Task Force Serpent

Task Force Serpent was a multi-unit task force tasked with executing a secret military operation commissioned by the newly formed SLDF under the aegis of Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion. Task Force Serpent's goal was to sneak back to the Clan Smoke Jaguar homeworld of Huntress and destroy it. 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, Ariana Winston of the Eridani Light Horse succeeded him and completed the mission. She too, however, was killed in her 'Mech, a Cyclops, during the battle for Huntress, homeworld of the Smoke Jaguars.

Units

Ground units

• Eridani Light Horse - RCT
  • 21st Striker Regiment
  • 71st Light Horse
  • 151st Light Horse
• Northwind Highlanders - 1 Regiment (3 Mech-Batallions) + one Mech-company of the Royal Black Watch
• First Kathil Ulans - 1 Regiment (4 Mech-Batallions)
• parts of the Second St. Ives Lancers (1 Mech-Batallion + infantry)
• Kingston's Legionnaires - 1 Regiment (2 Mech-Batallions + infantry)
• Knights of the Inner Sphere - 1 Regiment (3 Mech-Batallions + Infantry)
• 11th Lyran Guards - RCT
• 2nd ComGuard Division
• Fourth Rasalhague Drakons - 1 Mech-Batallion

Special ops

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

Additionally, Theodore Kurita deployed a team of five Nekekami, commanded by Kasugai Hatsumi, which revealed themselves only to the present head of Task Force Serpent. However, one of them, Honda Tan, was a doubleagent from purportedly Word of Blake.

Fleet

• ISS Invisible Truth - Comstar, Cameron-class
• ISS Ranger - Comstar, Lola III-class
• ISS Smaragd - Comstar, Essex-class
• ISS Starlight - Comstar, Essex-class
• DCS Haruna - Draconis Combine, Kyushu-class
• FCS Antrim - Federated Commonwealth, Fox-class
• FCS Rostock - Federated Commonwealth, Fox-class
• Firefang - Whirlwind-class; captured from Clan Ghost Bear during the operation

Additionally the fleet consisted of several Monolith-, Starlord- and Invader-class Jumpships.

History

En route

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 went along a route that brought them near the Outworld Alliance. They went on with a route, parallel to 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 to get fresh drinking water from that planet. The 5th Striker Batallion of the 21st Striker Regiment of the Eridani Light Horse was to serve as guards. However, the Eridani were encountered by several bandits: Meribah was the base of a group of pirates. Luckily, the pirates' main force was gone for a raid. The Eridani destroyed the base and released the slaves found their. The captured pirates were court-martialed and the pirate leadership was executed. (The fate of the pirates led to deep ethical disagreements among the commanders of Task Force Serpent. Morgan Hasek-Davion had the final say, but the friendly feelings were gone.)

On December 15th Task Force Serpent stumbled over a small fleet of Clan Ghost Bear: one Congress, two Whirlwinds and an Invader. The warships of TSF engaged the Ghost-Bear-warships, while the DEST-teams conquered the Invader.
The Haruna, the Starlight and the Ranger suffered heavy armor damage. The Starlight lost one of its naval PPCs. The Firefang was the only Ghost Bear-ship, that could be salvaged. The Congress could have been repaired if a shipyard had been available.

TSF spent several days with repairs and left then. Just as it left the system (later dubbed Gibraltar) it encountered an abnormal jump signature, which was noted, but not investigated.

In late December, the remaining pirates being held in custody and the surviving Ghost Bears were exiled on a habitable planet.

Death of Morgan Hasek-Davion

In the night of the 2nd January 3060 to the 3rd January, Morgan Hasek-Davion was poisoned with a rare venom. The assassin had put it into his whiskey. Captain Roger Montjar from MI6 led the inquiry and was later supported by Sho-sa Michael Ryan from DEST.

They found out that this was the work of a professional assassin, as he had used a sophisticated expensive electronic code-cracking device. They also found out that they have five people in the fleet that simply did not exist before they had entered Comstar: It was the five Nekekami. One of them, Rumiko Fox, was put under a lie-detector-test, but it yielded unclear results. The next candidate was Honda Tan (with the false alias Lucas Penrose). He killed the guards that arrested him and fled. When he was surrounded by other guards, he claimed that he had planted a bomb somewhere on the ship and demanded General Ariana Winston as a hostage. She complied. As Ariana Winston blamed him for killing Morgan Hasek-Davion, Lucas Penrose replied how proud he was of his skills and that bombs are such a crude method compared to venom. As they spoke, Ariana Winston got closer and closer, until she was able to attack him. They both wrestled until Penrose was hit (maybe by Kasugai Hatsumi) with a poisoned Shuriken. Penrose lost his gun and Ariana Winston shot him the same second. However, as guards and MedTechs stormed in, Kasugai Hatsumi (disguised as a MedTech) retrieved the Shuriken.

After Ariana Winston's wounds had been treated, Kasugai Hatsumi contacted her. He revealed the existence of the Nekekami-team and made up a story, that put all blame on Penrose. He also demanded the release of Rumiko Fox.

General Ariana Winston was named new head of Task Force Serpent.

Shortly after the funeral of Morgan Hasek-Davion, the ships of TSF 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 travelling with merely lightspeed it would not reach the Inner Sphere for several centuries after it had been sent. However, the Voice aided in the location of the Clan Homeworlds.

Sabotage on Huntress

In order to cripple the aerospace defenses of the Smoke Jaguar's Huntress system, DEST teams were dispatched to eliminate key control facilities on the planet. To infiltrate the Clan Homeworld, the teams used a captured a Broadsword-class Dropship, which had been siezed at the Battle of Gibraltar.

The DEST teams parachuted from the DropShip while the DropShip simulated a crash and disappeared. The DEST teams reached the Huntress C3 and SDS-command center, which they destroyed with several bombs. During the fight out, the DEST team suffered several casualties and hid in the wilderness to await the arrival of the rest of TFS.

Assault on Huntress

On March 5th 3060, the fleet of Task Force Serpent entered the Huntress-System. They encountered three Smoke Jaguar-warships: one Sovetskii Soyuz and two Vincents. The Sovetskii-Soyuz and one Vincent were destroyed, the other Vincent was merely wrecked. TSF lost the Rostock and the Smaragd and Starlight were heavily damaged.

• The Eridani Light Horse attacked the planetary capital Lutera: The 21st Striker Regiment and the 151st Light Horse attacked a huge sibko-training-camp just outside Lutera. The 71st Light Horse conquered the Genetic Archive and suffered heavy losses with the infantry [the 71st Light Horse's infantry had heavy losses or the 71st suffered losses to the defending infantry?]. They had to be reinforced by the 3rd section of the 2nd ConGuards Division.
• The First Kathil Ulans attacked the city Myers with only minor problems.
• The Northwind Highlanders attacked Pahn City with it's 'Mech factories. Due to Trent's information, they were able to jam the frequencies of the defending Smoke Jaguars, thus crippling their defensive efforts.
• The Second St. Ives Lanciers and the Fourth Rasalhague Drakons attacked a small sibko-camp on the other side of the planet. They lost five Mechs.
• The Knights of the Inner Sphere and Kingston's Legionnaires attacked a large sibko-camp near the city New Andery. After a long and hard battle, they were hit hard by Protomechs and the flank-attack of a frontline-class-cluster. They had to retreat into the jungle with heavy losses. They were reinforced by the 1st and 2nd section of the 2nd ComGuards Division, finally ensuring a victory.
• The Eleventh Lyran Guard landed near Bagera, but just as they were shipping out their Mechs, they were attacked by a small force of Mechs and Elementals. Due to all that chaos it took too long to take them out and the Lyran Guard suffered several losses. Just as they marched to Bagera, they were attacked by a frontline-class-cluster and had to retreat. Marshall Sharon Byron was wounded during the battle and ordered artillery-fire from the warships in the orbit. The attacking cluster was wiped out in a single salvo. The Eleventh Lyran Guard had lost about half of it's Mechs.
• The MI6-agents, the rabid foxes, established a perimeter outside the Jade Falcon-base, to keep an eye on them. Instead, they were attacked by a Point of Smoke Jaguar-Elementals and defeated it with heavy losses.

Just about three Trinaries of Smoke Jaguar-forces survived and regrouped in the wilderness under the command of Galaxy Commander Russou Howell. While Task Force Serpent systematically destroyed and pillaged all military and industrial structures (they even destroyed statues honoring Smoke Jaguar heroes), the remaining Smoke Jaguars staged a successful raid on the Northwind Highlanders, capturing ammunition and supplies.

Smoke Jaguar reinforcements

On March 19th 3060, the remains of the Smoke jaguar forces of the Inner Sphere reached Huntress. This combat group was under the command of Galaxy Commander Hang Mehta and 340 Mech- and Elemental-Points strong (roughly two Galaxies). However it had less than 50 Fighters as air-support. During the battle for Huntress, Galaxy-commander Russou Howell had sent an emergency-signal to Khan Lincoln Osis. And Lincoln Osis used a series of HPG-stations to give Hang Mehta new orders: To 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-Warship standing arrogant and idle at the Zenith-jump point and open 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 should 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 IS-Warships and the Clan-Warships. The Invisible Truth destroyed the Liberator (the Korat) with aid from the Firefang. The Smaragd was crippled, but revenged by the Starlight, which destroyed the Vincent Ripper. The other Vincent, the Azow, tried to attack the Starlight, but both ships were so heavyliy damaged, that they collided accidentally. The Antrim tried to intercept the Smoke Jaguar-dropships, but was heavily damaged.
After the battle, the IS-fleet consisted of four ships: The Invisible Truth, the Ranger, the Haruna and the Firefang.

As the Jaguar-forces were on their way, Ariana Winston regrouped her troops: The Eridani Light Horse, the 2nd ComGuard Division and the Secon St. Ives Lanciers were stationed at Lutera. These troops were dupped the North-group. General Andrew Redburn's troops (the South-group), the First Kathil Ulans, the Knights of the Inner Sphere and the Northwind Highlanders, were stationed at the Osis-lake between the Dhuan-swamps and the Shikarid-jungle. The hard-hit Lyran Guard, the Rasalhague Drakons and Kingston's Legionnaires hid in the Lunar-mountains as a potential backup.

On March 26th, the Smoke Jaguar Forces reached Huntress. Star Colonel Paul Moon recieved orders to attack the IS-forces at Lutera with two clusters, but his troops were beaten by a solid formation and heavy artillery-fire. Star Colonel Paul Moon was crippled by an artillery-grenade, was taken POW 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 the orbit of Huntress, carrying three units: The Jaguar's Den, the Mist Keshik and the Heart of the Jaguar. The firepower of the Mist Keshik, the Heart of the Jaguar and the few other remaining Smoke Jaguar-forces, combined with an air-attack by the Kehsik's fighters, drove the South-group deep into the Dhuan-swamps, to simply avoid destruction.

The Jaguar's Den joined with the northern forces of Hang Mehta. In a daring attack by night, her forces attempted a flank-attack on the North-group. At the same time, a fast Mech-Trinary entered Lutera for a surprise-attack. The main force passed by the Eridani and attacked the ComGuards, but were beaten back by the Eridani (especially the 151st Light Horse). The Smoke Jaguars retreated right into the St. Ives Lanciers, which were already fighting the sole Mech-Trinary.

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

In the ensuing chaos, the morale of the IS-troops dumped at some point and they retreated into the wilderness. Clan Smoke Jaguar had reconquered Lutera. The North-group acted swiftly to extract as many wounded fromthe lazarett as possible, but the rest was not in a state 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 it reached the South-grouped and both units suffered heavy damages. The North-group established a new defense in the Shikarid-mountains, west of Lutera and encountered several small but hard skirmishes. In the mean-time, Hang Mehta's troops were reconfiguring their Mechs to energy-weapons-based configs, due to lack of ammunition. At that time, Hang Mehta commanded roughly 150 Mechs and 20 Elemental-Points.

Upon recieving intelligence of this work, Ariana Winston ordered an attack on the Smoke Jaguars, as long as they are busy. The attack was scheduled to begin on March 28th, right before sunrise. At that time, the Eridani Light Horse was reduced to 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 mountains covering the left flank. However, the Smoke Jaguars noticed them on the march and hastily prepared for a battle. The IS-forces were beaten back and Colonel Edwin Amis from the 21st Striker became prisoner of Clan Smoke Jaguar.

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 to 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 Ulans consisted of 56 Mechs and the Highlanders and Knights of approximately 1 Mech-Batallion each.

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 Lanciers of 21 Mechs. All units had suffered heavy losses, especially among scout-units (light Mechs...) and conventional infantry. Additionally, the supplies were running out: The North-Group was unable to repair the armor-damage of some of it's 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, that 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 ressources: All remaining Warships should come to Huntress to either bombard Huntress from the orbit or extract the survivors of Task Force Serpent. The Lyran Guard should 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 recieved 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 Smoke Jaguars found and attacked the North-group. The North-group lost all their artillery, most of their supplies, and their wounded were taken prisoners. They lost about 20 Mechs (mainly from the 71st Light Horse), but the Smoke Jaguars lost 20 Mechs as well, which was bad, as they started with fewer Mechs from the beginning.

By afternoon a heavy thunderstorm hit Lutera and the Nekekami used it as cover, to sneak into the city. Ariana Winston had tried to explain them, 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 guards they came by and planted a time-bomb in the basement. They were about to retreat, when they ran into Lincoln Osis and his bodyguards. The Nekekami reacted swiftly and killed the guards with poisoned shirukens. Kasugai Hatsumi 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 and was never seen again.

Avoiding annihilation

The North-group retreated westwards, deeper into the mountains. But they were not very fast, as they lacked proper maps. The Smoke Jaguars, however, didn't have these difficulties. They not only had maps with the necessary resolution, but they also had more experience with the landscape.

On March 29th, TSF tried to set up an artillery-trap: The remainders of 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. Only two members of 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 battle-action) and the St. Ives Lanciers 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 Metha herself, bypassed the TSF-psotions and attacked their camp. The camp was defended by 19 Mechs and some infantry, but they were outnumbered against the Smoke Jaguars' 10 heavy Omnimechs and 2 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 they returned to a destroyed home and had no choice, but to retreat further.

last stand

Operation Bulldog

dissolve

...