Joint Log | Gen. Sharpe & Col. Towers | Extraction

Posted on 241408.15 @ 11:51pm by General Richard Sharpe & Colonel Adam Towers

Mission: Insurrection [Fleet Plot]

=*= BEGIN LOG =*=

The forces on the campus were clearly confused, and it showed in their tactics. The annihilation of the comm hub was just as worrisome to them as the commotion going on at the prison on the other end. The problem was that the comm center was definitely a higher priority to protect, but the attack on the prison was what they had prepared for weeks ago.

And then again, there really wasn't much of a comm hub left to protect, after Towers' explosives had turned the structure into a pile of rubble.

This allowed Towers and his small team to pick off a good number of the reinforcements heading towards the prison, causing more confusion. Clearly if there was someone competent commanding the garrison, he was either dead or still asleep.

Sharpe made his way out of the prison, following the corridors that they'd cleared previously, with Sarah in tow. They moved with haste, but with deliberate caution. By now, Sharpe had given Sarah a hand phaser, and he still had his Sig Sauer out. They were not intercepted as they made their way to the 'entrance' that Sharpe and his team had created. At the entrance-way, his team were waiting, holding the extraction point until their boss arrived.

"All clear boss, we tagged them and once they were out of the prison, beamed aboard the Hawk." The senior one reported.

"Good." Sharpe said, and placed a tag on Sarah. "See you soon, honey." He said, and she dematerialised once he released the tag. "Get Towers on the comm, tell him mission complete, and to bug out via the plan."

The marine frowned as he tried to obey the order. "Signal's jammed. I can't get through to the Colonel."

"Shit!" Another marine called out, pointing. Armored vehicles were beginning to move through one of the gates into the compound. A mix of personnel carriers and light tanks.

"Well, that makes things a tad more interesting." Sharpe replied, frowning. "We're going to have to improvise, since we don't have any anti-tank weaponry. We need to get to Towers, where's the jamming coming from?"

"There's no way to tell, but it's strong enough that it isn't some jackass with a portable unit running around out there." The marine replied. The presence of the vehicles seemed to give the garrison some confidence and they began rallying to them, leaving the still burning comm hub behind as they realized the bulk of the action was happening closer to the prison. This gave Towers and his team a chance which they took, hauling ass down from their roof cover and sprinting out towards the prison, using other buildings for cover. It would take them a minute to get there running at full speed.

However, they were spotted by the UFP guards, who were now more or less reorganized. They began firing at anything that moved that wasn't with the main group.

"Lay down covering fire!" Sharpe snapped, catching a tossed assault rifle, and taking a knee, looked down the scope to make sure his shots hit. The M4A1 allowed him to pick his rate of fire, which he did by selecting three round burst, rather than full automatic.

Each building provided cover, but in the space between, it was a hail of phaser blasts. Towers' men didn't return fire as they simply couldn't risk the extra seconds out in the open. Eventually they were forced to stop as the hail of fire was simply too intense. Enemy soldiers, properly formed and supported now, began spilling into the streets to hunt the three marines down. Two dozen hugged the two light tanks which began moving towards Sharpe's position.

Sharpe studied the troopers and the tanks. Having commanded combined armor/infantry in the past, he was well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of armored vehicles. These didn't appear to be marine spec issue vehicles, but rather light crowd suppression vehicles used by security forces. They were not tracked, like a marine vehicle would be, but rather used repulsor technology, so that they were not impeded by debris on the ground.

"Jones, can you make me some sticky bombs, but instead of a thermal charge, can you put an energy dampener on them?" Sharpe asked the only other demo guy on the team.

"Sure boss, but how're we going to attach them to the tanks?"

"Leave that to me, you go make them." Sharpe said. "Thomas, bring up the M249, and let the infantry have it."

"You got it boss." Replied the heavy infantryman, as he brought up the light machine gun, deployed the bi-pod on the barrel, and started firing into the infantry.

As Sharpe predicted, the infantry fell back when they started taking casualties from the heavy weapon, falling back to behind the tanks, which moved forward to protect the infantry. Very typical tactic - believing that the tank was invulnerable.

"Sonic Grenades!" Sharpe barked, pulling the pins on three of the little round balls, and throwing them towards the tanks. These would scramble audio receptors, allowing temporary distortion for a few valuable seconds.

The light tanks opened fire. It was difficult to aim at such a small target as a small handful of marines, and both photon shells missed, but were still close enough to send up clouds of debris and make a hellish noise.

Everyone, including the enemy infantry, stopped to look at a loud crackling noise. One of the thinner, taller buildings near where Towers was pinned down had begun to topple over. Smoke drifted out the windows as it fell, as Towers had placed something dangerous on the main support pillar.

"Timber!" One of Sharpe's marines yelled in glee as the building collapsed, right into the middle of the street. A few infantry were crushed, but most had simply scattered, allowing Towers a few precious seconds to move his position a little closer to Sharpe's.

"Charges ready boss!" Jones said, handing them to Richard.

Richard accepted them, primed one, and then using a superb overarm toss, landed one on the top of one of the tanks. Given that it was sticky, it remained in place as it went off - activating the energy dampening field around it - disabling two tanks electronic systems, causing them to drop down onto the floor as their repulsor systems failed. The infantry around them lost the ability to fire their weapons, as they too were drained of energy.

The effect was, of course, temporary, but it took that chunk of combatants out of the fight for a few minutes. Towers again used the opportunity to run closer. He was now clearly visible, the three marines at the building on the edge of the campus, but now it was all open field from where they were to Sharpe's position outside the prison. Every few seconds was punctuated by the echoing bark of Chase's .50 caliber sniper rifle taking someone's head or limb off.

"God damn it Towers." Sharpe grumbled. They were all out of party tricks, it would be traditional combat tactics from here on out. Crossing an open field under a cover of suppressing fire from his people. If Towers didn't make a break for it before they got the tanks operational again, they'd be completely screwed.

Which Towers clearly understood, as he was no fool.

"This is it, guys. The fastest sprint you'll ever have to make in your lives. Ready?" Towers said. The two marines nodded, looking grim.

"Go!" He yelled. The three of them steeled themselves and ran, not bothering to fire for the same reason as before. Slowing down, even a fraction of a second, could get them killed.

"SUPPRESSING FIRE!" Sharpe barked, his old sergeant's voice getting the best damn work-out possible. All the weapons they had barked out on full automatic, providing covering fire for the marines as they dashed across the open ground.

Phaser beams heated the air around Towers as he ran, not risking a glance to his left. Chunks of dirt were vaporized and sprayed around at his feet as some of the soldiers shot low, aiming for their legs.

One beam ricocheted off the bat'leth slung on his back, warping the metal slightly. And then they were there, all three marines diving and rolling down behind cover, tumbling out of the way of the maelstrom of enemy fire. They had run the gauntlet, and survived.

Towers rolled onto his back, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "Now what?" He managed to ask.

"Now, we get the hell out of dodge." Sharpe said, and whacked an isolinear tag onto Towers' chest. A moment later, they all dematerialized, and reappeared in the transporter room of the Hawk.

"Transport complete." Said the transporter officer.

Sharpe got up off the platform from his kneeling position and spoke into the comm that the transporter chief was using. "Sharpe to bridge, get us the hell out of Sol space, fast as you can."

"Yes, sir." The voice came back, sounding more than a little nervous. The deck lurched under their feet momentarily until the inertial dampers caught up.

Towers looked around and counted. All present and accounted for. Chase had broken from cover as soon as Towers had, and Sharpe had waited just long enough for him to get in on the transport signal. The Colonel sagged with relief.

"Well, that could've gone a little better." Sharpe said, looking back at the crumpled heap that was the seven man squad. "But we got everyone out, and we're all sort of here, so I call that a win. Stow your gear in the armory, then go shower, grab chow and rest. Once we rendezvous with the USS Obama and offload our cargo, we're going back."

"Going back? For what?" Towers raised an eyebrow. The other marines didn't stay to listen to the answer. Right now they didn't care.

"Full briefing in eight hours, Colonel." Sharpe said. "In the meantime, I have a call to make. Rest of you, dismissed."

Towers sighed.

=*= END LOG =*=

General Richard Sharpe

&

Colonel Adam Towers
Former CO, 5th MEU
Starfleet Marine Corps