On approach to Luthien IV, both the TDF and the Clan DropShips carrying the respective ground forces were in a race to see who would land first. The Taurians landed later, but having the advantage of landing in a spaceport, with friends near could deploy faster, while the Clan DropShips needed to land in an unprepared ground, under heavy fire and constant attack by Kurita and Taurian ASFs.
The first battle, was once again, in space, between the ASFs and the OmniFighters, about 400 on each side. And once again, the side with Arrow IV AAM - the Taurians - had the first massive victory, destroying about a fourth of the opposing force even before the OmniFighters could fire. This time the TDF ASFs not having to carry Alamos, had loaded all external hard-points with AAMs - and all the ASFs present could carry at least one AAM with the heaviest could carry 4 of them. Only the fact that the Omnifighter pilots had seen the result of the first massive dogfight, and as soon as the Taurians fired, started to execute radical maneuvers, reduced the number of kills. But, doing so broke their formation and the Taurians took advantage of it to inflict several more losses and to get closer without any major problem.
While this battle was going on, the first line of defense of Luthien, capital of the Draconis Combine, went into action. Luthien had 20 BattleSats - based on the BattleSat model first seen in action on Coromodir several years earlier - and all those in position and in range began firing on the approaching DropShips, with the larger ones, specifically the Overlord-C, being their priority.
The few Omnifighters that stayed with the Clan DropShips advanced at full power and started to destroy the Kuritan Battlesats, that being so small, lacked armor or defenses against ASFs.
But, the defenses of Luthien did not stop there, once the DropShips reached the upper levels of the atmosphere, ground based Naval Lasers replaced the satellites in the mission to destroy as many DropShips as possible before they could land, in a desperate bid to reduce the numbers of the invaders. Several big submarines equipped with Killer Whales capital missiles are in construction, to further add to the defenses, but unfortunately none is operational yet.
Aggravating the Clanner problem, the capital city was protected by 2 ground based Naval Lasers, forcing the surviving DropShips to land more distantly or to drop their load before being hunted down and to scatter them more than e initially planned
Of the five Galaxies that had begun the operation, a force more than sufficient to conquer the planet, little less than three, composed of remains of the five, managed to get on ground But their ordeal was not yet over as the TCS Marantha Calderon (Concordat Class Frigate), as soon as it arrived in orbit, a few hours later, started to use its Naval Lasers to destroy the grounded DropShips, and the forces caught still unloading. It was this confused, demoralized, and disorganized force that finally faced the defenders on the Tairakana Plains.
Against them were present the 1st Sword of Light, the Otomo, the 2nd Legion of Vega and the Dragon's Claws - the first two being fully modernized, the others, only partially. These forces were joined by the elements of the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Taurian Brigades, all fully modernized, that had already unloaded their DropShips, not waiting for the rest of the taurian forces, still unloading.
To further widen the gap, only two dozen OmniFighters had survived, and they could not stop either the Taurian ASFs or the last reserve of Kuritan ASFs and conventional fighters from continuously bombarding their forces - the Taurians with advanced Arrow IV A2Gs, the Kuritans with more conventional bombs, rockets and strafing.
As they were getting into range, they were now subjected to massive Arrow IV, tube artillery attacks and had to go through minefields after minefields.
The exhausted Clan Warriors who finally came within firing range of the defenders, had almost all their ’Mechs and Battle Armor damaged at one point or another, and faced a numerically superior force, equipped with weapons of almost the same range and power, their equipment in perfect condition, rested and in excellent defensive positions.
Two days later, the last of the invading forces had been captured or destroyed. The Clan JumpShips that had so far been waiting at the Zenith Jump Point departed back to uncertain destination, almost certainly back to the occupied zones, before any Taurian WarShip could trap them.
