Operation BATU

Part of Combine-Ghost Bear War
Start Date 3062 Planet Alshain Result Clan Ghost Bear destroy the Combine invaders and launch counterstrikes.
Factions
(Attacker) Draconis Combine	(Defender) Clan Ghost Bear

Overview

Operation BATU was an unauthorized invasion of the planet Alshain, which was held by Clan Ghost Bear in 3062. The strike was mostly planned by the Kokuryu-kai, also known as the Black Dragon Society, but the mastermind behind the operation was Duke Hassid Ricol. Three of the four Alshain Avengers regiments attempted to retake the world for the Draconis Combine, and were obliterated by the Ghost Bears, while one regiment never made it to Alshain to begin with.

In fact, the operation was doomed from the outset, and was little more than a suicide mission for the Avengers.

“	I applaud the Avengers' audacity, but the battle was over before it had begun.	”
	—  Vlad Ward, Khan of Clan Wolf, commenting on the aftermath of Operation BATU.

Preparations

Three of the four regiments of Avengers managed to leave their duty stations and travel to Alshain without attracting suspicion, but not the fourth; the Eleventh Alshain Avengers were prevented from joining the assault by Clan Nova Cat forces, who were acting on a vision from Zane Nova Cat. The Eleventh sustained heavy losses and were unable to depart from their duty station.

Attack

The absence of the Eleventh Alshain Avengers reduced the rogue DCMS forces to three-quarters of their planned strength, but a decisive factor in the failure of the attack on Alshain was that the Avengers either ignored the availabile intelligence on the Ghost Bears or were unaware that the clan had abandoned all of its holdings in the Clan Homeworlds and relocated to the Inner Sphere en masse, with Alshain as their new capital world. The Black Dragons had sufficient influence to obtain the Tatsumaki-class destroyer DCS Dragon's Last Tear as part of the Avengers task force, but the destroyer was completely outclassed by the Nightlord-class battleship CGB Ursa Major and easily destroyed, and somewhere between half and an entire regiment of Avengers were destroyed in space soon afterwards.

Additionally, the clan garrison on planet was much larger than expected. The Avengers that survived the opening salvoes in space managed to make landfall, albeit with a number of MechWarriors arriving via combat drops. The Avengers who made it to the ground were overwhelmed by the Ghost Bear forces. Tai-i Shiro Kanazawa, an Atlas pilot and Alshain native was defeated and killed in single combat by a lone Elemental, a Ghost Bear ristar named Jake Kabrinski.. A small number of Avengers survived long enough to flee into the wilderness and launch a guerilla campaign.

Aftermath

Theodore Kurita denounced the attempted invasion of Alshain and labeled the participating Combine units as traitors, but this failed to appease the Ghost Bears, who launched assaults along the Ghost Bear Dominion border with the Combine, initiating what would later be known as the First Combine-Dominion War. The survivors of the Eleventh Alshain Avengers were also hunted and destroyed by the Ghost Bears, despite never having made it to Alshain.

Units Involved

Draconis Combine

• Alshain Avengers
  • Eighth Alshain Avengers
  • Eleventh Alshain Avengers
  • Fourteenth Alshain Avengers
  • Fifteenth Alshain Avengers
• Tatsumaki-class WarShip DCS Dragon's Last Tear

Clan Ghost Bear

• Nightlord-class WarShip CGB Ursa Major

Bibliography

• Field Manual: Updates
• Path of Glory (novel)
• Test of Vengeance (novel)