Scout Trooper (Legends)

"What's the last thing to go through an Imperial scout trooper's head when he hits a tree? His afterburner"

- Joke told by Rebel strike team forces on Endor The scout troopers are a specialized type of soldier in the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps, of the Galactic Empire. They're a lightly-armored version of the main soldiers of the Empire, the Stormtroopers, and they are used in scouting and reconnaissance, spying, sniping and infantry support, as well as assassination. They're regarded as the finest snipers in service of the Empire. Although they're effective, they're constantly put into the line of rivalry with their main infantry counterpart, the Stormtroopers. In the Star Wars movies, they debuted in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, where they were stationed in Endor. Although so, Episode VI was the only movie they debuted in. However, their predecessors, the clone scout troopers, appear in Episode III. They're also alternatively known as "Biker Scouts", due to their usage of the 74-Z speeder bike. Due to their superior skills compared to their infantry version (mostly due to their survival and specialized skills), the scout troopers are regarded as one of the most dangerous soldiers of the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps.

Battle vs. Drones (Gears of War) (by Monkey Doctor 33)
Endor

It's a peaceful day for the inhabitants of the Forest-Moon of Endor. This small, forested moon is home to many exotic creatures. From the gigantic Gorax, the ferocious Boar-Wolves, the seemingly-impossible Mount Sorrow, to the forest moon's most well-known species, the adorable Ewoks. They only stand at 1 meter, and they use primitive tools for their own survival. They're the most dominant species on the forest-moon, but now, they, with the other denizens of Endor, will face something they've never seen before.

Endor may also have other races not native to the forest-moon, but the Ewoks and Endor's natives have blended with them, coexisting together. But the newcomers of Endor, don't want to coexist with little bears, walking plants, and idiotic giants.

The newcomers wanted the forest-moon for themselves, and they will leave nothing alive when they take the moon.

In a forest...

"Keep running, my family!" Chief Chirpa said to his family, and his finest hunter, Teebo. They're on the run from Endor's hideous newcomers. The newcomers wield what the general galactic community refer as "slugthrowers", but not just that, they also have considerably strange weapons of war. These newcomers aren't truly a type of species that likes small and cute bear-like creatures. They're war-like creatures, with the one and only will to bring death and destruction to anyone in their path. These newcomers, are named the Locust.

They originate from another world, far, far away that the galactic community has never known before. The world's name is Sera. Humans populated their planet, and waged war against these "newcomers". The humans won, and the Locust needed a new home. And that's why the Ewoks see these raging beasts today.

Chief Chirpa and his family, as well as Teebo have been waddling running for a considerably long time, and the Locusts have been running after them for the same amount of time, without tiring. They've been hardened by war, endured the impossible, and chasing EXTREMELY ADORABLE LITTLE BEARS those primitive, tiny creatures won't be hard. Chirpa's tribe and village, the Bright Tree Village, has been annihilated by the Locust, using their devastating slugthrowers, massive spider-like creatures, strange half horse, half reptillian creatures, flying explosive creatures, and even titanic beasts with giant slugthrowers mounted on them. Chirpa, his family, and Teebo, are also the only few remaining Ewoks alive after the Locust's invasion. And it's still the Locust's second month on Endor. 2 months, and they've prepared an "empire", ready to wage war on anything that comes across them.

"Do not look back, my daughters!" Chirpa, in Ewokese, muttered to his two children, Kneesa and Asha. They've been intensely traumatized by the destruction of their village. They thought that all their lives and dreams are all gone due to the Locust. Behind them, there are 3 Locusts pursuing them. One wears what can only be described as ornamental clothing, and the other two are common foot soldiers of the Locust, the Drones.

The Locusts have been chasing them without stopping, tireless, seemingly, while the Ewoks' short feature made them tire faster. And now, they've tired. And to stop their "pain", the Ewoks hide under the protection of tall grasses, and a big tree. As they begin to catch their breathes, Asha asked her father.

"Father... when will this end?" She asked in a tone of fear, in a feeling of agony, terror like she's never experienced before.

After a few seconds of catching his breathe, Chirpa then answered her daughter with passion, hope, confidence, as well as hope.

"My daugher, it might be a long and dangerous chase, but in the end we will triumph."

"Well, if we survive. I don't believe there are other surviving Ewoks out there." Chirpa's wife said, with a feeling of being concerned.

"Do not worry, my wife, we will sur...." Before Chirpa can finish his words, the Locust pursuers found them. The Kantus grabbed Chirpa up, while the others, except Teebo, backed away in fear and panic.

Teebo, the Bright Tree Village's finest hunter, gets his hunter instincts up, and proceeds to engage the Kantus, attempting to let Chirpa go. However, a Drone behind the Kantus immediately defends the Kantus by shooting him in the gut with an oversized hand-held slugthrower, instantly killing him. When Teebo's body dropped, a blood pool begins to form up around his body, and the two daughters of Chirpa are extremely intimidated by this.

"Do not worry my daughters, these treacherous beasts will pay!" Chirpa shouted in Ewokese to his daughters. The Kantus or the Drones don't understand it, but they seemingly know what to do with him. However, it's not about killing him. Apparently, the Kantus and the Drones are tasked by their "queen" to get Chirpa and his family to the Locust's base alive. The queen seems to have something to do with them.

"Let him go!" Kneesa, the older daughter, and the one daughter that is trained in the art of hunting, shouted to the Kantus. However, Ra-Lee, Chirpa's wife, instead, backed her and puts her behind her, when the Kantus responded by aiming his Gorgon Pistol to Chirpa's head. Although this seems to be real to the Ewoks, it's actually just a "fake threat" the Kantus did, as he knows what to do. He's obeying the queen's orders.

The Locust never truly speak a lot, except for their queen, but the Kantus seemingly muttered something to the other Drones to keep the other Ewoks "in-line" by aiming their Hammerburst II rifles to them.

"What should we do now, mother? They don't understand what we say..." Asha asked Ra-Lee.

"Just... stay calm, and stay behind me. This will be over soon." Ra-Lee replied, and after that, something happened.

An earthquake happened, but the Locust stayed calm. They know what it is, while the Ewoks panic. When the earthquake reaches its "peak", something comes out of the ground. It is a Corpser, but it's no ordinary Corpser, in terms of what it is doing right now. The Kantus and the Drones looked at the Corpser, and out of the hole, comes 2 Theron Guards, and a legendary figure from the Locust Horde, General RAAM. Brandishing his iconic serrated blade, the war-hardened general comes to the Kantus holding Chirpa, followed by his two Therons. The Kantus turned to him, and showed Chirpa, still struggling to get off the Kantus' grip.

RAAM sees Chirpa, and gestured the Kantus to give his still-struggling little body to him. RAAM examined him, turning him around like a powerless doll, and said something to Chirpa.

"Wwweakkk..." RAAM said it in a low tone, but Chirpa actually understands it. He speaks common, or, "English", in Sera's word, but not too much. Chirpa then stopped struggling, and sees RAAM right in the eyes. Then, he turns his eyes to his family, and sees Teebo's dead body, with his eyes clearly horrified.

Ra-Lee sees him, and speaks in Ewokese as loud as hell to him, "What should we do, now?"

"We go...." RAAM replied to Ra-Lee, surprising the Ewoks. RAAM should have never understood Ewokese, but under unknown circumstances, he does.

RAAM then turns him back, and walks back to the Corpser hole, along with his troops. Chirpa isn't released, but he's still under RAAM's hold. The Ewok family tried to reach Chirpa, but the Kantus and the two Therons grabbed them, and followed RAAM into the hole, going to a place... the Ewoks has never seen before.

A week later

'In an Imperial Star Destroyer, near Endor'

'The Command Room'

"How long will it take for you to process the data?" Grand Moff Tarkin asked, with a tone of being worried.

"I don't know, Grand Moff. We've never seen or known any kind of energy like this, it could take weeks." An Imperial Officer replied. Both Tarkin and the officer seemed to be concerned.

"Well right now, we need it within 5 min..." Before Tarkin can finish his words, a Stormtrooper entered the command room, and Tarkin turns his back to him, while the officer gets back to work on the room's computers.

"Grand Moff, Lord Vader...." Before the Stormtrooper can finish his words, Tarkin interrupted.

"He's here? Good. Now, can you please do me a favour by escorting me to him?"

"On you command, Grand Moff."

Like what was said before, the Stormtrooper then escorted Wilhuff Tarkin to Darth Vader's location in the Star Destroyer. His TIE Fighter has just landed there, a few minutes ago. Tarkin goes out of the entrance first, with the Stormtrooper following him. When they're walking, Tarkin can see that the Star Destroyer's personnels are "shell-shocked" with Darth Vader's appearance. Tarkin doesn't know that Vader's arrival is completely unexpected. The message that Darth Vader's about to arrive on the Star Destroy literally has just come 15 minutes ago.

After some minutes of walking, the Grand Moff and the Stormtrooper arrived at the Hangar, where they see dozens of Stormtrooper lining up beside Lord Vader's TIE Fighter. The Stormtrooper that escorted Tarkin wordlessly joined the line of Stormtroopers, blending in with the other white shock troopers in no time. Tarkin then stood his ground, silently standing some meters in front of the TIE Fighter. Some seconds later, the TIE Fighter's entrance is opened, the Stormtroopers tightened their grip on their E-11 Blaster Rifles, and the Apprentice of the Emperor himself goes out of his personal TIE Fighter with the Imperial March Theme going on, while Tarkin looks at Darth Vader himself with a little bit of a concerned feeling.

"Lord Vader. Your arrival is... unexpected, or should I say, too early?" Tarkin questioned him without any fear. Tarkin is one of the few people who are brave enough to speak against Darth Vader himself.

"I know, Grand Moff. But I am here simply to know what is going on with the 'Forest-Moon 'below this Star Destroyer." Vader said straightly to Tarkin, without mentioning any other "problems". Vader knew that his appearance is "unexpected", but he goes straight to the Star Destroyer when he got a "big news of a problem".

"Now, tell me, what did you find there?" After saying that, Tarkin led Vader to the command room, where he's previously been, to show him the problem on Endor. Vader wouldn't actually be concerned for Endor and its cute denizens of little bears and its races, but he's "concerned" about the new "problem" there that can pose a threat to the Empire.

At the command room

"I heard that a group of Imperial researchers and some... Stormtroopers have found something dangerous in this Forest-Moon?" Vader asked Tarkin, who was looking at the command room's computers. The officers and some Imperial scientists have been examining the monitors for a long time, scrolling through things, looking at a bunch of data, and other things.

"Yes, Lord Vader. Me and my men have been trying to identify this new threat. And believe us, they won't be too threatening for us." Tarkin answered with confidence, but Vader quickly replied back.

"It's not about that, Tarkin. It's if they actually spread." After Vader said that, Tarkin is left silent for some seconds. After that, Tarkin finally got an answer.

"Well then, if you don't believe that they're nothing but a lesser threat, it's up to you, my Lord. While we haven't truly seen the physical appearances of these.... abominations, our men on the field reported something of... creatures, standing taller than an average Stormtrooper, bigger, durable, and... nearly unstoppable. But, it would've been none of our concerns, until we really see them directly. And other than that, we found a... considerably unique energy signature on the Forest-Moon, which we can consider new, not native to Endor." Tarkin answered for a long time, and Darth Vader surprisingly isn't bored, giving Vader some details to the "new threat".

"Endor has some magics in it. Especially the Ewoks. It is not a new thing to have such unique 'energy'." Vader replied with a tone of disbelieve.

"Magics, yes. But this one (shows Vader one of the computer monitors), is not. This kind of energy is unique because not just because we have never seen it before, but this energy is able to be used as a fuel. I know the Empire has a lot of fuel stocks, but what makes this 'fuel' special, is that to use it, it requires a special process, which we believe a 'forgotten' civilization managed to know."

"And what do we have to do with this 'fuel'? Why do we need it? And right now, I am asking about the threat."

"I'm not done yet, Lord Vader. This energy itself is a threat. This energy is volatile, and can seemingly 'corrupt' other living beings. It can also seemingly cause a disease, which luckily, we managed to know. One of our Stormtroopers are infected with the disease. But I know that you don't want it right now. Right now, we're focusing on the 'abominations'." Tarkin said again to Vader, straight to his eyes.

Vader then stared at him for 5 seconds, then he looks at his Lightsaber. After he looks at it, he pulls it out and ignites it in front of the Grand Moff's face, surprising him a bit. The Lightsaber's ignition also surprised some officers there, but they didn't turn to see Vader there, as they're afraid Vader'll cut their hands like what his son'll do in the future kill them. And during the Lightsaber's ignition time, Vader said to Tarkin, "Grand Moff, I want you to prepare a squad of scout troopers to investigate the planet. I want them to find those 'abominations', and bring some of their dead bodies back here."

"But, Lord Vader, you know..." Before Tarkin can continue, Vader positioned his Lightsaber near Tarkin's neck.

"Prepare it within 20 minutes. I don't care if there's only one surviving scout trooper, I want to know these 'abominations'." After saying that, Vader turned off his Lightsaber, and walks away from the command room, with Tarkin taking a deep breathe after that.

"Vader, you have no idea what you're up against now." Tarkin muttered, right after Vader left the room.

(The events that happened previously seems familiar)

Expert's Opinion
TBW

To see the original battle, weapons, and votes, click here.