text: [Themes: sci-fi]
  
  You quickly stand up and look out over the walls of Fort Dale through the eyes of your Gatling war machine.
  
  "Sir, the Gunships are all down, but it looks like they took out one of the enemy transports!" you report, looking at the smoke and flames rising from the distant fields beyond the forest. Three of the large transports are hovering in the air near the wreckage. Then you see some sort of flickering light at the front of one of the transports.
  
  > decide not to take any risks, and crouch back down behind the wall.
  As you crouch back down, you hear a loud cracking sound, as the weapon that had been charging up finished charging, and launches one of the massive lightning bolts through the air. The searing electrical beam blasts through the air where you were standing moments ago, and smashes into one of the armoured buildings in the middle of the Fort. A large fiery hole is blown through the side of the building, as debris scatters into the courtyard, among screaming infantry. The rest of the infantry and battlesuit wearing soldiers run for cover.
  
  "Damn it! How can they shoot so far! Who the hell are they?" Captain Jefferson growls over the Comm. Then the ground shakes again - the familiar shaking of massive spaceships landing on the ground in the distance.
  
  "Okay, they've touched down in the fields out past the forest... That means there's lines of trees between us and whatever ground forces they've brought down. We won't know what's coming until they reach the clearing around Fort Dale," the Captain says. He cautiously raises his Nova M.A.U. so that its head can peek above the wall.
  
  "Those transports are so big, more than half of their hull rises above the tree line. I suspect they'll keep barraging the Fort with that lightning cannon of theirs, while their troops advance. Intel has it they are coming down all across the planet, so we've got to hold Fort Dale, because there aint going to be reinforcements coming our way any time soon. So, I'm gonna need two squads to volunteer. I want a squad to take turns looking over the wall for incoming enemies, and I need a squad for scout duty, to try and get a closer look at what we're dealing with before they reach us."
  
  > say "Sir! Squad Beta will scout out the enemy,"
  "Oh, great!" Wolfman says, and you smile as his mecha shakes its head.
  
  "Good job, Squad Leader," Captain Jefferson says. "Head east into the trees, and try to get us some optics on the enemy. I want you three to patch an optic channel back here to Fort Dale, so myself and the other officers can see what you see."
  
  "Will do, Captain," you reply, and flick a switch on one of your control pads. A blinking light in the corner of your vision tells you that your mecha is transmitting everything you see to the commanders of the Fort.
  
  "Okay Squad Beta, form on me!" you order, and Wolfman and Tomcat take a position on either side of you. The large gate in the south wall slowly slides open.
  
  "Good luck, men," the Captain says.
  
  > say "Okay, on my mark, make a dash for the trees... Mark!"
  The three of you stomp past the gate at full speed, racing across the clearing that lies around Fort Dale. As you dash, you glance to the east, where the top half of the three transports rise above the treeline in the distance. With a curse, you notice power building up at the front of one of the transports.
  
  "Get into the trees, they're going to fire again!" you shout. You rush into the trees just as you hear the loud cracking sound of a lightning bolt cannon firing, then suddenly the force of an explosion sends you falling forwards among the trees. You grab onto a tree and stumble down on one knee, but manage to stay relatively upright. Turning, you see Tomcat crouching beside you, but metres behind you, still in the clearing, is the half melted wreck of what was once Wolfman - obliterated by the enemy weapon.
  
  "Dammit! Man down, I repeat, man down!" you say over the military channel.
  
  "We see it," the Captain replies, watching everything through your mecha's 'eyes' from within Fort Dale. "You're in the forest now though, you should be out of sight of the transports' weapon."
  
  > say "I understand. We'll do the best we can, and get those visuals you're after,"
  You head deeper into the forest, angling toward the east, as you work your way into a position between the grounded enemy transports and the walls of Fort Dale. You glance at the radar sensor readings every few seconds to make sure no enemy contacts have come within range. Of course, your sensors only pick up energy sources - they were designed to pick up vehicles and war machines similar to your own. If the transports were carrying an army of infantry soldiers, and they weren't wearing any form of powered armour, you'll only notice them when you actually see them... Anyhow, transports the size of those ones had to be carrying something pretty big inside of them, so the enemy must be inside some sort of war machines.
  
  "This aint good," Tomcat says softly over your squad channel.
  
  "I know," you reply anxiously, stomping through the forest towards the other side.
  
  "I mean, this really aint good," Tomcat says.
  
  "Keep your mind on the job. We have to get some visuals on enemy units, so the Fort knows what they're up against," you tell him.
  
  "What if they're bigger and tougher than we are?" he asks.
  
  "Then we get a look at them for the Captain, and get the hell out of here," you say grimly. It's a strange feeling. You've never had to think about retreat before.
  
  Suddenly you pick up a small blip on your sensors, then a couple other small ones. The blips are moving toward you at a high speed, shifting about slightly. Probably dodging trees. Some sort of small hover vehicle, you wonder?
  
  "Incoming hostiles," you say over the squad channel.
  
  "I see them," he replies.
  
  > say "Okay, let's brace to fire. Take 'em out on sight,"
  "Roger," he replies. The two of you plant your war machines' feet slightly apart, and firmly on the ground, having turned to face the incoming targets. You tap a button on one of your suit's control pads, and the twin-firing plasmabolt machine guns attached to your M.A.U.'s left arm begin spinning rapidly, ready to fire.
  
  Seconds later, the fast moving machines zip into sight through the trees, and you both open fire. Superheated bolts of energy blast out from your arm, tracing a line of destruction through the trees. You see a couple explosions, and fiery fragments of hover machines go flying through the air, but two of the small machines go flying between you and Tomcat, and in a second, disappear into the trees behind you.
  
  "What the hell were they?" Tomcat asks.
  
  You wait to make sure the hover machines aren't heading back in your direction. On your sensor display you see them continuing on toward the Fort. "Must be scouts of some kind. We've got a moment - bring up visual playback and let's check them out," you order.
  
  You bring up a small window in the corner of your vision, and rewind the optical recordings of what your M.A.U. has seen recently. Just before the explosions took place, you press pause, and see a blurry image of what you blew up. It looked like a civilian a-grav hoverbike, but of a more angular design than those you had seen. A blurry figure sat on top of it, but you can't make out any good details. They appeared to be wearing some sort of green uniform that covered their whole body, like a jumpsuit, with oval shaped goggles or something on their faces.
  
  "You got this, Captain?" you ask over the military channel.
  
  "We see it. Good work, Squad Leader. Must be some sort of scouts. Get closer, and try to get something on their main forces. We'll try to clear up your visual image, and get a better look at what you blew up. We'll deal with the other scouts when they get here," Captain Jefferson tells you.
  
  Suddenly there's a loud crack, and a massive bolt of lightning flies over the top of the forest. Explosions tell you that they struck at the Fort again, and you wonder how much damage they did.
  
  You wait a moment, and then wave your Gatling's hand. Tomcat moves back into position beside you. You head off at a fast pace, continuing through the forest toward the landing site. Ten minutes later, numerous sensor blips begin appearing all over your sensors in the distance, close together so it is hard to tell what was a large enemy unit, or what was just a group of them close together. At the edge of your sensors, three massive blips mark the location of the enemy transports.
  
  > say "Okay, let's run to the edge of the forest, get a good look, then get back to the Fort in one piece,"
  You head for the edge of the forest, noticing that some of the enemy forces are moving away from the transports, toward the forest as well. Minutes later, the trees begin to thin before you, and you get your first glimpses of the enemy.
  
  The three massive metal transports rise high above the ground in the fields beyond the forest, and massive hatches in their sides have opened. Hundreds, if not thousands, of infantry soldiers had already poured out of the transports to assemble in large formations in the fields. What is more disturbing are their mechanised assault units. These M.A.U.s are like nothing you have ever seen.
  
  Instead of being shaped like a big metal man, they are on four legs, with a large body pod-section in the middle, bristling with weapons. What is worse, if your estimates are correct, is that the enemy M.A.U.s must be sixteen metres (52 feet) high! They tower above the ground like five or six-story buildings! That's more than twice the height of your own war machine - and you thought your Gatling was big!
  
  The body section of these behemoth sized war machines have three rotating cylinder shapes coming out of them, with sparkling, glowing spheres moving along the rims. They must be weapons of some sort, able to move about to fire in any direction!
  
  "Squad Leader," the Captain's voice comes over the military channel. "Zoom your optics in on those soldiers, let's try to identify who we're dealing with."
  
  You press a button and zoom your view in on a large group of soldiers. What the - you gasp. You hear the Captain and Tomcat swear in unison, as they both get a better look as well. From the blurry image of the hoverbike rider you saw earlier, you had thought the soldiers were wearing some sort of green body suit. Now you realise it's their skin! Their unhelmeted heads reveal the enemy to be some sort of lizard men! You're dealing with an alien invasion fleet! No wonder the scout ships in this star system hadn't reported in - they had been destroyed by aliens with completely different weapon technology to your own! Thinking further, you realise that there haven't been any frontier raiders attacking in a long time. Perhaps the frontier star systems had already been conquered by the alien force?
  
  Even more chilling, you notice that many of the lizardman soldiers have long swords hanging from their belts, in addition to the rifles they carried. Swords? Talk about close combat. You feel glad that you aren't in the infantry, but have many sheets of metal between you and whatever comes your way.
  
  "All right, Squad Leader, get back here pronto! We'll need all the help we can get!" Captain Jefferson orders you.
  
  "This aint good man... this aint good!" Tomcat says over the squad channel, as one of the massive transports sends another crackling lightning bolt over the forest, and into the Fort compound.
  
  Some legions of infantry, and two of the massive behemoth war machines, have begun marching toward where you and Tomcat are hiding among the trees. Have they seen you on their sensors? Most probably, you think.
  
  > say "Okay, Tomcat, let's get back to Fort Dale!"
  You rush off into the forest, heading west toward the Fort. Behind you, too close for comfort, you hear cracking sounds like that of the alien transports' lightning cannon, but on a smaller scale, followed by explosions along the treeline. If you had remained near the edge of the forest, than whatever just fired would probably have blown you away! You feel a chill run down your spine as you race through the forest toward the walls of the Fort, and temporary safety.
  
  Around fifteen minutes later, having edged around to the southern side of the Fort, and having waited for the alien transports to fire their massive cannons at the Fort again, you race into the clearing and for the Fort gate.
  
  "Squad Beta to Fort Dale, open up, we're coming in!" you shout over the military channel. Thankfully, the gates slide open as you approach, and the two of you quickly move over to one of the walls, and crouch down behind it.
  
  "Good to see you two," the Captain says. "Shame about Wolfman, he was a good soldier."
  
  "Thank you Captain," you reply, feeling a moment of guilt that all you had thought of was how happy you were to make it back to the Fort in one piece.
  
  The Captain addresses the M.A.U. pilots of Dale Company. "Okay, people, I want a defensive line along the east wall. Infantry will stand prepared to deal with any of those lizard men who manage to breach the walls. We're to focus on those big..."
  
  "I called them Behemoths, sir," you prompt him.
  
  "Hmm. Behemoth it is. All pilots to focus fire on the enemy Behemoths. Gatling pilots, feel free to use your machine guns on the infantry forces as well. We recently got word that the Carriers Rogerson and Toyama are still up there in space. The Toyama will be bringing their squadrons of Gunships to provide us some support here at Fort Dale, so we just have to hold out until they arrive. If you believe in God or something, now's the time to say a prayer."
  
  > say "Sir - has anyone sent a message Out System to try and reach Sol Federation Command, and let them know we're under attack by aliens?"
  "Of course we've tried that, Squad Leader. It seems something is jamming the Fort's interstellar communications. The enemy is blocking the Greyson Transmitter somehow, so we're stuck with local communications. I don't know if they're only jamming the Fort, or if the whole planet has been jammed somehow, but there's nothing we can do here," he tells you.
  
  > say "What about civilian transmitters? If they're only jamming the Forts, they might not know about the Civilian Comm Centres!"
  "It's possible," Captain Jefferson agrees. "If they aren't jamming the whole planet, but just the military, there might be a way to get a message through... Okay, here's the plan. You and Tomcat are to make for Drysdon City, and see if the C.C.C. there has been jammed. If not, transmit the visual data you recorded on you scouting mission. It might not work, but it's worth a try."
  
  "It's got to work," Tomcat says. "We saw how many of them there were out there. If it's like that at the other Forts, this planet is going to fall, and fast. We've got to get reinforcements!"
  
  "Get out of here, before the main force arrives," the Captain orders, as another explosive blast from the enemy transport cannons strikes one of the Fort's buildings. The gate slides open, and you and Tomcat race across the clearing and back into the forest.
  
  Drysdon City is located to the west, luckily for you, as the enemy landed in the east. It should take you a few hours running to get there. Thankfully, you don't have to physically run with your body, but only make slight movements for your war machine to respond to, so you should be able to run the whole way without tiring out. That is, assuming more alien forces haven't landed between the Fort and the city... or even in the city itself!
  
  Forest turns into fields, and farmland, on either side of the road to Drysdon City. Soon more houses and buildings spread out in all directions, as you both stomp along the wide nature strip between opposite road lanes, designed so that M.A.U.'s can move through populated areas without stepping on hovercars or pedestrians. As the buildings grow up around you, and you approach the city, traffic lights at intersections automatically detect your approach, and turn red, so you can race across roads without squashing anyone.
  
  Skyscrapers rise before too long, and you are in the city. People scream and point in astonishment, as the two war machines run through the city. You wonder that everyone is still going about their business, and then realise that they might not even be aware that an alien invasion force has attacked the planet.
  
  > say "Hey Tomcat, we better warn these people of the danger they're in from the alien invasion!"
  "I hear you," Tomcat replies. Together, you turn on your loudspeakers, and start warning people to find shelter, or some place safe, as an enemy force has invaded the planet and has a chance of overwhelming the Forts.
  
  You quickly realise it was a mistake. As word spreads, and people hear your message while you run through the city, people begin to panic. Hovercars start speeding off in every direction. People race about recklessly, ignoring traffic rules. You soon find that you and Tomcat are standing in the middle of a traffic jam of panicking people!
  
  "Get out of the way! We've got to get a message out over the C.C.C.!" you cry over the loudspeakers. You realise your second mistake, as dozens of people start running toward the Civilian Communications Centre to get their own messages out.
  
  "We've got to get there!" Tomcat growls over the squad channel, then yells over the loudspeaker, "We're coming through, get out of our way!" He steps forward, crushing the front of a hovercar beneath one of his Fire Hawk M.A.U.'s massive feet. People scream and start running away from the two war machines.
  
  "Come on!" he tells you over the squad channel, as he sets off, people and cars hurrying to make way. You sigh. There's no other way, you realise, and you stomp off after him, occassionally crushing parts of hovercars, and hoping no one gets injured as you race for the C.C.C.
  
  You finally arrive at a large building with a massive dish on the roof, and the letters "C.C.C." on a big sign. Pressing a button on your control pad, you shut down your Gatling. The pilot suit loosens up in it's harness, and you unbuckle yourself and pull free. Detaching the cables and control pads from your suit, you quickly find a small portable data stick, and insert it into a slot in the cockpit. Pulling a small switch, you wait as the visual data of your machine is downloaded onto the data stick, and then you pull the stick out and pocket it.
  
  Pressing some buttons at the rear of the cockpit, the thick rear hatch slides open. Another button causes a rope ladder to pop out, and unfurl, unrolling down to the street far below you. You always feel uneasy climbing down, but you were trained for it, and you quickly descend to the street below. By now crowds have begun closing in on your parked M.A.U.s, calling out questions, and asking what is going on.
  
  "Come on!" Tomcat calls to you from nearby, and you both push your way through the crowd and into the C.C.C. building. People are everywhere inside, trying to get the attention of the clerks.
  
  "Over here!" One of the clerks calls out to you, seeing your military uniforms. You push your way through the crowd to the desk.
  
  "This data has to be transmitted to Sol Federation Command, on Earth!" you cry out over all the noise, and hand the data stick to the clerk. They nod their head, and plug the stick into their computer console. You pray that they haven't been jammed by the alien fleet. Moments later, the clerk gives you a thumbs' up. It worked!
  
  Tomcat shares a laugh with you. Your mission succeeded! Now, it would take a few days for the transmission to reach the Earth, but there was hope! Someone would surely come and rescue the people of Mesarius V!
  
  "Now what do we do? Our two mecha alone can't defend this city!" Tomcat says.
  
  > say "Let's get back into our M.A.U.s, and radio Fort Dale, and see what happened back there,"
  You push your way back through the crowds, and climb the ladders up into your war machines. After suiting up and reactivating the machine, you turn on the Fort Dale military channel.
  
  "This is Squad Beta, in Drysdon City. Captain Jefferson, do you read me?" you ask. There is no reply, just static. Either the local military channels are also jammed now, or the Fort no longer exists...
  
  "What do we do?" you wonder out loud.
  
  "Squad Leader," Tomcat says, having heard you over the squad channel, "They didn't attack the cities, they focused only on military targets. Perhaps they aren't here to wipe us all out, but just to take control? Maybe they won't obliterate the cities?"
  
  "You could be right," you agree. "If that's the case, then walking around in these war machines could make us and anyone near us targets for the enemy. How about... we'll hide our M.A.U.s in a warhouse somewhere, and try to blend in with the crowd. If the enemy comes in firing, then we mount up, and go out in a blaze of glory. What do you say?"
  
  "I'm with you, Squad Leader," he replies.
  
  You stomp your way through the city, to the warehouse district. People scatter as the two M.A.U.'s stomp across the yards around a large warehouse that looks big enough to park your machines inside. Some workers come out, waving angry fists in the air.
  
  "We're requisitioning this building for the military," Tomcat says over the loudspeakers, and you grin. They rush away, and you head inside and power down.
  
  > Epilogue
  You were both right. The aliens did not invade the city that day, or the next. While you walked among the civilian population, living at a local shelter for the unemployed, you heard rumors that all the military Forts had been destroyed by alien invaders. Outside the city limits, alien soldiers and war machines gathered, but they never entered the city. However, they did stop people going out, or coming in, and no air or spacecraft came to the Drysdon airport. Not long after you sent your message, you heard on the streets that the Civilian Communication Centre had been jammed by the aliens, so you were lucky to get the message out to Earth while you could.
  
  Days passed, then two weeks. Life returned to some measure of normal within the city, as people tried to put out of their minds that a massive alien force had pretty much taken control of the planet. They wondered why the aliens had not attacked, or tried to communicate and explain what they were doing here.
  
  Mostly though, the people, like yourself, wondered how long it would be before reinforcements would come. Yes, you thought, the message had gotten through. One day someone would surely come to rescue us.