While the situation on Canios remained tense, victory had been achieved above Andraskon. But the world was a transshipment point as well as recruiting hub for the Kyreikon army. Which meant that a land invasion would be very costly, but one could also not do a landing. Most of the industry was, after all, located on the planet. Which meant that the UE needed to take the world or accept the risk of this world being used to attack Terra, either through being used as a resupply point for enemy fleets, or as a point to launch sub-light projectiles at the planet. There was also the minor fact that anti-orbital weaponry existed and could, theoretically, be build with local resources, if given time, which would make storming the planet much more expensive if it was not done soon.

But the UEN admiral on location did not want to accept the necessary casualties of taking Andraskon manually. Admiral Donnelly was not sure how to solve the conundrum he was seeing. The enemy troops had fortified themselves inside of the big cities, at least primarily. A few where defending valuable industrial centers located outside of those cities, but those were uncommon, considering how clean even Kyreikon industrial processes were. Or rather, how good the Kyreikon were at seeing the need to prevent that stuff from reaching the atmosphere and how well their processes at ensuring that worked.

Which meant that most of those industries were those that needed to be elsewhere not because it would stink, or otherwise inconvenience the citizens of the planet, but because they were harnessing resources that did not exist in the cities. Resource extraction also tended to necessitate a lot of noise, at least if you wanted to be decently quick about it when extracting bulk resources like iron.

What that all meant was that to take the planet he would need to fight a significant army, while having less access than the enemy to artillery and other ways to kill the enemy with relative impunity, thanks to the UE’s, admittedly a bit outdated, rules of engament, which completely forbid the use of bombarding civilian positions.

Which would increase the casualties of his ground force. Which in turn, because he was in overall command, would look bad for him. Which is why he was seriously considering breaking those rules of engagement.

Over Canios, the situation was slowly getting less tense, mostly because the UE had finally managed to translate the data they had captured, and in that was a document which was explaining, mostly at least, under what restrictions the new neighbours were labouring under. Like actually needing to retreat their battle fleet if outright asked. Which the UE did, following all possible protocol. If that was hinting that they captured the data for that protocol, well, though luck for the warmongers. Considering they should have actually send that data over in the first place. Not that the UE knew that particular fact.

The Crisis over Canios was solved. In the coming months, civilians would return to the world, normality would ensue and the UEN would build powerful star forts inside of the system, as well as staining a number of smaller warships permanently. Figuring out a way to detect approaching Canios type faster than light travel became a priority for the research labs based on that planet. At least those with the capability to help.

It was a resounding victory and a propaganda coup. Peaceful contact had happened, although no real diplomatic contact had resulted, and the evacuation procedures had proven their worth.

Admiral Donnelly did not know what had just happen over Canios. He was currently very unhappy, as he watched the main guns of his ship being turned on the planet. He just prepared breaking the law. And it would not be a minor violation, he knew that already. He was watching a different monitor as well, which showed were the landing force currently was, were the estimated point was at which they would be getting under fire, as well as a countdown that showed when he needed to initiate the orbital bombardment at the latest to ensure at least a good chunk of the enemies ground to orbit defences were taken out, or at least under fire, before those could open fire.

He could still decide differently. He could still stop this. But if he did, he would condemn hundreds, if not thousands to die in the next hour. Hundreds if not thousands of his own men. The enemy had a t least two hundred thousand regular troops on the planet, with over thirty million militia.

That is the issue if you are attacking a populated world. Especially one that was technically the ground combat reserve of an entire sector. Which meant that most of these militia had access to first rate equipment, as well as the training to use it.

But if he did not stop this, he would be killing civilians. Thanks to the positioning of the enemies fortifications that would be unavoidable. He would be attempting to minimise it, but even the most optimistic calculations were suspecting deaths in the high hundreds. The worst? He did not want to think about them. And that was if all went correctly. If something went wrong, if his gunners had miscalculated even slightly, the result could be much, much worse. Because the enemy had at least put those guns not directly into the major residential areas. In some outlying settlements there were some, but not in anything approaching high density.

He looked at the timer. The decision needed to happen within 34 seconds. He gulps once. Straightens his jacket. He then gives the order.

The bombardment commences.

Excerpt of a book dealing with the history of Andraskon

The bombardment of Andraskon in preparation of an invasion was carefully planned. Still, something went wrong. It would take over a year to discover that it was not a fluke that one of the kinetic impactors had hit a high density residential area. Over 300 thousand dead, another 500 thousand wounded. It was sabotage.

It was never solved who did it.

The fallout from that fiasco would follow the UE for a long time. It would also destroy Donnely. Not just because of professional reasons, but because of how badly it went. He would personally lead the investigation, and offer himself up as a sacrifice. While he would never again command a fleet after his return to Terra, he would be instrumental in working out a doctrine for the use of orbital bombardment. Because the reasons the that drove him to use it were viable still.

Considering that he only joined the group after it had been proven that it was sabotage, a lot of that doctrine was focused on preventing sabotage.

In fact, there are common jokes that the use of orbital bombardment is less hampered by the stringent rules of engagement when it is even considered, but instead of all the effort one needs to go through to prevent sabotage…