"Captain Rall" Ava Baxter said as he exited the door to the roof of the observation tower, "are we ready to shock the entire galaxy?"

"Either that or end up humiliated. Our source came through." Victor said. "We've got a pretty impressive stockpile of photon rockets ready to go" Victor said. "I think we might very well stand a chance of beating them back, here."

"I'm worried we don't have enough IR goggles for the men. The reptilia have considerably better night-time vision than we do."

"Oh, I don't think that'll be a big issue" Victor said. With the amount of firepower we have here it won't help them very much."

"Good" Ava said. "Colonel Davenport, are the reptilia on their way?"

"I told the Fire Flower commander we won't surrender" Colonel said, "and they are on their way in numbers significantly more than ours. Are you sure these rockets will work?"

"I can't say for sure" Victor said. "The organization I have got these weapons from have no reason to bilk us, though."

"Oh, the rockets and militia aren't the only defense we have" Ava pointed out. "There's a good reason this settlement was built over a very large underground water source." Ava picked up her radio and hit a button on it. "Is the frost barrier ready?" she asked.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Yes" a voice replied over the radio. "Just say the word."

"Put it up now" Ava said. All around the perimeter of the city, big tubes emerged from the ground all around the perimeter of the city, and their top portions bent away from the city in sort of an upside-down J shape, and a large, fluffy white mass came out of it. At first it appeared to be water, but looking closer one could see that it was snow…a massive amount of snow. Over the course of just a few minutes, the tubes had created a barrier of snow that had to have been 40 to 50 yards around the city.

"Amazing" Victor said. "How much snow is that?"

"They promised me 150 feet wide with at least a foot deep. It won't stop the reptilia, but it will slow them down. The snow is a good bit below freezing, too, so it'll take it a bit to melt. Colonel" Ava said turning to him, "ready the militias, it's show time."

"Yes ma'am" he said, and he left. After a wait of fifteen minutes of agonizing waiting that felt like an eternity, the hoplites appeared on a long portion of the horizon. They seemed to approach the city as a slow pace until they got within a few hundred yards they all began running. The militiamen on top of the wall opened fire as well as the turrets. They managed to eliminate some of the hoplites, but it was immediately apparent they were going to be outnumbered. The troops opened fire on the hoplites, but it was just no use. Even though the snow moat slowed them down, there were entirely too many of them.

Just as many men began climbing down the wall to run for their lives, it happened: A large pillar of many lights shot up from somewhere within the city, like many flares being shot up at once. The sheer brightness of light almost made the area feel almost like daytime. The rockets made many small explosions all around the ground all throughout the ranks of the hoplites. The destructive force was just too great. Within thirty seconds, the hoplites were all running back the way they came. As the hoplites ran back to the horizon, thunderous cheers broke out all around the city.