FREE WORLDS – LYRAN FRONT
Fighting stalemated along the Free Worlds – Lyran front as the Commonwealth began to recover from the initial Marik drives and the FWLM advance bogged down against tenacious Lyran defences. Whilst the long-term prospects for Lyran success looked grim, the FWLM casualty rate began to skyrocket, causing disquiet amongst several prominent members of Parliament and some scattered protest at home. Though the fighting centred on only a few worlds, some within the FWLM were comparing their own hard fought actions to the easier Kuritan advance, and were left wondering if Theodore Kurita had left the Marik out to dry.
WORLD: POBULSO
DEFENDER: Narhal’s Raiders (both regiments), 6th Donegal Guards, 2nd Regiment, Knights of St. Cameron, 36th Lyran Guards RCT (less Mech Regiment). 200th and 209th Aerospace Wings, 16th Panzer Division, Poulsbo Militia
ATTACKER: 6th Free Worlds Guards, 1st Fusiliers of Oriente, 2nd Regiment, Lacedaemon Lancers, 5th Oriente Hussars, Warwalkers, 31st Free Worlds Armoured Brigade, Bronson’s Horde
Arrived mid-month: 38th Free Worlds Armoured Brigades, Caesar’s Cohorts and Clifton’s Rangers.
Arrived end of the Month: 4th and 5th Dark Shadows
RESULTS: The fighting was a slow, grinding slog, as the spring rains turned the ground of Poulsbo to mud and eventually forced the Marik advance to a halt, greatly aiding the efforts of pro-Lyran guerrillas active in the rear areas. Worse, the poor weather grounded Marik airpower, limiting its effectiveness, though the FWLM advance did overrun a militia airbase, forcing the surrender of the militia air units early in the month.
This setback was soon avenged when the 361st Panzergrenadier Brigade launched a raid on a forward Marik airfield and captured the aerospace fighters of Bronson’s Horde on the ground with less than a half-dozen shots fired. The Warwalkers, at the same airfield, barely got away in time. The matter was so shocking that the commander of the 5th Oriente, whose regiment was responsible for the sector of the Marik lines which the Lyrans had infiltrated, was challenged to a duel by the commander of Bronson’s Horde. The men were only prevented to coming to blows by the commander of the 6th Free Worlds Guards, the Task Force Commander.
WORLD: FORD
DEFENDER: 14th Lyran Guards RCT, 15th Panzer Division, 5th Lohengrin, 127th Independent Aerospace Wing, 7th Lyran Regulars Aerospace Wing, Ford Militia
ATTACKER: 21st Centauri Lancers, 12th Atrean Dragoons, 23rd Marik Militia, Fuchida’s Fusiliers, 5th Fusiliers of Oriente, Gotterdammerung Society, Head Hunters, League of Tigers, 9th Regulan Hussars, The Foreign Legion, The Renegades Co-Op, The Wild Geese, Martian Cuirassiers, 1st Oriente Hussars, Cameron’s Legion, Eagle Corps, 2nd and 3rd Dark Shadows
Arrived Early in Month: 44th Heavy Assault Wing
Arrived Mid Month: 4th and 5th Free Worlds Guards, 20th Marik Militia, 20th Free Worlds Armoured Brigade
Arrived End of Month: 1st Lacedaemon Lancers, 6th and 11th Heavy Assault Regiments
RESULTS: The fighting on Ford reached new heights of savagery in April; with a Marik attempt mid-month at a sub-orbital landing in the Lyran rear ending badly. However, Marik forces broke the Lyran aerospace attempts to interfere with the initial landing of Marik special operations troops to mark the LZ, forcing the surrender of one Lyran militia air wing, and running off another, all at the cost of the League Of Tigers air wing breaking for home, due to casualties. Many mercenary pilots were heard openly over the shared frequencies stating that the Tigers should break their contract with the League. Worse for the pathfinders, their landings were anticipated, with the rest of the militia and the 5th Lohengrin waiting. The Eagle Corps was wiped out and the 3rd Dark Shadows was forced to surrender in a half-hour long fire fight. The 2nd’s drop was aborted when their DropShip engine temp light went on and the ship was forced to abort.
Following these debacles, the lines stayed mostly static, with only a small scale assault by the Renegades Co-Op on the sector of the 3rd Militia division ending with the mercenaries forcing the militia to flee, but getting hit hard in the flank by the 14th Lyran Guards and forced to retreat themselves. However, despite several successes things still looked dire for the Lyrans, with more Marik reinforcements arriving daily
WORLD: DIXIE
ATTACKER: Dinsdale’s Desperados, 1st Dark Shadows, Snowcats, 2nd Atrean Hussars, 1st Bolan Lancers, Bordon’s Blood Drinkers, 2nd Free Worlds Guards, 3rd Fusiliers of Oriente, Langendorf Lancers, 2nd Regulan Hussars, Black Earth Carabineers, 72nd Free Worlds Aerowing-7th Regiment
DEFENDER: Dixie Revolutionary Guards
RESULTS: The fight on Dixie was a mismatch from the beginning, with the Guards crushed in a series of running fights in the planetary lowlands. The real trouble came after the main battles, as the Marik force went far and wide looking for fugitives from the Guards and their presumed LIC backers. In New Darien, a mixed force of ‘Mechs from Bordon’s Blood Drinkers and the 1st Bolan Lancers entered the town in response to a sniping incident that killed 4 members of the 2nd Free Worlds Guards. The sniper attack was in response to televised executions of the leaders of the Dixie Guards, after the Guard’s Commanders had negotiated a surrender. SAFE interrogations had led the FWLM to this locale in search of the snipers responsible and little opposition was expected. Unfortunately, the sniper had left town with his family a day earlier, but the commander of the Blood Drinkers detachment didn’t believe the locals, and unleashed his men on the town stating “This will teach you not to oppose your betters.” The 1st Bolan attempted to restrain the Blood Drinkers, but to no avail, as the town was levelled in a thirty minute orgy of destruction, with only some women taken by the former pirates as “unit recreational aids”.
The commander of the task force, Colonel Josiah Kimbelton, convened a court martial for Lt. Colonel Bordon in absentia (he was unable to be located by SAFE or the FWLM after the massacre) amongst the other commanders of the task force, but before it could be held in the former Lyran Magistrate building in the planetary capital, a Lyran “patriot” drove a truck bomb into the building, killing at least half of the officers present. Colonel Kimbelton got out with little more than a scorched uniform, but his aide was killed beside him.