Chapter Eight
Guxaxac
Field General Dayo Okoro stood inside the battle center on planet Guxaxac. The center was actually a big, rectangular container that one of their ships had brought down to the planet. Already, after only half an hour of being on the ground, they had walls around the base, and various other facilities. The walls and the facilities had been transported by Army atmospheric transports from the much larger transport ships in orbit. All equipment and supplies had been loaded into fabricated containers built for this campaign. Each container served as a dedicated facility: medical, soldier barracks, advanced sensory stations, and more. And all was designed to be easily assembled into a functional base.
That was actually the reason for why they had delayed the assault on Guxaxac this long. The Empire had never had a need to fight for an extended amount of time on any planet where they didn’t already have a presence. Time had been needed for them to design and build equipment. And they had—all of their equipment and their bases were modular. They could assemble bases and/or scouting stations for whatever the situation required.
As the base was expanded and areas for the soldiers set up, the transports started bringing down more troops to help with further assembly and to start setting up a perimeter. There was little danger; they had picked a spot high on a plateau at the top of a small mountain. There were no tunnels there, and they had a view of their surroundings for kilometers in every direction. The only Sowir base on the planet was half a planet away to the south, and without the support from the orbit, they had very little that could threaten the Empire’s position. There were other bases across the planet in various stages of completion, but this one would serve as the command center for the entire campaign, and Dayo would serve as commander for it.
He walked outside of the battle center and immediately felt the heat of the Guxaxac sun on his skin. He turned upwards and squinted at the reddish sun. Guxaxac was a lot hotter than Sanctuary, at least during the day; at night it was supposed to be more comfortable, albeit still dry. But it wouldn’t bother them much; most of the actual combat would happen belowground.
Looking over the base, he saw two more dropships leave off containers, his people already running and attaching cables from mobile power plants and from the other containers, establishing connections with the other centers. He turned and walked back inside the battle center. People were still moving around running operational checks and making sure that everything was properly set up. One of the walls of the rectangular room was already turned on, and displayed early reports from the other bases around the planet. It would take them maybe another twelve hours to get everything up and running, and during that time they would be most vulnerable. But thankfully most of the Sowir troops were underground, save for those that had been dropped off before his force had arrived.
They had landed and presumably left their troops at the Sowir topside base before trying to escape—unsuccessfully. Dayo knew that he couldn’t let them get all those troops out of stasis. They already had too many Sowir troops to contend with, and he couldn’t allow them to strike while a great majority of his troops were not yet on the ground, which was why he already had a plan for them. They could have tried orbital bombardment from the fleet, but aside from the damage that those weapons could do to the planet, like collapse tunnels and destroy entire areas, the Sowir had anti-orbital defenses. The Sowir had hidden their troop stasis units in the base, knowing full well that that would give them time to wake them up. The fleet would not risk getting into range of those guns, as they were kinetic in nature and able to inflict damage to the fleet. But the fleet would also keep its distance because the Sowir had missile silos. According to the intel from the Sowir prisoners, the silos had been built after their people had seen the power of those weapons in the fleet actions, for the purpose of defending against the Empire.
But after the non-aggression agreement between the Empire and the Sowir Dominion, they had halted the construction of further defenses. They hadn’t seen the need to spend resources; they had believed that the Empire would keep its word. Up until that point, they had only had experiences with civilizations that had dealt with them without duplicity. Their plan from the beginning had been to break the agreement, only they’d believed that it would be on their terms.
So instead of having the fleet slug it out with the defenses, he had assembled a force that would move and strike at them before they were able to wake up those troops. And perhaps even get some intel on the Sowir on the planet.
Their troopships had already been destroyed; after they’d left their troops, their ships had attempted to escape. They had risen from the planet and had even managed to get to high orbit before the fleet had destroyed them. His force would need to attack them on the ground. He wasn’t going to risk the few atmospheric gunships he had. He had few of them; as most of the fighting on Guxaxac would be underground, he had been given only a small number of those, and he wanted to keep them in reserve.
Dayo turned his eyes to the holo in the middle of the room, seeing one base shown there that had a ready signal above it. It was a small base set up for the purpose of launching the attack on the Sowir base. They had rushed its construction, and had dropped in personnel and weapons as fast as they could.
As he was looking at the holo, an incoming communication request came through from the base. Dayo reached over and placed his hand on the hologram, accepting the comm.
“Field General,” the shape of Andrew Mao said as he saluted. Dayo returned the salute, and then spoke.
“Are you ready, Force Commander?”
“Yes, all the machinery is down, as are the troops. We are still having trouble with setting up a sensory net, and need to rely on the fleet. And their info isn’t all that accurate in this weather; they are too far away for detailed scans,” Force Commander Mao said. Dayo nodded. Andrew was on the south continent, close to the area where the Sowir base was. There had been a storm there, and while the worst of the storm was over, clouds still remained over the entire area, making it difficult for the fleet to see.
“Proceed as planned. It is unlikely that the Sowir will send any troops to intercept your people from the base before you attack. They have very little in terms of ground transports, and most of their numbers are underground searching for the Guxcacul. It would take time to recall them,” Dayo said.
“Of course, sir. The troops are ready, and will set out immediately,” Mao said.
“Good,” Dayo said, and terminated the comm. Mao was in charge of that base, and would oversee the operation from a distance, while Dayo would get updates on his holo. He had a bigger picture to contend with now. First on his list was getting all the bases up and operational. He turned to his staff, who had just finished setting up smaller stations to the side of the room, and started asking for reports.
Company Leader Mira Johannes watched as her squad did the last checks on their equipment. Her squad was designated as heavy assault, and most of them operated heavy weapons. Each platoon had four squads with seven people per squad, meaning that her platoon had 28 soldiers. And this mission would be carried out by ten platoons, a total of 280 soldiers, which meant that her company had four extra squads attached to it for the purpose of this mission.
Mira walked up to her mech and with a command from her imp opened the cockpit. She climbed the six-and-a-half-meters-tall machine and entered. Inside was a protective cocoon, and after she stepped inside, she immediately felt the connector attach itself to the back of her neck and the access point implanted there. There were no controls inside the mech; it was operated by technology that had evolved out of virtual reality simulators.