The gunship had brought Fredrick back to main hub of the invasion. Several droids maneuver away as it lands. Two of his Magna guard walked towards him slowly, where the other members of his guard were, he knew not.
He had some revisions to make to several of the designs currently in service in his inventory, many of which he had found extremely lacking. Intelligence reports had rumors of a group of massive tanks smashing their way through his defenses and orbital and aerial assets had also observed tanks of large size being sighted alongside their more numerous smaller kin. Though according to them, there was only one, not a squadron.
"Bring me to the Tactical Droid B7782."
The two Magna Guards turned around and took him towards a moderately sized round building constructed of Ferrocrete and with several antennae sticking out of its roof. A pair of durasteel doors barred their way, but opened when he strode up.
A pair of Battle Droids manning two large repeating blasters turned their heavy weapons towards him, but they paused and resumed their original aim points upon recognizing the Commander.
"B7782, I would like a report on the enemy weapons and capacities, and most importantly their tactics across the front."
The droid turned, and the attendant commander OOM series turned to face him as well. It responded in a dull monotone voice, " We have a minor numerical superiority to them, but they appear to have a vast number of different types of weapons to call upon, from slug throwers to energy weapons which eclipse similar sized weapons in our own inventory, however we have determined that the greatest danger to our forces is poised by the following weapons, what you call the heat cannons, which we have identified by several defectors as Melta weapons, the Las-cannon which is a potent anti-vehicle weapon, the heavy bolter which you probably have encountered a large caliber anti-infantry weapon that fires explosive weapons. Their tanks and armored personnel carriers are formidable and heavily armed and armored, however our AAT is a match for their primary variant, except the ones fitted with the long guns and plasma cannons."
"I see and what can we do to undermine these advantages?"
"Several MTTs are being modified into heavy battle tanks, the Hailfires are an effective counter to all their armored vehicles we have so far encountered, but I would suggest deploying the HAGs and Homing Spider droids."
"And what do you make of the reports of some kind of super tank in the enemy's deployment?"
"I consider it to highly possible, something destroyed those positions with immense firepower, and the only records we found were salvaged from a few battle droids showing a massive set of tracks smashing through a wall in front them, before it crushed them."
"That is distressing news, so what are doing about it?"
"The MTTs I mentioned are being massively up gunned, I ordered the installation of a quad light turbolaser on their front and six point defense lasers installed three to each side. A particle shield is being added, but in order for this to happen we sacrificed their troop transport capabilities."
"That sounds formidable. How goes production of new droids from the foundries?"
"We only have low rate construction due to the unfinished state of most of the foundries and the mining operations only just starting, however I assure you in a few months' time we'll be at full production levels, and we'll be able to crush the defenders of this world and move onwards to greater conquests."
"Excellent, as you were."
Fredrick turned to leave, satisfied that as far as logistics went B7782 was more than up for the task, as it was one of his specialties, as Fredrick had ordered him programmed for logistical skill and problem assessment.
Turning to observe the land around him, he noticed the how much this area had changed since planet fall, three months ago, what had once been a large open field was now a semi industrial area, with small scale droid factories dotting the area, all of which he noted could be disassembled rapidly, at least as far as deconstruction went, and have them incorporated with the planet's industrial framework.
Around Fredrick was a buzz of activity with droids working to build him a bastion to fall back on, should he need it.
"Sir," said one of the Magna Guards, " I suggest that you read the intellegence reports from the interogations of the commissar."
"Where are they?"
The droid pointed at another command bunker, this one marked with the logo of the CIS on the doors and had several battle droids manning repeating blasters stationed inside smaller bunkers around it.
"Excellent, I'll look over them."
Fredrick walked into the bunker and sat down at a computer terminal and accessed the file, a video opened he watched the interrogation.
In walked one of the Magna Guards flanked by two Super Battle droids. The commissar was sitting on a Dura steel chair bolted to the floor with her arms and legs bound to the chair with energy cuffs.
She looked at him, and her eyes were filled with loathing. She spat at his feet and straightened herself in the chair. Her sword and pistol had been taken for analysis and while the results had yet to come in, he knew that they were potent weapons.
"Commissar you are going to tell me who I am fighting, what your assets are and how any threats that might come into the system while I am here."
She stared at him incredulous, her eyes almost seemed to be asking how he didn't know what he was fighting.
"You are fighting the Imperial Guard, the planet's PDF and the god-emperor himself."
He was taken aback, god emperor, Imperial Guard, who were these people?
"Where am I?"
"You're on Kursk III, how do you not know this"
He stared at her through the red eye piece of his armor and glared, she was insulting him.
"How many are you?"
She remained silent, and he saw her eyes shift, looking past him not at him. Turning to one of his Magna guards he said, "Get the information I want, I have pressing matters to attend to."
Turning away from the cell, allowed his bodyguard to take lead of information gathering, if she co-operated than it would be quick and painless, if not he mused, it would take a longer more painful time.
Pausing outside one of the factories Fredrick turned to face it, he could see droids laboring inside it to produce the production line so a steady supply of reinforcements could be made and once that started he could bring the real hammer down upon the planet's defenders.
As his flagship the Star Hammer was modified with all the equipment to start up production of tanks and all kinds of battle droids, it had several computers dedicated to storing the schematics for the droids with several redundant systems in case of destruction by enemy fire. Overall he had not only one of the most powerful ships in the Confederate navy at his command, he had what amounted to, the ability to produce any type of replacement necessary to continue a prolonged campaign away from reinforcements, by supplying his own. On board the Star Hammer were also ship designs for most types of capital ship in the navy along with fighters and bombers and other smaller ships. Soon he would have his own Confederate navy.
A voice pulled him out of his fantasies and he turned to face B7782, the tactical droid staring at him.
"Commander Fredrick, we have received word that the enemy is withdrawing from our advance and concentrating around the capital city on this planet, given time we expect them to be aided by off world forces, due to them building large defensive lines and constructing fortifications around the city."
"So they are fortifying themselves around their heart, however due to these reports I think that we do not have sufficient numbers to mount an offensive, I speculate that we'll need an additional one hundred thousand droids to make the assault, which will delay it by two months and three days, once production starts."
"Excellent news, and what models are currently being produced by our factories?"
"Currently we are producing Super Battle Droids, Battle Droids and the OOM series, and a low rate production of the AAT. By next month we'll have Dwarf spider droids, Persuaders and Hailfire tanks."
Fredrick was surprised by how fast they were setting up an industrial base, he knew that his ship had the capability to rapidly create a manufacturing base but even this surprised him. It had been only a few months on the planet's surface yet already he had growing industrial might.
He walked over to the factory that was being used to convert the MTTs for assault purposes. Several ships were bringing down additional reinforcements and Fredrick watched the massive engines being readied for the final breakthrough.
A group of battle droids of varying types were marching out the various entrances, and he watched a large door open and an AAT move out of the factory, its armor was freshly painted with camouflage for the fields of the Kursk III. The fields and rolling hills of the planet were perfect for his armies long range cannons and as he prepared for a long final struggle, Fredrick couldn't help shake a sense of something worse over the horizon, something was edging in on his thoughts, something that promised some sort of unimaginable menace.
Shaking himself he continued observing what fruits the Star Hammer's modifications with every type of droid that he could possibly he need to take action against whatever threat loomed ahead. He had schematics for flamethrower super battle droids if bunkers need to be cleared, rocket launcher battle droids to destroy tanks, Magna Guards to lead forces of droids on the battle field and to fight off some of the better groups of soldiers who had been cropping up as of late, engaging in fast strikes around their flanks using Chimeras to quickly move around. They had destroyed several supply columns and some groups of droids were running low on ammunition and power.
He saw a modified PAC carrying eight deactivated turret droids to a storage area. They were going to be used to defend supply depots further up the front. He saw a OOM commander droid leading a large group of battle droids and super battle droids towards another PAC, these units were factory fresh and painted in camouflage for a battle along the defenses of the planet's capital.
Resistance was still strong on two other continents and a third was untouched by his armies. Right now his forces were concentrated on this one, pushing back much of the Imperial forces.
Fredrick started walking towards a communications hub when sirens started shrieking. Looking up he saw nothing, and sprinted towards it. The sounds of missiles launching and laser cannons firing at the planes who were incoming.
He didn't make it. A bomb landed in front of him, blasting the bunker's front and sending him flying several meters and into a wall, one of his legs impacted several second later. He started screaming, the vocalaizer in his armor amplifying his voice and he collapsed into the wall.
The sounds of the air raid grew quieter and the visual displays in front of him grew fainter as he slipped into shock.
A red light on his suit was flashing, he stared at it, his vision fading fast.
The bombing raid halted a few minutes later and the tactical droid B7782 walked out the doors of his bunker, four OOM commander variants following him. He saw two Magna Guards carrying what looked like a super battle droid with a third carrying what looked like its leg.
It took him a moment to compute, but when it did he realized that was the commander, one of the bombs had struck close and he was bleeding out.
"Make a call for the surgical droid." One of the OOM commander droids said.
He considered it, Fredrick's tactics while they worked had resulted in several sectors lacking replacements but one of the other droids sent a call before he could give a counter order.
"I will assume command of the ground forces while Commander Fredrick is recovering from his injuries. Deploy an infantry strike force to probe their defenses I have a theory to test while the commander recovers."
