The LAAT/c banked hard back and forth avoiding in the incoming fire from the base. The pilot deftly maneuvered the craft as he lead the small group of four LAAT/c’s carrying the Night Hawks and a small contingent of a Line Company from 2nd Line’s Assault Battalion.
“Passing through the outer range of the base's defenses.” The pilot of the craft that Armad was currently in stated over the group’s shared comms.
“Scyk Squadron, begin your run. Remember, ions only. I want the base intact.” Armad was about to key his mic off, but thought better of it. “Varuk, I mean it. Do NOT destroy any of the defenses.”
After about 5 minutes the amount of fire that was pounding on the LAAT/c trickled down until there was nothing hitting their shields or armor. Armad looked up from his datapad, activating his comm, “Varuk report.”
A brief moment of static before Varuk came across the channel. “Base defenses offline, two bombers down and I'm barely in the air with one engine.” Another couple of seconds of static. “Several hostiles down, the rest are running for the main building.”
Though DarkHawk was the leader of the Night Hawks, Armad had been given command of the mission. His plan was to take this small force of soldiers and the Night Hawks in AT-TEs carried by LAATs on a straight course toward the base, getting their attention. Then Scyk Squadron, temporarily led by Varuk Kru, came in from space in a nose dive attack, aimed at disabling the defenses. After that, the aim was to land a pair of AT-TEs outside either gate and secure the buildings as they came across them. “Get to the base's hangar and secure it, you’ve got soldiers, DarkHawk and Druda headed your way to back you up.” Armad ordered, while tapping some commands in his datapad, letting a couple of squad sergeants know that their orders had changed. Ashia, Teu and Firith would assault the Maintenance Garage side, while Armad would hang back enough to make sure things went smoothly.
“Set us down outside the Maintenance Gate.” Armad ordered the pilots. Pulling out his datapad, he set about checking over the group's orders. Having made sure that everything was in order, Armad did a quick check of his equipment before they were dropped off.
“Dropping in 3...2...1. Released. Happy hunting, Night Hawks.” The pilot announced as the AT-TE settled on the ground and began lumbering toward Dlarit Military Base Alpha. Since both of the bases were identical to each other, Armad and Jurdan were given the choice of which base they would like to assault. Jurdan liked the idea of unknown things in the dark at Bravo, so Armad reluctantly agreed to take on Alpha.
Soldiers poured out of their respective transports and set about securing the immediate area. Other squads were rushing into and assaulting the maintenance garage. Armad walked with Ashia, Teu and Firith toward the garage behind the soldiers, letting them do their job before it was necessary for one of them to set in. Armad could hear blaster rifle fire coming from the Hangar, but this group was oddly quiet. He understood why when he walked through the maintenance bay doors, which looked as though they hadn’t been closed in a couple of years. Snow blanketed much of the floor, some even reaching the back legs of a massive AT-AT that was just sitting dormant among the other walkers. Their gears and fluids must have frozen long ago, and the forces here couldn’t get them up and running by the time that Armad and his forces arrived. To which Armad was glad for, as those vehicles would have made this assault more costly than what he’d predicted.
After a while, Armad got the report that the hangar was secured, as well as all the outlying buildings that they could access without entering the main complex. Knowing that the main building was next, his forces set themselves outside the entrances and awaited the order to breach. This was the part that Armad would liked to have been a part of. The Night Hawks were to ascend to the top of the building and make their way down, taking out any opposition that they came across and just being a distraction so that the Legion forces could sweep and secure the rest of the building. Armad was certain he knew how the Sadowans with him would reach the top, jump with the aid of the Force. But he was unclear as to how Varuk and Druda were going to get up to the top, Armad had offered the use of his Security S-5 Heavy Blaster Pistol for the liquid cable launcher. DarkHawk had refused, said they'd get up there, all the with a smirk in his face.
The squad Sergeants all reported that they were in place and ready to go on his signal. Ashia, Teu and Firith had already jumped up to the roof and were awaiting DarkHawk, Varuk and Druda. A loud “Waaaaiittt” echoed across the comms as we could only assume that DarkHawk had figured out an inventive way to get Druda up onto the roof. A few chuckles could be heard through the comms as some had undoubtedly been on the receiving end of one of DarkHawk’s sense of humor.
“Go, go go.” Armad stated into his comlink. Giving the signal to storm the complex and secure it.
For the next 20 minutes, there was quite a bit of comm traffic as soldiers and Sadowans alike were confronted with resistance. Calls for assistance and all clears for certain sections were heard at a steady rate, indicating that all was going according to plan. At about 15 minutes into the assault, Armad heard several calls from soldiers being killed off, and from those behind them asking “What was that thing?!”
“It looks like a Wampa!”
“Why are our shots just bouncing off it?!”
Then calls of “Where are our FU’s?”, which was code, or soldier slang for the Dark Jedi and Sith that usually accompany them on missions like this.
“We are here. Watch our backs.”
Then it was all over. Alpha base was secure. Once all squad leaders reported in, just over the minimal expected loss that he had accounted for, though the loss of two Y-wing bombers would be costly.