Banshee

In the command room, Chuck's expression shifted from panic to fury as he watched his units routed one after another.

Fifty squads, ten thousand well-trained, well-equipped planetary Garrison Force soldiers-how could they lose?

How could he fail? How could he possibly fail! And to a pack of savage barbarians, no less! Everyone would laugh at him. Pex would laugh at him...

That could never happen. Never!

"Communications officer, get me the Banshee Bomber squadron," Chuck ordered, his face dark.

"Banshee online. What are your orders, General?" The connection was established almost immediately, and the squadron commander's voice was steady and calm.

"Ghana City has been occupied by the green monsters. There are too many of them. I order the bomber squadron to take off immediately with high-temperature incendiaries and carpet-bomb the designated area." After issuing the order, Chuck transmitted the coordinates.

After two minutes spent checking them, the squadron commander's voice sounded a little strained.

"General, sir, there appears to be an error in the designated area you sent us. It covers almost half the city, including our own positions."

"There is no error. Execute the order." Chuck's voice was devoid of emotion.

"But..."

"Squadron commander, my order was to execute it immediately. Are you refusing a direct order?"

"No, sir... certainly not. The Banshees will take off immediately." The Imperium's military system was brutal, with virtually no room for personal considerations. The squadron commander was certain that if his squadron had a Commissar attached, the man's Lasgun would already be pressed against his forehead.

After giving the Banshee Bomber squadron its orders, Chuck was still not satisfied. He continued addressing the communications officer. "Tell the Basilisk self-propelled artillery regiment and the Manticore rocket artillery regiment to move into the designated positions, prepare to fire, and await orders."

The communications officer dared not delay and immediately relayed Chuck's orders to the relevant regiments outside the city. Whether those orders would destroy all of Ghana City was no longer something he dared consider.

Three hours later, the Garrison Force troops fighting desperately inside the city had been driven back to its outer ring by the Orks. Casualties had soared, and at most ten to fifteen squads were probably still capable of fighting. The Orks had gained an overwhelming advantage.

The Valkyrie Transport carrying Chuck had drawn very close to Ghana. Through its windows, he could see the beautiful coastal city slowly rise above the distant azure sea.

Rising from his command seat, Chuck walked to the window, which offered a clear view of Ghana City in the distance.

"Banshee, commencing bombing run." The bomber squadron's report sounded in Chuck's headset over the communications channel.

From this distance, Chuck could not see the bombers' silver wings, but he could see crimson flames erupting from the city, reaching hundreds of meters into the air. Row upon row of flames spewed from every corner of the city like volcanic eruptions.

Once fully ignited, the specially designed heavy incendiary bombs could reach temperatures of over ten thousand degrees. Nothing living could survive such an inferno. There was no better way to purge the green xenos.

At the sight before him, Chuck finally smiled in satisfaction. As long as he could erase the stain of his failure, he no longer cared about the cost of destroying a city.

"Once the fires burn out, organize another fifty squads to attack from the outskirts. Every squad will receive Manticore and Basilisk support. I want this city cleared of every last trace of green." Chuck issued his final order of the campaign.

Watching the city burn at the same time were Iron Claw and his boyz in the rainforest. They were not worried about their kin still inside the city; they simply wanted to enjoy the spectacle.

Iron Claw thought the Humies were pretty impressive, destroying a city so quickly. He would have to keep building his strength and slowly weaken theirs.

One of his boyz, named Daft, drooled as he watched the Banshees drop their heavy incendiary bombs.

The innate talent in his blood seemed to be awakening. He wanted to fly something like that and do the same things, as though that were the very purpose of his existence. In Ork terms, bombers were just too cool, too Waaagh!

The ensuing battle for Ghana continued for another week or so. The city's terrain was too complicated, and its forest of reinforced concrete had provided the Orks with considerable shelter. Some had survived.

Hunting down the surviving Orks prolonged the fighting, and the ultimate cost was enormous. Basilisk shells and Manticore rockets practically destroyed the entire city, bringing down every high-rise.

Chuck's ruthless orders drew widespread criticism. Numerous prominent figures accused him of slaughtering people and demanded that he face a court-martial, but Governor Cornwall suppressed all such voices.

The official account was that the Orks had killed all of Ghana's residents, leaving General Chuck no choice but to order the city's destruction. He and his soldiers had suffered as many as ten thousand casualties while eliminating the Orks, and public opinion ought to be more forgiving toward soldiers who had sacrificed themselves to protect civilians.

On the whole, public outrage was successfully suppressed. In the end, Chuck's only punishment was a reprimand from the Governor's Palace.

When Pex read Chuck's battle report out in space, he and his Expeditionary Fleet were heading toward Euronia IV. They were three days away from entering synchronous orbit around the planet.

It was not that Pex did not want to move faster. Compared with warships, the transports converted from merchant vessels were simply too slow.

The battle report actually gave Pex a new appreciation for Chuck. That was exactly the kind of ruthlessness needed when dealing with Orks. Any mercy was unnecessary.

Once he returned to Euronia III, Pex even intended to spend more time with Chuck. A consciousness like his was precisely the sort of talent the order needed.

Before Pex was a Holographic Projection of the whole of Euronia IV. The conditions on the planet's surface and the details of its terrain were displayed clearly, thanks to preparations made during the preliminary reconnaissance.

The Glory Knight had crashed in the Eastern Hemisphere, gouging out a vast canyon and burying her entire hull within it. Once visibility cleared, the Guardian had bombarded the Glory Knight several more times, blasting her into two sections. The Orks would probably find it difficult to make further use of the human warship.

As for the Orks' positions, the Optical Radar had repeatedly detected large numbers of green mushroom farms exposed on the surface, all of which had been marked on the map.

This was not because the preliminary reconnaissance had been particularly thorough. The green mushroom farms simply stood out too starkly on the barren, rocky planet. It was impossible to miss them.

Judging by their extent, the mushroom farms were not very large. It seemed Governor Cornwall really had been right: Euronia IV was so barren that it was unsuitable for life, even for Orks.

Pex hoped he was right, too. Hopefully, those five months had not produced too many savage green monsters here.