The Vargr and the Fifth Frontier War

Just coreward of the Regina subsector lies the Vargr domains of Gvurrdon Sector. One Vargr warlord – the leader of the Ngath Confederation - has been influenced by the Zhodani Consulate to throw in with the Consulate against the Third Imperium. While larger than any corsair raid could ever hope to be, the Vargr warfleet is small by the standards of modern interstellar war.

As with many endeavors, logistics drives strategy. The Vargr were not immune to this constraint. Specifically, the Vargr had tens of thousands of ground fighters available, but insufficient shipping capacity (‘star lift capacity’ to use the naval term) to move all the troops simultaneously with the fleet. The result is a campaign that often appears to ‘lurch forward’. The assault carrier squadron carries the initial combat drop, but then has to fall back and retrieve the second wave. (Author’s aside: you find similar constraints in the operations of the 7^th Amphibious Force in the Southwest Pacific during World War Two).

Coupled with that is the bottleneck nature of the Feri star system. Feri has no gas giant, so in order to refuel, a fleet must control the planet. But the Vargr could not lift enough troops to quickly conquer the planet.

The Ulithi Fleet plan called for a six week campaign by the 101^st Army and 105^th Tank Corps, supported by the cruiser squadrons of the Fleet. Meanwhile the battle squadron’s accompany Assault Carrier Squadron 12 back to Vargr space to pick up the remaining corps and divisions of the invasion force and return to Feri. Ideally, by the time the fleet returned, the only thing left to do would be hold the victory parade, load up the troops and push on to the next objective.