[right][h3]Corte III
Grolsk Reserve[/h3][/right][hr]
Forward, position, cover.

Forward, position, cover.

Forward, position, cover.

Corte and Vash traded off, moving from tree to tree. One would move forward, take position with sights down range, cover for the other. So on and so forth. Whistling through the trees heralded rocket-propelled death as the artillery rained on them, shrapnel scattering through the forest. They heard screams, shouts, cries both north and south of their position. Blaster fire too. 

It took somewhere in the range of twenty minutes to cross the kilometer. Corte, fully suited, could run a kilometer in under ten minutes, but keeping under cover slowed the two rebels significantly. She couldn’t complain, though. Their slow progress kept them alive, and they reached Phase Line Bravo 

Bravo was at the crest of a moderate incline, not a true ridge or hill but a significant gradation in the landscape. It was Lorya’s first real line of defense, stretching for a few kilometers through the Groslk Reserve. The line itself consisted of sandbag-lined trenches, camouflaged in the brush and snow. The Liberators had dug in dozens of blaster nests across the line, each fitted with an E-Web or Mark II repeater, and had erected hexagonal pre-fab pillboxes at intermittent points along the line. Behind the line was an array of anti-air weaponry, launchers and flak cannons which were enough to dissuade Imperial air support. 

As they arrived, Corte pointed out a T2-B repulsor tank, camouflaged under a blanket of snowy pine branches and leaves, nestled on the line. Rose Company’s infantrymen were supported by an armor unit consisting of three of the T2-B’s, all of which were positioned along Bravo line. This one in particular was the Ironrose, the T2-B assigned to Corte’s Second Platoon. She and Vash had found their squad. 

They were just two of scores of rebels repositioning from Phase Line Alpha. Corte looked down the length of the line to see dozens of soldiers scaling the incline and taking refuge behind the line. Less than she’d hoped. It seemed that the screeners at Phase Line Alpha had been bloodied badly in their first engagement with the Imperial reinforcements. 

Vash and Corte scaled the inclined and made their way over and down into the trenches of Bravo Line. It was busy, with dozens of Rose Company’s soldiers rushing here and there along the line. Blasters were being prepped, power cells were being delivered, defenses were being reinforced at the last minute. 

Corte and Vash pushed their way down the trench line to the Second Platoon’s gun nest. It was a small, space, lined with sandbags and with a wooden cover. It was well hidden on the slope. There, they found Sergeant Raya Valkheva overseeing the onlining of the two Mark II medium repeaters they’d placed in the nest. Privates Aarie Syndulla and Benji Starr had gotten the first one operational and were working with the second. 

“Lieutenant,” Sergeant Valkheva greeted her with a crisp salute. Corte waved a hand. “You made it. Where’s the squad?”

“We are the squad,” Vash answered grimly. Corte nodded. She hadn’t given it much thought over the past half hour, but her situation finally came to her in a wave of nausea. She’d been in command of this platoon for less than a week and she’d already lost more than half a dozen of her men.  

“Is Glaato back?” Corte asked.

“Sergeant Glaato’s five minutes out, ma’am,” answered a thin, wiry man in fatigues. “Corporal Illievec,” he introduced himself, “communications.”

“Inform me when he arrives, and get these blasters online and prepped, we’re anticipating hard contact within the hour,” Corte said, remembering her role as commander. “And get those anti-infantry turrets online. We’re going to make them climb over each other’s bodies if they want to get up here.” That was met with a few half-hearted cheers, but no one was particularly in the mood.

“Orders, Lieutenant?” Vash asked as Corte turned to leave. 

“I need you on sharpshooting,” Corte said, “scope out our position and find a firing position.” Vash nodded, and turned away to find a spot.