The alien shield stopped a hundred feet short of the edge of Bushy Park. Raptor Guards manned the perimeter, their rifles scanning for threats, soldier or ultrahuman.

The leading edge of the outermost shield abutted the SHAEF gate, just off Sandy Lane. The gate led to the SHAEF memorial, a monument dedicated to those who cleared the beaches for the Normandy landings in World War II.

I doubted the Raptors understood the historic significance of the position they held. It must simply have seemed like a nice, flat patch of land, perfect to land their troop shuttles and set up a tower or two.

Most of Bushy Park was flat, grassy land, tastefully broken up by copses of trees, currently occupied by a mix of shattered British tanks, the bodies of fallen soldiers, and the alien camps and staging areas.

The portal let us out in the backyard of No. 52, Shaef Way, just across the street from the gate.

Shamrock, Chequers, Unity and Agni were with me, along with the Travelers, a dozen of Phoenix Company, and the other three ultras I’d asked for.

I turned to the others. “Take up positions.”

Donna Bartoli nodded, leading her squad into the building. Seconds later, the sound of glass breaking let me know that she’d set up position on the second floor.

Four of the Guard had been assigned as snipers, intending to provide covering fire as we carried out our mission.

Next, I turned to Verschwiden. “You’re up.”

Verschwiden nodded and grasped Shamrock by the arm. The two shimmered into invisibility.

“Unity. Your job is to keep the Travelers covered. They’re critical to the mission.”

Unity nodded, flexing her arms. “They’ll be safe with me.”

: Verschwiden and Shamrock are in position.

Time to step up to the plate.

I bounded forward, dashing on to the road, in clear view of the Raptors.

The sentries reacted exactly as they should. Half hunkered down and started shooting, the other half charged.

Brave fools.

Then again, there were nearly a hundred of them.

As the Raptors raced towards me, I launched my special missile.

The KX-22 fragmentation warhead is a specially developed munition. The explosion hurled thousands of tiny pieces of shrapnel forward, scything through the Raptor Guards en masse. Individually, the fragments were dangerous; backed by the force of ten kilos of TNT, they were deadly.

THE BAY WAY ACTIVATED!

48 RAPTOR GUARDS DEFEATED!

The surviving Raptors hunkered under cover, hiding behind walls, trees, and the occasional postbox.

The Phoenix Company snipers opened fire.

Plasma blasts smashed into Raptors trying to flank me.

I swung left, shooting at targets that presented themselves. A mass driver round blew apart an unfortunate Grizzeloid.

GRIZZELOID WARRIOR DEFEATED! +750 XP!

The whine of a plasma cannon ripped up the ground before me.

Dodge Bullets kept me alive as the Stealth Rover unmasked less than a dozen metres away.

No time for thinking.

I fired a Boost shot from the Rifle.

The mass driver round smashed into the Rover.

LYNXIAN STEALTH ROVER -4,000 HP!

A half shot but only 250 MP, which made the next shot easier.

LYNXIAN STEALTH ROVER -4,000 HP! LYNXIAN STEALTH ROVER DEFEATED! +2500 XP!

The Raptors were turning now, trying to shield their right flank from - well, me.

Unfortunately, Verschwiden and Shamrock had reached the lesser guarded left flank.

And Shamrock launched his potatoes.

Burning tubers rolled past the shield, skipping across the ground like stones across a still pond.

A few Raptors glanced in that direction, curious, but most ignored the potatoes in favour of the armored suit shooting at them.

That turned out to be a mistake.

Driven by Shamrock’s power, the potatoes spread swiftly across Bushy Park, racing nearly a hundred metres across the grass, past the SHAEF memorial square, until they reached the boundaries of the inner shield.

Which they promptly rolled past. A potato rolling across the soil at ten metres per second doesn’t qualify as moving fast enough to trigger the shield’s defensive functions.

Not even a smoldering potato, with a spark within.

A spark that, seconds after the potatoes crossed the inner layer, burst into flame.

Agni’s power latched onto the burning potatoes, and they ignited.

Fire raced across Bushy Park, with fingers of flame following the Cobbler’s Way road, ringing the inside of the inner shield. Raptors shouted, sounding the alarm, and dozens of Raptor firefighters began to spray foam on the burning turf.

Unfortunately, they were too slow.

I’d seen how fast Agni could spread a blaze at Brahampton. Now, with thousands of tons of flammable, organic material, her flames moved even faster.

In less than a minute, rings of fire circled the aliens within both inner and outer shields.

And then, Agni pulled the flames inward.

Embers became flames, flames became waves, and an inferno roared inwards at Bushy Park.

The conflagration spread in seconds, catching the resting aliens off guard. Raptor soldiers had only seconds to realize what was happening before they were engulfed.

Raptors, Grizzeloids, Sarnak - they’re all organic.

Close to a hundred thousand aliens began to scream in agony, as they burned.

Agni does not kill slowly.

The aliens fighting me saw what was inward, and panicked. Given that their ships were in the middle of the blaze, I wasn’t surprised.

As the temperature within Bushy Park rose, I could see the inner shield flicker.

: Is the shield holding? We don’t want fire spreading across the city.

: The inner shield’s about to collapse, the outer one’s still holding. There’s a third shield, though, and the troops there are fine.

: Are they helping?

: The Raptors within the third shield are shooting any of their colleagues who try to cross over from the other sections.

: … What.

: They’ve sealed the third section up tight, nothing getting in or out.

: The ships have sealed their doors. Yeah, they’re shooting at anyone trying to force their way in…

: The Greater Carnotaur’s gotten off his backside. He’s getting out of the shield area. Yeah, he’s now out, he’s loose in Hampton Court Palace…

: Fortunately he doesn’t seem to be looking for the shelter.

: Where’s the third section?

: It’s on the western side of Chestnut Avenue, centred around Triss Pond. At least forty thousand Raptors are still there.

: Time to move, then. Tell Daisy.

Behind me, a pink flare soared into the sky. The signal to fall back to the garden at No. 52.

I let loose with a HEPAR, spraying the area with suppressive fire, as Verschwiden and Shamrock fell back. With the chaos around us, the aliens were splitting their attention between me and the fires behind, and no-one had time to aim at two seemingly random pedestrians.

: They’re ready. The others already portalled out, Driver Ninety-Four is waiting for you.

: Where?

: Exactly 124 feet behind you.

Firing off a last Mass Driver, I Powerjumped.

The Greyhound thudded into the lawn at No. 52, raising a cloud of dust. A purplish black portal awaited me, with Driver Ninety-Four standing ready.

As the Raptor Guards recovered their wits, the portal closed, and I was elsewhere.

We exited on the grounds of the Teddington Cricket Club.

Five hundred feet away, the third shield shimmered. British troops had dug into sandbags and taken up sniper positions on the roof of the club, shooting at any aliens who tried to push in their direction.

Not that it mattered. The road known as Cobbler’s Walk shimmered behind the shield, and we could see alien troops marching along it, pushing through into the city from further north, where the shield abutted housing and restaurants with little potential for defensive positions.

: The officer in charge here is Colonel Manderley, he wants to know how the assault went.

: No time to talk. We need to hit them again.

: … you sure?

: They’re firing at their own troops. That means they don’t know what’s causing the fire. For all they can tell, it’s viral, or an airborne agent.

: But you think they’ll figure it out.

: Give them fifteen minutes and a good battlecognitive, and they’ll know. We have maybe that long before they figure out a counter.

: We’re moving now.

: I’ll tell the officers. Good luck.

“We move,” I barked at the rest of the ultras. “Shamrock. Verschwiden. We need to repeat what we just did.”

The Irish ultra stared at me. “Belessar… the shield is way further off here.”

“Which is why we need to move faster…. Driver Ninety-Four. Create a portal that goes right up to the edge of the shield.” I pointed to a building on the green. “There. In the shadow of that, and Verschwiden and Shamrock will take shelter there while I close in.”

“That’s too close,” stammered Driver Ninety-Four. “We don’t go that close to the enemy.”

“You do now.”

“That’s not in our contract….”

A flame flickered at Driver Ninety-Four’s feet. He yelped.

Agni stepped forward. “If Belessar says you go, you go. Or you take it up with me.”

The Traveler nodded mutely.

“Any further questions?” asked Agni sweetly.

“Yeah,” grumbled Unity. “It’s not safe to be that close.”

“I’ll be even closer.”

“And what if your plan fails?”

I took a deep breath. “Unity. Shamrock. Verschwiden. Chequers. All of you. I know this is not what you’re used to.”

“You got that right.”

“I want you to think about where we are for a moment. London. The centre of the English-speaking world.

“The Hierarchy wants to crush it. They’ve never sent more than a few hundred against us, and now they send two hundred thousand soldiers? Why?

“Because they’ve seen your spirit. They know what we can do individually. It’s time to show them what we can do together.

“Trust me, and I’ll get you through this alive. And more importantly - we will show the Hierarchy that sending more troops for them just means more dead bodies.

“So will you stand with me?”

And as the words sunk in, I invoked Call to Arms and burned all 460 of my Persuasion Points.

The effect was - stunning.

Unity stood ramrod straight. Shamrock clenched his fists, almost vibrating with energy. Chequers started to salute, then caught himself.

Agni smirked. “Fine. Let’s go save the British Empire.”