The gap between attacks felt far too brief, but also unbearably long to Adrian as held his post on the right gun tower. For perhaps the dozenth time between the attacks, he checked the sites on the plasma rifle. The weapon had a polished black barrel and flat silver colored stock. The scope, unlike earth rifles, had no lenses. Instead it had a complicated sensory system, which when you looked through it not only gave you a visual of the field, but also could be adjusted to highlight targets along a variety of spectrums. Heat, electrochemical, nightvision, and a few others he wasn’t quite sure how to use. The recalibration and adjustment took only a minute. It was one more minute, he could try to take his mind off the attack.

He checked the energy gauge as well. Full. Sighing, he laid the weapon next to him. He’d acquired it from Blatta, the bug-like Croatht, after he’d gotten back from the last attack. Unfortunately for him, the hit and run tactics of the last few days hadn't given him a chance to gather any nyamisium cores or other alien body parts to trade for credits. Instead she’d ‘given him a deal’ where he’d buy the weapons and pay her back, with interest. A lot of interest.

Around him, the other fighters in the tower were checking and rechecking the weapons bristling from the emplacement. Occasionally, a few of them would talk to each other, while Adrian, on the other hand preferred to remain silent, looking for signs of the enemy. Not that it mattered much, the drones flying overhead would see the bugs advancing before his scope saw anything.

“All right guys,” The senior official spoke up, bringing all the fighters to a halt. “I just got word from HQ, the bugs are on the move. We’ve got 3 minutes before we have contact. It looks like our plan worked and we’ve got the whole swarm moving.” He looked at all of them, only pausing briefly on Adrian. “Remember” he told the crowd. “If you catch sight of Queen Komaxa of the Hive, you call it in. Let everyone know so we can welcome her properly.” He gave a wicked grin while stroking the wooden grip of the colt 45 revolver he wore as a side arm.

Adrian, and the others hadn’t seen the queen in person. She never showed when the hit and run would get close. Some even thought she wasn’t even with the horde of bugs. However, Alan believed she was not likely to stray too far away from her brood. And sure enough, a few of the drones were able to identify a very large and distinct bug, which had a number of smaller of the creatures deferring and circling around her, and would disappear under a swarm of bugs, whenever the hit and run squads appeared. Alan had been right.

Alan had suggested that by attacking and killing the queen, that it would likely disrupt the attacking bugs. Not to mention it would remove the entity that had declared war on the area. A pretty important insight.

Thinking back Alan was a pretty fundamental part of the overall tactics of the defense strategy. He’d been able to keep up with and offer solutions just as well as the experienced veteran, Bryan Jakes. Adrian, who had always thought that he’d been the more insightful and strategic of his group of friends--at least his undefeated record at Chess with Nick and Alan had lent himself to believe-- had to agree that the plan had been very well thought out.

“Contact.” Reported a neighbor positioned behind a reclaimed ship’s gun turret.

Raising his rifle, Adrian extended the scope to the maximum range. Taking in the site, his stomach tightened. He’d seen the drone images of the Hive, and had been part of the hit and run tactics, but he hadn’t seen the whole hoard all at once. Only briefly he saw the edges of it, always with the intention of running away. But before him he saw a wave of what felt like endless bugs, rushing toward their positions. They creeped, crawled, and leapt forward. Even from so far off, he felt the ravenous hunger which drove them forward. Along his spine he felt a tingling, as if bugs had crawled down his shirt. He shivered.

“All right guys, this isn’t a rehearsal. This is the real deal. Let’s show these bloated pustules the difference between men and maggots!” The senior official called out. “Open fire!”

The turrets and gun on Adrian’s tower opened up. On the hill across from him, they reigned down a full barrage onto the oncoming hoard. There was no holding back. Adrian barely had to aim in order for his shots to find a target. The towers targeted the outside edges of the hoard, driving them toward the makeshift wall. Adrian felt the sweat bead along his forehead from the ambient heat of the gunfire around him.

The tide of monsters drew closer and closer, unflinching despite the barrage. The line of fighters at the wall also opened fire, shooting at their longest effective range. They came within a hundred yards of the wall. Adrian held his breath longer than he needed when he took his next shot. A series of explosions ripped across the killing field, large plumes of flames sprang. Scores of bugs were flung into the air. Flame scorched and maimed, swaths of the bugs ran amok, disoriented by the fire and smoke. Great beetle-like monsters crashed and smashed into their smaller siblings, while sightless worms roiled and wreaths en masse.

For a moment, it seemed as if the charge had been halted. Until a series of high shrieks pierced the chaos of the battlefield. And as one, the tide turned and moved forward again. The charge was so frenzied, the monsters paid no heed to their injured, and trampled over them in their rush toward the line of humans.

The sweat came pouring down Adrian’s face, less so from the heat of battle and more from the anxiety of the oncoming wave. Explosions continued to rock the oncoming horde, creating great waves of flames. Instead of diverting around burning walls, the bugs would throw themselves through the flames, blindly driven toward their goal. Flaming bugs, like comets, charged the front line, smashing and exploding into the flimsy wall. Luckily, the attack on the wall was uneven. But as time passed more bugs drew closer and closer.

Chancing a glance to look below, some of the bugs diverted and started to climb up the hill. The senior official called out to the men, “Looks like they're going to try and overrun our position. Prep counter measures!” The men on the turrets continued to fire their constant barrage, while Adrian and a few others, reached down to gather various bottles, emptied at the canteen, and filled with gasoline and a soaked half torn rag. Molotov cocktails. He lit a pair of the bottles and flung them toward the climbing bugs. The bottles smashed and released a spray of flames across the hill. Below him, a black smoke rose up filled with the scent of gasoline and cooked flesh.

Adrian cursed, as the smoke limited his field of vision, and he fingered a set of three grenades that he’d acquired prior to the battle, reminding himself to hold them in reserve.

“They’ve just given the order to the front wall to pull back. All available units cover their retreat.” The rough voice of the officer called out. Adrian changed his sights to where he hoped to see the retreating men. A slight breeze allowed him some vision on the men running for the buildings flanking either side of the main road. His rifle pulsed, taking down a bug that was about to overtake a retreating fighter. He continued to fire, all the while he began to hear the shrieks and clawing metal, the monsters had reached the bottom of his tower. He had to trust others, to hold them off, as he succeeded in helping another defender reach the relative safety of the large buildings.

In his sights he caught a glimpse of Alan, the final defender to leave the wall and move back toward the buildings. Alan had released a great arc of energy, killing over a dozen of the bugs. Adrian lined up his own shots to cover him, firing round after round, and in his mind urging his friend to safety. The bugs were surrounding him quickly though and it didn’t look good. He was about to take his 3rd shot, when a razor edged claw reached up and nearly pierced his hand.

Pedaling backward, Adrian saw a half-a-dozen bugs the size of a large cat crawl over the balcony of the tower, the 3 sets of legs, each ending in razor protrusions. He judged from the shouts and curses around him that the other defenders had started to encounter the same thing. Adrian tried to line up the shots, but his long plasma rifle was unwieldy in the tight quarters. He kept stepping back until he ran into the solid frame of the officer, who had his colt 45 revolver drawn and level.

“Get back son” His pistol fired, 6 shots finding 6 targets. “We’re getting overrun, everyone fall back!”

The 15 defenders occupying the crowded tower rushed toward the ladder to the lower level. Most just sliding down the rails and to the rear door. Adrian switched his plasma rife to his AR-15 and stood beside the officer, shooting at the small bugs. A line of bullets cut across a man-sized centipede which had crawled through one of the openings. The smaller cat-sized bugs jumped inside, advancing toward them. Adrian heard a grunt, and turned to see the officer with a bug on his chest, it’s six legs embedded in his torso. Adrian looked into his eyes, there seemed to be something he wanted to say, instead he merely smiled through red stained teeth . He raised his fist, held in his hand was a grenade.

Sensing his purpose Adrian didn’t hesitate, he lept toward the ladder, moving quickly between rungs. He jumped to the floor. A few seconds later a loud bang sounded above him, shaking the entire structure. Turning to run, Adrian discovered that he’d jumped out of the frying pan, and into the fire. At the base of the tower the defenders had been halted and were fighting for their lives to stop the surrounding horde from overwhelming them.

Adrian quickly grasped the situation, and charged forward, unleashing a full magazine toward a thin area of the surrounding bugs. “Follow me.” He cried. Behind him, the other defenders followed, seeing no other alternative to being overwhelmed. The group nearly tumbled down the hill toward the research facility building. Adrian led the way rapidly firing his rifle.

Near the base of the hill, he glanced behind him, only to see that only 7 of his fellow defenders had made it down the hill. He didn’t hesitate, but continued to sprint toward the research facility and a side door. Looking upward, he saw defenders in the windows on the second level of the research facility cheering him on, their gunflike shouts of encouragement, covering his groups retreat. To his left, more explosions rocked in the roadway between the canteen and the research facility.

Adrian didn’t have time to think before he plunged through a quickly opened doorway. Looking behind him he saw that only 4 others had been able to make the final sprint from the bottom of the hill to the facility. He took a minute to catch his breath, the sound of his heartbeat pounding in his ears.

Panting heavily, he felt the rush of adrenaline slowly leave. When he looked around, he saw the rush of defenders moving quickly from one area to another. Calling out orders, carrying wounded, but on each of their faces a firm determination to complete the task before them.

Adrian wanted to rest, but the fighting, as fierce as it was, had probably just started in earnest. The plan had never been to hold them at the wall or towers. They were too difficult to defend. It had been to lure the hoard between the two buildings. The large metal structures would be difficult for the bugs to get through, and instead it would create a killing field, a ‘roach motel’ where bugs would enter, but couldn’t leave.

Adrian began to look for the stairs, figuring his gun would be best served at the higher levels. He reached the second level. The command area for the building.

Around him he heard the calls of men giving reports and orders.

“We’ve got climbers!”

“Get those fires lit outside the buildings, we can risk too many of them trying to climb up the sides!”

“Has anyone spotted the queen?”

“I need more molotovs on the north side”

“Get the wounded to the central rooms!”

“We’re running low on energy reserves on the north east turret!”

“Keep it up, they can’t get through the walls.”

Their voices tried to shout over the background of screaming bugs, explosions and gunfire. Moving toward a window, the killing field below was a mass of blood, fire and corpses.

Thousands of bugs, piled in flaming pits outside the wall and littering the crater filled street. More and more continued forward, like a flood, trampling their brood mates and fallen defenders. Just up the street he saw a bright flash, and a beam of green light cut across the length of the killing field. Cutting scores upon scores in a matter of seconds. Adrian recognized it as the mining laser, which had been developed by Alan’s father. The beam which had been developed to cut through a hundred feet of stone, easily sliced through the rows of bug carapaces.

Adrian smiled for a moment. The burning bodies reminded him of when Nick had found his grandmother's magnifying glass and decided to attack the local ant hill. In that case, it resulted in his friend going home crying, after receiving a dozen bug bits from the angry ants. Adrian hoped that today's outcome would be different.

From behind him, Adrian heard a voice calling him back to reality saying, “We’ve got radio contact from an unknown force coming from the west. I think it’s the reinforcement Alan mentioned!”

A cheer went up from the defenders.

“Well, speak of the devil…” Adrian couldn’t help but mutter under his breath. We might just be able to pull this off.

Suddenly, a scream was heard from the stairwell Adrian had just walked up from. He rushed over to see what was happening. His heart sank. Near the bottom of the stairs, a large mound of earth pressed upward through the flooring. The maw of a large worm with razor teeth had punched itself through, pushing aside large plates and somehow gnawing through the foundation. It soon pulled back, leaving a large round hole. Only the chittering sounds coming from the cavern gave any hint to the oncoming attack.

Without thinking, Adrian removed one of his precious grenades and lobbed it in the hole. 3 seconds later a bug came halfway out of the hole, only to be blown clear out, as the grenade detonated and collapsed the tunnel.

When he stepped to the bottom of the stair to inspect his work, Adrian began to hear screaming from other parts of the lower floor. This was clearly not the hole that had found its way through the supposedly impenetrable steel walls. Reloading his weapons he prepared himself for the next wave.