[center][h1][b]High Command: Laeran[/b][/h1][/center] Micholi’s head was bowed, his eyes closed and his breathing steady as he attempted to meditate and center himself in the early stages of the storm building around him. The operations to bring the war on Laeran to its conclusion hadn’t officially started yet; The aquatic forces of the Lurkers and Lions were in the process of sinking into position quietly for the important second stage while many of his own legionaries moved around the planet to prepare for the chaos of the first stage. However, such preparation had a price. Since they had established their foothold, Micholi had sown a campaign of misdirection against the Laer with a very important goal in mind. From the start, he had known that the Laer’s underwater cities and facilities were going to be one of the hardest fortifications to try and take, even more so if he had pushed an aggressive war on the surface; Forcing them from the surface to retreat underwater would just make an already difficult to attack fortification harder to breach since they would have more bodies and they would be better suited than the Night Watch when it came to fighting in such an environment. So he had made a show of the Imperium being… unwilling and inexperienced at waging warfare underwater. He had intentionally set up the defenses of their foothold on the world so originally the defenses aimed towards the sea itself were a weak point, through several well chosen positions further in were fortified enough to make up for it while still giving the appearance that when the Laer had launched their seawards assault, it was simply the Imperium responding quickly to their invasion rather than expecting them for some time. He had also sent a variety of dummy ‘spies and scouts’ into the waters, taking advantage of the Imperium’s servitor supply in order to do so in order to spare actual lives where possible. They ranged from probes that were as easy to spot as the star in the sky to scanners that had enough stealth tech that it [i]gave the appearance[/i] of the Imperium getting better but nowhere near enough slip past the notice of the Laer. All of these dummies were discovered and destroyed as planned. They served their purposes through; The Laer were now overconfident of their ability to beat the Imperium if it tried to blindly assault their underwater holdings… and the dummies distracted them from the [i]actual[/i] reconnaissance units and drones he had sent down with the good stealth tech to locate said facilities and scan the area around them. The Lurkers and Lions would not be wanting for information on their targets. The fact that most of the fighting had happened only on the surface of Laeran over the last few months had resulted in the Laer pulling more of their forces up from the depths to the surface. Said underwater facilities were still no joke when it came to their defences and the dangerousness of their defenders, but they were now arrogant in their overconfidence and the amount of defenders was as light as it was going to get. However, all that preparation and work would be for very little gain if the Laer were free to take troops from the surface and plunge back into the depths; Sure some cities and fortifications would be taken by the Lurkers and Lions, but the remaining ones would simply get reinforcements. So logically, for the operation to work… the Laer couldn’t be allowed to be free to redeploy troops. Almost a third of the Night Watch legion forces on Laeran had been assigned a variety of squad missions, ranging from simple sabotage and intel ‘recovery’ missions to assassination and terror strikes aimed at killing as many Laer as possible (be their civilian, military or otherwise). Their collective job was to cause as much chaos in as many places at once so that the Laer would find themselves with few soldiers to spare when word from the cold depths finally reached them. However, Micholi could easily hear the reports coming in. The Laer were not fools and they had months of experience dealing with the Night Watch’s brand of stealth missions. A distressingly high number of squads had been uncovered before they had reached their intended targets. Of course, they were trained to adjust to changing conditions and had changed their personal squad objectives to continue along with the overall goal of chaos, confusion and pinning down Laer forces, but the death toll so far was higher than Micholi would have liked… but sadly still well within predicted casualties. [i]Breath in… Breath Out…[/i] “Primarch, the amount of Laer movement and chatter in areas where squads haven’t taken out their comms is increasing by the minute.” Roban, one of the Tur who was monitoring intel as it came in spoke up. “From what we’re seeing, it seems like the scale of our activity has caught them off guard, but they’re recovering quickly and moving to try and stamp it out.” The sound of power armor as an unseen marine moved to look over Roban’s shoulder to double check the information and confirm easily reached Micholi’s ears… as well as the fact that nothing was said when said marine moved away to return to their position; The assessment of the situation was good. Finally, Micholi himself spoke. “Status on the rest of the Night Watch?” A different officer of the Imperial Army, a human lieutenant named Jacobs answered “First wave is prepared to take off and begin their assault. Second wave is prepared and waiting, Primarch.” Micholi nodded as he tightened his hold on the shaft of Unity. Opening his eyes, he finally stepped away from the tactical map and turned towards the door. “First wave is clear to launch. I’m going to join the second wave, which will launch once the Lurkers and Lions are in position and have started their assault. General Nelinho, Command is yours.” The door closed shut behind the Primarch as General Nelinho stepped up, the veteran tech marine easily taking control of Command as the first wave of Night Watch and Imperial Army ships started their offensive; If the Omnissiah was truly with them, the Laer would be so caught off guard by the first Imperial offensive since they made planetfall that the element of surprise would carry them far.