The Outpost
By Dante #2407
Peering out from behind a destroyed land speeder, the armored trooper of the Imperial Scholae Guard used his HUD to take a range to the roadblock that had literally just sprung up in his path back to his men.
Zhan’s forces had managed to commandeer a number of armored vehicles that looked to be pre-clone war era armored personnel carriers and set them in the road. Around the, they had dropped out a few rolls of anti-personnel wire and a few mines. To top it off, they had set up about six e-web positions on the rooftops and on the ground providing a great series of overlapping fields of fire in order to protect the roadblock and the carriers.
Checking his supplies, Dante ran through what he had on him. Weapons wise, he had his lightsaber, two 17DL-44’s in thigh rigs, his AXM-50 with a few grenades left, and his trusty E-17d sniper rifle that he had taken off of a rebel sniper that he had killed during the 2nd Battle of Trent years ago. Well worn, but still highly functional, the weapon was now raised by its owner to a shooting position.
Holed up in a building almost 1,000 meters away, the Field Marshal took a breath, let part of it out, and then pulled trigger. The blast leapt out of the barrel and almost instantaneously impacted against the traitorous officer’s head. The soldier dropped lifelessly to his knees as his head had just been slice through and through by the laser bolt. Surprised enemy troopers were in shock as their commander slumped to the ground with a melted helmet.
Shouts to take cover came forth from the platoon that was now without their commanding officer. The now frightened traitors looked out from behind their fortification to try and detect the enemy sniper who had just claimed the life of their lieutenant right before their eyes.
Browsing through the scope looking for targets, Dante found what looked like one of the senior non-commissioned officers and took aim at the sergeant’s head. He seemed to have taken over for the dead lieutenant who had just been slain by Dante.
The newly minted platoon commander didn’t last long as Kell went through his motions again and pulled the trigger with the same result. Two shots equaled two dead leaders.
With their two senior leaders gone, the enemy forces began shooting wildly out from behind their makeshift bunker.
Blaster strikes impacted all around the side of the building that Dante was hiding in, but he had set up his sniper’s nest within one of the buildings that offered excellent protection against small arms fire. If they decided to open up on him with one of the crew-served e-webs or the armored personnel carrier’s heavy blaster then he would have to move to his secondary and tertiary sites.
Dante had a decision to make. He could either stay where he was and pick the enemy apart one solider at a time, or he could try and devise a possibility that would also give him a quicker route to his men. Comparing the pros and cons of each idea ran through his head, and he knew which one he had to choose. The longer that he took to get past this obstacle, the bigger the chance more reinforcements would show up and make his life even harder.
Bringing up his tacnet, Dante quickly looked over the map overlay on his HUD and said “Shadowstalker One here…. Requesting close air support at coordinates Alpha Romeo Seven-Four-Two-Six-Five by Five-Eight-Seven-One… Over…”
The reply came back almost instantaneously with “Roger that, Shadowstalker One… This is Gamma Five Niner on approach to those coordinates.”
Kell smiled to himself and said “Message received… two runs should be good, and then I might need a quick extract if this goes badly… Shadowstalker One out…” He gathered his gear and moved towards an exit that had conveniently been made in the side of the building when a grenade had missed his location and blew out part of the wall.
The LAAT/I gunship appeared moments later above the battlefield and began laying down cover fire at the coordinates that the Field Marshal had requested.
With debris flying all around and forcing the heads of the enemy forces down, the Obelisk jumped down from the 2nd floor and hit the ground running directly towards the embattled outpost.
Making their second pass, the gunship was almost directly above Dante as he made his way into the fray. Firing a DL-44 in one hand and wielding his purple saber in the other, the leader of the Imperial Scholae Guard reached the obstacle and leapt onto the personnel carrier before switching over to his trusty AXM-50. He unleashed bolt after bolt into the huddled mass of enemy troopers who had been hiding from the withering fire of the gunship. It turned out that he hadn’t really needed to bother with the assault blaster.
Jumping down from the carrier, he surveyed the scene of massive destruction. Only a few enemy troopers had survived the onslaught of the air support to be killed by Dante so it hadn’t been that much of a feat of skill to defeat the outpost.
After turning on his comm, Kell said “Shadowstalker One to Gamma Five Niner… Excellent work… If you can give me a lift, I’d be appreciative.”
“Roger that… landing about 100m north of your position on a building top” came the reply from the captain who was flying the gunship.
“On my way” said Dante as he headed for the landing zone. Soon, he would be with his trusted 90th Legion and put an end to this Zhan.