The initial meeting for the invasion took place on the wrecked Wallens world of

  Xasoisa. The name was changed to Wallens for the lost inhabitants that had been

  wiped out by the xenos. Harry Jordan had shown up and proceeded to give the

  murderous aliens a taste of their own medicine.

  Open warfare was still going on, but the planet was safe enough to be turned into a

  contractor farm so contractors could earn points to buy gear to either take back to

  their home planets, or to other battlefields.

  Harry had built a cleared space. The main guns he had planted didn’t fire so much any

  more. Instead, the fighting was being done miles away by his expanding army of bees

  and mobile artillery. Contractors went out and took two to three days of fighting

  before coming back to Fort Honey, or setting up their own fire bases out in the

  deserts.

  Eventually the planet would be clear of xenos as a standing army, and instead be

  relegated to incursions trying to take the planet back from the contractors marching

  across it.

  This was as close to a standing army the Bernies could muster to fight against their

  ancient enemy.

  Harry and his friends and associates, classified as auxiliary forces, had been asked to

  sit down with Anderson from PDO, and Major Carey from the Air Force/UNITE.

  They used the hut set up for small briefings to one side of the aircraft fabricators.

  “I’m not going to waste your time,” said Carey. He wore his dress blues the way he

  had for the last twenty years. Short hair accentuated the bald spot on the back of his

  head. “We need a beachhead on Delgas. It might turn things around.”

  “The problem is Delgas is crawling with the enemy forces,” said Anderson. He

  grimaced at his counterpart. He activated the projector with a thumbstick. “This is

  the pictures from the corvette you sent.”

  The corvette slid into the system engaged in an orbital battle and was destroyed. The

  actual combat time was minutes. It destroyed various smaller units before three of

  the more massive star whales turned it into a sieve.

  “Shot down,” said Delmar. “You want us to get through that.”

  “The planetary situation is just as bad,” said Anderson. He posted planet scans for the

  group to examine. Slices of mana pings revealed the ground was just as covered

  with the xenos as the orbit.

  “Let me get this straight,” said Harry. “You want me to jump through that orbital

  mess, land planetside, and then kill all of the enemy down there. I’m glad I have

  battleships on the way there.”

  “Two things,” said Carey. He pulled up a ping. “This is the homing beacon of two

  contractors that crossed over from Earth during the last incursion. The Chinese say

  they are still getting calls through a faster than light phone. They want us to try to

  rescue their representatives.

  “The second is we’re casting around for a team to go in with you.”

  “I don’t see how you’re going to find a group as crazy as Harry,” said John Stuart. He

  was a massive school teacher with gray in his short hair. “And Guy and I don’t have

  the enhancement.”

  “I don’t know if I want it if I have to talk to a Bernie all the time,” said Guy Gardens.

  He was taller, red headed, and had an arm of tattoos. “Nick is bad enough.”

  “Nick is great,” said Cat Stuart. She was small, round faced, with a short haircut to

  help with her job as a nurse.

  “You got a spaceship cleared through the FAA,” said Guy. “Of course, you like him.”

  Harry frowned at the pictures. He had his backup, but he was not taking any of them

  into combat. They had to act as mission support. John and Guy had been in the

  Marines with him, Cat had been a medic with the Navy, and Delmar, Garry, Le Roi,

  and Marques had all be recruited from the local gangs. They knew something about

  fighting, but not like what was being asked.

  “I need to land with a squad of strangers, rescue these guys, and kill as many xenos

  as I can?,” said Harry.

  “That’s the mission,” said Carey. “Can you do it?”

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  “Sure if you don’t mind those other contractors getting killed,” said Harry. “Get

  together everything you can and leave it. I’ll have a talk with my friends and get ready

  to go. Tell the Chinese to tell their contractors to hold on until we get there.”

  “All right,” said Carey. “If you can clear out that planet, it will stop incursions

  for a while. That is the best outcome for this.”

  “I don’t think a squad is going to be able to do that,” said Harry. “Hundreds of

  contractors come through here and this planet still has xenos to be killed.”

  “A firebase would still be a good start,” said Carey.

  “And we want you to set up a gate so we can send in reinforcements,” said Anderson.

  “Instant travel inside a fort will be helpful to send in personnel until the planet is

  clear.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” said Harry. “A lot is going to be based on what we see as a

  good landing spot. When will your other contractors be ready to go?”

  “The word has gone out to the Bernies,” said Carey. “We should be able to get five

  contractors to help you.”

  “Make sure they don’t have families,” said Harry. “I’m not writing letters for them.”

  “All right,” said Carey.

  “Let’s take a walk, guys,” said Harry. “We’re going to need to sort some of this

  out before we do anything.”

  The group left Carey and Anderson in the hut. The red sky of Wallens looked down

  on them as they walked on the dusty cobbled street. Occasionally a sand storm would

  come through and things had to be battened down. Weather satellites in orbit gave

  enough warning when they happened that the threat was mitigated.

  “They want a lot for two guys,” said Delmar. He had his hands in his pockets. “This

  is weird. The sky keeps throwing me off.”

  “I think the threat of a kaiju, or an army of grunts, is what they are considering,” said

  John. “Who cares about two contractors who got in over their heads?”

  Harry turned on his phone. He looked up at the sky.

  “I think it could be done if I had you guys standing off system for support,” said

  Harry. “I don’t trust other contractors that I don’t know.”

  “The corvettes you have been sending are giving us intelligence,” said Nick from the

  phone. “I don’t know if this is a good move without a fleet involved.”

  “What are we looking at here?,” said Garry. He squinted at the small town around

  them. “I mean the eight of us and four more guys against all of that doesn’t seem like

  much.”

  “I think we need to set up a base before we set up a base,” said Guy. “That way

  we have a safe way to bring in more contractors without actually having them on the

  planet.”

  “Besides I need you four as mission control,” said Harry. “So a place where you can

  help out without getting killed would be perfect for you four kids.”

  “Great,” said Garry.

  “Not a kid,” said Delmar.

  “Air support is going to be limited,” said John.

  “We might have to set up another drydock closer to Delgas,” said Harry. “Swarm

  tactics are what the xenos prefer, and that’s hard to beat. If we had an expanding

  swarm like them, maybe we could win the war of attrition.”

  “You would need battleships to punch through some of the star whales on the file,”

  said Nick. “Savvy?”

  “The goal is to set up an initial beachhead, and rescue the other contractors,” said

  Harry. “Nick, can you send a call over to their agents and let them know we’re

  going all in on this. Le Roi, Marques, I want you two to go over fast routes to

  get ships to the system, landing spots, routes from each spot to where those

  contractors are. Garry, I want you to look at the system and pick places that would

  be good to set up a dock and remote base. We don’t want to be too close, but we don’t

  want to be too far away either. John, Cat, and Delmar, I want you three to put

  together a list of everything that should go in a base in orbit around the system. Guns,

  fast drydock stuff, mission control stuff. I think Nick can help you on that. Guy,

  we’re going to need a pilot/gunner. You’re going to have to get familiar with

  the control systems on the automated super bees so you can drop our group in.”

  “I finally get to fly,” said Guy. He rubbed his hands together. “I’ll be an ace in no

  time.”

  “Nick will be there to keep you on point,” said Harry. “So what we need now is

  pictures of the system and our squad. Then we can go to work.”

  “I think I need a raise,” said Delmar. “This sounds like schoolwork.”

  “Don’t think of it as learning,” said Harry.

  “That takes the fun out of it,” said Guy. “Think of it as planning to kill a bunch of

  people and take their stuff like Call of Duty.”

  “Except we’re not letting you go in and get killed,” said Cat. “That’s for the crazy

  people.”

  “The contractor agents are calling,” said Nick. “I have to talk to them about this crazy

  plan. They’re flipping kittens, savvy?”

  “Do your thing,” said Harry. “We’ll put together something practical that minimizes

  their guys getting killed.”

  “I’m sure they will be happy to hear that,” said Nick. He cut the line to talk to his

  fellow agents.

  “I think we need to get some food and then we need to start working,” said Harry.

  “This is going to cost you a lot of points for gear,” said John.

  “It’ll be okay,” said Harry. He looked at the small group for a second. “I’ll try to get

  Nick to spring for a bonus for you guys. I won’t be able to kill all those xenos without

  you.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about,” said Delmar. “I’ll be able to pay off my mom’s

  house.”

  “I wouldn’t do anything like this,” said Garry. “It’s pure suicide.”

  “If we can take this other planet,” said Harry. “We make the xenos stop attacking

  Earth. They’ll have to go around, try from space, or take the planet back from us. It

  will change the direction of things. I just don’t think I and five losers can take

  the planet by ourselves. So sitting back and looking at things is going to be your job

  until we have an army of contractors on the ground grinding points.”

  “You better hope they’re not losers,” said Delmar. “This will be a short trip

  otherwise.”