Taros Campaign - Place and Time: Gustavus' command had been almost a year in pre-invasion information gathering and mustering the forces, and now it came to planning the actual attack. How would they commit the troops they had requested, and how would they keep them supplied once on the ground? One immediate consideration for Gustavus was that the longer he spent planning and mustering, the more likely it was that information might leak out. A traitor from within his ranks with access to classified information might sell it to the Tau for a vast price or the promise of safety within their Empire. Pre-warned, the Tau would be in a far better position to defeat his attack. Security around the planning needed to be tight. Colonel Scheja, whose efforts thus far to have a spy infiltrate Taros had come to naught, was given the task of maintaining internal security. He would establish a network of informers and spies within the High Command and Imperial Guard regiments, people paid by Scheja to keep their eyes and ears open and report to him. To further aid with the internal security, Gustavus ordered that the gathering invasion force should not be concentrated just yet. The men would be scattered about surrounding Sectors. This way, it would merely seem that many other small warzones were being reinforced. Hopefully, the build-up would go unnoticed until it was too late. Imperial Guard regimental commanders were not to be informed of their actual destination until the last moment.Drawing on the good work of the previous year, the High Command began the invasion's planning process in earnest. In order to satisfy the demands of the Imperial Guard, regimental commanders, and Lord Marshal De Stael, three key objectives had to be considered. First, the invasion would need to quickly capture an operational spaceport, if not in the initial assault then in the immediately following few days of ground operations. A large spaceport would be vital in maintaining the flow of supplies needed by the forces on the ground once battle was joined. Second, the invasion would be undertaken by at least three regiments simultaneously. This would be a force large enough to overwhelm all but the strongest resistance and would mean a firm bridgehead could be established between orbit and the planet's surface, strong enough to resist all immediate counter-attacks. Without a secure deployment zone, the invasion would be defeated in its first few days. Third was the water supply. On a desert world like Taros, water was a valuable commodity, supplied from hydro-plants and recycling. The ground forces would need to secure a supply of water rapidly, or the fighting men would be unable to operate effectively.These three reasonable objectives contributed much to the planning process. Firstly, Taros had only one spaceport, in Tarokeen, hence a direct assault on the city was considered in some detail. Tarokeen was also the center of the planet's industry and administration. If the war was to be won, Tarokeen would have to be captured quickly. Whilst the traitors or the Tau held the city the war would drag on, and the mineral resources would be unable to leave the planet. The enemy knew this, too. Tarokeen and its immediate hinterland, the lracunda Isthmus, would be the most-defended part of the entire planet. A direct assault under the guns defending the city would invite disaster. Too many enemy ground forces would be waiting for them and too many orbital defenses would threaten the invasion fleet. The direct approach was dismissed as too risky. The landing zone would have to be close enough to the ultimate objective to keep supply lines short, but not so close as to risk too much enemy resistance. The impracticalities of landing on the far side of the planet and then transporting every man, gun, and shell around the world were impossible to overcome. With the invasion fleet in orbit, it was only prudent to get as close to the final objective as possible. As for the spaceport, it would be the priority once the ground forces had landed. In the meantime, an entire Engineer Corp would be tasked with constructing a landing site suitable for the delivery of the supply ships.Secondly, the main restriction on the initial attack would be the number of drop ships and assault transports available. Fleet Admiral Kotto had the task of organising the Imperial fleet's role in the invasion. He had to find the landing craft needed. This was no easy task, and it was unlikely that enough could be found to simultaneously land three regiments in time. At any rate, Gustavus wasn't convinced this was necessary. Three regiments would give the invasion force the flexibility to attack several locations at once: De Stael argued for this plan, but Gustavus overruled him. To split their forces would be to give up their biggest advantage as attackers. Even if Taros was expecting an attack (a reasonable assumption), they would have to defend every possible location where an invasion might fall. This would cause Taros and the Tau to spread their forces thinly. Gustavus' plan would allow their forces to concentrate at a single point in overwhelming numbers. If the landing was to succeed, then it had to hit one place so hard that it could not be repulsed. Although it might be a tempting option, even if only used as a diversion to draw away enemy forces, splitting the ground forces over several land zones would mean each regiment risked becoming isolated from support and destroyed in detail in subsequent engagements. In the end, a single landing-zone strategy was settled upon. It would include as many troops as Fleet Admiral Kotto could find transports for. Next, the invasion location needed to be decided upon. Somewhere within the Aestus, either north or south of the city was the best option. North would mean increased exposure to the high temperatures and violent storms of the Great Sand Sea. South would be slightly cooler and more stable, but the enemy also knew this and may be better prepared there. In the end, Gustavus preferred the latter option.Thirdly, the water supply situation. An unopposed landing in the uninhabited and undefended deep deserts with their high temperatures and lack of any water supply as well as the risk of desert storms and the huge distance to the objective rapidly ruled this option out. Wherever the landings eventually occurred, water would have to be supplied from off-world, shipped in on heavy tankers in vast quantities, at least until sufficient production sources could be captured. Standing orders were to be issued to all Imperial Guard regiments that any moisture extraction equipment or hydro-plants captured during the course of the campaign were to be undamaged and turned over to High Command. In this way the advance could help meet some of its own water requirements. Ultimately, there was no easy answer to this problem. Life on Taros was harsh especially because water was so scarce, and as such the invasion force would have to be very careful in rationing it, and make sure a secure supply line from off-world provided enough for the ground troops. Additionally, extra water evaporation equipment would be loaded on board the transports.