So, at first a few words. First of all, why has it taken so long to publish a new chapter? Well, I think my last chapter was my worst one yet and I lost the ideas for writing it because they were all bad at once. Then exams intervened and I had no time. Now I have time again and thanks to EricFreak I also rediscovered the channel. So thank you.

By the way, I was actually planning to write the ground assault, but inspiration said no and so it will be in the next chapter. Hopefully this time it won't take so long.

Good news is always followed by bad news. So, to anyone who has a problem with how I write, the choice is to ignore my bad writing, report yourself as a Beta Reader or just leave. I know it's easy to complain, but sometimes that doesn't help. Just as well I could have published the story in German, then it's a bit better written, but you'd either have to learn German or use the perfect Google translator.


The debris from the battle is still spreading as he establishes a link with the planet. "This is Lieutenant Lohmar speaking on behalf of the Empire of the Hand. You are hereby ordered to surrender and disarm and turn over control of all military and civilian installations and facilities to our soldiers."

He waits for a response, after half a minute he looks up at his Grand Admiral and shakes his head.

"Nothing, sir." Like everyone else, this news does not seem to surprise him. He blinked a few times and seemed to consider. Nothing stirred in his face, he just stood there. His back straight, his hands folded behind his back in his gloves. He once knew an officer who would have raged at this news torture and yelled at anyone within reach, but not the Grand Admiral, never him. Even on the worst of news he reacts calmly and composedly and usually it turns out he had a plan for it. Eventually he says. "Try again. This time, have them threaten to invade and destroy him." The voice alone is enough to make any order that comes from him instantly obeyed.

"Understood sir." He cleared his throat and settled his words in his mind, then pressed the transmit button.

"Attention, this is Lieutenant Lohmar speaking on behalf of the Empire of the Hand. Surrender all military and civilian facilities to us or we will attack and destroy them." Again he waited a few seconds. This time a strange feeling came over him, which was partly out of a sense of duty, partly out of fear of failure, and all because he did not want to disappoint his Grand Admiral. Without explicit instruction, he therefore pressed the transmit button and said. "If they do not surrender, we will bombard their positions from orbit and when we are done with that, we will land and shoot every single one of you worthless pirates."

He looked up and saw Thrawn looking at him and raising an eyebrow. He looked away and his gaze landed on Captain Marinith who was eyeing him with a menacing look. He swallowed, realising he had made a mistake and was already preparing to comment on his misbehaviour, delivered in complete silence, when all of a sudden his console beeped and a light began to flash.

"Sir, I'm reporting a request for a holographic conversation from the surface."

"Very well done, Lieutenant Lohmar." Said Thrawn, nodding at him. "Put it through, one-way transmission.'' He followed the command and seconds later the image of a very angry alien appeared. Batarian, he corrected himself.

"Who dares to speak to me like that! You fucking pyjek! I'll tear you to shreds and feed you to the Varren!" The batarian paused in his tirade and finally realised that he could not see his interlocutor. Lohmar only took note of the functioning translation programme, as did his colleagues and they all waited to see what the next part was in the Grand Admiral's plan. The alien, however, did not even think of stopping and as he opened his mouth to speak again in his filthy language, the Grand Admiral waved towards the door leading to the rear bridge compartment. Out come four people, two stormtroopers with an untethered batarian between them and... and an ISB specialist dressed in black, he has his officer's cap pulled low on his face, not letting you see his face. It got very quiet on the bridge and he realised he was getting nervous just looking at the ISB interrogation officer. He knew that the Grand Admiral had reprimanded the ISB and was now not allowed to 'question' officers on a whim, but old reflexes are hard to shed. He turns to Hammerly, who is sitting next to him, but she just shrugs, then they turn back to the action.

As the group walks down the command walkway, the batarian starts talking. "You damned cowards! First you have the gall to insult me, the great Kono Bog'sodah, and then you don't even show yourselves!? You are worth even less than the dirt under my shoes!"

Thrawn simply nodded at him, telling him in advance what to do. He was to wait for his signal to make the full connection and he was to censor the face from the officer.

"What are you doing? You Pyjaks are pathetic, just because you have a hostage, it doesn't get you anywhere."

The stormtroopers brought the batarian to his knees, put one leg behind them and pressed him against it with one hand on the shoulder. With the other hand they held the arm, which they twisted painfully. The ISB officer himself leans forward and whispers something in the batarian's ear. No one but the prisoner understands what he is saying to him.

"Great Bog'sodah I am Ufetor Can'nalor I am very well respected and can pay them with money and slaves if they free me. Please believe me, I can reward you generously for your efforts, I have wives and children, I beg you, help me."

The officer, however, had no mercy and, coming out of nowhere, jammed a knife into his face and removed what was so important to the Batarians. He repeated the same with the others. As he worked, the prisoner screamed and struggled violently, but the soldiers held him down. When the officer finally finished, the batarian's voice was hotter and bloody tears ran down his face. Bog'sodah's eyes now widened in shock and he swallowed hard. So he did realise that they were not like the other enemies.

"Yo... you will be punished for that."

Grand Admiral Thrawn signalled him and he disconnected. He looked at Hammerly, who was a little too pale and he wondered what he looked like. The whimpering body was pulled from the bridge, leaving the crew silent and slightly shocked. The interrogator cleaned his knife thoroughly on a cloth, then saluted and after an acknowledgement from the Grand Admiral, he left.

The Grand Admiral also wanted to leave, but was stopped by his adjutant Vanto. He concentrated and could still just understand what they were saying.

"Why didn't they show themselves, all we did was torture a worthless prisoner in front of them who meant nothing to them."

"For an enemy to stop fighting, you must also break their will to fight. I have analysed both the species and their actions, and I think that if you show them that you are prepared not only to fight and stop them, but to destroy them, they will stop. There is a great psychological advantage in maiming a prisoner, the loss of a prisoner is only a small price to pay. You may think we should give him more, but think what if even one escaped? Stealth is our greatest strength, no one knows how much we are. No one knows who is leading us and if one were to escape, it would be with as little information as possible."

"Understood, sir."

Needing a pause, he connected to the communications centre and reported to the watch commander to take over. Then he got up and set off in search of the nearest Caff. Now he just has to be quick so he's back when he's needed.


Same time/ briefing room/ ground troops.

"Attention!" The call resounds through the briefing room as the bulkhead opens and all present rise. Through the bulkhead strides General Covell, his Colonels and Stormtrooper Major Ayer. The room was enormous as all officers of the rank of Sergeant and above were present. They saluted the six coming through a door at the side of the room and continued to do so until they reached the podium at the head and stopped on it.

"At ease." Armour clattered, uniforms rustled and chairs scraped as all the officers sat down and waited with expectant silence.

Major Ayer stepped forward, slid the data card into the opening and activated the holo-projector with a touch. A high-resolution, three-dimensional representation of a city was projected onto the wall. It was shaped like an oval, having not one starting point but two. Both were large squares connected by a wide road a little over two kilometres long. Adjacent to one square was a large building that looked like a palace, with a large garden behind and a much smaller, but all the more magnificent one in front. The garden took up a third of the circle around it, after which a wall around the rest, belonging to the sprawling palace, closed it off from the surrounding area. The square itself was not special, but had a wide walkway around it, which made for a good view of the square and the palace. Anyone present who has ever been to a Core Planet will recognise this system as a method of paying homage to the owner of the palace.

Residential houses were placed along the street. They were large and gave a clean, beautiful and prosperous impression. With plenty of space at the back for green areas and airspeeders and a good view of the street.

The second square was only about half the size of the first, but still large. This one is distinctly different, because it was not bordered by a wall but completely enclosed by a business district with some gaps to use as access points in the square, because it could only be reached on foot. The road also ends there and car parks leave from it to the right and left, from which the square can be reached through a wide archway that has the same width as the road.

Columns were placed in two semicircles, each with a chain hanging from it. When a person hangs from the chain, he would look at the centre of the circle. One gap between the groups of pillars was dominated by a large podium, pillars had also passed on these, facing the centre. Behind the podium were several rows of animal cages stacked on top of each other, as well as the base of a staircase leading under the square. The second gap was towards the archway and was clear. In the centre of this Second Circle, small covered stalls were also set up in lines.

It does not take a genius to see that this was a market for people.

The city was arranged in steps. The biggest and most beautiful buildings were right on the main street. They have their own streets at the back for airspeeders, who probably use the streets that are parallel to the main street. These big side streets also have direct access to the private car parks at the market. The step after that was also neatly laid out. The houses were neat, big and clean, but not quite as ostentatious. After that, the town lost its neatness. More and more houses were built where there was space, until it was just a mass of grey buildings separated by narrow, branching and winding streets.

One of the other two interesting places was the spaceport, which was surprisingly large. On it parked countless freighters, shuttles, a few obviously broken warships and luxurious and very expensive looking small spaceships.

The second place was on a big hill with luxury villas next to each other and with a lot of space between them. The further up you went, the bigger and more luxurious they became, until the top was taken up by one.

The two places were as far apart as possible. The space port was near the market, while the mansions took a hill next to the great palace.

After General Covell had given everyone present some time to make out all these details, he began to speak.

"What you see in this picture is a snapshot of the city on the planets below. It is the only one there and probably serves as a base for raids throughout the sector and even beyond. Although, as we currently understand, neither the only one nor the most important, but it is very important for a government called the Batarian Hegemony and serves as a great source of "trade income" that fills their coffers. It bears the name of Vrence and is home to over 300 thousand inhabitants, but we could make out quite a few soldiers, probably to put down rebellions and carry out raids. However, we estimate the number of slaves to be up to or even over a million. Any questions up to this point?"

A lieutenant stood up Saluting, quickly but precisely, he said, "Sir, what lies beneath the city."

"I'll get to that later."

"Your soldiers are probably made up mostly of untrained militia with little or no combat experience, supported by only a few real soldiers. However, Grand Admiral Thrawn wants to avoid all casualties, which is why some basic orders are being changed. The changes are FI-3488, FF-4364 and FB-5690." The soldiers looked at each other, for orders two and three in particular were unusual. The number of the second order indicated that they were to rescue and protect their comrades if wounded. The third number gives the order to protect themselves. The letters indicate the importance of the orders.

"As you can see from the first order, the Grand Admiral wants to eliminate the mercenaries with air strikes. The basic strategy is to weaken the defences with air strikes and cause confusion in their ranks, and then under cover of darkness, with many more precision attacks, slowly break down the defences rather than launch into a major assault that will result in casualties." He paused briefly to allow questions to be asked. No one asked one, still too confused by the doctrine change.

"The landing will start around 1830 at sunset and continue into the night. The landing itself will be carried out in three waves, the market has been determined as the best landing zone, as the square by the palace as well as the spaceport is heavily defended. The fleet will conduct a light assault to clear the market and facilitate a landing. The first wave will consist of a company dropped into the market by Gunship. The Gunships will crush the resistance and the soldiers will secure the landing zone for the next wave. This will consist of a full regiment that will be dropped into the market in several phases. As this ship lacks an officer of suitable rank, Major Ayer will take command of this wave.

One battalion will take the main and secondary roads leading to the Governor's Palace. A second will move towards the spaceport and the third will split. Half will be sent to the catacombs, while the other half will support the Fourth Battalion in securing the second ring." Again he stops, but no one says anything, just waits.

"In the third wave, on the one hand, the other three regiments and the armoured units will be sent to the ground. That will put the entire Chimaera legion on the ground. A total of 9 and a half thousand soldiers. The other ships will support us if necessary, in which case they will send a fourth wave to the ground. Should that become the case, there will be 38 thousand men on the ground, plus walkers and tanks of the army. In addition, the ships of the fleet will conduct thermal and life scans around the clock, as well as provide air and orbital support. Use this capability at all opportunities."

"An important secondary objective is the rescue of the slaves, so pay attention to your target. The ISB estimates the likelihood of the pirates using human shields to be low, but watch out as I said. Most of the slaves will be in the catacombs to be prepared for further shipment. However, there will also be some slaves serving as house slaves, as I said you should be careful who you shoot at."

With a wave of his hand, the image changed to show what was under the city. Most of the buildings only had standard or slightly larger basements, but what was interesting were the large catacombs. According to the picture, they were even under most of the cellars and were extremely branched, but very narrow in most places. A magnetic railway runs from the palace through the catacombs via the area directly under the market to the spaceport.

"This maglev is, in our estimation, heavily armoured and is used partly for transporting large amounts of living cargo, but also as a means of escape for the governor. The latter is also a secondary target. The two companies of the Third Battalion, from the First Regiment, have little space down there, they also have no possibility of getting fleet support. So they will advance quickly or be slow and thorough as required. But they too must first secure the area directly under the market, as well as the entrances and the maglev station. Remember everyone, no one is to go too far forward, the second wave is to create safe space for the walkers and other regiments. Each battalion will be brought up to regimental strength with the third wave and will receive heavy support in the form of tanks, walkers and heavy weapons emplacements. Any questions?"

A captain stood up. "Sirs, what should we do with captured soldiers, civilians or slaves?"

"Anyone carrying a weapon is considered an enemy and should be fought. Civilians will all be arrested on suspicion of breaking various laws. Slaves are to be taken to safe areas. More specific orders and instructions will be given to you immediately after this briefing or as soon as you are available. Questions?" No one says anything.

"Dismissed." With that, General Covell and his officers turned to leave.

"Attention!" the call resounds around the room and everyone salutes the officers. With a look and a nod, they acknowledged the salutes and left the room, the other officers also leaving to make their unit ready.