[Starhawk]

2438.7 Assault on Caitia:
Admiral William Jefferson Ross had been in the Royal Navy for over 40 years now even though it didn’t even exist as a functioning force until about 38 years ago, he had seen some of the most devastating warfare the galaxy had ever known, and he had met some of the bravest and greatest men and women his generation would ever know and he had seen far too many of them vanish in a plume of fire or worse lost forever in the depths of space and he often wondered how long this war could last, how long the Icaran people could sustain themselves with a war that never seemed to end except for long periods of boring patrols and station keeping while the higher ups decided who needed killing next.
Ross spun his command chair around to face the master holoplot on his flag bridge and thought with a wry grin Well William they’ve certainly given you an interesting job, he stared for what seemed a long time at the slowly revolving map of the Caitia system, the capital of the fledgling People’s Republic of Remorhaz and their last real holdout since most of their frontier worlds had fallen to the pack of hyenas that was the “Anderman Alliance” after the bulk of their navy was destroyed by Ross’ 1st fleet.
The plan to invade Caitia was simple the main subjugation fleet would strike against Caitia IV, the most heavily populated and defended world of the system, afterwards two strike forces consisting of a full Super Dreadnought division and a Regiment of Royal Army troopers would break away from the main fleet and take Caitia I and II in rapid succession forcing what few military assets the Remorhaz military had left to spread themselves against three targets which would put the superior Icaran forces at a distinct advantage.
As Ross ran through his plan in his mind a klaxon sounded throughout the flagship and a proximity alert howled from the tactical section and a halo began to glow around Caitia IV,
“Tactical what’s going on?” Ross turned to see his tactical officer turn almost grey as he read something from his displays. “Answer me tactical!” The Admiral barked as the young officer hesitated.
“Sir, I count two hundred Remorhaz satellites in orbit of Caitia four.”
Ross cursed under his breath as the numbers were confirmed by other ships in the fleet, their satellites had poor sensors and weak weapons, but two hundred would at least slow his fleet down and if he got in too close even primitive satellites could cut apart his fleet.
“Helm, tactical work together to keep us just inside our own bombardment envelope and keep us out of their own firing pattern.” Ross turned back to face the master plot and within moments saw his orders being carried out as a battle line formed and the fleet began trading fire with the satellites in orbit of the enemy world.
Fortunately for the Icaran fleet the Remorhaz sensors on these satellites were worse then even Ross had believed and though several Icaran warships took damage none were destroyed as they fired into the ring of satellites. The worst part of the engagement for Ross was the time taken by the bombardment even with the number of warships he had and their targeting sensors the bombardment took almost a day as Ross wanted no slip ups accidentally leading to tragic results on the planet below.
As the last satellite vanished in a ball of plasma the HMS Alexander took up a geosynchronous orbit over the enemy world and opened its massive bays revealing 390 drop ships tucked neatly into their drop racks, 3,900 soldiers of the 1st New Haven regiment waited anxiously as their mothership spun on her side, turning her drop bays to the planet.
The familiar dull metallic thump of docking clamps releasing came seconds before the sudden jerk of acceleration and then the jostling and gut wrenching twisting of atmospheric entry at high velocity as the dropship formations raced through atmospheric turbulence in an attempt to dodge the triple A that the enemy would unleash.
As expected the night sky of Caitia IV’s target zone lit up with brilliant flashes of light and fire as planetary defense batteries opened up on the Icaran invaders, most of the enemy fire was in vein as Icaran sensor decoys and drop pods baffled sensors, unfortunately for the Icarans not all of the enemy fire missed and a dropship carrying the 4th squad 2nd platoon Fox company burst into flames as superheated plasma tore into it’s hull, as the stricken dropship spiraled out of control and began breaking apart bodies and equipment were thrown into the surrounding skies and several dropships were splattered with blood and gore as bodies impacted.
A second dropship was shot apart killing twelve more soldiers before they could even touch the ground another dropship was destroyed as a tank from the other dropship landed on it.

The nightmare had only just begun for the soldiers of the 1st New Haven as they landed only to be met by a maelstrom of fire from Remorhaz Space Marines and planetary militia troops.
Major Liz Torrington, commander of C Company was forced to order her troopers to dig in as Remorhaz marines and militia troopers opened up on her company with a barrage of artillery and rifle fire. An entire squad had been killed in the first five minutes of the engagement as an entire Platoon of Remorhaz Space Marines stormed their position and fought at close quarters with bayonets and las pistols alike.
“Watch the right damn it, the little bastards are coming up on your right!” a voice on C Company’s com net shouted and Major Torrington turned in time to see what had to be a company sized force of Remorhaz Militia charging headlong into her heavy weapons platoon.
“Five platoon, get your asses over their and help heavy weapons out, Charlie Company dig in I repeat dig in.” Torrington paused for a moment when she heard the voice of 5th platoon Echo Company’s commander on her com.
“Ma’am that’s a negative we are pinned down, enemy artillery has a pretty good fix on us and the [censored] kickers aren’t letting up.” A shrill sound caused Torrington to yank her headset away from her ear. “Son of a *****” Torrington grimaced as she realized that 5th platoon must have just been jammed, she raised her binocs to her eyes and watched as the Remorhaz Company slammed into 3rd platoons position forcing the heavy weapons unit to defend it’s self rather then provide fire support for the other platoons in her company.
The heavy weapons platoon was barely holding off the enemy Militia Company, even as their auto-cannons and heavy slug throwers tore Remorhaz soldiers apart the Militia units returned a withering fire of their own and continued to charge forward.
Torrington turned to her own platoon and stood up and raised her right hand, as she did this her entire platoon stood up with her, she turned and faced the heavy weapons platoon and with a slicing motion signaled her platoon to advance through the hell storm of enemy fire to come to the aid of their comrades.
Enemy mortars whistled in with terrifying frequency and more then one of Torrington’s troopers was torn apart by a mortar, she herself was knocked to the ground by the legless body of a trooper who was thrown a meter into the air by a mortar shell. With a grimace Liz Torrington forced herself back to her feet and pushed forward until finally the Remorhaz soldiers that were attacking her soldiers were in sight, she quickly brought her rifle up to the ready and dropped to a kneeling position along with several of her other soldiers and almost in unison the trill of AP rifle fire and the burst of purplish blue spheres erupted from Torrington’s platoon killing or wounding dozens of Remorhaz militiamen.
Energy weapons were not the clean and civilized things that the people of previous centuries had assumed they would be, they caused horrific wounds which were usually un-survivable and a “lucky” person was one who only lost a limb as an energy weapon burned through their flesh and Torrington noted with only a slight twinge of disgust the acrid smell of burnt meat as she picked her next target and dropped a young Remorhaz woman who dropped her gauss rifle, a moment of shocked horror on her face as the life oozed out of her but Torrington didn’t have the time to pay any mind to this as she stood up and continued to advance with her platoon.
The Remorhaz troops fought valiantly and forced the Heavy weapons platoon to abandon their defensive position but with Torrington’s platoon swiftly flanking them the Remorhaz militia troopers soon found themselves at a massive disadvantage but they still would not yield and instead used the craters and trees they had just driven the Icaran HW platoon out of as a defensive position of their own.
With the Remorhaz militia unit pinned Torrington was able to order her heavy weapons platoon and her own infantry platoon to simply trade fire with the enemy soldiers at range and thanks to the devastating firepower of her HW platoon’s auto-cannons the Remorhaz soldiers were killed or wounded to the last man, with not a single one surrendering voluntarily.
The night was not over for C Company as it was sent in to assault several more enemy positions throughout the course of the night, fortunately for Torrington Dog Company had taken out the artillery positions and she didn’t have to worry about mortars cutting her company apart any more. The battle for Caitia IV lasted two weeks as the 1st New Haven regiment fought against the Remorhaz defenders tooth and nail for every inch of ground but in the end the Icarans simply had the technology and the air superiority to win the battle. However for the soldiers of the 1st New Haven it was a brutal meatgrinder that cost them a 85 soldiers.

Even as the battle for Caitia IV raged two more worlds in the Caitia system were under attack and these worlds were no less stubbornly defended by the Remorhaz soldiers stationed on them, and 215 Icaran soldiers paid with their lives to secure victory. Ross felt his optimism quickly fade as he noted that there was still an entire system to secure, and tens of millions of Remorhaz citizens attempting to flea the system, people he would have to order killed in order to prevent the Remorhaz from causing the Empire more trouble.