19 April 4003
While the full impact of the Battle of Gliese 1 would take some time to be fully felt at the highest levels by the Legion Navy, in the immediate aftermath of the battle a flurry of orders had to be given. Of the surviving ships of First Fleet, only the destroyer Charon had taken damage, albeit not much more than a few paint scratches. Therefore, Destroyer Squadron 1 including Charon and the jump destroyer Furious was detached and ordered to return to Duratus for light repair work to be done. As they left the former combat zone they would also retrieve the lifepods from their less-fortunate comrade vessels. The reserve still stationed at the jump point would be ordered to rendezvous with the remaining First Fleet elements at Gliese 1-A II to provide broad sensor coverage and jump support for the surviving light cruisers. Meanwhile, reports of the battle had been relayed through the jump point by the reserve elements, and while there was great rejoicing in the halls of the Legion high command there was also concern about the size of the planet garrison. Therefore, the auxiliary fleet en route to Gliese 1 was recalled, to be augmented with a larger troop transport group carrying two Armored Corps. While the Legion still lacked drop transport capability at this time, once again battle planners would rely on overwhelming force to overcome a technical deficit.
In addition to the Red Skull of Gliese 1, awarded to all command officers who survived the Battle of Gliese 1 along with their ships, Captain Niobe Chryson received a number of decorations including initiation into the prestigious Order of the Legion for her boldness and valor in command of First Fleet.
Meanwhile, life carried on throughout the rest of the Legion. On 27 April the first of a new Gatekeeper-class of traffic monitoring ships was commissioned. The Gatekeepers would be 33% larger than the Wardens in order to mount a small gravity drive to provide jump capability, thus not relying on a fleet tender to reach its assigned station. The Wardens would of course remain in service for some time yet, but without this jump capability their days were clearly numbered.
Gatekeeper class Traffic Monitor 4,000 tons 40 Crew 188.9 BP TCS 80 TH 225 EM 0
2813 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-22 Shields 0-0 HTK 18 Sensors 8/8/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 29 Max Repair 45 MSP
Cryogenic Berths 600
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Legion Gravitic Corps LGC-80 Gravity Drive 'Gatehouse' Max Ship Size 4000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Hyperion Drive Yards HC-225 Deep Space Engine 'Orpheon' (1) Power 225 Fuel Use 3.82% Signature 225 Explosion 4%
Fuel Capacity 99,000 Litres Range 116.8 billion km (480 days at full power)
Scamander Corporation Series XVI Onboard Targeting System (1) GPS 16 Range 6.4m km MCR 574.5k km Resolution 1
Scamander Corporation Series XVI Traffic Scanner (1) GPS 2400 Range 33.9m km Resolution 150
Scamander Corporation Series VIII RF Wave Scanner (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
Scamander Corporation Series VIII Infrared Scanner (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Further revelations from the Gliese 1 system soon began to make the lasting implications of that battle apparent. The survey frigate Archrival, sent to complete the job her sister Adamant had started, completed an orbital survey of Gliese 1-A II on 17 June. While the TNEs discovered were incredibly minimal despite the excellent potential for more to be located by a ground survey team, the Legion high command was most concerned by the discovery of alien ruins, estimated to be remnants from an ancient colony almost completely buried by sand and ice. This finally cleared up the mystery of the oversized garrison force - though given the apparent age of the ruins on the surface, this raised new questions as to just what these aliens were doing with those ruins and what consequences their activities might have if left unchecked. Immediately, Legion administrators began drawing up funding proposals and department structure for a new science division dedicated to the emergent science of xenoarcheology, though it would take some time for these efforts to bear fruit.
The Auxiliary Flotilla finally arrived in orbit of Gliese 1-A II on 3 August, and while the rest of the flotilla went about refuelling First Fleet the troop transports immediately began unloading operations on the planet surface. The first four tank battalions were disembarked shortly after midnight on 4 August, and immediately set off across the planet surface to seek and destroy the alien garrison forces. Four hours later, they were joined by four more tank battalions but had yet to locate the enemy forces. Fortunately, they did not have to search for much longer, as forward reconnaissance elements located the enemy positions around the ruined colony. Immediately, Legion commanders began drawing up battle plans. By mid-afternoon another eight battalions had been deployed from the transports, and the assault had begun in earnest.
III. Armored Corps
Lord Commandant Eleos Macaria commanding
3x Tank Brigade: 101st, 102nd, 103rd
V. Armored Corps
Lord Commandant Leto Constanza commanding
3x Tank Brigade: 104th, 105th, 106th
The Gliese 1 Invasion Force comprised in total: 15,376 personnel and 2,478 vehicles requiring a total of 159,500 tons transport capacity.
Legion reconnaissance squads had estimated the hostile force to consist of some 1,200 or 1,300 combat elements, noting that these seemed to be some form of armored infantry. As the first tank battalions reached the enemy lines, the reality was discovered to be far more shocking - before their eyes, hundreds of autonomous combat mechs rose up from their fortified positions and opened fire on the vanguard of the Legion. While shocking, this revelation was not nearly enough to dissuade the brave soldiers of the Legion from the glorious battle in front of them, and the tanks of the vanguard opened fire without hesitation. Despite the enemy’s fortifications, the fire of the Legion’s Halberd main battle tanks was accurate and deadly, and over one hundred of the enemy mechs were mowed down in the opening exchanges of the battle. The principal victims of the Legion gunners were the smallest mechs, dubbed “Centurions” for their distinctive and tactically-questionable plumage, which were easily destroyed despite their strong armor by concentrated M-20 chain gun fire from the Halberd MBTs and their supporting Devastator anti-infantry tanks. Several types of larger four-legged mechs proved to be heavily-armored and only somewhat vulnerable to the main guns of the Halberd MBTs; principally these were named Praetorians and Decurions in keeping with their smaller Centurion cousins. The former of these inflicted particularly heavy losses on the Legion vanguard. The 103rd and 109th Tank Battalions had led the assault and bore the brunt of opening losses, losing seventy-two tanks between them.
While the early ratios were certainly in favor of the Legion tankers, Commandant Midas Lycurgus of the 103rd Tank Brigade ordered the vanguard forces to withdraw, satisfied with the results of this initial probing attack but resolved to regroup and await further reinforcements - notably, neither of the Lords Commandant in command of the Armored Corps had yet arrived to the battlefield. However, the Gliese 1 defenders had other plans, and as afternoon turned to evening a counterattack was launched against the Legion’s left flank. Unfortunately for the alien robots, their flanking maneuver had been spotted by Legion scouts, and Subcommandant Gaius Thorne of the 106th Tank Battalion met the counterattack with a brilliant ambush, destroying nearly one hundred twenty of the Centurion mechs and a handful of their supporting elements, for the loss of only twenty-two tanks. Thus beaten, the Gliese robots discovered subroutines in their programming which enabled them to take a hint, and the Legion soldiers were left alone through the night to complete their disembarkation.
As dawn broke over Gliese 1-A II on 5 August, Lords Commandant Macaria and Constanza plotted an early assault against the fortified ruins. Spearheaded by the 110th and 118th Tank Battalions, the Legion tanks drove across the ice fields and struck the right flank of the enemy, taking advantage of the losses suffered by those formations in the previous evening’s misadventures. While another hundred of the enemy were efficiently atomized, the vanguard battalions did suffer heavy damage, and Subcommandant Europa Argus narrowly avoided a premature death when a high shot from a Praetorian sailed over her main tank force and struck the secondary battalion command tank. Undeterred, she and her fellow subcommandant led the 110th and 118th into the thick of the enemy lines, driving the enemy before them and opening their lines in several places. Three of these openings proved particularly wide and inviting for the ravenous Legion tankers, and the 101st, 111th, and 113th Tank Battalions all achieved crushing breakthroughs against the crumbling enemy flank. The end result of this masterstroke flank assault came out to nearly three hundred alien mechs rendered into scrap for the loss of only ninety-three Legion tanks, with the enemy flank thrown into a full retreat while the Legion tanks regrouped. Over one-third of these losses came from a failed breakthrough maneuver by the 102nd Tank Battalion, which had penetrated only to be blunted by hastily-erected defensive lines manned by the alien mechs’ battlefield reserve. This was the one black mark against an otherwise flawless offensive.
While the Legion commanders had declined to immediately pursue the retreating enemy, this was not done out of cowardice or caution but rather abundant opportunism. By late afternoon, Legion scouts had reported a number of weaknesses in the enemy position, induced as they moved an excess number of their reserves and flank guards to form a direct front against the Legion invaders. The enemy had clearly underestimated the mobility of the Legion battle machines, and the Lords Commandant were glad to correct this misconception in brutal fashion. Leaving only a handful of tank battalions to launch a frontal feint attack, the Legion commanders executed a devastating pincer maneuver which nearly enveloped the hapless defenders. Fourteen tank battalions smashed through the enemy flanks at all points, shredding another two hundred Centurions and more impressively fourteen of the imposing Praetorian combat mechs - nearly matching the total already destroyed prior to this point. A mere twenty-six Legion tanks were destroyed in the assault; by now, several had been taken out of commission not by the alien weapons but due to mechanical failures brought on by the stress of prolonged battle on the cold desert terrain. As darkness fell upon the planet, the Gliese 1 Aliens fell to pieces completely and all eighteen of the Legion’s tank battalions broke through the enemy ranks, driving enemy losses to truly unsustainable levels. However, in the darkness the alien mechs were able to retreat once again, this time to their final defensive positions just outside of the ruined colony. Meanwhile, despite minimal losses from enemy fire the Legion had become completely disorganized in their pursuit and had lost more than two dozen additional tanks to maintenance failures. Lords Commandant Macaria and Constanza therefore decided once again to pull back slightly, regroup, and plan another dawn offensive to complete the destruction of the enemy.
In contrast to the brilliant maneuvers of the previous day, the “dawn assault” of 6 August was delayed until late morning, a fact attributed to battle fatigue and maintenance difficulties in the harsh cold of the night. Fortunately, the enemy was even less prepared for battle, and the Legion’s tank onslaught continued unabated as all eighteen tank battalions again achieved penetration through the enemy lines. The tank battalions had proven unstoppable, due as much to sheer numbers as to tactical excellence, and in spite of their enemy’s technological superiority. Throughout the afternoon, Halberd MBT platoons surrounded Praetorian mechs, which had suddenly found themselves isolated in the chaotic retreat, and destroyed them with accurate focused fire. Meanwhile, the fearsome Devastator AIT companies mowed down the fleeing Centurion remnants. While some amongst the Legion ranks expressed confusion at why robotic soldiers would be so poorly programmed as to retreat in such a disorderly fashion, Lord Commandant Macaria had a different take on the matter: “This is only to be expected from the automatons,” he remarked, “for as mere things of plastic and metal they lack the honor of true soldiers.” Commandant Sharon Lycurgus of the 101st Tank Brigade had a different perspective on the matter: “This is what happens when you hire software developers to do a soldier’s job,” she was heard remarking to her executive officer.
Regardless of their poor battlefield performance, the remaining alien mechs had at least shown the tactical sense to now retreat into the ruins themselves. With defeat a certainty, the enemy had now determined that their best course of action was to inflict as many casualties as possible through bloody urban-style combat. Unfortunately for the enemy, the Legion had spent much of the past century battling rebels and guerilla forces in every manner of unconventional and asymmetric warfare, and they were extremely well-prepared for exactly this eventuality. Throughout the afternoon, Legion tank platoons executed dozens of seek-and-destroy missions to deadly effect, losing only six tanks to enemy action while decimating their enemies. While casualty rates among the Gliese mechs had fallen off since the chaotic mid-morning assault, this was due only to their reduced numbers - Legion tankers simply could not find large enough concentrations of their enemy at once to satisfy their own lust for battle. As afternoon turned to evening and then night, the hunt continued albeit at a slower pace. As darkness fell, the tank battalions took up night watch positions along the perimeter, sending only a few platoons at once into the ruins on a rotating schedule. Kill rates during the night were therefore much-reduced, although the number of Praetorians killed rose substantially as these were relatively easy to detect in the darkness.
Throughout the day of 7 August, the Legion hunter-killer platoons completed their work. By 17:00, the orbital targeting scanners of the frigate Barbette confirmed that no alien forces remained on the planet surface. The ruins of Gliese 1-A II belonged to the Duranium Legion. The III. and V. Armored Corps between themselves had lost around 15% of the force they had landed with, including 210 Halberd MBTs, 49 Devastator AITs, 35 Aegis Anti-Air Tanks, and three non-combat support tanks. Certainly the hardest-hit unit among the Legion battalions was the 109th Tank Battalion, which had been almost totally annihilated in repeated frontal assaults and retained only twelve tanks, nine of which were front-line combat vehicles, out of her original complement of eighty-two tanks. Several other battalions had been reduced below 60% strength, including the 102nd, 103rd, and 110th Tank Battalions, each of which had spearheaded multiple actions during the critical early phases of the invasion. In exchange, nearly 1,500 of the Gliese 1 alien mechs had been, in the words of one particularly eloquent tanker, “kinetically disassembled”.
Gliese 1-A II Garrison Force
1210x Centurion
120x Praetorian Combat Mech
2x Praetorian Leader
49x Decurion AA Mech
4x Construction Vehicle
91x Resupply Infantry
As this was done for the Naval officers who fought against the Genghis and Khan months previously, the Ground Forces commanders present on Gliese 1-A II received an identical award save for the necessary replacement of Sailor Blue stripes with Soldier Orange ones.
Shipbuilding
1x Andromeda class Stabilisation Ship
1x Gatekeeper class Traffic Monitor
Research
Fuel Production 48,000 Litres
Fuel Storage - Very Large