Operation Gravis Pax
Summary
Operation Gravis Pax was an urban pacification and counter-insurgency operation carried out by the GuardCorps force Aggressive Interventions against the Dendaro People’s Front, a loose militia that had seized control of the Dendaro Colony’s capital city of Aredo with zeos and armaments captured from local security forces.
Although the Aggressive Interventions force was outnumbered and fighting on the insurgents’ territory, the superior training of the GuardCorps operatives proved decisive.
Background
The Dendaro Colony had been established on the planet Serada in the Stars Edge heliosphere in 976 as a hub for terraforming efforts carried out by the Belera Corporation, which aimed to turn the planet into a major trading post and shipyard.
Aredo was built as a corporate headquarters and science settlement with several connected bio-domes to assist in the terraforming process. After the initial stages of terraforming Serada’s equatorial regions proved successful, the colonists expected to be granted deeds to plots of land, which were promised in their contracts. Instead, Belera invoked a clause that indefinitely postponed these land grants due to “unforeseen difficulties.”
Planning and Preparation / Prelude
After the announcement that land grants would be postponed, residents of Aredo stormed local security garrisons and seized SAC-53 Carbines, Type 7 Clamp Charges, and Soldat zeoforms. As soon as arms were secured, the colonists threatened to sabotage the bio-domes if Belera did not begin distributing the promised land grants within 24 hours.
Following this, the colonists began fortifying the city against attack with makeshift barricades and TbD-1 automated turrets. The majority of the colonists then retreated to the bio-domes to begin preparations to overload the domes’ climate control systems.
Within 2 hours of the colonists’ statement, Belera had contracted Aggressive Interventions to execute Operation Gravis Pax. Aggressive Interventions forces were given detailed maps of the city and access to the city’s surveillance cameras. However, the insurgents’ numbers, armaments, and positions were hard to confirm.
Aggressive Interventions was given the mission to penetrate the insurgents’ defenses and fight their way to Bio-Dome 2 to trigger the executive override system and prevent modifications to the climate control system.
Operation
Phase 1
The Aggressive Interventions force landed outside Aredo and advanced to the southwestern entrance to the dome-city, where they breached the sealed doors and mustered on Aredo’s main avenue. Along the way to Bio-Dome 2’s entrance, the force quickly demolished the insurgents’ barricades, evaded fire from TbD-1 Autoturrets, and repelled light resistance from inexperienced militia.
Upon arrival at Bio-Dome 2’s entrance, the Aggressive Interventions force encountered several high-explosive IEDs and large numbers of insurgent militia. At this point, the commander of the GuardCorps force, Lieutenant Geraro, sent a diversionary force (Task Force B) to the insurgents’ right flank to draw the enemy away from the entrance of the bio-dome. The effort was a success, and left Aggressive Interventions with Task Force A (a pair of Stormers, two KT-88 Steelback Combat Drones, a mnemonic commando, and a few GuardCorps Troopers to face the insurgents’ trio of Soldats, riyads, bokujin, squad of bokugyo drones, and defense nodes.
Phase 2
Lieutenant Geraro sent Task Force A’s mnemonic commando, Specialist Layne, and a handful of troopers to override control of the northwestern defense node and flank the Soldats guarding the bio-dome entrance while its two Stormers maneuvered around the right flank to close the distance with the entrance. Meanwhile, the Steelbacks were sent forward to pin the movement of the insurgents’ riyads and neutralize the bokujin.
The insurgent Soldats, unwilling to leave their defensive positions around the bio-dome’s entrance, failed to seize the initiative and allowed themselves to be flanked while sending only a few bokugyo drones to harass the Specialist Layne. Meanwhile, the Steelbacks were able to intercept the riyads and prevent them from detonating the explosives set up around the bio-dome’s approach. Both Steelbacks were destroyed by concentrated fire from the Soldats.
After securing control of the northwestern defense node and turning it against the insurgents, Specialist Layne was able to unleash a storm of devastating fire with their SCL-64 Launcher. At the same time, Task Force A’s careful use of cover allowed them to avoid the line of sight of the Soldats and northeastern defense node until they were within close range. The ensuing close-quarters combat heavily favored the Stormers’ Krait V-Blades over the Soldats’ Tk-3 Okhara IM-Shields, resulting in the prompt destruction of the Soldats and rout of the insurgents.
Task Force A quickly entered Bio-Dome 2 and triggered the security override protocol while coming under sporadic small-arms fire, foiling insurgent attempts at destroying the dome’s ecosystem.
Aftermath
After Aggressive Interventions secured Bio-Dome 2, the insurgents were able to sabotage Bio-Dome 1 and 3. However, faced with the speed and violence of action displayed by Aggressive Interventions, as well as news that additional GuardCorps forces were inbound in the next 24 hours, the majority of the insurgents dispersed back into the population to avoid reprisals.
After regaining full control of Aredo 42 hours later, Belera announced that all colonists involved in the destruction of Bio-Domes 1 and 3 would lose their land grants. The extent to which Belera was prepared to protect Bio-Dome 2 may be explained by data hacked during the occupation and later released, revealing details of experimental algae designed to accelerate terraforming through a faster nitrogen-fixing process but at the expense of releasing a toxic byproduct.
