The young Drekan soldier was very surprised when he saluted his superior officer and instead of returning his salute the officer tackled him to the ground.

"Are you insane?" The officer hissed as everyone around them ran for cover. He counted under his breath for six seconds then seemed to relax. "I think we're fine, but in the future, no salutes."

"What? Why?" The young soldier asked. It was his first deployment and he hadn't learned not to ask questions. Their briefings had said the war was going well. They had told him and his fellow soldiers that half the planet was already under Drekan Technocracy control with the other half ready to fall any day now. It was supposed to be a cake walk, practically a paid vacation.

"Fucking human snipers." The officer said as he picked himself up and brushed the dirt out of his orange and black striped fur. "I should be back home emptying my balls into my wife and her two sisters but instead I'm stuck here on this rock dodging bullets from fucking apes that are too cowardly to meet us in real combat."

The Drekan were descendants of a tiger-like creature that had evolved on a semi-tropical deathworld. Their expansion into space and subsequent colonization of the other planets in their system had gone unopposed. There had been a few minor skirmishes with other species once they went interstellar but the superior technology and military might of the Drekan had allowed them to steam roll the other less advanced races.

Of course that had all ended once the humans got involved. Why the humans were so protective of a species as useless as the Kinter was anyone's guess. But as soon as the conflict had threatened the Kinter worlds the humans had wasted no time explaining that any aggression toward the docile herbivores would be met with lethal force.

The Drekan had laughed it off at first. Who were these strange primates to threaten them? The main Human fleet was on the other side of the galaxy and the ships they had in system were pitifully outnumbered. But as the war began in earnest it became apparent that the Humans were going to make them pay for every step they took into Kinter territory.

Eventually the Drekan had lost patience with the slow pace of the war and deployed their greatest weapon, the technophage. It was a semi-sentient swarm of nanomachines that targeted any foreign technology that had so much as an energized circuit. It also shredded any being unlucky enough to be nearby.

The technophage could consume a tank in minutes and knock planes out of the sky, but left animals and plants unharmed. It was the perfect weapon, or so the Drekan had thought. Unfortunately the Humans had found some way to evade it.

The swarm could find and destroy a single low powered LED buried beneath six tons of rock. It shouldn't have been possible to bring non-Drekan tech into the warzone without being spotted. Yet the Drekan still found themselves being harassed by sniper fire from both the Humans and the Kinter, sniper fire which was racking up an impressive amount of kills and destroying morale.

The officers had found themselves telling the soldiers not to salute them outside and making a point not to stand still for more than six seconds at a time. An officer who stood still for too long found themselves with a fist sized hole where their heart used to be.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

What had at first been a sweet victory against an outmatched opponent had degenerated into a bloody slog. Somehow the Humans were still managing to get reinforcements into the warzone and their attacks were becoming more and more frequent.

Something which frustrated the Drekan because it shouldn't have been possible for the humans to land so much as a transport without the technophage shredding it mid flight. So how were they doing it?

The officer wondered about that as he walked toward the door to his office. Was it some kind of unknown cloaking technology? Were they hacking the swarm?

There was a sound like a rock hitting his door as he reached for the handle and a neat thumb sized hole appeared in the wood at about chest height. The officer looked down and saw the red spreading across his uniform where the bullet had passed through him before lodging itself into the door. It didn't hurt. Mercifully it didn't hurt.

His knees collapsed as he fell to the ground, his body unavailable to keep him upright. "Fucking humans…" He managed to choke out as the blood filled his lungs. "Bastards don't fight… fair…."

---

"Good hit, Demon." The Kinter named Simesh remarked coldly as he watched from his position on a hill three kilometers away from the Drekan base. The antelope-like herbivore peered through his antique spotting scope trying to see if any other opportunities were presenting themselves. "There's an air transport with its rear hatch left open, looks like some kind of munitions inside. Might be medical supplies. It's hard to see."

The Human sniper grunted and worked the bolt on his rifle, chambering a high explosive round. "Shooter ready." He said, settling back in behind the nearly two meter long rifle.

"Spotter ready." The Kinter replied. "Wind direction is the same as before, ten kilometers per hour and holding steady. I figure three mils should do it."

"Three mils of windage, confirmed." The Human said as he laid the crosshairs on the center of the pallet of supplies then slowly squeezed the trigger. The blast from the rifle was mitigated by the integrated suppressor but it still made a supersonic crack as the bullet broke the sound barrier. By the time the bullet reached its target it would be subsonic, too slow to trigger the Drekan transport's shielding or the base's automatic defenses.

Six seconds later there was a flash of light followed by a chain of explosions as the other transports were destroyed in a series of sympathetic detonations.

"Good hit, Demon." The Kinter said. "New target… a window just opened up in the main building. It looks like the base commander is peeking out to see what's going on. He's shouting orders."

The Human worked the bolt on his rifle and took aim. "Shooter ready." He said.

"Spotter ready." Replied Simesh. "Same wind call as before. Three mils."

"Three mils, confirmed." The human said, settling the crosshairs of his scope on the Drekan commander. He pulled the trigger, felt the recoil, watched the shimmering haze as the big heavy bullet traced through the air.

"Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night…" He whispered as he waited for the bullet to strike, willing it to connect with the Drekan commander. There was a splash of gore as the feline alien was decapitated by the 12.7x99mm round.

"Good hit, Demon." Simesh said. "New target…"

---

Up in orbit the Human special forces group best known as Nomad Fleet Recon prepared to drop into the occupied territory below. The local caretaking force had been doing a good job of slowing down the Drekan but now it was time for the professionals to go to work.

The technophage had been a surprise but it only targeted electronics. Luckily humans had been fighting wars long before electricity was a thing and were more than happy to reach into their bag of tricks. Tricks like the McMillan Tac-50 sniper rifle and the optical rangefinder.

Another pair of fun tricks that the Drekan were about to find out about were the Ultra-HALO jump and the orbital glider.

Team leader Pineda looked at his troops with pride. "WHAT FALLS FROM THE SKY?" He bellowed.

"TROUBLE!" Shouted the troops in unison.

Pineda smiled proudly. This was going to be fun.