title: The Battle for Eire
author:  Kieran Wasserman 
description: Kieran Wasserman is from Saginaw, Michigan, where he attends Nouvel Catholic Central High. A triplet, he enjoys the company of his two siblings, Brien and Eilis. He wishes in the future to become a well-known novelist, with high hopes for his first work, <i>The Battle For Eire</i>.
zlib_text: ![](images/00015.jpg)
  
  ![](images/00016.jpg)
  
  Crimson Tears
  
  Ben Counter
  
  ENTYMION IV WAS quiet.
  
  Colonel Sathis couldn't even hear the insects here. The indistinct rumbling of
  his Chimera APCs, following some way behind his command vehicle squadron, all
  but drowned out the faint wind. Even the hoofbeats of the Rough Riders' mounts
  were louder than the sounds of the planet itself. Sathis could see the Rough
  Riders scattered up the sides of the valley through which his force was
  travelling, men from the 97th Urgrathi Lancers, whose supposedly obsolete
  methods of cavalry warfare made them excellently suited to scouting out
  unknown territory.
  
  And everything about Entymion IV was unknown.
  
  Sathis took a practiced look at the terrain. He had good all-round visibility
  here, but further ahead that became less and less likely. 'Stop us here,' he
  ordered to the driver of his command-pattern Salamander.
  
  The vehicle ground to a halt and the silence was almost total. Sathis climbed
  down from the