Chapter 2: The Ground Assault

The Galactic Empire had an incorrect view of ground-based warfare. The Republic essentially had combined arms warfare down by the end of the Clone Wars, but the Imperial Army was often dedicated to static defensive warfare or police actions. While a focus on COIN (counterinsurgency) operations was understandable considering rebel tactics it was almost like some parts of the Empire forgot combined arms warfare existed. Other parts of the Empire often had the idea down but were limited by poor equipment such as the ATAT. Don't get me started on that piece of shit.

General Abacus Grant, UN Marines

Colonel David "Deadlock" Davis flew his F-1500c multi-role starfighter through the atmosphere of Hakeen IV, searching for hostile air speeders on his sensor system. The Commander, air group of the Conqueror was pleased with his performance in the last few hours, having added several more kills to his already impressive total.

"Nice looking skyline." His wingman, (or technically wingwoman) Captain Vanessa "Redeye" Sundrey said.

"Gonna look better with Imperials gone." He replied. "I wonder if the Empire is going to start sorties against us. This airspace is quiet."

"They don't have that many combat aircraft," Vanessa said. "I mean before this started Russia had more jets than the total in this world, and that counts ground-based starfighters."

"Counting how many they lost in Ukraine?" He replied.

"Definitely." She said, "They don't even have a thousand, probably 800 or so combat airspeeders and starfighters. At least 200 of them are TIEs which are just wonderful atmospheric crafts.

"Looks like there are a few on long-range sensors, let's move to engage." He said. "Half a squadron. Since they can't maneuver to save their life I don't think we should waste missiles on them."

"We don't need to use them." She agreed. "Alright Deadlock, how do you want to do this?"

"Let's hit them from behind. If we're fast enough I don't think they will be able to catch us." He replied. Both of the fighters accelerated, zooming past the TIE fighters and getting behind them before they could easily react. Each of the F-1500c's had a single heavy laser cannon mounted in the nose and two medium laser cannons near the start of the wings. This meant that the weapons system from where the pilot would be aiming, unlike the rebellion's X-Wing.

More lasers could be fitted on up to the 9 hardpoints the craft had though too many being put on would harm other aspects of the fighter due to large power consumption. Adding a couple more wouldn't hurt. Both of them had opted for two medium laser cannons on the hard points closest to the cockpit. This gave them an impressive amount of forwarding firepower.

The two fighters were able to move behind the group of TIEs with ease as their turning radius was far shorter than that of the Imperial fighter. In space, the TIEs and the F-1500c's turning radius would be a lot closer to equal (depending on the payload of the Earth fighter). However, the TIE fighter was an incredibly poor choice for atmospheric combat due to its lack of shields and aerodynamic frame. Shields allowed a craft to have an aerodynamic frame which would allow the craft to maneuver effectively and give them a high max speed. Since the TIEs lacked shields, their maneuverability was poor in the atmosphere and if they maneuvered too extremely they could tear the craft apart. It was stupid that they were even used in the atmosphere, as the Empire had other dedicated types of airspeeders that would be far more effective.

It was fairly easy to maneuver behind the TIEs and shoot them out of the sky, and within two minutes all six had been destroyed. Both Deadlock and Redeye had added three kills to their already impressive totals.

"That was too easy," Redeye muttered.

"I'd rather it be easy than fatal." He replied.

"Fair." She said. "Alright this place looks clear of air targets, let's find some defenseless Imperials to bomb the shit out of."

"You want hard?" Deadlock asked. "Firing AGMs (air to ground missiles) at a bunker is even easier than killing a TIE in the atmosphere."

"Ahh, it's fun regardless." She said, "Have you talked to Johnson yet about the nose art?"

"Not yet, but I'll do so after the campaign is done. He'll probably have a few conditions of course…"

"Yeah, I don't think he'll allow naked anime girls." She muttered.

"It would make us very credible…" He said. "Anyway, I've got some ground targets for us. Sent right from Johnny's AWACS bird."

"Should I line up a couple of Comets?"

"Be my guest." He replied. The two air-to-ground missiles went speeding away down to an Imperial bunker that lacked any means to defend itself.

For the next few weeks, an intense air campaign was waged upon the Imperial positions across the world. At first, the missions undertaken were designed to destroy Imperial air assets or suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) missions. After the destruction of most Imperial air or air defense assets on the world, the various starfighters and aircraft of Earth began attacking large formations of Imperial ground targets and providing close air support to Earth's special forces and local rebel groups. Massive amounts of ordnance were dropped on the Imperial defenders in preparation for the ground assault.

It reminded Deadlock of the opening phase of Operation Desert Storm. Crippling the Imperial's ability to wage war would allow ground forces to achieve victory more easily.

Then the ground invasion would begin. While hundreds of thousands of Imperial troops stood ready to defend the world, that was a small number compared to the entire world. The militaries of Earth had had several tens of millions before the Empire had attacked and while that could partially be explained by Earth's large size and the many nations on the planet this meant that large sections of the world were relatively undefined and could be quickly taken by Earth. Of course, Earth would not be landing so many troops on the world but it would be enough to win.

Only a couple of days after the battle some large formations of ground troops began landing on the world, in places that were largely unopposed by the Imperials.

General Augustus Marks of the United Nations Marine Corps stood on the bridge of the heavy assault ship Juno Beach as it descended into the atmosphere of Hkeen IVI. The large landing ship of the Omaha Beach Class had been inspired in concept by the clone wars era Acclamator Class Assault Ships, a large warship capable of defending itself in combat but primarily designed to hold large amounts of troops as well as the vehicles and supplies to back them up.

Each of these over 800-meter-long ships could carry 16,000 soldiers and depend on their size, up to 500 ground vehicles as well as dozens of atmospheric combat fighters. It was designed to fully support a small or medium-sized invasion itself, and a few could make up an even larger one like was being done today. There were five being here today, as well as half a dozen smaller landing ships that ranged from only a couple hundred meters long to others that were over 600 meters in length.

Together, they carried over 100,000 troops and tens of thousands of ground vehicles. Several other landings were occurring across the world with invasion forces of a similar magnitude.

The Juno Beach and her sister ships had also participated in an orbital bombardment of the world in an attempt to knock out several major pockets of Imperial resistance. However, the orbital bombardment was notoriously inaccurate and precision strikes were simply not possible. Even with a good targeting computer and turbolasers, a blast might hit dozens of kilometers away from the intended target, due to the interference of the atmosphere. If you didn't care about collateral damage or wanted to exterminate all life in the world this wouldn't be a problem but it would be if you wanted to destroy specific targets. This was why Earth still had large ground armies and starfighters that carried out attacks on Imperial installations; orbital bombardment simply couldn't deliver precision targeting.

Despite the large Imperial force that they would be fighting against, Marks was confident in the abilities of the soldiers he commanded. They had done this before on Njmok, Garnizon, and several other worlds. And they hadn't landed near any large concentrations of Imperial forces, which meant their ship would be secure from direct attack.

As they landed troops surged out, supported by large armored columns, Grant watched the force in satisfaction. There were a large number of armored vehicles including 240 Charger MBTs (main battle tanks) were mostly tasked with destroying enemy armored units, or as infantry support platforms when there were no armored targets. 360 Kestrel IFV s would also have some effect against armored targets, but would primarily be supporting the infantry with its fast-firing medium laser cannon and secondary blaster cannons. 120 AT102 Self Propelled Artillery Guns and 72 ML200 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems provided direct fire artillery support. There were a few Sky Streaker SPAAG (self-propelled anti-air guns) to provide air defense, though this wasn't a priority since Earth held unquestionable air superiority. Their rapid-fire light laser cannons might come in handy against soft targets such as infantry and lightly armored vehicles. These were only a small amount of the combat vehicles he was in command of, the other landing ship had almost the same compliment.

The rest of the force was made up of logistics and utility vehicles. Some were non-combat armored cars and trucks for transporting personnel and supplies to the front, but not into the line of fire. Others were more clearly meant for logistics, with large tankers for refueling and cold storage boxes for providing fresh food. The supplies that they had brought along should be able to sustain them for the campaign, but Earth had built up a large network of supply ships that would deliver whatever they needed. Many of these ships had been captured from the Empire in past battles or were civilians from the conquered territories whose Earth was paying for use of their ships. However, an increasing number of large transports in the hundreds of meters and even a few that were over a thousand were starting to emerge from Earth's shipyards in an attempt to support the large supply needs of the offensives they were waging.

The landing had been to ally unopposed as the nearest Imperial installations were dozens of kilometers away. In total there were about 200,000 Imperial soldiers in the capital city of Hkeen, which would be the target of their attack. The Imperial troops in the city had been under constant aerial bombardment but the effectiveness of such an attack was limited by the goal to prevent collateral damage. While the heavy thrust of the ground forces had landed away from the Empire to secure a beachhead on the world, smaller elements were inserted via dropships.

A gunship sped down into the atmosphere of Hkeen IV, alongside many others of its kind.

Hopefully, the operation would be a success.

That was what Lieutenant Igor Balesenko was thinking as he sat in one such dropship as it raced down to the surface. His squad was doing the standard last-minute checks on their weapons as they approached their landing zone.

He and a bunch of other marines were tasked with taking the Southern Spaceport which currently was being used by the Imperials as an airbase. While Imperial starfighters and airspeeds were mostly suppressed by Earth there were still a few sorties by the Empire as they tried to at least down some of Earth's fighters.

Most of the ground-based surface-to-air concussion missiles utilized by the Empire along with AA laser and turbolaser emplacements had been destroyed beforehand by airstrikes meaning that they should have minimal threats while landing but there were still likely at least a few around. Hopefully, the two dozen gunships would take care of them if they remained.

He had faith in the GN-56 gunship though, despite being fairly new they had suffered minimal casualties and provided good firepower to troops they had landed. They had been nicknamed the Space Hind after the MI-24 Hind, a Russian Cold War era attack helicopter. The large helicopter had been both able to carry troops and was armed to support them. The large drop ship looked quite similar as well, although it was larger, lacked the rotor blades of a helicopter, could carry more troops, and had more weapons. It played a role similar to that of the helicopter and carried 32 troops. Many weapons bristled from it as well, including a front-mounted medium laser cannon in a ball turret with an expansive firing arc. Four light laser cannons were mounted on the front and two heavy blasters could be firing out of its two doors. Eight hardpoints were also mounted on the wings of the gunship. These could hold a variety of munitions but right now carried two packs of four guided air-to-ground missiles, two rocket pods with 19 high explosive rockets, and two air-to-air missiles to deal with any air threats.

However the gunship was not to engage in air-to-air combat unless it had no choice, and carrying them was probably a little overkill considering most Imperial air assets either couldn't make it off the ground or had been destroyed.

"This is your pilot, we've just spotted a force of a few dozen Imperial fighters and airspeeders approaching our position. They appear to be trying to make a mass interception and were likely hiding in some large bunkers or the civilian section we were unable to bomb."

There was some grumbling from the various soldiers.

"We're landing in contested airspace, this is going to go well."

"Next, are we going to reenact the battle of Crete?"

"Sorry, this isn't Hostomal airport."

"VDV is spinning in its grave."

For the Sergeant, it brought back some bad memories, however. A few years ago he had been a member of Russia's elite airborne corps, the VDV. One day in early 2022 during a "training exercise" he found out that his country was at war with Ukraine. They had had no notice of the war to preserve operational security few outsides Russia's upper-level government and military elite had known it was coming, and soon he had been on a helicopter launching an air assault on Hostomal airport.

The upper levels of the Russian government had thought that Ukraine would roll over quickly and that he and his comrades would be welcomed as liberators. Instead, they had been answered by a hail of machine gun fire from territorial defense units and while the airport had been captured it had ultimately been of little use as the Russias had eventually retreated. He thought the war had simply been pointless fighting against people who should have been their comrades.

After the withdrawal from Ukraine as conditions became impossible, he ironically joined in with the Ukrainians and other Russians to take the fight to the people who had started the war. The numerous failures of the current Russian government had compounded more and more as time went on and soon a full-on uprising had begun. The Second October revolution had been quick but brutal. Not long after the war had finished the Empire had attacked and the focus of rebuilding had turned to rebuild the arms industry to galactic standards. His life had changed so much since that had happened, but that was something to contemplate another time. Now he had to ensure the attack went successfully.

"Vince, you think we can get down there?" He asked the pilot of the gunship.

"They got us at the right time. We got the escorting fighters but those are mostly for CAS but they have some air-to-air armaments. I think we can get through but not all of the dropships are going to make it down in one piece."

"What about air reinforcements?"

"Won't be happening until we've landed. We have a few squadrons on their way but those are coming down from orbit. The FOB (forward operating base) that the major landing set up isn't running major sorties yet. They might be able to get some reinforcements up in a pinch but they're supporting the other attack."

Balesnko swore under his breath. "I'm going to speak to the Captain."

He was soon connected to the officer in command of the operation, Captain Zeng Zhou. He had been an up-and-coming officer in the Chinese airborne corps who had significant experience with other planetary landings like were being pulled off right now.

"Captain, are we continuing with our mission?" He asked over the comms.

"If I have anything to say about it." He said. "We can still take the spaceport, especially if we get those extra reinforcements that are supposed to come soon. I won't let a few fighters stop us."

Soon the Imperial fighters attacked. Many were cut down easily by Earth's fighters but some still had made it through those defenses. The gunship moved wildly as it dodged the incoming fire and while it survived several of its brethren were not so lucky. Five of the gunships were shot down in the chaos along with two escorting fighters. In return, almost all of the attackers were shot down. Over a hundred men died before the attack had even really begun, about a fourth of the total engaged in the attack.

Soon the force was landing by the spaceport, and when they came close to the ground they were answered by a hail of blaster and laser fire. By the time they had hit the ground and troops were being offloaded three more gunships had succumbed to anti-air fire.

"Go go go!" He yelled as the 24 soldiers aboard rushed out into the open, covered by the door gunners. Soon the troops were out of the gunship and it had risen into the air to provide close air support.

A well-placed rocket took out a group of Stormtroopers who were attempting to change their position. All around the base the units dropped into the fray and found themselves met by a hail of blaster fire and grenades.

"Get to that building!" He yelled at his men (and women) who charged a shuttle hanger occupied by a few dozen Imperial personnel. There were about 10 stormtroopers but most of the defenders were the lesser trained Imperial army troops that made up the bulk of the Galactic Empire's ground forces along with some base personnel that had just been handed blasters. However, two E-Web heavy repeating blasters had been set up which forced the Earthers to stay behind the cover of a destroyed K79 S80 Imperial troop transport and a TIE fighter that had also been wrecked by gunships above.

"Vince, can you get a target I designate taken out?" He asked over the comm to the gunship that had brought them to this battlefield.

"A bit busy Lieutenant. Trying to stop an armored counterattack on the other side of the field along with most of the other gunships."

"Fuck." He muttered. "We're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way."

An explosion rippled throughout the cover they were using. One of the troopers had launched a PLX-1 missile at them. It must have missed its target otherwise the warhead would have cut through the abandoned transport like it was jello.

"We don't have much time." Sergeant Omer Manaudou said as more blaster bolts impacted around then.

"Grenadiers and heavy weapons teams prepare to give us cover. Sergeant, see if you can get in that blaster turret. It might still be operational. If it isn't you will join us as we are going to charge the enemy while the heavy weapons teams suppress them. Snipers will also stay back and give support as well. Watch out for flanking attacks and as soon as we are in the hangar come join us. If you have any questions you'd better ask them now." He said and there were none.

Seconds later the two dozen soldiers of Earth opened fire on the Imperials defending the hangar, suppressing them with light repeating blasters and the Imperial troop transport's heavy blaster turret. Snipers picked off the E web crews, and grenadiers fired their 40-millimeter automatic grenade launchers. The imperials were soon being cut down and those who weren't were suppressed by the mass of incoming fire. Earth's focus on firepower had extended down to its infantry, whose various heavy weapons were effective at destroying opposing Imperial infantry.

It was time to attack. The Earther soldiers rushed forwards and used the moment to clear the distance between the hangar and their current position. Four of them fell in the attack but in exchange almost the entire Imperial force was obliterated.

Soon the facility had been secured and Earth now had control of the hangar. Now it was time to get in contact with the Captain and find out what was happening with the other squads. Their mission was far from over. Now they had to contact the rest of their platoon (which had a total of 36 men in it) and the company commanding officer.

"This is Lieutenant Balesenko to Captain Zhou, we have a hanger secured. What're your statues?"

"The facility is mostly secure but we are trying to defend against an Imperial counterattack at the main gate to the base. They have heavy armor including several ATATs."

"Has air support done anything against them?" He asked.

"They took out a few but most have been redirected to other fronts. The ones we have left are out of PGMs (precision-guided munitions). We're also low on anti-armor warheads."

"We can reinforce if necessary." The Lieutenant said.

"Please do so, and bring every anti-armor weapon you have with you. At least that is effective against an ATAT." Soon the Lieutenant was organizing squads worth of his soldiers to go and reinforce the front gate which included the anti-armor team for each squad. One squad's worth of troops would stay behind to secure the hangar.

"Another thing Lieutenant." The Captain said over the comm. "You happen to be the senior most officer in the landing force that's alive aside from me and should I perish you will take command of the company."

"What happened to everyone else?"

"Dead or incapacitated. A couple of the company commanders died when their transports got shot down and the other one was critically wounded. Out of all of the lieutenants, you are the senior most so you get command first." Zhou said.

"Understood sir." Balesenko was a bit concerned with the possibility of having to command. But this united military from Earth had a history of thrusting young officers into important positions because they were simply the best for the job. Admiral Johnson was the most well-known example of this but that didn't mean that it didn't occur in other places. It was in many ways unavoidable as combat experience was considered one of the most important factors in the fleet, army, and marines. Combat experience against the Empire, more specifically.

As they approached the gates they could see signs of battle and soon see the massive lumbering All Terrain Armored Transports, a formidable class of walker used by the Empire as essentially a massive infantry fighting vehicle. Its heavy armor made it invulnerable to all but the highest power laser cannons and its firepower allowed it to destroy many armored vehicles without much thought.

But it was not invincible. It had several major weaknesses including the frame in between its 'head' and its 'main body' which could be pierced by an explosive. It was also very slow and was also vulnerable to unconventional attacks such as targeting its head. But they were still formidable vehicles and had made many a rebel trooper flee the battlefield as their blaster bolts had done little except add perhaps a little carbon scoring to it.

But not today. Several of the massive imperial walkers appear to have been destroyed probably via air support or portable handheld anti-armor weapons. But the walkers were facing to the front and therefore the frame between the head and main body could not be pieced.

A defensive perimeter had been set with a hundred or so of the Earth troops standing against an unknown number of Imperials. Some were firing from the massive wall and reported seeing a large number of Imperial forces including at least a dozen more ATATs, smaller ATSTs, and a variety of other vehicles including light troop transports K79 S80 troop transports, TX-225 Occupier series assault tanks, Chariot APCs and lots of stormtroopers.

Blaster and laser blasts impacted all around them and Balesnko could see many of Earth's soldiers were wounded or dead. But there were a lot more dead Imperials which pleased them along with many destroyed Imperial armored vehicles.

"Lieutenant Balesenko reporting for duty sir, I got two anti-armor teams with me and two grenadiers." He reported to the Captain. "We're ready to kill some Imperials!"

"Good, get them to take out that ATAT!" He yelled in response. The two anti-armor teams each had one soldier with the Javelin II top attack ATGM (anti-tank guided missile) and another soldier with the smaller AT-10 light anti-vehicle missile. The Javelin II looked like its comparatively low-tech counterpart which had served in some militaries on Earth before the Empire came but both the launcher and warhead were significantly redesigned with the technology of the wider galaxy. The result was still a fairly bulky but effective anti-armor weapon that could pierce the armor of many Imperial vehicles. It couldn't of course pierce the reinforced heavy grade durasteel that was used by the ATAT but it could kill a lot of other vehicles including anything else the Empire was using right now on this battlefield.

The AT-10 was a multipurpose platform that had initially been designed as a lightweight MANPADS (Man-portable air defense system) to destroy Imperial TIE fighters. However, it had been adapted to use a variety of small missiles with standard ones which could target both airborne and ground targets, larger ones designed to destroy heavy armor (though not as high yield as the main Javelin warhead) alongside a high explosive version that was adapted against infantry and a heavier anti-air system that while less effective in turning was designed to take down heavier air targets such as drop ships and shuttles.

Both of their javelin operators fired their missiles which struck the ATAT's central section. The durarubber which held the head to the main body split and the walker was dead in the water. Its complement of stormtroopers rapidly exfiltrated the Walker and was rapidly killed in a stream of blaster fire. But not before returning a hail of fire themselves and one shot hit the commander. He keeled over and while corpsmen did their best he couldn't be saved and succumbed to his wounds minutes later.

There were still plenty of walkers coming their way but they were soon stopped as there was only one way to get into the base and it was blocked by the Walker standing in the middle. However, lacking the armored vehicles more and more stormtroopers began advancing towards the position of alpine with lighter vehicles that could fit through the gap. At this rate, the defenders were simply going to fall soon as the numbers were simply too much. Even with the choke point that they currently had.

However, there was a massive boob as multiple explosions rippled from behind the gate. Several bombs had been dropped all around the Imperial forces by a couple of fighters.

The air support had finally arrived. There were signs of blaster fire and explosions on the other side of the wall, as local rebels and some of Earth's special forces launched a flanking attack on the unsuspecting imperials. And Balesenko saw several gunships approaching carrying more desperately needed troops.

They had been saved.

The two fighters that provided CAS turned around and unleashed a volley of small but guided rockets which further decimated more of the Imperials. Precision-guided air-to-ground missiles hit right between the head of Imperial ATATs, the weakest spot of the walker. They were destroyed, their heads flying away from their now immobile bodies. The Lieutenant turned to the communications specialist next to him who might very well have answers.

"We have another dozen gunships along with some light transports inbound with more troops, and this place is going to be made into a FOB (or forward operating base) for operations in the city. We've been ordered to get some rest while these new guys take over. We got a lot of the Imperials disorganized and the city won't be able to hold long, especially once the main armored force arrives."

"Thank you, private," Balesenko replied, looking at the landing gunships. They departed as soon as their troops and the supplies that they had brought had been offloaded and Balesenko walked up to the troops, intending to find their commanding officer. He soon found Major Daniel Spranks, formerly of the US 82 Airborne Division.

"Lieutenant Balesenko reporting for duty sir, all the Captains are dead sir."

"At ease Lieutenant. Go get some rest and I'll deal with you and your men then. But good job taking and holding this position, I'm promoting you to Captain due to your actions and putting you in charge of Zhou's company. Go and get some rest."

Captain Balesenko soon was on his way to one of the hangers where he would get some rest. Despite the victory, he was fairly sober. They had suffered heavy losses and he knew that many good men and women had died today. He wondered how many of these deaths he was responsible for. Quite frankly he would never no, and his thoughts drifted away from that as he fell asleep.

He had done well today, however, that was certain.

The offensive continued as Earth began landing more and more troops on the surface. While the Empire might have had more troops across the entire planet, rapid deployment of troops around Major imperial concentrations led to local numerical superiority.