Battle

"You are our most important soldiers," Red said as he hovered back and forth in front of several rows of Invaders and regular foot soldiers. Zim was standing proudly in the very front, next to Skoodge. He's been here for about a day now and they were still doing preparations, but he could tell already that they were gonna hit hard.

"You'll be in the first line. First to go into battle. The first strike against Meekrob!" Red shouted.

Everyone cheered.

"Now, do you have your weapons?" Purple yelled.

Everyone pumped their guns in the air.

"Are you ready to fight for Irk?" Purple went on.

They nodded, holding their guns up higher, putting their fists in the air.

"Then let's get out there!" Purple screamed.

They quickly rushed to their cruisers.

"Zim, I'm not good at fighting!" Skoodge yelled, running next to the eager Zim.

"You conquered Blorch in a few weeks, Skoodge! You'll be fine!" Zim replied. He jumped into his cruiser and started it up. Skoodge got into the one next to him and cast him a worried glance. Zim gave him the thumbs-up.

They were going to be flying in formation, using their ships' lasers to gun down whatever the first defenses were going to be around the capital city of the planet. Once they were weakened, they would land their ships and get out to fight on foot. In hand to hand combat, irken against Meekrob, the irkens were stronger.

"Wow, look at them go," Purple commented as the hanger door opened into the airlock and all the cruisers darted in. The door closed behind them. The Tallest changed the camera view to the airlock so they could watch as the outer door opened.

"They have no clue what's in store," Red replied, shaking his head. He grabbed a speaker and shouted. "Okay, first line, get ready. On my signal… GO!"

The ships tore out of the airlock.

Red turned off the speaker and laughed. "They're going to get slaughtered."

"Yeah. Did they really think we were going to send in our best soldiers against those guys? We'll let them exhaust their ammo on them so that when the real soldiers get there, they'll be defenseless and easily cut down."

"Are we bad people?" Red asked, his voice sincere.

They looked at each other for a few moments before busting out laughing, doubling over and clutching their stomachs.

Once they managed to calm down, Purple sighed happily and said, "Let's watch the carnage."

Meanwhile, the formation of cruisers was steadily approaching Meekrob. Instantly, the automatic orbital defense platforms keyed in on them and started firing lasers. Several ships were destroyed instantly. Zim nearly got hit, but he spun his ship to the side just in time.

Several terrified calls came through to him. He had been made fleet captain, so naturally, they wanted his help.

"Just pay attention!" he shouted. "As soon as you see a platform ready to fire, begin evasive maneuvers until the danger has passed! Everyone that has a clear shot, destroy the platforms!"

There was a scream of fear from Skoodge. Zim turned to look as a nearby cruiser did a barrel roll, a laser missing it by feet. While it was still rolling, a powerful laser shot from it and obliterated the nearest defense platform.

"Great job, Skoodge!" Zim shouted.

"Thanks, sir!" Skoodge called back, sounding surprised that he had actually hit it.

A familiar custom ship, sleek and red, rushed past and destroyed another platform.

"Great job, Tak!" Zim said.

"Whatever," she replied. She was still mad at him for ruining her plan a few months ago, but she had put that aside for the better good of Irk, building a new ship just like her old one.

Zim spun his ship around to avoid a laser and checked to see how many of his fleet was left. About half of his original number. "Okay, quick, down to the surface! They won't fire once we're within a certain distance of the planet!"

There was a scream of pain and then nothing.

"LARB!" Zim shouted in horror. Seeing only the wreckage of a ship spiraling away, he lowered his head and growled. These Meekrobs would pay. "Quick, everyone!"

Everyone broke away from their battle with the defense platforms and raced with Zim down toward the surface. They lost a few more ships on the way, but eventually, the platforms stopped firing, not risking hitting the surface.

"Who have we lost?" he panted.

Several tired, sorrowful voices came back to him and told him. He felt a pang as the names of Invaders he had grown up with reached him. Larb, Stink, Flobee… and many others.

"We'll honor their memories," he said. "We'll teach these Meekrobs a lesson they'll never forget."

Everyone shouted agreements.

Zim looked ahead to the surface. "Okay, they will obviously have ground defenses. We'll need to take them out. Watch yourselves, watch each other." A human saying suddenly came to him, and without thinking, he shouted it. "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori!"

"What does that mean, sir?" Skoodge asked.

Feeling mildly embarrassed, Zim replied, "It's a saying I learned on Earth. It translates to, 'It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country.' A country is essentially an empire. SO LET'S GET OUT THERE AND FIGHT!" With a cry that would make a kamikaze pilot proud, he plunged toward the surface with the rest of his fleet behind him.

Red and Purple watched in surprise. They hadn't expected them to get so far. They had lost a good many of their number, but still Zim led them on. That little irken would do anything for his empire, wouldn't he?

"I thought he'd be the first to die," Purple commented, digging through his tray of nachos.

"Me too. Hmm. Oh well, they won't last long. The ground defenses are even better than the orbital ones," Red replied, helping himself to some nachos too.

Zim was first to reach the surface, after destroying several of the large cannons around the city.

He leapt out of his cruiser, gun in hand, snarling. Skoodge landed next to him and ran over, saluting him and hefting his gun, looking around nervously.

"Let's go," Zim said. "We're the first line. We're going to clear the way so the rest of the soldiers can get into the city, take it, and rescue Tenn."

"The Meekrobs are coming," Skoodge shouted, pointing.

Sure enough, a large, organized group of the floating blue aliens were drifting toward them, taking their time, quite confident they could drive away the irkens.

Tak landed nearby and ran over. She slapped her gun impatiently against her hand. "Come on, you filthy aliens," she said. "Just try to defeat us."

One by one, the rest of the fleet touched down behind them and got out, forming a waiting wall, guns out and trained on the approaching enemies.

"They say the waiting is worst then the battle itself," Skoodge said quietly.

As the Meekrob got closer, they were able to see that they were holding several powerful hand held weapons that crackled with energy.

"No, I think the battling will be worse," Zim replied, but he was still confident. He's gotten this far already. Getting tired of waiting, he shouted, "CHARGE!" He ran forward.

After a brief hesitation, everyone else rushed after him, shouting war cries in irken. The Meekrob sped up too, aiming at them.

The two sides crashed together. In the close combat, Zim didn't have much room to shoot and instead resorted to smashing their faces with the butt of his gun, knocking many unconscious. They fell out of the air as they were knocked out and were soon trampled by the rushing irkens.

Zim elevated himself on his spiderlegs and started using the points as knives, slicing through the creatures and spilling their translucent blue blood.

"Don't let them fool you!" he shouted to Skoodge, who was being backed down by one that had transformed into a ghostly Hogulus. "It's just an illusion!"

Skoodge nodded and closed his eyes, shoving his gun into its face and firing a laser through it. It screeched and exploded.

He turned back to the battle and found himself face to face with one. He backed away, but before he could get his spiderleg poised, it spoke to him in a gentle, wise voice. "I see the pain in your heart. You have left someone behind and wish to return to them. Who is this that you long for, irken?"

"I long for you to die!" Zim replied, stabbing the spiderleg forward. The Meekrob dodged it and surveyed him, reading his thoughts, as all of its kind can do.

Then it transformed, becoming a boy a little taller than Zim, with a long black trench coat, black hair, and amber eyes behind large glasses. The boy watched Zim closely, and when he spoke, he used Dib's voice. "What's the matter, Zim? Can't kill me?" he taunted.

"I know you're not Dib!" Zim shouted. "I don't miss him!"

"But you do. You do miss me. You long to feel my touch again." The illusion drew closer, hands reaching to touch Zim's face.

Zim leapt back with a hiss and stabbed it through the heart. It faded and revealed the alien, twitching around the metal appendage, before growing still. Zim scraped it off and couldn't help thinking of Dib, wondering how the human was doing. Has he exposed his base somehow by now? GIR wasn't always trustworthy with matters of security.

"Zim, watch yourself!" a voice shouted.

Zim looked up just as Tak leapt in front of him, shooting a Meekrob that had been heading for him.

"This is no time for daydreaming!" Tak was holding one of her arms awkwardly against her chest; it looked like it had been broken. But her expression was quite devoid of pain.

"Eh? Oh, right. Thanks." He nodded gratefully and leapt back into the battle. They were quite outnumbered, and many of them had been killed, but they kept fighting. Zim was relieved that his old friend Skoodge was still fighting. Then again, that guy always had been unkillable.

"When is the next line getting here?" Tak demanded about ten minutes later, looking up at the sky for a moment before she had to kick a Meekrob away and shoot it.

"I don't know," Zim replied. He had lost his gun by now and was fighting hand to hand with a Meekrob. He clawed it fiercely and then slammed his elbow into its face, knocking it back and distracting it enough that another soldier could run over and finish it off. They nodded to each other. Then the other rushed off and Zim said to Tak, "Maybe they're waiting for us to finish off these defenses and then come help us take the city."

"Well they better get here, because they just keep coming."

They had to stop talking as the Meekrob doubled their efforts, many transforming to fight. Zim was still a bit disturbed by the one that had turned into Dib, but no more have copied that trick and he was slowly getting over it.

Eventually, they were left with only twenty soldiers, and the Meekrob kept coming. Everyone was tired and barely moving in time to block attacks. Several were injured.

Zim backed away and took his communicator out. "Contacting the Massive, come in."

"Yes, Zim?" Purple replied.

"We're losing out here. Send in the next line of fighters. Repeat: Send in the next line!" he shouted desperately. Then he screamed and ducked as a particularly vicious Meekrob lunged for him. He stabbed it several times with a spiderleg until it stopped moving. "We're down to twenty- ah, Slacks!" He almost cried. "Make it nineteen."

Red's voice came onto the line. "You know what; we're just going to wait until they're done slaughtering you. No point sending in new soldiers while you all are still going."

"Wait, what?"

"We don't like any of you short Invaders anyway. Most of you have done your job and given us plenty of new planets; you're sacrificial."

"You sent us in as sacrifices?" Zim shouted. "To clear the way so the tall soldiers could easily finish them off?"

"Yes, that's exactly it," Purple replied. "Glad you figured that out."

"That's horrible!"

"Yeah, but what are you going to do about it? Have fun dying, Zim."

The call ended.

"My Tallest, wai- My Tallest?" Zim heard only a buzz. "DAMN IT!"

"Are they sending anyone?" Tak asked.

"No, they sent us in as sacrifices to tire out the Meekrob and their defenses so the 'real soldiers' can come in, finish them off, and get all the honor."

"What?" Tak demanded. "I can't believe they would stoop to that level!"

"Well I'm not going to let myself be killed. There must be a way." Zim tried to think. Raw strength wasn't going to win this one. They were far too outnumbered. Then he remembered an old war he learned about at the human Skool. One side was at a severe disadvantage… until one of its soldiers, the king of their empire, decided to use his brain instead of his brawn to fight. An idea suddenly came to him, crystal clear. "I have a plan."