Operation Threadbare : Ragnarok's Side

[Zack]

RP Date

YE 40

RP Location

Xuno, Fenrir's flight deck

188604, Fenrir's Flight deck - Ragnarok's base of operations

"HEY RAPH! CYRUS! I'MMA NEED A FEW MORE OF YOUR GUYS!" Uso called out.

The catgirl was wearing more armor than usually... instead of her bodysuit she was wearing one of hte jet-black armors that S6 had started producing... which was certainly a large jump in the amount of protective clothing she usually wore. She was armored all the way up to her neck, with the helmet piece clipped to the waist of the suit. She had been 'borrowing' a few of the Fyrst Company soldiers over the last month for operations on Xuno...but now it seemed she was ready to bring Ragnarok in more fully.

Cyrus strode from his place on the flight deck and walked over to Uso. Following close behind him was Raphael, who had seemed to look a bit older. A five o'clock shadow framing his face. "You rang?" Cyrus asked as the Fyrst Company's soldiers suited up and readied themselves for the drop.

Raph moved to stand next to Cyrus and gave a slight smile. "Long time no see, Uso."

"Likewise... you guys are so busy you never call. All this actual work means you don't have time for the fun stuff...

... which... I mean, I guess this is ALSO work but like... less work than real work. Really more like training... practice so we can get a little more experience under the Ragna-belt regarding normal operations. You guys already read up on the task? Xuno's a low-tech world... they got firearms and tanks and stuff but nothing on our level for the most part. Seems they have a few instances of higher tech level gear but nothing that should turn the war in their favor.

The URR has decided they don't want to bend the knee, so this operation will be built around routing their ground forces. Make it clear that they don't have the capability to hold out and bring their leaders to the table.

That also means showing them that we can walk across their most heavily defended no-mans-land with impunity. Ancient guns, land-mines, trenches, and machine-guns shouldn't pose too much of a threat unless we get careless." Uso explained.

Cyrus nodded. "Yeah, we read up on Xuno. Seems like it shouldn't be all that to impress the yokles." He said, looking back over his soldiers. "We have chosen to preform a combat drop directly into the middle of their no mans land. If they see us dropping from the skies and landing in the middle of their kill box and walking out, they might just shit their paints and let us walk right in." Cyrus said over his shoulder, which was met with cheers from his personal company.

"If that's how you want to play it. We don't really have any reason to hold back on this one and you've got permission to handle your AO how you see fit. We'll be destroying a lot of their support assets from orbit at the outset... and I was thinking of making the skys turn red just for funzies... we've got those huge projector-ships... we could literally put anything we want in their sky." Uso offered.

At that point, the Captain of the Fenrir, Ulysses Werner appeared. "If that's the case, then why dont we take the ship into the atmosphere and rain down an unholy hell fire upon them? It'll soften up the AO for the advancing troops. I can also drop the Fyrst along the edges of the Xuno's front line. Help clear our the frist line's weapons." The captain added.

"I like it Captain." Replied Cyrus.

"Your thoughts Uso?" Asked Raph.

Uso nodded, "That's closer ship-support than normal... but that seems warranted in this situation.

Section 6 will be making a tank push nearby... similarly Vier's drones will be spread throughout the battle-space to provide support. You can leave mop-up operations to her. Similarly she'll also be using her robot-overlord-ness to handle the bulk of the force protection operations against enemy long range artillery but that doesn't mean you guys should be slacking off either. The Fenrir should be more than enough to block anything fired at long range though...

Shuttles will be on standby for evacuation if anyone of ours gets injured...

Similarly, do you guys have a plan for sustainment operations if this drags on for more than a day?"

Ulysses nodded before the other two could reply. "I have shuttles and drop pods ready to land supplies once the Fyrst clear a drop zone. But I doubt that it will take us long to clear our zone." He replied nonchalantly.

"Man... we really need a checklist for this stuff...Our estimated plan of enemy action is probably crap so I wouldn't even bother reading it. We don't really know how these guys are going to react and so far everyone on this planet has been reacting unpredictably... but they are a professional army so expect them to put up some kinda fight.

Similarly, expect lots of land mines.... have the Fenrir sweep the landing areas prior to touchdown...

what else...." Uso thought outloud, tapping her chin with a single finger, "... Low casualties would be nice, but don't endanger yourselves... and absolutely fuck-up any material you find. We don't need their guns or tanks going forward... any questions so far?"

Cyrus shook his head. "Don't destroy the locals, destroy their shit. Scare them into surrender." Then Ulysses added. "And walk a barrage of cannon fire right up to their line so the ground forces don't have to deal with land mines when they land." he added.

"Cool." Uso nodded. "We start in about 20 hours... make sure all your stuff is ready and I'll see you down there!"

 

[Zack]

United Republic of the Reeves boarder - No Mans Land

The URR had been fighting for its boarders for decades... and this was the strongest point in their defenses.

The no man's land stretched for miles, pock-marked with mine fields, razor wire, and booby-traps. Even before one reached the first of the trenches there were pre-mapped locations for mortar and artillery fire. The initial trenches had ample stockpiles of men and ammo... machine-gun nests were hidden among them along with anti-tank rifles, explosives, and poison gas.

Behind the trenches were more permanent fortifications. The dirt and earth fortifications started to give way to concrete bunkers with interconnected tunnels. Overlapping fields of machine-guns, hundreds upon hundreds of smaller metal turrets, some real, some fake.

Even further back were the fortresses themselves. Large concrete towers topped with anti-aircraft artillery. These were perched on mountains of concrete and steel. Each housed several large artillery pieces that could attack enemies that approached the front lines.

The defenses did not stop here either. Train lines led back from these fortresses, connecting to supply yards filled with food, ammo, and weapons. Aircraft waited in hangers. Armored divisions were loaded and ready to be shipped to the front in counter-attack.



This did not seem to bother the USO. The plan was to fight directly through the toughest fortifications.


Medical and supply shuttles for the USO were already on standby high above the planet. A small army of cupcake tank-drones were already standing by to support the push. Pamphlets had already been dropped all over the URR lines with various drawings showing them surrendering, trying to request they give up so they wouldn't be harmed.

Days ago C5 drones had been employed to block out the sun. Soldiers in the trenches hadn't seen starlight of any kind for almost a week... the only light coming from hidden light sources kept inside the trenches...

Ulysses sat in his captain's chair aboard the Fenrir, which was in orbit above the planet. A timer counted down on everyone's displays. As it ticked down, he looked to the helmsman and nodded. "Aye sir. Comm, inform the crew. We are entering the atmosphere.

High above the trenches, the Fenrir parted the clouds above with a thunderous roar is it held itself aloft over the battle field.

Werner looked to his tactical officer. "Launch Fyrst Battalion's drop pods. And destroy those AA towers." He then opened a comm line to his CAG. "Deploy Slephnir flight."

And like that, the battle began...

The Fenrir would start taking fire from the ground... this far forward there were only the poorly constructed trenches below the ship. The anti-aircraft towers were so far away that they couldn't even see the Fenrir's massive form descend through the clouds. Only the faint glow of its shields could be made out through the darkness. The soldiers manning the guns in the tower only had a few moments to wonder about what was going on as one of the main weapon turrets on the underside of the Fenrir took aim at the towers themselves. The crack of the towers center crumbling would be the first thing they heard, followed by the sounds of the supersonic railgun round passing by. Even with the weapons set low enough for use in atmosphere... they were still more than capable of destroying these fortresses with impunity.

Meanwhile, directly below the Fenrir, soldiers would start firing flares into the air. This helped illuminate the area, as well as signaled for long range bombardment by artillery. Machineguns and rifles would begin firing into the darkness, unaware of the drop-pods falling towards them from overhead while soldiers miles away would start loading the long ranged artillery. The shells had quite a ways to travel, and the Fenrir would see them on its sensors long before they arrived at their targets.

Ulysses nodded as he saw the first of his fighters taking off from the deck. "Fighters are to begin straffing the runways, I want total air supiriority. Tactical, keep in close contact with the ground team for fire support."

As the drop pods decended, Cyrus marshal puffed on his cigar, before spitting it out and closing his helmet. The drop pods struck the ground like a metor shower, and Ragnrok soldiers in PAs poured out from them. "Rush the trenches before they get that artillery on us!" He ordered as he lead the charge into the firts of the trenches. He traded his pistols for a heavy duty shotgun, loaded with dragon's breath ammo.

The only light in the area was coming from the guns on the Fenrir, smaller point defense weapons reaching out with streams of bright ammo to detonate the artillery rounds as they approached.

Ragnarok's fighters would similarly find an easy time dealing with the enemy aircraft... the piston driven, cloth and wood, biplanes were helpless at night. They were not even in the air... the tents that housed them were easily found by night vision sensors, then by Ragnarok's own gunfire.

Cyrus himself would find his drop-pod falling away from him right as it landed, allowing him to rush forward along with his soldiers. At this range, he could easily make out the URR soldiers dutifully forming their firing lines in the trenches, backed up with machinegun fire from prepared positions just behind them. There was plenty of metal flying in the air, however the URR soldiers had bolt-action rifles, grenades, and little more than helmets as body armor.