I grew up in Tuscany, in the wine country. Small village, maybe two hundred people, surrounded by vineyards. My family had a vineyard, nothing huge, but it had been in the family for generations. I moved to the States in 1985, but this happened before that, when I was still living there. This was late September, 1978. Harvest season, so the sun was setting early, around six-thirty. I was sixteen at the time, and my job was to walk the rows at the end of the day, make sure everything was secure, check for any problems. Usually took about an hour, maybe a bit more. That evening I remember the air was warm, that golden light you get in Tuscany in the fall. Beautiful evening. I was in no hurry, just taking my time, enjoying being outside.
I was maybe halfway through the vineyard when I heard this sound. Low humming, steady, coming from the far end of the property where the land slopes down toward the olive grove. I thought maybe it was a tractor, one of the neighbors working late. But the sound was wrong. Too smooth, too constant. Not the rough diesel sound of a tractor. I walked toward it, curious. The rows were high that year, the vines thick with leaves, so I couldn't see much. But as I got closer, the humming got louder. And I started to see light through the vines. Not sunset light, something else. Brighter, whiter. My camera was back at the house, I'd left it on my dresser. I pushed through to the end of the row and stopped. Just froze where I was standing.
There was a craft hovering maybe twenty feet off the ground. Cigar-shaped, metallic, maybe forty feet long and ten feet wide at the center. Smooth surface, no seams that I could see, just this perfect metallic hull catching the light. The humming was coming from it, this deep vibration I could feel in my chest. But what really got my attention were the two figures on the ground beneath it. They looked like robots. That's the only way I can describe them. Maybe six feet tall, humanoid shape, but clearly mechanical. Their bodies were segmented, like they had joints, but smooth. Metallic, same color as the craft. And they moved in this precise, deliberate way. Nothing wasted, every motion calculated.
[ Story continues in the full game... ]