Loooooong delay. Most of you, hopefully, have read my journal entry and know why I was so delayed. Another part was, surprisingly, coming up with the name for this section of the story. It's amazing how small things like that can hold up progress. I already had the whole thing outlined and have the story playing like a movie in my head! Hope you like the title. If there's any grammatical errors, my proofreader is on vacation.

Children of Earth

Part One - Targets of Opportunity

"And here is the Silar." The Elf guide says, showing her group the small primate that looks a lot like a small lemur on Earth. "These Silar exist on every planet where mammals rule." She says. "Tho it is small, it's hands are barely big enough to grasp your fingers, they are very successful because they are easily able to hide in lush forests from predators." The crowd looks at the small creature, who seems more interested in looking around than looking back at them. The guide lets her crowd take in the view for a minute, ignoring the pops and bangs from the middle school next door. It was that day, after all, and the youngsters needed to learn to use magic.

"You say they are on every planet?" One man asks. The guide nods, pointing to a small information display held in the air by magical energy.

"Many even keep them as pets." She says. A large pop shakes the glass behind her. She sighs, rolling her eyes and twitching her long ear a little bit. She wished those kids would stop being so loud.

"Hey, what is that?" A woman asks. The guide comes over and smiles. "That is what the raptor call a 'crocodile.' It's from Earth originally but they have some with them on their world." She says, turning around, not giving it a second thought.

"No...that." The woman explains, pointing thru the display booth and out the window on the other side, where some strange vehicle was driving by. There were also several dots in the sky. Only then did she realize the pops outside weren't from students practicing magic, as several more dots appear in the sky.

"I don't...know..." She says, backing up, feeling her blood drain down to her gut, where a cold ball was forming. "Uh...." She says, her voice shaking. "I...I just don't know..." She shrieks a bit and jumps as alarm claxons start blaring all across the city.

McLintock comes out of his transport down and looks at the elven city before him. This was the single largest elven colony near Earth's solar system, and their temporary ruler, Queen Saphira, had insisted to both the Raptor and the Dwarves that Earth be allowed to handle it. "Alright troops, get on your Bradleys and be ready! They know we're coming!" He says, putting on his combat helmet and boarding a nearby infantry fighting vehicle. Once the seven other men were onboard, he sits down as the ramp closes. The Bradleys, escorted by a flight of Apaches and three Abrams tanks, rush toward the city, their gunners looking around for danger. In the sky, fighters are flying around. Elven air power hadn't shown up yet, and they were flying a combat air patrol, CAP, in case they showed up. Some fire from one of the large glass skyscrapers in the city draws the attention of one of those fighters, flying in just over rooftops from the opposite direction of the blue bolts firing after one of his wingmates. Two missles loose from his wings and he pulls up and away, the missiles diving in like the remorseless robots they were, exploding on the top of the building, its tip leaning over and falling straight down into the city. More fire comes up from a depot nearby the building. The battle was joined.

In orbit, Saphyra looks down at the planet. It was a lush world, 68% water. It looked almost like Earth, something which would normally have brought happiness to her. It was only the race that occupied it that made her frown as she looked down at it. "Your Highness, our troops have landed with few losses and are driving in on five cities on the small northern continent and we are landing the Enterprise and Nimitz battle groups in the oceans around the landing zone." An Admiral reports.

Saphyra turns to the admiral. "Tell the troops that this is a total war." She says. "I do not care about collatoral damage. Take their objectives and secure their sectors." She personally went before the Galactic Union to state this. She said that as long as she was running the United States of America, the Elves would not be safe. She looks at the display of the planet. The fleet was coming around the planet after making the drops and would soon be over one of it's main targets. A dragon who worked on this world had reported a major base hidden in the mountains on the southern continent, capable of producing ground forces, fueling and constructing starships, and playing host to an even dozen squadron of fighters and three frigates. The fleet was going to take it's time tearing that base apart. "You know what to do Admiral." she says, then nods as the man nods. "I am going to go check on the primaries then." She says. A new President wouldn't be elected for two years, but a third of the Senate was going up for election right now, with most of the seats up for grabs now vacant from the murderous attack on Earth. She heads for her stateroom and sits down to watch.

The fleet angles south, flying in formation, the frigates and cruisers above the battlecruisers and battleships, forming a protective screen should an enemy fleet jump in. It was unlikely, since the Dwarves were raising hell at one of their main fleet staging areas in the local sector, but it was better to do and not need than need and not have done. The battleships and battlecruisers aim their massive railguns down at the planet, even the carrier, George Washington, aligning her kinetic rods to strike at the base. Twenty minutes later, as one, all their weapons fire, twenty foot long depleted uranium rods falling from the carrier and high density rounds firing from the battleship. They hit the planet's surface with a force equal to twenty thousand tons of TNT, the elves on the surface, who were manning their weapons and ships, never stood a chance. Next would be the invasion. The base extends some distance underground and marines would seize it and take their computers apart for information.

Saphyra watched the bombardment from her room, unable to focus on the primaries. She now watches the fighters, bombers, and transports heading into the atmosphere, with a smile on her lips. A deep bloodlust was being partially satiated now. She hated these elves for seperating her from her bonded. She knows he's alive, somewhere, she doesn't have the emptiness there would be if he were dead. She just doesn't know where he is, where the elves are holding him.

It was a nightmare. Aryna, the elven tour guide, was running for her life thru the streets of the capital of the colony. There was fire everywhere. A human fighter had destroyed the top part of the capital building, dropping the spire into the building next to it and wrecking the emergency transport systems that would have taken her and her group to a shelter deep underground. She could hear the pop pop pop of human weapons. She looks behind her as she runs and feels that knot in her stomach again. She sees a human tank, two of them in fact, coming around the corner. She looks ahead and focuses on running. An elven tank rounds the corner. She runs straight past it and hides on the corner of the building, watching what would happen. Surely the tank would handle these humans? The elven tank fires off its main cannon, hitting a Bradley head on and blowing the cannon straight off of it. The IFV was empty save for its own crew, the driver trying to get out as the fuel cell ignites, turning the vehicle into burning wreckage. The tank next to it fires, the vehicle obscured from Aryna's view momentarily as the 120mm cannon fires. She's promptly knocked back as the round strikes the elven tank just as it was sighting for its next shot. She gapes, seeing the turret of the tank, weighing several tons, flung into the air as if it were plastic and slamming into the building next to it, skidding down the concrete on its way to the ground before coming to rest next to the burning wreckage of the rest of the tank. She crawls back and then turns and runs.

McLintock runs thru a building with his squad and heads up the back stairs, past a number of displays of animals. "Bring that SAW up here!" He yells to one of his men, getting a 'rodger that sir' from him. He shoulders his way thru the door and looks around from the roof. Tracers race back and forth across the courtyard in front of him and the enemy strong point is at the center of it all, putting fire back at every spot the tracers come from. He comes to a crouch near the edge of the roof, peering over the fancy stone work. An Abrams tank comes forward from a corner nearby and fires a HEAT round at it, only to have the HEAT round exploded by a magical shield. Two high power blasts fire back at the tank from the strong point and melt thru the dragon scale armor. A third shot rips thru the side armor and ignites the onboard ammunition. The explosion blows out of a compartment on the back of the turret, sending the inferno away from the crew, which jumps out a second later, one dropped by enemy fire. "Put some fire on that target!" He calls to his men, who take aim and fire, the sound of automatic weapons fire almost deafoning. Good thing he was used to it. He picks up his radio. "We need air support at..." Two F-16s fly overhead, straight between the buildings, followed by a red dragon, dropping four cluster bombs on a target on the far side of the long street, the dragon bathing the area liberally with fire after they've past before pulling away itself.

The radio squawks at him, requesting him to repeat what he was saying. "We need air support outside the zoo. Now painting the target." He says, and aims a small laser designator at the elven position. A trio of tanks was coming as well. They would really help things along. One tank could be overwhelmed, two or three were a force to recon with. One of them was coming around the corner now.

McLintock didn't know that they had surrounded the target. All three tanks fire off HEAT rounds at the same time, two hitting the shield but the third penetrating and exploding right on top of a group of five elves. One of them flies thirty feet into the zoo displays beneath McLintock's squad. "Fuckin Awesome!" A private yells. "Gunship!" Another shouts out, pointing up as a four engined craft comes by overhead, rapid fire magical bolts coming out of its turrets, penetrating the thin upper armor of the Abrams it's shooting at, exploding the entire tank. It turns to deal with another.

"Stingers! Take it out!" McLintock calls over the radio. The air support arrives before his corporal can break the missile launcher out. The F-16s making a return visit. They zoom past overhead, four more cluster bombs landing in the position which no longer has its protective shield. The entire twenty foot area is littered with the fragmenting charges, explosions cropping up everywhere within the elven perimeter. McLintock is surprised that he can hear the screams of the dieing elves over the exploding munitions. Then a dragon arrives, this one black with pink markings, coming straight at the gunship. The pilots see the fresh danger and turn to engage it, but it's too late. The dragon flares its wings out and collides with the gunship, tipping it down. The pilots lose control as she swipes one of the engines, knocking it free of the aircraft. As the gunship spins she jumps off, the deadly machine turning over sideways as she pushes free and hits a building, exploding brilliantly, one of the engines spinning overhead, trailing smoke, and lands in the preserves for the larger animals. "Let's go!" McLintock calls out, then heads downstairs, not even seeing the crocodile sink underwater with it's elven dinner.

Wedge was having only slightly better luck. Upon escorting down a flight of transports and bombers, he discovered a flight of interceptors who were already in the air when the strike hit. The Rogues had already downed four of the eight planes, and he was chasing another. He grins as he lines up on the elf's tail and pulls his trigger. Instead of missiles dropping free, two scarlet beams leap out from just over his jet intakes, the dual phasers ripping thru the craft's shields and tearing thru the metal. The magic engine inside the craft ruptures and the fighter explodes wholescale, Wedge pulling away from it. A missile rushes by over him and slams into the nose of another elven fighter, tearing the front half off it and leaving the rest to flip its way down to the ground, burning all the way. "Transport flight, skies are clear." He says, leveling out, watching the bomber tracks on his radar as they do their sweeps over the target area. Unsurprisingly they only find a bunch of craters. Soon the transports touch down and marines swarm out of their doors, rushing in thru the holds in the roof the bombardment made.

Saphyra is looking out over the planet, lost in thought. Who would control the government now? Could she get them to elect a president early so she could get back to fighting, like she wanted to? She almost doesn't notice the blinking comm unit. Sighing, she goes and pushes it. "Yes?" She asks.

"Majesty, one of our ghost teams captured the colonial governor." He says. "He's in the interrogation room." Saphyra grins. Well, she could at least deal with this elf directly. She heads out the room and down the hall to the elevator. A few minutes later, she's staring at the elf, she in a formal outfit with a US flag lapell pen. He was in dirty, torn clothing and had a look of unbelief in his eyes. "So, governor, you will now hand over your planet to us." She says. "Or we'll have to keep attacking. Our soldiers are very good at ground warfare, as you've found out." One of the ghosts was standing guard just outside the door.

"They...told us you were brainwashed by the humans." He says, seeing this dragoness definitely does NOT look brainwashed. "They showed us video of a dragon who was freed from human control, from their magic. I can free you, too." He says. "Then we can hold out until the fleet arrives." He's hopeful that getting thru past her 'brainwashing' will gain him a powerful ally. The humans wouldn't shoot the draconic queen, after all.

Saphyra merely laughs. "Did your prince show you that video?" She asks with a grin. She then leads forward. "I am head of the Executive branch of the US government. If I was a brainwashed puppet, would I be in such a position?" The elf looks down and shakes his head, giving a lame no for an answer. "Good. You can think after all. Now, here's what's going to happen. Either you can order the troops on the surface to surrender, or watch your colony world get torn apart in three weeks." She sits back and waits for the man's decision. When he does not answer she grins, standing up. Now to torture the poor man. Mental before physical. "Look at this, elf." She says, and taps a screen on the wall. "We have taken five thousand soldiers prisoner and are occupying most of the northern continent. Your capital is mostly under our control, and we are already deciding what soldiers get what female, or male, elves, as the case may be."

That gets the guy's attention. "You're giving them out as slaves?!" He cries. He knew it was done and legal under galactic law. Sort of a way to pay reparations. If a race desires, it takes slaves for the duration of a war and then ransoms them back afterwards. He had just never expected to have this happen to elves.

"Yes." Saphyra says. "When I find my bonded he will get one or two himself." She says with a grin, imagining a view of that thick cock ruining some poor elven woman for any elven male. No better way to win a long term war against a race than to breed them out with their own females. She'd seen it done once by her own kind.

This doesn't get the desired effect tho. "They will fight you to the very last!" He says, defiantly. Saphyra grins and runs the tip of a talon under the guy's chin. "Oh...I'm sure they would..." she says in a sultry voice, then turns her talon up and cuts the tip of the elf's chin. "You, on the other hand, can give us this planet, and have more people live than die." She licks her lips. "Beginning with yourself." That makes the elf go pale.

McLintock couldn't believe it. They were ripping straight thru the elven defenders. Tho they do outnumber the elves three to one, he can't believe it. Some galactic power, if their army can't deal out more damage than this. He looks out over the suburbs of the capital city of Schanxi. Smoke was rising from the downtown area behind him. A dragon was also perched on one of the taller buildings, licking a small wound on its leg. McLintock leans against Cynder and strokes her leg. "Thanks for the help back there. You saved that second tank with your timely arrival, and it's always cool seeing a gunship blow up."

Cynder smiles. "Yes. They didn't know what to do, did they?" She nudges him gently. "Next time they'll be ready tho. Now they know dragons will fight alongside humans with all we have." They both watch an Apache chase an elven vehicle thru the suburbs, the pilots playing with it, missing with 20mm rounds from its main cannon. It's driving towards a rally point for elven survivors, both military and civilian. He has no sympathy for them. His own wife was dead now, his child in the hospital still, in a coma. The Apache launches a rocket, hitting the rear of the vehicle and cartwheeling it into an arcade next to the strong point, knocking the sign down on an elven IFV. The apache breaks off as the transports shoot at it, the reason plain as day to he and Cynder. An F15 flies overhead and drops a small cylinder. About twenty feet up from the rally point, the air fills with a cloud of vapor, then the whole thing explodes as the fuel air bomb detonates. Nobody at the rally point, or in the neighborhood around it, would survive that.

Both knew taking the whole planet would take time. There would be much more bloodshed.

That night, Saphyra marched into the Galactic Union's audience chamber, in natural form, garbed in fine silks and jewelry, and wearing the crest of the President of the United States to show her authority. Along with the Senatorial primaries voters had also cast ballots about whether or not Saphyra should be Queen of America or Acting President of America. The vote had come back with over 80% wanting her to be Acting President. She doesn't look around until she and her two Ghost guards were up front. "This morning, the United States of America began its invasion of Shanxi." She announces, her eyes tracing over everyone. Small colony fights weren't really required to be brought to the attention of the GU, but when you take the colonial capital of a region, you had to tell them about it. It was the only way to ensure the region fell into your control when you took the capital. "We have taken the northern continent completely, as well as the capital, and have obliterated most significant force gatherings with bombardments." The elven ambassador is almost cherry red in anger. Saphyra was absolutely smug about this.

She is interrupted by the ogre ambassador. "You expect us to believe that a race this new to the galactic stage is able to defeat a galactic superpower's ground forces?" A lot of chattering comes up, even as the bots make banging noises to get order back.

"The elves are not a galactic superpower!" The dwarven ambassador proclaims as people grow silent, which makes there be even more chattering. Saphyra grins, and her raptoric counterpart has to restrain herself from laughing in her seat. The dwarf is grinning idioticly at the stir he's made.

When silence once again falls, the Raptor ambassador speaks up. "The human race has been fighting among itself since it's very beginning five thousand years ago. The son of God, praise to Him, visited Earth in the form of God's creation and lived among them, brought them the true word."

"Religious speach has no place in GU politics." The elven ambassador yells, rising to his feet in a flurry.

The raptor nods. "You are correct, however I am making a point." She says, and the looks this wins the elf makes him sit down. "This race is a favored race by the creator." She says. "And this country, created with him in it's founding documents, managed to break free of the grip of a world superpower to form its independence. In two hundred years of history, they experienced three world wars. Two of them were human fighting human, and millions died in each, more than in any other race's history. The third war was against the mighty dragons." She motions to Saphyra. "After surviving all that I do not find it surprising that their planet bound forces are able to match and beat elven forces."

Saphyra smiles. "Thank you sister." She says. The raptor nods and sits down. Saphyra looks around again. "At our current rate of advance the planet will fall completely to my country's forces in about three weeks. I request that the GU begin the process to grant sovereignty of the region to the United States." She looks at the elven ambassador. When he doesn't say anything, and when no one argues or starts talking, she continues. "Once the area is formally in the hands of America we will consider the area to be a reparation payment from the elves, should they desire a cease fire. Otherwise we will push to their core worlds." She goes on about trivial things after that, and leaves the center stage. She knew announcing what they would be doing would allow the elves to centralize their defense, and that's exactly what she hopes they do, so when their other allies enter the war formally, they'll hit the elves with their fleet occupied elsewhere.

Lieutenant Edwards couldn't believe how deep this damned base went down. He's already gone and cleared twenty flights below the bombardment zone. Fortunately there is little to no resistance, so it's mostly just looking around and seeing what there is to find. It isn't until he reaches the end of a flight of stares that something seems off. An elf lies dead on the floor, blood still drying from where he got shot just outside the stairwell door. He gets on the corner and crouches, sticking his gun around the corner, letting the camera on the gun tell him what's there. A man is crouched down the hall behind an opened door. "Surrender!" Edwards calls out. "You've got a squad of Ghosts on your ass and the whole base is crawling with Marines!"

The person behind the door stands up. He's holding an elven pistol. "Really?" He calls out. He has a bit of a southern accent. "Great! Then you guys can get me outta here!" he comes into the open and drops the gun, so Edwards rounds the corner, two other Ghosts with him. He immediately notices the rounded ears. "What's your name?" He asks, lowering his weapon.

"Davis. Callsign Razgriz." The man answers.

Edwards breaks into a wide grin. "Well then, Major, the Queen will be happy." He says, coming over and shaking the man's hand. "How'd you get here tho?"

Davis shrugs. "I shot down that prince guy. Right before the missile hit, he cast a spell that overwhelmed my shields. Next thing I know, I'm here, my fighter is nowhere to be seen, and this elf is beating the fuck outta me."

Edwards nods. "That one?" When Davis nods, he shrugs. "Well, you've got your payback at least. Come on, let's get topside."