Operation INROAD

Matabushi Incorporated, a firm based in the Draconis Combine, created a "Special Operations Trade Division" under Hohiro Anato sometime around 3023, although they only publicly announced it in 3024. Operation Inroad was the designation for one particular (and possibly the only) project of this special division. The overall plan was to set up operations in the Federated Suns mostly for money laundering and smuggling.

On 1 December 3023, Ander's Moon was reported to have been identified as an excellent target for these objectives; it was described as a small outpost, "too small to ever be of strategic interest to the DCMS" and with an "estimated flow capability" of 50 million C-Bills per month. The local government (Duke Cameron Vandenburg at the time) was deemed "small and controllable".

When the government proved unyielding, Hohiro Anato requested permission to send the Dark Wing to Ander's Moon to destroy the current government and install a new Duke whom they had bribed to do their bidding (McBrin). Matabushi CEO/Board Chairman Duke Ishi Tahiro authorized the execution of the operation on 1 March 3024 and within two days, the Dark Wing who had secretly been smuggled to Ander's Moon by Kangaroo Jack's smuggler JumpShip, the "Stone Arrow", assaulted Castle Vandenburg, killed the Duke and most of his family and stole the Chalice of Herne, an artefact that represented Dukedom on Ander's Moon. Jarris McBrin, who received substantial bribes from Matabushi, subsequently took control of the Vandenburg assets. He quickly gained tremendous influence on Ander's Moon, which he used to bypass environmental laws to begin large scale mining of radioactive minerals (mostly on former Vandenburg grounds). Incidentially, the Kurita military was in dire need of such ores at the time.

Gideon Braver Vandenburg, son of the late Duke Cameron Vandenburg, had escaped the initial attack against Castle Vandenburg and fled the planet after forged evidence saw his clan charged with conspiracy and crimes against the state. He created his own mercenary unit, the Blazing Aces, and within five years managed to uncover Operation Inroad, track down and vanquish the Dark Wing and retrieve the Chalice of Herne.

Other Information

• Gideon Braver and the Blazing Aces were introduced in the 1989 Activision computer game Mechwarrior, where the player takes the role of Gideon Braver in his quest to find out about and stall Operation Inroad, and reclaim the Chalice.
• The world of Ander's Moon is not mentioned anywhere else in the BattleTech canon, but its position on the game's starmap corresponds with Elidere IV.