Clan Jade Mission : Bronze Anvil

Mission Instructions

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

The Battle of Broken Hope has ended. The Wolf's 16th Battle Cluster has retreated to the Kell Hounds' underground base at MT. CANARFON, NAV PI. Our aerotechs have found the base and pounded it to ruin. Their 'Mech bay has collapsed crushing most of their 'Mechs inside. They have refused to surrender. Even now the coward Dwillt Radick, his 16th, and his Inner Sphere cohorts, the Kell Hounds, are fleeing into the wastes.

Go to NAV PI and INSPECT the fleeing convoy, and hunt the cowards, Radick and the Kell Hound staff. IDENTIFY Galaxy Commander DWILLT RADICK'S 'MECH and DESTROY it. Find the Kell Hound STAFF VEHICLES and DESTROY them as well. Bloody the talon of the Falcon, send the Wolf and the Hound to hell.

Objectives

Situations and Aftermaths

Ten days of fighting in the frozen wastes of Australarctica had taken a heavy toll on both the Jade Falcons and the Wolves. Two Galaxies of Falcons had dropped onto the planet--five front-line Clusters and four garrison Clusters. Now only three front-line Clusters and two of the Falcons' garrison Clusters remained operational. Additionally, severe ammunition shortages had reduced the effectiveness of all Falcon combat units and left two of the Falcon Clusters operating at half their capability. But the fighting had significantly weakened the Wolf forces also. Six Stars of 'Mechs had been destroyed or rendered inoperational, and three Elemental Points had perished as well. The Kell Hounds had lost five BattleMech lances.

Despite their losses, both sides remained fully capable of destroying one another, and neither side could afford to pull out of the battle. The Falcon forces represented that Clan's only intact units remaining--and the Jade Falcons' only hope for destroying the Wolves on the battlefield. For the Wolves, the stakes were even higher. Khan Phelan's forces carried the genetic legacy of the Wolf Clan, and so a defeat could spell the permanent end of the Clan.

Both commanders realized that the fighting would leave one of the forces destroyed, and quite possibly both. For a brief period, an uneasy calm fell over the battlefield, as if both commanders were reluctant to resume the battle. Then the roar of aerospace fighters broke the stillness.

Aftermath

As the MechWarriors of Clan Wolf watched from their protected positions in the hills, Wolf aerospace fighters swarmed through the frigid air. Using missiles, lasers, and PPCs, the fighters unleashed a hellish rain of death down onto the Falcon forces. Flight after flight of Falcon aerospace fighters scrambled from their DropShips to defend the Falcon 'Mechs, but almost immediately they ran into waves of Kell Hound fighters. Within minutes, a tangled mass of fighters filled the skies over Broken Hope, twisting and turning amid the angry, stabbing beams of PPCs and lasers and the burning dots of tracers. As the Falcon fighters tried in vain to destroy the mercenary fighters, the Wolf aerospace wings continued their strafing runs, streaking over the Falcon command center then disappearing into the jagged hills, then returning to inflict further damage on their targets. Soon large clouds of steam, smoke, flame, and shrapnel filled the air, creating a black fog that obscured the Falcon positions. Open commlink channels crackled with the terse commands of aerospace pilots and the cries of wounded and dying MechWarriors.

When the last Falcon aerospace fighter fell from the sky, the Wolf fighters ceased their onslaught and Khan Phelan led the 'Mechs of the Wolves and Kell Hounds toward the Falcon positions. There they found a scene of overwhelming devastation. The twisted forms of blackened 'Mechs littered the ground, and small fires seemed to burn everywhere, attracting small groups of Falcon MechWarriors huddling against the cold.

It was ended. The Jade Falcons, who had come to Morges to destroy the Wolves, had themselves been mauled. The bloodied Wolf, Warden to the last, had finally found the road home. The brutal campaign called the Refusal War was over.