Difference between revisions of "Task Force Serpent"

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{{quote|''All commands, this is Dancer. The word is given. Commence Operation Serpent.''|General Ariana Winston }}
 
{{quote|''All commands, this is Dancer. The word is given. Commence Operation Serpent.''|General Ariana Winston }}
  
Though the investigation of the death of Morgan Hasek-Davion, the task force continued its jumps towards the Clan Homeworlds, standing ready at Waypoint Mulberry, 30 light years from Huntress on the 19th of February, 3060.
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Though the investigation of the death of Morgan Hasek-Davion, the task force had continued its jumps towards the Clan Homeworlds, standing ready at Waypoint Mulberry, 30 light years from Huntress on the 19th of February, 3060.
  
The primary threat to the invasion, based on the data the Smoke Jagaur defector Trent had brought back, was an active Clan Space Defense System at Huntress, control of which was built into the planets primary command and operations center Mount Szabo, near the planetary capital Lootera. Accordingly, a plan had been worked up to covertly insert the four DEST teams with the objective of destroying the SDS command center and opening the way for the primary assault force.
+
The primary threat to the invasion, based on the data the Smoke Jagaur defector Trent had brought back, was an active Clan Space Defense System at Huntress, control of which was built into the planets primary command and operations center Mount Szabo, near the planetary capital Lootera. Accordingly, a plan had been worked up to covertly insert the DEST teams with the objective of destroying the SDS command center and opening the way for the assault force.
  
The DCS Haruna became the first Inner Sphere warship to invade Clan Space when she materialized at the Zenith point for Huntress later on the 19th. No challenge was received from the Clan at her arrival, broadcasting an IFF signal provided by Trent that identified her as a Smoke Jaguar York Class destroyer/carrier named the Queen Lynx. Thirty minutes later the Stiletto, the broadsword captured from Clan Ghost Bear at Trafalgar, since repainted in a Smoke Jaguar paint scheme and running an IFF identifying her as a Smoke Jagauar dropship designated 'Tracker' unlocked and commenced a standard 1G burn for Huntress. The Haruna deployed her jump sail and, after a standard recharge cycle, jumped out-system on the 26th of February. Three days later, on the 1st of March, the Stiletto reached orbit of Huntress. Her transponder was briefly interrogated by an automated ground based system, apparently logging her fabricated orders to deliver parts and technical personnel to the industrial complex at Pahn City before shutting off, apparently loosing interest in the inbound ship.
+
The DCS Haruna became the first Inner Sphere warship to invade Clan Space when she materialized at the Zenith point for Huntress later on the 19th. No challenge was received from the Clan at her arrival, broadcasting an IFF signal provided by Trent that identified her as a Smoke Jaguar York Class destroyer/carrier named the Queen Lynx. Thirty minutes later the Stiletto, the broadsword captured from Clan Ghost Bear at Trafalgar. Since repainted in a Smoke Jaguar paint scheme and running an IFF identifying her as a Smoke Jagauar dropship designated 'Tracker', the dropship unlocked and commenced a standard 1G burn for Huntress. The Haruna deployed her jump sail and, after a standard recharge cycle, jumped out-system on the 26th of February. Three days later, on the 1st of March, the Stiletto reached orbit of Huntress. Her transponder was briefly interrogated by an automated ground based system, apparently logging her fabricated orders to deliver parts and technical personnel to the industrial complex at Pahn City before shutting off, apparently loosing interest in the inbound ship.
  
The crew of the Stiletto and DEST commandos were somewhat put out at the incredibly lax security for a Clan Homeworld compared to the layers of flight control and security around such Inner Sphere worlds. Without so much as a even a verbal challenge being directed at them as yet. Trent however had correctly predicted that his former Clan considered an Inner Sphere attack against the Clan Homeworlds completely impossible. And as no Clan attacker would ever try to sneak in using such subterfuge, there was simply no need for any kind of elaborate security in the view of the Smoke Jaguars
+
The crew of the Stiletto and DEST commandos were somewhat put out at the incredibly lax security for a Clan Homeworld compared to the layers of flight control and security around such Inner Sphere worlds. Without so much as a even a verbal challenge being directed at them as yet. Trent however had correctly predicted that his former Clan considered an Inner Sphere attack against the Clan Homeworlds completely impossible. And as no Clan attacker would ever try to sneak in using such subterfuge, there was simply no need for any kind of elaborate security in the view of the Smoke Jaguars, who simply took the transponders at face value.
  
As such, the insertion went off without a hitch. Using stealth drop-cocoons, the twenty four DEST Commandos under Sho-Sa Ryan made a successful HALO drop into the mountains west of Lootera at 03:00 local. The Stiletto then faked a steep descent, broadcasting a very weak distress signal and appearing to the local flight control to have had some kind of catastrophic failure, its track vanishing somewhere in the vast Dhuan Swamp. Galaxy Commander Russou Howell, the senior officer on-planet, had in fact been woken with the news of the unexpected arrival of the Tracker (although he was far from pleased to have been woken for such a minor lower-cast issue) but had not even arrived at his command center before the news that she had apparently crashed was received. Slightly nonplussed by the odd series of events, the Galaxy Commander was mostly unconcerned, ordering a search to be made for the crashed ship and going back to bead. Meanwhile, having flown out of radar coverage, the Stiletto grounded in the Lunar Range on the continent of Abysmal, far from where any search would be looking for her.
+
As such, the insertion went off without a hitch. Using stealth drop-cocoons, the twenty four DEST Commandos under Sho-Sa Ryan made a successful HALO drop into the mountains west of Lootera at 03:00 local. The Stiletto then faked a steep descent, broadcasting a very weak distress signal and appearing to the local flight control to have had some kind of catastrophic failure, its track apparently vanishing somewhere in the vast Dhuan Swamp. Galaxy Commander Russou Howell, the senior officer on-planet, had in fact been woken with the news of the unexpected arrival of the Tracker (although he was far from pleased to have been woken for such a minor lower-cast issue) but had not even arrived at his command center before the news that she had apparently crashed was received. Slightly nonplussed by the odd series of events, the Galaxy Commander was mostly unconcerned, ordering a search to be made for the crashed ship and going back to bed. Meanwhile, having flown out of radar coverage, the Stiletto grounded in the Lunar Range on the continent of Abysmal, far from where any search would be looking for her.
  
It took the DEST teams three nights to make their way to their objective, as surprise was essentially and maximum stealth was necessary, limiting their movements to only a few kilometers every night. On March 5th, only hours before the task force was due to jump in, the DEST teams infiltrated the command center, killing two Elemental sentries as they did so. Inside, the teams split to hit three discrete objectives; the main planetary sensor network control station, the main Command and Control room and finally, the SDS control center. The teams initially ran into no problems, but at the SDS command center, one technician managed to trigger an alarm before being gunned down. With surprise lost, the DEST teams swiftly planted their charges, executing the remaining technicians before starting their exfiltration. A rapid response team of two Elemental Points summoned by the alarm complicated matters however, arriving as the first team attempted egress. A brief but vicious firefight broke out that cost the DEST teams six men before the rest of their commandos arrived and eliminated the enemy reinforcements.  
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It took the DEST teams three nights to make their way to their objective, as surprise was essentially and maximum stealth was necessary, limiting their movements to only a few kilometers every night. On March 5th, only hours before the task force was due to jump in, the DEST teams infiltrated the command center, killing two Elemental sentries as they did so. Inside, the teams split to hit three discrete objectives; the main planetary sensor network control station, the main Command and Control room and finally, the SDS control center. The teams initially ran into no problems, storming each room quickly but at the SDS command center, one technician managed to trigger an alarm before being gunned down. With surprise lost, the DEST teams swiftly planted their charges, executing the remaining technicians before starting their exfiltration. A rapid response team of two Elemental Points summoned by the alarm complicated matters however, arriving as the first team attempted egress. A brief but vicious firefight broke out that cost the DEST teams six men before the rest of their commandos arrived and eliminated the enemy reinforcements.
  
The remaining 18 Commandos left the area before further reinforcements arrived and the charges detonated on schedule, achieving the primary objectives of the mission. However, by necessity, the DEST commandos were forced to leave their dead behind. And while a mysterious explosion may have been put down to bandit cast activity or a catastrophic accident for a time, not even the most hidebound Smoke Jaguar officer could ignore the evidence of six dead Inner Sphere commandos - and what their attack on the planets primary command center meant.
+
The remaining 18 Commandos left the area before further reinforcements arrived and the charges detonated on schedule, achieving the primary objectives of the mission. However, by necessity, the DEST commandos were forced to leave their dead behind. And while a mysterious explosion may have been put down to bandit cast activity or a catastrophic accident, for a time, not even the most hidebound Smoke Jaguar officer could ignore the evidence of six dead Inner Sphere commandos - and what their attack on the planets primary command center meant.
  
Fortuntantly, the fleet jumped into the Huntress System mere hours later and the question became academic.
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Fortuntantly, the fleet jumped into the Huntress System mere hours later and the question of surprise became academic.
  
 
===The Fleet Arrives===
 
===The Fleet Arrives===

Revision as of 19:16, 18 May 2015

Task Force Serpent was a multi-national task force tasked with executing a secret military operation commissioned by the newly formed SLDF under the aegis of Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion. Their objective was to reach the Clan Smoke Jaguar homeworld of Huntress and capture it, with the goal of destroying the Smoke Jaguars as an entity. The mission ran concurrent to Operation Bulldog - an operation whose goal was to drive the Smoke Jaguars from the worlds they occupied in the Inner Sphere. Although Morgan Hasek-Davion died en route by assassination, Ariana Winston of the Eridani Light Horse succeeded him and completed the mission.

General Winston, however, was killed in the final battle of Huntress, on 30th March, 3060 whilst piloting her Cyclops against a Smoke Jaguar Summoner, just ten days before Prince Victor Steiner-Davion and Taskforce Bulldog arrived planet-side. Command of Operation Serpent fell to General Winston's second-in-command, Colonel Charles Antonescu until Taskforce Bulldog arrived planet-side and relieved the shattered survivors of Operation Serpent.

Task Force Serpent emblem

Participating Units

Ground units

Special Operations Forces

  • DEST - Teams 4, 5 and 6; ten Operatives each
  • MI6 - two teams; ten Operatives each
  • ROM - one agent

Additionally, Theodore Kurita deployed a team of four Nekekami, which revealed themselves only to the present head of Task Force Serpent. They were Kasugai Hatsumi (head of this group), Honda Tan, Rumiko Fox (specialty: venom and sniper rifle) and Kieji Sendai (specialty: explosives).

An unknown political faction (purportedly Word of Blake) sent an assassin, to kill Morgan Hasek-Davion. Kasugai Hatsumi claimed, that he was a former Loki-agent, but it is unknown if that is correct. This agent used the name Lucas Penrose.

Fleet

Task Force Serpent's JumpShip fleet with Invisible Truth leading it.

Additionally the fleet included several Monolith-, Star Lord- and Invader-class JumpShips.

History

On November 14th 3058, during a military planning session for the first wave of Operation Bulldog, Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht presented new intelligence material about Clan Smoke Jaguar that have been delivered to him by the Smoke Jaguar defector, Trent. Among this information was the location of Huntress, the Smoke Jaguar homeworld. Morgan Hasek-Davion saw potential for the Inner Sphere forces to deal a devastating blow to the Smoke Jaguars by attacking their homeworld while also expelling them from the Inner Sphere. After convincing the others of the plan's viability, Hasek-Davion was named the Task Force Commander. His initial request for forces to make up the Task Force consisted of: the First Kathil Uhlans, the Eridani Light Horse, the Northwind Highlanders, the ComStar Invader Galaxy, the 11th Lyran Guards, the Second Sword of Light, one yet-to-be-determined regiment of McCarron's Armored Cavalry, the 1st St. Ives Lancers and the Knights of the Inner Sphere.

Into the Periphery

Task Force Serpent assembled on Fort Defiance, a barren planet deep in the Crucis March of the Federated Commonwealth, which was mostly used for military training maneuvers. There the various units trained fighting alongside each other and against the simulated Clan forces of the ComStar Invader Galaxy. Simultaneously, the DEST and MI6 teams trained for spacecraft boarding actions.

The Task Force launched on May 1st 3059, first jumping to Tsamma, where Morgan Hasek-Davion exchanged several damaged 'Mechs from Task Force Serpent for 'Mechs from the planetary militia.

Task Force Serpent followed a route that brought them near the Outworlds Alliance. They then jumped into the Periphery using a route that paralleled those commonly used by the Clans.

In November 3059 Task Force Serpent arrived in the Meribah system, which had a habitable planet. Morgan Hasek Davion ordered a Mule-class DropShip specially outfitted to obtain fresh drinking water from that planet to deploy, to replenish the fleets supplies. The 5th Striker Battalion of the 21st Striker Regiment of the Eridani Light Horse was detailed to serve as the security element for this mission. In the course of their duties, the Eridani unit encountered and defeated several 'Mech-equipped bandits: Meribah was the base of a group of pirates. Luckily, the pirates' main force was absent on a raid. The Eridani destroyed the base and released the slaves found there. The captured pirates were court-martialed and their leaders executed. The debate over the fate of the pirates caused major disagreements among the unit commanders of Task Force Serpent on ethical grounds. Morgan Hasek-Davion exercised his right as Task Force Commander to have the final say, but the damage to his personal relationship with some of the officers, including his deputy, Colonel Ariana Winston took some time to heal.

The Battle of Trafalgar

Attention, Clan WarShips, I am Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion, commander of the Star League Task Force Serpent. Let this be my batchall. I call upon you to prepare to defend your fleet and yourselves. We will be attacking you with all but one of our WarShips. I name as isorla any ship that is rendered unable to fight or maneuver, and claim its passengers and crew as bondsmen. What forces do you bid in your defense
  — Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion

On December 15th, Task Force Serpent stumbled unexpectedly across a small Clan Ghost Bear fleet, consisting of: one Congress, two Whirlwinds and an Invader. Morgan Hasek-Davion hailed the Clan Fleet and issued a Batchall, declaring a Trial of Possession for the entire Clan Fleet. His challenge was accepted by Star Colonel Alonso Gilmour who ordered his three warships to engage the enemy. Taking command of the engagement, Beresick ordered the Fox class Rostock to remain with the transport Jumpships and all other warships to advance on the enemy.

The closest warship to the Clan Flotila, the Lola III class Ranger, first moved to target the Invader class Winter Wind as a sudden sensor spike indicated that the ship was bringing its K/F drives online. Ordered to 'stop that ship jumping', Captain Mercia Winslow obeyed quite literally; a salvo of Naval weapons fire destroying both its field initiator and drive controller and leaving the jumpship dead in space. Quickly, orders were passed to the DCS Haruna to deploy its DEST teams and capture the disabled starship. The Fire Fang, a Whirlwind class Destroyer, moved to intercept and protect the disabled Jumpship and a running battle was soon underway as the Kyushu class Frigate closed in. Intervention by the Fox class Antrim and a pair of Avenger class Assault Dropships forced the Clan warship to break off to defend itself, letting the Kyushu close in and deploy the Bisan 90 kilometers out, before she reversed course to re-engage the Whirlwind, eventually defeating it and accepting its surrender.

The Winter Wind in response launched her last line of defense, a pair of Union-C class dropships who engaged the Achilles class assault ship. In a display of superior skill, the Combine dropship outmaneuvered the Clan dropships, making a fast pass along the Invader and launching the DESTs NL-42 Battle Taxis which docked and delivered the boarding party. The Ghost Bear Elemental Marines and some armed crew members put up a fight, but were no match for the elite Commandos who swiftly stormed the ship. However the Clan security force were able to delay them long enough for the ships command crew to corrupt the computer core and physically smash much of the bridges equipment. Redundant as such actions were given that the ship would never jump again.

The Ranger meanwhile, after firing the first shots of the battle had moved to engage its second target, the Congress class Frigate Shining Claw. Superior captaining by Star Colonel Gilmour kept her in the battle for an extended period of time, even with the Essex-class Starlight joining the Ranger to tag-team the Frigate. Both the Ranger and Starlight would take considerable armor damage and the Starlight lost one of her Naval PPC batteries, but in the end they successfully disabled the enemy flagship and the Star Colonel conceded the fight.

The final Clan Warship, the Whirlwind class Ursus, moved to engage the Invisible Truth, despite the considerable tonnage mismatch. Using her speed and maneuverability the Destroyer, for a time, managed to dance around the Battle Cruiser and land numerous minor hits on her armor. Inevitably however, the Truth managed to pin the Whirlwind and with a focused volley of her full firepower, tore open a large amount of her hull, leaving the ship on fire and out of control. One of the Invisible Truths dropships was launched to perform SAR operations and was able to evacuate 96 survivors from the ship.

With the Clan flotilta defeated, the Task Force was faced with several pressing issues in the aftermath of the engagement. First was the repair of their own ships. While luckily most of their ships had not taken structural damage, they had lost one Assault dropship, the Starlight had lost some of her weapons and many ships had taken armor damage that would compromise their protection in the event of another engagement. In exchange however, they had captured or destroyed all the Clan starships. Although the damage done in the process rendered most of them crippled beyond any possible field repair, the Firefang was able to be both repaired and put into service as the eighth warship of the fleet. They also captured an undamaged Clan Broadsword class dropship, the Ice Dart (renamed the Stiletto), which had been docked to the Winter Wind but unable to launch. They also captured a couple of damaged Union-Cs, a dozen Omnifighters and a Star of Omnimechs which were divided up among the units.

The biggest headache for Serpent however was that the Clan Flotila had been engaged in Clan Ghost Bears relocation of its civilian population to the Inner Sphere. And as such, was carrying over a thousand civilians, plus the ships crews who were nominally bondsmen. Without the resources to take them along and more than one of the missions senior officers either uneasy or downright hostile to the idea of accepting Clan Bondsmen as allies, Morgan quickly stepped in to lay down the law; any Clansmen who willingly gave their bond oath would be accepted by the task force - even if he had to assign every one of them as a member of his personal staff. The others who did not would be taken with the fleet until such time as they could find an inhabited world they could be left behind on. Although distrust was great from many of the Spheroids of 'Clan Serpent', tensions were eased somewhat when a Clan technician, Lennox, at great personal risk saved the life of an Inner Sphere technician during Zero-G salvage operations. He was rewarded by Morgan Hasek Davion with his freedom and reassigned to his personal staff. The other Bondsmen considered most trustworthy helped to form a skeleton crew for the Fire Fang.

The repair and salvage operations took several days, some unit commanders very uneasy about spending so long at a system clearly used by at least some Clans. None the less the operations were completed successfully and the task force jumped out, apparently after sending the wrecked Clan starships on a ballistic course into the local star, removing any evidence of the battle. Just as it left the system however it detected an abnormal jump signature possibly indicating an inbound starship, which was noted, but not investigated - as to do so would require returning to the system.

In late December, the remaining pirates being held in custody and the surviving Ghost Bears were exiled on a habitable planet. It is not known if the Inner Sphere ever passed on this fact to Clan Ghost Bear.

Death of Morgan Hasek-Davion

"He was the last of the old order of things. We'll never see his like again."
  — General Ariana Winston

During the night of the 2nd January 3060, Morgan Hasek-Davion was poisoned with a rare venom introduced into his whiskey. Initially considered to be a death by natural causes, Andrew Redburn at once voiced suspicions to Ariana Winston, Morgans deputy and now Task Force Commander, that he had been murdered. Citing the fact that Prince Victor had insisted on Morgan undertaking a full physical before going on the mission, which he had passed with flying colors. A careful autopsy of Morgans corpse by the Invisible Truths medical officer, Dr Donati and initial investigation by MI6 officer Captain Roger Montjar confirmed he had indeed been poisoned. Starting an investigation, Captain Montjar later stepped aside on his own instance in favor of Sho-sa Michael Ryan from the DEST, on the grounds that the DEST commandos were given much more extensive investigative training by the ISF, which would be useful in this situation. It was an ironic indicator of the state of bonding between the two special forces teams (who otherwise would have been the most mortal of enemies) that the MI6 unit was willing to step aside and let an ISF unit investigate the death of the Marshal of the Armies of the Federated Commonwealth, but the DEST leader took to the task with a will.

Investigations concluded that this was the work of a professional assassin, as he had used an extremely rare electronic code-cracking device to gain entry to the cabin and the highly toxic poison used was hardly something that would be carried around by anyone but a professional. Extensive searches through the Invisible Truth failed to find either a trace of the assassin, poison or electronics, but record cross checks of the ships crew turned up five red flags. On board were five ComStar crew members who simply did not exist before they had entered Comstar. As it turned out, these were the four Nekekami Theodore had personally gifted Morgan, plus the assassin. One of them, Rumiko Fox, was subjected to a lie detector test, but the results were unclear. Major Ryans feeling (correctly) was that she had something to hide, but was not the assassin. The next candidate was Lucas Penrose. He killed the guards that had been sent to bring him in for questioning, stole their weapons and fled into a room, shooting Major Ryan in the process (fortunately the DEST commando continued to wear body armor as a matter of habit even on-ship and took only minor injuries). The Marines arrived quickly in response but Penrose warned them that he had planted a bomb in one of the Invisible Truths Naval Autocannon magazines and would detonate it if he was not given a jumpship to take him back to the Inner Sphere and if Winston didn't surrender herself to him at once.

Ludicrous as the demands were, Winston complied to buy time to investigate the threat. Conversing with the man at gunpoint, she eventually realized that the hand he was holding behind his back, suggesting he was holding the trigger for a detonator, was in fact empty. With this knowledge, she risked jumping Penrose, a zero-G wrestling match spilling out into the corridor over his gun, but the Marines had no clear target. Just as it seemed Penrose was about to succeed in killing her, Penrose was suddenly hit (by Kasugai Hatsumi) with a poisoned Shuriken, something seen only briefly by Winston before she swung the suddenly slack gun back and shot Penrose. As guards and MedTechs stormed in, Kasugai Hatsumi (disguised as a MedTech) retrieved the Shuriken leaving no clear evidence. Winstons insistence of what she had seen led to Dr Donati again investigating, finding a tiny wound where she thought she had seen it, with traces of nerotoxin. Although suspicious of the events, Winston (who had come into knowedlge of the Nekekami after watching the Vid Morgan had left for her in the event of his death) was later contacted by Kasugai Hatsumi. He confirmed that Rumiko had been one of his agents and told her a story about Penrose being a rogue Loki-agent, asking for the release of his agent.

Shortly after the funeral of Morgan Hasek-Davion, the ships of TFS received a broadband transmission sent by Aleksandr Kerensky himself. It was a declaration explaining why the General had taken the SLDF from the Inner Sphere. As the message was traveling at lightspeed, it would not reach the Inner Sphere for another eight hundred of so years. However, the Voice confirmed that they were nearing the Clan Homeworlds, now only a few hundred light years away.

Operation Stalking Tiger

All commands, this is Dancer. The word is given. Commence Operation Serpent.
  — General Ariana Winston

Though the investigation of the death of Morgan Hasek-Davion, the task force had continued its jumps towards the Clan Homeworlds, standing ready at Waypoint Mulberry, 30 light years from Huntress on the 19th of February, 3060.

The primary threat to the invasion, based on the data the Smoke Jagaur defector Trent had brought back, was an active Clan Space Defense System at Huntress, control of which was built into the planets primary command and operations center Mount Szabo, near the planetary capital Lootera. Accordingly, a plan had been worked up to covertly insert the DEST teams with the objective of destroying the SDS command center and opening the way for the assault force.

The DCS Haruna became the first Inner Sphere warship to invade Clan Space when she materialized at the Zenith point for Huntress later on the 19th. No challenge was received from the Clan at her arrival, broadcasting an IFF signal provided by Trent that identified her as a Smoke Jaguar York Class destroyer/carrier named the Queen Lynx. Thirty minutes later the Stiletto, the broadsword captured from Clan Ghost Bear at Trafalgar. Since repainted in a Smoke Jaguar paint scheme and running an IFF identifying her as a Smoke Jagauar dropship designated 'Tracker', the dropship unlocked and commenced a standard 1G burn for Huntress. The Haruna deployed her jump sail and, after a standard recharge cycle, jumped out-system on the 26th of February. Three days later, on the 1st of March, the Stiletto reached orbit of Huntress. Her transponder was briefly interrogated by an automated ground based system, apparently logging her fabricated orders to deliver parts and technical personnel to the industrial complex at Pahn City before shutting off, apparently loosing interest in the inbound ship.

The crew of the Stiletto and DEST commandos were somewhat put out at the incredibly lax security for a Clan Homeworld compared to the layers of flight control and security around such Inner Sphere worlds. Without so much as a even a verbal challenge being directed at them as yet. Trent however had correctly predicted that his former Clan considered an Inner Sphere attack against the Clan Homeworlds completely impossible. And as no Clan attacker would ever try to sneak in using such subterfuge, there was simply no need for any kind of elaborate security in the view of the Smoke Jaguars, who simply took the transponders at face value.

As such, the insertion went off without a hitch. Using stealth drop-cocoons, the twenty four DEST Commandos under Sho-Sa Ryan made a successful HALO drop into the mountains west of Lootera at 03:00 local. The Stiletto then faked a steep descent, broadcasting a very weak distress signal and appearing to the local flight control to have had some kind of catastrophic failure, its track apparently vanishing somewhere in the vast Dhuan Swamp. Galaxy Commander Russou Howell, the senior officer on-planet, had in fact been woken with the news of the unexpected arrival of the Tracker (although he was far from pleased to have been woken for such a minor lower-cast issue) but had not even arrived at his command center before the news that she had apparently crashed was received. Slightly nonplussed by the odd series of events, the Galaxy Commander was mostly unconcerned, ordering a search to be made for the crashed ship and going back to bed. Meanwhile, having flown out of radar coverage, the Stiletto grounded in the Lunar Range on the continent of Abysmal, far from where any search would be looking for her.

It took the DEST teams three nights to make their way to their objective, as surprise was essentially and maximum stealth was necessary, limiting their movements to only a few kilometers every night. On March 5th, only hours before the task force was due to jump in, the DEST teams infiltrated the command center, killing two Elemental sentries as they did so. Inside, the teams split to hit three discrete objectives; the main planetary sensor network control station, the main Command and Control room and finally, the SDS control center. The teams initially ran into no problems, storming each room quickly but at the SDS command center, one technician managed to trigger an alarm before being gunned down. With surprise lost, the DEST teams swiftly planted their charges, executing the remaining technicians before starting their exfiltration. A rapid response team of two Elemental Points summoned by the alarm complicated matters however, arriving as the first team attempted egress. A brief but vicious firefight broke out that cost the DEST teams six men before the rest of their commandos arrived and eliminated the enemy reinforcements.

The remaining 18 Commandos left the area before further reinforcements arrived and the charges detonated on schedule, achieving the primary objectives of the mission. However, by necessity, the DEST commandos were forced to leave their dead behind. And while a mysterious explosion may have been put down to bandit cast activity or a catastrophic accident, for a time, not even the most hidebound Smoke Jaguar officer could ignore the evidence of six dead Inner Sphere commandos - and what their attack on the planets primary command center meant.

Fortuntantly, the fleet jumped into the Huntress System mere hours later and the question of surprise became academic.

The Fleet Arrives

"Send to all commands. Clear for battle, launch all Combat Air Patrol fighters. Message to Starlight. Starlight is to remain with and protect the transports. We're here, and no Clan buggers are going to make us leave!"
  — Commodore Beresick

At 06:30 local, March 5th 3060, Task Force Serpent entered the Huntress system at the Zenith Point. Oddly, although the DCS Haruna had used the Zenith point only a few days earlier and found it clear of hostile warships, the fleet arrived to find a flotila of Smoke Jaguar warships waiting for them; a Sovetskii Soyuz class Cruiser and two Vincent class Corvettes. The Invisible Truth squared off against the enemy cruiser, setting a collision course and exchanging missile fire as she closed in, Beresick (correctly) anticipating that his maneuvering would be taken as a personal challenge to the Clan Captain, who reciprocated. When she reached optimal range, Beresick unleashed a full salvo from his ships bow guns and broke hard to port, bringing his broadside guns into play. The rolling salvo of firepower shattered the bow armor of the enemy Cruiser while the Truth shrugged off the return fire, but before the engagement could continue, the Fox class Rostock dove in from above, adding its own firepower to the engagement, causing no great damage.

Either incensed at their interference in what had been a personal duel or seeing an easy kill, the Soyuz promptly rolled to bring her massive array of broadside naval weapons to bear and in a furious salvo, tore deeply into the Federated Commonwealth warship. The Corvette attempted to disengage as the Truth started to maneuver to come between the two ships, but the Clan warship refused to let her go and with a second salvo, blew the ship to pieces. A single lifeboat with five crew members were the only survivors.

Unfortunately for the Clan warship, in turning to follow the Rostock she had presented her shattered bow to the Invisible Truths broadside once again and the furious crew on the Truth avenged the Rostock with several broadside salvos that tore deep into the Clan ship, leaving her effectively destroyed.

The two Vincent class ships meanwhile had run around the heavyweight fight to find their own ends. The first was intercepted by the Emerald and destroyed, for modest damage in exchange to the Essex-class WarShip. The second Vincent evaded the remaining warships in an attempt to try and attack the fleet of jumpships that had brought the ground troops to invade. She did minor damage to several jumpships, but was destroyed by their guardship, the Starlight. Already damaged from the previous engagement at Trafalgar, the new damage stripped the Starlight of most of her port weapons bays and her Grav deck, damage that would bode ill for her several weeks later.

Quickly regrouping, the jumpships launched their dropships. Escorted by the Fire Fang and Ranger, the invasion force proceeded in-system.

The Jaguars Prepare

"Sound the alert. Not one of those freebirth vermin will leave Huntress alive!"
  — Galaxy Commander Russou Howell

Although initially disbelieving of the idea that the Inner Sphere were attacking the very den of Clan Smoke Jaguar, Galaxy Commander Roussou Howell soon snapped out of his shock and for the first time in a long time started to act like a Smoke Jaguar officer. On paper, he had very few tools to try and face the incoming attacks, the Huntress garrison for some time having been drained of any really useful military assets to help make up for the shocking losses in their Inner Sphere Touman on Luthien, and Tukayyid. Meaning that he had little more than Solahma light infantry and scant few regular troops other than newly blooded warriors waiting for a ship to take them to the Inner Sphere, something Khan Lincon Osis had been quite careful to keep secret lest he risk a Trial of Possession by the Homeworld Clans.

His predecessor Benjamin Howell had however, with unusual foresight, anticipated that eventually the Inner Sphere would seek to strike back at the Clans by attacking their Homeworlds. Accordingly, he had worked to 'creatively' acquire equipment for his warriors by having Inner Sphere salvage shipped back to Huntress. Officially for 'analysis' by Smoke Jaguar scientists, it was in fact refurbished and used to equip a sizable number of his Solahma warriors with Battlemechs. Along with some ancient Star League Mechs pulled from storage and cast off prototypes re-purposed, the two paper Galaxies garrisoning Huntress (the Watchmen Galaxy and Iron Guard Galaxy) had been transformed into a genuine fighting force. Although Benjamin Howell had later been executed for his gross violations of regulations, his actions had been given the tools to have at least a fighting chance of holding their homeworld and they mobilized accordingly. Although there was a general sense of outrage at the presumption of the Inner Sphere at daring to strike at their homeworld, among the Solahma there was also an odd sense of gratitude to their attackers; that they would have their opportunity to die in glorious battle rather than waste away in old age. And on the 12th of March, the Inner Sphere troops reached orbit and commenced their landings, batting aside the few fighters that could be scrambled to try and stop them.

HPG messages were sent to the ilKhan (and still nominally senior Smoke Jaguar Khan) Lincon Osis as well as by the Jade Falcons from their small landhold of Falcon Eyrie to their own Khan. For various political reasons, neither Khan chose to inform the Grand Council immediately of the disaster.

The Assault on Huntress

The Inner Sphere regiments were split into six operational units for the invasion, hitting specific targets around the planet at the same time, to prevent the Smoke Jaguars being able to concentrate a defense in any one place.

The Eridani Light Horse

The Light Horse were tasked with attacking the planetary capital of Lootera, with two main objectives. The 21st and 151st Regiments under the command of Colonels Edwin Amis and Charles Antonescu attacked the primary training base on Huntress, just outside of the capital city, an assault that apparently went off with minimal issues.

The 71st under Colonel Sandra Barclay was tasked with attacking the Field of Heros and Clan Generic Repository.

All three regiments made orbital drops into their AO, the 21st and 151st landing and moving out swiftly, the 71st having a less successful landing, scattered across a wider area that forced them to regroup before proceeding on mission. Only a few Trinaries, mostly equipped with Inner Sphere Mechs, moved to engage the ELH and taking only light casualties, the 71st simply rolled over them with their superior forces. Although Colonel Barclay was forced to issue a stern order for her infantry to not move in and destroy the Repository, knowing such an action would spurn every Trueborn on the planet into an enraged fury. Instead they held position and soon the Field of Heroes became the location of General Winstons command post. The DEST teams later in the day, as per the operational plan, rendezvoused with General Winstons command company, having evaded all search efforts made for them over the last week.

The Kathil Uhlans

The Kathil Uhlans attacked the city Myers and seized their industrial complex from a determined security fore with only minor problems.

The Northwind Highlanders

The Northwind Highlanders were slated to attack the major industrial center of Pahn City. Among the information that Trent had provided, were the frequencies used by the local garrison unit. Taking advantage of the intelligence, Colonel William MacLeod had the pipers of the Highlanders start playing a constant stream of bagpipe music as their dropships approached, broadcased by their dropships and flooding the tactical frequencies of the Smoke Jaguar defenders with what they perceived as some kind of horrid jamming signal. Very quickly, all radio communication between the defenders was cut off, limiting the Clanners to line-of-sight laser communications and hand signals only, crippling their coordination.

The forward recon units who monitored the dropships landing were first stunned, then enraged when they noticed that the Highlanders units deploying all proudly bore the markings of the Star League and Star League Defense force. Already on-edge from the bagpipes, the temper of the local commander Star Colonel Cara snapped and she ordered her Cluster to advance and engage the Highlanders. Her troops rage only spiked however when they noticed that many of the Highlander Battlemechs were wearing the colors and insignia of no less a unit than the Royal Black Watch. Enraged beyond reason at the Inner Spheres apparent mocking of the Clans most sacred beliefs, the Smoke Jaguars all but threw themselves at the Royal Black Watch. This of course was exactly what had been anticipated and, with communications heavily disrupted, it proved easy for the bulk of the Highlanders to simply bypass the defenders and march on the factory complex. A chagrined Star Colonel Cara soon realized the trap she had fallen into, but struggled to try and pull back her cluster, with communications broken and most warriors utterly fixated on the Royal Black Watch, determined to make them pay.

Advancing on the Factory, the bulk of the Highlanders were taken aback when, in their combat debut, twenty Protomechs swarmed out of the facility to engage the lead Highlanders at close range. The attack stalled as the Inner Sphere Mechwarriors attempted to deal with the unknown threat before retreating as the hurriedly returning Smoke Jaguar Mechwarriors rushed to save the complex. Reforming his unit, MacLeod soon launched a fresh attack and eliminated the mixed Battlemech/Protomech force, seizing the factory, eliminating the last Trinary of defending Mechs and a dozen more of the Protomechs.

The victory cost the Highlanders heavily however. Thirty of their Mechwarriors were KIA and the damage to the surviving forces was considerable. Taking advantage of the Mech factories present, the Highlanders quickly started to make repairs on their unit and salvage what they could, with particular attention placed to the Protomech factory and the lethal new weapons platform.

The 2nd St. Ives Lancers & 4th Drakøns

The Second St. Ives Lancers and the Fourth Rasalhague Drakøns attacked a small sibko camp on the other side of the planet. They discovered that it was not a permanent base, instead being used to house cadets being trained in desert warfare. When the base was attacked, only the instructors were present. While they gave a good account of themselves, destroying four Lancer and one Drakøn Mech, they were swiftly eliminated and the base secured.

The Knights of the Inner Sphere and Kingston's Legionnaires

One of the toughest fights during the invasion, the FWL and Capellan unit were assigned to strike a large Sibko camp near the city of New Andery. Advancing swiftly from their landing zone, the combined force rolled over the mixed Star of Battlemechs in position to guard the base without loss. However a short time later, the Jaguar Cadets stationed there powered up their own Mechs and attacked. All fifteen were eliminated, in exchange for fifteen task force machines either disabled, or damaged enough to be sent back to their dropships for repairs.

However barely half an hour after securing the training facility, a strong Clan force was detected moving on the facility from the West, towards the Legionnaires. Acting quickly, Colonel Sir Paul Masters, the overall local commander, ordered the Legionnaires to pull back to easily defensible positions in front of the training base. While the Knights would shift into the flanking Jungle. Expecting the Clanners to be strung out with little coherence in the face of their rage at the invaders, it would let the Legionnaires chew up the lighter, faster and less well armored Mechs, while the Knights swung in from the Flanks to crush the slower and heavier Mechs following, defeating the enemy in detail.

However the elegant plan ran into a major snag when, as they were moving to collapse in on the Clan units flank, scouts detected a second formation, two Trinaries strong, pushing through the Jungle towards the Knights hidden positions. Worse, the incoming attack force was shown to be not the second line and Solamah units expected, but a unit made up of front line Omnimechs and Elementals that pressed in hard on the Capellan troops. Leaving one reinforced Battalion in place to hold the Clans flanking force, the remaining two battalions swung in on the Smoke Jaguars flank. As they started to emerge from the Jungle however, they were met by a line of Protomechs, a far larger deployment than the unit that had faced the Highlanders at Pahn City. Fighting their way through, the Knights managed a linkup with the Legionnaires and fought hard, but the combination of the mobility of the Protomechs and harder hitting Omnimechs slowly pushed them back. After four hours of fighting, the Jaguars retook the training base, but continued to push the Inner Sphere troops until they had been pushed to the outskirts of New Andery itself. Both sides were exhausted by the fighting and pulled back for a time. The Knights 3rd Battalion had held its ground quite successfully, but was pulled back to rejoin the main body lest it be cut off.

The Inner Sphere troops were in a poor tactical position. The Legionnaires had taken staggering casualties, with 68% of their force out of the fight. The knights had fared better, but even so the combined force barely numbered a Regiment. A hurried discussion was undertaken as to how to deal with the unfolding disaster. Naval fire support was ruled out due to the difficulty in being able to call in accurate fire through the thick jungle conditions. The Knights flatly ruled out falling back into the city as too great a risk to non-combatants, despite Colonel Kingstons enthusiastic support for such a move and a hot extraction via dropships risked the Clanners overrunning them while trying to load up. In the end, the decision was made to hold their ground and call for backup. General Winston was contacted and swiftly confirmed the deployment of the the Task Forces strategic reserve; two Level III ComGuard units from the 2nd Division.

An hour later with the ComGuard forces still en-route, the Jaguars renewed their attack, before the Inner Sphere forces had been able to even reload ammunition on many of their Mechs, let alone make more substantive repairs. Colonel Masters, his Anvil already heavily damaged, was knocked out early in the engagement, but before the Jaguars could fully commit to the fight, their attack was interrupted by the ComGuards 2nd Division, making a direct low-altitude combat drop into the enemy flank and furiously hammering into the suddenly off balance Clan force. Combined with the Knights and Legionaries, the Clanners were flanked on two sides and collapsed, retreating to the South under close pursuit. Barely a Trinary managed to escape the kill zone.

The ComGuards only suffered light casualties in the engagement, two KIA and five WIA, with a dozen Mechs lost, although salvage would help restore their force. The Knights stood at 50% effective strength while the Legionnaires however were under 30% nominal strength, although with time it would be brought up slightly to 35% strength and would henceforce be shifted into a strategic reserve role.

The 11th Lyran Guards

The Eleventh Lyran Guard landed near Bagera, with an assignment to attack and seize a major training base in the area. However things started to go wrong very quickly. The Landing Zone was pinpointed by the Jaguars, who walked a Supernova Trinary into it even as the Guards were unloading. It is unclear if it was poor coordination, poor performance or just plain bad luck; but almost 50% of the 11ths Battlemech force was knocked out in a chaotic engagement before the enemy Supernova was eliminated and a secure perimeter established to allow the unloading of the rest of the Battlemechs and the few support battalions from the RCT that had been brought along, to be completed.

Worse was to come however. Either unknown to Trent or perhaps after his visit to Huntress, the Smoke Jaguars had moved a powerful front line unit onto Huntress. A frontline Trinary equipped with front Heavy and Assault Omnimechs, stationed near Bagera, backed up with second line machines. With the 11th Guards bloodied, the heavy unit threw itself at the Steiner unit. Marshal Bryan committed her command company's Assault and Heavy Battlemechs to try and hold the line, but the Marshal herself was shot out of her Banshee after several engagements, breaking her arm in the ejection and hurriedly being picked up by a hovertank unit. Quickly determining that the 11th Guards were in serious danger of being routed by the furious Smoke Jaguar attack, Bryan called General Winston and requested Naval fire support.

In low orbit over Bagera, the captured Fire Fang shifted position accordingly and opened fire; a single Heavy Naval PPC shot and single Naval Gauss rifle round. Although the fire mission fell 100 meters west of Colonel Timothy Prices aim point, the effect was none the less horrific. A binaries worth of Clan Battlemechs were instantly blown to pieces under the force of the weapons strike. Any elemental within the blast zone was simply vaporized and the surviving Clan Mechs were, in the opinion of Colonel Price, looking to be not even worth use as spare parts. The shockingly brutal attack broke the back of Jaguar morale and the 11th Guards were able to mop up the remaining stunned Clanners with little trouble.

The 11th however had taken quite a beating; over 70% of the units Mechwarriors were either KIA or WIA, with 40 non recoverable Battlemech losses. The limited support forces were hit even worse. Although over time salvage would bring this back up and injured Mechwarriors would be cleared, along with Kingston's Legionnaires, they would be shifted into a strategic reserve role.

The Rabid Foxes

The MI6 teams, the Rabid Foxes, were deployed with orders to keep an eye on the only non Smoke-Jaguar Clan presence on the planet. A small Jade Falcon base known as Falcon Eyrie. Although logic suggested that the Falcons would hold themselves aloof from an attack on the Jaguars, the Davion commandos were being sent to watch over the Falcons to make sure this would stay the case. And if the Falcons did look about to step into the fight, the Rabid Foxes would either directly engage them, or, pass the word for reserve Battlemech units to come in and deal with the situation.

The mission plan involved, much like the DEST teams, a HALO jump into the vicinity of Falcon Eyrie, then a rapid move to en-globe the base and maintain eyes on it from several well positioned observation posts. However the infamously bad weather of Huntress intervened, a storm in the target area making a HALO jump completely impossible. The alternative LZ for a HALO jump, due to the extremely rocky and mountainous terrain, was far enough away that by the time the commandos reached the objective, the initial assaults would be winding down. And the Falcons could have very well chosen to move out without anyone being the wiser. As such, Captain Roger Montjar decided that he had no choice but to risk a low altitude jump under the storm cloud, accepting the far greater risk of detection to get his troops into place quickly.

As it so happened, the low altitude jump was detected. Both by the Jade Falcons (who correctly surmised the purpose of the troops and determined to leave them alone so long as they reciprocated) and by a pair of Smoke Jaguar scientists who had been searching for new ore veins in the mountains. One of whom, a former Warrior Cast trainee, correctly recognized that no Clan unit would be sneaking around in this fashion spying on the Falcons and that no band of bandits could possibly have access to stealth capable Battle armor. Returning to Lootera, the two contacted Elemental Star Captain Tullain, the closest unit to report their findings. Determining to attack the Inner Sphere commandos from behind, the Star Captain lead two points into the mountains.

The two points were detected approaching one of the four observation posts, under the command of Sergeant Henry Kramer. Clearly on a direct approach to their position, the Sergeant decided to abandon the position and try to lead the Elementals away from the other commandos. Sending one of his men to alert Captain Montjar, as he did not want to risk a radio transmission and had no line of sight for a laser transmission, he destroyed the surveillance equipment and led his three remaining men away from the area, being careful to leave a distinct enough trail for the Elemetnals to follow.

Several hours of distance later the Elemental were in close pursuit. Although not able to detect the stealth armor directly, the Smoke Jaguars proved surprisingly adept at following the trail better than anticipated, closing the distance. Although having only limited heavy weapons and outnumbered, the Commandos decided to try and fight it out. Mining a small defile with the last of their anti-personal mines, they setup and waited. The Elementals soon enough entered the kill zone. When a full point of the Clan troops were in position, the commandos launched their attack. The battle was short and sharp, two of the four MI6 commandos were killed. The first point of Elemetnals were struck down by a mixture of the teams SRM launcher firing high-explosive warheads and precise man-portable Gauss rifle fire. The second point had the rather more horrific fate of taking a number of Inferno warheads, being slowly burned to death in their suits. The remaining two commandos continued to head west, away from the AO, with a plan to link up with friendly forces once they were clear and could be sure any pursuit was being drawn away from the remaining commandos.

Guerrilla Warfare

Initial planning had been based around an expected 1 week timeframe to engage and destroy the garrison forces. In actual fact, all direct resistance was broken on the first day.

However it was not the end of combat. Galaxy Commander Howell was able to rally roughly 3 Trinaries of Battlemechs and fade into the vast wilderness of the planet, which the Jagurs were much more familiar with. Although highly un-clan like, he started a campaign of raids to disrupt the Inner Sphere occupation as best he could, correctly anticipating that reinforcements had to be on their way. His greatest success in this time frame was a raid on the Northwind Highlanders at the Industrial site at Pahn City. One Trinary started by launching a diversionary attack on their dropships. In response, the vast bulk of the Highlanders abandoned the Factory and rushed to protect their transports, leaving it open for the remaining two Trinaries to quickly rush in and disable the few remaining defenders, seizing enough supplies to keep them in action for months before fading away.

The attacks were ultimately just minor annoyances to the Task Force, who a day after the end to main combat operations proceeded with the somewhat more contentious part of the operational plan. General Order 01051; the complete destruction of all military assets, military industrial facilities and capacity to make war across the entire planet.

Smoke Jaguar Reinforcements

On March 19th 3060, the remnants of the Smoke Jaguar Inner Sphere garrison forces reached Huntress. They were under the command of Galaxy Commander Hang Mehta and consisted of 340 'Mech and Elemental Points (roughly two Galaxies in strength). However it had less than 50 Fighters available for air support. During the initial battle for Huntress, Galaxy-commander Russou Howell had sent an emergency signal to Khan Lincoln Osis. Lincoln Osis used a series of HPG stations to give Hang Mehta new orders: wipe out all Inner Sphere forces on Huntress and reconquer the planet.

Hang Mehta had to realize how far the IS-forces had come: A Fox class WarShip stood arrogant and idle at the zenith jump point and opened uncoded transmissions from the forces on Huntress. Hang Mehta ordered her WarShips (one Liberator and two Vincents) to attack the enemy wherever possible. The DropShips were to travel to Huntress with maximum speed. And the JumpShips should try to escape.
Commodore Alain Beresick from the ISS Invisible Truth ordered the IS JumpShips to save themselves as well.

A battle ensued between the Inner Sphere and Smoke Jaguar WarShips. The Invisible Truth destroyed the Liberator (the Korat) with aid from the Firefang. The Emerald was crippled, but avenged by the Starlight, which destroyed the Vincent class Ripper. The other Vincent, the Azow, tried to attack the Starlight, but both ships were so heavily damaged that they collided accidentally. The Antrim tried to intercept the Smoke Jaguar DropShips, but was heavily damaged.
After the battle, the Inner Sphere fleet consisted of four ships: Invisible Truth, Ranger, Haruna and Firefang.

While the Smoke Jaguar reinforcements were on the way to the planet, Ariana Winston regrouped her troops: The Eridani Light Horse, the 2nd ComGuard Division and the Second St. Ives Lancers were concentrated at Lootera, and dubbed the 'North-Group'. General Andrew Redburn was given command of the 'South-Group' stationed at Osis Lake, between the Dhuan swamps and the Shikarid jungle. This group consisted of the First Kathil Uhlans, the Knights of the Inner Sphere and the Northwind Highlanders. The damaged Lyran Guard, the Drakons and Kingston's Legionnaires were hidden in the Lunar mountains as a reserve force.

On March 26th, the Smoke Jaguar Forces landed on Huntress. Star Colonel Paul Moon received orders to attack the Inner Sphere forces at Lootera with two Clusters (roughly 100 'Mechs and Elemental-points), but his troops were defeated by a solid formation and heavy artillery fire. Moon himself was crippled by an artillery grenade, taken prisoner by the Eridani and spent the rest of the Battle of Huntress in a coma.
The South Group was hit harder and had to fight a running battle for several hours. It suffered heavy losses and had to constantly retreat and regroup.

The same day, Khan Lincoln Osis' combat group arrived at Huntress. The Smoke Jaguar flagship, the Streaking Mist, jumped right into planetary orbit, carrying three units: Jaguar's Den, Mist Keshik and Heart of the Jaguar. The firepower of the Mist Keshik, the Heart of the Jaguar and the few other remaining Smoke Jaguar forces from that area, combined with an air-attack by the Keshik's fighters, drove the South Group deep into the Dhuan swamps to avoid destruction.

The Jaguar's Den joined with the northern forces of Hang Mehta. In a daring night attack, her forces attempted to flank the North Group. At the same time, a fast 'Mech trinary entered Lutera for a surprise attack. The main force bypassed the Eridani positions and attacked the ComGuards, which held the spaceport. The ComGuards were able to hold out until the Eridani arrived. The 151st Light Horse led the counterattack and the Smoke Jaguars were beaten back. They retreated right into the St. Ives Lancers' positions on the 'Field of Heroes', which were already desperately fighting the sole 'Mech trinary that by-passed the ELH positions.

Note: It is unclear, at which point of this battle Russou Howell's cluster joined the carnage.

In the ensuing chaos, the morale of the Inner Sphere troops cracked and they retreated into the wilderness. Clan Smoke Jaguar had reconquered Lootera. The North Group acted swiftly to extract as many wounded from the field hospital set up in the genetic repository as possible, but many were in no condition to be moved and became prisoners.

The Heart of the Jaguar was ordered by saKhan Brandon Howell to drive the South Group out of the swamps. On March 28th, the unit engaged the South Group and both units suffered heavy damage. The North Group established a new defense in the Shikarid mountains, west of Lootera and fought several small but hard skirmishes. At the same time, Hang Mehta's troops reconfigured their 'Mechs with energy weapons, due to a shortage of ammunition. At this time, Hang Mehta commanded roughly 150 'Mechs and 20 Elemental-Points.

Upon receiving intelligence of this refit, Ariana Winston ordered an attack on the Smoke Jaguars. The attack was scheduled to begin on March 28th, right before sunrise. At this time, the Eridani Light Horse was at 60% strength. The main force for this attack were the 21st Striker Regiment and the 2nd ComGuard Division, with the 151st Light Horse covering the right flank and the mountains covering the left flank. However, the Smoke Jaguars noticed them on the march and hastily prepared for a battle. The Inner Sphere forces were beaten back and Colonel Edwin Amis from the 21st Striker was taken prisoner.

As nearly all the air/space-forces of Clan Smoke Jaguar were destroyed, and those of Task Force Serpent were almost intact, Ariana Winston ordered them on March 29th to attack the Smoke Jaguars harassing the South Group. Indeed, the Smoke Jaguars pulled back to their base at the border of the swamp to figure out a new strategy. At this time, the Kathil Uhlans consisted of 56 'Mechs and the Highlanders and Knights had approximately 1 'Mech Battalion each remaining.

The North Group retreated deeper and deeper into the mountainous wilderness. At this time, the Eridani Light Horse consisted of 96 'Mechs, the 2nd ComGuard Division consisted of 53 'Mechs and the 2nd St. Ives Lancers of 21 'Mechs. All units had suffered heavy losses, especially among lighter scout units and conventional infantry. Additionally, supplies were running out: the North-Group was unable to repair the armor damage to some of its 'Mechs and others were slowly running out of ammunition.
Task Force Serpent was completely unaware that they were facing the last remains of Clan Smoke Jaguar: approximately 4 clusters of frontline- and secondline-units. They thought Lincoln Osis had brought at least a whole additional Galaxy to Huntress and that further Smoke Jaguar reinforcements could arrive anytime.

Ariana Winston decided to activate her last reserves. Her plan called for all remaining WarShips to come to Huntress and either bombard the planet from orbit or extract the survivors of Task Force Serpent. The Lyran Guard would reinforce the South Group, while the 4th Rasalhague Drakons and Kingston's Legionnaires would reinforce the North Group. However, their DropShips would still need some time to transport the troops. Finally, when she received intelligence that the Smoke Jaguars had managed to reactivate the secondary C3 center and the HPG, she ordered the Nekekami to destroy these installations.

By noon on March 29th, the North Group was attacked in strength, losing all their artillery, most of their supplies, and their wounded as prisoners. They also lost about 20 'Mechs (mainly from the 71st Light Horse), but the Smoke Jaguars also lost 20 'Mechs as well, which was bad for them, as they had started with fewer 'Mechs at the beginning.

By afternoon a heavy thunderstorm hit Lootera and the Nekekami used it as cover to sneak into the city. Ariana Winston had tried to explain that hideous murder would threaten the high morale they claimed, but Kasugai Hatsumi was not in the mood for mercy. The Nekekami infiltrated the building, killed all the guards they encountered and planted a time-bomb in the basement. During their exfiltration, they ran into Lincoln Osis and his bodyguards. The Nekekami reacted swiftly and killed the guards with poisoned shiruken. Kasugai Hatsumi then challenged Lincoln Osis to a sword duel to exact personal revenge on him for the attacks on the Draconis Combine. The rest of the Nekekami fled. Lincoln Osis narrowly won the duel, but he suffered a deep flesh-wound in his left leg and the blood-loss almost killed him. He survived only by sheer luck when an Elemental patrol found him. They rushed him to a hospital, minutes before the building exploded. Russou Howell was seen to leave the building moments before the explosion, though never again.

Avoiding Annihilation

The North Group retreated westwards, deeper into the mountains. Their movement was slowed because they lacked proper maps of the area. The Smoke Jaguars, however, did not have these difficulties. They not only had maps with the necessary resolution, but they also had more experience with the landscape.

On March 29th, Task Force Serpent tried to set an artillery-trap: The remnants of the DEST waited in a pass, armed with a portable TAG, hidden behind rocks. The rest of the North Group was several kilometers in the west, their Arrow IV-launchers ready. Indeed, they only had to wait half a day until a major Smoke Jaguar force showed up: at least 35 'Mechs and several Elementals. But after they had lost four 'Mechs (3 destroyed and 1 crippled), they simply stormed the ambush. Only two members of the DEST survived.

The North Group prepared for defense, but their chances were slim: the Eridani had roughly 60 'Mechs (medium to assault), the ComGuards had 31 'Mechs (but only 19 capable of serious combat) and the St. Ives Lancers roughly 8. Both sides engaged head-on in a narrow pass, but soon something strange was reported: the Elementals had disappeared.

A task-force, led by Hang Mehta herself, bypassed the TFS-positions and attacked their camp. The camp was defended by 19' Mechs and some infantry, but they were outnumbered against the Smoke Jaguars' ten heavy OmniMechs and two Elemental points. The Smoke Jaguars pillaged the camp; all remaining supplies were either robbed or destroyed and all noncombatants were either taken prisoner or swiftly executed.

Finally the main force of the North Group was able to push back the Smoke Jaguars, but returned to a destroyed base and no choice other than retreat further. By that time, Major Marcus Poling from the 2nd St. Ives Lancers had died after being literally cut in half by an Elemental's machine gun salvo. The 2nd St. Ives Lancers had been reduced to one 'Mech (a Victor) and about a handful of infantry.

By sunrise on March 30th, the reinforcements for the South Group and the North Group arrived. The Rasalhague Drakons and Kingston's Legionnaires reinforced the South Group. Andrew Redburn decided to force his troops to an extreme march, to reach the North Group at any cost, before it could be wiped out. The 11th Lyran Guards brought much-needed supplies to the North Group. With enough time, it could have been able to repair most of their remaining 'Mechs. But they did not get this chance: Alain Beresick reported a yet unidentified fleet of JumpShips had arrived. Contact with the WarShips at the jump points was lost. This further demoralized the already mentally-depleted troops.

By noon, the Smoke Jaguars attacked (among them 'Mechs from the Jaguar's Den). They had to get through a choke-point, which was only big enough to host about half a dozen 'Mechs at one time. Both sides kept feeding troops to the meatgrinder. Enraged by all these losses, Ariana Winston ran into battle with her Cyclops, pushing a Grasshopper aside and taking his place. She attacked a Summoner, but had not enough firepower for a quick kill. The Summoner struck her Cyclops with a punch and she went to the ground. The Summoner shot his PPC right into the cockpit of the defenseless 'Mech. Winston's death was revenged by Colonel Charles Antonescu, who kept firing on the Summoner until it was reduced to a pile of glowing scrap-metal.

Minutes later, Alain Beresick reported that the incoming fleet carried the forces of Operation Bulldog, which began immediate operations to relieve the parts of Task Force Serpent that were still under attack. In one of these actions, the Tenth Lyran Guard saved the Northwind Highlanders by performing a combat drop. Among the members of the Lyran Guard unit which took part in this relief was Major Archer Christifori.

By March 9th, all battle operations were over. Intelligence indicated Khan Lincoln Osis had left for Strana Mechty five hours before Task Force Bulldog had arrived. Galaxy Commander Hang Mehta had committed suicide by a ritual duel. Most star colonels had committed suicide as well. Galaxy Commander Russou Howell was reported missing.

Aftermath

On April 9th, the last sign of Smoke Jaguar on Lootera, a gigantic fresco depicting a jumping jaguar, was destroyed after a speech by Victor Steiner-Davion.

Less than one-third of the personnel of Task Force Serpent had survived. All units were scheduled rebuilding with salvaged Clan material. The Fourth Rasalhague Drakons were scheduled for a full overhaul to a battalion of OmniMechs. The rest of the salvaged material was to be auctioned, to create a fund for the families of those who had died.

One 'Mech company from the Kathil Uhlans joined Victor Steiner-Davion's forces for the battle on Strana Metchty.

Eventually, Task Force Serpent was dissolved. All remaining WarShips and the Eridani Light Horse were declared part of the new Star League Defense Forces. The First Kathil Uhlans were dissolved and most of its members were integrated in the newly formed 1st Royal BattleMech Regiment.

Smoke Jaguar BattleForce Defense Forces

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Twilight of the Clans, p. 8, "Task Force Serpent Composition"

Bibliography