Best wrap up your stories as best you can if you're still planning on telling some tales and entering the contest, as we're nearing the deadline for the end of the competition now, with just over a week left to go, so get those stories posted quick so you have time to give them that final bit of polish before submission.

In the mean time here is a little more Mos Espa action to keep you going, and of course to inspire. My chapters are a little over the 2000 word limit that you guys have to stick to, but other than that I hope you draw ample inspiration from them, also check out Twigs' tales for excellent examples of the sort of entries we're after, I know there is a lot more creative talent out there in the community, so lets see what you've got.

Good luck!

Now this here is the penultimate chapter of my Mos Espa saga, I hope you enjoy. The final chapter will be posted at the close of the Competition at the end of this month.

Mos Espa

First Strike: Episode 4

This situation could certainly be better. A quick in and out operation was the plan, retrieve the data and high tail it outta there before the Imperial forces even touch sand on Tatooine. Of course even the best laid plans only last up to first contact with the enemy. Then usually all things go straight to hell.

I duck down as a blaster shot whistles close by, an Imperial sniper must have spotted my vantage point. Quickly rolling I find more cover amongst the roofs of the Southern Slave Quarters district of Mos Espa, distant explosions and intense blaster fire can be heard raining down on the town's southern outskirts where the brunt of the fighting is occurring. Amongst the general cacophony of battle I still hear the distinct report of Lieutenant Twigs' disruptor rifle sounding out. I key into his frequency to relay orders and get a report from the front line.

“Twigs those Snipers are zeroing in on my position see what you can do about that will ya? What's Alpha Team's current status?”

There is static and then another powerful disruptor shot can be heard followed by a muffled scream in the distance, then with a crackle over the coms Twigs manages to respond.

“Taking heavy fire down here Commander. Managing to keep their infantry pinned down at dunes at the town limits, but they're bringing the Walkers up now, once they get into range I don't know how long we'll be able to hold out here...”

There's a pause and another shot rings out before he continues.

“Sensor beacons and mines are placed though, sir, so when we do have to retreat into the town streets those scans and vehicle disruption should give us a good advantage.”

I find myself another vantage point and bring up my marcobinoculars to take in the view of the terrain to the south of the town. As he reported the first walker was already entering into effective combat range, clearing the dunes and striding towards the town across the open desert planes opening up with its lethal heavy blasters tearing chunks out of the sandstone walls raining burning debris down on my troops defending the junk yard. I also note that the Imperial infantry have started to advance from the dunes emboldened by the arrival of the Imperial Scout Walker.

“Very good Lieutenant. You're gonna have to try and hold the line a little longer, and watch out you've got incoming infantry. Deploy Oddball and his pack of Walker killers, that should buy you a little more time.”

I sign off and then switch channels to my unit's other Lieutenant.

“Jim, how's it going down there? Any luck locating the data?”

There is a moment of static before the response comes back from Lieutenant Walker.

“Depends on your definition of luck Commander. I've narrowed the search area to the junk yard, but, well it's full of junk Commander. It could take me days to sift through this lot.”

I curse under my breath and then respond.

“Well I'm afraid you've got minutes instead of days Lieutenant. Twigs and the boys will do what they can to defend that area, but you've got Walkers advancing on your position Jim. Find that data cylinder.”

Looking once more down my binoculars I see Oddball and a few more of the lads running low through the streets, finding themselves a suitable flanking spot to launch an attack. Hauling the heavy HH-15 torpedo launcher onto his shoulder he springs from cover and let’s loose a torp slamming cleanly into the side of the Walker's command pod, the hardy Imperial assault vehicle doesn't go down. Oddball retreats behind the wall to reload as his partner swings out to fire a second shot. This time the Walker pilot is wise to the new threat and sends a storm of blaster fire into the wall just as the trooper fires. The torpedo scores a glancing blow causing the Walker to smoke, but the poor trooper is ripped apart by the deadly fire and debris of the wall beside him shattering. The Walker pilot follows this salvo with a cluster of concussion grenades to clear out anyone else hiding back there, but Oddball is already pin wheeling around to the other side of the building and the explosions detonate well clear of him as he swings around and brings his weapon to bear on his target. There is a flare of ignition, and the armour piercing ordnance finds its mark resulting in the enemy walker's head erupting like a beautiful flaming flower raining down burning debris on my forward fire team. I can hear the cheers from here.

Oddball slings his torpedo launcher away and unholsters his blaster pistol and turns to engage the first of the Sandtroopers that had managed to make it to the town outskirts under the cover of the Walker's attack, he scores a glancing blow on the armoured trooper's shoulder and then drops to one knee to avoid the trooper's returning salvo of blaster fire. Then sinking multiple shots into the exposed black body glove between helmet and torso armour the trooper goes down. Unfortunately this move has left Oddball exposed as the trooper's squad mates following him into the edge of town now bring their weapons to bear. The Force however is clearly with him, as Twigs swings his weapon out from his elevated position on the balcony of the junk yard building and scores a salvo of lethal snapshots with his disruptor downing the remaining members of the Imperial probing scout force. I breathe a sigh of relief, it was bad enough losing one man without losing another immediately thereafter. At least for now they are safe. Oddball heads over to his fallen comrade, but checking for vitals shakes his head.

I then receive a crackling signal through my comlink, an incoming message from Lt. Twigs, I see him signalling south east of my position.

"Commander you have incoming, I can't get a shot at them as they've already made it to the town limits just south of your position."

I slip from my post on the roof of the southern slave quarters down to the balcony just beneath me. Looks like I'm finally going to get my own hands dirty in this engagement.

"Roger that Lieutenant, we'll take care of this, you just make sure you hold the Junkyard until Lt. Walker has taken care of business. Quinn out."

With that I look down into the slave quarters courtyard and signal to Sergeant Rabid that we'll be expecting company, he nods and mans the Mk.II heavy repeating blaster we had set up earlier to help defend our position. I chose this location to make a stand as there is a distinct bottleneck within the southern approach. Any attacking forces must pass through a tight archway that can be easily covered. Even if they make it in, the crucible like nature of the structure with windows and doorways looking over the courtyard from both sides mean that any attacking force that comes in here will be in a whole world of hurt. There are other routes in, but these would take considerable time to use as they would have to come around us and flank our position from the north, our sensors will detect them should they attempt that, but it is more likely that they'll try that next, but first they'll go for the direct approach, and for that they're going to get a bloody nose.

Rabid fires up the stolen Imperial portable shield generator and a slightly visible bubble of energy encompasses him, positioned correctly the field protects his heavy gun emplacement with just the tip of the barrel exposed. Perfect, I think we'll be investing in more of these devices. I signal him to hold fire, we don't want to tip our hand too early, and we want to get maximum effectiveness from our first contact at this location as we won't have the element of surprise again. From my vantage point I can see the squad of Sandtroopers cautiously working their way up the tight alleyways just south of us, they approach the archway entrance to the slave quarters. Obviously our first line of defence here are proximity mines placed at the bottleneck locations where the enemy might venture. The archway is a prime example of such a location. The first troopers enter and within seconds a devastating explosion funnels dust, smoke and debris through the archway towards us. Crimson blaster bolts sizzle blindly through the smoke bouncing harmlessly off of Rabid's shield and I signal him to still hold his fire. The second wave of troopers charges through the archway confident now that the way is clear, only to be torn asunder by the second mine I planted. Explosives lesson 101, always plant a secondary charge in the same location to take down any remnants of an attacking force. To my surprise yet another wave heads through, persistent guys these. Now I give Rabid the order and he opens up with the Mk.II mowing down the last of the attacking Sandtroopers in seconds. Bloody nose achieved. They'll think twice before using this approach again, which buys us some valuable time.

I quickly sprint down the uneven stairs from the upper floors of the slave quarters and survey our status, several white armoured figures lie smoking on the ground before the archway. I quickly plant some fresh proximity mines to replace the ones that have already served their purpose, and then check my wrist monitor, with it tied into the squad’s sensor equipment all my troops have access to real time strategic intel across the entire battlefield which is invaluable to say the least, well if my boys have done a good job placing the sensor beacons that is. From the looks of it the slave quarters is clear for now, no contacts appear on my scopes. I then start to bark orders to the rest of my men.

“Private Tuhl, make sure that Mk.II is still juiced up to the max and ready to go, Athlon make a quick eyeball perimeter sweep of the area just to be on the safe side. Sergeant, you’re with me, I want to do a quick scout to the southern town outskirts and see what we’re dealing with now.”

The gruff old Rebel trooper releases his grip on the Mk.II and pulls his trusty A280 blaster rifle off his shoulder, flips the safety off and brings it to the ready position.

“Right you are sir.”

He pauses a moment to pull out a chunky Corellian habanos root cigar from a tunic pocket and deftly lights it with a compact plasma torch. He inhales deeply, clearly deriving much pleasure from the flavoursome smoke, and then turns to the troops we’re leaving behind.

“Oh, and ladies, please remember to switch on your friend or foe transceivers whiles we’re gone, if one of you sets off one of the Commander’s proxi mines it won’t be me cleaning up the mess.”

He then advances through the archway, and I chuckle as I fall in behind him. A good dependable soldier the Sarge, been fighting in one army or another since the Clone Wars, it’ll take more than the Empire can throw at him to ruffle his feathers.

We cautiously reach the outskirts and with Sgt. Rabid covering me I bring up my marcobinoculars and take stock of our situation. Twigs' disruptor is still doing good work from the junkyard, making the lives of the Sandtroopers he’s got pinned down in the dunes a real misery, together with a good wall of suppressive fire from the rest of our guys stationed there. But something is not right here, where are the rest of the Empire’s Walkers? Two Sentinels could carry at least 3 Walkers between them if not more, it doesn’t take this long to get them prepped after off loading, so where…?

My thoughts are interrupted as my comlink squawks into life, it’s Jim.

“Commander, I’ve found it!! Data cylinder secured, preparing to…”

The sound of heavy blaster fire cuts off the Lieutenant’s sentence, and I see a series of explosions rake across the upper floors of the junk yard building. Bringing up my marcobinoculars again I see what’s happening, a sneaky Walker has outflanked their position by coming at them from the west, instead of via a direct frontal assault across the desert, the buildings of the town outskirts kept it under cover just long enough to get it within range of my men. I see Twigs turn to face the new attack vector, but the heavy rain of fire keeps him pinned down, explosions and debris throwing him to the ground. Finally at the outer walls of the junkyard the Imperial war machine finishes off its assault by lobbing in its magazine load of concussion grenades.

“Alpha Team, get outta there!!”

The resulting explosion shakes the ground, and sends a fountain of junk and flame high into the air, the junk debris ripping through nearby buildings like shrapnel. No, this can’t be happening, the Rogue Tribe are untouchable. The sounds of battle gone the air is suddenly eerily silent, save for the sound of falling debris pounding softly into the sand. I turn away with my back flat against the building we are using for cover and call huskily into my comlink. They can’t be gone, they just can’t…

“Lieutenant Walker, come in. Lieutenant Twigs, please respond… Alpha Team, are you reading me? Come in Alpha…”

I listen for a response, but only receive static in return. Damn, that’s half my men down if Alpha have been taken out. Things just went from bad to a good deal worse. Sergeant Rabid takes hold of my shoulder and snaps me out of it. I attempt to steady my breathing.

“Sir, we need a plan of action. If Alpha are indeed down you need to tell the men of Delta what we’re going to do next. Sir…?”

I get up a little shell shocked, but pull it together. I look around the corner and see the Walker circling the junk yard, perhaps searching for survivors amongst the debris? I look south to see a stream of white armour flowing over the dunes towards the town.

“Sergeant, we have to re-secure the junkyard. We can’t afford to allow the Imperial troops to gain a foothold in the town until we have retrieved that data cylinder, even if only to destroy it before it falls into enemy hands. Even at the cost of our own lives. That intel is just too important.”

Rabid chomps down hard on his cigar, the glowing end lighting up his face menacingly.

“Understood sir. I’ll instruct Delta to prepare to move in on the Imperial positions.”

I nod to him as I turn my gaze once again towards the grim smoking spectacle of the junk yard, now turned into a fiery graveyard for some of the finest of my troops. Just as Sgt. Rabid is about to relay my orders, suddenly my comlink bursts into life.

“…lease respond, Commander… Are you receiving me? Please respond...”

I grab Sgt. Rabid, unable to contain my joy. Quickly composing myself I reply.

“Jim? Is that you? Status?”

The comlink crackles into life again.

“Good to hear your voice Commander. We are in possession of the data cylinder, we have wounded, but are prepared to move out. If someone can get this pesky Walker off our backs...”

I respond grinning from ear to ear.

“Hang tight Alpha. Be advised you have infantry moving in on your position too, but not to worry, help is on the way.”

Rabid finishes transmitting orders to Delta to move up to our position and leans over me to view the tactical situation before us chewing pensively on his cigar.

“Hrmph, this is about to get real ugly.”

I smile as I bring my Bowcaster up to aim over the low wall before us.

“Aye, but would you have it any other way?”

....Rogue Tribe will return in Mos Espa: First Strike: Episode 5.