1200 hours, 36.4.30, Gerrard V, Humbarine Sector
This is the second day since we landed. Nothing could ever be like these two days. All the officers were trying to organize the troops and a lot of them were killed. I've only seen a few guys from our company, and most of them were in my squad.
The hill gave us some protection from the Imperials, but not much. At least 10 times, a group of Imperials would come around the hill and try and fire on us from behind. I could barely see about 20 guns aiming at us,at the very top of the hill. I wanted to try and hit them, but I knew I wouldn't even get near them. Only the marksmen could shoot with that accuracy and that distance, but most of them were either dead or wounded. I don't think even Barlet would be able to shoot them, but then again, i didn't know where he was.
An officer was walking all over the hut, yelling at us to get going. "You're either going to get off this hill or you're going to die here!" With out further ado, I got up, out of the hut, and cautiously took a few steps forwards. It's not too bad. I thought, until the guy next to me was shot, spun breifly, and rolled down the hill.
A lieutenant next to me was shot too. His left arm was ripped apart with only two blasts, but all he did was throw his blaster to his right arm, and kept on heading up the hill. He got hurt in some barbed wire, and an explosion I believe certainly hurt him, but he still killed two stormtroopers before collapsing. Another guy killed another one. This guy believed in what he was fighting in.
By the time we were up there, there were 17 Imperials left. Ben got 6 and Barlet got 5. I got 3, and another guy got two. I would have probably gotten a lot more if it wasn't for the smoke and the noise. Back at Camp Kenobi, I could squeeze of a shot smoother than a sniper. But here I was firing as fast as I could. the fact that I could barely see anything didn't help.
Finally, with us controlling the high ground, we shot a bunch of the Imps who were trying to run down. They all retreated out of sight past the horizon. For once, I thought, I can have some peace.
2100 hours, 36.4.33, Moselle Sea, Gerrard V, Humbarine Sector
Me, Ben, Barlet, and this new guy called Pugs were sent out on LP last night, in the Moselle Sea. It's actually a semi-desert, but it's not as bad as Tatooine. At least it has some vegetation. That's what makes it "worthwhile" to send patrols out here. Because, in all those caves and behind those shrubs and cactuses, there might be Imperials.The losses from the landing attack were so bad that we've gone from 10 man patrols to sometimes less than four. So from now on, I guess we'll get to be twice as scared. Especially with a new guy. Pugs messes up everything, but you can't not love a guy who says "Oops" every time he messes up.
While we were on patrol, we saw two big parked Imperial hovertanks. We hid behind a few bushes. Frantically, Pugs contacted Lt. Chall immediately. He told us to all calm down. "Write down your location. We want you to capture two or three of those guys and bring them back to headquarters." he said. "Divide into two man teams. Garr, you stick with Ben, and Pugs, get with Barlet. Chall out." The holoprojector turned off. All of us put as much grass leaves, and twigs on our helmet as camoflauge.
I don't get why only commandos and SpecForce get camoflauge. All we get is these tan shirts, and they're not very comfortable. As the main troopers of the Alliance, I think we need some better protection too. The helmets are ok, but you have to be Wookiee-strong to try to pull down those visors. I'm not sure why we even have them, I mean we barely use them, and an impact from them hurts more that a blaster bolt (At least that's what I'm told). But just to be thankful, we've got it a lot better than the Fleet Regiments.
Anyway, we were supposed to capture the guys and head back to base. I was real nervous. 4 rebels against 2 fully armed hovertanks?
We split into groups. We decided on a rendeavous location and set out. Me and Ben had to crawl towards the first Hovertank. I think it was an HAV A9, because we toured a captured one back at Camp Kenobi. But this one must have been modified by the Imperials, because it way bigger than it was supposed to be. And sure enough, I could the shadow of a stormtrooper in the cockpit, sleeping on his seat. We had to be careful not to get into the moonlight, which was virtually everywhere, so we wouldn't get spotted.
A door opened, and an Imperial officer walked out. He looked like he was a really high-ranking officer. He went over to talk to a stormtrooper on guard, and then walked really near to the shrub was hiding behind. "We've hit the jackpot." I mouthed to Ben. He motioned that he would take the guard while I took the Imperial officer. Then he winked, and without another word, he dissapeared into the darkness.
Suddenly, a spotlight turned on from the hovertank. I jumped, and almost blew my cover. I saw him fumbling with his belt, and my mind instantly said "grenade". I switched the safety off and aimed the rifle as best I could at him, but I found I couldn't fire. Not now, when I could attarct the attention of at least 30 Imperials. Finally, I decided to put the gun back in my holster (But I kept the safety on). With one swift movement, I put both my hands over his face and pulled him backwards.
When I let him go, I could see the terror he was in. His eyes were bulging wildly, and I could feel his heart throbbing in his throat. He was trying to bring his hands together, trying to pray. I think he thought I was going to kill him.
And worst of all, he looked a lot like me.
I took a bottle of liquid Knockout gas and poured it on the guy. I hope I didn't overdo it. Then Ben came out of the darkness, dragging the stormtrooper with him. We left.
At our rendeavous point, behind our Scout Speeder a few meters away from the Tank, we met up with Barlet and Pugs, who also captured two guys. We had to try to stuff them in the speeder where ever we could, because we were already over the passenger limit just with us four. I think Barlet got both of them, because Pugs didn't look very dirty.
Then fire erupted from the Imperial hovervans. "Return fire, guys, return fire!" yelled Pugs. "Lay some over by their Repulsorlift tanks. Hit all the weak spots." Pugs?I thought. Wasn't he supposed to be freaking out by now?. But I had not time to think about it. "Hurry, up Kelsey, you're on the M II now!" Ben yelled. I knew he meant for me to use the Mark II Chaingun. I was pretty nervous, because, in all truth, didn't know squat about a chaingun except it weighed a ton more than a DH-17. But my dad used a Mark I back in the Clone Wars, and since we're related, how hard can it be?
I mounted it, set the safety off, and fired. Imediately, 3 Imps went down. I kept firing as I turned around and spotted Ben stuffing the the imps in the speeder with one hand, and pushing the FIRE button for the speeder's blaster cannon with the other. Pugs was firing his DH-17 as fast as he could, and Barlet was taking good aim at the hovertanks with his A295. Meanwhile, several Imps were down and there was still more to go. When Ben got all the captured Imperials in, he yelled, "Let's go, Let's go!"
We took up our weapons and jumped in the speeder. Except for me, who took a little time getting the Mark II all set up. I wondered where SpecForce, the "Lumberjacks" are now. Because right now, the Imperial Tree is going to fall on us!
The Floating Fortresses followed us as soon as our speeder took off. They were slower, but had more firepower and better range with it. Then, a flight of 5 Y-Wing bombers streaked across the sky, and dropped their bombs right on those tanks. And with a brilliant burst of light, they were gone.
1600 hours, 36.4.34, Outside Haradox, Gerrard V, Humbarine Sector
64th Corps was assigned to try and advance towards the capital city, Harazod. Well, the 117th did even better. We're actually in view of the capital city! This is great! From our positions, we can see the townpeople hurrying with their usual buisiness.
Unfortunately, many of those people are Imperial Stormtroopers.
The bad thing is, since Harazod is the capital city, it's the most defended city on the planet by the Imperials. Most of their troops, resources, and headquarters are here. Plus the big wall surrounding it is a great defense. We've been in our foxholes for the past 8 hours.
In the foxholes, it's really, dark. The smoke that's blocking out the sun doesn't help. We can only fit about 5 guys with their head actually sticking out in one foxhole, so the rest of the guys have to stay underground. Luckily, Lt. Howie organized some guys to build trenches to connect the foxholes, so we have more room. He's working on it, but the trench hasn't gotten to our foxhole, so me, Ben, Carca, Barlet, and three other guys.
Simpson got it, just a few seconds ago. He was digging when BAM! A blaster bolt right to the stomach. Why Simpson? Why did it have to be Simpson? I think he's still alive, but I can't see a lot from down here. Wait, now he's crawling.
If he was here, I'd punch him for giving me a heart atack.
Since we don't have holovision, we have nothing good to do around here except talk, play a few friendly games of Sabacc, and listen to holocomm. And gess wich one is the most popular.
With most of the comm satellites either destroyed or damaged, only a few channels are available to us. The most popular are AFCN (Alliance Forces Core Network), and Imperial Public Holocomm. I know It seems like we're traitors, but it's actually not that bad. And because of the space battles above the planet, the ships transmitting it are very often destroyed, so it's not very reliable. IPH, however, is transmitted from the Imperial station in the capital city, and it has some good programs.
There's one that some of the veterans call Coruscant Carrie. The enemy recruits women, there must be more than one, but they always sound the same, to try and lower our morale. They come on, and give us all this propaganda about "Rebels soldiers should put down their weapons or be killed," and stuff like that. In the gospel according to Carrie, we're evil insurgents and anarchists who will soon be vanquished by our brave and superior enemy. Whenever she comes on, the troops go wacko, and say all these swear words to her, and one time, one of 'em even threw a bottle at the radio.
The other is called Darth Things Considered, and it's really funny. There's two hosts, and it's kind of like a talk show/comedy show. It's about the Imperial regime, and they always have these guests to come one the show. One time they even had Darth Vader on there, and he pretended to fake-strangle one of the hosts. Well, I think it was fake.
But AFCN has the best music. Just a few minutes ago, we had AFCN playing the loudest it ever has been. We repeated "You're a Gimp, Mr. Imp" at least 10 times, then we played a bunch of great songs, including "Mood and Moons","Jedi Rocks","Shoot First","Soldier's Life is a Sorry Thing", "The Droid Rooms", and "The Ballad of Kenobi". Since there's nothing anything secret about our positions, Sergeant Nimoy let us crank up the reciever to it's highest volume, and we all sang from there.
You haven't really lived until you hear 2,000 rebels singing "Yer in the Rebellion Now, Farmboy," and using their guns and equipment as instruments.
But then an artilery shell blew up the reciever, and we stopped right in the middle of "All Stars Burn as One".
Well, enjoy it while it lasts.
It wasn't surprising though, because the whole time, artillery was being fired both ways over us, and a bunch of B-wings, Y-wings, and K-wing bombers were pummelling the Imperial positions. I'm telling you, when I first saw one of those blasts, I thought Mon Mothma had gone crazy and ordered us to use Nuclear weapons. Barlet told me they were only bombs, just really big bombs.
I'm an idiot.
1600 hours, 36.4.35, Outside Haradox, Gerrard V, Humbarine Sector
We're still on siege. In all those war holofilms, they make war so action packeed and fast paced, but it's nothing ilke that at all. If you're not very close to the enemy, all you do is sit in a trench and fire every once in awhile.
When I woke up this morning, it was because of an artillery shell that landed next to our position.