Ashikaga Fortress (General Headquarters), Outskirts of Lai Dai, Asaka-Nakasone Border, Kuroda, Fairway System, Delta Quadrant...2200 Hours
The assembled delegates still seemed confused by the reference to the slow zone or FTL travel. Romulus interjected, as Vivian remained confused at the query.
"Well, for starters, the primary issue would be density. Internally, we've done something similar in the past in Xaidullah and Qaraqash, which my colleagues in Auxiliary Forces are probably running Tshon through now. The Celestial Dragon is a new autonomous bomber in our fleet, capable of deploying a considerable thermobaric payload on hive targets. We've successfully deployed them in the past to clear out Yan from existing hives once an insurgency reaches its later stages, and it's been quite effective at fighting the Yan inside of the hives, particularly the civilian castes that don't usually leave the hive."
"The primary challenge we have with expanding the use of the Celestial Dragons is, of course, collateral damage. We usually deploy them in the later stages of an insurgency - usually once the insurgents have cleared out the outer hives, and the primary combatants left are the Zealots and the Yan themselves. The thermobaric ammunition we have is great at clearing out the Yan from the onset; however, it would be difficult for us to do so before evacuating the slaves from the outer hive. A related challenge is that a significant, if not majority, of the lower caste are usually reticent, if not hostile, to being moved prior to the later stages of an insurgency. They usually come around after we start launching large-scale operations and after our influence operations have been going on for a while, but it's important to remember that even the lower castes think the Yan are gods, or so I'm told. It'll be tough for us to clear everyone out without...mishaps, to put it politely."
"On a more targeted level, we can use our JALALUDDIN - Tshon must be getting the full sitrep on those as well. The JALALUDDIN is more nimble and targeted than the Celestial Dragon, but we've used them more for targeted operations rather than to clear out an entire hive. We can deploy them in swarms of 150 to 200, and they'll essentially be armed with as much thermobaric charges as we can fit on them. They detonate inside of the hive with limited seismic consequences, but the Yan get pretty pissed after we launch them, so we try to avoid using them early on as well to minimize casualties inside of the hive."
"Now, there is...some research we could disclose," Romulus said, taking a brief glance at Juno. Mars raised an eyebrow, staring down Romulus across the table, as the two seemed to not be in sync. Juno gave a brief nod, before taking a quick sip of tea, as Romulus turned back to face the delegation.
"One of the more effective ways that we could clear out the Yan would be targeting the Moonleaf crop. We usually try to devastate or impact it as much as possible during an insurgency. The main consequences of reduced Moonleaf production are the Yan can't produce the nectar that they use to feed themselves or that the higher castes consume as a drug. We've figured out the biology of the nectar fairly well from our field samples and have tampered with it to alter its effects on humans, but a more sweeping, comprehensive attack on the Moonleaf crop may be a more effective way to starve out the Yan. Even a 5% reduction in Moonleaf production has been shown to have cascading effects on the political stability of the Inner Hive, as the civilian castes - the engineers and workers, the ones who do most of the digging - can't feed themselves and rely on the shamans. Cut off their food supply and things start to go...haywire, in a way. Most of our operations have been basic - burning or otherwise physically damaging the crops, but Xenobiologics has been researching a more comprehensive approach to targeting Moonleaf crops. I think Vivian can touch on a bit more."
"Right," Vivian said, taking a sip of tea, looking back at Romulus, as if reticent to present her findings, "We've run some preliminary studies on the effects of nanoswarms on Moonleaf production. There's a variety of different paths that we've been exploring, but the first would entail poisoning the pollen that they produce. In other words, the Yan that pollinate - the martial castes - could be drugged or poisoned through the pollination effects. That research is a bit more advanced, and we could start deploying the prototypes that we have on the field, while the second application," Vivian said, swallowing hard, "Would entail the more comprehensive destruction of crops - a kind of weevil-like device. We have commercial prototypes that can be scalable for both applications, but they haven't been tested in the field yet."
Juno chimed in, "Of course - we'd need to run more simulations before we were confident in the combat applications of any devices, but they could be useful in our upcoming campaign if we can work out a few kinks. The Moonleaf is a versatile plant, capable of growing in a variety of extreme conditions or under significant duress, so we may need to calibrate the nanoswarms for the exact strain in a particular hive. There are certain genetic variations observable across hives, but it's nothing that Xenobiologics can't work out once we get physical samples."
"As for their ships," Vivian said, shifting the subject, as Mars stared her down across the table, "There's a limited naval presence in orbit around Yanai. Our understanding of their naval technology is limited at best, but from what we know on the ground, the millenarians - a new faction of Yan shamans - ordered the destruction of most naval vessels. There's a bunch of file primers on the Yan religion that we've sent over, but at a high level, they seem to view the Fairway System as a 'Promised Land' of sorts. As such, the millenarians destroyed much of their fleet, arguing that maintaining the travel capabilities across the galaxy would be tantamount to heresy, under their teachings. This is a noticeable divergence from the past, but we have noticed that the Yan have made limited use of their naval assets since the Yoson War - one of the first major conflicts we fought with the Yan more than two hundred years ago. We believe that it may be related to the traditional dispute between nomadic - fleet-based Yan - and sedendary - hive-based Yan - that burned out once we killed most of the nomads, but we can't tell for certain."
"I should note, Yanai is a bit of a black box for us," Mars said, clarifying, "It's difficult for us to establish robust logistics heading into the sector, and most of our military resources right now are being deployed into Shillong. It'd be easier on our end to clear things out a planet at a time - we'd need robust civilian infrastructure in place on either planet to keep order once the Yan are cleared out. Field hospitals, schools, food distribution centers, maglevs, space elevators - all of those items we'd need to start the reconstruction process. It's going to be arduous enough for us to ensure that Yurungkash is probably supplied - not to mention the other regions on Shillong that are still left. Taking Xaidullah, Qaraqash, and Yuddha was a staging point for further operations, but we're going to need a significant deployment of our civilian and security personnel to build and maintain that infrastructure on the planet. If we were take on just the naval assets around Yanai, that would be a different question altogether - we aren't sure what the fleet's connection is to the hive-based Yan or if they're explicitly tied together. They haven't really responded to our ongoing Pacification efforts, so it would not necessarily be a bad idea for us to start harvesting more intel there."
Juno nodded, "I agree with Mars, we have explored the possibility of additional unmanned surveillance of Yanai, but it's logistically been difficult for us to establish a staging ground and we've been hesitant to run the risk of biting off more than we chew in the Wildlands. With Qaraqash, Xaidullah, and Yuddha secured, we do have a strong staging ground that we could use to start penetrating Yanai's airspace, but we'd want to deal with those fleet assets before any planetary operations commence in full force, I think."
"So, it is getting late," Romulus said, finishing his tea, "Please feel free to stay in the provided accommodations we've prepared for you for the night, or, if you prefer, we'd be happy to reconvene in the morning if you would prefer to return to your vessels."
The Armory, Ashikaga Fortress (General Headquarters), Outskirts of Lai Dai, Asaka-Nakasone Border, Kuroda, Fairway System, Delta Quadrant...2200 Hours
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Commander Tshon," the short figure said, bowing before him, "My name is Vegetius Rao - I am the Praetor of Auxiliary Futures Command. My responsibilities entail the handling of all advanced weapons research and general oversight of defense R&D efforts for the Auxiliary Forces. My colleagues have informed me of your expertise in autonomous warfare, and we'd be eager to incorporate your thoughts and suggestions into both our prototypes and existing models."
Vegetius led Tshon into a wide hall, filled with drones hovering above the ground, equipped with a variety of advanced weapons systems. Walking up to the nearest one, Vegetius slammed his hand down on the frame, "This is the Thunder Dragon Mark I - the warhorse of the Auxiliary Forces. The Thunder Dragon is the primary drone that we use for fighting the Yan, in particular." He reached down, tracing a few chain guns along side. "The Thunder Dragon Mark I carries a payload of around 250 lbs of thermobaric missiles that can be used for targeting individual Yan targets, either in the air or on the ground. They're equipped with anti-personnel rounds as well for closer engagements - the ammunition can tear through an exoskeleton and cook a Yan in under 30 seconds, though we're still working through a few ammunition prototypes that can make the process a bit faster. They can travel at speeds of up to 250 mph in the air and have fully autonomous capabilities - we've trained their recognition algorithms to pick up every Yan form that we've encountered on the battlefield."
Moving along, Vegetius walked towards another, modified version of the Thunder Dragon. Lacking the heavier equipment of the Mark I with leaner armor, Vegetius began introducing the Thunder Dragon Mark II. "This is the Mark II - we usually deploy the Mark I and Mark II in swarms together on the battlefield once the Yan are up in the air. Your colleagues are probably getting the full rundown on anti-Yan combat from some of my colleagues, but at a high level, the Yan only really enter the fight once we've kicked the hornet's nest enough, so to speak. The Mark II is designed for closer combat - they're equipped with flamethrowers that can do some real damage to any Yan that try to get within firing range of about a kilometer or so. The goal of these is to detect any Yan forces that may be trying to flank a drone swarm from any direction, so we usually disperse these in swarms within the Mark I swarms to maintain a more robust formation in the air."
"Now, of course, the Yan have fairly sophisticated ranged capabilities, primarily entailing plasma-based weaponry. We do our best to keep mobility high in the Mark I, but with their heavier payloads and tougher armor, it's difficult to keep them an entire swarm intact for as long as we'd like. The Mark II, by contrast, has much stronger mobility - the lighter armor lets them reach top speeds of up to 400 miles per hour in the air, so they can also be deployed independently of the Mark I for scouting or reconnaissance --"
"What happens if the swarm gets interrupted?" Tshon asked, "If one of the drones within the swarm gets destroyed, how does that impact combat effectiveness and how sophisticated are the navigation algorithms?"
"Ah! A great question," Vegetius said, "We've honed the navigation algorithms significantly in testing, both on the battlefield and in live simulations. The swarms are capable of dynamically reacting while in the air to disperse if there are natural obstacles and should maintain an equilibrium distance from each other. Typically speaking, if there's a malfunction in the swarm, that may be present a difficulty, but we've reduced error rates quite considerably in the lead-up to the latest campaign. Essentially, if one of the Thunder Dragons gets hit - say a Mark I, the others can dynamically move around the obstacle to avoid it, and then re-assemble in formation. If there are persistent obstacles - say a Yan swarm comes in from beneath them, their programming should adjust the formation accordingly. We've been able to train them on a data set of nearly tens of thousands of recorded Yan flight patterns, and the Yan - as advanced as they are - tend to be fairly predictable on the battlefield."
"Why haven't you exterminated the Yan yet then? If these swarms are as capable as you make them out to be, surely you could just send them into the hives?"
"Another great question - the primary challenge we've encountered is that the hives are a new biome for our drones. In the past, we've honed drone warfare on Kashkar and Yoson, where the Yan were surface dwellers. Shillong and Yanai are new environments for the latest set of drones, so the combat considerations have changed. We've currently working on drones capable of entering hives; however, the primary challenge we've faced is mapping them in the first place. There are also ancillary challenges related to the amount of ammunition they're provided - they can't fire flamethrowers or shoot incendiary rounds forever; however, we have had some success in placing drone swarms at the entrances of hives to soften the targets before they exit. Usually when this happens, the Yan will either tunnel new exits to reach the surface if one is directly blocked, or, if the drones are deployed deep enough inside of the outer hive, can collapse part of the hive architecture to create a natural obstacle, while they tunnel new exits."
"The next set of drones - the JALALUDDINs," Vegetius said, backing up towards a lighter model behind him, "Are more primed for the mission that you're describing. They're relatively new, but they essentially function as suicide drones. They're much smaller than the others, but they're packed to the hilt with thermobaric charges. These swarms can travel in as many as 250 to 300 and can travel at speeds of 500 mph, but they're fairly fragile and aren't equipped with much defensive weaponry. Once they get deep enough into a hive, they can self-detonate once a critical mass is reached. The Yan don't seem to have developed a good strategy for combating the JALALUDDIN as yet, but we do face constraints driven by the size of the hives themselves. The Yan will usually be fairly mobile inside and outside of the hives during combat, so it's difficult to take out an entire hive in one blow. If they notice that the JALALUDDINs are coming in in large numbers, they may also try to escape to the surface, in which case, we're mostly going to be taking out the civilian castes with these - the workers and engineer forms, the ones who do the digging."
"Now, I may have a few ideas for how to improve these tactics moving forward..." Tshon said, beginning to think through several strategies to run through.
