ITOD Home > RS Tour 4 (XWA Mixed Tour) > XWA ATR Sim: Attack Imperial Outpost

Hermus Dogan piloted the lumbering bulk of a Gamma-class Assault Transport through a storm of fire from a fresh flight of TIE Interceptors. Turrets bulging from four sides of the craft spat back at the unshielded TIEs, ripping through one after the other. Their attacks were little more than an exercise in suicide.

Imperial Shield, an XQ6 Platform, loomed above, raining turbolaser bolts down at the transport. Despite the ATR's lack of maneuverability, the station was unable to land a hit. In contrast, three of the turrets at Hermus' disposal struck back with impunity. Barely thirty percent of the platform's hull remained before it would join its brother Invincible in oblivion.

The only other craft present was the Procurator, a Victory Star Destroyer. It had arrived to reinforce the Imperial base with two other capital ships: Modified Nebulon-B Frigate Achilles' Heel and Carrack-class Light Cruiser Carrack. The two smaller craft had already fallen to the Assault Transport's guns, and the light Star Destroyer was suffering continuous torpedo strikes from Blue Squadron, a flight of X-Wings. Hermus had called them in to assist him while he was facing nearly two squadrons of TIE Interceptors.

A final salvo from the ATR's turrets sealed the platform's fate. Imperial Shield broke into hundreds of pieces, some the size of a capital ship, others smaller than a fist. The Procurator turned some of its turbolaser fire to intercept a large chunk of the station on a collision course with the vessel, temporarily lightening the burden on Blue Squadron. Hermus altered course to close the distance between the Assault Transport and the Star Destroyer. The bulky craft's turrets began firing as soon as the pilot gave them the order.

Procurator's hull split open as it died, gouts of flame erupting from its exposed interior before being extinguished in the near-vacuum of space. One Gamma-class Assault Transport and five X-Wings navigated to their designated hyperspace buoy and disappeared in a flicker of pseudomotion.

It was a different kind of simulation than he was used to. Despite playing a part in its creation and running it several times during the testing process, Hermus couldn't get used to the lack of agility in the ATR. He hoped he wouldn't be called on to pilot such a craft into an actual battle, but he was already planning to run further such missions from the simulation database. If he did need to pilot one of the heavily armed transports someday he wanted to be ready.