Location: Hoth, Outpost Veers
Objective: Hold the Line
Allies: Galactic Alliance, [member="Aeron Kreelan"], [member="Aver Brand"], [member="Tomas Yarrow"], [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="HK-36"], [member="Naomi Carolina"], [member="Ryan Korr"], [member="Xel"] et al.
Enemies: First Order, [member="Asharad Graush"], [member="Null"], [member="Fiver"], [member="Selene Sinclaire"], [member="Torian Pierce"], [member="TK-4261 Strain"], [member="Shaydae Desmaris"], [member="Chron Terix"], [member="Rexus Wenck"], [member="Hatori Ikari"] et al.
Twilight Company Status:
58%
Operating:
All Terrain Tactical Enforcer
Gear:
Rear Armored Contingent, Alliance Forces
Several Klicks From Primary Objective
Hoth, Outer Rim
Grimacing, Captain Lyra Sunfell of the Alliance Sixty-First Mobile Infantry braced herself against one of the tactical consoles on the AT-SAs control deck, and despite her Mandalorian upbringing could not help but feel a twinge of fear as the command situation around her deteriorated. Blip after blip was sounding off on the command walker's sensor readouts signifying unidentified hostile contacts, and frantic comms were coming in from AT-SE operators all down their rearlines, those few that had been delegated the responsibility of guarding the mobile artillery platforms. The long range batteries had hardly begun to fire before their position had become too quickly compromised, signifying that they had likely spoken too soon about Alliance efforts to hamper reinforcements throughout the sector. Nonetheless, dismantling the automated mobile batteries would cost the First Order time, a necessary task that General Hagar had hoped would keep this new Imperial front from overwhelming the positions of the four Siege Assault walkers and their AT-SE escorts before the trundling behemoths reached the relative safety of the front.
Lyra could see by the expressions on the crew's faces, that those hopes were optimistic at best.
"Air support, gorram it!" the Klatooinian commander was barking in the ear of one of his subordinates, "We need some fething air support! Get me on the line with our boys from Belsavis!"
"Last we heard they were getting chewed up pretty bad by the Outpost's AA," the enlisted man stammered in reply, "I'm not sure how much of the Air Corps up there is left!"
"Just do it!" Hagar growled, "Anything they can give us, we just need to buy a little more time!"
"Too late!"
As one, the cry drew the attention of everyone on deck to the holoprojection of the walker's rear. An infantry grunt her entire life, Captain Sunfell didn't recognize the model, but the Terminus crew knew enough to recognize an A5 Juggernaut when they saw one ([member="Null"], [member="Fiver"]). She opened her mouth to scream some sort of warning, but nobody on board even had time to react before the enemy tank fired its main cannon. Lyra was thrown to her feet, as the whole world around her rocked and shifted violently. When she opened her eyes after the rough landing, half the room was on fire and there were bodies everywhere.
"Status report!" a coughing Hagar bellowed from somewhere in the smoke, "Someone give me a status report!"
Through teary eyes, Captain Sunfell could just barely make out the Klatooinian stagger over to the comms station.
"Get a message to the other walkers!" he yelled, shaking the crewman manning the station, "Tell one to break off with the escort while the other two make for the front!"
At the General's shoving, the body of the dead comm operator slumped over onto the panel. Growling in frustration and heaving the body out of the chair, Lyra tried to stagger over to him as he repeated the orders into the comm, before turning away heedless of if the message had gotten out.
"Good, you're still alive!" he shouted matter of factly upon seeing her, and grabbed her arm as he led her roughly to the emergency hatch, "We're evacuating!"
The Klatooinian punched the release on the now staggering walker's exit, and as the gloomy light of Hoth's surface peered into the darkened, fiery chamber Lyra saw for the first time the piece of shrapnel sticking clean through the General's stomach. Noticing her expression, Hagar glanced down at the wound and then shrugged at her, in a way that suggested he may not have been entirely aware himself until that moment. Instead of keeling over on the spot, he grabbed her arm once more and dragged her to the hatch. Another shattering boom nearly sent them both flying from their feet, but somehow Hagar held on for the both of them.
"Its all on you now, and Kreelan!" he bellowed in her ear, "Hold the karking line!"
And with that, he shoved her out of the exploding walker seconds before the chain reaction from below immolated everything still inside.
Frontlines, Alliance Vanguard
Outpost Veers
They had come so close when everything finally went to hell.
The stationary AT-AT emplacements had worn down their numbers, and already the burn out husks of more than a dozen Alliance armored vehicles littered the field in front of Outpost Veers and the enemy trenches not far beyond their position now. When they had first breached the trench perimeter, several walkers had unloaded their personnel complements of advance scouts sent into the trenches to scout First Order positions and harry their forces, as well as several detachments with orders to try and link up with the mercenary units operating in the theater. So far, of all the sentients sent out, none had returned to the Alliance line. But still, Sol held off on giving the order to deploy troops en masse.
With the recent breakdown in communications between the front and the AT-SAs advancing from the rearguard, Lieutenant Stazi's walker had assumed a sort of de facto leadership role as one of the highest ranking surviving commander's who had still managed to keep his head somewhat about him. For his own part, despite the gnawing terror at the possibility he could be burned alive inside this walker at any moment, the duros Twilight lieutenant remained relatively collected. This plan had always been designed to go bad, it was just that nobody had expected it to go this bad this quickly. Their lightning strike into the heart of the First Order's planetary defenses had still yielded some favorable results, as from his vantage he watched the retreating line of First Order infantry save for a few to the Outpost proper. Hardly defeated, and no doubt even now preparing for a second Alliance wave that must assuredly be to come.
"Clever smilies," he grumbled softly to himself, chagrined. Sol had been hoping to keep them drawn out a little longer. They had marched on the gates and unfurled their banners, and the Imperials had met them in kind with all that honor might dictate. Sadly, it seemed that too soon cooler heads had prevailed and drawn the womp rats back into their nest. To his advantage, it allowed his line a little breathing room to regroup and reform into an outward facing semicircle, paradoxically almost as if they were lined up to
defend Outpost Veers, but in reality preparing for the coming onslaught of the enemy armor they had received scattered reports of before battlecomms with the command walkers had gone dark.
"Lieutenant!" the crackling voice in his comms was of the walker's main gunner, teeth chattering despite his heavy armor's protections against exposure to Hoth's atmosphere, "Looks like we're losing our air support!"
Sol glanced up, and saw that the Terminus crewman was right. The remaining few squadrons of Alliance snowspeeders were peeling off from their runs on the Outpost, and reforming on a vector that would take them in the opposite direction. Apparently, Lieutenant Stazi's precautions against the enemy armor had been merited after all, as it was the only logical reason he could think of to call away their air power now of all times. Little did either he or the pilots of the Belsavis Air Corps know of the just recently inbound First Order starfighters. ([member="Pierce Fortan III"], [member="Ishana Pavanos"])
"Doesn't matter," he said, finally, as much to reassure himself as the others, "Plan doesn't change. We wait for word from Brand to send in the boys, and we all pray like hell to the Force that Kreelan hasn't taken a left when she was supposed to take a right."
It wasn't until the assault had begun that Sol finally understood why Captain Sunfell and her unit had been selected out of the entire Armed Forces for this mission. Twilight Company may not be naturals at armored assault, but they sure knew how to make one hell of a distraction. All Stazi had to do was keep them focused every which way but below.
