Seth Alpert
Sarna News
Seth Alpert | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Affiliation | Lyran Alliance |
| Profile | |
| Rank | Leutnant-General[1] |
Seth Alpert was the commanding officer of the Sixth Lyran Guards as of 3050.[2]
History[edit]
Marshal Alpert, serving with the Sixth Lyran Guards, was stationed on Althastan in 3050.[2] By 3062, now-Leutnant-General Alpert continued to command the Sixth Lyran Guards and was stationed on Rasalgethi. Alpert was an infantry officer and was a rare example of his kind for having attained command of an entire RCT – let alone one as elite as the Sixth Lyran Guards. While Alpert's early career was publicly shrouded in mystery, this only served to enhance his reputation, and his commanding presence combined with his formidable tactical skills gave him a reputation for success. Privately, Alpert was an ex-member of the Lyran Alliance's Loki intelligence agency who had undertaken a number of covert operations against the Free Worlds League and was known for his ends-justify-the-means mentality enabling him to lie, cheat, and murder without remorse.[1]
FedCom Civil War[edit]
When fighting began between pro-Victor Steiner-Davion and pro-Katherine Steiner-Davion factions in late 3062, Alpert took the neighboring Seventeenth Donegal Guards' refusal to declare support for either side to be a treasonous act against Archon Katherine and began covertly working to undermine them. Alpert's growing paranoia and stringent security measures turned the situation on Rasalgethi sour and, on 14 December, the commander of the Seventeenth Donegal recognized the writing on the wall and began plans for a preemptive strike against Alpert's Sixth Lyran. Disguising their maneuvers as part of a training exercise, the Seventeenth Donegal launched a surprise attack against Alpert's headquarters and Alpert's own capture was only avoided by the fanatical, hodgepodge defense organized by Leutnant-Colonel Della Milner and by the Seventeenth Donegal's decision to not reinforce their primary assault with the forces that had destroyed Alpert's aerospace assets at the nearby Rønne Air Base.[3]
While Alpert was escaping his besieged command center by crawling through air ducts and access tunnels, Milner's counterattack succeeded in recapturing a sizable part of the Sixth Lyran's main base, although few reinforcements came to the Sixth's aid and the Seventeenth Donegal destroyed every resource they could as they were pushed back. Three days of fighting later, Alpert was out of ideas and his troops were nearing exhaustion, so the commander resorted to his Loki training in order to find a solution. Calling upon Rasalgethi's detachment of Lyran Intelligence Corps agents, Alpert ordered a series of headhunting and sabotage attacks in order to decapitate the Seventeenth Donegal and to throw its forces into disarray. While the headhunting attacks only succeeded in eliminating a few officers by taking suicidal risks, the sabotage missions Alpert instigated accomplished their goals and gave the Sixth Lyran Guards the room they needed to fully retake their home base. This quickly proved to be a Pyrrhic victory, as the Seventeenth Donegal simply relocated to the nearby air base and spent the next ten days shelling the Sixth Lyran's position, forcing them into the base's underground bunkers on 2 January 3063. A further two weeks of attempts by the Seventeenth Donegal to storm Alpert's entrenched survivors failed to end the fighting but the collapse of every visible bunker entrance, air duct, and supporting structure by the Seventeenth left few questions regarding the ultimate victor.[3]
The Sixth Lyran Guards held out until the middle of March, even after the arrival of the Victor-aligned Fourth Davion Guards and amidst calls from Alpert's own troops for surrender. However, the untenable situation began to tell on Alpert's men and entire companies began emerging from the bunker complex in order to surrender, much to Alpert's fury. On 22 March, Alpert ordered his closest associates (all current or former intelligence operatives) to find and execute the dissenting members of his own unit, leading to the murder of twenty Sixth Lyran officers and NCOs. Instead of quelling the turmoil, this event lead to a full-scale internal revolt within the Sixth Lyran and by 24 March Alpert and his followers had been arrested, allowing Colonel Theodore Hess to take command of the unit's remnants and officially end the fighting on Rasalgethi.[4]