Skirmish on Alasad (Cruentusian War)

The  was a battle of the Cruentusian War. It took place after the Death's Tongue Militia, having acquired a quantity of resources following the Battle of Raxus Prime, decided to assault the desert world of Alasad, which was controlled by the independent warlord Elmakan, who had spoken out against the DTM and clearly viewed it as a threat to his power, so DTM commanders decided to launch a pre-emptive strike and take him out. Also, Elmakan was considerably wealthy, and the DTM needed money to pay off its various debts. Able to spare but a small force, the DTM used stealth and deceit to take Elmakan down.

Prelude
Having stockpiled ore it had siphoned from Necasian mines on, the DTM was able to somewhat replenish what it had lost on Raxus. The leaders decided that they could not afford attacking any of the larger factions for now, so they decided to eliminate one of the less important independent warlords in their way. One prolific enemy was the dictator of the desert world of Alasad, Elmakan. Not much was known about Elmakan, save that he was once a slave trader affiliated with the Rakata, and he had taken advantage of the fall of the Rakata to take over Alasad and establish himself as dictator. His oppression of Alasad was well-known, and due to the fact that his forces were equipped with Necasian weaponry some suspected that he was sponsored by them, or that he had stolen weapons from them. By taking him out, the DTM wanted to paint itself as a liberator of the oppressed to gain support.

Soon, DTM commanders had mustered all the forces that they could, which were still quite small, and made a plan. Most of Alasad was uninhabitable saved for one patch of continent, which was where the single city was located. However, underground mines were scattered across the planet, and from these Elmakan made profit. The DTM discreetly 'borrowed' a stealth-equipped SkyBull-class transport from a Necasian weapons dump and used it to smuggle their forces to a place near the city in the night, evading Elmakan's sensors.

Initial moves
The DTM knew that the first thing they had to do was to eliminate Elmakan's airpower, which could potentially decimate them if they attacked too hastily. He had a defended airbase close to the city, which contained several squadrons of FireWing-class interceptors and even a few Necasian DarkBird-class attack fighter, further fuelling the DTM suspicion that Elmakan was in league with the 'imperialistic bastards', as the Necasians were known amongst the DTM.

Minutes after they had landed, the DTM took advantage of the night darkness to make their way near the airbase, before they detonated a small bomb near the entrance. Immediately, most of the security guards flocked there, allowing DTM infilators to sneak inside via gaps in the fence and plant bombs on the fighters there. As the guards stood around confused, the DTM troops got clear and detonated the bombs, destroying the airbase.

The Militia presses on
By now, Elmakan was aware of the fact that someone was attacking him, and scrambled his forces. However, the DTM contacted several of their sleeper cells located within the city, and told them that now was the time to act. Immediately, the DTM cell members within the city loaded several civilian vehicles with bombs and performed suicide runs on Elmakan's forces and on random targets in the city, sowing chaos. The DTM troops outside took the opportunity to sneak in via gaps and pipes in the wall surrounding the city.

They wasted no time in acting. Lynx quads ridden by DTM troops zoomed through the streets, planting bombs on Elmakan's Toronian tanks as they drove past them. Stinger buggies used their EMP coils to disable the weaponry of some of Elmakan's troops, rendering them helpless. Some of the populance decided to rise up and riot against Elmakan's militia, giving them an advantage.

Sneaking through the streets, the DTM approached Elmakan's palace in the city centre. However, Elmakan had holed up all his available troops in there, and it was heavily defended, with heavy cannons destroying any DTM vehicles that got into the open near it. With the riots in the city keeping his other forces busy, the DTM decided that there was no point in trying to storm the palace. Instead, they loaded some civilian trucks with high explosives, as well as some of their Lynx quads, and charged them at the palace. The fast Lynx quads were not hit by the slow cannons and weakened the palace severely. The slower trucks were hit by some of the online cannons, but the force of the explosion finally caused the palace to give way and collapse, killing Elmakan. The remaining of his militia surrendered. The DTM had won.

Aftermath
The DTM quickly established a command centre and began spreading propaganda, which the grateful populance lapped up. The DTM distributed food to the starved people (which it had stole from nearby worlds) and helped in the rebuilding, all the time urging the people to sign up and 'fight the imperialists'--namely, the Srav Federation and the Necasians. Now that it had a willing source of recruits willing to work for little, and access to more resources, the DTM was feeling more confident.