Xanthe Operation

The Xanthe Operation was the Maskirovka's successful attempt to secure BattleMech technology for the Capellan Confederation.

Overview

In the last years of Stephen Liao's Chancellorship, rumors began to spread that the Terran Hegemony had developed a radically advanced new battle machine: the BattleMech. At first skeptical, the Capellan's intelligence agency the Maskirovka eventually discovered in 2456 that the Lyran Commonwealth had captured technical specifications during a raid on Hesperus II the year before, with then Chancellor Jasmine Liao ordering the organization to obtain the technology not matter the cost.

The Maskirovka got its chance in 2462 when the Free Worlds League secured BattleMech technology and blueprints via defecting technicans from a 'Mech factory on the Lyran Commonwealth world of Alarion. The League quickly began their own top-secret project to reverse engineer and produce their own BattleMech designs, unaware that the Maskirovka had succeeded in compromising the integrity of a high level technician on the project.

Blackmailed into working with the Maskirovka and defecting to the Confederation, the technician at first complied and supplied the Capellan agents with detailed plans and specifications, but later recanted and advised the League authorities. The final transaction to hand over the last specs in exchange for 100,000 credits became a shooting match when the Capellans realized the tech had betrayed them after League troops burst in, the resulting fire-fight killing six of the seven member Maskirovka team, several members of the Free Worlds League's special forces branch and the tech himself. The sole surviving Capellan agent managed to bribe his way out of League territory using the final payment, carrying with him incomplete but sufficient details to allow the Capellan Confederation to begin its own 'Mech development program.

References

• House Liao (The Capellan Confederation), p. 35 - "Xanthe dossier"
• House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 16
• House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth), p. 21

Bibliography

• House Liao (The Capellan Confederation)
• House Marik (The Free Worlds League)
• House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth)