Battle of Holdout (3112)

Battle of Holdout
Part of Dark Age
Start Date 3112 Planet Unnamed planet, later named Holdout Result Escorpión Imperio Victory
Factions
Hanseatic League	Escorpión Imperio
Commanders and leaders
Council of Merchants	Khan Enrico Kirov

The Battle of Holdout was a military confrontation in the Deep Periphery between the Hanseatic League and the Escorpión Imperio, which took place over a period of 3 months during the year 3112. This conflict saw the Hanseatic League's Regional Defense Force 2 attack the Escorpión Imperio's then-unnamed colony, which would later be named Holdout. It ended in failure for the Hansa and was followed by devastating reprisal by the Imperio's Hellion Galaxy against Regional Defense Force 3's headquarters on Kampen. While the battle itself was modest in scale it had massive ramifications for the entire region.

Prelude to the Battle

For generations, the Hanseatic League secretly fostered hostilities between the peoples of Nueva Castile and the Umayyad Caliphate, due to both expansionist intentions and fear that should two of their rivals with so much potential ever reach technological parity with them, they would become a threat to Hanseatic regional dominance. These fears materialized surprisingly and almost instantaneously when Clan Goliath Scorpion conquered Nueva Castile and the Umayyad Caliphate and formed the Escorpión Imperio. The League saw this unexpected development as the existential threat they'd always feared and immediately went on openly hostile footing.

These events, compounded by the Hansas' skirmish with a scouting expedition from Clan Cloud Cobra in 3088, would result in a decades-long arms race between the two nations.

In the years following their arrival, the Goliath Scorpions would both uncover the full scale of Hanseatic involvement in instigating wars among their new subjects which resulted in a massive increase in hostile attitudes toward their already maligned neighbors in the Hansa and initiate colonization of uninhabited planets between Imperio and League space.

It was on one of these planets that Hansa would attempt to carry out their preemptive attack.

The Battle

In 3112, the Hanseatic Defense Force would order the entirety of its Regional Defense Force 2, the largest single force they'd ever deployed, consisting of an elite regiment of BattleMechs and a full regiment of combat vehicles, to attack the burgeoning unnamed colony.

At the time, the planet was defended by garrison caste troops of the 3rd Imperial Guards Cluster. They were greatly outnumbered by the invaders and had no means of calling for aid since the planet's HPG was not yet constructed. However, many of the freeborn troops harbored intense hatred for the Hansa due to their involvement in instigating wars between the Castilians and Umayyads and fought back relentlessly.

Five Guards Trinaries surprised the attackers with the ferocity of their defense but it was not enough to offset the enemy's massive numerical advantage and they were forced to retreat. The remaining three Guards Trinaries counterattacked after regrouping, this time focusing on Hansa conventional elements. After two days of constant fighting, two thirds of the Hansa vehicle regiment were destroyed and the Guards withdrew to mountainous region while luring the entire Hanseatic force into pursuit. The last two Trinaries mounted attacks from the stony redoubt and resisted the invaders for months.

The attack was discovered when a supply convoy arrived to replenish the colony. A JumpShip immediately returned to imperial space and alerted the Clan of the situation. Two Clusters of Hellion Galaxy and one from Alpha Galaxy, along with Scorpion Keshik, all commanded by Khan Enrico Kirov, deployed to expel the invaders. Rather than face extermination, RDF2 retreated immediately, with two Hellion Galaxy Clusters in pursuit. When Khan Kirov inspected the battlefield he discovered that four Stars of the Guards were still alive and operational. They held out against the enemy and remained proud warriors despite being isolated, exhausted and starving.

Hellion Reprisal

After briefly notifying Khan Kirov that he would "teach the Hansa surats a lesson", saKhan Sakmar Arbuthnot led his Hellion Keshik and two Hellion Galaxy Clusters to execute a retaliatory raid on the invaders. Their chosen target was the home base of Regional Defense Force 3 on planet Kampen, where they carried out a surprise high-altitude aerial insertion into enemy headquarters. Despite being outnumbered by the Hansa defenders, they destroyed their commanders and then proceeded to annihilate the disorganized 'Mech and vehicle regiments; the local infantry regiment was all but exterminated.

Aftermath

Despite its small size, the battle had far-reaching consequences for both nations and that entire region of the Deep Periphery.

Survivors of the Imperio's 3rd Imperial Guards Cluster were hailed as heroes for their courage. Their genes were added to the Clan's breeding program and two of the warriors had their former civilian surnames become new Bloodnames of Clan Goliath Scorpion. The planet they defended was named Holdout in honor of their tenacious refusal to quit. These events also greatly contributed towards unifying the Escorpión Imperio's population even further.

The Hanseatic League's Council of Merchants realized that simply spending exorbitant amounts of money on the military and throwing massive numbers of troops at the enemy was no longer enough to win wars and that even deeper military reforms are needed. Towards this end, they created the rank of Captain-Marshal to command the military and oversee the reforms. In the coming years, the status of the military in Hanseatic society would be elevated even further and the overall militarization of society would continue unabated.

While the Imperio's colonization efforts would be set back by several years, the battle was a total defeat for the Hanseatic League and was one of the more significant links in the chain of events which would lead to a devastating war that would come be to known as the Hanseatic Crusade

Bibliography

• Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3
• Operational Turning Points: Hanseatic Crusade
• Spotlight On: Hellion Keshik
• Touring the Stars: Granada