December 1, 2008 — Senate Select Committee classified report: Earth Human Population Estimate 1.4 billion Posleen Population Estimate: In excess of 12 billion.

May 26, 2009 — Last operational Posleen force destroyed on Irmansul.

CHAPTER 1

Clayton, GA, United States, Sol III

2325 EDT Friday September 11, 2009 ad

The Commando’s Prayer

Give me, my God, what you still have; give me what no one asks for. I do not ask for wealth, nor success, nor even health. People ask you so often, God, for all that, that you cannot have any left. Give me, my God, what you still have. Give me what people refuse to accept from you. I want insecurity and disquietude; I want turmoil and brawl. And if you should give them to me, my God, once and for all, let me be sure to have them always, for I will not always have the courage to ask for them. — Corporal Zirnheld Special Air Service 1942

The night sky over the ruins of Clayton, Georgia, was rent by fire as a brigade’s worth of artillery filled the air with shrapnel. The purple-orange light of the variable time rounds revealed the skeleton of a shelled-out Burger King and the scurrying centauroid shapes of the Posleen invaders.

The crocodile-headed aliens scattered under the hammer of the guns and Sergeant Major Mosovich grinned at the metronomic firing of the team sniper.



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