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Mak’to’ran had been worried about the fighting caliber of the troops that remained, but they were doing exceptionally well in the mismatch, as they should, and he was happy to be able to deliver them an easy victory after so many years of defeats, but this was just his opening move. He needed to keep a close watch on the individual units fighting in the city to make sure no debacles happened, and he’d already had to give a few extra orders to specific units that didn’t quite understand the basic elements of street fighting, but overall it was going well, and he needed to identify which were the better units, for the old skill marks from before the war were now outdated. Combat had a way of elevating or degrading warriors over a short period of time, and he needed to know who was on the rise and who had been broken.

But he was also watching how the Zak’de’ron responded in other locations, and from where. He was hoping to pull them to him, but he wasn’t sure what they would leave underdefended to do it…then he saw them pulling what looked like all their aerial assets out of their frontline outposts to the south, all the way down to near where Team 4 was stationed.

It was going to take a while for them to get up to the supply depot, and by the time they did it would be too late to save it. Mak’to’ran assumed the Zak’de’ron commanders were looking for a major clash where they could kill the cluster of Era’tran craft, but that wasn’t going to happen. He’d pull them out before major losses could occur, leaving a few units to handle the city defenses that they were able to rejuvenate. The damage they could do would be worth it, and the crews staying behind to man them knew the risks and how they’d be left on their own to survive afterward, but they all had eagerly volunteered at the chance to do some real damage to the enemy.

As juvenile as the Era’tran commanders had been previously, the Zak’de’ron did not appear to be much better. They were pulling units from key areas and leaving them undefended, perhaps expecting Mak’to’ran not to have any other armadas in play. After all, he had to strip everything from the surrounding area just to assemble this one. What more could he have?

The answer was a great deal. There were places on the planet that were in no immediate danger, but they still had light defensive units there above and beyond their infrastructure. Mak’to’ran had quietly pulled them all out, forming additional armadas that were moving up at the same time the primary one went out to hit the depot. At the same time he had all-Zen’zat teams near the Zak’de’ron border waiting for moments of opportunity, and the stupid enemy commander was giving him plenty.

Mak’to’ran began sending out a flurry of orders, leaving his backlines undefended where they were safely tucked in underneath the planetary shield generators and too far away from the enemy to be flanked…and even if they were, their city turrets were intact and could fend off a small attack without support. And the enemy wasn’t going to be able to mount more than that with all their attention focused on the supply depot.

It was a gamble, and no maneuvers in this dystopian war zone could be classified as anything else, but right now he had the Zak’de’ron reacting to him, and that was the best way to protect what was left of Holloi. He didn’t have enough troops to adequately defend all cities and sites. Neither did the enemy, so going on the offense while relying on your infrastructure…something the enemy did not have the luxury of on someone else’s planet…as a backstop was the smart play, and one that should have been made years ago. There just weren’t any real commanders left alive to spot the opportunity and seize it.

Mak’to’ran hadn’t looked too closely at the death tallies. He’d searched for any senior leadership and found none still active. At least none that were linked into the tactical grid. As Mario’topa had said, they’d gone with the main defense force to resist the Zak’de’ron at their first landing point and succeeded enough to create this creeping stalemate that the enemy was winning due to their sporadic reinforcements trickling in over the years, but not enough to take the entire planet within the next 50 unless something major changed.

If Mak’to’ran’s troops could summon up enough courage to remember who they were, then this was going to be easy. But they’d lived through this nightmare that he’d blessedly missed. So while his mind was fresh theirs were weary, but as they saw a quick and instant victory maybe some hope would work its way in.

He had no way of knowing that from his position, organizing from afar from a place of secrecy. Some of the Elders should have done this and survived to make sure the resistance was adequately led, but Mak’to’ran guessed they saw no way of winning and had chosen the most honorable of deaths they could arrange, leaving the non-combat portion of the planet with the least enemy forces to face afterward as they took as many as they could to death with them.

Mak’to’ran was going to make use of the advantage they had left, but he was dismayed that there was no one here that could have seen it before him. Was Holloi totally devoid of a single experienced commander? This planet used to be the heart of the Era’tran Empire where the wisest and most experienced came to live when their time of frontline service came to an end and they were replaced with others that needed the experience more than them.

Holloi had been a brain trust for