Rage against the Machine
The Orpheus lead a fleet of Brother's ships to Griotek's World. The robots quickly started to use the raw materials stockpiled there to create more of their kind. Several thousand robot fighters were created as well as tens of thousands of ground troops and numerous construction robots. To Kaltos's delight, Brother used his technology to help repair some of the damage to the Orpheus along with providing equipment such as Chimera troop transports for the Orpheus's army. Once ready the fleet set off back to Cognars World, time was spent running war games against Brother's forces which were assumed to be similar to Cognar's.Due to the difficulty of differentiating between Brother's and Cognar's forces, it was decided that the Orpheus's forces would remain separate from Brother's once the ground war started. Kaltos secretly created a limited supply of EMP grenades which he thought would be useful against the machine spirits of Cognar's forces.
Upon returning to the real universe in the same system as Cognar's world, Brother's forces reconnected with Brother himself and a vicious battle started between Bother and Cognar in space. Due to his superior numbers Brother quickly managed to besiege Cognar's orbital factories and gained orbital superiority. However, the area around Cognar's bunker was covered with a planetary shield which was resistant to any fire-power the Orpheus or Brother could bring to bear. Beneath the shield were two important targets: Cognar himself and a factory complex that had sprung up in a ruined city near Cognar. Kaltos offered his troops in the taking of the factory hoping to appropriate some of the technology. Thus almost the whole of the Orpheus military force was shuttled to the planetary surface at the edge of the shield and a beachhead formed.
The majority of the forces lead by Kaltos; Oscar and Kane formed an armoured column of Chimera and headed towards the factorys site. Cognar was blocking more transmissions but they got word that Brother's forces were landing on the planet at well and were engaging Cognar's troops. Suddenly the convoy was attacked by a number of cat-like predators which leapt from the trees to attack the infantry: casualties were light amongst the troops as their armour was mostly proof against the cats claws although some were slashed or bitten on unarmoured locations and a tree mysteriously fell onto one of the Chimera (a little accident caused by Oscar).
However, this first attack turned out to be a distraction, Disco using his powers to scale a tree, saw a stampede of Grox heading towards the convoy followed by a number of Robot troop transports. Given warning, under the orders of Kane and Captain Karos the troops formed up and meet the first wave of Grox with a storm of heavy weapons fire which shredded most of the charging creatures. The second wave were slowed by having to climb over the bodies of the first wave but some managed to break through the troops lines and rampaged crushing both infantry and armour. Disco managed to briefly ride on the creatures and killed it with a shot through its tiny brain, while Oscar avoided the Grox and warned the troops of a flank attack by the Robot forces. The few breaches in the lines were quickly sealed and the Orpheus's troops quickly dealt with the few remaining grox.
Cognar's forces behind the GRox dismounted and charged towards their human opponents using the remains of the Grox as cover - their attack was quickly broken by the EMP weapons created by Kaltos and his tech-priest and the robots fled back to their transports. Before they could fully disengage, G Companies heavy weapons crippled or destroyed several of the transports. The remaining robot forces melted back into the forests. Explosives were used to clear a path through the destruction caused by the Grox charge and the remaining forces rearmed before heading towards the city.
The city itself was set up in a block pattern or 6-8 story building separated by wide roads. The building were blocky with no obvious windows; most had large loading doors although these were solidly sealed. There was no sign of any robot foes. The Orphius's forces slowly moved into the city looking for opponents to engage. Disco used his powers to climb one of the buildings and as he did so gun barrels were revealed on the sides of the buildings. These turned out to be mortars which quickly turned the roadways between the buildings into a killing ground. Many of the Orpheus's forces were trapped outside of the city and those within it were scatted. Kaltos and Karas ordered their panicked troops to break into the buildings as quickly as possible to get out of the firing line, however, once the doors were breached their were found to be held by large forces of Cognar's troops.
Disco, clinging to the walls of one of the buildings, used an EMP grenade to knock out a mortar and was surprised when his weapon also made part of the building melt making him fall into the building itself. The building was mostly a hollow construction area where a partially completed fighter was just taking off and the large construction robot turned on him. Meanwhile a section of the Orpheus's forces, including the command crew, were fighting to break through the robot lines. Kain and his Raptor servitor lead the charge and tore into his opponents. The buildings defenders were quickly driven back but the fighter craft began to fire onto the troops until a lucky hit with a launcher-fired EMP grenade breached its armour and it plunged to the ground crushing many warriors on both sides along with the construction robot, and trapping Disco.
During a lull in the fighting Kaltos got confirmation that his remaining forces in the city had taken several of the buildings but were pinned by the fire from the other buildings and unable to move between buildings. Word from brother was patchy but some of his forces were on the way to aid them but most were still attacking Cognar's bunker. Kaltos wondering how the buildings were powered sent Oscar to find out and he located a plasma reactor below each building. Kaltos decided to use 'mole mortar' weapons salvaged from Griotek's world to attempt to breach the enemy buildings reactors and thus destroy them. The plan was a complete success and building after building was destroyed in miniature volcanoes. By the time that Brother's relief forces arrived much of the city had been destroyed.
Brother's forces eventually overcame Cognars forces and the planetary shields were shut down. While most of the Orpheus's forces were ordered to collect as much hardware from the fallen enemies as possible, the command team headed to the bunker. When they got there they found Brother's troops loading what they claimed to be Cognar into a shuttle, while destroying as much of Cognars equipment as possible. A speaker for Brother asked the crew to visit Brother in person at the asteroid belt so they could discuss matters.
The Orpheus travelled to the asteroid belt and was informed by Brother than he still believed that he should not interfere with humans and that he was planning to leave. His forces were disconnecting his main body from his web and his ships were beginning to form a warp portal large enough for his main 'body' to leave. Kaltos, hoping to delay his exit, offered him a gift of the Orpheus's files which Brother accepted but left anyway. Upon his departure all of his remaining ships/drones and facilities exploded pelting the Orpheus with shrapnel and causing some minor damage to the ship. Congar's facilities on the planet were also destroyed in the same way. Kaltos was left without any significant new tech but with a large number of potentially valuable components and the planet below.