Battle of Mygeeto

3ABY

0300

14 men in snow white armor stood in front of a pile of rubble. Their armor had been scuffed and blackened in places, and chipped or flat out gone in others due to the battle before they managed to arrange this silent vigil for a comrade recently lost. Their helmets were left on out of respect as well as safety for as much as they'd love to look at their aging, identical faces, this was still a war zone.

"Hard to believe he's gone." One of them finally spoke up, the heavy weapons man of the platoon. As he did, the highest ranking officer in the center of the semi-circle stiffened a little, his crimson-red shoulder pauldron shifting slightly with the movement.

"He knew what he was doing… and it's a price we all agreed to make." He replied quietly.

"Still, sir, kind of sobering when you think about it; we're one of 5 units to actually lose someone during this counter-attack… we all knew that we weren't all going to make it out, but no one really expected… well… Gutter of all guys to go down." The sniper of the team added.

"Especially after all the droids he cooked the last time he was here." one of the soldiers at the end of the circle, the main grenadier of the platoon said, causing everyone to chuckle as they continued to look at the half-blackened helmet of their fallen brother. Silence overtook them again even as friendly armor lumbered by in the distance and the occasional burst of laser fire rang out throughout the shattered city.

"We need to get moving." Staff Sergeant XA-972 finally said, clicking the safety off of his rifle. "Gutter wouldn't want us spending too much time mourning when we still have civilians to protect from these terrorists."

"We got orders, sir?" one of the lighter armored troopers asked as he started towards their parked vehicles. He was a Scout Trooper and one of the best speeder-jockeys they had.

"We're pushing the Rebels back as much as we can. Lord Vader's intelligence spotted an LZ that survived with artillery and they're in range of a major population center. All units in the area are pushing them back and containing so the boys upstairs can finish the job."

"Bout damn time we got to hit their big targets; I've been waiting to use this thing since Hoth." Corporal XA-261 replied as he hefted his rocket launcher onto his shoulders, "Especially for what these Separatist wannabes did to the last unit I was in."

"Didn't they ambush your platoon during the Yavin Campaign?" Sergeant XA-151 asked.

"Yeah, with IED trip wire traps and enough grenades to choke a bantha." The older trooper replied as he started climbing up the legs of the leftmost AT-ST that the platoon had.

"Let's just get over there and get our job done, troopers; we've got civies in harm's way and I'd rather let Palpatine punish me then let the 'alliance'," he spat, "Hurt anyone else today." 972 barked getting multiple cheers from his men. He settled down in the co-pilot's chair of the command AT-ST as the pilot, XA-533 got it moving.

"For the Empire…" he whispered into his helmet's com unit. The reply was rather solemn, yet full of vengeful determination as TIE fighters and TIE Bombers screamed by overhead and his men got ready to defend the Empire they had sacrificed so much to create and protect.