Task Force Serpent

Template:InfoBoxStateUnit Task Force Serpent was a multinational task force created by the Second Star League Defense Force to execute a secret military operation conceived and led by Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion: Travel to the Clan Smoke Jaguar homeworld of Huntress, occupy it, and completely destroy the war-making capability of the Clan. The mission complemented Operation BULLDOG, whose objective was to expel the Smoke Jaguars from every world they occupied in the Inner Sphere.

After a long journey through the Deep Periphery to the Clan Homeworlds, Task Force Serpent ultimately completed its mission with the assistance of elements from Operation BULLDOG, which had succeeded ahead of schedule. Clan Smoke Jaguar was effectively wiped out, but at heavy cost to the task force. Marshal Hasek-Davion, the task force commander, was assassinated en route; his successor, General Ariana Winston, was killed in action; and the task force suffered an eighty percent casualty rate.

Task Force Commission

On 14 November 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 that had been provided by the Smoke Jaguar defector, Trent. The information included the Exodus Road and the location of Huntress, the Smoke Jaguar homeworld. Morgan Hasek-Davion proposed and volunteered to lead a strike at Huntress designed to raze it, shocking the Clan and wiping out all traces of the warrior case. [1] The First Council approved the plan, with Hasek-Davion as the Task Force Commander. [2]

In January 3059, the units assigned to Task Force Serpent began to assemble on Fort Defiance, a barren planet deep in the Crucis March of the Federated Commonwealth, which had mostly been used for military training maneuvers. [3] Serpent's ground forces consisted of the Eridani Light Horse, the First Kathil Uhlans, the Northwind Highlanders, the 2nd Division, the 11th Lyran Guards, the Second Sword of Light, the 2nd St. Ives Lancers, the 4th Drakøns, the Knights of the Inner Sphere, and Kingston's Legionnaires, a regiment of questionable honor.[4] The ground forces trained for the next several months. DEST and MI6 teams, assigned to the task force for special operations, trained for spacecraft boarding actions. [5]

Task Force Serpent launched on 1 May 3059, following a route through Weldon, Vicente, Tsamma and Palmyra on its way through the Federated Commonwealth. [6] On 29 June the task force jumped from Pajarito into the Outworlds Alliance.[7] On 19 July, after recharging jump drives at Alpheratz, Task Force Serpent entered the Deep Periphery and began its journey along the Exodus Road to Huntress.[8]

Battle of Sweetwater Lake

On 16 November, Task Force Serpent stopped at a habitable planet in the Meribah system to replenish the fleet's supply of fresh water. Two specially-modified Mule-class DropShips were dispatched to the surface, escorted by the 21st Striker Regiment's 5th Striker Battalion. As the DropShips pumped water from the lake, the Eridani unit was attacked by a mixed force of Inner Sphere BattleMechs and Clan OmniMechs, who were swiftly defeated. [9]

The enemy turned out to be a group of pirates using the planet for a base of operations. With the pirates' main force 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. The next day, a combined Eridani-MI6 strike team destroyed the pirate base and released the slaves found there. Four pirate leaders were court-martialed for piracy and murder and were summariliy executed. The rest of the pirates were convicted of lesser crimes and sentenced to be marooned on a uninhabited planet. [10]

Battle of Trafalgar

Main article: 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.[11]

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.[11]

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 2 January 3060, Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion died in his quarters aboard the Invisible Truth. His death was initially attributed to heart failure, but subsequent forensic investigations determined that he was deliberately poisoned with a fast-acting toxin introduced into his scotch whiskey. [12][13]

On 10 January, General Winston, Task Force Serpent's second-in-command, formally assumed command and announced that Hasek-Davion's death was under investigation. With the fleet less than 200 light-years from Huntress, she reviewed the orders and reports he had left for her in the event of his death. One of these revealed that in addition to units officially assigned to the Task Force, Coordinator Theodore Kurita had "gifted" a team of four Nekakami.[14]

As the investigation progressed, suspicion fell on five ComStar crew members who had no records of their existence before they joined ComStar.[15] On 23 January the two suspects who had originally been assigned to Invisible Truth were summoned for interrogation. The first suspect, Julia Davis, seemed to be hiding something, but her interrogator, Sho-sa Michael Ryan, concluded that she was probably not involved in the assassination. She was relieved of duty and confined to quarters.[16]

Two ComStar marines were escorting the second suspect, Lucas Penrose, to his interrogation, when he killed them both with a hidden hold-out pistol, stole their weapons, and barricaded himself in a recreation room on Deck Four. Penrose claimed that he had planted a bomb in the ship's number three magazine, and threatened to destroy the ship unless General Winston met his demands. As General Winston conversed with Penrose, she perceived that the hand he was keeping out of sight, supposedly holding a detonator, was empty. With this knowledge she jumped Penrose, wrestling him for his gun. Penrose was hit in the back with a poisoned shuriken, enabling Winston to seize his gun and shoot him in the chest.[16] The poison and the gunshot wound were both fatal.[17]

Ordnance crews and DEST EOD experts could find no evidence of explosives in the number three magazine or anywhere else on the ship, confirming that Penrose had been bluffing.[18] After returning to her office, General Winston received a voice-only call from one of the nekekami agents, who asserted that Penrose had acted alone. According to him, "Lucas Penrose" was a Loki agent who had been an assassin, first for the Lyran Commonwealth and later for the Lyran Alliance. The nekekami asked that "Julia Davis" be released from custody, and abruptly ended the call.[17]

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.[19]

Battle of Huntress

Main article: Battle of Huntress

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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.[20]

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.[21]

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.[22] 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.[23] 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.[24] The 4th Drakøns, having been shattered as a unit on Huntress, was disbanded and its survivors spread among the rest of the KungsArmé.[25]

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.[6][26]

Ground units

Special operations forces

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.[27] Among the DropShips in the fleet, two were specially modified Mules designed to collect, purify and store drinking water.[28] 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.[11]

Clan Smoke Jaguar

Huntress Garrison forces

Smoke Jaguar reinforcements

References

  1. ↑ Grave Covenant, ch. 17
  2. ↑ Grave Covenant, ch. 18
  3. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 7
  4. ↑ Twilight of the Clans, p. 8-9, "Task Force Serpent"
  5. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 9
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Hunters, ch. 14
  7. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 16
  8. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 17
  9. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 18-19
  10. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 20-21
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 The Hunters, ch. 28
  12. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 30-31
  13. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 1-2
  14. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 3
  15. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 7
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Sword and Fire, ch. 8
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Sword and Fire, ch. 10
  18. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 9
  19. ↑ Sword and Fire, ch. 4
  20. ↑ Prince of Havoc, ch. 1
  21. ↑ Prince of Havoc, ch. 2
  22. ↑ Field Manual: ComStar, p. 89
  23. ↑ Field Manual: ComStar, p. 101
  24. ↑ Field Manual: ComStar, p. 98
  25. ↑ Field Manual: ComStar, p. 98
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 26.4 26.5 26.6 26.7 Twilight of the Clans, p. 8, "Task Force Serpent Composition"
  27. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 12
  28. ↑ The Hunters, ch. 18

Bibliography

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