The Battle of Sutrah was a small engagement during the Alliance-Syndicate War between the Alliance fleet and the Syndicate Worlds Mobile Defense Force at Sutrah. The battle began with the drastically outnumbered Syndicate force retreating, leaving mines after them to lure the Alliance into a trap. Geary spotted this trap, though his control over the fleet wavered when he ordered a group of warships back into formation after they left to pursue the Syndic force. Despite Geary's best efforts, the ships were destroyed.
The rest of the engagment focused on an attack on a Syndic POW camp. It was here that Geary rescued Captain Falco, a move that would prove disastrous for the Alliance fleet and many of its sailors.
Prelude[]
After leaving Kaliban, Geary once again guessed correctly that the Syndics wouldn't expect Geary to go to Sutrah. He was once again able to double guess the Syndics, though Sutrah still angled way from Alliance territory.
This constant moving away from Alliance territory was starting to irritate some commanders, most notably Numos and Faresa. However, the Syndics were not prepared for geary when he eventually attacked their military base in Sutrah.
Battle[]
Space Battle[]
The space battle was a resounding defeat for the Alliance forces, because Anelard, Cuirass, Baselard and Mace chose to disobey orders. This was the biggest example of rebellion within the Alliance fleet until the mutiny at Strabo, after this battle.
A numerically inferior Syndic force was waiting outside of the jump point began retreating when the Alliance arrived. Geary gave orders not to give chase, which angered some captains. The 4 ships broke ranks and began to give chase, unaware that they were speeding into a trap.
Though Geary worked out that they were headed to a minefield, his warnings came too late to save the 4 ships, which were destroyed despite attempting to turn. After the ships were destroyed, Geary sent in the Second Destroyer Squadron to search for survivors. The Sydnic force retreated, leaving the Alliance ready for an attack on the Syndic military bases.
Ground Assault[]
Under the command of Colonel Carabali, the marines now formed a battle plan of their own. The Alliance warships orbited around Sutrah five, where the POW camps were located, and sent down shuttles. The POW camp was quickly captured, and the prisoners released.
The warships orbited Sutrah five once, after which the marines had prepared the shuttles for an escape from the planet. Geary ordered a launch against Sutrah Five's moons, which Geary noticed had some kind of weapons systems installed on them. A fragment of the moons hit Sutrah Five three kilometres from the base.
Rione then noticed that the fleet hadn't checked outside the camp for any issues. After scanning, Carabali realised that there were mines prepared to release chemicals into the atmosphere once the number of humans in the camp reached a certain point. The marines fried these mines, then left.
Aftermath[]
The release of Falco from prison would cause problems when he later led a mutiny at Strabo. This mutiny was partly caused by the destruction of Anelard, Cuirass, Mace and Baselard, but also Geary's view that captured Syndics shouldn't be executed, his new way of fighting and because he was not travelling towards Alliance territory, he was travelling away from it.
Another result of this battle was that Rione was more widely respected, at least by the Marines.