It took us just 1 month to get to system Omega. Some would call it a reason to celebrate but knowing Daemons might be involved I was not exactly a happy bunny. At least our exit from warp was a good distance away as planned. We were going to repeat what we did in the previous system but even more thoroughly. That meant loads and loads of Probes and stealth satellites were being sent in system. Due to possible Chaos corruption I had any incoming comms to be strictly reviewed by the Chaplain/Librarian, it was a good thing thing that we had added extra Chaplain/Librarian for the Wheatstone operation.
We could now make out that there was just one planet that had been occupied and it had a few Hives (surprise). As the original information we had did not mention which Hive had a protentional infestation we would have to scan them all, unless we got a lucky break.
It has been 3 months that we have been moving in-system silently so far it has all been the usual chatter with ships coming in and leaving. Everything looks to be mundane chatter nothing stands out. After discussing further we will send in a Frigate (host to 2 guards men regiment) ahead with 3 squads of sun spears (30) and additionally a Chaplain + Librarian. They will scout out the 4 hives: Derek, Guac, Roost and Kirba. For now we will not unveil our self and speak to the locals. I would rather have a look ourself first, cant never be too causes when dealing with Chaos. They were tasked with first mostly making sure to deploy the stealth probes/drones in each Hive. Depending on what turns up the Sun Spears might have to go on site to scout anything suspicious that shows up.
The scans did not show up anything, some Guardsmen were sent on site to investigate and nothing was found. Either we are just chasing rumours or we actually lucked out and there were no active Daemons or cults.
After discussion we have decided to move on to the third system Torl after a few months of RR.
As our standard doctrine we came out a bit away from Torl and started sending in our probes and stealth satellites. It had taken us around 2 months to get here. This system was supposed to be raided by Eldar but as our timing was off by a year or so we might not actually see any action here.
After a week of collecting information it has been made clear that indeed this world is hit regularly by the Eldar and the expected next raid is in 2-3 years time. I was not going to wait for 3 years here so once the plan was to move out after a month of rest. We did not speak to any one local as we there was a good chance we could time the return journey around the same time as the potential raid.
So far we have spent around 15 months since we started the operation Wheatstone and left our home system. What was suppose to take 5 years in total has only taken us a year and few months. Now we are left with 2 choices head back home and then re-arm/collect more info and then go out again or go for other targets that we had ruled out initially.
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After talking about this it was decided that best course of action is to continue on. So far we have been able to work on our new fighting doctrine and test out our equipment. On top of that our losses have been miniscule.
We have selected 2 new targets that are a bit further away and both have confirmed fighting going (at least at the last check/update). One is a rebellion (System Canary approximately 3 months travel )and another is a system world fighting with Xenos invasion (System Uruq around 2 months travel from System Canary). After hitting these two systems we shall be coming back to System Torl and see if we can hit the raiders on our way back home.
System Canary
It has been a week since we have come in system. At the first look it looks like the rebellion is still ongoing and the rebels seem to have the upper hand they have taken over 3 Hives while "Imperium" forces (Planetary governor) have only held onto one Hive that is under assault. Although the "Imperium" held Hive is the biggest both literally and in population size. The war has been going on for 2 years or so with no weapon of mass destruction being used. As we get further information it seems that both side are accusing each other of rebellion. It turns out its rebellion but not against the Emperor it seems to be Politics with different Noble factions jostling for power. Each accusing the other of rebellion and of course wanting to be the leading Noble/planetary governor.
The rebellion timing was excellent as the fight was launched when the last IOM Fleet left the System and the next IOM fleet is not expected till 5-10 year cycle. The systems tithe to the Emperor consists of new Frigates that is collected by the IOM every 5-10 weeks. Looks like they are allowed to build these Ships but are not allowed to hold/arm any ships locally other wise it would have been a very short fight for one of the faction.
Us coming into the system meant that we had right to dictate who would win. I had decided to use this to the max we had concurrent talks with both sides trying tot get the best deals possible. It was pretty much checking to see which side would benefit us the most. At the slow rate we are travelling in system we would be near the planet in 2 weeks. this gave us plenty of time to negotiate best deal for us.
Deal has been negotiated and we will be siding with the new houses that have control over the 3 hives. They have agreed to provide us with 2 Frigates (and the accompanying regiments of Guards men), Trade agreement and tech transfer.
While the deal had been made we planned to pretend that we agreed to support the current Governor. We would land in the main hive to "support them". The pan was to carry out a decapitation attack, we were expecting the Governor and his retinue to meet with us. When this happened we would be taking them out and after that it should be a cake walk. We would then leave 2 squad of Sun Spears and 1 regiment of Guardsmen. The Sun Spears and Guardsmen would board the 2 Frigates (expected another year for them to be finished) and travel directly to Home system.
The Decapitation attack went as planned and the follow up attack only took us a week before everything was bought under control. For this attack we mostly used Squads of Sun Spears to kill the leaders/ die hard supporters of the old regime. We had no losses in men. We will be spending additional 2 months so that everyone in the fleet can have a rotation on planet side to rest and recover.
After the 2 months of RR we will be moving onto System Uruq.