The system was roughly a hundred light years into the Unified Council Territory. A Lanaktallan forge world for the Executor and Lanaktallan Military fleets. From neural pistols to railguns to courier ground effect vehicles to areospace fighters to system patrol ships all the way up to the heavy Executor System Pacification ships. The fourth habital planet had a gravity of 2G galactic standard (1.5 Terran) for High G training, the third world had a broken protocontinent, the other two were standard Lanaktallan worlds. Large protocontinent, gently rolling plains, a few mountain ranges.

System Most High Dunaru'u had no fear of any of the supposed Terran attack forces. There were just over 400 million faithful Lanaktallan across the four planets, nearly ten thousand ships protected the system. He didn't have to depend on neo-sapient conscripts or near-civilized troops, all of his troops were Lanaktallan. All highly trained, experienced at putting down rebellions, pacifying systems, and putting neo-species discovered by the Explorer Corps back in their place.

Dunaru'u had scanning systems out on the resonance zone, keeping a watchful eye out for any incoming ships. While the Terrans had attacked several systems, Dunaru'u knew they could not keep up the pace nor could they seize enough systems for it to matter in the long run. There were trillions of Lanaktallan, tens of thousands of systems, hundreds of thousands of warships, billions of troops to resist the Terrans until their strength was bled away and they could fight no more.

Once that happened, the Lanaktallan would gentle them as they had gentled every other species.

The new standard of 15% casualties was surprising, a 50% increase in normal, but at the same time, it was estimated that the Terrans would have no choice but to back off at the 14% casualty rate.

Dunaru'u knew that he would get warning of ships approaching in jumpspace itself, that the scanners would detect any ship that dropped out of jumpspace or even Hellspace up to a half lightyear out, that the huge amount of troops he was keeping on standby would stop even the most determined enemy.

Yes, the humans used forbidden technology, such as upper band jumpspace engines, compressed plasma array weapons, and variable frequency energy weapons, but that did not mean they were unstoppable.

Dunaru'u had managed to bring in some of the best Fleet and Ground Force Most Highs available, stressing that there would be no non-Lanaktallan individuals within the system. Additionally, he had purchased the contracts of many Lanaktallan who had fallen on hard times and assigned them to the jobs that were normally taken by neo-sapient wage-slaves.

For the last year he had been confident about the status of his system, and hearing how the Terrans had been pushed out of system after system, his confidence only rose. Telkan, apparently, had been a complete disaster for the Telkans and their Terran allies. More and more Devourers had been arriving in neo-sapient systems to clean up the rebellious species in preperation for further genetic gentling. To that end, he had arranged for the best genticists in the Unified Systems to begin examining the genetic code of the all the failed neo-sapients as well as captured Terran genomes.

Taking into account the fact that the Terrans seemed to excel at urban and close quarters combat, he had ordered that there be additional troops stationed within the cities, that space stations have additional troops allocated, and that cities have additional air defense positions.

He also, over the complaints of the bureaucrats, ordered a complete preventive checks and maintenance services done on all weapon systems, vehicles, and armor. It cost quite a bit but nearly every weapon system had numerous defects and some had needed replaced completely. Particularly missile warheads that the fissionable material had decayed to granite.

Which meant, when every alarm in the system went off, he was not worried as he hurried to his command station.

Until he saw what was on the display screen.

Over a hundred jump ships, already shedding oval dropships that were moving slowly into atomsphere, firing weapons as they did so. Additionally what could best be described as "bricks with wings" were dropping, powered toward the surface on full thrusters. The "bricks" came in fast, hitting their retro-rockets close to the ground. They dropped around cities, infrastructure points, out on the vast rolling plains.

The system defense ships were within five light seconds when there was what essentially a sparkling on the screen and more ships arrived. As soon as they arrived they disgorged swarms of parasite craft, all acceleration hard.

Giant robots. Only four per 'brick', not including the fire small (relatively) power armors, but still, giant robots. The bricks landed in groups of four, then took off, heading back into orbit. The robots moved into an obviously practiced formation and started moving in on their targets. Some groups simply got into position so that they could wipe out anything approaching the landing areas for the big oval ones. The big ones were full of giant robots, which immediately broke into teams of four and spread out. The big oval ones had power armors running around them building heavy firebases.

The ships defending the system powered up, moving in on the spindly craft. Dunaru'u smiled at the idea that the spindly ships had no cover. No smaller parasite craft, no heavy craft, and were virtually defenseless against his system protection ships.

The system defense ships were within five light seconds when there was what essentially a sparkling on the screen and more ships arrived. As soon as they arrived they disgorged swarms of parasite craft, all accelerating hard.

The ships obviously didn't care about shields, using split second reactions to avoid light speed weapons until they were within .25ls, then they just took the hits on the armor. They used heavy reactionless engines and thrusters and bored in close on the system defense ships.

The first wave disgorged so many missiles that the system defense holotank overloaded. When it cleared up, half of the larger ships were reporting major damage and a third of the smaller ones were either gone or so damaged as to be out of the fight. The ship Most High for the fleet breathed a sigh of relief, the ships would take time to turn around and come back. Instead they reversed and slowed then came back in with enough speed it made everyone check the scanners to ensure that the numbers were right.

The ships came right back in, taking the hits on the armor, losing some, but still attacking, launching missiles, attacking with energy weapons. This time the scanners stayed up long enough for Dunaru'u to see that they were flying the long way down the ship firing their energy weapons and even autocannons at extremely close range. Not measured in light seconds or even thousands of miles, but close enough that the ships flew through the battle-screens to attack less than a hundred meters off the hull.

Within four passes the Terran attack craft were chasing the Lanaktallan ships that were attempting to break off. Not allowing them to escape. They tried to go to jumpspace and found that somehow it was interdicted. Panicking, they fled toward the edge of the system, for Oort Cloud, hoping to lose the Terran ships there.

That was when the system scanners at the edge of the system reported they were being attacked.

"STOP DYING, YOU COWARDS!" Dunaru'u screamed at the holotank as the casualties crossed 50% and the Lanaktallan commanders completely panicked. He ordered them back into combat.

The ones that kept going, he blew up a few hundred of them and ordered the rest to get back into the combat. Reluctantly the ships turned around and began facing off against the Terran ships again even as Dunaru'u began committing his reinforcements.

He had millions of ships.

And he would commit them all if he had to.

Meanwhile the big ships were firing on the satellites, the orbital stations, the asteroid facilities, wiping them out in the harsh glare of nuclear weapons.

The combat mechs started moving out once the ships were being harried out of the system. Their targets were chosen precisely. Missiles were launched from the round dropships, hammering communication hubs and electrical plants first, then going for railways, water treatment plants, harbors.

Any concentration of vehicles were attacked by a different weapon.

Hypersonic missiles that flew nap of earth so close that the air defense systems couldn't find them. When they reached their targets, usually doing MACH 10 or better, they blew free the shrouding and launched smaller warheads that spread out and went off in a pattern.

Atomic warheads. Not cleaner fusion, not antimatter, but dirty fission weapons with enhanced radiation output. The weapons sleeted the crews of the vehicles with hard radiation until the radiation shielding just gave it up. Those were followed with solid core munitions that blew clean through even the heavy 250 ton tanks.

Dunaru'u watched as his careful plans were destroyed step by step. The Terrans used close range artillery, advancing within ten meters of their own artillery barrage, seemingly unafraid of what might happen. They used close range aerospace attacks, bringing in the assault craft within meters of their own lines. In several cases, when engaged with a mass charge of infantry, they called artillery in on their own positions and then crawled out of holes in the ground, roaring their battle-cries and attacking the survivors of the artillery storm. More than a few the giant mechs came to the aid of infantry, stomping forward to engage the mass charge of Lanaktallans while the Terran troops still fought on the ground in their heavy power armor.

Dunaru'u began to see the flashing icons of leaders demanding they be allowed to withdraw. 5%. 10%. 15%. 20%. The casualties mounted but the Terrans still attacked. Units that did manage to break off would be chased, would find artillery and attacks hitting them repeatedly, even going so far as to use artillery to drop mines in front of the retreating troops.

It didn't matter how much damage was done to the Terran troops, they kept coming as if they hadn't left 5% of their number dead behind them.

Dunaru'u had heard of it, but had never witnessed it.

Still, he knew of one thing that every species suffered, that not even the more primitive neo-species had been able to overcome.

Battle fatigue.

He never gave the humans rest, attacked them every day, hit their bases with artillery and missiles every hours, giving the humans no rest. He knew that the constant impact of artillery on the bases, even if it was stopped by the point defense, would wear down on the human warriors. Even if all he could do was rain useless shrapnel on the combat robots, he never gave them a break.

This was how he could break them, how he would break them, how he would hand them defeat.

More Terran ships jumped into the system and the previous ships recalled their parasite craft and jumped out. More dropships to the planet. More fighter craft.

Space was full of debris, unexploded weaponry, furiously battling ships.

The battle kept raging on. Day after day after day.

Dunaru'u discovered something he had missed in his plans.

His unit commanders were, one by one, beginning to suffer from battle fatigue themselves. First the leaders, then the troops, then even the mechanics. One by one his troops began suffering worse and worse.

The Terrans just got more ferocious. They attacked relentlessly. In the cities they moved forward block by block, street by street, even if it was covered in blood and bodies. Mechs slammed through buildings and stalked the streets. Infantry swarmed through the streets, attacking with rifles and missile launchers and sometimes with just their armored hands.

It began snowing the second week. Black and gray snowflakes as the temperature dropped. Fuel lines to the cities, electrical lines to the cities, had all been destroyed. The massive semi-decorative farms had all been burned. The fish farms had been wiped off the face of the planet with atomic weapons.

One thing that Dunaru'u had not planned, was that the Terrans would return the favor when it came to keeping up the pressure. Solo operators with high powered single shot weapons harassed encampments where the leaders made plans, artillery constantly dropped on infantry and maintenance bases, air bases found that Terrans with shoulder fired anti-air missiles were lurking about, the outrageous range on the missile launchers meaning that even the best counter-grav combat aircraft/areospace craft couldn't avoid the missiles.

The third week the Lanaktallan forces were starting to hesitate to take the field. The lighter mechs proved to be fast enough that anything that they couldn't take out they could outrun.

They also had a habit of crouching down on their bird-like legs and hiding until infantry got near and then ten or twelve of the light mechs would jump out and begin to jump up and down on the infantry, their vehicles, or chasing them.

"I'M GOING TO STEP ON YOU EVENTUALLY!" was often yelled out as the mech suddenly slowed down and almost mocked the Lanaktallan infantry that was trying to gallop away.

Then the light mechs would run away with the retreat call "WOOP WOOP WOOP!"

Tanks learned quickly that following the light mechs would lure the tanks into ambushes, the larger mechs standing up and attacking, or the light mechs somehow running through a field of mines that would then destroy the tanks following.

It was the middle of the third week that the light mechs broke the back of the Lanaktallan infantry morale and made it so they refused to engage the mechs and fled from them. Hardened infantry beings with two centuries experience at putting down resistances and pacifying species refused to leave the bunkers and in some cases attacked their own officers.

The light mechs started picking up the Lanaktallan infantry and tossing them to each other, sometimes one would snatch up one of the infantry Lanaktallan while one would rip a tree out of the ground or a utility pole.

"BATTER UP!" or "GO LONG!" was the war-cry that made hardened Lanaktallan special operations troops collapse in a dead feint.

The bigger mechs started doing something different with the armored vehicles. "DEATH FROM ABOVE!" was bad enough, where a giant mech would land on tanks with two massive feet, but then came the worse one.

"FIELD GOOOOOOOAL!" followed by seeing just how far the armored vehicle could be kicked.

The infantry and armored vehicles commanders surrendered the rural areas to the artillery and aerospace units and retreated to the cities to dig in.

The Terran infantry marched in, and for the Lanaktallans, it suddenly got worse.

It was one thing to practice urban combat with holograms and carefully designed urban courses.

Fighting in a burning city against completely maniacs was completely different.

And, in Dunaru'u and his Most High Officer's opinions, the simulations never covered fighting complete raving savages.

The Lanaktallan commanders found themselves fighting an enemy that seemed completely psychotic. Power armor, unpowered armor, clothing, and once naked, the Terrans just kept coming.

Dunaru'u watched through the armor systems of his own men as Terrans came charging out of an artillery storm, some of them missing arms, firing their weapons, screaming their war-cries, to fall upon the Lanaktallan troops.

It was then, at that moment, when he watched a human with his armor compromised, his intestines falling out the great rent in his armor, missing an arm, get to his feet, pull a stop-sign from the ground, and wade into the Lanaktallan troops swinging it and roaring out his war-cry, that Dunaru'u understood a sudden, shocking, fundamental epiphany about what he had miscalculated.

The Terrans were getting closer, in the tunnels beneath the mountain his base was built into, as Dunaru'u completed his report and managed to get it out via hyper-com right before the doors of his command center exploded inward and some Terran tossed a satchel charge into the room and turned Dunaru'u into hamburger.

It took four more months before the Terrans left.

All they left behind was ash, radioactive now, sand, and destruction.

Some Lanaktallan survived, in the ruins and wreckage and death. They found, where the Terrans had abandoned fire bases and logistics bases, bags of seed and farming tools with a simple message: "One Chance - Terran Mechworlds"

-------------

The message sped out, heading for the Grand Most High Executor's office. It reached the Unified Councils World, was captured by a satellite, beamed down to the Grand Most High Executor's Officer, where it was accepted by the computers, examined by the Grand Most High Executor's secretary...

...and dumped in the garbage bin as Dunaru'u was a Executor Military Most High, not an Executor Intelligence Most High.

The Lanaktallan would learn what Dunaru'u had learned, what he tried to warn them about.

The paper had been titled simply, a title that covered the subject quite simply.

A title that might have warned the Lanaktallan of the lessons every race that had faced the Terrans had learned.

"Terran Endurance to the Slaughter of Total War"

-------------

MANTID FREE WORLDS

My God.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

Play stupid games.

Win stupid prizes.

/////////

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Still... I mean...

We worry about you. You're still scarred from the Mar-gite Invasion.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

We're fine. They started it. They set the battlefield, they set the parameters, they set the limits.

/////////

MANTID FREE WORLDS

How far do you see this going?

We worry about you.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

As far as they want to take it.

/////////

MANTID FREE WORLDS

At least call back the irregulars.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

No. They attacked the Harmony. They're attacking the Rim Worlds.

They set the stage.

/////////

MANTID FREE WORLDS

All right. I've tried to talk you out of it.

Does the knowledge that they've killed 312 billion humans so far change your opinion? Will that make you call back the Irregulars? Call back the guys like Daxin.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

JESUS DURACHROME CHRIST, SIS! WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

No. It changes nothing.

/////////

MANTID FREE WORLDS

There is no way we can talk you out of fighting our ancient foe, the Lanaktallan? There is no way we can convince you not to pick up the banners of the Precursor War?

Not even that they've attacked over 500 worlds and killed almost half a trillion humans, including an estimated 75 billion children?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

HOLY SHIT! ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY, SIS? DON'T SAY THAT SHIT!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

No. We're going to war.

With or without all of you.

/////////

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Then we're in.

Not just support.

We're in this with you.

May the Digital Omnimessiah and the Twelve Biological Apostles protect us.