Surviving Hoth

Hoth Suvival

Erica ran as fast as she could through the snowy terrain on Hoth, the ground crunching under her boots. Her foot suddenly caught something as she ran up the slope and fell face-first into the snow. She rolled over and saw that she had tripped on a heavy blaster that barely protruded out of the snow.
"Come on, we have to keep moving!" Came a male's voice. She looked up and saw a stubbled man in Rebel snow-gear with his hand outstretched to help her up. Erica scowled under her helmet. She didn't care if those things caught her, she would NOT accept help from a Rebel.
"I'm fine," she said as she yanked her foot free, stood up, and re-secured the portion of the disassembled E-Web cannon on her back. "Get going," she growled and shoved past the Rebel scum.
"Wait!" a muffled voice pleaded. Erica and the Rebel turned and saw a bloodied snowtrooper clutching his leg and making a pathetic attempt to run down the small hill behind the one they just climbed. Halfway through his descent, the battered man's weakened legs gave out on him and he tumbled down the snowy hill. "Commander! Help me! Please!" he begged Erica and stared at her desperately through the broken left eye visor with a pained look.
"Did they bite you, soldier?" Erica asked and cautiously descended the hill after motioning for the Rebel to get lost. The young man removed the bloodied hand from his thigh shakily, revealing a large open wound and a glimpse of bone where toughened fabric and flesh should have been.
"I don't wanna die, ma'am," he trembled and Erica could see a tear forming in his eye. She heard rustling over the now bloody slope the unfortunate snowtrooper had come from. Those THINGS were drawing near.
"What's your name, kid?" she asked. By now she had reached the soldier and was kneeling beside him.
"M-mason," he stuttered and coughed up blood under his helmet. The boy didn't have much time left. Erica reached over to the trooper's chestplate and yanked the ID piece free. "Please, Commander," he begged as she stood up, "Don't let those things kill me." Now came the hard part. On her HUD, she could see a swarm of things getting dangerously close.
Erica sighed and said, "Don't worry, kid, I won't." Without giving herself time to hesitate, she aimed her E-11 blaster at the bleeding soldier's head and whispered, "Thank you for your service to the Empire, Mason." Then she unloaded three blasts and scrambled back up the cliff without looking back.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" one of Erica's snowtroopers asked her.
"Killing traitors is part of the job description, Roland," she said as she walked past the snowtrooper with red-stained gloves and gauntlets.
"But that man was loyal to the end," Roland jogged up beside her.
"He was changing into one of those things that attack anything that moves indiscriminately, there was nothing we could have done for him." Erica explained and looked at the small band of soldiers left over from their skirmish.
"This is all of us, ma'am," Roland began, realizing that his commanding officer no longer wished to discuss the matter of the soldier she had to put down. That was what she liked about Roland. He followed orders to the letter and always waited a healthy amount of time before asking why she did what she did. Four other snowtroopers, one shadow, eight Human rebels, two Quarrens, a Rodian, and an Ishi Tib Erica noted to herself mentally and resisted the urge to fire the cycler rifle she recovered through the heads of both stupid Quarren heavy gunners, one of whom had just said something in its native language to the human rebel who had attempted to assist Erica earlier.
"What'd the squid-face just say?" Erica demanded.
"His name's Akels, bucket-head," the man growled, "But he was asking why we have to listen to you and follow your orders. In fact, it was OUR side who won that battle so it should be US giving Y'ALL the orders."
"I pray for your sake that the Quarren said that last part," Megan, one of Erica's few remaining snowtroopers, strolled up to the rebel, cradling her EE-3 blaster rifle. The entire group tensed up. Erica saw her snowtroopers ready to move and the shadow trooper prepared to activate his cloaking device and drop the nearest Rebel with one fluid movement. Erica herself had already unstrapped her cycler rifle. Both groups stood there for what seemed like an eternity as the tension built up.
"Ma'am," she heard Roland call to her in the same tone a parent would use to reprimand a child they caught doing something wrong. Erica snapped out of her state of pent-up rage and turned to her loyal soldier and comrade.
"What is it, Roland?" she gave him an appreciative nod. Just then, she noticed the shuffling and groaning sounds coming from the hill behind her. The rest of the group must have heard them as well.
"We should get moving, ma'am," Roland suggested.
"It's too late for that," Erica shook her head, "Our best bet is to hold our ground and hope for the best."
"Yes, ma'am," he nodded and began setting up the E-Web cannon he had been carrying around, reminding Erica of her own portion. She rushed to help her soldiers set up until she realized the Rebels were just standing there and watching them.
"What do think you're doing?" she demanded from the motionless soldiers, "We're here trying to survive and you're just standing there!?"
"Why should we help you?" a female Rebel folded her arms, "As far as we're concerned, Hoth will now be useless to the Empire. Besides, we all know that we won't be getting back to the Rebellion when that shuttle gets here." Erica cursed under her breath. She could now hear an E-Web firing away.
"So be it," Erica growled, "I'll be sure to enjoy it when Lord Vader looses you on your pathetic comrades. Take them, Marco, we don't need them anymore." In an instant, the irritated Imperial Commander threw a hook across the scum in front of her and shot one of the Quarrens in the head with her cycler rifle. At the same time, the Shadowtrooper materialized behind the group of traitors and shoved the remaining non-humans and one human Rebel down the cliff and gunned downed the man who once attempted to assist his killer's Commanding Officer. "Now help us blast these things or your friends die!" Erica snapped and joined her soldiers, leaving the remaining Rebels under the watchful eyes of the Shadowtrooper.
"Good work, Commander," Roland complimented her and continued laying waste to the horribly disfigured creatures that were once their enemies and comrades, dropping them just inches from the Rebels at the bottom of the hill.
"Now's not the time for that," she said and took up position on the repeating blaster cannon next to Roland. To her not-so-surprise, the remaining Rebels reluctantly took position and began holding off the horde. Erica knew, though, that they could only keep them at bay for a few minutes, then they would be forced to either stand their ground or run and gun. She determined that the Rebels at the bottom would buy them a little more time. "Joseph!" she barked over the blaster fire to her subordinate, "The second you see those things get too close, you throw all the detonators you've got down there."
"Yes, ma'am," their self-proclaimed demolitions expert nodded and continued firing. Through her helmet's 360 camera, Erica saw the woman she punched lower her weapon and look up at her.
"Our guys are still down there!" she shouted.
"I'm already doing you a favor by not having thrown those detonators down there by now!" she snapped back, "So shut your trap and keep firing!" They spent the next two minutes in silence with the exception of the blaster fire and the horrible sounds coming from the charging crowd of creatures. Then it happened. Amidst the firing, Erica watched as one of the infected soldiers rushed up and sank its teeth into the Rodian's head. In panic, the Ishi Tib tried to use its jump pack to escape the bottom, only to be gunned down in the crossfire.
"Watch your fire!" one of the Rebels shouted.
"It's that damned things fault for getting in the way," Marco answered coldly. Through the camera in her helmet, she saw the Rebel that shouted, the young woman Erica had appropriately punched, charge the shadow trooper. In not so much as a blink, without letting up his fire on the horde, Marco drew his SE-14C blaster pistol and gunned down the moronic Rebel scum.
"They trained you well, soldier," Erica acknowledged the elite member of her team. She refocused her attention on the crowd and realized the horde was getting a little too close for comfort with the remaining Rebels very close to reaching the top of the hill. "Time's up, Joseph," she barked, "Blow em to Hell!"
"Yes ma'am," he answered with a slight chuckle and poured an entire pack of detonators down the hill. As she fired away and the detonators rolled down to the bottom, she saw the few Rebels remaining at the bottom frantically try to scramble back up the hill only to trip over the volatile explosives. Before she gave the order to throw a live detonator into the pit of death, her helmet comm crackled to life.
"TK 8577, this is Imperial Pilot TK 1184. Do you read me?" A woman's voice asked.
"I read you," Erica replied and blasted more of her fallen, "I could use some good news right about now."
"Roger that, Commander. Keep your comms active so we can send an LZ near your signal. ETA: Two minutes. Over and out." Her comlink clicked off.
"Help's on the way!" Erica shouted over the blasterfire, receiving a few celebratory hoots and hollers from her soldiers and the Rebels alike... except Marco. Moments later, a Lambda-class Imperial Shuttle soared over head and landed several yards away. "Joseph! Toss a live one and let's move!" she ordered. The normally witty snowtrooper wasted no time and immediately armed and lobbed a thermal detonator down the hill. The swarm had nearly reached the top and the Rebels at the bottom had all been slaughtered. An explosion rocked the snow beneath Erica followed by a brilliant ball of fire, armor, and limbs. That was their queue The small band of survivors abandoned their positions and made a mad dash towards the shuttle.
"Ma'am," she heard Roland say, "Those things are almost on us. That blast didn't do much." Erica cursed under her breath. She dared a glimpse back and saw that those things were only two or three yards behind them. But that didn't matter any more. Before she turned around, she felt her boot hit the metallic ramp. She looked in the cabin and saw that Marco, Megan, and two of the remaining five Rebels were with her. Roland and Joseph were nearly there, but the three Rebels had nearly passed them up and the creatures were almost upon them.
"Megan! Marco! Suppressing fire! Erica ordered. "Marco, aim for the head. Megan, go for the legs." In unison, Megan fired at the approaching group, landing several successive shots on the fleeing Rebels' kneecaps as Marco spun around and put a blaster bolt in the heads of the two Rebels with them. The swarm of creatures momentarily slowed down to envelope the screaming Rebels.
"Savage tactics, Commander," Megan nodded in approval as Joseph and Roland clambered up the ramp while it closed. The four Imperial soldiers sat down and sighed in relief, disregarding the dead Rebels on the ground.
"We made it," Roland leaned his head back and chuckled. The others laughed with him.
"It's a good thing we found Marco here or else those good for nothing Rebels might have taken us down with 'em," Joseph put a hand on the Shadowtrooper's shoulder.
"I'll say," Roland nodded and checked his E-11. In a flash, the four Snowtroopers had their blasters aimed at the elite soldier.
"You're a good man, Marco," Erica sighed, "But we need a few questions answered. For example, why were we deployed on that miserable planet in the first place? And why were you stationed at the facility that virus broke loose from?"