Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
Let's get to it.
Chapter 77- Victory at Jakku
(October 18, 2018)
"Fire!"
Jared Hansen turns his head away as the four Iraqi M1 Abrams ahead of him fire their 120mm guns at an Imperial position.
The battle on the surface has been raging for about a day. Jared had been assigned to assist the Iraqi 6th Armored Division in its goal, which was the assault of an Imperial camp about 32 miles from the facility known as The Observatory. Rommel had designated the camp as Camp Bravo. It was one of a number of Imperial camps being targeted by the Terran ground forces.
Jared hears a roar overhead. Looking up, he sees a pair of F-16s from the 20th Fighter Wing streaking in for a close air support run. The three Halsey class landing ships had not only brought troops and their equipment to the ground, but building materials to construct temporary airfields and atmospheric fighters and helicopters. Among the groups brought were two squadrons from the 20th, which had been assigned to aid the Iraqis.
Jared watches as the F-16s dive towards a battalion of sandtroopers up ahead, firing a volley of Zuni rockets. At the same time, overhead, another 4 F-16s are holding off a handful of TIE Strikers.
An Iraqi Colonel walks up beside Jared. "Their defenses are weakening, but one of our drones has spotted several AT-ATs approaching. That's gonna be a problem," the Colonel says.
Jared grins. "Give me a speeder bike and it won't be," Jared says.
The Colonel smiles a bit. "Very well," the Colonel says.
Jared hurries over to an area where they have a number of speeder bikes. These vehicles are a near copy of the same speeder bikes used by the Empire. Jared swings himself onto one, guns the engine, and takes off across the sand. As he goes, several Iraqis see him, and one of them chuckles a bit as he calls to his buddies, "There goes Hansen. Wonder what crazy s*** he's pulling now." His comment makes the other Iraqis around him laugh.
Jared keeps the speeder at top speed, racing over the sand dunes in the direction of the approaching AT-ATs. It only takes him a few minutes before the two AT-ATs comes into view.
Jared grins. "Let's do this," he says, turning his speeder bike right towards one of the AT-ATs.
The AT-AT pilots soon see Jared racing in towards them on his speeder bike and turn their heads to try and fire at him. Jared, letting the Force guide him, weaves his speeder bike from side to side to avoid the incoming laser fire. Moving at his bike's top speed, it doesn't take long for him to get under the first walker.
Jared leaps off the bike, igniting his lightsaber. Jared then leaps up straight towards the belly of the AT-AT. Once he gets within arm range, he swings his lightsaber and cuts open a hatch before throwing a grenade into it before falling back to the ground. He leaps back onto the spider bike and speeds away as the grenade goes off, destroying the AT-AT's internal mechanisms, sending the walker crashing to the ground.
Jared heads straight for the other walker. Guiding the bike right up alongside one of its legs, he slows it down to just a few miles per hour before reaching out with his lightsaber and cutting through the ankle of the walker's right forward leg. The walker keels over as Jared speeds off, crashing to the ground behind him.
Jared grins to himself as he speeds back to the Iraqi troops. On the way back, he runs into a squad of sandtroopers trying to sneak up on the Iraqis, and blasts them with his bike's laser cannon.
It doesn't take Jared long to rejoin with the Iraqis. Parking his speeder bike, he leaps off of the bike and turns to the Iraqi colonel. "Problem solved!" he declares.
"What did you do now?" the colonel asks in amusement.
"Took care of the walkers. That's all you need to know," Jared says with a chuckle.
The colonel shakes his head before he calls out, "Order Battalion A's tanks to advance a quarter mile and start laying down cover fire for a general advance."
A nearby communications officer gets on the radio to send out the orders. As Jared is watching this, he suddenly becomes aware of a strange sound. Looking up into the sky, he sees an amazing sight.
"Holy s***!" Jared says. The colonel looks at Jared, as he knows Jared rarely uses profanity. He then follows Jared's line of sight with his eyes before saying himself, "Holy s***!" as he and Jared watch the burning hulk of the Ravager falling towards the surface.
After a minute, Jared says, "Looks like Thrawn got past their line and hit that thing hard. She looks pretty beat up."
"With luck, her destruction will let the fleet start to aid us," the colonel says.
"Agreed. Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna get back to the front lines," Jared says.
"I couldn't stop you if I wanted to," the colonel says with a smile. Jared smiles in return before heading off to join the troops.
(Orbit, 3 hours later)
On board the Ravager, Rommel is watching multiple screens around him showing drone feeds and data tables showing the current situation on the planet's surface. While the battle in space is now starting to turn in favor of the Alliance and Republic, the ground battle is still a toss up in many places.
"Order the Lee and the Togo to get down to the surface and land their troops. Tell Thrawn to send four Londons to escorts them," Rommel orders.
The order is quickly relayed, and within a few minutes, the assault ships Robert E. Lee and Togo Heihachiro begin heading for the planet's surface. True to Rommel's request, four London class Star Destroyers form up on them to escort them safely past the Imperial fleet.
As the two landing ships are descending towards the surface, one of Rommel's aides calls out, "General! We're receiving word from the 101st! They're advancing on the Observatory, and the 4th's tanks have finally started shelling Imperial positions outside the facility. They estimate they'll be able to start entering the Obersvatory within the next few hours."
"Good," Rommel replies simply. After a moment, he asks, "What about the three divisions attacking the main Imperial camps?"
"They're making good progress, General. Extensive resistance from TIE strikers and walkers has stalled them slightly, but once we can get more air support down there and maybe scrounge some orbital bombardment support, they should be able to break their defenses," an officer responds.
"Good. Tell this to Thrawn and see if he can spare some fighter bombers," Rommel says.
As the officer gets on comms to talk to Thrawn, Rommel continues to scan the displays around him. "This is not going to be a short battle. But no matter what they try, they will lose," he whispers to himself.
Suddenly, Rommel hears one of the communications officers call out, "General, we just received a transmission from the surface, from a New Republic agent named Norra Wexley. She and her husband had breached the Observatory. According to them, they, along with Grand Admiral Sloane, killed Gallius Rax, and Sloane has escaped aboard a yacht. The Empire is now without its top leadership."
"Good news. Make sure Thrawn knows about this," Rommel says. He then says, "Tell our ground forces to press their attack as hard as possible. This is going to disrupt their command and control, and we need to take this advantage."
"Yes, general," one of his officers calls out as he gets on the radio to contact the ground commanders.
(Surface, 3 hours later)
Jared spins his lightsaber quickly, blocking several incoming blaster bolts. One stupid stormtrooper tries rushing at him, but Jared leaps forward and cuts down the stormtrooper.
Since the news was sent out that Rax was dead, the Terran ground forces have really strengthened their attack. The temporary loss in Imperial cohesion following the news of Rax' death had been just long enough for the Terrans to launch fierce attacks that shattered their cohesion completely and divided Imperial forces.
Jared is currently leading a pair of Iraqi battalions in a drive deep into the Imperial camp. Many of the Imperial forces in the camp have begun to scatter, but Jared's job is to lead the battalions straight to the heart of the camp and take out the leadership.
Jared narrows his eyes as he sees another platoon of sandtroopers heading in their direction. "Sandtroopers, 8 o clock!" he yells.
A Humvee just a few yards away from him slows down to a slow crawl. On the back of the Humvee, an Iraqi gunner swivels his M2 machine gun in the direction of the sandtroopers and lets rip, sending .50 caliber slugs streaking towards the sandtroopers. The machine gun fire kills about a dozen sandtroopers in a few seconds. As the remaining sandtroopers scatter, the gunner swivels his machine gun back and forth, picking off the sandtroopers one by one.
Jared hears a noise from behind him. Glancing back, he grins as he sees a pair of M1s and two Sentinel walkers coming up to reinforce them.
Then, he hears a familiar but unwelcome sound. He sighs before he turns and sees five AT-STs approaching, with several hundred sandtroopers following them.
Jared quickly gets on his commlink and calls out, "This is Jedi Knight Jared Hansen. I need air support on my location."
"Copy that, we've got two F-16s headed your way," a controller responds.
Jared quickly blocks a blaster bolt heading right for him. One of the M1s in the midst of the battalions fires a shell at a squad of sandtroopers racing in towards them, killing most of them and scattering the rest. One of the other M1s fires at one of the approaching AT-STs. Unfortunately, the shell doesn't hit dead center, instead tearing through the side of the cockpit. Although the walker is damaged, it's still operational.
The AT-STs start firing at the Iraqi troops. Several of their laser bolts hit, killing a handful of Iraqis and wounding a few more. Several Iraqi troops, reacting quickly, set up a 9M113 Kornet anti-tank missile and firing it at one of the AT-STs. The missile hits the walker's laser cannons, destroying and blasting a huge hole in the front of the walker, causing its circuits to short out and the walker collapses forward.
Jared continues blocking incoming blaster fire, trying to protect the men around him. As he does, he hears the roar of jet engines. Looking up, he sees two F-16s diving to the attack. Each one drops a pair of 1,000 pound bombs. The bombs fall down on the Imperial forces, destroying three of the remaining walkers and killing about 70 sandtroopers. Seconds later, one of the M1s coming up in reinforcement fires at the last AT-ST, destroying the walker.
"Get the wounded into Humvees and send 'em back to base camp. The rest of us, we press on!" Jared yells.
The Iraqis hurry to get the wounded into two Humvees, which quickly take off back out of the Imperial camp as the rest of the Iraqi troops regroup and press on towards their objective.
A pair of LAAT's attached to the 6th streak overhead, gunners in the side laser turrets fire their weapons, sending the green laser beams arcing across ranks of astormtroopers. One of the gunship pilots spots a pair of AT-STs and fires two rockets from the launchers on top of the gunship. The rockets streak down and tear the walkers apart in two large explosions.
Jared sprints across the sands, blocking incoming blaster fire with his lightsaber. Seeing more and more sandtroopers coming towards them, Jared waves the nearby Iraqi troops over and leads over to a fallen AT-AT for cover.
"This is Jared Hansen. We've got a lot of Imperial reinforcements coming up in our path! We need some heavy firepower!" Jared yells over his commlink.
"Copy that. We're routing some bombers to your location. ETA 4 minutes," the controller responds.
"Good. We'll be marking our positions with smoke grenades! Anything between the smoke is friendly!" Jared yells before he cuts off the transmission. He then yells to the surrounding troops, "We got four minutes until we get the firepower we need, boys. We just gotta hold tight until they get here."
Several Iraqis throw grenades towards the incoming sandtroopers. The sandtroopers scatter as the grenades explode, killing a few of them. The Iraqis fire with every weapon they have. One of the Iraqis sets up an M2 machine gun on top of the wrecked AT-AT and starts firing it, picking off one sandtrooper after another.
However, the sandtroopers keep coming, firing their blasters all the while. One lucky bolt hits the machine gunner and he goes down. Jared quickly leaps up to take his place.
Jared swivels the machine gun back and forth, firing at any sandtrooper in range. Multiple sandtroopers try firing back at him with their blasters, but Jared ducks down to avoid any blaster bolts when they fly too close, popping right back up each time to keep firing the machine gun.
For several minutes, Jared and the Iraqis fire back at the marauding sandtroopers. However, the sandtroopers just seem to keep coming and are starting to surround the Iraqis.
Then, they hear a loud roar. Jared scans the sky and to his relief sees a pair of SB-1B bombers approaching from the south.
"Take cover and mark your positions, men!" Jared yells. The Iraqis try to take cover as best as possible, while popping off orange smoke grenades.
Approaching at almost 500 mph, the bomber pilots see the smoke from the grenades and separate to begin their bombing runs. One alters course slightly, while the other bomber swings around to come in from the west.
The lead bomber pilots opens his bomb bay. In the cockpit, the Offensive Systems Officer, monitoring the bombsight, calls out, "Just a few more seconds."
The pilot watches his progress. Then, he calls out, "Now!"
"Bombs away!" the OSC calls out. From the forward two bomb bays, 36 Mk82 500 lb bombs are ejected from their bomb racks. The bombs hit one by one, explosions tearing through the ranks of the sandtroopers. A number are incinerated, while others are killed by shrapnel, and many more badly wounded or burned by the explosions.
The bomber streaks over the sandtroopers. As the pilot begins to circle around for another pass, the second bomber streaks in for its pass. Opening its bomb bay, it drops another 36 bombs, which kill several hundred sandtroopers and destroy a pair of AT-STs.
As the second bomber begins to circle around for its second pass, several TIE strikers start heading right for the two bombers. However, unknown to them, the SB-1B retains every low level advantage of its atmospheric counterpart, and is in fact a bit faster. Both pilots form up on each other and drop to low altitude, shoving the throttles into full power. The bombers accelerate past Mach 1, hugging the ground as they streak back towards friendly territory. The strikers follow them, but find that trying to pursue them at low altitude is more difficult than they expected. One striker is not able to keep up properly, and slams into the ground, exploding in a large fireball.
The strikers pull up a few hundred feet and continue to pursue the bombers, slowly beginning to gain on them. However, the strikers don't realize that the bombers are leading them right into the airspace over the Iraqi division's main camp. Airspace that is currently swarming with Terran fighters.
Before the strikers can get within laser cannon range of the SB-1s, they suddenly find themselves surrounded by about 20 F-16s and MiG-29s. Before they can realize what's happening or take evasive action, missiles begin reaching out to them from all sides, blowing one striker after another out of the sky. It doesn't take more than a few moments before all of the strikers have been shot down.
As the last of the strikers falls from the sky in flames, the bombers turn back around and streak back to assist Jared's force. At full throttle, it doesn't take the SB-1s long to reach them.
By the time the SB-1s have returned, Jared has led his men to within a mile of the headquarters of the camp. However, in a protective ring around the camp headquarters are a trio of AT-ATs and six AT-STs.
Both bombers separate slightly and open their bomb bays. Once they're on target, both bombers release 20 bombs. The bombs hit the walkers and the ground all around them, destroying one of the AT-ATs and all of the AT-STs, and badly damaging the remaining two AT-ATs, as well as killing over a hundred sandtroopers.
The bombers streak overhead. As they, a flight of four A-10s streaks down to attack the remaining AT-ATs. The flight separates into pairs, each attacking a different AT-AT. Both pairs fire their 30mm cannons, the shells tearing through the damaged armor of the walkers before both walkers explode.
On the ground, Jared ducks to avoid flying shrapnel from one of the exploding walkers. He then raises his lightsaber and shouts, "Let's take 'em boys!"
Jared rushes towards the building ahead, the Iraqis following close behind. Reaching the entrance to the HQ, Jared cuts through the door with his lightsaber and then pulls it away with the Force before storming into the building, leading his men in.
As they enter the building, they quickly come under fire from stormtroopers. The Iraqis scatter to both sides, firing their assault rifles in return, quickly killing the defending stormtroopers.
Jared, not wasting a moment, races up one of the staircases ahead, several dozen Iraqis following close behind. As he reaches the top of the stairs, another stormtrooper hurries into view, but Jared stabs him in the chest, killing him before he can even react.
Jared leads a squad around the corner and down several corridors, running into several more stormtroopers along the way, each of which is quickly killed by the Iraqis.
Finally, they reach the command center. And standing guard outside are four death troopers.
The death troopers quickly fire at the approaching Terrans, killing one of the Iraqis. Jared spins his lightsaber as fast as he can, blocking every blaster bolt fired at him. The Iraqi troops behind him fire back, killing two of the death troopers.
Jared then leaps forward, driving his saber through one on the two remaining trooper's chest. The remaining troop tries to disarm Jared, but Jared pulls back and kicks the death trooper backwards before cutting him in half.
Jared looks at his men, makes a few hand motions, then uses his lightsaber to cut through the door and rip it out with the Force.
The Iraqis quickly storm into the command center, fanning out to either side of the doorway. The first couple of men into the room take out the few stormtroopers inside.
Jared follows them into the room, and sees the Imperial general in command of the camp. As he sees Jared walk in, and recognizing he's now faced with a Jedi in addition to crack Iraqi troops, gets down on his knees with his hands in the air. "I surrender! I surrender!" he says before anyone can shoot him.
"Bind him" Jared says. Two Iraqi troops move forward and pull his hands behind his back and start to cuff him.
"Contact General Rommel directly. Let him know the camp HQ is in our hands and we've captured the leader," Jared says. One of the troops, a young Iraqi lieutenant, walks over to the command center's communications station.
Jared walks over to the communications station as the lieutenant manages to establish an uplink to the Freedom. A few moments later, a hologram of Rommel is projected from the table.
"Jared Hansen. Good to see you alive. What do you have for me?" Rommel asks.
"We've captured the headquarters of Camp Bravo and captured their commanding officer," Jared says.
"Good. I'll be getting in contact with the division commander. In the meantime, contact the rest of the Imperial forces in the camp and see if you can convince them to surrender," Rommel says.
"Very well, General," Jared says before cutting the transmission. He turns to his men and says, "We're not done yet. Lets keep working."
(November 11, 2018)
Ronen curses as a laser bolt flies past his head. He quickly swings his lightsaber to block another one.
It's been almost a month since the Battle of Jakku began. While the heaviest blows to the Empire were dealt in the first few days, the remnants of the Imperial forces have held out as best they could. Though some of the Imperial forces have deserted or defected, and a number of Imperial ships have been captured for the New Republic's fleet to replace their losses. However, by October 31, the last ships of the Imperial fleet had been destroyed or captured, leaving just the Imperial ground forces. Even with extensive air support and orbital bombardment support from the fleet, especially from the Dreadnought class battleships and nuclear attack on Imperial troops positions, Imperial ground forces have held out longer than expected.
However, by now, most of the Imperial ground forces have either been destroyed or captured. By now, the entire Terran troop force sent to Jakku is on the planet, and a total of six divisions have surrounded the last Imperial holdout of just 16,000 stormtroopers. Even though the stormtroopers are outnumbered by about 8 to 1, they have so far refused to surrender.
"Lay down fire at bearing 3-0-0!" Ronen yells over his commlink to his unit. Moments later, 8 M1s and six 120mm howitzers fire in that direction.
"Send in the Leviathans!" Ronen orders. Within a minute, four AW-1 Leviathan walkers began their march towards the Imperial lines.
Ronen watches as the walkers lumber towards the Imperial lines. Then, glancing up, he smiles as he sees four blasts from one of the Dreadnoughts in orbit streaking down through the atmosphere. The blasts strike along a ridge in the distance that is a known Imperial gun emplacement.
Ronen pulls out his commlink and activates it. A moment later, a hologram of General John White, the former ASAT member and now one of the commanding generals under Rommel, comes up.
"General, we're hitting them hard, but they're showing no signs of crumbling yet," Ronen says.
"We know. I just received orders from General Rommel. Siege tactics are showing little sign of breaking their resolve. He wants all units to launch an all out attack and squeeze them until they surrender or are destroyed," White says.
Ronen grins. "Yes, sir," he says. He then switches over his commlink to send his voice to the whole division and says, "This is Major David Ronen. High General Rommel has ordered all units to advance and attack with full force. It's time to crush the Empire!"
A war cry echoes over the sands of Jakku from the Saudi troops around him. Ronen takes a quick swig of water from his canteen, knowing he's gonna need the hydration, then reignites both blades of his lightsaber and charges across the sand, following a formation of 10 Saudi M1s, heading straight for the Imperial lines.
As Ronen charges after the tanks, all around the Imperials, the Terran divisions begin their push towards the Imperial lines. As the troops begin their advance, another volley of blasts from a battleship land in the Imperial territory, this time hitting in the midst of a large assembly of walkers, destroying them all. At the same time, almost two hundred strike fighters, mainly F-16s and A-10s, begin their attack runs on Imperial positions.
As the fighters begin their attacks on Imperial troops behind their front lines, advancing tanks and Leviathans begin firing on the Imperial front lines. The Empire has almost no walkers left, and are unable to stop the advance of Terran armored vehicles. At the same time, one F-16, guarded by a number of other F-16s, drops a B61 nuclear bomb on a heavily dug in Imperial position. This particular bomb is only a very weak yield, just 1.5 kilotons. However, it's still more than capable of turning several square miles of sand to glass and vaporizing almost 2,000 stormtroopers.
Behind the Imperial lines, in a sheltered cave, Imperial General Paltr Carvin is monitoring the situation. From his cave, he can see the detonation site of the nuke, and manages to turn away just in time to avoid being blinded.
Carvin watches his displays. He knows from the spot where the nuke went off that he's lost several thousand stormtroopers. Now, by his own estimates, he's down to just about 8 to 9 thousand troopers left. And from his surveillance, he knows he's surrounded by an army of at least 100,000. He's outnumbered now almost 25 to 1, and his men are worn down and in some cases fighting with worn down weapons, whereas the troops surrounding him are all relatively fresh and have plenty of supplies and weaponry, as well as the support of their fleet. Carvin also realizes that if the Terrans really wanted, they could pull all their troops back to a safe distance and then drops dozens of nukes on his forces until they're all obliterated.
Carvin had been determined to keep fighting to honor his loyalty to the Empire. But now, he recognizes that this the end, and he has no chance at victory. He turns to one of his communications officers and says, "Contact the Terran commanders."
The officer gets to work, and in a minute, a hologram of Rommel appears before him.
"General Carvin," Rommel says.
"High General Dennis Rommel. We meet at last," Carvin says.
"Indeed, Carvin. May I ask why you have contacted me?" Rommel asks.
"To declare my intention to surrender. I have almost no forces left. So, if you will stand your forces down, I will instruct my forces that remain to surrender," Carvin says.
(Freedom, above Jakku)
Rommel smiles slightly as he stares back at Carvin's hologram. "Very well, General. I will order my forces to stand down and accept your surrender. However, any of your forces that refuse to surrender will be destroyed," Rommel says.
"I understand. I will inform my forces as such," Carvin says before cutting the transmission.
Rommel looks at one of his officers. "Contact the commanders on the ground," he orders.
Just a minute later, holograms of the commanding generals on the ground all come up before him, including White.
"Gentlemen. I just received a transmission from the Imperial general. He has declared his intention to surrender. Order your forces to cease all hostile actions and take custody of the Imperial forces. If any Imperial forces continue to resist you, you are free to dispose of them," Rommel says.
"Very well, sir," one of the generals says, and then the transmission cuts out.
Rommel looks at the displays around him, and feels a sense of relief go through him. Although it will still take some time to actually accept the surrender of the last Imperial forces, for all intents and purposes, at long last, the Battle of Jakku is over, and it's a significant Terran and Republic victory.
And, I'll end there. Hope you liked this chapter.
So, Jakku is finally in Allied hands. However, this will not be the last battle of the Galactic Civil War. There will be one more major battle that will break the Empire forever. That will begin in two chapters.
In case you forgot, Jared Hansen is the character based off myself. I decided it was about time for him to show up again.
So, next chapter will be up soon, and answer a question many people have been asking. Until it's up, please leave a review, and stay tuned.