Rake watched as four of the other gunships were torn from the sky as they entered the atmosphere, heavy fire from the outer lines of the colony darkened the sky.

Behind them the heavy carriers were on the descent as well. Each of them carried two hundred soldiers at the least. By the time the reached the surface thousands were already dead, wrecks were falling from the heavens and fires burned in the forests around them.

THe howling of engines and the heavy fire of the anti air cannons drowned out all other sounds. Rake saw to his surprise hundreds of soldiers already storming against the automated defenses. The turrets cut the soldiers down by the dozen before they got into range for the thermite bolts to hit their targets.

Rachel was leading their charge, panic clogged Rake’s throat as he felt the heavy projectiles cut through the air to his sides slamming into bodies breaking armor platings and painting the air with mists of blood.

The first line of soldiers had reached distance and fired the bolts, three stuck the closest turret melting it within second, but not fast enough to save the soldiers that had fired them. Rake saw the head of the leader vanish as a tracer projectile exploded as it hit his helmet. The body just fell backwards arms flailing for seconds after the head had already gone, Rachel fired her first bolt clogging up the barrel of another turret, the next shot it fired ruptured it, Rake continued on to the side where another turret was still reaping havoc on the charging soldiers tearing them to pieces.

His shot struck the camera to its side melting it down and disabling the gun without destroying it. Rachel in turn pressed forward towards the circle Rake took for the entrance to the inner territory.

Everyone that passed the turret did the same, before Rake crossed through the opening he looked back, in the few minutes it had taken them to get past the first line enough of them had died to litter the way with corpses, it had to be hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers. Mint pushed him through the barrier, the forces pulling at him made moving forward difficult, the metal on his equipment began to heat as magnetic field induced heat.

In front of him he saw Rachel pushing through the other side taking cover behind a group of dead soldiers as she was greeted by a thunder of lasers. Ground evaporating as the defenders fired none stop at the Ercinee advancing through the gate.

Most soldiers passed through fired once or twice and then fell to the ground pierced by lances of light. Burnt holes in their faces or chests.

Then the onslaught stopped shortly, the defenders were reloading, or most of them anyway. Every Ercinee capable of walking rose to their feet and firing on the defenders, dozens more escaped the gate, among them Rake, followed by Mint.

Together they got to Rachel pulling her up from the ground and charging the trenches before them.

The two automated turrets inside were quickly struck by multiple bolts. Hundreds upon hundreds of Ercinee stormed the ranks of the colonials and got close enough to draw their blades.

Rake jumped between three soldiers, crushing one's chest with a kick while he fired a volley at another in front of him nearly splitting him in half. The last one raised his rifle but his finger slipped from the trigger, fear shone in his eyes as he watched Rake draw his blade.

The first stab went straight through the man's eye, he didn’t even react. Rake wondered why, his stab had been slow and clumsy any soldier would have been able to dodge yet the man had just frozen in fear.

Before he could further investigate this train of thoughts a shot struck his arm burning through the plate but only gracing his arm.

He threw himself to the ground dodging another salvo. Screams sounded, the fire of the Ercinee mass rifles drowning out most of the other noises. The dirt below him was slowly drenched with the blood of the dead, Rake got back up, looking at his rifle, still half a clip left.

He got up and fired the remaining bullets into a charging group of enemy soldiers. The men and women were torn apart the bullets passing through all of them and vanishing in a concrete wall behind them.

Rachel was on the ground, blood covering her hair, she was screaming orders at Mint and Nike, Rake crawled over to them.

“Mint take care of the second wave of soldiers, a group with heavy guns will be dropping in any second now, take one of the large railguns and lay waste to the fuckers.

Nike get those incendiary grenades into place burn their sight and make a tunnel for us to get ontop of those bunkers!

Once we are in the turrets can play with the dead! Rake! What the fuck are you doing crawling! Get up you sucker, where is Sarah? Hells you had one fucking job!”

To Rake’s relieve Sarah crawled past him, her face covered in dirt.

“He just saved my life you ungrateful bitch! Get your head back to leading before I stab you in ways you don't wanna be stabbed!” She nodded to Rake and he swore to never leave sight of the woman again.

Something Exploded further ahead and the a transmission was broadcasted on all frequencies.

“Gates are down!” A war cry rose of the throats of the surrounding soldiers as they rose from cover to attack.

Rake was about to follow their example as Rachel pulled him back down.

“Open channel!” What followed was a cacophony of screams and turret fire as the entire front was torn to pieces under the fire of the enemy.

Pieces of soldiers were thrown back into the trenches as the heavy turrets unloaded thousands of rounds into them.

Within a minute the assault was done, nothing remained but corpses and the screams of the, not yet, dead. Behind Rake the gate spit out ever growing numbers of soldiers, the stream didn’t stop and soon there was too little cover for them to remain hidden, out of desperation another assault was launched, Rachel firing smoke grenades into enemy ranks to blind at least the human soldiers.

Meter for meter the lines closed in on the concrete walls and the heavy turrets, after what seemed ages the least one of them was struck by a thermite bolt and melted down in front of them.

What followed was a massacre of the remaining Imperial soldiers as the Ercinee stormed the walls and turned the bunker into a sea of blood and gore.

Rake stopped for second on top of the wall, and looked towards where they were going, what he saw dampened his spirits.

Line after line the entire surrounding had been formed into a slaughter house, hundreds of turrets, thousands of soldiers and enough steel and concrete to make him wonder if the entire planet had been changed into a single defensive line.

Then he ducked down and turned to Sarah who was trying to stop the bleeding of a soldier that had been shot in the guts. Blood covered her hands as he got a bandage in place for the hooks to sink into flesh and close up the bleeding. The man didn’t scream, he only whimpered as he clutched his rifle closer to the chest.

The opening in front of them shone in blue light as a firefight bean inside. Rachel was at the side firing at a cluster of enemies stationed on the ring above them. Mint was nowhere to be seen and Nike had a new burn on his cheek where a projectile had missed him.

Rake positioned himself before Sarah, trying to cover her with his body and kept an eye out on any attackers.

A scream to his side sounded and Rake saw a group of maybe ten Imperial soldiers charging from behind their barricades firing as they ran towards them. He raised his rifle and pulled the trigger, all around him soldiers did the same. The charging enemies were torn to pieces before they had taken two steps, a mist of blood remaining in the air where they had stood after the blue fire had stopped.

Rake felt sure that these soldiers had little to no training or they would not have charged a superior enemy from behind safety.

Sarah pulled on his arm and Rake saw the man she had been trying to save was now blankly staring into the sky.

“Too many shrapnels, let's move up.” The two of them crawled forward until they reached Rachel and the others.

Mint appeared from behind them, carrying a large gun from a gunship, the smile on her face told Rake she had just waited for something like this.

“Got High explosives?” was the only thing Rachel asked, when the woman nodded the commander pointed into the bunker.

“Fry them and let's move on!” Mint took position changed something on the weapons screen and fired a salvo into the opening, the detonations shook the ground beneath Rake’s feet.

Screams died and a single person stumbled out from the building, the man was missing his right hand and had heavy burns on his face.

Rachel fired a single shot and took off half of the man’s head, the figure stumbled to the ground.

“Let's get a move one! We got a fucking war to win.” Rachel left two soldiers that had lost their squad to secure the bunker as they advanced towards the next line of turrets and soldiers.

At the end of the day they had take four lines of enemy defenses, bodies covered over five hundred meters from their current position to the gate, ever more soldiers were streaming into the colony.

In the last two hours along their numbers had quadrupled even with all the losses they were taking while advancing. Rake realised he was nearly out of bullets when he mechanically checked his gear as he had learned, over a thousand rounds, shot within… how many hours had this been?

“Okay get some sleep, thirteen hours of fighting is enough as long as we got enough soldiers to keep up the pressure.” Rachel sunk to the ground, wiping her face with a bit of cloth.

“Rake, take one of the sleeping pills now, they take a while before they knock you out and you will need your sleep.” Sarah pressed a small pill into his hand.

“Tomorrow will be another thirteen hours, sleep, trust me you will need your wits about you.” Rake just nodded, his mind felt numb, too many things had happened.

Just before he could take the pill an explosion shook the earth, screams sounded bodies hit the floor.

“Thirds!” A scream sounded the lone soldier looking over the edge was struck by something, his upper head evaporated in a mist of blood. Rake got his rifle and loaded his last clip, the line they had secured was torn apart by salvos of extremely accurate shots. Rake saw a soldier raise his head high enough for his helmet to be visible and a shot tearing through the steel seconds after.

“Fuck, get to cover these are not average soldiers! Rachel threw herself against the wall in front of her rifle raised as she watched the shadows creeping over the edge.

Then the firing stopped and a voice sounded through the silence.

“War has claimed this world! We fight for our god, you will die for him, may your craven god look upon this world and witness your deaths.” As an answer a full company of Ercinee soldiers charged forward, explosions shook the ground again, Rachel peaked over the edge firing at the enemy position as the charging soldiers were cut down before they managed to reach the edge of the trenches.

“Fucking bastards! That's why you keep a cool head! Ignore their mockery!” Rachel yelled as she yanked one of the soldiers back down that tried to charge past her.

“He had to audacity to insult the Allfather! He must pay in blood for the blasphemy!” Rachel’s fist struck the man’s face and the limp body fell backwards into the deeper parts of the trenches.

“Fucking idiots.”

The screams and fire lasted through the night, as wave after wave of soldiers charged the mocking Thirds.”

Rake took the pill Sarah had given him and fell asleep as the sun crept over the horizon again. The last thing he saw was a blood red sky and heard screaming soldiers, if there was a hell this would be the closest he thought possible.