Editor's note:
What follows is a series of extracts from interviews granted by survivors of the Battle of Romulus, For those of you unfamiliar with this system, Romulus is a small star system in Federated Commonwealth space, specifically, the Tamar March or Blackjack Operations Area. The only inhabited planet (also called Romulus) is a 0.8 G rock boll with a cold, thin, marginally breathable atmosphere. The planet is mined for iron and nickel. Romulus' companion Remus, a huge asteroid in a stable orbit around the planet, is a source of fresh water-ice.
At the onset of the Clan invasion, Romulus was garrisoned by a mixture Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns units. The planetary garrison was attacked on April 14. A scant handful of troops evacuated the planet on May 6. This is the story of those 21 days. The full transcript will be issued in book-tape form within four months of this publication.
BattleTechnology Magazine strives to maintain neutrality at all times and present an unbiased source of complete information. The Clan invasion is on exception. In this war, no one con stand aside. With this in mind, BattleTechnology has requested that a Federated Commonwealth military censor edit the information presented. This is not done to deny the reader of his right to know, but rather in understanding of the realities of combat. As the ancient Terran philosopher Niccolo Machiovelli said, "Knowledge is Power." There fore certain passages that might hove been included concerning Federated Commonwealth technology are absent, and specific information that might be of military significance has been deleted. Let the Clans gather their own information.
Lt Sasha Kent: Garrison Command operations, Combat Information Sector
"We'd all heard of the Clans, what with the first wave. Who'd have thought we'd be in the second? Our first warning came when something popped in on a pirate jump point, neatly avoiding our picket satellites at the primaries. Long range telescopes gave us a look at the bogy. It appeared to be a non-standard JumpShip without any attached DropShips. The emblem on side told us more. It was a huge green bird, posed as if striking something below it. The Jade Falcons had arrived.
The pirate point was eight light-minutes out from Romulus, so precisely eight minutes after they jumped in- system, the message came in. I'll never forget it. A cold, almost inhuman voice said, "This is the StarRunner, scout of the Jade Falcon Clan. We request information of you. How many units stand ready to defend and what are their names?" That nearly panicked us. Here was the enemy, knocking at our door and asking who was home and how were they doing. The old man reacted quickly. I guess he wanted to bluff them.
"A full regimental combat team's here, Birdy," he shouted, "Come on in and we'll pluck your feathers!" Time dragged by, and twenty-two minutes later the same voice came back over the link. This time it sounded slightly puzzled. "Are you sure?," it asked. 'We have been observing you for some time and make your total strength to be as follows..." It then read off a complete, accurate list of all our units, their locations, strengths, and their commanding officers. That sparked a bedlam of shouted questions in the command-communications-operations station. Before the old man could respond, the ship vanished into a fold in space. They must use dual array batteries on their scout ships; not a bad idea. Instantly the commander began issuing orders to shuffle our positions.
"Blake's Blood, we'll make their intelligence reports useless," he swore. Instead we played right into their hands. They hit us while we were moving out of our fortified positions.
Captain Obediah Sain: Federated Commonwealth AeroSpace Corps
Once that message came in, everybody went on full alert, and word spread that the so-called 'Jade Falcons' were coming spread like wildfire. It was a great tactic on their part. We were keyed up and wired after twelve hours on constant alert and the poor ground pounders were in the process of moving their units. While we watched the pirate points, they came in at the nadirjump point, five JumpShips loaded loaded for bear and escorted by two frigates. In less than five seconds all of our remote watch satellites were reduced to clouds of expanding dust. None even got a shot off. Then the DropShips cut loose and burned towards Romulus.
They came in fast, about three and a half G's. We calculated our intercepts and waited, planning to meet them just inside the orbit of Remus, but they got us again. They passed their turnover point and just kept accelerating down our throats. For a while, everybody wondered what was going on. Best guesses were that it was either a massive guidance failure or a suicide run with loads of atomics. Both were far wrong. Suddenly, they made turnover and began to decelerate, and I swear to you they pulled five Gs easy! We were caught with our shorts around our ankles.
We did manage to intercept about three kilo-klicks [3,000 km, ed] outside the outer atmosphere, right in our backyard. My wing was a mixed pair, two Seydlitzlight fighters and two sixty five ton Lucifers. Our tactics called for a quick run on on the DropShips with the Seydlitzes spotting targets and pulling off any escorts, allowing the Lucifers to bore in for some serious ripping and tearing. We closed, and the Seydfitzes selected one of the outer DropShips in a cluster of five. They boosted towards them while my wingman and I followed.
The two light fighters made a quick run at the DropShip and cut for space. Instantly, two of the five Falcon fighters on picket duty pursued. I didn't wait to watch. The other three fighters were scattered around the convoy, giving us a free run on our target. We kicked in our overthrusts and flew in, dodging energy beams and long range missiles. We cut loose with our LRM's and poured on everything we had. Halfway in, my wingman ate a heavy laser shot and blew. I made it to laser range, hit the ship twice, and pulled out. The DropShip kept going. Before I knew it, the two pickets were back and I figured the Seydlitzes were gone. I had a quick look at two long shark- like shapes as they flashed past, weapons blazing. I took a spread of SRM's and my targeting system went down. You don't dogfight in space on visuals, so I dove for the atmosphere.
Somehow I made it in, though I pancaked on landing. That's when I lost both legs and the arm. Still, I was luckier than most. Only eight percent of the Aerospace fighters made it back. They cut through us like a laser through cardboard. We didn't even slow them."
Lt Jessica Standish: Fire Lance Commander
A lot of us saw the aerospace battle, if you can call it that, since it was just beyond the atmosphere. We realized that we were in deep trouble. The ground fighting started almost at once -- and, by all the gods, it was something else! Those Jade Falcons hit the ground running and before you knew it, we were staggering back on all fronts and counting our rapidly mounting casualties. And they didn't stop or slow down. It was like trying to fight an avalanche or a typhoon, a force of nature rather than of man.
As far as hardware, they used everything from 'Mechs to ground troops. A lot of their equipment looked like vintage Star League gear but heavily modified. Without a doubt, it was better than anything we could field.
Since the data core was released by the Grey Death
Legion, a bit of LosTech has been rediscovered and put into
production. My Warhammeris, was, a good example. It had
been in the family for generations, and had just been refitted
with experimental new extended range Particle Projection
Cannons and improved heat sinks fresh out of We'd been assigned guard duty at one of the last ammo
dumps in our sector. We picked up some garbled radio chatter
about two hours before sun up. Someone was taking a
pounding about five klicks north. Twenty minutes later, the
ammo dump exploded in a series of ripping detonations and
blinding flashes. Koning's Griffin was too close; it disintegrated
in the firestorm. The attackers weren't satisfied at blowing the
dump and taking out one 'Mech, they came at the other three
BattleMechs in my lance. It gave me my first look at the so-
called Micro-Mechs.
Micro-Mechs look like three meter or so tall versions of
BattleMechs, and gods, do they move fast. We couldn't seem to
hit the things, they moved so quickly. As best we could figure,
twenty five of the things came up a dry wash and infiltrated the
dump. They opened up with some sort of shoulder-mounted
short range missile launchers and the dump was history. Then
they swarmed Simkins in her Phoenix Hawk using more
missiles and lasers. It was like watching a swarm of ants cut
up a grasshopper.
We killed a few. When we were able to target one of
them with our weapons, we tended to blow them apart. But
they did their work. The ammo dump was gone, and while
Inkar and myself were fighting the micros their larger
siblings took us from behind.
My Warharnmer was ripped open by concentrated pulse
laser fire. It went down and I went out. I couldn't have been
unconscious for more than a few seconds but when I
recovered, Inkar's Catapult was a heap of smoking wreckage
and five Falcon BattleMechs, each with that same damned red
star and green bird, were moving around me. They were
evac'ing the Micro-Mechs. It was weird, the micros would jump
up and latch onto special hand grips all over the body of the
BattleMechs for a rid off the battlefield. I still can't believe the
level of skill and organization those Clansmen displayed.
I should have lain still and played dead. I couldn't. I could
tell my Warhammer was almost shot but the fusion engine was
still providing power. Without even standing, I targeted both
PPCs on one of the Falcon 'Mechs and poured every kilowatt of
energy into the PPCs. My 'Mech screamed as the tortured coils
over-loaded and blew micro-seconds after the power hit them.
But it was enough. Twin spears of overcharged blue
lightning caught the Falcon square in the chest. His armor
vaporized and for an instant, I saw the miniature sun of his
fusion engine burning gold in the core of his crippled machine.
The it erupted in a fountain of light and plasma. The Falcon
'Mech was gone. Only the stumps of its legs were left, and a
half dozen of the micros went with it.
I lay on the sand, the smell of burning coolant filling my
cockpit, and knew I was going to die. The Warhammer was
crippled; it would never fight again. Too much waste heat from
the coil overloads had bled into the old thing, cooking the inner
circuits. I waited for the execution. One of the Falcons walked
over and stood over my destroyed 'Mech. Suddenly a
loudspeaker blared his oddly accented words across the desert.
"You fought well," he said. Then all four surviving 'Mechs
and the rest of the micros left. I was picked up by our units in
the general retreat two days later. Gods, these Clansmen
could teach the Dragons the true meaning of warrior's honor.
You could say I was one of the last people to see
combat on Romulus. Orders came down to abandon the
planet and head for Some never made it. Don't know it they simply couldn't make it
in time or the damn birds got 'em. Does it really matter now?
Any case, my unit had part of the north-east section of the
perimeter. Yah, jump troops don't normally take a static defense but
remember, we'd been through nearly three weeks of constant
mauling. You did what was needed. Besides our small arms and
rocket launchers, my unit was given two of the new StarSword
Pulse lasers. They were mounted on skimmer bodies and had a
better rate of fire than the older model tripod lasers. We knew we'd
get the chance to use them.
That chance came during our second day. The bird air cover had
been very intense. Our last fighters hadn't been up for five days; they were
being held back to escort the DropShips off planet. But the birds seemed
content to mostly watch us. At 0730 we picked up some garbled Comlink
broadcasts. What was left of one of our BattleMech Companies was coming
in with birds on their tail. We spotted the dust cloud beyond the northern
ridge and soon a battered bunch of light and medium 'Mechs led by a
Crusader crested it. The bird flyboys made a run on the 'Mechs, but we
had four Riflemen guarding that fire lane. One of the birds went down
in flames; the others broke off. The 'Mechs staggered in and General
Full dark was just about on us when a wave of MicroMechs poured
over the ridge line. They came on fast in a long shifting line. Somehow,
they seemed to anticipate where we were going to fire and always seemed
to dodge away. Missiles began to land on our position and more men
died. I was sure I was going to be one of them. A micro landed four
meters from me and I found myself looking down the tube of a rocket launcher.
I cut loose with my assault rifle and the bird staggered under the
sleet of bullets. But they all bounced off its armor. I saw my reflection in
the thing's faceplate as it targeted me. Then it got hit by both pulse lasers.
The right leg and arm were cut off by the searing light. It toppled, and I
thought I was going to be OK. Then the damned thing started moving
again and I think I screamed.
At first it only twitched like a crippled insect. Then the micro started
crawling across the sand in an awkward sideways scuttle. It got hold of its
severed leg, the end of which was still smoking from the laser hit, then
went after its arm with the severed leg held awkwardly under its good arm.
It was too much for us. We all hit the ungodly thing with every weapon on
hand just to stop it. We did. It exploded in a rain of SRMs. After a few
stunned moments, we went back to the fight. It didn't last much longer.
The birds pulled back. Of the six 'Mechs that had come in, one was
destroyed and three more were piles of junk. Over forty people were dead
and another six two seriously injured. Thirteen Jade Falcon Micro-Mechs
were destroyed and I understand some relatively intact samples of their
hardware were recovered. We lifted that night and I've never been so glad
to leave a planet behind me. You know, I really wonder if we're going to
win this thing.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
CAPTAIN SAIN DIED SIX HOURS AFTER GRANTING THE INTERVIEW
INCLUDED ABOVE. DEATH CAME DURING SURGERY TO REPLACE HIS
LOST LEGS AND ARM. FIGURES ON THE TOTAL CASUALTIES OF MILITARY
PERSONNEL ARE STILL UNAVAILABLE PENDING NOTIFICATION OF THE
FAMILIES, BUT BATTLETECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE ESTIMATES THE DEAD AND
MISSING AT APPROXIMATELY 7,500.
LASTLY, THE STAFF OF BATTLETECHNOLOGY SALUTES THOSE
THAT FELL IN THE BATTLE OF ROMULUS. THEIR FAILURE IN NO WAY
DIMINISHES THEM. WE MUST REMEMBER THAT THEY DIED FOR ALL OF
US, BUYING TIME AND INFORMATION WITH THEIR LIVES. IT IS UP TO
US TO USE WHAT THEY PAID FOR. WE MUST MAKE THEIR BLOODPRICE
WORTH WHILE.
Ed Note: The picture on these pages are
not of the fight described, but of city fighting at the suburb
of Catesby. No photographs survived of the actions
recounted here.
The photograph on this page is a ClanMech called a
Thor. The pictures on the previous pages are of the
desperate street-to-street fighting for Catesby.
Staff Sergeant Mickal Preston: Jump Marine
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