Clan Jade Mission : Mirror Cage

Mission Instructions

--- Incoming Coded Message ---
Kurultai GalxB_7th - Iron level clearance
- disseminate by need only -

The Wolf has committed to a two-pronged assault on the planet Zoetermeer. Their intention seems to be to gain control of our Orbital Chemical Engineering Facilities and the Nalon Spaceport near the city of Salyn. The 2nd Wolf Cavaliers have dropped and are moving toward friendly positions inside the city.

We must stall their advance at all costs.

Probes have detected a single spheroid DROPSHIP in the Wolf rear undergoing field repairs to its fusion core. Perform a STRIKE against it while its defenses are off-line. We hope that the enemy will perceive this action as a prelude to a large commitment of our forces to the flank, and thus alleviate some of the pressure on the elements of the 10th Provisional Garrison at the Nalon Spaceport.

Objectives

Situations and Aftermaths

On September 30, 3057, Star Colonel Ulric Kerensky led his newly created Tau Galaxy in an assault on the Jade Falcon planet of Zoetermeer. All of the young and impressionable warriors in Tau Galaxy were Crusaders by inclination, but they were also Wolves by blood, and were therefore bound by Clan honor and tradition to follow their former ilKhan in a fight to the death against their fellow Crusaders in Clan Jade Falcon. Star Captain Vladimir, a prominent Crusader chosen as Ulric's second-in-command, challenged the legitimacy of Ulric's orders along with many other young Wolves, but to no avail. Ulric had acted within his rights as a Star Colonel in placing the Wolf Crusaders under his own command and transferring warriors with Warden sympathies to the command of saKhan Phelan Ward. By setting Crusader against Crusader, Ulric hoped to cripple not only the Jade Falcon enemy, but the entire Crusader movement within the Clans.

Ulric chose his first target well. A week before the beginning of the Trial of Refusal, he had discovered that the Falcons were converting one of Zoetermeer's orbital chemical engineering facilities into a small factory for DropShip parts. An orbital repair facility so close to the truce line would allow the Falcons to attack deep inside the Inner Sphere without being hamstrung by a long wait for replacement DropShip parts from the Clan home worlds. The Falcons' 10th Provisional Garrison, assigned to defend the factory against Inner Sphere raiding parties, had stationed the bulk of its forces near the Nalon Spaceport in the seaside city of Salyn. A single Star of 'Mechs and two aerospace Stars remained to defend the orbital facility. Ulric planned a strategy that would allow him to destroy both the facility and the 10th Garrison Cluster.

Before opening the bidding for the Zoetermeer assault, Ulric ordered Star Commodore Radick to issue a batchall to the forces defending the orbital facility once the Wolf forces bid to attack the planet itself were engaged in battle. With the bulk of the Falcon forces  fighting the Wolves, the troops defending the orbital facility would be left without reinforcements, and would prove easy pickings for Radick's warriors.

Aftermath

It took three Elementals to lift the ferro-steel girder that had trapped MechWarrior Bozarth's Viper. The MechWarrior was unconscious inside the partly crushed cockpit, but Bozarth had been lucky. He had survived his first test by fire and would soon be fit to pilot a BattleMech once again. Almost a third of the 11th Wolf Regulars had not fared so well.

The Wolves had won the day, but at a staggering cost. The 11th Regulars had lost more than 40 percent of their 'Mechs, the 21st Battle Cluster had suffered 32 percent casualties, and the 4th Striker Cluster had lost 39 percent of its troops. The technicians would need at  least two weeks of constant work to bring the units back to an acceptable 70 percent readiness level. Star Colonel Ulric Kerensky's victory on the southern continent had proved less costly; the 2nd Wolf Cavaliers sustained only 15 percent equipment losses and  3 percent casualties.

The assault on the orbital facility was another Wolf victory. Star Commodore Radick's  batchall took the 10th's commander completely by surprise. He had not included the facility in the original bidding because he had believed that the 10th itself was the Wolves' sole target. This oversight cost the Falcon commander his chance to reinforce the facility, and   Radick's forces swiftly overwhelmed the three defending Falcon Stars.