Operation PROMETHEUS
Sarna News
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| Operation PROMETHEUS | |||||||
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| Part of Age of War era | |||||||
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| Factions | |||||||
| (Attacker) Lyran Commonwealth |
(Defender) Terran Hegemony |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Simon Kelswa | |||||||
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| Normal | |||||||
Operation PROMETHEUS was the Lyran Commonwealth's successful attempt to steal BattleMech technology from the Terran Hegemony.
Overview
First seeing action in 2443, the Terran Hegemony's superweapon, the Mackie, was a rude shock to the entire Inner Sphere. Realizing the awesome power of the BattleMech, then-Archon Katherine Steiner ordered her newly-created Lyran Intelligence Corps to make securing its plans a top priority.[1]
Even though one of the Hegemony's primary 'Mech manufacturing plants, Defiance Industries, was located on the jointly held world of Hesperus II, after six years of repeated attempts to infiltrate the Hesperus plant, the Lyran Intelligence Corps was never able to get more than one agent on the inside. The agent failed to acquire the Mackie schematics but did acquire maps and pictures of the assembly lines. By this time Katherine Steiner's son Alistair was an officer of the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces and commander of an elite commando unit, developing a daring raid to seize the information directly from the factory's computers. Ultimately his unit was called elsewhere and the operation was shelved.[1]
After his mother retired in 2445 and Alistair became the new Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth, increasing losses to both the Draconis Combine and Free Worlds League due to lackluster and incompetent senior officers among the LCAF led him to revisit the long-ago-planned raid as a means to turn the tide in the Age of War. Colonel Simon Kelswa would use the acquired maps and pictures to lead twenty-five Lyran commandos to specifically steal the Mackie plans.[2] Additionally, in exchange for several Lyran star systems, the Rim Worlds Republic's AsRoc intelligence service supplied a clandestine support group for the raid.[3]
Launched on 7 February 2455, the mission was a success, allowing the Lyran Commonwealth to be the first House outside of the Camerons to have BattleMech technology.[2] They acquired the technical specifications to build the Hegemony's Mackie which ultimately provided inspiration for entirely new designs such as the Ymir.[4]
In the aftermath of Operation PROMETHEUS, the Terran Hegemony responded by initiating plans to significantly expand their BattleMech forces with new designs since they knew it would not be long until copies of their Mackie appeared on every border. The result was the Hegemony Armed Forces expanding their BattleMech forces even further with new 'Mechs like the Archer, Griffin, and Orion.[5]