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Credits and ContentsCredits and Contents

KLENDATHU INVASIONKLENDATHU INVASIONCREDITSAuthor

Matthew Sprange

Additional TextMatt Keefe

EditorChristopher Allen

Cover ArtChris Quilliams

Internal ArtJim Brady, Scott Clark,

Danilo Moretti

Figure PaintersAdrian Walters & Viktor Medora

Miniatures ManagerIan Barstow

Production DirectorAlexander Fennell

ProofreaderRon Bedison

PlaytestersSimon Dethan, Alexander Fennell, Nichola Wilkinson & Ted Chang

Starship Troopers: The Miniatures Game TM & (C) 2005 TriStar Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mongoose Publishing Ltd. Authorised User. Reproduction of any part of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. Printed in China.

CONTENTS

Introduction 2

The Road to Victory 3

Preparation for Invasion 4

Timeline of the Invasion 6

Invasion! 8

General Retreat 12

A New Strategy 13

Invasion Companies 15

Light Armour Platoons 17

Platoon Armoury 23

The Arachnid Response 25

Fighting on Klendathu 30

Scenarios 35

Heroes of Klendathu 45

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IntroductionIntroduction

IT’S AN UGLY PLANET – A BUG PLANET!

INTRODUCTIONWelcome to the fi ght, trooper. This book details the invasion of Klendathu by the Mobile Infantry in an attempt to bring about a quick resolution to the Arachnid War. This is the fi nal step on humanity’s long Road to Victory, a campaign intended to ensure human civilisation, not insect, dominates this galaxy now and always. The Sky Marshal and his experts within the Strategic Integrated Coalition of Nations all agree on one thing; the strike against Klendathu will be a swift and sure victory.

Unfortunately, they are wrong. Victory on Klendathu will not come easy. It will not come at all. Though the entire invasion will take less than a day, Klendathu will be the most devastating engagement fought by the Mobile Infantry to date, with an incredible death toll.

The Klendathu Invasion has the following sections, detailing the invasion from confi dent start to fi nal tragedy.

Preparation of Invasion: A look at the last stages of the Road to Victory and the assumptions made by SICON as to the nature of the threat they faced on Klendathu. Read on as the invasion unfolds with devastating consequences. You will also fi nd a frank SICON analysis of the lessons learned during this battle and how the new Sky Marshal intends to apply them to future confl icts.

Army Lists: Mobile Infantry players will revel in the new Invasion Companies. Comprising Light Armour Platoons, these are a new type of trooper created by the Sky Marshal in order to fi eld massive numbers on the battlefi elds of Klendathu. The Arachnids respond with new ploys to trap unwary troopers by utilising their vast and extensive tunnel networks.

Fighting on Klendathu: This section contains ideas on how to bring the excitement of Klendathu to your own tabletop, including a complete campaign that will test the entire vista of your tactical intellect!

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The Road to VictoryThe Road to Victory

WELCOME TO THE BUG HUNT, APES. WITH ANY LUCK, THERE WILL BE A FEW LEFT TO KILL BY THE TIME YOUR SQUAD

DROPS!

THE ROAD TO VICTORY

The destruction of Buenos Aires by a bug asteroid launched from the depths of space became a watershed for the entire Federation. There was time before BA and then time after. The Arachnids were no longer some vague alien threat on the far reaches of Federation space but a clear and present danger that had to be met with the most direct action.

After ridding Pluto of its Arachnid infestation, the Road to Victory began, a path through the stars that led directly to the Arachnids’ own homeworld, Klendathu. Under the strategic leadership of Sky Marshal Dienes, the MI were to fi ght the Arachnids wherever they could be found, with no resistance, no matter how fi erce, allowed to slow down Mankind’s inexorable progress to Klendathu. By striking at the heart of the threat, Dienes imagined a fatal blow that would cripple the bugs throughout the galaxy. The Mobile Infantry could then spend months, perhaps years, slowly eradicating the Arachnid infestations left on remote worlds. The war, however, would effectively be over.

There were opponents to this strategy, naturally, but Dienes did not attain his rank of Sky Marshal by succumbing easily to political opposition. He dismissed opponents who said this headlong streak through the galaxy was foolhardy, potentially leaving supply links and fl anks exposed to counterattack. In spite of their spread throughout this region of the galaxy, he maintained that Arachnids were utterly lacking in strategic sophistication and could fairly be treated as animals, a galactic pest that was his duty to wipe out.

In a little over a year, Dienes had accomplished most of his tasks, all but silencing his political critics. The Road to Victory had been paved with success after success as the Mobile Infantry, supported by the Fleet, hopped from planet to planet. By dropping in force and crushing any Arachnid resistance, entire planetary systems were secured in rapid succession, allowing the Sky Marshal’s forces to span the galaxy as they raced on towardss their fi nal target, Klendathu. Whispers of Arachnid infestations left almost entirely intact and planets scanned so

quickly they could not possibly be certain an alien presence was absent were ignored, if not outright suppressed. The Federation was destined for greatness and the Road to Victory was living proof of Mankind’s ascendance in the galaxy. The ships of the Fleet jumped from system to system, dropping Mobile Infantry squads and then transporting them to the next target with well-practised ease. Klendathu loomed ever closer.

During this period of time, Dienes was hard at work on the Home front as well as the ever expanding frontline. Even as the line of human control in the galaxy was redrawn almost every day, the Sky Marshal collected the resources of the Federation and funnelled them into the greatest military machine Mankind had ever created. New warships were launched from Earth orbit every week while factories on all the colony worlds began churning out weapons, equipment and vehicles. Most importantly, vast recruiting drives for all three arms of SICON military service were initiated, boosting the manpower available and permitting the creation of the now infamous Invasion Companies.

This drive, that effectively placed the entire Federation on a war footing, had just one aim – Sky Marshal Dienes realised that if he wanted the invasion of Klendathu to end the entire confl ict, he would need to deliver a force so powerful, so overwhelming, that the Arachnids would be eradicated within hours. What was surprising was that so few civilians and citizens realised just how much money was being spent and how many people were being recruited. Regular FedNet broadcasts continued to paint the Road to Victory as a foregone conclusion.

Dienes was no fool and was at least somewhat aware of the risks he was taking with the Road to Victory. While he was confi dent that the Fleet could protect supply lines as the Mobile Infantry raced across the galaxy, he was less sure of their stability if the fi ghting on Klendathu became a protracted battle rather than a quick extermination. Thus, it was essential that enough fi repower was massed in Klendathu orbit at zero hour to ensure a holocaust on the alien world that no bug could escape. He believed the entire operation could be completed in less than 24 hours from the fi rst drop to the last bug dead.

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Preparation for Invasion Preparation for Invasion

PREPARATION FOR INVASION

Briefing 12-20-02-KLN, Military Intelligence, Colonel Makinsson

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. This briefi ng is intended to familiarise you with all aspects of the invasion. For many of you this is the fi rst time you have been presented with the big picture, as it were. I’ll provide the overview now and meet with you all individually to discuss the roles of your own departments within the next few days.

Due to the excellent turnaround of analysis, Military Intelligence has been instrumental in the progress of the Road to Victory campaign. Indeed, we can demonstrate that our rapid evaluation of planetary systems and potential infestation sites has allowed both Fleet and MI to concentrate on high-value targets and avoid those with little or no interest to us. In turn, this has shaved off nearly two months from the Sky Marshal’s original timetable for the Road to Victory. Now we are in a position to strike at the heart of the Arachnids before they can make any serious defence preparations – Logisitics and Procurement have had to work hard to complete their quotas! Nevertheless, we have been assured all assets will be in place when the Fleet reaches Klendathu orbit. So, let us look at the primary targets.

Klendathu’s sun is similar to Terra’s Sol, though larger and older. Orbited by seven planets, it gives off an extreme amount of radiation for a yellow star, though we project its more harmful emissions are weak enough by the time they reach Klendathu itself to cause little or no harm to exposed humans. Klendathu itself has two moons, dubbed Centipae and Milliapae. These satellites are natural in origin and uninhabited.

The surface of Klendathu is dry and barren from pole to pole according to remote sensors and observation. Xeno-Studies has proposed the possibility of a considerable underground ecosystem present beneath Klendathu’s surface, needed to support a species as ravenous as the Arachnids. Repeated probes into the system have revealed no such ecology and I am thus happy to report that there is in fact a very small population of Arachnids present on Klendathu. Yes, there may be a larger contingent of stored, dormant eggs but those will be easily destroyed after the initial assault when we clear the way for a nerve gas strike against the Arachnid’s underground nests.

As an aside, an interesting possibility was raised during our closing interview with Xeno-Studies on this matter. We have in the past discussed the potential to capture advanced Arachnid forms for study and it might well be possible to select an attack region for isolation. We can ensure the chosen zone is contained and indigenous inhabitants quarantined for transport before the gas phase of Operation Righteous Extermination. This may result in high casualties within the unit assigned to this mission but given the otherwise light losses expected on Klendathu, we feel the numbers are well within acceptable limits.

Moving on, the planet’s atmosphere is quite similar to Terran norm. Klendathu’s atmosphere is more stable than Earth’s, which is likely due to a greater mix of noble gases and a much wider ionosphere spread buffering lower levels of air closer to the surface. Initial research into Klendathu suggested turbulent weather due to the existence of two moons. A closer examination by Military Intelligence, headed by myself, has shown this supposition to be untrue.

Far from being a planet-wide race, the Arachnids are concentrated in a relatively small area, probably because the softer rock here allows easier tunnelling. This, of course, plays right into our hands. We will land our forces in Drop Zones Alpha, Bravo and Charlie, effectively ringing the Arachnids and allowing us to methodically wipe them out in a matter of hours. This will be achieved primarily by the Invasion Companies. Individual power suit and Marauder units will be used in a purely supporting role or be otherwise tasked to eradicate smaller nests located outside the main Drop Zone areas.

I have noted that more than one of you sitting around this table has questioned the Sky Marshal’s creation and implementation of the Invasion Companies. Allow me to take a moment to allay your fears. It is true our projections do report that far fewer MI can be landed on Klendathu with a fair expectation of success in all mission objectives. However, it is a foolish intelligence operative who does not expect a few surprises when battle begins! We must therefore attack Klendathu in overwhelming force, regardless of how weak the primary targets may appear. We must expect some variance in our projections – why, there could be double the number of expected bugs in each Drop Zone! While we could potentially leave this to the power suit

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Preparation for Invasion Preparation for Invasion

companies, consider the Invasion Companies to be a little added insurance.

By removing power suits and other advanced equipment from these troopers’ standard issue, we have been able to gain massive savings in both supply and training. With increased recruitment proceeding according to our original projections, the resources we have saved has allowed us to absorb the huge number of new recruits with little trouble. The double-edged saving is that by removing the power suits, we have also been able to drastically cut the amount of time needed to train an MI trooper. One-for-one it takes about half the time and resources to train a light armour trooper as it does a cap trooper. However, the economies of scale have allowed us to realise far greater gains than this and I am pleased to announce that over three hundred thousand fully trained troopers will be available to deploy into the Drop Zones in the fi rst phase of invasion.

The objections raised against the Invasion Companies tend to follow one of two lines. First, it has been said that the entire concept of the Invasion Companies takes the mobile out of

Mobile Infantry. Second, the life expectancy of a light armour trooper when directly faced with Arachnids is exponentially lower than that of a Cap trooper. Both of these are, in fact, false.

The Invasion Companies are indeed mobile – nothing has fundamentally changed, as it would be foolish to alter this most basic of tenet of our military. What we have done is changed the emphasis. Powersuit and Marauder platoons all feature personnel trained and equipped with individual jump packs. With the Invasion Companies, we introduce a new concept. The increased resources available for this invasion have allowed us to create a sophisticated transport network utilising standard Vikings and Skyhooks. In this way we have changed the focus of mobility from a single platoon able to jump several miles in minutes to being able to deploy and re-deploy an entire super-sized company – to any single point on the entire planet! This allows us to position a crushing weight of fi repower in precise locations in reaction to anything the enemy attempts. Counterattacks on their part will simply become a new battle line within minutes.

As for criticisms of the Invasion Companies’ equipment, I fi rst have to point out that these troopers are using the same Morita assault rifl e as the power suit platoons – they thus have exactly the same basic fi repower. It is true that the fl ak armour worn by the Invasion Companies can never equal the protection of a power suit but the larger squad sizes of the new troopers, as well as the increased number of squads that will typically be deployed in support of one another, means that it is unlikely that any Arachnid attack will get close enough for this to be a factor. Put simply, each squad will have the capability of kicking out so much Morita fi re that no bug swarm will be capable of reaching it. Added to this will be increased access to atomics and other advanced supporting weaponry. Given preparation and enough distance, we project that a single Invasion Company can actively attack a bug swarm of any size with a certainty of success.

Throughout the operation, the Fleet will be kept in low orbit in order to facilitate the transport network of the Invasion Companies, as well as ensure accurate landings in all three Drop Zones. Though there is a minor element of risk from launched bug plasma, I can assure you that it will be random and light.

I wish to pass on the Sky Marshal’s congratulations to all department heads. It is Military Intelligence that has made the successful planning of this invasion possible. True, it will be the Mobile Infantry and Fleet who get all the glory on the day but we all know where the real heroes of the Federation work, eh? It is solely because of us that this battle has been won before a single trooper lands on Klendathu.

Thank you for your attention. I’ll be scheduling appointments with all of you over the next few days, starting with Strategic Analysis and then Fleet Integration.

System Datafile: C911: Kle3Target Name: Klendathu Classification: G (lightly irradiated)Klendathu:- Orbit: 227,940,000 kilometres

(1.52 AU) from System Sun- Diameter: 6,495 kilometres- Mass: 6.1236e23 - Atmosphere: 75% nitrogen, 24%

oxygen, with traces of argon, xenon, neon, carbon dioxide and hydrogen

- Planetary Composition: Primarily silicon, iron and nickel

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Timeline for InvasionTimeline for Invasion

TIMELINE OF THE INVASION

D-0:06 Fleet assembles in fl ight order and begins to enter Klendathu low orbit. Arachnid plasma response almost immediate.

D+0:02 The destroyer Lionheart is the fi rst casualty of the intensifying plasma barrage, with all hands lost.

D+0:05 Secondary MI waves begin drop.

D+0:10 Invasion Companies engage initial targets with atomics. Primary targets are plasma bug batteries. However, Captains in the Fleet have already begun to note that the heaviest concentrations of plasma barrages are coming from areas outside the designated Drop Zones.

D+0:13 Secondary MI waves land.

D+0:20 Tertiary MI waves land and begin deployment. This completes the initial invasion force – within twenty minutes, over three hundred thousand troopers have been deployed from orbit directly into the battle area. Already several Invasion Companies are standing by to be overrun by Arachnid swarms and are in danger of routing.

D+0:26 Acknowledging that Arachnid resistance is both heavier and better co-ordinated than expected, Sky Marshal Dienes orders the General Retreat. Company commanders are ordered to make their way back to their Vikings but many are already cut off by impassable swarms of warrior bugs.

D+0:57 The last of the Vikings leave the surface of the planet to be picked up by the few remaining ships in orbit. Many are shot down by plasma fi re as they slowly ascend through the atmosphere. The returning MI comprise mainly those Invasion Companies that dropped in the secondary and tertiary waves and did not have time to deploy far from their Vikings. The primary wave is almost entirely annihilated, with casualties exceeding one hundred thousand. Most power suit and Marauder platoons are still on the surface, having been tasked with wide-ranging patrols and therefore cut off from their transports. The Fleet begins to regroup in the shadow of Centipae, one of Klendathu’s moons, in order to remain sheltered from long-ranged plasma fi re.

D-0:22 First squadron, led by the Jutland, jumps into the Klendathu system. Followed by the rest of the Fleet’s orbital assets.

D+0:00 Primary Mobile Infantry waves (primarily Invasion Companies) begin drop.

D+0:04 Primary MI waves complete. The fi rst cruiser to be lost to the plasma barrage is the Manchuria. Out of control, it rams the Yom Kippur, destroying both vessels.

D+0:08 Primary MI waves land in assigned Drop Zones Alpha, Bravo and Charlie. Invasion Companies begin deployment and securing of beachhead almost immediately.

D+0:12 First contact with massed Arachnid swarms. Initial MI casualties light, mostly due to inexperience or over-eagerness to join battle. Tertiary MI waves begin drop.

D+0:16 Warrior bugs begin massing in huge numbers, far in excess of expectations of Military Intelligence. First major clashes between Arachnids and Invasion Companies begin.

D+0:38 The Fleet has suffered heavily with over a dozen capital ships lost and many more seriously damaged. Many retreat from Klendathu orbit though this effectively strands the MI on the ground. A few brave Captains remain in orbit to await the return of Vikings and lend fi re support to the surface. However, by this time MI and Arachnid forces are so intermingled that no effective reprisal from orbit can be made. The plasma barrage is unimpeded.

D+1:12 Sky Marshal Dienes convenes an emergency strategic meeting with Military Intelligence offi cers to discuss further options. At this point the death toll has run well into six fi gures. It is estimated that over forty thousand MI troopers are still on Klendathu, fi ghting for their lives.

D+0:24 Number of Arachnids in main engagement zones begin to increase. power suit and Marauder platoons, deployed as patrols outside of the Drop Zones, begin to report massed swarms in their areas. The entire invasion force is effectively surrounded. MI casualties at this point have already passed twenty seven thousand. Many Invasion Companies have ceased to exist as fi ghting units. Sa

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