The Storm Breaks

“Wow, the Invasion. I mean, I haven't thought about that for a long time. Not what I'd call good memories. But there is a story, and it needs to be told.”

“At the time I was a Second Lieutenant, in command of the 70th TC Battloid squadron, Quebec Quadrant. We were a makeshift squad, born of the amalgamation of other squads that had lost men to the war or deserters otherwise. I was in command because there was nobody better qualified. I didn't have a lot of faith in what passed for the leadership of the Southern Cross or the UEG at that point, but I was loyal to the Earth and its people first. Or, I don't know, maybe that's the story I told myself at the time.”

“So we were partnered with several other TC units, all just as makeshift as we were. There was a mixed Highlander-Anaconda platoon, a mechanised infantry unit riding in Janissaries, a local Forest Division team and a few others. We were operating from a base outside of Nouvelle Montreal, although our operational area had ballooned with the amount of losses we'd suffered one way or another. Privately, however, we knew that the city was our only priority.”

“Despite what I said earlier, I admit that I'd bought into (General) Vinencia's BS about fighting back the Invid when they came. There was a part of me that didn't like the plan that (Colonel) Wolfe had been advocating, to let the Invid conquer us and then strike back at them. Not only did it come off as defeatist, but it also was hinging on a lot of maybes, and a lot more than I liked. Though I have to admit, the fact that the Gimps (GMP) had bought into it and gone to ground was an upside since it got them off our backs.”

“The only real warning we had of the invasion was when all our satellite comms went out at once. We were ordered to mount up immediately, but before we could really do anything the Invid struck. There was a flash of light and a massive explosion that lit up the sky and rocked the base. All comms outside the base went down with nobody having any idea what was happening. And then we got the first report”

“The city was just gone. It had been blasted from space, and in its place was this... thing. We now know it as an Invid hive, but back then we had no clue. We were immediately ordered into a counterattack, and I admit now that we were just as shocked as we were angry. Thousands of innocent people had just been killed, and we wanted blood.”

“I climbed into Sally – yes, I called my Salamander Sally. Yes, everyone else did, I know – anyway, my squad were just heading out when we got our first sign of the enemy. The sky was filled with a seemingly endless swarm of those little red crab ships; we didn't have any idea what they were, but we could see that they were swarming out of the hive and heading right for us.”

“We opened fire, letting lose with everything we had. The sky was so full of them that it seemed impossible to miss; you would have hit something. And it didn't matter at all either, as every time we swatted one of them aside, there was another ten behind it. And behind those we could see a second flight of bigger, meaner-looking ones.”

“They fell on us like a swarm of locusts; blasting us with lasers or simply trying to claw us to death. We tried to fight back, but it was like trying to stop the tide from coming in. They were everywhere, and we couldn't hold them back. I lost half my squad in that first exchange; they did what they could, but there were just too many of them. We scattered, trying to find what cover we could as the base was torn apart around us, firing back when we took the chance.”

“The others weren't doing any better. The Annie and Highlander teams were blasted apart by the big purple bruisers, while the infantry stood no chance. They'd taken a number of those bastards down with them, but there was always more of them. They were relentless, and they were everywhere.”

“I had no idea who was in charge any more, so I tried to take control of the situation. I ordered our forces to abandon the base and retreat, hoping to use the woods to find some cover. I hated running, but I knew that we were just going to be slaughtered if we stayed and fought. With comms down, we had no way to call for help, but there was a part of me that figured the same thing was happening all across the world by now.”

“We did our best to extract ourselves, but it wasn't an easy fight. By the time we'd managed to break contact (leaving the Invid to destroy the base), we were down to five Sallies, a single Highlander, two Jannies loaded with whoever they could carry and a mess of other light vehicles. We'd fallen back to the woods and managed to find some cover, but I knew it was only temporary. Sooner or later, we would be back in the fight.”

“One of the Highlander crew asked me what we were going to do next. It was only then that I realised I was the highest-ranking officer left alive from our group.”

“It took me a bit to collect my thoughts. The situation was overwhelming, and I really had no idea what to do. The best I could manage was to blurt out ‘we fight'. I couldn't think of what other options we had.”

- Antoan Huae, 70th TC Battloid squadron, Army of the Southern Cross