He spat fire at two more opponents, shifting focus to the last and leaving the still-living Weequay to cremate under the flamespray.
The jetpack dutifully carried him to the last opponent, who tried to shoot the clone but received only a stream of fire to the face, which instantly burned away skin, muscles, and boiled the brain.
TK-0333 descended to Kessel's surface to the accompaniment of exploding skulls under rising pressure.
With quick steps, he reached the long-armed sentient trying to crawl to the airspeeder.
Stepping on the foot, TK-0333 broke the enemy's bones, then shoved the flamethrower nozzle into his face, melting the facial mask with a tiny flame.
"Start talking," he advised the creature screaming in pain as molten mask plastic dripped onto his face.
But who cared right now?
***
"Sir, the mission is partially complete," the hologram of Sergeant TK-0297 glowed before me.
"Partially?" I clarified.
"Scimitar-01's pod located, local fighter attack repelled," the Fourth Special Squad commander continued his report. "Flight engineer Alex held off attacks until our arrival. He is rescued and immediate medical aid has been provided again. Evacuated to transport for return to the Chimera. Pilot not found at crash site."
And that was already bad.
"Reasons?"
"Local fighter squad commander named Skinxsnex captured. Field interrogation shows Major Bren resisted the capture group but was taken prisoner. He was delivered to the prison complex shortly before our arrival at the rescue pod. The enemy realized the cockpit was two-seater five minutes before our appearance."
"Anything else learned?"
"Yes, sir. We face mixed squads of 'Black Sun' fighters and local armed forces. The former have heavy weapons, the latter only small arms. Enemy fighter numbers reach six thousand sentients."
"Is that standing strength or including arrived 'Black Sun' fighters?" I inquired.
Much depended on the answer.
"Standing armed forces number five hundred thirteen sentients," TK-0297 replied. "The rest are mercenaries arrived to defend Kessel from 'Black Sun.'"
So that's how it was.
Therefore, Tyber Zann had received information about the planned deal with Horn almost immediately, deciding to send nearly three infantry regiments here.
Which implied the enemy's readiness for ground combat.
"Anything else learned?"
"Yes, sir. 'Black Sun' is interested in obtaining data on our Scimitars. The order to land the fast bomber on Kessel, and then, when that failed, to capture the pilot—came directly from 'Black Sun.'"
So now there were objective confirmations of Zann's interest in our new technology.
Tyber was assessing the threat level from the Dominion and its latest technical solutions.
Fact was fact: the Zann Consortium was studying us, seeking weak and strong points.
And they captured Tomax precisely for that purpose.
Even if not technical details of the Scimitar, he could provide data on our fleet and state of the armed forces.
Such could not be allowed.
Under no circumstances.
"Continue the search and liberation of Major Bren," I ordered. "Under no circumstances should the major fall into enemy hands or leave this system as a prisoner. And everyone who manages to extract even a drop of information from him—too."
"It will be done, Grand Admiral," the Fourth Special Squad storm commando commander assured me before his hologram vanished.
***
Kessel—this was the place of combat baptism for the "Rancor" regiment of the Dominion's 501st Guard Legion.
For the first time since its creation, this unit was transitioning to active combat operations on enemy territory.
Lieutenant Tychus Roach commanded the headquarters AT-AT walker, on whose hull armor was the emblem of a snarling rancor with a backpack.
"Combat formations deployed, Grand Admiral," he heard General Veers' report. "Fast AT-RTs have advanced to the first line of contact with the enemy. AT-ATs provide long-range support as they advance."
"Recon reports the enemy has heavy weapons," Thrawn said.
"We note artillery activity near the atmospheric generators," the general reported. "Storm commando squads already dispatched to detected artillery positions for preemptive destruction before main forces approach."
"Captain Tschel will provide any feasible assistance from the fleet," the Supreme Commander informed.
"Received, sir."
Tychus, positioned back to the commander's seat, more felt than saw that the comm session had ended.
Through the "head" transparisteel of the walker, he watched as fast AT-RTs, several hundred meters from the massive AT-ATs, burst into enemy positions, hosing everything with fire from their proton grenade launchers and laser cannons.
But it did not always help, only against light fortifications.
Tychus clearly saw permanent fire points from whose depths laser cannons and launchers fired, already leading to the loss of several light machines.
"Chimera," he heard the Star Destroyer ground forces commander's voice. "General Veers on comm. Providing target designation on enemy fortifications. Requesting strike."
"General, data received. Readiness—ten seconds," Captain Tschel's voice immediately responded from behind.
The AT-AT continued phlegmatically approaching the enemy fortifications, absorbing laser fire streams with its blaster-absorbent armor and demonstrating enviable immunity to rockets and grenades from the defending fighters.
Tychus already saw that the nimble Dominion machines had crossed the line of contact, rushing toward buildings and warehouses, hosing fleeing enemy soldiers in panic with fire.
But the enemy fortifications were not yet destroyed.
For a moment, omnipotent green light blinded him, its intensity dropping instantly as the viewport polarization system began working.
It seemed that a true hell had blossomed on the site of the enemy fortifications in all its terrible beauty.
Squatting bunkers ceased to exist in an instant, scattering chunks of duracrete and construction materials around, mixed with body parts.
Stone and concrete, rebar and insulation—all this ceased to exist after the Chimera's gunners fired on the designated target.
Where a squat, seemingly impregnable permanent fire point structure had stood moments ago, there was now a crater whose walls had acquired not the orange-brown hue of Kessel's surface, but the sooty blackness of slag and dozens of ignition points.
Tychus noticed movement behind the ruins of one of the pillboxes—a proton cannon revealed itself with a predatory barrel motion.
Yes, orbital strikes were good, but unfortunately, they could not deal with all enemy armaments at once.
No, they could, of course—but to do so would require turning Kessel into a huge chunk of slag.
"Artillery in sector two," the walker commander designated the target. "Target and destroy."
The AT-AT guns spat a fiery salvo.
Crimson laser cannon energy struck the target in an instant, scattering chunks of the walking self-propelled gun aside.
The enemy laser cannons choked on fire, revealing their previously camouflaged presence.
And karma instantly caught up—AT-ATs knew no mercy.
The line of contact turned into a fiery wall, where something inevitably and every second exploded and burned.
Acrid smoke from destroyed vehicles filled the fluid atmosphere of the planetoid.
Sometimes it was so dense that it hid everything beyond.
But soon the wind of war,[SV1] born not from atmospheric generators or the nozzles of assault gunboats flashing aside, intensified. Dominion small flyers, following the orbital strikes, unleashed hundreds of rockets on the enemy's heads, expanding the kill zone.
Barracks, administrative buildings, and structures burned.
Judging by some stormtrooper and armored squads unafraid of fire turning their backs to the atmospheric generators, those were already under direct Dominion control.
Assault on the Kessel correctional facility by the Dominion's 501st Guard Legion.
The Kessel correctional facility blazed, and the spreading fire across the territory was surely visible even from orbit.
Data exchange on targets between the Chimera and ground forces command occurred in real time.
And plasma arrows from the heavens rained on enemy positions in real time too.
Precisely calculated, maximally destructive, they turned enemy fortifications into clouds of dust and piles of stones.
Lieutenant Roach glanced at the driver mechanic seated beside him in the headquarters walker.
His exact copy, a clone, briskly and without fuss working the massive machine's controls.
The clone performed exactly the same job that Roach had done quite recently in his place.
And did it just as Tychus himself would have, remaining in the driver mechanic role.
The sight of himself from the outside sent shivers.
So similar...
Imperturbably piloting one of the most terrifying and effective ground combat machines created in the Empire.
Methodically repositioning all four support limbs of the AT-AT while Tychus himself controlled the destruction of enemy forces.
Thanks to minor modifications ordered by him and General Veers, performed by legion mechanics, hundreds of miniature external observation systems were placed around the legs and hull of the headquarters AT-AT, which, combined with sensors, gave a full picture of the surrounding transport space.
Without any blind spots or the like.
A lesson that should have been learned long ago.
Cutting edges on support limbs, which would no longer allow the walker to be hobbled and toppled, were of course a good thing.
But one should not forget that a few years ago during the Battle of Hoth, one rebel kid used a cable with attachment, a winch, a lightsaber, and a string of thermal detonators to disable another AT-AT.
Since then, the Empire had done almost nothing to fix the vulnerability of machines that were practically the calling card of its ground forces.
But the Dominion...
As regrettable as it sounded, until recently, Tychus's new homeland had lacked the capabilities to produce such (and not only) ground vehicles.
But even gaining production capacities, the question of modernizing the Imperial or Confederate Independent Systems legacy stood as acutely as obtaining new trained ground troop units.
As Tychus had heard, the fleet did not build ships despite having shipyards and all necessary resources.
But they modernized existing ones, increasing combat effectiveness, sometimes by orders of magnitude.
So the lieutenant had approached General Veers with a written report and modernization proposal.
The general's clone took the report and schematics silently, saying nothing at the meeting...
And within a day, Tychus saw that mechanics from the repair and recovery unit were already performing the work.
Only General Veers had creatively reworked his subordinate's idea, developing and deepening it.
Seeing everything around one machine on the battlefield was undoubtedly excellent for the commander and crew of one walker.
But having such technology on all walkers would allow creating a common battle picture and form a clear view of what was happening here and now for the operation commander.
So the headquarters AT-AT was today in the role of "test womp-rat," testing innovations in real ground combat mode.
And if the system showed itself from the best side, meaning it did not harm the crew or the entire operation, it was most likely that in the future it would be installed on all legion machines.
Including even the "little ones."
Speaking of them—judging by the smoking and abandoned machine hulks three hundred meters to the right, the enemy had heavy weapons.
This needed correcting.
"Turn right thirty," Tychus ordered.
The clone obediently adjusted the headquarters AT-AT's movement.
The enemy guns hid behind a small mountain of boulders—what remained of another permanent fortification.
Lieutenant Roach aimed and the walker's guns spat crimson flame.
Yes, it would be nice if Dominion industry bothered with more thorough tibanna purification for ground forces' needs.
After all, for the fleet they used the purest gas, but for the army—second grade.
Offensive, you know.
The fiery barrage from the AT-AT on the rocks and enemy artillery turned the place into a pool of molten slag with charred and deformed chunks protruding.
"Rocket strike straight sixty," General Veers warned.
And indeed—advancing Dominion soldiers and battle droids against the enemy's second defensive line froze, and those who could—went prone.
Grayish assault gunboat hulls flashed overhead, and the second, also the last, enemy defensive line turned into a wall of fire where survival was impossible.
Fiery pillars and shockwaves crushed and twisted everything around. Scattered enemy fighters and gliders emerged through the flames.
They decided to seize the moment and strike the Dominion heavy walkers, hoping the counterattack would succeed.
It would not.
Assault by Kessel defenders' fighters and gliders on the headquarters AT-AT.
The headquarters AT-AT shuddered as laser cannon bursts from the nearest X-wing raked its support limbs.
The objective control system registered harpoon launches with cables that began wrapping the struts.
The enemy was clearly trying to repeat the successful rebel tactic.
Only the AT-AT calmly took a step, vertical blades slicing the metal cables trying to bind it.
Another step, one more.
Like mynocks scenting open power conduits, from the thin, sky-hued atmosphere, Chimera's TIE interceptors plummeted on the enemy air force.
Ruthless, merciless destruction of the desperate foe, whose machines after the first salvos buried into Kessel's orange surface, smoking and periodically exploding from internal blasts.
The fiery wall on the second line quieted, leaving only scorched earth and heaps of mutilated bodies.
AT-RTs, stormtroopers, and droids surged forward, directly assaulting the buildings and structures.
What remained of them, from where the enemy still tried to defend recklessly.
"Bring the machine to the remnants of the mining administrative center," General Veers ordered. "Time to start freeing prisoners from Kessel's depths. We've delayed this long enough."
What he did was unclear.
***
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