June 28th, 2157, Shanxi

Hydrocarbon Plant

One hour. That was how long ago the original attack was, and it was sending everyone on edge. Veretti was starting to hum the Italian National Anthem, much to the amusement of the mortar teams, Jenkins was watching Aliens for the umpteenth time in his scope, and Caleb was out of his mech, inspecting his armor. Grace…well, she was keeping watch, and itching to shoot something. The rest of the defenders were taking care of what few wounded they had, and otherwise milling about, bored.

"How long are those bastards going to just sit there and wait?" Grace finally said, breaking the silence.

Verreti shrugged. "Not a clue," he said. "Besides, we're still here, right? So, they might be here because we're still here."

Grace groaned. "Verreti, if you start quoting that Red vs. Blue crap, I'm going to hurt you," she warned him. Caleb looked up, seemingly hurt at the woman's words.

"Red vs. Blue? Crap?" he gasped in mock horror. "My God, what kind of blasphemy is this, to declare the glorious misadventures of Blood Gulch crap?! Grace, you should be ashamed of yourself!"

Grace was about to retort when they all heard the sound of vehicles approaching. "Contacts approaching from my position!" Grace shouted, bringing her cannon about, charging it as fast as the reactor could allow.

Everyone sprang into action. Veretti rolled his shoulders and leveled his howitzer, kneeling to get a better angle. Jenkins shut off the movie, his optics focusing on the approaching vehicles. Caleb had all but flown back into his mech, strapped himself in, and got up, readying his missile system. The rest of the militiamen, led by Lang, aimed their weapons in preparation.

Suddenly, smoke began covering the space between them and the surviving aliens. "Shit, they got reinforced!" Jenkins shouted.

"No, you think?" Caleb asked sarcastically as he switched to thermal vision. Ah, there they were. "Twelve IFVs, dropping off …two squads each," he said. "Captain, permission to engage?"

Lang growled his denial. "No. We're going to let as many get out as possible before we attack."

Caleb nodded as he readjusted his rifle to aim at the enemy vehicles.

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"Platoon Sergeant Saren Arterius," Saren said as a female Cabalist dashed over to his rocky outcropping and kneeled beside him. "I called for your assistance."

"Save it," Nyreen said coolly. "Just tell me what we're facing here."

Saren nodded. "We have what seems to be a company sized infantry force holed up in the plant," he began. "They have sniper nests here, on top of the silos, and machine gun nests behind the walls. As far as artillery goes, they have them in the middle of the facility I think."

Nyreen nodded. "Thank you. Now, let us do what you couldn't do," she said. Saren watched as she got up and popped out of cover with one of her soldiers. Looking at the plant, they were soon pelted with bullets from almost the entire wall of the plant. Quickly, she and her fellow Cabalist snapped a Barrier into place.

"Spirits, what do these aliens shoot?" the Cabalist asked. Nyreen was about to answer when she saw something that made her heart go cold.

"Get down!" she shouted. She let the field dissipate and dropped down to the ground as massive darts streaked by her at incomprehensible speeds. Her soldier wasn't so lucky. She was simply blown to blue bits of gore and armor.

Nyreen looked up, shaking as she saw a massive robotic platform popped out of cover behind a chunk of metal, aiming at the outcropping. "Move!" Nyreen ordered as she scrambled over the edge, the hiss of rockets only making her statement that much more urgent. With a leap of terror, Nyreen jumped to the ground, just as the rockets hit the ground behind her. The only thing that managed to save her was her armor and shields, and the shields had barely held. Landing on the ground, her armor smoking slightly, Nyreen turned to look at Saren. "They have A.I. combat platforms!" she said.

Saren's mandibles dropped in open shock. Artificial intelligence was bad enough according to Citadel law; to make them able to use weapons was tantamount to preparing for a species wide genocide. "How many did you see?" he asked, picking up an ML-77.

"Just one so far, but Spirits know how many they actually have," Nyreen reported. "Why, you have a plan?"

Saren smirked as he slowly edged himself over the edge of the rocks, looking down the missile launcher's sights. He was rewarded with the sight of the platform in question. Growling, he fired off four missiles, just within the launcher's heat tolerance and ducked back into cover.

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[Warning! Missile Lock! Take Evasive Action!] stated the A.I. in Caleb's Minuteman as he saw the alien fire off four missiles, each of them homing in on him. Swearing, Caleb ducked and rolled to the side, hoping to escape the lock. It didn't work, and now, the rockets were almost on him. Leaping back, Caleb let loose a few IR countermeasures, hoping to fool them. Luckily, the missiles hit the chaff instead of him.

"Fuck that was close," Caleb muttered as he fired off a burst at the offending outcropping. "Captain, we have a platoon of infantry on our front door, they have anti-armor capability. Orders?"

"Call it in with the mortar teams, and light them up!" ordered Lang, firing on his end. "Right now, I'm busy helping the east flank repel these fuckers! *RATATATATATAT!*"

Caleb heard the man curse in his native Chinese before the Captain continued. "They have infantry with super powers! All units, focus fire on that-"

A sharp crack resonated in the air, as Caleb aimed his rifle at the outcropping. "What's going on? Some one give me a sitrep!" Caleb ordered as a tone came from his speakers, letting him know that Veretti had acquired the target.

"Captain dead! Taking much fire!" cried out a private on the open channel.

Caleb ran to the side of the plant, and saw that there was a whole assault team of aliens firing at the defenders. "Grace, can you clear a hole?"

"Fuck no!" she said. "The moment I pop out, they focus fire on me! Reactor housing's already taken one hit, can't risk more!"

"Then hang tight!" Caleb ordered. "Moving to engage." And with that, he sidestepped, opening up most of the alien line to his gun sights. Pulling the trigger, Caleb sent a steady stream of 25mm flechettes into the alien lines.

Any shielding unit that these aliens had, simply failed outright as the inch wide darts travelling at just under the speed of sound blew their bodies apart, arms and torsos disintegrating as the armor-piercing spikes slammed into the ground. Surprised, the aliens turned to fire upon Caleb. This gave Grace (and the rest of the infantry) an opening.

Snarling, Grace strode out of cover, swinging her plasma cannon into position. "Say hello to Fred assholes!" she yelled in fury as she pulled the trigger, sending a blazing hot ball of sapphire energy at the alien IVFs and tanks. Caleb watched as the vehicles simply melted into slag, and any infantry in the way were turned into fragile charcoal statues in less than a second, if they even survived for that to happen.

Caleb backed up, firing. "All section leaders, this is Corporal Shepherd! Status, now! How many of you are still alive?"

"This is North Leader. We have full count, but we're starting to lose ammunition."

"This is West Leader, we're taking heavy losses! There we contacts behind the rocks, they're hitting us with all they've got!"

"East Leader, still quiet."

"Mortar teams report low ammunition."

"Shep, they're starting to pick off our snipers," Jenkins reported. "We need to pull back, now."

Caleb made his decision. "All units, prepare to fall back to rally point. Any one with engineering experience, or programming skills, shut this plant off. Keep it so that the plant provides power, and if these bastards tamper with it, well, you get the idea!" he ordered, heading back to his original post. "Get the IFVs prepped, and start falling back by squad! We leave in five!"

The soldiers scrambled to obey, happy to have some semblance of order. All around the plant, it was a flurry of activity. IFVs were prepped to move and fight for every foot of distance. Combat engineers prepped the plant to provide power, and to go off at the slightest bit of tampering, and Jenkins and Veretti packed up what remained of their respective groups.

Soon, everyone was at the North Gate of the plant. "Alright people, move it! We're heading back to the rally point!" Caleb shouted. "Veretti, take point! Grace, Jenkins, flank guard! Watch for enemy air!"

As one, the convoy started heading out of the plant, racing to the rally point three miles away. Yet as Caleb cleared the gate, he felt the slam of a rocket in his leg. Falling down, he looked and saw that much of his left calf's armor was gone, and shredded a good portion of the muscle bundles. Jenkins stopped to look at him. "Shepherd!"

"Go dammit!" Caleb ordered as he saw a platoon of aliens advance towards him. "That's an order trooper!"

Jenkins nodded before running off with the convoy. Caleb smirked just as his mech's systems simply crashed. "Fuck," he growled, removing himself from the harness, and grabbing his AR. For now, he waited.

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Saren walked over to the fallen robotic platform. "Are you sure it's disabled?" he asked Nyreen. Nyreen nodded.

"Yes," she said simply as she walked up onto it. "If it weren't, we'd all be dead by now. Now, let's see what this platform knows." Nyreen found a lever on its chest, and pulled it. There was a slight hiss as the chest plates disengaged their locks and slid open…only to reveal a very pissed off alien soldier, who happily began firing its rifle at Nyreen. She barely had enough time to dodge and bring up a Barrier. Saren himself jumped onto the platform and got behind the alien. With a snarl, Saren slammed the butt of his rifle onto the back of the alien's head. With a slump, the alien fell onto the platform, unconscious.

Saren looked up at Nyreen. "These things are piloted?!" he said incredulously. Nyreen looked at the mech.

"Well, it does explain why it was protecting them," she said. "After all, since when do the A.I. care about organic life?" Saren chuckled darkly.

"They don't," he said. "Listen, I'm going to call in for pick-up, tell them we have a prisoner."

Nyreen shrugged. "Do what you want Sergeant. I have places that Command wants my Cabal to be," she said, holstering her pistol. She quickly walked away and into a waiting IFV. "And you did well, for someone related to our commander," she added.

Saren's chest puffed with pride. He looked down at the alien and scowled. Now, to get this alien pilot somewhere safe to gather some information.

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Shanxi Garrison Command, New Wuhan, Shanxi

Williams was not a happy general. The air battle for the space port had been lost, too many fighters were being shot down, and the port's defenses were totaled. On the upside, whoever these invaders were, they'd have to deal with the workers inside the port proper. After all, fuel pumps, construction equipment, and invading army; Williams was certain that the defenders would make something up. Williams sighed as a runner came up to him.

"General, the 52nd have left the powerplant," the runner said. "Captain Lang is KIA, and they've taken moderate casualties. Fireteam Charlie is also saying that one of their pilots has been captured sir, they want to know if you have any orders for that."

Williams groaned. "Is Rally Point India still under attack?" he asked. The runner shook his head.

"No sir, but there is a fairly large force heading to it; they think it's to make a hole in our perimeter, get to the city."

Williams sighed. "Tell them to hold their positions. We have more things to worry about than rescuing a single pilot at the moment."

The runner nodded before running away.

Williams groaned. He didn't want to leave that pilot, he really didn't. Hell, he himself was His Majesty's Mechanized Infantry his first tour in the Royal Armed Services. But right now, he just couldn't afford to send a team and rescue this pilot. He needed his men out there, on the line, defending New Wuhan.

Right now, the main force was holding. There were several other points that the invaders were trying to get through, much like at Rally Point India, but those too were holding out. Williams frowned. It was a three day journey through Subspace to Epsilon Indi, and another month from there to Earth. It was going to be a long ass fight then….

But then again, Williams thought, since when does humanity ever back down from a fight?

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Forests outside New Wuhan

It was quiet as the turian platoon walked through the forests outside the enemy city. The plan was that they'd sneak in, find a hole in the defenses, and open up a path from the inside so that the main force could enter. Suddenly, something jumped off the ground and exploded.

The misfortunate private who got hit grumbled as she wiped off a layer of fluid sprayed by the bomb in disgust. Moving along, the platoon marched on for three cycles before they heard a low growling coming from the foliage. Nervous, they all raised their rifles.

It took three bodies for the platoon to realize they were being attacked from the rear, and another two before they got the creature in their sights and began firing.

Up in the trees, a pair of Rangers sat in their blind watching the Shanxi Panda rip apart the alien soldiers. "Dude, this is fucking better than watching those nature documentaries," one of them said.

"I know, right?" replied the other one, taking out a few sunflower seeds and eating them. "Bst damn seats in the house."

A third Ranger came from a few tree limbs above them. "Report," he whispered harshly. The first Ranger shrugged.

"They walked right into Smelly Ellie. Panda's got them now sir. Best damn seats in the house too."

The third Ranger looked at the second one. "Are those sunflower seeds Private?"

"…uhh, yeff?"

"Move over, and hand me those seeds Simmons. I want to enjoy this show. Grif, make sure that after the bear leaves, that the aliens are dead."

"Yes Sarge."

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Unknown Location

Caleb awoke with a start as someone flashed a very damn bright light in his face. "Uugghh," Caleb groaned as he opened his eyes, letting them adjust to the lighting. Looking up, he jumped in surprise, only to be slammed back into his chair by restraints. Hissing in pain, he looked up to see a pair of aliens, and since they didn't have the HAZMAT suited look of the Quarians, he decided that these were the hostiles from the other side of the Relay.

"Alright you assholes, what the hell do you want?" Caleb asked defiantly. In response, one of the aliens walked up to Caleb. Eyeing the being warily, Caleb asked, "Hey, what the hell are you-" just as it grabbed his head, and shoved something into his ear. Caleb shook his head wildly as the alien backed off. "Hey, what the hell did you just shove in my ear?!" he shouted indignantly at the two aliens.

The alien that stayed where it was huffed in annoyance. "We just planted a translator into your ear," it growled. Caleb looked at the alien in surprise.

"Oh, great, so, how did you folks learn English?" he asked.

The other alien laughed. "We took the data off of one your ships we destroyed," it said. "It also had Keelish, which makes it just a tad easier for us to understand you in turn." Now that Caleb thought about it, there was a bit of odd feedback coming in through his translator.

"Now, I am General Arterius," said the alien who first spoke to Caleb. "That there is Commander Victus. We are members of the Turian Hierarchy, an we are going to ask you some questions, and you will answer them."

Caleb rolled his eyes. "Bring it on General Ass-wipe," he said derogatorily.

Desolas growled. "First off, you will answer me with respect!" he said coldly.

"And I will," Caleb retorted, "If and when I feel you have earned it."

Desolas growled even louder, and promptly punched Caleb in the gut. "This planet, how many more like it are there?" he asked, standing up.

"No…clue…," Caleb breathed out as he caught his breath. "I never really cared."

Victus looked over at Caleb. "Very well," he said. "We'll ask something easier. How many people are defending this planet?"

Caleb started laughing. Loudly. Desolas grunted. "What's so funny?" he asked.

Caleb looked up at the turians. "You don't get it," he said, trying to control himself. "It isn't a matter of who's defending a planet. This about you guys just killing off whole families who couldn't fight back, this is about revenge now. There isn't a list of defenders, because as of now, everyone is fighting you," Caleb added. "Everyone, from the militiaman, to the janitor, to the little kid on the playground, using nothing but a rock and a stick! We will fight you to the last man, woman, and child, and when everyone finds out about this…." Caleb chuckled again. "Pal, if a Tiger Wanzer dropped on you, I'd have no sympathy whatsoever," he told them.

Desolas rolled his head. "Victus, stick him in a cell. We'll deal with him later," he said to his fellow soldier. Victus nodded and proceeded to drag Caleb's chair out a door, down the hall, taking a left, down another hall full of cells stuffed with human prisoners, and into a cell with nobody in it. Leaving him be, Victus shut the door and walked away.

Looking at his fellow prisoners of war, Caleb asked, "Hey, who's in charge?"

Across the way from Caleb, Marshfield looked up. "That'd be Captain Archer, but they have him somewhere else, along with all the other officers," he said wearily. "Why?"

"Just want to know my orders," Caleb replied, leaning back in his chair. "So, what's your name?"

"Marshfield. Yours?"

"Shepherd. You Navy?"

"Yeah. Was the DRADIS operator. You?"

"Mobile Infantry. Sixth Division, Third Regiment, Delta Company."

"Damn, so you're a Roughneck?" Marshfield asked, awed.

Caleb nodded. "Yep, and damn proud of it."

Marchfield laughed. "So, you have any drops under your belt?"

"Two," Caleb answered. "Saw action on Sirius, and now here. How about you?"

"First time in combat," Marshfield said. "I was on the Tim Murphy. Bastards took us when we ran out of munitions. Was the only reason they got us."

Caleb huffed. "They disabled my mech as I was escorting what was left of the infantry company we were supporting back to the rally point. They popped the hatch, and knocked me out," he said bitterly.

Marshfield sighed. "Well, without Captain Archer, or any of the officers, well, we can't exactly plan a way to get out. Not unless you have some kind of ace in the hole," he said. Caleb smiled.

"I do," he responded simply. Marshfield looked at him wide eyed.

"Where?"

"Rig," Caleb answered. "Hey, do you sing much?"

Marshfield shook his head. "No, why?"

"Well, I was figuring we could always annoy the fuck out of our captors."

"Oh. Any songs you had in mind?"

Two minutes later, the turians got to hear a live performance of the Earth musical hit, "We Will Rock You," by Queen. And it pissed them off to no end.

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CODEX ENTRY

MOBILE INFANTRY: The Mobile Infantry is the United North American Confederation's mech division. Formed in the aftermath of World War III, the M.I. has seen action in revolts, insurrections, and police actions up to 2157. Every member is a trained pilot and rifleman, as mech pilots have been known to exit their mechs to fight the enemy. The EU of course have their own versions, both British and German, and the Russians are well known for their "fight or die" attitude. The Japanese have very few M.I. units, but their high level of skill more than makes up for their numbers.

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A/N: I do not own Starship Troopers either. Next chapter may feature politics. Look for edits in the previous chapters.

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Abbreviations

IR – Infra-Red

AR – Assault Rifle