Post #2687216 in Crusade of Man, a roleplay on RPG

Eugen stood at the top of a cliff, looking down at the mass of men flocking through the passage. Though dark, the artificial lights set up by the White Guard had turned Pluto into quite a well-lit place, looking almost like some subterranean place. Behind Eugen stood the mighty iron-poled flag of the White Guard: a white field with a golden lion roaring victoriously. Though the winds were violent and strong, the flag held on. The strong winds would have almost certainly knocked off Eugen off into oblivion down with the Bolsheviks marching to surrender had it not been for his suit. The suit is made of composite steel, and is eight tons heavy in Terra gravity, but is powered by a nuclear reactor that can still make it very efficient in denser planets. The suit is quite large, standing at two and a half meters tall.

Eugen's face is covered with his gas mask, which did nothing to shield most of the cold. The rest of his head, however, is covered by a metal shell that heated his body. One of Eugen's men came up behind him. "Captain Schmidt," the man said loudly, "We weren't able to locate General Bellum in the enemy's march." "That's fine," replied Eugen. "He isn't going to be doing anything to compromise nor defeat us." "How do you know, sir?" asked the soldier. "I know because I've convinced him that our cause is greater than his government's," replied Eugen, who spoke no further about the matter.

He continued to observe the marching column from above. They were like ants from the heights of the cliff.

They were nearly done. All that was left was the defeat of a small 2000-man Bolshevik force under Colonel Styles, which was composed of the most radical communists among Bellum's armies. Half of the unit was holed up in the fort while another 1000-man force remained outside as a relief force in case the fort was besieged. They were holed up in a good position, however, taking a huge stone fort atop a hill. The White Guard thought that it was a good idea for Eugen to lead his 250-man battery to destroy the entire enemy force and take the fort. That was exactly what he was going to do, and he was going to waste no more time. "Come, soldier," the captain said, "We must take the last fort."

They were only a quarter of the enemy's strength, but Schmidt knew how to handle such a situation. He knew that by besieging the fort, he would put his battery into a terrible position, but he knew how to handle terrible positions. The two men entered a large tracked infantry vehicle, which began to roll out. Eugen was dropped off by a small encampment fifty kilometers away from the fort, where he entered the main tent, where all his officers converged.

"Good day, gentlemen," said Eugen Schmidt. His lieutenants saluted. "At ease, men." The three lieutenants eased themselves and converged around the table. "What's the situation?" he asked. "The hill where the fort stands is formidable," replied one lieutenant, "We can only fire artillery shells from the bottom, but the dangers there is the fact that though they don't have hard-hitting weaponry left to counter our batteries, they still have a superior infantry force with a compliment of tanks which they can use to roll over us, and we'd have no way to counter it." Eugen looked down on the map, which was placed on a metal table. "There's elevated ground over here," said he, pointing to the northeast of the fort. "I know, sir," said the lieutenant, "but the problem is getting up there." "How many climber Titans do we still have left in our battery?" "Five, sir." "That's enough to get men up to that piece of elevated ground. Prepare everything: we move out tomorrow."

The next day, they moved out. Climber Titans were sent out with fifty infantrymen behind them, while the rest of the Artillery Titans and regular artillery were sent to surround the small but tall hill. Eugen's plan had ben executed five millennia ago, and he was certain that the strategy would still work. For one week, his men built a wall of Czech hedgehogs, heavy Belgian gates, mines, and concertina wire, all in the cover of the harsh storms that plagued the planet. A week later, they were prepared, with a few artillery pieces set on the elevated ground by the fort. It was on a dark, stormy night when Eugen gave the command to fire. The guns were pointing a bit off-course to compensate for the strong 80m/s winds.

When Eugen gave the command, the guns lit up one by one. Twenty or so guns lit up from multiple sections of the wall, and it was clear that the fort was being hit. A few hours after the relentless bombardment began, however, the first enemy charge began. The tanks rolled downhill with infantry in an attempt to break out. They numbered five hundred men, according to Schmidt's scanners. They were met with surprise and instant death as hidden machine gun entrenchments tore through the infantry's armor, and as gun-howitzers fired directly at the tanks that started running downhill. The mines exploded and took out tanks and infantry, while surviving tanks were stopped by the Czech hedgehogs and Belgian gates, and were subsequently shot down by the rest of the gun-howitzers. The charge was short-lived thanks to their unpreparedness. A few hours later, a relief force came to relieve Styles' unit under the command of one of Styles' officers, which came charging up the elevated position. They were slow, but got there and caught the soldiers there off-guard, forcing them into a retreat down near the fort's walls, and eventually, down the hill.

Eugen then sent out twenty tanks and fifty men to deal with the situation in order to meet the enemy headfirst while a mobile artillery unit snuck around the back. While a bulk of the 1000-man relief force attacked from the elevated position down to the tanks by the fort, two hundred enemies from the fort attacked the small unit's rear. The climbing Titans moved into position as the rest of the relief force attempted to attack the entrenched White Guard troops. They were defeated, but the entrenched White Guards barely won. Eugen took small units with him to start reinforcing sections that were beginning to collapse, when the entrenched White Guards were given the order to slowly climb the hill through a weak point in their own lines.

The entrenched White Guards, numbering 100 men, infiltrated the fort under Eugen's orders through a small hole in the wall and slaughtered the Bolsheviks inside, including those attempting to attack the small unit from the rear. They lost nothing while the Bolsheviks, who had been blockaded for far too long, lost all of their men inside the fort. Outside the fort, the small White Guard force of fifty men and twenty tanks were being slaughtered when the climbing Titans eventually made it back up the elevated position and sandwiched the 1000-man force. The 100-man unit inside the fort reinforced the 20 tanks while the 50 remaining men under the command of Eugen himself split into two and began to redirect the enemy's assault in all positions. That was when a lucky artillery shell found itself into the Bolshevik camp, destroying all their means of communication. All hell broke loose, and the disorganized Bolsheviks were slaughtered by the small force. Thus was the genius and luck of Eugen Schmidt.

Snippet #2687216

located in The Orion Arm, 5000 AD, a part of Crusade of Man, one of the many universes on RPG.

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