Defiance Armada: The Battle of Sarapin

[Phoenix]

As the rocket impacted the ceiling, the ceiling finally gave way. A chunk fell and blocked Tal’s shot, much to his chagrin, but now wasn’t the time to worry about it. Chunks of concrete and twisted steel rained down in the room and the squad took cover within the hallway on their side, where the ceiling was still stable. After merely a few seconds, the crumbling stopped and Tal got an idea.

The rubble had formed something of a small hill in the middle of the room and it struck him, what was the point of engaging the enemy on their terms, when he could do it on his own? After all that was the advantage to being an attacker. You chose when and where to attack. As the rest of the platoon showed up, Tal directed his squad to climb the small rubble hill and make their way out onto the roof of the compound.

As they did this, several troopers still covered the hallway to the computer room, guns trained, to ensure that the Imperials didn’t pop out with any cheeky attacks, and any attempt at such would leave them deceased. Again splitting the platoon up, Tal ordered 4 men to guard the hallway and make sure that if any Imperials left through this hall, they’d be dead as they made their way down the corridor. Ten would stay with him, while the others would continue onward, skirting around the guarded hallway and find their own entrance. The building had sustained heavy damage from the bombardment and it would be no trouble to find a new “door” created by a concussion missile or the like, where they would be able to skirt the resistance. In fact, there were new “doors” everywhere, far too many to guard from Rebel counter-attack. Indeed, that had been one of the goals of the bombs from the beginning.

Meanwhile, Tal and his squad had a more nefarious plan. Five men moved silently along the roof of the hallway, and came to the area just above the computer room. There was no echo from their footsteps on the roof, just silence as they set a strip of detcord on the ceiling. Meanwhile, Tal and the other five troopers, set charges on one of the sidewalls. With a signal of 3, 2, 1, whose sound never left his helmet, Tal and the others detonated both strips of detcord at the same time. The explosion would be a complete shock to the Imperials, as the room had no windows so there was no danger of any of them being seen, and the attack did not come from the place that they were clearly expecting it.

The ceiling erupted and, luckily, because this room hadn’t suffered any structural damage, so there was no danger of collapse. With an opening in the ceiling, and already little cover in the room, the Stormtroopers were sitting ducks for the Rebels. Picking targets one at a time and showing almost none of their bodies over the lip of the edge, the Rebels mowed down the remaining forces who had nowhere to run.

As the soldiers on the roof kept them busy, Tal and the others came in the side “door” and gunned down the remaining troopers, whose focus was still on the hallway or the ceiling. Tal’s rifle swiveled and after only a moment rested once more on the Sith. The room had little cover, and even being at the far end of the room wasn’t enough to save her from Tal, whose body was still mostly covered by a section of wall that hadn’t fallen down, providing him with cover but leaving her exposed.

He pulled the trigger smoothly, with no danger of throwing off his aim and the yellow beam of particle energy shot outward, ready to catch the unguarded woman, who would also be distracted by the other incoming Rebel fire.

The squad overall had no chance, they were 8 men who had been ambushed and caught off guard by a larger force of 11 and would suffer for it.

Meanwhile, the bypass team had also been highly successful. With no indication of their presence, the half-platoon had moved through the complex, entering through one of the many openings created during the bombing run that couldn’t be guarded and never betrayed their position. Similarly to Tal’s squad they ambushed the Stormtroopers in the other hallways, whose backs were be turned toward their attackers as they focused on the assault from the front. Outgunned and uprepared, the other hallways would fall and the Rebels would have the opening they needed to flood the main compound and finish off the Imperial resistance, who would be caught with their pants down.

 

[Xeus Qel-Droma]

Metallic shards and duracrete dust whisked in the air in the aftermath of Xeus' Force-enhanced shout. And no sooner had it did the shroud of Darkness fall from around the formerly hidden Sith. It was imperceptible to his physical sight, as well as his Beyond-Sight, but he didn't need the vaunted 'Force Sight' to tell when the Force was at work. No doubt more Sith wizardry of one sort or another. The Sith, by all appearances, seemed unharmed. It could have been telekinesis, the Sith erecting a force field to guard himself. Or it could have been a form of Force absorption, tutaminis, or a variant of it. Either way, his attention was on his new opponent. The battles being waged in the other corridors were isolated from him now - they would have to suffice on their own.

As his shout ended, Xeus brought his wan-shen to the fore, extending the trident weapon after a brief twirl of the staff weapon around his body. It was a custom before combat, almost like a salute to the opponent. In contrast, the Sith seemed more amused at the prospect of the fight, even asking Xeus for a 'demonstration'.

"Nunon muz heim ko Kun vis kriist wah okaaz do Vulom."

Xeus spoke in old Kendov'vun. He knew his opponent wouldn't know what he said, and it didn't matter. He didn't need to.

Taking a deep breath as he let the Force surge through his body, Xeus used his Force of Will, shrouding his body in repelling Force energy. It was practically a default power for fighting other Force users. Aside from the few that learn the Karvossi Roar, Matukai had no long-distance Force abilities. Using their Force of Will to protect themselves from projected Force powers was the first and last line of defense, especially against Dark Side powers. When the Sith created an impulse with the Force, some invisible telekinetic Force directed at his weapon, the weapon vibrated rapidly and Xeus body was pulled and shifted slightly, but was otherwise unaffected.

Charging his wan-shen via Force Weapon, Xeus made a sharp forward jump with a burst of Force speed, lunging his weapon straight toward the center of mass of the Sith's body. As his foot slammed to the ground, Xeus was careful to keep himself out of reach of his opponent's weapon. Wan-shens were three meters long, as opposed the usually meter or so long lightsaber that Jedi and Sith used. He didn't know anything about the Sith's particular abilities, but keeping his range advantage was the ideal strategy until he saw more from him.

Immediately after lunging, should his attack be avoided, Xeus would use the Force to give him another burst of speed, while at the same time enhance his reflex perception. He would turn his lunge into a 360° spin, using the gathered momentum to crash his opponent's side or drive them back. Staying on the offensive was Xeus' preferred method of fighting, and he would press the attack at every given chance. For if his attack was again somehow evaded, and his opponent was somehow within weapon's range, Xeus would follow his attack up again with a strong and carefully aimed Force-empowered kick at a Force-augmented speed.

 

[Galad J. Victus]

Galad watched as the man before him demonstrated the ultimate form of his weapon; expanding the tool to such extend that it nearly tripled the size of his own traditional lightsaber, which he then ignited and held on a loose grip, edge scoring the floor with a thin line of dying flames. He was no stranger to fighting with and against steel weapons however, himself being a skilled vibroblade duelist since childhood, which had made him familiar with melee weapons of all sorts. Yet the tecnique employed by this man, was clearly unknown to him. A lacking that would be taken care of shortly.

As the man lunged forward to attack, Galad immeaditly charged his body with tides of Force, empowering his physical attributes to inhumane levels. Barely dodging the edge of the trident he stepped back, landing harmlessly just outside the Warrior's reach. Such a massive range advantage under his belt, it was no surprise that the man chose to favor an offensive approach, with the edge given to him by his weapon giving confidence that Galad would be forced to play along. Although the traditional belief that polearms were hard counters to blades and the sort was true to some extend, it wasn't as simple as that, given that the more experienced blademasters would know exactly how to work around it and turn the range to their advantage, Galad being one of them.

"You seem to be interested in killing me from afar. You dissapoint me." Taunted the metal voice with a faint tone of sarcasm. Within a blink he scanned the corridor in hopes of orchestrating an approach that would help him bypass the deadly end of the trident and get him close quarters. Then his eyes caught an interesting detail. The ceiling above the man was damaged and cracked, seemingly shaky after the recent powerful shout thrown out by him. He launched the lightsaber to finish it off with extreme speed and precision, causing pieces of debris and metal to collapse upon his foe in no time. While they seemed not heavy enough to kill a man in contact, they could easily cause severe harm and serious bruises, which meant the perfect distraction for Galad's next move.

The Sith Warrior launched himself forward with utmost speed and strength, his resolve and his body alike empowered by massive amounts of Force energy. Landing a quick hit to the edge of the trident with a both-handed grip and easily redirecting it away thanks to the fact that the balance of a pike three meters long could not be maintain as easily as that of a lightsaber, the Juggernaut opened up a way of himself, intending to drive his crimson blade through the mysterious warrior's chest. Gathering a pure energy of Force within his palm that would boost his raw strength, Galad then firmly grabbed the long weapon in the middle, making it nearly impossible for his rival to releive and re-position it into a defensive stance, Galad's natural might and the armor's weight considered. Spinning and closing on his chest, the Sith Warrior would then try to bury his lightsaber into the Rebel's exposed body with a reversed grip, hoping to run him through with the blade.

 

[Sara Rain]

As she waited for the remaining rebels forces to rush forward into their death, Sara extended her senses into the adjacent, hallway in an attempt to read her enemies' movements. Much to her dismay, the rebels had not fallen for her trap, and instead had opted to take a more unorthodox approach to assaulting her position.

Sara felt, rather than saw, eleven rebel soldiers scale a pile of loose rubble and make their way outside and on top of the compound. Fortunately for the Imperial forces, loose debris was not very easy to climb, giving the stormtroopers under Sara's command ample time to prepare for the incoming assault. Sara also noted the presence of four rebels still waiting in the ruined hallway, diligently protecting their comrades exposed backs. The rest of the rebels, Sara sensed, retreated back into the outer compound. She guessed their intentions were to ambush her men positioned at the other chokepoints in a way similar to the ambush being planned here.

At this point in the battle, all of the surprise and rage Sara had originally felt were gone. She was an Imperial, and she was a Sith. The battlefield was where she belonged. Sara had learned military tactics and strategy from the Sith Warmaster, Darth Kova, himself. Thinking quickly, Sara rapidly issued orders to her squad, carefully keeping her voice low to prevent the rebels from hearing her words. The stormtroopers obeyed her orders quickly and obediently, just how they had been trained for hours and hours to do. When the rebels blasted their way through the walls and ceiling, the would not face the level of resistance they expected to.

Firstly, four stormtroopers sprinted down the side hallway and took positions to the rear of the four rebels left behind. Once the flanking trooper's were in position, a fifth tossed a flash grenade through the entrance the rebels were facing. As the sentries were disoriented from the blast, they were assaulted from the rear by the four trooper's Sara had sent. Through the use of infared vision, each stormtrooper had chosen his target beforehand, and the rebels were blasted from behind quickly and precisely. The fifth trooper waited two beats before entering through the front to finish off any rebels who had somehow survived the assault from their rear. The stormtroopers' work was remarkably efficient, and all four rebels were killed before they had a chance to warn their comrades. Furthermore, between the battles raging across the compound and the general din of Sarapin's volcanic surface, none of the rebels outside would be able to hear the death of the four foolish rebels. After securing the room, the five stormtroopers would take a 360° defensive position in the ruined hallway, ready to flee their compromised postion and rejoin the bulk of Sara's force through the side hallway if needed.

Meanwhile, Sara organized her men to defend assaults from both the exterior wall and the ceiling. Moving swiftly, three stormtroopers took defensive positions in the entrance leading down the side hallway, directly across from where the rebels were setting their charges. Two of the soldiers were operating an E-WEB, while a third had his rifle aimed and ready.

Sara and the remaining two trooper's retreated through the rear hallway and resumed their firing positions, ensuring no rebels would be able to slip behind them and further into the base.

The exterior of the compound was built to survive not only a military assault, but also the hot and hostile enviroment of Sarapin. The rebels would likely need a large quantity of explosives to blast their way through. Knowing she still had moment, Sara sent a brief message over her commlink to the other two platoons under her command.

"Platoons B and C", she began, "Rebels forces are breaching through the ceiling and walls, be preapred". Upon receiving her transmission, her other stormtroopers quickly repositioned themselves to defend from all directions. Because a transmission travels far more quickly than even a jogging soldier, Sara's platoons would be fully prepared for when the rebels attempted to ambush them. Each rebel assault elsewhere in the base would be confronted with a dozen completely fresh and battle-hungry stormtroopers, each one prepared to withstand an assault from any direction.

As the rebels blasted their way through and, if they were following standard breach and clear procedure, rushed into the room, they would not find a room filled with surprised stormtroopers. In fact, the rebels themselves would likely be surprised as they rushed into a dark room, devoid of enemy soldiers. Likewise, the stormtroopers on the ceiling would have no firing angles on the Imperials below.

Of course, immediately after the twin explosions, Sara's stormtroopers would open fire on their rebellious enemies. The stormtroopers' advanced headgear protected them from any stun grenades the rebels utilized, allowing the troopers to begin firing just as the rebels started marching through the door. The E-WEB would tear into any and all rebels who attempted to force themselves through the room's new doorway, while the third trooper used the grenade launcher attachment on his rifle to launch a powerful explosive through the opening to annihilate any rebels who hesitated before entering.

The stormtroopers beside Sara would each throw a smoke grenade, with each grenade expertly placed to provide the defending stormtroopers with as much artificial cover as possible. Sara tossed her grenade up towards the ceiling, expertly using the force to cause the explosive to arc upwards and through the hole the rebels had blew through the ceiling, providing them with a nasty little surprise. Unfortunately for them, Sara's grenade released a little more than just smoke. After throwing the grenade, Sara would step back. She was confident her stormtroopers would be able to handle the breaching rebels, and she did not want to needlessly risk her life by putting herself in the line of fire. Her father had always told her that the best generals led from the rear.

Meanwhile, as the fighting broke out in the computer room, the five stormtroopers in the ruined hallway began climing up the rubble pile to catch the rebels from the rear. Of course they were delayed slightly while climbing up the pile, giving Sara's grenade just enough time to scatter the rebels on the roof before her five stormtroopers emerged from behind and cut the rebels down with a hail of precise blasterfire. After the rebels on the ceiling were taken care of, the five flanking stormtroopers would leap down to engage Tal's party from behind, ensuring there was no escape for the rebels.

Any rebels who managed to actually push their way into the room would suddenly find themselves caught in a cross-fire between the two Imperial positions, each relatively protected well by darkness and smoke. Any rebels who somehow managed to survive and attempted to retreat would run straight into the five trooper'
s closing in from the rear, and would likely meet a quick end.

While she was too wise to claim victory, Sara was confident in the strength and determination of the men under her command. The rebels were fighting like they had nothing to lose, but her stormtroopers were fighting like they had everything to lose.

Keeping her blaster pistol in her right hand, Sara activated her training saber in her left. While the training saber was of little use in actual combat, the shimmering crimson beam looked exactly like a real blade. The rebels had just fought through an adrenaline-filled battle to break into the compound, before playing a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with Sara and her stormtroopers. Now they had just been led into an ambush filled with fire and death. Sara was confident that most of the surviving rebels would turn and flee at the sight of her blade, not willing to lose their lives to a Sith after everything they have already gone through. Stepping forward, Sara yelled out over the blasterfire, "Any rebel who surrenders now will be spared!". Of course, a brave fool might try to take a potshot at Sara as she stepped forward, and any who tried would likely be gunned down by one of the two stormtroopers assigned to protect her. Ever mindful of her own life, Sara remained safely behind a scrap of cover, her sense actively searching for anyone targeting her specifically, while her red brilliant red blade shone intimidatingly among the carnage.

 

[Phoenix]

Sara was going to be in for a surprise. While she would be able to sense the troopers on the rooftop, there was no way to know they were coming until they were up there, otherwise it would just feel like they were generally in the other room, specifically to one as untrained as the Acolyte in question, leaving the men in the computer room almost no time to prepare, especially if they were setting up or moving an entire repeating blaster, which was no rapid feat.

The Imperial flanking team was met with much stiffer resistance than expected. As the Imperials had already determined, climbing over loose rubble was no quick feat, or quiet, and it was exactly what the Imperials had to do to get into flanking positions behind the Rebel team. A quick grenade ruined their day and by the time the Imperials got into position, the Rebels were ready for them and returning fire, not to be killed as easily as expected. Of course, that also meant that the ability for this team to make it back to help defend the computer room was also gone, leaving a mere 5-6 troopers to defend against 11. For some reason the Imperials assumed darkness would hide them, but NVGs were just as easily obtained for Rebels as Imperials and so they were fixed in place before the assault.

The breaching charges on the computer room went off at the same time, unfortunately, the Imperials hadn’t had enough time to set up their beloved repeater given that they had to set the whole thing up in the time that it took the Rebels to set the breaching charge. They were caught with their pants down so to speak.

The Rebel team never had any intention of rushing straight into a coverless room and didn’t plan to use stun grenades. Instead they had blasted a much larger opening that had provided them with cover from which to fire. The trouble was that the Imperials had no such thing. They were in a coverless room. It had been intentionally without cover so as to ambush the Rebels, but now it would prove their undoing. Even with smoke grenades, the Rebels had seen where the Imperials were before they activated and put suppressing fire on the entire area nice and early, killing the grenade launcher-toting trooper and the men still setting up the repeater. After all, it was an open room and a straight shot to the enemy. With all of them firing, they were bound to hit the coverless troopers.

Tal’s first shot must have gone unnoticed by the Sith amidst the other gunfire in the room, for she made no attempt to dodge or avoid the shot and the micro-explosion from Tal’s particle rifle cut through armor and flesh like a hot knife through butter. Even if she survived, she would be out of the fight and had never gotten to throw her grenade at the troopers on the ceiling. One less Sith. As it should be.

With the four imperial troopers in the hallway still caught up in their firefight, they never made it through to join the fight, leaving the fight as a 5 vs. 10 scenario that no one, not even stormtroopers could win, especially since the 5 didn’t really have any cover to speak of, something they had hoped to use against the Rebels, but that had ultimately backfired.

Pushing into the room and eliminating the remaining troopers, the squad was able to provide support to the remaining troopers in the hallway, driving back the flanking team that had been previously sent.

Elsewhere in the facility, things were likewise going well. With all the men except Sara’s platoon tied up at the East entrance, the small, undermanned team defending the first hallway was soon to be faced with not only the 30 men it had already been fighting but now 20 more troopers flanking them from behind. Regardless of any warning the Sith had given, the Stormtroopers were outnumbered 5 to 1, cut off, and quickly overcome by an onslaught of grenades and rifle fire. From there, the Rebels had free rain of the facility, moving through to sabotage and destroy the facility.

 

[Green Ranger]

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