'Good.' Thrawn lowered his gaze to his displays. 'It's time. Signal General Covell that he may begin.'
'Yes, sir,' Pellaeon said, leaving the viewport and returning to his station. He gave the readouts a quick check and tapped his comm switch, peripherally aware as he did so that Thrawn had likewise activated his own comm. Some private message to his spies in Hyllyard City? 'This is the Chimaera,' Pellaeon said. 'Launch the attack.'
'Acknowledged, Chimaera,' General Covell said into his helmet comlink, careful to keep the quiet scorn in his gut from getting through to his voice. It was typical-and disgustingly predictable. You scrambled around like mad hellions, got your troops and vehicles on the ground and set up and then you stood around waiting for those strutting Fleet people in their spotless uniforms and nice clean ships to finish sipping their tea and finally get around to letting you loose.
Well, get yourselves on the table, he thought sardonically in the direction of the Star Destroyer overhead. Because whether Grand Admiral Thrawn was interested in real results or just a good rousing show, he was going to get his money's worth. Reaching to the board in front of him, he keyed for local command frequency. 'General Covell to all units: we've got the light. Let's go.'
The acknowledgments came in; and with a shiver from the steel deck beneath him, the huge AT-AT walker was off lumbering its deceptively awkward-looking way through the forest toward the encampment a kilometer away. Ahead of the AT-AT, occasionally visible through the armored transparisteel viewport, a pair of AT-ST scout walkers ran in twin-point formation, tracking along the AT-AT's path and watching for enemy positions or booby traps. Not that such futile gestures would do Karrde any good. Covell had directed literally hundreds of assault campaigns in his years of Imperial service, and he knew full well the awesome capabilities of the fighting machines under his command.
Beneath the viewport, the holographic tactical display was lit up like a decorative disk, the winking red, white, and green lights showing the positions of Covell's circle of AT-ATs, AT-STs, and hoverscout attack vehicles, all closing on Karrde's encampment in good order. Good, but not perfect. The north-flank AT-AT and its support vehicles were lagging noticeably behind the rest of the armored noose. 'Unit Two, bring it up,' he said into his comlink.
'Trying, sir,' the voice came back, tinny and distant through the strange dampening effects of Myrkr's metalrich flora. 'We're encountering some thick vine clusters that are slowing down our scout walkers.'
'Is it bothering your AT-AT any?'
'No, sir, but I wanted to keep the flank together-'
'Pattern coherence is a fine goal during academy maneuvers, Major,' Covell cut him off. 'But not at the expense of an overall battle plan. If the AT-STs can't keep up, leave them behind.'
'Yes, sir.'
Covell broke the connection with a snort. The Grand Admiral was right about one thing, at least: his troops were going to need a lot more battle seasoning before they would be up to real Imperial standards. Still, the raw material was there. Even as he watched, the north flank reformed itself, with the hoverscouts spreading forward to take up the AT-STs' former point positions while the lagging AT-STs themselves fell back into rear-guard deployment.
The energy sensor beeped a proximity warning: they were coming up on the encampment. 'Status?' he asked his crew.
'All weapons charged and ready,' the gunner reported, his eyes on the targeting displays.
'No indications of resistance, active or passive,' the driver added.
'Stay alert,' Covell ordered keying for command frequency again. 'All units: move in.'
And with a final crash of mangled vegetation, the AT-AT broke through into the clearing.
It was an impressive sight. From all four sides of the open area, in nearly perfect parade-ground unison, the other three AT-ATs appeared from the forest cover in the predawn gloom, the AT-STs and hoverscouts clustered around their feet quickly fanning out on all sides to encircle the darkened buildings.
Covell gave the sensors a quick but complete check. Two energy sources were still functioning, one in the central building, the other in one of the outer barracks-style structures. There was no evidence of operating sensors, or of weapons or energy fields. The life-form analyzer ran through its complicated algorithms and concluded that the outer buildings were devoid of life.
The large main building, on the other hand 'I'm getting approximately twenty life-form readings from the main building, General,' the number four AT-AT commander reported. 'All in the central section.'
'They don't register as human, though,' Covell's driver murmured.
'Maybe they're being shielded,' Covell grunted, looking out the viewport. Still no movement from the encampment. 'Let's find out. Assault squads: go.'
