Operation SCOUR

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Operation: SCOUR was the drive by Devlin Stone's allied coalition to destroy the Word of Blake and liberate Terra, thus ending the Jihad.

Overview

While a number of planets were liberated by coalition forces before the beginning of 3077, Operation SCOUR didn't begin until the 10th of January 3077, when the forces on the Free Worlds League front assaulted the worlds of Acubens and Wasat.

A notable exception to Operation SCOUR were any forces from the Capellan Confederation and their Trinity Alliance allies, the Magistracy of Canopus. Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao of the Capellan Confederation and Magestrix Naomi Centrella-Liao of the Magistracy stated early in 3076 that their respective nations would not be joining the allied coalition assembled by Stone, but that CCAF and MAF units would not interfere with coalition efforts to liberate Confederation worlds. As such, while the Capellans and Canopians fought a campaign to liberate a number of worlds, the campaign on the Capellan border of the Word of Blake Protectorate wasn't a part of Operation SCOUR.

Draconis combine Front

3077

The first campaign of the Combine front of Operation SCOUR was the assault on Telos IV, a planet with a long history of passive resistance to occupation.

The attack on Asta performed by coalition forces led by elements of Clan Ghost Bear on the 18th of March led to the surprise rescue of General Andrew Redburn, the noted Federated Suns and Federated Commonwealth officer believed to have been killed during the Word assault on Tukayyid in the opening stages of the Jihad. Redburn was rescued from a Word of Blake prison camp located on Asta and joined Devlin Stone's general staff, working alongside Victor Steiner-Davion initially before taking over as executive officer to Belle Lee.

While the recovery of General Redburn was a noted success for the Draconis Combine front of Operation SCOUR, the Combine front also saw a tragedy unfold when a miscalculation on the part of the Draconis Combine front field commander saw an orbital bombardment intended to strike at the Word of Blake defenses on Nashira instead vaporized half of the Kyoto City, the planetary capital. Civilian populations were not just innocent bystanders during the campaigns on the Draconis Combine front, either; at the end of May, the population of the recently-liberated world of Sabik rose up and stormed the planetary HPG complex, inflicting critical damage on the transmission equipment and killing the majority of the staff before coalition forces could respond.

The Draconis Combine saw a number of incidents of tension - and more than tension - between coalition forces theoretically on the same side for the campaign; perhaps the most infamous of these occured on Styx in mid-May, when the commander of the Lyran 19th Arcturan Guards responded to a Blakist ambush that savaged the 1st New Ivaarsen Chasseurs by ordering a nuclear bombardment of the Styx Protectorate Militia HQ complex - a complex located in a city, and which saw the entire city destroyed and a number of mines in the local area collapsed. The off-hand remark given by the officer responsible, that "they're just Dracs, nobody important" was widely reported. In August, a case of friendly-fire saw Com Guard artillery inflict a devastating strike on the Ryuken-ni regiment, killing the Ryuken commanding officers; the Combine forces responded by launching an immediate attack on their coalition allies.

The campaign for Quentin, an important producer of military hardware, was one of the most difficult campaigns for the Draconis Combine task force. Initial landings on the planet went well, but a couple of weeks later in mid-May terrorist bombings struck three task force DropShips in tandem with a Manei Domini attack aimed at the task force commanders. Commanding the campaign directly was Kanrei Kiyomori Minamoto, who brought in specialist teams from the ISF and the Order of Five Pillars to hunt down terrorist operatives while regular forces conducted house to house searches for Blakist insurgents. Complicating an already difficult campaign was the insertion of several more Level IIs of Manei Domini troops onto Quentin by a small Blakist fleet in late May. When the Blakist forces began making widespread use of biological weapons against the coalition troops on Quentin Minamoto responded by instituting martial law, which increased the friction between the coalition forces and the local population. Minamoto's troops managed to finally corner and destroy the 47th Shadow Division on Quentin in late July, only to have the local population rise up against the coalition forces as a result of the heavy-handed treatment dealt out during the campaign. This led to General Belle Lee having to replace Minamoto's garrison forces with elements of the Com Guard to try and reduce tension.

Federated Suns Front

3077

Operations on the Federated Suns wing of Operation SCOUR began inauspiciously on the 1st of February 3077 with an allied assault on the factory world of Demeter. Unfortunately for the allies, the campaign on Demeter rapidly bogged down into a brutal quagmire, in contrast to the relatively quick starts seen on the other major fronts.

Allied scouts on the Federated Suns front raided the Protectorate world of Towne on the 12th of February and confirmed the presence of two regiments of Protectorate Militia forces on the planet, as well as a DropShip facility that the Blakists were using to create Pocket WarShips from converted civilian vessels. In a harbringer of things to come, the scouts also confirmed the presence of a functioning SDS network in the Towne system. Two weeks later coalition troops on the Federated Suns front were deployed to liberate the world of Algot, only to find Capellan forces already present and contesting the world. Following a request from Devlin Stone, the coalition forces withdrew from the Algot system, leaving the battle to the Capellans.

Fighting on the Federated Suns front of Operation SCOUR was fierce, and the destruction of one of the few WarShips left to the Federated Suns Navy, the Fox-class WarShip FSS Indefatigable, to a fully-operational SDS network in the Hean system in late May confirmed that the Word of Blake were deploying SDS networks in multiple systems, adding credence to reports that the Capellan Confederation had lost the Feng Huang-class CCS Franco Martell to a similar SDS in the Halloran V system earlier in the year.

While the Capellan Chancellor had stated that CCAF forces wouldn't interfere with allied coalition efforts to liberate Protectorate worlds, this wasn't the case for Capellan resisters, insurgents and nationalists on worlds within the Protectorate; this was brought home to the allied coalition when the allied assault on Tigress saw both the Protectorate forces and Clan Nova Cat forces take massive casualties when several dirty nuclear devices were detonated along a major transportation hub on the planet, as well as several nearby cities. It was originally believed that the indiscriminate use of nuclear devices was an act by Blakist forces, until an investigation revealed that Capellan guerillas were responsible.

The campaign for Achernar in June saw the planetary governor surrender in the face of inbound allied coalition troops, only to have the Protectorate Militia mutiny and take up fortified positions in and around the West Fabrication Facility, an IndustrialMech plant owned by Achernar BattleMechs that the Word of Blake had upgraded to produce BattleMechs. The Federated Suns front task force was forced to fight the Militia within the factory complex itself, which resulted in the facility being destroyed. In contrast with the difficult campaigns for Achernar and Hean, the arrival of Devlin Stone and Stone's Liberators on Buchlau on the 1st of September saw the world surrender without a shot being fired.

Free Worlds League Front

3077

The first strikes of Operation SCOUR were those made on the Free Worlds League front, when allied forces hit the worlds of Acubens and Wasat on the 10th of January 3077.

The Free Worlds League front was particularly active during mid 3077, with campaigns seeing the liberation of Shiloh, New Hope, Wing and Kalidasa in the space of a few weeks. Shiloh was liberated by allied forces which included elements of Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Wolf, while the Com Guard led the assault that recaptured Kalidasa. The campaigns for Wing and New Hope were particularly quick campaigns - the government on New Hope had already overthrown their Blakist rulers when allied coalition forces arrived to liberate the world, while the defending 3rd Free Worlds Guards on Wing chose to defect to the Principality of Regulus when faced by an imminent allied coalition assault.

There were also reversals on the Free Worlds League front; one such case was the deployment of a mixed force of mercenaries and pirates to Marcus implemented by the Word of Blake. This mixed force managed to quickly recapture a world that the allied coalition forces had only recently liberated, forcing the coalition troops to retreat back to the world of Dieudonne in August.

Complicating operations on the Lyran Alliance and Free Worlds League fronts of Operation SCOUR was an invasion of the Duchy of Tamarind at the end of August by forces from the Buena Archonette. Despite condemnation from both Tharkad and the Duchy, several worlds were captured by the Buena Archonette military, drawing attention and resources away from SCOUR.

Lyran Alliance Front

3077

The first assaults on the Lyran Alliance front of Operation SCOUR began with Duke Robert Kelswa-Steiner's forces assaulting Cor Caroli on the 21st of January 3077; the planetary assault took less than a week to liberate Cor Caroli, and was rapidly followed by an assault on Gacrux.

Operations on the Lyran Alliance front suffered a setback in early May when assassins from the Manei Domini managed to successfully kill most of the senior officers commanding Group III of the Lyran Alliance task force. This left command of Task Group III in the hands of the social general Thomas Hogarth, who was the most senior officer remaining despite an indifferent military career.

Complicating operations on the Lyran Alliance and Free Worlds League fronts of Operation SCOUR was an invasion of the Duchy of Tamarind at the end of August by forces from the Buena Archonette. Despite condemnation from both Tharkad and the Duchy, several worlds were captured by the Buena Archonette military, drawing attention and resources away from SCOUR.

Liberation of Terra

Task Force CRONUS

Coalition Forces:

Lyran Alliance - Fox-class LAS Robert Marsden

Draconis Combine - Tatsumaki-class DCS Lair of Mighty Wyrms

Ghost Bear Dominion - Leviathan II-class CGB Great Bear, Nightlord-class CGB Ursus Major

Clan Snow Raven - Conqueror-class CSR Ark Royal, Aegis-class CSR Blue Quest, York-class CSR Corvidae, Whirlwind-class CSR Drake

Clan Jade Falcon - Aegis-class CJF Blue Talon, Black Lion-class CJF Jade Aerie and CJF White Aerie, Congress-class CJF Green Lantern, Sovetskii Soyuz-class CJF Hawker

Clan Wolf - Black Lion-class CW Stealthy Kill

Consisting primarily of Clan WarShips, Task Force CRONUS was charged with the neutralization of the Blakist's Titan Yards. While viewed by many as a relatively easy precursor for the heavy fighting to come, the seat of the Word's WarShip and aerospace production and maintenance facility in the Terran system was equipped with a fully functional Caspar II Drone network and number of the deadly "Dragon's Breath" Multiple Capital Missile Launch Systems.

Jumping into a Pirate Point near the yards, with the Lyran and Combine vessels serving as reserve command ships and the Clan forces split into two naval "Stars", one consisting of the Ghost Bears and Ravens, the other the Jade Falcons and Wolves, the Coalition forces came under attack almost immediately. Initially facing waves of maned and drone AeroSpace Fighters and long rang missile attacks, the Coalition ships soon came under fire from a horde of maned and drone Pocket WarShips and as well as the Essex-class CSV Deathblow, Dante-class CSV Narbonne and Suffren-class CSV Manchester, three Com Guard WarShips salvaged from Case White.

While losing the Blue Quest and Green Lantern during the height of the inital Caspar drones assault, the Coalition forces were able to steadily advance on the shipyard's facilities with the Combine's Lair of Mighty Wyrms and Dominion's massive Great Bear able to get their fighters within striking distance of the main Aerospace docks. Unfortunately, what appeared to be the crippled remains of an ore processing facility was in fact the Blakist's attempt to their take their Q-Ship concept to the next level, with a "Dragon's Breath" multi-missile station unleashing multiple waves of nuclear tipped and ECM equipped Peacekeeper missiles at virtually point-blank range, with the mighty Leviathan overwhelmed and destroyed within moments. With the Coalition continuing its assault, the Hawker fell prey to another hidden station, while the Corvidae and Stealthy Kill went down in the face of continued Caspar drone attack groups.

While ultimately successful and providing value experience for the assault around Terra, Task Force Cronus paid a heavy price. Lasting little over four hours, over half a dozen ships were destroyed and the survivors suffered heavy damage, with hopes totally dashed that ships of Cronus would be able to assist those of Taskforce Earthbound.

Bibliography

• Jihad: Final Reckoning
• Jihad Hot Spots: Terra