General Kimes's page

*looks at cards*

"Hit me"

-cough-

a hive city has a population measuring in the billions, and it straight up runs on promethium, trust me, they have decades worth of fuel stored up somewhere.

frankly, I'm impressed you haven't pissed off the city nobles yet. They are likely on the fence about the whole invasion and/or attack on the city. If they really didn't want you there you'd be swimming in private armies and tens of thousands, if not millions, of hired gangers from the under city.

Alternatively, if they thought you could win, and hold the city, they'd throw in on your side. Unfortunately because we couldn't hold Maxarpa they are unlikely to believe in our ability to hold the hive, assuming we manage to take it in the first place.

If I was planning to attack and attempt to capture a hive city it would go like this:

-use the temporary space made by dropping buildings to pull back from the city.
-retake Maxarpa and rebuild/finish the space port
-send messages to the noble heads in Ardent saying that we won't dispose of their houses if they assist us in taking Ardent
-punctuate this by taking a holding nearby cities of Torton and Wilton
-Lay seige to hive ardent while contacting any noble houses which still haven't agreed to help us and telling them 'the city WILL be ours sooner rather than later. If you do not help us we will either kill you all as traitors to the throne, or, worse, hand them over to the inquisition.'

this has several benefits over a straight up attack on the city:
1) it minimizes our losses in the case we need to launch a more typical attack against the other two hive cities, instead of wasting all of our men against this first one.
2) Even if we only get a few noble houses on our side it will even up against the other hostile nobles if both sides throw in.
3) It shows the other hives what we plan to do when we get there. Meaning we can repeat this process against other hives and hopefully more noble houses will join us.

There are a couple risks:
-For one we have to deal with more threats at once, this is mitigated by the fact that the enemy also has to deal with multiple threats.
-We have to keep the inquisition on a leash until after the invasion, notice we didn't make any promises? The inquisition is going to want to go over the noble houses here with a fine tooth power comb and if they do that while we're trying to convince the other noble houses to join us it could cause issues.
-Finally, laying siege to a hive city is difficult and, ultimately all but fruitless, as the city has decades of supplies stored up (probably). But the point is not to starve them out, but to drive home a point to the city leadership that we already control the city in all but name.

The difficult part is convincing them that we didn't just resort to this tactic because of our failed attack on the city. The only way I see to do this is to, very publicly, make a fuss about how you are being reprimanded for going off orders and attacking the hive when you weren't supposed to. The other general's units went in to try and make something of the attack and get your forces out alive. We then rotate you to another front and never speak of it again.

Just my ideas but... we've already lost, what, two regiments in this attack? I don't know that we can maintain those kinds of losses.

calling it now: dropping armor into a barely secured space port is going to end badly. (actually, I don't think we control the space port right now, thought you were pushed out of it)

Here are my predictions if we attempt this:
-As soon as we begin landing shuttles in the space port the enemy armor rushes the port, destroying most if not all vehicles on the ground and possibly several drop ships.
-with the armor qued up it is too difficult to switch to a different regiment and we get no reinforcements
-the flanking attack fails without armor support, another regiment is lost
-I have to hold off the enemy armor another day
-btw you probably can't cut off their supply lines, they are in a hive city, that is their supply line.

The only way I see us taking their armor is if they run them out of fuel... which is unlikely. it's hard to capture armor, simply trying to get the crew out of the thing without them killing us or us destroying it is... hard.

First off, I just want to say that our focus should be on surviving the next couple days, we do not have a major city to be our HQ/fallback point since we lost Maxapra. If we can blunt the enemy assault and get enough troops down to, preferably, retake Maxapra and finish the space port we should be able to take the planet. Sorry but I don't see us security Ardent any time soon. My vote for the drop is for troops at either my location or Torton, and supplies.

Now, insurgents are not military units, they are unlikely to join us in marching on other cities or meet hostiles in open combat.

However, they can be extremely useful and very annoying for the enemy. My plan for once we have a stable, secure landing area is to send the WArhawks back into orbit, divide them into small units, like... platoon at the largest, and drop them along with shipments of weapons and munitions into major cities. Their goal would be to make contact with the insurgents, arm them, train them and conduct harassing operations against enemy forces.

The warhawks are ideal for this as they are used to operating behind enemy lines, without supply lines and with limited weapons. They are also veterans and can likely do the best job training a small milita. As they have taken heavy casualties already they won't be too effective in normal combat anyways, and their drop training will come in handy in getting them in contact with the insurgents.

That being said, until we have a secure area on the ground I do not feel comfortable shipping them back up to orbit. We're in a very bad spot right now, and I feel our main objective should be retaking Maxarpa before the duke milks too much PR out of it.

To say that General Kimes was upset would be like calling Kharn an unpleasant man. As the sun set the auto-cannon on his sentinel finally finished popping as it cooled from extensive use that day. For the past hour of the march south out of Maxarpa he had said nothing, but finally he waved over Prescott along with the colonel in charge of the 83rd, which now made up the majority of his force, the remaining captain from the Warhawks, and Marshal Yorke.

"I doubt the rebels will push their armor in darkness," Kimes said when everyone was close, "If they do we can punish them hard for it. But they'd be dumb to not continue tomorrow. So I have several ideas on how to slow them down. We are going to slow down the march for the night. Tell the troops we have a long night ahead of us.

"First off, I want the warhawks to send a few small teams back towards Maxarpa, see if you can't make contact with our sentinels and tell them where we're headed. But that's a secondary objective, your main objective is to place and detonate charges on the bridges over the river just south of town. They will likely be guarded, but take down as many as you can, it should slow the tanks on the morrow.

"Second, I want the 83rd and the naval personnel leaving some... gifts for any armor to follow us. Krak grenades buried just under the ground can blow the treads off a tank, if we have any mines or det packs those will work too. Focus on dirt roads, tear up paved roads and leave some piles of dirt around them, don't waste all our explosives on the paved areas, just make them think we did. The goal here is attrition. We have till morning.

"Tomorrow our plans are... well... worse. Once daybreak hits I want the Warhawks, along with first company from the 83rd, to break off and head due east, avoid enemy contact and, if you don't hear from me, stop around mid day, or when you hit mountains. We'll draw the enemy further south into the small forest, if I have a good read of the commander we're facing he'll pull up his armor, infantry and artillery when he sees we're making a stand. Captain, when they begin their attack I want you and first company to come back west, and go hunting for artillery."

Kimes looked around at the various faces gathered around him.

"I'm not going to lie, tomorrow will be a bloody day, even in a forest the armor will be a pain to deal with, but without their artillery, and using whatever time we buy to prepare, we should be able to surround and eliminate a decent chunk. Maxapra was supposed to be our fall back point, but... the plans of the other generals involved in this campaign changed and now we have no fall back point. We have to buy time for the other generals to secure... something. Yorke, if you wish you can accompany the Naval battalion and medical convoy I'll be sending further south to hopefully get a shuttle back to orbit. These are my men, and we're going to show the enemy what the imperial guard can do."

Thanks kitsune

And... how are we gonna get tanks down? To call the space port secured is a tenuous statement at best.

I've an idea about how to loose the armor, and my little communication's blackout thing is broken so we are back on the grid now.

The issue here, and likely the reason Kimes is gonna be super pissed, is that Maxarpa was supposed to be our fallback point while we waited for armor before we pushed into a hive city. With enemy armor showing up it's not just Maxarpa that is lost, it is likely Ardent and Torton as well.

Before I get my post ready I have a couple questions for Kitsune:

1) did we get the wounded out? hopefully we had time to 'requisition' several vehicles to load them out during our evacuation.

2) What happened to the sentinel force? There's a report of them passing through the naval battalion and then... nothing.

3) What's the road situation like here? do we have paved roads? dirt? Full on 8 lane highways?

I believe we should land supplies at Maxarpa, it should be mostly secure by the end of the day and there is little chance of AA fire. I don't think we need two regiments dropped again today.

If we are going for the double regiments thing, I'd like the 84th dropped to the west of the enemy formation attacking Maxarpa. If we are getting no more supplies than I do not want the enemy escaping. The rough riders can push them out of the city into a fresh regiment of line infantry.

Also, assuming we go with another double drop today we should drop pure supplies tomorrow, no regiments, to get all units on the ground back up to 100% on their supplies.

I was actually requesting the 84rd line for today but whatever. I won't really argue with whatever is landed so long as it comes down at Maxarpa

and 3) I do not feel comfortable dropping supplies into an enemy held city. Somehow I think they still have a silly number of anti-air defenses. While the port itself may be under our control I would rather not risk our transports by flying them into an enemy held city.

I'm a sci-fi nerd, finding small overlooked details and over-analyzing the shit of them is what I do best.

Inothernews, would it be possible to get a 'unit status' thing on the campaign info page? Like a unit which has seen combat, but hasn't taken too many losses is 'bloodied' or something. Just something to tell how combat effective they are.

Guess everyone is still recovering from easter...

anyways, I was wondering if there was more detail to be had on the 'minerals in ground and tree's cause interference' thing. Because my current understanding is that it works kinda like Florescent objects, only on a much lower wavelength. Basically, the minerals absorb radio waves and re-transmit them at a lower frequency, turning the energy difference into heat. So the Rebels are using a higher frequency radio wave for communication, causing the trees and minerals to 'glow' on our channels, generating static. It's basically how glow-in-the-dark things work, only with radio instead of visual light.

Assuming this is correct, there are several interesting implications:

-First off, powerful enough radio signals can noticeably heat up the trees as the re-transmitted signals are of lower energy than the absorbed ones. In every day life this means a particularly strong solar flare which hits the atmosphere and generates an EMP can cause forest fires. If we can replicate this we can do the same, not really useful but fun to think about turning a Vox array into a death laser.

-More usefully we may be able to generate a 'rebel radar' deal, the basic version being little more than a radio designed to pick up the 'glow' from rebel transmissions in the trees. Said glow will be across a much wider set of radio bands and easier to pick up than the transmissions themselves. A more advanced version, which we likely don't have the time or ability to produce, could locate enemy communications from orbit by looking for the 'glowing' trees or plants with a wide band radar.

-Finally, and most amusingly, these minerals likely have infiltrated the biology of the locals to some extent. Probably just from the occasional salad or local grown meat. Meaning, in theory, we could locate people from long distance with a radio pulse than listening for the resulting 'glow' from the locals. I doubt the minerals are present in sufficient quantities, or effective enough for the 'death laser vox' from point one to matter. By the time the radio waves are strong enough to set the person on fire, the radio waves would have killed the person anyways.

Not especially, though they have a few security teams. I'll assume you got that out before you shut down your comms network and turned all vox sets to blast out interference.

Sounds good

Also, I have this sudden desire to turn the Fleet's Voxcasters on the planet, crank them up to 11 and see if I can make the local force's radios melt....

got to sleep in... got bored of waiting for others to post first... so I went ahead and did so. Besides, classes start again tomorrow for me so might be busy.

btw, forgot to mention (because I was hungry at time of writing and my pizza was still in the microwave, and too lazy to edit in now) going to try and form a perimeter around he Administratum building we claimed as a medical facility, naval battalion is.. not under my control but should probably avoid contact. Don't know how well equipped they are in terms of weaponry.

"What part of 'we are being attacked' do you not understand?" Kimes half yelled into the Vox.

"We are currently qued to drop more troops into Hive Arden-"

"I DON'T CARE," the General roared, interrupting the communications officer on the other end, "If we are pushed out of Ardent we are delayed, if we loose Maxarpa WE ARE PUSHED OFF PLANET. Do you understand?"

"But sir-"

"LOOK! I'm taking Maxarpa off the grid, I want the 83rd on the ground here today! I don't have time to argue!" Kimes slammed the vox handheld down before storming out of the building back to his sentinel.

"Sir?" Corporal Prescott asked as a fresh volley of shells exploded in the distance, "What did you mean about taking Maxarpa off the grid?"

"According to your report," James explained, climbing into his sentinel, "Enemy communications can cause interference, right? I want you to find how to create interference on their channels using our transmitters, then find the biggest transmitter you can and burn their communications to the ground."

"Wouldn't the local regiments have hardened their vox against interferance?"

"Maybe, but it's worth a try. Besides, let's test those systems. Maybe if we hit them hard enough the machine spirits will give in. I don't know, worth a try." Kimes turned and yelled over his shoulder, "CAPTAIN!"

"Sir?" A Harkoni captain said, running up.

"Round up whatever sentinels we have left, we have a mission."

"Sir?"

"We can't wait for the 83rd or whoever they send to land, we have to deal with this f$+#ing artillery to get the landing to go smoothly. Take the sentinels, flank around and, when communications go down, take out the artillery."

"Sir"

I know kinda what I want to do... and, spoiler alert, it involves a bit of profanity aimed at you Arvitus (it's all in character and, hopefully, in good humor). But I don't like spam posting... Since I was the post before the GM's post... could someone else go so I feel less paranoid about posting again myself?

No I'm not paranoid, what would make you think that? have you been watching me? What's with the sudden interest anyways? ARe you with the government?

I'm watching you

>.>

hope everything's alright. In any case glad you're feeling better.

"Well, as predicted it looks like another regiment is going to be dropped into the meat grinder that is Hive Ardent. We're experiencing communication problems, which I think is a prelude to an attack if nothing else. We only have 6000 combatants, at best, to hold Maxarpa. And I haven't been able to find a good sparing partner since the Sargent Major took a hit during the drop," Kimes finished by motioning to a standard issue chain sword on his hip. For various reasons Ericson had insisted on almost daily sparing sessions, when time could be found between meetings. With her in the hands of the medical staff no one had been willing to spar with General Kimes in the few times he found enough time, so instead he'd taken to hacking up a tree trunk he'd had placed in the ground near his quarters.

"The good news is I have managed to get some semblance of good will here by having the Warhawks repair any damage we caused to the town," James motioned for Lucien to follow him, "I could really use the 74th, we could easily out maneuver any PDF approaching from the forest and they would be useful in establishing some Recon of Yelept. I'm afraid any good I've done here will be undone if we are attacked. Sadly with communications flickering like this it's hard to get word through."

The Lieutenant General smiled as he pulled out a pair of gloves from his pocket and began putting them on. "They do make pretty good coffee too, I'm going to get some practice with this two foot hunk of spinning metal I've been told I need to learn to use if you care to join me."

"Any idea what is causing this interference? Could it be enemy action?" Kimes asked the nervous Vox tech.

"It... it could be s-sir," The man, no more than 20 years old and, judging by his direct refusal to look out the window, likely void born. Being part of the Naval battalion this may very well be his first time on a planet. "I'd... I'd have to look into it some more."

"Right, Prescott," James looked over his shoulder at the Corporal, "Your new orders are to find the source of this Warped interference. It was annoying after the drop, but whether this is Enemy Action or a natural thing we have to know about it."

"Yes sir," the corporal responded, saluted and left the room.

"In the mean time," Kimes turned back to the young man at the elaborate vox setup, "See what you can do to get around it. If you need anything let me know, I'll see what I can do."

--Harkoni camps--

"Delivering orders in person now General?" The captain asked with a smirk.

"I'm afraid that the enemy might be intercepting our vox communications," James was clearly in far less of a good mood, "And even if they aren't this warped interference is really getting on my nerves."

"I see, you get my report about the potential unrest?"

"I did and it may be the least of our worries," Kimes responded, collapsing in a free chair at the Commander's small field desk. "I want you to send a patrol out to recon this 'local infantry' our screen spotted. The report said 'small groups' but I would like you to send at least platoon strength, if not company. The objective is intelligence first, combat second. Feel free to wipe them out if they prove hostile and you feel secure that you can with minimal losses."

"Should we be preparing for an attack from the West?"

"Probably prudent, hopefully I can get a line infantry drop to reinforce our position, though if that assault on Ardent is going as poorly as I imagine it is you just know Arvitus will be screaming for more men to throw into the grinder."

"With the navy taking over construction I'll have a lot more men to work on it."

"Good, good."

"Care for some coffee?" the captain said, waving to an orderly who nodded and turned to fetch a pot. "Looks like you could use some."

"Thanks but I've got more to do before Yorke comes looking for me," Kimes responded, standing a stretching. A couple more pleasantries were exchanged and the General left, passing the orderly with a 'fresh' pot of coffee on the way out.

On 'true' hive worlds a single hive can hold 10-100 billion people. As this is not a 'true' hive planet these hives probably only have 100 million people, a billion at tops. If the people there are sympathetic to this four armed emperor as they are up in Maxarpa, and the duke starts handing out rifles then you could be looking at potentially millions of combatants.

Even if he doesn't you'll still have to deal with underhive gangs (which sometimes end up with things like lascannons... somehow), noble families and their weirdly extensive 'security forces' which are more akin to private armies in their own right, and how ever many regiments the duke can move by air to his own space port at the same time.

If you want to stick your foot in that without artillery or armored/mechanized support first go ahead, but can we at least get engineers down to start work on the starport first? I may even get it done sooner if the nobles of Maxarpa chip in.

I'm still hoping for today's drop to be the engineers for today so we can get our starport up and running. Sorry but I don't see anything good coming from endless infantry waves against a fortified hive. For major cities you want tanks n stuff.. unless you want to accept massive losses...

"If you feel safe then go ahead," Kimes told the Harakoni captain, "I've actually been considering inviting the various noble heads to dinner with me, but considering my current venue is... well... cadian green tents or requisitioned town houses, think I'll pass. If you get a chance ask if they would be willing to help us with the space port. I've no intention of destroying it or leaving it to rot, and I'm sure they can imagine how... profitable a space port in their own back yards would be. It's just a question, from me, not a demand or anything. Oh, and send a runner or something when you get back, just to lemme know they didn't poison you or anything."

With the small office once again to himself, James once again turned to the medical report detailing the losses of the Warhawks. It wasn't good. More than 20% casualties to a unit was considered devastating, at less than 60% strength the warhawks were no longer combat effective. At best they could expect to be sent back to their homeworld for reinforcements, the old blood forming a veteran core of a new unit. At worst they would be demoted to line infantry, merged with another unit or two which took heavy losses and sent back into combat. Hopefully the glowing report the general had just finished would ensure the former. In either case James wasn't going to use them in a major drop again this campaign.

"Corporal!" James called out.

"Sir?" Prescott asked, walking into the office.

"More reports for you to deliever," the general said with a smirk.

"Anything else sir?"

"Send a message to the fleet, ask them to send some engineers for the spaceport. Also pass along a message to the other Generals, I'm considering taking a unit to recon Hive Yelept in force. Preferably the 74th foresters, I still want the engineers first. Sooner we get the space port finished the sooner we can get those loons down south some support... don't include that last part in the message."

I don't either, I thought the whole 'land at Maxapra' was so we could build a spaceport, land armor/arty so we could have support when we made the attack. Not so we could walk a distance before sending waves of infantry at a heavily defended hive... maybe it's just me.

((also, if you'll remember, Kimes specifically said he wouldn't commit troops under his command to an unsupported attack on a heavily defended position. Which is one reason he ignored Arvy and went north to Maxarpa))

"Apparently there may be some hostiles moving in from the West, using, if you can believe it, wet-water ships. So I want a screen of sentinels deployed to the west, stay in vox range but far enough to give some warning of enemy movements. Especially I want some stationed on the beaches to our South west in case they move to try and land there," Kimes told the upper command staff present at the meeting. "I'm going to try and talk the Admiral into spending a day sending down equipment, engineers and the like. The focus will be on everything needed for the spaceport, but if there is any room for medical equipment make sure it's sent to our new building."

"I also want a full count of the wounded from the 19th," James continued, "We got hit pretty hard out there and want at least estimates of how long till you guys are ready for another drop. Hopefully we'll be able to use this city as your deployment base, rather than having to ship you back up to orbit. But that will likely depend on when the starport is finished... Any questions?"

whelp, to be fair the 19th is in no way ready for combat, much less line combat. We're heavy on injured and light on equipment.

and I didn't see the comment about the rifles.. but.. meh, send them down if you want, but I think Kimes will be overseeing Maxapra for a bit.

"just patch me through," James grumbled at his vox operator. Who nodded and proceeded to flip switches and push buttons before motioning to Kimes to proceed. "Kimes with the warhawks here, looks like we finally made contact. I may still have a hostile force tailing me so some cover would be nice. Beyond that I'm taking the warhawks north to Maxarpa, assuming you guys actually took it. I'm going to put them to work on the star port, should hopefully get it done sooner. Once we get some arty and armor on the field we can try and take the hive. Kimes out."

---Later, after the 19th warhawks arrived at Maxarpa---

"No one started working on a landing area?" James Kimes nearly shouted from within his tent.

"n-no sir," a nervous looking lieutenant said, "I think they mentioned wanting to take the starport at Ardent."

"But how are we going to take the hive withou-" the general paused, holding a hand over his face and leaning on his desk for a second. "Sorry, not your fault... ok, here's the plan, talk with Captain Ramsey of the 19th here, I want all healthy sentinel pilots and as many men as needed to get that starport running. If you need supplies from in town buy them for market price, I'll send word to the fleet and have them send down engineers and power-lifter attachments for sentinels. That should be enough to get your started at least."

"Yes sir," the Lieutenant and Captain responded.

"Anyone not injured or working on the 'port is now on garrison and civil service." Kimes continued, looking at the Warhawk's Commander, "I know there wasn't much of a battle here but while we're here we're going to do some good. Fix any damages to the city we caused, or might have caused, or maybe didn't cause but should be fixed anyways. Buckled walls, potholes, whatever. I'm sure the citizens will come up with plenty for you guys to do once they see we are here to help."

"You... want us doing menial labor? Sir?" The captain asked incredulously.

"No, I want you to help these people. We are here as liberators, not conquerors. Even if the hive is taken before we get the starport up and we relocate our HQ there I want to leave this city better than we found it. Purchase whatever supplies you need, I'll ensure you are paid back, just save the receipts. Don't work the troops too hard, they deserve some time off after a couple days behind enemy lines, but we aren't here to drink and gamble, we are here to work."

"Yes sir."

"Now, we need proper medical facilities for a lot of people, assuming my prediction about the attack on the hive is correct. Sargent Ericson-" James cuts himself off as he turns to look where his NCO generally stands, only to find it empty. He then turns to his staff Corporal, "Corporal Prescott, you are filling in for the Sargent Major. I want you to find a large open building, like a gym or community center, find the people who own it and get permission to use it for the next month. Offer to pay for any inconvenience if they agree, I'll ensure they get their money. Once you have a location find the Medicae people running around our little tent city and bring them to the new location. Tell them the building belongs to them for a bit, I'm sure they will appreciate a large, cleaner, location to treat our injured. If they have any further requests or needs that would result in better treatment tell them to come to me... Everyone, dismissed."

"I've done all I can for her Sir," The medic reported, hanging from the open door of the sentinel as it slowly walked behind Kime's own.

"Very well," Kimes paused as the medic latched the door to his Senior NCO's armored compartment and jumped down. Looking at a group of runners waiting for orders he continued "Send word to all units, fade back to the north, break all contact. Infantry are to leave as many mines and explosives in our wake as possible, but not to endanger themselves. We've done all we can here, but it's time to leave."

The runners nodded and scattered, sprinting off into the woods in various directions.

"Corporal," James turned to the third member of his sentinel squadron, "I want you to head north-North-west at full speed, get word to the rest of the Imperial forces... In fact here."

Kimes pulled the data slate he'd been keeping notes on from the post of his sentinel and tossed it to the Corporal.

"Yes sir," the pilot paused, "If you wanted, sir, you could come with."

"I'm not leaving the unit," the General responded forcefully, "I'd say take Ericson with you, but she would only slow you down. If you aren't averaging 40 kilometers per hour I'll be upset."

"Of course sir," The corporal saluted from within his sentinel before turning and advancing his throttle to max, quickly vanishing into the trees.

I figured something would go horribly wrong :P

Just remind me next drop to ensure we have air superiority.

"Damnit! I thought we were going to have air superiority on this drop!" Kimes grumbled, looking at a data slate he had attached to one of the posts of his sentinel. The distant crackle of lasgun fire accompanied by the occasional explosion, indicating heavier weapons.

"We expected heavy resistance sir," Sargent Major Ericson reminded him from her own Sentinel.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it, at least their air support can't get at us in these trees," the General paused to consider a map. "If we're taking losses to crew served weapons we aren't moving fast enough... Send runners to our forwards scout sentinels, tell them to fade north, away from any PDF elements. Our infantry units are to continue south east till they reach the edge of the forest or make contact. Let them face real guardsman."

One guardsman nodded, saluted, turned and began running towards the front of the advancing division.

"you!" Kimes said, he sentinel turning to let him point at the third sentinel in his squadron, "Get on the vox to our rear screen, I want a force estimate on what and who's following us. Are we just dealing with PDF? or did we manage to pull some real warriors? In either case remind them to keep moving, duck and weave, don't get pinned down in fighting."

"Let's keep moving," Kimes said in a quieter voice to his NCO. She simply nodded and began leading the way in her sentinel. The forest was of little concern to the walking warmachines. But they command unit didn't take it up to their full speed, preferring to travel at a walking pace, to keep their position within the great formation of the Warhawks.

see that large plain to the NE of Hive Ardent? (I'm assuming we're going with the Maxarpa plan) I want most of my force to land in the Northern part of it, drops can be a bit... hectic so each company will rally on their lead elements. If a unit lands too far off to reach their lead element, they are to report to the nearest rally point until they can rejoin their own company.

During the drop Sentinel outriders/scouts will form a screen between the landing area and Hive Ardent, they are to report any movement of enemy forces. Should anything be detected they are to report with as much haste as they deem necessary, Vox usage will be kept to a minimum, only for short messages of importance. At no point will unit numbers, designations or locations be mentioned unless by code word

Code names are as follows:
-Companies are numbered sequentially, starting with 501st as alpha company (bravo will be the 502nd, charlie 503rd, etc).
-Hive Ardent is referred to as Target Primarus
-Wilton is referred to as Target Secondus

Once all drops are completed, or the code word 'Ieruss' is given, infantry units are to Proceed SE towards Wilton (Target Secondus) with a unit of Sentinels as scouts. All other sentinels will remain as screening force between the infantry and Hive Ardent (Target Primarus), except for the General's Bodyguards.

Standing Orders:
-All bridges over the East-West river running from Wilton to Ardent capable of supporting a vehicle shall be rigged with explosives and set to detonate should a vehicle attempt to cross. If there is no time to do this, or other circumstances prevent this, destroy the bridge. All other bridges shall be destroyed
-Direct contact with hostile forces shall be kept to a minimum, report all such contact and make a fighting retreat towards Wilton if possible.
-Should it be necessary, identification of friendly forces can be accomplished vocally with the call 'Bang' to which the reply is 'Thud.' A person who doesn't respond correctly is to be considered hostile. THIS IS TO BE DRILLED PRE-DROP
-Civilians should be avoided, but personal safety is above all else. So long as no intentional murder, or other horrific acts occur, I won't concern myself with accidental civilian deaths. Hopefully they are smart enough to get out of the way.
-In the case of extended Vox failure units should fall back North into the Silverwood, unless they are being tailed by hostile forces, in which case retreat East towards Wilton until you manage to break contact.
-If captured and questioned here are the facts you should give:
--the Invasion force is a scouting force, to gather information for an incoming Asartes company.
--You have heard rumors that the Inquisition has taken personal interest in this planet
--A crusade fleet is headed this way, and the commander of the crusade wishes to use this planet as a launching point.
--The crusade consists of several thousand regiments, hundreds of ships, and a dozen Space Marine companies. They are already enroute and will be upset should this planet not belong to the Imperium on their arrival.
--They will take this frustration out on the planet

Hopefully that's everything, lemme know if I missed anything :P

"The warhawks are loading up their equipment now, if you wouldn't mind Admiral, I'd like to borrow some engineseers from your crew. Gravchuts are temperamental things a the best of time, anyone with some mechanical training to help calm their machine spirits before the landing would be helpful. I'd rather not loose any machines on the drop."

The young general pauses to scratch the back of his neck while considering the map.

"There's something I've... been hesitant to bring up. Maybe we shouldn't lead with a Cularan unit. I've been reading and apparently genestealer infections can go back generations. If that's what we're dealing with here... it is possible that our Cularan units have been... tainted," Kimes paused for a second. "I think we should hold the Cularan units in reserve, at least for now. They probably won't be happy about it but I'd hate to be dropping reinforcements for the enemy."

main reason Kimes is going down with the warhawks is A: he is more comfortable on the battlefield, being a newly promoted general. and B: as the warhawks will be out of contact with the fleet if he is there he can personally direct them in what will likely be a complicated series of maneuvers. It's more dangerous for me, but... it fits with my character and makes a certain amount of sense strategically. Hopefully I can make good use of my time.

"You are correct about communications being spotty, once we drop," Kimes nods, clutching a mug of recaf strong enough to jump start an engine. Ever since he found none of the teas on offer appealing months ago a mug of what many describe as 'field recaf' somehow managed to find a way into the meeting room before each meeting. "hopefully some of our communications rigs will be able to punch a signal through to orbit, but it is likely we'll be cut off, at least for a couple days. I definitely support the Maxarpa plan, the forest will give me more room to maneuver and escape when it comes time for that."

Taking a sip of what closer resembled tar than recaf James proceeded to set down the mug and lean over the map.

"Don't worry about landing the rest of my corp till I return, focus on line and heavy infantry to secure the landing zone. If there is a Genestealer cult it will likely be focused in and around the major population centers. But, based on some of the reading I've done, even untainted citizens might be... turned against us by the lies of those who are infected. I wasn't able to find any examples, likely above my clearance, but needless to say we shouldn't expect an overly warm welcome. Also my fears of a guerrilla war might come true as the tainted launch raids against us."

"I've no intention of sacrificing the warhawks, our primary objective is to draw the enemy off of our main landing force. Once contact is made we'll retreat and assess the situation, I'll try to keep them following us as long as possible, laying traps and ambushes to inflict easy damage without meeting in a full on engagement. Which is why I'd like the warhawks equipped with an extra supply of explosives for the drop. We should be able to keep them occupied for at least a day. Depending on how good their communication is, and how cunning their commanders are, it could be longer than that. In any case, after a couple days we'll do our best to break contact permanently and make our way to the main landing site.

"For this reason Kalfor and Maxarpa are our best bets, as they would give me room to break away, other options would give me precious little maneuvering room."

Following the lead of the Lord General James accepted a cup of tea, but after a sniff and a polite sip he put it aside, likely to be forgotten.

"Our total operational time on planet will likely vary based on intel we don't have currently, such as enemy numbers, local support for them, if they have outside assistance, etc. But assuming the local populous at least isn't openly hostile to us, and there are only 11 regiments of hostile troops, the upper end of the reports I've seen, we should be able to break their main lines in a couple weeks to maybe a month. After last bastions are broken, all hives taken and all is said and done we should have control of the planet within three months at the outside.

"As for landing order, in my experience the first wave is reserved for combat troops only. If fighting goes well we bring the engineers down day two. If not, then more infantry till we are certain we can defend the starport. Even without the engineers we could still get the process started, blow down trees, move rocks, gather supplies from the city, that sort of thing."

Before anyone can reply Kimes turns to his senior NCO, still standing behind him, though at a more polite distance.

"Oh, Ericson, remember to have my sentinel loaded for drop with the Warhawks, multi-laser... you know my setup." The large, muscled woman simply nodded as James turned back to the war table with the quite confidence that it would be done.

"Take it from me, Arvitus, you never... ever... land right on top of the a potential enemy strong point, are you trying to get everyone kil-" before he can continue a hand is placed on his shoulder from behind. Somehow sensing the upcoming outburst one Sargent Major Ericson had moved behind her Commander.

James Kimes met eyes with the grizzled NCO, who simply looked at him, didn't move, didn't say anything for a couple seconds. James sighed and returned to the table.

"Needless to say, I will not be dropping any troops on a hive, even a minor one. If we want a distraction, I can lead the drop regiment and act like we're attacking another city though. If we do land at Maxarpa like the Marshal says, my drop troops could land at... Wilton or Torton, try to lead the enemy away. It will only be temporary, we won't be doing any fighting if we can avoid it. And we'll need backup once you guys secure your city. It won't be much but it may just lead any counter offensive astray."

"I think for now we should determine our main landing site and focus on which regiments to drop first, in what order, and if we can pull any tricks to keep the enemy guessing... mmm" The young General leaned over the planetary map.

"First off we can eliminate landing on the island to the south, while it would be the safest location we'd be forced to conduct a secondary landing rather quickly. For obvious reasons I'd like to keep a hundred klicks... uhhh... kilometers at least between our landing and any major hives. Any anti-air they have will hamper landing attempts as well as leaving us open to easy counter assaults. Same basic idea is true of the smaller hives, but positioning closer to one of them might be advantageous if the enemy commander leaves it lightly defended."

"Given those facts I think our best bets for landing will be...." General Kimes considers for a moment before pointing to a few smaller cities, "Misra, Kalfor or Maxarpa."

"As for landing order, at any of those three locations I can use my drop troops to slow any potential counter attack, so they are a must. I'd recommend at least one regiment of line infantry, to secure the area, probably two would be better to ensure we take the city without any major losses. We still don't know where the loyalty of the local's or PDF lay... Last slot of the first day could go to any infantry unit really but line or heavy would probably be best. Then we bring down as many infantry regiments as we can till the star port is up when we switch to armor, arty, and super heavy."

"I... I doubt we'll be able to take a major hive till we have armor and artillery on the ground. Two or three days won't be enough to get a makeshift star port up in order to land them. I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but we should take the first week of the invasion slow. Gather intelligence, reinforce our beach head, get a place to land heavy armor.

"Sorry, but I won't be committing any troops to a major assault like that till we have armor and arty backing us up."

Kimes looks around nervously

"Can we get a translator in here?"

"I am extremely hesitant to land anywhere near one of the major hives until we know where the enemy forces are. If we land our initial regiments so close to their main force they could easily swarm us before we got any kind of defenses in place.

In short, unless you are certain you can take Hive Ardent with four regiments of infantry in one day... I can not agree to that plan. Attacking fortified locations is a bloody proposition at the best of times, doing it without armor or artillery support and little knowledge of what is waiting for us..."

They are chaos traitor mutant commie scum! What more reason do we need?!

-ahem-

My thinking was to land near Kalfour, it's a good defensive position in that troops coming from the capitol would have to first cross a sea, then some mountains to get us. I doubt any major forces would be stationed out there, given they have at most 11 regiments. It's a big enough city that we should be able to get supplies to construct a space port easy enough. And once we get enough forces on the ground Hive Elson is in easy striking distance.

The biggest issues would be:

Air support, hopefully the navy can lend enough anti-bomber support with thunderbolt squadrons to keep us safe while we make a landing area. But that will be true of anywhere we land.

Hive Elson, if they have major forces stationed there they could attempt to push up towards us and force us off planet before we can bring down the big guns. Best way to handle this would be scouting and harassing. I'd like to send a scattering of drop troops along the various paths they could take. Their main job would be to report on enemy movements and slow them down in any way they could. Blow bridges, lay mines, etc. With luck if the enemy does start moving on us the drop troops can delay them long enough for us to line up some defenses or let the Navy bombers go crazy on them.

Finally, our lack of intel is kinda bothering me. We think they have a max of 11 regiments, but don't know. No mention of air power is made, we don't know if they are receiving support from xeno or heretic forces, we don't know why this revolt started or escalated to this point...

In terms of what regiments I want, dibs on the drop troops and then light infantry (not penal legions) or mech infantry. I'd like to have fast moving regiments so no heavy or line infantry please.

Looks good!

I strongly suspect Jim Kimes will be playing a major role in planning out the planetfall with that kind of background. :)

I certainly hope so :D

Any plans for when we'll be starting? or just waiting for everyone to finish up characters

brb, re-writing

done and done!

Put it all in my profile and added a bit more, explaining what exactly made him stand out from other tank commanders.

If there is a lot of competition for armored and mech divisions I can retool my character to prefer drop troops (which it doesn't sound like we have >.<) or line infantry.

Honestly, if we had drop troops I might go for those instead anyways. It just sounds to me like there won't be any kicking of sentinels out the back of Valkyries any time soon.

Not sure if you wanted us to make alias' but this is Teneroth.

Just going to throw some data down here, begin framing my general

Name: Lieutenant General James Kimes

Senior NCO: Sargent Major Ericson

Previous Command: Before being promoted to the upper command ranks Jim Kimes was the commander of an armored battalion. (don't know numbers yet)

James prefers commanding armored regiments, but has also shown some promise with Mechanized Infantry and Artillery regiments. Though he has never mentioned it, he has always wanted to see what he could do with a squad of super heavy tanks, like baneblades.

Flaw: While skilled with commanding vehicle based regiments he doesn't seem to understand people that well, often delegating moral issues to his second in command, Sargent Major Ericson.