Catalyst 35FR001 - Field Report - ...

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
™
Jihad Plot SuPPlement
TO: Devlin Stone
FROM: David Lear
Date: 12 August 3079
The attached report has been compiled from many sources, including captured or collected Capellan documents or intercepted transmissions, as
well as data cores provided by many defectors or former CCAF soldiers who have joined our Coalition’s forces. While we have endeavored to conirm as
much of it as possible, the accuracy of this report cannot be assumed—even ComStar never managed to be right all the time.
House Liao is our most likely enemy in any future confrontation, and we need to be aware of changes in Capellan doctrine and equipment
since the end of the Jihad. The last comprehensive examination of any state’s military was completed shortly before the Word of Blake’s Jihad
erupted into ire and no military emerged from that conlagration without having shifted focus, doctrine, and relative ability. The Liaos will most
likely oppose anyone’s possession of “their” worlds—as they long opposed the Federated Suns during the Succession Wars—which means that
we can expect a near-constant level of deniable, low-level raiding while the CCAF searches for ways to exploit any vulnerability. Vigilance will be
required on the Capellan border, lest we ind that Tikonov becomes the Confederation’s new Chesterton.
Although most of the former Capellan worlds in the former Protectorate appear to be quiescent and content with our authority, it would
be folly to not assume Sun-Tzu Liao is fomenting the same sorts of underground resistance cells as he did when the worlds were part of the
FedCom’s Sarna March. Every efort must be therefore expended to keep discontent cool—else we’ll ind ourselves embroiled in just the sort of
police actions Sun-Tzu used to justify his “reclamation” of St. Ives.
How to Use tHis Book
Field Report: CCAF
is a
BattleTech
supplement designed to provide players with information about the state of the Capellan
Confederation Armed Forces (CCAF) in the aftermath of the liberation of Terra during the Jihad (and before the eventual formation
of the Republic of the Sphere). This supplement builds on previous sourcebooks—speciically
Field Manual: Capellan Confederation
(FAS1717) and
Field Manual: Updates
(FPR10796)—which readers may ind useful in tracking the recent evolution of the Confederation’s
armed forces prior to and through the Jihad.
This irst section of this book—
Confederation Overview
—is divided into two broad sections, a
Strategic Update
and the
Goals
of the State
.
Strategic Update
is a brief overview of the CCAF’s current condition and perceived objectives, while
Goals of the State
presents the political and suspected military benchmarks the Capellans are likely to use in the future.
The next chapter,
Logistical Status
, covers the state of
Academies and Command Centers
throughout the Confederation, while
Infrastructural Integrity
will present an overview of the state of CCAF support units in the wake of the Jihad.
The next chapter,
Military Readiness
, will present a speciic update on the status, oicers, and notable events of the various
brigades of the CCAF, with an eye toward their likely future employment. Included are ratings for the experience and estimated
combat strengths of each regiment within the subject brigade.
Finally,
Irregular Forces
covers both the Capellan-allied forces of the Magistracy of Canopus in the Confederation as well as
prominent state-employed mercenaries and other irregular forces.
Credits
Project Development:
Herbert A. Beas II
BattleTech Line Developer:
Herbert A. Beas II
Writing:
Jason Schmetzer
Strategic Assistance:
Øystein Tvedten
Production Staf
Cover Design and Layout:
Ray Arrastia
Evolved Faction Logos Design:
Jason Vargas
Map:
Øystein Tvedten
Factchecking/Playtesting
: Joel Bancroft-Connors, Roland Boshnack, Nicholai Duda, Joshua Franklin, William Gauthier,
Keith Hann, Johannes Heidler, Daniel Isberner, Chris Marti, Luke Robertson, Andreas Rudolf, Chris Wheeler, Patrick Wynne
Special Thanks
: This product is dedicated to all BattleTech fans, past, present, and future.
Developer’s Note:
For more information about the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces, or the state of warfare before and during the Jihad, check
out
Field Manual: Capellan Confederation
,
Jihad Turning Points: Sian,
any of the
Jihad Hot Spots
books, or
Technical Readout: 3085
.
1
2
    Halloran
We came out of transit into orbit around Hal-
loran without any real opposition—a few ighters,
some DropShips, but nothing strong enough to
challenge the
Franco Martell
or anything small
enough in enough strength to overwhelm our
CAP ighters. The
kong-sang-shao
ordered us to
drop stations and we went to the ’Mechs, but be-
fore we could get more than two pods out alarms
starting blasting. I dropped my com onto the in-
ter-ship frequency and heard a skycop screaming
about heavy particle ire from the surface. Incom-
ing missiles. The
kong-sang-shao
was cursing
him for a fool, screaming at his plotters to ID the
enemy WarShip, but there wasn’t one. Someone
screamed the
Franco
’s back was broken—a
Feng
Huang
!—and then my pod launched. I couldn’t
wait for the ablatives to pop so I could sweep the
sky, and then I saw the tracks.
Halloran had a functional space defense
system. Gods above and below, I knew we were
in for it then…
—
After-action debrief of
Sao-wei
Luther
Grange, Fifth McCarron’s Armored Cavalry, 3077
Confederation overview
The Capellan Confederation has come a long way from the shattered shell of a nation
Hanse Davion left in 3030, and even succeeded beyond the goals of Sun-Tzu Liao’s 3060
Xin
Sheng
program. Indeed, we may count the simple survival of the Confederation through the
Jihad—attacked on all sides from the Blakists, the Federated Suns, and rogue former Free
Worlds League proto-states—as proof that the Capellan nation has rebounded in spirit, if
not area, from the Fourth Succession War.
strategiC Update
The Confederation’s boycott of the Coalition against the Word of Blake is proof enough
of their intentions: despite being as threatened by the Jihad as any other Inner Sphere
realm, Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao declined to place his troops amongst ours, instead focusing
all of his energies on reclaiming Confederation worlds taken by the Word without our help.
In the Confederation, this plays as reinforcement of the new Capellan conidence: the CCAF
didn’t
need
the rest of the Sphere’s help to push the Word of Blake of its worlds.
What’s most of interest to us are the tactics used during the Capellan counterattacks
into the Protectorate; Sun-Tzu’s counter-invasion of the Capellan March showed us he’s not
afraid to use naked force, but in facing the Protectorate Militia, the Capellan military pulled
out all the stops. Many worlds were harshly bombarded from space, or nuked, or laced with
targeted chemical or biological attacks to lessen the conventional casualties. Certainly they
sufered enough at the space defense systems at Halloran and Zion.
The CCAF’s posture of active hostility toward the AFFS units they encountered on worlds
like Nanking (where both nations’ militaries were present) we can take as indicators of their
likely actions against our forces, when we announce the annexations. When faced with both
Blakist and Davion forces, the Capellans often let the two grind each other down before
attacking the victor—and, of course, your reception on Sian tells you more about Sun-Tzu Liao
than this report can. He let our Coalition batter down the gates of the rimward Protectorate,
and then sent his troops in like jackals to claim what we had taken. We’ll face a hard battle on
many of those worlds, without the inluxes of troops we got from the other states.
Observation tells us Sun-Tzu’s military will only strike when it is advantageous to them to
do so. We saw several ill-advised assaults in 3076 and 3077, but those were primarily against
the Blakists and the CCAF had momentum to maintain, whether or not the conditions were
favorable. We’ll need to watch the Capellan border closely to make sure we don’t give Liao
a chance to build any of that momentum.
andUriens, wHere?
[Sian Jump Control]:
“Incoming vessel,
identify yourself.”
[Contact 147]:
“
JumpShip
Lancaster,
out
Andurien
.”
[SJC]:
“Lancaster, state your business.”
[C147]:
“
Escort, Control
.”
[SJC]:
“Those are Andurien military DropShips,
then?”
[C147]:
“
That’s a rog, Control
.”
[SJC]:
“Come to strike while we’re weak, eh? I’m
scrambling ighters now—“
[C147]:
“
Negative, negative, Control! We’re
escorting Capellans home!
”
[SJC]:
“Nice story,
Lancaster
. We’ve had a lot of
liars through here—“
[C148]:
“
Sian Control, this is Magestrix Naomi
Centrella-Liao.
”
[SJC]:
“New contact this net, say again.”
[C148]:
“
The Andurien JumpShip is escorting
my DropShip and is under the Magistracy’s
protection, Control. Stand down the ighters
and stand by to receive a download for re-
transmission to the Forbidden City. Authoriza-
tion is Chrysanthemum-Omega-one-seven
.”
[SJC]:
“Authenticating… That’s the chancel—
Roger that, my lady.
Lancaster
and accompa-
nying vessels are welcome to Sian space, and
may I add, my lady: welcome home!”
—
Recorded nadir jump point, Sian, 30
March 3076
goals of tHe state
The stated goal of the Capellan military hasn’t changed materially in forty years: to
reclaim the worlds lost to the Confederation during the Fourth Succession War. To be fair,
if one considers the Chesterton worlds and many of the smaller duchies lost during the
Succession Wars, the Confederation’s strategy hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. The
diference now, of course, is that the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces have the muscle
and the experience to actually attain those goals—much as they did during the 3060s after
the fragmenting of the Sarna March.
Despite the continuing actions against Blakist strongholds in the former Protectorate,
the CCAF is currently concentrating on consolidation. The press of the Jihad scattered
much of the logistical capacity in the Confederation, trying to support troops across the
Confederation and deep into the Magistracy of Canopus. Current activities on former
Protectorate worlds are limited to police actions and hunting down pockets of resistance,
especially now that the action on Halloran has been decided. Any intentions gleaned from
the current deployments and intercepted orders seem to point to the Strategios ordering
3
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]