Chapter Two: Lightning War

The bridge was a flurry of activity, Jaghatai Khan sat tensely in his command chair as he rapidly digested the reports coming in from his crew. A brief smile graced his face as the fleet dropped out of warp.

"Proceed to phase three." He commanded, his first officer rapidly confirming.

"Phase three under way sir."

His strike cruisers began to circle the planet; the orbital defences lasted seconds against the huge lances of energy and lascannon batteries that swept azure blasts across the planet. His Cobra's swept through the ill prepared defending ships. Signalling with a kurt chop, he crisply ordered phase four to begin. At once, the first wave of the invasion began, the strike cruisers surged into the lower atmosphere, billowing flames, licking at the massively armoured panels as they descended towards the awaiting ground troops. Missile batteries on the surface swiftly opened up, there deadly contents streaking into the sky and impacting into the shields of the Imperial cruisers, the 'Blade of Reason' suffered minor damage to its port battery and landing gear, the 'Tsunami' suffered hull breaches on decks 5, 8 and 13 before there tormentors could be silenced. Thankfully the power armoured marines were able to survive the vacuum of space until the breaches could be sealed.


The defenders hastily assembled their forces; a churning cloud of dust betrayed a full regiment of fifty thousand men manoeuvring round the capitol. The glittering sensor display indicating that another nine regiments were rapidly approaching, three of them would be there within the hour.

The air on the planets surface was dry and dusty, J'Dang awaited with his men for the Imperial assault his throat parched, silence filled the air, he gulped again from his water bottle the cool water at once refreshing and reassuring. He glanced over his shoulder, the men were laying prone, laser rifles waiting for the invading enemy, a rocket launcher was being calibrated to deal with enemy armour and a gatling gun was being loaded. Tanks churned through the sun scorched grass behind him, their engines roaring - the sound was reassuring even though if the engine heat was yet another discomfort. There were fifty thousand men surrounding the capitol, millions of soldiers were surrounding the various cities on the planet and another quarter of a million soldiers were heading directly to the battlefield.

He was confident of the coalition's strength, a hardened veteran; he had fought in many campaigns against the coalition's enemies. Warp space was relatively quiet here allowing the coalition to rapidly grow in size. Before each battle doubt had always entered his mind, and after each battle he had laughed at himself for those same doubts. This time the familiar doubt entered his mind, but it was different now, the navy had been scattered like chaff… the navy, the iron ring that had been undefeated for centuries. The buttress which had fended off all assailants had been defeated. He ran his gritty hands through his hair and mused on these thoughts. Glancing up to the sky, his heart sunk as streaks appeared in the sky. Like a thousand shooting stars they descended down towards the lines of men and vehicles encircling the capitol. They were too fast for the laser batteries to target and J'Dang watched them grow larger as the men grew uneasy, whispers started, then shouts of fear. In horror, he suddenly threw himself to the ground. Crawling for cover through the hot, shaking earth. He paused to hear chaos break out, the men were fleeing as the first pods impacted. They smashing aside both infantry and tanks alike and then opened up. J'Dang looked over to see one of the pods. It opened like a flower coming to bloom, to expose a nest of tubes. Time slowed down as it burst into fire with a roar, small gouts of flame heralded the arrival of a thousand grenades. They scattered around the ground, tearing up the earth with hundreds of tiny explosions, he watched as his comrades were torn apart, most disintegrated under the lethal barrage, body parts, jelly and dirt rained all around him, others were not so lucky and died slowly. Shrapnel tore through his cheek, and he clashed his hand to his face. Bitterly cursing and crying out in pain he called to his men.

"Retreat! Reform on the ridge, 27 dash 08!"

They had to reorganise before the enemy assault began. Already beams of power were slicing down from the skies and crippling the defending batteries. His artillery support rumbled up to the hill behind then, at least he wasn't alone. He quickly recovered his nerve and tried to take stock of the situation, the formations were fragmented. They needed to find cover and rebuild the line. He called out to his remaining men, rolling to his knees he winced in pain and then began to run. Some of his men, the survivors ran towards him. Gesturing towards the tanks which had already mounted the ridge, he summoned forth all his energy and sprinted towards the metal beasts. They somehow seemed immune to the enemy attack, the grenades bouncing off the titanium hull. Fortunately for the coalition, the bombardment seemed to be of low power and their armour was shielding them. More pods descended this time impacting in between the infantry and the tanks. More confident that he knew what he was facing now, J'Dang watched one land near to him; he leapt to the floor and covered his face to shelter it from the expected storm of shrapnel. He shouted to his men to do the same.

"Incoming! Take Cover!"

He held his head down and cowered, trying to protect his bleeding face from the blinding explosions he expected. They came, but only a few and noticeably further away. Screams from his men alerted him, R'Naro was running forward shouting incoherently, but J'Dang refused to lift his head. He waited for the intensity to die down and then finally stop. The tanks would be their bastion, providing a safe place for them to recover. The thud of feet forced his eyes up. A moan of despair slipped from his lips. The pods were different. A single cannon was in each pod, and they were all rotating round and systematically destroying the tanks with shell fire. His infantry were fleeing away from the tanks now, he tried to call them to him, they were being split up! Why could the fools not see it? The remaining tanks managed to kill a few of the pods, but it was a battle, which they couldn't win. There were too many pods and the pods had the advantage of surprise. More pods came screaming down, accompanied by a thunderous roar. J'Dang started to run.

In front of him he saw three of the largest ships he had every seen start to land, each the size of a small city. His men turned and ran back towards the cannons. The new pods were landing by the cannons. Not knowing what the pods would contain J'Dang prayed to the Earth Goddess to keep him safe. Gripping his rifle he charged forwards, fear driving his exhausted frame towards the smouldering wrecks of the tanks. By now, terror had wracked his body. He had no idea what to expect from this new threat. He watched with trepidation as the first of the new pods opened up, inside he was surprised to find three bikes being lowered on ramps, there riders encased in white armour revving there engines, and filling the air with a guttural roar. He slowed and looked again; the riders must be at least seven to eight foot tall when standing up! Gritting his teeth he swung up his rifle and sprayed streams of laser fire towards them. Cursing he braced himself against the recoil and watched as the shots merely bounced off the solid frame of the bikes and the massive armoured plated figures that were their riders.

"Form line! Open fire! For the Glory of the Coalition!"

With a sudden roar the bikes spun off towards the advancing troops, he fired upon them again joined by his comrades. Desperation filling him, he watched as a web of laser fire began to form, but the enemy was too fast, they were amongst them in seconds streaking past him and spraying death from there pistols. Each shot fired an explosive round which popped heads like melons and tore gaping holes in the torsos of his men. Swords whirled in their hands; some had some kind of rotating jaws on the blade, whilst others crackled with a deep blue resonating colour. He kept running forward. His men ran beside him - less now, but desperation giving them all a new strength. He was a veteran of many campaigns, he had seen many terrifying sights but the sheer helplessness of the situation completely overwhelmed him. To his left K'Teth was decapitated, a grenade took out M'Fos and P'Nar. Throwing himself to the ground he avoided one of the white armoured fiends which tormented him, crawling now he was almost at the smouldering corpse of the lead tank, tears streamed as he covered his face in hands and wept. His body shuddered, he never even saw the columns of rhinos emerge from the strike cruisers and hurtle towards the capitol. His mind was numb as he curled up into a ball and blanked everything from his head. He never even saw the rider who fired a bolt at him; the adamantium tip penetrated his skull killing him before the main part of the bolt exploded sending shards of skull and brain tissue over the torn, shredded soil surrounding him.