Operation LEOPARD
Sarna News
In May 2833[1] the Second Ceti Hussars returned to Tikonov, supported this time by the Seventeenth Avalon Hussars and the Ninth Deneb Light Cavalry, on Operation LEOPARD - the second major attempt to capture the important industrial world. This time, the AFFS was better prepared, and dropped onto Tikonov with troops, artillery and aircraft suitable for breaking entrenched enemies out of heavy fortifications.[2]
The AFFS forces managed to break into and capture the High Kremlin after a bloody two-week battle, and proceeded to capture the heavily-fortified cities on Krasnodar and Pskov in early June, leaving all of the major population and industrial centers under AFFS control. What the AFFS couldn't do was pin down the surviving elements of the CCAF defending units, who faded into the wilderness and used exactly the same mobile tactics against the AFFS that the Ceti Hussars had used against them the year before. The three AFFS regiments broke down into increasingly smaller elements to try and pin down the CCAF units, and distributed supply caches around the world, only to be foxed by the arrival of the Capellan Hussars on the 13th of June. The Capellan Hussars destroyed many of the AFFS caches, a setback that the combined AFFS units could probably have overcome with time, but MIIO passed on intelligence indicating signs of massed CCAF troop movements towards Tikonov, prompting Greer to withdraw the AFFS forces from Tikonov, much to the chagrin of the First Prince, who rewarded Greer with KP duty on New Syrtis until the end of 2834.[2]