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You feel haggard from the last training session. It’s your job to be there, even though you considered just skipping it and just getting the the basics from Vasquez. As you walk into the briefing room on the bridge, you notice the hologram projector is on. The table has a planet floating above it. There’s a couple of small stations highlighted in orbit and a section of coast along the major continent is glowing.

You’re early, only about half the officers are there. They filter in through the next 20 minutes and take their seats. When everyone is there, they stand and salute the Captain. “Be seated,” he say, “there’s thing to be discussed.” Sarak begins to pace up and down the room.

“This is Dimerion, a small unaffiliated farming planet. No official government, no official military. Traders pick up food and drop off equipment. It’s unknown and isn’t on many star charts. The population stands just over 1,000 of mixed species. And it’s ours.”

He motions towards the stations in orbit, “Fighters will secure two of the station, while the ship takes the main station. Absolutely no messengers ships or cargo ships are to leave. Destroy them if necessary,” he says directly to the fighter commanders. “The remaining fighter will provide air support where needed. The dropship will insert two squads into each major population center, six in total. Resistance is expected, though it will little more than militias. Eight squads will be doubled up: Two and Seven, Three and Eight, Four and Nine, Five and Ten. One and Six will secure the two smallest.”

“When full cooperation has been achieved,” he continues, “they too will be ours. Dissidents will be sold away. Any questions?”

He’s planning a planetary takeover, Vasquez was right to be worried about what he had planned. You know the history, sarqs haven’t ever been able to hold together. They’ve always splintered when direct management is unavailable. Then again, not every crew had a light cruiser sitting around with a flight of fighters.

>Ask questions (What?)
>Prepare for combat (Any special preparations?)
>Other?

>>1174638
>>Ask questions (What?)
Couldn't we hack their com networks and announce the takeover while ordering all fighting forces to stand down? Could also prevent any scorched earth protocol if they have such things?

You stand, “Sir, how do we stop them from destroying their equipment? Scorched earth? And can we hack their coms down, maybe tell them to surrender?” You sit down while he considers your questions.

He looks at you when he’s done. “They won’t do that to themselves. We block off trade, they destroy their food, and they starve. If they send for food, we intercept and take it until they submit. The coms will be jammed. All wireless communication will be impossible for them. Though any lines they have need to be cut. We’ll have intel on that once we’re in orbit.”

He continues to go on about the geography. It’s mostly cleared land surrounded by dense woodland. There’s a few sparse hills, but it’s mostly flat. Five are near the coast and one is further inland. A network of rough roads run between them. Light manufacturers are in the largest town, though they don’t produce much more than replacement parts for equipment.

You’re given a copy of the briefing and dismissed. There’s still a day and a half until you arrive.

>Keep training
>Brief squad
>Gather more information (What?)
>Rest
>Other?

>>1175245
>Gather more information (What?)
What is the ultimate goal? Are we taking over the planet, or just trying to make cash on slaves and loot.

>>1175757
he didn't directly say he planned to take over the planet

We shall ask who the settlement belongs to and who kind of response it would incite if we did this. Assuming hes trying to take over the planet.

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>>1175245
>>Brief squad
>>Gather more information (What?)
Who they trade with, try to guess why Sarak's doing a take over, maybe he'll sell the planet to someone because I frankly doubt his dream was to be a farmer.
>Sarak when talking with the captured governor.
>I'm the farmer now.

You gather your squad and give them the briefing, almost the same as you were. The ones who are sarq look worried, but don’t say anything. After you relay the information, you decide to do some digging.

The files you got for briefing lays out the whole operation. You find the section for after you’ve taken control. Not much is listed, just judicial policies and how to keep them under control. There’s a list of priorities: Slaves, ships, fabricators, the list goes on.

There’s a few files on the history of the planet. Independents founded it about 20 years ago to get away from their systems. Not many even know it exists, so the chance of foreign intervention is low. The planet’s main exports are food and a small amount of valuable minerals. It’s eventually distributed by merchants, mostly with a medium sized shipping company.

You can’t say what he wants with the planet, but he’s going through the effort of taking it and controlling it. While rare, it’s unheard of for small colonies to fall. Some of them actually stay around long enough to make a name for themselves.

It’s late, you need sleep. You’ll be landing tomorrow evening.

>Prep squad and equipment
>Keep gathering information (What?)
>Rest
>Other?

>>1176568
>>Prep squad and equipment
Talk while doing so, ask if they have some insights on this corner of the galaxy, maybe this place is one of the few resuply area in/out of wherever/whatever warpdrive we use

>>1176568
>Keep gathering information (What?)
Total population size, demographics, type of small arms likely to encounter, any "armour" or other heavy weapons, present or suspected, and communication hubs and abilities.

You tell your squad to prep their equipment. You busy yourself by looking up more information on the colony. It’s out of date mostly, by several years. Last census had 1,122 people accounted for. Shipping records show that they’ve got small arms for hunting. Though little other is accounted for that isn’t raw materials, it’s scarily bare.

The chat between the Makkl in your squad catches your ear. Apparently the location of the planet is a good spot for trading if it were on the map. There’s an uncommonly low amount of commercial traffic for the sector. Though the colony seems to be thriving, not just in agricultural ways.

By midday, you’re crowded into the dropship. There’s three other squads, one of them is Vasquez’s. You can feel space distort more than normal warp travel and and the ship rocks. Within minutes the airlock pressurizes and you can hear the clamps disconnect. Last minute orders come in. You’ll be landing at the town roughly 40 miles more inland than the others.

You wish there were windows, though maybe you don’t. The Gs begin to bear down on you as you hit atmosphere. After several minutes, it begins to ease. You’re flying towards your target. Forward motion stops after an hour and you descend. The main hatch opens and cold night air blows in. The hull is creaking because of the temperature differences.

Two squads storm down the ramp, yours and Vasquez’s. It’s a clearing in the woods. You pull up a map on your visor, you’re roughly 3km away from the town. No doubt they heard you come in, it’s kind of hard not to.

>Secure the area around the village
>Head straight to the village
>Sit tight and recoup
>Other?

>>1177550
>Secure the area around the village
Send some scouts to check out the locals and any defenses set up. Then we orient our forces to either bypass or eliminate them.

>>1177550
>>Secure the area around the village

You order your troops to spread into the forest. You also have three of them move ahead to scout for movement in the town. Sweeping through the forest, you don’t find much in the terms of habitation. Though there’s obvious signs that people have passed through.

A light blink on your visor, the scout team is reporting in. Live feed: Movement in the village some thirty odd people you would guess. They’re mostly just gathering in a common area, probably confused after they heard the dropship. You cut the feed.

Much of the underbrush in the forest has been cut, leaving paths through the forest. It’s careful going. Within the hour, you’re on a ridge overlooking the town. Lights are on and there’s still movement. More frenetic than you last saw. The layout is fairly basic. There’s rows of houses and several other larger buildings in a grid structure of roads. One of the larger buildings has a communication array on it, no doubt jammed by now.

>Sneak into the village, catch them by surprise
>Open fire, no mercy
>Keep watching them
>Other?

>>1178341
>Sneak into the village, catch them by surprise

Also, roll 1d20 with your vote

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>1178341
>>Sneak into the village, catch them by surprise

Best take them by surprise and end it quickly, you think as you make your way down to the town. You soon stand on one of the unlit roads that lead to were the people are gathering. You can make out voices by now, mostly talking about an arsenal. They’re debating whether or not to open it.

Some of them are armed with hunting rifles. You decide now is the time to act and you fire a warning shot, calling for their surrender. Most are caught by surprise, though a few attempt to return fire. The remaining surrender after the few that resisted are dispatched.

There’s still most of the town and occupants that need to be searched. They’d talked about and arsenal. Sounds like they were packing more than they looked like. You order your soldiers to search the houses, confiscate weapons, and gather people. Vasquez orders his squad likewise. It’ll take about an hour to get everyone together.

>Interrogate prisoners (For what?)
>No mercy, execute them
>Continue searching
>Other?

Also roll 1d20

Going to the movies, will be a little while before the next response

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>1179494
>>Interrogate prisoners (For what?)
Who's in charge around here and where's the head boss on this rock hiding.

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>1179494
>>Continue searching

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>1179543
Backing.

The prisoners are quickly interrogated. It doesn’t take much to get them talking, just some threats. They start talking about who’s in charge: no one. An upstart colonist begins to scream, “Head boss?! You’re the kind of people we’re trying to stay away from! If anyone leads these people, it’s me!” All the other colonists begin to deny what he’s saying. “Don’t listen to him, he’s not right in the mind,” or so they claim.

Coms open up, “One,” they call you. “We’ve got some people moving up. They look armed. Three out.” You hear some fire exchange on the other side of town. As you turn your head, you hear a loud thump and roaring. A rocket heads into the forest and explodes, a concussion wave hits you. That was an anti-ship missile. Where did farmers get an anti-ship missile?

You quickly ask why they have that equipment. “Gotta have a backup,” they say, “in case the crop fails. You’re in the middle of nowhere, a good place to resupply if you want to stay unnoticed. Besides, we need it for people like you.” Smugglers.

“Farmers always have something,” you hear one of your soldiers say. When questioned on where they store it, they say that you don’t need to know. It’s not going to be easy to break them, they’re adamant.

>Get them to tell you the location
>Search for it yourself
>Start executing people until you’re told
>Other?

Also roll 1d20 with your choice

Thanks for hanging in there. The Great Wall with Matt Damon is ok, watch at your own peril.

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>1182435
Hopefully our hacker will be up to the task, so, get to it.
>look at my 3.

>>1182435
>>Get them to tell you the location
If it fails
>>Start executing people until you're told
"I will not have my people die just because some farmer refuses to co-operate"

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>1182745
For some reason my dice didnt work

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>1182435
>Other?
Get a sharp instrument, make a 2mm V cut into their skin or flesh, and start peeling. Slowly.

If they pass out before telling us, execute them.

They refuse to answer your questions. Especially anything relating to the arsenal. You think of some way to get them to talk, but there’s nothing. It takes a little time of questioning before you decide to go that far.

Walking behind the upstart colonist who was babbling about being the leader, you raise your gun. Light flashes. It’s clean, no blood, no screaming. “The next one won’t be so lucky. Tell me where your weapons are or it starts getting worse.” You kick the body and they start looking worried.

The next person gets one to the chest, they thrash before they die. You take a knife from one of your soldiers, “The next one is being flayed.” The knife is incredibly sharp and you press it into the center of one guy’s back.

“Wait, wait. I’ll say. It’s in a bunker to the northeast,” he start rambling coordinates. “You can’t see it from orbit, we made sure you couldn’t. And the entrance is hidden. Now please don’t flay me.”

It sickens you that you did it. But you had to, there wasn’t much other choice. You don’t know them and they don’t know you. The way it should be.

>Send a party to search for the bunker
>Look yourself and leave some people here
>Pull out of town and have everyone in your squad search
>Transmit the coordinates from the comms center
>Other?

>>1184916
>>Transmit the coordinates from the comms center

>>1184916
>Transmit the coordinates from the comms center

The coordinates are too important to keep to yourself. You go to the comms center, leaving guards with the prisoners. It’s in the center of town. A building towers over most and no doubt is packed with equipment.

Reinforced doors are the welcome you get. Though with the codes your guests have provided, they glide open. There’s screen lining almost every wall and electronics packed to the ceiling. It’s a metal jungle but you find your way through. You find the main console and input your frequency, the only one not jammed. The radio crackles, “Report.”

“This is the Tenth,” you say. “There’s reports that the colonists have a whole arsenal down here. Transmitting coordinates.” You punch them in. After slow moments of silence, you get a response, “Received. Your reports match others we’ve gotten from other teams. You’re now an occupying force, keep things under controls down there. Captain is having the ship pull out to bring in more troops. Absolutely no unauthorized communications are to leave atmosphere. You’ll have fighter support, use it sparingly. Good fortunes to you.”

An occupying force. I wasn’t trained for this, you think. God know you never expected this when you signed on. Vasquez will want to hear this, his squad is still searching through the town. Doing the math, you realize it’ll take at least 22 days to get there and back. You’re on your own until then.

The night is long, a full planet rotation is 38 hours here. Thankfully the sun is cooler than yours or it might just be blistering but sunset. You watch the sun start to rise, thinking about what you should do. You could just have them return to normal life, more or less. During an Old Earth war, you remember, occupied areas were heavily policed. But this is Old Earth.

>Set up daytime patrols to watch the people
>Restrict the prisoners to their homes, you can’t have them leave
>Let them go about their business
>Attempt to gain their favor by participating in daily activities
>Other?

>>1186369
>>Set up daytime patrols to watch the people
>Attempt to gain their favor by participating in daily activities
Though make it clear that if one tries to fuck it up they'll all be put to house arrest and maybe more. Make it clear too to our boys not to try anything funny or they'll get their shit pushed in.

>>1186369
>An occupying force.
Also this, goddamn Sarak what the fuck are you doing?
We've what 200 men at most to pacify a thousand people on the planet?
Even with guns and ships this is rather low and an uprising in waiting.
>Look at me, I'm the UN peacekeeping force now.

>>1186369
There are rules to quelling insurgencies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayan_Emergency

Declare martial law.

Curfews in effect from sunset until sunrise, no one permitted outside after dark.

Round the clock patrols to keep the people orderly during the day, and inside during the night.

No loitering or gathering in groups larger than 3 people.

Control the food supply and water sources.

Lock-down and confiscate all electronic devices capable of communication.

No leaving the settlement, build a wall.

Attempt to "integrate" and socialize with the locals.

Act as authority figures, and settle disputes.

Detainment facility for troublemakers.

There’s rules to this kind of thing, even if you might now know them. You do know who does know the: Vasquez. He’s supervising the sweep of the town. People are still being found.

He notices you approach and you greet him, “New orders came in. We’re occupying the planet while Captain gets more people. We’ll have the fighters and transport, at least.” He grimaces, not liking what he’s hearing.

“Well,” he begins, “we’re gonna be here on our own then? They don’t cover this kind of thing in the Star Corps very well, but they don’t leave it out. Keep the people separated and control them. Curfews, food, supplies, everything. We’ll take things in shifts. I’ll pull the night shifts, you get the day shift.”

He goes on further about patrolling and such. You put your forces to the task of confiscating all the communications equipment and supplies. There’s a warehouse where they store the crop before transporting it to the orbital stations. Most of everything goes there or to the comms center. Sensors are set up everywhere, from the edge of the forest, to the fields on the far side. If people are moving, you’ll know it. You’ve got an idea for a wall. Adams gives you an estimate of two weeks to get a decent wall is you want it.

While this is going on, the sun slowly rises. Your squad gets a stern briefing on what they should a shouldn’t do. They’re authority figures and there shouldn’t be any infighting. Anyone that breaks the rules are confined to their house after the first offense. After that, it’s your discretion.

A sneaking suspicion is in your head. Vasquez gave you the day shift so he could get some sleep. It’s starting to bear down on you, but most of the work is relatively easy and tedious. The prisoners are catalogued and released. A majority return home but some go to work in the fields or the establishment.

It’s midday now, and you’ve got about about 9 hours left.

>Take it easy, leave some work for your squadmates
>Keep the routine you’re starting to set
>Other

There’s still the matter of whether or not to build a barrier. You could restrict mostly the roads in or out. Or go the entire way. That’s still something to determine.

>Build the entire wall (16 days)
>Build mostly around the roadways (4-6 days, less effective)
>Build only in critical areas (8 days, moderately effective)
>Don’t build a wall, you won’t need it

>>1187701
>>Keep the routine you’re starting to set
>Build only in critical areas (8 days, moderately effective)

>>1187701
>Keep the routine you’re starting to set
Gotta get that paper work done... After we create the paper first.
>Build only in critical areas (8 days, moderately effective)

Maybe it will only be a fence in some areas I dunno, but we're building a wall, and making they greys pay for it!

You order the wall built in critical areas, time is of the essence. The Chinese once built a wall 5500 miles long, you remember. So did the Americans about 150 years back, under some president. You wish you’d read more up on him, it was the whole reason he was elected after all.

The rest of the day is spent marking out where it should go. Adams sketches out a plan. It’s gonna be built with the material left in the storehouse. The Dimeri are going to pay for it, it is their planet after and you are improving it. The wall will be mostly metal, with some composite or polymer parts where needed. Most parts are going to be handmade as there isn’t a fabricator here.

Construction commences on the second day. The two main areas are those directly in between the main path to the arsenal and the fields. More people start to work in the fields as everyday schedules are put back into order. If anyone is in the fields without checking in with you, you’re going to have a problem. That hasn’t happened yet, thankfully.

The days are dreadfully long, but you’re starting to adapt to it. You sleep through a lot of the night and wake up hours before dawn. At dawn, you relieve Vasquez and his squad. The work you do is mostly administrative duties, handing out rations and such to the occupants of your fine town. You’re relieved at sundown by Vasquez and his squad. After that, you usually fall asleep because 19 hours of duties is hard work.

Your coms crackle to life at the end of your shift on the fifth day. It’s Eight, one of the twins, reporting commotion in the field. Nothing serious as of yet, it seems to just be a dispute.

>Deal with it yourself, how bad could it be?
>Let Vasquez deal with it, it’s almost his shift after all
>Have one of your guy’s deal with it (Anyone in particular?)
>Other?

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>>1188584
>>Deal with it yourself, how bad could it be?

>>1188584
>Other?
Appear from a distance and only intervene when it gets out of hand, or one guy start wailing on the other, or might kill one another. But other than that, don't get involved, most cops even on patrol ignore shit on the streets they pas by, unless someone starts firing off shots, or shouts I"M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU, or a civvie complains.

>>1188728
Ever had to deal with or break up domestic violence and disputes?

"Everyone walks away with a black eye".

>>1188584
>>Deal with it yourself, how bad could it be?

“I’ll be right there,” you say into the mic. Best let this sort itself out, but who knows where it’ll lead. The walk is short, only a couple of minutes before you reach the checkpoint leading to the field. Seven and Eight are there watching two sresh hiss at each other.

“What’s it about?” You ask. “The guy on the left feels like his pay has been gypped,” Seven replies. “On the right is the field supervisor. He thinks the other is a cheat and is trying to swindle him. According to some, it started a couple months back when the cheat got intoxicated and made some bad bets.”

It sounds mostly like they’re just hissing, but there’s a pattern to it. Not often you’ve heard that and then it was mostly in bars or on the docks. Before now you just thought it’d been some sort of basic instinct, but now you realize that’s their native language.

The hissing takes on a new aspect, there’s a flash of a blade. The cheat’s pulled a knife. In response, the manager rushes him and dodges the knife. You’re too far away to do much other than shoot them. It doesn’t matter much though. By the time you’d have your gun up, the cheat is on the ground unconscious from a solid punch from the manager. You heard from where you are.

While you and your two men run up to the scene, the manager is ruffling through the troublemaker’s pockets. The crowd around them breaks off as you approach. “Stop,” you say…

>Apprehend the manager
>Drag the cheat away
>Take them both for disturbing the peace
>Investigate (Anything specific?)
>Leave them be, it's not your business
>Other?

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>>1189655
>>Take them both for disturbing the peace
Try not to laugh.

Will have a new thread up tomorrow

>>1189655
>Take them both for disturbing the peace
>Investigate (Anything specific?)
Now we are not arresting them, just taking them to a private place for questioning.

-Ask what was that all about.

-Why did he take the guys money.

-And people we can ask to corroborate your story.

-Ask the people the history of both the characters

-"interview" them separately apart from one another.

-Check up workplace staff opinions and stories.

-Ask for financial reports to determine pay and salary, and if any cash was withheld, and if the guy who got his ass beat was a lazy bum.

>>1191081
Supporting

New thread
>>1193577