August 29th, 2767-February 7th, 2768
Everyone expected a bloodbath. The Rim Worlds Republic was the home of Amaris himself, so how could he not defend it? Regardless of "how", it seems, though, that he did not. Not counting various militia groups, barely a dozen line regiments showed themselves to protect the Republic, opposed with easily ten times their number in the first wave alone. Casualties were light, even among the Rim Worlders, as many threw down their weapons and surrendered in the face of such overwhelming firepower. Others fought on, primarily encasing themselves in pale imitations of Castles Brian, or planting themselves tight among civilian populations. Large-scale engagements throughout the Rim Worlds petered to a halt by early February, as a full 55 of the 70-ish Republic worlds had been conquered.
Your part was easy. Sit in your DropShip, ready to go, and train. It was also perhaps the most boring year of your lives. Once the Persistence system had been captured, you set down there and assisted the remainder of the 741st in building a fortified position and munitions depot to support the drive onto Apollo. Kerensky had originally considered an invasion of Apollo early in the campaign, but decided against it (much to your personal frustrations when you realized your best chance to see some action had evaporated). Instead, all systems around it were captured, and HPG traffic - except for SLDF-approved communication - was blocked off. This action had much the same effect as actually capturing the capital; making the planet completely irrelevant to the larger campaign. The blockade would continue until late 2768.
August 17th, 2768
While full-scale combat actions had effectively dragged to a halt in the RWR by this date, irregular actions continued with marked intensity. There was no large-scale organized insurgency as you had encountered in Taurian space, but you always had to be on the lookout for snipers or the occasional mortar attack. The most terrifying incident came on August 17th, when General Kerensky visited the garrison at Fort Merrimack on Erewhon. A truck attempted to ram its way through the gates, but became lodged on the anti-tank pillars and the driver was shot. When demolitions teams opened the cargo bay, instead of the ton or two of ammonium nitrate explosives they expected to encounter, they beheld a fully armed and operational 50-kiloton nuclear device affixed to a dead-man's switch. Following a rapid evacuation of the area, the demo teams learned that the driver had been pinned in the wreckage in such a way as to prevent the dead-mans switch from activating. Sheer dumb luck was all that had preserved Fort Merrimack - and perhaps General Kerensky, who was out of the blast radius but within the fallout plume at the time - from utter destruction.
With this catalyst in mind, Kerensky decided that it was time to end the farce of the RWR once and for all.
October 16th, 2768-October 24th, 2768
Tensions on Apollo had been rising for a full year, and it was on this date that a popular uprising against the Regent (Minister Selim) began. Loyalist regiments on-planet (the 6th Amaris Lancers and the 832nd Amaris Dragoons) initially moved quickly and violently suppressed the protesters. Relatively quickly, however, intercine tensions within the units showed themselves, as individuals, lances, and full companies began to disobey orders to slaughter civilians. The units collapsed into a civil war, and General Kerensky decided the time to invade Apollo had come.
On October 19th, Kerensky dispatched an expeditionary force to Apollo, spearheaded by the V Corps. At last, you were back in the saddle. Initial landings were simple and all but unopposed, and on October 22nd, Kerensky himself landed with a main force consisting of the entirety of 20th Army. What little resistance there was came from militia units, who staged a series of heroic but futile blocking actions on the 20th and 21st before retreating into an underground mountain complex. Theoretically, they could have held those positions for months, until food or ammunition gave out, but Kerensky was in no mood at this point to wait. General McEvedy asked for and received permission to break into the castles and clean them out. On October 24th, General McEvedy and the 331st Division took off in their DropShips to deal with the fortresses.
The assault on the first fortress went off without a hitch; the militia defenders not knowing how to utilize the castle's defense to their fullest potential. The attack on the second castle, however, did not go as planned...
Author
Topic: IC: April 30th, 2767 - October 24th, 2768 (Read 3741 times)