Star Wars: Fires of Exaron 2

[Hotshot]

Colonel Maxon Tarven, 15th Armored Repulsorlift Regiment
Outside Tikirt, Exaron, Exaron System

"Identified! Twenty-five hundred meters!" called out Staff Sergeant Timel Hall, seated slightly below and in front of Colonel Maxon Tarven in the turret of the Colonel's S-1 Firehawke tank, letting the Colonel know he had targeted and ranged an enemy armored vehicle.

"Fire!" shouted Tarven, not bothering to check his Independent Viewer to verify the target before giving the order; he was busy monitoring his regiment's comm net, as well as that of his division, battletracking all of the Republic units with the help of one of the screens directly in front of him, below his Independent Viewer's screen. The S-1 bucked slightly as Hall pulled the trigger and fired the tank's heavy laser cannon.

"Target!" replied Hall, indicating that his round had hit. "Kill!" let Tarven know that the vehicle, whatever it had been, had been destroyed.

"Continue to engage!" ordered Tarven before keying his helmet mic forward and saying, "All Torches, this is Torch Six, we are approaching LOA. Prepare to bring your units to a halt and cease your pursuit."

"This is Sky Six, roger," replied Lieutenant Colonel Michaeu, 1st Battalion's commander.

"This is Hammer Six, roger," replied Lieutenant Colonel Karns, 2nd Battalion's commander.

"This is Lightning Six, roger," replied Lieutenant Colonel Okatef, commander of 3rd Battalion.

"This is Horse Six, roger," replied Lieutenant Colonel Gerend, commander of the Combat Support Battalion.

"This is Saber Six, roger," replied Lieutenant Colonel Young, the commander of Tarven's regiment's reconnaissance Squadron. The scouts had been screening to the north and south of the regiment as they had advanced, pursuing the fleeing Imperial forces out of Tikirt. The Republic had attacked eastwards towards Linert intending to seize Tikirt from the Imperials. Tikirt itself was an industrial city, an average target, but not the gem that the financial and banking city of Rywekh to the northeast would have been. However, capturing Tikirt had the added bonus of not only gaining control of a portion of the planet's sizable infrastructure, but also clearing a path towards the mountains to the north, where the Imperial planetary defense ion cannon facility lay. The ion cannon had been crucial in the Imperials' defense of their control of the orbit around Exaron, keeping any attempt by the New Republic to wrest naval control from the Imperials from succeeding.

Maxon felt his tank slow and watched as, almost in unison, all of the blue blips on his force tracker halted their advance across the screen and the last red blips disappeared off of the right-side edge. "All Torches, Torch Six, begin your consolidation back towards Tikirt," Maxon ordered. "Send me your BDA as soon as possible." As the regiment began to pull back towards Tikirt, along with the other Republic forces who had participated in the pursuit, he received the losses his Regiment had sustained thus far: seventeen tanks destroyed, and twenty-one more damaged but repairable. His scout squadron had lost ten SA-5 Hoverscouts, and the combat support battalion had lost two T-47s shot down. It was not bad, considering the damage that the 15th Regiment had dealt to the Imperials, but losing men was never a good thing. The 15th had been put in the vanguard of the Republic assault due to its elite status within the Republic Army as one of, if not the, finest Armored Regiment, and they had proved their worth. The point at which the 15th had attacked had crumpled under the heavy armored assault, and opened up a lane through which the Republic forces flooded, routing the Imperial defenders to both sides and forcing the defense to retreat. When the Imperials began to withdraw, the 15th had transitioned into an exploitation, chasing them down until they reached their limit of advance, at which point they were now turning back towards Tikirt. They would consolidate their defense and begin building battle positions against the expected Imperial counterattack in the coming days. Taking Tikirt was a big victory, and opened up a path to the ion cannon, but Maxon knew they had a lot of work to do before Exaron would be free.

---

Starcruiser MV Empire Miccol
Vratokh, Exaron, Exaron System

The ship touched down gently in the secure Imperial spaceport near the Imperial District of Vratokh. The ship had been thoroughly inspected and secured before its departure from Borleias, in order to prevent both unwanted knowledge of the MV Empire Miccol's secret contents, as well as to ensure those contents were not compromised in any way. The crew of the ship was regular Imperial Navy, but the handlers and guards for the contents were all from Imperial Intelligence, from the Operations Branch of that shadowy organization. The crew of the ship had known better than to ask any questions of the operatives, dressed head to toe in black combat suits with face-concealing masks, and the majority of the travel from Borleias to Exaron had gone in silence. Now that they had arrived, the crew of the Miccol was none too sad to see the agents depart.

The agents stood all at once, almost machine-like in their immediate preparations of the five crates which were secured in front of them. Several crewmembers cast curious glances over at the crates as they were slid open by the agents, but none could see what was being transported inside save for a small burst of condensed cooling gases being released upon the crates being opened. After a quick inspection by visual and scanner means, the agents sealed the crates back up. One of them turned to another and said, "Inform Major Vasilus that the cargo has arrived. We are transporting them to the Citadel now." His voice came out sterilized and mechanical through his mask, just as the Stormtroopers' did.

"Roger, sir," replied another Agent. The call was made, and the Agents activated buttons on the crates which powered up mini repulsorlifts and raised the crates up off the ground to be easily pushed. The Agents pushed the crates down the exit ramp of the starcruiser, pushing them towards a waiting armored transport speeder. They loaded the crates up onto the speeder, climbed inside the back, and informed the driver they were ready to go.

[Jarak]

201st Sector Army Headquarters, Vratokh.

Vratokh, the capital of Exaron, the city was both a jewel and a rough diamond at the same time, but to some that made it worth more to them. Security was tight in the city, ever since the 'Moreau Incident', which in turn resulted in many of Exaron's ruling elite losing their jobs, and in some cases, their lives. Infact security was so tight in Vratokh, that the Imperial Intelligence knew what everyone was going to eat for breakfast.

Which made it the perfect location for the 201st to place it's Headquarters. Surface Marshal Isaac Thompson had set up the unit inside the Governor's mansion, an insult to the late Governor Julius, but more importantly a sign of superiority to those who would oppose his authority.

Isaac had made sure to have his Intelligence Units run a False intelligence campaign, the Rebels did not need to know where the 201's HQ was.


"Marshal?" came a voice, "Are you okay?" the voice said again.

The Marshal turned to look at the source of the voice, a man, an Imperial Officer holding a datapad. Isaac had fallen asleep at his desk, having no sleep for several days do that to you.

Standing up, he rubbed his tired eyes as they adjusted to the light, then he began. "Yeah, yes. Thanks for the concern Captain Reyondals, what is it you wanted?" Isaac said, then walked over to a Caf machine.

"I have two items of news for you, sir."

"Good news first."

"Well, by definition the good news is we lost Tirkit, defending units suffered heavy casualties, but they survived and are in route to the city of Rywekh. The bad news sir, is your reinforcements are stills being delayed by someone, sir."

"Delayed?" Isaac asked, sipping his Caf.

"As in, someone is doing it delitralty, it does not take this long to have eight division shipped to one planet, sir."

"Hmm, set up a meeting for me, with our resident spook. I'll see what he knows, or can do about it."

The Captain worked on his datapad for a few seconds, then nodded that he was finished.

"Anything else?" Isaac asked Reynolds.

"Colonel Finch requests your presence in the CiC"

Isaac sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I'll be right there, just need to finish up this paperwork, you're dismissed, Captain."

The two officers saluted to each other, then the Captain departed.

Isaac drank the last of his caf, then sat back down at his desk. He looked at the state of his desk, paperwork all over it, some of it ruined by drool. Brushing aside the mess, he activated his computer, then looked at his schedule.

10:00 AM - Public appearance.
11:55 AM - Lunch Meeting with Vice-Admiral Kreel.
13:00 PM - Inspection of 201st Headquarters
15:30 PM - Dinner with Exaron Chief of Staff
18:15 PM - Public Appearance #2
19:50 PM - Meeting with Major Tern Vasilus

The Marshal sighed, he didn't have time for all of this today. He cancelled all of his appointments today, barring the Meetings with Admiral Kreel and Major Vasilus. Everything else could be regulated to someone one else, and leave notes or something. Having done what he needed he closed his computer, put on his Jacket, then made his way to the CiC.

Isaac walked into the massive room, the dining room in the Mansion had been repurposed for the Combat Information Centre for the 201st, the large room was now filled with multi-leveled scaffolding and computers and of course, imperials.

Isaac walked up onto the second floor of the Scaffolding, and approached a Holodisplay. Perched around it were several colonels and generals. The Display was running a replay of the Battle of Tirkit, from what he could tell. Likely, seeing were the Defenders had went wrong.

As Isaac got closer he could hear what they were saying. "The Defence failed, when the Rebel 15th Armoured Regiment made a hole in our defence. We could of held our ground, if we had moved in an Armoured Division, or atleast gave our troops an adequate amount AT launchers."

"Which we can't do, or are you forgetting the part were, we don't have an Armoured Division of noteworthiness?" Isaac butted in.

'Sir', was all he got out of the myriad of Officers. "Marshal, thank you for joining us, I wanted you here, so you could give the go ahead for out counter-attack." Colonel Finch said.

"Well then, show me." Isaac said.

Finch typed in several commands for the Holodisplay, changing it to the city of Rywekh. Units already stationed in the city were the 7th ID, and the 22ed ID. Both of which were undermanned, and under-equipped. "Right now, we don't need to worry about an attack on Rywekh" Finch said, then changed the Holodisplay view back to Tirkit.

"The forces defending Tirkit barely even make a Corps, meaning they don't have a force strong enough to both hold Tikrit and assault Rywekh. Which means obviously the Rebels will be getting reinforcements from somewhere, where we don't know yet. But the forces they need for this assault are going to light up like a Wookiee on fire. So, of course we've all agreed here, in the meantime it is best to make the Rebels time in Tikrit hell."

"We're proposing that the 27th Air Wing, the 256th Space Wing, and the 78th Air wing, are to basically flatten the city, Leave nothing. This way the Rebels have nowhere to stage from, making them easy pickings."

"Are you crazy?!" Isaac yelled out. "We are here to save the damn planet, not destroy it one city at a time. Ugh, move aside." he ordered, as he himself put commands in the holodisplay.

"Back at Rywekh, we will bolster 7th and 22ed Infantry Divisions, with the 51st Infantry division currently based here, in Vrahkokt. This unit is at full strenght, and it's a veteran unit. When the 51st Arrives, I want all three units formed into the 31st Infantry Corps. General Vakarian, will be commanding. Then I want the 256th Space Wing, to hamper any attempts at the Rebels trying to fortify Tikrit, while the 27th Air Wing, will destroy any Rebel force that leaves or tries to enter the city. But I want the city still standing, not destroyed."

[Ocarab]

TERN VASILUS

A new day dawned and the people of Vratokh started to head to work, work uninterupted by the new war which had finally come to Exaron. People had kept working even though the Rebels had made their way to the planet in force - it had helped that the Imperials put down the revolt so violently when the Emperor died. The day dawned but Tern Vasilus's day had begun long ago. His job on Exaron seemed never-ending especially to the men who worked for him, with him and around him. It seemed like he was always sitting in his office or working somewhere else in the Imperial Citadel. He would be walking the hallways quickly, hurrying to get somewhere, or sitting in the analysis center poring over data, or giving a brief, but it seemed like the man never slept. There were rumors around the Citadel that Tern was actually all machine and that his exposed prosthetic hand on his right arm just never got covered in fake flesh.

Tern had heard the rumors but did nothing to dissuade them. Part of being an Intelligence Agent was allowing a reputation and a story to build around you. Fear was as effective as anything else in the galaxy. Since Tern's job on Exaron was equally focused on keeping his Imperial comrades in line as watching the Rebels, the reputation he had gotten whilst on Exaron had done as much to keep people working at top efficiency as had the systematic purge of the upper leadership when he first arrived. The Governor, Julius, had been executed for his incompetence in letting the Bothan spy Gath fall into the hands of the Rebel Special Forces officer, a certain Major Patrick Rudder, while other officers had been arrested and incarcerated on a far away world.

All of that was in the past though, and Tern had a new project to worry about and work on. He only had initial reports, reports that shipments would be coming in, and that more info would accompany them. At the same time, though, there had been momentary and halting intelligence intercepts from Rebel communiques. Electroinc monitoring was difficult to accomplish with all the complex cryptology used by both sides, but every now again you caught a break and this time the Imperials might have caught one. Tikirt had just fallen to the Rebels, within the hour to be precise, but Tern had known it would fall long ago; the defenses there were just not up to snuff he knew. He hoped that this new General Thompson would prove to be more capable than his predecessors. Not that that would be very hard to do. Tikirt wasn't his fault, Tern knew that, but the Adjustments agent would be watching closely to see how things went from here. Exaron had become a much more important prize for the Empire to keep in its crown lately due to the shipment that was about to come in, Tern mused as he sat down at his desk.

Almost on cue a light on his desk came to life, indicating he had a message waiting. Well, today certainly was a busy day, but such flooding of communications always preceeded major operations, and with the slowly-building intelligence picture, this would no doubt be no different. Pressing the light the image of an Intelligence operative appeared. The man said, "Sir, this is Operations. Cargo landed, transport in progress."

"Very good," said Tern. "Have whoever took possession of it report to me at the Citadel immediately upon arrival here. Vasilus out." The Rebels certainly had chosen possibly the worst day to attack, so much so that for an instant it made Tern wonder if they had any idea of what was coming to Exaron. He initially brushed that thought aside - how could they know, after all? - but he immeditely rebuked himself for thinking that. It was that arrogant thinking which had doomed Operation Vibrowire when the Imperial Intelligence, Stormtroopers, and Army here had thought that they could manipulate a situation in which a Rebel Special Forces officer, and former Storm Commando who knew Imperial protocol and thought processes, was involved. Major Rudder hadn't been seen or heard of on Exaron since his escape with the intelligence that brought Vibrowire crashing down and led to the Alliance killing many good Imperial agents, but it was an important lesson that the Rebels couldn't be underestimated. Even the Emperor had foolishly done so and looked what happened to him, the Death Star, and part of the Imperial fleet at Endor. Fools, all of them, even the Emperor. He would never say so outloud of course, but Tern served the Empire, not its ruler.

[Marcus XVI]

The Imperial Navy had been the best thing that had happened to Vice-Admiral Davian Kreel. He had gotten everything he ever wanted - soldiers under his command, very capable at what they did and at this point quite loyal to him - and ofcourse he had the command of a fleet. It was far smaller fleet that what the Vice-Admiral had hoped, but the fact that he had the Imperial-II class Star Destroyer under his personal command more than made up for it.

The Vice-Admiral was pulled away from his thoughts as a bridge officer had asked a question "Could you repeat that, captain? I was reminicing." The captain nodded and made a quick salute "Well, sir. I recieved a report that we have located a New Republic garrison from the midsts of the capital city. What should we do about it? According to our reports it is located quite close to an industrial area..." Kreel lifted his hand to silence the captain "Leave it be for now. Though if it was for me to decide I'd bombard the planet in to space dust..." He shook his head and turned his back to the captain "...No, no I wouldn't - after all we want this planet intact. Keep me well informed on the situation, take us closer to the planet and relay the orders to the othe Star Destroyers as well. Give the rest of the fleet the order to keep their guard up and destroy any non Imperial ship that tries to close in on the planet." The captain nodded and began relaying the orders. Soon the four Star Destroyers were slowly closing in on the planet.

[Ocarab]

JARON ESTILOHIN

Getting into the Imperial spaceport hadn't been easy in the slightest. Jaron had been watching it for about a week now ever since Republic Intelligence had caught some comm chatter about something being shipped to Exaron, something big. It was a single transmission, heavily encrypted and the entirety of the transmission had yet to be decoded but they had enough to go on: something was coming to Exaron and the Imperials were sparing nothing to try to ensure its secrecy and security. Republic intelligence forwarded the information to the Intelligence detachment stationed on Exaron and they had taken it from there. The Intelligence detachment had come to the planet as part of the invasion force and had up to this point been entirely absorbed with gathering analyzing and distributing intelligence focused on the Imperial defenses of the planet and how to best attack them for the infantry and armor forces that had arrived.

The message from central Intelligence though had changed everything. While the majority of the detachment on Exaron were still focused on the important task of helping the invasion go well, Jaron had been tasked along with nine other agents to investigate these shipments, with the stipulation that as more information was uncovered, if warranted, more agents would be assigned to him. So he had set out with a small team of three others initially to watch the Imperial spaceport, the only logical location at which the shipment would come in. Based on the intelligence they had received, the Imperials wanted the sihpment heavily guarded and secret, and that would only be possile within the confines of the Imperial District in Vratokh. They could quickly move it to the Citadel from there, and no one except Imperials would even see it come in. Well, aside from Jaron and his team, he hoped.

The Republic agents were spread around the spaceport, all watching the four auxiliary docking bays. The main docking bays were being ignored based on the suspicion that the Imperials would want to make things as low-key as possible. Hopefully the gamble at watching only the auxiliaries would pay off. Jaron thought about bringing in more agents to watch it, he had at least six more after all, but every agent who tried to sneak into the spaceport brought added risk. Jaron himself was dressed as a civilian dock worker in the employ of the Empire, complete with gray coveralls with an Imperial insignia and a false holoflat ID card. He wore a gray cap and sunglasses as he went to work inconscpicuously moving cargo from a small pallet into a loading bay.

Then, he heard a ship coming in from above, and looked up to see a cargo freighter comingin to land at his docking bay. Jaron did not outwardly react, instead continuing to move the boxes, but he kept watch out of the corner of his eye as the freivhter came in softly and touched down. Several minutes passed before the loading ramp lowered and several black-armored men emerged, pushing several crates on miniature repulsorlifts. At this point Jaron looked directly at the crates, reached up and pressed a small button on his sunglasses. He pressed it several times over, each press taking a small still photograph and relayed it directly back to his agents at the Intelligence detachment who were monitoring the mission. All told it took less than three seconds and Jaron was back to work, moving another box before snapping a few more shots of the hover transport that the crates were loaded onto before it took off.

[Voltin]

Talasana tapped her fingers on the the wheel of the speeder, resting her head in her free palm. She was getting impatient, and was tired of all of the formal procedure that her former fellows were taking. The entire day was turning out terrible as far as she was concerned. It had all started with the usual walk from her apartment, conveniently placed between the Tondar and Killik Districts, to the Imperial District. She had only walked on to the street and before she knew, sleazy men were harassing her, not as if they had walked away unscathed after what they had propositioned to her though. Then, as she finally got to the armory, the delivery had been dumped on her! She was planning on finally finishing all of the backlogged paperwork so she didn't have to take it all home, again. She had only been given a time, a place, the destination as well as the speeder. The type of cargo being delivered had been left out of the assignment, and now the appearance of Imperial Intelligence had put her on edge.

"What in all of the galaxy is taking so long!?" Talasana yelled at the agents, looking back at them to see exactly what they were doing. One of the agents walked up to where she was sitting, he was one of the few that was there that she knew all too well. "Ah, Talasana, you haven't turned your back on us yet? Shame really, I was hoping to put a blaster bolt through your skull myself." the man chuckled lightly to himself, an all-knowing smirk rolling over his face. "Sutaball'Skit," Talasana's mother had been one of the few twi'leks left to follow old naming traditions, this naturally passed on to her two daughters as they all lived together. This tradition went so far as to become a habit; meaning she did it to everyone she met. "How is it that a smug son of a bitch human like yourself not missing his tongue?" Talasana.'s words dripped with venom. "Well, unlike some people I know, I don't let mine waggle around my superiors." The words had hit the twi'lek hard, it seemed even the most out of touch members of the agency knew of her little ordeal, years after it had even occurred. "Well, it been nice talking to you dearest, but I have to get back to being an agent. Ta-ta!" He walked back to the transport, throwing his hand up as to say he was done talking with her. She sat there, ashamed at herself for just taking his words without so much as an insult in return, as well as pissed. The lackey who had passed this job on to her was going to go home rather unhappy with her.

Talasana wanted to just go and be rid of these insatiable people. She had other, more pressing matters to attend to than just sit around all day. "Inform Major Vasilus that the cargo has arrived. We are transporting them to the Citadel now." It's funny, now that she thought about it. Besides the her little chat with Sutab, all of the agents had remained machine-like in their dealings, as if they all had been replaced with Confederate drones from the Clone Wars. "Roger, sir." Talasana felt the vehicle lurch down with the added weight of the cargo as well as the agents. She made a small gesture of victory and mouthed the words 'Thank you' at the notion of being able to leave. The sound of the hatch to the back as well as the knock on the durasteel plating behind her indicated that the agents were not leaving, which surprised her. She hadn't received no word that they would be coming with. Her position in life unfortunately left her no position in life to argue, so, she started the speeder, and simply drove. Drove straight to the Imperial Citadel, with hopefully no distractions.

[Rtron]

Hetun observed the cargo being unloaded from the shadows. He had no idea why he had been told to guard the cargo, only that the intelligence command, Major Vasilus ,had told him to. He watched as the twi'lek and the agent exchange words. What the blast is taking so long? We should have already been gone on the way to the Citadel . Walking over to the speeder he turned on his stealth device and while no one could notice him, got on the speeder with a small thump to watch it all the way to the Citadel. His machine skin protected him from the damages of traveling on the top of a speeder and his strength and gadgets kept him on the vehicle. From his vantage point he noticed with interest that the agents where all going with the cargo. This must be important then if they have both me and a squadron of agents guarding it. Looking around, Hetun waited for the rebel agents that he new where there, to make their move. The rebels owned this planet and very few things going on in it escaped their sight. When the vehicle started to move, Hetun relaxed a little but not by much, he was still invisible and grateful that he had given his energy source a full charge before heading out. Checking his weapons, Hetun made sure that his energy blades and blaster pistol where still operational. He also checked his knife to make sure it was sharp. Please try something rebels, I've been doing nothing for a while now and an attack would be welcome.

[Marcus XVI]

The star destroyers had moved in to low orbit over Exaron, their weapons were being readied for a bombardment - though the Vice-Admiral had called it just 'a warning shot'. Kreel was pacing back and forth in the bridge of his command ship and occasionally stopped to stare in the distance. He would have a meeting with the good Marshal Thompson in less than an hour. It would be just about enough to finalize his plan and prepare everything for a serious blow on the New Republic.

[Hotshot]

Colonel Maxon Tarven, 15th Armored Repulsorlift Regiment
Tikirt, Exaron, Exaron System

Maxon looked at the holographic, three-dimensional map displayed on the map table in front of him in a pale blue glow, analyzing the terrain of the sector outside Tikirt that he had been assigned to defend while the Republic moved its forward operating command center into the city. The main command hub would still be in Linert, off to the west, but the forward deployment of forces would now come from Tikirt. The Republic would be vulnerable during their transition, and so hasty defenses were being established around the city, primarily to the east and north, the direction from which Imperial forces would have to come based on their own force structure and placement, to protect from the inevitable counterattack. The room in which he stood had once been an Imperial officer's command room, which Maxon had gratefully occupied for his own use. While all of the classified information had been erased and all the sensitive equipment destroyed, the map table had been left intact, albeit void of anything but bare maps of the cities and terrain of Exaron as the overlays and classified maps from the Imperial databases were now gone. Still, it was much better than the old warehouse out of which Maxon had operated in Linert, and his regiment now had a proper motor pool as well, instead of just a large concrete pad.

The door to the room slid open and five men walked in, all in their late thirties, and he acknowledged them each in turn as they circled around the map. These were his five battalion commanders, Lieutenant Colonels Michaeu, Karns, Okatef, Young, and Gerend. "Gentlemen, I trust everything is well with your battalions," said Maxon. "If you'd direct your attention to the map, this is our area of operations for the hasty defense of Tikirt. The Imperials will be looking to counterattack swiftly back into the city, probably for two reasons. One, their control of the industry on Exaron has now taken a huge hit with the loss of Tikirt. They still hold Vratokh, and all the industry of that city, which is about fifty percent of the output, but with Linert and Tikirt now gone, we have the other fifty percent. Two, we now have a direct avenue of approach to the ion cannon compound in the mountains to the north. If we are able to either seize control of the ion cannon, or destroy it, we will greatly aid the navy's efforts in gaining superiority of Exaron's orbit. That in turn will help us by having more secure supply and reinforcement lines from space. I don't have any word on what we'll be doing once the forces are postured in Tikirt, so for now just focus on the defense."

Zooming the map in a little more, Maxon pointed to several areas and said, "Michaeu, I want your tanks here to here. Karns, here to here, Okatef, here to here. Young, I want your scouts deployed approximately five k's in front of the lines in a screen. Gerend, I need your engineers to begin creating the defensive emplacements, and have your pilots on standby in case we need CCA."

"Sir, what kind of emplacements do you want?" asked Gerend.

"Start with just one-level berms, and as we get more time start upgrading them to two and three," said Maxon. "Once that is complete, wire-mine obstacles about four k's in front, make sure they're marked for the scouts."

"Roger, sir," said Gerend.

"Alright, any other questions?" asked Maxon.

"Sir, do we have a projected timeline for the Imperial counterattack?" asked Okatef.

"No, unfortunately," said Maxon. "The spooks are working on it. Anything else?"

The officers shook their heads and replied, "No, sir."

"Alright then, let's get to work," said Maxon.

[Jarak]

Isaac had stayed with in the Combat information centre for some time, forgoing his usual duties as a Surface Marshal in return for an adequate defence for Exaron. He had saw to it personally that the 31st Corps be created for the purpose of Defending the industrial giant of a city that was Vratokh. The city spat out weapons, armour and such for the Imperial forces planetside, while still keeping up with it's standing civilian orders. Isaac knew Vratokh could not fall, while it wasn't a death sentence for the Imperial Garrison, it would allow the Rebels to easily replenish any loss of equipment without having to get it from space. For that reason, Vratokh was of vital importance, to both the Imperial forces and the Rebels.

Isaac's thought process were interrupted as an Alarm activated, the room fell to a shade of crimson, as battle stations were manned. Isaac promptly demanded a report, only to find that the cause of said alarm was not a attack by Rebel forces, but Imperial Naval ships moving in for an ortillery strike. No less but on the Capital of the planet!

Isaac quickly barged his way to a comm unit, the raged induced Surface Marshal demanded that he be put through to Vice Admiral Kreel. As the switch board did so, Isaac unleashed all barrels.

"Kreel!" Isaac yelled down the comm. "What the bloody hell are you doing! Who gave you orders to bombard my planet? We are here to protect it, not destroy it! Especially considering your position is to defend the space around Exaron, you better have a damn good reason for breaking protocol."