Grand Admiral Krusuk stood on his bridge, looking down at the small blue-green planet that has cost his fleet so much to take intact. His Emperor wanted it for a food-world, to feed a new crown sector expansion in this direction, so heavy orbital weapons were out. The simply caused too much widespread devastation to put the world back into production quickly.

Krusuk frowned. The logical Rules of War were simple: when surrounded, outnumbered, and outgunned, with the enemy in control of your airspace and orbitals, you surrendered. You got to live another day, your planet wasn't blown to very small particles, and everyone went home alive. But these damned humans just didn't know when to give up. They stood and fought to the end, heedless of the cost to themselves or the damage to their cities and homes. And Krusuk's infantry had paid the price to 'dig them out' over and over again. Casualties were far higher than predicted, and climbing higher.

Krusuk's frown deepened further as he contemplated the alternative rules of war, the ones his rules of engagement forbid him from using: the Rules of Annihilation. If one did intend to fight to the last, then you burned everything to ashes, unleashing weapons of mass destruction from the very first strike. Krusuk didn't like using such weapons, and was glad his Emperor had forbidden them. His recon teams had already located thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of such weapons down on the blue-green planet. The Humans hadn't used them, probably because he hadn't unleashed his orbital weapons either. But Krusuk worried: these humans were going to fight until they went extinct, so why not unleash such weapons in one final act of defiance from their own funeral pyre? So Krusuk had instructed his recon teams to disable or destroy all of the 'world-ender' weapons. They had done so in a spectacular display of daring and skill, despite taking sixty percent casualties in the doing. No unit could survive that loss rate, so Krusuk had stood them down.

But now the humans were down to tiny splinters of terrible potency. Every one of them was a survivor, made a hardened veteran by years of war. Hit-and-fade strikes, targeting the most vital pieces of infrastructure for Krusuk's fleet and forces, had plagued him for months until the infantry had adapted. But one such splinter had been located, surrounded, cut off, with Krusuk's own Grand Cruiser parked in orbit overhead. And still they refused to surrender. So Krusuk brought his universal translator online, and opened a communications link.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

When the leader of the Human resistance 'cell' came on, Krusuk expected hatred or zealotry. He was prepared to deal with them. "This is Grand Admiral Krusuk. We both know how this will end Human, so why won't you stand down and surrender? Why do you insist on defiance from atop your own funeral pyre?"

The Human grinned, a wide sinister thing that didn't reach his eyes. "You said it yourself Krusuk, we've nothing left to lose, so why not take some of you with us?"

"Because to do so would be foolish! Our scanners show no more than thirty of you in that building, with over six thousand infantry ready to 'dig you out', plus the guns of my own ship leveled at you. You cannot hope to win!"

The human just laughed and laughed. "Your sensors are good, I'll give you that. But do you even know what this building is?"

Krusuk shrugged. "Does it even matter human?"

"Looks like I owe Mike five credits then. We're sitting on top of the biggest fusion power plant on Earth. And we have an engineer already at work in its bowels."

Krusuk's eyes widened. "You would ravage your own planet just to kill a few thousand infantry? There are over fifty million of them on planet, six thousand won't even be missed!"

The human grinned again. "Only fifty million infantry left you mean. And Earth is already ruined, so what's one more crater?"

"You really don't care about your own life, do you human?"

"With so little of it left? Start the music, Grand Admiral Krusuk, We're ready to Dance."

Krusuk stared at the closed link. He had to send in the infantry, didn't he? An artificial runaway fusion power plant detonation wouldn't just be 'one more crater', it would be the crater, the detonation that ended his Emperor's plans for 'Earth' and the crown sector. So he gave the order, and turned to stare at the blue-green planet. The Earth, whose magnificent defiance would be remembered. He would make sure of it.