Rho Sculptoris: The Empire Strikes Back
June 1967 – Rho Sculptoris System
Eighteen months had passed since the last Axis positions on Rho Sculptoris II fell silent.
In November 1965, the excavation of the ancient Echo ruins had awakened something buried beneath the surface. Thousands of robotic units — soon designated Sentinels — emerged from the ruins and overwhelmed the small Axis garrison after six days of fighting. It was the first serious ground defeat suffered by the Empire in decades of expansion.
At the Grand War Council that followed, Duce Sato Hirofumi had given a simple order:
“Rebuild an army worthy of facing these Sentinels. And take back Rho Sculptoris.”
During the following year and a half, the Axis prepared carefully. New Sturmtruppen formations were trained, heavier Panzer units entered service and the lessons learned from previous wars were incorporated into new weapons and tactics. At the same time, captured Raider vessels and wrecks were dismantled on Earth. Their components gave Axis scientists valuable information on 20cm Railguns, cloaking devices, fire-control jammers and missile jamming systems. Enemy wrecks were no longer simply trophies. They had become laboratories.
By mid-1967, the force Hirofumi had demanded was finally ready.
But before hundreds of thousands of tons of troops could land on Rho Sculptoris II, somebody had to clear the way.
Return to Rho Sculptoris
The task was given to three of the new Balbo-class cruisers (20.000 tons), making their first major long-range combat deployment.
Caio Mario, under Capitano Fugunaga Akane, and Lombardia, commanded by Capitano Paola Valente, carried eight Leonardo Particle Beam 3 weapons each. The third ship, Agordat, commanded by Capitano Bernhard Sumachbaum, was the B.A. — Boarding Assault — variant. She sacrificed half of her Particle Beam armament to carry a 1,000-ton assault force.
Sumachbaum was given command of the entire formation. The expedition was accompanied by a tanker and a Jump Tender. Rho Sculptoris lay far from the Solar System and the operation required several jumps through the expanding Axis network before the cruisers could reach their target. Just behind them came the troop transports carrying the invasion armies, with strict orders to remain clear of the planet until the Navy declared the approach safe.
The Sentinels had already demonstrated that they were capable of destroying an army.
As the Balbos entered Rho Sculptoris, communication attempts were made once again. The answer was the same as before: nothing. The Sentinels continued to refuse any exchange of information.
Then the sensors detected something new: an alien vessel.
Sentinel Rana-class. 11,740 tons.
It was the first time this class had been encountered. Sensor analysis immediately revealed electronic warfare systems, including a Fire Control Jammer, but Sumachbaum did not hesitate. The three Balbo accelerated toward the contact, keeping the transports behind them.
At 139,000 kilometres, the order was given.
“Open fire.”
Twenty Leonardo Particle Beams discharged almost simultaneously.
Caio Mario fired eight and scored six penetrating hits. Lombardia added another six. Agordat, with only four Particle Beams, landed three more. Agordat tried to rush to the enemy ship trying to board the damaged hull, but the Rana was crippled almost immediately, by fifteen penetrating hits in the opening volley.
The broken Rana exploded and was left drifting near the planet, another alien wreck waiting to be salvaged and examined.
Captain Sumachbaum had little time to celebrate. Rho Sculptoris II was still below them.
Clear the Sky
The cruisers moved toward the planet. Sensors detected approximately 40,000 tons of remaining Sentinel ground forces and defensive installations on the surface.
This time, the Axis would not repeat the mistake of 1965.
The Balbos systematically targeted the remaining STO positions and air-defense systems capable of threatening the troop transports. Particle beams swept defensive positions from orbit while the transports remained at a safe distance.
Only when the last dangerous target disappeared from the tactical screens did Sumachbaum finally contact the invasion fleet.
“Rho Sculptoris Command to troop transports. Orbital approach is secure. The sky is clear. Begin the landing.” The transports moved in.
The Second Battle of Rho Sculptoris
The force descending toward the planet was unlike anything the Sentinels had faced eighteen months earlier.
Two Sturmtruppen infantry armies formed its backbone. Major Christine Rosenstein’s 4th Infantry Army and Major Elizabeth Connor’s 5th Infantry Army together fielded roughly 12,500 infantry units, supported by assault guns, artillery and heavy weapons.
Alongside them came the 3rd Panzer Army, commanded by Major Nathanael Sylvestre, a decorated veteran of numerous previous ground campaigns. Around 1,500 armored units formed the striking force of the army, including four brigades of heavy Tiger tanks and dedicated targeting formations.
Finally, Major Josephine Rohlfs’ 3rd Infantry Division, some 3,500 reservists, riflemen and machine-gunners, provided additional manpower and support.
In total, approximately 340,000 tons of troops and equipment landed on Rho Sculptoris II.
The old battlefield was still there.
Destroyed fortifications, abandoned positions and the remains of the first campaign lay around the Echo ruins. Somewhere across that barren landscape, Axis soldiers had fought and died in 1965 without ever fully understanding what had emerged from beneath them.
Now their replacements were advancing over the same ground.
The Sentinels met them immediately. The battle became a brutal contest between massed infantry, armored formations and machines designed centuries — perhaps millennia — before humanity had reached the stars. Sturmtruppen brigades pressed forward under heavy fire while the Panzer formations attempted to break the mechanized lines. Heavy Tigers proved particularly valuable against the most powerful Sentinel units, while artillery and assault guns concentrated fire wherever breaches appeared.
Several Sturmtruppen formations achieved breakthroughs and pressed the attack, while the heaviest Axis weapons slowly destroyed the remaining Praetorian machines. In the final phase alone, seven Praetorian Leaders were destroyed as the defensive line collapsed.
Victory came at a terrible price.
Of the roughly 340,000-size expeditionary army that had landed, only 129,538 remained when the fighting ended. Losses amounted to hundreds of units, with the infantry suffering particularly heavily.
On June 21st, 1967, the last organized Sentinel resistance collapsed. Rho Sculptoris II was once again under Axis control.
The Rho Sculptoris Award
News of the victory reached Earth quickly.
For Hirofumi, now an old man who had watched the Empire grow from its first experimental plasma engines into an interstellar power, Rho Sculptoris represented more than another conquered world. Eighteen months earlier he had ordered the military to learn from defeat, rebuild and return.
They had done exactly that.
A new military decoration was created to commemorate the campaign: the Rho Sculptoris Award, awarded to the commanders whose actions in space and on the ground had made the reconquest possible.
Among its first recipients were the four commanders of the invasion armies: Major Christine Rosenstein, Major Elizabeth Connor, Major Nathanael Sylvestre and Major Josephine Rohlfs. Sylvestre in particular added the decoration to an already remarkable record of ground combat service.
The crews that had opened the road to the planet were honored as well. Capitano Bernhard Sumachbaum, commander of Agordat and the Balbo squadron; Capitano Fugunaga Akane of Caio Mario; and Capitano Paola Valente of Lombardia received the medal together with officers Svetlana Vinogradov, Felix Noack, Maximilian Bengtsson, Michael Hutter, Benigna Ongaro and Yakuta Yukimichi. The game record confirms all thirteen among the first recipients of the new decoration.
For the propaganda offices of the Axis, they became the heroes of Rho Sculptoris: the soldiers who had avenged the defeat of 1965 and the sailors who had carried the war across the stars to bring them home victorious.
But while medals were being pinned to uniforms on Earth, the first construction and xenoarchaeology teams were already preparing to return to the Echo ruins.
The Sentinels had been defeated. Their ship had been destroyed. Their armies had been reduced to wreckage. Rho Sculptoris II belonged to the Axis once again.
Yet beneath the ancient city, the question that had started the war remained unanswered.
What had the Sentinels been guarding?