Firebase Rorke
1330 hours local
An abandoned, leaky ferrocrete building which a generous soul might call a "mess hall"
"Gentlemen, ladies." Major Jaffray's Northwind brogue cuts through the light chatter inside the shelter you've been using as a briefing room. "I assume that you've all been availing yourselves of the facilities our Taurian hosts have so graciously provided us?" A general round of laughter runs around the room as you all ruefully take in the drab, peeling walls of the abandoned bunker works you have appropriated for yourselves. As with everything in the military, the invasion of New Vandenburg has been, for Echo Company at least a game of 'hurry-up-and-wait'. After neutralizing the areodrome on Locke and turning the base over to SLDF security teams, you re-boarded the Gwain and followed the remainder of the invasion force down to the planet. You were immediately assigned to watch over the flank of the 279th BattleMech Division, at a lonely outpost along a moderately-tall mountain range. You spent the days in paperwork and Mech repair, taking breaks on occasion to watch the astoundingly large wandering herds of Branth that roamed the Vandenburg plains, and the multitudinous flocks of various avians that seemed on occasion to almost blacken the sky. Sergeant Kyter, part of 2 Lance's technical staff and an avid bird-watcher, seemed as though he'd found paradise, except for the war on and all. The movement order your force received this morning had interrupted his cataloging and put him well out of sorts.
"For those of you who weren't in the officer's tent when this whole thing was set up, let me explain what's been going on. For the last week, if there's a part of New Vandenburg that can be called nowhere, we've been sitting on the ass end of it." Pause, and polite laughter. "While we've been watching the 279th's butt, they've been beating themselves bloody on the static defenses that these crazy bastards have set up everywhere. The idea behind ROUNDHAMMER was that we'd be able to fix the Taurians attention forward and work our way around their defenses, but they've extended their defensive works so far in every direction that there are no flanks to exploit. So we're working on a new plan, but it seems our hosts aren't going to sit quietly and let us batter through head-on."
"This morning, the 279th committed its entire hither-to untouched right wing in a concentrated effort to overload a portion of the defenses. However, the Taurians waited until they committed themselves, then started pulling an end-around march on the Bunker Hill boys. We managed to pick up their movement off a temporary satellite; they're moving via underground tunnels to stave off orbital strikes, but they have to surface for a few kilometers between each tunnel - they aren't all connected. They're moving to flank the 279th while they're engaged, and we're about the only folks in a position to stop them. Their line of travel takes them southeast underneath that mountain range there," he gestures to the window, "and almost certainly emerging in the foothills. From there, we're absolutely positive that they're going to cross the river we followed up here at a small drift - excuse me, ford - about three kilometers from where we stand. If they manage to bypass us here, they've got a clear shot straight into the rear-right of the 279th and will cut off at least a third of them from our entire supply chain."
"So here's what we're doing. Colonel Jansfield sent us up that river to hold this base and buy time for the rest of the 741st to load up and hot-drop a blocking force. They're dealing with some human wave attacks, but the Colonel assured me that they'd have reinforcements here as soon as possible, and we know for sure that the 279th is trying to break contact and redeploy, so what we really have to do is buy time. We can't hold the base directly - they'll just overrun us. It's your fight, Captain, but I recommend a parthian defense; establish a line at the ford and hold it as long as possible, then fall back in a running battle until you get back here. If we haven't given them a bloody enough nose by then, we hold here as long as we can. On the bright side, I believe there's some Karnovs incoming with some light artillery, so you'll have some fire support at the ford. And for reference, I'm calling this one Operation OBAN unless I think of something better."
"I can take questions, but you'd best make it quick. We've got maybe two hours to set up our positions."
(OOC: I'm out of town Sunday night, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning. Ask questions Sunday, and I'll do my best to answer them. If you have a mechanical or OOC question, please refer to the OOC thread for this briefing. No briefing *.doc this time. The maps available show rolling plains dotted with small rocky formations and a few trees. The river isn't all that big, but it's pretty deep and fast except at the ford. Firebase Rorke itself is a few level 2 buildings, and level 3 Mech hangar, and a large paved area, all surrounded by a low wall.)
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Topic: IC: Briefing, 31 January, 2766 (Read 8173 times)