Translated from the personal diary of a Xeltar Fusilier, after the capitulation of Xeltar Prime.

I'll never forget the first time I saw them. The humans had been in the Federation for only 3 galactic cycles and had already made a name for themselves.

They bombarded us for what seemed like several standard weeks. Most of our energy grid was hit first, so we had no easy way to tell time. Only those lucky enough to make it to the shield domes were spared. They nearly made our home uninhabitable, and seemed to stop arbitrarily.

Their ships were blunt and brutal. Slabs of metal, bristling with guns and engines. The fact that they brought them so low into orbit was simply another sign that we were doomed.

We couldn't see windows, so we figured they had none. Only when the bay doors opened did we catch a glimpse of the interior. Red lit transport bays opened to the warm air of Xeltar. The his of their own atmosphere mixing with ours.

Hundres of small dark silver dots poured from a dozen or so launch bays. There were hundreds of these ships across all of the remaining population centers. They looked almost like insects swarming out of a disturbed hive.

Once they got closer we could make them out. Dropships. Not like ours, larger troop transports that had to take off and land. These were some kind of one use emergency troop deployment.

The pod nearest to us plummeted to the ground and only at the last minute did the retro thrusters slow its descent. Even the it still crashed to the ground with an impact that should have liquefied any organic.

They didn't even bother to use smoke or camouflage.

The doors burst open and before we could make out what was inside, gunfire, chemically fired solid shot projectiles ripped through us. Dozens of my unit fell before we returned fire.

The monsters, ill never forget this until the say my spirit passes to the great mother. Each human was armored in some advanced power armor. Our shots bounced off them while they steadily advanced towards our position.

10 humans wiped out nearly 300 of my regiment in under 5 minutes. We were in general retreat after 14.

Across all working frequencies we heard the same. The battle lasted a grand total of 37 earth minutes before the mass surrenders started.

I heard after, that our entire force of several hundred thousand, only killed 13 of them.

We were supposed to be the best. We conquered our entire sector in only 7 standard cycles. They beat us in 37 minutes.