It had been three long, bloody years since the Rebel Alliance had won its first major victory at the Battle of Yavin. Now, the Empire was in the process of hammering the upstart revolutionaries across the galaxy. The Alliance high command had fallen back to a remote, frigid ice-ball of a planet named Hoth; and built a base carved out of the frozen rock named 'Echo'. For over a year, successful operations had been launched out of this site; but now, the Empire had found it and a desperate battle had to be waged to give the high command and most of the base's personnel time to try and flee for safety in the dozen Gallofree Yards Medium Transports before the Empire's assault force knocked out the Shield Generator and the Fleet could destroy the base from orbit or land attack shuttles to cut-thru and capture the leadership rapidly.....
Sector 31 on the rocky East Ridge of Echo Base was very thinly defended. The steep rise up to the single tunnel entrance to the base on this side made it unlikely that the Empire would make much of an effort to approach Echo base from this direction and therefore the Alliance had not allocated much in the way of forces to protect it. Sure enough as the battle began....almost all of the Imperial assault force was mustered on the North Ridge....but a smaller force did indeed make its way around on a flanking march to face the Rebel troops huddling in the trench dug in the top of the Ridge; just in front of the tunnel entrance and supported by a single Golan Arms DF-9 Laser Turret Tower, a single Atgar 1.4 FD Laser Cannon; a Single E-Webb Heavy Repeat Blaster mounted on a tripod situated in the trench and a squad of a dozen Rebel Troopers (in addition to the half-dozen operators of the DF-9, Atgar Laser Cannon and E-Webb...2 each) armed with Blastech A-280 Blaster Rifles and a very experience team of half-a-dozen Rebel Intel Operatives who had found themselves in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in between missions....
Professor Clark Jones shivered in the trench as he used a hand-held monocular (telescope) lent to him by his long time Team-mate Jackson Crodowski and he in the distance he saw the Imperial force come into sight at the bottom of the long, steep hill. He called out to everyone near by; "Okay people....they're here! Looks like a single AT-AT; two AT-STs and yep....the AT-AT is kneeling down....ramp lowering....out comes the 40 man Snowtrooper platoon. Cal, Jackson....you got that Speeder working yet?" he asked into his commlink....
Jackson Crodowksi and Cahal 'Cal' Tak Dornan had been feverishly working on a T-47 'Snowspeeder' that the Rebel repair teams had despaired of ever being able to get it off the ground in the freezing temperatures of Hoth and abandoned it in the Hangar Bay when the rest of the Snowspeeders had taken off to go meet the main group of Imperial Walkes on the North Ridge a short while ago. While Jackson was SURE he had not managed to do his best work on the troublesome machine; he WAS sure the T-47 would indeed fly.....for a short time anyway....
With Cal in the front seat flying the snowspeeder and manning its forward twin laser cannons, Jackson sat in the back seat with a power-harpoon launcher and the sensors controls in front of him. "Yeah Clark, we've got it flying...we'll be over your position in just a minute....sounds like things are about to get hot out there, watch yourselves!".....
A new member to the Rebel Intel team; the albino Wookie Kitkatarra, bellowed about the cold again and adjusted her satchel holding several Medpacs as she nervously clutched her Blaster Carbine and watched the Imperial machines start to slowly make their way up the hill. Nearby, she new Professor Clark and the strange human male named Vale Starcloud were the only ones who could fully understand her language....and sure enough, Vale smiled over at her and said; "Yeah, I wouldn't mind just letting those jerks have this frozen ice-ball either....but I guess we gotta make sure all the people in the base have a chance to get out first"; the earnest young Jedi Student answered the snow-white Wookie....
Shivering in his layers of cold-protection gear; the last member of the Intel Team; the reptillian Barabel Zuul Ksska opened his fanged mouth and chattered out; "Yesss, let ussss blassst these Imperial foolssss and leave thissss place"....as he clutched the various weapons of his arsenal closely, ready and eager to use them.....
Each of the Rebel Intel team members had been issued a single Magnetic 'Dual-Purpose' Grenade....it could be armed and thrown like any other anti-personnel grenade; or a switch could be activated to power-on the magnets and it could then be armed and hurled against any metallic vehicle and if it 'stuck'; it would deliver a powerful charge to the vehicle itself. Of course, the down-side was that one had to be fairly close to said vehicle to try and make the throw to 'stick it'....
Professor Clark watched as the last of the 40 snowtroopers dismounted from the AT-AT and it lurched to its feet and the entire Imperial force fanned out and began to climb the long, steep hill. Behind him, the Laser Tower and the Laser Cannon started to take ranging shots and the hum of the Snowspeeder's engines assaulted their ears as it flew overhead of the trench carrying Cal and Jackson in it as the battle began....
The 2 AT-STs quickly surged to the front of the Imperial force and split wide apart, both turning their cannons up and firing at the incoming Snowspeeder.....
Behind them, the 40 Imperial Snowtroopers split into 5 eight-man squads and spread out; still at too far a range for any Blaster Rifles....and probably even the E-Webb Repeat blaster.....whose crew was hoping to wait until they could pour in good fire at the enemy before announcing their existence....
Finally, the Imperial AT-AT was at the rear, the big twin Laser Cannons under its 'chin'; opening up and raising big heaps of snow and rock from the ground in short-lived explosions as they landed a few dozen meters short of the Alliance trench lines....
*Right now, Cal and Jackson are in a T-47 (stats coming up shortly....but basically the pilot flies and fires the twin laser cannons and can operate the sensors and the comm in a reduced mannor...and the gunner/systems operator sits in the back and can fire the rear power-harpoon gun and operate the sensors and comms at full capacity)....the AT-STs are currently at Medium Range (Difficulty 15 to hit) if you want to maintain this range....the Ground Troops are at Long Range and the AT-ATs are at a range too great for the Snowspeeder's cannons, but its big chin lasers can probably reach the Snowspeeder...but it'd be an awfully lucky hit).....you guys can easily close the range this turn....attempt to evade fire....shoot at one or more targets...etc.
**The guys in the trench....everybody BESIDES Cal and Jackson....are too far away yet to be able to hit anything with any of the weapons they are currently carrying.....and the plan, like in the Movie Empire Strikes Back...is basically to buy time for people to get out.
***The Outrunner is in the hangar that the tunnel behind you guys leads too
