What was war like?

The first time he participated in a ground attack was during a battle at Shian.

Mordau had urged him to do so; to recapture that planet, he said, it would be so much easier to take the military base that had been established and cut them off from reinforcements.

It wasn't as though it was the first time he had killed.

It was much easier.

It didn't hurt as badly.

Later, he agonized in the shower, begging Mordau to pull the bullets out of him; fearful they would leave scars. The water ran thick and smelled so much of his own blood he felt he would choke.

" It's not- It won't scar, Lyena-Nova," Mordau soothed, though his hands were coated with blood as well. " It'll be healed within the next month or so."

Within the next day or so, they had cleaned up all the corpses, all the different colors of blood streaking the hallways like paint.

During the peace treaty negotiations, the DASS had quietly requested that Shian be restored to their territory, and they called it Ruxiam-3.