personal 2

Just before departing for Coromodir, I asked Thomas to provide me with the Combine contacts obtained during the interrogation of Santiago Espinosa. Then, I talked with John Smith to see if we could use these contacts to try to acquire several DEST suits.

In early July 3031 I arrived in Coromodir where a pleasant surprise was waiting for me: Kamea was pregnant.

With the child to be born at the end of August if everything went well, I basically went into 'nervous father' mode. I requested from New Vandenberg the latest medical equipment for maternity hospitals, the latest Star League ones that were being brought back into production and from Canopus the best medical team I could get my hands on. This was despite Kamea assuring me that they had competent staff in Cordia City, but I was not willing to take any risks.

Fortunately, my fears were unfounded, and on the 27th​ of August 3031, Sara Arano-Bassot was born, a beautiful, healthy girl.

To commemorate the birth of her daughter, Kamea decreed that the Restoration was complete and that the nation would be called Aurigan Reach again.

The Shadow Hawks were being upgraded with modern armor, myomers and weapons in Mechdur. Unfortunately, doing so for the electronics and engines proved impossible, but they were still a much appreciated booster.

The delegation that had gone to Niops had successfully obtained a trade treaty. That wasn't easy, mind you as the Niops ruling elite was very isolationist and suspicious. And if her people could get a copy that information would be hers, and with a bit of luck, some of that information would be new, not included in the Helm and New Dallas data cores, and could be traded at full value, with no need to negotiate with Thomas for scraps. From the beginning of this operation I had informed Kamea of the difficulties and possible winnings, so she could understood that it was gong to be a medium to long time operation as it couldn't be easy, nor fast as I didn't have any idea where that information could be located on the planet and I didn't believe negotiations would get us through; meaning she needed to send a long term infiltration and spec ops team, because I didn't believe that she could get it through negotiations. But the first contact was already made, and she now had a base of operations on system, namely the Embassy that she had secured.

The DEST suits arrived at New Vandenberg, and it was soon discovered that I had been had. While they were indeed what I ordered, the very expensive order was of second quality, with many of the components replaced by ones of sub-par or obsolete ones. But, my team in V4RU was confident that they could replace all the bad or sub-par parts with ones made locally, and as soon as they would have finished the refit, they would send them to Coromodir.

In the middle of 3032, it was evident that the invasion of the Capellan Confederation was at a turning point. Even with the support of the Concordat, Romano Liao's troops were better and that was showing on the battlefields.

To my amazement, Thomas, who so far had wanted to stay out of this conflict, sent us a personal envoy, evidently unwilling to entrust this type of information to Comstar, informing us that he would begin operations against the Confederation in early January and that he 'expected' Kamea to do the same.

Kamea was not at all pleased with the 'suggestion', but she was a politician and realistic enough to know that she had no alternative if she wanted to continue in Thomas' good graces and continue to receive the economic aid that her nation needed.

Thomas targets on the first wave were going to be Rollis, Larsha and Corodiz, and he expected that Kamea's forces, supplemented by the Revenants would hit Ward. The objectives for the second wave were Yuris, Zanzibar and Muridox and for the Aurigan forces, Hurik. That is everything went well. The main objective was to secure the South East salient of the Capellan Confederation while at same time relieving pressure from the Canopian forces. Kamea would get two worlds for her participation and almost no border with the Capellan Confederation. And the thanks of Thomas and Kyalla. Oh, and probably the hatred of Romano Liao, but such is life, after all.

Further objectives were not planned but that could change depending on the results.

At the end of December 3032, the Revenants with the support of two of the few mechanized infantry regiments Kamea had at her disposal arrived at Weldry on the border between the Capellan Confederation and the Reach.

In 9 January 3033, we jumped on Ward, just two days after the Concordat forces started their operation, invading Rollis, Larsha and Corodiz in the first wave. Because Romano Liao's forces had been involved for some years in war with the Canopians and Andurien, and before that had been severely reduced in the 4th Succession War, she had left only light, poorly equipped forces to protect this side of the border. The long time defenders of Ward, the Kamakura's Hussars were supposedly on Turin, the only forces left were some Home Guard units, AKA, Capellan national militia. At least, that was the intel gathered by the TMI and the AIS (Aurigan Intelligence Service).

The first part of the operation went well, our run to Ward VI, the only planet inhabited in the system, was unopposed.

We dropped a few kilometers from the capital, our recon flights not detecting any opposing forces in the area.

Approaching the capital, my force was ambushed by a group of Manticores and Vedettes supported by a company of 'Mechs. Normally, one of my Beagle equipped Black Knights should have detected the ambush force, but severe interferences prevented that from happening. Several of the Revenant 'Mechs were damaged, including mine. I saw Cornet Kaneda Arisa executing a Death from Above on top of a Liao Vedette, while at same time discharging her PPC on one APC. God, that woman was really good! Only the massive armor of the Nightstar saved me, from PPC hits from two Manticores. After placing two Gauss rounds in one of the Manticores, I changed targets for one Cataphract, in the colors of Warrior House Lu Sann, because the second Manticore was already a smoking wreck, I didn't see who destroyed it. WTF were 'Mechs in the colors of a Warrior House doing on this forsaken planet? As usual the 'Intelligence' services had it all wrong, shocking, really. The bastard fired first and hit my 'Mech on the left torso, reducing the already damaged armor to dangerous levels. My returning fire penetrating its center torso, killed it. As soon as the Cataphract was destroyed, the interference terminated. Wait, was that one of the very rare, CTF-0X? I quickly placed an order to secure the wreck and searched for another target, this time selecting an already damaged Marauder, a 3L variant or so say my computer. The unfortunate 'MechWarrior was busy fighting against one of Revenants Thunderbolt, so I got the luxury of taking time to make a carefully placed shot on his left torso, destroying it with two Gausss rounds and a shot of my ER PPC for good measure. All the ambush force had been eliminated, and we continued advancing towards the capital. By sheer luck, we caught the Home Guard Mine-layer infantry just finishing deploying a minefield, and so we quickly eliminated them before avoiding the dangerous area. 

No more forces appeared to challenge us, so we captured the capital and Lord Whitt Ricardo surrendered the system to us. All in all, while the battle was intense, it was also very short and our losses light. Kamea's regiments had no time to engage before we eliminated the defenders and had suffered no losses.

A few days later, Whitt Ricardo was found dead, assassinated during is sleep. The security team in charge of his protection never saw the culprits, and the body had a sign saying 叛國罪 - 'Traitor to the Nation'. And this was just the beginning as we quickly discovered that several small units of infantry from the House Guard had dispersed, no doubt with some veterans from the Warrior House and began playing a guerrilla campaign against our occupation in the following months, inflicting several losses on the forces we kept for garrisoning the planet, mostly to the infantry regiments. Thank God, the civilian population was mostly calm or things could have gone ugly very fast, because we didn't have enough troops on the ground to control them.

After an extended infield analysis, the first 'Mech I had destroyed was indeed one of the very rare CTF-0X, electronics was thankfully intact, so I sent it to New Vandenberg for analysis.

In early February arrived the time for the second wave and we departed for Hurik. Thankfully, we had received reinforcements, two extra Aurigan infantry regiments had arrived to take garrison duties bringing also the planned replacements for the losses for the units of the first wave and two lances of the refurnished Shadow Hawks 1R. So, we departed with a full force again, the Revenants had even had the time to repair the damaged 'Mechs.

Just before our departure for Hurik, a DropShip arrived from New Vandenberg. Inside it were three 'Mechs – the prototypes of the PNT-1TC Penetrator, the prototype of the MAD-5TC Marauder II and the BSK-MAZ Bull Shark. Like the two prototypes, the Bull Shark, after being microscopically analyzed was being deployed for battlefield testing.

Aurigan Reach Military

At this time – Early 3033 the Aurigan Reach Military consists of

5 and a half battalion of 'Mechs – one and a half survivors of the civil war, with none bigger than medium, three battalions of Griffins and one of Shadow Hawks 1R

6 regiments of mechanized infantry – equipped with light / medium tanks, SRM and LRM Carriers, APCs and IFVs and some towed arty.

40 regiments of infantry – militia / Home Guard, with small arms and transported by trucks, with a few LAWs and SRM-2.

One battalion of 'Mechs plus one of the mechanized infantry make the Royal Guards, the only force that has a small number of atmospheric fighters / fighter-bombers.

The Royal Guards and the mechanized forces are all veterans of the civil war, experienced troops. The rest are green, and about half of dubious loyalty.

The Aurigan Armed Forces don't have ASFs, nor DropShips or JumpShips. When in need, civilian ones are commandeered.