The fall of House Dredd 2
Major Donn woke up in pain. By some miracle he had survived the shuttle crash, but the impact had knocked him out cold.
He looked around at the other soldiers in the wrecked shuttle, of the one hundred members of number one company only twenty were still alive. Some had died in the crash, but most had been killed when the mass driver ripped the shuttle in half.
Donn grabbed his data-pad from its holder on his chest armour and looked in horror at the amount of republic shuttles that had made it to the surface. From the 137th voidbourne, not counting Donn and the survivors of number one company, only number three and number eight company had made it to the surface. Three companies of the 56th voidbourne had also reached the surface and so had two companies from the 100th republic infantry. The rest had been destroyed during the landing.
Donn was also horrified at the fact he was now the highest-ranking member of the republic forces on the planet's surface.
-
In orbit the Aruum defence fleet was engaged in a vicious close-range fight with the republic ships that had tried to flank them. The six corvettes had destroyed the republic battleships escorts and were now moving to cover the three cruisers, that were now moving alongside the battleship.
The cruisers were dropping the warriors of house Dredd onto the battleship's hull, and they had begun forcing their way inside.
The republic battleship Sand Eater's captain ordered his men to repel the boarders and soon the narrow corridors of the Sand Eater were filled with brutal close quarters fighting.
The Warriors of house Dredd were more skilled and better equipped and armoured, and so were tearing through the republic defenders. But the republic had a seemingly inexhaustible supply of fighters to throw into the melee, so the warriors were only slowly moving forward into the ship.
-
Major Donn looked at the assembled soldiers behind him, he had seven hundred and twenty men left and they all looked scared and worried.
A battery of anti-air guns stood before them, on the outskirts of the city. If they could seize control of that, Republic reinforcements would be able to land safely, and they would have an easy way to attack into the city.
"Come on, lets kill these sith" Donn shouted to his troops and led the charge towards the anti-air battery.
The battery was defended by ten armoured warriors and thirty droids. Despite outnumbering them the republic forces started taking heavy loses as soon as they began their charge. The armoured warriors fought like demons and moved through the battlefield leaving dead republic soldiers in their wake.
The droids also weren't normal, they seemed like older models, Hk-51s, Hk-50s, and AR-34 enforcer droids but they had all been heavily modified and were extremely powerful.
The battle was short, but for the people involved it felt like it had lasted a lifetime. After a gargantuan effort from the republic soldiers, they had taken control of the anti-air battery and killed its defenders. But at a cost, of the seven hundred and twenty who had started the battle only twenty-five remained and all had some form of injury.
Major Donn sat panting on a partially destroyed piece of wall as he watched the republic reinforcements begin their landing now it was safe.
The second wave of troops was huge, hundreds of assault shuttles followed by larger transports carrying tanks and other armoured vehicles flew down through the atmosphere to land in the fields in front of the captured anti-air battery.
The three massive troop transports slowly followed the assault shuttles down from orbit to begin their own landing.
Twenty jedi knights marched out of the lead shuttle of the second wave. Their leader looked around in scorn at the dead republic soldiers littering the area before marching over to major Donn.
"You are useless" the jedi told him simply as he looked around and Donn was so surprised, he could only stare in shock at the jedi.
"You had seven thousand men when you left the ships and now look, theirs not even thirty of you left. And you have only managed to kill ten enemies and a few droids. I will be recommending the republic military has you punished for incompetence." The jedi chastised him before storming off in a wave of self-righteousness.
Donn and his men watched the jedi leave with rage in their eyes. As the jedi left to start directing the attack on the city Donn realised that the jedi knew the layout of the city. As if he was familiar with the city, as if he had been here before. And if he had been here before he would be familiar with its defences.
A horrid realisation struck Donn; the first wave had been sacrificed by the jedi so they could deal with the anti-air guns. So that there wouldn't be any casualties amongst the jedi during the planetary insertion.
And the jedi was now covering that up by blaming the deaths of the soldiers from the first wave on Donn and his 'incompetence'.
-
Diz Dredd was stood with his warriors in their defensive positions in the centre of Aria city. Three hundred Warriors of house Dredd stood around him with nine hundred droids, the majority of house Dredd's droid army.
The Droid army of house Dredd was organised into squads of six droids modified by the technomancers of house Dredd. The squads were led by a Hk-51 assassin droid, who commanded four Hk-50 assassin droids and one AR-34 enforcer droid. The AR-34 was used as a mobile heavy weapons platform and the Hk-50s made up the main fighting force and would be able to specialise to whatever role was needed of them.
One hundred and fifty of these droid squads were now supporting the three hundred warriors of house Dredd who made up house Dredd's main fighting force. While a smaller force of warriors and droids formed a defensive perimeter around the spaceport.
Diz could see the republic army marching towards them up Aria city's main street. Their approach was greeted by the snipers of house Dredd who began picking off officers and sergeants, trying to sow fear and confusion into the republic ranks.
The Republic troops kept up their advance and soon both armies were locked in bitter fighting.
As the main republic force fought in the centre of the city two smaller forces branched off. One went to try and find a way to attack the warriors of house Dredd from the back and the other left to try and attack the royal palace.
-
"The clans civilians are all in the space port, but they can't evacuate at the moment as the battle in space is still very chaotic." Cliff, one of the warriors who were protecting her told Lilk as they sat in the training hall of the royal palace.
They had moved into the training hall once they had learned of the invasion and had been waiting for more information. They had heard that the civilians had been moved to the space port waiting for evacuation. Unfortunately, the space port was on the other side of the city from the royal palace and the battle had already started.
There was also a private hangar with a ship in the royal palace, so it didn't make much sense for them to go to the space port and so they had stayed in the palace.
They had meet up with the remaining members of house Dredd who were inside the palace, and they were all now waiting inside the training hall. Lilk was currently with her instructors, who were retired masters of house Dredd, several servants who had stayed in the palace, the family members of the servants and of the warriors protecting the palace, and four warriors of house Dredd including the two who had come to get Lilk from the gardens. All together there were about thirty others in the training hall with Lilk.
"How do you think the battle is going?" Lilk asked worried about her father as well as her uncle, who was the leader of the Aruum defence fleet.
"Don't worry lady Lilk. I'm sure Lord Dredd will be fine." Sabine the other warrior who had come to collect her from the gardens told her.
Lilk calmed down slightly, she knew both her father and uncle were great warriors so she had to trust that they would be okay.
Her data pad let out a pinging sound and she turned it on to see the image of a blue woman giving her a thumbs up with the words 'don't worry, everything's going to be okay,' written underneath.
Lilk smiled at the concern that her A.I. friend, Sapphire was showing for her and took a deep breath. Sapphire was right, house Dredd's warriors were the best in the galaxy. There was no way the anyone could stand against them, everything was going to be okay. It had to.
-
The city centre of Aria city was like a vision of hell.
The air was thick with blaster fire, the deadly bolts of super-heated plasma burning through the sky, as well as ultra-dense slugs fired by warriors of house Dredd. Unlike most armies in the galaxy some warriors of house Dredd used slug throwers that had been manufactured upgraded to fire ultra-dense slugs at insanely high speeds.
The slug throwers used by house Dredd put others used elsewhere in the galaxy to shame. Unlike other slug throwers that had difficulties penetrating armour, house Dredd's slug throwers fired slugs made of a highly dense alloy at hyper sonic speeds thanks to magnetic coils in the weapons barrels that accelerated the slug after it was fired.
This allowed the slugs to punch through virtually all forms of armour, the armour worn by warriors of house Dredd being the main notable exception, as well as being able to disrupt some forms of personal shields. The slugs could also be customised to have either explosive or EMP properties which gave the slug throwers a greater versatility over standard blaster. However, the superior ammo capacity for blasters was one of the reasons that blasters were still used widely by house Dredd's warriors.
The storm of projectiles flew through the air like a deadly hail storm. The republic soldiers charging House Dredd's defensive positions were coming of worse in the exchange though and despite heavily outnumbering house Dredd and hundreds lay dead, the ground slick with their blood.
Massive republic tanks rolled down the main street and let out powerful blasts from their main guns vaporising buildings and defences. A blast from one struck a heavy blaster nest on the roof of an apartment building. The direct hit cooked the two warriors of house Dredd manning the nest inside their armour as their own munitions added to the explosion to cause the entire roof to detonate and shower the battle on the street below with debris.
The tanks gunner only had seconds to admire the explosion before his head was replaced by a fountain of blood and hunks of meat courtesy of a blaster bolt from a house Dredd sniper. The sniper then sent a high powered bolt through the narrow square drivers view port and into the tank drivers neck, before repositioning and looking for other targets while the tank driver chocked on his own blood.
A Warrior of house Dredd who specialised in force abilities jumped forward and landed in the midst of a squad of republic soldiers, the robes he wore over his armour billowing. He snapped his arms out to his sides and a wave of force lightning incinerated the entire squad of republic soldiers.
The warrior then charged toward a pair of republic soldiers, too shocked by the sudden deaths of their comrades to react, and grabbed them by their helmets. He used cryokinesis, a force power that allowed the user to draw heat away form an object, to rapidly freeze the two soldiers in less than a second and as he tightened his grip on the frozen soldiers helmets he felt them shatter into icy pieces of gore.
One of the jedi knights that were part of the republic task force charged toward the warrior from behind, kindly announcing his intent to strike by letting out a war cry beforehand. The warrior didn't need to look and merely stepped to the side to avoid the blow before delivering a punch to the jedis ribs.
The punch was enhanced by the warrior using the force to alter his body chemistry causing it to burn with an incredible heat. The warriors fist was near flaming thanks to him using the force power of convection and it ignited the jedis robes on impact.
The jedi screamed in pain and panic as he was quickly consumed by flames and dropped to the ground to try and extinguish them. He was so occupied with rolling around to put the flames out that he never even noticed the warriors armoured boot stamp down to crush his skull.
After slaying the jedi the warrior was forced to use the force to defend himself from a salvo of rockets launched at him by a republic heavy weapons team. He redirected the rockets into the middle of an advancing group of republic soldiers, but the moment of distraction was enough for the heavy blaster mounted on a republic armoured assault vehicle to open fire on him.
The warrior's armour was able to absorb some of the impacts but the kinetic energy of the blaster bolts knocked him to his knees. He sent an arcing bolt of force lighting into the armoured vehicle, the bolt destroyed the vehicle and branched out frying the surrounding republic troops. Before a second rocket salvo slammed into the warrior's position, sending his broken corpse flying like a rag doll.
Another jedi ran forwards and turned to face the republic soldiers. He was about to try and encourage the soldiers to push forwards when he collapsed to a sitting position with a look of surprise on his face. A fist size hole had been ripped through his large forehead thanks to a slug fired by a warrior of house Dredd who didn't even spare the fallen jedi a second glance before she drew a combat knife with her free hand and in one fluid motion buried it through the back of a republic soldiers neck.
The battle had turned into close quarters scrap in the city centre and the superior skills of the warriors of house Dredd were inflicting heavy losses on the republic soldiers, but the republic army had plenty of bodies to throw into the fight unlike house Dredd.
They were currently evenly matched in their odds of victory but soon the tides would turn for one side or the other.