"Keep us under the radar and prepare for danger-close support fire." Admiral Mendez ordered as he continued to look over the large overview hovering over the holotable. In front of him, friendly and enemy troop markers were surging back and forth like they had for the past hour, with the Eclipse steadily being pushed back to their initial staging area.
After the orbital bombardment had begun, the Republic forces were given the rather nasty surprise that the Coalition citadel was not in fact a fortress, but a previously uncategorized and unseen capital ship whose superstructure was the only part visible above ground. On top of that though were a few setbacks that Chris had already let know he didn't approve over open channels.
The first setback was that this ship that was around the same size as the Morning Glory had a full hangar of fresh fighters and bombers that launched immediately into the fray and were giving Green Squadron quite the hard time. The second setback was that she was carrying a full mechanized infantry division with heavy mech support that managed to launch with the Coalition's lethal deployment speed. Last but not least, she managed to call for help before Eclipse AIs fried her communications.
Standard operating procedure for any engagement with the Coalition was to have AIs destroy or at least severely damage their comm equipment so that they couldn't call for reinforcements. Given Coalition bravado and pride, often bordering on crippling overconfidence, they never called for help or believed that they'd need assistance until after their gear was unusable. Because of this tactic, the Eclipse had managed to secure seven offensive engagements without losses similar to the Battle of New Mandalore.
This all combined to turn what was supposed to be a textbook eradication operation into a veritable tactical shitstorm that Mendez's nephew was having to sort through on the ground up close and personally.
"The clock is running..."
"Lieutenant! Lightning!" Centurion Z9571 bellowed as a trio of Republic Knights let loose a torrent of Force Lightning straight into the Coalition mech that was aiming for a Canderous tank. Immediately, the suit began convulsing as the electronics fried due to overcharge, causing it to fire before its targeting solution was locked in. The round flew past the tank and detonated harmlessly deeper in the forest. The aftermath of said explosion wasn't nearly as harmless as splinters showered everyone within the blast radius, knocking over several Eclipse and Coalition soldiers onto their backs or in some cases, sending splinters with enough speed to pierce their armor.
Right after the mech had misfired, Chris and the three Knights sprinted forward. Two of them sprinted past and continued onto different targets after slicing through the knee joints of the towering machine as Chris jumped up and punched the center 'eye' in the chest as hard as he could muster with his arm cannon.
The mech toppled over off of its own legs as the Centurion ran past and the final Knight landed on top, cutting into the center cockpit and killing the pilot before joining his two other partners. Chris on the other hand ran straight for a squad of Coalition troopers that were pinning down a few Eclipse soldiers at a full sprint.
The first Coalition troop was sent flying with most of his bones shattered and internal organs ruptured due to the sheer force that Chris hit him with, not bothering to stop running until after he ran him over. Once stopped he brought his cannon to bear, breaking the neck of another enemy who was too close, and opened fire. Three controlled bursts and a large blast later, 9 Coalition soldiers were dead on the ground with holes in their chests, necks, a faceplates, or else just missing large chunks of their bodies.
"You lot ok?" Chris asked, glancing over his shoulder to the four Eclipse troops that he had just rescued. Three were already back in kneeling positions and looking for targets while the third tapped the comm unit of his helmet and gave a thumbs up. The Centurion simply nodded back in reply before he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. Harv picked it up a split-second later and threw up a proximity warning before a round from a rifle-mounted grenade launcher landed right in front of the soldiers that Chris had just saved.
"Damnit!" he barked as a second grenade bounced off his shields and detonated above him. Before another volley could come through, he targetted the offending riflemen and putting rounds where their heads used to be, leaving two headless corpses to fall to the ground before he lobbed a grenade of his own at their position, sending a few more enemy soldiers flying.
Silently he continued on down the skirmish line, not having time to check up on or provide medical care for the one woman who had survived the grenade blast. He marked her position for a medivac before passing through and stopping near a crater that a machinegun crew was using to great effect before half of them were hit by strafing fire from a cloaked enemy.
"Any idea what hit your position?" Chris asked one of the remaining men still able to fight.
"No idea but it came from the tree line, sir!" he replied, sending a burst into where they thought the heavy fire had originated from. Without hesitation, Chris primed a 'grenade' in the chamber of his arm cannon and fired it off. The smoking trail arced up for a moment before coming down hard, sending more Coalition soldiers flying but also causing the camouflage of a mech to waver for a few seconds before it became invisible again.
"They can cloak now!?"
"Someone please tell me we have artillery or at least some air support within striking range." 1st Lieutenant Jones said as blaster fire continued to impact his cover. Ever since the Battle for New Mandalore, Gunnery Sergeant Jones had made a lateral move into the Eclipse Marines Officer ranks and had done nothing but prove his proficiency in battles that had waged after his commissioning. Known affectionately by his men as "Lieutenant Gunny", he had done well in keeping his platoon alive in three separate engagements in the last year alone. He was in charge of a platoon of marines, with a squad of EPAS troopers in the Mark II suits like he had been issued, and the occasional droid support squad depending on whether or not Colonel Torpa decided that he needed a little extra firepower.
This time, he had been charging up a hill with a squad of 10 B4-class Super Battle Droids before the Coalition trench line had opened up on his men. The droids provided cover fire while the organics in the platoon found cover. 5 of them had managed to survive and get to cover like the rest of the platoon, while the others were crippled and unable to move, but still firing nonetheless.
At least that was the case until a sniper round zipped past Jones and impacted the one working weapons arm on a crippled droid near his position, mission-killing the machine before one of his men lobbed a grenade at the trench line.
"Damn... Staf-... someone get me a working roller drone." the Lieutenant ordered before one of his sergeants handed him a small ball the size of an apple. His platoon sergeant, Staff Sergeant Maldez had been killed half an hour prior by one of those new cloaking Coalition mechs his platoon, 3rd Platoon, took it down and he personally executed the pilot with a lightsaber that Grand Admiral Nelson had given him as a gift upon his return to offensive operations with Spirit Brigade.
That lightsaber rested on his belt and barely moved when the EPAS-clad officer threw the roller drone up and over the crater wall he was hiding behind. As it rolled towards the Coalition line, a single segment of the ball opened up to reveal a lense that gave Lieutenant Jones a wonderful thermal view of the enemy trench.
"20 contacts, four of them are manning machineguns... Yvone, do you think you could do anything?"
"Not with that much firepower, LT." the Knight attached to his platoon replied as she shook her head slightly. "Not unless you want me to take a fireteam around the flank while your boys in the shining armor charge forward."
"I might just take you up on that offer, but that would require too much cover fire from right behind us and we don't have the luxury of time to... what the hell?" Jones muttered as fire shifted to their right and friendly fire started getting their attention.
"Sergeant! ID those soldiers!"
"4th Armored Division... Mando Company's 2nd platoon."
"How many?"
"Nine total, the rest were wiped out. Looks likes like they're lost and got very unlucky."
"And gave us a lucky break. Yvone, grab fire team One and circle around our left flank, the rest of us are going to charge in. Sergeants, we're advancing by fire teams with one going to help those men on our right. Sergeant Carter, you and the other EPAS troops are with me. Move out!"
"Oh this is just a fine pile of bantha poodoo we got ourselves into now, isn't it!?" Lance Corporal Thantos growled as he popped up to return fire on the Coalition machinegun nest sitting in front of him and his 8 squadmates.
"We've been screwed since that squad of mechs ran into our goddamn platoon and you lost the only one of our weapons that wasn't broken from the bombardment!" a female zabrak quipped, lobbing one of her two remaining grenades at the nest only to curse at her bad luck when it was shot out of the air with a bolt of electricity.
"Damnit I think they got one of our little rivals with'em!" Thantos shouted.
"Enemy power users? Well I guess that means we're well and completely f-"
"Friendlies on your six, marines!" Corporal Jalios barked as he and three other marines ran up to cover with the accidental distraction team. "Keep up the fire, we got the rest of my platoon working around on two sides to take those bastards out!"
"Mind me asking just who the hell you are?" the female PFC blurted out.
"Corporal Jalios, Spirit Brigade, Third Platoon."
Lieutenant Jones ignited his saber, throwing it at one of the Coalition troopers who was still up and firing down at his men. The beam of energy impacted him in the chest, sinking in up to the hilt before a blaster bolt knocked his helmet off. By the time he hit the ground, 11 EPAS troopers had landed in the middle of the trench and started 'conserving ammunition'. Two fell to his rifle stock, with another three suffocating as he crushed their windpipes with swift jabs.
The remaining 14 Coalition soldiers found their skulls or rib cages caved in or blown out depending on what side of them the EPAS troopers were when they punched them. One lost his shields and took a shot to the arm that managed to melt the inside of his right gauntlet, making him swear more out of anger than pain as it started to melt onto his skin.
"Need a medic?" one of the other marines in powered armor asked.
"I'll be fine, just cut into it after we secure this damn hill."
"Maldros stop trying to be a hardass, we'll get Yvone to patch you up while the rest of us dig in and wait for the company to show up."
"Aye, sir." he groaned as the pain started to break through the adrenaline. A few minutes later, Senior Knight Yvone and her distraction team showed up and she started giving medical aid. At almost the same time, Corporal Jalios and the survivors from Mando company ran up as well.
"Corporal, I see you kept them all alive."
"Aye, sir. They're lost and they confirmed that their entire company got wiped out... orbital bombardment took'em out."
"Coalition has ships above us? I thought Nelson had them locked up tight." the lieutenant said.
"Most of them. Frigate managed to get into position before one of our Keldabes sniped it." Lance Corporal Thantos replied with a sigh, "Bombed the tar out of us while we were still being hammered by Coaly reinforcements... our platoon survived until the counter attack happened. We survived and went looking for friendlies to link up with."
"Well I won't turn down extra hands, not like I could if I wanted to." Jones grinned, looking the nine remaining marines... help us dig in, we're holding until our Company shows up. We're denying the enemy high ground while 2nd Platoon holds that ridge right across the way from us."
"Aye aye, sir." Thantos remarked, turning to organize his men before he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned back around, seeing the power armor-clad Lieutenant holding out his hand.
"Thanks for showing up with your marines when you did, we needed that distraction or else we'd still be down their trying to take this damn ridge."
"My pleasure, sir, but we're not all marines... in fact, I'm the only one here who is." the Lance Corporal replied, shaking the officer's hand.
"Then what the hell are you boys?"
"They're Knights, just without the sabers. We lost those in the bombardment."
"Looks like our luck just got better. Your ragtag unit have a nickname yet?"
"Why yes we do, LT." one of the Knights replied, the zabrak woman with a fresh scar on her face. "We're Draco Squad."
"Ground battle is starting to shape up like the opening moves of New Mandalore all over again, ma'am." the tactical AI Jeremiah stated.
"How bad?" she asked, despite already knowing the answer that was coming. She saw all of the unit markers flashing various colors, some dropping their 'rank' as their chains of command were killed or their casualties classified them as a smaller unit, or outright disappearing from the overview as they were no longer combat effective or just wiped out.
"Could be better... Spirit Brigade is actually moving up to stop the advance, Centurion support is right behind them... they should be able to get artillery or at least beacons and air support markers after the line stabilizes to help take down that ship that decided to rise from the grave, ma'am."
"Noted..." she muttered in reply. "You tell every officer from our lowest 2nd Lieutenant to the highest brigadier we have out there that they are to hold the line and match up with Spirit Brigade's progress until we can land the second wave on the ground."
"Lieutenant Jones is requesting orbital drops at his position. Intel shows brigade strength Coalition force coming straight for his hill. ETA 10 minutes."
"Granted, give him a squad." Hannah ordered.
"Aye, ma'am. Mendez is also requesting to hit the enemy capital ship again."
"Denied. Please tell him that as much as I'd love to see a lovely storm of contrails in the atmosphere, that thing coming down would make this a victory too costly on the ground once the hulk made landfall."
"He doesn't want to kill it ma'am." Jeremiah replied quietly, "He wants to capture it."
"All hands prepare to pop cloak once we open up with the missile banks. Turbolaser batteries prepare to pepper her hull and I want our fighter defenses running full blast when we kick the hornets nest." Admiral Mendez ordered, "And Tom?"
"Yes, sir?" the AI replied as his avatar appeared on the main holotable next to a highly detailed graphic of the Grey Ghost and the Coalition mole ship that she was moving to intercept. Each probable outcome of the Ghost opening fire was playing through in sequence of probability right down to his own ship having to disengage. Once he found the outcome that was most likely, he replayed it slowly for all to see causing Mendez to crack a rare grin that showed off his enhanced canines briefly.
"Do make a good show of this... I want to show Nelson how to really make a dynamic entrance."
