Sosavia was the starting point of this ground war, but by no means its end.
In the few short hours after the first nuclear bomb fell, more and more reports flooded into Rockefeller's and Anna's hands like a flurry of snow.
Those reports came from every corner of Millennium World: urgent pleas for aid from border outposts, emergency dispatches from planetary governors, and damage reports from orbital defense platforms.
Every report told the same story: the enemy had come. They were attacking, slaughtering, burning.
Anna stood on the bridge of the Herald of the Holy Word, with the Holographic Tactical Table before her displaying the battle across all of Millennium World in real time.
Points of light representing friendly and enemy forces crisscrossed, collided, and vanished across the tabletop, forming a complex, ever-changing panorama of war.
Her gaze swept rapidly between those lights as she processed vast amounts of information at astonishing speed, issuing a stream of orders all the while.
She planned the deployment of 1.75 million Space Marines, deciding which units should reinforce the front, which should hold the rear, and which should remain on standby as reserves.
At the same time, she restructured the defenses of the First Defense Perimeter.
Contact with the Superstar had been lost.
Anna had already tried every possible means of communication—conventional channels, Warp communications, even psychic communications through Astropaths—but none had received any response.
Anna did not know whether it had gone missing or been destroyed. A bad feeling gnawed at her, but she forced herself not to assume the worst.
Still, every preparation had to account for the worst.
In war, optimism often led to catastrophic consequences.
You had to assume the worst would happen and prepare in advance. Only then, when it actually happened, would you avoid being caught off