Taking the City-Planet of Velian
The battle of Velian was the most fierce and bloody battle of the entire Third Wave Invasion. The entirety of the oceanless planet of Velian is covered by a world-spanning city reaching kilometers high and kilometers deep, its population numbering over 25 billions. Belonging to the founding planets of the Protectorate, it is also the largest trading center of the entire Human Dominion Sphere. Neighbouring a great many of trade routes, Velian is the biggest transit point of the Golden Hundred, the numerous cargo terminals and warehouses on its surface and orbit loading and unloading tens of thousands trading ships daily.
Near the period yet to be known later as the end of the Third Wave, the Polaris Empire attempted to seize the planet. An invasion force led by three commanders, all members of the Imperial Legion - lord Cross, lady Agatha, and Aleksey Dolgorukiy, one of the few legionaries not of noble birth - was assembled. Cross was appointed as the commander-in-chief; however, both his Legion colleagues would be glad to cut him out of that position and take all glory for themselves, given an opportunity.
The invasion started with a three-pronged assault, each legionary's army easily taking one of the three main orbital defense/cargo stations also serving as space elevator endpoints. However, during the forces' elevator-assisted landing and ongoing attacks on installations less significant, Cross' soldiers were unexpectedly met by a huge army of outworld origin, its vessels located around the north pole station.
The imperials were unaware that, following a contract with the Protectorate, the north station was intended to be used by the forces of the Golden Hundred. As it was revealed much, much later, a troop transfer was being conducted through Velian in order to reinforce the defenses of a select direction targeted by the Empire; the planet's orbit, on that day, temporarily accommodated an immense army that was on its way to be distributed between twenty-seven worlds. It's said that the chief of the Imperial Foreign Intelligence Department paid with his head for missing such an important fact; however, that's particularities.
Almost twelve divisions of robotic infantry under the command of Mark Chang, the most experienced advisor of the Protectorate, and six his colleagues now faced the troops of the Empire. Chang's judgement was quick; he ordered to land immediately and to defend the Northern Block, the city part located around the north pole. Understanding that trying to retreat from the planet without orbital support would make his forces an easy prey, he opted for a surface battle.
Meanwhile, Cross ordered the space squadron accompanying his troops to attack Chang's vessels before they could all land. In a day, one third of the Protectorate contingent was dead, having been given no chance to descend; nonetheless, the remaining two thirds managed to successfully repel the first ground assault led by Dolgorukiy. It was the first battle where advisor Helen Pyriel took part after her release from the court-martial's custody, and it was the battle where she distinguished herself.
The imperials now knew that there was no way to conquer the planet quickly, with Protectorate forces holding the north pole, ready to fight to the last man. Even the fact that all orbital stations were now Empire-controlled gave little comfort to Cross, who was well familiar with Chang and knew him not be the one to yield easily.
Based on that, lord Cross ordered the drop troops led by lady Agatha to dig. By that time, almost all the planet except for the north pole was occupied by the Empire; lady Agatha decided to drive a tunnel several kilometers under the deepest city structures. Over the course of forty-five days, a 120-kilometers-long way had been dug by the engineers, allowing the drop elites to burst from under Protectorate soldiers' feet.
With digging underway, Cross was still trying to breach Chang's defenses using methods more simple. The fighting turned the city around the Northern Block into a field of debris and slag; still, Cross did not succeed and had to order Agatha to strike. The full-strength drop division, enacting the breackthrough, achieved overwhelming results; half the Protectorate forces were ground up within less than a day, and three advisors fell. The rest of the advisors, their teamwork disrupted, now had to act each on their own.
Advisor Olgerd secured a foothold in one of the Northern Block's districts, isolated his positions from the rest of the city, and prepared to fend the Empire off to the bitter end. He entrenched so well that Dolgorukiy lost a quarter of his troops - and didn't succeed anyway - in attempts to dislodge him until the planet-wide fighting was over.
Advisor Ramirez was killed in action together with his division while trying to break free from the encirclement. Chang, cut off from the rest with only several robo-infantry battalions under his command, chose to act smarter; he waited until the last of Agatha's forces emerged from the tunnel, then rushed to use the tunnel himself. With only the imperial engineers remaining inside, busy strengthening the arches, Chang eliminated everyone in his way, covered 120 kilometers in three days, and broke free in the very middle of the imperial army.
Now, it was Cross forbidding further passage. In a battle short but tense, he almost completely destroyed Chang's forces, but could not reach the advisor himself. With Cross' personal guard all killed in the fight, Chang got away almost on his own, disappearing within the city depths.
The fiercest fighting unfolded around advisor Pyriel; it was her troops suffering the brunt of Agatha's impact from under the ground. Pyriel was doing her best, but the outnumbering imperial forces pushed her divisions to the very edge of the Northern Block; but now, the tides were turned. Some of Agatha's units got trapped and perished in the flames of a power station exploding; lady Agatha herself clashed with Pyriel one-on one.
With each woman having enough weaponry as to turn an entire regiment to ash, the duel razed several districts. Nobody knows what was the exact outcome, but Pyriel returned to her soldiers and led a new attack. She lost three fourths of her troops; nonetheless, she broke through, the remains of her army scattering all over the planet. A courier ship of the Empire urgently escaped, carrying lady Agatha's severed head towards much-needed regeneration treatment.
In the meantime, an Imperial Legion fleet infiltrated Protectorate territory and struck a blow to the very heart of the enemy. The brand-new secret weapon was used. Beta Equitis, the sun of Jamiria, one of the Elder Planets of the Protectorate, went supernova for no apparent reason; more than thirty billion people ceased to exist in the blink of an eye.
The day after the destruction of Beta Equitis, the Cloud appeared at the orbit of Polaris Prime and blew one of its moons into a swarm of asteroids, which promptly began falling onto the capital world. It was only the superb orbital defense that saved the planet from becoming a crater-covered desert. Both sides finally understood that continuing such a war would lead to total annihilation. In fifteen days, a ceasefire was signed, and the Vigilant Peace began.
The order for both sides to cease hostilities reached Velian on the hundredth day of fighting. Both sides were extremely exhausted, with the war continuing due to inertia alone. Only the ever-inexhaustible Pyriel still was going for lord Cross' throat. No less than seven times they clashed, no less then seven times they failed to strike the for down. Even as troops started to withdraw, following the Locust-Di treaty, Pyriel disobeyed Chang's direct orders, pursuing revenge; Chang, Olgerd, and several other advisors had to hold her with their forcefields and take her, still fighting back, to the ship that was to carry the last of the forces from the planet.
The treaty of Locust-Di has made Velian into a neutral planet; it is now a transit point, through which planets of the Polaris Empire and the Protectorate trade with each other.
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| Factions: | Dusty Zone Raiders, Militia of the Planet Velian, Pirates of Marcus, Ruthenian Guard, Spetsnaz of the Planet Felicia |