Chapter 1

Captain Richard Hullman looked out across the vast smouldering ruins of the city of Valandra, capital city of the planet Stix. It was a wasteland now, the bright sun shone down but could not fully pierce the thick black and grey smoke that rose from it's many craters. For at least a month the Federation had been fighting the Imperium for control of this strategically useless planet. The whole campaign for both sides had been an utter waste of time. Nothing would be gained or lost other than men and equipment no matter the outcome. Despite this fact, Valandra was almost in the grip of the Federation now after a battle that had lasted for a day and a night. A battle that had claimed the lives of over 10,000 soldiers both sides and 40,000 civilians. The outcome was that Imperial soldiers had fallen back to the centre of the now broken city and Federation troops being sent in, Captain Hullman and his 100 strong, company were among these. Now all they had to do was to annihilate the Imperial positions in the city centre, which had been turned into a killing field of broken buildings and wrecked tanks.

The 30 year old Captain was a man of average height, cleanly shaven and with numerous little scars dotted round his face. Black hair just longer than the standard military hair cut was covered by his dark blue helmet. He was well built like all the others in the military but his experience of fighting in every form gave him the upper hand in nearly every fight. He wore the uniform of a standard Federation trooper which was very dark blue coloured combat clothing underneath, flak jacket, kneepads, helmet and belt with various things attached the most notable was a non-standard canteen filled with alcohol. At that moment Hullman was sitting on top of an upturned, burnt out lorry looking over the surrounding area. Smoke rose from several spots and the distant murmur of gunfire could be heard. He checked his weapon, the x18 pulse rifle, which fired old fashioned, large bullets at accelerated speeds. This was unlike the Imperial railgun which fired a laser out and at the target, both types of weapons were similar in attributes other than the railgun could be fired in space. He pulled out the 45 round magazine and checked it before slotting it back into place. In the distance an explosion sent a car hurtling up into the air which then came crashing back down, the Captain just watched and sighed heavily, he was tired

A young trooper came running up the base of the lorry and shouted up in a high, un-experienced voice

"Sir, command is on the line for you"