3054-56: Holding the Line
Between 3054 and 3056 the stalemate continues—the Clans and Inner Sphere forces find themselves unable to socre a decisive victory. The growing number of protomech forces make securing a world harder than in the past for the Clans, and the Clans also now have targets they must defend.
However, the Inner Sphere has its own problems—while the technological designs of the CAMA and other Inner Sphere R&D departments are developing new technologies, they are still unable to match Clan tech. In other areas, they seek to wrok around it, such as the Chimara Semi-AI system, based on neural net mapping of a number of animals. This occurs in tandem with projects to recover the Casper AI combat systems, but progress, on both fronts, is slow.
Finally, the clans retain warship superiority, despite the construction of new warships from the Terra and Quatre Belle yards. These targets are very heavily defended, and so the Clans make the decision to not immediately attack them. They do however, adopt the sub-capital weapons used by CAMA for their own assault dropships.
Most of 3054 is occupied by very heavy raids across the Inner Sphere. Since there is no effective way to interdict or track ships, both sides must make thier best guess as to where the enemy will be, and heavily garrison every potential target. In a way, this reduces the amount of violence as many mechs and warships are left guarding targets that are not attacked.
The major point of contact remains Tharkad. CAMA and FC reinforcements continue to stream in, keeping the resistance alive while the Clans use the planet for training purposes, rotating newly trained troops into it long enough to be “blooded’ under controlled conditions. The civilian population begins to suffer, although both sides work to keep the majority of the conflict away from heavily populated regions.
However, more ominously, the Capellans build up their forces, but refuse to contribute any to CAMA. Intelligence reports indicate that Romano Liao is becoming increasingly unstable, and in fact has ordered a duplicate of the Court of the Star League built for her use. Unfortunately the Clan war requires a continual drain of soldiers from the Liao border.
Additionally, in December, Jeffrey Calderon dies unexpectedly. There are rumors of poisoning, but nothing is proven. After his death, his moderate administration is replaced by a group of hardliners, seeking to make use of the current distractions to retake Tauran worlds lost in the Reunification War.
Finally, while piracy is not uncontrollable as yet, the PSDF finds its forces stretched thin, even as the impact of the war leads to a number of economic dislocations as production is shifted to military arenas. However, military production is at an alltime high. The Clan’s (and Inner Sphere’s) reluctance use WMD’s or the tactics that made the succession wars so lethal have resulted in a growing number of military units facing each other. It is hoped, by General Christa and others, that the Clan’s individually superior soldiers will be swarmed under, but the arrival of the first Clan Occupational Groups ends that hope. These forces, mostly recruited from periphery worlds taken (and protected) by the Clans have no love for the Inner Sphere and with a leavening of Clan officers prove equal to most Inner Sphere forces. This allows the Clans to pull back their frontline units and refit them back up to full strength without losing ground. The arrival of other Clans, Ice Hellion and Diamond Shark among them add more forces, though the Diamond Sharks appear to be more involved on maintaining the economic structure of their conquered worlds.
3055 is well-known for two reasons. The first is that Hohiro Kurita manages to retake Wolcott, but is injured in the process, taking him out of action until late 3056 and depriving his father of vital support. Takashi Kurita makes the decision to move the Capital of the Draconis Combine to Wolcott, a move that annoys his son, being tremendously risky, but helps shore up the flagging morale of the Citizenry of the Combine.
The second event is the loss of one Heir and the recovery of another. Yvonne Steiner-Davion is captured by the Ghost Bears in a cleverly executed trap. However, Victor manages to return at the head of a regiment of soldiers, all that are left of the forces smashed by the Clans. His journey is a harrowing tale, including one case of torture at the hands of pirates before his men could rescue him. While in public he is feted and saluted, longer term observation makes it plain to Hanse that his son is suffering from severe PTSD and despite his wishes cannot be considered suitable for either military command or to ascend the throne should Hanse and Melissa fall. Victor is transferred to serve as the FC liason with CAMA, and his sister Katherine and younger brother Peter are officially recognized as the heirs.
3056: The gods first raise up...
By 3056, Operation Thunder is ready. While the Draconis Combine pledges support, the offenses on their border is secondary. The main offense is to come from CAMA and the FC, moving in to retake Tharkad and other major targets. Unlike the initial counterattacks, Thunder is planned around a very methodical approach, pinning and destroying Clan forces before moving on.
Unfortunately, the Inner Sphere is still not aware of the full extend of the Clans’ fast transport networks, but even so, Thunder might have won save for treachery, treachery that ironically had nothing to do with the Clans.
The first attacks, in the waning months of 3056 are successful, and the sheer number of units produced make them greater than anything since the Ameris civil Wars. Where planets had once been invaded by single regiments, now the skies were blotted out by mechs. The Campaign for Donegal was one example, involving nearly 40 mech regiments over the course of 3056-7.
By February 3057, the major attack forces are in position, led by Hanse Davion on board the PSDF Inflexible, and are preparing to launch their attack on Tharkad.
The Clans had prepared for this—the losses they had suffered could be made up, so long as they were victorious. Sacrificing a number of worlds, the Clans pulled back and concentrated several massive strike forces, targeting Hesperus II—and in a work of great daring, Avalon. The Clans’ sociologists felt certain that losing both capitals would be a tremendous blow to the FC and paralyze their military.
3057: ....whom they would destroy.
The first landings on Tharkad were conducted under the blaze of capital grade weapons as over a hundred warships, to say nothing of dropships and fighters struggled to gain orbital dominance for their ground troops. Loremaster Tseng of the Ghost Bears died in combat from orbital bombardment by the FCS Vengeance, while the first landing forces engaged the Clan troops.
And, when the information was communicated to them by the Clan HPG network, the Clan Attack forces launched their strikes. Sirens howled in Avalon as the first McKenna class warship jumped in. Within a few days, Avalon was a mirror Image of Tharkad and the offensive timetable for CAMA and its allies had gone rather off.
Worse was to come. When the first attacks occurred, it was assumed that they were from the Clans, but in truth it was the Capallens under “First Lord” Liao and the Tauren Concordat. Unlike the Clans, both nations were willing to use WMD’s on targets that proved to tough and within a month, more civilian’s have died on that front then have died in the entire Clan conflict to date. Both sides apparently felt that the time had come to carve off slices of the dying Davion nation, although some pundits wondered aloud if they expected the Clans to respect their gains, when they got there.
And that proved to be the deathknell for the FC. Troops that had been pulled from “Safe” sectors to do battle with the clans learned that their families were dying even as they fought for worlds hundreds of light years away. Several units mutinied and left, trying to get home, while others launched foolish attacks to try and drive the Clans off. Hanse, attempting to rally dispirited troops, died on Tharkad in June, and his wife would follow him in a last stand on Avalon in August. This was only a microcosm of the entire front—worlds saw their soldiers desert or tried to hold on to the equipment while other worlds, mostly capitals, attempted to convince the provinces to stay with them. The entire FC became a confused mess of soldiers streaming back home, trying to rally at their homeworlds, or simply fighting the Clans. The two heirs, Peter and Katherine, found themselves unable to come to an agreement on what to do . Katherine headed to Alarion founding a government in exile and summoned all loyal soldiers to defend the region.
Peter, made the decision to order all units that would follow him to head to Terra and join CAMA as subordinate, rather than allied units. CAMA for its part, provided transport, and helped with moving men and resources including entire dismantled factories to the worlds around Terra.
And on these worlds a new movement started being talked about—the Hegemony restoration movement...
Ending: 3057
By the end of 3057, one of the most powerful governments in the history of man was no more. Where the FC had been there was now a chaotic mix of worlds, some surrendering to the Clans, some preparing to fight and some uncertain of what to do. Many military units turned to piracy, either because they needed to, or because they hoped to profit off the chaos. Others were heading to Terra or the Government in Exile at Alarion, or to try and defend their homes from the Capellans and the Taurans.
Perhaps the only bit of good news was that the Clans were completely unprepared for their victory. They had planned to take maybe 50 worlds and now had hundreds and the need to set up occupational governments, re-establish order and root out guerillas, renegades and pirates made it impossible for them to even consider moving on Terra. Not only that, but more than a few Clan leaders argued that any attack would force CAMA and the other Inner Sphere forces to ignore the atrocities being waged on the borders of the former Federated Suns, which was against the way of the Clans.
Against his best judgment, Khan Jorgensen agreed for a general suspension of offensive actions save where they were needed for immediate tactical needs. If it was a gift, it was a bitter one. Few In CAMA or the Draconis Combines’ strategic operations centers could find comfort in the fact that the tide of occupied systems had slowed—for it only drove home how completely they had failed to stop it.
