The general considered carefully what her next move would be. Attacking the main settlement would be a hopeless endevour, but the port... Their force could easily destroy that and show the orks that they were not the first peoples on this land, and were not safe from the might of Matem. With efficiency they packed up the camp they had been staying in and marched, the distance not far. They would not attack yet, she had an idea, and summoning a piece of parchment one night she wrote a message, folding it neatly away and sending it back with one of the supply ships.

[i]Dear Father.

I hope this letter finds you well and blessed by the divines. We have discovered that whilst the main Ork town is unassailable with our current forces, we can raze the port that was responsible for the attacks on our fishing vessel. I beg of you, since I know that the Galleys must be finished by now, to send the boats, and some more conscripts, to attack the port from one side whilst we attack from the other, slaughtering the forces there.

May the divines watch over you for as long as the weaver allows.

Your daughter[/i]

Maxim crumpled the letter up and tossed it in the fire, before turning to the senate.

"It seems that they are too well fortified for us to attack them head on. We will send a galley to deal with the port, however this will not stand. Send surveyors to find iron, and Mannerlicher." He turned to the foreigner, a supposedly prodigious engineer, "you [i]will,[/i] when we find iron, start to make us the war machines we need. Ballisti in particular." The forigner nodded as Maxim left.

The emperor thought to himself. They needed to find iron fast, and he needed a personal guard. There had been an attempt on his life, so it seemed he would need his own praetorian guard.

"We are the best, the bravest, the strongest. The Warrior has blessed us and the Smith protects us, and with our lives we ensure the Emperor may never lose his."- The Maxim of the Praetorian.