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Extracts from The Periphery vs. Liao - New Avalon Press, 3047

Chapter XXI- The Mercenaries War

In the middle of 3035, the Magistracy of Canopus had lost the initiative and was clearly on the defensive. With her army exhausted and her treasure spent, Kyalla Centrella asked Thomas Calderon for help, any help that Thomas could spare.

To the amazement of many, Thomas sent mercenaries. More precisely, almost 4 regiments of them: Gordon's Armored Cavalry (GAC), the Revenants but also the Black Widow Battalion and the Beta Regiment of the famous Wolf's Dragoons.

The fact that Thomas Calderon was able to secure a contract with the Wolf's Dragoons and that it was the first time that they accepted a contract for a kingdom of the Periphery amazed many.

Instead of coming piecemal, the mercenary forces converged on Mechdur, and after they had all arrived, departed to New Roland.

Of note was that for the first time the commander of the Revenants was not with them, the prince regent of Aurigan Reach had decided to stay on Coromodir, the motive was soon know as High Lady Kamea informed the Inner Sphere a few days later that she was pregnant, and his regiment was placed, as well as the GAC, under the orders of Colonel Alicia Fancher, commander of Beta Regiment of the Wolf's Dragoons. 

This force arrived on New Roland two days before the Capellan Confederation Defense Forces, joining the 2nd​Canopian Cuirassiers, commanded by Emma Centrella and the 1st​ Canopian Light Horse, the only Magistracy Armed Forces units on world. Both MAF units had been mauled in the previous battles and together they had less than a battalion available. For political reasons, the overall command was given to Emma Centrella but the operational command stayed in the hands of Colonel Fancher.

At this time all other Capellan worlds captured by the Canopians had been lost to the CCAF, meaning that for reason of national pride, it was likely that New Roland would be targeted and the Capellan forces didn't deceive the joined Taurian/Canopian forces by sending an invading forces, consisting of all McCarron's Armored Cavalry regiments and of Warrior House Dai Da Chi.

In theory the Capellan forces were superior in numbers, however, unlike the forces sent by Thomas, which were fresh and with enough spare parts and ammunition, the Big MAC, like the MAF units, after several years of constant war operations, was a shadow of its former self. Instead of 5 full regiments, it had slightly less than 3 regiments, mostly composed of Heavies and Medium 'Mechs, with less than 15% of their number Lights and almost no Assault units , furthermore most of their 'Mechs were in dire need of a complete overhaul. While initially a force well maintained, the constant war and the fact that House Liao had been dealt a heavy blow in its production capacities when Davion took Tikonov forced the Big MAC to deploy its forces in less than acceptable conditions. Even the capture of the some Andurien depots in Prix was not enough to fix this problem (see Appendix 4 - TO&E on both sides), because, unfortunately for the MAC, the Andurien forces had escaped with more than half the depots. House Dai Da Chi was also in a depleted state, fielding a bit more than a company of 'Mechs and just a few infantry forces. Files later captured, confirm that the Maskirovka missed the deployement of the Taurian sponsored mercenaries, leading the Strategos to think New Roland was an easy target.

In a continuing battle of movement, always denying a decisive battle and using the greater reach of the Revenants advanced 'Mechs to kill Liao most aggressive 'MechWarriors, Alicia Fancher led the CCAF forces in a wild race, executing small and well executed ambushes, one after the other. However, thanks to their advanced electronics, the Capellans escaped from about half of said ambushes. During this time, in the air, the Dragoon and Revenant Fighters were slowly winning the battle, focusing more on preventing anyone leaving the planet and making everything ready for the final act.

About a month after the start of the hostilities on New Roland, the forces led by Fancher, now with clear air superiority and having reconfigured all of their Leclercs to artillery versions (Sniper, Thumper or Arrow IV), suddenly changed direction and advanced against the exhausted Capellans, destroying one regiment in a well-planned ambush that made full use of her superiority in artillery and Fighters, as well as of the superior range of the Revenants 'Mechs. Now in clearly inferior numbers and with their ammo running low after a month of hide-and-seek games, the Capellans tried to escape, the long way back to the DropShips being marked by the wreckage of several Capellan 'Mechs. However meanwhile Kerensky's battalion, with the support of several Revenants 'Mechs with advanced ECM capabilities had moved along a path not detected by the Capellans and captured most of their DropShips. What she didn't capture, she destroyed, with the exception of two lucky DropShips that managed to leave, meaning that House Liao forces were trapped on the planet with no possibility of escape. Just over a battalion of Light 'Mechs managed to escape including two Ravens in their ranks, making later contact with the two DropShips that had evaded capture.

The image of Natasha Kerensky's Warhammer over the ruins of Marcus Barton's Marauder was one of the most famous images of this conflict. There are serious indications that several 'Mechs of the Wolf's Dragoons had also received advanced technology (Appendix 6- business between the Wolf's Dragoons and the Concordat) and reports of the battle between Natasha and Barton indeed point out that Natasha's Warhammer managed the temperature much better than one would expect.

Archie McCarron, and Ian MacPhearson, that were not part of this operation as they had been busy creating a network of trading companies to support the mercenary unit, were executed when they tried to stop chancellor Romano Liao to incorporate what remained of the Big MAC, a battered battalion, in the CCAF, thus ending the story of the infamous mercenary force (Appendix 8 – The end of the Big MAC).

It is worth of interest that unlike many battles between mercenaries, this time no quarter had been asked nor given.

After this operation the Black Widow Battalion was not available for contracts until up to today, with the most diverse rumors about its current status running; from acting as a training unit for the other regiments, to being expanded to a regiment, to being modernized with advanced technology provided by the Concordat.

With the destruction of the Big Mac and House Dai Da Chi, Liao forces were exhausted and there were no more operations on this border.

After their defeat on the Taurian border, the win on the Andurien border and the recovery of almost all worlds on the Canopian one, all this at great cost, the Capellan Confederation decided it had had enough and changed to a defensive posture, clearly aiming at recovering from an exhausting war.

The big winner of the Periphery battles against the Capellan Confederation was undoubtedly the Taurian Concordat, with 6 systems conquered, followed by the Aurigan Reach with 1. The Magistracy of Canopus had also captured one, New Roland, but its army was exhausted, while Andurien had not only failed to secure any Liao system but was soon to be reabsorbed by the Free Worlds League. 

Sidebar

Why did the Big MAC operate in a way so different of their normal conduct ?

Post-battle interrogation of the few survivors and analysis of the data captured showed that they only had a limited knowledge of the mercenaries contracted by the Concordat after landing. Furthermore because of the exhaustion of the CCAF, the Big MAC had been under tremendous pressure from Romano Liao to take more conventional duties, unlike their normal heavy raids / free hand. They were also quite confident in their capacity to deal with any opposition having a surprising number of advanced weapons, not only the EW equipment displayed before by the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces but also Artemis guided missiles, Narc Missile Beacon, a few Pulse Lasers and more surprisingly, several Freezers of Steiner manufacture. That last piece of information was later passed to the MIIO and the LIC and generated several arrests including Simon Kincaid the owner of Kincaid Defiance Industries and closing the access of the CCAF to Freezers for a while, until they managed to launch their own production (Appendix 9 – Aftermath).

Of particular interest is the way that both sides fielding more advanced systems in the field than any other conflict for a long time, used them to gain advantages or deny said advantages to the other side. A prelude to what would be later seen in the War of 3039.