Star Wars IX- Balance Of The Force

Chapter 27- Battle of the Force Users

Onboard one of the four AT-ATs that had left the Supremacy Dreadnought, Chromia and her Knights stood with at least thirty other stormtroopers ready to deploy; they needed to be in the midst of the battle to engage the girl and Kylo Ren and to do that this had been the fastest option. The AT-AT lumbered forwards, and inside, the occupants were lurched from side to side. They were far from graceful; no all-terrain carrier was, but it was a capable war machine. The AT-AT had wasted no time engaging its laser cannons to full use. Chromia could hear the sounds of X-Wings roaring close to the roof of the upper deck and the sounds of conflict below. Suddenly, the whole AT-AT leaned forward. The troopers, Knights and Chromia had to cling to the restraints within the decks to avoid falling forward. From the cockpit, the Sergeant yelled.

"They've destroyed our front two knee joints. We're going down, deploy now."

The deployment staging platform opened. Chromia went to the edge; it was a long way down but not as high as it could be, with the AT-AT slumping forward on its damaged front legs. Chromia nimbly leapt from the platform using the deployment harness and landed neatly on the ground. Her Knights followed her, and as a group, they walked towards the advancing Resistance troops, weapons exposed and ready. Chromia ignited her saber and sliced at the Resistance fighter before her. To her left and right, the Knights heaved their way forward, axe hacking, bat bashing, broad sword cleaving, long curved sword slashing, and staff striking. They were all making their way towards the moving purple and red light just ahead and the circle of troopers fighting around the pair of sabers and the Jedi who wielded them.

-X-

One AT-AT was down, there were three still moving forward, and there was still the enormous AT-M6 to contend with. Colonel Poe Dameron had told his Squadrons to aim for the knees to bring them down, but it wasn't easy. They were competing with cannon fire from the ATs, and Ties were still on their tails. Poe was flying close to an AT, swerving between the legs and shooting each of the legs. He could see some of his pilots attempting to do the same, but Blue Four's cockpit burst into flame as she was struck by cannon fire. Flying as best she could, she crashed into the legs of one of the ATs, and the walker immediately collapsed into the X-wing, crushing it completely, the fire from the ship igniting the AT becoming one colossal flame. Poe cursed to himself, but at least that was another one down. Red Six tried to avoid laser fire and ended up spiralling and crashing into nearby woods. Poe dived as close to the ground as he could before rising sharply, looping back towards the ATs. He could see one of their Resistance tanks engulfed in flames. The ATs were blasting great holes in the ground, throwing Resistance fighters and troopers alike into the air.

"White Squadron, target the ATs. I repeat, target the ATs, get them down."

As Poe looped back again with Blue and Red Squadron, what was left of White Squadron joined them.

"Target the cockpits and the legs," he commanded.

Laser fire cascaded towards the two ATs that were left from his pilots, cockpits and legs, their target. White Two, however, was flying dead at the AT-M6, aiming straight for the cockpit not just with his laser fire but with his X-Wing, narrowly avoiding the cannon fire as he got closer and closer.

"White Two, that's suicide! Desist, that's an order!" Poe hollered into his helmet.

White Two, however, wasn't listening and crashed straight into the AT-M6 cockpit like a manned bomb, its fuel igniting into a cascade of flame and debris. The walking death machine stopped moving and stood still, then exploded from within, hurling great chunks of jagged metal around the vicinity, smoke and fire rising from the tremendous exposed openings; it fell forward, throwing earth and metal upwards as it landed in a crumbled smoking motionless heap.