Prologue

Narrator: We make war so that we may live in peace.


Unknown Voice: Please, begin with your name, rank, serial number, and the date.

Lt. Gen. Etiennenr: Etiennenr, Jean-Luc, Lieutenant General, Serial number: 54768475JE… March 17th, 7th year of the 3rd Era of the Hyperiums Protectorate.

Unknown voice: Thank you. Please tell us why the 12th legion invaded the Azterks and the events leading directly up to the invasion, and please do not use foul language.

Lt. Gen. Etiennenr: It began in 2nd year of this Era. Human intelligence was getting numerous reports of lost contact with our Xillor allies on many different planets, 15 up to this point, in sector six-niner Delta. At the same time, the Azzies – Sorry, the Azterks, ceased all communications with the 12th Legion, the section of Humanity responsible for keeping the peace in sector six-niner Delta, I do not know if they ceased communications with all other Humans in the galaxy at this time. I had been ordered to take my division-

Unknown Voice: How many soldiers were in this division?

Lt. Gen. Etiennenr: Most divisions have around 15,000, but my division had nearer to 20,000.

Unknown Voice: Thank you, please carry on.

Lt. Gen. Etiennenr: Anyways, I had been orders to take my division to Terra Serpenti, the first planet to have lost contact with the 12th Legion. I loaded my division into the Legion's 15th fleet, which was composed of nearly 26,000 Cruisers, 8,200 Destroyers, 13,000 bombers, which doubled as troop transports, and just under 100,000 single ship fighters. The trip took approximately 40 hours, upon arriving there was no Xillor Static Defense, but we came upon a Task Group of exactly 100 Azterk destroyers. Upon arriving they opened fire upon us immediately, destroying a troop transport, thankfully an empty one. Our fleet proceeded to engage them, destroying all but one in the first salvo. The remaining destroyer jumped out of the system, we later found out to get reinforcements. The fleet dropped off my division and went into a holding pattern above the planet. What we found was a ghastly sight. The Azterks had enslaved the local populace, nearly 40,000M civilians; they had wiped out the resistance, a few battalions of Xillor soldiers. Their prisoners, the civilians, were kept in labour camps around the planet; they were executed by the hundreds, every day. They were tortured, for seemingly no reason. We had no idea what the Azterks were doing here, but the arrival of a fleet three times the size of ours hinted at something, something we would regret finding out about later. I sent 75% of my division, 15,000 soldiers, to re-capture the capital city, and the rest to secure the outlying areas and capture the missile bunkers. One of the most courageous actions in the beginning was a platoon being lead by a First Sergeant, his CO had been wounded and evac'd out shortly after we landed. They held a hill against a regiment of Azterk soldiers while the rest of their Company went to secure another missile bunker. The Platoon then withdrew to secure the missile bunker, but due to a communications failure caused by Azterk spies, went to the wrong one, they did capture the missile bunker which was held by a company of Azterks. Around this time, nearly three days after we arrived in system, Azterk reinforcements arrived, which outnumbered the Legion's 15th feet by almost 3:1, after decimating half of our fleet, they retreated.

Unknown Voice: Who retreated?

Lt. Gen. Etiennenr: Oh sorry, the Legion's 15th fleet retreated. This meant my division was stranded, which made securing the bunkers even more important. The fleet sent one last message before they left: "We won't leave you behind". That kept our morale up anyways. The capital city was secured so I sent half my division to help secure the rest of the missile bunkers surrounding the capital city, which made 15,000 men securing bunkers, and 3,000 defending the city. I lost two battalions taking the city; the Azterk's detonated a fission weapon. The fighting on the outskirts of the city was brutal. Every prisoner the Azterks would take they would take to prisoner of war camps, and torture, whether for fun, or otherwise. If there's more you want to know about the PoW camps, speak with Private Seabs, he knows more than anyone else. When I learned what they were doing to prisoners, I tasked a battalion to find and liberate as many of the camps as possible. The Azterk fleet moved into ELO, Extreme Low Orbit, around the planet and began bombarding the planet, they didn't seem to care about their own forces on the ground. By this time we had taken about half of the missile bunkers and so I ordered the bunkers to begin firing on the ships. A couple hours later, the Azterk fleet retreated into space, we had destroyed a few hundred ships, and lost 2 battalions. At this time my division was down to 16,000 Soldiers, with nearly every soldier wounded in some way, whether physical or emotional.

Unknown Voice: Thank you, that will be all for now. Don't go far General.