

Special thanks to my sister Sabina for helping me with writer's block, and to my parents Tania and Florin for supporting me in my writing endeavors.

Copyright © 2018 R.M. Solea

All rights reserved.

Copying and reproduction after translation in any language, of any part of this publication, for any purpose, in any form, and by any means, is not allowed without written authorization by the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This publication is a work of fiction. Any reference to real persons or facts must be considered a mere chance.

Prologue.

'Nothing is impossible, just improbable.'

That's the concept that defines reality in any place and at any time.

This one starts in a realm that is beyond time and space, between existence and nothingness, far removed from heaven and hell, yet at the same time it's as close to those realms as such a thing is possible.

This place is not on any map, nor is there any way to make one, yet it is not a hidden realm.

It cannot be found if you look for it, but you enter and leave it as often as once a day and traversing it is impossible with effort, but comes naturally with rest, and sometimes you remember it and sometimes you don't, but you where there, especially when you weren't.

This plane of existence has countless names, which have all been heard in an infinite number of languages, across innumerable galaxies and across boundless space and time.

This land is both beauty and ugliness combined, both salvation and damnation, but its description alone cannot be comprehended thoroughly by mere words, so let us stop here and let's name this place "the Realm".

Such a fantastical place, sounds like a perfect for this story, does it not?

But this is not that kind of story.

At least not yet.

What do I mean by that?

Well, let's find out!

Here in 'the Realm' it's only inhabitants, at this particular time and within this particular version of it, are the 'Amurg' ancient creatures whose place of origin has long been lost to the Sands of Time.

Amongst a gathering of various different 'Amurg', beings of all shapes, colors and sizes, that were grouped in a circle and playing a game of cards, something happened to these eternal and all knowing creatures, something that not even they could have predicted to come to pass.

A New Amurg approached the game!

"Do any of you know where Deux is?" the New Amurg asked the group.

"Oh, it's you! Ye just got here didn't ye?" one of the players said as it turned its gaze from the game and looked at the newcomer.

The first New Amurg in a long, long time to arrive here now stood before them.

Initially his coming had caused a small stir in a realm that was usually ruled by monotony since its inhabitants were all immortal, but that soon died out and any questions about the appearance of a new Amurg, or what were the consequences of his coming were quickly forgotten so they could focus on more important matters.

Namely gambling.

"Why do you want to find Deux? The guy's a little weird, why don't you join the game? Come here and relax." another one said and gestured for the newcomer to come and join the collective with what could be considered a friendly smile, at least what higher beings considered a friendly smile to be.

"Gamble, waste time, that's all you do all day! How can you do that and not go insane from boredom? This beyond my comprehension, and since I have access to unlimited knowledge and wisdom that says a lot!" The Amurg thought to himself angrily, all the while glaring at them.

"I could tell you all what a disgrace your actions are, how you waste your great potential, I could rant, rave about it, or perhaps I could give calm and compelling arguments, but.........Would you learn from them? Would you listen to them? Would you understand my words?........Would you even acknowledge them? No.....Because you don't care, nobody does, so in the end it doesn't matter." he added to his train of thought, as he took a small breath of air in order to calm the growing anger inside him.

"I just want to ask him a question, so does anyone know where he is?"

"He's sometimes west of here in the sandfields of a thousand nights, today's the day after the thousandth one, so you should be able find him there right about now." One of them replied.

At that the New Amurg then turned to leave but was stopped by one last question.

"After you finish your task, do you want to join the game?" Another one said to him with a degree enthusiasm that was mirrored by the other players.

"Does it matter if I join?" the New Amurg replied without turning his gaze or body back towards them.

"Of course it does! The game changes in so many ways!" Another one answered and went on to describe in great detail the many ways in which the game would change.

The newcomer then turned his head slightly back at the game, just enough so he could gaze at the players, at these creatures of immeasurable power and infinite potential, who's most important activity and greatest desire was a card game.

Words failed him as he once more felt anger at this waste power of unlimited power! So the Amurg just turned his head back in the direction he was going, leaving behind the confused all-powerful beings that quickly got over his abrupt exit and continued with their game.

After all, what was one more temper tantrum by a godlike being to them?

In 'The Realm' it was a boring sight to behold.

The New Amurg walked, with as much vigor as he could muster, towards the area where the other Amurg said that Deux would be found. He was spurred on by a subconscient defense mechanism that told him to leave the group as soon as possible, lest he too be infected by this 'disease' of laziness and the sheer lunacy of having the universe at your fingertips and only using those fingers to draw an ace from a deck.

Not even from your sleeve.

After a while that felt like half a dozen minutes for him, and was in fact several millennias worth of time for mortals, he finally arrived at the sandfields and started looking around for his quarry.

"Trough the warp, and from the shadows, and barren desert fields."

"Does a whisper come to be heard?"

"Of a tale of one hundred billion light years."

"And a million galaxies worth!"

The New Amurg heard someone singing and looked around for the source.

"Hear the tale of an invincible strength that is born from a decade's long brew."

"And a thousand admirals who faced that force, but can never seem to break trough!"

"Hear the tales of the great kings, queens and a hundred princes;"

"Who have the universe at their beck and call."

"But the one thing that their hearts desires, they will never have it at all!"

"Of ancient stories! Everlasting ballads!"

"Who change every time."

" Every verse; every rhyme."

"When the story is told one more time!"

He looked to where a hole in the 'clouds' of The Realm formed a hole in the sky, one that allowed the 'moonlight' of this domain to shine trough.

From there the New Amurg saw a shape in the sky, that was flying down through the hole in the clouds towards him, it was a floating two horse carriage that was filled with merchandise and it was its driver was the one that was singing.

"So come with me now, to the place beyond mirrors and light!"

"Where hidden secrets are in plain view for the worthy to find;"

"To where? I do not know, so come and see the things hidden in plain sight!"

"To long forgotten realms, that appears when you open your mind!"

The carriage and drive descended, with the grace that would be the envy of any royal, down from the sky with the 'moon' at his back, its light shining in a way that made it seem like a parent was watching it's favored child.

The moonlight light tumbled down, combined with the movement of the carriage, it was like the driver was descending on horseback a staircase towards the grandest ball ever and he was this evening's guest of honor.

"See a place which is more uncanny than what you imagined could be;"

"From the deep dreamland, to the heaven's endless sky!"

"As what's real is stranger than any fiction I you could see."

"As the truth is more unbelievable than a lie!"

The carriage finally finished its journey and stopped just before him and its driver looked at the Amurg with glee in its eyes.

Slowly, yet steadily, the rip in the clouds grew to encompass the New Amurg, bringing to the young one into the light that was brought by the older Amurg.

Everything was clear now.

"Are you Deux?" he asked the figure that was made out of twirling, never still, mist and twilight that encompassed his white flesh, along with eyes that did not blink.

The wagon's master was sitting in the driver's seat, his shape and form was forever changing, the pale flesh and smoky mist that was there a second ago disappeared, replaced with other forms of mist and twilight that stayed for but the lifetime of a forgotten whisper, before fading away along with many other colors from both the dark side of the rainbow, and it's light side.

The only thing that remained constant about the master of the cart was his three pairs of eyes and his strange hands that had claws which seemed like they were not made to tear flesh, but did not seem out of place on his fingers despite them never remaining the same shape, form or sharpness, instead along with the rest of his body they constantly changed, never the same for more than the echo of a heartbeat's time.

"Oh it's you, you came sooner than when I expected!" Deux said to him with an eerily cheerful smile as he gazed at the New Amurg.

The youngest, and newest, of their kind had a humanoid appearance, he was dressed in what appeared to be a long flowing robe, with a square cap on his head with a piece of cloth streaming down one side, but the most distinctive thing about him was the fact that when you looked at his face, not matter how hard you tried, you could not see any distinguishable facial features, he could have been anybody.

Nobody would also be a valid answer as to the New Amurg's identity.

"What do you mean by that?" the New Amurg inquired.

"You don't remember?" Deux asked him.

"Remember what?"

"What you were before you became an Amurg of course!"

"Of course I don't! You've been here longer than me and you haven't even learned that by now!?" the New Amurg replied.

Upon hearing the second half of the sentence a great smile appeared on his faces.

"Sorry, just asking. So why are you here?"

"I'm here to ask if you're Deux."

"And if I am? What of it?"

"I heard that Deux was bored and went on a journey to visit the other realms, I want to do the same, but since there are so many, I want to hear your story so that I may know which domain is the most fun of them all. After spending who knows how much time in this dreary cesspool I need that! So will you tell me about your journey?" The New Amurg replied.

"So you want me to tell you my story, ey? Why I have lots of stories! For example: the story of this great blade!"

Deux said and brought from within his cart, that seemed to be bigger on the inside, a strangely curved sword.

That surprised the New Amurg, for in that moment something stirred inside him, of what it was he did not know, but there was a familiarity with that weapon, of what he was not certain, but it was a peaceful feeling.

"Why, this is the blade of the mighty one that faced a billion foes and fought a thousand battles and won all of them! Well one of his many weapons actually."

"That looks like a field plow and a cheap one made from different scraps cobbled together! Nobody would say that has any value!"

"Then why am I drawn to it? Did I say the words to correct Deux or to convince myself? Which is it? A lie hidden in the truth or a truth hidden in a lie?" The New Amurg thought to himself as flashes of the past did not come to him, but rather their unhearable echo whispered to him, in an almost melodic fashion.

"I know sir! You want only the best and I the greatest merchant of all have it! For example this is the secret weapon of the greatest spy that has ever lived!" Deux said and handed him the aforementioned object to examine.

"Twenty two gardenias from Halina's flower emporium, one dinner reservation with at the Rotzwenen, one new camera.' this looks like some secretaries to do book! What possible use could a spymaster have for this as a tool for espionage warfare? Reschedule them to death!?"

"But there is power here, great power. Or rather it was made into a great power, someone out there had the skill and vision to look beyond this worthless ink and paper and turn into power, true power!" The New Amurg once more thought to himself as flashes of faces past came to him.

Of faces that were that were still to blurry to make out, but clear enough that he could feel them as their true names and faces almost danced in front of him.

Almost to the rhythm of the whispers in his ear.

"I know sir! And as such I feel obliged to hand you our greatest item yet! Why, within this jar is the means with which half a universe was united and the other half conquered!"

"That, my friend is a jar filled with sand!" the Amurg paused to let that statement sink in.

"Are you actually trying to sell me sand, here in a desert!" the statement was so 'unique' that the one who said it had trouble believing that he actually said such words.

"Yes, he is and it's not a lie! These worthless grains somehow set whole stars ablaze and eclipsed entire worlds." The touch of........of something that could not be put into words caressed his person.

Or rather a teasing of it brushed his soul as something that was forgotten seemed to be just close enough to be felt, but not enough to be clearly discovered.

But, isn't that how all good stories start?

"I see your right again sir, enough with the cheap stuff! Let's get to the high caliber merchandise! As such I have-"

"Forget this! If you're not going to tell me of your journey them I'm goin-"

"-the journal in which I wrote down my travels." Deux said and the Amurg paused mid turn and returned his gaze to Deux. The whispers, dances and caresses seem to grow in clarity and intensity, yet they still felt alien.

"Why didn't you say that in the first place?!"

"Well, I got to make a living don't I?"

"You're an immortal creature who doesn't need to eat and can make anything from nothing by merely thinking about it! What possible need would you have for an income?!"

"About the same reason another immortal creature would seek out a traveler's stories, when he could just use his powers to see the 'spoilers' himself." Deux said with a wide grin as the other Amurg remained silent for a moment.

The sights, sounds and sensations now had become too loud for him to ignore. Deux smiled at the New Amurg's silence, he grinned in a way like he too could hear it.

"How do I know it's not another piece of junk, like what you showed me before?"

"Why don't I read it to you and if you like it you can buy it, after all a good story is worth reading, and living it, over and over again wouldn't you agree?"

"All right, let's get started." the Amurg said trying to sound bored and annoyed, but you could detect eagerness in his voice and to that Deux grinned even more, since it was obvious he had hooked a customer.

"It's a fine tail, filled with twist and turns. Why by the time this is finished the reader of this will be quite shocked by it. Though I must warn you it is a long story, it will take a while for me to tell all of it and-"

"We're immortals you idiot!" the Amurg shouted towards Deux in a fit of frustration.

"Alright, aright! Yeeesh, you think with everlasting life you wouldn't be in such a rush!" Deux said to him as he exited the carriage and sat down, he then brought out his journal and reading glasses, took from behind his back a picnic basket and set it down between himself and the Amurg.

He then held the book at an angle that did not allow the Amurg to see the writing on the pages; Deux cleared his voice for a few moments before opening the book.

"What do you need all of this stuff for?" The Amurg asked him.

"Atmosphere of course, if I'm going to tell a story I must look the part, helps with the immersion you see. Now where to begin? " he thought for a while before deciding on one particular story that he enjoyed and started reading it with a smile.

"In one of the many realms of existence, long ago in a galaxy that was once far away but now is close, that although similar to others, it still differed from them greatly!"

At the words that came from Deux's lips the echoes of the whispers became clearer, the dances appeared stronger before him and the caresses of pain started to be felt on his person.

"See kid, told you immersion was important." Deux said with that enigmatic smile as he continued before the New Amurg could say anything.

"For in this particular galaxy sentient beings had conquered the stars, but instead of using technology as their main tool another one was chosen. Here what powered their space fleets, orbiting stations and gave them strength was magic! This is the story of the end of an era and the beginning of a new one, of those who lived it, those who died during it and those who brought about this new age, of those who did great things, some good, some evil, but great things nonetheless!" Deux read towards the New Amurg.

Who felt the whispers, caresses and the pain become more intense, become more clearer, more painful, they became.....familiar.

The New Amurg no longer felt bored, he felt pain, he heard noise, and he saw strange new things before him.

And he realized what he was experiencing.

It was music.

Lovely, lovely music!

The symphony of an age began as Deux's story started!

For the first time since arriving in this realm if he could have, he would have smiled.

"Finally something new is happening!"

He felt alive.

595th chapter, 891st volume, 13th library of the 50th city of knowledge, 7th universe, 974.593 cycle of eternity:

When my eyes are weighed with sleep I quench the evening candle's glow

*Excerpt, from the works of Grand Scholar, and The Great War Expert Djanus Todomari from the Imperium Archives*

On Caliupus 27th, Imperial year 1898, Federal year 3941, and Republican year 953, on the small homeworld of the Tolstoy sector a Federal fleet clashed for less than 3 hours with an Imperial one. This small battle which was the first shot in 'The Great War' was situated above a place called Graperust Manor that was owned by a Novo Albetan lawyer called William Murasaki Kuckluck.

After the 'Battle of Graperust Manor' mister Murasaki said that he had enough of the whole affair and decided to move his family 560.000 light-years to a town called New Hope within the Tremera system, to a place called Woodgrom Courthouse with the intention of avoiding the war in its entirety.

Years later, the commanders of the belligerent forces came to that very same courthouse to sign the ending of all hostilities.

So when it was over Mr Murasaki could boast that the war began on his front porch and ended in his backyard gazebo.

The Great War raged across millions of star systems, billions of planets and trillions of light years, within it farm workers from Nova Bronze City of the Towar System clashed with fisherman from Seshrim 9, lawyers and schoolteachers from the Brumbaki Plains of Bulla 8, with doctors and accountants from The Tjigu asteroid cluster.

Whole nations and ways of life would disappear only to be replaced by new ones, and within this age of chaos great heroes and villains would emerge, several sentients would join the war, each from the three superpowers. They would be at the most crucial and most bloody of the battles and somehow survive them all, and give testimony of just how much life was stranger than fiction.

A smuggler would save a country , a spy from the warrior would emerge from the darkness, a rebel would reshape the galaxy, a unknown sentient would change the way things were forever, and a potions brewer who did not go a single day to military school would become the greatest commander the known universe had ever seen or perhaps would ever see.

Thus the 'Sands of Time' flowed on and with their passing the universe changed forevermore.

Grand Scholar and Great War Expert Djanus Todomari

Imperium Archives

Caliupus 8th Imperial year 1890, Federal year 3933, Republican year 945.

Within the warp, South of the Bracken-Droven line.

9:52 Imperial Fleet Time

A great train traversed the thin plane of hyperspace, it was a massive construct composed of at least 2.000 individual wagons, each one of them was over a hundred meters in diameter and in length they all stretched out for at least five times that and more.

But despite the titanic nature of this interstellar traveler, when compared to others of its kind, it was the runt of the litter.

These wagons were forged out of fine tempered steel, with a smooth surface, and each wagon's front and back ended with a conic shaped head and tail.

Seven great horizontal sheets of metal traversed their bodies, starting at the front and ending at the rear of each wagon, runes that glowed brightly with energy were embedded on these stripes and from them magical energy was released for the purpose of moving and guiding the train towards its destination.

These bursts of energy started as a single line that, at certain points of its length, bent upwards, downwards, left and right, and at each bent smaller lines emerged, that also bent at certain intervals that in turn also made new ones emerge, giving the magic the shape of a great tree branch that looked like it sprouted from lighting itself.

But it was only the shape of a plant and nothing more, for the purpose of this train was not the production of breathable air or that of fruits, or flowers.

No, its purpose was transport ting goods to a fleet of hundreds of warship that was besieging a planet that belonged to the enemy's of the Empire, and amongst its cargo there were two very important passengers.

A surge of energy, which was called since ancient times a gust of warp wind, shook the space train not enough to cause any damage or deviate it from its course, but enough to wake up one of the occupants of its VIP room from his nap.

For a few brief moments confusion and disorientation dominated his person, that was generally what happened when you traversed between the realm of reality and the realm of dreams, and no more so than when you are inside the warp, which existed outside both of those two realms.

For it was a very mysterious and unnerving place and even veteran sailors and soldiers were not too comfortable when they passed through this plane that seemed to be nowhere, yet everywhere at the same time.

As for the drivers of this train, the feeling of dread caused by journeying in this place outside of what they considered their 'normal realm' was present as well.

For even though they had learned to overcome it and even partially control the fear; its presence remained an eerie reminder that they didn't belong here.

Rather they and the titanic construct they were driving, was merely a temporary presence, crawling on a very small part of the edge of the unknown.

With that in mind, one should now be able to understand the temporary state of confusion that the aforementioned passenger experienced.

But it did not last and it quickly gave away to remembrance, as he now reacquainted himself with this plane of existence.

Thus the confusion disappeared, as his mind recovered from the daze, and the passenger remembered that he was on a galactic train, souring in the limitless heavens of space towards its destination.

It was an Imperial Fleet supply train, carrying food, medicine, clothing, and ammunition for the 378th Corps that was campaigning on the planet Volun 4.

The train slithered its way through the warp, like some great celestial dragon, towards its lair with those supplies, along with the aforementioned corps' new commander, along with his subordinate, who was also his chief of staff.

Namely the newly minted Commodore First Class Metternich per Pelasgiamus, and his knight Commodore third class Adrian de Morowetz.

Metternich was a unique creature amongst the Empire, his hair was black as night and shortly trimmed, but not in a military stile, more like a summer style.

His skin was a dark blue, which was not unheard of in the Empire but not entirely common, and finally his eyes were perhaps the most unique thing about him, for they glowed a bright red color. That feature combined with his skin and his voice, which was low and a bit gruff, made him a very imposing visual figure.

His uniform consisted of black leather boots, black pants that were secured to his waist by a belt, along with as sheathed sword on his left side, a dagger on the back side of his belt, and a one handed crossbow on his right side.

The Commodore's chest was covered in a black tunic; on his shoulder pads there were three golden bars that symbolized his rank of Commodore First Class.

On his chest, where it curbed to his sides, were two lines of gold buttons united by a series of golden ropes that traversed his chest.

The buttons weren't meant to close the tunic; since the real buttons where on the inner side of the left flap, that, along with the office's sash on his waist showed that he was an officer and not an enlisted man.

But the buttons, combined with his uniform, bearing, gaze and voice made him to be a very impressive figure.

Metternich looked like someone who was born for war, who belonged on the battlefield, who would stand when others would fall, that was a truth that no one could deny!

"Of all things....."

Too bad he was in fact a coward.

"......it's always this nightmare of war that I find myself time and time again."

"Did you sleep well my liege?" Adrian asked him, he was dressed in the exact same uniform as Metternich; the only difference was that he had one bar on each shoulder, which displayed his rank of Commodore 3rd Class.

Adrian was an Avian, his race was humanoid in its appearance, he had white feathers that encompassed his entire skin, a great golden beak for a mouth and two black eyes that looked like they were constantly zoning into space, also his aforementioned feathers where ruffled and his beak had a slight dent in it from his first battle, giving poor Adrian the appearance more aching to a crazed half-dead chicken than that of a professional soldier.

But he was anything but weak as his past foes, or rather the absence of past foes, or any foes for that matter, was a very good testament to his skill.

"About as well as one can be expected to rest, given our current circumstances." Metternich replied and Adrian gave a nod of agreement and said nothing else, he too felt uncomfortable traveling through hyperspace.

But the commodore 3rd class was more unnerved by the fact that he was on a train, since he was used to traveling by ship, rather than the fact that he was in the warp.

"I've been meaning to ask Adrian, why is it that when we are about to meet new people you always stop grooming yourself?" Metternich enquired.

"People don't take you seriously when they first meet you if you don't look spit and speck, their true nature comes out easier that way, good thing wouldn't you say?" Adrian replied and gave a knowing smile to his commander, one which Metternich returned in kind.

Ever since they first met, Metternich had always treated him with the upmost respect and professionalism you'd come to expect an officer of his rank to give and receive, that had made an impression on Adrian, which was what eventually convinced him to become Metternich's vassal, a fact that the blue skinned young commodore would be secretly grateful for, but would also secretly hate that action for the rest of his life.

But the Commodore First Class would generally be more times grateful, rather than resentful towards Adrian for that action.

After his knight's reply, the seconds ticked away in silence and seeing that the conversation had died down for the moment, Metternich decided to once more go over the briefing papers he had been given for his new command.

He was using a farview screen to review them, and after he was done reading them, he then started to once more research the culture of the opposing nation.

The farview, or rather this variant of it, was a rectangular shaped mass of crystals with magic runes embedded on its surface, that when activated, a mist like gas would emerge from its screen and take the shape and color of whatever the farview's user desired, or if the user preferred, the farview could only project 2d images on its surface, it was very flexible device!

It was also a very useful tool, one which Metternich regularly used since he could have hundreds or thousands of books stored on it, making it for his task of staying alive, and ideal for alleviating boredom of course.

But as they got closer and closer to their destination, he silently wished for eternal boredom.

"I'll take a lifetime of boredom over any battle, at least boredom doesn't come running towards me with a big sharp magical weapon with the intent to play squash with my head!" he thought to himself, hoping that this tranquility would last forever.

But all good things must come to an end, for a beeping sound was heard from the train's internal speakers, signaling that they were nearing the exit to the warp and that soon they would be arriving at their destination.

"It is a good thing that the higher ups decided to use a warp portal train instead of a ship to get us here, last thing we need is some bloody raid ambushing us before we arrive at our new command." Adrian said to his liege.

"Well, despite the best attempts of the seemingly universal, and unstoppable, power of stupidity to create a catastrophe, the vile forces of logic and reasoning have seemingly prevailed and vanquished this oh, so great foe!" Metternich said in a hammy tone which clearly indicated he was joking and Adrian showed his appreciation with a good chuckle.

A warp portal is, as its name suggests, a portal which after being situated on a planet or in outer space allows faster travel trough the warp.

If a ship is using a portal it's speed increases at least twice as much, if not more, depending on the state of the warp between two points, the size of the gate, and the amount of power it had access too.

Also, when in hyperspace there was the danger of being ripped apart by gravity fields or energy nexuses if a ship was not in peak condition or low on power, and if it was traversing a less than ideal hyperspace route, well you get the general idea.

Why a wandering comet, a small dust field, of even the remains of a small passing solar flare could tear a ship apart!

"A vessel made with more money than most people can imagine and top of the line knowledge and technology destroyed by a few pebbles....and this is supposed to represent the best of the galaxy...kriff!" Metternich thought as his mind wandered to the warp portal that the train entered when they left the departure base.

A warp portal used the great power provided by either the sun or a planet's energy nexus to engulf a ship, or in this case a train, in a protective field as it traversed the warp, defending it to a certain degree from such perils and shredding whatever was in its way.

Also ships who did not use jump gates had to have a build in warp sanctuary and plenty of power crystals to make the jump, a ship using a jump gate would not require an expensive warp sanctuary or power storage crystals in order to jump, all the ship needed was it to be was airtight, also the energy required to enter and exit the warp was provided by the starting gate and the destination gate, thus the gates were faster and cheaper and that was always the way to go.

But for all its advantages the aforementioned warp train had no means of its own to enter and exit warp without a gate.

It was also impossible for trains to change and adjust their route when using one, this was one area where they where outclassed by ships.

And if your enemies managed to find just the right conditions along your route with the train, they could pull you out of the warp and ambush you, a train of course could be retrieved with a special support ship designed just for that purpose and be back on its way, but until then it was vulnerable to attacks.

But that was a moot point since military trains where armed to the teeth, that combined with their long bodies gave them excellent options for defense, they could form a protective sphere or dodecahedron, which unlike ships had no vulnerable point and had excellent anti-light ships defenses.

For the most part, it truly was the safest way to travel when confronted with pirates or enemy space raiders, but heavier ships were a different matter altogether.

Fully fledged warships were an entirely different kettle of fish, and when it came to pure magical power then a ship was the way to go if you wanted to outmaneuver, outrun, or outblast your foe.

Or the occasional enemy train if you got lucky in raids. That is if you managed to get close enough to a route without being cut down by patrols.

So it was a constant debate between the advantages of rigidness, but high security, against greater flexibility with freedom, but also the presence of an unknown danger, and many supporters of both sides argued day and night over which was best.

For both means had their pros and cons, but for the current route, one which took the train trough friendly territory and lands, where the Empire was the dominant power (at least for the moment) the train was best suited for such a purpose.

That and the fact that many would think that a fleet corps commander would never 'lower' himself to ride a simple train instead of a battleship or even try to score one of the highly sought after Capitol ships, and that was also the reason Metty chose the train, since it also gave him the element of surprise over his potential enemies.

Who couldn't see the three because the forest was on the way, or so to speak.

And, for the young Commodore First Class, that thought brought him some piece of mind from his troubles.

"Though I am grateful that I will not have to worry about being torn to shreds by some small space pebble or flying into a minefield and being ambushed while traversing or entering a new system, the idea that I have to face death sooner rather than latter is not a very appealing one."

Metternich thought to himself, as he lamented the sad state of affairs he currently found himself in, and within his mind he briefly looked back on how he had arrived to his current predicament, thoughts that he would eventually write down in his posthumous memoirs.

Extract from the book "Confessions, an Admirals tale volume I"

For the past three years I had been a sailor in the Imperial navy, since that was what the state wanted of its citizens, whether they were willing or not, and despite my titanic efforts to avoid the whole war fate, or rather high command, had other plans for me!

Before the war I was running a shipping business and one day my ship was boarded by a pirate raiding party from the Republic and like any sane sentient with half a brain I immediately surrendered and asked for parole, which was a fancy way of saying: 'If I do not fight you and surrender all my goods, you will do me the honor of not introducing my brain to your axe'.

It worked out for the most part the aforementioned Republicans seemed alright, about as alright as killers and thieves and who knows what other kind of degenerates from one of the most savage dictatorship know to the galaxy could be.

It was only myself and Akanthos that day and I am grateful for the fact that none of the women who sometimes served on my ship where present.

Thrust me, those Republicans may look like pleasant fellows, with their silky long hair, pointy ears, shiny skin, and deep beautiful eyes and absolutely gorgeous humanoid anatomy( just because they tried to kill me, is not a reason to not try a few pickups!) but that's the only good thing about them.

Though I am not saying that their particular brand of savagery was worst than the one practiced by the Empire or Federation.

Oh no, we all had an equal timeshare in that, theirs was just of a different flavor, that's all.

You wouldn't want the old blood drunk taste buds getting bored now, would we?

And to be honest, as individuals, they were pretty decent fellows.

That is if you're not their rivals, of which the Imperium or Empire as it was called back then (and is still used in battle cries) found itself at that particular moment in time.

And so here we are, me and Akanthos, a couple of imperials on an Imperial ship, boarded by Republican pirates, when the relations between the two powers was not exactly what you'd call amicable.

Dandy, just dandy!

As they looted our ship taking almost anything and everything: pills, syrup, cushions, fabric and fabric samples for footstools (seriously what kind of pirates steals stool samples?) why at one point they opened the crates that contained bottles filled with alcohol.

The poisonous kind of alcohol that is not meant for consumption, but rather for use in chemical process!

And pirates being pirates they immediately opened the bottles and started drinking it, granted the alcohol was put into recycled wine bottles, but unlike what the press would want you to believe, we did not intentionally put them in those bottles in the faint hope that cutthroats would pop out of nowhere and start consuming them, but rather the fact that the bottles were cheap, at the ready, and reliable for our purposes, since our venture at the time was a small one and we needed every penny we could skim!

So I tried frantically to warn them, because honestly who deserves a slow and painful death?

That and the idea of being surrounded by a bunch of murderous cutthroats was more appealing that being surrounded by murderous cutthroats that would go crazy, and berserk, from drinking poison.

It's the little things in life that matter!

But my pleas fell on deaf ears, mostly from the fact that they did not speak imperial standard and I was not familiar with their language.

That and the fact that me and Akanthos were both tied up and gagged in a corner of the room, made my chivalrous intentions, motivated by selfish reasons of self preservation, doomed to failure.

Well, not a total failure.

The by then half-drunken pirates were having a good laugh at how the two of us were moaning and struggling with the ropes and gags, as we tried to stop them. And one of our viewers liked our impromptu mime show so much that he decided to reward me with a good kick in the chest that made me collapse to the ground and elicit a bout of laughter from his comrades.

A moment later the rest of our adoring audience joined in to let me know just how much they 'appreciated' my 'performance', and believe me it had been a major crowd pleaser with standing ovations and shouts for encore.

It only lasted a few moments but it fell like a few years had passed, buried alive in that pit of pain and blows, looking up and seeing all those silver haired evil grins, like a pack of rats clawing and biting at their prey.

Even so, I wanted to stop them from consuming the alcohol.

Now, I was not to fond of them back then, even before they decided to lay down a beating on me, and my opinion over the years has not changed by much, but even if they were a cutthroat band of thieves and murderers, who if they could they would have introduced me and Akanthos to some Carnetsars, but as I said before a slow and painful death in which you become blind, your insides burned, every muscle in your body spasmed and intense pain jolted throughout your whole being, was not something I would wish on anyone, not even them!

Well that and as I mentioned before if this is how they acted normally, you can imagine what kind of beasts they'd be from becoming half-crazed from the drink, for I lived it and even now, after all these years, I sometimes wake up in chills from the memory of that dreadful day.

But I couldn't do anything to stop them, and after their 'appreciations', "Drink up lads!" was the only thought going through my head back then.

So there as I laid there on the floor, and me and Akanthos watched them as they consumed the alcohol, all the while I counted down in my head the time until the effects would start kicking in.

Each gulp they took, each blink of an eye, each ticking off the clock on the wall became louder and louder and more intense with every passing moment.

I could hear my heart pounding in my chest, my breath was as heavy as a thunderstorm, my fists were clenched as the seconds ticked away.

The clock's seconds hand had by that point started to sound like bolts of lightning striking the ground, all was noise, all was chaos, and then it just stopped!

And then the madness began.

Eventually all that noise faded away, leaving nothing, not a single sound around us, as for a moment I could hear almost nothing, I ignored any sight, any feeling or sensation as I felt how the moment of judgment was about to arrive and when the damn broke, it swept everything away.

The first scream of agony erupted, then a second, then a third, then every pirate present shouted from how their eyes were being burned from the inside out.

It was like a lightning bolt struck the room, and from it a hellish choir that could be heard from all over the ship sounded off, as one by one the poor souls had their fates sealed.

As the grotesque scene unfolded around me, a sudden flash of light and a great boom came from my left side.

I turned my head to see what had just happened.

Much to my horror, I discovered that one of the pirates, in his pain induced frenzy, had fired an arrow into one of his comrades incinerating the poor, or fortunate, taffer in an instant.

In that moment any semblance, any potential off hope for this situation to be avoided was burned by that very same arrow, leaving nothing in its wake but fire and flames, as the pain crazed cutthroats around us started firing their bows and swinging their swords and maces around causing an inferno of fire, water, ice, wind, earth to engulf the corridors, of my ship and the pirate's ship.

As death and pain rained all around me I felt a hand on my shoulder, for a moment I thought that it was the reaper coming to escort me, and I panicked even more, since I could not reach the small necklace at my neck that held earth that I was supposed to clutch when my time had come, but turning my eyes to look death in the face, all I saw was a smile.

Akanthos, my ever smiling friend, had managed to get hold of a broken bottle and cut his bonds free, and bless his souls, for that kindhearted blackheart dragged my beaten and bloodied body to the sleeping quarters, where, after he untied me, we locked the doors and waited for the carnage to end.

I cannot recall how long we starred at that bolted door as the screams and moans came from the other side, as light of things burning danced on its edges.

We said nothing, only continued to gaze at what, for a small moment in the flow of the sands o time, had become the door to hell, as hoards of demons seemed to be just on the other side.

And then there were none.

For the sands of time, hell was something that was far beneath them, so the sands flowed on and left hell behind, and with their passing the horrible sounds eventually faded as well.

After waiting what seemed like an eternity, we armed ourselves with the axes that our ship had in case of fire outbreaks, opened the doors and cautiously peered out to have a look.

"Down the hole we go." I said to Akanthos as we opened the door and our eyes took in what had come to pass.

The once grey walls of the sip were now blackened from the inferno, ash, blood and bodies laid everywhere, excrement and piss pouring out of them, the walls also barred the scars from the weapons discharge and a foul smell of death permeated the entire hull.

The stench was our companion as the two of us made our way through that darkened corridor with nothing but the dead to escort us on our journey.

At least we hoped that they would be the only honor guard we came upon, and that we two were the only souls with still beating hearts aboard.

Myself and Akanthos continued our little journey throughout the ship, driven by a curiosity to see what was beyond the darkness, which when you stop to think about it was borderline suicidal leaning, but to our luck every pirate had consumed the alcohol.

Told you the Republicans were decent fellows after all!

As we marched forward we started to feel at ease walking amongst the piles of corpses, the sight of slaughter and butchery comforted us (yes, I know how it sounds).

After some time we located the captain of this pirate crew and never has a burned and battle ravaged corpse of a bloodthirsty savage looked so wonderful to me, though it wouldn't last I'd see, but you never forget your first.

Especially since somehow his great long beard survived the flames!

After a few gentle prods from my axe, which I did in a way that if he was still alive I could deliver a mercy stroke or just smash his face in while he was still down, whichever would have worked for me I was not a picky person, myself and Akanthos let out a breath of relief since they were all dead, meaning we had a monopoly on life on the ship, so we could finally relax.

I thought that the worst was over and I gave out a breath of relief, as I could not help but give a grin that was big enough, that it could not be anything but sincere, when all of a sudden the ship shook violently.

Akanthos and myself gave each other a look of worry, we both hoped that the warp sanctuary had not been damaged, when all of a sudden the sound of footsteps echoed throughout the ship as the door before us was blasted open and armed warrior poured in.

Much to our relief it was the Imperial Fleet who had boarded our vessel, the cavalry had arrived!

A little late for my taste, but that's big government for you! Especially one that at the time ruled over a third of the galaxy!

And I must say the look on their faces was priceless, behind me there was a corridor filled with battle scars, dead pirates all about and there I was bruised and bloodied, standing atop of the pirate captain with a bloody axe in hand( courtesy of my prodding of the corpse a moment ago to ensure that he had expired).

All the while I was with a great grin, a genuine smile of joy plastered on my face.

"Anyone care for some roast?" I could not help but say towards the stunned imperial troops that looked at me.

Who, after recovering from their surprise and hearing my words, gave out a hearty laugh.

And with that it was over for now, and we two spent the rest of the day with the troopers.

We exchanged food and spirits, the safe kind this time, stories, and I even told a few some rubbish fables that I half remembered, and half made on the spot, from my homeland. I even gave for free a few pendants and books to the warriors that came to help.

The day seemed to have ended allright, at that moment I felt like I was on cloud nine, but unfortunately for me, news of that incident spread far and wide, word of how Captain Metternich single handedly killed 50 pirate with his bare hands became the talk of the local subsector.

And each time the story was told 50 became 500, then 5.000 and the last version I heard before ignoring it was that I singlehandedly took down a whole sector's worth of cartels.

I thought it was insane just how out of control it got and how just how many took the stories at face value.

But people rarely let the truth stop them; they just decided that some truths were truer than others.

And with that they could believe what they wanted to believe.....every...single....TIME!!!

After that, a bunch of reporters came to cover the story and Akanthos being the kind man that he was, charged them like a high priest at a confessional, for each and every interview interview!

Want to get papers in reader's hands? Put papers in my hand!

Was what he said to them.

With that things seemed to be looking up for us!

We had gotten out of a tight spot alive, we now had a very healthy sum of money to help our business expand and we were small town heroes in our neck of the woods (something the ladies appreciated).

It was a small piece of heaven, but we were living in a very, very large galaxy.

One where any news could traverse it from one corner to another in about 3 to 5 days.

And the little tidbit about our 'incident' had reached a certain Commodore James Crackerjack.

He had heard of our little adventure and the brainless glory hound immediately showed up a few days later and demanded I transfer to his command.

The fact that I was a civilian and that my degree of 'potions making' by law protected me from drafting was completely ignored by the tosser.

Like I said, people have rarely been stopped by something as trivial as truth.

And despite my best efforts to get into his thick skull, the idiot continued to press the issue.

It was like talking to a wall, no matter what I said, he just looked at me with a half-confused look on his face and just continued to spout that I was to be his captain now.

He sincerely believed and not in a malicious way but rather a sincere way that he could do this, that I could transfer to his command, despite the fact that I never hold rank before.

Say what you want about Crackerjack, he was mad, ignorant and blind, but not evil, and myself, the victim of his folly, will fight anyone that says otherwise.

So, eventually perception became reality.

Under normal circumstances I would have walked away, but remember that he was not some regular loony, but a loony with a license to kill from the state.

And who am I but a coward?

And how can a coward defy the whims of a commanding officer?

That and Ol' James was not only a murderous fool, he was a murderous fool with a fleet of a thousands of warships at his back.

That genuinely tends to make win him most debates.

And so, much to my horror, they gave me my uniform, slapped a couple of golden buttons on my collar to show that I was now officially a Captain and thus I was dragged into the fleet.

Akanthos was ignored in all of this, that much was owned to the fact that sentients tend to only acknowledge the apparent leader of a group when that group allegedly does something impressive, and the fact that I somehow managed to convince Old Mad Jack to let him go on the grounds that he was my underling and he had to make sure my businesses were looked after.

Mad Jack came from money, and having some semblance of a brain, so he nodded and let it be so and I was glad for that, I mean no sense in both of us going to hell I suppose.

So that's how I found myself being torn from a safe place, becoming a newly minted Captain, given a ship which I christened 'The Vampire's Vengeance', with a crew that consisted at the top of the following:

-First officer: Lieutenant James 'Butcher' Centengu.

\- Logistics officer Sergeant Alega 'Baker' Sovorovda.

\- And finally my warlock Lieutenant Lloyd Colomas 'Candlestickmaker' Firebark.

With that I captained a ship, that I had no idea how to, and lead a crew that I did not know how, in order to fight battles that I wasn't trained for, all set during the various mini wars and full blown wars over the years leading up to The Great War.

Just another day in the Imperial Fleet I suppose.

And that my readers, is how my inglorious career began.

With poisoned drinks, crazy luck, a lot of pain, and my personal favorite stupidity; And of course the eternal questions of:

Why such a combination exists?

And what it has against good and honest folk?

And me of course?

Any answers?

Metternich per Pelasgiamus, Freelance Potions Maker

"Nuts!" Metternich muttered the light curse word under his breath as his mind stopped its wondering and returned to the present.

He thought of his current situation.

The young commodore was about to arrive at a warzone, that in itself would be enough to drive anyone to pronouncing a few choice words, to go with the flashbacks to critical moments in his lifetime that made him arrive at his current destination.

But it was not just that, his current status was more nuanced than that.

On the one hand having a few hundred ships and several thousands of warriors to stand behind when the blasters, missiles, energy beams, omega spells and hopefully not the 'Riddle of Ruin' started flying was a good thing, on the other he also had to worry about even more enemy soldiers targeting him, so a mixed blessing at best!

Oh, who was he kidding? Being in the fleet was horrible; it was a living nightmare for him, no more so than during wartime.

No matter what happened death was all around him.

What was defeat? They had lost more 'heroes to the country' than the enemy.

Victory? The enemy lost more than them!

But no matter what happened, death was always a constant.

The Grinder got its due, regardless of who was labeled triumphant or vanquished.

And he, the nobody from who known's where and when, was the one who decided who lived and who died on the imperial side! And by virtue of Metty's efforts to find some small measure of safe location away from the battle, dig a hole and crawl into it until the shooting stops, he somewhat always landed himself in the worst of it all, only to survive, win and his reward for such an accomplishment is a front row seat ticket to an even bigger killing field!

He would always be the one to pay the butcher's bill, and if he didn't pay it in enemy soldiers with victory, then the butcher would come to collect from the other side!

The butcher always got his due for the grinder!

After his first battle, and the first sight of his dead soldiers, Metternich had tried to think of his warriors and officers as nothing but tools, tried to distance himself from them, hoping to ease his guilt when they would eventually die in future battles, if only to ease the burden it placed on his conscious.

But it did not work and no matter how many victories he achieved and despite knowing that he couldn't have done anything better in the past to avoid his subordinates dying, he still wondered if he could have saved them.

But that was not possible and even now, years after he was drafted, he could still remember just how many had died, what their last moments were, but what really weight heavily on his mind was the fact that he was starting to forget their names and their faces were starting to slip as well.

Metternich now knows that before he manages to leave the fleet, he will have forgotten even more names and faces and that would haunt him forever.

Maybe if he had been faster, stronger or smarter he could have prevented more deaths; maybe he could have paid the butcher's bill more that the other side could have.

Was there a way he could have killed more foes than before?

"Did I just.........saints and sinners how......was that really my thoughts, just now? Did I seriously just.......Is that really me when I look into the mirror?"

The scars left on his soul pulsed once more in pain as the young commodore's mind was darkened by the path he now walked.

Across countless fields of slaughter many have died, but he and those he could take with him had managed to survive, he had forged a path for himself across the field.

Made from enemy corpses, and built using the 'tools' at his disposal, Metty had created a path with which he survived and he knew that before it would all be over, many paths would be built and tool's names would forgotten and he would gladly do them all a hundred times over, and a hundred times more, all so he could live.

At that thought Metternich, for a moment, contemplate taking the 'easy' way out.

He doubted that hell could be any worse.

But it was only for a moment.

But then again...........it was there, even if for only a moment.

After some more contemplation, Metternich banished those vile thoughts, since in his opinion life was always worth living and you had to do your best to get over you're more difficult moments and move on.

Even if sometimes you forgot that.

So he remembered happier times, if not happier faces.

Many died because of him, but many also lived and at the very least the civilians in the sectors that he fought would be protected from the opposing armies and fleets that he vanquished, so some good, in fact a lot of good, had come as a result of his actions.

Those thoughts did manage to raise his spirits and grace his lips, and his souls, with a smile.

That and the prospect of being turned into a corpse if he didn't snap out of it and get his act together, or the prospect of eternal hell actually being worse than the current 'hell 'for choosing the 'easy way', made him come to his senses.

Nothing like a good ol' fashioned dose of fear from the prospect of horrible pain, to snap one out of one's funk, and off your ass.

Releasing out a breath of mental exhaustion (and giving a mental chuckle at the last part) he placed the farview that he was using to research the culture of the Volunians on the table, and laid back and relaxed for a few minutes.

"A sad state of affairs this is Lord Metternich, this corps has a lot of outstanding warriors and officers, properly deployed it is deadly, yet it is being misused in a tertiary role in the war against Volunia!" Adrian lamented to his master as he took out a small box from his pocket, extracted a pill from it and swallowed the pill; breaking Metternich's state of mind with a not unwelcomed distraction from his less than cheerful thoughts.

"Don't linger too much on feelings of regret; think positive thoughts or you run the risk or seeing even the good side of life as meaningless." Metternich said, as he could guess just what kind of pills those were.

"Yes sir, but I'm still a little 'affected' by this state of affairs." Adrian replied.

"Don't be, I'm rather pleased myself." Metternich said to his knight.

"My lord?" Adrian asked in confusion, as he directed his gaze towards his liege.

"Why do you think I accepted this commission?"

"For the challenge?" Adrian said to his commander, with a smile of 'realization' gracing his face, to which Metternich decided to play along and give a nod of the head.

"But what I really meant to say is that here there is little chance of us being slaughtered by elite units from the enemy!." Metternich thought to himself.

The false nod of confirmation he gaze earlier made Adrian's smile grow in size to an almost predatory level.

This did not sit well with Metty, as his stomach, which always ached a bit when danger was approaching started to act up a bit after Adrian's facial gesture, but he kept his mouth shut.

That was the smart thing to do for any half decent officer that found himself in this kind of situation, and Metternich was a high ranking one.

"And so is Adrian!" Metternich thought to himself, as a potential revelation wormed his way into his head.

He looked at Adrian and started to wonder if his knight did not have certain 'problems' with the military lifestyle, like the ones Metty had, since Adrian always showed great doubt one moment and great resolve the next.

Despite him not being an expert on the behavior of Adrian's species, he wondered if not perhaps he was also wearing a mask; and since Metternich knew a thing or two about living a lie he could understand if sometimes you let the mask slip.

For a moment Metty contemplated coming clean with Adrian, maybe then with Adrian supporting his real self and not the fake one he put on for others he could find a way out of his current lifestyle and finally escape the wars of the empire!

But that was a train of thought for another time, especially since their warptrain was reaching its destination. This was broadcasted to them by a message from the train's speaker system, the announcement interrupting Metternich's thoughts and preventing a potential escape from his current situation..

"Another interruption from nowhere, another act of random chaos, or is it destiny that blunders my way out? Whomever it is I'm gonna sue some day, because I'm tired of always not being in control of my life, of being pushed around!"

Metternich thought to himself, resolve and resentment from what he had been through this past several years building up inside him, and becoming ready to burst, as the young commodore's communication crystal started vibrating, indicating that someone wanted to talk to him.

Metternich touched the crystal with his finger and it morphed into the small shape of a serpentine creature with grey scales that was dressed in the same manor of uniform as the two commodores were.

But instead of the tricorn caps which he and Adrian wore, this serpentine creature wore a side cap that made it clear he was a staff officer and not a command one.

His uniform stretched from his neck down to the end of his body, engulfing him entirely in the dark material, the sailor belonged to the Balfarmaini; sentients who where a serpent like race that had no arms or legs, but they made due with a very powerful telekinetic ability which allowed them to levitate and use objects close to their bodies.

This ability was very handy to the aforementioned Metty, since this was Lieutenant Butz his personal aide who had been with him for almost as long as Adrian had, and served as his assistant, driver, bodyguard, and whatever other role was needed.

This was pointed out by the fact that Butz's body was covered in all kinds of pouches filled with everything from food, to drink, to medicine and all kinds of objects and tools, anything that Metternich might need.

"Sir, the train has reached the base."

"Thank you Butz." Metternich said as he touched the farview at a certain point that started it's deactivation process, but not before putting a bookmark on were he had left off, namely on the painting named "Raindrops in the wind".

"Time to go Adrian. You said that this unit contains a lot of gifted officers?" he said to Adrian as they both got up from their seats and moved to exit the compartment.

Once inside the doorframe Metternich hesitated for a few moments, using the slight sway of the train as it stopped now fully, as an excuse for not moving; a few extra moments away from his duties, they did not seem much, but during wartime small victories like this mattered, especially in the long run.

Metternich stood there as long as he could plausible use the excuse of the train's movement to steal some peace, but he eventually he had to move.

After all, the inevitable could only be put off for so long.

"Yes my lord, the corps' commanders were all upper and lower classmates of mine at the academy and I can vouch for their skills. They are the finest soldiers in the Empire!" Adrian proudly said to his liege.

"Then why have they been sent here to a dumping ground unit?" Metternich asked him with genuine curiosity, thought he already thought of the answer before Adrian even heard his words.

"I have already told you the reason for that sire." Adrian replied with regret and disappointment in his voice.

"Smart officers sent away so those who are higher in rank but less in skill will not be outshined."

Metternich thought to himself and despite feeling a small sensation of joy, since it meant that it was even less likely that this would become the main theater of operations, he also lamented the sad state of affairs the Empire seemed to be in since the beginning of its existence, or at least since he arrived.

"On the one hand maybe they were sent here to keep them safe, a few light missions so they can be quickly promoted, maybe someone wants to make a future full fleet or even High Fleet using this as a foundation, it's plausible considering the way the politics here south of the Bracken-Droven line are going. But if so, why did they send me to command such an important unit?"

" No matter how many or how bright the stars are, they pale when compared to the sun, so the stars make sure no one sees the glory of the Sun.'" Metternich, before he could realize it, had quoted an ancient war poem to his knight.

"Yes Excellency, but 'no matter how long or endless the starry night is, it always surrenders to the sun's morning light'." Adrian replied to his liege and looked at him with a proud smile and hero worship in his eyes.

"You know you don't have to call me that, technically you've got better pedigree, fortune and rank than me; Hell! Up until three standard years ago I would be the one calling you my lord or something like that." Metternich said to him.

"That is one of the few positives of war my lord, injustices like what you said earlier are rectified as great leaders rise to take their rightful place in society!" Adrian replied happily.

"I consider myself a lucky man and an intelligent one rather than someone who has been blessed by heaven to be a leader Adrian."

"That may be sir, but even then there are few people with those attributes and even fewer that occupy positions of authority and now the Empire needs them more than ever, which is why I believe you're one who is destined for great things!" Adrian said and before Metternich could reply he added the following:

"The Great Founder of our Empire also said that she was lucky."

At this Metternich half opened his mouth to counter but decided against it.

Adrian was the type who was not only stubborn to a degree, but also very smart and well read, and by doing a quick onceover of the conversation he realized that he had just quoted the Great Founder and his attempt to deflate his image had been interpreted by Adrian as humility, something that people like Adrian took it as something that reinforced the image of the great heroes handpicked by the Force of Creation to lead the Empire to greatness.

Thus Metternich was now forced into another role, namely that of being a sort of mythical figure in the making, in the eyes of his knight.

"Made a punching bag by pirates, a hero by the press, a captain by a madman, and now a second coming by the one person I count on to keep me safe. Once more a path is forced upon me, once more I am not the master of my destiny. Once more..............................once more................"

He mentally lamented to himself, but said nothing; the time for words had passed.

So the Commodore only inhaled a deep breath of air, walked down the corridor and tried to enjoy what few peaceful moments he had left before arriving at the boarding ramp.

"I may as well quit while I'm ahead, I'll be needing every ounce of wit I posses in order to find a way to somehow survive here at the very edge of the civilized galaxy." Metternich thought to himself as he once more considered to fake some excuse as to waste a few more precious moments.

He could have done so as they arrived at the train's door

"Once more............

He should have done so as it opened.

"Once more............

He should have done as the ramp was extended.

"Once more into the breach....

He could have done so as the light from the world outside peered inside.

But he didn't.

"NO! Never again!"

Metternich now saw the light, gazed at it.

And made his choice.

For the first time in years Metternich chose to not give into the despair that plagued him for almost 3 years now.

There and then the young commodore could have used the sudden contrast between the light from outside and the darker state of the train cart in order to pretend to be blind sighted by it and steal a few extra moments away from having to go towards the war.

"No! No more outside factors deciding my actions! No more dancing to other peoples tunes. From hence forth I am the master of this orchestra of war!"

But like before, he chose differently.

Why?

Because it was time for changes to be made.

Up until this point destiny, his higher ranking officers, and a lot of bad luck had always dealt him wildcards, but nevermore!

Now he would be the one to take command, he would be the one to decide!

There and then Metternich Per Pelasgiamus declared to al the Butcher, the Grinder, Destiny and Nobody in particular than he was done being plaid as a fiddle, for he was taking control of his life and he and he alone would be forging the path before him!

The ramp morphed its surface into a set of stairs after it touched the base's floor, with that the way forward towards his destination was now straight, and stable.

Metternich 'the coward' stepped forward and the 'The Fox of Marengo stepped out of the door and into the light.

How would one describe his sudden action?

"NUTS!"

Excerpt from the diary of Private Raz V'a van;

from the book

"We were the legionaries of Malus 'The World Breaker'"

"It was my second month of dessert warfare on Volun 4 and for the past 8 weeks our only enemy was boredom since for the past 5 weeks there had been no activity along the front and I was enjoining a pleasant breakfast while listening to the morning music and the local weather news broadcast.

Are you cold tonight?

Do you worry tonight?

Are you sad tonight?

Well tomorrow will come,

With the first rays of sun,

And tonight will be here no more.

"A lovely song, and now for the latest development for the upcoming storm report. An unexpected change is about to occur within four locations, those situated in mountainous regions may expect a strong windblown, to come from the southern direction, the city folk can this time rest at ease, with the exception of the local capitals, which are expected have its first share of heavy fall in what appears to be an unpredictable pattern.

Those of you who have decided to take a long walk into virgin territory I hope you are prepared for the coming storm and finally chaotic fog is expected to befall on the western parts, mainly beaches and vacation areas and for the coming seasons the storm is believed to produce great change in the environment and medium.......but we would like to assure our listeners, that no matter how hard the storm hits..... it may seem dreadful and without end, but like all things good and bad it will eventually come to pass......"

We will be warm,

And safe from the storm,

And tonight will be here no more!

The sparrows will soar,

With the light from the shore.

And tonight will be here no more!

The windwaker, that some clever bastard had hooked up to a coin machine to charge us a penny a minute, told us the latest news or at least it did after I placed a coin in its mouth.

So far everything seem calm, just a storm brewing on the horizon, nothing more.

But the peace was not to last, for we had received word that we would have a new commander, namely Commodore Metternich per Pelasgiamus.

The news was greeted with mixed results amongst our ranks.

The majority of us received it well since he was a 'Hero of the Empire' and he had made quite the name for himself, for Metternich and his ship 'The Vampire's Vengeance' were renowned for their struggle against our Empire's enemies.

'Headmaster Metty is here!', 'The Fox of Marengo has arrived!', were the joyous cries of many sailors and soldiers.

Others were indifferent and some reacted with distain since a new commander meant things would change, and if it was one thing being the army taught us, it was that you can be sure that when change came a soldier's world would go bad, take a detour through hell of the deepest darkest jungle, and just when you thought it was over then real danger would start arriving.

Those were the thoughts going through my mind while I was walking to where our company's potion's master's tent was in order to get some Drava pills, which was medicine that gave you extra energy to stay awake and more stamina for fighting, the side effect was that it blocked any kind of dreams you could have while you were asleep.

That was a good thing, since from that day on things would go from bad to worse and beyond, for what we would see in the upcoming battles would have only given us nightmares.

Private Raz V'a van, Imperial Logistic and Engineer Corps.

The Occupied Territories, planet Maramanakama, the Capital city Tolina, the Dukhym district.

9:53 Local Planetary Time.

Explosions raged as rebels struck with fury attacks made of fire, wind, water, their intended targets.

The city's maran resistance cell ambushed the local Imperial patrol, or rather they had done a reasonable first volley against them, for after the element of surprise wore off, the Imperial units quickly got over their initial shock and confusion and counterattacked.

First by raising their shields and immediately activating the earth spells within them, raising the ground around themselves and shaping it to form a protective wall to block any more attacks.

After that the Imperial troops then launched a volley of their own against the interlopers.

In that instance the battle changed from a successful strike on the ambushed to a slaughter of the ambushers.

After the first counter-volley struck this group of Maran resistance fighters they slowly, but surely, started falling one by one to the might of the Empire.

For no matter how much the hated their overlords, and how much heart they put into summoning the elements and combining their powers for victory, formation and discipline was what won battles.

A great explosion smashed against, shook, and reshaped the rooftop where their leader Ahmaianos stood along with his fellow rebel fighters.

He lost his balance, fell back from the shockwave, hitting his head, losing consciousness from the impact, but after a moment of pitch darkness he opened his eyes to his new surroundings.

Realizing that nothing else could be done today and that the tide was quickly turning against them, Ahmaianos gave the order to retreat, but after he shouted his order he received no reply, in fact he heard nothing except the noise of the enemy bombardment.

A chill went down his spine, as for a moment the shock of him realizing what has just happened caused his mind to block all sounds around him, making him hear nothing but silence, even the thunderous pounding of the imperial attacks were not perceived by him as the rebel leader came to grips with his surroundings and his situation.

He looked to his left and right and realized that he was the last survivor of his squad.

The others had all fallen or rather had been burned, crushed or sliced apart by the enemy's attack, leaving nothing but body parts rather than bodies behind.

As the shock reached its apex, from inside his heart anger filled him at seeing his friends death, his blood was up, his hearing returned!

Ahmaianos quickly retreated even farther away from the edge of the rooftop and jumped across its edge, landing on the neighboring building.

From there he continued his journey across rooftops until he managed to flank the enemy from behind.

The resistance leader, and last survivor of his team, peered over the edge to look down at the Imperials who were still firing at where his squad had fallen.

He aimed an arrow with his crossbow at one of the attackers and fired the weapon at the soldier that seemed to be the commander of this group.

Energy glowed from both the crystals inside the bow and within the arrow as both were charged with spells, their runes lighting up, ancient letters and numbers danced across them proclaiming the dominance of the power of magic over nature itself, as in that moment, the maran rebel launched the arrow.

During its swift flight trough the air the arrow gathered the water vapors from the atmosphere around its flight path, as it did so the runes danced once more, their glow drew the water, who joined them in its dance and formed itself around the arrow, encasing it in a vortex of liquid, all done with the swiftness of an eagle and the grace of a sparrow.

When it neared its target another pulse of magic came from the runes on the arrow, creating a bright light of pure energy that flowed through the body of water around it, bringing the swiftest, harshest cold to the dance, enveloping the vortex.

When the second wave finished its journey from core to tip it fizzled out of existence as it hit the end of the once small arrow, then growing vortex of water, now a great pillar of ice and frost that struck the imperial commander with full force.

The blow was a hard one, but it did not do as much damage as one would expect, the shape of the armor deflected the blow from its design and the way it was build and assembled, the padding inside cushioned the force of impact and not a width of frost struck true on the Imperials body, for one does not earn an empire without mastering war, or properly equipping ones soldier.

The weapon struck with the fury of winter, but winter could not break the empire, but it did leave its mark.

For the fraction of the force of the ice arrow that was felt by the imperial officer, was enough to make him collapse to the ground from its impact and when the arrow impacted the ground near the imperial an explosion of ice and snow shot all around it, making the officer's lungs nearly freeze and hitting with all its might the soldiers around him, burying some in dark shell of ice and cold.

With that Ahmaianos, on the hottest day of summer, brought the fury of winter on the heads of his people's enemies.

A smile graced his lips as he saw the impact of his second ambush, but like winter, it was passing and fleeting in the face of spring.

And this was summer!

For it was not the first storm that these troops weathered trough.

The other members of the squad seeing what happened to their commander and their other fellow soldiers, immediately reacted.

The second highest ranking officer quickly took command and doing what he was trained to do and issued his orders, orders that were already half done by the troops, before he even started to issue them.

Trained, disciplined and battle forged as they were, the squad immediately shored up and reformed their lines, dug out their comrades, moved their wounded commander and fellow soldiers, to a rear position for healing, and they did it all at once and so fast that Ahmaianos at first had looked at a force that suffered a major blow, then he blinked and that squad seemed to disappear, to be replaced by a new one that had not suffered two heavy ambushes.

But rather it was a group of soldiers that were eager, and very, very happy, to repay him in kind for his 'hospitality' to them as 'guests' in his country.

The imperial squad looked to where the shot was fired from and quickly retaliated in kind with their own arrows.

Once more the energy from crystals lit up, once more runes danced, but this times it was ten times the number of Ahmaiano's attack, and after the volley was fired, the arrows which were from all the elements surged as the combined spells created a great synergy amongst them as they flew towards their target.

The fire arrows heated the air, helping the water make its way towards the ice arrows, the wind arrows blew mightily their own vortexes, which fuelled the fire arrows and helped the cold take route in the water.

And in turn between the heat and cold, between fire and ice, the air vortexes became stronger and stronger from this contrast until they were now small hurricanes.

A tidal wave, a raging inferno, and a the fury of the most savage monsoon made their target, as behind them the earth arrows came and grew, drawing the ground beneath them and forming great conic shaped walls behind the other 3 types of arrows, making sure than the full force of their impact would be concentrated solely on their target.

With that the power of the imperial volley jumped from ten times the one Ahmaianos unleashed to almost a hundred!

Having only a split second to react, Ahmaianos ducked and ran.

Not backwards, but forwards!

Jumping off the rooftop right before the imperial volley struck; as he fell downwards he immediately aimed his crossbow forward and shot it without an arrow in its string.

The energy released by the crossbow propelled him backwards straight through the window of the top storey building right as the volley hit the roof.

The force of the explosion shook the structure from its foundation to its top, what was left of it anyway.

Not just from the imperial numbers and indoctrination, but also from the Creed Magic, the imperial troops had struck with a blow that they all believed would annihilate anything and anyone on the roof.

Including the roof itself, their belief was strong enough that it became a reality thanks to Creed Magic and nothing remained of the roof as smoke and ash, frost and ice, wind and hurricane scars, along with massive boulders were the only thing that could be judged from peeing into the dust raised by the volley's impact.

Nothing could have survived that, that was what the imperial squad believed as they looked at the roof, they though it so strongly that it was a though powerful enough for creed magic.

But no creed is unbeatable.

"They're so many.......and so powerful........" Ahmaianos said to himself between gasps for air as he continued his desperate jog for life and limb;

He had survived the explosion; the earth arrows directed the blast in such a way that most of it did not strike the floor bellow and unknowns to him, the intensity of the volley was so great that the Imperials did not see the moment in which he jumped of the roof.

But what little force of the impact that struck him, struck true and struck hard, for he was barely able to keep himself on his feet as he half-wobbled, half-dragged himself in a drunken, ready to collapse stupor trough the floor's corridor.

Once he reached the external fire escape he immediately descended trough it, it was lucky that the building he was one had a peculiar design, where the entrance and the fire escape were on opposite side of the building.

"Lucky?..........Yeah, a lucky taffing day indeed............" Ahmaianos though bitterly at this nightmare of a day, that saw him as the only survivor and many of his friends butchered.

After reaching the street Ahmaianos ran away from the building as fast as he could, until he could run no more and ducked into an alley.

He stopped there for a moment to catch his breath and after wiping the sweat of his brown, he took out a flask from inside his coat pocket and took a big gulp of its content to calm his nerves, and as he was about to repeat the process movement from his right caught his eye and he quickly bolted and aimed his crossbow in that direction.

But after getting a good look at the 'enemy' he realized that what he saw was in fact a large window and it was his own reflection within it that had caught his eye a moment earlier.

He took several tentative steps towards it, and as he looked at the glass, Ahmaianos started to wonder.

"Who is that man with the long unkempt hair, with his unshaven face, dead inside eyes, and dirty skin? Who are you? You who drinks hard spirits like they are water, you with the weapon in your hand, with blood on your conscience? "

The thought echoed throughout his mind; Just how long had has it been since he looked at himself in the mirror? Truly looked at himself?

"Are you really me?" he asked himself as he moved the fingers of his right palm towards the glass, to touch it, to confirm if the image was real and not just in his mind.

"Or maybe I just couldn't bear to look in the mirror, since I always knew what I'd see."

His hand was a hair's length away from touching the glass when a loud explosion jolted him out of his reverie and he quickly glued his back against the wall and raised his crossbow to once more look for the enemy.

"The Empire's on my tail, fire and brimstone everywhere as the whole block blows up and instead of running to safety I take the time to touch myself in the mirror.........I really am not suited for this...." he bitterly lamented to himself, as he carefully peered out of the exit from the alley.

After making sure that it was clear he continued towards a safe location, well as safe as it can be since a galactic superpower's army was here and searching for him.

Back on the rooftop a squad had been sent to take the now vacant roof, after a short but tense sweep, they quickly reported back to their command, after that a few minutes passed and they received the order to hold their position.

They all sat down to take a breather and have a meal, not the most hygienic thing to do with corpses all around you, but that was war for you.

This particular group of soldiers were a unit composed of different species, from different planets and they all had different forms, but they were all humanoid in shape and were in their first form.

"Looks like one of them got away ma'am." the corporal said to his sergeant.

"Bully for him then! This isn't battle, it's a slaughter!" the sergeant said to her squad.

"Well, the enemy's just irregulars and we're professional soldiers." one of the privates said as he was using a piece of destroyed rooftop as an impromptu table to prepare the squad's lunch.

"It's slaughter all right, but for us not them." the sergeant said and upon seeing the confused looks on her troopers face she added the following:

"The enemy is using this whole neighborhood as a fortress, why haven't we been given any siege equipment, like chariots, or artillery to level this place?"

"Well maybe HQ probably doesn't want to admit that the enemy has such a strong position within this city." the other private of the squad who was using a different fragment of the destroyed rooftop as an improvised chair replied.

"Then don't admit it and give me the kriffing heavy equipment then!" the sergeant added and got a good natured chuckle from her squad.

"But ma'am that would make us liars!" the trooper at the table said in mock outrage at the idea.

"Yeah! I mean we hunt down, capture, shoot and kill for a living, but heaven forbid we actually tell a lie, I mean that would taint our sinless nature!" the corporal added and another round of laughter came from the squad.

"At least if things got rough we do have some 'emergency fresh supplies'." The first trooper added and another round of laughter started

The sergeant, who up until now had been stoically silent, could not help herself anymore and joined them as well, her mouth moved to give way to some laughter, when a spear came out trough it.

While she fell to the ground, she managed to catch a glimpse of the enemy that had slayed her, and as her life was leaving the sergeant's body, she managed to witness the fate of her squad before her time was up.

The attacker moved fast, slashing away at the group of soldiers who did not have time to properly react to the situation.

It took only a few seconds and then the squad troopers were all dead.

Who were they, what was their life's story?

Would anyone remember them, cherish their memory?

That was something that war didn't know, nor did it cared, thus there they rested as the battle continued all around the district, in the name of war, of this insatiable force that looked on with indifference to the lives that were given to it as tribute for each moment of its existence, and only continuing to rage on as more meat was put in the grinder.

Maramanakama Imperial field command center.

9:07 Local Planetary Time

Prince Gelios, the governor of this sector of the Occupied Territories looked over the farview map of the district he was attacking.

His troops were highlighted in green on the map and a large portion of it was covered with shaded areas that represented zones where their pulsar's field of sight was dampened by an enemy spell.

"Who would have thought that the terrorists would be capable of making a shadow field around this area?" General Bartolommeo, a Carunian whose race was humanoid with a bulldog-like appearance and brownish yellow skin, said to the prince.

"Well, their main strength is stealth and sneak attacks, so I guess it make sense that they would focus on it." Gelios replied as he rubbed his chin in contemplation for their next move.

"My lord, we have just received the following: 'The Captain of the 83rd,Count Luper, has been hit by an ice arrow, his squad suffered heavy casualties, the captain has been taken to the field hospital!'" one of the staff officers informed him.

"Serves him right! Him and his lead from the front attitude, a leader does not do the work of a common soldier, look what happens when it is so! This battle has been going on long enough. Order the troops to initiate an offensive into the area."

"But, my lord the enemy is heavily entrenched here; if we order a charge we will suffer heavy casualties! We should at least wait a little while until the heavy armor is ready for deployment." Bartolommeo said to him.

"Well, isn't that what soldiers are supposed to do? So let them do their duty and die for their country." Gelios said with a disinterested wave of the hand.

"As for the armor, we cannot risk it being caught in an ambush; the heavies will follow the infantry, who will act as bait and spotters for it." The prince added.

Bartolommeo recognized the tone of his voice and knew that further arguing was pointless;

"Yes sir, I will organize the attack now." Bartolommeo said and Gelios gave a nod of approval with a pleased smile on his face

He now had no choice but to carry out the orders.

"And do so in a way as to avoid follies such as Count Luper's'."

But this was not Bartolommeo's first battle, nor his first time receiving bad orders.

Gelios nodded in approval at his chief officer's suggestion and this was all Bartolommeo needed.

For the general was a seasoned veteran, and he knew how to 'interpret' an order when such a thing was needed.

He looked at the display that showed the state of the infantry, they were all in column formations around the battles perimeter and divided into five groups, the 1st being the vanguard, 2nd, 3rd, 4th being the middle and the 5th was the rearguard.

Bartolommeo thinking of his troops and how he had a duty to lead them forward over any obstacle, be they foreign or homegrown, and gave the order that the 5th group would be the vanguard of the attack, followed by the 2nd, 3rd and 4th groups and finally the 1st would make up the reserve.

It would take time to reorganize the lines with those orders, plenty of time for the armor to be ready to support them.

And if Gelios asks about these new maneuvers?

Well, what could the governor do but support them? For he just approved of them barely a moment ago.

Thus he could not go against it, since it would hurt own position and authority, and make him look weak and indecisive.

That was never a good thing for a politician and Prince Gelios was the top politician in the Occupied Territories.

As the General was also top of his own game.

Bartolommeo turned his back at his now grinning commander and smiled at his own wit, he had just refused to obey an order by executing it!

This way of 'interpreting' an order was something he did all the time and none in this system did it better than him.

With that the general did his duty both to his prince and to his men, and none could blame him for it, legally or otherwise.

To Bartolommeo this was just another day at work.

It was the reason why he, and he alone, was a general and why he, and he alone, was the commander general on this planet.

Meanwhile Gelios, after gazing at how his troops were preparing to charge the rebels, felt bored and decided to look elsewhere, so he turned his gaze towards the ceiling.

There the prince saw a spider that was hanging from its spider silk, while weaving its web.

"You know that today many will die so you've come to feast on them, didn't you my eight legged friend? Well if that's true, just wait a minute and you will not be disappointed!" he thought to himself as he raised a glass of wine in the gesture of a toast to the spider as a wicked smile formed on his face.

The battle was nearing its critical stage; all under the gaze of the six pairs of eyes that showed the one that looked trough them what was happening in the command centre as he carefully spun his intricate web which would ensnare its intended targets.

The Dukhym district.

10:56 Local Planetary time.

His feet felt heavy like two great boulders, his lungs burned, his clothes heavy from sweat, his body half-shambled forward, barely able to move from exhaustion.

But he continued forward, there was no way but forward, so he marched on.

That was how Ahmaianos reached the headquarters of his resistance cell, which was an old warehouse, in the centre of the district.

It hadn't been used in years, ever since the Empire imposed their will and outlawed the Great Harvest.

He knocked on the door, after a moment an eye level slit opened and after the pair on the other side saw him the slit was closed and the door was opened.

From it came Tubarin, he looked at Akanthos and at his sorry state, he then looked behind him for the rest of his squad, but only saw his friend and commander.

"You too?"

To Tubarin's question Ahmaianos did not answer, nor could Ahmaianos bear to ask him to elaborate.

He knew the answer to his potential enquiry, and as he walked past Tubarin and made his way towards the inside of the warehouse Ahmaianos knew that he would not hear an answer, but see with his own eyes just how badly they had been mauled by the Empire today.

But until he arrived there he would have a few precious moments in which he could lie to himself and think that maybe, just maybe, things weren't as bad as they had been with his squad.

That brought him a small measure of joy.

It was petty and false, but how can he now fight for the sake of his own happiness?

Wasn't that the reason they opposed the invaders?

Was their purpose not to restore the joy in their lives, and pride in their country?

To bring joy to themselves oncemore?

That thought restored Ahmaianos spirits a bit.

But it did not last, for he reached the centre of the warehouse and saw who was there.

And who wasn't.

"Too few. Far, far too few."

His spirit plummeted after that and he started feeling the need for the bottle inside his coat.

Ahmaianos saw that like himself, his surviving comrades were all red in the face from exhaustion; this was evident even though the marans had red skin as the defining trait of their species.

From that, and the grim look in their eyes, you could tell just how much of a struggle it was to just reach their hideout in one piece.

They all stood there, silently staring at one another and at nothing, none of them dared to speak, none of them knew what to do next.

Nobody knew exactly what was about to happen next.

"How did things go on your ambush?" Ahmaianos said to what was left of their forces, which was not much when compared to what they started out with.

The rebel leader looked at his resistance cell, or rather what was left of it, now being composed of Tubarin, who was distinguished from the others by his thick and short trimmed chin beard, while the rest of his face was clean shaven.

The rest all had unique features, Karamus was the only person in the group to wear glasses and had a rather nasty burn mark on his right cheek, which he liked to tell was from the war, but was actually from being clumsy with a very hot cup of kava.

Besides Tubarin, the other survivors were as followed:

There was Duburius and Usanthus, who were twins, and the two were distinguished by the fact that they both had their short hair combed in a different direction, Duburius had his hair combed towards the right side, while Usanthus had it combed to the left.

After that there was Barathamas, who had a bushy mustache on his lips, while Daiamar, who was standing next to him, had an eye patch and a full rugged beard on his face.

Then came Maiamar, a man with a slim mustache that was connected to a pair of sideburns, which went all the way to his ears.

Paiamara, the only girl of the group besides Kalynka, who was currently not amongst them, obviously had no beard, but she did have long flowing hair that was braided into a tail and tied in a bun at the back of her neck.

"Bad, we barely escaped, also the north side is blocked." Tubarin said, coming up to stand next to Ahmaianos; his beard and spiky red hair along his unique voice, which would fit on some street punk, was the one that broke that answered the question.

"So is the south side." Karamus added.

"The east path is guarded, along with the west path." Duburius said to Ahmaianos.

Usanthus, Paiamara, Barathamas, Daiamar and Maiamar also gave their reports, which they all mainly consisted of such elegant words like: 'we're taffed', 'we're kriffed' and of course '*$%^ was a very popular choice for such an occasion.

"Do we have enough strength to break through and escape?" Ahmaianos asked them.

Nobody had an answer for that, and so Ahmaianos had his reply.

"Any good news at all?"

Just then the doors slammed opened and the red battle armor that had earlier killed a whole squad of Imperials entered the warehouse.

The armor was immediately upon them, moving with so much speed and grace that it appeared to have traversed half of the warehouse in the blink on an eye and was now standing right before them.

It raised its hand upwards and then made it come down with great speed and force.

And slammed a heavy metal box right in front on them, the impact opened the box , for it to reveal that it was full of energy crystals and enchanted weapons.

"I managed to take this from a few scouting parties I killed." the voice of Kalynka was heard from inside the armor.

"Good job Kalynka!" Ahmaianos said with a soft smile on his face and this managed to lift some of the grim atmosphere that was present in the room.

They were so happy for this small modicum of good news that none of them commented on how slamming into the ground a box full of weapons and charged magical crystal was a bad idea.

They all got up from their seats, walked towards the box and started pilfering its contents, as they did so Kalynka raised the forward visor of her armor, taking a break from combat and getting some fresh air.

She took a deep breath as Ahmaianos noticed, seemingly for the very first time, just how many battle dents her armor had, and just how it was covered in blood from head to toe almost.

But the one thing that he now noticed most of all, was the fact that the wielder of the armor was young, oh so very, very young.

"Too young to be on the battlefield! How did we let it come to this, How did I let it come to this? How could we all turn our youth, our future, into killers? Just what are we becoming as a people, as a nation?"

Ahmaianos thought as he knew that Kalynka was not a unique case within the resistance cells within their country, and he continued to stare at the young one that he let accompany them to battle, at the one that he could have stopped from becoming a killer, a monster.

From becoming what he had become.

Just then a small beep was heard from one of their crystals interrupting both the rebel's jubilation over the stolen weapons, and their leader's personal misery.

It was an alarm that indicated that the enemy had entered the outer perimeter of their street.

They quickly moved from the crate to a table in a corner, where they all activated an old farview crystal that was hooked to a pulsar and looked at the area where the alarms went off.

Upon seeing the image it projected, they were shocked to see a force of about 500 infantry preparing to enter the district, behind them at least 80 cavalrymen and two dozen war chariots were also preparing to attack.

"This is crazy! I thought that more than three fourths of their soldiers where on a holiday furlough! Just how much firepower does one local patrol have?" Tubarin said in a burst of anger at just how great the difference in strength there was between them and the Empire.

"I'd say that it's about one fourth of their total strength." Ahmaianos said with a small chuckle.

After everything that happened what else could you do but laugh? Especially when he saw what was to come.

The others heard the laugh and looked to their friend and leader with worry in their eyes, but they had no time to worry about that for that now.

"What do we do now?" Kalynka asked nobody in particular and silence reigned as the answer to her question.

They were desperate people, trapped in a hopeless situation.

They needed a miracle to escape with their lives and unknown to her Ahmaianos thought the same thing.

"Guys, I will use this armor as bait and draw them towards me, and while I keep them busy you all can slip away." She said, surprised them all, they didn't know how to respond to this, that is until Tubarin showed them the ropes.

"Like hell you are! I for one am not going to let you go alone! We all knew that this may be how we'd all end up as and I say we give those cursed Imperials hell before we let the-"

*BOOM*BANG*BOOM*BANG*BOOM*BANG*BOOM*BANG

Tubarin was unable to finish his sentence as the sound of heavy bombardment of fire and earth projectiles was heard in the distance as they were launched from their artillery pieces and fell near the group's position.

Akanthos then pressed a few commands on the control runes and immediately the screen changed to showcase a part of the city, one where the Imperial artillery units where positioned.

There, they saw a squad of TRH 'Earth Breakers', machines that had eight spiderlike legs and on each leg's end there was a wide flat disk on each tip, which helped distribute the weight of the vehicles over as wide a surface as possible.

Their main bodies were also disked shape and positioned with their flat side horizontally; there were two seats on the right and left backsides, where the operator and the gunner sat.

Between the two seats was a third one that was slightly more elevated and housed the spotter and behind that seat was an even higher raised forth seat where the commander sat.

The whole disk was engulfed in a cage that emitted an energy that could take the form of any element in order to create a protective shield against any enemy attack.

In front of the seats there was a circle formed out of crystals and runes with small pillars emerging from the circle's diameter, they leaned inwards to form a conic shape nicknamed the 'cooker'.

The pointed tip of the pillars connected the starting point of a long and thick barrel that extended for several meters from the front of the 'Earth Breaker' and was at an almost 60 degrees angle and aimed towards the rebel's estimated location.

When the commander gave the order to fire, a small vortex of energy formed in the 'cooker', which after shifting into an appropriate element or combination of a several, was transmitted through the tip of the 'cooker' and into an ammunition shell that was loaded inside the barrel.

The moment it was ready the Earth Breaker's barrel's runes lit up and magic danced once more, firing its load.

The battery's projectiles flew on a high arching trajectory towards their target.

First they heard the sound, a great horrible screech that started slowly until it became greater and greater, till what was initially a whisper became a banshee's battle scream, hurling its hellish sound but for a moment, that felt like a whole year, before it hit its target.

The light from the explosion was what the Maran rebels saw first, there was no sound in that moment, just the sight of that great pillar of light that seem to stop time, then came the sound, as if a thousand mountains crumbling and all the land seem to shake in its quake, then came the shockwave from the explosion.

By the time it reached them the heat from the fire spells and power from the earth ones had been spent at such a far distance that only a small portion of both of them was what they felt inside the warehouse.

But for them to feel it where they where, hundreds of meters away from where the barrage struck, and for it to be able to traverse not just distance, but also countless buildings of thick steel, brick and mortar for the heat to grace their skin and for them to feel the rumble beneath their feet.......

It was too much, just too much.

There and then, the rebels knew why the artillery pieces were called Earth Breakers, for they certainly lived up to their names!

Ahmaianos pressed several more buttons, which then showed the area that the barrage struck.

They couldn't tell just how devastating it was, for there was nothing to see but a thick cloud of dust and ash that seem to engulf everything that was near the explosion.

They stood there for a moment just gazing at the site of the impact before a second impact jolted them out of their stupor and with dread now firmly gripped in their hearts, they all started arming themselves from the box Kalynka acquired and headed off to face the enemy, knowing that they were most likely marching to their final battle.

They geared up as best as they could and gathered at the warehouse's entrance.

No one said a word, for there was nothing left to say.

The fear and desperation that had gripped them was gone, in its place a strange feeling of calmness gripped them, no more what ifs, no more choices to be made, there was only one path forward and everyone knew what was the only thing left to do for them.

Ahmaianos turned his eyes towards his comrades.

"Time to be a proper leader for once."

And with a voice that was filled with regret at how their end was near said:

"At least we go out fighting."

And so they marched forward!

The last rebel's last march.

Kalynka and her remaining comrades all made their way out of their makeshift headquarters and onto the streets, taking up ambush positions.

Everyone was gazing towards the direction where they expected the enemy to come from; they braced themselves for the flood.

But nothing came.

Another minute passed and still the streets where empty.

This was the dreaded 'calm before the storm', the silence before the grinder.

The moment between life and death, when legends say you could even hear the flow of the Sands of Time themselves.

The sensation of calm for the inevitable clash was now mixed with a feeling that was made of both dread for its eventual arrival, and anticipation for the coming clash.

Within this time of silence right before the screams and warcrys would come to herald in the mashing of poll weapons and spears, the flight of arrows and javelins, the rip and tear of claws, teeth and bare hands the silence became unbearable.

Many tried coped with these strange moments with whatever they could.

It was an unnerving time, Kalynka had heard several old veterans that sometimes spoke of past 'Great Harvests' that this was worse than the battle itself, the whisper of 'just get on with it' was said to echo within your head allthroughout the time until the fight and that many greenhorns and many seasoned ones would sometimes fall prey to the whispers.

She was to young to know what the Great Harvests truly were, and thought that many of the tails she heard came from too many cups that the old veterans partook when telling the stories.

"Come on already."

Yet there truth in wine and health in water.

For as Kalynka stood there and gazed at that silent field, she swore that she felt something whispering wordlessly in her ear.

"Come on already."

Her thoughts echoing it.

If she would have looked to her comrades she would have seen that on their faces were the signs that they too were hearing the whispers

Each of them had their own means to banish them from their minds.

Some prayed, others thought of their life's greatest joys, others of their loved ones, a few just gritted their teeth until the pain was intense enough that it could block out anything else.

Kalynka, who was the youngest amongst them, copped by thinking of the armor she was wearing, which was an stolen old Imperial model, namely the BGY- 11 standard ground forces armor.

It was painted red instead of the standard dark green color intended for use in the open country, the front and back sides of it where made into an angle pattern of about 40 to 45 degrees that ran from the neck down to ankles, and the arm pieces where a sort of triangular shape across the forearms that was also designed to deflect arrows, swords and blows from any attacker.

The helmet was an elongated double pyramid shape, with one angle in the front and one in the back, and the remaining two situated approximately over each ear.

The first two were the sharpest angles of the bunch.

The helmet covered from the top of the neck all the way down to its base, connecting it with the chest armor.

The eye slots where situated at about the middle point of the structure where the two halves of the pyramids met, it was just below the forward sharp angle and this gave optimal protection to he eyes and face, and helped shield the eyes from the sun when necessary.

The interior was also designed with thickly padded, yet also light, suit that the pilot put on before donning the armor itself.

This not only cushioned any blows and increased the chances of survivability if the armor was pierced but also provided thermal insulation, keeping the wearer cool in the summer and warm in the winter, a fact which she was grateful for whenever she looked at her sweating teammates.

'Say what you want about the damn imps, but they know how to make good war gear!' Tubarin had once boosted after they had obtained the armor and the majority had all given reluctant nods of approval, everyone except for Kalynka.
"Nothing good ever comes out of the Empire, they are pure evil!" was her reply back then

After all if they were not evil, then why would they be here in someone else's country?

Stealing other people's resources, forcing their will on another nation and beyond the Maramanakama system there where dozens of other star systems all of which had been stolen by the Empire from their people and rightful government!

The sound of stomping boots, the hum of armored vehicles, the grinding of rocks and rabble from tracked chariots quickly banished any anger or whispers from the sands as the enemy were finally nearing their lines.

As the rebels looked out towards the street in front of their hidden positions they could see a convoy coming from beyond the street's curb.

It was composed out of an Defender Mark 11 war chariot, flanked by what looked like a platoon of soldiers numbering about 20 in strength, and although each soldier was wearing a newer and deadlier model of armor than Kalynka's, the chariot was the real terror.

It's body was grand, at least five meters wide, fifteen meters long and three meters in height, it was a towering war machine, design for mid length to long ranged combat, it's front had a sharpened arrowhead shape, and in the case of this particular model, spikes were coming out off its lower side, to help remove any obstacle in its path.

On the top of its hood, there was a dome, and cylinder emerging from it, that where both encrusted with magic runes from where it could launch shells like the Earth Breakers.

On both of its side were a pair halftracks that moved this great beast forward and across any obstacle.

It was a weapon designed for frontal assaults and breakthroughs, though it was vulnerable against cavalry, since it was slow to maneuver and its dome had a low enough firing rate that when compared with a war horse's speed, cavalry could charge it before it got off too many shot's at them.

That little fact was of no consequence for Ahmaianos and his rebels, who had no cavalry.

They did however have a few select words about the chariot's crew (and the troopers accompanying the vehicle) parentage and preference for bed companions, but no cavalry.

Ahmaianos took in a deep breath and was about to give the order to attack, one last fight, one last blaze of glory.

FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

One would cry out as the axe was about to fall.

But this is not that kind of story.

For suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a powerful barrage of fire spears was hurled from the second floor of a building that was on the right side of the street that the imperial convoy was on.

They flew towards their target, edges ablaze with light, tips showering sparks that pelted towards the ground, leaving behind a small trail of light, which during its short life, showed the path of the weapon's flight, as if it were the clouds that lingered on the wings of an eagle that suddenly dived down towards its target.

The light shinned with such intensity that pitch black shadows emerged from whatever dark crevasse they could claim as their own!

Pitch black shadows during the daytime!

The swarm of runes, magic, fire, heat, light and sparks came about with the swiftness of thought, for as soon as it they were perceived, they also quickly disappeared from existence and perception, replaced by the great explosion that struck the imperial forces.

A flock of the spears struck true, hitting the Defender right in the one area where it's armor was weakest and namely it struck the top right from above .

The spears exploded on impact, turning the mighty behemoth from fearsome killing machine, into a blazing coffin for its crew.

As for the flocks of burning death that did not hit the Defender, they were hurled at the infantry, killing almost half of the platoon in a fiery inferno.

The survivors quickly rallied on the other side of the Chariot, opposite of from where the attack came and quickly started a counter barrage of arrows and spears.

Ahmaianos gazed in shocked silence at the familiar sight before him.

A hidden force, a powerful foe, a successful ambush, at first at least, a situation that then quickly became a disaster after that.

He had only witnessed it twice before, but it was enough for it to be burned into his memory.

And now the third time had come!

Once more the imperial shields were raised, the bows and crossbows cocked, the javelins readied.

Runes lit up, fire, air, water and earth danced their trinity of war as the ground itself was ripped towards the heavens for the devastating counterblow that would devastate the roof.

As soon as they launched their volley from their new position, a burst of magic struck the Imperial's rear, coming from the left side of the street.

Earth golems emerged from the where the spears landed; these unnatural killing machines quickly struck the troopers from behind.

The soldiers that were still distracted with the floor from where the attack had come from did not notice them and where quickly cut down from behind.

Those that did turned to face their foes, but they had already used their attack to target the building from where the first wave of spears had been thrown at them, and did not have time to charge up another attack before the golems where on them.

The rebels looked in shock, the imperials in horror, an Amurg wrote it down.

Nobody knew it would come to this.

Time seemed to stop in that moment, a moment passed, one that felt like a year, and that was all it took.

The imperials had been cut down with no survivors.

After completing its mission the golems expired as their magic was depleted and they crumbed into rocks and dust, leaving behind nothing but death and fire and silence.

Silence and whispers, and then the roar of artillery fire in the distance.

Ahmaianos, and all of his comrades, looked and saw how at what they thought was a certainty, which in his mind turned to be not so.

Since the Imperial force that had been stronger than the one he and his friends had ambushed earlier, when they were at least 5 times stronger, had been ripped to shreds with seemingly no casualty on the ambusher's side.

One moment they were seemingly invincible, the next their nothing but smoke, ash, blood and bodies.

This was madness!

This was war!

And it was not over yet.

The artillery in the distance heralded in that statement.

10:56 Local Planetary Time.

The rebels all stared eyes wide and mouths open at the carnage that happened before their eyes, but the so called 'silence' which was a word used loosely in its proper meaning since this was a battlefield, was broken by Tubarin.

"Something's up there on the second floor!" he shouted as a shaped appeared from where the first deadly salvo had been launched.

A form emerged from the fog of war, just enough to be made out by those outside of it.

The figure did not seem to be surrounded by smoke and ash from the imperial counter-salvo, but rather they seemed to cling around it, as if the mist itself was a part of its body.

It appeared to be humanoid in appearance, judging from the small flashes of light that the flames raging on the floor provided

The fires started to die down, little by little, making the light that showed the silhouette diminish until it was no more, but even then the fading light seemed not to be lighting the body, rather like the mist before it, the almost twilight like light seemed to cling to this mysterious figure, in a manner that showed that it was part of the being that stood on the pane above them.

The shape retreated back into the mist and disappeared along with the fading fire and ash.

7, 38

"Fire two salvos of several high caliber energy arrows west of your location, with the green building as your intended target, but make sure they are fire and water arrows and launch them in that order." a voice that none of them had ever heard, nor could they identify yet it seemed to be familiar all the same, was heard on their windwaker crystals.

"What? Who the hell is this?"Tubarin angrily shouted into the crystal.

"The one that you were staring at a few seconds ago scholar, now please fire a few salvos west of your location at the green building, lest you lose the opportunity that is before you!" the voice on the other end replied.

What followed was a cacophony of enquiries, questions, and babbling from the rebels in regards to that statement, until a great shout from Ahmaianos silenced the chaos.

"QUIET! Now you said that we would lose an opportunity, opportunity for what?" he asked.

"For victory of course, also you have four minutes left." the voice replied nonchalantly, which made everyone's eyes bug out in amazement.

"Victory!?Victory against the Empire!?"Kalynka said in astonishment, after what happened today the words were now foreign to her.

They were to prevail against that mighty army? That thought was absurd!

Yet the way he said it, so casually and with such certainty, with a tone of a teacher dictating an undisputable fact, one that he had repeated thousands of times before, so much so that he did it now with a bored voice.

It made them start to that maybe, with this mysterious voice on their side, they could succeed.

"Why the hell should we listen to you!?"Tubarin asked suspiciously.

"You should listen since I'm the one who singlehandedly slaughtered a force you couldn't even scratch, and If you continue on your current path you will meet your end in annihilation, but if you do as I say you will win, it's that simple, also you now have three minutes." the voice with the same certain tone, tipped with boredom born of certainty.

And just a hint of exasperation from having to constantly explain himself.

It was too much!

But with the slaughter of their seemingly invincible enemy and with the confident voice which was alien yet familiar, they started to feel that the crazy idea of victory would be a reality if it came from the owner of the voice, was not so crazy after all.

"Who is this guy? What kind of crazy-"

"Start firing!" Tubarin said, but was cut off by Ahmaianos.

"You can't be serious, Ahmaianos!" he said, stunned at their leader's sudden order.

"What choice do we have? You saw what he did, so just do as he says!"

Their leader's tone implied not just the fact that this might be their only chance to defeat the imperial forces, but also that if they did not comply, well........

Nobody knew exactly how this would end.

But the rebels could guess.

And the ones to slaughter them this day might not be imperials.

Remembering the power and stealth that this unknown force had shown just now, it was excellent motivator for them to comply.

As they all lined their bows and crossbows and fired the respective volleys.

"Now what? We just wasted what little ammunition we had left and made a lot of noise for nothing! That was just-"

"The enemy is moving away from our location!" Tubarin shouted but was stopped by Usanthus, who was looking at the portable farview he was carrying, which depicted the battlefield map.

This course of action surprised everyone; none expected this kind of turn of events.

"But..........but why?" Daiamar said, stunned at what had just happened.

"If you look closely at your position, you will notice that you have just fired over a river, and that the green building shielded any eastern view of your location, that combined with the destruction of the platoon, will make the enemy presume that after smashing it you've moved west because of the energy signature spike that the volley's impact would feed the imperial PULSARS to see."

"And since there is no direct crossing here and the enemy must think we are on the other side, they'll move down town to where the nearest bridge is!"Kalynka added, amazed at what just happened.

"We kept our position hidden, and led the enemy on a wild goose chase by making as much noise as possible!" Ahmaianos, thought to himself surprised at how obvious the answer was.

"There is no time to waste, you in the red battle armor, go to point seven up river and jump at exactly ten minutes from now and not a moment too soon, the rest of you will head to the coordinates I am currently transmitting to your farview, I'll contact you all with further instructions latter on." the voice replied, and ended the transmission.

"Cocky kriffer, isn't he?" Tubarin said in indignation, at the strange voice.

"Should we obey?" Usanthus asked.

"I don't know, I guess he's, she...it...is in charge for now." Daiamar replied.

"Well, if we don't then that means that we would be defying him." Paiamara added and at that a chill went down their spines, they had lived under the Empire's iron grip, and sharp blade on their becks for years now, but this unknown had managed in less than an hour to make them more afraid of him than their oppressors of almost two decades.

"Do as he says." Ahmaianos told them, and from his tone you could tell that he was in no mood to argue, he was after all the leader of their group and for the most part he was a casual and easy going one, but he could be very serious and scary when he wanted to be.

So they all complied and decided to obey their current 'commander', because honestly the empire seemed a lesser danger now.

"So now we are all more afraid of our 'leader' than our enemies. Why we're halfway to becoming a real fighting force already and it's not even lunch time yet!" Ahmaianos thought ruefully, and despite himself, he smiled as he went to take up his new position.

As he and everyone else in the group did so, Kalynka already reached her designated point, which was at the water's edge, right above a very deep part of the river bellow.

"This is deep water and this armor is not calibrated to fight under it, I'll drown if I jump!"

"What are you doing? If you don't jump now, your friends will all die." The voice said all of a sudden, gone was the bored tone, in its place was fire and anger for her disobedience to his directives.

And to that Kalynka snapped to attention, the combination of an authoritarian voice that resonated with power behind it made her unwilling to go against it.

Not out of fear of their 'leader' or of even the empire, thought those two were still present, but rather of the thought of losing what was left of her friends was what made Kalynka loose her hesitation and most of her grasp of basic common sense, and so she prepared to jump.

She hesitated once more, but there was no going back, not for her or her comrades.

They could have walked away from it when he gave them a choice to walk away.

Well, she and everybody else made their decision, now it was time to bear the consequences for it.

"Oh Great Catcher preserve me, let my aim be true, my catch be bountiful, its prize be great!" Kalynka mentally said the ancient prayer of her people and then jumped into the water.

She braced herself for its cold embrace, taking a deep breath of air right before hitting the river's surface, waiting for the water to surround her and try to make its way into her lungs.

That was what she expected. But this was war, and in war nothing goes as you'd expect.

For in another instance, which was against all common sense and logic, instead of drowning she landed on not the muddy riverbed bellow, but on something that stopped her submersion at knee depth only!

"There is something beneath the surface!" she thought to herself, taking a few foot jabs on the body of what she found herself on, and discovering that it was made of metal.

A moment later as she did her river dance, on the river, in full armor, and on a metal surface, Kalynka felt that the ground, or rather the water below her, started to rise and she realized that she was on a submarine.

Once it was done rising from the river enough for a hatch to be topside, its door was opened and a crew member came out of it to see what was happening and he came out with his back turned towards Kalynka

She did not hesitate for a single moment; the submarine's crewmember was slayed, his neck broken in an instant, before he even realized what had just happened.

The armored resistance fighter then grabbed his body and tossed into the river, before proceeding inside.

She ignored the ladder and jumped straight into the submarine

She hit the deck loudly, falling to her knees from the weight of her armor and the height of the jump.

Raising herself up, she saw that before her was the captain of the submarine with two crew members behind him.

The captain upon immediately seeing Kalynka, grabbed his two men and pushed them through a door down the submarine's deck, after he did so, he quickly pulled the door closed.

Seeing this Kalynka dashed forward, she threw her spear right at the captain, impaling him in the right shoulder, the captain gave out a cream in pain as Kalynka grabbed him by the collar hurdled him backwards so she could reach the door, only to look in shock at the now locked door and it's hatch that was now closed and was melted solid.

Turning around in disbelief Kalynka saw the captain, who was trying to get back on his feet, had in his hand a dying fire spell, which he had used to block the door and save what was left of his crew from her.

Anger gripped her as she glared at the mortally wounded sailor, who prevented her from reaching her prey.

Who in turn only grinned and with his still functional left hand drew a simple combat knife that was devoid of any magic.

He gestured with it for Kalynka to come and fight him, she more than happily obliged, taking two steps forward and preparing to strike him down with the knife that she from her hip.

She drew it back in a striking motion, preparing for a stab.

The captain, thought wounded as he was, struck the first blow! One that made Kalynka stop in her tracks and become paralyze from the attack's target.

The captain had jabbed the knife straight into his neck!

Kalynka could only gaze in shock at the one who deprived her of her victory not once, but twice, who now slumped on the deck as his life faded away.

Thus Captain Isandor Barbados lied ended there and then, as he did so, he smiled knowing he saved his crew, prevented the enemy from winning and brought honor to his service.

His last thoughts were of his family that made his life worthwhile, of his friends that now lived and who would toast his memory, his comrades that fallen before him which he would see soon at the table of thunder, and finally of the great hero with red eyes that he had fought alongside many years ago.

During that siege, that seemed like a lifetime ago, he had witnessed the hero's great skill, and after that the man had shook his hand, and deem Isandor worthy of acknowledgment by saying it was an honor, after that the captain would follow Headmaster Metty into hell's gate if he lead the charge.

He was determined that he would be worthy of that gesture, of that praise, worthy to bear the hero's herald, and stand by him as they both did their duty for the empire!

But alas his current wretched self could not now fulfill the promise of standing beside him in battle.

But he gave praise to the heavens that now in his finest hour, with this, he had become worthy of both him and of the god that he told him about.

With his duty fulfilled, his idol and his deity honored, and his enemy glaring pure hatred at him for his defiance, Isandor gripped the wolf-serpent pendant around his neck, closed his eyes in happiness as he used his last breath to whisper one last word, as his heartbeat continued to drop.

"Zamolxes."

Kalynka turned her gaze away from captain that had so bravely, and so nobly, saved his crew and sacrificed himself for his it.

She could not bear to look at him.

For it reminded her so much of Ahmaianos, or Tubarin and of every single face of her brothers and sister in arms that still lived and of the many more who did not survive.

"They are monsters! Nothing more than savages and barbarians." Kalynka thought to herself, reminding her brain that they deserved to die for defiling their country.

She turned away from Captain Isandor, until she could no longer see the man, nor be in his presence, so as to not be reminded of the valiant, honorable and selfless act this man had just done now.

This man...............

It was easier to kill monsters, than men.

"What is this thing doing in the river?" She said over the comm crystal to the mysterious voice, and continued to try and forget the actions that she had just witnessed; she also tried to ignore the sound of the emergency hatch that was used by the submarines crew, who was on the other side of the sealed shut door, to escape her wrath.

"The surrounding area does not have train tracks and the roads are too narrow to properly supply the imperial assault, so they are relying on the river for logistics, your comrades will be joining you shortly, you can consider what's inside the submarine a bonus for our future contract, suit up and after that I will contact you with further orders." the voice said.

"Wait! At least tell me your name; it's kind of odd to just call you the voice." Kalynka almost shouted that request to him.

"Nobody." he replied and ended the transmission just as the status quo would start to change for this corner of the universe.

Volun 4 system, the Planet Volun 4, headquarters of the 378th corps.

Metternich exited the train and before him lay a sight that would have unnerved other, braver men and women; there was a gathering of what could only be described as hellish monsters in front of him.

There was a gray skinned giant spider that had eight long legs to support its body, and two additional limbs that were about half as short as the rest, the shorter pair ended with hands that contained long retractable claws.

Beside the spider was a black long haired centaur like creature that had an eye patch over his right eye, and a bushy long beard.

A giant insect like humanoid with locust features was next, followed by the a creature that looked like a full human, but had four arms and piercing eyes of two colors.

Then came a being that was made out of thousands of small yellow insect like creatures.

Next to it was a being that had a turtle's body, a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, a bipedal frame and two upwards curbed long tusks coming out of its mouth.

Then came a great raptor like beast that was holding what appeared to be a lollypop in its mouth.

Finally there was a great black furred wolf-like humanoid that ended this lineup.

They were all dressed in a uniform similar to Metternich and Adrian, and each had various medals pinned to his and her's chest.

From behind Metternich, Adrian followed suit, a smile on his plucked hen-like features as he was happy to see his old classmates once more.

Following the aforementioned knight, the scent of a very expensive perfume that indicated that the sentient in question was always prepared to look his best, probably for company of the opposite sex, came and penetrated their sense, signaling that Butz was right behind them, magic pouring out of his head as he levitated several pieces of luggage down the ramp and towards the assembled lineup.

Who, and what, where these beings before him you may ask?

"My Lord, may I formally introduce ourselves, I am Commodore Third Class Horatia TJ Jackson of the first division, these are viscount Antonius de Palamese commander of the second, Valyria Treakle commander of the third division, Duke Oscar von Raqianus commander of the fourth division, Tarkan el Balamarus commander of the fifth division, Prince Georgaian vi Alontaire commander of the sixth division, Prince Dalius Augustus commander of the seventh division and finally Colonel Werner von Braun, who commands the Black Berets assigned to our fleet." the giant spider being known as Horatia said.

There before them was Horatia TJ Jackson, a Caracian, namely a gray skinned giant spider that had eight long legs to support its body and two additional limbs that where about half as short as the rest, the pair ended with hands that contained long retractable claws.

Beside Horatia was the Eschimariom named Antonius de Palamese, a black long haired centaur like creature that had an eye patch over his right eye and a bushy beard.

A Calabenecan called Valyria Treakle followed, she was a giant insect like humanoid with locust features was next, followed by Oscar von Raqianus, the Tetremadian that looked like a normal human but had four arms and piercing unmatched eyes.

Then came the Melionarion named Tarkan el Balamarus was next, he was a being that was made out of thousands of small yellow insect like creatures.

Next to the Melionarion was a Galapagian called Georgaian vi Alontaire, who had a turtle's body, a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, a bipedal frame and two upwards curbed long tusks coming out of its mouth.

Then came Dalius Augustus, he was a Tumescan, a great raptor like beast who was holding what appeared to be a lollypop in its mouth.

Finally there was Werner von Braun, who was a Caninian, a great black furred wolf like humanoid that ended this lineup.

Metternich smiled, and gestured to the eagle like being and the magic wielding serpent behind him and said:

"A pleasure to meet you all, you already know Adrian, the one behind him is Butz my personal aide."

Who where these creatures, you may ask?

Why they where his new commanders of course!

Extract from the book "Confessions, an Admirals tale volume I"

I exited the ramp and upon gazing at the collection of monster and freaks, whom I would eventually call my loyal soldiers, confidants, and right and left hands, I immediately fought down the growing urge to vomit and bolt out of the place at full speed, all the while making my way down the stairs towards my new command.

But what should have stricken me as odd was that they were in their First Form.

You see even then Imperials, unlike Republicans or those Federals have the ability to change between their native form (called the first form) and a humanoid shape, or multiple native forms if they have mixed parentage.

It was one of the many things which helped unite the various nations of the Empire and keep it together.

Even before the Imperium when two sentient species from different planets met; hostility towards the other is the first thing that comes to both their minds. It's not their fault, since for some strange reason sentients have a sort of built in biological programming against those who are different than them.

Long ago the Great Founder of the Empire and her lieutenants found a way to get over that and gave the nations that would make up the Empire what is now called the 'Blessing'.

As you know (courtesy of the fact that I'm spelling it out for you all), the blessing allows Imperials to morph from their native shape to a humanoid one and back, the only notable indication between them and humanity is the fact that the skin retains the same pigmentation as their original bodies, and certain aspects, like various distinctive facial features or in more extreme cases and extra pair of arms, legs and various other appendages, remain.

This had three delightful advantages:

-one was that it was rather hard for them to hate their fellow sentient since the barrier of differences (barring a few divergence in skin color) was gone, and there was no more hostility because of that, or rather it was reduced from a mainstream mindset to more of a annoying and trouble making indie scene, but for the most part the hatred and desire to blame others for their misfortune because they were different was diminished for the majority of people; well except if you're a Republican or Federal, they always find some reason to pin the blame on you and not themselves.

-the second was that, well let's face it, sentients have always had a preference for new and exotic things, exotic food, exotic toys, exotic company, and when you can have a pretty girlfriend from another planted that is a whole new 'motivation' for friendly relations!

-thirdly, as I said earlier, it changed the nature of Xenophobia and hatred for what was different.

All of a sudden the various species which would make up the Empire realized they had something in common, and it was a whole galaxy that had nothing in common with them! And so, they did what any good rational and moral civilization would do and namely unite and prepare for war against the foreigners that were not 'blessed'.

And as I said before thanks to the 'Blessing', if you can call it that, there were three shapes that an Imperial could take.

The First Form was their native one, the Second Form was the humanoid one, the Third Form is........... Well, more on that later on.

What was odd was the fact that in was an unofficial tradition in the military that when someone new arrived at a unit the members of the welcoming party were usually in their second form.

The idea in case of the enlisted men was that: 'you're an outsider and you've got to earn your place here'

And when it came to officers, greeting one in the first form was a sort of sign of respect only attributed to a worthy peer.

Now back then I had a reputation as a hero thanks to my battlefield heroics, namely crawling down a hole to hider and staying there until the shooting stopped, then looting the bodies and paying of the right people.

But so many others like myself had similar reps in the army, navy, space fleet and air force/fighter corps, so I probably shouldn't have received at that point in my carrier such an honor, for that day was before the part of my carrier that would thrust me into the most dangerous moments of my life and earn me the respect of the army, and fleet and, draw a big bull's-eye on my back (oh joy).

The fact that they were all in their first forms suggested that they were actually glad to see me!

That was not good news for me, since as I mentioned before, I wasn't that big a hero back then.

Combined with the fact that my arrival had the added effect of depriving one of them of the opportunity for advancement in rank meant that the current situation was so desperate that these poor buggers were either under the delusion that I could actually bail them out, or they were glad someone was here to take the fall when the dam breaks!

I approached Horatia, and as she extended her right arm, I took what was an arachnid version of a hand, complete with retractable claws in her chitinous fingers and shook it.

I searched her eyes, all six of them, for any sign of deception, hoping and praying 'Please God, let these people be lying to me, don't let them be actually glad to see me! Let their happiness for my arrival be false, let the truth be that they hate me for coming here and stealing their chance for a promotion! Let them be bootlickers and ass kissers!', but much to my horror her smile was genuine in all of its fangy and venomous glory.

And upon seeing the others up close and shaking hands with them as well I noticed that their smiles were brighter, sincerer and happier than what I originally thought and hoped.

These people really were on cloud 9 and 3 quarters from happiness and me being here. This was unacceptable!

Dear God, the situation was a disaster!

Heaven save me from their happy smiles!

Let that be a lesson kiddies, it is never a good sign when people who are trained to kill are smiling at you!

Metternich per Pelasgiamus, Freelance Potions maker

After exchanging pleasantries (and using every ounce of will power to not bolt away, cringe back or vomit from the assortment of nightmarish creatures before him) Metternich was lead to a conference room.

A farview displayed their current position, forces and the enemy's power and deployment zones. It was placed on a big, luxurious, smoky chestnut colored table made of whole wood.

There always was a massive table of expansive wood in almost every command centre that he had graced in the past several years, or so Metternich thought.

No matter how little supplies, ammunition, medicine or fuel could be transported through the supply lines, there always were things like this present.

"No wonder the Empire was doing so badly in the war."

Metternich thought to himself and gave a small chuckle as he smiled with true mirth as he gazed at the table in disappointment.

The military and its true priorities, there before him in all its woody glory

"He's gazing at the battle map and grinning with joy at our desperate situation!" Dalius thought to himself in astonishment as he saw his new commander's expression;

"He's actually excited to be in such a hopeless battle! He must know that ever kind providence is on our side!" Horatia thought as she touched the holy book and prayer beads within her pocket.

"This must be some kind of ploy from him! Yes, it's a strategic, psychological maneuver to gain our respect or our fear, or perhaps both from us! No wonder Adrian became this man's vassal. He's already planning 3 steps ahead before we even told him of step one! He will be an interesting man to follow.......and surpass!" Oscar thought to himself as he sized up his new commander.

"This one has the look of a killer. Finally, we have a proper gentleman at our helm!" Tarkan thought to himself, glad that things seemed to be improving already, his close friend Valyria was of the same persuasion.

"He has the others enthralled and already intrigued on his every action and word, without a single word spoken. It seems that unity is being restored already and we can finally stop arguing amongst ourselves." There were not the thoughts per say of Georgaian and Antonius (for they each spoke in their native tongue when in thought), but it was the meaning behind both their conclusions.

"Not bad, you get an extra commendation for doing something like this so quickly, but let's see if you can earn the right to order me around." Was Werner's mental resolution towards his new corps commander's action.

The mid-ranking and junior officers that were also present in the conference room, and were waiting for the meeting to commence, had similar thoughts and reactions, and were all entranced by their new leader.

"Already he has them under his spell! As of now you are all his loyal retainers my friends, and you don't even know it yet!" Adrian thought to himself, with a smile on his face, as he witness his liege work his Omega Spell at least, to almost Riddle of Ruin magic level of charisma on them, this was not the first time he had saw something like this.

His liege would meet people that would gladly spit in his eye in the morning and come lunchtime they would become his fanatical soldiers.

Once at a grand feast that lasted for 13 days his master had met over a thousand officers, politicians, nobles and those of high wealth, and from that his lord had walked away with a thousand loyal bannermen and women.

Dam him to hell one moment, follow him through hell itself if he told you too the next!

And Adrian knew what he was talking about; he was his master's the first convert.

Butz simply stood mind blank, mouth silent, back straight, chin up high and arms at the ready for any duty that needed to be done, he was a top staff officer and aide to a many time victorious commander.

He would never be unfazed by anything and would always do his duty.

As for the apparent king of kings, predator of predators, alfa of alfa and, last but not least, Hero of the Empire's real thoughts in regards to what was before him that made him laugh and smile and created this grand cascade effect?

"Good thinking of the militaries part, wouldn't want to face a bloodthirsty horde without my big hard piece of wood."

The dreaded Imperial fleet, in all its glory.

Metternich took his seat at one of the sides of the table, instead of any of its two heads, he had seen wars started over less, and was keen to avoid making any enemies, it was his first day on the job and despite his knack of landing in deadly peril with monstrous foes, he was trying to take it easy for once.

That was in fact his secondary reason, when his primary one was that Metty just thought the cushion in that particular chair looked more comfortable than the rest.

The other occupants in the room were caught off guard by this.

After looking at him with surprise in their eyes, the officer shared a few confused looks, baring the exception of Adrian and Butz, the former smirked once more, and the latter was as stoic and professional as always.

The rest recovered and started to seat themselves down, they too avoided the head seats at the table, to which Adrian nodded in approval at their display of not challenging his authority.

Metty had to restrain himself from huffing in annoyance at the little display, not a bit of challenge to his authority whatsoever.

"Things must be even worse than I imagine, they're prepping the 'I was not in charge shtick already' for any eventual inquiry into this campaign, and making sure that I am without a doubt in charge. Somebody just shoot me! No!!!1 I mean........except the enemy...........and the firing squad of course."

Once everyone was properly seated, Metternich found himself next to Tarkan el Balamarus and Valyria Treakle, with Butz behind him and Adrian next to Valyria.

On the other side of the table was Prince Dalius Augustus, Prince Georgaian vi Alontaire, Duke Oscar von Raqianus, Viscount Antonius de Palamese, and Baroness Horatia T.J. Jackson, next to them there was Colonel Werner von Braun, the leader of the ground forces, the famous 88th brigade of the elite Black Berets Corps, also called the 'Papillon Knights'.

The 88th is considered by many to be one of the finest brigades amongst the Black Berets, some even said that it was one of the finest infantry units in the whole galaxy; one so strong than even the other Black Berets had trouble reeling them in.

Besides the colonel was the leaders of the space fighter squadrons, who were also the aces of the flying corps, namely Captains: Nagira Tadamaki, Ivan Molotov, Ataru Starstruck, Furio Figaretti, and alongside them the many ship captains and squadron leaders.

"Our forces are placed in the following order from north to south: Dalius, Georgaian, Oscar, Antonius, Horatia, Valyria, my division and finally Von Braun's 88th make out the forces in this sector.

Our opponents, the Volunian Eight Army and the Federal Task Force have roughly the same numbers of troops, but unlike us they have fortified the Granada Depression; its southern flank is blocked by a mountain range and the northern one is blocked by the sea, so our only route of attack is a direct assault on their positions." Tarkan briefed Metternich.

"Also, there are only two energy nexuses on this planet, they control both of them, and this enables the enemy to recharge their energy crystals, while we have to rely on warp trains to transport them here, giving them an advantage in a battle of attrition." Valyria added.

"What about siege units like dragon sky towers? They are specially designed for something like this, could we not used them against those defenses?" Adrian asked them.

"We do not have any towers, hell we don't even have enough mines to make a decent minefield for one of our divisions, let alone our whole front." Oscar replied.

"One more question, how in the blue bloody blazes did this force here arrive to such a deplorable state!?" Metternich asked in earnest, for you see from what he gathered from the briefing slate the Planet which they now resided on was the only one in this system that could sustain life; it along with Volun 1,2 and 3 were only used as outposts for the World Class Fortress Galiana.

And so, the original mission of the 378th corps had been to come here, blast the small garrison into oblivion, set up a planetary base and space port, wait until the enemies counterattack came, then withdraw back to their lines and draw the enemy from the fortress out into the open, where the main fleet, under Gerula would cut them down.

You might think that such a mission would seem odd or even insane, to blow up some garrison and then just sit on down and do nothing but wait for the enemy to come and then run away.

Or why would a fleet of thousands of ships leave their safe and impregnable fortress for open battle all for the sake of a few divisions?

But this was a 'Morale Booster', a battle indented to be of small scale, but also designed to be a victory in order to raise morale amongst the troops and civilians, to mentally prepare them for the upcoming bigger battles and to also act as bait to draw an enemy from their entrenched position with a raid.

The Empire needed one, and so the Volunians needed to deny the other their small victory.

Ones reputation and how others perceive him was everything after all

Metternich saw it for what is was, and originally, it had been the ideal command for him, here he would be the highest ranking officer, the destruction of the base would be enough to say he had done his duty and after that he could play to his strength, namely that of running away from a battle, thus he could be relatively safe here, at least for the time being.

The only problem was that the planet had not been bombarded from space, the ships where now grounded all along their lines and used as anti-infantry weapons instead of being in orbit, and the enemy instead of being small dust particles, where now heavily entrenched on the high ground in front of them.

How one is perceived by others is everything.

And Metternich perceived that their fleet was in deep shit.

He looked at his new command; His very, very silent new command. And already he could feel his stomach aching once more.

Since everyone was refusing to answer his enquire, he stated his question once more.

"I repeat, how did we arrive at this sad state of affairs?"

After a few moments of hesitation, and a few quick words of help and praise to her deity, Horatia spoke up.

"Upon arriving, we scanned the planet and discovered that the enemy garrison was actually at only 60 %strength, and that those 60% were troops composed of reservists, many of them quite old by military standards."She then paused for a moment, and even though it was difficult to judge the expression on her arachnid features, you could tell that she was now regretting being the one to begin the story.

"Continue commodore." Metternich said in an encouraging and appreciative tone and looked to her expectantly.

"We were about to commence the heavy bombardment when our commander Rear-Admiral Cassius, stated that instead of destroying it we should capture the supply depot with an infantry assault."The voice of Antonius was heard saying and all eyes from the table turned towards the Eschimariom as he continued the story.

"But after we launched the infantry assault, our troops were repulsed by the defenders."

"Wait a minute! Are you trying to tell me that Black Berets where repulsed by a group of grey haired bench warmers?" Adrian's voice his opinion on the absurdity of the notion.

"Considering that those 'grey haired bench warmers' were in fact a brigade of reservist Holy Knights, I'd say that's exactly what happened. And also we weren't deployed, for some reason we were kept back on the ships as a reserve, and I assure you commodore that if we had been deployed, we would not be having this conversation." Werner answered his question, his voice tinted with regret at having been denied the opportunity to cross weapons with the Black Beret's old nemesis.

Well, one of them.

This made Adrian's mouth fall agape, the Holy Knights were elite shock troopers of the Federation and since the Federation and the Volunians were close allies, this meant that their presence indicated that the Federation slowly but surely preparing to 'officially' join the Empire and the Volunians instead of just offering token support for the Volunians.

After hearing this, and quickly recovering from the news, Adrian looked at Werner still in disbelief and hoping that it was some lie.

Werner, with sadness in his eyes, confirmed with his gaze and a small nod of the head that what he said had been the truth.

"And after that what happened?" Metternich asked, breaking the silence in the room and the semi starring contest between Adrian and von Braun before it escalated, his stomach was starting to multi task and was telling him bad news now, bad news letter, and bad news if he didn't prevent a fight.

"We then did the only sensible military action during this whole fiasco and withdrew the troops." Oscar replied.

He then crossed his two pairs of arms along his chest, and with a cold stare he used his gaze and body language to chide and visually reprimand those present for this inefficient report, but the only effect was more silence.

A fact that did chafe Oscar's ego a bit.

"What happened after that? And could one of you tell the whole story, since a day only has so few hours in it!" Metternich said, starting to lose his patients.

His stomach ache was starting to become more, and more intense.

"The Admiral then ordered us to battle stations and used the ships to ram the enemy defenses." Dalius answered Metternich, with a cheery tone in his voice, like it was a matter of fact, like he was talking about the weather.

"He.........he rammed the planet!?!You're kidding, aren't you?" the commander said in disbelief to what he just heard.

"Sorry Commander, I only tell a joke when it's funny, but I can tell a few now if you like." Dalius replied, his voice devoid of cheeriness.

"And everybody knows that this is the best moment to tell a joke!" Valyria said the tone of her voice indicated that the meaning of the phrase was very much a different one from its literal one; in short she was being sarcastic.

"Yes, we rammed the defenses, but the enemy being the enemy had the impudence to actually use their brains and withdraw to another position as they saw us coming; eventually after we hit dirt side, our power crystals were too drained from shielding the ships from impact to be any further use, so we deployed our ground forces in a defensive line facing the enemy." Tarkan said before Valyria and Dalius started arguing and looked at them sternly.

He discreetly separated a few dozen of the small beings which formed his body and they started flying around him as he looked at them menacingly, with all the hard gaze of a drill sergeant preparing to discipline two raw recruits.

This was not surprising, since he was a master sergeant before becoming an officer, it got the point across and they settled down and gazed away from each other and from Tarkan in particular.

After that, all eyes were on Metternich who was rubbing his temples as a headache started to form, complementing his stomach pain.

Misery loves company after all.

"The situation is bad sir, but it could have been worse. The ships, despite being drained, are still battle worthy, morale is surprisingly high since every soldier and sailor heard you were coming and we have enough ammunition and fuel for one last good slugger's brawls, which is far better than none." The tusked mouth of Georgaian said as the somehow heavy atmosphere in the room improved slightly.

Finally after what seemed like an hour, although scarcely a few seconds had past, Metternich found his voice.

"And where is the former commander now?" Metternich asked.

"He hosted a feast some weeks ago, in order to celebrate our 'upcoming victory' over the enemy fleet, so he drank, and drank, and drank, till he drank his final cup and since the other leaders all have the rank of commodore with equal seniority, we did not have someone else to take over command, and w were uncertain what to do, that is until you came sir." Antonius replied and gave an honest smile, whether it was genuine in the sense that he was here to help them or take the blame was irrelevant, by that point Metty was just trying to wrap his head around this disaster.

"Why haven't they attacked us with their ships?" Metternich asked.

"They're gearing up for that, our most recent Intel says that Admiral Yemen's fleet has left its home base and is bound for Galiana which means he'll be here very, very soon." Georgaian answered.

"Also, ever since we've tried to ram them the enemy has been receiving a constant stream of reinforcement's trough their own warp train gates, currently they outnumber us and it looks like they're waiting till they have enough numbers on their side to smash overwhelm us." Antonius told with reluctance.

"But not by a large margin, for now they just have about an estimate 10-15% advantage in terms of numbers, still within a manageable range for our side." Georgaian added to the conversation, hoping it would help restore some morale.

"Always good to know that when you're waist deep, you could always be head deep too, so best keep your mouth shut and not complain too much. Or you'll get a mouthful of $%^." The new commander thought to himself.

"Nuts, to our side then!" Metternich said cheerfully, it was the sort of laugh one gave when things were so bad that all you could to is laugh. His eyes glowing red for a moment, they always did so his cowardice was at its peak from the sheer amount of terror, and horror, that he was experiencing.

Too bad that the other occupants in the room mistook it for genuine enthusiasm, his eyes, tone of voice looked like his blood was up and that he could barely wait to get stuck in.

"No chances for a promotion here sir." Werner said with a smile on his face, breaking the others from their almost hypnotized gave at their new commander, and breaking Metternich from his despair, by means of angering him.

This was not the kind of challenge to his authority that he wanted, for it was not the kind of: 'I will replace you and you'll be sent far away from promotion, and the war of course. No! It was more the kind of: 'Prove yer metal, or I'll let he enemy prove their metal by not stopping them from ramming it into yer face, sir'.

"They find me, they always find me. Enemy blades in front trying to gut me, allied blades behind me, expecting me to leap forward, into that fray, if I don't want to be pushed forward. Do I have a 'blood thirsty maniac's welcome' sign on my forehead?"

Metternich thought as he raised himself back straight into his chair and gave Werner a look mixed with anger and exasperation, which only made the Black Beret give a devil-may-care smile.

The other high ranking officers chided the colonel for his words, with the exception of his subordinates within the 88th.

Namely:-Major Casper Lintz, whose species the Goy where white skinned and pale with notably longer than usual fangs but with a humanoid body.

-Captain Montpellier who was a Colian, a humanoid amphibious species, a fact made more evident by his scales, long dolphin like snout, fins on his head, membrane fingers and most notably a sort of reverse diving helmet which had its own reserve of water.

And finally Lieutenant Jericho McClelland, whose species the Catcherfizer was very much human looking, with the exception of the fact that his race had the ability to reattach severed limbs and survive great wounds that did not include injuring one particular organ and namely the brain. As a consequence of that the surface of his skin was riddled with scars, so very much so that it was hard to tell where the scars ended and where the normal skin began.

They were used to their commander's behavior and were unfazed by it.

But for Adrian, that was an almost inexcusable insult to his liege and he looked ready to jump out of his seat and strike Werner.

The Black Beret only matched his stare with that same smile that he gave towards Metty, one that said 'come on!'.

"Oh, what a disappointment!" Metternich said with faux shock and a great deal of mostly comical exaggeration to those present, they were all caught off guard by, and for a second they did not know how to react before replaying with laughter ( which was not entirely fake or forced).

This helped defuse the tension in the room and stop the staring contest between Adrian and Werner.

"Colonel, you have never seen my shock and disappointed face, have you?" Metternich added with a stony, emotionless expression on his face.

Werner raised his eyebrows in surprise at this; he had never experienced such a response like this in a long, long while. And after von Braun shook his head the newly minted commander deadpanned with:

"Now you know it." Using the same statuesque worthy expression, all in a dry tone that drew more laughter from those present, and this time there was hardly any trace of falseness in it, even Werner gave a healthy chuckle.

There was genuine mirth in the room now, and for a moment all their troubles were gone. Even Metternich's stomach calmed down for a moment.

Enemies still surrounded them, few supplies in their hangar, low ammunition in their belts, and a dreaded foe was on the way, but for a moment the storm had passed, they knew not the raging ocean, but the calm within its very heart, a moment of silence, serenity and safety in a sea of desperation with doom gleaming over the horizon.

It didn't last long, but it lasted just enough to make a difference.

After it died down Metternich took another look at the tactical display.

His gaze studied the map and it was a most distressing sight, since the enemy had both flanks secure, strong fortifications all around it, and with Yemen coming, the 378th was running out of time, but as he studied the display he saw something which could give them the much needed reversal.

"But it could also be the death of me! And the rest of this fleet of course!"

He thought to himself, as his stomach started to ache once more.

Metty could have ignored the new battle plan that was forming in his head and simply ordered a general withdrawal trough the warp portal and scuttle the warships.

But if he did that, the question of: 'what if he stood his ground here' it would haunt him for the remainder of his life, which could be a very short time, especially since he knew from his years in the fleet that there were some commanders who would bravely defy all logic and reasoning and no matter how sound and wise a withdrawal was, they would still consider his actions cowardice and would send him back to retake the ships and without reinforcements to boot.

So despite his natural tendency to avoid battle, he kept his gaze on the area of the planet where he knew the decisive fight would be staged.

For just south beyond the mountains, there was a forest, one of the densest forests on the planet that began there and ended at the enemy's rear flank, right in the area where their main supply base was!

"We could bypass the mountains and go through the forest and attack them from their rear."

"Sir, I would endorse such a plan but the forest in too thick!How could we move the troops trough it?" Horatia asked.

"Of course you'd endorse it, you didn't propose it!"

"Here is how." Metternich replied and told them the method they would use to traverse the woods.

"We still have enough resources for that, but may I remind you that if we are discovered, not only are we in danger of having the flanking force ambushed while they are clumped up in an unfavorable position, but since the initial phase would use up most of the heavy equipment, the distraction force would be vulnerable to a counterattack." Werner said to those present quick to point out the great danger of this plan.

The colonel was as battle eager as the next Black Beret, but he preferred his battle to be served with a vintage of victory, with a hint of tactical and strategically superiority, if not a numerical one at that, and hold the risk of defeat.

He was a bit of a snob when it came to the art of high class warfare.

"Also, even if we manage to cross the forest, if we do not capture the supply dump, almost half of our troops will be isolated in enemy territory without proper lines of communication and eventually destroyed, we cannot afford the loss!" Valyria added.

"And with our lines so thin, our forces that remain here as a distraction could be cut to pieces if the enemy counterattacks in strength, which I am certain any decent commander would do, even with the added firepower that our ships, grounded as they are, would add to the diversionary forces defenses, it wouldn't be enough to stop a determined counterattack, we could be all cut down piece-meal." Tarkan added in apprehension, they were all nervous about this risky plan.

All except Adrian, who gazed with a smile on his face towards his liege, expecting for him to use his charisma once more to make them see it his way.

It was like he was a child again at the theater and waiting for the maestro to walk on stage and deliver the grandest of shows once more.

At this Metternich closed his eyes for a minute, hoping that somehow he could block what he knew he was about to say.

That this was all a dream.

That he would wake up, and everything would be allright, and a happy ending for all.

But this is not that kind of story.

"What all of you have said is true, and doing this plan would put us in immediate jeopardy, but in our current situation the enemy has a logistical advantage over us and with an enemy fleet inbound we have little choice in the matter, it's conquer or die." He paused, stood up from his seat and with his arms crossed behind his back walked several feet away from the table; he stopped and starred at the wall before him, feeling the eyes of the room's occupants on his back.

In past fleets there would be someone else who would come up with the insane plan, and Metty would be the one who tried to survive it.

"Time to be the one in charge I suppose."

But now he was that miserable bastard that decided how, and when, death would come a knocking, and which unit would be the first to greet it.

"If we execute this plan, there is a great risk of defeat and destruction within a week, but if we do not, then certain destruction awaits us within the coming month, or capture and then who knows what's next! We have to face facts that........that there's no way for us to run away from this. W are cornered rats with no way out, so our only choice is to turn back at the one that's stalking us and jump at the tiger jugular and get it before the beast engulfs us. Not hope to do it, not get lucky and do it. We are going to do it. And why? Because that's the only path we have left to follow. The one trough the beasts jaws, the one trough the jungle." He added, and for once he was speaking the truth, or perhaps the truth a soldier of his reputation was expected to say.

"Believe me, if there was any other path but the one in front of us, I'd gladly take it."

Metternich said with a bitter smile of disappointment in his voice. And like before they misperceived the intent of his words. They considered it regret of a bad situation and a bad way to fix it, when he was in fact looking for a good way out of it.

He was sincerely bitter that there was no way to avoid battle.

But the same tone, words, and expression he also used to lie to them that he was really disappointed that he had not a better way to initiate battle.

So there he was, telling them a lie and a truth, using the same sentence.

"No wonder I am the one in charge." The bittersweet thought echoed through his mind as he waited for their reply.

At this not a word was spoken within the room, the grim reality of the situation Rear-Admiral Cassius had landed them in left them speechless, the silence lended itself to an unspoken agreement to execute the plan, even Werner who was known to be skeptical and indifferent to fleet commanders (that almost got him court marshaled a few times), had nothing to say against it now, for it was hard to find faults in the cold heard truth of the matter.

The truth was often unbearable.

So he had a different kind of contribution to the conversation.

"Commodore, I know that what I am about to say is not related with our current battle plans, but I have a purely speculative question that I'd like to ask your opinion on." Werner said and Adrian tensed at that, from the brief period of time knowing him, Adrian now was certain that the colonel would continue with his provocations and challenge Metternich's authority once more.

"If, from a purely theoretical point of view, I would call you a 'glory seeking taffer, sound of a towngirl, that only got his rapid promotion because your sponsors. And if I, for whatever reason, said that your title of 'Fox of Marengo' was a just a fluke, what would be your response?" Von Braun asked.

"COLONEL, DO YOU WISH TO BE FLOGGED?!?!?!" Adrian angrily shouted from the top of his lungs, as he slammed his left fist on the table, before he placed his dueling hand on to the hilt of his sword.

The Commodore 3rd class looked poised to attack Werner over the colonel's gross breach of protocol and great disrespect to a superior officer, von Braun remained unfazed and simply smirked, as he also touched the handle of the weapon on his belt.

Metternich, his eyes blazing red ( for once not out of cowardice) and a look of anger of almost the same caliber as his knight's had on his face, raised his hand to stop his subordinate from escalating the conflict, which seemed to partially calm Adrian down, as he let go of his sword hilt, but not before adding:

"I was at Marengo sir, and I assure you that was no fluke!" the hatred for Werner was evident in his eyes as he sat back down.

But this was quickly forgotten by those around the table, as they all gazed at Metternich to gauge his reaction and a collective holding of breath was taken when he finally spoke.

"To your question Colonel, my response to your 'speculations' would be that 'from a purely speculative point of view' you will be denied lunch rations and that you will receive none at dinner." Metternich said surprising everyone present, almost everyone did a double take and half blink upon hearing those words.

All those present were uncertain at how to react at this; they expected Werner to be flogged or worse!

Not simply be sent to bed without supper for being a naughty boy.

Von Braun, who was equally as surprised as the rest of them, looked ready to point out the fact, but before he could say anything Metternich continued.

"And if the colonel adds any more, he will be denied four days worth of rations."

"You would deny the commander of your most elite infantry unit food right before a major operation?" Werner said, astounded at just how merciful one moment the punishment seemed to be, and just how cruel it was the next.

"No Colonel, you will be the one to deny the aforementioned officer four days worth of food, so what happens next is entirely your responsibility. So please act like a brigade commander, and see to the welfare of your men, it would do little good if you sabotaged the 88th's battle capabilities by your gross dereliction of duty for your underlings."

"Especially since if you make a bad choice my health will be in danger, for if Adrian and you will clash, I could be caught in the crossfire!"

After that the commander's eyes blazed away more intense than ever before.

Metternich looked straight into Werner's eyes, the color and intensity growing with each passing moment of silence, making even the hardened infantry commander starting to feel 'uncomfortable' under that burning stare that screamed almost divine retribution.

But what was most disturbing was an almost pleading look in his new commander's face.

"He wants me to fight Adrian so he can break me for insubordination! I am starting to like this fox!"

A look which was once more misinterpreted.

"Understood sir! And thank you for answering my 'speculations' sir!" Werner said with a cheerful and friendly smile on his face, not the reaction one would expect when threatened with starvation.

A collective breath of air, which had been held by the room's occupants, was released at that moment.

The ground pounder infantry knew their colonel's temper, and the fleet commanders all knew how seriously their old friend Adrian took duty and honor, and they were glad that a clash between the two was avoided.

"I want all preparation to be finished as soon as possible, how soon can we commence the operation?" Metternich asked after a few moments of silence.

"I'd say about 72 hours my lord." Tarkan replied to him, it would take less than that, but Tarkan was a sergeant at heart still, so he used one of the old tricks, namely saying that it would take longer that it actually took cause then the commander would....

"Make it 48."

Tarkan had to suppress a smile upon hearing Metternich say that, even as a man with a commissioned rank now, he could still read officers pretty well.

"Also, I'll be part of the flanking attack, since that will be where the decisive fight will take place and I will need to be present there, I am not saying that Tarkan, Werner or Adrian cannot lead it, but I must be there for morale purposes. One can hardly expect the men to go forward if I don't take the first step myself." Metternich added, and gave a look at them that said' just try and argue with me about this'.

"It's also were the greatest amount of troops will be concentrated during the opening of the battle, which means lots of warm bodies between myself and the enemy. And if things go rotten I can use that wood to properly exit stage left." he thought of the real reason he wanted to be there, and kept it to himself.

Metty smiled a bit after he told them this part of the plan, he was pleased with himself that for once he had managed to wrestle control of his own situation and position himself as to being safe and away fighting as such a thing was currently possible.

This of course was completely misinterpreted by his commanders.

"He wants to be with the flanking force?! That's where the worst of the fighting will be once the enemy realizes what's happening! No wonder High-Admiral Gerula, along with the War Chief and the Field Marshall are his sponsors!"

Was the, if not 100% identical in grammar and syntax but similar in spirit and intent, thoughts that blazed through the minds of Tarkan, Werner, Adrian, Oscar, Valyria, Antonius, Dalius, Georgaian, Horatia, and all of the other officers in the room.

Well, except Butz that is, serving under Headmaster Metty had made this the norm for him.

"My lord, shouldn't you address the troops?" Valyria asked the commander. Curious on what words he'd use to set their hearts on fire as he did so with them.

All the while, Adrian smiled upon hearing her words, the change in the way she addressed their new commander was not lost on him.

"Actions speak louder than words Valyria and in two days I intended to make this whole solar system hear me!" he said to her in a dramatic fashion, deciding to show the image of a brave, flamboyant and dashing commander, even if it was a lie.

This had a profound effect on Valyria and it struck a chord in her once more, and it also did the same for the other occupants in the room.

"Also, the idea of making one big battle speech right before a supposed secret attack, sounds a like its....... Oh...............what's the proper word for that kind of idea?" he added with a soft smile on his lips, which indicated he was waiting for someone else to give the punch line.

"Nuts, commander?" Adrian added with a big, knowing, smile on his face.

"Yes, that's the one! Whether it's the state of mind, or the fruit, it's the appropriate word to avoid."

Metternich said and a small collective chuckle was heard from the room (and this time it almost fully sounded sincere); He got up to leave everyone else in the room gave a crisp salute, with the exception of Werner who gave halfhearted almost mocking salute.

"Almost sincere indeed."

The action seemed to challenge Metternich to earn that from him, and instead of the desired effect of anger or of a indignation, the end result was (baring a few private homicidal thoughts from Metternich towards the Colonel) Metty turning around, and leaving to try and recover from his headaches, stomach pains and the stress and anger accumulated from dealing with Werner.

But no pain no gain.

"I am starting to really hate the taffer that wrote down all those proverbs." Metty thought to himself, his subconscious mind being aware of how many of the old phrases would have perfects fits for several instances in the past few hours.

"Doesn't make me hate the taffer any less!" The commodore thought as he made his way towards his quarters.

After they were sure that their new leader had passed beyond the hall leading to the conference room, the division and junior commanders also left the room, all with the exception of Tarkan and Valyria.

"So, that's the man of the hour, Metternich per Pelasgiamus, what is your opinion of him Valyria?" Tarkan asked her.

"He knows how to lift a person's spirits, and he seems to have a high degree of intelligence and wisdom in him, also he's right, if we do not do this risky plan we may not live to see home once again." Valyria added with a small touch of nonchalance.

"And if his plan fails?" Tarkan asked, his voice filled with curiosity.

"Then this everyone either dies in battle, wounds, hunger, thirst or is captured and taken to a prison camp." Valyria gave a deadpan reply.

"That's not a very pleasant thought; shouldn't you have a more optimistic look on the future? You could learn a thing or two from Georgaian!" Tarkan asked with a teasing smile.

"My look on life is a realistic one, it's not my fault that our reality currently resides in such a sorry state of affairs, and I wouldn't want to step on Georgaian's toes, especially since they have razor sharp talons on them." She said with a smile on her lips.

They shared a chuckle at that.

Tarkan gave a nod of acknowledgment, after which he got up from his seat and left in order to start working on his end of the battle plan.

As he walked towards his divisional hq, thoughts of the battle ahead were weighing heavily on his mind, for he had never anticipated than when they had left their base for Volun 4, on nothing more than a small 'Moral Booster', that it would devolve into such a desperate struggle and risky operation, and the thought of dying in the land of the Empire's enemies filled him with worry.

"What the heck? Hell or plunder!" He said out loud to himself, in order to alleviate his troubled mind, as he took a small mirror from his pocket, looked over his uniform and made a mental note to change it before the battle with a freshly cleaned and groomed one.

If this next battle would be his time to join the Hall of Heroes, he would go out in style!

After all sergeants must set an example for the troops, and always look their best, especially sergeants turned officers!

There was also another thought that was blooming inside him.

He had met many officers during his time as an enlisted man and an officer himself, and during that he had met some officers that made him think: 'this plan won't work, but maybe with him or her in charge it will', and Tarkan was getting that vibe from their new fleet corps commander.

He was starting to believe that unlike many other officers that he had served under, who all said that they wouldn't waste their men's lives, this one would actually come through, Tarkan the ol' sergeant actually believed that anyone who following Metternich would find themselves far away from the danger of death and destruction.

And for some strange reason he felt the need to keep a closer eye on Commodore Metternich.

Sergeants will be sergeants after all.

And he was one of the best!

Though he was unsure why he was feeling this strange feeling in his gut about the new commander, wasn't like the blue skinned red eye commodore was yellow.

Meanwhile, in another section of the command center Colonel Werner and his subordinates were sitting down at table having a meal.

"That was a bit out of line colonel, even for us." Lintz said to him.

"Maybe, but it was necessary for me to get a good idea of our new commander. After all, we only know the guy for a few hours and we're supposed to let him gamble with our lives. So I wanted to make sure what kind of bookie he is." Werner added as he took a sip of coffee.

"And what did you gauge from his reactions?" Montpellier asked.

"He got angry at my remark and refused to take the bait, that means he can control his emotions and impulses, he uses a punishment that fits the crime, he also made it so that I would get at least part of the blame from the troops, which indicates that he knows how to win a situation and avoid at least a part of the fallout from it regardless of what happens, a good start but for now he is still on probation." von Braun replied.

"Do you think we will be alright with him? He's rather young for a commodore; I mean he's barely in his late to mid twenties." McClelland asked.

"Good question, I for one don't want another Cassius on our hands!" Lintz added and nearly spat on the ground in disgust, and considering his mouth was full with mustered fried meat and mashed taters, it was probably a good thing he didn't.

"If he turns out to be another Cassius then we can always organize another banquet." Werner replied coldly, they all got the meaning behind their commander's words, but said nothing, just nodded and continued to dig in to their meals.

Werner got a forkful of meat and taters.

His officers noticed that just as he was about to take a bite he paused, and then placed the fork back on his plate and pushed the plate away.

The colonel then laid back in his chair and simply continued to sip the coffee, for the remainder of the meal the colonel would not touch any food.

The others noticed we're surprised by his actions, but decided to say nothing about it, they only continued with their meal and consumed iced drinks that helped them cope with the desert's scorch.

Maramanakama Imperial field command center.

12:23 Local Planetary time

"Damn this summer heat, its hot enough to have the pavement crack and burst, this whole city could use a river running through its streets!" Gelios, who was comfortably sitting in his comfortable and air charmed to a cool breeze around itself chair, thought to himself as he wiped the sweat of his forehead, watching as the first wave of his attack force entered the enemy's territory.

He was certain that success was guaranteed; after all, an undisciplined rabble cannot stand against a great nation's army!

"Sir, third squadron was ambushed and destroyed!"One of his staffers said all of a sudden.

"What?!"The governor exclaimed, as he quickly got up from his chair and walked towards the battle map.

Gazing upon it, he saw the green images that designated his units disappear one by one.

"Eight squad's under assault."

"Second squad's retreating."

"Forth squad has just been ambushed from behind and we've lost contact!" The reported all around the command centre.

"We are getting reports of raids on the field hospital's defenses!"

"What the hell is going on out there?" Gelios asked in a mixture of anger and surprise.

As the spider above him was now halfway done weaving his web,

As the eyes in its head;

Showed its master the knitted thread.

Many ones were caught in it;

And secrets escaped instead.

378th command headquarters, Metternich's private room.

"Kriffing bum, making my life harder than it needs to be!"The young commodore thought to himself as he angrily slammed his fists on his desk, several hours had passed since the meeting, but the anger for Werner's actions remained.

Metty calmed himself down eventually and returned to going over the files of the 88th and the intelligence reports from CORSEC, it helped distract him from a lot of things that he was angry at.

He was angry at the war, at Werner, but especially at himself for not being able to avoid all this madness.

He continued to frown at nothing and nobody for a few minutes, until his anger disappeared and silent tears threatened to trickle down his face.

"I might have made an enemy of the most dangerous warrior on the planet, tomorrow I will prepare for not just a battle but a decisive one, the enemy will be in front of me, and that dammed colonel will be behind me! I'll be trapped between a rock and a hard place, the day after tomorrow I might............ I might die! I should run, run away from this war, from this madness, from people killing others by thousands each day." He thought to himself as he lay on his bed and activated the rune spells on his ceiling, which made the night sky appear on it.

"Maybe if I did so others would follow. Maybe, maybe the officers, and the enlisted men would leave as well, and then maybe, just maybe, the enemy would do the same! We could all go walk away from this, go someplace far away, like the Great Founder Tomiris did! Let the field-marshals and admirals and politicians have their war, let them fight, and starve, and die!" Metternich thought to himself and a flicker of hope spread across his face, before cruel reality showed itself and removed it away from him.

"No, that will not happen. I couldn't desert when I was starting out as a captain, and now with my face well known across the empire and my reputation.............. it's impossible for me to go undetected. Also I have thousands of men from my new command watching me and they..........they......... even if I tried to desert they would never follow, for I know we fight wars because of pride, greed, shame, and the greatest reason off all stupidity, and from my time as a potions maker I know that those are the few ailments that we do not have a cure for and to many have them disease inside them." Metty thought to himself as he exhaled a disappointed breath of air.

The young commodore got up from his bed and went to make a few rounds across his new fleet corps.

He had a meal in the enlisted personals mess hall, he chatted with some soldiers and sailors, all of whom were very happy to have the 'Fox of Marengo' as their new commander.

That's what they said to his face, and Metty knew that not even ones like them that had the 'disease' were sick enough to say anything else but that to his face.

After that he went back to his quarters to try and get some sleep.

Metternich barely managed any shuteye at all, so he just got up and went for a second round, and a third, and fourth, and twelfth, he must have visited every battalion at least once and when it was over he encountered a few of the early morning shift scouts that just woke up and were surprised to see their commander awake before them.

He asked Butz, who insisted on accompanied Metty every time he went for a walk, to spare give them some kava, and after a few salutes from them and a one that was more sloppy-like from him, Metty was on his way back to his quarters, for the 13th time this day, now early morning.

His stomach was aching from nervousness for the battle ahead, preventing him from resting, but he judged that he did manage to get at least 3 hours in during the night and he plan to get a least another 3 before today's daily meeting.

As Metty made his way back to his bed, his stomach was staring to act up again. He knew that he had already checked everything and gave the necessary orders at yesterday's meeting, but he was a very agitated person by nature, and because of his stomach and from past experiences he knew that for the next few hours he would only be able to get some rest by virtue of the fact that he tired himself so thoroughly last night that he could barely stand.

The young commodore went to bed and got in as much rest as he could, before he could stand the anxiety and the stomach ache no longer.

Metternich got up from his bed, vomited a few mouthfuls of stomach acid in the toilet and then exited his room to continued his rounds.

Not just to help calm his nerves and diminish his anxiety, but also because stuff like having the commander be seen and interacting with the troops would improve moral, and troops appreciated a dutiful leader.

It helped if the enlisted men appreciated their commander, since you would want several thousand men and women with deadly weapons to like you, wouldn't you?

So Metternich marched on with his meet and greet, the idea that it was beneficial to his health was a great motivator!

And he did all this under the gaze of the spiders that watched him intently, all the while a complex webs were spun, as the players in the war made their moves.

The Dukhym district

12:48 Local Planetary time.

"Numbers 3 to 6 attack now!" Nobody ordered over the windwaker airways.

On his command a volley of earth arrows was shot into the building wall in front of Daiamar and Maiamar, the earth arrows connected with it, grew in size from absorbing the mass of the wall, and continued on its way through the now hole in the wall that appeared from their absorption spell, and struck the Imperial squad that was passing by the other side of the wall in that very moment.

The fourth imperial squadron was hit with tons of brick, mortar, rock, plaster, paint, steel and cast iron as they were struck by the now moving wall itself.

There were many jokes of being hit by a brick wall, but no one was laughing now.

No, the squadron that had been smashed by it, not even the two rebels that did it felt like laughing, because they could hear how some had not been killed by the impact and were now buried alive by it, their horrible screams were now heard all across the street.

Not even the artillery barrage was savage enough to mask it.

It was.....it was easier to shoot at them then run away and not stick around for the aftermath, for it reminded them that their enemy was still flesh and blood.

At least that was what a normal reaction to this would have been.

But then they remembered that many of their friends had been butchered by them, so the screams in the rubble elicit a different reaction in the two.

"They can bleed!"

"We can kill them!"

Both Maiamar and Daiamar said in jubilation as they were about to go and dig the survivors from the rubble.

In order to finish off with their own two hands.

"Excellent, now numbers 2 and 8, launch several fire arrows at location 43-87, numbers 9 and 3 will fire at the same location with winter ice water arrows, numbers 5 and 10 proceed to point four and fire at the eight o clock direction, numbers 3 and 6 relocate immediately at point 7. Also, number 4."

"Y-yes!" Kalynka asked, since she was the designated number 4.

"Since you are the ace pilot here, this is what I want you to do, move to location 78-49; at my command I want you to temporarily deactivate the cloak field spell."

"But that will make them send all of their forces at us!" Kalynka said, with more curiosity in her voice and less panic than before, her fear of death and defeat was still present, but it had been tempered by her experience in the river, the submarine and its captain.

It wasn't the brush with death that shook her, but rather the enemy's captain actions that did so.

He knew that there had been no way for him to defeat her, so he denied her the opportunity to murder his crew and let them be safe to fight another day, and then he had denied her victory once more by preventing Kalynka from taking his life.

Many of the Imperials were weak and cowardly, but now she knew that there were some like that captain that fought with skill, honor and a cutthroat determination for victory, they fought almost like......like....like marans!

"No! Never think like that! They are all worthless cowards and monsters!" She shouted to herself mentally as the face of her dear brother flashed in her mind, putting even more pain and ache in her heart, she was very confused right now, the world was simple just a few short hours ago, now everything seemed so complicated.

Fighting this war had been simple once, now she just didn't know what to do sometimes.

"One needs proper bait for a great trap; I've proven myself capable so far, have I not? You've trusted me so far, do as I say and our victory will be complete, as for the rest of you I'd like you all to do the following......"

At least fighting this battle remained simple for now.

So she followed orders, went where she was told to go, and reminded herself not to be shamed in courage and skill by the wretched imperials.

What Kalynka was doing was the right thing to do, namely slaying the monsters that infested her country, as once more the smile of her dear brother flashed in her mind.

And once more heartache accompanied that thought.

War often makes even the happiest of memories painful, and unbearable.

The others present hesitated for a moment at following his commands, partly out of the fact that they still had some reservation of following a stranger that didn't show his face to them, let alone where, and what, he came from (and partially out of fatigue, this battle had been going on for quite some time), even if he brought them victory.

But only for a moment before they carried out his commands, the battle was starting to go in their favor, and since none of the rebels had any better options available, and considering they were too drunk on winning to really think of an alternative, they obeyed Nobody.

At least for now.

Maramanakama Imperial field command center.

12:53

"Sir, the eastern bridge has just collapsed taking the second company with them!"

"Our submarine pool has just been heavily damaged; looks like one of our own subs just did a suicide run!"

"The reinforcements from the northern side have been ambushed and pushed back outside; also we are getting reports that the enemy is using battle armors!"

The orderlies bombarded the command centre with a constant flow of messages that said that on all fronts they were being beaten back, their troops were cut to pieces, and the Creed Magic balance was starting to shift to their enemy's favor, now that word of the military reversals were spreading all throughout the remainder of their forces.

"It must be the Maran Liberation Army or the Marans People's Front; they're the only ones amongst the terrorists that have battle armors!" Bartolommeo said toward the governor.

"It can't be him.......It can't be Alefran, right?" Gelios asked with concern in his voice, Alefran was one the most feared out of all the rebel leaders in the Maran sector.

This all felt like something someone of his reputation could pull off.

As for what would happens if they continued loosing and word got out that the MPF had such a stunning victory against the Empire?

Well, open rebellions had risen up out of lesser events than this.

Those were the thoughts inside his mind as Gelios continued to receive more bad news, after bad news, with no end in sight.

"Sir, the enemy's cloak has just fallen!" one of the tactical officers said to his commander, and the prince looked at the display and saw as the enemy units position was revealed to them.

"Ha! There they are! They're in the center of the district, now we have them. All units charge!" Gelios ordered.

"But my lord, doesn't it seem suspicious that-"

"Shut your mouth Bartolommeo, they have made a fool of me long enough, I want every warrior on them now!" Gelios cut him off with a shout, and his order was carried out.

"This ends here and now! No way will I allow the fires of war spread from here and engulf this whole sector!" Gelios thought, and prayed, that it would be over soon.

The Dukhym district

"The imperials are now advancing on your positions, all numbers are to maintain their current status and are not to engage the enemy as they pass you, I repeat your main objective is to remain hidden, also number 7, are you ready?" Nobody asked.

"My name's Tubarin, and yeah I'm in position." Tubarin replied in annoyance and apprehension.

"Things have been going easy for us...all too easy." He thought to himself as he felt a chill down his spine, and for once the fear he felt was not from the foreign army.

The Imperial chariots and support units made their way through the streets, unknowingly passing the rebels, who where now hiding by powering down their stolen imperial armors to avoid the PULSAR sweep and had buried themselves within the rubble caused by the very artillery barrage that the imperials had fired on Dukhym in order to deal a blow that would decide the outcome of the battle, and they did so!

For after the imperial troops reached the center of the district, where their pulsar maps told them the enemy would be, an order was given to Ahmaiano's group.

"Now number 7 initiate the spell!" Nobody ordered him.

Maramanakama Imperial field command center.

13:01

"Sir, the troops have reached the district's center and they're reporting that the only thing they found are some power crystals that are blasting away their energy." one of the orderlies reported.

*BANG*BOOM*BANG*BOOM*BANG*BOOM*BANG*BOOM

A great wave of explosions was heard coming from the direction of Dukhym, as the great noise of multiple explosions washed over the command center, its occupants felt a tremble beneath their feet as the ground itself began to shake from the explosions shockwave that had reached their positions.

Many had to cling to various bolted down chairs, tables and walls in order to keep their balance, glances directed at several cups of water witnessed how its calm glass-like surface reacted to the quake, making their surfaces shake savagely like the most violent of stormy seas.

"What the hell was that?" Gelios asked as he grabbed the main table and tried to centre himself as his eyes saw the same thing happen with the spirits.

"Incoming emergency transmission, I'm putting it trough."

"This is Lieutenant Brandon of the 27th squadron. HQ, the sewer below us has just collapsed from a huge explosion, some of us have been taken down by it, the enemy has also triggered a massive water spell that hit us hard, what's left of us is fighting the flood, request................."His report was cut off by the sound of him screaming and then only static remained to be heard from the communication crystal.

"It's Alefran, Alefran is here!" Gelios said as fear started griping him.

"Sir, the enemies cloak has been reactivated!"

"Withdraw all forces at once." Gelios ordered bitterly as he sat down back in his chair and grabbed his glass of alcohol.

"No sense in losing any more warriors in today's battle. We'll need as many troopers as possible for the war to come." Gelios thought to himself as he gazed at the farview embedded in his right arm rest, and upon seeing the casualty list that seemed to never end he wondered if every ship and every soldier he had available would be enough to stem the coming tide if this battle was any indication.

He raised the glass to his mouth, but stopped short of it; he set the glass down next to the bottle of spirits and then started gulping down directly from the bottle.

The Dukhym district.

13:03

"Looks like..........By the Great Catcher, the enemy is retreating!" Kalynka said, not believing her own words, it happened, it actually happened!

"We beat them, we really beat them!" Ahmaianos said over the comm frequency as cheers, mixed with tears, both of joy and of sorrow, flooded their comm channel.

Victory!

A real victory!

And it was all so simple.

Making noise to cloak your position, using your forces in irregular firing patterns, maintaining a flexible front, using bait and trap tactics, these were all easy and effective methods of war.

They were just not something that most people could come up with from the top of their heads.

That and having the enemy's stolen armors, and Nobody on your side was a plus in her opinion.

"All units break through the encirclement, with their forces in temporary disarray they shouldn't be much of a threat to you, but that won't last for long, after you get to safety I suggest you lay low for a while, you may keep the armors as a gift, one of many more to come. You have all done as I knew you would. But as to what happens next this will be entirely up to you, thought I already know what choices you will make. Walk away from this? You could, you should, but you won't. Nobody walks away from this, and you will remain to continue on this path, otherwise you would have never started on it."

"Cause the realm is filled with people written the way they are, and you all have your part to play in this. As such I will contact you latter to finish the contract and negotiate the payment for future services. Rest today, drink, be merry and fruitful, tomorrow the real battle begins." Nobody told them.

"Wait, just who are you?" Kalynka asked through the communication crystal, but only static came from it, she stared intently at it, wanting to ask him more about who he was.

Nobody owed them an answer, after all.

She raised her gaze from her comm crystal, deciding to take one last look of their glorious triumph before they had to withdraw and she saw in its entirety.

She saw how the explosions had broken not just the sewer pipes, but most of the roads were now nothing but impassible trenches and many buildings now lay in a dangerous tilt from the way the earth itself was carved.

She witnessed how the water that had swept away the Imperial army, had also hit many ground and first story apartments and houses, and how the families started to come out of their devastated homes, and how some didn't.

She witnessed how the waters didn't recede fully, as a half knee dept river continued to stream down main street, the stench of the poisonous sewer water hit her then, letting no doubt in her mind that the river was carrying nothing short sickness and diseases.

Everywhere she looked, she saw nothing but destruction and tragedy, blood and rubble, and the stench, the stench of war was everywhere.

Only that and nothing more

Kalynka felt her heart stop as a horrible truth pierced it.

"We detonated the bombs and spells. We.....We........We........did this....To our own city!"

Victory!

A true victory indeed!

So why did it feel like a defeat? Kalynka wondered, but there was no forthcoming answer.

After all.......

Nobody owed them an answer...............

Volun 4, the position of the 378th.

Caliupus 10th

5:52

"Medical squads are ready to go, and we have already set up field hospitals to deal with the eventual flow of wounded and we have face masks distributed in case of gass warfare. Fuel grade and ammunition grade crystals have been distributed and all forces are in position. We've coordinated all this trough curriers and messenger birds, maintaining comm silence, all infantry units report that they are in position sir." Butz gave his report to Metternich.

"Thank you Butz. Everything ready on your end Adrian?"

"Yes my lord, the fast attack units are in position, Tarkan has moved up with his forces, we just await your order to begin." His knight and, current temporary cavalry commander, said to him from atop his great armored war horse mount that had 3 pairs of legs.

Behind him was his command staff on their ice armored war cheetah-like mounts and behind that was his bodyguard squad on their fire engulfed scale armored tiger mounts, with their squad captain riding a white lion.

"Very well, the sun's about to come up, so you may go and join your command. I'll give the signal for the attack soon enough, no sense in wasting the cloak of darkness since we'll need all the help we can get." Metternich ordered, Adrian nodded and left to occupy his respective post in the upcoming battle, followed by his staff and bodyguards.

Metternich's plan was simple, Valyria along with Horatia, Oscar, Dalius, Antonius and Georgaian would begin a diversionary attack on the enemy's lines, while at the same time the forces of Tarkan and Werner which were now lead by their new commander would perform the true offensive, namely a pincer maneuver from behind after crossing the forest south of the mountains.

A simple plan, but also a very risky one.

Barely an hour ago they were all strung about in a single great column that would have been impossible to defend from any air raid or ambush, the fact that they managed to cross while they were so thinly spread out and not be attacked by a concentrated enemy assault was nothing short of a miracle.

And in the armed forces the term 'miracle' meant a mixture of dumb luck, hard work and talent, all dipped and deep fried in countless ways the plan could be taffed up just as it began.

And the plan proper was barely passed its initial starting stage.

That's why he kept a stoic gaze as he swept another look all around the plain that kissed the forest's edge, there he could see how few obstacles stood in the way of them and their target.

To the eyes of his staff and bodyguards he must have looked like one of the heroes of old, enemy before him, his army behind him ready for their champion to lead the charge to save the day.

Their hearts were swollen with pride at having such a commander, many of them had been doubtful or resentful of this outsider, but after knowing him these past several days they would gladly march forward to wherever their path was headed, as long as he was leading them.

Metternich was aware of this, and tried to keep up as much as he could of the mask he was projecting for the world to see.

"After all, there was that peculiarity were an officer's life was directly proportioned to how much his troops liked him."

Those were his thoughts as Butz handed him a bottle of water for a quick drink.

While Metty quenched his thirst, as the first drops of water touched his lips for a moment he felt great joy there and then, but as he raised the bottle and took another big gulp he was overwhelmed by bottled up feelings and with his face hidden now by the bottle, the mask fell away.

For no lie lasts forever, and in that moment when he was sure that the essence of life itself was keeping him hidden from the outside world, Metty let his true self surface for a moment.

Only for a moment.

He turned his eyes to gaze mournfully towards the direction that he thought his homeland was, towards the one place where he had always been safe, where he had always been happy, the one place that he didn't know whether he'd ever see again.

Would he ever once more see the great mountains that laid in the heart of his homeland?

Would he ever traverse the ancient river that was as wide as the greatest of lakes?

Would he ever dive and swim in the great blue sea?

Run across the lush fertile fields with their thick grass?

Would he ever gaze at the great threes of the deep forests all grown from the thickest, noblest trees, and teaming with game?

He finished his drink and then wiped his mouth with his sleeve, using the motion as a means to mask how he gazed back towards the forest.

For a moment he could hear the rustling autumn leaves and the chirping of insects in the fields of spring, he could smell the warm summer waves of the sea and the gentle river breeze that came with the fall's rains.

For a moment he could even see the endless white peaked hills and mountains of winter as gentle snow fell from the sky.

For a moment he felt safe.

But only for a moment.

For no lie lasts forever, for his eyes lowered themselves and saw that his army was now getting ready to emerge from the forest as well and many of the vanguard units where now nearing the edge, where he was.

The Earth Breakers raised their muzzles high, ready for the opening barrage.

The artillery units were so big and so thick that you could mistake them for ancient threes that belonged to the the forest itself.

The chariots behind him were ready, having moved from marching columns to lines of attack, they looked like a great fortresses' walls, that were made of the thickest, strongest steel, that had come to life in order to bring havoc on those that threatened their citadel.

The cavalry was trotting into positions; a great stream of mounted warriors came forward.

Some had spears with shields or long cavalry sabers with shields, others had bows and javelins.

Like a great river made of flesh, beasts, and death, they poured between the nook and crannies of the tanks, artillery and infantry formations to take up their positions, ready to flood the enemy and cleanse the field before them

Finally there came the infantry, line the chariots they were switching from columns to lines, they were masked from the enemy by the forest, but since he was within it Metternich could look to his left right, and anywhere behind himself, and see nothing but formations made of bodies carrying their countless spears and halberds, shields with short spears, swords/axes/maces, two handed warhammer and war axes, throwing spears, bows or crossbows, as they marched forward swaying in a group, like they were the scales of a great beast that had risen from a long slumber from its lair and was now hunting for prey.

All in all a massive force of steel, flesh, and magic.

As the sight behind Metty was now filled with the imperial forces, he noticed that they were all starting to cluster up, so much so that even if he abandoned the vehicle he was riding (which was a light one at that), Metty doubted that he could squeeze his way on foot between the various military squads and formations.

And they were that way because of his orders.

It looked like now he truly had no way out of this.

"Now there's truly no other path to take but forward towards the battle. And for this I have no one to blame but myself."Metty thought as he gave a bitter mental laugh.

"Well, I said I would be in control of my fate, no sense mopping about it now, time to put my money where my mouth is." He muttered under his breath as he turned his gaze back towards the direction of the enemy supply base and mentally went over his plan once more.

The hour of truth was upon this liar.

It was like any other of his old schemes, surviving for as long as he did counts as being 'old' in wartime.

All that was needed was the order to begin.

This was always the part he dreaded the most, that one moment when hell broke loose, for years he had hated receiving it .

Now he was the one that would give it.

But there was a great difference between now and then.

The old Metty hoped for the best and avoided the worst.

The new one would not let his fate be left to the whims of chance.

He would forge his own starting now!

Or at the very least he hoped he could spy a moment when destiny wasn't looking so he could nick his fate from destiny's workshop.

To someone who knew the truth about his true colours, it seemed like Metty would actually grow and change and make the lies about him a reality.

But this is not that kind of a story.

With that feeling in his heart, Metternich took out a pack of cards from his pocket.

With his newfound determination in mind, he decided to test his new resolution and would now try with all his might to pick the ace of spades from the very first draw, this would mean that he and he alone was in control of his fate.

Of course this was a stupid act; one that he knew was futile and would not mean anything.

But he felt he had to do this.

Or rather he needed to do this.

How could he win this battle if he couldn't even win a simple card draw after all?

He was still a 'coward', but a coward that was now determined to see his objective come to fruition! Metternich almost laughed at the absurdity of his current situation.

"Look at me Jonathan? All this time priding myself on being the only man with a brain in the room and here I am, putting my faith in a game of random chances to be proof of a certainty...........I.....I........I have been at war for far too long........."

Metty thought to himself as he drew the card, but did not turn it to see which card it was, he kept it face down.

As the commodore placed the card aside he raised himself from his chair in the passenger section of the opened top spider-wolf jeep, and after getting into the gunner's seat for the heavy automatic crossbow that was mounted on the jeep, he took out a picture from his pocket.

It was taken only 3 months before the pirate incident that got him shanghaied into the navy.

In it there were all his friends, who were also his original crew, they were from all over the galaxy but all looked happy.

Nostalgia gripped him as he gazed at his old life, before that fateful day when it was changed forever, before the war, before they all left to fight each other.

He gazed at days long gone by, his eyes lingering on Jonathan who had left them that picture day to pursue other ventures.

He missed the old days, Jonathan in particular for he was his best friend.

"This is it Jonathan, another day, another battle, but this time I actually find myself into a position of my choosing. I'll win the fight, or at the very least I'll make a big enough mess to run away from it if it comes to that, wish me luck and I hope that you are all alright." He talked with his old friends, as he did so many times before, and placed the picture back in his pocket.

As all around him his command was now fully ready for the assault, and with that the battle armor he was wearing felt very, very heavy and uncomfortable, as his stomach started aching again from anxiety for the upcoming battle had gripped him once more.

The uniform he had been wearing was still beneath that armor.

He was wearing the newest model battle armor, namely the AP2- 587 and like its predecessor the BGY, it was about the same shape, but with a few improvements such as various hooks and rings across its body to make it very customizable in terms of what the wearer could carry.

It had an internal heater and air conditioner which helped keep the wearer more comfortable than its older model.

Its surface skin had a special rune spell imbedded into it that allowed it to change colors, making it an essential feature for ambushes and remaining undetected by the enemy.

The armor carried an oxygen extractor for underwater breathing, and an air pack for zero G space combat if necessary.

Metternich's armor was the same model the rest of the Imperial army used, with the exception that his shoulders were lined with fur and he strangely wore a leather long coat over his armor, one that reached down to his feet.

Metternich's helmet was also unique, in that it was a cylindrical shaped one that encased his head, the helmed was a dark golden-coppered color and had a series of circle like bumps that covered most of its surface, the shapes were clearly designed to divert and deflect sword blows from the wearer's head.

At forehead level, a sculpture of a pair of eyes was encrusted into the design; its purpose was according to the ancient beliefs of his ancestors to ward off evil and danger.

Also the back of the helmet that was at eye level together with the sides that protected the ears had sculptures of battles his people had fought with their four holy weapons and though he did not consider himself a warrior, he could do a decent job with his ancestor's sacred tools.

The helmet was made to be serviceable, intimidating, to shown one's rank to the ally without alerting the enemy and above all to ensure its users survival.

That and it looked pretty sweet!

But he had no time to ponder his fashion choices, since the battle itself was about to begin, so he clasped his hands, closed his eyes and prayed.

"Help me......help me and my army and fleet, please give me strength to survive and see to it that as many of my warriors as possible survive this battle, also.................also please make sure that as few foes die as well, and for those that do, be they enemy or Imperials, please make sure they do not suffer and forgive them and us for what we are about to do." He prayed to his ancestral God, made the holy signs of faith and piety and then turned his now opened his eyes to what lay before him.

"So that as few vengeful spirits from both sides may not be born this day and come back to haunt me. And please cripple as many foreigners as possible, that way they'll be too busy hating their government who'll abandon them to shiv me."

He added that last part and me twice the holy signs as before to make sure.

Metternich restrained a chuckled and shook his head in a sad manner; he had already fallen back on his old habits after pledging to change.

Old habits die hard after all and he pledged to himself to never fall back again, and never do any of his old self's thoughts or actions ever again.

"Did you hear that Jonathan? Of course not, you are who knows where, and here am I, mumbling in my mind. Nobody hears me from here."

Metty then gave a bitter chuckle as he realized he did it again.

He had already broken that promise. But that was what liars' doo, especially to themselves.

The young commodore then decided to pocket the card he had drawn from the deck, still avoiding to look at it.

Above him the roar of the clouds was heard, as a storm was brewing and despite himself Metternich gave out a smile of relief, for the storm could help mask their attack!

Though he was now essentially a cornered rat, his cowardice disappeared, replaced with desperation, and with that he had no more fear of the enemy.

He would face them and triumph, for if not then death awaited Metternich.

And so he was now more afraid of death behind him, then the enemy before him, and with that he gave the order for infantry attack.

"Strike with lighting! Roar with thunder!"

He closed his eyes as the sun rose brining light; the clouds gathered darkening the field, the thunder from above was joined by the roar of hundreds of earth breakers and chariots that opened the battle.

He felt something inside him grow in power and confidence with the roar of heaven's fury.

"Zamolxes." Metternich opened his eyes and looked at the field filled with their foes.

Dozens, upon dozens of Earth Breakers batteries rained down hundreds of shells at their targets, as the thunder roared across the battlefield and lighting struck the ground ahead!

The fight for Volun 4 had begun!

Volunian-Federation task force Southern flank.

5:52 Local Planetary time.

The members of the 1st squadron of the 695th fighter wing were exhausted and weary, not just from the fact that most of them where from temperate climates and they were in a desert, but also because their current commander Lt Lance Hendrickson was dragging them along Captain Hannibal Rogue's extended patrol mission.

"Why, by all Saints and Sinners, are we here?" Bob, one of the pilots asked the others around him.

"Our regiment is here because the Volunians are allies of the United Federation of Planets (U.F.O.P), and we're here to protect them from the Empire." Hogan, his squadron mate replied.

"I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about why are we going each night on an extended patrol here of all places? I mean we're dozens of miles away from our front lines, that and we're fliers not ground pounders! Also, there's nothing here but the edge of that forest!" Bob said to him.

"Well, that's what we get for having 'Silly Billy' in our task force; the crazy fool actually thinks the enemy will come from behind us! What's next? Will their monarch do a triple summer salt, land on our right, left, and rear and moon us to death?" Hogan said in a whisper towards them, since no one wanted their officers hearing what they just said; the others around him chuckled silently at that.

They had little respect for their current commanding officer, since his proposals had been time and time again rejected by their senior officers for being too outlandish.

The generals had even gone as far as to reprimanding him publically and they had even begun a not so secretive smear campaign, making him the laughing stock of both forces stationed on Volun 4, they had done decent job at that since it made the troops forget the fact that he was once the most popular and well respect sailor in the fleet.

"They're laughing at you, should I do something about it?" Hendrickson asked Hannibal, Lance had a good ear and could clearly pick up what the soldiers were saying behind their backs.

"Let them be kid, I'd rather them be right and laugh at me, than it be the other way around; I just hope I'm wrong." Hannibal replied to the young freckle faced Lance as they reached the base of the hill that was before them.

Hannibal was about eight years older than the twenty something Lance, but despite their age difference the two men got along well almost like brothers.

As they were nearing the top of the hill Hannibal asked Lance the following:

"So how are things at home?"

"Same old, same old, Miranda's got another suitor pursuing her."

"And how many beaus does that make, fifteen?"

"Thirteen actually." Lance said and both men shared a chuckle, Miranda was Lance's twin sister and the object of affection from many of the young men of the capitol.

Miranda and Hannibal had talked face to face over the windwaker and warprider a few times when Lance called home, and the moment they started chatting to each they jumped at each other's throats.

They would debate and argue about anything and everything!

"You two are like oil and fire, put them together and it burns everything in sight." Lance teased him.

"We're not that bad!" Hannibal replied trying to sound insulted, but in fact he was trying hard not to laugh.

"Not that bad? At one point you argued about which brand of dung would be the most suited for growing jiga fruit."

"So?"

"Neither of you knew what jiga fruit even was at the time!" Lance countered with a smile on his face.

"We were merely making an guessing based on what we knew about fruits, farming and stuff like that."

"Jiga is an underwater plant that grows in oceans so deep that sulfuric volcanoes are its only source of nutriments." Lance to his friend, a smug smile on his face.

Hannibal said nothing, merely shook his head in defeat.

"Why the sudden interest in my family?" Lance asked him with a very dangerous grin on his face, that made Hannibal feel like a cat was next to him, and he was the canary.

"No reason, just making conversation and I have no interest in regards to your family whatsoever!"

"Or, maybe you have an interest in a particular member of my family?" Lance said continuing to tease his friend as they arrived at the top.

Boys will be boys after all.

As soon as Lance finished his sentence Hannibal quickly tackled Lance and threw the young man to the ground, and with that the lieutenant found himself with his back pressed against the dirt and with Hannibal on top of him.

"You know, when I said you had an interest in one member of my family this isn't what I had in mind!" Lance said to him in a confused and panicked voice but was cut off by Hannibal's hand which covered his mouth; he was about to struggle free when he saw that Hannibal was signaling with his free hand to be quiet and that there were enemies nearby.

Realization dawned on Lance's face, and he gave a quick nod of the head, Hannibal released him and gestured for them to move to the crest of the hill.

Lance rolled on his stomach and followed Hannibal as they crawled to the top and took a peak at the other side, the rest of the men followed suit.

When they arrived at the crest and saw what was on the other side they could barely believe their eyes, all except Hannibal who cursed himself for being right.

Down in the valley bellow there were dozens of squads of imperial soldiers marching out of the woods, and all of them were moving northwest to attack their army's rear positions!

"This is impossible, that forest is too thick to move an army through it!" Bob said to his teammates.

"Nothing is impossible kid, just hard to pull of sometimes; this here proves it and I got a sneaky suspicion that I know just how they did it." Hannibal said to him as he looked at the vast army before him.

"They're just a few miles away from our supply dumps; we have to do something before it's too late!" Lance said to Hannibal, he moved to crawl back down the slope, but a hand on his shoulder from the captain stopped him.

"It's already too late; look at that patch of forest over there." The older veteran-officer told the young warrior, handing him a pair of binoculars.

"What do you see?"

"Light! Light in the sorest.......Oh no! That's flashes of artillery fire." Lance said to Hannibal.

"Exactly, and with the storm above I'm guessing that they already got in a few good shots without our boys knowing what's going on. Half our armor could be smashed by now and HQ won't be hearing it until it starts shelling near their positions and by then it'll be too late." he pointed towards the direction of their supply dumps.

As he was gesturing towards their own lines a sudden flash of light was seen in the distance, it was from a bolt of lightning which hit the ground only a few shorts miles from their locations.

Then another and another flash, and after a few second thunder came and mixed with the thunder Hannibal could make out the distinctive roar of artillery fire.

With that flashes of light from both the storm and the artillery barrage, Hannibal could make out thousands of Imperial troops that were about to smash their rear.

"Two armies' worth of officers that constantly say they're right all the time. I'm the only kriffing taffer that for one time wants to be proven wrong, so of course I end up being right now of all times!!!" Han thought bitterly as he saw how the Imperial army started kriffing the two aforementioned Volunian and Federal armies and how whole battalions and regiments were smashed almost instantly.

"We'll, we-re kriffed. No sense kriffing about how kriffed we are, better get kriffing away from here so we can kriffing kriff, these kriffers, back and hard." Hannibal said with a smile on his face, it was that kind of situation, where all you could do was smile, tears just wasn't enough for this.

As the sound of thunder and lightning, mixed with the flashes and sounds of Earth Breakers, echoed throughout the landscape the small group saw some movement at the foot of the hill.

An enemy soldier was there and he was walking up the hill towards them.

They immediately moved a few feet back over the crest, so as to not be seen from the other side, and then glued themselves to the ground and remained motionless, hoping the night would camouflage them so as to avoid detection, since there were countless enemies at the bottom of the hill and only a handful of them, if that enemy soldiers saw them and sounded the alarm they would not stand a chance

The imperial reached the peak of the hill and looked bellow, almost directly at them.

He gave a few gazes their direction, then turned his attention to above them, and looked at the field from where they came from, before turning back and walking down the hill.

Lance gave out a heavy breath of air that he had been holding from nerves and immediately the imperial soldier's head popped up from the other side of the crest once more.

The lieutenant's lungs almost blocked themselves from shock as Lance quickly, yet silently, covered his mouth and slowly and once more silently, tried to suck in much needed air into his lungs.

It was not enough, his body needed more, much more than what he could draw in without making noise, Lance tried to keep his breathing steady and slow, but his lungs had been mostly empty when the Imperial had returned in a snap.

Slowly, but surely, the enemy soldier made his way back onto the crest and stopped just before them, as Lance tried to clamp down on his breathing , while at the same time his body demanded air.

The Imperial stopped just in front of Hannibal and stood there for a few moments, Lance could see that Han already has his combat knife drawn and was ready to strike if need be.

And by the great pain from lack of air that Lance was going through it may come to that.

If they didn't manage to kill him before he alerted his comrades, then the whole squadron may be killed and it all would be the fault of Lance and his big mouth.

A sound was heard coming from the soldier, and initially they thought that he was drawing his sword, but a moment latter Hannibal felt warm liquid pouring over his head, and then he realized that the soldier in question was relieving himself, and that the sound in question was trouser fabric being opened.

Lance gazed in astonishment at his friend, who was grinding his teeth silently as fury swept him.

The depredation of air in his lungs was now in Lance's favor, since it was easier this way to clamp down his instinct to laugh at his friends 'misfortune'.

One moment your mouth gets you in trouble, the next it brings salvation using the same action.

Funny ol' world, wasn't it?

"Especially with just how much Han's 'pissed' right now." Lance thought as he used his second hand to clamp down on his face, his words brining him trouble once more.

"I've heard of Imperials getting pissed at the Federation, but.....OH KRIFF!" Hannibal mentally said to himself, as he fought down the urge to jump up and tackle the soldier.

It was too risky, and he hadn't spotted them, so they may yet avoid discovery.

After he finished relieving himself, the imperial soldier was preparing to return back to his post when another thunderbolt lit the night sky to reveal the U.F.O.P soldiers and a very angry and a very pissed captain.

The imperial registered that he was caught with his pants down, an arm's length away from half a dozen enemies, in front of them was the most savage federal than he had ever seen, with pure murder in his eyes , with the lightning reflected in his gaze.

Next to the monstrous apparition was another imperial, this one was smiling openly and seem to be ready to burst into laughter.

It looked like death and madness, along with their minions, had come for him.

The soldier lost his voice from shock at the sight before, for a moment he just froze, and that was all it took.

Before the imperial had time to scream or call for help, Lance jumped and grabbed the soldier's legs with both hands by the back of his knees and pulled, making the enemy trooper collapse.

Hannibal leaped up and stabbed the soldier in the gut, the roar of thunder was heard, they felt it's shockwave on their skin as they ambushed the imperial, and the captain dragged the body over their portion of the crest.

The light in his eyes quickly faded, along with the last of the light from the lightning bolt, the last thing he saw and heard was nothing but death and madness, their minions and the echo's of thunder.

And the storm's would only get worse from here on out.

As his friend cut the imperial's throat with a knife in order to make sure he was truly dead, and started looting his pockets, Lance could not help but notice that if he had moved his left arm a split second too late, then he could not have grabbed the Imperials right knee, and with that the man might have escaped and probably even alerted his allies.

The simultaneous grab with both palms, was a result of him having both his hands over his mouth, for if one had been further away, as it had been before he clamped his mouth with both of them, then his grab might have failed.

"One moment what you do is stupid, the next it's genius and often it's the same action.............Volun 4 really is a strange and foreign world, are there many others like this one beyond the Federation? If so, no wonder so few federals leave our borders!" Lance thought and was about to tentatively share his philosophical quandary with his friend.

"That tonur! In kriffing combat you're supposed to kriffing use the kriffing piece given to you by the kriffing army, not the kriffing one given by kriffing Mother Nature!"

Who obviously was not interested in philosophy at the moment.

Hannibal said some more choice words about the dead trooper, in hushed voice, as he dragged the body further down their side of the slope.

"Well, not everyone is as wise as you are" Lance teased him.

"Kid save the jokes for latter, for now get the two gossiping old hens behind us to send a warning to headquarters on what the enemy is doing, and let's get out of here." Hannibal said to them as the two in question jumped at the realization their commander knew that they had been badmouthing him behind his back.

He didn't spare them a second glance, he let them squirm in worry for a few minutes, while he prepared to send a message to hq.

It would be useless now, even if HQ heard it and by some miracle those fools called general heaved his warning, it was now too late for it to have any effect on the battle.

But Hannibal was not about to become their scapegoat for when it would be time to play the blame game for this, he had seen how the careers of many lower to middle ranking officer had been destroyed in order to save the murderers at the top from scrutiny.

They say things like:

'Why didn't you report this sooner?'

'Why didn't you start your patrol earlier or covered more ground?'

They would ask with impunity like the battles were sports matches, and rant with impunity at him like he was the one that made the teams miscoordinate their plays.

But unlucky for the generals, Hannibal had been a smuggler pressed into service to avoid jail time, his rise to commissioned officer and promotion to captain meant that not only what he had achieved, could be considered impossible in the Federal fleet, but also that he knew ever dirty trick in the book from his time as a sergeant.

"I'll swim trough blood before I become someone else's scapegoat!"

"This is Captain Hannibal with a message for General Pompeii; I have conducted my patrol according to the time and areas approved by your Excellency. I have encountered a massive enemy offensive army coming out of the forest south east of our position. This is a full scale offensive, estimate of enemy forces too early to count, but considered to be the main avenue of assault. Hannibal out."

What he had just said was not the truth, since it was the commodore of Hannibal's division that approved his patrol and timetable, but General Pompeii was the overall commander, and technically he did approve every action his subordinates move, and with that message having a clear intent of saying that the patrol's mission was personally assigned by Pompeii, then the General could not shift blame on Hannibal without incriminating himself.

Thus Hannibal was sure that when an inquiry would be made about this, the recordings of this report would either be 'too damaged' from the fighting or would be 'lost in the confusion.'

For if it not be so, then it would be very bad luck for Hannibal's commanding officer, and that officer's superior and so on and so on, right up to general Pompeii who would be most displeased at the chain of command between him and the message in regards to the 'sports match that was now grossly miscoordinated.'

But such ends were not so surprising, since Hannibal was also a bookie on the side.

He directed a look towards his squad and saw Lance gave him a thumbs up and the other pilots all had a look of profound admiration on their faces, since their realized what he had just done.

Nothing made you popular amongst your subordinates and pears than blackmailing those that were richer and more powerful than you.

Now he was a hero once more, he was popular once more; moments ago he was considered a disgrace.
Hannibal gave a bitter snort at that and moved back up the crest to look for an opportunity for them to slip by, while ignoring the thoughts in regards to just how fragile and forever shifting, status and respect was in this fleet.

Their survival was his main priority at the moment; he continued to look at the imperial formation once more, further west he could see columns of infantry, squads of cavalry and many detachment of chariots.

All of them were pointed towards the supply base and thankfully none of them where coming towards their general direction.

Han gave another backwards glance at his squad, who were still squirming in embarrassment from how they mocked him.

Which did make him roll his eyes.

Like words could really wound him now of all times!

One of them opened his mouth, no doubt in an attempt to apologize.

Which made the captain feel a bit disgust at that.

When you mock someone behind his back, you do it so he can't hear you.

Otherwise you say it to his face.

He simply fell revolted at their incompetence. The fools couldn't even do one out of two things the right way!

Yet he would accept their apology, say that everything is allright, he would pretend that everything is now allright and they'd believed it.

Fools will be fools after all.

But before they could say anything in their defense the communication crystal, on the soldier that had they killed, came to life

"Squad 17 report in, what's the situation?" The voice from the other end of the communication crystal said in Imperial Basic, and upon hearing that they all froze in fear.

They now realized that moments earlier they had killed not just a patrolling trooper, but the communications man for this particular unit.

They had killed a patrol's main link to its company command, and worse than that, they had instead of moving to another location, remained where they did the deed, exactly on the imperial troopers last know location.

The squad all looked at their Captain Hannibal, their 'I know every trick in the book' Captain Hannibal, who had forgotten this basic rule and kept them here, where they could be now immediately slaughtered.

Fools will be fools after all.

"Is everything alright?"

The occupied Territories, Maramanakama.

5:59 Local Planetary time

Kalynka, and the ones that had barely managed to escape the enemy's encirclement, where now in another part of the city and away from harm.

They were in one of their safe houses and were having a little celebration/wake for their victory and their fallen comrades, hugging and giving each other a pat on the back.

For a few short hours they forgot about their misery and sorrows, about wars of the past, which lead to the current conflict, they did not think about the Occupation, the Great Partition and the damage the enemy brought to their territory, they spared no thought, not even to their hatred for the foreigners that threatened their very survival, for now these men and women who killed celebrated life!

Their lives!

Kalynka who was just as cheerful, and at the same time as sad, as the rest of them walked towards Ahmaianos, who was in a corner away from the main festivities.

As she approached him the young woman noticed that he was crying.

"Hey, is everything alright?" she said with concern in her voice.

"Don't worry about me, I'm okay, I thought that today we would all die.....because of me......if we hadn't raided that column a week ago, this wouldn't have happened...........the others.............they....they'd be still be alive." he replied half-relieved, half in sorrow from today's events.

"We all decided to do that raid, and we all decided to stay and fight here, what happened today wasn't your fault!" she said and gave him a hug to reassure Ahmaianos that everything was alright.

"Looks like we had 'Nobody' to thank for that, whoever he is I thank the Great Catcher for him!" the rebel leader said and hugged Kalynka back, he then got up and went to join the other in celebration, regardless of who this mysterious figure was, or how he managed all that had transpired today, one thing was certain.

"No more hiding, no more running away! Do you hear me you monsters? This is the beginning of our counterattack!" Kalynka thought to herself in joy as she gave a gaze trough the window, towards the night filled sky.

The immediate future had up until this point always seemed to be bleak for them, now for the very first time there appeared to be a silver lining, a way of salvation for them and their people.

What more you say add to that?

Volunian Federation Southern flank.

6:00

"I'm standing here with like an idiot before sunrise, guarding dirt and threes. Other than that everything is allright. How's that for an answer?" Hannibal said in near perfect Imperial Basic, the man on the other side laughed at what he heard.

"Anything else to declare?"

"Yeah. Put me down for 5 at the betting pool."

"Ok squad 17. Over and out."owHHHow

The transmission ended there and then.

Hannibal gave a sigh of relief, as he placed the comm crystal in one of his empty pocket; it never hurt to know what the enemy was saying.

"Where did you learn Imperial basic?" Lance asked him, surprised at what just happened.

"In an imperial wife's bed of course, best linguistic school in the world! I'll tell you about it some other time kid, but it needs booze and towngirls for that , there's none around so we'll have to sneak back to our own lines. Strip the guy of his comm pack, we may need it." Hannibal said as he surveyed the landscape, trying to find a way out of this.

Excerpt from the diary of Lieutenant Alexander Mackintosh.

It was early morning, and I was trying to eat a kava nut, one of those dome looking piece of fruit that tastes like crap and rotten meat but keeps you but keeps you from bleeding your teeth out from limey disease, when we received the transmission from Captain Hannibal's extended patrol group about an enemy attack from our Southern Flank.

And since I was the officer on duty, it was my job to deliver the message to the commanders of both the Volunian Army General Al Hambra and the Republican task force General Pompeii, who for the past several weeks of our campaign here, they had the 'brilliant idea' to thrown several victory banquets parties when the enemy was still intact, still battle worthy, and barely 5 miles away from our lines.

With that in mind, as I traversed the stairs towards the high command's common room, I knew there and then that it would be an uphill battle.

"I have an urgent message for the commanders, open the doors!" I said to the guards who were stationed outside.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that, Lieutenant." one of the guards said to me.

"What? Why not?"

"The generals are having an all-night poker game and have given strict orders to not let anyone disturb them until 12 o clock, which is many hours from now." the second guard answered.

"This is far more important than who draws the damn aces! The enemy is attacking our most vulnerable positions and our army needs orders!" I almost shouted back to the guards, outside you could hear the roar of thunder coming from the sky, echoing across the plains as I waved the message in their faces.

"Let me see that message." the second guard said, and I complied.

Both guards read it and they started debating on whether to disturb them or not, I grew impatient with them, so I took a few steps towards a metal trash can and asked.

Because there was no way in hell that I would let the history books say that: 'we lost the battle cause of a high stake game!'.

"Nobody is to 'intentionally' disturb them right, is that correct?"

"Yes." one of them replied.

And as soon as he said that I started hitting the metal trash can repeatedly and as hard as I could.

"W-What are you doing!?"One of the guards shouted in a panicked voice.

"Why, I am 'unintentionally' creating noise to 'unintentionally' disturb the generals of course!" I said and continued to hit the bin, which made the occupants of the room open the door to see what was going on.

"Soldier, I better hope you like digging latrines, cause if you don't have a good reason for the noise, and conduct unbecoming an officer, that's what you will be you're duty for the next six months." General Al Hambra, the commander of the Volunian infantry, said to me.

I immediately snatched the message from the guards and gave it to General Pompeii, the leader of our Federal Task Force.

Who gave the message a one over and then ripped the note to pieces.

"You disturbed the highest ranking officers of two armies for this nonsense?" General Pompeii said to me with a huff of indignation.

"Nonsense?! Sir, the enemy is attacking our rear, they have crossed the forest and our formation is in danger of collapsing!" I said to him, astounded at his reaction.

The front lines where barely a mile from our position, and this HQ was only 400 meters away from the rear supply base.

I witnessed many generals that stayed so far away from the actual fighting, that they lived in a completely different world from their army.

But from our HQ building roof you could see both the front and the rear clearly as dawn's first light.

They couldn't both be that disconnected from reality!

"Calm yourself Lieutenant, even if they crossed the forest it is just a small diversionary attack at the best, that region is impossible to cross with a real army, it is too rocky and too wooded, the only army that could cross it is fake one meant to fool us, a deception nothing more." the General Pompeii said in a soothing voice, as outside the sound of thunder roared.

*THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN*

"Exactly! This attack is just a distraction, the main thrust will come from the west, where we are strongest, still this is unexpected and you were in the right mind to report this, thought you're means of fulfilling your orders was quit improper, give the orders to prepare for an attack from the west." Al Hambra replied.

This was not happening! From the floor where I was you could look out the window and see that the attacking from the west was suicide when compared to how lightly the east was defended.

*THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN*

"Sir, what about the supply base!?"

It was there!

Just there in the window!

Fat with all of our food, ammo and fuel, in flat fields, vulnerable from an attack from the forest!

*THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN*

"The supply base is guarded by 2.500 men; it has trenches and walls that can stop any diversionary force the enemy has sent in its direction. Now get this trough you thick skull! The enemy cannot move a proper army trough that wood, it's too thick for that. The only heavy troops our enemy have for an assault from that direction are imaginary ones! Nobody can hurt us from that, and we have nothing to fear! Unless of course trooper, you are afraid of things that go bump in the night?"

*THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN*

After Al Hambra's mocking words, everyone else present laughed at my expense.

*THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN*

The laughter continued until.

*BANG*BOOM* BANG*BOOM* BANG*BOOM*

*THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN*

*BANG*BOOM* BANG*BOOM* BANG*BOOM*

*THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN* THUN*

Until the enemy's barrage fell close enough that thunder couldn't mask it any more.

And following that, the laughter the laughter became stuck in their throats.

"W-what was that!?" Pompeii said to those present as they all shocked at what they just heard.

"I believe that was our enemy's imaginary artillery, from their fake army, assaulting our supply base general, though I'm not sure if they go 'bump in the night.'" I replied with a small smile of triumph on my face at the disbelieving looks of the commanders, but that quickly vanished once the grim reality of our situation sank in, and our desperate struggle began.

We were on the top floor of an Ancient's Castle that served as our HQ, and I moved to one of the corridor's windows and looked through it. It was enchanted with a zoom option in it and I used it to take a better look at the forest's edge.

From the east I could see the sun rising and the lines of infantry, cavalry, chariots emerging from the forest as the roar of Earth Breakers accompanied the thunder, the flicker of hundreds of artillery salvos from the trees seemed to be competing with the storm above at how many shots they could strike at us.

With the red tint that the morning sun gave the tree line, combined with the artillery lights and marching units, it seemed like the forest itself had come ablaze, sprung to life, and covered in blood, was now marching on our rear flank.

The two generals and the two guards followed me and also gazed dumfounded at the lines of foes in the distance which, were becoming bigger and bigger, and closer and closer, as more and more enemy troops poured from the tree line.

"The enemy is attacking us in force from the forest." I said and the Generals blinked, turned their gaze from the window and looked at me like I had just grown two heads, then they continued to stare once more out the window in disbelief.

"T-They can't be doing that!"One of the two said, like he was complaining about cheating in a champion's tournament with rules, and honestly it didn't matter which one of the generals said so.

On some level I could see why they seem to not comprehend what was happening.

The imperial forces had been, up until now, a beaten army.

One that was clinging desperately to its defenses.

The enemy had been on its last leg, so Pompeii and Al Hambra expected them to act as such.

One moment they were victorious generals, with glory, rewards, honors, and massive reinforcements inbound under the famed Admiral Yemen awaiting them, the next they were now on the brink of annihilation, with help too far away to come to their aid in time.

I could understand, but I could not forgive.

They finally broke away from the window and half-ran to the command room in order to finally giver orders, but by then almost 10 minutes had passed between my coming to deliver the message and them finally acting on it; 10 minutes wasted, when battles were decided in seconds.

"Useless..........useless." I muttered, while giving one last look out the window at the horrible sight before me.

Malus 'The World Breaker' had come!

Lieutenant First Class Alexander Mackintosh, command staff member, Federal Expeditionary force.

378th Flanking force, Metternich's position

6:56 Local Planetary time

Metternich, with the help of a pair of binoculars, surveyed the battle field before him as he stood upright in the backseat of the spider-wolf-jeep, with his aide Butz in the driver's seat.

The jeep was a vehicle powered by the very same crystals that fueled the ships.

It had, instead of wheels, circular rings all over the surface of its underbelly, mimicking the body and way a snake crawls, which was pretty useful in bad terrain like mud, sand, snow or even rivers, lakes and oceans.

It's front was, as its name suggests, shaped like the head of a wolf, this was not only so because the sloped, angled, conic shaped armor was more efficient than flat surfaced one at deflecting enemy projectiles, but for 'Creed Magic' since wolves were swift, cunning, agile and deadly creatures.

Creed magic, at its most basic definition, was the simple notion that if you get enough people to believe something no matter how silly or slightly illogical it is, that something can become reality, or at least as close as you can get to reality.

A spider-wolf jeep was made so that when it was viewed by others they thought it was as stealthy and deadly as either a wolf or a snake or a combination of the two, something like this was an advantage since the vehicle was designed to be a scout/anti-infantry weapon.

The same was applied to the other vehicles, from war chariots, to ships, to Pegasus, to Titans and even basic armor and swords.

The more deadly it looked the better!

For it was not unheard off for a larger force to lose a fight to an opposing one that had fewer units, if the larger army believed their enemies were mightier than them!

For then 'Creed Magic' would manifest from the mass common thought of both sides and thus if they believed that the smaller force was stronger, the magic would actually make them stronger.

Not by much, but enough to tip the scale in their favor and win the day, fight to a pyrrhic victory or at the very least a draw.

Thus, the morale of a fighting force could be a decisive factor, since faith and beliefs could be powerful weapons.

And the 378th believed that they would win for certain, since their surprise attack was pulled off without detection, the enemy main supply base in front of them, and with only a force that was barely one tenth their size standing between them and the supplies, the base defenders thought the same upon seeing what was coming to attack them.

This gave the 378th a huge advantage, the Creed Magic activated itself, it flowed through them, making their spears mightier, their arrows fly harder, their artillery strike more savage, and their chariots and cavalry charge forward faster!

They all become stronger!

Not by much, but enough to tip the scale decisively in their favor.

This was evident in the first hour of the battle, since they were pushing the enemy back on all fronts.

"A fine starts sir, a fine start indeed!" Adrian said from his position next to Metty's jeep as they gazed at the vanguard of their assault, and how it was doing a fine job of cutting the enemy to pieces.

In front of them, their army was rolling up the enemy nicely, the artillery was doing an exquisite job of pinning down and softening up the enemy; the infantry and chariots were pushing them back and the cavalry was breaking their flanks.

All and all, almost 2/3rds of the rear defenders were in full retreat and there were no enemy reinforcements in sight.

"Let's hope we have a good enough ending to this battle as its beginning, and pray that the enemy commanders are idiots. Tell Tarkan that he is to report immediately when he is ready for phase two, and have Werner bring up his 88th and move them to be ready in reserve for what's to come." Metternich replied.

"I really hope that we face morons now!"

"Yes sir, also complements of the 12th scouting group, the enemy's cavalry are massing on the left side." Adrian told him.

"Excellent!" his commander replied, with a smile on his face.

"And by excellent, I mean nuts and damnation, since it means those bloody monsters are heading this way!"

"You know what to do Adrian, just like Marengo." Metternich said nonchalantly, but inside his stomach was aching and he was close to hyperventilating.

"Do you think it's absolutely necessary sir?" his knight said, his voice filled with worry for his lord.

"I am afraid that I cannot avoid being here and doing this my friend, now begin the maneuver!" Metternich replied with a sad tinge of despair and exasperation in his voice.

"Cause believe me, I'd rather not be here and do this. So please move your cavalry far away from me, so you can be far away from here before the enemy arrives to fight you!" Metty thought in frustration at once more having to carefully worm his way out of danger.

"If I do not retreat, the enemy will not come to him for a fight with all this cavalry protecting him! He's annoyed and half angry with me for trying to deny him a place in the thick of battle! I am sorry my liege, but a fearless man like yourself must be kept away from the worst of it. I know you do not wish to leave the battlefield, but I will do my best to keep you from the worst of it!"

Adrian thought to himself, and gave a reluctant nod. Thought he did give a knowing and approving smile towards his commander.

Which confused the potions maker-forcefully turned professional sailor, he a simply could not understand the 'peculiarity' of a soldier's mind.

Metty could, at best, brew some concoctions for it that would cure the particular 'peculiarity' from such a mind, but it was up to the patient in question if he would take the medicine.

They often would not accept that they needed it.

So, there he was, no cure to be accepted, given only left to rot in warehouses without even been fully made, but as he looked at the enemy forces that were starting to trickle away from their western front lines, an enemy force that was apparently intentionally coming to fight what looked to be an already lost battle for them, one thing was certain.

"Many are inflicted with the sickness; Far too many."

Adrian moved away with the cavalry, from where his lord was situated, and got into position for this part of the plan.

Metternich, with only his guard squad of about five other spider-wolf jeeps around him, was currently situated on a small hill about 200 meters in height that lay northeast of the base and northwest of were his army had emerged from the forest, the small elevation gave him a clear view of the battlefield.

Metternich stole a gaze towards his right side and saw that the flag that designed that this was the squad with the supreme commander in it, was being raised next to him.

He smiled at that!

Metty was smiling at the fact that he was now broadcasting to every approaching foe that he's alone and isolated.

And no! That had not been a description for how his troops around him misinterpreted his body language, his words, and the way his eyes blazed, and come to the conclusion that he was battle thirsty, when in fact he was terrified and trying to run away.

No! He had not lost his mind from the war yet, nor had he taken any Elysium, Metternich the coward, sound of mind and body, really was glad of his current predicament of standing almost alone against a murderous cavalry horde that was approaching him!

For it was such an absurd predicament that it would be obvious that it was a trap!

The enemy commanders weren't stupid, or more insane than their imperial counterparts ( he could vouch for that), so they would see him alone on a hill, and immediately smell the trap, with that they would avoid him and eventually fight Adrian or Werner, and Metty would be safe where he was.

"They should be slowing down now, just short of effective charge range and go searching for other targets"

......

"They should be stopping right about now."

.............

"So why aren't they stopping?" Metternich said as his eyes started to blaze away, fear gripped him, since the volunian and federal cavalry was not stopping; the enemy was not acting how he expected them to act!

But as he looked towards the enemy, who by now was not only not stopping and was continuing to not stop, but rather they had now had gotten close enough that they were preparing to charge, he was starting to regain some of his old mindset back and came to a very troubling realization!

"Admiral Yemen's fleet and army is filled with nothing but the best, meaning that the rest of their forces is composed out of idiots! Which means that the enemy cavalry before me is commanded by such big idiots that don't realize that they're headed straight for a trap!"

Horror gripped him, his eyes now blazed away like twins suns, as he sat up in his seat, ready to bold away for the forest

"I could still run, defect, I could order Butz to withdraw..........No! Not here...............And not now, it's too dangerous, to many witnesses! The jeep would eventually run out of fuel and if these troops see me run, the whole damn front would collapse!" Metternich bitterly thought to himself, as enemy arrows and lances were thrown from a distance at his position from the skirmish faction of the enemy cavalry.

A volley that did not have a single projectile land close enough to threaten him.

He gave a discreet shake of the head, genuinely disappointed in what he just witnessed, as the enemy fire was starting to land near him.

It was now too late for him to walk away.

And that volley was too pathetic for him to use it as a pretext for a quick escape.

That and he was certain that his disappointed shake of the head had been seen by his bodyguard squad, so once more because of his actions the young commodore was forced into the thickest of the fighting.

Metternich quickly calmed himself, and immediately he could picture in his head the perfect timing that was required for their 'trap' to work beautifully.

"I guess it's time to get started, Butz retire us behind the crest and give the heads ups that we are enacting contingency A-38." He said to his aide.

For although this had not been his true intent, the young commodore was in fact prepared for a scenario such as this.

Metty had vowed to himself that he would be in control of his own life, and when their life was on the line, cowards do anything to keep such a vow!

Metternich may be a dirty coward, but he was more than just your average run of the mill blackguard.

No! He was a dirty coward that was also an intelligent man, who was actually very proficient in warfare!

Combined with the fact that he was now without a way to escape this situation, the very same cowardice was now transformed into the most powerful kind of courage!

It was the kind that turned cornered rats into beasts that would bite the jugular of a roaring tiger.

It made defenseless peasants strike a killing blow at battle hardened s-class elite warriors.

It could smash past Omega Spells an could decide duels in the 'Riddle of Ruin'.

It was the forces that turned 'Metternich the coward' into 'The Fox of Marengo, the Hero of the Empire'.

"Yes sir!" his aide replied and moved the jeep and its escort behind the crest of the hill.

"They come at us in the same old style." Metternich said to his aide, as he gave one last look at the coming foe, as they past the crest and parked themselves in their new positions.

"Then we will just have to receive them in the same in style." Butz replied with a smile on his face.

The Headmaster was now present, time for a lesson in war.

Everyone take a note.

Excerpt from the memoires of Private Raz V'a van;

"We were the legionaries of Malus, the World Breaker"

I witnessed the portion of the battlefield where the boss stood there looking down from that hilltop, the morning light to his back, the crackle of thunder roaring above as lighting shinned down behind him.

The Headmaster was like a Zmeu of old from the time of the 'Battle against the Ancients' who had taken mortal form, and was gazing down in distain with his blazing eyes to the great enemy horde at the foot of the hill.

The gleam in his eyes burned all who would gaze at them, the enemy cavalry was getting close enough for a charge and the commander got up from his seat, his eyes seemed to blaze even more so now as they neared.

Commander Metternich rose up, as if to say: 'Come on already!', before he withdrew over the crest and to the other side of the hill, away from prying eyes.

The enemy seemed to have heard it as well, since they took the bait and charged up the hill.

I don't blame them, bait like that was to big not to take, even top commanders with crack troops could not refuse such an offering.

So they charged!

A cavalry charge was a truly devastating sight to behold, those who had fire or air weapons pointed their swords and spears forwards, turning themselves into a either a blazing inferno and a miniature hurricane.

The ones who had water made a small pond around their mount and used that to create a veritable tidal wave , on which they continued to galloped on, while the wave washed forward and swept all in front of it.

Lastly there came the earth wielders, they did the same as the water ones, creating what can only be described landslides that could go uphill, and swept forwards with great speed, why they even looked to be faster going up the slope than down it!

It was a terrifying sight, a flood, an avalanche, a hurricane, and a small volcano eruption all headed for our commander.

But as they passed the hill's halfway mark, all of a sudden explosions rattled their formation, breaking it and with that, many riders fell to the ground.

I realized then and there that our small supply of mines, which was too few in numbers to make a decent defensive perimeter, had been placed on that small hilltop, turning what was insignificant into the decisive blow for our side!

For as the enemy cavalry unknowingly stepped towards their doom, fire, water and air exploded from the hidden mines beneath them, breaking their charge!

The troops at the very front were dead, the middle ones were heavily wounded, and the rear-guard of the charge was tripping over their forward comrades.

A cavalry charge's strength had always been the sheer amount of force and momentum that it could bring to bear on its targets, now it worked against them as their lines crashed into each other and they suffered at the hands of their own great massed spells of fire, water, earth and wind.

They burned, drowned, were ripped by winds and buried alive, all the while also suffering the power of our lands mines.

And when those poor souls in the enemy cavalry thought it was over, the earth mines sprang to life, forming battle Golems, these creations always took the shape or form of their nearest targets worst nightmare.

Thus a horde of beasts with the faces of dreaded men and women, the sight of their loved ones dying, images of pain and hatred, along with all manner of monsters from ancient times, and deadly predators of the wild started attacking and decimating them.

But these were not green troops!

They had fought in battles before, and though the real soldiers and sailors were with Yemen, the dreaded Admiral had seen that all those beneath him could stand shoulder to shoulder alongside his veterans in a fight.

A full scale war had not yet arrived at this portion of the galaxy, thus their forces were at full strength.

Also, there were enough active duty veterans of past conflicts mixed with the green troops, but all properly trained by Yemen, that they quickly recovered from the surprise of the trap, regrouped and started to reorganize themselves, and cut down the Golems.

They smashed their fears, vanquished their nightmares, and chased back to the darkness the monsters that came to plague them.

Horror and terror had come for them, and the Volunians had slayed them with impunity!

And now after surviving that hell, they moved in for the killing blow on our headmaster.

As the enemy seemed poised to reach the crest, making things seem bleak for the commander, a sudden trumpet bugle was heard and I witnessed some of the rear units of the cavalry turning their heads to see what was going on.

They had only a few moments to witness how the Imperial cavalry, lead by Commodore Adrian de Morowetz, circled from around the hill and did a counter-charge on their rear, which plowed through the volunian and federal forces like a hot knife through butter.

They had slayed their own nightmares, smashed their fears, vanquished back to the darkness the monsters that came to plague them, but now they faced Adrian, and they broke before him!

For there were few that could stand before 'Glorianus' on the field of battle!

The half of their forces near the rear turned and tried to stem the tide, the other half that composed their front, which was now nearer to the hill's crest charged forward, leaving the first half to face a cavalry force twice their size.

Those that were at the front of the vanguard formation tried one last desperate charge over the crests, the faint hope of reaching Metternich, of reaching the Headmaster.

They galloped over the crest and time seemed to stop for a moment as they came over the top and were met with a hail of earth arrows that twisted themselves, as they flew above the ground absorbing the earth beneath them during their flight, reaching the size of pillars that could support even the greatest of houses, and struck the enemy with all of the fury of their archers.

The volleys were not only very devastating, but they also created bottlenecks that forced them in a tightly packed formation that was unsuitable for a cavalry troop.

After that came a wave of fire arrows that struck hard with great blue flames, those that managed to survive the volley charged downhill towards us, towards Commodore Metternich.

Who was not alone, but surrounded by the 88th brigade.

They were formed up into a great infantry square!

Shields raised high, spears thrusted forward, halberds raised above, and arrows and javelins let loose at their targets, Werner's brigade was now an impregnable fortress, that would break any cavalry charge and shoot down whatever survivors were left.

The enemy could see this, so they tried to break them with ranged attacks, hoping that someone would break under the constant barrage and run away, and they could charge the breach.

The Volunians threw fire arrows at them, only to be met with shields raised that summoned a tsunami of water to block them.

Javelins of wind flew towards the Black Berets, poised to strike them with the fury of the storm above, once more shields were raised, and a blazing inferno of blue flames blazed away from them, absorbing the wind and burning even brighter from it.

Earth throwing axes flew from our foes, ones that during their flight grew to the size of city walls, the 88th raised shields once more and summoned a curtain of typhoon winds, whose cyclones swept away and ripped apart the earth attacks and threw many of them back at their opponents.

The final quartet of their attacks was a mix volley of arrows, javelins and axes of water, again shields were raised, runes shinned and the spells were one more cast, and the waves of water crashed against a summoned wall of earth that held the small flood with the strength of mountains.

The volunian cavalry continued to circle around us, trying to break the formation with red wildfire, a tidal wave of water, an avalanche of earth and hurricanes of wind.

The enemy's attacks faced the Black Beret infantry's mountain walls, blue flames infernos, typhoons formed of six hurricanes each, and tsunamis that dwarfed them all, as thunder roared and lighting struck above them.

But Werner and his crazy boys didn't just defend, they struck back!

They shot volley after volley of water to turn the ground around them into mud, slowing down the enemy cavalry.

Mud was a death sentence for any mounted force.

As the Volunians and federals were swimming in a swamp now, they were starting to get cut to pieces by the brigade's own fire, air, and earth projectiles.

First came the earth volley, which not only struck many cavalrymen down, but also on impact with the soil it combined with muddy ground bellow, trapping the enemy even more.

Then came the wind that blew away the enemy, but also turned the zone were the earth ones fell into fields of ices, making seemingly safe island for the cavalry riders that were dismounted, yet still lived, to withdraw too, but that was an even bigger death trap than the mud .

Since each island was intentionally created at a crossfire point for multiple black berets archer companies, that did their job and did it well by cutting down the survivors that swarmed those islands.

After that came the fire attacks, which not only burned their targets, but also turned the islands of ice and its unlucky inhabitants into a cloud of mud and ash that help sow confusion amongst the enemy cavalry and preventing them from rallying properly.

The enemy was now getting angry and frustrated by our stalwart defense, so some of them tried a great charge straight into our spear wall.

Some had enough sense that instead of charging straight into a wall of steel, they did a fast pass around the square's corner and impaled the trooper that made up the corners without actually charging into them. They then withdrew and charged again.

There and then some berets died, but more cavalrymen died.

Especially those that aimed for the corners, the sharp shooters took care of them, especially the officers.

The foolish ones tried to charge trough the spears and were impaled on them.

The enemy charged so hard that when their horse beneath was killed, the rider was send flying over the ranks and in the middle of the square they landed. A few managed to survive that, but they were quickly cut down by the last line of berets, which was made of warriors with two handed long axes.

A few more bright ones approached slowly and tried to bat away the spears so they could reach the first ranks of shields. But as a few managed to do so and got close, the third rank, formed out of men and women that were armed with halberds, jabbed them forward, pushing back or killing the mounts and riders.

They eventually broke, withdrew and then tried again.

Seven times they charged us.

Seven times they failed.

But we also lost many and were staring to tire ourselves.

As the 8th charge seemed too poised to begin, we braced ourselves. But just then the enemy broke and ran away, as from over the hill's crest Commodore de Morowetz's cavalry came to our aide.

They broke and ran, leaving behind nothing but dead, wounded, mud, blood and screams of pain.

And the battle was not over yet.

Private Raz V'a van; Imperial Engineers Corps

Adrian hacked and slashed his way through the enemy cavalry, cutting fire swords, water axes, air spears, earth maces and flails.

The great beast that he rode also struck with its own claws and teeth.

The great tiger that Adrian was riding opened its mouth, gave out a great roar and a great wave of fire breath came from its opened jaws.

The stallion that belonged to the rider that faced Adrian and his mount reared back on its hind legs, flayed its forward legs up and down as the wave of fire neared him, and right before impact a huge wall of water sprouted out from the horse's hooves.

The attacks cancelled each other out, leaving behind a small mist of steam.

Adrian charged forward trough the mist, his right arm raised high as his left steered his tiger towards his foe.

As he emerged trough the quickly fading mist, to his volunian opponent he looked like the king of all eagles, descended from the clouds of heaven itself, to reap its pitiful prey.

Adrian struck a downward blow towards his opponent's head, his sword blazed away with a fire spell, which the volunian countered by raising his own sword above his head to deflect the blow with his blade.

The sword was held at an angle, with its point directed towards his left, gazing down to deflect the blow, the volunian charged his sword and shield with vortexes of water to counter Adrian's fire.

Adrian struck with full speed, but it was with only half his strength, for it was a faint!

Immediately after he struck the blade, the imperial officer rotated his wrist, using the force of impact from his blade being deflected by the volunian sword, to power a backwards spin of his own saber above his head and strike a from down to up blow at the enemy blade's tip.

His foe had already instinctively started to raise his sword in order to counter the impact of the first of Adrian's attacks, because of the way Adrian struck the momentum of the blade continued to carry it higher, it was then that Adrian's second twirling attack struck it. Raising the Volunian's blade upwards and to the right, it left his foe's head exposed now for an attack.

His foe instantly leaned to his right, to avoid the third strike, he raised his shield over his left side and quickly moved to use the momentum from Adrian's second blow to power an almost boxer like parry, by letting his sword tip be carried by the force of Adrian's second strike, and move his right hand towards the left, where Adrian's third blow would strike at his neck or head.

He saw the Imperial once more spin his blade over his head and direct it for another downward blow, similar to the first attack, and the volunian moved his right sword hand to block it with the blade section right above the guard.

But at the last moment Adrian lowered the blow and struck at the Volunian's knee, which was now exposed from the volunian's act of raisin his shield to protect his head.

Adrian's opponent could not block it in time or avoid it, the blow struck true and with full strength, but it did not cut through the armor, nor did it even pierce the metal, it left a dent, but that was all it did.

Armor could not be pierced easily, and even much of the blow was cushioned from the padding that soldiers put on before they put themselves in armor, but the blow was enough to cause great pain, if not minor injury to the armored volunian and Adrian capitalized on that.

He produced another spin of the sword that went from the volunian's left knee, backwards, over Adrian's right side and struck from Adrian's left, right down on his foe's head.

The Volunian's helmet deflected the blow, which did almost no damage, but the force of the impact disorientated Adrian's opponent.

The Imperial struck his fourth blow with a side strike at the volunian's neck, this also did not pierce his armor, nor did it even break his neck, but it did cause several pain and the force of the blow threw Adrian's opponent from his mount.

There was no time for the Commodore to dismount and stab his fallen foe trough the eye sockets, or the joins, where the armor was its most vulnerable and where if you got between the plates you could do some damage.

For with his opponent down for the count, there was another enemy now in front of Adrian.

This one, who had witnessed his comrade's defeat, did something that shocked the imperial.

He changed his sword grip to a reverse grip with the blade down and started twirling his sword!

There, on the battlefield, he started twirling his weapon!

Adrian could only gawk in astonishment at what he saw, before he gave a simple forward jab with his blade. One that went directly through the pattern of the twirl, and straight into the man's neck.

Adrian's blade did not pierce the plate, but he did use enough momentum to push the fool of the mount.

After he defeated his second opponent, Adrian saw that the enemy was wavering, some were breaking away but others were holding their ground. A few he sensed where still undecided on whether to fight or take flight.

He knew that this was the moment that would decide the outcome of this cavalry battle and possibly the war itself! He drove his mount forward towards the nearest opponent and saw that before him there was what seemed to be an enemy major, guarded by three bodyguards.

All three of which, wielded two swords at once!

Adrian had thought that after the twirling fool, this fight could no longer surprise him, but he was proven wrong yet again.

He felt anger grow inside him.

Anger at having to face such worthless fools for opponents.

Victory was what he sought, but it felt sour when up against something like this.

The three fools moved to attack him, but Adrian beat them to it!

In a situation like this you had to charge first in hopes of defeating your foes one by one, before they ganged up on you and struck from all sides.

He did a downwards slash at the closest, this one blocked the strike using..........using a cross block..........

.......

That move was useless!

Since a block was meant to deflect the blow, but that only worked with one blade! Facing two swords Adrian's blow was not deflected; it just kept going forward and because of just how bad the crossblock move was, Adrian was now in control of his opponent's blades!

So, as he continued to descend his strike, Adrian moved the volunian's twin swords downwards and forwards and once he maneuvered them in the optimum position, Adrian jabbed forward straight foe's face, with his opponents swords actually used as guides for the direction of his blow!

This was enough to knock him senseless, but not enough to kill him, since his face plate deflected the blow.

The volunian was still alive, but he was disorientated and semi-conscious.

He slumped forward, making his horse gallop away with him.

Adrian ignored this and continued towards the second bodyguard, he saw that the third was closing in from the side, so he had to make this quick!

One blow meant life or death in this situation and Adrian only needed one blow!

His new foe struck with two simultaneous slashes at Adrian's left side! Two blades filled with a wind spell that created two small, but intense, vortexes on the blades surfaces. Spells that moved at such high speed across the swords that they created a great screech that almost seemed to whisper 'RIP and Tear' 'Rip and Tear' with each rotation.

Adrian quickly to summon a body of water on the surface of his shield.

'RIP and Tear'

One that flowed with such great speed that its surface was now white from the speed of the flow, turning into a savage rapid river that now protected Adrian's left side.

The Avian used the shield to deflect the blow.

RIP....

But this was not an optimal counter for wind spells, since the two now cancelled each other out.

The Volunian then struck a downward blow from above.

But Adrian deflected it by raising his blade, deflecting his foe's slash towards Adrian's left once more.

Adrian then did an intentional side slash that was aimed purely at his opponent's blades, to make them clash against each other.

He lit up his sword with fire; the volunian charged his blade with water, the proper counter for a fire attack.

Then right before the blow struck Adrian deactivated the flames, it was an old trick to make his opponent think he was switching his element to one that had an advantage over water, namely earth.

The volunian fell for it and changed his blade to air, which was the counter to earth.

But Adrian instead just recharged energy into his fire spell.

When Adrian's fire sword then impacted the two air blades of his opponent, the flames within it became a great inferno of blue flames from combining with the wind spells, which fuelled the fire, and turned it into a blow that was so bright it blinded both for a moment.

Adrian could not see, but he felt as it made contact with his opponent, his weapons and attacks now sued against him. The spell struck the Volunian with so much head and fire that it looked like an Earth Breaker round struck him!

Sadly he had to shield to protect him from that blow, only two swords.

The blow created a sizeable dent in the armor, and the volunian's mount wavered and reared back from the impact, its rider wobbling in the saddle, but he was still alive and the fight was not yet over.

The Volunian tried to do another strike, but his two swords were now tangled against each other, their same length clashes as he tried to move into a proper attack.

Because of that, and his now disorientated state from the blow and the pain that came from it, he was unable to properly, or even half properly use either the two blades.

The volunian felt so much pain in his torso that he was certain his ribs were cracked. He could not deflect the blow that Adrian struck at his left side once more.

The imperial commodore did not have time, nor the energy, to charge up his blade once more. So he had to rely on just his wits, guts and every muscle in his body!

He used not just his arm, but also his chest and leg muscles to power the blow. He attacked by using every muscle in his body for this strike!

Adrian's whole frame move and rotated, and he hit with every fiber and cell in his entire body right in the area where the previous blow landed.

It struck true, the armor held up, but the volunian was now in even greater pain and was even coughed up blood from the second attack.

This all happened because the volunian had no shield to protect his left side.

Once more, two swords, but no shield!

And this was why you went with sword/saber and shield, not two blades!

Adrian's opponent leaned towards his left side from the pain, and the commodore then struck him on the right side of his head, sending him tumbling to the ground.

The helmet was not pierced, its warrior still alive, but he on the ground, wounded, disorientated, and more importantly not mounted anymore!

Adrian hoped that others would finish him off before he, or any of the others he had defeated could get back up, but then he felt a strong blow strike him.

"I've been hit! And I'm.........barely affected!"

......

The imperial thought in shocked astonishment, as a proper blow to his back would have knocked him down from his mount, or unconscious, so he turned his now confused gaze towards the right, where the third bodyguard had managed to strike him from his blind spot.

With a cross cut.....

At Adrian's upper midsection....

Where his armor's angle was at its sharpest, and metal the thickest......

Not his throat, joints, behind his knee, armpit, or any of the few zones where a bladed weapon may bypass the armor and cause real damage!

No!

The third foe had tried to do a midsection crosscut, a move that barely used any of the muscle of one's arm required for a strong blow and this one also struck at what is most well defended part of the armor.

....................

.............

.....

Adrian turned his gaze to look his opponent in the eye, the volunian caught the gaze and: 'Why aren't you in two pieces!?' his eyes seemed to ask.

...................................

.

.

The imperial almost went berserk there and then, anger was boiling inside him, and he slashed the foe's.

No!

The fool's blades and send them into each other, and with such force in his blow that they flew out of the volunian's hands.

Using the momentum of his attack, Adrian rotated his frame towards the fool before him, and with his left hand he struck with his shield's edge straight into the idiot's head!

The commodore then gripped his blade with his left palm and did a half sword thrust towards the fool's eye sockets!

The strike did not pierced the eye sockets, since the volunian was now still reeling from the shield bash, and this made the blade miss its target.

But it hit him in the forehead, and with that he fell to the ground.

Adrian saw that a new opponent was charging him, this one looked more like a staff officer than a bodyguard, he did a water powered jab with his blade towards Adrian's back, aiming for his left armpit.

So already this paper pusher was more of a bodyguard than the three walking jokes that Adrian had faced.

The imperial's respect for this new opponent grew upon seeing this, which made it even more satisfying when the Avian moved his shield slightly to the left to block the blow.

Adrian then rotated his frame to the left, and with his left hand still on the blade, he quickly changed his right palm's position from the sword's grip, to another portion of the blade.

And used the blade's guard, he did a murder stroke attack on his opponent with earth powered chainsaw guard and pommel tip!

And the volunian staff officer.

No!

The true warrior before him had not managed to raise his guard fast enough to deflect it with his blade. Adrian delivered a strong blow that flew parallel with the ground, towards the Volunian's head.

The true warrior raised his shield that now charged with air to deflect, not block, but deflect it away!

But the volunian was an amateur and Adrian was a veteran of many battles.

The imperial redirected the direction of the blow downwards, switched it to an water spell, using the blow of the enemy's shield to now accelerate his own water spell, and harden it into ice.

He struck the volunian's on the left side, right where his lungs where.

A blow like that if timed right could block the lungs, interrupting the breathing cycle, if it struck at just the right moment.

Which it did, as the true warrior leaned forward, now unable to breathe properly.

But he kept his cool, quickly maneuvered his shield into the right battle position and hept his blade above his head, to guard it from blows.

All in all, he did what was expected of a warrior.

A true soldier.

Behavior that was almost worthy of a knight.

A second blow could cause internal bleeding, or would shatter bones if it struck at the same place two or three times more, like it did with his previous opponent.

But Adrian pointed his blade at the staff officer, just half a dozen centimeters short of his neck.

"Surrender?" He asked as all around them the volunian cavalry was routing.

Some still tried to stand and fight, some surrendered, but most ran after seeing the monstrous imperial warrior take down four warriors so easily.

The volunian staff officer did not understand the words, but he understood the meaning, he quickly powered down his armor and gave Adrian his power crystals, and sword, he then removed his helmet and gave them to his captor.

Satisfied that he was now no longer a threat Adrian turned away from him, as the officer was taken away by a few imperials that managed to finally catch up to their commander.

Adrian then started searching with his gaze for the major, whose bodyguards and staff he had just now crushed.

And when he found him he could not believe his eyes.

The tonur had taken off his helmet and was trying to rally his troops.

Why did he do that?

Who knows?

Maybe he thought they would recognize him better without it on.

The Volunian officer then looked at Adrian and charged!

Still without his helmet on!

That was quite a 'unique' sight to see.

But red was all Adrian saw!

"YOU TOOK OF YOUR HELMET!" The imperial shouted and also charged the fool of fools before him.

"YOU TOOK OF YOUR HELMET!" Adrian shouted as the two were about to clash.

A soldier's helmet was the most important part of his gear!

It was the one thing that no army in the galaxy would go without.

Some were plagued by worthless weapons, weak armor, impure crystals from corruption, but even they provided soldiers with helmets!

It was the one piece of equipment that you never, ever, went to war without!

For going bareheaded was an almost guaranteed death sentence!

And this one took it off and was charging not with the intent to die in battle, but his body language suggested that he intended to triumph and slay the one that had bested his bodyguards.

He was behaving like........like some 'hero' from a bad book!

It was too much!

Adrian lost it there and then at the sheer undiluted pure mass of living stupidity before him!

Adrian did all this with such savagery and power behind the attacks, that for moment it looked like he turned into his Third Form.

But only for a moment.

As they were about to clash a stray arrow hit the ground before the volunian major. This made a short burst of earth magic manifested itself before the helmetless officer and it made his mount jump up a bit, in order to keep its balance, right in the middle of the moment when the volunian officer raised his blade in order to prepare for an attack.

The jump made him hit his head with his own blade, the force of the blow made drop the blade and lose consciousness. His horse stopped when it felt it's rider's current state, and the mount started grazing and relieving itself.

That was what happened when you were in battle without a helmet; you didn't last past the first blow of the clash of blades.

But it took a 'special' kind of talent for this one to not even manage that.

And that was the site that greeted Adrian as he slowed down his tiger and reared it along the enemy major, that had just smacked himself unconscious atop of his horse, with the stench of fresh manure beneath him

The anger left him there and then. It was just too for him to be anything else than exasperated and what just happened.

Adrian was tempted to use his sword and end the fool there and then.

He would not wish even the hated Volunians to suffer this brand of idiocy from him, and any descendents he may have one day.

"He's not worth the cloth." Adrian said in disgust and disappointment and sheeted his sword.

His words referred to the fabric which was used to clean blades from grime, generally they could only be used once and then discarded.

So to say this to another warrior was the insult of insults, it meant that you were worth less than a dirty rag.

That was how he won the cavalry fight.

He barely used any crystal energy.

He was far from needing to summon B, A or S class spells and the idea of using his Omega spell seemed like a bad joke after facing the 3 fools and their king buffoon earlier.

"I understand now why this lot is stationed at this outpost instead of being part of admiral Yemen's fleet."

"Orders!" Adrian said in his comm and immediately an orderly on the other side of the line reported with a 'Sir' and prepared to take his command.

"I just captured a Major Valenks. I want him put on the short list for prisoner exchange for immediate release back to the volunians." Adrian ordered, now that his blood had gone down a bit and his anger subsided he realized just how valuable an incompetent officer on the enemy's side could be.

The imperial gave one last look at the unconscious major Valenks, who had proven to Adrian that he was a bad commander; a worst swordsman, and a deluded fool that mistook reality with his own deluded fantasies of glory and triumph.

"Sounds like he's a prime candidate for high command." He thought to himself in a half –bitter, half-amused way; there always was one, or two deluded fools that somehow managed to sneak up high and bring down all of their much more capable underlings and pears.

And they did a lot of damage before they were kicked upstairs so as to not do any more damage.

He only hoped that Major Valenks would become a Volunian Cassius in due time.

Adrian returned his attention to the present and the enemy before him.

The volunian and federal cavalry he was facing was now devastated, not just from the successful charge that Adrian had pulled off against them, but also from the fact that they had faced the imperial cavalry with only half of their still combat ready numbers.

The other half had charged over the crest in order to try and reach his liege, whom Adrian knew had prepared a 'proper' reception for their visit.

"Who's not dead start hollering so you can be treated, every third soldier will stay here with the prisoners and the wounded; the rest are with me! Listen up, we whipped half the enemy, now let's go whip the other half!" Adrian ordered; his riders cheered and followed him eagerly.

And thus the great horde of war tigers that could breathe fire ran up the hill with their rider's weapons glistening from the morning sunlight that still pierced the heavy storm clouds in the sky.

The ground shook beneath them, as thunder and lightning roared above; they yelled their war cry after they came over the crest and charged down the hill towards the second half of the volunian cavalry that was being bled out by the 88th's great square.

The volunian and federal cavalrymen that where closest to them turned their eyes in their direction, drawn in by the noise their charge made, and saw hill filled with battle scarred warriors.

Their armors scratched and dented, a sign of their baptism in battle and confirmation of victory.

The imperials rode their beasts of war, screaming with the fury of banshees, while beneath them their mounts also gave great roars of battle, as if the two competed to see who was the true lord of the this savage world.

But in that moment they could not tell who was more savage, the warrior or the tiger, all they saw was an endless wall of steel, fangs, and death. And it was coming their way!

In that moment lighting struck the ground close to the foe's of the 378th, blinding many, deafing more, and crumbling the courage of almost all of them!

The few federals and volunians that managed to recover their sight opened their eyes to witness how imperials' charge was engulfed, for a moment's worth, by the great white curtain of light that came from the bolts of lightning.

First there was the light, then came the thunder, then the Empire!

Their spirits broke there and then, and many started to take flight before the massive body of charging warriors and beast slammed into them.

But it was not a total rout.

Those that were brave enough or dumb enough, and often it was hard to tell between the two, stayed their ground and tried to counter-charge.

Now they had to face both the 88th brigade and Adrian's cavalry at the same time with less than half of their numbers. Or rather they tried to.

The first wave was all it took to break what was left.

As the tip of the imperial cavalry force slammed into its opposite, it was over.

The Volunians in the middle, seeing the first ranks of their vanguard and rear-guard be cut down by sabers in the front and arrows in the back, immediately threw up their arms in surrender, held up their crystals, and started to removed their helmets.

7:03 Local time

It was now over, Adrian had broken the entire cavalry troop of the opposing army, such a feat was rare in battle, and it was one worthy of songs, plays, shows and movies!

But Adrian did not care for such petty glory, so he let the task of gathering the prisoners to his staff and rushed towards the middle of the now breaking up brigade square where his commander was.

"My lord, are you alright?!?" Adrian asked worriedly as he looked at Metternich, who was holding a wounded soldier upwards, with one of the soldier's hands over his shoulder.

"Fine and dandy, but our friend here requires medical attention. Also, Adrian I want you to give the orders to get us ready to advance as soon as Tarkan requests it. Butz I want word of Valyria's situation, tell her not to overdo it, if she can just prevent the enemy on the hills from reinforcing the rear then that's enough, she doesn't have to take the heights." The Commander of the fleet replied as he handed the wounded soldier to an ambulance squad.

"What the bloody hell was wrong with that volunian cavalry? The enemy commander alone on a hill, with no cavalry and only a squad chariots for bodyguards! What should we do? That doesn't seem suspicious at all! I couldn't have broadcasted to them 'IT'S A TRAP, DON'T COME HERE" louder if I was wearing it on my shirt! I know I prayed for them to be fools, but I did not ask for the premium deal!!!!"

He stopped his train of thought abruptly, and took a drink of water. It was one of the ways he coped with his anger and other strong emotions.

"It seems that today, and like many other days before it, both branching families of stupidity have put heir feuds aside and ganged up on me."

Metternich thought to himself in bitter frustration as he gazed longingly in the direction of their ships.

Where the warp train and safety was, so close yet so far away at the same time.

Now he was regretting not retreating when he had the chance.

Butz and Adrian saw this and interpreted his longing gaze towards their lines as a desire to join the fight that was going on there and his sadness was directed at their casualties, which were in fact very light considering their victory.

"Yes sir!" Butz and Adrian replied with renewed awe and respect for their lord.

"Your place is nowhere near where you're looking at my lord." The Avian said and gestured to the front lines, where the enemy was.

"Don't I know it.........Don't I know it." Metty said, with a resigned voice as he gazed at where the trains for evacuations where.

This had another profound impact on the troops around him. They felt their devotion, and their loyalty, for their commodore grow from his 'honest' devotion to them and his conduct both within and out of battle.

This man truly was a 'Hero of The Empire'!

It was now obvious to anyone who knew, could properly see from above, and even to the ones who would read about this one day, that there and then, that was the reason why those around Metty were not currently commanders in their own rights.

As they continued carried out their duties and orders, in that moment very moment, Metternich sensed an opportunity to relocate himself to somewhere safe.

Well as safe as you could get on a battlefield.

He turned to his knight with a very, very cutthroat grin on his face.

It was his best 'dealing with a troublesome patient face' from his medical profession days.

"We need to use the troops carefully, and since it's clear that 'your definition of where I belong is radically different my definition'."

He paused for dramatic effect.

"As such I will take your advice and not go to the thick of the fighting. Would you agree with my decision?"

Adrian smiled at that.

"Of course my lord!" There and then Adrian felt like he just stumbled into a sleeping ancient.

Metty's grin grew.

There and then Adrian knew he had been outwitted.

"So we are in agreement then! I will use my personal guard squad to escort the wounded to the field hospital, until I return you are in command." Metternich said, carefully using his tone and mannerism to implying that he thought the field hospital would be next place to be most likely attacked, and that he himself would go there knowing it would be attack so as to get stuck in combat.

"BUT SI-"

"The field hospital is in the opposite direction of the fighting if I am not mistaken, so it's good to know we agreed on that earlier."

Metternich said and ordered Butz to start moving before Adrian could protest.

With that he had won this argument before it even began.

"And I've also increased my odds of not suffering from extreme foreign metal poisoning today. With the great cavalry clash here over the thick of the fighting will be in the infantry battle in the centre, where Werner is. The enemy, who is now desperate from their loss, will send all their reserves where they can cause the most damage, namely where Werner and our main force is. And our main force is right in the opposite direction of the field hospital, where I am going now! This will be so delightful!"

The commander in chief of the 378th thought to himself as he made his way with glee towards the head of the ambulance column that was about to leave for the hospital.

He knew that with the enemy cavalry defeated, the enemy had lost the means for quick strikes to their flanks and rear, with that he was confident that the hospital was safer now than any other place on the field.

"My master is a great strategist and tactician, but he is too hungry for battle! Can't he for once yearn for a place safely away from the fighting?"

Adrian lamented in his head, knowing that with the majority of their cavalry defeated and captured, the volunians will get desperate and try to hit their most vulnerable position, namely the field hospital.

They had posted half a regiment to guard against something like that, but it would still quickly become the most dangerous place on the battlefield.

And his liege Metternich will be by his own machinations, right in the thick of it!

His master turned his head back towards him, and Adrian gave a rueful smile and knowing shake of the head, to which his liege replied with a grin and continued on his way.

Metternich gave a quick look around him, as the faces of the soldiers, who had up until a few days ago were filled a mixture of hope with apprehension, uncertainty and sometimes downright contempt and hatred for their new commander, now seemed ready to burst from being filled with respect, awe and the beginning of loyalty and dedication.

All of which seemed to glow even brighter than before, especially now since Metty made a show of escorting the wounded himself to be taken care off.

"And more importantly I am taking myself to safety."

With that he gave them all a genuine smile as he passed them.

It never hurt to be liked by others.

Especially when those 'others' had deadly weapons on their persons.

I mean wouldn't you want people armed to the teeth to like you? And do what you tell them to do?

378th original position, Valyria's command post.

7:03

Valyria watched from her vantage point as her troops followed her order and demonstrated against the enemy stationed on the hills.

A demonstrative maneuver was something very hard to pull off, if you commit too much, it would become a full fledged battle, commit to little and you failed to keep the enemy's focus squarely on the demonstration.

For now everything seemed to be going smoothly, so far her troops were in a light artillery duel with the Volunians

It was not a full scale fight, but it could devolve into one, so she had to be careful.

Her infantry was in no position to charge up the slopes where the enemy was entrenched, but neither did the volunians and federals have the means to cut them down from above, so for now the situation was a stalemate with no real combat taking place.

It was a status quo that could be maintained for a long period of time, in spite of the fact that the enemy before her had a more elevated position and greater numbers.

She achieved this stalemate by moving only a third of her units forward, keeping the rest in reserve and intentionally overstretching her lines; this gave the enemy on the hill the impression that she was intentionally presenting a weak and badly organized force to bate them off the hill.

The idea was that they would not come down to engage what they perceived a ruse to lure them to an obvious trap. Thus the enemy would not take the bate.

And it was working spectacularly!

"All seems to be going well."She muttered underneath her breath.

One of her younger officers had suggested placing a fake divisional command hq, and present it to the enemy as being isolated in order to fool them into thinking that the imperials wanted them to charge down the hill.

Valyria had replied with an 'I will consider it', which was a diplomatic way of saying: 'No.'

The art of trickery was a delicate one after all.

You can trick someone that he can fly and make him jump off a cliff, but if you push him too hard then the momentum might carry him over the ravine and have him the other side!

"If used that kind of bait then the fools would throw caution to the wind and charge. I'd have every single enemy in sight charging at me like crazy if I presented such a temping target!"

Valyria thought in amusement at the folly of youth, how they always digged themselves deeper when trying to get out.

"Ma'am, major Evans is reporting that the enemy is intensifying their barrage on her position." one of her aides reported.

"The enemy is starting get suspicious, have all of our earth breakers fire on the enemies right flank, then move to the center, then towards Evans on the left, then back right and so one. That will confuse the enemy, making them think we have a much stronger forces than what we really have, and that we are preparing for an assault, that should take the pressure of Evans."

Valyria said as she gazed at the map, this was the tricky part.

Having a good plan was easy; pulling it off was another thing entirely.

She had barely started on her part of their planned offensive and it was already falling apart since the enemy was becoming bolder, more aggressive.

"Also, order the following: the forces that we have in reserve, and outside the enemy's line of sight, will begin an extended patrol to deceive the enemy of our true strength and position, fire, disengage, redeploy and fire once more, that should confuse them." Valyria sad to her aide and he quickly send the orders down the line.

As she continued to receive dispatches and give orders to her subordinates her mind flashed back to the very beginning of this operation, right before she and the rest of her comrades all went their separate ways to fight alongside each other and against the enemy.

********************************************************************************

"I have never seen something like this before, using our ships as giant bulldozers and the uprooted trees as a road is such an absurd idea." Valyria said to Tarkan as the two gazed at the units that were clearing a way through the thick forest in order for them to flank the enemy.

"I think I heard the commander say that that's how they did in ancient times. He mentioned that his world had a great empire, where the first thing they did after conquering a land was build roads."

Tarkan replied as they followed a column of several ships that was going through the thick forest, bow first, dipped down and plowed their way forward, with their sterns raised towards the sky, making them look like giant ostriches that were farting while stuffing their heads in the ground.

On one of the ship's stern, they could see that right before the engine exhaust there were a few squads that used wind spells to keep a constant screen of dirt, leaves, and small branches from its plowing operation, glued to the portion of the ship's shield that was above the exhaust.

This was done in order to hide the engine's light from any enemy squadrons of Pegasus, BEG, fighters or Impalers that could slip through the imperial air patrols.

After this ship, there came a second ship, whose shields had been reorganized into a half-funnel shape, with the wide potion starting at its tip, and the sharp end coming out from the vessel's rear.

This 'funnel' would gather the threes pushed aside by the first ship and would force them on to the ground, forming a roadway.

The second ships engines were parallel to the ground instead of being pointed up.

They ran like that over the new road and the force that came from the engines blast of energy, which moved the ship, helped level the road, making it mostly a smooth surfaced highway.

All the while its own 'light hiding' squadron covered the exhaust from air detection.

"Never thought I'd ever see what lookes to be giant farthing ostriches and a huge half-funnel as the means with which we'd win a battle. Or say such a sentence for that matter." Valyria said in a disbelieving manner, for if she had not been a witness just now; there were slim chances she'd take such a phrase at face value later.

"Perhaps it is absurd, but so is our current situation. Also when you think about it, all we really needed to clear a path through the woods was something big and heavy enough to plow through it. We never really thought about it that way, since we see the ships as tools of war, not construction equipment." Tarkan replied.

"That's not a very funny joke Tarkan." she said to him.

"What do you mean?" He asked and raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Everyone had thoughts similar to this, but no one voiced it. Since no one wanted to risk losing what little we had left and be the one to be blamed if things went from bad to worse, and risk their careers." she replied.

"And what grounds do you have for such a conclusion?" he asked her, an amused smile on his face.

"You're absolutely right; I have no grounds for it! It's not like I went to school with most of you and had known and fought alongside you all for years, no sir! I have nothing that would give me the necessary means of reading my colleagues thoughts!" she replied and tried to stiff a laugh on her insect like features.

"Couldn't have said it better myself!" Tarkan replied with a chuckle, to which Valyria gave in and indulged in a brief one herself.

"Anyway let's hope this all goes well, I'm dressed for victory not defeat." she said.

"That is not a problem for me." Tarkan said with a smile and gestured to his uniform, which was cleaned, brushed and even had a worn, but still decent looking officer's sash at his waist.

He looked rather dashing and spiffy.

At this Valyria raised a confused eyebrow at Tarkan, daring him to elaborate. To which he replied with a smile on his face:

"My current attire is good enough for both disasters and blessings. Be it a victory feast or wakes, I'm always in style!"

He said and what followed was a moment of silence, during which Valyria looked at him with a surprised expression, before finally giving in and laughing out loud.

Tarkan joined her as well, and their laughter helped defuse, if only temporary, their trepidations for the upcoming battle, ones that all soldiers had right before a fight.

****************************************************************************

She lowered her field binoculars as a smile appeared on her face as the flashback ended.

"You do actually have exquisite taste Tarkan and a beautiful wardrobe. Please be safe my friend and come back alive, I do not want to yet earn your place in the Hall of Triumph in this forsaken land of heathens and savages!" Valyria thought to herself, her many years of experience told her with certainty that her friend was in grave danger.

378th corps flanking force, Tarkan's position.

7:08

Commodore Tarkan looked at his division as it was pushing back the enemy and saying that he was happy was an understatement, if there ever was one!

Things were going incredibly well!

The force he was facing had so foolishly lined up their chariots in two great lines.

This was done to avoid the danger of sabotage from infiltration, but it turned them into an attacker's dream come true!

Keeping his chariots still in the tree line, Tarkan ordered a full barrage.

With the first volley they took out the leading and rear vehicles,. With that the rest were now trapped in the columns, and one by one they were shot to pieces.

A few did manage to fire back and Tarkan even saw a group of that managed to escape their ambush, but the majority were now knocked out of the fight.

Tarkan then ordered his 'special company' forward.

During the past several days he had made a plan to break the enemy infantry units he was assigned to destroy.

That plan was his 'special company'; it was just about 80 mounted soldiers. And each soldier was instructed to puppeteer spells to manipulate 5 light earth golems each. Ones that had been specially modified to take the shape and appearance of imperial cavalry.

It was not much and they certainly could not maintain the illusion if they got to close to the enemy. But the volunian and federal infantry that had just now witnessed their chariots be decimated, turned their eyes towards the tree line, and saw what looked like a whole regiment of cavalry moving forward after being supported by an Earth Shaker barrage.

The enemy maneuvered their units into squares, in order to defend against a charge from the 'imperial cavalry'.

It was what he was waiting for.

The sergeant turned officer gave a vicious grin as he ordered his chariots forward.

They maneuvered around and fired into the tightly packed enemy squares, each of their rounds punching holes in the square's sides, leaving nothing behind but fire, noise and death as they circled around the squares, approaching, firing, then retreating and the repeated the process all over again.

Tarkan saw how the Volunian and Federal troops kept their squares; it was the smart thing to do, since they thought that if they broke it they could be charged by the 'cavalry' on the field.

But they did would not last long.

For even if they could withstand the barrage from the chariots, they would not hold against the coming infantry assault.

Tarkan had ordered his regiments forward, and as he saw them marching to battle his mind flashed back to when he was a freshly enlisted sailor in his first ground battle.

The fleet that he was part of as his first assignment had been beaten an hour before he arrived to join it, and its personal joined the infantry to continue the fight planetside.

The smoke, the noise, the smell, there seemed to be no order, just chaos as the earth itself exploded beneath his feet.

The regiment that his shipmates had been assigned to had formed a square so as not be charged by cavalry, and just like now they were bombarded by Earth Breakers and chariot fire.

At one point the constant bombardment had stopped and trough the smoke of war, seemingly out of nowhere the enemy infantry was upon them.

They had charged the square he was in from four sides. The only reason he, and any of his fellow sailors and soldiers, had survived was that the foolish enemy had surrounded the square on all sides.

Left with no choice but triumph or die, they all surged forward, fought like they had unlocked the third form and routed their attackers.

Their blood still up, they pursued them so vigorously that they were so close to their routed foes, that the enemy cavalry could not charge them without the risk of mowing down their own.

Tarkan remembered clearly how that they used the infantry, which was running to the safety of their cavalry, as a shield to get close enough to the enemy horses without being charged by them.

They got close enough that they surrounded their mounted foes and pulled the riders from their mounts.

Despite that the empire still lost that battle, but there had been lessons on that field.

All of them written in blood and Tarkan had learned them well!

"Remind the infantry to leave an area of withdrawal for the enemy. If they become trapped, they'll fight to the death and could even turn the tide around!"

He said to an orderly, as he took out his binoculars and looked at the battle.

Tarkan followed one of his regiments that had reached the closest enemy square.

The regiment in question then enveloped the square on 3 sides.

"So far so good!"

The first and second sides of the square were now too close, for the imperials that made them up to charge the square. The distance between the two formations not enough for the momentum required of a charge, but that was not necessarily a bad think, whether you'd charge or not depended on the situation.

The two formations were now fighting, with the third side currently not engaged.

The first line of imperials shields with short spears were alternating between parrying the enemy spear thrusts, and trying to bash away their opponent's spears tips in order to get beyond them and reach their opposites with shields.

Spear thrusts spat out fire and iced water, small crackles were heard as bursts of wind came forth from the air spears, earth spears gathered the dust around them and hurled it forward, to blind their foe's eyes and block his lungs.

Shield spells were activated, creating walls that lasted only an impact's worth, curtains of fire flickered for only a blast's lifetime, cyclones started from runes ebbed on the shields and blew for only a gust's worth, and water burst forward living but for a crashing wave's lifetime, as both sides blocked and parried attacks.

The second line of warriors, which lay behind the shieldwall, was composed of long spear wielders.

They thrust their weapons between their first line comrades, trying to skewer from the sides any opponents they could.

The third line that followed, which made out of halberd wielders, raised their weapons high and attacked between the warriors in front of them. Striking with all their might at any opponent that they could reach with their halberds.

The fourth line of warriors, who were equipped with shoulder length two handed axes, stood in the rear and flanks.

Their job was to plug any gaps, exploit a breach, or find a moment to outflank their adversary.

Along with this lot was also several individuals armed with a combination of sword/axe/mace with a smaller shield.

Normally the weapons they carried would have been strapped to their belts and only used when they lost their spears or poll weapons, but this group that made out about 10% of their unit was designed to be nimble and maneuverable, so as to be able to strike efficiently in the cramped, tight and overcrowded spaces that appeared in fights like this.

They stayed in reserve and waited for the opportune moment to strike.

And it looked like they would not be waiting much longer.

Air and water, fire and ice, earth and wind, water with mud, noise with screams, all of it came from seemingly nowhere as before there where two organized formations of bodies, now there was only a great mass that seemed to move in all directions and once.

Yet slowly but surely it was going in the empire's favor.

The fight lasted less than 2 minutes.

Tarkan saw how within the enemy's square their lines started to break.

A great burst of water appeared in that area where the volunians broke, the first ones to be killed or knocked down was the first line of shields.

After that came the spears, with the third line formed out of halberds being the last thing that was keeping Tarkan's victorious soldiers and sailors at bay, and even managing to down some of the imperial shieldwall with spear thrusts, which morphed into great pillars of earth that jotted from the ground and towards their enemy, along halberd slashes that made explosions of wind and fire rained down on the imperial lines.

But this tired them out and they were taken out by their imperial counterparts, who responded with similar burst of earth, wind and fire, along with water to counter these attacks.

The imperials now had greater numbers on their side, and with the destruction of the volunian and federal chariots and the loss of their first and second line comrades to imperial steel, the Creed Magic was taking effect and the tide was turning even more in the favor of Tarkan's troops.

There and then the third imperial formation, which had stayed at a distance to big for melee, surged forward, charging the enemy.

The impact was so sudden and so great that both sides went passed each other's spears and there was now a great push of bodies, shield to shield, shoulder to shoulder.

The imperial shieldwall crashed into its counterpart, pushing the entire enemy formation back.

Gaps appeared in their line, the halberds and spearman rushed forward to exploit them, striking at those at the edges of the gaps, then came the two handed war axes.

They surged forward, quick as lighting, their axe heads ablaze with fire as some managed to simultaneously summon a small earth burst from beneath their feat. This propelled them a bit upwards, and allowed them to deliver a great downward slash on the enemy's backs with the full weight of their bodies behind it!

But it did not go all their way, for once inside the square they met the enemy's troops that were armed with shorter weapons.

Those volunian troops hunkered down and stabbed behind their imperial foe's knees, in their armpits, the crotch, the ankles, the joints, anywhere and everywhere they could get past the armor and

Those that wielded longer weapons, who would normally triumph against those with shorter ones, we're now at a disadvantage since the area was too tight for them to properly use their poll arms

And just like that many fell there and then. One moment triumphant, the next you were someone else's triumph.

Others managed to draw in time their shorter weapons from their belts and stem the tide of short armed volunians and federals.

Thankfully their own imperial allies armed with shorter weapons came to their aide.

With numbers once more against them the whole volunian square broke there and then. Half fled, half tried to regroup, but on the whole they were beaten and many would not be getting up.

Their next destination was either a healer's bed or a wooden box.

With the square broken some of the imperial regiment ran to pursue their routed foe, while other companies and battalion dashed to flank other enemy formations and aide the other regiments still in combat.

And just like that the whole enemy line collapsed, their commander even saw a battalion situated in the very rear of the enemy's formation, whom upon seeing what was going on withdrew before it even engaged in battle.

That was what Tarkan witnessed all across his lines.

Soldiers running away from a fight, many before they even drew their blades.

It was marvelous!

And with reports coming in that the enemy cavalry was routed and destroyed by Adrian and the commander, the situation seemed to be getting better and better!

Especially now, for as they pursued the routing foe, they came up to the enemy's main supply base!

And its walls, trenches, towers, and the fresh foes that manned them.

And the routing enemy infantry was about to reach that bastion.

"This is Commodore Tarkan calling in, we have reached the main target. We are ready for phase two, repeat ready for phase two, I am requesting support from the 88th." he transmitted to his commander.

Tarkan then drew his blade and ordered his men to charge forward without hesitation.

Now was the time!

Just like the with enemy cavalry in his first battle, if he kept close enough to the routing foe then they could use them as living shields and storm the defended base without being struck by its garrison.

Tarkan immediately joined his infantry in keeping close to the routing enemy.

Before him there was a volunian that from the regimental markings on the armor, he could tell that he had been part of the regiment that he had just watched being routed.

He could have cut the man there and then, but with his death the garrison before him would have been free to shoot at Tarkan.

So he let the man, and the ones in front of him, live as the imperial followed closely behind, and with his chariots following behind him, Tarkan formed the very spear tip of a massive wedge.

With their divisional commander leading them they surged forward. All the while firing mighty blasts from their mounted heavy crossbows at the enemy garrison on the walls, as thunder and lightning roared above.

The routing enemy reached the trenches, then the walls, and so did Tarkan and his forces, who faithfully stayed right behind the routing volunian and federal troops.

The former sergeant gazed and caught the a glimpse of one of the defenders as they aimed at him, but could not get a clear shot because of the volunians in front of Tarkan.

The base had bridges over the trenches that could be retracted, and the gates could still be raised, but none of the officers gave that order.

Or rather they could not react fast enough, for the routing volunians and federals heavily swarmed the bridges and the gates, preventing them from being closed, and from behind them came the imperial chariots.

Once they were inside the base Tarkan then raised his sword and delivered a blow to the volunian in front of him.

A non lethal one.

"It would not due for the greatest contributor to our division's victory to die here and now."

The sergeant turned officer thought to himself in amusement, as his infantry came behind him and the chariots, and flooded the base, pushing back the garrison.

Tarkan stopped to catch his breath, remembering that his focus should be on directing troops instead of participating in the melee, he returned to overseeing his formation on his PULSAR screen.

And what he saw was that his boys just kept going forward, it looked like they were running straight to Galiana itself!

"A fine pattern we are weaving here today, a fine one indeed!"

Excerpt from the diary of Lieutenant Alexander Mackintosh.

Despite my more than unconventional, and close to insubordination, 'report' the commanders were far too busy trying to get a grasp of the crisis to enforce military discipline on my person.

Or at least for now they were too busy to deal with me.

"Move units down from the hills and towards the supply base, if we can hold it then we can repulse the enemy! Also, tell the commanders on the hills to launch a full scale offensive, since the enemy before them is only a delaying force!" General Al Hambra said to his subordinates.

"Colonel Al Huius and Colonel Botza report that their formation is being flanked and they can't find where the enemies flank ends!"

"Report coming in from Captain Valenks, the cavalry has been broken!"

"All units gather at the supply base, we must hold it at all costs!"

General Pompeii was giving orders to our own forces to pull out of the frontlines and send troops towards the supply dump to support our counterattack.

"General! Major Dantuine reports that his forces have been nearly pushed out of the supply base!"

That was how it all went down; our commanders gave maneuvers to fight battles that were already lost.

The enemy struck so fast and so strong, that by the time the message was received by us it was already outdated information.

Everything seemed to be collapsing.

"Transmit that information to the troops, also let them know that three months worth of food rations are in that base, that should motivate them to get it back."

Tell our forces that we had now lost their food supply for the upcoming season, and expect them to rally instead of break and desert in mass.

I almost froze in shock at that General Pompeii had ordered, but I had orders to follow.

"Major Wilex is reporting that he is 'strategically redeploying his forces."

A rapport came in and upon hearing it I quickly took out a comm crystal, put it to my mouth and said:

"All units are to strategically redeploy to point 22 and then go to reinforce the garrison." I said in a way that implied that it wasn't lost yet.

That always motivated troops.

When soldiers and sailors thought that a battle was lost they always tried to run to safety.

But it didn't mean that it was safer that standing and fighting, for then the enemy could hound you down and cut you to pieces one by one, or you could be hanged by your own army.

The first thing a veteran captain told me is that when they break, you gotta make sure they run in the right direction, namely you had to 'strategically redeploy' them.

So when they heard that they were ordered to the safety of the base, that we still held it, that there was a place with walls and trenches that they could hide behind, instead of risking open country or the thick forest, they all started to 'strategically redeploy' to safety.

Thus I saw how our entire front line and rear, which was now disintegrating on the pulsar, was still breaking up, but it was breaking up towards the base.

They were all running now to where they thought they would be safe.

Namely a base that was now overrun by the Empire.

Lieutenant First Class Alexander Mackintosh, command staff member, Federal Expeditionary force.

U.F.O.P section of the supply base.

7:28

The forces of the Federation were being beaten back on all fronts.

The 378th personal were all too happy to pursue them.

As they routed, one of the federal battalions noticed a shadow before them, the retreating forces looked at it and saw the hand of God.

Or rather one it was one of his servants, in the form of a priest.

"Evil is amongst us! Stand back! This calls for divine intervention!" The priest said and ran towards the nearest imperial squadron.

The first soldier in that group counter-charged with his flame sword and slashed at the priest. He sidestepped, grabbed the soldier's hand with his right arm and then gave a powerful jab with his left, one that shattered the soldier's arm at his elbow joint, and the warrior fell to his knees, screaming in horror.

The priest then ducked out of the way of another imperial's water spear attack and gave a powerful sweeping kick.

One that hit the soldier's knee cap; a horrifying scream then engulfed the battlefield as he too fell to the ground in pain.

A third soldier fired an air arrow at the priest, and a fourth one took out his two handed earth mace, activating the magic within it.

The mace's metal spikes began to rotate and oscillate around its surface, turning it into a deadly spherical chainsaw-like pattern.

The priest simply caught the arrow and threw it back at the third soldier, impaling his bow drawing hand while side stepping the fourth soldier's mace, tripping him. And as he fell down, the priest gave a powerful kick in the soldier's side, shattering his ribs.

With that almost a full imperial squadron had been taken down by a single warrior.

"He's a monster!" the last man of the imperials squad shouted, as he witnessed four of his comrades being taken down effortlessly.

"No I'm not! Name's Alexander Turneissnen Herman Eist, but my congregation calms me A.T.H for short; and I kick ass for the lord!" The priest shouted to those gathered, all the while moving to attack the rest of the imperials, who broke and ran, giving the federals some respite.

"Wait, you're nickname is A.T.H?" one of the federal soldier asked the priest.

"Yes!"

"And you're family name is Eist?"

"Yes, of course!"

"So you're A.T.H Eist, the priest!?!"

"Yes, I know! But my parents gave me the name and I love my parents, so just call me Turneissnen!" he told them with much gusto, before walking away from anymore uncomfortable questions.

"You okay there my child?" Turneissnen said, turning towards one of the wounded soldiers on the ground.

"I......aaaaa........."

"Easy ladie, easy. You did your duty, now ya ken take a respite. Stretcher!" The priest bellowed out, then moved to another soldier. One that was worse off than the last, one that couldn't speak as 'eloquently' as the soldier from before.

"You'll be allright ladie. Just take a wee nap and when you wake up, everything will be just fine. You'll be saved." The priest said and the pain in the federal's eyes disappeared, relief flooded him and he spent his last moments in bliss and happiness, thinking the wound was not fatal.

A holy man had told him so, so who was he to doubt his word?

He closed his eyes for the last time as Turneissnen gave him his final rights.

"Janssen forgive me for my sin." The priest muttered the prayer of absolution from the sin of lying, as he made his way across his 'flock'.

He passed by a few Volunian dead and didn't even spare them a second glance.

It was not his fault that they were born outside the love and light of Janssen, but it was their fault for, even after hearing him preach for months about Janssen, rejecting the true path and choosing to still worship the false gods of their ancestors.

Everyone chooses their path, and they would get what they give.

Thus he would not waste his breath on those that chose demons and damnation over light and good, he had better things to do with his time.

The less there were of them the better for the true faith.

He stopped, realizing that he had just committed to thought something that was very wrong.

So he quickly made a holy seal, and said the prayer for forgiveness for the sin of pride and left, continuing to ignore the dead heathens.

After talking with his flock some more, giving assurance to the wounded and relief to the dying, Turneissnen turned towards the direction where the main fight was going on.

He took what looked like one big club from his belt and pointed it towards the enemy lines.

"Now then, the people in front of us are heathens and it's our holy duty to preach the word of Janssen to them, so let us go and spread the gospel!" he said to the assembled troopers who rallied behind him as he led a counter-attack.

378th corps, Metternich's position.

8:13 Local time.

"Hold!" Metternich ordered the column as he took out his binoculars and looked at the forest that was now to his right.

"The medical transports will continue on, everyone else form up to receive an attack from the forest." Metty ordered and they complied.

Despite what Adrian thought and what even Metty's real thoughts about himself were.

They were now, unknowingly, in agreement with each other, since the young commodore barely now realized that there was a chance that the enemy might not go after Adrian, but strike at their field hospital.

The growing aching of his stomach alerted him to the fact that they might be walking towards the intended target for an enemy counter-attack.

With that in mind, he made a show of how he might have caught a glimpse of something in the woods ,and more importantly the troops that were now leaving for the hospital could clearly see him stopping (where it was safer than the hospital) and staying behind to keep their column safe.

Now he could avoid being either at the front lines or in the field hospital.

So here he was, nice, safe and far away from either areas that held any troops.

So why was the pain not fading if he was away from both zones of danger?

"And any allied troops." Metty thought with dread as his prophetic stomach ache immediately intensified.

The young commodore immediately realized that he was now where the counter-attack would start!

For immediately after he realized this, Metty saw the rustling of braches and bushes, as the tree themselves were being pushed aside.

A moment later he could see the shape of enemy chariots emerging from the forest's thick bush.

He saw that it was about a company's worth of up to 15 enemy chariots!

In that moment Metty recognized the regimental markings on the hull of the chariots and noticed that they were units that had been deployed at the front lines, where Valyria was leading a demonstration against them.

Someone must had assessed their situation and decided to use the same outflanking and tree breaking tactics as the imperials used.

There was someone out there who had managed to see though their plan, find the flaws in it, and was now poised to exploit it with a counter-attack.

And that someone had just found the imperial commander!

The sheer shock of what was before them made the chariot company hesitate for a moment.

And that was all it took in battle.

Upon realizing this Metternich Immediately raised both his hands up in a gesture of surrender and got up from his seat, so they could properly see it.

But he stood up so fast that he lost his balance and swayed forward, so his gesture of surrender was interpreted as the sign for CHARGE!

And Butz and his bodyguard squad of 5 light jeeps now charged 3 times that number heavily armored units.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!" Metty gave out a horrific scream, as he quickly grabbed onto the automatic crossbow that was mounted on the spider wolf jeep, so he could keep his balance and not fall from the jeep and accidentally pressing the trigger, making the crossbow start firing at the chariots.

The enemy chariots and his allies saw this and they did not see a coward in despair caught between a rock and a hard place, but a master general who had seen their hesitation and was now exploiting it.

They saw a bloodthirsty maniac, screaming his lungs off, who now charged with the determination to use the rock to smash the hard place!

Fear gripped them, as chariots fired at the imperial jeeps, but their charge was so sudden and so out of nowhere that not one shot managed to hit any imperial vehicle.

"BUTZ! GET US ON TOP OF THINGS!"

"Yes sir!"

His aide replied and immediately cast an earth spell in front of their jeep squad's trajectory.

As soon as it hit the ground a ramp emerged from the spells point of impact, just as a second volley from the enemy chariots was fired.

The shot was blocked by the ramp and as it detonated into several hurricanes, Metternich and his chariots reached the ramp and were propelled by it into the air.

The wind from the vortexes now truly came to life and instead of ripping them apart, the angle of their flight, combined with the area of their projectile's impact, propelled Metty and his squad forward and over the column of chariots.

As they flew above their foe, their wings lifted by the force of vicious winds, lighting struck at that very moment, the wind intensified and the morning sun was now fully blocked by the clouds, as the wind magic energy from the two armies fighting had leaked into the clouds above, making the sky darken to almost nighttime, and a full blown storm started to rage on as darkness fell on that morning of war.

"Why always me!?" Metternich thought as he flew through the air, storm above him, , enemy beneath him and...........and a clear path before him!

As they descended to the ground the drivers quickly shifted their jeeps from the snake's body, to that of spider legs, the mass of shifting metal broke into eight legs that cushioned their fall and immediately the squad continued deep into the forest, which was now sporting a clear path through it, courtesy of the enemy chariots that had come through here!

"Nice of them to have prepared a road for us! I know it's bad manners to leave such gracious hosts, but I think we have an appointment with their support personal, which is most likely located on the other end of this path. So let's be proper ladies and gentleman and not keep them waiting!" Metty said trough the comm crystal to his jeep squad, who hollered and cheered in anticipation for the easy prey at that awaited them at the other end of this path.

"And more importantly now no one will get any idea of asking: 'why aren't we striking those chariots from the rear, now that we are behind them?'."

Metty thought in his head.

He was ready to contact Adrian to alert him about chariots, so that he could keep them away from the field hospital (and more importantly from him) when an explosion detonated behind them, making the jeep wobble and slide to the side a bit from the force of the impact, making Metternich drop the comm crystal.

Metty looked behind and saw that the chariots had gone into full reverse and were chasing at top speed, trying to shoot them.

Another few explosions blew near his jeep.

All of them were near his jeep.

"Nuts! Of course they'd go after me. Getting an army commander's head is more glamorous than cutting up wounded foes, even if ye get him with yer arse!!" He thought in despair as the chariots continued to fire at his jeep specifically.

Metty quickly grabbed the mounted crossbow and started firing at the enemy chariots. The crossbow was not strong enough to pierce the armor, but that was not his intention.

Metty kept a continuous stream of arrows in the direction of the enemy chariots, so that when they fired their shots, the enemy's barrage would collide with his arrow volley and they would explode before they could reach his jeep.

It was working as countless enemy shells exploded in mid air just short of reaching him, almost like a huge firecracker, lighting up the now darkened forest and bathing both the imperial troops and the volunians chariots in their light.

"As soon as we are out of the woods, release the combat mist!"

He ordered to his troops as a projectile made his way straight towards him, managing to pass beyond his barrage of arrows.

He had managed to block anything between two dozen to almost half a hundred shots, but one managed to slip through his defenses.

One moment, one shell, one soldier, that was all it took in war.

It flew with blinding speed and straight on the mark precision.

It was a true kill shot for any brave man that was it's target.

Thankfully Metternich was a coward!

Not only that, but a coward that was actually a skilled warrior and mage!

And he was also backed into a corner now!

A sudden spike of pain from his stomach pain alerted him that it was now or never.

With that early warning from his bowls he immediately reacted.

He could not dodge it, since it would impact the jeep and with that him also. So as the shot was about to strike him Metty immediately struck out with his left fist, while keeping his right on the mounted crossbow and continuing to fire at the enemy chariots.

Metternich hit the projectile right before it made its mark, not enough to detonate it, but enough to redirect it so that it flew above the chariot and exploded above them, bathing him in light.

One moment, one shell, one soldier, that was all it took in war.

And Metty was a survivor!

The enemy chariots and imperial jeeps that witnessed this incredible act of skill saw then how he cradled his left hand, and visibly leaned forward, cradling it in his abdomen, thought he kept a constant fire at the chariots.

"That was close! Gotta have to stay like this for a while, in order to convince them I'm in intense pain from that stunt I just pulled." He thought to himself as he calmed his nerves and continued to pretend that it took a great deal of effort to deflect the S class spell shell, when in fact it was hardly any effort at all for him.

He barely had any troubles against top tier S class spells, and that was a problem in itself!

If word got out he was a powerful mage, then he could be send on commando raids or be forced to be part of the very spear tip of the vanguard by whichever High Admiral he had the misfortune of serving under.

"Not to mention the fact that..." Another shell got passed the arrow barrage, but this one missed his jeep, just barely, thanks to Butz skilled evasive driving.

The sudden explosion shook Metternich away from his thoughts, and returned his from thinking of any future problem, to living out his current problem.

"One at a time. One crisis at a time. One meeting with the reaper were I pull down his knickers, and make run for it, at a time!"

He mused as he decided that the time he pretended to be strained from his punching of an artillery type shell was enough.

The young commodore was ready now to counter any other shell that managed to get through his barrage, when all of a sudden a white mist engulfed him.

It was the 'war mist;, which meant that they had just emerged from the woods.

Metternich gave a sigh of relief at that.

At least they were safe now! Since they could now loose the pursuing chariots.

He turned his gaze forward and saw before him the entire volunian and federal army!

Metternich now stood before over 50.000 foes!

Nuts!

"This wasn't an attack! This was a rout! They were not searching for the field hospital; they were trying to get away! And I just followed the path left by the taffers straight into the HEART OF THE BATTLE!"

The chariot squad had emerged at the rally point where the enemy force was regrouping in order to make for the supply base.

There Metty he could see his own forces was busy taking it.

Before him was now the entire enemy army, and his own force was on the other side of that!

There was no way he could drive around the enemy without getting noticed, and manage to reach the safety of his troops that way.

So he drew his sword intending to throw it down at the nearest enemy unit's feet, as a sign of surrender.

And at that very moment when he drew his blade, the enemy chariots that had been behind him emerged from the forest and the cloud of mist.

The most rear unit was a federal battalion, and like most soldiers anything near them that wasn't sporting their nation's colors was a threat.

So when they heard noise coming from behind them, they turned and trough the darkness, blowing wind and flash of lightning, the federal troops saw that from a cloud of mist an imperial emerging with chariots behind them, and none had federal colors.

So they immediately assumed the only thing they could.

They immediately fired on the chariots coming from the forest, they ignored the jeeps, the chariots were the bigger threat to them.

As for the chariots in question?

Well, when the volunian heavy armor emerged from the forest all they saw trough the thick mist was columns of troops near their supply base that was firing at them, and none had Volunian colors.

So they to assumed the only thing they could.

And stared firing at the infantry lines, they ignored the jeeps; the infantry was the bigger threat to them.

"Deploy all battle mist we have left and reinforce it with every ounce of magical crystal we have!"

"Yes sir!" Butz said and complied, creating a huge cloud of thick mist from what was left of their spell reserve.

The rest of the squad did the same, they immediately recognized what was going on and they had to prevent the two from recognizing each other and take advantage of the confusion.

"This is Commodore Metternich, enemy counter-attack gathering at N-E of main objective, deploy a concentrated barrage on my location, 5 second delay!" He ordered to his artillery core. As they drove through the enemy lines, with the chariots hot on their heels

The mist engulfed both sides as the federal infantry turned to brace for what they thought was another imperial ambush, and the volunian chariots raced at full speed to engage the federal infantry before they could form a square, neither realizing they were on the same side this time!

While Butz and the rest of the jeeps, bobbed and weaved between both sides trying to get to safety.

As allies shot each other and mist surrounded the battlefield, the jeep lurched from Butz's driving and the imperial officer that both formations thought was leading the other, experienced something that no one, not even Deux could have predicted happened could have predicted.

Metternich in that moment he...

He....

He..

.....stubbed his toe!

The senzation was so sudden and so out of place, the small injury that was the only injury he had received from all the madness in past several minutes was so.........so random that all the young commodore could do was.......

..........laugh!

He gave out a great bellow of laughter right in a moment when all the noises of the battlefield paused for a moment.

With that the laughter was heard by both the chariots and the infantry line that was all around him.

It was carried by the wind all across the battlefield.

"Chariots, armies and the lighting itself all trying to get to me, and I stub my toe! I'm in battle where hundreds die and I just stubbed my toe! If I'd know this was the only injury I'd get, I would have come today boots only!"

Metty thought to himself and his jeep moved between the mist filled enemy lines.

Metternich laughed so hard that he even leaned forward, still raised in the opened vehicle, unintentionally waving his sword a few times.

To him this was just an absurd moment, were he lost if for a minute and found a bit of humor in this madness.

But the Federals and Volunians around him, they had a different view of things.

Excerpt from the diary of Lieutenant Alexander Mackintosh.

A stray artillery round, from either side, had slammed into the one of our HQ's walls, breaching it and making a clear hole in the structure. From where we could see the battlefield in its entirety.

I knew it was a stray shot instead of an intentional barrage, for if it had been, they I would not be here, all theses decades after the war, putting ink on paper for this memoir.

But even if it was a fluke, it struck true.

For with the news of how we were being driven back on all fronts, combined with the reports that said that our supply base's defense was falling and with the command centre itself having been hit by the artillery fire, the entire staff had panicked and ran away.

I looked to General Pompeii for guidance but I saw that he, along with Al-Hambra, was amongst those that broke.

Looking out trough the newly created hole I saw our forces that had been railing at point 22 in order to retake the supply base and the vast imperial army that was now storming the base.

I could also see lines and columns of enemy brigades that came from the western front line that we had abandoned, they were hot on the heels of our own troops that had retreated from those hills and were trying to reach the supply base.

There and then I knew that the final clash was about to begin.

I immediately exited the command room, in order to join the main body of the army. There was no point in me staying in the now abandoned command room.

In that moment I had decided that if this is how it ends, then I would take as many imperials with me as I could.

I had no intention of suffering the humiliation of surrendering myself, and being paraded as a prisoner in Temperland.

I saw what happened to those that suffered that fate, years in prisons camps and when they came out they were now too old to hold their current ranks. But since they had been captured they did not have the needed field experience to be promoted to a proper rank of their age and station.

That would not be my fate!

I would not be a failed officer!

With nothing left to lose, I rushed to join the nearest federal unit, which was at the very rear of our regrouping army.

Thankfully I arrived before a massive burst of war mist erupted from the forest behind us, and immediately after that I saw Metternich himself rush through the tree line, followed by a whole column of chariots.

Our rear formation immediately engaged them, and as soon as they clashed, another cloud of mist erupted, engulfing our rear, along with most of the rest of our army.

We quickly formed a square so as to not be charged by the chariots, and the very moment the square was complete, the ground itself exploded as a great artillery barrage crashed down all around us.

The explosions made the ground itself shake so intensively that it felt like the planet itself would break in two. The sounds of the explosion deafened us, the mist blinded us, it was becoming hard to breath from our tight formation and the dust kicked up from the barrage.

All around there was a wall of shouts and screams, the rumbling of feet, wheels, hooves and claws. Everything and anything seemed to have come to our corner of nowhere to bring noise and destruction.

Then came a moment when the shelling paused, the storm took a break, the chaotic shouts stopped.

And in that moment of calm I heard it.

In that moment we heard it.

HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

It was a sickening laughter that seemed to come from the underworld itself.

The artillery barrage, storm, and sounds of battle returned immediately, but somehow even with all that noise over it we could still hear that laughter.

It dwarfed all the explosions and shouts of war and death that surrounded us.

And it was getting closer and closer.

I tightened the grip on my one handed crossbow in my right arm and the sword in my left hand.

He passed us there and then, his sword waved all around as his body flayed in all directions like he was swimming on a beach during leave.

His face sported a smile that I caught only a glimpse of it. But it was enough to send chills down my spine.

And his eyes.......oh those dreadful eyes caught me in their glimpse for a moment and I felt my heart skip a beat as I could feel my very souls itself be pieced by their twin gaze.

He was enjoying itself, like this was all game, like he was home at last!

I had faced countless battles, horrors and monster before and after that battle, but gazing into those eyes was the first time that I ever truly froze and was unable to move.

Even now, after all these years, that laugh still gives me chills.

Even as I write down this part of the story, I keep looking over my shoulder just to make sure.

He came out of the dark forest and then disappeared into the mist, all the while accompanied by that laugh, that awful laugh.

He was gone now, but the laughter stayed.

If anything it continued to echo throughout the battlefield, and if before it seemed to dwarf the noise of war, now it grew even more, seemingly devouring and replacing the sounds of war till nothing but that awful laugh remained.

He earned a new name after that day.

'Malus, the evil one' they called him after that.

A chariot came out of the mist and just as it was about to go around us, in order to shoot us from a safer distance, an artillery shell exploded right in front of it, damaging its left track.

With half of its means of propulsion destroyed the chariot's right side pulled it forward and made it's right side skid forward, making the vehicle unintentionally present its right flank to us, before the driver realized what happened and stopped it.

"Forward you dogs to victory! Glory for the first man to die! CHARGE!" I bellowed out and lead the charge myself, determined to not let anybody else get that prize, the rest of the square broke and followed behind me.

We quickly swarmed the tank and as I reached it first and climbed on top of it, the mounted anti-infantry great crossbow fired several volleys of water arrows that engulfed the men behind me in ice.

Their comrades behind them had too much momentum to stop, so they ran into them, shattering the ones now encased in ice into great chunks of frozen flesh , which spewed all around like a winter's icicles falling from the roofs, coated in crimson.

I quickly opened a hatch and shot a fire arrow inside. One that I embedded with enough additional energy to make it an A class spell. When that one hit the floor of the chariot, it quickly burst into such a great explosion, that the shockwave that came out of the hatch blew me of the chariot.

I flew briefly trough the air and landed on the ground right in the middle of all the bits and pieces of the frozen and shattered soldiers that had been behind me, along with the fresh corpses of others.

The back blast had knocked the air out of me, and I was quickly losing conscious from the shockwave and the fall, but in my last moments of clarity I managed to have a good look at the chariot I had just destroyed.

I saw its markings.

The chariot was not an imperial mode, but a volunian one.

I.....no, we had just killed our own allies.

Then and there I realized what was going on, all around us there was Volunian killing Federal; all the while the Empire was looting our base.

No wonder Malus was laughing.

U.F.O.P base, Metty's position.

7:43

His spider-wolf jeep dashed between mist filled lines of volunian enemy infantry, as the noise and chaos of the battlefield surrounded him.

Metternich stopped laughing by now, as his lungs tired and his wits returned.

Courtesy of the sudden stop that Butz did, making the vehicle come to a screeching halt.

The young commodore almost flew forwards from the momentum, and it was only the fact that he was currently wearing that special seatbelt line designed for the mounted ballista operator that kept him from being propelled like a projectile of old.

But it did knock the air out of him for a moment.

"We're here sir." Butz said all of a sudden as Metty straightened his back, since he was now belly forward over the mounted ballista, and he recognized that the sounds coming from around him were not roars of agony, but were cheers!

Cheers of victory.

He straightened his back and saw that he was surrounded by Imperial soldiers, their distinctive pyramid shaped helmets helped to tell them apart from the bowl shaped ones the volunians and federals used.

"I made it!" Metty thought to himself as he gave a smile and wave to the troops around him, this only encouraged them to cheer even more loudly.

He turned his gaze back to federal force that he just passed trough, and saw that it was disorganized from his little jaunt.

Now more a mob than an army, it was now being pushed back by the closest imperial forces near it.

He turned to his bodyguard squad and saw that they were all there!

Not a single spider-wolf jeep, or any of the soldiers within them had perished!

He raised his sword high in a triumphant jab in the air, which made the troops around him go crazy.

"I made it, I'm safe and sound and............" He caught from the corner of his eye the arm insignia of the troops around him and saw that it was a butterfly on it.".......Right in the middle of the 88th brigade, who I ordered earlier to prepare for battle."

Metty was left almost speechless once he realized the situation he got himself this time.

A strange sensation on his right arm made him turn his attention towards it; the blood was rushing away from it arm, since he was still keeping his sword raised to the sky.

"Raised in a position that makes it look like I am about to lead a charge once I lower my blade!"

He panicked.

His eyes blazed once more, as he tried to think of a quick means to escape.

There was no way out of this, the moment he let the sword rop drop the 88th would join the fight and he would be forced to be at the very tip of their assault!

"No way out! There is no way out! There is no way........"

The entire brigade was around him and looked at the blade silently waiting for it to drop, so they could join the fight.

"There is no way........"

Metty continued to hold it up high, despite the blood continuing to drain from his arm.

He turned his gaze towards the battle, using that image of death and destruction as fuel to keep his resolve, despite the fact that soon he would not be able to hold it up anymore.

"There is no way........"

He could not hold it any longer; one cannot after all ones fate indefinably.

So once more he would be back in battle, once more he would be in the thickest of the fighting, it seemed like fate itself gripped his hand and was pulling it forwards, towards battle, the only way that appeared to be available to him.

" If there is no way out........"

His eyes blazed away in fear as he felt his right arm go numb and lean forward.

Metty's fingers felt heavy like lead, like there was nothing but a great weight in his palm, as fate itself seemed to have grasped his hand and moved it towards its destination.

"Then I will make one!" Metternich roared in his mind, readied his left hand and as his right descended he punched his sword arm!

Changing he direction were it would land!

And it landed the right way!

Its tip was now towards Werner.

"Colonel.....I believe I owe you a meal."Metty said to him and gestured with his head towards the enemy base.

For his part von Braun smiled and ordered his brigade forward into the base, he was now leading the attack!

Fate could not be changed.

But you could decide on the manner in which you arrived there.

With the proclamation that he was giving Von Braun the honor of leading the way as a 'thank you' gift for his good behavior these past few days ( good by Black Berets Standards) the 88th cheered even louder this time.

Von Braun surged forward into the base, the Black Berets hot on his heels and Metty now stayed behind.

He was now actually obligated to stay behind, since if he joined now, it seemed like he would be robbing Werner of glory, right after he offered that as a reward for his service.

That was what the troops around him would think, and so they would expect him to stay back now.

Metty smiled at that as the blood returned to his right arm and he moved to sheath his blade.

He stopped just short of doing so and caressed the weapon's tip with his left fingers as he pondered what had just happened.

It seemed like the hand of fate itself had decided that he would now rejoin the fight, that his blade would fall.

He could not prevent it from falling, but he could alter the course it took until it reached its destination.

And because of that he managed to avoid the pitfall of others.

He did not try to change it or to run away from his fate. Instead he managed to find a way to 'strategically redeploy' himself from it.

Metternich had sworn that from now forth no more!

That he and he alone would be the one to control what happened in his life!

And he kept his oath!

He would make his own path, he would forge his own destiny, if there is no path forward then he would make one!

And he had done just that!

Metternich, for a moment, had managed to fight fate and win!

And he did it with one punch!

BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM*

BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM*

BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM* BOOM*BOOM*

But it was only for a moment, for the sands of time to not care what happens around them.

They spare a glance to nothing, not even the fate itself.

Nobody truly knew tem, for they were eternal, ever-present and ever gone.

And so, they flowed on towards and ending and a new beginning..

8:23 Local time.

The young commodore turned his gaze back toward the battle around him, he ordered Butz to drive them to a vantage point from where he could properly observe the whole battle.

As he looked at fight before him and his pulsar screen that depicted the wider strategicall situation.

His comm crystal shimmed indicating that he had a new message.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Sir, complements of Commodore Jackson, we received a report from her on the Federal Forces!"

"Well go on man, people are shooting at me!" he thought to himself as everywhere around him the battle raged on with fire and sword.

"Sir, from enemy prisoners and our own scouts we've discovered that the Holy Knights stationed here have been recalled back to Galiana, apparently yesterday was their last tour of duty and they've been rotated from the frontlines with a fresh, new battalion of non Holy Knights!" the communications officer replied, his voice barely able to contain his enthusiasm.

"T-this means that the enemy is now beret elite troops!"

"I want that transmission to be broadcasted to every soldier and sailor we have with us, let them know the Holy Knights withdrew from us! Do you understand soldier? I want them to know they withdrew away from us!" he ordered, hoping the comm officer would understand the implications of wording and its intent.

"YES SIR!!!!" The comm officer replied and Metty monitored him transmission to make sure he didn't mess this us.

"All units, this is HQ! We just received word that the Holy Knight battalion has retreated to Galiana!"

"We chased them off!?!"

"We beat'em!"

"Come on lads, the worst is over! Let's finish the rest!"

The young commodore smiled in relief, as his plan worked. Now with his troops thinking they chased off their most feared opponent they would gain confidence and he could already feel the Creed Magic swinging even more in their favor.

After that Metternich returned his gaze to the battlefield, and what he saw dampened his spirit a little bit.

"Looks like the enemy is starting to push us back." The young commodore thought to himself as he observed the flow battle.

He checked the 378th stats on his farview and saw why.

It was a good thing they got that sudden spike in Creed Magic just now, since their ammo count was starting to run dangerously low. His troops were also still tired from the flanking maneuver and the enemy was starting to recover from the shock of the ambush.

The battle was in their favor but it was far from being decided, let alone over.

"Butz, tell Werner that the enemy has started their counterattack and that he'll be receiving guests soon. Also, inform Tarkan that he is to redeploy to block a counter-attack from the base's sides that we've manage to take from the enemy." Metternich told his aide.

"Yes sir!" Butz replied and relayed the orders trough the communications crystal attached to their jeep's windwaker.

"Things are going ok for now, if we can break through here, smash the last of the supply guards and capture enough fresh crystals we can win this battle and withdraw from this rock!" Metternich thought to himself as he gaze a glance to the rear of the 88th.

The brigade in question had already stopped their advance and had split into two groups, one that contained about a third of their numbers and a second one that had the remaining two thirds.

Metternich could see that Werner was planning on using the smaller force to stall the enemy's reinforcements, while he used the bigger half to aide Tarkan and smash the base's defenders and then envelop the enemy reinforcements from behind.

The forces under Tarkan's command seemed to be doing the same thing, though not as efficient as the Black Berets.

Imperial troops started occupying the walls of the base where the federals and volunians would start their counter assault.

The formation that he had zigg-zagged between earlier was also managing to slowly recover and start pushing back against the imperial force that it was fighting.

From the PULSAR screen Metternich could also see that Tarkan and Werner's smaller delaying forces were about a division's worth of strength combined.

And that division was now supposed to hold against at least 2 to 3 times that number.

From the west, Metternich could see the incoming enemy reinforcement.

The federal and volunian forces that the Oscar, Georgaian, Valyria, Antonius and Dalius were supposed to keep distracted, had abandoned the front line and were closing in on the supply base.

They too had detached roughly a third of their forces and were using them to block Valyria, Dalius, Antonius Georgaian and Oscar's forces, while their main body of troops marched on the base itself.

That or the whole army was routing and those units were the only ones that managed to get away from the imperial army.

Metternich could not be sure, which one of the two was it.

Either way it spelled trouble for them.

He turned his gaze back to the single division's worth of troops that was supposed to man the base's conquered walls, and prevent them from being retaken by the incoming 3 enemy divisions. At least long enough until Valyria and the others managed break trough and come to help Metty, Tarkan and Werner.

It seemed like unfair odds, but their forces was now behind walls and trenches , while the enemy now had to storm the very defenses that they had built, which were now guarded by the very enemy that they had been built to keep out.

He looked at volunian and federal force trough his binoculars and saw that they did not look like they could storm the supply base that Metternich's forces had just stormed.

Also, the 88th was an elite unit. And one up until now, with the exception of that cavalry fight, been kept in reserve and was still fresh, while the remaining forces of both armies were exhausted.

The brigades commanders had protested against this, with Werner being the exception, a fact that surprised the others, but Metternich assured them that when the enemy would send in their reinforcements they would be the decisive factor and that time had come.

Looking once more at the screen that depicted both armies, he realized that whoever held out the longest would win.

It was now a battle of attrition, and he had only one brigade left of fresh troops out of a corps of 50.000.

So he hoped that the 88th would be able to hold the lines long enough for him to play his final card.

But as the battle was reaching its darkest hour, a great noise was hear from the North.

Metty turned his gaze there, and from that direction he saw that a knight had come to their aide!

Adrian and the cavalry had reached the battlefield and the ever faithful Avian lead the charge to aide his overlord!

Extract from the diary of Corporal D'hrain Jeran.

The enemy cavalry kept itself outside the base and joined in delaying our reinforcements that were coming from the west.

If we could holdout long enough for our allies to breakthrough then we would win, the only problem now was that we had to holdout long enough for that!

In a battle, the strength and weaknesses of the each element went like this:

Fire beats air, air beats earth, earth beats water and water beats fire; situations outside of that like water fighting earth and wind fighting water, or fire against earth depended more on the warriors wielding them. But the aforementioned strengths and weaknesses is generally how you want to use your spells in combat.

But during that black morning on Volunia 4, within the base, after they broke through the walls and trenches, there was no order of battle from our side, only one big brawl.

The day had started with a rather lovely early morning light. But as the sun rose up, darkness enveloped us and clouds gathered over the hot plain where we were all stationed at.

When the first bolt of lightning was heard in the distance our officers told us to relax and stand down, since it was unlikely that the enemy to attack during a storm. The heavy rain and mud that came with it would bog down any attack, so one had to wait for it to pass, which was good and sound advice and we were fools for listening to it!

For no rain fell that morning, only lighting descended from the clouds.

The thunderstorm booming in the distance was raging out so loud that it helped mask the enemies movements and eventual attack, what made matters even worse was the fact that by the time the attack had commenced the storm not only had intensified, but had also reached our position as well.

For the first few minutes of the attack you could not have guessed we had been ambushed, due to the weather.

We could barely distinguish the sound of the storm and that of the initial artillery barrage that devastated our armor, so for a while we were oblivious to what was happening.

Then all of sudden a herd of chn'ga deer hopped from the forest, and ran right in front of the compound.

We had never witnessed such a thing happen before, especially during a thunderstorm.

But after that I saw a squad of infantrymen running towards our base, followed by a company and then a battalion and all were running away from the rear position.

I realized then and there what was happening.

I sounded the alarm and my battalion quickly formed up, alongside the other battalion from our regiment, for battle and marched to take a position on the wall to repel the enemy.

The regiment was now about 70 meters away from the wall and the regiment was poised to reach it, but by then it was too late.

For the first enemy vanguard was right behind our routing allies.

I could not tell whether they were volunians or federals, but damn them both for not dying where they stood!

For the enemy had used them as meat shields to reach our lines, they were so close to our routing comrades that no one took a shot at the imperials before they reached the trenches and stated scaling the walls.

A great explosion echoed throughout that dark morning, and the wall shook so hard from its impact that I almost fell down from the parapets.

Our foe's chariots had reached the walls and smashed their way through it, at least two dozen holes had appeared all around the eastern wall, and the enemy infantry poured through it.

From atop the watchtower parapet I could see that our regimental Colonel was yelling, screaming and sometimes even shooting at our comrades that were running away, trying to get them to rally behind our regiment.

Our colonel immediately ordered column to line in order to repel the invaders.

Seeing at just how many of them were pouring in, I knew that my best change was to get back to friendly lines, before one of them notices that the watchtower was still in volunian hands.

I quickly pulled out an arrow and trough a bit of concentration I made a jungle vine erupt from its rear. I then enchanted the vine to stick to the watchtower and then shot the other end, which was attached to the arrow from which it sprouted from, across the base.

It landed on one of the supply buildings behind out battalion.

I used my bow as a grapple and I then quickly started to slide down the vine, my hands burned from holding my weight and I thought my joints were ready to pop right out of their shoulders.

I held my breath, not trusting myself to be able to keep the grip if I exhaled.

I could hear shouts from the officer of the watch behind me, and saw a few arrows fly besides me.

He had thought I was deserting my post, which was not true, since I was just strategically redeploying myself.

As I flew over the enemy lines and towards my own, I thought for a moment that this journey would last forever.

There was so many imperial troops in the base that I could not see the ground, there was nothing but an endless forest top of black helmets, spears and halberds.

I felt like I would be trapped forever, the pain in my body as my only companion, looking to the ground and seeing but sharpened weapons, wielded by killers who did not even bother to look up and see if I was even there.

That I would spend eternity as a man suspended above foes that did not even knew he existed, a wretch so worthless that I could not even take a breath of air without failing and falling.

I thought of home, and how I've been gone for so long that I wondered whether it was ever real.

Was it all just a dream?

Was it all a pleasant fantasy that I had, before I woke up in this nightmare with no light, no air, no ground beneath me or friends around me, only cold steel, uncaring faces and a body wracked with pain?

And just as it seemed to go on forever it ended. The vine snapped just as I crossed above my battalion's line and I crashed down to the ground.

Thankfully I landed in one of the big piles of laundry hampers that we had set aside to be cleaned in mass, after that outbreak of diarrhea in our brigade from some cheap 'kava' fruit that a w were told was 'fresh'.

So there I was, fallen out of the sky and smelling like shit.

I ran from a mound soiled sheets towards my battalion who was about to engage the imperials, and that was when shit really hit the fan.

The first wave that hit us was a half-company that had rushed forward and isolated itself from the rest of the advancing enemy.

We launched a salvo of earth arrows that turned the ground beneath them into mud, breaking their charge, after that we used our spears to shoot a great wave of water at them that struck them so hard, it pushed them back and made the mud even more of an obstacle.

The ground in front of us became a sea of mud that swallowed them up to their in depth, and we picked them off by extending our earth spears and jabbing at them.

A few we managed to get in the eye sockets or joints, but most we pushed enough to make them fall into the mud, and not a moment too soon.

For then and there, the rest of their battalion caught up, but they didn't stop to help them.

No! They were blood was still up from breaching the walls, and their momentum was so potent that they rushed forwards towards us with such speed, that they either didn't notice or ignored the half-company that we had trapped in the mud.

The imperials trampled over their allies, burying them deep in that black pool of now poisoned water and sinking earth, and used the still living troops as a bridge over the mud.

The shieldwall always came first, but it came isolated from its second and third line of spears and halberdiers, but they came in such great numbers and so in such a mighty charge that any manner of formation or discipline was lost, only raw power and momentum was used for their attacks.

And as the enemy struck us, a whole wall of men and weaponry, our whole formation that was at least 50 long meters and ten ranks deep was pushed back!

Normally that's not what happens in a battle, but at that point it didn't matter.

The enemy had struck us so hard, so fast and in so great numbers that we broke on impact.

One moment my battalion was there, the next it just disintegrated as all turn tailed and ran away.

I ran as well, and as I did so I noticed that there were many from my unit far ahead of me, they must have routed before the imperial infantry even reached us.

We ran and ran, till we reached the last wall that was still ours, with nowhere left to run, we turn to face our foe.

It was now kill or be killed, and no one came here to this to die.

Nobody told the imperials that.

We formed ranks one last time just as the imperials, now out of formation from their pursuit, struck us.

I saw ranks of air soldiers getting shot at by so many earth warriors that the formation was reduced to nothing but a pile or ruble and mangled flesh. I saw whole companies of fire troopers hit so hard, and in so great numbers, by water soldiers that they hardly stood a chance.

When they got past the ones in front of us and reached my lines, they enemy was nothing but a disorderly mob, and we where now the ones in formation!

We struck back as one at the mob before us.

If we could now break their charge we could push them back!

The only problem now was that we had to break their charge!

But just as we started to fight back, the enemy paused and withdrew to half a dozen away from us.

A group of imperial chariots came there and then.

An officer in one of them started ordering the imperial infantry around, as one they nocked their arrows, raised throwing javelins and threw a massive barrage forward.

We raised our shields, but the barrage actually flew over us and struck the wall behind us.

From the areas where the arrows and javelins hit, immediately beams of rock emerged from the inside of the wall, forming rudimentary ladders steps.

Now we were no longer cornered rats that would attack the tiger's throat, now we had a way out and once more we became just vermin that ran away from the king of beasts.

Because like I said, no one came to this planet to die, and faced with certain death before them and salvation behind, we started to break once more.

The imperials under the direction of that officer, that had the face of a sadistic sergeant that just found a trooper's hidden still, kept a constant pressure on the front lines.

Not enough to make it a full out attack, but vicious enough to motivate the rear ranks to break for safety.

I looked at the poor taffers that tried to climb those impromptu stairs, but they were all cut down by arrows from the imperial ranks as they tried to scale the walls, since they all needed both hands to climb the beams and could not properly shield themselves from the arrows.

The image of so many of our own troops being cut down and breaking ranks greatly boosted the enemy's morale and subsequent Creed Magic.

Thus we saw and felt its effects, their fire blazed like an inferno.

The wind and water attacks grew in size and shape into vortexes around their weapons, which spun so fast they could cut through ours like they were paper.

The earth weapons grew so much in size and sharpness that they seemed more like the claws and teeth of some ancient monster, than that of mere mortals.

Slowly but surely we were being cut to pieces, all you could do was choose how you wanted to die.

Run the wall gauntlet behind us, or throw yourself on the wall of spears before us.

Somehow we still some measure of a formation, but we wouldn't last long.

'Everything's lost and nothing short of divine intervention could save us'

But just as we were about break, I saw a figure that came from the left flank and it charged straight into that herd of xenos monsters.

Behind the figure reinforcements had come, and they struck the vulnerable flank of the enemy!

Deliverance had arrived in the not so surprising form of a priest.

Corporal D'hrain Jeran.

Volunian army.

U.F.O.P section of the supply base.

9:35 Local time.

"The Almighty God Jasee is mercy and love incarnate, FEEL HIS LOVE!" the short trimmed blond haired, glasses wearing face of Turneissnen gave this as a battle cry , as the priest hit and bashed his way through the Imperial ranks, striking them from their flank and stemming the tide.

The mighty repeated blows of his weapon not only defeated those before him, but the Imperials where so tightly packed from the charge, that the sheer force unleashed by the club affected the ones that were too close to the attacked soldiers.

With such a ferocious counter-attack Alexander had not only stopped the Imperials, but he was also pushing them back!

The Volunian troops that had been cornered at the wall, upon seeing this, they quickly rallied on his person and surged forward for revenge!

As Turneissnen slashed, parried, bobbed and weaved, and dodged trough his opponents, the whole section he was fighting was actually beginning to break!

"All units push forward, the charge is broken! Push them back!" the priest bellowed out to his allies as he continued to cut his way through the enemy.

At this the whole flow of the battle changed as federal fire spells blazed away, earth spells shifted the surface of their shields to form spike shieldwalls, one that started to spin and move along its surface turning the formation into a surface of humming chainsaw teeth, as their spear tips did the same.

Air spells followed and launched arrows and javelins engulfed in miniature vortexes that made them move too fast for the common eye to see, and finally the water spells of the federation joined in with the volunian spears and maces. Their weapons contained water and they made it flow in a pattern all across their weapon's surface with such a strong flow, that the water turned solid and moved fast enough to cut almost anything in its path.

The water weapons surged forward, extending the reach and flow of their water until they could strike not only the ranks in front of them, but also the second rank behind the first, and even the third rank as well.

"Oh, you poor xenos heathens, did you actually think you could stand against a holy priest? But don't be sad, for it is not your fault, you are merely ignorant of the error of your ways! After we win, I will be more than happy to open your eyes and convert you to the proper gospel!" the priest shouted as he lashed at the nearest gathering of Imperial troops.

Turneissnen could see how many in the enemy formations rear had bolted away from the fight.

Nothing seemed to stop him, he dodged the swift air arrows, sidestepped the long reaching water spears, deflected the blazing inferno that was the fire spells and smashed through any stalwart earth warrior that faced him.

At one point he saw that behind one final rank of imperial troops was a spider-wolf jeep that seemed to contain the commander of this attacking force.

He certainly was dressed gaudy enough to be an enemy general!

"Flee heathens! The forces of heaven will never be beaten when they fight for on their own soil!" Turneissnen bellowed out again, as dust and a cloud of smoke from the fighting began to cover the field.

He charged once more, determined to break the last line and take the head of the enemy commander.

The priest then raised his arm to give another blow at the imperial line, when much to his surprise a fire axe appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

It deflected, not blocked, but deflected his attack with so much skill that Turneissnen immediately jumped a foot backwards in order to avoid a potential attack from his new foe.

9:36 Local Planetary time

"Sorry priest, but you may call the shots in what you call heaven, but you're too far away from home for that." the shape of an Imperial Officer came out of the dust cloud.

"Your God doesn't rule here, BUT I DO!" the officer added and charged Turneissnen.

A fury of blows, thrusts and parries from both combatants followed, all of which seemed to be fast to be anything less than either two divine or two cursed being clashing blades.

After a few seconds of relentless fighting, the two opponents broke off their attacks and both of them took two steps backwards to catch their breath.

"What is your name and which unit do you belong heathen? You do not look fight the rest!" Turneissnen said as he took a few deep breaths of air to quench the fire in his lungs.

"Black Beret Corps, 88th brigade, you'll know us as the kriffing sons and daughters of towngirls that's going to send your pathetic excuse for soldiers to hell! As for the name, it's Colonel Werner von Braun!" he replied.

"That would be quite a feat for you, considering your units will be doing it without their heads!" Turneissnen replied to Werner's taunt.

At this the Federal troops were unnerved as they realized that a member of the deadly Black Berets was their new opponent.

What was even more alarming was the fact that as the dust began to settle, they could see that behind Werner there were troops that had on their arms the of a Butterfly and that each helmet contained a small black plumage feather.

The rest of the Black Berets had arrived on the field!

"Papillons, ey? Ha! Your reputation precedes you and I see it is well merited!" Turneissnen said as he maneuvered the club to his back and jammed it inside what appeared to be the orifice of a very large shield.

He then pulled the club with one arm, with the shield now attached to it, revealing that it was in fact a great earth sword and that the club was its handle.

Turneissnen's body armor then overflowed with magic as he summoned his battle aura and extracted a huge amount of power from his energy crystals that he had on his person.

With that he powered up his sword up to S class level magic!

The edges of the earth sword grew teeth and they started moving rapidly across it surface, turning it into a massive chain blade. It moved so fast that the teeth turned red from the friction with the surrounding air, creating a buzzing sound of almost hellish nature.

"Time to stop this warm up and get serious, wouldn't you agree?" the priest challenged him.

"Of course." Werner said with a smile on his face and his fire axe, whose flames already blazed away like a furnace, suddenly became a body of fire so intense that it looked like Werner was wielding a small piece of the sun.

And with these great weapons in hand, the battle of two titans resumed.

Which meant that both seized up their opponent and waited for an opening to deliver one decisive blow.

A serious fight between two masters didn't last beyond the second strike.

Seeing that his opponent was very, very, dangerous, (yet not his equal and certainly not stronger than himself a holy ordained priest, for that would be blasphemy0 Turneissnen decided to gamble and try to end this quickly.

He moved as if to give a mighty downward slash from above, the Colonel raised his axe to deflect it, but at the last moment Alexander pulled his massive sword back, making it travel barely an inch from Werner's weapon.

And the right timing came Turneissnen gave a forward thrust, right at the Imperial's inner right elbow. Even with the armor a blow like that could half cripple him, giving the federal an advantage.

The sword touched its destination, a smile graced the priests lips, Turneissnen's teeth showed as his blade struck true and the greatsword was gripped by fangs!

A.........a mouth of a beast had sprouted forth from the Colonel's elbow, right where the priest's blade would have struck.

It chomped down on the chainsaw like blade, not enough to stop its chaotic rotation, but enough to prevent Turneissnen from pulling it free from the jaws that held it.

"So you are also a chosen one for demonhood, nonbeliever!" The priest said, his voice now filled with revulsion for the Colonel.

To which Von Braun gave a light chuckle.

"You federals are still calling the omega spell 'demonhood' when we use it? I'll admit that mine is far apart from the things that others can do, namely I don't have the flare of the Emperor, but it's far from being demonic. And I am guessing when you do it; it's some saint's power, right?"

"Of course it is! It is a blessing from heaven to protect their faithful!"

"We have a 'blessing' too, you know."

Werner said to him, which made Turneissnen grit his teeth in outrage at the Colonel for his joking remark that mocked him and the true faith.

The friction caused by the chainsaw against the mouth with fangs that sprouted from Werner's elbow was starting to create a small cloud of dust of burnt bone and rock, giving the area a smell that would be at place in some field, graced by volcanoes, fire and flame.

Turneissnen tried to twist his blade sideways and pull it free, but despite his efforts, the blade did not escape the jaws, instead it was even more tightly gripped by them.

"This is my Omega spell: 'Hammer's horror: Fangs and jaws of a thousand, thousand beasts'. It allows me to create the mouths of any animal I can conjure up. Your weapon is trapped in a python's mouth. Its bite is impossible to break out if you try to pull; in fact if you do you that, you become more trapped. Fun fact, ain't it?" Werner said with a predatory gleam in his eye.

"THIS IS ALSO A FUN FACT!" The Black Beret leader shouted as a battle cry as he created another python mouth from his right arm. It was attached to the pervious one and it extended the reach of his forearm by almost one mouth's full length.

The new mouth, once it was fully opened, closed on a portion of the chainsword, then from the top of the second mouth, a third mouth emerge, and once more Werner's reach was extended, once more another inescapable mouth clapped down on the sword, which screeched in its hard fought attempt to destroy the jaws, as more and more mouths spawned and Werner's right arm slithered around the blade, trapping it even further.

Eventually enough jaws were created that they locked on the sword so hard it stopped.

The dust started to settle, and with the passing of the screeching noise born from the blade's teeth grinding against a serpent made of countless heads, a great silence descended the battlefield as the two armies watched how it looked like the match would be decided there and then.

One last python's mouth appeared and it gave Werner enough reach that he could now strike with his fire axe and hit the priest's exposed neck.

Victory was now assured!

The fire axe was about to hit it's mark, but as it was about to do so the Black Beret Colonel saw a triumphant smile emerge on the priest's face, were before there was nothing but worry.

Immediately he let go of the chainsword and made two great mouths of behemoth beasts manifest themselves from both his feet.

They opened swiftly and made propelled him backwards, away from the priest and the sight of the smile on the priest's face, which had alerted him to the hidden danger.

"I almost fell into his trap! That was a close call, SO CLOSE THAT THE NEXT BLOW WILL GET ME, THEN THE ARMY WILL BE SMASHED, GERULA AND CORNELAI WILL FALL, THE SPYMASTER WILL BE CAPTURED, NOTHING WILL STOP THE FEDERAL FLEET WHO WILL BESIEGE AND BURN TEMPERLAND..."

Werner immediately regained his wits, recovering from the Omega Power that he barely managed to dodge, just barely!

But the small graze of it that hit him was enough to show him absolute terror.

He was now looking worryingly at his opponent.

"I see you have managed to evade the 'Power of Saints' that I posses." Turneissnen said as he summoned a rock to his hand and once it was there in his grip, he made the rock be surrounded by a strange spherical field of energy, one that shivered and distorted itself around the rock like, how hot air appeared as a mirror like surface in the desert.

"This is my power, 'Hitchcock's window: Blessing and Benediction'. I am endowed with the power to spread terror and nightmares amongst all the non-believers, to show them the error of their ways, to help them see the light and love of Janssen's. Once this hits your body, it sends a wave of terror throughout your flesh."

Werner could here from behind him how many troopers that had felt earlier the 'love' of Janssen shivered in fear and took a step back.

"So tell me Colonel." The priest said as he lazily threw the pebble into the air, where it hovered above him and it immediately became engulfed in rock, sand, earth, and became a massive stalagmite.

One that stretched many times Turneissnen's height, he then charged it with 'Blessing and Benediction' and manipulated the great obelisk in a way that made its tip point directly at Werner.

"Do you feel Jasse's love?" he said and launched the great pillar at the Imperial.

The battle hardened colonel was starting to feel how the Creed Magic was shifting in their enemy's favor.

Now Turneissnen thought that he was the one that now had victory assured, only for the holy man to see a smile, very similar to the one he gave Werner earlier, on the colonel's lips.

Von Braun spread his arms wide to the sides and as the stalagmite flew tip first towards him.

He opened his mouth and from it the jaws of a leviathan emerged!

With that he engulfed the great pillar!

He caught it out of thin air, just before it struck his throat and Werner did then something that would shock, horror and elate almost all who were watching him.

For the Black Beret Colonel, with nothing but fangs and teeth, then chomped down hard and ripped apart pure nightmares made reality!

An explosion of energy came from within the giant mouth, the force and heat from it was intense that Turneissnen felt on his skin.

From within the great jaws blood started to drain from its skin, making the great jaws became paler and more weaker, and as the effects of the omega spell dispersed, the degradation stopped once it was about to reach the Colonel's body proper.

"H-how are you still standing? You bit down on it; terror should be coursing through your body!"

Werner spit out the ruble that remained from the stalagmite and made the leviathan mouth disappear.

The very same mouth whose degradation stopped before it reached the Black Beret's body! And the same just happened with Turneissnen's spell!

For the leviathan jaw had never been Werner's mouth.

"You said that your attack work when it couches its victims' bodies. My power creates mouths, but they are not part of my body. They just emerge from it, this time that is."

Werner said and before Turneissnen could analyze the meaning of the last few words, the Colonel quickly swung his arms forward and clashed his hands in a mighty clap, making another set of leviathan's jaws emerge.

From the ground itself!

Turneissnen summoned the earth around him and formed a great sled pulled by two massive onyx stallions and quickly sped away from the leviathan's jaws.

But as he escaped them a second set of jaws emerged from the earth, then another, and another, as a wave of giant fangs and jaws chased the priest all the way back to his lines.

One set of them caught the carriage he was on. Werner saw Turneissnen jump on one of the onyx horses, barely managing to escape the closing jaw that got his sled.

The priest started galloping towards Werner's right field of vision.

Von Braun was about to create two sets of jaws instead of one, something that would take extra concentration and a huge amount of effort, but with that he could finally win.

As the first new jaw closed just as Alexander managed to dodge it, Werner was about summon the other part of this two set piece when he saw movement from the left side of the first leviathan's jaws in the row that he created.

He turned to face this new and unexpected threat.

Werner had been so invested in following the priest's escape that the colonel had to turn his body almost a full 180 degrees in order to face what came from the left.

And what he saw surprised him greatly. It was the very same carriage and first onyx stallion that one set of jaws seemed to have destroyed.

Half of the hors's body had been crushed into rubble, and that rubble now slithered the horse forward, propelling him with blinding speed!

And it was about to ram the Black Beret Colonel at top steep!

Acting quickly, Werner blazed his axe away and gave one mighty downwards swing that made a wave of fire explode towards the carriage, destroying it.

He then turned back towards Turneissnen, who was looking at him with a smile on his face.

"He pretended to have his carriage and first horse destroyed in order to use them as a sneak attack. He made towards the right to distract me from the left so I would not notice it until it was too late. He also did not put his omega spell in the carriage so the Leviathan jaws wouldn't be absorbe, and so as to not alert me.....This guy.......these Holy Knights are something else entirely."

The Black Beret colonel thought to himself as he stomped his right foot on the ground, creating a huge circle of fire and from that circle a great horse emerged.

Its body was magma, its mane was fire; its eyes were twin stars, as it raised itself from the ground, taking Werner on its back.

The Colonel then brought out from one of the holsters on his armor a body of metal and runes , which collapsed into a great bow of fire and holstered his axe in a manner that would allow him a quick draw if need be,.

Turneissnen used his sword to create a huge lance and shield made from earth.

"Looks like I unintentionally lied to Commander Metternich. There is a means for a quick promotion on this world."

Werner whispered to himself as his grin became a fully fledged joyful smile of battlelust.

The two titans eyed each other on the field of battle and then both charged forward.

Thus the knight and the horse archer faced each other on the battlefield of a faraway world, as around them the soldiers of two great powers watched and waited to see what fate had in store for them.

Excerpt from the diary of Lieutenant Alexander Mackintosh.

I woke up and the first thing I saw was nothing but darkness before me.

But I hadn't been mistaken for dead and thrown into a massed grave; the fact that I still had my watch on my wrist confirmed that.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness around me, I saw that I was in a hospital tent and that my torso was wrapped in bandages. My insides hurt like hell as I tried to stand up, so I decided to lie down before I opened any internal wounds I might have had and started bleeding internally.

No sense in doing death's job for him and judging by the number of people inside the tent that were being hauled away in body bags, I'd say he was doing just fine on his own.

I dozed in and out of consciousness a few times, one time I was staring at a darkened tent, another time when I woke up I felt myself moving.

I opened my eyes and saw that there was a great domed roof above us that stretched for miles and miles.

It reminded me of Galiana, but we were not within the impregnable World Fortes.

How did I come to this conclusion?

Well for one thing a space fortress's walls don't have doors that lead to a desert field, from where imperial field artillery was pounding its structure night and day.

That's how I knew that I was not dead, nor in Galiana.

Another reason is that I am certain I will go to heaven and no heaven I want to be part of has the face of General Pompeii and Al Hambra smiling at me.

"There you are dear boy! I see you're recovering nicely, though don't get up on my account, don't want any damage to your body and mind now do we?"

I was wounded, disorientated, confused and drifting in and out of consciousness at random.

But even so, I could play the game with the best of them!

"Yes sir. And I assure you my mind is as sharp as it always is. Clear recollection of everything and anything that passed, general."

Pompeii smiled at that, a smile that was to kind and too friendly to be a genuine one.

"You've done a brave thing dear lad, destroying an enemy chariot, just as General Hambra's chariot corps did great things! Like how they broke an enemy square by charging them from the rear. Am I right general?"

"Of course general!" Alhambra said from beside him, he too had that smile on his face, one that was to friendly to be an honest smile.

"That we did general." I said to him and for a moment both of them showed surprise and their smiles became more subdued, more real.

"Can't wait to read the report you'll be writing about the battle. Nothing but a glowing review of our brave lads, I'm sure."

They didn't even have the courtesy to wait until the battle was over before making a huge cover-up, like a proper officer and a gentleman.

The cursed fight was still ongoing and they were already searching for scapegoats for the disaster that had befallen us!

"Right you are sir." I said to them and their smiles one more shrank a bit, for a moment they almost became genuine smiles of happiness.

"I'll write down my report as soon as I finish sewing my captain's stars sir."

But only for a moment.

"Captain's stars my boy?" Pompeii asked me as he looked me straight into my eyes, a battle of wills taking place between us. As once more that damned smile that was to cheerful returned to his face."

"Yes sir and right after that, I'll right that glowing report sir." I said and their lips once more fell a bit and the honest smile returned to their faces.

"Of course dear boy! For your current actions you'll be promoted for sure! Yes you will, and what a story it will be to tell your children and grand kiddies' dear boy. Just how exactly it all went down, and how you did the honorable thing, right my boy?"

"Right as rain sir. Captain's honor."

I said, Pompeii gave a laugh and they wheeled me out, on the way I saw how other wounded soldiers were brought to them, most likely for the same reason as myself.

But I paid it no mind; with the promotion I just secured for myself it would be impossible for me to be made a scapegoat for the disaster.

No one dares prosecute an officer for misconduct in battle, when said battle is the reason he was given a promotion. It would make the whole army collapse if they did so.

I arrived back at my ward and saw that two captain's buttons had been placed on the night table next to my bed.

I almost laugh at how efficient the military could be in completing their tasks, when the generals deemed said task to be 'important'.

After they put me back in the bed, I saw that almost every officer in my ward had also been promoted one rank.

That was a sign of just how much of a disaster the battle was for us.

With nothing better to do I started sowing the buttons, as soon as I had enough strength in my arms and hands to do so, during which I never gave much thought to what I did there and then, in regards to the after action report.

Cause even if Pompeii would not have offered me a huge bribe to shut me up and save his ass, I would have already placed in my report that we took out an imperial chariot and not an allied one.

But at the same time I wrote the report in such a way that the truth of what actually happened could be discovered by someone who knew what to look for in the paperwork.

So keep that in mind when you read military reports, especially what kind of words are used when describing the battles.

With that I achieved my goal, I would not be a scapegoat for this disaster, I even got a promotion out of it, and the thought did make me smile for a moment.

And when I realized that I was smiling because I was satisfied how this battle had ended.

I was satisfied at how this battle that we lost had ended.

My own smile became very big and very cheerful then, too cheerful.

Captain Alexander Mackintosh, command staff member, Federal Expeditionary force.

Alexander then grabbed the glass of water that stood on his night table, and took one big one gulp from the glass, like it was full of spirits and Janssen knew he needed to raise his spirits right now.

What else you could one do but drink after a day like this?

But the tale was not yet over.

For this was not that kind of story.

The occupied Territories, Maramanakama.

Drinks flowed freely as the party had been going on for a few hours now.

It was a jolly festive and jolly in Ahmaiano's apartment and considering that the apartment was small, overcrowded with people and thanks to their recent actions against the empire, smelling along with the rest of the street like a latrine, being able to keep the festive mood strong was no small accomplishment!

"Can I talk with you for a second?" Tubarin said to Ahmaianos, to which he nodded and they both went to a secluded corner, away from the party.

"What is it?" Ahmaianos asked.

"I say we get as far away as we can from this 'Nobody' clown."

"What do you mean, didn't he help us?"

"Oh come on Ahmaianos, can't you smell just how fowl the whole thing is?"

"Well, the sewer pipe we blew up is making things rather intolerable."

"Not that! I mean what happened today, you know everything is hunky dory, until Mr Trouble comes in to town, and he starts making everything unbearable and you can't stop him. That is until finally you scream for all the world to hear: 'I'll do anything, follow anyone, just please help me! And then Mr Salvation comes along, and he asks you for this and that. You give him what want he wants and more because he stops Mr Trouble. But what you don't know is that after the whole thing is over and their not in public Mr Trouble and Mr Salvation turn out to be friends, and split what they earned fifty-fifty." Tubarin told him.

At this Ahmaianos was silent. He contemplated his answer for quite some time before replying with:

"It may very well be a sting operation; I wouldn't put it past the Empire to be this sadistic. But I'll be honest with you; there might be a chance that it's a genuine anti-Imperial group that we just didn't know of until now. We should be cautious about this, but not all together dismissive."

'Nobody can lead us to victory. So what choice do we have?'

Was the part that Ahmaianos and Tubarin didn't said out loud, instead leaving it as an unspoken fact.

And if interpreted it could work either way now.

"All right I'll take a leap of faith, but I still think that it's all too good to be true. Still, even if it's so, I still think that the guy is two faced. Mark my words my friend! I haven't seen him in person, but I can smell multi-face schemer that's a different man depending who you talk to but with the same body and visage every time he appears. Why that guy's voice alone reeked of it!"

"You're probably right Tubarin."

"I am? That's a first! I'm surprise you're this opened minded about the whole thing!" he said in a teasing manner.

"Well, I know a lot about scams and cons. Half of my neighbors from before the war were the best con artists and thieves in Tolina." Ahmaianos told him.

"What? Who the hell did you live next door to?"

"Guess."

"Mafia dons, loan sharks and smugglers?"

"Lawyers and stock brokers."

At this they both shared a laugh. It helped lighten the mood and did manage to make them forget their worries for awhile.

"Have you shared your thoughts with any of the others?" Ahmaianos whispered to him, as the two men gazed at the other members of their small group, who were still celebrating in the centre of the room.

They laughed, joked and teased each other.

It was a merry time.

Even if the party was much smaller than it had been a day before.

"Nah, I may be a taffer, but I'm not a big enough one to spoil a party. Maybe I'll run it by them tomorrow after they sober up. Besides.......we've lost so much now, our country, our pride, our friends, so much so that we barely have any reason to be happy. So any excuse for a cheer, even a fake one, is good enough reason to shut me up!" Tubarin replied with a smile.

"I'll remember that the next time you give me lip!" Ahmaianos teased him, and Tubarin playfully punched him in the chest.

They shared another laugh before Tubarin returned to the party.

Ahmaianos did not follow. He moved towards the apartments' balcony and once there the rebel leader gazed at the stars.

He did something like this almost every night, looking up to that pitch black sky where the darkness seemed to engulf everything but the few twinkling lights.

The resistance cell leader felt the need to take a drink like he had after the ambush. So Ahmaianos pulled the bottle from his coat, opened it and prepared to take a sip of spirits.

But as he looked at the lights above, a thought struck him making the man pause his hand.

For maybe he was wrong.

Just like earlier today, maybe he made a mistake despite thinking it was the right call to make.

Perhaps he had misjudged the stars as well.

"Maybe.....maybe it's not the darkness engulfing the light, maybe at the beginning everything was dark, then the stars came."

He then poured the spirits over the balcony's rail, giving one last toast to his fallen comrades, and then threw the bottle away.

"Maybe...... Maybe, the light's actually winning."

Ahmaianos thought as he gazed at the sky above Tolina, looking at the starts visible from Maramanakama before going to get a drink of water, all the while on Volun 4 a command was given to one side of the soldiers fighting the battle.

"Withdraw from the base."

*Excerpt, from the works of Grand Scholar, and The Great War Expert Djanus Todomari from the Imperium Archives*

Despite death stalking them from all directions, despite the first battle under Cassius being lost, despite everything that told them they were doomed. Those battleworn, starving, and dirty soldiers had somehow managed to pick themselves up and turn the situation around.

The Federal and Volunian units were now in full retreat.

The battle was still ongoing and despite the struggle not being over, the minute the imperials heard their foe was withdrawing they knew that the fight had been won.

The soldiers and sailor of the 378th now marched forwards, so as to pursue their enemy with the discipline and vigor of the parade field in their steps.

They had survived the battle and with that they graduated to veteran status. The warriors of the 378th were now scholars of war, and were ready for the next battle and the one after that, and in all of them they would make their Headmaster proud!

The 378th corps was now a truly formidable army and mighty fleet.

Forged in war, and tempered in victory, they were now a mighty and unstoppable sword.

Metternich's sword.

As the empire triumphed in one corner of the galaxy and lost in another, a drunk found strength, a coward found his own brand of courage, a young woman's certain view of the world was shaken, and a disgraced soldier wished he had not been right.

All the while and unknown to them, a breach in the fabric of reality itself appeared. Trough it a creature came into in this universe.

But this one was not an Amurg from The Realm, no! This was much worse.

Who was he?

Nobody important.

Only A SAINT AND A SINNER, and the reason why the saying existed.

It was Icarius Reign and his presence was enough to make Deux, who was watching as events unfolded, smile.

He knew that with his coming things will truly become fun to watch in the realm of mortals.

"The beginning. A most wondrous time for almost anybody and everybody." Deux who was high above the mortal plane of existence started scribing away the closing words to this chapter that chronicled what he had just witnessed.

Down below the faces of Metternich's new immediate subordinates were al cheerful and happy as the battle was seemingly going their way.

"To many people, the beginning is the start of something new and exciting."

Alexander and Werner were still clashing, each giving the other his best attack.

Both expecting that after the next blow the final strike would come, but neither one of them was able to outmatch the other, much to their frustration and mutual warrior's joy.

So much so, that both were blind as to what was happening around and neither stopped to do his duty. "This is intense! We are both using our trumps cards, our omega spells, but we're still in a tie! This clash might go beyond S class and omega spells! To think we might invoke the 'Riddle of Ruin' on this forsaken outpost! Never thought I'd might fight a duel of supreme magic here!

Both echoed the same thoughts as they we're in their own little world, blind to what was happening around them.

Whether to lead what was left of their defeated army to safety, or march his troops forward to capitalize on their triumph, they did not do their duty.

The battle was not yer over. Yet their duel seemed to be all that mattered to them, as they chased faced and fought each other all across the battlefield.

"To others it is something unexpected."

The various Maramanakaman rebels or terrorist depending on who you asked, were all watching the news and were all very surprised at what happened today.

The Imperial administration had tried to censor it, but the power of the press somehow got trough, making the entire sector witness the defeat of a superpower that had influence on over a third of the galaxy, by an unknown group of guerilla fighters.

This set things in motion and many other rebel groups and terrorist organizations took note of what happened, what it meant for the Occupied Territories and what they would do to take advantage of today's events.

And amongst the rebels, in a hidden base, on a certain moon, there was a former soldier, turned resistance fighter called Alefran who was watching it all with great interest.

"To some it could be their wish come true."

Kalynka had taken the communication crystal that she used to talk to Nobody.

She gripped it and was looked at it intensely.

The young woman did not know what the future would bring, but was certain that it was far better than the past or the present, that thought made a smile on grace her lips.

Even if a few treacherous thoughts took root in her head, and were whispering strange ideas about the imperials.

She tightly gripped the ignition key to her armor, the pain in her palm from her actions helped steel her resolve and banish away thoughts that did not come from her. As he did so she realized that the key did not bend or break, like other models did when she gripped them too tightly.

"It really is a fine piece of equipment." She thought to herself, and realized what just happened.

So what else could she do but smile?

"Even if they don't know what they really want."

"To others the beginning brings great challenges and hardships."

Hannibal and Lance where both sneaking their squad around the enemy infantry.

They were trying and for now succeeding at avoiding the Imperial army on their long journey back to safety. But the morning light had arrived, the Imperials were many, and the thunder storm was very deadly.

Han checked his watch and saw that it was barely a minute left until another full hour would come to bet. Another hour were they had no food, no water, and were hiding like rats from the enemy patrols.

The clock was seconds away from the full hour when an imperial chariot changed directions and was moving towards their positions.

It stopped just short of the wood's edge were they were hiding, and its crew exited the vehicle and started eating lunch.

The cluck struck the full hour.

Hannibal and Lance gave each other a smile as they drew their knives and along with their troops prepared to do what they did best.

12'o clock and all was well.

"To a few it means great disappointments and failures."

Gelios was now by himself and drowning his sorrow with various strong spirits; this day had been a disaster!

How much prestige did he lose?

How many terrorists would be emboldened by this?

How could something that originally seemed like a cakewalk become such an embarrassment?

What he could do to salvage the situation?

He grabbed the biggest bottle, filled with the strongest spirits from his cabinet, and tilted it to pour the contents in a glass. He paused just as he was about to tip the neck enough to start pouring the liquid.

Gelios looked at the bottle, then at the glass, then back at the reports about today's disaster and then put the glass back on the table, still empty.

And then drank directly from the bottle.

A very big bottle that felt too small for his sorrows.

"To others, it brings great dangers."

It was over!

The battle was now all but won and Metternich had survived it!

The young commodore looked upwards and saw that the morning sky, which up until now had been cloudy and filled with dry storm, was clearing up.

This horrible dawn filled with nothing but thunder and death had passed!

The rays of a crimson sun of war were fading away!

It wasn't even noon yet, but it was safe to say that the day of battle was almost over.

This longest day was now over, is what many would say.

But this is not that kind of story.

Metternich looked towards the pulsar screen that showed a report of Admiral Yemen's fleet and how they arrived today at Galiana, when it was thought that they would be arriving there barely the day after tomorrow, meaning that they were now 48 hours away from Volun 4.

The day was now over, tomorrow would come, and the day after that, and Admiral Yemen along with it.

The victory that they so hardly fought for just became meaningless.

Upon been reminded of the big picture, he reached for the pack of cards in his pocket in order to see what he drew earlier, but stopped just short of touching them.

If he looked at the card he drew, then there was a very high chance that it was not the Ace of Spades, namely the top card of the deck.

He lose if he looked at the card he drew.

Out of the brand new deck.

One that had not even been properly shuffled.

For that, is was what happens when luck and outside factors determined the result.

Metternich looked at the cards, then at the battlefield. And then he made a choice!

"No more! No more!"

He had made a promise to himself to change, and who was he but a coward?

And how could a coward refuse the whims of a commanding officer?

So he took out the deck and discarded all the cards, except for the top one of the deck.

Now, no matter what card he had drawn, it was certain that there was no chance of him having not chosen taking anything less than the top card in the deck.

"No more indeed!"

To which he placed the card back into his pocket without looking at it, a battle was after all no place for games of chance.

Metty mentally grinned to himself, satisfied at his little trick, but he did not let it go to his head.

The report about Admiral Yemen reminded him that the struggle was far from over.

He knew that today he had won, but tomorrow was a different story.

Just then he received a report from Werner's brigade.

It said that the enemy was stopping their retreat and was now rallying.

"Tomorrow comes today." Metternich muttered as he moved his hand away from the deck and decided to play the final card up his sleeve.

He had won the battle, now he just had to survive it.

"To others the beginning is simply a repeat of what has happened before."

Adrian smiled as he watched what was happening all around the battlefield.

He could feel the familiar glow of pure ecstasy that victory brought, coming from his troops and from all over the battlefield, as the imperial army chased down the now broken and in full retreat volunian-federal force.

They had pursued them back to the enemy's original defensive lines, then to the imperial own lines where the grounded ships decimated them further with their weapons and the empire pursued the retreating foe even beyond that!

Now it was one giant hunt, just like in his youth at Grand Spring Festival on Temperland!

That had been the situation for the past few hours.

Pure bliss!

For a few short hours they forgot about the wars that came before, which had lead to the current conflict, they did not think about The Occupied Territories, and the damaged the enemy brought to their territory. They spared no thoughts towards foreigners that threatened their very survival, for now these men and women who killed celebrated life!

Their lives!

Their victorious lives!

It was just like Marengo and the countless other battles both in space and land that preceded it.

A risky plan that resulted in a hopeless situation turning into an astonishing victory!

He expected no less from his liege Metternich!

"No more hiding, no more running away! Do you hear me you monsters? This is the beginning of our counterattack! FLEE WORTHLESS RATS!"

Adrian bellowed out as the federal and volunian vermin stopped running, for now Valyria and the others had managed to break trough and fully encircled the volunians and federals. And with no way out the rats turned and struck at the jugular of the imperial tiger that was pursuing them.

"But regardless of what the beginning is for its participants, one thing is certain. And that for better or worse, regardless of whatever horrors or wonders it brings, despite what measure of joy and sorrow it creates, the beginning would always be the start of a journey were every beginning is a new ending."

The imperials now knew victory.

The marans had hope.

Despair joined the Federals.

Defeat came for the Volunians.

"And every ending is a new beginning."

On lands far removed from each other a bottle was spilled, a deck had been discarded, all under the gaze of spiders who weaved their webs, as a young one who was enjoying the story smiled in joy.

Nobody knew how this would turn out. But it would be very fun to watch.

Deux finished writing in his book. He flipped the page and with the ink feather in his hand he was ready to write the next chapter.

One chapter had just ended and a new one was about to begin.

"Turn back now; less all nightmares know your name!"

Old sailor's proverb.

Just then a great noise is heard and as he gazed at the place beyond the horizon from where it came from, Deux gave an answer before the question was even asked.

"That would be the Sands of Time."

"And what does that mean?" The New Amurg asked.

"That they are getting closer to The Realm."

"And what does that mean for us?"

"Mean? Mean? It doesn't mean anything. The Sands come and go, they flow on and care for not at that they pass. Nothing is given a second glance with their coming and going, not even eternity."

"And what happens when they arrive here Deux?"

"An ending, a new beginning, and between the two there's a story of course!"

"A story? Is that all this is to you Deux, a story?"

"Everything is a story! And everyone is part of the story my friend. From you and me, to the mortals in my journal, even the ones that are reading the very words of this sentence are part of the story!"

"And to what kind of story is this?"

"Well, you'll just have to turn the page and find out."

The old Amurg said, and the New Amurg smiled, for regardless of how this ends, he was not bored anymore.

But happy as he was for now, he could not help but ask one more question

"So, what now?"

"Now my friend we make our choices, live our lives and see what happens next. So I suppose you, like any other reader that graced this odyssey with their eyes, have a choice to make, continue or stop, but regardless of what you choose I already know what comes after next."

"What exactly?"

"The end mark of course!"

Deux said and laughed at the New Amurg's surprised look in his eyes.

"See? I told you that I already know what comes next. Just like how I already know what choice you'll make."

"Really now? And what's to stop me from walking away from you, you crazy old man on a wagon?"

"Why, you're in too hooked to walk away, you'll stay for the rest of the story. If you weren't that kind of person, then we would have never gotten to this part of the story. Cause the Realm is filled with people written the way they are, and you have your part to play in this, wouldn't you agree my friend?"

"Nobody agrees with you Deux."

"That he does my friend, that he does."

