Battle of AX-456

|prev=Subjugation of SulonDark Forces: Soldier for the Empire
|next=Attack on the Imperial repair dockStar Wars: X-Wing
|image=
|name=Battle of AX-456
|conflict=Galactic Civil War
|date=September 18th, 2002The Essential Reader's Companion
|place=AX-456 installation
|result=Imperial victory
|side1=Galactic Empire
|side2=Alliance to Restore the Republic
|commanders1=*Kyle Katarn
*Sergeant Major Hong†
|commanders2=Unknown Rebel commander
|forces1=*Imperator
*3 squads of Stormtroopers
|forces2=Rebel SpecForces
|casual1=*All but 6 stormtroopers
*Hong
|casual2=436 soldiers}}
The Battle of AX-456 was a battle during the Galactic Civil War.
==Prelude==
When a Rebel Alliance comm center, the asteroid AX-456, was detected, Imperial Intelligence supposed that they were establishing a network of relay stations and it was surveyed by probe droids.
A platoon of stormtroopers led by Cadet Leader Kyle Katarn and Sergeant Major Hong were assigned to destroy it. The operation was also Katarn's Omega Exercise.
The platoon spent two days in a prestrike acclimation tank for the asteroidal conditions. They were trained in a simulation, based on existing information when the constructs were only 50% complete. Based on the probe's information, explosive charges were prepared in advance.
==The battle==
The Imperator launched the attack, that was preceded by three sweeps by TIE fighters. Assault boat R-1 then landed on the asteroid surface in a place that it could offer fire support, and from where it could lift quickly.
The platoon found the installations completed. Dobbs, Trang and Sutu were assigned scouts from each squad and failed to find anything suspicious in the area. Kyle Katarn ordered to invade the main building; the second squad blew the lock, one provided cover, and Katarn invaded followed by squad three. The first opposition was eliminated by a high-explosive and a concussion grenade. Morley passed through the hole first, followed by Katarn, Hong, and squad two, and engaged the Rebel SpecForce in firefights.
Once the two airlocks were secure, two troopers armed with blaster cannons, led squad two. The hatch opened, and they fired at the exposed Rebels, and managed to secure the room and a passageway, although not before the Rebels called for backup. Hong led the charge and Kyle Katarn also marked his first kill. 30% of the stormtroopers were killed, and squad two was all but eliminated. After regrouping Kyle broke tradition by asking the medic to give aid to the Rebel survivors, after their troops, in order to interrogate them later. The assault boat called from more reinforcements and destroyed the antenna so as to cut Rebels from communicating.
Led by three heavily armed troopers, the platoon scouted the passageway, until the tunnel behind them collapsed, and Rebel fire came from hastily drilled holes, followed by grenades. Katarn had foreseen these events and managed to save his troopers's lives by giving timely commands. Rebels emerged behind a makeshift wall of droids advanced towards the platoon. Despite the small space, Katarn ordered the use of grenades, forcing the Rebels to retreat.
Kyle's command was in a dead end; with fourteen survivors, not able to retreat beyond the collapse, and without R-1 responding, they were forced to move forward. They scavenged ammo and Corporal Givens blew up the control panel of the durasteel door. Meanwhile the remaining Rebels, some armed with second-rate weapons, were trapped in the other side and expected the Stormtroopers behind a makeshift barricade of furniture, cargo modules and cable reels. Eventually they broke. Katarn noticed that a few of them were non-military and wouldn't allow a massacre, and ordered to stop; supposedly to save ammo, as he said to quiet Hong's surprise.
The Imperials progressed to the comm center until encountering fifteen or twenty Rebels who were ready to surrender. One of these Rebels, Jan Ors, had a particular impact on Katarn, who took a liking toward her. Katarn's dilemma was further exacerbated by the arrival of a freighter carrying Rebel reinforcements; despite Hong's suggestion (and formal protest), Kyle insisted that they shouldn't be killed, even though they made more potential prisoners than there were stormtroopers left to guard them. Instead, they just put explosive charges to destroy the machinery.
gainst the protest of Hong, Katarn ultimately ordered his men to spare the prisoners and take up positions in the cafeteria, fortifying .
===Evacuation===
Katarn led the platoon to the cafeteria, fortifying it for the impending attack by the Rebel reinforcements, and waiting for the Imperials.
The Rebels used a crawler-mounted drill bit to break through the cafeteria and poured through the opening surprising the platoon, immediately killing five or six strormtroopers including Hong; Katarn and only six other wounded troopers survived behind a barricade. Two more Rebel ships, a strike team scrambled from the nearby Vasuuli relay station, landed shortly after and rescued the surviving staff of the station; the second one was destroyed by the incoming Imperial reinforcements, before a group of heavily armed Storm commandos swept through the empty base and found rescued the surviving stormtroopers.
==Aftermath==
Although Katarn made unconventional choices and expected to be court-martialed, emerged an Imperial hero. Tales of the mission were exaggerated around the Academy and spoke about him showing extraordinary perseverance, "killing four hundred thirty six insurrectionists" and eventually "disabling an important communications installation" of the Rebels. The wounded were hospitalized and after exiting, Kyle confided his doubts and his strange experiences to his closest friend, Meck Odom.
He also attracted the attention of Jerec, who recently had killed his father, and was, perhaps quite ironically, decorated the Medal of Valor by Rom Mohc and Jerec.
Ors and Katarn later gained a close relationship, and Katarn defected to the Alliance after Ors revealed to him that the Galactic Empire killed his father.
==Appearances==
*Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire / Audio 
==Sources==
*The Dark Forces Saga
*
*
*The Essential Atlas
==Notes and references==
Category:Galactic Civil War battles