The squids have never attacked with anything less than overwhelming force. Beating them back has always been the nearest thing to impossibility that humanity has attempted. Maybe one day we'll have the technology to get past that, but for now…

- Major General Akosua Anan, 2nd Magical Division, 3rd Army Group of the Yangtze

What do you do? You shut up and keep fighting.

-First Lieutenant Hanako de la Cruz, 21st Regiment, 6th Magical Division, 8th Army Group of the Yangtze

The flight down went unmolested by enemy fire, tied up as the squid were with the Samsaran Home Fleet. Admiral Megan Feldstein, an uncontracted woman, was nevertheless working magic in deep space against the enemy, buying Samsara itself more and more time to get set up for war.

This did not make Emma any less apprehensive as the dropship finished reentry and angled itself towards the city of Helsinberg, located within a valley on the western border of the Kolasi Basin. Helsinberg had first been founded as a stop off on the route between the agricultural regions to Kolasi's west and the industrial facilities of Kolasi's interior and coastline. Set astride a river in a flat, fertile stretch of the valley several kilometers behind the pass to the foothills of the mountains, its position allowed travelers to refill their water tanks and have a bite to eat. Like in the American West millennia ago, service industries quickly sprang up, with trade and other things soon following.

Helsinberg was now a busy commerce and finance center in its region of the planet, profitable in its own right and a steady contributor to the local economy. Its position in the middle of a valley also placed it directly in the path of any cephalopod advance into the Basin to destroy Samsara's ability to continue fighting. This made Helsinberg a key city in the defense of the Kolasi Basin. It was, as much as was possible in the short amount of time available, being turned into a stronghold.

12th Division had been placed in charge of defending the valley, the mountain pass leading to the valley, and the city itself. They were not, however, its first line of defense. Conscription, in the midst of imminent invasion, had provided Helsinberg and the rest of the Basin with the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd Militia Divisions, three quarters of an entire light infantry Corps. Each continent had two or three armies worth of militia, drawn up from the conscription of any physically able person older than eighteen. The sheer magnitude of the force moving towards Samsara made it clear that Samsara's garrison would not be enough to hold the tide. Younger individuals, the infirm, or the possibly useful were moved into either production centers or evacuated into emergency bunkers, since the Home Fleet was unable to provide any escort out of system.

The exception to this evacuation was any magical girl who had contracted relatively recently. They were still being given as much training as possible in time-dilated sims, those who had contracted earlier getting a few more days preparation than those who had contracted the day it became clear that the cephalopods were going to invade Samsara. It wasn't perfect, and it was terribly likely that they would die very quickly, but it would have to do.

The 8th Battalion, as the battalion with the highest number of IFVs, were in charge of ferrying arms and materiel, recently churned out of Kolasi's factories, to the 45th, 46th, and 47th Regiments, who were strengthening the fortifications to Helsinberg's west, north, and south. Each IFV would be accompanied by its soldiers, just in case something happened and manpower was needed. More importantly, it also freed up drones to support moving larger deliveries for the area's heavy defenses and fortifications.

"Chief Jones, what do you think about splitting this workload in half?" asked Emma as she skimmed over the substantial manifest they had been transmitted in midflight. The dropship was making its final approach to land in an empty field to Helsinberg's east. "I've got a few years of logistical training, so it's nothing I can't handle."

Ingrid took a moment to look up Emma's training, then nodded. "This seems reasonable. I will take C and D squad, while you take A and B squad."

"I can work with that," said Emma, breaking the manifest in half and sending the first half to Ingrid. "You complete this part and I'll complete the other."

Ingrid nodded and said no more. Emma fidgeted as she read over her half again. Truth be told, this wasn't something that she relished doing. Logistics was still, ultimately, about moving things around, and it bored her half to death. But it was something that was not sitting around, worrying about the carpet of red overhead that was converging on the planet she was on, so Emma grit her teeth and started planning.

"Alright, A Squad and B Squad, listen up," Emma said into the platoon battlenet after the dropship landed and their vehicles had arrived at their fall back position. "The platoon will be splitting in half to deal with deliveries faster and more efficiently. There's a lot to drop off, so I'll be assigning everyone a number to make it easier to coordinate." There was a second of delay, before each team in the two squads had been subtitled by a number, one through eight. "These are your assignments-," Emma transmitted these from the manifest "-which may or may not have been shuffled around since the manifest was sent to us, so keep me updated on what you have and have not dropped off. Everyone understand?"

Emma received a series of affirmatives from the team leaders.

"Good, I'll see you at the warehouses," said Emma. She unbuckled her seatbelt and got up, jumping down after Ingrid, Beckett, and Han and helping them to unload the equipment they'd brought.

Their fall back position was an elementary school on the southern side of Helsinberg. Three stories tall with a gymnasium/indoor football pitch on the roof, Public School 7S was a fairly new building, erected when the city began to expand very rapidly in response to the economic boom trade and commerce provided. Originally made of cement, it was now faced with ablative sheeting and composite polymers, to give it further strength in case of attack. What struck Emma, however, as she was carrying crates of grenades from the IFV to the classroom she would be staying in, was the disparity between the school, with its relatively modern interior and well maintained facilities, to the grimy, somewhat ill-kept looking streets and residences surrounding it.

"Why are the streets around here so littered with stuff?" Emma asked Sergeant Beckett as they made another trip. "Shouldn't there be people cleaning things?"

"Samsara's not like Earth," said Beckett, hefting the crate up a little higher as he spoke. "It's still run under capitalism and, inevitably, it's started segregating along class 's a pretty big income disparity, especially in a city like Helsinberg that's expanded very rapidly in the last decade or so."

"But why aren't people helping them then?" asked Emma, shocked. "Shouldn't you be making sure that everyone gets pulled up with the economy?"

Beckett snorted. "Yeah, like that'll ever happen."

"What do you mean?"

Beckett sighed. "Earth represents a situation where there is no scarcity of resources, so it's very easy to be generous, especially since allocs don't restrict basic needs. The Samsaran Economy has wide variation of resource availability, and so there is a strong incentive to gather as much as you can for yourself and those who are close to you. It's basic human greed."

Emma considered this. "Then shouldn't Governance- I mean the local government, sorry- be trying to mitigate this?"

"Oh they're just as greedy," said Beckett. "Everyone wants power and money, and they're perfectly okay with screwing someone else over to get it."

"…that's terrible."

"It's life," shrugged Beckett, setting his crate down in the classroom. "I come from a colony further out on the edge of the Samsaran Sphere, before the squid attacked. I was a poor kid, but was able to get into a military track early and managed to find my way off world from there."

"Are your family still there?" asked Emma, setting her crate down beside Beckett's and leaning against it for a short breather.

"They're all dead," said Beckett. "Squid attacks."

"Oh. I'm, uh, I'm sorry."

"Eh, it's been a few years now," said Beckett with a sigh. "I've had my time to mourn. What's our next step?"

Emma glanced over their supply list and checked off the last two crates. "We're done here, so we need to get down to the warehouse district by the river and start loading up."

"I'll meet you outside then, sir," said Beckett, nodding at Emma before departing. Emma watched him go, brow furrowed. It was difficult for her to understand the mindset that went into intentionally forcing others into reduced economic status. It had been part of her basic history and economic studies, of course, but Beckett had been right in saying that Earth was much more equalized, socially and economically. The only way you could have been "poor" in either London or Mitakihara had been if you'd just spent all your allocs for no particular reason, and that was really more a case of bad alloc management. It seemed petty now, the way her family had worried so much about allocs, when they had always been able to live in their apartment comfortably and get food on demand from the synthesizer every day.

She couldn't imagine, remotely, what it must be like to not have that.

With a sigh, Emma got to her feet and made her way back to the street and the playgrounds around the school, where the IFVs had been parked. The play sets and sandboxes had been bulldozed away days earlier to make space. Emma paused as she came to the front doors, seeing a sight she hadn't been expecting. A girl, about her age, was sitting on the steps of the school, looking out over the IFVs sadly.

"Who are you?" asked Emma as she walked up. "Why haven't you- oh."

The girl had turned around at Emma's footsteps, and Emma had caught a flash of magic. A soul gem twisting into ring form.

"Hi," said the girl quietly, turning back to the vehicles.

Emma walked up to her and sat down beside her. "What's your name?" Emma asked.

"Tracy," said the clearly very new magical girl. "You?"

"Emma. What're you doing here?"

"I used to go to school here," said Tracy. "There was a set of monkey bars, just over there-," Tracy pointed at where a group of C Squad IFVs were parked "-that I loved as a kid. Was always climbing around."

"Ah," said Emma. "I know what that's like."

"You do?" asked Tracy, surprised. "Where are you from?"

"I'm from Earth," said Emma, smiling with self-depreciation. "So I guess my experience can't be that bad. But I had this football I'd been playing with since I was four. The day I realized I'd outgrown it was really depressing."

Tracy snorted. "You're right, that's a shit example."

"Well, so much of empathy, right?" said Emma. "When'd you contract?"

"A couple days ago," said Tracy. "I'm taking a break, before they chuck me back into the sims."

Emma took in Tracy's tired, slightly disheveled frame. "Been sleeping well?"

The fresh contractee shook her head. "No."

"Try and get something to help you then," advised Emma, looking away again and standing up.

"Why?" asked Tracy.

"When I was in training, we were told it was best to sleep between sims," said Emma. "I always found it helped the lessons stick."

"Thanks," said Tracy, blinking. "I'll, uh, see if the medical guys can give me something then."

"No problem," said Emma, turning for her IFV. "See you around."

"Bye," called Tracy. Emma waved over her shoulder.

"What took you?" asked Beckett as she pulled herself into the vehicle.

"Just helping out a new recruit," said Emma, closing the door behind her before falling into her seat with a laugh. "Damn, who'd have thought?"

"What?"

"I'm completely green, and I just gave a new contractee advice," said Emma, buckling in as the IFV moved off. "That was completely absurd."

The warehouse district resembled a madhouse. A well coordinated, smoothly moving madhouse, but a madhouse nonetheless.

"Alright, it looks like there's a pretty substantial wait, so head over to the other side of the river and pick up the goods for 1st Battalion," ordered Emma as she helped Beckett and Han load blocks of ablative armor into their IFV. The material was destined for breakdown by fortification drones, to be extruded onto embankments and concrete barriers on the front. "Team 6, how are you- good, swing around and join Team 3 to get 1st Battalion's gear out to them. The south side's going to be tied up for awhile until this bloody AT Turret gets moved."

"Why is there a fully assembled AT Turret anyway?" grumbled Beckett, shoving a block farther into the vehicle.

"It is destined for defense of the main highway," said Han, pushing another block into the IFV for Beckett to move down. "It is likely easier to assemble it here, then emplace it."

"Every single one of the turrets we've ever used has been assembled on site though," countered Beckett.

"Maybe they don't have enough combat engineers," suggested Han, as Emma passed her another block and went back to retrieve more, still coordinating with the other teams. "On an unrelated note, Beckett, have you been talking to the Lieutenant?"

"Yeah, what of it?" asked Beckett.

"Nothing," said Han with a shrug.

"It's never nothing with you," said Beckett. "You don't talk unless you have a point to make."

"I just think you're setting yourself up for more grief," said Han. "She's not going to last."

"Well aren't you just cheery little miss sunshine," said Beckett with a snort. "There's no harm in teaching her a little about colony life."

"Hn."

"Oh come off it," said Beckett, rolling his eyes behind his faceplate. "We're not going to become friends over something like this."

"I would rather not risk it," said Han. "You remember-."

"This is the last of the blocks," said Emma, dropping a stack of the things beside the IFV and tossing one up to Beckett. "Let's load up and head out."

"Yes sir," said Beckett and Han, helping her put them inside and climbing in. The IFV quickly pulled out of its spot and moved into the long, relatively slow moving line behind the AT Turret.

"So where are you from, Sergeant Han?" asked Emma as they cruised along, searching for a small opening so that they could use the IFV's offroading ability.

"I am from New Hubei, Yangtze Sector," said Han.

"What's it like there?"

Han paused, before saying simply that: "It is nice."

"In what way?"

"It is just nice."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Look, come on, we can have a conversation about this can't we? It's not as if we're going to suddenly become best friends over what your hometown was like."

"…."

Emma turned to Beckett. "Is she always like this?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Yup," said Beckett dryly. "Lady of few words, our Sergeant Han."

Emma sighed. "Right. Well then, how about you Sergeant? What was your hometown like?"

"It was a lot like the area around Public School 7S," said Beckett. "Dirty, unkempt, and scattered with shining jewels that were somebody's pet project for power and wealth. It wasn't a place that you stayed in, you got out as fast as you could."

"It sounds like a difficult place to live."

"It was. Still, there were some good parts. There was a guy on my street who made really good, and I mean Goddess-blessed levels of good, fried skewers. Nobody ever figured out exactly how he got the permit to do a street cart, but we knew he had a daughter."

"Three guesses then," said Emma shaking her head. "Jeez, what a wish."

"Hey, don't look down upon a wish like that," said Beckett. "Especially when he managed to do pretty well for himself. The allocs from his daughter's pay helped a lot too, he and his wife managed to move into some higher level housing after a few months. It worked out for them, so why not make a wish like that?"

"It just seems so… short sighted," said Emma, crossing her legs. "I mean, sure, it worked out this time, but it's not always gonna work out for every girl. How can you be sure of that sort of thing?"

"You can not," said Han. "But it is important to try anyway."

"She speaks!" said Emma with a grin. "Praise the Goddess!"

"But she's got a point," said Beckett. "We all wish for something with all of our heart. Magical girls are lucky, they get to have that wish fulfilled. Us normal people-," he gestured at himself and Han "-have to make do with hard work and blind luck."

Emma frowned and thought about this. She thought about it for the rest of the drive.

The work continued for the remainder of the day. Emma, just like everyone else, kept checking the updates on her TacComp. As the hours passed, the outlook became increasingly bleak as the fleet's numbers dwindled. Finally, just before the regiment took a breather for dinner, the projections stabilized to about eight hours until cephalopod planet fall. Dinner, therefore, became a rushed affair that nobody had time to enjoy.

Soon enough, they were back at the business of preparing for invasion. Emma found herself needed at the platoon's mustering point more often than not, eventually taking a seat in the gymnasium as the minutes ticked toward planetfall and coordinating the logistics from there while Ingrid took care of the tactical details.

"Alright, Team 7, you're on point for the next escort duty," said Emma, moving around the team assignments on her TacComp's display. "Ah, Team 13, how is D Squad's fuel situation?"

"We got a refuel at the last redoubt," said D Squad's command team leader, the IFVs on the way back a delivery at one of the area's point defense turrets. "We'll need a top off at the mustering point, but we'll be fine."

"Good, I'll put you in to the next slot at the fuel depot," said Emma, gesturing at the relevant slots on her display and flicking to the next task. "Right, Team Fi-." There came a knocking on the doors to the gymnasium, before they opened with a slight creak. "Eh?"

"Uhh, Lieutenant Tracy Geyeller, reporting for duty," said Tracy, shifting side to side awkwardly. She had transformed into her costume of blue and white, trimmed with silver and looking like some sort of naval officer from the 1700s. Behind her was a nervous looking girl wearing a lightly colored dress with a black jacket over top. Tracy gestured at her as she kept talking. "I'm also here with Lieutenant Bridgette Hayer."

Emma blinked at them as they stood before her and saluted. It took her a moment, to really understand what was happening, before she managed to take a deep breath and put on her Football Team Captain face.

"Ah, you're supposed to be my fire support," said Emma, setting her TacComp's details to the side and standing up. "What're your abilities? You first, Tracy."

"Well, cutlasses as far as I can tell," said Tracy, unsheathing said broad, heavy blade from her side and spinning it about. Bridgette edged away. "Other than that, I can't figure anything out."

"Alright, we'll see how that develops," said Emma, folding her arms, before nodding at Bridgette. "And you, Bridgette?"

"Um, j-javelins," said Bridgette, manifesting, and clutching tightly, one of the projectiles into her hands. "T-that's all I've found out."

"Right then," said Emma, sighing thoughtfully as she considered the incredibly raw rookies in front of her. She was really not the right person for this, but it looked like they had been put into her hands, so she would have to do her best. "You're both so new… I think that you'd best stay here."

"Wait, what?" asked Tracy. "Hey now, what the hell are you saying?!"

"Please understand, it's not that I don't think you're competent," said Emma, trying to let Tracy down gently. "It's just that I don't think you're suited to a front line position."

"I-I'm okay with this," said Bridgette, losing some of her nervousness and loosening her grip on her javelin. "I, um, do you want me on the roof then?"

Emma nodded. "The top of the gymnasium has turrets and a parapet now, make sure you stay behind cover."

"I will," said Bridgette, nodding and jogging out of the room. Tracy and Emma were left alone, the former still seething and the latter waiting for her to say something.

"Tch, I don't believe this," said Tracy, looking to the side angrily. "I didn't contract to sit in the back like some freeloader."

"I understand, it's very frustrating," said Emma, rubbing her neck awkwardly. "But, ah, you know I'm not that experienced either, so I'm kinda in the same boat."

"How's that then?" asked Tracy. "Your last example was pretty shitty, should I expect better this time?"

"This platoon's last platoon commander was killed in action a few weeks ago," said Emma. "I'm a replacement, which means I'm not exactly welcome."

Tracy paused. "Okay, that's actually not that bad of an example," she conceded with a sigh. "But why can't I go out onto the line, to hold a redoubt or something? Just sitting here waiting makes me feel so… useless."

Emma sighed and considered. "Let me check with Chief Jones later," she said eventually. "Maybe we can put you into convoy duty, for supply runs."

"Really?" asked Tracy brightening, before scowling again. "Wait, what's the difference between that and guard duty?"

"There's a slightly higher chance of death," said Emma bluntly. "Look, Tracy, you're three days old. Just deal with it for now, yeah?"

"…fine," said Tracy, kicking at the ground unhappily. "I'll go join Bridgette up top for now."

"See you around," said Emma. She waited until Tracy had left hearing range before slumping back onto the crates.

"Goddess," she muttered, rubbing at her temples. "Please, please tell me I didn't behave like that earlier."

Emma's TacComp replied by telling her she had fifteen messages requiring immediate attention.

"Shit, shit, right," said Emma, pulling her interface back and continuing to coordinate the movements of her platoon. "Right, sorry guys, had to deal with our fire support. Team 3, I need you to make a pickup at Warehouse 5…."

Team three's delivery was among the last that Third Platoon was in charge of. For the last hour before the squids were expected to make planet fall, Third Platoon was able to rest and prepare themselves mentally for the upcoming fight.

The men were quiet as they waited beside their IFVs, the armored vehicles parked into alleys and along side streets, then covered with active camo tarpaulins to prevent them from being bombed. Part of Emma considered going out for a walk, to talk to the men and see how they were doing, but the cautious side of her, prodded into wakefulness by her recent beat down at the hands of the other girls in C Company, kept her in the depths of Public School 7S.

"When we go out, we may need to hold you in the back," Ingrid was saying as she and Emma went over the plans for the defense. "We will probably be responding to embattled light infantry, so it is best if we can open fire from a distance while reinforcing."

"Will we need to worry about counter-fire?" asked Emma. "AT weapons could do serious damage to us."

"Depending on what happens, it's possible," said Ingrid. "The squid aren't known for using particularly unusual strategies, so we can expect a frontal assault of some kind with large numbers designed to overwhelm."

"Will we be able to stop them?"

"Not likely," said Ingrid bluntly. "Our maneuver will facilitate a retreat to a line further back in the defenses, unless we're ordered otherwise."

"Otherwise?"

"Sometimes, heavy infantry is committed to sacrifice itself in a rearguard action," said Ingrid. "If the time comes for us to do so, we will need to be ready for it."

Emma gulped. "I… that's…."

Ingrid nodded. "It is the reality of our situation. You will likely be evacuated, but prepare yourself as best you can for our deaths."

"I… I will," said Emma, nodding. She bit her lip and frowned at the ground as Ingrid walked out and went to attend to some other minor detail.

Ingrid was always so very blunt. It made it difficult for Emma, especially at times like this. There was more than enough stress going around already, why did Ingrid have to add to that?

Rubbing her eyes, Emma quietly made her way out of the room and climbed the steps up to the gymnasium's roof. The only people up there were Bridgette and Tracy, sitting side by side behind the parapet. Overhead, stray debris from the massive space battle streamed down from the sky, burning up in the atmosphere as they tumbled out of space. The crackoom of point defense cannons blasting the larger fragments, incapable of burning up enough to avoid damage in the impact area, thundered over the valley as Emma stepped forward.

"One of you should be on watch," said Emma as she approached the two new girls. Bridgette flinched and jumped to her feet, but Tracy stood more slowly.

"The projections say that we don't need to worry about that for another hour though," said Tracy.

"Paranoia saves lives," said Emma, looking up at the sky. "Why do you think we've got the men spread out already?"

Tracy frowned and looked out over the parapet. "Is it really that serious?" she asked, leaning up on it with her arms. "Training glossed over a lot of things."

"I've been killed at least three dozen times now," said Emma blandly, summoning a halberd to lean against at the parapet. "The most memorable ones are when I was shot through the head by a sniper, gutted by a Shock Trooper, and cut in half by a laser cannon."

Tracy and Bridgette looked horrified.

"Didn't they get that far in the sims?" asked Emma, blinking. "Goddess, you don't even know about…."

"About?" asked Tracy cautiously.

Emma sighed and shook her head. "Alright, look, your TacComps should be operational by now. It'll tell you about your soul gem levels, percent incapacitation, and other stuff. There are some things you need to make sure you remember. First." She turned and pointed her halberd at them. "Your soul gem is your life. Keep an eye on its levels at all times, and retreat if it starts get below 50%. Are we clear?"

Tracy and Bridgette nodded, both instinctively feeling for their soul gems. The real ones, not the decoys.

"Also, stop doing that," said Emma, gesturing at their hands. "That'll just tip off a sniper and get your soul gem shot off and leave you vulnerable."

The girls flinched and pulled their hands back to their sides.

"What else?" asked Tracy.

"Right. Second, your personal defense drones protect you from the enemy's drone compliment," said Emma, tapping her backpack with the haft of her halberd. Her drones flew out and swirled about her, landing onto her shoulders and hair. "They're a little annoying sometimes," she continued, picking one out of her ear, "but they're needed. Keep an eye on them and retreat the moment your compliment gets lower than 50%."

Tracy and Bridgette nodded again. They had their own backpacks, but they had been set aside to be more comfortable. Guiltily, they glanced at each other, then away.

"Third," said Emma, tempted to laugh at their naivety, "never, ever stand still. Keep moving and keep your senses active. Understand?"

Tracy and Bridgette nodded a third time. "We understand," they said quietly, in unison.

"Good," said Emma, sighing and leaning against her halberd again. She turned back to the parapet morosely. "Bloody hell. You two need more time."

The debris overhead continued streaking by as they stood silently, looking out over the suburbs surrounding Public School 7S. The night had gone freakishly quiet, despite the distant thunder of cannons. All light in the city was extinguished, in order to make targeting all the more difficult for the squids. Any light that remained, enhanced by their implants, came from the debris overhead and the light of the stars or Samsara's moons. It was 0147.

"U-um, is that normal?" asked Bridgette, pointing at a piece of debris.

"What about it?" asked Emma, looking up. The three of them waited for a moment, until a cannon round slammed into it. There was a flare of bright purple, only distantly visible even to them.

"…No, that's not normal," said Emma. "Bridgette, call it in."

"R-right," said Bridgette, nodding. "Um, C Company, Third Platoon to Kolasi Unified Command, r-reporting unusual debris falling for grid a-alfa six four."

Emma watched the debris as it fell, following the trajectory output by her TacComp. It was destined to fly far over head, dropping into the sea kilometers away.

"R-right, understood," said Bridgette, before turning to Tracy and Emma. "Um, they say that they're going to send some drones to investigate in flight."

"Hmm. Guys, are you seeing this?" Emma asked over wideband telepathy. She sent the older magical girls a retinal capture of the debris, zoomed in on her implants with relevant data attached.

"Nice catch, new girl," replied Alanis. "That looks really weird."

"Not my catch, thank the new new girl," said Emma blandly. "Say hello Bridgette, Tracy."

"H-hi."

"Hello."

"Ah, well, in any case, it's good to know," said Alanis.

"Yeah, that's not right," added Emily. "That purple could be a Magi Caeli's barrier, but that'd be one hell of a barrier. Most of us can't pull that off."

"We should be alert," said Qing Duo. "Fatima, Mei Ling?"

"We're looking at it now," said Fatima. "KOLUCOM has drones inbound, so we'll see soon enough."

"But, aren't squid energy shields purple?" asked Emma.

"Let's not blow a magical girl out of the sky, yeah?" said Alanis dryly. "Caution, new girl. It's a thing."

Emma rolled her eyes but said nothing. The points of light that represented a pair of combat drones could be seen streaking over head, making high-G turns and matching vectors with the debris.

Seconds later, they vanished in blooms of fire as the debris pitched hard downward, shedding a large chunk that tumbled away. The debris was definitely not debris.

"Shit, that's a drop pod," said Alanis. "Everyone get into cover."

"Shouldn't we move to intercept?" asked Emma. "We can take it out as soon as it hits the ground."

"Fucking- no, we are not going to intercept a multi-ton projectile, dumbass," said Emily derisively. "Get into fucking cover, new girl, so that we can actually respond to the damn attack! Fucking new girls…"

"Well you heard her, let's get inside," said Emma, annoyed as she gestured at Tracy and Bridgette. They hurried down the steps as the point defense cannons redoubled in firing rate, beginning an attempt to annihilate any debris that came in. Other large pieces of debris, thought to be just fragments of destroyed spaceship, also began to pitch down and drop towards the ground with bright flares of light. Some were destroyed under the combined fire of several cannons. Others slipped by, Emma's TacComp lighting up as hundreds, then thousands of drop pods were identified.

"The squid are beginning their assault," Emma announced over the battlenet. "All units, prepare for battle."