As Retholis and Orsethii argued far above, the crowds grew wilder down below. To the alarm of the numerous security forces posted up around the towers, the protest groups grew larger and larger in size. More and more Sanguine Fundamentalists poured into the lines and packed the streets.More signs, more shouting, more guns.But what was worse than the increased numbers was that those who joined all wore heavy dark red armor. Not only that, but the security forces’ sensors detected more and more military-grade weaponry, from charged slug repeaters to electrostatic throwers to shoulder-mounted launchers.Tension filled each of the security force commanders as they watched the Fundamentalists’ numbers rise. Their nerves blew apart the moment the fundamentalists started shooting.

The fighting down below was still incredibly fierce. The Sanguine Fundamentalists had concentrated on sections of a few walls and literally blasted short tunnels through them. Many had even begun to charge through the breaches, but typically met concentrated defensive fire from all of the security forces behind the walls.Despite the fissures, the majority of the fighting still occurred just outside the high walls. Out there, the streets had been filled with tens of thousands of armed and armored Sanguine Fundamentalists, all of whom screamed bloody murder.It was all so chaotic and messy and completely out of their capacity to deal with that almost no-one even noticed the explosions far above their heads. Hell, it was so far away that they couldn’t even detect them - they had their own explosions and gu

Five Years LaterTowering flames engulfed nearly a quarter of the city. Its once-beautiful skyline had become jagged and uneven and blackened with soot. Many of its tallest buildings had been turned into its largest piles of rubble instead.More critically, many of the city’s blocks had been utterly flattened by crashed warships. There was a cruiser, a handful of destroyers, and a dozen frigates all scattered everywhere. Each of them tore up massive swaths of the city and left huge craters and trenches wherever they fell.Their hulls were split open and exposed, which revealed the shattered and mangled interiors. It didn’t matter if the ship was from the Hegemony or the Empire, the result was the same.Also scattered throughout the city were the wrecks of hundreds of fighters and

Taloren Prime, Throne System, Imperial Domain of the Boundless DrogarFelothi, the long-reformed Sanguine Fundamentalist, sat on a long, comfortable couch in the middle of his family’s small but cozy hab. He was joined by his wife and two children, happily.They had spent many years in the same habitat, through thick and thin, and grew into it nicely. Before, all they had were bare walls and sparse furnishings. Now there were shelves full of knick-knacks, souvenirs, trinkets, and random memories. The walls had all kinds of art displayed on them, and the corners had beautiful drooping plants growing out of tall pots. There were also thin carpets that circled around the main room’s wall, which gave the space an incredible amount of coziness.Though they didn’t have much,

An Imperial mecha squadron skated across the industrial city. Or rather, the ruins that used to be an industrial city. Everything all around them from the largest fabrication bays to the smallest machine sheds had been completely annihilated.Their coral facades and armor plating had been cut apart and blown wide open, usually from the top down. Whatever structures inside had also suffered equal amounts of damage and had been wrenched open.Very few walls and structures were even upright and whole - most had been shattered and broken and collapsed outright.More critically, whatever weapons of war that were being created in each of the buildings were also blasted apart. Numerous hovertanks had been splayed open and blasted apart. Others had their frames and parts reduced to useless debris.