The First Order base was a rectangular enclosure built against an ancient sandstone cliff that ran for a dozen kilometers in each direction. A section of the cliff within the enclosure had been hollowed out and a large hangar built inside. An open square in front of the hangar acted as a mustering field for the First Order garrison units assigned to this base. Three days ago, this was the 2nd platoon's assembly point before going on their sweep mission. They would have not gone on this mission alone. A lance formation of four ATST walkers from the garrison's armored contingent would have accompanied the platoon on their mission. These walkers had been crewed, idling, and ready in front of the hangar when the base had been enveloped in the mysterious blinding flash three days previous. Both the men and machines had suffered the same fate as the men in the barracks, the nine meter tall walkers now stood a minuscule 4.5 centimeters above the seemingly endless plain that stretched before the hangar.
The four two-man crews of the walkers, along with their commanding officer, Commander Vellas, had been sitting idly next to their machines when the ground began to shake and they watched the giantess intruder had entered through the main gate. They had quickly manned their vehicles, frantically going through their well-rehearsed startup procedures and checklists. The ATSTs had formed into a loose formation, making their way towards the barrack's door they had seen the intruder enter. The group's speed was greatly diminished in light of their reduced size. The ATSTs had only made it halfway between their destination and the entrance to the main facility when the giantess emerged from the barracks.
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Rey was walking towards the large building that stood on the opposite side of the open square that filled the base's center. Knowing now that any First Order troops or personnel she might encounter would be only a fraction of their original size, Rey kept her eyes along with her other enhanced senses at ground level. Even with her full attention scanning the ground, she was unaware of the 4 miniature hunters that were stalking her.
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Preparing to engage, the ATSTs began spreading out to give each other clear arcs of fire. According to the onboard tactical computer, whose information did not take into account the ATST's new diminutive scale, the target towered over the lance of scout walkers at close to 600 meters in height!
Lance Commander Vellas stood in the hatch of the lead ATST, he had open comms to each machine and would direct the action against the target. 'The Target'...Vellas smirked, considered that a very neutered term for something so overwhelmingly terrifying. He looked up, craning his neck in an attempt to see her full stature as they drew nearer. She was moving at a terrific speed. Sending orders through the inter-unit comms channel, Vellas adjusted the lance's intercept course.
Commander Vellas had graduated from the Imperial Officer's Academy only a year before the fall of the Empire. Despite this, he found no lack of opportunities to demonstrate his military aptitude. Vellas served with the armored forces of many of the warlords who attempted to fill the power vacuum after the fall of the empire. A true disciple of maneuver warfare, he preferred the light and nimble ATSTs over the larger but more sluggish ATAT walkers when it came to accomplishing battlefield goals. Vellas' ability to routinely defeat superior forces using both superior speed and movement made him a highly valuable asset. With the rise of the First Order, Vellas found a new home amongst men half his age. The young men derisively called him the 'old man,' a name that soon became a term of respect after the first time they saw Vellas lead his unit into action.
Vellas was feeling all of his 53 years as he balanced in the hatch of the speeding ATST. His plan was to cross the giantess's path just behind her and attack from the rear. The ATSTs would then perform a wheeling caracole maneuver, pouring as much firepower into the target as possible before reversing course without slowing. They would then spread out and execute a series of circling maneuvers, keeping the target in the circle's center as they continued to fire everything while traveling at top speed. These were textbook tactics when engaging a superior adversary: divide both the enemy's attention and firepower. Vellas was well aware of these tactics, he had essentially written the textbook. Of course, neither he nor any of his men had encountered this sort of enemy! Vellas's crews had only practiced mock engagements with ATAT walkers. At a height of 20 meters, the heavily armed and armored ATAT was the most formidable adversary these crews ever thought they would possibly face. Now the lance approached a foe almost beyond comprehension.
Commander Vellas knew such detailed orders would give his men confidence in the impending engagement, this fact was more important than the orders themselves. Detailed plans never last after the fighting starts and looking at the giant intruder, nearly the size of a starship, he knew they had absolutely no hope for victory or even survival. Vellas did not want
to live the rest of his life the size of an insect so a glorious charge, full of dash and élan, into certain death would be his along with his men's fate. If his bold attack, suicidal as it was, could warn others inside the facility of the approaching danger, then his sacrifice would mean something at least.
The onboard computer's rangefinder displayed the range to target: 2.4 kilometers. In actuality, the minuscule group of walkers were only perhaps 4 meters from the intruder and she walked towards the main facility's entrance. She had not spotted the group yet. Weapons range on the ATST was two kilometers. As they drew nearer, the impacts of the giantess's steps sent shockwaves through the ground. Vellas had trained his pilots well but it took all of their skill, along with the help of the onboard gyroscopes, to keep the ATSTs upright as each footfall shook the world around them violently. Vellas, still standing in the hatch out in the open, held his crews in check. "Hold fire until I give the order!" The four tiny machines continued to close the distance.
"Fire!"
The chin mounted laser cannons began sending volley after volley into the heels of the giantess's boots as each walker made its pass. Detonations from the side mounted grenade launchers peppered the side of her right boot. The walkers were now moving at their top speed as they made their turns in succession. Looking up and over his right shoulder, the commander could the giant intruder bending and twisting her torso to her right, looking at the last of the detonations and searching for the perpetrators of the attack. Vellas smiled, his lance was already moving on her left for another attack. For the moment, he held the initiative. As long as she was reacting to him, he was in control of the battle.
They were getting too close. Vellas knew this but in order to stay one step ahead of the giantess as she searched, his units had been forced to spiral inward towards danger. From the ATST's point of view, they were within 200 meters of the giantess's boots as they circled her. From this distance, Vellas had to look almost straight up to see the giantess's body and even then her entirety would not fit into his field of view. Anyone else would have been frozen in fear at such a sight, but Vellas was riding the adrenaline high he had always found on the battlefield. His lance had been able to complete two strafing passes on the giantess. Each time, he managed to slip behind her as she twisted in response to the laser cannon fire and explosives hurled by the grenade launchers. His smile quickly faded as he watched the giantess's torso unexpectedly swing around and her gaze met his. Looking up at that monstrously huge face high above, the commander could see that the giantess now wore a smile. She now had the initiative.
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The small popping sound drew Rey' attention first. She looked down at the side of her right boot in time to see the last of the tiny explosions ripple along its leather. Rey also caught the unmistakable red glow of a blaster bolt striking her heel. The slight smell of burnt leather and the smoke rising from her boot's heel told her that these blasts were from something larger than the blaster rifles she had encountered in the barracks. Twisting all the way to her right Rey was looking down at her boot heels but had yet to locate the origin of those shots and explosions.
Another barrage of tiny popping sounds! This time along the top of her left foot. Rey wheeled around to face that direction only to find nothing once again. Aside from the smell of singed leather, no damage had been done but it was frustrating that her attacker remained elusive. Sensing a pattern, Rey quickly twisted her torso, this time to her right and caught her first sight of her attackers, ATSTs! These machines had been shrunk as well, the huge and deadly walkers now barely stood higher than the toe of Rey's boot. They were still quick! Watching their movements from above, Rey could see how they moved together like a herd of tiny creatures.
Lifting her foot, Rey caught the last ATST in the formation, bringing it down onto the machine swiftly. A bright yellow flash from under her boot told her that the machine had
exploded even before she had crushed it fully into the ground. Lifting her toe and pivoting her foot on her heel, she revealed the burning and crushed remains of the walker. "So weak and pathetic!"
Seeing another machine to her left, Rey swept her leg out, clipping it in the leg with the toe of her boot. The ATST, thrown off its feet, cartwheeled forward and slammed into the ground. The ATST was smoking but otherwise intact. Rey grinned as she watched the crew crawl out of the stricken machine and begin to flee. "Not so quick now worms!" Rey shifted to face these minuscule crewmen and stepped to each side of them as they ran. She laughed as she took tiny stomping steps on each side of them, keeping pace as they ran. Rey's game was causing them to continuously fall, only to struggle to their feet before she stomped next to them again. "Run worms! You don't want to get squished do you?" Knowing at least two other ATSTs were still attacking her, Rey would need to end this game. She lifted her boot and began to slowly lower it onto the screaming men below. Just before she squashed the pathetically insignificant crewmen, Rey saw two red flashes streak under her boot, striking the two running crewmen and incinerating them.
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"Not today bitch." Vellas had ordered his crew to ruthlessly fire the chin-mounted cannon onto his own fleeing men. This was not the first time he had fired on his own when they proved to be cowards in the face of the enemy. Today was different, he could not be more proud of his crews as they fought against impossible odds. They were all dead men anyway at this point, Vellas knew, so he would at least deny her the satisfaction of crushing his men like insects. Besides, seeing the anger in the giantess's face as his machine turned away gave him the smallest sliver of hope; if she is angry, she might start making mistakes, mistakes that he could possibly exploit.
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Rey, furious that her fun had been denied her, spun around in time to see the offending ATST speeding away. Squinting, she could see the unmistakable black uniform of a first order officer. Too small to make out his face, she could still sense his feelings. Rey had grown used to the utter terror the tiny First Order soldiers felt as she crushed them like bugs, It had become almost a background noise in her mind. She didn't sense fear in this little insect, all she could feel from him was hatred and a determination: hatred of her and a determination to hurt her. "We will just have to change that, won't we..."
As Rey watched the tiny ATST speed away from her she heard, once again, the harmless popping of detonations against her boot. The other machine was turning away from its latest attack run. Rey stomped her foot next to the machine before it was out of reach. The tremendous impact toppled the walker, causing it to fall on its side. Rey knelt and grabbed one of the machine's legs, lifting it as she stood back up. She held it up as she opened her mouth and dangled the upturned ATST over her gaping maw. Rey gave the machine a little shake with her thumb and forefinger in order to dislodge and devour the walker's crew.
Either because of the damage it had sustained when it fell or simply because of Rey's comparatively overwhelming strength, the dangling ATST ripped free of its leg that Rey held and fell onto her awaiting tongue. That didn't matter to Rey, she rolled the machine around in her mouth, cracking it open with her teeth and tearing it apart with her tongue until she felt that the hapless crew had been extracted from their vehicle. Rey reached into her mouth and pulled out the thoroughly wrecked remains of the ATST and let it fall to the ground far below. In her mouth, she could feel the two men struggle against the stickiness of her saliva as it kept them plastered to her tongue. Rey savored the moment, feeling their sense of helplessness and tasting their fear as she teased the men. She slid them just underneath her hovering molars only to bring them back and press them against the roof of her mouth. The crew were obviously exhausted, their struggling was by now barely noticeable to Rey. She swallowed, ending both the game and the two men's lives.
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The command ATST swerved to avoid the wreck as it fell from the sky. As they passed, Vellas could see the machine was thickly coated and dripping with saliva. He slammed his fist on the top deck of his machine in frustration. He had known from the beginning this action would have ended this way, but part of him had held out hope that somehow he would win as he had done countless times in the last 30 years of combat.
His pilot was screaming into his comm, asking for new course instructions. The gunner reported that the power cells for the cannon were dry and all other munitions were expended. Vellas said nothing, he was watching this landscape in miniature speed by and feeling the wind against his face. He sighed and spoke into the comm. "All stop, turn us around to face her." The pilot and gunner looked at each other but followed the commander's orders.
Now stationary, Vellas leaned wearily on the hatch ring as he looked up at the Giantess. She was taking a step towards them, her next step would put her right over them. Her expression was that of a victor, coming to gloat over the vanquished. "Good," Vellas thought, there was hope still left! Clicking his comm back on he spoke to the driver. "What is the status of the reactor?" The pilot's answer brought the smile back to Vellas's face.
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The last tiny ATST had been running away when it suddenly stopped and turned to face Rey. She could see the little black uniformed officer still standing in the hatch looking up at her. "I suppose he would rather just die and get it over with." She thought to herself. She slowly walked to the stationary machine, standing over it with her boots to each side. Crushing it underfoot, while easy, wouldn't satisfy Rey, especially since she could still feel nothing but hate pouring off of the insignificant officer. "No," she thought, "I want him to die terrified like the countless innocents he and his kind have murdered over the years."
Leaning down, Rey picked the delicate walker up between her two fingers and brought it up to her face. The armored shutters for the pilot and gunner slammed shut as she looked at this pathetically tiny machine of death. The officer remained defiant, standing in his hatch holding onto the hatch's ring to steady himself. "Such arrogance! Don't you know are nothing but a bug?" Rey could see that this officer was an older man, as she spoke she could see how he fought not to lean back from the force of her voice. Despite this, he did not break eye contact with her. He was also smiling. Rey brought the ATST in her fingertips closer to her face.
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The giantess's face filled Vellas's whole field of view. The armored head of the ATST groaned under the pressure of the giant fingertips as it was brought even closer! Her mouth began to open, her tongue stretching out to accept this latest morsel. Vellas's smile widened into a grin.
"Now!"
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Rey anticipated the feeling of the feet of the ATST as she brought it down on her tongue. This would be only the beginning of the fun she would have with this obstinate First Order worm. That thought was suddenly cut short. A bright flash filled her vision as her head was thrown back violently! Her left hand, holding the diminutive walker, had been forcefully thrown away from her face as well. The pain in her hand was excruciating! As Rey's vision returned she looked at her left hand. It was scorched black and her thumb and forefinger were badly burned and mutilated. She felt her face with her right hand. It felt alright and upon examination her right hand had only blackened soot she had rubbed off her face.
"The treacherous little worm had overloaded the ATST'S reactor!" Rey fumed. Had she been a moment faster putting the machine in her mouth she would have lost her head! Rey tore a scrap of cloth from her robes and wrapped her left hand. She stopped, realizing she was actually angry at herself.
Rey had become recklessly overconfident dealing with the four ATSTs. The ease she had experienced crushing the platoon of stormtroopers in the barracks had caused her to underestimate this enemy. Rey now understood that these First Order soldiers would be dangerous, regardless of size.
The smiling face of the officer in the last walker stuck in Rey's mind. He was no conscript or inexperienced officer fresh from training. Rey considered the question, "what was such a man doing here on this remote world instead of fighting where his skill would actually matter?" The answer was obvious, "whatever it is on this planet, the First Order considers it is more important that winning any battle." The mystery was deepening as Rey, now at the main
facility's entrance, activated the panel. The door slid upward and she was greeted with utter blackness. Rey wearily stepped inside.