War was hell. And it was terrifying to the very core.

If there was one thing Tomas learned ever since the war had started, it was that. The molten balls of plasma that were crashing down upon the meager trenches was an all too tangible reminder that the hell war was could quickly become a literal one, in all senses of the word. The battered remains of ten Areili Planetary Defense Force (PDF) regiments had held off the xenos and the thrice-damned traitor forces for months upon the line of fortifications surrounding the mountainous proto-hive city of Descartes, but the xeno tech-heresy had pushed those lines to the limits.

"They're moving on Bunker Hill again!" a PDF trooper yelled. Even as he said it, dozens of luminous plasma balls and scores of shrieking missiles plunged into the already devastated trenches and bunkers, hammering the few loyalist forces that had managed to stay alive through the week-long brutal assaults. Bunker Hill was the last anchor the PDF line had, and although the bunkers and artillery pieces once situated there had all been ruined or vaporized, it still commanded the heights.

"Dammit! Fire on their flanks! Don't let them get to the trenches!" Sergeant Jacques barked, firing his autogun into the forms that surged forth from the enemy lines. As Tomas and the rest of his platoon hastened to obey, dull thumps could be heard as the griffons behind them fired their deadly mortars.

As the enemy force surged forward, their flanks were ravaged as the trenches on the sides of Bunker Hill fired everything they had. The main thrust though, was spearheaded by the bulbous Xeno APCs and traitor Sentinels. Desperate pockets of gunfire emerged from the pitifully few trenches of Bunker Hill that hadn't caved in, and a diminutive amount of mortar rounds exploded in the midst of the invaders, cutting down the unprotected traitor infantry around them. A lucky shot landed next to a sentinel – shredding it to pieces. But it wasn't nearly enough. The xeno APCs quickly crested the cratered slope of Bunker Hill along with its sentinel escorts, and as the sentinels raked the loyalist trenches with lascannon beams and heavy bolters, their front ramps crashed down and their infantry complements stormed out. The Lizard-like xeno led the charge, firing their triple barreled autoguns, and behind them their subordinates; the black hided Avians fired their serpentine lasguns, which discharged bright purple beams into the dwindling defenders. Then there were blood red lasbolts as the traitor infantry put their firepower into the already single-sided engagement.

Suddenly, the griffon behind Tomas exploded into a flaming wreck. Before he could register what was happening, Jacques' head exploded as a xeno lasgun found its mark. "Frack!" Tomas screamed. Around him, his fellow troopers hastily refocused their fire into the enemy trenches directly facing them.

"They're assaulting the entire line!" Zoe, his squad mate, yelled.

"Bugs in the sky! Shoot'em! Shoot'em!" Corporal Rince bellowed.

Tomas managed to get off a lucky head-shot, and one of the winged xeno plummeted from the air, but most of them managed to get through the uncoordinated spray of bullets, and brutal hand-to-hand combat erupted throughout the line as the PDF troopers frantically tried to club the xenos to death, with the few troopers who had the survival instinct to fix their bayonets going for the weak neck joint between the Xeno's body armor.

With the PDF distracted, the main bulk of the enemies quickly crossed no-man's land with only token resistance from the support trenches. The surviving Griffons, meanwhile, had been forced to retreat – their ammo coffers dry.


2 Hours After the Fall of the Descartes Perimeter

Planetary Governor's Palace, Planet Ariel

"Governor, the Descartes perimeter fortifications have been breached." Came the voice of General Santiago.

"C-can we re-establish it?" Governor Jarex was pleading as he talked into the voxcaster. Among the Governor's well-furnished bedroom, the military grade voxcaster looked decidedly out of place.

"Negative, governor. The remaining PDF there is exhausted, their artillery stocks are at rock bottom, and the militia is by no means able to conduct a counteroffensive. Even if we could regain the lines, the condition of the trenches are so bad the Covenant will just go right ahead and recapture it. General Fatima reports that she's sent her last reserves, along with commissar Halliman, to stabilize the rout."

"Alex... Descartes is our last foothold on the West-Agean Continent! If it falls morale here will plummet. We can't allow it to happen! You KNOW that!" Governor Manuel Jarex all but yelled. There were five continents in the world of Ariel. Only two, the East-Agean, and the island continent of Rodinea were still in Imperial hands. The mountainous peninsula Descartes was built on was the final vestige of land held by the Imperium on the East-Agean continent.

"I know that, Manuel, trust me, if there's anyone who knows that, it me. We've done everything we could to buy time for Fatima. Half of our surviving air forces were lost while they tried to drop supplies to Descartes. But all of us knew it was just a matter of time." Alex's voice sounded bitter. When the xeno landings happened, the continents of Columbi and Valbara fell within four months. It was only General Fatima's cunning tactics that slowed down the enemy advance long enough for re-enforcements to be scrambled from East-Agea.

The xenos had then transferred its forces from conquered Columbi and Valbara to West-Agea. Suddenly faced with overwhelming enemy numbers, General Fatima had been pushed back on all fronts. Rather than face being defeated in detail, she had quickly retreated to Descartes, whose high elevation and strong anti-aircraft defenses helped make up for her inferior artillery and diminishing air-support. She held out for months despite the relentless xeno onslaught, and more and more traitor and xeno elements had been diverted conquer the city.

Descartes had become a symbol of defiance among the Loyalists – the soldiers and militia holding it homegrown Heroes of the Imperium. Foremen and drill sergeants alike had urged their charges to live up to the example the "Defenders of Descartes" have shown, as the loyalist forces in West-Agea and Rodinea fervently trained and worked to strengthen their fortifications.

And now that symbol was going to betray them all.

"Sorry Alex… I was just, overwhelmed. That's all. You've done your best."

"It's all right Sir. We wouldn't have made it half this far if you hadn't put so much of the budget into the military. Not to mention all those military benefits and reservist expansion programs." General Santiago said soothingly. For all his faults, Alex Santiago got along well with Planetary Governor Manuel Jarex. He was also at least semi-competent in keeping the PDF functioning. He certainly wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed (that title was held by General Fatima), but he had demonstrated time and time again that what he lacked in direct military foresight he made up with his ability to make hard decisions when he needed to (a mixed blessing) and his knack for spotting people who had the talent and will to ensure those hard decisions were carried out successfully.

"So… now that the fortifications are breached, how long do you think the city will last?"

"I don't know, it depends on a lot of things."

"Give me an estimate, an overview if you like. Just give me something; this isn't going to turn into a massacre, right?"

"Fine, they have between a few days to about 3 months…4 if you stretch it. I reckon they'll hold for a month at least though, knowing the stunts Fatima can pull; especially now she's got those commissars and fire-brand priests in tow. The first thing is negating the momentum the Covenant has gained from the breakthrough; the faster they bog down the better. After the invaders lose momentum, street fighting is basically a meat-grinder. Whoever has more willingness and ability to feed the fire always wins. What few reports we got from Fatima and our insurgents point out that almost the entire might of the Covenant on Ariel is focused on Descartes. The only reason they haven't invaded Rodinea is because they diverted those regiments to the siege. They're obsessed on taking out Descartes, and with all the assets we shipped there, I'm not surprised." General Santiago mused. "Fatima would be a fool if she didn't prepare fallback positions, and Descartes is pretty much a city carved into the slopes of a mountain and its bordering hills. Elevation advantage would count for something, artillery or not…"

Silence reigned as Jarex digested the information.

"Sir?"

A sigh escaped his lips as he answered, "I guess I'll have to live with that assessment." Jarex paused, before asking "Anything else?"

"Yes, Magos Vadir finally gave me his analysis of the Shaleen Covenant's technology. Most of it is just guesswork and there isn't much hard data, but it does offer some insights."

"Ah, should I read it?"

"No, unless you want to go through a different dataslate for every vehicle, weapon, and piece of technology we've seen the Covenant field so far. Vadir even has a dataslate detailing and analyzing every modification they've outfitted those traitor vehicles. He even tried to find a correlation between the amount and type of xeno modifications a vehicle has and pinpoint how important the commander of said vehicle is. That cogboy sure is a piece of work."

"Makes you wonder what the hell he did to piss off his higher-ups to get assigned to a planet like this." Jarex laughed.

"I'm just glad he's here. Emperor knows without him the Battle of Raptor Plains would have been the end of Fatima, and he's made the cogboys burn with zealous fury by his findings on the Shaleen Covenant's tech-heresy. One second he's chattering binary on the planetary voxcasters like a malfunctioning servitor, the next second I get reports that cogboys everywhere were arming themselves and forcefully volunteering in the local recruiting posts." Santiago chuckled.

"Our saucepan production is going to be rock bottom for years if we survive this." Jarex laughed. He wondered why his mind had suddenly settled on saucepans out of all things.

"We still have enough cogboys to work in the war related munitoriums. Actually, I heard that some of the saucepan munitoriums are being converted to produce helmets."

"What!? How?"

"Vadir simply ordered some spherical tipped pounders to be installed somewhere in the production line, said those helmets would be earmarked for the militia."

"How will he deal with quality control?"

"By feedback."

The discussion dissolved into undignified sniggers for a few moments. Jarex regained his composure first, and patiently waited for the general to calm down.

"Heh, heh… aaah…" Silence. A clearing of the throat ensued. "So, basically Vadir has validated his theory that Covenant tech is definitely partially reversed engineered from Imperial technology with some hybridization with their original tech base. Their mobile plasma mortars have a chassis similar to a Lehman Russ, and the gun turrets of their tanks are comparable to our own. The only difference is that they have much more embellishment than we do."

"Yeah, I've seen those tanks…"

"Less efficient too, we like our tanks blocky, but the plate on the Lehman Russ are tilted to offer deflection protection. The Covenant make the plate of their tanks curved. Roughly the same amount of protection but nearly twice as hard to produce. Their tanks are mostly built for long range bombardment, maybe since they're harder to produce. The few normal tanks they have use similar cannons to our Lehman Russ, albeit modified to have a slightly higher range and rate of fire in exchange for a lower punch. Actually, they tend to use traitor vehicles for frontal, close-range assaults. One of their light APC's looks like someone took a chimera, made the armor lighter, and exchanged the tank tracks with tires. Despite that, there seem to be many vehicle designs that don't have any correspondence with imperial design at all. Vadir says he believes they're the designs the Covenant used before they started reverse engineering Imperium tech." Santiago paused, before finishing. "Well, there's a lot more to the analysis, but I doubt it'll make much sense to you. So that's it I guess."

"Right, good night general, and thanks for the update." As Santiago bade the Governor farewell, Jarex was already wondering what he would spend the now certain-to-be sleepless night on. His eyes drifted to the door. Maybe to my study…no, that way leads to despair. I've watched that holovid enough times. To the Chapel then? Chaplain Sanguinor and his monks are keeping it open non-stop these days. But what would people think if the Planetary Governor stayed up all night praying? Would that be seen as weakness and desperation? I can't let that happen… I need to appear strong, not desperate. Oh God! Emperor what should I do? You've guided this unworthy and inept servant though his miserable life with such patience…despite his failures and blunders. Please…guide me once more, let me take comfort in your shining shadow. Let me and the people of Ariel live up to your example. Give us direction and strength…

Almost subconsciously, Jarex turned to face the book of devotional litanies and hymns, one of the few books in his quarters. Getting down to his knees, he directed his prayers towards it as if it would connect him to the One who sat on the golden throne. After half an hour, he ran out of prayers; he took the book and started reading from it in a hushed voice. He did so for hours, until about an hour before he normally got up. Calling up his servants, he made sure they got him a strong cup of recaff for breakfast. After a bath and breakfast, he departed to the chapel.


3 Hours After the fall of the Descartes Perimeter

Lower District, Descartes City,

Tomas eagerly wolfed down a half a slice of hardtack, his first meal for the day. At least, he thought, his new captain had been decent enough to distribute some rations to the soldiers he'd commandeered. Out of his entire platoon, only Zoe was still with him. They had been separated from the rest of the platoon… not that there was much left anyway. Corporal Rince had been killed by lasbolts as the remains of the platoon had fled from the forward trenches. The support trenches had barely held for an hour before it too was overrun. Afterwards, it had been a chaotic retreat through the streets and rubble of the city as PDF troopers either ran for high ground or scrambled to get to the lower city anti-aircraft platforms, a designated strong point and fallback position. The biggest problem though, was that if the enemy managed to move their artillery deep enough into the lower city of Descartes they would demolish the platforms with ease, and afterwards any troops still trapped within the lower city would be in the mercy of the Covenant air force. The Covenant forward push needed to be stopped as soon as possible, and pushed back before they approached the platform perimeter. Of course, that was easier said than done.

He and Zoe were now at a main road intersection, huddling behind a series of hastily made barricades with about a score of other PDF troopers. About twelve meters in the overpass above him a heavy weapons team had set up set up a heavy bolter and kept sentry with the dozen troopers that were also stationed on the overpass. There was also about a squad of PDF troopers manning each of the buildings on the edges of the barricade, and about forty or so militia recruits scattered in the makeshift fortifications. Not that Tomas had much hope for them; the militia barely even had a crash course in reloading and he'd be surprised if any of them could hit a broad side of a barn from fifty meters. True, he was pretty green himself by PDF standards; but he'd survived the last seven months – that taught him a few things.

The report of gunfire grew ever closer, evidence that whatever disjointed resistance by the militia was being pushed back rapidly. When the dreaded whine of plasma cannons was heard, everyone tensed – Wormlords. The lumbering Xeno were monstrosities that defied logic and sanity. Armored with some form of gleaming power armor and equipped with the powerful tri-linked plasma rods and other potent weapons, a Wormlord was a force to be reckoned with. Worse, each Wormlord was actually an unholy entity made from hundreds of worms, somehow encased in the full suite of Xeno power armor. Everyone had heard of the tales of Wormlords rampaging though PDF formations during the fall of Valbara. Fearful murmurs broke out as people realized the barricades would offer little protection against plasma weaponry.

The captain, face pale, raised his voice. "Don't waver men… we've been ordered by Fatimah to hold this line until relieved. Behind these barricades is a path straight to the platforms, the Covenant must not pass." His shaky voice faltered, he compensated by yelling out his next words. "Right this minute, old Halliman himself is coming to our aid! Hold fast men, for the Emperor is with us! Remember the words of the priests! We are blessed by his light, for our cause is true! We are his servants; we are the shield of the people of Ariel! Descartes shall NOT fall! For Ariel! For the Emperor!"

"For Ariel! For the Emperor!" Tomas and everyone else yelled. Though it was still present, terror no longer held sway. In some it had been replaced with defiance, in others by a sad acceptance of their fate. As everyone else grimly prepared for the coming storm Tomas clutched his autogun; it wasn't a standard issue one. The autoguns that the government issued were made of steel, be it barrel, stock, or scope; Near exact replicas of the lasguns issued to the non-reservist regiments. His was different, it was an old hunting rifle, long steel barrel, wooden stock – his great-grandpa's pride and joy, Tomas had often been told. At first he used it since there wasn't any alternative, but by the time he was finally offered a standard issue autogun he had already grown comfortable with it. There were eight scratches on the wooden stock, one was an "X", three were crosses, and the rest were horizontal slashes, with the exception of a single vertical one. He gazed at the scratches for a long moment, his face expressionless. Then, almost absentmindedly, he scratched another cross, before adding a vertical slash with a deliberate flick of his hand. As he looked at the new additions to his autogun stock a faint, uncertain smile formed.

If I keep this up, I might just have more kills than Tenny or Pedro. I wonder what I'd make them do… go job hunting for me? Or maybe wash my laundry until we graduate. Yeah, that works. Next time we meet up again Tenny's gonna be the one who buys the snacks, and Pedro would be in charge of cleaning up, and I'd be the one bumming for once.


Command Bunker, Upper City District, Descartes City, Same Time

The bunker that General Fabiana Fatimah used had at first been intended as a strategic back-up for the Planetary Defense Command if the capital city of Areil Prime ever fell into enemy hands, and for good reason. It was situated beneath the Tower of Descart, which was itself hewn on the very summit of the long dead volcano. Built ages past, the reason of its construction had long since been lost. Perhaps, some historians mused, that the Munitorium would have a record of it somewhere.

Anyone with half a skull (or more) agreed that the record may as well be in the Eye of Terror.

Searching for the records in Ariel was also a moot point, for Ariel had once regressed to a feral world for nearly five millennia before an imperial recolonization program began. Now, fifteen hundred years later, the Tower of Descart was one of the few surviving structures that had been built before the "Reconstruction", as the people of Ariel had called the recolonization of the once feral world. Many even went so far as to claim it was built during the dark age of technology. Others claimed it was the work of a mad despot that wanted to be god. One thing was sure though, the tower had been around for a very long time indeed, and had been renovated and added to as the ages went past. During the period after the Reconstruction the tower had first served as a watchtower to help fend of the barbarians that had raided Descartes many times, and then it had been changed into the Astropath's Tower once the barbarians had been bought back into the fold. When the capital city moved to the West-Agean continent, the tower was altered into a local tourist attraction.

When Planetary Governor Jarex started to fortify Ariel, an underground bunker was built under the tower's foundations. Finally, when the threat of invasion became imminent, the Tower was transformed into a defense tower bristling with Macro-cannons and anti-aircraft turrets. The bunker itself was strengthened and expanded. Apart from its five feet thick concrete walls, it was also protected by the adamantium foundation of Descart Tower, as well as the walls of the tower itself, and the solid rock of the mountain. All said, it was one of the safest places in the world, and was quite comfortable too, as bunkers went. It had a spacious central room with four bedrooms which had enough bunk beds to house 20 people. There was a kitchen, a cellar, an armory, a mess hall, and two multipurpose rooms. It was even graced by the presence of excellent in-door plumbing facilities, semi-functional air-conditioning, and power generators that were only a century old. In short, the best Ariel's coffers could buy.

Sadly, to Fatimah's infinite sorrow, whoever designed the bunker had forgotten about one very crucial detail: he had forgotten to install vox cables and amplifiers. As such, a few tech priests had to jury rig an amplifier, which acted like an annoying elder that would spend his time dozing off when he was needed, and suffer a heart attack when anyone tried to shake him awake. In times like those, which were all too often, the only place where the quality of incoming vox calls was consistent and clear was one of the worse places possible for the survival of Fatimah's dignity: a toilet stall, in the male's bathroom.

True, when the discovery was made by the tech priests who had probed the bunker twice over by frantically waving around dubious looking metal bowls with an antenna in the center, one of her subordinates had the bright idea to make the toilet seat more "proper". Thus, with wood, metal plates, and paint, a so called throne was quickly built around the toilet seat. The result was rather comical, it looked like someone had taken a square box and a taller rectangle one, put them next to each other, and covered it with metal plates, with wood added on as a cushions. The paint job was a mix of white, gold, and blue. Apparently, the person who painted it had tried to make it majestic and regal while still somehow blending in with bland pale white that the rest of the restroom had.

Of course, like many indecisive compromises, the paint job failed spectacularly on both objectives.

When she had first seen it, Fatimah didn't know whether she should laugh or cry. Halliman had flatly suggested an execution. She swore she heard a whisper of amusement in his voice.

Even now, as she commanded the defense of Descartes from what was ultimately an uplifted chamber pot, her mind still wasn't sure if it was to view her "Command Throne" as a compliment or an insult.

"Yes colonel, I need the 8th to form up on the right flank of the platform" She said, eyeing the map of Descartes, which one of her lieutenants had helpfully glued to the door of the stall.

"There are already elements of the 3rd and 7th in the vicinity, as well as militia personnel. We need to make sure that no Covenant elements could flank the platform." She continued. "There doesn't seem to be a heavy Covenant presence in the area, other than some traitor forces and Covenant infantry. So long as your forces are dug in I doubt there would be much trouble."

"Arbites support? No, they are already tied down at the platforms. Hold fast colonel, for the Emperor." With that, she turned the vox unit off, handed it to one of her aides, and stalked out of the bathroom. At the central room, which had become the command room, the scene was no less chaotic. Tables and chairs were strewn around the room, and as a plethora of PDF officers and other dignitaries attended to one duty or another, the smell of sweat, oil, and coffee were all too pungent, with the air conditioning barely even keeping the temperature down. At the center of the room was a round table, with the map of Descartes with scattering of icons and pins to denote one thing or another.

As people realized she had entered the room her presence was acknowledged by hasty salutes, or in the case of the mechanicus and arbites, small nods. She spotted a few of her staff that were using voxcasters.

"I see the tech priests managed to perform yet another miracle of mechanical CPR." She said, to no one in particular.

Perhaps feeling that she had addressed him, the red cloaked Mechanicus representative shrugged in exasperation, his green orbs giving the jury-rigged amplifier a glare of utter hatred, as if its very presence was humiliation to the Omnissiah himself. "We have once more sanctified the machine spirit. Holy oil has been applied as well as new circuitry for its power packs. I personally recited the required litanies of devotion, and my subordinate," He pointed at the tech-priest prostrating himself in front of the amplifier, "shall recite the Supplication of Functionality to the machine spirit every five minutes." The report, given in a mechanical monotone, somehow managed to convey the frustration of the Magus.

"Well, at least we all don't have to share a single voxcaster for now." Fatimah said, sighing "Lieutenant Tredian, the 8th is taking position at the right flank of the lower city anti-aircraft platforms. Update their position on the map." As the scrawny lad hastened to obey, Fatimah asked for a status report from the other officers.

"Most of the routed regiments are starting to regroup at the fallback positions, but they are highly disorganized. Almost everyone is in a designated fallback position, but almost no one is in their designated fallback position. The platform has been flooded by elements of almost every regiment, while the flanks and vanguard positions are barely at half-strength. The few officers that managed to get their units to their designated positions have been forced to gang-press any soldiers that pass by since the units they were to hold their position with never made it." Lieutenant Samina said. She was sitting in a veritable pile of dataslates, keeping track of the logistics of the entire joint Descartes defense effort.

"More chaos… how about the militia screen?" Said Fatimah, her face forming into grimace as she surveyed the strategic map. The lower city, where the fighting was now centered had been the location of the majority of the residential area of Descartes. Filled with towering skyscrapers, block after block of dull, grey apartments as well as the haphazard sprawl of slum housing, the lower city was an ideal place to frustrate the Covenant advance. In fact, if the correct circumstances were fulfilled, Descartes would be a nightmare battlefield for the Covenant.

The word "if" was what irritated Fatimah the most. She direly needed to make sure that the heavy vehicles of the covenant were destroyed, especially their plasma mortars, and the anti-aircraft weapons positioned on the platform be towed away before the Covenant overran it.

"The militia are having no trouble holding the area in front of the left flank so far, they report traitor elements, but little else. The screen of the right flank is being gnawed on by both Covenant and traitor forces, but is holding for now, while the screen on the vanguard has almost been eliminated. So far, with the exception of a few chimeras, we've only seen traitor and Covenant infantry." Another lieutenant reported.

Fatimah frowned as she studied the map. The left flank was manned by the badly mauled 2nd and 14rd Arieli infantry regiments. Their personnel tag put them at 40% readiness. Fatimah hoped that most of the missing companies had fled to other fallback positions, and not slaughtered in the trenches. The right flank was also in a similar condition, with the 3rd and 7th reporting huge amounts of personnel unaccounted for. At least, the 8th regiment was moving in to reinforce their positions.

The platform though, was in a totally different condition. Though only three regiments had been assigned to fall back to that area, company markers from almost every single regiment were pinned to it. Also pinned were the anti-aircraft batteries, and too Fatimah's relief, a pin identifying arbites suppression and riot squads. There was also the brown tag that represented the commissariat, no doubt commissar Halliman.

Well… there wasn't any chance they those lost units could be put into the correct position in time, not without risking them being caught off guard if the covenant launched their assault, which would be soon if the Covenant wanted to preserve their momentum. So it would be better for them to be integrated into the platform defense force.

Fatimah clenched her fist. Damn… I was hoping I'd have enough time to withdraw more heavy equipment before the perimeter line fell. It had been apparent to Fatimah that the Descartes perimeter fortifications wouldn't hold for much longer, but the fury of the Covenant assault during the last few days had made withdrawing anything substantial nigh impossible. Halliman and the Arbites would beat and blam order into the forces at the platform in no time. But after that, what should I order? The only logical choice is to send them to the vanguard positions before they crack like a spoiled egg. That won't be enough though… I need to take out a good chunk of their heavy infantry and their artillery, hit them hard enough without losing too much in the process.

Something pulsed in the back of her head, as if there was something she was missing. She looked again at the map, reanalyzing it. Nothing. She did it again. Then she realized that although the majority of the anti-aircraft equipment were stationary objects (and thus required towing), there were two squads of hydras currently attached to it. The hydra was a variant of the chimera designed for anti-aircraft combat.

Slowly, a plan started to form in her mind. But she needed bait. Good bait. "Lieutenant Samina, please list all the mechanized forces that are either currently deployed or close enough to the battlefield to be deployed within the hour, PDF or otherwise. Divide them by their location, Left flank, right flank, center, and other" She ordered.

The pale skinned lieutenant looked up from her pile of logistical reports and gulped. She stood up and looked at the map, her eyes darting from one tag to another. After a long moment she spoke: "a squadron of scout sentinels, and thirteen chimeras from the left flank, primarily derived from the Infantry regiments. The left flank has a substantially higher amount of mechanized units, since the 7th is a mechanized infantry regiment and the eighth is a siege regiment. Totaled, there are fifty chimeras, two squadrons of scout sentinels and a squadron of battle sentinels. This is augmented by the presence of a total of fifteen griffons, and twenty medusas from the eighth, whose ammunition stocks are at fifty percent. Also included are about fifteen trucks and half-tracks that help tow extra artillery ammunition. The center includes nearly eighty chimeras, three squadrons of scout sentinels, two squadrons of battle sentinels, two squads of hydras, and eight lehman russ, mostly derived from the mechanized and light armored regiments.

"As for others, there are twenty chimeras used by the arbites, located at their headquarters in the middle city, as well as the twelve lehman russ tanks and a score of basilisks that you put in strategic reserve. There are other mechanized forces, but apart from those I stated they are either too far away, such as the armored cars of the noble house Agio, or unaccounted for, like the majority of the 15th siege regiment." Samina finished, sounding as she had simply read all the information off a dataslate.

In fact, the reality was very similar to that. Samina had been a menial in the Mechanicus munitoriums before she had enlisted into the PDF. Which she did after hearing Vadir's speech about the tech-heresy the Covenant were wielding. As a menial, Samina had conducted tasks too complicated for servitors but too redundant and boring for the tech-priests and engineseers. Namely, sorting out which dataslate went to whom. A crucial task, especially since the Mechanicus munitoriums on Ariel had to work with many offices to ensure their own smooth efficiency, which included the Imperial Navy, the Departmento Munitorium, the planetary government, and many other agencies, each with their own bureaucracy. To help facilitate her job, the adepts of the Mechanicus had replaced a fourth of her brain with data-wafers. This allowed her to totally memorize the thousands of dataslate forms and types that her job made her meet. Now it allowed her to memorize how the logistics and personnel strength of the PDF down to platoon level. An invaluable ability indeed.

Now, as Fatimah digested this information, she finally managed to piece a plan together. A predatory grin blossomed on her face as she took one last look at the left flank. "Lietenant Tredian, contact the 8th and ask them how much explosives they still have." She turned to the Arbites representative. "Investigator Saul, the PDF will soon launch a counter-attack, but we need arbites support."

Now, Fatimah thought, we might just survive long enough to put my little pipe dream into action. With that happy hope in mind, she explained her plans to the people in the bunker.

More than one brow was raised as she did so.


Authors notes: And that's the first chapter! Hope you enjoyed it.

Future chapters would be between 2000 to 5000 words. Following updates would be once every two weeks at best.

Oh and in case you didn't know:

Medusa: Chimera Chassis, with a heavy Howitzer on top.

Griffon: Chimera Variant, with a heavy mortar.