Operation Phoenix: The Coming of Demons

Lyran Alliance Command Ship, Day 1:
    Lord B'harnii and his companions watched from the bridge of the
command ship as thousands of fighters and troopships dived towards
Earth.	
    The assault was fierce and swift. In the first few hours, the
combined might of the Lyran Alliance fleet had crushed all opposition
in Earth’s orbit. Without the force of the X’hirjq Warrior’s Fleet
behind then, B’harnii’s troops would not have survived. But with the
destruction of all orbiting Jihad spacecraft, the fleet was ready to
begin the second phase of the attack.
	Invasion.
	Already, a force had been sent down to Blood Jihad Base One, to
root out and destroy Arsenal, one of those marked for death by the
Wyrm. Soon, more troops would be sent out, and the Jihad would fall
under the sheer weight of Sponge-Minions, bots, and trained X’hirjq
warriors.
	B’harnii couldn’t be more pleased.
				***********************
EGfaBT Headquarters, Colorado, Day 1:
	The morning began for the EGfaBT staff with an explosion.
Several explosions, actually, as a number of fighters and troopships
swept down upon the small aboveground buildings. As plasma fire and
lasers pounded the surface, scientists and techs ran around trying to
raise the defence systems, hoping that they could succeed.
	Into the din rushed Professor Malaclypse. “Get those fighters in
the air, dammit! Close the blast doors! Break open the armory, I want
every man and woman in this facility armed NOW!” Being true to his
words, he grabbed a pulse blaster from a rack, loaded it with a fresh
powerpack, and kept it at the ready. “Operations!” he yelled. “Give me
a visual! I want to see what’s going on out there!”
	A hologram of the outside appeared in front of Malaclypse’s
face. He saw several hundred fighters swooping around the outbuildings,
peppering them with weapons fire. Some he recognized as Lyran fighters,
but the vast majority were of an unknown configuration. More to the
point, they weren’t the sickly purple of most Lyran vehicles, but they
were solid black. “What the hell is this?” he whispered...
	Suddenly, a call cam up from the communications man on duty.
“Professor! We’re getting calls from all Jihaddi bases! They’re under
the same kind of assault we are! It’s happening everywhere.... TRES
main base, Doberman command, Base One, NORAD, everywhere!”
	“Any word from offplanet?”
	“No sir. A message that the BJSF is inbound, with our new
battlecruisers in support, but otherwise nothing.”
	“Allright, spread the word. Prepare to evacuate to Mariner
Valley Firebase. Grab everything that you can and chuck it through the
tessporter-” Malaclypse was cut off by the sound of a massive explosion
just outside the compund. “What the hell was THAT?”
	“Major impact a half-mile away, sir. It looks like a....” the
comtech’s voice drifted off.
	“Like a *what*?”
	“A meteorite, sir. The ground forces are getting orbital
assistance.”
	“Allright, enough with the preparing. Put me on intercom.” A
brief click. “This is Professor Malaclypse, to all personel. EVACUATE
NOW! All personel are to report to Professor Bathory at Mariner
Firebase in 25 minutes. Take everything you can. That is all.”

--30 minutes later--
	Malaclypse watched from his personal ship, the _Skylark_, as the
invaders finished off the last few remnants of the EGfaBT headquarters.
When the forces withdrew, all that was left of the base was a smoking
hole in the ground. While this was a depressing incident, Malaclypse
was more worried about something he was getting over the ship’s radio.
Or rather, what he *wasn’t* getting.
	Over the entire West Coast, all Jihaddi communication lines had
been disrupted. Either by destroying the satelites, or hitting the
transmitters, he didn’t know. All he did know was, that the invaders
were here, and they had blitzkreiged the Jihad badly.
	“Minerva,” he said to the ship’s computer, “go to full stealth
mode, and all ahead east. I want to see how bad the damage is along the
Front Range.”
	<Aye, aye, Skipper.> came the disembodied voice of the shipboard
AI.
	The _Skylark_ angled up over the mountains, and vanished....

To Be Continued