Strategos: Mallory’s World Pt 2

[DeJaVu]

The Seventeenth Avalon Hussars regimental combat team in 3013 was a well-regarded formation of the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns, under the command of General Eugene Drivers, who’d assumed command in 3010 when the previous commander died. Known as the Dragon’s Bane, the Seventeenth were rightly proud of their performance against the Draconis Combine. They were one of the favored units of the Draconis March, held in nearly as high regard by Duke Sandoval’s subjects as the Robinson Rangers. This reputation would work against them, of course, when the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldierly landed.

The Warlord of Dieron sent his own Twenty-fourth Regulars and the Coordinator’s Second Sword of Light to face the Seventeenth in September 3013. With them came enough free armor and infantry regiments to match the Dragon’s Bane’s RCT complement. Their arrival in strength could elicit only one response from the haughty Seventeenth: attack. It’s very likely the Combine officers were counting on that very hubris to lead the Seventeenth into the trap. Certainly they knew Davion’s regiments as well as Davion knew their own.
The Avalon Hussar’s, disdaining the fixed defenses around Colterville, boarded their DropShips and followed their aerospace wing into an airmobile assault on the DCMS landing zone as the Combine regiments appeared to dally about unloading their own forces. In reality, the Kuritan officers knew the Avalon Hussars’ likely response and were ready for them. The attack turned quickly into a rout, as the Kuritan ’Mechs crushed much of the Hussars’ armor support and forced the infantry-carrying DropShips to attempt return to Colterville without even having disgorged their troopers. Unfortunately for the Dragon’s Bane, the Dragon’s aerospace fighters rallied and attacked the Davion DropShips, destroying many of them—and killing thousands of infantrymen—in the air. As General Drivers and his staff watched, the ’Mech regiment fought its way clear and began a long overland retreat toward Colterville. They left behind them the biers of their dead.
Next week, we look at the Second Sword and the Twenty-fourth Dieron—the regiments who first claimed a foothold on Mallory’s World for the Dragon.
Strategos is a syndicated weekly holovid column distributed by INN. Host Mordecai Aristobulus is a Galatea-based historian and writer who works widely with various Inner Sphere presses, including Merc and the Donegal Broadcasting Company.