Timeline for Scorpion Rising, Part III (3049-3052)
3049: In August, the first attacks against the Periphery worlds bordering the Lyran Commonwealth, Rasalhague Republic, and Draconis Combine were launched. The Scorpions were prohibited from participating in the actions, but Djerassi, Posavatz, and their Galaxy and Cluster commanders watched the engagements intently, taking notes and offering their advice upon occasion. That advice was rejected by most of the other Clans, but Ulric Kerensky listened carefully. Although his opinion of the Scorpions was quite low—based in no small part of that Clan’s use of the drug necrosia—he had developed a friendship with Djerassi and when the Scorpion spoke, the Wolf listened.
However, pitiful conditions of the Periphery worlds shocked even the most prepared Scorpions. And despite his own misgivings that the Invasion would not come to a good end, Nikolai found himself growing more and more eager for the real assault to start.
3050: The first and second wave of attacks proceeded without major incident, with the Clans sweeping aside all opposition with barely a fight. But slowly resistance began to increase and problems started to arise—primarily with logistics. Not all Clans were as prepared as the Scorpions, and equipment and munitions shortages soon plagued the invaders. Further, resistance on ‘conquered’ worlds was steadily increasing and soon enough Ulric Kerensky requested permission to bring forward his PGCs. Although ilKhan Showers was loath to grant him that permission, his own Jaguars, the Falcons, and the Bears were needing that same support. Djerassi offered his own Garrison Clusters—already in position—to the Bears and Wolves, but the ilKhan refused to allow the Scorpions to move from their Reserve status. Then, in a move that blind-sided the ilKhan, Djerassi contracted out ten of his Garrison Clusters (five each to the Bears and Wolves), transferring them to the Wolf and Bear toumens.
Showers nearly challenged Djerassi to a Trial of Grievance over this, but with the support of Ulric Kerensky and Khan Karl Bourjon of Clan Ghost Bear, he was forced to allow this practice to continue.
Consisting of one hundred combat vehicles (light tanks, APCs, hovercraft, and VTOLs), six hundred and twenty-five infantry equipped with PA(L), twenty light and medium Aerospace Fighters, and ten mobile Arrow IV carriers, these Scorpion Garrison Clusters quickly managed to restore order until the Wolf and Bears could bring their own garrison troops forward.
Still, the main Scorpion force remained in the Reserve. Summoned to Radstadt for a Grand Council aboard the Wolf flagship Dire Wolf, Djerassi learned that the ilKhan had been killed in a suicide attack by a Rasalhague pilot.
Although he vehemently opposed halting the invasion to return to Strana Mechty to elect a new Khan, he was outvoted, and saw the invasion halted in place.
3051: Nikolai supported the election of Ulric Kerensky as ilKhan to replace the fallen Showers, and he took the time while back in the Homeworlds to ensure that his remaining forces were still in fighting form. Under the command of Loremaster Ariel Suvorov, the Scorpions were faring well, with new untapped resources flowing into the Clan’s coffers from the expanding undersea mining operations on Dagda and Strana Mechty. Fearing that the Homeworld Clans might begin to take advantage of the Invaders—and not trusting the Blood Spirits or Jaguars that remained in the Homeworlds—he worked throughout this very short year with Suvorov to increase the number of cadets cycled through the sibkos, and authorized her to begin building a seventh Galaxy.
3052: Nikolai is astounded when Ulric informs him that the Scorpions will remain as the sole Reserve Clan for the Fifth Wave of the Invasion. He almost declares a Trial of Refusal, but Ulric manages to convince him that he needs a strong Warden presence in Reserve, should things take a turn for the worse. Still, Djerassi believes that Ulric has made a mistake in assigning the Cats to the same invasion corridor as the Jaguars, and the Vipers alongside the Falcons. He argues heatedly against this, but Ulric assures him that those two Clans need the most help. Djerassi suspects that Ulric is sowing mischief among those four Clans, but after one last attempt to convince Ulric to swap the Cats and the Vipers, he ceases his protests.
As the Wolves and Bears race ahead, taking scores of worlds in the Fifth Wave, Djerassi hopes that his fears are only his imagination—but then comes Luthien. The disunity and ill will between the Cats and the Jaguars doom that enterprise from the start. Still, while he suspects the worst, Djerassi keeps his thoughts to himself, knowing that the highly arrogant Jaguars would not have cooperated any better with any other Clan.
At this point he learns of Focht’s offer as Tukayyid as a proxy for Terra. It is a challenge—a Trial—in the finest of Clan traditions. Djerassi is delighted when he learns that his Clan will activated for this Battle.
When all of the Invading Clans have assembled at Tukayyid, the bidding (and bickering) begins—and Djerassi’s hope and faith in the Clan way once again falters. Instead of allowing Ulric to act as ilKhan, each Khan seems determined to win his own fight without assistance. Most ignore Ulric and Nikolai as they plead with others ensure that their supplies are sufficient and protected—and to commit enough forces to ensure a victory. Khan Lincoln Osis of the Smoke Jaguars accuses Nikolai of cowardice, and Ulric is forced to call upon the Ghost Bears to separate the two Khans on the flag bridge of the Dire Wolf. Nikolai demands a Trial of Grievance, and Osis accepts, but Ulric refuses to allow it before the Battle.
The bidding begins, with the Nova Cats casting aside nearly half of their available forces, bidding just ten clusters in an attempt to garner the glory of landing first. Osis then counters with nine clusters of Jaguars! The Vipers bid thirteen in response. But neither the Bears nor the Falcons will allow themselves to be baited: they bid fifteen front-line Clusters each. And then it is Nikolai’s turn. He bids his full force: eleven front-line Clusters, one Solahma Cluster, five Garrison Clusters, and the Striking Claw Naval Star.
Ulric is taken aback by this: WarShips have been bid away since the Battle for Rasalhague in 3050! He bluntly informs Nikolai that he cannot bid his ships—Nikolai asks the ilKhan was he now speaking as Khan of the Scorpions? The Scorpions, he said, have not agreed to the convention to bid away a valued asset of the Clan. And they will not.
Ulric points to the Jaguar bombardment of Turtle Bay, and he thunders at Nikolai that he will not allow such a slaughter while he is ilKhan. And Nicolai replies: has not the population been evacuated? The entire planet is empty but for the enemy and use. I shall confront my enemy in this Trial with all of my forces at my disposal—for the prize here today is no less than TERRA!
Osis starts to make a swarmy remark, but between Khan Jorgensson (of the Bears) and Crichell (of the Falcons), he is restrained.
Finally, Ulric relents, but he warns Nikolai that those ships are not to be used except in the most dire of circumstances—and promises his own Trial of Grievance if that order is disobeyed.
The bid does cost the Scorpions the opportunity for an early landing, as they will now touch down on the sixth day of the Battle, 24 hours after the Wolves. Most Khans present believe that the Battle will already be decided well before then—for they need only seize eight of the fourteen objectives to win the Battle and thus Terra.
The Battle does not go according to plan.
By the time that the Scorpions land, the Nova Cats and Jaguars have been forced to withdraw, neither Clan having secured their objectives. Casualties were horrendous, with the Jaguars suffering an estimated 70% dead and wounded; the Cats a mere 54%. All four of the remaining Clans were engaged in heavy combat, with casualties mounting by the hour.
The Scorpions, under heavy aerospace fighter cover, landed their DropShips in the center of the Kozice Valley, equidistant from their two objectives of Kozice Prime and Urcunat. Nikolai proceeded cautiously, waiting until of his forces had off-loaded in full before he advanced towards the twin cities. Leaving the Solahma Cluster, the 21st Scorpion Cuirassier, and all four Garrison Clusters to defend his grounded DropShips, he led Alpha Galaxy against Kozice Prime, while saKhan Posavatz commanded Beta against Urcunat. The ComGuard Eighth Army was waiting for them, but they were not prepared for the speed and ferocity of the assault. Every Scorpion OmniMech featured jump jets giving the Scorpions mobility that the relatively inexperienced troops were not ready to counter—and the precise targeted fire that lanced out from the Scorpions tore into the white-painted BattleMechs and combat vehicles cleaving arms from their bodies and turrets from their hulls. Finding that the ComGuards had heavily mined the approaches, and noting that his OmniMechs were taking concentrated fire from the enemy, he declared his opponents dezgra and order the suspension of zellbrigen for the duration of the battle.
Suddenly on the receiving end of the simultaneous fire from multiple Clan OmniMechs, the front lines of the Eighth exploded as Arrow IV began to rain down on atop of them. They broke under the strain.
At Urcunat, the Second Army—already understrength and lacking what little experience of the Eighth—were driven away by Randall Posavatz in full rout.
Precentor Martial Focht committed his reserves against the Scorpions, with the veteran Fifth Army performing a combat drop directly atop Alpha Galaxy. As Khan Djerassi and his men fought for their lives in hand-to-hand combat, saKhan Posavatz order the Solahma and 21st Cuirassier, and two Garrison Clusters to advance and hold Urcunat—and he rushed Beta Galaxy to the defense of his Khan. Caught between two fires, the Fifth Army withered away beneath the Scorpion onslaught.
Meanwhile, the commanders of the Eighth and Second had rallied their men and assaulted the defenders of Urcunat in force, but a gallant defense by the Solahma and 21st (and the vehicle crews and infantry of the 104th and 107th Garrison Clusters) held firm.
Finally, the veteran Fifth broke, and Djerassi dispatched Alpha Galaxy to hound them in pursuit. Assuming command of Beta (saKhan Posavatz and Galaxy Commander Sandra Dinour had both been killed in the battle), he recrossed the valley again, and assaulted the flank of the brittle Eighth Army. It broke, followed by Second, and the Khan called upon his final two reserve Garrison Clusters to pursue the broken and dispirited ComGuards.
By this point, the ilKhan was facing that the Vipers, Cats, and Jaguars had been defeated, the Falcons fought to a draw, and the Wolves, Bears, and Scorpions were victorious. The battle was in balance, and Ulric was concerned about the status of the remaining three Clans—Wolves, Bears, and Scorpions—and their supplies. The other four had withdrawn, three in disgrace and one licking its painful wounds and mourning the loss of a great Warrior.
The Scorpions had taken grievous casualties, nearly 50% dead or wounded out of the troops who had landed just a few short days earlier. Calling back his forces to the Valley, Djerassi appointed Nelson Elam as commander of Beta Galaxy, while he returned to Alpha (Galaxy Commander Albert Collesano being among the dead). Hastily reforming his units, he consolidated his forces into six ad-hoc front-line clusters, a handful of Solahma Trinary, and two garrison clusters.
The ilKhan was urging both Nikolai and the Bears tattered leadership into admitting their defeat. It was at that moment that Nikolai Djerassi won the Battle of Tukayyid. Comming Star Admiral Elijah Ben-Shimon aboard the GSS Serket in orbit, he ordered his WarShips to immediately begin an orbital bombardment on the Comstar troop concentrations converging on the Kozice Valley.
ilKhan Kerensky demanded to know what Djerassi was playing at. At which point the Scorpion responds that the Battle hangs in the balance, Ulric. We now a chance to win it—without breaking our bid. This fight is for Terra. Will you have us stop now, when we are so close to that goal, only for the bloodshed to resume in greater force in fifteen years time?
For many moments, Ulric did not answer, and then he asked Djerassi to place the WarShips under the command of the ilKhan. Nikolai did.
And Ulric confirmed the orders and also instructed Star Admiral Ben-Shimon to prepare to target the Precentor-Martial’s command bunker.
Focht watched in horror as the WarShips in orbit opened fire on the Tenth and Seventh Armies en route to the Kozice Valley. And then his radio receiver came to life.
“Precentor-Martial, you are beaten,†came the sad voice of Ulric Kerensky. “Will you surrender your command and spare the lives of your men?â€
Focht looked at the map in agony, at the long scrolling list of confirmed casualties already accumulated. And he longed to give the order for his remaining fighters to launch an assault on the ships in orbit. But then he looked at his subordinates, and he could see the faces of all of his ComGuards.
He picked up the transmitter. “This is Focht. All ComGuard units . . . stand down. ilKhan Kerensky, I request hegira.â€
“Granted. I give you two standard weeks to recover your wounded, Precentor-Martial. Bargained well and done.â€
Of course, it is for naught. The Primus has launched Operation Scorpion (funny about that name) and refuses to hand over Terra. Ulric and Focht are disgraced in the eyes of the Clans by her perfidy.
And that is as far as I have gotten. Any better? Remember, it is just an outline of events. I haven’t started actually writing the thing yet.
Master Arminas
