“Everyone is surprised for the moment,” said Stan. “The alien commanders have the surprise attack. They are going to use that to announce their intentions, then we'll roll initiative.”

“So they aren't going to attack the city right away?,” asked George.

“Let me do the announcement,” said Stan. “And then we'll roll for initiative. I'll roll for the fleet as a whole, so they all attack at the same time.”

“How many ships are we talking about?,” asked Nick. “The Gadget Mobile is in the air with them. They might not like that.”

“There's three capital ships, four landers, and say ten fighters for covers on each,” said Stan.

“That's seventy fighters,” said Nick. “I don't know if we can handle something like this with just the five of us.”

“There's also the villains that I trailed to the bar,” said Gail. “Maybe they'll help us out against the aliens.”

“They'll help us long enough to get out of the city before it's nuked,” said Marv. “Still, we could use them as a distraction if we could lead some of the aliens into their path. Whatever happens, I say we try to get the ships out of the city so we don't have to protect the civilians as much.”

“We don't want an Independence Day,” said Arnold. “I don't know what I can do from where I am, but I will use my energy blast on anything attacking the effigy sight until the celebrants clear out.”

“I'm going to go after the nearest lander and hope I can crash it,” said Nick. “Then I think I will be on pure defense until we find a way to clear the sky.”

“I think I will see what I can do about being a distraction to whomever I can,” said George. “I'm superstrong and invulnerable. Maybe I can wreck the fighters while someone is trying to figure out how to take out the capital ships.”

“Let's do the announcement, and then the initiative rolls,” said Marv. “I don't know what I can do in a situation like this, but maybe something will come to me.”

“I'm in the same boat,” said Gail. “Teleportation and Darkness Creation doesn't seem that great against an invasion.”

“All right,” said Stan. “Let me put on my public announcement voice.”

He covered his mouth with his hand.

“People of Terra,” said a voice from every active communications device in the city. Gadget's com system picked it up from several different sources. “We claim this area in the name of the Octo Anarchist Imperial Suite. We will give you one standard unit to clear the sky above our new systemic beachhead before we open fire. Any humans who don't want to be exterminated should leave now. Once we begin our settlement, any humans we find in our operating area will be terminated with extreme prejudice. Thank you and have a good day.”

“Anarchist Imperial Suite?,” said George.

“So they are taking the city and killing anyone they catch who couldn't move out of the city fast enough?,” said Marv.

“And shooting down any plane who can't divert away from the airport in time,” said Nick. “And me for that matter.”

“I just had an idea on what I can do with teleportation if I can get inside one of the ships,” said Gail.

“The effigy will be in the area they are claiming, won't it?,” asked Arnold.

“Yep,” said Stan. He rolled a twenty-sided dice for his initiative. He wrote down 18 for invasion fleet. “One of the landers will head your way as soon as we roll our dice.”

“I don't really care about the wicker man, but there are too many civilians who could be hurt by a landing force,” said Arnold. “They have to go down.”

Stan recorded the rolls and the precedence of the players; Gail, Nick, Marv, George, and Arnold. He had been worried about George rolling high, but Punch would be attacked before he could attack. That was a bonus.

“It's time to get it on,” said Stan.

The four landers broke off from the three capital ships and headed for the four cardinel points of the compass. Wings of fighters grouped up on them. The three capital ships hovered above the center of the city. Their fighter screen orbitted around them.

Shade decided that she had to leave the villains for later. She had to protect the city from the bigger threat first. Too bad she didn't have time to go home to get her costume. She would have to make do with pulling her hood and collar up to protect her face. She teleported to the air above the center capital ship.

She wanted to board and sabotage its helm to the best of her ability.

Gadget shot missiles at the closest Lander. They could hit the ground, but let someone come pick them up instead of riding home free. The missiles exploded against invisible screens.

The alien craft veered from the attack and carved a chunk out of a building before it righted itself.

Jonah looked up at the invasion force, gauging the angles from the ground. He wished he could fly. That would make things so much easier for him. Getting good from doing good had to be a great second to that but flying didn't seem to have the same type of restrictions on it.

“Go home and look after your family, kid,” said Jonah. “I'll come by and check in with you after this over. Can you do that?”

“I think so,” said the rock boy. “I've never been invaded before.”

“Go ahead,” said Jonah. He pointed a hand at the center capital ship and hexed it.

“What are you trying to do?,” asked Stan.

“I want the flag to shoot at the other big ships and try to knock them into the ocean,” said Marv. He rolled eighty nine on his percentage dice. “But it's not going to do that.”

“But it does suffer bad luck,” said Stan. “Let's see what else we can do.

One of the main engines on the capital ship came to life. That jerked the ship into a turn that plunged into the ship to the right. The collision sent both ships skidding across the sky before someone got the engine to cut off.

Punch took to the air. He aimed for one of the fighters and crashed through the front of it. That sent the fighter heading to the street.

Sighter watched the battle from his post. He turned his attention on one of the landers heading in his direction. He fired a lightning bolt at it. The energy hit the shield. He didn't know if he hit some critical component not sheilded from his attack, or the pilot was blinded by the flash. Either way, the lander drove into the road a few miles inland from where he was.

Luckily, it exploded a few minutes later in a cloud of fire and smoke.

The invading force decided to carry on. It still had a mission to perform.

The other two unharmed landers headed for their marked landing zones. Once they were down, they could start on their next phase, perhaps cobble together something from the local technology to finish establishing their beachhead.

The third wounded lander headed for a landing. Its fighter cover had to take care of the attacker shooting at it.

Fighters lined up on the Gadget Mobile and tried to shoot it out of the sky. The technological hero dodged the attack.

More fighters strafed Sighter where he stood. He threw himself out of the way with the grace of a natural twenty.

The collided capital ships tried to separate without breaking apart. The pilots succeeded in putting some distance between their ships.

The rest of the fighters roamed out over the city, looking for harmless jets to shoot down instead of real targets.

The third capital ship backed away from its two wounded sisters.

Shade realized that her target ship had moved and floated in the air with smoke coming from parts of it. She couldn't teleport again, but she could try to glide to the ship and hope that she didn't bounce off the shield.

She hit the top of the bubble, and started to slide down the side. She was going to head for the ground.

Gadget unleashed another volley of missiles at his target and missed. He winced at the property damage as the missiles punched holes in the nearby buildings. He hoped no one was hurt in the exchange.

Jonah threw another hex at the flag ship, hoping to get it to shoot at its companions. He frowned when nothing seemed to happen.

Shade dropped toward the ship as the bubble of defensive force cuts off and lets her drop to the top of the ship.

“Wait,” said Marv. “I cut the shields off instead of getting it to shoot at either of the other two ships?”

“And saved Shade's life,” said Stan.

“I'm not worried about her,” said Marv. “She can take care of herself.”

Punch decided to throw the wreckage of the fighter he had hit at the bridge of the flag ship to see if he could get it to crash.

The debris flew into the front of the teardrop shape as energy pulses tried to knock it out of the air. It knocked some of the plating loose as it splattered against the hull and fell to the street.

Sighter made a snap decision to help Punch instead of shooting at the fighters trying to shoot at him. The flag ship had taken some damage and was in range of his ability. All he needed was a clear shot to try to knock it out of the air.

Lightning reached out and struck the flagship in the rear. More smoke filled the air as the ship started to list.

The third lander decided it had to get out of the air with the human trying to wreck it. It headed in.

The fighter cover decided to attack Sighter, Gadget, and Punch. These humans were getting in the way and had to be knocked out of the fight.

Sighter was able to duck behind a knoll. Energy pulses dug into the ground around him.

Gadget whipped his machine out of the way of the fighters trying to knock him out of the air.

Punch dove into the fighter lining up on him, cracking the windshield as the fighter turned away from the onslaught.

The flag ship and the wounded sister ship head down for a landing in the middle of Grail City. There's no telling how much damage either had taken, and they only needed one to keep the sky clear above them anyway.

“I think Marv has one last attack, and then we're going to roll initiative again,” said Stan. “If you want to roll another attack on either of the landing ships, this will be your last chance before they descend behind cover.”

“I would like to hex the last one still flying overhead,” said Marv. “I want it to shoot up the fighters around it.”

“Still trying for that?,” asked Stan.

“The more fighters we take down, the less we'll have to deal with later,” said Marv.

“All right,” said Stan. “Roll your roll.”

“I missed the hex by six,” said Marv. “Dang it.”

“Something bad still happens,” said Stan.

The third ship's power cut off. It plummeted into the ground. It smashed windows all around its crash site, but luckily no one was hurt by the tons of metal colliding with the ground.

The fighters buzzed overhead but they were flying in hostile air with maybe ground support. The invasion was not supposed to go this way.