"Occupation is perhaps the most challenging part of warfare, even more, difficult than taking control of a world itself. An occupying force must be able to take control of the hearts and minds of the beings in a particular world and therefore get the planet to not become bogged down in a guerrilla war with people who do not like the occupying regime. Before the empire had come many countries had learned this lesson, even some that did not exist anymore. The United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and the list of both chef or failed occupations runs far and wide. To successfully occupy a country one must win over the hearts and minds of its people and prevent them from rebelling not through force of arms but through kindness and compassion. This is why an army has civil affairs officers."

William Johnson in one of his books, So you want to Conquer the Galaxy? This book sold quite a few copies on the civilian market and then became required reading for Earth's officer cadets in postwar

Chapter 20: How to deal with the land you conquered

The world of Opus V was a small planet in the system of the same name and sector. It was fairly unremarkable except for the large mineral deposits in its crusts, which made it a target for the Empire. Its resources had been extracted without its consent by the Empire and its population was forced into what was slavery by any other name, repressed by a military dictatorship like so many others. This had initially sparked open resistance, but when the Empire initiated a brutal crackdown the movement had gone underground and fought a low-level insurgency that slowly eroded the Imperial strength.

Earth sent a small force of its special forces to the planet to make contact with the resistance. They had done so successfully and helped orca state an uprising when Earth had attacked the system. The uprising had caused significant damage to the Imperial defenders who as expected were beaten in space. This tied them down and allowed Earth to make several landings on the world.

During the brief ground war, they had been useful auxiliaries who had fought well with their Earth counterparts, despite their ragtag nature.

Now the invasion was over and the fate of the world was now in the hands of a planet far away led by people who had only recently achieved large-scale space flight. Most of the officers and troops in the invasion hadn't known about the empire or the wider galaxy until the empire had first attacked almost two years ago.

Admiral Billy Carter looked out one of the few windows of the UNS Missouri, the Revenge Class Battleship that served as his flagship. Two years ago he hadn't imagined being in command of a spaceship and was looking forward to an easy retirement after serving in command of a nuclear-powered supercarrier in the US Navy. But only months before that was to happen the empire had attacked and he had learned of the wider galaxy. As an Admiral and a senior one at that, he had learned the ways of war within the wider galaxy and was given a commission in the UN fleet, gaining command of a battlegroup.

He was one of the members of the top brass within the world's navies which had ended up at the top of Earth's fleet, which wasn't the case for everyone. Some had voluntarily decided to stay away from the orbital fleet and retire or remain in the remaining hulk that was the various waterborne navies of the world. Others simply hadn't been wanted as they were seen as too old and inflexible.

Or that they were taking orders from a man in his 20s. No one within the upper officer corps of the fleet disliked William Johnson, it was clear that he was a commander with unnatural abilities and selflessness in his actions. The issue is the fact he was in such a senior position at such a young age when these other officers had so much experience. However, as Johnson pointed out none of them had experience fighting in the vacuum of space, and he had plenty of that. He had also asked if they could point out tactical decisions that he could have made that were better than the ones he had ended up making but they had also had few of those.

Johnson also had the support of Secretary-General Pierre and while he didn't interact with the general public much he was also well respected there. So the officers that opposed him understood why he was in power, and while they all didn't like it they eventually admitted it could be a lot worse.

He had also layed down certain rules related to how the fleet would operate. He was willing to overlook the personal matters of a soldier or officer if they were performing their duties well. For example, he was permissive of relationships between people in positions that generally would not be allowed in other militaries (perhaps because he was in one). He had fought for better pay for his men and women as well, wanting them to be able to not have to worry about their financial situation after the war and helping to compensate that an increasing number of them would be conscripted and he was widely popular within the fleet for that.

Carter had initially been skeptical of Johnson due to his aforementioned youth and inexperience but had gradually warmed up to the idea of him in command. Now they had a good professional relationship and Johnson gave him a lot of autonomy in his operations, which was why he was here today instead of someone else.

He sighed. He now had to help sort out the world that Earth now controlled. He would need to appease the local population and leaders while also extracting as many resources for the war effort as possible. That would be a difficult balance to keep as he would need to appease both sides and he had little experience in resourcing a situation such as this. In the several worlds, he had been presiding over the conquering of other officers had dealt with the details of Earth's control over the world, and generally been successful.

"You think this is going to go well? General Morris Tolston asked. The Frenchman had once also been a part of his country's military before being offered a position here in the UN's military.

"I hope so. It will be your forces who are off overseeing the occupation of course."

"If there even is one."

"I'm pretty sure there will be one in some form, though occupation may not correctly describe it. That would imply that the locals were defeated, not the empire."

It was good timing that he furnished what he was saying then.

Looperson Villa, a former imperial mining manager and now the leader of the local resistance to the Empire, was led into the room by two marines.

"Greetings General Villa." They both said. "It's good to finally meet you." They both shook his hand.

"Thank you for having me, admiral, general." The revolutionary replied. "And it is good to have the empire off of Opus."

"Indeed."

"So what do you intend to do with the world?"

"That is for its people to decide," Carter said. He was confident that he had support from the local population who heavily resented the Empire. The troops that had landed had been welcomed as liberators and given flour, food, and kisses by the local population. Additionally, large amounts of aid had been given to them by the fleet, including food and medical supplies.

"But what I would like to see happen would be that Earth helps the world rebuild from what the Empire did to it and use the resources from it to help fuel its war effort which would keep the empire from retaking the planet. Additionally, they would be able to accept recruitment from the people of this planet and integrate the local resistance force into the UN army. For example, you would become a general and serve with many of your same men and would help oversee this world or even invade others if you so chose." He said.

"That is a reasonable proposition as far as I'm concerned," Villa said. "I hope that the people agree as well, but I will help convince them."

"I don't think they need that much convincing." General Tolston said. "They've been pretty damn receptive to us so far."

"I just hope that that doesn't change anytime soon," Carter said.