Invasion of P3-X2

The Invasion of P3-X2, also called the Battle of P3-X2, was one of the final battles of the Green Drone War. In an attempt to steal the Artifact from the Green Drones’ maniacal leader, the Controller, a massive RWI (Red Wood Industries) and CNL (Crazy North Logistics) joint invasion fleet attacked the GDA (Green Drone Armada)’s headquarters on the desert world of P3-X2. Though the invasion was a success, the Artifact was transported off-world on the Controller’s Super-Dreadnought, making the entire effort more or less pointless. RWI and CNL forces withdrew from the planet after the Artifact escaped with the help of a portion of the RCSP (Royal Coalition of Spatial Protection) “ghost fleet”.

Early Stages
At least three days before the invasion commenced, the RWI Discovery was dispatched by Grand Admiral Adam Williams, leader of RWI, to track the Artifact to its holding facility. Prior to the Battle of Icarus, Williams had placed a tracking beacon on the Artifact in case it was lost again. The Discovery’s captain, Sarah Hawk, had her crew track the device to the planet P3-X2, the supposed stronghold or capital world of the Green Drone Armada.

The Discovery dropped out of hyperspace above P3-X2 and began scanning for the Artifact in the surrounding area. It was soon located on the planet’s surface, but before Hawk could complete the confirmation transmission to RWI Command, the GDA began blocking all communications. Several of their GDA destroyers emerged from out of nowhere and began firing at the Discovery with their Atlas Superlasers. As the Discovery was not meant for ship-to-ship combat, Hawk ordered the crew to abandon ship as more and more damage was sustained. Hawk and a few senior officers remained aboard and guided the dying Discovery for a crash-landing on P3-X2’s dusty surface.

Upon receiving the partial transmission from Hawk, Grand Admiral Williams began amassing a huge invasion fleet over the next seventy-two hours. All three of RWI’s Daedalus-class Battleships, the Zheng-He, Osiris, and Williams’ flagship Apollo, were being prepped, as well as numerous Defender-class Frigates, Phoenix-class Assault Frigates, and various other vessels. Meanwhile, deep inside the GDA’s base, the Commander informed the Controller about the Discovery’s appearance and subsequent destruction, and warned him that other attackers may soon come as well. The Controller dismissed these warnings, as he believed nothing could stop him now.

Sabotage
Williams ordered Captain Jack Roberts and his crew aboard the RWI Eclipse to infiltrate P3-X2’s space, find out what happened to the Discovery, and disarm or destroy any orbital defenses they had. The team met up with Jack’s friend in CNL, Dr. Craz, in orbit of the planet and moved out. On the way to a GDA space station, the crew encountered several wrecked starships that used to belong to Jack’s old Colonists and the former DRF faction. P3-X2 had been the site of the final battle between the Colonists and the DRF fleets, and the first place the Green Drones had been sighted in the galaxy. The crew continued on after a brief stop and soon found that the station the GDA had set up was in the Colonists’ former base, Watchtower Station. Fortunately, the crew were able to sneak into the station via the Waffle Iron 2.0, which had been built by Craz before the Colonists had abandoned Watchtower. The Waffle Iron was a massive armored hatch that enclosed a large cavern with a passage that led inside the station.

After the team had entered, they made their way to a control room inside the asteroid and placed explosives inside, which cut the power from the base’s external defenses. The team fought their way back to their ships just as the invasion fleet arrived. A huge joint RWI and CNL fleet had emerged and began blasting away at the defending GDA Destroyers. The Phoenix frigate RWI Payne and two CNL Frigates were lost in the initial battle.

The Invasion Begins
As the Allied fleet pummeled the orbital defenses, the GDA quickly sent reinforcements to space. The Commander’s Dreadnought along with five destroyers arrived to stop the Allied fleet, but the effort was futile. The RWI Zheng-He used its dual Atlas Lasers, which had been retrofitted from captured GDA technology and mounted onto the bow where the frontal Mk1 batteries would go, to damage the Dreadnought and force it to retreat. While a detachment of the fleet remained in orbit to engage the other GDA ships, the majority of the invasion ships made a break for the planet’s surface. Multiple battle groups began landing troops and equipment all over the region of the GDA’s main headquarters.

Landing at Point Rain
The RWI Apollo and Osiris led the main strike force to the landing zone for Captain Jack and his crew to prepare to infiltrate the HQ. Backed up by a CNL Battleship, a few CNL frigates, and the Defender-class Frigates Tigris and Calypso, the command ships fought their way through P3-X2’s upper atmosphere until they were met by three GDA destroyers. Since the Eclipse had been left in orbit for unknown reasons, Jack and his team were assigned to fly the fighters of Red Squadron, the V-203 squadron belonging to the Apollo. Though both CNL frigates were lost, the squadron managed to take out the engines of all three enemy ships, causing them to plummet to the surface below. Several fighters were lost but none of their pilots were killed.

After the way was cleared, the fighters were repaired and the Valkyrie-class dropships were loaded full of ground troops and supplies. The Tigris and another CNL frigate, escorted by the dropships and fighters, attempted to land at the coordinates of Point Rain; however, a ground-based Atlas Superlaser cannon shot down the CNL frigate. A second laser cannon fired at the Tigris, piercing its shields and causing minor hull damage. The Tigris and dropships fell back while Jack led Red Squadron in at close range. The fighters overwhelmed the defenses and quickly destroyed the cannons and the ground forces defending them. Once it was clear, the RWI Calypso and Odi began landing ground troops. All across the planet, other battle groups had similar successes.

Infiltrating the Headquarters
Two teams were sent to attack the Drone HQ and steal the Artifact back. One team was led by Captain Jack; the other by Captain Jonathan Hunter, captain of the Tigris. Jack’s team departed first, leaving Point Rain with two Vulture-class Attack Helicopters, two RWI Tanks, and two Marauder-class Rovers. Their mission was to sneak in through a back entrance while Hunter’s forces attacked the main gate. Along the way, the crew took out a GDA outpost with a large comm tower and another surface-to-air Atlas Superlaser cannon. They also passed the rusty ruins of Craz’s old CNL Cruiser, which Jack’s Colonists had used in the Battle of the Colonies months earlier.

When the team arrived at the back entrance, however, they were met with firm resistance. Heavy cannons and several GDA Falcon-class Fighters guarded the area and took out their attack vehicles one by one. Jack desperately called RWI Command for an air strike, and Admiral Isaac Sheppard of the Osiris managed to send four V-203 fighters from his battle group to assist the strike team. Thanks to the reinforcements, the team cleared the way into the facility just as the Tigris arrived at the main entrance and deployed a company of marines led by Hunter.

The Trap
As both teams fought their way through the heavily-guarded base, the invasion fleet secured more and more of the planet. By the time Captain Jack’s team had made it to the Artifact’s containment room, Captain Hunter’s company was suppressed behind a blast door and could not make it inside. Nevertheless they proceeded through another part of the facility. Jack and his crew fought their way through levels of defenses, a fighter hangar, a drone construction bay, a dry dock for destroyers, and a large reactor room where they encounter a huge Mega drone unit, which ended up destroying much of he room with its heavy Mk2 Battleship cannons.

Jack and his team eventually entered a dark room similar to the one the Colonists had entered many months ago - the Controller’s chamber. Indeed, the Controller was there, gloating as his trap fell into place. The Commander also appeared and denounced the facts that RWI and CNL had the planet under lockdown. Suddenly, multiple Green Drones appeared from the shadowy room and pinned the crew inside, trapping them.

The Tables Turn
Confident that Jack’s team would not be able to stop them, the Controller and the Commander set the facility’s self-destruct countdown and made their way to the Controller’s personal ship, the titanic Super-Dreadnought. A short distance away, Grand Admiral Williams and his first officer, Commander Edwards, witnessed the Super-Dreadnought lift off from aboard the Apollo. Williams frantically ordered all Allied vessels to make for space and stop the GDA fleet from escaping with the Artifact at all costs.

Meanwhile, the Green Drone guard units stalled the strike team, though they were able to escape down a maintenance catwalk and exited the facility into a vehicle depot, where a Keep-class Mobile Base was departing from. They stole a second Keep and pursued it. After destroying it, the crew received an update from Williams and orders to help Admiral Sheppard retrieve the Discovery’s survivors.

As the Osiris engaged two GDA Scourge-class Carriers, Jack met with Captain Hawk and the few surviving bridge crew members. Hawk informed him they were downloading the last of the computer files and loading the last cargo supplies on the shuttle, but they needed a bit more time. A wave of GDA fighters then attacked the wreck site. Jack and Craz flew two Vulture Helicopters to fight them off, but they were destroyed along with the Keep rover. Fortunately, thanks to an AI program named DJ, Jack summoned the Eclipse from orbit to extract them, just as Hawk and the rest evacuated to the Osiris.

Orbital Battle
As the Zheng-He, Apollo, Tigris, and the CNL Battleship Sverige tried to break through the Command Dreadnought’s blockade to get to the fleeing Super-Dreadnought, Jack brought the Eclipse in to join the battle. Though the Phoenix-class frigate Louisa was destroyed and all the Allied ships took heavy damage, they managed to fight off the reinforcing GDA destroyers.

Return of RCSP
As more destroyers arrived and the Super-Dreadnought made it further away from the system, things seemed grim for the Allied fleet. To everyone’s dismay, however, the Apollo scanned three ships emerging from FTL. The faction RCSP had sent a detachment from its “ghost fleet” - two RCSP Phoenix-class Cruisers led by a massive Legacy-class Dreadnought, the Harbinger. Much to Jack’s surprise, his old friend, Venom, who was presumed to have died during the Battle of the Colonies, was commanding the fleet. The newly-arrived backup from RCSP gave the Allied fleet a greater fighting chance. Despite the reinforcements, the combined fleet could not stop the Super-Dreadnought from escaping. They managed to critically damage the Command Dreadnought, but it, too, escaped.

Aftermath
Williams ordered all ships to regroup and jump to a CNL-controlled moon to enact emergency repairs and meet with Venom to discuss RCSP’s status. The Osiris left the system directly back to Icarus to take the Discovery’s survivors out of danger, and presumably all other Allied units retreated from P3-X2, as the planet had already been conquered and the GDA had completely abandoned it due to their HQ self-destructing.

Meanwhile, the Super-Dreadnought, Dreadnought, and five GDA destroyers rendezvoused near a black hole in an unknown sector of space. The Controller began charging the Artifact in hopes that it would show him the future and help him completely wipe out all life in the galaxy. Unbeknownst to them, the RWI Challenger, was secretly sent by Williams to locate the battle group, and soon transmitted the coordinates to RWI Command. The Battle of the Black Hole took place a few days later, and the war ended shortly after.