Chapter 3

It has been nearly a year since the incident on the ship and so far we are doing pretty good. Our 8 orbital stations are complete and online, the 'E' is on patrol, the 'Connie' is in orbit and the 9024 has returned and brought five more ships like her; all new 'squirt' ships. The trouble is I thought too soon and jinxed it.

The day dawned dark and overcast and as I was on my way to the office suddenly alarms sirens are going off everywhere; we are under attack. Humans are running everywhere and Orlanans are swooping down to stations. As I enter the Ground Control Center the readouts tell me all I need to know. There are more than one thousand ships up there against our 8 stations and 7 ships. As the battle wages I can see that some 200 Skree ships have broken off from the others and are heading for landing sites all around our small city. I detail three of my Space Marine companies to concentrate their defense in the area of the port as it appears the majority of the Skree will land there. The other company of Marines and the Orlanan Rangers will see to the perimeter landings. There seems to be a single minded tactic on the part of the Skree; flood the defenses with as many ships and troops as it takes to just over-whelm them; damn the casualties.

And we are causing them a great deal of casualties. Their body armor is of little or no use against a pulse rifle. And the Rangers are a sight to behold. Imagine if you can a 1.5 to 1.6m tall, 6m wingspan, 70 to 75Kg Peregrine Falcon or Golden Eagle. They come down from above and swooped through the trees; twisting and turning and suddenly you see a Skree in the clutches of those talons. Then before his friends can react he is released and slammed into a tree at 50Kmh or so; SPLAT! If the talons don't kill the impact surely does.

The tide is turning; for over 6hrs now the Skree have poured hundreds of soldiers in to the battle only to have them slaughtered at the hands of the Marines or Rangers. We have been hurt though; Nearly 50 dead and dozens more wounded among the Marines and over a hundred dead Rangers, more than 200 wounded. But the cost to the Skree; they could not even get their ships back off the ground, Orlanan Rangers with pulse rifles made a game of who could get off the most unlikely shot. No grounded ships survived.

In space it was worse: after the first shots were fired the Skree started just ramming ships trying to get their soldiers aboard our ships to take them over. The problem for the Skree was that our ships are compartmented and whole segments can be sealed off and even vented to space. They died by the thousands. The Enterprises first volley took out almost 100 ships as there reactors just blew up. The Constellation started a new tactic as she moved through the Skree ships; a rotational fire pattern from all of her main guns cycling them in loops and figure 8's as the ship rolled on its axis. The Skree didn't stand a chance; the fire coming off of Constellation was so intense that ships flying into it literally just melted in place. Soon the 'E' and the Orlanans took up the pattern and they herded the Skree into the fire zones of the stations and that was all it took. Later analysis of data showed that of 5260 Skree ships that started the attack only 3 managed to get away.