04N, The Barren Crest, Mojave

The Barrent Crest, Mojave's Orbit
Operation Red Sun Rising Battle Group, 1st Offensive Fleet,
Aboard the Imperial Dreadnought, Jupiter
Command Bridge


The Grand Admiral leans forward in front of the screen as the dreadnought exits slip space and enters the orbit of Mojave. The large fleet slowly enters the battleground shortly after the dreadnought. In front of them lies an old run down station with many frigates and cruisers docked on it. Most of them bear the same marking on each ship. Eclipse pirates. It isn't long before the ships begin to scramble and their FTL drives begin to warm up. Grand Admiral Adrian held his hands behind his back in a calm manner.

"Open fire, destroy them all."

No one questioned the Grand Admiral, and the entire fleet began opening fire on the mostly pirate fleet. It was a slaughter. Some of the smaller ships tried to fire back, but they don't stand a chance against the Imperium fleet. It is only about 10 minutes before the entire enemy fleet is wiped out. Carriers move closer to the planet and hundreds of drop pods filled with Imperial Marines descend onto the planets surface. With the intelligence gathered from Bolbun Jacta, the captured Eclipse leader, and other intel gathered from OMI agents positioned on the planet for months, the cities are quickly overwhelmed by Marine shock troops.

Within hours and little resistance over 80,000 Imperium Marines are on the planet with more than 100,000 droids. Some try to stop the onslaught of Imperial forces but are gunned down quickly. Known associates and members of the Eclipse and other criminal organizations are dragged out onto the streets and executed. While in other parts of the planets, stores of guns, drugs, and stolen helium-3 is found and turned over to the Office Of Military Intelligence. Slaves are freed, and innocents are herded into refugee camps run by the Imperial forces until the towns and abandoned mining bases are completely clear of contraband, criminals, mercenaries and pirates seeking to oppose the new government.

By the end of the day, over 30,000 people have been executed or arrested by the Imperium. 100,000 slaves are freed and given the option to either work for the Imperium and get paid, or return to their homes. Innocent residents are told the same thing. The slaves praise the Red Sun Imperium for their bravery and kindness, and thank them for freeing them. Many choose to stay and are given food, housing, and a small amount of money to begin their new lives. The Shawktae leaders thank the Imperial invasion force for their generosity, and civilian ships from the Imperium carrying mining equipment land on the planet and begin to set up an operation. They are accompanied by geosynchronous defense platforms and a majority of the Marine Force is replaced by Army troops.

The withdraw of Imperium Marines is followed closely by the withdraw of most of the fleet. However, some ships stay, and are reinforced by a contingent from the 2nd Defensive Fleet. A blockade is formed around the planet allowing only Imperium approved ships to enter the system.

The Grand Admiral returns to his seat and stares at the screen as the 1st Fleet exits the system. Victory.

With the invasion and occupation of the Red Sun Imperium, most of the criminal element on Mojave has been eliminated. Regular executions take place in the streets to ensure the population knows that the Imperium will not tolerate civil dissent, and to ensure the planet maintains a certain level of order. Most of the Imperial Marines have been replaced by several Imperial Army occupational forces, including the 2nd, and the 4th Army Battlegroups. This totals around 70,000 soldiers on the planet, including divisions ranging from infantry to intelligence. Many question the motives behind the Imperial occuptation of the planet, and the deployment of so many troops. It hasn't helped that rumors of the Inquisition along with OMI has been building bases out in the empty reaches of the planet and have been bringing prisoners to some of these remote, highly top secret locations.

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04N, The Barren Crest
Planet Surface of Mojave
Pacified Colony 02, also known as 'Geronimo'


Corporal Balewae followed in line as his squad maneuvered the narrow alleyways of one of the Imperiums newly secure facilities on the planet's surface, or at least secure is what they were told. Balewae had been one of the first soldiers from the Army that had been stationed at Mojave, and he had already seen his fair share of combat. For the most part, the action was kept to a minimum. A terrorist taking a potshot at a squad of soldiers, or a homemade bomb going off next to a mobile Panther.

"The house should be coming up soon, I don't want any mistakes and I don't want anyone hurt." The Lieutenant's voice filled the Corporals helmet. The Imperium had taken hardly any causalities and they wanted to keep it that way. That was why they preformed these regular sweeps through housing districts in order to take anything illegal before it could be used against them. It was also a very good way to show them a message, we know what you are doing and we will stop you before it happens. This sweep wasn't random, and the Army had been tipped off by an intelligence officer from the Office of Military Intelligence. Supposedly the apartments held several illegal autmotatic weapons, mostly Kalashnikovs.

Balewae kept close behind his brothers armored in the modern Hercules set of armor. There would be 10 of them in total within his squad. The three men leading the squad through the alleyways, and one taking up the rear, would all be equipped ST-45 submachine guns which could easily put down anything that tried to pop out at them from the corners. The fourth in line in a tight formation like this was usually the NCO in charge, carrying an XR-115 rifle. Balawae was fifth behind the NCO, and he carried the 115 battle rifle as well. One of the squad members carried an SM-110M, a smaller caliber marksman rifle, while two others carried TT-23 SAWs. The rest of the squad carried battle rifles. The idea was to be prepared for almost any situation that could arise in these housing districts.

Clack. Clack. Clack. Shit, it wasn't the Imperial rifles firing.

"Second squad they saw us coming and opened fire! We need you here now! Move your asses double-time!" It was the Lieutenant again. The sergeant did not need to repeat the orders to his squad, and all of them, Balewae included, began sprinting towards the location of the gunfire. The walls enclosing the alleyways rose up almost 20 feet high, and in the center of every one of these housing blocks would be a huge open square courtyard with parks, stores, clinics and anything the local residents could need.



When second squad arrived they could see first squad, along with the PL, pinned down within the courtyard taking heavy fire from three different buildings, and almost every direction.

"We need to clear all these buildings. Price, Muller, and Aljro I want you guys to cut through that apartment building there to get to that shooter in the northeaster building. Ramirez, use that LMG to suppress him.  Hazard, Baskio, and Batista, I want you on the shooter to our east, he is close so go around through the back and surprise him. When you finish him off, Hazard use your sniper and see if you can pick provide some support. The rest of us, that means Balawae and McDonald, we are going to push the shooter on the west. We are going to hug the wall and keep low and push up through the front. Understood?" All at once a synchronized "Yes sergeant!" could be heard within the soldier's helmets. All of second squad began moving, and Balawae took up the rear of his fire team behind the NCO. Shots cracked right above his head as the pushed towards one of the shooters. He cursed beneath his breath and they entered through the front door, with McDonald taking point toting his sub machine gun. He heard the familiar ring of gunfire from the floors above, there was only one gun firing. The fireteam started moving up the stairs and the sound of gunfire got louder. It was only a few rooms away now. They rushed the shooters vantage point quickly and within seconds of breaching the room, the man was crumpled over on the ground, riddled with bullets. It was a skinny looking human, with sunken in eyes, and pale, even purplish skin. He was clearly a drug addicted former slave. It wasn't long afterwards that all the gunfire died down.

"Sir, we caught one trying to get out through the back of the building. He's got something you might want to look at." It was Hazard.

"Bring him out to the courtyard." The Lt's voice was commanding and cool, as if he hadn't been under heavy gunfire for the past few minutes. Second squad slowly made its way over towards the courtyard as a nearby reinforcing platoon had begun to sweep the whole area and establish a secure perimeter in order to check the local housing buildings. Several droids accompanied them. Hazard and Baskio were dragging a Zeleniy by armpits towards the PL's position. He was screaming at them in his native tongue and when he was beside the Lieutenant's feet, a droid simply stated.

"I can translate if you'd like," The Platoon Leader brushed him aside and looked towards Hazard.

"What did you find?"Hazard simply tossed him a bag the size of his hand filled with a blue powder. It was a drug known as sun dust. The NCO, Staff Sergeant Scalletta, pulled the prisoner up to his knees and pulled back his jacket sleeve. A perfect circle was burned onto the inside of his forearm. He looked towards Lieutenant Al-Asam.

"Do it."That was all the Sergeant needed before he took a few steps back, raised his rifle and fired a round straight into the Zeleniy drug dealer. His body flew backwards, trying to catch up with his head, and blood covered the courtyard's ground. This had become a regular thing. Most of the slaves were addicted to the sun dust, and while the Imperium had been putting detox drugs inside of the food and water given out, many were very easily swayed by the drugs. Drug dealers took advantage of this and would promise the former slaves drugs if they would pick up a rifle and start taking down RSI soldiers. The more you took down, the more you would get. However, this hardly worked as usually it ended up with several dead dust heads and maybe one injured Imperial soldier.

"Call in a cleanup crew, and help 4th Platoon set up a perimeter and start sweeping the housing buildings nearby." The PL's men either nodded silently or went right to work securing the area.