2 Chapter 2

Over the next few weeks the Terran Infantry would push the Pratarian forces back to their fortresses forcing them to take up a final defence, even with their final stand Terran Command expected the final resistance to take another ten years or so mostly due to their focus being elsewhere and not really paying much attention to this particular war, making the troops fighting on the ground wonder what the purpose of all this was.

Recovering enough to walk around without assistance Kane spent his time now more laid back away from the frontline having to wait for the next orders which would likely be to storm the one of the heavily fortified fortresses. Just the thought alone made many of the fresh troops fearful however for those who had been on the planet for even half as long as Kane something like that no longer fazed them. Kane strolled along the wasteland encampment as usual covered in mud and soaked through, the corpses of his comrades as well as enemies littered the camp with the survivors no longer caring and the fresh troops unable to stomach the mess left behind to even look at them. Kane approached the encampment of his Captain for another daily report of the frontline but as he got closer he was intercepted by two smartly dressed men in noble army attire, both wearing rebreather masks and in a robotic voice coming from the mask one of the men asked, "Kane Mathius?"

"Yes Sir?" he replied with slight confusion.

"Your services are required, should you accept you will be rewarded greatly by his Majesty." the man spoke extending a hand toward Kane.

Kane took the mans hand and shook it knowing that whatever the task was couldn't be worse than this hellhole, not that he had much of a choice since it seemed to be a request from the Emperor himself. This brought up the question of what the Emperor could possibly want from a mere Obscure noble cast aside by his family.

Following the two men a few yards from the encampment they reached a small shuttle and as Kane boarded he looked back at the waste feeling relief that he was finally leaving however an intense burning anger realising that he would not be able to avenge his comrades or even see the final outcome, for the past 22 years of his life he had spent fighting over this dirt planet and now he had the chance to leave.

Upon entering the shit Kane was met by 9 other familiar faces, men from other platoons and parts of the army that he had encountered, even if only recognising their faces, over the past two decades, two of them where even their before his arrival. 'What's this all about, discharge maybe?' Taking a seat in the one of the passenger seats alongside the group as the two nobles stood at the entrance of the shuttle, shutting the hanger door the men finally took of their masks revealing two well groomed handsome faces with their well kept slick back blonde heir without a speck of dirt to be found within.

"My name is Samuel Terra the seventh prince of the Emperor but you may all address me as Lord, I have gathered you all today to quickly end this damn war. Some of you may be wondering the importance of this war on such a backwater planet, well our objective has always been the people that the Pratarians have been defending however since the situation is considered highly sensitive we have been using the excuse of a planetary invasion."

One of the men raised their hand and after the Samuel paused for a moment he allowed the man to speak his mind, "I can only guess on the behalf of my comrades here but, considering your telling us all this the situation has changed somewhat?"

Smiling, Samuel spoke with a boasted in a loud manner "Of course!, Courtesy of the Emperor himself we are now being tasked with the immediate execution of these certain people and you all have been hand picked for this mission." The men all sighed in resignation now realising that they had not escaped death but instead had their sentences set in stone, explaining the mission Samuel and his bodyguard began to slowly notice the expressions of the men growing more and more dejected. "What? where's all that enthusiasm gone, you're going to be serving under the Emperor himself and this time you even get a reward more valuable than simple satisfaction of survival." Kane looked up remembering his earlier words and asked the question they were all now wondering, "What might our reward be Lord?"

"A special surprise I have prepared upon the success of the mission, as well as a large sum of credits."

All of the men coming from peasant families, the mere mention of wealth was enough to lift their moral greatly. Even for Kane he was more motivated than moments prior however he knew that it was all meaningless as long as he was stuck on the frontline.

"What about our deployment my Lord, I assume that we shall be pulled out?"

"But of course, I wont spoil the surprise but if all goes according to plan you shall all be off world in the next year."

After their discussion concluded the group exited the shuttle and returned to their individual camps, finally alone Samuel sat in the cockpit of the Shuttle and sighed before turning to his bodyguard beside him. "What do you think James, are they worthy of what I have planned?"

"Only Time will tell my Lord, however from what the scouts said then we're essentially sending those men to their deaths. Well not like we haven't been already."

"Hmm" rubbing his temple Samuel slouched back in the pilot seat in contemplation.

Over the next four months the Terran and Pratarian forces didn't engage in much large scale battles and instead engaged in small skirmishes near the surrounding villages, Kane and the group of men selected by the Prince would meet 3 times a week to discuss the weekly intel they would receive regarding fortress they would be tasked to infiltrate, they also used this time to get used to a few of the gifts provided to them by the Prince, a more advanced set of armour made to withstand the outdated firearms being used by the footmen of both sides as well as High Powered Automatic Rifles. Kane had learned the names of a few of the men he would be working with although the others weren't too keen sharing names seeing it as pointless. Two twins named Harvey and Frank, who had arrived on the planet for around 15 years as well as a short tubby looking man named Oliver who had arrived only five years earlier.

Together the group trained together in seclusion away from the main army and came up with a plan that would have the biggest chance of them keeping their lives, finally after months of training the group were called upon to meet at the designated vantage point. To even get their the group all had to leave the encampment in secret under the cover of night not alarming any of the night watch and venturing through the forest they eventually arrived at the rear of the fortress which had little to no security, upon reaching their destination they were greeted by three unfamiliar figures. The first, a young woman wearing the same armour they had been given to wear, was the most surprising since women usually weren't allowed to serve in the infantry as well as the men behind her who wore the same outfits with all three wearing a black cloak to match their armour making them blend in perfectly with the shadows they came from.

"I assume you lot are the rabble sent by my cousin, are you all ready?" the women said in a refined manner while looking up at the group of men.

The group looked at each other before flipping down their visors now ready for the moment they had trained all year for.