New Root: Katharsis [AvsH]

[Cerberus Prime]

"I call attention to the dark side maybe a little bit for mutual catharsis but also to try to paint the universe as it is - both sides of it."



New Root. A relatively lone solar-system between Dante and Ecolopia. The only interesting planet in this system is Katharsis 1. It is an ice-planet: too cold for own life-forms; not cold enough to be not colonized by determined humans. Katharsis 1 -often simple called New Root, as no other planet in this system is of interest (the only other planet is a very hot, desolated barren planet without an atmosphere and a far too low gravitation). Katharsis 1 was for several decades in the hand of the private organization Cerberus. Bunkers, underground laboratories and small biotopes were build in a frail network across the planetary surface. Many satellites, space-stations and orbital defence guns orbit the planet and the system itself is regularly patrolled by large fleets that are prepared to open fire as soon as someone does not give the clearance-codes.

Katharsis 1: Capital of Cerberus.

[Cerberus Prime]

The patrol did not reply.

"Prime Commander, sir! We lost contact to patrol 112!"
"What were their last entries?"
"Contact with a foreign fleet, sir!"
"Submit this information to Prime Connection at Katharsis. I will send a message to the Intergalactic Forum myself- we must find out who this is! Prepare Fleet 13 "Damocles", officer! Red Alert!"
"Yes, sir!"

Red lights flashed and the whole military of Cerberus was informed. Another attack? The orbital cannons recharged, and soon millions, maybe billions of sentient life, that are able to do it, will sweat. The sweat of fear or excitement- the most primal of all animal emotions.

Meanwhile the Tau fleet under Commander Klu' Shi passed the borders of New Root and prepared their raid.

[The Sovietyeto]

As the senate was a high traffic area the Martians couldn't simply warp there. Traveling faster then the speed of light had it's drawbacks as far as red tape went over the matter. Instead they had to move to the nearest available area they knew was clear. As of the moment it was an area claimed by Cerberus.

As nothing was official yet they could move into it quickly with no holdups. It was the nearest location to the senate. The Martians had come to push closer to their goal of becoming the superpower of the galaxy's. Currently they were looking at economics. However, if the humans kept on their warlike paths they would most likely invest in becoming a superpower through military means.

The silver disks shot off into space and blurred until Rey were unseen. At such a speed one was undetectable. Then with a powerful yet non noticeable force inside the saucer Rey came to a halt. To any onlookers it would look like they had come out of nowhere. The silver disks flew towards the senate. Completely unaware to the humans suspecting alien hostiles. They were into the wrong place, at the wrong time. And now they had to face the unforeseen consequences.

[Rustika]

Orbit of New Root

Klu' Shi looked over a holographic map being projected from his desk's glass surface, he touched two locations on the surface of the planet facing the fleet on the map with the tip of his finger and two red dots appeared on those locations. That same map with the marked locations had been sent to the Cadre leaders on the Orca drop pods. The Cadres were on their way to land on the planet's surface, he turned and faced the rest of his officers,

"And so it begins..."

Surface of Katharis 1

Shas' la Hi' Jal stood on the summit of a large boulder among the frozen wasteland area of their drop location, he was in charge of a platoon of pathfinders amongst the troops tasked with scouting the territory around the drop zone for enemy troops. He made a list of the Cadres which had been dropped on New Root, two Kroot Auxilary Cadres and two Greater Scout Cadres. He looked as four piranha skimmers flew by, leaving a billow of snow flakes and frost lingering in the air slowly drifting back down to the ground. Hopefully the resistance at the begging would be weak, so he had high hopes for this campaign. He his platoon began the trek across the frozen ground of the planet on the watch for enemies, if any humans were out here they would find them...

[Cerberus Prime]

Orbital Command Station: Prometheus

"Fleet Hades consistent of the Capital Ships Refugee, Nero and Exodus and eight cruisers as well as 20 escort frigates are now in fire-distance, sir!
"Too late... they already landed. Anyway: Fire!"
"Yes, Sir!"
"Give me the orbital defence status!"
"The Tau ignored the orbital cannons and deployed as soon as possible. All 3 orbital capital ships still active!"
"Why didn't they react! Fire! Fire!"
"Sir... we have another signatures on the radar!"
"By the beard of... send Fleet Ulysses! A two-front war... we can't afford it."
"If we send Ulysses we have nothing to offer if another enemy approaches, sir."
"We have no choice... Katharsis might fall. But Cerberus will prevail! And the xenos will pay with blood!"

Space: New Root
Fleet Ulysses under Fleet High Admiral Silas acted quick: without awaiting further commands they activated their mass-drivers, missile systems and lasers. The Martian ships heated up very fast and it did not seem that those ships had elaborate anti-missile defences.

Meanwhile Fleet Hades finally arrived at the theatre of war... too slow for the fast Tau fleet- and probably also outnumbered, given that Tau weapons were technologically more sophisticated. Fleet high Admiral Opus demanded to launch the fighters and bombers first. All weapons were online. The plan was to tear down the anti-fighter and anti-bomber defences- then they would proceed to erase the large cannons and planetary bombardment devices. The large mass-drivers and lasers would aim for the communication stations and the bridges of the enemy ships. Cerberus wants to cut the head off the foreign fleet.
"Prepare the boarding ships. We will try to capture the large one!" She pointed at the largest Tau ship.

Capital Ship Nero

Surface: Katharsis 1/ New Root
Several Tau troops were already deployed- the wide defence networks of Cerberus were dumbfound and didn't react effectively. Many Anti-Orbital platforms were already destroyed and burned in the cold width of the frosty surface of this merciless planet. Commanders tried to organize troops. They would face the Tau. They wouldn't capitulate.

Surface Command Station: Liberator
"Sir... enemy signatures arrived at the surface."
"They are quick... this was planned for ages. It is indeed a directed attack. No raid... they want to erase us. Martians and Tau... the great war finally began."
"Sir... your orders!"
"Reaction #1016!"
"Protocols activated, sir!"

Finally the commanders received their orders. they would entrench their forces and try to hold the line. Fighters would try to destroy the anti-air units of the Tau, while bombers would try to keep the enemy forces down. The time worked for the Cerberus organisation and their aim was to hold a status quo.

Field Commanders finally organized their troops

[Rustika]

Space: New Root

Klu' Shi waited silently watching the elaborate fire works of point defense systems and weaponry, his cold calculating mind preparing a tactic for the battle, he watched as an inferno of fire and floating metal erupted as two escorts took too much fire and were destroyed. He turned to an officer,

"I want a double strike done immediately"

"On which ship commander?" Klu' Shi looked out over the enemy ships and observed the larger ones like one would do when picking out a lobster, he finally pointed at one, the Exodus. The officer nodded and got to work, a double strike was a cunning weapons maneuver devised by Klu' Shi, first the flagship shot off it's rail gun at max power, leaving it vulnerable for only a few moments, almost immediately after another battleship would fire it's entire Ion cannons arsenal, ideally the mass cannon at full power would have taken down the shields, and before they can get up the backup shields the ion cannons would disable the ship leaving it a sitting duck. It required pin point precision and planning, it was usually done once a battle for that very reason. He looked out the window as the mass cannon fired immediately backed up by the ion cannons, hopefully it would work.

Hundreds of turrets activated and tried to fight off the staggering amount of fighters and bombers, but were losing. Fortunately the escorts began their anti-fighter work creating much more fire power that their bombers and fighters would need to stave off. Shields turned lasers and mass cannon shells into bursts of light, it almost looked like a solar flare, a never ending solar flare.

Surface Katharis 1

A local rally point amongst the snow and ice, a pathfinder platoon had stumbled across a rally point for Cerberus forces and noticed that the number of men that had accumulated numbered between 2000-5000, if this was true, adding up all the local rally points around the drop zone it left the Tau forces outnumbered, many other pathfinder platoons and Piranha skimmers on patrol had reported the same. All the tau troops had fallen back, they would let the humans perform the first move, then respond accordingly.

[Cerberus Prime]

Space of New Root
"Commander!"
Jolanda Opus turned away from the tactical holo-map, facing the sweating officer
"Commander Damian of the Exodus requests a real-time conversation!"
"Open the communication."

"Commander Opus. Here is Commander Damian. Our energy-detectors reported that the enemy capital ship overloads their weapon systems. I fear they plan something very bad. We are too slow to outmanoeuvre the Tau!"
"Launch all remaining fighter, drop-pods, bombers, emergency shuttles and explorers. Your work here is done, Commander."
"You... you desert me?"
"Commander. As a tactician and expert of Tau-technology I can assure you: your work here is done."
"B..but Sir! There must be a... krzzrkr"

The communication stopped. The enemies rail-gun fired at full energy- overloading the powerful Cerberus force-shields. The communication and all electric systems failed. Although weakened, the enemies' shot cut like butter through the armor of the Exodus. The Bridge, Communication Centres and large parts of the barracks were destroyed in a matter of seconds. Fortunately most remaining fighters were able to leave. Small explosions erupted across the devastated hull of the Exodus. For a few seconds the ship resembled a graveyard- then the secondary energy-support went online. Cerberus always had secondery, usually also tertiary and sometimes even local energy-supports. Cerberus does not want to lose much capital with one lucky hit.

"They might try it again" mumbled Commander Opus.
"Sir... Tau never use the same tactics twice in one fight."
"They might be blinded by this success. They might try it again. Status report of the Exodus?"
"Capital destruction- but still functioning. Might support the fight as soon as the cells organize themselves."
"Yeah... we don't need the communication-systems. The enemy adapts... our fighter attacks won't do much. We will have to sacrifice some of our bombers... but now is the time to aim for the bridge. All systems aim for the bridge. We will destroy their commanders. The capital ship first!"
"Yes, sir."
"Start the boarding pods. We will capture the smaller escorts... this will confuse them even more"

Surface

4,000 Cerberus guards were entrenched and started to use heavy artillery to tear down dense Tau troop sections. the right co-ordinates were provided by the satellites. Meanwhile the troops were receiving more and more reinforcements of tanks and walkers...

At the same time a small squad of 600 men used a tunnel system and now hides partially behind walls of ice. They wait for the right moment to start a surprise attack.

[Inkarzikan]

Tag for watching.

[Rustika]

Space: New Root

The Mecant class battleship Ethereal was raked by cannon fire as its shields were momentarily over loaded and the bridged wiped clean by a mass cannon round. Klu' Shi listened to an SOS message being sent out from the ship by it's second in command,

"Bridge destro .zzt...zzzt.... com..zzt.er dead ...zzzt...... weapons func..zzzt... zzzt.... falling..zzt... ack." Klu' Shi had heard enough SOS messages to understand what he was talking about. The Ethereal shut down it's engines and let the rest of the armada move forward to cover it, repair drones swarmed it's surface, a large chuck of the ship had been torn off and the ship went into vacuum lock, all the intact parts of the ship were sealed by large metal doors keeping out the vacuum of space. Klu' laid his hand on the wall speaking into the com system with the other Mechant class ship,

"Finish them." Mechant class ships were especially equipped with ion cannons to short circuit electricity and technology on ships especially damaged ones. The rest of the ships continued the battle aiming to destroy their capital ships. The escorts frantically tried to destory all the bombers and fighters still roaming space, they had sunk another escort. As boarding pods were launched one of the Explorer class battleships devoted it's full weaponry to destroying bombers, life pods, boarding pods etc. Klu' thought to himself This is starting to turn into a cluster fuck

Surface Katharis 1

Hi' Jal looked through a pair of binoculars at a line of entrenched infantry in the near distance, a charge of roughly 100 meters would get them to the trenches. He raised his hand signaling the attack to begin. The pathfinders of his platoon rose and jumped over the line of boulders that had been hiding them, as he did so he heard almost his entire Company do the same. They were charging only the first trench line, hopefully if they can take the first line it will give re-enforcments a chance to get a nice rally point. A squad of skimmers raced by they would provide the fire support, they raced ahed the charging path finders laying down cover fire on the trench line, as the carbine wielding soldiers and rail riflers took aim and fired their first volley they began their speedy attack. Up north the same thing was happening with the other cadre. Unfortunately for the northern cadre the bulk of the artillery was falling on them and they had been order to fall back.

A different situation was unraveling itself on what the tau field marshal had designated hill 88, the two Kroot Auxiliary cadres had settled down until further notice but a surprise attack by a spec ops. regiment had left the southern Cadre unprepared and under attack. A lack of preparation by the Kroot officers had allowed for this to happen and now they were facing the consequences. The attack began with the assault of a kroot patrol, they twenty kroot soldiers had been walking by a narrow mountain pass, when from a ridge a meter or so above the pass a flurry of gun fire fell down on the kroot men. Eight lay dead on the frozen ground, now they would show them what fear truly is, as the twelve remaining kroot, crouched and then jumped traversing almost a meter and a half in a single pounce ,falling on the spec ops. infantry in a hail of talons and flying blood. This was only one of the battles beginning between Kroot patrols and enemy spec. ops.

http://imageshack.us/f/688/battlefornewroot02attac.png/

[The Sovietyeto]

Regular Martian ships are not usually built to withstand a missle. However they can often handle the situation surprisingly well. It was obvious that the humans wanted war. When the Martians began their attack they would have no mercy. They were pitiless fighters.

The missiles hit three different ships and destroyed them on impact. 5 more ships remained. As soon as possible they activated the skin shields and fired back while moving away as fast as possible.

The skin shelled were something of a Martian pride of invention. They protected the ship and fit around it like a piece of clothing. It was a shield of the skin of the ship. However, like any other Sheila, it could only take so much before going offline.

While making a hasty retreat they fired heat rays and had the shelled take oncoming damage.

[Cerberus Prime]

New Root: Space

Jolanda Opus watched the tactical map concentrated. Every few minutes she received a handful of papers. damage reports, SOS calls, communications with neighbouring fleets and the reports of the surface attacks. It didn't look bright.

"Officer Thompson!"
"Yes, Commander, Sir?"
"Why aren't the Martians crushed? This does not at all go according to plan! We need the fleet right here with me! Why aren't they back?"
"Sir... the Martians have a new defence-technology. They fight back!"
"So it was indeed an attack. How is the battle on the surface going?"
"Still under control. They can't harm us. They are too few. We have the whole planet. 1 billion Cerberus employees are prepared for impact. Nevertheless they hit us on surprise and want to storm the Command Bunker... this might be a problem."
"We must remove the damn Martians. They are in our way. The Tau are far more aggressive. I need the fleet here with mine."
"What are your orders, sir?"

Fleet High Admiral Opus was very experienced. She was one of the best and loyal soldiers Cerberus had to offer. Nevertheless the war began to be confusing. The tactical map flickered and hundreds of numbers passed by... too fast to be read.

"The Martians... they are retreating."
"Sir?"
"They retreat. Let them retreat... I need fleet Ulysses here. Together with my remaining ships and the three orbital ships as well as my escorts and the defence cannons we outnumber the Tau greatly. Our technology is sufficient to beat them- even though theirs is better."
"Sir... protocols uploaded!"
"Very well. Remember: if the Tau try to do their 'double strike' again we turn the tide. The weapons have to overload, leaving them and even parts of the ship partially defenceless. We will strike in this very moment! Furthermore we will now spread our fighter squadrons. Confuse them. Make complicated manoeuvres, make them independent. Stress the enemy... stress the enemy... Officer! Load the torpedoes and give me the co-ordinates of the Tau troops at the surface. We will bombard them from here and sweep them from our beautiful property!"
"Yes, sir!"

Katharsis 1: Surface- 300 meters away from the Command Bunker

Field Marshal Imugen arrived and took over the control of the defending troops. He quickly checked the field with his binoculars.
"Perfect... they charge." Imugen smiled.
"Sir! Your commands!"
"Fire the autocannons. But keep 2 of them hidden for the case they try another larger charge. As soon as they are shortly in front of this line" he pointed at the map "we will charge. They want to find their own trenches- but we will surprise them with our own charge. In close-combat we will rip their intestines all over the field!"
"Yes sir!"
"Give me a phone, officer"
"Here"
"Tank command? This is Field Marshal Imugen! As soon as our regiments charge move your tanks at sector Q22 R5 T7!"

Military manoeuvres

Imugen smiled. The Tau will be surprised. If everything goes according to plan they would only have to bother about the orbital fight.

Orbital Control Station

"Try to communicate with fleet Achilles. they are somewhere in the in the area of Terra Nova. I am confident that we will hold New Root. Meanwhile Achilles will strike at the heart of the Tau planets in this area. While they fight us here we already charge at them. Here we see how we can adopt surface manoeuvres for the Navy." 'Orbit Commander of the Fortress' Maximilian Dodge said while he lighted a cigar. "Let's see how clever the Tau really are!"

[Rustika]

Space: New Root

Klu' almost smiled as he saw the enemy fighters try to evade and survive in the battle, all they were doing is pro longing their death. He turned to the Field Marshal commanding the ground forces from the ship,

"So Field Marshal, you can now send down the rest of your troops designated for this battle, their defense is over extended and they have fallen into our trap." He paused as he heard a large explosion, another escort had been destroyed by the enemy, he turned to his naval officers,
"Why the hell haven't we won yet? Lets finish them." It almost seemed as if the Tau ships continued to fight with a new found zeal against the human navy.

Surface Katharis 1

The enemy had fallen into the trap and the scene was set for the rest of the troops to force the enemy back. All over the front pre designated landing positions were filled as orca transports dropped off four new Cadres, fresh blood, just what this battle needed. Most of the troops sent into battle were dispensable human auxiliaries with the Tau fire warriors marching into carefully planed battles supported by a cadre of armored support. The northern kroot on hill 88 had hunkered down and entrenched themselves prepared for the oncoming tank regiment. While the southern kroot tried to push the Spec Ops. off the mountain, but they were being pushed back so a new cadres was deployed to aid them.

On the northern end of the line the retreating cadre of pathfinders had drawn the enemy regiment away from friendly artillery and moved to strike against them, while at the same time a human auxiliary cadre flanked them and surrounded the regiment on all fronts pushing in on it in a bloody meat grinder. The cadre which was being attack by two regiments was being ordered to hold it's ground, reinforcements were on their way.

http://imageshack.us/f/706/2v3m05l.jpg/

[Cerberus Prime]

Surface Katharsis 1

Field Marshal Imugen spat on the ground when he saw the enemy reinforcing their front. Angry he realized that his brilliant manoeuvre spread his troops too much- now they are in the immediate danger of encircling. The reinforcements of Cerberus were far away- the whole planet had a population of around 20 million Cerberus employees or active supporters. The regiments of the planet were, with a total of 3 million trained soldiers, numerous. nevertheless it was impossible for them to arrive at time. Imugen knew: he must protect the command bunker -whatever the cost. The Cerberus CEO, the puppeteer of the whole organization- a dark knight of humanity, resided in the complex underground-system. If Imugen fails, the Tau might storm the bunker and kill the CEO. Currently Sky Marshal Gabriel, as second in command of Cerberus, was somewhere far away near the Cykomene-Dyson-Swarm.

"Sir!"
"Yes, officer?"
"Navy High Admiral Opus telegrammed us that she was ready for planetary bombardment. She awaits her coordinates!"

Field Marshal Imugen was about to form another, maybe his last, master stroke:
For one Imugen realized, that one the newly arriving human traitor regiments aimed for the tank division. He commanded them to continue their storm- but they would, followed by the enemy human regiment, only pass Hill 88- shortly after they would join the Special forces on the other side of the hill, leaving the charging humans somewhere where the Special Forces were now. The Special Forces sure had the hardest job: they'd have to break through the two Kroot regiments; and they'd have to do this, while retreating uphill- probably they'd even be under crossfire by the charging human traitors. The area behind the hill were the coordinates he gave to Jolanda Opus: planetary bombardment would grind down on two Kroot regiments and two human traitor regiments. No entrenchments would stand such powerful strikes and although the move was dangerous and would result in the death of maybe even another hundred of Special Forces, it was well worth it.
The second part of the plan was less accurately fitting. The Cerberus Guard Regiment that charged the Tau Pathfinders might be lost. Imugen ordered them to overrun the pathfinders at all costs- for they are excellent trained enemy forces that are worth a sacrifice. Although Imugen was sure that his regiment wouldn't leave a single Tau alive, he did not expect the regiment to be large enough to also hold back the Human Auxiliary Cadre that arrived north. They'd have to hold the line and hope for a miracle.
Now there was the third plan of this manoeuvre: the two remaining Cernerus Guard Regiments would continue to tear down the advanced Pathfinder Cadre. The charging Human Auxiliary Cadre and the Firewarrior Mechanized Cadre would be under heavy artillery bombardment- maybe the morale of the human traitors was low enough to hold them down, or even to disintegrate. Although he did not expect the Firewarrior to receive collateral damage, he expected that the next 100 meters would only be a slow charge with some casualties. If the two Guard Regiments gave the Tau a short shrift, they'd already be ready to face the Mechanized Cadre.
Furthermore he ordered his aides to activate the two hidden autocannons (mentioned earlier)- they'd make sure that the Mechanized Cadre won't forget the next 100 metres that quickly.

He re-checked his plans and he saw that it was good.

[Inkarzikan]

Captain Jack Harkness (OOC: A Cookie to whoever gets the reference), Captain of the American 6th Fleet, sat down in a chair in his control room. He was finally sent by the American Government to help protect Katharsis, because they were fellow Humans. He had decided to send a message, to notify Cerberus of their presence, if scanners haven't already detected them.

To: Cerberus
From: NFSASC 6th Fleet.
Hello, I am Capt. Jack Harkness from the NFSASC 6F. We were wondering if you would need help defending your planet, as America has decided to help Humanity, against the aliens. Please respond quickly, we can not stay here long, as we do not want to be seen.
End.

[Cerberus Prime]

To: NFSASC 6th Fleet
From: High Admiral Jolanda Opus, Cerberus

We are happy to see that you are brave enough to protect humanity- as it is your duty. Although the battle is a difficult one, i think that the battle for terra is more important. Currently the Strykla united forces ten times as big as the human guards. if you wish to leave 2 or three capital ships than the Tau have lost. Still Terra has the main priority and Cerberus is prepared to die the martyrs' death.

Humanity First!
Jolanda Opus

OOC: currently we work on the space map for New Root. Before this is done the war is halted.

[Premislyd]

OOC: Just posting my involvement.. you know, all for killing a bunch of humans and partially glassing a planet over. If you want to know my ships, check the tech thread.

The 148 Ships(with another 296 on the way) all left Slip Space, coming through several big white portals. The first ship to come through was the C.S High Prophet, a CSO Class Super Carrier, it's silver hull glittering in the dim light being given off by the star. Within the next 3 minutes the other 147 ships came out and began to deploy in a sort of skirmish formation.

Fleet Master Rtas Vadumee looked through a the glass that made up the bridge, the brown and gold Zealot armor shining in the light. He walked over and sat down in the Admiral chair, resting his arms on each side. The battle above the planet raged on, but it was clear that the Humans were losing. In case the scanners of the Tau hadn't already picked them up, they sent out a message to the closest ship.

Code: Select all

This is the Fleet of Honourable Truth, of the Covenant Empire. We are here to offer any support that you may need.

Meanwhile an Planetary Assault Group (1 CAS Assault Carrier, Three CCS Cruisers, 6 CVD Corvettes) slowly descended towards the surface of the planet. One of the corvettes launched down 8 Orbital Insertion Pod, each carrying one Special Operations Sangheili. Their mission was to uncover the sight that believed to have a Forerunner Crystal, something that was needed by the Covenant to build something... something mysterious and secretive.