Part 2: Fighting for the Capellans
With in a days of receiving their orders, the Taurian Velites, despite misgivings about their mission, began deploying to the Capellan Confederation and were soon thrown into battle against the St Ives Compact. While the Velites were willing to following their orders, no matter how distasteful they were, Colonel Carol Trennouth and the Concordat Jaegers were unhappy with their orders to fight for the Capellan Confederation. Having spent most of their existence protecting the border with the Capellan Confederation, the soldiers of the Jaegers had developed a great deal of hatred towards House Liao. These feelings were the result of having experienced first hand Capellan brutality, especially their treatment of POWs. Upon learning of her units new assignment, Colonel Trennouth was recorded as having said, “We've spent the last century defending the Concordat's borders against these bastards and now we're supposed to help them in their warâ€.
As the TDF began making preparations to deploy the Jaegers to the Capellan Confederation, Colonel Trennouth and her senior officers worked behind the scenes to sabotage those efforts. Lack of sufficient ammunition stockpiles, failure to meet Deployment Readiness Requirements and other nuisance problems forced the Jaegers' deployment date to be rescheduled numerous times. While none of these acts reached the level of treason, the continual delays infuriated the Protector who tried to have Colonel Tennouth removed from command of the unit. The efforts to replace Colonel Trennouth were defeated by the efforts of Marshal Calderon and Marshal Kai Shoguwa, who were able to convince the Protector that if he replaced Colonel Trennouth, the Jaegers would not be rated as combat ready for over six months.
In September of 3062, the Taurian Velites arrived in the Capellan Confederation. They were soon thrown into the meat grinder that was the St Ives War. Landing on St Loris, the Velites found themselves in a tough battle against the local defenders. Lacking the advanced weapons, which though promised by the Capellan Chancellor were not delivered, the Velites found themselves outmatched by the well equipped defenders. Despite this, the Velites pressed the attack and managed to inflict heavy losses on the St Ives troops. Even so the unit suffered losses approaching 20% of their strength. When the fighting finally did end, the Velites found themselves forced to rebuild using battlefield salvage, as vitally needed supplies promised by the Capellans were routed to other units. The lack of support by the Capellans created a severe morale problem for the Taurian commanders. With the majority of the troops already disenchanted with the idea of fighting for a foreign power, the lack of support by Capellans made many of the soldiers and officer question why they were fighting and dying for the Capellans. Colonel William Heise, commander of the Velites, attempted to rebuild morale and support for the campaign among his troops but found his efforts largely thwarted by the Propaganda Division personnel assigned to his command. These officers, operating under the direct commands of Marshal Alexandra Hamilton, refused to sugar coat the situation or hide the true facts of the situation. Combined with a lack of time for R&R after the St Loris mission, the situation in the Velites was becoming critical.
It was at this time, in late October of 3062, that the Protector, having become fed up with the constant delays by the Concordat Jaegers, decided to deploy the Pleiades Hussars to the Confederation. Sun Tzu Liao had spend much of the previous 2 months pressing the Protector about his obligations in the Trinity Alliance and the need to deploy more troops to support the St Ives War. Led by Colonel Maxwell Albritten, the Hussars were fanatical supporters of the Protector. By mid November the Hussars had arrived in the Confederation, eager to join the fight against the St Ives Compact and their Federated Suns defenders.
While the Hussars were eager for a battle, more and more citizens of the Concordat began to question why the TDF was fighting for the Capellan Confederation. As casualty reports began to filter back from the front, more and more rallies began to be held across the Concordat protesting the needless deaths of Taurian soldiers. Rather then respond to these protestors, the Protector chose to order the Concordat Constabulary into action. Suspecting “Davion sympathizers†were behind these protests, the Constabulary was ordered to investigate the leaders of the protests and to arrest them if necessary. At the same time, the Protector invoked emergency war time powers, in an attempt to regain control of the situation. Protector Shraplen soon invoked a news blackout on information about the war in the Confederation. Only government approved press releases, which were highly sanitized accounts of the war and included a number of out right lies, could be distributed. Any news reporter who attempted to report the truth would soon find themselves locked up in a prison cell. But despite these draconian efforts, the truth about the war continued to be distributed by pamphlets and word of mouth.
As opposition to the war began to increase, the Protector became desperate for something he could use to turn public opinion in his favor. With Propaganda Division of the TDF firmly in the hands of Marshal Hamilton and unwilling to support the Protector, Shraplen ordered the Ministry of the Interior to take a more active role in promoting the Protector's vision. Soon the Ministry was producing responses to the Propoganda Division's publications. However these failed to sway many people, most of whom were highly insulted by the Protector's blatant attempts to lie to them. Desperate for authentic good news that could not be countered by the Propaganda Division, the Protector pressed Colonel Albritten for a great victory against the Davions.
In early December of 3062, Colonel Albritten led the Pleiades Hussars into action against the forces defending the St Ives Compact. Battling the 7th FC Regiment, the Hussars score several early victories. In January of 3063, the Protector a publicity campaign, promoting the success of the Pleiades Hussars in their battles “against the imperialistic Davions, who seek to subjugate our worlds under their fistâ€. The success of the Hussars does slightly improve the Protector's approval ratings. But even these small gains are soon negated. While most senior members of the TDF refused to criticize the Protector, Marshal (Baron) Cham Kithrong declared “It is one thing for Taurian sons and daughters to fight and die defending the people of the Concordat, but we can not accept any situation in which our sons and daughters are sent to fight for the greed of the Inner Sphere warlordsâ€. Despite efforts by the Constabulary, Marshal Kithrong's words are soon spread across the Concordat, inspiring many to question the Protector and the Trinity Alliance.
