21 November, 2765
1700 hours
Mess Hall, Sovetskii Soyuz-class WarShip Golden Hind
A ripple of excitement runs through the hall and over a hundred boots come together in a single simultaneous crash as the short, squat-bodied form of Colonel Marissa Jansfield and the command staff of the 741st Royal Striker Regiment enter the room. She takes her place at the podium set up in front of a large, hanging Star League flag, flanked by her subordinates in full mess dress uniforms, and a sharp whine fills the air as her microphone initializes.
"As you were." There is but a few moments of rustling as everyone sinks back into their seats. For weeks, rumors of war have been flying around the barracks as your regiment mobilizes from its home of the Canopian-controlled world of Fanardir, and no one wants to miss a word. Colonel Jansfield takes a small swallow of water from the bottle on the podium, and begins to speak.
"It is a fateful day for the Star League, ladies and gentlemen. Several months ago, an unfortunate incident occurred on the Taurian world of New Vandenburg. General Dominique Petain and her First French Regiment (19th Army, LVI Corps) were forced to defend themselves against a completely unprovoked attack by Taurian militia. Casualties were heavy on both sides through a protracted, several-day siege of the unit. General Petain's actions have been completely cleared by a court of inquiry, but the action has ignited revolts on several Taurian worlds, and the fire is spreading. Two WarShips - the Cairo and the Nebraska have been destroyed with all hands lost as a result of suicide attacks, and not two months ago a group of suicide attackers attempted to murder General Kerensky during peace negotiations on New Vandenburg."
An ugly murmur fills the room. Colonel Jansfield motions curtly for silence, and then continues in the same gravelly tone.
"General Kerensky survived the assassination attempt unhurt, evacuating the planet in care of the 7734th Battle Regiment. He has left Taurian space and has issued new orders for all SLDF commands in the Outer Military Regions, I quote, '...selected Divisions and Regiments are to move with vigor and force into the Periphery as soon as possible to relieve besieged units and take on enemy forces'. Gentlemen, ladies, as you may have ascertained, the 741st is one of the regiments so named. We will be participating in the attack on the very New Vandenburg that so began this rebellion, under the moniker Operation ROUNDHAMMER. To present the overview of this operation, I now turn to our Regimental S-3, Major Jaffray. Loren?"
The Colonel motions to a mid-sized man with a black goatee just pushing the edge of regulation. He steps forward to take her place at the podium. The distinct highland burr of the planet Northwind filled the room.
"Good evening, everyone. New Vandenburg is perhaps, after Taurus, the most heavily defended planet in the Taurian Concordat. It is home to approximately one brigade - three regiments - of BattleMech-equipped defenders, and another three brigades of conventionally-equipped militia. Certain sub-units of the militia may be considered combat-hardened after the uprisings of the last several months, but the vast majority of the defenders will be green, albeit well-trained.
"The TDF favors static defense lines, digging deep into the terrain to absorb an initial attack, then counter-punching with a combination of "wave" attacks and flanking operations from dug-in installations that the attacker may have bypassed in the initial assault. The TDF employs primarily light and medium Mechs - approximately 60% of their total BattleMech force - with a generous helping of Heavy Mechs. Assault machines are rare. In contrast, their armor is largely heavy in nature. Infantry forces are often lightly-equipped, strengthened by scattered platoons of heavily-armed regulars wielding towed autocannon. All defenders should be considered fanatical in the defense of the Concordat, and the defenders of New Vandenburg in particular should be considered even more so. "Suicidal" would not be an ill-advised term, although certainly the majority will not be actively so.
"Now, the goal of Operation ROUNDHAMMER is to retake the planet of New Vandenburg and provide an object lesson to the rest of the rebellious planets as to what exactly it means to cross the Star League." A cheer rises from the assembled personnel. Major Jaffray smiles back at you, and then motions for silence.
"More specifically, than that, the operating concept behind ROUNDHAMMER is that we will identify and eliminate the defender's capacity to effectively wage war, using a mobile attack strategy that will bypass static defense lines where possible, and isolate routes of flanking attacks to allow those static defenses that cannot be bypassed to be destroyed in detail. Primary targets, aside from the defending forces themselves, are to be munitions dumps and factories, and logistic support systems including shipyards, starports, and rail lines. At this time, General Kerensky has made a specific point to NOT engage the civilian population in large-scale warfare. While collateral damage may be unavoidable, it will not be considered acceptable.
"The 741st specifically will be employed as a forward-operating "beachhead" unit, to be the vanguard of the advance of the remainder of the 18th Corps. We will be securing drop zones, breaching or eliminating early-warning defense networks, and generally paving the way for everyone else. We will also act as a ready-reserve for the invasion as a whole. Other participating units will include the 279th BattleMech Division, the 108th Mechanized Infantry Division, the 125th Battle Regiment, and the 302nd Hussar Regiment, all appropriate transport craft, and a naval task force. This gives us a final operating strength of eleven BattleMech Regiments and nine infantry regiments, two ground Areo Wings, and eight WarShips. This is approximately a 3.25-to-1 advantage over the defenders, to say nothing of the fact that we're us and they're them, so it should be a fairly routine operation. As we get closer to H-hour, my staff will be disseminating more detailed, unit-specific plans down to the company level. That's all I have for you today. Questions?"
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Topic: IC: Briefing, 21 November, 2765 (Read 1118 times)