- Professor Leo Caesius. War in a time of ‘Peace:’ The Empire’s Forgotten Military History. Thomas ducked as a bullet cracked through the air above his head, then unhooked a grenade from his belt and tossed it towards where he estimated the shooter to be lurking. There was an explosion; he jumped up and ran down the corridor, weapon in hand, looking for the enemy combatant. But there was nothing left of him, apart from bloody stains on the wall. He sighed as he caught his breath. Four days of hard fighting had allowed them to penetrate the next set of fortifications within the Zone, which the insurgents were fighting desperately to hold at all costs. Each building had been turned into a fortress, with multiple firing positions and reinforced walls, linked into a series of interlocking defence posts. Clearing them out cost time and lives, while the enemy fell back, then counterattacked with increasing force. They’d even dug a warren of tunnels under the Zone, allowing them to slip their people past the front line and pop up in the rear. One attack had nearly wiped out an entire local formation that wasn't watching its back carefully enough.
