A/N: Chapter five officially begins the battle at the Southern frontline, showcasing the start of combat, while chapter six will finish it off. Chapters seven and eight will set up and conclude the battle on the western frontline. I will be updating once a week for the next four weeks.

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Southern Frontline, Serenity Valley, Planet Hera

“Move. Move. MOVE!” Lieutenant Joseph Power cried out, his words spurring those nearest to him into a frenzy of activities. The Lieutenant himself grabbed his M16 rifle with his left hand, kicked dirt into the small fire he had built with his right foot, and pressed the radio communication button with his right thumb. The forward scouts had reported that the Alliance was moving out of their base, regiment-strength, and the extra commotion inside the base itself suggests that a full frontal assault was being mobilized. Lt. Powers spoke into his radio, “all units, we got incoming!”

Along the southern Independent frontline, small fires winked out as the men made ready for the coming engagement. Since the frontline was established a week ago, the Alpha, Charlie, and Easy Companies of 3rd Battalion made camp just behind the line of foxholes dug on the hill that rose into a mountain behind them and sloped down onto the flat valley floor before them, resting in sleeping bags under the starry sky. The weather had been accommodating, and aside from daily skirmishes with Alliance probing elements, the men might even describe their deployment as being pleasant.

They were later joined by two Companies of the 58th Reserved, bringing the total number of defenders up to a thousand men along the frontline. When the Alliance shuttles started landing heavy machinery that looked suspiciously like artillery pieces, the men expended their individual foxholes to connect with neighboring foxholes, creating isolated tracts of trenches and fortifying them with sandbags on the parapet. Luckily, the artillery shelling never came, and the frontline became more elaborate as squads dug passage