Act, then I can think.
A loud crack exploded over the sounds of chaos. The man at Calico's left fell back like he'd been hit by a truck. The man at his right, in sleek black and blue armor yanked the Chieftain free and dragged his fallen ally behind one of the tree stump. Calico stumbled back, falling on his backside and rolling desperately for the trees.
"Sniper." He grunted as he lifted the wounded soldier's left arm. Crimson blood, sticky and warm flowed freely through a large hold in the armor. Calico winced. "Grab Watkins and suppress this di'kut."
The soldier in black and blue nodded, his voice grim and low. "On it. The shot came from the west. Put his head down people! Jordan, Mitz, move up, give the stormies a nice haircut." The soldier roared, his rifle clanging against his chest plate as he rushed off toward their single gating cannon being set up behind a tree stump.
Within moments, azure hellfire was being spat toward the sniper's general direction, an attempt to keep the assailant's head down, or even score a lucky hit.
Calico went to work pushing a syringe of blue bacta into the vein on the man's dark skinned neck. He was young, short haired, and broad. His helmet lay in the mud where Calico had placed it. He was in the process of applying gauze, when blood splattered across his visor. The man--boy, he was very young, was awake now, coughing violently and spitting blood paced mucus across his chest plate.
Punctured lung. He's gone.
"Wh-where I..shir, shir? He-" His words slurred as blood clogged his throat. His hand clung to Calico's arm tight, simple surprise, as if someone had given him an odd item to hold was etched on his features. The boy made no more sounded as the light left his eyes, his grip tightening for a moment, and then slackening into dead weight.
"It's alright son. You were good. You did your job. My fault. Shouldn't have happened." He clapped a hand to the boy's face for a moment, uttered a silent prayer for whatever gods the child believed in, and set the helmet on his head.
With a heavy sigh, stood up tall, weight against the tree as he took in all of his messages. "Copy that Admiral. Our assets are scattered all over the AO. Keep those TIEs from breaking through."
He darted from tree to tree, avoiding the sniper. He slapped his armored back to the stump that two soldier, one being the man in black and blue, had set up the gating gun. The weapon was rotating quickly as it spat laser fire toward the sniper's position.
"Canal, Ori, find those mortar teams and out them down! Galaar, took you long enough. Do what you can with the Spire."
"Jacob?"
It was the blue soldier again. Calico surmised that was the boy's first name, and felt a pang of guilt. He hasn't had the chance to meet the kid, guide him, bond with him like he should have. The Empire had robbed him of that, as previous Empire's had done in the past. He winced.
"Gone." He clamped an arm on the man's shoulder for a moment. "I'm sorry son."
The man just nodded, not saying as word as he went back to the task of firing the gating gun. Calico set his sites on a crashes gunship in the middle of the field. Stormtroopers were swarming the thing. His boys and girls were there, surrounded.
"Zius, ad'ika, just hold on for a moment!" He roared into the comm. then, rather recklessly, the soldier was a gray and red blue sprinting through the woods. Three of the nine--now eight-- men that were with him came to support. The others wet either digging each other out of the soil or pinning down covering fire.
They perched at the eastern bend of the clearing, right behind the Imperial front. With their E-Webs gone, the tide could be turned. Calico raised his DC-17, his boys--and one young lady-- raised their rifles. Two anti-infantry shells soared through the air, sending plasoid and broken bodies in every direction. His team opened up on the Stormies from behind, catching a few in the back. It only took seconds for the to whir on Calico's team, forcing his group into cover. Still, it had weakened the force by a great amount. Half of them were firing at Calico now, not Zius.
"Shift your shebs Zius or I will shift them for you!"
He paused to roll behind a rocky outcropping. "And someone figure out where in Corellia's Nine Hells Keziah went!"
@More people than my phone will let me mention.
