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“Inquisitor,” – Lilith spoke urgently. “We have been almost ready to secure the surrender of the rebel leadership, but we have been then attacked by some individuals, who as I understand are members of the local priesthood. We have escaped only barely with our lives. The unfortunate news are that the local priesthood are the true operator behind the ‘rebellion’ so to speak. They have attempted to violate the protection that tradition vests envoys with, and murder both us and the rebel representative. Only through the swift action of my bodyguards, and also the professionalism of this ship’s crew, were our lives saved.”

"Oh, Army General Lilith Nikitina is that so?" the Inqusitor said in a rather smooth and friendly voice, as a smile spread over the haflings face revealing a fine row of teeth that had an odd barely noticeable blueish tint to them, the kind of smile one could imagine sharing a cold flagon of mead or a warm horn of ale in a tavern with. His friendly face turning to the captain of the ship next to the general. "I will remember to include the good captain in my report in that case!" he said while Holger looked a bit uneasy about the whole situation, if that was because he did not like being in the center of attention, or if he was on the report of one of the only organisations that had jurisdiction over the military in the same manner civilians generally left uneasy if there were a policeman around was a bit less certain though. A bit of an uncommon situation in the federation since the military had their own representative in the government so they technically did not answer to it but were part of it.
"I would of course be more than willing to hear out any information from the heroes that took out the clerical leadership of our foes, the radio chatter from the foemen have been quite abuzz with it, the whole clerical council gunned down by a small group of Allanean commandos!" He continued as he fished up a rather ornate wooden box from one of the pockets of his leather coat. It was a rather fancy looking thing made from polished blood oak, grey with red streaks in it, embedded in the expensive wood were ivory figures, in what at a distance looked like a cluttered mess but on closer inspection revealed to be a battle, naked warriors no larger than a fingernail were interlocked in a frozen war with sheets of leaf silver laying over the figures armour and weapons while their hair was similarly covered in gold. It was hard to tell exactly when the battle took place but the long chainmails and primitive helmets seemed to suggest a period of around 1000 years ago.
"Chewing sticks?" he offered opening the ornate box revealing a velvet covered inside with dried blueish sticks. There were two kinds, some of them had a course texture and a more greyish hue to them. Seemingly suggesting that they still had their bark on them. The other selection of sticks were more polished in nature and had a whiter hue to them suggesting that they had, had their bark removed entirely.
"If my reports are to be believed so had the son of the Uglait taken up leadership of the enemy for now!" he continued to explained as he raised his eyebrow and looked in the direction of Sagil that looked even more uncomfortable than Holger did, for more obvious reasons in her case though.
"Though, I would be more than delighted to hear the Army General's version of events as your choice of words seemed... if you excuse my interpretation, less certain of your victory?"

“Inquisitor, here the events as I know them, and as my men can confirm.” - Nikitina said. “We have met with Sagil, or Sagli, I am not sure, Kha’bin. She represented Uglait Bolug Kha'bin in the negotiation s, promising his abdication and the full compliance with the demands of the lawful king, in return for his clemency. However once the negotiations were complete, a group of clerics appeared, together with a very large retinue, and demanded that we betray Lady Kha’bin’s trust and the honor of the negotiations, and hand her over for them to be executed, which of course we could not do. We threw smoke grenades and cast smoke spells, and fired our rifles to deter the enemy pursuing. If we hit anyone through the smoke I view this as a miracle. Then we got into our helicopter and flew off, and it appears it had been damaged on the way out and will require a full rebuild.”

"yes, though that might be a bit optimistic General..." the hafling said, looking over towards the ship and the burnt out husk of a helicopter that was sitting on the ship that took the general into the harbour. A bunch of sailors and deckhands were having a heated argument on the ship about it from the looks of things and were angrily gesturing at one another. A crane had been moved up to support but since it was designed to pick up the heavy standard federal cargo containers rather than helicopters did there seem to be some issues about how exactly to get it off without breaking it further. The hafling however shrugged and took a piece of chewing stick and broke off the tip that he started to chew on before with the well reversed certainty of someone that had done the action thousands of times closed the lid of the box and put it back into his coat since his kind offer had been ignored.

"Well, I am sure we can talk about it and get his royal highness, may his name eternally be blessed, permission to conduct the negotiations general!" he said with a quick nod, "Would you follow me please, I have an automobile we can use to talk to in more private! Your men and the prisoners will be well taken care off!" he said as he gestured to an automobile that stood at the far end of the harbour where the city started. A few guards stood around it, some in the horizon blue of the Standard federal warm weather uniform, and some interestingly in the old local uniforms. Looking almost identical to the ones that had been worn by the men that attacked the general earlier but instead of red so did they have the familiar royal blue colour that were used by the federation in combat operations.
"But allow me to introduce Greta auf Lejonkulle from the foreign relations advisory!" he said nodding to the woman in the white robes of the foreign relations advisory. Her skin was dark brown and her hair was combed back and had limestone powder in it, both of which seemed to suggest that she hailed from Imerian Africa, however it was hard to tell if that was the realm she came from or just her ancestral home. She did however have a very broad nose and thin lips that sadly enough made the nose look even broader giving her a rather ugly appearance.
"And his lordship Ek auf Bjornholme from the internal affairs advisory!" The hafling continued nodding to the man in the grey robes of the internal affairs advisory. He looked very obviously like someone that hailed from Sydvinland, big and broad he was in stature with the hooked nose that was so common for that breed. His eyes were the blue of Scanderans but his hair was black and his skin very tanned and even dark in complexion. The hafling inqusitor quickly turned around and led the group to the automobil. A rather huge one at that that comfortably held the group.
"now... what was this deal your generalship made out with the rebels exactly?" Greta put in, opening her voice for the first time as they entered the car.
"And if you do not mind me asking!" the hafling also put in "how exactly did this escape of yours take place? I take it that you find it very unlikely that you were able to kill the entire clergy that tried to arrest you?"

“Let me repeat myself.” – the Allanean said. “I have no idea. We were far more interested on leaving safely with the lady whose protection we were honor-bound to guarantee, than on scoring kills. We therefore retreated expeditiously, firing automatic weapons and laying down a field of smoke to cover our retreat. I believe some machinegun fire was also laid down when the helicopter was airborne. I would not be surprised if someone was killed by it, and maybe several someones. However the rumor that we have wiped out some vast force of clerics, that seems preposterous!”

"And yet... this is the official statement from the enemy camp!" the hafling said, a joyous smile spreading on his lips. His teeth and most of his mouth had by now gotten a rather odd blue hint to it as he had chewed his chewing sticks.
"Indeed, quite odd..." Ek said, his face however lacked the smirk of the hafling, a confused frown was instead spreading over his lips as Greta looked a bit puzzled too.
"Quite a predicament, this source comes from the highest levels of the enemy themselves, and the clerical council seems to have all vanished in favour of a new ducal government as the leading faction... yet, you yourself said that you were unlikely to have inflicted the damage that the enemy reports claim... that is quite a riddle we have before us..." the hafling said, thoughtfully taking out a small pocket vial made from silver. He unscrewed the top and spat a blueish jell like substance into it before quickly closing it. His eyes were now locked firmly on Nikitina as a suprised sound escaped the lips of the dark woman in the white robe.
"Now general... why might that be I wonder?" he said as Ek's eyes darted between the hafling, general, and woman, apparently not making whatever connection that the Hafling and Greta had made.

Nikitina pondered:

"I see a few options. One, it could be that we were extremely lucky, and managed to shoot a whole bunch of important people somehow. It is not impossible per se, but you can see how it is somewhat unlikely.

Another could be that the Duke's forces had ordered the clerics killed - quite understandably under the circumstances.

Yet another could be that the clerics are quite alive and still with us, and this is being spread to us as disinformation. The easiest way to check would be to attempt to send an encrypted message to the enemy leadership and see if they are willing to proceed on the terms that they had previously offered."

"Oh! Yes the ducal government seems to have been very interested in negotiations, The crown has however been a bit on the non-committal side about the whole issue, as we are still not exactly aware what those terms are! There is one thing that is a bit curious to me at least..." The hafling said. "The ducal faction lacked support so I am a bit sceptical that they would be able to start a coup on their own.... the clergy would be spread out all over the state so the ducal faction would be spread too thin to pull that off! But they did luck out that you and your party showed up and gathered them at the same place where they could overpower them if we are talking about the ducal faction killing off the clergy!" he continued.
"They certainly where lucky in that case that the clerics somehow got a hold of your meeting and showed up and that the ducals were able to react in a record speed to strike at the clerical party!"

"Their terms are in brief, abdication of the Duke, surrender to the King's laws, in return for clemency and a preservation of the Duke's House."


.

"Seems fair! Those terms could most likely be arranged!" Greta said with a quick nod.
"But... there is just one thing that really bothers me, why did the entire clergy show up to stop a minor negotiation held by a woman that even lacks a position in the line of succession!" The hafling continued, his eyes turning into a frown for once as he pondered that last part.

"Because they wanted to have evidence to go after the Duke?" - Lilith suggested. "Look, it's fundamentally the King's decision to make. I'm just waiting here until the Field Army arrives to help you out."

"In my experience revolutionary regimes tends not to need evidence..." the hafling begun and shrugged "They are however federal subjects and the high culture could have rubbed off on them I suppose! However your generalship would I request your permission to interrogate your men as to get a proper complete picture of the events. I am also sure that the military command would be more than interested in your battle report if our command were given high enough clearance to read such a document of course, not everyone is willing to share documents of that nature even with their close friends!"

Nikitina blinked at the word "interrogate", before realizing that there had perhaps been a misunderstanding, and then spoke: "I am the Commander of the Free Kingdom forces in theater. I will authorize the release, to your analysts, of the helmet cam footage from my troops, which I hope will replace the need for any debriefing you might need to do, and furthermore I'll dictate an incident report outlining our official view of what transpired, which I hope will satisfy your need for information. Is this an appropriate solution?"

"Oh, please do not take offence at the inqusitors words!" Greta quickly cut in, her training as part of the foreign relations advisory quickly jumping on the conversation and doing damage control.
"You know what intelligence operatives are like, for that sort it is all cloak and dagger, and they see enemies all over the place and have a hard time telling friend from foe!" she continued giving the hafling an angry glare as the short man simply shrugged.
"But in the defence of my countryman, I must admit that the language barrier can result in some unintentional insults, in the good old tongue the word interrogate does not has the same meaning and could be everything between a school teacher interrogating his charges on the runes or a police officer giving a lad a stern talking to to tell who his friends were before sending him on his way after a beating to scare him off his rascally ways! However the term I believe my fellow countryman intended to use was 'interview'!"

"I am however more than happy that our gracious comrades is willing to allow us to see whatever it is your feet were able to comb!" she continued cheerfully
"I am more than sure that it will be more than helpful for whatever the inquisitor had in mind!" She finished, the last comment made the hafling and the noble from the internal affairs advisory look at one another with an awkward look. Greta on the other hand continued to smile warmly and friendly, not entirely sure what cam footage was but deciding to bluff and hope for the best. Federal troops after all were not in the habit of carrying cameras on them and as with the hafling were there a bit of a language barrier since Scanderans preferred the term "motion picture camera!" over the more simplified term cam and rather than footage did they still continue to refer to it simply as motion pictures.

With a sigh Lord commander Olof auf Rosenborg took a look at the map, official offers for surrender from surrounded foes, one assault had failed at the road up towards Etz'Kalir that would have secured one of the few passes over the ridge that cut through the main island, the only remnant of what had once been a truly terrifying volcano in eons long since gone. However after having made a rather ill planned assault the local officer had officially challenged the enemy officer to a duel over the pass. The officer in question had died and the Imerian regiment had surrendered to local troops in accordance with the conditions of the duel which was a bit annoying but still firmly in accordance to the rules of war. However despite this were a huge scramble to redeploy units going on in an attempt to deny the enemy the opportunity to raid behind federal lines. The commander sighed again and took up a fine crystal bottle with a golden medallion placed in the centre depicting a young man fighting against a massive gull the size of a grown bear. The bottles head was a stuffed seagulls head which he quickly removed to pour the brackish liquid out into a small horn.

The commander grimaced as the odd bird taste mixed with alcohol hit his taste buds, emboldened by the alcohol did he turn his attention back to the map and the horrific mixtures of retreating enemies, re-deployments, demands for supplies, and now of course requests as where to deploy an entire Allanean field army. The paperwork for such a massive deployment alone was enough to make him frown as he poured himself another horn of the broth tasting alcohol.

He sighed heavily as he finally decided to write up a quick letter asking for the Allaneans to supply his men with every officer in their service heraldic emblems, and titles. Would any be lacking he would of course be willing to have the royal heraldic collage temporary issue them from the high king. But he also needed to have a collection of soldier names, names, and finger prints from both nobles and enlisted men alike to help in case the men being captured or falling on the field of honour, routine stuff. The letter also included a few pointers about how one could attempt to smooth out logistical issues that always arose when two different military organisations needed to co-operate.

He suggested that they tried to fill out every form and requisition in the good old tongue as to avoid problems translating things back and forth between English and Imerian. He added the suggestion that maybe the Allanean commanders could be invited to a ritual and sacrifice to please Igler the rosetouched, the rosetouched patron of military logistics. and other similar and obvious things that would make co-operation between the two military groups more bearable. The only thing he really needed now was a good target and one did provide itself rather quickly. Etz´kalda, the largest and most northernmost city in the region, would the Allaneans be able to conquer it so would this be a massive victory and give the royals much less negotiating power when the negotiations finally begun, however the time was of the essence since the enemy was in total collapse on the front and the enemy was putting out feelers for a peace.

With a finally pour of the broth alcohol did the commander put his own seal of it and decided to page the Allanean commander about it.
"BJORNVALD!" he roared as a young man wearing the commanders heraldic emblem embroidered on the young lad's tunic peaked in to the room, another bottle of the gull wine resting on a silver tray the young page was holding.
"Yes my lord commander?" the page asked
"I need you to deliver this letter to ur allies, be quick about it will you... oh and leave the bottle, I will need that for later!"

Federal and Royal high command, Izalta, Etz'Male
“Well there is this last stronghold in the north I suppose around Etz’Kalda, those are cleric loyalist and are not involved in the peace talks, would the city fall would we be in a better negotiating position, just throw a whole field army at them supported by a guard assault ought to take the city in no time if we are able to take them unaware!” The lord commander Nils Frankerberg muttered as he stroke his well shaved chin for a moment and let the thick bushy moustache that rested on his upper lip dance in contemplation.

“Would that not be rather risky to launch a naval landing that way? We lack information and we have not really planned any operation like this… I think we only have ten destroyers to put into an operation like this… though we still keep the naval infantry ready and they have a few autogyro carriers!” An elven woman wearing the loose robes of the tross. The woman worriedly flipped through a few notes and nodded a quick nod to a young boy that quickly and helpfully pointed at a few ships and carved soldiers in the white and blue uniforms.

“Ought to be fine, anywhere else we would just put more troops at already collapsing lines, besides we will catch them utterly unaware! The hammering we have been giving them and their own internal issues ought to give them more than enough to worry about to miss an approaching navy!”

“Now our troops will approach through the Obsidian reef from the south heading straight for the enemy city, land on the shores and march quickly at the enemy city, they should be taken unawares and bring a heavy blow to any pro-resistance factions!” Nils added quickly as he stuck the map with a walking stick as quite a few officers and adjutants around the table gave one another a few unsure glances. Other men simply applauded over the plan.

“Now inform our allies about our plan, throw them the auf Olofssen maps of the region that ought to show the proper topography and local areas to determine our approach and objectives!”

“Aye sire! Sending the plan of attack and the auf Osterssen maps to our allies!” one young adjutant said firmly and saluted as he picked up the papers from the scribes and ran off.

“I think his lord commander sa….” the elf woman begun but were interrupted again as Nils waved his hands “Jungfrau Erikasdottir how do we look as far as supplies looks for our own troops for this operation?”

“We will be hard pressed to get them relocated sire but I think we really should…”

“Well excellent, we will be ready for a jolly good push then to finish this lovely war off then, you may leave and start to do whatever magic might be done with the numbers and what not!” he said as the elf curtsied quickly with an unhappy look on her face.

---

From:His Lordship commander Nils auf Frankerberg
To: The forces of His royal highness Alexander auf Blaken-Kazansky king of Allanea and Greater Prussia operating in the Iztala in support of The Absolute Royal Federation
Regarding: Glorious push for victory.
Encrypted: No

---

Mi lord I am writing on the behalf of the honoured lord commander Nils auf Frankerberg, we have received the banners carried into battle for the honoured annals and chronicles of the krigsmakt and his royal highness, may his household eternally reign wherever light shines!

After careful deliberation and command has his Lordship and commander Nils auf Frankerberg decided that your forces are to gather south of the islands and heading north through the region known as the Obsidian sea, in two days time, joining up with federal forces are our glorious arms will head straight north making a landing from the south and move straight towards the city of Etz’Kalda capturing it for the crown hopefully such a simple operation will be able to knock out any further resistance entirely. To aid the planning and operations of both our forces have we included the maps drawn by the famous cartographer Björn Auf Osterssen drawn in the year of our kingdom 1533.

With glory and unity will our great assault break any resistance for thusly is the wishes of his royal highness, blessed for eternity be his name, and the shimmering God of war, silver forged Bel.

Glory for those who fight and may the fallen eternally feast in the halls of the gods!

---

Signed and approved by:
His Lordship commander Nils auf Frankerberg

From:His Lordship commander Nils auf Frankerberg
To: Her Generalship General Lilith Nikitina, commander of The First Izalta Field Army
Regarding: Glorious push for victory.
Encrypted: Yes

---

The issue here is of course the situation on the ground and the total route of the enemy troops in the theatre, we are roughly certain of how radical elements are positioned and would prefer not to strike down units on the verge of surrender. However would your generalship feel like strike from the North east to reach the eastern shore would be more advantageous could we honour such a request, however due to the positions of federal and royal ships would it require relocation and replanning from our side.

We will also plan to test the loyalty of a part of the enemy troops that turned coat back to the side of his royal highness in the course of the war as such will our naval landings be supported by a land push by locals in the hope of the enemy to lose heart more due to any such assault. With good luck I hope that the Allanean general staff might join us conducting victory sacrifices to the gods when the land operation finally are over.

May our blades be honoured in glorious combat and that the fallen may drink deep in the halls of the warriors heaven!

---

Signed and approved by:
His Lordship commander Nils auf Frankerberg

The Allaneans moved swiftly along the shores of Iztala. Where their fleet had been prepared for a full-blown war, the collapse in rebel morale had made their approach much easier than they expected. Soon enough, the engineers began to work at the beach section the Fleet had prepared for its landing, with pontoon piers being erected to allow the troopships to dock at what had, only a few days ago, been a pristine beach.

Within a day, the first tanks and vehicles began to stream ashore, first down one pier, then using two, and then three piers. Bulldozer engines roared as the Allaneans began to fortify their beachhead with the meticulousness for which they had long been known in this affair. From the air, the beachhead looked as if it had been decorated in a filigree network of trench and wall, with vehicles embedded at key points in fighting positions, like jewels placed in an ornate necklace.

In the skies, aircraft patrolled to warn of a rebel counterattack, although with every hour that passed, such a counterattack would grow less likely.

With every hour, the Allanean landing force grew stronger, waiting only for the Imerians to commence their final charge on the traitors.

The in the distance one could hear the blowing of horns calling for valour and glory, restore the honoured federation, give glory unto the king. This was returned by other hornblows screaming for resistance and to fight for the glory of god and independence as short as it had been. For Björk and his men this was all distractions, it had been scant hours since they had dismounted their demi-tracklayer and begun the push into the last remnant strongholds by foot. Armed for woodland combat did the squad move forward one fire team at a time, leaping forward under cover as their machineguns and fully repeating pistol rifles and proper rifles covered their advance, prepared to lay down fire at that dreadful sight of foemen.
"KRACK" a rifle rang out before them.
"FOEMAN AHEAD, BY THE GLORY OF THE KING, PRAISE UNTO HIS NAME, COVERING FIRE!" Screamed the corporal as Björk threw himself to the ground seeing hints of red uniforms in the dark woodland.
"KRACK KRACK KRACK KRACK!" The thunder of a machinegun started to roar.
"FIRE SECTION! FORWARD!" Björk could hear a roar as he roses up mechanically and started to run forward bayonet attached. His comrades in arms starting to open fire at the enemy ahead as he dove down behind a couple of rocks, readied himself as he breathed heavily, the short advance seemingly taken his breath out of him, but he knew it was mostly nerves that kept him down.
"TAKE AIM! FIRE!" he heard the roar of the corporal as he rose up from behind the rocks in a postion that allowed him to fire but still keep somewhat safe. With careful well aimed fire did he see the bright radiant lines of tracer fire move forward at the position the enemies could be seen at. At the corner of his eye could he see movement as sky blue, white, and yellow shapes moved forward and dove down into positons halfway between them and the hole the enemy was now pinned down in.
"GLORY UNTO US! BAYONET AND CHARGE UPON THE FOE! GIVE THEM STEEL AND GRENADE!" He heard screaming again, and without thinking did he realise he had one of the long stick grenades that the federation favoured in his hand with the orb shaped explosion on it as he was now moving forward. It was an odd feeling, he could hear furious screaming from not only the men around him but also himself but he had not taken any decision to scream that he could remember. He saw the grenade fly down amongst the group of foemen that he had spotted as it went off. Hardly stopping to register that did he and his fellow men, joined quickly by the rest of the squad as they all charged forward with bayonets attached and machineguns thundering.
Just one scene amongst countless other as the federation once again begun what could only be considered it's last push towards the enemy strongholds that still remained to them.

---

Halish took a deep breath, the sun was shining, the great warrior god looked down upon them, he knew it, but yet, under heavy pressure all day had the faithful warriors stood their ground, fighting a brutal retreat against the incoming Allaneans. Ironically could one see the Scanderan roots in their fighting style as they fought with the same doctrine, weapons, and skill as any other federal warriors. Similarly to any guardsman in the royal guard did Halish lay down close to the ground with his heavy rifle, he took aim with the KVG-09 that had made the federation famous abroad and amongst her subjects, with the same skill that the federal military boasted proudly about every guardsman being able to shoot down hostiles the moment they came over the horison did he lay down covering fire. For now they waited breathing heavily, a lot of his brothers around him praying, carving runes and promises of glory into their skins and weapons. They had been falling back for a while now, they knew what would come, give ground, let the enemy spread out and extend himself, then push back. These were federal combat doctrines as they had been taught in school and from childhood games.
"GLORY BROTHERS! ATTACH BAYONETS! THE SUN IS SHINING UPON US AND LIKE HIM WE ARE UNCONQURABLE!" came the roar as most of the scattered defenders attached their bayonets, deadly weapons of federal make, same as the ones that were used against them further east, They all knew they were too few, they lacked air support, their artillery were gone, and all the other things their loyalist foes were using to the east. And yet thusly they would go forward, for honour, for the great god Himself. A roar came, and Halish screamed at the top of his lungs as he started to charge forwards to the Allanean line as he could feel and hear heavy fire as his fellow brothers provided covering fire. He dove down behind cover and opened up in turn. Forward, cover, fire, charge, the old lessons taught to every federal child, the song of war. He took another deep breath and screamed again as him and his unit again rose up screaming with their long sword bayonets lowered.

"SHI-SHO! SHI-SHO! SHI-SHO!" Came the response to the from the defenders, sadly enough were the eat shit slaver comments and similar amongst them lost almost entirely on the defenders. Rare was the federal subject that spoke the tongue.
Amongst them was certainly not Shalo ku Ta'Shalish. The sun was shining on his and his fellow fateful as he dove down amongst the cover for a moment before he started to bolt into a small side trench before going up and running backwards. The enemy had reached the first trench and he like most of his fellow soldiers were not going to fight them for it, while he now fought for the god himself and the establishment of a state dedicated to Him had the memories of the rose burners and their king's military not left him. Of defensive lines there should be at least three for three was a mystical number of great potent, he knew this as he and most men around him started to move away from their defensive lines. All around him was the red tunics of Scanderan cut that marked him out as around friendlies.
"Abandon trenches, do not give the foeman your blood, instead fall back to the second line, and then the third, and then give charge!" he remember their officers instructing them. Old lessons and standard combat doctrine as far as Scanderan military tactics were concerned.

His feet was heavy and he felt his mouth felt dry as he ran the last yards, he was covered by his comrades and the machineguns of the second line, that he knew but still, the enemy had hit them heavily from the air and the trenches were not as great as they had once been. Bullets were flying around him and he heard screams as fellow fighters were collected by the Sun Himself. With one last herculean action did he throw himself into the last trench. Breathing heavily did he finally look around at his fellow fighters, most of which were either breathing heavily or smiling at being in safety finally again. Their faces painted the same yellow hue as his own did however have the same determination he himself felt.
It had been but a year or so since they had thrown off the Saschi's dominion and established a realm loyal to the sun amongst all these worshippers of the two faced goddess. He was not willing to see the freedom and glory they had built be washed away by the golden claws of the Golden eagle.
"READY THY SELVES BROTHERS IT IS FOR THE DIVINE GOD WE FIGHT!" A scream could be heard as a naked monk ran amongst them, painted in similar yellow warpaint as Shalo and his fellow warriors. "HE SMILES UPON US THIS SHINY DAY!" The monk roared raising a repeating storm rifle as a cheer went amongst the men. "FREEDOM AND GOD!" They all echoed loudly.

Shalo took a deep look and looked around, the second trench were more impressive than the first one, tracklayers that they still had could be seen even from here in the third trench however, or at least the gunnery towers of them as the rest of them were burred in the trenches, some, he realised to his worry were more ruins than actual fighting vehicle after the heavy bombardment. A group of people came running past, women mostly, some dressed in the black robes with silver mask that painted them as servants of the two faced goddess while others were nuns with red suns painted on them and their nude skin painted in pure white, clear signs of combat medics. The group all carried stretchers that held wounded and dying men on them.

"BROTHERS! TAKE AIM!" He heard people shout and with a terrified gulp did he quickly reload his heavy rifle and rose up, his painted face popping up with countless others their rifles at the ready as they opened fire again. He knew however that this would not slow down the enemy too much, and before too long would they fall back to that final and third trench... and after that... he looked at the sword and bayonet that hung from his right hip. It would come to the charge, but then again... the sun was shining, the great God looked upon them.
"SHI-SHO! SHI-SHO! SHI-SHO!" they all shouted again as the trench exploded in fury, guns made their loud cracks, shell launchers left trails of smoke as they explosive weapons trailed away, and light artillery opened up from whatever positions they had been dragged off to after the bombardment.

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