Kieran nodded to Jax as he excused himself to go grab his gear, when Kieran felt he could have a brief rest before the Op another SpecForce walked up to him. There resident Twi'lek who enjoyed the whole military protocol thing. Most the time he couldn't decide if he liked it or not. He saw the need for it but the rebels lax standards made him question if there was any point at having a structure other than "Follow this guy, do as he says." Though they wouldn't always be rebels, so he supposed if they were to grow into something else they needed to have a base. Either or. "At ease-" She at least knew how to salute properly. That was better than some people in the Alliance. "I don't know where you were during the actual briefing Aralia but I'll give you a recap. Benefit of the doubt and what not, I'll presume you were doing something important enough to miss out on a briefing to the biggest op you've been through to date." He took out a small holoprojector and held it in his hand. "In roughly an hour it'll be night time on Belona, we'll drop out on the populated side of the planet, that due to the time will be the dark side. At the time of our reversion pre-set charges will take out the electrical grid disabling the turbolaser towers and making us harder to see as they won't be able to point lights at us. The [i]Endeavor[/i] will lay cover fire for the drop ships with the fighter/bomber contingent as we make our way into this mine here-" The map zoomed in to show the largest mine in the Capital. "-This will be our beachhead. We'll set up camp at the mouth of the mine and at the bottom, from there we will have a straight path to attack any of the other five industrial centres from two sides." He clicked the projector and the image retracted back into the device. "You'll be going with Bantha squad to try and work your way into the Capital building and take out the Governor. Cut the head of the snake if you will." --- [b]One Hour Later(Dramatic BUMBUMBUM)[/b] The [i]Endeavor[/i] dropped to real space, Kieran was already in the LAAT as the doors sealed shut, he could only picture it as the main hanger opened and Y-Wings, X-Wings, Z-95s and all other assortments of craft lurched forth from the megaliths belly. It was mostly a smooth ride down, though he could hear over the comm the pilots that were in the various engagement against the poorly prepared. He tapped his headset. "Comm check." Everyone raised a single thumb towards him and he nodded. Then a ping in his ear indicated he was receiving a message on the command channel. "This is the Commander, we have confirmation signal from the planet. They're dark, proceed with objectives as planned." --- Loretta smirked as she had flicked the beacon on, such a terrible signal to use for an important operation. There was no proof that whoever had activated it was in fact a rebel, which of course she [i]wasn't[/i]. It amused her really, they had of course shut down all the lights in the city and had had the defenses temporarily powered down, it wa sjust a shame that she couldn't use a shield. It would have been amusing to watch the Rebels hit it like bugs on a windscreen, however the current plan meant that she would have a lot more test subjects to play with. She could hear the LAATs and the other craft as they began screaming down into orbit. She gave them time, a select few Imperial Positions lit up the sky, a couple of E-Webs, Two AT-STs and standard Blaster Rifles. Nothing major, she could hear the screaming of a TIE patrol moving to intercept. Right now the trap was set. --- Kieran could feel the little flak brushing the underside of the LAAT as he heard it return fire. So far it was a pretty smooth ride, such as they had expected. He pressed his comm piece patching into all of the SpecForce troops in their respective LAATs. "All right, you all have your objectives. We're going to go in hot. My team will be moving into rendezvous with local rebel cells, Bantha you're on the Governor, Jawa you've got to keep the power station down, Maw you're going into the mine to free the saves and Jedi you've got the top of the mine to help secure it with the general alliance forces. You all have your jobs, get too it." As soon as he said it, literally the second he said it the command channel erupted with voices barking orders and crying out status reports, he could hear the fire pummeling up into the formation of LAATs then the craft begin to juke and dive as it tried to avoid taking any fire. He turned back to the others "Hold on!" He pressed his hand to his ear to try and hear what was being said. "...Repeat do not retreat... Imperial Ambush... Endeavor not secure..." He could hear the explosions in the background of that, and he feared for what was going on up there. Though he couldn't do anything about it as he felt the shock of a hit on the LAAT and it began spinning erratically. His joints pained him as his legs went up in the air but he managed to retain his grip on the ceiling handles, others weren't so lucky and went flying into the door, however now he noticed it had buckled and broken so instead of hitting it they went straight through. He bit down the regret and the pain, now wasn't the time. He attached his grapple to his belt and then tied it around the railing, showing the last member of his squad indicating him to do the same. He would have called out a distress signal, though with the brief second the comm channel had cleared there was a juddering impact as the LAAT struck the ground and it all went dark... --- Loretta couldn't help but smile as it all went according to plan. She could only [i]imagine[/i] what was going on up in orbit, the sky was too overcast to see anything going on above their heads. Down here it was beautiful though. One second the sky was almost devoid of life save for the occasional blaster bolt, and several LAATs and other craft reigning down. Then all the lights suddenly lit up towards the sky, with an assortment of high beam lights as well in a bid to blind any incoming craft. Then everything else kicked off, all the other squads began firing up towards the sky, twenty AT-STs and five AT-TEs joined in the barrage with the twenty odd turbolaser turrets. She could see the hits on several of the craft, one of the LAATs was struck on the side and began spinning, another was just instantly destroyed. She couldn't help but smile, with this to prove to the Governor how effective her methods were she knew that extra funding could be acquired for this and many other projects. A shot came down near her, a random strafe most likely and as such she retreated into a nearby concealed elevator that lowered her down into her labs. She couldn't help but smile on the way down with the reverberations of explosions reaching her ears... --- Commander Rolkins stood on the bridge, hands behind his back. With the two frigates in orbit and the few fighter squadrons he had tasked most of the craft with protection duty of the LAATs. It seemed like it was going to be an easy fight, one of the frigates was already trying to pull back and the other one would be soon. That is when his heart dropped as there were three pings, he didn't want to hear it but he heard the call. [i]"Three Imperial Star Destroyers right behind us!"[/i][i]They're opening fire![/i] The concussive force of the superior weapons struck them, he could but imagine them piercing straight through the shield and into the vulnerable rear weapons. They were too far into the gravity well, even if they could turn around there would be no way for them to enter hyperspace before they were destroyed. So he barked an order he never wished he would have to shout. "Abandon ship!" Everyone just looked at him. "She's lost to us! Everybody get off [i]now[/i]" He could but hope that the Empire wouldn't be fast enough to destroy all the life pods, not that he knew what fate awaited them on the surface. Though before he could think off it he had reached the elevator, and a blast ripped straight through the superstructure of the ships neck, the elevator already going down was ripped through the breach as the bridge began spinning free on its own. Hitting the emergency seal button the door closed but it was too late. The damage was done, the bridge had become his coffin. He turned to face the other officers on the bridge and couldn't even apologize, he just said nothing but walked to the forward section of the bridge and looked out into the depths of space, as the bridge continued its free fall.