Taros Campaign - Imperial Guard Landings: The mission-objective-completed signal from Captain Orelius was the cue for the first invasion transports to move into low orbit and begin their own landings. The first Imperial Guard troopers to land in hostile territory on Taros were to be the infantry companies of the 17th Tallarn regiment. Many felt the elite Storm Trooper companies, specially trained to spearhead the invasion, should be deployed, but this action in De Stael’s staff was overruled. Lord Marshal De Stael wanted a rapid build-up, more men, more heavy weapons, more vehicles, and more tanks. A Storm Trooper company offered good infantry, but could not provide the heavier equipment. General Barim-Abas of the 17th felt that his men had the experience, training and equipment to perform the mission admirably.The original plan had required enough landing craft to put down three entire Imperial Guard regiments in the first wave. Fleet Admiral Kotto had been unable to supply the vast numbers of landing craft required to fulfill that plan. Instead, the fleet had enough landing craft for just over one regiment. The others would have to wait for their turn. On board the sister transports Imperius Javelin, Gauntlet, and Anvil, in excess of 10, 000 men of the 17th Tallarn regiment were being transferred from their berths to the landing craft. As well as men came vehicles, equipment and supplies. The men destined for the first wave were equipped with full combat loads; armour, grenades, extra ammunition, rations and water supplies had been issued to the leading infantry companies. The men filed into the bellies of the big landing craft, packed in shoulder to shoulder in the darkness. The last man on board from each company was the company commander. On landing he would also be first man off. At the back of each assault company was a Commissar, bring up the rear to force any malingerers out of the landing craft and into battle.Whilst the three transports moved into low orbit, the fleet’s escort ships took up patrol stations, and the larger cruisers piquetted the surrounding space to defend the waiting transports against sudden attack. The Righteous Power herself stayed in low orbit with the lead transport, ready to provide orbital bombardment. Aboard several of the landing craft were Imperial Navy shore parties led by Navy officers from the Righteous Power. They were there to act as a liaison between the Imperial Guard and the fleet, and as fire control teams should resistance be strong enough for the Righteous Power’s guns to be needed. Also on board the Battlecruiser was Lord Marshal De Stael, in place to oversee landing operations until he could transfer his headquarters to the surface.After a bumpy descent through the atmosphere it seemed De Stael had chosen his southern landing ground well. In the deserts of Taros' Aestus there was no resistance. The landing craft, each packed with men and materials, were not fired on. When the great loading doors opened and the ramps fell, crashing into the desert sand, the men of the Tallarn 17th marched out into scorching temperatures and bright sunlight to find there was no battle. The enemy was nowhere to be seen. As the landings proceeded, not a shot was fired. File by file the lead companies of lmperial Guardsmen marched down the ramps and into the savage, dry heat of Taros. With their officers shouting orders, the disembarkation was orderly and quick. Immediately upon landing the companies began to move forwards to begin forming a defensive perimeter. Following the lead infantry came the first tanks. One after another, Leman Russ rumbled down the ramps and followed the men to form strong points in the new perimeter De Stael listened to the reports from the surface of an unopposed landing. So far so good, but the enemy might already be reacting and mustering a counterattack force. He needed to seize this opportunity and reinforce as rapidly as possible; he didn't know how long it might last. Company by company the 17th Tallarn landed, disembarked and marched away from the landing zone. Once unloaded, the landing craft blasted off and returned to dock with the other transports now moving into low orbit to begin the process again. The 89th Tallarn would be the next regiment to land. The transports repeated the process of the 17th. The invasion force had its foothold, now they needed the extra forces and extra supplies to make it stick.Whilst the regiments of X Corp began the long process of transferring everything from orbit to the landing zones, the Raptors Chapter had already completed its landings. The entirety of Third and Sixth companies and all their vehicles were in position surrounding Decima silo. Captains Orelius and Kaedes placed themselves in the task force's Damocles Command Rhino and listened to the incoming reports. The invasion was progressing as planned. No enemy contact had been reported - yet. As it turned out, the Raptors assault on Decima was the only combat on the first day of the Taros invasion. It seemed the enemy had been caught by surprise by the landings and had no forces positioned for an immediate counter-attack. The second day might see the expected attack materialise, but the longer theenemy held off, the stronger the lmperium's forces would become and the harder it would become to remove them.Days went by and nothing was seen of the enemy. The 17th Tallarn regiment, now dug-in behind sand-bagged positions, their artillery batteries located, Leman Russes half-buried in tank scrapes in the sand, was ordered to begin reconnaissance operations Their Sentinel companies and selected infantry squads were to launch long-range patrols out into the surrounding desert to see if they could find any evidence of enemy activity or build-up. The main effort was to be concentrated northwards, the direction the eventual advance would come. As well as reporting enemy sightings, the patrols would also provide useful information about the terrain the regiments faced and routes of advance.Meanwhile, behind the 17th’s frontlines, the landing zone was a hive of activity. Landing craft were continually touching down or taking off. Sentinel Power-Lifters were stomping to and fro carrying ammunition crates and fuel drums. Trojans were dragging fuel and water bowsers between the ships and the supply dumps. Through all this marched columns of men, mostly Tallarn infantry or Storm Trooper platoons heavily laden with their own fighting kit, or wretched Departmento labour squads dressed in rags and carrying shovels and picks. Tanks and Chimera squadrons rumbled through the desert in neat lines. De Stael’s build-up was now in full flow.On day four, the first of the Munitorum labour corps was landed and immediately set to work constructing an aircraft landing field. The first of the Imperial Navy fight squadrons, the 286th, was awaiting aboard the Hammer of Thrace for an airbase and supplies to be put in place before they could transfer to the surface. This was a priority task. The addition of an Imperial Navy fighter squadron would add greatly to the invasion force’s reconnaissance assets. Able to range far and wide over the desert they could seek out enemy forces at far greater ranges than the Sentinels or Armoured Fist squadrons already operating in the surrounding desert.For De Stael, the landing was a triumph of organisation. The feared Tau counter-attack had never come. The force build-up was going well. Of course, there were problems to be solved. Congestion in the landing zone, men or landing craft becoming lost or arriving in the wrong location, already water supplies were a problem, but the tanker Empress of Svedeg was now in orbit and unloading 1000 tonnes of water a day. At this rate it would still take twenty days to fully unload. The men on the ground needed more, and transporting water was taking up more space in the landing craft than expected, slowing the whole landing process down. There was a shortage of Power-Lifters for unloading, and De Stael requisitioned many from the Tallarn regiments on the perimeter to aid at the landing zone. The knock-on effect of this was that the Tallarn regiments had to use their own manpower to move supplies to the front. Guardsmen were used as pack animals to carry shells to the artillery guns or water cans to the trenches. Platoons given supply duty laboured in the hot sun carrying crate after crate. In the first week it became the most hated of duties, but whilst the enemy didn’t attack, this inefficient use of combat manpower was not a problem for the 4621st Army.Supplies of all kinds were now pouring onto Taros. Fuel, food, medical supplies, communications equipment, sandbags (by the thousand), replacement vehicles, feed for the Rough Rider squadrons, tents (small, medium and large), power cells of all kinds, spare track links, spades, pickaxes, jerry cans by the pallet load, razor wire by the mile, mines, fuses, right down to boxes of shiny new medals. The supply depots grew and grew, everything being carefully recorded, logged and stored. Despite valiant attempts to impose order, the landing zone was in chaos. One Storm Trooper company requested new vox-casters, but upon opening the crates, found they had been delivered brand new horse saddles!The landing operation was vast, but even with his first three regiments in position De Stael was in no hurry to start offensive operations on the ground. The more men and supplies he got in place, the better his ultimate chance of success was. In all, it took nearly two weeks to move everything down to the planet surface. It was two weeks of intense unloading activity; two weeks in which the enemy made no sign of attacking. For the men on the frontline, it was two weeks of waiting. The men started referring to the Taros invasion as ‘the Clerk’s War’, both a comment on De Stael’s nickname and the fact that the supply clerks were the busiest men in the army.After being on standby for three days, the Raptors Space Marines were withdrawn back to their Battle Barge. They had completed their mission, and enough Imperial Guard forces were now in place to resist any attack long enough for the Raptors to redeploy if needed. The only Space Marine unit to remain on the planet surface was a long Scout squad, which was there to assist in the pre-offensive intelligence gathering. The Imperium’s forces were now securely on Taros and, amazingly, barely a shot had been fired. Reconnaissance reports indicated some enemy activity in the deserts. Traces of Tau movement or occupation were found, but as yet there were no sightings. If the Tau were out there in the desert, then they were playing a patient waiting game. It was De Stael’s next task to find them and bring them to battle.