I get to conquer the Federation (SW and ST Crossover/SI)

Preceded by TIE Fighter squadrons, Imperial dropships burned through the planet’s atmosphere, escorted by close-flying Skipray Blastboats. Breaking through the upper atmosphere in a matter of minutes, they homed in on the colony below, sprawling out along the shores of a narrow sea cutting into the depths of a hot and arid peninsula.

Stormtrooper Sergeant GG-1792 checked his blaster carbine, followed by his armor’s seals, before looking out the viewport as they approached the drop site. The dropships were flying in now, Skiprays still flying close, though smoke was rising across the colony from where TIE Fighters had launched strafing runs.

Then he was gripping his harness, as particle beams of some kind lanced up from the colony, splattering against the Skiprays’ shields or scoring burns against the dropships’ armor. “Hang on back there.” The pilot spoke over the general frequency. “Taking evasive action.”

“Acknowledged.” GG-1792 said. He kept an eye on the viewport, watching other dropships and Skiprays weaving back and forth, then two of the latter were opening fire with their dorsal laser cannons. A third opened fire with proton torpedoes, the impacts flooding an entire block with crimson plasma that had the surrounding buildings all but literally melting in on themselves.

He saw AT-STs advancing up an elevated road cutting across the colony, accompanied by more Stormtroopers, the harsh desert Sun flashing brightly off their armor. Then GG-1792’s dropship was banking and turning in a wide circle, before slowing and coming to a halt over a square.

“Stormtroopers, move!” GG-1792 barked as the door hissed open, and kicking a coiled cable over the edge in the same breath. In the next moment he was sliding down, landing in a crouch and looking down his carbine’s sights. More Stormtroopers dropped down around him, and then the squad was advancing, moving from cover to cover as they hurried through an alley.

“Sergeant GG-1792,” Lieutenant Blyck began over the platoon frequency. “Your squad’s target will be a building housing a network server within the surrounding district. Eliminate all hostiles, and secure all the data backups. Hardware recovery is secondary. Once data backups are secure, standby for additional orders.”

“Acknowledged, lieutenant.” GG-1792 said as his helmet’s HUD displayed the objective marker on a small map. “Squad, proceed as ordered.”

“Acknowledged!” the squad chorused.

Making their way down the alley, they arrived at the server building, built at an unusual angle sloping up against a hill. Two Stormtroopers immediately moved to flanking positions, while a third Stormtrooper attached a breaching charge to the door. The rest of the squad assumed a semi-circular position, carbines aimed at the door.

“Breaching!” Lance Corporal CR-7954 said as he pressed the trigger, and blowing the door apart in a burst of flame, smoke, and debris.

“Hostiles!” Private LQ-3418 shouted a breath before the squad opened fire, gunning down two men behind a makeshift barricade a short distance from the door. The barricade had been battered by the door’s destruction, but it had held, not that it did the men behind it much good. They were slow, either poorly-trained or inexperienced, lacked armor of any kind, and armed with only side-arms.

“Humans?” Corporal IB-3631 said in confusion as her fire-team took point. The dead men certainly looked like it, though their long-sleeved uniforms, mostly black but for the yellow around their shoulders and chests that might obscure non-Human features.

“Looks like it, ma’am.” LQ-3418 said.

“Never mind that for now.” GG-1792 cut in. “Focus on the mission, and leave that stuff to the eggheads after the battle.”

“Yes, sir.” The squad chorused, as they moved up.

“Switching to thermal.” Senior Private ER-7760 said as he took the lead, cautiously moving with an eye looking down his carbine’s sights. “Ambush up ahead. UX-5999, put a thermal detonator around that corner up ahead. I’ll cover you.”

“Standby…” Senior Private First Class UX-5999 said while taking his thermal detonator from behind his waist, and typing in his personal code, armed it with a five-second delay. “…fire in the hole!”

The thermal detonator flew through the air, struck the wall at an angle, and flying off, exploded a couple of seconds later. “Advancing!” ER-7760 and UX-5999 chorused as they charged forward, and entered a large room with two long tables in the middle, flanked by a pair of benches each. Two more corpses were slumped over the floor, smoke rising from burned flesh and cloth alike.

Thudding from the side caught the squad’s attention, and turning, opened fire without hesitation at a man in blue and black emerging from a side room. The man fell with a cry, side-arm falling with a clatter. “CR-7954,” GG-1792 barked. “Check that room. HQ-2553 and HS-9997, cover him.”

“Yes, sir.” They chorused, the three Stormtroopers moving off as the rest of the squad surrounded the door on the far side of the room. As they moved in, ER-7760 noticed something behind a crate, and raising his carbine fired once.

Smoke rose into the air as a blue-skinned alien with a pair of tentacles or whatnot above his eyes fell from where it’d been hiding behind a crate, wearing a red and black uniform. “…that’s a pretty bad spot for an ambush.” LQ-3418 remarked.

“Not an ambush,” IB-3631 said. “Hiding…though still a bad spot for all that.”

“Thermal shows five hostiles in the other room.” ER-7760 said. “Watch your fire, looks like all the servers are in there.”

“CR-7954,” GG-1792 said. “Stay back for now. We’ll need you to get those backups. No point in getting shot at before you get a chance to finish our orders.”

“Acknowledged, sir.”

“Corporal, take your fire team to other side of the room, and clear it out.” GG-1792 continued. “We’ll take care of this side.”

“Yes, sir.”

“HQ-2553 and HS-9997, take cover behind that server.” GG-1792 said. “We’ll cover you from here. Ready…move!”

Exposing the bare minimum of his body around the doorframe, GG-1792 opened fire with his carbine along with two other Stormtroopers. Down the hall, a trio of men in red and black took cover behind a barricade, and returned fire as best they could. HQ-2553 and HS-9997 dashed across the space between the door and the nearest server, and taking cover, added their fire to the rest of the fire-team’s barrage.

“Corporal, move!” GG-1792 barked.

“Moving!” IB-3631 shouted, and rushing past with her fire-team to the far side of the room. Making it there in one piece, the sounds of more gunfire filled the air, as the corporal flanked the enemy’s position. Less than a minute later, and the position across the room came under fire from the side, gunning down the three men behind the barricade in a matter of seconds. “Clear!”

“All clear, no casualties.” GG-1792 said while taking his fire-team to rendezvous with the corporal.

“No casualties, but we came close.” IB-3631 reciprocated. “LQ-3418 took a hit to the face. If not for his shields, he’d be dead.”

“Lucky him,” GG-1792 said before turning to the squad’s baby. “Watch yourself, private. Our armor’s shields take a lot of time to recharge.”

“Yes, sir.” LQ-3418 said with a nod, and the sergeant was turning away.

“CR-7954, start on those backups.” he said. “This battle isn’t over just yet.”

“Yes, sir.” The lance corporal said, stowing his carbine before pulling out his slicing kit. As the other Stormtrooper worked on the servers, the sergeant made contact with the platoon commander.

“Servers are secure.” GG-1792 reported. “We are securing backups as we speak, standing by for new orders.”

“Acknowledged, sergeant.” Lieutenant Blyck said. “Hold position until data is secure, then rendezvous with the rest of the platoon at the following coordinates.”

GG-1792 nodded as his HUD updated his map. “Acknowledged, sir.” He said, before turning back to the lance corporal. “Hurry up over there, CR-7954. We’ve got new orders once you’re done.”

“Understood, sir. Working as fast as I can.”
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rear Admiral Genn Arnarr was standing on his flagship’s bridge, when the captain moved up to him. “Admiral,” the man began. “We’ve detected twenty-four ships dropping out of light-speed, and moving on an intercept course.”

“So the locals have responded in force.” Genn said with a nod. “As expected; signal the fleet, take a line formation, and prepare for engagement.”

“Yes, sir.” The captain said before hurrying off. The rear admiral turned back to the windows, eyes narrowing at growing specks of light in the distance.

“They’re fast.” His adjutant remarked.

“Yes…” Genn agreed with a slow nod. “…I wonder…”

“Sir…?”

Genn did not reply at once, instead focusing on his fleet’s tactical disposition. At the heart of it was what Admiral Targaryen had called a fast attack force, composed of either four Star Destroyers or Heavy Cruisers, and escorted by at least six Light Cruisers and sixteen Corvettes. Then there were the supporting elements, powerful flotillas of at least one Star Destroyer or Heavy Cruiser escorted by at least sixteen Corvettes.

For his part, Genn’s fast attack force was centered around four Vindicator Class Heavy Cruisers, and included three support flotillas for a total of seventy-seven ships. Not quite a full fleet by the standards of the Clone Wars, but certainly more than most commanders had to work with when hunting down pirates or rebels.

And just as certainly more than able to take control of the colony below, and fend off the natives’ response.

“Status of the enemy fleet?” Genn asked as his adjutant received a report from a fellow junior officer.

“It appears to be composed of sixteen ships of the Bogey-Two type,” the adjutant replied. “And eight ships of the Bogey-One type.”

“Prioritize the Bogey-Ones.” Genn immediately said. “Based on the previous engagement at the Belsavis Gateway, the Bogey-Ones are likely the enemy’s heavy-hitters. The rest are probably just escorts. Either way, blow them out of the stars.”

“Yes, sir.”

Genn nodded and then narrowed his eyes. “Send out a squadron of TIE Fighters.” He said. “Have them focus on the enemy’s lead ship. Let’s see how those ships respond.”

“Yes, sir.”

Genn nodded again, and looked back out the windows. Barely a minute later, and he watched as a squadron of twelve TIE Fighters soared out in the direction of the enemy. They reached engagement range in less than fifteen minutes, and spreading out, opened fire on the lead enemy ship.

Laser rounds splattered against the enemy’s shields…

…and on the flagship’s bridge, Genn, his adjutant, and the captain gaped. “Are those really capital ships?” the captain breathed. “They’re maneuvering like fighters!”

“I suspected they were more agile than most.” Genn said, biting back the bitter taste of surprise. “But not this fast. Pull the remaining fighters back. Those ships are well-shielded, the fighters’ cannons won’t be of much use.”

“Yes, sir.” The captain said before relaying the order. In the distance, the remaining fighters received the retreat order, and zoomed away, having lost half of their number to the enemy’s orange-colored particle beams. But even as they retreated, one of the enemy ships launched a volley of flashing torpedoes, shooting down another four TIE Fighters with ease.

“Ten fighters lost.” The captain reported with a grimace. “The enemy ships have reformed their formation, and are closing at high speed.”

“Their sacrifice is not without benefit.” Genn said. “I suspect the enemy’s doctrine follows a principle of being able to move quickly while striking hard, at the expense of durability. Signal the fleet, all heavy cruisers are to focus fire on one ship at a time, and destroy them one by one. Light cruisers and corvettes are to guard our flanks, and force the enemy ships into the heavy cruisers’ line of fire. Has the enemy launched fighters?”

“No fighters, sir.” The adjutant replied as the captain relayed the admiral’s orders.

“Hold off on launching additional fighters for now.” Genn said. “Keep them on standby though, along with TIE Bomber squadrons.”

“Yes, sir.” The adjutant said. The minutes ticked by, and then Genn’s eyes narrowed as the enemy ships closed. “Here they come: engage!”

The Imperial Fleet opened up, turbolasers filling the void of space with emerald-green lances. The enemy ships danced clear of most of the shots, and returned fire with their own particle beams.

“Direct hit on our shields.” A bridge crewman on the flagship reported to his section chief. “Minimal energy lost…another direct hit…another direct hit…whatever those beams are, they’ve less power behind them than a single turbolaser strike.”

Then a volley of torpedoes raked the flagship’s dorsal shields, and this time, the cruiser shook from the force of explosions. “Particle shielding down to seventy-two per cent!” the same crewman from before said. “Sir, their particle beams are nothing special, but those torpedoes of theirs are comparable to our proton rockets!”

“Haven’t you gotten the range in yet?” the captain roared at the weapons section.

“Our gunners are compensating as we speak, sir.” The section chief reported.

Moments later, and a trio of batteries on the flagship focused on the closest enemy vessel. Then they fired, along with several other batteries from the other cruisers in the fast attack force. Lances of green smashed into the enemy ship’s shields from multiple angles, the shields holding against the first few impacts, then collapsing, caused the ship to crumple as turbolasers blew huge chunks clean off the saucer-shaped dorsal hull. Molten holes in the cylindrical ventral hull leaked plasma, air, and bodies, the ship losing speed and falling out of formation before another volley of turbolasers reduced the ship to a blinding flash of light in space.

The battle continued, and within the next fifteen minutes, two more enemy ships had been knocked out of the enemy battle line, struggling to get away. Cover from the remaining ships kept them safe…at first.

“Launch fighters and bombers.” Genn ordered. “Have the former fly interference for the latter, and sink those retreating ships with proton torpedoes. And signal our escorts: feel free to close the door behind us.”

The adjutant smiled in understanding. “Yes, sir.” He said.

In response, twelve CR90 Corvettes banked along their x-axes, and bringing over a hundred turbolasers to bear, fired a volley each at the two retreating ships. Molten holes were burned straight through the two ships, plasma and debris spraying into space, before they exploded into blinding flashes of light.

Elsewhere, TIE Fighters and TIE Bombers took their revenge, the former strafing retreating ships while the latter launched volleys of proton torpedoes. One of the enemy ships had its entire dorsal hull torn apart by a volley of proton torpedoes, while another was sent reeling as a TIE Fighter blew out the ship’s bridge section.

In just over forty minutes of battle, all twenty-four enemy ships were destroyed. No Imperials ships were lost, though twenty TIE Fighters and twelve TIE Bombers were destroyed. And more importantly, at least thirty enemy escape pods were scattered across the battlefield.

“Secure those escape pods and their occupants.” Genn ordered. “I’m sure they can tell us a few useful things.”
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The blasting charge blew the door and part of the frame inwards, and the Stormtroopers charged in. Three of them went down, courtesy of six men behind a barricade to the left, who while still lacking armor of any kind, now carried heavy rifles instead of just side-arms.

None of the dropped Stormtroopers were actually dead, though. Their shields and armor took the brunt of the blasts, though they were out of the fight until they could spend some time in a bacta tank.

Other Stormtroopers laid down a withering volley of suppressing fire, lying prone or crouched on the ground, while another Stormtrooper tossed a thermal detonator over the barricade. It exploded, killing all six defenders, and even tossing the bloody and burned corpse of one of them at the Stormtroopers. Pulling their injured out of the way, the Stormtroopers moved on.

“Kriff,” ER-7760 cursed. “Server room up ahead. Thermal indicates six more men inside, taking cover behind the stacks.”

“Watch your fire.” GG-1792 ordered. “Take them out one by one.”

Stepping through the doors, the Stormtroopers split in two, one fire-team going to the left and another to the right. Three each took cover just around the nearest stack’s edge, and then exposing themselves the least they could, laid down suppressing fire.

The remaining Stormtroopers inched their way along the walls, firing precise shots as they flushed the enemy out of cover. One more Stormtrooper went down, his breastplate melted through, but alive for all that.

“Room clear!” ER-7760 said loudly. “Main control room on the other side of those doors, multiple hostiles.”

“ZI-3668,” GG-1792 ordered. “Break the window on the right down, and set up that E-Web. Cover us!”

“Yes, sir.”

Superior Privates ZI-3668 and IX-2236 holstered their carbines, and blowing the window open with a side-arm, set up the heavy weapon. Some of the defenders noticed, and made to stop them, only to run into a volley of fire from the other Stormtroopers.

In less than a minute, the E-Web was ready, and laying down a murderous volley of fire. Consoles exploded while partitions simply turned to molten chunks under the volley of fire. “Corporal!” GG-1792 ordered. “Take your fire-team, and secure that room over there as a strongpoint! The rest of the platoon is coming in, so we hold our position, and catch the enemy in a crossfire once the lieutenant arrives!”

“Yes, sir!” IB-3631 said, before taking point. Barely avoiding fire from the defenders, she skidded to a halt in a crouch against the wall to one side of the office door. It hissed open, exposing an alien in red and black aiming at her, but the corporal was faster.

The alien cried out as IB-3631’s blaster blew his chest out, and then the two women in the room screamed as IB-3631 gunned them down as well. “Clear!” she shouted, leading her fire-team into the room. Blowing out the window on the right, she and her fire-team opened fire took cover behind the low wall, while firing through the window.

Despite the Stormtroopers’ superior firepower and strong positions, the defenders somehow managed to hold on for several more minutes, before the doors to the left of IB-3631’s position blew open. The rest of the platoon poured out, opening fire as they went, then a rocket flew across the room and blew up the defenders’ main point, sending bodies in yellow and black flying. Soon after, another E-Web opened up, and in less than two minutes, the room was clear.

“Room secure!” Lieutenant Blyck said, distinctive with his colored pauldrons, unlike the rest of the Stormtroopers in uniform black and white. “Sergeant, secure the upper level. We’ll handle the rest down here.”

“We have wounded in the back…” GG-1792 began.

“We’ll take care of them, now move, sergeant.” The lieutenant interrupted.

“Yes, sir.” GG-1792 said with a nod. “Let’s move, squad!”

The squad followed their sergeant as he trotted through the ruined control room, and then through a pair of doors on the far side of the room. They went down another hallway, through a pair of doors, and into a wide room with glass walls looking to the outside. There, they saw AT-STs standing watch outside, along with another dropship bringing in more troops.

“Smell that?” IB-3631 asked.

“Smell what?” CR-7954 asked.

“Smells like victory to me.” IB-3631 replied.

“That it does,” GG-1792 agreed. “But let’s not celebrate just yet. Double-time Stormtroopers!”

“Sir, yes, sir!” the squad chorused, following the sergeant up the stairs, across another wide room, and through a pair of doors, down another hallway.

“Thermal’s got nothing through most doors except the last one.” ER-7760 said. “Three heat signatures, plus a lot of electronics.”

“CR-7954,” GG-1792 began. “Set up a blasting charge.”

“Yes, sir.”

The lance corporal set up the blasting charge, and then blew the door open. The Stormtroopers charged in, fanning out with carbines aimed at the trio of Humans inside. Two were male, one in red and black, and the other in blue and black. The only woman was also in blue and black, and then the man in red and black spoke unintelligibly at them before raising his hands in the air. At that, his two subordinates did likewise.

“Secure the prisoners, and then the room.” GG-1792 ordered.

Stormtroopers pulled out stun-cuffs, and binding the prisoners, forced them out at gunpoint. The rest of the squad fanned out, checking the room for any sign of traps or other surprises.

“Room secure!” IB-3631 shouted.

“Acknowledged.” GG-1792 said, before reporting on the platoon frequency. “Upper level secure, lieutenant. Awaiting new orders.”

“Acknowledged, sergeant.” Lieutenant Blyck said. “Hold position, and standby for relief.”

“Acknowledged.”