Clash of Warriors
Khan Scott waited until all four of his reserve PGCs had landed and offloaded before he began his advance on the capital of Claybourne Remembered. To the west, the 121st Nautical PGC (The Sea Scorpions) protected the right flank anchored on the Red River. Extending to the east, the Scorpion line consisted of the 24th Scorpion Cuirassier, the 101st PGC, the 18th Scorpion Cuirassier, the 104th PGC, the 1st Scorpion Dragoons, the 107th PGC, and the 71st Scorpion Light Horse, with the Knife Dance Keshik, the 108th PGC, and the Scorpion Artillery Reserve in reserve.
Star Colonel Sandra Moreau of the 71st Scorpion Light Horse held the responsibility for holding the far eastern end of the line with her Cluster. During the planning for the operation, she had made clear to Khan Scott of the dishonorable tactics of the Black Warriors—little more than a band of organized pirates—and their sheer hatred, loathing, and envy of the former Eridani Light Horse. All of which were qualities that the Khan planned to use against them in the coming fight.
On the other side of the field, defending the Circinian capital, were the combined forces of the 59th Shadow Division of the Word of Blake and the Black Warriors, augmented by various Circinian militia units and a handful of small mercenary commands, all under the unified command of Precentor Daniel Gibbs.
The 59th Shadow Division was an anomaly among the Word of Blake Shadow Divisions raised in the years prior to the Jihad. It was a training cadre with only a handful of permanent personnel assigned. Isolated on Circinus, the 59th was intended to provide a constant stream of replacements to the actual combat Shadow Divisions once the Jihad began in earnest. Halfway through its training cycle, the 59th was over-strength during the Scorpion campaign, with a mixture of veteran cadre and raw recruits. Despite the lack of experience of many of the troops assigned to the 59th, the Division was fanatical in its devotion to the Word of Blake and the will of the Master.
Initial contact between the two forces resulted in sparring and skirmishing along the length of the lines. The Scorpions quickly discovered that the Word forces were well-fortified, with ample artillery support and the approaches were covered with thick minefields. Despite the desire of some of his junior officers, Precentor Gibbs refused to budge from his defensive lines, intending to bleed the Scorpions for every inch of ground once their attack began in full.
Those intentions were disrupted almost from the start.
Colonel Michael Cirion, the commander of the Black Warriors was stunned when reports began filtering in that the Clan unit facing him had the Eridani Light Horse prancing pony symbol emblazoned on their ‘Mechs! And he became enraged when Star Colonel Sandra Moreau confirmed—over an open channel—that her 71st Scorpion Light Horse was built on the survivors of that famed mercenary unit. Ignoring Gibbs, Cirion launched a hasty assault against the 71st, causing the Scorpion ‘Mechs to fall back in disarray. He followed, pressing the attack—and battalion by battalion—his command abandoned the defensive line and thundered off in pursuit of the retreating Cluster.
But the retreat was only feigned. The Knife Dance Keshik slid into the Scorpion lines behind the Black Warriors, cutting off their only retreat as the 71st Light Horse stopped running and began dropping Warrior ‘Mechs left and right. The reserve 108th Garrison Cluster boxed the Black Warriors in, while the 121st Nautical PGC provided fire support from the river. Meanwhile, the Scorpion Artillery Reserve hammered the Black Warriors with wave after wave of Arrow IV cluster and homing munitions.
Reeling from the unexpected counter-attack, Colonel Cirion ordered the Warriors to withdraw back to their lines, and pleaded with Precentor Gibbs to come to his aid—a plea that Gibbs refused. Caught between the river, the 71st Light Horse, the Knife Dance Keshik, and the 108th Garrison Cluster, and under constant artillery bombardment, the Black Warriors simply broke.
Abandoning all unit cohesion, individual warriors scattered, attempting to break through the Scorpion cordon. But only a bare handful of Black Warriors managed to pass the lines intact, and of those that did, they became easy prey for points of Scorpion aerospace fighters swooping down from above to deliver a blistering strike on the defenseless ‘Mechs. To his credit, Colonel Cirion did not ask for quarter—and Khan Scott neither offered nor granted him any.
After less than two hours of combat, the Black Warriors were effectively annihilated.
Meanwhile, the elite 1st Scorpion Dragoons (the Heartvenom Cluster), shifted down the lines and using its superior speed and mobility seized the section of defensive lines formerly held by the Black Warriors. Precentor Gibbs realized that he could not leave the flank of his division unprotected and he pulled two of his best trained Level III formations from the fortification to drive the Scorpions out. The earlier loss of his aerospace elements had deprived the Word of close air support, however, and star after star of Scorpion fighters strafed and bombed the lines, even as the heavy 24th and 18th Scorpion Cuirassiers once again began advancing through the lanes in the minefields cleared by munitions fired by the 101st, 104th, and 107th PGCs.
Suffering constant attack from the air, flanked to the east, and under heavy assault from the front, the 59th Division was on the verge of breaking when Gibbs unleashed his carefully hoarded Manei Domini cadre against the Scorpions. Exquisitely and expensively outfitted with the finest equipment from the factories on Terra, this was the first combat where Celestial-series Mechs and Demon battle armor made their appearance.
Still struggling against the minefields, the 18th Cuirassier reeled under the sudden impact of the Manei Domini counterattack. Taken aback by the speed and accuracy of the assault, Star Colonel Reynard Elam withdrew after suffering heavy casualties, which forced the 24th in turn to pull back to their start line. Only the aerospace superiority of the Scorpions prevented the 59th from turning on and overpowering the 1st Dragoons, which stubbornly held onto the ground they had taken.
As both sides took a moment to reorganize and catch their breath, the Knife Dance Keshik rejoined the lines on the Scorpion side, even as the 71st Light Horse and 108th Garrison Cluster mopped up the remnant of the Black Warriors. Khan Scott ordered the Scorpion Artillery Reserve to expend the remainder of their Arrow IV munitions against the 59th, while at the same time he ordered the DropShips that landed the line Clusters to move forward. This was done to not only resupply the Artillery Reserve, but to bring the 59th within range of the Arrow IV batteries mounted aboard those DropShips.
Faced with a withering level of firepower, Precentor Gibbs abandoned his lines and retreated into the city itself, covering his retreat with artillery delivered gas shells. Unprepared for the use of chemical munitions, the Scorpions were stymied from pursuit for vital minutes. Although the ‘Mechs and Elementals and combat vehicles were sealed against the gasses, the Scorpion conventional infantry in the PGCs suffered heavy casualties before they were able to seal their unpowered battledress.
Later accounts of the battle report that Khan Scott was so furious over the use of chemical weapons against his Clan that he seriously considered allowing the Scorpion Fleet to destroy the city and its defenders from orbit. In the end, however, he decided that taking that course of action would render him as dezgra and without honor as the Blakist defenders. Instead, he redeployed his force to surround Claybourne Remembered and prepared for an all-out assault against the city, issuing orders for the 8th Dragoons and 20th Cuirassier under saKhan Djerassi to redeploy and reinforce him.
Amanda Djerassi immediately began loading those two Clusters, leaving the remnants of the Grey Scorpions, the Fleet Elementals, and her single PGC behind to hold General Kerensky’s old headquarters.
