Clan Wolf Mission : Blade Splint

Mission Instructions

- Incoming Coded Message -- Kurultai Instruction Follows -
- Decode Fang Protocol - GALxAlpha 327th: 3rd -
- Disseminate by need only -

Intelligence suspects the Falcon's 10th Provisional Garrison, anticipating our attack, has moved their headquarters to a hidden site within the city of Salyn, near the Nalon Spaceport.

If the 10th's HQ was indeed moved to the area, they will most likely have modified the city's normal plasma POWER CONVERTER to handle cryo-plasma.

You are to enter the area, follow the NAV sequence through the structures and look for the city's POWER CONVERTER, recognizable by a bright plasma flow. INSPECT it to see if it has in fact been modified for cryo-plasma conversion. If it has, DESTROY it.

Objectives

Situations and Aftermaths

"The Crusaders may be your philosophical kin, but they are not Wolves. You hate the Inner Sphere because of our teachings. We are told that they are below us, yet on every front they have adapted and are now a match for most of the Clans. Perhaps before we assault them again we should study their ways of war, lest we run the risk of being defeated just as the Falcons--your philosophical leaders--were."

--Star Colonel Ulric Kerensky, addressing the 11th Wolf Regulars before the drop to Zoetermeer.

"Bravo Star is encountering resistance along its western flank, Star Captain." Vlad scanned his Timber Wolf's tactical display and smiled grimly. Like the cowards they were, the stravag Jade Falcons were disappearing into the narrow alleys between the warehouses near Nalon Spaceport. Apparently they believed a few flimsy buildings would protect them from the wrath of the Wolf. Vlad and his unit intended to teach them otherwise.

As if to prove his point, Vlad lined up his sights on a fleeing Jade Falcon 'Mech and fired his pulse laser into the back of the machine, just as it reached the dubious shelter of a large warehouse. The enemy 'Mech shuddered and collapsed, bringing down the building's walls. A huge fireball erupted into the air as the explosion of the dying 'Mech set off the building's highly combustible contents. Vlad's smile disappeared. Cursing, he turned his  Timber Wolf toward the enemy and barked out orders over his commlink. "Recon in force to coordinates 007-9a. Engage all Falcon units, but do not pursue the enemy into the warehouses. I repeat, do not pursue. If they want us dead, my Wolves, they will have to come and get us!"

Situation

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.