Invasion C.K. Chandra The heavy smoke not only obscured the sight of the battlefield it was so chokingly dense thatit made it hard for Jessup to breathe. The Lieutenant stopped his half crawl to lean against aburned out car while another fit of coughing racked his chest. When it finished he continuedhis slow progress dragging his injured leg behind him. The last he had heard there had stillbeen a group of holdouts defending the power station at the harbor. He hoped they had some kindof medic available to them. If not he was sure hed lose his leg. A random gust of wind blew the worst of the smoke away for a few moments giving him a view ofwhat lay ahead and his breath froze in his throat. One of the huge enemy weapons platformslifted above the burned out shell of a building. It was festooned with gun turrets which wereall tracking back and forth searching for targets. One stopped its muzzle pointed directlyat him. Within moment all the wepons were trained on him. In a futile display of resistanceJessup lifted his handgun and emptied it at the mammoth machine. The bullets bounced offwithout leaving a single mark. The weapons platform drifted slowly towards the injured man then settled to the groundcrushing a small office building and several burned out cars in the process. Then a gangwayslammed down from its towering side. Jessup cursed himself for wasting his last ammo. If hedwaited he berated himself maybe he would have been able to get a few of the bastards