



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, but at the same time it’s as closest 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 as often as once a day and traversing it is impossible with effort but comes natural 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 boundless universes.

This land is both beauty and ugliness combined, both salvation and damnation, but its description alone cannot be comprehended thoroughly in mere words, so let us stop here and let us name this place “the realm”.

Here in ‘the realm’, its only inhabitants for this particular time and in this particular version 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, who were gathered in a circle and playing a game of cards, a new one approached the group.

“Do any of you know where Deux is?” the Amurg asked the group.

“Oh, it’s you! Ye Just got here didn’t you?” one of the players turned from the game and looked at the newcomer…The first new Amurg in a long, long time to arrive at this realm. 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 new question about the appearance of a new Amurg, or what werethe consequences of his appearance 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 join the collective with what could be considered a friendly smile, at least to higher beings it was a friendly smile.

“Gamble, waste time, that’s all you do all day! How can you do that and not go insane from boredom is beyond my comprehension and since I have access to unlimited knowledge and wisdom that says a lot!” The Amurg thought to himself angrily as he glared at the others.

“I could tell you all what a disgrace you’re actions are, how you waste your great potential, I could rant, rave or give calm 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 thoughts and once that was over he took a small breath of air to calm himself down.

“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.

The Amurg then turned to leave but was stopped by one last question.

“After you finish that, 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 in?” he replied without turning back.

“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 new comer 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 of infinite potential, so the Amurg just tuned his head back in the direction he was going, leaving behind the confused all-powerful beings, who quickly got over it and continued with their game.

He walked towards the area where they said Deux would be with as much rigor as he could muster, 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 from a deck.

After a while 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 tail of one hundred billion light years.

And a million galaxies’ words!”

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

“Hear the tale of 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 the ‘moonlight’ of this realm shinned and from there he saw a shape that was flying down 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!”

“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 descended before him and its driver looked at the Amurg with glee in its eyes.

“Are you Deux?” he asked the figure made out of black mist and white flesh, with eyes that did not blink who was sitting in the driver’s seat, his shape and form was forever changing, with the only thing that remained constant was his three pairs of eyes and his strange hands that had claws which seemed like they were not made to tear flesh.

“Oh it’s you, you came much earlier than I expected!” Deux said to him with an eerily cheerful voice as he gazed at the new Amurg which had a humanoid appearance, 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 distinct 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 and yet he appeared to be nobody.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You don’t remember do you?” 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 comer 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 are Deux.”

“And if I am what of it?”

“I heard that Deux was bored of this realm 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 one is the most fun of them all, after spending who knows how much time in this cesspool of boredom I need that! So will you tell me about your journey?” The 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! Why this is the blade of the one who 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!”

“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!?”

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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 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.

“Though I must warn you it is a long story, and it will take a while for me to tell all of it.”

“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, let me read you from my own writings. 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!”

“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 Amurg who for the first time since arriving in this realm he felt happy and if he could he would have smiled.

“Finally something that matters!” he thought to himself as the story started.

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 home world 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, owned by a Novo Albetan lawyer called William Murasaki Kuckluck.

After the Battle of Graperust, 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 house 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 lawn 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 unrealistic reality could become.

A smuggler would save a country , a shadow warrior would emerge from the darkness, a rebel would reshape the galaxy, a 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. So the sands of time flowed and with their passing the universe changed forevermore.

Grand Scholar and Great War Expert Djanus Todomari

Imperium Archives

Caliupus 8th Imperial year 1894, Federal year 3937, Republican year 949

Within the warp.

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 stretched for at least five times that, but despite the titanic nature of this interstellar vehicle by the standards of its kind it was the runt of the litter.

These wagons where forged out of fine tempered steel with a smooth surface and each wagon’s front and back ended with a conic shape head and tail.

Seven great horizontal sheets of metal extended across their bodies, starting at the front and ending at the rear of each wagon, runes which glowed bright with energy where 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 formed from them, which they themselves bent and 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 transportation and among its cargo where 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 traverse 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 them.

For it was a very mysterious and unnerving place and even veteran sailors and soldiers where not to comfortable with passing through this plane which seemed to be nowhere yet everywhere at the same time.

As for the drivers of this train the feeling of dread caused by venturing in a place outside of what you considered your ‘normal reality’ was present to them as well. Even though they’ve learned to overcome it and even partially control it, its presence remained an eerie reminder that they didn’t belong here.

So you should now be able to understand the temporary confusion of the aforementioned passenger, but that quickly gave away to remembrance, as he now reacquainted himself with this plane of existence and thus the confusion disappeared as his mind recovered from the daze and remembered everything and realized that he was on a galactic train, souring in the limitless heavens of space towards its stop.

It was an Imperial Fleet supply train, carrying essential food, medicine, clothing, and ammunition for the 378th Corps that was stationed on planet Volun 4. The train slithered its way through the warp like some great celestial dragon towards its destination with those supplies, along with the aforementioned corps’s new commander and his knight and 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 dark blue, which was not unheard of in the Empire but not entirely common and finally his eyes where perhaps the most unique thing about him, for their retina was a blue one, but his sclera was of a bright glowing red, which 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, his chest was covered in a black tunic, on his shoulder pads where three golden bars that symbolized his rank of Commodore First Class.

On his chest where it curbed to his sides was two lines of gold buttons united by a series of golden ropes that traversed his chest, they where for both decorative and practical purposes, since the real buttons where on the inner side of the left flap of the tunic.

He looked like someone who was born for war, who belonged on the battlefield, who would stand when others would fall, that was something no one could deny! Too bad he was a coward.

“Did you sleep well my liege?” Adrian asked him, he was dressed in the exact same uniform as Metternich but there was one bar on each shoulder to display his rank of Third Class.

Adrian was an Avian, his race was humanoid in its appearance, he had white feathers encompassing 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, 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, given the current circumstances.” Metternich replied and Adrian gave a nod of agreement and said nothing else, he too felt uncomfortable traveling through hyperspace, but he was more unnerved by being on a train instead of a ship than the fact that he was in the warp.

“I’ve been meaning to ask Adrian, why when we are about to meet new people do you always stop grooming yourself?” Metternich enquired.

“People don’t take you seriously when they first meet you if you don’t look pretty, their true nature comes out easier that way, good thing wouldn’t you say?” Adrian asked and gave a slight 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 follower, a fact that the Commodore would be secretly grateful for but also secretly resentful for the rest of his life, but generally more times he would be the former rather than the latter.

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 that was done he 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 he preferred it 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 easier to carry and ideal for alleviating boredom.

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 war or battle, at least boredom doesn’t come running towards you with a big sharp magical weapon with the intent to play squash with your head!” he thought to himself, hoping that this tranquility would last forever, but like all good things it had to eventually come to an end, for a beeping sound was heard from the ships internal speakers signaling that they were getting near the exit of the warp and that soon they would be arriving at they’re destination.

“It is a good thing that they decided to use a warp portal train instead of a ship to get us there, 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 stupidly to make a wrong decision, 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 was as its name suggests, a portal that is situated on a planet or in outer space which allows faster travel trough the warp if a ship is not using a portal, making it at least twice as fast 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 warp portal along with the great power provided by either the sun or a planet’s energy nexus engulfed a ship or in this case a train in a protective field as it traversed the warp, protecting it to a certain degree from such perils and shredding whatever was in its way, as long as it was not too great an obstacle.

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 where 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.

Also if you’re enemies manage to find just the right conditions along you’re potential 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 attack.

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, it truly was the safest way to travel when confronted with pirates or enemy space raiders.

Fully fledged warships where an entirely different matter and when it came to that a ship was the way to go if you wanted to outmaneuver and outrun them.

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 of transportation had their pros and cons, but for the current route which took the train trough friendly territory and lands in which the Empire was the dominant power (at least for now) the train was best suited for such a purpose, also many would think that a fleet corps commander would never ‘lower’ himself to ride a simple train instead of a battleship and that was also the reason Metty chose this, since it also gave him the element of surprise over his potential enemies.

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 mine field 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 had other plans for me!

Before the war I was running a medical transport 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 God knows what other kind of madmen and women 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 they’re silky long hair, pointy ears, shiny skin, and deep beautiful eyes and absolutely gorgeous humanoid anatomy( just because I don’t like them, doesn’t mean I can’t admit they’re pretty!) but that’s the only good thing about them.

Though I am not saying that their particular brand of savagery was worst that 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.

And to be hones as individuals they were pretty decent fellows.

That is if you’re not they’re 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.

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

Alcohol that was to be specifically used externally and only externally!

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 pirates 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 and since our venture was a small one we needed every penny we could skim!

So I tried frantically to warn them, because honestly who deserves a slow and painful death? 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 at that point in time the two of us where both tied and gagged in a corner of the room, made my chivalrous intentions doomed to failure.

Well not a total failure, the by then half drunken pirates where having a good laugh at how the two of us where moaning and struggling with the ropes and gags as we tried to stop them and one of our viewers liked out 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’ me and they appreciated me a lot!

It only lasted a few moments but it was like hell, but even so I wanted to stop them from consuming the alcohol.

And to those of you who did not spent their youth studying medicine, the reason medicinal alcohol is not used for consumption is that there is the danger of it containing methanol, which is a very poisonous type of alcohol, why just 10 ml of the stuff can render you permanently blind and 30 ml can kill you!

Now don’t misunderstand, every bottle of medicinal alcohol is purified before being released to the general public, but the main problem with our stock was that we where transporting it to a purifying facility! And with those idiots chugging it down their throats like it was ice tea on a beach you can guess what followed immediately after.

Now, I was not to fond of them back then and my opinion over the years has not changed by much, but even if they where a cutthroat band of thieves and murderers, who if they could they would have sold both me and Akanthos to be some plantation owner’s slaves or worst playthings, but as I said before a slow and painful death in which you become blind, you’re insides burned, every muscle in your body spasmed and intense pain jolted throughout your body was not something I would wish on anyone, not even them!

So I laid there on the floor waiting for the inevitable and when it came it was truly horrible, a great scream of agony erupted from every pirate, forming a hellish choir that could be heard from all over the ship, 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, 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.

This made all hell break loose or rather more of it, as the pirates started firing their bows and swinging their sword and maces around causing an inferno of fire, water, ice, wind, earth to engulf the corridors, of my ship and the pirate’s ship.

Akanthos managed to get hold of a broken bottle and cut his bonds free and bless his souls he dragged my beaten and bloodied body to the sleeping quarters, where we locked the doors and waited for the carnage to end.

After a few minutes of what can only be describe as a wall of horrid sounds, silence fell and after untying me and 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.

What we saw was something out off a horror movie, bodies laid everywhere, blood, excrement, and piss pouring out from them, the walls where filled with scars from the weapons discharge and a foul smell of death permeated the entire hull.

We continued our little journey throughout the ship, driven by a curiosity, which when you stop to think about it was borderline suicidal, but to our luck every pirate had consumed the alcohol.

After a few minutes we located the captain of this pirate crew and after a few gentle prods from my axe, we could finally relax.

I thought that the worst was over and gave out a breath of relief, 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!

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).

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 Captain Metternich who single handedly killed 50 pirates with his bare hands became the talk of the local subsector.

After that a bunch of reporters came to cover the story and Akanthos being the sly business man that he was, charged them heavily for each interview, thus things where looking bright 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 regretfully it did not last.

For a certain Commodore James Crackerjack 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 my trade was ‘potions making’ which by law protected me from drafting since I worked in healthcare was completely ignored by the tosser and despite my best efforts to get into his thick skull, the idiot ignored logic and reasoning and continued to press the issue.

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, that and old James was not only a fool, he was a fool with a fleet of a hundred warships behind him 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, so 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’ where looked after, him being an aristocrat and having some semblance of a brain 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, 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 science and engineering officer Lieutenant Lloyd Colomas ‘Candlestickmaker’ Firebark and with this we were sent to fight in various mini wars and full blown wars over the years leading up to the Great War.

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 the eternal question of why such a combination exists and what it has against good and honest folk and me of course.

Metternich per Pelasgiamus, Freelance Potions Maker

“Nuts!” Metternich muttered under his breath as his mind stopped its wondering and returned to the present.

And with the memories of how he had arrived at his current predicament still fresh in his mind, he for a few minutes entered into a slight depression, which was comparable to that of a canary who upon being captured in the jaws of a cat became impatient and said to the aforementioned feline: ‘just do it already!’ with indifference to its fate.

He thought of his current situation.

On the one hand having a few hundred ships and several thousands of warriors to stand behind when the warp cannons, missiles and energy beams 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!

After his first battle and the first sight of his dead soldiers he had tried to think of his subordinates as nothing but tools, tried to distance himself from them, hoping to ease his guilt when they would eventually die in future battles, 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.

Maybe if he had been faster, stronger or smarter he could have prevented more of his soldiers from dying, 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 where, but what really weight heavily on his mind was the fact that he was starting to forget their names and they’re faces where starting to slip from his mind.

He knows that before he manages to leave the fleet, he will have forgotten even more names and faces and that would haunt him forever, making him contemplate the ‘easy’ way out.

After a few minutes 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.

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 hellfire for choosing the ‘easy way’ made him come to his senses.

Releasing out a breath of mental exhaustion, he placed the farview 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 good 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.” he replied.

“Yes sir, but I’m still a little depressed at this state of affairs.” Adrian replied.

“Don’t be, I’m rather pleased myself!” Metternich said to his knight.

“My lord?” Adrian replied as he turned his head towards his liege, his head filled with confusion.

“Why do you think I accepted this commission?”

“For the challenge?” Adrian said to his commander with a smile on his face, one that grew bigger once Metternich gave a nod of the head as his reply.

“But what I really meant to say is that here there is little chance of us being slaughtered by elite units from the enemy, thus we may be able to spent the whole war without the danger of us getting killed, but that’s just my opinion, it only applies to me and I doubt it matters much to others.” Metternich thought to himself. He then looked at Adrian and started to wonder if his knight did not have certain problems, since Adrian always showed great doubt one moment and great resolve the next and despite not being an expert on the behavior of Adrian’s species, he wondered if not perhaps he was also wearing a mask and knowing a thing or two about living a lie, he could understand if sometimes you let the mask slip, but that was a train of thought for another time, especially since the warp train was reaching its destination.

Just then his communication crystal started vibrating, indicating that someone wanted to talk to him.

He touched the crystal with his finger and it morphed into the small shape of a serpentine creature with grey scales, who was dressed in the same manor of uniform as the two had, but instead of the tricorn caps which he and Adrian wore, this serpentine creature wore a side cap that made it clear hewas 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 been, and served as his assistant, driver, bodyguard, and whatever other role was needed, that 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.

“My lord, the train has reached the base.” Butz said to his commander.

“Thank you Butz.” Metternich said as he touched the farview at a certain point which started it’s deactivation process, but not before putting a bookmark on where he had left off, namely on the painting named “Fate”.

“Time to go Adrian! You said that this unit contains a lot of gifted officers?” he said to Adrian as he hesitated for a few moments, the option of delaying for a while was still open to him, especially since technically his new command wouldn’t be official until he arrived, but after a moment of deliberation, he closed his farview, sealed it with string and they walked towards the train’s exit. After all, the inevitable could only be put off for so long.

“Yes my lord, the corps’s commanders where 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.

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

“Smart officers being 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, but still he did lament the sad state of affairs the Empire seemed to be in since the beginning of its existence or at least since he arrived.

“ 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.’” he 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 near hero worship in his eyes.

“You know you don’t have to call me that, technically you’ve got better blood, pedigree, fortune and social 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!” he replied.

“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 as well and by doing a quick onceover of the conversation he realized that he had just inadvertently 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.

So the Commodore only inhaled a deep breath of air 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 the ramp’s door opened and he crossed the point of no return.

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 up until now our only enemy was boredom since for the past 5weeks 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 storms. An unpredicted change is about to occur within four locations, those situated in mountainous regions may expect a strong blow, 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, which 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.

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 among our ranks the majority received it well since the young Commodore was a Hero of the Empire and had made quite the name for himself, for he 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!’, where 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 a soldier’s world would be bad, go to hell and then things would start to get nasty.

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

That may have been 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 fire, wind, water and earth attacks of the city’s 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 confusion and counterattacked.

First by raising they’re shields and immediately activating the earth spells within them, drawing the ground around them to form a protective wall to block any more attacks and then launching a volley of their own against the interlopers, in that instance the battle changed from a seemingly successful ambush to a slaughter of the members of this group of Maran resistance fighters as they slowly but surely started falling to the might of the Empire.

A great explosion shook and reshaped the rooftop where Ahmaianos along with his fellow rebel fighters where, making him loose consciousness from the explosion, but after a moment of pitch darkness he opened his eyes to his new surroundings.

Ahmaianos the leader of the local resistance cell gave the order to pull back, and retreated behind the edge of the building’s rooftop to avoid enemy fire, 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 attacks, leaving nothing but body parts rather than bodies behind.

Upon this realization, anger filled him at seeing his friends’ death, so he retreated even farther from the edge of the rooftop and jumped across to the neighboring buildings and continued his journey across rooftops until he managed to flank the enemy from behind.

From there he peered over the edge to look 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, the small arrow gathered the water vapors from the atmosphere and turned it into a small vortex of ice around its body, the arrow did not penetrate his armor, but the force of the impact and the cold air from the arrow got into his lungs freezing them, making him collapse to the ground.

The squad seeing their commander go down immediately looked to were the shot was fired and quickly retaliated in kind with their own arrows.

Ahmaianos ducked and ran from the rooftop he was on and down a fire escape, as he looked back he saw how the fire arrows burned the roof, how the wind arrows blew around it and intensified the fire, and how the earth arrows absorbed matter from the surrounding buildings and grew many times their size, smashing anything that was in their way.

“They’re so many…….and so powerful……..” he said to himself between gasps for air as he continued his desperate jog for life and limb; when he found himself on ground level and in one of the back alleys, he finally felt that he had lost them………. at least for now.

He stopped 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 in it that had caught his eye a moment earlier.

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

“Who is that man with the long unkempt hair, with his unshaven face, and dirty skin?”

“Who are you? You who drinks hard spirits like its water, you with the weapon in your hand, with blood on your conscience? “

“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 something in his mind.

His hand was a hairs length away 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 and instead of running I take the time to touch a window………I really am not suited for this….” he bitterly lamented to himself, as he carefully peered out of the exit from the alley and after assuring himself that it was clear he continued towards a safer 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, a few minutes passed and they received the order to hold their position.

While others advanced 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 and if things got rough they did have some fresh supplies.

This particular group of soldiers where a unit composed of different species, from different planets and they all had different forms, but they were all humanoid in shape and where 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 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 us the kriffing heavy equipment!” the sergeant added and got a good natured chuckle from her squad.

“But ma’am that would make us hypocrites!” the trooper at the table said in mock outrage at the idea.

“Imperials being hypocrites, what a shocker!” the corporal added and another round of laughter came from the squad.

The sergeant 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 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 the squad was all dead.

Who where 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 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 outside their pulsar’s line of sight.

“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, they’re main strength is stealth, so I guess it makes sense that they would focus on it.” Gelios replied as he rubbed his chin in contemplation of his next move.

“My lord, we have just received the following: ‘Count Luper has been hit by an ice arrow and 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 lord does not do the work of a common soldier, and 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!” 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 had no choice but to carry out the orders and so the general gave the command to attack.

After gazing at how his troops were preparing to charge the rebels, Gelios turned his gaze towards the ceiling and saw that a spider was hanging down from it.

“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 Dukhym district.

10:56 Local Planetary time.

Ahmaianos reached the headquarters of his resistance cell, which was an old warehouse, there he saw that like him, his surviving comrades were all red in the face from exhaustion, this was evidenteven though the marans had red skin as their defining characteristic, from that you could tell just how much of a struggle it was to just reach their hideout in one piece.

“How are things on your ends?” he said to what was left of their forces, which was not much when compared to what they started out with.

“The north side is blocked.” Tubarin said to him, he was a man with spiky red hair and a voice which would fit on some street punk.

“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 they’re reports, which they all mainly consisted of such elegant words like: ‘we are taffed’, ‘we’re kirffed’ and of course ‘crap’ was a very popular choice for such an occasion.

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

At this nobody said a word and Ahmaianos had his answer.

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

It raised its hand and slammed a heavy metal box right in front on them, the box opened to reveal energy crystals and some 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.

Just then a small beep was heard from one of their crystals, it was a sensor alarm indicating that the enemy had entered the outer perimeter of their street.

They all activated an old farview crystal that they had and looked at the area where the alarms went off, and 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 where being prepared.

“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.

“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 to me and while I keep them busy you all can slip away.” she said and this 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 would end up and I say we give those cursed Imperials hell before we let the-”

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

He was unable to finish his sentence as the sound of a heavy bombardment of fire and earth projectiles was heard in the distance and fell near their position. Akanthos then pressed a few commands on the control runes and the image changed to another part of the city, one where artillery units where positioned.

There they saw a squad of TRH ‘Earth Breakers’, machines that had eight spider like legs and on each leg was a wide flat disk on its tips to help distribute the weight of the vehicles over as wide a surface as possible.

They’re main bodies were also disked shaped and positioned with their flat side horizontally, there were two seats on the right and left backsides of the main body where the operator and the gunner sat. Between the two seats was a third one which was slightly more elevated and housed the spotter and behind him was an even slightly 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 coming out from the circle’s diameter, which leaned inwards to form a conic shape nicknamed the ‘cooker’, whose tip ended with the starting point of a long and thick cylinder that extended for several meters from the front of the ‘Earth Breaker’ and was at a 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, it was transmitted through the tip of the ‘cooker’ and into an ammunition shell.

The moment it was ready the Earth Breakers fired its load and the projectiles flew on a high arching trajectory towards their target.

The light from the explosion was what the Maran rebels saw first, a moment latter it was followed by an ear shattering noise that was accompanied by a small earthquake, the Earth Breakers certainly lived up to their names!

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

Ahmaianos turned to his comrades and with a voice that was filled with regret at how they’re end was near said:

“At least we go out fighting.”

They all made their way out of their makeshift lair and onto the streets, taking up ambush positions.

Everyone was gazing towards the direction where they expected the enemy to come from and they were all mentally preparing themselves for the end.

Some prayed, others thought of their life’s greatest joys, others of their loved ones, a few just gritted their teeth in fear.

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 which 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 a short top, with one angle in the front and one in the back and the remaining two situated approximately over each ear, the first two where the sharpest angles of the bunch, the helmet covered the neck all the way down to the 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 angle and this helped shield the eyes from the sun when necessary.

The interior was also designed with a double wall skeletal frame which created a sort of interior second wall that was what actually covered the user’s body, creating a small empty space between the wearers flesh and the true body of the armor. This not only 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, that is except for Kalynka.

“Nothing good ever comes out of the Empire, they are pure evil!” was her reply.

After all, 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 where dozens of other star systems all of which had been stolen by the Empire from their rightful government!

But she quickly banished her anger, for as they looked out towards the street in front of their hidden positions they could see a convoy approaching. 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 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 to mid long combat, it’s front had a sharpened arrowhead shape and in the case of this particular model spikes where coming out off its lower side, to help remove any obstacle in its path, on the top of its body laid a dome encrusted with magic runes from where it could launch shells like the Earth Breakers.

On both its side where 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 firing rate when compared with a war horse’s speed, that could charge it before it got too many shot’s at the enemy.

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 (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, when suddenly a powerful barrage of spears was hurled from the second floor of a building that was on the right side of the street the convoy was on, it hit the Defender right on the one area where it’s armor was weakest and namely it’s top.

The spears where all fire spears that exploded on impact, turning the mighty behemoth into a blazing coffin for its crew, the ones that did not hit the Defender where 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 from where the attack came and quickly started a counter barrage of arrows and spears, but as soon as they did that from the left side of the street a burst of magic struck them.

Earth golems emerged from the ground; these unnatural killing machines quickly struck the troopers from behind. The soldiers being distracted with the floor from where the attack had come from, did not notice them and where quickly cut down from behind, after completing its mission the golems expired as their magic was depleted and they crumbed into rocks and dust.

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 initial deadly salvo was launched.

A form emerged from the building, it appeared to be humanoid in appearance, but as the smoke from the barrage cleared the shape retreated back into the mist and disappeared.

7, 38

“Fire two salvos of several high caliber energy arrows west of your location with the green building as your target, but make sure they are fire and water arrows and launch them in that order.” a voice on their windwaker crystals was heard saying.

“What! Who the hell is this?”Tubarin angrily said into the crystal.

“The one who you where staring at a few seconds ago scholar, now if you 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 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 the 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, the words surprising her.

“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 replied.

“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 leaders sudden order.

“What choice do we have, you saw what he did, so just do as he says!” Ahmaianos shouted desperately as they all lined their bows and crossbows and fired the respective volleys.

“Now what? We just wasted what little ammunition we had 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, since none expected this 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 destroying it you’ve moved west because of the energy signature.” the voice replied.

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

“We kept our position hidden by making as much noise as possible and led the enemy on a wild goose chase!” 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 anger, at the strange voice.

“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 Kalynka went to her respective point.

“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, you’re friends will all die!” The voice said all of a sudden and to that Kalynka snapped to attention, the combination of an authoritarian voice that resonated with power behind it and the prospect of losing what was left of her friends made Kalynka loose her hesitation and most of her grasp of basic common sense and so she prepared to jump.

“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 and in another act which was against all common sense and logic; instead of drowning she stopped her submersion at knee depth.

“There is something beneath the surface!” she thought to herself, as she felt that the ground or rather the water below her started to rise and Kalynka realized that she was on a submarine. As the hatch opened and a crew member came out of it to see what was happening, he was immediately slayed by the armored resistance fighter, she then proceeded inside where she finished off the rest of the crew.

“What is this thing doing in the river?”

“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.

“I’m 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 which would have unnerved others; there was a gathering of what could only be describe as monsters in front him.

There was a Caracian, a gray skinned giant spider who 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 it was an Eschimariom, a black long haired centaur like creature that had an eye patch over his right eye and a bushy beard.

A Calabenecan, a giant insect like humanoid with locust features was next, followed by the Tetremadian who looked like normal human but had four arms and piercing green eyes. A Melionarion, a being that was made out of thousands of small yellow insect like creatures was what followed.

Next to the Melionarion was a Galapagian, 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 a Tumescan, a great raptor like beast who was holding what appeared to be a lollypop in its mouth.

Finally there was a Caninian, 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.

Behind Metternich Adrian emerged, a smile on his plucked hen features as he was happy to see his old classmates once more, from behind 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, signaled that Buts 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 third division, Duke Oscar von Raqianus fourth division, Tarkan el Balamarus fifth division, Prince Georgaian vi Alontaire sixth division, Prince Dalius Augustus 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.

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 my Knight, the one behind him is Butz my personal aide.”

Who where these creatures, you may ask? Why they where his new fleet 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 which 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 ramp 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, 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 racial 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 barring the exception of a few immigrants who would join them, had nothing in common with the Empire, 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 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 as an unofficial tradition in the military, when someone new arrived at a unit the members of the welcoming party where usually in their second form.

The idea in case of the enlisted men was that: ‘you’re an outsider and you got to earn your place’ and in case of officers it was a sort of sign of respect only attributed to worthy leader. Now back then I had a reputation as a hero thanks to the media, 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 was shortly before the part of my carrier which 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 bullseye on my back for enemy armies.

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

That was crackers, since as I mentioned before I wasn’t that big a hero back then. That 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 where 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 where more brighter , sincerer and happier than what I originally thought.

Dear God, the situation was a disaster! Heaven save me from their happy smiles!

Metternich per Pelasgiamus, Freelance Potions maker

After exchanging pleasantries, he was lead to a conference room where 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 ‘Hellfire 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 him sat 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 and 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, 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 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.” Raqianus 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 was the only one in this system that could sustain life, and it along with Volun 1,2 and 3 where only an 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 for the main fleet to cut 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.

But this was a ‘Moral 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.

Metternich saw it for what is was and in his mind 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 he could be relatively safe here, at least for the time being.

The only problem was that the planet had not been bombarded from orbit, the ships where now grounded all along their lines and used as anti-infantry weapons instead of being in space, and the enemy instead of being small dust particles where now heavily entrenched on the high ground in front of them.

He looked at his new command, since everyone was refusing to answer his enquire and 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 20 percent strength, and that those 20% percent where troops composed of reservists, many of them quite old by military standards.” she then paused and even though it was difficult to see an 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 bombardment, when our commander Rear Admiral Cassius, stated that instead of destroying it we should capture the supply depo with an infantry assault.” the voice of Antonius was heard saying and all of the gazes at the Eschimariom as he continued the story.

“But after we launched the 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 senile bingo players!” Adrian’s voice his opinion on the absurdity of the notion.

“Considering that those senile bingo players had a battalion of retired but recently brought back to active duty Holy Knights, I’d say that’s exactly what happened.” Werner answered his question.

This made Adrian’s mouth fall agape, the Holy Knights where elite shock troopers of the Federation and since the Federation and the Volunians where close allies, this meant that their presence indicated that the Federation had now unofficially joined the fight between the Empire and the Volunians instead of just offering ‘token’ support.

Adrian looked at Werner still in disbelief and hoping that it was some lie, but Werner sadly only confirmed with his gaze that it was 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.

“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 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.

“What happened after that? And could one of you tell the whole story, since a standard day only has so few hours in it!” Metternich said, starting to lose his patients.

“The Admiral then ordered us to battle stations and used the ships to ram the enemy defenses.” Dalius answered Metternich, with a cheery tone like it was a matter of fact.

“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 where 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 which 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.

“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 where coming and we have enough ammunition and fuel four one good infantry scrap.” The tusked mouth of Georgaian said as the somehow heavy atmosphere in the room slightly improved

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 weeks ago, 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 ranks of commodore with equal seniority, we did not have someone else to take over command, and where uncertain what to do, that is until you came sir.” Antonius replied and gave an honest smile, which unnerved their new commander, since it help punctuate just how deeply their where krifed and where desperately looking for a way out or a fall guy.

“Why haven’t they attacked us with their ships?” Metternich asked.

“Their gearing up for that, our most recent Intel says the fleet of Admiral Yemen is on his way here.” Georgaian answered him.

“Also, the enemy has been receiving a constant stream of reinforcements since we’ve tried to ram them, currently they outnumber 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 us.” Georgaian added to the conversation.

“Nuts, to our side then!” Metternich said cheerfully, with what seemed to be a hollow and humorless laugh as he looked over the map.

“No chances for a promotion here sir.” Werner said with a smile on his face, intentionally provoking the newly minted commander.

The other high ranking officers chided him 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 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 commanders behavior and where 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 match his stare with a smile on his face that said a non verbal challenge of ‘come and get it!’.

“Oh, what a disappointment!” Metternich said with faux shock and a great deal of mostly comical exaggeration to those present and they replied with laughter, which 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?” he added with a stony, emotionless expression on his face, and after von Braun shook his head the newly minted commander deadpanned with:

“Now you know it.” using the same statue worthy expression and in a dry tone which drew more laughter from those present, even Werner gave a healthy chuckle.

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 and with Yemen coming they were running out of time, but as he studied the display he saw something which could give them the much needed situation reversal.

“And a potential glorious destruction, of myself and this whole fleet!”

He thought to himself, as his guts started to hurt, which was the reaction his body made when something like this happened. He could have ignored it and simply ordered a general withdrawal trough the warp portal and scuttle the warships, but if he did that 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 like that would be, they would still 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 one would be fought. For just south beyond the mountains on the enemies left flanks was a forest, one of the densest forests on the planet.

“We could bypass the mountains and go through the forest and attack from the rear.” Metternich.

“Sir, I would endorse such a plan but the forest in too thick, how could we move the troops trough it?” Horatia asked.

“Here is how.” he replied and he told them his method.

“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, but since the initial phase would use up most of heavy equipment, the distraction force would be vulnerable t