| [ Smoke Jaguar] | [Jade Falcon] | [Ghost Bear] | [Nova Cat] | [Steel Viper] | [Diamond Shark] | [Wolf] |
When ComStar learned that the Clans' true goal in their invasion of the Inner Sphere was to conquer Terra and use it as a base for recreating the Star League, Precentor Martial Focht and Primus Waterly together devised a plan to defeat the Clans and preserve Terra.
The Clans and the Com Guards would fight for possession of Terra on a proxy planet. If that planet fell to the Clans, ComStar agreed to serve as administrators on the Clans worlds, cease providing HPG services to the Successor States, and relinquish Terra to the victors. If the Clans won this key battle, they would possess the resources to forge a new Star League.
If the Com Guards defeated the Clans, the invaders agreed to limit themselves to those worlds already conquered and refrain from seizing territories closer to Terra than a line drawn at Tukayyid for fifteen years. This gave the Inner Sphere breathing space to upgrade their technology closer to the Clans' level, but also meant they would still have to contend with the Clans activities "above" the truce line.
Using the vast resources of ComStar's archives and his own knowledge of military strategy, the Precentor Martial chose Tukayyid, in the remnant of the Free Rasalhague Republic, as the proxy world. Varied terrain and a small civilian population, as well as its proximity to the Clan front lines, convinced Precentor Martial Focht that Tukayyid was the best choice.
Precentor Martial Focht spent countless hours studying tapes of battles between the Clans and various Inner Sphere forces, and felt confident that he knew the one weakness of the Clan fighting style. He was determined to exploit this Achilles' heel during the battle for Tukayyid. Focht knew that the Clans' fighting philosophy consisted of quick, conclusive attacks and short-term assaults. The Clans struck quickly and counted on quick victories, precluding any need for the support services necessary to conduct a long-term campaign.
The Precentor Martial planned his defense carefully. He stockpiled enough repair parts and ammunition to supply his troops for more than a month. By using his forces to harass the Clans, rather than commit to a direct confrontation, he hoped to prolong the battle for Tukayyid beyond the Clans' capacity to support such an operation.
The Clan forces' greatest advantage going into the battle was their combat experience. Though Focht's Com Guards had been training for combat for decades, they had never experienced war. The Precentor Martial attempted to make up for that lack of experience by coordinating the battle from a deep bunker in the Tamo Mountains. His virtual reality construct to direct individual units anywhere on Tukayyid's surface if it became necessary.
Each of the six Clans involved in the invasion attacked two cities on Tukayyid. Clan Smoke Jaguar would attack Dinju Heights and Port Racice, Clan Nova Cat had as its objectives Joje and Tost, Clan Ghost Bear would attempt to take Spanac and Luk, Clan Steel Viper would attack Kelly Springs and Kozice Ranch Station, Clan Wolf targeted Brzo and Skupo, Clan Diamond Shark was assigned Urcunat and Kozice Prime, and Clan Jade Falcon would Humptulips and Olalla.
Com Guard holotapes provided a roughly chronological record of the battle.
The battle began on May 1, with each Clan landing troops near their objectives according to strategies developed by each Clan's Khans. (Though IlKhan Ulric Kerensky functioned as the Clans' war leader, the Khans declined to use him as a battle coordinator in the bidding for Tukayyid.) Clan Wolf hit their landing zone five days later.
The first major encounter unfolded as the Smoke Jaguars landed their forces in two groups, hoping to win their objectives quickly (and perhaps regain some of the honor lost in the defeats on Wolcott and Luthien.)
The Smoke Jaguar force landing in the Dinju Mountains pounced on the Com Guards' Fiftieth Division (Uncluttered Speech), pinning them in the foothills. The relatively green Fiftieth stood no chance against the Jaguars' Alpha Galaxy, and for a time the Smoke Jaguars appeared likely to secure their objectives quickly.
The Com Guards 401st, 207th, and 367th Divisions herded Beta Galaxy into the bogs of the Racice River delta with hit-and-run attacks, using their superior knowledge of the terrain to decimate the Jaguars. Beta Galaxy quickly crumbled and was forced to withdraw.
The Nova Cats fared no better. Their daring strategy of a mixed landing and drop turned to disaster when aerospace fighters of the Com Guards 417th Division destroyed the Alpha Galaxy Command DropShip as it hovered over the landing zone. Clan Nova Cat was lured into a well-prepared battle site of ComStar's choosing. The Com Guards' Ninth Division (Bountiful Words) used air and ground forces to shatter the Nova Cats advance just north of Joje, a handful of kilometers from their target, and drew the Clan force into a war of attrition. The Nova Cats quickly became mired in a prolonged battle for which they were unprepared, in terms of both supplies and ammunition.
The Ghost Bears made a better showing against the relatively green Com Guards First Army. In the first two days of the battle they shattered the 121st Division and swept towards Luk, but the Ninety-first and Twelfth Divisions trapped the elite forces of the Ghost Bear's Twentieth Polar Bear Attack Cluster and pounded them until they were forced to withdraw.
The initial Jade Falcon and Diamond Shark landings were largely unopposed, but the Jade Falcons' cautious advance allowed the Precentor Martial to inflict maximum damage using the same hit-and-run tactics the House militaries found effective in wearing the Clans down.
The Jaguars next fell prey to an ambush sprung in the tight confines of the Dinju Pass by the 323rd and the 299th Divisions of the Com Guards Fifth Army - within sight of their objective of Dinju Heights. The Jaguar Grenadiers took heavy losses but managed to move through the pass, leaving blood and death in their wake.
Both Smoke Jaguar Khans were killed at the height of the battle, and IlKhan Kerensky ordered Clan Smoke Jaguar to withdraw, fearing that the sudden lack of leadership and command structure would allow the remains of the Clan to be utterly destroyed. That decision caused a bitter resentment that still flames between the Smoke Jaguars and Clan Wolf. Several Smoke Jaguar units, including the Sixth Jaguar Dragoons, refused to obey the order, preferring death to dishonor. Only eight warriors of the Sixth survived the bloodbath.
Clan Diamond Shark suffered the next loss to the Com Guards sword. The Sharks' Nineteenth Heavy Cluster (The Barracudas) managed to inflict more than 30 percent losses against the Eighty-fifth Division (Lions of the Periphery) in a series of battles in the foothills overlooking Kozice Prime. The fighting was most bitter between the ambushing forces of the Eighty-fifth's Second and Fourth battalions and the Diamond Shark's 222nd Assault Cluster (The Rippers). Only two warriors survived from the entire 222nd Cluster, and the Clan stripped one of his Bloodname for his disgrace.
By the third of May, Clan Nova Cat had made three separate attempts to seize Joje and Tost. They ran out of ammunition quickly because they outfitted their OmniMechs primarily with artillery and missile configurations, despite the ilKhan's warning against using a strategy based on non-energy weapons. Despite this misjudgment, the Clan made headway against the Com Guard forces at Joje, and the 417th and Ninth Divisions finally retreated toward Tost in order to force the Clans to divide their attention between the 467th Division (The Whirlwinds) at their rear, which was attempting to cut off Beta Galaxy from its landing zones and supplies, and the division they faced. The Com Guards harassed Beta and Gamma Galaxies, luring them into quick skirmishes that used up Clan ammunition. Gamma Galaxy withdrew, luring the 244th and 467th into a Beta Galaxy ambush. Beta Galaxy defeated both forces and won several ComStar supply depots.
ComStar immediately launched a furious counterattack, rupturing the Nova Cat lines and overrunning their positions. When the Com Guards once again controlled more than half the Losiije Lake District, the Nova Cats reluctantly withdrew. Clan Nova Cat suffered the most staggering losses of any Clan on Tukayyid; less than three Stars returned to the DropShips. According to our ROM sources in the Clan occupation zone, each of these warriors marked the shame of their survival by painting their OmniMechs red.
Clan Steel Viper learned from Clan Smoke Jaguar's mistake and chose a more conservative drop pattern. Even though the Com Guards had time to dig into positions between the Clan drop and their objectives by fighting a delaying action using artillery and aerospace fighters, Khan Breen's Vipers managed to advance toward Kozice Ranch Station.
As the Steel Vipers crossed enemy lines, they became mired in a hellhole known as Devil's Bath, just 18 kilometers from their primary objective. A horrific combination of geysers, boiling mud, and narrow confines between massive granite columns, the region stretched for dozens of kilometers. The Vipers advanced through Devil's Bath, pushing the Com Guards ahead of them, but expended too much ammunition in the process. The Com Guards continued to attack the Viper supply lines, stripping the force in Devil's Bath of critical munitions.
Clan Ghost Bear lost the Seventh Bear Guards of Beta Galaxy, assigned to cover the withdrawal from the strike at Luk, when the Twelfth Com Guard Division (Pure Waveforms) ambushed them in the Holth forest and set fire to the woods. Khan Jourgensson made a formal protest to the ilKhan against these Com Guard tactics, but his forces in the forest had already been wiped out.
The Ghost Bears' Alpha Galaxy had Spanac under siege, and when the remnants of Beta and Delta Galaxies arrived as support, the Clan forces pushed the Com Guards First Division back. Precentor Martial Focht withdrew the First Division from the center of Spanac, realizing that the Bears now controlled the Ninety-first's supply depots and were positioned to inflict more damage than they would take. Only Clans Ghost Bear and Wolf recognized the importance of protecting their supply lines. Ghost Bear realized their supply line mistake only after landing, but managed to overcome it by capturing Com Guard munitions.
Clan Diamond Shark faced a days-long stalemate with the Third Com Guards Army. The only decisive action took place between Gamma Galaxy and the Eighty-fifth Division. The Eighty-fifth disrupted the Sharks' supply lines for a day, and Gamma Galaxy retaliated by destroying the Com Guards unit. The Second and Fifth Armies' arrival cut the Sharks off completely from their supplies. The Com Guards dislodged the Clans from their fortified positions with a barrage of artillery, and, when the Clans attempted to break away and withdraw from the planet, destroyed their forces completely.
Clan Jade Falcon lost fewer troops, but failed to accomplish its objectives. The Eleventh Com Guard harassed the Falcons constantly as they moved toward Olalla, mostly whittling away at their supply lines per the Precentor Martial's plans. When the Clan finally reached the rushing Prezno River, Com Guards sappers destroyed both bridges just as the Falcons crossed.
The Falcon Guards (a unit still tainted for its massive, humiliating loss on Twycross) managed to cross the turbulent river, strike at the rear of the Com Guard units on the far side that were maintaining an artillery barrage, and create a beachhead for a heavier Jade Falcon assault. The Falcon Guards continued past the crossing towards Olalla, one of their target cities, realizing almost too late that the target at the coordinates was not Olalla, but a Com Guards trap.
The Jade Falcons moved steadily towards Olalla, taking heavy losses but advancing until Com Guard reinforcements arrived from Humptulips. A simultaneous attack on the bridge defenses and a lucky Com Guards strike on a Falcon ammunition dump convinced the Jade Falcon Khans that they did not have enough supplies to take either objective, and they reluctantly ordered a withdrawal. The withdrawal itself was costly, as the Com Guards attacked the Clan landing zone with DropShips and executed a rear assault on the retreating forces. A Trinary of Elementals and elements of the Falcon Guards foiled ComStar's two-pronged attack, and most of the remaining Falcon force made it off-planet.
Clan Wolf entered the battle of Tukayyid on the fifth day of the conflict. ilKhan Ulric Kerensky's insight into Precentor Martial Focht's methods, the intelligence and familiarity with Inner Sphere tactics displayed by Khan Natasha Kerensky and warrior Phelan (Kell) Wolf, plus days spent observing other Clans' battles with ComStar gave Clan Wolf a distinct advantage.
Upon landing, Clan Wolf immediately formed fighting ranks. Their first contact was with the inexperienced 283rd Division, part of the Com Guards defensive line guarding Brzo and Skupo, Clan Wolf's objectives. The Third Battle Cluster of Beta Galaxy, the Seventh Battle Cluster of Gamma Galaxy, and the Fourth Wolf Guards of Alpha Galaxy pushed the 278th Division and the Tenth Army from their positions, but the 283rd prevented Clan Wolf from closing a loop around the Com Guards' main defensive force. When the Com Guards pulled back to establish a new defensive line, Clan Wolf did not follow, and ComStar quickly discovered why. Using a series of sweeping strikes, Natasha Kerensky's Thirteenth Wolf Guards, including the elite Wolf Spiders, attempted to slip around the Tenth and circumvent the 166th in a drive for Skupo. Precentor Koivu sent the veteran 282nd Com Guard Division (Clear Thoughts) to stop them. The 282nd suffered heavy losses, but stopped the Wolf Spiders' drive and allowed the Tenth Army to gain its next defensive position. The battle so far revealed two important factors in Clan Wolf's favor. The Clan had continued its early strategy of maintaining ample campaign supplies and protecting its supply line, and for Tukayyid it configured most OmniMechs with energy-based weapon to make each unit more autonomous than ever. Precentor Martial Focht feared that Clan Wolf might turn the tide of battle across Tukayyid.
The Tenth Army under the command of Precentor Myrvang stood between Clan Wolf and the cities of Skupo and Brzo, but Clan Wolf launched another offensive before the Com Guards could dig in. The attackers broke through the line, then suddenly encountered entrenched 'Mechs, tanks, and infantry rising from an apparently open hilltop. Sheer stubbornness kept the Wolf Spiders in the fight, and they began to push ComStar back once again. Just as it appeared they might encircle Skupo, Com Guards reinforcements arrived in the form of the Ninth Army, led by Precentor Mulvenna. Clan Wolf failed to advance further in this push, but the Com Guards victory came at high cost to the Tenth. The Tenth Army suffered losses higher than 50 percent, largely from the 138th Division (The Bandits).
As Clan Wolf tightened the knot around its two targets, Clan Steel Viper struggled to fight its way out of Devil's Bath. Two days after Clan Wolf dropped to the surface of Tukayyid, the Steel Vipers managed to surround the Com Guards Sixth Division almost at the center of the pits and geysers of the hellish terrain. Striking repeatedly, the Vipers destroyed the Sixth and began the long crawl out.
Though victorious against the Sixth, the Vipers' Gamma Galaxy emerged from Devil's Bath to face two reserve divisions of the Second and Fifth Com Guard Armies. These fresh troops broke the Vipers' front line, but could not route the Clan forces. When the Sixth Army's 386th and First Divisions arrived to back up the Com Guard troops only ten kilometers from Kozice Ranch Station, the Vipers were forced to withdraw. Clan Steel Viper suffered 25 percent losses, and both Khans were wounded.
The Steel Vipers' retreat left only two Clans on Tukayyid to defeat the Com Guards - Wolf and Ghost Bear. The Ghost Bears held Spanac against artillery bombardment from the Fourth Army, and the troops not pinned down by artillery or necessary to hold Spanac attempted to take Luk. As they attacked, divisions of the First Army assaulted a Bear supply depot. Running low on supplies, parts, and ammunition, the Ghost Bears were forced to pull back to defend the depot, losing most of the ground they had gained. Despite the fact that several Stars of their Alpha Galaxy's Fiftieth Striker Cluster (The Maulers) managed to break into Luk's suburbs, too few troops remained to take the city, and the Ghost Bears ended their campaign by winning only one objective.
Clan Wolf continued to press the attack. As the Wolf Spiders broke the 138th Division, the Eleventh Wolf Guards of Delta Galaxy careened into the lines held by the 278th Division (Clear Courtesy), but despite the excellent coordination of the Com Guards forces, the Wolf Guards tore the 278th apart. Skupo fell to Clan Wolf when the Com Guards retreated, realizing that the Clan forces pushing to connect with the rest of their force would encircle the Com Guards in Skupo.
The Wolves aimed their next axis of attack at Brzo, and the Tenth Army bent under the force of Clan heavy and assault OmniMechs. The Ninth moved to support the Tenth, but Clan Wolf breached the defenses where the two armies should have met, neatly splitting the two forces. The Eleventh Army arrived as reinforcements, but Clan Wolf declined to further attack the Ninth. Instead the Clan concentrated on raiding ComStar supply depots and creating its own.
Though Clan Wolf had enough mobility to work around the ComStar positions in the Porozistu Mountains, they chose to engage Precentor Stinson's Eleventh Army directly, eventually breaking off a series of small skirmishes to gather for a coordinated attack. Beta Galaxy inflicted heavy damage on the Eleventh, even though Khan Garth Radick was killed at the peak of the battle, but the war ended before the Com Guards Thirteenth Army could join the fray.
Despite the short-lived blow to the Wolf Clan's morale inflicted by Khan Radick's death, the Com Guards could not unseat the Wolves from either Brzo or Skupo. Striking at Clan Wolf supply lines proved fruitless, because Khan Kerensky heavily reinforced these vital points. Her knowledge of Inner Sphere tactics gave Clan Wolf its successes.
After 21 days of fighting the ilKhan of the Clans conceded victory to ComStar. Only Clan Wolf successfully gained control of both its target cities. Clan Ghost Bear held Spanac but failed to take Luk. Based on its surviving forces, Clan Jade Falcon achieved a draw.
Both sides suffered staggering losses. It soon became apparent that Tukayyid represented much more than the largest military battle in three centuries. The Com Guards ended the conflict with nearly 40 percent dead and more than that number injured. Clan Smoke Jaguar suffered the highest losses with 32 percent dead, while Clan Wolf only lost 20 percent of its forces on Tukayyid.
Both the Clans and the Inner Sphere sacrificed too many man and women for either side to claim a true victory, but this battle represented one of the Inner Sphere's finest hours. ComStar willingly bloodied the soil of Tukayyid to stand between Terra and the Clans' tyranny for the next decade and a half.
Hungry for revenge after their humiliating failure to Capture the Combine capital of Luthien, the Smoke Jaguars bid for and won the right to land on Tukayyid first, ahead of the other Clans. In order to gain that coveted honor, the Jaguar commanders bid away an entire Galaxy, and ended up fighting their campaign with only Alpha and Beta Galaxies.
The Smoke Jaguar Khans further weakened their chances for success by splitting their forces, hoping to thereby capture both of their target cities before the other Clans had much chance to act. Confident of their troops ability to fight circles around "dirty Inner Sphere freebirths," the Khans believed one Galaxy per target to be more than enough. Khan Edmund Hoyt ordered Alpha Galaxy to establish a landing zone in the Dinju Mountains near the city of Dinju Heights, while Junior Khan Sarah Weaver led Beta Galaxy's combat drop into the marshes of the Racice River Delta in preparation for an assault on Port Racice.
The Dinju campaign began well for the Clan, with the Sixth Jaguar Dragoons quickly wiping out the Com Guards' green 50th Division (Uncluttered Speech) and thereby securing Alpha Galaxy's drop site. When the Dragoons and the Jaguar Grenadiers began their march on Dinju Heights, they encountered only modest resistance; remnants of the 50th launched several light raids but did little damage. The Clan warriors advanced towards the seemingly undefended Dinju Pass, confident of swiftly capturing the city that lay beyond.
Unknown to the Jaguars, the heavier elements of the Com Guards' 299th Division lay hidden in the pass. Only the un-Clanlike caution of Star Colonel Brandon Howell saved the Jaguar Grenadiers from annihilation. Under Howell's leadership, elements of the Grenadiers broke through Com Guard forces to the far side of the pass, ending up on the doorstep of Dinju Heights. Khan Hoyt also attempted to break out, leading his Sixth Jaguar Dragoons in a run past the remaining 'Mechs of the 299th and 323rd Divisions (Courtesy Through Thought and Negative Communications). Unfortunately for the Jaguars, Acolyte Trevis Gray of the Negative Communications Division picked off the Khan with a well-placed laser shot to the cockpit of Hoyt's Summoner.
In the meantime, Khan Weaver and the OmniMechs of Beta Galaxy had bogged down less than a quarter of the way to their target city. The initial drop went well; the pools and marshes of the Racice Delta gave the Smoke Jaguar 'Mechs and Elementals a soft landing, inflicting fewer casualties than those usual for such a maneuver. As they began their advance on the port, however, the Jaguars found that wading through the swamps forced them to move at a painfully slow pace. Com Guard 'Mechs concealed in the delta's deep pools and sluggish river channels repeatedly ambushed the Jaguars during their slow march towards Port Racice, negating both the Clans' weapon-range advantage and their 'Mech's superior heat sink technology. Well-placed artillery herded the Clan 'Mech's ever deeper into the delta, where still more Com Guard 'Mechs waited in ambush. By the end of the third day, the 'Mechs of the Com Guards' 207th Division (the Pounders) had surrounded Beta Galaxy's Command Star, Junior Khan Sarah Weaver died in the fighting when her Warhawk's fusion engine went critical.
With the leaderless Clan Smoke Jaguar forces facing the fresh troops of the Com Guards' Second Army, ilKhan Ulric Kerensky chose to terminate the Smoke Jaguar campaign. The dispirited warriors of Beta Galaxy obediently retreated towards their drop zone, but several of Alpha Galaxy's units proved less cooperative. The Sixth Jaguar Dragoons felt particularly angered by ilKhan Kerensky's orders, viewing them as a Wolf Clan snub intended to erase the honor they had gained through the sacrifice of the Jaguar Grenadiers and the loss of Khan Hoyt. Ignoring the ilKhan's order to retreat, the Dragoons continued their advance down the Dinju Pass, accompanied by many like-minded warriors from the other surviving Alpha Galaxy Clusters. The sheer numerical superiority of the Com Guards' forces in the pass, however, eventually overwhelmed them.
Unable to fight their way back through the pass to aid their floundering companions, the few remaining warriors of the Jaguar Grenadiers chose to launch an attack on Dinju Heights. Though the assault never had a chance of succeeding, it forced the Com Guards' 82nd and 322nd Divisions (Justice Through Words and the Trademan's Pal) to pull back into the city, thereby allowing a few of the Grenadiers to escape back to their drop zone. According to some reports, Star Colonel Brandon Howell was one of the Grenadiers to reach safety.
The Jade Falcons targeted the cities of Humptulips and Olalla. As a bidding ploy, the Falcon Khans included the Falcon Guards in their invasion force. Widely regarded as a dezgra unit after their defeat on Twycross in 3050, the Guards exceeded all expectations and brought their Clan most of its successes on Tukayyid.
The Com Guards' largely green Eleventh and Third Armies opposed the Jade Falcons, supported by the veteran 394th and 77th Divisions from the Second and Twelfth Armies and the First Army's 309th Division. Precentors Stinson and Jby had never fought a major engagement and relied heavily on the Precentor Martial's orders.
The Com Guards allowed the Falcons to land virtually unopposed on the Prezno Plain. During the Clan's slow advance across the plain, the Precentor Martial exploited his enemy's caution with a series of hit-and-run attacks by Precentor Gesicki's White Lions. The Lions caused a great deal of commotion, leading the Jade Falcons to believe they faced several divisions from the Eleventh Army.
The Falcons advanced toward Plough Bridge and Robyn's Crossing, the two bridges spanning the Prezno River. The Com Guards' 403rd Division met the vanguard of the Falcon force near Robyn's Crossing, led by Star Colonel Rard Hoyt's First Falcon Jaegers. The Jaegers crushed the 403rd, inflicting greater than 70 percent casualties.
At the approach to Plough Bridge, the Falcons met the 214th Division; the 388th Division, meanwhile, had dug in at the entrance to Robyn's Crossing. The Jade Falcons' 305th Assault and 124th Striker Clusters launched the assault on Plough Bridge, while the Twelfth Falcon Regulars attacked the 308th. The 214th quickly broke under the massed fire of the 305th's assault OmniMechs, but the 388th held Robyn's Crossing until the Falcon Guards reinforced the Twelfth with a flanking attack. Com Guard sappers destroyed both bridges as the Falcon troops crossed, costing the Twelfth Regulars their Command Star and two full Trinaries and the 305th Assault a Trinary and two Binaries of OmniMechs. As the Falcons tried to regroup, the Third Army's 111th and 201st Divisions took up positions on the opposite side of the river and battered the Clans with long range weapons fire and artillery strikes.
The Falcons established a breakwater a short distance downstream. The Falcon Guards and Second Falcon Regulars managed to cross with their jump-capable Mechs, losing eleven OmniMechs in the process. With the Com Guards unprepared for an attack from their side of the river, the Falcons easily captured both Robyn's Crossing and Plough Bridge. The enemy's unexpected success forced the 111th and 201st Divisions to retreat towards Olalla, pursued by the Falcon Guards and Second Falcon Regulars. The Falcons soon reached the edge of the city. Olalla appeared deserted; Star Colonel Kael Pershaw, observing the Falcon campaign from the Clan's command DropShip, suspected a trap. Responding to Pershaw's caution, Star Colonel Aidan Pryde of the Falcon Guards sent the only heavy Star of his unit's Alpha Trinary into the city.
As Alpha Heavy reached the city center, the 77th Division emerged from camouflaged bunkers, accompanied by the remainder of the 111th and 201st Divisions. The Com Guards annihilated Alpha Heavy and forced the Falcon Guards to pull back to Olalla's outer suburbs, though the fighting destroyed the 201st and 77th Divisions.
With the arrival of the 89th and 94th Falcon Striker Clusters and the First Falcon Velites, the beleaguered Falcons re-entered Olalla in triumph. As the Falcon Guards hunted down the remaining Mechs of the 111th, their sensors detected incoming DropShips. The entire Humptulips garrison, a full six divisions of Com Guards troops, had arrived. Meanwhile, the Ghost Bears' withdrawal from Tukayyid allowed the Fourth Army to join forces with the 388th and 214th Divisions in a massive assault on the Falcon bases at Robyn's Crossing and Plough Bridge. Falcon Khan Chistu committed Vau and Delta Galaxies to defend against this new attack.
The Clans held their ground until double misfortune struck. The remnants of Precentor Luarca's First Army joined the fight at Olalla, and a Com Guards air strike destroyed Gamma Galaxy's supply depot at Robyn's Crossing. The loss of the depot proved critical; all but the Falcon Guards had begun to run low on ammo and materiel, and so could no longer hope to defeat four Com Guard armies.
The Falcons withdrew to their DropShips, with the Second Falcon Regulars leading the way and the Falcon Guards fighting a fierce rearguard action. The Com Guards contested every step of the Falcons' retreat; the particularly bloody battle between the 309th Division and the Second Falcon Regulars destroyed the 309th and came close to destroying the Clan unit. The Com Guards threw themselves at the Falcons until the last DropShip lifted, only to be beaten back by the Falcon Guards.
Because the Jade Falcons captured the target city of Olalla, however briefly, and inflicted significantly higher losses on the Com Guards than they suffered in turn, the ilKhan and the Precentor Martial ruled that Clan Jade Falcon had achieved a draw in their battle against ComStar.
The Ghost Bears drove straight for their target cities of Spanac and Luk, opposed by the Com Guards' First Army and the reserve Fourth Army. As the senior commander, Precentor Katherine Luarca deployed her First Army to engage the Bears upon their landing, leaving only her veteran 103rd Division (Truth in Communication) to defend Spanac. Fearing that the green troops of the Fourth Army would break facing Clan OmniMechs in the field, she assigned the Fourth to garrison Luk. The Fourth Army's commander, Precentor Tolliver, disagreed with the arrangement but respected Luarca's superior experience and so did not lodge a formal complaint with the Precentor Martial.
The Ghost Bears split their forces, landing Alpha Galaxy in the hills above Spanac while Beta and Delta Galaxies landed near Luk. Both forces landed unopposed but suffered hit-and-run attacks as they advanced. The First Army's 308th Division (Clarity of Thought) did little to slow the veteran forces of Alpha Galaxy, and Beta Galaxy decimated the 121st Division (the Gray Backs). The 91st and Twelfth Divisions of the First Army fared better, trapping Delta Galaxy's 20th Polar Bear Attack Cluster in the outskirts of the Holth forest and inflicting heavy losses on the Clan troops. This skirmish turned the tide in the Bears' push for Luk and forced Beta and Gamma Galaxies to withdraw. The 91st Division then fell back to assist in the defense of Spanac, but it had hardly managed to enter the city before Alpha Galaxy took up positions in the suburbs. The Bears settled in to hold Spanac under siege until reinforcements from the failed attack at Luk arrived. Unfortunately for the Clans, the Com Guards Twelfth waylaid those reinforcements in a brilliant ambush, setting fire to the Holth forest and attacking Beta Galaxy's Seventh Bear Guards as they fled from the burning woods. When the exhausted Seventh finally broke free of the inferno, they ran down wide paths cut through the woods to the hills beyond. By entering these corridors, the Bears fell to devastating short-range fire from the dug-in forces of the Twelfth. To a man, the overheated Ghost Bear 'Mechs died in the forest.
Meanwhile, the Com Guards had trouble on other fronts. The troops of the 91st Division had failed to achieve a proper defensive position in Spanac, and the arrival of Beta and Delta Galaxy troops at the siege enabled the Ghost Bears to overrun the 91st and capture most of its supply caches intact. Predicting the imminent fall of the city, the Precentor Martial ordered Precentor Luarca to pull her 103rd Division out of Spanac.
The Ghost Bears took the city, but soon faced a counterattack from two divisions of the Fourth Army. Garrisoned at Luk, the Fourth Army divisions had seen little combat in the battle on Tukayyid and so arrived at Spanac fresh and ready for action. With the Fourth Army raining artillery fire on the city and the remnants of the 91st and Twelfth Divisions raiding into the suburbs, the Bear Khans chose to leave Beta and Delta Galaxies to hold Spanac while Alpha Galaxy mustered for an attack on Luk.
At Luk, Alpha Galaxy tore into the remaining divisions of the Fourth Army with all the ferocity of Clan Ghost Bear's namesake. Despite the Com Guards' superior numbers, the Fourth came close to breaking, until Precentor Luarca redeemed herself by leading her 103rd Division and the remaining elements of the 308th in an attack against Alpha Galaxy's main supply depot. The assault forced the Bears to pull back to defend their supplies; though the 50th Striker Cluster managed to enter Luk's suburbs, the Clan troops lacked the force needed to take the city. Alpha Galaxy fought off a raid by reinforcements from the Com Guards' First Army, but they suffered such high losses in doing so that the Bear Khans reluctantly ordered a withdrawal back to Spanac.
At this point, the ilKhan declared an end to the Ghost Bear campaign. Knowing that they lacked the strength to take Luk from the fresh Com Guard troops stationed there, the Bear Khans raised no objections. The battle of Tukayyid had already ended in defeat for several of the other Clans, and so if the Bears continued to fight, the Com Guards could easily shift enough forces from other combat theaters to drive the Clan from Spanac. Rather than lose all that they had gained, the Ghost Bears withdrew while they could still claim victory.
The Precentor Martial also welcomed the end of the Bear campaign. Though the Com Guards had lost to these particular Clan opponents, their forces' departure from Tukayyid left the First and Fourth Armies free to turn against the hard-fighting Jade Falcons. Because the Ghost Bears captured Spanac, breached defenses at Luk, and inflicted somewhat greater losses than they sustained, ilKhan Kerensky and Precentor Martial Focht agreed that they had won a marginal victory over the Com Guards.
In the Nova Cats' attempts to take the cities of Joje and Tost, they faced the Com Guards' veteran Seventh Army, as well as divisions of the Twelfth Army stationed as reserves in the two cities. With Precentor Koselka's elite 278th Division detached from the Twelfth Army to battle Clan Wolf and the White Lions of the 349th removed to face the Jade Falcons, none of the remaining Twelfth Army units had any significant combat experience.
Benjamin Garr, the Nova Cats' senior Khan, chose to launch the campaign with the Clans' effective hover-drop maneuver, in which combat DropShips hover in the lower atmosphere so that the OmniMechs and Elementals aboard can make a short drop without the need for confining, heat-dissipating pods. Unfortunately for the Nova Cats, the aerospace fighters of the Com Guards' 417th Division (Major Trouble) had gained air superiority over the Clan drop zone. The 417th's strafing and bombing runs wrought havoc on Alpha Galaxy. In the most damaging attack, a kamikaze run by a Com Guard Hammerhead fighter destroyed the Galaxy Command DropShip, along with the thirty OmniMechs and six Stars of the Fourth Nova Cat Lancers' Bravo and Delta Supernova Trinaries. In the face of such devastating losses, Junior Khan Istal Devalis questioned Alpha Galaxy's ability to take Tost. Khan Garr brushed aside these doubts and warnings and led his troops against the city as planned.
Alpha and Gamma Galaxies pushed past the 244th Division and rushed toward Joje, only to be halted by the 417th and Ninth Division (Bountiful Words) at the edge of the city's northernmost suburbs. The Ninth and 417th had, in fact, lured the Cats towards Joje, stalling their offensive with a combination of vibrabomb fields, aerospace fighters and armor elements. The Cats attempted to relieve the pressure by sending Beta Galaxy's 44th Nova Cat Cavaliers towards Tost, but reserve units from the Thirteenth and 431st Divisions (Comprehension is All and Quiet Contemplation) crushed the Cavaliers along the road.
By the third day of the fighting, the Cats were perilously low on ammunition, but their fierce attacks had weakened Joje's defenders and forced the Ninth and 417th Divisions to retreat in order to regroup. In the face of Com Guard harassment by the 467th Division (the Whirlwinds), which was attempting to cut the Clan force off from its landing zone. Khan Devalis ordered Gamma Galaxy to withdraw toward the drop zone accompanied by a handful of damaged OmniMechs from Beta Galaxy. The damaged Beta 'Mechs were ordered to advertise their presence. Meanwhile, the rest of Beta Galaxy's 'Mechs hid themselves under the surface of Lake Losiije, the only easily recognizable landmark in the area.
As Devalis had hoped, the unsuspecting 244th and 467th Divisions met at the lake to combine their weakened units and pursuing the fleeing Clan force. As Precentors Slagle and Shykes tried to organize their troops on the shore, Beta Galaxy emerged from the depths and attacked. The Cats shattered both divisions and captured several ComStar supply depots.
Fresh from a rout of the Nova Cats' Alpha Galaxy, Precentors Colombini and Landaker of the Ninth and 417th ordered an all-out attack against the Clan forces in the Losiije Lake District. Before Beta and Gamma Galaxies could make use of their captured supplies, the Ninth, 417th, and 116th Divisions threw themselves at the Clan in a fierce counterattack, forcing the Nova Cats back and recapturing the supply depots. Faced with this setback, Khan Devalis ordered his battered MechWarriors to withdraw to their DropShips. The Com Guards harassed the Nova Cats all the way back to their drop zone, but no major actions took place.
Having failed to captured either of their target cities, the Nova Cats were judged to have lost to the Com Guards despite the fact that they inflicted greater losses than they sustained. After the battle, the Nova Cats elected Istal Devalis as Senior Khan. When Khan Garr challenged him to a Trial of Refusal, Devalis destroyed the old warrior's Gargoyle in less than four minutes.
Even after trimming enough divisions from his units to form a temporary Thirteenth Army, Precentor Martial Focht still could not must enough forces to oppose each of the invading Clans with two full armies. Knowing that his Com Guards would have to engage one of the Clans without the benefit of superior numbers, Focht chose the Sixth Army to stand against Clan Steel Viper with only two divisions of reinforcements.
To reach its objectives, Clan Steel Viper had to get through Devil's Bath. Stretching for dozens of kilometers between the Vipers' drop zone and their primary objective, the Kozice Ranch Station, the Bath is perhaps best described by a particularly vivid ComStar status report: "... a horrific combination of geysers, boiling mud, and narrow confines between massive granite columns..." Needless to say, such an area lends itself to ambushes and close-quarters combat.
The Vipers made a conservative drop well away from their target cities. The Viper Khans began their campaign with a massed attack on their primary objective of Kozice Ranch Station and sent the OmniMechs of Alpha and Gamma Galaxies marching towards the city.
The Com Guards maintained steady aerospace and artillery barrages as the Clan warriors advanced, but they saved their ground attack until the Vipers arrived at the fringes of the Devil's Bath. There the Clan Galaxies met the green troops for the Sixth Division (Alert Words). After an initial exchange of fire the Sixth appeared to break, their white 'Mechs fleeing into the Bath with the Steel Viper MechWarriors in hot pursuit. Within minutes, senior Khan Natalie Breen realized that her forces had stumbled into a massive trap. Entire Stars disappeared in the bottomless pools of boiling mud, while the twisting paths of granite pillars deprived the Clan troops of their weapons' range advantage.
The Vipers could either continue their push into Devil's Bath or retreat and make the long march around the Bath to their target cities. Sensing the Khans' reluctance to pursue his troops into the treacherous terrain of the Bath, Precentor Yekel of the Sixth Division goaded the Vipers into continuing their attack by issuing an insulting, public challenge throughout Tukayyid's solar system via a satellite link from his Atlas.
The enraged Steel Vipers had to attack. Alpha and Gamma Galaxies drove the Sixth and 78th Divisions through Devil's Bath, inflicting heavy losses on the Com Guards but using their limited ammunition at a tremendous rate. While these Galaxies slugged it out in the Bath, the elite MechWarriors of Precentor McGillary's First Division hit the Vipers' supply lines. As the battle in Devil's Bath dragged on, the Vipers began to run low on ammunition. The Khans realized that they must disengage at once or face defeat from a lack of supplies.
The swift moving Omnis of Gamma Galaxy's 57th Striker Cluster finally managed to flank the Sixth Division, cutting them off from their comrades in the 78th. With the hated warriors of the Sixth pinned down, Alpha Galaxy threw everything they had left at the Com Guards. When the smoke cleared, less than a company of Sixth Division 'Mechs still stood. Clan Steel Viper had avenged Yekel's insults - but at a high cost. Alpha Galaxy suffered losses greater than 20 percent in the Battle of Devil's Bath, and their remaining 'Mechs had no ammo left. Holding off the 78th's attempts to relieve the beleaguered Sixth, Gamma Galaxy had fared likewise. It fell to the MechWarriors of Zeta Galaxy to escort their virtually unarmed companions out of Devil's Bath. When the reserve Galaxy moved out in full force, the Sixth Army's overall commander, Precentor Trijullio, had only the First Division near enough to oppose them. Unwilling to uselessly sacrifice his best troops, Trijullio ordered the First's commander to pull back his 'Mechs and allow the Zeta reserve 'Mechs to join their frontline comrades unopposed. The shattered 78th Division could muster only a token attempt to divert the Viper forces; Alpha Galaxy, though weakened, crushed the remnants of the 78th in a rearguard action.
When the Steel Viper Galaxies finally reached the far side of the Bath, they met the untouched 321st and 401st Divisions. The Com Guards' assault broke through Gamma Galaxy's lines but could not force the Clan warriors to retreat. The Precentor Martial then ordered the First Division to discontinue its attacks on the Viper supply lines and pulled the 386th Division from garrison duty at Kozice Ranch Station. This redeployment gave the Com Guards enough strength to drive Clan Steel Viper from the field.
Knowing that Clan Steel Viper could still threaten either of their target cities once they had resupplied at their drop zone, Precentor Martial Focht ordered the bulk of his remaining forces into the cities of Kelly Springs and Kozice Ranch Station. Khan Breen realized that with several other Clans already defeated, the Precentor Martial could easily shift great numbers of troops from another front to face the Steel Vipers. Wisely, she ordered her warriors to board their DropShips and lift from the planet.
The Vipers' humiliating defeat led Khan Breen to resign her position and has made the Clan an extremely dangerous enemy; when the Clan invasion resumes, the Steel Vipers will most likely be at the forefront of the fighting.
Responding to reports from ComStar ROM agents, who judged the Diamond Sharks to be the weakest of the invading Clans, Precentor Martial Focht assigned the relatively Eighth and Second Armies to face the Sharks. Though Precentor Cocus was designated the senior commander, both of his veteran divisions had been detached from the Second Army for use against the Steel Vipers and Jade Falcons, leaving the Precentor with three divisions of green and one division of regular troops. Under the circumstances, Cocus chose to defer command to the Eighth Army's Precentor Naddeo, who had one veteran and several regular divisions at his division.
The Diamond Sharks landed in the Kozice Valley, where the 85th and 182nd Divisions of the Eighth Army met the Sharks in the foothills overlooking the city of Kozice Prime. The Nineteenth Heavy Cluster of Alpha Galaxy fared well against the 85th, but the 182nd halted the Sharks' offensive near the town of Urcunat. In the meantime, Precentor Naddeo sent her 31st and 56th Divisions (Static Hurlers and Eyes of ComStar) to attack the Sharks' rear.
The conflict swiftly bogged down into a days-long stalemate, with the 182nd keeping Alpha Galaxy bottled up while the bloody but unbowed 85th joined the attack on the Sharks' supply lines. The fighting between the 85th Division and Gamma Galaxy's 222nd Assault Cluster (the Rippers) grew so fierce that only two Clan 'Mechs survived from the doomed 222nd. When the 85th disrupted the Sharks' supply lines for a full day, Gamma Galaxy retaliated by destroying the 85th. That battle, however, enabled reinforcements from the Com Guards Fifth Army to arrive from the Smoke Jaguar theater of operations. The fresh troops cut the Clan off from their supplies. The Second Army's 301st Division (White Sharks) advanced on the Sharks from their bases at Kozice Prime and Urcunat, cutting off escape to the Clan's drop zone and catching the Sharks in a near unbreakable net.
The reserve 'Mechs of Omega Galaxy mounted a relief effort that enabled the Sharks to break through the Com Guards lines, but at the cost of losing several Stars to enemy fire. With Omega Galaxy acting as a rear guard, the remnants of the Diamond Shark forces began the long trek back to their DropShips.
As the Sharks crawled through the hills towards the Kozice Valley, the Com Guards rained attacks against their vulnerable flanks. By the time the Clan forces reached their drop zone, the few remaining OmniMechs of Alpha and Gamma Galaxies had run out of ammunition. Sensing their foe's weakness, the Com Guards massed for an all-out assault.
Without a single order to do so, the freebirth soldiers of Omega Galaxy formed ranks and advanced to meet the Com Guards. The Com Guards cut them down almost to a man, but Omega's sacrifice allowed the truebirth warriors of Alpha and Gamma Galaxies to make a final dash for the safety of their DropShips. A scant handful of Omega 'Mechs also survived the battle. In recognition of the Omega MechWarriors' bravery, Khan Ian Hawker formally removed the restriction forbidding freebirths from piloting OmniMechs or serving in frontline Diamond Sharks units. Despite the courage of its troops, Clan Diamond Shark lost virtually its entire invasion force in the Clans' most stunning defeat on Tukayyid.
ROM reports rated Clan Wolf as the most dangerous of the invading Clans, and the battle of Tukayyid confirmed that assessment. Poor deployment by Com Guard forces allowed the Ghost Bears to eke out a marginal; Clan Wolf, by contrast, defeated ComStar at every turn.
Relying on her years of experience in the mercenary unit Wolf's Dragoons and on the advice of Inner Sphere bondsman-turned-Clansman Phelan Wolf, Khan Natasha Kerensky persuaded her fellow Khan, Garth Radick, to prepare Clan Wolf's forces to counter Inner Sphere tactics. Unlike the other Clans, the Wolves built up and carefully guarded large stores of supplies. They also suspended the ritual of zellbrigen and other formal rules governing Clan troops in battle, a decision only made by Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon.
The Precentor Martial devoted his best troops to the battle against the Wolf Clan, including the elite 66th and veteran 278th Divisions of the Tenth Army. After Clans Jade Falcon and Smoke Jaguar lifted from Tukayyid, the Precentor Martial transferred the Eleventh and Thirteenth armies to aid the Ninth and Tenth in the bitterly fought Wolf campaign. Despite deploying more than twice as many units against the Wolves than against any other Clan, however, the Com Guards lost.
Having dropped safely, the Third and Seventh Battle Clusters advanced toward the target city of Skupo shoulder to shoulder with the OmniMechs of the Alpha Galaxy's Fourth Wolf Guards. Near the tiny hamlet of Forest's End, the Clan forces drew within sight of the Tenth Army's 166th Division and the elite MechWarriors of the 278th Division. While the 283rd Division held off the Fourth Wolf Guards, the 66th Division harassed the Clan forces' right flank. The Wolves hit the 66th hard, pushing it and the 278th back. The Wolf forces did not follow the retreating Com Guards, however, instead opting for a series of sweeping strikes by Natasha Kerensky's famed Thirteenth Wolf Guards. Kerensky intended to bypass the retreating 166th and launch a drive for Skupo, but the veteran 282nd Division got in her way. Natasha Kerensky's Cluster tore the 282nd apart. His division, however, had managed to halt the Clan drive and allowed the Tenth Army to reach its fallback line of fortifications. Before the Tenth could dig in, however, the Wolves resumed their attack. The Clans broke through the ComStar line that stretched in front of the cities of Skupo and Brzo, only to walk into an ambush when the entrenched 'Mechs, tanks and infantry of the 138th Division arose from the barren hilltop and began firing.
The Wolf Spiders' stubbornness allowed them to win through; killing Precentor Jernberg of the 138th, they forced the Com Guards to retreat. Despite a tenacious defense put up by the 278th and 166th Divisions, it seemed as though the Wolf drive would push all the way to Skupo. Only the timely arrival of reinforcements from the Ninth Army's 198th and 247th Divisions enabled the Com Guards to hold their line. By this time, Com Guard morale was beginning to suffer. Despite fighting with greater numbers and from a superior position, they could not stop the Wolves; no matter how hard ComStar's soldiers fought, the enemy kept right on coming.
At this point in the campaign, the IlKhan chose to eliminate the only Com Guards unit that had thus far proven skilled to successfully oppose his warriors. Acting on his orders, the Eleventh Wolf Guards launched an all-out attack on the 278th Division. Precentor Koselka's troops fought brilliantly but could not withstand the fury of the Wolf assault. With the loss of the 278th, Precentor Martial Focht realized he no longer had the forces to hold Skupo. He ordered the 66th and 208th Divisions to withdraw from the city, hoping to keep them from succumbing to the Wolves' slow encirclement. The Wolves advanced cautiously, wary of a possible ComStar trap, but took Skupo unopposed. Leaving behind several Clusters of Gamma Galaxy as a formidable garrison, the rest of the Clan prepared to move on Brzo.
Alpha Galaxy engaged the Tenth Army divisions that guarded the approaches to the city, and Beta held off reinforcements from the Ninth Army's 366th and 379th Divisions. Precentor Stinson's Eleventh Army, fresh from the defeat of the Jade Falcons, dropped in the fringes of Brzo and reinforced the shaky Com Guard line. The Wolves declined to expose themselves to fresh troops and turned their attention from the Ninth and Tenth Armies to securing their own supply lines. The Eleventh Army, however, had other ideas. Stinson launched an all-out assault against Beta Galaxy in the Pozoristu Mountains, killing senior Khan Garth Radick. Despite this blow to Wolf morale, the Com Guards could not stop Clan forces from taking Brzo. With the Wolf Spiders leading the assault, the warriors of Beta and Alpha Galaxies shoved their way past nine Com Guards divisions and into the city. With the capture of their second objective, the Wolves had earned the Clans' only decisive victory. After 21 days of struggle, the battle of Tukayyid ended.
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