Task Force Serpent

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Task Force Serpent
Part of the Clan Invasion
Start Date 1 May 3059 - 9 April 3060
Planet Huntress
Result Clan Smoke Jaguar annihilated
Factions
Second Star League Clan Smoke Jaguar
Commanders and leaders
Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion (assassinated)

General Ariana Winston (killed in action)

Colonel Charles Antonescu		 ilKhan Lincoln Osis

Galaxy Commander Russou Howell

Galaxy Commander Hang Mehta

Task Force Serpent was a multinational task force charged with executing a secret military operation commissioned by the newly formed Second Star League Defense Force 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, General Ariana Winston of the Eridani Light Horse succeeded him and completed the mission, successfully invading Huntress and destroying the Smoke Jaguar's ability to make war.

Their homeworld occupied, the Smoke Jaguars counter-invaded with reinforcements driven out of the Inner Sphere by Operation BULLDOG and units under the personal command of ilKhan Lincoln Osis. General Winston 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 Task Force Bulldog arrived to relieve them. Command of Operation SERPENT fell to General Winston's second-in-command, General Andrew Redburn, until Bulldog arrived planet-side and finished off the remaining Smoke Jaguar warriors. Some of the survivors of Task Force Serpent would accompany the Bulldog fleet to Strana Mechty, where the Great Refusal was fought to put a permanent end to the threat of a renewed Clan Invasion.

Task Force Serpent emblem

Task Force Commission

On November 14th 3058, during a military planning session at the first Whitting Conference for the first wave of Operation BULLDOG, Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht presented new intelligence about Clan Smoke Jaguar that had been delivered to him by the Smoke Jaguar defector, Trent. Among this information was the Exodus Road and 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.[1]

Many of the units Marshal Hasek-Davion asked for were able to take part in the operation, with some exceptions. As so many of their units would be needed for Operation BULLDOG, the Draconis Combine could not spare any 'Mech units, instead contributing WarShip and special forces support. Likewise it was deemed that the First Lancers, commanded by the highly visible Kai Allard-Liao, needed to stay in the Inner Sphere to avoid any suspicions, so the 2nd St. Ives Lancers were attached instead. Instead of the Invader Galaxy, ComStar provided the veteran 2nd Division, while the Free Rasalhague Republic offered the 4th Drakøns. Lastly, claiming that his more elite troops were too busy in the Chaos March, Sun-Tzu Liao provided Task Force Serpent with Kingston's Legionnaires, a regiment of questionable honor.[2]

Task Force Serpent assembled on Fort Defiance, a barren planet deep in the Crucis March of the Federated Commonwealth, which had mostly been used for military training maneuvers. Morgan Hasek-Davion and his command staff were the first to arrive, reaching the world less than a week after the Whitting Conference via command circuit, to begin the initial planning. Colonel Paul Masters and the Knights were the first unit to arrive on 27 January 3059, followed shortly thereafter by the rest of the assigned units.[3] For the next several months the various units trained fighting alongside each other and against each other. While not taking part in the actual operation, ComStar's Invader Galaxy served as an OpFor for their training, though each unit also took on the role of simulating the Smoke Jaguars. Simultaneously, the DEST and MI6 teams trained for spacecraft boarding actions, and while initially leery of each other were eventually able to form a close bond.[4] Additionally, ComStar (at great expense) provided a limited number of MechWarrior Combat Suits, which were distributed among the regimental commanders and other important personnel.[5]

The leaders of the Task Force held a final planning session on 25 April, with the operation on track to make its official launch in five days. Here also it was revealed that ComStar would supply the entire task force with new uniforms, as befitting their membership in the new SLDF, and paint the Star League crest on all war machines.[6] Later that same day the Northwind Highlanders revealed to Marshal Hasek-Davion the existence of the Royal Black Watch, a secret Highlander company which traced it's origins to the original Black Watch regiment, and sworn to the new Star League.[7]

Task Force Serpent launched on 1 May 3059, following a route through Weldon, Vicente, Tsamma and Palmyra on its way through the Federated Commonwealth. Along the way the force had to exchange several 'Mechs damaged from their training for new ones from the Tsamma CMM but otherwise maintained their operational secrecy.[8] By 29 June the task force had reached Pajarito and made the jump into the Outworlds Alliance.[9] For the next three weeks they traveled across the small Periphery state; being careful to stay to uninhabited or lightly-populated systems to avoid detection, whether by any Alliance citizens or potential Watch agents. Finally on 19 July, after recharging their jump drives at Alpheratz, Task Force Serpent took the plunge into the Deep Periphery and began their journey along the Exodus Road to Huntress.[10]

Battle of Meribah

By 16 November, Task Force Serpent arrived in the Meribah system, which had a habitable planet. Morgan Hasek Davion ordered a pair of Mule-class DropShips specially outfitted to obtain fresh drinking water deployed to replenish the fleet's supplies. The 21st Striker Regiment's 5th Striker Battalion 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. While initially fearing them to be Clan forces, they were discovered to be a group of pirates using the planet as a base of operations. Luckily, the pirates' main force was absent on a raid. Marshal Hasek-Davion ordered that the pirate base be wiped out in order to maintain the secrecy of the task force, though both Ariana Winston and Andrew Redburn objected based on ethical grounds.[11]

The next day, a combined Eridani-MI6 strike team destroyed the pirate base and released the slaves found there. The captured pirates were given a swift court-martial by Marshal Hasek-Davion and a select number of Task Force commanders, with those found guilty executed by being thrown out the airlock. Having not been informed until after the fact, both Ariana Winston and Paul Masters raised heated objections with the marshal for his conduct in keeping them out of the loop. Morgan Hasek-Davion exercised his right as overall commander to have the final say, but the damage to his personal relationship with some of the officers, in particular Ariana Winston, took some time to heal.[12]

Battle of Trafalgar

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

"I am Star Colonel Alonso Gilmour, of Clan Ghost Bear. I do not recognize your claim to the Star League. I accept your batchall. I will defend my fleet with every asset at my disposal.

”
  — Battle of Trafalgar

On 15 December, Task Force Serpent stumbled unexpectedly across a small Clan Ghost Bear fleet, consisting of one Congress-class frigate, two Whirlwind-class destroyers and an Invader-class JumpShip. When Marshal Hasek-Davion hailed them and declared a Trial of Possession for the entire Clan fleet, his challenge was accepted by the Ghost Bear commander. Though the fighting was fierce, the Task Force was victorious in what became known as the Battle of Trafalgar.

With the Clan flotilla 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, one of the destroyers, the Fire Fang, 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), a couple of damaged Union-C-class DropShips, a dozen OmniFighters and a Star of OmniMechs which were divided up among the units.

The biggest headache for Task Force Serpent however was that the Clan flotilla had been engaged in Clan Ghost Bear's relocation of its civilian population to the Inner Sphere and as such not only carried its normal crew but over a thousand civilians. Without the resources to take them along and more than one of the mission's 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 a habitable world they could be left behind on. Although distrust was great towards many of these so-called 'Clan Serpent' bondsmen, tensions were eased somewhat when a Clan technician, Lennox, at great personal risk saved the life of an Inner Sphere technician during a 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 also helped to form a skeleton crew for the Fire Fang.[13]

The repair and salvage operations took several days, with some unit commanders very uneasy about spending so long at a system clearly used by at least some Clans. Nonetheless the operations were completed successfully and after doing their best to remove any evidence of the battle, the task force jumped out on 25 December. Just as it left the system however one of the sensor technicians aboard the Invisible Truth 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. On 30 December, the task force had identified a suitable world and marooned on it those Ghost Bears who had not taken the bond-oath, leaving them with some supplies and the promise that someone would come back for them.[13]

Assassination 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 2 January 3060, Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion was poisoned with a rare venom introduced into his whiskey.[14] When he was found the next morning, his death was initially reported to the rest of the command staff as a natural occurrence, the result of a sudden heart failure. When they were alone Andrew Redburn at once voiced suspicions to Ariana Winston, Morgan's deputy and now the acting Task Force commander, that he had been murdered. He cited 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. General Winston immediately brought in MI6 officer Captain Roger Montjar to conduct a forensic examination of Morgan's office and for the chief medical officer of the Invisible Truth Captain Joel Donati to conduct a careful autopsy of Morgan's body. To avoid tipping off the assassin as to their intentions, the investigation was to be kept secret for the time being.[15]

Later that day both Captains independently confirmed that Morgan Hasek-Davion had indeed been poisoned. Dr. Donati's toxicology report showed that the Marshal had suffered a lethal dose of variform tetrodontoxin, likely derived from the Bregan's toadfish. The toadfish, found only on Yorii, Rigil Kentarus and Altair, is similar to the Fugu of Terra but it's toxins are five times as powerful and faster acting. Captain Montjar also confirmed finding the toxin in the zero-g drinking apparatus Morgan used for his whiskey. Though having already started the investigation, and despite the seeming Combine origin of the toxin, Captain Montjar insisted that Sho-sa Michael Ryan from the DEST teams be brought in to take the lead, arguing 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 Combine personnel investigate the death of the Marshal of the Armies of the Federated Commonwealth, but the DEST leader took to the task with a will.[16]

On 10 January, General Winston made a fleet-wide announcement that Morgan's death was officially under investigation and formally assumed command of Task Force Serpent. With the fleet less than 200 light-years from Huntress, she ordered her personal effects be transferred from the Gettysberg to the Invisible Truth and began to go through the orders and reports Morgan had left behind in the event of his death. One of these, a taped message, revealed a startling truth to Ariana: in addition to units officially assigned to the Task Force, Coordinator Theodore Kurita had "gifted" a team of four Nekakami, highly trained assassins who trace their lineage to the ninja of Ancient Japan. Explaining his original intention of using them to hunt down high-ranking Smoke Jaguar officers, Morgan advised Ariana on ways of contacting them and advised she keep their presence a secret, particularly from the more ethically-minded senior officers.[17]

A formal funeral was held for Morgan Hasek-Davion on 11 January. Rumors regarding the Marshal's death spread throughout the fleet, while on 15 January the Task Force took an opportunity to practice conducting orbital fire support on an uninhabitable world.[18]

As the investigation continued, it was concluded that it had to be the work of a professional assassin, not only because of the nature and high toxicity of the poison but also because it was determined the assassin used an extremely rare electronic code-cracking device to gain entry to Morgan's cabin. On 19 January Sho-sa Ryan recommend a top-to-bottom search of all crew quarters on the Invisible Truth to find the device. General Winston agreed despite the objections of Commodore Beresick, who insisted he accompany the DEST search teams personally.[19] Extensive searches through the Invisible Truth after three days failed to find either a trace of the assassin, poison, or electronics, but record cross-checks of the ship's crew turned up five red flags. On board were five ComStar crew members who simply did not exist before they had joined ComStar.[20]

On 23 January the first of these five, going by the name "Julia Davis" per records, was interrogated by General Winston, Captain Montjar and Sho-sa Ryan and subjected to a voice stress test, but the results were unclear. Major Ryan's feeling was that she had something to hide, but she was not the assassin. The next candidate, a Lucas Penrose, was summoned for the next interrogation. However en route he killed the two ComStar marines escorting him with a hidden hold-out pistol, stole their weapons and barricaded himself in a recreation room on Deck Four. In the process of investigating the disturbance, Major Ryan was shot as the suspect fled, though fortunately the DEST commando's body armor - worn as a matter of habit even on the ship - kept him alive. More marines arrived quickly in response but Penrose warned them that he had planted a bomb in the number three magazine, which contained a sizable amount of Naval Autocannon shells, 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.[21]

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, meant to suggest he was holding the trigger for a detonator, was in fact empty. With this knowledge she risked jumping Penrose, and while the zero-G wrestling match over his gun spilled out into the corridor the marines had no clear target. Just as it seemed Penrose was about to shoot her, he was suddenly hit with a poisoned shuriken, an event seen only briefly by Winston before she seized Lucas' gun and shot him. As guards and MedTechs stormed in, the shuriken mysteriously vanished, leaving no clear evidence it had been there.[21]

Both General Winston and Major Ryan were taken to the cruiser's sick bay, Winston for minor injuries while Ryan had several broken ribs. Ordnance crews and DEST EOD experts could find no evidence of explosives in the number three magazine or anywhere else on the ship, suggesting that Lucas Penrose had been bluffing. Meeting with Dr. Donati and Commodore Beresick, Winston insisted she had see a shuriken sticking out of the assassin's back, convincing Beresick and Donati to look into it.[22] The next day, the trio met in Major Ryan's ward to discuss what they had discovered. Dr. Donati confirmed discovering a small wound in Penrose's back, of a size and shape congruent with a shuriken, and that the surrounding tissue tested positive for high concentrations of venom from the Eniffrian gremlin viper, a neurotoxin deadly enough to kill in seconds. Commodore Beresick confirmed that tracking of Lucas' movements left him unaccounted for during the suspected time when the assassin would have broken into Morgan's office; additionally he was observed entering one of the ship's galleys during a suspicious time between shifts, presumably to destroy evidence down one of the galley trash chutes (which dump directly into the ship's drive plum). While unable to fully explain his motives or some of his actions, Lucas Penrose by all appearances was Morgan's assassin. Returning to her office, General Winston was contacted via secret audio-only communication from one of the Nekekami agents. According to them, "Lucas Penrose" had been a Loki agent which they had come into contact with before, first as an assassin for the Federated Commonwealth and then the Lyran Alliance. They confirmed having helped save her with the shuriken and asked that "Julia Davis" be released from her custody, to which the general agreed.[23]

Voice of Kerensky

Main article: Voice of Kerensky

During Hasek-Davion's funeral, the ships of Task Force Serpent received a broadband transmission sent by Aleksandr Kerensky himself. It was a declaration explaining why the General had taken the original SLDF from the Inner Sphere and the hopes that one day their descendants would return to restore the Star League. It was considered an eerie coincidence regarding not only the message's timing, but that the Task Force would have missed it completely had Morgan not died. As the message was traveling at light-speed, it would not reach the Inner Sphere for another eight hundred or so years. However, the Voice confirmed that they were nearing the Clan Homeworlds, now only a few hundred light years away.[24]

Battle of Huntress

Main article: Battle of Huntress

Template:Empty section

Aftermath

On April 9th, Victor Steiner-Davion addressed the assembled survivors of Task Force Serpent. He thanked them for the sacrifices they had made in ensuring the safety of the Inner Sphere. There was, however, one last sign of Clan Smoke Jaguar on Lootera, indicating the gigantic fresco depicting a jumping jaguar on Mount Szabo. Victor then handed a remote-control detonator to General Redburn, who activated it, triggering the demolition charges buried within the monument and blasting it to pieces.[25]

Out of an original force equal to ten regiments, Task Force Serpent had been reduced to two. To help them with rebuilding their losses, each unit was given salvage rights to enough equipment to restore them to their original strength plus ten percent; the rest would be pooled and sold to form a fund for survivors and families of the deceased. When it was decided that Task Force Bulldog would have to travel to Strana Mechty and confront the Clans on their own terms, General Redburn insisted that he and a company of the Kathil Uhlans come with and take part. Colonel Paul Masters would remain in charge of Task Force Serpent and oversee the rest and refitting process.[26]

In the Great Refusal on Strana Mechty, ilKhan Lincoln Osis and the last of the Smoke Jaguars would die in battle against Victor Steiner-Davion. The Star League's victory in the contest would put an end to the threat of a renewed Clan Invasion. 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.[27] The First Kathil Uhlans were dissolved and most of its members were integrated in the newly formed 1st Royal BattleMech Regiment, which included members from some of the other units as well.[28] While the Northwind Highlanders returned to their mercenary life, the Black Watch formally joined the Star League Defense Force as well, returning to their rightful place as bodyguards of the First Lord.[29] The 4th Drakøns, having been shattered as a unit on Huntress, was disbanded and its survivors spread among the rest of the KungsArmé.[30]


Participating Units

Star League Defense Force

Task Force Serpent has been regarded as one of the largest military operations conducted by the Inner Sphere since the fall of the original Star League. In total, it consisted of 55,000 personnel; over a thousand BattleMechs, Aerospace Fighters and Combat Vehicles; ninety-eight DropShips and twenty-seven JumpShips and WarShips.[31][32]

Ground units

Special operations forces

Additionally, Theodore Kurita deployed a team of four Nekakami, 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) also infiltrated the Task Force with an 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

Among the fleet's JumpShip roster were several Monolith-, Star Lord- and Invader-class vessels; many came with their parent units, while ComStar was able to provide additional starships for the rest.[33] Among the DropShips in the fleet, two were specially modified Mules designed to collect, purify and store drinking water.[34] After the Battle of Trafalgar, the task force was able to add the CGBS Fire Fang, a Whirlwind-class WarShip, captured from Clan Ghost Bear, along with several captured Clan DropShips.[13]

Clan Smoke Jaguar

Huntress Garrison forces

Smoke Jaguar reinforcements

References

  1. ↑ Grave Covenant, ch. 14
  2. ↑ Twilight of the Clans, p. 8-9, "Task Force Serpent"
  3. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 7
  4. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 8-11
  5. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named SF17
  6. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 12
  7. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 13
  8. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 14
  9. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 15
  10. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 15
  11. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 18-20
  12. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 21-22
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 The Hunters, ch. 28
  14. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 30
  15. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 31
  16. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 1-2
  17. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 3
  18. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 5
  19. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 6
  20. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 7
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Sword and Fire, ch. 8
  22. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 9
  23. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 10
  24. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 4
  25. ↑ Prince of Havoc, ch. 1
  26. ↑ Prince of Havoc, ch. 2
  27. ↑ Field Manual: ComStar, p. 89
  28. ↑ Field Manual: ComStar, p. 101
  29. ↑ Field Manual: ComStar, p. 98
  30. ↑ Field Manual: ComStar, p. 98
  31. ↑ The Hunters, Ch. 14
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 32.4 32.5 32.6 32.7 Twilight of the Clans, p. 8, "Task Force Serpent Composition"
  33. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 12
  34. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 18

Bibliography

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