Chapter 27: Fire on Krownest
The sudden arrival of the Rebels had forced the Imperials to delay the ground assault, to make sure there wasn't an entire fleet incoming, but when that turned out to be not the case, they quickly got to work to make up for the wasted time.
By then, it was already too late to stop the shipment of materials that had been loaded on the GR75 and sent back to Mandalore, but the Imperials were eager to get their revenge on clan Wren.
Still, they couldn't deploy as many forces as they wanted, because the Mandalorians and their allies were entrenched in a valley pass and the imperial walkers couldn't climb the short but steep ridges surrounding them, not to mention most of the area was covered by the anti-air defenses. So the Empire deployed two AT-AT, a small group of AT-ST and quite the number of stormtroopers in their snow armor, and they were going to try and pass the three lines of defense, that were built for a defense-in-depth tactic.
"Is it just me, or those AT-AT are different?" Ezra asked as they assessed the situation at the holotable.
Sabine hummed as he scrutinized the machines. "You're right. The shape of the head is different. And I think they're a bit bigger?"
"Jinx, analyze them."
The AI didn't take long.
"Affirmative, these walkers seem to be a new, improved variant, but I think it's important to notice that they have energy shields around them. Even Ezra's lightsaber would be unable to go through them."
The teens looked at each other in confusion.
"Shields? How is that possible? It should be impossible to put them on a vehicle with so many mobile parts." Sabine asked.
"I'm comparing the wavelengths of those shields with the ones I have in my database. They seem to be built upon Federal technology." Jinx concluded.
Ezra grunted. "Of course. Remember that we never found the relics of the INS Athens when we liberated Lothal? Thrawn and Iulius must have shipped the wreckage beforehand and the Empire has kept experimenting."
"Never fear, Ezra," Jinx reassured. "it appears like these shields are only a prototype and are very unstable. A simple ion-launcher should be enough to deactivate them for a few seconds and allow you to damage them."
"Every bit helps, I guess." Ezra commented before starting to give orders. "Moreena, coordinate with the Y-Wings, their ion torpedoes should be more effective against those walkers." then turned toward Ursa. "Countess, do you have ion weapons?"
"Some launchers in the magazine, Tristan, go get them."
"Yes, Mother." Tristan replied dutifully before putting his helmet on and sprinting away.
Ezra then materialized his helmet to use the comlink.
"Specter-4, this is Specter-7, do you copy?"
"I read you, Ezra."
"Those AT-AT have shields on them. Ignore them for the time being and focus on the other imperial forces, Tristan shall bring you ion-launchers briefly."
"He better do that fast, then, because they're almost on us." the Lasat replied. Right now, he was in one of the forward bunkers, where the Rebels had installed a fixed anti-infantry turret.
"Darvos, do you read me?"
"I read you, Ezra."
"Have the tanks stand back and attack from as far as they possibly can, and prepare the 'Hellcat' to attack the walkers once we disable their shields."
"I'm on it."
The 'Hellcat' was a variant of the Scorpion tank. An experimental machine that had an MLRS system instead of the conventional cannon. Ezra hoped that the weapon would do a large amount of damage even in a slim time opening, enough to destroy one walker at a time.
"Rau, are you in position?" he then asked.
"We're keeping our distance, ready to engage the Imperials as soon as they make their move." The Protector replied.
"Wedge?"
"Ready to engage, General."
Thus Ezra turned toward the others around the table.
"I'll reach the front. Countess, reinforce the second line while you can, we're gonna need it."
Ursa nodded.
"What are we waiting for, then?" Sabine exclaimed, eager to fight the imperial dogs who had dared to invade her homeworld, but as she turned around, her helmet still underarm, Ezra gently, but firmly, grasped her wrist.
"I'm afraid not, cyar'ika." he said calmly,
"What?!" Sabine asked a bit irritated.
"I need you to mine the trenches linking the first and second line. Once we all retreat, you light 'em up." Ezra explained.
Sabine reasoned about those words. Indeed, destroying those trenches would force the stormtroopers to advance in an open field, making them easy targets, so the tactic made sense.
Accepting the fact that her husband was her superior, she sighed and accepted the order.
"All right. Don't do anything stupid while you're out there." she admonished.
Ezra made a lopsided grin. "Don't you always say you married me because I do crazy stuff?"
"Ezra!" Sabine snarled.
The young Jedi chuckled and then ran away toward the frontline. Sabine looked with a pout at that direction.
Ezra passed the various line of trenches until he reached the forward bunker and Zeb. Rex was with the rebel troopers who were covering the left flank of the allied line.
The walkers were advancing toward the perimeter of the shield. In the meantime, the infantry and the AT-ST were coming forward.
Usually, a shield would've been a problem for the star-fighters, because they couldn't enter or leave. The energy field would destroy them because of their high speed, but that shield was actually covering a whole region and many meters above the ground. Once the allied crafts had been allowed to land at the fortress, where Alrich Wren was coordinating the evacuation, it meant that the Empire was going to be without air support.
"Specter-7 to Rogue Squadron, get airborne."
"Acknowledged, Specter-7." Wedge replied.
The first stormtroopers finally started to be visible even without the range-finders. Ezra patted Zeb on his arm.
"Get on our right flank with the Mandos, I'll direct the artillery fire from here."
Zeb nodded and jogged away.
Ezra deactivated the integrated binocular, took out his TL-50 and pointed it outwards.
After being escorted into Sundari by two of the Protectors' fighters, Jaral posed her X-Wing at a landing pad right outside the Royal Palace of the Mandalorian capital. There she was greeted by an escort of five Mandalorians, both of Clan Kryze and of the Protectors, since the ranks of the warriors under Fenn Rau had seen many volunteers since the liberation of Mandalore and with Bo-Katan declared as the new Duchess in possession of the Darksaber.
After leaving Raze to guard the ship, Jaral was escorted in the war room of the Palace, her armor still fully on, and finally met with Bo and the leaders of some of the most influential clans.
"Jaral Bridger, it's good to see you." Bo greeted cordially, extending a hand.
Jaral shook it. "Me too, Lady Kryze. I would complain about the fact that we always meet in the middle of a battle, but I think you don't mind."
Bo chuckled. "You know us Mandos, nothing better than a war for a friendly reunion."
The women proceeded next to the holotable, then Jaral asked "How's the project of reuniting your people going?"
"Better than I hoped for, considering how I got possession of the Darksaber." the new Duchess replied.
"What do you mean?" Jaral asked.
"Someone is considered a claimant to the Darksaber if they win it in combat, but Sabine just handed it to me. Sure, I accepted because most of the clans were there and they encouraged me to do it, but some of the more traditionalists are still not convinced. They are cooperating only because they don't want the Empire to take our homes."
"If you'll be able to repel this invasion, I'm sure they'll convince themselves." the Grand Marshall reassured.
"We'll see. Oh...I heard about your Master, I'm sorry." Bo added in a respectful tone.
Jaral lowered her gaze a bit. The memory was still deeply engraved in her mind. At times, she was still reliving that scene, asking herself continuously if she could have predicted that in some way.
"He died in the best way a Jedi can hope for." she replied at the end. "Protecting the people he loved."
"We'll dedicate the next victory to him, then." Bo concluded.
Jaral leaned on the table.
"So, I saw your fleet in orbit. What's the status?" she asked.
Bo turned toward one of the other Mandalorians, indicating him to Jaral. "Count Eldar. He has taken up the duty of training our fleet."
Jaral nodded in a respectful greeting, which was returned.
"It would have actually been impossible for us to build this fleet and train the crews without the help of the Federation." the man explained. "You have probably seen some of their shuttles flying around the city when you were coming here."
"Yes, I did." Jaral replied calmly.
"They sent us a group of Geth engineers who have worked tirelessly and quickly to realize the projects of the engineers at the MandalMotors, and while we managed to get many Imperial-Mandalorian cadets from the former Academy to join us, the Systems Alliance has provided us with Human and Turian naval instructors to finish their training.
"Right now, our priority is to make sure that the Empire is kept at bay while we finish our new flagship." the Count concluded by changing the hologram with one representing the battleship Rau mentioned shortly before.
"The Keldabe. Can it really stand up to the Imperial Fleet?" Jaral asked.
"It actually has some weapons projected by the Federation, and its armor is infused with Beskar. We don't expect it to face the entire fleet on its own, but I assure you, Bridger, this lady is gonna need us the tools to face the Star Destroyers." Bo reassured her.
Jaral hummed. "How long until it's operative."
"According to our engineers, there are still four rotations left." Count Eldar explained. "Problem is, we must hold off the Empire for such amount of time."
"I heard you are preparing a resistance on Kalevala?"
"For what is possible." Bo commented before explaining. "Kalevala is mostly covered by toxic deserts and only partially by jungles. We have set some defensive positions in these small continents."
"Do you know Kalevala's terrain enough?" the Grand Marshall asked while she observed the hologram of the planet.
"Of course." Bo replied with a tone that sounded a bit nostalgic. "It's the homeworld of Clan Kryze, and it's where my sister was born, as well."
Jaral was a bit surprised at the notion.
"I see." she replied in a thoughtful tone. "Well, if there's only a limited amount of landmass to protect, it should be easier to defend it."
"That was our thought…have you had the chance to talk with the Federation?" the Duchess asked.
"Yes. They are unable to send ships all the way here, however, they have promised to send a cohort of Legionnaires, 120 in total, in two rotations."
The news wasn't exactly encouraging for the Mandalorians. Their main problem was the lack of ships. They couldn't afford to waste what little fleet they had built until now, not until the Keldabe was ready.
"Well, we'll have to do with them." Bo-Katan concluded. "We have land-to-orbit anti-air cannons on Kalevala, given by the Federation itself. And they can't possibly reach Mandalore without taking Kalevala."
"Can't they pass through Ordo?" Jaral asked.
"They could, but Ordo is much more fortified by the local clan. They need a base to launch their attack on the capital, so they can't just destroy everything from the orbit."
Jaral hummed.
"I don't think we should take everything for granted. After all, they're attacking Krownest." which reminded her that her brother, her husband, basically most of her friends were fighting there. "Right, we have to contact them."
"I'm afraid the Imperials are blocking our communications toward Krownest." one of the Mandalorians said.
"I don't need a comlink." Jaral reassured and she closed her eyes, to the confusion of the Mandos.
"Incoming!" Ezra alerted as he dived down to take cover on the lower rampart of the bunker's front.
A missile, coming from an AT-ST, was flying straight at them.
A moment later, it got the turret, blowing it up and sending the rebel gunner flying against the wall behind them. The man died instantly.
"Ezra, do you read me?"
Taking a moment to reorganize his thoughts, Ezra peeked outside, before answering to his sister's voice.
"I'm here, sis."
"How's the situation on Krownest?"
"Too early to say it. We're hitting them hard, but their numbers are starting to weigh."
"Do you need backup?"
"It wouldn't arrive here in time, anyway. We have to take down two AT-AT or we won't be leaving this planet."
A group of three snowtroopers came dangerously close to him and he gunned them down with a burst of his repeater.
"Listen, don't worry about us. We'll make it out of here, one way or the other." he reassured.
Resigned to the fact that she couldn't do anything, Jaral made a mental sigh. "Stay safe, ok?"
"Don't worry, I'm too cool to die." Ezra replied a bit cockily in the hope of reassuring Jaral, but somehow he felt like she was cringing at those words.
Either way, they closed the bond and Ezra went back to focus on the battle at hand.
And speaking of the AT-AT, they were getting very close to the first line. Since the turret in the bunker was gone, Ezra decided to go out and check on the rebel troops.
Entering their part of the trench, he quickly saw the corpses of three Militiamen and an Army trooper, but the others were firing relentlessly, determined to make the Imperials pay for every step they took.
Right at that moment, Tristan arrived carrying two cases with the ion launchers inside.
"I heard you needed some firepower!" the mandalorian joked, screaming a bit to overcome the incessant rumble of the blasters.
"Not a moment too soon, brother!" Ezra replied with a quip.
Tristan put down the cases and opened them.
"Zeb, grab one!" Ezra ordered as he took the other weapon and instead crossed the bunker again to reach the Mandalorians and the walker in front of them.
When he saw the ion missile hitting the other AT-AT, Ezra shot his own. Both hit their targets and electricity started to fizzle around the machines.
"Focus fire!" Ezra ordered as he opened fire with his TL-50.
Those Mandalorians who had still the missile on their jetpacks shot, while a rain of blasters was coming from the other trench as well.
"General Bridger, this is Taiga Squadron," a voice said in Ezra's helmet. "We're starting our attack on the walkers. Ion torpedoes away in 10 seconds."
"Acknowledged, Taiga." Ezra replied. Meanwhile, the effect of the launchers ended and the AT-AT started to turn their heads downward.
Luckily, the Y-Wing hit them again a few seconds later, immobilizing them for a little longer, but at this point, the walkers were right above them, and many stormtroopers had started to use them for cover, so a new wave of infantry was about to enter the trenches.
"All units, fall back to the second line! Fall back!" he ordered into the comlink. He then patted the shoulder of one of the warriors to push him slightly toward the exit trench.
"Go, I'll slow them down!"
He gunned down another couple of snowtroopers who were dashing toward him, then he finally switched to his lightsaber.
The troopers shot him, but he managed to dodge or deflect or bullets while he slowly withdrew toward the exit trench as well.
"Ezra, everybody has fallen back, get your bottom-side here." Sabine urged him in the comlink.
"I'll be there in a moment…" he replied as he deflected another bolt directed at him. He then drew back an arm and then slung it forward, sending a small squad of troopers flying with a Force push.
No sooner had he done that, the closest AT-AT was pointing at him.
The deafening sound of the cannons firing. Ezra materialized his jetpack and tried to fly away, but the blast-wave still got him and he lost balance while in midair. He crashed on the ground, his head spinning like crazy and everything looked blurred, but he was still holding to his lightsaber.
"...zra!" the voice of Sabine ringed in his head. Ezra muttered as he brought a hand on his helmet. "Ezra, tell me you're there!" his wife said with much more emphasis.
Ezra managed to regain control of his senses and replied.
"I'm here."
He looked around and noticed that he had landed into a crater made by some explosive blast during the fight.
Sabine made a sigh of relief.
"Please, get back here without scaring the heck out of me!" she demanded.
Ezra chuckled. "Sorry." he added before making another jump with the jetpack and finally reach the second line. Not long after, the trenches were blown up by Sabine's explosives.
Without the trenches, the imperials were, once again, forced to charge on an open field, while the allied were safely standing behind the trenches and relative ramparts that made them hard targets for the infantry. For this reason, the imperial commander decided to take the risk and had a group of three tanks sent down.
Those managed to inflict some losses, but then the 'Scorpions' intervened and made short work of them with their piercing rounds.
Ezra reunited with Sabine and Ursa, both waiting on the line of defense.
"Bridger, I've got news." said the Countess. "My husband says that the evacuation of the fortress is ready, we can leave whenever you say."
"Nice, but we won't go far with those walkers around." he said right before another blast sent small pieces of snow and terrain in their part of the trench.
The young man exposed himself just a bit to take a look at the situation outside. The snowtroopers were being continuously cut down by the precise fire of the allies, who had installed turrets on that part of the fortifications, as well. Some AT-ST sprinted forward and fired at the Scorpions, and while they did manage to destroy one, eventually, they lost two of their own and the remaining three suffered heavy damage and had to withdraw.
Then, the AT-AT were getting closer. Darvos ordered the tanks to fall back, which they readily did.
"Moreena, send down the bombers, all of them!" Ezra ordered. "Hellcat, prepare your weapons, aim at the walker on the right."
"Yes, General."
Around 30 seconds later, when the walkers were towering over the allies, the Taiga squadron hit them again.
"Fire at will!" the Jedi ordered as he, too, fired at the walker on the right.
Shortly after, to the rain of blaster bolts, the missiles of the Hellcat also joined the firework and hit the walker with incredible force, opening a hole in its belly and finally collapsing its systems. The machine fell on its left side.
The other AT-AT was instead aimed at by the Scorpions and the Rebels. When the X-Wings saw that one had already fell, they used the opening to hit it with proton torpedoes and finally destroy that as well. The back of the walker exploded from the inside, as one of the torpedoes hit the main reactor and the beast fell on its face.
Without their walkers, the imperials realized that they had no chance of going further and they retreated hastily.
"Tristan, harass them no further than the first line." Ezra said.
"With pleasure." the mandalorian responded, then nodded to his squad of warriors and they flew away, blasting the stormtroopers that were retreating as much as they could.
The other allies, instead, were cheering for the victory, yelling and waving their guns in the air.
Ezra, on his part, only made a sigh of relief and dematerialized his helmet to breathe better. Sabine used that opportunity to give him a strong hug and chuckle.
"See? You did good." she said, referring to the fact that he had faced his first battle as a General and led his forces to victory.
They broke the hug, but still kept hands and smiled at each other, until Rex and Zeb showed up as well.
"Nice work, guys." said Ezra.
"Eh!" Zeb huffed with a smile. "Not much as you did. Great job, General."
Ezra shook his head, albeit amused, and brought up his forearm to speak in the omni-tool.
"Darvos, bring back the transport, we're leaving." he said.
"Copy that."
"Your friend is right, Bridger." Ursa added. She was holding her helmet underarm and giving him a gaze of respect. "You've become a true leader of warriors. In fact, it might be time to teach you something about being a Count." she said quite nonchalantly.
"Come on, Mother, at least let him breathe." Sabine said a bit embarrassed.
In fact, Ezra was quite tired. The blast from before and the overall stress of both fighting at the front and keeping account of all the allied forces at the same time had taken its toll. But he won, that was all that mattered.
"Sis." he said down the bond.
"I'm here." Jaral answered shortly after.
"We repelled the Imperials. We're about to leave the planet."
"I see, great job, lil bro." Jaral said with clear pride.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm amazing, but how's the situation on Mandalore?"
"Not exactly bright, but we got worse. Come back on Sundari, we'll wait for the reinforcements the Federation promised us, then we're going to Kalevala."
"Copy that, see you later."
After introducing Vader, Iulius went on to speak with Captain Kimby and he discovered that his gamble had paid off: not only were the Carunoans in that base preparing an attack on the tower, there were other groups, from armies of the nearby former nations, that were preparing to strike from different sides. They had managed to stay hidden for months, until two days before, when the Yavzakhs increased their patrols and found this base.
The Humans had held out until then, but without the arrival of the Imperials, they would have most likely succumbed.
Iulius offered the Carunoans full support for the imminent assault, and Kimby was glad to accept it, immediately informing the other bases through encrypted messages, and they, too, agreed to accept the help of the Imperials. Even more, they asked if Iulius would be willing to send some reinforcements to them, as well, since they desperately need firepower against the Yavzakhs.
"Reassure them, Captain." the Admiral said. "I'll send reinforcements soon."
"Thank you, Admiral." replied Kimby before sending the message.
Iulius turned around, taking a look at the command room he was in. He was surprised to see that, despite the fall of civilization, these soldiers were still fighting. Working for the intelligence department there were also a handful of women, but most of the personnel was made up by men.
He admired their resilience, but he also started to think: that stubbornness reminded him of the rebels, who always fought no matter how much the odds were stacked against them.
With such will to fight, could the Empire ever hope to destroy the Rebellion permanently?
He would have had to postpone those reflections, because the mechanical breathing of Lord Vader had him snap back to reality. The Dark Lord was standing on his left and had his face pointed at him.
"Can I help you, My Lord?" he asked politely.
"Have you ascertained that these natives have information on the tower?"
"Yes, My Lord, it seems like they also have other bases in the region, they have agreed to cooperate with us in the assault. We should start the briefing on the tower…"
"Excuse me, Admiral." the Captain recalled from afar.
The two imperials turned around and the Carunoan officer motioned for them to follow him.
Without adding anything else, the two followed the officer and entered another room, where another group of junior officers and NCOs was just doing his business, but snapped at attention when Kimby came in.
The Captain showed Iulius and Vader the map of the region where the tower was built. The tower itself was not that majestic, but it was well guarded. Three gigantic walking machines, called 'Maulers' and against which only the AT-AT could go toe-to-toe, were protecting the structure 24/7, not to mention the thousands of Hybrids and various creatures of the Yavzakhs that had built fortifications of various type. Furthermore, it was in a very cold area of Carunoia, and in those days, the forests were covered in snow, but it wouldn't be impossible to find landing zones for the aerial transports.
Once Kimby finished explaining them the extent of the alien defenses, Iulius nodded and calmly spoke.
"Thank you, Captain. My forces should be ready in three days. Prepare your own."
"With pleasure, Admiral." Kimby said with a hopeful tone.
He yelled something in Imirgesh and the other Carunoans in the room erupted in a fierce yell of determination. Finally, after living in a nightmare for years, they could see victory, which had come in the form of other Humans from space.
Iulius looked at them go. He found himself even more impressed by how strong their will to fight an infinitely superior enemy had become with just a glimmer of hope.
He then put on his helmet and used the integrated comlink.
"Tanis to Admonitor, prepare for my arrival." he said.
The ship sent a positive signal.
"Shall we head back, My Lord?" he then calmly asked to the Sith Lord, who answered by starting to walk next to him.
"Admiral, do you really think that we will be able to find the position of their fleet in that tower?" the Sith asked.
"Not in a computer, no." Iulius answered frankly. "But our objective is not to capture the tower, though I would like for us to study their technology. Our goal is to capture the local Surveyor."
They stopped for a moment.
"I need to ask one thing, though, Lord Vader. You are a Force-wielder, right?"
Vader seemed to be taken a bit by surprise, or perhaps he was growing suspicious.
"What do you know about the Force?" he asked quite menacingly.
"Not much. Only that the Bridger siblings can use it and it gives them some of their abilities. And one of them has piqued my interest: I believe the siblings are able to communicate with their minds."
"How can you tell?" the Sith asked a bit surprised. Nobody has ever forwarded such a possibility.
"It's just...instinct, I guess. But the more I think about how they captured Lothal, the more I convince myself that they weren't just lucky. You can't possibly make such a masterfully coordinated strike like they did without communication, and the Imperial Navy was blocking all frequencies at the time.
"Besides, I observed the recordings of them fighting together, especially in the last two years…" he shook his head slightly. "They are far too much in sync. It's like they are two bodies moved by a single mind."
Vader made one of his breathing as he looked thoughtful.
"This information is quite disturbing, Admiral. Why you didn't report it earlier?"
"It was just a supposition, My Lord, but that's not the point right now. If they can use the Force to communicate, do you think you can use it to force the Surveyor to...talk with you?" he said, unsure of which term he should have used.
Vader pondered for a moment, before answering. "I see…" with quite the admired tone. "I can do that. I'm impressed, Admiral: despite not being a sensitive, you got a glimpse of the power of the Force."
"My job is to analyze everything, My Lord." the Admiral replied humbly. "And to see if there's a path for a quick, decisive victory. Now...I suggest we start planning."
With that said, they proceeded to get back into the open, just in time to see the Admonitor hovering over them and Cody reuniting the strike team on the gunships.