Ground Battle

From TFC Galactopedia

Lieutenant Korin Hoss frowned as he walked the line of his command, B Company, First Battalion 345th Imperial Infantry Regiment. He had his helmet off at the moment, its comlink removed from it and on a headset. The helmet he thought, was rather poorly designed, very limited field of view, he and many other line officers did not like the fact that it restricted you peripheral vision. He knew it was against regulations, but he needed to see the field of battle, and that meant no helmet for him. Instead it was on a quick release strap at his hip for when he really did need to put it on, incase he was taking fire.

The rest of his battle dress was standard issue however. The plas-steal armor painted for ground combat. He laughed, most the public thought imperial troops wore white all the time, no, that would be idiotic of them, so, the armor was painted camouflaged patterns when in the field on planet. He carried the new Mod3 version of the standard issue E-11 blaster rifle, with the grenade launcher under it. He had used his little pull to get one extra issued to himself, he preferred the balance of this weapon over standard issue, and, having the grenade launcher was an excellent boost in power. The weight of it comforting on the strap slung about his neck as he walked the line.

“Sir!” one of his troopers came up to him, though didn’t salute. They had learned long ago that the Rebels loved sniping officers. “We’re dug in along this position; second platoon is standing by as a mobile reserve.”

Hoss nodded slowly, the snow panther looked about, admittedly he thought, his coloring was not ideally suited for this sort of terrain, well, at least, not for the next month or so. “What about air support?”

He got his answer in the slight silence before the trooper spoke. “Base command says that the bombers are tied up with the Rebel starfighters sir.”

“Damn,” Hoss muttered. “What about the CAVs?”

The wolf looked. “I’m not sure, they didn’t give a straight answer.”

Hoss frowned. “Get me headquarters, if they won’t give you one, maybe I can get one.”

“Yes sir!” the trooper jogged off towards the come equipment.

Hoss continued walking the line, noting the placement of his heavy weapons, two e-web repeaters and a proton mortar section. He liked the way things looked so far, but he knew that could change in a hurry as the young wolf came back. “Sir, Headquarters for you, channel four.”

Hoss nodded and did the switch on his com system. “This is TIGER EIGHT.”

“TIGER EIGHT, this is TIGER ACTUAL, go ahead.”

“ACTUAL, we’re in position and ready to repel, but we need some sort of support.”

“We’d give it to you EIGHT save the TIE bombers have been tied down by the rebel starfighters.”

“What about CAVs ACTUAL? We don’t need starfighters, CAVs will do,” Hoss said trying to keep his cool. The CAVs, or Combat Air Vehicles were specially designed air speeders loaded for the proverbial Kraut Dragon, designed to tangle with starfighters in the atmosphere and provide some air support for the ground troops

“Wait one EIGHT, we’re deciding that now.”

Hoss was about ready to bight back a reply when he heard the whistle coming through the air. He knew that sound immediately, so did the majority of his men. “Artillery!!!!!!” several voices screamed out and Hoss slapped his helmet onto his head quickly and dove for cover as the sound of proton shells erupting amid his position reached his ears. There were also other sounds mixed in with it as one poor solider was too close to one of the proton warheads and was shredded by the blast, bits of him flying through the air as Hoss grabbed his weapon and flipped the comlink back to transmit.

“TIGER ACTUAL! TIGER ACTUAL!! This is EIGHT we are under bombardment, I repeat we are under artillery bombardment!” he called out as he wiggled up to the line his men formed. Damn, that was artillery, real tube artillery! not just the mortars that his people had. Well he thought, two can play at this game as he flipped the comlink over to another channel. “WASP SIX this is TIGER EIGHT! Fire mission, Fire mission, Fire mission!” He then turned to one of his men operating the electronics gear. “Get fire finders on that barrage!!!”

“Yes sir!!!” the scared but competent young canine said as he started manipulating his controls. “I have it sir!!” as another barrage started raining down into his position, and he lost another two men to the deadly proton warheads.

“TIGER EIGHT, WASP Six, go ahead fire mission,” the calm voice of the artillery commander returned as his fire finder handed him the print-out from the fire-finder sensor on his back.

“WASP SIX fire mission as follows!” Hoss returned and rattled off the coordinates provided by the sensor, then repeated them again to make sure the artillerist understood.

“Roger TIGER EIGHT, on the way!” the commander of the artillery detachment called out, and within moments he heard the whine of repulsor field-fired proton shells as they repaid in kind the rebel artillery. He had been lucky, he only had lost three soldiers in that barrage, the rebel artillery had been off in its planned barrage, if it had been on target, his company might have been slaughtered by it.

The problem was, the rebels weren’t even suppose to have real tube artillery, this was suppose to be an infantry detachment they were to repulse, nothing more. He was about to learn more about what Intelligence had fouled on today as well.

“Sir!” one of his soldiers manning the E-webs called out ad pointed. “Direct front sir!”

Hoss crawled over to his men and raised his macro-binoculars and looked in the direction of the squirrel’s pointing. “Sithspit!” There, coming out of the haze of mid-day were four repulsor tanks, their turreted heavy laser cannon tracking latterly as they escorted a group of dismounted infantry.

“What I wouldn’t give for some of those AT-ATs right about now…” the young corporal said with a worried voice. It was a misnomer that the Imperial Army relied solely on walkers for combat. In fact, the majority of its armor forces were actually tried and true repulsor tanks and IFVs. The walkers mostly went to the Stormtrooper legions.

“Well we don’t, so we deal with this the best we can…” Hoss returned and was about to add more when the action heated up.

“Take cover!!!” someone called out as the lead repulsor tank fired, scoring a direct hit on the Chariot-C command vehicle. The –C variant was stripped down from the battalion and brigade level vehicles, but, it was still quite obvious that it was a company command vehicle with the aerials festooning it. One reason he had evacuated his communications team from it, the lightly armed and armored vehicle would be the first to go in an engagement, the first thing a commander looked for.

His cautions paid with the saving of his soldier’s lives as the fuel slugs erupted, the blow-out panels on the top of the vehicle venting most the explosion into the air as the repulsor fields died and the Chariot fell the four inches to the ground, burning and adding an acrid stink to the area to accompany the tang of ozone that followed the cannon shot. It was testament to the training of his men that they held their fire. The rebel forces were still out of range and any return fire now would just serve to pinpoint them for a slaughter.

“TIGER ACTUAL! TIGER ACTUAL this is EIGHT! We are in contact! As of this moment, numbers are: four r-tanks and a company of supporting infantry!”

“Wait one EIGHT,” the voice returned as the tanks increased their speed from a walking pace, to a jog, the infantry keeping pace and confidently scanning with their eyes for danger. Their accompanying IFVs finally made an appearance, six of them sprinted forward, their rapid-fire dual blaster cannons tracking in on their positions, each pair of cannon firing into the positions as the IFVs skidded to a stop on their repulsor fields, laying down suppression fire for the tanks and infantry. Luckily the night and half day the rebels had given his men to prepare had paid off. The ancient tactic of earthen berms packed tightly could still even this day protect soldiers from harm. The fire chewed into the berms, but they held, spraying dirt and gravel down on the line. It was lucky he thought, that he no longer had to deal with the artillery, that would have been nearly unbearable.

“Add six carriers to the estimate,” Hoss returned as he looked towards his mortar team. “Lay in fire to the IFVs! On my word!” he turned about and looked down his line. “Targess, Makan, Impra… get ready,” those were his soldiers carrying disposable proton rocket launchers. No guidance, no fancy energy shrouds, just as big a warhead as one could pack into a rocket you could carry. He only had three with First Platoon, so there would be a small problem dealing with tank four.

“WASP SIX, WASP SIX, this is TIGER EIGHT,” Hoss spoke into his mike again, headquarters seemingly ignoring him now. He waited a five count, then called again. “WASP SIX this is TIGER EIGHT…”

“Nothing sir,” the communication specialist looked up. “We’re off the net all the sudden.”

Hoss frowned, wondering what had been hit to cut them off, they had no land lines to worry about. He looked out over the area of battle and frowned, then turned to his sergeant for this platoon. “hold fire till I say, I’m going to second platoon.”

“Yes sir.”

With that Hoss crawled down the line, well under the cover of the berms till he reached the wood line to the second platoon’s position. Here he had a bit more firepower, another E-web and proton mortar section, and the company’s own two IFVs. While these had the firepower to pierce the armor on the rebel trooper’s carriers, they did not have a heavy enough punch to take down the tanks. “Sergeant Yarna!” Hoss yelled out over the din of battle to his company sergeant.

“Sir!” the tiger called out as he popped out of the back hatch of the number-two carrier from where he had been manning the guns.

“Yarna! I need the spare tubes!!”

“Yes sir!” he replied as he brought the two spare portable proton rockets. Korin took one himself personally, then patted his sergeant and moved him towards the tree line again, raising the tube to his shoulders. He looked through the sight, nearly hissing as he did so, those IFVs were chewing into the berms his people had constructed, while the rebel infantry worked about systematically and expertly to cut off First Platoon. Every once and a while one would kneel and take a shot with the large blaster rifle he carried, but no reports about casualties reached his ear as he took aim on one of the tanks, while he ordered Yarna to take one of the IFVs. Things were going to get messy here in a moment, he was sure that the Rebels didn’t know about second Platoon, but they would as soon as he and the sergeant fired.

He put those thoughts out of his mind though, he had been ordered to hold this position, and hold it he will. “Company! Open fire!!!”