Battle of Northwind (3057)

Operation Guerrero
Part of Clan Invasion Era
Start Date From 22 September to 20 October 3057
Planet Northwind
Result Highlanders victory
Factions
(Attacker)
Federated Commonwealth		 (Defender)
Northwind Highlanders
Commanders and leaders
Drew Catelli William MacLeod
Conditions
Normal

The Battle of Northwind (3057) was a Clan Invasion Era military operation that was undertaken by the Federated Commonwealth against the Northwind Highlanders mercenary unit, as well as a de facto Highlander Civil War.

Operation Brief[edit]

The military operation took place within Tara and surrounding areas on the planet of Northwind.

Operation History[edit]

Factions & Known Units Involved in the Conflict[edit]

Federated Commonwealth[edit]

Northwind Highlanders[edit]

Origin of Conflict[edit]

The relationship between the Northwind Highlanders and the Federated Suns was not always cordial. The Highlanders' permanent affiliation with the Capellan Confederation made them a mainstay of the Capellan forces, but that also made Northwind a priority target for the Federated Suns. The fall of the planet in 2841 to the Federated Suns during the Second Succession War and destruction of two Highlander regiments on planet was a hard loss which sparked a deep hatred from the Highlanders towards House Davion. Their Capellan employers promised them to recover their homeworld for decades but were unable to do so due to both a lack of meaningful ability to do so as well as a desire to keep the Highlanders bound to the Confederation. When First Prince Hanse Davion offered the Highlanders an opportunity to return to their home planet if they switched sides during the Fourth Succession War, almost all of the Highlanders accepted. This led to the signing of the Northwind Agreement between the Federated Suns and the Northwind Highlanders. [1]

However, the pact between Highlanders and Federated Suns was far from perfect: despite Hanse Davion's promise of independence, and to allow the regiments to stay always in or nearby Northwind, the Clan Invasion forced the First Prince to send several of their regiments to face them. Between the losses suffered in the conflict and in the battle of Glengarry in 3056 during the Second Skye Rebellion, they began to feel mistreated. The fact than the Federated Suns did not honor their word to pay for parts and 'Mechs lost at a fair rate leading to fears of a company store ploy, the meddling of Northwind's planetary consul Drake Burns in the planet's affairs, and attempting to fully integrate them into the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth, only worsened the situation. Soon, Northwind was a powder keg of growing resentment towards the Federated Commonwealth.[2][3]

Prelude[edit]

While Sun-Tzu Liao was preparing the Capellan part of Operation GUERRERO, he decided to include Northwind in his plans. This was for both practical and propaganda reasons, with the aim to ultimately deny the services of the Northwind Highlanders to the Federated Suns. Lacking any agents on the planet, he decided to dispatch one of his Death Commandos, Major Loren Jaffray, a descendant of Highlanders who refused the agreement with the Federated Suns and stayed behind in the Capellan Confederation. The Chancellor ordered Loren to convince the Highlanders to break their ties with the Federated Commonwealth and to proclaim their independence, carrying an offer of the Confederation's guarantee of their independence. He also tasked Loren to annihilate the Highlanders for their betrayal of the Capellan Confederation by calling a hidden force of Death Commandos to come down upon them once they were weakened in their conflict with the Federated Commonwealth.[4]

Loren Jaffray arrived on Northwind on September 11th 3057 and met with Colonel William MacLeod, acting commander of the Highlanders. MacLeod was interested in the offer from the Chancellor and began taking steps to make Northwind's independence a reality.[4][5] Unknown to him and Jaffray, the Consul Guards' commander, Colonel Drew Catelli, was conspiring to destroy the Highlanders and claim the planet for himself by inciting and exacerbating tensions between the Highlanders and the Federated Commonwealth.[6] An assassination attempt by an agent of Catelli, Stephen Lepeta, against MacLeod failed thanks to Jaffray's intervention.[7] Incensed, Colonel MacLeod convened a Warriors Cabel in Caithness Woods on September 21st where two thirds of the gathered Highlanders voted to call for an Assembly of Warriors to meet on the topic of independence.[8]

The launching of Operation Guerrero put Northwind dangerously near the fighting as the Sarna March began to spiral into chaos. The creation of the Lyran Alliance by Katherine Steiner-Davion worsened the situation: she demanded all three of the Highlanders regiments in her new nation to depart, despite Burns' insistence for them to remain at their postings as they were to only take orders from Archon-Prince Victor Steiner-Davion. MacLeod ignored the threats from Catelli and ordered the regiments to return to Northwind. The incident further increased William's distrust towards Burns and moved him further towards supporting an independence drive for Northwind, and tensions increased between pro-independence and pro-Davion camps in the planetary capital at Tara. The Highlanders also find that Catelli had been able to successfully request ComStar to sever HPG links from the Highlander command center at The Fort, cutting them off from communications with the outside world, including with their regiments still offworld.[9]

Opening Battles[edit]

With tensions high, Colonel Catelli acting under the authority of Consul Burns issued an ultimatum on September 23rd for the Highlanders to surrender Loren Jaffray to the Consul Guards at Tara's spaceport, accusing Loren of instigating disorder on Northwind and blaming him for the assassination attempt on Colonel MacLeod. [10] The Highlanders marshaled out to the spaceport where Catelli ordered MacLeod to submit to Federated Commonwealth authority and surrender Jaffray to him, reminding MacLeod that Loren belonged to a belligerent nation at war with their realm. When MacLeod refused to hand Loren over, a malware inserted by Lepeta made both sides believe they were being attacked by the other, prompting a confused skirmish. [11] However, Jaffray uncovered the truth and managed to convince both sides to cease hostilities. Not deterred from his goal, Catelli, claiming authority from the AFFC, deposed MacLeod and promoted Major Chastity Mulvaney to replace him, with Mulvaney acknowledging the order and siding with the AFFC. Most of the Highlander Regiments refused to acknowledge Catelli's orders and stayed loyal to MacLeod, but sizable contingent followed Mulvaney to fight alongside the Consul Guards. This effectively caused a Highlander Civil War, but the Highlanders and Guards separated without further conflict for the moment, with Catelli and MacLeod agreeing to leave Tara as neutral ground for both sides. MacLeod's regiment, now reorganized, numbered about three short battalions. MacLeod staked his plans on reinforcements from the offworld Highlander Regiments, the nearest to Northwind being Stirling's Fusiliers commanded by Colonel Cat Stirling who he was confident would side with him.[12]

However, the arrival of part of the Third Royal Guards RCT led by Marshal Harrison Bradford at a pirate jump point on September 24th ahead of Highlander regiments returning to Northwind quickly changed the balance of power.[13]

Both sides fought for first time on September 25th in the Tilman River Valley, where Marshal Bradford sent a team from the 1st NAIS, wearing Infiltrator Battle armor suits, to infiltrate into MacLeod's forward base and wreak havoc and ideally kill him and his commanders. Loren Jaffray, suffering insomnia, saw one of the camouflaged suits and raised an alert. The fight was fierce, and the NAIS units caused heavy damage and losses, downing some 'Mechs and more critically destroying the regiment's command and control vehicles. The attack was ultimately repulsed, forcing the rest to flee.[14][15]

On September 29th, another battle was fought in the Tilman River Valley, where MacLeod's forces ambushed a group of tanks, but were then attacked by Mulvaney's forces hidden in the river. The fight was fierce, but the Highlanders avoided killing each other, though Mulvaney's forces were able to inflict significant damage on the MacLeod's 'Mech assets.[16]

On October 4th, Consul Burns was murdered in his residence by Catelli's agent Stephen Lepeta as part of Catelli's scheme to further exacerbate the chaos on Northwind to his advantage. Catelli blamed the assassination on MacLeod's supporters and Bradford used the incident as a pretext to occupy Tara, swiftly arresting the remaining Highlanders and their families in the city and imposing martial law.[17]

The next day, when MacLeod's forces arrived at their destination, The Castle, an old Star League-era fortress, they believed to have arrived before Mulvaney and Catelli's forces, but they were wrong and instead fell into an ambush. To avoid being attacked by the heavy armaments and air support brought by the AFFC, MacLeod's forces moved in to engage in close combat. MacLeod's forces won, but at a heavy cost, and were unable to take The Castle. Further still, all of the 3rd Royals had just made landfall to join their advance force, changing the balance of power in favor of the Federated Commonwealth.[18]

Colonel MacLeod and his forces now realized that the fighting around The Castle was a feint to distract them while Tara was fortified by reinforcements from the 3rd Royals. Stirling was likely to unknowingly land in a hostile Tara and be set upon by the full force of the enemy, which led MacLeod to decide the Highlanders had to go on the offensive and attack Tara. MacLeod left a small force to capture The Castle while the rest of the forces began to move towards Tara. During a recon mission lead by Jaffray to gather information on the situation in Tara for MacLeod, the team saved Sergeant Major Plunket, the owner of the Highlanders' pub and a veteran of the unit. Plunket informed Jaffray and his team that Colonel Catelli and Marshal Bradford had stored a large amount of explosives at the spaceport that would not only obliterate Colonel Stirling and her Fusiliers when they landed, but destroy much of Tara and cause massive casualties. The blame of the catastrophic event would be laid at the feet of MacLeod and his supporters, turning opinion on Northwind against them and demoralizing the Highlanders. The recon team sent a warning back to MacLeod's forces and also had Plunket fake a defection to Mulvaney's forces in hopes that revealing the scheme to her would lead her Highlanders to abandon their AFFC allies. With the new information available, MacLeod adjusted his plans to focus on attacking the AFFC base in Peace Park to utilize their equipment to send a message to Stirling's Fusiliers to warn them against landing at the spaceport. [19]

Tara[edit]

On October 20th MacLeod's forces entered the city with Stirling's Fusiliers only hours away from landing at the spaceport and engaged in combat with the 3rd Royals and the Consul Guards at Peace Park. During the confrontation Jaffray infiltrated behind enemy lines to the 3rd Royals command vehicle, utilizing its equipment to send a signal to the incoming Stirling's Fusiliers and warning them about the trap as well as a stand down order to the waiting Death Commandos strike team in the system. Mulvaney's forces would arrive during the battle and defect to MacLeod's forces, making the Highlanders united again. The loud noise of bagpipes over communication channels in the area confirmed to the Highlanders that the Fusiliers were successfully warned of the situation in Tara. The Fusiliers executed a combat drop over the ongoing battle at Peace Park and tilted the battle in favor of the Highlanders. [20] The sudden arrival of the Fusiliers led the 3rd Royals to retreat deeper into the city while Colonel Catelli and the Consul Guard fled to the spaceport and attempted to stall the Highlanders to give time for the 3rd Royals to regroup. Catelli threatened the Highlanders with the explosives at the spaceport, but Stirling's Regiment had already taken steps to neutralize the detonation range of the explosives with ECM-equipped 'Mechs. Mulvaney shot into the warehouse where Catelli and his forces had fallen back to and set off the explosives within, obliterating them. [21][22]

Aftermath[edit]

The explosion claimed the lives of Colonel Catelli and the Consul Guards at the spaceport, but due to the efforts of the Highlanders the explosion did not devastate Tara as Catelli and Bradford had conspired. Pitched combat continued against the 3rd Royals still in the city, but they were flushed out of Tara and surrendered some days later attempting to escape, including Marshal Bradford, which put a formal end to the conflict. Later, the Assembly of Warriors convened and overwhelmingly voted to declare the independence of Northwind from the Federated Commonwealth. While some on Northwind had hoped for Bradford and his commanders to be put on trial for war crimes, he and the surviving AFFC forces were sent back to New Avalon in shame. [23]

Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao was satisfied with the results of Loren's mission on Northwind despite the survival of the Highlanders and demands of fellow Death Commandos for Loren's death, including his former commander Colonel Hertzog, for calling off their attack on the Highlanders. In his conversation with Hertzog, Sun-Tzu said that he had anticipated all along that Loren would not turn against the Highlanders and that ultimately, Northwind was too far for the Capellan Confederation in its current state to do anything about. However, by successfully sundering Northwind and the Highlanders away from House Davion and causing the destruction of the 3rd Royal Guards RCT and a unit of the 1st NAIS Cadre, Loren had exceeded in everything the Chancellor had wanted and allowed him to deal a humiliating defeat to Victor Steiner-Davion.[24]

On January 1st 3058, Archon-Prince Victor Steiner-Davion expressed his frustration to his aide Jerrard Cranston over the debacle at Northwind, adding to the already negative developments resulting from Operation Guerrero. Victor had not approved of the measures that Catelli and Bradford had taken in their scheming on Northwind, which had now cost him both the planet of Northwind and the loyalty of one of the AFFC's most valuable mercenary allies. When informed of the return of Marshal Bradford and his surviving forces, Victor ordered for him to be put under house arrest but otherwise not punished. Cranston then presented Victor with a package from Sun-Tzu Liao, which contained a set of china plates with a note from the Capellan chancellor. In the note, Sun-Tzu reminded Victor that during the wedding of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner, Hanse had taunted Maximilian Liao with china plates showing the names of planets in the Capellan Confederation he intended to conquer with the Fourth Succession War. The china plates within the package were likewise printed with the names of planets that Victor had lost during the course of Operation Guerrero, including that of Northwind which held epaulettes of the Third Royal Guards RCT belonging to Marshal Bradford and another to the 1st NAIS. Sun-Tzu closed the note by stating that Northwind's independence was recognized and would be defended by the Capellan Confederation, and further taunted Victor by saying that he would send him further plates of the rest of the Inner Sphere once he brought it under his control.[25]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Northwind Highlanders, pp. 8–10
  2. ↑ Highlander Gambit, ch. 4
  3. ↑ Northwind Highlanders, p. 8
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Highlander Gambit, ch. 3
  5. ↑ Northwind Highlanders, p. 10
  6. ↑ Highlander Gambit, ch. 13
  7. ↑ Highlander Gambit, chs. 10, 15
  8. ↑ Highlander Gambit, ch. 12
  9. ↑ Highlander Gambit, chs. 10–15
  10. ↑ Highlander Gambit, ch. 14
  11. ↑ Highlander Gambit, ch. 15
  12. ↑ Highlander Gambit, chs. 16–17
  13. ↑ Highlander Gambit, ch. 19
  14. ↑ Northwind Highlanders, p. 26
  15. ↑ Highlander Gambit, ch. 21
  16. ↑ Northwind Highlanders, p. 28
  17. ↑ Highlander Gambit, ch. 24
  18. ↑ Highlander Gambit, chs. 27–28
  19. ↑ Highlander Gambit, chs. 32–37
  20. ↑ Highlander Gambit ch. 38
  21. ↑ Northwind Highlanders, p. 30
  22. ↑ Highlander Gambit, ch. 39
  23. ↑ Highlander Gambit, chs. 40–41
  24. ↑ Highlander Gambit, ch. 40
  25. ↑ Highlander Gambit, Epilogue

Bibliography[edit]

Retrieved from "https://www.sarna.net/wiki/index.php?title=Battle_of_Northwind_(3057)&oldid=1016125"