FN-999 (restored)
Ronhar Tane
As TIC forces began pulling back from Bravo, Laphisto moved immediately to consolidate the position. He dropped low behind the ridgeline and, with a brief, controlled exertion of the Force, tore at the earth itself. Stone and packed soil surged upward in jagged slabs, forming a series of low defensive walls nearly two feet thick along the overlook facing Alpha Point. it wasnt long before other force sensitives began to do the same all around the edge of Bravo point. It wasn't elegant work, but it didn't need to be. It was fast, brutal, and effective cover where none had existed moments before.
He keyed his comms as the last sections settled into place. "
Set up the fifties. Train them on Alpha. Overlapping fire lanes. Do not let up keep them pinned." The order rippled through the battalions occupying Bravo. With more than three full battalions dug into the position and freshly raised cover anchoring their line, the hill transformed into a gun platform. Nearly two hundred heavy machine guns were brought forward not counting the dedicated support crews feeding belts and swapping barrels and oriented toward Alpha Point and the bulk of Salvage Team Six.
Once emplaced, the guns came alive in disciplined waves. The AASH-assisted mounts allowed the heavy gunners to absorb recoil and maintain sustained accuracy, turning raw firepower into controlled suppression. Bursts were timed, staggered, and relentless close to six hundred rounds per minute per gun when required chewing through foliage, raking the slopes, and hammering every exposed approach. Whether the fire eliminated targets outright or simply forced them flat against the dirt hardly mattered. The effect was the same.
"
Groups advancing through the center toward Alpha new target priorities coming through now. Follow them to the letter. Bravo reinforcement group, you're receiving updated tasking as well. Orders inbound."
The commands were pushed directly through Laphisto's HUD, icons shifting and re-coloring as unit designations updated in real time. Almost immediately, the two central elements broke formation and peeled away from their original axis of advance.
One group angled hard to the right, moving along broken ground toward Point C. Their route would take them around the edge of the terrain and up behind an enemy element clustered near what appeared to be a small lake. The intent was simple: come in from an unexpected vector, collapse the rear of the formation, and force the enemy to split their attention under fire.
The second group turned into the smoke itself, pushing deliberately into the fog-choked jungle. As visibility dropped, they switched optics thermal and infrared overlays cutting through the haze and foliage, silhouettes blooming against the murk. Their goal wasn't a reckless charge, but pressure. They opened fire in controlled bursts through dense brush and tree lines, using the concealment to their advantage, trusting shock and surprise to break cohesion among the retreating forces before they could reorganize.
Both groups operated with an added layer of caution. Dedicated spotters were assigned to keep Hill A under constant watch, tracking any infantry movement along the ridgeline. If hostile forces attempted to look down and engage from elevation, the response would be immediate suppression first, counterattack second. No element moved without overwatch, and no advance was made blindly.
The maneuver wasn't about speed alone. It was about forcing the enemy to react on multiple fronts at once rear, flank, and smoke while denying them the time and clarity needed to bring their defenses back into order.
The group operating along the far left of the island maintained pressure on the enemy's rear until heavier elements finally pushed into the fight. The arrival of AT-AW walkers and jet-pack infantry forced a shift in posture. The lighter walkers and speeder bikes disengaged, falling back across the river and into Diarchy-held ground before the weight of the counterattack could settle on them.
The light walkers only four meters tall but surprisingly quick didn't retreat in a straight line. They broke contact in short bounds, advancing just long enough to fire before slipping back again, using terrain and vegetation to stay just out of reach. Their bursts were sharp and brief, never lingering long enough for the heavier units to pin them down.
The pattern repeated as the distance widened. A volley. A pause. Another pullback. Each time the gap closed, the walkers were already moving again, forcing the pursuing units to adjust their pace and spacing to keep contact. River crossings slowed the advance. Uneven ground disrupted formations. Momentum stretched thin. From a distance, it looked like a fighting withdrawal, disciplined, controlled, but still a withdrawal all the same. The lighter units continued to give ground, never quite breaking away, never quite allowing the engagement to end.
the wo groups on hill c coninued here approach and once hey came underfire would hunker down behind wha cover hey could find to try and hold there ground to ensure they would hold the hill.
Bido Roz’lyn
FN-999 (restored)
The initial pull-out from the dive was the most brutal phase for the gunships. They were still stabilizing, crews fighting inertia and altitude loss, when enemy fire came in hard and fast walker-mounted anti-air from below, starfighters cutting in from above. It was the worst possible moment to be caught exposed.
Laphisto had set the combat parameters himself: once a gunship's shields
and hull integrity dropped to sixty percent operational capacity, the system would trigger an automatic shutdown. Power bled off, control surfaces locked, and the pilot was left with only minimal directional authority just enough to try and steer the fall. From there, gravity took over.
One by one, gunships were forced out of the sky, spiraling or plowing into jungle, hillsides, and riverbanks in controlled but violent simulated crashes. In total,
ten gunships were marked as shot down during that opening window of the engagement.
The aftermath was just as chaotic. Survivors clawed their way out of wrecked hulls, pilots and crew scattering some linking up with nearby Diarchy units, others finding themselves cut off entirely, stranded behind enemy lines with nothing but what they could carry and whatever cover the terrain offered.
Each downed gunship had been carrying two AT-AS MKII walkers. Of the twenty walkers lost with the crashes, the training program's randomized damage assessments marked
only eleven as viable for recovery. The rest were written off as destroyed or too damaged to deploy.
For now, those remaining walkers and the crews who survived with them were effectively isolated assets: pinned to their crash zones, operating deep in contested territory, waiting for either extraction or an opportunity to reenter the fight on their own terms.
The remaining gunships pulled back and reorganized into tight hover formations.
Seven cells of four and
two heavier cells of five established layered positions, each group orienting itself so that overlapping fields of fire and sensor coverage sealed off likely approach vectors. No ship hovered alone; every angle was watched, every lane contested.
Operating in close proximity paid immediate dividends. Incoming missiles were engaged earlier and more reliably as the
PDL systems synchronized, multiple point-defense nodes tracking and intercepting the same threats in rapid succession. What would have slipped through a single ship's defenses was shredded by coordinated fire.
Within each cell, the gunships began a steady rotation cycle. Vessels with stronger shields rolled forward to absorb incoming pressure, while those that had taken hits drifted back just long enough for their Va'karis matrices to recover. It was controlled, deliberate no panic maneuvers, no wasted motion just disciplined attrition management in the air.
All nine formations held to the Diarchy side of the battlespace, maintaining standoff distance while still exerting pressure. From their hovering positions, they provided sustained overwatch and suppression for infantry elements below, guns tracking treelines, river crossings, and ridge lines where enemy movement was most likely to break cover.
For now, the gunships weren't pushing deeper. They were anchoring the sky denying airspace, blunting advances, and making every approach toward Diarchy-held ground costly to attempt. while also recovering infanry from he crash sites on he diarchy lines
Ronhar Tane
FN-999 (restored)
Bido Roz’lyn
The TIE Walkers of Salvage Team Six, positioned across Hill A and dispersed through the surrounding jungle, soon came under sustained fire from the gunship cells gliding across the battlespace. The gunships did not operate on fixed attack runs. Instead, their movement appeared loosely patterned—cells passing one another in wide arcs, cycling through the area at different angles and altitudes. The intent was to keep pressure constant while preventing any single formation from lingering long enough to become a focused target.
This rotational movement allowed the gunships to remain survivable. Several cells stayed pulled back just far enough that, unless they drew concentrated fire, they could continue cycling without rapidly accumulating damage. As one group advanced, another would peel away, ensuring that anti-air fire from the ground was always being redirected rather than concentrated.
As one cell approached the ionized smoke near Hill A, it shifted into a more aggressive posture. Door-mounted weapons and ball turrets angled downward, pouring fire into the underside of the smoke and surrounding treelines to suppress enemy positions and limit return fire. With the area momentarily pressured, the gunships opened their drop hatches.
A total of
eight AT-AS MKII walkers were deployed in rapid succession. They struck the ground hard but operational, immediately breaking into movement and disappearing into the foliage. Once on the ground, the walkers spread out and began advancing through the jungle on a direct search-and-destroy mission.
The walkers' targets were the TIE Walkers of Salvage Team Six. Their movement was guided by targeting data and firing cues relayed from the gunship pilots overhead—ion discharges, missile launches, and sensor spikes marking likely enemy positions. While the gunships continued their cycling pattern above, the walkers pushed forward beneath the canopy, systematically hunting the ground-based anti-air assets threatening Diarchy air operations.
Within the encampment at Bravo Point, a single gunship cut low overhead and flared its repulsors, dropping several infantry directly into the perimeter. The reaction from the surrounding Lilaste Order forces was immediate. Weapons came up in unison, suppressive fire tearing into the landing zone in an effort to smother the insertion before it could fully take hold.
Laphisto reacted instantly. He tore at the ground with a sharp pull of the Force, dragging up slabs of packed earth and stone into crude barricades but the moment the opposing commander landed inside the perimeter, Laphisto felt the shift: a sort of static blooming through the air hitting his mind in full force. he quickly came to it was far to hard to concentrate on the force when he tried to pull another baricade up from the earth. with a small rumble
He didn't waste time trying to overpower it, instead Laphisto brought his
LO-20D up and fired several controlled bursts toward Ronhar's position until the rifle clicked empty. The moment it did, the AASH system engaged yanking the weapon cleanly back onto his spine as he transitioned.
His
LO-22S was already in his hand. He fired all twelve shots in rapid succession, driving the pressure forward until the pistol went dry. Rather than waste the motion, Laphisto hurled the empty sidearm straight at Ronhar and immediately dove behind one of the newly raised barricades as incoming fire chewed into the emplacement.
Around them, the larger engagement never paused. Lilaste Order elements continued forcing TIC forces off Bravo though Lilaste order forces didnt pursue them down the hill but they kept fire supression, pressing them toward the infantry formations waiting below. The clash at the encampment was violent and abrupt, but it was only one piece of the broader advanceBravo Point was still being secured under sustained pressure, even as command-level contact erupted at its center.
Even so, a solid two dozen soldiers broke off from the wider push to help Laphisto contain the incursion. As the fighting tightened around the barricades, Laphisto caught the sound of the opposing commander's voice cutting through the noise. He gave a small, humorless chuckle as he snapped a fresh magazine from his belt and seated it into his rifle with a practiced motion.
A few globs of spray mist clung stubbornly to his forearms thin, uneven layers that had slipped past his personal shields before they could fully compensate. Not dangerous yet, but close enough to be a problem if he let it build. Something to watch."
Not at all, Commander," Laphisto called back evenly. "
Care for some tea?"
He surged up and over the barricade in one smooth motion, rifle already tracking as he opened fire toward Ronhar's position again. Each burst was short and deliberate. If the distance closed, Laphisto began stepping back methodically, never turning fully away, using the cover he had raised to control the engagement space.
He relied heavily on his helmet's HUD now target outlines, range markers, predictive reticles feeding him data faster than instinct alone ever could. The fight had narrowed into a brutal, close-range exchange, and Laphisto intended to keep it that way, dictating distance and tempo while the rest of Bravo continued to collapse under Diarchy pressure around them.
[ key for the map. black dots= crashed gunships. beige dots. gunship cells]
