Grace Campaigns

Slayer Witches

Coast Stalker Privateers

Rampart Swarm

Collaboration Brigades

Trentwood Federal Constabulary

Uresian Liberation Militia of Grace (ULMG) (7018-7020)

58th Street Family✝

Covington Federal Constabulary

-Holy Zyyntorean Empire (after October 7020)

-Raleos Empire (after May 13 7021)

Blood Alchemist Cairé Rasczec✝

Blood Alchemist Nágc Voritz✝

Didact Étvác Vólóm

Didact Seránó Tzár

Didact Vrínc Sásgcait

Magistrate Tulic Broscz✝

Magistrate Vólc Sczmír✝

High Crone Celíná Tzártziv

Archon Tortz Musárí

Archon Rasczec Tvotv

Archon Válír Ûsczim✝

Archon Síráscz Gclóváré✝

Archon Bûnscz Sgcár

Archon Résczíl Vál

Archon Gcártzá Tvrescz

Arch Punisher Brenden Helmenn✝

General Adam Hoover

General Garrett Nathanson✝

General Victor Sotheby

General Isabelle Thatcher

Admiral Vett Naik

Lieutenant General Daniel Wrightworth

General Eva Wells

General Lucy Mason

Captain Lucille Newsome✝

General Gill Manchester✝

General Cassius F. Lorde✝

General Norman Augustine✝

General Bertram Heinz

Lieutenant General Bridget Valentine

Commander William S. Victor

General Augustus von Freihart

General James Donovan✝

-ULMG

Nathaniel Halifax

Commissioner Jeff Ramsay Jr.✝

Jeffrey Dunst

Christopher Tennyson

Leslie Martin✝

Daniel Breslin✝

Captain William Popper

-Holy Zyyntorean Empire

Harbinger Viacota Gai Zelem

Admiral Crassii Gai Nerous

Legate Optious Gai Venturous

Legate Tyrannous Gai Larissa

Sir Thaddious Gai Nemekezza✝

Centurion Galatorous Gai Turez✝

Centurion Victariae Gai Ravenna

-Raleos Empire

King Lanthir Tors III

Prince Lanthir Tors IV

Admiral Vaddo Kress

General Vatis Neos✝

1,142,793 naval servicemen killed

29,174,903 Imperial soldiers killed

983,747 Rampart Swarm soldiers killed

5,285 Slayer Witches killed

13,738 Incubi killed

4,545,173 Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers killed

Collaborators killed

331,574 Spravac War Beasts killed

-Total Losses

36,197,213 Military dead

134,236 naval servicemen killed

30,971,677 Ures soldiers killed

148 Titans killed

3,361,953 Ures militia killed

Gangsters killed

162,901,024 Ures Civilians killed

-Holy Zyyntorean Empire

100 ships destroyed

79,821 naval servicemen killed

5,829,922 Zyyntorean Legionnaires killed

1,644 Immortals killed

4,117 Special Forces killed

467,793 Marines killed

57,274 Knights killed

-Raleos Empire

68 Ships destroyed

69,771 naval servicemen killed

985,348 Warriors killed

-Total Losses

291 Ships destroyed

38,601,751 Military dead

166,262,977 Civilian and Militia Dead

74,798,964 Military dead

1,023,727,621 Civilian and irregular dead (652,874,124 non-combat/370,853,497 combat)

1,098,526,510 Total dead

## Description

The Grace Campaigns was a long military campaign during the Spravac-Delta War, during which a concerted effort by the Spravac Empire and its allies to occupy and conquer the Ures world of Grace was made. The campaign was initially a spravac victory, as they successfully occupied the planet in the first year and a half of the conflict before contending with the rebellious population of Grace, who continuously fought with the spravac before a failed official Uresian counter-invasion was made. After that attempt failed, the zyyntoreans, who were already embroiled in war with the spravac elsewhere, offered to assist Ures with liberating Grace, which they succeeded in doing after another two years of battle.

# First Phase (Spravac Invasion Phase): January 14, 7017- June 7, 2018

Following the successful occupation of Meneldez and the failed Invasion of Ures 1 week earlier, the Blood Alchemist Správác Ná Správác elected to invade the Ures world of Grace. The generals tasked with this were the Didacts Étvác Vólóm, Seránó Tzár, Vrínc Sásgcait, and Tulic Broscz. Didact Étvác Vólóm was to invade the western continent of Scotia to gain information about the planet’s geography in order to locate strategic targets so the other generals could strike at said targets with brutal precision.

Vólóm was a renowned strategist and excessively brave Vótzai of the Iut Incubus Coven. He was well respected amongst the spravac soldiers for his tendency to lead from the front wielding nothing but a pair of custom-made swords and his brutality towards prisoners, however, he was disliked by his peers, especially his Incubi brothers, for his excessive lust for bloodshed and occasional disregard for tactics and stealth.

Tzár, a common military man from Spaasa, was uncharacteristically cautious and methodical for a spravac, well aware of limited resources and utilizing his men in the most effective way possible.

Sásgcait, however, was the picture perfect spravac commander; reckless, unaware or simply unconcerned with resource limitations, and wildly confrontational with his peers (except Vólóm, whom he worshiped). As one of the most high ranking spravac in the Empire, Sásgcait was as pure as they came as a spravac.

Broscz, the lowest ranking general in the staff, was the least popular of the spravac generals, at least, he was unpopular amongst the actual generals. Amongst his men, Broscz was mixed. The spravac themselves adored him for his outlandish and risky strategies, as well as his love of tank warfare, while the auxiliaries thought him to be needlessly cruel and were frequently selected by him to be used as cannon fodder, more so than the spravac themselves. The only general who personally liked Broscz was Vólóm, who was his cousin four times removed.

The Ures Empire, still recovering after the surprise attack on Ures itself, had mobilized their forces on Grace for the invasion. The general staff on the planet believed that the spravac would land in the southeastern hemisphere due to its large concentration of military assets and civilians, unaware that the spravac did not know where each city was.

## Battle over Grace: January 14, 7017

In order to land their troops on the ground, the spravac navy first had to break through the Grace defense fleet, a naval force of 15 frigates, 24 cruisers, 8 dreadnoughts, and 2 carriers. The spravac navy was forced to split apart throughout the entire Deltaverse invasion force, thus Blood Alchemist Správác Ná Správác had to be strategic with his assault on the planet, aware that the entirety of his forces couldn’t come to bear on Grace. His force of 20 frigates, 17 battleships, and his personal supercarrier, the Genocide-Class Black Abyss, were outnumbered by the Ures fleet, but had far more advanced ships.

He organized his fleet into a tapering column with the frigates leading the charge. All of the frigates were Shredder-Class, designed for soaking up damage as they rapidly assaulted enemy positions. The Shredders were also armed with Ultrabows, allowing them to take on the larger Ures cruisers with ease. The fast moving ships, upon getting into range of the Ures guns, spread out to reveal the battleships, all of them Warrior class and ordered to fire all of their weapons into the Ures grid formation. The Warriors destroyed ship after ship in single volleys, with their plasma torpedoes damaging those that weren’t outright destroyed by the Ultrabows. Finally, after letting off a single volley, the Warriors spread apart to allow the Black Abyss to finish the job, unleashing hundreds of torpedoes and over six shots with the Ultrabow. As the massive Supercarrier engaged the rest of the Ures fleet, the frigates and battleships circled around and hit the Ures fleet in the flanks, totally annihilating whatever wasn’t destroyed from the initial blasts.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Ships: 6 ships destroyed

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 2,293 dead

Ures Ships: 49 ships destroyed

Ures Naval Servicemen: 24,931 dead

## Vólóm’s Reconnaissance Offensive: January 14, 7017- February 8, 7017

### Battle of St. Victoria: January 14, 7017 CE

Upon landing, Didact Étvác Vólóm and his army of Plasma Thorn and Antimatter Rangers were met with no resistance. Landing in the rich farmland of Scotia, Vólóm and his troops wasted no time burning and looting whatever civilization that was found. The military base of Braddock, which held an impressive 400,000 brown soldiers, marched out to meet Vólóm at the small town of St. Victoria.

When the Uresians arrived at the town, most of it had been burnt to the ground. The soldiers found large pyres of burnt civilians and few spravac dead, though there were signs of a struggle between the spravac and the local militia, many of the latter who were found half-eaten or brutally mutilated. The soldiers moved to the eastern outskirts of the town and found small camps of spravac soldiers. When the Uresians sent platoons of troops to engage the red armor clad spravac, the platoons were met by a sudden horde of rangers who emerged from the shrubbery and surrounding forests. The platoons were promptly destroyed and the Uresian soldiers began to fortify the town amongst the rubble. However, more rangers sprung from the intact apartment buildings and warehouses, using poisoned blades and captured civilians as shields. With the Uresians distracted from within, the rangers began a frontal charge towards the town, facing heavy machine gun fire that mowed down thousands of the hyperactive warriors. The rangers’ weapons proved to be superior in killing Uresians, as bursts from their Aquila rifles effectively killed soldiers in single shots.

The Uresian commander, General Garrett Nathanson, believed that the spravac would overwhelm them, thus he ordered his heavier troops to kill the spravac within the town itself so the rest of the army could escape. The spravac tirelessly attacked the Uresian battlelines, eventually causing breaches and wreaking havoc amongst the panicking soldiers. By the late afternoon, the spravac had taken most of the town as the Uresian army was in full retreat, ceding territory strategically in order to break out. Eventually, the Uresian army managed to escape, effectively giving the town back to the spravac.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 29,572 dead

Ures Soldiers: 51,558 dead

Ures Militia: 750 dead

Ures Civilians: 34,192 dead

### Battle of New Wellington: January 17- January 27, 7017

After St. Victoria’s fall, Vólóm began to move his army towards the large metropolitan area of New Wellington, a city of over 200,000 people. General Nathanson was notified by Ures High Command of the spravac’s movement towards the city, which his army was 17 miles away from.

With no APCs or dropships, Nathanson’s army was forced to turn around without rest and march towards the city, which the spravac were dangerously close to.

By the time the army got there, the spravac had already descended upon the city, using their limited number of tanks to fire at the supports of larger buildings, causing them to collapse with their inhabitants still inside. Spravac armed with Immolators actively targeted civilians and cackled with glee as the body count began to rise. The Uresian soldiers rushed towards the southern city limits only to be met by entrenched spravac machine gunners. Using HASACs, the Ures soldiers displaced the gunners and at times killed them, allowing them to enter through the gate.

The wide city streets soon became networks of concrete trenches, with the spravac periodically springing from them and assaulting the Ures forces suddenly. The Ures soldiers were effectively retaking sections of the city, though they were taking heavy losses with each corner and intersection they retook. The spravac frequently called in air support to harass the Ures forces, with their payloads at times vaporizing entire companies of soldiers within the narrow causeways.

On January 18, in the early morning after combat had subsided over the night, the Ures soldiers in the northernmost section of the city were awoken by the whooping and cries of civilians. The Ures soldiers rushed towards the sound only to find piles of freshly slain civilians. Then, the spravac rangers burst from the alleys and rooftops and slaughtered thousands of the confused and terrified Ures soldiers. The ambush then turned into a full-on spravac offensive, as pockets of Ures forces would go dark as hordes of spravac poured forth from the shadows. For the next four days, the Uresian forces were forced to retreat and cede large sectors of the city to the marauding spravac, who only ceased their advance to feast upon the dead or torture the wounded. Bowshark speeders rained antimatter fire down from the skies, destroying fortifications so the rangers could easily overwhelm them.

After the fourth day, the spravac had exhausted themselves and temporarily ceased their charge to eat the dead to regain their energy. Ures forces took the opportunity to request for tanks, which arrived two days later. However, when the tanks arrived, the spravac had finished resting and immediately attacked again, disregarding the tanks and at times even flipping them over from the sheer volume of their numbers. By January 27, the Ures forces were once again forced to withdraw from the city with whatever civilians they could evacuate.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 41,293 dead

Ures Soldiers: 103,492 dead

Ures Civilians: 187,295 dead

### Battle of Nimitz: February 1, 7017

After New Wellington fell, the spravac spent the next few days revelling in their victory. Continuing to hunt down remaining civilians and eat the wounded Uresian soldiers who were left behind inadvertently. Didact Vólóm wished to move forward, but he was ordered by Blood Alchemist Správ to allow his men to build up their need for battle so they may unleash it with unmatched fury when the time demanded it.

While the rest of his army revelled in their success, Vólóm, who was uncomfortable when still, personally led an expeditionary force of 50,000 into the wilderness to scout out more towns and cities to raid. Admiral Naik ordered a force of over 94,000 white soldiers, who just arrived to fight the spravac rangers due to their own brutality, to intercept Vólóm’s forces at the hills of Nimitz. With the white soldiers were a fireteam of white titans, the most advanced soldiers of the Ures Empire.

Vólóm spotted the white soldiers and sent 20,000 of his men to entice the aggressive soldiers into engaging them. Following about thirty minutes of taunting and literal saber rattling, 13,000 of the white soldiers, machetes drawn, charged down the four mile wide expanse. The spravac remained in the forest and engaged the Uresians in melee, immediately beginning to overpower the primarily human force. The remaining rangers were hiding in the trees above and leapt down into the white soldiers, tearing them to shreds and forcing the white soldiers to retreat after losing nearly the entire force.

Vólóm, invigorated by the bloodshed, stood in front of his men at the tallest hill and faced the white soldiers on the other side. He drew his dual blades and began what would be known as the “Wardance of Death”, an elaborate battlecry that sent the spravac into an uncontrollable frenzy. With Vólóm leading the charge, the spravac courageously sprinted uphill under the fire of the Ures soldiers. The White Titans, Leonard Alexander, Thomas Morgan, and Julio Alvarez lead at the forefront of the army and ordered the soldiers to hold their ground. However, when Vólóm sprung from the slope and immediately clove Alexander’s head from his shoulders. The other Titans were promptly ordered to retreat while the white soldiers held off the spravac rangers. Despite their bravery, the white soldiers barely held back the spravac, who were each taking on up to five soldiers at a time. Vólóm continued to pursue the Titans, having heard rumors of their exploits and desiring to kill as many of them as possible.

However, as he charged up the steep incline of Hill 8843, one of the Titans shot at him as he leapt towards them, sending him rolling down the hill into a part of the forest. The two Titans went down to the forest, which had a clearing. Vólóm hid in the trees above, waiting for the opportunity to strike. He descended upon Morgan and slashed him down the middle of the spine, sending him forward in agony as Alvarez attempted to fight off the vicious general. Vólóm struck Alvarez with a kick so strong that it shattered his visor and sent him backwards. Alvarez watched in horror as Vólóm gripped Morgan by his exposed spine and tore off his head with his bare hands. As a show of respect, Vólóm tossed one of his blades to Alvarez. Hesitantly, Alvarez picked up the blade and attempted to fight the didact, unaware that the blade was gravitationally tethered to Vólóm’s gauntlet and that the general was simply toying with him.

By the end of the faux duel, Alvarez was on the ground and Vólóm was on top of him, jamming his talons into his eye sockets before ripping his skull in half.

Vólóm sauntered back to the main battlefield, with the spravac having won and looting the dead. With 100 percent of the white army destroyed, the spravac triumphantly marched back to the main force, having finished their celebrations, to continue the campaign.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 32,388 dead

Ures Soldiers: 94,192 dead

Titans: 3 dead

Ures Civilians (killed during revelling): 53,152 dead

### Siege of Braddock Base: February 6- February 8, 7017

Following the devastating losses taken at New Wellington and Nimitz, the Ures local forces were forced to withdraw back to Braddock Base to rearm and refuel with tanks and APCs. The spravac continued to maraud through the countryside as they marched their throng towards the base, intent on taking it and extracting it of any information.

Upon reaching the base, Vólóm requested a bombing run to soften the Ures outer defenses. Bomber Squadron Ravager, a squadron of eight Broadsword-Class bombers, made six runs, destroying much of the western wall and killing large numbers of the Ures soldiers within them. The spravac rangers charged through during the final run, losing some to friendly fire but charging unhindered. General Nathanson had just finished fueling his tanks so he ordered them to push back the spravac, using their heavy guns to kill thousands and forcing them out of the base.

Vólóm responded by using his twelve Dragon-Class artillery batteries to harry the Ures forces for ten hours, causing massive structural damage and disabling several tanks. Nathanson ordered a division of his troops to assault the batteries and perhaps even capture them to use against the spravac. In the early morning of February 7, the division launched their assault alongside Ures tanks, successfully breaking through the spravac defensive line and destroying one of the batteries immediately.

Most of the batteries were located along a short rocky mound that stretched out over 600 meters. The division managed to capture eight of the batteries, the other three self-destructed by order of Vólóm. However, Vólóm immediately sent in forces to retake the batteries. The 230th Írítár cavalry charged in mass towards the hill, taking heavy fire from the captured batteries and killing nearly half the force before they got into melee. The Ures soldiers barely stood a chance against the massive birds and their ranger masters, and soon most of the division had been cut down and forced to retreat back down the hill, taking withering fire from the spravac as they ran.

Vólóm requested that another bombing run be made, which Správ obliged by sending Bomber Squadron Ravager to make another run. However, most of the squadron was shot down by Ures anti-air tanks, angering Vólóm as he watched them crash into the fields surrounding the base.

On February 8, the spravac launched another frontal charge against the base. However, this time Vólóm ordered that they scale the walls rather than charge through the breach, which he rightfully theorized would be heavily fortified. As the spravac crawled over their own dead to reach the 60 foot high walls, the Ures soldiers were eventually overrun by a combination of the valiant rangers and artillery fire from the Dragon guns.

Once the spravac were over the wall, the battle slowed to a brutal crawl as the two sides engaged in close combat within the hangars and barracks of the base, with the spravac generally overpowering the physically weaker human soldiers. The Írítár cavalry ran rampant through the medical stations and devoured the wounded alive. HASAC squads managed to kill a good number of them, but regardless the spravac overwhelmed them.

Realizing that the spravac would take the base, General Nathanson attempted to evacuate himself and any men left, however the spravac managed to reach the airfield before the soldiers could leave, destroying them and descending upon Nathanson and his men. Nathanson would not be killed outright, rather the spravac stripped him bare and flogged him continuously before Vólóm himself unseamed him from the groin to the throat, tearing out his innards and feasting on them in front of his jeering men.

Following the deaths of the last soldiers, Vólóm and his men searched throughout the base and managed to scrounge up any information about the planet, including the locations of its largest cities, twelve military bases, and even the full army composition of General Isabelle Thatcher, who was stationed in the region known as Suffolkshire.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 53,192 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 86 dead

Ures Soldiers: 244,950 dead

Ures Civilians (killed prior to battle): 102,192 dead

## Suffolkshire Offensive: February 8, 7017- April 1, 7017

Didact Seránó Tzár was tasked with taking the hilly, landlocked region of Suffolkshire, which provided a large amount of food in the immediate area for the soldiers and civilians. General Isabelle Thatcher, who led the large 15th Army, was tasked with defending the region. The 15th Army was a vastly diverse army, with over 1,000,000 white and green soldiers, as well as a complement of a blue titan fireteam. The army also had a force of 5,000 tanks and three squadrons of aircraft. The region also had a fully armed militia of over 40,000 volunteers, including an armored convoy of 50 outdated APCs.

Seránó Tzár’s army was over two times the size of the 15th, composed mostly of marines, but also included a large force of 70,000 blade harpies and their axe-wing mounts, 600,000 deentrox fledglings as well as a host of 6,000 Gloom Marines (1,000 of which had their Xenoraptor Mounts) and 10,000 Minotaur tanks and 5 Basilisk tanks.

### Battle of Norwich: February 9- February 16, 7017

The first city attacked by Tzár, Norwich was on the cusp of the Suffolkshire border, thus the 15th Army was yet to arrive to defend the city. However, 18,000 militia armed with Ures weapons and light vehicles garrisoned the small city of 90,000 citizens. Tzár, as an uncharacteristically cautious commander, ordered his Gloom Marines to recon the city in the dark of the night on February 9, hoping to learn more of the militia’s strength and how to best fight them. The Gloom Marines spread through the city using stealth tech and their black armor that couldn’t reflect light, allowing them to move unseen even in clear unlit roads.

Upon learning of the militia’s main headquarters in the city hall, Tzár ordered his Axe bombers to blitz the city, bombing anything and everything at will. Once the bombardment began, the militia hastily began to fortify their checkpoints. Soon, hordes of marines flooded into the city in all directions, easily overpowering most of the militia checkpoints. Behind enemy lines, the Gloom Marines assassinated officer after officer without fail, disrupting the chain of command and causing the militia’s attacks to be heavily uncoordinated. Upon the beseechment of acting commander James Donovan, the Ures forces quickly mobilized a reinforcement squadron of fighters to destroy or ward off the spravac axe bombers. As the fighters were doing that, the 15th army would organize a relief force of 40,000 to help hold the city.

Tzár had split his army apart to spread out through the region, thus his entire 2 million strong force wasn’t present to take the city quickly. Much of the forces he left to take Norwich were marines and a brigade sized battlegroup of Blade Harpies and their mounts. He ordered the harpies to rampage about the city and burn it to the ground, their naturally occurring plasmic breath easily melting away building after building and person after person.

Much of the citizenry had been moved to underground bunkers, but were followed by the Gloom Marines, who began to wreak havoc unseen within the labyrinthine corridors of the shelter.

By the morning of February 10 the Ures fighters had arrived, taking the bombers by surprise and causing most of them, approximately 60, to crash into the burning city. The militia had barricaded themselves within the largest of the buildings, firing down into the spravac marines below, causing heavy casualties.

Unable to reach the militia since they barricaded the doors to the buildings, the Blade Harpies were sent to take them out. Harpy raptors (those that had not tamed an Axe-wing yet) swooped in and grabbed their shrieking prey before sending them plummeting to the ground below. Axe-wings let loose their plasma into the highest points of the towers, melting them away and causing a few to collapse into rubble and dust. As the Axe-wings and raptors flushed the militia out of each building with heavy fire, the militia ran into the marines on the ground, trapping them and leading to their slow and agonizing demise.

This cycle of death continued for another 2 days until the Ures forces arrived, forcing the spravac to turn their attention to the much more appetizing foe to the north of the city. The Ures commander, Lieutenant General Victor Sotheby, believed that the spravac would mount a defensive line that his tanks and heavy soldiers would have to break through. However, to his surprise he was met by a sudden and lightning quick frontal charge from the spravac marines, who bombastically blared their war horns before assaulting the Ures forces in the outermost limits of the city. The Ures soldiers laid down a daring defense across a two mile wide expanse, gunning down thousands of spravac as they threw down their guns to charge at them with their swords and axes. Only limited numbers of spravac reached the Ures line, causing little losses and allowing the Ures soldiers to advance closer to the city.

However, the spravac charge was never meant to break the Ures line, rather it was a distraction so the Gloom Marines could lay down vapor mines, Devil’s Fangs, and Boilers. These hidden explosives detonated and extended in massive numbers, killing thousands of soldiers and destroying nearly half of Sotheby’s 120 tanks. By the time the Ures soldiers reached the city itself, Blade Harpies had positioned themselves on the rooftops and marines had fortified the position. The spravac hordes descended upon the Ures like a swarm of black and purple locusts, tearing away squad after squad and even ripping tanks apart with their bare talons. The Ures fighters were ordered to fire into the spravac hordes, causing massive casualties to the cackling horde as the Ures infantry withdrew. The fighters would continue to harass the spravac, but were forced to pull out after Axe-wing riders destroyed enough that they were forced to fly back to base to replenish.

The spravac would continue to launch waves of soldiers periodically throughout the day, all of which failed but were frequent enough that they disallowed rest for the Ures troops. Sotheby requested more vehicles to stave off the spravac advance, which Thatcher permitted by sending another wave of tanks that would arrive the next day. As the Ures held out for their tanks to arrive, the majority of the spravac forces continued to ravage the city itself. The Gloom Marines had found the last bastions of the militia and had taken care to capture them instead of kill them. By the orders of Tzár, the spravac took the captive militia and civilians and brought them to the main front in full view of the Ures trench network. They flayed and tortured the captives and nailed them to makeshift X’s to starve and be eaten by carrion birds. The female captives weren’t so lucky, as they were all brutally assaulted and raped before beheaded. The Blade Harpies periodically flew into the trenches at night under cover of darkness and dropped the mutilated corpses and heads of the captives onto the sleeping Ures soldiers, tremendously lowering morale and increasing the odds in the spravac’s favor. By February 15, the 200 tanks had arrived to reinforce the Ures forces.

Sotheby at first ordered his men to blitz forward alongside the tanks, however most of them were now exhausted and in need of water. Despite the new reinforcements, the Ures soldiers were unwilling to fight and Sotheby rationalized that even with the tanks they wouldn’t allow them to win the battle. Thus, the Ures forces abandoned the city to regroup with Thatcher.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 29,199 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 32 dead

Ures Soldiers: 31,632 dead

Ures Militia: 18,273 dead

Ures Civilians: 91,293 dead

### 1st Battle of Carlisle: February 15, 7017

As the Battle of Norwich began to come to a close, another section of Tzár’s army was beginning to move through the countryside. A section of the spravac army in the west came across the small town of Carlisle, which laid on the bed of a river. The force, approximately 3,764 marines strong, elected to raid the settlement for entertainment. The town was garrisoned by 720 militiamen as well as a platoon of brown soldiers that had been sent for humanitarian aid after the town’s food supplies began to dwindle.

The spravac immediately telegraphed their presence with a loud warcry, alerting the militia and brown soldiers. The Uresians mobilized and set up machine gun emplacements to gun down whatever came towards them. The spravac were primarily armed with plasma carbines and one single squad longbowman. The spravac charge was slowed by the river, which allowed the machine guns to mow down the spravac as they waded through the water. The spravac eventually managed to enter the town, slaughtering the gunners and killing more of the militia in the area. The brown soldiers, who had a light mortar with them, triangulated the spravac position and managed to fire several shells into the spravac mass, killing hundreds. The spravac began to spread apart and rampage through the town, occasionally skirmishing with small pockets of the militia, which often ended in spravac victory. The brown soldiers continued to shell the spravac, though most of them hit the buildings and caused them to collapse, oftentimes over cowering civilians.

The spravac eventually found the brown soldiers, engaging in melee before militia members found the soldiers and fired into the spravac flanks, causing heavy losses and forcing the spravac to withdraw from the melee. The militia began to pursue the retreating spravac, gunning down more. However, they were forced to cease their pursuit after losing too many men to the longbowmen.

Costly Ures Victory:

Ures Soldiers: 21 dead

Ures Militia: 350 dead

Ures Civilians: 102 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1,932 dead

### 2nd Battle of Carlisle (the Carlisle Massacre): February 17, 7017

The spravac that had attacked Carlisle on the 15 were still eager for bloodshed. At this point, Norwich had been captured and the spravac were beginning to advance north. The spravac requested that Tzár divert an Axe-wing to the battle to help them burn the town to the ground.

When the Axe-wing swooped in, the civilians and militia fled from the town to escape the beast’s searing plasma breath. However, as they left, the spravac survivors ran them down and massacred them. The brown soldiers attempted to shoot down the beast, but its rider shot each of them while on the back of the flying creature.

The spravac then spent the rest of the day burning and slaughtering the civilians, afterwards building a totem from the charred skulls and wood in the town square.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Ures Soldiers: 9 dead

Ures Militia: 370

Ures Civilians: 1,492 dead

### 1st Death March: February 17- March 8, 7017

After the spravac had gorged themselves at Norwich, Tzár began his first of two major offensive actions which he coined Death Marches, a deadly blitz tactic that was meant to be so swift and devastating that the Ures Empire wouldn’t be able to recuperate. The March wouldn’t wait for anyone, any spravac that slowed were to be left behind to survive on their own and regroup with the others on their own ability, for if the Death March even slowed slightly it would severely hinder Tzár’s strategy. Leading the vanguard across a 200 mile front were the Gloom Marines mounted atop Xenoraptors and Shadow-Class dropships, the Gloom Marines were to scout out northern towns and deliver intel about troop movements as they went during the gloaming of February 17, informing Tzár so he could properly order his troops.

The Gloom Marines (who had been nicknamed the Spectre Brigade), also discovered a massive forest that was heavily fortified by a large contingent of Ures forces. Tzár ordered his deentrox auxiliaries, who had thus far not been in combat, to advance through the thick forest due to the jungles and forests on their homeworld of Trox. The deentrox, upon reaching the forest edge in the early morning of February 18, immediately came under fire by the Ures soldiers, who mistook them as a spravac subspecies due to their similar birdlike appearance. Due to this misconception, the Ures commander present believed that the deentrox would charge recklessly into the Ures lines, as the spravac had demonstrated thus far to be almost stupidly reckless. When the deentrox instead began to ascend into the tree tops and sneak through the underbrush, the Ures were taken entirely by surprise. Despite being on the offensive, the deentrox launched hundreds of heavily coordinated ambushes on the Ures soldiers, devastating their morale and organization. With their line disrupted, deentrox stormtroops charged bravely under fire, taking heavy losses before engaging in melee with their bayonets fixed upon their Ember Rifles. Burning away soldier after soldier with their incendiary weapons, the Ures soldiers were forced back inch by inch over the course of the day, burning down much of the forest in the process.

As the deentrox were burning the Ures in the forest, the spravac tanks smashed against a line of Ures tanks in the small valley of Connaught. The Ures tanks were more heavily armored than the spravac Minotaurs, but the latter’s were far more advanced and hovered across the fields at striking speeds, shooting through scores of tanks with single shots from their main antimatter guns. The much slower Basilisk tanks arrived late, but immediately crushed the Ures upon arriving, destroying 160 tanks in a single concentrated volley from their 5 Terrestrial Ultrabow Cannons (TUCs), forcing the dwindling Ures forces to retreat. Further east the spravac marines relentlessly pursued civilians and burned away entire towns to ash, mounting the body count into the tens of thousands in a total of eight hours. General Thatcher ordered her bomber squadrons to target the spravac tanks as their top priority, especially the Basilisks. However, spravac longbowmen on the rails of the massive war machines not only managed to hit the planes with their weapons, but even shoot them down with well placed shots to the cockpit, sending the bombers down to the ground in droves. Despite the fire, the bombers managed to severely cripple one of the Basilisks, forcing Tzár to leave it behind as per his operation.

As the day turned to night, the deentrox continued to run down the last Ures forces in the edges of the burning forest, lighting a blaze that could be seen clearly for up to forty miles. The Spectre Brigade, while on reconnaissance, were spotted by the Blue Titans, alerting Thatcher to their presence. The General sent her tanks retreating from the Connaught Valley to engage what she thought were 2,000 Gloom Marines, unaware that the rest were spread out and in contact with the others or hiding in the long grass where the others were spied.

When the Ures tanks arrived, they immediately began to bombard the unprepared Gloom Marines, killing hundreds before they could even mount a defense. The Gloom Marines engaged in stealth quickly inched their way towards the stationary tanks and set vapor mines on them, destroying them without being seen. As the Gloom Marines began to push back the tanks, other members of the Brigade diverted and used their Xenoraptors to devastate the tank lines, as well as one lucky rider finding the Blue titan team and devouring two of the three members. When the Ures tanks were pushed back, Tzár made a slight change to his plan and created three figurative checkpoints at strategic locations where the three main battle groups of the spravac throng could rest. The end of the forest was reached by the deentrox, which Tzár determined would be an effective point. Once the tanks linked up with the Gloom Marines they would rest and refuel there. And the eastern battle group of marines and Blade Harpies would rest at the small undefended city of Greenchester.

By February 20 all three battle groups had reached their points, with the only resistance there was a small contingent of 540 Ures militia fighters. Once the fighters were dealt with, the spravac marines there rampaged and began to raze the city, killing tens of thousands more civilians and capturing hundreds more to be used as rations and playthings.

On February 21, Tzár commanded that the throng advance once more, commanding that the eastern battle group begin before the others since they had the largest numbers. The eastern battle group faced heavy artillery fire from the 53rd Homefront Corps, a sect of the greater 15th army. The brown soldiers of the 53rd dug themselves in at the city of Covington, which they had also evacuated of civilians in order to avoid further bloodshed by the spravc menace. The Blade Harpies attempted to destroy batteries, but lost hundreds to flak guns and sniper fire, forcing the spravac commander in the area to request that Tzár send the bombers to lighten up the artillery. The flak guns did little to the spravac armor, allowing them to destroy much of the artillery batteries so the spravac could advance. Tzár also diverted a company within the Spectre Brigade to flank the Ures forces at Covington. The Gloom Marines took the corps entirely by surprise, causing massive losses in deadly hit and run ambushes.

As the firefight at Covington intensified, Tzár began to fork his tanks into eastern and western arms while his infantry marched down the middle. Each branch of the tanks was led by two of the Basilisks, which were constantly firing their Ultrabows to ensure nothing was able to advance. The deentrox finally emerged from the burnt forest and too began to rampage through the countryside, using their guns to burn down entire villages and the people inside. However, the deentrox distinguished themselves by not being nearly as sadistic as the spravac, instead choosing to kill the civilians quickly rather than in slow agony.

The soldiers at Covington weren’t nearly as lucky as the spravac began to overrun the 53rd’s position, slaughtering thousands in brutal melee before enveloping them between themselves and the Gloom Marines. Some of the 53rd managed to break out to warn Thatcher of the incoming armies, though many of them were run down and killed by Blade Harpies.

The battle extended to the space above Grace itself as a small contingent of Ures frigates and cruisers managed to skirt past the spravac fleet and enter the atmosphere. This small fleet of ships immediately began to bombard the entire region where the Death March was occurring, primarily in the tank column and the deentrox. The fire from the guns destroyed another one of the Basilisks and killed tens of thousands of deentrox. However, fire from the Minotaur and remaining Basilisk tanks brought down three of the five ships, forcing them to retreat back to the terrestrial shipyard located in the Hardington Region. As the massive ships crashed down onto the farmlands of the plains, the spravac continued their blitz well into the twilight, razing towns and cities to the ground as they did so. Ures tanks sent by Thatcher engaged the deentrox at Aberdeenshire, a large city and factory district. The deentrox were forced to take cover within the buildings as green soldiers began to advance through the city, though they took heavy losses as they did so.

Despite the deentrox begging him not to do so, Tzár ordered a Warrior-Class Battleship participating in the blockade to bombard the area from space, killing most of the Ures troops and large scores of the deentrox with plasma torpedoes. With the bombardment complete, the deentrox were able to continue the march, though they were moving at a much slower pace due to losses and exhaustion.

On February 22 in the east, the spravac marine horde managed to take several more cities and towns over the night, rendering most of them lifeless and many more flattened to rubble from their stomping talons. The eastern battle group took their first major loss when several HASAC squads managed to shoot down several Axe-Wings, killing their riders and damaging the frenzied morale of the Blade Harpies. The Harpies attempted to find the snipers, but they were attacked by Ures green soldiers hiding in the shrubbery along the slopes of a short cliff face. As the Harpies fell, more Ures troops, including eight divisions of newly arrived White Soldiers charged into the confused spravac lines, spreading discord and death as they entered the fray. Engaged in melee with a foe as brutal as they were and under fire from above, the spravac marines began to slowly be pushed back, humiliating and infuriating Tzár. However, he was unable to divert his tanks as he was suddenly engaged in the center and western flank by more of Thatcher’s tanks, including the devastating Spartan Heavy Tank, which was able to effectively match the thus unbeatable Minotaur tanks. The Ures column pushed back against the spravac with the same force they were met with before. Thatcher herself was close to the battle to effectively lead her troops. The eastern spravac tank column was diverted to reinforce the collapsing western column. However, as they diverted, more Ures troops, coupled with bombers and artillery, engaged the spravac in the rear, effectively disintegrating the three pronged vanguard. The deentrox, who were still exhausted, were ordered to reinforce the shattering spravac lines as the eastern infantry force was still engaged by the white soldiers.

Tzár ordered his men to hold the line for three more days, both sides taking tremendous losses in what was soon referred to as “Blood Ridge” or “Cemetary Hill”. Tzár once again called upon the Warrior Battleship to fire down into the Ures forces, particularly the reserves. When the Ures saw the night sky illuminated by a bright purple and pink flare of energy, they were visibly terrified and lost heart. As three rounds of Ultrabow bolts fired into the ground, the blasts vaporized entire divisions of soldiers and created chasms that sent more falling into the searing hot depths below. The deentrox arrived at last on February 27 and helped clean up the last of the Ures forces in the area.

All but two of the Basilisks had been destroyed thus far in the battle, over 1,000 tanks had also been destroyed or disabled. Tzár believed that his offensive hinged on the Basilisks, so he requested that the Empire donate more to his army. The Imperial Overlord permitted this, granting Tzár another three tanks that would be deployed in two days. Tzár, invigorated by the news, ordered his men on all fronts to dig in until they arrived, which gave Thatcher ample time to prepare her own defense at the large metropolitan center of Wellington-Upon-Mare.

The eastern battle group was unable to move without still being engaged. They had pushed back the white soldiers, but still remained under constant fire as they marched towards the cover of the town of Harwood.

Upon reaching Harwood at Midnight of February 27, the exhausted spravac made camp all throughout the town, which had been abandoned. The spravac looted the stores of food and slaughtered the livestock to be used as rations, as well as cut apart their own that were too wounded or tired to fight back. In the early morning of February 28, the spravac resumed their march on the orders of Tzár, who suspected that Thatcher was fortifying the position ahead of their own. He wished to use the marines and Harpies as cannon fodder to tie up the Ures defenses at Wellington-Upon-Mare. In order to learn about the defenses in the process, the Gloom Marines were ordered to observe and assist the marines as necessary while he and his main force awaited the arrival of the Basilisks.

The spravac marines were engaged on the night of the 28th by entrenching Hoplite tanks, whose main 90mm guns devastated the spravac lines. The spravac courageously charged at the embedded tanks, managing to overwhelm most of them and slaughter the crew members inside the trench. The Gloom Marines reported that Thatcher apparently wasn’t expecting the spravac forces to attack so soon in such large numbers, thus much of her planned forces weren’t present at the battle yet. The only infantry there were a few brigades of brown soldiers and 4,000 militia armed with military grade equipment. The spravac were like a storm of blades and gnashing teeth, tearing down the Ures soldiers and slaughtering the militia like animals, often trapping them into alleyways and using grenades and flamethrowers on them. The spravac then drenched themselves in the blood of the dead, the stench of which sent them into an almost drug fueled state as they began to rampage through the city, killing thousands of civilians that hadn’t been evacuated yet. The evacuation craft were frequently shot down just as they were escaping, killing hundreds more civilians and wounded in fiery torrents of metal and plasma fire. The Axe-Wings also pursued the Ures scout fighters, sending them plummeting to the ground and devouring the pilots alive.

On March 1, the Basilisk tanks and the spravac were able to continue their offensive, having rested a good amount and fed with the dead. When the spravac column reached Wellington, Tzár was overjoyed by the marines’ handywork, personally promoting the commander and ordering that he allow his men to revel for a few more days while the rest of the spravac column pushed forwards.

Thatcher’s forces were primarily on the retreat for the rest of the battle, only occasionally engaging scouting Gloom Marines or Harpies. By March 8, almost 45% of Suffolkshire had been occupied or razed by Tzár and his horde.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 304,129 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 183,991 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 205 dead

Ures Ships destroyed: 3

Ures Naval Servicemen: 3,203 dead

Ures Soldiers: 693,729 dead

Ures Militia: 4,540 dead

Ures Civilians: 1,287,118 dead

### Battle of the Grace Blockade: March 10, 7017

Following the devastating Death March, Thatcher requested that more soldiers be deployed to reinforce her faltering ranks. The Ures Empire obliged by sending a large fleet of 30 frigates, 15 cruisers, 9 destroyers, and 3 carriers. The spravac blockade fleet was composed of 8 Murder-Class Frigates, 25 Black-Heart Class Battleships, 2 Glaive-Class Dreadnoughts, and 1 Destruction-Class Dreadnought.

Upon entering the space, the Ures fleet immediately came under fire from the Destruction-Dreadnought, which had two ultrabows and detected the Ures fleet before they even arrived. The two Ultrabow bolts immediately destroyed one of the carriers, destroying it and the soldiers inside with it. The other two Ures carriers, the flagship of which was commanded by Admiral Vett Naik, ordered the carriers to charge straight into the spravac fleet. The other ships would distract the spravac ships while the carrier slipped past to land their troops. The frigates and cruisers managed to destroy all 8 of the Murder Frigates, however they were severely outclassed by the Black-Hearts, which destroyed the frigates in single shots. At the cost of having two ultrabows, the Black-Hearts were not able to fire them nearly as many times as regular ships, thus they resorted to using their torpedos to do further damage, destroying more of the ships and even damaging another one of the carriers, though not destroying it outright.

The Destruction-Class Dreadnought, named Nova Splitter, fired one of its plasma storm lances (staple of a spravac imperial dreadnought) into the side of the damaged carrier. The massive narrow lance burrowed into the hull and began to pour plasma forth throughout the inside of the ship like a syringe in flesh, engulfing the ship’s machinery and the men inside. The plasmic wave eventually submerged the ship’s hypercore, causing it to malfunction and send the ship hurtling towards the planet at fraction the speed of light. The last carrier attempted to shoot down enough of the ship so its impact would be the least damaging to Grace’s surface, which succeeded and allowed the ship to burn up in the atmosphere once the hypercore suddenly teleported half the ship into oblivion.

The last of the carriers bolted for the surface, managing to escape to the surface suffering only minimal damage and carrying fifty thousand more troops. With their goal partially achieved, the remaining Ures ships retreated from the battle and jumped to hyperspace.

Strategic Ures Victory, Tactical Spravac Victory

Ures Ships Destroyed: 61

Ures Naval Servicemen: 71,298 dead

Ures Soldiers: 106,291 dead

Spravac Ships Destroyed: 11

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 11,304

### Second Battle of Wellington-Upon-Mare: March 12- March 13, 7017

The spravac marines that served within the eastern battle group were ordered to fortify themselves at Wellington-Upon-Mare, which was a large military city with its own airfield. Tzár wished to use the field to land more troops on the ground, particularly more auxiliary races and spravac special forces throngs. On March 11 over 1 million aztornac marines and 20,000 of the dreaded Incubi, mostly of the Scorpio and Sagittarius varieties. The spravac marines there had taken considerable losses and were being transported from the city to reinforce the ranks of Etvác Vólóm’s armies, who at this point were beginning to run low on men. The aztornac and Incubi were meant to replace this horde of marines to fortify the city so more vehicles and men could be deployed. The commander of the Incubi, Archon Tortz Musárí, was a vicious Flayer Incubus who was both respected and reviled by his peers for alleged unprofessional conduct when in war, regardless Vólóm recommended him for his aptitude for commanding smaller forces of advanced soldiers.

On March 12, the spravac faced sudden artillery and bomber fire from Ures white soldiers, who had just landed on the planet after breaking temporarily through the spravac blockade. At the helm of the white soldiers were two fireteams of Titans. The Titans, despite their advanced training and strength, had never fought any Incubi other than Vólóm himself, thus they were unaware of the sheer skill of the Incubi and Musárí.

The aztornac were ordered by Musárí to hold their ground against the charging soldiers, using their crossbows to gun down multiple men at a time as they sprinted forward. With their massive four arms and snapping claws, the aztornac were ordered to sally out and meet the white soldiers at the precise moment to cause maximum shock damage. The white soldiers were immediately shocked by the incredible strength of the aztornac, who tore men in half with their top claws while still fighting others with their bottom pair of hands. However, the aztornac were notably slow and dimwitted, which the white soldiers used to their advantage to push the hulking warriors into the city.

As the lightly armored aztornac fell in droves, the Incubi Scorpii let out a triumphant battle cry and charged into the fray, cutting down hundreds of white soldiers and Musárí himself even managing to kill one of the Titans outright with his dual Cálvon (arm blades).

The Incubi sinuously cut their way through the Ures mass, causing divisions in the blob of men that were then filled by aztornac, enveloping thousands of soldiers at multiple points. The hill just outside of the city was guarded by more white soldiers who engaged in brutal firefights with the aztornac, generally winning out against them.

As the battle carried into the night and the next day, thousands of aztornac had fallen and the Incubi had strategically hidden themselves within the city’s tallest buildings. The white soldiers, led by the five remaining Titans, slowly and cautiously spread out throughout the city. The soldiers, being members of White Division, were merciless to the wounded aztornac they found, slowly eviscerating them as a form of revenge for the hundreds of thousands already lost in the campaign.

However, in the square of the city, in which over three thousand white soldiers were located, the Incubi ambushed them, flying from the buildings into the mass of men like carrion birds, cutting down thousands. Musárí led the charge himself into the Titans, beheading both of them simultaneously before restraining another to be used later. The other Incubi slaughtered the men to the last, creating piles of men so high that they even towered over the spravac. The last three Titans had been restrained by Musárí and his guard. Using his Flagellant whip, he stripped the three Titan men of their armor and whipped them bloody, using the retractable barbs of the nine tailed whip to strip away chunks of human flesh. He continued this well into the night while his men watched in an almost reverent sense of awe. When the last of the Titans collapsed from blood loss, Musárí gave the order for them to be fed alive to the aztornac captain and his guard, who had been ordered to stay in the airfield to recuperate with his men.

For the entire night the aztornac and Incubi feasted on the flesh of the Uresian dead, later chopping up the ones left to be used as rations in future battles. The white soldiers who had not died were ordered by Thatcher to return to base.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Incubi: 74 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 35,773 dead

Ures Soldiers: 19,348 dead

Titans: 6 dead

### 2nd Death March: March 17- April 1, 7017

After Wellington-Upon-Mare was successfully defended, Didact Tzár implemented his second major offensive. Gloom Marine intel had revealed that the last few expanses of Suffolkshire were covered in thick forest and the Chesterton River, a wide and incredibly deep body of water that clove through the region west to east. There were two bridges that crossed the bridge, which Tzár appropriately believed were heavily fortified. Regardless, his ranks had been bolstered by the aztornac and he still had hundreds of thousands of marines ready to fight.

The march north was led by a 25 mile wide wedge formation with the Basilisks in the center. Behind the wedge were the aztornac and the marines, eagerly awaiting combat. The deentrox were to remain in the western flank to battle foes in the forest, and the Incubi were spread out throughout the entire front to assist the infantry in all cases, with Archon Musárí serving as Tzár’s bodyguard and strategic advisor.

The spravac marched and burned through the fields of the region unhindered for seven days, burning down village after village and capturing thousands of civilians to be used as rations and entertainment. However, as they marched, the rear of the horde was ambushed by members of the Ures Militia, who used their knowledge of the land to place hundreds of mines to disrupt spravac formations. Soon, pockets of spravac troops were going dark as jammers cut off communication between each other, the spravac were effectively marching blind.

At the height of the confusion, Ures tanks, over 3,000 of them, flanked the 25 miles wide front on both sides, hitting the spravac in their lightly armed infantry formations, circumnavigating their devastating tanks. The Blade Harpies and Spectre Brigade were the only units who were able to relay information to Tzár, causing his orders and tactics to travel slowly through the massive ranks of the army.

As more and more spravac began to lose contact and be slaughtered, it came down to Musárí and his Incubi, who managed to survive during the ordeal. The Scorpii charged straight into the forests and made mince-meat of the militia, cutting down thousands without losing more than 10 men altogether. The spravac tanks turned around and began to fire into the Ures tanks, destroying hundreds but leaving the front of the army exposed, which Thatcher utilized by sending more white soldiers and 1 hundred thousand green soldiers. However, Tzár ordered that the aztornac remain facing forward, allowing them to entrench and suppress the Ures enough that the tanks could finish off the Ures tanks and turn back around to crush the Ures infantry.

Charging in tandem with the spravac tanks, the aztornac destroyed the Ures frontline, sending them into a panic and chasing them back into the forests from whence they came, where the deentrox and Gloom Marines were waiting for them. What little Ures forces that escaped were able to do little more than kill the small squads of pursuing spravac to escape properly.

For another 7 days the spravac continued to march, taking the rest of Suffolkshire, slaughtering hundreds of thousands more civilians and militia that got in their way.

With her army broken and the region almost completely cleansed of life, Thatcher was ordered to withdraw from the region to link up with other forces on the planet. Allowing the spravac to use Suffolkshire as their base of operations.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 205,293 dead

Incubi: 16 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 32,483 dead

Ures Soldiers: 204,195 dead

Ures Militia: 16,467 dead

Ures Civilians: 938,482 dead

## Lancaster Campaign: February 10, 7017- September 2, 7017

As Didact Seránó Tzár was beginning his campaign in Suffolkshire, Didact Vrínc Sásgcait and Magistrate Tulic Broscz were set to take the coastal region of Lancaster, a massive and heavily industrialized area of Grace’s southeastern hemisphere. The two commanders by far had the largest army in the campaign, sporting over 10 million troops, the 690th Lesser Army (a regular army is 72 million strong), was composed of 4 million marines, 300,000 Death Plague Marines, 1,000,000 Landforce Morner Marines, 15,000 Malthale Super Marines, 200,000 palister marines, 1,000,000 dragnon firebrand fliers, and 3,484,400 troops withdrawn from the Spaasan Rampart Swarm. Along with that, 4,000 bombers, gunships, and dropships came with the Rampart Swarmsmen, who relied on speed and rapid insertion to do the most damage.

Broscz, who had a penchant for tanks and explosives, was given a massive detachment of 700 tanks to act as his personal division, including a personal Basilisk tank and 40 Manticore tanks, which were nearly as large as the tremendous Basilisks.

The Lancaster Region was garrisoned by Adam Hoover, who based himself at the Lancaster Provincial Shipyard, which had fourteen dreadnoughts docked and prepped for usage. Along with the dreadnoughts were seventeen divisions of white and red soldiers, which Hoover requested following the reports that spravac died quicker when set ablaze.

Hoover was also slated to receive a massive army of five million brown soldiers, but they would not arrive until July 7 due to constant conflicts with Didact Vólóm.

### Battle of Duneigh Forest: February 10, 7017

Tulic Broscz was ordered by Sásgcait to burn everything he came across, which delighted the demented commander. When he came across the expansive Duneigh Forest with his tanks and 5,000 Immolator Marines, he immediately came under fire from hidden blue snipers. The snipers nearly killed the commander, but one of his Incubi bodyguards took the shot for him. Enraged at the loss of one of his bodyguards, Broscz ordered all of the tanks to fire into the forest, vaporizing hundreds of trees and the men with it. white soldiers hiding in hidden trenches beneath the canopy sprung forth and charged into the spravac tanks, though they lost nearly all of their men from the tank machine guns and the Immolators.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 36 dead

Incubi: 1 dead

Ures Soldiers: 304 dead

### Battles of Kensington and Trent Lake: February 10- February 16, 7017

As Broscz was burning away Duneigh, Sásgcait marched a sect of his army towards the city of Kensington. Using the Rampart Swarm and their hundreds of Halberd Dropships, the massive craft carried the spravac special forces and caused astronomical damage as they landed, killing civilians in the hundreds. When they landed, they established a beachhead under heavy fire from the garrison forces, who had thus prepared most of their cities for war. Despite taking losses, the Swarmsmen managed to take enough positions to allow more spravac, specifically Death Plague Marines, to land.

Hopped up on combat drugs, the blue mist emulated off the Death Plague Marines as they hyper-actively swarmed into the city alleyways, killing and burning thousands of civilians and unprepared soldiers. The gunships of the spravac raced through the skyline riddling buildings and shelters with thousands of plasma and antimatter rounds, killing more and more soldiers and civilians.

The Ures garrison, which was primarily composed of white soldiers, charged straight into the Plague Marines, who despite their savagery were more lightly armored than their heavier comrades. The Plague Marines took heavy losses and were being pushed towards Trent Lake, which sat on the eastern foot of the city as a park. The park grounds, which were originally used for crop festivals and circuses, were soon transformed into a charred battlefield over the next two days as the dwindling Plague Marines were in a deadlock. The Rampart Swarmsmen were unable to relieve them due to taking heavy fire from Ures tanks and constant bombing runs, though the latter was occasionally alleviated by gunship support missions. Eventually the Swarmsmen were able to break out from the suppression, leaping from cover to cover and cutting down swaths of the entrenched soldiers. The Swarmsmen, who were technically trained Incubi, fought with unparalleled precision and skill, with single members of the horde being able to take on up to ten white soldiers at a time, slaughtering them and even blocking off roads with the sheer volume of corpses created by their onslaught.

With the white soldiers in the area defeated, the Swarmsmen were once again forced to bunker down in their captured trenches after taking more fire from blue soldiers hidden in the buildings. At Trent Lake, the Plague Marines continued to dwindle, losing hundreds of men well into February 15 before Axe-Bombers managed to suppress the white soldiers enough that they could launch a counter offensive and slaughter them.

On February 16, the Rampart Swarm broke through the constant crossfire and linked with the Death Plague Marines. The two special forces organized a plan to flush out the snipers. The Marines used gas canister grenade launchers to keep the snipers from firing while the Rampart Swarm scaled the buildings with their bare hands to tear them apart. The tactic worked flawlessly, killing almost all of the snipers which were distracting the spravac long enough that the white soldiers could maneuver through the city. With them gone, the Swarmsmen rampaged through the city like a cloud of razored locusts, overwhelming and slaughtering thousands of soldiers. As they blitzed through the city, the Death Plague cleaned up whatever was left, as well as launched poisonous gasses into buildings, choking the civilians.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 53,293 dead

Rampart Swarm: 28,192 dead

Ures Soldiers: 23,183 dead

Ures Civilians: 78,844 dead

### Battle of Sunderland: February 24, 7017

Sásgcait had diverted a portion of his forces to move across the coastline of Lancaster, which was home to a variety of small towns and a single military base, one of Hoover’s forward outposts. Sásgcait sent his malthale and morner auxiliaries to take the first of the towns, known as Sunderland.

Only defended by a small militia of 400, the people of Sunderland were unprepared to deal with the malthale and morners, who were taller than the buildings themselves. Upon arrival, the Malthale Super Marines used their guns, which were repurposed tank cannons, to bombard the town, essentially acting as highly mobile artillery. After one of the malthale fell after taking a sniper shot through the eye, the massive beasts became enraged and charged into the town, literally throwing themselves onto buildings to flatten them. The Land Force Morners followed next, using their grenade launching rifles to kill hundreds of people. The morners, who were considerably smaller than the malthale, were still able to rip full grown men in half with their bare hands and flatten children and the wounded beneath their feet. The malthale kicked cars tens of meters forward into more victims and destroyed more houses with their tank guns, eventually wiping the town off of the face of the planet.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 2 dead

Ures Militia: 400 dead

Ures Civilians: 683 dead

### Battle of Woodshire: February 25, 7017

In response to the massacre of Sunderland, Hoover sent a company of white soldiers to engage what reconnaissance reported was a total of 56 malthale and morners. When the company arrived at the small town of Woodshire to find it burnt and devoid of life, they were suddenly fired upon by the malthale, who had positioned themselves on a hill overlooking the town. Under heavy bombardment, the soldiers could only fire stray shots at the malthale. The morners were sent next to engage in melee, destroying the company in mere seconds, only losing four men from friendly fire.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Forces: 5 dead

Ures Soldiers: 102 dead

Ures Civilians: 2,503 dead

### Battle of the Stirling and Silverton Rivers: February 25- March 3, 7017

While the malthale massacred civilians along the coast, the palisters, dragnon, and Broscz’s tanks were beginning to reach the Stirling and Silverton Rivers, a pair of intersecting bodies of water that emptied into the Albion Ocean. Hoover had strategically moved his army towards the Silverton, which is north of the Stirling and was elevated by a few meters. Between the two rivers was an expanse of marshland that Hoover had laden with mines to destroy Broscz’s tanks.

On the night of February 25, the dragnon began with a scouting run, swooping low to the ground to search for ways to cross the river, however, they were fired upon by hundreds of white and red soldiers, who killed hundreds and sent many more plummeting to their deaths. However, as dragnon, they were immune to fire, thus the red soldiers did little more than anger the dragnon, causing them to swoop in and pick up unsuspecting soldiers and drop them to their deaths.

The palisters began to slowly trudge through the Stirling’s shallows under heavy fire, sending thousands floating down the river towards the sea.

When the palisters reached the other side of the river, they were unable to advance, forced to take cover behind the elevated river bank. On the morning of February 26 Broscz’s hulking manticores arrived. The hundred foot long floating fortresses hovered over the river and into the marsh, disregarding the mines placed by Hoover and spraying gallons of plasmic liquid all over the Ures soldiers, shattering their line and allowing the palisters to advance past the river. The manticores were slow and big targets, allowing the Ures anti-tank teams to destroy a good amount of them before they were uprooted by the palisters.

Despite their progress, Broscz believed that the battle would require more men to win, so he ordered the malthale and morners to divert and flank the Ures at the Silverton while his tanks and the palisters distracted the main force.

However, Hoover managed to intercept the transmission and learned of the malthale’s movements, so he ordered his tank killer squads and a brigade of his red soldiers to fortify the delta of the Silverton, which is where the malthale and morners would arrive.

On February 27, the morners and malthale immediately lost hundreds to heavy fire the second they came in range. The morners and malthale charged fearlessly under fire, but continued to be pushed back to their main territory with every attack. Hoover then ordered his own tanks to cross the Silverton using transportable bridges to destroy Broscz’s. Broscz used his Chimera light tanks as cannon fodder to cover the withdrawal of his Manticores to higher ground, where they easily tore apart hundreds of Hoover’s tanks.

The palisters, using the destroyed tanks as cover, crawled and suffered across the muddy marshland, losing thousands to fire and forced to sleep under it over the next two nights. On March 1, the palisters were in full retreat, attempting to cross over the Stirling back to the base. However, Broscz did not tolerate retreat and ordered the palisters to turn back under threat of his Basilisk firing its main ultrabow gun into the retreating soldiers. Reluctantly and fearfully, the palisters continued to throw themselves at the Silverton, it wasn’t until the morning of March 3 when the malthale and morner forces managed to break through the delta and flank the entrenched forces, who were unprepared to deal with the massive scythes and blades of the malthale and cunning brutality of the morners.

Thousands of Ures soldiers were taken prisoner and executed by the palisters, who sought revenge for the deaths of so many of their comrades.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 2,593 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 89,302 dead

Ures Soldiers: 26,548 dead

### Massacre of Woodshire-Upon-Mare: February 27, 7017

After Woodshire was destroyed, its sister town of Woodshire-Upon-Mare began to fortify itself with its militia of over 2,000 men. The malthale and morners were ordered to divert themselves past the town to assist the spravac forces engaged with General Hoover of the Battle of the Stirling and Silverton Rivers. Despite this, Broscz still wished to cause as much havoc as possible, so he diverted one of his Basilisks to destroy the town, vaporizing the entire town in a single ultrabow shot.

Decisive Spravac Victory

Ures Militia: 2,304 dead

Ures Civilians: 10,093 dead

### Battle of Dunshead: March 5- March 7, 7017

After the Ures forces pulled back from the Stirling and Silverton rivers, Broscz ordered smaller units of spravac and palister forces to pursue them. General Hoover ordered his men to split apart at two points to try and split the spravac forces, hoping to lower their combat effectiveness by defeating them and causing massive losses at several key battles. A contingent of the spravac forces, primarily palisters and marines, pursued the white soldiers that retreated to the hilly fields of Dunshead. The spravac were supported by seventy tanks, as well as air support and a platoon of malthale super marines.

Acting as highly accurate artillery, the malthale used their incredible tank guns to suppress the white soldiers as the spravac and palisters marched forward. Three squads of white Titans were present during the battle and were acting as the commander of the soldiers there. The leader, Gregor James, was an especially brutal commander who ruled over the other soldiers with fear. The spravac blindly charged under the cover of the malthale, however James ordered that the soldiers disregard the fire and shoot at the spravac killing thousands as they recklessly charged towards their machine guns and assault rifles.

Most of the spravac perished in the charge, the remaining ones futilely trying to kill as many as they could once they were in range, however most of them were too exhausted to fight effectively.

With the spravac dead, only palisters and malthale were left. Outnumbered, they resolved to stay put and rely on the tanks to support them. The spravac tanks fired for the rest of the day, killing thousands of soldiers and two Titans in the process. On March 6, in the early morning, the white soldiers conducted a charge of their own, charging fearlessly into the palisters with their machetes brandished. The malthale proved to be invaluable, as they killed hundreds of Ures soldiers just by using their legs to stomp and kick their tiny foes. The strongest of the malthale, Kru Chem Morg, attacked an entire squad of the White Titans and single handedly killed all three, devouring the skull of the leader, Vanessa Kensington.

The malthale and tanks pursued the white soldiers after pushing them back, fighting with them continuously into the night and the morning of March 7, eventually retreating as Kru Chem Morg and the rest of the malthale were killed.

With their strongest assets gone and in desperate need of rest, the palisters and remaining tanks retreated under the cover of a bombing run.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Ures Soldiers: 3,648 dead

Titans: 5 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 6,293 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 1,593 dead

### Battle of Thornton Field: March 6, 7017

As the three Imperial units set out to pursue the Ures forces, the smallest of them chased the Ures retreat to Thornton Field. Mostly composed of red soldiers, the Ures commander ordered them to entrench themselves at the various naturally occurring divets in the ground to await the spravac. The spravac marines were accompanied by 200 Rampart Swarmsmen, many of which were astride the backs of their Vólsczer mounts. The Rampart Swarm circled around in a pincer movement as the other spravac attacked from the front, taking most of the fire and flames as the Swarm managed to skirt past the fire without much losses.

When the spravac marines closed the gap between them and the red soldiers, the Swarm attacked in tandem, their massive war beasts tearing apart the red soldiers. The spravac forces then converged into a single horde, assaulting the main hilltop where most of the Ures forces were entrenched. Despite the losses, they overwhelmed the Ures and slaughtered them to the last man.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 4,503 dead

Rampart Swarm: 14 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 14 dead

Ures Soldiers: 2,499 dead

### Battle of Ravenwood: March 7, 7017

The last of the units attacked the Ures withdrawal at Ravenwood, a small, abandoned village originally home to 3,000 people. The white soldiers that reached the village were only at half strength, as many of the others were still on their way, having been exhausted by the fighting and running. The spravac pursuers captured these stragglers and slowly killed all 630 of them, displaying their corpses on poles that they carried with them towards Ravenwood.

The white soldiers, resolving to fight to the death, refused the offer of surrender made by the spravac and killed the commander, Gerces, and his bodyguard. The spravac, overjoyed by the Ures’ choice to fight, charged straight into the village, taking heavy fire from machine guns and mines placed by the white soldiers.

Homemade claymores and shrapnel spewing mines killed more spravac, but regardless they continued to fight. The white soldiers fought in every corner and house, making the spravac pay for every inch of ground with their blood, eventually killing all of them.

However, requests for reinforcements had been made, and the spravac that had defeated the Ures at Thornton arrived late in the day. The Rampart Swarm killed hundreds with a single charge, including another Titan present during the battle. By the night, all of the white soldiers had been killed, though not without costing the spravac far more than they had lost.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 6,493 dead

Rampart Swarm: 87 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 81 dead

Ures Soldiers: 1,912 dead

Titans: 1 dead

### 1st Battle of Yorktown: March 10- March 15, 7017

Blocking the way for their advance was the city of Yorktown, a large cultural center that had thus far been evacuated of its 400,000 civilians, instead the city was fortified with 60,000 brown soldiers that had been deployed to reinforce the city. The gates to the city were fortified with machine gun and sniper posts, along with enough tank traps and spikes that even the hovering tanks of the spravac could not traverse them.

Inside the city, the alleyways were posted with machine gunners and automatic turrets and the parks and grassy medians had been dug out to be used as trench networks. The brown soldiers had gathered what intel they could on the spravac forces to properly prepare, some of the soldiers were even using stolen spravac weapons, though ammunition was limited and the guns were much larger than some soldiers were tall.

Sásgcait had diverted some of his forces to take the neighboring city of Northumber, leaving Broscz with his tanks and 40,000 marines and Landforce morners. Broscz, unconcerned with the welfare of his troops, decided to use the Landforce morners to charge the Ures fortifications from the south while his spravac marines scaled the walls and outer buildings in the factory district while the Ures were engaged. However, the spravac faced heavy resistance in the factory district, facing fire from elevated Ures positions that devastated their numbers. Broscz used his tanks to mark targets for the confused spravac forces, allowing them to then locate the hiding soldiers and kill them swiftly. Slowly, the spravac advanced along the catwalks and concrete corridors of the various factories of the city.

Meanwhile, the Landforce were locked in a stalemate with the frontal positions, losing hundreds to machine gun and mortar fire. Eventually, enough spravac made it past the factory district to engage the defenses from the back, allowing the Landforce to advance. Broscz ordered his men to hold off and fortify for the next day. During that time, the Landforce morners moved the Ures tank traps away to allow Broscz’s tanks through the city to support them, however the narrow roads meant that the tanks would have to move in single file columns.

The Ures exploited this by attacking the first tank in each of these columns, forcing the tanks to divert and move through other roads, which in turn would lead to the same tactic being used. Broscz’s tanks were eventually trapped within a pocket of the city and were facing constant fire from thousands of Ures troops. The spravac marines attempted to defeat the soldiers by storming the buildings the tanks were trapped between, but those too were rigged with various traps.

For three days the spravac tanks remained under constant fire with the infantry barely doing anything to relieve them. Broscz called in air support and ordered them to bombard the buildings, well aware that multiple tanks would be lost to friendly fire. The bombardment successfully freed large groups of the tanks, the morners also helped in the relief, physically picking up the tanks and carrying them over wreckage to more open areas. The central park of the city was a shallow valley with an information building at the front that was being used as the forward base of the Ures commander, Lieutenant General Daniel Wrightworth.

The Landforce morners stormed the post on March 15 and managed to take Wrightworth prisoner, threatening to feed him to the spravac marines if he didn’t order his men to stand down. Wrightworth initially refused, so Broscz personally cut off his arm and fed it to his Incubi bodyguards, which changed his attitude about surrender to something more agreeable.

Despite winning the battle, many of the Ures soldiers refused to surrender, believing that the spravac would not let them leave freely. They were right to believe so, as those who did surrender were viciously gutted and feasted upon in the streets. The Ures soldiers that continued to fight, disheartened, barely stood against the spravac onslaught.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 9,483 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 17,291 dead

Ures Soldiers: 60,392 dead

### Battle of Northumber: March 11- March 12, 7017

Sásgcait, after diverting Broscz and 40,000 troops to take Yorktown, also sent 50,000 soldiers, including 10,200 Rampart Swarmsmen to take the neighboring city of Northumber. He was aware of the high value of the city, and wished to avoid Hoover flanking his soldiers with reinforcements, so he spent the first day of the battle surrounding the city with trenches that faced outward while his other troops distracted the soldiers inside the city. After the trenches were made, the offensive soldiers charged into the city and immediately overpowered the soldiers inside. The commander stationed there contacted Hoover and requested reinforcements, unaware of the spravac defensive line. Because the entire city was surrounded, the civilians were unable to evacuate, leaving them to be slaughtered by the spravac inside the city or gunned down by the spravac in the outskirts.

Hoover’s relief forces arrived on March 12 with half of the city already razed and its civilians all slaughtered. The spravac had chopped most of the corpses up into chunks to be used as war rations for the troops, those that the spravac did not eat were displayed on the trenches on x-shaped wood fixtures, most of them flayed or whipped to a pulp.

The Ures soldiers, most of which were members of red division, were ordered to use their flame throwers to burn away the spravac trenches. The flames worked wondrously, easily killing hundreds of spravac and making a considerable hole in the city’s eastern defenses. The tanks that the red soldiers brought with them then passed through the then secured breach and began to wreak havoc along the entire eastern trench, killing thousands more of the marines.

In response, Sásgcait ordered the Rampart Swarm to use their cavalry to tie up the tanks. The combined arms attacks of the Swarmsmen devastated the tanks, destroying hundreds of them and later running down the red soldiers as they retreated.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 16,284 dead

Rampart Swarm: 827 dead

Ures Soldiers: 17,002 dead

Ures Civilians: 65,832 dead

### 2nd Battle of Yorktown: March 18, 7017

For five days the spravac and Ures forces took time to recharge. During that time, more spravac forces were deployed in the Lancaster Region, mostly females and engineers to be used for breeding more soldiers and repairing their vehicles respectively. Hoover had devised an risky new offensive that he coined Operation Retribution, a bold tank oriented offensive supported by his dreadnoughts that aimed to retake much of the coastline and the Stirling and Silverton Rivers. To do this, he had to retake the city of Yorktown, which would act as a threshold for his operation. The spravac had diverted most of their forces to rampage through the villages and towns still remaining behind their enemy lines, thus the city itself was manned only by two thousand spravac marines and 120 dragnon.

The spravac had grown impatient and bored with waiting for battle, thus they began to fight amongst themselves for entertainment, lowering their numbers by a few hundred from the fighting. When the Ures forces arrived in the form of bomber squadrons and red soldiers, half of the spravac weren’t even wearing their armor or even awake.

When the Ures forces slowly advanced through the ruined city in the evening, they were met by disorganized and barely effective assaults from the spravac, who seemed more intent on having fun then actually winning the battle, at one point a red soldier recounted a spravac jokingly and jovially raising a chalice of human blood to him before being gunned down.

Despite the haphazard attacks of the spravac, they successfully slowed the Ures forces and amply terrified them with their revelling behavior. The streetlamps still standing were adorned with hanging corpses stripped of flesh and the corpses of thousands of half decayed civilians and soldiers that were yet to be eaten still laid there.

By nightfall the spravac had become more organized, setting ambushes and separating the squads of soldiers to pick them off one by one, the only viable method the Ures had at stopping these deadly assaults was with their air support, which bombarded the few standing buildings to eliminate any more buildings that the spravac could conceivably use to organize their attacks. The tallest of these buildings, originally a business tower, was being used as the perch for the dragnon, who swooped down after the building began to lurch forward. The dragnon were ordered by the spravac to distract the bombers, flying into the cockpits of the immense vehicles and sending them crashing down into the city ruins.

With the bombers distracted, the spravac continued to harass the Ures forces, though every subsequent attack began to cost more and more manpower. By midnight, most of the spravac had been killed, the remaining forces and the dragnon were ordered by Sásgcait to link up with his armies in the south, leaving the ruins of the city for the Ures.

Costly Ures Victory:

Ures Soldiers: 892 dead

Ures Civilians: 203,198 dead (killed during rampaging over five days)

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 2,102 dead

### Operation Retribution: March 19- May 8, 7017

After Yorktown was reclaimed, Hoover organized his massive new offensive. The plan was to use the tremendous Ures dreadnoughts to prevent the spravac from using their superior air support to crush Ures armies, something that Hoover believed was integral to their early success. The dreadnoughts would lead the vanguard of the offensive, destroying spravac armies from the air while the infantry cleaned up what remained. Hoover also believed that while the offensive was sure to succeed, losses would be astronomically high if Broscz and Sásgcait remained alive for too long, thus he tasked a squad of Black Titans to assassinate both of them. Hoover’s army was also slated to receive five million brown soldiers which would link with his main force in May, but they would not arrive until June due to Étvác Vólóm’s constant attacks.

With his plan set, Hoover set his massive operation in motion with his dreadnoughts, which immediately bombarded the valley of Karrington, which contained over 70,000 spravac and morner soldiers. The bombardment lasted for just an hour, with the entire army completely wiped off the face of the planet.

However, as the infantry moved in, they were suddenly attacked by a barrage of long range Dragon-Class artillery. The bombardment devastated the Ures frontline. The plasmic rounds fired by the spravac guns left no trail, thus the troops nor the dreadnoughts were unable to triangulate their positions. Hoover ordered his men to continue the march and disregard the fire, which would go on to kill thousands as they marched through the expansive valley.

Midway through the valley, the Ures forces faced a series of horrific ambushes from freshly delivered Gloom Marines. The Gloom Marines slaughtered thousands and wounded thousands more in rapid ambushes atop their war beasts. They also attempted to attack from the air in Shadow-Class dropships, but faced too many losses from the Ures dreadnoughts that hovered about sixteen thousand feet above the battle.

When the Gloom Marine attacks began to decrease, the army was able to carry on their march towards their second target on March 29; the Silverton and Stirling Rivers. Stationed there were malthale and a battalion of tanks. When the dreadnoughts arrived, the single Basilisk tank stationed there was ordered to fire on the first ship that came into range. Hoover had ordered his ships to power down their defensive shields, believing that the spravac would have no means to shoot down his ships so early in the campaign. The last thing the captain of Enduring Magnificence saw was a haze of blinding purple and pink as it shot clean through the great dreadnought, causing it to tumble back to the ground onto the Ures forces.

As the Ures forces spread out to avoid the flaming wreckage, the malthale and smaller tanks charged into their disorganized lines, slaughtering tens of thousands in seconds as thousands more were crushed by the flaming ship. However, many of the spravac forces were also crushed by the falling dreadnought and the subsequent barrages from the other 13, which destroyed the Basilisk and a majority of the tanks. With no means to cover their retreat and trapped as the Ures forces regained their organization, the malthale chose to fight to the last man for another two days, slowing down the Ures forces enough so Broscz could organize the next defense.

Broscz allocated a majority of the dragnon forces to assault the dreadnought by boarding. The dragnon were to carry several high power antimatter bombs to place within the cargo bays and engine rooms of as many Ures ships as they could board. It was a risky move that Sásgcait advised against, but Broscz was confident his plan would work.

Supported by a squadron of fighters and shatter-class gunships, the dragnon made their attack on April 1 while Broscz’s tanks and malthale engaged the Ures infantry below. The dragnon leading the swarm carried two of the fifteen bombs given to them for the operation. However, these bombs detonated suddenly when a stray shot from the dreadnought Glorious Indictment anti-air guns caused them to trigger prematurely, engulfing eighty thousand dragnon in the blasts and scattering the others. Now disorganized, the dragnon’s operation was beginning to fall to pieces. The fighters rapidly assaulted the hulls of the ships, destroying most of their AA guns to allow the dragnon to board.

After an hour, some of the dragnon managed to board Glorious Indictment, however they faced heavy fire from the gold soldiers stationed inside the ships. Facing heavy losses from the fire, the dragnon carrying the bomb was forced to detonate it manually, sacrificing himself and hundreds of his comrades to destroy the Indictment. The blast not only cut the ship cleanly in half, but the splash heavily damaged the left side of Imperium. The dragnon then focused on the latter, instead choosing to use their antimatter blades to saw through parts of the weakened armor to break through. As the dragnon rampaged through Imperium, Hoover informed the other ships of the dragnon’s mission. The dreadnoughts all closed their bay doors to prevent entry and turned their guns on the dragnon, killing hundreds of thousands of them and detonating three more of the bombs. However, one of the bombs was close enough that the explosion heavily damaged the Dominion of Grace’s starboard.

As Broscz watched his dragnon fall from the sky in the thousands and his army on the ground break from the pressure and falling debris, he was ordered by Sásgcait to turn back with whatever forces he could muster, leaving thousands of malthale and morners to cover their retreat.

On April 14 the Ures dreadnoughts assaulted another field army of palisters and spravac marines. Sásgcait ordered his tanks to target the damaged Imperium and Dominion of Grace. The ballistas successfully broke through the armor of Imperium and through its bridge, causing it to slowly lower to the ground onto the field in front of both armies. As a massive cloud of dust formed around Imperium’s wreckage, the palisters and spravac began to advance through the biting winds, which were at times so strong that they stripped bits of flesh off their bodies. The Ures forces also advanced through the cloud as the tanks fired into the Dominion. However, the dreadnought’s guns still functioned as it fired into the line of spravac tanks, destroying hundreds of them and forcing Sásgcait to pull them back. As firefights erupted within the metal corridors of Imperium, the Ures forces became engaged in deadly melee with the physically superior palisters and spravac, forcing them to pull back. The spravac then used the wreckage as a makeshift fort, entrenching longbowmen in hundreds of perches that assassinated several Ures officers and nearly killed Hoover himself.

Broscz moved in to act in Sásgcait’s stead upon order by the latter, his presence was later shattered by the Black Titans, who took their opportunity in the chaos of the battle to sneak into Broscz’s camp and put a round through his skull. With Broscz dead, Sásgcait was forced to return to command the faltering spravac and palister forces.

Despite Broscz’s death, Sásgcait voiced his relief that he would “sacrifice no further resources pointlessly” and reorganized the spravac forces. His return also saw the deployment of six thousand morners and malthale, whose explosive weapons and massive size not only slowed down the Ures forces, but also pushed them back behind their main line in three highly devastating frontal charges.

Eager to continue his offensive and (in theory) link up with the brown soldiers in time, Hoover ordered his men to pull back temporarily under the cover of four heavy dreadnought barrages. The barrages killed most of the malthale and reduced the wreckage of Imperium to dust along with the spravac in it. The barrage also saw the deaths of the last palister forces stationed in Sásgcait’s army, which infuriated the Didact.

Forced to pull back on April 20, Sásgcait moved back with the rest of his soldiers, though not without a parting gift for the Ures forces. As the Ures trailed behind, Sásgcait ordered a select few marines to manually detonate three of the antimatter bombs, whose massive explosions vaporized thousands of the Ures soldiers and 120 tanks.

After the bombs were detonated, the Ures soldiers moved forward once more, though the tremendous explosions slowed them down enough that Sásgcait could organize his next defense.

The next field would be Kensington and Trent Lake on April 28. Stationed there was the near full might of the Rampart Swarm contingent and hundreds of thousands more marines and Death Plague Marines. The remaining 11 dreadnoughts fired into the ruins of the city. However, this time there were eighteen Basilisk tanks along the western flank of the city stationed in the tall trees and cloaked by Incubus stealth tech. The Basilisks all fired their ultrabows into the sides of the dreadnoughts closest to them, destroying five more of them outright and damaging another four. Hoover, shocked by the sudden loss of five dreadnoughts, ordered the others to focus their fire into the forest where the bolts originated, destroying all of the Basilisks and flattening the once verdant forest.

However, with the dreadnoughts distracted, the Rampart Swarm charged from the city into the Ures lines on their cavalry alongside Minotaur tanks and under the cover of Harpy and Dragon-Class artillery fire. The Ures forces, unprepared by the sudden charge, were devastated by the sudden attack. The Rampart Swarm split into a four pronged formation that trapped scores of Ures soldiers that were slaughtered by the marines. Hoover ordered the soldiers to hold their ground as the dreadnoughts fired down on the Swarm and the marines. The Swarm and marines took thousands of casualties, but the massive explosions also killed hundreds of Ures soldiers as well. The marines continued to charge ceaselessly into the Ures lines, at times creating piles of dead as they stalked their way up the hills towards the Ures forces. At times the sheer mass of dead spravac caused avalanches of dead that crushed others below.

By May 1 the spravac had pushed the Ures forces back to the dust of the Imperium, where the wreckage and dead of the previous battle still laid. Invigorated by the bloodshed, the spravac continued to push against the Ures forces, even under the fire of the remaining 6 dreadnoughts. However, fire from spravac tanks and gunships further damaged the dreadnoughts and even managed to bring down another one of the dreadnoughts, which forced Hoover to pull the remaining ones back to be repaired.

With his trump card gone, Hoover was now on the defensive, forcing him to move back to the Silverton and Stirling Rivers. As the rivers evaporated from the spravac blood, the spravac were reinforced by the morners and malthale, their morale raised greatly by the sudden turning of the tide. With the dreadnoughts gone, the spravac were able to reinstate their supremacy of the air and dominate the Ures forces, destroying hundreds of tanks and thousands more infantry. However, the spravac had grown exhausted from the battle and were beginning to slow down, which Hoover exploited to move back and reinforce trench lines. Sásgcait, satisfied with maintaining the status quo, fortified his own lines while Vólóm ravaged the brown soldiers several hundred miles away.

Inconclusive:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1,392,481 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 1,827,571 dead

Rampart Swarm: 348,851 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 293,742 dead

Ures Ships: 8 destroyed

Ures Naval Servicemen: 34,162 dead

Ures Soldiers: 2,951,583 dead

### Malicious Fury Offensive: May 15- July 9, 7017

After Hoover’s assault ground to a halt, Sásgcait wished to push him back further out of the region, if not completely. Sásgcait, impressed by Hoover’s tactic, emulated it similarly with a horde of Shatter and Bull-Class gunships, the latter of which can destroy certain smaller ships such as frigates or corvettes.

On May 15, the spravac began their own offensive with a barrage of antimatter fire. The Ures soldiers, though they had 7 days to prepare for any assaults, were prepared for a strictly landbased tank-oriented attack. As the antimatter vaporized entire platoons of men, the Ures tanks were forced to use their armor piercing rounds to try and shoot down the heavily armored gunships. They succeeded in destroying a few of the craft, but the seemingly endless horde of craft and the following charge from the Rampart Swarm broke through the Ures lines. The Ures forces retreated back to the hills of the battlefield, where a large concentration of transportable SAM sites had been stationed to destroy the enemy craft. The SAM launchers successfully downed over two hundred aircraft, lowering the effectiveness of the blitz and forcing the marines and Rampart Swarm to fight for longer periods. Morner teams were deployed on the night of May 18 to destroy the sites, successfully raiding and destroying 16 of the 20, the other four were completely wiped out by the defensive units.

Intent on destroying the SAM sights, Sásgcait personally led a contingent of thirty Scorpio and Sagittarius Incubi to take the last two. When the Ures forces saw the sight of the Incubi, they immediately faltered, allowing Sásgcait and his men to slaughter them and capture the SAM. With it captured, they used it to destroy the other and several Ures gunships flying in to meet the spravac ships in battle. With the SAMs gone, the gunships could continue their blitz into the Ures territory, scorching vast swaths of land and thousands of soldiers that the marines and Rampart Swarm captured or killed later. The marines constructed tall flags adorned with skinned flesh and the still bloodied skulls of humans, rurkis, and yuriksis that they tortured and killed, a sight that terrified hundreds of the Ures soldiers stationed at the threshold of the Karrington Valley.

Still burning from the previous battles of Operation Retribution, the spravac once again charged fearlessly into the forests and rocky hillsides of the valley on May 21, losing thousands to near constant fire but continuing regardless. As the marines soaked up all the fire and took cover behind piles of their own dead, malthale, morners, and Incubi decisively flanked around the valley, cutting clean through the Ures territory and trapping thousands between them and the marines. The gunships continued to fire overhead, though they were beginning to take more losses to SAM transports and AA cannons. Sásgcait requested that the battleship Whore’s Wail fire down on the valley, disregarding friend or foe. The massive battleship fired nineteen hails of plasma torpedoes and antimatter bolts from its starboard and portside ballistas, killing tens of thousands of spravac and Ures alike.

Seemingly unaffected by the deadly friendly fire, the spravac would continue to push against the Ures forces for another three days until they successfully captured the valley. However, when they reached the other side of the valley, the spravac faced another massive barrage from an unknown location. Suddenly, Whore’s Wail was spotted falling from the sky onto the spravac forces. It was later discovered that the remaining Ures dreadnoughts had fired upon it and destroyed its engines.

Despite crashing, many parts of the ship were still intact, and Sásgcait still believed that much of the crew survived. Sure enough, 900 Shadow Ark Corsairs had survived the crash and were engaged by Gold soldiers who had deployed from the dreadnoughts to destroy them.

Sásgcait ordered his Incubi to support the faltering corsairs, however the debris and artillery fire from the Ures positions forced them to slow to a two day trek towards the siege of the wreckage. Upon reaching the crashed ship, only 293 of the corsairs remained, however they had also killed a majority of the Gold soldiers. The Incubi easily slaughtered the last of the Gold soldiers.

The spravac hordes marched up until June 3 under constant artillery fire and guerilla style attacks from blue and gold soldiers, though the attack decreased in ferocity as the spravac drew closer to the hastily dug trenches called Hoover’s Salient.

Upon reaching the Salient, the spravac had lost tremendous amounts of men from the long range artillery and attacks. Despite the losses, over two thousand Incubi managed to sneak behind enemy lines and were waiting for Sásgcait to give the signal to attack. The Incubi force was composed almost entirely of Gemini and Scorpio, a deadly combination that could effectively fight an army twenty times its size.

When Sásgcait ordered his marines and malthale to charge into the salient, the Incubi revealed themselves and immediately captured the first row of the Salient without any losses. The spravac bunkered down in the trenches and attempted to attack the next line, only to barely cross the 45 meter mark. By this point most of the spravac marine forces had been killed, leaving the malthale, morners, and Rampart Swarm to maintain their advantage.

The stalemate of the Salient would carry on from June 4 for over a month, with both sides losing thousands in the no-man’s-land. However, during that month of time, 40 helgath and a Chapter of the Havoc Blade Warriors (800 knights) arrived to support the spravac lines.

On July 8, the helgath began to eat away at the ground below the Ures trenches, weakening the ground to dangerous levels. On July 9, the nigh invulnerable Havoc Blade Warriors advanced towards the Ures trenches. Then, at the precise moment, the five whole trenches clogged with soldiers suddenly collapsed into the ground and the helgath’s sinkhole engulfed them. Those that were not buried alive were killed by the Havoc Blade Warriors.

With the Salient destroyed, the spravac advance slowed to a crawl. Many of the spravac were killed and the malthale and morners were beginning to suffer from attritious diseases like gangrene, forcing Sásgcait to halt his advance to treat the wounded and replenish his marines’ numbers, allowing the Ures forces to recuperate and reorganize.

Inconclusive:

Ures Soldiers: 1,003,273 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 2,485,125 dead

Rampart Swarm: 604,294 dead

Incubi: 827 dead

Spravac Ships: 1 destroyed

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 707 dead

### Battle of Worcester: July 19- July 24, 7017

Resolving to continue the campaign to prevent the Ures forces from gaining too much rest, Sásgcait diverted his Incubi to scout out alternate routes that would not directly take his soldiers into the Ures’ defensive positions, as they had cost him millions of soldiers.

As the Incubi scouted through the western woods of the Lancaster, they frequently conflicted with Black Titans and their subordinate black soldiers. Largely, the Incubi bested the Ures special forces. By July 19, the Incubi had reached the abandoned city of Worcester, long evacuated of its citizens and seemingly devoid of Ures military presence. However, when they entered the city, they were met by sudden ambushes from cloaked black soldiers. The Incubus commander, Rasczec Tvotv, ordered his men to cloak and disperse through the city. Their cloaking lasted longer than the Ures forces, allowing the Incubi to outlast the Ures soldiers and locate them. As more and more squads went dark, the Black Titans stationed in the battle commanded a tactical retreat to the city hall to evaluate their options.

Despite the retreat, many more black soldiers would be killed as the Scorpio and Gemini Incubi slowly but surely tracked them down. The Black Titans themselves, codenamed Styx Team, were even attacked By Tvotv and his retainers.

Tvotv managed to seriously injure one of the Titans, cleaving his chest open and nearly killing him. However, he was forced to retreat after one of the other Titans shot him in the leg. His retainers held off the Titans while he escaped to heal. One of the retainers, a skilled Rictaivácscz, killed one of the Titans by cutting her head off. The other two Titans withdrew from the melee to reach a higher vantage point, though Tvotv was waiting for them with his leg already healed.

Tvotv immediately killed the one he previously injured, throwing a poisoned dagger into the open chest wound. The other Titan attempted to withdraw again, but Tvotv used his gravity tethered taitvon to impale him in mid air and then draw him back towards him, removing his helmet and tearing his tongue out.

With the Titans dead, the black soldiers slowly began to be slaughtered. Unable to escape the city, they could only delay their inevitable deaths. The battle drew on until July 24 when the last of the 9 black soldiers were engaged by Tvotv personally and massacred.

Close Spravac Victory:

Incubi: 86 dead (additional 43 killed in pre-battle skirmishes)

Ures Soldiers: 293 dead (additional 134 killed in pre-battle skirmishes)

Titans: 3 dead

### Trenton Offensive: July 25- September 2, 7017

With most of the Lancaster Region under Imperial control and the Ures forces struggling to hold on, Sásgcait sought to launch one more offensive to take the last major city of Trenton. The city was relatively intact, but was facing light assaults from Didact Vólóm’s campaign in the northern Albion Gulf. Sásgcait was about two hundred miles away from the city, which was also full of civilians and the last Ures forces in the region.

The offensive began with a bombardment from six Black Heart Class ships in the forests and small towns in the immediate vicinity of Worcester, still garrisoned by the Incubi. Following the devastating bombardment, dropships containing hundreds of thousands of marines and all 15,000 of the Slayer Witches, a paramilitary within the Empire. The Slayer Witches, under High Crone Celíná Tzártziv were sent to vanguard the assault from Worcester alongside the Incubi. As they attacked the Ures forces from the east, the Rampart Swarm and malthale forces would attack from the south directly at the Ures battle lines.

As the Slayer Witches and Incubi, named Battlegroup East, advanced rapidly through the destroyed wastes left behind by the Ultrabow shots, the marines in the south immediately came under fire from the Ures forces stationed at Hoover’s Ridge, which was lined with long range heavy artillery. The Incubi circled around on July 28 and attacked the artillery in the rear, destroying all of the batteries and viciously massacred the crew and soldiers stationed there.

With the artillery gone, the Ures infantry was easily overrun by Battlegroup South.

The Slayer Witches plundered the streets of the nearby towns of Blackshire and Grenwyn, both of which were lightly defended by exhausted and poorly equipped brown soldiers left over from the Albion Gulf Campaign. The Witches came across their first true obstacle in the Battle of Lanceford, a decently sized town garrisoned by a tank brigade and forty thousand red soldiers.

The red soldiers easily held off the lightly armored and reckless Slayer Witches, forcing them to bunker down and await the Incubi. Surely enough, when the Incubi arrived they devastated the Ures forces, slaughtering all of the infantry over the course of the night and killing the tank commander, causing the remaining tanks to retreat, allowing the spravac to burn the town.

By August 2, half of the remaining territory had been claimed by the spravac, who were fighting relatively unopposed. On August 15, the Incubi entered the suburban outskirts of Trenton, which by this point was under full siege by Didact Vólóm. Sásgcait ordered the Rampart Swarm to charge through the streets to clean up whatever was left of the Ures forces. Sásgcait’s Incubi managed to discover Hoover, who was seen with his purple guard evacuating the lost city. The Incubi were ordered by Sásgcait to attack the general and either kill or capture him.

The Incubi succeeded in injuring the general, but were held off by his bodyguard as he escaped on a dropship. Though the Incubi slaughtered the last of the bodyguards, they had missed their chance to kill him. The last few days saw the city burnt to the ground and all of the citizens tortured or eaten to death, with Didacts Sásgcait and Vólóm holding a feast between the two of them in the city square on the flesh of the Titans that Vólóm had saved for a special occasion.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 83,582 dead (54,192 from Sásgcait and 29,390 Vólóm)

Rampart Swarm: 1,482 dead

Incubi: 183 dead

Slayer Witches: 5,285 dead

Ures Soldiers: 104,664 dead (5,019 from Trenton)

Ures Militia: 105,183 (Trenton)

Ures Civilians: 4,792,186 dead (Trenton)

## Albion Gulf Campaign: March 1, 7017- September 2, 7017

While Sásgcait campaigned in Lancaster with marines and auxiliaries, Albion Gulf was plagued by Vólóm, the most skilled of the generals and soon to be the most infamous, and a professional corps of 2.4 million Antimatter and Plasma Thorn Rangers, 45,000 Incubi (the largest thus far) 12,000 tanks, 4,500 aircraft, fire support from a Black-Heart Class Battleship, and Vólóm’s mobile headquarters; a battalion of 6 Leviathan War Barges, an army transport craft that was the size of a small frigate and had the firepower of a battleship.

The battles in Albion would also be where Vólóm earned the dreaded epithet “Titan Slayer”, as he frequently clashed with and killed many Ures Titans of various types. Later in the campaign, a reinforcing army of brown soldiers commanded by Eva Wells was deployed to reinforce General Hoover, but she would not arrive until July with only a fraction of her original force due to Vólóm’s constant attacks. The Albion Gulf was the largest region in the entirety of the continent and thus housed the most civilians, causing Albion to go down as one of the bloodiest campaigns of the not only the war, but in all of Ures History.

### Battle of Charlotte: March 1, 7017

As the war on Grace ramped up, the already well-known Étvác Vólóm was known throughout the ranks of the Empire for his tendency to lead armies from the front, daringly charging into battle wielding swords and his own gnashing jaws. In typical fashion, when Vólóm and his army arrived at the town of Charlotte, still loaded with civilians, he personally led a frontal charge with his Incubi retainers into the town, which was garrisoned by brown soldiers and a heavily armed militia of two thousand.

The charge occurred at night when Vólóm boisterously cheered along with his men, alerting the Ures forces to his presence. The Ures soldiers attempted to shoot at the sprinting Incubi, but they cloaked themselves as they charged, becoming an invisible wave of blades that killed hundreds in mere seconds.

As the invisible soldiers killed soldiers and civilians alike, the rangers circled around and attacked the city from the south, which was undefended. The rangers cut down the civilians without mercy, eventually enveloping the rest of the people within the city center. The commander, Captain Lucille Newsome, was captured by Vólóm and stripped bare before he devoured her in front of his men and the few Ures forces that were captured, displaying her half-eaten heart as a ritual sacrifice before smashing it as per Incubus tradition.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 203 dead

Incubi: 1 dead

Ures Soldiers: 1,581 dead

Ures Militia: 2,006 dead

Ures Civilians: 27,194 dead

### Battle of Waterton: March 4- March 6, 7017

After the massacre of Charlotte, the Ures forces under General Lucy Mason mobilized to halt Vólóm’s army. They met at the small town of Waterton, already destroyed by spravac bombers. When the spravac came into view, the white soldiers could spy them stomping their feet with thunderous battle cries in their direction, with Vólóm in the center with his dual swords in hand.

The white soldiers began to advance down the farmlands on the edge of the city, unaware of the traps that the spravac had set for them.

Vapor mines and Dragon’s Teeth burst and exploded from the ground, disrupting and slowing the Ures advance, allowing the rangers to suddenly race towards the mass of disoriented soldiers. Under the cover of antimatter artillery, the rangers cut down swaths of men in seconds, creating piles of Ures dead that the spravac climbed over and grew with every soldier that came into range. The piles soon became barricades as the soldiers fought through a maze of dead, mostly of the Ures forces. Vólóm himself slew hundreds of soldiers, enduring several bullet entry wounds that only seemed to make him more deadly.

As the War-Dancer lead the charge, his men followed, continuing to push the Ures forces to the foot of the hill, leaving a sprawl of dead that could be seen (and smelt) from miles away. By March 6, the white soldiers were in full retreat of the merciless rangers, who delighted themselves by feasting on the Ures dead and soaking themselves in their blood.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 4,194 dead

Incubi: 2 dead

Ures Soldiers: 15,986 dead

Ures Civilians: 37,195 dead (from bombings)

### Battle of the Shoreditch Outskirts: March 10, 7017

Vólóm’s horde continued to reav the headlands of the gulf for four more days before he was stopped by a sudden bombardment from Ures bombers. Spreading his horde out to minimize casualties, the horde traced the trails of the bombers back towards the city of Shoreditch, which was currently undergoing a hasty evacuation towards the Lancaster city of Trenton (which was yet to even be close to being attacked).

The vanguards of the ranger army spotted a narrow stream of civilians guarded by both white and brown soldiers heading in their direction, unaware that Vólóm had spread his army out so wide. The rangers were ordered by Vólóm to remain hidden in the nearby forests until the bombers were dealt with and the rest of the army could converge on the feast of civilian lives.

Spravac fighters easily dealt with the Ures bombers, allowing Vólóm’s army to rush towards the unwitting civilians.

Before the guarding Ures soldiers could be warned, the spravac were already upon the civilians. Vólóm expressed that he wished for the rangers to aim for non vital parts of the civilians to increase their suffering and perhaps allow them to be captured for torture later once the battle was over. The Ures soldiers were killed first along the entire four mile long stream of civilians. As the spravac laid down fire, the Leviathan barges quickly transported masses of the rangers to establish a perimeter around the city and the evacuation line to prevent any civilians from escaping, of which thousands attempted.

By the evening, the rangers could barely contain themselves and were permitted by Vólóm to attack the civilians in melee, which delighted the demented elite soldiers. Like a swarm of devouring locusts, the rangers massacred the civilians by the hundreds of thousands, targeting men, women, and children alike. When the killing had ceased, they prepared to siege the rest of the city, which was still packed with soldiers and millions more civilians.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 2,581 dead

Ures Soldiers: 1,385 dead

Ures Civilians: 502,581 dead

### Siege of Shoreditch: March 11- March 18, 7017

After the civilians in the outskirts were destroyed, the spravac began their siege of the city proper. Using the hundreds of thousands of dead as food, the spravac had enough food supplies to last them several months without a need to heavily ration the food. The civilians still alive from wounds were captured and used for torture and sport hunting throughout the siege to entertain the rangers.

The first day of the siege was characterized entirely by a barrage from Vólóm’s guns, which leveled the outer reaches of the city and killed thousands of civilians and soldiers. Under the cover of the fire, the rangers threw themselves into the city, racing through the streets with their Aquila rifles and tanks following close behind. Vólóm himself was at the vanguard of the battle with 200 Incubi retainers.

Shoreditch, being the capital of the Albion Gulf region, was heavily manned and a large garrison of brown soldiers and 6 Brown Titans, this along with General Mason’s white soldiers, created a large army that even outnumbered the spravac forces.

Despite having superior numbers, the rangers proved on the streets of Shoreditch that they had earned their infamy as they easily eviscerated the Ures soldiers in the thousands without losing even half that. Civilians also began to take up arms against the spravac, using Ures weapons and looted spravac weapons, though they did little more than excite the ravenous bloodlust of the rangers, who killed so many soldiers, militia, and civilians that they blocked roadways with piles of bodies that climbed over 8 feet high.

The city also had an airfield that finally fueled more Ures aircraft to support the faltering city. The bombers and fighters gave a much needed relief for the Ures soldiers, as their incendiary ordinances worked wonders against the hordes of spravac. However, Vólóm sent his own fighters to stave off the Ures ones on March 13, causing most of them to crash into the burning city.

By March 15, the spravac were beginning to exhaust themselves from the four straight days of fighting, so they withdrew from the city to their camps, well aware that the Ures forces were unable to pursue them. Using what little artillery they had, the Ures forces occasionally bombarded the spravac campsites, though the forest in which the camps were placed provided much needed cover for the rangers. The rangers feasted on the corpses of the rotting civilians outside the city and tortured to their heart's content, resuming their siege of the city after a day of rest.

Despite earning a day to prepare, the Ures forces main concern was formulating plans to evacuate the civilians, as they had thus far been unable to break out. General Mason finally found a weak spot in the spravac eastern perimeter, which was less heavily manned since it was closest to the Albion Coastline. General Sotheby and Mason deployed three Brown Titans and 10,000 white soldiers respectively to assist in the 30,000 brown soldiers sent for the evacuation. Vólóm sent his chief Archon, Válír Ûsczim, to investigate the loss of contact with the soldiers in that sector. Ûsczim, along with 4,000 of his brothers, discovered the force of Ures soldiers and what was becoming hundreds of thousands of civilians.

With that intel, Vólóm diverted units of his army to prevent the evacuation. However, as he did so, the Ures forces still inside the city, in cooperation with the militia, suddenly attacked the front of Vólóm’s army, where he himself was present. For a moment, the dreaded rangers were on the defensive. It didn’t last long, however, as the spravac easily counterattacked and began to eradicate the forces in the city. By March 18 the rangers had captured the airfield and killed the last of the civilians in the city itself, with only small pockets of militia and soldiers remaining.

As the spravac were burning the city, the evacuation began to fall apart as the rangers dispatched squad after squad of Ures soldiers. The Incubi, lead by Ûsczim, engaged the Titans to cut off the serpent's head. However, the Titans managed to gain the upper hand and killed Ûsczim by blowing a foot wide hole through his chest and back. The other Incubi, furious by the loss of their brother, berserked and fought to the last as the Ures forces surrounded them, though they successfully killed two of the three Brown Titans in the process. The last of the Titans, Gregor James, was ordered by Mason to escape at an LZ secured by the soldiers, however Vólóm was trailing closely behind him.

The remaining forces from the evacuation force, about 1,000, were able to evacuate, however James’ dropship was shot down with only his implants keeping him from dying. When Vólóm found him, James pointed his pistol at him. Vólóm, in disgust, exclaimed that he “fight like a man and use his fists.” The Titan attempted to shoot the Didact, however his retainer promptly shot the gun out of his hand.

Vólóm, as a show of fairness, put one hand behind his back and challenged the Titan. The two brawled for several minutes before James unsheathed a hidden knife and attempted to stab Vólóm in the throat. Unable to reach his throat, Vólóm grabbed the wrist of the injured soldier, his grip so tight that it broke James’s wrist instantly. As the Titan winced in pain, Vólóm slowly tore his throat out through his mouth.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 293,162 dead

Incubi: 503 dead

Ures Soldiers: 1,302,637 dead

Titans: 6 dead

Ures Militia: 56,223 dead

Ures Civilians: 4,185,127 dead

### Battle of Flintshire: March 20, 7017

While Shoreditch was brutalized, the nearby coastal town of Flintshire was able to fully evacuate its 100,000 citizens. General Wells correctly assumed that Vólóm would attack that city next in his campaign. In preparation for the attack, she rigged all the bridges (three) that linked to the town with explosives and the outer buildings. The town was garrisoned with seven brigades of white soldiers as well as a squad of 3 blue Titans for recon.

However, the Ures soldiers did not have the support of the Titans for long as on the night of March 20, Vólóm and three other Incubi ambushed the squad and killed all three of them, with Vólóm personally raping and disemboweling the commander, Alva Moore.

With their eyes on the outskirts gone, the Ures soldiers did not know when to detonate the traps until the spravac were on top of them. Vólóm learned from one of his infiltrated Incubi about the bombs as well, and thus he decided to use his Leviathan Barges to carry his men to the town while his infiltrated soldiers removed the explosives from one of the bridges.

While the Barges began to bombard the town with their heavy plasma cannons, the rangers streamed out through the sides and front of the massive vehicles and swarmed to the designated bridge. The Ures soldiers, unaware that the bridge wasn’t rigged, attempted to detonate it when the largest number of rangers were over it, only for it to fail and the soldiers overrun by the storm of red armor and antimatter blades.

By midday, the Ures soldiers had been slaughtered, most of them in only half of their kit from the spravac attacking so swiftly.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 2,505 dead

Ures Soldiers: 35,023 dead

Titans: 3 dead

### Battle of Blacksand: March 20- April 1, 7017

While Vólóm and his men destroyed Flintshire, the remainder of his men were ordered to spread out along the northern coastline to take more territory. Led by Archon Síráscz Gclóváré, one of Vólóm’s most trusted Incubus Battle-Brothers, was present on the bridge of one of the Leviathan Barges along with six thousand rangers within its bay. Tens of thousands more rangers were marching alongside the tremendous barge or riding in Goblin APCs.

As they moved across the black sanded shores of the Gulf, they suddenly came under fire from Ures long-range artillery. Gclóváré ordered squads of the rangers to trace the artillery shells and eliminate them. As the rangers discovered each battery, they were ambushed and swiftly killed by hiding white soldiers.

Gclóváré sent larger units to search for ambushers, but they too were attacked, this time by a swarm of tanks and white soldiers mounted on speeders. As the rangers in the forest slowly began to die out, more white soldiers and Ures fighters descended from the behind the spravac force and decimated more of their numbers. Unable to react to the ambush, the spravac were cut down in droves.

In a panic, Gclóváré ordered the main gun of the barge, an ultrabow, to fire into the Ures forces, wiping out most of them and blackening the sand further, creating a seering crater. The rangers counter attacked, pushing the Ures back into the forest, though they were unable to pursue them.

Intent on destroying them, Gclóváré would carry on searches in the forest until March 25 when his forces discovered a large contingent of the Ures forces. The two sides battled in the forest up into March 27 until the rangers suddenly lost contact with Gclóváré and his remaining soldiers in the barge. The barge was then assaulted from the front and side by two divisions of tanks that devastated the armor of the vast war machine. The Ures tanks crippled the great machine and forced out the remaining rangers and Gclóváré himself.

Surrounded and refusing to surrender, the rangers and Gclóváré fought until April 1 amongst the wreckage of the massive machine, with Gclóváré himself the last to die atop a pile of dead Ures soldiers.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Ures Soldiers: 13,294 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 36,192 dead

### Gutter’s Wrath Offensive: April 2- May 2, 7017

The victory at Blacksand was the beginnings of a massive offensive devised by Lucy Mason to crush Vólóm’s thus far unbeatable army. The spravac had renamed their conquered territory Gutter’s Wrath and were using it as a landing zone for millions more spravac troops. Mason was aware of this and wanted to retake the territory with the hopes that it would devastate spravac numbers enough that they would be pushed out of the war.

Vólóm, who was furious about the losses at Blacksand, had been delivered 200,000 Gloom Marines on Shadow Dropships to assist him in his campaign. Vólóm purposely ordered that the Gloom Marines be deployed outside of the secure territory along with his outer ranger units to act as the first line of defense against the Ures forces.

General Mason began her offensive across the four hundred mile front with a storm of artillery fire across the main spravac trench line, the namesake of the Sector. After six hours of over 5 million artillery shells, the Ures white soldiers bravely assaulted the stunned spravac soldiers. Losing thousands to the fire of the spravac machine guns and longbowmen. By the time they reached the Gutter, they took even more losses to the Gloom Marines, who decloaked themselves at the very moment the Ures forces entered the expansive trenches.

The Ures forces retreated from the trenchline and were gunned down and even pursued by the Gloom Marines as they ran, though the Gloom Marines also took heavy losses to artillery and tank support.

This cycle of bloodshed continued for three more days until the Gloom Marines were ordered by Vólóm to withdraw and allow his own tanks and rangers to handle the Ures forces. As the rangers clashed against the Ures tanks and infantry, the Gloom Marines loaded onto their Shadow Ships and fired down on the Ures reserves, forcing Mason to bring them to the front and into even more danger. The Gutter was designed to be a collapsible trench line, as each spravac defense fell, the survivors would move behind fresh troops and rearm and heal, creating an illusion of truly endless soldiers. Ures stingers and other SAM platforms forced the Gloom Marines to withdraw from the sky, allowing the Ures bombers to enter the fray and rain fire and death onto the spravac forces.

Despite the losses, Vólóm’s forces held strong against the Ures tide, creating new trenches of dead soldiers that they used as defenses against the enemy. The antimatter of the spravac crossbows shot clean through the Ures tanks, disregarding armor and allowing the spravac to be tank killers without the need for anti-armor weapons.

By April 10, over three hundred thousand Ures and Spravac forces had been killed fighting over a single strip of the Gutter, with signs pointing towards the spravac for victory. Vólóm, in order to secure victory, ordered the Black-Heart Battleship Song of Entropy to fire its battery of torpedoes into the Ures mass. The successive shots from the ship utterly destroyed the white army, single handedly killing over a million men in a single blast.

Mason ordered the armies to withdraw, with the spravac pursuing them closely. However, the chase halted once again when a new army of brown soldiers initially sent to help General Hoover stumbled onto the hellfire of the battle on April 13. Caught off guard, the brown soldiers were immediately assaulted by spravac tanks and war barges carrying thousands of impetuous rangers.

The rangers, despite their ferocity, were unorganized and took heavy losses. General Wells and Mason organized their forces and launched a successful counterattack against the spravac horde, pushing past the main lines of the Gutter and up the hills. However, they were stopped once the rangers reorganized on seven key hills. These elevated positions allowed the spravac to effectively hold back the Ures forces as they were streamed into a narrow killzone of spikes and artillery fire.

On April 15, news of Tulic Broscz’s death reached Vólóm, who was a dear friend of the late general. In a fit of vengeful rage, Vólóm struck out with the entirety of his Incubi and charged straight for the center of the Ures mass, where he correctly assumed White Titans would be located.

The 3 Titans present at the battle, Charles Matthews, Jessica Steinbeck, and Jason Smith, were unprepared for such a bold and deadly assault. Within seconds of the Scorpii and Vólóm reaching their position, Matthews had already been killed after Vólóm tore his heart out through his chest. Vólóm ordered for the others to be captured for him to have his way with later, which his Scorpii did so successfully.

With their Titans gone, the Ures forces were unable to maintain their ground and were pushed back all the way to the edges of the Gutter by May 2. During the battle, Vólóm proceeded to brutally torture the two Titans. He raped and ate Steinbeck after she endured six days of torture from his underlings. During those first six days following their capture, he slowly ate Smith alive, cutting off limbs and fingers and his tongue to eat in front of his very eyes. After he murdered Steinbeck, he finally killed Smith.

General Mason received the corpses of her two Titans, they were delivered by airdrop and a small recording of Smith’s torture was also included, the bodies were so disfigured that they were unable to discern who was who.

Disheartened, Mason communed with Wells and both agreed to withdraw their forces fully from the battle to regroup, keeping the Gutter in Vólóm’s talons.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 602,582 dead

Incubi: 2,518 dead

Ures Soldiers: 1,427,164 dead

Titans: 3 dead

### Operation Steel Tempest: May 6- July 15, 7017

After recuperating from the Gutter’s Wrath Offensive, Vólóm wished to continue his storm into the south, planning to eventually meet with Didact Sásgcait’s army at the city of Trenton. He believed that conquering the major spaceport of Augustine Interplanetary would allow him to requisition even larger scores of men to take the city, as the spravac reinforcements thus far could only be transported by dropships. To take the port and the city around it, he had to storm through the rocky canyons of the southern Albion Coast, which was filled with rivers and waterfalls aplenty.

Using his Gloom Marines as reconnaissance, the force of spravac special forces scouted out several key roadways that were blocked by Ures guns and armies. Vólóm chose to engage the armies rather than circumnavigate them, wary that they may flank his army later. He ordered the Gloom Marines to engage the army on May 10, which they outnumbered.

In the gloaming of May 10, the Gloom Marines harassed the camp of the Ures force, a contingent of Well’s larger brown army, with longbows and their Zgevescz rifles, which easily killed the guards and put the camp on high alert. A squadron of spravac bombers then flew overhead and destroyed much of the infrastructure of the camp, forcing most of the soldiers into the open. With their cover gone, the Gloom Marines easily picked off thousands of the soldiers without them even knowing where they were coming from. It wasn’t until a patrol found their main position that the brown soldiers engaged them.

Despite losing their element of surprise, the Gloom Marines easily overpowered the Ures forces, charging into melee and massacring them.

With the army gone, Vólóm moved his horde further south along the road, destroying villages and towns, rendering them lifeless as they scoured them for civilians to eat as war rations. The spravac march went on unhindered and devoid of their own blood until July 7 when they were about halfway through the Grand Albion Canyon. Wells had stationed a majority of her soldiers at the canyon and had constructed a large base of operations along the canyon.

Vólóm, delighted and eager for bloodshed, ordered his men to prepare for battle the next day.

In the early hours of the morning, the soldiers on the wall of the fort were awakened by a thunderous clamor of spravac rangers. Vólóm was at the helm of the horde of cheering soldiers, performing his infamous Wardance and listing off what his men will do to the soldiers they capture.

The spravac then threw themselves at the walls of the fort, losing so many men in seconds that they were able to climb over the hill of death to reach the walls in just seven minutes. Once they were over the walls, however, the Ures forces were doomed. The spravac were so entranced by their lust for blood that even the ones who had their legs blown off crawled toward the enemy and sometimes even succeeded in killing their foe despite the impairments. By the time the sun had risen, the brown soldiers in the area had been forced out of the base, with over twenty thousand captured.

The next was spent recuperating, eating the dead, and torturing the captured. Once it was through, the ones that were the most disfigured were mounted on the sides of the Leviathans to be displayed for the enemy.

The spravac arrived at Augustine Spaceport on July 13, fully energized and eager to kill. They bombarded the outer buildings of the city, full of civilians, and later swarmed into the blazing ruins. The spravac destroyed over half of the city and most of the populace before Wells’s troops could even begin to fight them. The Leviathans fired their ultrabows into the center of the city and created steaming craters that were so hot they melted the metals in the periphery of the blasts. Civilians wandered aimlessly through their city, scorched and limbless, which garnered no sympathy from the rampaging spravac.

As they slaughtered the brown soldiers in droves, they pillaged the city for its food, metal, and any civilians still alive for the last two days of the operation.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 34,195 dead

Ures Soldiers: 302,581 dead

Ures Civilians: 13,294,726 (most killed in the rampaging of the countryside)

### Siege of Westminster: July 19- August 6, 7017

On the very edge of the Albion Gulf was the last sliver of Ures territory in the area. The capital of this territory was the massive fortress city of Westminster, a powerful and enduring settlement. When Vólóm heard of it’s stature, he wanted nothing more than to burn it and the people inside. Aware that the city was the last one in the area, he chose to burn the farmlands and disrupt supply to the city to starve it. While doing so, his leviathans surrounded it and fired over 17 shots with their ultrabows into the walls, wiping out most of the defenses and killing hundreds of thousands. With the walls reduced to atoms, the spravac rangers, which had been reinforced with another million, descended upon the city like a plague. Slowly but surely, the spravac strangled the city for days, killing millions of civilians and piling their corpses on pyres to eat roasted.

The display of savagery destroyed the morale of the Ures soldiers, who began to evacuate from the city to head for Trenton with whatever citizens they could recover, with only sparse militia being left to defend the city from the spravac.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 15,572 dead

Ures Soldiers: 63,183 dead

Ures Militia: 23,185 dead

Ures Civilians: 5,488,196 dead

### Siege of Trenton: August 13- September 2, 7017

After the spravac had gorged themselves on the blood of Westminster, they moved to take the city of Trenton in Lancaster, which was about to be attacked by the forces led by Sásgcait. Most of the brown soldiers hadn’t moved to the city itself, as Wells had abandoned command of the forces as she believed that none remained. With barely any soldiers to defend the city itself, it came down to the Ures militia, which was over 100,000 strong.

Despite their numbers, the militia was ill-equipped for combat with the rangers, which the rangers cemented during the siege. The spravac were past the walls and burned the suburbs just two days into the siege. They bombarded the centers of the city with artillery and bombers, levelled most of the city and caused many skyscrapers to tumble down, crushing tens of thousands of civilians. Later in the day of August 15, the forces of Didact Sásgcait entered the city as well, surrounding it and slowly strangling the city. By September 2, the city had fallen and its citizens were left to be butchered by the spravac. Despite the victory, Vólóm believed that too many men had died for a battle that mostly involved militia and exhausted soldiers.

Decisive Spravac Victory

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 30,390 dead

Ures Soldiers: 5,019 dead

Ures Militia: 105,183 dead

Ures Civilians: 4,792,186 dead

## Cumberland Campaign: September 9, 7017- December 29, 7017

Following the vastly successful campaigns in the West, the Didacts moved to focus their attention on the eastern continent of Americana, which was the largest of the three on the planet. Didacts Vólóm and Sásgcait were tasked with taking the massive, densely populated region of Cumberland, with the goal of conquering Daystart, one of the three largest cities on Grace. Before landing, Vólóm suggested that they scorch the immediate area of their landing zone to prevent Ures armies from intercepting them, to which Sásgcait concurred.

The two generals mercilessly bombarded the region from orbit, firing 70 ultrabow shots into separate locations of the region, vaporizing seventeen cities and nineteen villages and their inhabitants.

Bombardment Losses:

Ures Soldiers: 1,402,573 dead

Ures Militia: 122,185 dead

Ures Civilians: 13,481,572 dead

### Battle of Dunsinane: September 13, 7017

After the destruction of the bombardment, the spravac landed unopposed and were able to land the entirety of their army across a 60 mile front. Composed of 10 million marines, Vólóm’s 2 million rangers, and 40,000 Incubi, the army of spravac was prepared to take Cumberland with swift precision and brutality.

For the first 11 days the spravac marched and rampaged as they went, killing hundreds of thousands more civilians that weren’t killed in the Ultrabow blasts. On September 20, the spravac intercepted a marching brown army that was tending to the wounded at the half destroyed city of Dunsinane.

Vólóm, eager to shed further blood, ordered his rangers to take the city, as he and his men were leading the vanguard of the army. The rangers began by harassing the city from afar using their rifles and longbows, disrupting the brown soldiers and causing discord amongst the populace.

After several minutes, the rangers, led by Vólóm, rushed into the city and immediately slaughtered the Ures soldiers. Though they had barely any time to react, the Ures troops fought valiantly, refusing to give up any inch of land until they had all died, which the spravac ensured.

With the soldiers dead, the spravac made quick work of the remaining citizens, torturing and eating the wounded and nailing others to lamposts to be used as a gruesome display of their prowess.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 4,196 dead

Ures Soldiers: 10,284 dead

Ures Civilians: 726,184 dead (700,192 killed before battle)

### Battle of Orsonshire: September 13- September 29, 7017

After the massacre of Dunsinane, Didact Sásgcait ordered his Marines to march towards the nearby city of Orsonshire, which had been abandoned since the bombardment began. The spravac entered the city unopposed and built it up as their base of operations. Sásgcait ordered his longbowmen to station themselves on the towers of the Cathedral of Saint George, a cathedral that was yet to be destroyed. On September 14 General Wells heard about the occupation of Orsonshire and desired to recapture the city.

She ordered her bombers to bombard the city on the 23rd while her soldiers marched towards the city. The spravac longbowmen shot down multiple bombers, as the bombers were unaware of how many spravac were in the city itself. After nearly half the bombers had been destroyed, the squadron retreated, informing Mason of how many spravac were in the city itself.

Sásgcait took the bombardment as a sign that the Ures forces were close and elected to march his soldiers out to the outer fields of the city to meet them in combat. His marines clashed with the Ures vanguard on the 24th, which Sásgcait’s forces easily crushed. Invigorated by the bloodshed, Sásgcait and his marines continued to advance, unaware that the deaths of the vanguard troops alerted the Ures forces, which set up a massive ambush.

Armed with several hundred HASACs and heavy APCs, the Ures forces launched a devastating pincer attack into the spravac as they marched into a lightly wooded forest. Taken completely by surprise, the spravac lost thousands in mere seconds as the brown soldiers fought with a ferocity that Sásgcait didn’t think was possible. By the afternoon, the Ures soldiers were able to use the piles of dead spravac as high ground, killing hundreds more and forcing Sásgcait to pull back as they neared toward his position. As the spravac withdrew, pockets of the marines stayed behind to distract the Ures troops so the rest could reorganize. The spravac embedded extending spikes and vapor mines to play the Ures forces at their own game, using the mines to destroy the APCs that broke through the spravac resistance.

Despite the explosive success of the mines, the APCs continued to push into the spravac lines, with the brown soldiers pushing close behind. Like the forest, thousands of spravac were killed, thus far unable to adapt to the sudden ambush. The embedding spikes sprung forth and impaled thousands of soldiers in moments, signaling to Wells that she should pull back her forces momentarily. As her men were attacking, trenches were constructed by her engineers and were fully functional by the time her men withdrew to them. Sásgcait sent groups of his men to pursue them, but most if not all were mowed down in single volleys.

On the morning of the 25, the Ures soldiers were alerted to a triumphant thundercharge from the spravac, which warned them of the spravac’s coming assault. Under the fire of over 400 machine guns, the spravac lost tens of thousands in the first assault alone, forcing them to pull back and attack again a few hours later. The cycle continued with little to no progress on the spravac front, sowing discontent amongst the marines who began to fight amongst themselves out of boredom.

Desperate to keep his men in line, Sásgcait ordered that another charge be launched on the 25 in tandem with his tanks. The tanks, though they killed thousands, were also unable to break through the Ures defense trench.

Sásgcait’s tank assault moved Wells to go on the offensive again, as she was well aware that Sásgcait would continue to attack her with increasingly larger numbers and overwhelm her forces. The sudden offensive took the spravac off guard again and killed thousands more, with most of the spravac that died in the immediate carnage not even fully dressed from the previous night.

By the evening of the 26, the Ures forces had entered the city of Orsonshire itself, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of slaughtered spravac. The spravac responded with the arrival of Vólóm and his rangers, who had concluded scouting out the northern reaches of Cumberland to finish off any civilians and Ures stragglers.

Wells was unprepared to face the savagery of Vólóm’s Raptors, the nickname given to his army, who swept through their ranks with deadly speed. Their Aquilas and crossbows shot clean through the armor of the brown soldiers and finally the spravac were on the offensive. Sásgcait sent his marines in to assist the rangers, overwhelming the Ures soldiers at several key points.

However, a second Ures army led by Lucy Mason arrived in the north and attacked the spravac from there on September 28. Sásgcait, confident that he could win the battle, told Vólóm to pull back to deal with the white soldiers.

Sásgcait, despite his confidence, was unable to maintain the momentum, as the departure of the rangers from the battle allowed the Ures forces to regain their morale and continue the fight, regaining their lost territory and hacking away at the spravac ranks.

By the morning of the 29, Sásgcait believed that it was wiser to let the Ures have the city to reevaluate his options with Vólóm, who was most displeased with his failure to hold the city.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Ures Soldiers: 704,167 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1,572,593 dead

### Battle of Thatch’s Pass: September 28- September 29, 7017

While Sásgcait continued to struggle for Orsonshire, Vólóm moved to the north to intercept a flanking White army led by General Mason. The Ures forces were in the middle of marching when the rangers assaulted them in the flanks in the evening of the 28th. The sudden assault killed thousands and wounded hundreds more, forcing them to move back to the opening of Thatch’s Pass, a rocky mountain pass that Vólóm was yet to scout.

Instead of attacking the pass itself, Vólóm used his artillery to bombard the Ures soldiers, forcing them out of the pass in the afternoon of the next day.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 624 dead

Ures Soldiers: 3,688 dead

### Second Battle of Orsonshire: October 1- October 3, 7017

After the devastating loss at Orsonshire, both Sásgcait and Vólóm were furious. Eager to retake the city to repair his damaged reputation, Sásgcait ordered that another offensive be launched to retake the city. Instead of launching the attack with a thundercharge, which alerted the Ures forces during the trench assaults, Sásgcait utilized the Incubi, who killed the frontal Ures defenses and patrols, allowing the spravac to advance quietly into the northwestern half of the city. On the morning of October 2, the spravac began to wreak havoc through the Ures ranks, revealing themselves under the fire from artillery and bombing runs. The sudden assault destroyed twelve companies of soldiers in just under and hour, devastating the Ures lines and forcing them out of nearly half of the city.

Wells attempted to respond to the sudden ambush, but was unable to hold the city, allowing the spravac to retake the city even faster than they had lost it. In order to ensure that the Ures forces would not attack again, Sásgcait ordered his marines to continue pursuing the fleeing brown soldiers. Wells ordered her artillery to fire into the mass of spravac soldiers to halt their pursuit, but they simply disregarded the losses and continued under the fire.

By the night of October 2, Wells had ordered all of her soldiers to withdraw to their next set of defenses, rationalizing that her attempt to retake the city was lost.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 23,581 dead

Incubi: 18 dead

Ures Soldiers: 28,175 dead

### Operation Tenebrous Strike: October 5- October 27, 7017

Sásgcait and Vólóm both agreed that if they were to take Cumberland they needed to launch a powerful and brutal offensive to crush any hopes of the Ures forces ever retaliating. They would accomplish this with a bold and potentially disastrous strategy that Vólóm coined “Tenebrous Strike. The Strike, now a standard of spravac military doctrine, would involve a massive false retreat, performed by Sásgcait, that would draw the foe into a false sense of confidence. While the retreat was in full swing, the Striker, performed by Vólóm, would charge deep into the flank of the foe in the night and cause massive casualties. The flank charge would be led by the Incubi.

The two Didacts set their plan into motion on October 5, beginning with a mass bombardment from their bombers and artillery to get the Ures’ attention. Incubi observers warned Sásgcait of the coming soldiers, which the general responded by sending out his tanks and marines to meet the Ures in the field.

The success of the operation purely hinged on Sásgcait being able to put up enough of a fight while subsequently losing without being utterly destroyed or killed in the process, which Sásgcait accomplished by ordering his men to avoid melee combat, instead having his marines stick to mid or long range to draw in the Ures troops.

For six days the two sides traded fire with each other across hundreds of miles of land, all while  Vólóm surreptitiously moved his rangers north over the lines of battle to flank the Ures troops. On October 11, Vólóm was in position and signaled Sásgcait to begin to falter his lines. Sásgcait did this by ordering a sudden melee based charge into the Ures fire. Taking losses that would traditionally break any army, Sásgcait used that as the catalyst for his retreat.

With the spravac retreating, Wells ordered her men to pursue the spravac. Sásgcait drew them into a progressively narrower pathway through the rockier areas of the region.

On October 14, the Ures forces suddenly took tremendous losses from their northern flank. The horde of Incubi tore through the soldiers instantaneously, followed by hordes of the rangers. The rangers and Incubi killed over 40,000 men in just thirty minutes, causing the Ures forces to break almost immediately. With the forces in panic, Sásgcait moved in with his soldiers to help Vólóm in destroying the Ures once and for all.

The marines and rangers consumed the Ures forces like a great tidal wave, washing away hundreds of thousands of men in a wave of blood. The Ures forces were pushed past their original starting position into the valley of Sabrwyth. In the valley, the Ures soldiers fortified to hold out against the spravac, using the thick bogs around the outer edges of the valley to their advantage.

Sásgcait’s marines ceaselessly sprinted through the bogs, weaving and darting through the fire to engage the Ures forces embedded in the muck. The battles in what would be called the “Swamp of Flesh” would continue until October 23, with the spravac eventually breaking through and burning the forest to the ground. Vólóm used his Leviathan Barges to carry his men over the bog and to sow death unto the Ures forces, the rangers jumping from the sides onto the retreating Ures soldiers as they went.

At the center of the valley, a large concentration of 20 Brown Titans and 15 White Titans, along with a fresh force of 80,000 white soldiers were deployed to cover the retreat of the Browns and hold off the spravac at the elevated position that the white soldiers coined “Mason’s Salient”. Vólóm personally led the first charge at the Salient, engaging the white soldiers and 3 of the Brown Titans, personally killing two of the three in the first thirty minutes of the struggle. Vólóm and his Incubi cut down hundreds of the Whites without even losing more than 40 men, pushing them up the Salient.

However, heavy fire from the hill forced them to stay back. The marines attacked in tandem with tanks, killing hundreds more white soldiers but still not penetrating the defense.

On October 25, Vólóm attacked again, drawing out the Whites and the White Titans. Using a false charge, Sásgcait and the marines launched a flank charge that devastated the forces and killed 9 of the White Titans, two of which were slain by Vólóm. By October 26, the spravac pushed the soldiers off of the Salient, forcing the remaining 23 Titans to retreat alongside the white soldiers.

Convinced that, in order to halt the spravac advance, an offensive action was necessary, Mason and Wells reorganized their troops to attempt a countercharge to fight against the Didacts and their vicious horde. However, during the meeting between the officers to confirm the order, an Incubus had successfully learned of their plan and warned Vólóm and Sásgcait, allowing them to prepare.

Lining the field that the Ures were planning to attack with vapor mines and longbowmen on the hills, the spravac were prepared to crush the Ures forces. When the Ures came into view on October 27 to attack, they were devastated by the constant fire. Vólóm, in order to ensure that the Ures were entirely broken, charged with his Incubi into the retreating soldiers, cutting down hundreds more and killing another 4 Titans.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 820,189 dead

Incubi: 102 dead

Ures Soldiers: 1,946,283 dead

Titans: 19 dead

### Battle of the Sheridan River: October 30, 7017

After the Tenebrous Strike utterly devastated the Ures forces, they [the Ures] were in a full on scattered retreat. Vólóm ordered small units of his men to chase the retreating soldiers and capture them. Of the retreating forces, the largest was the force near the Sheridan River, which was led by the remaining 16 White and Brown Titans. The Titans had over 12,000 men with them, most of which were unarmed and heavily wounded. Pursuing them was 8 Incubi and 1,000 rangers, who were fresh and heavily armed. The Titans, along with the strongest men, volunteered to hold off the spravac while the other Ures forces escaped, making their stand at the banks of the Sheridan River.

The Incubi, led by one of Vólóm’s lieutenants, Archon Bûnscz Sgcár, engaged their stealth suits and snuck around the Titans and soldiers to lie in wait for Sgcár’s signal. The rangers attacked the Ures, who outnumbered them, in a loose formation charge, losing few to fire and killing multiple men before they entered the melee.

When the melee began, the Incubi revealed themselves and charged into the backs of the Ures forces while still cloaked, cutting down hundreds. When their stealth tech shut down to recharge, they began to engage the Titans, slowly but surely killing each of them. The leader of the Brown Titans, Duncan Frost, successfully cut off Sgcár’s sword hand, but was unable to land the killing blow after Sgcár stabbed him with a dagger coated with Lifesbane, a deadly poison that caused the skin around his wound to tighten and split apart until his wound was the size of the entire left side of his body.

With their commander dead, the Titans could only delay their defeat, though they were the last to fall.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 342 dead

Incubi: 3 dead

Ures Soldiers: 1,482 dead

Titans: 16 dead

### Battle of Nottingham’s Pass: November 2- November 8, 7017

By November, Grace had entered its winter season, leading to heavy snowfall that greatly impeded the mobility of both the spravac and the Ures forces. The Ures, still in retreat, were slowed and were beginning to perish from frostbite, while the spravac were unfamiliar with the climate and were also slowed, though not as heavily as the Ures.

The spravac, led by Vólóm, stumbled upon the majority of the Ures forces that were found at the Sheridan River. Vólóm and the 3,000 that had accompanied him in one of his routine scouting actions elected to bleed the Ures slowly, placing charges on the upper edges of Nottingham’s Pass, a mountain pass that the Ures were attempting to go through.

At the precise moment, the spravac detonated the charges and buried half of the Ures forces in snow and rock. While the Ures were distracted, the Rangers descended from the rocks and began to take Ures prisoners to torture later, leaving the Ures dazed and confused.

On November 3, more of the Ures soldiers had fallen to the cold and were beginning to become sick with a disease of unknown origin. The disease, eventually nicknamed Greyblight, was actually a tick carried by the spravac soldiers. Usually a benign creature, the Greyblight ticks spread where the spravac were, and had a liking for raw, unprotected wounds. With every spravac that was killed, millions of ticks began to spread throughout the Ures wilderness.

Overnight at Nottingham’s Pass, the terror of Greyblight was fully realized. Ures soldiers began to collapse from intense fevers and vomiting, examined corpses revealed hundreds of tiny grey holes all over the bodies, which was the result of Greyblight ticks eating away at flesh at an exponential rate.

Over the course of six days, more than half of the Ures forces fell to the Greyblight, allowing the spravac to simply attack at their leisure. The Ures forces barely stood against the spravac attacks, eventually all perishing on October 8 after the last of the Greyblight victims died.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 18 dead

Ures Soldiers: 10,082 (9,201 to disease)

### Siege of Daystart: November 20-December 29, 7017

After the Ures stragglers had been run down, Vólóm and Sásgcait turned their violet eyes to the major primate city of Daystart, the largest and most advanced city on the continent. With over 21 million civilians and a garrison army of 4 million brown soldiers and the three remaining Brown Titans from Operation Tenebrous Strike, the spravac were preparing for what Vólóm called “the greatest battle of my career thus far.”

The spravac still had 9.5 million soldiers to utilize for the siege, but they were so spread out to cover as much land as possible that only 1.4 million were prepared to immediately assault the city. Vólóm suggested a frontal charge into the city to overwhelm the Ures soldiers, who theorized would be exhausted and uneager to fight, to win the battle quickly, while Sásgcait believed that bombarding the city with withering artillery fire while waiting for the rest of the spravac soldiers to converge onto the city would be a wiser move. However, Sásgcait’s over-willingness to go along with Vólóm’s plans allowed the latter to launch his frontal assault.

On November 20, Vólóm and his rangers gallantly charged towards the limits of the city, which was guarded by machine guns and advanced automated turrets. The guns killed surprisingly few rangers due to their sparse formation and speed, which promptly closed the gap between them and the machine guns. Once behind the line, they made butcher’s work of the soldiers guarding the gates into the city. The spravac also discovered the gateways to underground tram systems that civilians used to traverse the city. Vólóm relayed this information to Sásgcait, ordering him to send hordes of marines into the subways to invade the city from below. As the marines did so, they discovered hordes of civilians taking refuge within the corners of the labyrinth. The marines below would go on to kill millions of the civilians, so much that they had to eat their way through piles of bodies that clogged the tunnels.

Above, Vólóm continued to battle the Ures forces, though they were beginning to slow his advance. General Wells ordered her best soldiers to use the above-ground monorails to move behind the rangers and envelope them, inflicting high casualties. Upon realizing he was trapped,  Vólóm ordered his rangers to scatter through the alleyways and demanded that Sásgcait bombard the city with artillery like he planned until reinforcements arrived.

For the next four days, the rangers waged a shadow war against the Ures forces, using deadly hit and run tactics to disable their convoys and sow terror amongst the civilians, even abducting some of them.

Meanwhile, the spravac marines below finally found entrances into the city, further confusing the Ures garrison. Despite these surprise attacks, the Ures forces used their defeat of the dreaded “Titan Slayer” as a rallying cry to continue the fight, as cornered Ures forces resolved to fight to the death at every turn. On November 25, 1 million marines from the south arrived to reinforce the faltering spravac forces. Opening their attack with bombing runs that targeted civilian areas and hospitals, the Ures morale was beginning to crack. The marines then swept through the under defended southern entrance, which General Wells believed wouldn’t be attacked so soon. The spravac brought divisions of tanks with them as well, using their antimatter ballistas to bring down entire blocks of buildings.

Though the Ures were now distracted by this sudden attack, Wells did not neglect the rangers and Vólóm, who were still rampaging through the city unseen. Vólóm led the Ures to believe that he was killed after his forces were flanked, which Wells knew to be false but allowed her soldiers to believe it since it greatly improved their morale. In order to kill Vólóm once and for all, Wells requested that a team of Black Titans be sent to assassinate him. The team sent was the same that assassinated Tulic Broscz during the Lancaster Campaign, so Wells and Ures High Command believed that Vólóm would be no different.

The team, led by Donald Grist, were deployed on the night of November 25, dodging the firefights between the new spravac reinforcements and the brown soldiers. They picked up on Vólóm’s trail and discovered the corpse of a Brown Titan later identified as Brandon Norris, whose head was mounted on a pike thirteen feet away from his body, which showed extensive signs of torture with both fire and blades. As they examined the body, Vólóm shot Grist through the head with a longbow, rending the team of their leadership in an instant. Vólóm and his Incubus retainers then leapt from the rooftops and engaged the confused Black Titans. Vólóm engaged another of the Titans, Jeffrey MacDonald, in hand-to-hand combat, almost immediately overpowering him and cleaving him down the middle with his sword. The final Titan, Xander Eriksson, attempted to kill Vólóm with a knife in the neck, but Vólóm, without even looking behind him, cut the Titan’s right arm off. Vólóm, gripping the Titan by the neck, spared him, telling him “warn your people, I will come for them, show them and tell them what happens when they send cowards in black. If they wish to kill me, they can do it like men.”

After the failed attempt on Vólóm’s life reached the ears of the garrison forces, they began to despair, as Vólóm used this news to resurface and sow terror once more. He ordered the rest of the Incubi to join him in terrorizing the city. The Incubi only worsened the battle for the garrison, as the hordes of spravac from the entire front were all converging on the city at last, devastating the city and reducing even more of it to rubble. The savage killing and rape of civilians only escalated, their flayed skin and skulls adorning the sides of the spravac’s tanks and flag pikes.

In a desperate attempt to ward off some of the spravac in hopes of alleviating the suffering of the city, Wells was able to requisition the 17th Brown Army, commanded by General Gill Manchester, from the thus far unengaged continent of Americana to flank the spravac forces in the north. Disparate and frenzied, the spravac were unprepared for the flanking army, which arrived with a vengeance on November 28. Shouting battlecries and charging into the spravac lines like a hurricane of bullets, the brown soldiers cut down hundreds of thousands of surprised spravac in just two days of battle, effectively wrecking the entire northern front of the siege.

To make matters worse for the spravac, two Ures frigates from Americana’s spaceports arrived in the atmosphere and bombarded the spravac forces and the city itself with their medium ordinance, devastating the spravac and sending thousands more to their rictus demises.

Sásgcait turned his antimatter artillery on the frigates, shooting bolts of searing energy at the hulls of the ships, causing one of them to come crashing down onto the field, crushing Ures and spravac alike. The suburbs surrounding the city were flattened into oblivion by the clawing of spravac and the falling debris of the frigate, named Victory’s Dawn. The Ures forces attempted to hole up inside the mainly intact wreckage of the Dawn, but were shocked to find spravac already inside, who pushed them out and slaughtered hundreds more in the battle for the vessel.

The Ures would find no scarcity of ships however, as suddenly another frigate was shot down by suicidal spravac Dagger Fighters that were sent by Správ.

With both frigates forcefully scuttled, the spravac turned their attention back to the city and the Ures flanking army, which had been reduced from over 1,000,000 to a few companies struggling for survival.

By December 6, the 17th had been wiped out completely, including Manchester, allowing the spravac to refocus their attention to the faltering city. The last 23 days of the siege saw little to no fighting, as the garrison had been reduced to a few poorly equipped brigades, while the spravac still had millions of marines to throw at them. In order to save the lives of her men, General Wells evacuated the remaining soldiers and civilians along with herself, allowing the spravac to take the ruined city and whatever Uresians were left.

Despite the victory, most of Vólóm’s rangers had been killed in fighting, though Vólóm himself regarded the victory as a glorious one.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 3,571,672 dead

Incubi: 206 dead

Ures ships: 2 destroyed

Ures naval servicemen: 642 dead

Ures Soldiers: 4,815,779 dead

Titans: 5 dead

Ures Civilians: 18,581,572 dead

## Valeland Campaign: January 7, 7018- January 13, 7018

After the news of the Fall of Daystart reached the Ures forces north and south of Cumberland, they were ordered to abandon the continent entirely, as they believed that the spravac would surely win the continent if they could take Daystart in just a month. The billions of civilians were evacuated to Americana, which housed two Primate cities, Yellowhill and Richmond, the latter of which was the planetary capital housing the Governor, Nathaniel Halifax. The most westward of the regions, Valeland, was heavily guarded by the largest concentration of Ures forces on the entire planet, with over 20 million troops to combat the spravac.

The mission to capture Valeland was assigned to Seránó Tzár, who Blood Alchemist Správ admired as a strategic and ingenious general who would conquer Valeland quicker than the likes of Vólóm and Sásgcait, who were both beginning to nurse a dislike for the Blood Alchemist’s methods. The goal of capturing Valeland was to establish a landing zone for more spravac forces, including Didact Vólóm, who was proving to be instrumental to the capture of the planet.

Tzár was given 6 million Antimatter Rangers, 12 million marines, 400,000 Kelairo Vampire Infantry, and 100,000 Incubi, the largest concentration of Incubi in the war thus far. Tzár also had fire support from the entire fleet which was now routinely orbiting Americana’s entire landscape, as well as a host of tanks and gunships. In addition to the standard Imperial Warships, Tzár was also given a Reavar Infector Ship, a massive hive that produced billions of reavar spores to rain down on the cities of Valeland.

### Battle of Pembroke Coast: January 7- January 8, 7018

In order to conquer Valeland, which was guarded by an advanced array of anti-air defenses, Tzár had to capture the Pembroke Coast to establish a beachhead, from there he could capture Lanceguard Station, which controlled the anti-air defenses, allowing him to land the rest of his troops around the entire region for maximum damage and speed.

The Pembroke Coast was lined by an iron sea wall lined with automatic laser turrets, as well as heavy coastal guns that fired 3 meter airburst shells that could easily down heavy shuttles and gunships with a single shot. Tzár was aware that the casualties assaulting the coast would be vast if he didn’t disable at least a few of the coastal guns, so he sent Gemini Incubi to infiltrate the guns in the night of January 7 to disable as many of the guns as they could.

By the morning of January 8, 17 of the 20 guns had been rigged with plasma charges to explode on Tzár’s signal, who wanted to draw the Ures defenders into a sense of fall security.

As the gunships and dropships loaded with the rangers raced towards the coast, they came under heavy fire, losing 70 dropships in just 30 minutes. The Gemini sprung the trap after the point, causing the rigged guns to explode in violent torrents of plasma and fire. The explosions were so powerful they caused chunks of the wall itself to explode with them, lessening the fire taken by the spravac landing force. The spravac rangers landed on the beaches and assaulted the breaches with deadly speed, barely losing any soldiers once they had their talons sinking into the powdery sand.

As the spravac established forward bases at the breaches, the Gemini continued to sow death and destruction from the shadows, assassinating several key officers and General Cassius F. Lorde, the commander in charge of the defense. With their commander dead, the Ures fell into a mass rout and began to retreat into the hills of Pembroke, though the Gemini blocked their path by burning down large portions of the surrounding forest, blocking their way and allowing the rangers to slaughter or capture them, including Lorde’s second-in-command Lieutenant General Bridget Valentine, who Tzár questioned for information about the Valeland region.

She revealed to Tzár the exact location and garrison of Lanceguard, as well as the lightest defended areas of Valedale where Tzár could send his troops once Lanceguard had been destroyed or captured. Once she had given Tzár everything he wanted, he promised to send her back to Richmond once Lanceguard had been captured.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 4,315 dead

Ures Soldiers: 10,582 dead

### Infiltration of Lanceguard: January 8, 7018

Under the blackmail of Tzár, Valentine was ordered to open the gates for Lanceguard so his Incubi and rangers could sneak in without difficulty. Tzár also promised her that if she managed to take Lanceguard for them without any struggles, he would send her back to Richmond with information about his own army movements for her to tell the Ures forces, provided she didn’t reveal that she got the information from Tzár himself.

When Valentine arrived at the gates, she ordered that the staff leave because of the danger of spravac coming to take the station. The guards heeded her warning and began to evacuate, however, as they left, the Gemini slaughtered them in secret. Valentine then gave the access codes to the AA guns to Tzár, who in turn gave them to his Incubi, who then commandeered the guns to use for their own use.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Ures Soldiers: 45 dead

### Battle of New Cardiff (Massacre of New Cardiff): January 10, 7018

As per the agreement, Tzár gave Valentine the location of 4 million marines and kelairo soldiers that were being deployed to take the northern city of Wrexham, which was a decently sized civilian population that was lightly defended. To ensure that Valentine did not reveal the source of her information (thus compromising Tzár’s plan), he placed a poison capsule in the nape of her neck, with her knowledge of its existence, that would inject her with a vicious neurotoxin that would kill her in seventeen seconds if she revealed his plot. There was a small speaker embedded in the capsule that would detect her surroundings, and was outfitted with a remote detonation that Tzár could press himself at any moment.

When Valentine revealed the information to General Wells of the spravac attack on Wrexham, she ordered her soldiers in the nearby military industrial city of New Cardiff to move to the town to defend it. It was at this point that Tzár implemented his lie. He sent his entire force to attack New Cardiff instead, which had been almost completely cleansed of soldiers.

Tzár ordered the kelairo, who were bigger and tougher than the spravac, to take the brunt of whatever Ures soldiers were left, which the kelairo did with ease, at times the bullets of the Ures didn’t even penetrate their leathery hides. With a beachhead in the city properly established, the marines swarmed into the city, massacring the civilians throughout the city and the wounded inside the base itself. Incubi were then dropped in by Shadow Dropships to search for information, where they found locations of several Ures armies, their compositions, and their response times. Because the city was so lightly damaged, Tzár would use it as his command post due to its vast caches of information.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 73 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 982 dead

Ures Soldiers: 1,928 dead

Ures Civilians: 45,295 dead

### Battle of Pembroke City: January 10-12, 7018

While Cardiff fell, Tzár moved more of his soldiers to take Pembroke City, the coastal capital of Valeland. The city was guarded by over 2 million Uresian troops, while Tzár only had 400,000 spravac soldiers immediately in the area. Tzár then resolved to bombard the city with the Reavar Infector, firing down 14 capsules filled with billions of tiny spores. The spores spread through the city and infected thousands of civilians and soldiers, turning them into mindless drones that attacked each other with intense savagery. With the city in terror from the drones, the spravac, which was mostly composed of rangers, assaulted the city from the front, using their antimatter to destroy entire city blocks.

The drones began to dwindle after soldiers armed with flame throwers entered the fray, burning away the drones and the pods producing them. The rangers, now deeply entrenched in the city, were forced to bunker down in their captured districts to wait for reinforcements, holding back the Ures forces for the entirety of the 11th. On January 12, in the early morning, more spravac marines arrived from the north. The marines charged under the cover of axe-bombers, which levelled entire blocks and vaporized entire companies of soldiers. The Ures forces were eventually ordered by Wells to break out of the city to link up with other Ures armies, which the local army obliged. In a daring gamble, the Uresians, covered by Ures long range artillery and their remaining APCs, charged out of the city past the spravac marines, carrying as many civilians as they could out of the city. Though some of the APCs were damaged and their occupants killed, most of them were able to escape, leaving the city to be burnt to the ground by the spravac.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 67,194 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 543,183 dead

Ures Soldiers: 1,284,574 dead (140,183 killed as Reavar drones)

Ures Civilians: 1,492,667 (403,000 killed as Reavar drones)

### Valeland Death March: January 11-13, 7018

After the fall of the provincial capital, Wells had been forced to cede most of the Vale’s territory to Tzár, who had used his new array of anti-air guns to shoot down shuttles and dropships carrying Ures forces, killing over 200,000 over the course of just a few hours. Tzár organized his troops to take the rest of the remaining territory in a massive offensive against Wells’ disorganized troops.

With the rangers and Incubi leading the vanguard, the VDM began its advance on January 11, landing the troops just 150 miles away from the closest Ures army. The rangers charged mercilessly into the Ures lines, which were stationed in the river city of Charlotte. The rangers instantly broke the Ures lines, who were unprepared to face the elite soldiers so early. Taking more prisoners than they killed outright, the rangers took Charlotte in just three hours, though most of the civilians had been evacuated during the Battle of Pembroke city.

After they had finished torturing the last of the Ures soldiers, the rangers and Incubi moved to take the town of Greenwich, which had already been besieged by a company of kelairo soldiers. The Incubi lead the charge into the small town, massacring the populace and soldiers there. The taking of Greenwich created a new boundary, which Wells coined the “Grey Line”. It was entirely parallel to the actual eastern border of Valeland, with only 100 miles between the two boundaries. Wells knew that the spravac were going to take Valeland, so she ordered her soldiers to fully retreat and meet with the other Ures forces at Yellowhill and Richmond, which were the last bastions of Ures strength on the world. With his conquest of Valeland complete, Tzár signalled for Správ to land Vólóm and his horde.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 43,158 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 65 dead

Incubi: 2 dead

Ures Soldiers: 302,482 dead

Ures Civilians: 732,573

## Americana Counteroffensive: January 20- March 5, 7018

After the brutally swift capture of Valeland, General Wells devised a new plan to keep the spravac from winning the planet (which to some was becoming an inevitability). Rather than be purely defensive, Wells followed the example of General Adam Hoover, who caused massive spravac casualties earlier in the war with his bold offensive operations. Though she had no frigates or dreadnoughts to use in the atmosphere, she had a sizable fleet of heavy gunships and tanks, as well as over 18 million soldiers. However, she was unaware that Didact Tzár had been replaced by Vólóm, who had established himself amongst the Uresian troops as an unstoppable force.

To win the battle, Wells organized her troops as a massive blitzing wedge that would punch through the spravac lines and take control of the easternmost AA Gun station; Trident. The capture of the Trident would allow her to regain control of at least a few of the AA guns to allow her gunships to support the infantry, which still outnumbered the spravac forces based on the reports given to Wells.

Operation Blacksmith: January 20- January 21, 7018

Beginning the Counteroffensive with the attack against Trident Station, the spravac had reinforced the station with towering black structures that were mounted with antimatter ballistas and automatic crossbow turrets.

The brown soldiers attacked in the late night of January 20, losing hundreds to the crossbow fire and Incubi garrison. The Incubi, which were only 120, held off over three thousand Ures soldiers until the morning of January 22 when Vólóm ordered them to withdraw. With Trident taken, the Ures forces took over the station, though they soon discovered that the Incubi had already reconfigured the network to only control one fourth of the AA cannons, the rest of them being controlled by Lanceguard 1,000 miles away.

Costly Ures Victory:

Ures Soldiers: 2,127 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 102 dead

Incubi: 43 dead

### Battle of the Carroughland Mountains: January 21- March 5, 7018

Following the capture of Trident Station, Wells implemented her full offensive. The massive army, with a vanguard of tanks and heavy infantry, would charge straight through the spravac lines as gunships launched strafing runs to disrupt their organization. They would charge through the Carroughland Mountains, a rocky and mountainous expanse of light forests, lakes, and buttes. The limited trails of the buttes meant that the tanks would only be able to move in a narrow column, which the spravac used to their maximum advantage. Waiting in the buttes was Vólóm and the entirety of the rangers, which included both Plasma Thorn and Antimatter. Their blood red armor gave them away early, but the sight of the vicious warriors was enough to send the vanguard into a panic.

The rangers charged through the rocks and slaughtered the vanguard, creating piles of bodies so high that they leveled out the terrain. The tanks were flipped over and sent tumbling down the mountain side by the sheer mass of spravac soldiers.

When news of the fall of the vanguard reached the main Ures force, they fortified and cut down the rangers as they inched closer to them. The rangers, forced to bunker down in the rocks and hills, waged a battle of attrition while the spravac air force moved towards the mountains to support them. The air support included the terrifying Flame Spewer, a deadly flamethrower gunship that swooped in and burnt the Ures alive. The wave of fire emboldened the spravac, causing them to frenzy and charge straight through the blaze into the Ures troops, cutting down thousands more. However, they also lost hundreds to the supporting Ures troops that had come to reinforce the collapsing vanguard, forcing the rangers to pull back save for Vólóm and his personal guard.

The didact deftly cut through soldiers after soldier while his bodyguard ensured his safety, which was becoming more and more difficult as the didact hurled himself into greater danger. The Ures forces were miraculously advancing through the mountains save for the ones engaged by Vólóm, who remained a constant obstacle. Vólóm’s stand inspired the rangers to continue their fight and they charged back into the Ures advance, sending hundreds plummeting to their jagged deaths below.

By January 25 the Ures had been pushed down to the foot of the Carroughland Mountains, though Wells had utilized this and sent forces to circle around and advance through the mountains past the rangers. These forces ran into only limited resistance to marines and machine gun emplacements. The gunships above had pushed back the spravac air support and by January 27, Vólóm was reluctantly forced to withdraw into the mountains to defend from the flanking Ures forces.

When he reached his command post with his remaining Incubi forces, he devised a new strategy to devastate the Ures forces. He ordered his entire Incubi force to charge into the flanking forces while his marines used their crossbows to shoot down the low flying gunships, all while his rangers continued to hold off the main Ures central formation.

With over 100,000 Incubi charging into the flanks, the Ures pincer collapsed almost immediately. A single Incubi fought with the strength of a platoon, and a hundred Incubi was considered a force strong enough to warrant a retreat, so when Wells saw tens of thousands of the deadly warriors she had a look of visible fear across her countenance, which in turn caused her pincer force to break down. The crossbows of the marines easily shot down the gunships in the hundreds, causing them to crash into the buttes and into the Ures formations. The ones that crashed into the buttes would prove to be deadly, causing rockslides that buried Ures and spravac alike. The rockslides nearly halted both armies, who spent the next week trying to reorganize their forces.

The spravac were ready before the Ures were, sending Incubi led strike teams to disrupt Ures efforts to dig up their dead and wounded. These teams were enough to send the Ures running down the mountains and into the deep crevices of the buttes, which the spravac followed.

Most of these soldiers would not return from this retreat, most of them starving or succumbing to their wounds.

The elite shock-troops of the Ures army, the white soldiers, were the only ones who were able to put up a defense against the spravac raids, though they faltered when Vólóm periodically led one of these attacks. The Ures had 10 Titans with them at the beginning of the battle, now only having 7 after Vólóm’s attack.

Vólóm slew another White Titan named Jim Carstein on February 3, puncturing his skull with his talon through the eye socket. Many Ures soldiers had witnessed this and used his death as a rallying cry, attempting to charge at Vólóm who cut them all down in a matter of hours along with his guard.

On February 8, the dust had settled enough that Wells was willing to continue the offensive, though her soldiers were beginning to starve and collapse from dehydration. The spravac did not suffer nearly as much, eating their own dead and even themselves at some points to survive the brutality of the alpine warfare. However, they were beginning to run low on ammunition, and even the fearless Vólóm was aware that melee combat alone would not be enough to break the Ures forces, so he resolved to cede parts of the mountain to move his men back to gather more supplies at the Victorian Plateau, which he was using as a landing zone for more soldiers and material.

This sudden withdrawal was capitalized by Wells, who moved in her forces to take the territory and advance. The advance continued until March 1, with her forces taking nearly seventy percent of the gargantuan mountain range. However, when they reached the plateau, Vólóm’s army wasn’t there, only the remains of the camp, which had been stripped of any resources whatsoever. Only the mutilated corpses of tortured Ures prisoners remained, most of them half eaten and decomposed.

When the Ures vanguard reached the center of the camp, a string of antimatter bombs suddenly triggered, blowing away the entire plateau and over 100,000 Ures soldiers in a second. After the dust settled, the Ures survivors captured the last of the mountain range, revealed the rest of Vólóm’s army; 20 million more marines and rangers and another sixty thousand Incubi camping in the wide expanse of Gloucestershire, the province that leads straight to Yellowhill and Richmond.

Costly Tactical Ures Victory, Decisive Strategic Spravac Victory:

Ures Soldiers: 2,199,617 dead

Titans: 5 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 834,492 dead

Incubi: 2,194 dead

## Gloucestershire Campaign: March 5- June 7, 7018

Marking the final campaign of the first phase of the Battle for Grace, The Ures Empire still had 16.1 million soldiers to combat the spravac, though they were beginning to run low on supplies and were losing hundreds everyday to Greyblight, which had become a pandemic on the continents. Vólóm had been reinforced with countless more spravac soldiers, numbering at over 20 million marines, rangers, Incubi, and malthale. In addition, Vólóm had the Reavar Infector Ship bombard targets of his choosing.

Killed by Greyblight:

Ures Soldiers: 4,692,677 dead

Ures Civilians: 23,192,582 dead

### Battle of Locke’s Gap: March 5, 7018

Rather than pass through the Carroughlands and through 16 million Ures troops, Vólóm elected to move around the Ures forces. He was well aware, through Incubi spies in the Ures ranks, that Wells was not planning to attack his armies head on, so he decided to lead a small unit of 500 Rangers and 50 Incubi to scout a new route to move around the mountains to reach Yellowhill and attack the Ures from the rear. Ures forces noticed this movement, but Wells did not want to send too many soldiers to intercept the spravac, because she thought that if she did, Vólóm would order his whole army to attack through the Carroughland.

She sent Gordon Locke, a captain of the White Titans, to lead the remaining 4 Titans and an elite unit of Whites to face the spravac. This unit, the 13th Infantry Regiment (“Reaving Skulls”), were considered by many Ures soldiers to be the finest soldiers in White Division.

The 2,000 soldiers guarded a narrow, 300 meter wide northern pass that they named Locke’s Gap, pledging to hold off the spravac soldiers. Vólóm, upon seeing Locke and the soldiers, was overjoyed that he could kill more of the supersoldiers, and openly mocked the force before charging forward with his rangers.

The rangers’ superior weaponry cut straight through the cover that the 13th brought with them, destroying their superior position and allowing the Incubi, who had circled around, to enter the line with their swords and machine pistols drawn. The rangers barely took any losses on the advance, their crimson armor deflecting stray bullets like water against a concrete wall. The rangers used their Aquila rifles, with their superheated steel bayonets, to skewer the white soldiers and at times even saw them in half with the spikes that adorned the barrels.

Vólóm personally dueled Locke, severing his hand before cleaving him from the navel to the chin, allowing his guts to spill out onto the ground. The Incubi slayed the other four Titans, dismembering them and displaying their destroyed, bloodied helmets as trophies on flags. The rangers slaughtered the last of the 13th, leaving none alive.

With the Gap secured, Vólóm gave the signal for his hordes to move, though he ordered 8 million of the men to remain in the field to flank the Ures army if they made movements to attack his main force.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 103 dead

Incubi: 1 dead

Ures Soldiers: 2,031 dead

Titans: 5 dead

### Second Battle of the Carroughland Mountains: March 7- April 2, 7018

After Locke’s Gap fell, Wells was hard pressed on deciding how to retaliate. As the spravac forces moved through the gap, she was unsure who to attack. Unable to split her force since both spravac armies would outnumber her split forces if she even wanted a semblance of winning. Vólóm’s main force marched at record speed, covering miles of ground in just a day, destroying small villages as he went. His Incubi spies signalled to him that Wells was going to move to intercept his force and leave an entrenched force to defend against his flanking army.

Vólóm, satisfied by Wells’ choice to attack him, ordered his flanking army to assault the trench under the cover of heavy artillery fire and Reavar Capsule bombardment.

As the reavar spores sowed chaos through the trench, the spravac marines easily broke through the line, killing all who weren’t possessed by the deadly spores. The horde then moved to chase after Wells’ army, which was desperately racing through the mountains to intercept the Didact.

In order to slow them down, Vólóm ordered the ships above to bombard the army from above with incendiary torpedoes, which burned away thousands of soldiers with every shot. As the army slowed from the bombardment, the marines charged into them and caused further casualties. The exhausted Ures soldiers bunkered down and turned their entire force around to face this flanking army, allowing Vólóm to continue his march towards Yellowhill. In order to give the doomed city a chance, Wells warned them of the incoming army.

The Ures held the spravac at a stalemate for eight days, fending off constant raids and boisterous charges from the hyperactive avians. On March 15, one of their raids, which was bolstered by malthale Blackguard, succeeded, disrupting the trench line and causing it to break apart. The marines tore through the Ures defenders, taking hundreds more prisoners to eat alive as they continued the battle.

At this point, General Wells was sure that her force in Carroughland would fall, so she called for shuttles to evacuate her and as many soldiers as they could. The Ures desperately held off the spravac until April 2, when the dropships arrived in waves to carry away the soldiers, unaware that they were carrying with them Greyblight ticks and other spravac diseases.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1,492,472 dead

Ures Soldiers: 2,382,093 dead

### Siege of Yellowhill (the Rape of the Hill): April 1- April 28, 7018

Wells had warned General Norman Augustine, the commander in charge of the garrison of Yellowhill, that the spravac were approaching the grand city. The populace had not been evacuated due to there being nowhere to send them, so Augustine had them armed to defend the city as militia since most of his soldiers had been moved to serve Wells. With them gone, the city’s garrison was primarily militia and rear echelon brown soldiers, along with 15 Titans.

Vólóm reached the city on April 1, ordering the ships above to bombard the city with incendiaries to burn it, but not outright destroy it, as he wanted to cause as much suffering for the people inside as possible. He then had his tanks and heavy artillery bombard the city from the west while his rangers burned the outer wheat fields.

He continued this until April 13, having starved his rangers of battle enough that they were becoming nearly animalistic. When he gave the signal to attack, the rangers, marines, and malthale swarmed into the city like the wave of a great tsunami, barely losing any men to the militia and garrison troops. The Titans attempted to establish a chokepoint, but were overwhelmed when Vólóm himself led his Incubi into the fray, slaughtering them to the last. The spravac pillaged every building they came across, taking female citizens to rape while the rangers massacred the men. With them, they carried Greyblight ticks, which caused further death before the spravac even reached them.

General Augustine and his reserves held themselves up in the mayor’s house, which was at the center of the city on the hill. They valiantly held off the spravac as they climbed up the walls and clawed their way through the walls, but it was only a matter of time before Vólóm and his men broke through, causing the entire building to collapse, with Augustine’s flayed corpse displayed at the top of the rubble. The last days were spent cleaning out the rest of the Uresian civilians, with the last of the 27 million inhabitants slayed on April 28.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 347,198 dead

Incubi: 8 dead

Ures Soldiers: 605,366 dead

Ures Militia: 2,568,778 dead

Ures Civilians: 24,906,612 dead

### Siege of Richmond and Ures Withdrawal: May 18- June 7, 7018

With Yellowhill burned to the ground, Vólóm had his eyes set on Richmond. He ordered his army in the Carroughland to meet his force there. He wanted to starve Richmond out rather than destroy it, for Sprav wished for it to be the base of operations for future battles on the planet.

The siege lasted almost entirely bloodless on the spravac’s part, save for the few that killed each other out of boredom. The Uresians holed up inside the city slowed, starved or died to the Greyblight menace, which was killing thousands every hour.

Finally, on June 7, General Wells ordered her ships docked at Richmond to load up with the last civilians and soldiers, leaving the city mostly empty. The shuttles circled around the planet and left on the other hemisphere to avoid the spravac navy.

With the city taken, Vólóm was moved to Iris to break the frigid world, though he would be redeployed to Grace when the zyyntoreans sent their legions to liberate the battered planet.

Decisive Spravac Victory, Ures surrender Grace to the Spravac Empire:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 4,294 dead to infighting

Ures Soldiers: 1,471,582 dead to Greyblight and starvation

Ures Civilians: 16,756,604 dead to Greyblight and starvation

# Second Phase (Grace Militia Guerilla Campaign): June 7, 7018- May 20, 7019

Following the expulsion of the remaining Ures troops off of Grace, the spravac began to spread through the parts of the planet they missed to further pillage and burn. Didact Seránó Tzár was tasked with maintaining ownership over the planet, controlling the newly constructed Grace Garrison Army, which was composed of 1 million marines, 300,000 malthale, and 3 million deentrox, and 1 million other various auxiliaries.

Despite winning the planet, the populace of Grace was still over 6 billion, and most of them were armed. The militia had been organized into a single organized paramilitary, the Uresian Liberation Militia of Grace, led by the charismatic Nathaniel Halifax, who was forced to take refuge in the Governor's Palace within Richmond to avoid being killed by the spravac. He commanded the militia in secret, providing them with weapons from a cache within the palace, which emptied into the sewers and underground bomb shelters which the rebels were using as a base of operations. Most of the fighting would occur in Richmond, as it was the only substantial city that remained intact from the war, as the other two major cities had been burnt to the ground and cleansed of life.

Not all of Grace was united in their opposition to the Spravac Occupation, however. Didact Tzár instituted the creation of the Collaborator Brigades, units of Grace civilians, usually inmates from prisons, armed with spravac gear and used to suppress the civilian population through terrorist attacks, intimidation, and brute force.

## Richmond Rebellion: June 7, 7018- August 7, 7018

The capital city of Richmond was garrisoned by 200,000 spravac and 300 malthale, with an additional 45,000 Collaborators liberated from the Richmond Correctional Facility and the Richmond Federal Prison. Liberated from the RFP was Brendan Helmenn, a notorious serial killer and rapist who was imprisoned two years before the invasion, serving three consecutive life sentences. Tzár almost admired Helmenn, giving him a position of power within the highly centralized Collaborator Brigades, giving him the rank of Arch Punisher. Underneath Helmenn, the Collaborators were set upon Richmond to battle the UMLG alongside spravac handlers, sowing terror amongst the residents.

### Supply Raid of Brooke Street: June 7, 7018

In the morning of June 7, ULMG members car bombed a passing patrol carrying weapons and killed the guards, stealing the weapons to use in future battle. In response to the explosion, Collaborators were sent to investigate the attack, exchanging fire with the rebels, killing two of them before they escaped with the weapons, leaving the Collaborators frustrated and confused.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 2 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 8 dead

### \*Twin-Moon Street Massacre: June 7, 7018

In response to the Raid of Brooke Street, Collaborators gathered 18 civilians, accusing them of rebel ties and executed them, later cutting off their heads and displaying them on spikes along the sidewalk of Twin-Moon Street.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Civilians: 18 dead

### \*Battle of Boslego Avenue: June 8-9, 7018

In the afternoon of June 8, a small unit of Collaborators, led by a spravac dominator, were spotted by a cell of UMLG fighters terrorizing a civilian woman and her child, demanding that she pay them or they would kill her and her daughter. Acting impulsively, the rebel fighters engaged the Collaborators, using sniper rifles to kill the dominator, who was deemed the most threatening opponent. With their leader killed, the Collaborators rushed to cover, losing another to sniper fire.

The gunfire drew the support from the civilians, who sided with the rebels and attacked the Collaborators by throwing rocks and even attacking them with pieces of rubble and metal pipes, bludgeoning one of them to death before the others used their guns to scare them off, killing nine of them.

In the process of killing the civilians, they got out of cover, allowing the rebel snipers to kill another before they went back into cover. After exchanging fire for three hours, a spravac Orc-class APC arrived, firing its weapons into the spot where the rebels were hiding, killing both snipers. The commotion also brought in more militia, who brought satchel charges with them to destroy the APC. The spravac inside abandoned the craft as it exploded, rampaging before the last of them was killed. The explosion drew the ire of Tzár, who sent a Bonesaw bomber squadron to bomb the area later that night, leaving Boslego Avenue a steaming crater of plasma. Despite successfully destroying the street and killing over 100 civilians, the rebels had left, essentially wasting both ammo and time.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 6 dead

Civilians: 119 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 4 dead

Collaborators: 5 dead

### \*Garton Shooting: June 8, 7018

Hours before Boslego Avenue became a warzone, the Garton Apartment complex was rumored by the Collaborators to be home to a large rebel cell. Upon reaching Garton, the Collaborators, using spravac Ravager Pulse Rifles, systematically murdered every one of the residents, which included three militia members. After leaving the apartment, Void Charges were thrown through the windows, destroying the building and turning it into a pile of rubble.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 3 dead

Civilians: 83 dead

### \*Raid on Gershwin Industrial Center: June 10, 7018

The Gershwin Industrial Center, once a symbol of Grace’s emerging technological ingenuity, had become a shelter for the thousands of civilians that were left homeless by the spravac. After a militia sniper inside the building sniped a Collaborator that was beating a beggar, the spravac suspected that more rebels were hiding within the building.

In response, Tzár sent a strike team of 20 Incubi to raid the building and raze it. The Incubi were unstoppable, killing every rebel and civilian in their path with ruthless efficiency. After killing everyone inside, the Incubi marked it for demolition, leaving and allowing a spravac ship above to fire a payload of 60 plasma torpedoes into the building. The resulting collapse of the building also killed additional bystanders.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

\*Collaborators: 1 dead

Militia: 43 dead

Civilians: 102 dead

### \*Fremont Police Center Bombing: June 10, 7018

Following the destruction of GIC, rebels attacked the Fremont Police Center, which was serving as a station for Collaborators. The rebels opened fire, allowing one of their sappers to move in with a stolen spravac Void Charge to destroy the station, escaping with minimal deaths and the destruction of the station.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 2 dead

Collaborators: 17 dead

### Massacre of Henderson Square: June 11, 7018

Following the raid on GIC, citizens protested the killing of the civilians present there, Tzár ordered the spravac to trap the protestors in the square and kill all of them.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Civilians: 504 dead

### Blockade of the Pax District: June 20, 7018

ULMG partisans blockaded the entirety of the Pax District, vowing to keep any civilians they can safe from spravac harm. Tzár retaliated by sending a tank and a platoon of marines to quell the blockade. Tzár attempted to bargain with the rebels, offering them life if they surrendered. After the rebels rejected the offer, the tank fired into the blockade, the rebels swarmed the tank and marines and overwhelmed them, taking over the tank and using it as a turret to guard their blockade.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 21 dead

Civilians: 54 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 36 dead

### Battle of Pax District: June 21- June 22, 7018

In the night after the Blockade of Pax, Tzár sent Incubi and marines on speeders to attack the blockaded district. The Incubi regained control of the tank and used it against the rebels. The speeders then killed the rest. As punishment, Tzár had the marines kill the entire district’s population and display their corpses on the street lights leading into it.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 13 dead

Militia: 132 dead

Civilians: 6,391 dead

### \*Battle of Jenna Street: June 22, 7018

In the morning, alongside the Battle of Pax District, Collaborators were tipped off by a civilian that a squad of rebels were guarding Jenna Street on the outskirts of the city. The Collaborators were fired upon when they rounded the corner of the street, losing two men to a machine gun in the upper levels of a townhouse. The Collaborators threw tomahawk grenades into the house, destroying it and killing the gunner. With the suppression gone, the Collaborators advanced, killing civilians as they went. After entering the first building on the street, they were fired upon by three more rebels hiding inside, killing half of the Collaborators immediately.

Desperate and low on morale, the Collaborators retreated, leaving Jenna Street firmly in Militia hands.

Close Ures Victory:

Militia: 5 dead

Civilians: 19 dead

Collaborators: 7 dead

### Raid of Junction 18: June 23, 7018

Incubi in Pax District discovered the location of a ULMG cell hideout. Tzár ordered them to find the base and destroy it and its soldiers. The Incubi successfully found the hideout and massacred everyone inside without any casualties.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 43 dead

### Bombing of Patrol 82: June 23, 7018

In retaliation for the massacre of Junction 18, the ULMG bombed a spravac patrol, several were killed, including two civilians.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 23 dead

Civilians: 2

### Burning of Christoph Street: June 24, 7018

Malthale soldiers were ordered by Tzár to destroy the entire entire block of Christoph Street, doing so in three hours.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Civilians: 405 dead

### Battle of Richmond Intercontinental Airport: June 24- July 1, 7018

While Christoph Street was demolished, ULMG partisans and other armed civilians seized control of RIA to smuggle in more supplies. In response, Tzár sent gunships to attack the airport in a strafing run. Following that, a force of 500 marines was sent to take the port. The marines sieged the port until July 1 when the rebels pushed them out of the area.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 84 dead

Civilians: 34 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 102 dead

### \*Battle of Carton District: June 24- June 26, 7018

While RIA was a battleground, a team of Collaborators were ambushed in the red light district of Carton. The criminal gang that ran Carton, the 58th Street Family, had aligned themselves with the UMLG, using their vast stores of weapons to arm them.

The deaths of the Collaborators triggered more of them to pour into the Carton district, massacring civilians and militia alike. The Gangsters reorganized, bringing out their heavy weapons to counter the savage weaponry of the Collaborators. By that night, the Collaborators were pushed out of the city, however they continued to bombard it from afar with Deathstorm Class Artillery. The Deathstorms devastated the Carton District, causing parts of the main pier to collapse into the Richmond canal, drowning hundreds of civilians and militia.

In response to the bombardment, militia commandos were sent to silence them, however they were outmatched by the collaborators and newly arrived malthale warriors. The malthale were then sent in on June 25, crushing everything beneath their feet. With no weapons capable of wounding the hulking soldiers, the gangsters retreated into their hideout, the Wintergreen Dancer Club. The Collaborators then besieged Wintergreen, fighting off counter-attacks from militia commandos using the malthale.

By June 26, the malthale broke through the walls of the Wintergreen, invading the buildings and slaughtering the last of the gangsters, including their patriarch, Daniel Breslin.

Close Spravac Victory:

Collaborators: 121 dead

Gangsters: 80 dead

Militia: 24 dead

Civilians: 824 dead

### \*Tinfold Avenue Shooting: June 26, 7018

After the Battle of Carton drew to a close, several blocks down, a pair of Collaborators drew their weapons on a crowding Tinfold Avenue sidewalk, firing their weapons into the crowd. Since Tinfold was a skyway sidewalk, many of the civilians fell to their deaths after trying to run from their gunfire. After the shooting, the Collaborators disposed of the corpses by kicking them off the edge.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Civilians: 54 dead

Destruction of Richmond Intercontinental Airport: July 3, 7018

In response to the Battle of RIA, Tzár had his flagship bombard the port with plasma torpedoes, causing it to cave in on itself.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 62 dead

Civilians: 204 dead

### Battle of Victor & Son Software Company Building: July 15, 7018

Rebel forces took control of V&S Company Building, one of the tallest in the city, to survey the rest of the city for planning future attacks. Incubi are sent to deal with the rebels, but are pushed out by superior numbers.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 73 dead

Civilians: 10 dead

Incubi: 1 dead

### Caster Street Attack: July 16, 7018

Rebels attacked a malthale patrol on Caster Street using stolen antimatter weapons to kill the soldiers. One rebel was killed by a stray plasma musket shot from one of the malthale.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 1 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 3 dead

### Kensington Square Protest: July 17, 7018

Civilians gather with boosted morale after the Caster Street Attack, protest turns to violence and disperses after Tzár threatens to bomb the area.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 3 dead

Civilians: 5 dead

### Battle of Norrington District: August 7, 7018

Large forces of rebels gather and take over the Norrington Industrial District. Marines and Incubi are sent to deal with the seizure, bombarding the blockade wall with artillery and tanks before charging in to kill the survivors. Rebellion in Richmond ends after catastrophic losses inflicted by Tzár.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 332 dead

Militia: 1,557 dead

Civilians: 20,698 dead

## Lancaster Rebellion: July 1, 7018- August 20, 7018

Rebels numbering at 90,000 took control of several intact towns in the Lancaster region originally captured by Didact Sásgcait. Didact Tzár sent 80,000 marines, 7,000 Deentrox, 800 Collaborators, and 50 tanks to deal with the rebels.

### Raid on Shadethorn: July 1, 7018

The small town of Shadethorn was attacked by the marines, all militia and civilians were killed in 20 minutes.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 3 dead

Militia: 165 dead

Civilians: 430 dead

### \*Battle of Tarland: July 2, 7018

A company of Collaborators were engaged in the farmlands of Tarland, taking heavy losses from IEDs and sniper rifles. The Collaborators requested fire support from the spravac tanks, but the spravac neglected to spare them, instead sending a flock of marines that were nearby.

The arrival of the marines turned the tide of the battle, forcing the militia back into the surrounding forest.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 3 dead

Collaborators: 14 dead

Militia: 5 dead

### \*Raid on Tarland Forest: July 2- July 3, 7018

The spravac marines, after chasing the militia into the forest, organized a raid into the forest that night, taking heavy fire from the concealed rebels. After taking too many losses, the marines requested a Flame-Spewer to burn down the forest to smoke out the rebels.

After the militia were forced out in the early morning, they were mowed down by the Collaborators waiting for them.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 23 dead

Collaborators: 1 dead

Militia: 18 dead

### \*Bombardment of Halifax’s Hope Refugee Camp: July 4, 7018

Spravac Manticore tanks use their heavy plasma guns to fire from afar, bombarding the shanty refugee camp of Halifax’s Hope, killing over one hundred civilians and militia in the initial blasts. One of the blasts also caused the camp’s only generator to explode, robbing the camp of power and killing another thirty people, including children.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 32 dead

Civilians: 132 dead

### \*Raid on Halifax’s Hope: July 5, 7018

Collaborators and deentrox fledglings mounted a joint attack on Halifax’s Hope, making a frontal assault against the outer barbed wire defenses of the camp. Militia gunners killed many of the Collaborators, leaving the battle to be largely fought by the deentrox, who successfully broke into the camp, using their flame grenades to burn down many of the shacks. However, they were soon overwhelmed as the civilians also took up arms, even using their bare hands and tearing apart two of deentrox before they were forced to retreat, leaving Halifax battered but unbroken.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 17 dead

Civilians: 55 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 30 dead

Collaborators: 13 dead

### \*2nd Raid on Halifax’s Hope: July 6, 7018

A small squad of Collaborators, unaware that many people still lived in Halifax’s Hope, attempted to raid the camp, hoping to loot it and take women hostage for pleasure. The entire squad was mowed down after exchanging fire with the guards for three hours.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 1 dead

Collaborators: 6 dead

### \*Bombing of Halifax’s Hope: July 7, 7018

Intent on destroying the camp, a unit of spravac marines using a Darkspear artillery piece bombarded Halifax’s Hope for two hours, eventually forced to stop after being ordered to direct their cannon elsewhere. Though they did not kill everyone, the marines destroyed enough of the camp that the survivors were forced to evacuate to another camp, abandoning Halifax’s Hope.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 7 dead

Civilians: 105 dead

### \*Attack on Halifax Refugee Caravan: July 8, 7018

As the Halifax refugees were forced to march to another shelter, they passed an abandoned refueling and taxation post that was being looted by Collaborators. The Collaborators, eager for more battle, fired into the crowd, killing several civilians and forcing them to take cover behind their furdur mounts and trailers. The militia fired back, killing one of the Collaborators outright.

Using their grenades, the Collaborators charged forward and destroyed many of the trailers, causing the caravan to collapse into a panic.

The militia eventually gained the upper hand, killing the last of the Collaborators and reorganizing the terrified and disorganized caravan.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 8 dead

Civilians: 96 dead

Collaborators: 16 dead

### \*Battle of Hedron Hollow: July 9, 7018

The Halifax Refugees, which were now led by the central figurehead Leslie Martin, were trudging through the dark woods of Hedron Hollow, a small evergreen forest containing the small foraging settlement of the same name. Upon encountering the small settlement, they had discovered that deentrox had massacred the entire area, including the children, all of which were lined up against the walls of their dwellings. Martin took his most hardened men to follow the deentrox tracks, eventually finding their campsite a few miles away. Martin chose to ambush them, using their knowledge of the area to surprise the deentrox, killing the entire squad in a fierce ambush.

However, they were unaware that deentrox sentinels were watching from the trees, and were ordered to attack the now lightly defended civilians alongside a hiding kill team of collaborators. The counter-ambush was devastating, killing many of the civilians and sending them into a panic. Martin was forced to return, but his men were unable to fight against the deentrox. Forced to retreat from Hedron, Martin escorted as many civilians as he could out of the hollow, hoping to find shelter in the rocks of the valley, leaving the Hollow firmly under the rule of the spravac.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 26 dead

Collaborators: 8 dead

Militia: 32 dead

Civilians: 205 dead

### \*Skirmish at Woodlawn Camp: July 11, 7018

Martin and his struggling caravan eventually discovered an abandoned collection of trailer shelters on July 10, their owners long slain. Using supplies within the shelters, his caravan was able to construct a viable campsite. The shelters also had a working radio, which he used to contact another cell of militia based at the nearby town of Woodshire, which was being used as a base of operations for the rebels in the immediate area of Lancaster.

On July 11, their base was fired upon by a patrolling formation of Kasakh-A-Rholon and fledglings. The Kasakh-A-Rholon used their LMGs to fire down into the tents and shelters, killing a great number of civilians. Militia snipers were able to kill one of the flying warriors, but were suppressed by the arrival of the fledglings, forced to take cover while Martin and his other troops fought them off.

The militia were able to overpower the deentrox through numbers, pushing them away and forcing them to retreat, though the Kasakh-A-Rholon left a parting gift in the form of a hail of cluster grenades which they dropped from above.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 32 dead

Civilians: 82 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 17 dead

### \*Battle of Woodshire: July 15, 7018

Using comm scanners, the spravac were able to trace the communication between Woodlawn and Woodshire, allowing them to pinpoint the latter’s location for destruction. The spravac attacked with a force of 1,000 marines, 1,200 deentrox, and 45 Collaborators, along with artillery support from a battery of Darkspear cannons.

The spravac began their assault with a four hour long bombardment with their Darkspears, using their dark matter ammunition to obliterate entire blocks of the already damaged town. With the rebels sufficiently weakened, the spravac then sent in the deentrox and the Collaborators in the first wave, which lost many to the heavy fire of embedded militia machine gun crews. The machine gunners successfully wiped out all of the Collaborators, leaving only the deentrox to finish the job.

The deentrox successfully broke through the fire and engaged in the center of the town, clearing the way for the marines to rush in and finish what the deentrox were having so much trouble with completing. Once the marines entered the battle, the militia were doomed, only delaying their deaths for another two hours before the marines killed the last of them.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 340 dead

\*Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 736 dead

Collaborators: 45 dead

Militia: 3,185 dead

### \*Raid on Woodshire: July 15, 7018

After finding out that Woodshire was occupied, Martin organized a raiding team to attack the spravac camp at the town and steal weapons from them. The commandos successfully infiltrated the camp, stealing 70 rifles, a longbow, and a single 70mm Inferno Mortar operated by the deentrox. As they were escaping, they were spotted by the spravac guards, losing two of their men in the firefight, nevertheless escaping with the stolen weapons.

Close Ures Victory:

Militia: 2 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 14 dead

### Tessa Artillery Strike: July 15, 7018

After Woodshire was destroyed, spravac long range artillery launched an antimatter bomb to destroy the nearby town of Tessa, which was discovered by the marines to be holding a large number of civilians and militia members.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 4,581 dead

Civilians: 12,817 dead

### Raid on Patrol south of Woodshire Ruins: July 17, 7018

Aware that their camp would soon be discovered, Leslie Martin and his rebel group abandoned Woodlawn, destroying it and began tailing the spravac leaving Woodshire, which was aiming to link up with the spravac preparing to attack Helmuth, said to be the main base of operations for the rebels in Lancaster. Martin’s rebels successfully raided the spravac armored column, looting the dead of weapons and one tank.

However, most of the spravac and auxiliaries were able to escape, inflicting enough casualties that Martin could not pursue them.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 32 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 102 dead

### \*Burning of Goggins Field: July 18, 7018

The spravac came across the refugee camp of Goggins Field, which was a single group of slightly over 200 civilians and a platoon sized element of militia guarding them. The spravac used their tanks to terrorize the civilians before sending in the deentrox to kill them. The deentrox lost few in their charge, fixing their bayonets and savagely murdering the entire camp, leaving none alive.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 14 dead

Militia: 34 dead

Civilians: 208 dead

### \*Skirmish at Derry Hill: July 18, 7018

While Goggins was destroyed, several miles away another spravac column, which included Collaborators, was ambushed by a rebel bunker dug into a hill nearby the federal park of Derry. The spravac sent the Collaborators to assault the bunker, losing many to machine gun fire but still managing to overrun the position.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 3 dead

Collaborators: 13 dead

Militia: 5 dead

### \*Massacre at Numeron Camp: July 19, 7018

Spravac Incubi, while scouting ahead for the impending attack on Helmuth, discovered a small platoon of militia camping near Numeron Lake. The Incubi quickly and expertly raided the camp, murdering all but one of the militia members. For her, they extracted what information they could before they tied the burnt logs from the fire to her ankles and threw her into the lake, watching and cackling as she drowned.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 43 dead

### \*Ambush at Petersbrook: July 20, 7018

The spravac column marching for Helmuth passed through the refueling settlement of Petersbrook, which was being used by the UMLG as a listening post. When they spotted the spravac column, they drew their weapons and fired into them as they passed, killing several spravac, deentrox, and Collaborators.

One of the Collaborators threw a Void Charge into the area where the militia were hiding, destroying all of them in a single blast of dark energy.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 3 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 12 dead

Collaborators: 5 dead

Militia: 8 dead

### \*Skirmish at Denton: July 20, 7018

While Petersbrook erupted into battle, the mining town of Denton was also engaged by a patrol of deentrox which were searching for supplies. The town still housed civilians, who were terrorized and fired upon by the deentrox. The militia guarding the town, a unit of eight men, fought against the numerically superior deentrox, eventually forcing them back after inflicting heavy casualties.

Close Ures Victory:

Militia: 1 dead

Civilians: 32 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 13 dead

### \*Raid on Spravac Column South of Denton: July 21-July 24, 7018

Leslie Martin’s forces settled in Denton, rearming and resupplying. They also used their spare weapons to arm their civilians, increasing their size from a few hundred to over five hundred. With a sizable force now under his command, the rebel force began stalking the spravac column from Woodshire, which was getting dangerously close to Helmuth, which was already engaged by the other spravac column.

The rebels attacked in full force, intent on ensuring that none of the column would arrive to assist Helmuth. However, Incubi were also stalking the rebels, feeding information to the column, allowing them to prepare. When the rebels charged, they were met by a hail of gunfire from the spravac and deentrox. The rebels then bunkered down in the sparse bushed and downed logs, engaging with the spravac throughout the night.

In the morning, the deentrox launched a frontal charge, terrifying the undisciplined armed civilians, sending them into a panic and retreating back to Denton. The more trained militia held their ground, repulsing the deentrox and inflicting heavy casualties. The spravac ordered the deentrox to stay behind and hold off the militia while they continued marching towards Helmuth to assist the spravac already engaged there.

The deentrox managed to hold off the militia for another two days, forcing them back to Denton, allowing them to return back to the spravac column marching for Helmuth.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 32 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 236 dead

Militia: 328 dead

### \*Battle of Greenwood Park: July 22-July 29, 7018

Situated within Duneigh Forest in the northeast, Greenwood Park’s visitor center had been occupied by a unit of militia. A small force of deentrox were also making their camp in the trees of the forest, resolving to kill the militia once they left the center. For seven days the deentrox meticulously picked off each member of the militia, driving them insane with paranoia until they began killing each other.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 18 dead

### \*Firefight at Sunderland: July 23, 7018

While the deentrox hunted at Greenwood, Collaborators were engaged by militia hiding within the rubble of Sunderland. The Collaborators called for support, but were denied by the local Dominator, who was more concerned with his impending attack on the nearby city ruins of Kensington.

Alone and taking heavy losses, the Collaborators surrendered, offering to abandon the spravac cause and instead inform the militia of where the spravac were going to attack.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 1 dead

Collaborators: 5 dead

### \*2nd Battle of Kensington: July 23- July 25, 7018

Much of Kensington had been wiped out by the previous campaign a year earlier, leaving it empty for rebels and refugees to live within its battered and charred walls. A spravac Dominator leading a force of 500 marines and 30 Collaborators began his assault on the city in the evening of July 23, using Griffin Class artillery to lighten up the militia inside, additionally killing hundreds of civilians taking shelter in the rubble.

Under the artillery, the Collaborators were sent in as a suicide unit to search for avenues of approach, engaging with a platoon of militia in the eastern entrance into the city. The Collaborators took heavy losses, but succeeded in their mission, signalling for the marines to charge into the city. The spravac, in the tight confines of the city, took heavy losses to guerilla attacks and bombings throughout July 24, with even civilians taking up arms and using molotovs to attack the spravac.

Despite their losses, the spravac were steadily pushing back the militia, forcing them deeper into the charred remains of the city. However, the spravac then took even heavier losses with the arrival of militia reinforcements outside the city from Sunderland, capturing the Griffin mortars and using them against the spravac, trapping them as they were surrounded.

Upon the arrival of the reinforcements, the spravac only delayed their defeat for another day, eventually fighting to the death, with their Dominator the last to fall.

Close Ures Victory:

Militia: 437 dead

Civilians: 679 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 500 dead

Collaborators: 30 dead

### \*Stirling River Massacre: July 26, 7018

A single Collaborator was ordered by his commanding Shadow Ark Corsairs to massacre a small caravan of refugees travelling along the Stirling River. The Collaborator refused, instead fired on one of the Corsairs, wounding him. In response, the Corsairs killed the former Collaborator, then carried out the massacre themselves, capturing, torturing, raping, and murdering the entire caravan of six.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Collaborators: 1 dead

Civilians: 6 dead

### \*Bombing of Thornton Field: July 26, 7018

Didact Tzár’s aerial patrols discovered a large congregation of civilians and militia making camp in Thornton Field, ordering his bombers to burn the field. As they made their attack, a rebel armed with a rocket launcher managed to shoot down one of the bombers. After making their run, Corsairs were deployed from Talon skimmers to kill anyone that was left, briefly exchanging fire with a surviving trio of survivors.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 1 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1 dead

Militia: 73 dead

Civilians: 164 dead

### \*Firefight at Indigo Creek: July 28, 7018

Survivors from the Bombing of Thornton managed to escape the carnage, running into the surrounding Indigo Forest. The forest was bisected by a narrow creek, which the refugees and scant militia used for water and a point of navigation.

Deentrox fledglings managed to spot the survivors at Indigo Creek, engaging them from the trees. The Militia were wiped out immediately, leaving the civilians to attempt to fight the deentrox off, picking up the arms of militia and fallen deentrox. Though they fought desperately and valiantly, they were eventually defeated, with the last of them dying after forty minutes of combat.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 4 dead

Militia: 7 dead

Civilians: 25 dead

### \*Battle of Helmuth: July 21- August 1, 7018

At last, the spravac forces marching from Petersbrook arrived at their destination, the largely intact and heavily guarded city of Helmuth, which housed almost twenty thousand militia and civilians. The spravac column began their assault with their tanks, launching thousands of shells into the outer defenses, killing over one thousand civilians in the bombardment. The spravac then attacked with deentrox, Collaborators, and a team of Incubi that led the vanguard.

The Incubi breached several holes in the defenses, allowing deentrox, which were using their own pattern plasma mortars as covering fire, advanced into the city, slaughtering the militia and killing civilians eagerly.

They were stalled on July 22, facing heavy fire and impassable barricades constructed from broken down cars and rubble. The deentrox advanced bravely over the rubble, losing hundreds from the surrounding fire from the buildings on both their flanks. Eventually, a big enough breach was made that the spravac tanks could break through, vaporizing one of the buildings, the rubble from its collapse killing hundreds of militia and civilians.

However, the alleyways made the tanks clumsy and slow, making them ample targets from attacks, the militia jumping onto the roofs from above and throwing grenades inside the hatches, destroying them from the inside. The spravac halted their advance and called in air support, which was answered in the form of Axe-Class bombers, which devastated the city and killed over two thousand in a single day.

On July 24, the deentrox resumed their assault alongside the Collaborators, who used their knowledge of Ures city layouts and militia SOPs to counter the militia in several key firefights, fighting with a savagery that had thus far not been thought possible by men of their status. Despite the process, Helmuth remained unbowed, paving the streets with the blood of their own and the enemy.

By July 25, it was becoming clear that the spravac were not able to maintain their hold on the city, at this point many of the deentrox were dead. However, reinforcements from Woodshire finally arrived, bringing with them more tanks and artillery batteries. The artillery flattened entire city blocks, allowing the tanks to move more freely, which devastated the rebel lines.

Leslie Martin and his men, who were slowly trailing behind, attempted to attack the spravac rear echelon troops, but were unable to break them, taking heavy losses and forced to retreat.

By July 29, Helmuth seemed lost to the spravac. In a desperate effort to save who they could, the rebels began smuggling out civilians and their wounded out of the city via the storm drains that led to the Stirling and Silverton Rivers. For the last two days, small units of militia and civilian volunteers stayed behind to hold the spravac back, giving their lives to allow the rest to escape.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 524 dead

\*Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 3,483 dead

\*Collaborators: 153 dead

\*Incubi: 2 dead

Militia: 13,281 dead

Civilians: 62,582 dead

### \*Assaults on Helmuth Outskirts: August 1-August 9, 7018

After escaping from Helmuth Proper, the refugees and rebels linked up with Leslie Martin and his commandos, which were now known as Martin’s Marauders. The small army of rebels aimed for the town of Matthis, which was lightly populated and barely damaged. The column of rebels was spotted by Incubi, who ordered marines and Collaborators to attack the column along the banks of the river.

The marines boisterously assaulted the outer defenses of the column, which was primarily guarded by the Marauders. The Marauders fought bravely, holding off several deadly assaults, however the spravac were slowly and surely whittling them down, clearing the way for the Collaborators to finally charge in and break through the defenses, using flamethrowers and plasma grenades to burn civilians alive.

However, some of the Collaborators began to show signs of guilt for burning their own countrymen, and small pockets of them began to rebel, firing upon their spravac handlers and deserting. Most of them would then be hunted down and slaughtered by the Incubi, which put the ones with any questions of loyalty back in line.

The distraction of the Collaborator Mutiny allowed many of the militia and civilians to escape, putting some needed distance between them and the imperial forces. However, the Incubi then became involved to ensure they couldn’t get too far, placing Vapor Mines and void charges that devastated the front of the column, causing the entire column to collapse and panic.

The panicking civilians and militia rallied under Martin, who bravely led the charge forward, at times even offensively engaging the spravac, killing over one hundred of them on August 5. The spravac then changed their attack style, moving to more surreptitious tactics, only launching raids at night, taking captives to then be tortured, their flayed corpses mounted on pikes and displayed throughout the marshlands between Stirling and Silverton to intimidate the civilians.

By August 9, the civilians were coming into view of Matthis, having inflicted enough casualties on the spravac that they elected to halt their attacks.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 558 dead

Civilians: 1,869 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 428 dead

Collaborators: 247 dead

### Burning of Matthis: August 10, 7018

As the rebels were preparing to move toward Matthis after a night of rest, they watched in horror as a haze of pink and purple washed over them, blinding some of the onlookers permanently. Those that were not blinded, could only stand by and watch as an Ultrabow bolt was fired right into the center of the city, the winds were so strong that they blew them over from over 20 miles away, the area between them and ground zero was transformed into a blackened wasteland of lava and glassed earth, glistening as the sun rose over the hills.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Civilians: 4,391 dead

### \*Skirmish at Roughfield Parking Station 08: August 12, 7018

Martin’s Marauders were sent out to scout a new route for the caravan, they made contact with a deentrox squad guarding the Roughfield Parking Station 08, killing all of them.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 9 dead

### \*Battle of Goshen: August 10- 15, 7018

Martin’s Marauders eventually came in contact with a group of rebels that were moving into Goshen Pass, which was a large valley that encased a small lake, Lake Merriweather. The Marauders and the rebels, calling themselves the Lancaster Battalion, were entering the pass under suspicion that deentrox and Collaborators were operating in the area. Upon entering, the rebel forces split themselves into three companies, with the Marauders and Charlie Company defending one side of the lake while Alpha and Bravo Company guarded the other side.

The first night was uneventful, save for the Marauders who engaged a single patrol of Collaborators, killing all of them. In the morning, all three companies suddenly suffered several fierce assaults from deentrox, forcing them out of their patrol bases and into the woods. The various platoons then fought back, using their numerical superiority to overwhelm the deentrox at several points, successfully ambushing various squads and wiping them out. Charlie Company eventually discovered a hidden weapons cache, attempting to raid the objective and destroy it, however they were pushed back after taking heavy losses from a group of Collaborators led by a pair of spravac marines. Bravo Company across the lake was also engaged after attempting to attack a key deentrox operating base, losing nearly half of the entire company in the ensuing firefights.

The deentrox demonstrated an incredible knowledge of the terrain, using it to their advantage to launch guerilla style attacks all throughout the night, using the lack of visibility and the poor weather conditions to mask their approach. The deentrox launched several successful raids in the dark of the night of August 11, engaging the Ures militia until the morning of August 12 before retreating back. In response, Martin’s Marauders fought back, using their mortars to engage a heavily guarded deentrox and Collaborator outpost. However, they were unable to advance, the rain keeping them from advancing up the hill.

On August 13, the companies continued to attempt to raid the deentrox, successfully destroying several caches and killing many of their troops. However, spravac marines leading units of Collaborators pushed them back multiple times. In the evening, a massive assault was launched on all fronts by the Collaborators, losing almost all of their manpower by the end of the assault without making any ground, severely lowering their combat effectiveness.

Without the Collaborators, the deentrox were even more outnumbered and outgunned, resorting to using snipers to try and hold off assaults from the Lancaster Battalion, eventually forcing them to retreat in the early morning of August 15, leaving Goshen under militia control.

Close Ures Victory:

Militia: 75 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 8 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 82 dead

Collaborators: 7 dead

### \*Roughfield Ambush: August 16, 7018

Martin’s Marauders, after leaving Goshen to be garrisoned by the Lancaster Battalion, eventually found the massive plantation of Roughfield, which was being guarded by a squad of spravac marines. The Marauders used their mortars to bombard the main compound, disorienting the spravac and allowing them to attack.

Once contact was made, the spravac were quickly dealt with, however the final dominator put up a final stand that killed eight Marauders alone.

Close Ures Victory:

Militia: 13 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 6 dead

### Raid on Roughfield: August 17, 7018

After occupying Roughfield Plantation, the civilian caravan was finally able to rest, making shelter inside the main house and the worker houses throughout the sprawling plantation. The Marauders, along with the other militia, began training the able bodied refugees to fight as well, allowing their numbers to grow.

The plantation was discovered by a unit of spravac marines, who used a crew served mortar to bombard the plantation, destroying the outer defenses and some of the refugee huts. The Marauders set out to silence the mortar, only to discover more marines had arrived, inflicting heavy losses and forcing them to retreat.

The spravac then pushed forward, burning as they went with immolators. The mortars continued to bombard the militia, keeping them from suppressing the spravac charge. Once the spravac were behind the line, they wrought havoc throughout the plantation, slaughtering hundreds of civilians and militia mercilessly, forcing the militia to retreat from the plantation with few of the civilians, with most of them killed or captured by the spravac.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 121 dead

Militia: 431 dead

Civilians: 1,483 dead

### \*2nd Raid on Roughfield: August 20, 7018

The rebel forces kicked out from Roughfield attempted to retake and destroy the plantation in order to avenge the 1,483 civilians that were killed. The plantation had been garrisoned by deentrox and Collaborators, who were looting the plantation of its riches. The main spravac force had already left to pursue other rebel cells, but in their wake they left the flayed and mutilated corpses of hundreds of civilians on display, impaled on massive stakes through their pelvis and out their mouth.

Infuriated by the display, the rebels slowly inched forward before being spotted and engaged by a patrol of deentrox, who pinned them down with machine gun fire. One of the rebels managed to kill the gunner, shooting him in the head and allowing the rebels to kill the rest of the patrol. However, they then came across a large group of Collaborators, who killed several of the rebels, though they themselves took heavy losses themselves, forced to rely on their spravac handler, who himself also died, causing them to scatter.

With only a third of their men left, it became apparent that Roughfield could not be avenged, forcing the militia to retreat and leave the plantation firmly under spravac control.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1 dead

\*Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 8 dead

\*Collaborators: 10 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 1 dead

Militia: 43 dead

## Suffolkshire Rebellion: August 17- November 3, 7018

In the final days of the Lancaster Rebellion, the rebels of the region began to move to the region of Suffolkshire to link up with the rebels already there, preparing for what they believed would be a massive invasion into the region. Only a little over 13,000 militia members survived from Lancaster, linking up with another 65,000 in Suffolkshire, hoping to maintain the rebellion for as long as possible.

### \*Breakthrough at the Suffolk Border: August 17, 7018

In order to link up with the militia in Suffolkshire, the forces led by Leslie Martin launched an all out assault against the Suffolk Border, which was guarded by a joint force of Collaborators and aztornac marines. The aztornac spotted the rebels before they took fire, sallying out and engaging the front ranks in melee with their massive claws and scimitars.

The aztornac’s light armor made them easy targets for gunfire however, and many of them were killed in the firefight that ensued, leaving the Collaborators as the majority of the border station’s defenses. The militia lost over one hundred men to the withering fire inflicted by the Collaborators, whose plasma carbines easily tore through the light flak jackets and battered Brown Division armor worn by the militia.

However, though they took heavy losses, the militia eventually stormed the gates of the station and overwhelmed the Collaborators, clearing the way for the rest of the militia to enter Suffolkshire.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 145 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 64 dead

Collaborators: 26 dead

### Capture of Newington: August 17, 7018

While the militia invaded through the border, the mainland militia of Suffolkshire worked to establish a foothold by capturing the town of Newington, which was an outskirt town of the greater and strategically important city of Covington.

The rebels infiltrated the town from the inside, detonating IEDs and using rocket launchers to disorient spravac patrols. The town was guarded by a very small unit of spravac, only twenty, though they were heavily armed and instilled fear in the populace by their very presence. The spravac reacted swiftly and harshly to the ambushes, setting up checkpoints and engaging in several vicious firefights with the militia before they were eventually forced to retreat out of the city, though they vowed to return and retake it.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 23 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 16 dead

### \*Kent Avenue Bombing: August 18, 7018

A single Collaborator detonated a plasma bomb in the center of Kent Avenue, a busy street in Newington packed with civilians. The blast destroyed almost the entire block, killing well over 100 civilians and militia.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 17 dead

Civilians: 132 dead

### \*Raid of Newington: August 19-20, 7018

In a bid to retake Newington, the local spravac Archon, Gcártzá Tvrescz, organized a specialized commando unit of marines and Collaborators to infiltrate Newington and weaken it for his coming attack on the city.

The marines entered the city in the morning of August 19, immediately spreading terror and discord through their wanton murder of civilians. While the marines drew the ire of the local militia protecting the city, the Collaborators stealthily planted bombs and murdered when they could, detonating them the afternoon of August 19, killing hundreds of civilians and unsuspecting militia. The militia immediately reacted, launching surgical strikes on the Collaborators, killing them by the night of August 19.

The spravac themselves were much more difficult to kill, as they were ten times stronger than the Collaborators and were much more skilled with their weapons, each of them taking on three or four militia fighters at a time. By the morning of August 20, the militia had finally managed to kill the last of the marines, though they paid a heavy price for it.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 143 dead

Civilians: 422 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 18 dead

Collaborators: 21 dead

### Battle of Newington: August 20, 7018

Unaware that his soldiers had all died within the city, Tvrescz’s forces, which only numbered at 100 in size, attempted to retake Newington, confident that the soldiers inside would help his force. Upon discovering that his men were gone, Tvrescz’s forces were immediately overwhelmed, losing over one third of the attacking force before being forced to retreat.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 12 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 34 dead

### Demolition of Trinity Station: August 19, 7018

Rebel forces based at Newington infiltrated the nearby city of Covington to destroy its comm tower which was being used by the spravac as a command post and communication center. The tower, which was located in the Trinity District, was destroyed with a homemade plasma bomb.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 65 dead

Civilians: 12 dead

### Raid on Breaker Avenue: August 20, 7018

Gloom Marines managed to track down the militia members who destroyed Trinity Station. The Gloom Marines raided the rebel compound on 302 Breaker Avenue and killed all occupants, including the two civilians harboring the rebels. Following the raid, the Gloom Marines were ordered to massacre the entire block for harboring the rebels.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 7 dead

Civilians: 56 dead

### \*Battle of Drussell Station: August 21, 7018

Within Drussell District, a unit of spravac marines discovered a militia hideout within the confines of the Drussell Subway Station, harboring food to later give out to the starving citizens of Covington. The spravac raided the station, taking heavy fire from the rebels guarding it, including a repurposed point defense turret harvested from a destroyed spravac APC.

The turret killed several of the marines, holding them off for three hours before a squad of the marines flanked the station, attacking it from a maintenance shaft and destroying the turret, allowing the rest to charge forward and kill the rest of the rebels and take the food rations for themselves.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 23 dead

Militia: 8 dead

### \*Trinity Convoy Attack: August 21, 7018

A convoy travelling towards the Trinity Station rubble in order to begin repairs was attacked by a band of militia fighters and civilians, destroying the convoy and taking the supplies and weapons inside, arming nearly three hundred fighters with spravac weapons and equipment.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 21 dead

### \*Battle of Trinity: August 21- 26, 7018

In response to the sudden uptick of attacks in Trinity, Archon Tvrescz, fresh from his defeat at Newington, sought to make an example of Trinity to intimidate the rebels in Covington and Newington.

Tvrescz organized a strike force of marines, eogot marines, Collaborators, and salu fusiliers. The large and diverse force of auxiliaries caused confusion for the militia, who had no experience with the salu or eogot, who would prove to be extremely fearsome warriors.

The eogot and salu were used in the frontal assault, with the fusiliers using their heavy firepower to destroy scores of militia and retreating civilians. However, the tight formations of the fusiliers made them easy targets for militia snipers, though they were also eventually tracked down by eogot and regular spravac marines.

By the evening of August 21, nearly half of Trinity had been taken by the spravac, though they were taking heavy losses, with most of the salu fusiliers having been killed after taking heavy losses. Using Collaborators to supplement the open ranks, Tvrescz ordered them to press forward during the night, launching vicious night raids against militia positions, at times even causing the assaults to dissolve into vicious brawls.

By the morning, over one hundred militia and auxiliaries had been killed, with the carnage clearing the way for Tvrescz’s professional marines to do their butcher’s work against the civilians, torturing and publically slaughtering hundreds on August 21 and 22. A firefight broke out on August 22 between a Collaborator squad and a marine squads after they were ordered to rape and execute a captured civilian woman and refused, with the spravac killing them as punishment. The Collaborator mutineers successfully held off the spravac attackers and freed the civilian before disappearing into the alleyways, presumably to join the militia.

Infuriated by this dissent, Tvrescz ordered that every Collaborator was to kill ten civilians and collect their heads as a show of loyalty, few complied, leading to many of them being executed themselves by their spravac handlers.

With the Collaborators dead or deserted, the spravac resorted to more heavily using the eogot, who brought with them their own fleet of bombers and fighters, ruthlessly strafed Trinity, destroying hundreds of buildings and even causing the tallest skyscraper in the entire city, the Ludwig Arms Grace Branch HQ, to collapse by August 23.

The dust caused by the collapse of the Ludwig Arms building created cover for the rebels, who took cover in the rubble to hide from the eogot’s fighters. Using heat seeking missiles given to them by exiled brown division soldiers, the rebels managed to shoot down several of the fighters, prompting Tvrescz to send in his marines to hunt down and kill the militia in the rubble.

On August 25, the militia launched an all out assault against the entrenched eogot and marines, losing hundreds and forcing them to retreat back into their territory, which prompted the spravac to chase them down and slaughter them.

By August 26, Trinity was a graveyard, littered with the mutilated corpses of thousands of militia and civilians, which satisfied Tvrescz greatly, earning him the moniker “The Covington Butcher.”

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 205 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 3,869 dead

Collaborators: 432 dead

Militia: 10,582 dead

Civilians: 105,222 dead

### Siege of Covington Police Department: August 22- 24, 7018

Rebels attacked the Covington Police Department station, which was being manned by a platoon of spravac marines, and overran the complex after 2 days, killing all of the spravac.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 83 dead

Civilians: 23 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 38 dead

### \*Battle of the Drussell District: August 21- 23, 7018

In an effort to crush Covington, Tvrescz ordered another assault into another section of the city, this time targeting the luxury district of Drussell. The district was primarily in the upper levels of the city, connected by tramways and hover taxis. Thus, the assault into the district would be airborne. Because of Drussell’s disconnection from the rest of the city, the citizens there lived relatively comfortably, and even had its own constabulary in the form of the Covington Federal Constabulary.

The spravac assaulted the skyline district with a fleet of dropships and deentrox pattern bombers, deploying deentrox fledglings, Kasakh-A-Rholon, corsairs, and a unit of forty-five Incubi, led by Tvrescz. The deentrox began from the elevators leading up to the skyscrapers, murdering civilians and exchanging fire with militia on each major floor.  The corsairs assaulted from the skies, deploying from their dropships onto the many terraces and atriums of Drussell.

Secretively, the Incubi and Tvrescz deployed on the night of August 21, planting bombs that were then detonated on August 22, signalling for a major offensive to begin against the CFC’s headquarters at Police Avenue 1.

Hundreds of corsairs and fledglings were slain in their assault against the heavily guarded facility, eventually overrunning and slaughtering the CFC officers inside. With only a few hundred officers escaping and scattered throughout the district, the spravac were free to rampage and burn the skyscrapers of Drussell, executing civilians by gathering them and pushing them over the balconies and terraces of the buildings, plunging to their deaths until they splattered onto the pavement.

The commander of the CFC, Commissioner Jeff Ramsay Jr., managed to survive, taking a group of officers with him in a truck filled with weapons and ammunition. Ramsay led an assault alongside armed civilians and other militia against a recently captured air defense battery, hoping to use it to destroy the spravac dropships. Ramsay successfully retook the battery, using the auto-targeting missile battery to shoot down several dropships with troops still inside, causing massive casualties and taking away Tvrescz’s air support.

Seeking to silence the battery once and for all, Tvrescz and his Incubi scaled the walls of the skyscraper that the missile cannon was on top of, emerging from the edges of the terrace and effortlessly killing the protectors, including Commissioner Ramsay, with Tvrescz himself stabbing the officer through the stomach with his Taitvon.

After killing Ramsay and his constables, Tvrescz destroyed the missile battery, allowing his deentrox soldiers to use their own fighters to strafe the city, using incendiary rockets to burn away entire blocks. With the city burning and no resistance left, the corsairs and deentrox simply mopped up the rest of the district, cleansing it of life and leaving it to burn into ash.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 300 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 725 dead

Incubi: 3 dead

Ures Soldiers: 433

Militia: 602 dead

Civilians: 24,412 dead

### \*Skirmish at Newington: August 24, 7018

Intent on destroying Newington once and for all, Archon Tvrescz organized another force of salu fusiliers to scout out Newington to learn where the rebel stronghold within the city was located. The salu marched forward through the streets of the Kendrick District, eventually coming under fire from militia taking cover in the bombed out buildings on both sides of the street. The salu dispersed their formation and deployed plasma domes to protect them from rebel fire, using them to assault the buildings without taking any losses.

However, the rebels countered the tactic by throwing down satchel charges, detonating them once the salu soldiers walked over them, the explosions bypassing the shields and killing most of the fusiliers, causing the others to panic and retreat.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 18 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 64 dead

### \*Bombing of Yarrough Lane: August 24, 7018

Six hours after the salu retreated from the Kendrick District, a separate attack was performed on Yarrough Lane within the district after spravac corsairs and Collaborators were spotted executing a group of civilians for not yielding to them as they marched.

The rebels used stolen spravac grenades to create clusters bombs which they threw at the marching spravac forces, vaporizing most of them and horrifically maiming the others. The spravac that survived managed to crawl away, leaving behind the wounded Collaborators to fend for themselves when the rebels came to execute them.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 9 dead

Collaborators: 7 dead

### \*Battle of the Kendrick District: August 25- August 27, 7018

Spravac forces managed to discover the rebel stronghold within the Kendrick District, the last holdout of rebels in the city, and attacked it with marines, eogot marines, corsairs, Collaborators, and bombers. The spravac began they assault with the corsairs and Collaborators, using them as cannon fodder to distract the rebel roadblocks while the bombers flew past and devastated their reserves behind the lines.

While the cannon fodder tirelessly assaulted the barricades, the spravac marines and eogot marines skirted behind the lines by scaling the destroyed buildings and dark alleys, engaging the rebels wherever they could afford. After successfully passing the barricades with minimal casualties, the corsairs and Collaborators halted their assault, allowing the marines to then attack and wipe out the roadblocks, allowing the fodder to then rush forward and stream into the countless buildings, massacreing both civilians and militia.

The bloodshed persisted until August 27 after the spravac were positive that they had wiped out the entire district, thus leaving Newington to the full mercy of the spravac war machine.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

\*Spravac Naval Servicemen: 201 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 97 dead

\*Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 34 dead

\*Collaborators: 72 dead

Militia: 693 dead

Civilians: 412 dead

### Covington Shooting: August 27, 7018

In response to the Fall of Newington, 2 militia gunmen attacked a spravac patrol car, the three spravac soldiers killed one of the gunmen before the other retreated. The soldiers then raped and killed 4 civilians, two for each gunman, as punishment

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 1 dead

Civilians: 4 dead

### Battle of 53rd Street: August 27- August 28, 7018

The second gunman rallied civilians and other undercover militia members to attack any spravac they saw. After killing twenty spravac in riots, the marines in the area reorganized and pushed back the rioters to 53rd Street, which was barricaded. The spravac called in a flamethrower gunship that burnt away the barricades and the rebels. After burning it away, the spravac went door to door on the entire street and massacred every civilian and rebel they saw, though the rebels fought back at every turn, at times detonating bombs to cave in their own hideouts to kill as many spravac as they could.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 320 dead

Militia: 2,672 dead

Civilians: 16,389 dead

### \*Battle of Gardia: August 28, 7018

While the spravac destroyed the rebels on 53rd Street, spravac Incubi discovered a massive formation of tens of thousands of rebels that had gathered for an outward assault against Covingon to reinforce the beleagured rebels.The Incubi began engaging the rebel column at Gardia, a small abandoned town.

While the Incubi used their sniper rifles to harass the rebels, Collaborators and palister conscripts were gathered to assault the town, attacking at range and further bogging down the rebels. After several hours of fighting, the palisters and Collaborators were ordered to withdraw by Tvrescz so they could be used to further oppress the populace of Covington.

With the auxiliaries withdrawn, the Incubi disengaged, satisfied with the death and chaos they caused.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 14 dead

Collaborators: 23 dead

Militia: 133 dead

### Capture of Peter Trenway Airport: August 29, 7018

In an effort to gather more resources for their assault against Covington, the outside militia forces led by Leslie Martin assault Peter Trenway Airport, which is ten miles east of Covington’s limits. The militia assaulted the airport’s small garrison with snipers and grenade launchers, killing all of the corsairs guarding the base. After capturing the airport, the militia gained access to the airport’s military class aircraft.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 4 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 10 dead

### Attack on PTA: August 30, 7018

Spravac marines sent by Tvrescz were sent in an attempt to retake the airport, but were all killed by the militia guards after exchanging fire with them for two hours.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 1 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 6 dead

### \*Dogfight over Gardia: August 30, 7018

Aware that the PTA contained Ures fighters and bombers, Tvrescz requested palister fighters to strafe Gardia, which was officially acting as the base of operations for Martin’s forces. After militia comms alerted PTA of the incoming palister fighters, the airport mustered their fighters to intercept them. The Ures fighters took the palisters by surprise, immediately destroying three of the fighters. The palisters reorganized and counterattacked, destroying several of the Ures fighters in the ensuing dogfight.

Down below, several militia gathered anti-aircraft launchers and shot down two more of the fighters, however one of them crashed into Gardia, killing several militia members. A palister bomber was then deployed to destroy the town while the fighters engaged the Ures fighters, dropping several bombs on the town, killing another hundred militia soldiers.

After the last of the palister fighters was destroyed, the Ures fighters began assaulting the bomber, destroying its defensive turrets and taking out one of its engines, causing the hulking flying fortress to crash into the fields outside Gardia.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 123 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 25 dead

### \*Operation Smoldering Freedom: August 30- August 31, 7018

After losing over one hundred men and several fighters, Leslie Martin proposed that he personally embark on a mission alongside the coastline of the Ingersol Sea, medium sized inland sea where the repurposed Caldwell Prison complex was located, holding several hundred militia members and his leader Nathaniel Halifax, who was relocated from Richmond, was being held for torture and interrogation.

Taking a single seated buggy, Martin moved along the coastline, bypassing several roadblocks maintained by drag, human and eogot marines. At the first checkpoint, Camp Onyxblood, Martin encountered a lone squad of rebels attempting to raid the camp and thus clear up the road for their refugee convoy several miles behind.

Martin assisted in the assault, killing the entire team of drags that guarded the camp. The rebel forces then stole their weapons and armor, giving it to other able-bodied refugees to fight. Though the caravan did not accompany Martin, he did direct them toward Gardia if they sought to join in the coming assault on Covington.

Martin came in radio contact with Little Covington, a militia camp helmed by Daniel Breslin, a leading member of the resistance in the region. Martin sought to rearm there and perhaps even gather some forces to assist him in his mission. After driving straight through a eogot run roadblock, which killed seven marines guarding it, Martin came across a major outpost that had repurposed one of Suffolkshire’s major maglev rails, inhabiting the superstructure and lining it with guard towers and sniper nests.

The camp on the other side of the bridge was a repurposed coastal train station, which was guarded by a joint group of drags and humans, with two Talon-Class crafts dropping off eight more spravac marines.

Martin stealthily skirted past the camp guards, killing three of the human marines and one of the spravac before making his way into the bridge superstructure. Once inside, he began traversing the bridges below the great magrail, killing several more drags and a morner guard who was commanding them. After deactivating the magrail, thus allowing him to pass without issue, the entire station was alerted, with a Gorgon-Class support craft being deployed to eliminate Martin.

Martin successfully evaded the gunship before picking up a spravac plasma launcher to shoot down the gunship, downing it and causing it to crash into the station killing and disorienting the auxiliary and spravac guards.

After racing through the station, Martin entered a road tunnel that halted his buggy, as the spravac had created a roadblock using destroyed Uresian hover-cars and trucks. Using a pair of satchel charges that he brought with him, Martin detonated the charges and cleared the way, though he had to hurry before the greater portion of the tunnel collapsed in on itself.

After exiting the tunnel, Martin encountered another gunship, this time a heavier Wyvern-Class, which also carried several marines with it.

Taking cover in a house that was being used as a resistance outpost by three other rebels, the four men held off the ensuing assault from 15 spravac marines deployed by the Wyvern. They successfully killed all of the marines, however only Martin survived, leaving him to take his buggy alone.

After driving for another three hours, Martin encountered another spravac roadblock guarded by three salu fusiliers, who nearly killed Martin as he raced through the barricade, using his signature pistol to kill one of the guards as he drove.

After finally reaching Little Covington, Martin met with Breslin, who resupplied his buggy and offered him a platoon of rebels and three APCs to accompany him on his mission. Martin accepted, however one of the APCs was destroyed in spravac artillery bombardment after several deentrox incendiary batteries located the base. The base was then assaulted by a company of Collaborators and Kasakh-A-Rholon, who devastated the base and killed several guarding militia members, most of whom were brown soldiers in hiding.

Breslin, who had been suffering under the salvos of the deentrox since the morning, mounted an assault against the deentrox batteries, killing the crews and commandeering the artillery batteries for the resistance. After defending Little Covington, Martin and his platoon embarked toward their next checkpoint, the resistance run Fort Petrolla made from a repurposed dockyard.

After reaching the dockyard, they discovered that the fort had been overrun by spravac marines and malthale bred Tankants, black chitin insectoids roughly the size of a human male. The tankants had already begun creating hives around the coast, invading and destroying the local flora and fauna. The platoon assaulted the fort to avenge the fallen militia there and wiped out the spravac and local Tankants, though seven platoon members were killed.

Martin, after passing through the fort, finally reached the end of the road as a small signal station run by a group of rebels. The platoon and rebels linked up and resolved to defend the station from an impending spravac attack, as by this point Archon Tvrescz was fully aware of Martin’s plan and had tagged his buggy.

The spravac attacked the station and its surrounding utility buildings with a Wyvern gunship and an entire company of Collaborators and deentrox, who unsuccessfully assaulted the station from several avenues of approach, losing a majority of their men and forced to retreat. The Wyvern, however, devastated the station, using its darkblaster cannon to vaporize the main tower, severing communications with several other rebel bases, leaving them vulnerable.

Using his plasma launcher, Martin managed to shoot down the gunship, sending it plummeting into the sea below.

With the attack repelled, Martin and what remained of the entire camp moved into the cliffside which directly led to Caldwell, which had become overrun with Tankants. The platoon lost several soldiers to the Tankants, though they began lessening their attacks after losing too many of their drones.

After escaping the ridge, Martin and his team finally reached Caldwell, which had erupted into chaos after a mutiny by its Collaborator guards got out of hand. The Collaborator traitors were currently holding off a spravac assault in the early evening of August 30, leaving them vulnerable to infiltration by Martin and his men.

After making it inside the prison, the platoon slowly but surely battled their way through the station, losing several of their men but killing many spravac. They formed an uneasy alliance with the Collaborators, fending off several spravac attacks throughout the prison.

The spravac began using Tankants to burrow their way under the prison and flank the Collaborator traitors, killing almost all of them by the early morning of August 31. Martin successfully located Halifax and several other rebels, leading them out through the way they came. By this point most of the platoon had been killed, leaving room in their APCs for Martin to transport Halifax and the survivors out of the prison and back to Gardia.

As the spravac destroyed the prison and executed the last of the Collaborators, Martin and Halifax escaped unseen.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 204 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 92 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 343 dead

Collaborators: 827 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 1,592 dead

### \*Battle of Fort Petrolla: August 30, 7018

While Martin was on his way toward the fort, the resistance inside were ready and willing to defend Petrolla dockyard with their lives, fortifying it with crane parts and a destroyed hovertruck. The rebels spotted a malthale Igneous-Class dropship land in the ridge outside the fort. The malthale boldly assaulted the fort, using their Tankant war beasts to assault and overwhelm the rebel guards. The malthale then charged forward, using their scythes and rifles to destroy the last of the resistance. The malthale then looted the fort of intel and fuel before leaving it for Martin to find it abandoned and overrun by Tankants.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 2 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 204 dead

Militia: 58 dead

### September 1 Bombing: September 1, 7018

Militia bombers were ordered by Martin and Halifax to target Covington’s command centers, which would sever communications throughout the city and allow them to disorient the spravac before their assault on the city. The Falcon-Class bombers flew low to the ground, dropping several Earthquake Incendiary bombs onto major spravac outposts.

However, a spravac guard wielding a Darkblaster cannon fired at the bombers, causing one of them to swerve to avoid being shot down, causing its payload of bombs to miss the target and instead hit a general store, killing everyone inside and several bystanders outside.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 302 dead

Civilians: 55 dead

### \*Contact at the Covington Canal: September 2, 7018

In an effort to lessen civilian deaths, Halifax contacted several rebel cells still hiding inside Covington, commanding them to establish an underground railroad to begin smuggling civilians out of the city to avoid unnecessary death.

The rebels acted at once, establishing a route that led out of Covington’s sewage system. However, as they began funneling out the civilians, an Incubus leading a marine detachment found one of the entrances, leading an assault into the canal. The Incubus led the charge with his blade, mercilessly cutting down scores of militia fighters and fleeing refugees.

Believing the canal to just be a hideout, the Incubus and the marines left after they were certain that all the Uresians were killed, leaving the canal intact but bathed in blood.

Decisive Tactical Spravac Victory, Costly Strategic Ures Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 3 dead

Militia: 18 dead

Civilians: 43 dead

### \*Skirmish at San Fernando Church: September 2, 7018

Several hours after the canal was attacked, the Catholic San Fernando Church, which was also acting as part of the underground railroad, was investigated by another Incubus, who was suspicious of the church’s sudden uptick in activity. The Incubus, under orders of Tvrescz, interrogated the priests alongside his battle brother.

After their prying took the notice of local militia, the two Incubi were attacked. One of them was killed in the ambush, but the other managed to escape and kill several militia members and one of the priests before withdrawing.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 9 dead

Civilians: 1 dead

Incubi: 1 dead

### \*Assault on San Fernando Church: September 3, 7018

After hearing about the attack on the Incubi, a squad of Collaborators gathered to assault the church and eliminate a cell within the railroad. The ensuing assault ended in just thirty minutes after half of the Collaborators were killed by a militia machine gunner mounted on one of the bell towers of the church.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Collaborators: 5 dead

### \*Battle of Covington: September 4- September 8, 7018

With the spravac command disrupted, Tvrescz was certain that the militia were mounting a large assault on the city, which was becoming more and more strategically unviable. Resolving to slowly withdraw soldiers from the city while a small force held off the militia, Tvrescz left behind primarily auxiliaries and Collaborators to hold the militia in stalemate while his marines and more professional soldiers were moved out of the city to regroup elsewhere.

The militia led by Martin began their assault on the city using their Falcon bombers, destroying several Collaborator barricades and checkpoints, allowing the militia to then race forward without coming under fire. However, they began taking losses from deentrox and spravac corsair snipers hiding in the skyscrapers of the city, killing several militia officers and weakening their chain of command. Without proper communication, the militia blitz slowed to a crawl, allowing the spravac to counter attack by sending forward human and drag marines to harass the militia at every street corner. The humans were especially effective, their familiar faces and spravac-like behavior freightened the primarily human militia forces, forcing several sections of the battle line back as the spravac auxiliaries moved forward.

By September 5, the city had been brought to a stalemate, which Tvrescz bolstered by sending forward a small company of spravac marines to further intimidate the Uresian fighters. Martin rallied the militia to fight on, leading a decisive charge on September 6 into the spravac lines, overrunning them at several points and killing over two hundred Collaborators.

Panicking from the losses, the spravac forces were rallied by a single group of Incubi that were also ordered to stay behind to lead after Tvrescz had left with the rest of his army. The Incubi terrified the non-spravac soldiers, forcing the drags and humans forward as cannon fodder while the marines circled around to flank the militia.

However, the marines failed in their flanking maneuver and were bogged down by militia fighters and air support for the Falcons, which used their bombs to wipe out the rest of the marines and even killed the Incubi.

With their leadership gone, the auxiliaries feebly held the militia back for another two days, finally retreating from the city on September 8 after the bulk of their force was killed.

Close Ures Victory:

Militia: 322 dead

Civilians: 92 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 200 dead

\*Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 373 dead

\*Collaborators: 205 dead

\*Incubi: 3 dead

### Ambush on ULMG Patrol: September 8, 7018

After the capture of Covington, the militia had established a viable foothold in Suffolkshire. Now numbering in the tens of thousands, the ULMG began to spread out into the greater Connaught Valley. Salvaging vehicles from Covington’s factories, the UMLG now had a viable and decently large armored division and a slew of weapons at their disposal. Distributing the weapons to the patriotic citizens of Covington, the ULMG was becoming a decently sized fighting force, almost on par with the actual PDF that defended Grace earlier in the campaigns.

As the ULMG began further fortifying their territory, they began patrols throughout it in order to try and smoke out spravac left behind by Tvrescz to continue disrupting them. During one of these patrols, a fully crewed Widow patrol cruiser was attacked by an Incubus wielding a longbow in the late evening. Using the longbow, the Incubus shot out the front right tire of the car, causing it to swerve out of control and plummet off the cliffside the car was driving along, killing all six passengers as they fell into the greater Connaught Valley.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 6 dead

### Operation Shadow Pincer: September 8, 7018

Three hours after the ULMG patrol was attacked, another Incubus tipped Tvrescz off to a cliffside base that housed a Hoplite tank and a Leatherback dropship. The base was serving as a hangar bay that could rapidly deploy the Leatherback to assist Connaught in the event that it was attacked again. Guarded almost entirely by exiled brown soldiers, the base was situated within thick underbrush, preventing spravac forces from attacking the base without taking heavy casualties, however this did not stop Tvrescz.

The Incubus on the site monitored the base well into the night, taking out several patrols of brown soldiers, preventing them from catching onto the spravac plot. Eventually, Tvrescz set the plan in motion, deploying a single pair of Malthale Blackguard to eliminate the base.

The first malthale, Black Captain Tar Genn Orze, bounded forward and jumped onto the roof of the complex, disturbing the garrison inside, alerting them to the presence, though they were unaware of what was attacking them. The onsite Incubus disabled the security cameras using a personal jamming device, severing communications with both the spravac and the Uresians. However, the malthale did not need communications, instead they communicated telepathically using their pheromones.

The second malthale, Black Captain Har Grav Thrak, stationed himself at the garage doorway, drawing his scythe. After Orze disabled the lights and security measures, Thrak deployed smoke grenades, blinding the Uresians as the massive door opened, allowing Thrak to immediately engage by impaling three of the militia with his scythe. As Thrak massacred the soldiers at the doorway, the militia’s yuriksis attempted to engage Thrak using his Aegis mech. However, Orze descended from the ceiling, using his scythe to attempt to nail the mech to the floor. The mech, using its powerful arms, swiped Orze to the side, however Orze’s armor cushioned the blow, preventing it from killing him.

Orze then engaged with the mech, using his tail to restrain the mech’s sword arm while using his knee to smash into the torso of the mech, disabling parts of its system and stunning the pilot. Orze then tore the pilot out of the cockpit, using his powerful grip to tear the yuriksis in half at the waist. He then picked up the wreckage of the mech and threw it at a squad of soldiers that had pinned down Thrak, allowing Thrak to brandish his blade and cut apart more of the militia.

The Uresians countered by deploying their tank, opening the secondary garage door and firing the Hoplite’s 70mm gun at Thrak. The shell only dented Thrak’s armor, infuriating him and sending him into a frenzy.

The hulking black armored malthale picked up the tank by the treads, lifting it over his head and tossing it forward and crushing more of the Uresian fighters. Resigned to their fate, the militia attempted to escape from the base using their leatherback, however Orze used his scythe and stabbed through the wings of the dropship, holding it in place while Thrak took his Meneras Pattern Darkblaster cannon into the hull of the ship, causing it to sputter out of control and plummet into the canyon below, killing all of the passengers.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 32 dead

### \*Battle of Greenchester: September 8- September 11, 7018

The UMLG’s next target of liberation was Greenchester, a town that had been cleansed of life during the Suffolkshire Campaign. The town was guarded by deentrox fledglings and a platoon of aagth warslaves. The militia, led by Daniel Breslin, assaulted the town using skirmishing tactics, utilizing snipers and stealth attacks to take out the patrolling guards.

After infiltrating the town limits, Breslin used satchel charges to detonate in key positions, detonating them on the morning of September 9. The explosions killed several deentrox and stunned the rest of the town defenses, allowing the militia to move in without suffering heavy casualties. The aagth were the first to fight back, using their massive iron hammers and bare hands to crush the militia fighters to dust., pushing them back at several streets, with one even coming close to crushing Breslin before it was sniped in the head by a militia sniper.

The fledglings fought ferociously, stalling the militia for the entirety of September 9 while they waited for more reinforcements in the form of Shadow Ark Corsairs. The corsairs arrived in the afternoon of September 10, numbering at over 100 strong and decimating the militia flank, killing nearly half of the force, often in melee combat.

The caped warriors threw themselves blindly at a militia controlled water tower, losing several of their brethren before one armed with a Flurry Fire launcher destroyed the tower, causing the water from it to flood several alleys and even drown a few militia.

Taking command of the auxiliaries, the spravac dominator ordered the aagth to charge in a melee vanguard while the fledglings and corsairs followed behind, inflicting heavy losses on the militia. By the morning of September 11, the militia had been beaten back, forced to retreat by the overwhelming firepower of the spravac and the brutality of the aagth, all of whom had reached their killing quotas to ensure that their families survived.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 43 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 154 dead

Militia: 419 dead

### Attack on Watchman’s Pit: September 9, 7018

In the late morning of September 9, a rebel campsite known as Watchman’s Pit was attacked by Spravac Shadow Ark Corsairs. The campsite was controlled by a small platoon of militia fighters, who were using the point in an attempt to look out for spravac patrols to alert nearby towns of their presence.

The corsairs, using their deathshard carbines and a single Heat Pike heavy laser, ambushed the campsite from behind, using the cover of night the day before to sneak by undetected. The corsairs easily overran the camp, killing all the militia while only losing two of their own after the PL made a desperate last stand against the attackers.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 2 dead

Militia: 24 dead

### Battle of Martin’s Pocket: September 9-10, 7018

Tired of waging only guerilla warfare against the spravac, Leslie Martin attempted to organize an official fighting force and build fortifications around Suffolk in order to fortify against spravac forces moving in. After the loss of Watchman’s Pit, which was a vanguard outpost to watch for spravac activity, the rebels began fortifying one of their bases, a hastily repurposed abandoned federal base that was destroyed during the 1st Death March.

Coining the area Martin’s Pocket, the rebels prepared for an all out assault from spravac forces. Sure enough, marine forces and auxiliaries led by Archon Tvrescz arrived from the north, bringing with them powerful deentrox M99A1 Juggernaut Tanks. Tvrescz began his assault in the evening, using his tanks and deentrox fledglings to plow through the outer defenses of the area, overrunning and killing thousands of militia.

Using the Collaborators and eogot warriors as cannon fodder, Tvrescz’s infantry charged boldly into several entrenched and elevated positions, eventually overrunning them but losing hundreds in the charge. The spravac marines then came next, terrifying and viciously ripping apart the rebels.

However, the base of operations for the militia, called Fort Proddence, had long range artillery capabilities, harassing the spravac lines and inflicting heavy fatalities with several batteries of Greyhound plasma howitzers, forcing them to entrench and halt their assault. While the artillery suppressed the spravac lines, the militia reorganized, preparing for a deadly counterattack under the cover of the artillery.

The militia armed themselves and charged forward, the Greyhound cannons kept the auxiliaries from firing back, allowing the militia to charge into the entrenchments with little casualties. However, they soon found themselves in a vicious brawl as they clashed with eogot, spravac, and their own brethren; the Collaborators, who were trained in spravac martial arts. The Collaborators had a decimating effect on morale, as the militia were confronted by the fact that the spravac had turned their own against them, which horrified them.

Despite the heavy losses, the militia continued to fight, even filling the trenches with the dead as they overwhelmed the spravac auxiliaries with sheer determination and ceaseless courage. After taking the trench, the militia halted their advance, only executing the Collaborators as the rest retreated back to Tvrescz’s line.

Throughout the night, the spravac and militia made small attacks on each other trading fire with each other. Worst of all, now that the militia were closer, they were now in range of the spravac artillery, who used 120mm Torture Bolt Mortars to inflict horrific wounds and losses against the militia.

In the morning, the militia were suddenly assaulted by the Juggernaut Tanks, which were accompanied by platoons of deentrox, using capture spravac anti tank ballistas and Heat Pikes, the militia managed to hold back the tanks, destroying about half of the tank company and killing most of the foot mobiles, forcing the auxiliaries back and giving an opening for the militia to attack.

The militia charged forward straight into the spravac lines. Supported by fire from the Greyhounds and even aircraft salvaged from Fort Proddence, the spravac could do little to hold back the tide of militia, forcing even Tvrescz to retreat after a bomb from a Harrier bomber nearly vaporized him. With the spravac on the run, Martin was satisfied that they had secured more territory in Connaught and greater Suffolk, though he well knew that the spravac would be back with a vengeance.

Close Ures Victory:

Militia: 4,762 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 387 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 1,223 dead

Collaborators: 267 dead

### Operation: Thunderbird: September 11, 7018

After defeating Tvrescz’s soldiers at Martin’s Pocket, units of militia, approximately twelve platoons, were sent out to eliminate Collaborators and eogot marines present in the area outside of Frederickton, a militia stronghold in grave danger of attack. Seeking to wipe them out and prevent them from reinforcing the siege of Frederickton, the platoons each launched simultaneous assaults on the various campsites of the auxiliaries.

The eogot put up a fierce fight while the Collaborators generally fled, which the milita showed no mercy to, running them down and executing them summarily after wiping out the eogot. With all of the campsites destroyed, the militia successfully denied the forces preparing to attack Frederickton fresh reinforcements, which numbered at over 200.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 112 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 87 dead

Collaborators: 143 dead

### Battle of the Proddence Column: September 12-13, 7018

The recent string of battles emboldened many residents of the Connaught Valley to rise up in fury against the spravac. Many camps and villages were rendered empty as thousands of citizens left their homes to join the militia, marching in a vast column towards Fort Proddence in Martin’s Pocket. The column numbered at nearly 18,000, which included both able bodied adults and their families, including children.

This drew the attention of Tvrescz, who saw an opportunity to terrorize and slaughter, sending a squadron of Broadsword Bombers to harass the column while Collaborators and Corsairs attacked on the ground. Feral Gunner spravac also attacked, using their guerilla tactics to ambush the refugees.

The Feral Gunners inflicted horrific damage, using rocket launchers and mortars to bombard the column from afar, specifically targeting caravans with children, wounded, or elderly. The bombardments signaled the Collaborators to attack, who rushed into the mass with machine guns, mowing down hundreds more civilians, most of whom were unarmed. Very few of the refugees were armed, those that did were only armed with hunting rifles or pistols, which did little to stop the assailants. The news of the attacks reached Fort Proddence, which scrambled its fighters mounted on APCs to escort the column. The APCs arrived promptly, wiping out the Collaborators attackers.

The militia inside the APCs dismounted and rushed into the rocks and trees on both sides of the column in search of the Feral Gunners. They were met by attacks from Corsairs, who distracted them and left the column unprotected, which was suddenly bombed by the Broadsword Squadron. The Broadswords destroyed most of the APCs, leaving the column even more exposed, allowing Feral Gunners armed with swords to rush into the column and cut the refugees to ribbons, often taking the children and women to be used as playthings later.

Above, the bombers continuously bombed around the column, preventing them from moving through the wall of plasma fire. In order to alleviate the pressure, Proddence mustered its fighters to drive off the bombers, destroying three of the Broadswords and nearly destroying the last, though half of the fighters were shot down in the aerial assault.

After the Broadsword squadron was defeated, the fighters began harassing the spravac on the ground, killing hundreds of them and forcing them back into the surrounding forests, only to be met by the militia, causin most of the spravac to be surrounded and killed.

With the last of the spravac either dead or deep in the forests of Connaught, the militia marched alongside the refugees back to Proddence, protecting them from anything else that tried to attack them.

Costly Ures Victory:

Militia: 804 dead

Civilians: 4,299 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 102 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 233 dead

Collaborators: 1,003 dead

### Massacre of Frederickton: September 13, 7018

Growing restless with anticipation for battle, the Corsairs waiting to attack Fredericktown disregarded their lack of reinforcements and attacked the town. The Corsairs used their mortars to bombard the town first, killing hundreds of civilians and select militia in the blasts, one of which was fired right into the center of a refugee camp. The spravac then rushed into the town, using shotguns and blades to cut down scores of militia that raced to defend the breach.

The Corsairs, outnumbered by the militia, fought for only five hours before the last of them were killed, leaving Frederickton burning and bathed in blood.

Close Ures Victory:

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 64 dead

Militia: 32 dead

Civilians: 503 dead

### Bombing of Connaught: September 14, 7018

Annoyed by the string of Uresian victories and their refusal to back down, Didact Tzár ordered an orbital bombardment of Connaught, ordering the flagship in the fleet above to fire a single Ultrabow shot into the center of the valley. The blast obliterated much of the towns and cities in the valley, including tens of thousands of militia and civilians. Luckily for the UMLG leadership, Fort Proddence was unaffected by the bombardment, however the intense heat travelled so far that some individuals died of heat stroke.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Militia: 12,591 dead

Civilians: 143,199 dead

### Battle of New Ulster: September 15, 7018

After the destruction wrought in Connaught, rebel forces began to vacate the remaining areas in the valley, instead choosing to make a warzone of Norwich County, which was at the southern mouth of Connaught and to the west of the Norman Mountains.

In order to break into the county, rebel forces seized a spravac weapon shipment and used the stolen weapons to attack the small town of New Ulster, which was being used as a listening post and labor camp for Norwich, which was now Tvrescz’s seat of governance in Suffolkshire after the loss of Covington. New Ulster was guarded by a company of deentrox and a platoon of Collaborators. The militia, using tanks salvaged from Fort Proddence, smashed through the spravac line. However, the perimeter of the town was lined with anti-tank Vapor mines, which destroyed several of the tanks in the road, blocking the way for the other tanks to get through.

With the tanks disabled, the infantry had to move in, where they were forced to take every street and block from the spravac forces, losing over one hundred men by the time the last of the deentrox was killed.

Close Ures Victory:

Militia: 103 dead

Civilians: 54 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 83 dead

Collaborators: 32 dead

### Battle of Torrhen: September 16-17, 7018

The militia forces occupied the small city of Torrhen, which was populated by over 60,000 civilians and refugees. The city had suffered little during the war, and most of its industry was still intact, as well as its agricenters, allowing food rations to be made for the militia and citizens.

Tvrescz’s Incubi spotted the militia organizing the city’s residents into fresh fighters, raising their numbers by another ten thousand by the end of the day. The Incubi used sniper rifles to harass the militia, killing many of them and leaving them paranoid and on edge while spravac Shadow Ark Corsairs and loradoch marines marched toward the city.

On the morning of September 16, the Corsairs used Dread Bolt mortars to bombard the city further, killing and wounding hundreds of citizens and rebels. Under the fire of the mortars, the loradoch charged forward, taking minimal losses from militia machine gun fire. After passing the line, the loradoch chased the retreating militia into the city, where they were led into various roadblocks and traps, causing them to lose hundreds of their men before being forced to retreat.

The loradoch charged again, this time managing to hold half of the city to hold off rebel counter attacks the entire night.

In the morning of September 17, the loradoch attempted to take more of the city, however civilians also began to take up arms, bolstering the militia ranks and keeping the loradoch back with constant withering fire, forcing them out of the city for the final time, keeping Torrhen firmly in Uresian hands.

Close Ures Victory:

Militia: 1,282 dead

Civilians: 837 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 17 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 928 dead

### Battle of Torrhen Plantation: September 16, 7018

Deentrox soldiers attacked a small plantation outside of Torrhen that was being used as an observation post for the rebel forces defending the city proper. Tvrescz’s Incubi spotted the post and ordered its destruction. Deentrox Kasakh-A-Rholon swooped in and used Heat Pikes to destroy the walls of the plantation, allowing them to brandish swords and pistols once they entered through the breaches, only losing a handful of men in the ensuing firefight.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 3 dead

Militia: 19 dead

Civilians: 6 dead

### Torrhen-Norwich Offensive: September 17-20, 7018

After successfully defending Torrhen, Martin sought to thrust into spravac territory to besiege Norwich, hoping that they could kill Tvrescz and maintain control of Suffolkshire. Now armed with vehicles and freshly manufactured Ures weapons and armor, the militia looked more like an official army than a band of rebel fighters. More members drawn up from Torrhen and the other refugees that followed them were armed with a combination of improvised armor, looted spravac weapons and armor, and even a few captured spravac vehicles, at least the ones that they could figure out how to pilot.

The militia forces began their assault with batteries of captured spravac artillery, devastating spravac patrols and disabling their ability to put up a viable defense. The militia then advanced forward as a massive bounding formation, covering miles of ground and only encountering light spravac resistance. Little did they know that this was by design, as Archon Tvrescz planned to draw the militia into a sense of confidence before destroying them, which he initiated on September 18, launching a series of devastating ambushes and raids helmed by Incubi and Elite Marines, which devastated the militia frontlines and ground their offensive to a halt. While the militia were attacked on the flanks, deentrox and Collaborators assaulted from the front, though they lost hundreds to machine gun fire from entrenched militia gun crews. While bogged down by the withering fire, mortar teams also bombarded Tvrescz’s forces, even killing a few Incubi in the battle. The deentrox were ordered to disregard the losses and press onward, eventually reaching the Uresian positions and overrunning them, though at a heavy and bloody price.

The spravac forces continued to press against the militia’s trenches and perimeters, causing many of the Uresians to run out of ammunition, forcing them to either retreat or desperately resort to melee combat with the physically superior deentrox and the savage Collaborators. Militiamen even resorted to using looted spravac blades, which were large and unwieldy, clashing ferociously with the spravac auxiliaries, who continued to disregard their casualties with boundless zeal. Meanwhile, Incubi and Elite Marines continued to harry the Uresians from afar, with the Incubi being especially effective in the night of September 19, which became known as the Night of Sightless Blades, as Incubi rendered invisible by stealth tech systematically wiped out two entire companies of Uresian fighters without being detected, which caused a gap in their defenses that allowed the rest of the spravac forces to break through, putting the Uresians in full retreat.

By the morning of September 20, the militia had pushed even beyond Torrhen, allowing the spravac to take the city bloodlessly, which irritated them to no end.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 54 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 3,599 dead

Collaborators: 659 dead

Incubi: 4 dead

Militia: 6,381 dead

### Battle of Saint Martin’s Hill: September 21- September 22, 7018

A decently sized force of deentrox, loradoch, and Collaborators attacked a rebel encampment on a small hill. Led by Leslie Martin, the rebels forced the deentrox back after they charged up the hill, using decisive emplacement of machine guns and a skilled sniper to ensure that the spravac forces could not move forward. The spravac attempted to use their own sniper, but was killed by the Uresians before he could do much damage.

The next morning, Martin attacked the deentrox and loradoch, forcing them back until they fully retreated. The Collaborators were the last to fall, and all the survivors were captured and executed by Martin and his troops. The battle earned its name after Martin, who allegedly fought and killed a Kasakh-A-Rholon bare handed, making him a saintly figurehead in the Suffolkshire Rebellion.

Close Ures Victory:

Militia: 102 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 89 dead

Collaborators: 35 dead

### Battle of Hemlock: September 21, 7018

Deentrox and malthale forces attacked the medium sized city of Hemlock, which was mostly civilians and was acting as a stronghold and refuge for wounded militia.

The malthale burned the city with plasma throwers, burning or forcing the civilians out. Those that left the burning buildings were slaughtered by the deentrox. The imperial soldiers met their only true challenge in the city hall, which held out for six hours against them before a spravac bomber levelled the building, forcing out the survivors and into the claws of the spravac auxiliaries.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 21 dead

Militia: 294 dead

Civilians: 43,178 dead

### Battle of Lexington: September 21-29, 7018

The retreating militia forces from the disastrous Torrhen Offensive took refuge in the town of Lexington, which housed only 5,000 civilians and an old observation base where the militia made camp. The militia set up gun posts using stolen gauss machine guns and even a few looted thornfang carbines taken from slain marines. While digging in, the city faced spread out instances of indirect fire from spravac batteries, as well as brief strafing runs from bombers that were heading towards Cedar Ridge.

On September 23, deentrox and corsairs attacked from the north, taking out the gun crews with sniper and mortar fire before charging forward into the militia lines. The militia booby-trapped the entire city, laying ambushes and placing mines that slowed the imperial advance to a crawl as the auxiliaries and corsairs fought for each individual building and house. On September 26, another force of kelairo soldiers from the west arrived to support the besieging spravac forces, forcing the militia into the outer suburbs of the town. The final holdouts were destroyed in several key community buildings, which were mostly protected by former law enforcement and armed civilians, by kelairo soldiers who later replenished themselves by feasting on the blood of the dead.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 123 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 548 dead

Militia: 493 dead

Civilians: 5,000 dead

### Battle of Cedar Ridge: September 28, 7018

A deentrox force ambushed a marching unit of militia, in full makeshift uniform. The deentrox used the airborne Kasakh-A-Rholon to bombard the militia with LMGs from above while the fledglings attacked from both sides down the hills that bordered the militia column.

By the end of the battle, the militia had all been killed or fled into the surrounding forests.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 82 dead

Militia: 402 dead

### Second Battle of Cedar Ridge: September 29, 7018

The militia that survived the ambush at Cedar Ridge resolved to dig in to hold off pursuing deentrox soldiers. The cover provided by the forest prevented the Kasakh-A-Rholon from assaulting from above, meaning that the fledglings below were forced to assault the positions, which were heavily guarded by snipers and machine guns. After several failed assaults, the deentrox were forced to withdraw, allowing the militia to escape into the Norman Mountains.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 187 dead

Militia: 23 dead

### Massacre of Winding Hill: September 30, 7018

Six malthale soldiers discovered the small village of Winding Hill, which was undefended. The malthale destroyed it by physically kicking down buildings and crushing the civilians beneath their hooves.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Civilians: 728 dead

### Battle of the Norman Mountains: October 2- October 10, 7018

Several interconnected tunnel bases were dug in the mountains by the militia hiding out in the Norman Mountains, which the spravac intended to smoke them out to break their hold of the Suffolkshire. Tzár deployed 17,000 marines in full mountain gear as well as 400 Incubi to battle the rebel forces. For six days the spravac faced constant withering ambushes from the militia, who were targeting the spravac’s hounds to prevent them from finding their secret tunnels.

Tzár sent another force of 200 malthale to strengthen the spravac, the former of whom were more accustomed to the rocky terrain of the mountains. The malthale and Incubi quickly discovered large parts of the tunnel system and massacred the soldiers inside. Once these were discovered, it was only a matter of two days before the militia were smoked out of the mountains.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 5,482 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 32 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 205 dead

Militia: 2,368 dead

### Battle of Franconia Crossing: October 11, 7018

Following the loss of their main base in the Normans, the militia soldiers were forced to retreat to refortify at the city of Franconia. Spravac marines, while advancing towards the city, were ambushed by hidden trenches. The militia killed all the marines and looted them of their weapons and whatever armor they could scrounge up.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 12 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 43 dead

Easterling Way Bombing: October 11, 7018

A convoy of spravac marines was destroyed by an IED, killing all the marines and destroying their equipment and vehicles.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 72 dead

### 2nd Battle of Franconia Crossing: October 12, 7018

The spravac, led by Archon Tvrescz, intended to march towards Franconia and destroy it, seeing it as one of the last bastions of concentrated militia resistance on the planet. In order to reach the city, the spravac had to get past Franconia Crossing, which narrowly defended the city and meant that spravac forces could only enter in small numbers. Along with the 30,000 spravac marines that Tvrescz was permitted use, he also fielded Collaborators, Corsairs, and auxiliary salu fusiliers. Callously using the latter forces as cannon fodder, the fusiliers and Collaborators charged through the narrow crossing, losing several of their troops to withering sniper and machine gun fire from hidden trenches.

While his auxiliaries were butchered by the trenches, Tvrescz personally took his Incubi guards to silence the trenches, as they had revealed themselves by engaging. Tvrescz and his warriors used stealth tech to enter the trenches silently, slitting the throats of the gunners and allowing the soldiers to advance. They then exchanged fire with the militia, typically winning out in the bloody skirmishes, finally making it through the crossing after three hours of battle, allowing the rest of the spravac troops to advance.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 243 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 112 dead

Collaborators: 55 dead

Militia: 254 dead

### Battle of Lorde’s Farm: October 12, 7018

The Ures militia that survived the battle at the crossing were pursued into a lone farmhouse owned by the Lorde Family. The militia were pursued by Corsairs, who were ordered by Tvrescz to smoke out survivors to prevent disruption of movement of his soldiers. The Corsairs, numbering at just 13, assaulted the farmhouse headon, losing most of their men to sniper fire from the militia in the upper levels of the farmhouse. Members of the Lorde family took up arms to defend their home as well, however three of them were killed in melee after two of the Corsairs managed to make it inside of the farmhouse, which also led to the deaths of two of the militia fighters before the spravac finally died.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 2 dead

Civilians: 3 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 13 dead

### Raid on Goldrock Point: October 13, 7018

After capturing the crossing, the spravac began fortifying their positions, constructing wooden guard towers to watch for militia movement throughout the crossing. Many of these towers were constructed in the Goldrock Mountains, which was a smaller mountain chain attached to the greater Norman Mountains. The chief tower was known as Goldrock Point.

Militia commandos from the Lorde family farm emerged from the estate to begin launching raids, beginning with Goldrock Point to send the other towers into disarray. The deentrox guards fought off the commandos for sixteen minutes before the commandos managed to demolish the tower, taking the deentrox prisoner and executing them.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Militia: 2 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 5 dead

### Battle of the Goldrock Mountains: October 13-15, 7018

With the fall of Goldrock Point, the other towers in the mountains were cut off, allowing the commando unit to begin wiping each one out systematically. Beginning with Blackeye Tower, which was guarded by a platoon of kelairo soldiers. Using the element of surprise, the commandos fired from the trees, killing several of the kelairo and forcing the others into cover. The kelairo sniper in the towers managed to spot and kill three of the commandos, forcing them to descend from the trees to find better cover, hiding in the crags of the mountain.

Exchanging fire for several minutes, the commandos finally broke through and killed the last of the kelairo, silencing Blackeye Tower.

On October 14, the commandos attacked Halberd Post, which was guarded by three spravac and an Incubus who was maintaining order across the Goldrock Mountains. Seeking to prioritize the Incubus, the commandos shot the Incubus dead then fired upon the other spravac marines, killing them outright.

However, the death of the Incubus triggered Tvrescz and the other Incubi, who sent in three more to investigate. The Incubi, using their tracking abilities, discovered the commandos and began trailing them across the mountain range, watching from afar as the commando unit wiped out two more outposts, Darkfang Tower and Eyrie Post.

By October 15, nearly half of the towers had been wiped out. The commandos set their sights on their next target, Blackrock Post. The commandos assumed that like the others, the tower was unaware of what was happening, but in reality the tower had been alerted by the Incubi following the commandos, who were now ready for attack. Guarded by 100 spravac marines, the tower’s forces outnumbered the commandos, who now only numbered at about 25 strong. The tower was manned by 10 marines, while the rest hid in the rocks with Incubi assistance, luring the commandos into a trap.

The commandos began like all the others with sniper fire, killing several of the marines before the trap was sprung. Suddenly the commandos were surrounded, losing men every second before the last of them fell by an Incubus sword.

Though the commandos were defeated, the Goldrock tower network was in shambles and required extensive efforts to be rebuilt, regarded by the Incubi as a fruitless victory.

Costly Tactical Spravac Victory/Decisive Strategic Ures Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 32 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 102 dead

Incubi: 1 dead

Ures Militia: 40 dead

### Battle of Popper’s Hill: October 16, 7018

On the way towards Franconia, Tvrescz’s soldiers encountered a militia dugout at Popper’s Hill, named so after Captain William Popper, who was in charge of the defense of the road to Franconia. Tvrescz sent deentrox soldiers to attack the militia checkpoint, though the deentrox overwhelmed the militia, they lost more than the militia defenders.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 17 dead

Militia: 12 dead

### Battle of Franconia Checkpoint: October 18, 7018

Seven squads of spravac marines and two platoons of deentrox attacked the main checkpoint leading to Franconia. The spravac faced heavy resistance from the militia guards, but ultimately the spravac broke through the barrier, killing and torturing the survivors before fortifying the checkpoint to funnel more soldiers into the city. They repelled two successive attacks from the militia, killing all of the attackers.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 62 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 27 dead

Militia: 165 dead

### Siege of Franconia: October 19- November 3, 7018

The spravac soldiers finally reached Franconia on October 19, which was heavily guarded by over 20,000 Uresian militia. The spravac, supported by salu, corsairs, kelairo, Collaborators, and loradoch troops, numbered at over 45,000 altogether. The river that fed into Franconia, the Yarroughs River, would serve as an entry point for the aquatic loradoch. The loradoch swam through the river and placed antimatter charges in the sewers of the city, detonating them on Tvrescz’s signals and decimating the city, causing nearly a third of it to practically sink into the river, killing tens of thousands of civilians and hundreds of militia fighters.

Dazed by the bombing, Tvrescz began his frontal assault with corsairs and salu, who marched nearly unopposed into the city, killing hundreds more civilians and militia. In the evening, the auxiliaries fortified to prepare for their siege of the city. The Collaborators were sent ahead on October 20 to sow discord and destruction, raping and looting the city’s commercial centers while exchanging fire with the UMLG militia, who typically won out against them in the skirmishes. Seeking to go on the offensive, Leslie Martin, who commanded the city garrison, had his more experienced troops infiltrate into the rubble and launch urban guerilla attacks against the salu and corsairs, disorganizing them and allowing the regular militia to charge into their fortifications, nearly pushing them out of the city.

Frustrated with the lack of progress, Tvrescz personally led the regular marines into the city, taking the militia by surprise and reinvigorating the salu and corsairs, pushing deeper into the city as they slaughtered thousands more militia as they retreated into the more intact buildings. Recognizing that assaulting the buildings would be foolish, Tvrescz instead had bombers and heavy artillery crews bombard the skyscrapers on October 21, reducing the once proud buildings to rubble and burying the militia inside. From October 21 until the 24, the spravac and Uresian forces battle through the rubble wrought by the bombardment, mostly in the city center, which became known as the Franconian Bloodbath by the spravac, who gleefully killed hundreds more fighters while the Collaborators went door to door in spravac held territory to massacre civilians.

On October 25, the Uresians used reactivated tanks stored in the Brown Division headquarters in the city to try and break through the Franconian Bloodbath, successfully killing over 1,000 salu fusiliers who were guarding the city center at the time. However, the tanks ran into trouble when spravac anti-tank teams used Heat Pikes and quad laser cannons to disable or destroy many of the tanks, once again halting the militia offense and regaining initiative in the battle. On October 27, spravac Orc-class APCs rammed through militia defenses and deployed hundreds of marines, who streamed through the alleyways and streets like a flood of black and grey, killing thousands more civilians and militia in their wake, forcing the militia into the buildings and final corners of the once great city. The loradoch, who were still swimming through the river and sewers, emerged as well, attacking from the rear on October 30 and 31, taking the militia completely by surprise and spelling doom for the city.

Rape and looting was commonplace, and the mass murder of the civilians at first caused the militia fighters to despair, but later they fought with increased ferocity to avenge their fallen. Despite this new bravado, the militia could not stand against the spravac’s far more advanced weaponry and vast numbers, eventually winning the city for the spravac on November 3 and ending the Suffolkshire Rebellion.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 6,438 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 3,221 dead

Collaborators: 551 dead

Militia: 12,453 dead

Civilians: 302,584 dead

## Invasion of Grace: November 3, 7018- May 20, 7019

After losing millions of citizens to famine throughout the Ures Empire, High Command was desperate to retake Grace, which provided much of Ures her food rations for the military and for the colonies of the empire. To achieve this, Ures diverted mass divisions of Green and brown soldiers from Ures herself, activating reserves and even retired units, forming an army of numerous but inexperienced troops to invade and attempt to retake Grace, as Blue Division recon operatives had informed Ures High Command that the Spravac Empire had a relatively small garrison force.

This force, named the 1st Grace Expeditionary Army (GEA), was commanded by Generals Adam Hoover and Augustus von Freihart and numbered at over 8 million strong. The army was composed of over 4 million green Soldiers, 3 million brown soldiers, 300,000 red soldiers, 200,000 white soldiers, and 500,000 gold soldiers. In addition, seventeen armor battalions of 1,020 Spartan, Hoplite, and Praetorian Tanks. Additionally, 70 White and Green Titans were also acquired.

Intent on retaking their home from the Spravac Empire, the GEA also came in contact with UMLG leadership, including Nathaniel Halifax, Leslie Martin, and Daniel Breslin, giving them official rankings as well as smuggling them uniforms and weapons to become more unified and armed.

Guarding Grace, or ĺsczó as the spravac had begun calling it, was Didact Seránó Tzár and Archon Gcártzá Tvrescz, who had requested another 400,000 marines, 200,000 kelairo, 300,000 aztornac, and 10,000 aagth warslaves.

### 1st Battle of the Grace Blockade: November 3, 7018

The Ures fleet numbered at 40 strong, made up of 10 Zhukov-Class Destroyers, 5 Hudson-Class Destroyers, 20 Victoria-Class frigates, and 5 Bishamon-Class Carriers, which had with them dropships to prepare for landing on the planet. Standing against them was a relatively small spravac blockade, primarily because the spravac found the prospect of a Uresian counter-invasion intriguing. Numbering at only 5 Warrior-Class Battleships, 13 Barbarian-Class Destroyers, and 1 Destroyer-Class Dreadnought. The spravac fleet, upon catching sight of the Ures fleet, immediately opened up with a volley from their Ultrabows, destroying two of the Zhukov destroyers and a Victoria frigate. Using her strong energy shields, the Bishamon-Class Spirit of Liberty rushed forward and acted as a shield against the spravac fire, absorbing the blows while deploying her complement of Eagle fighters, which skirted past spravac anti-fighter cannons and successfully disabled the propulsion systems of two of the Barbarians. However, the Destroyer Dreadnought, the Furious Lechery scrambled its own fighters and met the Eagles, savagely dogfighting with the heavy assault fighters.

Realizing that Ures was planning an invasion, the spravac commander changed his strategy and began slowly moving his ships back to lure the Ures forces into landing on the planet before trapping them on the surface to be slaughtered.

The Ures fleet easily took the bait, thrusting into the spravac battleline and destroying more of the Barbarians before the spravac broke away and jumped into warp space, though nearby to arrive and trap the Ures fleet once the Ures armies had landed.

Decisive Ures Victory:

Ures Ships: 6 destroyed

Ures Naval Servicemen: 4,877 dead

Spravac Ships: 9 destroyed

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 10,822 dead

### Operation Whirlwind: November 3- November 10, 7018

The Ures forces began landing troops under heavy spravac AA fire in the afternoon of November 3, landing hundreds of dropships escorted by fighters that promptly landed and neutralized the spravac guns, which were crewed by eogot auxiliaries and Shadow Ark Corsairs. After establishing a beachhead, General Freihart began Operation: Whirlwind to rush forward and take the immediate towns and forward bases in the Suffolkshire.

The Green Division troopers spearheading the assault encountered several defensive lines of marines and deentrox troops, who held back the assaulting forces until November 4, finally forced to retreat after Ures fighters strafed their positions and wiped them out.

# Third Phase (Zyyntorean Liberation): October 29, 7020- January 29, 7022

While the Ures Empire struggled to hold onto their other territories and liberate other worlds from the spravac, the Holy Zyyntorean Empire offered to retake Grace for the Ures Empire, who they pitied for their horrific losses in the earlier campaigns.

Led by the Harbinger himself, Viacota Gai Zelem, the Holy Zyyntorean Empire sent an expeditionary force of 3 million Legionnaires and his personal army of 5,000 Immortals. Zelem, along with his second in command Legate Optious Gai Venturous, aimed to land on the continent of Americana to liberate Richmond, facing Didact Tzár, to establish a base of operations.

### 2nd Battle of the Grace Blockade: October 29, 7020

In order to land the Legionnaires on the ground, first the zyyntorean fleet had to pass the spravac defense fleet. The spravac fleet consisted of 2 Glaive Dreadnoughts, 1 Barbarian Destroyer, 20 Warrior Battleships, 1 Fortress Carrier, 17 Castle Cruisers, and 10 Mace Corvettes.

The zyyntorean fleet was helmed by a Chapel Dreadnought, 13 Billhook Frigates, 9 Seraph Galleons, 4 Dominion Destroyers, 9 Principality Destroyers, and 2 Hoplite Cruisers. Though outnumbered, the zyyntorean’s Chapel Dreadnought was twice the size of the Glaives and had four times the firepower.

Zelem ordered his Hoplites to stay a parsec away to enter the fray once the battle had already begun. His Dreadnought easily destroyed the Barbarian destroyer, which raced ahead of the rest of the spravac fleet to engage. The Fortress Carrier deployed thousands of fighters to rush the Dreadnought, but they were intercepted by the Billhooks and the zyyntoreans’ own fighters, which outclassed the spravac fighters in armor.

The zyyntorean dreadnought muscled its way in between the two spravac dreadnoughts, using the other zyyntorean ships to screen her advance. Once between the two ships, she deployed 50 Gladius boarding ships to board the dreadnoughts and destroy them from the inside. The Marines, once inside the ships, cut through the spravac with no difficulty, overpowering the Shadow Ark Corsairs and slaughtering the Blood Alchemist, Cairé Rasczec, by beheading him. The zyyntoreans then disrupted the controls so the ship would veer off course into the other. The zyyntoreans disengaged the dreadnoughts and escaped back into Zelem’s ship, which moved out from between the two ships to cause them to collide, destroying them both instantly.

The Seraph Galleons were taking heavy damage from the Warrior Battleships, which used their speed and ultrabows to destroy multiple ships. Zelem then called in his Hoplites, which appeared on both sides of the fleet and caught the spravac completely off guard, destroying the last of the corvettes and heavily damaging the Fortress Carrier, which was still deploying its horde of fighters and gunships. The Billhooks made quick work of the fighters, allowing the Chapel to engage the carrier and destroy it.

With most of the ships destroyed, the spravac fleet withdrew to the surface, giving the atmosphere to the zyyntoreans.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Ships: 16 destroyed

Zyyntorean Naval Servicemen: 9,643 killed

Zyyntorean Marines: 7,231 killed

Spravac Ships: 39 destroyed

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 89,472 killed

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1,582 killed

### Battle of Richmond: October 30- November 7, 7020

In response to the surprise invasion from the zyyntoreans, Tzár was forced to divert his thinly spread forces to defend the city of Richmond, which was in the sights of Zelem and his army.

The spravac garrison numbered at over 200,000 strong, mostly composed of Shadow Ark Corsairs and marines, the former of which were stationed there from the remaining spravac ships and ships that were refueling.

The zyyntoreans began their attack on 30 October, beginning with a defiant battle prayer led by Zelem and the Legion’s War Clergy. Following the end of the prayer, the battle priests lead the charge with the legionnaires under the cover of gauss artillery fire. The marines shot down hundreds of the charging warriors, but each warrior required more than a few crossbow bolts to put down for good. When the zyyntoreans reached the barricades of the spravac defenders, they immediately destroyed them, cutting through the marines and corsairs with an ease akin to the spravac cutting through the Ures two years earlier. However, the zyyntoreans were slowed once they passed this point. They were caught in crossfire between entrenched spravac in the mostly intact buildings of the city. The spravac were also using live civilians as shields, keeping the zyyntoreans from using their rifles out of fear of hitting innocents. Zelem, two days into being entrenched, ordered his rear troops to circle around the city and attack the flanks. During their time moving around the massive metropolis, the zyyntoreans lost thousands to fire from the spravac. However, it became clear that the majority of their troops were holding the zyyntoreans at bay in the original point of attack, so once the riflemen reached their flanking positions, they easily overran the lightly defended flanks.

With their flanks penetrated, Tzár ordered his men to retreat out of the city, ceding it to Zelem. However, he was not going to give the city to him intact. He ordered the ships that were refueled to fire into the city once the spravac, who were quicker than the zyyntoreans, reached the ships. They fired a barrage of antimatter fire and plasma torpedoes into the city, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and zyyntoreans, leaving them battered and confused, allowing Tzár and his surviving troops to escape the city.

Costly Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 254,192 dead

Civilians: 211,672 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 132,683 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 43,186 dead

### Battle of Franconia: November 10- December 3, 7020

For the first three days after the zyyntoreans reclaimed Richmond, Zelem and his men attended to the civilians, bringing food supplies and tending to the wounded, as well as gathered volunteers to be armed with weapons to act as a well armed garrison militia of the city. Human legionnaires within the zyyntorean ranks were ordered to stay behind and train the militia, as Zelem believed that having a familiar face to lead them would better raise the morale of the decimated human civilians of the city.

In order to reach their next objective of Yellowhill, the zyyntoreans had to pass through the county of Franconia, which was heavily defended by Tzár’s remnants and other spravac forces. Franconia was sparsely populated but was a major producer of the planet’s wheat and other crops, meaning that taking the region would give food to the starving civilians of Richmond and the surviving areas. Defending Franconia was 4 million spravac marines and deentrox, as well as forty thousand tanks and other vehicles. Spravac had lost their air support after Richmond was retaken, meaning that the zyyntoreans had air superiority.

In addition to the 2.8 million men that remained from the expeditionary Legion, Zelem had been given a cohort of knights from the Order of Canticle Honor, a force of 40,000 warriors that had utterly dedicated themselves to the service of their god. In addition, seventeen thousand tanks were also deployed, primarily composed of heavy Valiant Class Tanks. Zelem ordered the Knights to accompany him and his Immortals in leading the central vanguard into the county, while his Legionnaires and tanks moved through the flanks. He correctly assumed that the spravac would be guarding the center while the deentrox were guarding the flanks. His goal was to hold down the spravac while the flanking forces broke the physically inferior deentrox to then destroy the spravac by surrounding them.

When the zyyntorean Legionnaires entered the heavily forested flanks, they were ambushed by heavy fire from the hidden deentrox and their flying brethren; the Kasakh-A-Rholon. The Kasukh swooped down and carried hundreds of zyyntoreans to their deaths in the trees, causing the formation in the western flank to break apart. The zyyntorean tanks attempted to burn the forests down, but wanted to avoid friendly fire and thus couldn’t do much. Eventually, the zyyntoreans started using their tremendous blades to cut down each tree individually, causing hundreds of deentrox to fall to their deaths as their cover was regimentally destroyed. In the east, the zyyntorean Legionnaires had properly broken through the deentrox defenders, which alarmed Tzár, causing him to divert some of his marines to combat the eastern flanking force.

The marines proved to be difficult for the zyyntoreans to manage, as the marines attacked them from elevated ground, negating cover with their crossbow and Zgevescz rifles. The zyyntoreans slowly advanced through the fire, led on by their Battle Priests that fearlessly led the charges up the hills.

In the center, Zelem and his Host engaged the spravac’s main force on November 16, digging trenches and periodically charging the numerically superior, but spread out force. On November 20, the spravac in the west were engaged by the zyyntorean Legionnaires in the area, having broken through the last of the deentrox. However, the zyyntorean tanks were no match for the faster and more deadly firepower of the spravac tanks, which destroyed hundreds of the tanks without losing more than 50 of their own. This changed when the zyyntoreans themselves attacked the tanks, cutting through their armor with their blades and flipping them over with their sheer strength. The loss of the tanks caused Tzár to divert his marines to push back the western army, which in turn allowed Zelem to advance with his forces. He attacked the eastern spravac forces, taking the pressure off of the eastern zyyntorean forces that were still trapped in the forest. With that force broken, the zyyntoreans in the east linked up with Zelem and surrounded the spravac completely, killing tens of thousands over the course of three days. On November 27, Tzár ordered his tanks to punch a hole in the zyyntorean line to disrupt it so his forces could get out of the killzone and regroup. The tanks successfully broke through the northern section of the zyyntorean line, allowing the spravac to stream out of it before it closed again. However, Tzár lost thousands more tanks and hundreds of thousands more spravac trying to break through the line, leaving him with an inferior force to combat the zyyntoreans, who had begun utilizing their air support to launch airstrikes at the spravac encampments.

Finally, on December 3, Tzár ordered his men to withdraw from the county to fortify the repurposed ruins of Yellowhill, now called the Black Citadel.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 503,681 dead

Knights: 1,844 dead

Immortals: 185 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 2,727,175 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 318,753 dead

### Battle of the Black Citadel (2nd Battle of Yellowhill): December 10, 7020- December 11, 7020

Situated at Yellowhill was Tzár’s command post of the Black Citadel, a massive fortress of black, knifelike towers and spiked walls. The fortress stood on the rubble of Yellowhill, which had been completely wiped off the face of Grace’s surface.

The Citadel was garrisoned by 1 million Marines, three hundred thousand Blade Harpies, and another 1 million Morner Marines. In addition, Tzár commissioned an ethtat mercenary to infiltrate the zyyntorean ranks to learn their plans. As a shapeshifter, the ethtat easily got past the zyyntorean guards, infiltrating Zelem’s war room to record his plans for the attack against the Citadel. The spy learned that the zyyntoreans planned to attack the massive walls with a constant barrage of heavy artillery while the zyyntorean Legionnaires surrounded the fortress to attack from all sides, with Zelem leading the charge from the south with his Immortals and Knights. The Legionnaires were to get through the walls and barricades to make room for their tanks to destroy the buildings and perhaps even kill Tzár. Tzár responded to this by having his morners guard the barricades so they could disrupt the tanks with their size, as well as face against the zyyntorean infantry that followed. He had his marines load into dropships to then take the fight to the zyyntoreans, who were expecting the spravac to entrench themselves rather than attack.

On the frigid night December 10, the zyyntoreans began their barrage of the walls, which Tzár did not man with any soldiers to avoid casualties. He ordered his Blade Harpies and their Axe-Wings to fly high into the sky to intercept the artillery behind the zyyntorean lines. As the zyyntoreans began to advance, the spravac descended from the skies in their dropships, cutting down hundreds of zyyntoreans before even landing. The spravac overwhelmed the spread out zyyntorean forces, causing entire formations to break and panic. Zelem and his Immortals were forced to spread out to regain the composure of the troops, but were unable to cover such a large swath of land, a large swath that the spravac were able to cover with ease. By the morning of December 11, the zyyntoreans were forced back to the edges of Franconia, but Tzár did not pursue them, believing that if he did the zyyntoreans would kill his marines eventually, leaving the Citadel’s garrison severely weakened.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 25,496 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 143 dead

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 73,175 dead

Knights: 305 dead

Immortals: 25 dead

### Battle of the Vaedrous Line: December 11, 7020

Though Tzár had ordered his marines to withdraw from engaging the zyyntoreans, the commander of his forces on the ground, Magistrate Vólc Sczmír, believed that attacking the zyyntoreans now would cripple them and win the war early. Against Tzár’s orders, Sczmír ordered his forces to attack the zyyntoreans head on, who were still attempting to recuperate from the failed attack on the Citadel. In addition, the Blade Harpies reached their artillery and attacked as well.

The zyyntorean main battle line was a single line of trench that was fortified with riflemen and machine guns, as well as light gauss culverin field guns. The spravac frontal charge was devastating, slaughtering thousands of spravac before they reached the zyyntorean trench. Once they reached the trench, they were immediately pushed back by the superior zyyntorean soldiers, who easily took on three to four marines at a time without issue. In addition, the Blade Harpies mounted on their Axe-Wings were being shot down by zyyntorean fighters, which killed thousands of the airborne soldiers. With the spravac pushed out of the trench, called the Vaedrous Line (after the ancient zyyntorean warrior), the zyyntoreans pursued them all the way to their dropships, at times even destroying a few of them and the marines inside. Sczmír himself was captured during the fight and brought to Zelem, who executed him by beheading.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 3,581 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 15,492 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 213 dead

### 2nd Battle of the Black Citadel (Third Battle of Yellowhill): December 12- December 17, 7020

After the disaster at the Vaedrous Line, Tzár was struggling to find a replacement for the disloyal Sczmír as well as reorganize the scattered marine forces. In the meantime, Zelem ordered an immediate attack against the Citadel to prevent Tzár from doing just that. Zelem attacked with airstrikes against the fortress walls, dodging AA fire and dropping payloads of plasma bombs behind the walls, destroying infrastructure and disorganizing the morner troops. The melting properties of the bombs caused the foundation on the walls to become weak, causing the great metal structures to bow and eventually collapse, allowing the zyyntoreans and tanks to stream into the breaches. When the morners emerged to engage the tanks, Zelem ordered his infantry and tanks to pull out, knowing full well that the spravac and morners would pursue them out of overconfidence.

When the tanks reached a certain point, the retreating zyyntoreans turned back around and counter charged in tandem with artillery and flanking forces that were waiting for the spravac. This expertly executed false charge destroyed the spravac and sent the morners into a panic, causing thousands of them to be captured and thousands more to be killed as they retreated. With the main defenders of the breach gone, the zyyntoreans charged back into the Citadel. However, entrenched spravac troops slowed their advance to a brutal, inch by inch crawl. The primarily melee based zyyntoreans and morners battled each other in an almost Medieval fashion, creating piles of bodies that blocked off entire roadways for the tanks. Ultimately, the zyyntoreans proved to be more skilled than the morners, pushing deeper into the Citadel, destroying buildings as they went. The zyyntorean air superiority proved critical, as the last of the AA guns was captured on December 15, allowing the zyyntorean bombers to bomb behind the spravac lines, even damaging Tzár’s headquarters, which prompted him to withdraw from the battle with his personal guard to command his troops from a distance.

The withdrawal of Tzár caused the morners to lose hope and surrender to the zyyntoreans in droves. At times, their spravac commanders killed their own morner soldiers for suggesting surrender, which caused infighting that broke the spravac defense.

By December 17, the Citadel had been burned to the ground, with the last of the spravac forces either captured, retreating into the forest or killed.

Despite the victory, Zelem believed that he had lost too many brothers for what ultimately became a smoldering rubble atop another smoldering rubble.

Costly Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 302,671 dead

Knights: 832 dead

Immortals: 122 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1,483,286 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 503,611 dead (496,246 captured)

### Operation Heavenly Reckoning: December 20, 7020- January 3, 7021

Zyyntorean agents that had infiltrated behind spravac lines after they retreated from the wreckage of the Citadel revealed that the spravac were mounting a massive offensive to retake what they had lost over such a short amount of time. The spravac had gathered 1 million marines, 2 million malthale and morner marines, and 600,000 Plasma Thorn Rangers to combat the zyyntorean army.

In response to this, Zelem ordered that his newly resupplied force of 4 million Legionnaires and Knights would push into the Valeland. Zelem was aware through his agents that Tzár was beginning to lose favor with Blood Alchemist Správ for his failures, so Zelem sought to undermine Tzár even more by taking him completely off guard.

Zyyntorean warriors, once the advance (called Operation Heavenly Reckoning) began, immediately began to take fire from spravac scouts in the nearby Carroughland Mountains. The zyyntorean riflemen entrenched themselves when they heard the thunderous march of hundreds of thousands of spravac soldiers. The spravac, caught off guard by the zyyntorean soldiers, launched an impromptu Thundercharge into the zyyntorean vanguard. The trenches were promptly overrun, but now before the zyyntorean cut down thousands of spravac soldiers,

When the vanguard fell, Zelem ordered his forces to move into the mountains to get onto higher ground. The first Legionnaires to reach the mountains were harrassed by the spravac skirmishers, disallowing them from entering the mountain crags safely.

Zelem dispatched the Knights to take out skirmishers while his main force entrenched to hold off the coming spravac tide. While in the mountains, Right Honorable Sir Thaddious Gai Nemekezza, the Chaplain of the Knights on Grace, ordered his cadre of warriors through the mountains to destroy the spravac in hiding. They came across small squads of spravac snipers and carbineers, killing them swiftly and mercilessly.

Below the knights, the zyyntoreans recited a lengthy battle prayer as the spravac inched closer to their palisades. The Battle Priests espoused entire pages of the Script, lifting the zyyntorean’s spirits to tremendous levels. The second the spravac came into range, Zelem gave the signal for the riflemen to fire. Their field guns and arc rifle mowed down thousands of spravac before they were even ordered to charge. The spravac attacked the zyyntorean line in a spread out throng of undisciplined rabble, tripping and crawling over each other as the zyyntoreans continued to fire into their ranks. When the first spravac reached the first line of riflemen, swordsmen sprung from the trenches and clove them into bits, cutting down swaths of the savage beasts before counter charging into the horde. As the zyyntoreans slashed through the grey sea, the riflemen moved back into the mountains where the Knights had established safe checkpoints for them to embed, firing into the spravac as they went along.

In the mountains, the Knights came across spravac in red armor, signifying a terrible new foe; rangers.

The rangers emerged from the caves and crags of the mountains and took the Knights completely by surprise, overwhelming them and mortally wounding Nemekezza.

As the Knights fell back, their checkpoints were also overrun, killing the riflemen stationed there as well. Zelem noticed that below the mountains the swordsman had all but destroyed the spravac horde, sending them retreating in droves on the order of Didact Tzár. He [Zelem] ordered the riflemen and Knights to withdraw from the mountains and instead continue moving. He ordered his swordsmen to stay behind to hold off the rangers that were surely following his army. Zelem’s main force split into two field armies, one of which was commanded by Legate Optious Gai Venturous.

Venturous came across the strategically important city of Druiton on December 23, which had been cleansed of civilians and repurposed as a spravac fort. Venturous ordered his tanks and artillery to harry the main walls, disrupting the spravac defenses to allow his troops to flow into the city. The city garrison, composed of morners, entrenched into the ruined buildings of the city to slow the zyyntorean column into an arduous urban bloodbath, causing roadblocks to stop the zyyntorean tanks in their tracks so they would later be destroyed by morner ambushers. Zyyntorean storm Legionnaires, soldiers armed with fully automatic rifles, systematically moved through each alley and building in the impressive city, killing off hundreds of morner kill teams as effectively as the morners were at disrupting their tanks. As the morners were forced out of the city, the zyyntoreans established it as a landing zone for more material and engineers to repair their tanks.

The engineering corps was then set out beyond the city to investigate traps that the morners may have set in preparation for losing their base. Surely enough, the engineers discovered embedded Vapor Mines and extended anti-infantry pikes. However, as they started to remove the traps, they were all detonated by a remote, killing all of them.

With their surprise traps gone, the morners fortified themselves to block off the zyyntorean charge. However, the zyyntorean assault troops and swordsmen made quick work of the auxiliaries, destroying their line in mere minutes. With the morners gone, Venturous and his army continued marching north to take the rest of Gloucestershire.

Zelem’s sword guard in the rear off the army finally broke from the rangers on December 28, having held them off for eight days. With the rangers closing in, Zelem halted his army in a small collection of abandoned villages that spanned across a fourteen mile front. The zyyntorean riflemen readied themselves for the coming charge.

Instead, they were met by a hail of gunfire from the rangers, whose advanced Aquila rifles matched the zyyntorean arc rifles in range and accuracy. A deep fog had settled in the area, and the zyyntoreans were unable to match the keen eyesight of their ranger foes. Zelem elected to send out scout teams of swordsmen and riflemen to locate the rangers, however these too were cut down. The rangers finally revealed themselves by charging into the central village, called Zelem’s Crucible. The rangers were met by Zelem and his Immortal guards, which pushed them back nearly instantaneously. The rangers panicked and retreated back, allowing zyyntorean pursuers to find their main camp and destroy it. Following the destruction of the ranger base, the remaining ones were ordered by Tzár to fall back into the main spravac force through the Carroughlands.

By January 3 the zyyntorean field armies had reunited, having pushed the spravac out of Gloucestershire. With the region secure, the zyyntorean dropped more weapons and supplies to arm the populace so they could defend their homeland while the Zelem took his forces to other parts of the planet for liberation.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 275,288 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 843,782 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 57,675 dead

## Liberation of the Valeland: January 10, 7021- March 3, 7021

The liberation of Gloucestershire greatly perturbed Správ and Tzár, so much to the point that Tzár was relieved of his position as the Didact of Grace and was instead replaced by Didact Étvác Vólóm, who was fresh off the battlefields of Iris and was eager to shed more blood on the battered world. Zelem did not sustain overly horrific losses to his manpower, but he did desire to have more tanks and aircraft to support his campaign to liberate the Valeland. He was given three thousand more tanks and a detachment of 100 testudo class gunships to support his infantry.

Zelem and Optious both agreed to split their forces throughout the entire Valeland to combat Didact Vólóm on all fronts, disrupting his supply lines to take the province as swiftly as possible. The primary objectives of the Legions was to subdue the spravac forces as well as garrison and recapture as many settlements as possible with as little civilian casualties as possible. Zelem established contact with cells of the ULMG to disrupt spravac lines as well from behind the main battlefront. Whenever the zyyntoreans linked with these militia forces, they would be armed with human sized weapons and armor and placed into support cohorts in the Legions.

Vólóm was given command of the remaining spravac forces from Operation Heavenly Reckoning, as well as another detachment of 1 million Plasma Thorn and Antimatter Rangers, but also a force of 40,000 Incubi and 100,000 Blade Harpies.

### Battle of Calgrenn Falls: January 10, 2021

Zyyntorean forces commanded by Legate Venturous reached the small, waterfall situated town of Calgrenn Falls, which was being investigated by spravac soldiers for militia in hiding. The zyyntoreans engaged the search party, quickly killing them. However, the Dominator of the spravac contacted Didact Vólóm’s underling in the region, Archon Résczíl Vál, to crush the zyyntoreans. Vál arrived with 10,000 marines and 300 Incubi, as well as 50 tanks.

Venturous called in an airstrike from a nearby bomber squadron. However, the marines, using anti-air weapons and their antimatter crossbows, managed to shoot down or drive off the bombers, preventing them from dropping an accurate payload onto their forces. Venturous noticed this and ordered his men in the area to charge into the spravac while they were focused on the bombers, killing hundreds in the initial charge.

Invigorated by the zyyntoreans’ courage, the militia cell in the town joined the fight, circling around and engaging the spravac in their flank. Vál, surprised by this sudden ambush, ordered his Incubi and veteran marines to hold off the zyyntoreans while he and other marines personally dealt with the militia.

Vál cut down dozens of militia alone, however he was forced to pull back when zyyntorean Legionnaires moved to protect the faltering insurgents. The zyyntoreans began to slowly push back the spravac, even the Incubi were having difficulties matching the holy warriors. As the zyyntoreans pushed them further and further out of the town, some of the spravac were beginning to fall off the edge of the cliffside and into the falls back the intense pressure the zyyntoreans exacted upon them.

Eventually, Vál and his forces were moved to a retreat, calling in a long range artillery strike to cover their withdrawal.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 1,843 dead

Ures Militia: 712 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 5,938 dead

Incubi: 43 dead

### Battle of Cromwell Vale: January 11- January 21, 7021

Zelem and 300,000 of his Legionnaires journeyed into the Cromwell Vale, a steep and muddy expanse dotted with hundreds of small villages and towns with civilians still inside. Zelem new that this wealth of life was a strategic point for Vólóm. This assumption was correct, as Vólóm was personally leading a 1 million strong army of rangers and Blade Harpies to take the Vale.

Zelem sent vanguard troops to garrison the town of Gregor, which was right at the northern step of the Vale, which is where Zelem believed Vólóm would attack from.

Vólóm spotted this garrison force, which numbered at 10,000 strong, and new that they could hold that choke point for hours, if not days. In response, he only broke off a small decoy force of 2,000 rangers to distract the zyyntoreans while the rest of his forces scaled down the flanking sides of the Vale.

This plan worked swimmingly. The ranger decoys died within two hours after attacking the town, which was ample time for Vólóm to flank the town. The spravac horde streamed into the town on all sides, burning and pillaging as they went, slaughtering the surprised zyyntoreans to the last. Zelem, infuriated by this, sent his riflemen to guard the next front, which was centered around the large town of Crockett. The spravac spread out their numbers and attacked in waves, being repelled on the first day until breaking through the easternmost flank of the town. However, the zyyntoreans still held strong in the town, holding off the spravac so they could evacuate civilians until January 14.

In the afternoon of the 14, Zelem shelled the empty town from thirty miles away, causing parts of it to collapse and bury the spravac in the town. Vólóm ordered his Blade Harpies to find the artillery and destroy it.

On January 15 the spravac engaged the zyyntoreans along the eastern slopes of the Cromwell Vale, having been pushed back from a nearby village they were protecting. The zyyntoreans, certain they were going to die, became enraged when they witnessed the spravac raping and destroying the village in the distance. Spurred on by the dishonor, the zyyntoreans brandished their swords and charged valiantly into the revelling spravac, cutting down hundreds before the last of them fell.

Across the Vale, zyyntorean forces were slowly pushing the spravac back into the center of the valley, Zelem committed units of armed militia to launch ambushes along a predetermined path that he planned to push the spravac through, causing maximum damage to their ranks.

However, Zelem did not anticipate that Vólóm would be leading them. The very sight of the Didact was enough to strike fear into the hearts of many of the militia, causing panic that revealed their position. As the rangers hunted down the retreating militia, Zelem was forced to adapt and instead tactically withdrew to an evacuated village.

The zyyntoreans fortified the settlement with plasma mines that shredded the main line of the rangers. The Blade Harpies descended from below and disrupted the zyyntorean rifle line, killing hundreds and causing gaps to form in their front. The rangers streamed through these gaps and massacred the last of the zyyntoreans in the village. Vólóm continued to lead from the front, recognizing Zelem as the leader and intent on killing the Harbinger.

Zelem and his forces held off the spravac in the center of the Vale for another four days, with Zelem withdrawing his men strategically on January 19. The zyyntoreans funneled the spravac into a single choke point, a killzone that killed thousands of spravac. The spravac frenzied to break through the point, climbing up the hills and cutting through the zyyntorean gunmen to spread through the Vale.

However, Vólóm was unable to escape after Zelem engaged him in a duel. The two warriors fought for two whole hours, ending after Zelem delivered a blow to Vólóm that nearly killed him, giving him a deep scar longways across the left side of his head.

The wounded Didact, unable to see as his blood slowly corroded his face, retreated and brought his forces with him, the last two days acting as a retreat out of the Vale with the zyyntoreans following close behind.

With the Cromwell Vale secured, Zelem had taken a zone that would act as a training ground and landing zone for future zyyntorean and Ures militia forces.

Costly Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 173,673 dead

Militia: 3,588 dead

Civilians: 12,237 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 304,661 dead

### Battle of Franklin: January 15, 7021

While the Cromwell Vale was embroiled in battle, several units of legionnaires came across the city of Franklin, still packed with undefended civilians. The zyyntoreans were ordered by Zelem to fortify the city and defend it from incoming spravac forces. The zyyntoreans came under fire from deentrox and morner auxiliaries, as well as 100 Incubi that were leading them. The zyyntoreans used plasma mortars to suppress the spravac fire to allow their swordsman to flank around and engage the spravac from the flanks. However, Incubi and morner forces were able to counter the flanking maneuver and killed most of the swordsmen.

With the swordsmen gone, the riflemen were forced to hold off the auxiliary horde, creating piles of deentrox and morner corpses. Eventually, the spravac forces closed the gap between the two forces and forced the riflemen to brandish their blades. The zyyntoreans seemed to be pushing the forces back, but spravac fighters fired into the mass of infantry, killing both their own men and the zyyntoreans.

These strafing runs devastated the zyyntorean lines, killing most, if not all of them, giving the city to the spravac. The few zyyntoreans that survived these attacks, gathered what civilians and militia they could and retreated into the surrounding forests, with the last uninjured zyyntoreans volunteering to stay behind to die defending the civilians than to leave them defenseless.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 8,174 dead

Incubi: 44 dead

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 4,283 dead

Militia: 132 dead

Civilians: 75,116 dead

### Battle of the Dunmart Fields: January 16, 7021

A patrol of zyyntorean forces were suddenly attacked by a hail of antimatter fire. Zelem, over comms, ordered the legionnaires to brandish their blades and take cover in the tall grass of the Dunmart Fields. Spravac rangers streamed through the fields in search of the zyyntoreans, intent on killing them and disrupting Zelems hold on that sector of the Valeland.

The zyyntoreans, when the spravac got close enough, sprung from the grass and hacked away hundreds of the crimson armored avians. Spravac tanks in the distance began to bombard the field, killing both spravac and zyyntorean soldiers.

Zelem called in a squadron of gunships to take out the tanks, but the gunships took too many losses to the anti air capabilities of the spravac tanks. Nearby Ures militia were called in to attack the tanks from behind enemy lines, but Incubi guarding the tanks made doing so an impossible and bloody task.

The zyyntoreans held out against the spravac onslaught until the nighttime when zyyntorean tanks arrived. This large scale tank battle lit the entire field ablaze, killing thousands more spravac and zyyntorean soldiers. By the late hours of the night, the zyyntoreans arose from the scorched field alive, but barely victorious.

Costly Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 17,976 dead

Militia: 594 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 20,188 dead

Incubi: 19 dead

### 2nd Battle of Franklin: January 18, 7021

Following the defeat of the zyyntorean soldiers stationed at Franklin, another force was sent to recapture the town to save any civilians still alive. The force of 3,000 came to a completely empty and demolished town, with many of the corpses of civilians still lying where they were slain or half eaten. The zyyntorean soldiers elected to give the dead proper funerals through ceremonial cremation.

During the ritual, the soldiers were suddenly attacked by spravac skirmishers that had spotted the pyre. The zyyntoreans, underprepared for battle, took heavy losses in the first hours of the firefight. The best prepared legionnaires were ordered to flank around under the cover of the twilight to charge into the spravac’s sides. The spravac were loosely formed and only numbered in the hundreds, and were promptly overwhelmed by the zyyntorean flanking forces.

Costly Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 732 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 488 dead

### Battle of Harper’s Gorge: January 20- February 16, 7021

Legate Optious’ forces discovered a massive landing zone for spravac forces in Harper’s Gorge, a long, narrow valley that was packed with rangers and the other myriad spravac forces. The spravac had constructed large bridges and landing pads along the tops of the cliff faces on either side of the gorge, creating a large complex from which the spravac were conducting many of their major operations in the area. Didact Vólóm was still engaged in the Cromwell Vale against Zelem, so the base was helmed by Archon Bûnscz Sgcár, a hardened veteran of the first phase of the war.

Optious had gathered 200,000 Legionnaires to assault and destroy the base, but he was aware that he would need more if he was to take the gorge quickly. He implored Zelem that once he had defeated Vólóm in Cromwell that he was to move what forces he had left to reinforce his forces, attacking from the east while Optious’s forces attacked from the southwest.

On January 20, the zyyntoreans moved under cover of darkness through the river that was at the base of the gorge, silently killing the outer patrols and infiltrating the inner workings of the base. The zyyntoreans placed plasma detonation charges, detonating them in tandem with a mass frontal assault on the main walls. The explosions caused the supports holding up the landing pads to collapse in a torrent of fire and plasma, killing thousands of spravac and auxiliary forces outright.

In the confusion, the zyyntoreans successfully broke through the main defenses, establishing a beachhead. In the morning of January 21, the zyyntoreans were assaulted by waves of spravac rangers, who were desperately attempting to break their assault before losing too much ground. The zyyntoreans successfully held them off and continued their charge, breaking through more defenses with only moderate casualties.

Legate Optious noticed that the spravac were beginning to move supplies out of the base, assuming that the spravac planned to abandon the base to establish their forces elsewhere. He ordered a detachment of his forces to pursue these spravac, but despite technically being in retreat, the zyyntoreans were unable to break these spravac forces, as they were remarkably well protected by deentrox and malthale security.

The zyyntoreans were unable to break through the spravac forces that were covering this retreat as well, as the spravac were intent on guarding the expulsion of these supplies. By January 25, many of the large crates that the spravac had moved were gone, leaving many of the warehouses in the base empty. Spravac resistance also went down significantly, signalling to Optious that they were planning a grand counter attack.

He was proven correct on January 27 when large robotic figures moved out of the forests surrounding the gorge. These machines were war mechs, piloted by skilled spravac marines that now matched the zyyntoreans in size and strength. These massive mechs overpowered the zyyntorean forces in mere minutes, sending them back into the wreckage of the base and the dark corners of the gorge. The zyyntoreans were forced to hold off the spravac forces for four days until Zelem and his cohorts arrived to reinforce their faltering numbers.

By the morning of February 1, another 100,000 zyyntorean soldiers arrived to relieve Optious’ struggling forces, pushing back the spravac and destroying many of their mechs. Archon Sgcár in order to try and rectify this sudden attack, moved his forces back in a U shaped formation, slowly and surreptitiously surrounding parts of Zelem’s relief force. On February 4, Sgcár converged onto the zyyntorean center, cutting the formation in half and enveloping over 60,000 zyyntorean soldiers, including Zelem.

Zelem and his men fortified themselves, holding back constant attacks from rangers and marines. Zelem also called in fire support from his long range artillery, firing directly into the spravac flanks to create gaps in their line so groups of zyyntoreans could escape. However, the spravac were so organized in their effort to close the zyyntoreans off that gaps made in the lines were filled in mere minutes, causing heavy casualties for the zyyntoreans trying to escape the circle of fire.

Soon enough spravac tanks were moving in to trap the zyyntoreans even more, placing such pressure on the legionnaires that some were dying from sleep deprivation, even Zelem himself was struggling to hold off the spravac assaults.

This Ring of Death was scorching the earth beyond recognition, causing the entire area around the zyyntoreans to become blackened from the constant plasma and artillery fire. By February 10, the zyyntoreans within the Ring were out of ammunition and had dulled their blades from the constant corrosive bloodshed. The zyyntoreans on the other side of the ring formed up with Legate Optious’s forces and had organized a major attack to break through the Ring and rescue Zelem and his forces. The charge immediately broke through the spravac, who were focusing too much on Zelem’s main force. The hole made in the force was large enough that the zyyntoreans inside could escape, making one last push to inflict as many spravac casualties as they could, successfully making it out of the Ring of Death and fortifying themselves so the spravac could not pursue them.

Sgcár elected not to pursue the zyyntoreans, having expunged all of the valuables from Harper’s Gorge, Sgcár was ordered by Didact Vólóm to link up his forces with his for a new counterattack against Zelem’s forces.

On the other hand, Zelem was in need of more soldiers to continue the campaign, as his men in the gorge had been exhausted. Despite the spravac withdrawing, neither Zelem nor Optious considered the battle a victory.

Inconclusive:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 200,572 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 198,743 dead

### Battle of Mount Valiance: February 13, 7021

Following the disastrous Battle of Harper’s Gorge, Zelem’s gunship patrols spotted a string of high tech bridges and towers within the Carroughland and Nimitz Mountains. Optious told Zelem that he wished to destroy or capture these outposts to disrupt spravac communications and allow their dropships to carry their soldiers throughout the province instead of having to march them hundreds of miles, allowing them to cover more ground and liberate the region with greater ease.

The first of these outposts was a large bridge that connected a two peak mountain called Mount Valiance, with the V-shape between the peaks earning part of its name. The bridge was lined with anti-air guns and sniper nests, and was manned by over one thousand marines.

The zyyntoreans began with an aerial gunship assault, using long range arc missiles to destroy the cannons before coming into range. The snipers used their longbows to shoot down three of the gunships, but those nests were assaulted and destroyed by zyyntorean warriors that were scaling the mountain from below.

With the defenses cleared, dropships came in droves, landing hundreds of Marines to promptly cut through the spravac. Legate Optious and ten knights landed on the bridge with the men, personally cutting down a hundred spravac on his own in just two hours.

By the afternoon, the bridge had been cleared by the zyyntoreans, repurposing it as a refueling port for future air assaults on the other mountain posts.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Marines: 473 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1,594 dead

### Battle of Lash Post: February 14, 7021

Following the capture of Valiance, the zyyntoreans moved to take the next major station; Lash Post. The station was a pair of narrow parallel bridges with a large control tower with an antimatter ballista in the middle. The bridges were lined with landing pads meant for holding spravac dropships, and there were hundreds of large hooks hanging underneath that were acting as perches for Blade Harpies and their Axe-Wings.

For attacking the post, the zyyntoreans brought one Kabuto-Class Frigate to support their attacking fleet of 55 Testudo Gunships and 20 dropships.

The frigate harried the control tower with arc torpedoes, causing EMP blasts that shorted out the defense systems of the post. The Blade Harpies emerged from their perches and swarmed the gunships, taking down many of the ships in seconds. The zyyntorean dropships opened their doors early to allow zyyntorean machine gunners to shoot down the harpies as they passed by.

The Axe-Wings were a different case. They were moved towards the frigate, using their back mounted ballistas to damage the ship’s engines and armor, forcing the frigate to pull back.

Eventually, the dropships landed on the first bridge, which was guarded by Shadow Ark Corsairs, the naval soldiers of the spravac. The caped warriors were no match for the zyyntoreans however, who cut down scores of the spravac soldiers without losing any men. However, the spravac heavily outnumbered the zyyntoreans, who at this point only numbered in the 400s. The zyyntoreans called in air support from Mount Valiance, which the zyyntoreans responded to by sending squadrons of fighters to combat the Blade Harpies and later destroyed more of the bridges.

The fighters easily took on the Harpies and their Axe-Wings, killing all of them before strafing the bridges, cutting down hundreds of the corsairs with each successive strafe.

With the corsairs heavily weakened, the zyyntoreans easily took the rest of the post.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Marines: 243 dead

Zyyntorean Naval Servicemen: 127 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 871 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 1,262 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 36 dead

### Second Battle of Lash Post: February 16, 7021

In retaliation to the loss of Lash Post, Didact Vólóm dispatched a force of Kasakh-A-Rholon and Incubi to retake the post. The Incubi numbered at 300, a formidable force of Scorpios and Neophytes, all eager to shed blood for their coven.

A fresh zyyntorean frigate was stationed to help protect the station along with the garrison of 800 legionnaires.

The Kasakh-A-Rholon immediately took heavy losses on the approach from the zyyntorean riflemen, whose pinpoint accuracy was taking out one to two soldiers with single shots. The Incubi cloaked their Shadow Dropships and approached low to the ground to avoid zyyntorean fire, then scaling the supports of the bridge to attack the zyyntoreans from below.

The Incubi took the zyyntoreans entirely by surprise, killing hundreds of them within an hour. The Kasakh-A-Rholon provided fire support with LMGs, suppressing zyyntorean counter attacks from above. The frigate fired down on the deentrox formation, disrupting their fire and forcing them to disperse. However, Vólóm initiated the second phase of his attack.

The Didact, using a Leviathan, fired its ultrabow from over thirty kilometers away straight into the frigate’s side, causing it to explode and crash into the mountainside. With the frigate gone, the zyyntoreans lost their support and evacuated using their dropships, giving the Post back to the spravac.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 692 dead

Incubi: 82 dead

Zyyntorean Ships: 1 destroyed

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 523 dead

Zyyntorean Naval Servicemen: 701 dead

### Second Battle of Mount Valiance: February 16, 7021

Only one hour after Lash Post was recaptured, Vólóm began his attack to retake Mount Valiance. Aware that his force took losses in retaking Lash, he dispatched over two thousand Shadow Ark Corsairs to accompany the deentrox and Incubi forces.

Vólóm began the attack with an artillery bombardment, destroying many of the local zyyntorean gunships in the area, causing the northernmost bridge to collapse with the soldiers still on it. The Corsairs then moved in on Fodder Class dropships, however many of them were shot down due to the low armor of the dropships, causing hundreds of the Corsairs to be killed instantly. Once they landed however, they overwhelmed many of the zyyntorean defensive points, though they took even heavier losses in the process.

By the afternoon, the Corsairs had exhausted their numbers with very little zyyntorean deaths to show for it. Unable to withdraw, Vólóm was forced to call off the attack, leaving Valiance in zyyntorean hands.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Marines: 254 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 2,411 dead

Incubi: 2 dead

### Third Battle of Lash Post: February 17, 7021

Optious’s mountain crossing strategy was beginning to slow and show signs of serious loss of life, so the Legate was forced to step up the offense in order to ensure the spravac didn’t cause a stalemate. To do this, Optious was once again forced to take Lash Post, which had been restocked with Corsairs and deentrox.

On the approach, the zyyntoreans bombed the bridges and tower with their light bombers, confusing and disrupting the movement of the deentrox and Corsairs. Once they were in range, the zyyntoreans descended from their dropships and cut through the Corsairs, creating piles of their dead as they went. The deentrox fared no better, they too were hacked to pieces by the zyyntorean blades.

With the defenders dead, the zyyntoreans retook Lash Post again, and immediately prepared for their next objective; Talon Post.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Marines: 63 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 292

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 144

### Battle of Talon Post: February 17, 7021

Talon Post was a large station situated between three separate mountain peaks. The station was four ring shaped bridges that snaked around a central rampart, which was lined with anti-air guns.

The bridges were lined with armories and fueling stations, and the middle two bridges could lower or raise through pistons that would then extend out landing pads for small military craft. The garrison of this post was three thousand marines and whelps, with 20 Incubi commanding them.

The zyyntorean marines attacked the post almost immediately after retaking Lash, assaulting the outer rings with bombardments of plasma missiles, the intense heat of the plasma caused the supports of the outermost ring to collapse into the ravine below, along with the soldiers guarding it. The zyyntorean forces landed on the second ring, which was devoid of soldiers, and began to circle around the station destroying whatever structures they came across, as well as killed any whelps and marines in their way. The Incubi sent out all of the whelps to slow the zyyntoreans down while the marines moved to the other rings to fire at the zyyntoreans from farther away, doing massive damage to the zyyntorean ranks.

The other rings laid down suppressive fire that forced the zyyntoreans to call in reinforcements, which Optious obliged by sending in fleets of dropships to bring in hundreds more zyyntorean troops to reinforce the landing party. The zyyntoreans took two more rings in just half an hour, breaking through the inferior spravac defenses, even the Incubi were falling to the great fury of the zyyntoresn warriors, who successfully took the post.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Marines: 622 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 2,117 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 22 dead

Incubi: 20 dead

### Battle of Mount Galahad: February 20- March 3, 7021

Situated on the outer slopes of Mount Galahad was a massive spravac army preparing to push the zyyntoreans back to retake what they had lost. With over 3,000 tanks, 3 Leviathan Barges, and 800 aircraft supporting 500,000 marines, 100,000 rangers, and 4,000 Incubi, the spravac were preparing a massive push into the zyyntorean front.

On the other side, the zyyntoreans had consolidated their spread forces into an army of 460,000 Legionnaires, their remaining 45 testudo gunships, as well as two Billhook Class frigates to provide fire support.

The zyyntoreans began their assault along the eastern slope of Mount Galahad through a maze-like network of frigid rivers that snaked through a shallow, rocky valley. The legionnaires ran into little resistance, nothing past small patrols of marines that were swiftly dealt with with little to no casualties. The zyyntoreans encountered their first true obstacle on February 21 when they arrived at the largest shore of the river, which was heavily defended, as Didact Vólóm believed that Zelem would attack from that point.

The zyyntoreans quickly assaulted the defenses from the water, but were pushed back to the other side of the river and forced to take cover in the sand and rocks. The zyyntoreans then held off subsequent charges from the rangers, who began to die in such large numbers that their bodies would float down the river and clog up the narrow passageways of the rocks. Zelem, who was present at the field, rallied his men with a rousing battle prayer before charging through the river into the fire alongside the legion’s clergy. The legionnaires were not far behind, braving the plasma fire and cutting through the spravac barricade, crushing it with a single decisive blitz.

Zelem then sent squads of Shades to investigate the obstacles ahead. The Shades discovered that a large portion of the spravac army was guarding a single major chokepoint. Zelem used this opportunity to bombard the spravac with his frigates, ordering them to fire into the encampments to cause maximum damage. In addition, the gunships did strafing runs in tandem with artillery fire, devastating and confusing the spravac forces.

However, spravac aircraft traced the location of the frigates and attacked both of them, damaging one before it could withdraw. The frigate, Halcyon, was damaged in its antigravity matrix, causing it to slowly lower to the surface into the mountainside, causing avalanches that covered entire sections of the river, burying entire companies of men with it. Despite the debris, the zyyntoreans continued their push for another six days, pushing past the river completely by February 28.

Vólóm, desperate to hold the zyyntoreans back, organized his forces early for his offensive and charged into the zyyntorean defensive line, capturing their first four lines of trenches over two bloody days. In March, Vólóm engaged Zelem in a savage, but brief duel. The Didact successfully cut through Zelem’s chest armor, but was unable to land the killing blow before Zelem impaled him through the abdomen. Despite being impaled, Vólóm survived the attack, as the sword had only punctured one of his redundant kidneys. However, the Didact was losing blood fast and was forced to retreat, taking his forces with him, fully giving the Valeland to the zyyntoreans and Grace herself.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Ships: 1 destroyed

Zyyntorean Naval Servicemen: 623 dead

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 172,699 dead

Zyyntorean Special Forces: 54 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 305,188 dead

Incubi: 239 dead

## 2nd Lancaster Campaign: March 20, 7021- May 10, 7021

When the Zelem and his staff heard of the genocide that the spravac inflicted upon Lancaster, they made it their mission to liberate the region next. Having established a foothold in the Valeland, Zelem had a proper zone to land large numbers of troops, allowing him to commit as much manpower as was required to take the planet. In addition, the Ures Empire began to deploy small units of green soldiers and Titans to assist in the taking of the planet, as they wanted to have their troops on the ground when the planet was liberated.

In Lancaster, Vólóm was in need of more men, so he requested that Blood Alchemist Správ send a fleet to break through the zyyntorean blockade to carry more troops, which Sprav agreed to.

### 3rd Battle Over Grace: March 20, 7021

Helming the attacking fleet with his supercarrier, Správ brought with him thirteen Massacre class frigates, forty Warrior class battleships, nine Glaive class dreadnoughts, two Barbarian class destroyers, and six Fortress carriers loaded with fighters and millions of spravac and malthale soldiers.

Facing this fleet of 70 ships was Admiral Crassii Gai Nerous, who was guarding the planet with twenty Billhook frigates, eight Chapel class dreadnoughts, one Basilica class dreadnought, twelve Narthex class galleons, and one Imperator class supercarrier.

Správ began his attack with a flanking motion, using his Warriors to try and destroy Nerous’s dreadnoughts, as Správ believed they were Nerous’s greatest asset. The Warriors easily shot through two of the dreadnoughts, however the Narthex galleons were ordered to meet the battleships, destroying eighteen of them with arc torpedoes and gauss culverins that utterly tore through the spravac armor. Správ fired a bolt from his ship’s supercarrier, the bolt barely missing Nerous’s flagship and wiping out another of his Chapel dreadnoughts.

The dreadnoughts fired their Pilas capsules into the sides of Správ’s Barbarian destroyers, which were trying to move past the main fighting to ambush Nerous’s flagships. The capsules fired EMPs that disabled the destroyers, allowing the Basilica dreadnought to destroy them. The Basilica then fired one of its pilas capsules into the center of Správ’s dreadnought formation, disabling seven of them. The remaining galleons then attempted to move in and destroy them, but were attacked by Správ’s supercarrier after they had destroyed the Glaives, which destroyed all of them.

Nerous moved to intercept the Black Abyss before it could destroy more of his fleet, ordering his dreadnoughts to accompany him and his supercarrier to engage the tremendous carrier. The dreadnoughts tore through nine more battleships and another dreadnought. The Black Abyss fired hundreds of torpedoes and two Ultrabow bolts into the formation, destroying all six of the remaining dreadnoughts and heavily damaging the Imperator. Nerous withdrew his Imperator, firing bolts of arc energy that kept the Black Abyss at bay. The frigates formed a defensive line and successfully destroyed Správ’s Massacre frigates and one of his carriers, killing all the soldiers inside.

Správ fired another Ultrabow into the formation, destroying half of the Billhooks and damaging the Imperator even more. Realizing that the fleet was doomed, Nerous was ordered by Zelem to withdraw, with Zelem rationalizing that his men would crush the spravac on the ground.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Ships: 44 destroyed

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 44,281 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 420,900 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 130,000 dead

Zyyntorean Ships: 31 destroyed

Zyyntorean Naval Servicemen: 32,453 dead

### Second Battle of the Stirling and Silverton Rivers: March 25, 7021

The zyyntoreans landed their troops on the delta of the Silverton River, coming across a small coastal guard that was quickly dealt with. The legionnaires loaded onto APCs and began to move up the banks of the river, hoping to establish it as a natural battleline for future operations. They came across heavy resistance once they reached the middle of the river, coming across units of malthale that disrupted their armored column.

The zyyntoreans fell back and dug themselves in along the banks of the river, killing many of the malthale and eventually pushing them back. The zyyntoreans began to pursue the malthale across the rivers, eventually pushing them into the marshlands between the two rivers. The malthale numbers dwindled to a point that the zyyntoreans were able to circle around them with relative ease, trapping and surrounding the massive soldiers.

The zyyntoreans engaged the malthale in melee, inflicting such high casualties and placing so much pressure on them that the great warriors were unable to properly move from being pressed together. Eventually, the malthale chose to surrender, which the zyyntoreans honored, breaking off their attack on Zelem’s order and allowing the malthale to be taken prisoner without violence or abuse.

Following the capture of the malthale, the zyyntoreans turned their attention north to crush Vólóm and his armies.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 1,264 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1,003 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 928 dead

### Operation Black Venom: March 26- April 14, 7021

In response to the Silverton and Stirling Rivers, Didact Vólóm devised a new plan to push back the zyyntoreans. He would begin this new offensive action with a massive aerial campaign, bombarding the zyyntoreans to soften up their defenses before attacking with rangers, marines, and tanks. The rangers would attack three separate locations along the zyyntorean battlefront, which Vólóm named Silgcáscz ná Jí-Gcígó (Spines of the Serpent) due to the three 400mm artillery guns that the zyyntoreans had placed. These three guns were the targets of the Vólóm, who aimed to capture and use them on the zyyntoreans for the rest of the offensive.

Vólóm gathered over 2 million spravac to assault the Spines of the Serpent, which ran along a 40 mile front between two heavy forests that were too dense for Vólóm’s hordes of men and tanks to traverse quickly, as speed was the main focal point of Vólóm’s strategy.

The spravac bombers bombarded the zyyntorean positions for three days. However, a thick fog had set in over the zyyntorean lines, making the bombs inaccurate and ineffective. The bombing tipped Zelem off to Vólóm’s plan, as it was clear that the spravac was preparing for a massive assault. The zyyntoreans placed more machine guns, including automatic turrets, and anti-infantry and anti-tank mines, as well as packed in more legionnaires to hold off the coming spravac tide.

On March 29, the spravac horde attacked along the entire front, unaware of the ineffectiveness of their bombing runs. The zyyntorean guns, now that the fog was cleared, were able to utterly destroy entire formations of the charging ranger hordes. The rangers were ordered to spread out by Vólóm, who sent in the marines to take the fire while his rangers moved around the flanks in mobile squads relying on stealth. The ranger squads were able to infiltrate sections of the trench to disrupt the zyyntorean defense, eventually taking on one of the three artillery guns. The rangers turned the gun onto the trench and fired it into the farthest line, destroying another one of the guns and killing hundreds of zyyntorean defenders.

Vólóm then sent in waves of his Incubi warriors to widen the gaps in the zyyntorean defenses. The Scorpii took little losses on the approach, joining the rangers in the melee. Despite winning the trench by the morning of March 30, the spravac losses were disproportionate to the losses taken by the zyyntoreans, as the trench was considered lightly defended by zyyntorean standards.

However, the zyyntorean defense had fallen and Zelem’s forces were spread out along a massive front, allowing the spravac to retake land and establish positions with ease. On April 1, a joint zyyntorean-Ures force organized a counter offensive to retake the land they had lost. A force of 12,000 zyyntoreans and 20 Titans attacked a spravac fortification along the western front of the battlefield, attacking with swords brandished and guns blazing. The zyyntoreans cleared the line for the Titans to clean up any spravac stragglers, however they were forced to pull back after Incubi and rangers were sent to retake the lost position, killing half of the Titans and zyyntoreans in the process.

Zelem and his Immortals attacked the central position, managing to take it when it was lightly defended, as well as hold off six separate waves of rangers trying to retake the point. Zelem’s  Immortals, along with 2,000 green soldiers, then assaulted the western front again while another contingent of soldiers attacked the east, taking the spravac completely off guard. The western point fell again, killing over 200 Incubi. However, the eastern front held strong, holding off the zyyntoreans. The zyyntoreans sent bombers to lighten the pressure from the spravac defenders, allowing the zyyntoreans to charge again and take back the eastern front.

Vólóm, in response to this sudden pushback, sent Malthale marines to hold the zyyntoreans off, holding them until April 6 when Zelem ordered them to withdraw. The Ures general in charge of the Ures forces, General Bertram Heinz, disregarded the order and ordered that the Uresians and Titans continue to fight.

The malthale moved from simply entrenching and holding off waves to actively pushing the allied forces back, retaking many of their lost territory and pushing into the zyyntorean and Uresian campsites, some of which were packed with refugees. The malthale slaughtered the last of the Titans present at the battle, which signaled Vólóm to send in more of his reserves, which was composed of more rangers and Incubi.

The spravac forces overwhelmed the zyyntoreans at all fronts, sending them back to the banks of the Stirling and Silverton rivers, still covered with the dead from the previous battle. The zyyntoreans, upon reaching marshlands, were sent into a full retreat, ceding miles upon miles of territory back to the spravac.

The spravac would have continued to pursue the zyyntoreans, but could only go as far as their logistics would allow them to. Nonetheless, Vólóm had thoroughly broken the zyyntoreans with his operation, which he followed up by executing the prisoners they had taken and fortifying his newfound territory.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 113,684 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 4,100 dead

Incubi: 472 dead

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 100,482 dead

Immortals: 103 dead

Ures Soldiers: 5,247 dead

Titans: 42 dead

Civilians: 20,583 dead

### Battle of Blackwood Forest: April 16, 7021

After the decisive Operation Black Venom, Vólóm sent out sections of his army to pursue zyyntorean and Ures remnants to establish forward bases to give him even more tactical advantage. Over 5,000 zyyntoreans, 2,000 green soldiers, and 8 Titans had established a small campsite and refugee camp in Blackwood Forest, a large, evergreen forest that was permeated by fog on the day that spravac discovered their camp.

The zyyntoreans were first alerted to the attack after spravac rangers attacked and killed their outer patrols. Four of the Titans were sent to investigate the disturbances and were killed by Incubi waiting to ambush them. The Incubi then called in spravac artillery fire to clear the way for their forces, blowing away much of the forest and clearing out the fog. The Incubi charged through the fire alongside the rangers against the outer defenses manned by Ures forces. The Incubi took heavy losses, but were able to take the emplacements. The Incubi did not hold the emplacement without a fight however, as squads of zyyntoreans were sent out in a counter offensive, inflicting further damage to the Incubi and rangers.

However, the cleared way meant that spravac tanks and aircraft could support the spravac infantry, bombarding the zyyntoreans and preventing them from maintaining an effective offensive, forcing them to take further cover in the thickness of the forest. In the campsite, zyyntorean legionnaires volunteered to evacuate the civilians in the likely case that their forces in Blackwood fell.

While the zyyntoreans evacuated civilians, they came under fire from scouting Gloom Marines and attacks from spravac gunships, though zyyntorean heavy weapons teams were able to shoot down some of the gunships. Behind the zyyntorean evac column, the spravac continued to push against a desperate defense put up by the Ures and remaining zyyntoreans. The Ures flank broke and allowed the spravac to pour through the breach, immediately pursuing the evac column. The zyyntoreans defending against the spravac horde broke off units of the defense to distract the spravac breach, spreading themselves thin but still holding strong.

The spravac rangers were beginning to dwindle in number, leaving the Incubi to drag on the battle with their air support.

The limited numbers of the Incubi decreased the frequency of their attacks, allowing the zyyntoreans to slowly withdraw with each successive moment of silence. By night, the zyyntoreans and Ures had effectively retreated from the forest, technically winning the battle for the spravac, though the lives lost were not entirely worth it in the eyes of the Incubi survivors.

Costly Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 8,773 dead

Incubi: 205 dead

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 2,941 dead

Ures Soldiers: 1,736 dead

Titans: 6 dead

Civilians: 403 dead

### Battle of Stonewell: April 15- 19, 7021

While the spravac were preparing to mount their attack on the Blackwood, Vólóm had personally prepared a new army to attack Zelem at Stonewell, a large town that had been converted into a military stronghold. Zelem and his forces were still depleted from the previous battle, at only 300,000 strong, in comparison to the 500,000 that Vólóm was preparing to attack him. In Vólóm’s army were eight Basilisk tanks and 800 lesser tanks, as well as three units of karoc war beasts and 40,000 war hounds. The rangers were supported by Gloom Marines mounted on Xenoraptors, and a horde of Whelps were also prepared for the coming assault.

When the spravac came in view of the fortress town, Zelem immediately began to bombard them with artillery fire, targeting Vólóm’s tanks and karoc beasts in particular.

Forced to pull these assets back, Vólóm ordered his men to assault and scale the walls to destroy the artillery holding back his tanks and karocs. The spravac attacked the fortress with the whelps in the front, taking the brunt of the fire. Zelem realized that his men were wasting their ammo on the cannon fodder and ordered that they direct their fire on the rangers and marines, who took heavy losses and were forced to withdraw, leaving the whelps to be slaughtered before they even reached the outer walls.

Zelem, believing that repelling the attack should be taken advantage of, sent out legionnaires on War Skiffs to run down the retreating whelps and marines. The legionnaires cut down hundreds more before they got too far and were forced to withdraw after coming in contact with Vólóm’s tanks. With the speeders repelled, there was little fighting for the rest of the day, with both sides elected to exchange stray shots from afar until both generals had devised plans to break the other.

On April 16 in the morning, Vólóm decided to launch an all out charge on the walls, disregarding any losses his men or tanks took, aiming to overwhelm the defenses with pure, unkempt numbers. Leading the charge were Incubi, who were dwindling in numbers but still tasked by Vólóm to lead the charge. The Incubi successfully stormed the outer walls, killing the legionnaires and allowing the marines to pour through the breaches.

However, casualties were so high that new walls of spravac dead were created, allowing the zyyntoreans to continue their defense with little difficulty. However, Vólóm’s tanks were now upon them, and the basilisks fired multiple shots from their ultrabows, destroying massive parts of the fortress and forcing the zyyntoreans back deeper into their defenses, allowing the spravac to finally establish a foothold. However, Vólóm’s forces were exhausted and only made their numbers lessen when they attacked the zyyntorean defenses, forcing Vólóm to order his men into a defensive stance to await the next phase of battle.

On April 17, the zyyntoreans used artillery to bombard the spravac in the morning, before the sun had even risen, forcing Vólóm to move his forces back to get them out of range of the artillery. However, once they were out of range, Zelem engaged his long range artillery, forcing Vólóm back again.

However, Vólóm’s men either went forward or back, causing some to get killed by the closer range artillery, effectively trapping large pockets of men. One of the long range shells went off near Vólóm, riddling his body with shrapnel and wounding him heavily. Enraged, Vólóm ordered his men to press on the attack. The marines charged as a disorganized swarm, losing tens of thousands to constant fire. In the process, tens of thousands more were wounded, sending the spravac into a cannibalistic frenzy, losing all semblance of discipline as they began to stop fighting the zyyntoreans and fight and kill each other in a ravenous frenzy.

Zelem and his men elected to sit back and watch the chaos unfold from afar, allowing them to recuperate and patch up the wounded.

The spravac eventually regained their composure after Vólóm’s wounds had healed themselves by April 19. Vólóm, furious with the state of his army, ordered them to withdraw, stating that he’d destroy the fort another way later, giving the victory to the zyyntoreans.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 43,192 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 129,671 dead

Whelps: 72,190 dead

Incubi: 1,567 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 28,194

### Battle of Hill 6332: April 19, 7021

Following the Battle of Stonewell, Zelem sent out scouting forces to secure territory to ensure that the spravac did not have any room to entrench themselves. The zyyntoreans came across a spravac encampment on Hill 6332, a large elevation with an artillery battery and listening post at its peak. The spravac were patrolling at night when the zyyntoreans attacked, using Shade Agents to infiltrate and silently kill the patrols.

Once the patrols were dispatched, the zyyntorean legionnaires moved in and secured firing positions, launching an ambush that devastated the spravac forces. Upon reaching the listening post, the zyyntoreans discovered transmissions from Didact Vólóm detailing his next plan of attack, including troop movements and compositions.

Upon gathering the intel, the zyyntoreans prepared to counter Vólóm’s plans.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 76 dead

Zyyntorean Special Forces: 1 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 127 dead

### Operation Ascendant Shadow: April 20- May 10, 7021

Though the zyyntoreans had discovered plans for a massive spravac counter offensive, they were unaware that the plans were false, laid by Vólóm to draw the zyyntoreans in a trap of his own. His “offensive”, codenamed Operation Thunder Claw, was meant to be a great advance helmed by malthale and rangers. Instead, his frontline was manned by whelps and marines, which he knew would break to the zyyntoreans. Once the zyyntoreans broke through the marines and whelps, they would advance into a mass ambush led by Incubi and rangers.

Zelem’s 400,000 strong counter force was composed of a leading vanguard of Immortals and Knights, while his legionnaires spread out in a massive, 60 mile wide wedge. The wedge would have tanks in the center to support the infantry, and gunships overhead were prepared to provide air support.

The wedge clashed against the spravac line in the late afternoon of April 20, smashing through the first defensive line of whelps, who stood no chance against the strength and skill of zyyntorean legionnaires. The bulge that the zyyntoreans created forced the spravac to attack the flanks of the wedge, causing them to also be destroyed by the zyyntoreans and their tanks. The gunships overhead rained arc and plasma fire below onto the panicking spravac, burning away thousands of the grey warriors as the zyyntoreans rapidly advanced into the spravac territory.

By April 24, the zyyntoreans had followed the spravac into a vast valley. Zelem correctly assumed that the fighting there would be too bloody with all of the foliage, so he ordered his men to scale up the mountains to go around the valley.

This disrupted Vólóm’s plans, as he was hoping that Zelem would march through the valley and forests, where his men were waiting. To adapt to the situation, Vólóm dispatched his axe wings and Blade Harpies to destroy the gunships patrolling the skies. With the gunships gone, Shadow dropships carrying Incubi could land by the zyyntorean formations and force them down the cliffside into the valley.

His tactic worked perfectly, the Blade Harpies easily took care of the gunships, allowing the Shadow dropships to deploy over 30,000 Incubi to attack the zyyntorean flanks. Even the sheer strength and experience of the zyyntoreans were no match for the invisible blades of tens of thousands of Incubi, who cut away entire companies in seconds before forcing the zyyntoreans down the ridges, at times causing them to tumble down to their deaths as they retreated in confusion. Those that made it down the ridge were ambushed by the rangers, who tore apart the zyyntoreans as quickly as the Incubi did.

In response, Zelem ordered his tanks into the forest to burn away the spravac’s cover, allowing the zyyntoreans some breathing room so they could counter attack. Despite this, the zyyntoreans had lost so many to these sudden and vicious ambushes that they could only slow the spravac down, who eventually forced them out of the valley entirely, taking some of the tanks with them.

Just when the zyyntoreans thought it couldn’t get any worse, a Thunderhammer sounded on their flanks; over 50,000 Vósczer mounted marines and over 10,000 tanks charged straight into the zyyntorean reserves, nearly enveloping Zelem and his guard into a bubble of plasma fire.

Now on full retreat, the zyyntoreans were chased all the way back to Stonewell, which was now starting to fill with civilians and Ures soldiers, who did not believe the spravac would attack again so soon. The defense of the fort only lasted until May 3, with the zyyntoreans evacuating as many civilians as they could after Vólóm himself charged into the breach with his retinue.

He and Zelem dueled in the center of the fort, Zelem standing atop a pile of slain rangers, his blade simmering from their corrosive, boiling blood. The two warriors grappled and hacked at each other for over an hour until Zelem was forced to withdraw after Vólóm nearly cut through his armor, which was protecting a vulnerable wound inflicted by the Balmite sword of Kail De Sasheem a few years earlier, nearly killing Zelem.

On May 5, the zyyntoreans had been backed into the city of Kensington, which was full of refugees and was acting as a landing zone for zyyntorean forces. Zelem was aware that in order to win the war for the planet, he had to get as many forces out of Lancaster and to a different, secure location. The Knights volunteered to stay behind to hold off the spravac while the legionnaires and refugees loaded onto shuttles to retreat to the continent of Arcturus, the smallest continent that was yet to be fought on, until now.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 174,288 dead

Whelps: 32,192 dead

Incubi: 583 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 3,492 dead

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 238,223 dead

Immortals: 305 dead

Zyyntorean Special Forces: 26 dead

Knights: 54,293 dead

Ures Soldiers: 5,928 dead

Ures Civilians: 10,982 dead

## Battle of Arcturus: May 13- June 13, 7021

Vólóm was well aware of the zyyntorean retreat to the continent of Arcturus, a mostly uninhabited continent that was so isolated from the war that some towns weren’t even aware that they were being invaded. The spravac were aware of its existence and Didacts Vólóm and Sásgcait insisted that they invade it multiple times during the first stages of the campaigns, but Správ refused, believing that it would be a misallocation of valuable military assets that could be used to fight elsewhere.

For his attack on Arcturus, Vólóm had gathered a massive force of over 2 million soldiers, including 1 million marines, 400,000 rangers, 650,000 deentrox, and 50,000 Incubi. In addition, a warrior class battleship was brought down into the atmosphere to provide support from the sky, along with its host of fighters and gunships.

In the defense, only a little over 163,000 legionnaires remained to defend against this onslaught. Zelem had radioed for reinforcements, but his forces on Americana in Richmond were unable to reach the continent with the battleship hovering over the area. In response, the Raleos Empire offered their help in the war effort, eager to express their seething hatred for the spravac and kick them off the world as well.

In order to do so, the raleos first had to break through the spravac blockade over the planet, attacking the 26 ship strong blockade with over 50 ships.

Though they outnumbered them nearly 2:1, the raleos took heavy losses, as their crude biotechnology paled in comparison to the advanced firepower of the spravac guns. The raleos only defeated the defense fleet through sheer numbers, losing almost 70 percent of their fleet in order to break the spravac, who retreated after their flagship was nearly destroyed. With their fleet now in control of the skies, the raleos began landing hundreds of thousands of their warriors to support the zyyntoreans in battle. The area that Vólóm was attacking was riddled with lakes and rivers, something that the aquatic raleos would take advantage of during the battle to come.

Vólóm’s forces began their attack with a bombardment from the battleship’s ultrabow, devastating the landing zone and forcing the zyyntoreans out. The spravac forces then landed in mass under heavy fire, losing thousands in the landing alone. As the spravac moved through the vegetation facing the sea that they came from, they were attacked by Ures militia armed by the zyyntoreans, who launched several successful ambushes that slowed the spravac. With every attack, intel was gained that informed the zyyntoreans of the spravac’s army composition, allowing the zyyntoreans and raleos to coordinate their attacks. The spravac, once they got past the militia, encountered miles of marshland laden with mines and hiding raleos warriors. The raleos sprung from the water and killed thousands while zyyntorean artillery bombarded from afar, sowing discord as the spravac were relentlessly ambushed.

By nightfall of May 13 the spravac were still bogged down in the marshes, unable to get past the raleos warriors. Vólóm, growing impatient with the slow progress, ordered the battleship to fire torpedoes into the marshland, killing many of his own troops but also killing the raleos there.

Well aware of the battleship’s importance to the battle, Zelem and the raleos commander, Vatis Neos, agreed to send two of their own ships to attack and destroy the battleship.

The raleos battleships attacked on the morning of May 14, launching embedding plasma rounds into the hull. Once breaches were made, raleos boarding parties launched towards the ship, racing past the gunships and fighters protecting it. The raleos tore through the ship with ease, surprising the spravac inside and causing massive internal damage. In a suicidal move, the raleos boarders threw a grenade into the main reactor, causing a massive explosion that killed them but also wiped out half the ship in an instant, taking away the spravac’s air support.

With the ship gone, the zyyntorean forces on Americana could begin to mobilize, though it would take them some time.

On May 15, the spravac launched a major charge through the marshlands, breaking through by the afternoon of that day. Vólóm split his army into four separate forces that would spread out across the continent. To the east, Vólóm’s forces came across the city of Farrowhall. The city was situated along the shoreline of a tremendous lake. As the spravac circled around the lake’s coast to reach the city, they were suddenly attacked by a throng of raleos warriors, who tore the spravac limb from limb with their four arms. However, the raleos were unaware that the forces they were attacking contained Incubi, who they were no match for no matter how many of them there were. The Incubi utterly massacred the raleos, the bloodshed reinvigorated the other spravac soldiers and pushed the raleos back into the lake of the city.

With the raleos gone, the spravac were able to raze the city, however on May 16 zyyntorean relief forces arrived and rallied more raleos soldiers, charging into the spravac as they were pillaging, causing mass damage to their ranks and forcing them to retreat back to the marshlands.

In the south, the zyyntoreans mounted a defense of the major city of Rochester on May 15, which had become a haven for the Ures government in exile. There was a garrison force of brown soldiers present at the city as well, who had rigged the surrounding forests with mines and other traps, which worked to great effect in disrupting the spravac formations. When the mines went off, the zyyntoreans bombarded the spravac incessantly, firing thousands of rounds of plasma and arc artillery into the forests, killing thousands of the rangers that were sent to take the city.

When the forests were nearly turned to ash, the zyyntoreans and brown soldiers sallied forth and charged straight into the spravac, killing thousands more and slaughtering them to the last.

However, in the process, Vólóm rerouted one of his other forces to attack Rochester from the west when it was undefended.

As the spravac were burning the city, the zyyntoreans were forced to turn back around to save as many civilians as they could. They successfully pushed the spravac out by May 19, however much of the city had been destroyed and its surviving civilians homeless. The zyyntoreans elected to be more defensive as they moved the refugee column further south to secure territory. The Uresian and raleos troops volunteered to stay behind to hold the spravac off to give the zyyntoreans a head start, holding them for another two days before they broke.

In the west on May 14, the raleos held the spravac with Ures militia in the Brennan Mountains, which the spravac were having great difficulty traversing. By May 15, the spravac were withdrawn to attack Rochester.

The raleos and militia forces took advantage of this and moved to attack the spravac in the rear, engaging them when they were forced out of Rochester on May 19, killing the last of those that weren’t killed by the zyyntoreans. These victories encouraged Zelem and General Neos to be more aggressive. They pushed through the spravac army moving through the southeast led by Vólóm himself, with both generals engaging in a duel with the vicious Didact. Despite the strength of Neos however, the raleos general was killed by Vólóm, who cut off his left upper arm before cutting down the middle of his forehead. In a rage, Zelem hacked at Vólóm, cutting off his right hand and throwing him back by his throat. Injured, Vólóm and his army retreated, giving more territory back to the zyyntoreans.

On May 21, the zyyntoreans and raleos forces reached the main spravac staging area. In order to attack it, they had to pass through a massive forest. The zyyntoreans, in preparation for ambushes, scanned the forest with thermal scanners, finding nothing. However, when they marched through the forest, deentrox fledglings and Kasakh-A-Rholon descended from the trees, revealing themselves after hiding themselves from the thermal scanners. The zyyntoreans, taken aback by the massive horde of warriors, were forced to retreat, pursued relentlessly by the deentrox.

On May 25, the zyyntoreans, led by Zelem, only numbered at about 50,000, fortified themselves in the Brennan Mountains, determined to fight until the bitter end. Almost by some miracle, the deentrox retreated after facing sudden artillery bombardments. The retreating deentrox were then suddenly attacked on both flanks by hundreds of thousands of zyyntorean legionnaires, freshly transported from the zyyntorean bases in the Valeland and Richmond.

The zyyntoreans, led by Legate Tyrannous Gai Larissa, attacked like a furious tide, cutting away tens of thousands of the deentrox in hours alone. Zelem’s forces, along with the raleos, charged along with the reinforcing zyyntoreans, pushing the spravac back from the mountains and into a pocket coined Vólóm’s Maw, a narrow canyon that the spravac had fortified. The Maw had a large river that snaked through it, which the raleos used to transport troops quickly. As the raleos reached the main spravac line, which was already engaged by zyyntorean troops, they would spring from the water once they were behind the spravac line.

However, by May 27, the spravac had caught onto the tactic, and deployed Aquarius Incubi to defend the river. With the raleo’s main advantage gone, they were forced to fight the spravac on land, which slaughtered thousands of them as they suicidally charged into the spravac defenses, which were lined with embedding pikes and landmines, covered by plasma machine guns and spravac rangers.

While the zyyntoreans occupied the spravac in the canyon, Legate Larissa’s forces continued to rout the deentrox, creating the Arcturus Bulge, in which the bulge was Vólóm’s Maw. On May 29, the zyyntoreans fighting the deentrox attempted to attack the Maw at the flanks, but everytime they took even the slightest pressure off of the deentrox, they would attack, causing massive casualties and forcing the zyyntoreans back a few miles with every counterattack.

It wasn’t until June 2 when the zyyntoreans brought in tanks to finally push back the deentrox permanently. With the deentrox subdued, the zyyntoreans successfully attacked the Maw’s flanks, breaking the spravac defenders and allowing the raleos and zyyntoreans down below to break through, sending Vólóm’s army into complete retreat. The last days of the battle were spent chasing the spravac off of the continent, concluding one of the deadliest battles of the entire campaign and the entire war.

Close Allied Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 268,985 dead

Immortals: 675 dead

Zyyntorean Special Forces: 194 dead

Raleos Ships: 35 destroyed

Raleos Naval Servicemen: 33,658 dead

Raleos Warriors: 592,618 dead

Ures Soldiers: 43,571 dead

Ures Militia: 12,483 dead

Ures Civilians: 3,599,571 dead

Spravac Ships: 27 destroyed

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 27,166 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 1,270,001 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 403,919 dead

Incubi: 1,472 dead

## Suffolkshire Campaign: June 17- August 8, 7021

After Vólóm was defeated at Arcturus, the zyyntoreans mobilized to invade Scotia a second time. This time however, Legate Larissa and the raleos would invade Suffolkshire while Zelem and Ures invaded Scotia via the Albion Gulf, forcing Vólóm to split his attention and increasing the allies’ odds of winning the battle for the planet. First, however, the zyyntoreans and raleos would need to successfully defend the planet’s space from an approaching spravac fleet sent to avenge the one that the raleos destroyed.

### 4th Battle Over Grace: June 17, 7021

The spravac fleet, commanded by Blood Alchemist Nágc Voritz, a talented commander presiding over a fleet of 130 ships. The raleos fleet had been reinforced with another 30 ships, as well as 85 zyyntorean ships.

The spravac fleet was made up of 14 Shredder Frigates, 24 Massacre Frigates, 45 Warrior Battleships, 14 Black Heart Battleships, 6 Ripper Dreadnoughts, 19 Barbarian Destroyers, and 8 Castle Cruisers. The raleos fleet was made up of 13 frigates, 20 cruisers, 6 dreadnoughts, 3 carriers, and 3 corvettes while the zyyntorean reinforcements were made up of 10 Billhook frigates, 32 Seraph Galleons, 19 Dominion Destroyers, 12 Naginata Corvettes, 5 Archangel Carriers, 4 Phalanx Cruisers, 2 Hoplite Cruisers, and 1 Imperator Supercarrier.

The spravac fleet began their attack with a heavy ultrabow volley, destroying 2 of the raleos cruisers and 9 of Dominions. The zyyntoreans countered the volley by having their dreadnoughts fire their Pilas capsules into the spravac fleet, which impaled five of the Warriors and one Castle. The Warriors rushed forward while firing hails of plasma torpedoes at the defense fleet. The raleos admiral, Vaddo Kress, ordered his cruisers and dreadnoughts to countercharge, absorbing the torpedo blasts with their heavy shields. The sharpened noses of the dreadnoughts carved through another 3 battleships while their starbroad blasters damaged a few more of them. As the raleos fleet cut through the spravac charge, zyyntorean ships cleaned up the stragglers, effectively destroying another twenty of the Warriors. However, the Black Hearts had moved upwards and were firing down into the fleet, destroying all ten of the Billhooks and 6 of the Raleos frigates. The Imperator reacted to this and fired a storm of plasma fire and incendiary torpedoes, destroying three of the Black Hearts, forcing them to move back.

Off to the leftmost flank of the engagement, the zyyntorean cruisers engaged the carriers, which were carrying thousands of aircraft and tanks to land for Vólóm’s army. The cruisers dispatched another two of the carriers before the Shredder frigates were sent to push them back, destroying both Hoplite Cruisers and one of the Phalanxes, though six of the Shredders were lost in the process. The Imperator moved in to destroy the frigates, successfully destroying four of them before the Black Hearts were sent to ward it off, severely damaging the hull of the massive ship. Despite pushing the Imperator back, 7 of the Black Hearts had been lost.

On the right flank, the Massacre Frigates engaged the bulk of the raleos fleet, destroying another 10 of their cruisers and all of their corvettes, however the Massacres were all destroyed by the Seraphs, which were sent in by Admiral Nerous to keep them from engaging the raleos carriers.

The spravac responded by firing their ultrabows into the mass of Seraphs, destroying 12 of the galleons. The Imperator, accompanied by the Archangel Carriers charged from above into the main spravac line, where the rest of the carriers and the Ripper dreadnoughts were located. 5 of the Naginatas were lost on the approach, however, their weapons successfully destroyed another carrier and three of the Rippers.

It was at this point that Blood Alchemist Voritz realized that defeat was near, so he primed his flagship, a Ripper called The Bodysnatcher, to retreat along with the rest of his fleet. However, before his ship could enter hyperspace, the Imperator launched boarding parties that landed near the bridge. Before Voritz knew it, Marines had broken into the bridge and separated his head from his shoulders.

With their Blood Alchemist gone, the rest of the spravac fleet retreated, leaving Grace firmly in allied hands.

Decisive Zyyntorean/Raleos Victory:

Zyyntorean Ships: 34 destroyed

Zyyntorean Naval Servicemen: 21,778 dead

Zyyntorean Marines: 154 dead

Raleos Ships: 21 destroyed

Raleos Naval Servicemen: 19,953 dead

Spravac Ships: 74 destroyed

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 91,020

### Battle of Greenchester: June 17- June 18, 7021

Vólóm was expecting the zyyntoreans to invade from Lancaster again, so only minimal forces were present in the adjacent Suffolkshire region. Thus, when Legate Larissa landed his forces in the mostly untouched Greenchester, they only encountered Shadow Ark Corsairs that garrisoned the city as a space port. The zyyntoreans easily killed the Shadow Ark Corsairs without issue, but before the last of them was killed they sent a distress call requesting Vólóm’s forces. Vólóm sent over 200,000 marines spread throughout the region to retake the city, a force more of a match for Larissa’s.

On June 17, spravac rangers engaged the zyyntoreans’ outer defenses, easily killing the sentries to allow their forces to move in silence in the darkness of the early morning. However, Larissa grew suspicious of these dark zones and correctly suspected that it was Vólóm’s doing. He sent cohorts of legionnaires to investigate the dark zones, resulting in firefights breaking out between the zyyntorean and spravac forces. Once fighting broke out in earnest, Larissa ordered that bombers in the area bombard the visible spravac forces, causing them to break up their formations and retreat back into the surrounding forests. However, the zyyntoreans were unable to pursue them due to longbowmen hiding in the trees.

Larissa ordered his heavy artillery stationed in the city fire into the forests to cover the withdrawal of his infantry. However, without the infantry to keep the spravac back, the rangers and marines were free to advance closer to the city, though the artillery did slow them until the afternoon. The spravac sent squadrons of fighters to eliminate the zyyntorean bombers, shooting down over 60 before Larissa ordered them to retreat. Larissa used flak guns to shoot down as many of the fighters as he could, however Incubi had infiltrated the city and were systematically destroying all of his artillery batteries.

With his firepower gone and the sky belonging to the spravac, Larissa adapted to this change in events by changing his tactic to one of urban guerilla warfare. His Legionnaires stripped themselves of much of their heavier equipment and began bombarding spravac units as they streamed into the city, attacking them with grenades and sudden barrages of Arc rifle blasts before disappearing into the shadows of alleys and abandoned apartments.

By the afternoon of June 18, however, the zyyntoreans had exhausted their resources and were running desperately low on manpower, as the spravac Incubi had caught onto their strategies and were beginning to destroy their hideouts and secret bases. Larissa ordered his remaining troops to rearm themselves with their swords and heavy armor and proposed that they make one last heroic melee charge to try and break out to link up with other zyyntorean forces, or die trying.

With Larissa and his own personal guard leading the charge, the zyyntoreans valiantly charged into the spravac mass, slaughtering thousands as they cut their way towards the northern exit of the city. By the time they had made it through to the gate, only Larissa and his guard remained. Larissa was confronted by a Warlock Section of 7 Incubi, led by Archon Résczíl Vál. Larissa and Vál duelled savagely while Larissa’s guard killed the Incubi to the last, with Vál forced to retreat after Larissa slashed over his left eye and severed his right hand from his arm.

With Vál on the retreat, Larissa was able to escape into the wilderness with his guard, of which there were 5 left, in order to link up with Prince Tors of the raleos in the Harrowshire.

Close Spravac Victory:

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 4,581 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 65,211 dead

Incubi: 24 dead

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 80,064 dead

### Battle of Vickshire Along Bolingbrook: June 19, 7021

While the spravac looted and burned Greenchester, Larissa and his guard slowly made their way to Harrowshire in the darkness of night on June 19. In order to do so, they had to pass through the small village of Vickshire Along Bolingbrook, a settlement of Ures civilians that was being raided by spravac Shadow Ark Corsairs. While sneaking along the banks of the Bolingbrook River, Larissa and his men were met by Ures militia and a squad of Brown soldiers that had been leading their own guerilla campaign against the spravac since Grace was occupied. The leader of the Ures soldiers, Captain Doss, requested that Larissa and his superior troops assist in liberating the village.

Larissa, on moral grounds, accepted the request and took up a rifle, providing sniper support along with his guards while the militia and Browns moved to save the village. Larissa and his men gunned down the outer guards as they were searching for civilians, allowing the militia to move in undetected.

The militia began their assault with a barrage of RPG and makeshift mortar fire, disrupting the spravac and sending them into a panic. Additionally, a spravac artillery battery which was harassing raleos and zyyntorean troops some fourteen miles away was also destroyed in the attack. Larissa and his guards killed many of the Corsairs, allowing the militia to push deeper into the village. As the militia pushed in, villagers who they liberated would arm themselves with the weapons of their slain terrorizers and join the fray, eventually leading to the entire village going up in arms.

Eventually, Larissa and his guard joined the close combat, rappelling down the short rocky hill that overlooked the village and brandishing their swords, cutting through the last of the spravac and killing the Dominator that led them.

With the village liberated, Captain Doss and the militia offered to assist Larissa in reaching Harrowshire, which was currently embroiled in brutal combat with Archon Bûnscz Sgcár.

Decisive Zyyntorean/Ures Victory:

Ures Soldiers: 6 dead

Ures Militia: 94 dead

Ures Civilians: 83 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 221 dead

### Battle of the Harrowshire: June 18- June 25, 7021

While the Battle of Greenchester was reaching its final hours, the metropolitan area of Harrowshire, which the raleos landed on in the evening of June 1, was acting as the main base of operations for Prince Tors’ army of 350,000 raleos warriors. In addition to Tors’ soldiers, the zyyntoreans had deployed over two thousand fighter and bomber craft to provide air support for the raleos, whose own airpower was no match for the speed and intensity of the spravac air forces. On June 18, Archon Bûnscz Sgcár was tasked with taking and burning Harrowshire, which was a large metropolitan area of several small towns, villages, and the main urban core of which the area earned its namesake. Much of the area’s industry was located in the town of Yates, which provided power to much of the area, thus it was heavily guarded by a joint raleos and Uresian militia force.

Sgcár attacked Yates with a swarm of fighters, hoping to send the militia and raleos into disarray before his infantry and tanks moved in to destroy the power plant at the core of the town. The fighters worked with ease, killing hundreds of the Uresian militia and raleos warriors. The spravac marines then assaulted the town from the east in dropships and APCs while Minotaur tanks levelled the houses and other buildings. A final defense of the power plant was mounted by the surviving allied forces, however they were quickly overrun by the spravac. While the plant was being stripped of any valuables and being rigged for demolition. The zyyntorean squadrons were sent forward to repel the spravac, destroying their airpower so raleos warriors could move in to recapture the plant.

The zyyntorean and spravac fighters clashed like a mass of infantry, illuminating the early morning sky in a haze of fiery explosions and gunfire. As the spravac fighters were engaged, raleos gunships inserted small teams of raleos and Uresian militia to retake the plant, surprising the spravac and stopping them from destroying the plant.

However, long range spravac artillery in Vickshire Along Bolingbrook began harassing the plant, forcing the raleos to take cover within its concrete walls. As the spravac sieged the plant, deentrox and rangers circled around to continue their assault of Harrowshire since the raleos in the plant were isolated. The rangers came across heavy resistance along the highways leading to the commercial district of Trentwood, a large collection of skyscrapers and suspended docks that originally acted as a loading dock and center of trade and tourism in Suffolkshire. Due to most of the military assets and civilians living high above ground, the spravac had to rely on gunships, dropships, and their fighters to assault the city.

However, in order to properly mount their attack, the spravac still had to free up their fighters still engaged with the zyyntorean fighters, lest the latter shoot down their approaching gunships. Sgcár had the idea to attack the nearby airfield, which was acting as a refueling station. With that destroyed, the zyyntorean fighters would have to use a farther away airfield to refuel, meaning that they could not put up a strong, prolonged resistance against his own fighters.

Sgcár sent a unit of 200 Incubi to destroy the airfield, overrunning its defenses overnight with stealthy strikes and a final charge from Scorpio Incubi.

With the airfield destroyed on the morning of June 18, the spravac fighters were able to escort the spravac dropships as they moved in to destroy Trentwood Center. Trentwood was made up of twenty skyscrapers, most of which were connected by a series of tramways, pedestrian concourses and skylanes, with the central tower lined with a collection of wide balconies. The police force of Trentwood was heavily militarized, acting as the only official Ures military presence in Harrowshire. In addition, Trentwood’s secret armories were opened and their contents distributed by the TFC (Trentwood Federal Constabulary) so the civilians could arm themselves.

The raleos forces were unable to reach Trentwood in time before the spravac began their aerial assault, meaning that the TFC and the citizenry were forced to put up the defense until the raleos could arrive. The deentrox Kasakh-A-Rholon began the first wave of attacks with spread out raids designed to sow terror through cluster grenades and machine gun fire. Spravac gunships would race through the skyline destroying the tramways and skylanes, systematically isolating each skyscraper from each other. Incubi were then deployed in rapid insertions to deploy hidden jammers that disrupted communication between the skyscrapers, limiting their tactical capabilities. The dropships raced in and deployed marines and deentrox fledglings who began reaving the concourses and boardwalks, killing thousands of civilians and severely limiting the TFC’s capabilities.

The commander of the TFC, William S. Victor, was forced to put trust into his individual units of men in each skyscraper to protect the center, however even his base was beginning to be harrassed by the spravac gunships. The Halifax Tower, the second largest tower in Trentwood, was the most contested of the skyscrapers. The spravac had sent waves of dropships to assault the building, however anti-aircraft missile pods and weapon teams were shooting down scores of the dropships. In order to take them out, Sgcár had Incubi teams attack from the ground, scaling up the tower using the elevators to find the emplacements and silence them. Once that was done, the dropships were able to drop down marines on the wide balconies to overrun the Uresian defense.

With Halifax Tower lost, the spravac were able to use its docks and tramway intersections to transport their soldiers to the rest of the skyscrapers, eventually overrunning all but Commander Victor’s tower by June 19. Desperate for aid, Victor used a special, unjammed emergency channel to check in on the ETA of his raleos relief. Prince Tors had sent a force of 20,000 raleos warriors to support Trentwood, however they were being held down by deentrox and the Vickshire artillery batteries. This changed after Legate Larissa and Captain Doss liberated the nearby village, allowing the raleos to continue their advance and reach Trentwood.

When the raleos arrived, they immediately retook Halifax through a daring exterior climb of the walls of the tower, using their four arms and claws to scale the walls to reach the balconies, destroying the spravac guards once they reached the top. The raleos then called in the support of the zyyntorean aircraft to take out the spravac fighters that were preventing them from travelling to the other towers. With the spravac airpower gone, the raleos were able to move across the tramways and through the concourses, though every inch of the way was paid for in blood as the spravac entrenched every turn and hallway with troops. All the while, the spravac continued to push into the central tower, now called the Blood Tower due to the losses they had taken thus far trying to storm the massive skyscraper.

While Trentwood was turned into an aerial bloodbath, spravac rangers began to assault the surrounding towns on the ground, burning away the towns of Clifton, New Market, and Reynold’s Park. The rangers met their match on June 19 when raleos warriors sprung from the Bolingbrook River, which streamed through the center of the Harrowshire area. The spravac rangers were taken completely by surprise, forced to retreat back to the ruins of Reynold’s Park, which the raleos had also moved into, surrounding over ten thousand spravac rangers in a slowly closing chokehold, with the last of them dying on June 21.

On June 20, Larissa and his guards finally arrived at the limits of the city. Now within short range radio contact with Tors, Larissa requested that a small force be sent his way to escort him back to the center of Harrowshire so he could help win the battle, which the Prince obliged, sending 300 raleos and 400 militia to assist the Legate. The small army fought their way through the southern fringes of Harrowshire, killing thousands of deentrox but taking heavy losses once they arrived at the borders of the Trentwood, still embroiled in heavy combat.

Trentwood’s raleos relief force had officially been bogged down by the spravac, who were making constant lightning fast counter attacks against the raleos, with dropships sending in squads of marines at a time that would wipe out the raleos platoons moving through the buildings and tramways. Unable to continue, Legate Larissa elected that moving in a smaller group would enable him to get to Prince Tors quicker, as his escorting force drew too much attention from the ravenous spravac.

Over the next three days, Larissa and his guards dodged spravac patrols until they reached the safety of the raleos battle line, which was yet to be engaged in a full scale attack. Larissa, in Tors’ main base, ordered other zyyntorean forces to converge on Harrowshire from other areas, calling upon a large force of 300,000 Legionnaires in the north currently unengaged by spravac forces.

While the zyyntoreans began their march towards the urban battlefields, Trentwood began to crumble from the constant battle, with two of the towers collapsing and taking thousands of soldiers and civilians with it. The spravac had set antimatter charges on the supports of the towers, hoping that they would fall onto the towers that were primarily owned by the raleos. However, one of the towers fell on one of theirs, severely limiting their capabilities in maintaining their hold on Trentwood. In addition, the TFC had heard about the arrival of Larissa, which reinvigorated their spirits, as they began to fight with increased ferocity and fanaticism, with rumors spreading that Commander Victor himself had even converted to Zyyntorism overnight and was fighting with the spirit of Valeez inside him.

On June 24, the TFC amassed their remaining forces and launched a daring assault with their police speeders and cruisers, overrunning multiple spravac positions. The assault prompted the raleos to reinvigorate their offense as well, with both groups eventually pushing the spravac into a single tower. In an effort to ensure that the raleos and TFC’s victory would be bitter, the spravac suicidally blew up the tower, causing it to collapse and bury tens of thousands of the raleos and TFC troops, ensuring that even if they couldn’t win Trentwood, they would leave most of it in ashes.

With Trentwood won by the allied forces, the spravac began to lose their footing in Harrowshire, with the power planet, which was still housing the raleos warriors inside, the last building to be liberated before Sgcár ordered a full scale retreat. The zyyntoreans arrived on the morning of the 25, killing the last of the spravac stragglers as they withdrew from the battlefield.

Decisive Allied Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 1,504 dead

Ures Soldiers: 54,281 dead

Ures Militia: 132,593 dead

Ures Civilians: 1,582,688 dead

Raleos Warriors 305,681 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 748,577 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 35,192 dead

Incubi: 433 dead

### Battle of Kennedy: June 29, 7021

After the spravac retreated out of the Harrowshire, Didact Vólóm ordered another detachment of spravac marines to reinforce the spravac remnants and link with the spravac in Greenchester, organizing into a massive army of over 500,000 marines, rangers, and deentrox.

In order to prepare for this new great offensive helmed by Sgcár, they would need to scout out potential routes, so Sgcár sent out scouting forces to find the path of least resistance, allowing him to outflank the zyyntoreans and destroy them. As the scouting forces were moving out, one of them came across the small town of Kennedy. As the spravac inched closer, they were engaged by the zyyntorean garrison. As the spravac were meant not to fight but to scout, they fled the battle, only to be pursued by the zyyntoreans, who soon came across the growing spravac army. Horrified by the massive force, Larissa mobilized his own forces to meet them, aiming to trick and outflank them just as Sgcár aimed to.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 8 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 24 dead

### Battle of the Suffolk Front: June 30-August 8, 7021

After the spravac scouts returned from their deployments, they informed Archon Sgcár of the various paths that he could take to crush the joint zyyntorean-raleos army, now bolstered by 300,000 fresh zyyntorean legionnaires. Sgcár elected to split his forces along two routes, believing that if one route were to be overrun, he’d be able to easily use the other route to flank any forces that attacked the other. Having lost most of his air power in the Battle of the Harrowshire, Sgcár had to rely on APCs and the fast marching of his spravac troops to traverse the terrain and move westward.

The APC column immediately faced difficulties from the zyyntorean aircraft and long range artillery, which destroyed many of the vehicles and created craters in the pathways, forcing the APCs to veer off course into the surrounding forests. Aiming to attack the Harrowshire again, Sgcár ordered his northernmost forces, which he called Talon Horde, to attack the outer reaches of the metropolitan area, as he correctly assumed that the zyyntoreans and raleos had not sent troops to guard that sector.

As Talon Horde rampaged and reaved through the towns, massacring their civilians, the zyyntoreans sent six cohorts of legionnaires to intercept them, leaving the raleos to defend from the second group of forces, named the Raptor Vanguard by Sgcár. The Raptor Vanguard, once they got word that a bulk of the zyyntoreans had been sent to deal with Talon Horde, attacked, swarming the raleos positions and slaughtering thousands of them, sending them to retreat back into the small city of Jordan’s Point, which was primarily a hydroelectric facility with a massive dam gathering power from the Bolingbrook River. The Raptor Vanguard had with them a host of over two hundred tanks, which they used to assault the facility. Raleos and Ures militia gunners armed with RPGs managed to knock out a few of the tanks, slowing their assault. Raleos warriors dove into the waters of the river and ambushed the spravac along the banks, dragging them to the depth into a watery grave. The zyyntorean bombers would swoop in and destroy more of the tanks, taking some much needed pressure off of the dam.

While Jordan’s Point was besieged, the Talon Horde was suddenly bombarded by a zyyntorean artillery barrage followed by a triumphant melee charge from the zyyntorean legionnaires. The spravac of Talon Horde, made up mostly of Shadow Ark Corsairs and rangers, brandished their own weapons and charged as well, turning the small town of Farrough Heights, still full of civilians, into a medieval-esque bloodbath, creating piles of mangled dismembered corpses as the two sides savagely hacked each other to pieces. Aware that the zyyntoreans were superior melee combatants, Sgcár ordered that some of the tanks in Raptor Vanguard be sent to support the spravac of Talon Horde. To compensate for this change, deentrox fledglings and Kasakh-A-Rholon were sent to infiltrate the dam alongside Incubi and detonate a bomb inside, destroying it and causing power to be lost in several areas, as well as flooding the nearby towns and villages.

As the tanks moved north on July 2, they were attacked by Ures militia on the road heading for Farrough Heights. The tanks easily obliterated the militia, but it would be another two days until they reached the town, which by then Sgcár had been forced to pull out Talon Horde to use them elsewhere. Despite this, the tanks still held the course, burning and destroying as they went.

The zyyntoreans had been pushed back across the entire northeastern front, forced into the surrounding forests and banks of the Bolingbrook River, which was providing a series of chokeholds that the zyyntoreans could utilize. In the south, the spravac tanks continued to move towards Farrough Heights, unaware that it had been held by the zyyntoreans. By July 4, they had reached the town, abandoned and clogged with dead and water from the destroyed dam.

In the wreckage of the dam, the spravac were using it as cover as they advanced to kill any zyyntoreans that got too close. However this changed when zyyntorean bombers located and destroyed them, burying them in the rubble and causing more breaches, worsening the flooding and disrupting the spravac convoy movements.

The fighting slowed to a relatively uneventful stalemate, Sgcár’s momentum, the spravac’s greatest strength, had been brought to a screeching halt, forcing him to reevaluate his options. This was exactly what Larissa wanted in order to launch his counterattack, which he did on July 11. In the early morning, legionnaires began to launch a series of bold frontal charges against the spravac and deentrox forces, pushing them back several kilometers along the Bolingbrook River, at times even forcing them into the water to drown. Sgcár responded to this sudden push with his own counterattack on July 12, using Incubi to lead the charge.

Instead of digging in to hold off the spravac charges, the zyyntoreans strategically withdrew, causing the spravac to grow overconfident and reckless as they chased the zyyntoreans. Eventually, on July 17, the spravac had advanced over 100 miles. During this pursuit, the zyyntoreans would set up suicidal defenses of various evacuated towns and villages to slow the spravac and still convince them that they were winning and not being led into a trap. However, some of these heroic stands, which were designed to fail, actually succeeded, and many pockets of zyyntorean resistance carried on for miles behind the spravac frontline.

In addition, raleos warrior squads were still ambushing the spravac from the waterways they had created from the destruction of the dam and the massive Bolingbrook River, slowly whittling away at the spravac numbers with each successive attack.

By July 20, Larissa sprang his trap. Suddenly, barrages from above in the form of zyyntorean dreadnoughts mercilessly bombed the spravac fronts, using the zyyntorean pockets as points of reference for the spravac locations. These bombardments sent the spravac into discord, allowing the zyyntoreans to then go back on the offensive.

Despite their confusion, the spravac still put up a steep resistance, killing hundreds of zyyntoreans every minute as the holy warriors charged directly into their fire. Despite their losses, the zyyntoreans pushed through, rapidly advancing forward and killing over one thousand Incubi, a loss that shook Sgcár’s confidence and will to win. With the Incubi reduced severely in effectiveness, the spravac and deentrox were put to the heel, ceding much of their gains over the course of the next six days.

By July 27, the zyyntoreans were forced to slow down so their logistics and could keep up with their massive offensive. The spravac took this opportunity to reorganize and put up another counterattack, sending massed waves of rangers and Shadow Ark Corsairs to disrupt the zyyntorean lines. These attacks, however, failed miserably, and for every 1 zyyntorean killed 20 spravac took his place, and the spravac were slowly whittling themselves down with their suicidal charges.

On July 29, the zyyntoreans had brought their own tanks to the frontline to resume the offensive, beginning their attack with a thunderous barrage from their ships overhead, once again horrifically destroying the spravac’s ability to put up a steady defense.

The zyyntorean advance plowed through thousands of spravac, rendering their numbers less than the zyyntoreans by a considerable degree. With no ability to reinforce his dwindling numbers, Sgcár was forced to evacuate himself from the battlefield by August 8 along with the rest of his soldiers, off to join Didact Vólóm in his campaign in the Albion Gulf.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 184,105 dead

Ures Militia: 2,691 dead

Ures Civilians: 6,297,196 dead

Raleos Warriors 21,853 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 26,399 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 332,677 dead

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 158,001 dead

Incubi: 1,283 dead

## Scotia Campaign: June 17, 7021- January 29, 7022

In order to retake Grace once and for all, Zelem and the Ures supporting units had to invade Scotia via the Albion Gulf, the seat of spravac imperial operations on the world. The Ures forces were commanded by General Augustus von Freihart and was composed of 70,500 green soldiers and tanks, namely 200 heavy Spartan Class tanks, as well as a platoon of 32 Green Titans. The zyyntorean army was over 5 million strong, composed of storm legionnaires and regulars, as well as extensive air and armor support. In addition, the zyyntorean fleet provided overwatch over the continent, providing imaging of the landscape in order to give the zyyntoreans an edge over Vólóm as well as marine and SAR cohorts to support Zelem whenever he called upon them.

Vólóm defended Scotia with over 6 million marines, 1 million rangers, and 14,000 Incubi, as well as a fleet of Ranger Class dropships and gunships in support. In addition to his professional army, Shadow Ark Corsairs were stationed all throughout the continent, acting as the primary garrisons for many of the smaller villages and towns. Vólóm notably did not have an abundance of tanks, which were under the command of Archon Sgcár in Suffolkshire, leaving Vólóm with a primarily infantry based army.

### 2nd Battle of Blacksand: June 17, 7021

In order to invade the rest of the Albion Gulf and by extension; Scotia, the zyyntoreans launched an airborne assault of the spravac coastal defenses at the Blacksand. The zyyntorean bombers lightened up the outer defenses, destroying hundreds of machine gun emplacements and artillery batteries, allowing the dropships carrying thousands of zyyntorean Marines and Special Airborne Regiment forces to land.

The zyyntorean landing force, composed of Storm Legionnaires, attacked with lightning fury, brandishing their blades and mowing down thousands of the spravac, who were mostly marines led by small teams of Incubi. The Incubi served to be the only true challenge for the zyyntoreans, who managed to overwhelm the Incubi with numbers before taking the second line of defenses. Vólóm was furious when transmissions from the Incubi indicated that the zyyntoreans were breaking through, so he began to mobilize the nearby spread out forces to meet them. The disparate local spravac forces were primarily Shadow Ark Corsairs, who did little but slow down the advancing zyyntoreans. After just three hours, the Blacksand had fallen to the zyyntorean attackers, which they began to fortify as a forward operating base.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Marines: 732 dead

Zyyntorean Special Forces: 82 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 1,593 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 4,286 dead

Incubi: 20 dead

### Battle of the Grand Albion Canyon: June 24- July 12, 7021

As the zyyntoreans began their march forward, they eventually came across the remnants of Vólóm’s earlier campaign for the Albion Gulf. Miles of land were dotted with the wreckage of destroyed tanks on both sides and the fully decomposed skeletons of both spravac and Ures soldiers that Vólóm’s men had made no effort to clean up or even eat. The worst of this macabre display was in the Grand Albion Canyon, where the bloodiest battle of Operation Steel Tempest was fought. The ruins of the Ures fort laid there and the narrow passageways along the cliff face were clogged with the bodies of Ures and spravac soldiers. Even the piles of dead rangers that climbed over each other to get over the fortress walls were still present, the stench of vanilla was overpowering at times for the zyyntorean and Ures soldiers.

Fighting suddenly broke out when corsairs began firing on the zyyntoreans from the cliffside. Along the still intact walkways a bloody firefight between the legionnaires and corsairs broke out. Zyyntorean bombers would strafe the cliff faces, bombing suspected eyries and reducing entire sections of the canyon to rubble. As the corsairs were pushed back over the course of two days, the zyyntoreans began to come across rangers that Vólóm had sent to reinforce the faltering corsair forces. The zyyntoreans met their match in the rangers, who fought with a savagery unparalleled. By June 30, the two sides had been brought to a stalemate, each of them content with shelling the other side with attritious barrages of plasma fire. Eventually, the Ures Spartans arrived and easily broke through the spravac lines, crushing them beneath their massive treads. The reinvigorated assault allowed the zyyntoreans to send their Tempest legionnaires forward to lead the vanguard, eventually halting again on July 1 when they came across a section of the canyon that was completely barricaded by the spravac, who were using tank wreckage and gun emplacements to inflict massive casualties against the zyyntorean tempest legionnaires.

The zyyntoreans once again resorted to shelling the spravac positions, as the spravac had lost their primary artillery support to the Ures tanks further down the line. This shelling prompted Vólóm to send his rangers and Incubi out into a massive counter charge to take the zyyntoreans off guard and alleviate the pressure. Believing that his men would fight most effectively with him watching, Vólóm charged alongside his men, cutting down hundreds of zyyntoreans until July 4 when he met Zelem again on the field of battle. With the fighting raging around them, Zelem and Vólóm fought viciously in the epicenter of the gore, ignoring the piles of dead men that formed around them. However, Vólóm suddenly gained the upper hand, slicing a wound cleanly through Zelem’s leg armor, immobilizing the warrior.

Ures reinforcements were sent to evacuate the Harbinger alongside a contingent of Zelem’s Immortals. Among the Ures forces sent to rescue Zelem were five Green Titans, who distracted Vólóm while the Immortals dragged him to safety. Vólóm instantly killed the first of the Titans, Daniel Newark, beheading him with his infamous blades; Blackfang and the Talon of Iut. He killed the second not soon after, cutting off her right arm with Blackfang before stabbing her through the chest. Immortals then charged in to reinforce the faltering Titans, but Vólóm even managed to kill them, cutting down three of them before they retreated alongside the Titans.

Vólóm, overconfident and blinded by euphoric bloodlust pursued them, only to be blocked alongside his Incubi by a fearsome zyyntorean defense, who were creating piles of spravac so high that some that were still alive were crushed underneath the weight.

Forced to retreat, the spravac ceded even more of the canyon to the zyyntoreans, who began pursuing the spravac relentlessly, killing hundreds of them with each step they took. Though the spravac fought savagely at every inch of the canyon, they were fatigued and were easily falling to the zyyntoreans, only the rangers were able put up any resistance, sacrificing their lives to allow the other spravac to retreat to Vólóm’s next defensive position.

Decisive Allied Victory:

Zyyyntorean Legionnaires: 54,299 dead

Ures Soldiers: 737 dead

Titans: 2 dead

Immortals: 5 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 25,291 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 43,188 dead

Incubi: 19 dead

### 2nd Battle of the Gutter’s Wrath: July 28- September 18, 7021

After making it out of the Grand Albion Canyon, Zelem and the Ures forces turned their attention to the Gutter’s Wrath, Vólóm’s main defensive line and the key to taking the Albion Gulf and the rest of the continent. Zelem, knowing how steeply defended the Gutter would be, opted to orbitally bombard the fortifications that his JTSR scouts could locate. These volleys of gauss and plasma severely weakened these frontlines, however it also alerted Vólóm to their presence, causing him to dispatch units of Incubi to infiltrate and silence these ships.

The first ship, Uncorrupted, was a Prelate-Class Dreadnought, one of the heaviest of its kind in the Zyyntorean Navy, and thus it was heavily guarded by both marines and a detail of 50 NRF troops, who were prepared to protect the ship with their lives.

The Incubi force, a Warlock Section, infiltrated the ship through its exhaust ports, slipping in whenever the vents were open, using quantum phasing technology to bypass the searing heat that the vents produced. Once inside, the Incubi butchered the crew manning the engine room before placing a cluster of antimatter grenades to vaporize the engine.

Upon detonation, the Incubi immediately jumped to the other ship providing bombardment, the Seraph-Class Valiant Pride. Using the same tactic, the Incubi destroyed the second engine, causing both ships to plummet to the surface directly into the zyyntorean and Ures forces. The impact of the forces killed at least 50,000 immediately, with tens of thousands more to shrapnel and other explosions, mostly artillery munitions cooking off.

Vólóm used this opportunity to counter-attack, sending small groups of Incubi and Rangers to harass the befuddled allied forces. Intent on saving any survivors, Zelem ordered JSTR units to search the wreckage for any survivors. While searching, the JSTR were engaged by platoons of rangers, who forced them to take cover within the intact parts of the ship. Surviving Marines and crewmen also took up arms, managing to push back the rangers.

Vólóm, vexed by this turn of events, ordered his remaining ranger forces to pull back and refortify. However, he did not withdraw the Incubi, ordering them to continue harassing the wounded forces. The Incubi team was eventually discovered on August 1 by Green Titans, who engaged and killed the 10 warriors. Infuriated but also excited, Vólóm personally led another team to hunt down the Titans, taking three of his most trusted warriors.

Vólóm and his men engaged a fireteam of them on August 2, killing two of them and mortally wounding the other. Before Vólóm could execute the other, a pair of Immortals intervened, successfully killing all three of Vólóm’s minions, forcing the Didact to escape so he could continue leading his army.

Intent on ensuring that the zyyntoreans could not advance, Vólóm fixed his long range Piercer and Hippogriff Artillery to bombard the allied forces for three days. However, the shelling was largely ineffective, only sparsely impacting zones of advancement and barely killing any men. Taking advantage of this, Zelem organized a frontal assault against the first line of the Gutter, which he called Entry Point True-Edge. At the behestment of the surviving marines, Zelem’s frontal charge consisted of both marines and legionnaires, who alongside the Green Titans, made a daring charge against the spravac line.

Though they lost hundreds in the initial volleys of Zgevescz rifles, the rocks and fallen trees made for plenty of cover, allowing the allies to steadily advance over two days. On August 7, the first marines reached the first trench line, easily butchering the spravac marines and rangers inside. The Gutter had been severely overstretched across the region, meaning that Vólóm’s best forces and reserves could not all coalesce instantly, meaning that he had to draw upon Shadow Ark Corsairs stationed in nearby villages to supplement his faltering ranks at Entry Point True-Edge. This horde of caped warriors slowed the zyyntoreans just enough that Vólóm could start moving in his reserves.

This was exactly what Zelem wanted. On August 9, when JSTR confirmed that Vólóm’s reserves had been moved, he gave the signal to the primary Ures forces to attack the point they left, which General von Freihart coined Breakpoint. When Breakpoint was attacked, Vólóm was forced to split his reserves to hold back the Ures forces. Vólóm, believing the zyyntoreans to be more of a threat, sent a majority of these reserve forces to engage the zyyntoreans.

At Breakpoint, the Uresian soldiers had successfully captured most of the trench by August 10, repositioning the machine gun and artillery emplacements to be used against the spravac. Realizing this, Vólóm sent sections of Incubi to destroy these batteries under cover of darkness, successfully destroying most of the guns and their false-crews. This confusion gave the spravac reserves a much needed advantage, and they were able to retake half of Breakpoint by August 11. Additionally, Bûnscz Sgcár returned after his defeat at Harrowshire, bringing with him whatever stragglers that he could.

Vólóm then tasked the Archon with coordinating the defense against the Ures forces while he focused on Zelem. Vólóm, in order to gain an edge over Zelem, sent in Ranger dropships to deploy rangers from above behind zyyntorean lines. However, zyyntorean fighters appeared into the airspace and shot down several of the dropships. In response, Vólóm used Shard-Class AA emplacements to shoot down the fighters, allowing some of the dropships to land. The rangers successfully disrupted the zyyntoreans’ offense. This, coupled with a sudden frontal charge late in the afternoon on August 12 from Vólóm and his Incubi sent them on the defensive. At Point True-Edge, Vólóm engaged in another duel with Zelem as well as five Green Titans. Vólóm’s Incubi followers killed the Titans while the two generals brawled, with Vólóm nearly cutting Zelem’s head off. Zelem managed to dodge the blow and successfully cleave a gash through Vólóm’s breastplate, nearly cutting the Didact in two. Enraged, Vólóm headbutt the Harbinger and fled, taking his Incubi with him.

By dusk that same day, Zelem’s forces had been pushed to their newly dug trenches three miles away from the wreckage of the Valiant Pride. Now that they were in trenches, however, they were able to repel the countless assaults made by the rangers. At Breakpoint, Sgcár was struggling to break the Ures forces, who had been reinforced with their Spartan Tanks, which were devastating his mostly infantry based forces. However, many of the tanks were beginning to run out of fuel and ammunition, requiring trips to Freihart’s camp for refueling, which took pressure off of the bogged down spravac forces. In the morning of August 12, Sgcár personally led a daring assault against the Ures forces with a horde of Shadow Ark Corsairs and what little Incubi he had, successfully breaking through the first line of infantry defenses. This, coupled with strikes from spravac gunships against the Spartan tanks, allowed the Archon to push the Ures forces out of Breakpoint towards Freihart’s camp by August 17. Desperately hanging on, Freihart requested aid from Zelem, who sent a deployment of SAR soldiers to flank the Sgcár’s horde. The SAR troopers devastated the spravac, even using their jetpacks to board the sides of low-flying gunships to destroy or hijack them. These attacks forced Sgcár to pull back, with the SAR pursuing them.

While the Archon was assaulting the Uresians, Zelem organized another counterattack to break Vólóm’s constant waves of infantry. Ordering his men to draw their swords, the Legionnaires boldly charged straight into an incoming horde, smashing through and easily making their way towards True-Edge by August 15. Intent on making sure that Vólóm couldn’t counterattack, Zelem called upon another orbital bombardment from the nearby Seraph-class Hallowed Soul. The Seraph’s gauss rounds obliterated much of Vólóm’s retreating forces, clearing the way for Zelem’s troops to assault the next objective; Point Grimsword.

Zelem once again targeted the point with artillery, using long range Arc volleys to electrocute the spravac inside as well as destroy any electronics, effectively severing communications in the immediate area.

This renewed offensive coupled with the SAR reinforcements on August 17 allowed the Ures forces to continue their assault alongside the SAR, reaching their second objective; Flashpoint. Freihart spearheaded this assault with his Spartan tanks as well as HASAC crews, using them to suppress spravac snipers as his forces moved forward. However, Sgcár left vapor mines as he escaped, which destroyed 12 of Freihart’s tanks and killed hundreds of soldiers. The SAR continued to provide overwatch as well as conduct daring hit-and-run assaults against the main line at Flashpoint, killing hundreds of spravac without losing a single man.

Zyyntorean fighters also began to make strafing runs, though they had to cease their flight on August 19 after losing too many to AA fire. Believing air superiority to be the key to the battle, Zelem ordered the SAR and Shade Agents to seek out and destroy these AA guns. These missions were met with mixed results, as Vólóm had correctly guessed that the zyyntoreans would go for the batteries, so he garrisoned them with Incubi and platoons of Corsairs. The ones guarded by Incubi always survived. With AA fire at least minimized, Zelem resumed his air strikes on August 19, using them to kill any approaching spravac forces attempting to retake Point Grimsword. Vólóm once again led an assault against Grimsword, killing another Titan in the process before he was forced to withdraw on August 20.

Zelem took this opportunity to spearhead a pursuit with his Immortals and a detail of marines, carving a narrow path through the forest that stood between Grimsword and the rest of the Gutter. Within the forest, Zelem and his party killed hundreds of rangers sent by Vólóm to slow them down, as well as a Warlock Section of Incubi. While Zelem carved up spravac in the forest, Uresian forces succeeded in taking Flashpoint, capturing a battery of Demogorgon-Class artillery pieces.

These antimatter howitzers provided vital fire support for the SAR, who were beginning to finally take losses after they began coming across increasingly large numbers of Incubi counter strike teams. The leader of the SAR forces, Centurion Galatorous Gai Turez, engaged Sgcár in a vicious duel on August 23, however he was killed after Sgcár stabbed him through the eye with a crescent dagger. With Turez dead, the SAR forces became less effective, and were eventually forced to withdraw by Zelem so a new leader could be assessed and selected. WIth Turez dead, the Uresian forces were beginning to be pushed back again by Sgcár and his men, though they took heavy casualties with every meter of ground they retook. The spravac advance was finally halted on August 26 at what Freihart named Last Blood Hill. The hill earned its namesake aptly, as hundreds of spravac were slain attempting to take the expansive highground. Sgcár and his men tirelessly assaulted this hill for three days, eventually being forced to retreat and combine his forces with Vólóm after Zelem and his forces broke through the now burning forest nestled between the two lines of trenches.

The two spravac leaders mounted another defense at a third line of trenches, which Vólóm called the Shatterskull Line. This line of spikes and machine guns killed thousands of zyyntoreans as they charged against them on August 27, forcing them to take cover behind the rocks and depressions in the ground. The Ures forces used their artillery to try and destroy parts of the line, but it was out of their effective range, meaning that bombardments killed much less than they would at closer ranges. This bombardment allowed Vólóm to continue suppressing Zelem and his men, however his flanks facing the Ures forces were much more lightly defended, giving Zelem and Freihart an idea.

The remaining Ures forces, including the Green Titans, organized a mechanized assault into the northernmost flank of the Shatterskull Line. The Spartan tanks punched holes clean through the line, allowing the Uresian infantry to stream into the trench and massacre the spravac inside. However, without support from the zyyntoreans, the spravac were beginning to outnumber the Ures forces. Zelem once again sent in SAR troopers to assist them, firing down into the spravac, allowing the green soldiers to push them back.

Realizing that the Titans were close, Vólóm and Sgcár both drew their weapons and engaged them, with Vólóm killing another three while Sgcár killed one. The deaths of these Titans caused the peripheral Ures forces to flee in fear, giving the spravac an even bigger advantage over the Ures forces.

However, the lack of Vólóm’s presence at the main front against the zyyntoreans allowed Zelem to finally overwhelm the position by August 30, killing so many spravac that their corpses filled the trench to the brim. By the time Vólóm knew that the trench had been overrun, Zelem had already fortified the position.

Choosing to cut his losses, Vólóm took his force and fortified them at the ruined town of Scouse. The town’s civilian population had long since been killed and eaten, leaving a half destroyed ghost town for Zelem to take. Rallying his men behind the dead civilians, Zelem led a bold charge against Vólóm’s line. The southern edge of the town was covered mostly by forest, with several depressions and spurs hindering movement of armor or larger numbers of troops. In order to ensure that the spravac wouldn’t field overwhelming numbers, Zelem brought in his artillery and continuously harried the edges of the town, ensuring that any spravac that dared pass would be blown to pieces. For three days the zyyntorean artillery thundered, firing nearly 10 million shells into the outskirts of the town, allowing the zyyntorean forces to gather in the cover of the forest for their second charge.

However, when the bombardment stopped and the zyyntoreans charged forward, they were met by hails of plasma and antimatter, cutting down thousands of them before they reached the spravac firing them. After breaking the first line of spravac defenders, they were met with Rangers with their swords brandished, engaging in a savage melee brawl that coated entire sections of the roads with bodies and caused the gutters and sewers to run silver and pink with zyyntorean and spravac blood. The zyyntoreans, outnumbered, were forced to call upon the Titans, who were busy assisting the Ures forces who had circled around to assault the spravac from the north.

With the Titans moved, the Ures forces were in dire need of heavier troops, so Zelem requested a detail of zyyntorean marines from the Hallowed Soul. The Captain of the ship granted him 300 of her Marines, which deployed via dropship three hours later. The Marines greatly assisted the faltering Ures lines, allowing them to push past the outer defenses and into the outer neighborhoods of the town by September 5.

While the joint force in the north pushed through the suburbs, Zelem’s main divisions continued to hold the spravac in a stalemate in the southern sector of the city. Ures tanks then circled around and used their main 140mm guns to blow away the spravac defenses. With covering fire from the heavy Spartan guns, Zelem’s Legionnaires were able to advance, blazing through the suburbs and destroying companies of marines and rangers as they went.

By September 7, the two separate forces had met up in the town square, forcing the spravac into the back half of the city to the west. Though many of the spravac had been killed, hundreds of thousands of zyyntoreans had been killed over the Gutter, and Zelem was unwilling to sacrifice more troops. He chose to have the Hallowed Soul bombard the area with its plasma torpedoes. When Vólóm saw the torpedoes, he got the idea to destroy it using his Incubi as well as a host of dropships.

He loaded his dropships with Shadow Ark Corsairs so they could board the ship through its cargo bay. While they distracted the Marines inside, the Incubi would infiltrate and place a bomb in the main munitions cache of the ship.

The Corsair dropships took heavy fire, but many of them managed to board. Spravac AA guns in the outskirts of Scouse also harried the armor of the ship, destroying its main culverin and torpedo batteries. The Incubi stealthily boarded and placed an antimatter bomb within the heart of the ship. Once it was placed, however, they were discovered by the ship’s detail of NRF, who Zelem had requested be deployed under suspicion that Vólóm would attempt to sabotage the ship through Incubi.

The two elite squads battled savagely, but eventually the NRF won out, removing the bomb and disabling it. With the Incubi dead, the Marines eventually killed the last of the Corsairs. With the Soul still operational and with some of its guns still able to shoot, it continued to fire into Vólóm’s army, forcing him to spread it out to minimize casualties from the tremendous explosions.

Noticing that the force was spread out, Zelem divided his forces to hunt down and destroy whatever spare stragglers they could find. By September 18, much of the spravac army had reorganized, prepared to hold out until reinforcements could arrive.

Decisive Allied Victory:

Zyyntorean Ships: 2 destroyed

Zyyntorean Naval Servicemen: 2,093 dead

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 424,819 dead

Zyyntorean Marines: 3,571 dead

Special Forces: 743 dead

Immortals: 54 dead

Ures Soldiers: 45,283 dead

Titans: 8 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 643,291 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 92,581 dead

Incubi: 102 dead

### 5th Battle over Grace: September 20, 7021

Vólóm, well aware that he could not maintain a campaign without more troops, requested that Blood Alchemist Správ send at least another 200,000 marines to buffer his soldiers. In order to break through the zyyntorean blockade, Správ sent a fleet of 60 ships to destroy the zyyntorean fleet. The spravac fleet was made up of 2 Castle Cruisers, 7 Rapier Cruisers, 19 Mace Corvettes, 8 Ranger Battleships, 16 Warrior Battleships, and 8 Fortress Carriers carrying 200,000 marines for Vólóm.

The joint zyyntorean-raleos fleet numbered at 107 strong, with the raleos making up the bulk of that number. The zyyntorean section of 43 was composed of 6 Arrow Frigates, 2 Kabuto Frigates, 3 Bishop Dreadnoughts, 16 Paladin Galleons, 5 Throne Destroyers, and 11 Naginata Corvettes.

The Raleos element was made up of 18 dreadnoughts, 6 fighter carriers, 15 battleships, 7 cruisers, 6 heavy cruisers, and 12 corvettes.

Správ ordered that the carriers stay back to avoid losing the reinforcing infantry, instead using his corvettes and Warriors to soak up the Raleos fire. While the Raleos engaged the main line of ships, the zyyntorean fleet split apart to try and outflank the spravac fleet, destroying two of the Rapiers while losing one of their paladins in the process. Správ noticed that with the zyyntorean fleet in movement, they left a gap for his carriers to quickly enter to deploy their passengers. Admiral Nerous noticed this bold move and sent boarding ships packed with Marines and NRF to distract and destroy the carriers from the inside. Most of the boarding craft reached their first target, the Void of Terror, but were repelled by its complement of marines and corsairs. With the boarding parties repelled, almost all of the carriers were able to bypass the zyyntorean fleet. However, one was hit by a stray arc missile, destroying its engine and causing it to be destroyed.

With the objective complete, the spravac fleet withdrew, leaving the allied fleet confused and annoyed.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Ships: 7 destroyed

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 12,953 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 8,185 dead

Zyyntorean Ships: 2 destroyed

Zyyntorean Marines: 2,592 dead

Zyyntorean Naval Servicemen: 829 dead

Special Forces: 95 dead

Raleos Ships: 8 destroyed

Raleos Naval Servicemen: 7,588 dead

### Operation Unending Judgment: September 23, 7021

After the carriers deployed their troops, Admiral Nerous dispatched an entire cohort of NRF soldiers to board each of the 7 Fortress Carriers to destroy them, well aware that they would provide invaluable air support and overwatch for Vólóm’s forces. The NRF cohort was commanded by Centurion Victariae Gai Ravenna, who personally led three squads into the carrier Shadow of Death. Ravenna and his men successfully planted a powerful plasma mine in the ship’s fuel reserves. After departing the ship, the explosion was so massive that it not only destroyed the Shadow, but also heavily damaged the Great Murderer, destroying most of its starboard.

Another platoon infiltrated the Violent Lament, taking control of the bridge and veering it off course so that it steered into the side of the Blood Night, escaping just before impact by shooting a hole through the bridge’s windows. With three ships destroyed, the NRF then realized that the ships were now onto Nerous’s strategy. The next platoon that infiltrated the carrier Horrid Whip was engaged by a section of Incubi. The Incubi managed to kill the entire team, though they lost half of their manpower during the firefight. While the firefight died down on the Whip, another pair of squads successfully fought through the Bleeding Fang, deactivating and destroying its means of propulsion, sending it crashing into the surface seventeen miles away from Vólóm’s armies.

Nerous, now fully aware that the carriers were becoming more resistant to the NRF, ordered his flagship to fire a volley of gauss into the top of the carrier Horrid Whip, destroying it and killing the other Incubi inside. The remaining three carriers, the Dying Soul, Perpetual Torment, and the damaged Great Murderer attempted to flee from the area. In an effort to destroy them, Nerous scrambled his Shuriken-Class Fighters and Ballista-Class Gunships to pursue and slow them down while the NRF attempted to board them. The fighters and gunships succeeded in destroying the Murderer, destroying its shield generator before launching missiles into the vulnerable bridge. The Dying Soul managed to destroy many of the fighters, but it too was destroyed after a squad of NRF managed to cut the power to its stabilizers, causing it to lose control and crash into Mount Frederick, nearly destroying the entire mountain in the process.

The final carrier, the Torment, destroyed the last of the fighters and mustered its own squadrons to combat the gunships, destroying many of them and causing the NRF troopers to take heavy casualties.

Before the carrier could escape, Nerous fired another torpedo into its cargo bay, causing it to explode and split it in half down the middle. With the last of the carriers destroyed, Vólóm was once again deprived of air support, save for the few fighters that survived the explosion.

Decisive Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Marines: 403 dead

Special Forces: 732 dead

Spravac Ships: 8 destroyed

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 201,684 dead

Incubi: 12 dead

### Battle of Trebia Airfield: September 23-24, 7021

In order to ensure that the remaining fighters had somewhere to land so that he could have some semblance of air support, Vólóm dispatched a platoon of Rangers as well as a war pack of Incubi to seize Trebia Airfield in the late hours of September 23, which was guarded by a joint force of zyyntorean marines and Uresian militia, including a single Titan. Additionally, the Incubi could call upon the fighters that were waiting for the airfield to be captured. The Incubi ordered the rangers to engage first, soaking up enemy attention and fire while they sneaked behind the lines. The rangers were able to kill most of the militia, but many of them were killed by the zyyntorean marines. The Marines managed to kill the Dominator of the platoon, lowering their combat effectiveness so much that they gave up and simply drew their swords, engaging in a brief melee battle before they were all killed.

The Incubi revealed themselves in the morning, assassinating the Titan before they cut down each of the Marines. With the airfield secured, the fighters were able to land, giving Vólóm air support for his future engagements.

Decisive Spravac Victory:

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 43 dead

Incubi: 1 dead

Zyyntorean Marines: 13 dead

Ures Militia: 72 dead

Titans: 1 dead

### 3rd Battle of Gutter’s Wrath: September 26- November 15, 7021

With Trebia captured, Vólóm used his newly refueled fighters to scan the occupied Gutter to ascertain his direction of assault. He discovered that there was a narrow pocket between the primary zyyntorean forces and the reserves, a pocket which he could use to flank both forces at once. Additionally, he also sought to destroy the Ures tanks, which were instrumental to his defeat in the previous battle for the Gutter.

Vólóm ordered his rangers to move through the destroyed villages and towns that were wrecked by the previous battle for the region. Using the wreckage as cover, the rangers moved unseen on the night of September 26, using intel provided by Incubi that several cohorts of zyyntoreans would be passing through by the morning.

Sure enough, when eight cohorts came into view, Vólóm gave the order. The rangers emerged from the wreckage in a storm of antimatter and steel, cutting down thousands of zyyntoreans before they even knew what was happening. However, the Legionnaires were quick to react, and began pushing the spravac back towards the largest of the towns, the ruined town of Sherwood Hill.

While the zyyntoreans continued to battle at Sherwood, Ures patrols began going dark from Incubi raids, alarming General Freihart, who requested that Zelem send Shade Agents to seek out these Incubi. Zelem obliged, using them to battle the Incubi and search for any surviving Ures soldiers.

In the chaos, another horde of marines and rangers surfaced from Fort Goreclaw, their main base of operations. The horde was spotted first by Zelem’s vanguard troops and Immortals, who held back the horde from elevated positions and watchtowers while Zelem organized his reserves to reinforce them.

The reinforcements arrived on September 29, relieving the exhausted vanguard troops, who single handedly killed over ten thousand spravac while they only numbered at 1,000.

However, with Zelem’s primary reserves moved, the countless Ures refugees that had fled from their now destroyed dwellings were left vulnerable, which Vólóm capitalized on by sending his fighters from Trebia to harass the camp.

Zyyntorean AA cannons managed to shoot down some of the fighters, but the spravac craft were still far too fast for the flak guns to be fully effective, causing thousands of civilians to be killed in ruthless strafing runs. Determined to destroy the Trebia Airfield. Zelem and Freihart sent a joint task force of Titans, SAR, and Marines to decommission the field. Originally inserted via zyyntorean dropships, many of the dropships were grounded by heavy AA fire and attacks from the spravac fighters. Now forced to attack on foot, the marines and SAR led the charge while the Titans circled around, engaging with vanguard patrols of spravac marines and even Incubi teams, who had managed to fight off most of the Shade Agent kill teams.

On September 30, Zelem’s legionnaires managed to break through the last of the forces that emerged from Fort Goreclaw, driving them back into the outer camps of the fort. Zelem proceeded to lay siege to the fortress, bombarding it with 75mm tungsten rounds, devastating the outer walls.

Zyyntorean marine and SAR soldiers managed to finally break through the outer defenses of Trebia Airfield on October 2, entrenching within the freshly deployed spravac bunkers, even using spravac machine gun turrets against their former owners. The landing strip of the airfield itself became no man’s land, killing hundreds as each side attempted to charge into the other. This constant fire also meant that the spravac fighters couldn’t land to refuel or repair, causing many of them to crash after running out of fuel.

The last of the spravac rangers at Sherwood Hill were killed by October 5, however the zyyntorean victory was short lived, as Incubi began placing vapor mines and heavy plasma bombs, detonating them and killing thousands more zyyntoreans.

The Incubi also began raiding and butchering the refugee camp, however they were driven off on October 7 by Immortals that discovered them. At Fort Goreclaw, Zelem finally ended his bombardment to charge into the breaches made by the artillery, losing hundreds of men with every foot of ground they covered. The towers and bunkers of the base were filled to the brim with snipers and Shadow Ark Corsairs, who were hellbent on ensuring every inch was painted silver with zyyntorean blood.

Vólóm, frustrated by the zyyntorean progress in the fort, emerged with his swords drawn, cutting down swaths of warriors in search of Zelem, eventually finding and ambushing him on the night of October 9, nearly cutting the Harbinger's head off. Luckily for Zelem his Immortals were close by, rallying behind their lord and warding Vólóm back, though one sacrificed his life to save Zelem in the process.

Enraged, Zelem pursued the Didact, eventually running into Archon Sgcár. Sgcár battled viciously with Zelem, fighting with him for nearly four hours, giving his lord ample time to escape. Once Vólóm had reached a safe location, the Archon fled, taunting Zelem for his inability to kill either of them. In an effort to keep his anger from getting the better of him, Zelem abandoned the pursuit to continue leading his men, who were beginning to be pushed back. Despite his best efforts, he was eventually forced to withdraw his forces back to an outer trench line outside of the sprawling fort on October 13.

Before the Legionnaires were pushed back, on the 13th, the marines finally killed the last of the spravac guarding Trebia Airfield on October 10, allowing their dropships to land after the last of the spravac fighters was confirmed to be destroyed. However, when about 50 dropships landed, the airfield erupted in a tempest of plasma and antimatter. It was later discovered on October 11 that the spravac had rigged the airfield to blow on Vólóm’s orders, who knew that the field would be lost but wasn’t going to allow the zyyntoreans any quarter.

With the loss of the airfield, Zelem was no longer able to call upon frequent airstrikes from his bombers and gunships, which were now forced to refuel and repair on his carriers miles above the battlefield. Spravac long range ship-killing artillery guns were also present at Goreclaw, disallowing orbital bombardment under threat of being shot down by these hulking guns.

Incubi forces made an attempt on October 15 to assassinate Zelem, however they failed and were killed in the attempt. Realizing how much danger he was in by being in such close proximity to the fort, Zelem once again renewed his siege of the fort, bombarding it again with his artillery before charging in again.

In the north, Freihart’s Titans encountered a force of over 60,000 Rangers that had emerged from a secret exit from the fort. Freihart sent his Ures soldiers to hold back the Rangers while he waited for reinforcements, which arrived on October 18 in the form of Legionnaires and Marines, who relieved the exhausted Ures soldiers, allowing them to withdraw and rest at the refugee camp, which was becoming dangerously undefended.

Vólóm took this opportunity to use his southern exit of the fort to send another flanking force in the form of marines, who circled around and began assaulting the reserves between the refugee camp and the fort itself, causing heavy casualties and causing the allied force to be split in two. The marines then spread out and began attacking all three major battlegroups, wiping out the Marines and Legionnaires holding off the rangers in the north and coming close to destroying the refugee camp.

Zelem, desperate for relief, called upon Freihart to blitz through the spravac marines with his tanks and remaining Ures soldiers on October 20, commanding him to even arm any able bodied refugees as well. This sudden countercharge shocked the marines, who faltered before the rangers engaged the Ures charge. The rangers savagely beat back the Ures soldiers and militia, ruthlessly slaughtering them and paving their way for the camp.

With only a squad of Immortals left to defend the camp, the Immortals fought valiantly, holding off over six hundred spravac in a narrow chokepoint, giving the refugees ample time to retreat to garrisoned territory well outside of the Gutter.

With the last of the Immortals at the camp dead and the refugees nowhere to be found, the rangers turned their attention to surrounding Zelem’s main force, which had fought deep into the now lightly defended Fort Goreclaw. Zelem bravely led teams of Immortals and Legionnaires to capture and destroy the spravac anti-ship guns, disabling the last of the sixteen cannons on October 23. With more than a quarter of the base firmly under his control, Zelem ordered the carrier Revered Honor to lower over the battlefield and begin deploying reinforcements. Additionally, the carrier began firing her main guns into the mass of spravac approaching the base, killing tens of thousands of them and grinding their march to a screeching halt. With the outer force contained, Marines were given time to land and engage them on the ground, allowing Zelem to refocus his efforts to conquering Goreclaw.

The main source of pain within the base was its central bunker, which was lined with hundreds of machine gun emplacements and enough room to station an entire division of spravac soldiers. On October 24, Zelem made his first attempt at taking the bunker, nicknamed the Throne of Blood, losing over 30,000 zyyntorean warriors before they even reached the bunker to engage the spravac in melee, eventually forced out when Incubi within the bowels of the Throne emerged to lacerate the attacking Legionnaires.

On October 25, Zelem requested a bombardment from the Revered Honor, which fired her main guns into the top of the bunker. Amazingly, the bombardment barely harmed the emplacement, which was revealed to be protected by an energy barrier that Vólóm activated when he saw the ship fire up her cannons.

Frustrated but still determined, Zelem sent a squad of Legionnaires to locate and disable the generator for the shield, destroying it on October 26. With the shield gone, the Honor fired her guns again, this time destroying the bunker and all the spravac inside. Despite the loss of the bunker, much of Goreclaw still remained under Vólóm’s control, and the amount of attention that Zelem had put on the Throne of Blood allowed the rangers and marines to counterattack and drive back the zyyntoreans in other areas of the massive fort.

While the zyyntoreans in the fort continued to bleed, the marines outside of the base savagely clashed with the spravac outside. Due to the intense bombardment, the battlefield had been rendered an ash ridden grey wasteland, with piles of bodies and near constant bloodshed, with the last of the spravac flanking forces killed by October 27.

Vólóm, now aware that the base was close to falling, began to slowly evacuate his troops, using his Shadow Ark Corsairs and marines to hold off the zyyntoreans while he escaped with his elite troops and Incubi. By November 2, Zelem and his men were shocked to find that the base had been nearly abandoned, finally deducing that Vólóm had left to fight on another battlefield and claiming victory over the battle.

Close Allied/Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 592,571 dead

Zyyntorean Marines: 64,196 dead

Special Forces: 1,502 dead

Immortals: 75 dead

Ures Soldiers: 23,572 dead

Militia: 857 dead

Titans: 2 dead

Ures Civilians: 10,682 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 882,684 dead

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 103,666 dead

Incubi: 56 dead

### 2nd Battle of Nottingham’s Pass: November 17- November 21, 7021

With the Gutter now firmly under control of the allied forces, it was becoming abundantly clear to both Zelem and Vólóm that the battle for the planet was close to an end, at least for the time being. Zelem sought to crush Vólóm soon, seeking to drive him back to the destroyed city of Daystart, once one of Grace’s largest and most prosperous cities. To do so, he had to draw the spravac through Nottingham’s Pass, a mountain range that led directly to the once grand city. To do this, he sent cohorts of his soldiers on dropships to fly above Vólóm’s horde and flank him, forcing him to either fight or retreat, steadily leading him to Daystart to trap him there.

These hit and run style attacks worked for the first two days, driving Vólóm sixteen miles until he reached the mouth of the pass. At this point, however, Vólóm had caught on to Zelem’s strategy, and decided to counter attack, sending Incubi to shoot down any dropships they saw with heavy weapons and longbows.

With these flanking ships destroyed, Zelem’s main army, which was steadily trailing Vólóm’s to ensure he went the way he was supposed to, was forced to double time to the Pass to ensure that Vólóm did not try to counter attack.

In the afternoon of November 19, Zelem’s vanguard forces engaged Vólóm, firing artillery and machine gun bursts into the jagged rocks of the Pass where Vólóm’s men were hiding. Zelem reluctantly sent cohorts of his soldiers into the mountains to draw out the spravac, knowing full well that they were lying in wait for ambush. Sure enough, swarms of spravac sprung from the shadows, butchering hundreds of Legionnaires before they even saw them. After losing the element of surprise however, the spravac began to falter, with Legionnaires funneling them into narrow kill zones where they were then slaughtered to the last. SAR troopers hovered above the field, engaging Incubi teams to allow Zelem’s dropships to deploy and surround the spravac in the Pass.

By November 21, Vólóm knew that he would be forced to make a stand at Daystart, withdrawing his men from the Pass, giving Zelem exactly what he wanted.

Decisive Allied/Zyyntorean Victory:

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 19,110 dead

Zyyntorean Marines: 2,475 dead

Special Forces: 32 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 32,588 dead

Incubi: 8 dead

### 2nd Siege of Daystart: November 24, 7021- January 29, 7022

With Vólóm’s army firmly trapped in Daystart, the Didact and Archon Sgcár contacted Imperial High Command to request reinforcements, as Daystart was the spravac’s final major stronghold on Grace, if it was lost, the planet was lost. With over 5,000,000 soldiers still under his command, one would think Vólóm had the upper hand when defending the city, but his lack of air support or heavy armor was so glaring that even the seemingly unending numbers of his marines could not account for such a handicap.

Zelem and Freihart capitalized on this, bringing in several squadrons of bombers to harass the city for three days. During that time, Vólóm called upon all of the stray marines, auxiliaries, and corsairs in the surrounding towns and villages to rally at the city, effectively bringing in another 2 million soldiers to his field, though he still felt that it wasn’t enough.

The next detachment of spravac soldiers that could be sent wouldn’t be able to be deployed until mid-December according to Blood Alchemist Správ, leaving Vólóm with no choice but to hold out during the siege.

Zyyntorean Shade Agents managed to intercept Vólóm’s transmission calling upon the other spravac forces in the area, informing Zelem who requested that a detail of Raleos soldiers be deployed to form a perimeter and hold off their coming soldiers while his main force besieged the city.

These raleos warriors arrived on November 28, just in time to start forming a network of defensive trenches around the forests and destroyed suburbs of the city. Spravac longbowmen began shooting down scores of bombers by November 27, forcing Zelem to halt his air campaign and begin his infantry based siege of the city ruins. Legionnaires and the Green Titans clashed relentlessly with the outer defenses of the city, forming piles of dead so high that they themselves became barricades for the spravac to use. By November 29, zyyntorean forces in the northern districts finally broke through, forming a forward operating base to coordinate the forces in the southern and eastern districts. What little buildings that still stood soon became battlegrounds as marines and Legionnaires viciously fought for every corner and alleyway, corroding away the streets with the amount of spravac blood that was spilt. SAR teams were sent from dropships to seek out longbowmen and Incubi so that Zelem could resume his bombing runs, successfully killing hundreds of longbowmen and Incubi.

In the outskirts, a massive horde of over 100,000 corsairs and deentrox began tirelessly throwing themselves at the outer raleos defenses on December 1, losing tens of thousands but fighting with a fervor so great that it horrified the raleos. The deentrox were especially hateful, even surpassing the spravac at times in their malice in battle.

In the northern district, the legionnaires were continuing to make progress, pushing deep into the middle districts and markets. However, they began to stall on December 5, as a division of rangers counter charged and sent them back several blocks, bogging them down in the north.

In the southern sectors of the city, a combined arms effort of light tanks and Legionnaires finally broke through the spravac lines, forcing Vólóm to fight on two fronts.

In response, Vólóm sent Sgcár to hold the line in the south, which he did so effectively. The raleos were also beginning to get stretched thin. As even more stragglers began to arrive on all sides, they were forced to divide their forces over an increasingly bloody line, at times a single raleos was expected to cover several hundred meters of land all by himself, sometimes with only swords and short range weapons to protect himself with. In order to bolster the faltering raleos ranks, Freihart sent his remaining Green soldiers and Spartan tanks to reinforce them, which was a heavy boon for the exhausted raleos warriors. The tanks were especially effective, holding back entire companies of enemy soldiers virtually by themselves, allowing the raleos to rest and regain their strength as well as rearm.

On December 7, legionnaires in the north renewed their offensive against the rangers, killing thousands of them as they violently pushed through them. For once the rangers seemed to be no match for the legionnaires, who were brought into a zealous frenzy by their Cohort Battle Priests, who relentlessly spouted sermons and hymns speaking of great battles and honor, spurring the zyyntoreans to fight with a fervor unparalleled.

This sudden charge took Vólóm by surprise, forcing him out of his command post as he engaged the zyyntoreans in the field of battle, cutting down scores of them before an Immortal nearly killed him, forcing him back after taking counsel from Správ, who had informed Vólóm that he had begun mobilizing another force of at least 1 million more spravac soldiers to reinforce him. In the east, SAR and Legionnaires successfully located an Incubi camp on December 8, killing all of the Incubi there and discovering that they had planted explosives within the city’s power plant, with the intention of detonating in the event that the city fell.

After learning of this, Zelem had the idea to take the explosives and use them against the spravac, ordering Shade Agents to infiltrate behind enemy lines and plant them in vital locations and high density areas. Since the city had already been cleansed of civilians, Zelem had no fears of killing any innocents.

On December 10, the bombs were successfully planted. These antimatter bombs were then detonated, causing unkempt destruction as hundreds of thousands of spravac were engulfed in the blast, with minimal allied casualties.

In space, Správ’s fleet arrived, with the Black Abyss itself present as well. The massive spravac fleet clashed with the joint fleet helmed by Admiral Nerous, who valiantly defended against the superior numbers and firepower. In the process of defending, countless dropships managed to skirt past the zyyntorean line, landing thousands of troops in the outer lines to assist the faltering deentrox and corsairs.

However, for every dropship that landed, many more were destroyed trying to boldly pass the hulking zyyntorean ships and racing fighters, causing Vólóm’s reinforcements to be sorely underpowered and unfit for what the Didact needed them for. Regardless, the nearly 300,000 spravac that managed to land was enough to break through the raleos lines at several points, overwhelming them and allowing them to flank the zyyntorean forces in the rear, causing several cohorts to be destroyed in the process. This breakthrough forced Zelem to spread out his forces once again to contain the breach. To supplement this, Nerous deployed eighteen cohorts of Marines to continue besieging the city, storming the spravac barricades in order to break through and allow the Legionnaires to stream into the city.

By December 14, nearly a third of the city was under zyyntorean control, with most of that territory being narrow strips and districts that surrounded the entire city, trapping Vólóm and his remaining soldiers inside.

In the outer perimeter, small swarms of spravac and deentrox managed to reach the edge of the city, sneaking past the legionnaires sent to deal with them. Most of them were gunned down once they came into view, but these instances were frequent enough that it distracted the zyyntoreans besieging the city, allowing Vólóm to gain headway and retake some areas of the city back.

On December 18, Zelem was positive that the spravac outside of the city had been sufficiently dealt with, turning his full attention back to the city-proper to finish the war for the planet once and for all. Zelem himself led platoons of Immortals in several frontal charges in the southern half of the city, making major strides over the course of five days, finally halting on December 23 after coming across a particularly heavy ranger barricade.

Noticing that Zelem had stopped his advance, Vólóm took this opportunity to strike, rallying the last of his rangers to charge head on into Zelem and his forward units. The two legendary generals fought for almost a full day as hundreds of spravac and zyyntoreans fell around them. The hateful duel finally ended after Zelem made a deep gash in Vólóm’s face, disabling him shortly. However, before he could make the killing blow, Sgcár rushed in, saving his lord and allowing him to escape.

Though the Archon was skilled, it was obvious he was no match for Zelem, and he fled once he was sure Vólóm had escaped. For the next nine days the two sides slowly bled each other, periodically charging through the no-man’s land of rubble and gutters only to be violently repelled.

On January 1, 7022, Zelem confirmed with the Raleos general, Prince Lanthir Tors IV, that the perimeter was secured. After confirmation, Tors and his men turned their attention to the city as well, funneling their troops into the wartorn ruin to bolster faltering zyyntorean ranks. These reinforcements allowed the legionnaires to renew their offensive, charging temeritously into the spravac lines and breaking through at eight different points. These breakthroughs allowed the zyyntoreans to take nearly half of the city by January 6, killing over 400,000 more during this time.

On January 8, Vólóm attempted to break the offensive, launching an all out assault with the entirety of his Incubi and himself leading the charge. Vólóm’s charge was devastating, as Vólóm had purposely concealed some of his numbers in order to fool the zyyntoreans into thinking he had much less than he did. These sudden numbers stormed through thousands of zyyntorean warriors, creating a massive bulge in the battlelines in the Vickton District, leading to Freihart and Zelem referring to it as Bloody Vickton.

While Vólóm wreaked havoc in Vickton, Archon Sgcár also led an assault into the zyyntorean forces in the north, however his assault was much less effective, as he was forced to rely on poorly armed corsairs and marines, while Vólóm had rangers behind him. Regardless, his efforts were enough to stall the zyyntoreans for several days, as well as cost them tens of thousands of soldiers.

Despite these advances, Vólóm had completely exhausted his resources and manpower by January 14, and realized that if he was to continue living to keep causing problems for Ures and the Deltaverse that he would need to retreat and withdraw. He organized the last of his troops and made a daring charge through a gap in the zyyntorean lines, seeking to break out of the city and evacuate from the outskirts, where a pair of Fortress-Class Carriers were waiting for him to exfiltrate himself and whatever valuable soldiers he could. The breakout was a success, with over two million spravac retreating out of the city. Believing that battle to be won, Zelem did not pursue the army, though he did order any patrols to engage whatever they could.

Above in space, Správ entered the planet’s space again with his fleet, using ultrabows to destroy a section of the zyyntorean-raleos fleet in order to allow his two carriers to slip past and pick up Vólóm and his men. When Zelem saw this, he realized what Vólóm was planning and gave chase, with him, the Green Titans, and his Immortals in pursuit. On January 29, Zelem and his elite force met Vólóm at the field. Vólóm, though anxious to leave, could not pass up another chance to fight Zelem, dueling savagely with the Harbinger while his Incubi guard and Sgcár fought the Immortals and Titans. Before leaving, Vólóm threw dust in Zelem’s eyes, giving him an opportunity to escape. As the ship began to close its ramp, Vólóm taunted Zelem, promising him that he would return to Grace, and this time Zelem and his zyyntoreans would not be able to save the planet from his and the Empire’s fury.

Decisive Allied Victory:

Zyyntorean Ships: 13 destroyed

Zyyntorean Naval Servicemen: 11,574 dead

Zyyntorean Legionnaires: 1,887,689 dead

Zyyntorean Marines: 384,771 dead

Special Forces: 656 dead

Immortals: 95 dead

Raleos Ships: 4 destroyed

Raleos Naval Servicemen: 8,572 dead

Raleos Warriors: 65,196 dead

Ures: 185 dead

Titans: 7 dead

Spravac Ships: 9 destroyed

Spravac Naval Servicemen: 365,173 dead

Spravac Imperial Soldiers: 3,634,106 dead

Incubi: 200

Spravac Auxiliary Soldiers: 185,288 dead

Spravac War Beasts: 5,691 dead

# Aftermath:

The Liberation of Grace was seen as one of the greatest victories of the entire Delta War for the Ures Empire and the allies. With the spravac kicked off of the planet, the Ures forces were able to utilize its still plentiful food supplies to supply her armies, as famine and malnutrition was beginning to run rampant throughout the empire due to the implementation of total war tactics in order to combat the relentless spravac.

Despite the liberation of the planet, it was devastated by the war, with nearly 65% of its cities and towns destroyed and their respective civilian populations murdered in unspeakable ways. The pillaging of Grace’s cities severely impacted not only the local economies, but the economy of the empire as a whole, as Grace’s place as a military and economic powerhouse before the war was rendered nonexistent by the spravac’s brutalization of the planet.

Hundreds of millions more civilians were killed due to famine and disease, which was spread by the spravac wherever they went, raising the death toll to much higher when added to the civilians killed by direct combat. Additionally, many parts of the planet still had small pockets of spravac resistance, who continue to harass isolated Uresian settlements in the present day, unaware that the war had ended until only recently.

Following the war, the zyyntoreans made concerted efforts to rebuild the planet, sending workers and soldiers to help rebuild the cities. In addition to building a political and social bond by helping rebuild, the zyyntoreans also spread their religion, causing about 35% of Grace’s current population to eventually become Zyyntorist.

In regards to the invasion, the Battle of Grace has become a symbol within Ures society as a symbol of resistance and strength, as well as a reminder of the evils of the Spravac Empire and as a warning that they are to never be forgiven or trusted. Didact Vólóm is especially infamous on the world, even after his confirmed death his name holds considerable weight, and his trademark killing of Titans persists within the ranks of the Titan forces, who regard him with a begrudging respect as one of the few individuals that they could not kill no matter what they did.

Even to this day, many of Grace’s major cities have not been rebuilt, and there are still hundreds of spravac infested ruins throughout the planet, especially within the Lancaster and Suffolkshire Region, which still have not reached their pre-war populations or fully recovered economically or infrastructurally.

In response to the many spravac nomads that now roam the planet, Ures has acted by secretly dealing with the tribes, offering them food and living space in exchange for leaving their cities and towns alone. Many of these tribes have obliged, satisfied with killing each other instead, but there are still cases where rogue bands of raiders still periodically attack undefended settlements. To counteract this, the ULMG was legitimized as the Grace Defense Force, a volunteer paramilitary militia that acts as the first line of defense during invasions, armed with both Uresian and zyyntorean weapons.