Operation BATU

Part of Combine-Ghost Bear War
Start Date 3062
Planet Alshain
Result Clan Ghost Bear destroy the Combine invaders and launch counterstrikes.
Factions
(Attacker)
Draconis Combine
(Defender)
Clan Ghost Bear

Overview[edit]

Operation BATU was an unauthorized invasion of the planet Alshain, held by Clan Ghost Bear in 3062. The strike was mostly planned by the Black Dragon Society, but the mastermind behind the operation was Duke Hassid Ricol[1]. Three of the four Alshain Avengers regiments attempted to retake the world for the Draconis Combine, and were obliterated by the Ghost Bears. [2] In fact, the operation was doomed since the beginning, and was little more than a suicide mission for the Avengers.


I applaud the Avengers' audacity, but the battle was over before it had begun
  —  Clan Wolf Khan, Vlad Ward, commenting the operation BATU after.[3]

Preparations[edit]

Three of the Avengers regiments managed to leave their destinations and move to Alshain without attract suspicions, but not the fourth: The Eleventh Alshain Avengers were prevented from joining the assault by Clan Nova Cat forces, thanks to a vision of Zane Nova Cat. They sustained heavy losses and never took off.[4]

Operation BATU was beginning to fall apart barely begun.

The attack[edit]

The Eleventh absence, of course, reduced the Combine force to three quarters of the maximum, but the key of the outcome was the Kuritan "intelligence", which was just the opposite: the Avengers ignored the facts than the Bears had moved their entire forces and civil population to the Inner Sphere, made Alshain their capital, and built an orbital shipyard. Additionally, the clan garrison on planet was much larger than expected. Another key weak point in the Kuritan plan was naval support: the Dragon's Last Tear wasn´t the powerful warship they were tell: The Ursa Major destroyed it easily, and later, a full regiment of the Avengers in space. The last two regiments, trying to escape from the Bear warship, managed to land on planet, some of them making a combat drop, but on the ground they found an apparently unlimited number of Ghost Bear troops and were wiped out. They never stood a chance. As an example, an Alshain native and officer, Tai-i Shiro Kanazawa, piloting an Atlas, was defeated and killed in single combat... by a lone Elemental with armor, Jake Kabrinski, a young ristar. [5]. Some Alshain Avengers survived, starting a guerrilla war, but were finally hunted and eliminated. Even if the Eleventh had joined the force, is very doubtful than the results would have been different. The consequences of the attack, apart from the loss of four Combine regiments and a WarShip, without counting the Nova Cats fallen fighting the 11th when it attempted to take off, were to awake the sleeping bear. Theodore Kurita denounced the invasion and labeled the participating Combine units as traitors[6], but this failed to appease the Ghost Bears, who assaulted the Combine along its border with their Dominion, later called the Combine-Ghost Bear War.[7] The survivors of the 11th of Avengers, who started the war, were also hunted and destroyed by the Ghost Bears.[8]

Units involved[edit]

Draconis Combine[edit]

Clan Ghost Bear[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Path of Glory, chapter 29
  2. Path of Glory, p. 245
  3. Test of Vengaence p. 30
  4. Path of Glory, p. 254
  5. Test of Vengaence p. 14-21
  6. Path of Glory, p. 256
  7. Path of Glory'', p. 261
  8. Path of Glory'', p. 261

Bibliography[edit]