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I know, in this one there's a lot of ground war too but it's just too good not to show. I remember watching this over and over when it was released. Such an amazing film! The offensive began with the arrival of the Fleet in the Klendathu System, consisting primarily of Corvette Transports and support craft. Corvette Transports launched F-76 Thunderbolt squadrons while deploying entire Mobile Infantry Divisions via DR-4 Viking dropships to the planets surface. Plasma Bugs from the surface of Klendathu fired their first initial salvos of anti-ship fire within minutes during the troop deployments from orbit. The Corvette Transport; Rodger Young had completed thirty five percent of it's Mobile Infantry deployment by the time the Plasma Bugs had opened fire on the Fleet. As predicted by Military Intelligence the Bug Plasma did in fact appear to be random and light, the first salvos coming within close proximity to fleet ships, but with no recorded hits or causalities sustained by Fleet, allowed Mobile Infantry deployment to continue unimpeded. However, moments later once the Corvette Transports started to complete their troop deployments, Plasma Bug Batteries began sustained and accurate anti-ship fire, causing catastrophic damage to the Fleet. In one incident. damage sustained by a Corvette Transport caused the ship to veer off course and collide with another Corvette Transport, causing the Rodger Young to make an evasive manoeuvre to avoid collision before being hit by bug plasma towards the nose and bridge of the ship. Despite these damages, the ship would survive the battle intact. During the chaos in high orbit, the first wave of Mobile Infantry units reached the surface within minutes of deployment, although some DR-Viking dropships were lost due to Plasma Bug fire the majority of the deployments were successful, with thousands of infantry securing the drop-zones and advancing outward, with no initial resistance met. Various sporadic skirmishes would begin to occur as Mobile Infantry companies would encounter and destroy Plasma Bugs and Bug Holes with the use of Tactical Oxygen Nukes and engage isolated groups of Warrior Bugs with rife fire. As the Mobile Infantry continued to advance and extend their perimeter around the primary landing zones, small skirmishes against Arachnid ground forces would begin to escalate in to large scale engagements as it was discovered that the Arachnids had in fact already mobilised in greater numbers than anticipated. Mobile Infantry units attempted to repel the Arachnids, fighting in lined formations with rifle fire. However due to the damage being sustained by Fleet in orbit from continued Plasma Bug fire, the infantry on the ground were left without sufficient close air support to counter the Arachnid numerical superiority, and because of this, ground forces were unable to prevent or repel the Arachnids from advancing directly in to Mobile Infantry positions. This resulted in Mobile Infantry units being forced to engage Warrior Bugs in close quarters combat, with troopers being fatally wounded or outright killed by stabbing and/or dismemberment. Within the first thirty minutes of the battle, the Mobile Infantry divisions, unable to gain ground against the Arachnids, and sustaining heavy casualties, had lost the initiative. It was no longer possible for the Mobile Infantry to deny the Arachnids the ability to mobilise within the area of operations or even maintain security of the landing zones. In addition to this, due to the amount of damage still being sustained by the Fleet, there was no ability to provide the necessary close air support to troopers on the surface in order to bombard and destroy the high concentrations of Warrior Bugs assaulting the Mobile Infantry positions. With no other option, the Federation Armed Forces issued a general retreat. All Mobile Infantry divisions were ordered to fall back back to the landing zones for extraction. The retreat quickly became disorganised as retreating infantry units were continuously perused by Warrior Bugs, with many troopers killed attempting to cover the retreat of other units or attempting to rescue other troopers. During the retreat, the Mobile Infantry unit; Roughnecks 2-0 managed to facilitate in the rescue of multiple troopers that may have otherwise been killed in battle. It is unknown if other units performed similar actions or with such success. Eventually, all surviving Mobile Infantry units were extracted from the surface and transported back to the remaining Corvette Transports in orbit, leaving the surface area of operations in complete Arachnid control. Fleet remnants then retreated to Battlestation Ticonderoga, leaving no remaining Terran Armed Forces in the system and effectively ending the offensive on Klendathu.
