Junction The Lianna Compact || TIC/DIA Junction of Empty Hex and Shu-Torun

[FN-999 (restored)]

Allies: Imperial Confederation | Ronhar Tane | Bido Roz’lyn
Enemies: Diarchy | Laphisto

Several gentle pings rang out on the holoprojector as the positions of Diarchy forces were updated.

​

Hill B now faced overwhelming pressure from DAF units, including Laphisto himself - it would have to be abandoned. However, withdrawal from the hill was made less severe by the Diarchy’s own smoke screen, which greatly reduced the accuracy of long-range bombardment of hill A from B. Furthermore, withdrawing from hill B shortened the front line, giving vital opportunities for redeployment.

FN-999 returned to his comms station, setting the dial to Battlegroup 1.

[Battlegroup 1, retreat southeast from Hill B. Regroup at Hill A and prepare to occupy Battlegroup 7’s fortifications.]

Next, the general switched the dial to the battlegroup in question.

[Battlegroup 7, redeploy west towards the lake near C. A DAF unit is trying to flank our units on the hill - beat them to it.]

Aside from those two orders, FN-999 was satisfied with the current course of the battle. He had the locations of all but one DAF battlegroup, and he could confidently say that the other unit was likely atop hill D. His forces had pinned down nearly all of Laphisto’s, eliminating the likelihood of a rapid breakthrough anywhere on the front. It marked the end of the initial state of fighting and the beginning of truly decisive maneuvers.

The first stage of combat had largely been a battle of positions, with both FN-999 and Laphisto jockeying for control of strategic hills commanding the approaches to their respective command centers. The general’s forces had seized Hill A while his counterpart had seized Hill D while making an unexpectedly swift approach on Hill B, ultimately securing it. Hill C remained contested. With both sides digging in on their respective natural defenses, the rival armies had slowed down, especially in the rugged interior of the island.

The next phase of combat would be decided by the battle for Hill C and maneuvering on the sandy edges of the island. If the Imperator Corps controlled Hill C, Hill D could be directly threatened and FN-999 would secure a defensible base north of the river roughly bisecting the island. On the other hand, the DAF controlling Hill C would make Corps positions on Hill A increasingly untenable and possibly force a general retreat to last-ditch defensive lines. On the other hand, on the relatively flat western portion of the island FN-999’s forces held a numerical advantage over retreating Diarchy units. Here, a breakthrough with sufficient speed and power could bypass hills B and D altogether, allowing two or three battlegroups to launch a direct assault on the Diarchy’s command center.

Yet even with a roughly two to one advantage against the DAF on its western flank, FN-999 remained concerned that a counterattack from Hill B could quickly pin down and encircle an attempted spearhead before it could progress. Fortunately, he had a solution.

The general switched the dial to “8”.

​

[Battlegroup Eight. At 11:13 local, advance north-northwest as fast and as hard as possible. Other units will cover for you. You only have one objective: the DAF command center. I will assume direct command at 11:13 local.]

FN-999 now switched on every dial but 8.

[Battlegroup Five, continue engaging and pinning down DAF forces. Battlegroup Six, shift to face east and lay down defenses to cover for Eight’s spearhead.]

[All other battlegroups except One are to engage in offensive maneuvers. The main goal is to pin down DAF forces, even if it means heavy losses. Do not let them redeploy to stop the breakthrough.]

[Air support, requesting maximum cover for Battlegroup Eight on the far west of the island.]

Letting out a deep sigh, FN-999 switched off every dial in the small room and left for the main chamber.

​

Adrenaline coursed through the general’s body as he proceeded towards the elevator that would take him down to ground level. For better or worse, these would be the final actions of the war games between the Imperial Confederation and the Diarchy. If the breakthrough was successfully carried out, it would add another victory to FN-999’s distinguished resume and, more importantly, raise the prestige of the Imperial Confederation as a military superpower. On the other hand, if the breakthrough failed, Laphisto would likely not hesitate to exploit the gap and secure a swift victory with overwhelming force.

Already, FN-999 had made the mistake of judging Laphisto based on his biology given a lack of personal information. It was always a risk when there was little recent history or culture to use to analyze a being, and clearly falling back on the strategy of Grand Admiral Thrawn on the matter was not always effective. But however hard a defeat would hurt in the moment, FN-999 was never too proud to learn from his mistakes. It was something he had learned the hard way in the years following the end of the New Imperial Order, when his lofty adventures had left Borosk nearly defenseless against the invading forces of the Dark Empire.

“Bigfoot, I leave operation of the command center in your hands.” declared FN-999. “I’m going in."

“Godspeed.” replied the high colonel.

The two then parted ways and FN-999 entered the elevator, dialing in the button that would take him to the first floor of the command center. As the doors shut behind him and he shot down the depths of the building, his adrenaline only surged further, complemented by a drop of anxiety and fear. The latter emerged from his ever-deepening thoughts about the conduct of his counterpart, Laphisto, whose combat abilities seemed to suggest that he was also a strong Force user. A familiar tremor of panic ran up FN-999’s spine at the thought, similar to any time he knew he was going to approach a Force user. Yet he was able to squash it down, reminding himself that the draconic being was still far off in the distance and he needed full control of his senses if he wanted to properly command his forces to victory.

If he was lucky, he might not even run into Laphisto at all.

The elevator came to an abrupt halt, the doors opening into a large hallway that itself opened up into a large gate of durasteel and concrete. FN-999 took a detour halfway down the hall into the garage on the right, mounting a speeder bike and picking up two guns - a relatively light G-11 carbine for engaging enemies while riding the speeder and a G-18 heavy rifle for combat after dismounting near the Diarchy’s command center.

Strapping the G-18 to his back and sheathing the G-11 on his waist belt, FN-999 started the bike’s engine and slowly moved out of the garage. Ahead of him, the gate of the command center lurched open, revealing a thin strip of grassy plain that was soon swallowed up by the vast expanse of jungle. Once the gate stopped moving, FN-999 stepped on the gas and rapidly accelerated out of the center to lead Battlegroup Eight.

​

At 11:10, FN-999 arrived at Battlegroup Eight’s temporary camp about five kilometers north of the command center. Set up in a small clearing surrounded on all sides by lush jungle, the camp was a ruckus filled with radio equipment and troopers performing final checks on their equipment. Hundreds of speeder bikes similar to FN-999’s own were also scattered throughout the clearing: Battlegroup Eight was designed to above all else be light and mobile. Upon the general’s arrival, an armored officer stepped out of the crowd, offering him a salute before speaking up.

“General, Major Rhiannan. We’ve been receiving your comms as planned. The battlegroup will be ready to go by the deadline."

“Very good.” replied the general. “I assume you have the latest intel coming in."

“Crystal clear.” responded the major.

Battlegroup Eight had been held back not only to provide a mobile reserve force, but also to give its officers time to listen to updates from all of the other battlegroups as they engaged the enemy. As a result, they were by far the best informed of the Imperator Corps battlegroups and had a clear outline of how the Diarchy’s forces were arranged. In fact, FN-999 had authorized Battlegroup Eight to also receive all inbound messages intended for him.

Just then, an alarm went off several meters away in the clearing, followed by several other alarms that beeped loudly for a few seconds before shutting off.

“It’s time."

​

 

[Bido Roz’lyn]

OBJECTIVE 2: Dual Dominion

• Provide air support for confederation forces

Under Bido's Command:

• 2 squadrons of STX-TIEs
  • All weapons swapped for ION variants
• 1 squadron of TIE/ews

Personal Loadout:

• Ship — X3-A Striker
  • Ear clickers integrated
  • Proton Torpedoes swapped for ION torpedoes
  • Lasers swapped for ion canons
• Astromech — named Cheddar
  • OSIVP software added
  • TECMIS software added
  • Blasters swapped for ION canon
• Sidearm
  • Preemptively set to stun
• Personal energy shield

[Lieutenant Roz'lyn, this is General FN-999. Requesting air support in two locations - hill A and hill C, both of which have been marked on your maps.]

[For hill A, unload non-lethal munitions on the strip of forest between the river and hill A's lower slope. We need to clear enough trees to create a clear line of fire on DAF forces advancing on A.]

[For hill C, you have full discretion as to which targets to strike. The important thing is to keep the DAF distracted and disoriented while our ground forces will take the hill out from under them.]

[If engaged by hostile fighters, you have full discretion over how to deploy your air wings and whether or not to delay either hill strike mission to focus on the air threat. That is all.]

Blast…

"Yes sir, we'll make it happen!" She closed the channel for now.

Bido was definitely not fond of these orders. Under normal circumstances, clearing a forest would be a simple matter. But for a training exercise, it would be fairly costly to arrange. Doable, but painful. Normally, trees would be easily cleared by carefully placed energy weapon shots, or concussive ordnance. She was even experienced on the matter, having cleared many forests in her nearly a century of flying. But today, all she and her fellow fighters had were ION weapons.

All except her four little TIE/ew fighters…

At best, all ION canons could do was cause an uncontrollable fire to burn the forest down. In a real scenario, an argument could be made for why it's a risk worth taking. But in a training exercise, a forest fire was too much of a risk to the safety of the troops on both sides.

That left her TIE/ew fighters. They were slow, and specifically tailored towards electronic warfare. She hadn't expected to have to call them into action, and had only intended to use them for their enhanced sensors. When she had arranged to have her other fighters weapons swapped for ION variants, she had neglected to slate them in for the same modifications, having written them off as non-combatants.

It was both stupid, and convenient. But mostly stupid. While the TIE/ew fighters were certainly capable of clearing the trees as FN-999 (restored) had requested, this action would also leave them extremely vulnerable. Sending them to do this mission would almost certainly get them eliminated. Losing her four electronic warfare platforms would durastically reduce her situational awareness.

Oh well. I guess the main point of these exercises is to learn things.

She briefly considered sending a detachment of STX-TIEs to escort them, but that plan was quickly shut down by a recent development. The enemy gunships had regrouped and reorganized into defensive cuddle-cell formations. The gunships had begun to use a rotation to counter battle fatigue to great effect. Their overlapping point defence fire rendered Bido's previous missile offensive obsolete. Their coordination was so excellent in fact, that they were able to defend and attack confederate ground troops from this posture rather seamlessly. Whoever was coordinating this formation was very good.

"Fighters, break off and regroup. Time to hit them with something else." She ordered. As soon as she did, her two squadrons of STX-TIEs fell back and reorganized near hill A.

The Diarchy was using a tactic that Bido knew well. Her people, the Dorneans, often used a similar tacticwith their Braha'tok Gunships, to great effect. To her people, they knew it as "Gunship Pod Defence", drawing their inspiration from various whales that lived in Dornea's oceans. After many decades serving in her people's navy, she knew how deadly effective this tactic could be…

… and she knew what could break it too.

Sighing heavily, she resolved to send the TIE/ews to their simulated doom. The gunships would require her direct intervention on this one. While FN-999 (restored) had given her an objective, the enemy gunships were still her primary mandate, as her unit was configured for air dominance. She couldn't abandon that.

She keyed her comms to the Imperial Fighter division frequency, "All TIE/ews, you are being mobilized. Head to the lane that runs between hills A and B. Clear out any and all trees that you can between the river and the lower ridge of hill A. You are required to use concussive ordnance, HOWEVER, you are required to avoid troop casualties on both sides. I REPEAT! AVOID TROOP CASUALTIES! You guys have the best sensors on the field, so you have NO EXCUSE. If a tree has so much as a single soldier taking a nap in it, you are to leave that tree alone! Repeat that back to me!"

The unit captain for the TIE/ew squadron came through with a reedy, drolly voice, "Aye, lieutenant! We're tah bust up them trees, an' don' touch the ones with people in, or aroun' 'em!"

Bido allowed herself to jerk her head back at the sound of the man's accent. Where was HE from? She pushed the thought aside.

"Alright, Captain. You have your orders. Execute now!"

The four clumsy fighters surged away from the safety of the forward operating base and towards their objective. Bido figured that they would have no trouble clearing out at least MOST of the trees before the Diarchy forces mustered an effective interception of some kind. If memory served Bido correctly, the TIE/ew fighters had fairly decent homing cluster missiles loaded in their NZ RTL1 Launchers. They would be quick enough to do the job, but likely not quick enough to escape…

There.

That freed her up to deal with the gunships over hill C. She switched to the channel exclusive for her fighter units, "alright. We're going to provide air cover for our units on hill C. We're using hammer and anvil formation. Squadron one, you're on anvil. Use Wolfpack attack pattern 3, keeping low, fast, and tight to the enemy. Use your speed—those gunships are clumsy compared to us. Squadron 2, you're on Hammer. Set up for dive-bombing attack pattern for a straight vertical drop. Standby at the apex for my signal, and stick to ION canons this time. They don't hit as hard, but they're harder to counter than your rockets."

Her hands gripped the yoke tighter as a thrill began to rush through her very being. Selfishly, she was actually eager to show off a little, "I'll be flying with the Wolfpack. Execute now!"

Squadron two wasted no time. They shot straight up towards the sun where they would wait on standby for Bido's command. Bido goosed her throttle and punched straight for the air theatre just above hull C. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw some of Ronhar Tane 's janky walkers, and she briefly wondered how he was fairing down there. She then grimaced as she realized that he was about to witness her abusing yet another one of his fighters. She'd have to beg for forgiveness later…

"Cheddar, set my innertial dampeners to 100%. And don't argue with me!" She ordered her droid.

Squadron 1 chased after her, failing to keep up. Her ship was flying way too fast, and intentionally so. As soon as she had the attention of the gunships over hill C, proximity alerts blared in her ear clickers. With careful timing, she dropped her nose and then snapped her ship level again with the tips of the tree tops. The enemy missiles just barely missed her last minute maneuver, and attempted to correct their flight path, only to plow into the ground behind Bido's engines. She then shot beneath the gunship formations, snapping ION shots at their bellies as she went. Then, with the skill of a pilot that had flown for longer than most humans could live, she slide-slipped her fighter into a 180 degree turn, goosed her throttle, and rapidly accelerated her ship back through the underbellies of the gunships, blasting as she went. She did this again. And again. Each time, the frame of her X3-A Striker cracked and groaned from the strain of her aggressive acceleration and maneuvering. She became like a ball on rubber band, using the gunship cells as nuclei. She switched between cells seamlessly, taking care not to over-focus on any one gunship for too long. Her ship was incredibly fast, too. To observers on the ground, she would only slow down to turn around just long enough to be barely visible before seemingly flickering out of existence again—only to appear on the other side just as briefly. Her maneuvers got faster and faster, almost creating the illusion that there were more of her than just one. Each time, blasting the bellies of the gunships with her ION canons as she passed by, striking from all angles. As she did so, she almost seemed to leave an afterimage of herself behind.

This was what a Dornean pilot was capable of…

Then, Squadron One arrived.

They joined Bido in her assault, adding their own speed and power to the attack. Striking low, circling, changing direction, the pilots of squadron one nipped at the gunships like wolves biting small morsels off a living bear. They all kept low, using close proximity to the ground and trees to confuse the gunships' tracking. In this case, the speed of Bido's ships was intended to overwhelm the clumsy nature of the LAHTs strike-based weaponry.

Then, it happened. As was ordered, the LAHTs would start to feel the fatigue, and begin rotation. Fresh ships would slip down from above, while exhausted ships would ascend to safety to recover.

"NOW!" Bido commanded into her headset.

Squadron Two, circling like vultures overhead, suddenly dove down. They would target the closest, now weakest gunships, hammering from above. Much like the Doppler effect, as their speed increased, their shots would hit at a higher cadence. They came down from many kilometres high, having ample time to bombard the gunships below with building ferocity.

Bido chose now to open a comm channel to the ground forces, "anti air units, if got anything to throw at the gunships, do it now!"

She was aware that anti-air units were under pressure right now. But if there was a time for them to take a shot, this was it. And a good unit commander would figure out how to take it if they could. With any luck, they would.

Squadron two finished their lethal bombardment, and pulled out of their dive. Bido ordered both squadrons to pull back and regroup over hill A. She then checked her scopes to evaluate her units. 5 fighters lost from squadron one, and 3 from squadron 2. The "lost" fighters were pulling off the battlefield now, heading towards the "graveyard" on the sidelines where there were tents and (according to what Bido heard) several barbecues lit and waiting.

Bido was just about to check in on the TIE/ew squadron when more orders came through:

[Air support, requesting maximum cover for Battlegroup Eight on the far west of the island.]

"Yes sir! Please have your people paint targets for us and we'll hit them hard! I'll inform my flight officers that your field level NCOs are authorized to call targets to my people." She replied.

Bido wasted no time and switched to her unit channel, "all squadrons form up on me! They want full air support, we give it to them! If they declare a target and you're in the vicinity, call it and then take it! Field level NCOs are authorized to call targets, so go ham!"

Ronhar Tane Laphisto FN-999 (restored) Lyssara Thrynn Joseph Torson

OPEN