Private Best or men

[Mathieu Brion]

Bestormen

It was not a nice day. The skies weren't bright and blue like they used to be so many other days. The breeze was not a soft companion bringing in some air to cool a person down. Mathieu stood in one of the central towers, looking out over the bleak surroundings of the palace. The harsh wind could be seen in the few trees that stood outside as they were on the brink of breaking or being uprooted. While the location they were in usually allowed for clear sight at least nine hundred meters out, the weather conditions had small sand clouds form barriers making it so that they could only see a few hundred meters out instead.

Still, the force was at high alert as reports of an impending attack from the radical opposition to the royal house had started trickling in. It was the main reason behind why Mathieu was there but for now, he was not too concerned. The loyalists seemed to have a clear advantage in both numbers and discipline when compared to the local rebels. At least that was how it seemed to him after reading the reports. Besides, he was only scheduled to stay in the castle as a guard for the coming week, having his first escort assignment far into the future. With his heavy chaingun flung over his back and hand resting gently on the pommel of his stun baton, the large Morellian turned, already bored by the view. Unlike many of the regular troops who were garrisoned there, he was tasked to patrol the walls, helping his allies out wherever needed. So far, he had not had to do much more than to help calibrate one of the heavier mounted defensive gun batteries that were mounted inside the towers.

Taking a slow stroll, he gazed out over the dull field outside. On the opposite side of the wall, he saw the local troops check their gear down below between the outer perimeter where he was and the inner defensive section. While it was not really a wall - it was a compact line of houses with doors that had been installed with reinforced locks and strong frames. Waving down at a familiar face - a Rodian private, Mathieu asked "Hey, tuba-face! Lucked out and got a real blaster or did you get a sonic one again?" While the Mercenary was actually rather fond of sonic weapons, it was a widely held belief among the garrison that they were inferior to normal laser bolt producing weapons - but this was what they had after the Royal house had managed to strike a good deal with a Geonosian maunfacturer. The Rodian was all smiles, however, and fired back while holding it high for the large Morellian to see "A sonic one. Too hard for a pig-faced Gamorrean like you to see?" Letting out a hearty chuckle, Mathieu waved the insult away and slowly started walking again "I'm having a break at tower 16, join me when you're done down there" With that, the Mercenary continued on to the next tower where he would bring out a sandwich from his bag and eat it while looking out of the tower onto the same boring landscape that he had observed for so long already, hoping that his mate would join him soon.

Cyndane

 

[Cyndane]

Objective: Breach the walls of Bestormen
Location: Center forward AT-HA
Equipment: Vibrosword, Blaster pistol, 3 thermal detonators

Today was a good day. Months of elaborate planning, subtle whispers in the shadows and aggravating the right men had lead to this day. Finally, the occupation of Bestormen was within reach. All that was left, was breaching the walls of the fortress-like capital city. And she, Second-Lieutenant Paro, had a role to play in it.

"Begin to halt your advance and inform the others to follow our lead. We will take position here." The woman who gave the order stood behind the two pilots, her features obstructed by a hooded black cloak. Any Imperial could tell that she was Sith, something that filled the woman with pride and satisfaction. Why? Because it gave her the status and authority she had always longed for. It was one of the few advantages that came with her apprenticeship to Lord Akulak; a promotion to Second-lieutenant. It meant that the platoon sent to reinforce the insurgents was hers to command.

The bulk of their assault force consisted of rebels and insurgents; groups of people who wanted to see their government overthrown. With the aid of the Empire, that dream was within reach. Except that their dream was a well-crafted lie. An opportunity for the Empire to bring this mining world under their control. She just had to watch those 'brave' insurgents waste their pathetic lives in an attempt to take the city, and her mission was complete.

"Ma'am, the AT-HAs are in position. Waiting for permission to initiate the bombardment." The announcement of the left pilot made her lips curl in a sadistic grin. "Permission granted sergeant." And just like that, with those three words, the bombardment of the walls began.
​

Mathieu Brion

 

[Mathieu Brion]

Chomp

It was a good sandwich. Evenly distributed and fresh vegetables with ham, local cheese and some herbs he had found in someone's garden. Peacefully eating to his heart's content, Mathieu suddenly stopped as he heard a faint thudding sound multiple times over. It was a sound which he wouldn't forget anytime soon, having heard it during a particularly tough job once before. Spitting out his masterpiece, he roared "Take cover" The Mercenary was not known for playing around with these kinds of jokes and everyone was already on high alert which meant that most of the garrison was quick to react.

A whistling sound could be heard approaching at a devastating speed before the loud noise of a wall being blown up erupted from a nearby segment. Taking cover didn't matter quite as much when the target would be blown to pieces regardless of whether he stood behind a wall or not. But then, it did protect them against the splintered debris that would follow the explosion. And then, another impact, followed by a few more. What followed were what they had all trained for as the medics rushed out to see who they could save whilst the others scrambled into position. A loud horn-like sound would then boom over the city, warning the populace that they were in danger.

What made things worse was that the defenders had a hard time seeing where the attacks came from because of the poor weather conditions. It was something which the commanders had taken into account and while it was not optimal, they did have a response. A swarm of weather probes were released from a local radio station, all equipped with heat sensors in addition to their normal gear, making them good acceptable scouts as they relayed the information they gathered back to the loyalists.

Mathieu was already running along the wall, back to the tower where he had helped calibrate the turret. Two of the operators who were supposed to man the weapon were still cowering under a table while their comrades were trying to figure out where the enemy was - still not having received any information from the weather probes. Reaching in under the table, the large Morellian grabbed them both by the neck and started pulling them out - grateful that the privates were much scrawnier than himself. "You know where the holes are, just shoot!" he exclaimed, hoping that they could get a few lucky hits in as the information was still trickling in.

The sand clouds soon flashed red and was infiltrated by white smoke as the defenders fired off a hail of powerful laser bolts from the mounted defences. How the rebels managed to get their hands on so much artillery was beyond his understanding. All he knew now was that they needed to fight them off - and with that, he turned and started moving again, making his way to the next tower to see if they were in need of anything - it was far from unlikely as one of the shots had destroyed a wall near them, possible leading to a shortage in power cells or weapon operators.

Cyndane

 

[Cyndane]

Objective: Breach the walls of Bestormen
Location: Center forward AT-HA
Equipment: Vibrosword, Blaster pistol, 3 thermal detonators

Arisia watched with satisfaction as the scanners of her war machine indicated that they had already made a considerable gap in the walls. "Well-executed sergeant." she praised. "Contact Sergeant Rook. Tell him to send in the ground forces." A small breach was all they needed. The insurgents were fools, driven by their desire to free their city. They would not stop fighting until every last one of them was dead. And what they lacked in competence, they more than made up for in numbers. Numbers that needed to be reduced if they wanted the transition of power to the Empire to go smoothly. "What about our own troopers Ma'am?" Arisia shook her head. "Not them. Keep them back to reinforce the insurgents or lead a second wave, should Bestormen's defenses hold." She had her doubts that it would, but caution and patience always paid off.

A part of her was glad that she made the decision to keep her troops back, when a red beam of energy narrowly passed by one of the four AT-HAs under her command. One or two hits from canon fire of that size would be enough to take out her heavy artillery. And apparently firing back wasn't all that the defenders were doing. "Ma'am... Our scanners pick up a swarm of... weather probes?..." Her brow furrowed in response. "That can't be right... Why would they send out weather probes?" It was a strange move. One she wasn't sure she understood, which made it dangerous. In a battle like this, she would not allow the element of unpredictability to sway the tide of battle. "So... Should I let them be?.. or?" the pilot turned in his seat, waiting for her orders. "Whatever it is that they mean to accomplish, we won't let them. Deploy our own probe droids and have them guard our artillery. Any of these 'weather probes' who approach our position must be shot down." They had only ten probe droids or so, but those would be more than sufficient. And with their position guarded, she could shift her attention back to that which really mattered: how many insurgents it would take for Bestormen to fall.

Mathieu Brion ​

 

[Mathieu Brion]

"They're launching an attack! ... What the..." Mathieu looked over to the comms-guy by the side. The most important information had probably already been relayed - rebels were inbound - but the other piece of information was still of interest. "What?" The Mercenary spoke with a surprisingly commanding voice for his young age - but then, among the people in the tower now, he had probably seen the most combat seeing as he constantly saw action whilst the people who were with him in here were just a garrison. Sure, some training sessions, policing tasks and riot duties might have been carried out by them, but it would probably not come near the level of action which he had seen. "It's.. uh, they've sent out probes to shoot down our probes" Mathieu let out a short "Oh"

"Just keep firing at them" he said before leaving the tower to move on to the next point. Ultimately, it didn't matter if their foes started to shoot the probes down. They had a larger mass of weather probes and they could spot artillery from farther away than blasters could fire accurately. And even if the attackers managed to clear the skies, their artillery would probably still be relatively easy to target unless they could switch positions unproportionally fast compared to the fire power they carried.

Rushing along the fortification and skipping past the indents that were made at it, the large Mercenary scanned the men who laid hunkered down along the minor walls on the top of the walkway which was also the upper part of the main wall. They were well prepared to fire down on any attackers and with their defensive positions, casualties on their side should be relatively low. Still, the situation was much more dire than expected, for a fair number of the defenders had perished in the initial volley and large chunks of their cover had disappeared too, forcing some to either defend at overcrowded spots, defend without any other cover than height or simply abandon the idea of defending from the top of the wall at all.

Passing by another tower, he watched as the weapons crew inside seemed to have received coordinates upon which to fire from the central command. Hopefully, the weather probes had gathered sufficiently good information for a take-down, or at least for them to damage the artillery guns.

Indistinct hollers started coming in from people on the barricades. The enemy was sighted. It meant that they had to be close. Without stopping, Mathieu continued until he arrived at a spot close to the main breach. While the segment he stood on had already been hit and was heavily damaged with most of the cover destroyed, it still stood steady. For the attackers, it was perfect, as a large part of the defences were out, meaning that they had to withstand much less fire power when charging the breach compared to if the segment was intact. The Mercenary was about to remove their advantage.

Bringing out his chain gun, the heavily armoured Mathieu unleashed a flurry of bolts which rained down on his foes in a seemingly endless stream. The range was too long for accurate fire - but then, they came in large numbers and were thus easier to hit since the surfaces on which a bolt could land without causing damage were much smaller. The wave of attackers was not something which could easily be brushed off, but he was starting to wonder if their miraculous acquisition of artillery had caused them to grow overconfident - because it was becoming increasingly clear to him that this attack wouldn't be enough to conquer the city. In truth, the Mercenary himself was probably a decisive factor in this case, seeing as the foes below had little to throw back at him when he was clad in heavy armour and could direct so much firepower at them from such a long range.

Cyndane