The Shovel

The invasion of Halle. The first major conflict in the 2nd Xeno-Terran war. The Empire deployed millions of soldiers to capture Terra's furthest stronghold immediately, to cut off and destroy one of the heads of the Terran fortification ring and break through. The Terrans unfortunately, were unprepared. They neither expected the attack, nor did they have their army deployed properly across their outer ring. During this invasion, the Imperial fleet divided, and attacked dozens of other colonies to force the Terran naval force to divide as long as possible so their invasion could be unhindered, even having a fleet sent as far as Arcadia, which was, next to Terra Prime itself, the next most populated planet, however being far less militarized. The tactic worked, and the Terran fleets scattered to combat the numerous attacks. The empire, however, had no intention of actually combating on many of these planets, and as soon as the reinforcements from the Terran Federation showed up, their fleets scattered and re-merged elsewhere. 
Halle was cut off and alone. It's planetary space-guard fleet was forced to retreat further into the system, relying on hit and runs to attack the much larger Imperial fleet.

On the ground, it was hell. Planet Guard forced and the federal army bitterly fought against the ever increasing hordes of imperial drones pouring out of the invasion fleet. Atmospheric strikes were kept away due to the pre-existing defenses built across the planet, so it came down to the ground army and air force. The Terran army bitterly defending their defensive silo's and surface to atmospheric canons. If those fell, nothing would prevent the full wrath of the empire.

So they dug in, and they fought. As hard and as long as they could. Weeks on end, days with no sleep. Numbers thinning every morning..
Hell had arrived in the Free Colonies. This was merely the beginning.

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Was inspired to make this after I saw a Ukrainian army commercial. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzs_dY…
It's a pretty damn good commercial. The Ukrainian PR guy needs a raise.

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for the setting.