The contractors spent the next few days getting ready for their second raid. Harry

  poured over the imaging, watching the random deployment of the xenos. Without the

  three temples rebuilding the grunts, the area around Junior had to constantly be

  replenished with bodies trying to get to him.

  His boy was a killing machine from his lookout spot at the edge of the system.

  “We can use the train tracks and roads to expand our fort,” said Har. “Now that we

  don’t have a rush, we can clear each building and fortify it from the xenos.”

  “Harry’s automated army holds a bunch of the area around the original fence,” said

  Yema. “And it keeps expanding to push the enemy away from Junior.”

  “It’s a nice ring,” said Milla. “And there is a line of forces in the south. They are

  fighting at the edge of Junior’s effective range from the looks of things. What

  happens if we reinforce those forces?”

  “We could drop a set of walls so they could have cover,” said Marques. “We lost

  some of the sun guns we dropped on their own. The xenos knocked them over from

  the looks of things.”

  “Do we build another Junior?,” asked Delmar.

  “It would take a while for a Bolo to grow, and it would need cover until it was

  exerting its dominance,” said Harry. “I bought ten fabricators and linked them

  together. The group bought the time we needed to have Junior cover our retreat. If we

  set another up, we would have to clear space, set walls, and buy time for it to build

  itself. I expect that we will have a constant stream of enemy forces trying to stop us.”

  “We could set up at the edge of Junior’s range,” said Detrac. “Are you there, Junior?”

  “Yes,” said the heavy machine.

  “If we could set up a brother for you,” said Detrac. “Where do you think he should

  go?”

  “Here,” said Junior. He marked the map about two miles from the ruins, west of the

  outcropping of rock the contractors had used to rest before making the push into the

  ruins and the battle that presaged their escape with the truck battle station.

  “All right,” said Harry. “Let’s think about that. Junior? Do you have any problems

  with xenos with guns?”

  “No,” said the Bolo. “I shoot them as soon as they threaten my area of operations. My

  range is better.”

  “All right,” said Harry. “We could just drop rocks on the planet and randomly kill x

  amount of the enemy, bomb the enemy with waves of fighter/bombers until the star

  whales try to take out our docks, or we land and build a fence until we can drop

  another base for a Bolo and hold the position. All of that seems a little crazy when I

  say it like that.”

  “We can drop another set for automated artillery, and then the Bolo base,” said

  Marques. “The main problem with that is what happens if something hits our plane

  while we are dropping the stuff we need.”

  “A collision would wreck things for us,” agreed Howitz.

  “And their air forces can wreck our planes as soon as they grab them,” said Garry.

  “I think we can expand from the fort,” said Har. “We should take things slowly and

  methodically. We can set up a fence and use the moving army to push into new

  areas.”

  “We can build super bees on the ground,” said Le Roi. “And use them to help control

  the air.”

  “My birds can help clear the air,” said Xin. “My secondary weapon of choice is a fire

  beam.”

  “I have various energy beam weapons I can use in combat,” said Milla. “I think I can

  clear the area in front of any march. The rest of you would have to cover the other

  points of the circle.”

  “I like to use a multiple barrel machine gun like a Gatling,” said Hei. “If I mount them

  on tracks, I can use it as cover.”

  “Do we have a plan?,” asked Yema.

  “All right,” said Harry. He looked at the crew at the table. “Let’s start with Fort

  Junior. I think we can use that area as our base. Then we break out through one of the

  walls. We use air cover, and the army to march to the second spot and set up our

  second Bolo. Then we set up transport between them. Future contractors should be

  able to launch from the second fort to set up their own bases.”

  He paused in his assessment.

  “What are the problems with this approach?,” asked Harry.

  “You can get killed jumping down to Junior,” said Delmar. “You can get killed trying

  to reach that other spot. You can get killed trying to set up the other Bolo. You can

  get killed trying to hold the area while waiting for Junior Two to start shooting.”

  “Okay,” said Harry. “Solutions?”

  “We take the bee down in the middle of a flight of corvettes and fighters,” said Guy.

  “I can get you to the drop level, and give you cover until you hit the ground.”

  “The actual travel can be done on another truck,” said Detrac. “That worked well for

  the length of time we used it.”

  “We use the truck to fight our way, and we take it slow enough for the automated

  army to keep up with us,” said Yema.

  “Force walls will help keep the enemy off of us while we march forward,” said Har.

  “We use the sparrows as our air cover with the bees that will also be there,” said Xin.

  “We use the super bees to fly air missions to give us cover,” said Howitz. “That will

  help us.”

  “How fast is your mech?,” asked Harry. “We might need it for point suppression.”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I’ll be glad to lead the way,” said Howitz.

  “All right,” said Harry. “Hei, you said you used rotary cannons?”

  “That’s right,” said Hei.

  “So we land, build a gate and fabricators for super bees, and a tractor trailer,” said

  Harry. “Sound good?”

  Various forms of ascent came from the crew.

  “Then we build fabricators for my guys, and Hei’s roaming cannons,” said Harry.

  “Xin’s birds and my bees planted along our line of march should give us cover from

  the air, plus we’ll have Junior covering us with his guns.”

  “And I lead the way from the front of the line,” said Howitz. “I should be able to clear

  the line for anything smaller than my mech, up to the same size. If anything as big as

  the storm bird shows, I might have a problem.”

  “I will cover for you,” said Milla.

  Everyone looked at the tiny alien. Harry shrugged. He had asked for her to engage the

  enemy on her own and sneak through their lines to join up with the two Chinese

  contractors. There was no doubt that she was as deadly as she bragged.

  He didn’t think she was as good as a demon of death, but he was willing to let his

  mind be changed on the matter.

  “So we have a good line order,” said Harry. “We’ll need walls when we reach the

  marked out spot. Can do, Har?”

  “I can do it, Harry,” said Har. “My fabricators can make simple walls as easily as I

  can make them. And I will put down walls to make sure the enemy can’t attack the

  base of the truck.”

  “Let’s look at the spot for the second base,” said Harry.

  The projector shifted to show the area around the marked spot. It was a small hill like

  the outcropping where they had rested. It was just big enough to hold a body as big

  as Junior’s. The hill stood out in the open.

  “It gives height, but there are nothing for us to use as cover,” said Harry.

  “It needs walls,” said Garry. “Construction drones to build a fort, maybe?”

  “It will be hard to build out from this,” said Har. “Force walls could be forced out as

  real buildings go up. There will be a constant push to stop that expansion.”

  “We can create an expanding ring from the hill,” said Detrac. “I think that will take

  a lot of time to clear the area.”

  “Anything built will have to have guns to fire out at air cover,” said Yema.

  “What do you think, Junior?,” asked Harry.

  “The plan seems doable with my reach,” said Junior. “I can strike almost anything to

  ground level with my various systems.”

  “All right,” said Harry. “If we can plant the second Bolo, we have two battlestations

  that can cover miles of territory between them. Do we use the Jordan in this?”

  “The Jordan can drop down, take shots at some of those big monsters, and let the

  smaller wings drop down and take out as many as they can before they are destroyed,”

  said Delmar. “Mr. Stuart says the Bertha can punch through their skin if we’re close

  enough.”

  “The Bertha shoots anti-matter like my rifle,” said Yema. “I requested the build when

  we were adding on the weapons systems.”

  “We can’t lead with the Jordan,” said Harry. “They’ll swarm it and we can’t let it

  crash. This is our real homebase off planet. We need to keep the Jordan as safe as we

  can until we have real battleships in the system.”

  “Then we run from the whales, and use corvettes and fighters on everything else,”

  said Delmar. “I don’t think they’ll last in the skies.”

  “They don’t have to last that long,” said Howitz. “They just have to last long enough

  for us to get started. After that, random strikes will help disrupt the enemy, but there

  are so many, we can’t expect to kill them all on the first pass.”

  “We could fight for years and not clear the whole planet out,” said Yema. “Remember

  we are fighting on one continent for a foothold. Once we have that, we will still have

  to reach the other continents and small island chains to clear the rest of the enemy out,

  and I imagine incursions will be a thing for many years.”

  “If your grandkids became contractors, their grandkids would still be fighting,” said

  Harry. “The best we can do is set up so your descendants can keep up the fighting and

  eventually save the day.”

  “That sounds awful,” said Garry.

  “We have to do what we can to keep our galaxy safe,” said Harry. “The xenos are

  going to keep coming unless we exterminate them. If we can force a withdrawal, that

  will keep our planets safe for the moment. Their behavior says they will keep coming

  at us to get at the Bernies.

  “The real decision comes down to do we walk away and let the Bernies try to handle

  this on their own, or do we fight with what the Bernies have supplied us. And that

  isn’t a real decision at all because we can’t walk away and we know what will happen

  when all of the contractors can’t use the quartermaster because the Bernies are gone.”

  “Many people thought they could hide in space,” said Yema. “It didn’t work out that

  well for them.”

  “All right,” said Harry. “Is there anything glaringly wrong with this plan? Can we do

  it?”

  “A lot depends on if you can get down to the surface from here,” said Le Roi. “If you

  can do that, the rest should be a snap.”

  “The mech is ready,” said Howitz. “The Jordan’s Damage Control went over it before

  we had this meeting.”

  “All right,” said Harry. “I guess we should make sure we have our gear. Then all we

  have to do is wait for the docks to make enough flying shooters to help us out. Once

  we have that gate set up, we can try to set up Junior’s sibling. Then we’re done except

  for clean up.”

  “I like how you are so optimistic,” said Detrac.

  “We can do it,” said Harry. “Then we can start thinking about building offices for you

  guys so you can hang around.”

  “I don’t know if we can stay here,” said Howitz. “The benefactors will want us to go

  back to protecting our home planets from assault.”

  “Just something to think about,” said Harry. “As the new demon of death, I could use

  some sidekicks to help pave the way to the future.”

  “I’m the demon of death,” said Milla. She made a facial expression that could be

  anything, but was probably anger and scorn. “Do not insult me with your trivial

  accomplishments.”

  “Do you want to see how many kills we can rack up?,” said Harry. “I am sure we can

  settle who’s the better contractor with this.”

  “No,” said Nick. “Harry, your review is still in motion. Milla, you’re too old to act

  like this. If the meeting is over, I suggest you get ready to move out while I talk to

  John and Cat about where the Jordan should be, and what we have that we can use for

  this spearhead.”

  Harry made hand gestures to show Milla wasn’t big enough to keep up with him. She

  growled, white light surrounding her hands.

  “Children,” said Yema. He stood and picked up Harry. “Let’s do what we should

  instead of antagonizing each other.”

  He carried Harry out of the briefing room.

  “Come on, Milla,” said Howitz. “Let’s see if I can adapt your energy guns to my

  monster slayer.”

  “Come on, humans,” said Har. “Let’s see what your menu choices are so we can see

  if we can improve anything in your arsenal.”

  Delmar looked at the globe. He frowned.

  “There’s nothing we can do but watch,” said Delmar. “Hopefully, they’ll get things

  done and we can go back home. This is a little too exciting for me.”

  “Mom says the bills are paid for the next bit,” said Garry. “If this keeps up, I might

  be able to help her pay for her house.”

  “I’m going to play some,” said Marques. “If we’re going to be helping out, I need to

  relax first. I want to be ready for when we crash into the planet and have to fight our

  way clear.”

  “We still have that gate back to Wallens,” said Le Roi. “If things blow up, we can use

  that to get back and reset on Earth.”

  “I have a feeling we might be fighting,” said Delmar. “We need to be ready for that

  when it happens.”

  “Maybe we can get armor from one of the contractors,” said Garry. “Then we’ll have

  that extra layer of protection if things go wrong.”

  “I wouldn’t mind some Iron Man armor,” said Marques. “Built-in guns with

  protection would be great in my opinion.”

  “I wouldn’t mind a Green Lantern ring,” said Le Roi. “It would be great to be able

  to do anything you want.”

  “That’s also a thing that will get you on the watch list,” said Delmar. “Let’s see what

  we can do with what we got before we start thinking about what we can’t get because

  there is no way the Bernies would give us anything like any of that.”

  “They would if we became contractors,” said Marques.

  “If you want to be stuck with an alien running your show twenty four/seven, you

  should get with Bernice,” said Delmar. “That’s a lot less life threatening.”