Lost Tales of the Old Republic is a weekly fan fiction story, written by RepublicTrooper.com’s very own Tim Bertram. Tim is an aspiring author, with one completed novel already under his belt. Each and every Monday, Tim will give you a fresh installment in the Lost Tales of the Old Republic series. Enjoy!

Chapter One – “Gage”, Part II

Written By: Timothy E. Bertram

“Good luck Dariz!” Gage yelled as he pulled his helm closed and switched to electronic communication. Dariz returned a thumbs-up and lead his squad out of the landing zone. As was planned Gage’s squad took positions at the edge of the clearing to guard the LZ from any Imperial ground forces who may try to prevent the landing. It was late afternoon and the sky was grey and overcast as if it might storm at any time. The landscape was that of gentle rolling hills in a forest of giant pines. Likely the only reason there was a clearing in this spot was that it was originally cleared when they built the power plant to land cargo freighters. The troopers were breathing the local air reserving the filters they may need if the situation changed. Smoke or even poison would be detected in a micro second and the vents on the trooper’s armor would close and filtration would begin. Gage took a deep breath and smiled to himself as he smelled to pines and other vegetation. Besides a landing for a reconnaissance mission on a planet with so much volcanic activity that the sulfur in the air almost burned out their filtration systems, V-22 had not been off of the carrier for nearly six months.

“Wow, I haven’t smelled anything like this in a long time.” Gage heard one of his troopers, Corporal Yoly, say over the comms. “What do you think Tav? He asked his buddy.

“I like it.” Tavers responded.

“You like it? That’s it? Doesn’t this take you home?” Came the response.

“I’m from Chrondre stupid, you know that. The whole thing is covered in ice.” Tavers responded.

“Cut the chatter.” Gage interjected. Gage was monitoring 3 communication channels; his squad’s channel, the V-22 company channel, and alerts from the main battle coms channel. He could broadcast, change monitoring and filter his communications all through his heads-up display in his helm using nothing but his vision and a few blinks. “All forces have landed and the assault of the main body has begun. On your feet and prepare to move out.” The squad, which consisted of 20 Troopers, four teams of five each, got to their feet. Attached to this squad were four troopers from the heavy weapons platoon, and two engineers.

“Team one; take point forty meters in front of the column. Team four has rear security, and I want you engineers between teams three and four. If we get jumped in route, you engineers just keep your damn heads down and let the grunts do the work. If we lose you guys before we reach the power plant, we’re screwed because we are never going to get into that shield.”

The teams took their positions in the column and began the trek to the plant. “Team leaders watch your dispersion, don’t let me see your guys bunching up; I’ll put a foot in your ass!” Gage told the squad as he took his place between the point team and the main part of the column. The squad had been on the move about thirty minutes when the point team halted the group. “Squad halt.” Tavers, who was 1st team’s leader broadcast. The squad dropped into the prone and faced outboard, the rear team facing that direction. Gage could see Corporal Travers looking over the crest of the rise they had been climbing for the last 5 minutes. An image of what Travers was seeing came up in Gage’s head-up display and he then allowed the signal to go to the rest of the troopers.

“You guys see the plant?” Gage asked. The team leaders gave quick acknowledgements that they had the signal and Gage continued. “Engineer team, you see the edge of the shield? I make it at about 100 meters.”

“Roger that.” One of the engineers replied. No sooner did that response come when a blast ripped through their ranks hitting one of the engineers.

“Ambush right!” Gage yelled and the squad shifted positions until all faced the right side of the column. The heavy weapons opened up fast and took out the gun emplacement that had opened the engagement. Popping of super heated air filled the area as plasma and laser fire erupted in both directions. Gage returned fire until he took out the Imperial soldier who was closest to him and then issued battle orders; “Team four, break from the column and envelope on their flank!” “Heavy gunners suppress the second bunker! This is a single envelopment from Four, on the right! Keep the fire up and wait for my mark to rush!”

Gage switched frequencies to battle command; “Battle Command this is Victor twenty-two Red, we have a trooper down request medical evac!”

“Victor twenty-two, what is the status of your location?” Came back across the comms.

“Be advised we are currently engaged with fortified enemy positions, and are moving into the assault!” Gage informed them.

“Roger that. Medical and extraction droids are inbound to your location. They will wait outside of the range of fire until you send the green light.”

“Copy!” Gage responded as he looked back at the injured engineer who was on his back, his legs still quivering as he fought the pain, his hands covering the hole in his abdomen. “Hang in there Trooper, the droids are inbound!”

Team Four had made their way around some rocks and were now parallel to the line of bunkers and entrenchments on the hillside. “Suppression fire!” Corporal Yoly ordered as he darted forward and fell prone next to the bunker. He quickly armed a thermite grenade, reached around the front of the bunker, and tossed it into the open gun port. A moment later there was a loud explosion and fire and molten pieces of metal sprayed out of every opening in the bunker. “Be advised Victor-22 Red, enemy gun one is down!” About the same time the heavy weapons crew took out the last bunker.

“On line and assault through!” Gage gave the order to the rest of the squad, who immediately got to their feet, came together in a long line and began to advance laying brutal fire in front of them. “Team 4 suppress the trenches!” Corporal Yoly got his team on line past that bunker and firing into the long trench line. There was no place to hide. If the Imperial troops moved towards team Four they died in the trench, if they tried to go over the top, the rest of Red squad killed them as soon as their heads popped up. Gage knew that victory in this engagement was eminent and called for the medical droids who were just out of blaster range. “Medical, up!” he ordered.

“Cease fire!” Gage ordered as they could now look straight down into the trench line. “Prisoners?” He asked his team leaders.

“Negative Staff Sergeant, no survivors.” Corporal Yoly responded.

“Good.” Gage said unemotionally as he turned around to see the droids going to work on the injured engineer. He turned back around and addressed the surviving engineer. “The squad will be gathering enemy weapons; you get them destroyed in a hurry so we can move out.”

“Roger that, Staff Sergeant ‘G’.” The engineer responded and jumped into the trench to help gather weapons.

Gage walked over to the down engineer who was being attended to by the medical droids. “How is he?” He addressed one of the droids.

“75% chance of survival, Staff Sergeant.” Was the reply from the droid.

Gage took a knee next to his injured trooper; “You’re going to be okay trooper, I’ll see you back on the carrier in a few hours.” He told him with a pat on his head. “You hang in there.”

“Victor twenty two!” The engineer grunted out wincing in pain. A few minutes later the engineer was secured onto a hovering transport gurney and the droids whisked him away at a high rate of speed towards the medical extraction point.

“Stand-by!!!” The surviving engineer yelled causing all members of the squad to take cover. “Fire in the hole!” With that the pile of weapons was reduced to molten goo from the engineers charge.

Gage came to his feet; “Column of twos, move up to the shield!” The squad moved out and as they reached the crest of the hill Gage could see the plant’s domed shield, the edge of which was about 200 meters from the entrance of a large reinforced cave mouth, which was the entrance to the underground power plant. They were on the right flank and back a bit behind the entrance, which is exactly where they were supposed to be. The squad could see laser and plasma fire inside the dome already which told them that some of the other V-22 elements had already entered the dome and started the assault. “Double time! Get that rip open!” Gage ordered and the squad ran to the edge of the shield.

The engineer opened a small box of electronic gadgets and assembled them at the base of the shield. It took only a minute, but watching their brothers under fire it felt much longer to the troopers of Red squad. With the sound of electricity sparking a tear or rip opened in the shield about a meter wide and just as tall as a man. “Go, go, go!” Gage ordered and the squad quickly made their way single file through the tear. The squad descended the hill about another 100 meters and took firing positions on the lip of an outcropping that was there just as the intel guys had told them.

“Base of fire!” Gage yelled as he also dropped into the prone. The squad laid devastating fire onto the visible Imperial troops, some of which had their back to them. Panicked Imperial soldiers tried to turn their fire up hill at the squad, but they were now caught in a cross-fire that cut them down quickly. Assault droids rolled out of the plant entrance and deployed fire into the Republic forces in front of the plant, but two rounded the corner and headed up hill towards Gage’s squad. Before Gage could even get the orders out, the four heavy weapons troopers cut into the droids shattering them into junk before they could barley advance.

“Two down!” Sergeant Tavers yelled into the comms. Gage looked to his right to see two of his troopers on their backs, pieces of their armor smoldering. Gage looked back to the rip on the shield. He knew that the electronic devices that held it open would collapse soon, effective locking them in. With enemy fire blasting around him he stood up and grabbed a hold of one of the fallen troopers arms and began to drag him back to the opening in the shield. Sergeant Tavers did the same to the other as the rest of the squad increase the suppression fire.

“Get them out of the dome before the rip collapses!” Gage yelled at Tavers as both men drug their brothers back up the hill. Once through the rip Gage made the call for the med-evac as he pushed Tavers back through the rip. Inside the dome, no communications could broadcast out, so only local units could respond. Gage activated rescue signals on each of the trooper’s armor and called for the evac. With no time to provide any personal first aid, Gage leaped back through the rip a moment before it collapsed; it was the best he could do for those men. The mission was first priority.

Gage no sooner got back into position when a green flare streaked up into the air from the assaulting force in front of the plant, actually ricocheting off of the top of the dome and bursting with a brilliant green flash. That signal meant the assault force at the entrance had been stopped. Those units would now take cover and become the base of fire into the plant. “The base of fire has switched, prepare to assault!” Gage ordered his troopers. Red squad stood up and came on line with each other and began to advance down the hill. The squad encountered little resistance as they made their approach since almost all of the Imperial forces that were outside of the plant entrance were already lying dead on the battlefield. As the squad would pass a fallen Imperial troop a member would fire a single blast into the body to insure there would be no shots from a survivor as they passed.

When they had reached the edge of the entrance Gage halted his troopers. “Victor two-two command this is Victor two-two Red. We are at the entrance on the right flank and ready to enter the plant, yield the base of fire!” Gage communicated.

“All units cease fire and prepare to advance with the assault. Follow Red two-two in” came the reply from the battle commander. A moment later all fire into the plant entrance ceased.

“Prepare to rush!” Gage yelled; “Heavy weapons cross to the far side, take cover and assault the turrets!” The four heavy gunners rushed up to the front of the squad and looked to Gage.

“On your call Staff Sergeant ‘G’.” the heavy weapons team leader broadcast.

Continue to: Chapter One – “Gage”, Part III

---

No related posts.

---

Tags: fan fiction, Lost Tales of the Old Republic, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, Timothy E. Bertram, TOR