Mandate Intervention -- July-September 3046 Results
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- Location
- La Ballena City Raft
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X]Plan Unstoppable MAWLR's & Operation Pluto Phase 2 Plan
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/the-lords-of-ruin-battletech-killzone.52819/page-914?post=27399795#post-27399795
-[X] Priority repairs: Though expensive, putting extra effort into making repairs will get the Titan back to working status by the end of September. [-1 AP this turn]
Eager to get the Titan back to operational status as soon as possible, the Helghan Republic began Q3 of the year by putting forth a vast sum of resources to that end; an army of engineers, mechanics, and other such personnel dispatched immediately. Arriving within days of the decision, Helghan personnel spent the first few weeks of July surveying the true extent of the Titan's damage and devising a repair plan to get the walking battleship combat-ready by September's end. Aside from the damaged drivetrain that had rendered it immobile, this survey quickly uncovered a host of lesser failures with multiple critical systems knocked offline by the blast or else operating at drastically reduced functionality.
With the extent of the damage now known in excruciating detail, Republic personnel swiftly got to work repairing the MAWLR, a hastily assembled field base the size of a small town springing up around the immobilised war machine like fungal stalks. Beginning in August, repair crews and their automata swarms worked tirelessly to replace damaged components and rebuild destroyed systems; hundreds of tons of twisted metal and shattered machinery ripped out from the Titan's guts and replaced with new parts shipped from Helghan at great expense. Despite the cramped quarters they worked in and the lack of dedicated facilities, the repair crews made steady progress until, by late August, the Titan's weapons systems were back online, and the drivetrain was functional once more.
Ready for testing by September 1st, the Titan began the month by moving all of a hundred metres west, its first tentative steps sending glasses rattling throughout the temporary field base and causing its legs to creak and groan. Buoyed by their success, those in charge of the repair operation quickly shut the machine down and retargeted their efforts onto the myriad secondary problems caused by the nuclear earthquake; the hundreds of outstanding issues rapidly culled one by one until, as October loomed, the Titan was finally ready for action.
Effect
-[X] Dispatch emergency medical aid: With many hospitals destroyed and those that remain overwhelmed and operating without adequate supplies, power, water, or sewage, sending medical aid and transporting casualties to hospitals in neighbouring cities is essential to reduce the death toll.
-[X] Conduct search and rescue operations: Organising search and rescue efforts throughout Davao will allow us to rescue those trapped in collapsed buildings and recover bodies.
-[X] Establish sanitation efforts: The sanitary disposal of bodies, either in mass graves or by cremation, is a vital task in preventing the spread of disease among a population.
-[X] Re-establish food distribution systems: With food distribution in Davao gone along with much of the city, the Republic must ship in food and re-establish these systems if it wishes to prevent mass starvation.
-[X] Repair electrical system: Largely without power thanks to the failure of power plants and the destruction of power lines, repairing Davao's electrical system will aid hospitals greatly, prevent climate-related deaths, and make every aspect of life easier.
-[X] Repair water and sewage systems: Critical to preventing the spread of disease and ensuring people have clean water, repairing Davao's water and sewage systems will have a huge impact on preventable deaths.
-[X] Emergency housing programme: By housing those rendered homeless by the blast and its aftermath in cities across Pojos and by providing emergency shelter, the Republic can greatly reduce deaths by exposure.
Having suffered catastrophic damage from the detonation of the 40-kiloton nuclear weapon, Davao was a city on the edge of complete catastrophe by July 1st; sewage, water, food supply, and electrical systems torn to shreds, hospitals overwhelmed with casualties, housing demolished and incinerated, and bodies rotting in the streets. With one part of the Republic's government horrified at the humanitarian nightmare unfolding in the city and another keenly aware that allowing it to continue would dramatically undercut the intervention's humanitarian messaging, the Helghan Republic swiftly authorised a massive effort to try and alleviate the worst of the suffering; military personnel on-site promised a blank cheque for supplies and plenipotentiaries dispatched to coordinate with the planetary government. Within days of authorisation, personnel on Pojos proved able to establish a humanitarian corridor into the savaged city; overlord transports hauling supplies into Davao for the first few days before combat engineers had cleared routes to the city centre through the rubble.
Filled to bursting with food and water donated by and purchased from Pojos' numerous unaffected cities, the subsequent aid convoys proved instrumental in alleviating the devastation's initial impacts; distribution centres were rapidly established across Davao to provide the desperate and needy with relief, and a rationing system implemented to ensure all were able to eat. Following close behind these lifesaving convoys, trucks bearing generators, spare parts, powerlines, and water pipes enabled civilian engineers to restore bare minimum functionality to local hospitals and water treatment plants; weeks of round-the-clock work seeing hundreds of kilometres of powerline strung and waterpipes laid. Not to be outdone, the Republic's combat engineers matched the effort by repairing critical infrastructure such as bridges, roads, canals, and tunnels to enable more efficient delivery of aid and evacuation of the wounded.
Concurrently with relief efforts, members of the Republic's 5th army began a truly massive search and rescue effort across Davao, a division's worth of personnel and automata turned over to rescue the living and recover the dead. For over two weeks, Republic personnel scoured every collapsed ruin and tunnel in Davao for signs of life, individuals, couples, and sometimes entire families pulled, blinking and traumatised, from beneath the rubble. However, though Helghan personnel rescued many thousands this way, countless more were not; more bodies and fewer survivors recovered every day until, at last, rescue efforts ceased entirely. With more than 180,000 people killed in the initial blast and countless more expected to die in the months following, the Republic began a much-truncated program of body disposal; DNA samples, recovered ID documents (where applicable), fingerprints (where applicable), and other items recorded for later identification, the bodies themselves then buried in common graves.
Having handled the most immediately catastrophic issues and stemmed the bleeding, the Republic task force moved onto the next-most pressing matter; field hospitals and medical clinics established throughout the city wherever space was available. Staffed by military and civilian doctors, these outposts of humanity dramatically reduced the pressure on Davao's beleaguered hospitals and, as the weeks passed, became the primary source of medical care for the survivors. To ensure that said care was accessible to all, the Republic also dispatched medical transports to assist survivors unable to journey to medical centres under their own power, thousands of lives saved as a result.
Simultaneously, the Republic moved to supply temporary housing for the hundreds of thousands displaced by the blast and ensuing fires, cities across Pojos throwing open their doors even as the Republic established temporary shelters. Though these shelters were far from ideal, they were a welcome relief to those who had lost everything and offered a degree of protection from the elements. As the weeks passed and the situation in Davao began to stabilise, further efforts improved upon these makeshift homes; prefabricated houses shipped from the Republic's industrial heartland assembled in mass quantities, the temporary shelters steadily replaced, and community centres set up to provide residents with some semblance of normalcy.
All told, the end of September revealed a dramatic transformation in the situation in Davao, the heroic efforts of local and Helghan personnel dragging the city back from the bloody edge of collapse and saving the lives of countless thousands. Though normalcy is still far off and many wounds remain unhealed, Davao is no longer in imminent danger of succumbing to the aftermath of the nuclear detonation, and it should merely be a matter for organisations such as the ORDIHCR to keep things intact.
Effect
-[X] Dispatch Material Aid (Battlemechs, Mandate): With the Mandate on fire, now would be a good time to supply rebel forces with deniably surplus battlemechs to even the odds against government forces. [-80,000,000 C-Bills]
Understandably infuriated by the multiple nuclear strikes, attempted or otherwise, and intractably opposed to giving the Mandate time to recover from its assault, the Helghan Republic began Q3 3046 by consigning a massive shipment of battlemechs to rebel forces. Assembling a unit of more than forty light and medium mechs, the Republic quickly gave the machines a few aesthetic scratches to sell the idea of their surplus nature before quickly handing the package over to rebel outfits across the Mandate's rimward frontier. Substantially more deadly than anything they'd been able to get their hands on up to this point, the addition of battlemechs to rebel arsenals multiplied their effectiveness ten-fold; entire enemy units choosing to surrender rather than face off against mechs. Worse still from the perspective of those ordered to fight them, the mechs prove a perfect fit for the rapidly developing rebel strategy of hit-and-fade attacks supported by technicals and combat vehicles. Fast, compact, heavily armed, and heavily armoured, the supplied warmachines quickly found their way into serving as the rebels' armoured spearhead; more than a few battles against the MAF won by a fifty-ton mech barrelling through their lines before vanishing into undeveloped hinterlands.
Effect
-[X]Operation Pluto Phase 2 Plan:
--[X] Phase Two consists of four operations: Styx, Lethe, Charon and Hades
---[X] Operation Styx: The naval interdiction of the remaining Mandate fortress worlds with substantial mech or nuclear forces (So Sunnywood, Midthun and Validives as priority, then down the list). The objective is not to totally blockade the systems, but rather make military movements impractical or impossible. The highest priority is to prevent nuclear counter attacks on ORDI territory
---[X] Operation Lethe: The pre existing Cordon Sanitaire keeping the FWL out of our business.
---[X] Operation Charon: An offensive behind the line of Mandate fortress worlds, attempting to capture as many of the undefended worlds behind the line as practical while retaining sufficient ground and naval assets for operations Styx, Lethe and Hades.
---[X] Operation Hades: The assault on Victoria itself. The objective is to capture the planet and hopefully compel a formal surrender by Mandate leadership.
Scenting blood but wary of a nuclear counterassault vapourising the Republic's hard-won gains, the Helghan General Staff quickly and quietly drew up alterations to Operation Pluto's existing plans —anti-nuclear operations gaining fresh impetus in the wake of Davao's torching. Initially intending to continue the assault into the Mandate's now unprotected underbelly, the devastation wrought by a single nuclear strike convinced the Republic to rethink its plans and focus on locking down all known nuclear weapons along the Rimward Periphery. Named Styx by its planners, a cadre of experienced naval commanders, this sub-operation called for a blockade of seven entire solar systems by naval elements drawn from the Victoria, Menke, and Pojos Task Forces; Sunnywood, Midthun and Valdives the priority, followed by the four systems bypassed during Pluto's first phase.
However, despite the urgency of the situation and the knowledge of all involved as to the potential risk should a blockade fail to be established, Operation Styx met with considerable opposition from elements of the Helghan government and the Helghan Navy. Citing concerns about the efficacy of such a blockade and the degree to which assembling the requisite forces would threaten both existing and future commitments, both sides argued for weeks —the General Staff eventually proving victorious, though receiving a smaller than desired task force. Nonetheless, with the task force in operation by late July, Styx was finally given the green light to launch; three Noctis and four Hasta-IIID class cruisers, enough for one ship per system, warping into position over their target worlds.
To the great relief of all involved, the Mandate Armed Forces did not attempt to break the blockade between late July and the end of September despite the smaller-than-desired number of ships devoted to the task; the handful of JumpShips already present across the seven systems interdicted and interred away from any jump points where they could do no harm. Keenly aware of the consequences if they failed, the crews involved operated with commendable vigilance, their vessels' mere presence serving to dissuade several independent traders from approaching those worlds inhabited by civilian populations. Under enormous pressure to prevent another Davao from happening and simultaneously carrying out three other operations, the Helghan General Staff took more than a small measure of relief from the utter lack of issues faced by the Styx task force.
In contrast to the strained but otherwise successful halt placed on Mandate nuclear assets, the ongoing cordon sanitaire maintained by the Republic between the Mandate and the Free Worlds League became an immediate source of concern when, in mid-July, FWLM JumpShips appeared in three of the seven systems occupied. Counting five JumpShips and thirteen dropships between them, Helghan ships in the systems of Andarmax, Principia, and Shiba immediately alerted their fellow task force members to the incursion before moving to intercept —the Hasta-IIIDs going to combat stations and launching additional ASFs as quickly as humanly possible. Undeterred by the warships heading towards them, the FWLM dropships detached from their carrier craft and began to burn towards the various inhabited planets, the small flotilla ignoring Helghan orders to turn around and depart the systems immediately despite assurances of safe passage.
Operating under strict orders to maintain Mandate territorial integrity against opportunistic territorial expansions and simultaneously ordered to avoid causing international incidents, the Task Force's commander, Captain Emilia Vargas, responded to the flagrant violation by instructing her subordinates to fire warning shots at the encroaching vessels. Extremely well-armed, even by the standards of the Star League Navy, the quartet of Hasta-IIIDs assembled by the Helghan fleet let rip with countless terajoules of energy, columns of laser fire plunging through space barely 10,000 kilometres ahead of the FWLM forces. Illuminated by the ghastly light reflected off errant particles of rock and dust, the Andarmax and Principia task forces broke from their charge, the nine vessels turning tail and running back to their JumpShips, a close watch established to monitor their activities. Unfortunately, the Shiba task force's commander proved made of sterner stuff than their comrades in arms, the four vessels of their flotilla holding steady even as Helghan laser fire crept closer and closer with every passing minute.
Four hours into the confrontation and caught between a rock and a hard place, Captain Vargas finally acknowledged the inevitable and ordered her ships to stand down, the Helghan Cordon proving a thing of smoke and mirrors. Seven hours later, the Andarmax and Principia task forces turned around once again and burned their engines furiously to make up for lost time; their Helghan monitors impotent to stop them. Three days after that, the Shiba task force made landfall across the planet's primary continent, the Mandate defenders shattering against the well-drilled and highly lethal 3rd Free Worlds Guards and surrendering after only a week of combat. Unsurprisingly, this pattern repeated itself in both Andarmax and Principia, with Helghan's disruptive actions and the overall morale collapse suffered by the MAF ensuring swift victories for the 6th Defenders of Andurien and 9th Marik Militia, respectively.
Naturally, news of this action by the Free Worlds League has received a frosty reception across the Outer Rim Defence Initiative, talk of a larger offensive exploding across government and military channels. Quickly identified by ORDI spies as mere gambles, analysts across the alliance predict that the success of the three assaults will push the League to double down and attempt to seize more territory from the weakened Mandate. While September comes and goes without further action by the FWL beyond taking Andarmax, Principia, and Shiba firmly in hand, few think the end of 3046 will be as peaceful on the anti-spinward front.
Concurrently with operations Styx and Lethe, the Helghan General Staff and its equivalents throughout the rest of the ORDI devised an ambitious plan to tear through the Celestial Mandate's vulnerable belly —the operation dubbed Charon by those involved. Composed of what naval forces could be spared from other operational areas as well as a mix of ground troops from the ORDI's Periphery members, all of July was spent assembling the requisite forces, the final touches put in place by the 2nd of August. Designed to seize as many worlds as possible and keep the Mandate Armed Forces off balance, Charon called on ORDI forces to capture Columbine, Vard, and Quimberton, and link up with the rebel-held systems of Egress, Cavalor, and Madras at a minimum. As the first week of August came and went, Republic generals gave the go-ahead, and Operation Charon burst into life.
Mere days later, the first ORDI troops arrived on Quimberton and were met with open arms by local rebel forces and Mandate troops alike, the former having seized great tracts of territory in the weeks prior and the latter eager to have someone to whom they could surrender. Similar scenes repeated across the target list, with planet after planet falling —or surrendering— to ORDI forces, only the loyalist troops on Vard choosing to retreat to the countryside and continue fighting in the face of overwhelming firepower. By September's end, ORDI forces had seized the worlds of Bellatrix, Vard, Quimberton, and Columbine, and successfully linked up with rebel forces holding Madras, Borden, Egress, Cavalor, and Decatur.
Despite the scale of Operation Charon's goals and the relatively small force that made up its fist, casualties suffered by ORDI forces were comparatively light, need and experience combined to ensure a high level of cooperation and planning between the various member-state units involved. In addition, though Mandate Armed Forces were well-equipped by the standards of back-line Inner Sphere troops, the utter collapse of morale and high-level coordination brought about by ORDI spy actions and the general opposition by civilians meant that many Mandate forces chose not to fight, with only a few exceptions occurring. However, these victories were not without consequences, the capture of so many systems forcing the Republic and its allies to further dilute troops and supplies from other fronts to the point that the majority of the Aurigan and Taurian contributions to the war effort are tied up in garrisoning the now thirteen systems held by the ORDI's Periphery members.
A fantastic victory by any measure of the word, ORDI troops having gouged out a great chunk from the Mandate's exposed flank, the capture of so many systems was all but drowned out by news of the war on Victoria.
Codenamed Hades by those same people who dubbed the overall operation Pluto in the first place, Hades soon proved to be an appropriately ominous moniker for the continued invasion of the Celestial Mandate's capital, Victoria. First invading during the final weeks of 3046's second quarter, ORDI forces began Q3 with a good third of the planet's capital, Barns, captured, as well as two of the five satellite cities surrounding the underground metropolis despite fierce resistance from fanatical Mandate soldiers. Forced into urban combat with the defenders with no air or long-range artillery support due to the subterranean nature of Victoria's cities, the fighting was savage and bloody; casualty rates for ORDI formations across Victoria higher than anywhere else in the Mandate bar Pojos.
Understanding that the capture of Victoria, and the Mandate's leaders, would render the nation's surrender all but inevitable, the Helghan Republic committed itself to see the task done; every spare drop of fuel, box of bullets, and squad of infantry thrown into the fray. For its part, the Mandate responded in kind; its defence growing more determined with every metre of ground lost and drop of blood spilt, civilians as young as fourteen pressed into service across the planet with locally manufactured Gyrojet weaponry and countless anti-power armour weapons deployed. Over the next three months, the fighting on Victoria only grew more bitter as both sides intensified their efforts, neither able to gain a decisive advantage despite their investment and casualties mounting by the day.
Unsurprisingly, Victoria's civilian population suffered the most from the ongoing conflict, entire districts reduced to rubble, tens of thousands rendered homeless, and strict rationing imposed across the planet. Medicine and water, too, became an issue, ORDI supply lines further constricting thanks to the need to prevent starvation, dehydration, and other deaths from ravaging those inhabiting the territory it controlled. However, despite the ferocity of the MAF's defence, the sheer firepower of the ORDI combined with its technological edge saw the balance of power slowly but steadily tip in its favour; every lost factory further limiting the Mandate's ability to counter ORDI heavy metal. After several months of bitter fighting, ORDI forces across Victoria finally managed a breakthrough, a dozen cities, including Barns' last satellite city, falling like dominos over two weeks. Dramatically weakened by this catastrophic failure, Barns' defenders soon found themselves at the cutting edge of a killing thrust; the bold actions of a joint Taurian-Canopian battlemech force allowed Helghan and Aurigan power armour troopers to bloodily seize the armoured bunker that played host to the Mandate's ruling council.
With the capture of the command bunker and the raising of the ORDI flag over Barns' shattered core, organised resistance throughout the city effectively ceased to exist; sporadic fighting continued for several days as units fought on their own initiative, but the bulk of the Mandate Armed Forces and their militia surrendering. Of the six council members who started the Mandate's civil war, only three survived to be captured by ORDI forces. No doubt thinking that death was better than dishonour, or, more likely, afraid of what would be done to them by victorious rebel forces should they be captured alive and handed over, two were found dead from suicide shortly after the bunker fell; the pair of noblemen, one being the head of the Maskirovka, having retreated to their respective offices when the first ORDI troops breached the perimeter. Meanwhile, the third's body was discovered hours after the bunker's fall in a secret tunnel leading to the city's underground maintenance tunnels. Heavily damaged by the fighting above, the tunnel's ventilation systems had failed sometime earlier and allowed unbreathable gases to pool, suffocating the noblewoman and her entourage as they attempted to escape the city.
The capture of the Mandate's ruling council proved to be a significant turning point in the battle for Victoria; the three surviving nobles were eventually convinced to order units across the planet to surrender. With their capital lost, their rulers dead or captured, and morale at rock bottom across the board, MAF generals proved only too happy to wave the white flag, Victoria's remaining cities declared open cities over September's last few weeks and occupied by ORDI forces in the days following. Much to the surprise of the Republic's more cynical inhabitants, Celestial Empress Romano Liao and her thirteen-year-old son were also found alive and relatively unharmed during the same period. Imprisoned in her palace years earlier by the coupists, Romano Liao had been moved to a secure location in Victoria's backwoods shortly before the ORDI invaded and kept alive to provide the occasional public appearance (from a distance) to bolster morale. While the Canopian unit that found her reported only minor health issues resulting from the disruptions caused by the planetary invasion, the initial psychological assessment conducted by their medics painted a much darker picture of untreated mental illnesses exacerbated by her treatment. In contrast, Sun-Tzu Liao, her son, was found to be both physically healthy and mentally well, albeit lacking in socialisation with children his own age due to isolation and understandably lacking in trust.
Effect
Design and Requisition
--[x] Battlecruiser
--[X] 1mt Factory Ship
--[x] Gauss artillery
News and Rumours
Helghan Republic
Unsurprisingly, the news from New Oslo continues to be upsetting compared to that coming from Operation Pluto. While Helghan troops succeeded in overthrowing and/or suborning the equatorial nations and their religious figures, many terror groups formed in response to the martyrdom of several religious figures and began terrorising the countryside in service to their appalling ideals. Rabidly misogynistic and holding to a patriarchal creed that deems women inherently sinful and responsible for the lethally cold state of the planet, most groups found themselves immediately set upon by Helghan police forces and destroyed. However, most is not all, and those that survived the subsequent anti-terror actions coalesced into a single group that quickly dubbed itself the Brotherhood of the Righteous.
Throughout Q3 3046, the Brotherhood of the Righteous quickly grew in both strength and ambition, disaffected men from all classes reinventing the methods of stochastic terrorism from first principles as they terrorised the countryside. Aided by sympathetic communities, the Brotherhood would strike at night against those who associated with the Helghan Republic or did not hold their wives and daughters to the strictest interpretation of the planet's dominant religion, families waking to find burning effigies and crosses outside their homes, or worse. In response to these actions, Republic forces on the planet redoubled their efforts against the group, a number of the Brotherhood's cells crushed and high-profile figures arrested or killed. Despite these efforts, however, the Brotherhood proved to be a resilient foe, its lack of central organisation and broad sympathy meaning that no blow did more than slow the progress of its crimes.
Continuing from last quarter, refugee numbers from the Celestial Mandate have only increased over the intervening months. According to reports from those on the frontlines, numbers have doubled from 300,000 a year to 600,000 a year. A dramatic increase in a very short span of time, the ORDIHCR has begun to tap into stockpiles of goods in an effort to prevent resourcing issues in the near future
Predicted Refugee Acceptance Breakdown For 3046 (+-5%)
Helghan Republic: 2,880,000
Magistracy of Canopus: 1,700,000
Taurian Concordat: 700,000
Aurigan Coalition: 300,000
Aurigan Coalition
Eager to bring the invasion of the Celestial Mandate to a successful conclusion, the July-September period saw the Aurigan Coalition dispatch large numbers of light combat and support vehicles into Mandate space. Manufactured across the Aurigan state, the vehicles were met with great enthusiasm and immediately deployed against Mandate positions. Though not intended for frontline combat, the surge of scout vehicles and supply transports has significantly improved the information-gathering ability of rebel forces and eased their supply situation.
Taurian Concordat
In contrast to the Aurigan Coalition, whose focus lay in the Celestial Mandate, the Taurian Concordat spent 3046's third quarter supplying rebel groups cropping up throughout the Federated Suns' Outback with heavy weapons. Having learned several important lessons from last quarter's troubled delivery of combat vehicles, the Taurian Concordat acted with utmost caution when delivering the vast hoard of SRMs and other anti-vehicle weapons it had acquired, the ultimate result being the slow but successful delivery of enough arms to outfit a handful of regiments. While not as dramatic a victory as the deployment of more combat vehicles would have been, the solid stockpile of heavy weapons built up by rebel groups has substantially bolstered their position in the region, and training by Helghan trainers has honed their skills to a lethal edge.
Magistracy of Canopus
Doubtlessly seeing the Celestial Mandate as a beast on the verge of death, the Magistracy of Canopus refocused its efforts on supplying Outback rebels with combat vehicles akin to those attempted by the Concordat in May. Unfortunately, like the Concordat's own deliveries, the increasing number of AFFS troops deployed to the region combined with ever-growing scrutiny of traditional smuggling routes meant that Canopian supply runs were only partly successful, fully half of the intended shipments not even making it to AFFS space. Nonetheless, what combat vehicles did make it into the Outback were warmly received by the various rebel groups that call the region home, the addition of armour stiffening their combat arms in preparation for their eventual revolt.
Capellan Confederation
Building off of prior efforts and no doubt hoping to improve the odds of rebel fighters against their loyalist counterparts, the Capellan Confederation began Q3 by dispatching a huge number of small arms into the Celestial Mandate. With ORDI aid into the Mandate decidedly obvious, the Capellan Confederation did not attempt to hide the source of the weapons and instead handed over a large number of factory-fresh assault rifles and other weapons to rebel forces throughout the state's Coreward region. A mix of tried and tested designs as well as brand new ones on par with any conventional weapon from Helghan design bureaus, the influx of firearms provided rebel forces with a glut of firepower, enabling them to equip large numbers of volunteers and rapidly re-equip units that had expended their ammunition.
Similarly, Capellan attempts to supply Outback rebel groups with heavy metal enjoyed a surprising degree of success. Using a combination of covert purchasing across the Inner Sphere and creative bookkeeping, a full company's worth of mechs, ranging in tonnage from 35 to a full 55, were procured and delivered to rebel groups deep within the Outback. Despite the elevated state of alert that the FedSuns counter-intelligence wing had placed itself in since the last smuggling attempt, the Confederation proved able to slip the mechs through border controls undetected, thanks in large part to the use of sympathetic intermediaries. Upon delivery, the mechs were eagerly claimed by the rebels, who saw them as a much-needed boost to their cause.
Continuing its multi-pronged strategy in the face of the MAF's continued collapse, the Capellan Confederation launched numerous attacks against Mandate worlds throughout the July-September period. Aimed at some of the Mandate's more fortified worlds like a sledgehammer, the Wolfs Dragoons seized Raphael, Primus, and Prix within only a few days of one another; the elite mercenary unit well worth the price it commands, going by its success rate. Similarly, CCAF troops supported by elements of the Eridani Light Horse struck out from Kasdach seeking blood, the assembled hosts driving deep into the Mandate thanks, in part, to their use of JumpShips mobility. Aided by widespread surrenders in the face of intense local uprisings and their own overwhelming firepower, this deep thrust reached its maximum extent by mid-September with the system of Turin falling after only a brief battle for control of the planetary capital.
Celestial Mandate
Between the invasion of Victoria (ending in the planet's capture by ORDI forces), the sudden attacks by the Free Worlds League, the continued impact of Helghan sabotage, and the overall sense of the Mandate's impending demise, it came as little surprise when the rebel cause proved reinvigorated come July. Supplied by numerous nations and facing off against an enemy that had been struggling for some time now, rebel forces across the Mandate made their move, five systems falling over the space of a mere two months. However, Q3 saw the first real movement by Mandate forces since Operation Pluto's start, JumpShips carrying forces from Itsbur and Lucknow arriving in Bellatrix... only to find Helghan warships on the prowl after fending off a prior attack. However, Mandate movements to Drozan were far more effective, with an attempted rebel uprising crushed only a few weeks in and one on Repulse losing steam shortly after.
Draconis Combine
According to rumours smuggled out of the Draconis Combine by independent traders, the Combine system of Avon played host to a major industrial accident in mid-September of 3046. From what little can be gleaned by Republic analysts, a factory receiving substantial investment from the Word of Blake suffered an explosion sometime in the small hours of the night. While the explosion only damaged the factory, the subsequent release of heavier-than-air gases used in various manufacturing processes killed more than three hundred people in a neighbouring town and prompted the region's governor to declare a state of emergency. While the root cause of the explosion remains unknown, initial reports from the governor's office indicate that it resulted from a failure in safety systems that were, in turn, a result of corruption in the factory's management.
Though independent from the Word of Blake, the organisation had been funding a sizable expansion of the factory and its capabilities; rumours suggest that it planned to turn it into a high-tech manufacturing hub. While damage to the factory remains limited, the explosion has seemingly cast a pall over the WOB, with the religious group's leadership publicly announcing that it will pause other expansion projects for a short time to ensure no similar accidents will occur. Following this announcement, further tragedy struck the planet when a plane crash claimed the lives of half the factory's management board.
Of particular interest to the Republic, reports from the Combine's state media outlets indicate that the reconciliation between Theodore Kurita and his father, Takashi Kurita, has continued to blossom with the formerly-estranged son promoted to the rank of Gunji-no-Kanrei in mid-August. Officially known as the Deputy of Military Affairs, the rank is the second-highest position in the entire Combine, responsible for overseeing the military and defence operations, and is only subordinate to the Coordinator himself. Earned due to his actions during the 4th and 5th Succession Wars and the Ronin Wars, the move has raised eyebrows across the Inner Sphere and beyond, with commentariat across the galaxy publicly pondering what the future holds for the Combine. Known to hold a less rigid interpretation of the Combine's Bushido code, many in the Republic have already begun to speculate on whether this could signal a change in the way the Combine approaches its foreign policy and manner of waging war, while others have expressed cynicism over Theodore's potential lifespan given the degree of traditionalism within the Combine.
Federated Suns
In rather worrisome news, reports out of the Federated Suns have revealed that work on the Augusta shipyards has proceeded exceptionally smoothly over the last few months, its first slipway officially opened by the First Prince at the end of September. Only sufficient to construct a 250,000-ton vessel, the slipway nonetheless represents a growing change in the Inner Sphere's technological development... and the threat it poses to the Periphery. While Helghan intelligence assets have not been regrown since the purge initiated by the Federated Suns some time ago, distant monitoring of the slipway has revealed some manner of activity beginning already, and many Helghan analysts suspect that the AFFS will attempt to challenge Helghan naval supremacy over the next few years.
However, all this pales in comparison to the news from the Federated Suns' Outback region. According to both ComStar news outlets and intelligence operatives embedded throughout the region, Keuterville's local Neo-Jacobinists have shifted from being merely against the local planetary government to being against the government of the Federated Suns as it currently stands. In their attempt to enforce the new laws against the political group and arrest its local leaders, the planetary government seems to have inadvertently started the very crisis it had hoped to forestall; the brewing civil war on the planet exploding into new and terrible life as men and women across the planet took up arms.
Joined by local Marxist-Leninist-Kerenskyist (MLK) factions to Maoist-Gaullist and Blanquist groups, the new government has rallied around the cause of dismantling the entrenched elites across the Suns and establishing a new order; ORDI-supplied equipment providing them with an edge during the first few battles of the planetary civil war. In response to Keuterville's revolution, several neighbouring systems have also seen their own uprisings, with everyone from Marxist-Leninist-Kerenskyists to Sin Seda and Taurian Federalists making an appearance. Unsurprisingly, the ripple of local revolutions and the resulting civil wars has sparked a dramatic increase in tensions throughout the region, and the promised ORDI intervention looms heavily in the minds of the Republic government.
Things naturally escalated when troops dispatched by Michael Hasek-Davion arrived in-system, the mercenaries intended to back up the local government against an ill-trained rabble finding their opposition incredibly well-trained and well-organised. While information is still scarce, initial reports suggest that the intervention by Hasek-Davion troops has only inflamed matters in the region; the reputation they earned after deposing multiple governments convinced many to join the revolutionaries out of a desire for safety. Further complicating matters is the fact that the Federated Suns' government has already taken notice of the situation, with reports from spies in the region suggesting that the state is preparing to use in-region AFFS troops to put down the revolts. However, while this may be successful in crushing the Keuterville revolution given the sheer number of troops available, the potential for an all-out Outback revolt looms large, and many fear that the worst is yet to come.
Effect
Free Worlds League
In a speech to parliament broadcast throughout the Free Worlds League towards the end of the quarter, Captain-General Thomas Marik successfully argued to be granted greater resources with which to police the Spinward border of the nation against threats to the League's security. While the speech itself was rather anodyne and lacking in detail, reading between the lines suggests that the success of the League's probing attacks against the Celestial Mandate has generated interest in seizing what systems the FWL can. Though the League seems disinterested in starting a war with the ORDI, the deployment of military forces in systems blockaded —but not occupied— by the ORDI would almost certainly be a powder keg waiting to blow.
Map
Davao Crisis Deaths*
*Next Quarter's Estimated Deaths: 4,700
Q3 Casualty Estimates
Casualties To Date**
**This is excluding the casualties caused by the civil war since that'd be a mindboggling number by Battletech standards.
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/the-lords-of-ruin-battletech-killzone.52819/page-914?post=27399795#post-27399795
-[X] Priority repairs: Though expensive, putting extra effort into making repairs will get the Titan back to working status by the end of September. [-1 AP this turn]
Eager to get the Titan back to operational status as soon as possible, the Helghan Republic began Q3 of the year by putting forth a vast sum of resources to that end; an army of engineers, mechanics, and other such personnel dispatched immediately. Arriving within days of the decision, Helghan personnel spent the first few weeks of July surveying the true extent of the Titan's damage and devising a repair plan to get the walking battleship combat-ready by September's end. Aside from the damaged drivetrain that had rendered it immobile, this survey quickly uncovered a host of lesser failures with multiple critical systems knocked offline by the blast or else operating at drastically reduced functionality.
With the extent of the damage now known in excruciating detail, Republic personnel swiftly got to work repairing the MAWLR, a hastily assembled field base the size of a small town springing up around the immobilised war machine like fungal stalks. Beginning in August, repair crews and their automata swarms worked tirelessly to replace damaged components and rebuild destroyed systems; hundreds of tons of twisted metal and shattered machinery ripped out from the Titan's guts and replaced with new parts shipped from Helghan at great expense. Despite the cramped quarters they worked in and the lack of dedicated facilities, the repair crews made steady progress until, by late August, the Titan's weapons systems were back online, and the drivetrain was functional once more.
Ready for testing by September 1st, the Titan began the month by moving all of a hundred metres west, its first tentative steps sending glasses rattling throughout the temporary field base and causing its legs to creak and groan. Buoyed by their success, those in charge of the repair operation quickly shut the machine down and retargeted their efforts onto the myriad secondary problems caused by the nuclear earthquake; the hundreds of outstanding issues rapidly culled one by one until, as October loomed, the Titan was finally ready for action.
Effect
- Titan fully repaired
-[X] Dispatch emergency medical aid: With many hospitals destroyed and those that remain overwhelmed and operating without adequate supplies, power, water, or sewage, sending medical aid and transporting casualties to hospitals in neighbouring cities is essential to reduce the death toll.
-[X] Conduct search and rescue operations: Organising search and rescue efforts throughout Davao will allow us to rescue those trapped in collapsed buildings and recover bodies.
-[X] Establish sanitation efforts: The sanitary disposal of bodies, either in mass graves or by cremation, is a vital task in preventing the spread of disease among a population.
-[X] Re-establish food distribution systems: With food distribution in Davao gone along with much of the city, the Republic must ship in food and re-establish these systems if it wishes to prevent mass starvation.
-[X] Repair electrical system: Largely without power thanks to the failure of power plants and the destruction of power lines, repairing Davao's electrical system will aid hospitals greatly, prevent climate-related deaths, and make every aspect of life easier.
-[X] Repair water and sewage systems: Critical to preventing the spread of disease and ensuring people have clean water, repairing Davao's water and sewage systems will have a huge impact on preventable deaths.
-[X] Emergency housing programme: By housing those rendered homeless by the blast and its aftermath in cities across Pojos and by providing emergency shelter, the Republic can greatly reduce deaths by exposure.
Having suffered catastrophic damage from the detonation of the 40-kiloton nuclear weapon, Davao was a city on the edge of complete catastrophe by July 1st; sewage, water, food supply, and electrical systems torn to shreds, hospitals overwhelmed with casualties, housing demolished and incinerated, and bodies rotting in the streets. With one part of the Republic's government horrified at the humanitarian nightmare unfolding in the city and another keenly aware that allowing it to continue would dramatically undercut the intervention's humanitarian messaging, the Helghan Republic swiftly authorised a massive effort to try and alleviate the worst of the suffering; military personnel on-site promised a blank cheque for supplies and plenipotentiaries dispatched to coordinate with the planetary government. Within days of authorisation, personnel on Pojos proved able to establish a humanitarian corridor into the savaged city; overlord transports hauling supplies into Davao for the first few days before combat engineers had cleared routes to the city centre through the rubble.
Filled to bursting with food and water donated by and purchased from Pojos' numerous unaffected cities, the subsequent aid convoys proved instrumental in alleviating the devastation's initial impacts; distribution centres were rapidly established across Davao to provide the desperate and needy with relief, and a rationing system implemented to ensure all were able to eat. Following close behind these lifesaving convoys, trucks bearing generators, spare parts, powerlines, and water pipes enabled civilian engineers to restore bare minimum functionality to local hospitals and water treatment plants; weeks of round-the-clock work seeing hundreds of kilometres of powerline strung and waterpipes laid. Not to be outdone, the Republic's combat engineers matched the effort by repairing critical infrastructure such as bridges, roads, canals, and tunnels to enable more efficient delivery of aid and evacuation of the wounded.
Concurrently with relief efforts, members of the Republic's 5th army began a truly massive search and rescue effort across Davao, a division's worth of personnel and automata turned over to rescue the living and recover the dead. For over two weeks, Republic personnel scoured every collapsed ruin and tunnel in Davao for signs of life, individuals, couples, and sometimes entire families pulled, blinking and traumatised, from beneath the rubble. However, though Helghan personnel rescued many thousands this way, countless more were not; more bodies and fewer survivors recovered every day until, at last, rescue efforts ceased entirely. With more than 180,000 people killed in the initial blast and countless more expected to die in the months following, the Republic began a much-truncated program of body disposal; DNA samples, recovered ID documents (where applicable), fingerprints (where applicable), and other items recorded for later identification, the bodies themselves then buried in common graves.
Having handled the most immediately catastrophic issues and stemmed the bleeding, the Republic task force moved onto the next-most pressing matter; field hospitals and medical clinics established throughout the city wherever space was available. Staffed by military and civilian doctors, these outposts of humanity dramatically reduced the pressure on Davao's beleaguered hospitals and, as the weeks passed, became the primary source of medical care for the survivors. To ensure that said care was accessible to all, the Republic also dispatched medical transports to assist survivors unable to journey to medical centres under their own power, thousands of lives saved as a result.
Simultaneously, the Republic moved to supply temporary housing for the hundreds of thousands displaced by the blast and ensuing fires, cities across Pojos throwing open their doors even as the Republic established temporary shelters. Though these shelters were far from ideal, they were a welcome relief to those who had lost everything and offered a degree of protection from the elements. As the weeks passed and the situation in Davao began to stabilise, further efforts improved upon these makeshift homes; prefabricated houses shipped from the Republic's industrial heartland assembled in mass quantities, the temporary shelters steadily replaced, and community centres set up to provide residents with some semblance of normalcy.
All told, the end of September revealed a dramatic transformation in the situation in Davao, the heroic efforts of local and Helghan personnel dragging the city back from the bloody edge of collapse and saving the lives of countless thousands. Though normalcy is still far off and many wounds remain unhealed, Davao is no longer in imminent danger of succumbing to the aftermath of the nuclear detonation, and it should merely be a matter for organisations such as the ORDIHCR to keep things intact.
Effect
- Situation in Davao largely stabilised.
- Predicted Preventable Deaths plummet (see below for more information)
-[X] Dispatch Material Aid (Battlemechs, Mandate): With the Mandate on fire, now would be a good time to supply rebel forces with deniably surplus battlemechs to even the odds against government forces. [-80,000,000 C-Bills]
Understandably infuriated by the multiple nuclear strikes, attempted or otherwise, and intractably opposed to giving the Mandate time to recover from its assault, the Helghan Republic began Q3 3046 by consigning a massive shipment of battlemechs to rebel forces. Assembling a unit of more than forty light and medium mechs, the Republic quickly gave the machines a few aesthetic scratches to sell the idea of their surplus nature before quickly handing the package over to rebel outfits across the Mandate's rimward frontier. Substantially more deadly than anything they'd been able to get their hands on up to this point, the addition of battlemechs to rebel arsenals multiplied their effectiveness ten-fold; entire enemy units choosing to surrender rather than face off against mechs. Worse still from the perspective of those ordered to fight them, the mechs prove a perfect fit for the rapidly developing rebel strategy of hit-and-fade attacks supported by technicals and combat vehicles. Fast, compact, heavily armed, and heavily armoured, the supplied warmachines quickly found their way into serving as the rebels' armoured spearhead; more than a few battles against the MAF won by a fifty-ton mech barrelling through their lines before vanishing into undeveloped hinterlands.
Effect
- Multiple rebel units are now better kitted out than the Mandate forces they fight against.
- They want as many mechs as you can spare
-[X]Operation Pluto Phase 2 Plan:
--[X] Phase Two consists of four operations: Styx, Lethe, Charon and Hades
---[X] Operation Styx: The naval interdiction of the remaining Mandate fortress worlds with substantial mech or nuclear forces (So Sunnywood, Midthun and Validives as priority, then down the list). The objective is not to totally blockade the systems, but rather make military movements impractical or impossible. The highest priority is to prevent nuclear counter attacks on ORDI territory
---[X] Operation Lethe: The pre existing Cordon Sanitaire keeping the FWL out of our business.
---[X] Operation Charon: An offensive behind the line of Mandate fortress worlds, attempting to capture as many of the undefended worlds behind the line as practical while retaining sufficient ground and naval assets for operations Styx, Lethe and Hades.
---[X] Operation Hades: The assault on Victoria itself. The objective is to capture the planet and hopefully compel a formal surrender by Mandate leadership.
Scenting blood but wary of a nuclear counterassault vapourising the Republic's hard-won gains, the Helghan General Staff quickly and quietly drew up alterations to Operation Pluto's existing plans —anti-nuclear operations gaining fresh impetus in the wake of Davao's torching. Initially intending to continue the assault into the Mandate's now unprotected underbelly, the devastation wrought by a single nuclear strike convinced the Republic to rethink its plans and focus on locking down all known nuclear weapons along the Rimward Periphery. Named Styx by its planners, a cadre of experienced naval commanders, this sub-operation called for a blockade of seven entire solar systems by naval elements drawn from the Victoria, Menke, and Pojos Task Forces; Sunnywood, Midthun and Valdives the priority, followed by the four systems bypassed during Pluto's first phase.
However, despite the urgency of the situation and the knowledge of all involved as to the potential risk should a blockade fail to be established, Operation Styx met with considerable opposition from elements of the Helghan government and the Helghan Navy. Citing concerns about the efficacy of such a blockade and the degree to which assembling the requisite forces would threaten both existing and future commitments, both sides argued for weeks —the General Staff eventually proving victorious, though receiving a smaller than desired task force. Nonetheless, with the task force in operation by late July, Styx was finally given the green light to launch; three Noctis and four Hasta-IIID class cruisers, enough for one ship per system, warping into position over their target worlds.
To the great relief of all involved, the Mandate Armed Forces did not attempt to break the blockade between late July and the end of September despite the smaller-than-desired number of ships devoted to the task; the handful of JumpShips already present across the seven systems interdicted and interred away from any jump points where they could do no harm. Keenly aware of the consequences if they failed, the crews involved operated with commendable vigilance, their vessels' mere presence serving to dissuade several independent traders from approaching those worlds inhabited by civilian populations. Under enormous pressure to prevent another Davao from happening and simultaneously carrying out three other operations, the Helghan General Staff took more than a small measure of relief from the utter lack of issues faced by the Styx task force.
In contrast to the strained but otherwise successful halt placed on Mandate nuclear assets, the ongoing cordon sanitaire maintained by the Republic between the Mandate and the Free Worlds League became an immediate source of concern when, in mid-July, FWLM JumpShips appeared in three of the seven systems occupied. Counting five JumpShips and thirteen dropships between them, Helghan ships in the systems of Andarmax, Principia, and Shiba immediately alerted their fellow task force members to the incursion before moving to intercept —the Hasta-IIIDs going to combat stations and launching additional ASFs as quickly as humanly possible. Undeterred by the warships heading towards them, the FWLM dropships detached from their carrier craft and began to burn towards the various inhabited planets, the small flotilla ignoring Helghan orders to turn around and depart the systems immediately despite assurances of safe passage.
Operating under strict orders to maintain Mandate territorial integrity against opportunistic territorial expansions and simultaneously ordered to avoid causing international incidents, the Task Force's commander, Captain Emilia Vargas, responded to the flagrant violation by instructing her subordinates to fire warning shots at the encroaching vessels. Extremely well-armed, even by the standards of the Star League Navy, the quartet of Hasta-IIIDs assembled by the Helghan fleet let rip with countless terajoules of energy, columns of laser fire plunging through space barely 10,000 kilometres ahead of the FWLM forces. Illuminated by the ghastly light reflected off errant particles of rock and dust, the Andarmax and Principia task forces broke from their charge, the nine vessels turning tail and running back to their JumpShips, a close watch established to monitor their activities. Unfortunately, the Shiba task force's commander proved made of sterner stuff than their comrades in arms, the four vessels of their flotilla holding steady even as Helghan laser fire crept closer and closer with every passing minute.
Four hours into the confrontation and caught between a rock and a hard place, Captain Vargas finally acknowledged the inevitable and ordered her ships to stand down, the Helghan Cordon proving a thing of smoke and mirrors. Seven hours later, the Andarmax and Principia task forces turned around once again and burned their engines furiously to make up for lost time; their Helghan monitors impotent to stop them. Three days after that, the Shiba task force made landfall across the planet's primary continent, the Mandate defenders shattering against the well-drilled and highly lethal 3rd Free Worlds Guards and surrendering after only a week of combat. Unsurprisingly, this pattern repeated itself in both Andarmax and Principia, with Helghan's disruptive actions and the overall morale collapse suffered by the MAF ensuring swift victories for the 6th Defenders of Andurien and 9th Marik Militia, respectively.
Naturally, news of this action by the Free Worlds League has received a frosty reception across the Outer Rim Defence Initiative, talk of a larger offensive exploding across government and military channels. Quickly identified by ORDI spies as mere gambles, analysts across the alliance predict that the success of the three assaults will push the League to double down and attempt to seize more territory from the weakened Mandate. While September comes and goes without further action by the FWL beyond taking Andarmax, Principia, and Shiba firmly in hand, few think the end of 3046 will be as peaceful on the anti-spinward front.
Concurrently with operations Styx and Lethe, the Helghan General Staff and its equivalents throughout the rest of the ORDI devised an ambitious plan to tear through the Celestial Mandate's vulnerable belly —the operation dubbed Charon by those involved. Composed of what naval forces could be spared from other operational areas as well as a mix of ground troops from the ORDI's Periphery members, all of July was spent assembling the requisite forces, the final touches put in place by the 2nd of August. Designed to seize as many worlds as possible and keep the Mandate Armed Forces off balance, Charon called on ORDI forces to capture Columbine, Vard, and Quimberton, and link up with the rebel-held systems of Egress, Cavalor, and Madras at a minimum. As the first week of August came and went, Republic generals gave the go-ahead, and Operation Charon burst into life.
Mere days later, the first ORDI troops arrived on Quimberton and were met with open arms by local rebel forces and Mandate troops alike, the former having seized great tracts of territory in the weeks prior and the latter eager to have someone to whom they could surrender. Similar scenes repeated across the target list, with planet after planet falling —or surrendering— to ORDI forces, only the loyalist troops on Vard choosing to retreat to the countryside and continue fighting in the face of overwhelming firepower. By September's end, ORDI forces had seized the worlds of Bellatrix, Vard, Quimberton, and Columbine, and successfully linked up with rebel forces holding Madras, Borden, Egress, Cavalor, and Decatur.
Despite the scale of Operation Charon's goals and the relatively small force that made up its fist, casualties suffered by ORDI forces were comparatively light, need and experience combined to ensure a high level of cooperation and planning between the various member-state units involved. In addition, though Mandate Armed Forces were well-equipped by the standards of back-line Inner Sphere troops, the utter collapse of morale and high-level coordination brought about by ORDI spy actions and the general opposition by civilians meant that many Mandate forces chose not to fight, with only a few exceptions occurring. However, these victories were not without consequences, the capture of so many systems forcing the Republic and its allies to further dilute troops and supplies from other fronts to the point that the majority of the Aurigan and Taurian contributions to the war effort are tied up in garrisoning the now thirteen systems held by the ORDI's Periphery members.
A fantastic victory by any measure of the word, ORDI troops having gouged out a great chunk from the Mandate's exposed flank, the capture of so many systems was all but drowned out by news of the war on Victoria.
Codenamed Hades by those same people who dubbed the overall operation Pluto in the first place, Hades soon proved to be an appropriately ominous moniker for the continued invasion of the Celestial Mandate's capital, Victoria. First invading during the final weeks of 3046's second quarter, ORDI forces began Q3 with a good third of the planet's capital, Barns, captured, as well as two of the five satellite cities surrounding the underground metropolis despite fierce resistance from fanatical Mandate soldiers. Forced into urban combat with the defenders with no air or long-range artillery support due to the subterranean nature of Victoria's cities, the fighting was savage and bloody; casualty rates for ORDI formations across Victoria higher than anywhere else in the Mandate bar Pojos.
Understanding that the capture of Victoria, and the Mandate's leaders, would render the nation's surrender all but inevitable, the Helghan Republic committed itself to see the task done; every spare drop of fuel, box of bullets, and squad of infantry thrown into the fray. For its part, the Mandate responded in kind; its defence growing more determined with every metre of ground lost and drop of blood spilt, civilians as young as fourteen pressed into service across the planet with locally manufactured Gyrojet weaponry and countless anti-power armour weapons deployed. Over the next three months, the fighting on Victoria only grew more bitter as both sides intensified their efforts, neither able to gain a decisive advantage despite their investment and casualties mounting by the day.
Unsurprisingly, Victoria's civilian population suffered the most from the ongoing conflict, entire districts reduced to rubble, tens of thousands rendered homeless, and strict rationing imposed across the planet. Medicine and water, too, became an issue, ORDI supply lines further constricting thanks to the need to prevent starvation, dehydration, and other deaths from ravaging those inhabiting the territory it controlled. However, despite the ferocity of the MAF's defence, the sheer firepower of the ORDI combined with its technological edge saw the balance of power slowly but steadily tip in its favour; every lost factory further limiting the Mandate's ability to counter ORDI heavy metal. After several months of bitter fighting, ORDI forces across Victoria finally managed a breakthrough, a dozen cities, including Barns' last satellite city, falling like dominos over two weeks. Dramatically weakened by this catastrophic failure, Barns' defenders soon found themselves at the cutting edge of a killing thrust; the bold actions of a joint Taurian-Canopian battlemech force allowed Helghan and Aurigan power armour troopers to bloodily seize the armoured bunker that played host to the Mandate's ruling council.
With the capture of the command bunker and the raising of the ORDI flag over Barns' shattered core, organised resistance throughout the city effectively ceased to exist; sporadic fighting continued for several days as units fought on their own initiative, but the bulk of the Mandate Armed Forces and their militia surrendering. Of the six council members who started the Mandate's civil war, only three survived to be captured by ORDI forces. No doubt thinking that death was better than dishonour, or, more likely, afraid of what would be done to them by victorious rebel forces should they be captured alive and handed over, two were found dead from suicide shortly after the bunker fell; the pair of noblemen, one being the head of the Maskirovka, having retreated to their respective offices when the first ORDI troops breached the perimeter. Meanwhile, the third's body was discovered hours after the bunker's fall in a secret tunnel leading to the city's underground maintenance tunnels. Heavily damaged by the fighting above, the tunnel's ventilation systems had failed sometime earlier and allowed unbreathable gases to pool, suffocating the noblewoman and her entourage as they attempted to escape the city.
The capture of the Mandate's ruling council proved to be a significant turning point in the battle for Victoria; the three surviving nobles were eventually convinced to order units across the planet to surrender. With their capital lost, their rulers dead or captured, and morale at rock bottom across the board, MAF generals proved only too happy to wave the white flag, Victoria's remaining cities declared open cities over September's last few weeks and occupied by ORDI forces in the days following. Much to the surprise of the Republic's more cynical inhabitants, Celestial Empress Romano Liao and her thirteen-year-old son were also found alive and relatively unharmed during the same period. Imprisoned in her palace years earlier by the coupists, Romano Liao had been moved to a secure location in Victoria's backwoods shortly before the ORDI invaded and kept alive to provide the occasional public appearance (from a distance) to bolster morale. While the Canopian unit that found her reported only minor health issues resulting from the disruptions caused by the planetary invasion, the initial psychological assessment conducted by their medics painted a much darker picture of untreated mental illnesses exacerbated by her treatment. In contrast, Sun-Tzu Liao, her son, was found to be both physically healthy and mentally well, albeit lacking in socialisation with children his own age due to isolation and understandably lacking in trust.
Effect
- Too many to list, lol
Design and Requisition
--[x] Battlecruiser
Code:
AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
* CUSTOM WEAPONS
Class/Model/Name: Battlecruiser
Tech: Inner Sphere / 3067
Vessel Type: WarShip
Rules: Level 3, Standard design
Rules Set: AeroTech2
Mass: 1,000,000 tons
K-F Drive System: (Unknown)
Length: 905 meters
Power Plant: *Custom Engine*
Safe Thrust: 4
Maximum Thrust: 6
Armor Type: Standard
Armament:
92 Primitive H-ER Laser*
56 H-Laser AMS*
20 Improved PTC*
60 Apollo*
40 Rotary AC/5
20 Gauss Rifle
96 Arc Cannon*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name: Battlecruiser
Mass: 1,000,000 tons
Equipment: Mass
Power Plant: *Custom Engine* 204,000.00
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 4
Maximum Thrust: 6
Kearny-Fuchida Hyperdrive: *I-Warp Drive* (Integrity = 20) 384,600.00
Jump Sail: No Sail (Fusion-Charged K-F) .00
Structural Integrity: 105 105,000.00
Total Heat Sinks: 12,100 Double 11,417.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 20,432.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters: 2,500.00
Fire Control Computers: 13,700.00
Food & Water: (180 days supply) 947.00
Hyperpulse Generator: 50.00
Armor Type: Standard (906 total armor pts) 2,099.00
Capital Scale Armor Pts
Location: L / R
Fore: 166
Fore-Left/Right: 151/151
Aft-Left/Right: 151/151
Aft: 136
Cargo:
Bay 1: Small Craft (18) with 6 doors 3,600.00
Fighters (96) with 16 doors 14,400.00
Bay 2: Large Naval Comms-Scanner Suite (1) 500.00
Bay 3: Cargo (1) with 2 doors 60,000.00
Bay 4: Shield (12) 12,000.00
DropShip Capacity: 20 Docking Hardpoints 20,000.00
Life Boats: 180 (7 tons each) 1,260.00
Crew and Passengers:
100 Officers (84 minimum) 1,000.00
200 Crew (145 minimum) 1,400.00
220 Gunners (194 minimum) 1,540.00
250 Marine Battle Armor Troopers/Elementals 1,750.00
282 Bay Personnel .00
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 Primitive H-ER Laser* Nose 4(40) 4(40) 4(40) -- 90 25.00
14 H-Laser AMS* Nose -- -- -- -- 98 21.00
5 Primitive H-ER Laser* Nose 4(40) 4(40) 4(40) -- 90 25.00
5 Primitive H-ER Laser* Nose 4(40) 4(40) 4(40) -- 90 25.00
5 Improved PTC* Nose 5(50) 5(50) -- -- 50 30.00
5 Apollo*(100 msls) Nose 15 15 15 -- 45 1,500.00
5 Apollo*(100 msls) Nose 15 15 15 -- 45 1,500.00
5 Rotary AC/5(400 rounds) Nose 10(100)10(100) -- -- 30 70.00
5 Rotary AC/5(400 rounds) Nose 10(100)10(100) -- -- 30 70.00
5 Gauss Rifle(160 rounds) Nose 8(75) 8(75) 8(75) -- 5 95.00
5 Apollo*(100 msls) Nose 15 15 15 -- 45 1,500.00
4 Arc Cannon* FL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
4 Arc Cannon* FL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
4 Primitive H-ER Laser* FL/R 3(32) 3(32) 3(32) -- 144 40.00
4 Arc Cannon* FL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
4 Primitive H-ER Laser* FL/R 3(32) 3(32) 3(32) -- 144 40.00
4 Arc Cannon* FL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
4 Arc Cannon* FL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
4 Arc Cannon* FL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
5 Primitive H-ER Laser* L/RBS 4(40) 4(40) 4(40) -- 180 50.00
14 H-Laser AMS* L/RBS -- -- -- -- 196 42.00
5 Primitive H-ER Laser* L/RBS 4(40) 4(40) 4(40) -- 180 50.00
5 Primitive H-ER Laser* L/RBS 4(40) 4(40) 4(40) -- 180 50.00
5 Improved PTC* L/RBS 5(50) 5(50) -- -- 100 60.00
5 Apollo*(100 msls) L/RBS 15 15 15 -- 90 3,000.00
5 Apollo*(100 msls) L/RBS 15 15 15 -- 90 3,000.00
5 Rotary AC/5(400 rounds) L/RBS 10(100)10(100) -- -- 60 140.00
5 Rotary AC/5(400 rounds) L/RBS 10(100)10(100) -- -- 60 140.00
5 Gauss Rifle(160 rounds) L/RBS 8(75) 8(75) 8(75) -- 10 190.00
5 Apollo*(100 msls) L/RBS 15 15 15 -- 90 3,000.00
4 Arc Cannon* AL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
4 Arc Cannon* AL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
4 Primitive H-ER Laser* AL/R 3(32) 3(32) 3(32) -- 144 40.00
4 Arc Cannon* AL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
4 Primitive H-ER Laser* AL/R 3(32) 3(32) 3(32) -- 144 40.00
4 Arc Cannon* AL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
4 Arc Cannon* AL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
4 Arc Cannon* AL/R 32 32 32 32 960 9,600.00
5 Primitive H-ER Laser* Aft 4(40) 4(40) 4(40) -- 90 25.00
14 H-Laser AMS* Aft -- -- -- -- 98 21.00
5 Primitive H-ER Laser* Aft 4(40) 4(40) 4(40) -- 90 25.00
5 Primitive H-ER Laser* Aft 4(40) 4(40) 4(40) -- 90 25.00
5 Improved PTC* Aft 5(50) 5(50) -- -- 50 30.00
5 Apollo*(100 msls) Aft 15 15 15 -- 45 1,500.00
5 Apollo*(100 msls) Aft 15 15 15 -- 45 1,500.00
5 Rotary AC/5(400 rounds) Aft 10(100)10(100) -- -- 30 70.00
5 Rotary AC/5(400 rounds) Aft 10(100)10(100) -- -- 30 70.00
5 Gauss Rifle(160 rounds) Aft 8(75) 8(75) 8(75) -- 5 95.00
5 Apollo*(100 msls) Aft 15 15 15 -- 45 1,500.00
1 Lot Spare Parts (0.30%) 3,000.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: Heat: 14,568 999,999.00
Tons Left: 1.00
Calculated Factors:
Total Cost: 14,988,092,648 C-Bills
Battle Value: 234,572
Cost per BV: 63,895.49
Weapon Value: 103,724 (Ratio = .44)
Damage Factors: SRV = 10,813; MRV = 10,160; LRV = 7,134; ERV = 2,722
Maintenance: Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 837,795
(130,199 Structure, 295,060 Life Support, 412,536 Weapons)
Support Points (SP) = 623,460 (74% of MPV)
BattleForce2: Not applicable--[X] 1mt Factory Ship
Code:
Handyman-class Factory Ship
Mass: 1,000,000 tons
Use: Factory Ship
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 3046
Mass: 1,000,000
Battle Value: 35,532
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-F
Cost: 10,936,408,000 C-bills
Dimensions
Length: 890 meters
Width: 317 meters
Height: 253 meters
Safe Thrust: 2
Maximum Thrust: 3
Sail Integrity: 5
KF Drive Integrity: 21
Heat Sinks: 535 (1070)
Structural Integrity: 90
Armor (Ferro-Carb)
Nose: 325
Fore Sides: 269/269
Aft Sides: 239/239
Aft: 153
Cargo
Bay 1: Small Craft (36) 6 Doors
Bay 2: Industrial Bay (300000.0 tons/shares with Cargo) 8 Doors
Cargo Bay (300000.0 tons/shares with Industrial)
Bay 3: Standard Repair Facility (Pressurized) (20,000)2 Doors
Bay 4: 12 Prototype Gravity Lifts (2400 ton deployment capacity) (15000 tons)2 Doors
Ammunition:
None
Dropship Capacity: 3
Grav Decks: 0
Escape Pods: 98
Life Boats: 100
Crew: 60 officers, 294 enlisted/non-rated, 52 gunners, 180 bay personnel, 150 factory operators/miscellaneous, 50 marines
Notes: Equipped with
5 Mobile Field Base
1 Satellite Imager (Hyperspectral Imager)
1 Naval Comm-Scanner Suite (Small)
5 Field Kitchen
25 Communications Equipment (1 ton)
5 MASH Equipment (1 theater)
1,800 tons of ferro-carbide armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (106 Heat)
6 Laser AMS 42 2(18) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
8 Large Laser 64 6(64) 6(64) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
FRS/FLS (68 Heat)
4 Laser AMS 28 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
5 Large Laser 40 4(40) 4(40) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
RBS/LBS (136 Heat)
8 Laser AMS 56 2(24) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
10 Large Laser 80 8(80) 8(80) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
ARS/ALS (68 Heat)
4 Laser AMS 28 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
5 Large Laser 40 4(40) 4(40) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
Aft (106 Heat)
6 Laser AMS 42 2(18) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
8 Large Laser 64 6(64) 6(64) 0(0) 0(0) Laser--[x] Gauss artillery
Code:
SAHLR - Spinal Artillery Hovercraft/Long Range
Type: Superheavy Hovercraft
Mass: 80,000 tons
Technology Base: Mixed (Experimental)
Introduced: 3046
Mass: 80,000
Battle Value: 64,750
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-E
Cost: 3,505,157,712 C-bills
Transit Mechanism: Superheavy Anti-Gravity
Dimensions:
Length: 250 meters
Width: 80
Height: 70
Power Plant: Heph Class 300,000 Fusion Plant
Cruise Speed: 4
Flank Speed: 6
Heat Sinks: 1,471 (2,942)
Structural Integrity: 26
Armor* (Standard Scale)
Nose: 413
Sides: 357/357
Aft: 305
Equipment
Improved Energy Shield (1,000 tons | 800-C points)
Fire Control Systems (4,495 tons)
Cargo
Bay 1: Spare Parts (10,000.0 tons) 1 Door
Bay 2: Fighter (4) (600 tons) 2 Door
Bay 3: ASF supplies (4,000.0 tons) 1 Door
Ammunition:
800 rounds of Arrow IV ammunition (160 tons),
250 rounds of Piranha ammunition (50 tons),
250 rounds of Cruise Missile/90 ammunition (11,250 tons),
12,000 rounds of LRM 20 ammunition (2,000 tons)
50 rounds of Spinal Gauss Artillery ammunition (500 tons)
Crew: 30 officers, 73 gunners, 8 bay personnel, 50 BA marines
Notes: Mounts 89.5 tons of standard armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (53 Heat)
5 Laser AMS 35 2(15) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
1 Spinal Gauss Artillery** 18 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Artillery
RS/LS Fwd (770 Heat)
5 Laser AMS 35 2(15) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
5 PPC 50 5(50) 5(50) 0(0) 0(0) PPC
20 Medium Laser 60 10(100) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
10 Arrow IV 460 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Artillery
4 Cruise Missile/90
Arrow IV Ammo (200 shots)
Cruise Missile/90 Ammo (50 shots)
20 LRM 20 120 24(240) 24(240) 24(240) 0(0) LRM
LRM 20 Ammo (2400 shots)
5 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha) 45 15(150) 15(150) 15(150) 0(0) Sub-Capital Missile
Piranha Ammo (50 shots)
RS/LS Aft (770 Heat)
5 Laser AMS 35 2(15) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
5 PPC 50 5(50) 5(50) 0(0) 0(0) PPC
20 Medium Laser 60 10(100) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
10 Arrow IV 460 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Artillery
4 Cruise Missile/90
Arrow IV Ammo (200 shots)
Cruise Missile/90 Ammo (50 shots)
20 LRM 20 120 24(240) 24(240) 24(240) 0(0) LRM
LRM 20 Ammo (2400 shots)
5 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha) 45 15(150) 15(150) 15(150) 0(0) Sub-Capital Missile
Piranha Ammo (50 shots)
Aft (760 Heat)
5 Laser AMS 35 2(15) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
20 Medium Laser 60 10(100) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
5 PPC 50 5(50) 5(50) 0(0) 0(0) PPC
20 LRM 20 120 24(240) 24(240) 24(240) 0(0) LRM
LRM 20 Ammo (2400 shots)
5 Cruise Missile/90 450 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Artillery
Cruise Missile/90 Ammo (50 shots)
5 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha) 45 15(150) 15(150) 15(150) 0(0) Sub-Capital Missile
Piranha Ammo (50 shots)
** I'll come up with rules for Spinal Gauss Artillery weapons laterNews and Rumours
Helghan Republic
Unsurprisingly, the news from New Oslo continues to be upsetting compared to that coming from Operation Pluto. While Helghan troops succeeded in overthrowing and/or suborning the equatorial nations and their religious figures, many terror groups formed in response to the martyrdom of several religious figures and began terrorising the countryside in service to their appalling ideals. Rabidly misogynistic and holding to a patriarchal creed that deems women inherently sinful and responsible for the lethally cold state of the planet, most groups found themselves immediately set upon by Helghan police forces and destroyed. However, most is not all, and those that survived the subsequent anti-terror actions coalesced into a single group that quickly dubbed itself the Brotherhood of the Righteous.
Throughout Q3 3046, the Brotherhood of the Righteous quickly grew in both strength and ambition, disaffected men from all classes reinventing the methods of stochastic terrorism from first principles as they terrorised the countryside. Aided by sympathetic communities, the Brotherhood would strike at night against those who associated with the Helghan Republic or did not hold their wives and daughters to the strictest interpretation of the planet's dominant religion, families waking to find burning effigies and crosses outside their homes, or worse. In response to these actions, Republic forces on the planet redoubled their efforts against the group, a number of the Brotherhood's cells crushed and high-profile figures arrested or killed. Despite these efforts, however, the Brotherhood proved to be a resilient foe, its lack of central organisation and broad sympathy meaning that no blow did more than slow the progress of its crimes.
Continuing from last quarter, refugee numbers from the Celestial Mandate have only increased over the intervening months. According to reports from those on the frontlines, numbers have doubled from 300,000 a year to 600,000 a year. A dramatic increase in a very short span of time, the ORDIHCR has begun to tap into stockpiles of goods in an effort to prevent resourcing issues in the near future
Predicted Refugee Acceptance Breakdown For 3046 (+-5%)
Helghan Republic: 2,880,000
Magistracy of Canopus: 1,700,000
Taurian Concordat: 700,000
Aurigan Coalition: 300,000
Aurigan Coalition
Eager to bring the invasion of the Celestial Mandate to a successful conclusion, the July-September period saw the Aurigan Coalition dispatch large numbers of light combat and support vehicles into Mandate space. Manufactured across the Aurigan state, the vehicles were met with great enthusiasm and immediately deployed against Mandate positions. Though not intended for frontline combat, the surge of scout vehicles and supply transports has significantly improved the information-gathering ability of rebel forces and eased their supply situation.
Taurian Concordat
In contrast to the Aurigan Coalition, whose focus lay in the Celestial Mandate, the Taurian Concordat spent 3046's third quarter supplying rebel groups cropping up throughout the Federated Suns' Outback with heavy weapons. Having learned several important lessons from last quarter's troubled delivery of combat vehicles, the Taurian Concordat acted with utmost caution when delivering the vast hoard of SRMs and other anti-vehicle weapons it had acquired, the ultimate result being the slow but successful delivery of enough arms to outfit a handful of regiments. While not as dramatic a victory as the deployment of more combat vehicles would have been, the solid stockpile of heavy weapons built up by rebel groups has substantially bolstered their position in the region, and training by Helghan trainers has honed their skills to a lethal edge.
Magistracy of Canopus
Doubtlessly seeing the Celestial Mandate as a beast on the verge of death, the Magistracy of Canopus refocused its efforts on supplying Outback rebels with combat vehicles akin to those attempted by the Concordat in May. Unfortunately, like the Concordat's own deliveries, the increasing number of AFFS troops deployed to the region combined with ever-growing scrutiny of traditional smuggling routes meant that Canopian supply runs were only partly successful, fully half of the intended shipments not even making it to AFFS space. Nonetheless, what combat vehicles did make it into the Outback were warmly received by the various rebel groups that call the region home, the addition of armour stiffening their combat arms in preparation for their eventual revolt.
Capellan Confederation
Building off of prior efforts and no doubt hoping to improve the odds of rebel fighters against their loyalist counterparts, the Capellan Confederation began Q3 by dispatching a huge number of small arms into the Celestial Mandate. With ORDI aid into the Mandate decidedly obvious, the Capellan Confederation did not attempt to hide the source of the weapons and instead handed over a large number of factory-fresh assault rifles and other weapons to rebel forces throughout the state's Coreward region. A mix of tried and tested designs as well as brand new ones on par with any conventional weapon from Helghan design bureaus, the influx of firearms provided rebel forces with a glut of firepower, enabling them to equip large numbers of volunteers and rapidly re-equip units that had expended their ammunition.
Similarly, Capellan attempts to supply Outback rebel groups with heavy metal enjoyed a surprising degree of success. Using a combination of covert purchasing across the Inner Sphere and creative bookkeeping, a full company's worth of mechs, ranging in tonnage from 35 to a full 55, were procured and delivered to rebel groups deep within the Outback. Despite the elevated state of alert that the FedSuns counter-intelligence wing had placed itself in since the last smuggling attempt, the Confederation proved able to slip the mechs through border controls undetected, thanks in large part to the use of sympathetic intermediaries. Upon delivery, the mechs were eagerly claimed by the rebels, who saw them as a much-needed boost to their cause.
Continuing its multi-pronged strategy in the face of the MAF's continued collapse, the Capellan Confederation launched numerous attacks against Mandate worlds throughout the July-September period. Aimed at some of the Mandate's more fortified worlds like a sledgehammer, the Wolfs Dragoons seized Raphael, Primus, and Prix within only a few days of one another; the elite mercenary unit well worth the price it commands, going by its success rate. Similarly, CCAF troops supported by elements of the Eridani Light Horse struck out from Kasdach seeking blood, the assembled hosts driving deep into the Mandate thanks, in part, to their use of JumpShips mobility. Aided by widespread surrenders in the face of intense local uprisings and their own overwhelming firepower, this deep thrust reached its maximum extent by mid-September with the system of Turin falling after only a brief battle for control of the planetary capital.
Celestial Mandate
Between the invasion of Victoria (ending in the planet's capture by ORDI forces), the sudden attacks by the Free Worlds League, the continued impact of Helghan sabotage, and the overall sense of the Mandate's impending demise, it came as little surprise when the rebel cause proved reinvigorated come July. Supplied by numerous nations and facing off against an enemy that had been struggling for some time now, rebel forces across the Mandate made their move, five systems falling over the space of a mere two months. However, Q3 saw the first real movement by Mandate forces since Operation Pluto's start, JumpShips carrying forces from Itsbur and Lucknow arriving in Bellatrix... only to find Helghan warships on the prowl after fending off a prior attack. However, Mandate movements to Drozan were far more effective, with an attempted rebel uprising crushed only a few weeks in and one on Repulse losing steam shortly after.
| System | Status |
| Renown | Captured By Rebels |
| Jacomarle | Captured By Rebels |
| New Roland | Captured By Rebels |
| Larsha | Captured By Rebels |
| Drozan | Captured By Rebels |
Draconis Combine
According to rumours smuggled out of the Draconis Combine by independent traders, the Combine system of Avon played host to a major industrial accident in mid-September of 3046. From what little can be gleaned by Republic analysts, a factory receiving substantial investment from the Word of Blake suffered an explosion sometime in the small hours of the night. While the explosion only damaged the factory, the subsequent release of heavier-than-air gases used in various manufacturing processes killed more than three hundred people in a neighbouring town and prompted the region's governor to declare a state of emergency. While the root cause of the explosion remains unknown, initial reports from the governor's office indicate that it resulted from a failure in safety systems that were, in turn, a result of corruption in the factory's management.
Though independent from the Word of Blake, the organisation had been funding a sizable expansion of the factory and its capabilities; rumours suggest that it planned to turn it into a high-tech manufacturing hub. While damage to the factory remains limited, the explosion has seemingly cast a pall over the WOB, with the religious group's leadership publicly announcing that it will pause other expansion projects for a short time to ensure no similar accidents will occur. Following this announcement, further tragedy struck the planet when a plane crash claimed the lives of half the factory's management board.
Of particular interest to the Republic, reports from the Combine's state media outlets indicate that the reconciliation between Theodore Kurita and his father, Takashi Kurita, has continued to blossom with the formerly-estranged son promoted to the rank of Gunji-no-Kanrei in mid-August. Officially known as the Deputy of Military Affairs, the rank is the second-highest position in the entire Combine, responsible for overseeing the military and defence operations, and is only subordinate to the Coordinator himself. Earned due to his actions during the 4th and 5th Succession Wars and the Ronin Wars, the move has raised eyebrows across the Inner Sphere and beyond, with commentariat across the galaxy publicly pondering what the future holds for the Combine. Known to hold a less rigid interpretation of the Combine's Bushido code, many in the Republic have already begun to speculate on whether this could signal a change in the way the Combine approaches its foreign policy and manner of waging war, while others have expressed cynicism over Theodore's potential lifespan given the degree of traditionalism within the Combine.
Federated Suns
In rather worrisome news, reports out of the Federated Suns have revealed that work on the Augusta shipyards has proceeded exceptionally smoothly over the last few months, its first slipway officially opened by the First Prince at the end of September. Only sufficient to construct a 250,000-ton vessel, the slipway nonetheless represents a growing change in the Inner Sphere's technological development... and the threat it poses to the Periphery. While Helghan intelligence assets have not been regrown since the purge initiated by the Federated Suns some time ago, distant monitoring of the slipway has revealed some manner of activity beginning already, and many Helghan analysts suspect that the AFFS will attempt to challenge Helghan naval supremacy over the next few years.
However, all this pales in comparison to the news from the Federated Suns' Outback region. According to both ComStar news outlets and intelligence operatives embedded throughout the region, Keuterville's local Neo-Jacobinists have shifted from being merely against the local planetary government to being against the government of the Federated Suns as it currently stands. In their attempt to enforce the new laws against the political group and arrest its local leaders, the planetary government seems to have inadvertently started the very crisis it had hoped to forestall; the brewing civil war on the planet exploding into new and terrible life as men and women across the planet took up arms.
Joined by local Marxist-Leninist-Kerenskyist (MLK) factions to Maoist-Gaullist and Blanquist groups, the new government has rallied around the cause of dismantling the entrenched elites across the Suns and establishing a new order; ORDI-supplied equipment providing them with an edge during the first few battles of the planetary civil war. In response to Keuterville's revolution, several neighbouring systems have also seen their own uprisings, with everyone from Marxist-Leninist-Kerenskyists to Sin Seda and Taurian Federalists making an appearance. Unsurprisingly, the ripple of local revolutions and the resulting civil wars has sparked a dramatic increase in tensions throughout the region, and the promised ORDI intervention looms heavily in the minds of the Republic government.
Things naturally escalated when troops dispatched by Michael Hasek-Davion arrived in-system, the mercenaries intended to back up the local government against an ill-trained rabble finding their opposition incredibly well-trained and well-organised. While information is still scarce, initial reports suggest that the intervention by Hasek-Davion troops has only inflamed matters in the region; the reputation they earned after deposing multiple governments convinced many to join the revolutionaries out of a desire for safety. Further complicating matters is the fact that the Federated Suns' government has already taken notice of the situation, with reports from spies in the region suggesting that the state is preparing to use in-region AFFS troops to put down the revolts. However, while this may be successful in crushing the Keuterville revolution given the sheer number of troops available, the potential for an all-out Outback revolt looms large, and many fear that the worst is yet to come.
Effect
- Several revolts against the Federated Suns proper have emerged across the Outback
- Decision To Come
Free Worlds League
In a speech to parliament broadcast throughout the Free Worlds League towards the end of the quarter, Captain-General Thomas Marik successfully argued to be granted greater resources with which to police the Spinward border of the nation against threats to the League's security. While the speech itself was rather anodyne and lacking in detail, reading between the lines suggests that the success of the League's probing attacks against the Celestial Mandate has generated interest in seizing what systems the FWL can. Though the League seems disinterested in starting a war with the ORDI, the deployment of military forces in systems blockaded —but not occupied— by the ORDI would almost certainly be a powder keg waiting to blow.
Map
Davao Crisis Deaths*
| Casualties | Total Dead | Unavoidable | Avoidable |
| Civilians (Est.) | 150,500+ | 66,800+ | 83,700+ |
*Next Quarter's Estimated Deaths: 4,700
Q3 Casualty Estimates
| Casualties | Total | Killed | Injured |
| Helghan Republic Armed Forces | 8,766 | 3,255 | 5,511 |
| Aurigan Coalition Military | 1,032 | 344 | 688 |
| Taurian Defence Force | 1,167 | 389 | 778 |
| Magistracy Armed Forces | 2,687 | 895 | 1,792 |
| Mandate Armed Forces (Est.) | 38,800+ | 12,900+ | 25,900+ |
| Civilians (Est.) | 160,800+ | 153,000+ | 7,800+ |
Casualties To Date**
| Casualties | Total | Killed | Injured |
| Helghan Republic Armed Forces | 29,206 | 9,087 | 20,119 |
| Aurigan Coalition Military | 3,590 | 1,111 | 2,479 |
| Taurian Defence Force | 3,774 | 1,171 | 2,603 |
| Magistracy Armed Forces | 5,691 | 2,021 | 4,421 |
| Mandate Armed Forces (Est.) | 60,300+ | 19,300+ | 41,000+ |
| Civilians (Est.) | 747,100+ | 339,300+ | 401,200+ |
**This is excluding the casualties caused by the civil war since that'd be a mindboggling number by Battletech standards.
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