Wet gap crossing. Breaching maneuver. Any officer worth their salt would've cringed at the circumstances. Hardly faulting Kroeger's commitment to the movement, but more so the circumstances that necessitated it to begin with. The repulsorlifts of the Cataphracht tanks and Barran IFVs allowed for swift movement through the crossing, negating the need for the bridges, but left them hopelessly exposed as the flanking armored and walker units provided fire support, matching any volley the Alliance wrought unto the breaching unit with a return fire all of their own.
Several of the tanks and troop carriers were 'popped' with a violent shriek of armor piercing rounds thrusts through the shielding and hulls of the vehicle, sending them plummeting into the river with a buoyant crash into the canal. Hopelessly, stormtroopers tried to dismount from the vehicles only for blaster bolts and flechettes to bite into their plasteel armor, leaving their lifeless bodies bobbing amongst pools of blood and sinew.
It was a hopeless picture to paint, but in the end, was the reality of war. Kroeger took up the rear of the advancing battalion, clad and buttoned up in his own command vehicle as he watched through the display in the troop bay of the Barran the surrounding devastation over the frantic chatter of comms between the vehicles.
<"Warrior-one, Warrior-two, over!"> Shouted one of the vehicle commanders over the net.
<"Two this is one, copy!">
<"Black on shields, say again, black on shields! We're putting everything to thrusters but I don't think-."> And like that, his blip on the command screen went dark, the troop transport knocked out, a flicker of its sensors and internal lights before it plummeted into the durasteel wall of the opposing back in a shriek of fire and shrapnel.
The Imperials had crossed but tolled great casualties along the way. All things considered, not the worst it could've gone in Kroeger's eyes. The expectation of a breaching force was to lose up to 70% of its forces in the maneuver.
<"Demon elements! Begin bounding!"> Kroeger said, advancing his own vehicles up in the rear guard of the element across the way to the thunder of covering walker and tank fire over each shoulder, anti-tank missiles launching from high up windows from established Stormtrooper observation points in the city's high reaching sky scrapers.
Kroeger grit his teeth beneath the helmet.
<"Sir-.">
<"Begin bounding! Move! We don't take out that shield, we're stuck here! We're dying here just like-...move it!"> He choked on his words. He could only think back to then. New Adasta. Ziost. Then as he was now, only a fresh faced platoon leader looking to make his mark, raise the Iron Sun over that city like he'd seen in all the posters, capturing that iconic image from Bastion. No, instead, barely a man anymore. He was mostly machine now and with it, the coldness of the replacement in flesh was reflected in his mentality. Some part of him died in New Adasta.
And just as he waded away the spirits of old ghosts, they re-emerged again.
<"Sir! A communication for you!"> His fire support officer barked up.
<"There's a set of coordinates that have populated with it as well."> The bridgeway Jon and his men were trying to seize. In accordance, Kroeger splayed his fingers to slew to the target grid, plotted a target at the far side of the bridge.
<"Halberd fires this is Demon Actual! Immediate suppression- grid, fox besh nine-one-seven-three, four-nine-three-seven!"> He barked out into the comms, his voice clear as it was loud, projecting his will to the gunline who said it all back to him. Within a few moments, rounds were in the tubes of the HARP battery before being flung at the target grid in accordance to Jon's request.
As the Firebird platoon began to scale the towers, they'd find a hail of blaster and missile fire ripping into the buildings from adjacent towers.
The Imperials that had made it across dismounted quickly into cover, spreading out to take up hasty fighting positions as Kroeger's own command element brought up the rear, a thud of an autocannon shot ripped into the ablative armor of his Barran before it settled into a halt behind cover.
The back ramp opened to let him and his squad of dismounts out. He set foot into the battered earth again, gritting his teeth beneath the helmet.
<"Iron Will is at objective point one, begin phase two-besh. Fire priority target 'red'."> He put out through the command net. With it, the guns slewed unto one of the two sphinxes, loading armor piercing delay rounds into their guns before firing off another mission into the super heavy walker. The two Sphinxes marked 'red' and 'gold' as soon as they were picked up by Iron Legion Scout troopers.
With the kick off to phase two-besh, air assault assets began their way across the water way, RDAG gunships firing off their air to ground payloads into the Hellstomper armor as the advancing Stormtrooper breach moved to take up their attention and close with the enemy.
A mortar round slammed into the road near Kroeger, a low grunt leaving him with a jolt through his form of embedded trauma before he unslung his carbine, grasping the pistol grip. He was hungry for some brave Alliance sod to try their hand at engaging him directly. Even still, far too many notes of Adasta.
He pointed back into the troop bay of the Barran. An index and small finger levied toward the subordinate Captain.
<"Get me word on those Commandos in the sewer! Hojkstra! Anyone that can move quickly!"> He barked out and soon enough, a communication tapped the way of
Jon Hojkstra
or at the very least, someone in his team with working comms.
<"All-Imperial this is Demon. Report effects of immediate suppression and present location, over."> Kroeger's fire support officer sounded off through the comms before the Imperial General let off another loud curse, his hands pulling from his rifle to cover over his helmet near his ears at the sound and impact of another far too close for comfort mortar round, he grit his teeth before he shook his head.
He peered up, the swift brush of a Raven across his vision snapping his attention. He narrowed his eyes.
He aimed down the scope of his carbine again to find one of the drones sighting in his position. His eyes were boiling with anger before he let off a shot in its direction, sending it tumbling to the shattered earth with a metallic clatter before he let the slung rifle fall to his belly again.
<"They still have eyes on us..."> He clenched his organic fist in anger. This was the suck.
tldr: Kroeger and some of the boys make it across the river, artillery is dropped on
Jon Hojkstra
's designated bridge, artillery is concentrated on a single Sphinx, Dark Imperial gunships start moving over the river, providing close air support before dropping off their own stormtrooper pay loads. 
