21

The Battle of Sian (3030)

To understand the entirety of the Fourth Succession War, one must understand the Battle of Sian because, in my humble opinion, it was a microcosm of the entire war.

First, one must understand the pieces that were present upon that battle, and I don't say this as an apologist. I say this as someone whose uncle died there fighting in that battle. I am not trying to belittle everyone but to show a comparison. 

Here, we have the Capellan side. William Liao, the Great Chancellor, stood on one side. Though he opted not to micromanage the battle according to sources and the chancellor himself, his presence alone bolstered the defenders. With him are one-half of the Death Commandos led by the now infamous Colonel Nahyinya Cho the Red Witch, who earned triple ace in that battle alone, and half of the planetary militia. The chancellor's insistence on conventional troop and vehicle training saw literal thousands of air and ground combat vehicles, including jet fighters and artillery, to bolster the single extremely lacking battlemech regiment. 

On the other side was General Frederick Steiner of the LCAF and Brevet General Nathan Armstrong of the Eridani Light Horse with a combined total regimental strength of five. Both General Steiner and Armstrong were and are still known for their tactical and strategic acumen. However, they arrived on Sian with no other reinforcement or support, faulty intelligence on enemy's defense, and without enough combat vehicles of their own to match even a quarter of the defender's. 

This was, from the start, not going to end well for the raiders.

This was, exactly why, General Steiner's ability to break through his encirclement within hours so important, even if it came at a great personal cost to the general and his battlemech.

Because it gave their entire fighting force a chance to fight back instead of getting slaughtered.

-VB-

He was getting pounded in the ass and he did not like it. 

His Atlas shook as another Gauss Rifle struck him, but a quick glance at the status readout showed that the hit had been a glancing one. Otherwise, he wouldn't have any armor left right now. 

50th Heavy Assault Battalion, which had successfully repelled the Cataphracts, had taken a lot of damage on their retreating maneuver. If the readouts from each of the company commander represented their company average, then that meant that in the retreat, each of the mechs under his command had lost roughly 15% of their overall armor without being able to return fire effectively. 

This, combined with the previous armor loss of around 39% average meant that there were heavy and assault mechs that were completely out of armor while some were still fresh. 

It should be enough to fight off against LRM-equipped infantry. Even if those infantry came with some tanks, he should have no problem dealing with them.

But he was starting to realize what the flow of the battle might be. 

The enemy was concentrating their force on his position, and while they were moving in one unit at a time, each unit came from all sorts of directions that left him utterly incapable of finishing them off. The Death Commandos had been defeated, yes, but they hadn't been annihilated, and that distinct lack of annihilation (or surrender) was why his soldiers were still getting shot at the back.

Nathan turned his Atlas's toros slightly up so that he could see the anti-air action, and grimaced at what he saw. 

The enemy fighters were small, nimble, and fast. Of course, they got those by trading away armament and armor, but this also meant that everyone was wasting projectile bullets trying to shoot them down while lasers slowly overheated the overwhelmed machines. 

And while that was happening, Capellan high atmospheric bombers were returning on the horizon. 

Then his cockpit alarms blared. 

He whirled around just in time to see LRMs peaking in the sky before coming back down. 

"Shit, they're already all set up," he hissed before pressing down on his radio comms button. "50th! Face north, 70 degree incline, LRMs! Shoot them down!" 

His soldiers got his orders and obeyed, and the entire clearing immediately around him burst open into a cacophony of lasers and guns firing all they had to stop the missiles. 

The already blackened sky erupted with booms, pops, screeches, and cracks on top of the dull roar of firing lasers and bone shaking rumble of autocannon fires. He could see in the periphery of his eyes the dropship guns working overtime to the point that some of the barrels were starting to glow from the non-stop onslaught. 

"50th, move forward!" 

Even as they continued to pour fire into the sky, his soldiers moved as he commanded. Some were slower than others, particularly the Jaegermech from the 3rd Heavy Assault Company, the Wrecking Crew. 

Nathan was about to order the Jaegermech to stay behind to help.

About to.

But he couldn't, because something exploded right next to the Jaegermech and chunked its left leg. The heavy mech lurched and then fell over sideways. 

He grimaced as he looked around. That wasn't an aerial dumb bomb. That …

His eyes widened as he looked at all of the intel feeds flickering through his computer and holos. 

"Oh shit," he muttered.

Because the two scouts who he had sent out to keep an eye out independently found artillery pieces moving in from different directions. 

Before he could contemplate how bad this was, his radio crackled again.

"Brevet general! This is Colonel Emiamberg! Do you copy, over?!"

Finally! 

"This is Brevet General Armstrong. Sierra-Delta-One-Two-Three-Mike."

"Mike-Mike-Mike-Sierra-Nine."

Thank God. This was actually the Lyrans and not the Capellans trying to dupe him in the middle of the battlefield. 

"Colonel, I am currently en route to the north to destroy enemy infantry with massed LRMs, counting at least two hundred units. I need you to strike at the southwest of our position - south of yours - to hit an artillery park setting up there. Death Commandos are active but damaged."

"... Copy that, general. I'll do what I can."

-VB-

"It won't be enough, unfortunately for them," the chancellor hummed from the highest seat in the command chamber.

Colonel Lin Min Quentinmark agreed with the Celestial Wisdom. 

While the Eridani Light Horse and the Lyrans couldn't see it themselves because of their lack of aerial presence, she and the rest of her people could still see the entire battlefield and see that the invaders were slowly getting surrounded. 

It was just unlucky for their people that the ELH found two of the four artillery parks, each of which was composed of two artillery battalions. There were two more but those had been smashed by General Steiner. 

It was just the mercenary's luck that they landed in one of the more heavily fortified areas, not that she blamed them for burning their way down the moment they jumped into the pirate point. If they took their sweet time, then the entirety of the planet would have moved the defense according to the trajectory of the landing fleet. In fact, pirate point jump and immediate landing was a great move on the ELH's part. 

It's just that, even with advanced astronomic calculations, there was a definite bit of randomness as to where they could land.

It was, as the chancellor stated, unfortunate for the ELH that instead of landing somewhere defensible for their purpose or critical to the planetary defense and infrastructure, they landed squarely out in the open right in between wilderness and the capital city's urban area where the defense was strong. 

And because they landed where they did, the ELH allowed themselves to be surrounded by quick moving planetary militia. 

Fact check: battlemechs were, on average, the most mobile platform of war. 

Fact check: battlemechs were, on average, the most mobile platform of war because they were often deployed to places where conventional vehicles and troops could not be maneuverable or required too long of a prep time for them to do so.

Fact check: such planets were often border worlds or low-density population worlds that had a lot of space between each critical objectives. 

Fact check: Sian was not a frontier world. It was a world that had been urbanized for nearly a thousand years. Sian had been colonized when the Capellan Hegemony had been a thing, which was a polity that predated the Age of War. 

Fact check: there were over four billion people on Sian, which was a water world with over 70% of the surface covered in salty ocean. Of the 30%, mountain ranges covered a good fifth of the landmasses. On the most populated continent of Wuhan where the capital city was and where this battle was taking place, there were five mountain ranges: the Tian Shan, Qinling, Low and High Crysanthides, and Thunder Mountain. These mountain ranges covered a third of the largest continent on Sian, which housed over two billion people. And another third was dominated by two deserts, leaving only one third of the largest continent available for "easy" human habitation… 

Fact check: more than two billion people lived in an area that was the same size as European Continent on Terra. So when the Eridani Light Horse landed just north of the capital city, they didn't just land on a frontier world with a walled off capital city. They landed just outside of a sprawling metropolis that had been armed to the teeth which was also surrounded by a network of roads, highways, and smaller cities.

Fact check: Sian was not a frontier world. It had a network of transportation infrastructure to rival Terra.

Fact check: battlemechs were, on average, the most mobile platform of war across a plethora of environments.

Fact check: the Eridani Light Horse and the Steiner's 6th and 10th regiment landed on the one planet… where battlemech mobility was, on average, on par if not slower than conventional defenders.

Lin Min saw on the holographic map the movement of the defenders and invaders. While the invaders had been out in the open, the militia were gathering from all over the region using the transportation infrastructure - roads, trains, and even airports - to converge on the invader's position like giant homing spider-wasps. 

Tanks - wheeled and hovercraft alike - blitzed across highways to get into position. Artilleries were pulled off of the highways just enough so that any counter battery wouldn't damage it while allowing for more artilleries to get into position faster. Armored vehicles carrying infantry moved them into pillboxes and bunkers strong enough to withstand at least a few AC/20 shots. 

The more time the Eridani Light Horse spent trying to fend off the unending aerial bombings, the more time her people had to gather their numbers. 

"10th Lyrans are pushing toward AP2 on F8," someone reported, and Lin Min saw and felt the entire attention of the command chamber shifting toward one of the holographic maps of the southwest portion of the battlefield and its surrounding area.

AP2, Artillery Park 2, which was situated southwest of ELH's current position, and they saw the 10th moving in real-time; fighter scouts were keeping a tab on the 10th Lyrans.

"Send my battalion in."

Everyone turned to look at the chancellor. 

Lin Min chose this moment to speak up. After all, she was the operational commander of the battalion in question. 

"Yes, chancellor."

She reached up to her ear and pressed down on her earpiece. "Lin Xin to Luo Xin. Area F8. Target 10th Lyran."

"{Acknowledged, Lin Xin.}"

-VB-

Colonel Emiamberg looked around intently even as he pushed the 10th Lyran Guard toward his first objective within his Warhammer.

And as he did so, he couldn't help but feel that he was doing damage control at best, fighting a losing battle at worst. 

Sure, he was a nepo baby like so many generals and colonels of the LACF, but he at least got good grades at his military academy. He fought alongside the enlisted men and women of the Lyran Commonwealth. He got his promotion fair and square; the only time he used money was to prevent other dickheads from intervening in his promotion.

It was why he followed General Frederick Steiner. Like the archon herself, General Steiner was a consummate soldier of the commonwealth. He fought personally and he fought hard. 

It was the only reason why Emiamberg was alive. If it hadn't been for the general pushing through barrages focused on his Zeus to ensure that his men could attack and destroy the first artillery park they managed to find, then he and the rest of the 6th and 10th would be still back there in the open clearing, getting shelled to kingdom come.

"How close?" he asked his scouts. 

"{Just one more click, colonel.}"

He grunted. 

One more kilometer of this pine forest wasn't a bad place to be. Unlike the clearing, the forest offered some protection against rampant aerial attacks. The trees were also taller than most of the mechs on average, which made it that much better for cover.

"{Colonel, this is Major bin Ra'ad! I'm getting weird readings from our left flank!}" 

"Patch me into your feed."

There was a crackle on the screen before he saw the video from bin Ra'ad's perspective. The major's Crusader turned its torso to focus directly south of their position. He could also see pings on the radar that his mech wasn't showing. 

He waited for a second-.

Emiamberg's eyes snapped to his own radar. Pings. It was almost on top of the pings from bin Ra'ad's radar but despite the fact that they were no more than a hundred meters apart, his radar only just caught it? 

Something was wrong, and he did not like it. 

He found himself with a hard choice.

If he pushed on even with these anomalous readings, then he was most definitely leaving his back open to attacks. If he fell back, then the Eridani Light Horse would get themselves shelled to kingdom come. 

Fucked if he did, fucked if he didn't. 

… Well, if he was going to get fucked either way, then he better move to help his allies, right? 

"19th and 22nd battalions, pick up speed. 7th, stick close to their backs and protect their rear."

He got acknowledgements from all of the battalion commanders. 

Emiamberg cut the feed from the major's Crusader to focus on his own surroundings… when there were pops all around them.

He whirled around. 

The air was sparkling? Something me-.

Oh shit.

"CHAFF!" he roared as he quickly tried to switch over to thermal. "CLOSE RANKS -!" 

His words cut off as his stomach dropped the moment his radar screamed at him.

The nebulous pings had changed. 

Even though the chaff made the very air glisten like it was some sort of teen girl movie back lighting, the radar screamed at him as contact numbers started to skyrocket. The thermals also began to scream at him as he saw enemy mechs coming out of low power. 

From his left flank to right flank, there were mechs all throughout the forest in front of them, and their formation made a net around his forces. 

"10th Guard, fall back! Retreat!" 

He'd fucked up.

He should have sent more scouts ahead. He should have -.

He flinched as his Warhammer took a laser streak across its left shoulder. He quickly turned to fire … but the camouflage and whatever they were doing with their signature prevented his mech from getting a proper lock. Without a lock, his aim was going to be les than optimal but he aimed and shot anyway. 

Emiamberg grimaced. 

With the 10th caught up in battle here, the Capellans were going to reinforce their positions. 

And then he saw something flash.

Before he could even try to identify it, it screamed across the air past him and slammed into someone behind him. 

His computer screeched at him and he looked down. Lieutenant Jackson's cockpit flared red. Complete red as in missing completely.

He whirled around just enough to look and his eyes widened as he watched Lieutenant Jackson's Phoenix Hawk keel over backwards and crash into the dense undergrowth. 

The cockpit was missing! The entire thing was missing! Not crushed, not split open! Missing!

He whirled back around, and this time, he saw it. 

He watched as a projectile rippled the air before slamming into his Warhammer. His mech screeched at him, showing him that his left torso armor had been reduced to half by that one hit.

But the attack had come from far away. At least four hundred meters. That was beyond the range of an AC/20…

He paled. 

Gauss rifle. 

Worse, he couldn't tell which mech had a gauss rifle because between the radar jamming, thermal reflecting, and visual camouflaging, he couldn't even tell how many Capellan mechs were in front of him! 

Then he caught sight of something. It was an assault mech. A new mech. He didn't recognize its profile at all. It had double shoulder-torso mounted LRM-15's and two arms that looked almost exactly like his own Warhammer's arms. 

And then that ugly ass mech opened fire.

Six laser beams burned into Emiamberg's armor before thirty LRMs slammed into the same left torso the previous gauss rifle hit had damaged. 

His mech shrieked as the left torso exploded under these attacks, and Emiamberg tried ot stabilize the tipsy Warhammer. 

Thump thump thump THUMP THUMP THUMP -!

That's when a Vindicator came running up towards him.

And it had an axe in its hand…?! 

"Shit, fuck, fuck -!" 

He couldn't stop the axe from coming down on his cockpit. 

-VB-

The Battle of Sian was where the Capellans more or less revealed all of the technologies that they have been working on since they found the Star League library memory core. 

From the perspective of then warring states, this was a shocking reveal for three reasons. 

One, gauss rifles were no longer lostech because the Capellans were mass manufacturing them. No one but the Capellans knew at the time, however, that all of these gauss rifles were hand made because no production line yet existed for mass production. The gauss rifles ELH and the Lyran Guards encountered were all of the gauss rifles the Capellans had on hand. 

Two, the advent of Stealth Armor. Stealth armor reduced a mech's thermal and radar signature by nearly half, which made them that much harder to detect and hit, and when combined with standard ECMs, stealth armor became the closest thing to Null Signature System that the Terran Hegemony once boasted. However, Capellan stealth armor was not without its downside. It was weaker than ferro fibrous armor plates, which the Capellans began to equip their veteran and elite troops with. Each plate became a dead weight the moment a single puncture appeared as that hole would light up on radar and thermals. The earliest stealth armor also exacerbated heat build-up to the point that if a mech fired even a single weapon, then there would be no heat loss, period.

Third, melee weapons. While "ooga booga" primitive weapons like swords and axes should have been an obsolete thing in battlemech combat, the infrequent but nonetheless common close quarter combat with mech fists and legs proved time and again that melee engagements happened. The Capellans chose the Fourth Succession War to experiment with dedicated melee battlemech weapons in the form of a slightly modified Vindicator mech: the Pillager. By replacing the PPC found in most Vindiactor's right arm with a 5 ton axe or club and using the other two tons (because PPCs were 7 tons) to either reinforcing the right arm's extenders and actuators or increasing the Vindicator's armor tonnage, Pillagers became the second ever melee specialist mech introduced to the Inner Sphere. Unlike the Hatchetman, which the Lyran Commonwealth introduced half a decade prior, Vindicators required minimal downtime to be converted into a Pillager. Pillagers also maintained a well-rounded arsenal of weapons, allowing it to strike from both afar and close, while the Hatchetman could only meaningfully engage in close quarter combat. It was for this reason that Pillagers remain the more popular choice outside of the Lyran Commonwealth.

Together, these advances made the Capellans look like a technologically superior nation, but this was, in truth, a bunch of experimental devices, custom hand made weapons, and then-questionable mech designs the chancellors threw on together in his last ditch effort.

We know this now but, back then, both the AFFS and LCAF in the post-4th Succession War era began to worry about technological disparities so much so that their intelligence agencies' primary focus in the next decade became the infiltration and acquisition of Capellan advanced tech, or CAdTech among the crowd who are unable to not shorten phrases. 

-VB-

Brevet General Nathan Armstrong knew the battle was lost the moment he heard these words from the dropships. 

"{G-General, the 10th have encountered … stiff resistance. They're falling back completely. Their commanding officer, Colonel Emiamberg, is dead as are a fifth of their overall tonnage}"

He took a deep breath in and let it out. 

"... Get me in contact with the Capellans. I … need to negotiate a surrender."

-VB-

And so the Battle of Sian ended in failure not wholly because of Eridani Light Horse's fumble in landing so close to the heavily defended planetary capital but also because of LIC and DMI's intelligence failures, both AFFS and LCAF's inability to adapt quickly enough to the changing doctrine, and, as many historical analysts would put it, "you don't expect the bullied to suddenly punch back that hard."

Surprisingly, the surrender negotiation did not involve harsh demands from Chancellor William Liao and the Capellan Confederation. 

The surrender terms were thus:

-all mechs that were downed now belong to the Capellan Confederation.

-half of the dropships of the ELH, 6th Lyran Regulars, and 10th Lyran Guards will be transferred to Capellan ownership, one of which must be ELH's Overlord. 

-Eridani Light Horse and all of its constituent members signed a contract that enforced a ten-year period of truce with the Capellan Confederation which would, in no uncertain terms, enforced by nuclear persuasion if need be.

The list went on but the results were clear: the Capellan Confederation extended a hand of mercy to the Eridani Light Horse and a lesser hand to the Steiners, even if it was a mercy that came with a big fat "or else."

Within the ELH, Brevet General Nathan Armstrong would take the blame for the failure and the loss of so much of ELH's assets and resign from his post. The contract he signed with the Capellan Confederation would be held up by the company even after his resignation. To many people's surprise, ELH did not blame the former general. They instead blamed the First Prince and Archon for lack of support, faulty intelligence, and lacking leadership. 

General Frederick Steiner … 

-Joanne Yoranittsky, former representative of Lancaster in Free Worlds League parliament, 3080 A.D., The Green Tide of the Capellan Confederation, or the consequences of the Fourth Succession War into the late 31st century astropolitics of the Inner Sphere.

-VB-

A/N: *dances* *grins knowingly* *waggles eyebrows* 

Anyway, Battle of Sian, after 3 chapters, is over. The next chapter will have an actual Armstrong-Liao negotiation that leads to what I've stated here, and then the immediate ramifications of this battle. 

Including Nathan Armstrong wanting to strangle Hanse for the faulty intel. Because, remember, even after 2x the intel's estimate, he was outnumbered even more than that by multiple factors, excluding infantry.

Edit: added mentions of Hatchetman, fixed Pillager so that it is no longer the "first melee mech," and other details