3070 - June - Operation Achilles V
June began for Operation Achilles with something of a changing of the guard. Leaving the 3rd Federated Sun's Armoured Cavalry on Quentin to not only hold the world but also begin refitting and rebuilding, the 4th and 17th Avalon Hussars RCT's fell back into the Addicks PDZ to refit and rearm, the 4th heading to Murchison and the 17th to Errai, while Zeta Battalion of Wolf's Dragoons left Asta and headed into the Benjamin Military District. This freed up the 1st Dragonlords RCT and 2nd Crucis Lancers RCT from garrison positions and they joined Operation Achilles V. They were also joined by 2nd, 3rd and 23rd Avalon Hussars RCT's, the 12th Deneb Light Cavalry RCT, 3rd Lexington Combat Guards and most shockingly by Mulvaney's Regiment and Stirling's Fusiliers of the Northwind Highlanders. While the Highlanders had been assured that the agreement that they would garrison Northwind would be honoured they had been asked by the AFFS if 1 or more regiments would consider offensive contracts at extremely generous contract terms. Colonel Mulvaney, always the most pro-Davion of the Colonel's, had immedietly agreed but she had also been joined by Colonel Stirling who wished to keep her unit's skill level up and avoid becoming glorified garrison troops. With these forces the AFFS offensive within the Dieron Military District began to hit it's stride.
Dieron
While the rest of the Dieron Military Distrct was struck by a number of hammer blows during June, Fortress Dieron continued to resist. The outer works of the mountain fortress had now been reduced to ruins, smashed and overrun. However the fortress itself, carved into the very heart of the mountain remained secure. Entire regiments of battle armour troopers under the cover of the guns of the Davion Assault Guards and the combined air power of the AFFS and their mercenary allies on the planet continued to slam into the defences slowly peeling them back, yard by bloody yard.
Losses amongst the defenders were mounting and while the AFFS could funnel a seemingly never ending stream of supplies and manpower into the attack the defenders had no such luxury. The 3rd Dieron Regulars were now hovering around half strength while the Warlord had functionally merged the heavily under strength 2nd Genyosha into the stronger 1st. He had at least ordered that they be concentrated into the units 3rd battalion with a hope of reforming the unit when the siege was lifted. Or at least that was the public version he was giving to keep up morale. By now even the Genyosha troops are beginning to have to use mothballed and borderline obsolete battlemech's as their own machines break down due to accumulating battle damage.
Across the rest of the planet the light handed Davion garrisons and preparations for democratic elections for the local government swing the mood of the planet heavily in favour of the Federated Sun's over any return to the Combine's harsh repressions. Given the positive stance of the locals the AFFS move up the formation of a Dieron Planetary Guard from sometime in 3072 to as soon as possible. Duke Sandoval even begins to make preparation for a personal visit to the world, or perhaps a visit by his son.
Styx
The 1st Sheraton Knights and the 33rd Avalon Hussars are strongly reinforced with 2 brigades of infantry - including 3 regiments drawn from planets with similar weather patterns to Styx. Also a full engineering battalion and a free regiment of light armour is deployed to provide additional scouting - built around a full battalion of the new Musketeer hover tank. With these forces the 2 battlemech formations begin pushing forward again. Using the infantry formations to overrun any dug in positions with support for the battlemech's the AFFS forces take advantage of the hover tanks of the 22nd FedSun's Light Armour Regiment's ability to cross flooded regions and are soon outflanking the Kurita loyal militia.
By the end of June the tide has definitely turned in favour of the AFFS and the DCMS militia have been reduced to a pocket of land around the planetary capital. They have dug in, but with no real armour of their own and under constant attacks it is only a matter of time before their lines are broken and the capital falls. With that in mind the local governor in an attempt to prevent needless bloodshed orders the militia to stand down and surrenders to the AFFS forces on the 30th.
Lyons
The 13th Sun Zhang Cadre's Tai-sa Vincent Foley abandons the handful of conventional DCMS units on the planet to try and keep the planetary population from rebelling while he uses the predemonantly light battlemech's of the 13th Cadre to tie up the incoming Davion Guard unit. Unfortunately the 4th Davion Guards is similary built around fast attack battlemech's and so can match the Kurita troops in speed - and far exceeds them in strength and skill. The 4th's full aerospace regiment swiftly acheive air superority against the green cadets of the 13th Sun Zhang Wing. Again and again the 13th Sun Zhang finds itself on the losing end of running cavalry battles and the green cadet's frustration at being hammered constantly begins to show. Discipline begins to break down and instead of disengaging when the fights turn against them many of them begin to attempt to drive the attacks home in a vain attempt to win. Losses begin to mount faster and faster and by the end of June the 13th has been reduced to a ragged reinforced battalion while the 4th Davion Guards have lost barely 2 companies of battlemech's - half of whom's mechwarriors will return to active duty shortly.
Dyev
With the arrival of LAAF garrison troops on Imbros III the Fighting Urukhai regiments jump to the nearby world of Dyev and land on the 20th of June. Finding themselves facing 2 veteran and well equipped mercenary formations with a reputation for hard fighting and with the planet's population at best passively resisting Combine occupation the 1 conventional regiment of armour and 3 infantry regiments surrender as soon as the mercenaries arrive.
Al Na'ir
The defending 15th Dieron Regulars consisted of mostly assault battlemech's but lacked the usual conventional forces assigned to a regular unit after their disgrace on Towne. Against them the AFFS dispatched the 1st Dragonlords RCT, 2nd Crucis Lancers RCT and the 12th Deneb Light Cavalry RCT. The Light Cavalry's aerospace assets along with their battle armoured infantry as well as the huge battle armour formations of the Dragonlords was considered the ideal force to attack the asteroid rich system of Al Na'ir, while the 2nd Crucis Lancers assault and heavy battlemech's are considered a match for the 15th Dieron's battlemech forces.
The 2nd Crucis Lancers landed on the planet directly with elements of the 1st Dragonlords, while the remaining Dragonlords and the 12th Deneb Light Cavalry began clearing the asteroid belt facilities one by one. Meanwhile Tai-sa Michael Warner has concentrated his battlemech regiment on the planet.
Any thoughts that the Tai-sa might have had of destroying the invading Davion troops using his assault weighted battlemech regiment are swiftly dispelled when his initial attack on the 2nd Crucis Lancer's landing zone is met with overwhelming firepower. Even now his regiment is at the bottom rung of the DCMS's supply chain and contains little in the way of upgrades. By comparison the reinforced regiment of battlemech's of the 2nd Lancers and the 2 battalion's of the 1st Dragonlords are equipped with the finest battlemechs and omnimech's that the Federated Sun's can produce. As he retreats from the initial attack a battalion of the Dragonlord's manages to swing in and hit him in the flank pinning him in place for the 2nd Crucis Lancer's counter attack.
While the 15th Dieron does manage to fight it's way out of the counter attack it leaves almost 4 companies of assault battlemech's behind as little more than twisted wreckage while the remaining 4 companies of the under strength command are all damaged and battered, many running low on ammunition. Marshal Anne Sung has her damaged and combat weary troops fall back - while unleashing the remaining battalion of the 1st Dragonlords as well as her own 4th battalion which has seen only light combat to pursue the damaged 15th along with the fresh 6th Crucis Lancers Armoured Regiment and the 2nd Crucis Lancers Jump Infantry Regiment. Harried and pressed by the fresh Davion troops the 15th Dieron breaks for the capital Homai-Zacki hoping to use their urban warfare skills if they can reach it. However after a 2 day running battle with the pursuing troops Tai-sa Warner's exhausted troops approach the city to find the hastily refitted 1st and 2nd Battalion's of the Crucis Lancers blocking their path, having used their dropships for a "combat hop" to get between the Regular's and their goal.
Deciding that the 15th Dieron has had enough disgraces in recent years the physically and mentally drained Tai-sa orders a "banzai charge" so that his unit might at least die with honour. Outnumbered 2 or even 3:1 and with a similar sized enemy force closing on his rear the Tai-sa leads the charge personally. Caught between the 2 AFFS formations the 15th Dieron Regulars is entirely destroyed. With the destruction of their main garrison in front of their very eyes the local government immedietly surrender.
While Marshal Anne Sung's troops are conquering the planet the 12th Deneb Light Cavalry with elements of the 1st Dragonlords are sweeping the asteroids clean of Kurita troops. In bloody tunnel fighting the Yori Mechworks fall by the 27th and with it the last real organised resistance.
Nirasaki
The defending 24th Dieron Regulars was known as a hard fighting command that used terrain to it's advantage. For that reason the AFFS has dispatched the veteran and superbly equipped 22nd Avalon Hussars RCT to the planet backed up by their less experienced sister regiment the 2nd Avalon Hussars RCT. With the local planet having little in the way of militia's due to it's particular government style the 24th Dieron Regulars shows again that it's reputation for fighting smart is well founded. They immedietly withdraw from the planet upon the arrival of the Davion forces. The collectives that form the planet's civilian government surrender to the AFFS as soon as the 2 RCT's land. The AFFS troops request replacement with some conventional troops in order for them to pursue the 24th Dieron Regulars.
Athenry
The 3rd Avalon Hussars RCT finds itself with almost as little of a fight as it's sister regiments finds on Nirasaki. The defenders, entirely consisting of local militia, and with the memory of the excellent behaviour of the Davion mercenary forces who sought to seize the world in '39 compared to the brutal behaviour of the DCMS find themselves with little incentive to fight and die against a front line Davion RCT. They surrender and the planet peacefully seeks admittance to the Federated Suns.
Deneb Algedi
Mulvaney's Regiment of the Northwind Highlanders jumps into the Deneb Algedi system with the support of a mixed brigade of conventional AFFS formations - the CO of which has been told to take Colonel Mulvaney's orders as though they come from the First Prince himself. Ironically the largest source of problems for the invading troops isn't from the limited DCMS militia but instead from a number of Combine nobles holidaying on the world in order to hunt the local Nayaraptor. Feeling it is their patriotic duty to resist the hated Davion foes they take their high powered hunting rifles and use them as sniper rifles against the invaders. For a number of weeks they cause a small number of constant losses to the invaders, but when their specialised civilian ammunition begins to run low they are forced to attempt to raid the sporting goods stores near the spaceport for more and are swiftly apprehended - ironically by a small force of Military Police from the conventional brigade who turn them over to Colonel Mulvaney to decide what to do with them.
Although technically not military forces, Colonel Mulvaney decides that shooting a dozen or so high level Combine nobles and their entourages as insurgents would cause no end of problems and instead hands them over to the AFFS as "irregular militia". They are interned as such and sent to prisoners of war camps within the Federated Suns - which ironically pleases most of them as being treated with the "honour" of warriors.
Nashira
Unlike Deneb Algedi the resistance that Stirling Fusiliers faced was largely the work of the organised militia. With the example of their fathers and grandfathers fighting in the War of '39 the militia put up a stiff resistance to the Fusiliers and an accompanying brigade of infantry. Colonel Stirling is more than a match for the retired DCMS infantry officers leading the militia, but finds herself having to rely on the AFFS infantry or risk her battlemech's suffering from kneecapping strikes by insurgents. While she is able to crush any militia who are stupid enough to face her in battle, she struggles to deal with those conducting raiding strikes on her forces. She sends word of this to Robinson and is informed that a new infantry brigade will be dispatched to bolster her forces as well as a VTOL battalion.
Pike IV
The 3rd Lexington Combat Guards having been briefed on their target of Pike IV know that the locals have little or no love for the Kurita's but that they tend to react badly to invaders. As such General Marie Stevens divides her command into 2. The first battle group consisting of 4 companies of assault and heavy battlemech's backed up by an armoured and infantry regiment drop at the highlander capital of Stratopolis, while the remainder of her force 3 companies of assault and heavy battlemechs with an armoured and infantry regiment drop at the lowlander capital of Rolfshire. She invites both groups leaders to attend upon her to discuss the future of their planet.
The meeting begins badly and just seems to go down from there. The leaders of both of the factions on Pike IV spend more time shouting at each other rather than negotiating with General Stevens. Which is just what the General intends. She is soon "forced" into the role of mediator and neutral party. All the while the militia standing guard at their posts facing her troops are getting used to the presence of her troops - who are under orders to behave impeccably. They are soon even buying local foodstuffs from the surrounding countryside and helping with any damage that the planets storm brings.
