You are the ILLUSTRIOUS CAPTAIN, and you are victorious.
High in the light blue of the Skaian atmosphere, you direct your gunning crews to fire a final salvo at the Prospitian warship far off to the starboard side.
The ship shudders as the guns fire. Shells arc towards the flaming golden craft.
Projectiles penetrate the ship's magazine and fuel tanks, and it is consumed in fire and smoke.
Pleased with your bridge crew, you direct them to take the ship deeper into the atmosphere.
The air gets clearer as you descend. It turns out you've come down over an empty area of the Battlefield.
Smoking craters and deep gouges mark the chessboard of the planet. The battle has moved on to another part of the planet, but the scars of war remain.
You land, and your troops disembark. Troop carriers roaring and the beat of the marching infantry reach you even through the hundreds of metres of solid deck plating.
A green light flickers on, signalling that the troops had been fully unloaded.
Your ship begins to rise into the atmosphere, and you direct it over the Prospitian fortress continent, in the south.
Garish gold flags fly over gleaming castles. Soldiers take shots at your warship, and anti-air guns are brought into position. Soon, the air is filled with smoke and shot.
The shields surrounding your warship waver and break, the shards of energy disappearing before they can fall.
Feeling several shells strike and explode, you command all fighters to launch, and all guns to fire on the Prospitian fort.
As they do so, you hurry into the launch bay, and brief the pilots on their missions. Red Squadron is to fly overland to the caustic rainforests and carpet-bomb the Prospitians hiding there. Yellow Squadron will engage hostile Prospitian craft and giants near the equator.
And Purple Squadron? Purple Squadron is flying on a special mission.
They're going to turn the tide of this war.
Derse had been on the defensive for months. That changes today.
The planes fly out of the hangar. You see them off into the distance.
Returning to the bridge, your gunnery officer informs you that the anti-air guns have fallen. The fortress is defenceless.
Even as he says this, the ship rocks due to a set of large impacts.
You give the boarding alert. Prospitians are going to try and take the ship.
The guns are still firing, shattering the fortress below into shining golden fragments.
Hand-to-hand fighting begins in the corridors. In the sublevels, Prospitian and Dersite alike stalk through darkened access tunnels, rifles and revolvers and daggers at the ready.
Your own rifle, kept in a personal arms locker in a corner of the bridge, is at the ready. You seize it, and crouch in front of the bridge doors.
The techs open them. A squad of Prospitians are standing at the end of the corridor.
By the time they dive for cover, two are dead and one is wounded, perhaps mortally.
You keep firing, your cape low to the ground. The Prospitians stay behind the wall.
Realising this isn't going to work, you arm a grenade and hold it for a split second, running down the timer. You throw, and it explodes as it hits the far wall of the corridor.
Running through the ship, you switch to a combat knife, backstabbing Prospit soldiers and agents as you run. You aren't a highly decorated veteran for nothing, after all. You were a part of SpecOps before you went Navy.
You enter the main hangar again. The fighting is fierce here. Slashing and shooting your way into the hangar command centre, you inquire about the fighters you released earlier. Yellow Squadron is returning after a successful mission, and Red Squadron is engaged.
No answer from Purple Squadron.
Not that you expected anything. You turn to the open bay doors.
A small flash appears in the distance, close to the ground. And then a gigantic explosion, rising miles into the atmosphere.
Speaking into the ship's PA system, you explained. We have developed a new sort of weapon, you announce. A bomb, detonated through splitting atoms. A new type of weapon. One that would be used to bomb Prospit into submission.
You order the fighting Prospitians to surrender. They do so, guns and swords clattering onto the deck plates. Dersite soldiers surround them.
Leaving the hangar, you give the order to execute the prisoners.
Gunfire is all you hear as the doors close.
Walking swiftly away, you wonder if you regret it. You decide you don't.
You're only following orders, a pawn in someone else's war.
And it is the job of pawns to kill other pawns.