Operation BATU

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 mastermin behind the operation was Duke Hassid Ricol. Three of the four Alshain Avengers regiments attempted to retake the world for the Draconis Combine, and were obliterated by the Ghost Bears. The 11th Alshain Avengers were prevented from joining the assault by Clan Nova Cat forces. In fact, the operation was doomed since the beginning, and was little more than a suicide mission for the Avengers. The 11th absence, of course, reduced the Combine force to three quarters of the maximum. But the key was the kuritan "intelligence", who was just the opposite: the Avengers ignored the facts than the Bears have moved his entire forces and civil population to the Inner Sphere, made Alshain his capital, built a orbital shipyards, and clearly, the clan garrison on planet was very, very bigger than expected. Another key weak point in the kuritan plan was his naval support: the Dragon's last tear wasn´t the powerful warship they tell: The CGB Ursa Major destroyed it easily, and later, a full regiment of the Avengers. The last two regiments, trying to escape of the Bear warship, managed to land on planet, some of them making a combat drop... but in the ground they found and apparently unlimited number of Ghost Bear troops and were wiped. They never stood a chance. As a example, an Alshain native and officer, Tai-i Shiro Kanazawa, piloting an Atlas, was defeated and killed in single combat... ¡By an elemental with armor! The elemental was Jake Kabrinski, a young ristar. Some Alshain Avengers survived, starting a guerrilla war, but were finally hunted and eliminated. Even if the 11th can have joined the force, is very doubtful than the results may have been different. The consequences of the attack, apart from the loss of four Combine regiments, 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, 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. The 11th of Avengers, when started the war, were also hunted and destroyed by the Ghost Bears.

Bibliography

• Path of Glory (Novel)
• Test of Vengeance (Novel)