The Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth · the Mogenda Star Region · System GT-78 · the Ninth Planet.
At this moment, in this planet's near-planetary orbit were docked a great many T2 interstellar warships, and in the more distant starry space there were, even, several T3 interstellar warships besides.
Apart from these, one could see, all around this planet, a great many battered, broken interstellar warships, along with the traces of fighting that had taken place.
And upon this planet, all the more, was a scene of living souls trampled into the mire.
The sole space elevator burned like a great blazing tree, ablaze with a roaring fire.
This wasn't lit by the attackers, but by the resisters upon this planet.
Were this space elevator not lit ablaze, then the interstellar soldiers, the combat weapons, and the resources aboard those fleets could be put down onto this planet's surface all the faster.
And so, at the time of ordering all the interstellar warships to flee, the rebel army's leader-commander had, at the very first moment, handed down the order to burn the space elevator.
And looking again toward this planet's surface — its few cities had already fallen to become battlefields; indeed, in some places one could even see the wreckage of crashed interstellar warships.
Upon these interstellar-warship wrecks, the great majority bore, engraved, a blood-red Warhammer crest.
As everyone knew, the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's fleet crest was golden.
And this blood-red crest — that stood for the rebel-army fleet!
Within the cities, some of the rebel army's ground troops were still resisting without cease; unable to fight the interstellar warships over their heads, they used the weapons in their own hands to assail those ground troops that came landing.
Beneath the ruins-wreckage of an observatory hid a white-furred beast-folk dressed in military uniform, one eye wearing an eyepatch.
"Reporting, General — the latest news: the combat personnel of ground-combat unit No. 373 have all given their lives." A beast-folk officer, likewise white-furred, reported to the general before him.
The white-furred beast-folk lowered the telescope in his hand; before him was a crack through which the outside could be seen.
Though he had here some radar equipment, radar equipment's detection signals might well expose their position.
At present he'd only open the necessary low-frequency comm channels, to link up the combat units in the various places.
The white-furred general silently tapped his own handheld terminal, but the projected image came flickering and breaking.
He gave the handheld terminal a few hard slaps with his left hand, and only then did the projected image restore to normal — it was a combat-squad roster.
A full 1,000 combat units, but up to now two-thirds of them had already gone gray, which meant that these combat squads had either all fallen in battle, or had lost contact, their whereabouts unknown.
Each combat unit was about 1,000 people, scattered across the various parts of this planet.
The overwhelming majority of them were warriors of the White Tiger tribe; and apart from these, within the several shelters beneath this planet's surface, there were, besides, tens of millions of the White Tiger tribe's old and weak, women and children.
And as for his own identity — he was, precisely, the chieftain of the White Tiger tribe, one of the rebel army's leaders: General Ted.
General Ted drew a deep breath, and drew his finger across that ground-unit numbered 373; its roster thereupon turned black.
"This is already the third unit fallen in battle today." General Ted heaved a long sigh, looking at those T1 interstellar warships hovering in the air beyond the crack.
These T1 interstellar warships could fly at will within the planet; the moment their ground troops discovered the rebel army's positions, they'd relay the coordinates to these T1 interstellar warships.
These T1 interstellar warships would thereupon launch an attack, using those terrifying ship-cannons to directly blast to bits the tiny, insignificant lives upon the ground.
One month.
A full month's time.
General Ted, leading his warriors, had waged this utterly hopeless battle upon this planet.
He knew clearly: this battle held no hope, would have no chance of victory, would have no reinforcements.
Having lost their interstellar warships, they would remain forever upon this planet.
The White Tiger tribe would utterly lose its shadow-and-trace within the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth.
"At least Midai'er got out alive; the fire-seed of our White Tiger clan is left," General Ted said in self-consolation.
"Reporting, General — our astronomical deep-space telescope has discovered a… a star gate!" Suddenly, a clerical beast-folk officer came running in, in a great rush.
"A star gate? Were you, when we came under attack earlier, blasted silly by an explosion? How would there be a star gate here," General Ted said.
"Truly! It really is a star gate; a moment ago, when I was using the telescope to check the situation of outer space, I suddenly found a glowing point far to the rear of the Warhammer fleet — and after I magnified it, I discovered there's a strange star gate!" that beast-folk officer said, waving his hands and stamping his feet.
General Ted knit his brows slightly, still unwilling to believe it.
"Come over and see for yourself; I swear it on my life — there truly is a star gate!" the beast-folk officer pointed at the neighboring telescope-operation room, and said in his anxiety.
General Ted, left with no choice, could only walk over.
At this point, a beast-folk soldier before the telescope's image-capture instrument exclaimed in shock, "There are starships! Starships have come out of that star gate!"
A star gate?
And starships besides?
It couldn't be that these soldiers of his had, on account of this month of fighting, had their minds break down?
This doubt rose in General Ted's heart, but when his gaze came to rest upon that display screen, he was dumbfounded.
It was a crystal screen a full three meters in both length and breadth; because this was a comparatively old and outdated astronomical station, it was, besides, fitted with this sort of behind-the-times instrument.
But it was, precisely, on account of this sort of behind-the-times equipment that there was no need to worry the enemy would scan it out — and so he'd permitted his soldiers to use it here.
And at this moment, in the middle of this crystal screen, one could see a glowing "star gate." Though he wasn't quite certain, when he saw that form, the first thing this once-fleet-commander thought of was "star gate." And at this point, several interstellar warships crossed through this "star gate" and appeared!
This the more verified General Ted's thought.
This was a star gate!
"I remember there's no star gate here? Could it be some new technology of Warhammer's? One that can, within a month, build up a star gate?" General Ted was puzzled.
He observed carefully, but discovered that upon the hulls of those interstellar warships that had appeared, there was no Warhammer fleet-crest — still less any tribal crest of any single tribe.
It was as though, so as to hide their identity, these interstellar warships bore no crest whatsoever.
And during this while, more and more interstellar warships welled forth!
10…
30…
100…
200…
These interstellar warships appeared one after another in the bare space of a few dozen seconds, and at swift speed spread out into a battle formation — quite enough to show that this was a well-trained interstellar fleet.
But just where, after all, had such a fleet come from?
Hiss, hiss, hiss.
It was just at this point that, upon the handheld terminals of every beast-folk soldier present, there rang out a sound; at the outset it was somewhat blurred and unclear, but once it was magnified, one could hear clearly that it was a single utterance.
It was a stretch of speech broadcast to this planet, played out on the public screen.
"Warriors of the White Tiger clan! I — Charlotte — have returned!"