Making my way through the camp, I gathered my second in command, Skaja, from her power nap and made my way to the front of the camp.

Changing my tactical rock for a tactical tank. I climbed aboard the tank, while admiring its similar yet futuristic design of tanks I was familiar with before standing up straight and addressing the masses with Psionic amplification.

"Brothers and sisters!" I shouted, drawing the attention of thousands in a moment. I then pointed behind me to the fortress in the distance.

"The weak and cowardly Drakoshi have dared to attempt to lay siege to one of our worlds! They dare to build their buildings on our sovereign soil! We shall not let this stand! No! We shall deny them their ’claim’ on this world.

Will will deny them victory this day and the days to come, as we have denied victory to all enemies of Spartari for millennia!

You are the Phalanx! The brave sons and daughters of our empire! The shield between alien tyranny and freedom! So we do not fight for ourselves this day! We fight. So all the sacrifice of our forefathers. Our ancestors. Was not in vain.

We fight! So the human spirit lives on! We fight! Because we must! For our homes! For our families! For Spartari!

Now join me brothers and sisters! Let us march on and greet these Drakoshi with our wrath! Let them have a taste of our empire’s ancient vengeance!"

A wave of cheers suddenly rang out followed by. "AOU! AOU! AOU!"

Nerissa next to me then spoke up. "My lord, it sounds like you have overcome your fear of public speaking!"

I then turned to her, confusion written all over my face. "I already gave it? What did I say? I think I blacked out because there are so many people looking at me. I then looked back out at the excited Phalanx, ignoring the baffled look Nerissa was giving me and sighed in relief.

"Well, looks like they enjoyed it." I muttered to myself before yelling out to a nearby centurion.

"We March as soon as we are ready!"

The Centurion saluted before orders began to relay throughout the camp and across communications. It was time to enact my battle plan.

...

As the tanks began rolling up and positioning themselves throughout the ranks in a spread out checkerboard formation. I nodded to myself.

The current spartari codex of war is very much in favour of the human wave approach when it comes to assault warfare and I didn’t blame them. With countless worlds to recruit and conscript from. They could replenish losses in a day and begin to train new Phalanx. Some planets’ whole purpose was to breed soldiers from what I heard in my snooping.

The usual battle strategy was to send in a wave and have that followed up with a small contingent of heavy armour acting as rear support.

I wasn’t doing that. When I brought up my plan of mixed unit engagement, the other generals thought it outdated and ludicrously expensive to waste good tanks on the frontline...

I lectured them on what tanks were actually supposed to be for and it was like I was talking gibberish. All they could think about was the cost of making one... They put material over lives.

If a tank does get destroyed, a great portion of it is still salvageable after the fight and its parts can be used to make another tank. A bullet in the wrong place of a troop and poof! Gone.

This went back and forth for a while until I simply stated. ’I am a sentinel, costs don’t matter in this war, ok?’ And after that, they were all for the plan. They even started using their brains and began to help setting up the right way to spread out the infantry between the tanks for minimal casualties.

In my peripheral vision, one of the Castellans began to move. Their job was simple in this battle. One was already heading south with the other force, while one stayed here. Upon spotting that giant Drakoshi mech, they were to rendezvous with each other and rain down bombardment upon it.

They were permitted to only use their small weapons against the Drakoshi, nothing bigger than autocannons.

The rest of the knights and the knight order I had given full control to Cassian. He knew his order better than I did and he would know where to best place his troops. And my decision was correct.

The knights were no cowards. His pages and squires were mixed in with the Phalanx, though a few tank columns back. No matter how sound my tactics were, the first wave was the first wave...

He along with his knights though. THey were taking alternate positions within the checkerboard, with Cassian taking the front line. His sword and decorated shield would be a great morale booster.

Noticing my gaze upon him. Cassian walked over to me and saluted. "Lord Sentinel, I have a request, if you would honour me by listening?"

"Speak, Cassian."

The mech drove its sword into the ground and pounded its chassis before waving someone over.

Looking to where he waved. A fellow knight approached holding what looked to be a pole with a flag attached to it? Though the flag looked more like a tapestry with its ornate detailing. Some of the golds and silvers around the centre red eight pointed star, their order symbol, looked like they were made out of the real stuff.

I decided to ignore the fleur de Lys looking patterns on the corners and marked it off as another coincidence before Cassian spoke.

"My Lord, while you are not of our order. To have you, a sentinel, lead our order standard into battle would be a tremendous honour. It would make your already large frame stand out even more when strapped on your back. Soldiers in the rear would see your standard still flying high and would keep the hope and determination in their hearts roaring loud!"

I got down off the tank and turned to Cassian. "The honour would be mine, Cassian. Your order has shown great valour in the short time we have known one another. Affix it."

A few moments of large metal hands whacking me on the back, the standard was affixed. It was as tall as I was so with it halfway up my body I really stood out now. "How do I look?" I asked those nearby. Cassian was silent, I think I heard sniffling through his modulator, so I ignored... That.

I then turned to Skaja who was nodding her head and unfurled her golden wings. "You look majestic Apollo. Back bling is also a positive in my book. Makes you stand out."

I chuckled at her comment. "Yes, I can see why you would think that Skaja."

Sithrik, who had been silent and invisible for a while with all the humans about, showed herself atop the tank and spoke. "Darling, the ornament makes you look far more imposing. The artificial height will surely have psychological effects against the enemy."

I then turned to Nerissa and smiled at her. "Ness? Thoughts?

...

Nerissa felt her heart beating fast as her gaze lingered on Apollo. She felt like something was wrong with her, but her armour systems were simply stating she had an elevated heartbeat and nothing more.

’It must be a side effect of this second bloom? It must.’ She thought to herself before realising Apollo just asked her a question and she still had not answered.

Giving him another look over she felt her heartbeat continue to soar, this wouldn’t do. Why was he looking at her like that?

She needed to make it stop.

...

"You look incredible Apollo! Spectacular! Oh look, I think we are about to start our assault. Let’s get ready to move!"

I nodded at Nerissa’s high octane response as I watched her walk to the front of the column. Her new wave of bloom must have her pumped full of energy, this would be good, the Drakoshi had even less chance to survive now.

Turning to Cassian, I had one more request though. "Cassian, If I may? Could I ask a favour?"

The knight commander saluted, "Of course, my lord, ask away."

I proceeded to point up at the standard. "Well, with this thing on my back and me being right on the front line, I am pretty sure I am going to get shot at, a lot. Any chance I could... ’Requisition’ a knight shield? The smallest one you have preferably as I can manage the weight, but anything the size of yours would be a wee bit too unwieldy."

"!!!"

Cassian suddenly jolted before turning to the other mech and excitedly yelled. "Quartermaster Quintis, Fetch my buckler. It would be perfect for our Sentinel here."

The Quartermaster saluted before storming off.

"A buckler?" I asked and Cassian nodded.

"Oh yes, war loot from an Orpik mech I slayed over a decade ago. It’s made of Damatrium as those aliens, I will begrudgingly admit, are very adept at crafting with it, but we did it up and made it one of my tools of war. I haven’t used it in years though. I prefer a larger shield to a buckler, but for you, it should be a perfect gift."

The quartermaster returned hastily with this ’buckler’ and my eyes went wide. Not by its intricate design, an eight pointed star, just like the order symbol nor by the incredibly ornate decorations upon it.

But the fact that as I took hold of the ’buckler’ It was no such thing. To me, it was a great thick metal Hoplon that could cover a great portion of my body. It was perfect.