[i][b]Salt Lake City Ruins[/i][/b]

Seargeant Quenton Tibbs looked down at the ruins from his hillside view. "Holy mutfruit." Commented one of the Recruits near the back, and a solid smack on the helmet could be heard following suit. Tibbs gave a gruff chuckle and shook his head, pointing down to one of the particular craters which should have caught their eye earlier. Within it rested a Legion encampent, not too large in size.

"It could have food," replied who he recognized as Demetrius, his savior from a few days before. Tibbs grunted and made a motion for someone to hand him a pair of binoculars. He simply held his hand out over his shoulder until he felt the binoculars in his hand, then pressed them up against his face and got a good look at the camp.

"Abandoned. Just the way I like it." He tossed the binoculars back and heard it hit someone's hands as they caught it. "Come on, Ladies. We're gonna feast tonight. And I've personally been craving some of that irradiated sh**berry steak from before the war." This got a chuckle out of the soldiers, and the party proceeded to head down to the camp in anticipation of abandoned supplies. Sol knew they needed it, seeing as they only had three days' worth of food left.

[i][b]Wyoming-Nebraska Border, just south of the tri-state area point.[/i][/b]

Mega Benjamin Norton, one of the legendary Blaze Runners, planted the Solarian flag next to the road entering the town of Mondal, on one end of of the community. He and his four fellow Blazemates, Mega Phil Telula, Ultra Tim Oswalt, Ultra Ronald Gailey, and Über Wanda Bynes, swept the town along with about forty Solarian troopers and secured their new holding. Upon reaching the other end of town, they found a group of seemingly well-organized "savages" all clad in metal armor. About one hundred and fifty of them, to be exact. Maybe slightly more.

Über Wanda Bynes stepped forward, being the highest ranking member of the most elite military branch. She was met by Fleshtear, a tribal leader who revealed himself to be a "sect chieftain" over the area's portion of the tribe.

"We are the Dakota Cleansers, and we have come to clear the wasteland of civilizations we deem too advanced for the Earth's desires." Explained Fleshtear when Bynes inquired as to who they were and why they thought the Solarian Armed Forces should make way for them. 

"Describe the Earth's desires." Bynes further questioned, feeling insulted that these people seemingly looked to Earth as they themselves looked to the Sun. 

"The Earth clearly did not want complex civilizations inhabiting it, so its will was to destroy the filth that mankind had placed upon its surface!" Cried Fleshtear, surprisngly charismatically. "We are here to ensure that man does not recreate its mistake now two hundred years past!" The One-Hundred and Fifty men behind him roared out with deathly enthusiasm.

Ultra Oswalt stepped forward and, being an Heir himself, cried back. "The Sun has decreed that it is our sovereign right to claim any land under it's nurturing light, and we will not surrender its will to some Earth-Worshipper!" The 45 Solarian soldiers, in turn, cried out themselves. Though nowhere near impressive in size, and therefore noise, they demonstrated equal dedication to the deity's instructions. Fleashtear and Bynes, as well as all those behind them, immediately understood the other's position, and instantly the sentiment of each side toward the other took a drastic turn for the worse.

"We'd like to see your Sun tear Earth's own land from its own grasp."

"It is fate that Sol has led us here. You are a threat to Sol's will, and you do not belong here."

"No, civilized woman. It is yo-" before Fleashtear could finish, a Solarian trooper, PFC Gary Hunt, fired the first shot in the Celestial War. Gunfire immediately erupted from both sides and each scrambled to find cover.

The Solarians had technology on their side, as they used grenade launchers and missiles to disorient and spread the attackers' forces, as well as the Blaze Runners clad in T51b Power Armor and equipped with weapons like Anti-Materiel Rifles, Miniguns, Plasma Rifles and LMGs. However, the "Cleansers" had both individual strength and numbers on ther side. There were about four super mutants among the 150, and each did incredible damage to the other side.

In the end, the Solarians emerged with a costly victory. 25 killed, 7 wounded. The Blaze Runners suffered only one casualty, and it happened to be one of the wounds. Wanda Bynes was struck in the shoulder by a super mutant's massive pipe, severely fracturing it. The Cleansers lost 130 men, mostly their "cannon fodder" melee assaulters. The rest retreated back into their own territory.

The numbers were doomed to rise even further in the coming weeks, at the very least.