Battle of Emporia (3150)

Battle of Emporia
Part of The Dark Age era
Start Date 5 August 3150
End Date 18 August 3150
Planet Emporia
Result Federated Suns victory
Factions
(Attacker)
Renegade Draconis Combine forces		 (Defender)
Federated Suns
Commanders and leaders
Tai-sa Takeji Yoshizawa Count Aldric Ritza (planetary ruler)

Baron Zachary Vogel (official commander)

Cadet Nadine Roux (de facto resistance commander)
Forces involved
Seventh Ghost Regiment Local forces, including Ritza Academy
Golden Sail (reinforcements)

In April 3150, the renegade Seventh Ghost Regiment of the Draconis Combine launched an unauthorized invasion of the Federated Suns planet of Emporia. Intended to be the first in a series of planetary takeovers and to give the Seventh its own independent realm, the invasion of Emporia was an unmitigated disaster.

Prelude and First Strike[edit]

The Seventh Ghost had been given a suicide mission. Tai-sho Kyoshi Sunada had tasked the unit with retaking Robinson on its own, a difficult task for a weakened and worn-down unit, and rebuilding the local infrastructure. Had the unit managed to take Robinson alone, it would have struggled to survive on the planet's insufficient food supply.[1][2] In lieu of having his unit die as mere laborers, Tai-sa Takeji Yoshizawa decided to break the Seventh away from the DCMS and his yakuza masters alike. His plan was to seize five Federated Suns planets - Emporia, Allerton, Sauk City, Maynard, and Tarkio - to form his own state, leaving the regiment with a small buffer between it and the Combine. He did not let his subordinates know about his true plans and the regiment's desertion, portraying the invasion plan as if it was what Sunada ordered.[3]

On 3 April, the regiment entered Emporian space, its vessels transmitting falsified IFF information identifying them as merchants. One ship, the Nowaki, was noticed by Elijah Hughes, captain of the passing Whatever It Takes, who recognized the ship's markings and rushed to warn Emporia.[4] Elijah's reputation for dishonesty left his warning unheeded.[5] The Seventh landed in the New Exeter Spaceport on the night of 5 April, seizing control of the complex within hours. As the spaceport held the planet's main 'Mech bays, when an alarm was finally triggered, the planet's defending nobles arrived only to be captured without a fight.[4]

With Emporia's defenders seemingly neutralized almost bloodlessly, Yoshizawa moved on to organizing Emporia's surrender and preparing for his next targets. He had the captured nobles he believed ruled Emporia, Baron Zachary and Baroness Shannon Vogel, broadcast a statement of surrender across the planet. The Vogels included a coded message telling the populace to resist.[6]

Early Resistance[edit]

Emporia's military academy, the Ritza Academy, still held its training BattleMechs. While its remaining administrators debated whether to hide the 'Mechs,[7] a small group of cadets and friendly staff, led by Cadet Nadine Roux, took matters into their own hands. Nadine made contact with Elijah through her personal spy network, persuaded him to get off the planet and find reinforcements, and began organizing a plan.[8]

Just before midnight on 7 April, Nadine put her unauthorized plan into action. It was a two-pronged strike. A small force of 'Mechs and combat vehicles, headed by Jasper Roux, struck the spaceport to rescue prisoners, while Sergeant Major Vale Auger, a supportive staff member, broke into the New Exeter Communications building in search of a black box for another call for help. Both were successful. The spaceport raiders suffered some casualties, but recovered several prisoners and damaged the Seventh's lead lance. Vale, though he was captured,[9] successfully sent a black box message, as well as broadcasting a call for resistance across the planet.[10] However, the unauthorized attack met disapproval from Academy leadership.[11]

Open Warfare[edit]

Yoshizawa's hope for a bloodless capture of Emporia was gone, and the planet was in open rebellion. Worse, cadets - mere cadets - had hurt him. His goals changed: destroy Ritza Academy, use whatever measures necessary to batter the populace into submission, and make an example of Emporia.[12] In the first days afterwards, his forces shelled and raided the academy to little avail.[13] In the meantime, he set up a trap for the cadets. The Vengalil estate was set up for an ambush, and the Seventh had rumors spread claiming that key prisoners were being kept there. On 14 April, Nadine Roux led another unauthorized raid, falling into the ambush. Ritza Academy lost a 'Mech and multiple cadets, and the academy's administration punished the Roux siblings for their disobedience.[14]

By Yoshizawa's command, the Seventh turned to assaulting the population of Emporia. Mass executions were broadcast to the general public, and Yoshizawa directed Dai-i Sumiko Nakata to prepare a biological weapon for use on Emporia.[9][15] On 15 April, an ambush by the freed Emporian nobles took out a third of the Seventh's 'Mechs, prompting Yoshizawa to begin bombarding the planet's capital - a bombardment that slew both Zachary Vogel and the planet's true rulers, Aldric and Rowena Ritza[16] - and to launch a cruise missile at Ritza Academy.[17] The academy strike was devastating, but not as much as Yoshizawa hoped. Dame Emma Meier sacrificed her life to push the missile slightly off target with her 'Mech, limiting casualties, but the campus was largely destroyed.[18] The survivors relocated to the Vengalil estate once possible.[19]

Once again, Nadine Roux organized cadets to strike at the Seventh Ghost. On 17 April, she led a small team to take a civilian commercial DropShip, the Lady Errant, and ram it into one of the Seventh's vessels. The plan, a war crime,[20] depended on the cooperation of the Lady Errant's captain, Roger Sotheby. His cooperation, helped along by a substantial payment, only lasted so long. After getting the children on his DropShip and setting off, he tried to take them hostage and escape the system. He and Cadet Henry Cobb died in the ensuing struggle, and the remaining cadets crashed the Lady Errant into the Seventh's Inazuma, escaping moments before the impact destroyed both ships.[21] Their escape pods were picked up the reinforcements called by Elijah Hughes, the AFFS DropShip Endeavor's Run and the associated JumpShip Golden Sail.[22] Captain Daniel Morse quickly worked to cover up the children's war crime, devising a cover story that pinned all blame on Sotheby.[23]

Amidst the clashes, the Seventh's confidence in its leader declined. Yoshizawa's odd orders to take Emporia had raised questions on their own, and the unit's struggle to hold the planet wore morale down. The CO's bombardment of New Exeter, done without regard for his own forces on the ground, cost the unit a popular officer, Akimoro Kusunoki, and weakened the Seventh's trust.[16] Yoshizawa's request for bioweapons particularly alarmed his medical staff.[24] Sumiko, uncomfortable with the use of such weapons, deliberately developed a subpar virus, still lethal but weaker and shorter-lasting than she claimed.[25] On 17 April, the day of the attack on the Inazuma, Yoshizawa ordered the deployment of the bioweapon on Emporia, again without regard for the Seventh's forces on the ground.[26]

Operation Barbican[edit]

As the devastation grew, Emporia's invaders and defenders both turned to a new objective: securing the leaderless planet's heir, Mason Ritza.[27] Nadine, in radio contact with Mason and Jasper, organized a force on the ground for the goal of recovering the heir from his hiding place and bringing him to the Endeavor's Run.[28] This mission, Operation Barbican, commenced in the early hours of 18 April.[29] Meanwhile, Yoshizawa planned to seize the heir, convinced that would allow him to seize the planet.[30]

Events on the Seventh's flagship, the Fujinami, complicated plans. A number of increasingly troubled officers, alarmed by Yoshizawa's behavior, investigated the unit's orders. After discovering that the Seventh had never been meant to invade Emporia, Fume Aoki and Sumiko Nakata defected, hijacking an aerospace fighter and taking asylum on the Endeavor's Run. Sumiko brought a vaccine for the virus she had developed.[31] Two cadets, Nadine Roux and Lyric Hayton, volunteered to be sent down to Emporia to test the vaccine.[32] After reaching the surface via escape pod, they quickly joined up with the Operation Barbican force.[33]

Soon enough, the Ritza Academy and Seventh Ghost forces confronted each other for the last time. While infantry cadets evacuated Mason and associates to the landing Endeavor's Run, using decoy vehicles to protect the heir, the Academy's MechWarriors engaged Yoshizawa's command lance. A radio announcement by Fume Aoki, quickly backed by Chu-sa Ona Nanba, that Yoshizawa had disobeyed orders and led the Seventh on an unauthorized attack finally broke the morale of the remnants of the regiment. As his lancemates withdrew and abandoned him, Yoshizawa was slain, his cockpit shot out by Jasper Roux. The invasion was over.[34]

Aftermath[edit]

Emporia withstood the Seventh's attack, but suffered. New Exeter, including the planet's main spaceport, was devastated. Emporia would need time and equipment to recover from the bombardments and disease.[35] As well, the planet's rulers had died, along with much of its nobility.[36]

On 21 October, Count Mason Ritza celebrated the acts of the Ritza cadets, took several into his personal guard and his personal lance, and announced that Ritza Academy would be rebuilt under a new name. The Emporia Military Academy, funded by House Ritza and the Federated Suns, would take its place.[37]

The Seventh Ghost Regiment did not survive the invasion. In October, the Draconis Combine declared that it had captured and executed what remained of the rogue regiment.[37] By May 3152, however, it had been reconstituted.[38] Meanwhile, as of 21 October, the Federated Suns was still debating how to handle the two defectors. Fume's fate was to be determined by the High Council, while Sumiko's fate was left to be figured out after the eradication of her bioweapon.[37]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Iron Dawn, ch. 7
  2. ↑ Crimson Night, ch. 11
  3. ↑ Iron Dawn, chs. 6–7
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Iron Dawn, ch. 8
  5. ↑ Iron Dawn, chs. 17–18
  6. ↑ Iron Dawn, chs. 14–15
  7. ↑ Iron Dawn, ch. 16
  8. ↑ Iron Dawn, ch. 17
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Ghost Hour, ch. 9
  10. ↑ Iron Dawn, chs. 25–33
  11. ↑ Iron Dawn, chs. 35–36
  12. ↑ Iron Dawn, ch. 38
  13. ↑ Ghost Hour, ch. 1
  14. ↑ Ghost Hour, chs. 2–7
  15. ↑ Ghost Hour, chs. 13, 15
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Ghost Hour, ch. 22
  17. ↑ Ghost Hour, chs. 14–15
  18. ↑ Ghost Hour, chs. 17-20
  19. ↑ Crimson Night, ch. 3
  20. ↑ Ghost Hour, ch. 20
  21. ↑ Ghost Hour, chs. 27–31
  22. ↑ Ghost Hour, ch. 32
  23. ↑ Ghost Hour, ch. 33
  24. ↑ Ghost Hour, ch. 15
  25. ↑ Crimson Night, ch. 14
  26. ↑ Ghost Hour, ch. 32
  27. ↑ Ghost Hour, chs. 35–36
  28. ↑ Crimson Night, chs. 3–4
  29. ↑ Crimson Night, chs. 13–14
  30. ↑ Crimson Night, ch. 5
  31. ↑ Crimson Night, chs. 8, 11, 14–15, 18
  32. ↑ Crimson Night, ch. 18
  33. ↑ Crimson Night, ch. 29
  34. ↑ Crimson Night, chs. 32–38
  35. ↑ Crimson Night, ch. 38
  36. ↑ Crimson Night: "In Memoriam"
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 Crimson Night, ch. 39
  38. ↑ Dominions Divided, p. 69

Bibliography[edit]

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