May 9th, 2277 Dark Space

Lieutenant Khatri sat with a dazed expression on his face as the Agra hurdled through Dark Space away from New Kolkata. His shame threatened to overwhelm him. He had been prepared to die with the rest of his taskforce defending the colony from the Ivos, but his CO, Commander Walker, had given him an order. In the chaos of the brief battle in orbit of New Kolkata, the outnumbered and outmatched human forces had barely lasted half an hour. Commander Walker's task force, held in reserve, had managed to survive the initial slaughter.

Retreat wouldn't be possible, not for all of her ships. So, Walker had made her decision. she led the rest of the task force in a rearguard maneuver, in an attempt to allow the Agra, chosen at random, to escape. So now Khatri sat in his command chair on the tiny CIC of the Agra, hating himself for surviving. Only the importance of his task kept him together. He had to warn the Space Force relief task force that was likely on its way to New Kolkata. Lieutenant Khatri had joined the Indian Space Guard because he failed the entrance exam to the United Nations Space Force Academy. Here he was, a mediocre washout commanding a backwater posting, and yet he was the one who got to live.

He swallowed and stared at the wall.

---

May 13th, 2277 United Nations Space Force HQ Gettysburg

Fleet Admiral Joachim Moser sat in his chair in the Flag Deck of the Hachiman, going over the reports from his subordinates. He still had only 60% of the ships he wanted mobilized. Humanity had mobilized a task force to respond to a potential Ivo threat, although most had seen it as little more than a precaution, spurred on by the more paranoid among the Human leadership, particularly Moser, the Supreme Commander of the Space Force. Moser's seemingly paranoid hunch had ended up being right on the money. He'd gained significant political capital, but he was rapidly spending it all in his insistence on delaying the counter-attack. The rapid-response task force that Moser had drawn up in preparation for this conflict was being deployed to defensive positions, rather than taking the fight to the enemy.

Many factions in the UN bureaucracy were demanding that Moser take action, and order some kind of offensive action. Under normal circumstances, against a normal foe, Moser would have undoubtedly agreed. But he'd seen the footage Lieutenant Khatri had brought back from the "battle" over New Kolkata. Moser had gone over that footage for hours, and he had become convinced of one thing: humanity was totally outmatched on the tactical level. The significant technological gap between the two species had to be countered, and the only way to counter a tech gap was with overwhelming numbers, and even then that was hardly a sure thing, as the Aztecs had learned in their fight against Cortez.

Moser looked at his inbox and sighed. It was almost all messages from various UN bureaucrats demanding updates on the situation that they could pass onto their respective governments. Worse, some of them were messages demanding he take offensive action. There were many factions that were calling for this, some were from the unapologetic xenophobes who relished every opportunity for humanity to one-up the dirty aliens. Others were just good old fashioned war hawks, champing at the bit to get into the first proper war since the Diln conflict. The most prominent voice calling for offensive operations was the Indian government. The recently elected administration were hard line nationalists, committed to increasing India's prestige and influence on the Interstellar Council. Sitting on their hands while Indian citizens were brutalized by alien invaders was not good optics.

According to emergency courier drones from New Kolkata, the Indian Army and elements of the UN Ranger corps were embattled with Ivo ground forces on the planet's surface. The drones had launched at the start of the invasion of the planet, and reconnaissance drones sent by Moser recently showed the bulk of the Ivo fleet was still parked in orbit around New Kolkata, which meant that the ground battle had been going on for at least four days. The whole invasion had only begun a week ago, and yet Moser was already wishing he could go back to the Diln war. A simpler time, when the young Commander Moser was only responsible for a single ship, and the hard decisions could be left up to someone else.

The Council had howled incredulously at his insistence on gathering together every ship in the Space Force. Except for a few crucial pickets on the border with the Diln-who were, mercifully, too busy with a ruthless civil war to bother with invading human space-Moser had recalled every ship in the fleet into orbit over Gettysburg Base. The tiny moon, donated by the US to the Space Force during the Diln wars, was the HQ of the Space Force. Mobilization of that scale took time, however, and while the gallant defenders of New Kolkata had bought the human race precious days, the fleet still wasn't fully assembled. Admiral Moser had no way of giving orders to the troops on the ground. He could only hope that the strategic importance of their continued resistance would be understood by the officers in command. He just needed time, time to gather a force large enough to win this war before it could truly begin.

---

May 13th, 2277 Surface of New Kolkata Colony

Senior Ranger Albert Newman sat leaning against the wall of the Indian Army bunker his unit had been hastily stuffed into for some much needed rest. He sat next to his friend, Senior Ranger Lucy Walsh. His unit made up the ranger complement for the Czar, the fallen flagship of the ragtag fleet that had fought so bravely and so briefly in orbit over New Kolkata. Walsh had been a fairly recent transfer to the Czar, and she and Newman had been fast friends. Being an American and an Irishwoman, respectively, the two shared a common tongue.

Other than the occasional video message to friends and family back home, Albert had rarely gotten the chance to hold a conversation in English since he joined the rangers, so the opportunity to chat in his native tongue had given him some incentive to seek out a friendship with the woman. The fact that she was quite an attractive woman might have also influenced him. The various ranger contingents from the ships in the fleet had been organized into a makeshift battalion and sent down to provide some reinforcements to the Indian military garrison below. They'd started out with over 300 rangers, and now they were down to barely one hundred.

Albert had barely slept since the start of the invasion and was feeling ready for his much needed third nap of the day when he heard his squad leader's familiar voice. "Al, boss needs you.", Sergeant Lam called out. Albert sat up and turned his attention to the Sergeant. "What's up?" he said.

"The Colonel's trying to coordinate with the local garrison commander, but the guy doesn't speak Standard. He needs you to come over and play translator."

It wasn't that surprising. India had been slower to adopt Standard than much of the rest of the world. English was still the preferred second language for most in the country, despite its declining usefulness.

"Why don't you send Walsh?"

"Because he's gonna have an easier time understanding you than me. He probably grew up watching American vids like everyone else. Not much of an international audience for Irish vids." Lucy was still leaning against the wall, and didn't even bother to open her eyes as she spoke.

Albert didn't have a counter argument, so he followed the Sergeant. They came into the offices of the barracks, where his CO, Lieutenant Colonel Ozola, was chatting with a short and wiry looking Indian officer. The Lieutenant Colonel turned to Al with a tired smile. He had always been a big, powerful looking man, but he looked drained of life now. "Hello, Senior Ranger. General Thevar and I have been trying to coordinate an operation, but his Standard isn't up to the task. He says his English is better, so unless you think he can speak Latvian I'm gonna need you to translate for us."

Al nodded and moved to stand between the two men. General Thevar started talking first. His accent was thick, but he seemed to have an otherwise solid grasp of the language.

"Colonel, I just don't think we have enough men for this operation to succeed. Yet, I feel we have no choice."

"General, we are out of options. The bunkers in the capital are running out of air, we have confirmed this, but no one can flee to one of the undamaged domes or to any of the military shelters because the Ivo aircraft from this damned base own the skies. We're going to see God knows how many people suffocate to death if we don't put the damn gunships out of commission."

The Capital City (and only city) of New Kolkata, creatively named New Kolkata City, had been the site of the earliest and fiercest fighting. The city was made up of a series of interconnected sealed environment domes, with separate domes for living space, agriculture, industry, government, and leisure. The Ivos had annihilated the industrial, government, and agricultural domes with kinetic strikes from orbit. Then they had sent in landing craft, filled to the brim with troops, armor, and air support to secure the city. Al shuddered at the memory of the brutal street fighting that had claimed the lives of most of the UN Rangers on the planet. The behavior of the Ivos puzzled him. What possible purpose could there have had in taking the colony by force if they were going to destroy all of the useful industries and infrastructure from orbit? Why not just glass the whole colony? They certainly weren't averse to civilian casualties, although they seemed to prefer to capture civilians rather than simply leave them be or execute them. For what purpose, no one knew.

General Thevar continued to express his concerns, "We are taking a great risk by doing this. If it goes wrong, and we take serious losses, then we will not be able to hold out for long. The Ivos discovered one of the shelters yesterday. It took them almost a full day to clear it, but that's because I had a full company of infantry guarding it, in addition to dozens of volunteer militia. They're all dead now, along withtwo thirds of the civilians. If I draw troops from the shelters, and they die, then our capacity to resist decreases dramatically. Every hour the Ivos spend rooting us out of our hiding places is another hour for the UN to arrive. The relief force may arrive to find that they have no one left to relieve if I don't have enough soldiers left to resist."

Colonel Ozola sighed at that, "I don't disagree with any of your points commander, but, as you said earlier, we have no choice. It won't matter how long we hold out if most of the population is dead."

General Thevar sighed as well, "I must, reluctantly, agree. ...The decision is made. We have the 'why' now let's figure out the 'how'."

---

March 14th, 2277, Surface of New Kolkata

"This is insanity! What in God's name are we doing going on the offensive!"

Rangers were the elite soldiers of humanity, but they were no less prone to the incessant bitching that had been the tradition of the infantry for as long as infantry had existed. Lucy's voice was but one of many complaining as the remaining able-bodied rangers made their way through the network of tunnels that connected the various military bunkers of New Kolkata on the way to their target.

Al sighed, "You were at the briefing. We need to trash this airbase before all the civvies run out of oh-two. Just be glad you're not one of the Indians. Poor fuckers have to launch a full frontal assault on a prepared Ivo position."

Lucy gave a wince of sympathy there. Win or lose, the Indian Army was going to be taking grievous casualties this day. Al had his mag rifle slung over his shoulder. It was a brutally powerful automatic weapon, and it's magnetically propelled slugs had proven to be quite effective against the Ivo heavy infantry that he had faced in the battle in New Kolkata City-if you poured enough rounds on them, at least. Like all the other rangers, however, he had run through all of his ammunition very quickly, and found himself trying to use his backup laser carbine against Ivos in full armor. It was not much use, and needless to say he had been very relieved to stock up on ammo once the rangers had successfully retreated to the Indian Army's Bunker complex. Al checked his equipment for the umpteenth time, checking all of his magazines and battery packs, and putting his hand on his laser carbine in its holster on his hip. He was well armed, but he still felt under-equipped in the face of the horrifying threat he was forced to stand against.

Al kept walking, and found himself checking his equipment again a dozen steps later.

---

The rangers came upon the exit they were looking for, and Al checked the seals on his battle armor again. He didn't really need them, as the air pressure on New Kolkata was in the safe zone for humans, but it was uncomfortably cold on the surface, and his armor's environmental systems would keep him nice and toasty. The rangers exited the bunker complex, and were greeted by pitch blackness. New Kolkata had no moon or satellites of any kind, so the nights were in complete darkness. The ranger's helmet's were full face helmets, designed with two eye slits rather than the more common "open" helmet that civilian astronauts used, as the full face helm provided greater protection. The eyes of the helmets could see in Night Vision and Infrared. Night Vision was considerably less effective with only the starlight to use, so the ranger's all set their helmets to Infrared.

Lieutenant Colonel Ozola called out over the ranger's comms. "Alright people, gather around me."

The rangers did as they were ordered, and they sat listening intently as Ozola spoke.

"We all know why we're here." He said, placing a small box shaped object on the ground. "We have our mission, and we have the ordinance to complete it. The Indians will begin their diversionary attack in an hour, and, when they do, we will push into the Ivo base from the rear, and prime this device right in the heart of their base. Then, we link up with the Indians, and we all get the fuck out of here on their dropships before this thing goes off. For our fallen comrades, and for the people of this world, the human beings we've sworn to protect, we will accomplish this mission. Am I clear?"

Every ranger gave a clear and resounding "Aye Sir!" to the Colonel. He might have smiled under his helmet, "Then go sit down and relax a bit. We've still got an hour until the diversionary attack begins.

Al eyed the device at Ozola's feet. Most of the surface to orbit defenses had been destroyed in the initial bombardment, but one missile silo had managed to weather the storm, and two of the missiles had been stripped of their warheads and cobbled together into this makeshift bunker buster. The warheads were plasma, not proper nukes, but just one of them was more than enough to incinerate the forward base. The device used two warheads for redundancy, not the extra firepower. It would be a tragedy if hundreds of troops died to get the bomb into the base only for it to end up being a dud. Al went to find Lucy, which was something of a challenge with everyone's face covered. The helmet kept track of everyone's visual profile and gave them an ID tag in the user's HUD for exactly this reason.

Al saw her laying on the ground with some other rangers. She looked over at him. She might have smiled, but Al obviously couldn't tell with everyone wearing their helmets. He laid down next to her, and propped his head up in his hands. The two were usually quite chatty, but they hadn't done a lot of talking since the battle in the city. Al didn't know who stopped talking first, but he had found himself enjoying it. Sitting and just...existing in the company of someone you care for was soothing. Even if he had wanted to talk, there was no way he could form the words necessary to express the terror and loss that had gripped him since the Ivo invasion first started. This time he felt different, however. He wasn't confident that he, or anyone, was going to survive this operation. He turned his head to her, wanting to say something, anything, but words failed him. He looked closely at her, and he could swear she was trembling, though it was hard to tell in armor. Al reached over and took her hand. She didn't move or say anything. She just squeezed his hand.

---

It was thirty seconds to the scheduled beginning of the operation. It was still hours until there would be any daylight, but that was part of the plan. The rangers all sat looking to the northwest, where the Indian Army was supposed to be coming from. General Thevar had scraped together two full infantry battalions, and every fighting vehicle and attack aircraft at his disposal. The aircraft couldn't be brought up until the defensive laser batteries were brought down, which was the first objective of the ranger's attack. All of the rangers waited in anticipation, until they heard an incredibly loud sound, and they watched as a barrage of missles came down upon the base. Evidently, General Thevar had managed to find some self-propelled missile artillery. The missiles came down upon the base in a storm.

A strange, alien piercing sound echoed throughout the valley. Some kind of Ivo alarm. Defensive lasers worked to shoot down the incoming missiles. Then the Indian troops rushed in. Armored troop carriers, trucks, IFVs, self-propelled guns, and tanks came storming over the crest of a hill to the northwest. At the same moment, the rangers all sprinted up from the south towards the Ivo base. This was one of the most crucial stages of the operation. If they didn't get close enough to the base in time, then the Ivos could just annihilate them from orbit. If they made it close enough that an orbital bombardment would risk damaging the base, then the first stage of the operation would be successful. Al was breathing hard, out of fear as much as exertion, The laser batteries would only be distracted by the missiles for a few more seconds, then they would turn their sights on the attacking troops. There were a few Ivo guards on the wall, and they opened fire on the rangers.

Ivos looked vaguely human from a distance, but they were...wrong. The way they moved was alien. They had a strange, deliberate gait when they walked on their three legs. Because they weren't "legs" at all. Up close, Ivos looked more like squid who had figured out how to walk on the land. They had fifteen tentacles, organized in sets of three. They could manipulate each tentacle individually, or they could coil them together, and have them act as a single, stronger, limb. They had two "arms" and three "legs" in this method, with the tips of the tentacles on their "arms" being smaller and capable of incredible precision, serving a similar role to fingers, and the tips on the "legs" being larger and stronger so as to serve as sturdy "feet".

The Ivos fired their weapons. The humans had figured out that the Ivos used lasers on the invisible spectrum for their weapons. However, they somehow managed to avoid the usual problem that invisible lasers had, which was that they could be easily obstructed by dust, mist, or other debris. The weapons themselves were alien in shape to humans, but they were quite ergonomic for an Ivo. They had the shape of a long, stretched out letter Y, with a hole at its intersection. It was designed to be held by the three tentacles of one of an Ivo's "arms", with two of the tentacles wrapping around the prongs of the Y, and the the third looping through the hole, which apparently served as some kind of trigger, not that any human had been able to figure out how to fire one of the weapons. The Ivos appeared to be strong enough to fire the weapon "one-handed" although they seemed to prefer to use their other appendage to stabilize the weapon.

And what a weapon it was. Al watched a ranger collapse dead in front of him. Laser wounds were always a gory sight to behold, with the blood reacting explosively to the contact with the laser. His vitals flashed KIA before his body even hit the ground, so no one paused to aid him, which probably prevented a second death from occurring. Ranger armor was meant to stop kinetic projectiles first and foremost, but it also had a laser-resistant coating that was more than enough to stop the lower-wattage small arms lasers that the Diln and other humans used. Ivo small arms appeared to have as much energy as a human crew-served laser, and ranger armor wasn't rated to stop lasers of that high a wattage. Al kept his eyes on the base's entrance. He slammed into the defensive wall, trying to take cover by leaning against it.

A demo team ran up to the gate and placed charges on it. They blew the gate open, and the rangers rushed inside. The one hundred or so rangers had been organized into three platoons of a little over thirty rangers. Each platoon had a specific mission. Third Platoon, under Captain Choi, broke off from the man group first. Their mission was to take out the defensive laser batteries so that General Thevar could bring in air support. Second Platoon, under Major Odhiambo, broke off next, heading for the hangar area. They had been given most of the heavy weapons, and had been ordered to prevent the Ivo aircraft from taking off by any means necessary. First Platoon, under Lieutenant Colonel Ozola himself, was to continue pushing for the central hub of the base, which had been determined to be the best placement for the charge.

Al and Lucy were in First Platoon. They'd stayed close together in the initial charge towards the gate, and they jogged side by side with the rest of the platoon now. He got occasional radio chatter from the Indian Army troopers, who had launched a frontal assault on the base. They had brought over two battalions of infantry with them, sneaking them and all of their heavy equipment through the underground tunnel network to bring it within striking range of the base. If the radio chatter was to be believed, they had blown apart the front gates with their heavy guns, and now infantry were pouring into the base, supported by armor. The distraction seemed to be working, as the bulk of the Ivo garrison was apparently mobilizing to stop them, rather than the rangers.

They hadn't all died in a horrible explosion yet, so clearly the ploy had worked, and the Ivos weren't willing to bomb their own base. First Platoon moved up rapidly through the central road of the base. They came under fire from a light laser emplacement. Everyone dove for cover, although one unlucky ranger got hit through the abdomen, the explosive reaction of his blood turning most of his torso into a red mist. Automated lasers didn't miss their first shot. Ivo heavy lasers appeared to be many orders of magnitude more powerful than human heavy lasers, just like their infantry lasers.

Colonel Ozola growled an order, "Tuhana, Kent, get a rocket on that thing! Everyone else, covering fire!" The accuracy and speed of automated lasers was a horrible thing. Against a living target, the covering fire would have been effective, as the organism would be to distracted by the incoming fire to return fire accurately in most cases. Against an AI, especially a laser equipped AI, it was a death sentence. The machine would never flinch, and it would get at least one shot off before the rocket killed it. At least one ranger would have to die to eliminate this threat. All anyone could do was hope it wasn't them.

There was no thought of disobeying the order. These were rangers.

The rangers all popped out of cover, and laid down automatic fire. The machine had been waiting for this moment, but it held its fire. It wasn't the time yet. A split second later, two more rangers popped out from behind cover, within a fraction of a second it had its shot lined up, and one of the two rocket wielding rangers was hit by its laser, her rocket never being fired. Machines cannot be frantic, but one might have described the turret's attempt to rapidly turn itself to hit the other rocket wielding ranger as such. It wasn't enough. The rocket was away, and before it could even hit its target every ranger had dove back behind cover. The rocket struck home and the machine was blown to pieces.

Ozola wasted no time, "Tuhana's vitals are still there. Newman! Stay with her and administer aid. Everyone else, on me!" He charged off, with everyone else, including Lucy, in tow. Al didn't know why the Colonel had picked him, but he followed orders nonetheless. Tuhana's entire arm had been blown off. Ranger armor was designed to automatically tighten around the area of a wound as a sort of tourniquet, but her entire shoulder had been blown off, and the system wasn't effective. She would bleed out if Al wasn't fast enough. Al dug through his pack, and pulled out the healing pad he was looking for. He pressed it against Tuhana's wound, and the pad warped and stretched to cover the wound, keeping on enough pressure to stem the bleeding. Al pulled out disinfectant and pain killer pods, and pressed them against the pad, which absorbed them into itself and injected the medicine into the wound.

Tuhana moaned in pain, but she didn't seem to be fully conscious, which was probably a mercy. Carter, the poor ranger who had been damn near bisected by the laser emplacement, had died before he hit the ground. Al pulled Tuhana behind cover with him, leaving Carter where he lay. Al sat, leaning against the cover, and let the pad do its work on Tuhana. He listened to the radio chatter. The Indians were getting hammered, but they were still keeping most of the Ivos tied down. Of the other two platoons, second platoon seemed to be having greater luck. Major Odhiambo's voice was deep, resonating over the comm network. "We've taken out at least one VTOL type aircraft that attempted to take off. Several rockets were necessary to get through that armor. We've got the crew-served lasers and HMGs keeping what we believe to be the aircrews and pilots pinned down. The skies should be secure for at least a few more minutes."

Third Platoon was less successful. Captain Choi had a very soft, feminine voice. Her troops always had a laugh at the contrast between her voice and her gruff, no-nonsense demeanor. That voice was strained over the comms now, bordering on frantic.

"We are pinned by at least two of the laser batteries, multiple casualties-make that one battery. Move up!" The sounds of gunfire and screams echoed over the comm. "Western AA is clear. All friendly aircraft are clear for gun run. Send in drones for the laser emplacements first, then follow up with that CAS!"

The aircraft didn't need to be told twice. The drone jets came in first. They were mainly designed for air superiority, with their ground attack capabilities limited, but they still were able to take out most of the remaining laser emplacements, though not without casualties. The human-piloted VTOL gunship-jets came next. Two of them came. They soared into the airspace in their jet mode. Their powerful main guns shredded the remaining laser emplacements, their armor protecting them from counter fire. They went in for another pass, this time on the Ivo troops engaging the Indian Army Troopers. Anything that hadn't taken cover was shredded by the heavy depleted uranium rounds.

Al watched in awe, and might've given a whoop of joy if he hadn't at that exact moment watched half a dozen Ivo aircraft takeoff. "This is Lieutenant Anderson! Major-" The sounds of gunfire came over the comm as he paused. "Major Odhiambo is dead, huge wave of Ivo reinforcements came to the hangar. At least six Ivo birds in the air, with more on the way!"

Ozola's voice cut in, "Get you and your rangers out of there, Lieutenant. General Thevar," the General had eventually located a translator among his men who knew Standard, "bring in every bird you've got to give us what cover they can. Then call in your drop ships and get everyone the fuck out of here. First Platoon will be joining you, but the detonator's fucked. I'm gonna stay behind and detonate it manually. Just tell me when everyone's clear."

A dozen voices cut in to protest.

Ozola cut them all off, "SHUT THE HELL UP! Everyone is going to get their dumb asses out of hear, and I'm not gonna hear anymore about it, clear? General Thevar, leave the armor behind. Orbiting ships have got to have this whole area dialed in by now, only the drop ships will be fast enough to get everyone out alive. I'll stay here and detonate the bomb."

There was a small silence, and then Thevar said in Standard, "...Good luck Colonel."

Then, to Al's horror, Lucy's voice cut in. "Th-...there's no way in hell we're letting you stay behind by yourself, sir! There's gotta be a whole bloody Ivo battalion bearing down on this position right now. You can't hold out long enough on your own, and that isn't me being sentimental, that's me putting the mission first...sir!"

There was what seemed like an eternity of silence, before Ozola sighed. "...Alright."

He went into a private platoon comm network then. "...This is strictly volunteer, do you hear me? No one's being ordered to stay behind, you hear? If you wanna make your way back to the evac zone, do it right now, and don't look back. None of use will judge you." There was nothing but silence in reply. Ozola sighed again, "...Figures. Well alright then, everyone who's still got a pulse, take up a defensive position."

Suddenly he remembered. "Oh fuck-Newman! I know you, and I know your dumb ass is gonna wanna come play Alamo with the rest of us. It's not happening. You don't get to leave Tuhana to die so you can feel good about yourself. Get her to the evac zone, and get your asses out of here, that's an order." Lucy cut in then, "And don't you dare think of bringing your dumb arse back here once you've got Tuhana on board, do you hear me? I fucking know you."

Al might have smiled if it weren't for all of the anguish and shame smothering him. That was exactly what he was planning to do. He didn't try to stop the tears. His helmet's designers had anticipated tears, and Al's vision wasn't obstructed for long as the helmet cleared them away. He was tempted to disobey orders. He looked down at Tuhana. She was young. Only a few months out of the ranger academy, no doubt about it. She would die, if he went back to the others. He looked at her barely conscious face, a grimace of pain on it. He couldn't leave her to die, just like he would be leaving the others to die. He picked her up-she was small by the standards of rangers(although not by the standards of women). He jogged his way over to the evac zone, and heard Indian planes shrieking overhead as they dueled with the Ivos desperately to give the drop ships time to escape.

He found more than a dozen drop ships hovering near the front gate, filled to the brim with survivors. Al went up the ramp and set Tuhana down, and then collapsed next to her.

"Why didn't we bring the troops in with these?" he asked no one in particular.

One of the Indian soldiers looked at him. His helmet had a "ski-goggles" type of visor, like all of the other Indian troops, which meant his eyes were still mostly visible. They seemed like very tired eyes to Al. The soldier said simply, "There wasn't enough room to bring everyone in, only enough room to bring everyone left over out."

Al heard those words and closed his eyes.

---

Lucy Walsh thought the Ivos must surely be able to hear the pounding of her heart from where they were. She could hear them, that was for sure. Their strange gait produced a very...odd sound when they jogged. She could hear their footsteps. Well, "foot" steps.

Lucy was lying on a table, her mag rifle pointed put a crack in the wall. The remnants of First Platoon were all taking cover in the central building of the base. It appeared to be the Ivo equivalent of an administrative buildin-an office building, really. The furniture was all completely alien in design, to the point where Lucy could only guess at its purpose. The "table" she was lying on now was certainly convenient for her purposes. Even for a woman she was unusually short and light. How a 50 kilo woman who barely met the minimum height requirement had met the extremely strict physical standards of the United Nations Rangers was a mystery that had been the subject of many rumors in her unit, rumors she may or may not have encouraged for fun. Her size gave her some advantages, however, like being able to fire from a prone position on a table that was to small for her fellow rangers. Or being a smaller target. No one would ever have difficulties carrying her wounded self to safety, either.

The Ivo footsteps grew louder and more numerous. New Kolkata's distant sun was rising, and the rangers all began to turn off their infrared vision. Lucy tried to think of home, of her family, of Al. She wished she'd been able to spend more time with Al. She'd quite liked him. The footsteps grew louder and louder, and the Ivos came into view. Lucy wasted no time, she opened up with automatic fire on the first Ivo she saw, the rest of the platoon doing the same. Ivo body armor was tough, highly resistant to both kinetics and lasers. But there was no problem Lucy had ever encountered that couldn't be solved by a generous application of ordinance.

She emptied a third of her magazine into the Ivo, and watched the flailing tentacles. Even in death, the tentacles of an Ivo would still flail around for a while. It wasn't a pleasant sight. Two of her platoon-mates launched rockets at some Ivos who had grouped nice and close together. Even fancy Ivo body armor wasn't much good against HE rockets. The platoon had no other heavy weapons, as the goal had been for them to rapidly insert the bomb and then get the hell out. That tactic had ended up biting them in the ass when this turned into a...

Go on and say it girl. Lucy thought. A suicide mission. You're gonna bloody die you dumb bitch.

So don't go quiet.

The firefight went on for several minutes, with the rangers lobbing all of their hand grenades and launcher grenades at the Ivos' postions. Lucy was forced to change positions when the Ivos started landing hits close enough to singe her hair (if she hadn't been wearing a helmet). To her dismay, the rest of the platoon-the ones that were still alive anyway-had all been forced to fall back into the building as well. They took up ambush positions in various rooms. Ozola was dead, Lucy was told. And the old coot had wanted to hold out on his own. The old sentimental bastard.

Some of the rangers had switched to their laser carbine backups, pulling them out of the holster and unfolding the stock, which was meant only to steady the users aim, as their was no recoil to compensate for. Lucy discovered that she only had half of a magazine's worth of slugs left for her mag rifle. The rangers were mostly on the second floor of the building, with the rangers guarding the bomb heading up to hide on the roof. Lucy took up a position at the top of the stairs-or whatever they were supposed to be-and emptied the rest of her magazine into the lead Ivo coming up the stairs. She pulled out her carbine, and retreated towards the roof with some others. Those rangers who still had slugs left to shoot unloaded on the Ivos coming up the stairs, though the humans began to fall one by one. Lucy took cover and fired half a dozen shots at an oncoming Ivo.

Human laser weapons fired green light, but they fired in two stages for safety. The first stage was a smaller, weaker laser meant to trigger the human blinking reflex, as any laser powerful enough to kill someone was powerful enough to blind anyone looking directly at it-even on the horizon. The second was a powerful gleam of green light. Anyone without eye protection would never see it, as they'd have their eyes closed. The beams had minimal effect on the Ivo's armor, so Lucy got creative. She switched to continuous fire and aimed for the less protected limbs. She watched as the laser severed all three tentacles of the Ivo's left "arm". For the first time, she heard a sound from an Ivo, as it screeched in what was presumably agony. It was an otherworldly, echoing sound. Lucy hesitated for just a moment as she heard it, then she bolted up the stairs to the roof. There were only five rangers left.

Lucy and the others took cover behind what appeared to be some kind of ventilation pipe, with the bomb right behind them. Ivos came through the narrow doorway onto the roof and into the impromptu kill zone. Alone the laser carbines weren't that effective, but with five United Nations Rangers pouring disciplined fire on the Ivos, they were forced to pause. Then something sailed through the window. Lucy's mind immediately shouted grenade and she dove behind cover. She'd never actually seen an Ivo use a grenade, so she'd just subconsciously assumed they didn't have any. Rather stupid of me. The grenade exploded in a flash and eviscerated the other rangers. Lucy had been lucky enough to be at an angle that let her avoid the worst of it, although she couldn't feel her left arm, so she wasn't especially grateful.

She fired off the last shots in her carbine's battery, to keep their heads down for a moment. Then she crawled over to the bomb. She would have to detonate it, regardless of-"Attention First Platoon." Heavily accented Standard rang into her ear, General Thevar. "All troops are clear of the blast zone, repeat, all troops are clear of the blast zone. God be with you."

He cut out. Lucy took her helmet off. She ran a hand through her hair, light brown and as long as regulations allowed. She breathed in the poisonous air of the rock she had fought so hard to protect. The terraforming efforts still had decades to go, but you could breathe for a few minutes without passing out. The air was crisp, and it felt fresh, although she already felt herself getting short of breath-though that might just be her dying. An Ivo peaked out from behind cover. She didn't know if it had any eyes under that helmet, but she looked where she thought they might be, and she grinned.

"Night-night, fucker!"

---

Al saw the flash over the horizon.