USD Counterstrike

"Prest à combattre fera defection,
Chef aduersaire obtiendra la victoire :
L'arriere garde fera defention
Les deffaillans mort au blanc territoire."

"Ready to fight one will desert,
The chief adversary will obtain the victory:
The rear guard will make a defense,
The faltering ones dead in the white territory."

Nostradamus, Century IV 75

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[Photo courtesy of the United Systems Directorate]

News from the front.

After having the bulk of their invasion fleet repelled at the Battle of Splintered Rock, Myrmidon forces began a series of harassing raids on USD positions, including the destruction of water vaporators on May 11.

By the third week of May, the United Systems Directorate commenced large scale operations against the Myrmidon ground forces that had established themselves in remote regions of the planet.

From an intercepted Myrmidon transmission the basic facts were gleaned:

In the early hours of the morning of May 20, before the temperature in the desert began to rise, the well-prepared United Systems Directorate forces launched a three pronged attack on a Myrmidon Outpost located in the deep desert.

Elements of the Myrmidon forces, the 1st and 3rd Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol, put on a spirited defense, but retreated to the mountains as their position was overrun.

When the Myrmidons saw that the day was lost their commander called in a strike from plasma cannons in orbit, covering their retreat, disabling the outpost they were forced to abandon, and baking the sands white in the process. Anyone lingering in the area would have been caught in the barrage.

[Intercepted transmission - Myrmidon Order]

The official death toll has not been released. The Constable's Report read as follows:

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Date: May 26
Title: "The Constable's Report"
Source: Splintered Rock

My Fellow Offworlders,

I have been informed by Colonel Collins, Commander of the United Systems Military Forces stationed on Al Raqis that they have successfully conducted a search and destroy operation against Myrmidon forces. The Myrmidon assault group had retreated to the desert after their unsuccessful attempt to take the North Lowport of Al Raqis, the area known to many of you as Splintered Rock.

Colonel Collins reports that the Myrmidons had established a temporary base while they marshalled their forces. The Colonel had received intelligence that the Myrmidons would attack again within a matter of days and so he authorized an attack once his reconnaissance teams reported the Myrmidon base.

The Myrmidon base was incredibly well fortified but after a long battle the Colonel is happy to report his troops have been victorious. Myrmidon forces were able to make an orderly retreat from the area and their whereabouts is currently unknown. Anyone with information concerning the location of Myrmidon troops is asked to contact Colonel Collins at the United Systems Directorate base.

Constable Werribee