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During 3052, the Marian Hegemony launched several raids on Lothian planets. With her defending forces losing power, Dame Lorelei Logan asked in January of 3053 the Taurian Concordat for help, fearing that a full invasion would be soon taking place as the Civil War in the FWL allowed the Marian Hegemony some liberty on that border.

Edward Calderon decided to help in two ways. First, the Taurian Concordat contracted several small mercenary units, company and lance size, in the name of the Lothian League. These were to delay the Marian forces long enough for the Taurian forces to arrive. Secondly, he sent an expeditionary force, composed of two 'Mechs battalions from the 3rd​ Taurian Guards Brigade, with their combined arms support, escorted by the TCS Zarantha Calderon, the first Concordat Frigate to go through the latest refit program. That the Zarantha Calderon could easily carry 2 Lee CV with 80 modern ASFs, and 2 Lee PW for this particular mission, to provide aerospace support was also taken into account. The TDF didn't want to lose any WarShip like the WoB, because of a lack of support.

The equipment of the expeditionary force was obviously up-to-date with the latest Concordat.

With the expeditionary force went also one Leviathan JumpShip carrying 7 Starlifter DropShips, loaded with enough supplies, spares and ammo for an extended campaign, and one loaded with two-way HPG satellites, to create a direct link between the Concordat and the Lothian League. Said satellites, were a relatively recent product of the Concordat HPG research, to supplement the planet based HPG stations and to replace the older Comstar DRUM network in the Concordat area of interest.

The need to don't cross the Capellan Confederation and Free Worlds League territory, added about ten weeks to the voyage, but even so, the Taurian force arrived on Lothario by the end of 3053, a few weeks before the Marion Hegemony started the invasion.

Meanwhile, in the FWL the Civil War had changed drastically, Oriente, until now a reluctant supporter of Thomas, changed sides in a spectacular way.

A fleet of several JumpShips suddenly appeared at a pirate point in the Gibson system, near the dockyard. Not wasting time, they launched several Assault DropShips, while many CV ones started to launch waves of ASFs.

The dockyard wasn't left without protection, with several squadrons of ASFs and a lone WarShip, WoBS Blake's Redemption, a Vincent Mk.39. The defenders did what they could, but the raiders were superior in number and had Assault DropShips supporting them. The Vincent, like most designs of SLDF origin, was not good at fighting Aerospace Fighters and the attackers were heavily loaded with Alamos. While the more agile fighters dealt with the defending ASFs the heavies attacked the lone WarShip. Hit by several nukes, the Vincent was quickly destroyed but it didn't go alone having taken dozen of Heavy ASFs with him. Soon, Alamos started to rain on the dockyard, on the docked WarShips, and on the infrastructure that was being built to expand the dockyard to a full shipyard.

But, the ASFs, Pocket WarShips and Assault DropShips that were based on Gibson managed to intercept the waiting JumpShips before they could jump again, and they did so with a vengeance, letting the Oriente forces trapped in the system. Now, without a place to flee or refuel-and rearm they were easy targets and none escaped alive.

In exchange for seven JumpShips , 4 Star Lords and three Invaders, ten Vengeance DropShips and an unknown number of Assault DropShips and Pocket Warships and a bit over four hundred ASFs, four WarShips had been destroyed – Blake's Redemption(Vincent), Deliverance (Essex), Divine Command (Naga) and Immortal Spirit (Aegis). The dockyard and all the infrastructure under construction to upgrade it to a full shipyard had been also destroyed. This blow executed by the full space force of the Fusiliers of Oriente had reduced the active Word of Blake Navy to only four WarShips. Without a home base, they were now dependent upon the few shipyards controlled by Thomas Marik, as the order has none left.