Chapter 20 Battle of Likna Part 2

The soldiers of the Race moved over what remained of the outer wall, the massive wall which had taken over a life time of the locals to make had been flattened in some places flat by the artillery and guns of the land cruisers. The night vision equipment that the advanced teams of the race wore made everything a red tint, the sources of light glowing a brighter almost white red and it was a little blurry in nature. Sharp lines where fuzzy and not perfectly clear but it allowed them to move and fight at night, so it was acceptable. They moved from cover to cover as they advanced but they took no fire as they moved toward the first line of the homes. They moved into the homes and unlike in earlier battles they found no crawlers hiding in cellars or still asleep in their beds. Even as the first teams headed in, they couldn't help but feel that in the dark where eyes looking at them.

They were not wrong, Tau'ri special forces had moved forward with their own night vision piercing the darkness far better then the Race version. The Tau'ri version showed everything in a shade of green, green being the color best seen by the human eye in the dark just like red was the color seen best in the dark by the Race. The Tau'ri used the twisting network of back allies and side routes that moved around the city like a maze with the main roads crossing through them. They moved forward using their equipment to scout ahead, they had not only life sign detectors and cameras on the barrels of their guns to check corners but also no less then five drones monitoring the movement of the Race.

The race moved into the homes while others moved down the street toward the next roadblock and some fanned out into the back maze-like ally ways. That is when the Tau'ri began to counter attack, using suppressed weapons and aiming around corners with the cameras attached to the barrel of their guns. The Race in the alleyways where starting to drop and yet their counterparts in the main street didn't even know that they where already under attack.

A crashing sound from behind the race caused a few of them to turn an eye turret toward the roadblock just in time to see the plow of a bulldozer push through the barrier. Moments later the first land cruiser went through the gap in the roadblock, with armor surrounded by more troops they moved forward. The massive barrels of the land cruisers ready to destroy any home that gave them a fight and heavy machine gun ready to aid the infantry. The nearest roadblock was a little off and the gunner on the land cruiser fired a high explosive shell into the roadblock to break it up. This happened in four points along the main roads which meet together in a large center market square. It was just what the Tau'ri wanted and they waited, right when the lead land cruiser reached the second roadblock did the anti-armor mine located along the road under the barrier blew. The mine so powerful that it blew the top of the turret of the first tank to reach the mined barrier. The body of the tank now made a barrier which was impassable by the following tanks and infantry carriers. Seconds after the lead tank blew up a Tau'ri solider armed in an anti-vehicle rocket launcher set up on the roof near each of the 4 main roads. The operators worked at the controls selecting a diving attack before locking on to the land cruiser currently sitting in the first roadblock the one leading out of the city. The soldiers of the Race never noticed him or any of his counterparts across the city.

The missiles fired at different times but close enough to make no difference as the missiles shot up in a high arch before diving down in a deadly attack to hit their targets from above where the armor would be weakest. When the rear vehicle blew up in the middle of the roadblock it trapped the armor of the Race within the city. It was now time for the Opochti to rejoin the fight, the Opochti where did not like the dark they couldn't see well and that was why the Tau'ri had taken up the bulk of the night fighting. The Opochti freedom fighters where being led through the back allies with glow sticks attached to the back of their armor so that the Opochti they were leading could follow. The Tau'ri fighters could have done this task themselves much easier but this was Opochti's city, their world and their fight.

Each of the Opochti fighters carried either RPGs or AK series assault rifles, they moved toward the back of some of houses the Tau'ri fighters going in first to take down any Race solders in there clearing it out. With suppressed rifles they cleared out the Race with ease from the assigned houses, the Opochti fighters moved toward the windows on the second floor.

"We need lights." ordered the Tau'ri commander of the area as moments later bright burning white flare shot up by mortar teams inside the city. The four bright sources of light now shinning over the four main roads turning the dark night into as bright as day. The suddenly brightness caused the night vision goggles worn by the race to turn bright red, it was a blinding red which caused all of them to rip off the goggles, the Tau'ri helmet adapted at once so there was nothing to prevent the Tau'ri soldiers from taking aim. The bright light illuminated the field for the Opochti in the houses and in the side streets, the light was also a sign for them and as they opened fire with their new weapons. RPG rockets slammed down into the Race vehicles and while they were no were near the equal to the new Tau'ri weapons they were more than enough to take on the Race. The trapped land cruisers and infantry carriers began to blow up as the AK rounds slammed into the soldiers of the Race. The Opochti fired almost randomly into the streets, the Tau'ri special forces who had much more experiences where dropping the soldiers of the Race.

The Race caught on streets taking fire from three sides tried to fight back and take cover but there was no place to hide. They where taking fire from three sides so they couldn't take cover behind armor, they bursts into houses only to get blown away with Tau'ri armed with automatic shotguns and Opochti with AKs waiting for them. It was a blood bath all the way back to the first roadblock, the closer to the roadblock the less Tau'ri and freedom fighters who had taken up positions there. Soldiers of the Race where still able to climb over the barrier to come into the fight. They formed a base of fire and began to trade fire with their enemies.

"How is this possible?" inquired almost every male of the Race as they took automatic fire which was at least the match the fire they put out. More males where dropping here then what had likely happened in the entire conquest of the planet. "How did the crawlers get so many of our weapons?"

"No idea." said another male as a sniper dropped a nearby officer. "And how did they get the ammo and training?"

"Get on the radio, we need air support and we need land cruisers and more troops." ordered the small unit commander to the radio operator who got on the line.

Unaware of the fight that was happening on a distance world Kara Thrace moved around her viper, the viper she planned to win a job training pilots all the while getting paid by the people she was shooting about a year earlier. She moved her hand down the metal skin of the viper, it wasn't the most advanced viper she had ever been in, in fact it was primitive. No advanced electronics, just a simple Dradis system and the bird had no missiles under the wings only extra gun pods raising the total to 3 cannons and 2 heavy machine guns. It was a bird designed to be operated in the field with simple tools and on worlds with societies who could maybe make the ammo for the bird. The only thing that really made her bird stand out was the green paint on the tail and large strips on the wings.

A roar of engines filled the air as Kara turned toward the nearby runway just in time to see the darken shape of Tau'ri Eagle fighter shooting off in the darkness before lifting off the ground the glow of its engines visible in the predawn darkness. Seconds later another fighter roared past, followed by another and another. She let out a sigh as knowing that she would have to wait a little to tangle with the cocky Eagle Pilots. She couldn't even blame the Tau'ri pilots for their cockiness, each of the Eagles had multiple Viper kills painted on their bird. She saw one of the Eagles with what had to be over 20 kills in vipers alone plus marks for kills with birds shaped like none she had ever seen before.

Red and Blue squadrons would be tangle with those Eagles first and then when they where lining up to land, Green and Yellow squadrons would take off to tangle with the Eagles. Since she was in Green Squadron she had to wait for her turn. Even so she already knew how the opening moments of the battle would play out, the Tau'ri had told them the set up and she didn't like it. The Tau'ri fighters will have the high ground and dive on the defenders from positions in orbit. The defenders in Vipers will have to go slow them down. She hated this set up because it gave the Tau'ri too many advantages but the Tau'ri report they had to read exampled that was the most likely situation that the pilots they where going to train would have to deal with. Raiders and slavers showing up in orbit and attack their world calling on them to fly up to defend their homes, that was what the men and women they would be training would have to deal with so that is what the Tau'ri where testing them on.

She let out a sigh and looked over at her wingman Justinian, the young pilot was talking over with some other young pilots. She was among the oldest pilots here, most of the ones she had known had either not made it through the war or had decided not to attempt to get one of the jobs. She listened for a moment as Justinian shared his war story of shooting up a column of tanks with his heavy machine cannon and as he pulled up getting taken in the side by a Tau'ri aircraft firing its gun. He failed to add that it was a ground attack bird. Starbuck looked away and noticed that a Tau'ri ground crew was nearby working on one of those Ospreys. She walked over to them and got almost right behind the crew before she was noticed.

"Is there something I can help you with?" inquired the ground chief "Your vipers should all be ready already."

"They are good, but I have a question." inquired Kara as the chief looked at her. "I know you can't give me details but how does this bird compare to a Viper?"

"Why do you ask?" inquired the chief

"I have a wingman shot down by one these and I want to know how bad he is." explained Kara

"I see, well I guess it doesn't really matter." said the Chief "Speed wise they are even with the slight edge going to the Osprey here. In a turning fight, the Osprey has your viper beat in atmosphere where you can't use your little maneuvering jets as effective but in space your viper would have the edge."

Kara blinked she had assumed that the Osprey was similar to a Raptor in speed to find that the Tau'ri ground aircraft was an equal in speed to the Vipers was amazing to her. She had to admit Vipers where designed to fight in space and the maneuvering jets didn't work well in atmosphere.

"Did your wingman get shot down by a missile or a gun?" inquired a mechanic working nearby "Because these birds carry the same missiles as the Eagle and has the same radar stealth paint on it?"

"Gun." Answered Kara "Shot down by the machine gun on this bird."

"Machine gun." Laughed the mechanic as he picked something up and handed it to Kara who looked at the size of the round before her. It was at least double the size of the rounds on her viper and her eyes traced from the massive round in her hand to the rotating gun barrel sticking out under the nose this bird. "This gun and spit out over 4,000 rounds per minute, so imagine how you would do if your bird was hit with those rounds when every third one was either high explosives our armor piercing. That would take down even an Eagle, we have a few Osprey pilots here that are aces in their own right."

"I see." stated Kara as she imagined if she could stay up with multiple rounds like this in her bird.

"Starbuck where are you?" yelled Justinian in the distance as Kara let out a sigh, maybe getting shot down by this thing was acceptable but he still drove her crazy.

The killer crafts roared down the runway at the nearby base and turned and with a roar flew over the capital of Vantic 5 and toward Likna. The flight heading out of the base was noted by Tau'ri operators thanks to their radar systems and the drones which where monitoring the airbase and the infantry/tank base which sat across a large highway from the base. The Race flew in flights of three killer crafts which was different then the normal flights of 4 for the Tau'ri.

"Superior sir, what are our targets within the city?" inquired one of the pilots as Fleet Leader Teerts gained height and made a sweeping route around Nysha to get into position to carry out an attack run on the city.

"Ground commanders say they have some helicopter troops trapped in near the center of town and heavy fighting around the edges, so we will use our skunkwave light to drop our bombs on the roadblocks leading into the center of town." reported Teerts as he turned on what the Tau'ri would call a laser and the race called Skunkwave pointer in the nose of his fighter bomber. "We need pinpoint bombing so make sure you have careful lock on, the terrorist also have confirmed anti-air and anti-vehicle missiles stolen from us. 10 helicopters and dozens of vehicles have also been lost."

"By the Emperor how did the crawlers managed to get their claws on those?" cursed the third pilot in the formation, since they where pilots they had special training, so they didn't look down when someone said the name of their emperor. That was so that they could keep an eye on the panels and another on the slowly lightening sky.

"No idea, but we know the range of our own weapons so we will stay above their targeting ceiling so we can carry out our attack with ease." stated Teerts as he pushed his killer craft higher and higher until he was out of hand held missile range, if the terrorist had a vehicle mounted missile system or a larger missile defense battery he would still be in range but he and his flight was safe. With that done he made the turn to come on an attack run toward the city of Likna. His wing mates spreading out to carry out their own attack runs on their assigned roadblocks on different roads, as the squadron leader he had taken two of the four roads for himself. He was just beginning to get a lock on the first road block when suddenly his radio came alive.

"I have a missile incoming!" yelled one of his squadron mates. Teerts looked down at his radar and to his amazement a missile was indeed climbing up toward a member of his squadron. It was climbing so fast and it passed the max height for handheld anti-air missile systems and kept going. The other pilot took counter missile action and began to dive for the ground, twisting and turning as he released anti-radar tracking chaff, the missile flew past the fuzzy area on the radar showing where chaff was and kept going before smashing into his squadron mate. In the distance he could see the fireball of the killer craft going off.

"How is that possible?" stated Teerts as the missile alarm hissed as it detected another missile flying up from Likna and toward his other wing mate. He tried the same moves and once again the missile destroyed the craft. Knowing what was coming next Teerts turned his killer craft around and pushed the engine to max as he broke the speed of sound heading as fast as he could away. He looked down at his radar screen, there was a hissing tone in his helmet telling him there was a radar lock on him but no missile came up to get him. Instead it slowly faded as he his heart rate began to drop as he realized that he was safe. Then he realized that he had a missile lock on him for a while, the crawlers hadn't fired they had chosen to let him go. "By the Emperor what is happening down there."

The Condor landed on board the battleship Missouri over home with ease as Kassquit looked out the window at the Tau'ri hanger bay on this warship. Everything she saw just confirmed what she already feared, the Tau'ri already had a military and they where more then willing to use it. As she walked down the stairs to the floor she was directly in front of one of their killer crafts that she had seen over their capital city a while ago. She saw white missile under each wing and a Tau'ri was under the main body of the killer craft loading more white missiles to latching points under there.

She turned her head and saw the most beautiful sight she had ever seen, there through an open hanger door was Home. The rich browns and golden browns of the beating heart of the Empire, the most powerful and advanced culture in the universe. Then she paused and looked around at the weapons of war around her and the Tosevites which held the power in their hands to destroy home. She had seen their home world of Tosev 3 or as they call it Earth and the deep blues of it's large oceans, greens and some stretches of golden sand, it was downright ugly. Vantic 5 at least had more agreeable browns then the ugly greens and worse looking blues.

"Kassquit come with me." said a Tau'ri in strange wrappings, he wore the armor she had seen the same power armor that other Tau'ri had worn before her only this one was colored in a mix of different shades of browns and tan tiny squares.

"It shall be done." Stated Kassquit as she was lead to an Owl transport standing there was a male dressed in white along with five other Tau'ri dressed in similar patterned wrappings. They boarded the transport which took off at once and headed toward Home. Once on board Kassquit noticed that other Tau'ri on the ship where also dressed in that color armor and wrappings. "Why are you wearing those wrappings?"

"It's called camouflage, it helps blend us into this world." stated the Tosevite

"Then why is he in white?" inquired Kassquit as she pointed toward the man in white. The man spoke to one of the other Tau'ri who answered her question.

"This is Admiral Hackett commander of the 7th Fleet and this is his dress uniform." explained the Translator "I believe you would call his rank a Fleet Lord."

"I am sorry superior sir." said Kassquit her up bring from the Race came through, his uniform was wrong but he still outranked her.

"That is ok, you are here to explain to the Emperor and the Imperial government that time is running out." explained Hackett through his translator. "We are on our way to the Imperial Palace now."

"Imperial Palace?" inquired Kassquit

"Yes, that is where we are going to drop you off." Stated the Tau'ri as Kassquit looked at the warrior.

"But…I wasn't invited…have you followed the correct protocol for a visit?" stated Kassquit as the Tau'ri looked at her and through the visor she could see him roll his eyes.

"We don't really care about your protocol at the moment." explained Hackett as the Owl jumped a bit as it entered the atmosphere. "We are basically at war and your Empire is worried about what words are said when, you are here to convince them that we are not joking. Do you understand?"

"I understand." confirmed Kassquit

"I don't think you fully understand, the sword is no longer in the scabbard, it is out and pointed right at the Empire of the Race." Stated Hackett, not fully realizing that calling the Empire, the Empire of the Race was in fact an insult all by itself. "We don't have time to waste with protocol and the time table we gave them is a fixed deadline if they do not agree to meet and agree to the total liberation of Vantic 5 as they call it we will have no choice but drive them out and then destroy the Empire of the Race as a whole."

The populates of Home had no idea that their military was already fighting on what they called Vantic 5, even so the population was concerned but sure that Emperor and his advisors would figure out everything. The Tau'ri Owl descended down from the sky but instead of landing at the space port it broke all protocol and hovered over the large inner courtyard outside of the doors to the Imperial Audience chamber. The already on edge palace guards pointed weapons at the strange craft as Admiral Hackett and three Tau'ri soldiers stepped off the back ramp. All three of the Tau'ri where armed with pistols but only two had battle rifles while the third being a translator.

A squad of palace guards moved forward with rifles raised however the Tau'ri showed no fear as the guards came ever closer.

"We need to speak with your Emperor at once." ordered Hackett through his translator.

"You need to file the proper request through the Imperial office. Now leave before we shoot." Stated the highest-ranking guard as he moved every closer. Hackett nodded his head as suddenly a shadow fell over the guards, they turned their eyes turret toward the sky to see another one of those aircraft hovering nearby and under each of the small wings where pods which contained visible machine guns and a larger gun in the snout of the aircraft.

"Well if you shoot then not only will you die but your Empire will die with it." stated Hackett to the clearly shaken guards before the craft disappeared in a shimmer which only caused the guards to become more frightened. "I am tired of dealing with middle man, now I recommend that you inform the Emperor that we are here and we need to speak with him at once."

"Go inform the Protocol master that we have guests demanding to see the Emperor." said the head guard to a lizard with a radio still looking at the Tau'ri. "You should know this is very against protocol."

"I know, but like I said I am tired of being the run around." explained Hackett as they waited. In a few minutes an older male who was clearly not the Emperor came forward.

"You need to leave at once." ordered the Protocol Master "We will meet with you but not until the proper protocols are agreed upon and everything is planned out."

"There is no time, every moment you delay more of your males will die in Likna on Opochti or as you call it Vantic 5." Stated Hackett as the guards and Protocol Master looked at him. Calmly Hackett reached over and took the computer pad from his translator's hand. "Currently we have destroyed 23 Land Cruisers, 17 infantry carriers, multiple field guns, 10 helicopters, 2 killer crafts and over 360 males of the Race have been confirmed killed in action."

"You are already attacking the Race?" yelled the Protocol Master as best as he could give his age.

"We are defending our allies and we will wait to go full out until the deadline has passed." stated Hackett "Once it has then we will unleash our full strength and many more of your males will die."

"You must be already unleashing your full strength to take down so many of our forces and at what price?" inquired a guard

"Aside from the cost of missiles and bullets, nothing." stated Hackett "And as for our full strength we have hundreds of millions of soldiers, aircrews, marines and sailors which we can pull on. Even more if we pull in the reserve and we have warehouses full of equipment ready to be used. Not that we will need any of them against you."

"You lie!" hissed the Protocol Master

"Really, well maybe this will convince you." said Hackett as he turned toward the door as Kassquit came out along with another Tau'ri soldier. "This is Kassquit a Vantic loyal to your Empire, maybe she can explain the situation you are in and how time is running out."

"Kassquit?" inquired the Protocol Master as he looked at this crawler which had been dropped before him.

"Forgive me Superior Sir." said Kassquit as she assumed the poster of respect. "I didn't expect to be on Home when I was assisting Senior Researcher Felless on Vantic 5 before I was captured by the Tau'ri Tosevites."

The Protocol Master raised his hand as Kassquit shut up and lowered her head.

"You insult the Emperor by this violation of proper protocol, however I will speak to this low-level researcher and you will return to your ship." Hissed the Protocol Master as the Tau'ri turned and headed back onto the Owl which lifted off the ground and headed back into space.

"Superior Sir, I am Kassquit I was raised by Senior Researcher Tottlamas of the conquest fleet." Explained Kassquit as she took up the position of respect. "A search of the records sent back to home by him will confirm who I am."

"No need to do that, the Tau'ri have brought the Conquest fleet to within radio message of home, We will talk to him directly." stated the Protocol Master "Follow me."

"It shall be done." confirmed Kassquit

Over the colonial world of Aquaria Kara Thrace brought her Viper to a level flight as she checked her instruments. She had looked out her cockpit toward the nearby Green 6 where her wing mate Justinian was flying to her right and above her. She took a deep breath and hit her wireless and switched to squadron wide.

"Alright, I know we all want the same jobs but we need to work together" stated Starbuck as they scanned the sky looking for the oncoming Tau'ri. "We have all seen battle and we need to work together to make it."

"Frak you, the better I do the more likely I will get the job not you." snapped a voice over the wireless.

"That's right it's everyone for themselves." stated another voice

"And if you do that then we will all get fraked up and those Tau'ri cocksuckers will laugh at us and no one wants that." snapped Starbuck back as the line went dead for a moment. "So listen up you frakers, let's work together to show them up and then let our skills show them how good we are."

"Alright." said the same voice which had moments ago had called for everyone to look out for themselves.

Above them in a higher orbit the Tau'ri Eagles formed up, with their black paint and stealth cloaking they were extremely hard to see either visually or on sensors.

"Looks like Green are remaining in formation." said the lead Eagle as he looked down at Green Squadron. Nearby Yellow squadron had broken off into multiple small groups and even a few solo birds. "Alright, lets give them an air show."

The shingle squadron of Eagle dove down on their prey, as they entered the atmosphere the heat generated from entry made their wings glow and for a brief moment the Eagle pilots where blinded as the flames from entry wrapped over their cockpit canopies before clearing up again.

"I see them, 5 o'clock high!" yelled a voice over the wireless as Starbuck turned to see the Eagles diving down on them. She turned and headed toward the oncoming threat, others followed her. The Yellow squadron which was nearby wasn't so luckily either they didn't see them or the pilots where not communicating because as the Eagle's dove on them. Multiple flashing red lights appeared on the side of the vipers. That marked them as having been shot down by the simulated fire. After a couple of minutes those red marks disappeared and they where back in the fight. Similar red flashes appeared on the Tau'ri Eagles but only one of them appeared at the dogfight began.

Kara pulled on her stick as hard as she could as she got onto the back of one of the Eagle's she was about to line up a shot on the Eagle when she noticed a pair of Eagles getting behind Justinian's Viper. He was behind and below her and didn't seam to notice the Eagle's.

"Justinian, you have two Eagle's behind you on my command go to afterburner and dive to the right." Ordered Kara "Now!"

Justinian dove his viper down and Kara brought her Viper up in a loop as the two Eagle's followed the diving Justinian. When Kara looped around she was directly behind the two Eagle's in perfect attack formation only to have her own controls turn red. She looked over her shoulder to see a third Eagle had moved in behind her and taken her down before she could shoot on the other two Eagles.

"Frak, they got me Justinian." cursed Starbuck

"They just got me too." responded Justinian as they leveled off and after a moment or two reset and were back in the fight. When it was finally done Starbuck was cursing as she headed back toward the base, she had been shot down 9 times to only 3 kills. She brought her Viper in for a landing and got out only to see that the Tau'ri in their sick way had put up a score board showing who had died the most and who had gotten the most kills. As well as average time alive in the fight and an average score taking in all three factors. She was about to storm past when she noticed that her name was at the top of the list. She blinked, she hadn't gotten the most kills some luckily SOB in Red Squadron had bagged 4 Eagles but she had only been shot down 9 times while most people had been shot down over 15 times. She scanned the board and saw that Justinian had a kill to his name but had 17 deaths which marked him just outside the top 20.

The soldiers of the race were not having a good night by any means, they where taking constant fire from multiple different points but still they where slowly advancing through the city. They had to clear it house by house and room by room and the deaths were beginning to mount ever higher. To the amazement of the soldiers they found no civilians, no civilians hiding in basements or backrooms, instead they found empty houses and cleared out rooms. He and his small unit team of six males where resting on the ground floor of one of those homes, they where six houses down from the front lines and out of the fighting. The room showed battle scars with both doors destroyed and bullet holes in the plaster walls.

"What is going on here?" inquired an infantry Male as he rested against a wall, the fight had been raging for hours and showed no sign of stopping. Each building cost at least two males to clear out and the fire that was being sent their way was unbelievable. They had attempted to clear the roadblock to bring in more vehicles, but the work was slow because they could only work on one side at a time. Any attempt to work on it from the city side brought machine gun fire from the other roadblock. "It is as if they cleared out."

"The crawlers are likely all still in the center of town." Hissed his squad mate as he opened a ration pack. "I should have packed more food, this is all I have. This was supposed to be a short operation."

"I am running low on ammo, I packed light." Admitted another member of the Race before lowering his head in shame. "May the Emperor turn his eye turrets away from me but I have been looting our injured and fallen for ammo."

"It is only going to get worse, the sun is rising." stated another Male as the light from the star Vantic began to fill the battle worn streets with light. "The natives will be waking up now and they will come."

"I just want to know how they are doing this? Where did they get the weapons and how are they fighting at night? Crawlers can't see past the end of their snout less faces in the dark but we are taking sniper fire?" snapped a male

"Maybe they do have allies, these Tau'ri?" said one of the males as he opened his mouth wide showing his teeth, to the Race this was similar to a deep laugh but the Tau'ri raiders listening to them from the now destroyed door leading back into the maze like alleyways. The four raiders formed up in a line with the first one armed with the shorter barrel Kriss Vector VI sub machine gun. The lead man poked the barrel around the bottom corner of the broken back door. Giving him a view of the inside with the barrel mounted camera. Not wanted to give away their position with a flash bang the shooter raised one of his hands holding up three figures before quickly putting it down, three seconds later he fired a short burst into one of the lizards before moving on to get another lizard with another burst.

The soldiers of the race had next to no time to react as two of their squad went down suddenly, they turned toward the door and raised their weapons, but it was too late as the Tau'ri dropped them with ease. The only one to make it out alive was the member of the Race standing by the front door and that was because he ran instead of fighting.

Ullhass didn't know how he made it across the street with bullets snapping at his feet and all around him. He dove into the open door of the house across the street from the one he had been in.

"By the Emperor what are you thinking!" yelled the highest-ranking officer in the room.

"Superior sir!" yelled Ullhass as he pointed across the road. To the amazement of the officer and everyone else who turned an eye turret across the road to see a figure standing in the doorway. It stood on two legs like a member of the Race but as tall as a crawler and was dressed in strange wrappings. It raised a gun and fired a short burst which passed just over the head of the officer who ran for cover. Moments later the Race returned fire but the target was gone.

"What was that?" inquired the small unit commander as he and others looked across the road.

Down the road near the roadblock the rising sun had brought out more Opochti freedom fighters as they took up spots on the line sending in more fire toward the pinned down members of the Race. On top of the roadblock near the destroyed tank which had stopped burning during the night lied a Tau'ri machine gun crew. Sending short bursts of fire down range toward the buildings which the Race held.

"We should be able to hold this position easy for another hour maybe 90 minutes and then we will have to pull back." Said the loader as she made sure the belts of ammo went in right.

"I agree however it depends on if they finally push through the first roadblock." stated the gunner as an artillery shell flew over their heads heading toward the Race's artillery positions. Thanks to knocking out the Race's tracking radar and the video up link to the drones the limited artillery they had within the city was tearing into the Race. The mortar teams where dropping their rounds on the race with ease, they had avoided dropping the rounds on the houses to avoid destruction of the local homes but the soldiers outside the wall was fair game.

Suddenly the roadblock leading outside the wall exploded as a tank shell exploded within the mass of rubble which made up the bulk of the roadblock. Multiple other shells followed as the race blew a hole in the barrier. With the door open more soldiers began to pour in and fan out, moving into the deadly maze of side streets which had been used by the Tau'ri to move around. With the influx of soldiers, the Tau'ri began to fall back, even as they fell back they made the race pay, wounded and dead lizards. The fell back in good order and moved back into more prepared defenses with even more surprises for the attacking forces of the Race.

Back at the command center Ship Lord Binia was not able to fully process the information that was coming into his command center. The crawlers somehow had gotten artillery and had magained to knock out multiple gun crews and in the opening moments of the battle they had destroyed his radar tracking blinding him. He had ordered them to fire back but his guns where being torn apart with pinpoint fire from within the city. Believing that the only answer had to be a crawler outside the city with a civilian radio reporting the position he had ordered jamming to begin but the shells kept falling.

Then came more reports of the crawlers having small arms which they shouldn't have by any logical reasoning. Finally came reports coming in from his males of strange creatures fighting alongside of the crawlers. To make matters even worse the Fleet Lord Straha was still hanging around his command center watching every move he made.

"How many have we lost?" inquired Binia

"Over a thousand males wounded or dead." Stated his aid as Binia let out a resigned hiss.

"So Binia, this battle had already become the single most deadly battle in the conquest of any world in the history of the Race. The other two worlds fell with only a three thousand total dead spread out over two worlds and here the entire conquest cost 500 males." stated Straha "And there are riots and revolt happening across the planet as the crawlers cover the news broadcasts about the uprising here. So tell me what do you propose we do about it?"

"Exulted Fleet Lord, I propose we pull back and wait them out." Stated Binia as Straha looked at him, both his eye turrets locked on him a sign that he was paying close attention. "We are the Race, we are thoughtful, we are careful they are crawlers we can surround them and starve them out. There has to be thousands of crawlers within that city and not enough food. Within a few weeks they will be starved out and surrender without the loss of another male."

"I see." Stated Straha as he walked over and looked at the large map which was hanging on the wall of Binia's command tent. "This is a wise plan; however the crawlers have given us a deadline if we do not take this city in 2 more days they will claim a victory and we will have more uprisings, no we can't wait them out. We need to strike them hard and with so much force that the crawlers will finally admit to themselves that they are part of the Empire."

"I agree exulted Fleet Lord but would it be worth the price of all the males in taking the city?" inquired the Ship Lord as Straha eyes scanned the map.

"Tell me the wind here blows to the North correct?" inquired Straha out of no where.

"Yes, exulted Fleet Lord I believe they do." stated Binia

"Good." Said Straha as he picked up a pointed and placed it on the Likna "So fall out from an explosive metal bomb would blow north, away from our main settlements toward this forest here and then this canyon before reaching this ocean here?"

Binia blinked a few times as he looked at the map, to the North of Likna was a large forest followed by the a canyon which ran toward the capital and before the arrival of the Race had been an impassible line of defense for the city. Then there was grassland which had mostly crawler settlements on them before going down to the sea.

"You are right Exulted Fleet Lord but an explosive metal bomb? You can't really be considering using them?" inquired Binia as Straha opened his mouth in a wide laugh.

"No, not really but the crawlers don't know that. Let them fear a nuclear tipped missile coming at them from orbit. It will scare them into accepting the natural order." stated Straha "Summon some of their elders who know their place and put out word we want to meet them. Inform them that if they do not surrounded within a day we will drop an explosive metal bomb on them. That will get them to fall in line."

"And forgive me Exulted Fleet Lord, what if it doesn't?" inquired the Ship Lord as Straha paused for a moment thinking.

"Then we will have to carry out the attack but it will be a harsh lesson to finally break the resistance. Either way we will end these terrorists once and for all." stated Straha "Now carry out my orders."

"It shall be done." confirmed Binia

Well I hope you liked this chapter, sorry for the slight delay one of my coworkers had a family emergency so the rest of the department is taking up her work while she is away. It cut into my writing time but I hope you understand. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.