Author: trinfaneb (trinfaneb at yahoo dot com)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything-Joss Whedon, John Ringo and others own all.

Notes: This is primarily a cross-over with the John Ringo "Legacy of the Alledenata" books ("Hymn before battle," "Gust Front," "When the Devil Dances," and "Hell's Faire"), although characters from a variety of other tv shows, books, and movies will make an appearance. The plot of the Posleen books should become more clear as the story progresses, but you can also read much of these books for free at baen dot com.

I was motivated to write this story because I wanted to find out what happens to the Buffy gang after "Chosen" and also because I love the Posleen books and ideas started clicking into my head when I tried to figure out how I could combine the two universes. There is a lot of exposition in the first five chapters, but after that there is more action.

The main change I've made is to move the Posleen timeline forward almost two years. Therefore my Presidential address is in 2003 where the original one is in 2001. I've also added the character of Casca to the Scoobys and had him save Anya in the "Chosen" battle. His background is mentioned in this story, but you can find more info in my "The Eternally Cursed," which is a pre-quel to this story, although you don't have to read one to enjoy the other.



Alien Apocalypse

Excerpts from "Slayers against the Posleen" by the Watcher's Council Historical Society

All thoughts and dialogue are verbatim thanks to GalTech memory extraction techniques, except for certain instances where memoirs and AID records have been used.



Prologue

Tir looked at the burning world depicted on the view-screen and said, "Your Ghin, surely you would not go ahead with the decision to use the humans if you really thought it would lead to the ruin of the Darhel."

"The conclusion is inescapable. Either the Posleen conquer all our worlds and eat us or the humans reduce us to nonentities after they defeat the Posleen. With the humans there is at least the chance we can exert some of our old controls to guide towards a miraculously favorable outcome. I believe the humans have an expression for this. They say, "And maybe the horse will learn how to sing."

Tir didn't yet understand the meaning of the phrase, but he thought singing lessons were well within his abilities.



Chapter One

Mid April 2003 ad

Sunnydale, California, Sol III

Casca the immortal mercenary struck Vi with a killing blow the moment most of United States first learned of the coming Posleen invasion. As the rest of the Potentials looked on, Casca asked, "What did she do wrong?"

"Besides being born a Potential, she waited too long to make her move," said Rona.

"Yeah by the time she countered your swing, you were already inside her kill zone and lining up your next move," said Amanda.

"Good answers, Potentials," Casca said as he bent over and gave Vi a lift off the grass of the Summers residence backyard. "Vi, let's go again and then we'll let the rest of you have your turn."

"Lucky me," Vi thought as she tucked a strand of red hair back inside her beret and prepared for the next drill. "I better get this one right or Kennedy will call me a maggot and give me twenty pushups."

Casca was tensing for the next strike when he heard the sound of the back door opening and Andrew yelling, "The aliens are coming, the aliens are coming-the President's on the tv-everyone come look."

"Andrew, I thought you weren't going to tell any more stories," Amanda said.

"Its not a story, they're really coming. Ever since I saw 'V, the Mini-Series,' I knew the aliens were going to invade," Andrew said.

"Andrew, is this for real?" Casca asked.

"Yes sir, it is."

"Ok then. People, let's take a break and see what's going on," Casca said as he headed for the back door.

Vi stood in her defense posture until the last of the Potentials went into the house. Any relief at getting out of Slayer Drills was drowned out by what felt like a bolt of electricity running up her spine and then branching out to her extremities in the form of goosebumps. She didn't fully realize it yet, but the life of every sentient creature on the planet had just undergone a major sea change. Earth's inhabitants were heading for uncharted waters on a swift current.

Inside the house, Casca gathered around the tv to watch the Presidential address with Anya, Xander, Dawn, Andrew, Willow, and the Potentials. The President was only a minute or two into his speech. Andrew must have guessed what it was going to be about. For the last few weeks he hadn't shut up about the rampant rumors of some big government secret he had read on the internet.

"My fellow Terrans," the President said. ""five months ago, I and other world leaders were contacted by emissaries of an extraterrestrial government." There was an electric buzz on the floor of the House of Representatives and the President made a gesture to quiet things down. "They brought greetings, a plea and a bitter warning. The aliens are much more advanced than us, but they mean the world no harm. They restrained themselves from contacting us earlier because they didn't want to affect our development as a species, but they have made contact now because they felt they no longer had any choice. You see they are involved in a war with another alien species called the Posleen. The friendly aliens are called the Darhel, The Tchpth, the Himmit, and the Indowny. They are doing the best they can, but are hampered by their non-violent nature. The Posleen have conquered every planet they have invaded so far and Earth is now next on their list. The Posleen will be here within five years and we have to stop them. Our survival as a species depends on it."

The President had then gone on about the teams of men and women who had labored secretly the last five months to design weapons and ships to counter the invasion. Galactic technology had helped greatly in this process, but it took human ingenuity to come up with the best ideas and design a manufacturing process fast enough to get the material ready in time to fight the Posleen. At the end of the speech the President showed a videotape of a human delegation viewing the invasion on the planet Barwhon V. Generals from the US, France, Russia, and China had been reassuring the reporters that their position was safe from the advancing Posleen. Suddenly there was panicked shouts and the camera swung upwards to catch of a view of a Posleen lander just before it fired a silvery bolt of lightning at the group. The camera flew through the air and landed near a battered French Paratrooper who was trying to unjam his weapon. He gave up and tossed the rifle over his shoulder, drew his bayonet, and went off camera with a cry of "Camerone!." Then there was a view of yellow legs tipped with talons and finally a burst of red blood before the picture cut out.

Afterwards the news media commented on the speech and offered pictures of all the alien species and some additional information about them. The Darhel resembled grey foxes and seemed to be at the forefront of contact with humans. The Tchpth reminded Casca of giant alaskan king crabs and were supposed to be philosophers and scientists, while the Himmit resembled grey, man size frogs. And the Indowny were short, squat green creatures that apparently furnished much of the labor force for the galactic civilization . The Posleen were centaurs the size of Arabian horses. They traveled to other planets in giant spaceships that could carry millions of their number. And hundreds of ships invaded each planet.

Everyone camped around the tv and occasionally talked in low voices as they watched the news coverage until late into the night. Buffy came home shortly after the speech began. The news seemed to overwhelm her as much as it did everyone else. She watched the coverage for a few hours, talked with Dawn and Willow for awhile and then went upstairs to her room. For once, she didn't seem to want to make a speech of her own.

Casca had seen all kinds of upheavals and changes in the two thousand years since he had been cursed by a dying Jesus Christ to wander the earth as an immortal soldier, but he couldn't think of anything that compared to this. The Nazi invasion of Europe and the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese had shaken the world order and affected the lives of most of the people on the planet in one way or another, but this was going to change everything for everyone. It made the Kennedy assassination and the Challenger explosion seem almost trivial.

A few months ago, Casca would have said he had seen it all, but becoming the "guestage" of the Scoobys and the Potentials after a failed attempt to kidnap Spike for money and later helping them battle against the First Evil had made him realize there were forces in this world that he had been unaware of. Now the realization of forces beyond the world knocked his worldview on its ass again. Casca remembered a Chinese curse that might be older than himself-"May you live in interesting times."

"Well I had been getting a little bored with myself and the routine of living in the world," Casca mused as he lay on his sleeping bag and finally dozed off to sleep. "Now at least I don't have to worry about that anymore."

It had been a good day for Buffy. She had seen a steady stream of students in her office and felt like she actually helped most of them in some way. Being useful to the high schoolers took her mind off the fight with the First for awhile. After some post school conferences and a snack and coffee at the Expresso Pump, she had actually looked forward to going home and spending time with the gang and the Potentials.

The President's speech had turned her wave of good feelings into a tide of ash in her mouth. Usually the next apocalypse had the good manners to wait until the present apocalypse was finished before it announced itself. If they somehow survived the First, they would still have to beat the aliens. It seemed hopeless.

"Screw it," she thought. "You gotta die sometime. Not like it's a big deal for me anyway."

Mid April, 2003 ad

Washington, D.C. Sol III

"Not bad," Michael O'Neill Jr. thought as he watched the President's speech while sitting at a table in the cafeteria of a government building in Washington along with the rest of the GalTech team. He and his co-workers were among the few people in the world not shocked by news of the invasion. Since just a few days after the Darhel had called the leaders of the United States, the G8, and China on their direct telephone lines, Mike and other experts had been working on designing weapon systems to combat the coming Posleen hordes.

The 150 experts on the United States team had many fields of expertise, but thirty percent of them were science fiction writers who had military experience and/or wrote combat SF. Mike had been a webpage designer when he had gotten the call, but he was also a fledgling SF writer and he had eight years of experience in the 82nd airborne division. But more importantly he had been the driver and unofficial protegee of his commander, General Jack Horner. Mike had only been a mortar squad sergeant when they had met, but he had impressed the officer with his ability to intelligently and aggressively handle tough situations. Mike had also turned Horner onto science fiction. That was vital experience these days.

Mike and the other members of the GalTech infantry team had realized very soon that armored combat suits would be the most viable land combat system against the Posleen. The present helicopter and tank fighting configuration was out because the Posleen God-King saucers had sophisticated targeting sensors that found anything airborne. The God-Kings would fire at a target and its company of four hundred odd normals would fire all their weapons at the target if they were directed to. Nothing in the air could stand up to that. And the 1mm railguns most of the normals carried caused serious damage to an Abrams tank and a 3mm railgun could go right through a tank. A HVM (high velocity missile) would tear a tank to shreds.

Tougher armor would likely get made for the tanks in the next few years, but they were still big and relatively immobile targets that stuck out like a sore thumb to the Posleen. Armored combat suits could dig in and pour devastating fire into the front ranks of the Posleen mass while exposing only their weapons. The suits would be the only land forces that could effectively take the fight to the Posleen and dislodge them from defensive positions. The rest of the American ground forces would be tasked with defense. The Posleen liked to land in coastal areas and had trouble crossing rivers and navigating mountainous areas. They also didn't venture into cold areas because they couldn't find enough forage. That meant that the vast Canadian plan was relatively safe and the great plains between the Rockies and the Appalachians would be the stronghold for North America. The coastal areas and likely the lowlands of the southwest would be lost, although there were plans for some urban areas to hold out as isolated fortresses.

A space fleet would be constructed to come and rescue Earth from the Posleen. The fleet would be constructed in the solar system on bases like the moon of Titan. The Posleen never attacked spatial installations for some unknown reason. The first big space battle wagons would be ready between the time the first and second invasion waves arrived. But it would take awhile to build a big enough fleet to take back the planet. It remained to be seen whether the human defenses would be able to hold or if the defenders would run out of food. Much valuable cropland would be lost and the food stores, even with greatly enhanced farm productivity, could only be expected to last for five years after the invasion started.

To make matters worst many of the human fighters and their best weapons would be expected to fight the Posleen on other planets that were being invaded by the Posleen. Expeditionary forces would be soon be sent to fight on Barhwon and Deiss. Humanity's skills as warriors was their most valuable commodity to the Galatics and they had to sell them in order to earn credits and technology for the defense of Earth. The Darhel controlled all important aspects of Galactic society and they had maneuvered things so that seventy to ninety percent of Earth's defenders would be dead before the siege could possibly be broken. Mike thought understanding the Darhel was the most vital task that could be done right now, but he had met several members of the group that was gathering intel on the Darhel and, at best, they were high grade morons. Mike tried to push that to the back of his mind because he needed to focus all his energies on fighting the Posleen.

At the beginning Mike had a choice to bail on the then-unknown secret project and be able to go back to his wife Sharon and young daughters Cally and Michelle. But General Horner had told him that he would get called up anyway in a few months in his former rank of sergeant. The choice was between giving up several extra months of his life on a secret, and he suspected vital project, or being able to spend those months with his family, but with the knowledge of some gathering storm looming on the horizon. Put in those terms, it hadn't been much of a choice for Mike. But his wife had still protested. Sharon was a raven-haired goddess and he was a short, musclebound, ugly troll-like man. Only the gaping maw of responsibility could tear him away from her. "Duty is heavier than a mountain-truer words were never spoken," he thought.