Disclaimer – Everything either does belong to Joss or it should. I’m just borrowing his shiny ‘verse for a while.

The 21st Lancers belong to the British Army so I’m borrowing them too. I hope they don’t mind.

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“Policy is the intelligent faculty, war is only the instrument, not the reverse. The subordination of the military view to the political is therefore the only thing possible”

Karl Von Clausewitz – On War 1832

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Fort Obsidian – Beyond the Outer Rim – 2522AD

‘The way we win the war will be the deciding factor on whether we win the peace’ Captain Decker insisted. ‘It’s all very well talking about blasting Londinium back into the stone age but if we go ahead with that kind of mass slaughter there just won’t be room for negotiation afterwards. We’ll just end up fighting until one side runs out of people to put on the firing line.’

‘Do you know how many of our people, our civilians , were killed in the last war?’ Colonel Taylor asked coldly. ‘The bastards used biochemical weapons for Gods sake, whole neighbourhoods, towns even, wiped out without a hope of resistance. If we get the upper hand I say nuke them till they glow.’

‘If we just wanted vengeance we should have just gone ahead with the mission after Hera fell and razed the Core’ Major Brown said. ‘Our opportunity here is to win the war and the peace not just to slake a thirst for revenge Colonel.’

Captain Raine had been re-reading the projected casualty reports. ‘Given the likely level of collateral damage estimated here are we sure that this alone won’t provoke a military response against our civil population? We’re not just talking a couple of dozen accidental fatalities here you realise.’

The Intelligence Officer shook his head. ‘Not if we make it abundantly clear that if they want to start city-busting we are more than ready to undertake retaliatory strikes. If the Hydrogen Bombs start falling those big Core cities will make a very good target a fact they are certainl