Lucas and his eight new friends are ready. Waiting for the signal, a target, to kill as many of the attackers as possible. By now it is clear that what took out this position was, in fact, an orbital strike.

The enemy had carried out a coordinated attack which significantly impaired the abilities of humanity and the UE in particular to evacuate Terra.

Some were already saying that the enemy must have used FTL of some kind, but others were quick to point out, that Therion had tried for nearly 5000 years to get it working. And while it was by now a minor effort, there was no evidence whatsoever that it was possible at all. Only evidence to the contrary.

Admittedly, Therion was an alternate earth in an alternate universe, and it was known that physics could be different in other universes, others were quick to point out.

While Lucas was following that discussion, he finally got his orders. There was some construction going on, 15 kilometers north-east from his current position. The military really wanted to know what the enemy was doing there, and if possible, that construction site made unusable.

As they began to move, someone out of his squad called: “Hey, many landmarks are being destroyed. That is so sad, some of them stood for millennia!”

Lucas answered: “You are correct. But they can always be rebuild, we cannot revive dead humans. At least not to my knowledge, maybe in a laboratory under very specific circumstances? No matter, we have a job to do. Although, admittedly we currently are not paid anything for it…”

Another person chimed in: “I have heard that compensation is being discussed. Honestly, I am already happy that I do not need to go to school tomorrow. And considering that I do not live on Terra, school would actually happen.”

The fourth person disagreed: “Well, no, considering we have a Saturday today. Tomorrow would be Sunday, so I guess you would have a free day?”

“Actually, no. I am from Sirion, which is weird. We currently have a Wednesday, I believe. We could already have Thursday, but I am not sure.”

“Why would anyone want to settle an earth were time is seriously different? But still, I have heard that you do not like leaving your world. Great that you are here, well you know what I mean, helping!”

“Well then, lets kill some of the bastards, I would say!”, someone in a rocket launcher mech called out. Finally getting the group back to the task on hand.

After twelve minutes of carefully walking into the direction of their objective, they had their first contact with the enemy. The TacNet helped them minimize total ammunition expenditure, which helped a lot, considering most of them did not come with great storages of ammunition. Which meant the one who had the machine gun, and thus significant ammo reserves, did most of the job. It was just a small group, but they had one tank in support, which was weird at that point.

“I think what we are attacking might be more important than anyone realized.”, someone commented at that.

“Likely, but that is our job to figure out. By now I am nearing two hours in that damn capsule, and it feels like I spent a lifetime fighting those idiots. It is clear by now that they had no clue about the Gates, and what our actual capabilities are. As soon as they had originally attacked, they must have figured out that something is weird. The smart thing to do would have been to fall back and try communicating, not call in more troops to send to the slaughter. Yes, they are hitting us hard, and giving us time would change this, but on the other hand, even if they win here, it does not matter. Everything they have done only makes it more important for us to be heavily armed. Ready to repel them with the full might of the United Earths. We will be victorious in the end, we have millions upon millions of densely settled earths to call upon. And currently, they cannot hit us where it hurts. And even if they break Gate-tech, then the addresses would still be needed. Otherwise, searching the needle in the haystack is the significantly simpler operation, even if that particular haystack has the mass of Terra. And they need to find millions upon millions of needles in millions upon millions…”

“Hey man, we understand. Stupid metaphor. But true. Oh, in front of us are unfriendliness. Want to give them a hot welcome?”

“Keep focused and follow TacNet instructions. We do not want to waste ammo!”, someone, who had not spoken until now, added.

This time, the enemy force was more of a significant roadblock, and ammunition expenditures rose sharply. They still had three kilometers to go, and this did not look good for making it with any ammo left.

Lucas said, thinking: “Hey, if we run out of ammo, can the TacNet get us a plan for a mad dash, to get at least the intel and hopefully do some damage with the self destruct? Thanks!”

“Oh, great. That will help a lot. Hopefully it does not come to that!”

They continued on their merry way, occasionally encountering enemies. The ammo levels of most were low, and they still had a kilometer to go, when they saw multiple hundred enemies blocking the way.

“Well, that is a problem. I would say mad dash protocols and spray fire into them?”

“Well, yes. TacNet, any problems?”

They began to speed up. They needed to travel a single kilometer, which would take at least a minute, considering how slow their mechs actually were. And some of their members were even slower. The TacNet gave those the mission to be the distraction. Make it impossible for the blockading troops to concentrate on the mechs breaking through that blockade.

And it worked. Lucas was through, although he only had 7 shots left. At least this time from 300, and not 5000, but it was still bad. He followed the slightly weird zigzag course the TacNet encouraged him to use, he guessed it was to prevent the enemy from targeting him easily. At least it seemed to work, although it did slow him down a bit.

They were down 7. One of the three playing distraction had been destroyed, as well as one of the 6 stormers. Good rate, especially considering the casualties the enemy had taken, but they still had 500 meters to go. And the defending fire just got heavier. By now, they could see a barricade, camouflage netting and more of that sort. Whatever they were building, they did not want the UE to know about. Which only made the five remaining stormers more focused at finding out.

The next 200 meters went without further casualties. But then, in quick succession, both remaining form the distraction team died.

50 meters after that, one of the stories was destroyed. Four remaining, 250 meters to go.

15 meters after that, Lucas was out of ammo. The three others had all less than ten percent left, which for one meant that he only had on shot left. 235 meters to go.

They made another 70 meters, but then, they lost two at roughly the same time. Lucas and one other were still moving forward, both now out of ammo. 165 meters to go.

25 meters afterwards, a lucky hit disabled Lucas main gun, but nothing else. 140 meters to go.

Lucas jumped to the side, into a ruined building. The street exploded were he stood before hand. A second shot detonated his cover, which he used to get back on the street. 105 meters to go.

The same weapon, which allows shot in pairs, hit his last remaining comrade. He was completely destroyed. 40 meters to go.

Lucas was hit again, but luckily, the shot only threw him of course a bit, and did not seem to have damaged anything major. The enemy was becoming desperate. 15 meters to go.

10 meters to go.

5 meters to go.

He was over it, and saw something. He could not process it, although every bit of footage was being uploaded. He was destroyed almost immediately, but he had accomplished the mission of finding out what was going on.

The secondary mission of destroying whatever they were constructing, failed.

Elsewhere.

That was a problem, an analyst thought, as soon as he got the data of the raid. Where did he see something similar again? Oh, right, during that article about the newest stupidity Therion got up to. He sighed, went into his contacts and searched for a while. After more than 2 minutes of scrolling and checking contacts, he finally found his old roommate in university, who had studied astrophysics. And he was a Therion native.

He called: “Hey, I know we really rarely speak nowadays, but I have something I want a second opinion on. And you are the only one I know who could have a clue what I am looking at.”

“Hey, wait, what do you mean? Is it for your job?”

“In a way. You know, the mess on Terra? My job right now is gathering information about them. Something I have seen while scrubbing through some footage remained me about something, although I am uncertain to what it was, which I once saw in an article about Therion. So I thought that you could give me at least the information I need to know to look in the correct place.”

“OK, I will look at it. I will not necessarily do more than that, but one look is the least I can do. Send it over.”

“Done.”

On Therion, the doctor in astrophysics, who currently worked on checking and rechecking some of the calculations of the space elevator his government was currently building, sighed.

“OK, I have some idea what it is. Where did you say it was being build?”

“Well, could you tell me what it is first?”

“Not really, because I need that info. Also, I need to recheck some things to be certain.”

“Ok, that is from near New York City.”

“Is it the only construction site of that type? If I am correct, it cannot be the only one. You need at least two, and more are better. At least one site must be on the other hemisphere. They are building a space elevator. Or at least one anchor point for one. Also, I have marked some construction going on in the background, that is unnecessary. I guess that is a temporary space port, to get the resources down, because those need to be handled with surprising care at times. Or at least that is the case for us. They might try to get the cable down from orbit to the planet, but they also might not. I am not sure about that. Both is possible, we would go from the ground, but…”

“I understand, that already helped a lot. Thanks for the help. Any other insights you want to share?”

“Hm, I have heard some rumors. I would encourage your leadership to ask my government what the fuck they are planning. Because it sounds a lot like they might want to build a Gate in space to open it to Terra. And I know for a fact that we do not have combat capable starships. Well, let me revise that. We have no combat capable starships that have been built or modernized since the Order lost a lot of its power. I guess we do not want the enemy to know that we can open Gates in space and how pathetic our starships actually are?”

“No, you are right. Oh man, my guys will be pissed. At least we might be able to prevent a catastrophe this way. Hopefully Therions’s leadership is more sane than everyone always says it is.”

“It is. Not always by a huge margin, but it is at least somewhat rational. I personally guess that this is something a resort under the control of the order is doing, but I cannot figure out which has the resources, abilities and will to manage that.”