Trondheim Live, Daily Report Presents:
Tukayyid: ComStar's Greatest Gamble
Just over two weeks have passed since the Battle of Tukayyid began, culminating in the bloodiest, most devastating struggle the Inner Sphere has ever seen, bar none. Tukayyid lies in shambles, her target cities abandoned and leveled, her agricultural fields covered in debris. It will take a salvaging company decades, perhaps centuries to clean up all the dead mechs, turrets, DropShips and ordinance that now pollutes nearly every corner of the planet, and decades after that for any real hope of "recovery" to begin. ComStar, current rulers of the planet, have set forth preliminary findings on personnel and equipment losses, and have begun recovery efforts for each House to bury the dead. Such minor olive branches are a necessity, but have done little to quell the resentment of the Inner Sphere.
Ten armies came into the Battle of Tukayyid. One emerged victorious. Against all odds, ComStar pulled off the greatest sucker-punch in history, fooling both the Clans and the Inner Sphere into fighting a Proxy War on Tukayyid for control of Terra - the birthplace of humanity itself. Should the Clans win, they'd claim Terra and declare themselves the next Star League, ruling once again over the Houses of the Inner Sphere. Should the Inner Sphere win, they'd stop the Clan Invasion where it stood for the next 15 years - and ensure it advanced no further. Even though it was a proxy war, Tukayyid dissolved into a War of Attrition from the onset of hostilities, with a body and BattleMech count rising almost exponentially in only the first few hours.
For the next 6 days the bloodshed continued. The three "new" Clan units identified on the battlefield were found to be using obsolete tactics, long ago abandoned by Jaguar, Wolf, Falcon and Bear against the Inner Sphere. The Inner Sphere forces that met them on the battlefield removed them as a fighting force within the first few days, taking favorable losses to do so. Then the real grind began, as the Southern Houses quickly fell victim to inexperience, and all but capitulated under the efforts of the Clans. One by one, House and Clan alike broke apart and was absorbed into the "stronger", or remaining, units. First Davion, then Jaguar. FRR and Kurita worked almost as a single integrated unit by day four, and the Ghost Bear forces were absorbed into the Wolf lines by the end of that day. It wasn't until the 30th of April that the remaining IS forces were forced to withdraw from their objective cities, granting Clan Wolf, the only remaining operational Clan, the victory. Clan Wolf could now claim Terra, in the name of the Clans.
...Except there was one,
slight problem.
Throughout the fighting, ComStar enforced a strict "no reinforcements" policy. The Houses and Clans were allowed to bid as many of their forces as they wished, but once they bid them there was to be no calls for additional units. Such a declaration was to be enforced by ComStar, who served as mediator over the battle and ensured no messages would get off-world quickly by stationing several contingencies around their planetary HPG, with orders to destroy it should a House or Clan try to use it. Clan honor ensured that they would not run to any reinforcements beyond what they brought...ComStar ensured the Houses would do the same.
However, by cutting off comms to the planet, ComStar effectively held hostage the leadership and High Command of every major faction on a po-dunk world of little strategic significance for a week.
It's therefore no surprise that when Clan Wolf emerged victorious, they found themselves very, very far away from any Clan Wolf territory, let alone reinforcements.
Thanks to the little used, but well funded and widely spread ComGuards, ComStar launched a daring all-out offensive on not only the Clans but the Inner Sphere as well, determined to set right the lopsided power-struggles since war broke out in December of last year. All ComGuard units from every world participated, culminating in essentially a "Map Reset" to pre-Clan Invasion borders. With every frontline unit (and many garrison units) participating on Tukayyid, Planetary Governors and Militia were hardly in a place to protest, let alone fight. By the time the war-beaten Houses returned to contact with their homelands, it was too late to either recover their losses or plot their next offensives. There was suddenly a whole mess of paperwork to complete and supplies and trade to allocate. With broken armies and bleeding pride, the Inner Sphere was hardly in a position to argue. Border skirmishes are still common, but a fraction of the ferocity seen in December. Likewise, the Clan losses have been so substantial that only Clan Wolf has been able to mount any kind of retaliatory offensive against the "honorless Inner Sphere surats". Seeing as all the other Tukayyid units were absorbed into Clan Wolf (and the rest of the Clans have nothing but garrison units left), it's of little surprise.
For now, the Battle of Tukayyid serves as a testament to the brutality of humanity, of how far some will go to claim "honor", "glory", or "power". While Clan Wolf was victorious, ComStar ensured their victory was empty as best. And while the Inner Sphere may have returned to its more stable pre-Invasion borders, the sheer loss will hopefully ensure that the next large escalation will be a long time coming.
But as the Academy's train new officers and the MechWorks build more warmachines, one has to wonder how
long is "long".
Edited by Trondheim Live Daily Report, 08 May 2015 - 06:45 PM.
39
CyclonerM, on 07 May 2015 - 06:39 AM, said:
