[Starhawk]

A dagger falls
Captain Yu Lin and her ship had been ordered to separate from the fleet and return for routine repairs at Parsis II’s shipyards, the most immediate concern was the GFGs which had been acting up on them during simulated jumps.
The massive heavy cruiser slid silently into the shipyard slip that had been left open for her at Parsis II, some of her damage scars still stood out on her hull plating, the yard master informed captain Yu that a complete repair would take over two weeks and that the rest of the fleet would have to continue on without her.

Captain Yu sat in her day cabin, quietly reading the reports from the yard hands and sipped a cup of coffee absently as she noted the large numbers of Phong listed on detail to her ship, she would have to order her marines and engineers to inspect any repairs those yellow creeps did on her ship. The com began to buzz and jerked her away from her train of thoughts.
“This is Yu what is it?”
“Captain, Bridge, Governor Fallon wishes to talk to you, ma’am.” The com officer’s report made Yu sit straighter, what would a governor want with her?
“Put it through, thank you.”
“Aye ma’am.”

Governor Fallon’s square jawed face appeared on screen, his grim look and squinted eyes made the hair on the back of Yu’s neck rise.
“How can I help you governor?” She used the same tone she would have used in battle, and her face was almost as expressionless.
“Captain Yu, I would like you and some of your marines to come to the surface this afternoon, I have to discuss something with the Navy, and you are the closest person here that represents any ranking naval officer.” Governor Micha’s voice was tense but the expression on his face was more concerning then anything else.
“Governor what’s wrong?”
“Just come here as soon as possible Captain.” The governor frowned again and cut the channel.

Yu sat stunned for a moment before she tabbed a control on her personal com screen.
“Marine Barracks, Sgt Kemper here.” A young voice replied crisply.
“Sgt Kemper, Captain Yu here, my compliments to Major Hernandez and tell him I need to see him in a quarter of an hour in my briefing room.”
“Aye Ma’am.” Yu could almost feel the marine brace to attention as she cut the channel.

Tabbing another key Yu began to scroll over the readiness loadout of her boat bay, one of her three marine dropships had been destroyed in the Last battle when the boatbay took a direct hit another had been damaged, that left her with a single dropship and four cutters at her disposal. The marine compliment of a heavy cruiser was normally two hundred but with the recent engagements she was down to ninety two combat effective marines with another thirty seven in medical.
She continued to read on the resources she had available to her, but the nagging concern of why the governor would want her and Royal Marines on planet when he had a full brigade of State Security troops haunted her, 500 state security troopers should have most definitely been enough to deal with any local issues.

Fifteen minutes later on the dot Major Hernandez stepped into the briefing room, Sgt Kemper at his side, both marines braced to attention and saluted, Yu returned the salute politely and waved the two men to their chairs.
“Major Hernandez as you may be aware Governor Micha has requested that I go to the surface with a compliment of marines and has been vague on what his reasons for this request are, I have attempted to contact him twice since I sent for you and his office only replies that he is “in conference”.” The marine officer nodded and his Sgt shrugged, “The specific request that I bring marines with me is what has me concerned Major, now perhaps there is nothing to worry about but I’ve never met a Frontier Nobleman that wants his personal space crowded by a Naval officer and a compliment of Marines unless he thinks that his own SS forces are inadequate.” Yu’s matter of fact tone spoke volumes as did her specific use of the term Frontier Noble.
The Icaran Empire was ever expanding these days and it was cleanly divided into “The Frontier” and the “Core Worlds” the Core Worlds held the bulk of he Icaran populace as well as the major military bases and academies within Icaran space, the peace was kept by Local Militia’s, and the Royal Military and most of the nobles enjoyed the military security provided them by their location in the galaxy.
The frontier however was a far less secure place the bulk of the military presence there was mobile with a handful of military shipyards and supply bases scattered throughout, only worlds with such bases had Royal Army presence, the other worlds relied on the State Security Brigades or SSB to the population at large, better known as SS by the military. These units were non mobile, heavy security forces equipped with small artillery weapons, darter rifles and hand guns and class 2 body armor, many of the units that occupied recently conquered worlds also had a number of armored, assault cars in their service, though some nobles paid out of their own pockets to better equip their SS brigades.
Frontier Nobles were very low ranking in the overall standings in the House of Lords and they were also far more independent minded, most of them hated having any military presence in their territory unless it was there to save their noble asses.

Twenty minutes passed as Major Hernandez and Captain Yu discussed the best deployment plans for the marines that were combat ready, she would take 12 marines with her on a cutter, the rest would remain aboard the dropship and the other cutters where they would await her specific order to deploy should the need arise.
After the briefing Yu proceeded to the boatbay with 12 marines that Hernandez had hand picked for her bodyguard the entire unit wore heavy body armor and fully automatic darter rifles, one of them even carried a grenade launcher.

The cutter darted from the bay of Lenin and burned through the atmosphere at 4 gees before breaking just 50 clicks off the surface before coming to a complete hover over the central landing pad in the city.
“Ma’am the launch facility looks empty.” the pilot sounded nervous as he continued to run scans of the landing pad.

“Try contacting air control Pilot” Yu turned to the marines “Alright marines, assume a hot LZ lock and load.” Yu pulled her sidearm holster’s lock open and slid the holster where she could more easily grab the darter pistol she carried.
“Ma’am no contact from Air control, but my scans are showing burn and bLast marks on the pLastacrete around the control tower, wait ma’am receiving a signal, patching it through now.”

“I repeat this is Governor Micha to navy cutter do NOT land in the main pad or you’ll be…” the governor’s voice was suddenly cut off as a missile impacted on the left wing tearing a hole clean through it and sending the cutter spinning out of control. A second missile impact tore off the right wing sending the cutter careening out of control.
“BRACE!” Yu heard the pilot shout and as she saw a building coming up in front of her she barely managed to unhook her straps and throw herself through the hatch leading to the crew compartment, the impact was bone shattering the sound of crunching metal and screaming sound of the sole remaining engine pushing the wrecked cutter further into the building was ear splitting…

After things had finally stopped moving, Lin managed to force herself to her feet “Is anyone there.” the cabin was pitch black and at first she couldn’t hear any noise, then she heard movement and several voices chimed in
“Aye ma’am, we’re here….I’ve got two marines dead though, have you checked on the pilots?” Sgt Kemper turned on his suit light and the shattered remnants of the troop hold revealed a grizzly sight, two armored suits were sprayed with blood and gore, the faceplate of one was torn open by the splintered remnants of a battlesteel beam the other body was just mangled beyond recognition.
“The pilots are dead.” Yu heard a voice behind her and turned to see private McNiel.
“Damn, let’s get the hell out of here before whoever shot us down takes a pot shot at us.” Another marine cut in and was waved back by Kemper.
“He’s right, let’s go.” Yu shook her head at the bodies and stepped over to the shattered remains of the door.
Two marines stepped up and helped her tear the wrecked doors open
A bullet ricocheted off of Yu’s armor and sent her wheeling back through sheer force of impact one of the two marines also took a bullet square in the chest plate and fell to the deck grabbing the rippled piece of armor.
“Sniper! Get back.” Kemper shouted as more bullets tore into through the opened door, Yu rolled out of the way of a stream of bullets and forced herself to her feet the marine that had been hit got to his feet as well.
“Morette, get up here.” Kemper snapped as a large marine stepped forward, he was carrying an M-52 grenade auto-cannon and a bandolier of grenades strung around his chest.

The heavy weapons marine walked forward and leveled his auto-cannon calmly as bullets bounced around him and three rounds even hit him dead on. Seconds later the cannon burped out six shots directly into the building where the snipers had been firing from tearing it apart in a series of explosions.
“Everybody out!” Kemper bellowed as the marines poured past Captain Yu and out into the landing pad, only then did it become apparent just what had happened, at least two dozen SS troopers lay dead on the pad, several civilian workers also lay dead, some butchered terribly.
Yu winced as she saw some of the butchered bodies, a crack bang drew her attention to another building, the sound of several darter auto-rifles split the silent sky in a torrent of darts some of which began bouncing off the marine armor. A marine went down with a scream as blood sprayed from a hole in her armored throat, the scream quickly turned into a gurgling cry before the marine stopped twitching.
“Return fire!” Yu shouted as she lined up her auto-pistol on a figure wearing gray and yellow armor and squeezed the trigger, a small explosion erupted from the figure and it fell back dead, the marine lines erupted in a return fire dropping three more of the attackers before the rest ducked back into cover behind a building.

The sound of darter fire erupted from behind the marines suddenly and another marine went down in a spray of gore and blood as a dart pierced his helmet, the poor marine didn’t even have time to scream as his headless corpse fell limply to the ground. Yu whirled her pistol around and saw a massed formation of armored figures running at her and her marines, she squeezed the trigger twice dropping two more targets before ducking behind the wrecked dropship.

“Follow me marines, Keep Yu between us damn it if she gets hurt your asses are mine!” Kemper shouted as he and three other marines came up in front of Yu and began herding her towards a wrecked building at the closest part of the landing pad.
More darts sang through the air but miraculously none of the marines were killed, though one took an explosive dart in the leg that pierced his armor and tore a gaping hole in his calf.

The marines barely made it into the door before dozens more darts began tearing away at the pLastacrete building. A dart just barely missed Kemper’s face and exploded in a wall painting behind him.
“What’s going on here?” Yu asked no one in particular as she leveled her darter at an armored figure outside, sending a dart screeching into the enemy’s head.
“Ma’am, getting a com signal from Micha.” Corporal Bradley said calmly as the sounds of pLastacrete blowing apart filled the room.
“Captain Yu, he says that there was a Phong resistance cell hiding in the outskirts of the city, by time he mobilized his SS troopers to respond the resistance had already launched their assault on the landing pad and government building. SS brigades are still trying to secure government building and the brigade guarding the landing pad took heavy losses before pulling out.” The Corporal said something into his com and looked over to Yu.
“Corporal ask him if he can get us any reinforcements before we end up like those SS outside.” The Captain said bitterly as she watched another marine take a hit in the shoulder and writhe on the ground before his suit’s medical pack administered painkillers.
“He says he’s already got a brigade inbound but they won’t arrive for another hour because of the street fighting Captain”

“Alright then, I want three marines upstairs and firing out of those windows NOW, Captain please stay back.” Kemper’s voice echoed in the building as another series of rounds tore into the wall.
“Stand easy Kemper I’m not going anywhere.” Yu ducked under the window to reload her darter as another round exploded overhead.
The marines continued firing out the windows while the marines that ran up stairs joined in the fight and poured rounds into the rushing hordes of gray armored figures dropping several of them.

The marines fought of wave after wave of attackers, and two more marines fell to snipers as an hour passed, then two hours and still no reinforcements had come. The Icaran troops were beginning to run low on ammunition and the newest wave of enemies was getting closer to the building where the marines were taking cover in.
Phong resistance troops hammered down the door and rushed into the building with bayonets and force knives, marines and Phong fought hand to hand and blade to blade, Yu slammed her bayonet into the throat of a Phong warrior and threw a kick into the ribs of another Phong warrior and the resounding crack of bones shattering filled the room as the injured warrior dropped.
The whine of darters came from outside the building but the embattled Icarans were too busy fighting for their lives to notice, the marines that had been upstairs raced down and opened fire into the mass of Phong cutting down several of the enemy warriors. The three troopers on the staircase continue to shoot down Phong as their fellow marines continued to beat the enemy back with bayonet and rifle butt.
A marine dropped at Yu’s feet, his faceplate punctured by a Phong bayonet, blood pooled rapidly on the floor making it slick, the Phong that had killed the unfortunate marine leaped over his victim towards Yu but Kemper’s bayonet slammed into it’s side draining the noxious yellow blood from the alien as it hit the floor twitching.

Almost as fast as it had began the attack was over, a wave of black shirted figures charged into the melee and sprayed the Phong warriors with non-explosive darts knocking them down long enough for Marines to bayonet them.
When it was all over an SS trooper wearing the standard black flak armor of his branch walked forward to Captain Yu and braced to attention.
“Ma’am I’m Lieutenant Sharpes 5th State Security brigade Governor Micha has ordered my men to escort you to the government building, as soon as possible.”
“What about my wounded lieutenant?” Yu asked dangerously as the young officer looked around, 3 marines were found dead outside, another four lay dead inside the building and two were badly wounded.
“Captain We can bring them with us but we have to move now! There are more of these “resistance“ troops on the way” The Lieutenant’s tone was pleading and Yu could barely contain the contempt she felt for the man, he was an officer in one of His Majesty’s services yet he was acting like a frightened child, not even waiting for the wounded to be loaded onto stretchers before he started for the door.

“Lieutenant do you mind telling me what the hell happened on this planet, and why you SSBs couldn’t keep the peace by yourselves?” She almost spat the sentence at the young officer who stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her, stunned.
“Captain, there was nothing State Security could do about it, we did not know their numbers or targets, we assigned security where it was most necessary.” The young man turned his back on the captain and began walking down the street again, watching the buildings carefully.
“So Lieutenant instead of dispatching mobile patrols Governor Micha ordered the SS to stay in two! Locations, and dispatched only a single brigade to guard your main landing platform?” Yu felt the rage building in her, the tactical folly was born out of cowardice, government house had four of the five brigades guarding it, while the landing port had one brigade protecting it, and that brigade was ordered to withdraw after barely a half an hour of combat against the resistance cells, and of course they pulled back to government house.

Hours passed before the Icarans reached Government house on foot and Yu had been forced to call down the entire marine compliment of Lenin to pull the marines and SS platoon out of a serious ambush, in the end the marines and SS were able to reestablish control over the city but of the twelve marines that had landed with Yu only four survived, and of the SS platoon that had been sent to escort them, half had died including their Lieutenant.

Yu immediately sent a dispatch to Admiralty requesting a board of inquiry be formed against Governor Micha for his failure to adequately deal with the uprising that had inflicted heavy losses on the civilian workforce and Icaran State Security forces….losses which would not have been so high if Micha had just ordered his men into mobile patrols instead of having them guard his house so tightly while the rest of the city was embattled.


2414.5
The Last world of Mavin Parsis fell before the vast column of Icaran ground troops, not a single Icaran had died in the invasion, yet the Phong had suffered many thousands of dead, their survivors were forced into the labor camps, the youth were placed in Icaran re-education facilities under the watchful eyes of Imperial teachers and state security troopers.
The heavy cruiser Lenin floated silently in formation with the rest of the parade that was being held for media benefit, her battle scars covered with fresh paint and plating, her half strength crew hidden from the camera drones orbiting the fleet. The public would get their triumph over the conquest of an entire star system by the Icaran Empire, but the military would move on to the next target, their “celebration“ party had been a glass of old champaign for the flag officers in the Admiral’s briefing room aboard Redoubtable.
Yu still had bad dreams about what had happened back on MP two but she was comforted by the fact that the admiralty had dispatched a JAG officer to investigate governor Micha's shortcomings.
The 1st fleet was already headed for Fornax at speed and would arrive at their first target in about eight months, all there was now, was the long wait before the fleet entered the maelstrom once more.

Fornax System
Admiral Ross won yet another victory over a Phong fleet headed to reinforce the Mavin Parsis defenses, the Icaran 3rd fleet killed 10 enemy light cruisers while losing only HMS Farrogot and three hundred of her four hundred man crew.
Ross sent a dispatch to the Admiralty with his after action report requesting that the officers and crew who had died aboard the unlucky destroyer be posthumously awarded the Icaran steel cross for valor and bravery in the face of the enemy.