Chapter 6 Submission

SUBMITTED BY: 2LT Fewrfreyut / Zerek Adjutant / ISD Chimaera / Imperial Navy
HOLONET REGISTRATION: <nwnd@sympatico.ca
SUBMITTED ON: 2008.05.15

Nick Fewrfreyut stepped off the transport and onto the soft, sandy beach, two kilometers West of the base. He remembered the last time he had been to a beach; a more peacful event than the current situation. Nick's mind snapped back into the present as the troop transports took off and soared into the misty air, returning to the Nebulon-B Escort Frigate Chinook, where Nick's regular line of duty is. Nick smirked. Regular? What is regular nowadays? Nick heard footsteps from behind and turned his attention to the source, a stormtrooper Sergeant, the one in charge of this contingent. Well, next to him, of course. The Chinook's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Ramius Antillies, had tasked Nick with heading the ground assault force, which was going to attack a Rebel base on the planet's surface. Nick recalled the events that lead up to this moment, with the discovery of a Rebel space station over the planet, then the single X-wing squadron reinforcements from the planet's Northern Hemisphere, the scan of the planet that revealed a large Rebel staging area, possibly the main base for the Rebel forces in that sector, with a Rebel training facility, and the subsequent dispatch of him and fifty out of the seventy-five stormtrooper garrison on the Chinook to destroy the base. Nick's mind returned to the matters at hand when the Sergeant said to him, "All men are accounted for and ready. We are awaiting your orders, sir."

"Sergeant, we need to recon the Rebel Base. We need to learn their defensive strength if we are to proceed," Nick replied. The Sergeant gave the order over his comlink, and five stormtroopers moved off to the rolling hills past the sandy shore. Nick turned back to the Sergeant. "We'd better get moving. Your scouts will relay information back to us as we move to the Rebel Base. Form the men up in staggered formation, with columns 9 deep and ranks 5 across. Move swift, and go radio silent. We got lucky with the mist to hide our LZ, so let's not let it be in vain by being discovered with chatter over the comlink. From now on, only direct communication and hand signals."

"Yes sir!" The Sergeant said as he turned to the rest of the stormtroopers, "Alright! Everybody form up! You heard the Sub-Lieutenant's orders! Now move!" As they jogged along, Nick became grateful that he kept up the strict fitness program that you use in the Academy; he was able to move with the same pace as the stormtroopers. Exercise pays off, he thought. The scouts the Sergeant had sent out earlier returned when the main force was two humdred meters away from the base. "There's only three score Rebels at the base, twenty of which are currently on duty. The remaining forty are in the barracks, on break from patrol. They also have AA turrets placed around the base in an overlapping field of fire method, so we won't be able to call any bombing runs until the power generator, located on the North side of the base, is destroyed," one scout said. "Any armor?" Nick asked. "yes, five T2-Bs, though their crews are counted in the total sum of Rebels, and all the crews are in the barracks."

"Hmm, looks like we caught them with their pants down. Ok, we need to strike hard and do enough damage before the tank crews can get to their tanks. If we can knock out that generator, we can severly cripple their defenses, and get a bombing run in to devastate their forces. Sergeant, I want our snipers to take out the guards and in immediate proximity patrols. Then I want our demolitions team to move in and plant a remote charge on the generator." The Sergeant hastened to obey the orders. Within two minutes, everyone was ready. As the first hisses of the silenced sniper rifle shots began to fly, the demolition team sprinted out across the open ground. Several guards saw them, however, as they turned to engage the team they were shot down by the snipers. Soon five guards lay dead near the generator, and the way to it was clear for the demo team. Another two minutes passed, then the demo team came dashing back out, reaching the main force of stormtroopers just as Nick pushed the detonate button on the remote. Suddenly the sky became brilliant yellow, then dimmed to flickering orange as flames smothered the charred wreckage that was all that remained from the power generator. Nick activated his com, and gave the grid coordinates for the base to the bombers hovering in low orbit over the planet. As the infantry rushed to the scene of the explosion and the tank crews boarded their craft, the first of three TIE Bombers appeared through the mist. The bombing run blew the tank pits apart, destroying all the tanks and their crews, and destroyed all the command buildings and the barracks, along with fifteen Rebels close enough to be felled by the blasts. However, the Imperial forces still had to face two score Rebel soldiers. A fierce firefight ensued, by the end of which eighteen stormtroopers were dead, and thirteen wounded. The Rebels on the other hand, lost twenty-seven men, and the surviving thirteen surrendered. The Empire Reborn had been victorious; the base was destroyed, the Rebel forces crippled, and their main staging area for the sector removed. All in all, a swift and devastating blow to the Rebel forces in the outer rim. Nick would remember this day at the beach for alot longer than any of the other ones.