A flurry of blaster bolts flew in either direction as Hark's team was pinned down inside the nerve centre. Hark held his cover, before peeking over and firing a singular shot.
His shot struck true, and impacted one of the rebels in the chest, sending them falling back. Encouraged by his shooting, the rest of his soldiers began returning fire, dispatching the other rebels that were pinning them.
"Beskar to highground." Came the comm.
"Go for highground." The communications officer replied.
"Beskar teams requesting evac." Came Hark's staticky voice.
"highground confirms evac Beskar teams."
The command centre heated up as fighter command began to vector in the nearby gunships.
On the video feed, they could see Hark and his men retreating down the corridor, firing back at what was an increased rebel presence with every moment that passed.
Hark made it to the door and dove in, turning to see one of his men shot in the back as he followed his commander into the storage room.
"Beskar 1-1 has a man down, repeat, man down."
Another trooper took initiative and shot the control panel for the door, locking it shut.
Another trooper hauled the dead man over his back and they continued to turn tail back to their infiltration point.
As they again navigated the maze of shipping containers, the flood lights kicked on, temporarily blinding the troopers with night vision enabled.
The sound of power flow filled the room.
"I've got a bad feeling about this." One of the stormtroopers was heard saying.
The team turned at hearing one of the container doors opening, seeing robotic brown fingers pushing it.
"Kriff."
The steel face plate and white eyes of a BX-series commando droid stared at them, before it spun its blaster round and planted its first bolt right into the helmet of a member of Beskar 1-2.
"Commando droids! Run for it!"
Hark primed a thermal detonator and threw it towards the droid, only for it leap upwards onto the top of a container. Every moment that passed, more containers opened, and more droids of all different types poured out, all firing at the stormtroopers.
"Go go go!" The team made it through the first door and again fired at the control panel, running for the rappel lines that lay waiting for them. The fallback team Beskar 1-4 helping their comrades out.
"Pack up the ropes and scanning equipment, evac is incoming." Whilst Beskar 1-3 watched the hole down into the facility; the rest of Beskar group packed up the deployed scanning equipment.
Before long, the drone of gunship engines was heard, and their entry point again sealed up, before the team mounted onto the gunships, bound for the city of Porsa.
As the general staff filed out the room, Nightshade was grabbed by the arm and pulled aside.
she coiled and prepared to strike whoever touched her but quickly wilted when greeted by the stormy face of Fleet Admiral Jackson.
"What was that." He seethed. "Your report mentioned nothing of a confederacy arsenal."
"I'm aware." She ground out, yanking her arm out of his grip.
"I expect better." Was his simple response before he stalked off into the meeting room full of intelligence officers, so they could review the footage.
The main concern was the sheer quantity of battle droids, and whether there was any more weapons hidden within the depths of the underground facility.
Overall, the mission result was a stalemate. Whilst Beskar teams had identified the facility and its contents, alongside gathering key intelligence and scans of the facility, Jackson wasn't thrilled about losing 6 men in the chaos of the retreat.
The rest of the day was spent reviewing every frame of the footage, and analysing the data pulled from the data spike that had been inserted.
From what visual contact Hark managed to obtain of the super tactical droid, they also managed to identify the two other people accompanying it.
Their first hit on facial recognition software was the former separatist senator of the planet, Retnee Bandor. The second individual was then identified as Siniteen bounty Hunter and former GAR instructor Bric.
Alongside that, the insurgents had been further confirmed using rebel alliance standard A280C blaster rifles, a weapon deadly to Imperial stormtroopers.
Following the attack, insurgent comm chatter had heated up, and the general staff were expecting an attack to happen soon, however were unaware as to where.
In order to compensate, they had deployed TIE patrols over the main convoy route, and stationed a walker platoon at the imperial cargo docks.
TK-9984
The movement of the convoy was slow, both hindered by the size of the K79-S80 transports and the crowding of the bustling streets.
Within the floating coffin, as it was commonly known in the rank and file, was full of captured insurgents being transported into orbit aboard one of the Star destroyers.
He doubted they would see sunlight again after such a process.
"Keep clear!" Came the shout of his sergeant, waving in front of the crowd trying to get them out of the road.
Due to the thick pedestrian congestion, their walker support had to be revoked. It wasn't doing anything to calm his nerves that were acting up as he scanned the surrounding crowd.
It was a difficult situation to assess, as the common fashion in Porsa was long, flowing over cloaks, of which were extremely adept at concealing weapons.
Slowly they moved deeper into the city and the main star port. As they approached a large bridge overhead, the crowd around them slowly started to disperse.
He could feel something was about to happen, and primed his standard issue E-11 blaster.
A lone figure in a cloak walked along the bridge above them, stopping half way and looked down at them.
"For the Confederacy!" He shouted, before reaching into his cloak and throwing something down at the convoy.
His eyes locked with the red lights of an armed thermal imploder.
The sound of the black market grenade would forever haunt him, the inexplicable noise as it drew in the air around it, before detonating, throwing him and the rest of his platoon away from it, as it melted the front of the transport.
As it exploded, concealed weapons all around them were drawn and the street lit up with blaster fire.
Gathering his wits, he picked himself up and brought his own rifle to bear, aiming it up at bridge man, who was arming another grenade. Squeezing the trigger, his rifle discharged a laser bolt which hit the terrorist right in the neck.
He dropped dead instantly, and quite literally. Falling from the bridge with the armed grenade still in hand. In a stroke of luck, the corpse landed right among a group of insurgents, the explosion killing them.
The engines of a speeder came from behind, and he turned to see a civilian speeder with a mounted gun careen round the corner, coming to stop at the rear of the wrecked transport.
Two more insurgents piled out, and began trying to pry open the back of the prisoner transport section.
His helmet radio garbled. "Do not let the prisoners escape, kill them if you must."
He looked to the left and spotted another fighter, wielding an E-5 who was trying to kill another one of his platoon.
He brought his rifle up and fired. His shot went wide, but scared the insurgent who scuttled away to cover.
He looked over to the transport and saw prisoners fleeing it, running towards the speeder. He aimed and fire again, clipping one of the escapees on the shoulder.
Over the roar of the firefight, the screech of a TIE fighter was heard. He looked up to see a single fighter bearing down on them. It loosed its lasers and fired, impacting the rogue speeder directly in the fuel tank and exploding it.
Stunned from the blast, the escapists quickly gathered their wits and dived down a nearby alley in a sprint.
Scrambling up to follow, he engaged in chasing the rebel. The alleys twist and wound around the chaotic mess of buildings, but before long they hit a wide and long enough alley as to where he stopped to line up a shot.
Zeroing in, he aimed right for their upper back. He fired his shot, and as he did, the runner threw a civilian in the line of fire.
The screams of the natives around him told him that he had accidentally killed the civilian, with the crowd surging over to him and cradling the deceased.
Before long he was pushed back into the main street, where reinforcements had arrived to help clear up.
Watching the holorecorder footage, Jackson kept a grave face.
The attack had been a bold one, but not one that he was unprepared for. Quick response forces had been on station when the attack began, and were on scene in four minutes.
It still hadn't been enough. Of the 10 prisoners, two were killed in the speeder explosion, and another from fatal wounds caused by being shot. The other seven, all outlined as key elements in the insurgency had escaped.
Further distressing, was the civilian casualty, killed by a bolt fired by an imperial stormtrooper. TK-9984 had submitted helmet the helmet recording, and was cleared of wrong doing. Not that he would be punished if he did.
The footage was clear enough to show the terrorist pulling the civvie into the line of fire, and was damming enough. He stared at the freeze frame before he had an idea.
Keying the door to Nightshade's office, he entered without preamble. She quickly stood to attention but was waved off by Jackson.
"Nightshade, I have something to help your idea." He announced.
"My idea sir?" She questioned.
He didn't respond and instead plugged a data chip into her holoprojector. It played through the video of the insurgent pulling the civilian into the line of fire. When it finished, she leant back in her chair.
"Pretty damning video, don't you think?" He asked.
"Indeed, this will certainly help us. We can spin the truth too." She replied.
"What do you have in mind?"
"Give the lady a child in her arms maybe, something along those lines."
The door to the small office flew open, and a rushing lieutenant burst through, "Fleet admiral sir!" He called, breath hagged.
"Calm yourself, Lieutenant. What is the problem."
The lower officer pulled out a holodisk and flicked it on, it projected a speaker in the Porsa auditorium, their voice carried over the hologram.
"People of Maynar, you once stood proudly against the republic, as loyal members of the Confederacy. But look at you now!" She criticised, Jackson identified her as the rogue ex senator. "You cower before the tyranny of the empire and give in to its every demand! I do not even recognise the people I'm looking at!" Jackson took the holodisk and turned it off.
"Lieutenant, have the district surrounded, no one in or out. Use walkers hold the perimeter."
Jackson stalked out of the room and marched towards the bridge. Everyone there snapped to attention, recognising his aggravated demeanour.
"Deploy all our stormtrooper reserves. Have more walkers put into the city proper. Prepare transports for prisoners."
Lieutenant Brine.
Orders had come down to lock down the district, and she was in charge of the Charlie-14 cross road. She had two infantry squads and one light ATST walker.
Already a crowd was building up, with civilians trying to access the restricted district. She had ordered the troopers to place blockades, and had the speakers on the walkers telling people to disperse.
It wasn't long before a very large crowd was pushing against the barriers. It was barely audible, but the shout was heard.
"For the confederacy!"
Her blood ran cold as a single civilian jumped the barriers and ran towards the walker, shedding their jacket to reveal a vest laden with explosives.
"Noo-" she called out, as the bomber thumbed the detonator, engulfing the checkpoint in flames.
ISD Wolf's Head
"Sir! Explosion at checkpoint Charlie-14!"
"Sir, Insurgents have announced they plan to hold the district till death!"
"Checkpoint bravo-12 is under attack!"
Something inside of him snapped.
"Pull back all assets from within the district." He barked. "Navigation, bring the fleet to bear on the city. Gunnery command, prepare to fire."
The stood in silence looking out the viewport as the ship turned to bear. "Tell the Sunray to depart from the city proper and hover over the northern quarter."
The bridge lay in silence until fleet ops spoke. "Sunray is clear of the city sir. All army assets have been withdrawn."
"Gunnery command, target the entertainment quarter. Fire when ready."
The bridge was somber at the order, but no resistance to the order was given.
"Yessir, all stations firing."
The whine of turbolaser fire filled the bridge, the green light baking low orbit of the planet.
From the surface, the air was turbulent before the impact of the shots. The hellfire from orbit was unrelenting, and lasted for an hour. At the sight of such devastation, the civilian populace had retreated to their homes.
The cloud of ash and dust lingered for long after the bombardment had halted, and as it cleared it revealed an unsettling clearing of what was once a bustling city district.
Soon orders came down to begin digging up the ruins, with the focus of their efforts to be the auditorium.
Hours passed as they dug, uncovering bodies of insurgents, men and women alike. Eventually, they pulled a body from the rubble, thoroughly burned and disfigured, however adorned in CIS garb. DNA match confirmed it as the rogue senator, alongside an interesting discovery.
Strapped to her waist, was the hilt of a sword, that when ignited, emitted a glowing amethyst blade.
AN: Thanks for all the reviews guys, this is mostly a response to a review I had from speedster1014, whoever is also an explanation as to the lore / EU stuff I'm including.
I'm a pretty big SW nerd myself too, but when writing sticking by the T to such a large universe of lore I find sticking within it to be very taxing and demotivating.
My version of the battle of Yavin is also very abridged, as lore wise Vader had it blockaded for sixth months so he could crush the rebels aboard the executor. But I wrote it in the way I did to have Vader test Jackson, and have the two characters introduced to eachother.
Whilst I did consider naming Percy's ship riptide I just felt like giving it the name Wolf's head. Although Riptide isn't off table for ship names, but that's a secret for now.
As for whether I plan to stick to EU or Disney lore, I plan use whatever I feel fits the aesthetic of my story. Whilst I understand it can be annoying to read if you know a lot about the EU, at the end of the day I write what I want to see.
Cheers all,
Dudududhehe