The V-formation of the troop carriers, surrounded by the heavier vehicles, approached the wall gates. Fire from the battlements faded, only two remaining cannons were shooting short salutes, jamming or overheating all the time.


    Carriers and armoured vehicles drove between the gates alternately, avoiding the obstacle by millimetres. A few of them disappeared in a wave of fire and turned into smoking wrecks, but nothing could stop the rest of the assaulting rebels.


    Three heavily armoured battering engines charged the frontal gates of the ziggurat at full throttle, spotted by their yellow deposit. Their prows, cased with coruscium, rammed the gates, but they just left scuffs. The machines backed up, letting the other vehicles shell the hinges. The tanks fired hundreds of bullets within one destructive salute, chipping the sherds of the gate frames off and scraping the metal slabs. The battering engines redid the charge several times, but the ancient construction remained untouched.


    Cerridwen followed Nadee, who stayed at the end of the minor group of rebels and watched the situation on her LiqWatch constantly. The Celestian girl caught up with her and attempted to stick with her despite the ragged and slippery ground. She lost her sense of direction completely in the chaos and dust palls. All she saw was the wandering silhouette of the Kehrian woman. She felt the vibrating and shaking ground under her feet, and her hearing began to adapt to the deafening clunks of fired salutes and exploding bombs.


    “Felvennis!” called an indistinct female voice, “Felvennis, hold on!”


    She stopped dead and turned around. Nadee and a few others ran between the fortress wall and a smoking wreck. Cerridwen rushed in that direction. Several metres away from the point through which she’d just run, a thousand-year-old unexploded shell went off. Pushed by the shockwave, Cerridwen dropped down. Stones fell on her back, starving her of her breath, and a dull ringing hum sounded in her head.


    As the shrill bang echoed, Nadee leaned away from behind the wreck. She looked around and spotted the Celestian girl, lying face down amongst the floating sand and black ash. Cerridwen raised her head and tried to get up, but due to headache and dizziness, she collapsed and fell on her flank.


    “What are you doing?” shouted one of the troopers. “Stay hidden!”


    Nadee remained deaf to his call. So close to her, another innocent life was nearing its end. She felt saving that life was her duty. She had to do it. She could not give life to the ones she killed, but she wanted to rescue just this one being.


    The Kehrian woman sprinted ahead. Cutting through the greyish ginger clouds, she ran up to Cerridwen. She bent over the Celestian girl and reached out her hand, saying, “Come on!”


    Cerridwen nodded. Feeling a throbbing pain on her neck, she clenched her teeth. She got up, leaning against Nadee. At home, she’d learned during training what to do to cushion a fall. She did not break her bones due to that drilled reaction. She brought a gun out even though she would not be able to hit anything.


    Stolen story; please report.


    “Where did you get it from?” asked Nadee, leading her towards the wreck.


    “I borrowed it,” muttered Cerridwen, and Nadee looked at her, shaking her head.


    Led by Antares, the company gathered under a craggy wall. They waited for the entry signal in silence and deep focus. The majority of them had only jagged coats and provisory armours made of sheet metal or rubber. Their trembling was more from excitation than fear as their fingers rested upon the triggers of their Ascalon-type shotguns.


    Finally, they heard their Commander’s word that acted like pulling the pin from the grenade on them.


    “Attack!”


    They darted along the right gate. The cannonade had entirely ceased when all of the defenders died or escaped to the emergency ships.


    Assailants hacked their way through the crack blocked by the wreckage. They halted behind the barricade formed by armoured vehicles.


    Quirinus endeavoured to hold still, although his moves appeared as if he did not control his limbs. His face was covered by a respirator, but he still gasped and choked. His heart pumped blood rapidly mixed with Waves of Lethe. Due to that substance, he forgot about the fear during the landing and did not even notice the deep, bleeding cut on his arm. He used a little dose of the drug so as to not go into the rogue rage, but he still felt indestructible. Massive megaliths seemed to him a wooden fence, and he considered the hundreds of enemies waiting behind the wall as rag dummies at whom he had to just shoot, like during everyday training. Death became nothing to him.


    Positioned under the walls, the carriers began to lower their gangways with a hiss of air. Enormous, red silhouettes flashed inside them.


    Muffled by helmets, a low howling froze the blood in the veins of even the bravest creatures.


    “Is that... them?” whispered Quirinus and licked the foam off his mouth.


    “Yes, Captain,” replied Antares. “I had a chance to see them in combat. I admit it was a pleasant experience to watch them rip the Union scum to bloody shreds.”


    Before the gangways touched the ground, from the darkened holds, the Rakshasa warriors darted out one by one. They moved flowingly with the grace of a cobra bracing for an attack. Clad in heavy power armours, glistening in red and gold, the monsters raised their heads, howling and growling as if they challenged the sky itself. In a low harsh tone, similar to an automatically generated voice, fifteen Kehrians began to chant at once the long, rhythmic verses of hymns and mantras in their language. Their words echoed among the fortress walls, making it sound like thunders and blasting hurricanes, roaring at a distance.


    Gripped in an autohypnotic Sho’rin trance, the Rakshasas felt the presence of their Devi around them. Her divine energy circulated in their veins, so dread and pain were nothing to them. They were ready to rush in the very heart of the battle to win or die.


    The Kehrians brought out their swords, with wide blades and blunt points, and Rudra-type rifles with barrels in the shape of the open jaws of the beasts. This weapon owed its name to the deafening, ear-splitting roar which it made while firing the bullets.


    “Incredible, right?” whispered Antares.


    Quirinus did not answer. He gazed ahead, gripping his shotgun. Even after being influenced by the Waves of Lethe, the Kehrian horde ignited a sense of primitive fear in him.


    The Kehrians of Jalandhara Tribe were renowned for psychologically pressurising their enemies. For the less experienced assailants, the very image of the masked creatures in ornate armours rushing at them was a sufficient reason to retreat. Golden masks with large eyes and jaws full of bare, sharp fangs escalated the impact. In the olden days, the legends of Beasts in Red were known and feared even among the tribes ruling the galaxy. The tribe that decided to invade Jalandhara gave up future conquest plans only after a few clashes with the Rakshasas. Unstoppable might, violence and fanatic allegiance to their Devas awoke terror in the hearts of the enemies of that tiny planet.


    The Kehrians finished their ritual display. They divided into three groups and ran towards the fortress gates.


    “Follow them!” ordered Antares.