Chapter six War to the Knife!, Knife to the Hilt!

"we had been HAD, Ridgemont and Forna were gaming us from the start.  The two that caused the most damage would get the most reward.  There is no Karma in the Universe!!!-Alesia Nonahsdottir

Task force Bulldog seems to be able to strike at will against the insectoids.  Perhaps Precentor Martial Focht and Field Marshal Davion should provide 'our' foes with a bit more leniency and compassion-Conservative MP

Week two Invader class Jumpship La Crosse

Kommandt Treece Jackson DMI-6 was getting the latest ESM from the Insectoid's planetary defenses, his three Rabid Foxes teams already had a good idea of what to do.  They would take out the listening posts and far space defenses as Teams from Col. Brahe Merc/spec-ops task force would handle intermediate and short range, and the taskforces conventional regiments would hold while Dr. Banzai's chemicals weapons were unleashed into the atmosphere followed by the pushing of large mass and diameter asteroids into the planet.

Treece smiled they already had generation one of the new 'insecticide' as rifle rounds.  Some Phenol groups, a hydroxide there, an ether, the mustard derivative would 'blister' the insectoid's chitin, the sarin derivative would seep into the wound and kill them like a can of Raid.  Its effects on Mammals were minimized but the combination was still fatal in small dosages so, everyone was told it was the most dangerous stuff, better safe then dead...

Kommandt Treece's shuttle was ebon black, each of Treece's three teams had a shuttle identical to his.  Each being coated in reflective material, be it radar, light, sonic, pulse their drop shuttle at worst had a cross-section of a motorcycle.  It was utilitarian and spartan on the inside, room for their rifles, machine guns, four slots for their Infiltrator Mk. II battle armor, everything had been labeled and meticulously stacked and organized.  Each seat in the 32 man shuttle was just as well ordered from the pilot, co-pilot, comms officer, medical, and the 28 person platoon.  Four combat squads, 1 sniper, 1 Battle armored scout, 2 rifle-grenadiers, 2 machine gunners (1 light for offensive, 1 medium for support and defense) and their squad leader with carbine and comms packet.  All in basic NBC/EVA gear as standard, this protective outerwear being made more important after the Solution that the Drs. Banzai had come up with to 'neutralize' 60 to 80' tall Insects.

Their drop shuttle was ready, each team knew their target, their pheromone blockers with stealth would get them there, then within 4 to 8 hours a hole would appear in the insectoid's sensor web, and all hell would come down around them, their frontier defenses would have a gaping hole if all went roughly as planned and Bulldog would run right through.  Likely four trillion Insectoids of all kinds, how many if any would be left at the end Jackson didn't care, he was an orphan trained by the state, his state had been good to him and his family, his two kids have made to their teenage years having a loving mom and dad, anything that he and his teams could do to ensure the humans here, and that included the huge arrogant ones as well had peace and more loving homes the Kommandt was willing to do.  The music started as they boarded "I stood stone-like at midnight suspended in my masquerade and I combed my hair till was just right and commanded the Night Brigade"  Springsteen's anti-establishment growing up, a perfect send-off for the innovative malcontents of DMI-6, they all think to themselves "for the Federated Commonwealth, Long Live Archon-Prince Victor!" as they prepare for their jump.

Jump point east wind

DEST Commander Sho-Sa Kagome Higurashi, pondered for the billionth time why her parents named her after a late 20th century (western calendar) anime character, she supposed it could have been worse her last name could be Kaname in which her haired would be dyed pink and she would be given a 'bow' she already had a very nice longbow as a 'Shinto Priestess' of her 'standing' should.  Her parents loved her and that was enough for Kagome, she was now the 'mother' of sixty of her nation's best special forces operators.  Many wondered out loud what Omiko saw in Victor.  Most understood that the 'Yellow Bird' was an honorable warrior, and committed ally and a worthy friend, but to tie the dragon's daughter to its natural enemy regardless of how good and honorable that enemy was seemed foolish.  They would, of course, keep their opinions to themselves, they were not the Black Dragon Society, whom Omi loved was up to her and her family, and if Victor wasn't the Yellow Bird he would make a fine mate, Kagome thought so.

Most of her operators, they were so much more than mere soldiers or even mech warriors, had been orphaned at a young age, sharing that with both the Federated Commonwealth Special Forces of Loki and Rabid Foxes.  They were completely indoctrinated to the state as Loki was, but had freedom of operation closer to the old Federated Suns Rabid foxes.  What made them better then both of her allies spec ops teams was the Combine culture, all of her 'children' were not only skilled in warfare, but poetry, gardening, their experiences and drive to perfect them outside of day jobs gave them a perspective that the culture that raised those  poor Fedrats could never match...

DEST too had received Dr. Banzai's new ammunition, their plans were a bit simpler then DMI-6's.  Lord Kurita had provided a number of 'suitcase' nukes, they would fight their way, place, extract and explode.  Then the war would start in earnest, with glory and honor to be had by all even the honorable Gaijan of the Federated Commonwealth, but with the most of it going to the sons and daughters of the Dragon.

Her irreverent team members load onto their drop shuttles as Federated Suns brethren music plays.  Sho-Sa Higurashi winces as it is Do-as-infinity's "My Will" with her team chuckling and gently mocking her.  She smiles and endures, the real war starts now and perhaps the Innersphere needed a sacred priestess to help them win.

Jump point Valhalla

Kommandt Mark Von Hap of Loki looked at the target.  The Lyran Intelligence Corps was one of the few places were there no 'social generals' and though a fair minority felt a greater loyalty to Victor's sister Katherine they were all committed to the Federated Commonwealth.  The New Avalon Institute of Science personified in Dr. Banzai had come through again.  They had literally the ammunition they needed to carry out this mission.

As with his comrade Kommandt Treece he has 84 operators ready to start this war against the Insectoids.  Thankfully the 'war' between the pro-Victor element of his team and the pro-commonwealth was muted.  Most of it dealt with the fear that Skye, and what's left of Tamar would be sold to the Dragon.  A good 20 of his members including himself worried about the bride price he would pay for Omi Kurita.  They respected Victor, he was as brave as any Steiner, but he had chosen a woman that they couldn't quite trust.  It didn't help that his Davion side was becoming more pronounced as he grew.  All in all, they had a mission to conclude and it was a worthy one.  The minority would hope they would be listened to and that their worlds would stay within the Commonwealth.  Now they had a mission to accomplish and lives to save... 

Their plan like their Fedcom brethren the Rabid Foxes was to take out the outer sensor net and defenses.  They like DEST had nukes, so the overall path was between the over the top overkill of DEST and the overly understated rabid foxes, Von Hap liked the middle ground he was plying and his three teams loaded up to Meat Loaf's "I would lie for you and that's the truth" was playing in the background, that and of course Nordic drums...

DMI-6 assault point Baker six

Kommandt Jackson had to see to believe, one 5.56mm round laced with the mustard/sarin was dropping insects the size of small buildings.  He had known how dangerous chemical weapons were but he figured massed fires would be needed, that it would just be a bit of enhancement.  When his team sniper hit a warrior center mass, the 12.7mm round didn't quite make it all the through, it didn't have to, in seconds the mustard derivative blistered what little chitin was left and the sarin derivative finished the job, in under 10 seconds the massive warrior was convulsing, in 15 it was dead, the only difference between the larger rounds and standard ammo was instead of 15 seconds to kill, with standard it took nearly 20.  The only negative was the rounds still had some effect on mammals, the antidote was very effective, but even skilled operators can get cocky when they have what they believe is a silver bullet and man oh man this was close.

SGT Hobson was keeping up his seven to nine round bursts from his Federated 7.62mm medium machine gun, a descendant of the Browning M1919 Hobson aimed his rounds into the four to six Insectoid groupings the defenders seemed to prefer, to his count 40 of those building-sized roaches had died at his hands, well at the Sarin laced 7.62mm rounds, watching them twitch like that, oh god it never got old.  As Sergeants Smith and Jones pop 40mm grenades into their assembly areas, Treece in his Infiltrator Mk. II was laying satchel charge after satchel charge on the Insectoids sensor network.  CPL Higgins with LMG a variant of the venerable SAW M249 kept the attention away from his commander as he reached 30 kills himself.  Higgins, Smith, and Jones were moving from rock, outcropping, depression, hill taking cover as they could as they to set charges on ambush sites they knew the bugs had to go through and equipment that they could destroy.  The insectoids having lost 100,000s of fighters didn't have many in reserve, three Mk. 209 light fighters on a short runway were taken down by six 2.2 kilogram charges each operator using two in a single redundancy pattern of two charges per fighter.  Their platoon had maybe five minutes until their part of the mission was accomplished, they just hope the other teams were doing as well. 

Hauptman Lesslie Koln in her Mk. II battle armor was having a touch more difficult, less cover meant more jumping and more standing in place, less ability to take down targets of opportunity.  She was confident in her team and herself, Treece wouldn't have chosen her as a platoon leader and his XO if he didn't have confidence her and her team.  They had tracked down all but the emergency sensors.  They had already killed nearly 200 bugs, Thier charges set on everything but the last two sensors.  Oh there they are as she uses her Magashot railgun, she has to love the Banzais turning her anti-mech weapon into a brutally effective insectiod killer as her sarin coated piece of ballistic ferrous material explodes directly in front of 30 soldiers, as her team move in and time passes 28 begin to twitch, it's sick but all so satisfying as her teammates clear up the last two and she set her charges her platoon bounds back to her drop shuttle having the most difficult of any of the DMI-6 platoons. Still, even with all the challenges Hauptman Koln's team all return only two operators were even hurt.

Hauptman Peters platoon had the easiest run, 15 soldiers, and 400 larvae, even now he's found a ventilation duct and is preparing to pour sarin powder into it.  While the other platoons use bounding overwatch to get back their shuttle Peters 'deployment' of gas makes any counter-attack by the bugs pointless, they are all dead or incapacitated.  Peters takes a minute or two more to make sure the pests are controlled.  SGT King calls him, the other two shuttles are preparing for take off.  Peters smiles as his platoon moves back smartly to their shuttle at the very least this lane will be open for invasion.  First blood goes to the Rabid Foxes!!!

After fixing a senior Sargent and a couple of corporals of minor wounds the medics make sure they are secured.  As the drop shuttle prepares to leave the explosions knocked out the Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency sensors and weapons, to add insult to injury the powdered additive to their ammo was placed into the filtration network, every bug was twitching he and the men and women under his command thought with a smile.

As each member stows their gear and takes their seat, Kommandt Treece Jackson smiles DMI-6 has accomplished their mission, now it was up the rest of the AFFC to do theirs, err Bulldog to do theirs.  Everyone checks in and are locked down, in seconds the stealth drop shuttles burn out at three gravities ending the first phase of operations in this sector.

As they leave they see part of Col. Brahe's Merc spec ops group wink in, three Merchant class Jumpships and one heavily reconfigured Lola III destroyer.  Jackson shakes his head "Kujo" and his 7th Battalion Recon were here with 1st Kell Hounds, and it looks like by the weight of aerospace coverage the Death Brigade were still subcontracted with the Recon, well their jobs were done, he wished the hounds and their affiliated Merc commands luck, it wouldn't hurt to have the 'Rabid Dawg' the recon's warship as fire support.

DEST infiltration point alphaSho-Sa Higurashi was just as grateful to the NAIS and Dr. Banzai as were their DMI counterparts.  DEST had been a bit overconfident and seven of her team members were wounded, but none badly, the Dragon could still strike silently as required.  It inspired confidence to see such massive creatures brought low by a single shot.

Sho-Sa Higurashi cursed herself a bit, their teams had substituted more battle armor in place of machine gunners so with those in battle armor being able to move faster the platoons were split up.  The three operators in Kage class armor rapidly advancing the other two of the squad trying to keep pace.  This situation had allowed the insectoids to surprise a few of her operators, many were injured, but no deaths, it was close Gunsho Ido a rifleman from her 3rd squad nearly died from a leaky round allowing sarin into contact with his skin.  They had injected him with the antidote and loaded him back on her shuttle.  Striking with maximum violence was one thing, but the Dragon could not waste assets like Gunsho Ido like that.  Kagome altered the battle plan.

Sho-Sa Higurashi modified movement to bounding, she stayed in constant contact with her battle armor contingent, when things got hairy they were to find cover and let the rest of the team catch up.  The insectiods were mostly overmatched by the Kage's firepower and in no time the DEST teams had placed their nukes on the sensor and weapons grid of the insectiods.

As Sho-Sa Higurashi's battle armor withdrew, her riflemen and grenadiers provided cover, once in place her battle armor did the same.  They bounded from cover to cover until they reached the drop shuttles.  The wounded went in first, treated by their team medics.  The Canopians as was their skill set patched her family members up amazingly well (she would have to have her command pass thanks to Major Centrella for her medics and their professionalism along with the level of skill they showed).  The operation was over in 30 minutes with over 500 insectoids killed, and likely 100,000s more of their nukes went off.

As with the Rabid Foxes, everything had a place and everyone a seat, the drop shuttles again pulled with maximum acceleration and were far enough away that at 42 minutes mission time the nukes went off completely blinding and leaving defenseless the outer part of this invasion corridor.  With seven hurt and wounded Sho-Sa Higurashi would train to become better, it matter not that 25% losses would have been acceptable (100% a decade ago as long as the Dragon's as long as the mission was successful there were always more bodies some coordinators thought), these men and women were her family she owed it to them to become better and strive for 0% on her side...

As they evacuated the nukes went off and the insectoid sensors and defenses were gone.  almost to the second five invaders and one Star-lord jump into the system, the 6th Com Grauds and 2nd Kell Hounds deployed to deal with the intermediate defenses as her team makes for their jumpships and see if they are needed in the system or will they jump to their next target.

Loki Assult point Stuttgart

Kommandt Mark Von Hap had a small number of low yield nukes, he maintained the Federated 7.62mm medium machine gun, for the light machine gunner he substituted a suite of Gray Death Standard battle armor mounting a light recoilless rifle as their heavy weapon.  Mark's mission was to engage in direct fire only when he had an overwhelming advantage.  Otherwise, he would use the grenades and recoilless rifle rounds as indirect fire to clear the path, set charges then leave just as nice and quickly.  Mark chuckled to himself for a stealth force like Loki this battle plan had the least amount of stealth one could imagine from a force like his. 
The explosions, the chemicals and the bright if not brilliant placement of direct fire weapons made the incursion something of a dry encounter, the Rabid Foxes won through by maneuver, the DEST made it through by determination and drive, Loki just pelted the Insectoids from range, cleared the area and moved in, place their charges and walked back.  Kommandt Von Hap was half tempted to route step his teams to the shuttles, though low on the heavy ammo it had been a milk run in comparison to the other teams.  Next time he would bring a thumper artillery piece on each shuttle and walk through the corpses of the insectiods, he thought with a smirk.

As with the other teams, everyone got to there positions and the shuttle made maximum acceleration to their jumpship.

Kommandt Von Hap only reported success and no casualties as 4 merchants and one monolith jump ship arrive with the Crater Cobras and some auxiliaries.

17 days since misjump

Fedcom assault point Kilo

The mechs and battle armor of Col. Brahe's 1st Kell Hounds found the fight easy enough.  They had a diverse assortment of weapons of which the PPC was most used as it easily sliced through insectiods, their armor, their vehicles.  The 'heavy' combined regiment of the 7th Battalion Recon had some difficulties, having been retrofitted with mostly clan ER Lasers to save on logistics costs and mass, one shot multiple kills were difficult and frustrating for a commander like Brevet Lieutenant General Daniel Franklin XXVI who was use to slashing through his foes.  As the senior commander Col. Brahe was more then satisfied with the Recon's advance and support if only he could get 'Kujo' to shut up and take a compliment he thought.  That within three hours the mid-point Insectoid defenses and sensors were gone and no casualties inflicted on his side Col. Brahe was one very happy merc!!!
Brevet Lieutenant General Daniel Franklin XXVI aka "Kujo" is leading his reinforced regiment that is missed named (quite intentionally) the 7th Battalion Recon.  It's harder going than usual, his forces are laser heavy to reduce logistical concerns and to avoid the insane amounts of waste heat from PPCs.  It worked wonders against the clans, but not as much against the insectoids.  Col. Brahe isn't worried the 'recon' has met every objective ahead of his timetable, Franklin has opened up the bugs flank and the 1st Hounds are destroying them as they retreat.  Also keeping Brahe in good spirits is that couple of assault dropships, one mangled destroyer and 40 aerospace fighters have at present kept the local fighters off their jump ships.  It doesn't hurt that the space between them is laced with Banzai's chemical weapons and when an insectiod ship enters, well they don't leave.

All this is fine but brevet Lieutenant General Franklin would have liked to finish this mission an hour ago and grab a piece of the main mission.  Col. Brahe tells him to cool his jets, no casualties if at all possible for our side and take down the middle section of their defenses.  So far so good, three more strong points, well make that two Kommandt Jacob Leigh has just dropped a fuel-air explosive with a twist, the concussive power and heat have converted 500 gallons of precursors into nice mustard and sarin derivative mist.  Kujo can almost hear his chuckling and the insectoid's twitching.  In under three hours, the way is open for Bulldog to take down this fortress world.

Combine assault point Blossom

2nd Kell Hounds and 6th Com Guards were a good match, though the Com Guards were a bit cocky after beating the clans and were very trigger happy (though they did identify the targets well).  As with the 1st Kell Hounds Col. Dan Allard carefully eliminated his Insectiod foes and took down their defenses.  the over-eagerness of the Com Guards lead to them losing a mech and two fighters.  Thankfully no lives were lost among Bulldog troops.

Equipment losses are a bit worse, one mech incapacitated, two fighters will need a week in the repair bay, but Dan Allard is overall happy with the progress.  The Com Guards are good troops but since they beat the clans they think their invincible.  That and triple tapping the bugs is wasting ammo, one shot is usually good enough (90%), a second is need only if there's a quality control issue with the ammo (being 'experimental' yes there is more then average failures), or on the rare instance it bounces, firing three 12.7mm or higher rounds to off a bug is a bit much.

They are ahead of schedule and the main force should be there in 12 hours.  Dan is a bit worried about Victor's proclamation that this is a 'war to the knife' no quarter given, it's damn close to genocide, but if they hadn't of stopped the hive ship the human race would at best be cattle, and at worst gone, his conscience not salved but at least numbed by that.

Fedcom Assault point Loraine

Col. Trudeau had the worst midpoint engagement of the attack, which following the near perfect 'bombardment' tactics of Kommandt Von Hap seemed to balance the equation.  The fight went well with the 403rd Com Guards coordinating well with the Crater Cobras, but a malfunction on one aerospace fighter managed to kill two techs and mech warrior of the 403rd as well as injuring the fighter pilot.  A lance of Com Guard Mechs needed a week's worth of repair the Transit fighter needed a month of reconstruction and rebuilding.  Three died and one injured making it the least successful of the mid-point defense elimination teams.

Col. Shelly Trudeau of the Crater Corbas has worked with Loki and the 403rd ComGuard Division to eliminate the mid-point defenses.  Their losses were the heaviest of this part of the wave due to a malfunction on one of the aerospace fighters which led to it crashing into a leopard class dropship, the pilot was severely injured and three of the crew were killed along with a lance of medium mechs needing major repairs.

The end result of Sec op and mid-sector attacks, the Insecotiods defenses on nine frontier worlds are completely down as the main assault force blinks in.
Main assault on Insectoid fortress worlds!

Victor's voice is on all Task groups flagship, he offers the Insectoids a chance at unconditional surrender within 12 hours.  12 hours come and go, fox Class corvettes, tugs, and civilian haulers during that 12 hours link up with large asteroids and begin to move them to intercept with their target planets.  While that is going on Dr. Banzai's chemical mixture is being sprayed liberally in the atmosphere of each of the nine planets.  When an Air Defense Artillery unit opens up, a flight of Aerospace fighters or an assault dropship 'Wessels it out' (Wild Wessels ADA eliminators).  
"Avenger 23, avenger 23, this is CAG CSS Invisible truth, have weapons mount effective in Insectoid defense perimeter 30 klicks east of 1st Robinson Rangers drop site." 

Hauptman Amanda Cooper commander of 1st combined 'Heavy' fighter flight responds "Roger Commodore, we have the target, Dirk, Spear, Iron, and Stark engaging any 209s or 604s in the sector?"  

Hauptman Cooper hears in the background a Hauptman Tonez approx 12 Mk.209s and up to five 604s.  Amanda "overheard report from AWACS, no light fighters needed, making our run." as she communicates with her three assault dropships FCS Dirk and FCS Spear both Claymore class assault ships and FCS Iron an Avenger-class ship like her own FCS Stark.

Spear and Dirk will run interceptor duty, their weapon layout of seven large lasers of varying types and two ER PPCs, before the first break Spear had taken down four 209s and Dirk three.  Stark and Iron had damaged the ones that had attempted to intercept them.  The 604s seemed to be on a collision course with the Avengers.
Spear cycles around and dispatches the two damaged 209, the three remaining link up with five 604s on what appears to be a suicide run as the active mount is now five kilometers away.

The Claymores make short work of the remaining 209s and 604s tried to evade as FCS Iron and Stark disgorged their autocannons and gauss rifles into two of the heavy raiders.  The last three 604s seemed confused as the last insectiods when Bulldog was taking down the hive.  They could have rammed and severely damaged her flight, but they were beginning to display survival instinct as they flew off no further than 50 meters from their hulls.

Hauptman Cooper knew she had been a bit lucky as she engages the capital weapons mount before it can fire on the 1st Robinson Rangers dropships.  Two of the remaining 604s are chased down by the Claymores, the third runs afoul of a flight of Lucifers from the Davion Assualt Guards.  The pounding of two Avengers destroys the mount and roughly a short brigade of 3,000 Insectiod Soldiers.  

Hauptman Cooper "CAG CSS Invisible Truth, mount gone, many fewer defenders in the proximity of 1st RR actual"  Commodore Bersick CAG CSS Invisible Truth "Roger, Air, and space supremacy established conserve fuel for targets of opportunity and ground support."  

Amanda smiles "Wilco 1st Heavy Fighter flight out", then to her team "over 1,100 years to make the heavy fighter concept work",  Spear, Dirk, and Iron all chuckle.  
She gets a text from Tonez Insectoid troops massing near 1st Davion Guards request air support from her flight and four 'normal' fighter flights.  Amanda signals her flight and makes note of where the nearest tanker is, the fight on the ground has only just begun...

The Bugs are not suspecting a strike on their frontier fortress so rapidly or so precisely.  What few fighters they have been batted out of the sky by thousands of aerospace fighters and Assult dropships, as they begin to mount what few dropships they have, those same fighters strafe and eliminate them.  By the end of the 1st Titan day, eight of the nine worlds are locked down, the ninth is just barely active as what little is left of their fleet fled there, Kai and his Comstar Warships are eliminating them one by one.