Battle of Arc-Royal (3151)

Battle of Arc-Royal (3151)
Part of The IlClan Era
Start Date from August to 2 October 3151
Planet Arc-Royal
Result Kell Hounds victory
Factions
(Attacker)
Kell Hounds
(Defender)
Clan Jade Falcon
Commanders and leaders
Callandre Kell Riss (Clan Jade Falcon)
Conditions
Normal


The Battle of Arc-Royal (3151) was a early IlClan Era military operation undertaken by by the Kell Hounds against former Jade Falcons in Arc-Royal in August to October 3151.

Operation Brief[edit]

The battle took place in Arc-Royal.

Operation History[edit]

Factions & Known Units Involved in the Conflict[edit]

Jade Falcons[edit]

Lyran Commonwealth[edit]

Origin of Conflict[edit]

The Battle of Arc-Royal (3146) left Clan Jade Falcon in control of Arc-Royal, home of both Clan Wolf (in Exile) and Kell Hounds. The commander of the Hounds, Callandre Kell, launched a campaign of guerrilla attacks into the Falcon's occupation Zone, but recovering her world always remained her top priority. From the group's secret base, in the Beta Regulus II system, she gathered all former Hounds she could, and at the dawn of the IlClan Era, she decided to attack.[1] Her Hounds, about a reinforced battalion, strike the world of Santana, to obtain intel about Arc-Royal, but they didn't find any opposition. Almost all the Falcon's garrison had departed, months ago, and the Falcon's government had collapsed. That made Callandre change of plans and decide to attack Arc-Royal, leaving her plans to scout the planet first. Her people attempted to contact the Exiled Wolves, but in vain, so he decided to attack alone with all what she had.[2]


Space Battle[edit]

In August, after leaving a stable government on Santana, the Hounds launched their attack. Arc-Royal housed important weapons manufacturing facilities, as five sibko training centers, so the solahma garrison was about two Clusters strong. Both jump points had recharge stations with aerospace Stars of fighters, so the Hounds jumped into a pirate point. Knowing she was outnumbered, Callandre decided to use her battalion of combined arms as a mobile force, moving and striking. Their first target was the Lupus Majoris Orbital Yards, in space around the planet. The Hounds aerospace fighters moved towards the yards, and his only defense, a lone Broadsword-class DropShip barely finished launched from his berth, along with a understrength Star of Avar and Jagatai fighters. Though the defenders crippled a Hounds boarding craft, the Broadsword's reactor failed, and the surviving sibcadet pilots surrendered.[3]

Ground Campaign[edit]

From the space, the Hounds surveyed the planet, locating all the Falcon's forces. These were dispersed in several places, in two continents, so Callandre decided to attack and destroy one force at a time. The Hounds landed on the continent of Gerechtland, moving towards the primary enclave. The defenders, the 433rd Solahma Trinary, emerged and engaged them with armor and infantry in a snow-covered valley. The Hounds' armor, led by Callandre's SM5 Field Commander, get through the Falcon's lines, engaging them from the back, destroying their vehicles engines with precision attacks. The Hounds' 'Mechs easily crushed the survivors which pursued the retreating armor. During the month, the Hounds targeted all other Falcon's concentrations on planet, destroying them all. The last ones to fall were their positions in Mount Zugspitze, at the end of the month. Meanwhile, the Hounds had contacted with local resistance cells, which provided them with better intel, and began spreading the news of the Kell Hounds' return.[4] In mid-September, the Hounds sifted their operations to the other continent, Gutheim. Their first target was New Hannover, where were located the Arc-Royal MechWorks and Kell Refit Facilities. The local garrison, warned by the Hounds' previous attacks, had quickly maximized production and called reinforcements, so they were well equipped and entrenched, so the Hounds strike-and-run attacks failed to dislodge them. But when a sibko approached, Callandre shifted the attack to them, crushing them easily. The solahma garrison, coming to their aid, was trapped in the open and easily destroyed by the Hounds careful trap. After equipping her forces with equipment from the factories, the Hounds now could field about two combined arms battalion, but still were outnumbered by the garrison, so Callandre ordered the neutralization of the facilities, taking key components, and left them undefended. The Hounds' next target was a training facility in the jungle. The attacking Hounds found the practice fields active with holographic decoys, but the only opposition they find was of a few antiquated tanks, crewed by the facility solahma instructors. The attackers easily crushed them, and when interrogated the senior Falconer about the cadets' location, he taunted Callandre telling her than all the Falcon's garrison was awaiting her in the capital, Old Connaught. But before she could order an attack, the 1 October, the garrison commander, Star Colonel Riss (Clan Jade Falcon) sent a broadcast where he show the execution of 1,000 civilians, telling he would do the same every day if Callandre didn't surrender or abandon the Falcon's occupation zone permanently. If Riss had expected to scare or force the surrendering of the Hounds, he was wrong: he only managed to enrage Callandre: to her, there wasn't any option which wasn't to free the planet once for all, so she ordered all the Hounds forces gathering and ordered a total assault against Old Connaught.[5]

Final Battle[edit]

Quickly, the Hounds deployed their forces in the outskirts of Old Connaught, but without attacking, despite the Falcon's challenges. Instead she sent a signal in orbit, and the captured Broadsword began descending towards the center of the Falcon's positions. The garrison, thinking the DropShip was to deploy troops, open fire to it... but instead, the not-crewed ship crashed into their formation, annihilating half a Cluster and scattering the survivors. Then, the Hounds' attacked. However, the Falcons quickly recovered and, eschewing their defensive positions, they surged, attacking the Hounds in the Morein Basin, the place of the previous day's massacre. The mercenaries used their high mobility to hit and run. Riss in his Hunchback IIC, personally engaged Kell's Malahide tank. Callandre, talking in the open, revealed to the garrison the annihilation of Clan Jade Falcon's in Terra, a fact which apparently the Star Colonel hadn't shared with his men. The fight soon began ceasing, except for both leaders. Despite having a 'Mech with superior weaponry, Callandre's fast SM5 outmaneuvered him, downing the 'Mech. Riss refused to surrender, so Kell annihilated him with an artillery attack.[6]

Aftermath[edit]

Riss' death put an end to the battle, and the Falcon's occupation of the planet. The survivors fully agreed to Kell's conditions: to leave into her hands all those involved in the massacre, along with any 'Mech manufactured on Arc-Royal. The Falcons could retreat with whatever material they've landed originally, nothing more. All accepted the conditions, leaving the planet in Callandre's hands. She proclaimed the birth of a new protostate the same day: the Arc-Royal Liberty Coalition.[7]

References[edit]

  1. Tamar Rising, p. 33
  2. Tamar Rising, p. 35
  3. Tamar Rising, p. 35-36
  4. Tamar Rising, p. 36
  5. Tamar Rising, p. 36-37
  6. Tamar Rising, p. 38-39
  7. Tamar Rising, p. 38

Bibliography[edit]