Battle of the Plains of Bailen, An Ting, Galedon Military District, Weeks 3b - 4b, Jan 3022 The Left – Headquarters Task Force One (Alpha Regiment), 1st Mechanised Brigade Sitting with his feet dangling over the sloping front armour of the Mobile Command Vehicle, John Talbot look down in to the river valley at the long column of BattleMechs and armoured vehicles that was snaking its way up onto the plains to his south. An armoured personnel carrier, its engine labouring in low gear as it crested the slope, clanked by not twenty meters away, the soldiers riding on top the infantry compartment waved and gave him a loud cheer that could be heard over the noise of the column. By the tactical markings on the side of the hastily whitewashed APC these soldiers belonged to the 1st Rifles, the first of three battalions that made up Alpha Regiment of the 1st Mechanised Brigade. Technically the 1st Rifles were a mechanised infantry battalion but like all line combat battalions in the Brigade it had been reorganised into a combined arms
Task Force that had drawn on tanks and BattleMechs from Alpha Regiment’s other two battalions, the 8th Hussars and the 17th Lancers. Now styled Task Force 1.1, the 1st Rifles had three reinforced companies, one each of infantry, tanks and ‘Mechs. Each company in the battalion was then reorganised into three combined arms
Combat Teams that were balanced for speed and firepower so that no one company was markedly stronger, or weaker, than the others. The 8th Hussars and 17th Lancers were likewise reorganised and became Task Force 1.2 and 1.3, marking them each as a subordinate unit of Alpha Regiment, itself known as
Task Force One or ‘TF 1’.
What was now known as Alpha Regiment had once been commanded by Richard Bedford, first raised back on New Delos in the Free Worlds League following the Anton Marik Civil War in 3015. By 3020 the then oversized battalion had expanded enough to be split into two regiments and Bedford had established a Brigade Headquarters to coordinate operations of the two formations. Alpha Regiment retained the bulk of the medium and heavy combat equipment while Gamma was organised into a predominately light reconnaissance regiment. John Talbot had originally commanded the 1st Rifles but moved up to command Alpha Regiment when Richard Bedford assumed formal command of the Brigade. Despite having taken command more than a year before this was the first combat mission he would lead as it its commander. Plans had been made to raise a heavy combat regiment but resources and recent events had conspired to delay standing up Beta Regiment, allowing only enough manpower and equipment resources to mobilise an additional armoured battalion. Any remaining equipment was used to pack the existing battalions well over established strength, almost the point of becoming unwieldly.
The vibrations of heavy footsteps brought John Talbot out of his musing and as he looked up, he watched as a Rifleman 3N heavy BattleMech plodded by, it massive feet flipping snow and frozen clumps of dirt up behind it with each step. Standing more than ten meters tall and weighing sixty tons, the massive war machine dwarfed the infantry carriers and tanks that moved along in the same column. As it passed his command vehicle Talbot looked south where he could see Task Forces 1.2 and 1.3 deploying east of the highway and on the left flank of the
Fighting Uruk’Hai’s 5th Heavy Cavalry mercenary command.
“Excuse me, Colonel?”
Looking down to his right Talbot saw a young
Leftenant, one of the staff officers who ran the headquarter.
“Yes, Rawlings. What have you got?”
“Message from Marshal Sanders via Brigade, sir. Contact with enemy light forces has been made fifty-five kilometers south of our position. We are to move south immediately on the left of the
Uruks to “Point Whiskey” and be ready to engage.”
A look of annoyance crossed Talbot’s face as he looked back at the column still climbing the slope and then further north at the long column extending over the bridge and across the north side of valley. Those were the tanks and Mechs of the 2nd Dragoons, the sole battalion of what was supposed to become Beta Regiment and only released from the brigade reserve in the last few days. For today, however, the 2nd Dragoons were attached to Alpha Regiment and they had been reinforced by twenty Mechs drawn from the spares and the Brigade headquarters battlegroup under Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Bedford, the brigade commander’s brother. Now grossly overstrength the Dragoons were reorganised into Task Force 2.2 and split into two ‘demi-battalions’, Task Force 2.2 Alpha and Task Force 2.2 Bravo.
Nodding to himself Tabot looked down at the young officer. “Acknowledge the order,
Leftenant. Send to Taffy One-Two and One-Three and have them conform to the movements of the
Uruks on their right. Taffy One-One will follow One-Two in march column and deploy on their left when they have caught up. Then send to the Second Dragoons to fall in behind Taffy One-One.”
Gathering his thoughts for a moment Talbot continued, “Have
Leftenant-Colonel Oldhall and
Leftenant-Colonel Bedford meet us ten kilometers down this road. I want to talk with them before we get stuck in. Understood?”
Writing quickly on a notepad the young officer nodded, “Yes, sir. Got it.”
“Carry on,
Leftenant.”
Standing on the top of the vehicle John Talbot moved to the metal ladder leading down to the armoured access door. In his mind he called up the overhead map of the region and he overlaid the shape of an upside down ‘L’ over the image. Task Forces 1.2 and 1.3 formed the horizontal line along the top while Task Forces 1.1 and 2.2 formed the vertical line to the left. He would place his own company-sized headquarters battlegroup in the center of the ‘L’ so he could keep tabs on the four battalions as they moved south.
Climbing into the MCV and closing the door behind him, Talbot slipped off his arctic mitts and opened his parka.
“Game on people. Update the computer with the latest orders and data and get the maps on the display. Remind One-One and One-Two to keep the data stream flowing from the drone carriers once they deploy and to feed us their scouting reports.
“Time to earn our pay.”
*****
To be continued…
