Story: The Invasion
This will be a story about the Verplaatsen fighting the Praefortis.
Chapter 1
See The Slaughter: Chapter 4 for a short story about a space battle.
Chapter 2
The Verplaatsen always preferred space warfare and bombing planets as opposed to ground warfare, as in space they had the advantage over every race they had ever encountered. However, for a bit of sport, a small amount of Verplaatsen (100 million) had descended to a planet held by the Praefortis.
Latro observed the oncoming wave of Praefortis. There must have been a couple of hundred, all armed with their rapid-firing machine-guns, against twenty of them. However, they were not scared. As the wave came within range, they fired with their Obliterator Rifles. Praefortis became just a shower of atoms, and the charge faultered, allowing more to be picked off.
Eventually, the Praefortis came in range to fire back, by then their number much depleted. They opened fire with machine-guns, which impacted on the nanodiamond armour of the Verplaatsen warriors. Still they fired back, felling more Praefortis.
A piece of shrapnel, one hundred metres long, fell from the sky, crushing the remaining wave of Praefortis. A Verplaatsen fighter glided past overhead, allowing the shattered shell of the Praefortis battleship to fall to the ground below.
Suddenly, an explosive shell a few metres across was fired from the other side of the spaceship shrapnel, soaring over it to land right on the Verplaatsen. The explosion was enough to kill some of them, while those on the fringes of the blast survived. A Verplaatsen fighter jet hovered overhead, destroying the cannon with a single missile.
Chapter 3
Four Praefortis battleships glided towards the unsuspecting Verplaatsen fighter, from each direction. When they realised it had realised they were there, they opened fire on it, sending shards of nanodiamond flying through the air. However, being circular had its advantages. This pincer trap would have disabled most spacecraft, but the fighter could shoot back at all four battleships at once. Two fell from the sky, and the broken fighter began to retreat, firing its missiles at the pursuing battleships.
A third fell from the sky, and the fourth then saw it fit to retreat. However, the tables were turned and now, with the advantage, the fighter pursued, blowing the fourth battleship from the sky.
"Fighter Ship 7891 in need of repairs. Ambush from four Praefortis Battleship-class Spaceships. All have been destroyed but at damage to the craft."
"Return to the main ship using Fighter Chute 0857."
"Confirmed."
The fighter began its flight back, but halfway to the main ship, it was ambushed by another Praefortis battleship. At more damage, the battleship was felled, but the crew, too late, noticed a cargoship flying straight into them.
There was an enormous crunch as the two spaceships impacted. The already cracked nanodiamond shell of the spaceship finally shattered, and the Verplaatsen fighter fell from the sky. However, the Praefortis cargoship was far too damaged to continue to fly, and it plummeted to its doom along with the Verplaatsen fighter it had brought down.
"Fighter Ship 7891 requested repairs earlier, sir. It has been shot down by a Praefortis Cargoship-class Spaceship."
"It is one loss. We can deal with that."
Chapter 4
The five hundred armed Praefortis stared in dismay at the two oncoming Verplaatsen Tanks.
"Open fire!"
The machine-guns fired away as fast as they could go, each impact making not a scratch on the tanks' bodywork. The large cannons on both tanks swivelled to face the Praefortis. They fired. One cannon took out the left wing, the other the right wing, leaving a small amount of Praefortis huddled in the centre. The smaller machine-guns fired, the missiles tearing up the remaining Praefortis.
A Praefortis battleship glided overhead. It was twenty times longer than the tanks, and the tanks' cannons didn't even have time to face upwards before a hail of missiles tore them apart. Shortly afterwards, a Verplaatsen fighter and fighter jet flew in on the scene. Under attack from both sides, the battleship could not hold its own, and, disabled, it fell to the surface of the planet below.
The two ships continued, destroying many Praefortis ships, along with tanks, cannons, cities and castles. But by now, the Praefortis seemed to be giving only half-hearted resistance. They knew the war was over, that they would never be able to win. They almost allowed the Verplaatsen to tear them apart. They had made numerous requests for peace, and every one had been denied.
The Verplaatsen ships left the planet's orbit, having decimated its population. The other fighters followed, and trailing behind, leaving a wave of greater destruction in its wake, was the main Earth-sized spaceship.
