Arnham studied the senor display quietly. The Imperials were still advancing, they'd investigated a further three outposts before deciding it was too risky to do so further. That was when they'd simply resorted to shelling any outposts they found. Who knew how many they'd lost, it had only been infantry after all and the sensors could hardly tell him how many of those they had. It was enough that the stalling tactics had slowed them down through the first evening. The Imperials had tried to reach the base's outermost defenses during that first evening but Arnham had deployed his fighter tanks in another lightning raid supported by Hal'cro's fighters to keep the TIEs at bay. The result had been rather satisfying. Several of the anti-air walkers had been destroyed as had a few other armored targets with minimal losses. Even once the Imperial fighters had arrived and driven back Hal'cro's units, the Bothan was becoming notorious for running from the Imperial fighters, his fighter tanks had withdrawn to the safety of his own bastion. The base's own turrets had fought off the TIEs, swatting many of them from the air. The turrets had been joined by his mobile ordnance platforms and anti-air tanks which had exacted an even heavier toll on the over eager pilots.

Now he had to figure out what the Imperials planned to do next. They couldn't strike the base directly from where they were. They needed to get within the shield before they could do real damage. That meant that the Imperial walkers' and assault vehicles' firepower was limited in scope. If they had to get in close, they became vulnerable. Especially if they were not properly supported. He had to find a way to ensure they were not.

"Sir, shouldn't you get some rest?"

He looked over at Ymira as she approached with a tray of caf. He took the offered mug and sipped the steaming liquid pensively.

"No time for sleep. Not if we want to last another two days."

She raised a brow at him and gestured around at the other command staff members. "There have three shifts since this all began. You and I are the only members of the command staff who have not taken rest."

He raised an eyebrow. "You haven't slept either?"

"I don't need the sleep sir." she asserted, straightening noticeably.

Arnham smiled and took another sip of his caf. "That makes two of us."

Her reptilian eyes narrowed in a scowl. "You're no good to anyone if you're too exhausted to plan a battle."

"And you're not going to do any good worrying over me. Besides you haven't slept either by your own admission."

"I'm a reptile Colonel. We have different sleep requirements than mammals." she countered.

He chuckled and took a final, long draw on his caf, finishing the burning liquid off with a sigh.

"Stop brooding Captain. It doesn't suit you."

Her skin flashed a deep crimson color, but she did not argue, nodding curtly as she turned her attention to the sensor board.

"What are our Imperial friends doing now sir?"

"Sitting and waiting. They appear to be apprehensive."

"After the thrashings we've given them so far I should hope so."

Arnham snorted. "This is nothing, we're still outnumbered by a good margin. It's too bad that most of our static defenses are designed to swat down aerial targets or we might actually have something to warrant their caution."

"We have our artillery, and the trenchworks aren't anything to sneeze at." she reminded him.

Arnham nodded. "The artillery will be more useful in the long run. We can move the ordnance launchers back deeper into the base as the Imperials advance. The trenches can be overrun. I want their guns set to detonate once they're abandoned by the way. No sense in not making use of such an obvious trap."

"Do you really intend to abandon the trenches so readily?" Ymira asked dubiously. "With proper reinforcement—"

"Static defenses will not hold against this kind of assault. We'll need to prepare for a major counter-offensive to slow them down. Most of our tanks will be involved, crawlers, repulsor, and fighter tanks. I want to keep the T2s with the ordnance launchers They'll be able to keep the TIEs off when we lose our defense grid. The HAVs too, our infantry will need the heavy support."

"You mean if sir?" Ymiria asked.

"No, when. This base is vast and it will take time, but I'm certain that they'll eventually figure out where our shield and power generators are. Once they do those will be prime targets. The command center and other major posts have auxiliary power supplies but our defense grid does not. Once that is down the T2s and ordnance launchers will be the only things keeping the TIEs at bay."

"And Hal'cro's fighters?" Ymira asked with a dubious tone.

"I fully expect the Major to flee once the enemy breeches the perimeter."

Ymira snorted. "Then why not remove him from command now and save us the trouble?"

Arnham smiled coldly. "Three reasons: firstly, I sincerely hope the buffoon gets himself killed in the attempt. Secondly, he may draw away some of the Imperial forces for us. And finally, his people are too much enamored with his own self-importance to condone my removing him from his command."

"Yet you took his bombers from him." Ymira pointed out.

Arnham smiled. "I'm not going to hope for too much. I'm sure that if I were to revoke Hal'cro's command his people might refuse to follow my orders."

"They wouldn't dare." hissed Ymira with bared teeth.

"Oh?" remarked Arnham with a hint of mirth. "And what would you do if they did?"

"Shoot them." replied Ymira with icy conviction.

Arnham raised a brow. "Sometimes Captain, you worry me."

Dranton downed the last of the water from his canteen and placed it down on the hull of the tank.

"Stang these Imperials are getting on my nerves. You'd think they'd pack up and go home."

"Yousa forgettin' someting important." Nasume grunted as he clambered out of the gunner's compartment. "Desa no havin' de landin' ship no more."

"They still have one." retorted Dranton. "And we didn't blow up the other one. Just the bridge."

"Ship no movin' without de bridge. Howsa dey supposed to be flyin' it?"

Dranton scowled. "Stop making sense. You're spoiling my argument." he looked over his shoulder up at his gunner. "How many missiles do we have left?"

"Wesa bein' expendin' dem all. Da munitions team bein' bringin' us more of de bombad missiles."

"At this rate we're going to be competing for resupply from the others. I wonder how long we can stay supplied."

"De other tanks are bein' prepped." Nasume said idly.

Dranont blinked. "Which ones?"

"Da big crawlers and repulsor tanks. Desa armin' up."

Dranton smiled. "Maybe we're finally going to have a proper battle instead of all this skirmishing."

Nasume smacked his lips, leaning forward with a grin. "Dat be bombad. Wesa makin' big holes in de Imps den. Get dem back for all de trouble desa causin' usin'."

"Yeah." Dranton's eyes fell upon a familiar face and he smiled.

Nasume followed his gaze and scowled. "Yousa thinkin' of de yum yums."

Dranton shrugged. "She was lonely and hurt."

"And drunk." Nasume stated flatly with a wet sucking sound.

Dranton's smile was lecherous. "Hey now, she didn't complain."

"Yousa as bad as de Imperials." Nasume snarled in disgust.

"You two." barked their captain.

"Sir!" they chimed in unison as they turned to regard him.

"Your tank ready to go?"

"Wesa waitin' on da bombad boomins den wesa all goodsa."

The captain looked to Dranton beseechingly who shrugged. "He said we're waiting on missile resupply."

"We're deploying for a major attack. We're going to be hitting the Imperials hard. You'll have your missiles before then."

Dranton smiled up at Nasume. "Well I guess that means the real fun is gonna start."

The captain left them then and Dranton dropped down into the pilot compartment, he powered up the consoles and began going over his control surfaces and consoles. Behind him, Nasume began to check over the weapons systems. Neither spoke, but then again they didn't have to, they knew the routine by now and both didn't want to miss out on the action.

"Yes, get them all the ordnance they need. We're going to hit the Imperials hard." Ymira snapped into her headset. She listened for a moment before scowling. "No, the infantry will not be taking part in this. We don't have sufficient transport capacity. Just make sure those tanks are armed and ready...yes even the T4s. Everything except the T2s and HAVs will be participating in this engagement." she sighed as she killed the link and looked to Arnham who was coordinating some other part of the coming engagement. "Sir, are you sure you don't want to send out our speeders this time?"

"Yes, I'm quite sure." he replied. "I have something else in mind for them."

"May I ask what that is?"

He nodded. "You may. I'm going to send the speeders with Hal'cro's Y-wings around behind their lines. They'll stay low, hopefully obscuring the enemy sensors just enough to keep them out of harms way until they reach their target."

"And their target?" Ymira asked, anticipation building within her as she looked at the projected flight path the bombers and speeders would take."

"The Imperial landing zone. They've left it completely undefended. Their ground forces are already fully committed, if they lose any means to withdraw them at this point then I imagine our friend up above won't want to call for help."

Ymira frowned, though not because she didn't want to strike the Imperials, but because this seemed contrary to everything Arnham had tried to do for the first day of the campaign. To suddenly change it now on the morning of the second day seemed odd at best.

"I thought cutting off their escape was what you wanted to avoid."

Arnham gestured and the view changed to show the orbiting Imperial ships. "If we'd smashed their landing forces right away it might have scared our friend upstairs and he could have called for reinforcements. Now that he has fully committed his forces, what do you think would look worse for him? That he kept fighting to take this place no matter the cost? Or that he ran back to command calling for help while his ground forces were slaughtered because he took on more than he could handle?"

"You're gambling on his ego." Ymira replied. "It's worked so far sir, but what if it doesn't work this time?"

"Then the fight might get that much harder on us. After all, Imperial reinforcements are relatively close at hand. I imagine they'd be here within a matter of hours."

Ymira nodded grimly. "Is it worth the risk?"

"We cut off his ground forces' best chance of retrieval and resupply in either case." Arnham replied with a shrug. "Thereby weakening their hold on the surface and in the meantime we'll have Hal'cro's fighters fly interference for our armor. They'll have to choose between protecting the landing zone or supporting their bombers against our ground attack. If worst comes to worst and the Imperial commander does call for reinforcements, then it simply means that we will have that much more on our plate. It's not as if they can conduct a bombardment in any case, our planetary guns will knock even Star Destroyers around rather nicely."

"So in the long run it won't be that different." Ymira murmured. "Provided they don't bring in several Star Destroyers."

"One can only hope." Arnham replied. "If they bring in multiple heavy destroyers then we might as well surrender, however I'm willing to take the chance."

Ymira frowned and considered the risk. Given what their opponent had done thus far, it certainly seemed likely that their adversary would rather fight it out to the bitter end than call for help. However if this proved to be the breaking point for the Imperial commander then they could be opening up an entirely new realm of pain.

"Sir, I want to be absolutely clear that this is the best choice." she said finally, looking him squarely in the eyes.

He looked back at her and nodded. "I feel it is well worth the risk and has the best chance of success."

Ymira bared her teeth. "Let's make them bleed sir."

As she turned back to her command duties, she heard Arnham murmur to her so that no one else could hear.

"You're thinking things through a bit more. Good, remember that questioning your superiors is a good thing, as is questioning yourself."

Ymira inclined her head. "Thank you sir."

Dantels scowled as he read the reports. "You're sure of this?"

Gaige nodded. "The Rebels have come out in force. It's all armor, they'll be on top of our ground forces in a matter of minutes."

"Are our forces reacting?"

Gaige nodded again. "They outnumber the Rebel forces but they weren't prepared for an attack."

Dantels snarled in annoyance. "What was the commander doing?"

"He didn't feel that the Rebels were a threat as they'd run from every attempt to engage them directly so he let the men rest after the assault on the landing zone."

"I'm going to skin him." Dantels growled.

Gaige remained silent but the expression on his face said a good deal and Dantels didn't want to hear what he was thinking.

"We're not calling for reinforcements." he snapped.

"Even if we lose our ground forces? It's obvious that we're up against someone that knows—"

"We're fighting a rabble who is extremely lucky. Nothing more. Our forces will crush them and that is the end of it. I don't want to hear any differently."

Gaige took a deep breath but nodded nevertheless. "As you say sir."

Dantels strode to the sensor screen and watched as the Rebels began to clash with his own forces. This was going to be unpleasant, but his heavy walkers and assault vehicles were far better machines. There was no way the ragtag assortment of armor that the Rebels were no doubt fielding. They'd be swept aside, even by his rear echelon forces.

"Sir, the assault ship is under attack!" another of the sensor technicians shouted in alarm.

"What?" erupted Dantels. "By who?"

"I don't know sir, there was nothing on the scopes and then suddenly they were there. I have several Rebel bombers with speeder escort, they're pummeling the assault ship and they've got nothing to defend themselves with but their own guns."

"Which aren't exactly the best at doing that." Gaige said stoically from behind Dantels. "We should have left some of our anti-fighter assets behind to secure the landing zone."

"I don't recall anyone suggesting that commander." snapped Dantels icily.

"My opinion was never asked sir." replied Gaige innocently.

Dantels turned back to the bridge crew. "Scramble the fighters!"

"Where sir?"

"Where do you think you dolt? Protect that assault ship!"

A missile soared through the air and slammed into the scout walker that had been supporting the line of infantry that Vigus and his platoon mates stood in. He hunkered down in the makeshift breastworks that had been set up on the off chance that the Rebels had decided to mount an attack. Well they had, and from the looks of things it was a full blown assault. He didn't see any infantry but at the ranges that the tanks were engaging they didn't need any of that! All they needed was to blast away with their heavy cannons and other weapons until the Imperial forces were pounded into the dirt. An AT-AT opened fire and one of the Rebel tanks erupted in a blazing fireball. A cheer went up from the Imperial ranks but it was cut short as a vicious mortar barrage pummeled their positions and shook the ground. Their own repulsor and fighter tanks were out dueling with the enemy vehicles, trying to beat them back as the assault vehicles and walkers held the line against the Rebel's own line.

The same AT-AT spoke again and its cannons tore into another Rebel tank, this heavier model shrugged the blast off and answered with a torpedo from the weapons tube mounted against its turret. The torpedo sailed through the air, a blazing bolt of angry red and blue until it slammed into the walker's head. The walker bucked under the blast but its heavy armor shook the attack off and it fired again, the tank though had already trundled out of the way, returning fire with its own heavy cannons.

"This is insane!" Vigus shouted as a Rebel fighter tank howled past in reverse, exchanging laserfire with a pursuing Imperial vehicle."

"Welcome to the Army!" replied Grev. "Just keep your head down, this is an armor fight, nothing the infantry can do now."

Vigus made no objection as he put his back against the barricade and looked over at Jinx who sat with her rifle between her legs and her head against the wall. She turned to look at him and shrugged as if to say: what can you do? Vigus wished he knew but had to admit that he was at a loss. Going out in the open would be suicide at best with all the armor clashing this way and that. A trio of scout walkers strode past, their lasers blazing furiously as their grenade launchers spat round after round at their attackers. One of them had its head blown off by a heavy cannon, and its legs stood there for a moment in pitiable comedy as its partners pressed the attack.

"Where in space is Toren?" shouted Grev.

As if one cue, the big man appeared out of the early morning gloom with his repeater slung over his shoulder. However that wasn't what caught Vigsu' eye, the large magazine fed tube that Toren was hauling did that.

"Where'd you find that thing?" he asked as Toren joined them.

"Dead trooper gave it to me." Toren replied stoically as he unslung the missile launcher. "Help me."

Vigus hurried to help him set the tube down. "What do you need?"

"Take this." Toren handed him a view finder. "And paint a target."

Vigus nodded and stood up, putting the view finder to his eyes as he gazed out at the raging battle. He found a Rebel tank and stuck with it, clicking the target acquisition. There was a whoosh from behind him and he saw an icon appear in the view finder's display. It blinked rapidly, and then a moment later the green lit display lit up brightly as the missile struck home. The tank's shields collapsed and a volley of laserfire from an allied vehicle blew its turret to pieces a moment later, leaving it hovering uselessly.

:"Alright." Toren said. "Find me another."

Vigus nodded and brought up the view finder again, he turned just in time to see a Rebel fighter tank coming straight at him.

"Everyone down!"

The tank soared over their position, the repulsors flattening them into the ground as it rotated and swung wildly around, strafing the Imperial positions angrily. A shot from one of the Juggernauts slammed into its shields and the fighter tank's engines kicked into high gear as it sailed away.

"Clear!" Grev shouted over the din of combat. "Get that launcher ready."

"Loaded and ready." Toren called back.

Vigus found his next target. "Target acquired."

"Firing!"

Author's Note: I had to run out for a fire alarm while writing this. Was rather ironic really.