On the surface of Irellan, the Ssi-ruu were already prepared for the Imperial invasion after the fleet battle lasted a few hours. They expected to see dropships or transport ships, but what they got were orbital drop pods instead.
Hundreds of thousands of drop pods would be deployed for the first few hours to secure landing areas, and hit key military targets identified via intelligence. Once a few hours had passed, dropships and transport ships would start bringing in the rest of the ground force.
On one of the drop pods, 10 Ascendants were locked into place as the pod descended through the atmosphere.
The Squad leader, Ascendant Knight Javos watched the tactical display which showed a green icon, indicating his own pod's location amidst the hundreds of thousands of others that were being falling through the surface.
The rank of Ascendant Knight was one of the new ranks created just like High Ascendant. An Ascendant Knight was typically a squad leader in command of 10 Ascendants.
The drop pods were stacked in tight formations and programmed to land within one hundred meters of their intended coordinates.
"Get ready," ordered Javos as the group braced for impact.
The pod's bottom thrusters kicked in, slowing down its descent and crash landed in the heart of what used to be Ssi-ruu ammunition depot.
The moment the pod's doors opened, the sound of Ssi-ruu battle cries could be heard from all sides. Hiding behind buildings and debris from the pod's landing, the Ssi-ruu opened fire.
Javos was the first out and was hit in the chest by one of the Ssi-ruu electro-plasma rounds, but it didn't penetrate his armor, instead it was absorbed by his armor and the damage dissipated.
Javos responded by raising his wrist and firing a micro missile into where the shot came from. The missile exploded, vaporizing the cover and the three Ssi-ruu behind it.
After that, Javos started sprinting forward, following by his squad who fanned out and began clearing the area.
One of the Ascendants charged straight into a group of Ssi-ruu and started swinging his vibrosword like a woodsman. Ssi-ruu blood splattered the snow, staining it green and black.
Javos reached the main control building and ripped the hatch off with one hand. Inside, a single Ssi-ruu officer who was hiding had begun to run at him, while fumbling for his sidearm. Javos grabbed the reptilian by its throat and squeezed until there was nothing left.
"Control building secured," he transmitted through the comm. "Proceeding to secondary objectives."
All around the area, hundreds of other pods burst open, each letting out squads of Ascendants. Explosions filled the horizon, followed by the shrieks of Ssi-ruu war beasts and the stomping sounds of Ascendant squads as they advanced.
By dawn, every Ssi-ruu weapons cache and troop barracks within a thousand kilometers of their landing zone were gone.
With this, landing zones were secured, and transport ships were now being sent down. Imperial fighters, bombers, and gunships now dominated the skies ahead of the transport ships' arrival.
Coming down on one of the transport ships was Crowne himself. His target was the enemies command center on the planet. It wasn't an easy target by any means. It was surrounded by defenses, millions of Ssi-ruu, and was just difficult.
But for Crowne and the Ascendants, they thrived in difficult situations.
So once, the transport ship hovered above the command center, instead of landing nearby and letting out thousands of troops, Crowne had another plan.
He had all the Ascendants onboard, go to the hanger where they were about to drop in from the sky and land right on top of them. At the same time, drop pods would come in to support them, dropping right on top of the command center to get Ascendants in their backlines.
In the Hanger, Crowne got on top of a tank and made a gesture with his hands. In the next second, the hanger doors opened, revealing the command center below.
Around him were other tanks and vehicles filled with Ascendants that were about to drop right outside of the command center.
"Everybody listen up!" he shouted, getting everyone's attention. "We're here to rid this planet of these xenophobic bastards and free the Varraxians who have been enslaved." he said as he paused for a few seconds.
"We are the Emperor's chosen, and we will uphold his will whether we are fighting against enemies of the Imperium or enemies of the Imperium's allies. And we all know how his stance against slavery. So let's get out there and show these guys the wrath of the Emperor."
"Hooah!" shouted the room in unison.
"One last thing. The Emperor told me that he may pay us a visit sometime during this war. So, use that news to get motivated for the battle." The entire hanger erupted. They were already motivated, but now they were even more motivated.
Crowne waited for the noise to die down, then nodded to the deck officer. "One minute," the officer called out.
Crowne looked down at the Ssi-ruu command center below through the open hanger doors. He watched for about a minute, looked to his right at the deck officer and got a thumbs up. Once he got that, he made a motion with his hand, and the first wave of tanks were dropped directly out of the hanger.
The tanks fell like meteors, with thrusters firing just before impact. They landed hard, flattening Ssi-ruu barricades and crushing a few unlucky defenders who were walking about.
Once the tank Crowne was on landed, he hopped off, firing a heavy blaster with one hand and directing troops with the other.
The Ssi-ruu screamed their war cries, swarming the tanks. A few had heavy weapons, but the Ascendant armor proved too much for them. Their small arms and anti-tank rounds pinged off the armor or were absorbed by energy fields until the Ascendants took them out.
By the tenth minute, dozens of tanks had formed a wall around the Ssi-ruu command center. Ascendants leaped off the sides and advanced, cutting down any defenders that stood in front of them.
The Ssi-ruu threw in everything they had—flamethrowers, chemical sprayers, even suicide bombers. But nothing could stop the Ascendants. They kept moving forward, step after step, and every step cost the Ssi-ruu hundreds of casualties.
On the roof of the command center, Crowne could see the Ssi-ruu war leaders huddling on the top balcony, frantically giving orders.
Crowne pointed at them and said, "Follow me." behind him 4 of his honor guard followed him as he dashed through the battlfield and toward the war leaders.
At the top, the Ssi-ruu officers waited with makeshift swords and pistols.
Crowned leaped forward to the balcony and with a single punch, shattered the chest of the Ssi-ruu leader. Two others lunged at him and were picked off by his honor guard, one cut in half by a vibrosword, the other punched from the roof entirely.
Crowne then found the Ssi-ruu's Blademaster, a creature nearly twice his size, and leaned in close. "You have a choice, order your troops to stand down, or I start dropping you off the roof." The Blademaster did not understand his words, but it understood its instinct. Crowne grabbed the Blademaster by the throat, seeing as it was about to attack, and hoisted it over the edge.
Below, thousands of Ssi-ruu saw their champion falling to the ground. They moved underneath him to break its fall, sacrificing dozens of them just to save their champion.
And it worked, the Blademaster managed to survive and was about to stand up. But, from above, a drop pod had landing directly on top of the Blademaster, killing it and a few dozen Ssi-ruu.
The Ascendants in the drop pod stepped out and looked around at all the blood that was everywhere. "By the Emperor, that's a lot of blood." most of the blood was from the Blademaster who was directly crushed by the drop pod.
Back on top, Crowne ordered a few Ascendants to clear the inside of the command center while he remained on top and overlooked the battle. They may have taken the command center, but now they were surrounded, and they needed to form a line around them before they got overwhelmed.
But what he didn't know was that the Ssi-ruu had a lot more to throw at them.
The Ssi-ruu were relatively new to waging war across space. So having proper defenses set up against orbital drop pods was not something they had. But at the same time, nobody could really stop the Imperium's orbital drop pods.
Meanwhile, somewhere on the planet, Daimon had teleported using the Force, into a room full of Ssi-ruu.
He looked around at them, and they all looked at him. The next few seconds were awkward as the two sides stood there, until Daimon was the first to break the silence. "Hello there."