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Notes: Much of this information was obtained much later. In this AU, the Overlord A3 has 2 AR-10 tubes, not 1 AR-10 and 1 Kraken. Kraken Missile does not exist at this time (invented in 3057 OTL), and there is no collaboration between the FC and the DC. To simplify things, even if Hanse Davion is still alive, the Fox class maintain that name. 

In April 3055 the first local counterattack of the Federated Commonwealth against the Clans was launched.

In the Derf system, recently occupied by the Jade Falcon Galaxy, two WarShips, the FCS Ian Davion (Fox Class) and the FCS Lisa Steiner (Mako Class) appeared at a pirate jump point, and immediately moved towards the only habitable planet, around which the JFS Hawk Eye(Aegis Class) orbited.

Before they reached weapons range, the FCS Ian Davionlaunched its DropShips - 2 Overlord A3 pocket WarShips and 3 Vengeance CV. 

Immediately, the DropShips and the Fox Corvette launched all their ASFs, a staggering flight of 144 Fighters (12 from the Fox, 12 from the Overlords and 120 from the Vengeances).

The JFS Hawk Eye launched all its ASFs in response, a tiny group by comparison of 20 Fighters. They stayed with the WarShip, while another 64 Fighters rose from the planet. When both groups merged, they advanced on the AFFC ASFs, with the WarShip slightly behind.

The lighter and more agile Federated Commonwealth units focused on the Falcon Fighters while the heavier targeted the WarShip that identifying them as the most immediate and dangerous forces started to launch Barracudas against them, while launching White Sharks at the advancing pocket WarShips, that began also returning fire.

At extreme range, both WarShips started to exchange shots, while the surviving heavy ASFs made their first attack pass on the JFS Hawk Eye, which lead to a nasty surprise for the Falcons as several of the ASFs were loaded with Alamos and the Heavy Cruiser did not survive more than a dozen nuclear impacts.

But it didn't die alone, the FCS Strong Arm (Overlord A3) took several hits that destroyed it, the FCS Lisa Steinerreceived heavy damage and the FCS Ian Davion only light one.

Freed from their nuclear payload, the Stukas helped the Seydlitzs in eliminating the remaining Omni Fighters, losing 76 of them against the 84 from the Clans. To these you had to add the 12 destroyed by the Barracudas fired by the Jade Falcon WarShip, making the losses of the Federated Commonwealth go up to 88 ASFs, one Pocket WarShip destroyed, one Corvette heavily damaged and another slightly damaged, against one Heavy Cruiser and 84 Fighters. Advantage in raw numbers and nuclear weapons count, after all.

Shortly after, several JumpShips appeared at the same pirate jump point, carrying the Davion Heavy Guards RCT, the 1st Kell Hounds Regiment and the 10th Lyran Guards RCT, all units fully upgraded with SLDF and Royal tech.

The counter attack against the Clans had begun.

Enraged by the use of nukes, the Falcons didn't offer safcon and disregarded zellbrigen, because they considered the AFFC forces dezgra.

This is why they launched an immediate and furious attack on the disembarking forces. So enraged were they that the picket units deployed to protect the landing zones couldn't do their job and were so quickly obliterated that they couldn't warn the 10th​ Lyran Guards that was caught still disembarking. The Jade Falcons further pressed their surprise advantage by combining their speed, with EW masking their approach and Battle Armors riding the Omnis as taxis directly into battle.

The final result of the attack was that the 10th​ ceased to exist as a viable force with only 10% of its members surviving, including the Archon-Prince that was seriously wounded when he ejected his Victor VTR-9D.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, that not only put then in range of the Guards DropShips weapons, but also gave time to the other two units to unload and catch then from behind.

In the furious melee that followed, no quarter was given or asked from both sides and ended with only two Clan 'Mechs surrendering- more or less, both on them doing so only when knocked to the ground with a gun pointed at their cockpit.

Both the Heavy Guards and the Kell Hounds took heavy damage and would need months to be considered operational again. On the plus side, they had captured a lot of Clan salvage, including DropShips.

For the first time too, the Soldier Battle Armor was used in great numbers, the Federated model was a copy (illegal of course) of the Taurian Jack design. With a fixed jump pack that let it jump 60m and a fixed LMG on the left arm to deal with infantry, its main weapon was either a Single Shot SRM-2 or a scaled-up pulse rifle, the first useful against 'Mechs, the second against Battle Armors.

The comparison with the Clan Battle Armor showed that it was inferior in all ways, but it was still better than not using any. Its biggest problem was that the pulse rifle lacked enough penetration power against the Clan Battle Armors.