Chapter Seven
The Battle of Csilla, Part 1
Back when Moden Canady had been following the exploits of Grand Admiral Thrawn, he'd always had the same question in mind. Was the alien's tactical genius unique to himself or was it a shared trait among his people? Now, as the vice admiral organized his forces among Chiss military remnants, Canady finally had his answer.
The former.
"No, we can't only bring flamethrowers into battle with nothing to put the fire out. I understand carrying water will be heavy, but we can't risk the fire spreading to undesirable locations. If we light the fuel reserves, it's over for all of us!"
AP-9, relieved to be one of the droids left on the Eclipse's bridge, translated Canady's message to the ground force. The young Chiss male frowned, firing back with all the strung together syllables he could fit in a single breath. The way the holo projection presented him, he appeared to have spit on the comms.
AP-9 repeated the alien's response in Basic: "'We need not to melt snow for carry. There will be sufficient ice in the area to use against stray fire.'"
"'Kenitt, please.'" A female stepped into range. The one Grand Admiral Sloane had spoken of, Canady assumed. Arin-something, was it? She turned to face Canady, voice carrying an air of authority. "'We will have support behind each flame soldier ready to avoid great damage. We are blessed with clear air and skies of clouds today.'"
The Empire didn't have enough flamethrowers on hand for every human they'd send down to the surface, and neither did the participating Chiss. Instead the two races had divided into interspecial squadrons made of a translator droid (a makeshift one that had copied language data from AP-9), a human communications protector to guard the droid, a Chiss ground navigator, and three troopers/Chiss rebels, each of the three armed with the only known device capable of destroying the enemy. Thinking about it now, Canady supposed the protector and the navigator could double as fire regulators. But even that idea had the potential to backfire.
The reason cloudy skies (as the female had pointed out) would be important was to disguise the three scouting ships the Chiss had commandeered for the mission. Above them were fifteen TIE Fighters, released directly from the Eclipse into the Csillan sky. This way, if the enemy were smart enough to check for air support, it would be hidden from view. All the while, the scouting ships would warn the ground troops of advancing forces as they approached the oil fields. Once the ground force reached the oil fields, they would secure perimeter around the area and the TIEs would come down to firebomb advancing foes before such shots would be close enough to cause an ignition. While the enemy was held off, Grand Admiral Sloane's team would begin resource extraction.
It was as solid a plan as was to be made under the circumstances. Canady had only two misgivings. One: flamethrowers did not make for precise weaponry. A stray fire could grow too large and engulf his forces. Two: the Chiss may not be able to keep up with his soldiers. For all of Sloane's assurances, Canady did not trust this… unknown race. Sadly, their knowledge of Csilla and recent enemy movements provided information the Empire may have taken whole cycles to gather. As it was, the Eclipse's fuel reserves were running dangerously low. Canady had no intention of allowing the ship to land on a hostile world.
"Yes, you are… correct. We must, however, remain vigilant, lest the fickleness of weather turn against us. Lieutenant," Canady frowned as Kalvnik stepped into view, "is everyone in position to advance?"
"We have received confirmation from all fifteen squadrons, Vice Admiral. They shall begin to advance when Arin and I give the signal."
Canady nodded. "Very well. I shall confer with the TIE pilots and the Grand Admiral's team. You will be given orders on when to begin the attack. I am entrusting you to lead from the ground, though I will remain observant."
"Yes, sir." And with that, the communication channel went silent.
But not for long. As soon as alien lifeforms left Canady's field of vision, he tuned in to a slightly different frequency. "TIE Fighters, are you all in proper position over the ground teams?"
"If the droid's beacons are to be trusted, yes, I'm directly above mine."
"Yes, Vice Admiral."
"Ready, Vice Admiral."
"Yes, sir."
And several repeats of the above. Once Canady counted fifteen, he addressed the pilots by repeating when they were to begin and to keep him in contact at all times. Upon receiving further confirmation from all TIEs, Canady shut that channel off as well. He took a deep breath, then paused.
Should he be more worried than he was at the moment? Ironic as it seemed, preparations for battle had calmed Canady's nerves better than anything else in the past month. From fleeing the New Republic's forces to squabbling on board the Eclipse, Canady had always been on edge. Always landing in situations that were out of his depth.
But in battle today? A battle with a clear enemy and obvious objective? Now that was something he could work towards. It was something he'd done a hundred times for his late Emperor, and something he could do a hundred more times if their work were to breathe new life to the Empire.
Canady could only hope they came back better than a zombie of the original.
"Thank you, Vice Admiral. My team will begin entry the second yours secures the extraction area. You are permitted to begin engagement." Sloane ended her personal call with Canady, then turned to the ships being loaded on the hangar bay.
The Eclipse hadn't come equipped with many transport ships, nor would escape pods be sufficient for the mission, so Sloane had been forced to make do with some of the ships Imperials had arrived in. Using the last of the Eclipse's reserves to power each ship back up, military pilots were taken to their craft with a team of troopers and plenty of liquid containers. Each ship had the same orders: stay in the secured area, pump fuel until all barrels were filled, then take off. When all ships finished collection, they and the Chiss scouting ships were to drop back down and collect Canady's ground crew for evacuation.
While extraction was, in theory, the easier job, the importance of the mission had convinced Sloane to oversee it personally. She would have to trust Canady enough to let him set up a basic perimeter. Here's to hoping that wasn't a mistake.
Though Canady and Sloane claimed otherwise, their time on the Eclipse was the first the two had met. By the time Canady's crew arrived, he was in charge of the largest single group of personnel. In order to convince him to support her declaration of leadership, Sloane had promised to make him her second in command. Thanks to that move, she was able to ascend unquestioned. The alliance had been beneficial, but there was no guarantee it would be permanent.
And then there was the matter of the Chiss rebels. They were not the Chiss Ascendancy Thrawn had supposedly left behind when he joined Imperial ranks. They weren't even supported by their governing body. And yet, they played a vital part in the mission at hand.
Bringing these forces together may be the ingredients she required for a victory… or the very recipe necessary to bring more defeat. Only time would tell as Canady's team began their advance.
"All ships ready for launch to the Csillan surface, Grand Admiral. When will we receive our landing coordinates?"
"When Vice Admiral Canady has secured our area of interest. Until then, circle in the upper atmosphere. Do not interfere with the TIEs. Watch for them and Chiss ships while descending."
"Yes, Grand Admiral."
It was a smaller army than Sloane had worked with in a long time, but it would have to be enough. With this opening move, she will have begun the war for the Unknown Regions.
Viveen Grey had been there when the scouting party encountered the enemy. She remembered how confused and disgusted she'd felt when she saw the walking dead, black ooze dripping off corpses as the fallen lumbered forward. She remembered her horror as no number of blaster shots had been enough to keep the enemy down.
It hadn't been enough to prepare her for this.
"I've been hit!" Dunn called out, falling back as a now-disembodied hand landed on his chest plate. His attacker fumbled to her left, falling over in a sea of flames. The sweet, rotting scent from earlier assaulted her senses as Grey jumped to stay back.
"Calm down, Dunn. As long as it can't penetrate your armor, you shouldn-" Grey broke off, lunging forward to burn her target from head to toe. Her foot swung back as she avoided the falling heap, nearly kicking Dunn in the shin. "It will be treated when we get back to the ship."
The third "flame soldier", a Chiss male, shook his head. He turned his own weapon to the lowest setting and placed it over the black stain. Dunn screamed, expecting to feel extreme heat. Grey wanted to interject, but more were coming. Someone had to pay attention on this squad.
They hadn't marched ten steps towards the oil field when the enemy was spotted. First in the distance, hobbling along at a slower than walking pace. Grey had forced her team to run, ducking in the hopes they wouldn't be spotted. Yet as soon a they'd made their turn towards the rig, their foes were right on top of them. Now Grey and Dunn were falling over each other, trying not to burn the living Chiss on top of the dead.
"More coming on your right!" Gordon, their assigned protector, called out. "Looks like a second wave."
Grey turned with her weapon pointed, shooting fire out at maximum distance. She watched as her spray caught the first foe, then spread onto the second, then the third…
Before she knew it, all seven bodies were falling over each other in a massive bonfire. The snow sizzled as they clumped to the ground, sending up a wall of steam. Boils formed on their limbs as the corpses continued to reach for her team.
Grey hopped back once again, angling away from her previous opponent. "Keep moving!"
"Which way?" Gordan yelled to their navigator, who grunted. A point to the left was all they needed.
"Maintain a steady pace. Watch for anything black on the ground, especially near the burnt areas." Grey turned her back on the flames, already falling back from its encounter with snow. It seemed there was nothing tinder-like beneath, meaning the fire had nothing else to feed on when it finished its mission.
When Grey went to sleep, she wondered which image would haunt her dreams the most. Would it be the sight of dripping, decomposing bodies lumbering towards her... or the view of those very bodies burned to their blackened bones? Whichever it was, the smell was bound to linger for cycles on end.
"Up ahead! There must be a dozen of them."
Dunn and Grey fired as one, their flame streams crossing as they warned their foes away. But the advancing corpses weren't deterred. Their faces showed no emotion as they tripped into the firing line, sending more steam over Grey's helmet as they toppled. For the briefest of moments, Grey couldn't see a thing. Then she felt something at her foot.
"Get it off!" she shrieked, leaping square into their navigator as she shot more at the burning heap. She made Gordon wait until there were no signs of movement before he threw more snow at the pile. The team still needed to march in this direction.
They'd started in front of a range of hills, and now were walking between low inclines on their way through the pass. On the other side lay their objective. Once there, Grey and her fellow flame-shooters would guard the northeast sector of the field. She could see the abandoned rig in the distance, but not her target location.
Where were all these bodies coming from, anyway? None of them looked very old, but it was possible they'd been buried under snow, preventing more rapid decomposition. That, or the disease had a way of animating its host even as it fed. Grey didn't much want to consider the latter prospect.
"I'll stay in the front. You two take the back, left and right. I don't want any surprises." The droid repeated her order.
Dunn and his Chiss partner adjusted to follow Grey's orders. Gordon, the navigator, and their droid stayed inside the triangle, made fearful by their lack of weapons. Gordon still had his blaster from before, but it wasn't likely to do any good.
Now that she had a moment of quiet, Grey scanned the area around her. She could see smoke and steam flying up from where the other squadrons had passed through. No way would they be able to hide from the enemy now. Anyone could catch up to them if they just followed the paths of destruction.
Strategically speaking, splitting up was to prevent the enemy from swarming any one squad. The Imperials hadn't ever seen Mnggal Mnggal in a large group, but their Chiss allies had been quick to assure them such a thing was possible. The blue humanoids had recounted horror stories at that meeting. According to them, even soldiers who started on the Ascendancy's side had switched by the end of the battle, only adding to the enemy's numbers. The very idea made Grey internally shudder.
Paranoid, Grey looked back down at her armored leg. Other than a few flecks of snow, nothing seemed out of place. The corporal didn't feel any different either. Maybe she really was okay.
Grey's team encountered a few more isolated enemies on their way over, but none in groups larger than three. Gordon thought he'd seen lifeforms running in the distance, but they all seemed to be moving away from her group. After all the excitement they'd experienced at the beginning, silence was its own type of threat.
What could Gordon have seen? Other squadrons? Remaining wildlife? Did a disease like Mnggal Mnggal have the strategic capacity to even order a retreat? The questions swam in Grey's head, growing insistent as her team made the trek.
After a minute, Gordon gave her concerns a voice. "This is odd. I thought we would be doing more than this."
"Maybe those corpses realized they can't handle the heat. Ran away while they had the chance," Dunn speculated, a small smirk in his tone.
Their droid translated the exchange to the two Chiss males, who both frowned. The navigator spoke, giving a reply to the effect of: "'I suspect something else. Something worse.'"
"Like a trap?" Grey asked. Their navigator listened to the droid, then nodded at her.
Grey raised her weapon once more. "Then we must proceed ready for anything. Walk with caution, and watch our immediate area at all times."
But nothing ever came. Grey's team was the second to each its target spot at the edge of the oil field. The rig stood tall on the south side, rusted from disuse. When she asked how long this spot had been abandoned, she learned it had been over a month.
"Let's spread out. Gordon, behind me. You, behind your friend," Grey pointed to the navigator, gesturing at the Chiss warrior, "and K3, behind Dunn. We are in charge of this ten yards of perimeter."
The oil well wasn't a particularly large one on the surface, but the Chiss had claimed it was deep, full of the purest fuel on Csilla. When Grey looked down at the cracked surface, she could see a cracked pond of black, ice shards swimming on the surface. The smell here was familiar to anyone who'd ever worked on a fueling station. If the pompous Rae Sloane's team worked efficiently, they should obtain everything their ship needed while teams like Grey's covered their asses. All assuming they could get the pump to work, naturally.
Grey turned on the comm in her helmet. "My team has reached position, Lieutenant."
"Good work, Corporal." Kalvnik's response was immediate. "Any trouble en route?"
"Nothing we couldn't torch to death. No casualties, no injured."
"Good work. Remain in place and guard your area. Do not move unless instructed." With nothing left to say, Kalvnik ended their call. Grey scanned their surroundings for the seventh time, a sense of boredom setting in.
Across the way, Grey was able to pick up movement on her scanners. When she zoomed in on the visual, however, she realized it was just another team. Had her squad really been the first to reach their target area? If so…
Grey shifted on her feet, fighting off a sense of smugness. She shouldn't act like this. For all Grey knew, the others had encountered for more corpses than her team. They might have even been ambushed in a steep spot, forced to duck their foes as they burned in midair. In fact, she'd been lucky to receive such flat terrain to traverse.
With time, the ring around the oil well started to take shape. A few teams had two flame-soldiers instead of three, but other than that, no major casualties that Grey could spot. She turned her gaze to the sky, watching as eighteen ships lowered through the clouds. The Chiss formed a wide triangle around the target area, rear lights flashing in regular intervals. Around them, and outer ring of TIEs, one for each team on the ground. A simple formation, but quite effective.
Grey tuned back into the comm channel to listen once more. This time, Vice Admiral (formerly Commodore) Canady was addressing the troops. "Grand Admiral, the first phase of our plan has proceeded exactly as intended. Your team may begin descent."
"Thank you, Vice Admiral. Extraction shall begin shortly." And with that terse reply, the line went dead once more. Grey turned her eyes skyward once more to watch what came next.
Transport ships (including the one Grey had rode to the Eclipse in) fell from the sky, descending inside the zone designated by the Chiss. Landing within perimeter on the side of the rig, the troopers on board wasted no time unboarding. The soldiers' movements were hampered somewhat by large barrels. Each individual carried at least one to a nearby pump station, then called the Chiss above for directions on how to get the well working.
While they were doing that, Gordon grabbed Grey's arm. He shook it, seeking Grey's attention. "Hey, Corporal. Something's wrong."
"What is it, trooper?"
"The pool. It's… moving."
Moving? There was no wind in the area, and the well hadn't started pumping yet. Nothing in the fuel should be moving.
Grey whipped her head around, eyes growing wide beneath her helmet.
On the shore. Barely five feet away from where Grey and Gordon were standing watch. Was that… a hand? Clawing out of the oil field?
Attached to that hand was an arm. To that arm, a decaying body. A decaying body, covered in a flammable substance.
And it wasn't alone.
A/N's: Sorry to split the battle in two, folks. I made this move for two reasons: 1) I don't like when chapters get super long, and 2) I still have to figure out a few details about the battle's conclusion. After that chapter and a concluding one, this arc will be finished. I have two options for arc number two that occur (more or less) simultaneously, so it doesn't matter which one gets written first. I figured I would let reviewers pick when I reveal the options two chapters from now. Assuming readers aren't shy, I suppose.
Regardless, I'll work on getting part two of this battle uploaded ASAP. Until then, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, don't forget to leave your thoughts below, and I'll see you on the far side!
