Stopstone Forest,

Heimdall Mountain Range, Li Gandor Continent,

Antenora, Cocytus System,

Dark Brotherhood Territories

The forest was quiet, but that’s what worried Timbal. Every forest had its’ own ebb and flow of noise from the animals that lived in it, but whenever it went dead still it meant that predators were about. Not just any predators, but deadly ones.

Timbal glanced back at the Sar’Major, and he merely lifted an eyebrow. Timbal knew that they were both thinking the same thing. Timbal gestured with two fingers towards the flank, and the Sar’Major was off. Timbal next flashed a complex series of signals to his runners, and they nodded and were also off. His immediate squad leaders within his line of sight had read the signals, and were looking silently at him for their own orders.

Timbal relayed a set of signals, and the company around him readied themselves for the incoming OPFOR. This was going to be one mother of an ambush, he knew.

His forward listening post then relayed a series of flashes from their position, then made a quiet rush down the camouflaged trenches back towards the main body. This meant the enemy OPFOR should be coming into visual range any second now.

Indeed, about five seconds after the two men from the forward listening post dashed to their fallback positions, he saw the shadowy figures of two enemy scouts, no doubt riding point for the rest of the assault column. Timbal froze, and he felt the rest of the unit follow his instincts.

The heavy humidity and heat were pushing their limits, but with imminent enemy contact, those thoughts went right out. Everyone was eager to spring the ambush, and the rush of combat was starting to flood them all.

In another minute or two the column filed in within range. They all looked tired, and not terribly alert at all. He knew that they had to have been humping gear up and down the mountain range for days now, and this being the culmination field exercise of their basic training, they all wanted nothing more but to turn back into the barracks, freshen up, and hopefully get a pass off-base to find some local girls and guys.

Timbal had other plans in mind. He sighted up his target in the targeting reticule of his SoroSuub X-45, and began breathing control exercises. The target in his sights, if they were following the book, would be the leader of this rabble. The tension felt by the unit was almost palpable, and they were simply waiting for his shot to spring the rest of the ambush.

Timbal took a deep breath, held it, and squeezed the trigger. The thin beam had barely made contact when the rest of the company opened up, light repeating rifles blazing away, a heavy blaster emplacement adding its’ deeper tone to the cacophony of combat.

Timbal had to hand it to them. Those that had survived the initial bursts had dropped flat and were scrambling about for cover, some of them that had found cover already returning fire. He saw one two-person team, a male Twi’lek and a human female, start to set up shop with their own heavy blaster emplacement. He couldn’t allow that, could he?

Timbal turned away, looking towards his rear. He caught the eye of one of his squad leaders, and despite the ever more accurate fire being directed in their general direction, he gave him calm signals to begin their flanking maneuvers, with one fireteam detailed to eliminate the heavy blaster emplacement with heavy fire from a DXR-6 disruptor rifle. They acknowledged and moved off, but then the unexpected happened.

The volume of fire coming at them suddenly increased sharply, cutting down the heavy weapons fire team. Timbal turned to look where it was coming from.

“For Krath’s sake,” he swore quietly to himself. He turned back to his squad leaders, and quickly and efficiently let them know that what looked like another entire company was joining the OPFOR. Both companies would lose some points by joining together like this, but it was better than losing the entire engagement. But he hadn’t survived in countless battles by not being prepared. He turned to his comms man, and gave a pre-arranged gesture. He immediately typed in a series of keys into his forearm keypad, and got a tiny green light flash twice. Good, Timbal thought, we just need to press them together for thirty seconds….

He flashed a vaguely bat-like gesture at his remaining squad leaders, themselves starting to get heavily pinned down. They all confirmed, and the squad that was furthest back began to lay down heavy covering fire, with all the rest of the squads getting up and moving towards the rear as fast as they could run. Several were cut down as they were getting up, but once they started running they became elusive targets, using the trees and other terrain for cover effectively. This was the start of a leapfrogging tactical retreat, and it was expertly executed in less than twenty seconds.

They fell back to their secondary firing positions, and took cover. Five more seconds….

Timbal looked up, and saw them blazing in, red exhaust trails of concussion missiles preceding them towards their old positions as well as where the enemy was just now moving to chase them down.

The strafing run by the prototype MAAT/SOC’s was horrifyingly deadly and accurate, but the remaining enemy that were still under cover refused to yield, impressively still returning fire towards Timbal’s position. Timbal saw something move, and he brought his sniper rifle back up.

Damn it, he thought, his finger jerking the trigger. The shot missed by a hair, and they ducked, but continued to talk. Timbal re-adjusted his aim, but it was too late, they were behind the hard cover of a fallen tree now. Timbal turned back to his comms man, and frantically started to give signals. He didn’t even acknowledge the commands, just started to punch frantically at his keyboard.

Way too much time passed, but Timbal knew that it was only about fifteen seconds or so before he gave a thumbs-up. Timbal frowned, and saw the remaining OPFOR begin an orderly retreat. Timbal was about to give the order to the gunships to pursue, but then his dead-or-alive switch turned a bright orange, along with the comms guy next to him and several troopers within spitting range. The rest of the force saw the same thing, and one of the squad leaders gestured together, and they retreated hastily.

Timbal didn’t move. He merely sighed, and waited. Thirty seconds later, the light blinked green three times, and he reluctantly turned on his commlink.

“So, artillery huh? Well, I would have done the same thing.”

“Well, you had gunship support, so I cheated back.”

Timbal gave a half annoyed, half amused smirk. “Okay, cheater, rally up the OPFOR. Post action debrief in an hour. Oh, and tell the newbies that I heartily congratulate them for their work. They behaved very much like veterans. Excellent work on the Regiment, Tra’an.

He knew his Aedile was beaming on the other side. “Right-o, boss. Debrief in an hour.”

With that, Timbal shouted, “Okay, artillery and other victims, fieldex is over. Regroup back per the plan. Great work!”

The troopers from both sides all got up from where they fell when they were “killed” and left, many giving congratulations on both sides. Well, at least this Regiment is making progress, Timbal thought. He hoped the others were just as good, if not better….

--

Greetings, brothers and sisters of HAD!

Sorry about the length of the fiction on this one, it kinda took on a life of its’ own as I was writing it. =) On to the report!

Things to Cover (Clan / House Stuffs):

• Clan stuff: Ooooooh, you better get ready for some seriously cool stuff.

• Competitions: The Death of Col. Earnie comp is done. I’m grading the entries tomorrow, so expect the results then! =D

• Get ready for the next GJW!

• CSP Shadow Academy Course: Still being reviewed by the SA. Sigh!

• Royal Gazette: The deadline is here! Get your last-minute submissions in!

• House Projects: One is the expansion of the House military, which I’m hoping to take on and complete tomorrow. The other one is still top secret because Kalak is still working on the finishing details. ;)

• Shout-outs: This one is for Kalak for representin’! =D

Random Other Things:

• Quote:
  

Luke: "Is there something you want to tell me?"

Mara: "If I wanted to tell you, I would, wouldn't I?"

Luke: "Not if you thought it might upset me."

Mara: "You've got me. I hate that shirt. In fact, I think you're a crummy dresser, period."

Luke: "You bought me this shirt."

— Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker (Via Wookiepedia)

Real Life Stuff:

More random stuff going on in my life!

• Work: Got a bit busy, but then dropped dead again. Yay!

• Gun stuff!: Well, I didn’t think I was going to find one this soon, but on Sunday I purchased a Smith and Wesson Sigma series 9MM. I pick it up tomorrow, and I’m pretty excited to start punching holes in paper targets! =D

• Holiday gift ideas, part trois! Meh, I decided on Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for the Wii, since she loves the band. WTH not. =)

Well, that's about it, peeps. Until next time!

KE Timbal

QUA guy

Random medals and stuffs go here.