News Report, January 3155
“Clan Steel Viper has been the most successful in their early operations against the Inner Sphere and our other old enemies. Over the course of 6 months, they landed on 4 worlds in the Periphery, conquered 2 and had the Burrocks “pacify” another one. Compared to the pathetic attempts by the Word of Blake Militias and the limited success of the Blood Spirits and Fire Mandrills around Snow Raven space, this is good news. Unlike the original failure of Operation REVIVAL trying to rush things, we are okay with slow but steady success. Orbital yards, recharge stations and deployment equipment is already installed at each of the stars, allowing for our ships to quickly come in and out of controlled space.
Thadora’s Land was first to fall to the Viper’s strikes. A farming world, Thadora’s Land can be used as a breadbasket for the upcoming invasion forces, and to help feed our population affected by the White Light Phenomena. The planet was defended by a skilled group of mercenaries, Schofield’s Garrisoneers and various units of planetary militia. We did not know, however, that the world was also a hotbed for criminal activity led by the Black Warriors, former Circinian military turned ‘local warlords’. SaKhan Kathya Olezko reacted quickly to this news, especially when it became apparent the Black Warriors had snuck in nuclear weapons on the planet. Even though SaKhan Olezko is not known to be a patient or kind individual, she opened communication with local powers, farmer’s unions and the Garisoneers to both control the world and limit the damage the Black Warriors could do.
While her approach did not have good results at first, she managed to open a breach between the planetary government, controlled by the Black Warriors, and the Farmer’s Unions, which controlled the mercenary contract and much of the land. After a few more operations to undermine the power and control of the planetary government, the Schofield’s Garisoneers officially turned over their mercenary contract to Clan Steel Viper, who absorbed them as a Provisional Garrison Cluster with the blessing of the Farmer’s Union. With pressure from the Union and criminal actions of the planetary government exposed, planetary militias began defecting to Steel Viper forces or laying down their arms.
This led to a final operation against the planetary government headquarters, led by Kathya Olezko and some of the more skilled warriors in Gamma Galaxy. While the SaKhan surrounded the planetary parliament with her elementals and her own trinary, a binary of Steel Viper warriors chased down and destroyed one of the commander of the Black Warriors.
The “original” headquarters of the Black Warriors was on the world of Zorn’s Keep, where they held a hiring hall, slave market and all sorts of other nefarious enterprises. AsRoc, along with a team of Word of Blake specialists, managed to find them and identify them, while also causing serious damage to their operation. A Burrock Free Captain then landed on the world and led the various local mercenaries and pirates in a uprising against the Warriors, who had to retreat. While the world is technically under Steel Viper control, the Burrocks are the one who hold most of the planetary assets and the Starport.
The Warriors retreat was captured by the Word of Blake operatives using “FREIGHTBOXES”, automated protomechs which led them to the “backup location”. The formerly dead world of Circinus is in process of being cleaned up by various tools and equipment the Warriors deployed on the world. When the Word of Blake and AsRoc were directed to the former capital, they found that the Warriors had been restoring some of the local facilities, space ports and especially factories. While they would not have been able to pacify the planet without the help of Clan Steel Viper’s Gamma Galaxy, Khan Hartford Zalman granted the Word of Blake 69th Shadow Division control over the planet if the Vipers could use it to resupply if needed.
On New St.Andrews, Alpha Galaxy and Khan Hartford Zalman met with more resistance than they originally expected. While the first few operations on the planet damaged key infrastructure that would weaken the planetary defense, Nelson’s Longbows were ready for combat and the local planetary militia was well motivated. The world had been under threat by the Black Warriors who had asked for tribute, while the Marian Hegemony had been sniffing their way to capture their planetary production plants. Khan Zalman did not give any respite or pity to the defenders, pushing his attack using the entire force of Alpha Galaxy.
The Longbow’s forces were constantly supplied by the one ‘Mech factory that was officially on the planet until our courageous warriors captured it in a daring combined raid. It was believed this would cripple the desire to fight from the Longbow’s and their allies, but two things caused them to keep fighting. First, a group of runaway Wolf’s Dragoons grounded on the planet to provide military and tactical assistance to the Longbows. While our warriors attempted to prevent them from meeting up, the enemy resistance was stronger than we expected. These Dragoon assets probably allowed the defenders of New St.Andrews to last longer than even they expected.
The second major issue was a hidden factory in the far north regions of New St.Andrews, built recently. Building a combination of full-spec Arbiters, Hollanders, Ostsol and Ostroc, this allowed the Longbows to resupply during the months of the fight with more advanced machines. The final part of the offensive on New St.Andrews concentrated on capturing this second factory while elements of Alpha Galaxy chased down Longbow and Dragoon commanders across the planet. In a desperate attempt to regain the upper hand, the second in command of the Lonbow, Phil Burke, attempted to capture a supply drop provided by Urban’s Outfitter, and almost succeeded. He was caught unaware by a binary of Alpha’s elite warriors and captured.
Heidar Nelson himself led the defense of the Meridian Manufacturing headquarter in the north. Hartford Zalman challenged him to a duel to try to minimize losses on both sides, with Heidar asking for his entire lance to be part of the fight. The Khan replied with his own bioroid units and the two fought in front of the gates of the secret factory. Hartford Zalman destroyed Nelson’s Longbow with a volley of ER Medium laser shots, detonating the ‘Mech’s ammunition supply. Meridian Manufacturing, the planetary government and Phil Burke officially surrendered after the battle, Heidar Nelson having died in battle.”
