Supreme Commander Roan Vallick took his seat at the conference table, on the right-hand side of Anrach's President, Idris Lycan.
The President, Commander Vallick, and other high-ranking officers of Anrach's military were gathered for their monthly war council. For the past year, Anrach, with her vast military and industrial might, had been brought to bear against the Black Palace.
The Allegiance and Anrach had been working together in their shared goal of overthrowing the Palace and its tyrannical grip on the universe. But there were those amongst Anrach's High Command who felt that the Anrachi were contributing far more to the war effort than their Allegiance allies.
Vallick had of course heard of these rumblings, but he paid them no mind. Corrin's motley crew of militia and planetary security forces were scoring victory after victory on the eastern side of the universe; each planet taken contributing to the allies' shared goal of galactic freedom.
President Lycan stood up from the head of the conference table; Vallick and his officers followed suit.
"Thank you all for coming today, aside from our usual debrief, I also have an announcement to make."
The conference room's double doors opened, and a tall, slender man strode in.
Vallick glanced at the newcomer, and his blood ran cold.
Jakas Drakos.
He threw Vallick a grin and stood behind the empty seat on the left-hand side of President Lycan.
"Some of you know Colonel Drakos, some of you don't. But I am personally appointing the Colonel as the Director of the newly created Anrach Intelligence Service."
The other officers gave a round of applause, but Vallick didn't move a muscle.
Vallick had met Drakos during their time at the Black Palace Officer Academy; they came up in the same class. During their time there they had hated each other with a passion. Drakos hated Vallick for his skill and natural-born leadership, Vallick hated Drakos for being a piece of shit.
In the middle of their training, Drakos and some other like-minded cadets had formed a secret fight club. The club went on for a while and would eventually result in the deaths of two cadets.
Knowing how hard their trainers would come down on the class if they found out about the club, Vallick and his assigned cadet fireteam shut it down, violently.
After they graduated, they were both assigned to the same Black Palace Peacekeeping Regiment. Their unit had been sent to a backwater planet called Ellestra, which intel had said was pacified by the Palace invasion that swept over it months before.
But what they found there was a native populace willing to lay down their lives in a guerilla war against their Palace occupiers.
During their tour, Drakos's company had been raping and pillaging Ellestra's southern continent.
(Ellestra)
Finding out about what Drakos had done to a village of women and children in retaliation for a bloody insurgent ambush, Vallick led his company to arrest Drakos and his men.
For three days, an intense game of cat and mouse played out, with Drakos and his men barely staying a step ahead of Vallick and his company.
On the third day, they had finally managed to corner Drakos.
The firefight that ensued was intense. Drakos and his men did not want to give themselves up.
With most of his men being killed, Drakos finally gave up. But instead of jailing him and stripping him of his rank, Palace High command decided to transfer him to a different unit, and from there Vallick had lost track of him.
"Roan, it's been a long time."
Vallick nodded in acknowledgment.
"Director Drakos and the AIS will take over all intelligence operations from the military proper. Also, Commander, the AIS will be headquartered on Pyron."
"Of course, Mr. President."
That piqued Vallicks interest, Pyron had been a small Anrachi colony before it was ceded to the Black Palace after the first Anrachi Independence Movement. He had secured it for use as a training center for a new special forces program. Drakos being gifted it for the AIS presented some difficulties.
Difficulties that would have to be dealt with at another time.
"Let's get this meeting underway then."
Everyone sat back down except for Vallick, who walked to the holo-projector that sat behind President Lycan.
"As you all know, for the past three months, our Expeditionary forces have been fighting on six different planets."
The projector displayed each world individually.
A ringed world with constant rain floods.
"Varnack."
A cavern-riddled planet with dry land.
"Rak."
A lush jungle world.
"Afthonia."
A world with intense snow storms.
"Ikram."
A planet with a single supercontinent.
"Oraq."
And finally, a super-ringed world with platform cities raised into the air.
"Nikos."
The worlds hovered above the conference table, their light blue light casting shadows all throughout the room.
"And with each planet,"
The planets disappeared, replaced with the casualty numbers from each campaign, "Varying degrees of success."
He pressed a button on his remote, bringing Varnack front and center on the display.
"General Artacks Marines and Scuba troopers fought for a month to take Varnack. They lost over 50,000 men in the process."
Rak replaced Varnack on display.
"The 5th Army lost over a million men fighting on the Rakonian deserts."
Ikram popped on next.
"I was in charge of attacking Ikram. Using the same army I took to reclaim Kyros; we sustained minimal casualties. Roughly 12,000."
The projector switched out Ikram with the last three planets: Afthonia, Oraq, and Nikos.
"The situation we faced on these last three planets, however, was drastically different."
All the men in the room began to display a little more interest now. Not all of them knew the situation on these planets; they had all been deployed to different theaters of war after all.
"On all three planets, the Palace had only left a small garrison of a few hundred Palace regulars. They left the groundside defense to the locals."
Drakos's left eyebrow raised. "That's new."
Lycan stood up and walked up to the holo projection of Oraq, "And their orbital defenses?"
"Each planet still had a sizable Palace defense fleet."
"Why leave the planetside defenses to the locals? Why leave such a small garrison?"
Both men sat back in their seats, the holo-projector turning off as they did so.
"The pressure we've been putting on the Palace's western front has been substantial; with the Allegiance pushing from the East, it's begun to spread the Palace thin."
"They don't have the manpower?"
"Years of peace, their standing army wasn't ready for a galactic war on this scale, Mr. President."
"Military intel found something, didn't it Commander?" asked Drakos.
Vallick nodded, "This new change in strategy is being used to buy them time."
"These planets are all staunchly loyal to the Palace, if supplied adequately and supported by the Palace navy, they'll gladly sacrifice themselves."
General Vel shifted in his seat, "My men learned that the hard way on Nikos."
Nikos's entire surface was one massive city. General Vel and his 72nd Anrachi Expeditionary Force had been bogged down in intense urban combat for months. It was only just liberated two weeks ago, at the cost of 80% of his battle group.
Vallick picked up a stack of folders and handed them to each man at the table. On the cover of each folder was a sticker that read, "Operation Jackrabbit."
"Jackrabbit is a new plan my staff and I have put together to counter the Palace's new strategy."
The President thumbed through the documents; the rest of the table did the same.
"Jackrabbit is a three-phase plan."
The projector turned back on, displaying Operation Jackrabbit.
"Phase one: we identify planets that will give us a long-term strategic advantage. Planets rich in resources, planets with shipyards, and planets that can be used as launch points for more invasions."
Everyone murmured in agreement.
"Phase 2: We destroy the orbital defenses of each targeted planet and blockade them. Our ships will prevent any Palace relief ships from landing and distributing supplies."
"And finally, Phase Three: We are selective where we land our troops."
The holo-projector went back to displaying the casualty lists from the last six campaigns.
"If the palace is going to be selective on where they'll be committing their ground troops, so will we. We won't be committing any more men to a ground engagement that we have to."
"Starve them out."
"Exactly General. We'll be using tactical orbital bombardments, space-to-ground airstrikes, and if we have to land troops, using them in rapid strikes on singular locations across any given planet."
The display shut off.
"That's how we'll win. Three phase strategic siege campaigns."
A silence settled over the room.
President Lycan nodded approvingly.
"When do we begin?"
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