Baptism by fire - The invasion of Geonosis

The loud noises of the hydraulics opening the massive bay doors on the Acclamator-class assault ship thundered through the air as the eighty LAAT/i's and LAAT/c's on this cruiser prepared for take-off. The 67th would deploy mostly infantry in this battle, it's combat role already decided for the future, and would serve to ensure the evacuation of the jedi infiltrating the arena of the Geonosian capital. The relatively limited space in that sector denied the deployment of heavy vehicles, and as a result the robust soldiers of the 67th were chosen for that job. The time was there. Everyone had his briefing and knew what to do. A short order was blasted through the communication devices in all clone's helmets and they started mounting the inspiring-looking LAAT/i gunships all around them, while the LAAT/c vehicle carriers were still being prepared for take-ff and delivery. The massive AT-TE tanks were their back-up once they'd be redeployed to the real battlefield where they would flank Separatist forces and slice through their flanks, to establish a forward firing position from were the 41st legion's SPHA artillery guns could fire onto the enemy Lucrehulk core ships still landed. "Alright lads! Mount the Larty!" Falcon blasted through the intercom as he gave the example by mounting the untested vehicle in front of him. Prototypes and predecessors of the LAAT/i had proven their effectiveness so far, but this model had never before been tested in real combat. The two other squads mounting this LAAT/i would be a part of the six LAAT/i gunships to be deployed to evacuate the jedi from the arena, a total of about 180 troopers to evacuate the remainder of the 212 jedi that had infiltrated there.Their operation would be led by Jedi General Yoda in person, a great honour for the new 67th legion.

As the LAAT/i's engines started roaring, the men got increasingly nervous for their first battle ever. They had all been through a gruelling training, but this time, it was for real. "Alright! our job is to deploy and assault any resistance, be it droids or Geonosians while the jedi are evacuated. Every Larty has three squads. Squad Alpha and Beta woll give covering fire and engage the enemy, while squad Gamma will evacuate the jedi. Is that understood?!" The vehicle rocked into movement as the signal was given to depart, and CT-1378 grabbed hold of the cables hanging from the ceiling in order not to fall over. Once the vehicle was well underway the Jedi master who had unnoticed climbed on board gave them a small amount of words of advice and courage before the battle which would mark the begin of their careers as soldiers, but also the end for many of them. "May the Force be with you." CT-1378 nodded and added some pep-talk to that. "We are the 1st Squad of the 1st Platoon! We are the elite of the 3rd Regiment of the 67th! Let's prove those sabre-swinging gentleman what we're worth!"

As they soared through the Geonosis skies the distant sounds of cheering reached them, carried towards them by a favourable wind. However, as suddenly as a blaster bolt, the cheering stopped, and slowly transformed into the sounds of a large conflict. All the noise was assaulting CT-1512´s ears relentlessly, making him feel nervous for the first time in his life. All those years in the simulators or live ammunition training, he never felt anything like this. He looked around, at his brothers and found the steady point he was used to seeing - CT-1378, or Falcon. A man he respected as a Father figure in his life." Understood, Sarge. It´s not like the Jedi Masters and Knights would do anything less than a total overkill on the situation. We´ll show them what we are worth. Isn´t that right, brothers?" He asked his entire squad, trying to motivate them even further. He always found the presence of Falcon to be highly motivating, and this was the time he really wanted to prove himself. As he waited for his brothers to reply, another voice cut in in their commlinks." Alright boys, welcome aboard Striker Eureka! All men are forced to hold on for their dear life, please place your dining tables on a horizontal position, lock and load your weapons. We are on our way, ETA to the arena under two minutes. As soon as we arrive to the arena, I will hover just above ground, so watch your heads. Striker Eureka and the rest of the gunships will create a safe perimeter with our weapons. Stay close to yourselves, we want to avoid any friendly fire. Starting final approach, THIS IS IT BOYS! Striker Eureka, starting descent! Good luck, brothers!"

Suddenly an explosion near the ship made the Larty unstabilize, and the men inside could suddenly hear the engines reverse power to slow their approach as the laser turrets and missilesof the Larty opened fire on the droids down below. The two side doors opened allowing for the clones to disembark while showing the carnage of the battle that had raged there so far. A collective warcry was stemmed by the shrieking of laser bolts and the firing of blasters as CT-1378 or Falcon led his squad outside of the gunship. Right next to him CT-8912 took a shot in his mid-section and was downed immediately. "Open fire!" Falcon roared as he jumped off the undercarriage and unleashed a volley of bolts into the sea of enemies surrounding the few remaining jedi. To his surprise there were at best 20 of the previous 212 still standing, surrounded by a vast mob of droids. He rushed towards the exhausted and battered remains of the jedi and started forming Squad Alpha and Beta as human shields for the jedi to evacuate. In total some 120 troopers now formed a living wall shooting lasers while another 60 protected the jedi more in detail.

This was what they were trained for. They had landed about in the immediate range of the droids, and they stood no chance against numbers as uneven as these, but they'd give them a bloody nose they'd remember, if only droids could remember things. Using the lenght of his rifle to his advantage he decapitated a B1 battle droid and ducked underneath the swing of a super battle droid engaging him, ramming his rifle butt in it's rather vulnerable belly, right before grabbing the droid around the middle and using his shoulder to throw it to the ground. Once it toppled to the ground he unloaded a volley of max-damage setting lasers into the droid's face, making it shake violently before shutting down. Looking around again he saw their troopers drop like flies, but the droids were going down even faster. Luckily for them. However, Squad Gamma had been penetrated by a destroyer droid which was wreaking havoc amongst the confused jedi and the overrun troopers, and he quickly made a decision that would change all of their lives forever. "Squad Alpha redeploy into evecuating jedi!" He yelled, and ran over to the destroyer droid. He was already halfway the droid before it noticed him, and running around it in a circular fashion he managed to out-turn it. Knowing that droideka deflector shields stopped anything going inside at a velocity higher than a mostly immobile object, he slid to a halt, nearly triiping over a droid's remains, and casually stepped inside the force shield. "Mind if I swoop in?!" He yelled before unloading several volleys in the droid's center, causing it to collapse in a cloud of sparks. "Get those jedi into the Larties ASAP!"

As soon as they stepped out, the world seemed to stop for CT-1512. Explosions, shouts, noises of war. Despite training ten years for this, he still felt overwhelmed by it. That is unter the voice of Falcon returned him to reality. As soon as their first comrade fell, he opened fire simoultaneously with the rest of his squad. Unlike them, he went for precision shots, carefully placing his shots to the critical parts of the battle droids. Gunning down his first one with a clean headshot, he realized this will not work in this situation. Deciding to drop aim in favor of cadency as they formed the protective wall around the battered remains of the Jedi. His shots hit droids left and right, but most of the time only seriously damaging them. As the walls of both the protectors and assailants got cloaser, Fox took a few steps forward and by placing a shot in a droids shoulder and the next to his chest, he got him. As he fell over, two more approached him. Dropping one more with a well placed shot to the upper chest part, the second got too close to use his rifle - and luckily, the same applied to the droid. Raising his rifle above his head, he placed it to the droids neck and delivered a kick to the chest, decapitating him. Following the next set of Falcon´s orders, he focused more on protecting the Jedi then gunning them down. He achieved a perfect headshot as they started to retreat. A large shadow appeared above him and he felt a tiny relief that they had the Laarties.

" Holy jeez! All gunners, pick your targets at your own disposion!" With that order, he pulled the trigger for the first time, and the explosion from Striker´s twin blasters took down at least six droids. He kept on gunning them, his crew doing the same. They created an oily swath in their ranks, but more and more just kept coming." Going to make one circle to create a more solid perimeter! Go!" With that, all gunships made a quick paced round above the survivors, taking down dozens upon dozens of battle droids with all the weaponry they had. They were noticed pretty quickly, but none of the droids posessed enough firepower to do any damage to Striker or the other gunships. After finishin the round, he returned his craft to its starting position and started to hover just above the ground." Striker Eureka ready for immediate extraction!" Even now, he kept shooting whenever there was no threat of friendly fire.

The clone wars had begun.

Unfortunately the requisition for desert camo didn't go through fast enough, and Thirteen was stuck with his standard Legion armor, white and green. Not really suitable camouflage for a desert world such as Geonosis. Thirteen fired two shots, hitting a B1 Battledroid in the chest, double tapping was something he thought was a good idea. Never know when those droids get a redundant system upgrade, he thought. He glanced back at the Jedi, some of them were slackjawed at the sudden insertion. He grinned, they didn't know they were going to have backup, this struck to him as amusing.

He fired a few more shots into the crowd of Battledroids, turning his attention back at the enemy ahead when a trooper next to him was hit in the gut. Thirteen glanced at the fallen trooper, two more shots at the legs of a B2 Super Battledroid, taking them off. He crouched next to the wounded trooper and placed two fingers at his neck, still a pulse. Thirteen spotted a Medic nearby and waved him over.
"Hit in the gut." Thirteen reported, crouching in front of them, providing cover.
"I see it, he'll be fine." The Medic replied, already working on the wound.
Thirteen slapped the wounded trooper on the shoulder, "A week or two and you'll be back racking up your kill count, Trooper."

In a moment, the LAAT/i convoy was hovering over the ground. The medic tapped Thirteens shoulder twice to get his attention, when he looked back at the medic, he saw Striker Eureka. Thirteen nodded at the Medic and the two of them lifted the wounded trooper up, he grunted, still gripping his rifle. The three of them walked back to Striker, and they put the wounded trooper in the LAAT/i. The medic hopped in and continued to work on his patient and Thirteen sat on the edge of the deck, still firing into the crowd of Battledroids.

Leaping from the Larty CT-1444 landed on semi-solid ground and immediately took in his surroundings. Troopers all around him were laying heavy fire into the amassing droid forces, attempting to clear a path to get out the remaining Jedi. CT-1444, also known as Wolf to his comrades, watched as the droids swelled up to meet this new threat. Bringing his DC-15A to bear, Wolf quickly sighted and dispatched two battle droids. As he sighted a third, he realized that the droid's were closing in quickly. Firing once again, Wolf took down the third droid before pivoting to avoid blaster fire from another. Ramming his rifle into a B1's midsection, Wolf opened fire, punching a hole right through it and dropping it like a pile of scrap. Switching to his DC-15S, Wolf began firing indiscriminately into the throng of droids. Despite his best efforts and the efforts of the troopers around him, they didn't seem to be making much of a dent in the ever growing droid numbers.

Between the blasterfire, Wolf heard as Falcon called out the order for Alpha squad to reconvene and extract the Jedi. Pulling out his sidearm Wolf sprinted forwards with several of his comrades. Firing now with both his DC-15S and his pistol, Wolf carved a violent path through the droids. He felt a shot glance off his side and quickly responded by whipping his pistol around to take off the head of the droid that shot him. Quickly assessing the damage, Wolf concluded the damage to be minimal and continued on his charge to reach the small group of Jedi. After several more seconds Wolf reached the perimeter of the survivors and turned his attention to dispatching any droids that came too close to the Jedi.

The shadows overhead alerted Wolf to the approaching LAAT/i's. Continuing to focus on eliminating the droids surrounding the evacuating Jedi, Wolf gestured at them to get to the ships. As they passed him by, he quickly closed in behind them defending their retreat. Wolf fired shot after shot into the approaching droids and slowly backed his way towards Striker Eureka. Only once the last of the Jedi had entered the ship would Wolf board. Turning his attention back to the droids, Wolf hoped that time would come soon.

After emptying the remainder of his energy clip inside a super battle droid that approached them, firing his tri-blaster, he slung his DC-15A rifle on his back and picked up a wounded jedi, supporting him with his shoulder as they ran for the Larty. "Retreat!" He yelled as he sped towards the gunship, so vulnerably waiting there on the ground as the large LR1K turrets firing huge sonic blasts were being manned and used against the clone attackers. One of such projectiles struck the ground next to him, sending a few clones sprawling in the sky, their eardrums exploded and their brains most likely just as fried as a battledroid struck by a turbolaser.

"All jedi are secure! Mount the gunships and defend them at all costs! Prepare for take-off!" CT-1378 ordered his men as he lifted the jedi on the platform, quickly slamming a new energy magazine in his DC-15A, before turning around and unleashing a barrage of covering fire. Despite their intensive training, nothing could prepare one for a real battle. Nevermind fighting against droids, against whom covering fire was as useless as throwing bricks at a starship was. They had no rational sense of self-preservation that made organic creatures duck for cover once fired upon. Realizing this, he continued firing nevertheless. Accuracy was useless here. The sea of droids ensured nearly every shot was a hit.

Not everyone could run into the fray, a screaming ocean of metal and blaster fire being meshed with clone blood. Some people had to stay back and coordinate. After all, this wasn't the only battle that was going to be fought, but there might be a way to significantly cut down the war.

"Right...right...ok there's a bug..and...another..got it!" Echo was stowed into the back of his Larty with comm in hand, taking a knee so he could balance the equipment and just back far enough so the damn droids wouldn't catch him with a stray shot or worse, catch a bolt from friendly fire.
"Weird name. Friendly fire. Not all that friendly when you think about it." Echo muttered to himself as he tried to lock onto the signal. To an onlooker it might seem like he was calm in this storm, but the truth was he was terrified. This was the first real combat they've seen. Sure there were accidents in training, the occasional clone sent to the ICU or someone losing a limb when training with the heavy mechanized equipment, but nothing on this scale. Men that he had grown up with over the past ten years dropping like flies, and there was little he could do about it. True, they were clones, this is literally what they were made for, so he might as well quit complaining and do his job to end this war as quickly as possible.

Echo opened a comm to Striker Eureka and immediately started transmitting data.
"Eureka, this is ground, separatists are planning on bugging out. They are moving en masse several clicks to the north. Recommend setting up forward command immediately and regrouping. It'd certainly make this the shortest war in galactic history, over." Echo said. While he waited for a response, Echo moved to the edge of the dropship and fired off his DC-15S. It was like shooting fish in a barrel in this kind of scenario, what was all that marksman training for anyway? One of the clones took a shot to the leg and went down about 10 feet from the ship. Without even waiting for someone else to take it, Echo lept from the gunship at the behest of his squad and grabbed the clone, dragging him back and forcing him on before jumping in himself. The Larty took off at that point, backing away from the sea of droids. The other clone was getting medical attention, with Echo's contribution being a fist bump on his shoulder plate.

"Three legged race. You and me, champs." He breathed.

Silver waited for a few more seconds, but the the new weapons the Geonosians brought into the frame - a sonic cannon of some kind made him change his mind. He saw the side turret of one of the Laarties torn off by a blast from that cannon - glass and blood everywhere on the side of the gunship. Wanting to avoid the same fate for his crew, he hoped to hear the words from Falcon - and he heard them immediately. The Sergeant in charge confirmed that they were good to leave, and they did just so - he lifted Eureka harshly and headed from the arena, blasting whatever came into his sights. Managing to get two turrets that were about to blast them from the sky, the arena disappeared from his sights, and he saw the most magnificent sight in his life. Several Acclamator assault ships were on the Geonosian sky, launching hundreds of gunships and other crafts to deploy their brethren into their first combat mission ever.

Thinking about Echo´s words, he synced up with the nearest Acclamator and confirmed his words." I need a status report, Falcon, ASAP. Wounded, killed, healthy and fighting ready. Both Echo´s data and the data from the AAS Resilient confirms our heading towards north, where most of our forces are heading. Joining them on the first fly path - I need to know how may men I am taking back to the medical staff before returning to flying combat missions." He turned Eureka around and headed towards north, leading the gunships from the arena forward. Then, a large explosion rocked the gunship, causing it to shake violently. He immediately closed and sealed the side doors, as other explosions around Striker started to make them shake wildly. Starting to dive forward and picking up speed, he was determined to make it to the location he received." Falcon, you and your man held on for you dear lives! We got caught in heavy flak - things will get rough! HOLD ON!" Cutting the chatter with this sentence, he armed the trigger on Striker Eureka and heard a familiar buzzing noise - the missiles were being loaded into their tubes, prepared for locking on to targets and being launched.

Ignoring the wild shaking of the landig craft he inspected the troops inside the Larty, aswell as the jedi. "Squad one, four casualties, one wounded. Squad two, one casualty, four wounded, squad three, seven casualties, no wounded. We also have five jedi on board, of which one wounded." He said, grabbing hold of the handles hanging from the ceiling as they continued through the flak fire. All in all, of the 30 soldiers that had landed just now, 12 had died or were left behind, and five had been injured. Quite a grim score, considering that of the first three squads of the entire legion in their first true battle lost over half of its men. "Sir Jedi." He said while walking through the shaking gunship, grabbing the arm of the injured jedi, and helping him to one of the handles.

As the sounds of warfare gradually faded, and the trembling course of the Larty flattened, the men relaxed as they neared their destination. In there they'd drop the jedi and would replenish numbers and ammunition, before continuing with General Yoda in the Larty in order to outflank the surprised Separatist forces. All in all, he concluded, looking at the men around him, they had done very well. He saw the occasional blaster mark on the soldier's armours, their first battle-marks. His own thigh-plate carried the mark of a blaster bolt that had failed to penetrate too. Probably a B1 that made a glancing shot on him. It surprised him that he hadn't noticed, since usually it did hurt, a lot, even with tthe armour.

Unlike most of the Jedi who had been evacuated, Kelim'tel had stayed behind in order to assist in the fighting alongside Master Yoda and the valiant troopers who were throwing their lives out for the Republic, and for the Jedi. He was fit, his morale was high, and he was eager to show these battle-hardened Clones what he could do. "It's good to be with you Troopers. Tell me, what was it like training on Kamino?" He was always curious for more knowledge, and military topics were no exception. He looked on at the Troopers, a bit jealous of their battle-scarred plates of armor. Then, he remembered, that he was a Jedi...and to begin on the path of negative emotion would be his undoing. Then, he stood up, grasping onto one of the bars so that he wouldn't get knocked around too badly from the warfare that was happening all around them.

CT-1379 turned towards the jedi and saluted. "Tough, sir, but compared to our training this is a walk in the park, sir!" He responded as he passed the jedi. They were currently landing near a forward CP and their fast descent made Falcon feel funny inside. Once contact with the ground was established, the sidedoors swept open and several clones helped the jedi descend from the Larty, while others picked up ammo as reinforcements streamed in. He noticed that both of the other squad's segreants were missing, and that one of them also missed their corporal. "Squad three, you're with us now." He ordered them as they replenished numbers. General Yoda gave him a quick nod and stepped off, entering another gunship, leaving this one under Kelim'tel's command. General Yoda would lead that squadron of gunships to clear the caverns around the area, including some rather desolate outposts around their target zone. The quick exchange of wounded men and fresh soldiers along with ammo and quick repairs to the Larty was over before they knew and once more the Larty was given the sign for take-off. The side-doors slammed thight, but left the visors open as to give the troops an idea of what was going on, and the ability to open fire on both sides of the gunship.

Walking around the interior again as they gained altitude in the red Geonosian sky, he started explaining the last details of their mission. "Allright Squads, our objective is to destroy the turbolaser defences around the Lucrehulk-Class Core Ships' landing locations that limit our Acclamator's from blasting them sky-high. Secondary objective is taking out the heavy FLAK in that area, so our Acclamators can deploy additional Larties and artillery to give them a run for their money in the factories." He said, and opened a hologram pad projecting a map that was drawn of the area by their Acclamator's targeting systems, showing all targets to be destroyed and their locations. "Do note, that we also received notice that Count Dooku's craft was spotted travelling towards this base, He said, poiting one out relatively far away from the squadron of Lucrhulks, ", and that we might be redeployed to apprehend him. That'll be all, gents." He said, closing the hologram and grabbing hold of the cables above. They were about to enter contested zones of the planet's surface again, and things were about to get really rough.

The jostling of the Larty caused Wolf to grimace in pain as the wound in his side grew agitated. He moved his free hand to check the wound once more. While the shot had barely penetrated his armour, it certainly stung like hell. Judging it to be more superficial than anything, Wolf simply covered the wound back up and determined that he would seek out medical aid once the fighting was done.

When the ship landed to restock, Wolf made sure to fill up the ammo he had spent. He was surprised at how quickly his supply had dropped. The fight to retrieve the Jedi had been a short one, but it had taken a heavy cost. Wolf looked up from reloading his DC-15A to see a fresh supply of his clone brethren coming in to replenish those they had lost in the battle. That was the first moment when he really realized the sheer amount of loss they had suffered. Men that he had grown up with, considered as brothers, all lost... and altogether too quickly. Wolf may have preferred spending his time alone, but that didn't take away from the sadness and anger he felt in that moment.

As the Larty took to the skies once again, Wolf took his place near the doors. He heard sergeant Falcon shout out their new orders and felt a surge of emotion. He would avenge his fallen brothers and he was gonna take down every damned Clanker that got in his way. Racking the last clip of fresh ammo into his DC-15A, Wolf turned to look out the visor slits. He was ready for a fight.

Kelim'tel ready'd his lightsaber as the fighting began to get worse. He kneel'd down and began to meditate, preparing for his first real battle. "I'll try to take Count Dooku if possible, if you spot him, let me know." After meditating for a while, the explosions and gunfire were too much for him to keep in quiet. "I'm ready when you are. May the Force be with us." He smiled, sweeping his hair back, and began to steady his feet, ready to jump out into the action when it began for them. The Larty would be landing soon, and he knew it. It was only a matter of time before he would have to prove himself to the Clones as a capable fighter, if they didn't already believe that he could handle himself.

Shit, shit, shit

Were the words that echoed in his head, as he felt the his own lungs pumping the oxygene through his body. His heart pounding in his chest, his ears picking up the firing of lasers, his eyes catching, and transforming the data around him into images in his head.Truly, CT-1338 would have been absolutely amazed by all the things that were happening around him, it was his first real battle. It was, to him, who had studied how the human mind and body worked, along with how to harness it's powers fully for 10 years, ever since he was born, absolutely fascinating.

But along with all this studying, came his training. The training the clone relied on at this very moment to keep him alive, as he ran on top of the gunship that had been shot down, running on the roof, where he had jumped the ship he came in on, that had been shot down by the droids. The ship's roof were vanishing under his feet as he took the final step, pressing himself of the ground, he leaped of, seeing a droid below him, he fired at the droid, hitting it in the neck, disabling it. He rolled on the ground as he hit the cold sand, crawling up to his feet, he saw a droid turning around to fire at him, but the droid was close, CT-1338 swooped it's leg, and then jammed the butt of his blaster into it's face, destroying it.

He continued to make his way towards the ship with the wounded Jedi, that was his mission here, after all, to assist the forces for the 67th legion. He saw a battle droid advancing on a wounded trooper, with lightning quick reflexed, CT-1338 unsheated his combat knife and threw it into the back of the head of the battle droid, before firing at it, blowing it to pieces. He dashed for the droid, to retrieve his knife, once he did that, he helped the other trooper up from the ground, he had only recieved a gracing bolt from a droid-blaster, so he could still fight.

"You all right?"

"Yeah. But I have to help the 67th legion."

"No shit! Me too, let's go brother." CT-1338 said as the two began moving quickly towards the gunship, just as they recieved the commnucations from the ship, explaining the situation. They both boarded the ship. "Reinforcements are here, name's Razor."
"I'm Cobolt." They both said, but after a brief moment, Razor realized they were seemingly the only ones who had made it.

"It's not a lot of reinforcements.."

As the Larty took off from the arena and relocated to the Forward CP, Echo made sure the clone he had helped earlier was taken care of first. There was an exchange of wounded and supplies here. The trooper knew that he couldn't save everyone, after all this was war and his job as a soldier was to fight. But then again, his job was also to look after his brothers, just as they would him.

"What's your name, buddy?" Echo asked as they moved the clone off the ship. The clone was shot up with bacta as he looked up to answer back.

"CT 1234. You?" He asked. Echo nodded and grabbed the clone's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"CT 2389. 1234 eh? That's a lucky number. Lucky name. You'll be alright. I'll see you back on Kamino. We'll swap stories later." Echo said. With that, he let the clone go and quickly rearmed himself. He hadn't used a lot of ammo in the last fight, he had mostly been running support. However it was always good to be prepared. Echo loaded back into the Larty and went with the rest of his squad.

Between all the wreckage on the ground and ships hitting the dirt, there was a lot of backdraft being kicked up, which meant that when the clones got to the ground it would probably be hard to see. That wasn't going to affect hitting clankers, seeing as how they were everywhere, but it might be bad for walkers and other artillery that are trying to hit the objective.

"This would be a great day to have those butt capes that the ARCs have, am I right? Man I want one of those butt capes." Echo said to his squad as they approached the battlefield. He then decided to actually say something useful.

"Falcon, sir. If we can get a clear visual of those turbo laser emplacements I might be able to send the coordinates to our walkers for some long range precision strikes. It'd be faster, but we might risk danger close. Your call, sir." Echo said to the leader.

Despite the rough Flak, all the gunship in Eureka´s group made it to the forward CP. However, as soon as they landed it became clear that one of them will not be able to continue in the fighting with them. The Laarties engine broke down the moment it was hovering above the ground and one side of the gunship hit the ground with an audible thud - a second later, the pilot placed down the gunship completely. This worried Silver a lot - they lacked one gunship, which meant thirty two troopers and lots of firepower to support them. And since they were, according to the data feed from the CP the unit that will be advancing deeply into enemy held territory, it was a significant loss. When he was given the green light for take off, he closed the doors on his gunships and made his way towards their destination - towards a zone of Lucrehulk - Class ships. He listened to Falcon´s instructions with great care, as the role of his group was to protect the advance of the 67th Legion.

" Confirming Falcon´s words, Count Dooku was indeed spotted. His escorts blasted off several gunships from the skies - the fools spent all their rockets trying to harm the Lucrehulks. What a waste." He was more upset about ignoring standard pilot protocol - wasting ammunition on targets you can´t damage enough is a waste. They could use those rockets against the Count. Whatever time Silver had to think, it was over. He spotted several Lucrehulks in front of Eureka and grabbed the controls more tightly." Alright, brothers, the situation is - I will be setting you down before the canyons that are just ahead of us. Air command from the Resilient is currently now allowing any flights beyond this line. The air space there is entirely under enemy control - those geonosian fighters are not much of a threat, but according to the images our scouts got before being shot down implicates a galaxy wide record in the amount of flak emplacements. We are not allowed to fly in that zone, so you will have to knock out several of them. Once they are down, you will have full air support at your disposal. Just make sure to mark the position so the Resilient can give us the green light. Good luck, comrades."

With his last sentence, he placed Eureka into a slow dive, and a few seconds later, the Laartie was hovering above the ground with its doors being opened.

"Negative Echo, we need those AT-TE's elsewhere and the emplacements are most likely sufficiently shielded from external attacks. The only way to open up a gap in that shield is by infiltration, and if we infilitrate the emplacements we could just as damn well blast them to high hell." He replied to his brother. Thereby, as the squad's Sergeant not even he was authorized to make such calls. Only their Captain, leading this Company had that authority.

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"Move! Move! Check the perimeter!" He yelled as he jumped out of the gunship and directed a marksman towards a geonosian nearby. A quick blaster bolt took it out of the sky as it attempted to flee, and it crashed to the ground with a high-pitched shriek. He didn't know wether or not it was a civilian, but regardless, it'd have betrayed their position. Their presence behind the enemy's first line was utterly precarious, and the only way they would succeed was through agressive stealth. Using stealth to get close enough to wipe out all withnesses in an instant. As soon as they knew the direct environments were clear of enemies, he grabbed his holographic map again as the Larties took off. The 150 best clone troopers of the 67th Legion were gathered here, since these were the second best after those who already died during the jedi's evacuation, and split up into Platoons of 36 each led by a Lieutenant in a normal situation, but in this case their lieutenant had been on the immobilized gunship, the 2nd lieutenant having been killed in action already. As a result, the Sergeant-Major led the troops into battle. In this case, it was CT-8945, or also called Tremor.

"We are now about right here," Tremor started, pointing at a location near to a canyon that led next to the enemy's defensive lines towards one of their flak-towers, a large rocky outcrop filled with flak and heavy duty turbolasers. The canyon they'd go through was easily defended and in fact a death trap, and that had been the reason they chose to go through it. Because it was so easy to defend they'd never expect them to actually attack through there, and a brutal and decisive assault could overwhelm the relatively small but usually sufficient defensive forces present, should they have the element of surprise. ", and will advance through this canyon towards defensive tower alpha. We must overwhelm the defences in and around the garrison to break through, and as soon as we get out of the canyon we will split up. Half of us will deal with the turbolasers, other half will take down the flak. Since we lack the 6th platoon, we'll have to spread thin. Take care boys."

Falcon nodded and grabbed his DCA from his back and beckoned his squad. "On the quick march boys! We're leading the charge!" He said, starting to jog towards the gentle slope leading into the canyon. Once in there, it'd be one hundred percent enemy territory, and everyone'd have to be on their toes. They had theorized that defences here'd be comparatively weak, as the Acclamators hadn't detected as much emplacements as around the canyon, but that said nothing about how well-defended it actually was, considering the attacks were a measly 150 unsupported infantry.

"Well blowing things up ourselves is fun too I guess. Sir." Echo replied. That was a shame, there just wasn't anything quite like painting a target, hanging back and watching the fire works. Sure some soldiers liked that whole, in the thick of it" feeling, but Echo preferred his artillery strikes over getting shot in the ass while setting a charge any day.

As Snapshot got his attention, Echo gave him a quick once over and nodded. Medics were good, they helped people not die and that was something that he could definitely get behind.
"I'm not in charge as you can clearly see, but I personally never say no to bacta. I think that's a rule actually." Echo said as he fell in line with the rest of his squad.

Leading the charge huh? Well now Echo was really missing his artillery strikes. This wasn't going to be pretty, he suspected a lot of his brothers were going to die. Echo gripped his DC-15S and nodded, following alone while monitoring chatter. At the very least, maybe he could intercept something and give them a safer route, assuming Falcon would go for it.