Anti-aircraft fire rocked the Accamator's large hangar bay, sending multiple clone squads stumbling across the doonium floor. Everyone was rushing around preparing war machines for the ground invasion of Ryloth.
The landing was imminent…or at least it should've been. We were stalled a few thousand metres above the planet's surface due to heavy resistance from the separatist ground forces. Pinned and taking heavy fire, we had to wait on Anakin's starfighter squadrons neutralising the separatist artillery.
Because apparently glassing a part of the only inhabitable strip on Ryloth from orbit was a huge no-no.
During the process we lost an Accamator during the bombardment, fortunately for me it was Obi-wan's ship that went down. Unfortunately, the clones aboard have very little time to evacuate the nose-diving starship, leading to a large loss in clone lives before we had even landed.
When the Acclamator hit the ground, waves of the force surged through me like cold water, it was a markedly unpleasant feeling, one I would most likely never get used to. One could only imagine how it felt to Obi-wan as he was closer to the crash site.
A dull thunk was felt all across the venator. The ship had landed, and from the sounds around us I could tell the hanger was about to open up and release the landing ramp.
The troopers were mostly done with their preparations, so I decided to give them a short prep talk. Altering the volume of my voice I began to strongly speak, "Righto troops! We're about 30 klicks west of the capital. If we keep pace with the AT-TE's we should arrive there by the hour."
"That means you've got forty-five minutes to get your heads on straight, because at that point we're going up against some fierce resistance. It'll be up to us to storm that city and wrestle it from separatist control. If you're ever feeling lost during the heat of battle, trust in your superiors, and if you can't find one, trust in yourself. This is what you were bred for, if there's anybody that can win this battle it's you."
On to another key point, "Intelligence suggests that Wat Tambor is the one running the operation on Ryloth. This is quite possibly the best chance we've ever had at catching him, so fuck ups will not be tollerated. Do you understand?"
"Sir yes sir!" The reply came from the clones, their coalesced voices shouting as one managed to drown out the starships roaring engines.
By this time, the Acclamator had fully released the landing ramp, giving myself and the clones a view of the the planets harsh desert terrain, "That's what i like to fucking hear. Now move out"
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The steadily encroaching battle quelled thoughts of Aayla and the overhanging threat of order 66. I had a more immediate threat to deal with, one with myself, all of my clones and the inhabitants of Ryloth on the line.
Standing between the driver and co-driver of the AT-TE, I gently rocked from side to side with the clunky steps of the heavy machinery. Through the clearview we finally got a glimpse of our target, between sheer cliffs was Ryloth's capital.
It was a bastion of a city, built atop a mountain with high walls surrounding it from all sides, not to mention the natural - thousand foot deep - dry trench that separated it from our army. That wasn't even considering the natural choke points all along the marching route we were taking.
Regardless of the tactics used the battle would end up being a meat grinder, the loss in clone lives won't be pretty . To take the city with ground forces we essentially have to brute force our way in.
Yet this wasn't my first rodeo, aye it was the first one I was fully in charge of but I steeled my will all the same. Some clones don't make it back to the Dodgy Blaster but that's the reality of this war ain't it?
Pressing the transmission, I sent word to my clone commanders, "Expect heavy fire once we turn this ledge. Power up to full speed, we need as many AT-TE's as possible round that bend fast. Fire at the Separatist artillery once you're in range, but whatever you do - don't stop moving."
Jet patched in and gave a curt response of "Roger that General."
Through the force I could sense the trooper's emotions. Mostly a mix between the cool, calm rationale that makes them effective soldiers, and the anticipation and excitement that really pushes them to give all and everything for the mission.
The Kaminoians really outdone themselves.
A tense few moments passed as I watched the head of the convoy stomp around the corner, almost immediately after, large red bolts began firing at the Enforcer. It started with a few shots, but quickly turned into a torrential downpour of laserfire. Some shots missed, some never, yet the AT-TE marched on all the same, its heavy armour allowing it to tolerate vast amounts of damage.
As more and more units made their way around the bend the sheer amount of fire that hit the rock face turned large swaths of the cliff dark from the burns. It ended up kipping up a fair amount of rubble and dust forcing the drivers to keep an eye on the overhead conditions in case of a rockslide.
We returned fire as we pushed forward, but at this range the accuracy of our cannons were inaccurate, not to mention our gunners were having to shoot while the enforcers were going full speed on uneven terrain.
Still, for every ten shots that missed one would hit, and any separatist weapons destroyed would mean less to deal with when it was time for the head on engagement.
The march was a gruelling slog for us, whenever one of the AT-TE's broke down, or the crew became incapacitated it held up everything behind them. This caused several problems, a few times I was needed to either remove the vehicle from the path or rescue the crew. Nevertheless the 69th marched made it past every obstacle that came its way. way
We had almost reached a major checkpoint where we would finally be off the path and onto the main battlefield, when suddenly I was alerted to something. A vision flashed in my mind, warning me that a missed SSM(Surface to Surface Missile) would cause a section of the cliff to collapse on top of the AT-TE's leading the charge.
"Fucks sake." it muttered while patching into the comms, "All units halt."
At my command, the iron centipede of warmachines came to a grinding stop.
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Been a while.
I do still have a patron but theres squat all star wars on it right now. Apart from a half finished smut idea that was wrote for someones birthday.
Will be working o getting things up to date though.