Pleiades War

Pleiades War
Part of The IlClan Era
Start Date From 20 June 3151 to 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 Armed Forces against the Taurian Concordat in April to June 3081 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 Peryphery 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, the heir of Amanda Hasek, the last Duke of New Syrtis and ruler of the Capellan March: Alexander Hasek. 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 for six years, but when those affirmations were proved false, he denounced the peace with the Capellan Confederation and even condemned Julian Davion, the liberator of New Syrtis. He won popularity for is accusations against the capellans, but not so much for insulting the First Prince. The previous Capellan March de facto ruler, Field Marshal Paxton Fenlon feared Alexander's actions: both his mother and grandfathers had invaded the Capellan Confederation by his own initiative, and he feared the new Duke will do the same to win popularity. His fears were proved accurate.

Hasek's firsta ctions increaed Fanlon's fears: after Alexander was proclaimed Duke, 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 Alexander 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 attempted to kill the Duke, but it failed and was forced to escape. However, before 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. He dismissed Fenlon's advices to caution, and decided to invade the Concordat as reprisal: the Pleiades War had began.

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Launch of the Operation

Despite his arrogance and self-confidence, it became evident than Hasek's objectives were very limited: he apparently only intented to conquer the Pleiades Cluster, taking it for the Suns. To not weaken too much the Capellan March, he only took the Syrtis' Scourge and Sixth Fusiliers. With only two regiments -and understrength ones; the Scourge wasn't still of regimental size, and the Sixth had lost a lot of his members to form the Scourge- his objectives were forcibly limited, but Alexander was confident in his success. The Cluster had about 100 worlds, but taking the key ones, he expected to seize the control of all.

The invading forces' first target 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 Reccharge Station and to take the station's control with a shuttle filled by marines. The fleet quickly jumped to Merope. There it was a company of the Taurian's 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, only with ths 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 drtop 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 Colonel's Jill Hallett, the Scourge's commanding officer, fears, as the Scourge's warriors, coming from several Syrtis Fusiliers, hadn't time to train into a coihesive unit. The Duke wanted to finish off the Hussars at once and return to New Syrtis victorious as soon as possible.

BY the third week of the battle, the Hussars were finally located, and Hasek, which was growing impatient, movilized 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. Hallet ordered his 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. However, before they could arrive, Taurian reinforcements arrived: The Third Taurian Lancers. His 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 destroy them would win time for the Sixth to arrive. It was a brash move, but it failed miserably: the Hussars counterattacked, and the Scourge could not disengage quickly enough, and found themselves trapped between the Hussars and the Lancers. In barely a hour, the Scourge was annihilated, and Alexander taken prisoner.

The 21 August, the First Taurian Lancers arrived to Merope. The outnumbered Sixth Fusiliers retreated into the Delphine Gorge to began a guerrilla war, but all 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 hadn't, not still. During the same time, the Taurian assassin had been captured on New Syrtis, and after being interrogated, it was discovered than he wasn't Taurian or Capellan, but a member of the Duchy of Andurien expecting to create problems to the capellans; his use of a taurian grenade was a simple fluke.

Taurian Reprisals

Naturally, the Taurians weren't able to forgive or forget the invasion; for Protector Reva Doru, it was an act of war, and his military screamed for retribution, but he didn't want an open war with the Suns', so he authorized the launching of reprisal raids into the Suns' space. However, Protector Doru ordered his troops to behave with professionalisam and to limit his attacks to military facilities.

The Third Lancers and Pleiades Hussarts led a two-pronged charge into the Capellan and Peryphery marches of the Suns. Their first targets, hit on 1 November, were the militias on Keuterville and Wrentham. The first one put only a modest fight before capitulating. Alexander Hasek's recorded message taking full responsability was received with indiference, as that planet wasn't part of the Capellan March. In fact, Alexander was taken by the Third, and ordered the militia of Wrentham to stand down. Only half the unit obeyed, forcing the Lancers to root them down. After that, the Lancers attacked Shaunavon and Ashley. There, the Duke's words had more weight, but while the first planet yiekded 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 advanbce. Colonel Griffin's threats to execute the duke if they didn't stand down were answered by Rex: his contract was to protect Ashley, not the Duke. 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 words made more damage than the Taurian's weapons.

Later, the Pleiades Hussars visited Die Moot and Drienfontein with similar results... but their attack on the key world of Firgrove wasn't so easy. There it was the Sixth Peryphery Guard, and they gave the lancers a though fight. The AFFs line regiment wasn't a weak militia, and they clashed both in orbit and on the surface. The Hussars hurt the Guard, but had been bloodied. The Lancers next raid, on Aucara was a nearby disaster: the defenders were the Seventh Syrtis Fusiliers, which not only weren't 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 them to retreat. Obviously, Dory was furious by Griffin's use of the valuable hostage, but his death prevented him to punish him, and anyway, his use had helped the Taurians to preserve lives. Having made his point, Doru put an end to the raids and sent a message to Julian Davion to negotiate for the Duke's liberation and all occuppied territory.

Conflict Conclusion

Without barely any functional HPG, the Taurian's message arrived, via a Clan Sea Fox Fox Khanate JumpShip, to New Avalon before any of Fenlon's messages, so for the First Prince, it was 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 outfin a new 'Mech regiment, and besides, the Foxes wanted, in exchange for made the service, New Syrtis' non-functional HPG. Julian considered both prices excessive, but he accepted both, which put an end to the concflict. The Pleiades War was over.

Consequences

The material losses for the Suns weren't important: and understrength regiment destroyed, some militas crippled, no lost worlds. The greatest loss was his prestige, as the incompetent and ruthless attack by Hasek projected an image of Federated miulitary weakness which could hurt them greatly righ when they were rebuilding their military after years of high losses. For the taurians, however, the victory 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 Aleksander 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, an accuratte image, after the war some of his high officers openly hated him, and some even suggested than he must have died in battle.

Bibliography

• Dominions Divided