• Gei-Fu, 14 February 3051 : Gordon's Demons of McCarron's Armored Cavalry (CCAF) clash with Aliesha's Mounted Fusiliers (SIMC) on Gei-Fu • • Tamar, 23 February 3051 : General Nondi Steiner accuses Draconis Combine of staging raids from neutral Rasalhague worlds; Gunji no Kanrei Theodore Kurita and Prince Haakon Magnusson deny accusations • • Hustaing, 3 March 3051 : Civil unrest in Capellan Confederation grows as fighting on Gei-Fu continues and SIMC and McCarron's Armored Cavalry clash on Milos, Brighton, and Hustaing • • Atreus, 12 March 3051 : Heightened activity reported among AFFC units in Skye, Sarna, and Capellan Marches as fighting on Saint Ives/Capella border escalates • • Saint Ives, 14 March 3051 : Duchess Candace Liao-Allard rejects direct AFFC involvement in Capella/Saint Ives conflict; describes it as "family squabble" • • Gei-Fu, 16 March 3051 : New model Vindicator incorporating recovered technology reported in use by CCAF forces on Gei-Fu • • Meacham, 20 March 3051 : Leftenant Kai Allard-Liao, son and heir to Duchess Candace Liao-Allard, recalled to Saint Ives from posting with 10th Lyran Guards RCT •
As you may have guessed, your recent activities on Callison and Phecda have been building up to something. The Free Worlds League is finally moving to liberate the worlds seized by the Steiners and Tikonov treachery at the end of the Fourth Succession War. The Silver Hawks Irregulars are tasked with the liberation of your homeworld, Callison.
The 11th Lyran Guards RCT is still the force occupying Callison. SAFE does not believe that there have been significant changes in their deployment since your earlier raid.
3rd Squadron of the Callison Defenders will be accompanying you, but they will not be initially available for ground support, as they will be busy keeping the Steiner air wings from blowing you and your dropships out of space.
You will once again be making use of our detailed knowledge of the Callison system to jump to the L1 "pirate point" near Callison II, well within the ordinary jump limit, and make a high-speed burn to Callison II and combat drop on the planet. Your target is the deep-space radar you scouted on your last visit to Callison. This time, you are not merely to probe its defenses, but to capture it and hold it for four hours — or, failing that, to disable it — so that the rest of the task force can enter the system unobserved at the L2 point and catch the 11th Lyran Guards' aerospace detachment by surprise.
If disabling the radar proves necessary, destroying one of the elements of the antenna array will accomplish this in a way that can be fairly easily repaired once we hold the planet, but which the Steiners will be unable to repair within the critical time window.
Your objectives are:
Estimated enemy BV: 23649
Battle loss compensation: 80%
Salvage: 20%
Holding the field with the radar intact is a full Marik victory; it denies the Steiners use of the deep-space radar, and allows Marik use, which may provide advantages in future scenarios.
Disabling the radar counts as a partial Marik victory; it denies the Steiners the use of it and allows the invasion to proceed, but also prevents Marik use in future scenarios. It can be accomplished by destroying both hexes of at least one of the antennae (the L3 buildings in hexes 0706–0707, 0906–0907, 1106–1107, 0709–0710, 0909–0910, 1109–1110, 0712–0713, 0912–0913, and 1112–1113 on the CityTech map).
Damage to the control building (the H2 building in 1309–1310 on the CityTech map) may disable the radar in a way that is difficult to repair. If the control building takes damage, at the end of the scenario, roll 3d6 × 1d10. If the result is less than or equal to the total damage the building has suffered, critical components have been destroyed and the radar is non-functional in the long term. If the radar is destroyed in this manner, it counts as a pyrrhic Marik victory regardless of other circumstances. The Steiners are denied use of the radar and the invasion can proceed, but the Mariks are also denied use, and if you succeed in taking Callison, the world will be vulnerable to counterattack for some time afterwards.
If the Steiners hold the field and the radar remains functional, it is a full Steiner victory.
The L1 buildings in 1102, 1104, 1302, and 1304 on the CityTech map are barracks. Their condition has no effect on the radar or victory conditions.
The 11th Lyran Guards RCT has two wings of aerospace fighters available, and are able to commit one to trying to deny the Marik force a ride home while the other is held in reserve in case of surprises. The Steiner fighter wing has a significant numerical advantage over the squadron the Marik force was able to bring, but the Marik force needs only to evade and survive. While the battle is going on on the ground, the Steiner fighter wing will be attempting to destroy the Marik dropships and fighters. In interest of limiting use of the awful aerospace combat rules, this is resolved with these abstract rules:
Each turn, starting on Turn 6, each side rolls 2d6. If the Steiners win, they are able to break an air lance free of the pursuit and send them to support their ground force. A randomly chosen Steiner fighter lance arrives on a random edge of the low altitude map at the beginning of the next turn.
If the winning side rolled doubles, they have destroyed one of the losing side's craft, as such:
| Roll | Craft Destroyed |
|---|---|
| 12 ⚅⚅ | Random heavy fighter |
| 10 ⚄⚄ | Random medium fighter |
| 8 ⚃⚃ | Random medium fighter |
| 6 ⚂⚂ | Random light fighter |
| 4 ⚁⚁ | Random light fighter |
| 2 ⚀⚀ | Random dropship |
Due to their numerical superiority, the Steiner force wins ties.