TBntG-3 Chpt 38

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 38 - Book III - The Clan Invasion==
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==The Invasion of Oshika: Part 1==
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===The Opening Throws===
Oshika System, Draconis Combine
The fleet jumped in at the traditional jump points. There was no sense in being clever, not yet. The destroyers and cruisers shook themselves out, centering on the six heavy carriers. The dropships detached, parasite escorts taking position while the troop droppers stayed in the center of the formation. 
Boosting at a leisurely 1G the force headed for Oshika, as a smaller detachment took the recharge station.
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===Irony of the Invasion===
CVS Lexington
 
I wonder if anyone knows the Irony, Sandra thought. She was here, handling the largest single planetary invasion to date in terms of numbers, nine divisions worth of infantry, armor, and mechs. Another corps was waiting for the follow up, once they'd cleared the world's defenses. 
 
She shook her head. Old-timers like her remembered the day when a single battalion of new mechs marching out of the factory was seen as a huge deal. Now they counted regiments the way the world of 3025 counted lances. 
That wasn't the irony. The irony was a Taurian admiral, planning the invasion of a successor state, flying her flag from a design based on the old New Syrtis carrier. 
 
Now lets just hope this doesn't end up like the Davion's fiasco. 
 
"They're not coming out." her Flag Captain said. 
 
"We can't always depend on them being stupid," Sandra said. She gestured at the imagery of the world. "Lots of new sats. Those laser jobs?"
 
"Laser and cap missile launchers," Maxwell said. "Unless they've changed since the last raid, not much armor, no point defense. Might be a problem for…"
 
"Yeah." But we need to take out those factories. Intelligence agreed that they wouldn't start distributing the weapons until a few days before the fleet arrived. The BDS didn't want to risk nukes "falling off the truck" to less loyal groups. Which was why Sandra was being obvious and boring with her approach. That and they needed some time to prepare their big surprise.
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===Anxiety of waiting on the Sidelines===
Victor was pacing. The rules were clear. The two oldest heirs of the Federated Commonwealth could not be on the same ship, or in the same unit. Unfortunately, his lunatic sister had proven effective enough that they were giving her the hardest part—the most suicidal part of the mission. And whenever anyone suggested she was too important, Katherine tore a metaphorical strip off their skin—if they were lucky. Victor understood it. You didn't have the right to hold your life more important than your fellows. It was just easier to think about that in relation to him, rather than his sister. 
 
Part of Victor wanted to just stand off and bombard the planet. They had the firepower. If the Kuritans wanted to die for the Dragon so badly…
 
But that was a small part. Most didn't. And against the BDS, or hell, the old Combine, standing up for what was right… Generally led to an unmarked grave.
 
In most parts of the Federated Commonwealth, speaking up against the government isn't a death sentence. Not all. Kat wasn't right, you couldn't have a complete democracy, that way led to the chaos of the Free Worlds League, but power meant responsibility, and the war had shown that in some places the nobility had forgotten that.
 
Victor, once he had the chance, was going to remind them that privileges came with duties. And hopefully the rest of the family would be around to see it. 
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The fleet continued its advance. Tactical sections kept scanning the world, looking for launch cradles for suicide craft, while targeting officers started planning for the strikes on the orbital networks. 
 
Five days out, the fleet started launching its missiles. All conventional, since you couldn't be certain you might not miss and hit the world, but, it wouldn't matter. Enough conventional strikes could kill any orbital fortification, and such structures couldn't move, at least not like a warship could. 
 
The first missiles were launched at a slower acceleration so that follow-up salvos could catch up with them. 
 
The first wave would number just over 2500 capital ship missiles. And include a very big surprise.
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===Witness too your own Demise===
Michal watched his board. The enemy had launched an attack, but their ships were still far beyond range. The political officer wasn't… bad. He'd understood the reasoning for the attack. But it was still nerve wracking. Just sitting here and watching them come in, like they had all the time in the world like they didn't care that the Combine's best were waiting for th—
 
The blare of the proximity alarm caused him to stare at the screen, a scattering and then a horde of targets appearing on it. 
 
"Incoming missiles!" he shouted. "Many incoming missiles!" 
 
And most of them… Were coming for the station!
 
The planetary defense systems opened fire, but they were planned to attack warships and dropships, not this… horde of missiles. Point defense systems came online on the station, and they destroyed dozens—but there were hundreds pouring down on them.
 
We can survive—we can—
 
And then another blaring alarm sounded. 
 
That's impossible!
 
Transient pirate points were dangerous, but only fools and pirates used them for anything more than small raids. It was just too dangerous.
 
Which was why Michal couldn't say anything as he stared at not one, but two hulking battleships that had appeared. 
 
And then one rolled and fired on the station, and Michal's world dissolved in fire.
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===Invasion powered by Periphery built Hardware===
Transient points were dangerous. But the UMC had the computers of Terra working for them, and part of the reason for the slow advance had been to get better observations of the target, and relay them to the Iwo Jima and Normandy. 
 
At over a million tons apiece, the two ships were the largest warships built by the UMC, and designed for a very simple purpose—to jump into close range of a planet, for contested assaults. They seemed to explode as Dropships, both from traditional collars and the carrier pods pioneered by the Concordat, were launched, along with fighters, even as the ships started punching out defensive stations with dreadful accuracy. They wouldn't stay be able to provide direct fire support, since they would be dealing with the suicide fighters, but the Combine defense plan had gone rather off, even as the closing invasion fleet went to full acceleration. 
 
But all that was secondary to their main goal—GUN CONTROL, as a full mechanized infantry division launched, focused on the launching points and service points for the suicide sleds and the factories that had made their warheads.
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===Hotdrop===
"We lost second company," the report echoed in Katherine's helmet as the Swamp Fox lander dove for the planet at full acceleration, every weapon firing. One of of the battlesats had scored a lucky hit on second company's dropper, and so over 250 troopers and crewmen had vanished. 
I hate this. Stuck here, unable to do anything, if the ship got hit, you'd be trapped in your coffin while the thing fell…
 
"Coming up on the drop point!" 
 
"Right," Katherine said. "We worked this out," on a very nice 1:1 model that the engineering corps built for us which hopefully bore some resemblance to what we're about to land in, "Remember, hit the factory first, then we move out to the work camp. I want everything ready the moment we hit, because we don't have any mechs for this op."
 
"Why would we want them?" someone asked.
 
"Because 'shoot the big one' is the Combine order of the day?" Doc asked. "I don't mind them shooting someone else."
 
"Right," Katherine said. "The place is in the mountains, no good terrain for mechs—and no good photo ops." Everyone laughed at that. 
 
And then she felt a hand try to squeeze her lungs out of her nose as the dropship dove for its target, a little valley with a lot of AA around it…
 
Well, can't say they're not rolling out the red carpet…
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