His make-shift podium stood at the centre of what he supposed was meant to be a town; it looked like hell. Towers still crumbled, their slow decay an omen to the importance the Empire had placed upon the planet; that is to say, none. There was no gathering as such awaiting his arrival, and his dreams of addressing crowds of cheering citizens once again flattened and retreated to that part of his mind which he reserved for the painful rebukes of his once-promising future.
"Stay on guard and at the first sign of trouble, cover my retreat" he said in an undertone to the squad leader of his security detail. The Stormtrooper nodded an affirmative, and signalled his squad to spread out, covering all angles to prevent any backlash against Commander Sesk.
The Commander cleared his throat, and took to his podium; still no crowds drew. Even with the limited and scattered population, Sesk had expected some interest in his announcement. It was, afterall, to the benefit of the downtrodden citizens of Tiroth.

"People of Tiroth, it is my great pleasure to announce that the Empire is assigning additional forces as of this week, to aid in the stamping out of rebellious factions which are impeding our progress here" he called out. He seemed to have hooked the attention of a few passers-by.
"As you well know, our rennovation scheme is running on schedule, and with our continued investment in close-quarter housing, the Empire will soon begin to rebuild this area into a grand symbol of our unified power". He tried to keep it ambiguous; of course the people knew they were being herded into small, cramped hovels in what had become known as the slums. Some suspected that Tiroth was only finally being rebuilt because it was a clean slate for the Empire to lay down whatever structures it wanted, and rest assured they wouldn't benefit the people who'd been affected for nigh-on a decade by the dilapidation left in the Separatist's wake. Those people would be left in the sub-standard buildings the Empire had provided for them.

"Sir... please..." an old woman begged, coming forth from the marketplace. She was filthy, her wiry frame covered by a tattered shawl and stained clothes. "The slums ain't providing for us, sir... we need more aid, not more security!"
"Rest assured, Ma'am, the Empire took into account the needs of the many when it came to providing accomodation for the remaining population. You'll have to take it up with the Sector Moff" he replied curtly, backing away from her outstretched, pleading hand.
A trooper moved between the Commander and the old woman, his E-11 inches from her breast. "Move along, civillian" the trooper ordered, giving her a persuasive nudge with his rifle.
Sesk turned his back on the situation, as more of the locals seemed to take interest, coming to back up the woman's arguments. His troops had standing orders, and if things got too hairy, they had permission to defend themselves with lethal force.

Accompanied by a pair of junior officers, he retreated to the comfort of his penthouse.

Trask could hear the shouts of now nearly two hundred people in the square those that had bothered to come and make their voices known to the empire. This was not going to end well for them he knew but there was little he could do, what he knew he had to do was find his contact and try to get the hell out before things got too bad and things turned violent.

The crowd was a powder keg by this point growing as those around the small town came out of their makeshift shanties and flooded in. The troopers would likely feel as though their lives were getting more and more indanger by the crowd.

All it would take was a spark, like the one from the child in the back who would hurl a peice of fruit at the helmets of one of the storm troopers.

"What the devil is going on down there?" he barked into his comm. He'd trusted his troopers to see the people off, not stand by while a riot began to build.
"Sir, the population is getting hostile" the squad commander replied.
"You have your orders. As much force as is necessary!" Sesk snapped, exasperated. He wanted nothing more than to preside over his latest takings over a steaming cup of caf, and the noise was becoming distracting.

Back in the square, the troops were levelling their rifles on the crowd, a geture that they were more than willing to defend themselves.
Then, it happened; a piece of fruit, hurled from the back of the crowd, soared over everybody's heads and hit the squad leader square in the helmet, obscuring his vision.
"What the -" he muttered, as the crowd surged into him. Blind and feeling like he was under assault, he began swinging his rifle, cracking several people across the faces with the butt of his weapon, which then discharged, sending a blaster bolt through the crowd.

There was a scream, a shout of rage. Someone cried out.
This was gonna get ugly.

Trask looked back hearing the sound of blaster fire wondering what in the blazes was going on now. Things had suddenly changed from bad to violent it seemed. He had to escape now hopefully finding the contact on the way. He would reach a door, suddenly a memory of the clone wars surging in him as he braced himself ramming the door in off of its hinges. He would have to escape this place before the empire took these people seriously which he suspected wouldnt be very long at all.

Two minutes seemed to last a life-time. All contact had been lost with the squad in the town square, and the steadily rising noise told Sesk that a small group of townspeople must be making their way to his penthouse, and he doubted they wanted to talk.
Fortunately, just as the small group reached the lip of the hill where the building was situated, an Imperial dropship transport fell into their path, hovering shakily above the ground as Stormtroopers poured out, their blaster shots ringing through the air and finding their targets with ingrained precision.

In the town square, three more dropships circled overhead, their lasers churning up the ground and whoever was unfortunate enough not to evacuate the blasting zone. Yet more ships were coming in hot from orbit, though these ones seemed to be configured differently; where there should have been troop bays, they instead held vertical cylindrical containers, and as the first ones neared ground level, it detached its container, which in turn opened and revealed an AT-ST walker.
More walkers were planted in what had suddenly become a battlefield, with troopers disembarking via rappel lines to secure the town square, shooting down any resistors or stragglers. It was clear the Empire wasn't playing games, and would retaliate against any threads of rebellion with its full might if necessary.

Sesk watched the proceedings on a holo display which had been set up for him, and smiled to himself. Long had he wanted to apply excessive force to bring the townspeople to heel. It was just a pity he'd had to wait until troopers had unnecessarily lost their lives.

Trask moved up along the stairs of the house he had broken into. It was small and had been hastily built and added onto over the last decade. He would reach a window on the second floor and would move to peer out and over the courtyard. He could see the dead bodies of the civilians and a squad of stormtroopers but it was the AT-STs that drew his attention. The two legged dealers of death, the empire had planned this from the get go it seemed. Incite the people and then move in with force to erradicate them. Trask sighed a bit shaking his head as he slid back down the wall his hand gripping the familiar cool hilt in his pocket. It had been modified to be more inconspicious but it seemed that he may have to draw it again.

A scream pierced the air as he peeked back over he saw the boy, the street urchin run towards the line of soldiers with a pair of rocks in his hands only to have a blaster bolt in his chest as a result. His now lifeless body falling back against the permacrete.

There was no neutrality to be had here. The empire would wipe out the town and all its inhabitants unless he did something.

BARC speeders, mounted by Imperial Scouts, raced around the perimeter of the town, keeping individuals from escaping to the safety of other towns or the wilderness beyond. Some headed for far-off hills, to set up sniping positions, where they'd be put to their most effective use.
Sesk, meanwhile, had donned his battle armour; a simple plate of khaki-green armour over his chest and back, with a rimmed helmet covering his head and neck, face exposed. He marched to a waiting AT-STh - the 'h' standing for 'Hunter' - which had been dropped away from the battle, its driver waiting for the Commanders arrival. The vehicle was exactly the same as an AT-ST, barring the addition of net launchers at either side of the canopy, and the removal of one of its concussion grenade launchers in favour of a chain-gun.
"Lets go, Captain" he said curtly to the driver, as he ascended the access ladder into the AT-STh's cockpit.
Once he and the driver were strapped in, the walker lurched forward, heading for the town at top speed.

The dropships that had offloaded their troops had, rather than return to their waiting Star Destroyer for additional reinforcements, begun to fly over seperate parts of the town, marking suspicious buildings for destruction. 'Suspicious', in this case, meaning any building large enough to house more than 3 people, which Sesk saw as a potential staging or regrouping ground for the more organised of the insurgents.
They didn't need to wait for the order to fire; soon, in the skies above, squadrons of H-shaped objects began to descend on the town. TIE fighters, complements of the forces in orbit, to help quicken the destruction of the remaining reminders of the former occupants of Tiroth.

Hidden underneath one of the buildings a group of rebels at around a table. The imperials had already brushed aside most of their lines and were wreaking havoc among the survivors. It was clear they were outmatched and wouldn't stand much of a chance against this level of force. "What are we going to do?!" one of them demanded. "They have already brought down walkers and those shuttles seem to be marking targets." he continued while the others sighed a bit. The man was right there was little chance. "Bring what forces we have together we need to make a stand." one at the head of the table said.

It was at that moment a comm broke in. "To all rebels..I am here to help but if you want to win..you will have to follow my orders." Trask's voice was clear and concise. Trask had stolen a communicator from both of the bodies. Anything either side said would be heard by him. It would be nice to have a command center but hed have to make do without just like back in the clone wars.

"Who the hell is this?" the rebel leader demanded. "And why should we follow your orders?"

"My name is not important, and you should follow my orders because I am your best chance of getting out of this alive."

"You will have to do better than that to convince us."

"Fair enough." Trask replied. "What if I deliver you enough firepower to match the Imperials?"

"Plug that house with a concussion grenade" Sesk ordered the driver, indicating a rickety old structure ahead. "There may be survivors inside". Sure enough, blasterfire rained down on the Stormtroopers in the streets, but not for long; a grenade arced from the walker's right-hand weapon, smashed through a window and detonated, blowing the walls of the upper floor outward, the roof cascading down to crush the rebels within.
Overhead, the TIE fighters began their initial strafing run, blowing apart the buildings indicated by the circling dropships.
Sesk snatched up his comm once more.
"This is Commander Sesk. All infantry units, begin sweeping the ruins for hidden access-ways to the underground sewage system. There may be resistors down there, and we can't afford to allow them the time to properly organise" he ordered. Units began to disperse, combing the ruins for hidden chambers, or anything leading to underground hide-outs where rebels may be conspiring or traitors hiding.

Sesk finally ordered his driver to stop, nearing the western border of the town, where a dropship had landed, its fuel cells nearly depleted. The Commander opened the top hatch and called down to the pilot.
"Do you have enough fuel to return to orbit?" he shouted.
"Affirmative, Commander!" the pilot shouted back, saluting crisply.
"Good. Return, refuel, and tell the Admiral we'll be needing an occupying force a.s.a.p. We're flushing out the remaining rebels now, it won't be long until the town falls completely".

A brief comm would go off. "Theres a jeh.." the rest would be lost with a scream of pain before silence overtook it.

A moment later a TIE would be coming in for a strafing run when several large red bursts would intercept it causing the fighter to burst into flames. The report would make it back to the rebel leaders. "I am offering you an Imperial walker as a gift for your coming victory." he said through the rebels comms and would stop it on the road giving them the coordinates before disembarking from it leaving it to the rebels to pick up which they would shortly. It would be out of sight and ready for them to pick it up. Trask would move on back into hiding. The imperials had lost a walker and a tie fighter but for the most part they were still dominant in this fight, but an AT-ST would help to turn the tide or at the very least help to even out the battle.

"All units, this is Sesk. Abort previous orders, begin combing the area for potential Jedi activity" he said at last, resigning himself to the fact that even the most remote chances of a Jedi being in the vicinity spelled certain defeat for his forces.

His comm would buzz with the rebels, they had heard the comm and had begun to put two and two together.
"General.." the leader said as the report came in to the rebels. "We don't know your name but if you are what the Imperials think you are, how can we help?" It was a risk the commander knew but this was their chance to turn this around.

Trask would pause a minute it was a valuable piece of information he was giving up freely. "I am." he whispered into the mic as a pair of stormtroopers moved passed him. He sighed a bit, reaching out through the force in all directions feeling its familiar touch as he pulled out a simple piece of cloth using it to wrap around his face obscuring his features. They were not going to know he was alive, at least not yet. He would peek both ways making sure it was clear but for the two troopers before he emerged from his corner. The force flowed through his body as he reached out grabbing a pole which had been knocked over and pulling it back and into the troopers to knock them over so that he could quickly move in and finish them off with his lightsaber so he could confiscate their weapons. He was going to have to fight this as a shadow war. Hit and run and that would be his orders to the rebels. Hold no position fire three shots and retreat to the next one. Move it in a circle if you have to but keep the Imperials moving draw their forces into a trap when possible.

Thinking quickly, Sesk commed the snipers who'd set up position around the town.
"All snipers, there's a Jedi loose in my vicinity. Take him down!" he ordered, urgency creeping into his voice. He had forgotten about the remaining rebels for the time being, the elusive Jedi now the sole object of his focus.

A small group of stormtroopers would appear at the other end of the alley way and would open fire on the jedi probably forgetting or never knowing the truth of a jedi's lightsaber. Bolts would deflect in almost all directions even as he ducked into another house. He was forcing them to close, to trap themselves in a close room with Trask. The one place that he would be the most deadly. Of course, he doubted that he would have long either way, the commanders unit would collapse the building he had rushed into before long and he would have to go back out into the open. He was now their target.

He would open the comm to the rebel leaders "The imperials are following me, I will bait them but I will need you to set up positions where I say." he said as he crouched down. He wanting going to be given long and had to speak quickly to be understood. There were no objections but he could tell the leaders didn't like his plan as their reply came. "It will be done." Trask smiled a bit. "Well then..it is time to go fishing."