John POV
It took two days to get ourselves settled in Kala'din. Jerome and Isabel had arrived one the first day and went with me to take the antidote to Whip. He had to spend a few hours in recovery but he was back on his feet in no time. I had toured the city with Red team during the wait to see how they were doing, it had been a while since I had a good talk with some of the Spartans so it was a nice change, I had even pulled Cortana's chip to let her talk with us as well. They seemed to be doing well, with a few assignments here and there, but nothing like Ryloth, not much was.
Time just flew by and before we knew it we had received a call from the medics that Whip was up and moving and they needed me to come and get him, needed me because he was making a mess of his room and the medics couldn't control him. We went to go get him, which resulted in a proper round of greetings from Whip with him trying to trip us up, but he wasn't strong enough to take us down like that any more. We left quickly to free up his room. Isabel was pampering the poor little thing and he was enjoying every second of it. After about another hour or two Halsey called to say Red team was needed and that we would have to say goodbye.
With Whip back on his feet I thought to the many injured from mine and Skywalkers attacks. While there were significantly less from my own assault there were still some, though more were Twi'leks. We were using the medical facilities on the downed ships for as many wounded as possible with priority to the critically wounded. With Commander Tanos success at finishing the rest of the blockade fleet we could now transfer the stable but critically wounded to nearby medical facilities. We were using one of the damaged Acclamators to make the trip, with a small Acclamator escort, while the other two ships went for repairs before coming back to rejoin the fleet and become a part of the blockade. Captain Rex was one of the clones on the transport list due to his stable condition. He would receive a new eye and arm prosthetic with a few weeks recovery time to get us to them.
It was the unstable wounded that were posing a problem for use to move so we requested several Pelta Class Medical Frigates as they were equipped to move such types of wounded. They would also be bringing basic supplies, food, medicine and some munitions, before picking up the more critically injured before moving anyone else they could take and heading back to the Med Stations.
Commander Tano had proven to be a very capable Naval commander. Her ships had suffered minor damage due to her more unique approach to the situation. With the remaining enemy blockade clustered she was out gunned so she used in-system hyperspace jumps to get into firing range and then jump out. She would approach at an odd angle while also angling upwards the hull of the ships so that the enemy ships would always be above her own, meaning they could use all of the cannons. She was using the full 3D 0G environment to her advantage by twisting and turning her ships into positions that would put out of direct sight of the main guns, this was to limit the damage to her fleet. Commander Tano would system jump into a random position around the enemy, using the full sphere around the enemy ships, and unleash everything before jumping out once the Separatists had just managed to orientate themselves to her position. This meant it was a slow process but we could deal a fair amount of damage while taking practically nil ourselves. Now that she was done we were healing the wounded and making repairs with her fleet taking up blockade positions. Admiral Yularen would now take back his command while Commander Tano was to become his temporary Vice-Admiral.
I spent the rest of the day working with Cortana to come up with a plan for Nabat. ONI had put a lot of effort into getting as much information on Ryloth as they could, and that was only made easier with the help of Cham and his rebels. The most important information was the placement of the defensive positions and the defences of the positions themselves. ONI reports indicated a set of 7 heavily defended positions that used a mix of AA and Artillery defences to protect the city. Cham had told us that just overrunning the positions would be a bad idea due to the Twi'lek body shields the droids were using along with some beasts called Gutkurrs.
Each battalion had 3 ground legions which mean that, with Torrent company, I had at least 9 legions to use, but Torrent were in no position to do anything on their own with how low their numbers are. The fact that each battalion had an armoured division each meant I had 5 ground legions to use as the armour was more liable to kill the Twi'leks. That left 2 Regulars and 3 Spec Ops legions, Skywalkers ODST's, Kenobi's Commandos and Windu's Immortals. I asked Cham if he could work with Torrent company but he would have to operate under a clone officer, as I had no time to familiarise myself with Twi'lek battle doctrine. He reluctantly agreed and that brought me back up to 6.
Thinking about it, Lightning Squadron could be used for one of the more open field gun placements, if they could get through their defences, but I would have to come back to that and see. Even if they could that meant I was 7 for 7 with no support troops to help any of them, except the remaining armour as the AA guns meant no Gunships or Bombers
Looking at the positions again I noticed that 3 gun positions were situated near the cliff region that was on the eastern side of Nabat. 1 position was in the centre and the final 3 were on the western half that joined the open plains. They would be the easiest to take but that meant the other 4 would have plenty of time to shore up defences and would only make them harder. This meant the cliffside positions would have to be taken first.
The enemy commander would most likely be in the central position meaning that had to be taken as soon as possible. Kenobi's Commando's should be a good fit to take it fast but I would need to think on it. The ODST's could make a base jump from the cliffs and take 1 of the positions and would mean they wouldn't need the extra men for a forward assault, which freed up a legion, but I had hoped for a Regular/Spec Ops pairing and with the Bull Rancors base jumping and Kenobi's Foxtrot Group, his Commando's, taking a position each then I wouldn't have enough to do so.
With some advice from Cortana I decide to assign Foxtrot and Bull their own targets while I placed the Immortals with Torrent Company. It was a sort of token gesture as the Immortals operated similar to the Regs anyway, due to their barely altered training, but the knowledge that they had the Spec Ops support should help settle the nerves of those remaining in Torrent, giving them a feeling of comfort from their Spec Ops safety net. Kenobi's Ghost Company was to be paired with Windu's clone Regular Marine legion, Charger.
The Torrent, Twi'lek, Immortal amalgamation would be named Chimera for this mission and Skywalker would lead the infield operations, making sure that his men took their objectives and deciding on a course of action to complete said objectives. Windu would lead Bull while Kenobi would lead Phantom, the codename for Ghost and Charger.
Bull would base jump from the tops of the cliffs while Chimera and Phantom would both have to use the tunnels that Cham told us about. The Twi'leks made extensive tunnel systems for all their cities, it was how he and his men got into Kala'din, and had provided maps for Nabat. There was a set of mountain tunnels and a set of tunnels under the city. Foxtrot would use the city tunnels to get closer to their objective.
All that was left to do would be to pick the clone officers that would help me to coordinate this operation. As I would be keeping an eye over everything as a whole I need capable commanders to help manage different parts of the battle at once. Commander Cody would help to direct Phantom and Commander Pond would help direct Bull, due to their connection to the corresponding Jedi. This left it to me to pick a clone commander from the 501st to help direct Chimera.
After seeing him in action and the respect and authority he commanded over the 501st, plus his close friendship to Rex, I used my temporary power to promote Hevy to lieutenant and he would help direct Chimera. I had asked Skywalker for a recommendation, due to his greater knowledge on the 501st, but he had been unhelpful and hadn't supplied a name or recommendation. With the plan set, take the harder guns and the commander before moving onto the rest, and my command help chosen we only had to wait until tomorrow to start the assault. I had chosen 1000 hours for the start but we would have to move at around 0845 to get into position in time. The 2 tank columns and the AT-RT column, Lightning Squadron, would help to protect the Kala'din and deal with any reinforcements or incoming armour as and when needed. They were already in positions at the mouths of the passes due to them not being able to enter the city. We had also made repair to the damaged defences during the Immortals occupation of the rear gate as well as set up heavy AA guns of our own.
Things had gone off to a good start. Windu and Bull Rancor had quickly taken the first position and freed the Twi'lek captives, directing them to take shelter in the mountain tunnels. Kenobi and Phantom had quickly overwhelmed their position but it was Skywalker and his men that were encountering problems. Skywalker seemed to have a problem taking his orders and directions from Hevy and would start taking his own paths through the mountain. Hevy would constantly try to correct them but Skywalker would only listen when he hit a dead end, which had delayed the assault until he and his men were in position. Once he was final in position, nearly half an hour after our scheduled start, I had called for all groups to sync their assaults. Skywalker, however, had started without everyone else, citing my desire to start at 1000 hours as a reason and he was only trying to make up lost time. This left Bull, Phantom and Foxtrot having to rush their starts just so Skywalkers preemptive start couldn't alert the other positions and make their jobs even more difficult by removing their surprise advantage.
He had, however, proven to be a very capable warrior, dealing with most of the droids himself and quickly freeing the prisoners, but he had rushed ahead of Chimera, leaving them to catch up. He then ordered his men to quickly follow him to the next gun but I had Hevy give orders to Chimera directly and order them to stop and secure their position and lead the Twi'leks into the tunnels, as was the standing order for all units, even Bull and Foxtrot. Due to our lack of air and armour support I had made the decision that once a position was taken that a small force was to be left behind to secure it. We had also tried to leave as many guns intact as we could so we could use them against any Separatist air support they might send. While Skywalker rushed off I had his men follow their orders and repurpose the guns.
'Hevy, Chimera needs a new infield officer. Who would you recommend?' Hevy took a second to think.
'I haven't really thought about it before but Echo is a fair commander, good at directing larger groups, but he lacks any real creativity to adapt if something goes wrong. Fives has a good mind for finding solutions to problems but tends to lose himself when the fighting starts, focusing more on the fight in front of him then the fight as a whole, though he does well at directing smaller squads. Either would be a good choice.' I nodded.
'Tell them they have both been promoted to Sergeant. Echo has command but Fives will offer tactical advice when needed.' He quickly relayed the orders and Echo had been become our new point of contact for Chimera.
Reports were coming in that the guns had been taken by Phantom and Bull Rancor but Foxtrot seemed to encounter more resistance than previously believed. Windu and Bull were sent to reinforce them and to take any overlook positions they could, due to their Jump Jets.
Phantom was on standby as Chimera reorganised and secured their guns. Once ready they both moved onto their next targets. Cody and Hevy went about directing them through the underground, city tunnels so that they could bypass the defences at their secondary positions. As this was happening our scout teams reported that enemy armour was coming from Lessu. I took command personally.
'Lightning Squadron, move to sector 225 and begin assault on enemy armour, slow them down for Carnivore to get into position. Carnivore move to sector 215 and set up on the hills. Lightning will disengage before your attack. Golem, spread to cover Carnivores current defensive position.' Carnivore was the AT-TE armoured column for the 501st while Golem was the AT-TE column for the 212th. The 212th were the more experienced members so they would protect the city until Lightning's return. Carnivore were better at ambushes so were a good choice to take the enemies Lightning is keeping occupied.
As for why Carnivore was moving to 215 and not 226 or 224 was because our map system used a 10x10 grid to cover different sectors of a planet. Nabat was located in the third sector, which covered from sector 201 - sector 300. This put sector 215 to the sector on the left of 225 and 226 was the sector under with 224 above, the sector numbers going down instead of across.
Kenobi had reported the start of his assault with Phantom while Chimera was reporting that Skywalker had already destroyed the droids at their location and that he was freeing the prisoners. Chimera was ordered to assist before securing the position, even if Skywalker ran off again. I also had Hevy remind them Echo and Fives now had command. It seems I was fortunate to remind them as Skywalker had tried to take Chimera after the last gun. After being informed by Echo that he was no longer in command Skywalker demanded to speak to Hevy but I had Hevy transfer him to me.
'Hevy. What is the meaning of this?'
'I gave the order to put Echo and Fives in charge after you failed your command.'
'Spartan.' His growl was audible over the comms. 'You have no right to do that.'
'I have every right. You had orders to secure the gun positions and you failed to complete this. You were to follow my directive during this mission and you didn't, so I removed you from command.' We argued back and forth, him saying that it made more sense to get rid of the droids a quickly as possible to free the Twi'leks while I reasoned that we could take our time with the droids but if we didn't secure those guns the Separatists could destroy us with their Vulture and Hyena bombers. He then made the claim that it was pointless as they hadn't sent any at all so it was a wasted effort. I countered by saying that just because they hadn't done something didn't mean the possibility wasn't there and that just because they didn't do something didn't mean we should have take the precautions against it in the first place but he wouldn't listen. He kept saying that because the Separatists hadn't sent air support I was wrong. I cut off comms with him but not before reminding him he was no longer in charge of Chimera.
We took the guns in case of air support, not because we knew it was coming. That meant Skywalker had no right to justify himself for not securing the guns with the fact that the droids hadn't sent fighters or bombers. He hadn't known that at the time of making his decision, which meant he should take the guns to ensure that his men were protected from that possibility, in case it happened not because it would happen.
Skywalker made plans that needed to happen exactly as he had planned otherwise they would fall apart as he hadn't made plans for anything to deviate from its course. I had no respect for a commander like that.
Windu had just reported that Bull and Foxtrot had taken the central gun and destroyed the Tactical droid. This came around the same time as Kenobi reporting his success. I then had Cody prep the Gunships to bring Chimera back to Kala'din along with Skywalker. Windu and Kenobi were to help take the last gun. Chimera had done more than enough so deserved to rest while I wanted Skywalker in the city to ensure he didn't interfere any more than he already had.
Windus new group, Bull and Foxtrot, had been renamed to Predator and had been sent with Phantom to take the last gun. Chimera was to rendezvous at the city centre for extraction along with Skywalker. We were waiting less than 15 minutes before we had confirmation from Windu that the last gun was secure. Cody then sent Gunships to secure Chimera for extraction.
Carnivore reported that they had reached position during our wait for the capture of the last gun position so I recalled Lightning and sent Carnivore to deal with the enemy armour, which they dealt with swiftly. Droid armour columns consisted of a very strict formation. AAT's at the front, so nothing was in their line of sight; Magna Octuptarra, due to their size allowing them to fire over the AAT's; Halfire Droids, due to their rockets being able to fly over or around the Octuptarra; with MTT's at the back due to their low fire capabilities and to protect the troops inside. Carnivore had gone for a 2 pronged assault and fired on the more valuable targets first.
First, a group rounded the hill as the column was passing by and fired on the MTT's, as the most vulnerable targets and to eliminate any ground reinforcements. Due to being behind the column, and the Halfires missiles having a slow and wide banking arc, only the Octuptarra could fire on the flanking force. Due to the strict unit cohesion of the column the Halfire and AAT's were having a hard time turning and getting into position. This is were the second phase came in. After the Octuptarra started to fire the rest of Carnivore would crest the hill and fire on them. This would leave the Halfire and AAT's out of any firing arc, only now the new group was within line of sight of the AAT's who no longer had to move to fire a shot. The AAT took aim at the new group of AT-TE's who turn to face them in turn. The original Carnivore group took aim at the Halfire droids, that were now finishing their manoeuvring. We only took a few casualties before the column was wiped out in its entirety and Carnivore was recalled.
This left only Lessu as the last Separatist stronghold but due to its position on an isolated, island like pillar it had no tunnels we could use. It had less anti air guns so I was willing to risk a joint land and air assault.
Due to the close proximity of Lessu and Nabat I wanted to take it as soon as possible so, as soon as Chimera was back in the city, without Skywalker who was disobeying orders, I gave everyone half an hour to rest and refuel before we started an assault on the city. Cham came to see me during this time to ask to be a part of the assault on Lessu, wishing for the Twi'leks to help retake their Capital. I agreed and they would transfer back to Nabat and would join Kenobis ground assault when the time came.
My plan was a simple ground rush with limited air bombardment before landing the Gunships. Windu was to take the lightbridge that would allow our troops access to Lessu while Kenobi would land with the Twi'lek rebels and Phantom inside the city via Gunship. I decided that Admiral Yularen, on the Negotiator, and one Acclamator would help in this assault as what limited AA the city shouldn't be able to penetrate their shields. They would target key enemy positions and perform aerial bombardment to eliminate them before our gunships landed in the city. Cham wouldn't be too happy but we would need to get rid of those guns as soon as possible to help take the city today, freeing his people faster and ensuring we could capture Wat Tambor before he fled. Cham reluctantly agreed and so we had half an hour to refuel the Gunships. The city was filled with only Separatists anyway, after the multiple Twi'lek massacres culled the population of the planet. Lessu was the first to experience Separatist hospitality.
Windu would travel with Predator, Carnivore and Lightning to Lessu. Once in position the Acclamator and Venator would be sent towards the city along with Kenobi's Gunships to perform their aerial raids and landings. Windu was to take the city and said he had an idea of what to do about the bridge so I left him to it. Due to their groups expanding the air units were codenamed Shriek Hawk while Windus ground forces were named Krayt.
Krayt ran into a bit of trouble when a group of AAT's ambushed them on a canyon pass but Windu took care of it quickly with little loss, around 3 AT-TE and 32 men by his report, and encountered no more resistance along the way. Once in position Kyrat started their run and Shriek Hawk was up in the air and on their way.
Windu used his tried and tested charge assault to take the bridge by having Lightning charge the bridge. Some had been lost upon bridge deactivation but they quickly took the control room and brought the rest of Krayt over to storm the city.
As Krayt moved into the city Shriek Hawk was beginning its bombardment and was landing it's Gunships. They landed at the area that had just held the droid fighters and bombers before their deployment. Wat Tambor, in seeming desperation, ordered all his air units against Shriek Hawk. Most were shot down by Gunship and fighters but those that made it to the Venator and Acclamator were dealt with quickly by the point defences. Phantom and the Rebels were quickly offloaded before the Gunships were back in the air.
Kenobi and Cham quickly secured the Palace and Tambor with it. They sent their men out to deal with the rest of the droids. Fighting finally ended just as the sun was coming back over the horizon. We had been fighting for over 20 hours, on and off, which was a lot to ask but the men had handled it brilliantly. In a single day we had taken 2 cities, a Separatists leader and a planet, not bad if I do say so myself.
I congratulated Cody, Ponds and Hevy before moving onto Kenobi, Cham and Windu. I hadn't bothered to check on Skywalker and with the battle over he no longer mattered. We were restricted to the planet for 3 days as we waited for the rest of the 212th and 501st fleet to arrive along with a new fleet for Windu and his men. We were also to be relieved by a General Ima Gun Di and the 617th attack battalion, who would take over the defence of Ryloth alongside Cham.
Once those 3 days were up the 187th, the 212th, the 501st and I were redirected back to Coruscant for a personal debriefing with the Chancellor. It seems it was time for him to decide what he wanted to do with me.