The war between the Empire and the Coalition is about to enter its bloodiest phase as 2227 will go down as the 'year of battles'. Meanwhile the Jedi Order keeps fighting a parallel war against the Sith and the Imperial Federation is entangled with a...
As the last rebel in the room was gunned down, Iulius followed the mass of troopers that was advancing down the hallway.
"Come on! The control room is right in front of us!" he incited.
"Lord Tanis, wait!" the voice of Morit urged. "The rebels have a heavy turret and a barricade, there."
"Halt!" Iulius promptly ordered.
The troopers simply occupied that workshop, but didn't peek beyond the next corridor.
"All right, how bad is it?" he asked to the twins.
"We couldn't find a chance to sabotage that, and there are at least thirty men defending that room, plus those who managed to retreat now." Aiolin explained.
"And the only approach is straight through that hallway?" Kavener asked, aware that it would result in a costly matter.
"Welcome to Ringo Vinda, sir." Morit replied half ironic and half resigned.
"Have a squad prepare the grenade launchers and other explosives, because we're gonna need them." Iulius instructed.
"We have a few portable covers that we could set up along the corridor, if we manage to advance." Colonel Doreen said.
"Then we will provide all the cover fire we can. Major-General, prepare the grenadiers."
The officer nodded and gave the order. Inside that tight space, without the support of the vehicles, the only chance to provide a barrage was with the grenade launchers firing all at once.
"Take position." Doreen ordered.
Two ranks circled around the large generator in the room that just so happened to hide them from the hallway and reached the edges of the threshold. A group of four grenadiers, two on one side and two on the other one, prepared their weapons, looked at each other and then quickly extended their arms to point the guns into the hallway and fired the first salvo of grenades.
The explosion resonated in a deafening way and the first squad moved in.
A wall of bullets came without any warning from the rebel side. The crackle of guns included the turret, which clearly had not been hit. Instead, most of the first squad was cut down in the span of five seconds.
Among the blood and the limbs torn away, Iulius noticed that the turret was a model of the System Alliance. A fixed turret with a frontal shield, that the Republic probably bought, and that would be extremely difficult to dislodge.
The grenadiers fired another salvo, but one of them tried to peek over, in order to take a better shot, and was instead hit in the face by a blaster bolt. He fell down with his visage erased into a charred coal.
"Lay down some smoke!" Iulius ordered. "Suppressive fire!"
While two troopers threw smoke grenades, others peeked over and fired, trying at least to hit the rebel riflemen that were firing from the barricade. The turret was precise and its gunner skilled, as he mowed three more troopers.
"Use those crates! Don't stay in one point!" the Grand Admiral insisted as he dashed behind a few crates that offered some more cover in the room.
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