The Rain: The End by Marietta Standlee (good summer reads TXT) 📕

team peels the aliens off from the top of the roof and the building's sides. It's almost too easy. My team and I are still advancing; when my AR runs empty, I keep moving as I exchange the spent mag for a new one in practiced moves.

Another ship is shot out of the sky and tumbles into a building east of us. A tremendous explosion lights the sky. Thankfully it's about half a mile away and doesn't have any impact on our battle.

And here come the pilots and spare alien security guards to join the fight. Most pilots will try to get to their ships, where Briggs and her team are lying in wait. Other guards come to help their brethren but find themselves soon surrounded as Derek and his team join our forces.

His team was hidden inside abandoned planes, which the aliens had moved to the west side. His team had the longest distance to join the fight, but they made it and, in doing so, are successfully blocking off the only other exit route for the Gorongiaths.

Seeing that they are surrounded and caught in a three-sided crossfire, they only have one option left, and that is to retreat back into the hangars from where they came from minutes ago. Which is exactly what we hoped they would do.

With the slave laborers all out in the field, there are no humans, and no Phinaruhs left inside the place. The Gorongiaths mastered the usage of their slave labor. They work their prisoners in twelve-hour shifts. Before and after each shift is the only times the prisoners are allowed to eat before turning in.

As cruel and inhumane as this practice is, it works in our favor today. Because we timed the attack exactly to when the harvest crew switched out in the field. Ensuring the presence of all prisoners.

If there are any captives inside the building, it can only be a handful. I feel sorry for them for what we are about to do, but this is the best plan with the least amount of casualties on the prisoners' side we could come up with.

As one, our teams move forward, and our soldiers on the roof hasten down. The Gorongiaths fled back into the building and close the giant hangar doors, probably waiting for their ships to come and bomb us.

Ships will come, and they will bomb, just not flown by their pilots, and they won't bomb us. By now, I'm sure Briggs and her team have a firm hold on the spaceships. Several are up in the air already, engaging the few enemy vessels left.

"Fall back!" Colin orders and makes hand signals.

Cautiously we do as he commands. Guns still trained at the surrounded building. The first spaceships begin to hover, waiting for us to retreat further before unleashing their payloads on the large hangar.

As soon as we are far enough away, they unleash their bombs into the building, rocking it under the impacts. Seconds later, multiple explosions ignite fires. We hurry further back as the heat becomes intolerable. Stealing our air and singeing out eyebrows. We don't need to stand sentry any longer; whoever was inside that hangar has been incinerated. There is no way anything or anyone could have escaped the explosions and following inferno.

Chapter 7

An elated scream of victory erupts from our men and women. People laugh and hug, raising their fists to the sky in triumph.

The freed slaves look around bewildered, unable to comprehend they are free. Tentatively they approach soldiers; hugs, tears, and laughter are meted out in equal measures.

Off to the side stand a group of Phinaruhs. It doesn't take long for our preselected relations managers to approach and reassure them that they will be taken back to their homes.

As much as I want to enjoy this moment, duty calls, we're not done yet. It will fall to others to manage the aftermath.

A spaceship flown by Briggs lands, and it's there that I meet up with Colin. He takes me into his arms, and I revel in the knowledge that he's safe. He sports a cut on his cheek, which thankfully has stopped bleeding. But he is no worse for the wear.

"Ready?" He asks.

I nod determinedly and look around one more time before following him into the spaceship. Derek will assume command while we're gone. His tall, wide figure is already standing on top of a crashed spaceship's ramp, surrounded by soldiers and freed slaves, taking command, and teasing a smile from me, because of the way he's screaming orders at everyone within earshot.

Wounded are taken care of, and the dead carried off the field. Some of our soldiers line up the ex-prisoners. Later, we'll take the Phinaruhs back to their homes, but they'll have to put up with our hospitality for now.

I join Colin on the bridge, which is Briggs' domain. On a screen, Dimitrov appears, commandeering another spacecraft, similar to ours, but thousands of miles away. He sees us looking at him and gives us a tight nod, their team was just as successful as ours.

"Ready for takeoff, Lieutenant Commander Thornton." Briggs notifies Colin.

"You're the boss here, Commander Briggs." Colin defers.

A grin spreads over her pretty face. "Hold on tight then. Alright, Eagles, you know where to go."

I can only imagine the roar on the ground, which has to be deafening, as over six-hundred spaceships take off on what was once O'Hare airport. We put all our chips on the table. This is it; this is Plan B, also known as operation Stealth Stryker.

All our ships and Dimitrov's are on their way to attack the three Planets, with Cenlar as our first target. We knew that stealing spaceships from our latest attack wouldn't go unnoticed; the aliens would start to put the pieces together and begin to hunt us down. In order for this plan to work, it needs to be seamless, one attack right after another. They won't be able to piece it together until it's too late.

Their arrogance will