Second Battle of Outreach (3067)

(Redirected from Second Harlech)
Part of The Jihad
Start Date December 3067
Location Harlech
Planet Outreach
Factions
(Attacker) Word of Blake (Defender) Wolf's Dragoons
Forces involved
(Partial listing) Daley's Destroyers[1]

Overview of the Battle[edit]

Second Harlech, or Second Battle of Harlech was a Word of Blake assault, one of the first battles of the Jihad.

Prelude to the Battle[edit]

The growing power of the Word of Blake in the Chaos March and the creation of Word of Blake Protectorate was seen as a threat by Wolf's Dragoons. The Dragoons' leader, Jaime Wolf, founded the Allied Mercenary Command (AMC) on the 7th of March 3066, to counter the Blakist advance.

The Word of Blake subsequently launched an attack against Outreach using mercenaries in a battle known as the First Harlech.

The mercenaries were annihilated, but they succeeded in killing Jaime Wolf, and the Dragoons launched a counterattack that ended in a slaughter, known as the Battle of Mars.

The attack[edit]

Space battle[edit]

The Word of Blake retaliated with a major assault on Outreach, this time with the goal of destroying the Dragoons. The assault began on the 20th of December when a Blakist force jumped into the Outreach system and destroyed the Dragoons' two defending Lola III-class WarShips, the WDS Darius and the WDS Nelson plus both of the planetary orbital stations, Horatio and Mercutio.[2] The Blakist naval vessels then destroyed the Outreach orbital stations; the flagship of the Dragoons' naval forces, the Aegis-class heavy cruiser WDS Alexander, then attempted a last-ditch defense, but was unable to hold off the Word of Blake forces.[3] A news broadcast from Wayne Newman of the Harlech News Network, who was embedded on the polar-orbit station Mercutio identified the attackers as Blakist forces, and identified the WarShip squadron as consisting of a Black Lion-class battlecruiser, an Aegis, two Essex-class destroyers and two Lola IIIs.[4][5]

Ground battle[edit]

On the 21st of December, a day after the naval battle, the Word of Blake began a ground assault on Outreach.[3] Despite the betrayal by the Broadsword Legion, the Dragoons were able to rally and, at one point, pushed the Blakist invaders to the point of collapse. In the final actions of the battle the Broadsword Legion, a mercenary group hired by the Dragoons, but really a Word of Blake unit, turned on its erstwhile allies and inflicted serious damage on the Wolf Spider Battalion, effectively destroying the unit except for their leader, Stacy Church, suffering crippling losses in the process. However, the Legion managed to reunite with the rest of the Blakist ground units.

The Dragoons were enraged by the Legion's betrayal, and rallied to defeat the Blakists. Soon, Alpha regiment finally arrived, led by Maeve Wolf. While they rushed to the planet, the Alexander fought the Blakist fleet, destroying several Blakist DropShips and damaging two WarShips before retreating.[6]

Sensing imminent defeat, the Blakist fleet commander Precentor Shin-Ichi Yoshizumi determined victory would not come through a ground battle alone. The First Word of Blake Division executed their optional orders: on December 26th, Blakist Warships launched nuclear strikes against the Dragoons[7]. The Dragoons and allied forces on the continent of Romulus were apparently heavily damaged, while those on Remus were completely destroyed by the bombardment.[3]

Evacuation[edit]

General Maeve Wolf gathered what survivors she could and evacuated with the assistance of Clan Wolf-in-Exile and the Kell Hounds, finding sanctuary on Arc-Royal.[8] The WDS Alexander was destroyed covering the retreat called by General Wolf on the 26th of December, and with the destruction of the Alexander, five of the six WarShips operated by Wolf's Dragoons had been lost in action against the Word of Blake in less than three weeks. Despite the bombardment of Outreach and the general retreat by the Dragoons and their remaining allies, the Word of Blake began a blockade of the planet.[3]

Aftermath[edit]

Despite the blockade, a task force from Clan Wolf-in-Exile left for Outreach on the 20th of March and fought through fierce resistance from the Blakist forces to extract more than two dozen Dragoons and scores of civilian survivors from the remains of the planet.[9]

Despite their retreat, small units of Dragoons would continue to resist the occupying forces for years afterward. The Blakist garrison never managed to completely crush the Dragoons' resistance, and eventually these forces, led by the reborn Black Spider battalion, managed to annihilate the Broadsword Legion and retake the planet.[10][11][12]

Gallery[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Starterbook: Wolf and Blake, p. 28: "Neil Gibson - 'Mech History"
  2. BattleCorps: INN Newscast (Solaris Broadcasting Co. section), news item published [21/12/3067]: "Blake WarShips Assault Outreach"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 44: "The Jihad In Review"
  4. Blake Ascending, p. 35: "Fire In The Void"
  5. Dawn of the Jihad, p. 34: "Fire In The Void"
  6. Dawn of the Jihad Sourcebook, p. 36
  7. Total Chaos, pp. 39–42: "OUTREACH"
  8. Starterbook: Wolf and Blake, p. 17: "Exodus"
  9. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 45: "The Jihad In Review"
  10. Starterbook: Wolf and Blake, pp. 16–19
  11. Dawn of the Jihad, pp. 35–38
  12. Blake Ascending, pp. 35–38

Bibliography[edit]