Welcome once more to The Will of Revenge! After last few chapters, focused on the warfare in Milky Way, we're going back to Andromeda to see how battles on Taurus, Emloy and other parts of Andromeda Branch's space are going. Of course, the time we didn't see them, everything didn't become easier.

But before that, reviews.

To Supreme Supra: You can be sure they will. Shakayans are a persistent (how else would they survive on their homeworld, where category 5 hurricane is considered a minor drizzle) and proud people, so Maraqs, and the rest of the Concordance, will surely see what angering them means.

Okay, with that done, lettuce begin.

Part Three

Devotion

Chapter 1

June 13, 2166

07:32

Sadera, Imperial Palace

Pina was close to tears. For some reason, she just couldn't stop the dark thoughts from taking over her head. Every time she closed her eyes, every time she was alone in the room, which served as her temporary office, every time she was starting to feel overwhelming paranoia. She just hoped, that it will not have a lasting effect on her psyche.

The reason for that was simple. The last few weeks exhausted her mentally and physically. War, which was started by her, as it turned out, still alive brother still raged on. Thousands died everyday under the bombs, shells and from gunfire. They were under siege from all sides and the only reason they were still on this planet, not in SoS' custody, was probably the fact that Laconians and the rest of the Concordance, which turned out to be in an agreement with Zorzal, didn't come through the Intergalactic Gate and just massacre the fleets protecting the orbit and land troops.

By all that time, Pina was forced to listen to reports telling about the enemy movements, just outside their telescopes' ranges. Moreover, the attack on her office before the war turned out to not be the only attempt on her life. Over six more were made. One time, some maniacs with guns, which tried to break into the palace, only to be stopped by Royal Guards. Other time, she was driving to the Jade Palace to meet with Grey and the whole situation turned out into a freaking car chase with shootout. Fortunately, a dropship came from spaceport and destroyed the pursuing car. After all that, a country-wide search was launched, to find all the agents that enemy managed to sneak into Falmart. How many of them were there, nobody knew. Same search was launched all across the world by other countries.

In short, she slowly started to lose hope.

"Your Highness?"

Pina looked up from her desk and towards the door. Hamilton opened them slightly and peeked into the office.

"What is it, Hamilton?"Pina asked.
"Grey is here."

"Okay, let him in."

The tired and dry tone in Pina's voice didn't escape Hamilton's attention. But to not worry Pina any further, she just went out of the room, letting Grey pass through.

General entered the office with a briefcase in his hands. Hamilton closed the door behind him, while he came up to the desk and saluted.
"Your Highness."he said.
"Sir down, please."Pina replied.

Grey did what he was told and put the briefcase on his knees. He looked at his superior's face and was actually shocked to see how she's looking. Although he often had to sit in the staff building since morning to late night, he didn't have so big bags under his eyes as she did. Not only that, but he could clearly see, that Pina lost a few kilograms. Her hands were shaking and eyes were darting in all direction.

"Pina, are you sure everything's alright?"Grey asked.
"Of course not."Pina replied."Probably nothing's right in the time like this."
"I know. But I think you should take a longer rest."

Queen snorted.
"Rest? How can I rest, when there can be assassins sent by my brother, just waiting when I let my guard down. If I do just one, bad move, it might be over."

General just nodded. There was no point in arguing with Pina. She was really stubborn.
"So, why did you come here, Grey?"Pina asked.

"To give you reports about the state of our forces from the last few weeks."Grey said, opening his briefcase.
"What kinds of reports?"
"Mobilization and army mustering reports."

A thin bunch of papers landed on the top of the desk. Pina looked at them, but simply shook her head.

"Honestly, I'm just not in mood to read all that."she said."Could you do it?"

"As you wish."

General grabbed the papers and started looking at them.

"These are the reports of our force building efforts after almost three weeks of war."he started reading."I will start with the reports about the recruitment of troops and mobilization."

"Go on."

"By the last two and a half weeks, the mobilization of our reserves have been progressing. As of now, we managed to mobilize two hundred thousand from eight hundred thousand reserve troops. Additionally, recruitment centers all across the country have reported an influx of new recruits into our armed forces. Currently, three hundred thousand people joined up and are currently undergoing accelerated training in boot camps and bases across the nation."

"So you're saying, that within these two weeks, our forces grew by five hundred thousand people?"Pina asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, but most of them are fresh recruits, which didn't even fired a gun before."Grey shrugged."However, some of them did serve in the Territorial Defense Brigades, so they know a thing or two."
"Good, continue with the mobilization. And the reports."

General Co Aldo turned the page.
"Admiral Tyuule reports the status of the fleet."he said."Shipyards all across Falmart, both our and allied, were hard at work repairing and building new ships. Since the attack on Deliona Anchorage, we repaired most of the damage dealt to Emloy, even faster than anticipated and some expect the Battleship to be fully operational not by the end of the year, but even within the next three months. We also built six new Destroyers, three Heavy Cruisers and one Heavy Transport."

"Our shipyards are still operational?"queen asked, actually surprised.
"Trade Corp made sure to ration our national reserves, as you might remember."
"Right. Good that Tuka took it over."
"Indeed."
"Okay, what's next?"

Another page flip.

"Prime Minister Garcel continues the government reconstruction. After the Senate Tragedy, numerous vice ministers were quickly sworn in the place of the ministers that died. But the senators are a completely different matter. Of course, new political figures are merging to take their place, but we're still unsure how long will it take before the number of senators will reach the number written in Constitution of 2153."
"I'm worried it will take years before we will be able to actually replenish our losses in the Senate area."
"We're all aware of that. Education is still not on as high level as in Milky Way. But I'm sure we will make it through."
"We all do."Pina smirked.
"Now the last thing."He flipped to the last page."Operation aimed at eliminating enemy agents across the country is still ongoing. As of now, we managed to eliminate over fifteen hideouts and forty people."

"Are you sure they are enemy agents?"queen asked.
"Yes. Interrogation and lie detector confirmed everything."
"How did we even let so many slip right past us? I can't believe it."
"It's a shock for all of us."
"And who is in charge of the operation?"
"Rory."

Pina blinked a few times. She didn't hear any news about Apostle of Emloy for some time now. The fact that she turned up so suddenly was something she didn't see coming.

"You're serious?"she asked.
"Yes."Grey nodded."She came to the Jade Palace and said, that she wanted to help us in tracking down the enemy agents. Asked how he knew that, she simply said 'I got a hunch you will need me'. She was right. We were actually going to find her and ask for her help. The fact that she came to us herself was a real blessing."

Pina sighed with relief.

"With her, I'm pretty sure we will manage to do it."she smiled.
"We hope so, Your Highness."

After saying that, he hid all the papers in the briefcase.

"Alright, then this is all."general said."I simply wanted to give you this quick rundown of everything we've been up to during the last few weeks."
"Thank you, Grey. You can go now."
"Of course, Your Highness."

General stood up from his chair and went to the door. His hand landed on the handle, but he was stopped last minute.
"Grey?"Pina asked."Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."He looked at her.
"How do you think? How long will it take before all this ends? And more importantly, when will it end?"

This was a good question, which everyone at Jade Palace asked. From the very top of command structure to the lowest placed official. There was no simple answer to this question, everyone knew that. They just had to wait.
"I'll be honest with you, Pina."Grey said in fatherly tone."I have no idea when and why will this war will end. But I can tell you how will it end."
"How?"Pina asked.
"It will end with our victory."general answered firmly.

"And may the Gods watch over us, so that will happen."
"Exactly."

With these words said, Grey opened the door, leaving the office and Pina in her thoughts.

June 13

09:24

Taurus III, Eraia village, Nordian C.Z.

It's been one and a half week since Verius last had a good night's sleep. Since then, the time passed for him in a constant movement of the 10th Armored Brigade.

Some time has passed since their meeting with retreating Nordian mechanized brigade and their first actual fight in this war. Actually, they did pretty well. That whole first fight went surprisingly well.

They struck in the morning, flanking the town of Ranholm, where supposedly enemy staff was present. Units of SoS' 1st Armored Legion were completely surprised. That guy, Ornatson, had a pretty good plan. Enemy didn't even expect that kind of attack, however, there had to be some kind of warning, because when they punched through enemy defense and retook the town, the generals and other higher ups were not present. They probably ran away as fast as they could.

The Battle of Ranholm, as it was ornately called, although it was more of a massacre, was good success, and not costly. Both Royal Alnus Armored Combat Battalion and Royal Italica Armored Combat Battalion lost only one tank each, while only forty allied infantry were lost, from which twenty five were Nordians. Although they didn't catch the commanders of 1st Armored Legion, they showed, that Sons won't be able to move on unopposed much further.

But this victory was short lived. Just six hours later, scouts sent by Ornatson reported the sighting of enemy column approaching Ranholm. Over two hundred tanks, three hundred vehicles and thousands of soldiers. Even he knew, that something like that was too much, even for two battle-hardened brigades.

Verius and Gron did a brainstorm and decided, that the retreat was the only way they would come out of it. Captain then contacted colonel Rad and explained everything to the brigade's commander. Colonel, although still in Leender, could see the bad signs and agreed. Both brigades retreated from the town two hours before enemy troops entered back into Ranholm.

This was basically their only victory. Since then, they started slowly retreating, slowing down enemy forces as much as they could. And although 10th Armored and 74th Mechanized brigades were roughly over nine thousand seven hundred men strong, they managed to stop the constant attacks by one legion and several brigades, which came to the aid of said legion.

But losses were mounting and there was no way of replacing them in some meaningful way. Thanks to numerous volunteers from the populace, they actually had some kind of manpower replenishment, although not good, because there was not much time for longer training. Just show the new guys how to shoot and done. But manpower is not the only thing that army needs. And vehicles lost not always could be recovered and repaired.

This is why from sixty two vehicles forming Verius' battalion, not there were only fifty five. Which was still a lot, but the loss of every single tank was a powerful blow. RIACB, on the other hand, lost one and a half company, twenty three tanks, what forced them to move into the role of reserve force. So it was now mainly Verius and RAACB, which held the line in case of a fight.

These were the thoughts, which crossed Verius' mind as he laid down on top of a small hill, overlooking the camp set up by the two brigades. He came here to think in peace, far from everyone.
"Can I join?"

Captain opened his eyes and looked in the direction from which the voice came. He saw Niva leaning over him. He smiled.
"Hey."he said."Of course you can."
"Alright then."

She then laid down next to him, looking into the cloudless, blue sky. They were laying like that in silence, thinking.
"It reminds me of home."Niva finally said.

"Yeah."Verius replied."Hard to believe we're light years away from Flare Prime."
"And yet we are."

"True."

Smile then vanished from Niva's face.

"You think we will make it through?"she whispered.

Verius sat up and looked at her. She sat up too.

"Niva, don't say such things."he said."Of course we will make it through. We're the best our military has to offer. If we won't make it through, who will?"
"I understand where you're coming from…"Niva replied."But at the same time…"
"Hey, don't worry. Remember, that we also have each other. If something goes wrong, I will be there for you."
"Oh, that's so sweet."

They grabbed each others' hands and looked deep into each others' eyes.

"Hey! I think you two should kiss!"someone cried.

Their heads shot in the direction of the voice and they saw Gerhi and Hernik approaching. The two immediately stood up.

"What are you doing here?"Verius asked."I clearly said I wanted to be left alone."

"And yet you have Niva here."Gerhi noticed.
"She's a different case!"captain argued.
"We know, we know."Hernik waved it off."But we're also your old pals, aren't we? But that's not what we came here for."
"Then what is it?"Niva asked.
"Ornatson just called."

"What did he say?"

"He spotted enemy scouts, just five kilometers from our position."Gerhi said in a serious tone."They also reported their vanguard moving another five kilometers behind them. And they're approaching this place."
Verius and Niva looked at each other. While 10th Armored Brigade was resting, 74th Mechanized with Gron decided to act as the forward detectors of enemy forces. And now, it would appear, that enemy caught up to them once more.
"How long ago was that?"Verius asked.
"Five minutes."Hernik replied.
"Alright then. Get everyone. We're moving out. And report it to Sigis."

Lieutenant colonel Sigis was colonel Rad's deputy and as of now, he performed the duties of brigade's commander. He was a wolfman Falien and some said, that his temper really suited him and his wolfiness. He was also competent and simply a good commander. If not him, Verius doubted if they would be able to fight so long.

Gerhi and Hernik saluted and left.
"Let's go."Verius said to Niva.

"Sure."Niva replied.

Then, the two of them followed the remaining company commanders from their battalion. Half an hour later, battalion moved out to aid the Nordian brigade.

June 13

10:02

Road to Eraia

Reports of enemy forward positions came to them just half an hour ago. When that happened, colonel Geded ordered them to quickly ready for battle. Major Relius relayed the order further and to captain Julius, which relayed it to the rest of his centuria, and Decimus Sedvis with his crew in it.

Decimus was sitting inside of his tank turret, looking at all the devices inside, which were just repaired after the last fight. Their tank received one hell of a beating since they came here and probably only because of some godly intervention it was still mostly operational.

Actually, it was probably only because of luck that they made it here. After all, during the Battle of Ranholm, they were surprised and almost surrounded by the enemy forces. Decimus, Jeos and Aulus made it out as one of the last, working as the rearguard covering the retreat of general Margas and all of the higher ups. He still didn't know how their regiment made it out of the town, but somehow they did.

But just six hours later, after getting help from some other units and the rest of the legion, they were sent back to the town and sent the enemy packing. Well, actually, enemy retreated, like they did. But still, they managed to repel them. And since then, they were slowly making their way towards Leeneder. But looking at the current speed of the offensive, he was no so sure, if everything will end as quickly as everyone has hoped.

"How does it look down there, Jeos?"Decimus asked his driver-mechanic.

He looked at his devices around him and nodded.
"All good."Jeos replied.
"Same here."gunner Aulus Maris said, showing a thumbs up and looking through his optics.
Sergeant Decimus Sedvis nodded and reached to his periscope. He looked outside, at the rest of the cohort. The area around them was pretty flat, with only a single road going through the middle of it and train tracks on it's side. Wind moved the grass around them, making this place look truly idyllically. It was a shame, that all of that was being now destroyed by the threads of tanks and wheels of infantry vehicles. But well. War was more important than this.

Due to the openness of the terrain, the cohort was able to fully develop it's advance. Now, thirty six tanks, six others were destroyed beyond repair in the past week, were moving in a wedge formation, with other units of the regiment following closely behind and on other flanks. Three thousand soldiers, all being part of the most elite unit in the entire SoS military. Maybe they had lower numbers than the enemy, but they equaled them with their ferocity and battle hardness. They were no longer inexperienced recruits. Now, they were actual veterans.

They were driving for several minutes, undisturbed by anything. Far in the distance, they could see enemy trenches, with vehicles and soldiers dug in, just waiting for them, with forest behind their backs. Nobody opened fire yet.

But it had to change.

"Artillery!"major Relius shouted in the radio.

Seconds after he said that, first artillery and mortar shells started exploding between advancing units of the regiment. The infantry sitting atop the vehicles was his the most, as shrapnel and chippings were being thrown in all directions, cutting them apart and making them fall under the wheels of other vehicles.

Several shells also scored hits on vehicles. Decimus could clearly see a tank on the far right of the wedge formation being torn to pieces by a well aimed artillery shot. Cyclops recon cars didn't even need to be hit directly. Their thin armor didn't stop the shrapnel from shells landing in close vicinity, changing their insides into a simply meat grinder, when sharp chipping flew in all directions.

But they moved on.

"Holy shit…"Decimus whispered against his will.
"What was that?"Aulus asked.
"Nothing. Ready your gun. Cumulative"

"On it."
The loading carousel in the turret started spinning. Soon, a cumulative shell landed into the gun. Shells slowly stopped raining on them, after chipping away on some of their man and vehicle power.

"All units, open fire."Geded ordered in the radio.

But the enemy side was faster. Before SoS' troops could realize, smoke trails left by enemy anti-tank missiles appeared and said missiles flew towards the advancing force. Some tanks and other vehicles deployed the decoys, but there was one thing they didn't know.

When 10th Armored Brigade joined with 74th Mechanized Brigade, they brought their entire arsenal with them. And that arsenal also included laser-guided Svenson missiles, which only needed the weapon operator to keep an eye on the enemy vehicle. So decoys were not going to work on them.

This was clear for Decimus and everyone else, when the missiles reached the advancing line and started detonating. Several vehicles went out of commission immediately, including several Leo-21s from Decimus' cohort. Their burning wrecks were slowly left behind by the advancing formation.

But SoS was not idle. Immediately, they started firing back on the defenders. Shells, bullets and missiles flew in the direction of the trenches. Taurusians immediately hid, trying to survive the onslaught. Meanwhile, defending vehicles also opened fire and soon, numerous trails of munitions were cutting in both directions.

In his command point, just behind the line of trenches, colonel Ornatson watched through binoculars as enemy forces continued to move forward. Just like numerous times before, they seemed to not slow down, although they already took pretty serious losses. And from what Gron knew from POWs, 1st Armored Legion was the most elite unit in Zorzal's army, comprised fully of non-clone soldiers. So such losses would be hard to replenish.

"These guys are something else."colonel said.
"Indeed."sergeant Ril agreed."What should we do?"

"How far is 10th?"

Ril looked at the comms officer, which sat in the back of communication vehicle.

"Royal Alnus Armored Combat Battalion is just five minutes away from our current position."the comms officer replied.
"Good. And how long before these guys reach the field?"

Commander of brigade's engineers saluted.
"Just three more minutes."he replied.
"Good. Continue, then."

"Yes, sir."

Colonel Geded looked through the periscope of his tank. He was, of course, going in the back of the regiment, but his tank had the periscope set higher than the others, so he could look over the formations of his units. He could clearly see how enemy lines were coming closer and closer with every second. Just few more minutes, and they will finally get there and eliminate these pests, which constantly slowed them down.

"All units, continue advancing."he said to the radio.

"Yes, sir."everyone replied.

Next, Geded changed the frequency and called general Margas.
"General Margas, this is colonel Geded."he said.
"We can hear you."Margas replied."How are you doing?"

"We're moving forward. Enemy is trying to stop us, but they aren't doing the best job at it."

"Good to hear that. Move on."
"Of course, sir."

With that, the call ended and colonel returned to observing the battlefield.

The advance continued, although more and more regiment's vehicles were being destroyed and soldiers killed. But there were also losses among defenders, when some lucky shot landed right in the trench. Although they were stopping the enemy advance, Nordian soldiers knew, that sooner or later, they will finally break through.

"Are they there yet?"Ornatson asked.
Commander of the engineers looked at soldiers accompanying them. They looked at the tablets they were holding and nodded.

"Ready, sir."commander said.
"Then let's start the fireworks."Gort said."Communications, transmit to all units: DEDALUS."

"On it, sir."comms officer said.

Soon, the signal was sent to all units of the brigade.

Decimus Sedvis continued to observe the whole advance, while one after one, shells left the barrel of their vehicle. They could see explosions among enemy lines, but didn't know, if any of them actually done anything.

"I think they're falling back."Aulus suddenly said.
"What?"Decimus and Jeos asked.

"Yeah, their vehicles are clearly backing off."

Sergeant quickly looked back into his periscope. Aulus was right. Enemy was leaving their trenches.
"All units, the enemy is retreating."Geded said in the radio."You are to chase them and capture them. Eliminate if needed."
"Sir, yes, sir."Relius said."Alright, everyone. Let's finish this."

"On it, boss."company commanders and captain Julius said.
"Let's move it."Julius ordered.

"Yes, sir."Decimus said."Floor it, Jeos."
"Sure thing."Jeos replied with clear excitement in his voice.

And so, the entire cohort, as well as numerous other units, picked up the pace, hoping to capture the escaping enemy troops. After all, the more enemies you kill, the more glory you will receive. That was one of the many rules in SoS' military. And one many sought after the most.

Commander of the engineers watched as all allied units leave their positions, falling back to meet with Falmartian battalion. But he himself, and several of his soldiers, stayed behind to make sure, that everything would work out as planned. And looking at how eagerly the enemy seemed to go after the withdrawing soldiers, it seemed that it will work.
"Can we start, sir?"one of the soldiers asked.
"Start the fireworks."commander replied.

Engineers just grinned, knowing, what was about to happen to the poor fuckers from the enemy army. And so, they pressed the detonator.

Meanwhile, major Relius observed the field before the advancing cohort and rejoiced, knowing that this will be an easy victory, not like the ones before. These were minor setbacks, but today, they will finally be able to do, what had to be done. And Relius was sure, that after this victory, he will be granted the place of Geded, that mindless brute. And he will…

The mine exploded right under his tank. Before Relius realized what happened, the energy from the explosion reached the ammo storage in the hull of the machine and caused the shells stored there to detonate, making the turret fly high into the air.

The same was happening all around, as hundreds of mines set up earlier by the Nordian engineers and sappers were detonated. The result was devastating, as numerous vehicles of the regiment were being torn apart by the sudden explosions. Soldiers inside the APCs were being turned into red mush, tanks had their ammo detonated and lighter vehicles were just too easy to deal with.

"STOP!"Decimus ordered.

Jeous immediately stopped the tank. He did that in perfect moment, as just when he did that, a mine exploded right before them, throwing dirt onto their armor. Two more mines exploded on both sides of the tank, destroying it's tracks. Leo-21's crew could only listen and observe, as all around them, their allies were being torn to pieces.

The sound of explosions was so loud, that even inside of Geded's tank, it was heard as if it happened right next to him. Colonel immediately grabbed his periscope and looked through it, only to see tens of destroyed vehicles and sometimes bodies thrown around.
"All units, halt!"he exclaimed.

The entire regiment stopped dead, observing what was happening.

The mines continued to explode for another three minutes, continuing their reign of destruction on the advancing force. Within just few minutes, majority of most elite mechanized-armored force of the regiment and the division was reduced to simple memory. While they couldn't do anything about it.

When last anti-tank mine exploded, Decimus uncovered his ears and looked at the rest of his crew.

"Are you alive?"he asked.
"Yeah…"Aulus murmured, taking off his helmet and massaging his head."What in the name of Emloy was that…?"
"Dishonorable trap, that's what it was…"Jeos said through gritted teeth.
"Oh, shut up…"gunner snapped.

Decimus reached up to the hatch over his head and slowly opened it. Fortunately, he didn't hear the sound of enemy bullets bouncing off of the armor, so he stated, that it was safe to look out, but just to be sure, he held on the hatch and turned around with it.

Everywhere he looked, he saw numerous pillars of smoke, going into the sky from either destroyed vehicles or holes made by the exploding mines. Not only that, but from all around, he could feel the smell of burning bodies, a grim sign, that many more soldiers would never return back to their families. It was so sickening, the he had to cover his mouth, so he wouldn't throw up because of that.

"1st Cohort, do you read me?"Voice of colonel Geded was heard in the radio.

Decimus immediately dove inside the vehicle, grabbing the radio and pressing he button.
"This is Gladius 1-3, reporting in."he said.
"Good to hear you, Gladius 1-3."Geded said."What's your status?"
Decimus looked at the screen to the side, where he could see the state of the vehicle. Unfortunately, there was some red on it.

"Both tracks destroyed, the turret rotating system damaged. Rest is all blue."he reported.
"Understood. What's the state of your centuria?"

Sergeant Sedvis quickly touched the screen and swept it right, changing the vehicle status to the centuria status. His mouth opened wide, seeing the number of tanks of his centuria that were destroyed. Same was with the beacons, which reported the state of the crew.
"S-Sir…"He gulped."1st Centuria destroyed completely. We're the only survivors."
"Captain Julius?"
"Dead, sir."

There was a moment of silence on the other side.

"Copy that."colonel finally said."Wait for the medical team to come and take care of you. Engineering team will take care of your vehicles and try to recover it."
"Copy that, sir."

Colonel disconnected and fell into his chair. He then looked through his periscope towards the enemy positions. They were already gone, but he could still see some bodies of enemy soldiers. Just bodies.

That's how majority of the battles they fought by the past few days looked. They killed some enemy troops, they retreated after giving them some losses and repeat. He knew, that they were just being slowed down, but if this continued on, there might be no actual veterans left and the whole unit will be just another clone-filled force, like most of the line units.

But there was no time to think about that now. He had to report everything to general Margas. He activated the radio.

June 13

10:27

Cetgard, twenty five kilometers South

"WHAT?!"Margas shouted into the radio.
"They did the same thing again."Geded reported, almost deafened by the shout of the general."They ran."

Margas squeezed the base of his nose, trying to calm himself down. He stopped counting how many such reports did Geded gave him. But this seemed to be the worst of them.

"What are your losses?"he continued asking.

"Seventy five percent of major Relius' cohort and ninety percent of 2nd Mechanized Cohort and 37th Infantry Cohort."
"How did that happen…?"
"They probably used high-power anti-tank mines. Good at destroying tanks, even better at destroying lightly armored vehicles. But our sappers and engineers still have to confirm it."
"Is there anything to confirm?"

"Sir…"
"Shut up."general snapped."You have to pull yourself together, Geded. Stop doing it like a little bitch and just get to it. U-N-D-E-R-S-T-O-O-D?"
"Y-Yes, sir…Right away…"
"Good. Margas out."

With that, general gave the receiver to the comms officer of his staff and turned back to the table. There, he saw rest of his officers, which were currently not engaged in any form of combat with the enemy forces. He came up to the top of the table and sat down. Officers looked a bit anxious after hearing the general.

"Excuse me for that."Margas said."What's on the plate today?"

Officers looked at each other. Operational officer pointed at the screen showing the map of the planet. The blue stain was still growing and even now, unit markers were moving forward.

"By the last few weeks, we made a staggering progress."he said."Our forces, after the minor setback from over a week ago, we regained the momentum and continue our operation towards Leender."

The map then changed, zooming towards the Skandian C.Z. There, it showed the clear frontline between Skandian and SoS' units.

"Unfortunately, our advance towards Erak City didn't go as planned."he said."Enemy managed to collect themselves after our opening attacks much faster than expected and set up a cohesive defense line on the line of Regar-Westix-Le'Huro Highway. As of now, they repelled majority of assaults performed by the 2nd Armored Legion and it's supporting units."

Nobody even twitched at the sound of these news. They were already so far behind the schedule, that they didn't even care about any other setback the enemy inflicted on them. Even such important ones like this.
"However, general Kerrel is currently mounting an attack, aimed at finally breaking through the enemy defense and resuming their advance towards the capital of Skandian Colonization Zone. They plan to launch it within the next five days."
The map then zoomed out and zoomed in again, this time on the Nordian C.Z.

"We're doing much, much better in the Nordian Colonization Zone."tactical officer said."Nordian forces were not as quick to organize and prepare the defense. Additionally, our aircraft managed to destroy majority of their air forces and land forces before they reached the frontline. And although they continue to slow us down, it won't be long, before we manage to actually break through their lines and scatter their forces."

"How long exactly?"Margas asked.
"According to our analysis, just one more week."

"One good news these days."air force officer whispered to his neighbor, which nodded in response.

"However, although we're still advancing on all fronts, though we lost our beginning momentum, we're still having problems."

As he the tactical officer said that, several hatched areas appeared on the area behind SoS' lines. Some were in the cities, others were in the countryside. But all officers sitting at the table were well aware what they meant.

"Partisans."Magas said.

"Yes."tactical officer nodded."Although general Firius' efforts, numerous elements decided to actively oppose us. They started attacking our resource depots and our patrols. Not only that, but several our officials fell victim to them, like newly appointed governor of Xirum, who was assassinated yesterday."
"How did that happen?"Margas asked.
"His column was driving through the city, when several grenades landed on it's way. They caused some confusion, but then numerous attackers opened fire from the windows. They managed to escape after that, but our forces are looking for them."

General shook his head. They came in, started arresting, killing and raping left and right. And these nobodies still had the audacity to resist them. They were gonna pay for this when they end their conquest.

"Is there anything else?"air officer asked.

"One more thing."tactical officer said.

Once more, he pointed his pointer at a known point.
"Lacinta Hill."he said."Due to the current slip in our time limit, headquarters in the Dominion gave us new directives."
"What are they?"commander of mechanized brigade asked.

"Due to the fact, that we're approaching Utgard, our new directives are as follows: we are to capture the city and move our forces to starting positions which will allow us to take the town. But before that, our agents will eliminate enemy sappers, which according to them, are setting up charges aimed to blow up the bridge over the river flowing through the town. 100th Air Mobile Brigade will then secure the crossing."

"So now, instead of taking that place after taking Erak City, we have to take it after Utgard?"another officer asked.
"Yes."
Officers and Margas nodded.
"Is that everything?"general asked.

"Yes, general."

Margas stood up.
"This is it for now. Dismissed. Return to your tasks."he ordered.
"Sir, yes sir!"they all replied, giving a Saderan salute.

Then, they left the command tent.

June 13

14:56

Emloy, Flareian System

The dust storm on the horizon was becoming larger and larger with every minute. Waves of red dust continuously danced in the air, just reminding about the sheer power of nature, which was much more powerful than anything Human could do.

That was what was going through Seyi's mind, as she sat on top of her walking tank with the rest of her crew. The vehicle was placed on one of the high rock towers, which could be met all across the planet. Machines fortunately had great climbing capabilities, which allowed them to easily get to higher vantage points.

They were eating some rations provided by the Falmartian military, which they had stored all across the planet. However, due to the ongoing invasion, some of them were lost, when some of the warehouses in which they were stored found themselves within the range of first enemy landings. Nobody knew how much did they have of them and for how long, but they just had to go along with it.

"This sucks."Eiko stated, pouting."This thing is worse than the crap I was eating when I was on a school trip in elementary school."
"Don't whine."Yuzu said."At least we have something to eat."
"Yeah."Michael said, in a rare instance of agreeing with Yuzu."But I still miss all those donuts, sandwiches and all these desserts we had back home at base…"
"Don't torture me…"Eiko cried.

"Stop arguing."Seyi said, taking a spoonful of tuna from the can."At least we have better than in the cities."

Others had nothing to say about that.

It wasn't a secret, that before the invasion on the planet, food and water supplies were running out. There were shipments ongoing, but the war stopped all of this. Now, after just few weeks of defense, these supplies started running out once again. The governor and his office were well aware of the unrest they were about to experience, if all the most important supplies run out completely. This is why they decided to fill in the lacks in supplies with military rations, rationing them as much as they could, so it would be enough for both the civilians and the military.

This, of course, wasn't accepted by everyone and crowds took to the streets in the biggest cities of the planet. And as always in such circumstances, majority of these protests turned into full-on riots. In many of these instances, police was not enough and governor Diablo was forces to actually bring the military to the streets. Several skirmishes with the rioters occurred, what resulted in, unfortunately, casualties in both order forces as well as rioters. Twenty five soldiers and police officers and seventy eight rioters died, while over 3400 people were arrested. And, much to everyone's dismay, it turned out that many of the riots inspirers were actually aligned with SoS' intelligence services, which they admitted after a round of interrogations.

Now, military had to not only stop the invading force, but also sweep the planet, looking for any more enemy agents, and patrol the streets, so no more such things happened again. Many said that it was a miracle these food riots didn't lead to the collapse of the planet's government.

"Yeah, but it's still sad."Eiko said."These people were just scared of starving to death."

"We all understand that, but sometimes, there is no other way."Seyi sighed.

They continued eating in silence for the next few minutes. They were on the lookout for any passing enemy convoys. After all, just one hundred kilometers East of their position was a refugee camp, where numerous people escaped from their homes, which were now under the control of Sons. One could only think what would happen, if they got there.

"Sir."came the voice from the radio.

"There it goes."Seyi said.

She quickly finished her ration and jumped inside the vehicle, grabbing the radio.
"This is Jester King, what is it?"she asked.
"Jester King, this is Laughing Maniac."the voice on the other side said."Our drones noticed enemy convoy moving East."
"How far?"
"Around twenty kilometers."

"Alright, got it. You are allowed to move out, as well as the others."

"Yes, sir."

The call ended and Seyi looked through the hatch in the turret.
"We're go, everyone."she said."Enemy convoy approaching."
"Alright then."Yuzu said, finishing her can."Another work."
"I want it all to end already…"Eiko sighed.
"As do we."Michael said, coming closer to her.

He wrapped her arm around her, trying to calm her down.

Seyi smiled at this sight. It was true that the two of them never let an opportunity for a lewd joke slip, but under all that, they were feeling a true love towards one another. It was something, that Seyi truly admired. And she knew, that Yuzu also did, although she never liked to openly talk about her feelings.

"Okay everyone, man the vehicle."Seyi said.
Eiko, Yuzu and Michael quickly jumped into the tank. Soon after, they were on their way to stop the enemy convoy.

XXX

We're ending here for today. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and remember to leave a review, follow and favorite. It will be highly appreciated!