My honor guard took point at both sides of the boarding ramp. This campaign had lasted far longer than any of the predictive algorithms had led us to believe it would. A minor colony of the Greater Terran Republic, Stratsvi was supposed to be a light skirmish yet it had dragged on to consume three months and 200,000 of 350,000 subjugation force all against the 80,000 strong Terran garrison. A strategic failure by every measure but a tentative victory regardless. I had personally made my way to the planet's surface to try and understand why such a blunder took place. The general staff directed me to this spot as "all the explanation I would need." Curious I acquiesced and made a detour to the spot before beginning the full tour.

The smell hit me first. The smell of rot and decay so commonly associated with battlefields. I looked about seeing heavy machinery scooping up countless cadavers and pushing them into the trenches they once occupied. They would be buried in their fortifications to save time. Yet even with the industrial effort the field was still covered with the dead.

"Kinsmen." I called out.

"Yes Esteemed one?"

"For what purpose did so many die here?" The soldier became visibly uncomfortable at this query.

"That, my liege..." his outstretched talon pointed to the elevated position behind me.

One thing stood out amongst the carnage. A metal pole, bent and twisted beyond any form of use, braced by several dozen corpses keeping it aloft even in death. It jutted out defiantly from atop the hill so many had died to capture, as if even now the ground was still defended by the Terrans. Tied to the very top of the pole, a tattered cloth fluttered in the wind. A symbol emblazoned upon its torn surface could barely be made out.

A Terran Hand.

The symbol of the Greater Terran Republic.

I turned back to the soldier, "You mean to tell me the cause of all the death we see here is because of that tattered flag?"

"Yes, my liege. The humans would not let it fall. No matter how many we felled they refused to let us capture this point. This is apparently the place where the first settlers of this world made planetfall. We believe the defenders derived inspiration from that flag."

I surveyed the field once more and felt the sweat bead upon my brow.

"I have brought us into war against a race of insane fanatics..."

As the words left my mouth several dozen Terran ships exited ftl in low orbit.

I could not help but laugh at the flag that waved on in front of me.