I'm not dead. I have returned and much more regularly.

Now, with the open use of Biological and Bio-Weapons by the Coalition, the Covenant formulate their counterstrike. And the Coalition must use not just weapons that their members fought hard to destroy, but also beings that were far more deadly.

Chapter 9: Back to the Wall

"I don't recall the word 'surrender' being taught in the Covenant language during linguistics training."

-Spartan 7712 Jedi Knight Felix Jo'nanae Comment made to his 4 spartan squad in the face of a 40,000 strong Covenant assault at the third battle of Wolf 259.

"Come on you apes, you want to live forever?"

"Yes, we would actually."

-Unknown Sergeant and Private of the Human Alliance.

"They fight like cornered animals with automatic weapons."

-Elite Commander Olash'Vantashs after the Covenant invasion and occupation of Zegama Beach.

Current Casuilty totals as of;

June 1, 2554

Coalition;

Military Personnel KIA 83,996,443,223

Military Personnel WIA 192,003,023,132

Civilians KIA 123,543,221,332

Civilians WIA 0

Starships Destroyed in action 23,004

Worlds Lost 2,394

Covenant;

Military Personel KIA 304,447,987,379

Military Personel WIA 95,127,999,457

Civilians KIA 91,731,942,123

Civilans WIA 0

Starships Destroyed in action 32,032

Worlds Lost 34


Covenant Hegemony Temple for the Divine Crusade,

Covenant Holy City 'Epioch of the Heavens',

June 1st 2554, 1500 Hours UST

"Ninety billion!" The Prophet of the Divine Crusade screamed. His voice was gritty and filled with rage. Seated atop his hovering throne, he had risen up above the heads of the Brutes and Elites. They knelt before him, and winced with every sylable. His glare was enough to wither the resolve of even the most hardened Fleet Master. Flanking him on either side was a single Edengeaner Paladin of the Smiters of Evil clan. Their horrific faces and emotionless dead eyes hidden behind the hoods of their silver robes, the only the black scaled hands gripping the Norifostraeh staves eluded to the presence of god-like warriors.

None dare anger the silent, brooding forms of the Edengeaner as they stood silent vigil.

"Do any of you have any explanation of what was used? Any explanation at all?" The Prophet said. One of the Elite rose slowly.

"From what we gathered from the worlds before all contact was lost, a strange series of diseases and plagues afflicted the population. No medicines were able to interefere with the disease, nor were any who could resist naturally found. The disease swept through the populace in less than a day." The Elite said.

"We're well aware, but what was it?" The Prophet said.

"A Coalition weapon." Another said quietly.

"We must retaliate." Yet another said.

"This shows a dangerous change in stance in the Coalition, my lord." A paladin of the Clan, Viewers of Dreams said.

"Oh?" The prophet said.

"Yes, this shows that the Coalition is willing to match our own ferocity in the crusade with weapons just as potent and indescriminate as our own. Their evil resorts to the use of microbes as weapons. They attack our innocents, and do so with thought and purpose. But the fact that they have finally done so shows us that they are desperate...panicked... Combined with the message that was sent to us, we can clearly see that the campaign is pressing their resources. Soon they will collapse under our assault."


UNN news transmission,

June 1st 2554, 1600 Hours UST

"...reports are coming in from Coalition sorces, both in the military and the government concerning the possible use of weapons of mass destruction against the Covenant. Offical statements have made repeated reference to the use of 'any and all means available to defend the citizens of the Coalition from annihilation' in recent days. Officals did not state what that meant, but un-confirmed sources stated that two days ago an unspecified assortment of biological and bio-weapons were used against almost three dozen Covenant worlds in an attempt to bring the crushing Covenant advance to a halt and hopefuly, spur peace talks..."


Sentient Coalition Press Release,

June 1st 2554, 1615 Hours UST

'At 0900 Hours, on May 29th, 2554 UST, a multi pronged attack was launched by deep strike bombers of the 102nd Long range bombardment wing based on the New Republic Assault Carrier 'Vindicator' at an undisclosed location. Their strikes were aimed at Covenant indusrial and military worlds, key supply points and postions fueling the current assault that is being made against us. Biological weapons were used against these targets, along with geneticaly engineered bio-weapons.

Covenant military and civilian losses are estimated to be in the range of 80-100 billion spread across thirty four different worlds. This use is in response to the current invasion and large scale genocide being undertaken by the Covenant. A message has been sent to the Covenant stating that unless the Covenant withdrawls from their current conqured territiroies and leaves the members of the Coalition in peace, then further use of biological, chemical, nanological and even more destructive weapons will become commonplace.'


UNN News Program,

June 2nd 2554, 1630 Hours UST

"With the statement just released by the Coalition High command, we can only guess at the next step in this war. But all informed sources seem to be saying that if the Covenant don't halt their advance, the Coalition will go to more lethal means. Chemical, Biological, Nanological and Nuclear ordinace are all readily available for use by the Coalition, but the focus of the Coalition response centers on a more potent brand of weapon that the Coalition has...superweapons. The Death Star, the Sun Crusher, the Genesis weapon and Nova Bomb torpedoes are all available for military use. Perhaps these will be the next weapons that are unleashed in an effort to halt the Covenant genocide."


Filmar IV, Sentient Coalition High Command,

Sentient Coalition Unified Armies Office,

June 2nd 2554, 1650 Hours UST,

The central Universe hologram spun in the air slowly, affording a varying view of the main battlelines. The swaths of green and red that represented the Coalition and the Covenant dueled eachother across a narrow strip of black that represented the frontline. Vast areas of purple expanded far beyond these two small islands of green and red, the vastness of space, and the multitude of potential allies and enemies were represented in that endless expanse of purple.

The small army of the High Command planners and co-ordinators surrounded it, looking up at the main holo, or gathered around hundreds of smaller tactical tables and planning boards, some holographic, others flat displays, and even some paper or flimplast sheets on map boards. The sea of different uniforms were startling to see working side by side.

General Complin sat in his office, staring down at the massive holo as if it were a sporting event that he was watching from a skybox. His office was darkened as it usually was, the only light in comming from the large floor to ceiling window looking down into the command center, and the large wall holo that showed a 'top-down' image of the front.

Complin turned in his seat and looked at the map. What had been a large bulge in the frontlines stretching in towards Coalition space had now seperated into three distinct spearheads, each one aiming for a seperate, and very obvious objective.

The topmost spearhead was the largest, it's forces estimated at over fifty thousand ships, most of them subjugated races around a core of Covenant vessels, and an unknown number of infantry forces. It's objective was thought to be Coruscant, possibly two weeks away at maxium speed.

The central force was much smaller at ten thousand vessels, but was pure Covenant ships, most of them the new BattleCruiser, Dreadnought and Battleship classes. Intelligence belived that the ground forces were the top of the line and the best that the Covenant had. It's own Edenganer paladins leading a force of Yhuuzan Vong, Annubis Warriors, along with Star Spawn Shock troops. They were aimed at the United Stellar States homeworlds. They would be there in less than a week.

The lower force was made up of a comperable ten thousand vessels, made up of standard Covenant ships, weaker, but their crews were veterans. This strike force was carrying Lizards mostly, and Yevetha in addition to the regular Covenant line troops. They were almost a week away from the Human Alliance's home systems.

Even a rudementary student of strategy could understand what was going on, the Covenant were aiming a blow at the three strongest members of the Sentient Coalition, and possibly remove them from the equation by topling the command and control structures of them. The Covenant had begun to view the war as less of an extermination and more of an actual war aginst another power of comperable strength. A war that they were either tired of fighting, or worried about losing.

The Covenant strategic plan appeared simple, but if their expected objectives were correct, their inteligence, logistical planning and military preperations were woefuly inadequate.

They'd sent their forces towards the three most capable powers in the Coalition. While the New Republic and the Empire were stretched and their fleets had been forward deployed against the Covenant, ground forces and defences on Coruscant had not been weakened in the slightest. Coruscant had two key factors going for it, one it was the most heavily defended world in New Republic or Imperial space, possibly the only reason that the New Republic had taken it from Ysanne Isard was that she wanted the rebels to have the planet. Combined with the fact that Coruscant was one of the largest urban centers in the known universe, it was a world covered in a city, any inch of ground would be pain a thousandfold in blood by any invading force.

The Human Alliance hadn't been able to commit even a tenth of the forces they had wanted to for the fighting agianst the Covenant...and that was only half their fleet they wanted to commit. The Human Alliance Fleets were still deployed amongst their own systems due to the threat posed by the Antarans and the Harvesters, very potent enemies for the Human Alliance, and not something they could ignore. Along with the presence of their fleets, a substantial number of Human Alliance ground and Fighter forces remained in defense of Human Alliance territory, and to provide defense for Sentient Coallition High command; although from what Coalition intelligence could decipher, the Covenant had no idea there was a High Command for the Coalition, let alone it's location.

As for the United Stellar States, they were one of the two the most unique groups within the Coalition. Their galaxy represented a huge number of different groups and races from other galaxies, from Lizards to Klingons and Yautja there were a host of other alien races present, as if the Forerunner Alliance had decided to throw them all together just for laughs. Combined with a strange injection of several of the specemins that the Forerunner Library held had made for a very unique galaxy. Higly militarized, higly industrialized and a united galaxy in which every being felt a strong sense of loyalty to the central government and a strong martial pride.

Covenant would get their heads and other body parts handed to them if they went knocking on the United Stellar States.

But the possiblity that they could suceed was not the disturbing part of this entire invasion. That was far from being the most worry-some matter, the fact that the Covenant were avoiding a massive, grinding advance across the entire front was the point of concern. The Covenant had a new general, but who or what it was continued to elude Coalition intelligence. What they did know was that it was not a member of the conventional Covenant command structure.

It was something new and dangerous. Complin still found himself unable to sleep at night because of the thought that the Covenant were a major threat before they had a strategic plan, now they could possibly wipe out the Coalition.


Filmar IV, Sentient Coalition High Command,

Office of the Unified Commander,

June 2nd 2554, 1659 Hours UST,

Grand Admiral Kurrs Anjek also sat alone in his office, just as Complin was, although his thoughts were just as grim and worried as Complins, his however held a much more complicated dimension of worry. While Complin's concerns were merely within the realm of ground forces, Anjek worried over the larger war. Which right now was not going well at all.

Coalition troops were being overrun in desperate holding actions and defensive positions. Many were simply being crushed by the overwhelming force of numbers that the Covenant were hurling at them. Even if a Coalition soldier was worth a hundred Covenant 'Conscripts' it didn't matter of the Covenant had two hundred to throw at him.

The discrepancy in battle fleets was just as pronounced. Combined technology in the Coalition meant that a single warship could devestate entire fleets of Covenant vessels without sustaining so much as a scratch. Unfortunately there were precious few ships that combined that immense technological advantage into a single combined vessel. The Imperial Star Destroyer Mk. IV, and the SSF-20 space superiority fighter and it's heavy bomber brother were the only really hybrid weapons that the Coalition had. Other than a few notable exceptions, areospace forces were a motley collection that had to be used with extreme inventiveness, otherwise they would be crushed without the blink of an eye.

Anjek couldn't help but feel that making him a strategic commander was one of the worst moves that the Coalition could have done. He was a tactical thinker more than he was a strategic thinker. His skills were best alligned towards command of individual ships and squadrons, not the grand scheme of fleets and armadas writhing to wage interstellar war across a plane so grand as the Coalition and the Hegemony. But he was here, now, and for all the short commings that he had in his position, he was here, now...and for lack of a better commander to fill his position he was here.

Anjek turned his chair and looked at the wall holo of the war. It's shifting lines were visible as the main spearheads of the Covenant invasion forces reached on towards their projected objectives. Even as Anjek watched, one group began to enter his home galaxy, most likely on it's way to Coruscant. Deep within Anjek the desire to return and lead the Imperial fleet in the defense burned strong, but he had a much wider duty now, one that stretched beyond the loss of a single star system, or even a galaxy.

The skeletal Imperial Grand Admiral raised his hand and looked at his chrono.

1700 Hours.

Operation Medusa Touch was now being implimented.

Even though he was not force sensative, Anjek could feel the shockwave ripple through the force. He wondered for a moment what a Jedi or a Wizard felt at a moment when a billion lives were being eradicated like an insect colony before an angry gardener. As Anjek watched several points of orange appeared on the map, deep within the red flash of the Covenant. Carefully Anjek thought about what had been authorized in the strikes this time...

Ebola...Anthrax...Teulieran Plague...T Virus...G Virus...Smallpox...Hunter Bio-Weapons...and that new breed...Fossil Birkin called it, plus the Sarin, Soman, Tabun and VX... Anjek thought with the detachment that his command gave him. For him, a few hundred billion enemy civilians and soldiers being murdered by a disease or a nerve agent or even a bio-weapon was nothing more than a statistic. Such power indifference to genocide held.

For a fleeting moment, Anjek felt what Tarkin must have felt as he obliterated Alderaan...or Hitler...or Stalin...or Mao...

For a breif moment, Anjek felt as though he were on their level.

But for as fleeting a moment it was, it vanished, replaced with the grim knowledge that morals and judgement were luxuries afforded to the historians that would judge his actions decades later. They were not something so easily given to those that fought the wars.

Anjek returned to his chair and turned back to look down into the main command center. On the center hologram, many more symbols were moving than just the deep-strike bomber wings that carried payloads of death. Hundreds of thousands of fighter wings, fleet detachments and other units were moving against Covenant supply lines. Dilithium and Elerium had given the Covenant much more power and combat potential, but it had linked them to finite supply lines, those supply lines also carried ammuntion, food and parts to keep the Covenant ground forces supplied and it's fighters flying.

His advisor, Carl Donitz had theorized that such a plan had potential if implimented on a large enough scale.

That was why this operation was called Medusa Touch. The units were ordered to destroy any Covenant supply convoys with extreme predjudice, along with Bio-weapon strikes to knock out key refineries and mine worlds. In more long term objectives, units were being sent deep into Covenant space to work at pinning more Covenant resources into defending their rear areas. It was simple and elementary war-fighting principles, but the Covenant were not ones who caught on quickly. With luck, the Covenant would slow, at least long enough for Operation Great End to begin.

Anjek reached down and entered the proper commands to open his secured file drawer. His fingers danced across the surface in the correct series of taps which relayed not only the code, but a wealth of biometric information to the lock, which gave the command to open rather than destroy the contents of the entire office.

The drawer slid open, as it did a fine cloud of smoke escaped, letting Anjek know that the drawer had remained sealed since the last time he had opened it.

Anjek reached into the murky depths and retrived the small data-slug. He placed it into the desktop computer and immedealy the air in front of him was filled with statistics and information.

105,000 Sun Crusher Supernova torpedoes construction completed.

1.3 Million X-Com Style NovaBomb torpedoes construction completed.

100,000 Genesis style Federation torpedo weaopons construction completed.

Galaxy-Gun construction complteted, 40,000 missiles armed and primed.

4 Superlaser units construction completed, awaiting mounting.

5,000 Stellar Converter armed starships construction completed.

Anjek read the short list twice and sighed. If Operation Medusa Touch did not achieve the goal of slowing the Covenant assault, then more drastic actions would have to be taken. Anjek knew the principles of terror bombing and the purpose of Superweapons. Their intent was to force an enemy into submision by making them fear eradication. And right now there were enough Superweapons available to eradicate nearly all of the origional Covenant Home systems. Such an act would be one of titanic desperation and not one to be taken likely. Using these weapons would be a drastic step. But if Coruscant, or Earth, or Sol fell, then there would be litle choice. If the Covenant could crush those centers of resistance then there would be no way that the Coalition could resist for much long after that.

Anjek closed the list and returned the data-slug to the drawer. He resealed it and cast his gaze back into the main command center.

Their backs really were to the wall.


Forest Moon of Endor,

Sentient Coalition Fighter Base,

June 2nd 2554, 1700 Hours UST,

Calling the landing field simple would be generous. Calling it primitive would have been much more accurate. There was no reall landing strip at all, none was needed though since all the starfighters were VTOL craft. Instead, the landing pads had merely been chopped out of the forest underbrush with hand tools and compacted down with simple earthmoving equipment. It was effective enough and simple enough to keep the fighters and bombers concealed from sensor scans. Camo netting had been thrown up along with fast growing 'sensor shurubs' - a bio-engineered plant made by the Human Alliance for fast camoflage in the field-. All the fighters were powered down, only minimal internal systems were running within them, which mean minimal energy signatures to detect. A few camoflaged barracks buildings and storage bunkers that were little more than pits dug into the dirt with some logs set up over them for armor, dotted the base.

From orbit there was no way to see the figher wing or it's base facilities. The camoflage work was good, it had to be. There was enough space in the base for another two wings of starfighters, but there wouldn't be any more comming. The only craft there were a single flight of X-Wings, a full wing of Human Alliance built SSF-20 starfighters and half a wing of B-Wing bombers. A motely collection to defend a planet, but more than enough to run convoy raiding.

Right now, the carefully camoflaged and shielded fighters were being powered up and preparing for launch. Ground crewmen and pilots wore camoflaged fatigues rather than standard jumpsuits, the need for concealment went beyond the pride and ego that the Areospace forces posessed.

Shining Armor clambered into the cockpit of his SSF-20 and began running through the pre-flight checks. While it could be argued that as a Sentient Machine he didn't get suprised and could be 'unfamiliar' with a technology, the information on some of his fighter's newer systems had not been anylized as thuroughly as most data-files in his memory buffer. But even with the relatively new nature of the technology for Shining Armor, there were relatively few modifications that could be made to the SSF-20, it was the best starfighter in the Coalition arsenal.

Shining Armor turned a photo-receptor towards the X-Wing pilots, their craft were adequate at best. They were manuverable and fast, but lightly armed, armored and shielded. They were more than a match one-on-one with anything the Covenant could muster, from Death Gliders to Seraph fighters. But these days it was getting to be more and more about attrition than it was about superior weapons.

"Sliverback wing is ready, sir." Shining Armor heard arcoss the comm. He turned back and looked through the still open canopy at the new squadron he had. They weren't green, but they weren't very far from being rookies. Mostly they were humans, conscription into the Areospace forces had been stepped up back before the Battle of Earth, and now many of the new recruits had finished training and were being pushed into the line with new fighters and bombers.

"Indigo and Rail flights, are you ready?" Shining armor asked over the comm, turning his attention to the X-Wing flight. Those pilots weren't rookies. They'd been in campaigns against the Yhuuzan Vong and the Covenant, they were veterans. But they were few in number. Experianced New Republic and Imperial Fighter pilots were hard to come by and even harder to keep alive. More and more the title that pilots aimed to achieve was that of 'Survivor' or having actually survived a single mission...a far cry from days when pilots wanted to make 'Ace'. Shining Armor had made 'Ace' a hundred times over in the space above Earth.

"Ready." A weary voice said. Every pilot knew what the Covenant armada was aiming for in this galaxy, Coruscant.

"Alright then, we all know the mission plan and the objectives. Hit the supply depot hard and fast. Destroy what we can and RTB." Shining Armor said, he sealed the canopy and triggered the contra-grav generators arrayed around the fighter and gently lifted it from the landing pad. As his ship lifted, the ground crew pitched cammo nets over the empty landing pads, returning the total concealment the base relied on for survival.

The SSF-20's, X-Wings and B-wings soared up through the massive trees of Endor and into open space, the planet fell far behind them as the ships arrayed themselves for the jump to light speed. The entire unit fell into comm silence automatically as they activated their perspective FTL drives and leapt into the void of super-light speeds. But it was a short hop. Only two light years from Endor, in relatively deep space a massive supply depot sat. Cargo vessels towed vast stores of Dilithium, Elerium, Naquida, and a dozen other fuels through slipspace. Massive stockpiles of ammunition and other supplies were all being gathered by the Covenant, ready to support the grueling campaign to take Couscant.

As one, the fighter craft dropped back into real-space and steeled themselves for the task before them.

Unlike the fleet marshalling points that had been set up by the Covenant to deal with the UNSC. Somewhere along the line, the Covenant had decided that losing three of the massive facilities and the battle-fleets with them...made them decide to avoid using them.

But even without the massive battle-station standing guard over the supply depot it was a massive collection. Some small stations had been set up and linked together to make huge cargo storage facilities, massive tanks spun in space containing fuel and minerals, huge 'hives' of containers floated free, kept in place by low power tractor beams. Bulbous Covenant freighters emerged from slip-space at random, immense cargo containers being towed in their wake. Miniscule cargo tugs and other transport craft swarmed through the depot.

And presiding over this ant colony were the large shapes of two Covenant Cutters. Similar in size to a Corellian Corvette, each could boast the firepower to tangle with a Mon Calamari cruiser and give it a bloody nose. And that was a lot of firepower considering the newer MC250's that they were building in the Mon Calamari yards these days.

"Alright, Sliverback, scatter and start to hit whatever you can destroy with your Ionic Pulsar warheads. Indigo, you and Rail aim for the fuel tankers. Those are the most vulnerable to your warheads." Shining Armor said.

"Right. Well play as long as those Cutters don't try to swat us. Then we'll be more worried about them." Indigo flight replied. As one, the X and B wings peeled off and began to head for the large fuel tanks and Covenant tankers that held their own little quadrant of the depot.

"Silverback, let's go." Shining armor said. In unison, the 36 fighters in Silverback wing scattered and headed towards all differend areas of the depot, intent on wreaking as much havoc as they could before the Covenant Cutters started to try and swat them. Shining Armor hit the throttle and the SSF-20 leapt through the void, his nose mounted gattling rail-guns aimed at the cockpit of a large freighter moving to dock with one of the smaller storage stations. The Sentinent Machine hit the firing stud and twin lines of projectiles erupted from the muzzles of the cannons. The bright energy bundles that encased each round gave a green hue to the barrage.

The rounds connected and began to systematically rip apart the bridge. Unlike Covenant warships, freighters and transports didn't have the armored protection and ships hull completely encasing it. It was open, and unshielded.

The bridge exploded as an Anti-matter round hit and oblitereated the command module. The massive frieghter listed and began to tumble in space. Shining Armor brought his fighter around and headed for another of the large docile freighters as his first target slammed into the station, engines locked on maximum thrust. The massive forces of two opposing objects ramming together became too much for the freighter to handle, somewhere deep within is cargo bays and engine passages, explosions began to rip through it. As they did, secondary explosions began to trigger off the munitions it was carrying, then...what had been a freighter and a docking station were turnined into a rapidly expanding cloud of superheaded gasses and debris.

Shining Armor spun his fighter in space and brought it around, aiming at another transport and repeating his demolition of the ships' bridge, however, this one wasn't in danger of ramming anything if it went out of control. Shining Armor locked a Ionic Pulsar missile and fired it. The round hurled through space and punched through the main window of the bridge. The missile continued it's path, layers of armor and shielding allowing it to punch through internal bulkheads with ease before detonating deep within the bowels of the ammo hauler. It met the same fate as the first that Shining armor targeted.

For a moment, the machine turned it's attention to the rest of Silverback Wing. They were doing an extremely effective job of destroying everything they could shoot at. Shining couldn't count the number of freighters taken down, or the amount of supplies that had been destroyed in a few minutes action. But it was definetly enough to make an occupation or support of an invasion of Coruscant difficult.

"This is Indigo. We've got the Cutters bearing down on us. Plus these stations launched fighter cover, Death Gliders. No Seraphs."

"Roger, did you take out the tanks?" Shining armor asked. He looked out to the Covenant fuel depot and was not suprised to see large clouds of debris and nebulas of vented fuel.

"Affirmative."

"Let's scatter and rondevous at base." Shining Armor said. The fighters all launched in different directions with the FTL drives and abandoned the wounded base. It wasn't much, but it was far from being the last time they'd hit this depot, or any other. But for the moment, they did all they could, and Shining Armor had express orders from High Command 'Experianced personnel are worth more than victory'.

He had to preserve his pilots.

Shining Armor leapt into FTL space after every other fighter had done so. He knew that Operation Medusa Touch would be a long arduous campaign. But he also knew that no matter how grueling the campaign in space was, the ground forces had it even worse.


Tatooine, The Dune Sea,

Remnants of the Sentient Coalition 192nd Armored Division,

June 12th, 2554, 0800 UST

The sight of a full Division's worth of SC-MA1 Main Battle Tanks with their 90mm main rail cannons, AI assisted targeting systems, contragrav propulsion units, energy shielding, Zortium armor and integral thermoptic camoflage generators; and acompanying mechanized infantry units in their SC-APC-1's would be enough to shake the resolve of the most hardened Covenant soldier, conscript or otherwise. Backed up by the fire support of almost a Brigade of artillery and air support a Coalition Armored Division would be able to lay waste to any that dared confront it.

But now the remnants of the 192nd armored division had been battered down to little more than a barely combat effective Regiment in the course of less than two days worth of fighting against three full Covenant Armies...nearly four Divisions worth of Covenant Armor and twice as many worth of infantry. Although that wasn't to say that they had been smacked like an errant child, quite the contrary, the 192nd had managed to rather thorougly eradicate the better part of two entire Covenant Armies and two divisions in two days, leaving the remainder of the Covenant forces reorganized into just three divisions that were capable of assuming an offensive stance.

"God I hate sand..." Lance Corporal Lung Wei said from his position seated on the edge of the gunners hatch on top of the SC-MA1 Main Battle Tank. The former member of the Taiwanese National Defense Force was both gunner and main engineer for the rather sophistocated piece of equipment that the crew had.

"And heat...and the suns, both of them...we know." Staff Sergeant Eric Laforge said, head and shoulders out of his command hatch and looking across the wastes of the dune sea with a pair of macro-binoculars. Laforge was a former member of the Saudi Arabian Republic and well versed with fighting in terrain as inhospitable as this, but the ability to hover over the battlefeild in an SC-MA1 brought whole new dimensions to combat.

Not that it mattered much when you were facing three armies and all you had against them was a division. As he had for the past two days of near constant combat Laforge cursed Coalition High Command for leaving the division to be wiped out on this Allah-forsaken sand ball. Right now the tank was hull down behind a dune, scant cover given the ever increasing lethality of the Covenant weapons being arrayed aginst them. He'd seen the new Covenant Plasma cannons on their refitted Wraith tanks chop through the heavy Zortium armor on Coalition tanks like it wasn't even there. A few dozen feet of sand was nothing.

Laforge's mind flashed back to the first engagements less than two days ago, it was just a blurr of furious fighting and combat, whirling masses of armored forces slamming into oneanother. Infantry formations trying to stay alive in the carnage that had been dealt against each other...

The formations had dueled across a hundred miles of featureless desert and rock, now littered with the still burning husks of tanks and APCs. SC-MA1's and Wraith tanks both burned freely in the sands. The long pillars of smoke drifted lazily in the faint breeze, turning the sky into a hazy gray instead of the normal blue. Laforge also looked down at the bodies that seemed to carpet the desert. Both the forms of Coalition troopers in their black armor that had been covered with improvised burlap or other tan colored cloth for camoflage, and the Covenant Conscripts in their sandy-tan colored armor. A few of the bodies were intact, but most had been ripped apart, from both the force of the weapons that had been arrayed against them, and the force of the vehicles that had rumbled over them. Perhaps the tank crews had it better off in death, being burned or crushed to death inside a Zortium casket seemed a more...private...matter than being murdered as you ran across a sand dune.

No one seemed intent to clear up the corpses as they lay in the sand. Perhaps some thought that doing so would admit their own mortality, and their own more than likely death on this dust ball.

"Oi!" A voice hollered up from one side of the tank. Laforge lifted his head up higher and removed the comms/Heads up display helmet he normally wore. His hand remained clenched on the DL-44 blaster he'd bought before moving out, the Covenant were starting to use infiltraitors. Laforge looked over one of the hastily arranged rocks straped to the turret side for extra armor and saw Major Peter Olgove, the commander of the remaining Infantry troops in the Division. Olgove stood with his helmet straped to one hip, and was wearing a wide brimmed tanned hat and a pair of sunglasses on in it's place. He was also wearing the improvised poncho like burlap camoflage that the rest of the infantry had worn when they discovered the optic camoflage their armor had was much less than effective. Olgove had a bandoler of gauss clips and an alternating one of grenades strapped on over his poncho, along with his load bearing gear keeping the burlap from flapping in the mild breeze. His M21 Gauss rifle dangling under his right arm, the weapon was wraped in the same improvised cammo he wore. On his right forearm he had an improvised houlster that held a small piece of wood.

Peter Olgove was a Wizard, as well as being the highest ranked living officer on the planet.

"Yes sir?" Laforge said and saluted.

"Covenant are moving up their forces for another push towards Mos Eisley they brought up five more army groups to support them, fleet is ready to pull out what we have left and retreat.

"What?" Lance Corporal El-iye, a masive stone like Vathkree and the only native member of this galaxy, he stuck his head up from the driver's position in the main hull of the tank. He was an incredibly tight fit but an incredibly good tanker none the less.

"We've done what we can, and there's no point in dying here for any more ground. The Civilians were all evacuated and now we need to pull out what soldiers we have left." Olgove said.

"But...what about all the soldiers that have already died here?" Wei asked.

"I don't like it any more than you. But there's no point in fighting a fight we can't win. We're pulling back to Mos Eisley and getting of planet." Olgove replied.

"Where to?"

"Coruscant." Olgove said, he turned and began to walk back to the command APC he had. All around the line, the tanks were powering up and beginning to move. El-iye crawled back inside his control space and activated the tank. Wei returned to the gunners space and began to check the main weapons systems on the tank. Laforge stayed right where he was. He raised the Macro-binoculars and looked out across the wrecks and bodies that covered the sand, and he saw the Covenant, still rumbling forward, even after so many lives had been taken from their ranks.

"Let's go." Laforge said over the tank frequency. Slowly, the entrenched line of tanks turned and withdrew, leaving behind one more battle that they would win, but a war for a planet that they would lose.

"How many more planets are we going to give up sarge?" Wei asked, poking his head out of his hatch.

"I don't know. Hopefuly we'll hold Coruscant, if not...I don't know what we can hold."

"Let's get dug in boys." Chester Jamenson said as the squad began walking through the deserted streets of Mos Eisley. Behind him, the remaining twenty five troopers of the platoon nodded and headed towards a low building that seemed a good place to dig in. Jamenson was the highest ranked survivor of his unit, a Corporal. Fighting had been brutal for the infantry, and right now they were looking forward to getting off world. But the infantry and a few tanks had been tasked with holding onto as much of Mos Eisley and buying enough time for the heavy armor and as much equipment as possible to be pulled out.

It wasn't going to be an easy task, but it wasn't going to be a cake walk for the Covenant either.

The rather formidable building was in fact, the Mos Eisley cantina, not exactly a fortified bunker, but enough for the task at hand.

"Alright, get the Gups set up and chop some firing holes in the walls." Jamenson said looking around the inside of the building. It was deserted, the owner and whatever looters that targeted the place had taken everything that a soldier would like to get his hands on. Such as anything with any inctoxicating properties. Jamenson walked around to the back of the building and looked out the rear exit. It led out into the many narrow alleys and warrens of the city, Jamenson knew that more than once people had fled through these narrow passages.

The Coalition soldier returned inside and helped his men begin to dig in, they weren't to fight to the death, but they were going to fight for as long as they could. Through-out the deserted city other units were turning buildings into small fortresses, stockpiles of ammuntion and anti-tank weapons were being made.

In the open sands of Tatooine, the Covenant could overwhelm the Coalition, but in the narrow streets and boulevards of Mos Eisley, they would never have such an easy time of it.

Illitat-o's-tapek lay on top of a two story house on the south side of Mos Eisley. He'd picked his hide well, he had a sweeping view of the main East-west street in the city, and could very easily shift his fire along the south side of town. There would be few better defensive positions on the entire planet. Mos Eisley was an ancient city, and it had been origionally built to hold up to the possiblity of a Tusken Raider attack. A few of the older city walls were still in place, and although not very formidable, enough to make any assault bog down in the main thuroughfares or slow down as they tried to cross the walls. Such a slow down would be lethal in the urban street fighting that was about to begin. The transports would have more than enough time to load the tanks and infantry before the spaceport was overrun.

The Barbel looked out across the desert beyond the walls and watched the mass formations of Covenant soldiers moving towards the city. It was quite a sight, especially since it was led by a number of massive Scarabs. The huge walkers were an equal match for an AT-AT, or an AT-MT, they weren't as well armed, but they were a mixture of manuverability and sheer durability in the face of small arms fire.

But not heavy artillery fire. More than one Scarab had fallen to close infantry assault in the Dune Sea, and now they would fall by the dozens in this assault.

Illitat looked through the scope of his SM-21 Gauss sniper rifle and he suddenly had a very close view of a Covenant Elite two miles distant, but the image was as though he were mere meters away. The seasoned sniper slowly swept his cross hairs over the group of Covenant Commanders and carefuly sought out his prey. Beneath his camoflage, his active cloaking and hidden behind a low wall of adobe bricks, the hunter of sentient beings was invisible to any retaliation.

Two miles away from that snipers nest, the command element of the remaining Covenant forces on planet stood around a small holographic map table in the blistering heat and blinding sunlight. The gold clad commander spoke with his red and black armored fellow officers beneath the watchful eye of a white armored observer. The commander did not like being supervised in such a way, but it was ordered by the prophets and would be obeyed.

"All forces are ready Commander." One of the lesser, blue armored commanders said. The Gold clad commander smiled and nodded.

"Prepare the attack, we shall soon wipe the aliens from this world, and secure the path to their planet known as 'Coruscant'." The Gold armored commander said and gestured towards the human settlement with an imperous motion. Triumph would be soon in coming, and so very sweet. The Elite brought his fist closed in a gesture of finality, right as a gauss needle, slightly larger and longer than his thumb claw blew through his clenched fist and buried itself in his forehead before exploding his skull and brain like an over-ripe fruit.

Illitat centered his crosshairs on the forehead of the gold armored commander. He slowly applied pressure to the trigger of his weapon, delicatly enough that he didn't ruin his shot by the action. It was almost too much to handle, the wait before the kill shot. But the trigger's resistance finally broke and sent the gauss needle darting across the two miles in distance and right into the Covenant commander's head before detonaiting and showering the rest of the staff with his brain and blood.

Then, methodically, Illitat swept over the small sand dune as though he were death incarnate, all single shots to the head, all kill shots. One by one the othe Elites were slaughtered as they tried to scramble for cover or return fire at such an impossible range. The Barbel smiled wickedly as he lay behind his cover, and slowly he swept his barrel around and sought out fresh prey.

"Range... 2000 meters..." The gunner said silently. The control system for the M112 HIMAT missile was clutched in his hands, the binocular like sighting array was pointed out at the massive form of the lead Scarab walker that was making it's way towards Mos Eisley. The 'crosshairs' of the weapon were leveled at the leg joint of the massive machine. Even with the new enhanced warheads, HIMAT missiles were rather patchy on dealing with a full fledged Scarab, Wraiths were alright, Scarabs were another matter though...

"Wait for it." The commander said.

"Range...1900 Meters..." The gunner recited.

"Wait for it."

"Range, 1500 Meters..."

"Wait for it."

"Range, 1200 Meters..." The gunner said, his voice starting to waver. He could actually here the steps of the Scarabs as they drew closer to the position.

"Wait for it..."

"1000 meters god damn it..." The gunner said.

"Fire."

The gunner complied quickly. He hit the firing stud on the HIMAT visor and 100 feet away the missile roared out of it's verticle launch tube. It shot up into the air twenty feet, clearing the building that hid it from view, and then leveled out on a direct course for the Scarab. In less than a heartbeat, the Elerium enhanced warhead connected and detonated on impact with the much more vulnerable knee join of the walker. With a slightly lackluster bang the warhead vaporized the joint and sent the Scarab tumbling to the ground. As it gouged a path in the sand, it's brothers concentrated their fire on the position where the missile had come from.

But there was no point, no one had been crewing the weapon, and those that had fired the missile were running for their lives, falling back deeper into the city where the Scarabs couldn't reach. But even as they fell back, Coalition snipers, and even regular infantry were picking off the crew of the crippled walker as they tried to escape.

The first Covenant forces that entered Mos Eisley were the Scarabs. The massive combat walkers simply strode over the walls and past the hard points of resistance, moving deep inside the city. But unfortunately, the Covenant had not learned the hard lessons that the Empire had when they began to use AT-AT's. The Empire learned early on that walkers were not invincible and unstoppable killing machines, they were tools whose main goal was to smash resistance in open terrain, a job which they did admirably. AT-AT's however fell to the same thing that had been the scourge of armored forces throughout the ages, built up terrain.

While a Scarab was much more heavily armored and faster than an AT-AT, it didn't have nearly the same battery of sensors, weapons and infantry complement it's Imperial counterpart. That lack of infantry and lack of tactics meant that the Scarabs went down...hard. In built up terrain where infantry could move without fear of being cut down, they held the advantage, especially with the improved anti-armor weapons that they posessed.

"Load." Private Karen O'doull said. Behind her, Private Quinn Deitrich took an RPG and loaded it into the rear of the shoulder launcher Karen had. He whacked the back of her helmet and she stepped outside the door of the house they were hiding in, and aimed straight up at the Scarab that was standing still right over them. She aimed along the simple optical sight the weapon had and centered the cross hairs right over a knee. With a snarl she fired the weapon and ducked back into cover. With a satisfied crack, the elerium warhead detonated and knocked the Scarab off balance.

"Move it. Next firing position. Haul that ass." Karen said and started to run, her ammo hauler following right behind as the massive crash from the falling Scarab shook loose sand from the ceiling.

After the Scarabs the full weight of the Covenant moved into the city. But they didn't have the same autonomy that the Scarabs held. They were limited to several main streets which the Coalition infantry had turned into brutal kill zones. M21 gauss fire came from nearly every window that faced into the eastern entrance of the city. There were a few emplaced M90 gass cannons that were set up, and these laid down a near constant battery of fire, knocking apart Covenant troops as they tried to push into the city. Wraith tanks also fell quickly to a well sighted pair of SC-MA1 tanks that had volunteered to be the last out. Their 90mm railguns sent rounds ripping through the armor of the tanks as they tried to provide fire support and cover for the advancing infantry. Spectre scout vehicles and Ghosts tried to speed through the sheets of gauss needles, but to no avail; if not for accuracy, then sheer volume of fire killed the crews of the poorly armored and dreadfully fragile vehicles.

Before even fifteen minutes of fighting had elapsed, the eastern entrance had become too cloged with tank hulks and bodies for the advance to continue. Instead the Covenant forces began to tear holes in the walls of the city with plasma fire and send in waves of infantry to filter through the city and begin to take ground for the armor to advance. This was when the battle started to become brutal.

Fireteam Zeta-2 was the last of their company, origionally 120 troopers strong, they were the last four troopers from their entire regiment to still survive the brutal fighting in the Dune Sea. Right now they were dug into what had been a small store. It had two sets of large open windows that looked out onto the street. They made great firing positions, since the thick adobe walls easily fended off plasma fire. The teams's M40 was set up in one, and the rest of the unit was set up at the other one.

Right now they estimated that they had gone through about 2000 rounds of ammunition.

They were confidant they'd killed at least 900 Covenant soldiers by their estimation. Two of the streets that lead into the square that the building was overlooking were blocked off by a four foot high walls of corpses. The conscripts were using the bodies as cover while they tried to move up. But even as one squad provided cover for another to move up, they were chopped to pieces. It was slaughter, but they felt no remorse for the fighting, it was very simple...if the Covenant had half a chance, they'd kill them just as easily.

The Cantina had been hit hard. Jamenson's origional unit of 25 had been reduced to 9. But they had slaughtered over a thousand Covenant soldiers as they'd tried to push through the relatively open street in front of the Cantina and get inside. The Covenant had come in waves rather than a constant opressive mass. That was what had saved the troops holding the cantina from annihilation, just as they were about to be overrun the assault petered out and they were alright for the moment.

Their ammunition was holding out very well, but they were nearly out of soldiers to hold the line. Jamenson looked out a large hole in the wall that had been blasted through by a fuel rod cannon. Several tables and chairs had been piled in place to obscure the opening. Jamenson looked out and he couldn't see the street for the corpses that laid on top of it. From the other side of the street, the ocasional shot rang out from a Covenant carbine, but it was getting quiet right now.

They were going to make another push.

Jamenson raised his M21 and held it up to his shoulder.

A loud battle cry came from the throats of what could have been a hundred Covenant soldiers. They ran from the cover of the alleys and doorways across the streets, carbines raised and firing, the blue energy bayonets on them charged and ready. The conscripts laid down supressing fire as they ran, aided by a pair of portable plasma cannons that were set on a rooftop, the long streams of blue fire swept over the walls and openings trying to keep the Coalition defenders down and not firing.

But the defenders were firing everything they had and then some. The Covenant assault was being chopped apart as they charged, but they were pushing with enough troopers that it didn't matter, they were going to reach the front door of the Cantina.

"Fall back! Second line!" Jamenson said as he backed away from the opening, still firing. The other members of the unit did the same, leaping behind a small barricade of tables, chairs and crates they'd thrown up around the rear exit.

"FRAG OUT!" One trooper screamed and pitched a spoked disk out through the front door, a vortex mine. The trooper dove behind the barricade as the mine detonated and smashed in the thick walls of the cantina that faced the street. With a loud crack and crash, the front entry was reduced to rubble. That left only one way in, the hole in the wall. As one, the troopers shifted their aim to the jagged hole and began to fire as soon as the first armored boot came through it.

The armored enemy troopers were literally ripped apart by the massed fire that was being leveled against them. At such close range the small arms fire was doing as much damage as a wheat threasher, the Covenant bodies were piling up in front of the opening, but they just kept comming. A few managed wild shots before they went down, but no serious fire came in at them.

Then, as suddenly as the furious assault began, it stopped.

The Coalition infantry didn't move, they stayed right behind their barricade and waited, rifles still aimed.

And what seemed like a small hail of plasma grenades flew through the gap. The blue orbs sailed into the room and made a small burning carpet in the few seconds that they exsisted. Without hesitation the troopers ducked as the grenades went off. Another bestial battle cry cut the air and the Covenant conscripts hurtled through the hole, carbines blazing away to pin down the Coalition troops. Even with the hail of radioactive projectiles flying at them, the troopers still stood and kept firing their M21 Gauss rifles. But the enemy wasn't bottled up, they were nearly on them. With a final rush the consripts hurled over the barricade and were engaged in bloody hand to hand combat with the ragged defenders.

Jamenson moved his thumb and flicked the switch to extend the energy bayonet on his rifle. The while blade blazed into existence, just as a Covenant trooper made a lunge at him. He parried the stab at his midsection with the barrel of his weapon then brought the energy blade up from his attacker waist to his chin. The alien fell back with a spray of black blood coming from the ripped apart armor. Jamenson then smashed the butt of his M21 into the faceplate of another conscript with enough force to snap the creature's neck.

He calmly brought the rifle to his him and kept firing, trying to push back the conscripts enough for them to retreat. After the furiously short exchange, the head of the assault was gone, along with four more troopers. They had to fall back now.

"Frags then we run!" Jamenson snarled over the squad net. As one the remaining troopers tossed flechette grenades and vortex mines into the cantina before falling back through their bolt hole. Jamenson fired off a needler flechette grenade from his M200 launcher slung beneath his rifle and ran along behind his unit, trying to fall back to the spaceport before they were over-run.

"Reverse...reverse...hold." Laforge said looking behind the turret of the SC-MA1. The loadmaster on the Imperial dropship was moving him back with a pair of lighrods. Since the driver of any tank had trouble seeing behind, the commander usually pulled duty as the eyes of the driver, and moving inside the extremely cramped confines of an Imperial drop ship was not an easy task. The tank settled into it's position without causing any damage and the crew began to strap down the main battle tank for lift off.

"Let's more people!" The loadmaster shouted over the rumble of the ships engines.

"How long before lift off?" Laforge asked, getting out of his tank.

"Ten minutes, we've got to grab the infantry and then bolt." The load master said, gesturing to the main embarkation ramp that was hanging open. Outside Laforge saw the white armored forms of Imperial Stormtroopers and the black armored forms of Imperial Naval troopers crouched behind makeshift barricades, their weapons set up to cover the escaping Coalition infantry. Even as Laforge watched, the imperial forces began to fire as Coalition infantry began to race into the open clearing of the landing pad. Behind them followed Covenant troops. The firefight escalated quickly and all along the perimiter of the landing pad, the imperials were trading blasterfire with the Covenant. Laforge drew his DL-44 and added to the covering fire. Troopers raced past him, carrying equipment and supplies, along with wounded comrades. Two troopers hustled by, carrying another between them, pink blood flowed liberally onto the deck plating as they set him down next to the tank.

"Fall back! We are leaving now!" The loadmaster screamed from the base of the ramp. He stood there, oblivious to the Covenant fire that was filling the air and ocasionally snapping of a shot with his own carbine. The final Coalition troops ran past the barricaded Stormtroopers and Naval troopers, they fell back as well, beneath the cover of Tie fighters and the blaster cannon on the drop ship.

The loadmaster shoved the last stormtrooper up the ramp and followed along behind. He reached the top of the ramp and hit the 'seal' button as Coalition troops, Stormtroopers and Naval troopers, even Wei with the M90 mounted at his hatch, layed down cover fire. The dropship shuddered as the engines kicked on and it began to lift even before the ramp was fully sealed.

With some relish, the haggered coalition troops saged against walls, laid down on the floor and even on the tanks. None of them wanted to think about what was coming next...

Coruscant.


Sentient Coalition High Command, Filmar IV,

Sentient Coalition Unified Armies Office,

June 20th, 2554, 0800 UST

"So you can see that the attrition rates on Tatooine prove that the SC-MA1 Main Battle Tank is an effective countermeasure to the Covenant Wraith tank and Scarab. Production numbers can easily replace the losses we sustained and be have enough capacity to begin fully outfiting at least four full army groups with them. M21 gauss rifle production is high and we're in the process of equiping many front line units with them instead of their basic weapons." General Harris said. Harris had been given the daunting task of comdining the industrial might of the Coalition and putting it towards the war effort. Even with the hundreds of thousands of industrialized worlds available, many were incapable of producing the high tech weapons that the Coalition was designing. But they could produce munitions and their own gear.

Across the Coalition strict rationing and a massive civilian effort was being put into place to equip and outfit the millions of soldiers that were joining the Coalition armies each day. Uniforms, non-combat gear, even rations and food had to be mass produced and distributed. If the axiom that 'Rookies study tactics, experts study logistics' was true, then General Harris was the most experianced soldier in the whole of the Coalition army.

"How well supplied is the defense of Coruscant?" Complin asked looking at the wall display in his office. Now instead of the massive universe holo, it displayed a visual of the planet Coruscant and it's defenses.

"The four army groups make up 16 divisions, each equipped with full combat loads and are reinforced for a months worth of constant, high intensity combat. Each platoon has nearly 90 tons worth of supplies available to it for the coming invasion. As for the ten New Republic Army groups present, the fifteen Imperial Army groups and nine Stormtrooper legions, they have acess to the supplies available on world. If they are besieged, then the defenders could last for over a year on the planetary stocks. Although the civilian population would be hard pressed. They could survive for that long, but it would not be pretty." Harris said.

"And the evacuation of the civilians?" Complin asked looking back at the White haired general sitting across from him.

"Impossible sir. Those that can leave have, but the population of Coruscant is 9 billion, there aren't enough ships in the fleet to get them off, even if we could concentrate them. Unfortunately the civilians are there are stuck for the siege. The troops on the surface are moving them down as far as they can into the undercity for safety, but it's not going to be pretty once the covenant invade the planet." General Milantas said. Milantas was an Imperial General, but from what Complin had heard of him bakc at the Academy on Cardia he was one of the best there was. And right now he was going to be in command of the defense.

"I see. It's unfortunate, but it's the way modern war is. None are spared from it. Are your forces ready General?" Complin asked. Milantas nodded.

"We don't have enough forces to defend the entire planet immedeately, or do effect a completely solid front line given the megalopolis, but we've centered our defences on the Imperial Palace, the Senate building and the Jedi Temple. The triangle filled in with these forces is well set up and our command center is in the Imperial Palace. After the Covenant invade I intend to alter my defenses acordingly. We'll fight hard to hold those three locations, but we'll move out and try to erect a good defensive line against them. It will be pretty damn bloody sir, but we'll hold out." Milantas said.

"Good, General." Complin said.

"Now if you would excuse me sir, I have to return to Coruscant to supervise the final preperations." Milantas said as he stood. Complin nodded and saluted. The Imperial General left the office. Harris also stood and saluted, knowing that Complin wished to be alone to consider the war.

After the other General left, Complin stood and moved over to the wall display. As he approached it changed to show the main frontline that stretched across the galaxy. Anjek's plan to disrupt the Covenant assault wasn't working the Guerilla attacks and convoy raiding wasn't slowing the lead Covenant elements at all. It was as though the Covenant generals were completely incapable of realizing the impact that would come when they tried to wage a protracted campaign against heavily defended worlds. The Covenant had no strategic sense, no grasp of logistics. That was a weakness that the Coalition was trying to exploit.

But now, just down the hall, Anjek was considering targets. Not targets for Chemical and Biological weapons. Targets for superweapons.

The Coalition was going to go into the buisness of planet killing.


Filmar IV, Sentient Coalition High Command,

Office of the Unified Commander,

June 21st 2554, 1800 Hours UST,

Anjek had sifted through the multitude of target locations and dispersal plans that the newly formed Super Weapons Command had created and drawn up. He'd looked at all the archive fotage and technical reports of the Sun Crushers, Nova Bombs, Genesis Weapons, Galaxy Gun rounds and other Superweapons that the Coalition had available. He'd read the inteligence breifings and data that he had available. He'd made his desicions. A wide reaching series of strikes on industrial and agricultural worlds. In conjunction with the massively up-scaled efforts of Operation Medusa Touch the desired outcome would be to starve the lead Covenant elements of their supply network and force a withdrawl.

Anjek was unwilling to strike at pure population or government centers of the Covenant Hegemony, and his advisors agreed. Such steps had the dangerous potential of griding the Covenant against any kind of negotiated peace or willing surrender. The political leadership had also forbid such actions and had deliberately specified that the Coalition military targets and industrial centers only. Resorting to terror bombing of Covenant worlds was ordered to be a last resort only, and even then it was to be considered a 'dying blow' that would be leveled against the enemy.

The current plan called for attacks on a large scale against over 500 star systems in Covenant control. Resource and factory worlds, most of these attacks would be large scale system strikes with Nova Bomb torpedoes and Supernova torpedoes. A few worlds would be hit with Genesis weapons and Galaxygun warheads. All and all nearly a twenty thousand worlds would be completely annihilated and over a trillion beings would be killed. It would be a vicious blow to the Covenant, just the latest in a long line of blows that had been thought of as being the last step before bringing the Covenant assault to a halt. Anjek knew that this would be the first use of yet another weapon that would become common place. Already Chemical and Biological weapons were being used more and more frequently in ground fighting to gain an advantage against the overwhelming numerical odds that the Covenant had begun to use against the superior technology of the Coalition.

Anjek pulled a writing stylus from it's holder and hand wrote a message on flimsplast. He sealed it and called for his aid. The Colonel entered his office and retrived the message. He saluted and carried it off to the comms center where the orders would be sent out to units across the universe. It was a very simple message, and very succinct.

To: All Coalition Superweapons armed units

From: Unified Commander Kurrs Anjek

All units are instructed to begin implimentation of OP-Plan Mongol. May our gods forgive us.


Far Orbit, Star Designated AAL2232,

Covenant Owned Starsystem, Target # 435,

June 23rd, 2554, 0900 Hours UST

The pilot was alone on this run. None of his squadron was with him. The weapons that he carried were lethal enough for only one missle to kill a solar system. The other bombers were set to hit other planets, destroy other worlds with their ordinace. The pilot looked at the chrono and saw that it was time to launch his missile.

His hand hesitated over the firing stud. He didn't want to do this, he didn't want to murder fifty billion beings with a single shot.

"You are ordered to fire." A voice said from behind him. The SCPKF observer was sitting in the weapons officer seat. The duty of the Sentient Coalition Peace Keeping Forces officer was simple, ensure weapons launch, no matter what.

"No." The pilot said simply. And it was the last thing that he ever said. With complete impassion the SCPKF trooper drew his sidearm and fired a single blaster bolt through the pilot's flight helmet. Without thought the trooper entered in the weapons fire over-ride and launched the Suprenova Torpedo into the heart of the star. Then he merely sat back and waited for death, he had only been there to ensure that the weapon was fired, he hadn't been trained to retrive the bomber.

So when the star went nova a few minutes later he sat there and was incinerated a few seconds before the other billions of beings that he had killed.


Coalition;

Military Personnel KIA 99,540,789,547

Military Personnel WIA 392,000,783,956

Civilians KIA 203,457,961,745

Starships Destroyed in action 32,154

Worlds Lost 40,394

Covenant;

Military Personel KIA 904,687,777,001

Military Personel WIA 102,100,000,024

Civilians KIA 1,000,984,157,012

Starships Destroyed in action 65,351

Worlds Lost 22,445


Up next; Chapter 10: Seige of Coruscant.

Countless armies have fought over Coruscant througout the millenia, but none have ever taken it easily, and for the Covenant their campaign shall find alleys filled with death and streets caked in blood as they struggle to take the megalopolis of Coruscant. But even as this struggle continues onward, darker forces begin to take shape, the new leaders of the Covenant Armies begin to appear, and a bloody internal struggle for dominance begins...the Elites and Brutes will either stand aside, or be brushed aside. As near outright civil war begins among the Covenant, the Sentient Coalition must begin to battle it's own internal foes and strife...the internal strains placed on so many different cultures and worlds working together could become an even greater threat than the Covenant Hegemony.