Las-gun shots fell all around the droids as they began taking positions in the trenches. Much of the Imperial guard was falling back to the third line of defense and if orbital recon was reliable than he knew that there were many more lines of defense.
The tanks were retreating and a path was opening in enemy lines. Fredrick had not trusted this believing that the enemy was attempting to lure his army into a trap and held his position. The enemy defenses ahead were immensely formidable, one just to look at them, they spanned the valley between mountains and up there slopes, trenches and minefields spanned their surface and bunkers protruded from mountain defenses and artillery positions were poised to hammer any assault upon them.
"B7782, I need more droids here, I want the HAGs to resume firing but adjust it to strike at the third defensive line. We must break through these lines within the week or other forces on this planet will rally to the capital's need and outflank the main body of our forces. "
"Commander I have rerouted the cargo of an entire Munificent to this operation, data shows that if this target can be taken than the rest of the planet will fall shortly, and thus total victory."
Imperial Guardsmen and PDF soldiers conscripted from the local populace were bringing up emplacement weapons and otherwise adding to the daunting task laid before him.
"Gather the B3s and a few hundred B2s into an assault formation behind a wall formation of Persuader tanks, have Hailfire tanks ready to offer fire support, and have MTTs as the front row. I want the B1s to open fire into the enemy with volume and density of shot in mind, than deploy the assault column to charge under the cover of this storm of fire."
"Yes sir," B7782 said and began relaying orders to the various droid commanders scattered throughout the army.
Fredrick looked at the holographic display of the battlefield, it was focused on this area of the front, and at the far edge of the screen he could see another large defensive line, this one even more formidable.
The droids occupied the defenses of the second line and they had filled them with mechanical bodies ready to charge the moment the order was given. Fredrick could see the Super Battle droids getting into formation behind the B3 Ultra battle droids.
He knew he would lose several in the initial charge and unlike every other droid in the army they were irreplaceable due to the sheer cost in making them. He had felt the loss heavily when fifty were destroyed aboard the Secession along with the rest of the battleship's contents.
A pair of his Magna Guards stood behind him, blood staining several of their armor plates. They had been involved in heavy fighting, they had rallied the droids around themselves and taken several of the strongest bunkers in this line.
"Sir, the enemy is settling into his positions, we have determined that these were only here to slow our advance and test our strength. The real battles will be in the third through fifth layers of defense."
"Then why deploy the Bane Blade in such a fashion, I thought that they valued such machines immensely?"
"That I do not know. I think that they believed that the tank wouldn't be destroyed so easily by the HATs."
The burst from a massive cannon shook the ground.
"What was that?" Shouted Fredrick as a klaxon began blaring through the bunker.
"An artillery shell of immense caliber, probably brought to bear against us to halt or at least slow our advance."
Fredrick looked out a viewing port and saw the massive shell crater twenty feet across. It has collapsed the walls of the trenches around it, exposing the droids inside them.
The lesser Earth shaker cannons began firing and a stream of artillery shell started slamming into the droid's positions.
"We'll need to get the droids close enough to their lines that such a cannon would destroy their own troops if it tried to engage us" said Fredrick surveying the blast crater.
Turning to face the tactical droid Fredrick raised his cannon arm in a salute, saying
"Ready the assault, I will lead it personally, ready my bodyguards."
The tactical droid blinked and Fredrick could tell by the inward look of its photoreceptors that it was busy sending the signals to the rest Magna Guards.
B7782 raised himself up to speak into a speaker projecting binary into the speaker to prevent the Imperial guard from being to understand the message.
Fredrick raised his arm cannon and fired off a burst into the air. The B1s began firing into the general direction of the enemy defenses. Only three hundred meters separated him and the enemy defenders, it would be the longest stretch of his life even longer than when he lead a similar charge into Republic lines during the battle of Krant when he had led to a charge of B2s to halt the advance of Echuu Shen-Jon.
He had personally defeated a number of clones and had nearly saved his commanding officer Sev'rance Tann from the Jedi but had failed in the endeavor. He ran towards the assault column and grabbed onto a Persuader.
"Intercom, general frequency" he set the audio device to.
"Forward soldiers of the Confederacy, today we strike down the last bastions of resistance our foes can throw into us, charge!"
The tanks surged out the trench the front row firing their repeating blasters and concussion missiles into the enemy fortifications. Behind the tanks Super Battle droids and Ultra Battle Droids charged.
Repeating blasters and the blaster rifles of the battle droids formed a massive suppressive barrage. Imperial small arms fire was nonexistent and the larger weapons such as las and auto cannons had not started firing as their crews were being shot by snipers and if not suppressed in the general fire from the droids.
Except for a few guns in the front of the column, at first it was the bark of a single auto cannon, than a voice shouted something and a torrent of enemy fire welled up and exploded across the stretch.
The MTTs easily withstood las cannon fire and their cannons blasted short ramps into the trenches. Their large brown hulls scored by auto cannon fire and having several carbon stains from las cannons were holding up against the enemy fire.
In moments they had crossed no man's land and the massive frontal hatches opened and over four hundred battle droids charged into the trenches lead by forty Destroyer Droids.
The Persuaders followed shortly after and they surged around the MTTs like a tidal wave breaking around a boulder. The Ultra and Super Battle droids charged into the trenches with the B3s laying down torrents of fire.
Fredrick jumped off the tank and landed in the trench it had just driven over. He raised his blaster cannons and strafed the trench, catching several Imperial Guardsmen who were running from the droid advance.
A small map was forming on the HUD in his eye piece as the droids started to flood the trench network.
"B7782 this is Fredrick send the rest in, I am ordering the redeployment of all non-committed assets to this battle, the full force of our navy is to be deployed on the center of this shield. I don't care if there is collateral damage, just bring it down."
"Understood commander."
A full flight of HMPs swooped low over the battle field firing full volleys of concussion rockets into the enemy.
Large pieces of dirt fell around Fredrick from the blasts as they cleared out the bunkers that had been targeted. The screams of the wounded and the dying had begun, only to be drowned out by the stamp of the metal boots of thousands of droids charging forward in locked step.
It was a psychological weapon as much a physical, the massive bulk of the droid army moving in perfect synchrony.
Hailfire strikes and artillery bombardment began picking up in response to the PDF cannons and a medium turbo laser strike reduced a nearby bunker to slag.
A blow from behind registered when something slammed into his armor. Turning he saw a sergeant stumbling back, his chain sword spitting broken teeth.
Fredrick raised his blaster cannon and fired at the mass of infantry as two of his Magna Guards dropped into the trench behind them, their Electro-staffs easily dispatching the PDF soldiers.
He picked up the Sergeant by the throat and slowly crushed his windpipe with a squeeze of his gauntlet saying.
"It must burn to know that your death means nothing, another futile attempt to stave off the inevitable."
Letting the soldier drop from his grasp, dead on the ground, he pivoted and walked towards the bunker line.
A heavy bolter began firing and he saw a small bunker ahead with multiple heavy bolters sticking out of it. One was firing at him and explosions shot small clumps of earth into the air. One of the Magna Guards raised a Bulldog rocket launcher and shot the heavy bolter.
"Terminated" the droid said flatly.
The Heavy bolter had been disabled and the trooper likely killed from the blast. They proceeded quickly not wanting to test this theory.
A group of PDF troopers ran into their trench, there backs to them as they fired at unseen droids. Suddenly a jet of flame engulfed them and Fredrick could see them writhing on the ground in the flames. A B2 flamer stood over the corpses backed by a squad of regular B2s. They paused to let Fredrick pass, the color of his armor and tint of his photoreceptor identifying him.
In front of them was a bunker, this one was multileveled and untouched by the artillery bombardment. It had a Las-cannon on the roof and the lower sections were full of Guardsmen firing streaming las gun fire onto the onrushing army.
Heavy bolters stuck out of holes in the wall and Fredrick saw them scythe down a wave of droids. He ran up the trench line towards the Bastion and saw a solid wall in front of him with no entry points.
Except for the metal frame on the outside of the structure, it was narrow but short and with a few steps he could climb it.
"This is Commander Fredrick all nearby units halt your fire on the fortification near my location, I am taking it."
He starting running placing his now magnetized boot on the metal and pushing upwards his steps carrying him up the bunker walls. He dived into the massed Guardsmen, knocking several to the ground. Raising his blaster he began firing indiscriminately.
Several got the bright idea to try to bludgeon him down with their rifles.
He bull rushed one of the Guardsmen and lifting him over his head hurled the screaming soldier into his comrades. Punching another in the face he flattened his nose and broke his jaw bone. The rest he killed with a burst of blaster cannon fire.
"More potent than any Clone Army at this size but no tougher for it" observed Fredrick as he executed the guardsmen whom he had punched.
A door next to him was unlatched and he entered the bastion.
A ladder was to his right and in front of him were three PDF troopers manning the Heavy bolters with three other troopers keeping the ammunition flowing.
The door slamming behind him and the stamp of his heavy boots, alerted one of the ammo carriers who drew a las pistol out and shot him.
"I am not a B1 who could be dispatched by such a weapon" Fredrick remarked as the PDF trooper ineffectually spent his battery pack barely harming his armor.
He raised his blaster cannon arm, "This is a weapon I might be frightened by."
He fired, the blaster sending the man sprawling, a burning hole in his chest.
The other members of the garrison drew their weapons, several more las pistols and a pair of las guns.
"So who wants to die first?"
The soldiers responded by all shooting at him.
The flashes of light were temporarily blinding as he stumbled back, his retreat halted by the wall of the bunker. Shielding his eye piece with one arm, he used the other to draw out a thermal detonator.
His finger found the slot and his suit interfaced with the grenade's internal mechanisms. He set it for one point five meters area of effect and tossed it. The resulting blast incinerated three of the soldiers and badly burned the other three.
Lowering his arm, Fredrick put down the three soldiers who still clung to life and clambered up the ladder, tossing another thermal detonator up the ladder for good measure.
Emerging on top of the bunker he found the las cannon unmanned and two dead bodies.
He walked over to the cannon and looked at the controls. His hand would not fit into the trigger well due to the armor plating.
The fourth and after it the final lines of resistance were roughly two thousand meters away, and he could see tanks rumbling around, soldiers of the PDF and Imperial Guard moving into bunker s and trenches.
However far beyond that he could see a storm of flashes, immense in size. HK-217 was doing as asked and if those shots started to penetrate the shield than he could expect a swift victory.
Than his suit made a noise and on the HUD flashed "Power at twenty percent and falling."
Looking over the wall again he saw that there were still roughly one hundred meters left of this line before they hit the next kill zone. What worried him was how easy this one had been to take.
A message appeared on his HUD, from the Star Hammer.
"Yes, have you broken the shield?"
"Fredrick, you need to withdraw from that battle line, an enemy fleet has arrived and are moving to reinforce the defenders."
"What I thought you repulsed the last one that came through what makes this one different?"
"This one is not large enough to completely destroy us, but if either side engaged, they would take too many losses to warrant such an action. Observations also show that these are not the same ships that I rendered inoperable but of a different function. Several are troop carriers and I can predict that you will have to contend with losing aerial supremacy to them."
"Excellent, more enemies for my army to crush, do you know the nature of them."
"Negative, nor would it be a well based estimate to assume that this force would be weak or an idle threat. This is compounded by the fact that they will be able to prevent an orbital strike with their presence as if we were to engage a surface target, my vessels would be subjected to substantive damage due to concentrating offensive output into the planet and not the enemy ships, which as my previous statements would be impossible to remove without extreme risk."
"Then move into geostationary orbit over the primary landing site and over the factories, to ensure that the flow of droids and material remains uninterrupted."
"Yes commander," with that, the transmission ended and Fredrick's view screen changed back to his immediate surroundings.
"B7782, send me a HMP fitted to drop B2s, I need a quick transport back to our operational command post."
The response was a few minutes delayed," Yes Commander."
The Magna Guards that formed his personal bodyguard had by then clambered atop the bunker.
A HMP dropped from the sky its hull pock marked by anti-aircraft fire and its hold empty of its combat load. The Manga Guards clambered into the harnesses which despite being made to hold the heavier Super Battle Droids, held them. Fredrick on the other hand had trouble as the harness were no wide enough to fit his armored suit into and had to partially opened to allow him access.
The gunship took off, its ascent was rapid and it flew away from the battlefield passing over broken defensive lines and fortifications.
A squadron of C-9979s had just settled down from either the Star Hammer or the Confederate. Out of them came MTTs and behind them AATs.
The gunship hovered above the front of the command post where B7782 was located directing the battle via remote instructions to the various OOM commander droids.
Dropping from the gunship Fredrick walked through the doors followed by four Magna guards.
Inside he found B7782 with various attendant OOM commander droids and a few technicians relaying his orders to the front.
"I trust you are aware of the situation in orbit?" Asked Fredrick as B7782 looked up to acknowledge him.
"Yes I am, and I have other news. We have detected drop pods being launched from orbit and various small ships departing from six troop carriers. My counterpart, HK-217 has given the negative on engagement but he does have the capability to deny them orbital support beyond reinforcements."
"How are our factories outputs, I trust that they are reaching the thousands per week now?"
"Yes they have reached a combined output of six thousand four hundred and eighty six droids per week, the bulk of these being the basic B2 and B2 droids. They lack the capacity to construct the more advance droids in greater numbers and the B3 and destroyer Droid models are beyond their current industrial capacity."
"I see, and I'd like to know your opinions on the outcome of this war. It has been protected and while I believe that we do hold the upper hand, even with these space borne reinforcements."
"I calculate that if these are Imperial Guard than we will be able to defeat them as we have defeated their comrades, however if you had read the report I had sent you, you'd find that they are not the only military force in the Imperium, they could be Space Marines which even taking into account exaggeration by the turncoats a force consisting of approximately fifty to one hundred would be sufficient to defeat the force you have at your disposal."
"Let's hope they're not Space Marines."
"From our orbital assets observations they are not Space Marine vessels however they are not the ones that tried to liberate the planet before, these are of an entirely different design."
"How are the repairs to the orbital fleet gone?"
"Thanks to repair stations deployed on the docks three months, the Star Hammer and six of the twelve damaged frigates have been restored to fully operational status, with the confederate and the others being repaired as we speak."
"Excellent, I shall bring in the reinforcements to the front line to push towards the hive and end the planetary resistance, and begin our outward expansion."
"We have over twelve thousand factory made droids ready to be mobilized at your command, and in approximately a month, the factories will able to manufacture the more advanced droids."
"What is the status of the expansions to the orbital docks to facilitate the scavenging and forging new vessels from the wreckage left by the orbital battle?"
"It is not on schedule and HK-217 had it put on hold in favor of repairing the current fleet, we simply don't have the resources to both at once, alongside the demands of the ground conflict."
"I see, and I have something of my own to add, the third line of resistance was easier than the first, which renders our thoughts of increasingly potent barriers as we encroach on the heart, flawed. I think that those orbital reinforcements will be dropping on top of our forces as well in the main body of enemy army."
A burst of comms traffic drew their attention to a speaker on the wall. A small light to the side of it was flashing and the robotic voice of an OOM commander droid was rapidly becoming louder.
"…This is OOM-14, the enemy has landed among our army and groups of heavily armored and armed elite troops are creating bridgeheads, the main body of the enemy is launching a counter attack, I require artillery support and reinforcements if you wish to hold this position."
"Scramble an attack wing of HMPs, with twelve loaded for bear with B2s, my guards and I will embarked on one. Give the authorization for full speed."
"Yes commander Fredrick," said B7782 as he delegated tasks to his attendant droids.
Fredrick and his body guard left the command post and walked towards the airfield where B2s were gathering and being picked up by HMP gunships.
One was waiting towards the edge of the field with only fifteen of the normal twenty B2s waiting by it.
Fredrick had reached it and was watching the gunship lower the clamps that would secure him, his body guard and the other droids to its hull.
Once secured the gunships began lifting themselves up off the ground and the roar of their engines filled Fredrick's ears as they surged towards the battle.
They reached it in minutes, the gunships going briefly supersonic to get there.
Looking down Fredrick saw the battlefield below, it was filled with explosions and the light of flame throwers, which due to the night, were immensely bright.
"Drop us by that cluster of flame throwers I want to see these new enemies, up close and personal."
The gunship made a sweeping drop out of the formation and dropped towards the cluster of fire.
The clamps dropped them two meters above the ground and Fredrick landed with a thud, engaging the night vision of his suit to navigate in the dark.
Approaching him were several B1 battle droids.
"Commander Fredrick they're over there," said the OOM engineer in charge of this unit, pointing a distance to the left.
"Follow me; we'll meet them head on."
Fredrick ran towards the sight of a flamer, followed closely by the Magna Guards and the B2-HA that commanded the unit of Super Battle Droids.
"For the Emperor, by his divine light we may strike down these blasphemous machines!" shouted a female voice over the sounds of battle.
The B2-HA raised its arm and pointed it at the source of the noise and Fredrick could see it charging."
"Preparing to terminate, all droids near my position lay down fire for the Commander." It said as it fire its heavy blaster, its shoulder recoiling from the back blast.
Fredrick charged, a mechanical war cry escaping his vocabulary.
A white haired woman in some sort of powered armor was the first enemy he ran into not the guardsman or PDF trooper he expected.
She raised a weapon that resembled a heavy bolter if much smaller, which he reasoned must be a bolter. It barked and he saw one of the b2s next to him have its torso split by small explosions.
He raised his laser cannon and fired it rushing her in order to minimize her opportunity to shoot him. One of the Magna Guards had pulled out it's bulldog rocket launcher and was firing it at something else, but Fredrick was unconcerned as he attempted to crush this new threat.
She was too slow and he slammed into her with enough force to send her sprawling and was himself tripped by her legs. Landing in a tumble he knocked the bolter out of her hands and threw a punch at her face, in an attempt to end the fight there.
She rolled to the side and slammed a fist into him, knocking him to the side.
Drawing a combat knife she charged him, intending to slam it through his breast plate.
He had seen this armor stand up to light saber strikes before and yet he felt that it would better to not let her land that blow, using a punch to the elbow to block her attack.
He grabbed her by the shoulder and slammed his head plate into her face, and felt something break, and slammed his armor into her face a few more times to be sure and dropped her.
Her face was bloody ruin, her nose crushed into her skull and blood poured forth from her mouth.
The sounds of battle returned to him and he looked around, finding several more of these warriors around him, fighting off his droids handily, where an Imperial guard squad or platoon would have been overwhelmed.
He started firing at the closest one, her sisters around her, however caught onto this and turned their bolters onto Fredrick, who would have been pulped by them, had it not been for his Magna Guards.
One beat down a sister with his electro staff, another shot one in the chest with a rocket, killing her instantly. The other two cut off these new threats from him, and he advance unheeding of the blasts all around him. This time however one ran up to meet him, brandishing a chainsword.
She raised something that resembled a captured plasma gun in pistol form and fired. It missed his head by inches as she stepped onto the destroyed torso of a super battle droid. He fired his laser cannon and didn't miss. Four blasts from it sent her reeling, and giving him enough time to walk over and attempt to deliver an execution style shot through the face with his laser cannon but as he attempted to do this, she kicked his leg, knocking out from beneath him.
She slashed at him with her chainsword, but its teeth failed to cut into his reinforce plating and skated across it.
"That would have worked if I was a Droid, but fortunately for me, I am not."
She raised her plasma pistol and fired, this time she hit him. The shot which had he been in any other type of armor, would have burned a hole in his chest, but it dissipated on the Cortosis plating.
"I see that even the potent plasma weaponry has trouble with Cortosis."
"Sisters help me smite this heretical abomination, and send his army crawling back to whatever hole it burst forth from."
"I assure you the majority of these droids were manufactured above ground," laughed Fredrick as he continued to grapple with the Sister.
He grabbed one her legs and used his other hand to lift her up off the ground, his suit's servo's protesting quietly in his audio link. He slammed her onto his leg and felt her something snap.
"Resistance must be terminated, I have come to obliterate you," said a deep voice."
Turning to face it, Fredrick saw the hulking form of a B3 ultra battle droid appear amid the smoke and dark of the night.
It fired its plasma cannon and vaporized several of the remaining sisters.
The four remaining began withdrawing firing at the B3, but only got surface detonations which only scratched the paint for their trouble.
"I predict a casualty rate of over fifty percent commander," said the B3.
"Then we'll have to ensure our enemy suffers a far greater one in return."
He could hear the rumbling of treads as an armored vehicle approached and could tell instantly that it was not friendly when a storm bolter began firing its bolters at his hodgepodge group of droids and another group of these "sisters" charged him.
