Henry walked around the tree examining his handwork again. The HARP was currently huddled under a small evergreen with a camouflaged cloak tossed over the top. Tugging it a bit over, Henry tried to hide just a little bit more of his vehicle before sighing and returning to the cockpit. He was bored. So very bored.
Hopping back into the cockpit, Henry began another diagnostic check. Realistically, the HARP should be nigh undetectable by the orbiting invaders but it never hurt to double-check, if only to keep himself occupied and aware. As much as he wanted to just kick back and reread one of his saved books for the third time, he couldn’t afford to be caught with his pants down whenever the inins actually decided to show up.
Shifting in his seat to try to find a comfortable sitting position, Henry placed a hand on his stomach which was filled with butterflies. A sense of impending doom had been following him the few days. He knew why since the inins had landed another set of troopers on the planet and it wouldn’t be long before fighting broke out but knowing wouldn’t help. Frustrated by his nervousness, Henry leaned even further back in his chair a desperate attempt to feign a casualness he just didn’t feel. A faint buzzing from his communicator drew his attention. Leaning forward, Henry lazily flicked the receive call button before reclining again
“Henry are you in position?”
“Sorry, Henry Mason is out right now due to being asked if he was in position six times in the last ten minutes, please leave your name and number after the tone and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Beeeeeeep. ”
“Henry!”
“I was and still am in position. If for some godforsaken reason, my position is somehow compromised, I can promise you that you and just about everyone else in a 4 mile radius will be made acutely aware.”
“Excellent, I’ll be calling in another two minutes. Make sure to stay in position.”
Henry huffed in annoyance, “Can’t you leave a fellow to his intrusive thoughts Sarlunt?”
“I wouldn’t have made it to this rank if I let your type think freely.”
Henry felt a grin of amusement crack his face, “Ha, I’d believe that. Any update on the location of our ‘friends’? My trigger finger is beginning to get a bit stir-crazy.”
“No and trust me, I want to jump into action as much as you do but we need to execute this plan with extreme prejudice if we want to pull this off. There are going to be a lot of moving parts and we can’t afford to be sloppy.”
Throwing a salute to nobody from his reclined chair, Henry snarked “Well, don’t worry boss, I wasn’t named the Supreme Human Leader for nothing.”
“That’s not an official title. You named yourself that.”
“That’s beside the point and has hurt my feelings. Don’t hold me in reserve too long, yeah?.”
Henry heard a sigh come from the other end of the line, “I don’t intend to. We just need them a little bit closer. I’ll touch bases again with you in a bit.”
“Roger that”
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The new inin commandant was in high spirits as he watched the lone xythan sprint off into the forest. Their march had been going quite well thus far and his precautions had already paid dividends. They had managed to flush out ten xythans from their ambush locations thus far and, while they hadn’t caught any of them, he hadn’t taken any losses. Furthermore, he had been able to destroy each of their vehicles along the way. Cruel amusement flickered through the inin as he thought about how they were boxing the opponents in. The few options they had to escape and maneuver the better.
Frankly, it was a small miracle they had been able to make it as far as they had with such little resistance but the commandant supposed that the xythans would have been weakened from the previous assault group’s attack. It was a little bit shocking that they had managed to wipe out the other squadrons but the captain wouldn’t have brought as many warriors onboard if losses like these weren’t expected to an extent. Heavy gravity aliens usually had the propensity to pull all manner of obscene feats when backed against the wall and that they’d lost as few of the assault troops as they had was quite nice.
Pulling out a small device, the commandant flicked on a holographic map displaying their current location as well as a few areas of concern. Crossing out the marker near where they were currently standing on off the map, the commandant wiggled his limbs in anticipation. That had been the last of the expected outposts before they got to the xythans’ nest. The commandant felt his tentacles still for a moment as he glared at the base on the map. They had dug in deep and it was going to be hard to pull them out. It shouldn’t matter though, he thought as before shifting his focus back towards the heavy weaponry they brought. The commandant felt movement begin to return to his limbs. It would be hard perhaps but not impossible. Especially not with the toys he had now. They might lose some of the merchandise but getting a smaller bounty was still better than swallowing an overlarge morsel and choking.
Suddenly feeling inspired, the commandant powered down his map and began to signal his forces to resume their forward march. The xythans should know they were coming at this point and procrastinating would only make things worse in the long run. The sooner they got the mission done, the better. The commandant felt his tentacles contorting in anticipation as his squadron began their crawl forward again.
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Sarlunt looked about his war room and reflected on the changes in recent times as the last of his squadron leaders moved in and settled down. The war room had always been relatively sparse in the furnishing department and while he hadn’t had terribly much back in their town, that particular aspect had not improved since they had moved into Camp Treaty. The once nice padded seats had been replaced with pale, plastic replicas that would wiggle if one put too much pressure. The few screens and decorations on the old office were fully gone now, simply replaced by a picture of the human giving a thumbs up. Annoying.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
The one thing that remained the same was the rather plain-looking table that sat in the center of the room. It had been brought over in the early days and Sarlunt was quite thankful for it. There were many aspects about the table that Sarlunt appreciated from the smooth finish to the sleek jet black coat of paint. Most of all, Sarlunt appreciated the obstinant sturdiness that he couldn't help but respect. It also happened to be able to create and display real-time holograms and maps of the surrounding area. Maybe he mostly appreciated it for that last aspect but the other benefits were definitely still nice.
Powering up the table, Sarlunt glanced about the room and suppressed a grimace as a holographic map sprung to life. Far too many of the seats were empty for his tastes. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Sarlunt swiped at the newly formed map, running through their plan in his head again. ‘Rat’, as the human liked to call him, had been able to give them a good idea about what exactly they would be facing and the reports from the scouts he had left afield had corroborated.
The numbers were far larger than he would have liked but that had always been a concern. Fortunately, they had a few tricks up their sleeve to even out the number although it would still very much be an uphill battle. Resisting the urge to sigh in frustration again, Sarlunt activated a few preset markers for the map. Clearing his throat, Sarlunt waited a moment for the group to quiet down and began.
“As you all know, a second group of inins have landed planetside and I don’t think I have to go into detail as to what a failure to repulse this attack will result in.”
The mood of the room subtly shifted and Sarlunt watched several of the occupant’s eyes darken with anger and a few further seemed to be barely suppressing a snarl. Sarlunt felt a wolfish grin touch his features and almost felt bad for whatever inins would be on the receiving end. Almost.
“This meeting is mostly a last second formality to make sure we are all of the same understanding. Many of you have been helping to work with our defenses so I’m sure that you already have a decent idea of the plan but I ask that you all still bear with me for the time being.”
Sarlunt turned to the table and pinched a small part of the map to expand it.
“Let’s start with the bad news. These red dots represent the bulk of the enemy forces. Thus far they have remained grouped together and have shown zero signs of splitting up or trying to flank. Our current understanding is that they aim to push into our base and overwhelm us with excessive firepower. From our scout’s reports, they have a few units with heavy assault weapons that may be capable of breaking through Camp Treaty’s shields. Despite the fact that Henry’s defenses may have held during the inin’s first assault, we cannot be sure to what extent they are equipped to fight through. Furthermore, we have been unable to identify the leading components of their forces. I cannot stress how much we need to capture them alive if we want to have even a chance at recovering our people.”
Sarlunt felt a feral grin begin to make an appearance.
“Now let’s talk about the good news.”
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Henry felt his face crease up more than usual as he contemplated the choice before him. Music or not. On the one hand, it would certainly bring up the level of shock and awe as well as serve as a decent inspiration for him. On the other hand, he lost a bit of tactical awareness. Decisions decisions.
Having to sit out while he watched the fucker probe his base was infuriating but that would coming to an end soon. Hmmm… I’m Still Standing by Elton John would work pretty well…
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The inin commandant watched as the last squadron departed from the main group. The intel from the orbital scans had proven correct as the defenses hadn’t been evenly spaced. The overall density of guns was dramatically lower on the northeastern side of those accursed xythan burrow and with a bit of coordination, that was where they’d be able to break through.
Focusing on the sun for a moment, the inin shifted with displeasure. Their probing attack had verified the effectiveness of their weapon’s abilities to breach the shielding on the base but it had come at a cost. Over a third of the heavy weapon had been destroyed or lost in the returning hail of bullets and unless they coordinated their next attack, they would find themselves forced to attack a much closer range. They needed to get a heavy volley off if they wanted to…
A large vibration shook the air and the commandant felt as his transmitter immediately began to rapidly signal for help. Waving to the rest of his remaining troops to follow, he began to quickly scuttle in the direction of the recently departed squad. They were making good time when the first of Henry’s EMP rounds slammed into the group.
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The main inin force had been gathering behind one of the many stone pillars that littered the valley area when all hell had broken loose. It started with a faint buzzing that some of the more perceptive individuals might have noticed but the lack of any obvious source had caused them to brush it off as nothing of immediate importance.
The buzzing originated from several small drones that had been circling their encampment from quite high, spying and feeding information back to their owners. The owners had, in response, made the executive decision to detonate the demo charges they had planted several days prior. This abuse ended up being too much for the pillar and it fell right towards the inin encampment.
Forced out into the open, the inins fled into the waiting xythan guns. Heavy gunfire erupted from both sides at this point and people began dropping as explosions began erupting across the field. As the inins quickly fired off a few heavy weapons, the base buckled, shields shrieked their protest, and segments began to fall.
In response, the drones that had been patrolling began targeted dives.
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Mr. Blinky the shield generator was many things but a failure certainly wasn’t one of them. All equipment had a certain level of variability in its effectiveness and after all of Henry’s tinkering, Mr. Blinky was far and away the best shield generator on base. Sporting two googly eyes and a small name tag the human slapped on, it stood proudly in defiance of the attackers. Working in defense of the many innocents locked away behind its wall. One by one his shield generators companions fell until he alone remained guarding the last of the defenders.
Gun fire had slowed down but one final obstacle remained. Two heavy weapons. The first managed to fire into his bulwark before quickly being gunned down and Mr. Blinky quivered in nonexistent fear. Noticing the shaking, the xythans redoubled their efforts, firing with a sort of desperation into the advancing forces. Mines exploded, guns fired and people died on both sides. Two drones came screaming from the heavens to remove the problem but arrived a second too late as the second heavy cannon was fired. Valiantly flickering, Mr. Blinky valiantly threw everything it had into one last hurrah.
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Glysia bent down over the smoking generator impressed. It had held out far longer than expected and had prevented a not insignificant number of casualties. A faint flicker of energy told her it was still holding on if just barely. Snorting with a grim sort of amusement upon spotting the googly eyes, Glysia patted the small machine with no small amount of appreciation.