Open Terrain

*Thousands of paratroopers streamed down, and as the first companies touched dirt - about ten kilometers east of the Reecee's largest metropolitan area, there was a surprising attack.*

THUMP! BUMP! THWACK! THUD! DUMP! THUCK! OOOSH!

*Little black clouds began to explode among the paratroopers that were still ground-bound. Flak? Who was firing? From where? The commanders weren't expecting to be attacked just yet, and definitely not by anti-aircraft fire. At the moment, troopers screamed about flak fire:*

:: Achtung! Flak! ::*The general hiss in terms of radio chatter.*

*The amount of fire is laughable though. Two entire divisions were coming down, and this new rebellion hardly had enough guns to be a major annoyance. Even now, Naval Intelligence upstairs was tracking where the rounds came from. The powerful cameras from the Agathe should not be underestimated.
There are scant casualties, a few unlucky paratroopers lost limbs, or their lives, as some shots found a mark. Minutes tick by, and soon enough, all of the men and woman touch the ground.

Now the matter was to quickly get to the city; there was a predetermined axis of advance - even a plan. One division would hold ground, the other would blitz the city.
In fact, the commanders had some special methods to get what they wanted. So 1st Corps was very calm about the whole situation.*

*A couple of months had passed since the resistance had been chased from the capital city. These rebels had taken refuge in various towns, scattered like ashes across the globe in tactically ineffective areas. The resistance was little more than a bad jest. And, while they liked to believe they fought for a cause, what they were in reality was large testing ground. The large army, the powers that be, used these terrorists as practice for prospective recruits, of which were many.

A test consisted of a company of Fallschirmjägers attacking a particular village or town, usually razing it in the process. Other challenges were put in place by the higher ranking officers. A small list of these challenges consisted of: taking a designated "VIP," killing all the townspeople, capturing the town without killing anyone, working without radio gear, working with limited ammo, etc. In this way, the army was trained to be versatile, and prepared to handle many different tasks, should the need arise.

The rebels? They thought they were getting smuggled equipment and supplies. They actually were being funded by the invaders. Even using army rations. What was important was that they BELIEVED they were rebelling, when they were all just part of the plan. Thus, chaos to order, and the useless was turned to useful.*

*Most of the Reecee country side consisted of mountainous terrain smothered by old forests. Scant towns littered the land randomly, and the planet's capital city, a massive concrete and glass jungle, dominated a large, 400 kilometer-wide plain. A large river, spanning five kilometers from bank to bank, forked through the plain, and served a natural border for the metropolis' west end. During 1st Corps' invasion, two of the three bridges were destroyed, and the third was near complete structural failure. To fix the scars left by rebellion, the newly placed government enlisted the help of the citizen with "People's Projects." These were designed to "improve the efficiency of life." One project was the repair and reconstruction of the City's bridges, another was the building of inner city infrastructure, and the list continued on: a strange new military installation was to be constructed about 150 kilometers west of the City, a training ground and camp for Reecee's human youth was planned for a site just 50 kilometers southwest of the bridges, highways were going to be built to connect all three areas, and various strong-points, mainly anti-air and anit-space facilities, were in the works. If all went according to plan, the massive plain would look like it had a dark scalene triangle upon it: the eastern point - the City, the southern point - the youth camp, and the western point - the Castle. An army of workers are employed for the task - ranging all sorts of classes and status (though, of course, only human). To fund these ambitious projects? Why, the N.O.E coffers were brimming due to all the recent conquests. Why not spend it on an impressive Reeceean face-lift?*

*Of all the "People's Projects," the first one to be completed is the odd military installation. From the outside, it looks like a morbid castle. It's not that tall, but wide: the main building itself about the size of an interplanetary league stadium. A small garrison of 1st Corps: two companies of the very best, from the "Wehrwolf" contingent, commando forces of Kampfgruppe Seelow, are left to provide security for the base. The base also contains a staff of a 1,000 offizers, many of them a "Ritter" or level beyond that -these men and woman would provide all kinds of logistical and technological support for all of the Kampfgruppe's activities across the universe- among them 4,000 civilian consultants. The facility itself dove dozens of levels underground, and all kinds of production, mining, experimentation, and R&D was going on; much of it was going to be exclusive to the fascists, but some info and material would be shared with the N.O.E. The place even had an Inquisition office, for any traveling inquisitors who wanted to rest, refit, or just do their paramilitary job of keeping track of N.O.E forces.*

*Meanwhile, the invading army is picked up by a fleet of troop transport craft, and is flown away to the starry yonder above.*

*Another week, another monstrosity. The youth camp has been completed, and now thousands of young, impressionable minds are diluted with the lovely teachings of human superiority. It is here that they will learn to be cruel, calculating, aggressive, and desirous. More importantly, these zealous little urchins will wear uniforms, heft rifles, and protect Reecee from all it's enemies. Well, more accurately, they will protect Reecee from whatsoever the N.O.E declares is an enemy.*

*The supplies from upstairs are delivered to the three main areas of the planet. The shield goes to Castle, the 50,000 stormtrooper droids to the youth camp, and surface to space guns will be emplaced within the city. This will all take some time.*

*Thanks to the hard work of human muscle and gray matter, the three N.O.E-grade SS-2 Planetary Plasma cannons are set up just inside the metropolitan area's city limits. This might seem like a bad idea, putting up defensive emplacements in the midst of civilian populations. Especially a high priority target like a surface-to-space gun, which is sure as Hell to draw fire in a war. But this is what is special about the average Reeceeian citizen. The citizen is who will operate the gun. The Volkssturm would be trained to defend those guns as effectively as possible. Furthermore, building the guns in the City showcased the integral connection between civil life, and militarized, regimentalized life. It was a beautiful, horrible thing. Hopefully it would pay off in the event of an invasion.

* * *

Deep inside Castle, dozens upon dozens of sub-floors down the main gates of this macabre place, the DefenStar 5000, a planetary shielding system, was being constructed. Upon it's completion, the secret station would provide a nearly impenetrable field of protection to the City. Of course, it wasn't invincible - but it was tough. Orbital strikes could crack it and cause it to overload, but it would take a good while before that happened; thus, the City remained technically safe from bombardment. The enemy would have to touch boots to ground to get to it, and that is where the Volkssturm would shine. A crippling blow to the morale of any invading force would be to discover that the shield wasn't even within the City. It would be safe within Castle, a 150 kilometers west. Castle wasn't protected by shields, so it's upper levels could be destroyed from space. Still it was a touch nut to crack, and even if it did fail and crumble to the ground, the rubble would just provide an extra layer of protection and seal all the entrances to the real heart of Castle. It is in this heart, that the shielding system would be housed. Better yet, most of Castle's personnel worked beneath surface level, and if an enemy was lucky enough to dig through the rubble, they would have a terribly hard, costly battle. Castle's personnel where the some of the very best human troopers in the N.O.E, and the Wehrwolfs could be considered frightful. The kind of commandos that could take down modern armies with just a few platoons. That was the level of their tactics. Moreover, a supply of non-perishable rations was being prepared in the case of a siege. Naturally, this would take some time to set up. Once completed, however, Reecee would not invincible -there was no such thing- but it would be quite a stubborn planet.*

*The winds blow softly across the plateau, and the cancer of this Fascist Reich continues to grow.*

*It might be interesting to note that a place so seemingly tyrannical was so isolated. Elaborating, besides the 400 kilometer piece of land, the rest of the planet was apparently ignored. There were no defensive emplacements in the forests and mountains, besides the scant rebel villages that dotted the remote areas.*

[quote="Lord Bacca":3a5p5rus][code:3a5p5rus]Incoming Encrypted DataBurst.

Orders From the Lord of War.

All N.O.E. Controlled Worlds must donate 250 StormTroopers, They Must Be Battle Hardened, Proven Soldiers of Combat, New Training Program Underway, The Men must be Ranked from 1 to 10, 1 being Able, 10 being Leadership.

Assemble on Xagobah Garrison Base.

- Commodore Adarok - [/code:3a5p5rus][/quote:3a5p5rus]

[action:3a5p5rus]The officers in charge of the powerful communications post deep in the bowels of Castle receive the transmission. No doubt some would smirk at the questionable abundance of capitalization where it wasn't needed, but perhaps different dialects of Basic puts emphasis on different words. Tolerance was a hateful thing. Nevertheless, the orders are clear after translation. First serving their Reich, then serving their honourable empire, the Eye, 250 elite warriors volunteer for the mission. Of worthy note was that all the men and women were officers, with the lowest ranks among them being 2nd lieutenants. If the Eye needed assistance, Reecee was more than willing to provide the most elite of the elite. Perfection called for no less.[/action:3a5p5rus]