Four Months Prior

The enemy came in droves, forcing the people of Ohallan back into their homes, deep into the ground, into the mountains, anywhere that they could hide. Their ships were faster, better armed, had better armour. Their warriors had better weapons, better training. It was a slaughter and that's what the blood thirsty creatures wanted.

The Ohallan marines, widely regarded as one of the best fighting forces they knew, were nearly wiped out in the first phase. The enemy numbers and weapons all but destroyed them. At first the Ohallan military forces had fended them off, nearly destroying the first wave, but it had come at a price. That wave had taken them down to a third of their original strength.

Then came the second wave, nearly wiping them from the face of the galaxy altogether with their armoured soldiers and heavy tanks. No Ohallan ventured above ground anymore, it was suicide to do so.

They'd taken to the life of living in tunnels far beneath the ground, or living in caves deep within the mountains. Few ventured to either place from above, and the enemy that did was destroyed. The mountains, easily flown to, were bombarded constantly, the enemy trying to flush the Ohallan's out. It hadn't worked so far and it never would.

With the first wave destroyed and the second wave entrenched, there was little hope for survival. The very few that had survived were being led by only a Captain from the 201st Marines, a man named Delvin Olden with little battle experience and a lot of nerve.

They called it the Gambit Complex, and he had it bad.

Present Time

"What hasn't anyone answered our call for aid!?"

"Because no one cares about us!"

The 201st had set up a command center underneath of one of the burned out hulks of a skyscraper inside of the capital city of Verdun. There weren't many people left to man it, most soldiers being spread out to attempt to protect the civilians as best as they could. So while bombs rained down upon the city, and with the building shaking all around them, Delvin and a few other officers from other divisions were manning the small room.

"That's not true. People do care about us. Maybe the enemy jammed our transmissions as soon as they got here. We don't know so stop bickering about," Delvin said, glaring at the two Lieutenants that were arguing.

"Yes, sir.." came the reluctant reply.

Delvin turned his gaze away from the two lieutenants, the both of them promptly shooting each other angry looks as soon as he did so. The map in front of him drew his attention more than the handful of others in the room. As the only ranking officer still alive, it was his job to formulate the plans, his job to provide hope.

He wasn't very good at providing hope, not yet anyway.

None of their plans had worked, they'd all been shot full of holes as soon as they had been implimented. Delvin suspected it was because they had been too pristine, too clean cut. They had been tactical, well thought out ideas. They'd been predictable and the enemy had done a good job of predicting.

Hit and run tactics were a failure. Covert missions had been a failure. Infiltration was a no go. They'd tried openly engaging in battle, running through the streets and shooting at the enemy. They'd tried taking the high ground and laying ambushes. They'd tried just about everything that, if there was a book, would be in the book.

As a result, and much to the dismay of the other officers, Delvin had thrown the book out and was planning to do something spontaneous. Fuel and ammunition were needed to supply the war effort and the enemy had a well guarded supply depot a couple of miles out from the first line of Ohallan troops.. if you could call about forty soldiers spread through a city that was 20 miles in diameter a line.

He planned to take it, and he planned to do something that the enemy wouldn't expect. Something that not even his soldiers would expect. It was all part of his Gambit Complex, and it was going to be risky.

"Alright, here's what we're going to do...."

He had four soldiers, just a whole group of four. That was all that could be spared from their posts in order to complete the mission at hand. The military was spread so thin that if things kept up the way they were going then there would be no good end to this war. They had to do something and this would be the tip of the spear in that something. This raid on the enemies nearest supply depot.

Pulling the mask on over his face, the only thing that remained visible on his entire body was his eyes. The rest of him was covered head to toe in black as it was the best camouflage in the night. Black hides black and as long as they were able to avoid the spotlights that the enemy would have surely set up then they would go unseen. That was just as they wanted. A sneak attack against the enemy. It was risky, had been tried before and failed. But they didn't have him before, either.

He wore no pack, carried no radio, and was armed only with two blasters whcih were holstered at his waist. A belt wrapped around there too, carrying powerpacks and other small trinkets within the pouches that adorned it. Across his chest was a belt of sorts that held thermal detonators and a few charges on it, ready for heavy battle. He wore no armour as none of the others did. There was no armour for Ohallan soldiers, just their bodies.

"Alright men, we need to get going. Stay alery, be watchful, and try not to give away your position. That means don't use your blasters unless absolutely necessary."

Another soldier, one of the ones that weren't going on the mission, stepped towards him and held out a dagger to him in the palm of his hands. Delvin reached out towards it and grabbed onto the Ohallan blade's sheath, pulling it away. Sliding the dagger from the sheath, he examined it for a moment before sliding it home and bending down to slide it into his boot.

"An Ohallan dagger, very well made and perfectly balanced. Thank you."

The soldier simply nodded and left the room, moving back to wherever his post was.

"Let's go."

Grabbing a blaster from it's holster on his belt, he moved through the doorway and into the hallway on the other side. Turning to the left as he does so, he walks down the hall towards the stairway to the upper level. Upon reaching it, the ten soldiers that stood around it removed the barricade and stepped to the side to allow them to pass through the doors. Delvin maintained the lead as he walked slowly up the stairs.

The stairs were dark and as soon as he neared the top of them he could hear movement outside. Lifting a hand, he signalled for the group to stop and then he took a few silent steps towards a window and peeked out of it. Outside, a column of enemy tanks and troops were sweeping through the area. Some of the enemy troops were heading towards the building even.

"Hide. Knives only. Company is coming."

With that, he bends over and yanks the dagger out from where he had hidden it, the metal dulled instead of shined so as not to give away the position of its weilder. As the other four moved off in different directions he moved to take up a spot in one of the nearby rooms, hiding behind the door to the room so that when it was opened he could attack the enemy silently. And with that, he settled in to wait.

So when the door creaked open slightly, Delvin tensed up completely but only for two seconds as he waited. Fingers tightened in grip upon the dagger that he held in his right hand. When the enemy trooper, also a human, walked into the room, he stepped forwards towards the man, grabbed onto his shoulder and shoved the blade with the serrated edge facing forward right into the mans neck.

Blood immediately began to gush from the wound, flowing out over the man who immediately tried to speak, but Delvin ripped the knife forward through the mans neck, half severing his head in the process. Pulling the knife away, and subsequently removing his arm from about the man, the now dead enemy soldier fell to the floor with a dull thud, splattering blood all over the floor of the room.

Delvin grabbed onto one of the mans arms and drug him towards the desk that occupied the room. Laying the corpse behind it, he walked quickly and quietly back to the door and glanced out to see if anyone had been looking. Behind him, the dead mans communications unit crackled to life, but Delvin didn't know what they were saying. He just had a suspicion from what they were saying.

Stepping out of the room, he quietly closed the door and then turned to creep down the hall. The sounds of a quiet scuffle came from one room as he passed and he knew that one of his soldiers was taking it to the enemy. He didn't stop to assist but crept on until he came to a much larger room, pressing his back against the wall just to the side of the open door.

Inside of the room he could see two soldiers, both with backs turned to him and both standing about twenty feet from each other. Holding the knife within his grasp, he prepared himseld, bracing foot against the wall. Then, with a sudden spring, he pushed himself from the wall, launching himself through the room at one enemy soldier and tackling him to the ground.

Incidentally, his knife stabbed right through the troopers armor at the armpit, causing him to cry out in pain. The other enemy soldier immediately turned towards the sound of the falling trooper and lifted his weapon to fire upon Delvin. Delvin flipped the enemy soldier over on top of him, letting the man absorb the bolts and subsequently die.

Yanking the dagger from where it had stabbed into the now dead man, he flipped it around so that his fingers were holding the blade, then flung it straight out at the enemy soldier, catching the man right in the neck. For a few moments, the enemy soldier staggered around grabbing the dagger and yanking it from his neck which sent a spray of blood everywhere. Then he fell to the floor dead.

Delvin rolled the dead trooper off of him and then stood, glancing down at the blood that was now sprayed across his chest from the first guy he head killed. Shrugging, he walked over to the other dead soldier and bent down to pick up his dagger. After wiping the blood from it, he sticks it back in the sheath at his ankle and then walks out the door, lifting hand to his wrist where his comm unit was.

"Report status and meet at the main entrance. You have five minutes..."

Ten minutes later he and his four soldiers were grouped at the door to the building without any losses. It was as he had expected it to be. Where the enemy troops had numbers and experience, the 201st had the special operations training necessary to do things in secret. While other Ohallan soldiers were simply that, soldiers, the members of the 201st were something special and Delvin intended to keep it that way.

"Alright. Pretend like this little skirmish never happened. They won't miss these guys if we move them to a different building. Grab a body and let's move."

Grabbing a body from the pile of bodies that they had massed in the small room at the entrance to the building, he slung it over his shoulder. Popping the door to the outside world slightly ajar, he peeked out the opening and, when one of the soldiers glanced out the window and nodded to give the all clear, he pushed the door all of the way open and walked outside. A quick glance up and down the street showed that they were indeed alone for the moment.

Running with his weapon held in his right hand and his left hand occupied with holding the dead body on his shoulder, he moved towards the building across the street and moved inside. Into a nearby room he went, placing the body in position on the rooms floor and making it look like that was where the man had died. The other soldiers repeated the process using other rooms until all of the bodies were placed.

Once back in the entrance hall of this new building, Delvin peeked out into the road through the open door. A ways down the street the enemy convoy was returning once more. Motioning for the other four to hurry up, he quickly moved out of the building and turned to go in the same direction that the convoy was moving. Quick steps carried him along while his eyes looked everywhere watching for any sign of the enemy.

They passed by many alley's on the way to their destination, not going down any until they had moved past seven of them. The eighth alley pulled him and the others in and they quickly moved into the darkness that made it up. The sky above was suddenly lit with a bright flash as an enemy ship jetted overhead followed by another. Shaking his head, Delvin just continued walking until they got to a manhole cover.

"Inside, quick."

One of the soldiers pried the cover off the opening and set it a little to the side. Another soldier quickly climbed down and called up for them to come along. Delvin went down next with the other three soldiers following up. The last one closed the manhole cover behind them. The enemy would never know that anyone had passed that way.

"This sewer will take us to a manhole cover inside of the enemy supply depot located near where they store their munitions. It'll probably be guarded, but we have to try. Let's go."

And off they went...

The sewers stank of waste, feces, mold, and just about everything else that a sewer could possibly stink of. Their noses were assaulted in a manner similar to how Ohalla itself had been assaulted. To make matters worse, most of the stuff they were walking through hadn't been put there by any Ohallans.

"I think these people need to work on their diets. It smells horrible in here."

Although he received a few chuckles out of his remark, the seriousness of their situation ultimately prevailed and they didn't speak anymore of it. No, they merely plodded along through the crap that had been left for them by their enemy. If they ever won this war the lasting effects would be horrendous just in the fact that they would have to plug their noses all the time.

They sloshed along until they rounded a corner and found themselves face to face with a completely blank wall. This was something new and Delvin strolled forward slightly to wrap a hand against the wall. A hollow sound escaped signifying that there was nothing on the other side unless you counted more tunnel. That's exactly what he was hoping for.

"We need to get this wall down so we can get through. Did someone bring along a saw by any chance?"

No one answered so he figured not.

"Well, we need to get this wall down but we need to do it quietly. I guess that means its time for some knife work and shoveling if we have any. Start at the top."

Grabbing his knife, he started to pick at the top of the brick wall, thankfully brick otherwise they'd have to blow it down. Scraping out the mortar was going to be a slow process, but you had to do what you had to do if you wanted to accomplish your mission. Unfortunately, this was what they had to do.

The Late Hours of the Battle of Kirima

Commander McCadon looked off the starboard of his gunship to see Vice-Admiral Wilkar’s Rapier desperately trying to punch a hole in the alien line. The star destroyer was accelerating at a breakdown speed, sacrificing shield power for speed. The great ship was taking a heavy toll though. McCadon watched as the underpowered shields of the ship fail as the Rapier took the full brunt of an alien broadside. The alien fire penetrated the ship’s armor plating and atmosphere and bodies made an exodus out of the sudden loss of pressure.

The slower moving Victory Class Star Destroyer Veteran moved perpendicular to the Rapier to cover its grievous wound. The Victory opened up with a terrible broadside of concussion missiles to match the alien ship’s attack.

Though the Commonwealth was gaining some small victories, the aliens were slowly pushing the Third Fleet and the scattered remnants of the Second Fleet back. The fleets were minutes away from being trapped between a fleet that outnumbered them and Kirima’s gravity well.

The Second Fleet flagship, Lawgiver, was engaged in a desperate attempt to outflank the enemy but was about to be overwhelm by superior numbers. McCadon checked his chronometer. The combined fleets had less than a minute to execute an emergency jump to light speed or they would be stuck against the gravity well. But could they really do that?

If the fleet broke line and retreated further, they would leave the rest of the Commonwealth Proper swinging in the solar winds. The choices were simple: win or be conquered.

The Rapier was fighting like a cornered wampa. It was clear to Commander McCadon that the ship’s reactors would go critical before the ship retreated any further. The destroyer appeared to be emptying its hanger bays and launching escape pods at a mad pace.

The great ship had accelerated past its emergency flank speed and was heading straight for the largest ship in the alien fleet. Impact was eminent.

Then: a flash.

The alien flagship was gone. The Rapier could be seen spiraling, disabled, away from the battle.

The Hapens had come. Prince Dakkon Darksword had arrived with his squadron of battledragons. The tables had turned on the invaders. Cohesion had returned to the Commonwealth fleet as they began to array themselves into a solid line. The Hapan fleet had become a hammer, and the Commonwealth an anvil.

Later

“Commander McCadon, we’re receiving a distress call,” informed the communications officer.

“From a ship of the fleet?”

“No sir, Ohalla. They’re under attack.”

“The bugs?”

“No sir, someone else.”

“Put me through to Vice-Admiral Wilkar.”

The screen changed from black to the Rapier’s bridge. The image blurred and static plagued it. The ship’s communications antennae had taken some serious damage. The admiral stood before them. A deep cut ran across his face along with a bloody nose caused by the numerous radioactive explosions his ship had taken during the battle.

“Sir, we’ve received a distress call from Ohalla. I want to take my squadron to check it out.”

“No can do McCadon. You can go, but I can’t afford to loose the rest of you squadron.”

“Yes sir.”

At that Commander McCadon’s gunship, the Commonwealth Pride, jumped to light speed on a course to Ohalla.

It took longer than he had wanted it to for them to finish clearing the wall from where it had been erected. There was a lot of bricks that they placed off to the side. Once the way was clear, they donned eyeware that would allow them to see trip wires in the form of lasers. They weren't going to be caught off guard.

Weapons held firmly in their hands they strode quietly through the water down the tunnel. Eventually they came to the end of it and there they found a ladder that led up and out of the sewer system. They had finally reached their destination and they hadn't encountered any forces other than the ones they had eliminated at the beginning of their trek.

Turning to look at his troops, he lifted a single finger to his lips to quiet the group. They didn't want to get caught by the enemy above before they even did anything. That would make it completely useless for them to have taken the time to trek this far through the city.

With a single hand, he laid out their plan, motioning for his troops to split up into groups while he remained alone. Silently, he motioned the first two troops up and stepped aside to allow them to pass. They climbed the ladder silently and the top most one stopped to listen at the manhole cover. There was nothing there so he silently pushed it up and to the side before peeking out.

Soon enough the first two were gone and silently moving through the came to commandeer a vehicle. Delvin turned to the other two and motioned for them to go up, waiting for them to disappear before he climbed up himself. When he was out, he gently replaced the manhole cover before ducking behind some crates just in time to escape notice from a patrol.

Right now would be a good time for some help to arrive from somewhere. What happened to our friends in the Corporate Sector?

Shaking his head, he waited for the enemy patrol to pass before stepping out from his hiding spot. Quietly, he stalked around the building he had found, moving quietly through the came towards where they kept their excess fuel supplies. One of the other groups was gathering fuel and that for them while the other acquired food and a vehicle.

Delvin was going to rig up the excess fuel storage to blow so that they could damage the enemy forces. Not only was this a raid, but it was a designed attack as well. As much damage as possible was going to be done to the supply camp to hinder their ability to fight.

Here goes all of our planning...

The voyage from Kirima to Ohalla was a hectic one. The Lance-Class gunship had sustained damage in the battle against the Domain. Spare armor plating had been shuffled around to cover weak spots, circuitry could be found exposed all over the ship where areas had been rewired to avoid damaged areas.

The biggest repair had required hours of extravehicular labor. During the battle, a poorly inspected round had misfired inside the barrel. The round contained no explosive charge, so the damaged to the barrel was minimal; though, the round had still lodged its mangled form inside the barrel. The chief gunnery officer had spent hours in the ship’s main gun before the huge slug was finally discharged.

Vice-Admiral Wilkar had insisted that Commander McCadon leave the Commonwealth Pride’s fighter complement with the fleet, so the gunship would be going into Ohalla with only its main gun.





“Entering Ohalla Space now Commander!” informed the helm officer.

Commander McCadon took his seat.

“Targets?”

“I’m reading multiple contacts in orbit all over the planet. Less than par particle shielding, sir. Our main cannon should be especially effective. Though we won’t stand a chance out in the open,” the battle analyst looked down at his screen, “contacts are powering up weapons and heading our way.

“Shit… Okay…Main cannon, prepare for extended firing. Get all non essential personal down there to help them cock shell. Target that the nearest hostile contact to us. Then move us into the asteroid field. See if we can get a frequency out to any other Commonwealth forces in the area.”

Space

Needless to say, the arrival of the Commonwealth gunship couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. The enemy, which had a name though none dared to utter it, was about to unleash one of their stereotypical salvos of energy down upon the planet as it arrived. Fortunately, these salvos were halted with the arrival of the Commonwealth Pride.

The enemy ships began to move, swinging around to move towards the Commonwealth gunship and open fire on it. However, they never had the chance to fire as the gunship opened fire, shells bursting from its main cannon. The enemy vessels weren’t equipped for that kind of firepower. No, they most certainly were not.

The first round, a hollow point, burst through the main bridge of an enemy frigate sized craft, blossoming outward and causing sever damage to the vessel. The frigate careened off course and slammed into a smaller corvette, smashing it to pieces before the frigate itself blew up. It was truly a spectacular sight and Delvin would later come to enjoy the scene thanks to recording.

Fortunately for the Commonwealth vessel, the enemy really didn’t have the numbers that they tried to portray as having. Those they did have were not equipped for this sort of battle. There were to destroyer class vessel moving towards the gunship, but they were soon full of holes and drifting dead in space at the hands of the gunship. They would make good salvage once Ohalla was won.

With the enemy vessels that had advanced on the gunship destroyed, the enemy saw that theirs was indeed a weak position. Realizing this forced them to scramble and disappear, moving away from Ohalla and disappearing into hyperspace. The ground forces on the planet were left behind, left to the mercy of Commonwealth soldiers as well as the Ohallan military.

With the enemy fleet gone, a message was sent to the surface while the gunship moved towards the planet once more. It bypassed the wreckage of the previous fight and moved into a high orbit around the planet. The crew was ever vigilant and kept a watchful eye on the scanners to make sure no enemy vessels were lingering around.

It was a small victory that had saved the people of Ohalla….

Ohalla, Enemy Supply Depot

Delvin watched in amazement and dawning horror as the supply depot suddenly sprang to life with enemy soldiers running about everywhere. As it was, he was fortunate enough to have quickly found a hiding place and had hidden himself in it. He could only hope that the others had found the same luck that he had.

Something was definitely going on and there was a sense of confusion emanating from the people that he saw running about. It was as if they didn’t know what was going on, were just reacting. Perhaps it wasn’t the Ohallan soldiers that had started this after all. Something else must have been happening outside of the current situation. That brought him hope.

Through the small bit of their language that he understood, he caught the word ‘ship’ as well as the words ‘fleet’ and ‘leaving’ in close proximity to each other. Realization dawned on him and a broad smile suddenly covered his face. Something, this ship, had caused the enemy fleet to leave its orbit around Ohalla and depart the planet. Now was their time to act.

Seizing an opportunity to move, he darted from his hiding spot and ran across the enclosure to where the enemy kept their ammunition. From his pouch he produced numerous explosive charges which he promptly planted upon the crates of ammunition. He repeated this process on the nearby fuel supplies.

As he crept along towards where his soldiers were waiting, he saw a chance he would never possibly see again. The enemy general was standing inside of a building he was passing by. An opportunity such as this should never be passed up and Delvin knew that. Drawing his blaster, he pushed open the door and flew into the room, blaster blazing away as he did so.

The bolts cut the general and one of his aides down before the enemy could open fire on him. Their weapons discharged and one bolt caught him in the shoulder, but he for the most part was lucky enough to not get injured as he finished off the enemy with relative ease. The old gambit complex was really something he had.

Running off again, he soon made his way to where his soldiers were waiting and climbed into the transport. As they sped off and burst through the enemy barricade, Delvin hit the kill switch and the supply depot burst into flames, killing everyone in the supply depot. A marginal victory made all the greater with the death of the enemy general. This was surely a turning point in the war.

Not only that, it was a turning point in the life of Ohalla…

One Month Later

The Commonwealth had sent a small mop up crew to help the Ohallan’s finish ridding the planet of the last remnants of the enemy’s forces. They also began helping with the rebuilding process as the people of Ohalla returned to the cities from their hiding spots, once more moving into the real life.

Apparently there had been some interference from a passing meteor shower that had kept the Ohallan’s plea for help from getting out. The signal had bounced around the meteors until they neared a battle where the Commonwealth was engaging a new enemy. The signal then jumped from the meteors and that’s when the Commonwealth vessels had received the plea for help.

It was then that the gunship had come to Ohalla and it was then that the reclaiming of the planet really began. Now it was to the point where many of the buildings on the planet could once more be inhabited. All of the enemy forces had been rounded up and executed at the hands of the Ohallan military to keep the Commonwealth from any repercussions.

And so it came to be that a vote was cast amongst the people of the planet to determine the future course of Ohalla. Some advocated rebuilding and borrowing technology from the Commonwealth to make a defensive fleet. Others advocated returning to a peaceful life. Some wanted to flee the planet and move elsewhere in the galaxy. However, the strongest idea came in the form of something else. Something greater.

With a broad smile on his face, Delvin shook hands with a Commonwealth representative, sealing a deal between Ohalla and the Commonwealth. Ohalla would become the galactic body’s newest member planet, and Delvin would become a General in the Commonwealth military forces.

Now Ohalla was free from the enemy, and the Commonwealth had gained a new ally.