Gate: Thus, the Kovenant Empire fought there.

Act 4, Part 1

Skrosamzy and his troops had arrived sooner than they had expected, well ahead of schedule, in fact. While the third platoon was far from combat ineffective and had even brought along more than their usual amount of weapons and ammunition, they were surprised to find that not even a single Saderan harrying force had been sent to stop and confront them, not that they were surprised, perhaps the Saderans had no reason to do so. The thought quickly escaped Skrosamzy's mind, he looked at his platoon and said.
"Sargeant Conrad, you and your squad are with me, Lelei, stay close by, we're close to the anomaly."

"Acknowledge, we're taking the vanguard." The squad shuffled out of their half-tracks and took up a vanguard position, the rest of the platoon spread out, securing the area and setting up forward mortar positions, Skrosamzy's orders.
He would be lying to himself if he said he didn't expect the siege not to be bloody, it was bound to happen and he knew it, he could smell the blood in the air even though none had been spilled yet. He closed his eyes, then walked off to join Conrad and his squad, he had always assumed the worst would come from a world like this, then again, he never had any reason to assume otherwise. Perhaps it's better this way.

"Hey, uh... Lieutenant? What about our dog? You know, Derek?" Asked Jojo.
Just then that same dog peaked out from the half-track, tongue out and patiently waiting.

"Oh, leave Derek with the rest of the platoon, she won't be of much help in this case, now move."

The Kovenant troops quickly made their way up the old, beaten path. Skrosamzy and Lelei managed to get up to where the Sargeant was, the blue-haired mage spoke up.
"I should tell you something, no cavalry harassment probably means that the senate is in panic."

Luna's cat ears perked up, tilting her head some, she grabbed her weapon.
"Why's that?"

"Because the cavalry is a mobile force and is fast, good for escorting people." Lelei's staff found itself being pointed in the direction of the Saderan capital.
"The Saderans probably know we are coming, they have a lot of eyes and ears, so the fact that the cavalry hasn't harassed us even once is strange until you consider the fact that the Senate must be keeping the cavalry in reserve, either to flee or try something else... Like say, putting pressure on a certain Emperor."

"Smart." Bruno admitted. "Oh yes, and since you are a local, we'll let you and Conrad do all the talking, the others are just gonna stand by."

"I understand."

Michael and Bernhard smiled at each other, the end was near, surely all they had to do was perform this simple encirclement.
Just as their smiles were about to reach their greatest extent, Bernhard's smile disappeared when he felt something sticky on his boot.
"Ugh, oh man, gross!"
"What happened?"
"Michael, I think I stepped on an animal's... You know!"

Jojo and Susie went over and took a look, but what they saw instead wasn't what they were expecting, the pair fell silent for some time until Pearl walked up to them.
"Hey, what's the hold-up?"
When she got to their side, she recoiled in shock.
"Wow!"

Eventually, Bernhard looked down and realized the scope of the situation.
What he had thought to be the leftovers of some animal turned out to be something else, obscured by the foliage, it was blood and spilled guts, so much of it. Most people would have thrown up by now, but being the experienced soldier that he was, Bernhard handled himself well and simply stepped out of it, if, admittedly with a disgusted look on his face.
"Ugh. I thought I had enough of stepping on other people's guts in our previous campaigns."

"It's not just that..." Pearl looked around, the device on her hand revealing a sickening scene all around them, forever obscured by the forest.
"There's dead people all around us, from the looks of it they were simply left on the spot where they died. Hey, sarge, I think we should proceed with caution."