User:RelentlessRecusant/Operation Acrid Gambit

Operation ACRID GAMBIT was the codename for a UNSC counterinsurgency campaign in the Midgard Highlands in 2570. An extended five-week-long running battle lasting for thirty-six contiguous days between UNSC and insurgent forces throughout the Highlands, it finally resolved as a pyrrhic UNSC victory. During the course of the campaign, a regiment-sized insurgent contingent of light infantry combated five UNSC Marine Expeditionary Forces, which were supported by two Navy carrier battle groups and various special operations forces.

Although the counterinsurgency campaign finally oversaw the total and extensive extermination of nearly all insurgent forces present within the area of operations, striking casualties were incurred by the UNSC forces assigned to the campaign, eventually leading to the term "Acrid Gambit" to be synonymous with "Operation Trebuchet" and "Winter Contingency" amongst UNSC officers, which were also associated with appalling UNSC losses.

The Battle of the Midgard Highlands was retrospectively regarded as an exemplar for the nascent notion that the overwhelming technological superiority of the UNSC, especially in terms of air support and orbital support, was not irresistible. Indeed, such a notion had already garnered support during the Human-Covenant War, as evidenced by Operation Torpedo and Operation Prometheus, where UNSC SPARTAN-IIIs were able to achieve their operational objectives and secure strategic victories despite overwhelming Covenant air support and technological superiority. Nevertheless, it took Operation ACRID GAMBIT in order to resume support for the concept that overwhelming force of arms was largely impotent in stemming small and agile guerilla units which chose to embark upon unconventional warfare, not the conventional warfare that air and space support was so effective in.