Anuria Orbit
Cherubim Class Carrier “Second Light”
Bridge

“Virtues confirming cruise missile hits.”
“Dominions confirming multiple hits.”
“Thrones confirming signs of shield damage.”
“Sensors picking up engine activity.”
“Targets are jumping…targets executed jumps.”

It was silent for a moment. Admiral Lagare had been hunting for Ashtar ships for the past 2 years. She had come close once. Having surrounded a lone patrol. But the damned jump drives always allowed them to evade her. It almost seemed that no matter how much resources MSSC-command threw at her, she just couldn’t find something against the jump drives. Exhausted she let herself collapse on the nearby chair, as she looked at a distrupted holo-table. The Ashtar jump drives had the nasty side effect of screwing up every sensor the MSSC had for a very short time period. The result was mostly 3D static as the sensors weren’t sure if they picked up something or not. After a bit of flickering, everything turned to normal again. Except that a sole target remained. Slowly Helen rose from her chair, as she vied the holographic object with careful eye.

“Sensors confirming one remaining Ashtar ship.”
“Get me visual confirmation!” snapped the admiral. Again, a few long seconds of silence passed.
“Virtues giving visual confirmation ma’am.”
“Prepare SIF forces! I want every available one on a Boarding Ship or as Jumper! Get us as close as possible. Release all X-3 of their original commands and give permission to the SIF Officers to use them as fire support!” Miss Lagare quickly gave the commands. With her heart racing. She was overjoyed as she watched the single holograph of the ship. “Crippled…finally.” She whispered to herself with almost a tear in her eye. Which she quickly whipped away to be replaced by her stoic self.
“Admiral, the Vaegir fleet has firing solutions at the cruiser.”
She looked a bit further down the holo-table and indeed, there was nothing between the Vaegir and the lone ship. “Get the Thrones and Dominions in front of the ship! They must protect it at all costs! Keep the Archangels there too! We’re not losing a stranded Ashtar ship after all this!” She spoke with a clear yet heated voice, and her command was relayed towards the ships.

The main hangar of the Cherubim-class looked like pure chaos. But in fact is was pure organization. Hangar crews were preparing several X-3’s on the sides. Loading up the A and B-class MSSC missiles. In the middle of the hanger the SIF were getting on their Medium Boarding Vessels. In total 4 were getting loaded up with fully armed SIF troopers. Furthermore, 4 squads of SIF Jumpers were ready too. Waiting in the hangar airlock. Soon the Boarding Vessels were loaded into the airlock.

The Jumpers, fully utilizing their Pegasus-suits flew through the void like bugs near a man. So small and undetectable. As soon as they touched down on the Ashtar Archangel hull they attached a container on it. It contained a Deep-Space Broadcast Beacon. The DSBB was a simple device. It broadcasted a signal. If the ship would still somehow jump, the DSBB could be used to trianglize its position. It was one of the million ideas the Battle Consultants back at Aer had suggested. Miss Lagare was pretty proud that she was getting very close in capturing Ashtar technology. Back on Aer, the appearance of the Ashtar had the top brass in such awe, that they created 2 departments for it. One was a research department for Ashtar captured technology. The other was Ashtar Battle Consultancy. Neither had seen much use in the past few years.

Anuria Orbit
Ashtar Archangel-class cruiser
Hull
The sizzle of the plasma torch slowly cutting through the hull of the Ashtar ship unnerved the SIF troops. Too slow, according to Captain Tanner. A veteran from 4 tours now. It was his second tour in Anuria, and in his life he had already encountered several Ashtars. He didn’t like their mind tricks at all. Once the sizzle was done, he gripped his SRT rifle tight. It wouldn’t take long now. First, through the holes, 4 Ares-II Hi-explosive grenades would be thrown to clean out any enemies foolish enough to stand in front of the breach. After that, several more Apollo flash bangs were thrown. And finally, several Morpheus Smoke grenades were thrown in. With a clang the breached hull part was pushed inwards by a hydrolic press. The SIF stormed out into the thick smoke within the Ashtar ship’s hallway. With heat sensors they could see enemies even through the thick smoke, and would open fire at the first sight of them, assuming they were disoriented by the flash bangs.

Arctic Wastelands
Ashtar-Malthecian Contested Zone

The Coralis gunship’s shields held, barely. Heavy jamming meant that the Crusader’s blazing attack run had not been as precise as it otherwise would have been. The chaff threw off all four missiles, but the gunship’s dedicated psintegrat was there for a reason. Reaching out with his mind, he used the small psytech tranceivers in the missiles to bring two of them under his control and wrangle them back on target, re-establishing their locks and sending them screaming after the Crusader once more.

The pilot, meanwhile, made a rather macabre decision. He had a scant few seconds before the Crusader would come around for another pass, and his Coralis could not match its speed. In any kind of dog fight, they would be at a severe disadvantage, even with shields and multiple missiles to spare. But the Crusader was not their objective; the men on the ground were. As soon as the Crusader had appeared on sensors, Point Jakurna had deployed a flight of Swiftwinds to chase it out of Ashtar airspace. They were still half a minute away, so the Coralis might well not survive to meet them. It could, however, accomplish its primary mission.

The gunship abruptly emptied its missile pods, fired its compact omega pulse cannon, and went to rapid fire mode on its thumper turret, bringing all its firepower to bear on the Malthecian patrol below, blasting series of craters deep into the ice.

Much to his own surprise, Kahlan was not dead. He’d moved far enough to not be completely incinerated by the bombardment, and had instead only suffered a broken arm and massive damage to his power armour. It was reduced to emergency power, becoming little more than a life support suit. His rifle was gone, lost somewhere in the snow after the blast threw it clear. He watched the gunship unleash its payload on the Malthecian position, then whirr off in a desperate attempt to fight off the Crusader. Grimly drawing his sidearm, Kahlan slowly began to haul his battered body towards the freshly devastated ground, intent on finishing his mission.

Anuria
High Orbit
Archangel class cruiser A Vision Pierces the Void

Captain Edun Tameron had the misfortune of commanding the only Ashtar ship not to successfully make the FTL jump to the other side of the Vaegir fleet. “Damn vultures” he said quietly as he watched the MSSC ships close on his own. “FTL status?”
“Gate generators are fine, but the external graviton emitters on the jump drive have been heavily damaged, and can not be repaired in combat,” his tactical officer reported. “MSSC vessels are closing. Judging by previous encounters they almost certainly intend to board us.”

Tameron grimaced. There weren’t enough power armoured marines on his ship to hold off a sustained assault by MSSC boarding parties. “Transfer command stations to main engineering,” he spoke out loud to the ship. “Site to site teleport bridge personnel to main engineering on my mark. 3...2...1...Mark” A flash and a surging feeling later, and Tameron found himself in the emergency command center in engineering. Main engineering was a cavernous space predominantly lit by the steady blue glow of the cruiser’s primary harmonics chamber. A quick glance at a display told him that MSSC boarding parties were already breaching the hull. He certainly couldn’t fault them for their efficiency. “Lock down the ship. Marine response teams, prepare to repel intruders. Main engineering is our last stand, seal the blast doors and do not let those vermin in here!”

All over the ship, blast doors slammed down, isolating sections from eachother. They opened at psionic commands from authorized marines, but no one else. They were only temporary obstacles to a man with a good plasma torch and a little time. Marines deployed to key chokepoints and activated various built in turret systems, while indirect combatants throughout the ship reached their thoughts out to the SIF troopers, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Anuriite Basin
Three Hours after Ashtar Raid
A young human man, well more a boy, no more then seventeen years old, frantically ran through the jungles of the basin, holding onto his carbine tightly as he laid against a tree, hearing the horrific screams of his fellow soldiers, along with small arms fire echoing all around him, also accompanied by the unearthly screams of the native predators out on the hunt. "God help me..." he whispered to himself, slowly wondering this living maze, this alien hellhole. The Ashtar with their raid had baited the jasaran troops into a trap, and of course it worked, several platoons had been deployed to sweep the area of any ashtar presence, which proved to be a mistake. Once they had reached a certain distance from the base, the Ashtar came out in full force, using their advanced technology and the dense jungles to their advantage, catching the jasarans off-guard, leading to a scrambled mess of a battle, half of the troops sent dead within the hour.

The young man wondered further in, the darkness illuminating from Ashtar plasma weapons and federation kinetic weapons. He placed his index and middle fingers onto the right side of his helmet. "Can anyone hear me..?" He whispered. "Sarge? Anyone..." He was starting to loose it. "Kathy...Sis...where the hell is everyone!" He slowly shouted out, possible giving himself away, but he could care less.

Before long, a energy bolt came passing by the soldier, the bolt blowing away several trees, causing a fire. As the darkness crept away from it's light, the man's attacker was exposed, a tall imposing Ashtar Commando with it's glimmering shell of a body stepping forward. "Fuck!" he thought to himself. He begun unloading his carbine at the ashtar, with little effect, slowly backing away from the machine. "Why won't you die?!?!!?" He screamed out at the Ashtar, no response giving of course. He soon ran out of ammo. Not wanting to waste time on reloading, the jasaran tossed his weapon aside, and pulled out a pistol, and continued firing.

Now cornered, the Ashtar was done toying with him, and begun charging his weapon to finish off the frightened jasaran. As it was about to fire, a rocket seemly appeared out of nowhere, and quickly dispatched the machine, the force of the blast threw the soldier against a tree, leaving him barely unconscious as three jasaran soldiers emerged from the trees, a woman a few years older then him and two male Caadori in their late twenties. "Ian!" the woman exclaimed, kneeling to him, observing his fresh wounds, bits of shrapnel from the Ashtar's armor, he slowly opens his eyes. "Oh thank god, he's alive!" she said with joy, embracing him. "Don't scare me like that.."

"So..ory." he apologized before blacking out. The woman turned to the two Caadori. "We gotta get him back to base.." she said with a hint of desperation in her tone, followed by her lifting him up onto her right shoulder.

"We better get moving then." One of the Caadori said. "Ashtar bastards could be watching."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Patrol near Camp Frostbite
Arctic Northlands, Malthecien-Ashtarian border

The pilot cursed as he received reads of the still-functioning Ashtarian gunship. The missiles on his tail had yet to reach his speeds, but while they still could undoubtedly accelerate, he had reached the maximum speed of his fighter. The pilot calculated that he had time for one last pass before he had to break engagement - the Ashtar likely had reinforcements coming, and he had to get away from the thrice-damned missiles. He pulled on his stick, his aircraft completing a sharp upside-down turn and heading back towards the gunship. He unloaded with everything he had, prayed to Malthecior that it had worked, and headed back towards base to the safety of static anti-air emplacements.

---

Elthian gasped, ripping the helmet off his head. He tossed it aside - it was useless with the fist-sized blast marks on the visor. A wave of nausea and dizziness assaulted his senses, and he stumbled, clutching his head. A concussion at the very least. Elthian could already feel his power armor's recovery system supporting and bracing his body. He winced at his sore chest. Definitely a fractured rib or two. Blearily, he looked around.

Utter devastation. Nothing remained of the snowy bluff he had taken cover behind just moments before. Enormous craters were all that was left. He saw no signs of his squad. Elthian coughed up a wad of mucusy-blood. He had lost his rifle somewhere, so he drew his sidearm and checked the charge. Half a battery - it would do. He scanned the area for any signs of life. Elthian recalled that his power armor came with emergency comms systems, and he hurriedly activated them. A green blip appeared on his wrist, and urgently he followed it. After a few minutes of searching and stumbling, he nearly tripped over the body of Invoker Theuron. A massive blast mark covered half his chest, and he was missing his left arm; the wound was cauterized already. But the indicator on his arm told Elthian that his commanding officer was still alive, if barely. Grunting, he lifted the Invoker onto his back, and reactivated his comms.

"Central, this is Acolyte Elthian of Patrol Squad D4N02. We have heavy casualties and request immediate evac. I repeat, we request immediate evac."

"Understood Acolyte. We are dispatching a gunship from Camp Frostbite with escort to your position. ETA two minutes."

Elthian sagged in relief, his knees weak. He lay the Invoker next to him, and sat down heavily. He readied his pistol, though he doubted there was any hostile still alive, and if there was, it was not some infantry-man he could take down with a pistol. He settled in and waited for salvation.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anurian System
Approaching orbit of Anuria


The fleet made good time, approaching at a fraction of the speed of light. They stayed strictly in formation - Missionary-class as escorts to the Patriarch-class and Inquisitors as the front-liners. Reports of a battle reached them, but the Primate ordered to avoid conflict until after their forces touched down on the surface. The Patriarch-class ships carrying the invasion force entered orbit of Anuria, with the rest of the Malthecien fleet acting as an escort.

Upon entering orbit, the Patriarchs released twelve Bishop-class Atmospheric Carriers. Each carried one-hundred Crusader fighters along with twenty Priest-gunships, along with a force of ten-thousand troopers including their armor complements. Six made their way to the arctic, while the other six moved towards the outskirts of Kol'kira to set up Forward Operations Headquarters. The Primate ordered one Patriarch-class vessel, the Unflinching Zealot, along with her escort of two Missionary-class vessels, to remain in orbit to act as tactical orbital support.

The rest of the fleet turned as one to engage the enemy over the skies of Anuria. They would wait until the two enemy fleets had weakened each other, then would strike.

Anuria Orbit
Ashtar Archangel-cruiser
Shieldgenerator hallway.

“Clear!” yelled the lookout, as he peered through the small hole the plasma torch cut for him. Then the larger blast door was forcibly removed. Deltha Squad had been cutting through doors for the past 15 minutes. Of their 16 man squad already 3 fell to the Ashtar and their interior turrets. Again one of the SIF began burning through the next door with a blowtorch. While 2 others put their armored arm on the metal door. Through basic radar they could get an approximation of the size of the room ahead. “Large room sir. We’re hearing humming and stuff.” One of the two said to Captain Tanner. Who started to device a tactic for the room. They hadn’t found a full sized room yet. Which meant that it could both be very well defended, and extremely valuable. The team waited in silence. With only the sizzling of the plasma torch burning away the door. “Who still got flashbangs?” he asked, 5 men raised their hands. “And smokes?” 3 other guys raised their hand. It was little. But it would have to do.

With impatience the troops waited as the blastdoor was being cut by the torch. They pushed it inwards and were immediately greeted by a bunch of Ashtar fire. Obviously the Ashtar were expecting them. They were a good distance away from the door. Well dug in. From the fire Tanner guessed about 7 guys were ready for them. That were a lot of Ashtar to take on. The flashbangs were practically useless, as the Ashtar had read the mind of the SIF soldiers. So they wasted 3 flashbangs on entry. But the 3 following smokes were more effective. The Ashtar knew the smoke was coming. But not being able to see your enemy makes it hard to hit them. If you’re expecting it or not. Under the cover of smoke everyone was able to dash to a well-covered position. Once the smoke settled, there was only silence for a moment. As both sides waited out the other. Tanner took a deep breath, and pulled his last Hi-explosive grenade’s pin. He cooked it for about 2 seconds, then threw it from behind his corner. The blast shredded 1 Ashtar, and all hell broke loose. The 6 others opened fire, and the SIF returned the favor. In the bloody skirmish 5 SIF and 2 Ashtar fell and 1 got injured. Then, Tanner had a magnificent idea. “I’m going to jump!” he yelled to his SIF comrades.

One SIF threw another flashbang, which did caught an Ashtar off guard but the other surviving 2 could duck into cover on time. It didn’t matter to Tanner. He activated his Pegasus-suit and with one push off the ground his suit’s engines pushed him towards the other side of the wall. Where the Ashtar were. In his flight, he managed to take down the one dazed Ashtar. The action did cost him all his ammo though. So when the 2 other Ashtar suddenly noticed that an enemy was right next to them, they lifted their weapons. As Tanner grabbed his Shadowrunner, one of the now exposed Ashtar got killed by Tanner’s teammates’ covering fire. Tanner’s shield took a hit too though. One too many as his capacitors gave in and the shield vanished around him. The second Ashtar’s shield collapsed too, after several hits. Right then, Tanner and the second Ashtar each traded a shot. The Ashtar took Tanner right in the guts. Burning away all armor there. Tanner managed to fire his needler-round into the Ashtar’s chest. The anaesthetic quickly spread through the body. Making his body limp and himself disoriented. There was still a wounded Ashtar in the corner of the fight. Knocked unconscious by the wound. But not dead yet. Once the room was considered clear, the SIF cheered. Raising their rifles. For the first time in Anurian-battle history did they manage to seize a room of the Ashtar, but also take 2 Ashtar alive.

But the victory was short lived. As their commander collapsed due to the shot to the guts. In his mind, everything was going slow-mo. He could even begin to count casualties. 7 SIF troopers died, to kill 4 Ashtar and capture 2. He put on a little grin. He couldn’t help to think about the irony. He died, so they could take an Ashtar alive. They all knew their lives were worth less than a live Ashtar. But all those thought vanished as he felt something rising through his throat. The last thing he did was spit out the blood in front of him. Seeing it fly through the room that was worth so much more than him. With empty eyes he watched his comrades, as they ran towards him with the first-aid. But the only thing he wanted right there and then was to sleep. His eyes felt heavy. Slowly they fell shut and the darkness pulled him in.

His eyes shot wide open. His blood was raging, fiery hot. Being pumped by his heart all around every by a heartbeat that was off the charts. He looked down and saw how a soldier managed to jam an adrenaline needle in his tight. Everyone’s faces turned from worried to relieve. One quickly called in support, and demanded a medic to be ready. Usually medical crew had to stay onboard of a ship. They were too highly trained to be lost in combat. But apparently admiral Lagare made an exception on that rule herself. Everything still felt hazy for Tanner. In the hallway he saw how another hole was being burned through the outer hull. A circular plate of metal fell with a loud clang on the ground. Soldiers rushed out of it, an entire platoon, 32 men and women. 4 lifted Tanner up and carried him back to the Medium Boarding Vessel where he came from. Together with 2 doctors. Soon he was shipped back to ‘Second Light’. The Large Boarding Vessel that brought in the soldiers was quickly loaded up with the 2 incapacitated Ashtar. The heavily drugged one was put on a special kind of medication. A needler-dart from the Shadowrunner had the nasty side effect to kill whatever it hit within 30 minutes. Just to make sure that if the target wasn’t retrieved, it would die anyway. With the constant supply of meds, the total effect of the shadowrunner would be kept going. Keeping him limp and docile. The one that was knocked unconscious didn’t need the meds. The soldiers began to take pictures of the entire room. Even brought in a 3D scanner to get a perfect image of the place. After that they began the unrefined process of moving everything that wasn’t bolted to the floor onto the vessel. After that, they would start loosening bolts.

---

As Delta was retrieving whatever was in the room that quickly appeared to house some sort of shield generator, Alpha team had breached the ship’s bridge with little resistance. They too called a Large Boarding Vessel. In similar fashion as the shield generator room, the bridge was stripped apart. Strange terminals were taken from the ground as massive screens were getting disconnected. The troops were rather crude in their methods, and no doubt some of the equipment would be damaged. But that didn’t matter for now. The Alpha SIF team was relocated to meet up with Bravo. Who was receiving a very unkind welcome from the Ashtar. Charlie team too were raking up casualties. Back on the bridge, admiral Lagare was nervously looking at the bridge’s counter. Every SIF trooper had a certain cost to produce. A culmination of training, equipment, mental and physical aid. The same happened to ships. On the bridge of a fleet flag ship a huge counter would be hung up. The counter said, at the start of the mission how much the cost was so far. The cost of a mission was more than just the logistical cost. For every ship destroyed it would go up. For every trooper dead the cost would rise too. At the end of an operation, the cost would be compared to the profit. As there was a bounty on every trooper, ship or other stuff from the enemy. Ashtar technology had a huge bounty though. So she didn’t have to worry about the cost. She was, however, worrying about lost opportunity. After minutes of contemplating, she finally decided and contacted Seraphim command. Requesting a second Cherubim-flagship fleet. Meaning a similar fleet as hers would be dispatched to her position.

Anurite Basin
Ashtar-Jasaran Battlefront

Manderra Kurath flinched as a sniper round punched through the last shreds of her shields, and immediately ducked behind cover again. Her squad of five had suffered two casualties --one dead, one injured-- already to the anti-materiel rifle their hidden opponent was wielding. “Kurath!,” her sergeant hissed over the squad psynet. ”Locate that sniper before we suffer any further losses.’
“I am attempting to do so sir, please be patient.” The problem was there was so much chaos. The Jasaran forward operating base had fallen, but now they were engaged in a gradual, combative retreat. With ambushes, traps, and mines, they forced the Ashtar to fight for every inch of ground. All throughout the dense jungle, Jasaran and Ashtar alike lay dead or dying, brewing up a storm of despair, anger, triumph and agony. Trying to locate a single mind in all of that while under fire was taxing. Psionics didn’t so easily correspond with the real world; she couldn’t simply extend her mind ‘that way’. Distance was a factor, but direction was meaningless without two points of reference. Manderra flicked her thoughts about, delicately touching an array of minds, sampling their surface thoughts and feelings. Nothing.
”Centurion Aminene, I hate to ask such a thing of you but…”
”Your thinking is sound, Psion. I will rejoin you soon enough.” Perfectly understanding her intent, the wounded soldier stood up sharply, completely exposing himself. A sniper round promptly exploded through his chest, but Manderra knew exactly what to look for. And there it was; a small surge of elation at a successful kill. She locked on to the mind in question, and probed deeper. It was indeed their sniper. Abandoning all subtlety, she forced herself into the sniper’s mind, and from that brief contact, determined the sniper’s location. While her enemy was reeling from the mental intrusion, Manderra, swung her own rifle up, quickly glanced down the scope, and placed a burst of gamma laser fire through the Jasaran soldier’s head.
The sergeant nodded in satisfaction. ”Excellent shooting Kurath. Let us push forward.” And off they went, ever deeper into the jungle.

---

Anuria High Orbit
Archangel class cruiser A Vision Pierces the Void

Lieutenant Ardelen Verath smirked as another SIF trooper accidentally activated another grenade still attached to his own belt. This particular soldier wasn’t fast enough, and the grenade detonated in the middle of his squad, killing several of them. The grenade trick was an old favourite of the Ashtar that was proving quite effective on Anuria. It was an easy enough trick to pull off, even through psionic shielding because it required so little contact. Every soldier had it drilled into them to never point their weapon at someone they didn’t plan on shooting. That discipline, combined with IFF technology, meant that it was almost impossible to get a soldier to shoot one of their comrades. But the grenade trick, all it took was a slight poke to get a soldier to arm one then forget to throw it. Sometimes their comrades would spot the danger and throw the offending grenade away, but not often enough, and it still forced the enemy to waste ordinance.

It was a good deal simpler than psionic combat on the Sakturi front, where dedicated support psintegrae were needed to constantly shield their allies from mental assault. A squad without such support would find itself dead in seconds, regardless how sophisticated their psionic jamming, as enemy psintegrae spotted the vulnerability and attacked en masse; nothing so simple as setting off a grenade.

Of course, the Ashtar had grenades of their own, and some other nasty tricks. Verath reached for a Stihlpont grenade, and activated its psytech transponder. He threw it around the corner at the recovering SIF troopers, and activated it midair in their midst. Screams echoed down the hallway as ultra-strong monofilament carbon spikes pierced through armor and tore through flesh. That was one SIF squad down, but there were many more to go.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain Tameron looked at a display of the ship’s interior. The SIF soldiers were everywhere. They’d been kept out of main engineering and the armory, but otherwise the incredibly effective troopers seemed to have the run of his ship.
“Captain, shield power has just dropped considerably. The MSSC boarders must have removed a shield generator. The Vaegir are still scoring hits, and we will not be able to hold the ship together for long,” his first officer reported.
“Enough of this. Initiate self destruct sequence,” Tameron declared emphatically. “I look forward to serving with all of you again.”

On his command, the primary harmonics chamber in main engineering stopped sustaining the perfectly stabilized omega particle matrix, and instead began to actively break it apart. Twenty three and a half seconds after issuing the command, the reactor reached a critical breakdown point and exploded. A massive, bright blue explosion immediately engulfed Pierces the Void and surged outwards, tearing at any ships unfortunate enough to be nearby. Space itself seemed to bend and heave as colossal forces pushed its against its limits. Then, the explosion abruptly winked out, and there was not a single trace left of the Ashtar cruiser.

---

“It is claimed by some that ’all martyrs die in vain’. These very people are also the ones that never chose fight for their people. Nor do they have the will to die for the rights of their fellow kin.”

The darkness soothed the eyes as Hark walked through the watery abyss which still existed under the now ruined city. One would never expect the sewers to still be running even during these times, but yet it did, barely damaged. Hark was in fact impressed by this very fact, that uncountable amounts of bombs did little to the sewers walls. He chose not to think too much on it, however. There was a large task ahead of him, one which would require the entire array of skills that a MAL-R operator had at his disposal.

“Five minutes ‘till checkpoint falkon, seventeen minutes till surface arrival.”, came voiced over the ComNet of his unit. Much like MAL-R procedures, each team operative had infiltrated the field from their own, respective locations. Thus far it had proven effective; none had been detected. Not that they’d expect the enemy to know of the fact that an entirely obliterated city held an almost undamaged sewer system. “R-01 at checkpoint. Updating NavNet and KASSOC of current position. Standby”, it’d seem that Hadrian, the team lead, had arrived at the meet-up point. His distinctive rough and hardened voice soothing the cataclysmic silence at the depths of these sewer waters.

“This is R-04 approaching checkpoint, ETA 2 minutes”, voiced Hark as he approached the final spurts until the rendezvous of his fellow MAL-R operatives. After him came gradual responses from the rest of the operatives as they also came closer and closer to their meet up point.

Hark was once more amused at how the depths of a sewer can allow his mind to wander so very much. Disgust brewing inside of him at what he’s seen, but not acknowledged until now. A scene kept on repeating and that was the execution of an entire family before his eyes. Embedded as he was behind enemy lines and within their ranks to the point where there was nothing he could do about it. He wondered, had he sacrificed his humanity for survival? What about the other members of his team?

Before his mind could question its experience any further Hadrian came in over ComNet. “All MAL-R D-04 units assembled”, it’d seem that Hark, and his allies, had arrived at their rally point, but the abysmal darkness of these depths didn’t allow him to see anything further than a couple of feet ahead of him, even with his headlight. Quickly looking at the corner of his HUD, however, it’d seem that they all had, indeed, assembled.

Before Hadrian could continue, Hark switched over to thermal so that he could spot his allies properly. “Let’s go over the mission protocol once more, shall we?” Hadrian continued, “Our insertion point is the former Royal University. This building, as hopefully all of you know from the mission briefing, is embedded in the very frontline itself, literally split in two between the Federation and its Vaegir adversaries”.

"Once on the surface, we split up. Each one of you know what to do, and I'm expecting you all to have done your tasks excellently well by the time we regroup here three months from now. R-04, I trust you, especially, with the task at hand. If you manage to secure the target's location, the Kasyrinian Federation would finally be able to gain an upperhand, be it as slight as it may. Secure the Colonel at all costs", Hadrian finished. Hark finally felt the weight of his duties, but he'd not let them burden his will and desire to help the Federation. "D-04, Hark.", a feminine voice called over from the Coms, it'd appear a private channel was established. He knew instantly who it was, but not exactly was it bad news, but merely further burdens to bear. "Yes, D-02?", he replied, voicing his distinct undesire to comply with whatever she'd come to ask. Obviously she continued anyway, that's who she was.

"High Command expect great things from you, as do I. Hadrian may not know of our Connections, but as an on-field informer satisfying my expectations can get you a long way in this career.", she said. Hark knew better than to openly voice his actual opinions to a woman with direct connections to the supreme military council. "Roger, D-02. I'll keep it in mind", he spoke, making sure to end the conversation at the same time he proceeded to climb up the rusty iron ladder leading up into the University basement.

He deactivated his thermals, his headlight, and anything which'd give his position away to the enemy. But now that they'd finally left the dirty sewage water, the laser tracker instantly picked up the armour tags of his fellow operators' IDs. It'd seem that D-01 and D-03 had climbed up ahead of him. "Standby, scanning basement floor of hostiles", came over the Com. No doubt that Hadrian had arrived at the sewage hatch in the basement. The MAL-R had many tools at their disposal, one of them being their incredibly potent biometric and cybernetic scanners. No doubt Hadrian had unleashed a swarm of scanner drones into the basement in order to check for hostiles.

"Basement clear, moving onto ground floor. Standby, checking for hostiles", Hadrian reported. The team, still remaining as silent and calm as they typically are. In the meantime they were waiting, Hark maglocked onto the ladder and began checking his weapons, seeing if they were still in proper condition after moving through dirt water for a seven-something hours. It'd seem that his MJK-02 Tactic Pistol seemed in prestine condition, as Always. Thanks to it's modifiability, it never seemed to lose it's charm. The same applied for the multi-purpose KALK-199x Modular Rifle. With it's ability to fire underwater, it was an obvious choice when going on this mission. Finally done with his equipment check after a quick couple seconds, Hadrian came in over Coms once again. He said that he'd spotted 3 enemies distributed around an emplacement overlooking the assault on the Federation FOB. Thankfully they were Federation Soldiers, so it'd seem that the Federation had come to conquer the University- for now, of course.

The presence of the emplacement was obvious, it's rapid firing Heavy machinegun revealing it's obvious presence. After Another Quick couple seconds Hadrian voiced over Coms once again. "17 Federation Soldiers, all of them confirmed Army Regulars, one officer", Hadrian paused.

---

City of Kol'Kida
For some hours a pair of razorwing combat dropships had flown out from the hazardous sand straits, and were on approach to the City of Kol'Kida. Inside one of the dropships were a dozen members of the Anuriite Volunteer Corps, local anurians who had signed up for the Federation Military, in this case being the Army, in exchange for their families being shipped offworld to safety, the only condition was of course was that the enlisted were to remain and fight on the front. This particular unit had just been transferred from the Fort Liberty, a rather low-tensity assignment, and rather comfortable despite the heat of the desert of which could easily be escaped with the top notch air conditioning. And to no ones surprise, they didn't take their new post well. "Approaching LZ In seven, brace yourselves ladies and gents." The Razorwing Co-pilot announced, turning to face the soldiers. "And next stop, bullet hell." One of the older soldiers joked, followed by hollow chuckles.

"I don't know about you, but I've been itching for some combat since I joined!" An younger anurian said. "I didn't sign up for guard duty."

"Damn typical of kids." The older one replied with an irked tone. "So eager to fight and die. War is a double edged sword, boy. You better watch yourself or you'll get shot the moment you step out of this ship."

"Eh, leave him be." A female anurian spoke with a wide grin. "Give the kid a minute out in the field and he'll adjust his tune."

"Just be thankful you're not pilot or in the navy." The human co-pilot joined the conversation, looking upwards to the shower of starship debris falling to the planet. "Damn risky every-" his words were interrupted suddenly when the dropship shook violently as it came under fire. "Shit!" He shouted out, as from the city below Avienian AA defenses unleashed their volley upon the incoming enemy transports, the second dropship was shredded by the AA guns, falling downwards in a blaze, the chills were sent down the spines of the two pilots as they heard the cries of terror of the second dropship coming through the comm-link for a brief moment.

The lead pilot, a woman in her late twenties, scrambled to get a hold of the comm-device. "We're taking a slight detour!" She cried out as the griped the control stick tightly as she dived down and maneuvered the ship around the ruined cityscape, stray bullets and energy bolts assaulting the ship. Before they knew it, a Avienian AVC-74 was on their tail, firing it's main gun. "Jesus tap-dancing Christ! No break!" She screamed.

"Oh Kadius we're gonna die!" the young anurian cried out.

"You're not helping!" the pilot shouted back.

In a split second, the Avienian craft launched one of its missiles, aiming for the razorwing's engines. From within the ship, the back section was blown away in a hot blaze, the passengers holding onto anything, the speed of the quickly falling craft send the air gushing outward, equipment that wasn't bolted down sent flying out. The wrecked ship crashing into a random street corner, the downed dropship now caught in the middle of a fierce battle as Jasaran Forces made their advances against Avienian positions.

---------------

Anurite Basin
Ashtar-Jasaran Battlefront
After an hour of traversing the dense jungles of the basin, the surviving group that discovered the injured Ian had briefly stopped for a rest before ressing on, however, the situation was about to become more dire. "Shit...I think we're lost." Tash, one of the Caadori squadmates spoke grimly, unfamiliar with his surroundings, known as the best tracker and pathfinder of their squad. "Godsdamn Ashtar threw me out of the loop in the chaos."

"Oh god..." The woman responded, the fear and desperation mounting. "My brother's going to die if we don't hurry!"

"I know Katherine." Tash replied, attempting to calm her down. "...We just have to keep going, we're can't afford sit still and just pray we find camp before the Ashtar find us."

"Well, if it's all the same to you, breaks over." The other Caadori said as he rose up, grabbing his rifle. And before anyone could even react, a bolt of light shined in the darkness, in that instant, a gaping hole appeared in the soldier's forehead, his top pair of eyes now gone, and just fell against the tree behind him. "Sniper! Run!" Tash cried out.

The pair soon ran for it, Katherine holding onto her younger brother's arms as she followed behind Tash, avoiding the aim of the Ashtar Sniper.

Anuria Orbit
Cherubim Class Carrier “Second Light”
Bridge

Admiral Lagare was a damn cheerful mood. Even when her top ranking SIF trooper was downed. She still managed something that nobody before her could. Even now 2 Large Boarding Vessels were returning with the spoils of war. The most important one carried not only Ashtar shielding technology, but also 2 live Ashtar. The buggers were notoriously hard to kill and even harder to capture. It was very apparent that most Ashtar preferred suicide over getting captured. Something Helen would never understand. She loved living too much. Especially now.

But all that changed with a single sound. Static. Her head snapped towards the holo-table. The familiar FTL static was all over the place. Consuming her Thrones and several other ships. She raised an eyebrow in confusion, when then one of her operators said some very dire words.
“Thrones reporting sub light engine damage. Both lost 80% speed.”
“What!? Get me a status update. Now!” She yelled for the entire bridge.
It was obvious something went horribly wrong. The 3D static began to clear up slowly but surely. In its wake it left the debris of 2 Virtues and a Dominion Cruiser. But admiral Lagare cared not for that. The Ashtar Technology could easily pay those back. What made her scream in maddening anger was the complete disappearance of the Ashtar Cruiser.
“Where is the god damn cruiser!” She shrieked in her bridge.
“Virtues visually confirming that the cruiser is gone.” One operator stated.
“I can see that! Where did it go! Did it jump!?”
“No DSBB signal ma’am.”
“Admiral…Virtues reported a bright blue flash. Considering the damage, the captains suspect that…the Ashtar destroyed themselves.”
The news came to the admiral like an unexpected right hook. For a moment she stood there. Dumbfounded. Even with the 3 tactical stimulant pills her brain could not or would not process the news. But when it did, she moved with the cold fury only a woman can have. She went towards her desk, with her face like a mask. But once she was near it, she screamed and yelled. With both her arms she sweeped the desk. Launching screens, holo-tablets, papers, a desk lamp and several pens into the air. Only her coffee cup remained. Which she grabbed and launched at the counter. Shattering both the cup and damaging the counter board. It took her a few seconds to find her composure again.
“Call Seraphim-command. Tell them to hold back on second Cherubim fleet for support. But do inform them that we will hot jump towards The Observer.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
“Get all remaining Boarding Vessels and X-3 back in the hangar.”

Her fate was sealed. She would have to face the Anurian Echelon board. Echelon boards were installed as director oversight for military actions. A single planet battle should normally only have an Echelon 5 level. Echelon 4 meant that the entire system was a battle zone. Which wasn’t entirely true for Anuria considering most combat was done in orbit or on the surface. Not on any other planet nearby. Echelon 3 boards were created when the concerned area is about as big as a cluster of stars. Echelon 2 boards were only used when fighting an empire larger than a few clusters. Which often meant it was very expensive. Never the less, the constant fighting, the involvement of the Ashtar and that of a few other factions meant that Anuria deserved an Echelon 2 board. Who were notorious for their cold numbers and statistics. Many High-Admirals and Admirals have found themselves stripped of their position because a battle’s cost was too high. Now Miss Lagare feared the same might happen to her. Not because of a too high cost, but because she let slip a priced trophy.

White Corps' AI guide and hostess greeted General Lith Diae of the Ashtar forces on Anuria with her default message. A.D.A. (Automated Database Assistant) appeared as a lifelike 3D hologram and had a surprising level of sentience. She accepted commands, written input, speech and any other forms of communication and known to execute them without any bugs. There was an option to also alter her appearance for the customer's comfort, albeit the algorithm which set her basic looks had already accounted for the preferences of different races and cultures. Of course her main purpose was to guide the customer and search for services which fit his/her/its demands. In particular this particular case it involved White Security Services, the private military branch of White Corps.

Lith peered at the hologram suspiciously, and adjusted it to appear more overtly holographic. The Ashtar tended to be a little uncomfortable around information systems that too closely mimicked the living mind. Even though the transmission was being routed through multiple encryption layers and only being accessed from network isolated systems at Point Jakurna, he was still feeling paranoid. Irrational, he knew; infecting their clients' networks with spyware was hardly a good way for White Corps to gain repeat customers. "Yes, program." he said with a slight grimace, "We wish to bolster our forces with additional armor support. Significant armor support. However, we need the personnel to be..." Lith trailed off, casting Hierarch Arctes a skeptical glance.

"Heroes. Light blessed, salt of the earth, lead by example type people." Arctes finished. "We are having a somewhat unusual morale problem. Understand that battlefield psychiatrists or speech makers will be useless; we require honest, simple men who believe in the strength of their own convictions. Can you provide such materiel and personnel?"

"Ever since the Fires of Anuria conflict the term 'hero' became a vessel of plenty controversies. One nation's hero could be the opposition's heinous war criminal. Starting from Stardate 2604 White Corps replaced the name of 'hero' with the expression 'model employee' within WSS. We strive to have model employees and most of our sub-contractors have a spotless record with selection of only the best. Our technical preparedness and equipment is renown galaxy-wide and WSS can field diverse types of weapons, armor and air support anytime and anyplace. Our branch White Security Starforce can give similar degree of freedom to deal with space-borne issues. How can we help you?"

A.D.A gave them a sales pitch mixed clarification while trailing the talks back into business Asking whether they can offer assistance is not a matter of 'ifs' or rather 'For how much?'. There could be extreme situations when most WSS personnel are occupied (this is a booming and busy kind of business nowadays) but for standard missions they always have people at their disposal. Following this A.D.A gave them a rolldown list of potential WSS units to hire while still offering her guidance to choose. White Corps had up to date information on the rough situation on Anuria thus A.D.A knew what she's doing. She was the modern equivalent of the door-to-door agent, saving the enterprise at least 10 million people's worth of salary. A.D.A was to comfort the customers, accurately identify their needs and meet them while making the most profit. It was a difficult job where both sides of the meeting would end the talks with the most satisfaction. In case of WSS it even meant she's potentially saving lives by not letting the mercenaries to risk missions with too limited forces.

---

...

With A.D.A's assistance, the General and the Hierarch assembled an ever growing 'wishlist' of WSS forces. Power armored soldiers, Mercutio main battle tanks, air support, infiltrator units, C&C integration staff, on it went. When they'd assembled something like a small army, A.D.A gave them the bill. The two Ashtar didn't bother to haggle --it was a skillset they entirely lacked-- and agreed to the requested amount of exotic minerals and materials. Being outside the galaxy-wide economy Ashtar currency had little worth. In turn even with nano-formers and matter synthesizers common one can see the worth in rare materials with highly sought-after properties. That was their deal with White Corps, a rather hefty sum. Yet Arctes judged the transaction well worth it.

It was a reoccurring issue Arctes had seen over and over again on countless fronts across a thousand worlds. The Ashtar require allies to fight with in order to properly function. Without... context? Perspective... the functionally immortal Ashtar had little if any motivation. They didn't require training or rousing speeches, they were good soldiers and knew of their right cause. What they needed is ironically to have someone who could die at any time, fighting their fears of death and struggling for survival. The rest is handled by the psionics, channeling these feelings of hope, fear and regrets to catalyze the rest of the Ashtar force. The presence of the so-called 'mortals' reminded the Ashtar of the value of live and thus they'd fight harder than ever before.
Such simple thing yet oh so increasingly difficult to pull. Arctes knew that hence he requested aid straight from White Security Services. Given the size of the purchase the full mercenary force will arrive only by tomorrow evening.

Kol'Kora
Some moments prior
Adam's squad soon became aware of the old building they landed atop of as they as quietly as possible crept through the tattered corridors, paintings, trophies and other various academic items. "Some sort of University..." Adam spoke. "Funny, for all the time spent here, I never noticed."

"These people did have lives before the war." Another commented, a young Nassu female. "Good condition too." Despite these items being over a century old, many had stood strong both by the test of time and the fires of war, quite miraculous. "Cut the chatter." Ironside ordered, listening to a series of gunfire echoing through the hall. "I hear something...the Vaegir gun emplacements." He paused for a moment, turning to face his men. "Let's lay off some of that suppressing fire." He said with a grin. "Squad, move it!"

And like that, they all rushed through the corridors like a race, the source of the gunfire becoming louder ad they grew closer. Before they knew it, they arrived to one of their targets. A makeshift machine gun nest set up by Vaegir guardsmen, about ten, they were unaware of the jasaran's arrival, and continued their assault on the FOB. Adam was to the right of the entrance, looking to Ironside on the other, giving several hand signals, responding with a nod, Adam pulled a flash grenade out, pulling it's trigger and tossing it in. "Grenade!"he shouted, alerting the Vaegir of their presence, they reacted too late as the grenade went off, blinding them for mere moments, Adam's squad rushed in met with blind fire from the guardsmen, several stray bullets hitting him on the shoulder and others.

Ironside led the charge as he unloaded his LMG upon two guardsmen, the others soon rushing to cover as they regained their sight, returning fire, and managed to critically injure several soldiers and kill two. But the jasarans would have this day at least, and quickly overwhelmed them.

Ten minutes had passed, the squad taking a brief breather before moving on to the next target. "Good job here ladies and gents." Ironside congratulated the weary soldiers. "Unfortunately...it's about to get more difficult from here on. We're going to split into two groups. I need some people to watch over the medic as he tends to the wounded, and the rest will follow me to the ne-" Ironside was abruptly interrupted as blood burst forth from his forehead, a clear shot from a far off sniper. "Jesus Christ!" Adam shouted. "Sniper!"

The rest of the squad rushed into cover as they soon were assailed by sniper fire from some unknown position by their new opponents. "Where's it coming from!?!?!" One of the them cried out in a panic.