Crucible of Iron, CAS Theater Huerdaen Central Logistics Hub
Silvoya stood atop the residential module in Crucible of Iron, her eyes cast down on the bustle of the moving throngs below. Taken just as it was, someone would assume it was pure chaos, but she had started recognizing the Huerdaen culture for what it was. Order on the verge of chaos. Everyone down there had a job, had something to do, with the exception of the small groups of kids who would weave their way through. Even the elevated gun position at the center of the room, suspended between the ramps, with Imperial Force standing watch, had a specific purpose, keeping out of the way of the moving masses of the people who lived and worked on the station.
She always found herself surprised by the Star Empire, and this was no different. Crucible of Iron was listed as a 'Central Logistics Hub', but it functioned more like a massive, space-borne city and trade station. A good portion of the Huerdaen war effort had been supplied locally by allies and friendly nations, especially from the CAS and KEX. Because of that, the logistical station had turned into a massive trade station, with whole sections of the residential areas filled with merchants selling anything from surplus rations to combat forces. Here, the people of a dozen nations that had fought together now haggled and argued over prices as if it were a trade hub near the center of an empire. If not for the nearby displays that indicated the status of various ships in dock, she could easily have forgotten that it was a military installation.
Most of them had been pulled from other battle groups, unable to continue the fights that occurred, or taking damage from remaining forces. There were still groups of separatists who had managed to remain at large, striking at Huerdaen and allied fleets alike. It was a state of being that she had no doubt would continue for years. Rarely were a people beaten so completely that they simply stopped fighting without some manner of aftershocks. In all likelihood, there would be terror attacks, guerrilla warfare, uprisings, and political maneuvering that would last a generation, or possibly even more.
But that wasn't why she was here, or why she was studying the specifications of this 'battle group'. It looked more like the remains of a salvage yard, but it spoke volumes about the importance of this mission, and that scared her. Before her lay a list of a battleship, three cruisers, and six destroyers. Under normal Huerdaen doctrine, this did not count as a combat-ready battle group. It held enough cruisers for the operation, but the destroyer count was below minimum, and the battleship was still in critical condition, following a particularly clever Danaversian strike that had waited until it was in geosync, ready to fire an orbital shot. The ship had been in repairs for almost a month, and while it was now operational, it still lacked FTL capability, and much of the crew were replacements or slots yet to be filled. Even the captain and executive officer were yet to be allocated, leaving it in the hands of the current bridge chief.
Worse, one of the cruisers hadn't received her crew complement yet, and she was still fresh with her own 'Black-Shrouded Mother'. Still, as the highest ranking member of the battle group, she had been given command of the actual operation in yet another thing she wasn't quite comfortable with. And to top it all off, one of the destroyers was still showing battle damage, and two were actually modified civilian ships hired out as mercenary augmentation to the battle group.
It all felt like a significant fuckup, and yet, here she was, with a desperate strategy for a brutal strike. She had been assured that there were no enemy stellar forces in the area, and that this operation was actually behind Huerdaen lines, somewhere in the gray area between friendly nations where the patrols had fallen off simply due to the demand for the ships elsewhere. This particular world happened to be quite peaceful, and then it suddenly fell off the grid.
And now she was preparing a strike on it, with full authorization of everyone involved except for poor people in the strike zone. It was technically neutral ground, and she had been opposed, until they had told her why they needed the strike. And the answer to that put a chill up her spine.
An Ikittitl winger had been sighted there. This wasn't a phantom rumor of a particularly active civvie, either. It was a confirmed, pheromone-spewing nightmare on a populated world. They had gotten enough intelligence gathered to identify the ship used, but it had broken orbit and run almost as soon as they found it. Whoever was at the helm was as careful and clever as she had always been told they would be. But what was worse, was that the colony had started shipping out cargo to somewhere. This wasn't the only location. And if this Winger was half as dangerous as they had told her it could be, then a whole lot of people were about to have their lives ruined.
So she had her plan, such as it was. It had been organized with the garrison forces available to her, and she had found that in every instance, the planning of the ground assault was best left to the ground commanders. She'd delegated almost every aspect of the mission, and would be providing central control and support, but no more. Her job came down to flattening anything that the tried to defend too heavily, while kill teams swept for something of value. Two hours after the operation begins to purge the city, all units would fall back, and the area would be destroyed by concentrated bombardment. Her throat always felt dry at that part.
But even their garrison forces were thin, here. Their friends and allies came through on this count, though, supplying small strike teams to hit alongside the Shield in clearing the area. The Legion of Vengeance, who had proven themselves time and again to be as dependable as their reputation, had been quick to volunteer, as well as a newer, small-time levy that came from a mixed background out of the Kitsune Empire. Then a number of newer factions had come out of the woodwork, eager to shed some blood. She'd have to keep track of what information they were given, but it was enough to have the fighting strength, and maybe see what they were capable of.
She glanced at her watch, knowing already that it was time to head to the briefing. It was a useless action, and one that set her apart from many other Huerdaen officers - she still had habits from before she was augmented. She was aware that her watch wasn't showing the accurate time, but it was a habit from a life long past now, and it let her stand out just a little bit. A quick flash of silver on her wrist. She smiled to herself at the thought, and as she walked past the secured door to the military section, the Shield there saluted, both of them cheerily greeting her.
"Big sister, ma'am, you're first to arrive."
"Onee-chan, welcome back."
She gave them both a reproachful, but accepting glare, to which both laughed. She was probably the only captain in the Star Navy that wasn't called Captain. She had found that somewhere along the line, she earned a reputation for being the watchful big sister, picking up the lost and alone, and generally keeping an eye on those under and around her. It made her a lot of friends in the services, and had earned her first the title of a 'Dear Sister' among the Huerdaen. However, it was the Pankrees who had started using the term 'Onee-chan', making it more than a little awkward for her. Still, she had gotten used to that, despite some of the connotations that come with such a title. For good or ill, it was her reputation.
Her entrance to the meeting room lacked the jovial greeting, earning her only a salute from the two guards, and a raised hand from her XO as he saw her enter, signaling that the presentation was ready. At her side, her operation's officer was shuffling through datapads, looking them over carefully and organizing them to her liking. They seemed like they were preparing for any other meeting, despite her misgivings.
She barely had time to turn around before one of the groups arrived, and it was probably the most obvious of the group. Republicans were always recognizable on any Huerdaen ship, their sheer size dwarfing the single escort, with the shortest of them standing easily a foot taller than the SLT leading them. The man took it with quiet grace as he guided them through the door, reminding them to duck.
This group, she hadn't worked with before, but she had been briefed. They were led in by First Lieutenant Kyra Beauregard, and Silvoya took a moment to watch her move. Records also referred to her as Lt. Bow. Like many Republican officers, she had a confidence in her stride that set her out from lesser forces. She was direct, and gave off the impression that she was here because she wanted to be. A good start. As JLT Si'Halla handed her the briefing material, the other two ducked their way in, prompting the operations officer to have to quickly clone a third pad for the group. It took only a moment to complete, but the trio stood before Silvoya for that time, letting her measure them up. As an Ataster, she was almost 6" taller than her nearby counterparts, leaving her just shy of midway between the two groups - standing out in the company of either.
The other two were Sergeant First Class John Hood, a giant of a man who almost hit his head on the ceiling even without armor, and recognizable for his deep skin pigmentation. Even if not for those things, though, he stood out as probably the youngest Setulanite SFC she had seen, though that wasn't saying too much, considering her experience. And the last was a rather dour-looking woman, who her cybernetics identified for her as Chief Warrant Officer Germaine Ita. A gunship pilot, the leader for Bow's support unit.
They were all wearing their duty uniforms, easily marked out by the flaming skulls of the Legion of Vengeance in muted colors on their left shoulder, and the golden chevrons on the right. With the simple tasks completed, Silvoya stepped forward and threw a quick salute, pressing her fists to either side of her hips with elbows going straight back. In an instant it dropped away, and she had a moment to reflect how natural that felt, now that she had been doing it for years. The moment passed, however, and she looked up at the three.
"Welcome to the briefing, First Lieutenant, Sergeant, Chief. I'm Captain Silvoya, of the 'Black-Shrouded Mother'. I'll be in overall command of this operation, but your immediate report is Colonel Chitsuyu."
She gestured across the room to a man who leaned over a map of the target area without noticing the group. "I'm also in control of deployment, extraction, and naval as well as air support elements from the ISN. We'll begin shortly, once the other groups arrive."
Stepping aside, she let them choose where they wanted to sit or stand, with the room laid out simply. It was a smaller room, with a holo projector in the middle, and a ring of chairs around the edge. Outside the ring of chairs were four holo projectors in upright positions so that any discussion could be made by those in the chairs, without modifying the central map if need be. In short, it was a small, unassuming war room for minor operations.
Following them were two pairs of Huerdaen officers, one pair with markings for Heavy Infantry, part of the 1-1-5th, Home Galaxy, and another of a Mechanized unit from the 1-1-3rd, having earned their reputation with Fay'Shaila at Farazen. Their entrance went without significant fanfare.
On their heels, however, were the two officers from the Tezekian Directorate. Led by the heavily augmented Claws of Silver, the two drew more than a few interested glances. Much of the interest originated from the sheer difference between the two. Claws of Silver, with his missing wings and cyberized eye, seemed to have only his uniform in common with his subordinate. His subordinate, Claws of Brass, seemed like the poster-child of the Tezekian Directorate's recruitment. While they both moved with confidence, Claws of Brass was clean and fresh-looking, the sort of thing that the Huerdaen could imagine would draw all the lady birds to the nest. Many immediately decided he was probably the less trustworthy of the two, as they were handed their pads and gestured to their seats.
There was a short wait before the next group showed, but what came through the door put a number of people on edge. A drone followed its escort through the door, with a female Rhustarim close behind. Each stood out in their own right - the hovering, blade-like drone earned more than its share of uneasy glances, but the female was met with more interest. Like many cultures, it seemed rare for female Rhustarim to directly join the military, and that immediately set her out as an object of interest.
Her shaved head, visible vascular structure, and the wide array of cybernetics that integrated into the back of her head did nothing to make her any less obvious. Of the groups so far, the pair was the least approachable, and had earned little more than polite salutes and a quick hand-off of the mission data on a pad.
This went on for a little while longer, with Huerdaen officers filtering in, until finally the new Levy commander and her liaison appeared, a pair that were known to the Empire, if not Silvoya directly. Vii'Nogai was something of a recognizable name among the Imperial Shield, having fought in about as many battles as he had been promoted for...and then subsequently demoted for.
Sei Vydam had a bit of a file of her own here, having worked as a bounty hunter, so she was known. She had also recently done more than her fair share with the Shield, earning an effective rank among their number, it earned her a little more respect than most. Still, Silvoya knew that the pad handed to the newly re-minted Junior Lieutenant Vii'Nogai would contain details that didn't exist on Sei's.
Of course, that particular oddity didn't last long, as Vii took both pads and unlocked the additional information with his credentials before passing it to Sei. She had heard that the two were something of a package, so it hardly surprised her that the man would trust the odd woman with everything he had seen. Still, time would tell if he made a mistake. Perhaps he'd be back to sergeant again sooner, rather than later. Still, her files indicated that Sei was officially a Huerdaen resident now, so perhaps that wouldn't be an issue after all.
It was an interesting group, all told. A few 'friendly' nations, Republicans happy to kill anyone and anything for a chance to find and stomp out a ragged few exiles, the hodgepodge levy, and a few scraped-together garrisons that augmented local forces that had been preparing to deploy to other areas. It was in significantly better shape than her 'battle group'.
The thought made her smile as she moved toward the center of the room, clearing her throat. Turning to the assembled group, she found herself looking almost directly into the eyes of John Hood, who would have been of the same height of almost any other Huerdaen officer in the room, even while sitting. Chuckling to herself, she lifted herself up on her toes to look past him, making sure nobody was straining to see past him. Finding that wasn't the case, she began the briefing with a flick of her wrist at the central projector, causing the dim red lighting to lower as a yellow-brown projection of the city appeared before them.
"This is the city of Sheyalni, our strike target. A hostile cult of personality has taken control of the location and cut off all outside communication. While normally, we would be willing to offer terms, this particular 'cult' is known to be anything but peaceful."
Taking a step back from the image caused the view to zoom out, showing its location on the local landmass, near a large body of water and a particularly fertile landscape. Above it, designated in low orbit, were icons indicated the pitiful battle group.
"The enemy will not have capital ships capable of challenging our orbital supremacy, so our naval attachment under my direct command will be providing direct support. They are likely to have strike craft available, but we expect limited effectiveness to their defenses."
Moving forward again, she directed their gaze and the display to the battle group, bringing them in closer to show the formation they would be using, with the badly damaged Effigy of Shattered Dreams already showing critical damage, and marked even here as combat ineffective.
"The Effigy of Shattered Dreams will immediately move into bombardment position, deploying a trio of Helhammer rounds to the surface. This should eliminate the most significant enemy presence in the area. Nightmare Resurgent, a Deathwing-Class, will deploy anti-rad scrubbers to minimize damage to the world and ecosystem from this strike, as this world is not within the Imperial Domain. The flak-cruiser Dawn of Oblivion will burn her belly and provide close-support efforts during deployment, eliminating enemy strike craft in the process. This should isolate enemy elements to ground units, with the possibility of limited artillery and gunships."
She took a step closer to the table again, directing them to her own ship, notably not the battleship, but instead the Black Saracen-Class Black-Shrouded Mother, where it indicated a modular layout for a small carrier, as well as a number of bomber wings, including a heavy bomber wing.
"We will not be so limited. I will be able to allocate a number of bomber and heavy bomber strikes to the group at large. Overall, I expect to be able to deploy up to four or more bomber strikes across the city to eliminate hardened objectives, as well as one heavy bomber strike for suppression purposes. All units will have these available to them, but because of limited naval assets, we will need to ration them. The entirety of the operation should take no more than three hours following initial ground contact. After that time, we will begin our withdrawal and complete the operation with the complete destruction of the city and the remaining survivors of its two million inhabitants."
Her face turned grim at that point, knowing that not everyone would find that such an acceptable solution, so she continued. "That brings us to the objective of this strike. As you may have guessed, we are not attempting to conquer the location. It is ill-suited for our uses, and is best merely cleared of this particular cult. The world itself has many uses yet, so it is our goal to leave it largely intact, with minimal lasting damage. Instead, we are in search of a number of caches that the enemy has prepared to survive such an attack. During our strike, they will no doubt be trying to salvage data and back it up out-of-system, or evacuate the contents to a secure area. To this end, our destroyers will be running kill missions on any vessels attempting to exit the system."
Her face remained grim, or perhaps became more grim at that last part. "It is imperative that none of the caches remain. This brood-" she caught herself quickly, barely breaking stride as she directed their view back to the city "This cult has had more time to operate than any such installation in the past. This makes them particularly dangerous, and we can assume that the entire city's population can be and will be hostile to us, often at the expense of their own lives. There will be traps expecting our arrival, and the enemy is aware we are about to strike, so time is of the essence."
Indicating a series of locations around the city, she continued to speak. "We'll be deploying in three different stances. The Rhustarim, Directorate, Olosian 22-2-3rd Light Infantry, and" she paused, looking at Sei for a second, then shrugged "...Captain Vydam's unit, are the strike teams. The Mah'Lahn 29-4-4th Mechanized and 12-4-2nd Armored, Cheztop 8-2-1st Heavy Infantry will be used to suppress enemy responses and counter enemy action. The Home Galaxy 1-1-3rd Mechanized and 1-1-5th Heavy Infantry, as well as the Legion of Vengeance will function as reserves. The Legion of Vengeance is our reaction unit - you will deploy for a drop, and choose your target as the battle unfolds. The 1-1-5th is artillery and will be on station from several locations to bring support to those who require it. Each strike unit can call a Victor Target once to prioritize their own fire mission over all other fire missions. In addition, Olosian 22-2-3rd are supplying gunship support where needed, including a Blackbird and two Overlord variants. These are the tools and support available to our strike teams."
She spread her hands, bringing up the city itself, and by passing a hand over the top of it, highlighted a series of target structures and locations, most above ground, but one below. Also indicated were the target locations for the Helhammer rounds, revealing killzones specifically beneath the city, instead of in or in an airburst above it. Continuing, Captain Silvoya made a quick note of the support element deployment locations.
"The Mah'Lahn 12-4-2nd Armored will be coming down in a Conqueror here, northeast of the city on the plains while the dust settles. Using Rocs, as well as some modified cargo haulers, we will be deploying the Mah'Lahn 29-4-4th Mechanized and Home Galaxy 1-1-5th Heavy Infantry to the south in the foothills. The Home Galaxy 1-1-3rd deploy in the east, and immediately prepare for mobile combat action in support of the strike teams. The Cheztop 8-2-1st will begin an advance and purge operation from the northwest as soon as they reach landfall."
She took a drink of water before, surprised by how much she was droning on. After a few seconds, she continued. "Captain Vydam and her forces will advance from the north. There is what appears to be a hardened structure below ground that has been repurposed from the prior subway facility. This subway has been completely shut down, and most entrances are no longer viable. Your approach would be down this main street to this access point, where the subway used to connect with land-based rail lines."
As she speaks, she indicates on the map, the specified areas glowing a bright silver to set them apart.
"From here, we cannot identify the structure's purpose, but we have been able to confirm that it is going to be very heavily defended, both on the approach, and once it has been breached. During this advance, you will be in the same operating area as the ML12-4-2nd Armored, and they may be available to provide assistance if you request it."
The officer from the named unit gave Sei a respectful nod, making notes on his own pad as he did so. Moving on, Silvoya cleared the highlighted sections and moved herself to the western end of the city.
"Similarly, the Rhustarim will be deploying in the northwest, and making their way along the western edge of the city almost due south. Another fortified structure exists here, primarily buried in the ground. It appears its initial purpose was a weapon silo with possible ballistic weaponry, but we'll keep that from being an issue. Your concern should remain on the approach. The upper two floors of this structure are exposed above ground, but there appear to be at least ten to fifteen that proceed downward from there. We need you to work your way through this facility, and destroy or capture everything within. The facility entrance is likely heavily guarded, and could prove quite the obstacle."
Once again, as she spoke the path and objective became highlighted, indicating a structure that drove deep down beneath the surface. Moving once more, she positioned herself due west of the city, looking at it calmly before she began. "The Tezekian forces will approach from due west. There is what used to be an arena of sorts, most likely used for sporting events, that has been re-purposed. It now appears to have been fortified and reinforced against our attack. It is segmented against catastrophic loss, and our analysts suggest it is likely an armory. It is imperative that this armory not be employed against us. Also keep in mind, your southern flank is exposed, as that is a path we are trying to drive the enemy in retreat. To that area are large, open fields with little cover. If we can force them out into that area, they can be annihilated with greater ease."
This time she walked all the way around the city, to the eastern half, where she highlighted a single structure, and then passing her hand over the suburbia that led up to it, dropping in the icons of the Olosia 22-2-3rd.
"The Oa 22-2-3rd will approach from the east. Their flank will also be exposed. This leaves a retreat path southwest, southeast, and due south. With our reserve and support forces holding due south, it should split any attempted retreat under fire from our heavier weapons. Let us keep in mind that total annihilation can be achieved later - our objectives are paramount."
Her eyes turned back to the clearly Pankrees officer in the room, wearing a sash that symbolized he was a man of importance back home, as she continued. "Your objective appears to be a hospital, reinforced with an armored citadel within. Supporting beams have been added to the structure to allow it to survive our expected strike. We need you to enter that citadel and find out what they're protecting."
Taking a step back, the entirety of the plan was laid bare before them, with support paths, purge orders, and strike targets all highlighted for the group to see, identifying locations of interest. After giving them a moment to review the data presented, she spoke to the group as a whole, retreating back to one of the outer displays and waiting.
"Any questions in regard to this operation?"
