*******

"Not only do they make good shock troops, they make excellent workers," Isthus said happily. He watched the monitors from his office aboard the orbiting space station. He was quite pleased with how the invasion was progressing. "They should have our first facilities up in a little bit!"
"It looks like it, sir," Julia said. She leaned back in her seat in his office. "But we don't have much to build. A command center, a couple of minor facilities, but that's about it. What else are we going to be building?"
He chuckled. "You worry yourself too much, my dear."
She smiled. "Of course, sir."
"You will find out when the scientists figure out what they're doing." He smiled and sat down. "So what operations have you been involved in lately?"
"I commanded a couple of marginally successful raids on the American and Russian humans," she reported. "From the safety of the air, of course. And I've been catching up on my reading."
"Your reading?"
"Yeah. I'm still tearing through the human texts."
"Oh? What's on the menu this time?"
She smiled. "A very interesting novel, sir. It's one of a series of books known as Dune. These 'House Harkonnen' people are very interesting."
"Hmm...I will have to look into this."
"May I go, sir?"
"Hmm? Oh, of course."
"Thank you sir."

"Julia?" Allen asked as he peered in her open door. "You busy?" He heard a heavy breath in return. "Julia? Are you okay?" He slowly started into her quarters. The lights had been turned low, save the one by her bed. She was laying down, reading a book. "Julia?"
She looked up at him, her soft white robe slinking off a shoulder. "Hmm? Oh, hey Allen."
He sat down next to her. "What's up?"
"This book," she said. "It may be a trashy romance novel, but it's still good." She sighed. "And even though the characters are human, I wouldn't mind being one of these girls. They are so lucky."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. The guys they fall for are always loving, kind souls..." She set the book down on her pillow. "Do you think Lone Wolf is like that?"
He winced. "What do you mean?"
"You heard, right? He married some skunk girl. It gets you wondering if he's really one hundred percent bad."
"Obviously he's not, since that girl married him. She must have seen something in him that we've missed." He chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"Just imagine what their kids would look like."
She laughed. "Stop it!"

*******

Ah great, Steph thought to herself as she turned to the rest of the mess hall. Not a god damned seat available. She slowly waded her way through the crowded hall, searching desperately for a seat. "It's like a Pack mess hall," she muttered.
She heard a groan from a nearby table. She looked and saw Hack sitting there, a note pad in one hand, a fork in the other, and an upset look on his face. What was more important was that there was an empty seat at his table. She quickly moved.
"Is it okay if I sit here, sir?" she asked.
He looked up from his pad. "Go ahead," he muttered. He stuck his fork into the meal he had in front of him and pried up a piece of meat. "And please don't call me sir. Like Lone Wolf said, no seniority or titles."
She sat down. "I'd love to comply with that, but I don't know your name."
He smiled and put the fork down. "Hack," he said, offering his hand.
"Stephanie." She smiled and took his hand. "A pleasure."
"Pleasure's mine," he said, giving her hand a firm shake. He pulled his hand back, took his fork, and bit into the meat he had pulled up. She started to eat as well. They remained silent until Hack groaned and put his pad down.
"What's wrong?"
"These damn reports we're getting from the probes are confusing the hell out of me."
She looked curiously at the notes. "How so?"
"Take a look." He flipped to a map. "Here's the situation on Earth when the main probe reaches it's current location. Nice, peaceful, quiet...right?" She nodded her understanding. He flipped to another map. This one was nothing like the last, showing more activity sites than she could ever imagine. "And this is what we're dealing with now."
"Isthus has overrun it completely?!"
"I'm afraid so."
"Anything from our people on the planet?"
"Terry and the others? Nothing."
She looked over the map again. "Hmm..." She pointed to a spot in the middle of one of the oceans. "This area has the seems to have most activity out of the rest of the water regions."
He looked at the map. "You know...that may just be where they're hiding out. Perhaps if I-"
"Hack!" Crash raced through the suddenly silent crowd up to his table. "Tobias wants you in his ready room now."
"What? Why?"
"Isthus might be making his final push against the humans."

*******

"You're joking, right Sara?"
"No Terry, I wish I weren't."
"Bullshit! Russia's fallen?"
"And the United States are next, Vu."
All five of the people in the control room slammed their fists on the control panel. "This is bullshit!" Terry growled. "A sneak attack!"
"We've got movement!" Shivana said. "A group of free humans are holed up around the Washington DC area. It's the last group of free humans. And they're right in the path of the oncoming Isthus onslaught."
"We have to mobilize everything," Vu said.
"Already on it!" Mallory shouted. "Sara, launch all transports. Fill them to the brink with droids. We need to get forces up there as soon as possible."
"Transports one, two, and three launched," Sara reported.
"Sara, get as many defensive droids as we can spare up there," Terry commanded. "We cannot take any chances. And make sure the transports come back to reload and launch again. We're not letting all of our efforts end here."
Vu looked at him. "We won't be ending our efforts here. Even if we lose the last free humans, we can still make raids on-"
"I know. But we won't be defending the Earth, like our mission was. We'll be raiding Isthus' settlements." The control room fell silent. They all realized that their mission was about to end in failure. They knew that a new mission was about to begin.

*******

Washington DC had become a warzone. What was left of the United States Army piled into heavy ranks, all armed with reproductions of scavenged weapons and armor. The last few hundred human civilians huddled in scorched building behind that. They all knew what was coming. Their time was almost up.

Out in the distance, they could all see clouds of smoke rising as the enemy forces approached. Earlier recon had identified numbers in the millions, most of which they assumed were battle hardened warriors. They were not in the best of positions. As a matter of fact, they couldn't even count on a miracle. There was no hope amongst the ranks. They felt that they would die there.

"Incoming!" somebody shouted from his guard atop a pile of debris. The soldiers got into a battle position, ready to die for their freedom. The civilians all held their breath, saying prayers and making their peace with the world. The air raid sirens, something that had never been used since the 1950's, howled mournfully into the dying red sky. They all waited patiently, waiting for that first fateful shot....

There was a single shot.

The human forces dug into their position, diving behind make shift barricades, poking their weapons through little slits and blasting the hell out of anything that moved. The enemy soldiers took what cover they could, riddling the barricades with fire from their weapons.
Every shot meant something for both sides. The humans started picking off the enemy one by one. The enemy had slightly less luck with their shots, slowly chipping away at the barricades, clearing out what little protection was left. Suddenly, there was an explosion. Five human bodies went flying, lifeless from the explosion that rocked their barricade.
There another explosion.
And another.

"This is hopeless," someone groaned. He leaned back against the barricade. "We're going to die, aren't we?"
"Yes," his barricade mate said solemnly. "Let's just take out as many of these motherfuckers as we can before we kiss the abyss. Right?"
"Yeah. Makes sense..." An explosion cut off the end of his sentence. They covered their heads with their hands to protect themselves from falling debris. "The hell was that."
"I don't know." The sky suddenly erupted in gunfire. They looked up to see three huge ships flying overhead. They opened their bottoms, allowing their cargoes to fall to the ground. As soon as the six foot robots landed, they raised weapons not to unlike the human defense's and opened fire.
"Looks like the calvary's here!" someone said happily.
"Yes," another responded with a half smirk. "But who are they."
A shot rang out, flying skyward and striking one of the ships. It exploded moments later. The robots seemed unfazed by this and continued firing.

The gun fighting got heavier as time progressed. Every so often, another ship would appear to drop in more robots. Each time, the enemy soldiers tried to shoot one down. They eventually nailed one more, and the supply of robots ceased. The gunfire turned to the robots solely. Every few seconds, a robot would be hit and collapse into a pile of scrap metal. Every few seconds, the gunfire would get heavier and heavier as more enemy troops appeared to fight.
Every few seconds, the line got closer and closer to the city.

*******

"Our forces are split!" Shivana cried out. "Numbers are under a thousand!"
"Fuck!" Terry howled as he slammed his fingers down on the keypad. He tapped away furiously, with speeds even unnatural for the truest of computer geeks, trying to fry as many of Isthus' men as he could.
"We're losing ground!" Mallory said.
"We can't get any more reinforcements up there without running the risk of destroying our last transport," Vu reported.
"Fuck!" He slammed his fist as a group of the robots disappeared from his display.
"Seven hundred," Shivana said.
"We're losing!" Mallory screamed.
"Oh no we're not!" Terry tapped his display, causing a few of the robots to light up. "I added an extra payload to some of these droids." He tapped another portion of the screen, deep within the enemy troops. The robots suddenly darted out in all sorts of directions. They flashed once they got into the midst of the enemy and disappeared, taking a few hundred of the enemy soldiers with them.
"What the hell?!"
"We can't stun them forever," Terry said. "We must kill them or they will come back."
"But the humans," Shivana started. "They're being-"
"He's right," Kari interrupted. "They would probably rather die than serve Isthus anyway. Let's not make them suffer." She tapped the button on her controls labeled "stun". It promptly changed to "kill". "I'm not going to let this 'Isthus' win. His men die here."
"And there's Lone Wolf's ferocity," Terry commented as he set his droids to kill.

*******

Hack burst into the ready room. Tobias looked from the holographic image of the Earth floating above his desk. "Hack, what do you make of this?" The holographic orb spun around, revealing a huge area of activity. Hack rushed up to the image and looked it over.
"Bad news," he finally said. "Isthus is making a push. And according to other data, that would be the last free humans." He pointed to a spot in the water that showed activity. "But this...this isn't anything I've seen."
"It's Terry," Stephanie interrupted. She walked in, Hack's notes in hand. "I was right. Terry and the others situated themselves underwater."
"So our people are actually helping the humans."
"Great," Tobias said. Suddenly, the image shifted. "What the-?"
"Shit," Hack said. He moved to a keyboard and tapped away. The image zoomed and clarified. "Steph, what's can you tell?"
"Isthus' forces in upwards of three million." She shut her eyes. "Human forces, even couple with our people's assistance, a few thousand and rapidly falling." The ready room fell silent. The three looked at each other solemnly. "Five hundred," Stephanie reported. "Four hundred...three hundred..."
"Turn it off," Tobias sighed. "We don't need to see them fall."

*******

Isthus chuckled happily. He watched from his ready room as the last of the human forces fell to his troops. "Yes!" He leaned back in his seat, resting his feet on the table. "Lone Wolf, if you're trying to get to Earth, it's now in vain! Your pathetic human forces have fallen!" He chuckled maniacally. "I claim this planet in the name of the Raiders!" He shut his eyes and continued beaming. He never felt this great before. And it felt good.

Julia sighed as she sat down at the table in the mess hall. They had broadcast the entire battle all over the ships and the space station. Despite the fact they had won, she still felt a little empty. She rested her arms on the table and sighed. Her chin fell into place on her hands.
"What's wrong?" Allen asked as he approached.
She looked up at him. "Nothing," she responded. "Why do you ask?"
He sat down across from her. "Julia, we just won our war against the humans. You should be happy."
"But I'm not."
He quirked a brow. "Why not?"
"Because I miss home." She buried her face into her fur.

"That isss a sssign of weaknesss." The harsh hiss came from behind her. She slowly raised her head and looked over her shoulder. "You shouldn't worry about old memoriesss," the 6 foot snake behind her hissed. "Thisss isss a new beginning for the Raidersss."
She quirked a brow. "I'm sorry. I don't recall meeting you."
The snake snorted her discontent. "You mean you don't recognize a member of the Khansss."
Allen sat up straight. "Khans?! The Khans?! Isthus' shock troopers during the war back home?!"
"Yesss."
Allen bowed his head. "It is an honor."
"Indeed." The snake looked at Julia, who had buried her head back into her arms. "What isss your problem?"
"If I had known I would have to leave the planet, I wouldn't have signed on."
Allen sighed. "She's a bit homesick, Miss Khan."
"Pleassse...jussst Khan."
"Right." He reached over and put a hand on Julia's shoulder. "Let her be."
"Well, if we're going to be keeping the humansss under wrapsss, she'll have to get over it. Otherwissse, she will be a weak soldier." The snake bowed her head and took off.
"Gee," Allen said under his breath. "The rumorsss about the Khansss being the greatessst persssonalitiesss in the universsse were true." That merited a stifled laugh from Julia.

*******