[Starhawk]

The Star Crusade

Seargent Kemper tightened his grip upon his AP rifle as he looked around the darkened troop hold of his transit ship the Ascension, around him were thousands of troops of the 1st Maar'Gan regiment as well as dozens of battle tanks and APCs.
He looked around him at the faces of the men and women in his squad and he couldn't stop wondering how many of them would survive the large scale war that was coming, his regiment had been assigned to land on the Earther world of Cetaphri VII and secure it for the Praetor.

Meanwhile the rest of the fleet began approaching the 2 enemy worlds and Grand Admiral Thadius sat aboard his flagship with a grim look on his face, he had over 80 of the best warships in the empire at his disposal but before him lay a world with 2 of the heaviest hitting weapons platforms he had ever seen.

"Comns, order all section commanders to advance, inform the 1st Mar'Gan and the 2nd Verdenfell regiments that they are to drop the second we have cleared the orbital defenses." Thadius had seen battle for the past 20 years and had led the Crusade that won the Cue Cappa territories for the Empire but this battle was unlike any he had fought before because the enemy was one that had defeated the Icarans centuries before and with a pang of nerviousness he wondered if they would do it again. As the Admiral folded his hands around his right knee he watched as three dreadnoughts and 4 battlecruisers closed on the target world.

"Admiral Enemy fighters launching count is.....five zero bandits closing at 300 KPS their weapons are primed." The tactical officer announced as he watched the sensor screens.

"Allright order the battle cruisers too...." the admiral was cut short as his tactics officer nearly screamed out in shock...

"Sir the planetary defenses have opened fire....by all the saints SIR the Marshall has gone down she's burning in space!" the sensors officer was new to the field of war and he nearly sickened as his sensors zoomed in on the combat going on and he saw the mangled corpses and still living but struggling crewmen of the Marshall floating in space.

"Silence ensign or I will have you off my bridge!" Thadius snapped as he saw the other two advancing dreadnoughts open fire on the planet with their powerful wave motion guns and the battlecruisers fired into the fighter squadrons. Although the admiral seemed stirn he fealt bad about having to chew out the young officer for he too shivvered as he saw 5,000 lives end in the blink of an eye.

The battlecruisers opened fire on the enemy fighters and began advancing to cover the dreadnoughts that were attempting to bring down the planetary defense net.
As more enemy fire poured into the fleet a battlecruiser was crippled and the crews of the remaining assault squadron continued to advance upon the enemy world firing their wave motion guns onto the heavy weapons platforms that awaited below.

"Take us into the fight mister Winston." Thadius ordered as he saw the Vanguard fleet being slowely picked off by the enemy defenses. As the helmsman followed his orders a base ship broke away from the fleet, it's massive deck guns began moving to lock onto surface targets and as it finally closed with the enemy world the massive golden red beams tore from the turrets into the void of space like a great star bursting through the sky, as the beams struck the planet's surface an orange glow of massive fire could be easily seen from space as the final platform fell to the massive fire.

"Order the troops in ensign!" Thadius commanded as he stood and paced the bridge in anticipation and slight fear, he knew that he would only be allowed to risk two regiments to take these two worlds and if either one fell it could be reinforced and he would have to glass a world with millions of people on it....as he gripped his belt buckle to settle his nerves he watched the cameras and saw two massive regimental transports closing on the enemy worlds...

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Seargent Kemper tensed as the lights in the troop bay turned from normal to red, his platoon's Commander barked "Alright you maggots this is where we earn our pay....get to your deployment barges on the double we're going in....FOR THE PRAETOR!" all along the troop bay that heald the 1st company the cheer was carried "FOR THE PRAETOR!!!" and the men and women began heading towards their drop barges at a run as the vehichles loaded onto their special transports.

As the Ascension closed Kemper felt the lurch as his drop barge was detached from the troop transport. After several tense minutes of waiting for the first sign of resistance Kemper felt the dull thud as his barge touched ground, after barely a second the doors swung open and the 1st Company 1st Mar'Gan began charging out of the barge at a run shouting various battlecries and prayers.

Kemper heard the scream of AP rifles the second he got out of the bay and as he looked around he saw the clear signs of battle as mortars screamed over head and explosions sent several bodies flying into the air around him. As his platoon advanced and he saw the first wave of enemy defenses he brought his rifle to shoulder and opened fire bringing down the first Earth soldier that he saw.
As the enemy opened fire with auto cannons and plasma guns a Mar'Gan soldiers began falling as enemy fire burned into their armor. Kemper saw gaurdsman Sarah Tye go down as her shoulder was cut clean through by an auto cannon shell her screams made him angry more then anything and he tossed a grenade at the enemy position and ducked as the explosion sent debris and bodyparts flying.
As he got closer he saw that his squadmate was still alive although her arm was practically gone and her armor was torn apart, she looked up at him with eyes that burned with pain and fury as he jumped over her limp body and continued the charge...his heart ached as he was torn between saving a squad mate who was also a childhood friend and serving his Praetor...

As the first ranks of his guard regiment slammed into the enemy positions bayonets clashed and AP fire cut down enemy soldiers by the hundreds. Kemper fired a burst into an enemy soldier tearing his head off with the AP bolt. Tanks rumbled from their special transports and brought their massive firepower to bear on the enemy decimating entire squads of enemy troops and destroying enemy defenses with massive battlecannons and close in AP burster guns.. Within hours it was all over, and Kemper's squad was sent back to assist in the clean up of the landing zone. As he walked through the bodies and craters he saw the body of Tye and almost burst into tears as he walked over to her he knelt down to just catch a sign of her breathing and with a hopeful shout louder then any he had ever yelled he called for a medic and prayed for his fallen friend.....

The first missions of the "Star Crusade" proclaimed by the Praetor had proven a success three enemy worlds were captured and nearly a dozen enemy ships were destroyed but the soldiers and spacers who took part in the operation too payed dearly for the glory of the Praetor and the survival of their race.

As the casualty reports came from the first operations against the enemies of the Praetor the generals frowned, three warships had been lost and 2 crippled, a squad of storm troopers had fallen and over 300 guardsmen died with nearly 400 more wounded and worse still 8,000 spacers died with nearly 10,000 wounded.