Battle of Marduk (3039)

Battle of Marduk (3039)
Conflict details
Part of	War of 3039
Start Date	17 May 3039
End Date	13 October 3039
Planet(s)	Marduk
Location(s)	New Pontiac, Fort Ea, Tillerbee Jungle, Manschemman Dune Field, Lomen, Wurmensburg, Deshler, Stanton, Fort Stroum
Result	Federated Suns withdrawal
Territorial Changes	No net change
Attacking Forces
Affiliation	Federated Suns
Commanding Officer(s)	Field Marshal James Sandoval
Command(s)	Tenth Deneb Light Cavalry First Robinson Rangers Ninety-third Mechanized Brigade
Defending Forces
Affiliation	Draconis Combine
Commanding Officer(s)	Tai-sa Conner Aiku (intial) Sho-sho Shurin Goros
Command(s)	Sixth Benjamin Regulars Eighth Galedon Regulars
Other Forces

Prelude

Historically a Federated Suns world, Marduk had been a contentious world throughout the Third Succession War. It was one of the few gains by the Draconis Combine during the Fourth Succession War. Because of its agricultural and industrial might, Field Marshal James Sandoval viewed Marduk as the ultimate target for Wave One in the War of 3039. It was defended only by a detached battalion of the Sixth Benjamin Regulars and several regiments of conventional troops and militia.

Overview

Initial Invasion

Landings began on 17 May as the First Robinson Rangers, led personally by Sandoval, targeted the capital city of New Pontiac. A full wing of aerospace fighters rose to oppose the landings, with several making it through the heavy escort screen. A husband-wife team of Slayer pilots, Chu-i Robert and Sho-i Minerva McClure rammed two Union-class DropShips belonging to the First Robinson Rangers, destroying the two companies of transported BattleMechs. Another Overlord-class was forced to make an emergency landing and three more DropShips landed with serious damage.

Despite their losses, the Rangers and later the Tenth Deneb Light Cavalry managed to ground the majority of their forces and attempted a decapitation strike on Marduk's command and control within Pontiac. Despite the early warning sent by the Combine's ranking officer, Tai-sa Connor Aiku, only the conventional regiments were positioned to oppose the initial assault. New Pontiac fell to the Rangers in less than a day, though two regiments of militia infantry and armor put up a spirited defense in Fort Ea joust outside New Pontiac. When resistance there crumbled, surviving militia troops were forced into the Tillerbee Jungle that surrounded the Victory Industries complex.

Recognizing the jungle as hazardous terrain, Sandovall slowly encircled the Victory complex as he waited until the Ninety-third Mechanized Brigade made landfall on 25 May. Two days later, Sandovall begun pushing into the jungle in earnest.

Running nearly two weeks from 27 May until 11 June, the Battle of Tillerbee Jungle was some of the most brutal fighting of the invasion. Layered defenses and presighted artillery proved a tough nut to crack on the ground, while the thick jungle foliage negated nearly all the advantages of air superiority; the AFFS fighters were reduced to carpet bombing to help clear paths through the jungle. For more than a week the Rangers and Tenth Deneb were held up by the last two defensive lines around the complex, which ended only when a bold strike by the Deneb forced a break in the lines. Organized resistance ceased on 11 June and a battlaion of Deneb ’Mechs and an infantry regiment of the Ninety-third Mechanized were detached to guard the complex and root out any remaining defenders or saboteurs. Sandoval's remaining forces begun actively hunting down surviving defenders elsewhere on planet.

Until this point the majority of DCMS troops encountered had been planetary militia, the detached battalion of Sixth Benjamin Regulars had made themselves scarce until Sandovall's forces struck into the heart of the Tiller continent. The Regulars refused to be pinned down, harrying the AFFS force with a series of hit and fade attacks. One such by a combined arms battalion destroyed an entire company of Deneb scout ’Mechs and faded away before they could be engaged. To counter this, Sandovall spread his forces over a wide front with his aerospace assets acting as a rapid response force anytime ground forces momentarily fixed the defenders in place. This tactic extracted a heavy toll on the Regulars.

The DCMS was forced into a larger engagement on 14 June when a Regulars ambush nearly succeeded in trapping Field Marshall Sandovall in the Manschemman Dune Field desert. The Rangers rallied to their commander as more and more forces poured into the failed ambush from both sides. Eventually comprising the majority of combat forces on world, the battle lasted for two days. By evening of 16 June the remains of nearly three regiments of Combine troops were baking in the desert sun, effectively ending all organized resistance on world.

Combine Counterattack

The AFFS troops spent the next two months rebuilding, with the output of Victory Industries going a long way to material recouping losses. The lack of a Wave Two target meant the three regiments has nearly three months before their scheduled (but unspecified) Wave Three targets. On 3 July Sandoval issued go orders for other regiments in his Benjamin Thrust while his forces continued to refit. When Combine forces arrive in system for a counterattack, Sandoval was not overly concerned. The plan had anticipated counterattacks, if anything he wondered what had taken the Combine so long to respond.

The Eighth Galedon Regulars under Tai-sa Homai Lu arrived in system first from their station on Deshler on 1 August, followed by the remainder of the Sixth Benjamin Regulars under Sho-sho Shurin Goros on 4 August. Despite orders from Gunji-no-Kanrei Theodore Kurita to work together, their relationship was plagued by rivalries and grievances from the beginning in addition to being outnumbered. The Galedon Regulars grounded more than a thousand kilometers from New Pontiac and Victory Industries, securing the cities of Lomen and Wurmensburg inside their perimeter which gave the Combine a secure landing zone. Despite this, the Banjamin Regulars conducted a risky combat drop only thirty kilometers from New Pontiac which brought them into almost immediate contact with the AFFS forces.

The first pitched battle of the counterattack occurred on 6 August. While the AFFS enjoyed an advantage on quantity and tonnage of equipment, the Combine forces were highly motivated. Despite this, the fanatical "victory or death" mentality among the Combine resulted in several suicide charges that sapped the Combine strength. Sandoval concentrated his forces on the Tiller continent in the capital New Pontiac, the industrial city of Deshler (not to be confused with the planet Deshler the Eighth Galedon Regulars had just departed), and the Victory Industries complex. Forces not garrisoned in those main objectives were ordered to harry Combine forces to prevent consolidation wherever possible. While Sandoval prepared, Goros and Lu argued. The two Combine officers clashed several times in the first two weeks of the counterattack, their disorganization gave Sandoval an opening he exploited fully.

Goros and his Banjamin Regulars continued to slam against the defenses of New Pontiac, which left the suburbs in ruin by mid-August along with the small nearby city of Stanton where Goros had retreated following the first failed assault on New Pontiac on 6 August. On 23 August Goros launched another assault on New Pontiac which was turned aside by a Deneb spoiling attack supported by the Rangers. Goros' lines crumbled and his forces were pushed back to Stanton and beyond. During this route, a company of heavy Galedon Regulars armor was cut off and discovered by Leftenant David Albion's Javelin and his lance of two more Javelins and a Valkyrie. Though outnumbered and outmassed, Albion attacked because of his edge in mobility and the desire to impress Field Marshall Sandoval. The Valkyrie rained down LRM fire on the tanks as the Javelins rushed in on jump jets and concentrated SRM fire on the tanks. For three minutes Albion repeated this tactic, always striking from a different side. Before the Combine armor was able to escape, Albion had destroyed six Demolishers and two Behemoths, losing only a single Javelin to a lucky autocannon shot.

The pursuit of the Combine forces continued for four days, during which their numbers were savaged by near constant ground contact and aerial assaults. To aid in this destruction, Sandoval placed the Deneb's commander Leftenant General Jameston Gaston in charge of the pursuit, and attached a mixed harassing brigade of armor, a full wing of aerospace fighters, and tasked half of the remaining AFFS aerospace assets to ground support. When the Combine forces arrived Fort Stroum, a city built atop a Succession Wars-era military compound, Goros was able to rally his troops and halt the Deneb advance. The battle for Fort Stroum last from 28-30 August as the Galedon Regulars attempted to secure and fortify the city while the Benjamin Regulars battled Deneb forces in and around the city.

Sandoval ordered the Deneb to continue the siege of Fort Stroum while Sandoval led the rest of his forces to fix and destroy the Benjamin Regulars. Sandoval reached the Fort on 2 September, and engaged in battle the next day. This battle quickly stalled and the siege continued. On 8 September two Combine conventional regiments managed to break through the AFFS fighter screen and landed inside Fort Strum to reinforce the defenders. Even with this additional manpower, Goros was unable to break out despite three attempts over the next two weeks.

Leaving Gaston in command of the siege, Sandoval returned to his headquarters to better control the greater conflict within the Benjamin Thrust. The DCMS counterattack Operation OROCHI was well underway at this point and Sandoval attempted to exhort his units not to pull back. Goros received reinforcements twice more, but neither were able to dislodge Sandoval's forces. It wasn't until 6 October when Sandoval received a recall notice that his forces were forced to leave. Before departing he ordered his quartermasters to strip everything of value from Victory Industries, other factories in New Pontiac, Deshler and five more major cities. With more than several billions of C-bills’ worth of booty in their cargoholds, the last of Sandoval's DropShips lifted off on 13 October.

Outcome

The systemic looting Sandoval engaged in crippled Marduk’s industry for the better part of 3040 and forced the Combine to pour money into the world’s economy to prevent economic collapse. Combine military and government-sponsored engineers spent almost four years on Marduk repairing the extensive damage done to the world’s infrastructure. The months long occupation by the AFFS enflamed old loyalties and it would be more than a year until the local populace began to accept Combine rule once more. The gutted hulk of the gutted Overlord remains outside the town of Kurvil. For his role in the battle, David Albion was promoted to Captain and assigned to Sandoval's planning staff to research more tactics light ’Mechs could employ against heavy armor.

Bibliography

• Historical: War of 3039
• Technical Readout: 3039