Alpha sighed as confirmations of victory came from all deployed forces. Finally, it was finally over. It took the crusaders nearly half a dozen planet cycles to finally take over the C-158 system.
This was a pure fiasco to say the absolute least. The system was comprised of nearly three dozen planetoids, only two of which were densely populated and twice that were well defended. This was supposed to be a brutal quick assault, meant to completely crush the stretched out defense forces, who would be forced to try to defend every single planet or moon, just to deny the gems access to vanguard bases. Every move, every assault, every deployment, everything was planned and scheduled.
A brutal onslaught using the entirety of the gem fleet was supposed to erase any and all space bound vessels and orbital defenses. Then millions upon millions of obsidian gems would be deployed on the planetoids, to simply overrun the terka defenders on the objects. And if somehow any planetoid or fortress would be able to hold out, any possible forces would be rerouted to finish the siege quickly. To drown the enemy in gem shards, if needed…
Everything was prepared for a swift, if brutal victory. But after the first assault began, every plan and every preparation started spectacularly failing…
Firstly the gem battleship failed to defeat the terka fleet as there was a far greater concentration of vessels capable of engaging in space than was expected and due to this several small craft escaped, and were able to call for reinforcements, even as interstellar communication was cut off. This meant that complete domination of space was impossible due to the fact that terka sent massive amounts of combat capable vessels to the system. And while the crusader fleet could have overwhelmed the reinforcing fleet, they would have lost too many ships, not to mention the gem casualties.
And so, the space battle turned into a set of long and complex engagements as both sides were afraid to lose valuable ships and so most of the battles were based on outmaneuvering and cutting of the enemy, which was close to impossible in the vastness of space. But after some time, terka fleets were pushed back and were unable to fully prevent gems for deploying upon the planetoids, though they were able to force the crusading forces to land far from any important facilities or cities. Reaching those targets took huge amounts of time.
Given time Terka fortified their cities and prepared to defend them. And with constant reinforcements and supply drops, they could possibly continue on doing this forever. Quick warfare ended, Alpha planned, ended before it began. A brutal grind started. A grind where every step was paid for with shattered gems. A grind without any meaning, without any progress…
A new set of strategies were devised, to change this stagnant war, mostly by the initiative of Omega and Delta. The Prime obsidian had initiated the creation of an aerial force after encountering huge amounts of aerial support for the ground forces. She stated that if the crusade was to succeed, these were needed to be countered. And so the "Lazuli" corps were created, comprised of lapis lazuli gems trained by Star and armed with lighter versions of the same rifles that sharded used.
Omega on the other hand, had devised a new main battle doctrine. The main principle of it was based the idea that the enemy needed rest, but gems didn't. This was a well-known fact beforehand, but the silver obsidian looked at the fact from a different angle.
The constant assaults upon terka positions were stopped and gem soldiers were drawn back. And then the unending bombardment by artillery, supported by constant small arms fire would begin. This would continue up until the enemy was unable to fight back anymore, or everything in the vicinity was turned into ruble, then the gems would advance and take up new positions. Then, the process would be repeated again and again. This would continue until the terka couldn't simply defend anymore. Then every member of the organic race who had survived up until that point would be exterminated and the city would be declared as taken.
A unique strategy, to say the absolute least, but quite fitting the mindset of its creator.
And with these reforms and innovations, the gems started pushing back the terka armies. Planet after planet fell under the brutal march of victorious crusaders. Any tries to break through were encircled and slaughtered by the sharded. Any aerial support or escape was hunted down by the lazuli gems.
Victory was achieved…
But Alpha despised such a victory.
She was a pragmatic gem, not limited by the traditional mindset of the homeworld. She wouldn't have suggested that lapis gems should be conscripted if she wasn't. But still, this felt wrong. It felt fake, unnatural. It was a victory, but it felt like a defeat. It felt like giving up. It didn't give any satisfaction…
Her soldiers felt similarly, she knew that. Her lieutenants and generals kept warning her that obsidians and other soldier gems under their control were on the line of rebellion. They hated having to sit in the trenches just protecting the artillery pieces while the enemy was pounded into ruble. They hated the slow advances and building of fortifications. They hated the fact that some terraformers were the ones doing most of the fighting, while they were sitting in their positions. The novelty of ballistic weapons and firing formations had long ago worn of, and now the gems craved for melee again.
And Alpha completely understood them. She had seen the blueprints for her soldiers. Obsidians were quite the unique type of gem. They were the only type of gem to be harvested on volcanic worlds, not to mention the only soldier gem with an incubation time of a century. But even with such a short incubation time, obsidians were as strong as quartzes.
In other words, obsidians were perfect foot soldiers. But there was a problem with that. They didn't want to be foot soldiers. They were created not like rubies, who would be satisfied by just participating in battle. They were created, and to some extent based on quartzes. And so they wished for true battle, for a challenge… They were created to be aggressive, as it was needed to fulfill their purpose. But lacking the outlet for their aggression they would become more and more aggressive until they would inevitably start attacking their own comrades. Friendly brawls wouldn't help anymore.
Alpha just hoped that the soldiers respect, and to a bigger extent their fear of Omega and the sharded would keep them at bay, until a solution is found.