Warlord's Invasion (Starfight Book 1) by Lee Guo Page B

situation within the command room had been like that, the moment everyone saw the seven massive troop transports hypering into the system.
    “What is going to happen to us?” people around him asked.
    He only told them that he did not know. But, he reminded them, they had to do their duty to their utmost. It was their responsibility to protect the population.
    The civilian news channels were frantic, of course, talking about alien invasion even worse than the time the Orions had invaded. The civilians were truly in a panic. There was nothing he could do about that.
    Soon, his remaining ground-based missile wave reached their targets. Streit watched as those remnants connected with the nearest alien landing pods, detonating in a brilliant flash of nuclear inferno. He eyed the monitors with hope.
    A feeling of joy perused his body when he realized some of the alien landing craft seemed to lose control. He could see the armor on those landing craft smashed to bits. Good, Streit felt slightly relieved. At least some of missiles had done some damage through their gravity shields. The ones that had been overwhelmed by a large amount of missiles seemed to have taken heavy damage. Still, it was only a very minor portion of their overall landing force.
    When his final missile had detonated, fifty of those land craft had disappeared in nuclear fire, now falling over the planet as debris. About twenty of them seemed to have suffered lesser damage and lost navigation drive, free-falling out of control.
    Yet—out of all those missiles, so few of them had actually made it through the enemy’s counter missile fire, and even fewer had penetrated the enemy’s superior gravity shielding before actually damaging their craft...
    Streit sighed, again. What could he do?
    He eyed the hologram as the thousands of landing craft continued descending, a bit fewer in number. That was it. It was over. The entire anti-air assault was finished.
    He knew what would happen now. Those aliens would no doubt land, and he would finally get to see what they looked like and how they fought on the ground. He feared what they intended to do to the people he had to protect. “Lieutenant Holmes, contact the head of civilian police. Ask them about the condition of their preparations.”
    It had been less than ten hours since the first alien ships had entered the system. At times like this, protocol dictated that civilian police relinquish authority of their units to him, the military commander of the planet, and he was to answer to Rear Admiral Kleingelt, the fleet commander of the system. But since the rear admiral was gone, that left him in charge.
    “Chief of police is online, sir,” the grim faced lieutenant said. “He reports that all police squads have been assigned defensive positions according to your orders. He thanks you for adding the marines to his cities.”
    Streit nodded. “Are there any problems with the integrated datanet?”
    “No, sir. Command and communication with their units and ours are all nominal.”
    “Good. Update the main display by wiping the unnecessary projections concerning our destroyed missile and laser turrets. Update the main display with all infantry, armor, and artillery pieces including the civilian police.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Streit stared at the main holoscreen at the center of the room. He wondered how the aliens would fare against conventional ground tactics. It was time to find out.
     
    Bajor City, Southern Continent, Meerlat
    Main Hospital Complex
    Rooftop, Building 2D…
     
    “What do you think they look like, sarge?”
    “Big, green, ugly,” Sergeant Will Kubersly grumbled as he rubbed his chin using his oxygen filter. The XG-29 Spartanian Armor Exoskeleton Suit was big green and ugly in itself. It weighed two hundred pounds and wrapped the skin with a thick layer of nanocarbon armor similar to those used on starships. He gazed at his platoon through his in-head display, most of them raw recruits trained