October 3, 2277

In the murky blackness of Dark Space, an armada burns towards its destination. Like everything in its owner's society, it is strictly organized to the last detail. The standard organizational unit is called a "limb" in the alien tongue. To human taste, it might seem a strange choice of word, but anyone who knows anything about Ivo physiology can perhaps see how the metaphor makes sense to them. An Ivo "limb" is really a collection of three tentacles wound together. The limb can divide into its constituent parts for more precise tasks, or work in tandem as a single, stronger entity. The Limbs that make up the Ivo fleet are similar.

A standard Limb at full strength will consist of one "assault carrier" (to use the closest human equivalent term), four "battleships", and twenty-five "frigates". The "limb" metaphor goes in two directions, as a Limb can be broken up down to the individual ship, or combined with other Limbs into a new, stronger Limb, with the constituent Limbs now being "tentacles". The Limb that had been wound together for the human race's Punishment consisted of twelve tentacles. Three hundred and sixty of the most advanced warships in known space bearing down on humanity.

The price of disobedience to their betters in the Hierarchy of All Life would be clear when all of space was bathed in the light of humanity's burning worlds.

---

May 25, 2277 New Kolkata Colony

Senior Ranger Albert Newman knew the Space Force had arrived the moment he heard the distant thunder clap of mass driver rounds breaking the sound barrier repeatedly as they fell through New Kolkata's atmosphere. He and the dozen other surviving rangers were huddled around a heater, still wearing the same armor they'd been wearing since they first landed on New Kolkata. Laser carbines slung over their shoulders (mag rifle rounds were long gone at this point), helmets hanging around their necks, eyes occasionally darting for the screens showing the video feed outside the cramped bunker they sheltered in.

Newman hadn't taken off his helmet for two straight days before his reprieve here, subsisting on replacement oxygen bottles and his armor's nutrient slurry as he ran patrols with what was left of the Indian Army garrison. The last offensive action the human forces on New Kolkata had taken was a raid on an Ivo airbase. It was a raid that had claimed hundreds of Indian Soldiers, most of the surviving United Nations Rangers, and his friend Lucy. It had bought the area a reprieve, one that had allowed a mass evacuation of the surviving civilian population. They now lay scattered over hundreds of kilometers, hiding out in small, harder to find bunkers, such as the one Al was in now.

The thunder of the falling debris was distant, barely perceptible in the thin atmosphere of New Kolkata, and behind the walls of the bunker. Yet, Al couldn't have missed it if he'd wanted to. Every human on New Kolkata had waited for the Space Force's promised rescue, and with oxygen running low and food even lower, the sound filled Al with joy, but also with a powerful fear. Fear that it was all for nothing, and all the debris being disintegrated in the atmosphere was from human ships meeting their ends at the hands of the Ivo ships.

Al glanced at Tuhana, the only other surviving ranger from his platoon, sitting down and leaning against the wall, still one-armed. The medical facilities that could have grown a replacement arm for her had ben annihilated in the initial Ivo bombardment, so for now Tuhana was stuck that way. She followed him like a lost puppy whenever he was around, to the point that Al worried she had lost more than her arm in the airbase raid. She didn't speak much, though as far as Al could remember that wasn't a new development for her. Perhaps her seeming attachment to him was normal, as he had saved her life, and he had sacrificed a great deal to do it. Al had worried he might resent her, for forcing him to abandon his friends, but the absurdity of such a notion had quickly dismissed any such feelings. By saving her life, he had been spared the fate of the rest of his platoon, and he was genuinely grateful for that, in a guilty sort of way.

Al wandered over to Tuhana and sat down against the wall with her, listening to another rain of debris scoring its way through the atmosphere.

---

May 25, 2277 New Kolkata Colony, many kilometers away

Janea Balil watched as the stars fell from the night sky. Her young heart was filled with fear at the intensity of the sight. "Bibi, what's happening?" the girl said, clinging to the woman next to her. The woman looked down at her and smiled. "It's the Space Force, sweetheart. Nothing to fear. My son's up there, on a cruiser, the UNS Wake Island- bah, why does my country name ships we build after battles we lost? That's just tempting fate-er, anyway, the Space Force is going to knock the Ivos out of orbit, and then it will all be over, honey."

Janea gazed up at the woman. When the Ivos had come from the sky, grandma had found her hiding under her bed, and had dragged her out and led her by the hand out of their apartment. She had told Janea that momma and papa had gone away and that the government had told everyone to get to the old bomb shelters from before Janea was born. Janea hadn't even had time to cry, the speed of everything had overwhelmed her. One minute, she had been clutching grandma in the shelter, and the next the horrible, horrible creatures called Ivos had killed the soldiers guarding the bunker, and herded its population into the strange giant transparent plastic air tents that she was currently imprisoned in. Grandma had been taken out of the tent by the Ivos, along with many others, and neither she nor anyone else who had gone through the airlock had returned.

Janea had cried and cried, but no one came, and she couldn't understand anyone, and she wanted to go home. Then this woman had shown up by her side, and surprised her by being a Punjabi herself, though she said she was from a place called "The Yoo Ess" from Old Earth. She talked funny, she said she hadn't spoken her "mother tongue" in a long time. She said her name was Atasi, but Janea just called her Bibi-grandma had taught her her manners.

Janea snuggled up to her. She wasn't soft and warm like Grandma and Mama were, she was thin and wiry and strong, like the metal cables she had seen when she'd visited papa at work. But...she was close enough, and she looked kind of like grandma...alright she was at least old like grandma was. And she like to tell stories like grandma, and she said the words in that funny way that made her laugh and forget about how much she wanted to cry.

Bibi sat with Janea for a long time, watching the stars falling and rocking the child in her arms. Janea was starting to fall asleep, when Bibi stopped rocking suddenly. She looked up at Bibi. "What's wrong?" The old woman smiled at her, "Nothing yet, sweetheart." Janea wasn't sure she believed her. Something felt...weird. Then she noticed: she hadn't heard or seen any of the failing stars. "What happened to the stars Bibi?"

Bibi didn't answer, she was watching some of the Ivo guards. They were moving now, quickly. Bibi stood up and set Janea down. From this angle, Janea could see something on her upper arm for the first time: a tattoo! It was strange. It looked like a spear, with a pair of wings. She couldn't read what it said, but it looked kind of like the strange letters from her English book at school.

Bibi watched the Ivos for a few more moments, before scooping up Janea and walking towards the back of the growing crowd of people frantically watching the Ivos. When they had reached the back of the crowd, Bibi began undoing the front of her jump suit and looked down at Janea. "Janea, I need you to listen to me. Are you listening?" Janea nodded fearfully. "Alright. I'm going to wrap you up in my jump suit and then I'm going to lay on top of you. You're going to hold onto me, you're going to close your eyes, and you're not going to say a single thing, make a single noise, or move a single muscle, until I say you can." Janea looked past Bibi, at the Ivos standing in front of the crowd. They were levelling their weapons at the crowd, and more and more Ivo soldiers were filing into the tent. Bibi suddenly grabbed her shoulders and forced Janea to look at her. "Janea, if you don't follow my instructions exactly, you will die. Do you understand what that means?"

Janea nodded weakly. She new what death was. Mama and Papa had had to explain it when Grandpa had died. Grandma had told her that Mama and Papa had gone away...but she knew that wasn't true. She wasn't young enough to fall for tricks like that anymore. Mama and Papa were like Grandpa now. An ice cold hand wrapped itself around her heart, and she was surprised to discover that it was possible for her to be more afraid then she had been when the Ivos had first came from the sky.

Bibi scooped Janea up, and the little girl wrapped herself around the old woman's body. Atasi zipped up her jump suit, and then lay on the ground, squishing Janea into the malleable plastic ground and shielding the small girl with her body. A few members of the crowd put two and two together, and made their choice. They charged the Ivos, and were immediately gunned down.

Human laser weapons were required to shoot a "safety flash"-a brief but intense laser that lasted for only a fraction of a second, just long enough to trigger the blinking reflex of any human that was within sight of the weapon. Any laser powerful enough to kill was also bright enough to permanently blind any unshielded eyes unfortunate enough to be looking at it. At this close of a range, there was no chance anyone in the crowd would have their eyes spared.

As the pulses of green light from the Ivo laser rifles fried their unfortunate victims, the entire onlooking crowd was seized by an animal panic as their vision was taken from them in an instant. Most ran blindly in all directions, others fell to their knees and clutched at their eyes. All were rapidly gunned down by the Ivo soldiers, with loud sounds not dissimilar to a gunshot being heard as the pulses of green light found their targets.

Atasi hugged Janea tight against her body, and the little girl clung to her as tight as she could, squeezing her eyes shut and trying not to listen to the screams and explosions and collapsing bodies around her.

---

May 26, 2277 New Kolkata Orbit

Out of Dark Space and into the Vritra system emerged a trio of human ships. They were assault carriers, the UNS Coral Sea, Hokkaido, and Tiānlóng respectively. Assault carriers were the most expensive ships in humanity's arsenal by far, and the three ships were three of only four total, their sister Enterprise having remained at its rapid deployment position near the Diln border.

They were distinct from standard transports due to the incredible speed with which they could offload their complements. They were the pride of the Ranger Corps, as they were the ones who made the most use of them. Being stationed on an assault carrier was a premiere posting for a ranger. Only the best were allowed to be the tip of the spear.

Assault carriers could be modified for different mission profiles. Their default loadout was a mix of ground, air, and missile assets to be deployed to a planetary surface, which was helpful when they were on their own. However, when operating in tandem with other carriers, they can be specialized. For this operation, the Coral Sea carried a mechanized division of rangers, the Hokkaido carried a full air wing, and the Tiānlóng carried a vast arsenal of ballistic cruise missiles of all sizes. Ships like these were vital for any species that wanted to be a military power, as without them an astromilitary could not properly project power. Their astronomical price tags meant that many more peaceful or passive species simply didn't bother.

Humanity's carriers were some of the oldest ships in the fleet precisely because of that enormous price tag. The assault carriers had been built by the nations of Earth to make war on each other in a past era. They had been developed during the height of the Sino-Pacific war, though they had only just been rolled off the assembly lines as the conflict was being settled in a peace deal. In the cold war that followed, assault carriers went unused due to the lack of the high-intensity combat they had been built for. In an ironic twist of fate, these weapons that had been made to bring fire and death to one's fellow man had not been fully utilized until the Diln war, where their intended purpose was set aside and their new purpose as guardians of humanity came to fruition.

As the carriers began their descent burns, what remained of mankind's "Grand Fleet" was on the other side of New Kolkata. Following the great victory they had won a scant few days ago, the Grand Fleet had followed it up by passing over the inhabited section of the planet, bombing the Ivo surface-to-orbit weapons into ruin. They might have simply leveled every Ivo installation on the planet, but that would have run contrary to the goal of the mission: to secure as much Ivo technology as possible. The fleet's logistics and recovery ships were already picking through whatever wreckage of the Ivo fleet was still in orbit, after the terrible battle over New Kolkata.

The installations on the ground had been out of range of the battle, and so they were still largely intact, making them ripe for plundering by human engineers eager to study the terrifyingly advanced Ivo technology. The surface-to-orbit weapons had still had to go, unfortunately. While many of the military's planners would have salivated at the prospect of upgrading human surface-to-orbit weaponry with intact Ivo technology, the risk of losing an assault carrier to the weapons meant they would have to settle for the scrapped remains.

The assault carriers finished their burn, and entered into the upper atmosphere of New Kolkata. It was much thinner than Earth's, and getting through it was significantly less of an ordeal thanks to that. Human Assault Carriers were designed to enter the upper atmospheres of planets, though if they went to low they wouldn't be able to achieve escape velocity. They also weren't proper aerial vehicles, they simply maintained a perilously low orbit to deploy and support their embarked troops and vehicles. They were arranged in a vertical formation, one on top of the other. Tiānlóng was at the bottom, and released its payload first. Panels on the ventral hull opened, and about a dozen cruise missiles were released into New Kolkata's atmosphere. They angled their way through the upper atmosphere, then fired their engines at a carefully timed moment. They all streaked away towards targets throughout the small inhabited region on New Kolkata's Western Hemisphere.

---

May 26, 2277 New Kolkata Colony

In the clear skies above him, Al watched the show using his helmet's zoom function. The tiny specks he could see exiting the noticeably larger speck of the assault carrier were clearly missiles, judging by the barely-visible exhaust trails they left behind themselves. The missiles rapidly made their way towards their targets, and Al felt like he could almost relax for the first time in weeks. He was the closest thing the remaining rangers had to a commanding officer, and thus he had been tasked with organizing them when the Indian Army officer inside the command bunker had ordered them to get into firing positions outside the bunker. Shuttles would be coming to pick them up soon, and his remaining able-bodied rangers were to give them cover from any Ivo troops that might show up and attempt to interfere.

Al heard watched for a while longer, observing as the Coral Sea got itself into position, and spewed forth dozens of aircraft from its vast hanger. They all streaked towards their various targets, either going on a strike mission, or getting themselves into holding positions for future air support missions. The aircraft Al was focused on was the big shuttle that was sonic-booming its way towards his position. Within twenty or so minutes, the shuttle had arrived. It was a Grizzly-class, the heaviest in the Space Force's arsenal. One of those could shuttle two full companies of infantry or an armored platoon to the surface. The massive craft was a feat of human engineering. Four massive engines gave it VTOL capabilities, which it utilized as it came in for it's incredibly noisy landing at the designated area. The cockpit was a tiny thing located on top of the ship's dorsal hull. It's unusual location was due to the ship's signature feature: it's massive loading ramp.

As the grizzly landed, it extended that very same ramp, opening up it's entire front section. Al watched a small fireteam exit the loading ramp, taking up defensive positions. The loadmaster walked out, and Al stood up to greet her. He gave the woman a half-hearted smile.

"God am I glad to see you. I hate to break it to you, but you're a little overkill. There's only about three dozen people in this bunker, including my rangers here." he said.

The woman smiled back at him. "We've still got several stops to make. Lots of bunkers to clear out. You're just our first stop." Al was a little disappointed to learn he wouldn't be immediately leaving this godforsaken rock, but he'd take what he could get.

---

Al sat with his rangers in the generous troop bay of the grizzly, surrounded by the dozens of Indian soldiers and civilians the ship had picked up along the way. After a chat with the loadmaster, he'd learned that the grizzly was on its way to its last stop before it burned hard for the Coral Sea. They were heading towards some pack of Indian soldiers and civilians that had somehow hidden out in the center of New Kolkata City for the entire occupation. They'd been hiding out in some basement or hidden bunker or something. Al noticed the loadmaster was signaling for him to follow her. He got up from his seat and made his way towards her. She led him to the cockpit, and there he met the ranking Indian Army Officer.

The officer spoke first. "Senior Ranger. The people we're heading to pick up have signaled us. They've got Ivos converging on their position. We're not sure if they're stragglers from some larger force or from one of their bases, or if they're a task force sent specifically after this group. Whatever they are, there's only a handful of soldiers and armed civilians to defend the group, they aren't going to hold out long without reinforcements."

Al knew exactly where this was going, and he was not happy about it.

The officer spoke again. "I've got nothing but undertrained reservists and civilian volunteers to throw at this. You and your rangers are the only ones with serious training on this ship. You can fast rope in and relieve the group while the grizzly finds a safe place to land. I can bring up everyone else to reinforce you one we're on the ground. You don't need to win, just take the pressure off the civilians."

A part of Al wanted to throw in the towel, to tell the officer to get fucked, and then go sulk in the troop bay.

He wouldn't do that. Before anything else, he was a United Nations Ranger. He had taken an oath, the same oath every member of the Space Force takes, an oath he had spoken on completion of ranger school, an oath he remembered to this day:

" I, Albert Newman, do solemnly swear to protect and defend the citizens and charter of the United Nations, and to follow the laws and regulations of its armed forces and the lawful orders of its General Secretary.

Against the unknown horrors of the infinite dark, I will be a shield that defends the helpless. When asked how many meters of ground, how many lightyears of space, how many living souls I will willingly cede to the dark while I draw breath, I say, “Not one!”

The Ranger Corps didn't mess around with their oaths. Their motto was a reflection of this, a simple declaration: "Not One."

Al made his way back to the troop bay and stood in front of his rangers. They all looked exhausted. Haggard, even. Al didn't waste any time. "Alright kiddies, make a gear check. We're fast roping in twenty. We've got civvies to rescue and Ivos to kill." All of his rangers looked at him. Some looked stricken, most just looked tired. There were maybe ten able bodied rangers among them, including Al, and none of them were filling Al with confidence.

"How many?"

Some looked annoyed at his words, others mumbled a barely audible response.

"Rangers, I asked. How many?"

The motley gathering of rangers seemed to shake themselves at that. The response was audible now: "Not one."

"HOW MANY?"

"NOT ONE!" all could be clearly heard now. That's more like it. Al thought.

"Alright then, rangers, get your buckets on and do an equipment check."

The rangers moved to obey, donning their distinctive helmets. They weren't the open-faced helmets of civilian space suits, nor were they the full helm with "Ski Goggle" viewports like most regular army troopers wore. Ranger helmets were full helmets, covering everything. Even the two eye slots were an opaque black to an outside viewer. As the rangers donned their helmets, the exhausted, vulnerable, beaten-down humans inside the armor vanished, replaced by the stalwart, familiar face of a United Nations Ranger. The civilians on the grizzly watched in fascination as the strange and now faceless soldiers gathered whatever weapons they could scrounge together, and then headed for a flat spot on the floor. Al looked on with genuine pride as his rangers geared up. There was no one he'd rather be going into this fight with.

---

The grizzly slowed noticeably, and a small bay in the floor opened up. Ropes extended from the ceiling, falling down to the ground below. "Go!" Al shouted over the rangers' helmet comms. The first five rangers grabbed a rope and made it look easy as they slid down it gracefully. Al moved up with four other rangers and grabbed his rope. He felt the rush as he slid down the rope, and made a safe landing in the streets of the cracked-open dome city they'd landed in.

He looked at the streets stretched out before him, and took a single moment to settle himself. Then he spoke into his helmet comm. "Alright, form up! Team one in the rear with me, team two in the middle, and team three takes point. Let's move!" The rangers got into position, and advanced as one towards the sounds of violence in the distance.

The squad of rangers made it several hundred meters before the sounds of violence became more distinct in the thin atmosphere of New Kolkata. It was clearly the sound of laser weapons going off, with the occasional explosion thrown in. As the squad drew closer, the noises grew louder. The sounds were coming from the west. Al eyed a house to the north west, and made his decision.

"Team one, make your way to that house over there and set up on the roof." Al gestured at the house, and the three rangers moved to obey.

It wasn't a very tall vantage point (you couldn't build especially tall in a domed city) but it had a flat roof. Team one consisted of the only two mag-rifle armed rangers in the squad, with about one and a half full magazines of slugs between them scavenged from the pockets of the Indian Army soldiers the grizzly had picked up. They were backed up by a ranger armed with a grenade launcher and the handful of grenades that they had been able to scrounge. It wasn't exactly a heavy weapons platoon, but it would have to do.

The other two teams, armed with laser carbines, would advance towards the by now dangerously close sounds, and the weapons team on the roof would give them cover. As the seven rangers rounded a corner, they instantly dove for cover as they saw a collection of Ivos taking pot shots at a house in the far side of the street they were standing in. The rangers caught a lucky break, as the Ivos didn't seem to have noticed them yet.

Al peaked out from behind his cover, and spoke into his comm. "Three of them behind the dumpster. Team two has the one on the left, Team three has the one on the right. When they're both down, everyone joins me taking out the middle guy. On my signal."

Ivo armor was tough, far too tough for a single laser carbine to take an Ivo down quickly enough to prevent counterfire. So, the rangers had learned to work in teams. The Ivos' "helmets" could handle one laser pulse well enough, but three at the same time was too much.

Al looked down his gunsight (which, being a laser, was also the "barrel") and took aim at the head of the middle figure. Al wasn't worried about missing. Lasers moved at the speed of light and made up for their lack of raw power with astonishing accuracy. Al centered the Ivo in his sights and fired. The "safety flash" went off, causing any unshielded human eyes observing to reflexively blink, and then an incredibly bright streak of green light lanced out and instantly struck the Ivo in the head. The center Ivo was stunned by the shot, and the other two Ivos wheeled around with inhuman speed and nearly got their massive rifles to bear before their heads were vaporized. Al didn't miss a beat and sent another beam straight into the head of the last Ivo, which was followed up by six other beams that struck all over its body. The alien collapsed in a smoking heap. The three aliens then began flailing their tentacles wildly in the disturbing death reflex that every Ivo seemed to have.

There was another fireteam of Ivos, making an advance on the house, the other three Ivos presumably having been providing covering fire. The six new Ivos scrambled back for cover, avoiding the sporadic laser fire coming at them from the house. Ducked between a pair of cars, the Ivos sprayed the seven rangers wildly, forcing them into cover. Al didn't waste time. "Weapons team, do you have eyes on the six Ivos by the cars."

"Roger."

"Weapons free."

One of the Ivos, rising up from cover to get a better shot, had a spray of brown liquid jet out from its "throat" as a one gram slug ripped through it at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light. The Ivos frantically swiveled their odd, spindle-shaped heads, searching for the shooters. A hail of slugs rained on the five remaining Ivos, killing one and wounding the others. The hail was punctuated by a 40 mm grenade, which landed perfectly in the middle of the group, killing all of them and maiming the rest.

"On me." Al moved up the street, his rangers in tow, and plugged a half dozen laser beams into the Ivos who weren't flailing with the death reflex. He moved across the street with the team, towards the house. As he approached the door, it slowly opened, and a man emerged with his hands in the air, three others following him. Al spoke, "Are you the civilians we're here to rescue?"

The man shook his head, "Yes and no. We're the rear guard. The group had to retreat from the bunker, and we stayed here to cover their retreat. They're heading towards the camps." Al grimaced at that. The Ivos kept the civilians they captured (with no discernable purpose) in big inflatable domes. He didn't know what they'd find there, but he doubted it'd be good. He spoke again. "Are these the Ivos that were attacking you?"

"No, these are advanced scouts, the main force that pushed us out of the bunker is behind them."

Al suppressed a sigh. Figures. "Alright, can you lead us to these camps?" The man nodded

---

Al and the nine other rangers followed the Indian soldiers and armed civilians as they made their way to the camp, catching up with the main group. When they arrived, it was clear that the larger group had only arrived a short time before. Every single one of them had a space suit on. The man Al had met earlier, Sanjay, spoke up.

"We're made up almost entirely of people who were lucky enough to be near a vacsuit or already wearing one when the dome was breeched. We all made our way to the bunker, and hid out there through most of the fight...I didn't think we'd really make it this far."

Al put a hand on his shoulder. "You did well. Now, I'll bet some of these people are low on oxygen. Let's see if we can't get these tents open." The man nodded, and he, some other men from the group, and the rangers, set about getting the airlock for one of the tents open. When the big door finally whirred open, Al and two other rangers went in first. The door behind them sealed, and once the pressure in the room equalized, the second door opened.

Al stepped out into a pile of bodies.

The three rangers stood still and utterly silent for a moment, taking in the scene before them. It was at least a hundred people, likely more, sprawled over each other in the unnatural poses of those who had met a violent end. The ranger to Al's left, a woman named Hsu, spoke first.

"God in heaven...". Al struggled to speak. "It...it looks like this was recent. Very little decomposition. They probably executed all of them when they learned the Space Force won in orbit."

Either they'd been ordered to, or it had simply been a spiteful act by a cornered enemy. Either way, Al was determined to make the slimy bastards pay.

Al made his way through the bodies, taking it all in, knowing with absolute certainty that the sight would be seared into his memory until the day he died. As he reached the back of the tent, his eyes fell on an older woman in a jumpsuit, lying facedown. She'd caught his eye because it was clear she was a ranger, judging by the ranger emblem she had tattooed on her upper arm.

"At her age...she was probably a Diln War veteran..." Al mused. He turned away, when it suddenly struck him that something was...off about the dead woman. She had strange bulges under her clothes on her back...Al frantically flipped the dead woman over, and yanked out the little girl that had been wrapped around her. The girl looked right at him, expressionless.

"Hey! We've got a survivor!" The other two rangers hurried over.

Al looked at the little girl. "Are you hurt, sweetheart?" He doubted the girl could understand him, but maybe the sound of his voice could coax something out of her. Instead, the girl just stared at him.

Her eyes were the emptiest Al had ever seen.