SUDDEN DEATHTaleton Hill, M6 Intercontinental Motorway
Laconis, Victoria Commonality
Capellan Confederation
14 August 3145With the death of Brigadier Dorian Minor and the destruction of his strike force, the writing was on the wall. The Taurians were up against the clock and they knew it. If they lifted the siege of Fort Brown, the combined numbers of two Capellan units would simply overwhelm them -- but if they waited for the Warrior House to break their cordon they would suffer the same fate. Colonel Rose Cox knew her only choice was to succeed where the Brigadier had failed. She gathered as many 'Mechs as she could afford to break away from the siege, a reinforced battalion's worth of mostly heavy and assault machines, and set out up the M6 freeway. Colonel Cox reasoned that the Capellans would be forced to use it if their integrated heavy armor were to travel at the speed necessary to keep up with their BattleMechs. If the Chasseurs could halt the Capellan advance here, decisively, they could buy themselves the breathing space to grind out a victory. If they failed, it would spell the doom of the Taurian efforts on Laconis. Thus it was perhaps fitting that this climatic battle would see the commanding officers of their respective units face each other in the field.
In the day and a half between the defeat of Brigadier Minor and follow-on assault by the Colonel, the Warrior House vanguard's trailing logistical detachment had done yeoman's work repairing, refitting and rearming the damage they had sustained. Some of their technicians had worked for nearly twenty-four hours straight, welding armor plates and loading ammo all through the night, buoyed by the Warrior House's MechWarriors working in shifts right alongside them. So rather than the ragged, depleted force the Chasseurs expected, the Capellan 'Mechs and tanks were nearly completely recovered from the prior attack. It was with this renewed spirit, invigorated by victory and camaraderie, that they met the Taurians at the point along the M6 known as Taleton Hill.
As Colonel Cox had correctly predicted, the Capellan armor column was advancing down the motorway, with their BattleMechs on the wings. The Chasseurs heavily invested themselves at Taleton Hill, knowing the Warrior House would be forced to dislodge them if their armor was to progress any further. And so the Capellans made a slow, careful advance, using the hilly terrain to gain local tactical advantage and breaking down the Taurian sorties meant to stymie them. A strong thrust by faster 'Mechs backed by a contingent of heavies tried to break through the weak Capellan center, and was stopped only by precision artillery fire and relentless slashing attacks by a lance of Warrior House
Jinggaus.
While the Chasseurs fought courageously, their accustomed role as pirate-hunters was clearly showing. They were used to bullying inferior opponents, not direct confrontation with battle-hardened House troops. Warrior House Ma-Tsu Kai would not break and run like bandits. As Colonel Cox faced off against a Capellan
Cerberus and
Albatross, a headhunter lance of
Jinggaus bounded forward and battered her
Cyclops to pieces with a volley of capacitor-enhanced heavy particle cannons. It was the beginning of the end for the Chasseurs, who still fought on to hold the hill but were finally overwhelmed as the Capellans made a mass rush at their position from two directions, pinning them in place. By the time the surviving Taurians powered down their reactors in surrender, fewer than half a dozen badly damaged BattleMechs were still standing.
Shiao-zhang Damien Liu now had nearly the entirety of the Red Chasseurs' command staff in his possession. In an act of sensible diplomacy, he reached out to the ranking Taurian officer, armor Colonel Paul Rodriguez, and offered to repatriate Colonel Cox and any other Taurian prisoners unharmed in exchange for their swift and immediate withdrawal from Laconis. Their position onworld now completely untenable, Rodriguez took the deal. By the end of August, the Red Chasseurs had retreated from Laconis with tails between their legs, chastened by the skill and honor of the Capellan Confederation
janshi.
Of course, the failure of the Taurian assault had not resolved the underlying problems that had invited it in the first place. The Eighth Confederation Reserve Cavalry, now shamed even further, was transferred to a world in the Confederation's interior where they could be more closely monitored and disciplined. Warrior House Ma-Tsu Kai was tasked with helping to rebuild the Home Guard while also aiding the Maskirovka in putting down the insurgency. Nearly three years would be spent doing their duty for the Chancellor, fighting a grinding counterinsurgency alongside
Zang shu zhe teams until the Home Guard was finally cleared by their political officers in the spring of 3148. New orders came down for the Warrior House. They would finally be facing off against the Confederation's most ancient, reviled enemy: House Davion.
BATTLE LOG
