Pleiades War

Pleiades War
Part of The ilClan Era
Start Date 20 June 3151 End Date March 3152 Result Taurian Concordat victory
Factions
(Attacker) Federated Suns	(Defender) Taurian Concordat
Commanders and leaders
Alexander Hasek	Reva Doru
Conditions
Normal

the Pleiades War is an early ilClan Era military operation that was undertaken by the Federated Suns against the Taurian Concordat between 3151 and 3152 for the control of the Pleiades Cluster.

Operation Brief

The military operation took place mainly within the Pleiades Cluster area of the Taurian Concordat and within some Federated Suns' worlds bordering the Concordat Space.

Operation History

Factions & Known Units Involved in the Conflict

Federated Suns

• Syrtis Scourge
• Sixth Syrtis Fusiliers
• Seventh Syrtis Fusiliers
• Rex's Red Rangers
• Sixth Periphery Guard

Taurian Concordat

• Pleiades Hussars
• First Taurian Lancers
• Third Taurian Lancers
• Gordon's Armored Cavalry

Origin of Conflict

The main responsible of the conflict was, without any doubt, Alexander Hasek, the heir of Amanda Hasek, the last Duke of New Syrtis and ruler of the Capellan March. He arrived to the newly reclaimed world of New Syrtis in March 3151. His absence of Operation CERBERUS, in which New Syrtis had been freed by Julian Davion, weakened his prestige. He pretended to have been fighting the Capellans hidden for six years, but when those affirmations were proved false, he denounced the peace with the Capellan Confederation and even condemned Julian Davion's actions. He won popularity for is words against the Capellans, but not so much for insulting the First Prince, the liberator of New Syrtis. The previous Capellan March de facto ruler, Field Marshal Paxton Fenlon, feared Alexander's actions: both Alexander's mother and grandfather had invaded the Capellan Confederation by their own initiative, and he feared the new Duke will do the same to win popularity. His fears proved accurate.

Hasek's first actions only increased Fenlon's fears: after Alexander was proclaimed Duke of New Syrtis, he created a new regiment, the "Syrtis Scourge", a purely offensive one, loyal only to him. Hasek's heavy investments in military recruiting and military facilities expansion' proved he was preparing a war. But Fenlon lacked the authority to stop him, so he wasn't able to do more than inform Julian Davion about the news.

A totally unexpected incident triggered the conflict: On 8 June 3151, an assassin slipped into Alexander's manor house. He apparently wanted to kill the Duke, but it failed and was forced to escape. However, before feeling, he killed Hasek's longtime consort. The enraged duke was sure than the assassin was a Capellan agent, but after investigating, the fact than he had used a gas grenade of Taurian manufacture convinced him than he was really a Concordat agent. Alexander had claimed his intentions to reclaim dozens of Federated Suns' lost worlds... including the Pleiades Cluster ones. So he assumed the assassin was Taurian. He dismissed Fenlon's advices to caution, and without even sharing with him his intentions, decided to invade the Concordat as reprisal. The Pleiades War had begun.

Launch of the Operation

Despite his arrogance and self-confidence, it became evident than Hasek's objectives were very limited: he apparently only intended to conquer the Pleiades Cluster, taking it for the Suns. To not excessively weaken the Capellan March, he only took the Syrtis' Scourge and Sixth Fusiliers. With two understrength regiments—the Scourge was a battalion short, and the Sixth had lost a lot of his members to form the Scourge—his objectives were forcibly limited. Nevertheless, Alexander was supremely confident. The Cluster had about 100 worlds, but by taking the key ones, he expected to seize the control of all.

The first target of the invading forces was the planet Maia. Keeping the surprise effect at maximum, Hasek ordered his force to disguise their IFF. Thanks to that, they managed to recharge their JumpShips in Maia's Recharge Station and to take the station's control with a shuttle filled by marines.

The fleet quickly jumped to Merope. It was defended by a company of the Taurians' Pleiades Hussars, but they had been warned about their arrival and retreated into the wilds. However, the Scourge's air patrols located them, and a combat drop quickly destroyed the company. Many locals welcomed the Federated Suns forces as liberators, so an overjoyed Hasek ordered the arming of the resistance leaders, left the Sixth on Merope to guard it, and jumped to Maia to finish off the rest of the Hussars, using only the Scourge.

On the Capellan March space, Marshal Fenlon, which ignored even the Duke's destination, placed New Syrtis and the nearby worlds on high alert, as Alexander's departure had left them critically undefended. He lied to the population, saying Alexander was leading his troops on an exercise.

Meanwhile on Maia, the heart of the Pleiades Cluster, the Scourge landed, led personally by Alexander. The combat drop took by surprise the Pleiades Hussars, but their commander, Colonel Gullarson, ordered them to retreat from the capital city. He led them to the wilds, launching a guerrilla war which lasted for weeks. Hasek was so sure the Hussars had fled from him than ordered the Scourge to find and crush them. He dismissed the fears of Colonel Jill Hallett, the Scourge's commanding officer, that the the Scourge's warriors had not had time to train into a cohesive unit. The Duke wanted to finish off the Hussars at once and return victorious to New Syrtis as soon as possible.

By the third week of the battle, the Hussars were finally located, and Hasek, which was growing impatient, mobilized the full Scourge in persecution of the Taurians through the forest. The sudden apparition of the bulk of the Hussars surprised the Scourge, wounding them. Hallett ordered her unit to ignite the forest. The fire created a burned no man's land, and both sides ceased fighting.

After a week-long stalemate, Hasek sent for the Sixth Fusiliers. Before they could arrive, the The Third Taurian Lancers arrived to reinforcement the guerrillas. Their commanding officer, Colonel Gullarson, demanded the Scourge's surrender. However, a desperate Hasek ordered the Scourge to launch a nighttime attack against the Hussars, expecting to win time for the Sixth to arrive. It was a brash move and failed miserably; the Hussars counterattacked and the Scourge could not disengage quickly enough, finding themselves trapped between the Hussars and the Lancers. In barely an hour, the Scourge was annihilated and Alexander taken prisoner.

On 21 August, the First Taurian Lancers arrived to Merope. The outnumbered Sixth Fusiliers retreated into the Delphine Gorge to begin an insurgency, but that became futile when the Taurians broadcast the news of the Scourge's destruction and Alexander's capture. Duran refused to believe it, but after Hasek confirmed it, the Colonel negotiated with the Taurians their retreat from the Pleiades. The invasion had ended, though the war continued.

Worse for Alexander, the cause of the war was a mistake. While he was leading the invasion, the "Taurian" assassin was captured on New Syrtis, and the interrogation determined that he was not Taurian or Capellan, but a member of the Duchy of Andurien. The assassin never intended to kill the Duke, but rather some of his attendents, expecting to create problems for the Capellans. His use of a Taurian grenade was a simple fluke.

Taurian Reprisals

The Taurians did not forgive the invasion, especially as the assassination attempt had not been made public. For Protector Reva Doru, it was an unprovoked act of war, and though his military screamed for retribution he did not want an open war with the Suns. Instead he authorized the launching of reprisal raids into the Suns' space, limiting attacks to military facilities.

The Third Lancers and Pleiades Hussars led a two-pronged charge into the Capellan and Periphery Marches of the Suns. On 1 November, they hit their first targets, the militias of Keuterville and Wrentham. The first put only a modest fight before capitulating. Alexander Hasek's recorded message taking full responsibility was received with indifference, as that planet was part of the Periphery March, not the Capellan March. The Third Lancers took Alexander with them to Wrentham, and he personally ordered the militia to stand down. Only half the unit obeyed, forcing the Lancers to root down the rest.

After that, the Lancers attacked Shaunavon and Ashley. There, the Duke's words had more weight, but while the first planet yielded with bitter words, Ashley had hired a mercenary unit, Rex's Red Rangers, veterans of the Capellan Conflict. They did not fear the Lancers and drove into their advance. Colonel Griffin's threats to execute the duke if they did not stand down were answered by Rex: his contract was to protect Ashley, not the Duke. However, the Rangers were defeated into close-quarters fight.

The Concordat Commandos sent raiding parties as far as Warren and Anaheim, while Gordon's Armored Cavalry struck worlds near his base of Midale. All those were minor engagements, meant more to frighten than to destroy. Ironically, the Duke's recorded words did more damage than the Taurians' weapons.

Later, the Pleiades Hussars visited Die Moot and Drienfontein with similar results. However, their attack on the key world of Firgrove was not so easy, as the Sixth Periphery Guard gave the Lancers a tough fight. The AFFS line regiment was not a weak militia, clashing in orbit and on the surface. The Hussars hurt the Guard, but had been bloodied and had to retreat.

The Lancers next raid, on Aucara was nearly a disaster: the defenders were the Seventh Syrtis Fusiliers, which not only were not affected by Hasek's orders, but charged against the Taurians, expecting to destroy them and free their Duke. The elite LCT failed, but destroyed almost a third of the lancers and even killed his leader, Colonel Griffin, forcing the Taurians to retreat.

Obviously, Doru was furious by Griffin's unauthorized use of the valuable hostage, but his death prevented him to punish him, and anyway, Alexander's use had helped the Taurians to preserve lives. Having made his point, Doru put an end to the raids. As Hasek had lost his usefulness, he sent a message to Julian Davion to negotiate for the Duke's liberation and all occupied territory.

Conflict Conclusion

Without barely any functional HPG, the Taurians' message arrived, via a Fox Khanate JumpShip, to New Avalon before any of Fenlon's messages, so, ironically, for Julian Davion, the first news about the conflict arrived when it had ended. The Taurians asked for a huge sum of money in exchange for Hasek, big enough to outfit a new 'Mech regiment. And besides, the Foxes wanted, in exchange for their services, control of New Syrtis' non-functional HPG. Julian considered both prices excessive, but he accepted both, which put an end to the conflict. The exchange was to have place on Lindsay, but when the Suns' representatives arrived, the 5 May, negotiations didn't go well: it became obvious than the Taurians didn't want to give their valuable hostage. But Siobhan Sortek, the leader of the delegation, was prepared for that, and launched an attack. An MIIO team rescued the duke and, thanks to the sacrifice of a lance, they managed to departe. The Taurians were furious, but didn't dare to attack the Sun's escorting Sea Fox ships, and didn't take reprisals. The Pleiades War was over.

Consequences

The material losses for the Suns were not important: and understrength regiment destroyed, some militias crippled, no lost worlds. The greatest loss was his prestige, as the incompetent and ruthless attack by Hasek projected an image of Federated military weakness which could hurt them greatly right when they were rebuilding their military after years of high losses.

For the Taurians, however, the victory was complete: not only had they successfully defended their territory; it had helped them to "kill" their particular boogeyman, making them lose any fear to the "baby-eating Davion enemy" which they had been fearing for decades, and some of their high officers even advocated to launching more raids into the Suns.

Without any doubt, the greatest loser was Alexander Hasek: his unprovoked war had shamed him, destroyed his personal unit and making him loss almost all his credibility within the Capellan March. If before was seen as little more than a playboy, and rightfully so, after the war most of his high officers openly hated him, and some even suggested than he must have showed patriotism dying in battle, so his position was tenuous at best. However, Julian Davion keep him as Duke of New Syrtis... at least for the moment, but stripped of all his military authority, which went to Fenlon.

Bibliography

• Dominions Divided