KnightofTempest
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Chapter 40
🕑 Added 2024-08-19 08:33:50 +0000 UTCThe day opened with bombardment. Aerospace Fighters from the fleet came down en-masse to swarm the Grimfort and degrade its defensive capabilities, while the full might of fourteen regiments' artillery battalions opened up, firing shell after shell. Under such a thunder of guns, even Hendrik Grimm and his remaining Rim Worlds Republic Army and SLDF Machines could only hunker down and try to ride out the storm. Shooting back only downed a handful of Aerospace Fighters while the Regimental Artillery Parks were well outside of gun range for the Fortress Guns.
Speaking of the Fortress Guns, they were relatively thinly spread out, the Grimfort not completed in time for the invasion even in the sections that had been started beforehand. What made the situation even worse for the Defenders was that any attempts to fire back only managed to alert our artillery to the positions of guns that hadn't been silenced yet. Silencing those guns was the initial mission of the bombardment, but it was far from the last.
Once the Grimfort's guns had been silenced, the next order of business was to bombard anything that looked like a hangar entrance. Thanks to Colonel Hillaire of the First Fenris Guards being willing and able to collaborate with us, we had a pretty good idea of where some of them were, and over the next five hours of bombardment managed to drop the roof on most of them, ensuring that the majority of Hendrik Grimm's remaining mechs and combat vehicles would be stuck in their hangars.
Finally, the artillery moved on to bombarding the Grimfort itself, attempting to crack open those reinforced concrete and standard armor walls and give the infantry something to assault through. By the time the bombardment ended, it had lasted from five in the morning local time to one in the afternoon local time, a full eight hours of bombardment. The Grimmfort was, after that, mostly rubble above ground, with no remaining weapons emplacements, the majority of the Hangars caved in, and several breaches torn into its structure.
"Let's end this. Advance!" I called out, pushing my Custom Highlander Forward.
As the remaining Mech Forces of fourteen regiments pushed forward to cover the infantry from any surprises, the infantry moved behind in their Hover APCs covered on the flanks by Combat Vehicles. It may have been a bit paranoid of me to use such an overpowered formation, but I'd had enough death this campaign. I refused to take any chances when the end was in sight.
Sure enough, a Lance of Rampages in the Black, Red, and Yellow Paint Schemes of the Oberon Guards popped up out of one of the Hangars that had been too well-camouflaged for the artillery to hit. They were led by an SLDF Vintage Royal Battlemaster that replaced the yellow in the paint scheme with Tyrian Purple. The last remaining child of Hendrik Grimm outside of our Custody had taken the field. If Johann Grimm was a bit older than I was, and Ella Grimm was my age, Karl Grimm was younger by a few years, and therefore, all full of piss and vinegar. He was clearly eager to get to grips with the enemy and it showed in his tactics.
His Rampages blitzed out of the hidden hangar under the cover of Autocannon and SRM Fire. Karl Himself took out one of Eleventh Guards' Dragoons and one of Seventh Guards' Rampages in the first moments of the fighting. His Command Lance was firing on Sixth and Eighth Guards and destroyed two Griffins and a Rampage. As Karl Grimm fired again, his twin ER PPCs cut down Colonel Devlin's Rampage, forcing the Colonel to bail out even as his Large Pulse Laser fired at my Highlander.
To dodge, I hit my Jump Jets and soared up over the pulses of coherent light that were sent my way. Those laser pulses smashed into a building behind where I'd been standing, the remnants of a collapsed LRM Bunker. As Colonel El-Fadil took cover behind the shattered wreck of an Autocannon Bunker to avoid a salvo from Karl's SRM-Six, I spotted Colonel Dimitrou take out one of the Enemy Rampages with a full salvo from Gauss Rifle and Autocannon.
As my Highlander landed atop the rubble of one of the other Hangars that had been collapsed in, I squeezed off a full salvo of my own, pouring Gauss Rifle and Ultra-Autocannon Fire into Karl Grimm's Royal Battlemaster. The Gauss Rifle hit him in the side as he tried to bear down on Colonel Bartek with his ER PPCs and the Armor-Piercing Ultra-Autocannon Rounds followed suit. The Armor plate cracked under the withering fire and exposed the Endosteel and Mymoer underneath. Almost immediately, I was hit by a pulse from Karl's Large Pulse Laser that boiled off part of the armor plate on the front of my Highlander, forcing me to withdraw back down the shattered mound of concrete that was the collapsed Hangar Entrance to avoid a second pulse.
Immediately, Karl chased me, firing his SRM-Six at me and forcing me to take cover. As the missiles exploded, shattering the reinforced concrete and standard armor of my cover, Karl came up over the hill, firing his forward medium lasers and finishing the job of boiling away my frontal armor plate. However, his Battlemaster was too close to effectively engage his main weapons now and I hauled off with my Custom Highlander, smashing my Ultra-Autocannon into the Battlemaster in a Mech-Scale Pistol Whip. Karl's mech stumbled backward and I hit it with my Medium Laser, slicing into Myomer before hitting my Jump Jets to gain space. As a parting shot, Karl Grim tagged me with one more Pulse Laser Blast on the right side of my torse, frying some of the Myomer and melting my right side Armor Plate.
Now, though, I had a clear shot at his cockpit with my Gauss Rifle. The thing about the Battlemaster, even the SLDF Royal version, was that its cockpit in the head was weakly armored. Normally, that wouldn't be an issue. The Battlemaster was an Assault Mech and used to mixing things up in heavy fire. Against an SLDF Era Gauss Rifle like mine, however? Even with its SLDF Vintage Armor, it was only a matter of time. I squeezed off two rounds that cracked the armor plates of the Cockpit before my third, fired as I landed on a collapsed LRM Bunker, finally punched through, splattering Karl Grimm across the inside of his cockpit.
By this time, my Custom Highlander was looking fairly skeletal, with armor plates ablated away and Myomer scorched black and burned to score the Endosteel Chassis underneath. It couldn't have taken much more punishment. I was alive, though, and the enemy was routed from the field. Now it was time for the Infantry to fight their way through the Grimmfort.
I hung back after Karl Grimm's surprise attack, pulling back to have my Highlander Repaired. It was while I was doing paperwork a few hours later in my temporary forward headquarters that I received a comms call from Major Marek Ziska, commander of Second Guards' Infantry Battalion.
"My Lord, it is my privilege to inform you that Hendrik Grimm was captured trying to escape to a hidden Mechbay. He's been subdued, as per your orders. With Karl Grimm dead and Johann Grimm and Ella Grimm in Custody, we have officially killed or captured every living member of the Grimm Family." Informed Major Ziska.
"And are the Oberon Guards surrendering?" I questioned.
"There's a few holdouts locked in an armory on one of the Sub-Levels, about a platoon's worth of Infantry and Dispossessed Mechwarriors. We're keeping an eye on the situation." Reported Major Ziska.
"Give them one hour to surrender. If they refuse, storm the Armory. I want this wrapped up as swiftly as possible before moving onto the Mop-Up phase." I ordered.
"Of course, My Lord." Intoned Major Ziska.
"Oh, and Major? Have Hendrik Grimm sedated and sent to the fleet. I have special plans for him." I commanded.
"Roger, My Lord." Confirmed Maor Ziska.
As I cut orders to the fleet to send down a shuttle to pick up Hendrik Grimm, and to keep him sedated, I realized that this was it. Active Combat was finally wrapping up and all that would be left would be to mop up any militia or other garrisons on the various other worlds. The back of the Oberon Confederation was, effectively, broken. An hour later, and the last few casualties of the Oberon War would come in as Jump Infantry were forced to storm the Sublevel Armory that the last Oberon Guards Holdouts were holed up in.
The Flag of New Ålborg was finally raised above the Grimmfort after just over a month of fighting. . .
XXXX
Over the course of the next several weeks, JumpShips from the fleet were sent out to numerous worlds to obtain their fealty. Ella Grimm agreed to cut orders for the various governors there explaining the situation and ordering them to stand down. In exchange, I granted her a Colonel's Rank in an on-the-drawing-board Sixteenth Guards Regiment to be raised out of the Former Oberon Confederation Territory. She graciously accepted that.
Johann Grimm, on the other hand, decided he would rather retire from anything to do with politics or the military. He decided instead to take up a position at Buccaneer Arms as an executive with the Corporation that produces things such as the Rifleman Two, Scorpion Two, and Sabre Two. I let him in exchange for lending his weight to Ella's stand-down order.
Both, of course, swore fealty to me. That was non-negotiable, mind you I also had some of Minister Simowitz's Ministry of the Interior Agents keeping an eye on both of them, just in case. Regardless, the plan worked. With no further glue binding them to House Grimm, planetary governors from all corners of the Oberon Confederation bent the knee, effectively swearing fealty to New Ålborg, its laws, and me as its Grand Duke.
Ferris, the most populous and industrialized world in the Confederation after Oberon Six even threw a Triumph for me. Gouverneur Soult feted me for three days, during which, I was informed that the Combine under Alexander Kurita had occupied Santander's World and Porthos, as per our agreement, and that the Coordinator would be expecting reparations in the form of five billion C-bills to be paid over the next four years or else a resumption of hostilities would ensue immediately upon the time-limit running out.
That amount of money would allow the Coordinator to build more than what I'd destroyed of the DCMS in the War by a decent margin. I had no choice but to agree, however. The Dragon needed to save face and rebuild his shattered regiments. If he couldn't do those things, then he may as well resume fighting out of spite. Aside from that, however, Alexander Kurita had officially applied for a divorce from Ella Grimm. As far as he was concerned, they were no longer married. I passed the information on to Ella and she agreed to the split.
Of course, while I was on Fenris, I took the opportunity to dispatch a JumpShip to Luthien carrying on board the sedated form of Hendrik Grimm. He'd been a cranky, if intermittent prisoner so far. I'd had him sedated for the majority of his time in custody, only letting him awake for scheduled meal times and just enough exercise to avoid atrophy. I didn't want to take a chance he'd try and escape or mutiny, after all. He'd done so when the Clans had let him be in a future that would never come to pass, after all.
The very last world to submit was Manaringaine on the very northern border of the Oberon Confederation, aside from a brief, one-week fight between Oberon Guerillas with small arms and a few mortars on Dirkel and Third Guards a week prior, there had been no fighting at all in the mop-up phase. By the time the last of the Guerillas on Dirkel had surrendered and been disarmed, Governor Gallo of Manaringaine had finally agreed to bend the knee and that was that.
Two months and three weeks after it began, the conquest of the Oberon Confederation was over. I could finally go home to New Ålborg. When I arrived back home and finally made it back to my Palace, there were two things waiting for me. The first was a message from the Imperial Palace on Luthien, a video recording of Coordinator Takashi personally beheading Hendrik Grimm in the Gardens of the Imperial Palace with an actual Katana. Attached to the recording was a message from the Office of the Coordinator.
"Pay the tribute you owe promptly or the Dragon will turn its wrath on you once more, and this time, no agreement or bargain will placate him. Only your utter destruction." Read the Message, as if I needed the reminder.
The other thing waiting for me was, somewhat oddly, was a ten-year-old girl. Apparently, Susie Morgraine-Ryan had been captured alive at Star's End by the forces I'd sent there to fulfill my Treaty Obligations with the Lyrans. Colonels Frankowski and McCormack had, apparently, decided that figuring out what to do with her was above their pay grade. They kicked it upstairs to their liege-lord, which was to say, me. Not being willing to kill a pre-teen for the actions of her parents, I instead, decided to adopt her as my younger sister.
Fortunately, though, I had some amount of practice with younger siblings thanks to my memories of my other life. If I hadn't, I damn sure would have strangled Susie as we got used to each other. She was a bit of a tiny firecracker like that, after all.
Over the next several months, I would be focused on rebuilding my newly conquered, broken worlds, pouring billions of C-Bills into just getting them back to the level they had been before the war, let alone actively improving them, which was also on the agenda. As May of thirtty-twenty-six dawned, however, things were finally getting back to normal on Oberon Six, Blackstone, and Placida. I had just wired the first payment of C-Bills to Luthien now that everything was back to normal when I received an unexpected invitation.
My Old Friend Katrina Watson was inviting me to Apollo to catch up, now that our respective wars were over. Apparently, she was a Leutnant-General with the Apollo Jagers, a Ducal Guards force that had recently participated in the fighting of the Third Succession War that saw several worlds liberated from Combine Control and handed over to the now-establishing Second Principality of Rasalhague. Good for her, it seems like we're both moving up in the world. It looked like I would be headed to Apollo for that in a week, once one final meeting of the Baronial Council wrapped up on the Seventh of May, Thirty-Twenty-Six. I couldn't wait.
It would be good to see Katrina again, after all. . .
XXXX
AN: All right, here we have the End of the Oberon War. It was a victory, and the Coordinator is holding up his end of the bargain, so long as Jozef holds up his. Jozef, meanwhile, has to rebuild and re-equip several of his Grand Ducal Guards Regiments after the Oberon Campaign inflicted fairly heavy casualties on them. Thankfully, the Combine is in worse shape than he is by a lot, just having come out of the Third Succession War as the big loser. It'll be some time before combat flares up again.
In the meantime, he has rebuilding to finish on Oberon Six, Placida, and Blackstone, along with refitting and expanding the Grand Ducal Guards, further expansion of the economy and infrastructure on his new worlds, all while meeting his targets to pay the Combine's Indemnity in the timeframe specified.
Then, there's his exchange of favors with Precentor Hope, the likelihood of various nobles throwing their daughters at him now that he's established himself as legitimate, and the potential to get involved with the internal politics of the Second Principality of Rasalhague by pressing his ancestral claim to Krakow, the moon of Predlitz his family were Lords of before the Combine came and kicked them out during the Annexation of Rasalhague.
It's gonna be a mix of intrigue, politics, and economics for a while now that the Coreward Periphery has been effectively consolidated under Jozef's rule, so I hope you guys don't find that too boring.
At any rate, the next chapter will be the Council Meeting, and then it's off to Apollo to see Katrina again.
Stay tuned. . .
Comments
KnightofTempest
It does not.
KnightofTempest
I based it off the war indemnity levied on France at the end of the Franco-Prussian War IRL. France had to pay 5 billion Francs over four years to Prussia for losing. If one nation from one planet can do it, it should be doable for Jozef.
Lorn von Darkmoor
Ouch 5 billion c-bills...
andrew rousseau
Hmm, welp saw the divorce coming no way the kurita was staying with ella, too headstrong for his liking, was foreshadowed during the little planning interlude
Ha dug
Honestly and wait for more. The fighting was awesome and the nation building and politics is also awesome so no matter what it’ll be a good time. I may be remembering wrong but does his capital have an HPG on it yet? And if so is it a A class? Cause if not I could see Comstar saying they have to upgrade it now due to his nation being on the same level as Taurians and such now
Birbman
Honestly the politics and logistics are my favorite part but I'm the worst kind of nerd
