SECTOR 7 – AREGLIA SYSTEM
Siege of Areglia
The Areglia system is a binary star system with a fluctuating gravity phenomenon that prevents effective use of conventional ships. The Concordat forces along with the Emporiums Vanguard continue to lay siege to the system’s diverse populace. These races successfully took their planet and downed Emporium ships through the use of illegal weaponry. Naturally, the nearest Emporium and Concordat forces converged on their location.
The Areglian’s and their allies on a moon in the orbit of a nearby gas giant have made a large fleet of warships to contest the system. No doubt the sloppy work of a subpar militia member. The first few days were quite brutal, gravitational anomalies have taken almost half of the arriving Emporium forces; the Concordat on the other hand, fared much better due to the EID’s installed on their ships, allowing them to surf the electromagnetic waves generated by the fluctuating gravitational fields.
The Areglian’s and the Rut’gar still put up a major fight, despite being heavily outnumbered. Eventually, the Concordat called in heavier reinforcements to break the siege, their arrival was projected within the hour.
- The Silent Ascension
- 2 minutes before arrival
- Sector 7 Magisterial Fleet
Stirring a spoon in a white cup, its light tinging sound ringing across the command bridge breaking the tenuous silence. “Estimated time to arrival?” Julia’s voice then echoed into the room, her authority was immediately made present. A man on a computer replied quickly, “Two minutes Ma’am!” he stated, his voice hoarse as if he was coming down with a cold. “Come again Junior Lieutenant?” Julia asked coldly, the man cleared his throat and spoke again in reply, “Ma’am! Two minutes Ma’am!” His voice sounded much clearer, Julia simply nodded and took a sip of her coffee.
“Bones…” Julia’s voice beckoned in the dark room, an A.I. construct appeared, “Yes ma’am” the A.I.’s metallic voice answered her call. “Give me the tactical map, grid info, statistics, and star data recordings.” In an instant after Julia spoke, the A.I. Bones filled the dark bridge with a holographic projection of the fleet battle raging over both Alegria and Femora – the gas giant.
The hologram revealed that the concordat and Emporium forces are having trouble due to the fluctuating E.M. field around the stars creating a gravitational phenomenon making it difficult for most ships to navigate through the system without losing the ship itself. The system was highly regulated with small ships entering as they were less likely to be torn apart by the E.M. waves. The concordat had no such problems, the EID should allow The Silent Ascension to glide through it with ease.
“Fleet status Bones?” The A.I. answered Julia immediately, “Several large Emporium vessels have been lost, escape pods have been recovered. Many Emporium ships have been heavily damaged and the Concordat fleet assisting them has been engaged in combat for quite too long without support. Anything else miss Greystone Ma’am?” The A.I. awaited more orders, Julia simply gestured a wave and the entire hologram faded and the room fell to darkness again. “Estimated time to arrival?” She checked again, “Sixty Seconds ma’am!” the Junior Lieutenant answered, “Give me a line to the Colonel aboard the Sword of Truth.” She barked, the Lieutenant’s fingers danced across the keys simultaneously replying, “Yes Ma’am! Patching you through now!”
- The Sword of Truth
- 1 Minute before arrival
- Sector 7 Magisterial Fleet
“Colonel!” Shouted one of the troopers, already geared for the conflict, “It’s the Fleet Admiral!” At that same moment, a tall figure stood at the back of the equipment area near the armory – Colonel Marion Cutter. He took a long stride, heavy steps could be heard banging on the metal flooring, “Yes, ma’am?” His helmet and mask made his voice sound deeper and muffled. “Colonel, the fleet will be opening up a gap in their defense, use this moment to take your forces and plunge it deep into the heart of the Rut’gar homeworld. The Lord Grand Marshal will be doing the same with Alegria.” Julia’s stern voice emitted an aura of authority, but the Colonel unfazed by her voice replied, “Ma’am, our ships will be able to get to Luzik, Femora’s largest moon, but we’ll need orbital support when we get there.” Julia was taken aback by the colonel’s tenacity to talk back to a superior – she liked that. “I will take command of the Destroyers there and ask them to give you orbital support when necessary, they’re not much, but they’ll do for a while, we’ll crush the enemy fleet in a few hours give or take a few exceptions.” The Colonel chuckled, “Ma’am, my men know you as Miss Gravestone, but-“ Julia cut him off taking offense, “Colonel, I warn you to watch your boundaries. We’re nearing our objective, I suggest you get ready.” The Colonel spoke up, “Let me finish Ma’am. They call you Miss Gravestone for the number of enemies you kill. You’ve saved my men countless times with your command, I’ve every drop of faith invested in you Ma’am. Heia Huzzah!” He saluted, Julia smirked at his remark, her service record is far from perfect, several thousands have died under her command, the only reason why the ground forces survive is because of the sacrifices she makes trying to save them.
The screen shut off and the rest of the forces started loading up into their gunships, Furok, Drones, Gulgarans, Mechs, Tanks, along with humans. The invasion was about to begin. The colonel then rallied his men, Auxiliary or Human, and spoke on open comms with the other transports in his strike force.
“Brave fighting men and women of the Eighth Concordat battle group. We stand at the precipice of war once again!” He shouted, being heard on the many ships going into combat.
With a unanimous cheer, the soldiers of the battle group yelled, “Huzzah!”
The colonel continued, “And once again, we are sent in to wipe the floor until it is stained with the blood of our enemies!”
The Soldiers yelled “Huzzah!” loudly and proudly.
“And if they want to take us with them, then our reply will be short and simple! We shall send them a belly full of lead and a pool of their own blood to drown in! Am I right men?!” He yelled, directing the question to everyone in the Battle group.
“Huzzah Colonel Cutter!” They yelled in reply.
“And the corps will kick their assess like footballs and hand ‘em back, flat! Am I right men!?” He asked again, yelling even louder.
“Huzzah Colonel Cutter!” Their yell was loud, it was full of confidence and pride.
“Give me a Huzzah for the Corps, a Huzzah to the fleet, and a Heia Huzzah to our Emperor! And after that, let’s get in our gunships and kick some Xeno ass!” He raised a fist into the air and started shouting with his men. “Huzzah! Huzzah! Heia Huzzah!” they started running into their gunships and loading their weapons, the tanks started to load into their specialized Chariot Gunships, several Furok and Gulgaran infantry checked their weapons before loading up. The battle was about to begin.
When the fleet exited FTL, they were greeted with fighting almost immediately, the dreadnought made short work of the ships that engaged it. It ripped apart several ships simultaneously and released its fighters, several other ships made the jump with the dreadnought, such as Judicators, Enforcers, Crusaders, Purifiers, Hunters, and several Intervention and Guardian classes joined the fleet combat.
The fleet moved in between the Jovian giant and Areglia, they essentially bisected the enemy fleet allowing for a coordinated assault on both fronts now that they are clearly divided. The Silent Ascension and the Malevolent Cascade the two dreadnoughts leading the strike fleets took position on both Femora and the its moon – Luzik. Their enemies were vastly different from each other, one was a peaceful agricultural/industrial race and the other a warrior community with various tribes. Areglia was the former, Luzik was the latter. The only thing that brought them together is hostile occupation. The Rut’gar are a people who seem to be more slimy and covered in slick jelly, the Areglians are an ape like species, hairy, several appendages, and apposable thumbs for starters. They both have achieved a tech level where they can create starships and create weapons, they have been at war with each other for a long time until the Human invasion of their home world.
They planned for this, however, the Concordat was not the same as its parent. The Concordat would invade in sequence. Orbital bombardments, then shock troops, then main force, then armed occupation. After the planets have been taken over, their culture will be stripped, their children will be taken, and the planet itself may even be purged.
The fleet battle raged on, Xeno ships becoming desperate to break the Concordat grip on the system practically threw themselves into the Silent Ascension and the Malevolent Cascade only to be destroyed before even reaching them. The two fleets outputted a torrent of metallic rods, lasers, missiles, and torpedoes at the enemy; some who were unfortunate enough to get too close to a Gulgaran ship suffered boarding actions. The enemy crew were eviscerated and dismembered by the Gulgarans. The enemy force during the height of their insurrection had three thousand ships, less than a few minutes after Julia and the Malevolent Cascade arrived, less than four hundred even remain operational or in enemy control all against the dreadnought and its combined fleet strengths.
“Damage assessment!” Julia commanded, her voice echoed in the room, “Ma’am the Malevolent Cascade and her fleet have suffered 5.8% damage, mostly due to the Gulgaran vessels throwing themselves at the enemy. Our fleet have suffered a total of 4.1% damage, again also due to the Gulgarans.” The Junior Lieutenant reported. Julia looked on into the hologram of the entire battle, it was near pitiful, the enemy had tried using the same tactics on the Concordat ships that worked for the Emporium ships, the drastically different design made it difficult to out maneuver and outgun. The Concordat focused on round ships due to its unique effective firing area. A three-hundred sixty degree effective firing area, no matter where they went around the battleships, they always had a turret or a gun or a laser that had an angle on you. Of course they weren’t impervious, but it was substantial to note.
Julia noticed several blips on the holoprojection and asked “Status report on the landing force?” The Junior Lieutenant then stated, “They’re about to begin their landing sequence, many of our destroyers are ready for the first part of the invasion.” Julia smiled, and she raised her hand chest level then extended it outward, a gesture to focus all fire power on the planets surface.
Thousands of rods, lasers, missiles, and torpedoes impacted the planet’s surface, their orbital defenses never having the chance to even fire as they melt and turn to slag. The Malevolent Cascade and its fleet began doing much of the same. The fighters that buzzed around the many ships doing battle was like a swarm of bees, many of which turned their attention to the planets bellow them and began accompanying the shock troops. Multiple preliminary bombing runs on important structures took place and the fires of the cities burned high. The resistance forces of the planet would be severely reduced if not completely destroyed. Julia chuckled and said “Another one for the Emporium, and another renowned victory for the Concordat! Huzzah! For the Emperor!” she cheered, the members of her crew celebrated with a sharp “Huzzah!” and continued with their direction of the various drones and inner workings of the ships systems. Julia now left the second part of the invasion to rest on the Ground forces.
Captian and Shipmaster of the Emporium third Fleet of Sector 7, Roland Ingris, he watched the ships of the Concordat utterly destroy the insurrection group, a raw show of power. He himself could not muster the strengths of his fleet to fight in the conflict, but he could prevent the ships from attempting to escape. “Position our ships along these grids.” He pointed towards a Holographic projection of the battle, and immediately, the remaining ships that he had at his disposal carried out his orders. The fingers of his crew danced along their keyboards, the helmsman kept the ship itself steady. The Looming Reconciliation and her wounded fleet, attempted to regain what little dignity they had left.
Suddenly, a group of Imperial troops walked into the bridge itself, “Captain Ingris.” The man nodded, Ingris recognized him by the name tag on his armor and addressed him as such, “Commander Fey… What brings you here to my bridge?” he asked. The commander replied, “My forces are ready to deploy in their gunships, we wish to assist in the invasion.” His voice somewhat suggestive, as if he was trying to convince the captain to let him and his men go. “Go ahead Commander, just know that by this point, it isn’t our jurisdiction anymore, we may operate above the Concordat, but the Concordat has operational command. They’ve had it ever since they got here and started destroying the enemy themselves.” Ingris turned to marvel at the Concordat’s combined strength, “Time really does wonders to people, don’t you think Commander?” The Commander nodded, and left without saying a word.
The captain then ordered his comms officer to report what’s happened in the system, he also ordered his other crew to keep the Data of this battle for future use. He thought it could be used for propaganda, or perhaps a recruitment video, it was definitely within the realm of possibility. He sat down on his command chair and retired to his thoughts as he watched the enemy ships burn, smiling from ear to ear.
- 07:00 Capital time
- Colonel Marion Cutter, 8th Concordat Battle Group
- Second Stage: Shock Combat
- Femora moon, Luzik
- Siege of Areglia Campaign
The Eighth Concordat Battle group began its assault with specially fitted gunships, the gunships started their approach as normal. Colonel Marion witnessed the bombers fly past his viewport. “Looks like the preliminary strategic bombing is going to begin.” His men beside him activated their hydraulic compensators, they were going to drop, quite literally, on top of the enemy forces. The gunships witnessed the mass bombing, one by one the enemy forces dove for cover but to no avail. The bombs incinerated the ground next to them, then the gunships dove in firing their auto-cannons and their missile pod winglets. The doors opened and the colonel and his men dropped a good twenty feet from the ground, the colonel felt the impact almost shake the ground, then he looked behind him to see the Assault Mechs come in.
“Kick some ass boys!” The tanks rushed by him firing their munitions, the shock troopers along with Gulgaran support ripped up the first bout of defenders, they led the way for the rest of the Shock corps. Gunships buzzed around dropping off men, tanks, and assault mechs while doing the occasional gun-run. The Gulgarans with their energy blades still lit, charged at the enemies, gracefully dodging shots and returning fire. The weapons that the Rut’gar used were quite primitive, acid-spitting weapons, neutralized only by their own goop. When the Shock forces reached the Rut’gar lines, they were utterly eviscerated, the first line of Gulgarans lunged into their lines cutting limbs and decapitating foes, the second line jumped over and continued advancing returning fire to those in the back. Cutter and his shock troops poured into the gaps that the Gulgarans were making, the Furok infantry men marching towards a position where they could laydown heavy fire on retreating Rut’gar forces.
Eventually, defending forces were pushed back into their cities and the tanks could finally begin their bombardment. Within minutes the rumbling ground and the sounds of tank treads would settle and a distinct whir of the hydraulics and machinery planting the tank firmly into the ground could be heard. Colonel Cutter pulled up his binoculars to eye a certain city, he viewed defenders ushering people down into the basements, Cutter scoffed and raised a hand into the air, preparing to signal the artillery. The tanks crews calculated the distance and adjusted, the whir of their turrets turning and orienting themselves filled the air, and as they stopped, a loud clunk signaled that they were in position.
Cutter held his hand in the air giving their enemy a false sense of hope, he waited until their people were all underneath the structure of the city. When he saw the last person in the outskirts go down into the city depths, he let his hand drop as if he had been holding an axe to an execution. A metallic bang resonated out of each of the tanks, Cutter watched the city turn into rubble in under thirty minutes as it was subjected to a prolonged barrage. Heavy tungsten metal rods with a high explosive charge impacted into the buildings and the ground piercing deep underneath and detonating, all of them traveling mach4. Cutter signaled stop when the dust was so high, and the fires burning so bright, that even from orbit it looked like an orange ball of dust. The same thing happened in Areglia, the Arbiter and the Marshal did not show mercy to the Areglians, even when they showed human hostages at some point. The Concordat and Emporium troops dispatched specialized divisions in order to rescue as many human captives as they could, but unfortunately, fifty-two hostages out of two-hundred and seven died during the siege.
- Three hours later
- Julia Greystone, Valarian Marduke, William Merlock
- The Silent Ascension & The Malevolent Cascade
- Luzik & Areglia
- Siege Ultimatum
The Siege lasted a total of Two days, the moment the two dreadnoughts arrived and their fleet of forty ships each, the siege crumbled in Four Hours. William in the Malevolent Cascade left the comms open to all channels on a system-wide setting. “Attention Areglians and Rut’gar, the remainder of your race has been spared. To those who want to continue the legacy of their respective race, you are to surrender unconditionally to Emporium and Concordat forces within the next half hour. If not, you and your petty rebellion will be burned and forgotten. Your choice…” He gestured to the comms officer to cut off open communication and the long wait began.
Shipmaster Ingris heard the broadcast and sent a message via his own ship-to-ship communications array, “Lord Grand Marshal, I think it is safe to assume that the enemy will never surrender. They are animals that deserve to be-“ William cut him off, “Shipmaster Ingris, we came here to assist you, but we do things our way. These ‘animals’ as you call them are also a viable slave force. They provide most if not all the labor on these planets. Luzik was once an industrial world, Areglia was once an agricultural world, both play big parts in the Emporium’s and Concordat’s efforts in Sector 7. Now if you want to explain to the Emperor why we have to spend billions of imperial credits to reseed planets essential to commercial and military efforts here in Sector 7, then I will execute your course of action. We spared a large portion of the planet for a reason.” Ingris was taken aback by the Mirrodian human said. The Red Gentleman gave him a scolding, though Luzik and Areglia were just two worlds, they provided 10.6% of the Sector’s munitions, metals, weapons, and ship components and 23.9% of the Sector’s food stuffs. They could not lose these planets completely, as the already expensive investigation and catalogue of all goods from the system has to be conducted in case of sabotage.
Ingris stood down, the Mirrodian had a point, any losses here in the system could spell a huge resource sink in this sector, resources that could be used to fight the other rebellions raging across the Galaxy. The Mekharan front was still quite active, naval clashes are quite frequent, boarding actions are rare but they happen, the more resources that go into research against them is another step into winning the war. So, they waited for nearly twenty-three minutes, finally a response from Areglia, “We are surrendering, we have lost over forty percent of our population.” When the Areglians surrender, the Rut’gar surrendered soon after.
“Bones, contact James Mott…” The Silent Ascensions A.I. responded quickly, the call directly connected to the Lord Grand Inquisitor. “Julia, what a surprise, I was just finishing up a possible gambling ring here in Sector 13. What do you need of me?” the young white haired Mirrodian smirked at the sight of the very beautiful Julia Greystone. “Hmph, I see you’re still doing good with your constant work…” Julia smirked back, “I need you to arrange a heavier patrol here in Sector 7, Areglia Binary system.” James reached into his coat, still smirking, producing a datapad. He tapped the datapad a few times then showed it on Hologram, “How’s this?” Julia squinted at the datapad, “A Dreadnought, several destroyers, two carriers, ten enforcers, and a bunch of Gulgaran ships… I believe that should suffice.” Julia nodded in approval, “I’ll see you at the Capital.” She said, “Oh. You’ll definitely see me.” The young Mirrodian winked, and the Holoprojection shutoff.
Valarian oversaw the capture of remaining rebel groups on the surface of Areglia. He stayed with his forces at a forward operating base in one of the broken captured cities, "Status of the rebellion?" he asked as it echoed in the hall of the once prestigious city hall of the capital, "Sir..." The deep voice of a Gulgaran answered, "The rebellion has crumbled into many smaller factions, their leaders has issued an official surrender, however the factions remain." Valarian stared at the shiny helmet of the Gulgaran chieftain, he then turned on a holoprojection with up-to-date scans. "Points of conflict are happening in very localized areas, we should be able to quell it in a few days. Ilderian, what do you make of the situation?" Valarian asked, "I think it is too soon to call total victory. Only when hostilities end can we declare that we reign supreme." Ilderian - the Gulgaran Chieftain - replied to the satisfaction and caliber that Valarian expected such a race connected to the Concordat to answer, their tolerance of the Gulgarans have paid off in such great ways. The Gulgarans have trained their soldiers in physical fitness and hand to hand, they also taught them ways of surviving in the wilderness of various planets. The Gulgarans were adept, loyal, and most of all, useful. Valarian looked on around him as Furok, human, and gulgaran worked together to create a base of operations with no qualms nor fear, he was quite happy with what the Concordat has achieved.
The Galaxy was one rebellion less that day, the fleet and its task force only awaited its new guardians. The relief would come in a day or two, one thing was for certain, the indifference of the universe proved itself again that day. Hope, extinguished within a few hours of an assault, no mercy, no remorse, and the universe did not even shed a tear.
