The Battle of Cochinay

One of the few major ground campaigns of the Orion-Hecate War, Cochinay is a lightly-populated border world with a cool, alpine climate and rugged, mountainous terrain.  Originally envisioned by Orion high command as a staging area for a spoiling attack into Hecate space, Cochinay was home to the Orion 6th army on June 4th, 287 (from foundation) when a major Hecate attack force warped in and initiated an invasion.  The covering Orion flotilla was greatly outnumbered and forced to withdraw after an aggressive high speed attack that destroyed several heavy armor transports and ground support craft.

Once Hecate forces began their landing operation, Orion army units began to respond, initial resistance was centered around the 356th Armored regiment, a heavy walker unit configured for the assault role.  The Orion commander on the ground, Major General Waylin Dace would use the 356th as a base of fire and when the opposing forces were fully engaged, he would utilize his mobile infantry units in slashing flank attacks that more often then not resulted in a a route.



The initial Hecatan assault landings were successful,
although their losses to Orion ground fire were extensive.



General Dace was an aggressive commander and planned an all-out attack on the primary Hecatan spacehead, aiming to eliminate their ability to resupply and thereby forcing the surrender of their entire planetary force.  Unknown to the general and his staff, their communication codes had been compromised and the Hecatan forces were deployed in ambush.  When the attack began, most of the assault units were trapped and forced to surrender.  Only the power armor contigent had the mobility necessary to escape into the hills.  They, along with a handful of locals and stragglers from other units, carried on a guerilla resistance for almost half a year with some notable successess.

Finally, realizing that their conventional troops were unable to defeat this ragtag band, the Hecatan occupation authorities contracted a unit of Rishathan counter-insurgency experts to hunt them down.  Their method has as simple as it was brutally effective, they used an orbital, kinetic bombardment to wipe out of the smaller settlements off the face of the map, then calmy issued a surrender demand over an uncoded communication channel, threatening to continue the attacks until the resistance was ended.