Clash on Port Moseby
"That whole mess on Port Moseby shouldn't have happened. I expected the Marauders to be able to do this quickly and efficiently, which was apparently too much for them. At least they didn't make it out to demand payment for the botched job."While the Third Succession War was in full swing, Sorvetz Reisel was having his own project to worry about: a shadow war being fought against the Ouroboros Sun. The elderly industrialist had never been fully convinced the organization had truly been destroyed, and was consistently proven right. Prevented from directly owning military hardware or hiring mercenaries to act on his interests, Sorvetz chose instead to keep these actions removed from his company through layers of agents who would pretend to have legitimate contracts.
When the Lyran Commonwealth was making an offensive push into areas known to contain an Ouroboros Sun presence, Sorvetz would quietly make sure mercenaries were being hired to specifically target the Sun's locations in the interests of cutting off pieces of his enemy. Most times this tended to go off quietly, with only a few people being aware there was something unusual going on. Port Moseby was a turning point for this, as "Blacklaw's Marauders" were a relatively new mercenary command splintered off from the Commonwealth's armed forces. Untested, and with a limited amount of equipment to work with, there was still no choice but to make it work.
Instead of a clean insertion, the Marauders were detected and defenders from the Fourth Legion of Vega were able to intercept at the target facility. After a brief but intense firefight, Blacklaw's Marauders attempted to withdraw to their DropShips only to find themselves cut off. The two Leopard-class DropShips made for orbit, attempting to save themselves as it seemed the fighting could only have one outcome. Two Lances of BattleMechs and a lance of combat vehicles were facing three times their number in enemies, and were severely outclassed. It was reported the mercenaries were eliminated entirely, with captives being interrogated and then executed. The failure to decisively identify who had hired the mercenaries would stain the career of Chu-sa Agati Shira and prevent any further advancement. More importantly, the attack's failure meant the Ouroboros Sun were aware this location had been compromised and were able to quickly scatter their forces across the region.
Conflict Type
Covert Operation
Start Date
October 6, 3023
Ending Date
October 11, 3023
Belligerents
Fourth Legion: Advance Group
Blacklaw's Marauders
Strength
Command Lance
- WSP-1A Wasp
- GLD-3R Gladiator
- ARC-2R Archer
- STK-3F Stalker
- DRG-1N Dragon
- JR7-D Jenner
- WSP-1A Wasp
- PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
- Vedette
- Vedette
- Manticore
- Manticore
Battle Lance
- TDR-5S Thunderbolt
- ZEU-6S Zeus
- GRF-1N Griffin
- WVR-6R Wolverine
- PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
- LCT-1V Locust
- STG-3R Stinger
- WSP-1A Wasp
- Saracen
- Vedette
- Vedette
- Vedette
Casualties
The Advance Team lost about 33% of their number, and another 33% would require serious repairs before reinforcements were able to relieve them.
All active units were neutralized or destroyed, and personnel were executed in accordance with Combine laws.
Objectives
Primary Objectives: The Advance Team needs to either stall the mercenaries until reinforcements can arrive, or eliminate more than 50% of the enemy forces.
Secondary Objectives: Secondary orders are to take prisoners, if possible, for questioning.
Secondary Objectives: Secondary orders are to take prisoners, if possible, for questioning.
Primary Objectives: Blacklaw's instructions are to identify which of the potential sites is the priority target and demolish it.
Secondary Objectives: As a secondary objective, the mercenaries must escape with at least 50% of their units.
Secondary Objectives: As a secondary objective, the mercenaries must escape with at least 50% of their units.
Awwww! This is a MechWarrior battle! Where's some shots of your hexboard? I would have loved to see this unfold! Or maybe some quotes from your players/protagonists in the fiction you're writing based on it! Great layout of the combatants, though. For someone who enjoys MechWarrior, whether wargame or RPG or yes, this is an interesting conflict for sure. Sorry your PCs got TPK'd (at least, that's what it sounds like)
This is a "historical" sort of article, as in the battle happened outside of our campaign. I hope to run it when I have time to set up the table and get images. (When I do, I'll likely make it up along the lines of the other battle reports I've posted here.) This battle was important for being one thing to put events in motion leading to the campaign - one we've just wrapped but I was woefully behind on getting translated from piles of notes and photos into reports. (Only two left to go.) These are actually two NPC forces which were involved, as for survivors... I think there may have been some prisoners, but as I said "still need to see how this plays out". I was planning on doing it by Alpha Strike rules rather than Classic, because I haven't done much through that. But I might just do it as Classic anyway. Feel free to check out the rest of this world's stuff - "The White Reach Incident" is based in the 3030s while "The Fall of Salmacis" is early Clan Invasion. (Also a crossover effort with some other creators from forums I was part of.)