Palleton gave Desaria his most stolid look, but the Imperial saw through the façade with ease. There passed between them a silent understanding. Palleton had done what he could to end the bloodshed, and Desaria was only following his own orders for the betterment of his home, the Empire. At that moment, they ceased to be enemies.


“ Captain, find this man some quarters. See to treatment of all wounded and prisoners.”


Vorran nodded and escorted the Anzati commander from the bridge.


“ Lieutenant,” he said, looking down at the CommScan officer. “ Send word to the Praetorian. She is to move into low orbit and act as fire-support for the ground assault. Captain Ramis is to launch his fighter screen as well to protect the transports. Also – signal General Artemis that he may begin.”


The order acknowledged, a flurry of energy shot from the Autarch to the other ships, dispatching commands and pre-assigned launch confirmations. One tight beam transmission was sent via a deployed probot behind the farthest world in the system. One ship appeared from the darkness, then another, then another. Large Incom Y-25 Landing Ships moved forward, dozens of them popping up on scanners throughout the fleet. The ferried the men and equipment of the Tenth Army. To be sure the troops in the bellies of the Destroyers were enough to occupy a small planet, but civilized resistance demanded a larger scale than the thirty-thousand men of the deployed Guard units could provide.


The transports moved forward, odd little creatures seeming to be studied by the TIE Defenders that escorted them. Oblong boxes with a command and drive section at the very aft, long wings almost the length of the craft sweeping forward from the rear. While not stylish, they were effective- -in war that was what counted.


Down the hundred-meter ships descended, passing the Victory-class Star Destroyer that would aide them in their conquest. When they got closer to the ground, through the tumultuous atmosphere, commanders and gunners could look up and see its wedge shaped form dwarfing the chain of hills it sat over.


One ship made a rough landing in a large succession of dry fields surrounding the Anzati capital city, ramps then extending from its hull. Men clamoured down and quickly let their armored tunics meet the dirt. The men pushed out further and further until a small defensive perimeter had been created. It was then that pressurized gas hissed from the transport’s aft quarter, the locks releasing on a large loading ramp allowing it to fall to the ground. Moment later, armored repulsor tanks and tracked armored personnel carriers moved out and formed up.


More transports landed, mimicking the procedure for all to see. General Xaxil watched through macrobinoculars, his breathing slow and deep. He knew he did not stand a chance. But alas, he would make a symbolic gesture for the good of Anzat.


“ Fire.”


Behind his command post in the outskirts of the city’s suburbs, a battery of short range projectile cannon opened fire, a dozen quick-firing guns belching fire and smoke into the graying sky. Their shells arced through the air then slammed down into the Imperial assembly area. Dust and dirt shot upwards, a visible signal of where the projectile collided with the earth. Shrapnel coursed out from the hellish inferno shredding man and thin-skinned vehicle alike. The rest of the shells slammed home, one breaking the odds and scoring a direct hit on a Mark V Panther repulsor tank. Its turret leapt from the frame whence it had been attached and smashed a small speeder bike queuing up next to it.


The commanders of the transports, perched high on their vessels could see the two kilometers to the city’s environs and relayed the location of the firing plumes to the wedge-shaped titan above. Knowledge in hand, the Imperial Destroyer fired a volley from one of its forward turbolaser batteries. The neon bursts of energy burned the air around them, the rank smell of ozone wafting down to the new advancing infantry. The first volley fell long, the second short. The third fell true into the heart of the Anzati Artillery battery and set the munitions truck aflame. Several of the white-painted howitzers exploded brilliantly while others were simply shrouded in flame, metal surviving where the fleshen gunners could not.


The 25th Imperial Panzergrenadier Division advanced into Anzat under the cover of its protector, smashing all that dared stand in its way.

The Anzati capital city sat astride a broad river running through the Plains of Marhab from the far-off but expansive Terios Mountain Chain. Rising from the city’s center was the Spire of Parliament, a large monolith dwarfing the various skyrises around it. A beautiful site it usually was to behold. Usually.


Now, however, the Spire was itself dwarfed but tall plumes of black and grey smoke reaching from the nether regions up into the heavens. Fires spread faster than they could be contained but whatever rudimentary means were available – afterall, the Anzati fire brigades were not combat personnel and as long as the battle was raging not one piece of fire-fighting apparatus was dispatched.


The leading elements of the 25th Imperial Panzergrenadier Division advanced through the rubble strewn streets of the capital, opposed only by random pockets of militia that chose to fight when their last escape routes were cut off. Those were quickly disposed of by roving Scimitar Assault Bomber flights, picking off dug in blaster nests and mortar pits before the Army could come under fire.


Approaching the government complex, the real resistance commenced as the regular troops defending the center entrenched themselves admirably. Firing from loopholes in the buildings’ sides, they cut down many of the grenadiers moving from one safe spot to another. Flame belched from repulsortanks’ guns in kind, shattering fragile civilian buildings into shrouds of debris and dust. The Anzati infantry proved a stubborn foe, however, and it was quickly decided after an abortive attempt to force a breech that casualties would be unacceptably high. The order came from divisional commander to withdraw.


Reluctantly, the panzergrenadiers complied, firing as they marched and drove backwards out of the complex defenders’ range. Then the few rays of light piercing the growing clouds of smoke were cut off from the source by a wedge-shaped durasteel mountain bristling with guns. A salvo of proton warheads shot out from the port gunwales, fifty in all.


The Spire of Parliament crumbled to the ground.


- -


“ Is there anything else, Admiral?”


Fleet Admiral Telan Desaria nodded solemn, then stood. The assemblage of staff officers around him did as well, a flurry of trouser stripes visible – the Guard with white, the General Staff with red. Desaria himself was in dress uniform, his white tunic and breaches standing out amid the Army khaki and Navy olive. Upon his chest were the decorations earned from a career of war, on his shoulders epaulettes and cords running from board to button. Looking across the table, he accepted a proffered tablet from the standing Anzati delegate – Commodore Palleton.


“ War came to the Anzati System not of its own choosing but through the designs of others. It fought valiantly but could not hope to defend successfully against the Empire. There is no dishonour in a dignified surrender. Today the guns fall silent and were are honoured to call these men our brothers.”


Holos flashed as the press recorded the triumphant speech of the Imperial Guard commander and the ceremony that followed. No one among them knew, including the Admiral himself, what had begun in that system on the border with another empire of blackened beasts….