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This is the SPDG turntracking thread for the game "Into the Hornets Nest". This game is a follow-up to the
Sword of the Righteous game, so please review this thread first as a prologue to this game.
The next round of the ACDG Game: After your successful mission on Sanctuary your forces have been evacuated and are now homeward bound on a Peace Keeper Interstellar Transport. However something goes critically wrong on the transport, and it is realized that the transport is no longer space-worthy, and that you will need to find a friendly space port in order to effect repairs. Unfortunately the only reachable inhabited solar system is Calon, which is currently controlled by a Hive Splinter Faction known as The Horde. You consult with the Peace Keeper High Command, which informs you that after your “involvement” in the Sanctuary situation, that you are persona-non-grata in Hiverian space, and that to be caught by the Hive will probably mean permanent incarceration, if not certain death! The orders given to you are clear: crash land the transport onto Calan 1.0, avoid contact with the local Hive garrison units, and remain near the space transport until an evac can be effected.
However a funny thing then happens in the final few hours as your crippled transport approaches Calon 1.0: you receive a communiqué from the remnants of the original Spartan owners of Calon 1.0, who are collectively known by their charismatic Leader, Maquis. The Maquis have somehow learned of your approach, and they have a proposition for you and your soldiers: they claim that they have enough arms to lead a succesful rebellion against The Horde and its allies on Calon 1.0. If you will assist them in this uprising, then they will give your troops shelter from the Horde and assist you in leaving Hiverian space once the battle is won. The Maquis also seem to be intimately familiar with your modus operandi on Sanctuary, as they are also attaching a caveate to their conditions in which they specify that if you conquer any enemy bases, you must then turn over those bases within 5 years of conquering them. The Maquis also state that if you choose not to help them, that they will then be forced to turn over any captured PK units to The Horde…
By the time you receive this communication fro the Maquis you are within the magnetosphere of Calon 1.0, and so dare not try to broadcast to the PK High Command, lest The Horde intercept the communiqué and learn of your immanent arrival. You are therefore left on your own in this decision. On the one hand you have your standing orders to avoid local contact as much as possible, however with this you cannot guarantee that where the spaceship lands will be in safe territory, and it could very well mean that all your soldiers, who you have loyally fought side by side with you through the campaigns on Sanctuary, could fall into the hands of the Hive! On the other hand you could lead an orbital assault onto Calon 1.0 and assist the Maquis Rebellion, which you have to take at face value can succeed….
Since the PK High Command has been denied you, you decide to consult the Datalinks in order to determine what the odds are for an orbital assault are. The Datalinks responded with the following:
There are no known successful orbital assaults in recorded history. The accepted historical and military reason for this is that of the 5 great parachute assaults in World War 2 on Earth, only two (Sicily and Normandy) were successful, and the other three (Crete, Dnieper, and “Market Garden”) ended in the near complete dissolution of the committed airborne units.
The lessons learned from the disasters were clear: that those soldiers who entrust their lives to silk parachutes and static lines are essentially dicing with death.
This same analysis can then be applied to explain why orbital assaults against highly industrialized worlds, while technically feasible, have not been attempted due to the overwhelming combined odds of the physical laws of orbital insertion, the planetary spatial defenses that are currently available, the planetary ground based defenses that are currently available, as well as Murphy’s Law.
You glumly look this Datalinks info over and digest its portent, however the Datalinks then spits out another response:
Military history has shown time and again that trusting to well-established military axioms then leaves the established commander completely unprepared when the enemy does something completely illogical, or responds out of desperate necessity.
You digest this, and then sit down and present the two options to your group commanders: either take you chances by congregating your drop troops around the wreckage of your space transport, or descend onto the planet in an orbital attack onto the Horde, and assist the Maquis in reclaiming this world! Several questions are raised, including a very astute one regarding the odds of success versus descent locations. The Datalinks are then consulted again, and it is confirmed that in World War 2 the parachute assaults at Crete and Dnieper the troops were dropped right onto their objectives (which then ended in immediate disasters), whereas at Normandy the drops were dispersed with the intent of coalescing their forces afterwards. This then decides the situation with your commanders, as it becomes clear that to simply “ride it out” with the transport wreckage to the planet surface will only allow the enemy to pinpoint your position and probably annihilate them, and so it is much better for your troops to randomly drop onto Calon 1.0 and then focus onto specific objectives from there. All of your commanders nod agreement that accepting the local Spartan’s offer is the best offer on the table, and so as your interstellar transport nears its death spiral into the atmosphere of Calon 1.0 you key the following response to the Maquis: “Sometimes all that is needed to light the torch of Freedom is a spark: watch for our sparks in your skies!” You hit the send-message button, and then enter your own personal orbital insertion pod, hoping that the message is received by the Maquis, and that your pod lands in their territory!
Sword of the Righteous game, so please review this thread first as a prologue to this game.
The next round of the ACDG Game: After your successful mission on Sanctuary your forces have been evacuated and are now homeward bound on a Peace Keeper Interstellar Transport. However something goes critically wrong on the transport, and it is realized that the transport is no longer space-worthy, and that you will need to find a friendly space port in order to effect repairs. Unfortunately the only reachable inhabited solar system is Calon, which is currently controlled by a Hive Splinter Faction known as The Horde. You consult with the Peace Keeper High Command, which informs you that after your “involvement” in the Sanctuary situation, that you are persona-non-grata in Hiverian space, and that to be caught by the Hive will probably mean permanent incarceration, if not certain death! The orders given to you are clear: crash land the transport onto Calan 1.0, avoid contact with the local Hive garrison units, and remain near the space transport until an evac can be effected.
However a funny thing then happens in the final few hours as your crippled transport approaches Calon 1.0: you receive a communiqué from the remnants of the original Spartan owners of Calon 1.0, who are collectively known by their charismatic Leader, Maquis. The Maquis have somehow learned of your approach, and they have a proposition for you and your soldiers: they claim that they have enough arms to lead a succesful rebellion against The Horde and its allies on Calon 1.0. If you will assist them in this uprising, then they will give your troops shelter from the Horde and assist you in leaving Hiverian space once the battle is won. The Maquis also seem to be intimately familiar with your modus operandi on Sanctuary, as they are also attaching a caveate to their conditions in which they specify that if you conquer any enemy bases, you must then turn over those bases within 5 years of conquering them. The Maquis also state that if you choose not to help them, that they will then be forced to turn over any captured PK units to The Horde…
By the time you receive this communication fro the Maquis you are within the magnetosphere of Calon 1.0, and so dare not try to broadcast to the PK High Command, lest The Horde intercept the communiqué and learn of your immanent arrival. You are therefore left on your own in this decision. On the one hand you have your standing orders to avoid local contact as much as possible, however with this you cannot guarantee that where the spaceship lands will be in safe territory, and it could very well mean that all your soldiers, who you have loyally fought side by side with you through the campaigns on Sanctuary, could fall into the hands of the Hive! On the other hand you could lead an orbital assault onto Calon 1.0 and assist the Maquis Rebellion, which you have to take at face value can succeed….
Since the PK High Command has been denied you, you decide to consult the Datalinks in order to determine what the odds are for an orbital assault are. The Datalinks responded with the following:
There are no known successful orbital assaults in recorded history. The accepted historical and military reason for this is that of the 5 great parachute assaults in World War 2 on Earth, only two (Sicily and Normandy) were successful, and the other three (Crete, Dnieper, and “Market Garden”) ended in the near complete dissolution of the committed airborne units.
The lessons learned from the disasters were clear: that those soldiers who entrust their lives to silk parachutes and static lines are essentially dicing with death.
This same analysis can then be applied to explain why orbital assaults against highly industrialized worlds, while technically feasible, have not been attempted due to the overwhelming combined odds of the physical laws of orbital insertion, the planetary spatial defenses that are currently available, the planetary ground based defenses that are currently available, as well as Murphy’s Law.
You glumly look this Datalinks info over and digest its portent, however the Datalinks then spits out another response:
Military history has shown time and again that trusting to well-established military axioms then leaves the established commander completely unprepared when the enemy does something completely illogical, or responds out of desperate necessity.
You digest this, and then sit down and present the two options to your group commanders: either take you chances by congregating your drop troops around the wreckage of your space transport, or descend onto the planet in an orbital attack onto the Horde, and assist the Maquis in reclaiming this world! Several questions are raised, including a very astute one regarding the odds of success versus descent locations. The Datalinks are then consulted again, and it is confirmed that in World War 2 the parachute assaults at Crete and Dnieper the troops were dropped right onto their objectives (which then ended in immediate disasters), whereas at Normandy the drops were dispersed with the intent of coalescing their forces afterwards. This then decides the situation with your commanders, as it becomes clear that to simply “ride it out” with the transport wreckage to the planet surface will only allow the enemy to pinpoint your position and probably annihilate them, and so it is much better for your troops to randomly drop onto Calon 1.0 and then focus onto specific objectives from there. All of your commanders nod agreement that accepting the local Spartan’s offer is the best offer on the table, and so as your interstellar transport nears its death spiral into the atmosphere of Calon 1.0 you key the following response to the Maquis: “Sometimes all that is needed to light the torch of Freedom is a spark: watch for our sparks in your skies!” You hit the send-message button, and then enter your own personal orbital insertion pod, hoping that the message is received by the Maquis, and that your pod lands in their territory!
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