Chapter 49 - One Man Army (1/2)

Commander Aurelius Meerban was an officer in the First Order that had literally been born in the middle of the Empire in its full glory and came from a family with a long record of military success. All his family had always been posted in important positions since the era of the Old Republic and getting its summit during the Empire Era where they enjoyed of the total trust of the Emperor himself. Everything changed, of course, when the Rebel Alliance destroyed all their dreams and took away everything they had. They were forced to flee and abandoned all they had manage to earn by centuries of hard work.

- ”Someday, we will recover everything we lost, Aurelius”- were the words that his father always told him as he groomed him to be a man of war.

He grew up inside the ranks of the First Order and he entered service even before he had reached ȧduŀthood. Even though he was the son of one of the most important generals of the First Order, he was given the same treatment and was sent to dangerous missions and he had to survive many engagements which refined his battle senses and instincts. After, many trials, he had managed to go up in the ranks and he had finally make it to the rank of Commander which was a very important position. He had been in charge of invade and secure the planet Phindar. It had been a very well planned and taking in consideration the opposition which had been extremely fierce, they had managed to invade the planet in record time which spoke volumes of his skills as a commander. In any other time, he would have been extremely proud of himself to have been able to make such feat, but now he felt no happiness at all. The reason for this was that since the beginning he had had a dreadful idea in his head.

- ”Orbital defense informs that the Republic has enter our space”- informed one of the officer under his command- ”General Hux orders an immediate defense on the key positions of the planet.”

- ”Message received”- said Commander Meerban as he sighed with anger.

The idea he has had since the beginning was simple: ”This invasion was meaningless.”

- ”The position is indefensible, our numbers are too few, the resources are limited and the population is vastly in favour of the Republic since they were very close to their area of influence”- thought Meerban once again as he had been doing the last few days- ”we gain nothing and lose a lot by staying. Just what the hell are they thinking?”

He first thought it was a hit and run operation planned to reduce the moral and the cohesion of the Republic, but then he received the order of secure the principal cities and prepare for a Republic ȧssault. It was madness and he simply did not understand the strategy behind this invasion. However, his job was to do as ordered and until now he had done as best as he could. He was now in the main building of the city which gave him a clear vision of all the access points to it and it was protected by a very stong particle shield which would defend from the predicted air raid which was to come.

- ”All stations enter to red alert and defend the main entrances to the city”- ordered the commander- ”all pilots guard the skies and get ready for combat! Main the anti air cannons and tanks!”

Even though they had suffered some damage at taking the city, including the fact that the defenders had destroyed their own vehicles and guns to avoid the First Order to use them in the defense, they still had sufficient power to give the Republic a nasty surprise and he was totally decided to gain as much time as possible since he trusted that the General Hux had a plan to face this situation.

- ”Enemy fighters and bombers detected”- informed the officer and the captain saw the vast numbers of the enemy as they appeared surrounding the city.

- ”All anti-air cannons start firing!”- ordered Meerban- ”All pilots wait until the enemy enter their striking zone and then engage prioritizing the bombers at all cost.”

- ”Roger!”- he received the transmissions of all the team leaders.

Very soon, he started to hear the sounds of the batteries shooting and the explosions which announced the start of the battle. Even thiough these sounds would bring dread and distress to most, they had the opposite effect on him. It was something that only someone iwho had been in battle would understand since they would agree that it was better to know combat is here that bear the long and eternal horrible feeling of not knowing when it all would start.

- ”Keep track of all conflict points at all times and make sure to inform of any unusual changes”- ordered Meerban as he started to look at all the screens and panels around him paying attention to the minor details that could destroy the balance in the battle- ”mmh?”

At the beginning, everything went as he had predicted and could see the air strike of the Republic entangled with their own air defenses and in most of places they could be said to be the same in number of casualties. However, even though most of the engagements seemed to be equilibrated, there were two points were the Republic gained an absurd advantage and seemed like their TIE fighters were simply falling like flies.

- ”Give me visuals on those two sectors B-78 AND G-99”- ordered the commander trying to find the reason for the situation in order to plan a counter measure.

- ”Enemy tags have been recognised”- said the officer with a little tremor in his voice- ”It's the Rogue squadron.”

The mere mention of that name sent shivers to the back of all the people present. Meerban knew they would come, but he had expected the best of their units to be in charge of the orbital battle. This would put more pressure on them and he knew that they would never match their skill so he could oly try to win by sheer power.

- ”Order all squads to send three fighters to both zones!”- ordered Meerban with a frown.

- ”But sir”- said the officer with a worried expression- ”it will weaken the other points too much!”

- ”If we don't do it, they will eliminate the squads in those points and later they will just raze the other points... we have to stop them, so do it!”

- Yes, Sir!

The predictions of the Commander were correct. The Rogue squadron unit in sector B-78 slowed down in front of the increased enemy numbers and their TIE fighters managed to shoot down more Y-Wing bombers. However, the squadron in sector G-99 seemed to not just maintain its efficiency, but to even increase it. Meerban was in shock and he could only be in awe as he saw the leader of this squadron fighting with a speed which could not be considered human at all. The X-wing squadron in this sector cleaned the road very easily and let the Y-Wing bombers enter into their bombing zones with ease. The bombers rained destruction and flames on their anti-air batteries and tanks making everything ready for the ground forces of the Republic to enter the city.

- ”Large numbers of infantry units entering the city in sector G-99”- informed the officer who had to hears the shouts of desperation of their defense units in that sector- ”the line will collapse very soon unless reinforcements are sent.”

However, Meerban knew such reinforcements were inexistent and even if they existed, they would never arrive on time to stop the superior numbers of the Republic army.

- ”Tell them to retreat behind the point 105 while keeping the enemy occupied”- ordered the commander and the officer gulped knowing what would happened.

The orders were given and the forces retreated quickly while shooting to the Republic forces which started to advance seeing the fleeing enemy. Meerban watched the map very carefully and started to calculate the distances.

- ”Blow up the buildings in sector G-99”- ordered the Captain with a cold voice

- ”Yes, Sir!”- said the officer who had been ready to give the order as soon as the commander gave the order- ”Blow up G-99!”

As soon as the order was given explosions could be heard and several blocks of buildings, many of which were extremely tall, were blown out by the charges the explosive team had planted previously and soon all the streets and accesses in the area were buried by the rubble and wreckage which had claimed the lives of the Republic army and some unlucky First Order units.

- ”Massive casualties on the enemy and all accesses in sector G-99 closed”- informed the officer who could be seen a little pale.

- ”Good, that will gain us time”- said Meerban with a cold attitude as if this were just a typical day in his job- ”remind all engineers to be ready in case we have to blow up their sectors at any moment.”

- ”Roger that!”- said the office trembling before the ruthlessness of the captain- ”bombers heading our way”

-”Shoot alll guns on them”- said Meerban having predicted the air force in the sector G-99 would come for them.

It was obvious this building would be their main objective, specially after seeing that they could blow up the buildings. The bombers released their load on the building, but the particle shield defended the position extremely well against the proton bombs of the enemy.

- ”You will have to try better, Republic dogs”- said the Commander while watching the screens to take decisions of the battle. However, something called his attention.

The leader of the squad that had easily destroyed their defenses had made his X-wing pass at a very slow speed and started to circulate the building like a vulture. They shot at him but he easily maneuvered avoiding the batteries until the ċȯċkpit opened and a figured dressed in gray clothing got out of the fighter which had started to float in place and then the person just jumped on the roof of the building before the starfighter just flew away abandoning its pilot.

- ”What? Cameras of rooftop now!”- ordered Meerban and the camers showed the person had landed on the rooftop of the building since the particle shield would not stop physical objects unless they moved at very high speed and definitely the person who let himself fall could not be considered a high speed projectile.