The provisional government had been hard at work in the preceding days. The people had been encouraged to arm themselves so far as they were able to protect their communities from the possible Imperial counter-attack. Various schemes had been proposed for creating a weapon system to give them anti-orbital capacity. From the People's Front of Dantooine they had recieved a cache of propellant, and a crate of clone wars era blaster rifles, along with a pair of T-47 airspeeders. They had been issued to the militia, it was doubtful whether this would make a difference. Also, they had crafted some primative rocket launchers from the tools at their disposal and sections of piping. If the Empire did arrive they planned two defiant volleys into orbit. The first to strike at any larger Imperial ship, and second to create a geostationary cloud of waste over the capital and so inhibit landings to an extent. The scheme seemed unlikely, in Bastile's opinion, to do much to prevent Imperial landings.
Assuming they would fail to contest the orbit, he had ordered the airspeeders at their disposal to be buried in the forests. He was not planning to win the initial campaign, it seemed inevitable that the Empire would take back the capital, but once they left he was confident of his ability to lead a long term campaign against their garrison. He would bleed the Empire, costing them men and lives until they left his precious Alurion alone. Even if they could not prevent the Empire getting onto the world, they could prevent the Empire holding the world, and thus the ten precious airspeeders and two outdated hyperdrive free fighters were buried.
The capital itself had to be defended though, at least to an extent in order to demonstrate that there was a serious movement to hold the capital. Many of the population had been evacuated to outlying areas. A fort had begun to be constructed on the west side of New Coronet, reinforced with rifle pits it was supposed to deter assaults from the sea. Food had been brought in and stored in the hated Imperial post office in order to provide supplies for the people.
Forces had been deployed to dig rifle pits close to all approaches to the city. The bridges had detonation packs placed on them, ready to detonate as soon as the moment came to repulse the enemy. At sea they had planted several large mines in order to prevent landing parties coming by sea without risking severe casualties.
Along the roadways they placed crude improvised explosive devices, and throughout the open fields within the town limits. If the imperials decided to land from the air or roll in vehicles they would face a severe deterrant in the form of these devices, aiming to maim and kill as many as possible when needed. Each local officer was equipped with a map and codes to detonate specific mines when needed.
Across the vulnerable eastern main road they had placed more rifle pits and a line of defences. This was where the attack was likely, rolling in from the wide farmlands. Assuming that the city could not be held, the provisional government, with their Imperial prisoner had retreated to a more secret location in the wide forests of the island. Holding the city was the Town's Mayor, newly appointed to a militia commission Major Noah Maito, along with the population who had chosen not to evacuate and two hundred soldiers from the Batallions of Liberty and a few from the local police force. They were generally well armed and trained when it came to weapons and marksmanship (coming from a colony where many hunted this should not be seen as unusual), but lacking in discipline and unit training. Bastile did not share Major Maito's confidence that elan and spirit were more important than discipline, but never the less they had what they had, with training being ongoing.
Furthermore, across the streets of New Coronet, two layers of barricades were placed, one at the city limits and one at the town center as a bulwark to fall back to. The defence had been planned in detail, but it seemed to Bastile that the attempt was hopeless and that the citizens would have done better to follow his tactic of retreating to the hills.
In the hills and islands, labourers on farms and other locations began to train under the Batallions of Liberty's direction. Having few veterans amonst their number, they had managed to get from the library a copy of a Clone Wars era training manual, and the cheap local copies of this tract were now being lavishly distributed to local commanders who began to train a true citizen army.
Bastile looked at the town of New Coronet as the defences continued to be built, shaking his head and climbing in the orbital lighter taking him to the secure command HQ of the rebellion, several hundred miles away. Fighting for the town was mad, he thought... but what was war but madness? As he closed the door of the ligher, he mused to himself, wondering if he would ever see the fair town of New Coronet in its current state again. He had staked his political reputation on the prudent approach of raising an army and not directly challenging the Empire, but it remained to be seen if the faction who believed they should militarily challenge the Empire as soon as possible would be victorious. It seemed likely to Thomas, as the the lighter began to move off, that if the town was held, he would not remain first citizen.
