[Pre-arrival. 5 minutes before/ During Convoy ambush]
The gunship's hull vibrated like a tension wire as it cut low over the tree line, the rhythmic hum of repulsorlifts echoing through the fuselage like a heartbeat. Mystral Canyon lay just under a klick out, hidden by the thick curtain of morning mist that clung to the forest like smoke. The jungle below shimmered with moisture, sunbeams slashing through the canopy in golden streaks, but the beauty was lost on the men crammed into the troop bay. The air was too hot, too still, too expectant.
Laphisto stood near the rear doors of the
LAET/I MKIII, one hand gripping the ceiling rail as the dropship swayed and adjusted with the terrain. Across from him,
Commander Tarian crouched low beside a few of his platoon leads, murmuring softly beneath the background drone of engine noise. Only one company had taken this route with them. The rest had broken off early, fanning out across different approach vectors to avoid clustering too many birds in the air—too many targets for a Sith missile lock. If something punched them out of the sky, the other three companies would still have a chance to make it to the front lines, walkers and all.
Their original orders had seemed simple enough: reinforce the trench line to the east, 800 meters from Mystral proper. Offload supplies. Show the flag. Establish a heavier military presence where a Diarchy arms convoy was expected to rendezvous. Nothing flashy. According to the brief, the convoy was mostly Diarchy regulars using Lilaste tech—modded weapons, composite armor, some logistics walkers, maybe even a tank or two, though no one was willing to put credits on that bet. Laphisto had his doubts there'd be anything more than repulsor-trucks with overwatch and prayers.
Still, they weren't coming in light. Four gunships in formation, supported by four
LAET/C s flying at high altitude, each with magnetic docking arms clenched tight around one of the Order's newest war machines—the
AT-AE MKIII. They looked like iron titans suspended beneath their carriers, legs folded in, heavy chassis swaying with the wind as though hungry for ground beneath them. The MKIII had barely rolled out of the factories after the discovery of
Kov'dra on Kiev'ara, and already they were being thrown into the fire. The Lilaste Order hadn't wasted a breath after the Ando Mining Collective opened the tap—deals were struck, drills went deep, and the forges lit like suns. What came out was alloy, armor, and the kind of firepower meant to rewrite front lines.
The cabin lights flickered once, then the pilot's voice crackled through the cabin comms. "
Commander, I'm patching you into something. You'll want to hear this." Laphisto frowned and tapped his vambrace. The comm-link hissed for a second before resolving into a shaky, stuttering holofeed. The projection flickered blue and distorted, but the image was unmistakable a Diarchy trooper, hunched and wide-eyed, broadcasting from the dirt beside a half-toppled walker. Explosions thundered in the background, distant but rising, and the man's voice was ragged with fear.
"
We need reinforcements! I repeat the convoy's hit! The Diarch is with us! They they came outta nowhere! Sith!" The soldier flinched as blaster bolts screamed past offscreen. "
Somebody get over here! Please, godsdamn it, we—" The feed cut to static mid-sentence, the last thing visible a flash of crimson and the soldier's body jerking violently before collapsing out of frame. There was no scream. Just silence.
Laphisto's ears twitched, eyes narrowing to slits. He stalked forward toward the cockpit, his voice low and hard. "
Was that secure?" The pilot glanced back, grim-faced. "
Negative, sir. That was open-channel. Broadcast across wideband. If the Sith didn't already know where the convoy was, they sure as hell do now."
Laphisto exhaled slowly through his nostrils, suppressing the snarl that threatened to rise. "
No point setting up at the front if the convoy doesn't make it. Divert us take us to their last known position. Priority now is recovery and reinforcement. Contact the rest of the company. Everyone reroutes combat drop, full support." The pilot gave a tight nod. "
Understood. Adjusting course."
The gunship banked hard, dipping lower as it swung southeast toward Mystral Canyon. The terrain outside shifted from dense jungle to jagged, rocky outcroppings with sheer ridgelines looming beyond the mist. The smoke on the horizon was no longer subtle. It rose in black pillars now, thick and oily, bleeding into the sky above the canyon. Back in the troop bay, the bay doors began to grind open, letting in the howl of wind and the sour scent of scorched foliage. The gunners swiveled their mounted
LO-27Rs into position. One of them a lean corporal with ash-streaked armor looked over and gave Laphisto a small nod. The others were checking mags, tightening straps, saying little. All of them knew what was coming. The quiet before the slaughter.
Laphisto stepped into the open space and raised his voice just loud enough to carry over the wind.
"Alright, listen up! Orders have changed. We're not setting up camp on the hill anymore we're going in hot. The convoy was ambushed in Mystral Canyon. The Diarch himself is down there with them. We're not going to let those bastards get picked apart." The troops straightened, rifles clenched tighter in their hands.
"
I want weapons hot. Shields up. Eyes sharp. You know your drills. These aren't pirates or some backwater militia with daddy's blaster. These are Sith Order units brutes, Force-junkies, and worse. You hesitate, they'll gut you. And if you show fear, they'll make it slow." his eyes danced over the troops in the drop bay before eventually letting out a small chuckle and extending an open arm out towards the men.
"
Hell, we've been waiting to answer this question since we first got shipped out: what wins in the end? Some Sith bastard jacked up on Force rage... or a thirty-aught-six slug moving at mock ferrik." A few of the troops chuckled. Someone thumped their rifle against the hull in rhythm. The nerves were still there but now they were wired, focused.
Laphisto looked to each face in turn, the wind whipping against his wings as the canyon came into full view. Black smoke. Gunfire. Flashes of red and blue streaking through the sky like angry comets. One of the walkers below limped across the canyon floor, its stabilizers blown out. Bodies littered the cliffs. The fight was already burning. "
Let's show the Sith why the Order is still spoken of in whispers across the Rim," he growled. "
Let's drop in like godsdamn thunder and drag 'em down into the mud with us."
20 Minutes after Ambush
The gunship banked hard over the canyon rim, and the instant the battlefield came into view, the LO-35R rotary cannons mounted under the nose began to scream. They lit up the ridgelines with a deafening
whrrr-thud-thud-thud, spitting red-tipped slugs and bolt-fire in overlapping bursts. The first barrage caught a group of Sith troopers repositioning near a collapsed boulder. They didn't even make it to cover. Stone and flesh exploded together in a shower of sparks and shredded armor.
The other gunships in formation followed suit, strafing low. Their cannons ripped through the smoke, targeting anything marked hostile sniper nests, shield pylons, even the jagged outlines of droids rappelling down from the cliffs. Then came the walkers.
Above, the LAET/C transports released their payloads with mechanical hisses and hard, metallic clunks. One by one, the AT-AE MKIII walkers dropped through the smoke-choked sky. They weren't graceful they were monstrous. Each slammed into the canyon floor with bone-rattling force, six legs unfolding in perfect synchronicity, catching the immense armored hulls as they stomped into position.
Their silhouettes cut through the chaos like rolling bunkers—low-profile, heavily armored, with layered plating pocked by old carbon scoring and new camo netting draped over their flanks. Dorsal turrets rotated, locking into place with a click, while forward plasma cannons hissed as they charged. The first walker fired—a concussive lance of white-hot plasma slammed into a Sith anti-armor team, erasing the entire ridge they'd been crawling across. At the same time, the troop bay lights inside the LAET/I flashed green.
"
GO! GO! GO!"
Lilaste Order soldiers began to leap from the open side doors,
LO-ADS systems activating mid-fall. Repulsorlifts flared, slowing their descent, while directional thrusters and aero-fins kicked in, steering the troopers with surgical precision through the fog and fire. From a distance, it looked like a swarm of armored angels descending into war controlled, deliberate, lethal.
They hit the ground hard, forming squads within seconds behind the advancing walkers, weapons raised and ready. Already, the return fire from Sith forces was thick. Crimson bolts lanced out from makeshift bunkers and jagged stone formations. Laphisto watched for a moment more then stepped forward.
hee looked down taloned hand holding onto the hand rail before his wings unfurled wide. The scene below was a fractured nightmare walker fire, blaster volleys, artillery plumes and smoke curling from craters. He locked eyes on a group of Sith troopers advancing on a cluster of Diarchy survivors, then launched himself into the air. He cut through the smoke like a phantom, using the rising heat from the wreckage below to slow his fall. Blaster fire licked past him as Sith forces tried to track his form a few shots hit his armor and bounced off which caused him to growl in frustation
As Laphisto hit the ground with a heavy crunch of earth and grit. His talons slid against dirt and stone,Wings flaring out behind him as he dropped into a low stance. The first blaster bolt was already screaming toward him. His saber ignited with a flash the Teal blue blade snapping into existence. with a plasmis crack-hiss. It caught the bolt mid-air, sizzling against the blade before whipping off toward the sky. A second came from the leftdeflected. The third, he redirected straight back into the shooter's chest. The Sith soldier dropped in a heap of smoking armor.
Without pause, Laphisto drew his LO-22S sidearm with his off-hand, the weapon sliding clean from its mag-locked holster. He rose fluidly, fired three times in fast succession. First shot was aimed for center mass. with a massive crack the 50AE round went flyinf through the air and the Sith went down clutching his gut, armor cracked and smoking.
Secondclean headshot. The body dropped before the man even registered the shot. Third missed shot missed causing laphisto to growl before lurching forwards, sweeping his blade low to intercept a fourth attacker trying to close the distance. The saber sliced through armor and muscle with a single, efficient arc, and the trooper fell without a sound.
Blaster fire continued to hiss overhead, now directed at the walkers and Lilaste squads establishing a forward line. One of the MKIIIs planted its front legs and opened up with its dorsal gun, pinning Sith units behind a half-collapsed bunker. The Lilaste soldiers were pressing hard, using the walkers as mobile cover while returning fire with calculated bursts.
Laphisto turned, sidearm still hot in his hand. "
Second and Third squads, move! Push up behind Walker Two cover their advance and take that ridge!" he barked into the comms, voice sharp and commanding. A chorus of affirmatives came back. "
Walker group mark grid fifty-one and sixty-two for overlapping fire. Burn them out of those caves." Turrets swiveled in unison, then fired. The canyon lit up in the artificial sunrise of plasma bursts and rocket trails. and the distant cracks of Slug throwers echoed within the canyon walls. grabbing at his vambrace Laphisto pulled up the status of his men. all one hundred and fourty four were still in the green, a few had already taken significant shield damage but so far, no one was dead. yet anyway
Darth Prazutis
Jacen Breska 'TK-710'
Lirka Ka
CT-312
Diarch Rellik
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Laphistos Loadout
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Armor:LO-56A MKII
Weapons: Broad Saber, LO-22S
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Standard Lilaste Squad Loadout
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Squad leader
Primary: LO-18D
Secondary: LO-16D
Sidearm LO-22S
Tertiary: LO-9M
Equipment: LO-48B, LO-56E, A.A.S.H Thermal detonators
Radio/ Communications officer
Primary: LO-18D
Secondary: LO-16D
Sidearm LO-12S
Tertiary: LO-9M
Equipment:LO-48B, LO-56E, A.A.S.H,Various communications equipment, Thermal detonators
Standard rifleman x3
Primary: LO-18D
Secondary: LO-16D
Sidearm LO-12S/LO-22S
Tertiary: LO-9M
Equipment: LO-48B, LO-56E
Medic
Primary: LO-18D
Secondary: LO-16D
Sidearm LO-12S
Tertiary: LO-9M
Equipment:LO-48B, LO-56E, A.A.S.H, various Medical Supplies Thermal detonators
Explosives expert/ demolitions
Primary: LO-RPG20
Secondary: LO-16D
Sidearm LO-22S
Tertiary: LO-9M
Equipment: LO-48B, LO-56E, A.A.S.H various Explosives Thermal detonators
Heavy weapons
Primary: LO-27R
Secondary: LO-16D
Sidearm LO-12S
Tertiary: LO-9M
Equipment: LO-48B, LO-56E, A.A.S.H Various weapons repair kits, ammo boxes, Thermal detonators
Sniper/scout
Primary: LO-600S
Secondary: LO-18D
Sidearm LO-12S
Tertiary: LO-9M
Equipment: LO-48B, LO-56E, A.A.S.H Thermal detonators LO-PD1