"This is Jansara Haus for Interstellar Hyperweb News, reporting live and in real-time to those connected to the Tachyon Relay Net, from the surface of Aegis II. At 05.30 CAT, the deadline set by the Aegian Republic and delivered to the Pact-9 Insurgency seven days ago elapsed, its conditions not met. At 06.15 CAT, the remaining loyalist Aegian Armed Forces, in conjunction with corporate military forces contracted from Valorcorp, launched ''Operation Jericho' - a coordinated land and air strike towards the Insurgency stronghold of Kal Valorn.

Leading the Valorcorp military assistance effort is Major Jax Valkyr, Commanding Officer of the 14th Aerospace Marine Company. While neither I or any of my colleagues were able to catch Major Valkyr for an interview before she departed for the front lines, we were able to capture this image of her in action, in what will no doubt become one of the iconic images and propaganda pieces of this war.

We'll bring you more news and live reports later in the morning, but for now this has been IHN, live from Aegis II."

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Wow, it's been quite a while since I did one of these! Up until the end of last year, I used to produce narrative themed photoart like this quite frequently, but work and then writing kind of sent them on the back-burner. Despite it being my day off from being creative, I got the twitch and the urge to do so anyway and put together this battle scene in Photoshop, staring the Second Life version of my sharksona, Jax Valkyr. Felt extremely rusty so starting off small, but I'm quite happy with this, the first in a series of linked 'Battle for Aegis II' set-pieces I'll be putting together.

Usual Disclaimer: I do not claim to be the creator of any avatars, textures, sims used as backdrops/scenes or objects/accessories/props used in my photoart, unless explicitly specified. Those are the creations of very talented people, and any copyrights lie solely with those, and the credit for the skill in doing so. I claim only the talent and skill, such as it may be, in modifying my avatars and accessorising them from my Second Life inventory and creating characters, scenes and stories from them, framing the shots, editing them, applying artistic effects and creating any flavour text/themes/accompanying fiction, with the photos that I take.

Written fiction, Jax Valkyr and editing for theme © Myself

Stock smoke and dust brushes © Redheadstock