Not everyone in the armor column was so lucky.
Captain Pellaeon's repulsor tank had just resumed its former position at the vanguard when an APC, the same one in fact, took a direct hit from missiles streaking down the mountainside. That same first strike which Syn had noted so calmly turned the 45th's world into smoke and ash. There was eerie silence for a few heartbeats' span and then the mountain pass erupted in a hail of repeating blaster fire.
"Contact!" Hark roared over the comlink before he pulled himself out of the cataphract.
Heedless of the wrecked APC's victims, even now still burning alive like marionettes, he pressed forward and fired a burst of tracer bolts from the armored vehicle's twin-linked rapid fire laser cannons lighting up the falling stroke of an ambush which seemed audacious even by Hutt standards. A near miss impacted off the ridgeline above him showering debris over Pellaeon's tank. His troopers might all hate him but the captain wouldn't make them do anything he wasn't willing to do himself. Many often wondered aloud why anyone would ever volunteer for such a hell.
One of the 45th's scout walkers erupted. Another lucky hit.
"Bloodlet Bloodlet, I need a danger close artillery strike on my beacon!"
He leapt down from the repulsor tank and drew his officer's vibrosword from its scabbard. Reluctant to obey Hark's orders the penal troopers slowly filed out from their remaining carriers. Charging into an incoming barrage was suicidal and it would be the last thing their enemy would expect. These kinds of callous tactics were what penal legions like the 45th had become known for.
"Forward you bastards! Any sleemo who runs will have to answer to me."
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