Bloodlust (TTC)/Chapter Two - Destruction

Kelborn aimed his Scimitar at the Merchant Quarter of Demosia. It was a prime position because it dead ended in one corner and was the closest securable position to the road that led to the Srav command center. Kelborn planned to land his flight in the northeastern most corner of the Quarter. Three of the Scimitars in his flight would land facing towards the run to the road located directly west of their position, the other three would land facing south, and Kelborn himself would land between them.

The Quarter positioning had one tactical draw back however, but it was not insurmountable. From Kelborn’s planned landing position he would have the Demosia spaceport which opened onto the Quarter from the far southwest on the opposite side of the Quarter. Fortunately that was still almost two hundred meters away and only posed a threat if there happened to be any armed soldiers in that area. On the far northwest side of the Quarter past the beginning of the road was the entrance to the Western Square which Kelborn understood to contain a cantina, several shops, and some housing so he didn’t anticipate much fire coming from that direction. He knew the road would be heavily guarded, especially after the attack and it posed the greatest problem of them all.

From the Taung Intelligence reconnaissance they knew that the road leading to the Srav command center was segmented by two shielding stations and divided by a large open courtyard. On the west end of the courtyard there were barracks and past the courtyard to the northeast the road continued onto the command center. This entrance was blocked by the first shielding station.

The courtyard would pose a slight problem in that it was far too wide and open to find any cover in and probably contained the largest concentration of soldiers. Kelborn and his men would have to make their way up the first leg of the road, which was, quite unfortunately, a narrow upward sloping path. This would give the Sravs the high ground and put the Taungs in a position of being somewhat like fish in a barrel. Once they managed to make it to the courtyard they would have to fend off soldiers the entire way to the first shield station, which they were already prepared to counter with a shield disruptor. The shield disruptor, however, would take thirty seconds to activate fully and drop the shields. During that time Kelborn and his men would have to hold off the soldiers in the courtyard who would have the barracks to find cover in. Once the shield was down they would then have the added task of rushing another narrow upward slope and facing what ever guards were placed between the two shields. Once they got to the second shield they would have to do the same thing again only this time they would have troops ahead and behind to contend with. One thing in the Taungs’ favor was the fact that in one corner of the road’s courtyard there had been an air defense tower which, of course, had been obliterated by the Scimitars in the sky. Kelborn was hoping that there would be enough debris and confusion to facilitate the Taungs’ assault. The other thing in their favor was the seven Scimitars left in the air laying down suppressing fire.

After all of this they would finally be at the palace which they would merely have to storm, track down the Srav commander, Dyermo Bliad, and capture him. Any other Commander would have taken off his rank insignia and told his commanding officer where he could shove it. Kelborn however reveled in the challenge of what lay before him. He would take the road leading to the command center with nothing more than the sixteen men on the ground with him and his seven Scimitars in the sky.

His Scimitar was the first to touch down, its metal landing struts sinking deeply onto the ground. The other six Scimitars quickly followed. Before disembarking, each Taung let loose a volley from their torpedo launchers and took down even more of the buildings around them. This added to the general confusion, but also gave them a chance to disembark without worrying about possible soldiers stationed in the Quarter waiting to pick them off. The Scimitars had been programmed to continue to let off volleys of railgun fire and torpedoes every so often, as long as a Taung wasn’t in the line of fire. This would give the Taung some cover fire while they made their way to the road.

Kelborn jumped from his Scimitar, his heavy repeating rifle at the ready and squeezed off a couple shots into the smoke and debris and his men following suit. This was it. Kelborn prepared himself. Starting his run across the long Quarter to the road entrance Kelborn raised his head to shout.

“FOR MANDALORE!” he bellowed. The war cry was quickly taken up by his fellow Taung.

“FOR MANDALORE!” sixteen other voices called out. And then everything dissolved into rifle fire as the ground battle officially started.