Fiction:Scorched Earth Campaign

The Scorched Earth Campaign is the name given by Gustavus Ikeben to the Drakodominatus Tyranny's invasion of the United Free Peoples Coalition in 2792. It began with a failed attempt by Gustavus Ikeben's People's Liberation Army to invade Tyranny space, and ended with the total destruction of the Tyranny's invasion force in what came to be described as the worst disaster in Dominatus military history.

Andromedan Drakodominatus Navy
Main article: Drakodominatus Navy

Though the Dominatus were at the peak of their military power in late 2791, they had lost a substantial amount of their industrial power in the Revolts of December 21. Without hope for reinforcements or resupply, the Tyranny's numerous fleets were tasked with the quelling of the insurrection. In Andromeda, Gravius Gnissenkrassau had managed to reassert control over roughly half of the Tyranny's former colonies, securing for his armada of tens of thousands of Mark 2 ships a steady supply of fuel and other necessary resources.

Gravius' position was precarious, however: the Tyranny's lack of resources meant that he could not afford adequate protection for his supply lines. Gravius also had to keep a constant eye on what could, at any moment, become his front with the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth. He had to act conservatively in order to preserve his strength lest he be confronted with the AGC's might.

People's Liberation Army
Main article: People's Liberation Army

Ikeben's army had grown exponentially since its establishment in early 2792 on Quaran. It now contained hundreds of thousands of warships of varying shapes and sizes, built by repurposed Tyranny infrastructure made accessible by a program developed by the Draconid Imperium. Unlike the Tyranny's supply lines, the PLA's flowed well and were well guarded.

The PLA's ship designs had been bought from the Draconid Imperium, which meant that they were inferior in technology and size when compared to the Tyranny's vessels. However, the PLA did have one advantage: jump drives. It was costly, but Ikeben managed to procure for his ship faster-than-light drives that instantly transported a ship from point of space near a gravity well to another within a certain range. These had the added benefit of being immune to interdictors, and virtually untraceable. While extraordinarily useful from a tactical perspective, they were taxing on the ship's power systems, and had to be charged up before a jump could be executed, a task that could take minutes. After a jump was executed, the drive had to cool down before executing another jump or risk taring the ship apart. All of this meant that all but the smallest of spaceborne vessels were equipped with ancillary hyperdrives for long voyages.

Ikeben Attacks
Ever since the Quaranians freed themselves with help from the Lazeroth Unity, Ikeben knew that they could not afford to rest on their laurels lest the Tyranny fully recover its strength. An offensive move was needed to keep the Dominatus off balance. It was with this in mind that he created the PLA, and it was with this in mind that he ordered it to invade Tyranny space in Andromeda.

Ikeben's plan was simple. He had divided his fleet into thirteen prongs and ordered each of them to jump into orbit of a designated Dominatus-occupied planet, achieve orbital supremacy, and pacify the Dominatus troops on the ground before moving on to another target. These targets were within jump range of at least three other fleets so that these might render aid if a fleet needed reinforcements.

Gravius' Plan
Unbeknownst to Ikeben, spies had been feeding information about the attack to the Tyranny, which meant that they were ready for his arrival and had prepared a plan of their own. Their strategy was to lure Ikeben's fleets into committing their strength to an orbital invasion, and then trap them in orbit as they scrambled to recover their assets. They knew, however, that Ikeben's ships could easily jump away once they recovered all of their ships and personel, and thereby avoid destruction. To ensure the total annihilation of Ikeben's armada, they had positioned a minor fleet at the emergency jump coordinates Ikeben had picked before the battle began. It was at these coordinates the fleet would regroup if a general retreat was called. Since the fleet would still be recovering assets from the ground, ships would trickle to the rendezvous point and would easily be overwhelmed before they could jump to safety.

Hence, the Tyranny would completely wipe out the entire PLA armada with minimal losses to themselves.

Battle
Ikeben's fleets jumped into orbit of the target planets and proceeded to rid them of the Sentinel-class battlestations the Tyranny left behind as a meagre defense. Gravius sacrificed the stations, attempting to lull Ikeben into a false sense of security so that he might deploy his troops. Aware that something was wrong, Ikeben sent a wing of bombers down to fly over the surface to reconnoiter his fleet's target. The bombers, though assaulted with anti-aircraft fire, were able to make it out with scans of the surface.

Other than the occasional rodent, there were no signs of life present. The population of the entire planet had been executed prior to Ikeben's attack as a precautionary measure. Gravius knew that Ikeben had been given technology capable of neutralizing slave control chips by the Lazeroth. Since he did not want to expend time and energy pacifying them again, he rid himself of the problem before it even became one. This turned out to be a mistake.

Ikeben realized that the Tyranny was defending a strategically worthless objective. Before Gravius could close his trap around him, Ikeben ordered the entire fleet to retreat on the spot. Seconds later, the armada found itself at the emergency jump coordinates, facing Gravius' ambush. Ikeben had little choice but to engage it at point blank range while he waited for his fleets' jump drives to charge up again, barely getting them out of there before the Tyranny's reinforcements arrived.