Sykes looks over his formation as they exit hyperspace. In the end he had followed Major Green’s suggestion and had taken his entire force with him. He might be able to take on the entire Sep force in system by his lonesome if he got lucky, but Stars was he grateful he wouldn’t have to rely on something as unreliable as luck.

  “Sir, we’ve detected a Republic force on the outside of the asteroid belt. We’ve got six Venators, six Dreadnoughts, seven Acclamator ones, four Centax frigates, five Arquitenses, nine Pelta frigates, and twenty corvettes.” His sensors officer reports.

  “So we’ll have thirty four ships of the line and fifty seven light ships and pickets.” Sykes says, adding his own forces to the numbers of his counterpart.

  “We’re being hailed by our counterpart.” His comms chief reports.

  “Put them on.” Sykes orders.

  Soon enough the visage of a Duro in naval drabs appears before Sykes in holographic blue: “Rear Admiral Sykes. Your timing is excellent.”

  “As is yours, Commodore Jim.” Syeks replies.

  “I am willing to incorporate my taskforce detachment with yours and place myself into the Little Billhook chain of command.” The Commodore offers.

  Sykes considers it for a moment before shaking his head: “We’ll use the current layout of the detachments. I’d request you lead your forces through the southernmost pass in the asteroid belt and attack the enemy’s center in a spearhead or arrowhead formation, whichever is more practical. Meanwhile I’ll take my forces and envelop the enemy’s northern flank with a simple line. It should allow whatever ground forces you have with you to reinforce our besieged trench-diggers planetside and keep the enemy from retreating towards Sy Myrth or the Ash Worlds.”

  “A shallow spearhead formation will also stop the enemy form trying to counter envelop my men.” The Duro ponders, “Very well, Rear Admiral. Should we begin our approach now?”

  “Yes, I believe we should. We’ll continuously try to make contact with Colonel Cain’s forces planetside while we advance.” Sykes agrees.

  “Of course. By your leave.” The Commodore says before his hologram goes out.

  “All ships, you have your orders. Advance, full speed.” Sykes orders with a vicious grin.

  Colonel Cain is planning murder as he hunkers in his command bunker. He had some seven regiments on surface alongside General Tapal’s detachment of Clones and yet he has been pushed back from day one. At first his men had held firm, his 227th was doing good work alongside the garrison regiments. Especially if one considered that hey were up against three Separatist droid legions on surface. Then the Seps started bombing his entrenched positions outside of the theater shield they had somehow Jerry-rigged out of the crashed Acclamator’s shield generator.

  Then, to add insult to injury, the Seps landed another three droid legions and a regiment of Sy Myrthian logisticians, combat engineers and mechanics to do maintenance and recovery on any droids his men managed to destroy. His force of twenty one thousand soldiers and about a thousand sailors and engineers being assailed by some sixty thousand droids and some two thousand angry slugs, not to mention their karking artillery and armored vehicles.

  And now, from his original force of twenty one thousand men he was down to seven thousand eight hundred and twenty one, with a wounded reserve of another four thousand nine hundred and seven. Over fifty percent casualties. He should be court-martialed for this. And the droids, the droids! They may have lost some seventy percent themselves, but the forges of Sy Myrth had simply replaced every damaged unit so far! So here the Colonel stood, having lost almost half his men and with far too many wounded beyond any chance of short term recovery while the Seps still fought with some fifty thousand droids.

  He was doomed. Leading his men to their deaths while they pointlessly waited for their saviors to come from above. And yet they still looked to him for orders. To remain calm. To stay strong. He was slowly loosing his mind in keeping up the charade. He was starting to slip and General Tapal was so not helping by being everything Cain was pretending to be. It simply made the expectations of his men soar higher and higher. He could see it in the eyes of the wounded he visited and the tired gazes of the men in the front line trenches he joined for whenever his shifts allowed.

  At this point Cain was certain the garrison troops were getting close to mutinying. He suppresses another sigh, that’s what he gets for almost half his forces being less well trained garrison troopers. At least his Division appeared to be willing to keep trudging along. For all the expectations he was causing, General Tapal was certainly helping on the morale front, leading repeated counters and raids on the Seps which Cain had glorified and spread throughout the quasi-fortress around the anti-orbital battery and crashed Acclamator at the hill’s center. It wouldn’t last forever, but for now it would have to do.

  “SIR!” Sergeant Ferik interrupts his anxious thoughts as the man charges into the command bunker, “We’ve detected Republic forces in system!”

  Cain’s eyes widen in shock before he pushes down the hope emerging from within. He quickly marches over to where his Staff Sergeant was pointing: “Are we sure they’re ours?”

  “Yessir. They’ve been trying to hail us for a bit now, but we only detected them a moment ago.”

  “Get General Tapal here asap and see if we can establish a secure line with whoever is in charge.” Cain orders and his aide jumps to fulfill his orders, likely prodding his other staff officers into joining them within the command bunker post haste as well.

  Cain quickly punches in his codes and waits for an agonizingly long minute to pass. Finally the holotable in the center of his bunker comes to light, depicting the visages of Rear Admiral Sykes and Commodore Jim. Cain lets his shoulders slump a little in relief as a small cheer goes through the bunker from the recently arrived officers.

  “Colonel Cain, we are glad to see you remain firm and whole. Sta--s report.” Rear Admiral Sykes begins.

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  “We’ve suffered over fifty percent casualties and morale’s been a bit low since the droids keep getting reinforced. We’re facing some six legions, though they’re down to some fifty thousand droids now and lost a lot of their armor. They haven’t managed to get past our theater shield, but the thing’s been straining with the occasional orbital bombardment and the enemy artillery shooting at it a couple times a day. They broke it the first day, but then we destroyed two poorly maintained Munificents, so they stopped trying to break it outright. Instead they strain it so we can’t lower it for counter battery. General Tapal’s been leading multiple raids and I’ve been keeping the men under wraps.” Cain answers.

  The two Navy officers exchange a glance before the Duro speaks: “Better than we feared, yet worse than we had hopped. Can the anti-orbital battery be fired?”

  “Technically, yes, but we’d loose our shield again which has stopped the Seps from an all out attack so far.” Cain answers.

  Sykes nods in understanding before he speaks: “We’ll be deploying your reinforcements post haste. Once they’ve landed they should be able to distract the Seps for long enough to allow your forces to lower the shields and operate the anti-orbital cannon to make the battle in orbit less of a slog. Prioritize the enemy Lucrehulk and the four Fantails. We should be able to take on some twenty Munificents and ten Captors with even half our number.”

  General Tapal enters the room as Cain asks his next question, the General’s armor dirtied from a mix of blaster scorches and grime not distracting the Alsakan Colonel from the gnawing question: “What are our reinforcements?”

  “That would be the 278th Light Infantry, the 290th Light Infantry and the majority of the 108th Armored Division.” Rear Admiral Sykes answers.

  Cain is almost despondent: “But, that’s more than half of the entire 53rd Volunteer Corps!”

  “General Krugwolt was recently reinforced by the 203rd Light Infantry and 189th Infantry Divisions from the Core to assist in increasing the Command’s mobile ground forces to two Corps, two Divisions. So I suppose I should congratulate you, Brigadier General Cain on your promotion and command of the reactivated 300th Volunteer Corps. I suppose I should also inform you of the arrival of the 282nd Infantry Division’s presence under the independent command of Colonel Tonkam, who is currently in command of the ground forces on route to reinforce and relieve your 227th Infantry.” The Rear Admiral says with a shit-eating grin.

  “Congratulations indeed, Brigadier General.” General Tapal says with an equally smug grin on his usually stoic face.

  “Great, I finally have the rank I need to command my Division and I’m in charge of an entire Corps now.” Cain bemoans. He wouldn’t even be given the pay of a Lieutenant General, he knew that much from commanding the 227th as a Colonel. He quickly returns his mask of confidence to his face though, he could allow a small outburst, but nothing more. Not now, not when his men could see.

  “You think that’s bad, the Major General’s been doing the work of a full General since he became Adjutant Administrator and only got paid as a Brigadier until he got promoted to Major General.” Commodore Jim chides lightly, “Not to mention Admiral Dericote doing the work of a Vice Admiral as a Senior Captain and getting paid like a normal Captain in the first months of the war.”

  “I’ll quit my complaining. How soon can the ground forces make landfall?” Cain asks.

  “Once we’ve engaged the enemy. In other words, imminently.” Commodore Jim answers.

  “I recommend you land along the prime meridian. The terrain there is best suited to landings and the enemy headquarters is there. With the headquarters seized enemy command and control will fall to pieces and we will have an easier time of wiping out the enemy resistance.” General Tapal offers, gesturing at the point essentially on top of the Sepies’ command center, a prefab fort recently erected there for their men and droids.

  “I’ll inform the Colonel of the recommendation and make it an order while I am at it.” Commodore Jim replies.

  “We should assist the attack on the enemy headquarters as well.” Cain mutters as he tries to figure out which units would even be available, “We still have most of my 227th’s repulser armor, though it’s all entrenched and incorporated into the defenses by now.”

  “My Iron Battalion can lead it with our remaining armor. As long as we have artillery and air support I believe my men and I can take the position.” Tapal offers.

  “Very well, I’ll prepare my 12th Alsakan to act as your support for the assault and commit the remainder of our reserves for the later assaults.” Cain agrees.

  “Then you have a plan. I’ll get you a line to a my heavy wing for air support.” Sykes offers.

  “You have a heavy wing?” Jim asks incredulously.

  “We took heavy fighter casualties.” Sykes explains, to which the Duro nods in understanding, both their eyes holding a mix of grief and regret for just a moment.

  “If you’ll excuse us, we have men to prepare.” Tapal says.

  “Understood. Stars keep you.” Sykes says.

  “Safe travel.” The Duro Commodore adds as the two Navy officers sign off.

  “Well then. I need to go and brief my men and Captain Eriksen.” Cain mutters.

  “May the Force be with you, Brigadier General.” Tapal offers.

  “Stars keep ya too, General.” Cain replies.

  Sykes almost feels bad for the Seps as his forces enter maximum range and unleash an opening salvo of heavy turbolasers and missiles towards the group of enemy Munificents. They return fire alongside the Fantail destroyers in their midst. The clean and rounded surface of the ships’ main body in contrast to the clearly industrial Munificents they were trying to anchor.

  “Concentrate fire on the enemy Fantails. I want enemy missile fire dead so we can be more aggressive with our fighter contingent.” Sykes orders.

  “On it, sir.” An Adjutant replies.

  A salvo of enemy missiles race towards his ships, and yet even as his formation shifts to allow for a solid connection to the polar region of the world below, most are intercepted by his point defense. Sykes scoffs, the Seps always underestimated the value of corvettes and pickets. Sure, they may not look as nice in holo-reels as a cruiser or dreadnought, but they kept the larger ships safe from weapons which would usually maul them.

  “Transports are away, escorts holding position well enough, though I worry for the Peltas.” A different Adjutant reports.

  “They’ll make it and even if they don’t, two light infantry divisions should be enough to seize the landing zone and connect with Generals Cain and Tapal.” Sykes comforts.

  “Yeh, but light infantry don’t have much more than their blasters and entrenchment tools to begin with. They won’t manage the rest of the enemy on their own.” A Sergeant jokes.

  “Then it is a good thing we will soon have both orbital and air supremacy and can obliterate this blasted rock below us if needed.” Sykes shoots back.

  “Entering medium range.”

  “All ships, pick your targets and fire at will.” Sykes reaffirms.

  With more than twice as many blue blasts of turbolaser fire now racing towards the Separatist warships as before Sykes can already tell the battle won’t last much longer. Even with the return fire of the enemy warships, both turbolaser and missile based, they can’t survive the sustained firepower of ten Republic battleships and ten Republic heavy cruisers.

  A Munificent explodes in a shower of reds as two heavy turbolasers smash into her in the same place, one after the other, and carve into something important. Sykes turns to his tactical display to watch his flank finish outflanking the enemy’s northern flank, a Venator and two Dreadnoughts raining fire on a sole Munificent alongside their escorts and continuing to push forwards.

  “Begin adjusting our trajectory so we can push the enemy towards the south more effectively.” Sykes orders.

  “On it, ser.” His Helmsman reports.

  “And slow us to flank speed. Adjust power to our shields.” Sykes adds.

  “Goin’ flank speed, ser.” The Helmsman echoes.

  “Putting more power into our shields.” A tech reports.

  “Report just came in. Generals Tapal and Cain have begun the assault towards the enemy headquarters and the 278th Light Infantry Division just made landfall near the enemy headquarters. Their Navy liaison reports 98% success in landings, they lost a sole LAAT to an enemy handheld anti-vehicle rocket. They’ve made good landings otherwise.” A comms officer reports.

  “Remind their liaison that if they need air support they need to submit it to the heavy wing commander and not bother us with it until the orbit is fully secured.” Sykes reminds.

  “Yessir.”

  “290th just made landfall. Reporting no casualties yet and have joined in the assault on the enemy headquarters and establishing a perimeter for the Peltas to land.”

  “Good, very good.” Sykes acknowledges, things were going to plan then.

  “Sir, we’ve detected the theater shield going down!” An Adjutant barks.

  Before Sykes can even confirm he heard the woman an explosion rocks the line. His head snaps around to witness the tail end of the anti-orbital battery’s shot. A shot that nailed the enemy Lucrehulk square in the core of the ship. Sykes blinks in surprise. Those anti-orbital cannons don’t usually have the power for a shot like that.

  “Can … can someone contact Captain Eriksen and inquire how he just did that?” Sykes asks.

  “Um he’s already sent a message. It says, he’s been eyeing that Lucrehulk for over a week now and made sure the hit would count.” A comms officer replies confusedly.

  Sykes blinks in his own confusion, that didn’t answer how they had managed that much damage at all. He responds to the information anyway: “Well then. We shouldn’t look a gift Bantha in the mouth. Double down on our assaults. We have a world to liberate and comrades to relieve.”