As the flare of the Jump field faded around the Esrator, the humans and Protoss gathered on the bridge knew instantly they were in the midst of a terriffic struggle. Starships were scattered across the entire inner system, grappling and blasting at each other, and the spaces between the planets were strewn with wreckage.
On the planet itself, four hundred thousand miles away, a full-scale ground war was going on. Nearly a hundred Iylvir troop transports were landed in various places, two major cities were in blasted radioactive ruins, the planet's two Deep Meson sites were blasted craters, and the capital city of Drulsan was clearly occupied after heavy fighting.
The confusion was such that it took them a few moments to sort out which ships were fighting which. Gradually, the pattern emerged; the squadron of 10,000-ton cruisers that had originally been part of the Rhagosus interdiction force were being harried by a much larger number of considerably smaller vessels - mostly thousand-ton SDBs - belonging to the Gilussan Systems Defence. The defending ships were no match for the cruisers individually, but their numbers were telling, and some of the cruisers were damaged. In the end, though, it was clear that the defending ships' heroic efforts were doomed.
The arrival of the Protoss warship changed this in an instant. The close-knit telepathic web that connected the crew of the Esrator crackled as Aldaris snapped out orders. Dazzling lances of energy blasted outwards from the ship, impaling cruisers in all directions. Directing Tamara to open a communications channel to the SDB commander, Lt Stalker hailed him and ordered him to break off and return to the mainworld to take out the troop landers on the surface.
The battle in space was short and sharp. Within an hour, the Esrator was alone in the skies but for the shattered fragments of blasted ships. In control of the orbits, the mighty ship moved in on the planet itself.
Down on the surface, the two regiments of Ultramarines were well entrenched as they awaited the return of the orbital support they were now not going to get. One unit had landed on the island of Volinkel, captured the capital of Drulsan after heavy fighting and were now bogged down in a gruelling battle with a mismatched body comprising the few surviving Imperial Army troops and a hastily-patched together militia cobbled together by a retired general who'd been in the right place at the right time, unable to reach the city of Meyder.
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On the northern continent of Trudaril, the second Ultramarine regiment had landed and secured the two cities of Wurniden and Vrober without much trouble. Without orbital support, however, they were unable to move on, and so they were effectively stranded.
Entering high orbit, the Esrator - supplied with accurate forward observation by General Samson - blasted the Ultramarine force, damaging them so badly that the militia were able to mop up the remnants without difficulty.
Jacques fired up the encryption computer, and he and Uriah broadcast a message on the Conspiracy's wavelength, addressing the commander of the ground force, and calling on him to surrender. They repeated this once every few minutes, and after half an hour or so a voice came through responding.
Every hair on Uriah's neck stood up. He recognized the voice instantly. Colonel Victor Urssain... the officer responsible for his demotion and wounding. He greeted his nemesis; Urssain taunted him, showing no remorse and considerable scorn.
Though Jacques had tried to bluff that there was a whole fleet of Protoss vessels still cloaked, the arrogant and confident Urssain was having none of it. "We can see you, pathetic little Protoss," he sneered. They pointed out to him that his air support and interface transport were gone; Urssain suggested they go away or he'd start slaughtering civilians.
Then, out of the blue, Jacques offered a single combat to Urssain. The colonel was taken aback for a moment, but then seemed to be leaning towards the idea. Jacques elaborated, describing procedures for a meeting on a spaceship midway between the planet and the Esrator.
As he talked, Tamara, sitting at the console next to him, suddenly grinned and held up a thumb. Data flowed from her computer into the Esrator's, pinpointing a detailed location for the ship's systems. Glancing at Aldaris, Jacques changed subjects and said one word.
"Fire."
For a fraction of a second - was it his embryonic psionic powers? - the Marine felt sure that Aldaris' brave warrior spirit was just a touch regretful that the duel would not take place. Then his long alien finger tapped the control.
A mighty lance of dazzling light connected the Esrator's primary beam weapon to the old Gilussan Imperial Palace in the centre of Drulsan, where Urssain had set up his headquarters. In a mighty explosion of melted, twisted rubble and flying debris, a third of the palace disappeared altogether. The radio communication cut off abruptly.
The Ultramarines occupying Vrober, seeing such power levied against them, surrendered, but the leaders of the force occupying Wurniden were made of sterner stuff, and the watchers in orbit could soon see the last body of resisting Ultramarines scattering into the forest outside the city. The SDBs of System Defence swooped in for the kill, and reaped a terrible harvest, massacring most of the soldiers as they sought for cover.
Uriah radioed to General Samson the information that the Ultramarines would start dying off after seven days - as long as all the portable Creep generators were destroyed. Samson, full of gratitude, instructed his troops accordingly.
Launching the Brazos from the warship's hold, the Marines flew towards the remains of the capital, accompanied by five shuttles loaded with Protoss warriors. Landing, they met General Samson, a feisty old buffer with tremendous experience to call on. He bought them all a beer and asked for their story. They didn't tell him everything, but enough that he knew what was happening. He was invited to join the meeting when Aldaris held a council of war.
The Protoss Commander had decided that his priority was to be sure that all the Zerg-tainted creatures on Gilussor, and especially the Creep and its' spores, were destoryed as soon as possible. For that end, the Esrator would remain while its' troops scoured the surface for Ultramarines and the portable Creep colonies they'd brought.
However, there remained a piece of unfinished business; the second breeding facility and barracks, on Bifter. As before, Aldaris pointed out, this was a human-built base, and the best way to attack that was with humans. His suggestion was that the Brazos, with its' combined human crew plus Artanis of the Templar, press on to Bifter and deal with the base. Stalker, continuing the Free Company approach he'd been using so far, put this to the Marines and INSec troops, and they agreed.
Now they were finally on a friendly world with reasonable technology, the Marines took advantage of the opportunity to do some resupplying. They stocked up on ammunition, and managed to obtain the grav modules for their combat armour that they'd so sorely missed earlier in the campaign. Jacques collected a couple of civilian grav belts with the intention of building a grav sled for his beloved autocannon.
Many of the mysterious "bolt rifles" issued to the Ultramarines had been captured, and Uriah was keen to experiment with one. Drawing a bead on a nearby wrecked ground car, he braced himself and fired. There was a bright flash and a loud blast, and the projectile ripped through the car - and the building behind - without much apparent effort. A distant explosion announced its' final impact. Everyone's armour computers suddenly started announcing the presence of increased levels of hard radiation, fuelling suspicions that the SLAMM ammuntion was antimatter based.
Uriah, however, knew none of this till later. He was flat on his back, battledress notwithstanding, knocked completely cold by the savage recoil. As he'd suspected, nothing human could use one of these in combat!
