Costa Mesa
Tharkad, Donegal Province
Lyran Alliance

The 20-meters between the stockade and the Command Centre took the commandos through the middle of a pitched battle between a number of Ghost Bear Elementals and a company of Blakist troops. The run across the street was a hellish hail of machinegun fire and laser bolts that cut down two of the Militia troopers who had accompanied Cairo in the VTOL.

The entranceway exploded inward after being hit by a RPG that shattered the doorframe, sending the reinforced steel doors inward like giant scythes, cutting down two guards before they could react. The commandoes rushed through the door, partly to get out of the killing field the street had become, and partly to get to grips with the enemy.

Cairo ran forward, his TK assault rifle spitting high-velocity death at anyone foolish enough to get it its way. The 40-mm grenade-launcher under the barrel barked, sending a phosphorus round through a security checkpoint window. The thick, burring arid smoke filled the small room, sending the troops inside choking into the corridor. The former prisoners fell on them like a pack of rabid wolves, ripping their weapons away and swiftly ending their screams with a savage version of justice.

The stairwell leading up to the second floor was heavily defended, forcing the attackers to concentrate their firepower through the small area they could see from the ground floor. Cairo quickly viewed the situation, and ran to the nearest shaft shaft, using a fire axe prise the door open before handing it to a trooper whose gun had jammed. Gripping the steel cable tightly, Cairo slung his gun over his shoulder, and started to climb.

The sound of gunfire game from the other side of the doors, and Cairo was capful to keep down below the small Plexiglas window. Bulling a combat knife from his boot, her prised the door open just enough to see out without being spotted: a sandbag-reinforced barricade hid a heavy calibre machinegun that would cut any attackers to ribbons.

Sliding the knife in so that it jammed the door open, Cairo pulled an incendiary grenade from his belt and, pulling the pin with his teeth, tossed it through the door before dropping back to the floor below. A sheet of flame irrupted through the thin opening of the elevator shaft, singing the hair of those below, but sending the machinegun crew flying over their barricade and down the stairwell where they where cut to ribbons by the angry Militia.

Any resemblance to a disciplined military unit was long gone: the Militia and Irregulars had seen their friends, family and comrades executed by the Blakist war machine, and felt no compassion for their enemy. Cairo knew the feeling well, and revelled in the carnage around him. He stalked the corridors like the personification of Death, killing anyone in his way without fear or hesitation.

Star Colonel Jake Kabrinski looked around himself: his part in the plan had been to lead the attack on the long-range communications array on the edge of the Militia compound, and call for reinforcements from elsewhere. His Elemental point had taken the hardened concrete bunker without loss, and tech's where deactivating the ECM units that had stopped them from reporting in earlier.

"I think you'd better see this sir!" One of the Militia tech's held up a pint-off: the Blakist's had loaded a maglev train with nerve gas and sent it on automatic to Tharkad city.

"Hurry." Kabrinski felt himself go pail, "We must contact the Warships in orbit immediately…"

Cairo dropped his assault rifle the moment the last round left the muzzle, drawing a pair of high-power laser-pistols from his belt, using them to gun down a Blakist guard in light combat armour. He kicked open a door to find General Spendlove sitting handcuffed to a chair.

"General." Cairo grabbed a set of keys off the downed guard and started trying them in the cuffs, "Looks like Davion was wrong about you."

"What?" Spendlove looked confused.

"He thought you where the traitor." Cairo smiled as the last key did the trick, "He sent me here to find out if that was the truth, and if it was, kill you."

"I'd never have believed he had it in him." Spendlove rubbed some feeling back into his wrist.

"It's because you supported his sister." Cairo lifted a Zeus heavy rifle from the head guard, handing the General a laser pistol.

"I have only ever tried to serve the Lyran people." Spendlove checked the charge on the weapon, "That is all I ever wanted to do."

"Well then it looks like you going to get to be a hero." Cairo pried round the doorframe, "Grissum's one floor up: I say we go pay him a visit."

"Long range communications back up sir!" The tech collapsed exhausted into a chair.

"Good." Kabrinski grabbed the nearest microphone and set the radio to a ComStar frequency, "This is Tomahawk to Lancaster, come in."

"This is Lancaster receiving you loud and clear Tomahawk." Star-Commodore Ivan Leroux's voice crackled the radio, "Why the brake in coms?"

"Condition Black: hostile took over the city and blocked all communications." Kabrinski explained, "There is a maglev train on the main line between here and Tharkad city: it is carrying nerve gas and must be destroyed!"

To Be Continued…