Location: Schesa
Ingrid L'lerim
Ben Craig
Alli Vern
Auriel
Tristan Evore
Tranquility
Charles Castex
Lunafreya Solidor
Red looked out the viewport of the shuttle, there, below, the city was in chaos. He could see riots and firefights happening in the streets, blaster fire going everywhere. Off in the distance, he could see the flames of other riots and skirmishes happening. The situation had escalated quite quickly.
This was it, Red could feel it. Reading the reports of what was happening all across the Union, the Union was falling apart. If things were this bad everywhere, then the Union would fall within a couple of days, collapsing in upon itself. But how had they gotten to this point? How could the Union have fallen so far?
Red knew, he knew all of it. Being the Chief of Secret Police allowed him to... know certain things. The ISB had been busy recently, trying to clean up the deteriorating mess, but it had been useless; all of their work had been for nothing. The Union was surely falling. And it was all because of the power vacuum left by the Chancellors. Of course, Red had sided with Chairman Craig, he was the one that recruited Red in the first place, so of course Red would follow him. But still... not even Craig could stop what was happening to the Union.
Another shuttle flew alongside Red's. Red looked up at the other shuttle. In it, he could see
Subject 82 Snow , looking back at him. They were both wearing their battle armor, and their helmet's were already on their heads. Both being ISB, it made sense they would cooperate to try and keep the situation relatively stable for as long as possible.
Snow made a hand signal, motioning forward, then held up a two. Two minutes out. Red nodded, then turned to the soldiers in his shuttle.
"T-minus two minutes! Get ready for contact!" He told them. Two more shuttles had pulled up alongside them, bringing within them ISB troops and storm troopers.
Next, he received two messages, one from the Eternal Empire, and one from the Chairman. Red listened to the one from the Eternal Empire first. So... The Empire
had responded to their plea for help. That was good, and not a moment too soon, too. The situation was at a breaking point.
Listening to the one from the Chairman, he paused. They were going to orbital bombard the planet?! But there were still so many friendly forces down there!
And civilians still allied with the Union! Even government officials! Red could understand activating the order, sure, even though he was a Jedi, he understood the need for the order, but still! It was far too soon to activate that order.
He raised his commlink, contacting the Empress Regent.
"Chairman, this is Chief Red, reporting in. We're headed into the city. We still have friendly forces in the city, and we need to evac them. We also have VIPs trapped down there. I'll try and get as many out as I can, but I'll need time. Do you have any forces on standby?" Red told him through the commlink.
"We're going to head to the Residential District, some of our forces got trapped their, and we have reports that a VIP's transport got shot down. I'll report back in once we reach the LZ." Red said.
Then, he contacted the Empress Regent from the Empire.
"Empress Regent, I'm Chief Red, from the Union. Good to have reinforcements. Do you have any that you can send to the residential district? We'll take whatever we ca-" Red got cut off as an explosion rocked the shuttle.
"What was that?" He asked the pilots.
"Sir! It seems like the freedom fighters have taken over the local garrison! They're firing at us with the heavier weaponry!" The pilot replied as more explosions started rocking the shuttle.
"Evasive maneuvers! Hang on tight!" Red yelled out.
The pilot started making the shuttle bob and weave, avoiding the heavy fire. One of the other shuttles got shot down, crashing down into the buildings below in a spiral of flames and smoke.
"We need to put down! We'll never make it to the LZ!" Red yelled over his commlink to the three remaining shuttles.
"I don't have anywhere to put us down, sir! It's too hot!"
"Then slow us down and get us as close to the ground as we can; we're jumping out!" Red said. The pilot nodded. The shuttle went down towards the ground, getting as close as they could. The other shuttles followed suit.
"Get ready! We're jumping out!" He told the soldiers in the shuttle. They nodded and finished up their preparations.
The doors to the shuttle opened. They were about 8 meters above the ground. He could see the streets below. The shuttle had slowed down enough so that if they hit the ground they wouldn't break anything
"It's now or never!" The pilot yelled.
"Go! Go! Go!" Red yelled, jumping out of the shuttle. He flew downwards for a second, before hitting the ground, he pulled into a roll, before coming up on his knees, aiming down the streets.
There was no one around. At least, no one was making their presence known. He knew that they were there, but where he had no idea. He could hear the other soldiers jumping out of the shuttle and landing on the ground behind him. He watched as the last of the soldiers had jumped out, and the three shuttles flew off, returning to safe territory.
Red turned to Snow, who looked at him.
"Alright, we need to reach the objective. We're a bit off, but if we move carefully we can make it. Let's use the buildings as cover, they'll hide us from sight." Red told the troops.
Snow nodded.
"Agreed. Let's just hope those freedom fighters aren't too good of shots. They no doubt have snipers in the buildings."
"Well then, stick close to the buildings. We all ready?"
The soldiers nodded their assent. Good, they were all ready.
"Alright, let's move out." Raising his commlink again, he sent another message to the Eternal Empire.
"We had to bail out of our shuttles, the enemy fire was too strong. We're at least 4 and a half klicks from the LZ. We are proceeding on foot, how copy, over?" He said into the commlink, before moving through the city, leading the soldiers through the buildings.
