Battle of Talon (3063)

Battle of Talon (3063)
Conflict details
Part of	FedCom Civil War
Start Date	October 3063
End Date	23 March 3066
Planet(s)	Talon
Location(s)	place = O'Herron Valley Kulmen Mountains Kallon Industries Factory
Result	Pyrrhic Loyalist victory
Territorial Changes	Talon secured for the Loyalists
Attacking Forces
Affiliation	Allies
Commanding Officer(s)	Major General Torri Hughes
Command(s)	Seventh FedCom RCT
Defending Forces
Affiliation	Loyalists
Commanding Officer(s)	Marshal Donna Iona
Command(s)	Twenty-second Avalon Hussars
Other Forces

Overview

The Battle of Talon was a conflict that took place during the FedCom Civil War on the moon of Talon, in the Wernke system. Once the initial flashpoints of the Civil War had cooled, leaders began to see that they were in for a longer struggle and sought to consolidate their holds over critical objectives, such as refineries, resource extraction sites, and, as on Talon, factory complexes. The Kallon Industries factories on the moon were considered of great value both to the Loyalists and to Duke George Hasek, who had sought to remain neutral. The resulting battle, as with many clashes in the Civil War, was drawn-out, bloody, and resulted in severe losses.

Prelude

During what was later dubbed Wave Two of the FedCom Civil War, Marshal of the Armies Jackson Davion decided that the real winner of the war would be the faction who managed to wrest control of the most factory worlds. He noted the bloodbaths of Kathil, Tikonov, and Coventry, all worlds famed for their industry and concluded that the Loyalists should seize as many factories as they could before the fighting for them got out of hand. The way he saw it, casualties would be minimized and he could continue to resupply his units on the frontlines with fresh arms and matériel. He thus ordered Marshal Donna Iona, the commanding officer of the Twenty-second Avalon Hussars, to take her unit and secure the Kallon Industries factory on Talon for their faction. Unfortunately, that factory was also where Duke George Hasek's Templar BattleMech was produced.

Naturally proud of fostering the Federated Suns' first OmniMech line, and interested in maintaining a dedicated factory world for his Capellan March, Duke Hasek dispatched the Seventh FedCom RCT to Talon, completely unaware that Marshal Davion had sent the Twenty-second. The Hussars arrived on Talon first and were able to garrison the Kallon Industries manufactory complexes and the Kulmen, Restbech, and Horgrave Mountains where their mining facilities were located, locking down any way into or out of the facilities.

Battle

Standoff

The Seventh FedCom arrived on Talon in October of 3063 and were alarmed to discover that the Hussars were already emplaced. Major General Hughes, seeing no safe landing zone that would not provoke a hostile response from the Iona and the Twenty-second, set her troops down in Talon's capital city of Portland and in Hograve, hundreds of kilometers away from the mountains and the Kallon facilities. Her back to the ocean and the valuable mountains to her front, Hughes immediately contacted Duke Hasek to inform him of the new developments. The Duke attempted to issue orders for Marshal Iona to stand down and cede the garrison of Talon to the Seventh FedCom, but, as she had received her own orders straight from the Marshal of the Armies, Iona was forced to refuse. Not wanting to spark another open conflict if it could be avoided, Iona clarified that her orders were simply to protect the factory from any assaults and ensure its continued operation.

Hasek acknowledged this transmission and ordered the Seventh FedCom to hold their position, but to be prepared to take the factory complex should it come down to it. He then dispatched a WarShip, a task force of assault DropShips, a large detachment of marines, and an entire aerospace wing to reinforce the Seventh. These forces he ordered to remain in orbit and intercept any and all outbound Kallon shipments. The uneasy truce between the Seventh FedCom and the Twenty-second Avalon Hussars continued until February 3064, when the Loyalist forces discovered what Duke Hasek had been doing.

First Blood

In the final weeks of March, the opening shots of the Battle of Talon were fired by aerospace elements of the Twenty-second Hussars as they caught Seventh FedCom aerospace and naval assets attempting to seize DropShips bearing precious BattleMechs. While ordinarily those DropShips would have been slated to travel to New Syrtis or Kathil, Archon Katherine Steiner-Davion had ordered them to be rerouted to New Avalon to aid in the conflict there. Duke Hasek had initially attempted to countermand the requisition using his emergency powers as the leader of the march, but these orders were ignored. Seeing no other option, Hasek authorized his forces to seize the DropShips. Two of the cargo ships were able to escape under the fighter coverage of the Hussars, one was successfully seized by Hasek's detachment of marines, and one was destroyed, though its cargo was later recovered by Hasek's forces.

Realizing that the cat was now out of the bag, Duke Hasek authorized General Hughes to begin offensive operations. On 6 April, 3064, she launched her assault into the heavily-fortified Kulmen Mountains through the O'Herren Valley. The Seventh FedCom found the Hussars heavily dug-in, and their constant advance cost them many casualties. The Twenty-second Hussars, for their part, merely displaced back to the next position in their defense in depth and repeated the process. Hughes attempted two airborne assaults, dropping 'Mechs and infantry behind the enemy's defensive line to attempt to punch through and link up with her main force, but both of these airborne elements were quickly spotted and hunted down by a mobile rearguard Iona had set in preparation for such an attack. In addition, due to the nature of the mountainous terrain, Hughes was forced to rely on her infantry forces, slowing her advance to a crawl as they spotted and cleared enemy positions. Thanks to the heavy casualties the Hussars had inflicted on her unit and their advantageous position, Hughes deemed it necessary to request reinforcements from New Syrtis.

Uphill Struggle

The bloody battle up into the mountains raged on for months, with no word of reinforcements from New Syrtis forthcoming. Truthfully, Duke Hasek, perpetually worried for the safety and security of his ancestral homeworld, had tasked many of his available units with the planet's defense as he had worrying reports of Loyalist buildup on Taygeta. Until he determined where they might be headed, he was not about to weaken his defensive posture on New Syrtis. The Seventh FedCom on Talon would have to persevere alone for the time being.

On 13 November, 3064, the Hussars counterattacked the Seventh FedCom, providing a costly distraction so that six more cargo DropShips could slip through the Allied aerospace perimeter. By the time Hughes' forces realized what was going on it was too late and the DropShips had already escaped, bound for New Avalon with holds full of precious BattleMechs. Once the outbound freight had run the blockade, the Hussars returned again to a defensive posture, continuing to extract a toll of blood and machinery for every inch the Seventh FedCom advanced. When word reached General Hughes of an attack on New Syrtis in November of 3065, she realized that she would not be receiving the necessary forces. After suffering another devastating counterattack, Hughes made the decision to fall back to Portland and regroup, forced to give up the ground she had taken or lose her command. Once again, the Seventh FedCom and the Twenty-second Avalon Hussars were set in an uneasy truce.

Final Effort

In March, 3066, the Seventh FedCom's intelligence assets reported that the Twenty-second Avalon Hussars were again prepping to run interference for another shipment of 'Mechs to New Avalon. What was unusual about this particular blockade run was that the Twenty-second was also preparing its own DropShips for launch along with the cargo vessels. General Hughes began assembling her forces and preparing for battle, uncertain what the Iona and her Hussars were about to do next. Word of the Loyalist plans soon reached her from Field Marshal Sortek's office, along with her orders: the Loyalists were recalling the Twenty-second Avalon Hussars to New Avalon and she was to stop them from leaving Talon at all costs. Given how few of her original forces remained, Hughes realized that a direct assault back up the mountains would not be enough to prevent the Hussars from leaving. Instead, she formulated another plan, one that would spend her units lives to save those of the Allies on New Avalon.

On 18 March, 3066, what was left of the Seventh FedCom RCT loaded up on their DropShips for a final assault. Using her aerospace superiority to her advantage, she inserted herself and her unit into six key valleys outside the Kallon factory. While this meant the factory and its defenders were surrounded, it also meant that the Seventh was cut off from any escape route, as the Twenty-second still had active positions to the rear of her position. In a desperate last offensive, Hughes and her troops made for the factory complex, supported as much as possible by their aerospace assets. The factory's anti-air defenses chewed through the strafing fighters but were eventually destroyed, and the fighters turned to running ground support strikes on the remaining Hussars troops. Five hours after their landing, the Seventh's ground forces had breached the complex, trying with all their might to destroy as much enemy machinery and equipment as they could before the outer perimeter fell back to reinforce the defenders inside the factory.

By noon of 19 March, Marshal Iona's perimeter had fully encircled the Seventh and had closed to such a short distance that the Allies' air support could no longer conduct strikes safely without injuring their own forces. Without their aerospace superiority, the battered and bloody Seventh began to suffer heavier and heavier losses. On 23 March, 3066, the battle was over.

Aftermath

When all was said and done, the Twenty-second Avalon Hussars had annihilated the Seventh FedCom RCT. Every last attacking Allied unit that had entered the Kallon factory complex had been destroyed, but at a high cost.

Over eighty percent of the Hussars had been wiped out, and three quarters of their DropShips had been disabled or destroyed, requiring entire months of constant repair work. Marshal Iona ordered her unit to resupply its losses from what had been produced at the factory and what they could salvage off the battlefield, but knew that there was no way that the Twenty-second would ever be in good enough shape to make it to New Avalon. Indeed, by 3067, after the Civil War had ended, the unit was still on Talon attempting to repair what it could. Marshal Iona received a promotion to Field Marshal for her efforts, and, as the Twenty-second had only supported Katherine because they believed that she was the legal ruler, the unit was reintegrated back into the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns at war's end.

As the FedCom Corps was seen as a symbol of the divisive, bloody infighting that had plagued the Federated Commonwealth, and as its units had contributed significantly to the depravity of the war, the Corps was dissolved and the Seventh FedCom was never reconstituted. What survivors there were from the Seventh were assigned to other units in need of reinforcement.

Units Involved

Loyalist (pro-Katherine) Forces

• Twenty-second Avalon Hussars

Allied (pro-Victor) Forces

• Seventh FedCom RCT

Bibliography

• FedCom Civil War (sourcebook)
• Field Manual: Updates