Objetcive 2
Armor
Rifle
MG
Walker
The troop bay of the
LAHT shuddered hard enough to rattle teeth as another burst of flak detonated somewhere off the port side. Red cabin lights washed over the soldiers packed along the benches, catching on olive-drab armor plates, black undersuits, scratched visors, and rifles secured across chests and knees. The gunship had been riding the terrain low since clearing the worst of the atmospheric fighting, its engines screaming whenever the pilot hauled the transport around another ridge or cluster of buildings. Every few seconds the hull gave another dull metallic thump from debris or distant fragmentation. Nobody bothered asking what had hit them.
Laphisto stood near the center of the troop bay with one hand wrapped around an overhead restraint. His rifle remained mag-locked across his back, leaving his helmet tucked beneath his left arm while he looked from one soldier to the next. The open side of the bay gave him brief flashes of the battlefield outside: smoke crawling across the horizon, distant weapons fire, and the occasional streak of flak reaching upward for anything foolish enough to fly high. Three walkers had gone down somewhere in that mess during entry. Only one had checked in afterward.
He waited until the next burst of turbulence passed before raising his voice over the engines. "
Alright, listen up. The mission is simple. That shield generator needs to come down eventually, but we've been attached to the task force dealing with the jammer first." Laphisto shifted his helmet beneath his arm and reached up toward the tactical display mounted along the troop bay wall. A taloned finger tapped the projected perimeter where the House Guard had established their defenses. "
If you thought breaching atmosphere was difficult, I regret to inform you that was the easy part."
The gunship banked sharply, forcing several soldiers to brace their boots against the deck. Somewhere beyond the hull, another anti-aircraft burst rolled across the sky with a deep, distant concussion. "
We lost three walkers during entry. Charfang is the only one still moving with us." His finger moved across the map, stopping near the western side of the city.
"One of the others came down somewhere around here, inside the combat zone. If we get an opportunity to recover it, we take it. Until then, it doesn't exist. Don't go wandering halfway across the city chasing equipment while the rest of the battalion is trying to punch through that shield."
Laphisto dragged the display toward the enemy position. The jammer site sat behind a localized force dome, its perimeter marked by trenches, hardened firing points, and heavy cargo speeders converted into stationary gun platforms. Even through the grainy reconnaissance imagery, the silhouettes of artillery pieces and repeating cannons were easy enough to pick out.
"
This is what matters." He tapped the map where the most construction was being done. The likely place of the jammer. "
They finish that array and everything down here goes deaf. No orbital coordination, no clean reinforcement corridor, and no guarantee anybody upstairs can guide another transport through the fighting without getting it cut apart. That means we're stuck planetside until somebody finds another way to open the door. I don't intend to spend the next month hiding behind enemy lines because some noble with a construction crew managed to finish an antenna."
A few helmets shifted. Someone near the rear checked his rifle's charge without looking down. "
We're dropping two kilometers from the shield perimeter. Their flak coverage is too thick for the gunships to take us any closer without handing them easy kills." Laphisto enlarged the terrain map, marking several landing zones across the surrounding district. "T
he transports are going in scattered. Roughly one kilometer between elements. Once you're on the ground, establish your position, get your people moving, and converge here."
His finger stopped over the town square. "
That's the rally point." The LAHT rocked again, harder this time. Warning tones chirped briefly from the cockpit before being silenced, and the soldiers closest to the open bay instinctively leaned away from it. Through the opening, black smoke rolled upward beyond the rooftops while tracer fire climbed through it in bright, uneven streams.
"
Once we're assembled, we push for the dome. Expect trenches. Expect overlapping fields of fire. Expect those cargo haulers to have been turned into gun trucks, artillery nests, or whatever else they could bolt a cannon onto." Laphisto pulled his helmet free from beneath his arm and turned it in his hands, checking the seal before continuing. "
Do not bunch up when those repeaters start working. Spread your squads, keep moving, and let the gunners waste ammunition trying to pin shadows."
He glanced once toward the rear of the gunship, where the surviving walker would be approaching by its own route. "
Charfang has to reach the shield with us. She's the only heavy piece we still have with enough gun to reliably tear those converted cargo speeders apart once we're inside." He slipped the helmet over his head and locked it into place with a hiss. The visor darkened, leaving only the glow of the HUD reflected faintly across its surface. "
Infantry keeps the crews off her. Charfang kills the hard targets. We clear a path to the jammer and destroy the core before they bring it online."
His rifle released from the magnetic lock across his back and dropped neatly into his hand. "
That's the job." The light above the troop bay doors switched from red to amber. Laphisto pulled the rifle tight against his chest and turned toward the opening as the LAHT descended even lower, skimming rooftops while distant artillery shook dust from the ruined streets below. The soldiers around him began their final weapon checks, tightening straps, sealing helmets, and slapping fresh power cells into place. Outside, the skyline disappeared behind smoke and flak.
The formation stayed low as it pushed across the outskirts, the LAHTs weaving between rooftops and stretches of broken terrain rather than giving the flak batteries a clean line of sight. Smoke hung over the district ahead, flattening against the buildings whenever the engine wash rolled through it, while distant artillery continued hammering somewhere closer to the shield perimeter. Inside Laphisto's gunship, the soldiers sat with rifles across their chests or braced between their knees, most of them watching the open side doors instead of one another. The amber light over the bay remained lit, throwing a dull glow across scratched olive-drab armor and black undersuits. Every few seconds the transport shifted under them as the pilot corrected course around another building or avoided a burst of fire farther ahead.
"
Twenty seconds," came the warning from the cockpit. Laphisto kept one hand around the overhead restraint and looked toward the nearest squad. His rifle sat tight against his chest now, helmet already sealed, the tactical display across his visor showing the other transports spread through the district around them. The first hit came before anyone could move toward the doors.
The LAHT snapped sideways hard enough to throw one soldier off the bench and slam another shoulder-first into the bulkhead. Laphisto's grip tightened around the restraint as the transport rolled left, warning tones breaking through the cabin noise while the pilot fought to level them out. Something struck the hull again near the rear of the troop compartment, followed by a sharp metallic crack and a burst of sparks from the ceiling. The gunship dropped several meters, recovered, then began pulling hard to one side.
"
Starboard engine's hit!" A third impact followed almost immediately. The shields flashed blue-white along the open side of the gunship and collapsed in a rippling sheet before the round struck the armor beneath them. The Kov'dra plating held, but the section around the impact glowed dark red while smoke poured back past the troop bay. One of the soldiers nearest the opening planted both boots against the deck and grabbed the restraint above him as the transport began drifting toward the buildings ahead.
Laphisto looked through the open bay.
The street outside had tilted. "
Brace!" The gunship clipped the upper edge of a building.
The impact tore through masonry and ripped part of the outer wing assembly away, showering the open troop bay with dust and fragments. Soldiers folded into their restraints or slammed against the deck as the LAHT spun across the street, its damaged engine screaming while the pilot fought the controls. Laphisto caught a soldier by the front of his armor before the man could slide toward the open doorway, hauled him back against the bulkhead, and barely had time to turn before another structure filled the entire side of the bay.
The LAHT hit nose-first. The cockpit punched through the outer wall and disappeared into the building, carrying half the troop compartment with it. Interior walls collapsed beneath the hull as the transport drove deeper into the structure, breaking through rooms and support beams before the damaged frame finally caught against something solid. The stop threw Laphisto forward hard enough to wrench his shoulder against the restraint. Equipment broke loose from storage brackets and struck the deck around the soldiers while dust rolled through the bay until the emergency lights were little more than red smears in the haze.
For several seconds, the only sound inside the wreck was damaged machinery winding down and pieces of the building falling around them. Then somebody coughed. Another soldier kicked a storage rack off his legs. Laphisto released the restraint and pushed himself upright, testing his footing before reaching down to haul the nearest man back onto his feet. "
Sound off," he ordered. His rifle had stayed secured through the crash, and he pulled it free while the soldiers around him began answering one after another. A medic was already crawling toward a man pinned beside the opposite bench, while two others forced a twisted section of plating away from the side of the bay. Blaster fire struck the exterior of the wreck. Everyone inside stopped looking inward.A second burst punched through the shattered wall beside the gunship and sent chips of duracrete across the compartment. "
Contact outside!"
Laphisto moved toward the front of the wreck, stepping over broken equipment and pieces of collapsed ceiling as another burst struck the building. The cockpit had buried itself through most of the second floor, leaving the nose of the gunship lodged among broken walls and furniture. One pilot hung against his harness but was moving; the other had already pulled himself free and was reaching for the emergency release beside his seat. Laphisto pointed toward the rear compartment as he passed. "
Get yourselves clear. We're not staying with the ship."
He climbed through the torn opening beside the cockpit and stepped into what remained of the room beyond it. Half the exterior wall was gone. The street below was visible through hanging rebar and broken masonry, with smoke drifting between the buildings and small-arms fire snapping through the gaps. The LAHT had entered high enough to bury itself across the second floor, its rear section still jutting through the outer wall while debris continued sliding from the damaged structure beneath it. Laphisto crouched behind a broken interior wall and brought his rifle to his shoulder as a House Guard soldier appeared in a window across the street.
He fired twice. the rifle barked as it sent 30-06 rounds hard inside the ruined room, each shot sharp enough to cut through the hiss of damaged machinery behind him. Brass spun from the action and bounced across the floor while the rounds punched chunks from the window frame opposite them. The House Guard soldier disappeared back inside as fractured masonry sprayed into the room around him.
"
Windows and stairwell, Get the wounded off the wreck."
The first squad spread through the damaged floor while the others began pulling injured soldiers from the troop bay. Two riflemen settled against what remained of the outer wall and started firing controlled pairs across the street. Their rifles kicked against their shoulders with each shot, rounds hammering through shutters, doors, and the thinner sections of duracrete around the enemy firing positions. Spent casings gathered near their boots, rolling through dust and broken glass whenever another concussion shook the building.
A heavier gun opened from the room behind them. The .50-caliber machine gun announced itself with a much deeper report. The gunner had planted the weapon across a broken section of wall, one soldier feeding the belt while another watched the street. Each burst hammered through the building and pushed dust from the surrounding masonry. Across the road, the rounds didn't stop neatly at the surface; they punched into the outer wall, breaking fist-sized pieces of concrete loose and tearing through thinner sections entirely. A House Guard rifleman who had been using the corner of the structure for cover disappeared deeper inside as the wall around him began coming apart.
Rounds tore through the upper wall and punched across the ceiling above them. Laphisto dropped behind the interior wall as fragments scattered across his armor. The soldiers beside the windows flattened themselves against the floor while the incoming burst walked across the wreckage and disappeared into the next room. When the weapon stopped, Laphisto was already moving toward the stairwell.
"
Lower floor. Move." They descended through the building one group at a time. The stairwell had partially collapsed during the crash, forcing several soldiers to climb over broken steps and exposed reinforcement bars on the way down. The ground floor appeared to have been some kind of repair shop, its front windows shattered and its equipment scattered by the impact above. A civilian speeder engine sat beneath a torn tarp near the rear wall, while shelves of tools and parts had fallen into the middle of the room.
Laphisto crouched beside the front entrance and looked through a crack between the door and the frame. The street outside was empty. That meant very little. when enemies were hiding in the buildings. with a soft growl he held a hand up to his comms unit before speaking "
Radio check." Static filled the channel before the first reply came back.
"
Second Platoon, groundside. South of the square."
"
Third Platoon is down west of the rally point."
"
Fourth still moving. We've got people scattered."
Laphisto looked once toward the ceiling, where dust continued falling from the floor above. "
First Platoon crashed short. Building's holding for now." There was a brief pause. as llaphisto looke dout into teh street, his rifle raised and restign against a broken piece of rubble that he was currently crouchign behind "
You need assistance?" he shook his head softly before speakign to the man "
Negative. Stay on mission."
He switched back to the platoon channel. turnign to look at the soldiers still climbing down from the second floor "
Casualties."The medic answered from farther inside the shop. "
Three injured. One bad leg, two impact injuries. Nobody dead." Laphisto nodded once, pulling hismelf to his feet and handing his rifle low in the ready position
"Get the bad leg stabilized. He moves with us if he can stand."
A fresh burst struck the outside wall. The soldiers nearest the windows pulled back. Laphisto pointed toward the rear of the building. "
Find another exit and light up that building dont give them an opertunity to look at us." One of the squad leaders disappeared through a back as teh heavy machine gun began to rip through the building that the fire came from again as the squad leader returned several seconds later. he spoke "
Alley. Narrow, but clear."
"
it will have to do. alright men lets move" The platoon filtered through the rear of the shop in small groups, rifles up as they entered the alley. Broken glass and fragments of masonry crunched beneath armored feet, joined by the occasional brass casing still caught in the folds of gear or armor from the fighting upstairs. The men carrying the heavier weapons moved slower through the confined space, the heavy machinegunner teams keeping their guns high enough to avoid catching barrels on the walls. Laphisto came through behind the last of the wounded, stopped long enough to look back toward the building, then turned away as another burst of enemy fire struck the wreck above them.
