DAY FOUR - HESSTLA

The communications channels were full of nothing but squealing, static, pops, and hissing. It had started suddenly, a half hour before. Communication was lost almost immediately with any satellite that could not be reached by laser. Quantum communications systems were down at any range further than a hundred meters, radio was available only across certain bandwidths. Laser communication and a thin frequency of microwave was available but that wasn't something that was guaranteed to last.

Undrat had spent over two hours helping lay direct wire communication line between the fire positions. Armored pipe with internal mesh then the cable inside, buried under the ground at the standard six inches deep.

It had been good work, work Undrat was proud of as he returned to the firing position and went to the back of the firing position. There he removed his armor and cleaned off, ate, and relaxed on his bunk. Undrat used his retinal link to study the field manuals on interservice operations, taking time to look over the new section on emergency communications.

YOU BELONG TO US rang out again, as it had for the last day and a half.

THEN COME GET SOME! roared back, with DEEZ NUTZ MAYBE! following.

The last day and a half the Terran Space Force had been fighting the invaders, tentatively identified as Precursor Species Nine. Undrat had heard that there had been some landings, small forces that had managed to fight through the Space Force interdiction, get through the orbital defense systems, and then get through the ground defense systems.

Fourteen hours ago the Marines of the Third Telkan Marine Division had rolled out to start striking at the recently landed enemy. From what Undrat had heard, almost the entire Division was engaged in combat now.

Which was why Undrat was paying particular attention to the Telkan Marine section of the inter-service operations field manual.

Private Second Class Erkolt came over and sat down, wiping his hands off with a rag. He waited politely until Undrat bookmarked the section he was reading. Undrat sat up, putting his hands on his knees, and looked at Erkolt.

"Your armor is in fully serviceable condition," Erkolt said. "I triple checked for dust in the joints."

Undrat nodded. That was directly from the technical manual for maintenance.

"Your primary and secondary weapons have been inspected and maintained. Your equipment is at maximum field capacity according to field resources," Erkolt said.

"I thank you for your efforts, Private," Undrat said.

"I acknowledge your thanks. I will now take my leave," Erkolt answered, standing up.

Undrat stood up and shook Erkolt's hand. Erkolt turned and left, heading deeper into the fighting position. It had been expanded according to the manual in the time allowed, adding in rest areas, an eating chamber, an exercise area, and a personal cleaning area once the armory and ammo pit had been dug.

Further in Undrat could hear two other Tukna'rn taking a shift to further fortify and expand the fighting position. Undrat knew that according to the manual the next areas were a commo station, which might be inoperative, with a secondary environmental plant.

After two hours of rest Undrat got up, heading over to his armor. Erkolt checked it over for Undrat once Undrat had mounted the frame and locked in. The screens flickered through the startup checks and Undrat watched carefully, looking for anything out of place. Each piece passed the checks, each piece was operational.

"Wake up, Duknark," Undrat said.

In the upper right of his vision a window opened. A Tukna'rn face made of glimmering dots appeared. It yawned, blinked, and looked around.

"Quantum communication systems are jammed, microwave bands with the exception of Band Theta are jammed," Duknark started. Undrat waited for the eVI to go through the status report. Only four channels were still unjammed, the armor was at 100%, the weapon was at 100%.

Moving with the careful slow movements he had been taught in power armor school, Undrat moved to the front of the position. He relieved Ovkret, who moved back to turn his armor in for maintenance. He ran a careful function check on the weapon, the Madame Three-Eighteen. It came back as fully operational, but he still used a quick blast of compressed air to clear the chamber and the barrel just case.

Off in the distance, through the gap in the forward wall of the fighting position, he could see smoke was starting to appear on the horizon.

"Two coming in," Duknark said, "Checked their armor IDs."

"Affirmative," Undrat said. He picked up his rifle and faced the metallic strips that sectioned off the Bravo Gun Position from the outside tunnel.

"Two coming in," a heavily synthesized voice spoke Confederate Standard.

"Advance and be recognized," Undrat said.

The face that poked through was a triangular head, antenna wraps out of the helmet, and wide opaque lenses over the compound eyes.

"Where are the twelve minutes lost in traffic?" Undrat asked, giving the challenge word of "traffic."

"When sheep howl at the moonlight running in circles," the Treana'ad answered verbally, clearing the faceplate, showing that he was a living being. "I vouch for the next man."

"Come through for count," Undrat ordered.

Undrat looked up as the big insectiod clambered into the heavy weapon's 'pit' and crouched down behind the ballistic barrier. Undrat looked over the armor, recognizing the Treana'ad heavy mobile infantryman armor the other soldier was wearing.

On the back of the Treana'ad was a smaller suit of armor with two rods welded to the armor as large as one of Undrat's fingers.

"Is that two?" Undrat asked.

"They're landing," the Treana'ad said. "Command ordered me to bring Warrant Officer I View Through the Mirror to this position when I was reassigned."

Undrat looked at the small mantid, barely two feet tall. "The Lieutenant is further in," Undrat said, pointing.

The Treana'ad, who was listed as Gunnery Sergeant KaLa'aki on Undrat's visor, nodded. "I'll escort the Warrant Officer."

Undrat stared at both as they moved further into the fighting position, memorizing the way their armor looked and the coloration. Once they moved past the metallic strips Undrat turned back to his weapon, watching outside.

The smoke was getting closer.

Undrat reported it back. He checked the ranger, which combined LIDAR and RADAR, cranking up the sensitivity. It fuzzed and Undrat had Duknark log the malfunction and that it lasted for three point two one seconds.

The Treana'ad came back up, his armored boots variable hardness sole making a sticky noise as he moved up. The Treana'ad paused.

"I've been assigned to the fighting position," the Treana'ad said. "Your armorer is forging up my weaponry," the Treana'ad sat down in an odd motion that left his knees up above his abdomen.

"What type of weapon do you handle?" Undrat asked.

"The TM-87A3 Variable Munition 155mm Gun," the Treana'ad said. He paused, waiting. He knew that Undrat, like any other Tukna'rn, would be looking up the gun and everything about it. It took some getting used to, but the Tukna'rn were careful and methodical, which KaLa'aki respected.

Undrat went through the munitions listing. The most commonly used was the TM-991A7 "Tasty-Freeze" missile, which had a fast rotation and deployed two dozen vibroblades from the side right before it impacted the target. Useful against infantry, light power armor and armored vehicles, and aircraft.

"It appears to be an excellent weapon system, Gunnery Sergeant," Undrat said.

The Treana'ad nodded, an expression of pleasure for his people. "I have found, over the decades, it is an effective weapon."

Undrat sat quietly, watching the area in front of him. He was 500 meters from the base of the 'V' of the 'Y', with a perfect view of the firing arc in front of him. The factory was gone, devoured by 'ants' and all the matter brought back for the Terran creation engines.

He glanced at the level of the two matter tanks attached to the ammunition hopper for his weapons. Both of them at 99.98%. An acceptable level that would keep his weapon operational for hours before the primary tanks ran dry.

The Treana'ad had to admit, working with the Tukna'rn was different. He was used to the constant chatter of Terrans. The jokes, the back and forth. The Tukna'rn were silent, rarely speaking, but Terran combat analytics had preliminarily rated the Tukna'rn at a 7.5 for combat effectiveness.

The screams over the channel startled Undrat, making him look around. Another scream joined, then another.

"Do you hear that, Gunnery Sergeant?" Undrat asked.

The Treana'ad turned and looked at Undrat. "The Terrans... it's the Terrans."

Sergeant Ulnva burst out of the tunnel, through the strips of chaff. He was bleeding from his eyes, his mouth open in a scream, bloody foam running down his chin. He lunged forward, cocking back a fist. His adaptive camouflage blurred him, even though it was torn in two places showing bloody Terran skin.

Undrat frowned. Sergeant Ulnva was an even tempered and intelligent human who should know that attacking a suit of power armor with a bare fist would be...

The Terran's fist hit Undrat in the center of the chest with a bright purple flash.

"HIGH KINETIC IMPACT!" Duknark called out as Undrat was thrown back against his gun.

The Terran's fist came forward again, slamming into Undrat's helmet, snapping his head back as the kinetic gel sleeve tightened around him. Undrat got his arms up, as per close combat training, to protect himself.

The Terran grabbed Undrat's arm and yanked him forward as if Undrat didn't weight nearly three tons in his armor.

There was a sudden blur and the Treana'ad's bladearms burst from Ulnva's chest. The Terran stood up straight as the bladearms were beginning to withdraw. He grabbed one, his hands wrapped in purple lightning, and began to bend it.

The other bladearm burst from Sergeant Ulnva's throat. Both were withdrawn as the Terran turned around.

Undrat responded according to his training. Stepping forward and driving the bottom of his fist into the top of the Terran's head. Purple sparks exploded out from the impact and Undrat did it again, this time feeling something crunch under the blow as the two bladearms suddenly erupted from the human's back.

Undrat hit the human one more time for good measure.

Sergeant Ulnva went limp, sliding off the bladearms.

The Treana'ad Gunnery Sergeant drew his pistol and fired it twice into the Terran's face.

More screaming was sounding out.

The Treana'ad turned, charging into the tunnel. "Stay at your post!" the Gunnery Sergeant snapped.

Undrat looked down at the Terran, suddenly worried that the Terran would sit up. He had seen the Terran take several mortal wounds and not go down.

And what was the purple?

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

The line of cars was long, all of them honking at each other. In several places people had gotten out of their cars, their ears stiff and upraised in anger. Overhead military aircraft were streaking by, flowing low to the ground, maybe two hundred meters above the vehicles.

"The shelter is going to close in twenty minutes," Aunt Fenn worried, looking at her watch.

"I know, we're still three miles away," Uncle Inkree answered. He pushed on the horn. "They aren't moving," he looked at the rearview mirror, seeing Dambree rubbing her scar. The young Hesstlan girl had suffered a seizure an hour before, while they were stuck in traffic, but looked better now.

Thinking, Dambree looked out the window, then at her brother and two sisters. Little Pulngee was sitting in her safety chair, chewing on a biter cookie and glaring out the back window. Her brother Elurta was wringing his hands, the fur around his eyes damp from tears. Dambree knew that he was terrified, the sirens and the aircraft bringing back bad memories.

Dambree looked at her younger sister Truba'an, who looked back and swallowed. Tru leaned over next to Dambree and whispered in her ear.

"We need to get away."

Dambree nodded, looking outside.

A car was in the northbound lane, abandoned, facing south. It was large, a family cargo ground vehicle.

Without speaking Dambree reached out and touched Tru then Elu, tilting her head toward the abandoned vehicle.

Elu looked relieved and nodded. Tru nodded, her face firming up.

Dambree reached down and unsnapped the buckle while Aunt Fenn was lecturing Uncle Inkree about the fact that maybe they should have left earlier.

Dambree leaned over to Tru. "We've seen this before, it didn't work out well," Dambree said softly. Tru nodded, her ears trembling. "Grab Meglee."

Tru nodded.

Reacting quickly Dambree shoved open the door, grabbing her little sister's safety cradle. She lunged out of the car, running for the abandoned car, digging into her pocket with her other hand. She heard her aunt yell something, heard Meglee protest with a squawk, but she ignored it as she sprinted for the car. Dambree threw Nee in, ignoring the outraged screech from the toddler.

She dove in, pulling the data wafer she'd prepared months in advanced.

And used before.

She tapped it on the dash and the entire dash lit up.

Whipping open the door Elu threw Mister Mew Mew's carrier into the back, then turned and motioned at her sister and his cousin.

Dambree hooked up Nee with one hand, rapidly tapping on the holographic screen that popped up over the dash with her other hand.

"Get in!" Tru yelled.

"But..." Meglee said.

Tru slapped her, punched her in the stomach when the older girl raised her hands to her face, then shoved her cousin into the car when she started to double over.

"GET IN!" Tru yelled, climbing in afterwards.

Aunt Fenn and Uncle Inkree were running toward the car, yelling, but Dambree ignored them, tapping more keys.

Cut out the governor. Cut the GPS tracking. Turn off the Lo-Jack. Kill the Nav-Comp and upload her own nav-comp.

Nee was locked in and Dambree turned and looked as Aunt Fenn climbed into the car, reaching across Nee to grab at her. Uncle Inkree and her two male cousins Ultrek and Ellaf were climbing into back seat when Dambree looked in the rearview mirror. Elu slid down on the floorboard, same with Tru.

Dambree punched the gas, throwing both of the adults and all three of her cousins against the back of the seat. The acceleration slammed the doors shut as Dambree whipped the car around. Her aunt squealed, turning and looking behind as Dambree sped off to the north.

Toward the mountains.

"What are you doing?" Aunt Fenn screeched.

Dambree kept her foot on the accelerator.

"Saving our lives," Dambree growled out. She turned and looked at her aunt, who suddenly drew back with a hiss of fear.

Dambrees eyes were glowing a soft red.

"We go back to the cabin, and we stay there," she paused.

A flight of nine Terran strikers roared overhead, close enough that the car rocked. One suddenly tilted, dropping to the side, the rest suddenly followed, all falling, some rolling the others spinning, until they hit the ground and rolled.

An explosion bloomed, greasy red flame and black smoke, just behind the speeding car as two of the strikers cartwheeled into the row of cars.

Uncle Inkree stared in shock as he watched the family car vanish in a ball of fire.

"For how long?" Aunt Fenn asked, gulping.

Another striker roared by, heading from east to west, close enough that Dambree could see the weapons deployed from the internal bays. The graviton engines howled, the thrusters roared, and Dambree saw "Third Telkan Marines" on the tail.

There was another explosion behind them.

Aunt Fenn slowly looked back to her niece as she spoke, her voice as flat and emotionless as two rocks grinding together.

"Till we don't hear that any more."