The fgship was retreating.

  Burning hard for open space above Arrakis.

  Below it, the sky was chaos.

  Harkonnen fighters were bleeding fuel and fire as they tried to disengage. For every one that broke away, an ornithopter was already cutting across its path. Missiles traded at close range. The explosions came so fast they overpped, one detonation barely fading before the next lit the sky.

  A Harkonnen fighter banked hard trying to shake an ornithopter on its tail. It almost worked. Almost.

  The ornithopter pilot didn't follow the turn. He predicted it. The missile was already in the air before the Harkonnen pilot realized his mistake.

  Another fireball joined the night sky.

  But not every exchange went one way. Two ornithopters broke apart under concentrated fire from three Harkonnen ships covering the fgship's retreat.

  Debris rained towards the desert.

  The Fremen hidden in the surrounding dunes scrambled for safety.

  Stilgar, who had been watching the chaos unfold, finally moved.

  "Fall back!" Stilgar shouted as he began moving out of battle range.

  On the ground, the trap was fully sprung.

  Harkonnen soldiers who had marched confidently into Arrakeen's eastern district minutes ago were now face down in the alleys. The purple mist had done its work. Thousands of them. Laid out across the narrow stone streets like fallen leaves.

  The conscious ones were different.

  Sarduakar mostly. Moving in tight groups of ten through the gas. Disciplined even now. Even losing.

  "Building seven cleared." A voice crackled through the command room speakers.

  "Building twelve, three hostiles neutralized." Another.

  Leto watched the body cam feeds without expression. Screen after screen showing the same thing. Atreides soldiers were moving efficiently through streets that should have been a massacre.

  "Building twenty-nine, we have a situation." The voice was strained.

  Leto's eyes moved to that feed. A single Atreides soldier with three enemy soldiers surrounding him.

  Two bodies of soldiers belonging to Atreides y beside this soldier.

  His breathing was heavy.

  The three enemy soldiers ready to strike.

  "Need back up on southeastern building twenty-nine, we have three enemy soldiers, possibly Sarduakar" Thufir ordered.

  One of the Sarduakar lunged, nicking his shoulder.

  He still managed to stab at one of the soldiers.

  But he missed.

  The teamwork was perfect between these three enemy soldiers.

  Their movements were cold and precise.

  What they had not accounted for were three Atreides soldiers rushing in behind them.

  They moved quickly, rushing into building #29.

  The moment the target came into sight they lunged and struck from behind these soldiers.

  Their weapons vibrating as they pierced through the shield and nded a non-lethal blow to them.

  They did not give the enemy an opportunity to reply.

  Knocking them down to the ground.

  With swift movements they ripped the gas masks away from these soldiers faces, allowing them to inhale the gas.

  One of them held their breath, but with a swift punch to the stomach, he gasped, inhaling a lot of smoke.

  The enemy soldiers seemed to be affected yet they still had the strength to struggle.

  They struggled, they were resistant to the gas but without their masks their attempts ended in futility.

  Within the Firgate.

  "Commander Harkonnen's fgship is retreating, entry is not possible!" The pilot of the frigate excimed to Gurney as he just barely was able to dodge a bzing piece of Ornithopter debris flying towards the Frigate.

  Gurney gritted his teeth.

  He held on tightly to the seat to give himself bance in the erratically moving frigate.

  "Chase after them."

  "I gave my word to the Duke," Gurney muttered through gritted teeth.

  The frigate shuddered violently.

  Gurney turned his head towards the back of the frigate.

  Arms began beeping in the cabin.

  "Commander, we have been hit!"

  "What's the damage report!?" Gurney immediately shouted into his communicator.

  "Sir the left wing has been hit!" A voice came to Gurney's ears.

  Gurney watched from the viewport as the Fgship flew further and further away.

  "Commander, thrusters two and four are failing! We don't have enough power to chase," the pilot shouted over the loud sirens.

  "Damnit!" Gurney excimed as he smmed the wall beside him.

  "Gurney what is your status?" Thufir's voice came through his communicator.

  "We have been hit, we don't have the power to continue chasing," Gurney responded.

  Inside the control room, they watched the screen showing the frigate.

  The entire left section seemed to have been severely damaged.

  "There is a missile!" Jack excimed as he watched a missile hit the right wing of the frigate.

  A rge fireball lit up the sky around the frigate as it began a speedy descent.

  "Gurney Report!" Thufir excimed but received no reply from the other end.

  The frigate spiralled as it caught speed descending to the ground.

  "Oh shit" Jack muttered to himself with wide eyes as he watched the frigate spiralling down to the ground.

  Jack froze.

  His eyes locked on the spiraling frigate.

  He felt a sense of loss.

  'I should have stopped him.' The thought fshed in Jack's head for a moment.

  The Frigate rapidly descended for a few moments.

  It hit the ground in a matter of seconds.

  Sand and fire erupted around it as the hull tore across the desert.

  It slid for several meters before it stopped.

  "Get an ornithopter to that crash site. Now." Duke Leto solemnly ordered.

  In the sky, Duncan who was providing extra support immediately separated from the battle formation as it flew towards the crash site of the Ornithopter.

  The command room went silent as everybody watched with bated breaths as Duncan quickly rushed out of the Ornithopter towards the frigate.

  "Commander Gurney, are you there?" Thufir quietly muttered through the communicator with worry in his eyes.

  "...Yes..."

  A weak voice finally answered.

  His eyes lit up.

  Thufir straightened his back.

  "Commander Gurney is alive," he announced.

  Leto gnced at him, and a barely perceptible smile appeared on his face.

  "Good." Leto said.

  Jack frowned.

  'This could have ended up so much worse, still can...' his eyes staring at Duncan entering the wreckage.

  'Although Gurney survived, injuries had to be major for a crash like this...' Jack thought to himself with a deep frown.