Duty Log | Gen. Sharpe | "The Battle for 'Harpers' Ridge"

Posted on 241509.05 @ 3:57am by General Richard Sharpe

Mission: The Krigoran War [GQ]

OOC: Dedicated to the memory of those who fought in the Pacific Campaign in WW2 75 years ago. Your courage and self-sacrifice secured a future for countless generations.

“Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.” - Winston Churchill

The time had come, the plans were in place, the timing down to the wire. The ragged, hammered, tired and persecuted remains of the 89th MECH would perform one last massive feat of arms. The outcome of the fight would determine who walked away from this field of honour with integrity, and who wouldn't walk away at all. So much had contributed to this moment, this defining clash of military might.

The combined might of the Krigoran military of the east was about to pound against the shore of this augmented Brigade. To the west, at the exact same time as this engagement, the combined forces of the MEF would push across the river and hammer the Krigoran army in the west. This was Sharpe's last and great role of the dice. Months of fighting, of being pushed back, of being held on the defensive were over. The marines of the 3rd MEF would either be victorious, or would be driven off this world.

Everything hinged on whether Richard Sharpe, a man famous for loathing and despising Starfleet Intelligence, trusted the report he'd had from SFI about the potential for the Krigorans to be using airborne micro-bugs to listen in on all conversations in the very air. He'd taken it with a pinch of salt, but decided that no other theory made sense, so had taken a chance - now he'd see if both his trust in SFI and his military strategy were good enough.

Lt Colonel Matt Hams, the defacto commander of the 89th MECH, approached Sharpe. "We're in position sir. The Krigorans think we're retreating, and they're pursuing as you anticipated." He said, almost disbelieving his own report.

"Thank you Colonel." Sharpe said, standing on a rocky alcrop near the front, but not quite there. He wore his famous heavy cavalry sword, the massive long blade he always wore into battle. "Just remember your military history, Hams, if you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn't plan your mission properly - and this fight will be anything but fair."

Hams merely nodded. "We await your go order, sir."

Sharpe nodded, and clasped his hands behind his back and looked out over the vista, as he watched the Krigoran army of the east surge like a vast ocean of soldier and mechanised force towards the killing ground. He would wait for the last possible moment, and spring the trap.

The mock retreating elements were doing a damn good job of convincing the Krigorans that the entire brigade was on the retreat. They jumped up over a blind bluff naturally formed in the terrain, behind which the entire brigade had formed up and was ready to open a massive firestorm.

"Sir?" Hams asked, waiting impatiently as he watched the massive horde surge forward.

"Wait for it..." Sharpe said.

The horde got closer and closer.

"Sir?" Hams said, somewhat more insistent.

"Not yet." Sharpe said.

The massive army were virtually on top of them, and they were almost ready to surmount the bluff.

"Sir!" Hams shouted with alarm.

"NOW!" Sharpe snapped into his comm.

The order had barely gone out when the collective tension of every marine in the valley exploded out and as one, the entire Infantry battalion rose up over the bluff and opened fire on the arriving Krigoran troops, with energy and projectile weapons fire, from both light and heavy weaponry. The mortars opened up, raining down photonic shells into the massed ranks of Krigoran military.

Further back, the artillery opened fire with their precision timed ordinance into the frey, with the multi-launchers - the shotgun of the Brigade Commander - opened up with hundreds of micro-ordinance down into the valley. The tank battalion, unleashed from weeks of stagnation, burst out from both left and right flanks of the valley, rolling down the hillside into the battlefield, firing at both their counter-parts and the amassed military.

The LAATs circled around behind the Krigoran mass and strafed them from behind, causing mass chaos and slaughter, as elements of the 32CAS Squadron fired massive salvos of micro-torpedoes into the vulnerable logistic train and command and control areas left exposed by the rush forward.

Within the first two minutes of the engagement, the Krigoran leadership of the army of the east was completely decapitated and over fifty-five percent of its fighting strength was decimated. They just couldn't cope, and whilst some kept trying to fight forwards, others were trying to flee, others still trying to surrender.

Further to the west, the sheer scale and surprise of the attack overwhelmed the defenders on the opposite bank. The mass of armour that charged over the three remaining bridges totally took the laid back defenders by surprise - as it was coupled with a massive artillery and air bombardment. It was a rolling thunder that appeared to have no end as General Trident pushed everything he had forward with no caution or reserve. He had his orders, and he would push as hard as Sharpe said to push.

Sharpe surveyed all he had wrought from his position. He was impassive and stoic as he stood with his hands clasped behind his back. A random shot struck the base of the stone alcrop he stood on, but he didn't flinch. His school of command had always been that the officer was always in the front, leading by example. If he ran away from the danger, how could he expect his men to stay and fight? It was a philosophy that endeared him to his men, and was the bain of his staff and superiors.

After an hours fighting, there was little to no resistance left from the once formidable Krigoran army of the east. What remained of its rear echelon forces were running hard back east, and the 89th were mopping up stragglers and leading prisoners away. This really had been a rags to riches story for the 89th MECH - arriving into this serene valley, only to be ambushed, nearly wiped out - only to pull it back from the breach and bring about a truly heroic victory.

"My compliments on your victory, Colonel Hams." Sharpe said, saying the first words he'd needed to say since the attack began. "Please secure the area, and prepare your brigade to move out towards the east coast."

"Thank you sir." Hams said, who looked taken aback by the sudden compliment, and change in Sharpe's tone to a somewhat formal politeness. He couldn't ignore the wording there - that this was now his Brigade to command.

"Please note in the log that the battle here was for Harper's Ridge." Sharpe said, as an LAAT arrived nearby, with medics jumping out to tend to the wounded. Sharpe stepped aboard the craft, placing a hand atop his sword hilt.

Hams and the assembled officers saluted the departing General as the LAAT took off - heading towards the west.

= End Log =

Gen. Richard Sharpe
CG, 3rd MEF