Long March Offensive

[2463-2468]

The Lyran Commonwealth launched their most ambitious attack to date, a two-Front offensive, one into the Draconis Combine, one into the Free Worlds League.

On the DC Front-Fake an attempt to retake St John. When Kurita forces moved to counter the Lyran invasion, LC troops would then turn and assault Nox, Skondia, Trolloc Prime and Caldrea.

On the FWL Front-To take back Bella I, Alula Australis and Canaugh II.

[2463] The plan did not start very well for the Lyran Commonwealth, who had two JumpShips, both loaded with three Battalions of troops, jump while too close to each other. Distortion fields mingled, morphing both ships together. At the end of the jump, nothing remained but a big unrecognizeable, twisted ball of metal. Skondia was wanted for its large metal deposits. Lyran attackers easily swept aside the reduced Draconis Combine garrison. Nox was wanted for its gem deposits. Though the Kuritans were more determined to defend Nox, Steiner Mechs soon pushed the defenders into full retreat

[2465-2467] CALDREA DEBACLE- Steiner forces attacked Caldrea, a key world in the Orestes Star Cluster. LCAF's 23rd Mech Battaltion had attempted three times to take the Kuritan stronghold that guarded the Kelli Mountain Pass. The fourth time would be the last. The delay had put the unit days and kilometers behind the rest of the advancing Commonwealth forces. The DCMS defense position was labeled `The Casino' after a similar structure on Terra that had held up against long artillery barrages, aerial attacks and repeated Armored Vehicle charges. Lyran commanders allotted only one more try at taking the fort, before a longer, alternate route would need to be found. On this final attack, the heavy Mechs of the 23rd were ordered forward, to divert the fort's fixed gun emplacements. Lighter Mechs used JumpJets to vault up the side of the mountain face. Two Mechs out of the beginning 12 lost their footing, tumbling uncontrollably back down the mountain. One of those Mechs exploded on its way down. The second made it to the bottom. When the rattled MechWarrior emerged from his machine, he was shot in the face by a DC sniper. Realizing that no fortress guns had been prepared for enemies on the mountain cliff to the sides or above the fort, the advancing LC jumpers closed in, careful of loose rock that could send them to the Pass floor. So focused on the main steel doors to the Fort, they did not expect landmines to be placed where gun emplacements had been neglected. The first was noticed, as a Steiner Mech had its leg ripped away. Thrown off-balance, the Mech had nowhere to go but tumbling straight down. Like a domino effect, other explosions occurred one after another. The few Commonwealth Mechs that made it to the main steel doors to the fortress were met with overwhelming heavy autocannon fire by guns that had been positioned and waiting directly behind those same steel doors. When the Lyran commanders learned that the planet's entire northern continent was a virtual maze of mountain ranges, honeycombed with defensive positions and traps, the weary Generals reverted to the barbaric use of nuclear weapons to clear them out. In nine months, the planet was the property of the Lyran Commonwealth, though no one knew what use they would be able to make of the half-devastated planet.

[2465-2467] On the Free Worlds League Front, Cavanaugh II and Bella I fell rather easily. On Alula Australis, Marik troops had dug in, in preparation for a Steiner attack. Even repeated, steady attacks by LC Mechs could not dislodge the FWL's well-prepared defensive lines. The defenders' first use of Marik-born BattleMechs greatly reduced the stresses of using Armored Vehicles against the LC Mechs. All momentum of the Steiner attacks came to a screeching halt, when it was learned that Alistair Steiner had been assassinated.