Duty Log | Gen. Sharpe | "When we stand together"
Posted on 241508.17 @ 11:28pm by General Richard Sharpe
Mission: The Krigoran War [GQ]
"Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head." - Euripides
He couldn't focus, he couldn't speak, he just stared at his friend lying on the floor with a burn-mark on his chest. All sounds and sensations couldn't seem to penetrate his fog. In what felt like forever, his world was just this body on the floor.
"..ral!" Came a voice into the dream that snapped him back to reality.
"What?!" He snarled back, coming to his senses and standing up from kneeling beside his downed friend of four decades. As he rose, three medics raced over to attend to their Colonel.
"Sir, we need orders." Stated a bandaged Colonel Hams, who technically was now in command of the encircled Brigade. But with the addition of the other units into the melee`, Sharpe was now the defacto commander, simply by virtue of being the senior most officer in theatre.
Sharpe paused for a moment, opened a pocket from his jacket and produced a small device. He opened it, and it produced a small high shrill into the room, then went quiet. He then placed the device on the wooden table in the remains of the room that had once been a nice home. Everyone assembled looked at him puzzled.
"I'm testing a theory." Sharpe replied, then turned to the assembled officers. "Colonel Young, I want you to pull your infantry back to behind this point here, make it look like a panicked retreat. Wren, move your assets off the line and bring them up to a position behind the infantry. King, concentrate what's left of your artillery units to focus fire along the entire front, just in front of the infantry. I'll deploy the 5th and 33rd on our rear flank to protect against an encirclement, but it is crucial that they think we're pulling back beyond the bridge."
"What's that going to achieve sir?" Hams asked.
"If I'm right, they're going to do what every single headstrong army will do when they see running troops. They'll pursue to finish them off. In that mad dash for victory, they'll come right into this firing zone..." Richard said, drawing a diagram in the dust of the table, highlighting the area in front of the newly assembled troops. "Once they're in this fire-zone, we bring the rain. Infantry will appear from cover and open fire, artillery will fire ToT into the area, and the armour will hose the ground. Everything you have, will fire into this half-mile stretch of ground." He explained. "Once they're fully engaged, the LAATs and air support will come in behind their forces and take out their rear echelon forces. They will go from the encirclers to the encircled."
"You do realise that they outnumber us, six to one." Wren, who was nursing his injuries, grumbled.
"We're Starfleet Marines, ladies and gents. Defying the odds is what they pay us for." Sharpe retorted.
"Its a bold plan sir." Hams replied, seeing the brilliance of it. Even if it failed, their forces were at least no longer scattered as much as previously.
"Issue your orders guys, but remember, make it look like we're running away. In fact, all orders to your people should be to retreat as fast as possible. Only instruct officers and senior non-coms of the real plan, whilst in an area with one of these." He said, tossing several devices at them.
"Sir, what are these exactly?" Zara asked.
"EM dampening devices." Sharpe explained. "They essentially nullify any EM frequencies in a room, so that if there are any devices in the room, they're nullified. My theory, which sounds insane, is that somehow the Krigorans have microscopic bugs in the very air, which can hear and transmit everything we say. These little dohickies prevent them hearing anything."
The assembled officers looked at each other, and took a device each. They all thought it was far-fetched, but it did fit the facts - somewhat.
"Better get going." Sharpe said, looking out the empty hole that used to be a wall with a window, to survey the battlefield.
= End Log =
Gen. Richard Sharpe
CG, 3rd MEF
