Battle for Xilos

The moment the first shell landed on Objective Epsilon, Strike Commander Sergos and the rest of the Xilos Expeditionary Force skirmish force also knew. They had moved faster than he had calculated, and now his options were limited. Sergos, accompanied by three light weapon drones and the Command team, were still some distance away from the base camp, and as the tactical updates streamed in via the battle feed, his decision was was to keep the drones and the Command team together, or allow the drone team to split off – getting there sooner, but on the other side of the base camp. Whatever he chose, Commander Sergos couldn’t predict if it would make a difference.

The scoot shell was partly effective. Alpha Team, the most exposed to the incoming attack, was pinned down where they were behind the barricade. Delta attempted to evade the device, but failed to clamber over the barricade. As Beta team, on the far side of the base camp, turned to engage the enemy, chaos was unleashed upon the hill.

Freeborn fighters surged forward, quickly covering the distance of open field that separated the forest where they had hid and the hill of the Concord camp. X-Launcher shells whined overhead, delivering ordenance that pinned in place the Concord troopers and restricted their ability to return fire.

A group of Skyraiders burst out of the tree cover, as the plasma blasts filled the air. The whine of their engines at full blast preceded their zooming advance on to the hill, their weapons blasting the defenders. As the Skyraiders finished their pass and began their break-off, the Concord lifted their heads and began to return fire. Searing plasma followed the Freeborn speeders, and one of them ran out of luck that day, as his speeder exploded in a fireball.

Recoiling from the assault by the Skyraiders, the Concord on the hill had endured direct as well as overhead fire. They were quickly becoming ineffective. As the Freeborn Ferals closed in to launch their assault on the hill, the light drone team dispatched by Commander Sergos arrived at the base camp. Their weapons engaged the advancing troops, inflicting casualties and slowing their movement.

Delta, who had endured the brunt of the attack, disappeared as the rising wave of Freeborn swept over the hill. Alpha team had moved away from the hill to attempt to link up with the returning elements and was now in the open. They witnessed the attack of the Skyraiders, and engaged them with carbine fire as Freeborn speedors retreat accross their front. Ineffective in their fire, and exposed as they were, Alpha team was exposed and vulnerable. The Skyraiders and the ground troops finished the job, and Alpha was destroyed just as Sergos arrived at the base camp.

Sergos arrived on the other side from which the light drones had approached, and he had hard time assessing the situation on the hill. He was aware of the Freeborn units in front of his position. The drone team continued to pour fire on the hill, pinning the advancing ferals. But it was clear that there was no way to recover the objective with the destruction of the two Strike teams.

The remaining Concord elements began to disengage, but it was only the light drones and the Command team, which were far from the base camp itself. This encounter with this new Freeborn commander contained many lessons for the XEF. The operational elements would already be receiving early versions of the battle report, and necessary calculations and adjustements made to respond to and eliminate the enemy.