The Ice planet Hoth, an outer rim planet almost entirely devoid of life or anything else of value. Deserted though it isn't. Four TRE bases lay on it's surface, three of them spread in a triangle around the fourth, a much larger one. 20,000 soldiers staffed these bases, and security was always high. Off planet, a hazardous asteroid field laced with hidden gun emplacements scattered througout it for further protection. In orbit around the frozen world, three shipyards toiled with thier first jobs. Already thier work was apparent, Three Dreadnaughts had been built, along with almost 175 of the Rogue Empire's finest Fighters, the dreaded TIE Defender.

Most of these ships were in the testing stages, having only just been completed. Indeed, the first of the Dreadnaughts was currently under trials, run by a skeleton crew out in the asteroid belt. It currently held it's complement of fighters from those Defenders already built, just done with thier testing as well. Just before returning to the shipyards, the sensorman picked up a faint, odd sign well away from it's current postion. The acting captain immediately conferred with command.

Commander Risard had been told there would be no issues...Hoth was a secret base. Though all knew of Rogue Imperial activity this far out in the galaxy, little knew of the shipyard and four bases stationed there. So far the Dreadnaughts were out manuevering the asteroids just as had been planned, they were run by only the best pilots...because only the best could be stationed at such an important location.

The mighty dreadnaught was now going head on into the asteroid belt, yanking the pitch upward and blasting away at the asteroids around them, clearing away a large portion of it around them. With this successful manuever, it then began to pull a slow barrel roll to the starboard, clearing away more asteroids as it did so.

It then dived downward, almost exiting the asteroid field and knocking out the few asteroids around it. With the help of the new TIE Defenders, it was able to exit with no issues...the dreadnaughts really were getting better.

But unfortunately, they'd found that there were several ships inbound on their radars. Commander Risard was in a slight panic, Chimeran ships had been pirating convoys all along the galactic borders for some time now.

"What IFF signal do they have?" he demanded the helmsman, while in the tiny bridge of the Dreadnaught. There was a short delay as the enlisted soldier examined the IFF code.

"There is none sir, they are <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> not<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> rebel craft, they're most likely pirates or smugglers hoping to get a ship or two," the lower man replied, punching in a few commands into his console.

Risard was not about to see the new Rogue Imperial craft be pirated, not after this long of construction. "Send three TIE Defenders to rendezvou, see what they want...if they're hostile...let them have fun trying to shoot <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> those<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> down," he ordered grimly. "Pull the Dreadnaught back to the base shipyard and get ready for full assault, shields and turbo lasers at full."

"Aye aye sir," the soldier responded as the Dreadnaught pulled a strong turn to the rear and began fleeing.

As the Defenders closed in, the the ships on the Dreadnaughts sensors dissapeared. At the location of the sensor pickup, two X-wings were flying, thier power levels and energy signatures modified to throw off the sensor return of any ships around them. The pilots inside knew the Dreadnaught was probably seeing them as several larger ships. With the Defenders inbound, they switched off the modifications and dove into a heavy section of the asteroid belt, hiding and denying the incoming ships any sensor information on them.

Meanwhile, the real force jumped into action. Hidden amongst the asteroids to the Dreadnaughts rear, it's sensor mask hiding it from the larger ship. It's crew knew no fear. Though the Dreadnaught was twice the Galofree's(Rebel Medium Transport for those of you who don't know it) size, the modifications to it were exstensive, making a battle between the two much more even. The smaller ship also had surprise in it's favor, as it struck. Cannons blasted at a large asteroid, sending it on a collision course with the Dreadnaught. Timed to connect at the same time as the asteroid, the Galofree fired off a weapons barrage, it's cannons and concussion missiles slamming into the rear shields, overloading them. As soon as the shields fell, the cannons resumed, this time in surgical strikes, vaporizing the few weapons(5 turbo lasers) the larger ship could bring to bear on it.

With those gone, the Galofree's ion cannons blasted away at it's opponent. Meanwhile, the ships best gunner targeted the Dreadnaughts communication relay. It too was soon a melted waste. As the Ion cannons took thier toll, and the Galofree was safe to the Dreadnaughts rear, a single transmission went off to the larger ship. Phantom Leader stood there, and spoke. "We are the Phantoms. Soon you'll be disabled. Surrender and prepare to be boarded and you'll live. Refuse and I'll drill a hole from one side of this ship to the other. The choice is yours."

The commander was reluctant...but did shut down his weapons and control systems...expecting fully to be boarded. Was this a planned exercise? Was he supposed to be taken like this while on a training mission. No comms were able to be sent out due to the constant jammings from the enemy.

He sighed grimly...were they going to kill him? Were they going to take him alive? Was he to be a slave? He sat there...deciding to let them decide his fate.

The Gand that was Phantom Leader stood aboard the bridge of the "Patient Fury", the Galofree Transport he'd bought several years ago and modified with his own hands. He stood there, waiting and pondering. As the minutes pass after his transmission with no word from the Dreadnaught or any further hostilities, he decides to move on. Motioning to the comms officer, he began to speak again. "Attention TRE Dreadnaught. Prepare to be boarded. All personnel are hearby ordered to report to the mess except for the captain who will remain on the bridge. Phantoms out."

His communications done, Phantom Leader spun on his heels, moving towards the Hanger to load into one of the transports. Moments later, the ships were off. Loaded with troops, they flew into the abandoned hanger of the Dreadnaught as if they owned it, which was appropriate, because they now did. The pilots landed, and the troops formed up in the hangers before making way to thier assigned positions aboard the ship. Eight of them moved to the mess hall, waiting to move the ships crew before going on to thier next jobs. Phantom Leader marched to the bridge, followed by those troopers assigned stations there.

Arriving at the bridge, the Gand confronted the ships commander while the troopers took over control stations. "Very good Captain, a good officer always thinks of his men. You did very well here. Now I need you to do two things. First, recall the Defenders. Thier pilots will report to the mess with the rest of the crew. Once they've arrived, you'll order them to follow my men's commands, and they'll be moved into the brig. After that, you'll stay here on the bridge and assist Major Targent in whatever he needs. Don't try to resist, if you do both you and your crew will die." With his last command, the Gand motioned to an officer currently going over the ships computers.

After a moments hesitation, the acting captain reluctantly agreed. While loyal to TRE, he couldn't allow for his men to be slaughtered. Under supervision, he recalled the TIE Defenders. Once the fighters were aboard, their pilots were moved with the rest of the crew and detained in the brig. As soon as they head left the hanger, Beta sqad began looking over the fighters, and Beta Leader assigned them out. Beta would be flying cover for the next stage of the mission. Now, with everything complete with the ships capture, Phantom Leader returned with the transports to the Fury. Once aboard, the Fury activated the programming in it to make it appear damaged, and was "escorted" through the asteroid field.

Arriving in orbit, the "Patience" as it's IFF transponder now transmitted, received permission to land on the planet for repairs after a brief arguement with Hoth command. As they made thier way down, Alpha squad prepped in the transports to hit the planet for thier mission. The TRE Dreadnaught followed them down, with Beta set to launch in the Defenders at the first sign of trouble. The Dreadnaught stayed in a mid-atmospheric orbit, on station for orders from Phantom leader.

Simulating a control problem, the Galofree plunged out of the sky, rocketing towards the Imperial bases. As it seemingly fell like a rock, pieces began coming off, falling alongside the 200 meter long ship. Finally, at the last moment, the ship stopped, hovering over the Cloning base by only a 100 meters. The damage program ended and weapons sprang up from the hull, lancing out at the bases defenses. Likewise, the "pieces" were in fact the ships two X-wings and the transports. The transports landed while the fighters and Galofree flew cover for them, blasting defenses and groups of defenders. First to go were the anti-air platforms of course, and then the ships in the air began eliminating anti-personel heavy weapons. Meanwhile, Alpha squad landed and started thier mission.

The missile batteries were falling left and right, the enemy transport had cought them totally off guard. Now Commander Peterson knew the faults in the design of this base. They tried desperately to shoot back, but the undermanned station was again no match for superior X-Wings and some strangely modified transport.

War droids were lined up along the entrance to the cave facility, they would not let the enemy in under any circumstances. They began blasting wildly at one of the X-Wings, knocking out its engine and sending him spiraling into the snow. It hit, but was OK, there was no fatal damage done to the fighter, or the pilot.

"Ok men," the commander of the storm trooper regiment inside the cloning facility began. "Get ready for battle...we've seen this before, he shouldn't be too hard."

The problem was...the commander wasn't so sure of that this time.

Aboard the damaged fighter, the pilot fought to regain control of his craft. He was strangely calm. A pilot who had quietly racked up a kill record to rival even the most famous of pilots, Erron Kell had been doing this longer than he could remember. Originally a Rebel Alliance pilot, he had grow disenchanted with the bureaucracy of the New Republic after the Battle of Endor, and he'd resigned his commission. Since then he’d been a freelance mercenary, flying for whoever had the cash. That was till he met up with the Phantoms, and their Gand leader. He’d known them back in the rebellion, when the founding members ran a Rebel Special Operations team, wreaking havoc from one side of the Empire to the other. He’d always had a respect for their operations, but he was a pilot, and somehow most of their missions took place planetside, despite their tendency to “aqquire” any ships they might need. They left the Rebels not long after he did, and before long their paths crossed again, and he’d been flying with them ever since.
It wasn’t often that Kell was shot down, but he’d faced it often enough, and ground training was an integral part of every Phantom’s regular training exercises. In fact, he regularly rotated in with the assault teams. He knew his job if he was to be shot down. That wasn’t important right now though, survival was. His breathing was regular, and his hands calmly moved over the controls as his voice stayed even and gave orders to his astromech, and R2 unit named Slider. Slider was already ahead of his pilot though, automatically cutting power to the damaged engine and it’s opposite to slow the spin. Likewise, he immediately brought up the damage displays for Erron to skim over. With that and a cursory glance over his shoulder at the S-foils, he decided to chance closing them. The ship shook horribly as he flipped the switch and the foils closed. Finally though, the descent smoothed out some, becoming more of a flight rather than falling like a rock. The X-wings speed was still far too much though.
Pulling back hard on the stick, Kell fought to bring the fighter’s nose up, adjusting power levels between the engines and repulsorlifts as he did. Despite his efforts, the ship still hit the snow pretty hard, but without sustaining too much more damage, and without injury to the pilot. Erron immediately opened the hatch and jumped out to grab his survival gear. “Slider, you know what to do. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” With a single backwards glance, Kell snuck away from the downed fighter. He knew any TRE people who tried to mess with the ship would be in for a mean surprise. He and Slider had been together a long time, and he wasn’t about to leave him defenseless. Meanwhile though, he had a job to do. Whatever had taken him down would do the same to his wingman, maybe even the Fury if he didn’t find it. His job, having been shot down, was to act as a Forward Air Controller, a FAC, and direct strikes against anything that could endanger the assault teams.
The main TRE base was in chaos, and Kell quickly made his way to the roof of a building along the outskirts of the base. His weapon in hand, he retrieved his electro-binoculars and scanned the area. At the entrance to the cave which housed the cloning facilities, the pilot saw something that made even his battle-hardened nerves jumpy. A line of war druids, blasting away at anything without TRE markings on it. Turning ninety degrees, he saw Alpha squad unloading from the transports. Immediately he realized what would happen if those war druids weren’t taken out, Alpha would be toasted. Activating his communications gear, he reported in. “This is FAC One. I have War Droids at the facility entrance. FAC One requests an immediate air strike at the target entrance.” Within seconds, he had his response. His wingman rocketed over his position, expertly dodging incoming fire and waggling his S-foils in a show of respect to his downed friend. Straightening out for a mere second, the attack was on the way, a torpedo shot out from the fighter even as it jerked away to avoid incoming fire. The torpedo impacted right on target, exploding and vaporizing the droids. Erron reported their status. “Droids are down, excellent shot. Repeat, droids are down. Alpha is clear to move.”
Alpha squad was already moving, entering the blast zone within a minute, and entering the facility immediately after that. As soon as they were inside the facility, sweep and clear operations began on the entry level. With that cleared, Alpha moved down to the next level, and continued on.

The storm troopers were beginning to fall back into the most secured areas now, trying not to get shot but also trying to hit the enemy as they ran. They did not succeed. Two of the soldiers fell before they reached the secure area.

There was only one problem...that left the clones unguarded.

Inside the cloning facility, the battle raged amongst the cloning cylinders. The bulky Sparti tanks made excellent cover for both the attackers and defenders, which took it's toll on the clones inside. In the rooms that held those in thier final stages of development, Phantom Leader was fighting a group of persistant soldiers. He was hidden behind one tank, the soldiers were bunkered up in an office. They had had him pinned down for a while, and the other Alpha members were busy elsewhere. Quickly he popped out and fired a few shots, taking down one of the humans as they tried to snipe at him. Just as fast, he was back behind cover as blaster fire melted various parts of the cylinder. While planning his next move, Alpha One glanced and the information panel attached to the side. This was a clone of some Snake person, or more appropriately, it had been. The Gand was certain nothing was coming out of this tank, especially with the sparks shooting out of the electronics that ran the thing.

While he was looking at the tank, a blaster bolt came in, and finally broke through the transparisteel, covering Phantom Lead with cloning goop. Pushing the near complete clone body off of him, he went back into action, drawing a thermal detonator, and tossing it through the door of the office. Seconds later, a ten-meter area around the blast was vaporized, nearly catching Alpha Leader in it. He was suddenly alone, and aware of the silence. "Alpha Squad, report in," the Gand called out over his comlink. Everyone checked in, and Alpha Two made a status report. "This is Two. We've cleared the area, all remaining defenders retreated into a safe area beyond the cloning area. Nine is bringing a cargo lifter to get one of the tanks out to return to the Fury. We'll be ready to go in ten. Two out."

Returning to the rest of the team, the Gand formed everyone up. In the time estimated, the Sparti cloning cylinder was loaded onto the cargo lifter and Alpha team made their way out of the facility. Outside, the battle still raged, the captured Dreadnaught was now firing down at the Fury, but the teams knew that any shots that actually hit the ship were powered down. Alpha arrived back at the transports to find Erron Kell and his X-wing already there, the fighter hooked up for towing into the Galofree. Quickly, the team loaded back aboard the ships and took off to dock. Once on the Fury, both it and the Dreadnaught took off for the far side of the planet before going orbital and away, fighting off the swarm of fighters as they did so. Damage aboard the ships was racking up, the redundant shield generators on the Galofree as well as the skill of the crew was all that had kept them from serious harm.

Phantom Leader was suspicious as the ships made thier way into the asteroid field. Even as tough a mission as this had been, he'd expected more opposition from the Rogue Empire, especially from such an important facility. Suddenly the ship rocked hard, and the Gand thought he'd been right, that they had been setting a trap. Sprinting to the bridge, he checked with the Captain. "Sir, we're taking fire from hidden emplacements in the asteroids. Thier heavily shielded, we can't take them out."

"It doesn't matter, just keep moving and reinforcing the shields with whatever power can be used. Just get us out of here. Good job by the way Captain." With that Phantom Leader spun on his heals, heading to the medical facilities onboard, to check on the wounded. Every so often the ship would rock as a blast got through the shields, but they made it out in one piece, and the two ships jumped into hyperspace and relative safety. Another Phantom mission success.