[center][h3]Options -Firebase Tau, One Hundred Kilometers From Phase Line Alpha, Grolsk Wilderness Reserve - 4:44 AM[/h3][/center][hr]

The dropship plunged through the high sirrus cloud. The insertion was being carried out in textbook fashion, minimizing exposure with a stomach churning plunge from the High Guard to the ground. Tesha Ryn, secured in a tight webbing harness, bore the discomfort with stoic approval. The rebels were not reported to have a significant anti air capabillity, but there were no excuses for getting soft. 

"Thirty seconds!" the pilot called out. The six other troops sharing the crew compartment didn't waste time checking gear, they had tripple checked equipment already, carrying an ISB agent made even veterans extra cautious. A trim woman, unremarkable in every way, Tesha was forgettable in almost all regards. She wore grey Imperial Army fatigues with no insignia and carried a standard rifle with a customized sight.

Exactly twenty eight seconds later the heavy repulsors fired, kick the deck up into the passengers. The harnesses released a heart beat after the dropshit hit. The troops unassed the vessel with commendable haste and Tesha had only just cleared the zone when the pilot boosted skyward. The wake of the repulsors scattered a small storm of snowflakes from the blast scared landing zone. Firebase Tau was a hundred meter circle blasted into the alpine forest at the top of a small plateu. Engineering had scraped the topsoil into a burme that ringed the position, even as she watched sappers were spraying the soil with a plasticizing agent to establish and to prepare it for heavier fixed weapons. In the center of ring, the massive tubes of six repulsor mounted howitizers faced eastward, slowly traversing with a gentle whine.

Ryn headed off the landing square towards a straight backed young man whose fatigues were a little too clean to be a line trooper. By convention officers didn't wear insignia but to a trained eye they remained embarassingly easy to spot. The man moved towards her rapidly holding a small metallic cylinder. Tesha watched with the natural skepticism of a spy for unfamiliar electronics.

"Sonic damper Ma'am, the guns," he explained in the imitation Coruscanti accent many officers were adopting.

"Ah," Tesha responded eloquently and took the cylinder and clipped it to her lapel in the same way the lieutenant was wearing his. The officer reached over and flicked a switch.

"We have been instructed to give you whatever aid we can," the artillery officer said keeping pace with her as she headed towards the TOC. Behind them there was a world ending rraaAAAWWK as the guns began to fire, rocket assisted rounds screeching skyward with long jets of flame, reaching towards the rebel positions to the east.