The Rebel Faction

"All shields to full!"

"Open fire!"

"Holf the west flank!"

These memories flooded back to the people of Kraz. The time that their world was caught between the struggles of two Azguard sub-cultures.

But the Azguards were still cordially accepted by the Kraz, for they had fought together in the wars, and were used to these meetings.

High lord of the Kraz met with the Azgaurd ambassadors in the greaest Kraz holds. They spoke of reunion between their people, of prosperity, of old alliances.

But they had many differences, many different Ideas.

The negotiations were slow, and came to a halt upon the assassination of one of the head Azguard Ambassadors.

Lord Reginald Flaxly was an experienced negotiator. He coined such diplomatic Azguard phrases as "Want to be friends?" and "Up yours, you bag of @#%$". But on the night of... we don't know, the Kraz don't have calenders. But on that night, a kraz gang who were against Azguards, a Klu-Kluz-Klan if you will, broke into his presidential suite and shot him dead, infront of his wife and children.

This sparked days of heated debate, until the heads of the assassination were excecuted.

Nevertheless a rift had formed, and it would take more then tea and cocoa to fix it ("Although some Tea and Cocoa would be appreciated")

On Krakken, the rebel forces had taken all the major cities. Troops were deployed to try and starve them out. Regrad gambled on the lack of discipline and supplies the rebels had to tear them apart.

It worked for the first few days. Several of the smaller cities fell into disarray, and Azguard ground troops swamped them. But the rebels re-coordinated their hierarchy, and soon they had straightened out any flaws within the group.

But that had not helped with anything to do with supplies. Soon they were running on fumes, their ammo mostly spent. The Azguard forces girded themselves for a desperate rush.

It never came. A small convoy of transport ships slipped on planet and dropped off a huge supply shipment of food and weapons. The rebels were rearmed and once again the battle was back on track.

The Kraz were angered by the second Krakken war, and lead a large contingent of guerrillas under their home. Then the hit and run tactics came into good effect, knocking out outposts and intelligence lines. But the Rebel Government realized the threat early and sent the 108th assault brigade in to wipe out the Underground raiders.

They skirmished for several days, tactics involving the Kraz riding in with pistols blazing, downing a few quickly, and riding off, never stopping to give the superior Rebel Marksmen time to draw an effective bead on them. Nevertheless, the Rebels were good enough to dish out what they received. The skirmishes got bigger, from tens to thirties, to up to a hundred troops each sometimes.

But the Guerrillas were just that, and could never be drawn into a direct battle. Until finally, in a desperate stab at bringing their numbers to bear, the 108th charged directly into the main tunnels of the Kraz, destroying them as they went. The Kraz realized they could not win out in the open, so met the 108th head on, in an attempt to stop them from destroying any more tunnels and nullifying their effectiveness.

The battle, afterwards to be remembered as the battle of Graegen Hole, was horrifically bloody, because the caverns were quite well carved and offered few places to cover oneself from enemy fire. The Kraz were only half as high as the rebels though, so they had improved hit totals. But even so, the Kraz were no match for the remorseless press of the advancing enemy forces. After severe casualties they were routed into the tunnels.

The surviving thirty two percent of the original force returned to base beaten. They were then reequipped and integrated into other units to replace casualties.

The Rebel forces had won their first major victory and were quite well pleased. The Azguards and Kraz would have to rethink their tactics before the next battle.

Their next engagement was in the former industrial town of Hages’ Point, a large city with tall buildings and cavernous walls. Recycled bits of the old space ports of Kraz were used in its’ construction. There, a large detachment of Rebel troops, supported by turrets, walls, mines, tanks, and artillery, defended against the first Armoured Azguard Legion.

The Legion was commanded by General Borin, who strategically placed his light infantry in a frontal ‘net’ to attract early enemy fire, while a heavy weapons’ crew positions itself on the hilltop to rain death upon the unsuspecting defenders. Then his armoured transports and tanks would annihilate the walls, and artillery support would eradicate the mines. Finally, the Assault troops would move in and obliterate ant remaining defenders.

His plan played out, the light infantry moving, under fire, to the front of the defences, where they could exhaust loads of ammo to keep the enemies’ heads down. But unfortunately one enemy, while reloading, spotted the heavy support, nearly up the hill. The defenders turned their fire, so the Artillery had to start its’ barrage prematurely. The heavy weapons were beaten badly, but made it to the hill, and provided the cover for the armoured troops and vehicles to take down the walls.

The rest of the base fell comparatively easier after the walls were breached. The enemy forces were routed quickly once the walls fell and they realized they were sorely out-gunned and out-numbered. Most were killed but a few surrendered and were taken as prisoners of war.

This victory set the Kraz and the Azguards in striking distance of the deeper parts of the Rebels’ Territory.

Regrad had to rally his troops quickly or else the enemy would root them all out and hurry home again, behind their walls and having done considerable damage. He sent his messengers out to any and all of his scattered troops and rallied them rapidly to meet the advancing threat.

A large battle occurred in which heavy casualties were suffered in numbers exceeding any battle to date. The entire Azguard force moved out, and created a long battle line. The troops lay on their bellies, dug fox holes, made earthen lumps to defend them. Anything. They called in all their weapons and prepared a well defended battleline.

The rebels weren’t stupid. When you see a superior enemy, dug in and armed, you don’t rush them. They instead sent repulsorlift craft overhead, and their troops came down from them. This lightning strike mixed up the two armies inextricably from each other, causing melees and close combat to break out along their positions. The edges of the line had men upfront, stabbing with knives, claws, teeth, fangs, swords, bayonets, grendes, anything. Further into the battleline people used short range pistols, tanks, and laser weapons. The fight ended when the rebels were driven off by heavy casualties.

The remaining rebel forces were bolstered with ships coming in and delivering more troops and supplies. They then fled deep under the mountains to their last great stronghold,

Central Point.

Regrad sat down in his command tent outside its’ forty foot high stone walls. The place was a rock, that was the best way to put it. You could not force your way in, there was no soft spot, and it revealed nothing. He reviewed his troop roster. Eight hundred men from the 1st armoured legion, six hundred of the 4th assault Battalion, two thousand of the 32nd regulars, plenty of supplies, tanks, artillery, and munitions, ten thousand troops from multiple Battalions melded together, and sixteen thousand men from the whole army to add it up. Total: roughly twenty nine thousand four hundred, plus officers, cooks, clean up crew, priests, messanger boys, and other essential small jobs.

He felt the best way to go about this attack was to use his artillery to besiege the place, crack the walls up. Then send an intelligence team over to throw the place in an uproar. As proven by Carahk on Hurok, an Intelligence team can be extremely effective against base defences.

The guards further on provided a minor annoyance to the moderately skilled team. The weapons expert had packed the silenced pistols and they were used thoroughly on any opponent. Once they were definitely dead, they were shot a few more times and the stealth agent kicked them in the personal collection of dangly organs found between the legs.

Perhaps I have not made it clear, to you oh woefully uninformed reader, what these rebels were. They were also once Azguardians, but after a holy war, in which many were killed, the survivors fled the planet and escaped to a new world, all big and dark and evil looking. This was where their gods nursed a grudge that ran deep. Their more successful godly counterparts rejoiced, and a new age of prosperity descended on the ‘pure, shiny, lemon fresh’ Azguards, while the evil, vile, renegades scrounged a living on their cold world.

But their masters would not stand for this. They drove their people to max out their potential. Great big metal things were built, and subsequently hammered viciously with big metal rods. Early morning exercises were preformed en mass, attendance mandatory or you are shot.

This created a physically fit, near-impervious to disease race of warriors. They gained the powers of hyperspace long before their kinder kindred, because whereas the Azguard Gods sank into slumber, the Dark Gods rovered the universe, murdering and stealing and then giving to their people.

No longer Azguards, they adopted the name Furengarg, Azguard for Hated foe. Namely everyone they met. Eventually a small (Very small) fleet was built, and it went forth into space and conquered Kraz. The Kraz were comparatively weaker physically, mentally, cunningly, and in terms of height. But the Furen were restrained by their divine masters, who used manipulative powers to start what was known as the Zeroeth war of Krakken. It ended with, coincidently, the First War Of Krakken, a lot bigger and with more capitals I think you’ll notice.

The Azguards saved the Kraz and sent the Furen back deep into space. Reeling from this defeat, the Furen changed their plans. They set up colonies on an Ice world known as Hurok, and from there wiped out all sentient life on the planet. This would be the perfect staging point for a terrible war on Azguard Itself. This was stopped, though when a sudden and unprecedented assault from Azguard destroyed the entire colony. Another defeat disheartened the Furen.

But they regained their battle fervour at their great victory on Hephastus. Hephastus was a forested world, and on it there were mighty warriors called Vrakken. Some Furen Bandit fighters struck and crippled a transport vessel belonging to a group of galactic mercenaries. The mercenaries survived the crash and proceeded to call in help from their outposts on far-flung fringe worlds. Bt it would take time for help to arrive, so while they waited, between games of bridge and checkers, they went out to kill and enslave the local wildlife.

The Vrakken soon intervened, only to get the stuffing knocked out of them. Some were enslaved, others were killed, and when more mercenaries landed, all suffered.

But once again, The Azguardians came to meddle in the affairs of their racial superiors, and for a time defeated the mercenaries. This was a part of the Furens’ cunning plan though, for now the Vrakken and the Azguards, two diametrically opposed races, were in direct contact with each other. The Head of Azguardian society is ruled by Dolash, who was corrupted by the dark gods influence. Now he started a war between Azguard and Vrakken. It soon broke into a Civil War when not all Azguards agreed.

This brought glee to the Furen, and although Good won and recaptured the throne of Azguard, it was worth it just for the Azguards to slink away from the galaxy in fear.

Their glee was short lived. The New Order brought down the galaxy, and Azguard was once again free to expand and get in their way.

The agents were still scurrying deeper, until they encountered a courtyard. A dozen men sat in the middle of it, passing round a dirty roll-up and cleaning a rifle. The team needed to get by if they wanted to make it to the door at the other side and continue on.

The eight of them set up a smoke bomb in the shadows. The explosion alerted the guards who saw smoke pouring from the alcove, and they hurried over to investigate. The team quashed the urge to attack and charged over to the far door. It was cracked open and they slipped in.

They then destroyed several security cameras watching their intended target. Now completely covered, they made a dash, and loosed stun shots at the technicians. The experts leapt into the chairs, and begun hacking fast. The files were shredded, all but the important ones, which would be needed later. Security bells rung but they kept at it, until at last the doors of Central Point swung open, and the guns turned inwards. The troops of Azguard did not question the proceedings.

They charged, obviously.

Inside the team ran for their lives amongst the sirens and whizzing ammo.

A hoard of maybe fifty enemy troops was pursuing them, guns blazing in a storm of crimson death. Desperate to escape, they reached the final stretch between the compound and the wall. There they loosed their final smoke bombs. The enemies, enflamed by their terrifying furry, rushed through the smoke screen…

… And into the waiting crosshairs of the machine gun hidden in the crates.

DAKA DAKA DAKA DAKA

The fifty-some men screamed and died under the lash of that gun, and those in front, trapped by those behind, fell dead on those in the middle, making a right jolly mess of the whole thing.

But those who have been reading diligently will have noticed that I mentioned the Azguard soldierly making their way inwards.

Indeed, almost thirty thousand angry Azguard soldiers storming through the doorways was enough to panic the survivors of those who had been pursuing the team. They fled back, bumping into those behind, and so forth, until a confused retreat seemed to be taking place.

But, alas, ever fortress that has ever stood has more then walls and soldiers in it. Great steel doors shut off the flow of Azguard troops, and the chamber was suddenly filled with wall and ceiling mounted turrets…



Later, when the steel doors opened again, it revealed nothing but an empty courtyard. Blacknd, but empty none the less.