Ambush at Grallia

Setting

One year before the Battle of Yavin (34:6:34 - 34:6:35) on the planet Ralltiir (Grallia and Grallia cantina).

Characters

Corporal Enzaki, Sergeant Joe Horn, Ami Jard, Brad Jard, Catelyn Jard, Hanna Jard, Representative Malaki Jard, Tain Jard, Corporal Ian Manco, Major Dagon Tong, and Sergeant Torbel.

Combat was a fluid environment if there ever was one. Nothing ever goes strictly according to plan. Sometimes it does not go to plan in a good way, resistance is lighter than expected, and a target set for demolition is not nearly as hardened. But those instances are few and very far in between. So when the assault on a tenured and often reelected legislature seat holder Malarki Jard went as smoothly as it did, Tong should have had his ears perked, and his eyes up, looking for the ambush that had to be coming. But he did not.

The city of Grallia, on Ralltiir, was not quite as large as Cormond, but it was certainly large enough. Tong and his four-man squad’s arrival had gone completely unnoticed. Why would five more Stormtroopers be anything to write home about anyway? Their infiltration beyond that did not see a hiccough either. Once inside the garrison, they had changed out of Stormtrooper armor, donned standard clothing, desert garb against the dust storm that was brewing, the kafkas obscuring their faces while keeping the grit out of their mouths. It did not take long to do the recon from there. The target’s route from the house he lived in was a nearly static one. Violence had not sparked on this planet like it had on Brentaal. That was not to say the politician, or more likely, his head of security was stupid. The man traveled by convoy, as did most politicians in the system. This target employed five vehicles daily. Three were identical, luxury land speeders. The difference in them was that two of them held security teams, and the remaining held the politician and his VIP guests when he had them. The other two were strictly police, well armed and well armored, and always at the head and rear of the motorcade. No less than twenty-five armed men traveled to and from parliament with this man. As the team did their recon, bouncing between flophouse, the target’s routes, and various cantinas, Tong had decided he could not ask for an easier set up. Horn and Torbel mimicked the thought one day as they sat down in a cantina for late night chow on their second and final week of reconnaissance.

"This is so stagnant that I’m surprised that even the mark hasn’t caught on and fired his security chief," Horn remarked as he put his mug of ale back down on the table.

Torbel nodded a bit as he spoke in agreement, "And the speeders aren’t nearly heavy enough to have the thickness on the armor that they need. Not with all those rooftops that are so easy to access, and worse, buildings that have clear shots from the windows. Even if they decide to upgrade their speeders, and take to the air more often, there’s not a whole lot of chance that they will change routes. My question is, why don’t we just grab the guy, and maybe execute him later on, send a holo of it out"

Tong shrugged while he lit a cigarillo, and then shook his head. "One, we cant kidnap him. He has too many guards to take out with anything but an ambush and heavy weapons. And I don’t want any of us on the same level as those speeders when they start popping. If we give up the high ground, the chances of something going wrong go up through the roof. Two, we don’t get anything extra from drawing out the time on planet. And if we get caught, well, you know what happens"

The other two only nodded. It was no secret that the Empire and the Imperial Army would deny that any of them worked or had any ties with the Empire as a whole, and particularly the army. And it was certainly a valid point. A bit of scorched earth was infinitely better than sitting around and hoping no detective sort got lucky. Besides, the quicker the entire system stepped into line, the quicker they could move on. "So tomorrow, make sure you are all in place. The two long guns to act as spotters once visual contact has been made, and to hit the clackers on the diversions, the three big guns to close business for the day. If all goes right, we’ll all be back on Brentaal before the sun rises in Cormond, sitting in the safe house and waiting for transfer orders and for your promotions"

As ordered, all four of his men were in place the next day. Tong had a good eyeball behind the high-powered blaster rifle and its multi spectrum scope. The ambush would take place right on Main Street, three kilometers away from the parliament building. Enzaki, Manco and Horn were all on heavy weapons, Enzaki and Horn having shouldered the flechette launchers, and rechecked the loads. All anti vehicle for the pair, and with eight rounds each before they would have to reload, it would more than equal the task. Manco was manning the grenade launcher, which was advertised as being man portable, and it was, if just. The grenades were all incendiary, and would provide the actual scorching for the scorched earth attack. Torbel was the other eyeball, situated high and down the street from Tong. If any of the security staff or the primary target tried to flee, one of the two of them would be responsible for bringing him down. Between the two sharp shooters were the heavy weapons, Enzaki and Horn almost directly across the street from each other, and only three floors up, in vacant apartments that they had broken into for the event. Manco was situated another three floors up, on a landing pad that jutted out and behind the proposed kill zone, along with an airspeeder that would act as a decoy and help them in their escape. Tong stared out the window of his hide, having taken a corner apartment in a similar fashion as the two anti vehicle men. Torbel showed the symmetry of the assault plan by having gone to the opposite corner. Speeders were parked on the each end of the block, rigged for loud and violent explosion as soon as the detonator was clicked, which would effectively seal the street long before the first flechette canister hit its target. Tong was manning the detonator, along with a small remote terminal, which gave a feed from a scout droid they had deployed. The little orb had been given a picture of the target, and programmed to notify them when the target entered any speeder, to send back a picture of the speeder to make sure it was in a procession, and to self-destruct thirty minutes later. The target was actually late getting out the door this morning, given that drive time through the city was approximately forty-five minutes, and the Ralltiir parliament would be meeting in less than an hour. Tong was not overly concerned though. He knew that things came up at the last minute that often delayed departure, particularly with politicians.

Malaki Jard was indeed late. He had been rushing around, looking for his jacket, a new one, sent from home. None of the house staff knew where it was, and he could not for the galaxy remember where he had left it the night before when he had received it. Finally, after what seemed like centuries, and countless threats to the butler, the jacket was found, and he hurried out the door. No mind was paid to the little orb that floated across the street and ten meters off the ground. It was almost invisible against the darker colored house, and it was not moving in the least, not until he got into the luxury speeder. He could not help but think that this day was already off on a bad foot. He would be late to the opening speeches of parliament, and that was never good, but especially not when a speech had to be stirring, and rally support for independence. Too many heavy-handed figures ran unchecked through the Empire, like that monster Vader. These things rattled through his head as he shut the door, but they were gone a moment later. All three of his kids lunged for him at once. The politician fell back amongst the excited cries of "Daddy!" and hugged them all while he tried to recover from his shock. He looked at all of them, and then realized his wife was sitting across from him in the speeder, and that added to the recovery time he needed. Finally, he managed to find his tongue again. "What are you all doing here? I thought you were all back on Coruscant"

His wife gave a small smile and shrugged, "We wanted to come out and congratulate you personally on winning your election" She leaned in and gave him a kiss.

The kids nodded, the youngest speaking up, "And mom said that if we were really good, we could take another week off school, and stay here with you for the entire thing. And we were good the entire trip here. Even when the stupid pilot couldn’t get the ship landed," the oldest girl said matter of factly. Ami was certainly her mother’s child, and Tain, the oldest boy taking after his father. Ami did not compromise, and wanted everything right away. Tain was patient, and willing to work side deals and compromise for what he wanted. Catelyn and Brad, the two youngest, apparently had not decided who they were going to take after or if it was not going to be either of their parents. But they were all good kids.

"Hanna, you should have called. Now the kids are going to have to sit in a sweaty parliament chamber all day"

She smiled and kissed him again before giving a rebuttal, "Or I could take them out into the city from the parliament house while you do your important legislative duties, and we can all meet for lunch"

Malaki nodded, before leaning forward to tap the glass separating passenger from driver, "Alright, take us to work then"

Tong received confirmation that the target had entered his vehicle, and that he was the third one in the group, right in the middle of things. That would certainly ensure that he did not get lucky, or his driver managed a miracle to get clear. Not with all the wreckage that would be clogging the street. With a few taps on the keys, the droid display switched over to a detonator control board, which he would need to control the initial diversion and blocking explosions. That done, he shifted so that he was behind the riflescope again. Time moved slowly now, as each vehicle continued on its way to the parliament house or the shops that surrounded it. Since he was block north of the kill zone, they would have to come towards him, so he would not have much trouble spotting the procession. His voice echoed out slowly through the radio waves to make sure his team was set, "Full sit rep, go"

They all reported in that they were ready and waiting, in similarly short phrases, "Tornbel green. Manco good to go. Enzaki ready. Horn, waiting for a shot." That was the last check before the target vehicle was actually spotted. It came from its predicted direction, in the same spot in the convoy that it had held since departure.

"Target is in sight. Approximately thirty seconds to detonation. Stand by. Remember, go on first detonation," said Tong. It was set, the thirty seconds crawled by like as many days. But finally, the lead speeder had neared the first rigged speeder and it was time. A quick glance was paid to the control board to ensure Tong had the right button before he tapped it and started the entire ambush.

The first detonation rocked the block, and sent an unoccupied speeder cartwheeling into the center of the street, blocking the route forward for the motorcade. The second blocked any hope of a quick retreat, and sealed the back of the block. Before the security personnel could react in any way, meaningful or not, Horn and Enzaki had both fired, one flechette canister from each of them. The darts that exploded from each canister ripped into the lead and trail speeders, and caused detonation in less than a second, further blocking the road. Manco had popped up immediately afterwards, the hollow thump of a grenade launcher propelling ordinance down into the street, echoed from his position high above. The incendiary grenades struck the three center vehicles, and the street around them, and each time one impacted, the liquid inside ignited, and everything within the modest blast radius was coated in unrelenting fire, and effectively trapped all the speeders’ occupants inside. While the fires raged, Enzaki and Horn both fired again, cutting out the remaining two speeders that housed security staff. It seemed that one had even been valiant, and was willing to brave the chemical fires to make an attempt to save his charge, because the door to the speeder that had initially been second in line had opened, and a body was propelled out by the explosion created by the anti armor weapon. The resulting shrapnel from the explosion left no doubt as to whether or not the man would make it. Enzaki was the last one to fire a round, putting a single canister directly into the roof, in the center of the back half of the center vehicle housing the target. Tong figured that he had hit the passenger compartment about as squarely as possibly. The resulting explosion predictably ripped the vehicle apart, and the newly made space was greeted with rushing chemical fire, which seemed anxious to fill every space that fell into its radius, while it hunted for more fuel. Tong nodded slightly, and spoke out over the comm unit. "Nothing’s moving down there. We’re done here, everyone evac as planned," and they did, under the cover of a few air speeders that had been stolen and set to take off from nearby rooftops and fly directly for the spaceport. It did not take them long to get back to the garrison, while the Grallia security forces tried to arrest air speeders on automatic pilot.

Representative Jard was as happy as he could remember. His kids gave a constant barrage of honest questions about what the parliament was like, what it was like to be a big shot on Ralltiir. What he thought about the rebels. Almost like reporters until the questions about when they were getting a family pet. Ami wanted a Wookiee, but Tain said that Wookiees were not stupid animals, and they should be treated with respect. The differing opinions led predictably to a fight that had to be quelled. "Now kids, if you don’t behave I’ll…" Malaki was cut off in his peacekeeping efforts by an explosion. And as he craned his neck to look forward, the speeder lurched to a halt, and tried to make it out of the block by reversing, or so it seemed. Another explosion and they were jolted to a halt fully. His wife was terrified, that much was clear when he looked at her, her eyes as big as a Mon Calamari’s. His children looked almost as if they were having fun, at least before the fires started. And then they started wailing, looking to him to make it all better. "It’s alright kids. I promise…we have lots of people around that are paid to help us. They’re on the way right now. Look" He pointed out the view port towards the door of the speeder just in front of them, where it looked like his security staff was finally going to come to their aid. But the idea was cast aside when the speeder blew up, and sent the man several meters away, and not all in one piece. That sight shook him, and only sent his children into hysterics further. It was all he could do to gather them up in a big hug, and try to comfort them. He was not sure how though. He was not a soldier. He did not know what to do now. The men in the speeders in front of his, and behind his, they were the ones that knew what to do, and yet here Jard and his family were. Huddled in a speeder, with fire pouring over it, begging like an animal to be let in, and lapping at the seams of the vehicle. It was getting hot inside the speeder, but he could not risk injuring his children by letting the fire in. So he huddled with them and his wife in the center of the luxury transportation, trying to comfort all of them. The last words out of his mouth were, "I love you all," before the last flechette canister’s load struck the roof directly over their heads. The destruction was profound, and fortunately for Jard, and his family, they were dead long before the fire rushed in the new holes to consume their bodies.