text: [Themes: sci-fi]
  
  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 "Let's wait a moment longer, to make sure nothing else comes out of those transports,"
  You wait a minute longer, as the detachment of enemies draws closer, watching the transprots to see if anything else you've never seen before comes out. Nothing does.
  
  "Okay, let's get out of here!" you order.
  
  "I hear ya!" Tomcat says in relief.
  
  You turn to run back west through the forest, Tomcat just behind you, when suddenly you hear the cracking sound of the transport weapons firing again! You only have a moment to respond, diving to one side, before it strikes. There's a huge explosion, shattering trees and scattering debris, as your war machine rolls along the ground, crashing into the trunk of a large tree.
  
  For a while there is just a ringing sound in your ears, and large cracks and gaps in your vision tell you the optic feeds from the head of your M.A.U. were damaged. You try to stand up, but your limbs are all held solid in place, meaning your M.A.U. took severe damage, and it can't get up. Swearing, you try hailing Tomcat.
  
  "Tomcat, you okay?" you say over the squad channel. You get no response, just static. Damn, you think to yourself, as you flick a switch on one of your control panels, and power down. Your suit suddenly becomes limp, as the power turns off, and you slip out of the cockpit harness that held you in place. Unplugging cables you pull your headset free, and your own eyes' natural vision is restored. You realise your M.A.U. is lying on its side, on the ground, and press a button at the back of the cockpit to open the rear hatch. Only two meters off the ground, in this position, you lower yourself down to the forest floor.
  
  Looking around, you see that one of the massive lightning strikes hit right where the two of you were standing. Tomcat's M.A.U. lies scattered about in pieces of burning rubble. The blast must have struck him in the back, and because you were in front of him, you were partially shielded. Turning, you assess the wreck of your war machine. It will never walk again.
  
  What do I do now? You wonder. You decide to try and hike back to Fort Dale, and hope you don't run into alien infantry... or one of those massive behemoth war machines!
  
  You start hiking, grumbling about the fact that M.A.U. pilots aren't equipped with sidearms. About ten minutes into your hike, witnessing two more of the powerful lightning strikes surge through the air above the forest, and hearing explosions from the Fort, you hear whining engine sounds behind you.
  
  The sounds come so fast, you don't have time to respond. Alien soldiers on hoverbikes roar past you, narrowly missing you, as enemy scouts head toward the fort. Suddenly one of the hoverbikes comes back! It quickly slows to a halt, and the soldier leaps down onto the ground. Before you stands some sort of lizard man, covered in green scales!
  
  The lizard man looks you up and down, and sees you have no ranged weapon on you, so he tosses his rifle behind him. Then you notice he has two more weapons - wicked looking swords hanging from either side of his belt. Swords? Who in the galaxy wields swords in this day and age??
  
  The alien creature tosses one of the swords at you, and it lands quivering blade-first in the ground at your feet. It gestures for you to pick up the sword. With no other options apparant, you hesitantly pull the blade from the ground. Instantly, the alien launches into its attack. With no training in this sort of thing, you manage to block the alien's first sword blow, but the second slices clean through your heart.
  
  This is the end... for you.