Side Story 15: The Night That Changed Everything

Jimmy Larson

James Larson enlisted in the army, dreaming of fighting the noble fight and protecting his country. When they assigned him to Area 51, a top-secret base, he expected a busy schedule full of classified missions, advanced technology, and the possibility of seeing the advanced planes that started the UFO urban legends. However, tonight was going to be different. It was a night he will remember forever.

There has been a lot of activity at the base recently: additional security exercises, secret conversations between the higher-ups, and a general sense of urgency and unease. The sight of the white-coated scientists rushing in and out of buildings revealed their worries.

But tonight felt different. As Jimmy did his patrol, he noticed there were much fewer people around. It felt like the base held its breath, waiting for something. The strange atmosphere, filled with tension and anticipation, left Jimmy feeling something was about to change.

As Jimmy patrolled the perimeter of Area 51, he felt the cool, crisp desert air. It was an unusually calm night, with only the occasional sound of sand moving in the gentle breeze. Scanning the horizon, he adjusted his night vision goggles, looking for movement. The base was on high alert, though he didn’t know why.

When he reached the southeastern sector, he felt something strange, similar to an electric charge in the air but also different. It started gently, almost unnoticed, but grew stronger each minute. He thought it was static from his equipment; Quite common in the desert.

Suddenly, a strong sandstorm started, and the air was thick with swirling sand. As the wind howled and the sand stung his skin, his vision blurred, causing him to pull his scarf over his nose and mouth. The storm was relentless, testing his endurance.

Amidst the seemingly endless storm, he suddenly saw a mesmerizing display of colorful lights through the sand-filled air. Blue, green, and especially purple flashed in the distance. Mesmerized, he momentarily forgot the harsh conditions as he looked at the light show. He even thought he heard snippets of singing, but he dismissed it as a figment of his imagination.

Then, without warning, the lights disappeared. The only sound was the roar of the storm. His radio died. He pressed the buttons repeatedly, but nothing happened.

“Great, just what I needed,” he muttered, shaking it in frustration.

Something hit him in the chest before he could understand what was happening. The impact was slight but surprising. Briefly, he grew dizzy and then fell onto the sand.

When Jimmy woke, the sun was mid-sky. He had a headache, and his mouth was dry. He sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes, trying to piece together what had happened. Sand covered his face and stung his skin. All around him, other soldiers were sitting up, looking as confused as he felt. A thick layer of sand covered everything.

“What the hell happened?” A few feet away, Corporal Jenkins muttered, rubbing his temples and brushing the sand from his face.

Jimmy stood unsteadily, his muscles protesting. “I don’t know, but it feels like someone drugged us. Where did all this sand come from?

The base was so quiet you could hear a mouse sneeze. There was no generator hum, chatter, or beeping electronics. It seemed like the sandstorm silenced everything.

Jimmy’s hand instinctively went to his side to grab his weapon. His heart skipped a beat when his M4 was missing. Panic grew as he frantically searched the surrounding ground, hoping to find it buried in the sand. But he couldn’t find it.

“Guys, my M4 has disappeared!” He shouted, worried.

The other soldiers checked their equipment, and fear spread as more and more discovered their missing weapons.

“Mine’s gone too,” Jenkins said, sounding anxious. “What the hell is going on here?”

Sergeant Doyle, typically composed, looked visibly shaken. “This isn’t just any sandstorm,” he said gravely. “An unknown group is responsible for what happened to us. We must understand what happened and find our weapons fast.”

They exchanged worried glances, feeling the reality of their situation sink in. In a quiet base covered in sand, Jimmy, unarmed and confused, felt his stomach clench with fear as they searched for clues.

When they arrived at the main building, they found chaos. Frantic soldiers and scientists rushed around, shouting orders and attempting to operate equipment. Computers were dead, radios were silent, and even vehicles wouldn’t start.

“What’s going on?” Jimmy asked Sergeant Rodriguez, who was manually trying to open a stuck door.

Rodriguez looked up, his face a mixture of frustration and fear. “Everything is dead. All the electronics are fried. It’s like an EMP went off.”

Jimmy’s mind raced. EMP? The blackout and dead electronics are logical. What about the sandstorm and where it came from? And why?

As time passed, the details of the previous night’s events revealed missing weapons throughout the base, soldiers wounded by friendly fire, and stories of the soldiers engaging in a gunfight with unseen enemies that caused them to fall like dominoes. Each rumor on base grew stranger. Most persistent? They had an alien captive in an underground facility, and he escaped.

Jimmy scoffed. “Aliens? Really? Next, they’ll say it was Bigfoot.”

But then he overheard a conversation between two scientists that made his blood run cold.

“We need to contain the situation before it gets out,” one said urgently. “If the public finds out that we had an extraterrestrial entity and it has escaped, there will be mass panic.”

Jimmy’s mind raced. Alien? Could this be true? He always thought the Area 51 stories were myths and conspiracy theories. Now, there seems to be some truth.

Jimmy sneaked into the underground facility, despite the risks, to uncover the truth. He accidentally discovered an open entrance amid all the chaos. His unease intensified as he descended. He used a glow stick in the dark facility to illuminate his surroundings, casting eerie shadows. He moved carefully, knowing he was trespassing in restricted areas.

Five floors down, he found a locked door with a small window. When he peeked in, he saw a room filled with strange gadgets and signs of a fight. Equipment lay scattered on the floor.

Jimmy’s heart was pounding. They held the alien there. But how did it escape? And where is it now?

Returning to the surface, Jimmy found his commanding officer, Second Lieutenant Harper, in a heated discussion with senior officers. Before approaching, Jimmy waited for them to finish.

“Sir, Private Larson is reporting,” he said, snapping to attention.

Harper looked at him wearily. “What is it, Larson?”

“Sir, I think I found the holding cell where they held the alien. It looks like there was a struggle. What exactly are we dealing with here?”

Harper sighed and motioned for Jimmy to follow him into a more secluded area.

“Larson, what I’m about to tell you is classified beyond top secret. Understand?”

Jimmy nodded, his heart pounding.

“We were holding an alien being of extraterrestrial origin. It arrived at Nellis Air Force Base through a portal. We’ve been studying it for months. Last night, something caused a massive release of energy—unlike anything we’ve seen before. This energy disrupted all our electronics and allowed the alien to escape.”

Jimmy needs a minute to process the information. “So, that energy killed all the electronics?”

Harper gave a gloomy nod. “Yes. And we believe the alien may have had allies who used this energy to free it. Our priority is to locate the alien and all its accomplices before they cause further damage.”

The senior officers assigned Jimmy to a search team. Armed with non-electronic equipment—compasses, maps, and hand-operated radios—they scanned the desert for signs of the alien or its rescuers. After that, they gave different teams the task of visiting nearby settlements.

The desert was enormous, and tracking was almost impossible without electronic equipment. Days turned into nights, and the tension grew. Occasionally, they would have false alarms because of strange individuals, whether they were tourists or drunks, but couldn’t find nothing significant.

They assigned additional teams to visit Vegas and nearby cities, including Reno, but the results remained unchanged. The alien and his allies seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving behind chaos and mystery at the base. The alien and his allies fled without a trace, leaving the base in disarray and its people facing the aftermath.

Staff Sergeant Jake Hawkins

While Jake Hawkins had seen plenty of strange things during his decade in the Air Force, nothing could compare to what went down at Area 51 on March 21, 2031.

Jake had a reputation for staying calm in difficult situations. In tough situations, people relied on him for his quick thinking and level-headedness. But that night, as he stood watch outside Hangar 18, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was seriously wrong.

The first sign was the unexpected surge in wind force. Jake was used to the harsh desert conditions of Nevada, but this was different. An odd energy filled the air as the wind howled intensely.

“Thompson, have you ever seen anything like this?” Jake asked his fellow guard.

“No,” replied Private First Class Eric Thompson, fresh out of basic training. “Something’s off here, sir.”

In the moments leading up to the storm, the sky became dim, and the wind swept sand into the air. Before long, everything got so blurry that Jake could hardly make out Thompson standing right beside him.

“We need to get inside,” Jake shouted over the noise. “Looks like we’re in for a real sandstorm!”

Despite the wind, they got inside the hangar. As they caught their breath, Jake’s radio crackled to life.

“This is Colonel Emerson. A Code Red alert has been issued. I repeat: Code Red. All security teams report to your assigned locations immediately.”

Jake and Thompson exchanged worried looks. A Code Red meant a breach in their most critical areas. Silently, they raced to their station near the maximum-security prison.

The base was on high alert for hours. Inside, there was an eerie calm as the sandstorm raged outside. Jake’s gut told him that there was a massive storm coming, and not the sand kind.

He was right.

Two hours after the sandstorm started, all the electronics on the base suddenly stopped working. The lights flickered and went out, plunging them into darkness. Jake’s radio was dead, and a shiver ran down his spine as he realized all his tech had failed.

“Thompson!” he shouted. “We need to check on the prisoner!”

They stumbled through the dark halls, and near the holding area, they heard shouts and shots.

Jake lit a lighter as they entered the holding facility, and his heart stopped for a beat. Inside an open door, they found two unconscious guards. The political prisoner was gone. Jake didn’t waste a second and ran out of the cell block, searching everywhere. Suddenly he felt a light tap on his shoulder, got dizzy and everything went black.

Upon waking up, Jake found himself covered in sand and his mouth parched. Sand covered the entire base. “Hawkins! Are you lost?” a voice yelled. Captain Sarah Martinez, her usually immaculate uniform now covered in sand, approached him. “Sergeant, what the hell happened?”

Jake stood up, still confused. “No idea, ma’am. A huge sandstorm hit us. Then I blacked out. It looks like all my equipment is down; I’ve just woken up.”

Martinez looked grim. “It’s not just our gear. The entire base is down. Everything’s offline: cars, laptops, phones. No one can reach us.”

Instinctively, Jake reached for his M4 rifle, but it was gone. “Ma’am, my M4 is missing,” he whispered, trying to hide his panic.

Martinez’s face darkened. “Everyone, check your weapons!” she ordered. A chorus of worried voices confirmed Jake’s fears—everyone’s guns were missing.

“Mine’s gone too,” Thompson said, his voice shaking. “What’s going on?”

Martinez clenched her jaw, surveying the sand-covered base. “This was more than a sandstorm. Someone did this to us. We need to find out what happened and locate our weapons immediately.”

As the seriousness of their situation hit Jake, a knot formed in his stomach. Supposedly, Area 51 was an extremely secure military installation. It was nearly unimaginable that something could cripple it so suddenly.

“What are your orders, ma’am?” Jake asked.

“Right now, we need to take stock of everyone’s whereabouts and assess the damage,” Martinez said. “Assemble a squad and start sweeping the base. Report anything unusual.”

Jake nodded and set off to follow his orders. As he explored the base, the extent of the disruption became apparent. With technology down, soldiers and civilians alike struggled to adapt. The mess hall cooks were having a hard time making food without working appliances. The medical team worked frantically to treat injuries and preserve delicate medicines without power. Researchers and analysts were stuck, unable to access their data or continue their work.

When Jake reached the courtyard, soldiers and civilian employees looked visibly confused and worried. In the center, Colonel Frank Emerson, the base commander, stood with a determined expression.

“Everyone, listen up,” Emerson called out. “I know you have questions, and I’ll do my best to answer them. Our base was hit by what we believe to be an electromagnetic pulse around 1:00 AM last night. This pulse has knocked out all our electronic devices.”

There were murmurs in the crowd, but Emerson raised his hand for silence. “Right now, we can’t get any outside help or communication. We sent people on foot to get in contact with our superiors. Our top priorities are securing the base, accounting for all personnel, and protecting sensitive information, including our missing weapons.”

A shiver ran down Jake’s spine as he thought about the empty containment room and the sensitive person it had once held.

“We’ve got a few short-range radios working, but their range is limited,” Emerson continued. “Until we can reach our superiors and get more instructions, we’re operating on a need-to-know basis. I expect everyone to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Dismissed.”

As the crowd dispersed, Jake felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Captain Martinez. “Hawkins, I need you,” she said. “Follow me.”

Jake followed Martinez to an unmarked building he had passed by many times but never entered. Inside, they descended a staircase into a dim corridor. At the end was a massive metal door labeled “Authorized Personnel Only.”

Martinez frowned as the keypad next to the door failed to respond. With a sigh, she pulled out a key. “Looks like we’re doing this the old-fashioned way,” she muttered, unlocking the door manually.

Inside, file cabinets and shelves of folders filled the room. Martinez lit a glow stick, unlocked one cabinet, and pulled out a thick file, handing it to Jake. “Read this. It’s time you understood the gravity of the situation.”

Jake opened the file and started reading. The document contained a report about a young lady of unknown origin whom they captured fifty years ago. It included detailed transcripts of her interrogations and the discovery of portals leading to other worlds and their locations in the US. The final document described her escape attempt and her death during that attempt. After her death, large piles of equipment appeared around her body, which scientists continue to investigate to this day.

“This can’t be real,” Jake said, looking at Martinez.

“It’s all real, Sergeant,” she replied. “And the entity we had contained last night—the one that escaped—is not just extraterrestrial. It’s called a Traveler.”

“A Traveler?” Jake asked, his mind reeling from the revelations.

Martinez nodded. “From what we know, Travelers can move between different dimensions. The one we had captured held the key to our ability to do that. And now it’s gone.”

Jake felt the ground shift beneath him. His entire perception of reality, his purpose, and the world was being completely upended. “Why are you telling me this?” he asked.

“Because we need people we can trust with the truth,” Martinez said. “Last night wasn’t a freak accident or a terrorist attack. It was a rescue mission. Someone or something came to get our Traveler. And they used technology and skills far beyond anything we’ve seen.”

Jake remembered the strange sandstorm and the sudden failure of all electronics. “So what’s next?” he asked.

“Now, we prepare,” Martinez said firmly. “Whoever took our Traveler knows where we are and can get past our most secure defenses. This isn’t over, Sergeant. It’s just the beginning.”

Amidst the chaos, Jake pieced together what had happened. They had been holding the extraterrestrial Traveler for months. The scientists had been studying him, trying to understand his abilities using data gathered from the past prisoner.

The power outage disabled the force field containing the Traveler’s powers, resulting in the base being breached and the Traveler disappearing in the blackout chaos.

Jake, securing the base and assessing the damage, felt it was just the beginning of something bigger. His world had changed forever, and he was right in the middle of it.

In the days that followed, Jake learned about a whole new reality. Jake, one of the few soldiers who knew the truth about Area 51’s research, had the responsibility of protecting their remaining alien data.

Eventually, the base made adaptations and used improvised generators to power essential functions. The pulse had left lasting damage. The computers stopped working completely and all the data was lost. Research labs that once buzzed with activity were now silent, and manual locks and guards had replaced the base’s advanced security systems.

Jake worked hard, helping catalog and secure the physical files that now held all their alien research. Yet his mind constantly wandered, trying to comprehend all he had learned.

A week after the event, Jake sat alone on the barracks’ rooftop, staring at the starry desert sky. The vastness of space now seemed different, filled with wonder and danger.

“Quite a sight, isn’t it?” a voice behind him said. Jake turned to see Colonel Emerson approaching.

Jake stood up, but Emerson quickly motioned for him to sit back down. “At ease, Sergeant. We’ve moved past formalities, haven’t we?” Emerson said with a grin. “Captain Martinez tells me you’ve handled the revelations about our work here very well.”

Jake nodded slowly. “It’s a lot to take in, sir. I’m still processing it all.”

Emerson laughed softly. “I know. When I first took command of this base, I thought I was ready for anything. Turns out ‘anything’ can still catch you off guard.”

“What happens now?” Jake asked, a hint of uncertainty in his voice. “With everything we’ve lost...”

Emerson looked at him, the moonlight casting a glow on his face. “Sergeant, we adapt. We learn. We prepare. Because this was just the first move in a game we don’t fully understand yet.”

He stood up, brushing sand off his uniform. “Get some rest, Hawkins. We have a lot to rebuild. And this time, we’ll be ready for whatever comes next.”

Jake spent the next few days in strategy meetings and debriefings. The higher-ranking individuals desperately sought answers and future prevention. Despite replaying the events, Jake still felt they missed the bigger picture.

When the base finally regained power, they gave him the responsibility of reviewing all the surviving footage from the holding cell of the alien. While reviewing the surveillance footage from the holding cell for the hundredth time, Jake noticed something. His heart raced as he leaned in closer.

Just before the power outage, the Traveler had been watching television in his cell. He was laughing at an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. It was so human, Jake could hardly believe it. This alien being, whose abilities they barely understood, found joy in Earth’s simple pleasures.

Jake hurried to share his discovery with the team. It was a minor detail, but it was important. It showed that, despite their differences, the Traveler and humans had some common ground.

A few days later, Colonel Emerson called Jake to his office. Dark circles under the colonel’s eyes showed the sleepless nights since the breach.

“I need you to be honest with me, Hawkins,” Emerson said, his voice rough with exhaustion. “What do you think about all this?”

Jake paused, choosing his words carefully. “I think we’re approaching this the wrong way, sir. We’ve been so focused on the Traveler’s escape, we haven’t stopped to ask why he was here in the first place.”

Emerson leaned back in his chair, narrowing his eyes. “Go on.”

Feeling more confident, Jake continued, “We’ve treated the Traveler like a prisoner, a subject to study. But what if he’s something else? Maybe he was a messenger to make contact or warn us about something.”

Emerson tapped his fingers on the desk, deep in thought. Finally, he spoke. “You might be right, Hawkins. We’ve been so caught up in our own agenda that we missed the bigger picture.”

He stood and looked out the window at the starry desert night. “I’m putting together a new task force,” he said. “We need people who can see this from a fresh perspective. I want you on it.”

Jake felt a mix of excitement and nerves. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

As he left the colonel’s office, his mind raced. He had always suspected that Area 51 held secrets, but he never imagined he would be at the center of events that could change history.

The world changed that fateful March night. And as Jake sat under the vast, star-filled sky, he realized he had changed too. The universe surpassed his wildest imagination in its vastness, mystery, and danger. But as a soldier, he would be ready. He had a feeling that it wasn’t the end. No, something was just starting.