**Solar War Vignettes - Raid on Bullrun City** ---- Date: 0120 R.C. \\ Author: roituki ---- When the military forces of the [[wiki:compact|Sovereign Colonies Compact]] made landfall on the territory of the Republic of [[Telfair]] in 120 R.C., a large portion of the local national guard units supported them. Against the combined efforts of the Compact and their new allies, the CFA lost ground at a steady pace. Weeks of continuous combat pushed the CFA northward. The Compact forces eventually reached Telfair’s northern region known as the National Quiet Zone. The climactic battle that occurred sealed the fate of Telfair for the foreseeable future. The CFA’s massive defeat dissolved the 8th Continental Corps of Army Group Esmaria (ESMARAG) altogether. Its remnants fled to the Commonwealth of [[wiki:castia|Castia.]] Too few to be reformed, they were absorbed into the 11th Continental Corps. Fortunately for the 11th, the victorious rebels and their [[GDF]] allies did not hasten to attack Castia. Besides the remnants of the 8th, the 11th was haphazardly reinforced with several units of corporate security. Focus turned to building up a strong defence line. However, one recently promoted Major saw an opportunity for a counterstrike. One unit brought up to battalion strength due to transfers is the Combined Task Force 96 “Iron Storm,” led by Major Robaz Sawyer—and he wanted some payback. He gathered his officers, who agreed to his bold plan. Under the guise of “reinforcing Castia’s border security,” Major Sawyer deployed his battalion to its staging ground. The would-be raiders confused their allies, as they did little digging in and busied themselves with final checks. At the hour before midnight, the Iron Storm rumbled southward. Under the cover of night, dozens of [[wiki:m-77_chimera|M77 Chimera]] tanks, 4 [[wiki:ma04_basilisk|MA04 Basilisk]] super tanks and a fencer team composed of older model Titans crossed Castia’s southern border into Telfair. They caught the enemy by surprise. CFA tank columns, in their rush towards Bullrun City, blasted away turncoat [[wiki:telfair_national_guard|National Guard]] patrols. Elements of the 2nd Tank company stumbled into a GDF fencer team composed of Vegters, but one got away after a powerful rocket jump. Throughout the rest of the night, the raiders destroyed their targets: the city power plant, supply stockpiles, gas stations, dockyard facilities and scattered Telfair rebel patrols. Only on their way back to Castia did the raiders suffer moderate losses. The 2nd Tank Company was ambushed, by the surviving fencer that got away during the skirmish the night before. It destroyed almost half the company, before 3rd Platoon’s MA04 Basilisk shot it down. When asked on how the Iron Storm managed to keep operational security, Major Sawyer replied that he simply did not inform his superiors of his intent. The 11th Continental Corps’ upper echelon, busy with reorganizing their unit, only found out about the raid when Telfair media stations reported on the aftermath a day later. Luckily for the Iron Storm, their unsanctioned bravado resulted in considerable success in their region. The raid on Bullrun had taken out the Compact’s ability to conduct large scale offensives aimed at the Commonwealth of Castia for weeks. The Corps had won more time to prepare for the inevitable face-off. {{tag>vignettes solar_war}}