The Phoenix Transorbital Dropship tumbled and tossed as it soared through the mesosphere, the thin air doing nothing to slow the craft down as its engines went full burn. Surrounded by a slew of escort craft that surrounded it in a tightly-locked formation, it flew through a cloud of thick grey smog that blinded its pilots to all but what their radars could show them.

"Attack run commencing in T-minus ten minutes. All crew prepare for drop."

Gripping the hull's interior as he stood behind the Phoenix's cockpit, Marcus Winter look a deep breath. Below him, he saw the smog clear up as they descended through the atmosphere, and the distant, silent scene of battle came into view. Explosions and beams of gunfire lit up the foetid swamps of the planet below, plumes of fire and smoke blasting up from the earth as the missiles and plasma bolts fell like rain.

All of it surrounding the walls of a vast urban citadel that weathered the battle like a mountain weathers a storm; indomitable.

The city was Kenostros, capital of the Sirthon Republic. It was the 17th of November, Earth time. 6th of Sunsmonth, Horus time. Both of the year 2511. The final battle of the Sirthon War.

"Major, incoming message from Marshal Idriah" said the Phoenix's pilot.

"Patch it through" a voice replied. But it wasn't Marcus' voice. Instead the Horusan turned right to see a tall man in Wyvern-pattern Powered Assault Armour, his skin dark and tanned as leather and his hair bleached blonde by sunlight, step up alongside him and look at the heads-up display on the cockpit windows.

A holographic screen flickered to life beside the pilot's head, a familiar gaze locking directly on the golden-haired Orbital Commando. "Kleber." Marshal Idriah said grimly, her face weathered by dust. "Are your troops prepared for this jump?"

"Ready and willing, Marshal." Major Aharon Kleber replied.

Idriah inclined her head. "We have one shot at this, Major. This is our chance to end the war once and for all. Take out the city's generators, and we'll be able to storm the place with everything we've got."

"Understood, ma'am." Kleber nodded. "We won't let you down."

Marshal Idriah sighed, the plates of her combat armour shifting as she moved. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Major. There's no extraction. No Plan B. I won't sugar-coat it; you're either coming back victorious or dead."

Kleber looked to Marcus, inclining him to speak on his behalf. And so Major Winter did. "Then we'll die for the Union, Marshal. It's what soldiers do; put nation and future above self and now."

Idriah smiled slightly, trying to feel hope in the face of despair. "Well said, Captain Winter." She then turned back to Major Kleber. "Just to warn you, Major, we've had reports coming in from the subspace fluctuation sensors aboard the Napoleon and the Hannibal, on the far side of Sirtha Prime."

Kleber raised an eyebrow. "What kind of reports, ma'am?"

"The ships have catalogued signs of potential wormhole-"

Suddenly, the holovideo went static, the Marshal's voice devolving into crackling white noise as her face vanished from sight. The display in its entirety then vanished, replaced with flashing red words 'Connection Lost' on the screen.

Alarm shot through Marcus' body as Kleber inquired "What happened, pilot?" next to him.

A human hand tapped frantically at the controls while a female voice replied. "Orders sir. If we keep receiving signals this close to Kenostros, the Sirthon will know we're up here."

Marcus grimaced. "And this whole drop goes right out the window." he said, folding his lips and glaring down at cityscape below. Next to him, Major Kleber, leader of the SOSC 5th Company did much the same before turning around.

"Looks like we're on our own from here on in, Winter." He said as he sat down.

The Horusan looked to his commander. "I guess so, sir."

"How's your injury holding up?" Kleber then asked, gesturing to Marcus' left shoulder.

Marcus rolled the joint easily, feeling relief as it moved without seizing up. "Right as rain and ready for action, Major" he replied with a measure of enthusiasm.

"Dutiful as always, Captain." The blonde man remarked. "By the way, that little speech you gave to the Marshal?" He held up his fingers in an 'ok' hand signal and clicked his tongue. "Pure poetry."

"Thank you, Major." Marcus replied, scooping up his helmet from the bench he had left it on.

Kleber turned to check his own helmet, but kept an eye on the Horusan. "I gotta say, I didn't think you were that patriotic..." he mentioned calmly as he got to his feet. "I guess I gauged you wrong."

Marcus responded with "Well, I am and I'm not... sir," adding the last part quickly. "I promised I'd fight so that others didn't have to."

Kleber glanced back at him, a smile on his face. "Good man," he said as he reached over to grab his SMG from nearby. "You'd fit right in on Bellona."

Marcus' face became quizzical. "Um... would I, sir?"

"Of course!" Kleber said, checking his gun sights. "You're a good soldier, son. One of the best I've known."

Marcus didn't smile. Now was not the time to feel proud. Instead he opened his mouth and said "With all due respect, sir, I thought Bellonans were all about the glory of war."

Major Kleber paused, looking at Marcus with a straight face. "Then I'd check your facts, Captain. I'm actually not the only Bellonan you know." He flicked his head at the cockpit screen. "Marshal Idriah is too."

Marcus was taken aback. "Really?"

"Yep." Major Kleber responded in a casual manner. "And like all of us, she fights to protect others." He paused to crick his neck. "We don't love war. In fact, quite the opposite. We love peace and freedom both, and we're willing to fight to maintain it."

Marcus nodded. "Understood sir. And my apologies."

To the Horusan's surprise, Kleber chuckled. "No probs, Captain. I'm not like Ferro. I won't gut you for not knowing something." He then tilted his head. "I gotta say though, I thought you'd get a better impression of my planet when you did your SOSC training there."

Marcus replied with. "Sorry, sir. I was too focused on passing my tests to sample much of the local atmosphere."

Kleber looked pensive for a moment, pressing a finger to his tanned chin before smiling confidently. "Well that won't do at all" he said floridly. "Tell you what; after this is all over, I'll take you on a tour of Bellona. My treat."

The blonde man chuckled, and Marcus snickered in response. "Sure thing, Major. And I'll take you to Horus afterwards. We'll climb Mount Ramses and look at the views."

The two men laughed, Kleber slapping his second-in-command on the shoulder before rising and striding off, talking with the platoon he'd be taking direct command of on this mission. As he did so, Marcus was left behind to gaze at the crowd of Orbital Commandos. As usual, an air of grim levity hung in the atmosphere, jokes made and returned as the moment of truth crept ever closer. It had even infected him and Kleber, both of them jesting about visiting worlds that they both knew lay in ruins after all that had happened.

Captain Winter looked to the floor. It wasn't what they were about to do that scared him. Three years of strikes left him undeterred by the act of falling from the sky to attack enemy territory. Neither was he afraid of dying. He'd come to terms with that long ago.

It was what would happen if they failed that gave him cause for concern.

The plan was simple; drop from the Phoenix, and their escort craft would release unmanned drones to aid in protecting the Commandos as they dove into Kenostros. Using the mechanical decoys as cover, the two platoons would then strike the generators for the city's anti-air defences, shutting them down. Intelligence reports indicated there were three generators, and the platoons would each target one separately, destroy it, and then rendezvous together at the third.

Weapons free. Any resistance was to be terminated.

But if they failed, the city would continue to hold out. Without air support. and against labyrinthine streets stocked with defensive barricades and infested by Sirthon troops, there was no chance of the League's forces storming in without many more humans, Nalyr, Kropen and Viruun being slaughtered.

Marcus couldn't let that happen. This damned war had seen enough death already.

In the cockpit window, he glimpsed his reflection. The deep grey plating of his armour blended in with the interior of the Phoenix Transorbital Dropship, while his birthmark still protruded like a brand on his chocolate-brown temple beneath his buzzcut black hairline. Bags sat under his eyes, and his dark skin was pale from sleeplessness, with sunken lines and thick wrinkles were engraved into his face.

The hardships of war had taken their toll upon him.

Turning around, he strode back towards the cargo hold of the ship. Inside, the entire company was readying up, donning their helmets and calibrating their weapons. As the Horusan approached his platoon, the familiar face of First Lieutenant Jennifer Sakong turned to greet him.

"You ready for this, Marcus?" she said as he approached.

Marcus looked at her. "As I'll ever be, Jenn. We're diving into the packmaw's den right now, and if we die, the siege goes on."

Jennifer nodded. "I know." She pressed a magazine into her gun and slapped it in tight. "But we'll die for the Union and for its people. Besides, if we fail, I'm sure Command will find another way."

"And what about us?" A gruff voice barked from behind Jennifer's back. She and Marcus both turned to see Company Master Sergeant L.J Ferro trudge up behind them, his beloved E-87 rifle clutched close to his person. "Fuck the Union. I ain't dyin' today."

Marcus looked down at the battle-ready Tartarusan. In his armour, Ferro was almost a ridiculous sight, like a toddler dressed up as a medieval knight. But he had been on enough missions with the stocky man to know that, at least in this case, appearances were very deceptive.

"You can't guarantee that, L.J." Jennifer replied, also looking down at him. "We're about to dropinto the most heavily fortified city in the Republic. Blaster cannons and heavymortars are gonna be around every corner." She half-smiled in a joking manner. "Hard to believe, I know, but there's every chance that even you could die down there."

Ferro glared up at the Earthborn. "Then you better build a fuckin' statue of me if I do die, 'cause I ain't dyin' forgotten, ya hear?"

Marcus chuckled. "Sure thing, Ferro. It'll be twenty feet tall, solid gold, with disco lights and diamond-studded knuckles."

The armoured midget lifted his chin. "Sounds good to me, Horus boy."

A round of laughter filled the room, only to dissipate as a loud mechanical grinding trembled through the dropship. Immediately, all three of them turned to see Major Kleber standing by the bay doors, his right hand pressing at the nearby control panel. The grinding was a warning; the doors would soon open.

Marcus looked to his two friends. "It's been an honour."

"Likewise." Jennifer replied. Beside her, Ferro just gave a nod.

Marcus nodded back, smiling at the two of them, even as he knew that in just a few minutes, they might never see each other again...