A/N

This was more of a stream-of-consciousness oneshot than anything 'proper,' but regardless, I drabbled it up. Basically, heard discussions of the Pacific Union being formed, somehow it led way to this.

A Load of PU

It was winter in Darwin.

Not that that really mattered, because winter in Darwin was much the same as every other season in Darwin. Hot, humid, and all other matter of things beginning with h. Horny, even, because with a GDF presence in the city, there wasn't exactly a lack of buyers or sellers when it came to the provision of human pleasure. Especially since human pleasure was in freefall across the globe, to the extent that pleasure, and humanity at large, might be gone by year's end.

Captain Menzies, for his part, didn't partake in Darwin's nightlife, and his daylife was at an observation post along the city's northern coast – one of dozens coupled with anti-air and anti-sea artillery that would, in theory, protect this section of the coast from strogg assault. He would have thought that the last century of warfare had shown that static defences didn't win wars, but then, the last century of warfare hadn't included alien invasion. And with a strogg fleet hovering above Earth like metallic angels from on high, for the immediate future, defence was the only option humanity had left.

"Ugh."

He glanced at the source of the groan as Captain Suranok walked into the bunker that they shared. He was wearing sunglasses, his GDF uniform was unkempt, and the man's breath reeked of grog.

"Should I even ask?" Menzies murmured.

"Stop yelling," Suranok murmured, as he took a seat beside him. Still wearing sunglasses, still having a hand to his head.

"I should report you, you know."

"Duly noted."

"We're both in the GDF now, you can't hide behind some other army."

"Oh don't worry, the Indonesian Army doesn't exist anymore." Suranok used the bunker's tap to pour some water. "Nor does Indonesia for that matter."

Menzies remained quiet. He should have submitted a report for Suranok. There was every precedent for it. Still, the mention of Indonesia twisted a knife in his stomach, and caused him to check one of the many cameras of Bunker 9I. Facing north over the deep blue sea that belied the carnage on the other side.

Indonesia was gone. When the strogg had invaded, they'd targeted Earth's most densely populated regions first. Indonesia had been caught up in the second wave of attacks – long enough for its armed forces to be made ready, not long enough for them to be made ready enough for the tide of steel that descended from the sky. Killing the armed and unarmed alike, and taking the living to be made into more strogg. A collection of islands whose population numbered over 280 million, now just…gone.

Like everywhere else the strogg had hit, there were rumous of survivours, of guerrilla groups, of anything that might give the remaining human population hope. Mice stabbing the heels of an elephant with the hope it might bleed to death.

But Menzies knew it didn't matter. He'd seen the tidal wave of boats beaching all along the northern coast of Australia. He'd heard the demagogues demanding they be pushed back, he'd seen the saints help them ashore, he'd seen the best and worst of humanity before the country was put under martial law, answerable only to GDF Command, and the order was given – let them in, or shoot them, because every human either in safe territory or dead was one less body for the strogg to use.

So here they were. Waiting for the inevitable. If the strogg invaded Australia, Menzies knew it didn't have a chance of adequately defending itself – too much coast with too few people – but on the other, it might give them a chance. With the country as sparsely populated as it was, perhaps the strogg would pass them up. Certainly most of their efforts remained focused in Asia and Europe right now.

He watched Suranok take another sip and take off his glasses. The man's eyes were bloodshot. Again, he was tempted to put him on report, and again, he gave himself pause, for he knew what those eyes have seen.

So instead, trying to keep some form of conversation going, he said, "did you hear that the Pacific Union disbanded?"

Suranok remained silent.

"Yep. The micro-states of the Pacific are trying to keep out of anything. They know they can't be defended, and know that they won't be defended, because there's a pecking order to the world, and they're at the bottom. So they figure that if they fall silent to us and the strogg, they'll be passed over by the whole conflict."

"Fools," Suranok hissed.

Menzies blinked.

"Does that sentiment surprise you?" the Indonesian asked.

"Um, yes?"

"Then you too are a fool. You're a fool leading fools, in a country full of fools."

"I hardly think that-"

"What you think isn't relevant, because you haven't faced the strogg before," Suranok murmured. "I have. The world was burning around us, but I still led my men against the strogg, in everything from open battle to attacks on their conversion centres."

Menzies blinked. He knew a fair bit about Suranok. This, however, was news to him.

"We had to kill them you know," Suranok continued, trying to sound matter-of-factly, but failing. "You see, if you're turned into a strogg, if metal's been fused with your flesh and you're a drone to their hive mind, there's no coming back. Body's gone, soul's gone, all that's left is to damage the drone enough to make it unusable." He took a sip of water. "And that's easy enough. Strogg are light years beyond us, but they're still governed by the laws of physics. Hit them with enough projectiles moving at a certain speed, they die."

Menzies was glad to hear it.

"It's the people that were halfway that were the real nightmares," Suranok whispered. "Couldn't move, couldn't breathe, those who could begged for us to kill them. We found them, and their body parts weren't far away."

"And did you?" Menzies whispered.

"Of course." Suranok took another sip, clutching the glass as if it were preventing him from drowning. "What else would you have done?"

Menzies, having never seen the strogg up close, said nothing.

"My point exactly. Which is why the Pacific states are fools. The strogg are like any other hunter – they start where the prey is at its densest, then they move out. Micronesia, Polynesia…they might be the last of the strogg's hunting grounds, but make no mistake, they will come for them."

"The Pacific islands can't be defended," Menzies said.

"Then they would be wise to burn themselves, for if asset denial is all they can offer, they should do it."

Silence lingered in the room. Silence that Suranok broke, as he began to laugh.

"You think me a monster," he said. "Well, that's fine. But before you call me one, actually try facing the strogg. Watch airships eradicate entire cities, watch cybernetic monsters cut down men, women, and children alike, before harvesting their body parts. Listen to the screaming of those not lucky enough to die, looking into the blazing eyes of a strogg and see the abomination that lies on the other side." He tried to take another sip, but finding his glass empty, he walked over to the sink.

"Now then," Suranok said. "Are you going to put me on report? Or should we discuss the geo-politics of the Pacific Union?"

It was an odd segway, Menzies thought. But he was starting to get a better understanding of why Suranok drank. Didn't make it right, but it made it understandable.

"Pacific Union," Suranok mused. "PU. Poo. Hah hah, English, it's a funny language…"

"Trade blocs between Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific states like Samoa aren't that funny."

"Course they're not. It's funny now, of course – you can't trade with the strogg." Suranok sat back down. "They're like humans, you know. We trade when we can, and we take what we can when it's better than trading."

"That's a cynical view on humanity."

"So you aren't standing on the ground of a country taken from its original inhabitants? I don't come from a country who, up until the strogg, was trying to take West Papua?"

Menzies, knowing the history of his country and that of his fellow officer, remained silent.

"Maybe they think of this as a trade," Suranok said. "The PU was formed in 2031. Trade, freedom of movement…course that stopped when the strogg showed up. Now, the micro-states get to make the biggest trade of all. Our deaths, their freedom." He chuckled. "Or so they think."

Perhaps, Menzies suspected. But it didn't matter. An alarm was sounding.

"What the hell?" He moved over to one of the consoles. "No. No no no no no…"

"End of the world!" Suranok exclaimed. "God is great! Absent, the bastard, as he usually is, but great."

"Pipe down," Menzies hissed, as he ran a check. As he picked up a radio and communicated with his fellow commanders, all of whom confirmed what he was seeing.

The strogg were approaching Darwin. Hundreds of craft – mostly transport ships, which meant thousands of strogg. All approaching a city of around 150,000.

"End of the world," Suranok whispered.

Menzies, seeing the tac-display, had no answer. There was an answer, as missiles and anti-aircraft fire started hitting the scythe-esque craft, but it wasn't the answer. There was no answer to the sheer numbers of the strogg, no answer to their technological superiority. No answer as strogg transport ships either landed on the beaches at lightning speed, or started landing in Darwin, ready to harvest its population.

He looked at Suranok. The man was just sitting there, drinking.

Useless, he thought, as he looked back at the tac-map. It was a rough approximation of what was happening in real-time, and what was happening in real-time was a slaughter. The strogg were advancing everywhere, the GDF powerless to stop them. Calls came in over the airwaves – cries for help before the screaming began, and after that, silence.

Yet all the while, Suranok remained quiet.

Menzies looked at the tac-map. "Where's our air support?" He whispered.

"Hmm?" Suranok finally stirred.

"RAAF Base Darwin was still being used by the GDF. We should have birds in the air by now."

"Yes, you should," Suranok murmured.

"Jesus Christ, there's strogg landing craft in Darwin. They're sitting ducks for aircraft and they-"

"Oh, they're sitting ducks. Just not for aircraft."

Menzies looked at Suranok. The man was holding his glass of water as if it were his last supper.

"There won't be an aircraft," Suranok murmured. "There will, however, be a hydrogen warhead attached to a cruise missile that…" He looked at his watch. "Actually, it's running a bit late."

"You…what?"

"I found out last night, but being the loyal officer I am, decided to drink myself to death rather than ruin the plan," Suranok said. "Alas, I didn't drink myself to death, so I've resigned myself to being atomized."

"You…you…"

"Not my plan, so I don't know why you're saying 'you,'" Suranok said. "But Darwin can't be defended. Australia can't be defended – least not anything north of Brisbane. So for Darwin, at least, the plan was to lure the strogg in, take them out in one blast, and in doing so, deny over a few hundred-thousand bodies to them."

There was a 'ping' on the tac-screen. Suranok looked at his watch, before saying, "I say we have about thirty seconds."

Already, Menzies could hear gunfire. The strogg were already at his command post. Beyond the door to the bunker, he could hear shots and screams.

He drew out his pistol.

"Don't bother," Suranok said. "You'll be dead soon."

There was a sound on the other side. Growling, whirring, some combination of the two. It was a sound Menzies could scarce describe.

He yelled, as a buzz-blade penetrated the door. Attached to a withered arm, it began carving a hole.

He fired. The creatures shrieked. Suranok chuckled, and drank the last of his water.

"Now then," he said, "what were we talking about earlier?"

Menzies kept firing. The strogg kept cutting.

"Ah yes. The Pacific Union." He rose his glass. "Here's to a more perfect one."

Menzies, his magazine depleted, looked at the man. "What did you just say?"

Suranok looked at him with the gaze of a dead man.

The strogg burst in. Metal reached for flesh.

And then, in a flash as bright as the sun itself, fire took them all.