A small landing shuttle was sitting in the hanger bay with the back hatch open. Two women were standing outside in stormtrooper armour with their helmets off. They were pulling their hair into the standard Imperial service bun to get ready for deployment for Pasaana. A third trooper, fully geared up with his helmet on, walked up to the shuttle and saluted the pair.
“Specialist HM-323, reporting in. Is this Torch Squad?”
The two stopped and looked him up and down. The taller one, with black hair and wearing a jump trooper pack, spoke first.
“Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper? Where’s your rifle, specialist?”
“Ma’am, pistol only is standard load out for datatroopers. This is Torch Squad then?”
The two women looked at each other again. The jumptrooper shrugged. “Never heard of a datatrooper but you’re in the right place. Hey Boss! New transfer is here.”
Corporal RN-7220 stepped out of the shuttle with his helmet off. HM-323 quickly saluted him and RN-7220 returned it with a quick and lazy salute of his own.
“Specialist HM-323, reporting in, Sir.”
The Corporal looked over at the blonde woman beside them. “Samson, you didn’t take his rifle, did you?”
“No, boss. He said he doesn’t have one. Data-something.”
“It’s Datatrooper.” HM-323 said. “New specialization on limited rollout. Organic air control and fire support coordination. Expanded sensors and communications. I’m carrying an astromech droid worth of equipment and I can feed information to the HUD in your helmets.”
“That explains the new buckets.” The jumptrooper replied.
“Yes, the new Mark R-7 helmets have an expanded display capacity...”
“I liked that bucket.”
“Stow it, Widow.” the Corporal cut in. “Specialist, what was your nickname in your old squad? We don’t use designations here.”
HM-323 got a little sheepish. “I.. uh... don’t have an old squad.”
“Ok, you’re fresh. You had a boot camp squad. What did they call you?” Widow asked.
“No camp squad, Ma’am. I was running sensors on a frigate until 6 months ago and got selected for this program. Just finished training for this equipment.”
The troopers stopped and side eyed each other.
Widow looked over at the Corporal. “Boss, why is the sensor jockey wearing armour?”
“Relax, Widow.” The corporal replied. “You’re part of this squad now, specialist. We’re calling you Brains. Do you have combat experience?”
“No, not yet, sir. This is my first posting. I spent the last few days with signal company and they’ve moved me here.”
The PA system in the hanger deck started up. “All shuttles, prepare for departure. Repeat, all shuttles, prepare for departure.”
“Alright,” the corporal said, “Let’s get everyone loaded up. The Major wants to give us instructions on the way down. Brains, drop the sir. Everyone just calls me boss. Anyone seen Bootstraps?”
“Here, Boss” a stormtrooper said as she jogged up to the shuttle. “Here. Ready to go. Just tidying some things up with the Quartermaster.”
Widow put her arm around Brains and started walking him onto the shuttle. “Don’t mind Bootstraps. She’s always cutting deals to round up extra ammo. TL-50s hog power cells faster than E-11s so we’re always owing favours to keep supplied. May as well get your fancy bucket off so we can see your face.”
Brains pulled his helmet off and found a seat on the shuttle. The hatch came down and a moment later they felt the shuttle lift off.
“Hey Forty-Forty,” Widow called, “any conquests before we left Kashyyyk?”
Everybody groaned and rolled their eyes. FE-4040 had been adjusting something on his flamethrower and looked up. “Same story as always, Widow. She’s back home for me.”
“You keep letting me down, forty-forty, but one of these days you’re going to crack and sleep with something. Starfell?”
“A proper lady doesn’t kiss and tell.” A redhead trooper across seated across from Widow replied. “But I’m not proper. I pulled two fleet officers and an ISB rookie.”
They all let out some laughs and Starfell got a high five.
“Really brave screwing around with ISB” Widow laughed.
“Alright, that’s enough.” The corporal cut in. “Major Dantes has some extra instructions for us.”
The corporal brought out his holopad and the figure of the Major showed up in the middle of everyone.
“Aurek Company, this is Major Dantes. You all received the mission outline earlier. Seize the refinery. Haul bacta. Limit civilian interference. The refinery has a wall around the compound and we’ve been tasked with securing the gatehouses. Pioneer Battalion is going to make their own entrance for hauling out supplies. For us that means nothing in and nothing out. There are six gates that face into the city. One larger than the rest. I’m passing round gate assignments and your shuttles will drop you there. Expect resistance on landing. Torch and Hammer squads, you are getting the main gate. Command says it’s special. Torch Squad, the bridge has some additional instructions for you following this. Good hunting, troopers. Dantes out.”
The blonde with the rotary blaster laughed. “Oooo. Special assignment from the bridge. Someone on high must like us.”
“Shut it, Samson,” Boss replied. “the bridge bastards coming on.”
The whole shuttle started to shake and the background noise escalated. Brains looked to Widow beside him with some worry.
“We’re entering the atmosphere” Widow offered. “When you’re in a shuttle this small there’s a lot of chop when you hit the atmosphere at full speed.”
The image on the holodisplay shifted to a nondescript officer in the standard fleet grey.
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“This is Lieutenant Commander Sarlin of the Command Staff. Torch Squad, you’ve had a datatrooper assigned to you. Where are they?”
The corporal pulled Brains over to the display. “He’s here, sir.”
“Good” Sarlin replied. “Keeping airspace organized is a critical priority for this mission. We’ll have a few dozen craft in motion, all moving at different speeds, and some will be requisitioned civilian craft without transponders. Recipe for a mess. The main gatehouse is a storey taller than the buildings around it. I’m putting you up there because of the sensor suite on your back. Get up there and uplink with the main sensor station on Doomhammer. The second set of eyes will help us keep everything clear. Corporal, if he falls, haul his corpse to the rooftop and call for instructions on establishing the uplink. Once the sensors are live we’ll be able to clear some airspace for bombardment support. Under no circumstances can the uplink be broken or that sensor suite leave that rooftop. Sarlin out.”
“I didn’t see him, boss, was it the cute one” Widow asked.
“No” Boss replied. “It wasn’t the ISB bitch you’ve been crushing on. Isn’t she twice your age?”
“I like ‘em old, boss.”
The pilot looked back to the troopers. “Landing in five, Corporal.”
He walked forward and stuck his head between the pilots chairs. “How much fire support can you give us on landing?”
“30 seconds, tops. Command was real clear about priorities. Everything that flies is hauling bacta. We have four repeating blasters and we’ll spray it while we land but we can’t hang around to cover you.”
“Uhh.. Corporal?” Brains cut in.
The corporal looked back, “Need something?”
“I can get us cover. Shuttle lays down smoke screen. Widow has thermal binoculars. I can run a feed off her binocs and bring that data up on everybody’s HUD. We’ll be concealed in smoke but will see out of it just fine. It’ll just take a second for the two of us to get clear of the shuttle to get the binocs out and the data flowing.”
The corporal looked over to his second in command, Starfell, and she just shrugged.
“Alright, brains.” He said, “We’ll see what you can do. Pilot, put down a heavy smoke show on the landing. Keep the shuttle door away from the gatehouses and use the front cannons to suppress any fire from them. Hold for 30 and then bug out.”
Through the cockpit glass, the pilots could see blaster shots starting to ring by. A few made contact and left a ping as they bounced off the armour. The corporal’s holopad chimed and the Major showed up.
“Torch Squad, one of our shuttles is down and hammer is reassigned. Main gate is all on you.”
The pings from blaster fire hitting the shuttle armour increased in tempo.
“Fragging fantastic.” Starfell said. “Boss, what’s our plan?”
“Brains,” Boss said, “Did camp teach you to harness on a jump trooper?”
“No, Boss.”
“Great. You’d break your fragging legs on the landing. You’ll have to take the stairs.”
The corporal pulled up a holodisplay of the main gate. “This gatehouse on the left is what the bridge is fussing over. Smaller one on the right is expendable. Forty-Forty, torch the smaller gatehouse. Bootstraps, cover his approach. Samson, Flutters, sweep the refinery doors when we land and cover flanks in case there are any surprises. Widow, you’ll have 30 seconds. Get us a read of the gatehouses so we know where they are. Jump to the roof, clear it, then start working down. Get the third floor done and we’ll meet in the second. Me and Starfell will advance to the guardhouse and work up from the bottom. Brains, you’re never more than 2 meters away from me. Don’t get yourself killed.”
“Landing in 30, Corporal. Laying down smoke.” The pilot called back.
The squad all put their helmets on. Everyone stood up with their weapons and held onto straps on the ceiling with their off hands. Brains had his left hand on the strap and was using his right to press commands into the keypad on his left wrist. “Hey Brains,” Widow said, “You gonna draw that big pistol of yours? I want to see if it beats a rifle.”
“Getting there, Widow. Just pulling up the feed from your binoculars and setting up the data stream.“
Widow reached down to pull out her binoculars to hand them to him. Brains shook his head.
“No need, Widow. I can pull the feed off every scope, mic, and every other sensor without any help.”
A pair of yellow lamps started flashing on either side of the landing ramp. Brains finished punching in commands and then swapped hands to draw his pistol with his left hand. The repeating blasters on the front of the shuttle opened up fire and drowned out all the other sounds. The flashing sped up and then turned to a solid red. Half a second later, the ramp dropped down and the smoke from outside started filling the shuttle.
Flutters and Samson were first down the ramp into the wall of smoke. The each moved out a few meters from the shuttle to cover the rear half. Widow and Brains were out next. She gave a tap on her jump pack to hop on top of the shuttle. Her binoculars came out as she landed and she started a sweep.
“Targets flagged, Widow. Got what I need.” Brains said.
Widow rocketed off high towards the taller guard house. As Brains was talking, Forty-Forty and Bootstraps hooked around the left of the shuttle towards the right guardhouse. Starfell and the Corporal were last out.
Boss moved along the left side of the shuttle. Starfell was on his left and Brains was behind him. He raised his TL-50 and fired a burst into the cloud of smoke. A second later the thermal outlines took shape in his hud. His shots found a target at the door who was collapsing forward from the impact. Starfell opened up towards two guards standing in the middle of the gate at ground level. Boss got near the front of the shuttle and pounded his fist twice on the cockpit beside the pilot. The pilot nodded to confirm that everyone was off. The sound of the shuttle engines was already loud and became completely deafening as they powered up to pull away.
He kept advancing through the opaque wall of smoke. A wire outline of the guardhouse showed up in green. Boss heard Brains come in on the radio. “Sensors are getting ahold of everything. Painting you guys a picture.”
They were about half the distance from landing to the guardhouse door and the sound of the shuttle was fading and replaced by various sizes of blaster fire. A very distinct crack came from nearby his head and he saw the outline of someone at a second floor window get thrown back.
They heard the distinct whoosh of the flamethrower and the smoke rushed towards their right to follow the rising air current. Forty-Forty clearly found his position. Boss didn’t see any thermal images on the main floor as they reached the door and pushed through. The guardhouse had a small footprint and was only significant for being three floors tall. Boss and Starfell entered and checked corners before looking to the staircase. The smoke was so much thicker inside that one of the smoke grenades from the shuttle must have come through the window. Green wire outlines, red images of enemies, and a blue image beside him labelled JH-2210 kept everything moving in a clear direction.
“Boss,” Widow came through the radio. “Third floor is plugged up. Bunch of them and packing heavy.”
“We’ll take them from the bottom.” He said as they topped the staircase into the second floor. He gestured for Starfell to take the stairs to the third floor. She made it three steps before a hail of blaster fire rushed overtop he head. She ducked so quickly she fell back a few steps onto her back. Clearly the staircase was covered and Widow hadn’t had any luck coming down from the roof.
Boss felt a hand tapping on his shoulder. Brains was right behind him and started pointing to the ceiling to lay out the floor above them.
“Four guys. Two large power cells, likely repeating blasters, and a bunch of lighter stuff. Both staircases converge above us there. They’re covered and bunkered, Boss.”
“Vader’s mechanical ass! Starfell, ideas?”
She was close to the staircase but keeping enough distance to keep her head intact.
“Grenades would probably bring the whole thing down, Boss. Concussion blasts from the rifles would do the same. These staircases make it a shooting gallery to get up there.”
A fresh voice came over the radio. “Torch Squad, this is Major Dantes. Bridge wants that sensor package in place. What is your status? Over.”
“We’ve gotten fragged up with a fortified position, Over.”
“Un-frag yourselves promptly, Corporal. The bridge is watching. Dantes out.”
Boss looked around again in hopes that a solution would show up. “Brains, could we shoot through the floor and drop them in?”
“Don’t think so. Looks like it’s all concrete and steel construction. Grenades will wreck it but blasters mean nothing.”
“Hey Boss,” Widow chimed in from the roof. “Concrete doesn’t burn, right?”
“I like your thinking Widow but our flamethrower is occupied.”
“No, Boss.” She replied. “I have a napalm grenade up here. Hang on to your butts.”
Brains looked over at Boss. “Uhh.. won’t all that napalm just flow down the stairs onto us?”
Starfell laughed. ”Armour is rated for our own grenades. Suits have air. Just watch the show, Freshie.”
Perfectly on cue, they all heard the sound of flame ignition upstairs followed by screaming. Two flaming bodies ran down the stairs and Starfell dropped both of them with blaster bursts. She turned back to the other troopers.
“Un-Fragged, Boss?” She laughed.
The corporal sighed. “Starfell, get Brains up to the roof and get that uplink on. Torch Squad, check in. How is everybody?”