While the marines were still securing the asteroid base dropships began landing troops on the planet. The Scorpion walkers were the first heavy units deployed, and they were immediately deployed to protect the landing site, while dropships and shuttles began to unload tanks for the mission. Fleet had identified a total of twelve settlements that needed to be secured, but there were also patrols moving between settlements. The Scorpions were great attack units, but they lacked the speed of a tank, which is why the Scorpions were going to be used to attack the compound that had already taken fire from orbit to soften it. The compound was where most of the Rykoni life signs had been concentrated, and it was well fortified. The bombardment had destroyed the ground to space guns that it had, but its garrison was mostly intact.

That was deliberate, however, as they were trying to do minimal damage to the facility. Fleet scanners had detected significant storage silos under the compound. The compound was clearly there to defend the local spaceport, and valuables were stored there before being shipped into orbit. For this attack, they had brought two kinds of tanks for the blitz on the settlement. The first was the Raptor class MBTs. Fast and powerful, they had changed little in the last seventy years. The only notable changes were that propulsion and defense systems had been upgraded to a higher standard. The current Raptor was officially designated the Raptor A-9. There were rumors in the fleet that an upgrade for the tank was in the works. The other tank they brought was a lighter design intended primarily for reconnaissance roles, but it also had enough teeth to be deadly when it needed to be. It could also double as a transport, and could carry up to six marines with it.

The ST-48 was designed by the fleet in the last seventy years, and its design was based on the older ST-42. Being small and light at just under 21 tons allowed it to move at rapid speeds across the battlefield. Unlike the Raptor the ST-48 is a pure hover tank. For armament, it carries a single 55mm Photon cannon, twin light photon missile launchers, and a light coaxial particle cannon. For protection, it was given a coating of fourth-generation overlord armor 150 mm thick. Ultimately its speed was the main reason they had brought it along. They were going to be deployed to hunt down patrols, and scout out enemy positions. While the main assaults on the settlements would be spearheaded by the more powerful Raptor tanks.

The local commander of the ground units watched as the tanks were unloaded from the shuttles. She had been given four hundred ST-48s and two hundred Raptors for this mission. It was a good number, and it made the bulk of her vehicle division. The core of her force was made up of the twenty thousand mechanical soldiers she had been given. Along with an additional two thousand marines from the original ground force assigned to the Enterprise seventy years ago. They were her elite ground troops, even if most of their experience was from boarding actions and war games. It had been a long time since they had last conducted a ground op. The last one being the Raid on New Valoria in 004 SDE. Since then they had no reason to be conducting ground operations. Everything since then had been boarding operations which were a bit different.

As the last of the tanks was unloaded from the shuttles, a lieutenant reported to her, “Sir, the shuttles are about finished unloading our supplies.”

“Good have the ST crews deploy. I want them out hunting down those patrols. Make sure to attach a squad to each tank,” she ordered. The lieutenant nodded and rushed off to carry out the order. Fortunately, this ground mission shouldn’t be too difficult since they already had complete orbital control. Which consequently meant they had aerial supremacy. That didn’t mean she was going to underestimate this foe. A cornered animal often fought the hardest.

Following her orders she noticed a few scout tanks leaving the LZ. They already had their orders, and she knew they would be fanning out to engage enemy patrols. The patrols weren’t exactly consistent in composition, but they all had at least one vehicle and between ten to twenty thugs. A few even had what looked to be the Rykoni equivalent of a tank. They had in fact seen several variants, but the most common was designated as the Herc Heavy Tank. The old WWII tank design classification actually seemed to fit the thing more than the modern era MBT classification.

The Herc was a big tank at about 15 meters in length. Scans had revealed these Hercs were outfitted with 235mm projectile cannons, and a coaxial laser cannon. Along with eight 20mm rapid-fire autocannons. A choice she personally found a little odd, as a smaller caliber would have worked better. The entire thing was heavily armored, and outfitted with an energy shield, but its tracks struggled with its high weight making it slow and lumbering.

They had also seen a larger cousin, but it appeared to be defending the compound. They had four of the Behemoth tanks that honestly looked like someone took the WWII german Maus and made it even bigger and then made a few modifications. Scans revealed the things needed antigrav engines just to keep it from sinking into the soil. She doubted the Rykoni were smart enough to build the things, and guessed they either stole them or purchased them. Given their disposition, she was quite sure it was the former. The Behemoths had very thick armor, especially frontal, but their aft armor was paper-thin. Which would make them vulnerable to flanking attacks, but if they couldn’t flank she figured a Scorpion could make short work of them. Assuming it could get through the shields.

A tank crested the dune. Being a light unit it was tasked with engaging the patrols, so that the main forces could more easily take the settlements. Her crew spotted a patrol ahead of them. About ten men were marching alongside a larger tank. The commander ordered a missile lock, and a pair of missiles were fired at the tank. Two glowing blue bolts sailed through the air and slammed into the side of the tank. A shield flared, but the missiles passed through. An instant later the tank exploded spraying its surroundings with shrapnel. Then men unfortunate enough to be too close were killed instantly.

With a hoot, the weapon’s officer declared, “Direct hit target destroyed.”

The commander smiled and then ordered the driver to proceed to their next waypoint. Thanks to the fleet providing real-time positioning data they knew exactly where the next patrol was, and the waypoint is where they were expected to intercept them.

The commander then took stock of their remaining missiles. They had used them to kill three tanks already, and are down to four out of ten photons. The photons were their main weapon for engaging heavy armor, as the main cannon was only really good against lightly armored targets. Most of the races they encountered favored shields over armor so it was fine in most situations, but the Rykoni tanks were well-armored. Considering the problem, she knew her gun would struggle to penetrate their frontal and side armor, but their aft and top armor was quite thin. She would waste fewer shells trying to penetrate the thinner aft armor.

Anyway, with this latest group down, the main force now had a clear path to the local settlements. Which were only lightly defended by ground troops. Orbital scans indicated that they didn’t have any vehicles deployed to defend them. Their tanks were used mainly for patrolling the lands surrounding the settlements.

Checking the tac plot she saw the group they were moving towards was on the other side of a small hill. Unlike last time they were facing the hill, which meant they would be seen if they crested the sandy hill. Which meant that it was time to take advantage of their main gun’s elevation and variable shot velocity features. She fed some figures to her weapons officer who began targeting the cannon. As soon as they were on target she ordered her to fire. Four quick shots sent out a small indirect volley of glowing photon shells.

The shells flew over the hill, and with a fair amount of accuracy slammed into the approaching Herc Tank. Her shield successfully absorbed the first shell, but the other three slammed into her thinner top armor. The vehicle exploded in a large fireball, and then her tank was off to crest the dune.

A couple of Rykoni had survived the destruction of the tank, but a couple of quick shots from her coaxial was all that was needed to deal with them.

Around the same time, the main battlegroups were entering the first of the twelve settlements surrounding the compound. The Scorpions were moving to bypass the settlement so it was the tanks and infantry moving into the settlement.

The settlement was surrounded by a wall, with Rykoni patrolling the top of the wall. A Raptor fired a single round from her main cannon. A glowing blue projectile slammed into the gate and exploded opening an easy path into the town. The infantry then poured in, with some tank support.

Elsewhere a similar occurrence was happening at another town. Most of the populace were indeed slaves, and they joined in with the Refuge forces as soon as their handlers were dead. They were unreliable troops though, so the Refuge did its best to keep them out of the fight. Especially since they didn’t exactly need cannon fodder, and the could easily manufacture new troops to replace any they lost. The freed slaves had more value as diplomatic capital than as cannon fodder.

The towns couldn’t put up much of a fight, but the Rykoni did managed to injure a couple of soldiers when they managed to get them into a melee. The Rykoni proved to be better at Melee combat than the Refuge troops were, but thankfully the injured troops had buddies that could bale them out.

Things went much like this until they reached the compound. Just as they were reaching it one of the Behemoths opened fire on the approaching forces. Massive shells slammed one after another into the approaching troops. Most of which was absorbed by the Scorpions positioned to protect the troops, just in case of this eventuality.

The Scorpions didn’t just sit there and take the incoming barrage, and focused their Particle Lances on the massive tank. Powerful violet energy bursts slammed violently into its shield one after another. Its shield held for several minutes under the barrage before collapsing. The energy then slammed into its frontal plate. The particle stream melted right through the massive and thick plates before burning out the internal spaces. After several more shots, the thing was reduced to a burned-out husk, but it had inflicted some damage. A couple of Raptors had gotten hit by its heavy shells, and while the crews were alright the tanks had been disabled. Not to mention the Scorpions had some dents in their armor.

With the tank down the troops were able to enter the compound while the tanks and walkers stayed on the perimeter splitting to engage the other Behemoths defending the perimeter.

Inside, the Rykoni put up a fierce fight, often making use of weapons they hadn’t employed in the settlements. The fierce fighting lasted for about an hour. Squads moving room by room to engage troops in fortified positions. It was here that the Refuge sustained some casualties thanks to the intense fighting, but they were all mechanical troops. Which could be repaired or replaced.