Ukk
The spaceborne phase of the invasion had been over almsot as quickly as it had began. A system defended only by light warships of various kind couldn't hope to fare well against battleships and cruisers, and where quickly destroyed or scattered away when the DIoN navy arrived. It had taken only a few hours for the 1st Assault Fleet's task force to fully secure their superiority around the planet's orbit.
The planet was called Ukk but it might as well be called murder.
There, the attackers had their first glimpse at how the planet had changed. Two years was all it had taken for the NMX to turn the mountainous, earthlike landscape of Ukk into a blasted, barren wasteland riddled with raging storms. Two of the most gruelling industry with the entire cloned or slaved population geared towards total war, which gave anyone who was looking through a window the impression that the NMX occupying the system realized their time was up and were gearing up to sell each inch of ground dearly, but with the memories from the previous war still fresh in their minds, the attackers weren't dissuaded so easily after having achieved superiority in space so quickly.
And that's when the first problems started to occur.
Capitalizing on the momentum of the attack, the task force's commander had sent in initial scout units only to see that the raging dust storms that covered the planets sweep the small crafts aside like toys and break them apart; to call it a first wave would've been a gross overestimation. Afterwards, it had been elected to send the first attack wave via drop pods from the Shaikas, since their higher entrance velocity meant a faster, and thus safer insertion. Their intent had been to establish a safe bridgehead, since the Nepleslians knew from IPG reports that the NMX could send cargo in and out of the planet, but as soon as the drop pods disappeared through the blanket of clouds there had been no response from the marines sent.
But the attackers were still in high spirits from the quickly-attained space superiority, and wouldn't be dissuaded from invading the planet so easily, so in the few next hours, a second, larger wave was prepared with the intent of capturing one of the planet's starports and find out what happened with the first unit sent in. Different from the first wave of troops, the second was more heavily equipped and prepared, replacing the reconnaissance M10 Raiders with the more heavily armored and assault oriented M11 Devastator.
For the tankers of 1st EXMF, the sudden moving orders also meant that their metal beasts would be coming in the same wave. The armored unit that had seen brief action in Longwatch, and whose members didn't really expect to be at the spearhead were the ones who least expected to be selected for that assignment, and the fact that nearly half of their Maximus HMBTs being outdated and not yet replaced by the latest iteration didn't seem to worry high command in the least, or if it did, 1st EXMF's commander was just eager to be selected for that mission and hadn't refused it. That was just another problem added to the growing list, a list which would start to become bigger by the hour.
Upon making landfall, the marines from the second wave found themselves with their communications cut off, with only low-range or direct laser comms available and the unarmored troops found out that they could only breathe outside the sealed transports with internals, since the microscopic dust that coated the planet was effectively microscopic shards of glass; it only took a few minutes of breathing without any protective equipment to become a casualy, let alone take into account the long term damage. That left the tanks and power armor with nothing much to do outside their drop pods rather than plan their next move and wait.
The planet might as well be called Murder, and they found themselves in it.
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Planet Ukk - Unknown Landing Zone - Noon
Staring at the barren landscape through the open hatch of the tank didn't make it any better than staring through the monoeyes from inside the tank. But even the fact that the dust carried by the wind either killed someone by breathing it or made their skin go bloody raw if they were caught in the wind for too long without being covered didn't seem to phase the commander of C Company's 1st platoon, who did a quick scan around, looking each of the nine other tanks before batting down his hatch and causing a small cascade of dust to fall on his gunner's helmet.
Despite not even being in the planet for six hours, the winds had removed the energy-resistant coating of their HMBTs after stripping away the painting, much like a sandblaster would, turning the newly Super Maximus he had been assigned into some dull gray, dust covered hunk of metal. Quickly, Mitchell adjusted the uncomfortable breathing mask tightly pressed against his face and listened to the command frequency. To his front, his gunner slowly beat the dust away from his shoulders, while to his side the hulking form of the ID-SOL loader continued to sleep with the entire breathing gear on as the tank's life support struggled to remove the dust inside and cool the inside of the tank.
If Ross had to give credit where it was due, it would be for the Super Maximus' air conditioning system, which kept the crew a nice fifteen degrees lower than the outside, where it was around a boiling 100 degrees. He could only be sorry at the tankers still in the older models, where there was no cooling.There was an audible ping heard through his headset following by the tank's automated warning system (quickly dubbed Complaining Cathy by the crews) repeating that there were no contaminants inside the tank. Ross took his rebreather off and brought the microphone from his headset closer to his mouth.
"First and Second platoon, radio check," he said, pushing back the reality of the situation he was currently in whenever it came charging back at him. Not only were half of the tanks older, pooly equipped models, but he had also found himself in charge of both of the tank platoons once the second platoon's CO became a casualty by ingesting the deadly dust when he filled his canteen on the external beer keg of his tank. The man was presently puking his guts out on the mobile infirmary, while his crew had to work with one less person.
He stopped wondering and listened in to the comms. Lately, the command frequency had gone eerily quiet, which meant that something was going to happen soon.
The spaceborne phase of the invasion had been over almsot as quickly as it had began. A system defended only by light warships of various kind couldn't hope to fare well against battleships and cruisers, and where quickly destroyed or scattered away when the DIoN navy arrived. It had taken only a few hours for the 1st Assault Fleet's task force to fully secure their superiority around the planet's orbit.
The planet was called Ukk but it might as well be called murder.
There, the attackers had their first glimpse at how the planet had changed. Two years was all it had taken for the NMX to turn the mountainous, earthlike landscape of Ukk into a blasted, barren wasteland riddled with raging storms. Two of the most gruelling industry with the entire cloned or slaved population geared towards total war, which gave anyone who was looking through a window the impression that the NMX occupying the system realized their time was up and were gearing up to sell each inch of ground dearly, but with the memories from the previous war still fresh in their minds, the attackers weren't dissuaded so easily after having achieved superiority in space so quickly.
And that's when the first problems started to occur.
Capitalizing on the momentum of the attack, the task force's commander had sent in initial scout units only to see that the raging dust storms that covered the planets sweep the small crafts aside like toys and break them apart; to call it a first wave would've been a gross overestimation. Afterwards, it had been elected to send the first attack wave via drop pods from the Shaikas, since their higher entrance velocity meant a faster, and thus safer insertion. Their intent had been to establish a safe bridgehead, since the Nepleslians knew from IPG reports that the NMX could send cargo in and out of the planet, but as soon as the drop pods disappeared through the blanket of clouds there had been no response from the marines sent.
But the attackers were still in high spirits from the quickly-attained space superiority, and wouldn't be dissuaded from invading the planet so easily, so in the few next hours, a second, larger wave was prepared with the intent of capturing one of the planet's starports and find out what happened with the first unit sent in. Different from the first wave of troops, the second was more heavily equipped and prepared, replacing the reconnaissance M10 Raiders with the more heavily armored and assault oriented M11 Devastator.
For the tankers of 1st EXMF, the sudden moving orders also meant that their metal beasts would be coming in the same wave. The armored unit that had seen brief action in Longwatch, and whose members didn't really expect to be at the spearhead were the ones who least expected to be selected for that assignment, and the fact that nearly half of their Maximus HMBTs being outdated and not yet replaced by the latest iteration didn't seem to worry high command in the least, or if it did, 1st EXMF's commander was just eager to be selected for that mission and hadn't refused it. That was just another problem added to the growing list, a list which would start to become bigger by the hour.
Upon making landfall, the marines from the second wave found themselves with their communications cut off, with only low-range or direct laser comms available and the unarmored troops found out that they could only breathe outside the sealed transports with internals, since the microscopic dust that coated the planet was effectively microscopic shards of glass; it only took a few minutes of breathing without any protective equipment to become a casualy, let alone take into account the long term damage. That left the tanks and power armor with nothing much to do outside their drop pods rather than plan their next move and wait.
The planet might as well be called Murder, and they found themselves in it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Planet Ukk - Unknown Landing Zone - Noon
Staring at the barren landscape through the open hatch of the tank didn't make it any better than staring through the monoeyes from inside the tank. But even the fact that the dust carried by the wind either killed someone by breathing it or made their skin go bloody raw if they were caught in the wind for too long without being covered didn't seem to phase the commander of C Company's 1st platoon, who did a quick scan around, looking each of the nine other tanks before batting down his hatch and causing a small cascade of dust to fall on his gunner's helmet.
Despite not even being in the planet for six hours, the winds had removed the energy-resistant coating of their HMBTs after stripping away the painting, much like a sandblaster would, turning the newly Super Maximus he had been assigned into some dull gray, dust covered hunk of metal. Quickly, Mitchell adjusted the uncomfortable breathing mask tightly pressed against his face and listened to the command frequency. To his front, his gunner slowly beat the dust away from his shoulders, while to his side the hulking form of the ID-SOL loader continued to sleep with the entire breathing gear on as the tank's life support struggled to remove the dust inside and cool the inside of the tank.
If Ross had to give credit where it was due, it would be for the Super Maximus' air conditioning system, which kept the crew a nice fifteen degrees lower than the outside, where it was around a boiling 100 degrees. He could only be sorry at the tankers still in the older models, where there was no cooling.There was an audible ping heard through his headset following by the tank's automated warning system (quickly dubbed Complaining Cathy by the crews) repeating that there were no contaminants inside the tank. Ross took his rebreather off and brought the microphone from his headset closer to his mouth.
"First and Second platoon, radio check," he said, pushing back the reality of the situation he was currently in whenever it came charging back at him. Not only were half of the tanks older, pooly equipped models, but he had also found himself in charge of both of the tank platoons once the second platoon's CO became a casualty by ingesting the deadly dust when he filled his canteen on the external beer keg of his tank. The man was presently puking his guts out on the mobile infirmary, while his crew had to work with one less person.
He stopped wondering and listened in to the comms. Lately, the command frequency had gone eerily quiet, which meant that something was going to happen soon.
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