>>5487769

Opening fire, you unleash a few more shots, cutting down a couple of overenthusiastic Talon soldiers, who ended up charging ahead of the armoured spearhead.

Just as you are about to prepare for a world of hurt, as an IFV lowers its autocannon and directs it straight at you, the sound of jet engines roaring high above grabs your attention and a shower of flames and fury quickly overcomes the enemy armour.

“Colonel Kosmowski, this is Colonel Westre, my entire group had been assigned to assist you. Mark the targets and we will blow them sky high.” Rossana’s cheerful voice quickly comes over the comm. Fucking drama queen. You cannot help but think with a grin on your face. “Roger that, Colonel, I’ll make sure to run your group ragged.”

With air superiority now in tow, you easily push forwards, your entire battalion moving uncontested as the Talon soldiery begin withdrawing as any and all hardpoints that they might set up, any and all spearhead they might launch, is immediately torn to shreds by Westre’s group. Her VTOLs dive with abandon, unleashing precise and accurate barrages of missiles, causing perfectly sized explosives that allow you to push forwards while maintain complete safety for your own men.

“Target buildings in sight.” Westre calls out over the comm. “Orders ?”

“Hold fire, hold fire, they might have underground facilities and strong fortifications, my men and I will have to thoroughly secure the facilities. If you see anyone running away from the AO, blow ‘em kingdom come.” You say, watching the stout and tough prefabs, clearly built to survive artillery bombardments, much less air strikes, which just goes to show that whatever is inside is valuable enough to defend with such structures.

“Colonel, withdrawing enemy forces had further fortified the targeted structures.” Your subordinate says.

“Then we punch through.” You simply say and gesture to your heavy weapons trooper to shoulder his missile launcher. The outside may be tough, but the inside will crumble easily. You thing as the missile sails true, going right into one of the building’s exposed corridor, as the door had yet to shut down due to an endless swarm of retreating soldiers.

“You think they had the both of the airlock’s doors closed ?” You overhear one of your men asking another.

“Judging by the boom, I’d say no.” The other responds.

“Soldiers !” You shout over the comm and watch as both of the men snap to attention. “Forwards advance, secure the buildings !”
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.
.

>>5487771

You step over the corpse as blood slowly continues to trickle from the large bullet hole in the helmet. Luckily, no noble officers had been present in the tight confines of the building, that had allowed you to take with less casualties than you had expected. Your gaze rises from the bodies on the floor and upon the dazzling array of consoles and screens, blinking lights, whom mainly pulse red, showcasing the power coursing through the electrical grid. Your own men had begun securing the facility and digging through every nook and cranny they can find.

“Status report.” You simply throw the order out in the room.

“Bad news or good news first, Colonel ?”

“Just give them to me.” You say with a sigh, you still have more fighting ahead of you, as you do have a dreaded feeling that it will be you sent down to the A.I. core whilst Aurelius sits his ass within the confines of his tank.

“Bad news it is, the moment we hit the base, the defenders sent out an S.O.S. signal, Talon knows that something’s wrong in the area. Only silver lining is the fact that our assault had been effective enough to convince Talon that we have a much larger force than in reality. If nothing else, it should delay their response as they try to assemble a larger force.”

Fuck. “Alright, and ?”

“Good news is the fact that the most recent comm that had come to the base is unencrypted and is stating that the forces we had seen sent out of the base had been ambushed and savaged, they managed to disengage, but Roy forces are blocking their return, as such they are requesting assistance and withdrawing to other friendly locations.”

“That is good news, anything else about our forces, or whomever they went to attack ?”

“Probably, rest of the comms, if stored, are encrypted, it’d take a while to crack through.”

“Grab what you can, I want charges set and the equipment scrapped.”

“Yes, sir !” The man responds as you walk out of the room, you have a report to deliver.

-
(POV shift: You are Lord-Lieutenant-Colonel Carolus Sambor.)

You stumble a bit upon your chair as your tank clears a large gap left by the static defences as rounds whizz pass you, causing more massive explosion directly behind you, creating the very same smoking craters, similar to the one you had just cleared.

“Rounds are bouncing, sir !” Your gunner shouts out.

Quickly switching the camera, you look upon the tall standing prefabs made of metres thick alloys of metal and concrete. As another couple of rounds unleashed by your tanks fly forwards, you watch as the domed structure sees one round simply glance and deflect the blow, whilst the other strikes true, but the sheer amount of armour sees the damage easily absorbed.

>>5487772

Watching the structure, you notice as the main cannon slowly shifts, its large calibre pointing down towards your squadron which had not ceased movement since the moment you had entered the area. You quickly realize that whilst your tanks are continuously bombarded, your mechanized infantry elements are more or less left free to what they will.

“All tanks, primary targets are the prefabs upon the mountain side, close distance and keep continuous fire via cycling, I want the crews there to have full attention upon us.” You quickly change the comm to your infantry elements. “Lord-Captain, I want you and your men to concentrate directly upon the marked barracks here, set charges and detonate the structure, leave no survivors.”

You finish your commands just as your tank rocks back and forth as another near miss had just barely whizzed past the top of your tank, rendering another scar upon the ground next to you.

“Driver, give it all you got, keep us moving.”

Obeying your command, you feel yourself packed onto your seat as the tank begins speeding off. The following five or so minutes are some of the most stressful you had the displeasure of experiencing as you try your damndest to coordinate your squadron is such a way that a tank would emerge to fire upon the emplacements, to only disappear behind some buildings, only for another tank in an entirely different place to emerge and open fire, forcing the enemy to constantly readjust their slow moving main gun upon another target. The difficulty is further increased by the fact that you have multiple of the emplacements to worry about and predict.

It comes like the sound of redemption, the large explosive quickly followed by the crumbling building falling down and collapsing upon its weight, kicking up rubble and smoke. “Lord-Lieutenant-Colonel, target destroyed.” Your subordinate reports.

“Good job, Lord-Captain.” You say, clenching your fist out of excitement. Which is unfortunately doused the moment you turn to regard the defences, as one of the emplacements stops its endless pursuit of your forces in the hope of a mistake, and instead directs its attention to the dust cloud, which is rapidly being dispelled by the powerful wind and rain. It seems you won’t be able to pull off the same trick twice.

>>5487773

As another of the large cannons rumbles, heralding the call of destruction fury, you notice something rather peculiar. Rolling stones. About halfway up the mountain, small pebbles, followed by a couple of larger chunks rolls down with great speed and impacts the copula of the defensive installations. Tracing the mountain side, you watch as a slight crack had form from the nearby explosions, either from your own side, or the sheer shaking unleashed by the firing of hostile cannons, it is slim, barely visible were it not for your own enhanced senses and the capability of the camera your are currently looking through. Taking remote control over the laser turret, you direct towards the mountain, the laser won’t do anything against the defences, the armour being simply too thick, but it will make an excellent marker.

“All tanks, concentrate fire upon the location that I shall mark with laser fire. Unleash everything you’ve got.”

The laser turret obeys and unleashes the beam of red light, burning bright, causing the air around it to boil as the mountainside begins to slowly heat up where you had targeted. And that is followed by a cacophony of explosions as a dozen tanks fire with abandon, their autoloader system struggling to keep up with the sheer rate of fire unleashed by your force. And soon enough, just as a single snowflake after snowflake causes an avalanche, a mountain slide begins, as literal tons of rock begin to fall. A particularly large boulder, around the size of your own tank, smashes right through one of the fortifications, crumbling it from within, causing the damaged structure to collapse upon itself.

And that is followed by a large explosion, as the metric tons of high-explosive ammunition are detonated due to pressure, causing further crumbling of the mountain, causing even more rocks to fall, until eventually, you may have succeeded a bit too much.

“Driver ! Get us out of here !” You say with clear panic in your voice as the rockslide smashes and destroys another one of the barracks right before you. In moments like these, the ingenuity of man is once again powerless against nature’s wrath, especially one caused by human hands to begin with, as the slower elements of your formation are swallowed up by the crumbling rocks.

Taking deep breaths, you hit the comm again. “Status report.” You listen with bated breath, as one after another, your tanks report in positives and eventually, only three APCs alongside their crews do not comm back in that were able to fight before the rockslide. That is when you exhale the breath you had held in your lungs. Those men had died due to your decision, but even more would have died in the attempt to take those defences down in the usual way. Though being crushed by rocks or shot by guns, you don’t really know what is the better alternative.

>>5487775

“Squadron, get prepared to move once new orders arrive.” You finally say, before preparing to report to Lord-Colonel Constance.

-
(POV shift: You are Lieutenant-Colonel Earnan Savin.)

“New orders, we’re to neutralize the base’s motor pool, squadron, move out !” You quickly relay the new set of orders. Hopefully Carolus knocked Talon’s teeth out around the barracks and made sure that all of the tank crews that are there are still confined there.

Swiftly making your way towards the motor pool, you quickly find that you will not have an easy time simply rolling through it as you had expected, the enemy had had enough time to begin starting up and preparing the tanks, as an entire infantry battalion appears to be prepared in the surroundings, alongside what you had wanted to see the least, another Shiva heavy tank. Whilst you were able to run circles around one before, that was because it had no escorts to make up for its weakness of speed and the fact that it was isolated and alone.

And right behind the Shiva are groups of men desperately trying to get their tanks going, which means you cannot simply chip away at the damn thing over the course of an hour as you’d like to.

Suddenly, your tank’s systems start blaring warnings, similar to the ones you had heard a month ago. “To the side ! Dodge !” You call over the comm as twenty missiles sail towards you, the AA capabilities of your entire squadron are unleash in one, but the deflective material with which the missiles are coated, added with a smart guidance system see only about a quarter of them cut down, and each and everyone explodes with a force more than capable of obliterating one of your tanks with a direct hit, immobilizing and crippling if it lands close enough otherwise.

You watch with a small hint of panic as five signals of your squadron cut out, alongside a dozen others from your mechanized escort. It seems that the enemy had been expecting you here and they had gotten quite lucky when it came to the missile barrage.

However, even though you had payed a price, a damned bloody one at that, nuclear material is notoriously fickle, when applied for the purposes of warfare, as such:

“Driver, keep the engine on overdrive, close the gap, the missile pods should still be exposed after that barrage.”

“Sir ?” The man questions your seemingly suicidal order.

“Drive well.” Is your only response.

>>5487776

“…Yes, sir.” With a moment’s hesitation the man replies before speeding off again. And once more, just like the last time, you take direct control of the main cannon. The missile pods are built into the Shiva’s back, with slanting armour specifically made in order to ensure that what you are about to do is an extremely difficult thing to do, but not impossible. Granted, you will need some air for that, but your driver had proven more than capable enough to get you airborne for just a second, for that is all that you need, just a single moment to avenge all of the men that disappeared in mere seconds. The smoke kicked up by the series of explosions shall serve well as camouflage as you approach. That tank had just singed its own death sentence thanks to the very same weapons it had unleashed.

Your mind entirely narrows upon the controls and the feed of the outside camera, you can feel yourself moving within the Gideon as you are moved in various directions, as your driver tries to navigate whatever difficult terrain he currently faces. And finally, you feel it, that sinking feeling of your gut rising in your body, one that many an air jockey feels on a constant basis, one that makes you sick to the stomach, the feeling of being airborne. Lowering the primary cannon as low as you can, to the point where you can hear the sound of metal impacting metal, as the cannon itself hits the side of the tank. You gaze upon the perfectly white looking tips of the missiles still in their pod. Twenty more explosive booms. A direct barrage is not enough to cripple a Shiva tank of such missiles, but one that strikes right at the internals of it ? Now that is an entirely different subject.

With a click, the cannon lurches backwards and the autoloader rushes to change out the expended round, and you yourself busy yourself trying to raise the cannon as far up as you can before you smash back onto the ground. The surprise you feel is quite an interesting one, as you stay airborne longer than you had expected, only now realizing: I may have miscalculated the distance.
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.
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You shake awake, looking around you quickly notice that something is wrong…”Crew, status report.” You finally eek out. Grunts of pain greet from your rather rattled crew. “Everyone’s alive ? Good. Why are we upside down ?” You finally address the elephant in the room.

“We were mere metres from the Shiva…sir.” The driver says.

“I see.” You say, holding onto your hurting side. “Squadron, report.”

“Sir ? Good to hear you’re alive !”

“I am glad as well, now status ?”

“Area secured, sir. Once the Shiva went up, the enemy routed.” He says with an even tone.

“Judging by your voice, I assume the news aren’t all good.”

“No sir. Those were not tank crews that were around the Gideons, sir. They were regular soldiery.”

“Don’t tell me.”

“The tanks have been sabotaged.”

“How badly ?”

>>5487777

“Cold fusion reactors have been emptied, main cannons and railgun barrels have been sabotaged via controlled and isolated thermite, the magnetic coils kicked out of place. The chassis are still intact, but we won’t get them moving, nor firing.”

“Any ammunition inside of the tanks ?”

“No sir, probably the reason why they hadn’t simply blown them up.”

“The enemy infantry ?”

“Disengaged, moving further up North, we had fired upon them best we could, but we didn’t chase them far.”

“Right, get my tank upright, I need to inform the Lord-Colonel.” You say, feeling blood rushing to your head.

-
(POV shift: You are the captain of Vodyanoy company, operating codename – Alpha-1.)

Where’s that damnded noble ? Is the thought running through your head as reports come in from other squads. The main entrance had been nigh on impregnable after you disable the turrets. Still, thanks to the hubris of the local officers, they had viewing windows, and whilst they are exceptionally tough, the connections between them and the proper facility structure is not as powerful, especially when you have breaching charges worth more than you earn in a year at your disposal, another invoice your bosses will have to deliver to duke Roy.

Taking careful steps, you and your men move down one of the main hallways. There are a lot of bodies upon the floor, but none of your squads had reported moving down this area. You take a position besides a door. A more mundane breaching charge is planted by one of your men. The fact those power armoured men and that noble simply disengaged once your men had begun moving in through different entrances is what’s making you so cautious.

The charge blows you throw in and EMP grenade, specially made to disturb the sensors on one’s helmet. Flashes of rifle fire quickly greet you, disorganized and haphazard, you quickly lower your own rifle and fire control burst, the trio of shots rings and a man fall down dead, another trio and another dead man accompanies the first. Your soldiers do the same and only a minute or so later, the room is cleared of all living things, and now only inhabited by six corpses.

“Sweep the room.” You emotionlessly say.

Your comm rings with a request for a connection. “Reading you.”

“Captain.” One of your Lieutenants says. “Your presence is required in the main C&C room, the Lord-Colonel will want your report first hand.”

“Roger, moving.” You say with some curiosity in your voice.

Walking down the corridor, you finally start noticing your own men, and corpses clearly left by the precise fire from your own company, but even then, there are plenty intermixed together that had clearly not been inflicted by your soldiery.

>>5487779

The door leading into the room is already opened up, the pneumatics jammed to ensure that they don’t lower. And you are stopped in your steps. Dead men and women sit around various consoles, the guards appear to have been killed in easy, single, accurate shots. Approaching the main table, upon which is an accurate representation of a hologram of the battle, easily showcasing both hostile and friendly forces, or their presumed locations at least.

And the still warm corpse, spilling blood upon it is what makes this a far more interesting. The body had been turned over on its back by your men, the throat cut, is completely stained red.

“Identified uniform, Major-general. Most likely the CO of the base.” Your Lieutenant says. “Based on genetic sequencing, a noble. Already put his DNA through the database, will know his identity soon enough.”

“Is the information still intact ?”

“Some, most had been deleted, destroyed or corrupted.” Justas you had expected. “But.” He says, facing you. “The info directly relating to the dispassion of local Talon forces is completely intact.”

“Can it be verified if it is fake ?”

“Hard to say. Either someone wanted for us to find it, they made a mistake, or we simply got lucky.”

“Either way, the Lord-Colonel will want to know this.”

Another ping draws your attention. “Captain, we located an underground tunnel, leading to the West.” Another one of your officers reports.

“Hold position, I am coming over.” You say moment before stumbling upon feet. The entire structure shakes in a rhythmical manner. “What the hell’s happening ?!” You say generally into the room.

“Enemy mountain side fortifications had begun firing upon the HQ, they are really going at it !”

“Start gathering all the info you can !” You shout out as another round smashes into the HQ.

-
(End of POV shift.)

A line of reports had been continuously streaming from all of your forwards elements. Great successes all around, all things considered.

“Lord-Colonel, enemy forces had begun an organized withdrawal to the East.” One of your lesser officers reports.

“Across the front ?” You question.

“Affirm, sir.”

“Roger, hold position for now.” You reply and watch as the last of the infantry battalion you had pinned against the wall be annihilated as your tank continuously fires its railguns without end, as the exposed infantry is being mowed down to the last, whilst further to your East, another battalion had been encircled by your own infantry elements and is also now being completely overrun. Looking upon the reports given, you also quickly notice that to the West, another grouping of Talon forces had gathered together, this time around the protection of a couple of heavy Shiva tanks. That will be difficult to overwhelm. You idly think.

File: Battle around mountains 2.png (627 KB, 4441x1948)

627 KB PNG

>>5487782

“Sir, Talon forces are in full withdrawal.” Another one of your officers reports. “They seem to be abandoning the base in its entirety.”

As you start pondering your next move, your comm once again begins ringing. “Reading you, Captain.”

“Lord-Colonel, the enemy is attempting to destroy the HQ. There is intelligence here about Talon force disposition, we had found enemy CO of the base dead, his presumed killers appear to have escaped through an underground tunnel. My force had suffered during the battle, I can secure the intel and ensure the safety of the HQ, or go after the enemy in the tunnels, but not both.”

>”If what you’re saying is true, I want that intelligence, it could easily swing the war in our favour.”

>”Someone is dedicated in hiding their tracks, chase after them, what they know may be even more valuable than what we have here.”

>”I don’t care about your opinion Captain, secure both.”

>(Write in)

Then there’s the matter of the routing Talon forces, you are aware that they called for reinforcements, how far, and where they are is unknown, and there’s the potential of overextending yourself.

>It is a rare opportunity like this, whilst they are withdrawing in good order a powerful enough force can make it a true rout. (What forces and against which retreating element ?)

>Your presence here is known, I’d be best to secure what you came to secure and move back to friendly lines.

>(Write in)

Previous threads:

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5347117/

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5386850/

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5430067/

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>>5487783
>”Someone is dedicated in hiding their tracks, chase after them, what they know may be even more valuable than what we have here.”
>It is a rare opportunity like this, whilst they are withdrawing in good order a powerful enough force can make it a true rout. (air force and our elite tanks)

>>5487783
>>”If what you’re saying is true, I want that intelligence, it could easily swing the war in our favour.”
It is clear to me now that there is a third party meddling in the civil war between the houses. We should keep our nose clean.
>Your presence here is known, I’d be best to secure what you came to secure and move back to friendly lines.

>>5487783
>”Someone is dedicated in hiding their tracks, chase after them, what they know may be even more valuable than what we have here.”


>It is a rare opportunity like this, whilst they are withdrawing in good order a powerful enough force can make it a true rout. (Sambor+ center infantry units against the retreating infantry formation, Elite Armor+Command armor with air support against the retreating Shivas)

>>5487783
>”Someone is dedicated in hiding their tracks, chase after them, what they know may be even more valuable than what we have here.”
If these guys wiped out the command base they definitely have a copy of the intel they left behind. We should proceed with caution however, we know that there's a very powerful force meddling with things on this planet.

>It is a rare opportunity like this, whilst they are withdrawing in good order a powerful enough force can make it a true rout. (Sambor+ center infantry units against the retreating infantry formation, Elite Armor+Command armor with air support against the retreating Shivas)

Chasing the enemy wins

as well as chasing after the retreating enemy based on >>5488115 plan.

9d100 best of 3

First 3 for chasing infantry
Second 3 for chasing the Shivas
Third 3 for the infiltrators

Rolled 76, 67, 78, 48, 19, 80, 69, 22, 5 = 464 (9d100)

>>5494414

Rolled 63, 64, 26, 7, 9, 33, 45, 36, 10 = 293 (9d100)

>>5494414

Rolled 56, 91, 29, 21, 36, 79, 49, 80, 19 = 460 (9d100)

>>5494414

-
(POV shift: You are Lord-Lieutenant-Colonel Carolus Sambor.)

Not a second’s rest for the wicked. You think with a sigh. You had just finished your latest objective and the slave-master of a CO had already sent you on another task. Though one far easier than the last, if nothing else.

Spooling up, your two frontal railguns begin unleashing an endless barrage of small arms fire, tearing through flimsier cover and making dents onto harder pieces. “Enemy position, 10 degrees South-East.” You call out to the gunner responsible for the main cannon. Your tank’s turret lazily rotates and the barrel quickly evens itself out aiming at the location you had just described. ”Single round. Fire !” Another round leaves the barrel of your cannon, the gun-powdered charge exploding, propelling the shell outwards which is then speed up even more by the magnetic coils around the cannons, further accelerating to dizzying speeds, the loud crackle of the speed barrier being broken is followed quickly by the sound of the tungsten round penetrating the thick wall and the inbuilt explosives detonate, causing a secondary explosion and propelling high-speed, air ripping shrapnel forwards, perhaps not necessarily deadly for those in power armour, but still more than capable of penetrating the armour with the necessary velocity to incapacitate or at the very least distract. Whilst anyone in simple protection suits could be torn to shreds. An explosive cannon shell is incomparable with a simple hand grenade.

The camera you are currently watching through displays blown to pieces corpses and gore behind the area, the light weapon emplacement of the rearguard had been quite thoroughly suppressed. A couple of men in power armour still managed to survive the impact, but the dust and and shrapnel had done its job, as more and more of your infantry quickly overruns their position, flashes of gunfire breakthrough the cloud and just as they quickly rose, they quickly die down. Your tactical display pings with a confirmation that the local area had been secured. Similar pings had been flashing across the area for a while, whilst the rearguard had put up a fight, they were outnumbered, unprepared and demoralized having to abandon their home base so soon after what essentially boils down to a rapid, albeit deadly, skirmish.

“Progress report.” You say through the comm, adjusting your position upon the chair into a more comfortable one, as you watch as more of your forces stream forwards, IFVs rolling ahead, their auto-cannons blaring. Another thing of note was the fact that the enemy had begun their withdrawal on foot, rather than being mounted on any sort of vehicles, the primary reason why overrunning them had been such a trivial one.

“Enemy forces cut off, Lord-Lieutenant-Colonel. We had secured the gate.” Your XO responds, whose tanks you had sent ahead in hopes of completing an encircling manoeuvre.

“And the enemy ?”

>>5504952

“Currently still fighting, but reports are starting to filter in about individual surrenders and small encircled squads yielding. Most of the enemy is still fighting.”

I suppose Talon are not famed for their discipline for nothing. “Secure all prisoners. Make sure to have those of noble blood be given proper accommodations for their surrender.”

“Understood, sir. And the rest ?”

“Keep them, for now. It will be up for Lord-Colonel to decide the fate of the rank-and-file. Ah, make sure to find out how much of a ransom I shall be able to receive from the captured nobility.”

“Right away, sir.”

Cutting the comm, you take a moment to rest, it had been a stressful day, and it is still far from over.

-
(POV shift: You are the captain of Vodyanoy company, operating codename – Alpha-1.)

“Understood.” You reply to Aurelius. Of course a blue-blood would bite for even more than what is before him. You silently grumble to yourself. One of the reason why you went private, that and the amount of expensive toys you got to play around with, yet you now have to earn your pay. “Company, we are proceeding after unknown assailants that had infiltrated the HQ before us. We are to capture them and secure whatever information we can, proceed to the underground tunnel and best pace possible as Talon forces had opened fire upon the building.” You rapidly begin relaying orders as you start making your way downwards, with quite the fleetness in your step, especially when another round causes the roof above you to shake in quite the unnerving manner. Running with out stop, you quickly find a hatch, guarded by five of your men, with more and more soldiery arriving in each passing second.

“This it ?”

“Yes, sir.” One of the men responds.

“Have you gone down ?”

“Yes, sir, Charlie squad is down there already. They had secured the perimeter.”

>>5504955

You simply now, hopping down the dark tunnel and quickly spot a few silhouettes of your men. The terrain is awful, nothing more than a single straight line, but jagged and uneven as other than being dug out, there are no other signs of man’s touch, no lights, no even walls. Clicking through your helmet, the night-vision fails you, it is meant to take low quantities of light and make things visible, but the complete darkness here means that night-vision is entirely worthless. Quickly switching to thermal, your eyes are stung by the ambient heat, as you can see wisps of steam rise from the surrounding walls. Finally, you turn off the thermal vision, and simply turn on the torch built within your helmet and quickly another one attached to your rifle. “Lights on.” You say and the rest of your group quickly activates their own. “Forwards.”You command and the squad that had been guarding the entrance begins moving. As you begin to move yourself, you continue to hear the noise of more and more of your men dropping down in good order and clearing the landing, none of you having the time to use the ladder made of gleaming metal.

As you continue your careful jog forwards, the tunnel itself shakes, causing you to turn backwards and watch as rubble rains down the hatch. No way out now but ahead. You grimly think. “Comm check.” You order the comms officer. Whom a few seconds later turn to you and shakes his head. Unsurprising, you had fallen a good few metres down, and with an added layer of rubble above you, this had not made things easier. “We proceed.” You say once again looking ahead.

“Halt !” One of your men ahead of you calls out, causing the entire formation to halt. “Wire.” He says shining light upon a barely visible wire, causing you to zoom in on it to actually see it. Following it, you look upwards and downwards, not really seeing where it is connected. The man ahead, takes a careful, gingerly step to go over the wire, shinning over himself with the torch upon his rifle. “Grenade pack. Mixture of frag, flash and HE.” Lowering the barrel, he continues to look around the path. “There, that’s not a rock, disguised landmine, anti-infantry.” He points to a barely jutting piece of rock just ahead of the wire, luckily, the man’s experience is sufficient enough not to be caught by it.

“Company, proceed with care.” You finally say, it being your turn to carefully get over the wire, whilst avoiding the landmine as well.

The ground above you shakes ever so slightly, moments after you crossed the trap, bits of rock crumbling downwards. Something large had just exploded above you, exactly what is hard to tell, as it is quite difficult for you to even find out exactly where you are compared to the HQ.

>>5504956

“Fork ahead.” Another man now calls out. Gazing upon it, you see three different paths before you, each and every being identical to one another. The enemy already has the advantage of gaining distance compared to you, meaning that if you make the wrong choice, there’s as much as a snowball’s chance in hell of actually running into the foe and achieving your objective.

“Bravo, you take the left. Charlie, you take the right. Alpha and Delta, with me, we’re going down the middle. An hour after, or if you encounter the enemy or another fork, send a runner to rendezvous here. Do not overextend yourselves.”

A few affirmative clicks later, your begin moving down the central path, splitting your forces like this sits ill well with you, but you’ve gotta do, what you’ve gotta do, no matter how uncomfortable it would be.

You continue to walk for what seems hours, but your helmet’s clock informs you that only around ten or so minutes had passed since you split up your company, however the progress had been slow as the path stopped being a single straight corridor but rather becoming a confusing labyrinth of intersections, dead-ends, forks and splits. You had been marking your path and trying to find a way through.

“How long do you think they had to dig for ?” One of your men at the back remarks.

“If they got specialized tools ? Not long. Maybe a few days at most. Presuming Talon dug, they wouldn’t need to worry about tremor sensors, allowing them to dig even faster.” Another responds.

“Light out !” You order over the comm, and your men quickly obey, cutting all chatter and turning still as the walls around them, everyone, including you, crouches down, allowing your chameleon equipment to do its job. You rise, slowly, carefully and start making your way forwards through the darkness. Eventually, you reach a sharp turn, sticking our your head, just enough to allow one of your eyes to regard the way down you spot a barely visible source of light, standing out in the darkness. “Light source, proceed, carefully.” You order over the comm as around forty men follow behind you.

Halting, you allow your scouts forwards, one of whom takes out a small tube and drives it forwards, just around the corner. “Confirmed, automated turrets, a couple of them, six barrelled machine guns, missile pods, EMP shielding and reinforced armour. Orders ?”

“See if we cannot hack it.” You direct another man forwards, the very same one who had previously disturbed the cameras around the main wall. He gets comfortable and silence ensues. If he fails here, no doubt you will have to take the area by brute force, it being entirely possible that the turrets are within an isolated network, nothing more than exceptionally trigger happy sensors ready to blow apart anything that comes in front of them.

>>5504957

Clenching your fists and relaxing them, you wait for around a solid twenty minutes in complete silence, none of your even making a move, their rifles raised and perimeter watched over. Until finally, the man stirs, looks at you, and the sources of light turn off. With a thumbs up, he proclaims his success.

“Good job. We’ve wasted enough time, move at double pace, make sure to keep and eye for traps. I want messengers to rush back and get the other two squads, if they have these turrets here, this is most likely the correct route.” You say rising to your full height before breaking out in a sprint. The last thing you need is an angry noble, with the authority to execute you, shouting out your ears about missing crucial intelligence.

Moving past the now disabled turrets, light once again spewing out from the helmet, you take a moment to observe them, looking for any distinguishing markings, but you find none, at least from the cursory glance you had thrown over it. Granted, you had not expected to find anything, but it is still slightly annoying that your enemies don’t make your job much easier.

As you run onwards, jogging quickly whilst trying to keep your eye on any potential traps, you come to another halt a good solid ten minutes of running after. Another hatch. Taking a few moments to steady your breathing, you signal for Delta to proceed towards the hatch, as you raise your own rifle and illuminate it, searching for more traps, the same as the rest of your men.

Eventually, your paranoia having been satisfied, your men slowly begin moving upwards. “Lights out.” You command and as one all of the lights are cut. You could get hit by flashbangs, maybe bright lights, or you could be cut down the moment the enemy notices light coming from the hatch, that is why, whilst the eyes of your men still used to at least some brightness, you give the order. “Open it.”

With a crack, the hatch is opened, barely visible light falling now upon the darkness below. Levelling his rifle, the man at the top holds the muzzle of his weapons abreast, scanning the surrounding area, before carefully lifting the hatch to its fullest and quickly scrambling to the top, followed by a second, then a third, then a fourth before finally, it is your turn to clamber up. The sight before you appears to be quite mundane, given the world’s circumstances. Just some flat, dry ground below you, clearly showcasing that you are still nearby the mountain, or well volcano, range and above you are rather steep looking cliffs. And that is when you realize that, there is absolutely no cover where you are, unnaturally so.

>>5504959

“Move !” You shout out as you break into a sprint, quickly turning on your night-vision. That is when the cliffs on your left and right erupt with gunfire. A dozen men are cut down in seconds as the rest of your own group had started to move. Quickly closing the distance to one of the walls, you try to quickly brace against it and kick up, propelling yourself forwards, whilst your less enhanced men fire off their grappling hooks and try to reach as close to the top of the cliffs as they can. Taking their own initiative, each squad moves to one of the sides, and you see as another half a dozen are blown to bits and cut down as you try to make your way upwards. By the time you managed to get up the cliffsides, both of your squads had been reduced to half strength, you are going to need the rest of the company to get here soon enough or you will be utterly exterminated.

Staring down your foes, you just see their black power armour, lacking any and all markings indicating any sort of allegiance. Raising your rifle, you hold your breath as you unleash a burst of fire.

>3d100 best of 3 to see how the combat goes.

-
(End of POV shift. Minutes before.)

Your tank group alongside your mechanized infantry elements had quickly caught up to the fleeing foe, similar to the reports you had received from the east, most of the retreating infantry is unmounted. Still, the enemy had been capable enough in their organized withdrawal to move alongside the Shivas, whose main guns had been threatening your own armoured elements. That had made approaching the withdrawing elements quite tricky, as the biggest disadvantage of the Shivas, them lacking support, had been rectified. With surroundings covered, your own infantry tries to make a few pushes, coordinating alongside your aerial elements as a light show of laser fire erupts from the Shivas. Due to the close proximity of the Shivas, your own tanks have to rush back and forth, trying to employ the terrain to its fullest advantage, something that does come to some pit stops here and there as an unseen infantry platoon would emerge wielding heavy weapons threatening your lighter elements. A few APCs are caught by these, suicidal attacks, for that is what they truly are, since your tanks are close enough to rapidly respond and annihilate the now exposed elements.

The exchange, thanks to Westre’s efforts, does go in your favour as what few remaining mobile elements are still in Talon’s hands are obliterated by pinpoint accurate missile salvos. And so you keep nipping at the heel, bleeding the withdrawing formation, the enemy using the terrain for ambushes as much as you, but unlike them, you do fight in a three dimensional environment, whilst they are entirely limited to the ground. So most exchanges due end up in your advantage.

>>5504961

Unfortunately, all of that air support does come with an issue, that being that one of the Shivas is able to slowly, unnoticeably fall behind ever so slightly and fires off its missile barrage. The missiles sail forwards catching a couple of tanks from your main squadron, whom are quickly engulfed in nuclear fire, their comms first being filled with static, barely audible and understandable screams of men in pain and finally nothing but the quiet of the dead as the tanks are obliterated.

And at the price of a couple of tanks, as well as dozens of your men, you have your opportunity.

“All units, collapse the flanks.” You coldly say as the damage wrought forth by the missiles causes such devastation to the terrain that the attack, even if painful, had been towards your foe’s disadvantage. The burning and collapsing structures, the accompanying dust that you had grown quite used to when fighting in such terrain, all combine to cut off a rather large portion of the enemy infantry. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, your formation pounces, the stranded infantry fire off what missiles they have, but that is not enough when what is essentially worth of an entire regiment of tanks, including your double strength squadron and Linton’s elites fall upon them. Your railguns spool without stop, warnings begin to flash of potential overheating as shots are fired without stop, but you keep at it as more and more cut off elements are encircled and wiped out, few and far between offering surrender, most choosing to fight until the end.

“Colonel.” Westre says over the comm. “The two Shivas had picked up speed, there’s maybe a company’s worth of infantry still clinging to them, once they get onto the clear, it’ll be difficult to fully put them down.”

>”Let them go, they are no longer a fighting force.”

>“Continue the pursuit, I want those tanks turned to scrap.” (What units ?)

“Roger that.” Westre responds to your order.

“Colonel, I am seeing maybe half a battalion’s worth of infantry moving down the mountain side, they seem to have evacuated the defences there. They also appear to be bearing a white flag of surrender.” Westre continues.

“Sir, I wanted to remark on that.” Carolus stumbles into your conversation. “I and my men had secured a large number of captives, around the east gate, with more and more scattered elements across the entirety of the base being found, killed or imprisoned.” He finishes.

“How many ?” You ask.

File: Spoiler Image (611 KB, 4441x1948)

611 KB PNG

>>5504962

“Including the ones spotted by the air assests ? Perhaps a regiment’s worth, most bearing injuries of various degrees. Out of that, we have about two hundred officers of noble birth from petty houses, primarily knight, a few baronet houses descendants. No one actually holding lands.”

>”I cannot afford to keep so many captives unchecked. Have them all killed.”

>”I cannot afford to keep so many captives unchecked. Have them all killed, except for the nobles.”

>”They are official prisoners of war and they shall be treated as such, I shall assign an infantry battalion to look after them.”

You had now routed the enemy, and disorganized elements are being rooted out, still, the base can be full of dangers, and loot.

>Order the area secured and combed through for “hostile elements”, and maybe, just maybe, the personal booze cache of a noble or two.

>No time for this nonsense, sure, not fully secured area can have some inherent risks, but you doubt much remains, send Vinn down the lift with his best men, the centre must be brought back on line.

Write ins are always acceptable.

No promises if I will be able to pull through, but I shall endevour to get an update out tomorrow as well, and who knows, maybe another after that the following day, as I had been lagging behind quite a bit for this quest.

Rolled 54, 64, 1 = 119 (3d100)

>>5504961
Best of luck Vodyanoy

>>5504962
>”Let them go, they are no longer a fighting force.”

>>5504963
>”I cannot afford to keep so many captives unchecked. Have them all killed, except for the nobles.”

>No time for this nonsense, sure, not fully secured area can have some inherent risks, but you doubt much remains, send Vinn down the lift with his best men, the centre must be brought back on line.

>>5504991
.... I will never again vote in favor of sending our elites after fucking spooks in the Broken Empire universe

Rolled 20, 77, 63 = 160 (3d100)

>>5504991
YOU FUCKER YOU'VE KILLED US ALL

Though we seem to get massive critfails every time we run up against these guys, guess the universe just hates us.

>>5504961
Dice

>Lose half our spec op guys and their CO trying to grab that stealth ship
>likely about to lose our entire spec op company trying to grab these guys too
The dice really don't want us finding out what's with these guys, do they?

>>5487769
Zam, I missed the return. Gonna catch up.

>>5504962
>”Let them go, they are no longer a fighting force.”
Not risking any more units lost today. Any more than necessary.

>Keep the nobles prisoner, press-gang the infantry into our service.
Not like they're going to be rescued, and we can send them down first instead of Vinn. Hell, we can secure the area too while we see how they go.

>>5504963
Also, are we able to get comms with the Infiltrators? I'd like to send Westre's air assets to help them, but there's no current in-character reason to do so.

Rolled 38, 32, 20 = 90 (3d100)

>>5504961
Rolling
>>5504962
>”Let them go, they are no longer a fighting force.”
>>5504963
>”They are official prisoners of war and they shall be treated as such, I shall assign an infantry battalion to look after them.”

>Order the area secured and combed through for “hostile elements”, and maybe, just maybe, the personal booze cache of a noble or two.

>>5504962
>”Let them go, they are no longer a fighting force.”
>”I cannot afford to keep so many captives unchecked. Have them all killed, except for the nobles.”
>Order the area secured and combed through for “hostile elements”, and maybe, just maybe, the personal booze cache of a noble or two.

“Colonel Westre, break off from the pursuit.” A moment of consideraion later you say. “Let the Shivas run, as for the prisoners, I want them all rallied around the centre of the base.” You say.

“Roger that.” Westre responds, her VTOLs making sharp turns and beginning to run aerial coverage above the entirety of the base, no doubt starting to relay information to your ground troops whenever she spots more of Talon soldiery.

“Understood, Lord-Colonel, all the prisoners ?” Carolus asks.

“Split them away from their officers, keep them under watch.”

“Yes, sir.” You can already imagine the man’s face, similar to a cat that had just devoured an entire fish. Since Sambor was the one to capture the prisoners, he will gain the lion’s share from their ransoms, but a decent chunk shall also go to you as his direct CO. Now that you think about it, with lines of command blurred due to the invasion, you are technically not a direct subordinate to Viscountess-Lieutenant-General Drawy, so your share may very well increase, though you doubt any ransoming will be done anytime soon, not until Talon believes that simple victory will be impossible.

“Driver, get us to the centre of the encampment.” You order leaning back into your chair, sending out simple assignments to the various formations under your command to begin sweeping the camp, it will be time consuming, but you’d rather the enemy be unable to pull off anything unexpected like you had managed about a month ago upon the highlands. Better safe than sorry, as the saying goes.

Still, the thing primarily on your mind is that of the prisoners. The nobles shall be spared, that much is a given, not just because of the monetary gain, but to also ensure the survival of gentlemen and ladies of proper pedigree in such tumultuous times. You do have some family positioned against Talon as well, if word spreads that you had executed hundreds of noblemen after they had surrendered, your bloodline may very be well targetted by vengeful houses. As for the common soldiery, well. Morality would dictate you treat them as POWs, if for no other reason than to ensure that your own men are treated in a similar manner, no matter how far fetched that hope may be. But that means that you will have to house them, feed them, keep them under guard. It is a waste of resources. That is what your pragmatic mind is screaming. With resources stretched thin, that could very well see your own men be put under more pressure. Medical equipment is not infinite after all.

>>5506042

Press-gang them ? Your mind jumps alongside your body as the tank clears a large pothole. The situation underneath the mountain is unclear, to say the absolute least. Its not like these men will have anywhere to run, with there being only one entrance. They will only be able to house perhaps a company’s worth of men on each lift ride, not enough to threaten you even if they try to turn around and raise their rifles. No, even if the defensive robots can be eventually overwhelmed, the potential damage to critical infrastructure cannot be underestimated, you also cannot rule out the potential of sabotage from more loyal and radical elements mixed in with the rest of the prisoners.

So that leaves you with the simplest solution. You gaze and the thousands of men, sitting upon the ground, their hands upon their heads. From the corner of your eyes you do spot a few soldiers laying still upon the ground, blood pooling underneath them, there had clearly been a scuffle here and there as corpses litter the area closer to your guards, no doubt men whom got aggressive when medical aid was denied to their dying comrades. What really catches your sight, is one soldier in a protection suit, one amongst thousands, unremarkable, no distinguishing marking that would make the person stand out in any way. Just another soldier, just another face amongst thousands. Shaking, trembling. You can see clear nervousness from the person’s body language, fear clear and obvious as the soldier flinches whenever one of your guards passes by.

From the corner of your eyes, you see as your and Linton’s squadron had finished their encirclement of the prisoners, your own footmen quickly vacating the premises. As panic begins to spread amongst the prisoners, the smarter, or more experienced of them, trying to make a run for it, only to be gunned down by your infantry.

“Squadrons. Open fire.” Maintaining an even voice, you say before you close your eyes. Your railguns begin to spool up and soon, your ears are filled with screams and curses, barely audible over the continuous fire. In war there is but a simple rule - kill or be killed. Nothing more. So as to ensure the safety and survival of both yourself and your men, you have to kill. Simple as that.

Soon enough, the sound of gunfire dies down and you open up your eyes to regard the carnage before you that is difficult to describe in the sheer number of mutilated corpses, scenes like these would cause ancient historians and poets upon Earth to regard such a thing as a world shocking event, a great massacre, a great decisive decision, something that would perhaps even inscribe your name in history, for good or for ill. Today, however ? You’re just another field officer, doing what you have to do, as simple as that.

>>5506043

“Squadron, begin to sweep the area on orders given. Root out any remaining enemy resistance, I want the base secured and any potential threats dealt with.” You say as coolly as ever, no fluctuation in your tone.

Now, you have to inspect that lift.

-
(POV shift: You are the captain of Vodyanoy company, operating codename – Alpha-1.)

The burst goes wide as you impact the ground. Rolling onto the ground, you barely dodge a counter shot, breaking apart the hardened, acid washed stone. Hoping to the side, you barely avoid a bayonet going straight for your neck, rolling on your back, you fire off another wild burst from your rifle, the point-blank shot bounces from the shoulder plate, glances from the neck-guard, but does clip the visor, causing your foe to gain some distance from you, giving you just enough time to get up on your feet once again. The noise of electricity pumping through a rifle’s coils once again forces you to move quickly and without halt, jumping to the side, you just barely manage to dodge a few rounds. Need to get close ! You swear under your breath as you pull out your high-frequency knife. Ducking under the bayonet of the man whom had tried to embed it into you previously, as you had forced him to use it as a spear instead of shooting you, you manage to drive your dagger forwards, right into the man’s armpit. With a crack in the armour, you put everything you have into the strike, the reactive gel offering resistance to your stab, but soon you draw blood, your rifle hanging from your side, you quickly pull the knife out and hit the ground as a punch comes from your right, the full strength of an enraged, wounded man in power armour going straight for the head is deadly, even for someone like you.

What you had not expected, was the kick. Spit covers the inside of your helmet, as your opponent’s foot drives right into your stomach. And that’s when a punch comes from your left, your foe’s arm no doubt hurt, the artificial muscles and the metal alloy do smack into you with some force and rattles your brain. Trying to get some distance, you ignore the sickening feeling from both your head and stomach, trying to catch your breath, your foe takes a moment to inspect himself as well. His arm with which he struck you hangs limply by his side, his rifle upon the ground and the bayonet removed, now acting as a blade with his left.

>>5506045

Taking a second to look around you, you see as a similar situation had devolved across the remainder of the battlefield, your foe numbers few, perhaps in fact less than you. But they possessed some good coordination and cut you down to size enough to devolve a one sided battle into one that they would win, but I suppose they had not expected that mere mercenaries such as you would fight on so well. Though, they very well be mercs as well, wouldn’t be the first time people like yourself would be hired for some black ops that most nobles would turn their noses up against.

“Fancy a talk ?” You say, the helmet built-in speakers strengthening your voice. You might as well try to get some info out of them.

The man takes a defensive stance, propping his wounded arm forwards to use as some sort of a shield. Suppose the answer’s no. Not letting the moment go to waste, you make a quick check for comm frequencies and find them depressingly blocked, no doubt one of these bastards has a short-range jammer on them, no doubt similar to the ones you also have in your possession. Still, you loop an automatic S.O.S., just in case.

You lunge a second after, making a quick step forwards and then hoping back as your foe wildly thrusts his knife forwards, forcing you to keep some distance. The man’s stance had been a ruse as he begins to attack you aggressively with out stop, forcing you on the backfoot, ducking, jumping, dodging and weaving. Sweat covers your brow as your breathing intensifies as you keep your eye upon your enemy’s knife and the flailing arm, a few more kicks at you also force you to make damn sure that you have to continuously dart your eyes back and forth without end.

Still, you cannot keep dodging forever. His knife drives straight into your left shoulder, you can feel it digging to your bone whilst vibrating, causing exceptional damage to your internal tissues and bones, pain blares in your brain, but you are a professional. Loosening your grip upon your knife, you allow for it to hit the ground and instead grab upon your limply hanging rifle. A quick flick of your finger changing its setting to a single, powerful shot, you pull the trigger as punch a hole straight through the man’s chest, blowing out his heart.

Finally, as both of you smash onto the ground, you feel hundreds of kilograms crush as the knife uses its power, having aggravated your wound. You watch as the battle rages around, with some victories and some losses. As you look down, you see your last two squads emerge from the hatch. Your triumphal smile is cut short as the explosions rage before your eyes, the cliffside beginning to collapse and you yourself feel gravity escape you as the rock underneath crumbles. Your foes, the sneaky bastards, all fire off their jetpack, simple, single use rockets really than anything that proper droptroops would posses, but more than enough to get out of this predicament.

>>5506046

Ah...shit. Are your thoughts before you feel your body impact the ground and everything goes dark.

-
(End of POV shift. Minutes before.)

For once in a while, you are out of your tank, your loyal servant besides you.

“Is this it ?” You ask.

“Yes, my lord.” Linton responds.

Staring and a large collection of rocks and the mountain side, you pull up the entrance orders and begin to send them out in a quick, loud burst of sound. The ground underneath you trembles as just as you had expected, the hidden lift opens up, revealing the rocks to be nothing more than some cleaver disguise.

“How’s the securing process ?”

“It will take a few hours to secure everything, my lord. The area is quite large with plenty of structures to use to hide. From what we fought here, perhaps only around a quarter of the base had been resisting us, rest of it no doubt dispatched somewhere else.”

“Have Westre run patrols around the area. Once it is fully secured, I want Colonel Vinn present before me.”

“It shall be done, my lord.” Linton bows moving away from you.

Well, you have a few hours to kill as you subordinates sweep the area, most of your higher command are no doubt busying themselves doing, nothing, really. No great logistics or coordination needed to simply mop up a few scattered remnants, at least before they unite, but you are not giving them a chance to do that.

Sending a secondary signal, you watch as the lift closes, metres of rocks and metal meaning that no one will be able to easily punch through. You walk over to the nearest structure, your temporary HQ. The outside guarded by your most loyal men, from Linton’s squadron. You pass by them and go through the airlock, finally taking off your helmet and taking a breath of fresh recycled air. Not as nice as you are used to, but at least you no longer feel your helmet sticking to your face.

Rummaging around for a second, judging by the fancy carpet, large double bed with fluffy beddings, tasteful furniture made from actual wood, you find the hidden booze cache of whatever noble occupied the room before you. A bottle of brandy, a couple of vodka, a bottle of champagne and two of wine, white and red. To your immeasurable disappointment, you only find simple plastic cups rather than any proper drinking glasses. You could pocket the booze, that would pull some minor favour back at Roland, but it had been a while since you had some drink, your genehancements more than enough to counter the alcohol should it need to, so you won’t be getting drunk unless you want to.

>Since you have a moment for it, perhaps you wish to converse with someone ? (Whom ? What questions ?)

The booze could be used to open up some mouths, maybe it’d be nice to relax for once.

>Not like you will go overboard, it is a battlefield after all.

>No, you’re a professional after all. Might as well pocket it for some gain (+5 influence.)

>>5506047
>Not like you will go overboard, it is a battlefield after all.

>>5506047
>Not like you will go overboard, it is a battlefield after all.

>>5506047
>>No, you’re a professional after all. Might as well pocket it for some gain (+5 influence.)

Merry Christmas anons ! Upon this day of giving I am giving you one free crit success to replace any one dice roll. Feel free to bring it up whenever, and if enough anons vote for it, I shall implement it.

>>5506047
RIP The spec ops guys. We hardly knew thee. Fucking spooks have some bad luck field to them.

>Since you have a moment for it, perhaps you wish to converse with someone ?
Linton. His opinions on how we've been doing so far and how this campaign compares to some of the others we've been on together. And our other subordinates too if they've been with us, I can't remember who's been with us on prior campaigns.

>Not like you will go overboard, it is a battlefield after all.

>>5508525
Very generous of you newb, especially considering our typical luck. I'll definitely be voting to use it on these goddamn spooks, I want to know what is up with those guys. The prometheus reactor and the cloak ship from the space campaign had annoyingly few details.

>>5506047
>No, you’re a professional after all. Might as well pocket it for some gain (+5 influence.)

When are the hovertanks due back, and can we get a status report on their distraction? Inform them of potential incoming Shiva units to avoid.

Hope you had a nice Christmas Newb and wish everyone a happy new year.

Sorry for the bad news anons, I can't really keep up with two games with my schedule, so I will have to put this on a hiatus. I do promise to return, finish this and restart the space edition once the other game reaches a nice break point.

Once again, I do apolagise.

>>5524888
No worries Newb! I wish you the best in continuing Renovatio Imperii.

>>5524888
All good, it was pretty impressive of you to keep two quests of this quality running at the same time anyway.