Thread: Star Wars The Clone Wars: 242nd Siege Battalion (Hero and I)

Opening Crawl --- The heavy thunder of the turbo-lasers was a familiar lullaby for the month that the 242nd had been on the planet. Every single force-forsaken world was a fortress, and the CIS had time to prepare for a siege. This was their training in a nutshell, what they had lived for. Even as they landed on the harsh desert planet proper, the ray shields were seen for kilometers around. There was truly only one way to cut through ray shields like that, with either infantry or constant bombardment. Since the ray shields covered everything, and the droids had every entrance covered...there was only one thing to do. Clone Commander Ferrus had ordered bombardment, and for the entirety of their time on the planet, that is what they did. The shifting sands of Aargonar were made claim to a bridgework of trenches, firing lines, heavy emplacements that constantly roared out their fire, and from that came droids attempting to break their defenses. Morale was stable and holding, but starting to falter. The city had heavy anti-air defenses, getting supplies in was a taxing process. And so, they waited...Ferrus had calculated every shell, every volley to be a calculated move to strain the ray shield's generator. But finally, it would be over soon. It had to be, they had to do this or there would be nothing to make of this sorry excuse for a planet that made Ferrus wonder what was so important about it. But it didn't matter, what mattered was that they had it in Republic hands again. And now it was time to do just that. Ferrus ordered his AT-TE to the front-lines, the formations would be finally moving. Siege warfare was a long game, nothing more and nothing less. He knew that he was right, and today he would prove it. All bombardment units, Ferrus murmured through his commlink, now or never. Adjust your firing angles to sixty degrees. I want squads loaded in, circle formation. We're going to crack this wide open, establish a foothold, do not...I repeat, do NOT let those clankers through. For one, blissful moment that had seemed like an eternity, there was a deaf silence as the massive batteries of artillery adjusted their firing position. Boots on the ground moved and shifted, the roar of engines flaring to life, desperate for activity. PAW Units, I want direct fire support, keep those boys clear. Copy that, Commander. Moving into position. A quick response hissed through, and he leaned back, fitting on his helmet. He would not let his men bleed without him, not now. Juggernauts, you move on the bombardment, full speed. Don't stop for anything. he hissed. Then came the all clear from the artillery teams, firing angles set. Good. He was nervous, it was...strange to feel, in a good way. He took one even breath before he closed his eyes, and opened them, his nerves steeled. Fire. The sound was almost deafening as the Juggernauts roared off across the sands, the combined mass of fire slammed into the ray shield, and it flickered. That was all it took. The salvo a half-second after that slammed into the city properly, triggering a reaction of explosions that left the entire city open like a cracked egg. The PAW's let loose a hail of mass driver fire, their slugs tearing into the droids forming at the walls to stop the advance. There was no hesitation in the drivers of their massive machines, they were the first wave that would be coming. They were brute forcing their way into the city...and that meant exactly what it sounded like it did. Thirteen A6 Juggernaut's punched through the walls of the city like paper.