Chapter 33

Now that the Space side of the war was over the most difficult part is upon them, Ground warfare. Unlike space battles which at the most could take days if sufficient numbers and constant reinforcement occurs, Ground warfare could take months to years just to win the planet while policing it and getting control of the Populus was an effort that could take years if not decades, and the only reason planets such as K'tus and naston surrendered so quickly was due to everyone who was willing to die for their independence had died before they could really dig their nails into the people's opinion. along with the fact of the economies getting more even between the poor and rich, those who were more likely to fight were more in favor of the invaders than the defenders– notwithstanding the greater public opinion a few rebel cells still exist but they will be weeded out with time.

Looming over the Falopian capital Malla, 40 Ascelin troop transports began to descend to a pre-slagged area, with a full 30 km radius around the flattened into a plain from the main guns of the northern break all four Corps along with the titan and crimson legions descended into an utterly barren and defenseless section of the planet. Both of the planets held by the Falopian civilization did not surrender so not only would the new troops and legions be tested in a myriad of environments but the Sephia siege walker and the Jagannath heavy troop transport would also be tested in those environments making or breaking their future survival in the army.

Along with the fleet of invasion ships were a group of twelve Nukpana Class heavy Transports, eight of them were filled with 28 Jagannath transports, Three filled with dozens of smaller argon assault walkers both inside the last minute added side hangers and on the bottom magnetic hull, and the last was filled with 48 Sephia Class Siege walkers; even though 344 Jagannath Transports were being fielded this would only allow for two and a half legions to be transported across the planet quickly, with supplementation with the growing number of Atieno gunship this maybe would allow for four to six more legions to be quickly transported without the usage of the slow and vulnerable Acelins, which if destroyed would be catastrophic comparatively to a single half battalion or a small platoon– which is exactly why alongside the slow Acelins was a detachment of 2,000 starfighters, 20 Corvettes, 10 Frigates, along with four cruisers and a larger Orpheus completely destroying any quickly mounted defensive measures such as planetside fighters deployed far enough to not be blown up in the initial slagging.

For hours the Ascelins descended from space into the landing zone then back into space and then into friendly space to pick up another legion of soldiers to take the Malla. The Jagannath and Sephias that were on the Ascelins and in friendly space were long since deployed due to a limited number, with the new space in the transports not taken by three 55 M long ground transports or Ten giant walkers, a half legion could be stuffed in with some packing and discomfort, making the soldiers stand or sit next to each other.

With the quick deployment speed from both sides, a front line has already been established, being 95 km away from the landing zone– The Falopians had taken advantage of a group of sheer cliffs and a mountain range that would take days to go around and with such disadvantageous territory the only thing that could be done was use the argon assault walkers in a secondary long Artillery role. Pelting the cliffs and mountains were thousands of rounds of high explosive, 70 Kg rounds fired from 50km away by a whole group of argon walkers, much closer to the mountains 20 Sephia Siege walkers sludged their way closer to the cliffs while constantly firing a giant red bolt doing many times more damage then one Argon round; Almost constantly small arms fire shot out from holes inside the cliffs around them, but with the thick and layered armor to the Sephia, it was nothing but bug bites the only thing the small arms fire achieved was a target from the large Etherian cannon.

Above the ground was a battlefield of itself, unlike space, it was now the Falopians who held the 2 to 1 advantage of starfighters, however, what seemed to be the average dog fighting starfighter was cheaply made with smaller weapons and less shielding, the Superiority fighters and Heavier fighters seemed to follow the opposite with quality matching the immaculate fighters on the Sanguisugion side. To the south which was the landing zone, a whole swarm of escort fighters and bombers appeared, in a mere minute, the outnumbered Sanguisugion fighters gained the number advantage and began to turn the dogfight back into their turf, with the enemy now preoccupied with the new fighters, dozens of bombers all dropped a dozen or so bombs which themselves bloomed to show that they were cluster bombs, completely decimating the opposition in the cliffs which began to collapse on top of the enemy rebels hidden in their depths.

Seeing that one of their missions was done the bombers circled around before dropping another payload into the collapsed cliffs, it was a bunker buster, and they were much bigger than the cluster bombs. Dropping into the dirt and rock like water it only took a few seconds for a dozen bombs to explode sending what looked like the whole mountain a few meters up, with the descent of such a giant amount of rock it was unlikely for any remaining bunkers to be left standing.

Now that their primary and secondary targets were fulfilled the bombers and their escorting fighters all began to leave back to their primary refilling and rearming station next to the landing zone, after that they would continue to drop bombs where ever they were told.

Back 50km to the Argon group, a hundred argon assault walkers were being picked up by two Nukpanas with one of them being mostly material. Minutes later the walkers could be seen over the northern front line being carried to a small landing area next to the Sephia walkers, dropping the argon walkers onto the ground gently, they began to walk in formation around the more important Siege walkers and up the hill and through a pre-determined path that would lead through the mountain range to a city on the other side.

All around the walkers were long and bulky, but fast Jagannath transports carrying a half battalion– walking around the walkers and transports was a few full battalions all wearing black armor with differently colored stripes on their head, these were medics who had a giant red plus on their helmet and chest, field engineers with a green strip to the left of their visor, and snipers who had a plain grey strip on their visor; Of course, these battalions were mostly regular soldiers whom all wanted a ride in what they called the snake.

An hour after the assault on the northern ridges in front of the mountain range the last batch of soldiers touched down in that deployment zone, Eight Corps along with 20% of their ground vehicles with the other 38 planned Corps going to be deployed across the planet in other zones close to places of strategic importance such as mountain ranges, cities, and large bodies of drinkable water.

By the end of the day two fronts had been opened, the northern front and the western which was the largest drinkable body of water on the planet. Not only did the four corps of troops that went to the giant ocean lake plan on using that water but their more important use for it was to deprive the enemy of it.