Colonel Tomas Kadlec had a fairly easy time of things, all things considered. The fighting on Blackstone had Savaged his Regiment, so he'd been sent to deal with the base that housed the Enemy Regiment that was least likely to put up much of a fight before surrendering. The Ichmandu Guards hadn't had to deal with anything more pressing than the odd Pirate Raid, as their world was situated in the ass end of the Oberon Confederation, facing the Independent Worlds of Skiland, Dirkel, and Beowulf. Those guys were mostly agricultural with some light mining and low-level manufacturing. They certainly couldn't put together enough of a force to pose a threat that warranted beefing up the Ichmandu Guards.
Accordingly, the Ichmandu Guards were the least blooded, least drilled, force on the line that the Oberon Confederation had. Really, they were more like Garrison Troops, not meant to truly serve on the front lines, than an actual regiment that would be thrown into an operation like this. As he sipped an energy drink out of a pouch through a straw from the cockpit of his Rampage, he looked out at the base that the Ichmandu Guards were using in the valley below his position on a nearby mountain ridge.
Two Marauders stood sentry, along with a handful of Combat Vehicles. There were twelve autocannon emplacements and SRM Launchers in fortified bunkers dotting the perimeter, but most weren't active. These guys weren't expecting any trouble they didn't start themselves. It was an inexcusable level of sloppiness given how they had to know that the system was under attack. As he finished the pouch of caffeinated, lemon-lime-flavored, fizzy, liquid, he tossed the pouch away and focused up, lowering the visor on his Neurohelmet into place.
As the Neurohelmet visor synched up with the rest of his Mech, a targeting reticule popped up over one of the emplacements as he sighted down on it with his Gauss Rifle. The SRM Launcher had missiles loaded, but it wasn't active and scanning for targets, meaning that the crew that was supposed to be manning it down in the bunker below was playing cards on duty or something. It'd make a nice big boom and probably put the fear of god in the poor schmucks down there.
"Take care of the emplacements first. No sense in taking unnecessary risks after Blackstone." He ordered, getting affirmatives from the entire Assault Mech Company.
As he said that, he squeezed off a round from his Gauss Rifle as the reticule turned green in his visor. The ferronickel slug streaked out at the SRM Launcher Emplacement, punching through the Launcher and causing the whole emplacement to go up in a giant plume of fire and smoke. Likewise several of the Assault Company's Mechs let up the remaining emplacements, though none caused as big of a boom as Colonel Kadlec had. Only three of the emplacements managed to fire a salvo before being destroyed, hitting two Dragoons with autocannon slugs that sheared off the leg of one Dragoon and scored a lucky hit that forced the second to shut down its reactor to avoid a meltdown. The third emplacement hit a Griffon with a trio of short-range missiles as the Griffins moved forward destroying it and killing the pilot.
As that happened, the remaining Griffins of the Medium Mech Company let off a gigantic Salvo of Long-Ranged Missiles that started falling down on the interior of the base from above. Both of the sentry Marauders were hit multiple times by LRM Fire and destroyed, while the Combat Vehicles that weren't able to get into their fortified hangars, a mix of Combine-Surplus Sabaku Kaze Scout Tanks and Saladin Hover Tanks, were likewise destroyed.
Even as that happened, the bombardment ceased and the Combat Vehicles moved up, LTV-Four Hovertanks firing their PPCs and Hipparch Cavalry Tanks firing their Medium Lasers to keep the enemy's heads down. A trio of hidden thumpers opened up on two of the LTV-Fours and a Hipparch, firing a trio of shells into the side of the Hovertanks, blasting one apart and causing the crews to bail out of the other two before a Hipparch hosed down the thumpers with their Small Laser. Apparently, the pair of guns had been hastily put on tracks and manhandled out of their depot to try and surprise Third Guards.
Fortunately, with Third Guards Combat Vehicles having taken the inside of the walled base and keeping the enemy in their Hangars with PPC and Laser Fire, Major Gronkowski sent in Captain Krieger's Jump Infantry Company to begin clearing bunkers and hangars. By the time the regular, non-Jump Infantry moved up, dismounted their APCs, and headed into the fortified section of the Base Complex to back them up, Captain Krieger's Jump Infantry had already taken the Mechbay and two different armories.
Half an hour after that, the base surrendered. All told it had only cost Third Guards Guards around fifteen percent casualties, the overwhelming majority of which were damaged or wounded. As Third Guards moved into Pilotsk, they didn't even have to fight anyone, taking the town after a brief talk with the Militia Major, a man named Major Admaovich. It was a total inversion from the campaign that had mauled them on Blackstone outside Onyx City. In fact, by the time combat operations on Oberon began, Third Guards would be back at around ninety-seven percent of the strength they started the invasion with.
And for that, Colonel Kadlec was thankful. . .
XXXX
Colonel Nina Oivo was the least veteran of the commanders of the various Original Regiments in the Grand Ducal Guards, she knew that much. She'd literally just made Colonel a few months before Her Lord's accession to the position of first Baron, then Grand Duke, of New Ålborg. Prior to that, she'd largely worked in anti-piracy Campaigns as a Mechwarrior before climbing the ranks to command first a mech company, then a Battalion. She'd been swapped to logistics two years before she'd made colonel and did very well there, which was why her promotion to command of Fifth Guards had come as a major surprise to her. She'd thought she would spend the rest of her career in Logistics.
She had since spent time fighting in the wars with the Valkyriate and Redjack Ryan, along with drilling between those wars. That had honed her capabilities in command and as a Mechwarrior, but she knew she was the least experienced commander out of the Original Five Guards Regiments. Hell, even Mahmoud El-Fadil of Sixth Guards had more experience in command of a regiment than she did, having served as commander of the Lackhove Battalions for years before Lackhove had joined New Ålborg.
Now, she was facing off against the Ninth Pesht Regulars. The Combine hadn't known that they were coming, it should have been a win for Fifth Guards. It hadn't been. Oh sure, they'd taken the fort, and the Ninth Pesht Regulars had retreated, but Colonel Oivio had been taken completely off guard by the Combine's suicidal counterattack and their discipline under fire. That had been the fatal flaw that had allowed the Ninth Pesht Regulars to retreat.
The assault had started so well, too. An artillery bombardment using Smart Munitions that demolished the perimeter emplacements and cracked open the wall of the fortress began the assault, while Colonel Oivio and her Assault Mech Company fired a volley of Ferronickel Slugs that took out several of the Combine Mechs standing sentry. Colonel Oivio Herself had scored a kill on a Combine Dragon that was the first to charge out of the broken open wall of the base.
Unfortunately, as the Mechs of Fifth Guards charged out of the Alpine Woods toward the breach in the base defenses, they found that the enemy had prepared a minefield. Apparently, they'd taken base defense seriously enough to plant mines on the short stretch of open ground between the Alpine Woods and the Base. Those mines and increasing fire from the Mechs of the Ninth Pesht Regulars had caused her assault to bounce with the loss of two Rampages, three Dragoons, a Griffin, two Ignis Support Tanks, four Hipparchs, and a pair of LTV-Fours.
Then the Combine charged out of the base. Battlemechs moving forward toward Colonel Oivio's retreating forces. Colonel Oivio and her Mechs dropped six before the enemy could fire back, but the Ninth Pesht Regulars just kept coming. A call for artillery support came too little, too late for two Rampages, Three Griffins, and another Dragoon as well as two Ignis Tanks, three Hipparchs, and another LTV-Four. The Artillery had to switch to high-explosive shells and by the time the shells came down, most of the Ninth Pesht Regulars had cut their way out of the trap through Fifth Guards. The Bombardment only caught about a dozen mechs, a mix of Phoenix Hawks, Dragons, and Atlases. The rest of the Ninth Pesht Regulars, eighty-nine Battlemechs in total, managed to withdraw in good order back toward Halomir, where they had apparently boarded a series of landed, converted, cargo-hauler Dropships and escaped back to Oberon before the Flotilla could intercept.
That hadn't even been all of it, because when she'd had the infantry move into the base, they found a skeleton garrison of Combine Security Troops waiting for them inside of booby-trapped corridors. They made taking the base a long and bloody prospect, forcing the infantry to clear the complex room by room slowly to watch out for booby traps. By the time the last of the Combine Troops were rooted out and killed, a third of her infantry had been killed or wounded to match the third of her Mech and Combat Vehicle forces killed or wounded.
It was a heavy price to pay and by the time the ragged remnants of Fifth Guards moved into Halomir, the Ninth Pesht Regulars were long gone. In their place was a Militia Garrison led by Major Danilenko, the Icy Woman promptly informed Colonel Oivio that she was surrendering Halomir under the terms of the Ares Accords, as the Grand Duke had already offered those terms earlier. Honestly, that was fine by Colonel Oivio.
Fifth Guards had bled enough today as it was, after all. . .
XXXX
Colonel Mahmoud El-Fadil had just gunned down a fifth Battlemech, this one a Combine-Surplus Atlas when the enemy began to flee the field of battle. The battle had raged for a few hours, the Placida Guards putting up a surprisingly competent fight, but even after suffering a decent chunk of losses to get to this point, Sixth Guards was still going strong.
As Colonel El-Fadil janked to the side to avoid a pair of PPC Beams from a Marauder, he realized that the enemy was heading in the wrong direction to be trying to make it to Zhitopol, fleeing west instead of North. As a pair of Combine-Surplus Dragons opened up on his position to allow the Marauder a moment to escape, Colonel El-Fadil ducked behind one of the boulders that dotted this section of the hilly terrain around the Placida Guards' base. One of the members of his command lance, Ranjit Bajwa, wasn't as fast, being hit with an LRM that cracked the armor on the front of his Mech open like a walnut, exposing the myomer cables and electric servos underneath for beams from the Rightmost Dragon's medium lasers to fry.
"Ranjit, head to the rear, your mech requires repairs to be combat-ready." Ordered Mahmoud, popping back up to fire a Ferronickel Slug that went up the barrel of the Mech that had just rendered Ranjit's mech mission-killed.
"Don't have to order me twice, Colonel." Huffed Ranjit, moving off to the south.
Before Mahmoud could do the same to the other Dragon, however, a pair of Ferronickel slugs from his other two Lancemates, Anjali Kaur and Tariq Yusufzai, punched into its side, coring the reactor and causing the Dragon to Explode. After that, however, the fight had pretty much gone out of the enemy. There was a scattering of combat between an obstinate group of Light Mechs, a group of two battered Javelins, and an aged Valkyries backed by a Combine-Surplus Atlas, the end result was never in doubt.
The base would be taken with around sixteen percent casualties, a little over half those being damaged and wounded. Sixth Guards would get enough of her casualties back to be at ninety-four percent of the strength they had started the invasion with after just a little time to repair and heal. As for the Placida Guards, Colonel El-Fadil let them go. Taking Zhitopol was more important, and they'd wither on the vine and be forced to surrender without supplies anyway if they didn't run into another of the Regiments first. Their projected route of advance was fairly close to Second Guards, after all.
Moving on to Zhitopol, a brief hour-long fight between the Zhitopol Militia and Sixth Guards ensued with surprisingly light casualties on both sides. The commander of the Zhitopol Militia, a Major named Tomenko surrendered the town after the brief battle. Apparently, he'd only put up enough resistance that honor would be satisfied. And with that, Sixth Guards had completed their objectives for the Moon Campaigns.
Hopefully, everything went all right with the others as well. . .
XXXX
Over on Puck, Colonel Dimitriou and Seventh Guards had landed on the other side of the Raon Fuar Methane Ice Fields from Inishmore Colony. They'd had to pick their way across the Ice Fields carefully for most of the day. Gunfire in here that wound up hitting the various Methane Ice Crystals could cause a large section of the field to go up in flames. That wouldn't be good for any infantry or really any of the vehicles that weren't totally buttoned up.
Mind you, Puck's Atmosphere was pretty thin and had more nitrogen than was normal for human consumption on top. It was breathable, but only barely, and you could get nitrogen poisoning from breathing it in for too long. It's why the single colony on this iceball was domed and it was why the workers in the Methane Ice Fields used rebreathers and industrial mechs to harvest the ice crystals. Most of the men should be buttoned up in their APCs already if they want to avoid health complications.
It was as the Regiment was nearing the far edge of the Ice Fields close to Inishmore Colony that the ambush struck. A handful of armed police and militia with rocket launchers, mortars, and a few SRM Carriers, Light Tanks, and Truck Mounted Thumpers struck the Regiment. The mortar and SRM Strikes cracked the methane ice crystals around Colonel Dimitrou and his Assault Mech Company even as ambushers opened up on some of the Combat Vehicles guarding the flanks of the advancing column.
It was a fairly competently executed ambush and might have even done more than just put a few APCs and LTV-Fours and Hipparchs out of action for repairs if they hadn't been totally buttoned up and if their armor wasn't so advanced. As it was, all it took was the Assault Mech Company striding out of the conflagration completely unharmed and Colonel Dimitrou putting a Ferronickel Slug into one of the SRM Carriers, sending it up in a ball of fire for the enemy to lose their nerve.
Well, maybe it was a bit more than that, but Colonel Dimitrou wouldn't let a silly thing like that get in the way of spinning a good yarn. Even with the less fanciful version, it took all of thirty minutes of the Regiment fighting back to send the enemy fleeing back toward Inishmore Colony. Running Hell for Leather back to their domes.
And what did they have to show for their ambush? A pair of Hipparchs put out of action? A single LTV-Four with a busted hoverdrive? Four APCs damaged enough to force their troop complement to continue the rest of the way on foot with Rebreathers? It wasn't exactly a glorious victory for the enemy. Seventh Guards was still able to make it to Inishmore Colony by the time the day was over. By noon the day after, siege lines had been set up around the domes of Inishmore Colony and a warning to surrender was broadcast.
Colonel Dimitrou smiled when the commander of the Puck Militia, Colonel Allistair Mackay, commed back fifteen minutes later saying that he'd gotten Governor Sinclair to agree to surrender Inishmore Colony under the Terms of the Ares Accords. And that was that, Puck was theirs. Colonel Dimitrou allowed himself a celebratory glass of Ouzo when he found out he'd taken the lightest amount of casualties of all the engaged regiments.
After all, an achievement like that deserved it. . .
XXXX
Colonel Hannah Kelly and Fourth Guards had it the hardest next to Colonel Oivio as they ran into the Third Oberon Guards under Colonel Johann Grimm. The initial Firefight hadn't been too bad, inflicting eight percent casualties on Fourth Guards, but then Johann Grimm had decided to run. That had wound up forcing Colonel Kelly on the wild goose chase across the Highlands she was on at the moment.
It wouldn't be so bad if Johann Grimm wasn't so damned good at hit-and-run tactics. Over the past seventy-two hours of chasing, she'd lost another twelve percent of her strength to ambushes and booby traps as she'd been led by the nose around half the bloody Highlands! The chase had been maddening enough, and bloody enough, that Colonel Kelly was forced to dip into her stash of pot just to calm her nerves with a joint or three over the course of operations.
The rockslide that had been engineered on the first day of the chase had been a particularly interesting one. It had wiped out one of her Command Lance, Jeremy Lynch entirely, burying his rampage under enough rocks that they couldn't get to him. The attack that had followed also had Brendan Murphy, another of her Command Lance, take an LRM Strike that blew off his Rampage's right arm, Gauss Rifle and all. By the end of that little debacle, Brendan had to be sent back to the rear to repair and Jeremy wound up shooting himself in the head so he wouldn't die slowly from lack of oxygen. Not to mention the three APCs she'd also lost, swept off the mountain math by the rockslide or bullseye by fire from above.
Then there had been the ambush with the minefield in the tall grass in the high meadow during the second day of the chase that had put four of her Mechanized Infantry APCs and two of her LTV-Fours out of action. How Johann Grimm had been able to plant mines, Colonel Kelly wasn't too sure, but she suspected the mines had been prepared in advance. How else would you be able to perform that sort of ambush in these circumstances?
By the standards of either of those fights, the Ambush in the Woods that had happened six hours ago was practically tame. They'd been heading through one of the numerous alpine forests that dotted the Highlands on Titainia when Johann Grimm and his mech forces had managed to get a few mechs around their flanks. By the time that Johann Grimm had retreated, Hannah had lost a pair of Dragoons a Hipparch, and an Ignis Support Tank!
Now though, they had Johann Grimm cornered. The remnants of the Third Oberon Guards had been pinned in a box canyon with no way out. Colonel Kelly was tempted to just call in an artillery strike and not even engage, but surprisingly, Johann came out of the canyon in his Atlas by himself under what appeared to be a white tarp that had been rigged up to a tree trunk which was being used as an improvised white flag.
Intrigued, Colonel Kelly opened a comms channel. That's when she heard the news. Third, Sixth, and Fourth Guards had surrounded the last of the Oberon Regiments on Titania, the Gustrell Regulars, an hour ago near Gorsikov. The Appearance of her Lord and Second Guards ten minutes into that fight prompted the Gustrell Regulars to surrender. As the last man standing, Johann Grimm was offering to surrender to Colonel Kelly under the terms of the Ares Accords.
For a few long moments, Colonel Hannah Kelly wrestled with the decision. She very badly wanted to put a bullet in Johann Grimm's skull herself for all the shit he'd dragged her through. However, she knew that she should accept his surrender just to speed the campaign along. Grudgingly, she accepted Johann Grimm's surrender.
And the campaign on Titania and Puck ended with a whimper rather than a bang. . .
XXXX
AN: The next chapter is already up on my Patreon, so check the link in the threadmarked post if you guys feel like throwing me a couple bucks to get chapters in advance. Everyone who does is super appreciated and I can't thank my patrons enough.
All right, so here we see how things shaped up on the rest of the campaign to capture the moons of Oberon Six. It turns out that aside from the Ninth Pesht Regulars, Johann Grimm actually did the best out of any of the other Oberon or Oberon-allied units. The man did have a decent head on his shoulders tactics-wise. He was the one who recognized that Clan Wolf couldn't be beaten and urged his father to surrender instead of using his cache of Rim Worlds Army Mechs to try and launch a surprise uprising after coming to terms of a conditional surrender with the Clans.
Of course, that likely won't happen this time around, what with Jozef in charge, but yeah. In three days, Jozef has captured or destroyed five regiments with a sixth having busted its way out of the encirclement and fled back to Oberon Six. Now Jozef is going to have to go up against the Dadaocheng Line. Five of his regiments have taken damage, with the Third and Fifth Regiments needing to be pulled off the line after taking a mauling at Blackstone and on Titania. Fortunately, Jozef has yet to deploy the Eighth-through Fourteenth Regiments.
By the time he's ready to hit the Dadaocheng Line, he'll have twelve regiments able to face off against seven Oberon and Combine Regiments. However, the Oberon and Combine Regiments will have the force multipliers of the various bunkers and trenchworks of the Dadaocheng Line to help them out. Mind you, if it looks like the Line won't hold, Hendrik Grimm will backstab the Combine. Effectively, that means the fate of the Oberon Confederation will be decided based on what happens with the Dadaocheng Line.
At any rate, the next chapter will involve the start of operations against the Dadaocheng Line.
Stay tuned. . .