She expected the escalation to be the beginning of something worse. The less sane innie's never cared for anything but their own views. Terroristic anarchists, the lot of em.

  But she was wrong. The air force struck back in force at suspected cells, and the army raided areas suspected of holding insurrectionists. This likely sent a message at the least, or removed a majority of hostiles at best.

  This normally wasn't ideal, but with more civilians evacuated every day, the risk of civilian casualties lessened markedly. So they settled in to wait.

  Their FOB had gotten better defended. They had set up bunkers, mines in the forest, and more. They had set up HMG's in key areas, and best yet, gotten proper underground bunks for themselves.

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  The only problem was, it was time to face the music. It had been reported that contact was iminant. Covvie ships were in slip, and baring down on them. The news tanked morale.

  Last minute defenses were solidified, and prayers were said. Little more then a week later, contact was had. Forward fleet elements had skirmished in the outer system, and time was up.

  Technicians readied the mass driver for operation, and as much ammo as was possible had veen stored on site. Our objective was to keep the gun up and firing.

  An AI would be operating it, they guarding, and techies repairing it. Nivka's hand shook, as it usually did before contact. Soon, she would be back into the fray, fighting the aliens that had genocided humanity.

  She had lost her limbs and more to these bastards. Fought on numerous planets. She steeled herself, and her hand stopped shaking.

  She would fight til the last yet again. She would gun down the bastards that came for them all. She would hold the line, as she had time and time again. And hopefully, she would live to tell the tale. She hoped.