Mitch Nelson

Mitch Nelson
Personal
Affiliation	House Nelson
Profile
Rank	Colonel
Position(s)	Commanding Officer of Delta Regiment
Profession	Mercenary MechWarrior

Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field

Mitch Nelson was the commanding officer of Delta Regiment of the 12th Vegan Rangers between 3028 and 3039, and possibly further.

History

Colonel Nelson led the Twelfth Vegan Rangers' Delta Regiment during the Fourth Succession War. Under his command, the unit saw combat on Wei during Operation RAT in 3029 and faced down the Capellans on that world in the the teeth of dangerous Star League era nerve agents. Thanks to Nelson's deft hand and aggressive strategies, the unit was able to drive Sung's Cuirassiers off-world while suffering relatively minimal casualties considering the deadly nature of the chemical weapons they fought against.

Nelson then redeployed his unit, along with Gamma Regiment to assist Federated Suns forces in their assault on Palos. Although initially he complied with AFFS High Command's request that he compromise with the locals and limit his 'Mechs to surface roads to minimize damage to agriculture, when several of his troops were killed by Capellans exploiting this policy, Nelson immediately revoked it. With the newfound mobility granted his forces, he lured the enemy force out of hiding and, after unsuccessfully offering its commanding officer the chance to surrender peacefully, destroyed it entirely. Colonel Nelson had his unit's engineers broadcast the whole battle on the local telecast, and the ferocity of the regiment's destruction caused the remaining Capellans to flee Palos. Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field During the War of 3039, Delta Regiment was assigned to capture Nashira. Nashira was anticipated to be a hard-fought campaign, given the association between Nashira and the regiments of the Genyosha, and the militia forces on the planet had a ferocious reputation. As a consequence of the challenge Nashira presented, the First FedCom RCT was assigned to support Delta Regiment. Though the First, commanded by Marshal Mira Tran, was notionally the superior unit, it was expected that Colonel Nelson would be in overall command of the campaign strategy. Unfortunately for both commands, Tran didn't share that view.

Nelson's plan for Nashira called for a risky orbital drop against Logan City, a tactic supported by Tran's Executive Officer, Leftenant General Vonda de Greer. While Tran disagreed, she was willing to see the Rangers take risks ahead of his own troops. Delta landed roughly twenty kilometers west of Logan City, with the First Battalion landing first via an orbit-to-surface drop on the 1st of May. The First Battalion was attacked immediately by militia forces - a regiment of infantry and a battalion of armor - but the militia didn't represent a significant threat to the grounded 'Mechs, although they would have inflicted significantly heavier damage if they'd been able to catch the troops deploying from their DropShips on the ground.

The First FedCom landed outside Ogawa, a spaceport city some fifty kilometers south of Delta's landing zone, and landed on the 5th of May without securing their landing zone first. Assured of the superiority of his own troops, Tran was caught completely off guard along with the rest of the First FedCom when the militia immediately attacked using both conventional and unconventional attacks. Even as the First was attempting to unload it was being targeted by kamikaze attacks using vehicles laden with explosives, while buildings were boobytrapped and FedCom troopers were being gunned down. It took five days for the First to secure Ogawa Port, and the First lost eight 'Mechs and more than two companies of armor and two hundred infantry. Tran was promptly recalled back to Errai, and the First continued to operate under the command of de Greer, who received a field promotion to command the entire RCT.

Delta and the First were plagued with guerrilla attacks during May and June, culminating when the task force occupied Logan City on the 21st of May. While none of the attacks was individually significant, the constant low-level attrition had a toxic effect on morale, and by July morale was a significant problem among both commands. engaged in the worst kind of police action on a world where the government was refusing to cooperate fully and with the designated occupation troops already late, Colonel Nelson and General de Greer were stuck trying to control a hostile population in an urban environment. Life soon got worse; on the 19th of July the First Genyosha arrived in-system, followed by the Second Genyosha on the 21st. Technically outnumbered, the Genyosha - operating under the command of Tai-sa Narimasa Asano - had both skill and determination in their favor, and were determined to free Nashira.

With the benefit of upgraded technology and a combination of skill and experience in their favor, the First Genyosha landed at Copenwald on the 22nd of JUly and quickly secured the area. The Second Genyosha monitored the battle reports from their sister regiment and opted not to land on Katiasha, but instead to go straight for the invaders' throat. The First FedCom were scattered in small redoubts across Nashira; individually, the redoubts were well-prepared positions ideal for attempting to police the world, but the high level of dispersion worked against the First FedCom. Individual redoubts were swept away by the skilled Genyosha warriors, while the Second Genyosha dropped directly into the Logan City spaceport in a daring avalanche drop that placed them directly in the First FedCom's rear area. After a chaotic twelve-hour battle the Second Genyosha firmly held the upper hand, and the surviving FedCom forces in the area retreated to Logan City, and Tai-sa Jürgen Miyabe confirmed via probing attacks that the FedCom positions in the city were well-prepared and fortified.

Asano's assessment that Miyabe's cautious approach to the city assessment was correct led him to deploy the Third Battalion of the First Genyosha to support the Second, while the remaining battalions of the First Genyosha secured New Anaheim, and industrial city. By the 8th of August Asano was happy that New Anaheim was secure, and he dispatched a second battalion to join the forces at Logan City. An attack launched by the combined forces on the 9th of August began reasonably well, but the First FedCom and Delta regiment put up a strong defense, slowing the Geyosha's progress. As Asano continued to push forward, he received news that the Seventh Donegal Guards had arrived in orbit, dispatched by Field Marshal Vanessa Bisla to reinforce the forces on Nashira.

Asano withdrew his troops from Logan City on the 10th of August, and a six-week campaign of raids and counterraids ensued as Asano and Daniel Voss-Steiner matched wits and strategies against each other. Both commanders were skilled, and while Voss-Steiner retained the advantage in terms of numbers, Asano kept the initiative; the FedCom forces consistently found themselves recapturing one important facility only to find that the Genyosha had captured another at the same time. The militia forces on Nashira continued their campaign of guerrilla attacks, with the tempo of attacks steadily increasing; the damage from an individual attack was relatively minimal, but the attacks continued to inflict damage and sap resources from the occupying forces. The tempo of attacks and acts of civil disobedience increased sharply in September, reaching a fever pitch in the second week of October. The climax came with a chemical weapons attack at Raven Ridge that caused a massive loss of life amongst the FedCom forces, and which prompted Asano to launch the Genyosha in attacks against the militia.

The Raven Ridge attack disenchanted both the Genyosha and the FedCom forces, causing the campaign to drop markedly in intensity, with just a handful of clashes being fought in October. The FedCom forces were officially recalled by the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces later in October, a decision that many saw as a betrayal of those who'd lost their lives at Raven Ridge. Voss-Steiner actively argued against that perception of events, making it clear in public that he regarded the Genyosha as being in no way responsible for the attack; Voss-Steiner even went so far as to praise Asano's troops for the way in which they had quickly moved to crush the terrorist cells and provide aid to the victims of the attack. Despite Voss-Steiner's efforts, the Raven Ridge attack remained a cause of great resentment among the LCAF personnel, particularly after rumors of ISF involvement in the attack circulated.

Bibilography

• NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 2
• Historical: War of 3039