=/\= Anaxis =/\=
The marines regrouped at the RV point, five kilometres west of the main colony. So far, everything had gone reasonably smoothly. The main military base to the north had been taken with relative ease, considerably less well defended than Richard had been lead to believe. The control tower was theirs, as was the airstrip. So far, they’d received sporadic fire from a few sentries along the route, as their transport trucks had rumbled along.
They were very deep routed into the countryside now, with the 92nd Armour now on the field, with their heavy and medium battle tanks rolling down the well maintained roads that lead to the colony proper. However, Richard, ever the pragmatist, thought things had been going too well for this to be a coincidence. Where were the defenders? Why weren’t the Romulan’s rolling out their own defences against them? This was a major outlying world, there should be more defences than this, unless they’d been stripped for another offensive elsewhere.
This reminded Richard of an ancient earth operation during their second world war, called Operation Market Garden. That too had gone extremely well in the beginning. The allied troops had taken all their objectives in good time, and were proceeding well, until the surprise German counter-attack took them all by surprise. Richard was expecting something similar. There was no way the Romulan High Command would allow Anaxis to fall to the Federation unchallenged.
They met up with the MMCV just outside the colony, and Richard jumped down off the back of the truck he was travelling in with the men of 1Plat. Easy
After jumping down, and exchanging salutes with the guard detail outside the Mobile Marine Command Vehicle, he stepped inside to check on the planning. Lt Colonel’s Strayer & Sink, and Colonel Westman were in there, gathered around the flat top holo table, showing the ground layout. After giving Richard a crisp salute, which he returned, he pulled off his gloves and leaned over the table with his colonels.
“Right gentlemen, we’ve done extremely well.” Richard said. “So far, we’ve achieved all objectives with only three dead and five wounded. Better than I’d planned for, considerably better. Very well done Sink in the north on the base.”
“You’re welcome, General.” Sink said, grinning his southern smile.
“Now, the hard one.” Richard said, somberly. “Anaxis colony.”
At that moment, a rather burly Klingon entered the MMCV and popped off a salute to Sharpe. Richard nodded. “Colonel Marlok, nice of you to join us.”
“I’m sorry I’m late, General.” The Klingon Light Colonel grunted. “We got tied up at the crossroads.”
“Not to worry, you came in at the right moment.” Richard said. “We were just about to start discussing Anaxis colony.”
“Good, I’ve got some info on that.” He said. “I’ve looked at a topographical map of the colony, and we’re not going to get the tanks down the roads. There is only one road big enough, and that’s the main one through the colony that runs past the prefecture.” He used the map table to zoom in on the road, and highlight it red. “Beyond that, its going to be up to Colonel Westman’s troops to clear the houses, one by one.”
“Oh brilliant, an entire city, cleared by man to man searches.” Westman said, narrowing his eyes.
“The tanks just don’t fit down the sub-roads. We can get the LDV’s down there, but they’re not as armoured as the tanks, and wouldn’t take much to take out.”
“All the same, its going to take time to clear the whole city. Time we don’t have.” Westman said.
“Well, with the absence of any other plan, we may well have to do it that way.” Richard said. “I for one was hoping it’d be much easier than that.”
“But sir…” Westman began, but Richard held up a hand.
“We will proceed like this, until an alternative presents itself. However, to speed things up, I will contact Major Bourne, and see if we can’t use an AWAC craft to scan the city, to localise hotspots.” Richard said.
“Yes sir.” Westman said.
“Colonel Strayer, take your men to the northern half of the city, Colonel Sink, you get the southern half. Colonel Marlok’s tanks will hold the middle as a retreat point, and will also supply as many LDV’s to the battalions as possible. I will co-ordinate all action with Colonel Westman here in the MMCV.” Richard said, giving his orders.
“Sir yes sir!” The colonels all said.
“Carry on.” Richard said, retiring to the back of the MMCV where his personal quarters were housed, so he could lie down.
=/\= End Log =/\=
Major General Richard Sharpe
CO
1st MEF
