The critical moment had passed. The planetary defence fleet had organized against the unexpected sucker punches delivered by the orkish infiltrators. A retaliatory fire utterly destroyed the captured vessel, and all those on it. Or at least those without proper protection against the ravages of space.<br/><br/>At that moment though, the Ramma 'o Gork finished the final leg of it's journey. The planet defense fleet, though in the beginning stages of preparation, was still caught quite unprepared. The ramma 'o gork however, had all guns armed and ready to unleash hell the moment the ship entered the system. Unsurprisingly, the order to fire at will had already been given in advance.<br/><br/>And do a short, brutal squall of destruction overtook the skies of Ysera. The smaller cruisers crumpling in on themselves after only a few hits from the ork Kroozer's massive broadside batteries. The larger ships were more resilient. And they even put up a rather respectable stand. Then however, the second leg of Gromsnok's direct attack presented itself. Small orkish figther craft, traditionally meant for planetbound flight, but modified to operate in space, were launched by the dozen from the orkish kroozer's hangar bay. A smell of ozone filling the hangar bay with every Fighta/Bommer sliding through the low-end forcefield that kept most of the skip's air inside with the hangar doors down. The thing was somewhat unreliable, and a grot slave or hapless mekboy would sometimes be carried off through a sudden momentary breach in the forcefield.<br/><br/>The humans had themselves scrambled some figther craft. They were rather bulky and jagged, though still somehow more symmetrical than the flying junkpiles that the orkish spacecraft were. As the two fleets of figther craft met each other, an enormous dogfight started. By now, the space battle would probably be noticeable from planetside, as debris of the various ruined spacecraft started its slow but devestating descent to the planet's surface.<br/><br/>Gromsnok watched upon the scene with glee. It wouldn't be long until the weak defence of the hoomiez would break. And when that moment came, the planet would be easy pickings. He was already imagining what continent he would ransack first. Maybe there even were some feral orks planetside he'd be able to subdue. It'd be a welcome replenishment of his spacebound troops. For wherever new orks came from, they seemed to significantly reduce their reproduction up in space. The orks themselves didn't know why. To them, new ork boys just kind of 'showed up'. But in truth, it was due to the fact that the spore-based production of the green-skinned monsters was much less efficient without fertile ground to infest. Sure, there were trash piles on the shup that had decayed enough to act as a fertile feeding ground. but it would never be as fast as a planetbound ork tribe.<br/><br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: grey;background:grey;"/></div><br/><br/><br/>The war in space was ongoing still. The planetary defence fleet, though valiant, could never have hoped to have won from something as bizarre as orks with a cohesive attack plan. Already, the great engines keeping the alrger vessels in a stable orbit were starting to give out, the survivors inside the devestated ships being able of little more than watching the ground come steadily closer in a long, agonizing descent.<br/><br/>The current fleet leader, still attempting to uphold some semblance of order on the bridge of his crumbling battlebarge, recognized that the spacebound battle was lost. He also recognized that an evacuation of the ship would be impossible. The friction of the descent inot the atmosphere wold likely burn through smaller vessels trying to leave the ship at this point, and any survivors would probably be shot down gleefully by the merciless swarm of ork fighter craft.<br/><br/>Thus, he looked over the rest of the command staff with a resigned sigh. There were quite a few amongst them that had come to the same conclusion as their captain. And the others had picked up on the situation by now too. Still, there was one thing left to do. "Men... though the foul xenos have broken our battlebarge, there is still one way through which we may serve the glory of the emperor and make a final stand of defiance against the Xenos horde!" The man stood up from his command chair. "We may be falling down in an infernal blaze, but we shall do all we can to preserve the planetbound garrison from our descent!"<br/><br/>The captain turned back to face his men one last time. "We steer to the great plains away from the garrisons... Emperor have mercy upon us." And with that, the captain started forward, facing his fate with a resolute stoic dignity.<br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/>Gromsnok had seen the entire path the battlebarge had taken, from proud vehicle of war to a smoking wreck about to crash and make a nice big 'splosion on the planet surface. "alright boyz... let's get da roks movin, dere's lootin to be had on that dere hoomie planet!"<br/><br/>The ork had made a good tactical call, the element fo surprise was still with the orks right now. It was imperative that they established a solid foothold on the surface before the Planetary defence garrison could mobilize its forces.