Xamo-Zurok War

## Description

The Xamo-Zurok War was an armed conflict between the Xamon Aristocratic Confederacy (XAC) and the Karis Republic and Ures Empire from 3 November 7036 CE, when the Ures Empire invaded Shagra, to 9 February 7040 CE. The war followed a year long history of tension, which began when the XAC entered Deltaverse space, immediately beginning a mutually beneficial relationship with the zurok crime syndicates, much of which was illegal trading and slavery.

## Origins

On July 21 7035 CE, a year before the war began, the Xamon arrived on the zurok homeworld of Shagra, a lawless planet effectively run by the three large interplanetary crime syndicates. These three syndicates were the Shaban Syndicate, the Talokan Syndicate, and the Kirnan Syndicate. The two races, both miserly and adept at thieving, immediately began a prosperous and friendly trading relationship with each other. Often these transactions entailed stolen military grade weaponry, drugs, vehicles, and even slaves.

## Prelude to War:

### Karis and Ures Investigate:

This drew the ire of both the Karis Republic and Ures Empire, a human power. The two powers were allies and highly distrustful of outerverse aliens (since a long and bloody war with the Spravac Empire had just been concluded). The karis president declared a time of strife and ordered that covert military squads be dispatched to Shagra to spy on the xamon business.

To do this, the karis placed a bug in the transactions records to get a live feed of all xamon transactions. The karis and Ures already distrusted Shaba and Talok, but did nothing due to their vast influence in the Milky Way.

### Slavery:

Tensions grew even higher on 29 of July when the transaction bug revealed that the xamon were trading both human and karis slaves. When the karis president saw this, she immediately held a summit with the Consensus of Ures to discuss their next course of action. The Consensus unanimously agreed to deploy the 908th Spec-Ops Commandos to monitor and disrupt business dealings in Sub Rosa, On August 1 of that same year, hundreds of teams were deployed and began to effectively kill zurok and xamon business reps in the newly gentrified Shagra cities. However, these raids did not go unnoticed, and the XAC began to dispatch platoons of Xamon Confederates, including the infamous Solas Company, which would prove to be a thorn in the side of both the Ures Empire and Karis Republic for the duration of the war.

In the next few months, raids and counter raids plagued the streets of Shagra, luckily these didn’t lead to war, yet.

### Massacre of Yin Street:

In the planetary capital, tragedy struck on 17 of August 7036 when a karis Shadow by the name of Elna De Fariss disobeyed direct orders and fired upon confederates and zurok civilians during a slave operation in progress. It all began when Fariss was observing a xamon warehouse. Her orders were only to watch, not to engage. However, she disobeyed her orders when she caught sight of karis slaves being sold as prostitutes to a Xamon Noble by the name of Gerreth Zürabrek. She used her highly modified sniper rifle to assassinate Gerreth and used it to shoot a gas tank on the side of the warehouse, causing it and the illegal munitions inside to explode violently, killing hundreds of xamon and zuroks, criminal and civilian alike.

Fariss escaped, but was apprehended and court marshalled before the High Republican Court of the karis. At her testimony, when asked why she would kill civilians, she answered “They were just zuroks, who’ll miss ‘em?”

Fariss was dishonorably discharged and sentenced to ten years in military prison, though the damage was done, the XAC had lost a noble and found traces of her presence at the crime scene.

### The Kendall Peace Accords:

The XAC, infuriated by the death of a noble at the hands of an enemy government, contacted the president and asked to hold a peace talk to avoid all-out-war on September 20. The representative for the Xamon was Prime Minister Züko Kalistin, who sat across from Executive Minister Glenna De Jennesa. Chancellor Merkel of the Ures Empire was also present, though only as a spectator.

The accords, sadly, went nowhere, with the karis constantly denying any claims the xamon made and the xamon having no substantial evidence to back up their claims. The xamon left after three hours of debate, frustrated and hungry for payback.

### The Kaliv Raid:

Merkel, who was present during the entire accords, had a feeling that the xamon would retaliate, ordered a platoon to raid a major xamon location, a warehouse called Kaliv on October 8. The leader of the raid was a rurkis named Commander Inib Huminark, this raid was of major importance to him because this was a trial to prove that non-humans within the empire could be major successes in military leadership roles. His raid however, was a colossal failure, as the xamon were prepared for an attack after the Yin Massacre. His entire platoon was killed and he barely escaped with his life, setting back alien rights within the Ures Empire by almost a decade.

### Xamon Retaliation/Third Fleet Raid:

After Kaliv, the xamon had had enough of karis and human interference, decided to have a little payback. They hacked the Ures battlenet and followed the movements of the Third Fleet, deciding to attack the third fleet at the edge of Ures territory on 10 October. They began using cloaked sappers to disable the ships and later board and massacre the crews inside. The xamon left most of the ships, but took the carriers filled with billions of dollars worth of military hardware, including tanks, guns, and hacking tech.

### The Black Team Raid:

Chancellor Merkel, upon hearing of the Third Fleet’s hijacking, was livid. She ordered that a squad of Titans, elite human super-soldiers, to be sent to Shagra to retrieve the stolen gear on December 15. Team Vulture, when scanning the planet for possible signs of tech, came across a distinct signal. They followed the signal into an underground bunker in the major Shagra city of Vapum. However, when they entered the vast warehouse of the bunker, they were completely surrounded and gunned down. The xamon soldiers then looted their bodies for their incredibly expensive and advanced armor and weapons.

### An Act of War:

Merkel went before the Consensus of Ures and urged them to declare war on the XAC, the Consensus agreed profusely and sent their declaration to Minister Kalistin on November 3, 7036. The xamon, overjoyed that they could express their hatred for the humans openly, mobilized for war on Shagra. Shortly after, the Karis Republic joined the humans in the war.

The xamon, knowing they couldn’t take on both empires by themselves, convinced both Talok and Shaba to join them in the defense of Shagra. The time for talk was over, war had begun.

## The First Phase of the War (The Ures Phase):

### Ures Invasion of Shagra and First Battle of Vapum: November 5- November 15, 7036

On 5 November, 7036, the humans launched a full scale invasion of Shagra, starting with the city of Vapum. The battle began when they began by viciously bombing the city for three days straight, killing hundreds of thousands of  zurok civilians and three thousand xamon confederates. The xamon air force retaliated by sapping the bombers, causing them to spin out of control and crash into the skyscrapers. On the fourth day, the Ures Fourth Corps landed on the ground in tandem with several karis divisions, meeting heavy Shaban resistance on the ground. The battle of Vapum would, however, be a coalition victory, forcing the zuroks to be pushed into the surrounding towns and smaller cities. The subsequent skirmishes would have relatively mixed results, with many costly victories for both sides.

On November 12, the xamon dispatched two confederal brigades of infantry and four tank divisions to retake the city, nasty guerilla warfare ensued when the tanks were unable to move in the streets due to their narrow width. In order to make way for their tanks, the xamon bombed the streets with every advancement. The process proved effective as the tank divisions forced the remaining humans to retreat into the skyscrapers of Vapum.

Deadly sniper skirmishes then began, with both sides taking heavy losses from headshots.

Shaba then mobilized a vast force of zuroks and his infamous spravac brigade. The spravac proved effective in not only killing the humans, but terrifying them as well. Three karis battalions were sent in to save the cornered humans, killing much of the spravac and forcing Shaba to pull out, abandoning one remaining xamon confederal brigade. The xamon confederates, not ones to fight to the death, retreated with Shaba under the cover of lava gas bombing.

Decisive Coalition Victory:

Ures: 5,538 dead

Karis: 3,989 dead

Xamon: 8,090 dead

Shaba Mercs: 12,890 dead

Zurok Civilians: 623,342 dead

### Battle of Kruze: November 30- December 1, 7036

The humans and karis then decided to move in on the city of Kruze, as it was a major industrial complex for Talok and Shaba. The commander of the assault, Colonel Frederick Howe, decided to conduct a frontal assault. However, his calculations were botched when the xamon Third Tank Division flanked his force to the left on December 1, cutting a large swath through his force and cutting off his underprepared reserves. The xamon massacred the reserves and then began to attack Howe’s forces in the rear, completely enveloping his forces and killing him in the process.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Zurok Civilians: 2,400 dead

Xamon: 787 dead

Shaba Mercs: 318 dead

Talok Mercs: 450 dead

Ures: 3,408 dead including Colonel Frederick Howe

### Second Battle of Vapum: December 5- December 8, 7036

The xamon made their second assault on Vapum, which was heavily fortified by the karis Eighth Urban Corps. The xamon, knowing that they couldn’t win with a full on assault, disguised themselves as zurok civilians to sneak into the city. They then snuck into key locations of the city and placed canisters of poisonous gas in the locations. The karis, who weren’t expecting any attacks, were taken completely off guard and lost thousands to Lava Gas, which caused intense and painful burns in the nostrils, throat, and lungs. At the zenith of the poisoning, the xamon inside the city revealed themselves and gunned down any remaining karis.

In response to the massacre, human soldiers and the sixth company of zyyntorean special forces of the Third Crystarian Legion called Kar’bin Company launched a head on assault against xamon positions. The xamon also had the help of Talok’s special “Durge Squad”, a group of five armored durge who decimated the attackers, causing heavy losses and nearly destroyed Kar’Bin Company. Talok’s second in command, Darib, decided to pursue the attackers into the lower slums of Vapum, which proved costly for his men, as Kar’bin Company and three platoons of humans made a daring last stand in several narrow chokepoints. They lined the streets with proximity mines which mutilated the feet of the lumbering durge, who would later trip and fall into the tight spaces of the alleyways, allowing the soldiers to subsequently kill and use their hulking corpses as roadblocks.

Darib, humiliated by his blunders, was personally executed by Talok, who took charge of Darib’s remaining mercs and ordered them to advance forward once again. However, the humans also advanced forward again, this time reinforced by several companies of human and yuriksis operatives who made their second assault on Vapum’s disheveled walls. The Yuriksis Infantry Battalion also made their debut on the world, using their advanced augmentations to obliterate hundreds of xamon and Talokan defenders.

To make matters worse, Talok’s counter attack was also halted by the last remaining soldiers of Kar’bin Company, who fought to the last man to give the humans enough time to roll in the Third Armor Division, which wiped out the remaining mercs in the streets. With the mercs slain, all that remained was the XAC’s 36th Plague Corps, who had limited air support from the 8th Artoric Wing Brigade. The commander of the 36th, Colonel Torissen, ordered his men to dig in, allowing their heavy artillery batteries hidden within the peaks of several skyscrapers, to rain hell from above. This, combined with heavy fire from snipers and several fire-bombing runs from Artoric Wing caused the humans and yuriksis to retreat to their captured territory. Torissen ordered Artoric to continue bombarding the retreating forces, eventually forcing the bloodied force to be evacuated and returned to Ures under heavy AA fire, causing half of the evacuees to be shot down and killed or MIA.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 42,981 dead

Talok Mercs: 23,891 dead

Karis: 17,233 dead

Zyyntoreans: 150 dead

Ures: 39,820 dead

### The Offensive of December 10: December 10- January 4, 7036- 7037

After the catastrophic defeat at Vapum, General Lucy Mason and Elsa Brown organized a coordinated and massive offensive movement unto the south eastern hemisphere of Shagra, composed of two field armies, the Third Army and Sixth Army, as well as a platoon of karis shadows for reconnaissance. The shadows moved forward a day before the offensive began, they scouted out several smaller cities filled to the brim with xamon soldiers, the largest concentration of xamon soldiers yet. The armies were split into three wings, the westernmost wing was called Armstrong, the middle was called Merkel, and the easternmost wing was called Mason.

At 8:01 AM, the offensive began, all three wings advanced south upon the fields and small towns, burning anything in their path, including zurok civilians. The xamon made attempts to evacuate civilians, but they risked getting shot by the merciless blitz that the offensive was dishing out. The xamon continued desperately to hold off the offense, but heavy casualties and deaths of multiple xamon commanders forced them to retreat, leaving the zurok refugees at the mercy of the humans.

Finally, on the fourth day of the battle, the offensive came across their first true obstacle. The Tenth and Eleventh Armored Corps stood in their way. Merkel Wing took the brunt of their defense, but the corps were crushed when Mason Wing turned into the flank of the xamon, causing heavy casualties and forcing a retreat. However, the xamon left several canisters of lava gas rigged to blow, causing thousands of unprepared soldiers to lose their lives.

The armies continued to advance further, killing even more xamon along the way. Luckily for the xamon, they managed to demolish several key bridges that the armies needed in order to reach the borders of the next major zurok city. Since this was not part of the plan, all three wings were forced to march through the rough and unpredictable terrain of the Galis and Obrim Rivers. The xamon had deployed highly mobile units of snipers and gas mortar teams to bombard the soldiers as they crossed the perilous rivers. Since it was winter, the water was ice cold, and many soldiers became ample targets due to hypothermia.

Finally, after crossing the rivers, the wings continued to march onwards unhindered.

The next major obstacle was several companies of xamon special forces, who had dug a vast defensive line of trenches when the armored divisions retreated and warned them. The humans were forced to converge their wings too early, which was a massive setback for the operation. Nonetheless, Mason and Brown remained confident and ordered their soldiers and armor to charge head on into the trench, eventually engaging in a brutal melee. The xamon has anticipated this and planted lava gas in the trenches, the xamon’s masks were strong enough to resist the gas, so the melee took place in massive clouds of red smoke, causing both physical and psychological damage to the human forces. This continued for another three days until the xamon were ordered by XAC High Command to withdraw and fortify their next position, leaving a multitude of munitions set to explode when the humans advanced through the trench network.

After the engagement, the forces of both Mason and Merkel had lost almost 70% of their men each. Brown and Mason attempted to call in reinforcements, but hidden AA cannons in the hills prevented dropships from landing. To counter this, the remaining karis Shadows were sent to investigate the reported locations of said AA guns. They located and disabled three of the five batteries before being discovered and forced to withdraw. With xamon firepower significantly weakened, Brown made the call to continue the operation as planned on December 24. She split the forces up into their respective wings, but instead put Armstrong in the center. The offensive continued to crush the xamon once more, though the xamon had discovered an Achilles Heel in the armies. They learned that the army relied heavily on good communications, so the xamon sent Solas Company, an infamous unit throughout the war, to infiltrate the communications centers on December 27, which were set up by the armies as they moved. With communications severed, the army faced several coordinated attacks on all their positions for the next eight days, inflicting heavy casualties. Forced to retreat, Mason and Brown declared the operation inconclusive and retreated on January 4 into their captured territory, setting up several machine gun and artillery emplacements to prevent the xamon from retaking anymore land.

Though a tactical failure, the December 10 Offensive was a psychological victory for the humans, who severely lowered xamon morale by a considerable margin.

Pyrrhic Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 970,120 dead

Ures: 534,981 dead

Zurok Civilians: 100,239 dead

### The Obrim Assaults: January 8- January 9, 7037

Helmed by Sergeant Major Sār Reyklivisson, the Obrim Assault (also called the Obrim River Offensive or the January 8 Counter-Attack) was a joint operation between XAC High Command and Talok. Talok had several battalions of various races, including seven smuggle karoc, which would prove invaluable during the battle. Reyklivisson was given a brigade of xamon shock troopers, called the 13th Solinās Ount-Grassēn (Stormtroopers) Regiment to conduct his attack. He was also given several artillery companies, including the 160th PZ-18 (lava gas) Achtvārdenn Regiment.

Reyklivisson began the attack at 10:18 PM along the banks of the Obrim River, where the humans set up camp after their failed December 10th Offensive. A one for bravado, Reyklivisson accompanied his men in person, armed with a standard issue rifle and standard stormtrooper uniform. He began his attack with several simultaneous sniper volleys at high value targets, including a member of White Team, of the 111th Blitz Troopers. This expectedly roused the humans, who frantically made grabs for their weapons in an attempt to fight off their unseen foes. The snipers continued to pick off the exhausted soldiers, and soon lava gas from the 160th floated down upon the humans. When the signature red smoke could be seen, Mason ordered a full scale retreat across the river, with the 13th Solinās following close behind, armed with plasma throwers and flame throwers. Mason, who was on the ground of the battle, was injured by a grenade to her left leg and abdomen, who had to be carried to an emergency shuttle back to Ures.

With Mason injured, the humans had no rallying force on the ground, but that all changed when Staff Sergeant Bragg, considered a hero of the war, rallied the retreating men to make a daring charge towards the stormtroopers. Reyklivisson, taken aback by their newfound courage, ordered his men to retreat back to the southern banks of the Obrim, but the rapids and ice cold water caused many 13th soldiers to lose their lives. Reyklivisson was also captured in the process after Bragg shot him in the back of the knee, crippling him and causing the rest of the 13th to break and flew up the hills towards the 160th.

Bragg’s men wanted to pursue the enemy, but he ordered them to pull back to the other side, rationalizing that the xamon would have a superior position on the hill. After several grueling hours, the fighting had subsided, for now.

At dawn, Reyklivisson was delivered back to his men, however, Reyklivisson ordered his men to shoot him for his dishonor towards the Aristocracy. His men did so reluctantly and then fired upon the humans who had delivered the late Reyklivisson. The second phase of the battle had begun.

Reyklivisson’s second in command, First Sergeant Domrisson, an accomplished tank commander, called in for reinforcements from the nearby Zurok occupied city of Emiss, where Talok’s men were waiting. Talok sent in his trump card, his Karoc Killers, to enter the fray. Armed with back-mounted 60mm guns, the karocs were living tanks, smashing through the desperate human lines and wiping out the remaining karis shadow platoon. Staff Sergeant Bragg ordered their only HASAC team to get into position, firing into the head of the first karoc, causing it to topple and trip a second, which caused its back turret to fire into the lines of the reformed 13th Solinās. Domrisson, convinced that she couldn’t win the battle here, ordered a tactical retreat into the muddy fishing village of Gulu. As they entered the village and set up positions, it started to rain heavily, causing the 160th Achtvārdenn’s guns to be trapped in the rapidly forming mud. With no other option, the men were forced to abandon the pieces. Worse still, the humans, who saw their chance, began to advance up the hill after their last of the Karoc Killers was killed. They took control of the artillery, which were MKII 40mm PZ-18 Launchers, and used it to gas the village, killing the Talokan mercenaries and zurok villagers. The battered 13th, who luckily had heavy-duty plague masks, withstood the lava gas, allowing them to use the red cloud as cover to move forward into makeshift trenches created by the karoc footprints. Muddy, bloody, and ready to die, the 13th fought with unparalleled ferocity, bringing down scores of soldiers of the 111th, however they soon became too depleted and were forced to retreat even further into the swamp.

Bragg, who had become thirsty for revenge and xamom blood, ordered the 7th and 12th Assault Platoons to pursue the once mighty 13th. Luckily for the 13th, XAC High Command were monitoring Domrisson’s activity and sent an evac location to Domrisson through her comlink. They arrived early on Hill 324 and fought off the 7th Assault platoon and left before the 12th could catch up to them. Of the 3,900 soldiers within the 13th Solinās Ount-Grassēn, no more than 300 escaped, with only 86 160th artillery men escaping as well. Later that day, Reyklivisson was posthumously awarded the Xama Star of Valor, and was canonized as a hero of the XAC with Domrisson formally inducted into the Xama Hall of Tactical Mastery. The fallen of the 13th and 160th were also etched onto the Plaque of Fallen Heroes, which sits on the wall of the Minister of War’s office at XAC High Command.

On the human side, Bragg was promoted to Sergeant Major, with Lucy Mason also receiving the Seal of Humanity, a prestigious medal for her service. She returned to active duty on February 3 that same year, hungry for vengeance for the 234,000 soldiers that fell at the Obrim Assault.

Costly Ures Victory:

Ures: 234,079 dead

Xamon: 109,811 dead

Talok Mercs: 600 dead

### The Siege of Talok City: January 15- January 27, 7037

CSM Davis Bragg knew that the xamon and zuroks would strike again, so he and General Brown continued on their goal of the December 10 Offensive, to siege and take the major weapons hub of Talok City. If Talok City was taken, it would supply the soldiers on Ures with billions of rounds of bullets and millions of military grade weapons and several volumetric tons of oil. Along with that, they’d capture Talok’s extensive weapons factories and oil refineries.

Talok was informed of this by his secret informants within Ures, he told XAC High Command of this and requested reinforcements. However, the xamon were unable to donate soldiers in time, as they were still recuperating their losses after the Obrim Assaults. However, they did donate 700 heavy aircraft and 390 heavy tanks.

Talok City was characterized by its gargantuan wall, which Talok ordered construction of to keep out wildlife and rogue zurok pirate clans.

Mason and Brown had anticipated the wall, and had several demolition units prepared to blow apart the corrugated mass that kept them outside the city. However, highly trained zurok and spravac snipers topped the walls, making a secret infiltration impossible. Bragg concluded that the only way to get his squads in was to mix them with a frontal assault of the city. His combined force was two divisions, the leftover forces from Dec 10 and Orbim, he was also reinforced with the 9th Armored Battalion and Bombing Wing Theta. Bragg began his assault with three strafing runs with Bombing Wing Theta, they went on unhindered due to the lack of AA cannons in Talok’s army. However, a few well-placed tank shots from the 12 M-4870 AA Flak Tanks donated by XAC High Command severely damaged several aircraft. Theta at first used napalm and 80mm explosive canisters to severely damage the tanks and buildings inside Talok City. Bragg had another idea, he ordered his artillery batteries to fire Mustard Gas, an ancient human compound used in the early 1900s. The gas worked to devastating effect on the walls, with only the spravac snipers surviving for obvious reasons. Talok, growing frustrated from being purely defensive, ordered a wave of zurok speeder squads and spravac shock troopers to charge out of the main gate and engage the humans head on. Most of the spravac perished on the way towards the enemy lines, but the zurok speeder squads, called Speed Demons, would race into the newly dug trenches and tear up the humans inside, causing maximum damage towards the entrenched human snipers.

Theta Wing made another run, dropping more explosive canisters onto the walls, eliminating more of the snipers and causing massive chunks of the poorly constructed wall to plummet to the ground.

Finally, Bragg could make his move, he sent in his demolition teams to place heavy claymores on the exterior supports of the wall (as Talok’s building contractor had made an error and built the wall backwards). After thirty minutes, Bragg detonated the charges, blowing a 300 foot wide hole in the structure, allowing his soldiers to pour into the city. Talok forced the civilians into levied brigades, creating a wall of flesh to stave off the attackers. However, he had underestimated 111th cruelty, as the helpless civilians garnered no sympathy. Flustered but not defeated, Talok ordered the xamon tanks to hold the line so he could gas up and mobilize the 700 aircraft that he had stored at a large airbase. After about an hour of stalemate, Taloks “Air Hounds” were in the air. Bragg was unprepared for these vehicles, and his artillery and reserves were decimated, with Bragg himself even taking a large piece of shrapnel to his left eye, which would later give him the nickname Steel Eyed Bragg.

Bragg, despite his critical injury, continued to order his men, ordering a fake retreat to lure in the zuroks, only to meet them in alleyways to gun them down. The xamon tanks also suffered, as the 111th showed great courage as they charged the tanks head on to plant anti-tank charges. Theta Wing circled around again and dropped another round of mustard gas on the zuroks, with the human wearing their powerful gas masks.

Defeated, Talok ordered a full retreat into the wilderness with whatever his men could carry, using the Air Hounds to suppress the humans so the zuroks could load on as many weapons and ammo as they could, even filling the remaining 120 tanks with as many supplies as the space would allow.

Finally, Lucy Mason and Elsa Brown’s pet project was fully realized, Talok City was finally taken and renamed Bragg Base, in honor of Bragg, who was promoted to Sergeant Major of the Army just three hours after Bragg Base was christened.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Ures: 85,801 dead

Zurok Civilians: 600,710 dead

Talok Mercs: 100,289 dead

Xamon: 2,050 dead

### Battle of the Hills 456 and 321: February 3, 7037

With the victory at Talok City causing an insurmountable boost in morale, it was only fitting that Lucy Mason arrived back from Ures to see her opus fully realized. However, like all soldiers of the 111th, 293rd, and 400th, she was straight to the point and ready for the next battle. Mason ordered the 293rd’s 2nd Heavy Armor Battalion and the decorated Bombing Wing Theta to snuff out the remaining zuroks, who had dug into hidden underground bunkers created to smuggle weapons out of Talok City. It was also snowing heavily, causing the 293rd to bundle up for the blistering cold of Southern Shagra. As the 2nd Battalion slowly trudged into the pine forests, they were immediately engaged by heavy tank fire from camouflaged xamon tanks. Much to the dismay of the 2nd, the xamon had finally delivered on their reinforcements. The XAC left Talok the 55th Seuk-Grassēn (Winter Troopers) Regiment to assist the depleted zurok mercs.

At first, the 55th were very successful at slowing the 2nd Brigade even more, though eventually their position was compromised when Theta Wing made a napalm and Mustard Gas run. Luckily, only one of those two things worked, as the 55th’s plague masks were far too advanced for the mustard gas. However, the napalm revealed two key positions, a pair of bunker entrances on Hills 456 and 321.

Over the comm, Bragg ordered that the 2nd Battalion split its force in half so that both could go after a hill. Hill 321 was at a higher elevation and had several lines of defensive trenches lining the faces of the hill. The zurok’s imported LMG-90s proved effective at not only killing the men, but even occasionally puncturing weakened sections of tank armor. Theta wing was called in to rectify the situation, mercilessly firebombing the position, burning the gunners alive. As the 2nd’s limited infantry began to pour into the bunker, they were met with resistance at every corner, Talok’s spravac mercs fearlessly suicide bombed the soldiers and detonated doorways to cause cave ins, burying tens of soldiers.

Meanwhile, 456 was lightly defended, only a depleted squad of xamon snow-troops. But there was a catch, when the confident soldiers entered, the first wave of men walked into a trap. Motion trackers set off a chain of explosives that sealed off both the exit and a section of the hallway, trapping the soldiers inside, who would be poisoned by retractable lava gas vents that the xamon had installed.

With Hill 456 a no go and 321 dishing out heavy resistance, Bragg ordered the men inside to retreat and exit the tunnels. He then ordered the entire 2nd Battalion to retreat. After the 293rd’s men had left, the confused xamon and zuroks were meant with several hundred tons of long range artillery fire, unearthing the entire network of tunnels. Talok, who had just avoided being blown to bits, escaped with his life and the remaining 55th, leaving the intact munitions behind. The 293rd then moved back in to collect the munitions and set up a Forward Operating Base in the newly formed trenches (which were created by the bottom half of the bunker hallways).

Once again, Bragg was promoted for his expert strategizing, being named Second Lieutenant.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Ures: 5,981 dead

Talok Mercs: 8,019 dead

Xamon: 2,100 dead

### The Long Quiet: February 4- April 19, 7037

On both sides, the belligerents of the war had an unofficial ceasefire, with both sides unwilling to make any significant moves, save for the occasional zurok civilian uprisings which were promptly crushed. Both sides took this period to recuperate and rearm for the coming storm.

XAC High Command was planning something monumental, Operation Vaffin Lóke, a military campaign so deadly that it kicked the humans out of the war almost entirely.

## The Vaffin Lóke Campaign:

The xamon, eager to push at least one of the two belligerents out of the war, organized a regimental and highly organized yet versatile plan over The Long Quiet. Named after Minister of War Sōrdisson Vaffin, the Vaffin Lóke Plan was a straight and aggressive push into human territory on both of the major land masses of Shagra. Vaffin had four full field armies of troops stationed in both Vapum and the major military base of Fort Varāçen in the Ice Pass Mountains as well as the surrounding cities and the untouched western hemisphere.

His plan was daring and highly risky, should his operation fail, he’d risk losing millions of men and perhaps even the war. To add a buffer to his ranks, he enlisted the full militant support of Talok and additional men from Shaba, who had thus far not been using as many men, but rather supplying the XAC with fuel and ammunition.

His plan had five phases, first was the Skæs-Graffon, in which the 2nd Army would march up from the south and take Talok City back from the Ures Empire. Second was Skæs-Lothon, when the 5th Army and Talok’s nine divisions would assault the Ures Empire from Vapum up north. Third was Skæs-Salthon, when the 1st Army would cross the Wesho Ocean and attack the Ures Empire’s forces from the west. The fourth phase, Skæs-Untvārdon, which would send Shaba and the 4th Army to attack and crush the Ures Empire’s army in the Manab Desert, which had the highest amount of fresh human soldiers. And finally, Skæs-Achsgardon, in which all four armies, assuming they achieve their goals, would surround the remaining Ures forces on the world and bargain a surrender, should they deny the offer, the four armies would all attack at the same time, annihilating the humans down to the last man and woman.

### Skæs-Graffon: April 20- May 3, 7037

In the Ice Pass, the 2nd Army laid in wait since the beginning of the war, their orders were to hold the line against the humans should they ever attempt to move further south. At 6:00 AM, Skæs-Graffon was launched. Made from the 6th Airborne Corps and 9th Heavy Armor Corps, the 2nd army was a formidable fighting force. Moving north toward Bragg Base, the 2nd army faced feeble resistance, barely losing even three hundred men to the poorly equipped defenders, most of which were yuriksis and rurkis troops with inadequate armor and morale. When they came across Bragg Base, Bragg was stunned to find an entire xamon army without any warning from CIG High Command. He and General Mason discussed their defense. In the meantime, Bragg deployed a division of the 400th Devil Infantry to stave off the advancing waves of xamon. Since the terrain was highly rugged in that area, the xamon could not send their entire army all at the same time, They began their assault with the reconstituted 13th Solinās Ount-Grassēn and the 34th Elite Company, also called Solas Company. The 13th charged head on under heavy machine gun and artillery fire. Despite the merciless volleys, the 13th charged as if they couldn’t even feel the missiles. With their flamethrowers and bayonets fixed, they charged into the human lines, gutting and burning thousands of human soldiers. Bragg had designed his lines to be collapsible so that broken lines could immediately retreat and continue fighting under covering fire.

This system proved greatly effective, as the 13th was forced to retreat after two hours of savage fighting. With Solas Company continuing the current fight, the 400th were unable to follow the retreating 13th. Vaffin’s general of the 2nd army, General Fisson, ordered two armored brigades to roll in to assist the outnumbered and faltering Solas Company. When the armored brigades moved in, the 400th’s first three lines collapsed in rapid succession. The blitz ground to a halt however when the fourth and final line was reached.

As was tradition with all three of General Mason’s divisions, an unauthorized retreat was punishable by summary execution. Fighting under desperation and fear, the 400th tirelessly fought, until their soldiers on the ground were completely wiped out. Without any men to stop the attackers, Bragg Base was practically defenseless. Reluctantly, and with the wise counsel of General Mason, Bragg ordered an abandonment of Bragg Base. With no soldiers to halt their advance, the 2nd army swarmed into the city and regained control. With the first phase complete, the 2nd Army eagerly awaited for their other armies to complete their tasks.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 49,089 dead

Ures: 109,290 dead

### Skæs-Lothon: April 20- April 31, 7037

At the same time as Skæs-Graffon, the 5th Army and Talok’s nine divisions began their march from Vapum down to the Ures territory past the Galis and Obrim Rivers. The 5th army was composed of three corps, which contained such notable units like the 801st Revennin Ount-Grassēn Brigade, the 2nd Xama Guard Battalion, and two light armored divisions, the 6th Echtenga Rashon and 23rd Sordon Rashon.

It’s commander, General Ashtensson, was infamous among the humans for his ruthlessness and among XAC High Command for his maverick ideals and over willingness to sacrifice his men. As the 5th army marched south through the flatlands, they came to the northern banks of the Galis River. The humans had constructed large metal bridge across it and they were heavily guarded. Ashtensson, not one for clever tactics, ordered the 801st Revennin and the 2nd Xama Guard to lead the way across the bridges. The bridges were mostly unmanned, relying on automatic turret drones to do most of the shooting. Hundreds of soldiers died trying to cross the bridge, using their dismembered corpses of their own comrades as shields. To make matters worse, the humans had deployed a couple of yuriksis colossi to hold the line on the southern banks. In a bold move, Ashtensson ordered his light tanks to fire straight into his own men to hit the yuriksis. He succeeded in his goals, but a few hundred good men paid for it.

His next obstacle was the large zurok village of Utoki, which had a garrison of a few thousand men. Ashtensson ordered his armor to bombard the village, using incendiary rounds to light the wooden structures ablaze. The human soldiers, knowing that they couldn’t attack head on, attempted to wait out the bombardment.

After several minutes of firing, Ashtensson concluded that the humans had all been wiped out and ordered his army to continue marching through and around the village. Little did he know, that several human squads still remained. When the soldiers that were passing straight through the village passed the ambushers, they would suddenly shoot them in the backs, causing mass damage for such a small number of men. The xamon, after losing a few men, finally found the hiding soldiers and massacred them.

The army marched unhindered until they came to the Olbrim river, which had a much wider bridge over it, wide enough for hundreds of men to march side by side at a time. Confident in his men, Ashtensson sent his tanks first to fire into any soldiers that stood in their way. However, the humans had rigged the bridge. Placing high power charges on the belly of the structure. When the bulk of the tanks was on the bridge, they detonated the bomb. Killing thousands and destroying or disabling over 200 tanks.

Ashtensson, frustrated with this turn of events ordered the remainder of his force to cross over the river the old fashioned way. To make matters worse, the heat of the spring had brought out a multitude of river dwelling predators, who would grab unsuspecting soldiers and drag them to their watery graves down river, where the deeper areas were located. Refusing to give up, Ashtensson himself marched forward with his men, leading the charge and greatly increasing their morale.

The humans, in a last ditch effort, gathered their remaining soldiers and charged straight into the xamon lines, killing hundreds but ultimately failing.

Finally, after the Olbrim was crossed, Ashtensson positioned his men and awaited the signal to begin Skæs-Achsgardon. Talok’s remaining divisions were present as well, but Ashtensson advised Talok to hold back his men in order to conserve their energy, numbers, and ammunition.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 120,396 dead

Ures: 197,680 dead

### Skæs-Salthon: April 15, 7037

Unlike the other phases, Skæs-Salthon began five days before the others. Since they had to cross the Wesho Ocean, they made landfall at the same time as the other operations were launching. The Ures Empire had relatively minimal forces along the western shoreline, only a few machine gun dugouts and a few hundred platoons of men. The xamon made a large scale amphibious landing. Due to the flatness of the terrain, the xamon could move relatively quickly across the environment. The biggest of the battles was the Battle of Eprai, a small valley housing a considerably large joint human-karis encampment. The xamon’s commander, General Comondat Hersse, ordered in a pincer maneuver to destroy the humans and karis. Much to his shock, the two hundred thousand karis actually laid down their arms and allowed themselves to be captured, leaving the three thousand human soldiers to fight for themselves. If it weren’t for those soldiers surrendering, the Vaffin Lóke Campaign could’ve actually failed and won the war for the Human-Karis Coalition. The humans, who were willing to do all they could to hinder the xamon, charged bravely into the xamon lines. Sadly, they were all gunned down before a single xamon trooper could be killed. After a few more days, the 1st army arrived in their position, with a record low of only a little over two hundred men killed.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 230 dead

Ures: 3,409 dead

### Skæs-Untvārdon: April 20, 7037

Waiting in the Manab Desert was the 4th Army, commanded by the ruthless Brigadier General Renevvā Grachtvardun, a particularly brutal commander who ruled over his men using fear. His army was composed almost completely of Ount-Grassēn units, as well as an army of exclusively heavy tanks. He was so feared amongst the humans in the Manab Desert that he earned the nickname “Desert Fire Snake” due to his penchant for both flamethrowers and cigarettes.

To prepare for this incoming onslaught, the humans had constructed a defensive line of bunkers, artillery batteries, and extensive trenches.

Grachtvardun began his charge with a frontal tank assault, using his superior armor to soak up as much as the fire as possible, knowing for a fact that the humans would target the tanks over his men. He sent the Ount-Grassēn’s Sûbben-Grassēn (flame-troopers) in as well to burn the humans inside the trenches to a crisp. After the first line was taken, the regular stormtroopers would entrench themselves to mow down vast amounts of retreating survivors. The commander of the humans, Captain Grayson, ordered an immediate counter-attack, but to no avail.

Grachtvardun ordered his men forward once more, again leading with his heavy armor. The humans continued to be pushed back at every engagement, with Grayson perishing at the Battle of Sector 12, at the southern end of the Manab Line as it was called.

Finally, after three exhausting days of fighting, the humans had been completely wiped out. However, Grachtvardun had lost almost an eighth of million men. Regardless, Skæs-Untvārdon was a success, with Grachtvardun being quoted “...I don’t care if one million of my men were buried in the sand, it would all be worth it if those apes laid next to them as well.”

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 123,900 dead

Ures: 308,991 dead

### Skæs-Achsgardon and Ures Armistice: April 30, 7037

With all the armies succeeding in their goals, Minister Vaffin contacted Ures High Command and issued an ultimatum; Surrender and spare your men, or die.

Merkel, unwilling to sacrifice her soldiers, ordered both General Brown and Second Lieutenant Bragg to stand down. Honoring their end of the agreement, the xamon soldiers allowed the humans to withdraw, the humans then signed the Treaty of Sunstgarden (the vessel on which the treaty was discussed and signed), which required that the humans have no further involvement with the war or the foreseeable future with the XAC, should they get involved again, all out interplanetary war would be declared.

However, the Karis Republic, whose representatives were present for the the debate, declined signage, with Executive Minister Glenna De Jennesa and Minister of War Sereen proudly declaring that they were ready to destroy the xamon once and for all.

## Sereen’s War:

Appointed by Executive Minister Jennesa, Garuile De Sereen was a staunch supporter of Jennesa in the elections. To reward him for his generous contributions, she appointed him her Minister of War. Before the war, Sereen was the owner of wealthy weapons manufacturing company that supplied much of the Republic’s army. As a result of this, he took an interest in tactics, and requested that he be the Minister of War. The irony is, he never even served in the military, nor had he even held a gun. Despite this, Sereen was abnormally confident in his tactical skill, and proudly declared to the public that he would “...rain hellfire upon the xamon with great fury and karis greatness, there is no way they could stand against our military might!”

Even worse still, Sereen made his brother, Haruile, a general in the army as well, who was an accountant and occasional regular of the local firing range.

On May the third, Sereen ordered a full scale invasion of Shagra, triggering what would lead to the deaths of millions of karis soldiers.

### Karis Invasion of Shagra: May 3, 7037

Minister Sereen and his brother initiated the continuation of the war on 5 May with two full fleets of men, tanks, and atmosphere level fighter craft. Unlike the humans, who started the invasions in the city, Sereen rationalized that they should land in the uninhabited Manab desert and march towards the city of Helru. However, both fleets could be seen for miles when landing, and Shaba ordered his four hundred thousands mercs in the immediate area to dig in and hold them off before more could arrive.

With their orders given, the mercenaries, off which mostly composed of heavily armed zurok pirates and over three thousand spravac, dug in using portable barricades and laser shovel technology to instantly dig their trenches.

General Sereen, when he landed on the ground to command his forces, was incredulous when he saw the massive Shaban line, which was commanded by a vicious spravac named Vinik. Vinik was Shaba’s right hand man and possessed a heightened cruelty that was characteristic of all spravac. Sereen consulted his brother, who advised him to charge forward with all his men to crush the spravac in one fell swoop. General Sereen, unaware of the absurdity of this plan, ordered his men to charge forward. Vinik, who was unusually quiet most of the time, apparently burst out laughing when he saw the karis fearlessly charging towards their nigh impenetrable line.

As was expected by Vinik, thousands of karis soldiers were mowed down in seconds. Sereen was reportedly so horrified by the death that he called his brother again crying and asking why he made him a general. The minister ordered that he pull his men back and attack again later.

When the dust had settled, eight thousand karis soldiers had lost their lives in just one hour. The general called in the support of the other army that had landed a few miles north, lead by General Mendal De Parsell. Parsell headed Sereen’s pleas and abandoned his position to help the floundering general. With the northern flank undefended, Shaba, rather than gathering his reinforcements to meet Vinik, instead (with Vinik’s consultation first) ordered his one million zurok mercenaries to flank the two massive karis armies from the north.

General Sereen, comforted by the five hundred thousand man buffer, ordered another frontal charge, this time with tank and artillery support. However, his poorly coordinated artillery resulted in their firing into his own battle lines, causing almost nine thousand deaths from friendly fire alone in the second charge.

Vinik, surprised by their daring charge, ordered his three thousand spravac to make a counter charge. This terrified the karis, who were unaware that spravac were present within the defenses. When they reared their bladed heads, half of the charge retreated back to the karis lines, leaving the petrified remainder of the men to be cut to pieces by the highly trained and vicious spravac warriors. Even Sereen himself was noticeably terrified of the enemy.

With the karis in disarray, the first battle of what would be known as the Manab Battle Line was won by the XAC and her allies.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Shaba Mercs: 3,810 dead

Karis: 49,729 dead

Zurok Civilians: 9,001 dead

### The Manab Battle Line: May 4- May 9, 7037

On May the fourth, Sereen and Parsell concluded that overwhelming artillery would push out the enemy. At 4:00 AM they began to mercilessly bombard the enemy trenches, causing thousands of casualties in the first ten minutes. Vinik ordered his men to charge forward to avoid the line of fire. Lead by the remaining spravac, the karis were charged head on unprepared, which caused them to retreat in kind, leaving hundreds more slain by the zuroks. The zuroks stopped when they arrived at the abandoned karis artillery. Vinik divided his men in half. The first half would carry their newfound firepower back to the main line, while the other half would establish a new line at the original artillery positions.

Unaware that his artillery was moved back, Sereen, without the go-ahead by Parsell, ordered several divisions of men to retake the artillery. Vinik’s new “Pike Line” was ready for the attack, and Sereen’s men were decimated by the unexpected zurok obstacles. When Sereen’s battered men returned, he was in shock. Nothing else would happen for the remainder of the fourth.

May 5, 6:00 AM, Parsell ordered the 500th Light Armor Company to blitz forward and crush the Pike Line, the line’s soldiers were unprepared for the tanks, and for once it looked like the karis were finally gaining some traction. However, the zuroks retreated to the “Shield Line” and bombarded the tanks with their artillery. Eventually, the artillery ran out of ammunition and the tanks continued their advance.

Parsell advised that Sereen send his infantry in to finish off the mercenaries, but Sereen, with the advice from Minister Sereen, declined the notion, believing that the tanks could easily handle “that horde of vagabonds”

Surely enough, Parsell’s advice would prove invaluable, as the remnants of the 500th arrived at third strength and low on ammo and fuel.

On May the sixth, Shaba’s one million reinforcements arrived. Vinik requested that Shaba attack immediately, which Shaba obliged by sending his own tanks and men into battle. Vinik then attacked shortly after with the remainder of his force from the west. The karis were practically suffocating from the force of the attack, with both sides attacking with brutal efficiency.

Despite this, the karis still fought valiantly, and managed to inflict so much damage to Vinik’s numbers that he was forced to retreat into the city of Helru. With Shaba left, the karis diverted all their men to his men, which caused he and his men to retreat back into the rolling dunes of the northern Manab. However, Sereen’s men couldn’t pursue them far, as they had become too tired after a few miles of chase.

On May 7, Shaba organized a counterattack, taking the sleeping karis by surprise. Sereen panicked and ordered a full scale retreat, but sadly he was captured by the zuroks during the retreat. Parsell was left in command and lead the men back to their original camp, where they then dug in and held off the zuroks until they retreated back to the northern hills.

On May 8, Sereen was put in front of the karis dressed in the skin of a dead spravac, without thinking his own men gunned him down, unaware until after the fact that he was in fact a karis in spravac skin. Minister Sereen was so devastated that he reportedly held the rest of his meetings for the duration of the war in pitch blackness to make sure his colleagues wouldn’t see his tears.

On May 9, Minister Sereen sent in another one million soldiers, ordering that Shaba’s militia be wiped out to the last man or at least broken beyond repair. Parsell ordered a head on attack, in only thirty minutes the debilitated zuroks retreated southwest to Helru, where they had superior lines of sight and supplies. Parsell, despite failing to kill all of the zuroks, was still congratulated by Minister Sereen for winning the battle.

Decisive Karis Victory:

Karis: 451,299 dead

Shaba Mercs: 710,211 dead

### Helru Outskirts: May 11, 7037

Helru, despite being a somewhat small city, was still heavily defended and so well manned that over 100,000 non-affiliated zurok mercenaries waited outside the walls. The Outlanders as they were called were divided and often fought amongst each other for resources, as if they were unaware of the massive war that was plaguing their world. Parsell, who at the beginning of this war had barely any tactical experience, had learned quite a lot in his week as a general. He ordered small mobile units of karis to infiltrate the shanty Outlander encampments and wipe out the survivors in skirmishes. They were also ordered to execute any sleeping or unarmed civilians as well. Before the heavy karis involvement, relatively few civilians had been killed in proportion to military deaths. However, this would soon change with Parsell and Minister Sereen.

Eventually, or perhaps inevitably, the karis were discovered and were engaged in a full on firefight with the remaining Outlanders, who for a moment had forgotten about each other to fight the karis. With the karis’ numerical deficit, it was likely they’d be wiped out without support. However, if Parsell made any large movements, the forces on the walls would definitely notice them and the siege of Helru would have begun on their terms. Instead, Parsell sent in the 2nd Night Bomber Regiment, who, with the blessing of the few karis soldiers left, bombed the Outland villages, killing everyone there save for a few hundred stragglers that would run into the desert and probably starve.

Decisive Karis Victory:

Karis: 322 dead

Zurok Rogues: 100,000 dead

### Siege of Helru: May 12- May 16, 7037

After their decisive victory at the outskirts, Parsell ordered his men to completely surround the city, zurok snipers positioned themselves on the walls in droves and would occasionally gun down a few men before returning to cover. At 12:00 AM, Parsell ordered his heavy tanks to bombard the walls until they inevitably fell. The northernmost wall was the first to collapse. Parsell ordered his men to hold back before charging into the city, which allowed the zuroks ample time to set up defenses at the breach. After waiting for a full thirty minutes, Parsell finally ordered his men to charge, not realizing that a wall of spikes and machine guns were waiting for them.

Most of the first charge was wiped out in mere minutes, which caused Parsell to have a knee jerk reaction and divert his forces from the western and southern walls to reinforce the quickly dying karis soldiers. As they continued to get gunned down by the zurok mercenaries, the karis continued to charge into the breach. Eventually, Parsell was forced to withdraw his men, who proceeded to dig into hastily dug trenches. They waited for two days, forced to fend off small zurok night raids until more soldiers arrived.

On the third day, Parsell received two full brigades of karis soldiers and tanks to assault the breach. When the charge began, they were shocked to find that the corpses of their fallen were piled up to act as a barricade, their weapons and armor looted off of their corpses. As the soldiers clambered over their fallen comrades, they were gunned down by their own weapons being used by zuroks wearing pieces of their armor.

However, the zuroks were debilitated from a lack of supplies or food, and often fought recklessly or even suicidally, allowing the karis to efficiently flood into the city. Despite the poor state of the zuroks, they still fought tooth and nail for every inch of bullet riddled concrete and steel. The zuroks also placed charges in the supports of smaller buildings to bury themselves and the karis alive. Whole squads would be lost to falling rubble and even biological waste from the overflowing sewers.

The most vicious of the fighting was in the city square, which was acting as Vinik’s base of operations. Vinik, with the orders of Shaba, was ordered to retreat via land speeder to escape capture or execution (or both). He was forced to leave the rest of his forces behind to fend for themselves, which they did valiantly. The Helru streets lasted for another whole day, with the last two days being spent in just the city square alone. Both sides soon began calling it Blue Square because of the amount of karis that perished while fighting the cornered mercenaries.

After four days of brutal urban warfare, the karis finally triumphed. However, over 500,000 paid the price.

Pyrrhic Karis Victory:

Karis: 565,918 dead

Zurok Civilians: 1,230,111 dead

Shaba Mercs: 400,112 dead

### Battle of Dara: May 17, 7037

With zurok forces low on men and morale, XAC High Command donated eighteen companies of men to assist the debilitated zuroks to defend against the karis at the banks of the Dara River. Under the command of Brigadier General Renevvā Grachtvardun, he divided his forces into four groups, separating them on the field in grid formation.

Parsell waited a few miles south of what would become known as Grachtvardun’s Grid, he charged to the left of the grid, believing it to be less heavily manned than the right. Grachtvardun did this on purpose and flanked the karis with his unoccupied forces. Parsell called in bombardment to try and push back the flanking companies. However, poor communications caused the explosive shells to hit his own men instead. Grachtvardun pulled back his bloodied left lines and allowed his flanking lines to continue to occupy the karis. As the original left lines fully withdrew, they were replaced with fresh units to replace their positions, allowing his injured units to recuperate and later replace the replacements. This seemingly endless stream of men forced the karis to retreat southward toward Parsell’s command post. With only temporary buildings acting as their cover, the remaining karis soldiers put up a desperate last stand to hold off Grachtvardun’s merciless tactics.

After several hours of brutal fighting, the xamon were miraculously pushed back. Parsell ordered his men to immediately attack again even though they were starving and dangerously low on numbers. The xamon had retreated back into the grid and eagerly awaited the karis charge. Grachtvardun had been reinforced with PZ-18 artillery pieces and ordered a heavy bombardment of the field. With the ground blanketed with poisonous gas, the karis soldiers thought that Parsell surely wouldn’t order them to attack. They were wrong.

With their filtering masks engaged, Parsell ordered a daring frontal assault of the xamon, however, the gas burned right through their filters and hundreds of karis fell on the ground choking on their own burnt up lungs. By the time they were out of the cloud of gas, only a measly one hundred karis remained. Knowing that they couldn’t turn back through the gas, the karis accepted their fate and suicidally charged into the xamon guns and bayonets, all were killed without a single xamon dead.

With Parsell’s army crushed, there was nothing stopping Grachtvardun from advancing southward into karis controlled territory, Helru was recaptured and hundreds of thousands of zurok civilians were freed and armed. Along with this would be the development of Grachtvardun’s newfound hatred of the karis along with humans, a hatred that would fuel his political career later on in the Xamo-Karis Wars.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 1,428 dead

Karis: 6,102 dead

### Operation Vengeance: May 20- June 12, 7037

Grachtvardun was ready to rain hell upon the karis soldiers, with reinforcements from the zurok militants and fellow General Konrav Vull Hossengrav, the massive 4th Army was ready to invade karis territory. His army was considered the most diverse of all the XAC armies, heavy and light tanks acted at the armor with the dreaded Ount-Grassēn acting as the sword and backbone of the army.

He began his assault by marching south through the mostly barren dunes of the southern Manab Desert. There was no karis presence in the desert, either from the aversion to the dryness of the desert or the depleted forces that Parsell retreated with. However, the lack of battle changed when the army reached the Nalan marshlands on May 25, within the vast marshes were several companies of karis soldiers and lyka packs. The army struggled to push their tanks through the mud and much of the heavy tanks would be abandoned after sinking too far into the vice-like mud.

Commanded by Captain Develos, the karis commandos utilized what little trees they could to ambush the scattered xamon forces, for the next two days the karis lost no men, while the xamon lost a whopping one hundred and twelve. This all changed however when the xamon began to gas the trees with PZ-18, either killing or flushing the karis out for death or capture.

Unwilling to give up, Develos mustered his forces and dug deep trenches in the mud to await the passing xamon. Covered in mud as camouflage, the karis ambushed the xamon and a massive firefight broke out between them and the 8th Sǔbben-Grassēn Company.

The karis managed to hold back the troopers for several hours until they finally managed to storm and burn the trenches, killing Captain Develos in the process. The 4th Army finally pushed through the marshlands into the forest of Duvum. The 2nd Army of the karis, commanded by Supreme Commander Juile De Sasheem, had heard about Develos’ death and had set up defensive lines in the forest. Grachtvardun saw his forces ahead of time and ordered the NAIF (Noble Air Force) to burn the forest with napalm and poison the soldiers with PZ-18, taken by surprise, Sasheem ordered his forces to move back into the forest, allowing the 4th Army to march into the northern part of the forest unhindered.

Their march halted at a brook at about the center of the forest. The resulting battle would be aptly named Blood Creek, as the two giant forces battled over passage.

Sasheem began with a cunning false charge to draw out the aggressive Grachtvardun, who sent his stormtroopers into the fray, the karis retreated and led the soldiers into caltrops and mines that killed hundreds in seconds. Frustrated, Grachtvardun sent in another wave now that the caltrops and mines had been cleared by the first wave. He coincided this attack with another PZ-18 run from his fighters. Since the advanced plague masks of the xamon protected them from the gas, they easily fought the karis in the red clouds. The karis, terrified by the sight, retreated back into the final line of trenches, which originally were only meant for the reserves.

Grachtvardun then sent in the zurok mercenaries to raid the trench line, thousands died just on the way there from the seemingly endless sniper vollies.

Hossengrav, who was facing little resistance east of Grachtvardun’s position, ordered the remainder of the light tanks to flank the karis at a fork in Blood Creek. Meeting light karis forces, the tanks easily smashed through and tore up the eastern flank of the karis, causing thousands to die in mere hours.

Juile ordered a bold charge into the xamon, with sabers brandished and under the cover of snipers, the karis charged into the stormtroopers and engaged in fierce hand to hand combat. Soon piles of men would form and the flow of water in the creek would cease from the fleshy dams that would be created from the battle.

Hossengrav urged Grachtvardun to pull his men back and allow his fresh forces to take his place, and after much counsel, Grachtvardun caved. Hossengrav’s fresh heavy soldiers, armed with gatling guns and grenade launchers, covered the withdrawal of the bloodied Ount-Grassēn on May 31. Soon, chunks of karis were flying in all directions as the heavy soldiers slowly but surely advanced and massacred the soldiers, pushing them out of the charred and corpse clogged forest by June 2.

Over the next four days, the 4th Army continued its march, turning much of the karis territory into XAC domain. Juile made his camp on the cliffs of the Gadin Canyon. Grachtvardun was forced to march around the small canyon, coming into contact with small karis sniper squads and tank traps that would spell the end for the rest of his tanks. When they had finally made it around both sides of the canyon on June 9, Juile’s army was caught in a massive pincer movement, forced to pull out upon pressure of death, Juile and the bulk of his force retreated into the foothills south of the canyon, the small groups of soldiers left behind were to hold off the xamon long enough for the retreat to succeed. However, they broke too quickly and the xamon began to closely tail the karis, shooting down a large amount of them in the backs.

The karis continued their retreat until they finally got to the foothills on June 11. With superior firing position, the xamon took heavy casualties to endless hails of machine gun and sniper rifle fire. Pinned down, Hossengrav called in the 10th Gas Bombing Regiment to displace the karis so that the xamon could advance once more. However, the run failed as too many were shot down by karis flak guns.

Juile ordered a counter charge that forced the xamon back to Grachtvardun’s position. The remnants of the 10th Bombing Regiment, low in numbers and payloads, suicide bombed the charging karis to allow Grachtvardun to escape. However, in a reckless move, Grachtvardun ordered an immediate counter charge combined with a hail of artillery fire. Friendly fire was common, but the xamon held strong, charging straight into the confused karis soldiers and engaging in a brutal and one-sided melee.

The karis were forced to retreat once again into the foothills, but this time the xamon were able to follow them.

Finally, on June 12, the karis finally managed to lose the xamon in the Vilda Forest, a highly thick brush that the xamon would be unable to traverse without facing astronomical casualties.

Pyrrhic Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 1,801,928 dead

Zurok Irregulars: 43,211 dead

Karis: 1,291,221 dead

### Battle of the Vizna: June 17- June 20, 7037

Across the Wesho ocean, along the banks of the Vizna was a large karis army commanded by General Parsell, who had been moved across the ocean to take the westernmost continent of Shagra. Upon hearing of this, XAC High Command sent General Comondat Hersse to halt the karis advance north. By the time Hersse and his army had arrived, the karis had captured everything south of the River Vizna. Hersse immediately ordered his men to open fire with PZ-18, killing thousands of karis in mere seconds. Hersse, who unlike most other xamon generals had a significant distaste for the zuroks, forced hundreds of thousands of them into levies to be used as cannon fodder. Armed with little armor and poor weapons, the zuroks charged through the shallows of the river into the karis lines. Thousands died just on the way to the karis lines. The zuroks engaged in a bloody melee before the xamon charged in along with them.

Taken aback by the ferocity of the zuroks and xamon, the karis retreated to the southern stream of the Vizna, which was fork shaped. The xamon and zuroks engaged right on the fork of the river, once again engaged in close quarters combat. Soon the river was not only flowing with water, but with xamon, karis, and zurok bodies as well. Parsell was forced to retreat again to Fort Tooth, an old abandoned spravac fort from the days of the Spravac-Delta War.

Upon seeing the heavy karis defenses, Hersse ordered his men to be held back. However, before he could get out of range, a sniper shot him through the chest.

General Hersse later died of blood loss on June 20. With no leader, the xamon retreated back over the river and made camp.

Decisive Karis Victory:

Karis: 60,727 dead

Xamon: 34,291 dead

Zurok Irregulars: 230,122

### Second Battle of the Vizna and Siege of Fort Tooth: June 20- June 29, 7037

With the zuroks on the run, Parsell decided to give chase to slaughter them once and for all. The de-facto commander of the xamon and zuroks, Lieutenant Valas Rinacht, ordered his remaining men to dig into the thick shrubbery that surrounded the banks of the Vizna. As the karis marched through, the soldiers attempted to hide in the shrubbery, hoping that the karis would pass.

Their plan was a success, the entire division that was sent after them passed them by, this prompted the zuroks and xamon to spring from the brush and ambush the karis, killing almost the entire force and stealing as many weapons and armor as they could. Armed with karis weapons, the zuroks and xamon remnants assaulted the southern wall of Fort Tooth.

Using homemade claymores and molotov cocktails, the attackers managed to break through the wall and flood into the center of the fort. The karis inside were in complete disarray and many fell to both friendly fire and zurok attackers. The battle raged on throughout the massive fort for eight days, with both sides taking heavy casualties. On the 29 of June, the entire karis force, including Parsell himself, had been killed. The xamon had all perished as well, only the zurok irregulars remained. They patched up the damage on the southern wall and looted more karis weapons, this wouldn’t be the end of the battles in Fort Tooth.

Close Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 18,299 dead

Zurok Irregulars: 54,210 dead

Karis: 41,820 dead

### First Invasion of the Green Jewel (First Battle of the Green Jewel): August 3-7, 7037

The karis had heavily fortified the jungle filled continent of Aluru, which was the northernmost continent on Shagra. Between it and the mainland was the Sea of Bones, a violent body of water that the karis lorded over. The xamon General Luka Ashtensson, who was convinced of the Green Jewel’s tactical importance, managed to convince Minister Vaffin to allow an expeditionary army commanded by himself to take the jungle. On the opposite end was karis general Varinna De Lodeem, a cunning strategist known for her extensive usage of karis cavaliers and lyka packs, she was also stunningly brave, choosing to fight on the frontlines as a swordswoman alongside her men, which earned her the name “Iron Bar” Lodeem.

In order to land on Aluru, Ashtensson and his army, the 2nd Expeditionary Army, had to cross the ocean while avoiding karis gunships and frigates. Ashtensson knew the landing would be costly, so he bolstered the ranks with the first few ranks of dropships being either empty or filled with karis prisoners. His decoys were a success, and in the dark of the early morning of the 3rd, the decoys would cause karis guns to reveal their positions so that bombers could gas the area or shoot them down.

At 5:00 AM, the dropships landed with relatively low casualties, however, now the true bloodshed would begin. The beach at the foot of the jungle was a steep slope, which the karis utilized by lining the ground with caltrops and mines as well as machine gunners and snipers on the peak of the slope and the larger palm trees. Ashtensson, whose heart was set on taking the beach, ordered a full scale frontal charge. Hundreds died from just the mines alone, thousands more would be killed by the karis gunners hiding in the trees. Eventually, Ashtensson’s Ount-Grassēn managed to clamber their way to the top of the hill, coupled with several PZ-18 barrages, the machine gunners and snipers all perished. However, they did not hold the beach for long as several thousand karis cavaliers charged out of the jungle to chase the xamon off the beach. Forced on the defensive, the xamon fought tooth and nail (at times literally) with the cavaliers, entire sections of the beach would go from pure white to dark blue and orange sand in a matter of hours. The battle raged on continuously for four more days until the battered xamon were forced to withdraw.

However, Ashtensson assured Minister Vaffin that this would not be the “end of the battles on Aluru, the sands will be tinted with karis blood, the leaves dyed bright blue, and the XAC’s flag flying on every hilltop!”

Close Karis Victory:

Karis: 99,287 dead

Xamon: 139,111 dead

### Battle of the Lirum Peninsula: August 7- September 1, 7037

The Lirum Peninsula, home to the infamous city of Vapum, was the capital of Talok’s syndicate. After losing catastrophic amounts in the human phase, Talok was just now beginning to recover from the losses. When he heard that the karis were mounting an amphibious assault into his territory, he immediately began to levy zurok civilians into a massive militia. Armed with cheap, unreliable weapons and nothing but the clothes they were found in, the zuroks were stationed on the western and eastern sides of the peninsula. Meanwhile, Talok would convince General Ries Fisson of the XAC to form a defensive line deeper inland when his meat-shield eventually fell.

Commanded by Supreme Commander Sasheem, the invasion was meant to kick Talok out of the war and even kill him if possible. Beginning at 6:00 sharp, the invasion on both sides of the peninsula launched and landed in tandem. Despite facing pitiful cannon fodder, the karis were ordered to show no mercy to the zuroks. The invasion was a bloodbath, barely any karis fell to the poorly equipped zuroks, who were dropping faster than a torrential downpour.

As the karis advanced further south, they were met by Ries Fisson’s battle hardened 1st Special Forces Army on August 13, a highly flexible and advanced army designed to shock and awe as much as they were to kill. Beginning their counter-assault with literal smoke and mirrors, the xamon implemented flashbangs and cloaking tech to get the jump on the karis, who took massive casualties from PZ-18 cluster grenades and sniper fire. Fisson then ordered his Sûbben-Grassēn to burn the karis alive. The karis, despite the losses, held strong, pushing against the xamon with cavaliers and light tanks. The battle spanned almost the entire peninsula, with each side making barely any ground. This was good news for Fisson, however, who was relying on his men to hold off the karis until Talok could muster more levies to bolster the ranks of his surprisingly small army.

On August 28, after 15 days of some of the worst fighting of the war, Talok’s cannon fodder arrived, allowing the xamon to withdraw temporarily to set up the next checkpoint. Frustrated by how slow the invasion was going, Sasheem ordered his men to withdraw a few miles for a special gift he had for the xamon and zuroks.

From August 29 to September 1, the karis navy orbitally bombarded the area, managing to even blow off large chunks into the ocean. Both the xamon and zuroks were decimated and forced to retreat. With nothing but piles of dead and massive craters as a hindrance, the invasion of the Lirum Peninsula continued as planned. With practically the entire zurok population in the area killed, Talok was forced to retreat out of his territory, leaving Ries Fisson and the scraps left from his army out to dry.

A coward at heart, Fisson surrendered to the karis and was taken into custody for the rest of the war, his army was free to go, his parting words being “My good, honorable men. You have served our great Xama with courage and strength, I have failed our great Confederacy. You however, have not, I urge you not to despair, but to continue to fight, we may have lost this battle but we have not lost this war. Nor will we lose, and if we do, I’m sure that I and all of you can take solace in knowing that it was the 1st Special Forces that broke last!”

Fisson was returned to the XAC on February 9th, 7040 upon the war’s conclusion, and he personally congratulated every one of his soldiers for making good on his promise.

Decisive Karis Victory:

Karis: 781,320 dead

Talok Mercs: 4,011 dead

Zurok Irregulars and Civilians: 2,331,199 dead

Xamon: 919,227 dead

### Second Invasion of the Green Jewel (Second Battle of The Green Jewel): September 5- September 9, 7037

After the brutal failure of the first invasion of the Green Jewel on Aluru, Ashtensson was facing much criticism from his superiors and peers, with Grachtvardun even calling him a “miserable little snake” to his face upon Ashtensson announcing his second invasion of Aluru.

Ashtensson, despite his tactical downfalls, wasn’t stupid. He correctly assumed that the karis wouldn’t fall for his landing trick in the first invasion of the continent. Instead he decided to invade a spread out formation in the middle of the day while utilizing cloaking tech on their dropships. He held off the remainder of his force in the air while the stealth ships that did land deployed the 2nd Infiltration Platoon to infiltrate the western front of the beach and kill or disable all the karis snipers and machine gunners.

After they were disabled, more than eight companies of light infantry landed as well. Using stealth further, the soldiers entered the giant forest and disabled more of the beach guard. After more than half of the beach was disabled, the rest of the army landed. They started their true attack with a heavy napalm and PZ-18 bombing of the southwestern portion of the jungle, alerting the karis but also killing thousands.

General Lodeem, in response to the attack, charged into battle herself alongside a large host of cavaliers. The forest, still burning, had become a medieval-esque battlefield. Ashtensson ordered another bombing run despite his men still fighting in the area. He continuously bombed the forest until the karis retreated, with Lodeem barely escaping with her life. Brutal jungle warfare continued on until September 9, when the karis constructed an almost impenetrable battle line of machine guns and snipers.

Despite ultimately being halted, Ashtensson considered the battle a success, since he managed to land and keep xamon boots on the ground.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 311,296 dead

Karis: 519,293 dead

### Third Battle of the Green Jewel: September 10- September 12, 7037

Refusing to allow the karis to rest even for a day, Ashtensson pressed the attack, sending wave after wave of Ount-Grassēn to crack the line, which was composed of cut down tree trunks and stakes. Hundreds of soldiers died just trying to approach the line, it wasn’t until the fifteenth wave that the xamon finally triumphed. Lodeem deployed several platoons of cavaliers to hold off the advancing xamon while the other karis retreated deeper into the forest. Eventually, after seven hours of fighting, the cavaliers had all perished. But this left the xamon unaware of the karis’ location, leaving them alone in the woods.

Inconclusive:

Xamon: 4,519 dead

Karis: 2,102 dead

### Fourth Battle of the Green Jewel: September 14- September 15, 7037

Lodeem, eager to push the xamon off of Aluru, set a bold ambush upon the sleeping xamon, leaving them in a panic and causing hundreds to get killed without even knowing what was happening. The xamon were on full retreat to their newly fortified territory, the karis sent lyka packs to hunt down and kill any stragglers.

Decisive Karis Victory:

Karis: 178 dead

Xamon: 452 dead

### Fifth Battle of the Green Jewel: September 16- September 18, 7037

Furious about the ambush at the Fourth Battle of the Green Jewel, General Ashtensson ordered the gassing of the karis position to root out or kill the karis. Lodeem, who was unaware of the damage of PZ-18, equipped her own gas mask along with her soldiers present in the jungle. She sadly choked to death along with 70% of the other karis soldiers in the vicinity.

With little resistance in the area, Ashtensson marched on into the northern parts of the jungle to meet the karis once again.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Karis: 7,102 dead

### Sixth Battle of the Green Jewel: September 23, 7037

At the northern outskirts of the jungle, Ashtensson met his greatest challenge yet, battling the largest karis army on the continent. Ashtensson initiated the attack with proud mass charge straight into the karis lines. Much to his luck, the karis’ commander, General Livuile De Basso, was a weak minded coward who ordered an immediate retreat upon the xamon charge.

Ashtensson, bewildered by the turn of events, ordered a halt and had the first line of soldiers fire into the backs of the karis. He then had several squadrons of bombers drop highly explosive rounds right into the large blobs of karis soldiers.

Basso, who at this point was delirious, ordered his men to turn around and charge into the xamon, who continued to fire into the karis. The xamon bombers rained PZ-18 down onto the charging karis, causing even more to flounder about on the ground choking. The xamon continued to fire into the karis until they finally got into range for their own guns. Both sides had entrenched themselves and pelted sniper shots at each other. However, the karis had already taken heavy losses and thus were doing less damage numerically to the xamon. The xamon eventually emerged from their trench and charged head on into the karis trench to finish them off.

Once again the karis retreated, allowing scores of themselves to be shot in the backs and die. In a last ditch effort, General Basso ordered an immediate orbital bombardment to cover his retreat. Only one light frigate was available to be used immediately, so its guns weren’t as powerful as a dreadnought or cruiser bombardment. The bombardment still succeeded and forced the xamon to retreat back into the Green Jewel. Despite winning the battle, Basso’s force was horribly battered.

Pyrrhic Karis Victory:

Karis: 39,117 dead

Xamon: 15,127 dead

### Seventh Battle of the Green Jewel: September 30, 7037

With Basso’s force nearly gone, Ashtensson launched seventeen squadrons of napalm bombers to wipe out the rest of the karis. When Basso saw the bombers, he immediately boarded his personal shuttle without telling his men that he had left. The karis died before they even knew what was happening.

Basso was later discovered six days later and he was executed upon discovery.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Karis: 1,691 dead

### Battle of the Farsk Steppe: October 14- October 18, 7037

After taking Lirum, Supreme Commander Sasheem continued his march south towards his ultimate goal of Vapum. However he had to cross through the Farsk region, an area that the xamon and zuroks still controlled. Under command of the 4th Army, General Grachtvardun was tasked by Minister Vaffin to hold the Farsk. Grachtvardun, rather than stay stationary and wait for the karis to come to him, he marched forward to meet Juile on his terms. Beginning his attack with a pincer movement with several companies of Ount-Grassēn that decimated the confused karis, who weren’t expecting to see xamon so early.

Grachtvardun was, however, outnumbered 4 to 1 and used the massive size of the karis army to his advantage. He ordered his infamous grid formation to back peddle deeper into the steppe, trying to lure the karis into choke-points so that they may be easier to kill. Juile saw through the trick and didn’t pursue the xamon, much to the frustration of Grachtvardun, who had inadvertently given land to the karis with his tactical retreat.

Grachtvardun bombarded the karis with 70cm artillery, which scattered the karis soldiers prodigiously. This allowed Grachtvardun to deploy Solas Company and the 13th Solinās into the fray to cause further disarray amongst the troops. Sasheem ordered several heavy artillery barrages in the area, inflicting major casualties to the xamon. Grachtvardun was convinced to retreat back by Vaffin, who assured him that the karis would not win the Farsk.

Grachtvardun deployed his men on a multitude of hills, along with artillery pieces and heavy tanks. When the karis came into view, they were met with seemingly unyielding gas and ballistic artillery fire. With the gas settled, the Ount-Grassēn charged in and managed to push back the karis to the zurok town of Jinov. The zuroks there were mostly followers of Shaba and attacked the karis in the rear, forcing them to fight on two fronts.

In a daring move, Sasheem had his men detain zurok civilians and forced them to run into the crossfire, hoping to distract the xamon soldiers while they finished off the Shaban mercs. However, they did not count of the sheer ruthlessness of Grachtvardun, who ordered his men to ignore and even gun down the panicking civilians in order to get close to the distracted karis. This miscalculation caused several hundred more casualties as the karis were once again forced to retreat. However, the xamon soldiers were exhausted after two days of fighting and settled in Jinov, allowing the karis to retreat and regroup.

In retaliation for losing Jinov, Sasheem ordered two dreadnoughts, The Dauntless and Liberty to orbital bombard Jinov with heavy plasma cannons. The battered xamon took shelter in the basements of the town, allowing it and the over four hundred thousand citizens to be blown to dust. Convinced that the xamon were dead, Sasheem ordered his infantry and tanks to go through the rubble to take the rest of the Farsk. However, Grachtvardun ordered the XAC navy to do their own bombardment.

Using light gauss repeaters, the karis inside Jinov were decimated. The xamon survivors then emerged and wiped out the survivors. Matters turned from bad to worse for both sides when the local navy, which was composed of twelve light frigates, was engaged by the two karis dreadnoughts. The following naval battle that ensued spelled danger for the soldiers below, as any misplaced shots could potentially wipe out the remaining soldiers.

The karis were lead by Admiral Zinna De Frasell and Captain Versun De Garik, who commanded Liberty and The Dauntless respectively. On the opposite end, the xamon fleet was commanded by Grand Admiral Kjalligarcht Verslund, a veteran of the XAC navy and cunning strategist. Verslund immediately went on the offensive, using two of his frigates, Gersung and Dei Hersland to flank and barrage The Dauntless, the ship took heavy fire on her left fighter bay due to the plasma technology quickly stripping it of her shields, causing several of the fighters to explode inside and heavily damage the ship. Captain Garik ordered the left guns to shoot down the attacking frigate, causing it to explode and crash down to the surface near the Jinov ruins. The other frigate to the right of The Dauntless was then heavily damaged in the engine, causing itself to lose almost complete control, in an attempt to ensure that the crew didn’t die in vain, the commander of the ship, Captain Lindersson, personally steered the ship towards The Dauntless’ hull. However, Captain Garik noticed the attempt and had his crew vear the ship off course, causing the crashing ship to just barely scrape the belly of the dreadnought, causing it to hurtle towards Shagra’s surface into the northern Farsk, which killed over a thousand zurok civilians.

The other frigate, which was low on ammunition, retreated back to the main fleet. The two fleets continued to harass each other from afar, causing three more frigates to be destroyed by the heavier firepower of the karis. This prompted Grand Admiral Verslund to sally out his entire force, advancing head on into karis fire. His fleet took heavy damage, but eventually he managed to damage The Dauntless’ main engine, which caused a chain reaction in the ship’s hypercore. Before Captain Garik even knew what had happened, he and half of his ship was teleported to unknown space, his body and whatever crew they could find would be found seven months later. With The Dauntless destroyed and Liberty heavily damaged, the ship was forced to retreat.

On the ground, Grachtvardun was forced to fully retreat, giving The Farsk to the karis. Despite this, Sasheem felt that far too many soldiers paid the price.

Pyrrhic Karis Victory:

Karis: 540,230 dead (counting 8,803 naval deaths)

Shaba Mercs: 8,199 dead

Zurok Irregulars and Civilians: 109,293 dead

Xamon: 341,209 dead (counting 3,200 naval deaths)

### 3rd Siege of Vapum (The Razing of Vapum): October 20- November 3, 7037

After the mass losses at The Farsk, Supreme Commander Sasheem was skeptical that he could capture the heavily fortified city of Vapum, which was a figurehead of the zuroks. In order to capture the city with minimal casualties, Sasheem ordered eight dreadnoughts to orbital bombard the city for six days straight to soften it up for his men. For the next six days, the already disheveled city faced some of the harshest bombardments of the war, the entire city was practically leveled, with most of its inhabitants and garrison killed as well.

Upon hearing the news of this bombardment, Vaffin sent General Konrav Vull Hossengrav to liberate the city and crush Sasheem’s army on October 27, a day after the bombardment had ceased so that karis soldiers could move through to pick off any stragglers. Sasheem had predicted that the xamon would send help, so he organized tank traps to lure the xamon tanks into killzones, a strategy he had used on Grachtvardun to great effect.

However, since Hossengrav had never faced Sasheem before, he asked for Grachtvardun’s advice, who informed him of Sasheem’s cunning tank traps. In response to this, Hossengrav sent in several platoons of Einvatz-Grassēn (stealth-troopers) to root out the tanks traps so that Hossengrav’s medium Sûbben-Vingravtz (flame tanks) could move in to burn the karis out of their bunkers and trenches. The following fire attacks would come to be known as the Two Days of Fire, as Hossengrav’s flamer tanks continuously burned the city and the karis, only stopping so that the Einvatz-Grassēn could rescue any surviving zurok civilians.

General Hossengrav anticipated that his stealth troops would soon be discovered and wiped out, so he opted to send in the 10th and 15th Grassēn Corps to fight the karis head on. The fighting would be brutal, lasting for almost eight whole days, with both sides taking thousands of casualties from both bullets and falling rubble. Hossengrav had one more trick up his sleeve to push the karis out of the city.

The xamon had been designing a powerful heavy gauss cannon that was meant to be mounted on dreadnoughts to obliterate entire fleets. Hossengrav acquired a prototype AT-GC II (Atmospheric Terrestrial-Gauss Cannon II) to fire into the city’s last two standing skyscrapers in hopes of burying the karis soldiers. Upon catching sight of the AT-GC, Supreme Commander Sasheem ordered his soldiers and armor to charge out of the city to destroy the massive cannon, beginning the attack with several barrages from revenant class tanks to try and destroy the cannon. However, the cannon began its first blast, aiming at the left skyscraper, which was an apartment mega-complex. The blast hit the tower right in the center, causing it to topple over and envelop most of the city in rubble.

The area around the cannon was mostly flat terrain and was guarded by the 5th Xama Guard Corps, an elite unit of soldiers with an almost fanatical sense of courage that were known to fight to the death when outmatched. The karis faced heavy casualties when assaulting the 300 meter long cannon, its armor was shockingly resilient to the tank shots, and their momentum from their charge was completely gone after the 5th Guard Regiment counter-charged and chased them back into the city. Sasheem deployed nine cavalier companies to hold of the guard so that he and his tanks could flank around them to attack the AT-GC. However, his plan failed when the cannon fired into the other skyscraper, causing it to topple to the rubble covered ground of the former city of Vapum.

With its task complete, the cannon was ready to be carried back. The 5th Xama Guard were asked to hold off the karis so that the cannon could be safely transported. Sasheem couldn’t allow this to happen and had his army charge to the side of the cannon to commandeer it. The battle on the cannon was bloody, with most of the crew slaughtered with few karis dead. The Cavaliers were ordered to retreat as the 5th Xama Guard were obliterated by a point blank shot from the AT-GC. However, the carrier tasked with picking up the cannon was unaware of its new orders, so when it arrived to pick up the massive cannon, Sasheem aimed the gun right into the bay of the ship, firing right through the top of the ship and causing it to fly out of control into the Vapum ruins.

Hossengrav, furious and ordered by Vaffin to retreat, assured him that their loss of the cannon would not go unpunished. With the AT-GC under their control, the karis were ready to use this newfound weapon of mass destruction against the xamon.

Decisive Karis Victory:

Karis: 89,122 dead

Zurok Irregulars and Civilians: 3,221,812 dead

Xamon: 120,909 dead

### Battle of the Cannon: November 6- November 8, 7037

There was still a small amount of xamon left after the Razing of Vapum, most of which were from the 15th Grassēn Corps. They were presumed dead after the AT-GC was stolen from the xamon, and thus were left behind enemy lines to fend for themselves. Only about the size of a small company. Sasheem was unaware of their presence and was busy transporting the AT-GC to the frontline to crush the xamon. The 15th remnants, not ones for hiding, decided to make a bold guerilla style attack on the karis. Using silenced rifles to take out the guards stationed on the catwalks lining the side of the cannon. Once inside, the soldiers made their positions known by detonating the charge inside the main battery, causing a mass explosion that killed thousands of karis in the immediate vicinity. However, the 15th’s trail was not completely covered, as seven platoons of karis began to pursue and slowly gun them down. The 15th eventually came across a ravine that lead down to chasm of sharp rocks. With no ammo, the last 12 members of the once mighty 15th Grassēn Corps committed suicide by jumping to avoid capture,

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 137 dead

Karis: 15,299 dead

### The Peace of Winter: November 8, 7037- February 26, 7038

After the destruction of the AT-GC, Supreme Commander Sasheem was unwilling to make any offensive moves, stating that the horrific casualties were what was staying his hand. General Grachtvardun and Minister of War Vaffin were also unable to make any offensive moves, though they were certainly willing. They decided to plan out their next attack, taking into account that the karis lines would be very heavily fortified. During their planning, the karis continued to fortify most of their captured land, which included the entire Lirum Peninsula and the northern parts of The Green Jewel. Meanwhile, the XAC had occupied the entire Manab Desert, the southern regions of Aluru, and the entirety of the western continent of Giaru.

### Vaffin’s Spear Offensive: February 27- March 1, 7038

Commanded by General Grachtvardun, Vaffin’s Spear was the massive invasion into the karis territory in Lirum, both commanders took into account the strength of the karis defense when assaulting it with a head on charge, but both leaders, particularly Grachtvardun, had become increasingly unconcerned with xamon deaths if a victory was achieved. Shaba was also enlisted to assist in the assault, who supplied a copious amount of combat drugs to mercenaries in order to make them more effective against the karis.

The main karis line, called Sasheem’s Security, was a line that stretched coast to coast along the Lirum Peninsula. Made from ten foot deep concrete trenches that were topped by machine and sniper nests and clogged with men, Sasheem’s Security was designed to be impenetrable.

Grachtvardun organized his invasion force into seventeen groups of 30,000 men to attack in waves. He theorized that the first three waves would act as testing forces to fully understand the karis defenses and lighten them up for the other more powerful fourteen waves that would attack almost simultaneously.

The first wave was composed mostly of mercenaries provided by Shaba, though there were a considerable amount of xamon soldiers as well. Most of the force was gunned down on the way to the line, though a few lucky zuroks managed to raid the massive trench and take out a few important karis soldiers. Sasheem, amused yet suspicious, ordered his men to stay put in case any more soldiers attacked. The second wave attacked, again most fell on the way to the trench, though this time more soldiers managed to storm the trench, placing explosives to detonate chunks of the trench, creating large breaches so that the next waves could enter the trench easier.

The third wave began its attack with heavy 24 lber bombardment, blowing more breaches in the concrete trench and killing several more karis soldiers. With the karis in disarray, the third wave’s men charged in. Composed mostly of stormtroopers and mercenary spravac, the trench was beginning to become overstuffed with corpses, some of the piles of men becoming so high that they could act as bridges.

Grachtvardun, who wasn’t expecting his third wave to do well, sent in two more of his waves to assist them and perhaps break through Sasheem’s Security. By the time waves four and five had arrived, wave three had almost completely perished. With the trench becoming almost completely filled with corpses, the karis were forced to pull out of their resting spot, backpedaling their way through the shrubbery of Vanam Fields. The fields became a bloodbath as the two sides were forced to fight in close-quarters and even hand-to-hand combat. Grachtvardun sent in wave six to assist the faltering xamon battle line, however they took heavy casualties from karis bombardment and tanks, which lit much of the fields ablaze.

Luckily for the xamon, who wore flame-retardant cloth, were able to fight and chase the karis out of the burning fields. Grachtvardun ordered his men to halt for now as he moved up the remaining eleven waves over the karis bodies. With transportable tents, he established a new F.O.B called Camp Scorch. From his new base, he ordered the remnants of wave six and all of wave seven to scout out and secure more of the southern peninsula. However, most of the area was heavy forest and tall grass, which allowed the karis to ambush the waves and kill most of them. Enraged by the slowness of his campaign, Grachtvardun sent in waves eight, nine, and ten to burn and poison the area where the karis were last reported to be seen. Under heavy sniper and artillery fire, the three waves burned most of the battlefield to dust, killing a great deal of the karis soldiers.

Believing that the three waves were the last of Grachtvardun’s force, Sasheem ordered a mass charge into the xamon. The xamon managed to kill thousands on the way there, but they were no match for the sheer ferocity of Sasheem’s men, who killed almost the entirety of all three waves. Sasheem ordered his men to pursue the retreating xamon, unaware that Camp Scorch housed 210,000 more xamon soldiers.

Before he even knew what was happening, Sasheem’s army was within Scorch and almost completely surrounded. Intent on escaping with their lives, the karis fought their way out of the camp, inflicting mass casualties against the xamon and injuring Grachtvardun, who was slashed over his right eye by Sasheem, who engaged with him in a saber duel as the battle raged on, a scar that would fuel his hatred for Sasheem and the karis species further.

Despite his injury, Grachtvardun insisted on carrying on the fight, ordering the remaining 120,000 men to go after the retreating karis. However, he was forced to halt his advance along the borders of the Farsk Steppe, as he and his men were tired, wounded, and low on ammo. He ordered his men to take cover in the wreckage from the previous battle of the Farsk in case of karis attack. Despite Sasheem escaping, Grachtvardun’s plan was a success.

Costly Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 398,177 dead

Shaba Mercs: 13,401 dead

Karis: 230,100 dead

### Second Battle of the Farsk: March 2, 7038

Grachtvardun knew that the karis would be back with a larger force to retake their lost territory, and with his newfound appreciation for life after his duel with Supreme Commander Sasheem, ordered his men to gather up as many of their own dead as possible for his escape plan to get back into fortified xamon territory. Using damaged and unusable rifles, Grachtvardun had his men mount up a multitude of their dead to act as dummies. Coupled with automated turrets, the xamon would use their fake soldiers to escape in the cover the night, when he theorized that the karis would attack.

His prediction proved false however, as seven karis companies engaged them at 6:00 AM, inflicting heavy casualties. Grachtvardun’s escape plan was foiled as he and his men were forced to hold their ground and attempt to fight off the karis, who may not have had large numbers but had superior ammunition and positioning on the high hills of the steppe. Under his personal guard, Grachtvardun attempted to escape while his men volunteered to fight to the death. However, a platoon spotted him and his four guards and pursued them south towards xamon held territory. Eventually, Grachtvardun and his men were cornered. Resolving to fight to the death, the five xamon charged at the platoon and nearly killed all of them before Grachtvardun, under orders by Sasheem, was knocked out and carried back to the karis stronghold of Acuse, a large karis base where Sasheem would strategize with his fellow generals, where he would be interrogated and perhaps executed. This infuriated Vaffin, who immediately began organizing a rescue operation in the form of a mass siege.

Decisive Karis Victory:

Karis: 34,808 dead

Xamon: 111,822 dead, Grachtvardun captured

### Siege of Acuse: March 5- March 13, 7038

Celebrating the capture of Grachtvardun, the karis soldiers believed that the end of the war was near. Both sides had suffered heavily in the war and the karis believed that with the xamon figurehead Grachtvardun captured that the xamon would lose heart in their cause and capitulate. Little did they know that Grachtvardun’s apprehension only fueled the xamon’s morale, who were willing to lose hundreds of thousands if it meant even a chance of rescuing their beloved Uncle Ren (the army’s nickname for Grachtvardun).

The fortress was star shaped, having seven prongs each topped with heavy artillery pieces. The wall was also lined with thin portholes for snipers and the interior of the fortress was filled with apartments for soldiers and a CIC for Sasheem and his peers. Most of the karis soldiers were drunk and had abandoned their posts, allowing zurok spies to enter the fortress to funnel schematics to XAC High Command.

Commanded and organized by Minister of War Vaffin himself (who was Grachtvardun’s good friend), the attack was meant to essentially obliterate the entire fortress. However, since they wished to rescue Grachtvardun, they couldn’t utilize orbital bombardment in the area, rather they would utilize half a million stormtroopers, seven thousand heavy tanks, and five squadrons of aircraft, one of which carried PZ-18 canisters to either kill or flush out the karis soldiers. The xamon began their artillery bombardment with heavy burrowing shells that would embed themselves in the ground before exploding violently. Once breaches were created in the walls and roofs of the buildings, they were be filled with plasma, napalm, and PZ-18. Over 22,000 karis died in the first hour of the bombardment. The xamon continued their bombardment for the entire day and into the second before the stormtroopers began their march forward, facing heavy enemy artillery fire and sniper rounds. However, the battle for their idol had made the xamon uncharacteristically fanatical, charging bravely into the breaches until their corpses clogged the cavities. Vaffin ordered the surviving wave to retreat and the bombardment continued. The karis continued theirs as well, and for the next six days the battle was fought exclusively with artillery, with both sides taking casualties.

On March 12, the xamon consolidated all of their forces and charged the fort once again on all sides, with the tanks leading the way to destroy as much of the wall as they could so that more stormtroopers could pour in. Sasheem ordered his men to get off the wall to battle the xamon from inside the still intact or mostly intact buildings. Beneath the fortress, in his cell, Grachtvardun continuously attempted to escape his cell to join his brothers above. Luckily, an artillery shell caused a ripple that loosened the energy projector acting as his barrier. Now that he was free, he made a grab for a metal bar and snuck his way out of the dungeons of the fortress.

Up above, the battle continued to rage on, entire buildings collapsed and crushed unlucky soldiers in their wake, and the xamon’s aircraft battled with the karis’ own ships for air supremacy, causing them to spiral out of control and crash into the buildings as well.

Eventually, Grachtvardun made his way out of the dungeon and into the fray, managing to come in contact with his fellow xamon so he could be safely escorted to Vaffin’s guard.

With their objective achieved, the xamon retreated and left the karis battered and confused. With their fortress in ruins and several of Sasheem’s officers dead, Sasheem ordered his men to abandon the fortress and flee, destroying any intel they couldn’t take with them lest xamon engineers hack into it.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 139,001 dead

Karis: 189,149 dead

### Battle of Peak 12 (The Last Stand of the Shadows): March 14, 7038

After the siege of Acuse, Sasheem and his force was forced to retreat south to the repurposed zurok city of Menva. Unfortunately for the karis, most of their terrestrial vehicles had run out of fuel and dropships were unavailable at the time. To add on to their troubles, the xamon had commissioned Shaba to pursue and kill Sasheem and the remainder of his men.

To allow Sasheem and his men to escape, a company of shadows volunteered to hold off whatever came after them for as long as they could at the mountain pass of Peak 12. The company of 180, armed primarily with balmite sabres and sniper rifles, entrenched themselves and awaited Shaba’s forces. The first to show themselves were zurok irregulars that were levied into Shaba’s ranks. They were instantly slaughtered upon entering the view of the karis. The commander of the mercenaries, Shaba’s second in command, Vinik, personally went into battle accompanied by his personal spravac guard. The firefight between the two sides was fierce, with both sides taking heavy casualties until Vinik himself slew the last shadows in a bloody melee.

However, by then Sasheem and his men had made it to Menva, allowing themselves to be refueled and rearmed for whatever came their way. On the flipside, a multitude of karis tanks and troop transports had been abandoned and were later repurposed by the zuroks there.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Shaba Mercs: 372 dead

Zurok Irregulars and Civilians: 1,207 dead

Karis: 180 dead

### Battle of Soloa: March 18- April 2, 7038

During their march after the karis, Grachtvardun’s facial wound reopened and he was forced to leave for Xama to receive medical treatment, until his return, General Luka Ashtensson was put in charge of the Fourth Army. The soldiers, well aware of the rivalry between Ashtensson and Grachtvardun, were severely distrusting of the unpopular general. So much so that officers were issuing orders of their own in blatant disregard for Ashtensson’s own orders. This caused the army to move incredibly slowly due to lack of organization, and this gave the karis ample time to reorganize and prepare an ambush at the village of Soloa.

On March 18, Ashtensson’s army arrived in the small fishing village, they camped out and bunked with the welcoming zurok villagers. During their camp, karis scouts observed the xamon and would occasionally take pot shots at the officers, several of which were critically wounded. The xamon mounted machine guns on the fishing canoes to create mobile fire support, covering the hulls with branches to try and make themselves out as small islands. Xamon Einvatz-Grassēn made their way into the surrounding forests to either kill or force the karis out to set up defensive positions.

Sasheem noticed this early on and organized his forces to attack the heavily fortified village. Luckily, during their bought time, the karis cleared out a section of the forest to create a landing zone for their aircraft, of which they had several to use in battle. On March 19, in the wee hours of the morning, Sasheem launched a massive air raid to blow the xamon to bits. Angered that their village was under attack, most of the zurok men took up arms to fight alongside the xamon, who quickly dug trenches to stave off the karis attackers. However, the bombing run lasted another eight hours, causing much of the buildings to go up in flames with the women and children still inside. Ashtensson ordered his men to hold firm, however several of the officers disregarded his orders and several companies of stormtroopers charged into the forest in search of the karis, these companies never returned.

On March 20, the xamon’s mobile machine gun posts patrolled the coastline and found several karis squads attempting the flank Soloa from the east, they were promptly wiped out. However, multiple rafts were destroyed and the xamon lost their flank support. In response to this, Ashtensson donated much of the frontline to bolster the flanks, leaving the front of the village lightly protected. Using this to his advantage, Sasheem deployed several lyka packs to storm the village and kill everyone in their path. The zurok partisans fought bravely, but were no match for the gnashing jaws of the lykas. However, the lykas were in turn no match for xamon snipers, who promptly wiped all of them out. With no word coming from the lyka handlers, Sasheem deployed his entire force on March 21 to take the village once and for all. With the flanks unengaged, several officers marched their men to the frontline to hold off the karis to the best of their ability. Using their own corpses to fill the gaps made by the karis bombers, the xamon made a daring stand, killing thousands of karis within the first hour. After heavy fighting for the entire day, the karis were forced to retreat under heavy sniper fire from the xamon hidden behind enemy lines in the trees. Overnight, the zurok partisans who had been trained by xamon scouts searched the forest under cover of darkness for weapons and ammo. Armed with karis and xamon weapons, the partisans effectively became the first Zurok Auxiliary Company once the zuroks officially joined the Confederacy.

On March 22, the xamon went on the offensive (one of the few times when Ashtensson and the officers agreed) and the karis faced a brutally efficient counter attack, even losing their makeshift air base in the process. Sasheem ordered his men to retake the base, but the xamon defenses were too strong, causing the day to be won by the xamon with only 170 casualties.

In the afternoon of March 23, the karis used their last remaining bomber to suicide bomb the xamon at the airfield, causing them to retreat and give ground back to the karis.

On the 24th, the karis launched another daring attack on the flanks of Soloa, which were undefended due to the past two days. The karis placed charges in the last two standing buildings, a general store (which was acting as food supply) and a small hut (which was Ashtensson’s CIC). When the charges detonated, much of the xamon leadership was killed, with Ashtensson severely wounded and thought dead. For the rest of the day, the xamon were in disarray, they scattered and camped out in the surrounding forest.

With the karis occupying Soloa, Sasheem thought he had achieved victory and had begun to clean up the dead.

On March 25, Ashtensson awoke and found himself under rubble being cleaned out by the karis. With his communicator still intact, Ashtensson contacted the other xamon officers and begged for rescue. The xamon sallied out to meet the karis, though begrudgingly, to rescue Ashtensson. The xamon had limited stormtroopers but a multitude of fresh snipers. The karis were debilitated and low on food, both of their own and of looted food. All the zuroks in the area were dead and the karis were closing in on Ashtensson’s location. The xamon began their attack with grenade launcher fire, killing all of the eastern flank guard before unleashing a hail of sniper fire upon the shocked karis. Ashtensson, an aggressive individual, made a run for it and killed tens of karis soldiers on the way back to the xamon forces. Amazed by the courage of their commander, the xamon fought with newfound respect for the general, fighting with great ferocity and forcing the karis to retreat from the levelled village.

With their position reestablished, the xamon reoccupied the village and set up barricades from pieces of wood and iron still intact.

For the next three days, there was little combat, both sides were unwilling to make any offensive moves and simply took sniper shots at each other. On March 29, the karis were reinforced with a revenant tank, which was armed with a deadly plasma mortar. Under heavy fire, the xamon burned under the intense heat of the plasma and Ashtensson was caught in the blast. The bombardment went on for the entire day until a shuttle returned to recover the wounded Ashtensson, whose left arm and foot had been vaporized by the blast. With no general, the Fourth Army was leaderless and tempted to surrender to the karis. On April 2, the karis charged forward again into the battered army. Unmotivated to fight, the xamon retreated across the river to the south, allowing the karis to fortify the village. However, Sasheem was confident and decided to pursue the xamon instead, which gave the xamon soldiers an idea.

Close Karis Victory:

Karis: 36,089 dead

Xamon: 38,912 dead

Zurok Civilians and Irregulars: 17,322 dead

### Battle of Nirus Field: April 5, 7038

The xamon were well aware of the fact that the karis were close on their tail, and they used this to lure them into a trap. The trap was the Helvitarst Line, a heavily fortified defensive line forged after the siege of Acuse. The line was contacted by the retreating army to hide the trenches to inflict massive damage to the karis at the perfect moment.

When the karis were in range, the xamon revealed themselves and inflicted devastating losses to the karis, forcing them to retreat and setting the record for the shortest battle of the war, that being 42 minutes. Sasheem was forced to retreat back to karis territory to reinforce his battered force. Later that same day, Gractvardun returned with a facial graft to fix his face, as well as an artificial eye. All of the soldiers present in the Fourth Army received the Cross of Extraordinary Valor for their tenacity and refusal of surrender despite losing a commander. Ashtensson received an even greater reward; Grachtvardun’s begrudging respect for his valor in battle. However, Ashtensson was unable to return to command for the rest of the war, as his wounds were too much of a hindrance for service.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 78 dead

Karis: 13,220 dead

## Varme’s Storm Offensive: April 18- June 15, 7038

After several costly battles, the xamon and karis were both unwilling to make any offensive actions. However, Shaba’s second in command, Vinik, was ready for further battle. Using spravac breeders, Vinik had bred an army for the XAC. Helmed by Vinik’s best captain, a brutal and unyieldingly loyal spravac named Varme The Violator.

Armed with two million spravac at his call, Varme was set out to slaughter the karis and retake the Lirum Peninsula.

The karis, though unaware of the coming grey tide (an offensive so great that it was named the Varme’s Storm Offensive), were preparing their defenses. However, they were planning for xamon, not two million spravac ready for war. Thus, the defense was closed together and prepared for a tight, mass charge, not an engulfing tide of grey that spread out beyond the points of defense.

The offensive would not only bring catastrophic losses to the Karis Republic, but would prove to the galaxy that, even with less advanced gear, spravac were not to be trifled with on the battlefield.

### Battle of Thras: April 18- April 20, 7038

The karis were expecting a mass charge of xamon in a tight formation in one location. Varme was very aware of this major flaw and organized his raucous spravac into a spread out formation before shouting “Out there, blood and glory awaits, there’s karis blood liquid out there that needs to bleed flow!”

With those savage words, the spravac gave a triumphant and animalistic screech and charged into the karis lines. Terrified by the sight of the spravac, the karis morale was obliterated and they immediately retreated, much to the disappointment of the spravac. Varme’s army continued to charge north towards Vapum, which had been repurposed for the karis. Minister Sereen, who was still confident in his abilities, denied the karis’ requests for evac, demanding that they do the republic proud and fight the spravac.

Armed with poor morale, low ammunition, and prodigious fear of the spravac, the five thousand karis were surrounded by the spravac and brutally slaughtered, with some captured to be tortured later on. Varme demanded that the spravac hold off their brutality for a few more hours for a daring display of savagery.

In the fields of Thras was the karis 6th Expeditionary Force, a battle hardened army that was experienced with fighting spravac. Varme stood on what would be called Hill 8812 displayed the 800 karis captives. The karis army was commanded by General Hana De Tesern, a ruthless and cold hearted woman who was both respected and despised by her soldiers. Tesern’s captains urged her to attack the spravac during Varme’s display, but she refused and stayed stationary.

Varme, using a Laser-horn to project his voice, had these words to say as his men tortured and raped every captive to death; “This, karis scum, is what will be done to every single one of you! We will kill slaughter every one of you amphibious snacks! We’ll gouge stab your eyes out and feast eat your sweet blue innards while you’re still alive! The women within your ranks will be violated and eaten alive, and their screams of pain agony will only fuel our need lust for your blood! We will bathe in your blood and feast upon your flesh meat while your captives watch and await their slow, agonizing death perishes!”

With that, a massive spravac thundercharge rang out as the spravac sprinted en masse towards the karis soldiers, who were severely disgusted with Varme’s speech. The battle was an utter slaughter, the crazed, frenzied shrieks of the spravac seemed to be just as deadly as their weapons, as the karis fell by the thousands to the merciless grey tide. Even Tesern, who was usually stone-faced, was visibly terrified as the spravac approached her command hill, Hill 99. Tesern ordered the karis to retreat back into a heavily forested area of the field to kill the spravac from afar. Varme’s horde continued their charge, their numbers so great that they inadvertently flanked the karis and fought until the karis ran out of ammunition. The remaining karis, including Tesern, were captured and Varme’s men made good on the promise in his speech.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Varme’s Army: 17,990 dead

Karis: 230,100 dead

### The Rape of Vapum (Fourth Siege of Vapum): April 23, 7038

Varme’s massive horde continued their frantic charge towards Vapum. The city was now acting as a base of operations for the karis there, which was filled to the brim with both soldiers and non-combatants who helped operate the fortress, now called Fort Vapum.

Varme was eager to rid the fortress of life, before the sun was even up, the spravac thundercharge sounded and the spravac launched themselves at the karis, who were yet to receive the news of the 6th Army’s annihilation. The spravac immediately inflicted mass damage, workers were slaughtered and the females abused, wounded soldiers in the hospital were torn apart and eaten, officers were bludgeoned to blue pulps and the fortress went up in flames, even the zurok prisoners were taken by the blinding warpath of the spravac to tortured and mutilated in ways thought impossible.

The karis soldiers in northern sectors, now aware of what was happening, fortified themselves and prepared for the spravac onslaught. Some of the spravac doused themselves in oil and lit themselves on fire to charge into the karis lines, berserking and ignoring lost limbs. Called the raging phoenixes, these flaming spravac struck fear in the karis and burned them alive.

The last remaining officer in the area, a karis who was unable to be found after the spravac got to him, ordered an orbital bombardment of the fortress, causing thousands of spravac to be vaporized by a karis dreadnought. After the dreadnought finished its bombardment, the spravac arose from the rubble and gathered the corpses of both their own and the karis to use as rations as they continued their march north to take Lirum.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Varme’s Army: 98,102 dead

Karis: 122,190 dead

### Fourth Battle of the Obrim and Galis Rivers: April 25, 7038

As the spravac continued their march north to Lirum, Supreme Commander Sasheem ordered General Ninac De Quersta to hold off the spravac with the 2nd Heavy Army, which was armed with heavy tanks and cavaliers. Just as the karis were fortifying their position on the north-western banks of the river, the spravac arrived and charged through the river into the lines. This time however, the karis were ready for them, the spravac faced heavier casualties than previously. However, they did not retreat, and tirelessly fought the karis until they were forced to retreat back into lower ground. With the spravac at the advantage, the karis faced heavy gunfire and were forced to abandon their tanks. The spravac commandeered the tanks and pursued the karis to the southern banks of the Galis River. The karis cavaliers counter charged and mowed down countless spravac, but they could not stand against the sheer numbers of the frenzied birds.

Eventually, after seven hours of grueling fighting, the karis were forced to retreat back further.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Varme’s Army: 100,201 dead

Karis: 89,200 dead

### Taking of Lirum: April 28- May 7, 7038

With 1,783,707 spravac still at his beck and call, Varme continued with his goal to take Lirum. The karis were battered and all but a few remnants still remained on Lirum, just a few dilapidated corps of light armor and infantry left to face off against Varme’s horde.

Like all the others, the battle began with the deafening thunderclap of the Spravac Hammer Drum, signalling the Thundercharge and slaughter.

The karis were unprepared by a longshot, the spravac mowed down countless men and women, collecting their heads to display and feast upon once the bloodshed had concluded.

With General Quersta already off the continent, the karis were under the command of weak minded officers, who gave poor orders that caused even more casualties.

Matter of fact, the only reason the battle took as long as it did was because of how spread out the karis were on the massive peninsula, which in turn caused the spravac to kill each other out of boredom, which is sadly where most of the spravac casualties of the battle originated from.

With Lirum taken, the xamon and zuroks could march in while the spravac continued their push, eventually loading up on ships to assist in the taking of Aluru.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Varme’s Army: 41,501 dead

Karis: 79,100 dead

### Eighth Battle of The Green Jewel: May 7, 7038

With 1,742,206 soldiers still alive, Varme’s storm of blood was far from over. His army’s next target was the northern half of Aluru, which Ashtensson had thus far failed to capture. Upon arriving in xamon controlled territory, Ashtensson pointed Varme to the final half of the jungle, which was heavily fortified by karis snipers and cavaliers. The xamon, who had developed a fear of the jungle, were very eager to throw the reins to the spravac, who feared nothing.

Commanded by General Menesuile De Kersen, the karis had heard about Varme’s exploits at Lirum and had laid caltrops in advance to slow the spravac down further in the already densely packed jungle. The spravac however, took a different approach. In addition to being ruthless, Varme was very intelligent for his kind, and decided to use the cover of the trees to his advantage. He divided his men into three groups, a massive middle group to assault the karis from the front, and two smaller groups that would climb through the trees and descend upon the karis once the main force of “Spear Division” had engaged the karis in melee. Spear Division charged with brutal savagery, the caltrops dropping hundreds but barely enough to even slightly slow the rapidly advancing grey tide. Snipers and machine gunners mowed down thousands more, but the attackers pressed on. The spravac fired their weapons as they advanced, killing many karis before even engaging in the melee. Kesern ordered the troops to hold firm and prepare for melee once the spravac were within a hundred yards of them. Within a few seconds, the spravac were upon the defensive line, Even as they impaled themselves on sharpened branches the spravac attacked unhindered. As Spear engaged the karis below, the “Tree Strider Corps” made their way to perched karis snipers before firing down on the karis once the snipers were slain.

Kesern ordered a desperate retreat to the northern reaches of the jungle, the spravac tirelessly chasing after the retreating karis. Eventually, the spravac became bored and began to fight amongst themselves, allowing the karis to regroup. Kesern was advised by his officers to retreat further to save lives, but Kesern instead made a daring counter attack in the form of an ambush.

Using a baiting force to draw out the aggressive Varme, the karis descended upon the spravac and caused total discord. The spravac were falling by the hundreds, but eventually Kesern’s forced were empty on ammunition and forced to retreat out of the jungle, allowing the spravac to occupy the territory and continue their march.

Close Xamon Victory:

Varme’s Army: 203,450 dead

Karis: 87,661 dead

### Siege of Fort Thail: May 9- May 15, 7038

With still 1,538,756 men at his beck and call, Varme had his slanted eyes on the karis fort of Thail, named after its commander Brigadier General Thail De Bapis, along with Bapis was General Kesern and his recuperated force. Varme encouraged his men that the following battle would be their toughest yet, which only hyped the spravac up more. Beginning their assault by cutting off communications with jammers, they proceeded to shell the city with stolen karis tanks and xamon supplied Type 89 Siege Guns.

Kesern’s army was tasked with taking out the jammers as soon as possible, and Kesern theorized that the spravac would be too focused on a glory seeking frontal assault. There was a narrow pathway to the east of the spravac horde, so on May 12, when spravac concluded their shelling and began their assault, Kesern began his attack on the jammers, which was guarded by a small group of spravac, who were also tending to karis prisoners.

Kersern took out the spravac with snipers before rushing in to free the prisoners, Kesern was then ordered by Bapis to attack the spravac in the rear, causing thousands of spravac to be killed without even knowing what was happening. Varme deployed elite spravac warriors to counteract the smaller flanking force while the remaining soldiers continued their battle of the wall. Eventually, Kesern was forced to pull back into the surrounding forest. Still preoccupied with the siege, Varme made no efforts to pursue Kesern’s force.

On May 13, the spravac were forced to pull back to reload. With the jammers taken out, Kesern and Bapis organized an ambush, with Kesern’s force attacking from the jungle into Varme’s left flank. However, the ambush fell apart after xamon scouts in the forest discovered Kesern before the attack could go underway. With Kesern occupied and Bapis already beginning the attack, his force was met with a fully stocked spravac horde. The karis took tremendous losses before retreating back into the fortress. To add to their troubles, Kesern was forced to retreat out of the forest by the xamon, but his army ran right into the spravac, who further butchered his force. Kesern managed to escape using light vehicles, but most of his heavier infantry and wounded were sadly left to die.

Under the orders of Thail, who was in turn ordered by Supreme Commander Sasheem, Kesern was ordered to flee Aluru and make up camp across the Wesho ocean in the Julix Islands. After Kesern had fled, Bapis in turn fled with his force to the island of Jadot.

With Aluru fully captured, Varme’s next set of orders was to attack Jadot, which was along the coast of Aluru.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Varme’s Army: 661,102 dead

Xamon: 4,203 dead

Karis: 491,881 dead

### Battle of Jadot: May 20, 7038

Varme’s army was still a tremendous size, with 877,654 men still alive and eager for blood, Vinik ordered Varme’s force to wipe out the karis at the island of Jadot, which was a relatively large land mass. The island has been acting as a karis security port and the only way to the island was a sandbar submerged five feet below the water. The spravac, who notably disliked water intensely, were unenthusiastic about taking the island.

Thail’s horribly battered force had dug trenches on the seashore and stationed machine gunners in the trenches. Varme began his assault in the only way the spravac know how; a frontal charge. As the spravac waded their way through the water, thousands fell to the machine gunners. However, the battle was short lived once the spravac made it to shore. By that point, the karis were completely outmatched and were slaughtered by the spravac. Luckily, Bapis was able to retreat to Julix and rendezvous with Kesern and Sasheem, who were planning to invade southern Giaru.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Varme’s Army: 3,288 dead

Karis: 901 dead

### First Battle of Julix: May 29- June 2, 7038

Despite taking losses that would wipe out most armies, Varme’s 874,366 man army was sailing to the Julix Islands to try and cripple the karis. The isles were a collection of about fourteen small to medium sized islands, with Island One in the center acting as the center of command for the karis in the entire western hemisphere. Sasheem, Kesern, Querstra, and Bapis were all present and all the islands were fully stocked with men and coastal guns. With the spravac attacking from the east on hastily crafted boats, the coastal guns were more than a match for the spravac.

Varme’s army took heavy losses on the way to Island Four, the easternmost island. When Varme finally landed, nearly a quarter of his army had drowned or been blown to dust. Querstra was tasked by Sasheem to push the spravac off, sending in a division of amphibious tanks to push back the spravac, who were quickly advancing through Islands Four and Six (which was connected by a sandbar. The tanks proved ineffective, as the spravac promptly overran the vehicles and managed to commandeer of few of them for themselves. With tanks at his call, Varme used the bridges that the karis had constructed to connect the islands to attack Islands Seven and Ten. The spravac proved greatly effective at overrunning the smaller islands.

By May 31, Islands Four, Six, Seven, Ten, and Eight had fallen to the spravac. However, more than half the spravac had been killed in the process. However, Varme was intent on taking the islands for Shaba and the Xamon. In order to get his men into a frenzy, Varme himself charged head on into Island Five, leading the horde of spravac behind him. Querstra was forced to retreat and Bapis and Kesern took over, halting the spravac at Island Two (which was dangerously close to Island One).

Varme’s charge was forced to pull back, with Kesern giving chase to the backpedaling spravac. By June 2, Islands Seven, Ten, and Five had been recaptured and the spravac nearly gone. However, Varme wasn’t ready to give up without a fight.

Inconclusive:

Varme’s Army: 791,200 dead

Karis: 98,588 dead

### Second Battle of Julix: June 5, 7038

With 83,166 men left under his command and no amphibious craft to escape, Varme was forced to change tactics from one of bravado to one of stealth. In the dark of the night, he sent several groups of spravac to Islands One, Two, Seven, Ten, and Twelve to cause discord amongst the karis.

The spravac on One planted several incendiary charges on the base of the main command structure, detonating it after they had escaped, causing mass chaos. The spravac on Two caused a munitions cache to go off, killing hundreds in the blast before silently killing many more. Island Seven suffered a toxic gas explosion while Island Ten saw spravac snipers assassinating key officers. They also managed to wound Bapis by shooting him in the knee. However, the spravac on twelve weren’t so successful. After blowing up a gas tank, they were discovered and a small firefight broke out, killing the team present. The karis attempted to find Varme, but the jungle on the island was too thick for them to root out the cunning avians.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Varme’s Army: 528 dead

Karis: 1,203 dead

### Third Battle of Julix: June 7- June 10, 7038

Varme, after seeing how successful his guerilla attacks were, attempted to do the same thing again. However, Sasheem had zeroed his signal and engaged him by shelling his position on Island Eight with artillery, badly injuring him and killing much more of his force. Varme escaped while his troops present on the island held of the subsequent karis assault, disappearing into the jungles to make a counter attack.

The fighting continued on Eight before the karis were forced to retreat after Varme’s relief force came and attacked the karis from the south. The karis were pushed back to Island Five, which Varme retook by implementing further guerilla tactics.

By June 10, both sides were in a stalemate.

Inconclusive:

Varme’s Army: 13,001 dead

Karis: 10,203 dead

### Fourth Battle of Julix: June 11- June 15, 7038

With a dwindling force of 70,165 left under his command, Varme was pessimistic about his chances of winning Julix, the karis had been airdropped more ammunition and were setting up a landing zone for their daring invasion of Giaru. This meant that most of the karis were busy setting up landing zones to actually guard against a spravac attack. Varme used this to his advantage, and sent spravac raiders to steal karis mortars on the early morning of June 11. His raid was a success, with few spravac losses and seventeen light mortars.

At sunrise, the spravac bombarded the refueling fields of the archipelago, causing large explosions of gasoline to explode and envelop many karis in flames. The spravac attacked in the discord and managed to capture multiple karis dock workers and stunned soldiers. Sasheem sent teams of commandos to recover the karis a few hours later, the remains of the prisoners were found at 5:00 PM, mutilated and half eaten and set up in a pile with a note that roughly read, “the stage is set, the lights shine bright, and actors begin their play”

With that, spravac descended upon the karis and took more prisoners.

In a triumphant show of bravado, the spravac charge of only five hundred charged towards the karis docks wearing the skin of their quarry, the ear splitting screams of avians caused the dock workers to panic and fall victim to spravac talons, who also took them prisoner. Despite the success of this charge, a few spravac had died from karis security guards, but the damage was done, and karis resolve was shaken greatly.

Sasheem, who was sick of the spravac’s games, order a torch and burn operation to smoke the spravac out. However, he didn’t entirely know where the spravac were actually hiding, and decided to carpet bomb the entirety of the spravac held island. Few spravac perished, as they had dug underground tunnels that effectively shielded them from most of the bombs. The spravac attacked in full force on June 12 on 2:00 AM, with some still wearing the skin of the karis victims. The karis again panicked and many more were taken. However, Sasheem new the spravac would try to retreat to continue their mind games, and had several karis platoons hiding in disguised trenches that the spravac had unwittingly crossed over. The spravac were surrounded and were taking heavy losses, including Varme, who was shot clean through the head by Sasheem himself. The spravac made several attempts to break out. However, the way was shut, so the spravac instead decided to charge towards the main facility where Sasheem was located. As they scaled the walls, the karis retreated to avoid engaging in the dangerous game that was spravac melee combat. The spravac began to spread throughout the station, kidnapping unassuming karis workers and wounded soldiers. By the end of the day, the spravac had disappeared within the station or had escaped into the jungle via the sewage system.

On June 13 in the early morning, the karis faced what would be a series of uncoordinated but savage assaults within and around the station. The karis mortars were still under spravac control and the hull of the building faced heavy bombardment, which did kill a few spravac in the process. The karis sent squads into the jungles to try and take care of the spravac, but had no luck in the thick jungles of Julix.

The de facto leader of the spravac, named Garses, had contact with several squads worth of spravac. He and most of these spravac were located within the station and organized an escape back into the jungle to rejoin their brothers. However, the escape was a failure, and Garses and his men were killed on the foot on the jungle.

By June 15, the spravac had been severely depleted, they resolved to charge suicidally into battle to die in glory. Drenched in the blood of the karis they had captured, the spravac charged one final time at 6:02 AM, they engaged the karis in melee briefly, but in the end they all perished. A fitting death for a spravac in the eyes of Vinik when he heard of the deaths of his brethren.

Decisive Karis Victory:

Karis: 6,102 dead, 3,022 of which were dock workers

Varme’s Army: 70,165 dead

## The Giaru Campaign: June 24- September 17, 7038

Sereen and his generals were now really feeling the burn of the war on Shagra. He and his peers had concluded that taking Giaru not only would establish a new foothold on the planet, but might be so devastating for the xamon that they would have to pull out from the planet. It was a dangerous gamble, but it was a risk that Sereen was willing to take.

The campaign would start at the invasion of the Setol Peninsula, which was swathed by the Vizna river. Sereen travelled to the planet personally to take full control over the 52nd Army until he himself dictated otherwise.

### Setol Landings: June 24, 7038

The very tip of the peninsula was organized into two major beaches by the xamon, the eastern beach was called Sërsund Beach while the western was called Gërsund Beach. Sereen theorized that G-beach as it was called would be more heavily defended as it was closer to the Julix landing zone and that the xamon would be expecting an attack from there. On the contrary, General Konrav Vull Hossengrav, who was placed there by Minister Vaffin, knew that Sereen would choose to attack S-Beach, and thus heavily fortified it.

Sereen was advised by General Kesern to probe the xamon defenses at both beaches to make a fully educated decision. Sereen listened to this advice and sent unmanned craft to both beaches with cameras to watch the xamon defenses. G-Beach was lightly defended, to Sereen’s astonishment, while S-Beach was ready for an invasion of tremendous size. Sereen mobilized a massive three hundred thousand man force to invade G-Beach, knowing that the hundreds of miles between the two beaches would prevent the xamon from halting the assault in time. The invasion was a stunning success, the xamon were forced to retreat after seven hours of savage fighting against the karis attackers.

Decisive Karis Victory:

Karis: 1,200 dead

Xamon: 3,228 dead

### Second Battle of Fort Tooth: June 25- June 29, 7038

The zuroks within Fort Tooth had been reinforced with even more men and weapons, and joint garrison of zuroks and xamon had fortified the fortress since its capture months ago. Sereen wanted to capture the fort to establish a base of operations for Giaru.

Under the command of General Kesern, the sixth army besieged the fortress with a hail of plasma mortars to crush the xamon and zuroks. The zuroks were ordered to retreat by Hossengrav while the xamon covered their retreat. When the karis saw the zuroks retreating to the Vizna, they immediately shifted their attention to the fleeing zuroks to inflict massive morale damage. The xamon, angered by this act, charged out with flamethrowers and bayonets into the unsuspecting karis. The xamon were doomed in their charge, but they bought enough time that at least some of the zuroks could retreat over the Vizna.

Decisive Karis Victory

Karis: 4,991 dead

Zurok Civilians and Irregulars: 12,391 dead

Xamon: 6,288 dead

### First Battle of The Kekin Mountains: July 3- July 12, 7038

After the both the retreating zuroks and karis had crossed the Vizna, Sereen believed that the plains between the coastline and the mountains would be far too fortified. Thus, he believed that the 52nd should march through the Kekin Mountains and engage the xamon from the back. Once the xamon were dealt with, Sereen’s tanks could move in unhindered. He was half right in his assumption, the xamon had indeed fortified the space between the coast and mountains, but their defensive line also stretched into the Kekins. The 52nd would be facing a very treacherous fight in the sharp and unstable rocks of the Kekins.

The army began their march by mining walkways for the army along the mountainside, they immediately came in contact with small pockets of the zuroks who had taken refuge in the mountains. They were promptly massacred by the karis, who had orders from Sereen to shoot civilians on sight. The army continued its march at a steady pace until July 6. The zuroks had placed hundreds of mining charges that caused frequent rockslides that buried hundreds of karis alive. As they climbed mountains higher and higher, they faced avalanches and PZ-18 mines that killed many more. On July 7, the karis were ambushed by zurok snipers, who battled with the karis for seven hours before retreating back on the orders of General Konrav Vull Hossengrav. On July the 10, the karis were once again engaged, this time facing xamon snipers and seven squadrons of bombers, who dropped eleven tons worth of explosives on the karis. The karis used heavy weapons to destroy seven bombers, but the rest managed to escape unscathed. The battle with the snipers continued on until July 12, when the xamon were ordered to retreat back to the main line.

Inconclusive:

Karis: 2,781 dead

Xamon: 89 dead

Zurok Irregulars and Civilians: 240 dead

### Second Battle of the Kekin Mountains: July 15- July 18, 7038

As 52nd army continued its march, they came across the main xamon line, called the Hossengrav Line after the general himself. Sereen was livid upon the discovery of what he thought he avoided, but decided to continue as planned. The karis began their attack with a hail of sniper fire into the line, which was chiefly guarded by heavily armed zurok levies. The zuroks took heavy casualties, but regardless held strong. The karis then launched a charge on the center of the line, Sector 14, but were pushed back after an unexpected and ferocious zurok countercharge revealed itself. The karis called in fire support from the 6th and 5th Saroniss Squadrons, which did three strafing runs on the zuroks. However, this was largely ineffective, as the zuroks were spread out and thus the volleys missed most of the militants. The militants were ordered by Commander Militant Xerto Miks to charge into the karis soldiers, whose numbers were negated by the narrow pathways of the mountains.

Despite their courage, the zuroks were forced to pull out and bunker down in the rocks, which they were far more familiar with than the karis. Throughout the night and into the morning of July 16 the battle raged on, with both sides sniping each other relentlessly. Frustrated with his progress, Sereen called in for another strafing run from the Saroniss squadrons. This time, their runs were aimed at the foundation, not the zuroks. The fire caused a massive landslide that killed the zuroks who had hunkered down southeast of the southern Hossengrav line. The attritional sniper fire continued once again into July 17, when the karis finally launched another major offensive. Sereen ordered his men to charge shoulder to shoulder over terrain that was deemed impassable by karis strategists. This order would show to be unwise, as the rocks were too cumbersome for the karis to traverse, making them easy targets for the snipers. Despite the setbacks, the karis managed to break through Sectors 14, 16, and 20 by afternoon of July 17.

The sectors in between the karis held ones were completely enveloped and slaughtered. On Hossengrav’s order, the zuroks and Commander Xerto retreated back to Sector 13, the northernmost Kekin sector.

Close Karis Victory

Karis: 1,203 dead

Zurok Irregulars and Civilians: 3,200 dead

### Third Battle of the Kekin Mountains: July 21- July 23, 7038

After the zuroks had retreated east to the xamon sections of the Hossengrav Line, Sereen moved his forces further to then flank the line from behind. Behind the line, the xamon’s tanks, troops quarters, zurok refugees, and docking areas were stationed. When the 52nd Army arrived at the slopes of their destination, they were shocked to find a horde of zurok insurgents that had been paid to fight by Shaba, who also had many mercenaries present. Shocked but not perturbed, Sereen ordered a frontal assault on the zuroks with cavaliers. The zuroks were unprepared for the charge and took heavy casualties from the karis soldiers. Riflemen and machine gunners entrenched themselves and began to mow down the zuroks. The zuroks finally took cover and made seven separate charges at the karis, each of the seven waves were wiped out to the last man.

Commander Militant Weser Los, one of Shaba’s officers, had one trick up his sleeve. Using dragnon mercenaries donated by the Spravac Empire, Commander Los’ dragnon proved greatly effective, even managing to push back or slaughter the riflemen. On the early morning of July 22, the dragnon launched another raid on the karis, who a majority of which were still sleeping. The dragnon set their fireproof scales ablaze and plunged down upon the karis, picking up their terrified victims and tossing them down into the ravine below.

The men were forced to pull back to Sereen’s point, a FOB where Sereen and his generals were present. The zuroks conducted a raid on the settlement, but were pushed back almost immediately by the guards. The karis chased the zuroks down the treacherous slopes of the mountains, where both zuroks and karis fell to their deaths below. The dragnon launched another attack, but were forced to fly away after taking too many loses on the way to the karis soldiers.

On the afternoon of July 23, the zurok camp was bombed by karis light bombers, killing both the mercenaries and refugees.

Decisive Karis Victory

Karis: 910 dead

Shaba Mercs: 1,203 dead

Zurok Irregulars and Civilians: 2,370 dead

### Battle of the Hossengrav Line: July 25- August 12, 7038

With the Kekins under his control, Sereen began to mine out sections to deploy stationary artillery for the coming battle, he also set up sniper and machine gunner nests to further guarantee victory. The karis soldiers got into position the night before the 25 of July, waiting for Sereen’s signal to begin the assault on the xamon. However, unbeknownst to Sereen, Hossengrav had been informed of the karis’ plans by survivors from the Second Battle of the Kekins. He had down a complete reversal of his lines to face the karis flanking maneuver, Sereen would come to learn this far too late. The camps were also emptied and filled with explosives to be triggered individually on Hossengrav’s order. To make matters worse for the karis before the battle had even begun, the zuroks present in the line were heavily armed and highly numerous.

Early in the morning of July 25, the karis began a silent charge into the camps, searching tents only to find them empty. With the army in confusion, Hossengrav himself set off the charges one by one, causing mass confusions and casualties for the karis. Panicked, the karis then faced a heavy charge by 54th Bertarnk Ount-Grassēn Regiment. The fighting was fierce and the karis were forced to pull back. However, the 54th’s charge had given away their positions, and they faced crushing bombardment from the karis mountain artillery. The xamon’s own artillery began to triangulate the karis’ positions in the mountain and began to fire burrowing charges into the foundation beneath the cannons, causing them and their crews to plummet to their deaths. The artillery battle would last for six days, finally ending with another karis charge into the xamon trench. The karis faced a counter charge from the zuroks, who engaged in a horrific melee for a full day, with both sides finally retreating back. Sereen ordered for the tanks he was holding off to flank the xamon now, but they were unfueled due to Sereen’s former orders of keeping the tanks in waiting until after the Hossengrav Line had been dissolved. It would take three more days for the tanks to arrive, during that time thousands more karis would lose their lives.

For those next three days, the xamon and karis both took turns charging into each other and exchanging artillery strikes, with the xamon resorting to PZ-18 artillery to deal terrible damage to karis lives and morale. On August 6, the tanks finally arrives and blitzed through the xamon, inflicting massive casualties and forcing Hossengrav to move back to a safer vantage point.

The tanks finally broke through the line at several points to rendezvous with the karis, but many fell to xamon AT-GRs (Anti-Tank Gauss Rifles).

In the sky, the xamon and karis fighters fought for supremacy, with many planes crashing down and crushing unlucky soldiers in the field below. On August 7, the zurok mercenaries launched a vicious flanking action on the karis’ east flank, which was filled with tanks. Using anti-tank grenades and rifles, many karis tanks were destroyed, causing the karis to retreat back to the slopes of the Kekins.

The karis snipers continued to fire down on the zuroks inflicting mass damage and causing many to retreat back to the xamon sectors. The karis made another push on August 10, causing many more sectors to be lost with relatively low casualties, while the xamon and zuroks took heavy casualties. The battle raged until August 12, when the remaining xamon and Zuroks retreated to the zurok city of Selop.

Decisive Karis Victory

Karis: 89,129 dead

Xamon: 102,301 dead

Shaba Mercs: 193,487 dead

### First Battle of Selop: August 20- September 17, 7038

After the Battle of the Hossengrav line, Sereen was ready to enact the final phase of his plan, to siege and capture the de-facto capital of Selop. The 52nd army had suffered 100,214 deaths in the campaign thus far, leaving just shy of 200,000 karis under his command. The city was lightly garrisoned by the xamon and zurok mercenaries, instead being inhabited by over 15 million zuroks. As Selop was also Shaba’s headquarters, Shaba demanded that all off the zurok civilians fight for the defense of the city. Few followed the order without incentive, so Shaba turned to paying them hundreds of thousands of credits to fight. With their morale boosted by money, the zurok civilians formed a massive militia, commanded by Vinik and his elite spravac death company. The city also housed a gigantic mile high tower, acting Shaba’s fortress, the tower would prove to be the most difficult part. The karis began their attack by bombarding the walls with revenants, killing thousands of xamon and zurok partisans. In response, the garrison expelled the walls to let the tanks waste their ammunition. The bombardment carried on for seven days, during that time, hundreds of thousands of zuroks had been killed from direct blasts or falling debris. Also during that time, several hundred tanks were destroyed by xamon tank hunters, who then retreated back into the city to fight later on. After the southern walls had fallen, the karis stormed in and began massacring the civilians on an almost genocidal scale. In just two days, three million were killed.

On August 31st, the partisans launched a bold and highly risky operation, called Operation Caltrop, the zuroks selected other zuroks against their will and strapped tens of grenades and bombs to them. They’d then shove the living bombs at the tanks and karis as they passed by and detonated them, inflicting massive damage and creating roadblocks from the destroyed tanks. The tanks that were immobilised but not destroyed were then commandeered and haphazardly piloted to attack the karis with their own weapons. By September 10, the hijacked tanks had all been destroyed and two million more zuroks had been killed.

The xamon garrison, which was most composed primarily of Einvatz-Grassēn, launched many successful hit and run tactics against the karis, but did little to keep the karis from conquering more of the city. By September 13, the entirety except for Shaba’s tower had fallen. The remaining six million zuroks retreated inside while the xamon continued their guerilla attacks on the karis. Zurok sharpshooters did further damage and caused the last of the karis tanks to be wiped out.

For the next four days, the karis encircled the tower, cutting off supplies and jamming communications to keep Shaba from calling for help. Luckily, Shaba had a massive cache of food to feed not only himself and his staff, but his refugees as well. Vinik remained inside with Death Company. Meanwhile, the xamon Einvatz-Grassēn retreated into the outskirts to avoid death, transferring information to Hossengrav and Grachtvardun to plan an invasion of this newly formed karis territory. Despite not taking the whole city, Sereen saw the siege as a success, and declared that his Giaru Campaign was a great success.

Decisive Karis Victory

Karis: 92,621 dead

Xamon: 8,302 dead

Shaba Mercs: 10,771 dead

Zurok Irregulars and Civilians: 9.1 million dead

## Operation Sûbbeount: October 9, 7038- May 12, 7039

As of this point in the war, the xamon and karis had lost over 5 million and 6 million men respectively. After the Giaru Campaign, the karis began to heavily fortify their territory, whilst doing so they began to amass a truly impressive invasion force to invade the rest of Shagra. However, Einvatz-Grassēn still inside karis territory continued to communicate with XAC High Command. Generals Grachtvardun and Hossengrav began to strategize a plan to beat their karis at their own game, invading their territory swiftly and without mercy. Called Sûbbeount, meaning Firestorm, the operation was a massive blitz at two points, the Setol Peninsula and the north of Selop.

Hossengrav was to harass and blockade Selop, cutting off communications with the karis leaders and occupying much of the force. Grachtvardun was to storm the beaches of Setol and make his way up north to Selop, slaughtering any reinforcements heading towards Selop for the karis’ planned invasion. The 4th Army was gifted with several thousand flame troopers and 500 flamethrower tanks to invade Setol and crush the karis.

On the karis side, the karis were busy preparing their massive invasion of the eastern hemisphere through Aluru. Thus, when Operation Sûbbeount begun, the karis were horridly underprepared for the xamon invasion.

Siege of Selop: October 9, 7038- May 12,7039

With the debilitated numbers of the 52nd Army, General Hossengrav’s army of 500,000 was more than equipped for taking care of enemy defenses. Supreme Commander Juile De Sasheem had been stationed there and was attempting to capture Shaba’s tower, which was the only source of comms in the entire region. To add on to this, Shaba communicated with Hossengrav daily, feeding him valuable information on the karis’ movements, allowing Hossengrav to know the every move of the minute force.

Most of the walls had been destroyed, so Hossengrav’s army marched unhindered into the city. Knowing all to well that the karis would be very dug in, he surrounded the entire city with tanks, artillery, and stormtroopers ready to advance on command. For the first two months weeks, the karis faced devastating casualties. Most of the buildings had been reduced to rubble and the xamon were taking little to no casualties, the karis lacked artillery, while the incredible range of the xamon’s guns allowed them to bombard well out of the range of snipers.

On January 9, after Hossengrav believed the karis had been effectively weakened, rolled in seven heavy tank divisions into the rubble. Facing little to no resistance, the karis barely stood a chance against Hossengrav’s seemingly endless tanks. To add on to this, the zurok partisans were released from Shaba’s tower and flooded into the city. The karis faced hordes upon hordes of enemies, but Sereen and Sasheem both demanded a no-retreat policy. Karis snipers and heavy weapons squads killed both soldiers and tanks alike, causing hundreds of xamon to die in mere hours. As the fight dragged on into March, the karis were losing more and more territory. With only 52,100 men left, Sereen and Sasheem constantly argued over the usage of their limited men and ammunition. Setting up barricades in all the roads of their urban territory, the karis placed thousands of caltrops to immobilize as many troops as possible.

However, Shaba saw everything from his tower, spotting the karis placing the mines and offering to send in the partisans to soak up the brunt of the defenses. Hossengrav agreed and allocated his forces outside. The zuroks faced heavy resistance, karis snipers and machine gunners mowed down tens of thousands as they clustered together in the tight alleyways of the bombed out districts.

On April 10, after many more days of on and off fighting, the xamon blitzed back inside, finishing off the karis (save for Sereen and Sasheem, who had escaped via a stealth shuttle) for good. However, on April 12, the karis on the run from Grachtvardun’s Setol invasion army arrived. Surrounded, the retreating karis were forced to fight to the death.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 61,320 dead

Zurok Irregulars and Civilians: 109,291 dead

Shaba Mercs: 28,188 dead

Karis: 206,420 dead

### Second Battle of the Setol Peninsula: October 9- October 10, 7038

Grachtvardun’s newly reinforced 4th Army had mustered on the coasts of S-Beach and G-Beach. With nearly 2 million men now under his command, the soon to be infamous Sûbbeount was launched in the evening of October 9. With only about 14,000 men guarding the beaches, the karis were unprepared for the xamon attack. The xamon landed in amphibious shuttles, charging out with flamethrowers under the cover of a PZ-18 barrage. The karis were forced to retreat on General Kesern’s order to rendezvous with the 7th Army on the cusp of the Kekin Mountains.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 1,288 dead

Karis: 8,910 dead

### Fourth Battle of the Kekin Mountains: October 16- October 21, 7038

The 7th army was a lightly armed army of 300,000 men, they possessed a multitude of artillery, but their positions made effective positioning impossible. About half of the xamon flew to the battle in shuttles, firing down on the karis with snipers and direction based mortars. Without even knowing where the shots were coming from, the xamon stormtroopers on the ground were already upon them. The karis were no match for the unrelenting ferocity of the stormtroopers, who weren’t even bothering to use their guns, simply using the bayonets on the ends of them.

The flame troopers flanked around to both sides and burned the karis alive, the flame proof armor of the stormtroopers shielded most of them from the blasts of searing hot napalm.

The karis were also called back by Kesern to fortify themselves with the 18th Army, which was at the location of the original Hossengrav line.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 35,102 dead

Karis: 102,529 dead

### Battle of Burba: October 29- November 1, 7038

As the karis retreated towards the former Hossengrav line, they stopped at the small town of Burba to rest and resupply. Certain that the xamon didn’t know where they went, the karis were at ease. However, when they attempted to rest, the zuroks there, who had ties to Talok and Shaba, fought the karis, killing hundreds in their sleep before the karis guards fired upon them, waking the rest of the soldiers. The battle raged on into the morning of October 30, when a xamon air patrol passed over them. The 7th Retoch Fighter Wing made three strafing runs on the karis throughout the entirety of the day, harassing them and destroying key buildings.

The populace of the town also took up arms, attacking karis and stealing their weapons. By November 1, the karis were forced to leave and continue their march towards the 18th Army.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Talok Mercs: 812 dead

Shaba Mercs: 90 dead

Zurok Irregulars and Civilians: 1,302 dead

Karis: 4,464 dead

### Second Battle of the Hossengrav Line: November 10- November 19, 7038

When karis finally arrived on November 10, hundreds more had died from exhaustion on the way there. The 18th army was already dug into the original trench and was composed of almost one million men. Grachtvardun wasted no time attacking the army, beginning his attack with a heavy barrage of PZ-18 before charging in hundreds of thousands of Ount-Grassēn. The xamon took heavy losses before being forced to retreat back to elevated ground. The karis sent in two divisions of tanks to wipe out the stormtroopers, but were promptly destroyed by anti-tank mines and AT-GRs. Kesern deployed 200,000 karis to evacuate survivors and fight the xamon in the process, leading to a bloody three day confrontation resulting in both sides retreating back farther.

Grachtvardun was intent on winning the battle quickly and charged all of his men into the karis line, leading to the deaths of thousands on both sides. After another three days, both sides ceased fighting and returned to their respective trenches.

On November 17, Grachtvardun called in a bombing run of napalm and plasma to burn the karis. However, many of the planes were shot down and less karis were killed than had been hoped. However, in the chaos of the air raid, stormtroopers charged once again, taking both karis and friendly fire, the stormtroopers held strong and charged bayonets first into the karis, who were forced to retreat back to a makeshift line further north.

By November 19, the xamon had occupied the main trench and were preparing to mount another assault. However, Hossengrav contacted Grachtvardun, urging him to slow down and allow his men to rest, as the siege of Selop was going better than expected.

Inconclusive:

Xamon: 162,729 dead

Karis: 201,201 dead

### Third Battle of the Hossengrav Line: November 24- November 30, 7038

In the evening of November 24, Grachtvardun launched and unexpected attack on the karis, killing nearly 100,000 soldiers in one day. The battle raged on until November 26 when karis mortars bombed their own men to push back the xamon. The karis followed after with a division of cavaliers, who were almost completey wiped out by machine gun fire. The karis and xamon resorted to bombarding each other with artillery, although the xamon proved to be much more effective with their heavier guns and chemical weapons.

After three days of straight bombardment, both sides simultaneously charged through no-man’s land towards each other. They were forced to fight with knives, swords, and their own bare hands as thousands would die slow and gruesome deaths in the red tinted soil of no-man’s land. Eventually the karis were forced to retreat, with the xamon pursuing them to their main trench, called Kersen’s Gash. The fight in the Gash proved to be costly for the xamon, who were forced to retreat after an additional bloody day of fighting. No progress had been made, but Grachtvardun was intent on destroying the army.

Inconclusive:

Xamon: 152,196 dead

Karis: 161,822 dead

### Fourth Battle of the Hossengrav Line: December 7- December 14, 7038

At this point Grachtvardun had been slowed enough, he ordered all of his tanks and soldiers to charge mercilessly despite any losses that they may take. The karis were taken aback by the hordes of men and gave up another trench to the xamon after just two days of fighting. Grachtvardun allowed his men to rest for one day before pressing the attack once more, charging into the karis machine guns.

As the bodies began to pile up, soldiers would use them as shelter as they camped out in no-man’s land for three more days, facing withering artillery and machine gun fire. The tanks, however, proved to outmatch the karis, as they finally broke through another trench on the sixth day of fighting. On December 14, the karis were in full scale retreat from the xamon, as they had expended all their ammunition and were making a run for Selop.

Pyrhhic Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 191,821 dead

Karis: 69,661 dead

### Battle of Danze: December 24- December 27, 7038

By late December, the ground was beginning to be coated in snow and ice. Xamon uniforms were adaptable to weather, while the karis began to particularly suffer in the cold. The snow did, however, slow the xamon advance, as it took them 10 days to march 100 miles. On the march, one hundred tanks were lost and over 3,000 died from the cold. The conditions were worse for the karis, who lost over 20,000 men to the weather.

The 18th Army took refuge in the abandoned town of Danze. The town was medium sized and located in a shallow basin, a vulnerable position for the karis, but Kersen and his army were exhausted and required rest.

On December 24, the xamon began their attack with hails of sniper fire with silenced weapons, killing hundreds without the karis even noticing. When the bodies started to turn up, the karis were on high alert. The 4th Army’s tanks had been caught in snow and thus could not move forward, however a few could still be used as directional artillery. The tanks bombarded the town mercilessly as the karis scrambled for cover. By December 26, the town had almost been completely levelled and the karis were beginning the perilous task of escaping while under fire. The xamon couldn’t chase after them as the cold had exhausted and slowed their motor skills, and thus stayed content at shooting the retreating and battered stragglers.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 3,201 dead

Karis: 24,416 dead

### Battle of Alzab: January 2- January 14, 7039

After the crushing defeat at Danze, the exhausted 18th army had been reduced to division size, with the massive xamon 4th Army marching towards their position in the frigid landscape. General Kesern believed that the elevated town of Alzab could make for a could fortress should the xamon pursue them. Grachtvardun was certain that the karis would hide in Alzab, but couldn’t afford to veer his entire army off course for the 13,090 karis holed up in the town.

Grachtvardun sent a full division of soldiers and tanks to siege the town to keep the karis from attempting to flank his massive army at the most crucial point.

The siege began on January 2 when the 345th Stormtrooper Division began their siege with a barrage of PZ-18 on the karis, who were using the zuroks as living shields on the walls. The xamon, upon finding out the zuroks’ situation, ceased their bombardment and began to climb up the walls using grappling hooks. When they had reached the top of the wall, they came across suffocating zuroks and a gift that the karis had left, a series of remote detonation charges that exploded just three seconds after they had reached the top, killing hundreds but also causing much of the wall to collapse.

On January 3, the xamon harried the walls with 66mm tanks that nearly vaporized much of the wall. The stormtroopers poured in and immediately engaged in vicious building to building warfare with the karis, who had organized a myriad of traps to kill many xamon in the process. Despite their best efforts, however, the xamon had established a foothold and push the karis out of half of the city. The karis faced xamon raids almost every second for six days, as the xamon’s tactics was simply to whittle down the karis to the point of either complete slaughter or surrender.

On January 10, the karis were pushed to the town hall. With only 300 men left, the karis bravely fought off the xamon for four more days until they finally capitulated after Kersen gave the order.

With only 162 men left, the karis were taken into custody and would not be released until the end of the war.

Close Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 9,291 dead

Zurok Civilians and Irregulars: 699 dead

Karis: 12,923 dead

### Battle of Suros: January 10- February 10, 7039

As the 4th Army plowed through much of the zurok countryside, they came to the Suros Fields, a wide open area that was owned by Shaba to feed his mercenaries and subservient civilians. The karis had occupied the area and had evicted the zurok mercenaries stationed there, along with over three thousand civilians. When Grachtvardun arrived, he levied the zuroks under his command promising them the fields and safety under a strong xamon garrison. The zurok obliged and were armed with spare xamon weapons.

Grachtvardun began his attack on the karis 12th Army, helmed by General Querstra, who was notably very fearful of Grachtvardun and his battle hardened army. He heavily booby trapped the field, lining it with hundreds of high explosive plasma mines and retractable spikes. Grachtvardun figured that the field was rigged, so he ordered his flame troopers to burn the field. However, the zuroks objected and instead offered to scout out the field for him, the mercenaries faced heavy casualties from the trapped, but eventually they managed to make into the city. They immediately became pinned down from karis sharpshooters and begged Grachtvardun to send his men in. The general was hesitant, but eventually he sent in the 7th Stormtrooper Battalion to reinforce the zuroks. They too became pinned down, as the karis had a series of deployable artillery scattered throughout the city. With their communications jammed, Grachtvardun was unable to use radar to track the artillery’s location. Instead, he sent several Einvatz-Grassēn to search for the artillery pieces. As the stealth troops began to disable the batteries one by one, the stormtroopers could make headway and began to root out karis snipers throughout area. With a area established on January 15, Grachtvardun marched in several more divisions of stormtroopers into the city.

On January 18, the karis launched the first of three frontal charges to retake the lost territory. The first charge was devastating and killing thousands of xamon before bunkering down after taking a whole district of the city. Grachtvardun assumed that the karis would try to take more of the city again, so he ordered PZ-18 canisters to be deployed and set off by stealth squads. The trap proved effective, as the second karis charge didn’t kill a single xamon. Querstra noticed Grachtvardun’s tactic and instead decided to barrage the area first, destroying the PZ-18 preemptively and allowing his third offensive to charge in without the fear of suffocation.

By February 1, the karis had retaken much of the lost territory, greatly frustrating Grachtvardun but not defeating him. He launched his own daring charge on February 3 with eight battalions of stormtroopers, killing thousands of karis and forcing them back even farther than they were initially pushed. To add on to their troubles, the stealth troops that had disabled Querstra’s artillery were behind enemy lines and enveloped the karis at several points.

Querstra wisely knew that the city was lost, and he refused to die or be captured. He ordered a final charge through the weakest point in an attempted to escape the city with the rest of the 12th army. On February 9, he made what would be known as the Querstra Gambit, a highly risky operation that would charge straight at Grachtvardun, which Querstra theorized would be the least guarded point, given Grachtvardun’s haughty and highly courageous character. The operation proved to be a success, as the karis managed to escape out of the city with relatively low casualties. This would prove to only be the first time that Querstra would escape Grachtvardun, as he would do it again at several points later on in the war.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 14,520 dead

Shaba Mercs: 3,446 dead

Zurok Civilians and Irregulars: 8,210 dead

Karis: 23,931 dead

### Battle of Darde Forest (Battle of the Ash): February 18- March 2, 7039

Grachtvardun continued his march towards Selop to reinforce Hossengrav’s army, he decided to take a shortcut through the forest of Darde. His officers warned him the karis would probably have the area heavily defended, but Grachtvardun disregarded their warnings. That would proved to be his mistake, as the karis had seven tank brigades in the forest waiting for them.

Under General Querstra, the tanks made multiple costly and surgical strikes to the xamon’s flanks, heavily damaging their morale and forcing Grachtvardun to temporarily pull out of the forest. Grachtvardun called for air support to bomb the entire forest with napalm and PZ-18, burning much of the forest to the ground. By February 24, much of the forest had been reduced to ash and splintered wood. The xamon marched through and faced minimal resistance.

On March 2, the xamon had made out of the forest and could faintly see Selop in the distance, however, they were unaware of the forces that Querstra had deployed on the way.

Costly Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 2,891 dead

Karis: 421 dead

### First Battle of the Alust Steppe: March 8- March 10, 7039

Grachtvardun’s army was on its way to the city of Selop to finish off the war, however he had to get through hundreds of miles of karis territory to get there. General Querstra of the 12th army had 8 corps of karis scattered throughout the regions south of Selop and was dreading Grachtvardun’s arrival. On March 8, the xamon faced their first obstacle, the wide open spaces of the Alust Steppe, which offered little to no cover.

Garchtvardun’s army was immediately harried by karis artillery fire, devastating the tight xamon marching formation and causing hundreds to be killed or severely wounded. Grachtvardun ordered his stormtroopers to follow the trails left by the artillery in the sky and eliminate them. However, whenever a battery was located, they would be ambushed and slaughtered to the last man. On March 10, Grachtvardun bombed the entire area with PZ-18, which killed the karis and spared the lives of the stormtroopers there, as their plague helms allowed them to survive the vicious gas.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 123 dead

Karis: 312 dead

### Second Battle of the Alust Steppe: March 12- April 6, 7039

After the first battle of the steppe, Grachtvardun hastened his advance to Selop, his eagerness to get through the steppe made him increasingly vulnerable, which Querstra exploited by setting off hundreds of landmines and surrounding the xamon with tanks. The move proved to be costly for the xamon, as they now faced constant bombardment from tanks. The xamon resolved to dig into trenches and wait out the barrage, as the karis were making no effort to engage them in close quarters. The bombardment went on until March 23, when Grachtvardun ordered a full scale charge on all flanks into the karis lines, shocking the karis and forcing them to pull out, which costed them over 50 tanks and hundreds of soldiers. The xamon went on to pursue the retreating karis until April 6, when Querstra was captured and imprisoned until the end of the war, leaving the karis panicking and leaderless. They resolved to retreat to Selop, unaware of it being under siege, the xamon would continue to pursue them until April 12, when the two armies of the xamon met.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 2,102 dead

Karis: 5,623 dead

## Aftermath:

After the resounding success of Operation Sûbbeount, the karis had completely exhausted their military in the area, they had lost six generals to combat and two to capture, as well as millions of men, most for what would turn out to be xamon victories. The xamon too had lost millions of men, but they still had much of their general staff alive and their Mandatory Service Act had billions of soldiers at their command willing to die for the cause. The xamon also had almost the entire zurok population at their call, as they had been angered by the karis invasion and meddling in their business dealings with the xamon, which was making them a very wealthy species. For the remainder of the war, the two sides simply made small skirmishes with each other, killing only a little bit over 100 people all together. On February 9, 7040, the karis finally capitulated to the xamon, ending the 3 year long war in a xamon victory.

Decisive Xamon Victory:

Xamon: 12 dead

Karis: 43 dead

Zurok civilians and irregulars: 53 dead