The Fusiliers initial landing went unopposed. This was not surprising - we had withdrawn the bulk of our forces two days before they arrived. Although we did not wish to give them time to get dug in, it would have been foolish in the extreme to try and engage them immediately. Our forces had been fighting against what was mainly a guerilla war. Weapons suitable for counter-insurgency warfare, or COIN, were completely unsuited for taking on BattleMechs. Consequently, the Liaoist guerillas had established themselves in complete control of Holt, and were dominant on several other islands nearby. With their limited intelligence resources, they probably didn't suspect a thing until three DropShips full of rogue mercs landed next to their centre of operations.

The guerillas had fairly basic technology, and fought for no real reason other than there was no obvious means of escape, and they were completely fanatical. Their two Leopard tanks managed to take out a recon lance Javelin before being destroyed themselves, while infantry hiding amongst the buildings were able to damage a few other 'Mechs. The guerillas apparently had 5 Sniper artillery pieces in range of the city, and these were hastily traversed, providing a limited bombardment to aid the defenders. Apart from the damage that the Leopards had done to the Javelin and a nearby Phoenix Hawk though, the Fusiliers took the city with little trouble.

Having secured their landing area, the fusiliers sent a second recon lance out to check the route towards Holt's second major settlement on the coast. En route, their patrol sweep encountered one of the hidden artillery pieces. A short battle ensued, but the guerillas were not equipped to hold the position against even a relatively small recon lance. A pair of striker missile tanks were able to hit a Fusilier Mongoose several times, but the damage was mainly confined to the 'Mech's armour. When the proximity of the enemy became clear, the Sniper was able to switch to a direct fire role, hitting a Dart and blowing the arm off a Jenner before it, too, was destroyed. A few other soft- skinned vehicles were easily despatched by the 'Mechs, although a Cougar FSV was apparently whisked away to safety by a Chinook which had been delivering fresh ammunition for the Sniper.

Following these two defeats, the guerillas decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and retreated from the island, taking their equipment with them where they could. When this proved impossible, equipment and munitions were hidden or blown up, and they spiked their guns before melting into the forests to make their way to safety. Holt was now securely in the Fusiliers' hands. The following excerpt is from a report submitted by Sergeant Thomas Golding of the Stalwart Support...

We were rushed to the scene by an Osprey, which landed further back down the island. We had a couple of Landrovers as well, and as soon as we had landed, we crammed into them and headed for the area that had been assigned to us. Lieutenant Newhouse said that our orders were to observe a unit of the local militia in action and report back. Apparently some of our sources had detected a force of BattleMechs en route to the island, travelling underwater [no naval transport was available, due to our succesful policy of warning away all boat owners in the vicinity of Holt, and also the guerrillas successful terrorist campaign against civilian shipping], and had extrapolated that this beach was their likely landing area. When we arrived, the militia were marshalling their forces outside the small village by the beach. The village had been hit by the guerrillas some weeks earlier, and houses and a couple of industrial buildings still lay derelict and ruined from that attack.

The militia had an assortment of equipment - one old Challenger, downgraded from the standard specs, a lance of FV432 mortar carriers discarded from our own units because of their unreliability, and a pair of wheeled Tokugawa tanks - where these came from I have no idea. [Apparently, they were a bequest from some local noble, maintained by fund raising events on several nearby islands.] Three barely-trained platoons of local militia made up the rest of the force, along with a platoon of cavalry - local boys who could at least shoot straight, and didn't lack courage.

As we arrived, we could see one or two 'Mechs in the distance, unidentifiable at such range. Now that we knew their exact location, we could move into defensive positions in the village itself. The Tokugawas sped over to the north, while the Challenger moved into position in the middle of our line. Next to it, the mortar carriers hid behind a couple of cottages, while the infantry who had already entered the village scuttled for cover. We took up residence in an old abandone farmhouse and the outbuildings around it, ready to watch the enemy advance.

A Berserker came charging up the beach in the lead, 100 tons of fire- breathing, hatchet waving metal. An unfortunate squad of militia were caught in the open, and one of the 'Mechs killed them all with a single volley. Other 'Mechs that we could see were... Zeus, Atlas, Grand Titan, Stalker, Battlemaster, Longbow, Marauder, Crab, Rifleman, Black Knight, and an Anvil. A fearsome combination indeed. The Lt. would have pulled the militia out then, but he knew that they would definitely be killed out in the open. Maybe some of the vehicles would outrun the slow Assault and Heavy 'Mechs, but the infantry...

The two sides were soon trading shots, the Berserker drawing ever nearer the Challenger. Fortunately, in its hull-down position, it proved a difficult target for the Berserker. Unrattled, the crew fired shot after shot. We had been able to supply some armour piercing shells to units in the area in the last few days before the invasion, and this turned out to be one such unit [although later analysis showed that no critical damage was caused by the depleted uranium penetrators - it was all down to skill, general attrition, or pure flukes]. As the Challenger's third shot hit the Berserker, there was an explosion, and a ball of flame, and the 'Mech's head began to fall away backwards. "Why is the pilot ejecting?" I thought, wondering if a shot had hit something vital - but then I realized that it had, but not in the way that I had thought. The pilot wasn't ejecting because of catastrophic damage - the entire head had been blown off the Berserker by a direct hit from the Challenger's autocannon.

Over on the north flank, the two Toks were also hull down, pounding away with their autocannon and SRMs at the advancing Atlas. Then I saw that go down as well! Two 100-ton 'Mechs down, and we had only lost about 30 men so far! Obviously it wasn't going to last for long though, and it was not long before the overwhelming firepower of the 'Mechs began to take its toll. First the Challenger, then one, then two Tokugawas went down. After delivering a pathetic and inaccurate series of mortar vollies, the Fv432s were taken out as well, and the 'Mechs simply ignored the light automatic gunfire from the militia machine-gun platoons. I was ordered to get the information on the enemy force composition back to HQ at this point, and my squad accompanied me in one of the landrovers. The other three squads, one landrover, plus another locally-acquired landrover remained behind at the farm. As we departed, I saw several PPCs from the Marauder hit the far buildings, and I believe a number of missiles also struck the farmhouse itself. One more squad escaped, but the Lt. and the rest of the platoon never made it. Of the local units, the cavalry managed to shake the pilot of the Marauder slightly with a laser hit to the cockpit from behind, while other squads delivered a minimal amount of damage to the Longbow, and also to the Marauder again. After losing a few casualties to fragmentation LRM fire, they were able to retreat, accepting the Fusiliers' offer of a ceasefire. It was clear that our forces could accomplish no more, and this seems to show that there is hope of reasoning with the mercenaries.

From the 'Mechs that we encountered, this would appear to be an Assault company. The Battlemaster and Zeus were badly damaged in the fighting, while the Berserker was put out of commission. The other 'Mechs received mainly light damage, which will probably not reduce their combat effectiveness to any noticeable extent.

From this report, it is clear that a powerful part of the enemy force was sent on this mission. After the damage sustained, their Overlord boosted to collect the disabled Berserker and retrieve the damaged vehicles. This is clearly an opportune time to launch the counterattack. Although it will still be some time before our forces are completely ready, we have a sizeable force assembled - and the absence of such a strong part of the enemy's force cannot be ignored. The journey from our forward maintenance area is only 5 minutes by Osprey, although a fully-laden Sea King or Lynx will take about 40 minutes, and Chinooks an hour. The first Battalion are ready on board their Seeker DropShip, and in the time it takes the Overlord to land, load up and return, we can be on the island and deployed ready to counter any small attacks that they can make.