Talk:AIF/@comment-32153776-20160606022309/@comment-10905876-20160621052609

The additional ships that have warped in above soon come under fire, with ships of the main force directing some of their fire awards. A force of cruisers, composed of 100 Katar class heavy cruisers, 200 Sulaco class light cruisers, 60 Vigilance class frigates, and 20 Swiftsurf gunboats exit warp in above the Home Islands. They dive down through the atmosphere towards the bombarding warships, and commence firing with their main and point defense guns. The small, fragile Lancethopters are destroyed by the thousands, with the AIF crews quickly finding that even a mere point defense laser will destroy them. The ships charge in, their guns clearing a path through the small drones. The bigger cruisers target the Harbingers with their main guns, firing concentrated volleys of laser fire at single points of their hulls, causing the long thin vessels to split apart. While the cruisers make their attack, the frigates and gunships continue firing on the drones, causing mass casualties as they continue a withering barrage of light laser fire. The larger cruisers then pass the broken Harbingers, sending MCMs and additional laser fire down the insides of the hulls, gutting their insides. With their attack successful, the cruiser group blinks out to regroup for another run, exiting warp at a lagrangian point to regroup.

While much of the civilian power grid goes offline, most military installations remain online. The ground based defensive batteries continue to fire, with heavy focus being brought to the enemy capital ships. The rest of the fleet continues to battle the enemy, and word is sent to Admiral Arents' Colonial Fleet for reinforcements to be readied.

On the ground, large swaths of the Sentinel IIs are disabled, however many still remain functional due to being in unaffected areas. In the bunkers, the AIF troops are not as helpless as the Protoss had hoped. They put up a fierce resistance, with some garrisons even thinking to utilize their ion rifles against the mechanical enemies. Some bunkers manage to drive the Grievers out or disable them, but many bunkers still fall. With the disabled disruption stations creating a gap in coverage, the other stations boost their field strength, increasing coverage bit threatening to burn out the disruptors.

The T5-Bs and T6-Bs prove extremely hard to kill for the Protoss forces. The large MBTs prove deadly, with their high velocity railguns and lasers making quick work of any T10s that come under fire. Meanwhile, the T5-Bs prove surprisingly agile because of their powerful antigravity engines, taking the Protoss by surprise. Meanwhile, T3-Bs make lightning quick attacks on the Protoss flanks, charging in at incredible speed, firing their high powered lasers at the T15s.

The T6-B heavy MBTs also prove surprisingly agile, and the new T20s find themselves being outmaneuvered by a vehicle that looks more like a large bunker than a proper tank. The powerful lasers that the new monster sports cause losses to the Protoss vehicles, and also leave many immobilized as their tracks are melted away. As the Z-40 Hunters move in for bombing runs, the roof mounted secondary turrets on the T6-Bs and roof mounted MGs on the other tanks open fire, downing a substantial number of them.

The IKAF pilots quickly realize that the tail ends of the Z-40s are not safe to attack from above, and quickly shift tactics as word spreads. With their veteran experience fighting the Germans, the IKAF pilots are not easily phased. They find that the Z-40s are vulnerable from below and from the 9:00 and 3:00 positions, and exploit these vulnerabilities as the fighters set up for their bombing runs. This, combined with heavy ground fire, devastates the numbers of the Z-40s, with many crashing to the ground among the dueling tanks and exploding ordnance of their comrades still airborne...

OOC:And now we see why the AIF tank doctrine is so heavily committed to Hovertanks, they posses superb mobility even when they are humungous giants. And, they can do better in adverse terrain like mud or quicksand.