[sachmo]

Iolo Nine
The defense of Lenoltris continued. As the assault forces were marshalling at Highrock, the flood of Ukra-Tal ships continued to pour into the system from the Yukra wormhole. Admiral Jager decided to split Task Force 1 and assign a permanent mobile defensive force to Guardian. Task Force Sword was placed under command of Commodore Hank Nivend. The new task force was made up of ten ships, with three light cruisers as the backbone of the unit. He transferred his flag to RSS Bill Elliot, and left to intercept an Ukra-Tal Sandviken battle cruiser. Four days later, they caught up to the ship.
The Sandviken was an unknown class, but as soon as they closed to maximum seeker range, the ship played its hand, filling space with parasite seekers. The missile defense fire kept the ships of Sword out of harms way, and the fleet pursued, closed, and destroyed the heavy Ukra-Tal ship with no damage to themselves. Bill Elliot was able to claim the killing barrage, much to the delight of Commodore Nivend.

In the Iolo system, Brigadier General William Teagarten and his staff were preparing for the first assault on an Ukra-Tal world. Intelligence was limited to what could be gathered by long-range scans from Correlia and the ships of Task Force Three. Rather than let the enemy know that Iolo IX was a target for invasion, Fleet had decided to only gather intelligence by passive means. For Teagarten and the men of 3rd Brigade, that meant they were going to be dropping into the unknown. While this did not make the marines happy, they prepared as best as they could.
Teagarten glanced at the display on his datapad as the small device chimed for his attention. The display read “Go-No Go”, telling him it was time to either commit his command to the assault on Iolo IX, or to high-tail it back to Correlia.
His eyes strayed to the display of his target. Iolo IX was a huge gas giant, swirling with heavy clouds of ammonia in a carbon dioxide atmosphere. In the light of Iolo’s sun the planet looked a pale yellow, but below blanket of clouds, the core was shrouded in darkness.
He stood up and addressed his staff.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the commit point. We need to decide if we’re going to go ahead with this assault or not. I need for everyone to send me the latest intel that they have, along with your assessments. Don’t pull any punches and don’t omit anything, no matter how small. Battalion commanders, I need to see all of you, please.” He sat down and waited until his datapad reported all stations as having sent their final reports.
There were no surprises to be found. There were no Ukra-Tal ships guarding the planet, nor were there any visible ground defenses. Four domed population centers were detected, but their populations were unknown. Overall, it looked like a very soft target.
There were a number of unknowns, though. Very little was known about the Ukra-Tal behaviors. If there were no organized troops, would the colonists be armed? How would the population centers be organized? These questions would not be answered until they actually engaged the enemy. He wanted to hear what his officers had to say.
“Ok, it seems that nothing has changed. Does anyone want to discuss anything new?” He paused, but none of his battalion commanders spoke up.
“Then the invasion of Iolo Nine is a go.” He stood up, and his officers and staff stood quickly and came to attention.
“Dismissed. Go get your troops ready.”

The invasion task force consisted of RSS Loxias and the Nemesis-class frigate RSS Artemis. Artemis took the lead, her sensors probing space for any signs of Ukra-Tal defenses, but found none. Aboard Loxias, the space marines of 3rd brigade sat in their Blazers, anxiously awaiting the combat drop. At drop minus fifteen, Loxias began moving into drop position. The drop plan was simple. Each battalion would drop on top of one of the population centers and move directly to secure it. One company from every battalion would be kept in reserve and would drop in a central location, ready to respond at a moments notice.
At drop minus five, Loxias opened her drop doors and began transmitting pulse jamming to hide the Blazers behind a wall of electronic noise. Once the Blazers hit the atmosphere, they had a small degree of maneuverability, but during the short transition from low orbit to high atmosphere, they were sitting ducks. It was hoped that the jamming would give them enough protection to get the bulk of the troops into the atmosphere alive.
In his Blazer, Teagarten took a quick look around the troop compartment. Everything looked secure and ready to go. The troopers of his command staff were outfitted in combat environmental suits, since it was possible that they would be fighting outside of the Blazers in a non-breathable atmosphere. The suit didn’t offer much in the way of protection from weapons fire, and it wasn’t very comfortable to fight in, but it allowed the soldiers to breath and fight anywhere, so it was a necessary evil. Each man had his PPR-3 Phased Polaron Rifle clamped next to his seat, ready to be grabbed the instant they were ordered to deploy. Their backpacks were secured directly above their heads, so they could be attached to their suits as quickly as possible.
They look scared, he thought. Well, we haven’t dropped since Bardron, so they have a right to be, he decided.
The timer reached zero, and Teagarten felt a tug as his Blazer moved down the drop racks. The command platoon was third in line for the drop, so he had all of four seconds to wait before he felt the magnets release them into free fall. His suit told him that the Blazer was rolling, but he couldn’t feel it in zero-gee. The first thing he did feel was a jerk to the right as the main engines of the landing sled kicked in. He listened to the command net as the lead units hit the atmosphere, and he hoped that the intelligence had been right and that there were no defenses waiting to blow them out the sky. No one was reporting any ground fire as of yet, so he allowed himself to let out the breath he had been holding.
The Blazer rocked a bit as the pilot executed standard evasive maneuvers, but everyone seemed to be holding up well. A few moments later, the pilot came on over the com unit, “Welcome to slug country, everyone.” Teagarten smiled.
There was another bump as the Blazer separated from the landing sled. Teagarten switched his helmet view to slave to the Blazer’s view, and got his first look at the surface of Iolo IX.
It was dark, pitch black in every direction. Far off, there seemed to be a break in the clouds, and a beam of light shone down from above like a laser beam. It lit up a small area of the flat, wind-swept rock surface, but outside of the light halo, the planet was pitch black. The pilot switched the display to active low-light, and the view was washed out in blue, but he could see much more detail now. The surface of the core was flat rock. Hardly a rise in the terrain in any direction, save for a few low fissures here and there. If the marines had to take defensive positions, they would have to dig into the rock and make them.
Off to the west at about five miles was the dome of one of the Ukra-Tal population centers, designated Objective Hook. Teagarten watched as the elements of 1st Battalion formed up around him and then swept across the surface toward Hook at high speed. He couldn’t see any fire coming from the structure, but he knew that if there were, Artemis would provide cover fire from orbit. Her missiles would make short work of the domes if the resistance were too stiff.
Reports were coming in from the other units as they closed on their objectives. 2nd Battalion was the first to reach their objective, and reported no enemy resistance encountered. Because of this, rather than attacking the domes directly, 2nd Battalion deployed their marines outside of the Blazers and had them attempt to penetrate the dome through existing hatches. That way, they could keep casualties to a minimum, or at least give the Ukra-Tal an opportunity to surrender. An attack on the dome structure could cause the entire thing to collapse, killing everyone inside, and unless they resisted, Teagarten wasn’t about to do that.
As the command Blazer slashed across the planet surface, Colonel Breed of 1st Battalion came over the com unit.
“Sir, we’re receiving a broadcast from Objective Hook. The subject has identified himself as the governor of the planet. He wishes to surrender, sir.”
Teagarten’s eyes widened.
“Patch it through to me, Mike.” He punched up the translator on his com unit, and waited for the transmission to come to him.
“…overnor of this planet. Myself will speak with the senior barbarian, if you please,” the com unit blared. Behind the translator, he could hear the Ukra-Tal speech. It was a low, wheezing sound, and it made Teagarten uneasy.
He keyed his com unit.
“Governor, this is Brigadier General William Teagarten of the Remorhaz Space Marine Corps. I understand you wish to surrender this planet to us?”
There was a pause, and he could hear more of the wheezing on the other end of the line. Let’s hope this is legitimate, he worried. If they are trying to stall me, there will be hell to pay.
“General Teagarten, ourselves are very surprised to find Remorhaz forces here. Ourselves understood you to be on the defensive. Logically, we have no means to resist your invasion. We know your history, and if you mean to slaughter us we cannot stop you. Ourselves would prefer to submit to your barbarian rule until our forces return to slaughter you, but until then, ourselves will agree not to resist you.”
Teagarten shut down the com link as he laughed. Such arrogance, he thought. For a moment, he had to wonder what sort of strength the Ukra-Tal had that could make them so confident. He shook his head and opened the link back up. Keep you head in the game, Will, he thought.
“I understand, governor. We will accept your surrender if you immediately open your domes to us and allow our troops in unmolested. If any of my troops are harmed by your people, the response will be swift and deadly. Otherwise, no harm will come to your or your people.” Teagarten switched the channel to the brigade command net and relayed the news. All units were to hold fire unless fired upon and wait for the hatches to be opened by the Ukra-Tal. It might turn out that no one would have to die after all.