Maneuvers and Wargames Bring the Successor States Closer to All-Out War All military leaves are cancelled. MechWarriors, armored troops, line infantry, techs and astechs, ship's crew and specialists, all are ordered to report aboard their ships without delay. JumpShip FSS Exeter and a sister ship recharge their drives at the nadir JumpPoint of New Avalon. JumpShips such as these represent a vital technological resource--and an irreplaceable one. Do needless military exercises such as Operation Galahad threaten this vital link in the framework of modern civilization? Far off in space, JumpShips appear at an alien sun's JumpPoint, blanketing nearby space with ECM jamming. DropShips cast off from their two-kilometer long carriers, fusion pulse plasma drives and old-fashioned chemical rockets burn in brilliant, miniature suns which accelerate the DropShips towards the distant planet. Aerospace fighters range ahead, seeking the enemy, as reconnaissance satellite pods arrow into trajectories which will loop them around the target planet days in advance of the approaching armada. On the planet's surface, aboard orbital space stations, and on advance defense outposts on the planet's moons, hard-eyed men and women bend over their scanners, noting the approach of Davion Expeditionary Force Twelve-Alpha. Passage from JumpPoint to target world takes four days, typical travel time within the planetary system of a K-class star such as Fallon. There is plenty of time for Fallon Irs defenders to prepare a warm reception. This is not a scenario for hypothetical all-out war, but fact. This week, practice invasions are being carried out at Fallon II, at McGehee, at Groveld III, and at dozens of other worlds within the Federated Suns, along the borders of both the Draconis Combine and the Capellan Confederation. This year's games have created something of a stir throughout the Confederation. August of last year, 3026, was witness to the grandest set of wargames and practice maneuvers yet unleashed on the Inner Sphere ... until this August (TC) when Prince Hanse Davion announced Operation: Galahad, the wargames of 3027. "We, the free peoples of the Federated Suns, are beset on every side by the forces of Darkness, forces which would tear us down and subject us to the blackest form of tyrrany," Prince Davion announced earlier this week. His speech was holovised live from the Summer Palace at Stirling, on the world of Argyle, and was made available to the news media of worlds across the Human Sphere asadelayed broadcast via the ComStar HPG net. "If we are to stand against this darkness which is hammering at the very walls of our society," Davion continued, "if we are to preserve our way of life, our way of thought, our very being against this dark menace, if, indeed, we are ever to win our true destiny as the rebirth of the glory of the Star League of old, then we must be ever watchful, ever ready. Freedom, my friends, has a price, and that price is eternal vigilence!" The text of Prince Davion's speech ran to thirty-seven minutes, but it basically concentrated on one point: the continued need for military preparedness to counter the threat posed by Houses Kurita and Liao along the marches of the Federated Suns. The maneuvers comprising Operation Galahad were well underway even before the prince made his announcement. Some maneuvers have been underway since last month. Many observers believe the recent incursion by a Liao task force into Davion space last month was an attempt to gather intelligence, an attempt prompted by the preliminary maneuvers of Operation Galahad. BattleMechs may be the kings of the modern battlefield, but training operations such as Operation Galahad could squander precious resources needed elsewhere.  At his field headquarters at Port Borea on Klathandu IV, General Wesley Fairfax of the Federated Suns Supreme Command Staff said, "These maneuvers are necessary. We have to know that all of our people know their places in a DropShip transit. We have to know that our people can debark quickly or make a combat drop into a heavily-defended target drop zone. If they don't know before Operation Galahad, they damn well will after. Better they learn it in a training run, though, than in the face of enemy fire." Critics of Davion's wargame maneuvers were quick to point out that, technically, the Federated Suns are already at war with both Liao and Kurita, and that special training maneuvers are scarcely necessary--or rational--in the current situation. Minority Leader Naomi Gavin Rollings, in an interview at the Capitol on New Avalon immediately after the broadcast of the Prince's message there, said, "Aren't we at war already? Two months ago, a Kurita battalion raided Dobson. Twelve hundred soldiers and civilians, five BattleMechs, and a ball bearing factory were lost. Last month there was that Liao raid on Corella, and the big battle that followed (see: BattleTac, in this issue of BattleTechnology). If our soldiers aren't being trained by the out-and-out warfare that's going on all around us, all the time, then they sure aren't going to learn any better play acting at the taxpayer's expense." Dr. Vladimir Kandinsky, head professor of Applied History at the New Avalon Institute of Science, agreed. "The Third Successor State War began in 2866. That same war has continued now for one hundred sixty years. There have been intervals of relative calm brought on by the mutual exhaustion of the participants, but for all intents and purposes, the war goes on now, year after year. Prince Davion's wargames are not likely to change that." BattleTechnology has discovered that Dr. Kandinsky was dismissed from his position as head of the Applied History Department at NAIS shortly after his interview with the holonews media. There has been intense speculation that Kandinsky lost the prestigious post at the Federated Suns' principal military academy because of his failure to support the official government position. Dr. Kandinsky has not been available for comment. The principal criticism levied at this year's wargames is the monumental cost. The expense of gathering a single BattleMech regiment, of embarking it aboard DropShips and transporting it to regimental JumpShips, of then transporting that regiment tens or even hundreds of light years across the marches can run into tens of millions of C-Bills. The total cost in food, fuel, and time is expected to reach Cb 250,000,000. This does not count extra, unanticipated expenses. "Mistakes are bound to happen," Regis Rutherfeld, of the Citizen's Watch on Government (C-WOG) said outside his home in Stirling, Argyle. "BattleMechs will be damaged--not may be damaged, will be damaged--in accidents loading them aboard ship, in accidents during planet drop training, in accidents out in some Blake-forsaken swamp where the regiment is holding maneuvers. And worse than that, these maneuvers are certain to provoke Luthien and Sian, not frighten them. The increase in raids and armed clashes along both borders during the past month are certainly the result of all the extra military traffic going in and out ... and because the Kuritists and Liaos are curious about what's going on." Indeed, curiosity appears to be the motive behind last month's raid by Liao forces on the Davion planet of Corella. Harder to explain is the reported raid by Davion forces on Hell, fifth planet of the star Scheat. Davion space and 'Mech forces reportedly on maneuvers made the jump from the Davion base at Klanthandu IV to the Scheat system and made a combat drop on the Kurita military and industrial facilities at that world's south pole. Numerous observers in the capital at New Avalon commented that Prince Davion's lengthy invective against Kurita hostility seemed somewhat lacking in substance and conviction when viewed against the background of such useless and costly raids as this. Members of the Davion Staff Command refused to comment, saying only that the operation was still going on, and that they would not jeopardize its success. A similar raid was carried out by Davion forces in August of 3026, as part of last year's round of so-called "training maneuvers." (see: Descent Into Hell, in this issue of BattleTechnology) A battalion-sized element was dropped, at extraordinary risk, cost, and loss of material, onto the southern hemisphere of this otherwise unremarkable planet. Factories were destroyed, a starport severely damaged, and elements of the 4th Proserpina Hussars were mauled in a campaign lasting nearly two weeks. The total cost for last year's raid: an estimated 800 million C-Bills. Experts believe the cost for this year's raid on Scheat may be significantly higher. It is expected that the Combine's defenses on Scheat V have been strengthened since last year's raid, and combat there will be fiercer and more protracted. Losses among the invading forces could be extremely high-and costly. The normal losses to accidents and breakdowns, and the exorbitant costs of conducting sham campaigns as extensive as Operation Galahad, may outweigh any losses to equipment from outright battle. Kathi Leander, senior Tech to Lieutenant James Gannon of the First Crucis Lancers, said frankly, "And just where the hell are we supposed to go for spare parts? Every time some admiral has us assemble and board, there's loss and breakage. Every time a JumpShip furls sail and hauls ass, there's a chance that sucker ain't comin' home. Us Techs can't keep working magic forever, you know." It is a well-known fact that JumpShips represent an irreplaceable technological resource. Once the last JumpShip is lost, whether through combat or accident or simple inability to maintain operation, then the Interstellar Age will come to an end, and Mankind will again be planetbound-possibly forever. Meanwhile, the blind maneuverings of interstellar fleets along hostile borders have excited comment by both Liao and Kurita observers. In a statement released by the Draco Combine's Ministry of Information at Luthien last week, an unidentified Combine spokesperson said, "Davion's posturings and saber-rattlings are meaningless, the sour noises of a spoiled child. He means only to provoke the Combine's forces into an attack. Should that attack fall, New Avalon's renegade princeling would never recoverfromthe blow." In astatement made on Sian last week, Colonel Pavel Ridzik, the Strategic Military Director of the Capellan Armed Services, said, "Davion's threats and warmongering are of absolutely no account. If the House of Davion wishes to escalate the hostilities already existing between our states, he will find in House Liao a more than willing, a more than able opponent." More What is Hanse Up To? What is Hanse Up To? Operation Galahad: The Waste of Almost-War Operation Galahad: The Price of Vigilence Back to BattleTechnology Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1987 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com