[h1][color=9e0b0f]The 8th Unleashed[/color][/h1]

[h2]The Mercia Front[/h2]

[i]The Pan-Pacific Empire's original invasion of Mercia was something of an overwhelming success by the standards of the warlord era of Age of Strife Terra. If not for the existence of the Imperium and its various successes of the period, Pan-Pacific may have become [i]the[/i] dominate power of Terra, rather then just one of its major ones.

When Mercia called for aid from the Imperium, the Lord of Lighting was quick to answer. All branches of the Imperium armed forces found themselves being developed towards the new territory, keen on driving out the invaders in order to claim the land and its people as its own.     

Of all the Imperial forces to take the field during this campaign, few were as dedicated to its success in as bloodless a manner as the newly minted 8th Legion. The reason for this was two fold. The original members of the 8th legion were recruited from the region; The hives being fought for were once their homes and were homes of people they knew and leaving them to be inhabited by invaders was simply not to be tolerated.

Those marines not motivated by loyalties to their original hives or the people that stilled lived within them were instead driven by more personal motivations; Due to experimentation and testing, it was found that of all the populations of Terra, the people of Mercia's proved to be the most compatible with the 8th legion with a success rate of six for every ten candidates to undergone the process of becoming marines. Having this territory held by enemy forces cut the legion off from its ideal recruitment stock and this, risk the legion being laid low by attrition. 

With the future of the Legion on the line, this also heavily affected the tactics, plans and weaponry that the 8th made use of. Since the Legion [i]needed[/i] the population to survive being brought into the Imperium relatively intact, battle plans [i]needed[/i] to minimize the possible amount of collateral damage to the civilian population. The infrastructure of the Hives remaining intact was also of vital importance, both in the sense of making immediate use of said recaptured Hive for Imperial purposes and sustaining the population of the Hive. 

As the Thunder Warriors engaged the forces of the Pan-Pacific Empire in order to draw their forces into a quagmire conflict in what were deemed to be regions of minimum value to long term Imperial interests, the 8th Legion and their auxiliaries instead opted for stealth operations. Taking advantage of the knowledge of those marines that originally came from nomad tribes both for their personal knowledge of how to safely travel in the wastes between the Hives undetected and their preexisting contacts and connections to other nomad tribes in order to ally with them and bluster their numbers with local guides and experts, the 8th were able to get far behind combat lines.
                
Their plan was a bold one with a great deal of risk involved. Their plan was to take advantage of the collective knowledge of the Legion about their respective home hives in order to take advantage of openings and passageways that were often made use of to bypass what amounted to the enforcers of law and order of the Hive in order to infiltrate them and bypass the majority of the Hives defenses against invasion. They would then take advantage of local unrest, knowledge of the internals of the Hive in question and the hope that local Pan-Pacific forces were reduced by a need to fight the Imperium elsewhere to liberate the hive from within with as little bloodshed and open battle as possible.

The true ambition of the plan came from the fact that they intended to split the Legion and its forces up in order to overthrow numerous hives at once. On paper, the plan could be viewed as near madness: The 8th legion had a core fighting strength of less then nine hundred warriors, supplemented by local nomads and barely human auxiliaries that were given army equipment and training as solders. However, behind the scenes there was a lot more calculation and intelligence then might first appear.

While having the entire legion focus on one hive at a time was fully possible, it was felt that the Pan-Pacific Empire would not only launch counter attacks against the few liberated hives in a calm, collected manner but also start to figure out how the 8th were infiltrating the Hives and actively start attempting to patch the long forgotten or ignored gaps in their defenses going forward. By striking so many targets at once (the number of which was calculated by the need for enough forces to take each hive and then hold it until reinforcements from the Imperium could arrive), not only would it minimize the ability of the Pan-Pacific to work out the details of [i]how[/i], but the loss of so much territory at once was hoped to throw the Pan-Pacific and their command into full blown panic.        

-Remembrancer Zygena Ravenlow, attached to the 8th Legion.[/i]

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To say that things were tense between Jzzist and Giselwin would have been something of an understatement... 

Legion Master Scraphurst had made good on his threat. The pair had been taken aside and made to fight each other bare knuckled and naked. Again... and again... [i]and again.[/i] Until one or both of them were unable to continue, in which they were giving medical attention to get them back in something close to fighting shape and then made to fight anew. They weren't allowed to kill each other and there were people present to make sure they didn't... but it kept going until, at last... they simply found themselves not caring enough to keep beating each other up anymore.

The grudge between them from their mortal human days was effectively no more, all the anger and bitterness used as fuel for their extended fight until it, at long last, was simply used up. Neither of them had actually expected to ever be at this point and yet, here they were. Assigned together to lead the operation against their home hive, unsure of how to interact with each other outside of a professional manner at this point because they didn't know where to go from here.

'Here' in the more literal sense was an old, abandoned ruin. A thick, strong wall that was built eons ago that still managed to stand despite all the years of neglect and weather, the purpose of its original existence long forgotten since it stood alone in the wastes of Mercia as everything else that had been built with it had long been consumed by time. It served as a wonderful foothold in the region, since it's presence offered some degree of shelter from the winds, a recognizable landmark for the purposes of navigation and it was far enough away from Hive Houston that the local Pan-Pacific garrison wouldn't care to come out far enough to investigate it without something to merit the patrol but [i]close enough[/i] to allow scouting parties to leave and return.

That was another source of tension among the marines currently stationed there: The Scouts. Jzzist and Giselwin had both agreed that it was a good idea to send scouts out to confirm if the various smuggling routes and hidden ways into Hive Houston that their various sources of information were still open or undiscovered by the occupying army before committing to an infiltration route. The mutant auxiliaries were something of a dividing issue between the marines, but due to the orders from the Legion Master on the matter it had been kept quite between them... 

However, with the mutants and their nomad guides gone to serve as scouts on the grounds that armed nomads or mutants existing on the outskirts of a Hive or trying to get into or out of the Underhive being spotted by any of the defending garrison keeping an eye on the outside of the hive would simply be a natural occurrence unworthy of reporting, differences in opinion could be vocalized. 

There wasn't any fighting on the matter; Even if they were in camp and at 'ease' until the scouts returned, they were still in the field in hostile territory and anyone who wasted their energy or endangered their camp by fighting (either verbally or physically) was going to discover that the chain of command was a very literally chain that they would be savagely beaten with to an inch of their lives. Which both Jzzist and Giselwin knew from personal experience was going to take a while.

The marines largely fell somewhere on a spectrum when it came to working alongside their mutant auxiliaries. On the end of the spectrum that was perfectly content with working with them and actually valued them as people were Hans Sternheim and Oronice Stinkgard, both former members of Jzzist's gang who followed their leader still in their new lives. On the opposite end were Ratibor Ratwick, Mauger Lichtensten and Galen Kruges... all of whom were originally members of Giselwin's crew. Everyone else feel somewhere in between the two extremes, with the third 'neutral' party attracting those who didn't really care what form their auxiliaries took, as long as they were competent and could be trusted.   

By mutual agreement, Jzzist and Giselwin opted out of taking part in the discussion, making it clear that as long as everyone obeyed the official legion doctrine as handed down by Legion Marster Scraphurst they could have whatever personal feelings they wished and instead served as unofficial refs to make sure that things didn't get out of hand.

The conversation ceased the moment the lookouts spied the first of the scouts start to return in their groups. The picture that was painted as they started to return was a grim one; Most of the teams came back with fewer numbers. Some teams didn't report back at all. Each returning scouting party brought with them news of various Pan-Pacific defenders having actively gone through the process of discovering and closing off the various routes they were scouting, actively shooting at anything that got within range of their guns or triggering traps and ambushes.    

A brief war council was held as a very important question was raised by Giselwin. "[color=003471]Is it possible the enemy caught wind of our plans already?[/color]"

Surprisingly, one of the human nomad guides shook his head and spoke up "Doubtful. When the Pan-Pacific marched on the Hive, they actively broke into the underhive from a number of the more well known hidden entrances. If I had to guess, the new ruler of the Hive is just paranoid that someone will repeat their great achievement against them." 

"[color=c4df9b]That would explain the older dead bodies reported.[/color]" Hans spoke up, glancing around at the rest of the council "[color=c4df9b]Seems like they're paranoid about anyone trying to get into the hive via any method but the official gates. I don't think the plan is bust, but what options of entry do we have?[/color]"

Once they went through the list and crossed off those confirmed to be discovered and sealed off... and making the logical assumption that any route that the scouting team failed to return at all from wasn't viable either, the list consisted of a single entryway.

Speaking up for the first time after the council was called, Jzzist asked the leader of that scouting team "[color=9e0039]This path wasn't sealed?[/color]"

A head with three eyes nodded before answering "It wasn't. In fact, the patrols seemed to outright be avoiding the area. We would have investigated further but we decided reporting back was more important."

The news caused... something of a look to pass between the Jzzist and Giselwin camps. Jzzist, Hans and Oronice seemed rather amused, while Ratibor and Galen seemed nervous. Giselwin himself seemed to grow quite pale. Mauger looked ill at ease, but clearly not as affected as his companions. 

"[color=9e0039]Wise decision.[/color]" Jzzist offered to the mutant... even going so far as to give them a smile. "[color=9e0039]I am very familiar with that passageway. The reason they haven't sealed it off and avoid it is because they're pretty sure anyone who uses it isn't going to be seen again. If you had used it blindly, they would have been right. But-[/color]"

Before Jzzist could say anymore, Giselwin spoke up in a voice that sounded loud at first, but quickly had the emotion reigned in. "[color=003471]NO. There has got to be another way. Any other way but that one. Maybe one of the scouting parties simply got taken by a threat from the wastes and we should check again.[/color]"

Seeing one of their leaders show actual fear about this possibly caused the unease to spread among the unit, but Jzzist's resolve seemed to combat the panic. "[color=9e0039]As I was saying. Having lived in the area it leads to for years, I know how we can safely travel on the other side.[/color]" He paused, before he decided to say something in an understanding tone of voice that surprised Giselwin to his core. "[color=9e0039]...I don't blame you for being afraid. I don't know exactly what you and yours fell prey to when you invaded all those years ago, but when we saw the aftermath we knew it was one of the nastier bastards lurking in the dark. Running into one of them changes a person and I never thought less of you for losing your mind. But I promise you, I can get us through that area safely.[/color]"

With a slight gulp, Konrad Amutiel decided to speak up and be heard by his fellow marines. "[color=a187be]What are you talking about?[/color]"

After a moment of silence between Jzzist and Giselwin, Giselwin looked away in order to let Jzzist speak freely. Taking charge, Jzzist turned and looked dead serious at Konrad as he answered "[color=9e0039]I am going to tell every last one of you some very important rules that you need to adhere to, because your lives [b]will[/b] depend on following them to the letter where we are going, because we're walking into a ghost story.[/color]"