[Starhawk]

2413.6 The beginning of the End
The 1st fleet and it’s ground force the 1st Icara Mobile Army Regiment had entered Mavin Parvis unopposed as the two cruisers of the Warspite squadron had destroyed the Phong warships that had garrisoned the star system.
Two weeks later they had entered orbit of Mavin Parsis III and the ground forces swept through the enemy milita inflicting hundreds of casualties while sustaining none of their own, not a single ship of the fleet was damaged and the heavy cruiser Rosevelt took up station to protect it from any potential raiders that remained. A state security brigade was also in the process of forming it’s headquarters on world to ensure the public stayed in line.

It had been only three days since MP three had fallen and the 1st fleet was now entering attack range of the much more heavily fortified MP two, the heavy cruiser Lenin and two cruisers followed closely by the troopship Batton.
“Captain Yu this is Flag, watch yourselves in there I don’t want you taking too much damage to guard that troopship, if you determine that the situation is to risky to you and the ships under your charge I want you to scorch those planetary defense platforms understood?” The voice of Admiral Babcock came over the com piece in Lin’s ear from his flagship yet she felt as if she could almost see the worry in his face.
“Don’t worry sir, we’ll get this job done and come home to celebrate afterwards.” She tried to sound more confident then she felt but her voice sounded strained even to her own ears. She cut the com to the flagship as her small four ship flotilla came closer to MP two.
“Captain energy spikes on the surface, planetary cannons coming Online, best estimate is one eight cannons I repeat one eight.” Tactical officer Hernandez was just out of basic but his sense of professionalism even in the face of overwhelming firepower made Lin proud he was on her bridge.
“Thank you tactical, Com relay to Republic to stay one-zero-eight kilometers to our starboard, have Hornet pull fifty two klicks off our port side and keep them between Batton and those cannons.”
“Aye ma’am message relayed.”
“Helm, take us straight for that planet, let’s offer them a big enough target that they can’t refuse us.” Captain Yu clenched her hands into fists around the arms of her shock frame chair in anxiety as she watched her ships close ever closer to the red sphere that represented the enemy planet’s maximum effective fire envelope.
“Approaching EFE in two point three niner minutes skipper, our EFE is coming up in four minutes.” Hernandez hid a shudder as he realized that would put their ships under fire from eighteen planetary cannons for no less then a minute before they could return fire.
Yu just grimaced and nodded to herself as she calculated the number of shells that could be lobbed at her in that amount of time, the Phong’s latest cannons showed they could fire three shells a minute and there were nine of the newer cannons on that planet which meant she would have to deal with…40.5 shells from the newer cannons before she even got inter her own firing range, and by then she’d also have to deal with thirty or forty shells from the older cannons . She shuddered in her command chair, if every single shot fired hit her then this would be her ship’s Last mission.

“Enemy EFE in five, four, three, two, one, we have incoming shells.” Hernandez’ calm professional voice showed only the slightest hint of fear as 9 of the most advanced cannons in the Phong arsenal opened up on them.
Lenin‘s shields caught every shell and Yu noted with some bit of dry humor that it wasn’t at all like it was portrayed in the old Holo’s or the old 2d movies of ancient Earth, when a shield grid caught the incoming fire there was no shaking or sparking or explosions out of random positions on the starship, the energy field simply absorbed the fire and the crew onboard didn’t feel a thing-it was when you did feel something that you were in trouble.
“Helm time to drop?”
“Five minutes ma’am”
“Incoming!” Hernandez sounded startled this time and when Yu jerked around to look at her tactical repeaters she saw why, eighty cannon shells headed straight at her.
The shields flashed and flared and took more hits but then….an enormous ear splitting cracking sound rocked the heavy cruiser down to her keel as shell after shell slammed into her.
“Engines one, three, five, gone, cannons one through four gone, crew quarters section two gone, life support backup systems are on-line main Life support destroyed, heavy casualties reported on all decks.” Hernandez chanted out the “essential” damage reports but the systems he wasn’t mentioning were almost ominous in Yu’s ears.
“Damn it incoming!”
“Saints protect us.” a voice in the background said as the next salvo slammed into the heavy cruiser’s battered hull tearing sections of her apart like a darter round hitting a wounded cow in the stomach.
More sections of hull plating tore away under the strain and Lenin limped and twisted as more shells just barely missed her.
The Last shell tore into the bridge section, opening it to space and tearing the com officer apart as she was pulled through a breach in the hull that was too small for her body, the marine sentry on the bridge had his leg sheered off by a splinter of battle-composite hull plating, his skin-suit’s automed unit instantly began treating the screaming man. Hernandez’ left shoulder was torn clear of it’s socket and his shattered arm hung limply at his side as he tried to use his right alone. His vac-suit’s med unit was already administering non-interference painkillers into his bloodstream to keep him functioning.
The sound of other wounded bridge officers screaming made Yu feel sick as she knew there was nothing she could do about it, her bridge was still mostly operational and she had to continue the operation.
“Damage report Hernandez?” Yu heard the voice of Commander Sharp and thanked God her exec hadn’t been killed or wounded.
“Uh, sir.”
“Damage report now mister!”
“Astrogation is down, we have one engine left, two cannons are still operational but the first cannon’s crew is dead, sensors are gone, tracking sensors gone, supply bays are gone, back up life support is damaged but operational, heavy casualties reported sir, power room one is open to space, non of the work crew made it out.” Hernandez suddenly sat straighter in his chair and Lin braced herself for death as she assumed the next words out of his mouth would be incoming.
“Skipper! Redoubtable is moving between us and the planetary defenses!, Hornet is acquiring target lock on planet, firing!” Hernandez’ professionalism was suddenly shattered as he turned around with a brilliant smile on his face.
The flagship took several serious hits but she shrugged them off and continued to protect the badly damaged Lenin while the cruiser Hornet turned five out of six of the weapons platforms into so much shards of wreckage and the glass that was created by her beams.
“Ma’am [i]Batton is moving into drop station.” Captain Yu Lin Pe smiled and relaxed, with the army on the ground her job was pretty much over, now it was up to Colonel Drago.

Troop Bay of HMS Batton
A large column of gray armored figures stood silent as statues in the cavernous troop bay of the Batton, a single figure stood out as it stepped to the front of the column, a red pauldron with the golden eagle of an Imperial Colonel.
Colonel Wilheilm Drago triggered his command net frequency so that all his troops could hear him, he then cleared his throat, removed his helmet and bent on one knee. The entire column of troopers followed his example and rested on bent knee, bowing their heads.
“Today we faithful Icarans kneel before you Oh Lord, we ask that you give us the strength to carry out the task at hand and to grant us victory over our enemies. We ask for you protection and grace as well in the tribulations that are about to befall these brave men and women, may they all return home or die with honor for the glory of Icara.” the Colonel’s strong baritone voice boomed in the flight bay in a grave manner.
“Lord we also ask that you grant us accuracy in our fire, and swiftness in kills so that we can rid this world of those godless heathens.” a slight chuckle went up from the gathered troopers. “Amen”

Within seconds the thousands of troopers were loaded into their dropships, their tanks and APCs already locked into place in the dropship’ holds. The bay doors slid silently open, the planetscape of their target loomed before them, it was an ugly world, green and brown was the color of the atmosphere and the soil was gray and slimy looking, many of the troopers wondered why they had not just glassed the ugly world and moved on.
Drago stood locked in his shock frame, his command squad locked into place around him, he thought humorlessly that the only benefit to this ugly ****ball on the *** end of the galaxy was that it had abundant radioactive materials that could provide the empire with a valuable rad base for centuries to come, but it sure was an ugly *** planet.
Then it came, the thump and hissing noise of the dropship detaching from it’s docking arm and racing towards the planet at speeds that would have killed anyone in a ship that had no inertial compensators, and even with them the personnel of a dropship felt five gees going down.

As the 400 dropships breached the atmosphere the planetary defense forces of the Phong world opened fire with AA guns and SAMs unfortunately for the defenders the Icaran ECM generators were too good and their shields were too strong, the few shots that hid a dropship were absorbed and did no damage.
The first wave of dropships landed less then two minutes after their initial deployment and quickly began unleashing the armored troopers and tanks within their holds.

Colonel Drago and his command unit were among the first wave of troops and as the bay doors slammed open in the troop compartment of his dropship, the shock frames immediately unhooked.
“Alright MOVE!” His voice boomed over the com net as the command squad filed out of the dropship at a run, as he exited the dropship Drago already heard the familiar thumping of the Icaran tanks main cannons, he also heard the whine of AP beams and the screech of the meson bLasters.
The Icaran Army’s assault rifle was an interesting weapon, it was actually two weapons in one, an AP beam and Meson bLaster combination in an under, upper configuration, the AP barrel being beneath the Meson bLaster. The AP beam was more power consuming yet it was also more powerful when taking out a single target, as well as being more accurate then the BLaster. The bLaster on the other hand was a devastating anti-personnel weapon and carried with it “splash damage” which could burn or even kill unarmored targets that were standing near the impact site, the Meson bLaster was also far less power hungry then the AP rifle and so it was the primary fire mode of the Icaran army.

“Sir, Able company reports they’ve got the bastards on the run in their quadrant, no fatalities to their own forces thus far, Charlie company is reporting that they are encountering heavy resistance and require immediate aid.” Major Davis’ frowned as the com trooper, SGT Taggar continued to relay the information she was receiving from the other companies. This world was much more heavily defended then they had expected and all along the front they were encountering heavy fire.
“Alright tell Delta Company to support Charlie, Baker company is coming with us Major we need to take that dome ASAP, so that their perimeter forces have nowhere to fall back to.”
“Yes sir, alright pass it on Taggar.” Davis said crisply as he rallied the other squads of Baker and Gamma companies as well as their 20 tanks and APCs, the LZ had been cleared with surprising swiftness and Phong militia lay dead all around.

Baker and Gamma both closed in on the domed city that made the capital of this particular world, so far neither company had been assailed by the defending Phong and the tension was so thick Drago felt like he could cut it with a force blade. They had been passing through a “forest” path, the “trees” were little more then huge piles of what looked like seaweed, yet slimier and instead of oxygen producing they produced lethal amounts of Carbon Dioxide.
“Incoming baker two watch your flanks!” the voice of some unseen CO snapped as the bang of Phong gauss rifles sent the entire Icaran force ducking for cover trying to find the shooters, a scream was cut off as a second shot tore through a dying trooper, then the firing started in the area where the command squad was. A rocket bore down on one of the tanks and exploded, doing no serious harm to the tank but sending two troopers flying a meter into the ar, their bodies were torn apart in mid air as the unseen gunners lit them up.
“Damn it watch those slime piles, use AP rifles now!” Major Davis said coldly into the command com as he aimed his own rifle and squeezed the firing stud, a purple beam shot from the bottom barrel of his assault rifle with a whine as it cut clean through the middle of a “slime pile” with a single sweep. A phong body dropped from the pile of slime, it’s torso and lower body separated by several centimeters.
AP beams swept through the slime with precision lethality yet the counter fire dropped a trooper right in front of colonel Drago, the man’s torso erupted in a geyser of blood as an armor piercing round tore into him.
Drago leveled his own rifle on the shooter and let fly a burst of mesons turning the slime pile and it’s occupant into burnt sludge, he leveled his rifle a second time and killed another Phong outright burning a hole clean through it.

“They’re CHARGING ON THE FLANKS!” someone shouted as a screaming mass of Phogn militia charged out of the “forest” down upon the ranks of Icaran troopers. Slug throwers wounded or killed a dozen Icarans before they were able to react but by then the Phong were already in their midst using force bayonets to stab at Icaran soldiers..
Drago depressed a stud on his rifle and his own force bayonet snapped into place under the barrels of his rifle and just in time as a Phong warrior wearing their blueish green armor charged him, the Colonel just barely dodged the alien’s thrust and brought his right foot up with an amazing kick to the Phong’s kneecap, a cracking sound let him know he had broken the Phong’s leg, with a quick thrust of his bayonet into the alien’ neck he severed it’s head then whirled around with driving his armored elbow into the faceplate of another Phong trooper with such force that it shattered, exposing the Phong too the toxic atmosphere, Drago moved on leaving the creature to suffocate.
All along the line Icarans and Phong fought hand to hand, force blade to force blade and the screams of the wounded and dying on both sides filled the air.
Major Davis led fifth platoon baker company on a charge that sent the few surviving Phong running, unfortunately for the Phong they ran straight into Gamma company’s armored column and were turned into paste by the treads of the massive armored vehicles, or were cut down by Gamma’s continuous volleys of meson fire.

The battle for Parsis II Lasted another month and Icaran Army dead numbered only 10 surprisingly, with over eight hundred wounded. Unfortunately in space the losses were far heavier, Lenin lost nine hundred of her three thousand crewman and had another seven hundred wounded. The flagship had lost nearly two hundred of her crew and had another three hundred and fifty wounded.

Two of three Icaran heavy cruisers in the 1st fleet were put out of action until repairs could be undertaken by the captured shipyard facilities of Mavin Parsis II, there was already a State Security brigade establishing it’s self on planet and the Phong forced labor camps were efficient enough to repair the two ships in a matter of months, but until then their invasion of Mavin Parsis had hit a roadblock.

Some day the Phong of these worlds would join Icara as full citizens but until then the forced labor camps (which provided adequate food and medical attention) would have to suffice to keep the populace as functioning members of the Icaran Empire.