Orbiting Jian IV, Almak Sector, Mid-Rim
Ten days ago, the garrison commander of Chirus, the planet's… capital, for lack of a better word, sent the first half of a distress call that was cut off. The sector's commander sent in a platoon shortly afterwards to assess the situation, but all craft were cut off on approach to town. The heavy cloud cover makes orbital scans impossible, but the entire detachment is assumed KIA. High command has tasked the 41st with landing some distance from the town and establishing a beachhead for a much larger insertion by the 501st. While the planet is, admittedly a bit of a backwater world, the agricultural support it could provide the various cells of dissidents if they are indeed a single network is something we cannot allow them to keep. –Nil, commanding officer of Blue Company, 41st Imperial Legion.
Preparations
The star of the Jian system broke over the horizon as Corporal Rusik Daijus watched from the viewport of Echo squad's ready room aboard ISS Thresher. Around him most of the squad sat in their body suits with, at most, only the lower plates attached. In front of him sat a partially disassembled power generator for the squad's E-Web heavy repeating blaster. To his right, the Zabrak Qemar was checking the sights on the weapon itself, minutely inspecting from all angles for dust, rust, or any other contaminate left over from the last exercise. Feeling Rusik's gaze he glanced up and grinned, "Make sure that power line doesn't short out this time, Rus."
Rusik shook his head trying to clear the memory from it. There were few things worse to have happen than a short when you went to fire any blaster. Compounding this were the fact that many officers of the battalion were within shouting distance when it had happened had not helped. Of course, there wasn't much anyone could do if the connection between the line and the generator had a broken seal that had let moisture in, but as long as problems like these were addressed in training, they were less likely to cause casualties in combat.
After checking all the pressure gauges between the gas canister that powered the unit and each individual seal between the power lines and the generator itself, Rusik resealed the unit and did a test cycle to confirm it was working. He then got up and walked over to the charging units that recycled the power cells for the E-11 standard issue blaster rifle that each trooper carried in addition to any heavier weapons. He carried six of these over to his gear and packed them into the cases attached to his belt.
The Thresher had been on station for nearly three days now, waiting for the designated sub units of the 501st to be assembled and travel to the system. The initial estimate had been extended after a fair sized convoy of unidentified ships had sped down and landed on the planet despite being ordered to stop and then fired upon by the three Star Destroyers currently orbiting the planet to allow for a much larger force to be assembled. The briefing had taken place during the hyperspace transit and each trooper knew the plan by heart now. The process of cleaning, checking, and rechecking equipment was in its fourth iteration.
The bay's door whooshed open and a fully plated trooper with a sergeant's pauldron marking her as Echo squad's leader walked in, causing the rest of the squad to jump to their feet. Taking off her helmet, the Chiss's red eyes swept over both the troopers and their equipment.
"Command's wants us on standby in the next two hours," Joqarra said, setting her helmet next to her own stack of equipment, "those 501st troopers have finally gotten their gear together and are in transit." There was a ripple of laughter and the squad began their preparations in earnest. Rusik did one final check of the generator's readouts and lines and then began attaching his plates. Unlike standard Stormtrooper armor, the 41st used a medium gray finish on their armor. The unit was rarely in urban environments and the color made a more camouflaged base for when they applied the green paint splotches they wore in forests and jungles
Across from him, Mohdara, the Mirialan member of the squad's entry team was fiddling with the sheath for her knife, trying to attach it to the harness connecting her chest and back plates. Once it was on she pulled a bandoleer of data spikes and other tools for accessing locked doors. Beside her, Hov and Jax watched, amused, with Hov holding the hydraulic ram he carried and Jax sorting a through a number of explosive charges. With the ram, Hov could break any lock or hinge of any material lesser than durasteel. In any other case, Jax could make whatever size hole was needed.
At the other end of the room sat two of the few surviving Fett clones still in the unit's non-commissioned ranks. Marx, the squad's sniper, and Pezak, the medic, were chronologically just twenty years old, but biologically they were just over forty. While most citizens of the Empire thought of the clones as an antiquated means of fighting a war that had ended nearly a decade before. Non-clone recruits quickly learned better. Because their sole purpose in life had been to fight, they had become very good at it. Additionally, the lack of a standing army in the Republic meant that the clones had more had nearly an additional ten years of training over the next most experienced veterens of the Imperial Army.
Unfortunately, they were becoming a rarity. The nature of the 41st's missions meant that it had one of the Army's highest casualty ratings. At first, clones had been shifted from other units to replace those lost in the 41st but when it was discovered that breaking up the long time units had negative impact on performance, non-clone replacements were brought in. Marx and Pezak were additionally special because they were part of the original 41st, fighting in every action between Geonosis and Kashyyyk. After the clone wars ended, the unit had stayed on the Wookie home world after it had initially rejected the transition from Republic to Empire. The three year quelling of the resistance on that planet had left its mark on the both of them.
Qemar had been one of the unit's first non-clone recruits. Rusik had at first been intimidated by the soldier's size and harsh, uncaring demeanor but had later found out that the positions that he and Jek, the trooper carrying the E-Web's tripod and the AEP, anti-explosive platform, had been hit by heavy ordinance right next to Qemar, leaving its own mark on him.
With his plates on, Rusik put on his helmet and did a status check on its HUD, linking it to his blaster's sights and synchronizing it with the generator. When the helmet cycled to ready, he activated the magnetic neck seal and checked the pressure levels on his body suit. With all lights green, he strapped his belt on and attached the holster for his DL-22 blaster pistol, a gift from his father when he graduated from the Imperial Academy. He then packed the generator into his assault pack along with the three day ration packs, a 5 liter container of water, and a survival kid before attaching his emergency med kit to his chest plate and, finally, reseated the power cell on his blaster and checked the charge one final time.
A klaxon alarm sounded and an orange light flashed once before the voice of Captain Nil, one of the 41st's best clone officers sounded through the bay.
"Blue company, report to the armory for drop packs, time, now."
Marx let out a low whistle, "This is gonna be a fun one then."
In situations where an abundance of ground fire was anticipated, the Stormtroopers were given disposable jump packs for exiting their landing craft without the need to land. The process wasn't practical in large troop deployments and rarely happened in any other unit. It was, however, the most exhilarating experience to be had in the military, short of flying through an asteroid field.
Joqarra picked up her assault bag and the comm unit she carried and stuffed it into a jump bag she pulled from her locker. The rest of the squad mimicked her, with varying degrees of success (while the E-Web was technically supposed to fit in his bag, Qemar struggled, swearing under his breath) and followed her out of the bay and down the hall.
Deployment
An hour later found Echo strapping into their half of a Sentinel class landing craft's troop bay. The compartment was crammed to make space for eighteen troopers and their gear seated in a two outboard, two inboard bench arrangement. Joqarra stood in the shuttle's starboard hatch waiting for the order to seal up and launch while still letting fresh air in. Each trooper sat with their knees bunched up against those belonging to the person across from them and hugging their jump bags on their laps. Rusik had found that the best way to spend this cramped, uncomfortable period, as with nearly all free time in the Imperial Army was to sleep. His mind drifted in and out of consciousness and intermittently processed what he knew about the mission ahead.
The years after the Republic's reorganization into the Galactic Empire had been marked by a number of nasty uprisings. It was thought that after the CIS had been defeated and broken up that many of the remaining dissidents had turned to less open means of warfare, mainly guerilla tactics on a number of worlds. Additionally, when Order 66 was enacted, the Jedi, and many of their allies, were forced into hiding. When he had been a small child, Rusik had been fascinated by the legendary warriors supposed mystical powers and their more tangible talents at swordplay. He had been thoroughly upset, therefore, when the group had turned traitor to the Republic at the very end of the Clone Wars, and had essentially been disbanded and destroyed. Though many of the knights and masters of the order had perished at the moment the order was enacted, their wider network had gone rouge. Former members of the lesser branches of the order, such as the Agricultural corps or even their non-sensitive allies the Antarian Rangers, were thought to be the root of many of the rebel cells cropping up all over the galaxy.
Rusik's opinion of the Jedi had been further lowered as he got to know the 41st's clones better. Pezak had been on Kashyyyk when the order had been enacted and had been present at the execution of his battalion's commanding knight. He had talked about a slight hesitation at the order and a flash of thoughts that came during that hesitation of all the times a Jedi's inexperience in warfare had cost clone lives, the way most Jedi had treated their clones as a means to an end rather than people, and, most of all, how the deaths of his fellow clones defending the Republic would be in vain if the Jedi took over and turned it into a theocracy with themselves on top. After this hesitation, he, and the dozen other clone troopers nearby, had opened fire on the Jedi, killing him instantly.
The engines gave off a loud snapping noise, waking Rusik, and began to cycle. Joqarra pulled on her helmet, stepped inside the craft and pulled the hatch down and sealed it. The troopers were jostled slightly as the ship slipped sideways out of the landing hanger into the well over the void below. Rusik felt as his fly up as the craft dropped and then pull to port as the craft flew a holding pattern below the Thresher as the other landers got into formation.
After about five minutes, his stomach gave another lurch as the formation dropped towards the planet. "A partial opening in the cloud cover found us a spot about three kilometers from Chirus that we can land in," Joqarra called over the squad's headsets, "This place is mostly dense forests, so jump on cue or you're in for the kind of thrill ride you'd rather avoid." Landings with a jump pack were somewhat painful at the best of times and Rusik could hardly bear to imagine coming down through a thick canopy of a forest.
The smooth flight of the lander turned into an extremely bumpy ride as it transitioned to atmosphere. The formation slowed as the air became denser and before long , the group of ships was skimming less than ten meters above the tree tops. To avoid sensors, the ships had entered the atmosphere at a point where they would be below the town's horizon for the duration of the descent. This meant that the troops were in for a much longer, bumpier ride than later landings of troopers.
At the front end of the craft, the squad sergeants pulled out a bucket of a green paint. Standing up and squeezing through troops, they dipped their hands in and smeared it at random on each trooper's spotless plates. The result, while not very artistic, would help to conceal the troopers in the forests, and it was always funny to watch the flight crews clean green paint off of the troop bay's interior.
A red light began to flash, the hundred kilometers, or about five minute, signal. The troopers stood and did last minute inspections of each other's jump packs and insuring that their jump bags were secured to their belts. With jump packs, bags, and blasters, each side of the troop bay was packed.
It was about six or seven kilometers from the jump site that the first AA opened fire on the landers. The ships were rocked back and forth as high explosive shells burst nearby. For the most part, this had little effect on the shielded craft, but in order to drop the troopers, the ships had to both climb to a safe altitude and, at the last moment, drop its shields. The ships flew through the ground fire, climbing as it neared the drop site. The light flashed to orange and the sergeants kicked the hatch out and slid it into the upright position. The troopers prepared themselves for the forthcoming jump and the inevitable fight that they seemed to be expected for. The light blinked twice and then flashed green and the troopers pressed forwards. The Sentinel dropped its shields just as a round exploded just behind it, shredding its engines. The blast would have knocked the entire compartment of troopers off their feet if they had not been packed in so tightly. As the craft began spiral down, the troops pushed forward and jumped into whatever was waiting below.