The skies above Raluven-4 were set ablaze.
From the void beyond the orbit, Admiral Kia's invasion fleet descended like a storm of black spears. Millions of transport vessels, guided by AI war-hives and piloted by the hardened operatives of the Shadowscourge, poured through the planet's atmosphere. The sky fractured into fire as drop-pods screamed toward the crust, followed by gunships and shock-troopers in coordinated waves.
Raluven-4 had once been a tranquil world, a border sentinel world cradled in ancient Zelith forestry and crystalline mountain chains. But now, its fate burned under Mahasimu fire.
Admiral Kia stood aboard her command vessel The Unfading, eyes narrowed as her battle maps shifted with live-feed updates. "Begin full planetary encirclement," she ordered, her voice a cold razor. "No quadrant escapes our purge."
The Shadowscourge legions hit the ground with thunderous precision. Black-armored squads moved like an executioner's tide, their energy rifles singing and shadow-laced blades cleaving through the defensive lines.
Yet the Thalor had not been idle.
The Thalor Commander's Last Stand
High Commander Sorell Vantos, a veteran of a hundred border skirmishes, had expected this moment. And he had prepared well.
Utilizing the jagged terrain of Raluven's outer ridgelines and the dense forest systems of the Selkara Vale, he had split his forces into layered kill-zones. Artillery silos were buried under ancient growth, while guerrilla detachments flanked Mahasimu advance columns with deadly efficiency. Even as orbital bombardments cratered entire sectors, the Thalor remained undeterred.
"We are not ready to win," Vantos had told his lieutenants. "We are ready to survive."
And survive they did, for nearly two cycles. Shadowscourge squads vanished in the night. Drop-sites were mined with energy traps. Even Thal'Karn lost several of their number in ambushes, enraging their handlers.
But no tide can be stemmed forever.
When Kia personally deployed Echelon Wrathbound—an elite Shadowscourge spearhead with twin Thal'Karn shadow-beasts leading the charge—the Thalor positions began to fall like dominos.
Vantos, bleeding from a glancing bolt wound, watched as his third stronghold collapsed under orbital fire and assault-beast blitzing. His thoughts burned with failure, but he knew what must be done. He initiated the last protocol: Code Larethin, the evacuation of what few command survivors remained.
Covered by a suicidal delay charge from his second-in-command, Vantos escaped via a subterranean glider through the mountain veins.
He did not look back.
The Aftermath: Flame and Silence
By the time the planet fell silent, Raluven-4 was no longer a forested jewel. The jungles were blackened. The mountains cratered. Cities once filled with culture had become smoldering bones of broken towers.
Admiral Kia strode across the scorched surface, her cloak trailing behind her like a funeral veil. Thal'Karn prowled the rubble, sniffing for survivors. Shadowscourge patrols swept across the remains, rounding up resistance fighters, elders, and civilians.
She issued a single command: "No mercy. No myths."
That night, she stood before a burning grove where a Thalor shrine once stood, watching flames crackle over ancient stone.
"Vantos…" she whispered, "you made me bleed. I won't forget that."
Post-Battle Operations
Search drones scattered. Thal'Karn howled through ruined halls. Whisper-beacons broadcast frequencies to lure any straggling survivors into capture zones. She had ordered the bodies of Zelith warriors to be catalogued and burned—their armor smelted into slag and their weapons buried in ceremonial dishonor.
But even amid total victory, Kia remained unsettled. One had escaped.
High Commander Vantos' Thoughts – In Hiding
Far beneath the surface in an abandoned Zelith tunnel network, Commander Vantos stared at a flickering map, his breath ragged.
"They came prepared for conquest… but not for ghosts," he muttered, pressing a finger to an encoded beacon. "We'll make them pay."
In the quiet of ancient stone, he lit a memorial stone for every soul lost at Raluven-4… and prepared for war.