[Alpha IC] Fallen Angel - SD 241202.23 Duty Log | DFCO | LtGen. Richard Sharpe

[Peter Miller]

A Mission Post by Lieutenant General Richard Sharpe
Mission: Fallen Angel
Location:
Timeline:

=/= USS Avent Guarde =/=

He stood on a widows walk looking out at the vast vista that was space through the forcefield protected viewport of the Avent Guarde's main viewing gallery on deck thirty. He'd craved solitude after days of being surrounded by people - and he just needed time to find himself.

So much could go wrong with this mission, it was staggering. So much was put to chance, simply because there was no way to outplay the Jem`Hadar, especially when they were this desperate. You just had to make your gambit, and hoped to hell it worked. Had there been any variable that they hadn't considered, Richard didn't know about it - and nor did he want to know at this point.

With an entire combat regiment aboard the Avent Guarde ready for deployment, as well as Captain Denterius and her crew on another starship speeding across the galaxy to get to Carrie Eight and stop these bastards before they massacred all the hostages. Too much time had elapsed, and they were feeling the guilt of each death - but none moreso than Richard. He was mission commander, this was his responsibility, and each death cut him deeply as if someone had taken a knife to his soul.

The plan was very simple. Denterius would visably arrive in orbit and signal that she was here to negotiate. At the same time as her arrival, the Avent Guarde would arrive in the system in the planetary rings of Carrie Seven, and approach the planet from behind. Once close enough, it would fire off the massive drop-ships out of the calterpaults installed on board, and fire them into the planet for rapid deployment of men, armor and light aircraft.

From the deployment stage, the regiment would break into four strike forces, each with their own rally point, to cover each compass point of the base - North, South, East and West. Another pod would be fired containing Major Dunross's special team at her drop point, and her mission would begin in earnest.

There would be no hiding the marines once they were at their jump-off positions, and the Jem`Hadar would have to all be sleeping to not notice them - which would put incredible pressure onto Captain Denterius, something Sharpe hoped she was ready for, because the Jem`Hadar would not welcome their arrival, and he hoped to hell that she could keep her cool and remember her lines on this point "They're here for security." and to keep to that point as much as possible.

There were failsafes for if things didn't go according to plan, and frankly, Richard wasn't expecting them to. It was a military operation, nothing ever goes to plan.

If things went south, and the away team was compromised or the Jem`Hadar started killing, Sharpe and his marines would attack from all four points at the exact same time. There was no way the Jem`Hadar could deflect all of them, whilst being bombarded by mobile artillery, and attack aircraft. It would be slow-going for the ground forces, if the defenses weren't taken out before the breach could happen - but there'd be no choice.

The real hope was that Denterius could keep them going long enough for Dunross to disable the systems to allow for a full on breach. Once the breach happened, Denterius's major role would then become keeping the high level Jem`Hadar occupied long enough for a rescue operation to enter the HQ building and liberate the hostages. If things weren't going her way, she was under orders to extract who they could by transporter lock, and get the hell out of there. Ground combat was not what Naval forces were trained for.

So much to go wrong, and all of it resting on Richard's broad shoulders - like the burden of Atlas. It was times like this that Richard truly felt the weight of the three stars on each side of his collar, but these were the 'rewards' of a successful career, weren't they? Greater risk and greater opportunities for failure. God help him if he ever got 4....

A quiet beep from his comm badge told him that his peaceful moment had come to an end. "General, we've dropped out of warp around Carrie Seven. No signs of detection."

So, the Chekov manouver had worked then.

"Very well, all marines to stations, deploy the dropships once in range for launch." Sharpe said, moving off to get into his OD's. He never did like staying behind, and he wasn't going to start now.

=/= End Log =/=

Lt. General Richard Sharpe
Deputy Fleet Commander
Alpha Fleet