not
, Professor?’ asked General Iram.

‘Because I believe the Migrators are intelligent and they are deliberately using these people to try to tempt you into moving from your now heavily fortified and well thought out defences
, therefore you must not do so. They will be forced to abandon their invisible barrier or more likely, extend it for a period, before they themselves attack us’ relayed the old Professor as he now sat down again.

‘Then we’ll have a short window to get possibly over a million people
behind our barriers before the Migrators launch their attack on us’ commented General Iram as he stood there deep in thought.

The General no
w paced up and down.

‘We’ll need hor
se and carts, hand pulled carts and as many volunteer civilians as possible to quickly open up small gaps in our defence walls and then quickly close them up again, that’s if we have no electricity. Or as many vehicles as possible on stand bye should they all still work. Get this straight though, at no point will any of our troops move from their stations as I believe the Professor is right, that is what they are hoping for’ insisted the General.

‘But what if we can’t get all these people through in time?’ asked one concerned looking scientist.

‘Then I’m afraid there is nothing more we can do for them’ the General told him very grim faced.
‘The moment the Migrators attack us the openings must be immediately closed or all will be lost.’

Pretty much everyone looked grim f
aced now faced with this rather depressing prospect.

Jack now gave the General
their bad news regarding the Migrators starting to grow wings and being led by a new breed of larger, stronger red fighter Migrators.

‘My God, if they start to fly
they’ll be simply unstoppable!’ commented one NASA scientist in alarm.

‘OK
, Professor Edwards, we need as accurate a prediction as you can give us, as to when the Migrators will reach our defences’ demanded General Iram.

‘Oh, it’s difficult to say,
General, as you now know, some of them are bigger and so are also faster’ explained Jack ‘although in Professor Gregorksi’s expert opinion, they won’t be ready to fly for a while yet’ Jack informed him.

‘It won’t be long until they are though, th
at’s why we must stop them here’ added Joan.

‘Maybe you should go back again and see just
how much they have changed and what kind of distance they have covered since you last saw them?’ suggested a NASA scientist.

‘Yes
and film it this time to give us a more accurate idea as to just how much bigger these new fighter Migrators really are’ ordered the General.

‘OK’ agreed Jack ‘but I’ll need someone to man the camera
, now I’m flying this large blimp.’

‘We’ll do that!’ both Joan and Stuart volunteered.

‘No, we need you two to keep
working as advisors to all our officers on the correct angles and positions of all our guns all along the front line’ ordered General Iram.

‘But I’ll still need some
one experienced at using a professional cine camera or failing that at flying a blimp’ insisted Jack.

‘I can do that, Monsieur!’ a voice
suddenly piped up.

‘Let him through’ ordered the General.

‘
My Name’s Andre Monroe’ he introduced himself.

‘And you’re used to handling a professional film camera?’ asked the General.

‘No, Monsieur’ he replied.

‘Then why
the hell have you volunteered?’ asked General Iram impatiently.

‘I have piloted an airship
or a ‘blimp’ as you Americans call it’ smiled the Frenchman.

‘Well that would help
out a lot, as I’ve filmed any number of times, so I don’t mind doing that’ Jack explained ‘but what type of airship was it you piloted, Andre?’

‘Just short journey pleasure craft, for tourists
, Monsieur, here in the USA, Florida’ explained the Frenchman.

‘But this is a huge airship designed by NASA’ replied Jack looking a bit doubtful
that he could really man it.