Wangler - there's an in universe and out of universe reason for that. In universe they've got their own problems at the moment and more will be revealed over time. Out of universe well they live on the periphery and have had a bit of a falling out with their neighbours (the full reason revealed soon)
Vition2 - the Federated Suns/Filtvelt Coalition have remained close despite their separation but with the Nova Cat extension into the Coalition things have fallen a bit with the Federated Suns and the Nova Cat raids haven't helped.
Arvanna - not a single naval round hit that planet O:-)
Jade Falcon Assault
Deia, Arc Royal Theatre
Donegal Province, Lyran Commonwealth
9th February 3103
The attack on Deia had been expected following reports of Jade Falcons on Morges, Yeguas and Great X but the ferocity of the Jade Falcons had taken the defenders by surprise. In less than six hours the Clan warriors had torn the Eleventh Lyran Guards RCT and two supporting mercenary commands to pieces ripping through them rapidly occupying the capital and spaceport. Leutenant Jason Sortek had escaped the initial attack because his Zeus X had been dedicated to base defence and because he had seen what was happening and decided that action was needed. Now sixteen hours after the initial attack Jason Sortek led a company of Lyran Guard Mechs, three surviving Mercenary Mechs and a collection of armoured vehicles and APCs carrying support staff. He had pulled out of the Eleventh’s base escorting civilian dependents and techs who needed defended from the Clan advance he had gone fighting off the Jade Falcons bringing with him two MechWarriors from his lance over the four hours that had followed he’d linked up with several Mechs from the Eleventh and the mercenary commands not a single officer had survived the Jade Falcon assault.
Climbing from his Mech in the huge cave that his remaining forces had called home Jason looked around at the battered battalion that was left to him. To him. It felt wrong he was a Leftenant he didn’t have the experience to command these people. A warrior ran up to him “Senior Sergeant-Major Harry Garvey sir” he said saluting Jason he was an older man as most NCOs were Jason guessed he had probably seen a dozen conflicts before today unlike him who was in about his fourth fight, which was probably going to be his last.
“Drop the salute Sergeant there isn’t enough of us to care.” He said looking around “what do you think?”
“Sir, the other warriors, both armour and Mech, agree you should remain in command.” He said confirming what Jason had hoped was not true “we’ve decided that you should hold the honourary rank of Kommandant until this conflict has ended” he said Jason remained silent “Kommandant” the Sergeant reinforced the new rank in his mind “we have twenty-two BattleMechs in various states of repair, along with eighteen armoured vehicles, twenty-four battle armour suits and the rest are conventional infantry and nearly one hundred-and-forty civilians.” He said breaking down the unit list like any good NCO should do the civilians would be the hardest to evacuate and defend.
“I’m just a Leftenant not a Kommandant, Garvey, what am I supposed to do?”
“Command, sir” the older man said “and preferably you get us the hell off this planet, sir”
“The only real option we have is Alternate Zulu” he said naming an evacuation point “they were never set for us” he admitted. Alternate Zulu was a single Overlord-class DropShip designed to evacuate the survivors of the unit if everything went to hell there was no guarantee they’d get all their equipment on board the DropShip but they would be able to evacuate their personnel.
“We make do with what we have got, Kommandant, we make do.”
“Yes, we do Sergeant-Major, but we’re not getting anywhere without some rest have Harrison and Clarence remains in their Mechs everyone else stands down and gets four hours kip. Martin and Keys replace them in four hours then Harrison and Clarence get some rest. We leave at first light.”
The night passed without incident and the remains of the Eleventh were ready to move out by 0800. They’d traveled for nearly four hours without any issue making good progress towards their DropShip before encountering a Jade Falcon patrol. “Assault Lance with me” Sortek called out “everyone else keeps going to the DropShip Sergeant-Major Garvey is in charge.”
“You’re outnumbered two to one” Garvey protested
“Protect the civilians now go” Sortek ordered swapping over to the dedicated channel for the assault lance, his lance he knew each of them and their Mechs every little detail that could cause them problems in the coming fight. “It’s simple we delay them while trying to get out of here in one piece.”
“Simple boss” MechWarrior Terry Dorn repeated from his Hauptmann OmniMech, it was their most advanced Mech other than Sortek’s Zeus X so it would likely be a prime target.
“Yes it is look where they are standing” he said the others saw the Falcons were standing on hardened lava “target the ground around them if we can break it then we can mess with their cooling maybe take one or two of them out.”
“And if we can’t break through we’ll just give them a free shot on us.” Janice Parry said quietly from her Salamander.
“No free shots today make yours count” Sortek said even as the Jade Falcons began to fire on them he said all four Lyran Mechs targeted the ground under the Clansmen. Almost immediately the ground began to crack under the weight of the Lyran Mechs “hit it again!” Sortek called out as Muniez Highlander took a particle cannon blast high to the torso. This time they broke the ground under the Jade Falcons sending a Black Lanner BattleMech into the molten lava below burning the Mech’s armour. Other Mechs fell into the lava following the other Mech “back up” Sortek ordered “target the Mechs” he ordered as a Summoner and the Black Lanner climbed out of the lava and began firing. A Turkina stood its ground inside the lava firing its massive long range missile racks at them despite the obvious heat the Mech was in. As more of the Jade Falcons climbed out of lava their Mechs were taking heavier fire even as they retreated “Janice swap to Thunder rounds empty your bays I want the thickest minefield you can lie between us and them Terry take her fire!” He called out Janice’s Salamander had several tons worth of missile deployed mines while Terry’s Mech had the heaviest armour between them.
“Thanks boss” Terry replied as he moved his Hauptmann to cover Janice’s Salamander immediately taking a gauss rifle shot to the left arm.
“That’s a lot of mines” Janice pointed out firing a full salvo of missiles immediately scattering mines them and the incoming Falcons the battered Black Lanner bearing the worse of the damage as several mines struck the Mech’s feet knocking it to the ground as the OmniMech hit the ground several more mines exploded destroying the cockpit of the Jade Falcon Mech.
“The cost is not coming out of your pocket MechWarrior drop them” Sortek replied firing his weapons at a Jade Falcon Mech. “Keep backing up” Sortek said as his Mech was struck by an autocannon blast. He knew that despite all their efforts the Jade Falcons would soon make their way past the mines and overwhelm them to run would expose their weak rear armour to weapons fire. A Jade Falcon Summoner OmniMech flew through the air on its jump jets clearing the mines “hit the Summoner!” Sortek called out but it didn’t matter his lance was already reacting blasting the seventy ton front line OmniMech with everything they had. The Jade Falcon pilot weathered the storm of lasers, missiles and autocannon the best they could but there was no way any Mech could stand under that fire. The OmniMech began to fall to the ground just as it did the cockpit exploded open and the pilot’s chair shot out of the Summoner. “Fall back! Fall back!” Sortek called out as they did the Summoner’s reactor gave way with a massive flash if it had not been for the filters on his sensor screens Sortek would have likely been blinded by the blast even so he struggled to keep his Mech upright as it and the others of his lance were caught up in the massive fireball that followed the flash as the Summoner’s reactor exploded. Even as the fire and and smoke slowly subsided Jason Sortek could see the Jade Falcons had suffered under the blast as much as his lance he sighted a Jade Falcon Nova OmniMech and fire off a salvo of long range missiles at the Mech more than half of the missiles missed their mark ripping up the burnt dirt beside the OmniMech it wasn’t much but it was enough to remind the Falcons they were still there.
“JASON ON YOUR LEFT!” Janice Parry shouted a warning Jason glanced and saw the rock formation was crumbling before his very eyes. He slammed down hard on the controls to the right turning his BattleMech away from the falling rocks he felt and heard the patter of rocks slam into the side of his BattleMech. His Mech stepped several metres away from the falling rocks looking down at them even as the Jade Falcons assaulted them “that’s it…”
“Sir?” One of the other MechWarriors asked for a second he wasn’t sure who it was.
“Target the rocks everything you’ve got cause a landslide even bigger than that one! The reactor has weakened its foundations!” He shouted behind him all three of the Mechs fired almost as one targeting the rocks Jason twisted his Zeus X’s torso firing his right arm mounted light gauss rifle tearing up the rocks even as he pulled back away from the now collapsing rock face.
“It’s working!” Janice called out as more rocks continued to fall.
“Continue to retreat and fire” Sortek ordered suddenly feeling exhausted the rockfall had completely blocked the path between the two forces the Jade Falcon Mechs with jump jets could follow them but of the remaining Mechs Sortek could only remember the Nova, Turkina and a Flamberge naturally carrying jump jets the Nova wouldn’t come alone and neither the Turkina or Flamberge appeared to have coped with the lava well. “It will take them hours to get around those rocks let’s use them to fall back to the DropShip.” He said the others turned and began to move after the rest of their convoy hoping to catch the remaining survivors of the Eleventh Guard.
There was no further contact with the Jade Falcons Sortek and his team were able to link up with the civilians and reach Alternate Zulu and the DropShip. The crew of the ship had long prepared it for take off but had remained in place waiting for any survivors as per their orders. Jason Sortek shut down his battered Zeus X in the first Mechbay along with the rest of the survivors of the unit. The other surviving vehicles and battle armour suits were being strapped down to the deck. Sortek climbed out of the cockpit of his BattleMech and onto the gantry behind immediately Sergeant Harry Garvey was waiting for him “how are we doing Sergeant-Major?”
“The fly boys prepped the DropShip as they’ve long been ordered, sir, they also sent a black-box mission for an evac JumpShip to be at the pirate point…”
“But” Sortek replied seeing the doubt on Garvey’s face.
“But there has been no reply from any of our JumpShips we don’t know if any of them are still active.”
“So if we stay the Falcons find us, we fight and most likely we die.” Sortek said “and if we go into space we could be shot down by the Falcons or we could suffocate in the cold depths of space?” Garvey nodded in reply “right then send another message then tell the Captain to get us in the air, we can’t hold off a Falcon another ground assault we need to chance it in space.” He said Garvey nodded and left to pass the orders. Four hours later with everything as secure as they could the DropShip launched into the sky and headed towards the pirate point fortunately at least one of their messages had gotten through unfortunately things were not going so well for the Commonwealth. In the following weeks with the Eleventh effectively a dead command Jason and his lance are transferred to the Thirty-sixth Lyran Guards RCT with Jason serving as a Hauptmann.
As well as the destroyed Eleventh Lyran Guards the LCAF had lost the LCS Nondi Steiner in the Great X system, six conventional regiments are lost in the fighting as is a battalion of the famed Kell Hounds, several smaller mercenary commands and two clusters of Mountain Wolf warriors. Elsewhere along the border the entire Lyran line seems to collapse as Clan forces land on Zongshan, Machiba and Chapultepec and capture each with minimal losses Lyran commanders call for a general evacuation regrouping on Inarcs, Adelaide, New Capetown and Arc Royal.
The Charlestown Chiefs mercenary command barely escape the bloodbath on Great X in a chase that took the mercenaries nearly twenty kilometres from their initial battle site and cost them a third of their warriors and their machines. During the chase the Chief’s Swallow WiGE vehicles prove themselves time and again as scouts and as harasser forces keeping the unit informed of Jade Falcon activities and positions while also disrupting Jade Falcon advances. The Chiefs evacuate along with nearly nineteen hundred civilians from a disused Lyran Commonwealth military base that had doubled as an evacuation point.
Opening of Parliament
Parliament Building, Atreus
District of Marik, Free Worlds League
16th February 3103
Standing on the podium newly elected Captain-General Joseph Marik looked over the gathered delegates of every Free Worlds League world. Joseph knew he had been elected for symbolic reasons with today being the official rebirth of a united House Marik and the Free Worlds League. “I am humbled” Joseph said his voice was projected by the microphone and speakers built into the podium and every chair around the room so everyone could hear him “I am Joseph Marik and today I accept the position of Captain-General.” He said gathering his thoughts “I will listen to this parliament and when my term ends I will leave this position open to all others of this parliament.” He said glancing to either side of the high rise chairs each one of them knew that Joseph could, under the rules of the Parliament, be elected again for another ten year term but also that each of them would have a chance to run for the position as well and that the Captain-General had no authority to suspend future elections. “Together we will work to make the Free Worlds League a more prosperous place and a better place to live for all our citizens.” He promised them all “new ministers will be elected by you from this body and we will chart a course for our Free Worlds League over the next ten years.” He said “however before we begin I will open the floor to the leaders of the member states of this League.”
“The Oriente Protectorate stands by this Free Worlds League, and our new Captain-General, and its united cause to protect all of our citizens.” Duke Jonas Halas said rising from his chair on Joseph’s left the Duke bowed his head slightly towards the Captain-General before sitting.
“The Principality of Regulus will watch the new Captain-General carefully but we will support all efforts to improve the lives of all our citizens.” Prince Lester Cameron-Jones promised the council before sitting back down allowing the final leader to rise.
“The Outer League Alliance has made every effort to unite the people of our great nation under a single banner.” Prime Minister Alison Kanning said the Outer League Alliance controlled a full third of the Free Worlds League giving the Prime Minister the strongest vote of all the leaders “we believe that every voice should be heard equally” she said looking at the Captain-General.
“A cause that I fully support” Joseph Marik promised
“Then I would like to propose the first legislation of this new Parliament?” She said asking for the Captain-General’s permission Joseph Marik nodded in response. “I would like to propose that the nations of the Free Worlds League are created equal and each removes the pretentious names that each nation has gathered over the years.”
“Like the Outer League Alliance…” Prince Lester Cameron-Jones said before realizing that the microphone on his chair was very sensitive to noise and had broadcast his words.
“Exactly Prince Cameron-Jones” Kanning said agreeing with him instead of trying to ridicule the Prince’s mistake “instead I propose that each of our nations is referred to as a District of the reborn Free Worlds League.”
“With District Bowang being the strongest of these Districts?” Duke Jonas Halas said looking at the old woman he could not help but be impressed by what the tiny world of Bowang had done over the years but it also concerned him.
“Bowang will forever be proud of its accomplishments” Kanning said in response to his point “but Bowang would be willing to give up such power for democracy.”
“What do you propose?” Joseph Marik asked having remained silent until now listening to their points.
“That the Outer League Alliance is dissolved permanently and that Bowang, Gibraltar and Lesnovo are each recognized as a standing state of the Free Worlds League with the same voting power as the other states of this league.”
“Your worlds already have a voice in this parliament” Prince Lester Cameron-Jones pointed out.
“Yes” Alison Kanning admitted “and if I compel all worlds of the Outer League Alliance to block one of your proposals we can be a very loud voice one that I doubt that you can muffle so easily.” She said pointing out that she was ready to give up this power but only if the Outer League Alliance’s Districts were all recognized as equals with Marik, Regulus and Oriente.
“I call for a general vote” Joseph Marik said not allowing the discussion to wander off topic the Outer League Alliance’s power was a threat to all the leaders bringing it down a peg would make things more equal and give each of their nations a larger voice. Joseph knew that over the short term the three OLA districts would likely vote together but as time passed and each had its own problems and differences that would change how they would vote.
Across the Parliament each member of the council placed their vote in the computer screen with a simple “YES” or “NO” answer the vote did not take long to tally. Unsurprisingly there was a very clear vote. “This Parliament has spoken with a vote for eighty-five percent supporting this vote and fifteen percent disagreeing that each nation of the Free Worlds League will be a district of our nation and the worlds of Bowang, Gibraltar and Lesnovo will be recognized as voting members of this body.” Joseph Marik said addressing the Parliament he spared a glance at Prime Minister Allison Kanning and nodded his approval she had given them something easy to begin their proceedings and he would not forget that. This would be a long day but it would be a grand one and one that would be remembered for decades to come.
Training Class Graduation 3103
Gray Death Training Zone, Glengarry
Isle of Skye, Lyran Commonwealth
28th February 3103
Dr Dana Carlyle graduates as a trained Battle Armoured trooper at the Gray Death Training Zone on Glengarry. With the mercenary regiment on the Clan Wolf border she leaves Glengarry with a small contingent of reinforcements. Dana chooses a new Gray Death Strike Suit as her type of battle armour a suit unique to the Gray Death Legion it mounts a torso mounted advanced Clan type SRM-3 unit as well as an arm mounted light TAG unit. Due to her medical experience and her name she is given a commission of Captain.
