Clan Wolf Mission : Temper Edge

Mission Instructions

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

The Falcon's powerful 305th Assault cluster has pushed far into the forests of Findley Province on Baker 3's southern continent, Lowa. Our 341st Assault has countered and engaged.

During the enemy drop, a modified Tarantula, T5 reconnaissance variant, was able to successfully intercept and decode a transmission that contains a list of intended enemy attack corridors. The T5 was able to make it into the cover of the snow blanketed Donner Rift.

The T5 is in the field at NAV RHO, wounded, a target of enemy artillery. You must ESCORT a REPAIR VEHICLE to the site, then assist the T5. DEFEND him and the REPAIR VEHICLE until repairs are complete. Then you must ESCORT the T5 to NAV SIGMA for a dustoff.

Objectives

Situations and Aftermaths

Outside the cockpit of Star Colonel Ramon Sender's Gargoyle, the waters of Baker 3's hot springs bubbled, but he did not notice. Other things occupied his mind--like the rising heat in his 'Mech, the precarious footing provided by the hardened layers of mud and lime underfoot, and the odd branches of petrified wood that broke off the long-submerged trees as the 341st Assault Cluster marched along the bottom of the Baker River. Sender checked his heat display again. The computer painted a solid line that ran from green through yellow and just into the red area of the computer's screen. Sender cleared his mind. One way or another, none of it would matter in a minute.

Sender looked over to his left, where Khan Natasha Kerensky's Dire Wolf kept up with his Gargoyle stride for stride. Sender could not help but grin to himself as his 'Mech's cockpit broke the surface of the river. It wasn't just the thought of being out of the boiling river that brought the smile to his unshaven face. It was the anticipation of combat and the adrenaline it sent pumping through his veins. In the distance he spotted the communications dish of the Falcon command center. In his excitement he almost missed the Falcon Kit Fox that wheeled and stood watching as the 341st Assault Cluster began to rise out of the river, the hot metal skins of their 'Mechs emitting clouds of steam. Without thinking, Sender raised the Gargoyle's right arm. A bright blue flash arced from the 'Mech's arm and the head of the Kit Fox exploded. Then Sender opened a channel to Natasha. "You know he has broadcast a warning."

Natasha Kerensky answered the Star Colonel's concern by firing her Widow Maker's autocannon at a Falcon Adder that had just emerged from a clump of trees. The depleted uranium shells tore into the smaller 'Mech's torso, cut through its myomer muscle bundles, twisted and blackened the internal structure and fusion engine and neatly opened its back before splintering an oak tree that stood thirty meters behind the remains of the Kit Fox. A dark plume of smoke rose from the Adder. "I want them to come," Khan Natasha said. "I want all of them to feel how cold hell can be."

Situation

For years, Baker 3's hot springs and lush forests had made it a favorite recreation spot for merchants traveling through the area. These same geographical features that had been a source of pleasure for many would spell death for the Jade Falcons' Jade Eyrie Cluster, thanks to Khan Natasha Kerensky's daring battle plan.

The Wolf 341st Assault Galaxy landed 60 miles south of the Falcon command center, at the edge of Lowa, Baker 3's southern continent. With the purple Ylrebmik Ocean at their backs, the Wolves split up. Half of the force made its way into Lowa's dense forest to seek out and destroy Jade Falcon patrols. Meanwhile, the remaining Wolf 'Mechs entered the hot-spring fed waters of the Baker River and began a slow march along its bottom. With the super-heated water of the river masking the 'Mechs' heat signatures, Khan Natasha hoped to outflank the Falcons and surprise them.

Aftermath

The battle on Baker 3 proved yet another stunning success for the Wolf Clan. In the end, the Wolf forces suffered only 21 percent losses, while the Jade Falcons suffered 98 percent losses. Unfortunately for the Wolves, the MechWarriors of every lost Wolf BattleMech were killed.

For the Falcons, the battle seemed lost almost from the start. Star Colonel Buhallin sent numerous patrols from the Falcon's 305th Assault Cluster to destroy the Wolf 'Mechs in Lowa's forest, but none had any discernible success against the Wolves, who employed hit-and-run tactics to great effect. The forest's dense vegetation severely limited the Falcons' ability to target the Wolves, and eventually the 'Mechs of the 305th--armed almost exclusively with ballistic weapons--found themselves low on ammunition. In growing frustration, Buhallin sent aerospace fighters after the Wolf 'Mechs, as well as more Falcon BattleMechs, until his forces were stretched across the continent and his command center woefully underdefended.

At that point, the second Wolf force emerged from points along the Baker River and struck at the Falcon command center and the undefended flank of the 305th. Fifty Falcon OmniMechs and twenty-seven fighters were destroyed by the Wolves that day. Only two Points of Falcon Elementals managed to make it back to their landing zone for extraction.