August 19.
Another war. Jane felt that this was probably just natural. After forty years without any major conflict, the Federation was now fighting two wars at the same moment against strong enemies.
This simply couldn't stand. As the Tambaran officially declared that they intended to subjugate Ilium, the Federation just needed to intervene to defend one of their allies and the main gateway to the Terminus Systems.
While the 29th Fleet had taken position at the mass relay of the Crescent Nebula, it was up to the SpecOps Command to cripple their advance, and commanding that division was none other than the war hero Admiral Shepard.
At the briefing aboard the Division's main ship, the Infinity-class cruiser Amerigo, Jane had mixed feelings in seeing her father wearing the uniform again. On one side, when she was a kid and couldn't participate in the Reaper War, she had always regret not being able to fight on his side, but now a part of her also felt like she was moving into his shadow.
Still, John had trusted her with an important assignment and she wasn't going to let anyone down. As she stepped down from the command bridge, leaving Wilhelm to direct tactical support, she reached the armory, geared up and mounted on the shuttle, where her children, Garrus and two marines, Kovalenko and Chandraptali 'Chandra' were waiting for the drop.
The planet beneath them, Romba Tes, at the edges of Tambaran space, was hosting a large depot used by the aliens to supply their offensive on Ilium, and John had appointed it as their first target. The SpecOps Division now hosted all the N7 and Spectres left in the Milky Way, all accompanied by some veteran reservists and even a battalion of the Imperial Guard.
The Normandy would be one of the spears that would open the confrontation. In fact, the second shuttle in her hangar was now embarking Master Chief and an N7 team who were going to target another site of the Tambaran logistical hub. Other stealth frigates were ready to launch the same kind of strike, using their tech to bypass the few but still powerful Tambaran cruisers patrolling the orbit above.
As soon as chaos would unleash on the surface, the Amerigo and one of her sister ships, the Vasco de Gama, would come out of the newly-established hyperspace routes, something the Tambaran were still ignorant of, and attack the flotilla guarding the planet, to avoid them sending reinforcements to the ground. The arsenal of the Infinity-class had been deemed sufficient to deal with the Tambaran force.
Trusting her father's instinct, Jane quickly explained to the team their objective: destroy a depot that had been built exploiting a vast network of caves and canyons on the surface of Romba Tes. However, orbital scanning had pointed out where the main source of energy was, and that source of energy was good old oil. Just by blowing up the main pumping implant before the aliens could close it, the explosion would propagate around the whole area, which meant the squad would have to evacuate very quickly.
She finished the explain just in time for the shuttle to hit ground and the strike team quickly deployed. After making sure that there was nobody around the LZ, Jane called the Normandy.
"Strike team to Normandy, drop completed, do we have green light?"
"Scans are all clear, Strike-1." Wilhelm reported. "No alerts on enemy activity."
"Copy that. We're moving."
The shuttle had dropped them on the shore of a river, not too far from the mountainous area where the depot was located. The squad had to march for a couple kilometers, during which they received gradually the signals that the other strike teams had also made their drops and were moving against their targets.
The Tambaran clearly weren't expecting anyone to show up, as Jane and her group entered into the gorge they had marked as entry point without any opposition.
"I get it that they control the planet, but I mean...come on." Garrus commented sarcastically.
"Well, I'm in no rush to run into those giant monkeys." Kovalenko said in return.
"It would be better to fight them in the open, rather than in close quarters." Chandraptali reminded.
They proceeded toward the trail that EDI was marking on their Navpoints and found the access they needed into the network of surface caves linked on the two sides of a cascade by a thin stone bridge. And now the scanners were picking up something.
In front of them a pillar, separating a descending path and an ascending one. Deciding that she wanted the advantage of the high ground, Jane motioned the squad to go on the right. Up there, it didn't take long for them to spot a patrol of Tambaran beneath them.
Jane had only seen them in the holograms, for during the war on their first contact, she was just admitted into the N7 program in Rio. Seeing them up close was entirely a different matter. The three aliens were indeed similar to huge primates, slightly bigger than a gorilla clad in plates of armor. The protections were different, for most of them had their face visible and only what seemed to be the leader of the patrol had a more elaborated helmet.
"Switch to piercing ammo." Jane whispered in the comlink and also set the weapons with her omni-tool. The rest of the team followed immediately. "Take position."
The squad used a series of crate and the holes in the cave to spread and be read to shower the Tambaran with a rain of lead.
"Now!" Jane ordered.
The group sprang into action. Garrus happened to be next to her, so the two of them concentrated fire on the leader while the others took out the other three aliens.
The patrol was quickly disposed of, but the shots could be heard even in the next cave, which meant now it was an open confrontation. Not that that mattered much, because the other teams signaled in rapid succession that they were engaging enemies right at that moment.
The Normandy's team pushed forward, fighting their way through another two rooms dug in the rock before reaching the stone bridge, past which they would find the pumps they had to destroy.
They were intercepted by a large patrol of around ten Tambarans, armed with their ordinance weapon: called 'Spiker', a slug-thrower capable of throwing very hot shards of material in the same way most weapons of the galaxy worked. But there was also the leader of the detachment who was wielding the two-hand grenade launcher typical of the Tambaran, which happened to have a very large blade running parallel to the whole weapon and was definitely something even a Krogan would like to keep his distance from.
Luckily for the marines, their shields could take at least one of the explosive shots. Kovalenko was wounded, but by the time the Tambaran leader could change target, the Shepards had already made Swiss cheese of his armor and body with their piercing ammo.
Meanwhile, signals on the allied frequency showed that the stealth cruisers had come out of FTL and caught the Tambaran by surprise. Using the advantage of surprise the captain of the Amerigo, Riccardi, had attacked the alien cruiser when it had its shields down and that was already out of commission, with its bridge destroyed.
Being attacked on four different sites, the Tambaran struggled to put up an organized resistance. The single warriors fought ferociously, but the superior training of the marines and the Legionnaires eventually got the best of them. Soon enough, Jan and her team had found the pumping system and with just a few shots on some of the more sensible canisters they ignited the fire.
Just five minutes later, fending off what was left of the Tambaran as they tried to flee from the burning base, Jane and her team were reached by their Kodiak and quickly extracted from there. In the distance they spotted a huge fireball indicating that Chief and his team had destroyed the underground command center with a pressure bomb. Soon later the other teams also reported their objectives completed with no losses.
The Kodiak sped through the orbit and also had to dodge a couple chunks of Tambaran frigates that were raining down from the low orbit toward the surface.
"This is Admiral Shepard to all teams. Excellent work, people. But I'm afraid we have little to celebrate, yet. Things have rapidly deteriorated on Ilium. We're heading there immediately. Report to your frigates and prepare for redeployment." the voice of her father announced calmly through the comlink.
"Deteriorated?" Sara asked. "How? Our fleet should have been able to hold on at least a few days."
"Beats me. But be ready for anything." Jane grimly concluded.
----------------------------------------
August 20.
Iulius reentered onto the command bridge just in time to see the new carrier coming out of hyperspace.
"Entering the Senex system." the navigation officer announced.
"Ready to engage the cloaking device as soon as we enter real-space." the captain of the ship, an experienced officer called Larek Dasser, ordered to his second officer.
Five seconds later, the new Imperial Escort Carrier Whisperer entered the most important system of the densely populated and materially rich Senex-Juvex Sector, or 'SJ' as it was known among the troops. This sector had a long history of autonomy in galactic history, having being colonized by a group of seventeen noble houses of the Core who then formed the two distinct cultures that gave the name to the sector.
Both cultures had been granted a certain margin of autonomy since the dawn of the Empire, and were left alone since they were content in their own squabbles inside the nebula and sat on a secondary hyperspace lane.
But it wasn't like they were completely isolated: the various houses had in past harbored even some rebel cells, as they saw to weaken the Empire, especially since the start of the war. Some houses would have preferred imperial protection and others were just looking out for themselves. It was an intricate web that Iulius had not the time nor the interest to learn until very recently, when three houses of the Senex sent their emissaries to request the help of the Empire in a civil war that was unfolding inside their borders.
These three Houses were the Elegin, the Garonnin and the Hax. The latter apparently were long lost relatives of another great family of the Core: the Hux, one of the 'Generationals' with a history of naval service thousands of years old. This partially explained why this particular family had decided to side with the Empire.
"Cloaking activated." the second officer reported as he kept his eyes on the monitor.
"Scan for any fleet in the orbit." Iulius ordered.
The crew executed and the second officer replied after around twenty seconds. "We detect multiple contacts engaged in battle. Identified as both Zann Consortium and Crimson Dawn."
Iulius took a look at the visual projections. Two fleets with the colors of their respective affiliations and made up by mixed designs from the Empire, some local ships and even from the mandalorians were shooting at each other over the lower orbit of Senex.
"So the ISB was correct." the Lord-Protector commented. "Good. Captain, bring the ship over the designated landing zone of the planet, I'll inform the infiltration team."
"Yes, sir."
Without wasting any time, followed by Qathora and his Death Troopers, Iulius headed straight toward the main hangar, inside of which he found another project of Namedra that was soon going to be tested: a squadron of new TIE Hunter.
This new TIE had the wings shaped reverse to those of the TIE Interceptor and they were made of S-foils. It was basically an adaptation of the rebel X-Wing.
"Lieutenant Commander Broosh." he called calmly.
A man in a TIE pilot suit, with short brown hair and beard approached and stood rigidly.
That was Teso Broosh. A former student of Fel and member of the 181st Fighter Wing, who had participated in the Haeleus campaign. Now he had been hand-picked by Iulius and recommended by Soontir to form his own squadron, with both members of the 181st and Kyrell's 193rd Wings, to test the new fighters in combat.
"Mount on the fighters and be ready to launch at a moment's notice."
Broosh turned toward his pilots, who were waiting just behind him.
"You heard the Admiral. Get aboard!" the officer said loudly but with the right amount of authority. Then he put on his own helmet and rushed toward his own fighter.
After that, Iulius proceeded toward the front of the hangar. The TIEs were all hanging from the ceiling, but the infiltration team had their transport waiting on the floor.
There stood four soldiers with the same armor as that of Iulius: black painted scout troopers. Three were waiting in line with their assault blasters ready for inspection. The fourth and leader of the team was standing next to them. His helmet was for now removed, reminding to everyone that he wasn't a Human.
"Sergeant Karashk." Iulius greeted the Zabrak, who was holding his sniper rifle by pressing the stock on his right hip.
"Grand Admiral." the alien replied dutifully.
"We're approaching Senex. Remember: our allies on the surface will have a contact waiting for you. Meet with them and provide support in their fight for the capital of the planet."
"You can count on us, sir."
Iulius nodded and took a quick look at their gunship, a new model that had been actually designed by the Carunoans and which the Lord-Protector decided to assign to his brand new special units.
"Remember, troopers. You are storm-commandos. You haven't been trained, but chosen for your prowess and your loyalty. I have the utmost faith in your skills. Still, the battle is half preparation and half sheer luck, so allow me to wish you a good one."
The soldiers clacked their heels, Karashk put his helmet on and then led his squad into the gunship, which then started to heat up the engines.
Iulius then returned to the bridge to ask if there was any suspect movement toward them.
"The pirates are still killing each other, Grand Admiral. It doesn't seem like they noticed us."
"Good. Tilt the ship so the gunship can drop toward the surface."
The new gunship was capable of hiding quite easily from atmospheric sensors, but in the void of space, the pirates could pick up the sudden surge of energy that would have been necessary for the engines to move the vehicle. So Iulius and the captain had come up with a simple solution: the Whisperer entered into the gravitational field of the planet, rotated so the gunship would face directly toward it, then temporarily disengaged the artificial gravity in the room and all the pilot had to do was push the directional thrusters a little bit and the ship was falling down toward the surface.
At that point, the carrier restored the gravity and it was time to analyze the situation of the battle.
The Zann Consortium seemed slightly in advantage, since they still had a Vengeance-class frigate, a design stolen from the mandalorians, but even that bigger ship was severely damaged. The Crimson Dawn was certainly not budging, and as both sides only brought frigates and corvettes, both sides were fighting very closely to contend the space infrastructures.
Iulius watched and hummed in thought. Without turning he asked Qathora how far the vanguard of the fleet would arrive.
"ETA 5 minutes and 30 seconds." she replied.
He pondered for another second, then turned toward the officer next to him. "Captain Dasser, prepare the ship for combat."
The Captain nodded and delivered the order to the bridge. A moment later, the alarm resonated ten times inside the ship, urging all personnel to combat stations. Iulius waited until they were completely ready, then he gave the first order.
"Send Claw Squadron outside. Let's see if the pirates get the bait."
The order was relayed and less than a minute later, Iulius himself could see the TIE Hunters speeding toward the bow of the ship, thus passing in front of the viewport.
The TIEs were tasked with simply let themselves be seen and draw at least a small group of pirates for the test, and as fate would have it, the mercs of the Consortium just couldn't resist easy imperial targets. A squadron of Star-Viper fighters accompanied by an Interceptor IV-class frigate headed against the TIEs.
The pirates had clearly not noticed that they were facing new models of TIEs, or if they noticed, they probably assumed that they were only some recon gear, not good for dogfights.
They probably didn't even have the time to regret the decision, for the Hunters, piloted by veteran pilots, made short work of them. The agility, the firepower and the shields of the new models even surpassed the TIE Avenger.
Iulius couldn't help but think that he had found the last piece for the next generation of imperial starfighters: the TIE Defender to supplant the Bomber, the Avenger to supplant the Fighter, and now the Hunter to supplant the Interceptor.
Now, if only he was given the resources to build them...
"Recall the fighters and prepare your weapons." he ordered to the Captain.
Promptly as asked, and likely understanding what the Grand Admiral was up to, Broosh guided his squadron back, baiting the frigate toward the carrier, which was still keeping her cloaking up.
"All yours, Captain." Iulius calmly said.
"Prepare a three-t salvo. Power up the bow cannon." Dasser ordered.
The 't' stood for torpedoes. The IEC had three tubes on both sides, designed to take out small threats like that frigate. In the meantime, the latter kept chasing and firing at the TIEs that were quickly outpacing her.
Dasser waited until the frigate passed right next to the carrier without the sensors picking anything and gave the order.
The torpedoes flared up in the void, the cloaking was removed to give power to weapons and shields, but the frigate barely had the time to notice. The missiles exploded into her port side, and since her shields were focused on the front, in case one of the Hunters had tried an attack run, they met the armor with full force.
The Interceptor IV was basically a long rectangle, with the middle being thinner than the bow and the engines, now it was barely holding them together.
A turbolaser fired from the bow cannon of the Whisperer finished the job and cracked it in two.
"Excellent job, Captain." Iulius complimented.
The Captain made a quick nod, clearly proud of his work, then focused again on the surroundings.
"Grand Admiral, our reinforcements have arrived." the sensor officer reported.
Immediately after the first ships of the imperial expedition came out of hyperspace. First the Corvus, then three Lancers, four Victory-class, two Vindicator and, finally, the Admonitor. Iulius had decided to bring a single Star Destroyer for this campaign, mostly because Steve was installed aboard her and he could use the help of the advanced AI.
The imperial flotilla started gathering for an attack against the pirates, but both those sides had certainly not missed the arrival of a Star Destroyer and, seeing no point in waiting for their destruction, they started fleeing, though they didn't miss firing at each other from time to time.
Iulius called the bridge of the Admonitor and Ciena replied shortly after.
"What are the orders, Grand Admiral?" she asked dutifully.
"Take position over the planetary capital, Commander. I want the pirated on the surface to believe we're about to storm the city."
"So they won't look for the commandos, got it." the young woman replied with a satisfied tone.
"Don't get your head too big just because you can read the almost obvious." Iulius replied with a smirk.
Ciena chuckled in silence, then turned toward the bridge to relay the order to Colmas.
The day was still long, after all: assuming Karashk and his team succeeded, the landing force would have to fight to meet with the militias of the imperial faction of the Senex and then help them take the capital.
At least the new ships had given a great performance. Iulius made a mental reminder to compliment the crew of the Whisperer and the pilots, then he would have to send a message to Namedra to do the same.
-------------------------------------------
August 30.
Traveling for weeks deep into the imperial territory felt like they had returned to the times of Phoenix Cell. Hiding from everyone everywhere they went. At least the new refueling module of the Constantinople was working perfectly and the Ghost could be used as they intended.
Just now, the freighter was docking with the frigate, allowing Hera, Zeb, Kallus, Sabine, Chopper and Ezra to come aboard.
Jordan and Jaral were waiting for them in the strategic room along with the three MI6 officers. The Padawans of the siblings were watching from the upper ramp of the room, preferring to wait and only intervene if they felt like doing so.
"Hope you got lucky." Jordan commented, implicitly asking them what they found in their raid on that imperial convoy.
"There is no such thing as luck." Ezra replied. "As Darvos told us, all we had to do was follow the supply lines."
"That transport was heading for the system of Nouane, and it was moving a lot of stuff." Zeb reported.
"Nouane only has a few mining colonies. It is a good place if you want to hide something."
"Do you have the coordinates, Kallus?" Jaral asked in return.
"Of course. And I suggest we move quickly." the former imperial agent replied, reaching for the nearest keyboard he found. He dialed in the stellar coordinates of Nouane, which then appeared on the small galaxy map. It was a world in the Inner Rim, quite close to the Core.
"Jinx, you and Mazak set a course immediately." Jordan ordered.
The AI sent a positive beep. While it and Mazak set the course, the rest of the group started discussing what they were searching for and what they had found so far.
They knew for sure that Palpatine was pouring a lot of resources and effort into finding another way for him to become immortal, and the Jedi were working tightly with Ahsoka's and her network to find any hint over where he was gathering the various artifacts that had been stolen by his agents.
In the last few weeks the crew of the Constantinople had been raiding, spying and meeting with Republic sympathizers all around the imperial territory, and they found out that there were huge amounts of materials being sent to Nouane.
"But if Palpatine is planning to go to that planet in the Unknown Regions, why would he choose a starting point so far from the frontier?" Jordan asked as they discussed all of this.
"It could be that he's trying to hide it even from the imperial highest echelons." Undir supposed. "We already confirmed that the Death Star was known only to a select few, if you exclude the workers, of course."
"That's right." Lissia commented. "And here we are talking about dark secrets of the Force. Aside from his closest followers, I doubt most imperial officers could be trusted with keeping such a secret."
"I guess we'll find out only when we reach the target." Jordan sentenced. "In the meantime, let's catch our breaths."
The trip lasted nearly four hours. With the Ghost linked with the frigate, the Specters spent that time chatting, playing cards, or even reading one of the short books aboard the Constantinople in the case of Kallus.
Then they arrived around the system. The ship left hyperspace at a safe distance for the sensors and engaged the cloaking device.
The Nouane system was comprised of just three planets, one of which was a gas giant, and the most peculiar aspect of the system was that it was literally full of asteroids, some as big as moons but most quite small, and they were all rich in minerals of strategic importance. Most of the mining operations were done on the surface of the two solid planets, since these asteroids tended to easily slam on the surface of those, where it was easier to mine them.
"I really can't see how you could build anything in this system." Zeb commented.
"No, there's something here. I feel it." Ezra replied seriously.
Both his and Jaral's gazes were fixated into a specific direction.
"You think Palpatine is here?" Jordan asked, barely managing to hide a hint of hope.
"No." Jaral replied sternly. "Actually, we can't feel anything related to the Dark Side...but the Force tells us that there is a major threat over there." she added, pointing a finger in the direction she was looking toward, more or less on the right of the viewport.
Trusting his kids, Jordan turned toward Jinx's terminal in the cockpit. "Jinx, scan the area and see what there could be."
A minute later, the AI reported. "In that direction there is one of the three biggest asteroids of the system, the only areas where the smaller bodies are kept in a relative order by the mass of the majors. I detect a few signals, but they are garbled. They are imperial, however, that I can assure."
"All right, then." said Jordan, patting a friendly hand on Rut's shoulder. "Time to shine, Rut. Take us there, but with calm. We don't want to be spotted all of a sudden."
"Leave that to me." the Salarian replied.
With the necessary caution, the helmsman indeed brought the Constantinople toward the destination. Avoiding the smaller but still dangerous asteroids was not easy, but Rut pulled it off anyway.
And then, they finally spotted the origin of those signals.
"Oh, Karabast..." Zeb mumbled in terrified awe.
"Got that out of my mouth." Kallus added with the same emotion.
In front of them there was the unsettling vision of a massive group of imperial ships, orbiting around a large space station with two shipyards. An almost endless stream of shuttles and Gozanti small cruisers were loading up supplies onto the major ships.
"This is not an exodus." Jordan noted with a clear tone. "This is a fleet ready for invasion." he turned his head toward the seat of his second-in-command. "Raniza, make some videos and send them immediately to UACT Command."
"Yes, sir." Raniza replied, snapping out of her own astonishment to do what she had just been told.
"All right." Zeb added. "We found them. The fleet knows they're coming. Let's move along and keep looking for the Emperor."
"Nice try, Zeb." Sabine commented not very enthusiast herself. "But I don't think those three are satisfied in the slightest."
"Precisely." Jordan replied candidly. "We need to find where they are going to strike, or our fleet will have a hard time reacting."
"Jinx, see if you can intercept their transmissions." Jaral at first suggested.
The construct stood with his humanoid projection over its terminal, but after a few seconds it bleeped red. "Warning. I detect the presence of a hostile AI aboard one of the Star Destroyers. Is protecting the entire imperial network."
"An Imperial AI?...like that Steve?" Jordan asked.
"Affirmative. Any attempt from me to infiltrate their transmission would most likely fail."
Jordan looked outside of the viewport, and in particular at the ring-shaped space station in the middle of the imperial fleet. That place would have been loaded with intel, but it was out of the question to even think of passing through all those warships without being discovered even with all of their stealth technology.
So he spotted something else that drew his attention.
"Look. That Vindicator at the edge of formation is close enough to that asteroid. I will use the latter to push myself with the directional jets into the ship. Get aboard, take a look at their plans and get out."
"Sounds crazy enough to work. We are coming with." Jaral said, clearly saying that she and Ezra wouldn't take a no for answer.
"I suppose I won't convince you otherwise. All right, remember the silencers, if possible we need to get inside and out without them noticing, or they will now that they lost surprise." Jordan explained. "Raniza, the ships is all yours. Hera, get the Legionnaires and the Padawans, stand ready to intervene in case things go south."
"You can count on us." the Twi'lek reassured.
"All right, kids. Let's go. Rut, take us as close as you can."
Everyone got at work immediately. First, Gutierrez, Michalina and Thabo geared up and reached the main access door on Deck 2, where the Ghost was docked, while the Bridgers instead headed for the hangar. Once the Ghost was detached, the Constantinople could activate her visual cloaking, making the approach to the asteroid much easier, and the Bridgers jumped down at the right moment.
Jordan had decided to keep the Constantinople at a distance from the fleet just in case the imperial AI detected any smallest anomaly on the sensors of the flagship, but the simple release of vapor from the armors of the Bridgers just wouldn't appear on the sensors of any advanced synthetic.
And so, just like old times when they had to fight in the shade, father and children managed to hang themselves onto a blind spot on the Vindicator frigate, cut their way into the maintenance shafts and sneak aboard, with Jinx keeping track of where they were, it was easy for them to head toward the command bridge. Yet, while they were alternating the use of their cloaking device and the siblings' ability to detect any sentient beings behind a corner, the group stumbled upon a couple of stormtroopers on guard duty chatting among them.
"I don't care much. Finally we bring retribution to those damned rebels and their invader friends."
The other sighed. "Hoping that this ship doesn't get blown up right away. We're literally on a moving cannon fodder."
"Admiral Rax will see us through. He has the blessing of the Emperor, after all."
"The vets say the Hydian Way is a killing zone. So...yeah, we might need a lot of blessings."
The troopers kept talking, but the Bridgers had heard enough and pulled themselves into a corner.
"So they're attacking the Hydian Way." Ezra whispered.
"It's not enough. Are they really just going to attack frontally?" Jaral replied in the same undertone.
"Yeah, I don't believe that too. For now...Jinx, send this data to your processor on the Constantinople and relay it to High Command."
"Yes, Jordan."
"Come on, let's get to the bridge."
They kept going and reached the bridge. Luckily, they didn't need to get into the section of the viewport, where they couldn't possibly not be spotted. All they needed was a backdoor access to the database.
Unfortunately, even though they found one, Jinx couldn't find any secret directive: that frigate was destined to go fight on the frontline of the Hydian Way, over the planet Corsin, currently under the control of the New Republic. If there was a secret plan, clearly this ship wasn't a part of it.
At least they found the name of the man in charge of this operation: Admiral Gallius Rax.
Resigned to the fact that they couldn't get anything more in the current situation, Jordan decided to pull out. Like the Specters they were, the Bridgers once again used their ability to sneak around and their cloaks to drop themselves out into space and get picked up by the Ghost without the imperials noticing, after which, the two allied ships left the system with a warning for the Coalition. The war was about to enter another gruesome phase.