Both you and Ari wake at roughly the same time. After you return to your room, you go through your usual morning routine you check both the time and how long until the transport reaches it destination. You are told by the comptuer in your room that you are one day away from your destination.
After you finish dressing after a long, soothing shower, you reconvene with Ari.
"I think we need to come up with a plan" You say, taking Ari back into your room so you can speak in private.
"I'll just grab my tablet and the intel dossiers Ala-Shar gave me, and then I'll be right back." Ari replies, shooting off into her room. It only takes her a few minutes to return. "What did you have in mind?" She asks.
Going to have to hit them hard and fast...maybe we can hold some kind of choke point?
My preferred method is to do a stealth insertion, send in the infiltrators to knock out communications in their base, and then have them blow a breach in any walls that might be in our way. Then proceed with the assault. But then, that's probably because I've read too many Gaunt's Ghosts novels...
My preferred method is to do a stealth insertion, send in the infiltrators to knock out communications in their base, and then have them blow a breach in any walls that might be in our way. Then proceed with the assault. But then, that's probably because I've read too many Gaunt's Ghosts novels...
your on to something. to lay to some work off the infiltrators we can blow a hole in the walls ourselves {combat engineers unite!}. then just just take it as fast as possible. by the way can we ask for a little back up in the form of anti aircraft teams? they don't have to be vet special brood soldiers just able to carry, defend, and use the anti-aircraft machinery.
Fifteen thousand bugs doesn't sound good given my understanding of the typical kill/death ratio. Could we get our hands on a warhead, then draw them out into a killzone and do a nuclear bug bbq?
"I have at least one plan, however i will need information to make a final judgement." You say.
"The first solution to our problem i came up with was to hit them hard and fast in ways they would least expect. Use a combination of choke points and cunning. We could use the infiltrators, backed up by the scouts, to destroy Slinkar networks important to the Slinkar. As they have a hime-mind like set up, knocking out the communications networks they do have wouldnt do much. I would instead focus on supplies and equipment."
"Using an infiltrating force to disable defenses would also be a good idea" Ari adds. "And, judging by the data we have on the Slinkar, it seems that whilst they do have a hive mind set up, it is relatively short range. Another interesting fact is that each Slinkar can cut communications and each one has their own personal personality. They aren't just mindless drones. This means that communications can be bumped back up to a primary target, but it also means that disabling their communications wouldn't have the huge, profound impact I thought it might."
"What defenses did the former HQ have?" You ask.
"Forty metre high, ten metre thick Super dense nanomaterial walls with both automated and manual built in point defense and turret installations. Shields provided by the central shield generator which was, thankfully, detonated by the remaining troops before the Slinkar gained total control." Ari answers.
"Well, there goes my plan of having the infiltrators or me and my engineers blow holes in any defenses after the infiltrators had completed their primary objectives...." You sigh.
"Not necessarily. I have just looked at the rules of engagement and equipment allowances for this campaign. It seems that the Morey high command has seen fit to provide us with micro and standard sized destabilised hyper-plasma impulse bombs." Ari sees you momentary look of confusion. "Don't worry, your implanted knowledge will tell you in a couple of seconds." She smiles.
She was right.
***Info on: Destabilised Hyper-Plasma Impulse WMD (DHPI-WMD)***
***Role: Bunker Buster, area denial.***
***Description: Powerful WMD designed to inflict extreme amounts of damage. Can be planted as a charge, shot from orbit, attached to a missile or, if in micro scale, thrown. Micro-scale version is not as powerful, although it makes up for it in versatility. Can be used as a very powerful grenade.
***Standby for damage predictions***
As you start seeing images and scales of destruction flash past your sight, you gasp.
"These things make thermonuclear hydrogen bomb look like fireworks.....I think they'd easily blow through the walls."
"They sure would. We'd have to make sure the infiltrators knew that though. We really dont want casualties."
"If that worked, we'd commence an assault right through. Is that possible with this weapon or would be all die from radiation?"
"It would be unwise to try and cross the affected area right after a detonation as the air would be full of super-heated plasma particles that can melt their way right through even our respiratory filters. Believe me when i say that is not a nice way to die." Ari says, looking sullen.
"How long would we have to wait?" You ask
"Roughly two hours"
You flinch. "That is a long time. It gives the Slinkar time to regroup and whack us full force. We'd lose the element of surprise. Is there any way we could lure the Slinkar out and use the WMD's on them there?"
"It would be difficult. They aren't stupid and many sides have underestimated them, thinking they are brainless bugs. That tactics must have been tried on them at least a dozen times by my count by the Morey alone. It never works."
"I am starting to think this plan may be a washout..... I have another plan, though, which could be better."
******
Maybe we could assault the spaceport first. It would help us on the ground and our allies in the sky. We probably can't use the ships ourselves, but we could probably repurpose them into siege weaponry, not to mention everything else that Bay12 comes up with.
If we're going that route... these are starships right? That means they can either accelerate at relativistic speeds, do superluminal jumps, or both. Even if there is for some reason no direct way to accelerate we can just jump it to near a massive gravity well, have it fall for a while, and then jump it away. So basically we have this big overpowered thing that can accelerate to ludicrous speeds. Just attach anything what so ever to it and aim it at their planet, BLAM. Newton is the deadliest sonofabitch in space, any practical starship engine is also a weapon of mass destruction, etc.
To be more precise, the ideal payload; mass matters, not volume. Needs to manage reentry heating without ablating. Main real defense against the kind of attack is redirecting it or point defense, so breaking apart far away into a large number of unguided projectiles is preferable. So basically solid iron covered in a thin layer of ceramics, with chemical explosives on a timer to break it apart without changing it's trajectory at the right moment. More practically, finding random scrap and ramming it into every room, corridor and cargo space of a ship, then blowing up the fuel tanks or overloading the reactor.
I need further information on likely available ships, ballast (scrap), the drive technology, and orbital characteristics of the system. Lets blow shit up with rocket science.
Kinetic kill vehicles are probably a standard armament. Interstellar craft probably have all manner of expensive components that make them unsuitable as munitions. Also, this is our ride home and the thing that stops them from bombarding us from orbit, it would seem unwise to expend it supporting the ground battle...
As we are presumably arriving from the air, and the spaceport is presumably defended against air attacks, landing near it seems like the sort of thing that will cost more than half our force before we can retaliate. Also, holding a fixed and, presumably, open-plan facility against a numerically superior opponent seems unlikely. Better to threaten it and impose upon the enemy to expend forces on its defence.
Really, this is all going to come down to controlling the opponent. Extensive use of large mines to reduce the practicality of concentrating their forces. Maintain pressure on as many enemy facilities as possible to force them to maintain large garrisons. To support this we will probably want to maintain our force in a highly dispersed pattern to limit the enemies ability to determine and fix our positions and rapidly concentrate it to pose a threat to larger forces. We will likely be working our scouts ragged and be sprinting clear across the theatre at a moment's notice. Although if we get a chance to bombard that spaceport into temporary nonfunction, that would be very helpful...
"What are the defenses of the spaceport nearby?"
"The spaceport?" She taps away at the tablet and the computer, whilst looking at the dossiers. "The spaceport is defended but it has far lighter defenses than the HQ. Fortunately, every ground facing emplacement was scuttled as they fell, making them useless to the Slinkar. Unfortunately, every AAA emplacement is still fully operational, so we have to keep far away from the spaceport if you decide to use the shuttles to get to the target quicker instead of going by foot. Also, if we do get any air support or orbital support, they would have to watch out for the spaceports defenses."
"What units do the Slinkar have there?"
"Going off of this intel, the Morey Intelligence division planetside suspects the Slinkar are operating the majority of their air power from this location."
"So what class of ships are we looking at?"
"Nothing huge. Their main fleet will be either in orbit fighting us and the Morey or docked in their main shipyards closer to the systems stars. We would be looking at multi-theatre fighters and bombers, CAS gunships, attack craft and transports."
"Hmmm..... Depending on how fast they accelerate, we could use them as disposable weapons against the HQ's defenses. Take out a few turret emplacements and point defense systems with their own craft. If we could possibly get the weapons working, we could use them as siege weapons to support our attack....."
"That...actually seems like a really good idea." Ari agrees. "The fighters and bombers would be used as projectiles. Slinkar power cores are highly explosive, after all, as they use a type plasma drive. The CAS gunships would make very nice heavy weapons support platforms, if we could crack their weapons systems."
"In what form does high command want that spaceport?"
"Ideally, they want it intact."
"Damn...there goes my idea of bombarding it into oblivion...." You think for a moment. "Do we have anything in the way of land mines?"
Ari smiles. "Plenty. Of all types. Plasma, impulse, incendiary, high explosive. You name it we have it.".
"Good" You grin.
"Right" You say. "Here is what the second plan is. We hit the spaceport hard and fast, take as many Slinkar craft as possible for our own purposes and then we try to lock down but not damage the spaceport so that the Slinkar cannot, at least temporarily, use the spaceport as they have been using it before. We make extensive use of land mines as area denial weapons, trying to funnel the Slinkar troops into choke points. We will need the scouts and infiltrators to work as our eyes and ears. This will probably run them ragged but we will need them if we are going to whittle the Slinkar down to a more manageable number. We'll also want to keep out troops spread out so that it keep the Slinkar guessing, unable to counter us effectively. To inflict heavy casualties we could make use of that WMD you mentioned earlier."
"Then, once we have inflicted significant casualties on their troops, locked down the Spaceport, re-purposed the Slinkar craft and generally gotten into position, we strike the HQ and take back what is rightfully ours." You say, tapping your lips with your finger. "How does that sound, Ari?"
"Better than the other one, in my opinion." She smiles.
"Now, we just have to choose which one we are going to do....."
******
((
{{i'm gonna love to see what this is going to be like. btw has kahn said anything about the slinkar homewords or anything else about the campaign?}}
We will probably get more information once we get closer to our destination. RAM's idea probably works the best it turn the Slinkar's strength into their weakness.
Questions
Does the Slinkar have other forms of communication besides their hive mind?
What about sleep Schedules?
I am wondering if we can take some debris that litter the system and send it to Galacus Triarin?
What is the terrain and climate of Galacus Triarin?
Can we also get more detail to the surrounding area of the airport on Galacus Triarin?
I shall answer these later, possibly tomorrow, if they haven't been answered already in this upate.))
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Topic: (SG) Starfire: War and Politics - Enemies Old and New - UPDATE 03/07/2014 (Read 87470 times)