Editing The Markian Corps (section)

====Opening Battles on Pahoehoe====
Grand Marshal Caieton decided to make his first strike on planet Pahoehoe, a recently-conquered periphery world of the Arakan Empire. Though it was only freshly colonized, the world was already crawling with Arakan warriors. While the initial landing forces were able to secure solid ground, the 95th Shrike Division found itself divided, isolated, and unable to complete its mission to discover the enemy base. Caieton was quick to respond, and ordered his subordinate, decorated soldier General Judas Ranc of the 984th Division, to enact a rescue operation. The 984th abandoned their heavy armor and artillery for the sake of mobility, and rushed quickly through the enemy lines, relieving whatever elements of the 95th Shrike Division they could find. In the end, 70% of the 95th survived to fight another day, but the Markians were still unaware of the location of the Arakan base.

The Mechanicum had better luck finding the Arakan headquarters; or rather, knowing the nature of the Arakan's command structure. Using seismographic data gathered from sensors planted by forward scouts, Archmagos Khazal located dozens of seismic concentrations where the subterranean bases of the Arakan were located, but lines connecting the bases were nowhere to be found. Regardless, they now knew locations of the enemy, and the 31st Army immediately directed actions against the Arakan. The Markians prepared for several subterranean operations led by the Lemartian Sappers.

As expected, penetration of the enemy hives was difficult. Many tunnels were simply too narrow, and armor and artillery supper was useless. To end this battle quickly, Marshal Ranc proposed use of nuclear weapons place precisely in the hives to destroy all enemy resistance, an idea Caieton was reluctant to swallow. Unfortunately, Caieton yielded, and the Markians conducted operations to place nuclear bombs in the hives; one of such was led by Ranc himself, so that another commander would not risk his life in such a perilous and immoral mission. But despite the dangers, Ranc survived the mission where others fell, and was commended once again. After the Purge of Pahoehoe, Khazal deduced that the Arakan were not a monolithic power that initial research on their hive-mind suggested, suggesting there were multiple hive-minds based on the autonomy of Pahoehoe's bases. The campaign in the Nightkill Sector would be much more difficult than expected.