Rocky

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Rocky
System Information
X:Y Coordinates-16.688 : 24.716[e]

Owner History

Planetary History

Rocky was one of the worlds that remained a part of the Terran Alliance following the Outer Reaches Rebellion and the Demarcation Declaration of 2242,[1] and became one of the worlds within the Alliance Core region of the Terran Hegemony.[5] It remained a part of the Terran Hegemony up until the collapse of the Star League; in the final wave of annexations of former Hegemony planets in 2789, forces from the Federated Suns clashed with the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces over control of Rocky and other planets. As the use of weapons of mass destruction by all sides escalated during the First Succession War, Rocky was one of several planets where the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces resorted to the pre-emptive use of such weapons, and the conflict rendered Rocky uninhabitable. [25][26][6][12]

Star League Era

In January 2775 Stefan Amaris redeployed large numbers of Amaris Empire Armed Forces to a dozen worlds, including Rocky. AEAF units had used weapons of mass destruction regularly against Star League Defense Force units throughout the Hegemony Campaign, predominantly to either damage the SLDF units targeted or to strike at civilian targets to prevent the SLDF from obtaining resources and supplies. In this case, Amaris' orders were different: he intended to create scorched wastelands that Commanding General Aleksandr Kerensky would have no choice but to try and clear, whilst saddling the SLDF with huge numbers of sick and starving civilians. The AEAF units deployed to Rocky and the other eleven worlds due to be abandoned by Amaris launched large-scale WMD attacks with one purpose: to ravage the worlds, preventing them from sustaining either their human populations or their various industries... to create wastelands.[27]

The AEAF tactic was both brutal and brutally effective. Kerensky deployed twelve corps of SLDF personnel into Amaris Empire space, and each discovered the same horrific situations. Forced to deploy the SLDF reserve into action, by February Kerensky had almost a hundred SLDF divisions either on the twelve ravaged worlds or en route to them, trying to provide aid to the populations and to clear up what damage they could.[27] Rocky fell within the operating area of Task Force Commonwealth, and the Fifteenth Army Group deployed forces to try and assist the population.[28] The devastation wreaked across Rocky and the other worlds bought Amaris time; for several months Kerensky was unable to resume offensive operations because of a lack of resources, and ultimately the Commanding General had no choice but to call on the Capellan Confederation, Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns to provide relief where they could.[27]

First Succession War

The Lyran Commonwealth had annexed Rocky in 2785, but subsequently learned from the local population that a contingent of troops from the AEAF were in hiding on the planet. The Republican forces had been hiding amidst the ruins of Cavingwood, a seaport city, and had been living as bandits, preying on the towns nearby. The local population had no military forces of their own and no way to stop the bandits, so with the arrival of Commonwealth troops the locals were happy to point the LCAF at the bandits. The Lyran garrison promptly began hunting down the AEAF forces when the AFFS troops arrived[11] in late 2789.[29] With the failure of Operation BRASS RING - the AFFS attack on Hesperus II earlier in 2788[30] - the Federated Suns troops were keen to gain revenge for their previous failure.[11]

The LCAF forces on Rocky decided quickly that the AFFS attackers posed far more of a threat than the Republican bandits, and moved to engage the Federated Suns forces in what turned into a number of savage battles in the region around the planetary capital city, approximately a hundred kilometers from the remains of Cavingwood. The surviving Republican troops took the opportunity to launch an attack of their own, striking directly at the Commonwealth command center on Rocky; this proved to be the blow that sealed Rocky's fate, as it convinced the Lyran commander that the Republicans were in league with the AFFS. Determined to end the bandit activity, to rebuff the invasion and - in no small part - panicked by the insurgent attack, the Lyran commander ordered a bombing mission against the AFFS landing zones near the capital and a tactical nuclear strike on Cavingwood. The AFFS WarShips above Rocky retaliated with their own nuclear weapons, striking the Commonwealth positions on Rocky.[11]

The nuclear exchange was devastating and fatal for Rocky. Already badly damaged as a result of the Amaris Civil War and with almost no surviving infrastructure to support the population, the combination of ash-filled skies and fallout from the nuclear weapons brought on the beginnings of a premature ice age,[11] in addition to the strikes devastating several major cities and fatally damaging the environment.[31] Both the LCAF and AFFS managed to evacuate roughly a battalions-worth of their own troops each from Rocky; the Republican forces that had been hiding on Rocky when the Lyrans arrived were never seen again.[11]

Planetary Locations

  • Cavingwood: a seaport city on Rocky, destroyed during the First Succession War.[11]
  • Obsidian Coast[32]
  • Obsidian Sea[32]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Handbook: House Marik, p. 16, "Free Worlds League Founding [[2271]"
  2. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 13, "Lyran Commonwealth Founding [2341]"
  3. ↑ Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 18, "Rim Worlds Republic after Age of War [2571]"
  4. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 25, "Lyran Commonwealth after Age of War [2571]"
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 159, "Inner Sphere - 2596"
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 25, "Rim Worlds Republic At the Fall of the Star League [2750]"
  7. ↑ Era Report: 2750, p. 37, "Inner Sphere - 2750"
  8. ↑ Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 11, "Inner Sphere - 2765"
  9. ↑ Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 104, "Rim Worlds Republic - [2767] Map"
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 138, "Operation LIBERATION Wave 1 [July 2772 - December 2774]"
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 First Succession War, p. 109, "The Battle of Rocky"
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Handbook: House Steiner, p. 36, "Lyran Commonwealth after First Succession War [2822]"
  13. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 40, "Lyran Commonwealth after Second Succession War [2822]"
  14. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 47, "Lyran Commonwealth after Third Succession War [3025]"
  15. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 56, "Lyran Commonwealth after Fourth Succession War [3030]"
  16. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 59, "Lyran Commonwealth after War of 39 [3040]"
  17. ↑ Era Report: 3052, p. 11, "Inner Sphere - 3050"
  18. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 61, "Lyran Commonwealth after Clan Invasion [3052]"
  19. ↑ Era Report: 3052, p. 23, "Inner Sphere - 3052"
  20. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 70, "Lyran Commonwealth after FedCom Civil War [3067]"
  21. ↑ Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 65, "Inner Sphere [3075]"
  22. ↑ Map of the Inner Sphere 3130
  23. ↑ Era Report: 3145, p. 11, "Inner Sphere Map - [3135]"
  24. ↑ Era Report: 3145, p. 39, "Inner Sphere Map - [3145]"
  25. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 35, "Total War"
  26. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 37, "Timeline: The Commonwealth and the First Succession War"
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, p. 33, "Planets on Fire"
  28. ↑ Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, p. 40, "Task Force Commonwealth"
  29. ↑ First Succession War, p. 114, "Timeline of the First Succession War"
  30. ↑ First Succession War, p. 61, "The War of Raids: House Steiner's Succession War"
  31. ↑ First Succession War, p. 63, "Holding Hesperus"
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Forgotten Worlds, Book One: The Hunt for Jardine (Prologue)

Bibliography

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