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The much anticipated continuation of the Federated Commonwealth counter-offensive against the Clans began in February 3059.

Hanse and Morgan Hasek-Davion had gathered 50 of their best RCTs near the border with the Jade Falcons, reinforce by extra artillery and Battle-Armor units. All units had been upgraded to the latest technology and the assault had received a full naval support with WarShips (80% of the Federated Navy being deployed for this operation), Pocket WarShips, Assault DropShips and extra units of ASFs.

The remaining WarShips, the second echelon regiments and mercenary forces would remain behind to protect the borders.

The delay before launching the attack came from all sort of logistical and organizational problems. For example, in order to maximize the impact, the Federated Commonwealth took the risk of producing two vessels of their newest and still untested designs, even before fixing the design quirks. Other units had to go through a complete retrofit of existing units like one Mjolnir that had serious problems with the intra-system engines.

Another basic "problem" was that the moving of so many RCTs took time and this without taking into account the time spent upgrading the units and re-training the personnel, even if it had been backed up by the massive industrial capability of the Federated Commonwealth. Luckily, in the two last decades, the number of JumpShips in all the Inner Sphere had grow considerably, which, unlike in the 4th​ Succession War, allowed to move so many forces at the same time with only minor disruption in trade. 

Such delays had also given a boost to the Fighters branch with more Royal grade Stukas available for the FC Navy (and for some RCTs) while the first full production run of AAMs reached the frontline units.

As with the Draconis Combine and the Concordat operations, and prior to any offensive moves, several units of the Rabid Foxes and Loki had been inserted into the targeted systems. Now, months later, had they not only identified the Falcons bases, ammunition depots and parts, but they had also prepared sabotage and assassination operations for when they would be activated. Thanks to communication through the Black Boxes, the AFFC High Command had a fairly detailed picture of the forces present. It had also been decided, from the very beginning, to attack only one Clan, in an attempt to drive it out of the Inner Sphere, or to weaken it enough to make the other Clans turn against it.

On February 23rd​, 3059, 10 systems controlled by the Jade Falcons were suddenly invaded. Each system, received the full might of 5 RCTs with extensive support. At the same time, infiltrated units were ordered to do as much damage as they could.

Black Earth, Golandrinas, Somerset, Apollo, Wotan, Maxie's Planet, Butler, Romulus, Seiduts, and Evciler had been selected because none of them was protected by more than 2 Clusters and therefore they were quickly cleared, with the Falcons losing about 3 Galaxies (out of the 10 they had in the Inner Sphere) as well as the WarShips CJF Black Talon and CJF Blue Talon, with 4 other WarShips escaping with varying degrees of damage.

Particular attention had been directed to neutralizing the Snow Raven Storm Crow Naval Pursuit Star CSR Mountbatten (Texas), CSR Kerensky's Hope (Cameron), CSR Ark Royal (Conqueror), CSR Storm Crow (Sovetskii Soyuz) and CSR Nestling (Carrack), which was stationed at Planting, and could counter-strike, even if records of Clan cooperation were nearly non-existent – with the exception of the attack on Luthien. To deal with this threat, a Strike Fleet had been gathered with several heavy Ships, the FCS Alexander Davion and the FCS Lucien Davion (Avalon), the FCS Mjolnir (Mjolnir), the FCS Fox and the FCS Ian Davion (Fox), the FCS Jaipur and the FCS Midale (New Syrtis block 2) and the FCS Invincible (Tarkad). All the Federated Commonwealth WarShips were equipped with LF and positioned at Derf.

Note.: The New Syrtis Block 2 Class is a modernization of the previous Class, with LF, AMS, DHS and Ferro-Aluminum Armor

At the last minute, the MIIO lost track of the Snow Raven combat group, which had vanished. Much later, it was discovered that the Snow Ravens had made a deal with the Ghost Bears and moved to help defending their territories in the Inner Sphere, in exchange for getting the Bears territories in the Homeworlds, with the Bears moving their entire Clan to the Inner Sphere.

Unlike in OTL, the deal between the Snow Ravens and the Ghost Bears includes the squadron of Snow Raven warships that until now patrol the area controlled by the Jade Falcons and Steel Vipers, to move to patrol and help secure the area controlled by the Ghost Bears. The helping build the Leviathans and moving the Ghost Bears population to the Inner Sphere (the OTL deal), is also included. For that the Snow Ravens receive all the Ghost Bears territories in the Homeworlds, and access to any future shipyards that the Bears built in the Inner Sphere. The reason of the different deal is caused by the inclusion of the Snow Ravens in the invasion, by then IlKhan Leo Showers.

On March 17th​, 3059, at Romulus Nadir jump-point, a big Jade Falcon force, including several WarShips emerged, immediately heading for the inhabited planet. As soon as it was detected, a message was sent to Derf. A few hours later, the Federated Commonwealth Strike Fleet also appeared at the Nadir jump-point, immediately beginning the pursuit.

Because the Jade Falcons were indeed heading towards more offensive operations, with most of the units already embarked or in their way to gathering areas, their reaction was faster than had been expected, all the Falcon Khan had to do was to change the objectives from invading new worlds to attacking where the AFFC was now.