To The Victor Goes The Spoils

RC-5448-32

"RC-5448-32, Victor, you and your brothers served admirably.  Now that we've gotten past the prefabricated speech, take a seat.  Want a drink?"  I looked up at Rav Bralor, the only person who knew my squad as well as I did. 

"What is there to drink?" I found myself asking.  "Tihaar." she replied.  "I want to go over your after action report."  I asked, "Why? You've clearly read it."  "Because," she began, "I want to hear it from your mouth, and preferably when you aren't completely sober."

I grunted my assent, and took the proffered bottle of booze.  I took a swig and began, "The mission began pretty easily.  We landed no problems, and there were only a few bumps in getting into the compound.  That should've tipped us off."  I took another swallow of tihaar.

"If it's easy, it's a trap." she said somberly.  I nodded and continued, "should've tipped us off, but we hadn't been impressed with the standard droid engineering and Geonosians didn't seem particularly clever either." I took another quaff of tihaar, and Rav was drinking similarly heavily.

"Back on topic, though, we touched base, made sure that everyone had the necessary ordnance to start the reaction going and we split up again.  We even set the bombs with no problem.  It was after the bombs were set that problems started arising." I paused to sip my drink. 

"First, they flooded the comms with static, and then they started herding us somewhere.  I was pushed deeper into the facility by the weight of their onslaught, I can only assume that it was the same for the others." I trailed off and took another massive drowning gulp from the bottle. 

I gazed sadly into the now emptied bottle and said, "I only got out because I got a bit clever, and very, very lucky.  I should've died in those catacombs."  Rav grimaced at me and said, "if you keep moping, I'll put you back into those catacombs myself."  then she hit me... hard.

In my drunken stupor, I wasn't expecting it and was thrown from my chair and the bottle clattered to the floor several feet away from me.  I raised my hand to my face where her fist had squarely connected, and I could already tell, even in my tipsy state, it was going to bruise. 

She then hauled me to my feet and put me back in my seat.  "oh, sorry, I thought you were an imposter, what with your griping and moaning.  OF COURSE IT TOOK LUCK, half of every firefight is luck."

"Brains, equipment, and training will only supplement luck for so long, sooner or later, it becomes a measure of luck.  You got out, now what are you going to do about it.  Will you throw yourself headlong into the enemy ranks, trying to find the sweet release of death?"

"Will you hide and cower trying to preserve the thing which you were lucky enough to keep?  Will you carry on unchanged in spite of the loss of our squad?  Will you leave? go awol? live on your terms leaving behind all of the others? What are you going to do now?"  I still felt the hit. 

"I think that I'm going to do my job." I said, or more likely, I slurred.  "It seems that it's the only thing left to do."  She nodded from her seat, a smile beginning to play across her lips.  "Good, the Kaminoans have been trying to rebuild commando squads from the remnants of Geonosis." 

She continued, "I've been looking at the piecemeal squads and I haven't been particularly impressed with the results.  Part of what made the commando squads so potent was the easy familiarity they developed.  You'd have to entirely rebuild that."

She finished in a surprising manner with, " I'm recommending you for a command position.  If you accept, you'll be placed in charge of the 2532nd jungle strike group.  It's an advance force comprised of two platoons.  Assuming you accept, you'll meet your troops later today." 

We spoke for a little longer which helped me to sober up before a knock came at the door.  Outside stood a fellow clone.  "Lt. Dodger, sir, I was told that you would be assuming command of the 2532nd?"  His armor was painted with dark green patterns over his armor. 

The harness on his armor looked like it had a strong connection spot where a flight pack could be comfortably affixed for extended durations.  Apparently, this was a fellow jet trooper, and that probably meant that he led a platoon of jet troopers. 

He led me down to a large, open staging area where a double platoon was arrayed before me with augmenting air and armor.  He called out in a good, clear parade ground voice, "ATTENTION! CAPTAIN ON DECK!" then he marched off to what I assume were his guys. 

I called out, "At ease troopers." I gave them a quick glance and noticed a few things.  Of the double strength platoon that I would apparently be commanding, half were jet troopers, the other half were ARF, heavy, and standard troopers. 

The auxiliary forces consisted of three Y-Wings, three AT-TEs, three LAAT-c, and one LAAT-i.  In all, a very good composition for an advance force.  "Troopers dismissed, officers, a moment." I want to see the various officers, and get a feel for the chain of command as it exists. 

Lt. Dodger, Lt. Hammer, 2 Lt. Flip, 2 Lt. Fuse, Mjr Sgt. Halo, Mjr Sgt. Duct, and Lt. Jiffy, and Sgt. Landing all stood arrayed around me.  I would have preferred that everyone over the rank of corporal be here, but most of the sergeants apparently didn't count themselves as officers. 

"All right," I began, "As you may or may not know, I'm Captain Victor, and I'll be your commanding officer.  Now then, I don't know how you were run previously, so, fair warning, I'll almost certainly rearrange the squads' assignments." 

"I'll almost certainly have questions for you over the next few days while we wait for our assignment, but for now, you're dismissed."  With that I gave them a salute and marched myself to the mess hall.

Over the next few days, I did, indeed rearrange the command structures.  I'm a small units tactician at heart, and I do best when I can conceptually break things down to as few moving parts as possible. 

Before, the jet troopers, the rank and file, and the auxiliary armor and aircraft had all done their own thing with only minimal integration between their command structures.  They were good about directing fire, calling their targets, and maintaining fire discipline. 

That said, they lacked a coherence as a fighting force.  I decided to fix that.  I broke them down into modified squads so that I had four squads of jet troopers, and six "squads" of assorted infantry. 

Nobody liked being separated from their buddies, but the officers at least picked up on what I was doing pretty quickly.  Now that I had ten squads, I began arranging them in groups of three squads to an AT-TE. I kept the fourth jet trooper squad as a reserve and advance force. 

Each AT-TE had three squads, one of which was a jet trooper squad.  The other two were mixes of various specialties.  It became easy to manage at any necessary scale with the new breakdown. 

I could manage them as one unit which is comprised of three units which broke down into four units each.  This versatility of command meant that I, or any officer, could easily respond to changing threats.  I kept the aircraft outside of the squad system as they were my "solutions".

With my chain of command instituted, I was prepared for our assignment.  It came all too quickly.  We were being dispatched to Mimban.  From all that I've heard, it's a desolate mudhole, but also from what I've heard, it's a desolate mudhole with a valuable position. 

I disperse the orders to the officers and they in turn prepare their men.  We're being dispatched as an auxiliary force to the 224th.  We're an advance force whose main job is to secure a landing site and main firebase.  From there, the 224th will handle the majority of the actual fighting. 

Once the armory is loaded onto the assault craft, alongside our full complement of assault craft and everything else, it becomes a matter of loading up and briefing the men.  The journey itself is uneventful, and the briefing is easy. 

These guys have been trained from birth, and they all survived Geonosis.  If they remain intact, they will make an exceptional fighting force.  It isn't long before we get to start kicking ol' tinny's can across the galaxy again.