[H2]1st Expeditionary Fleet, Athene class Battlecruiser "Abbadon" [/h2]

Baron Loken was observing the planet's surface from the observation deck. He was sipping his fine Mordian wine while listening to another classical masterpiece. The planet was highly active. There seemed to be many fights happening on the surface. He was wondering however why the satelites were not armed. And if they were, why werent they firing on the planet's surface. Another thing that struck him was that most of the infrastructure appeared to be intact, atleast, asfar as the scanners could see. Could they have developed Götterdämmerung weaponry aswell?

His thought get interupted by an adjutant who just entered the room.

"My Baron, we have prepared the marines. 1 battalion, exactly as you told us. They are instructed to opperate under the Wotan protocol."

The Baron turned around to face the Adjutant. "Well done, when will they deploy?"

"On your order Baron."

Loken grinned. This was his time to shine, his moment of glory. He would either create the first interstellar ally of the Confederacy or he would achieve the first victory against a xeno since the Vorchan wars. Eitherway he would be honoured in some way. Loken activated a holographic display on a richly decorated table. It showed his battlegroup. 42 vessels, 300 fighters, 100 bombers and 10.000 souls, 1000 of whom were marines. Loken wondered if the aliens below had any idea of the strenght of his fleet. Of the powerfull weaponry it housed. Götterdämmerung missiles... The most lethal weaponry the Confederacy had. So powerfull that they are only allowed to be used with the direct order of the Autarch. Atleast, that's how it usually goes. But since this is the first ever expedition out of Confederate space the Fleet Admiral is allowed to launch them aswell. Secretly Loken was hoping the xenos would prove to be hostile, then he could witness the weapons with his own eyes.

"Let the "Archimedes" and the "Togo" begin their decent."

A few moments later 2 Nova class Cruisers entered atmosphere. The Confederate ships were build to be able to withstand any atmosphere to be able to quickly support groundforces and provide close to the front headquaters, hospitals and rearmament centers in one. Their massive Lance cannons were activated and ready to destroy any ships which came to close. Their railguns were aimed at the surface, ready to provide bombardment support for the ground troops. The missile pods were activated and armed with fragmentation missiles, the best defence against enemy fighters and bombers. During their decent ceremonial banners were rolled out under them, the biggest of them held the Confederate National Flag, some smaller ones showed that they were ships from the Confederate Navy, part of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet and held the personal sigil of the Baron. Meanwhile an escort of 75 fighters and 25 bombers flew beside the ships.

Once they were in position over the dropzone droppods were dropped from their bellies. The marines made touchdown with the planet's surface in a matter of seconds. After the launching the shields of the two ships were instantly activated. They were capable of absorbing a nuclear strike or laser and plasma weaponry but had problems with kinetic based weaponry like railguns and massdrivers. For this the ships had heavy armour, although by Confederate standards the Nova class barely had any armour. It was "only" 7,5 meters of composite armour.

When the marines touched down on the planet they immediatly grouped into squads and tried to find the best possible defendable position, here they would dig in.

Loken observed this from his deck and made sure that the rest of his fleet was ready to back up the ground forces, should anything go wrong. He smiled as he sipped again from his glass of wine and uttered to himself.

"Show me what you can do xeno. Make my day."