Chapter 2: Invasion

Our flight back the next morning seemed shorter than the one out. Mr Perry was thinking about my story concerning the home trees and what I found inside them. We landed at the colony landing pads to see people running everywhere. As soon as we stepped out we found out why. A large Cariss warship was insystem headed for the planet.

We all knew that meant they were here to strip the planet before anyone could come to help us. Cariss was one race that was always warlike. They only fought as a clan in a single warship or small fleets. I followed Mr Perry as he headed for the comm building. The crowd around the building was demanding to know what to do. He pushed his way through the crowd and into the building.

I looked at the crowd and shook my head before remembering I was the one that wanted to be a Ranger. I yelled for quiet and they turned to look at me in my dirty clothes. I looked at them and then started pointing to people, sending them for weapons or other things we would need to defend the landing pads. I sent more out to warn everyone else and have them gather on the other side of the settlement.

I sent others to different places to make fighting positions. When Mr Perry came out his lips were tight together, “We can not get through.”

I thought about it and finally nodded as a plan came to me, “Get Mr Harris and whoever you need to take everything out of the building. Move it to the other side of the city where the women and children are gathering. Set the radio up using the nearest generator for power.”

I looked up at the sky above us wondering how long we had, “Set up a relay with the satellites. When the Cariss start to orbit, use the satellites to send the signal, it should get through.”

Mr Perry nodded as he finally understood and several of the men around us grinned. I looked around, “We need to hold the Cariss here. They always send in their best fighters before they even reach orbit and we need to buy time.”

That sobered everyone as they realized no one would come to save us and we would have to fight the Cariss on our own. I headed towards the pads and grabbed a long barreled laser rifle with a belt of charged battery packs. I set my pack and rifle aside and began moving heavy crates beside the thick brush near the closet pad.

When I finished, I grabbed the rifle and started going around checking the other positions. The men seemed resigned but firm in their commitment to protect the rest of the colony. When I checked the comm building I found it empty. I moved around to the positions and told each man where to go when we withdrew. After I had talked to everyone, I headed back to my position and waited.

It was a couple of hours before three large assault shuttles sped over the trees. I was ready and took aim at the engines of one as everyone just started firing. The shuttles were flaring as they braked and my long burst with the rifle went through the engine housing on the portside of the shuttle. It suddenly lurched and spun as it over flew the pad and crashed into the trees.

I put another long burst through the tiny exposed spot behind the engines and it exploded in white hot flames. I shifted to another shuttle that was already on the ground. Armored Cariss were spilling out the back as I aimed and fired at the tiny area where the fuel feed was behind the engines. As the shuttled exploded throwing Cariss away like broken rag dolls I came under fire.

I dropped and aimed through a small opening I had made at the last shuttle as it started to lift. As the third shuttle exploded the Cariss started concentrating their fire on my position. I dropped and crawled backwards and slipped into a larger collection of huge crates before moving to the side. There were probable only forty Cariss that had managed to get off the shuttles.