Siege of Laythe V

The Siege of Laythe V was a major battle during the Guardian Conflict between the rogue Cylon Guardian forces and the trapped ground forces of the Interstellar Coalition, on the surface uninhabited L-class planet of Laythe V. Combat ended on 5 April 2175 with the destruction of Guardian space forces and the rescue of trap Coalition forces being trap since the start of the conflict. The battle resulted in the successful field test of the Marauder Armour, leading to the unit's eventual deployment throughout the Coalition Armed Forces.

Prelude
Laythe V was targeted by Guardian's leader Alpha for the Coalition's secret Marauder Project, which was even kept out of the Cylon Central Information Network. Alpha was curious of the project, noting its secret nature along with the fact that three of the top Cylon weapon research programs had been transferred to the operation. Intrigued to obtain the project as a possible super weapon while it was being field-tested on the uninhibited class-L planet on the edge of Cylon-claimed space. She committed the entire Guardian Tenth Fleet to secure the planet and obtain this secret project.

Frontier Down
The battle began when the Guardian Tenth Fleet jump into orbit of Laythe V. The Coalition military transport ICS Frontier barely had time to arm weapons and raise shield's before being hit by the fleet's weapons fire. The Frontier lost main power and impulse engines before being pushed towards the planet and caught in the gravity well, crash landing on the surface. All 8,000 members of the Fronteir's crew were killed in the crash.

The Guardian's move their military units in a blockade of the planet and began full jamming of all sensors and communications from the surface. They were joined by the Guardian Ninth Fleet. The Coalition surface base quickly raised shields. They began their landing operations a 160-kilometers south of the Coalition base.

Retreat to Broken Spine Mountains
General Talas, decided to forgo using the facility's tactical bunkers and began coordinating with her subordinates, Commander of the Coalition Third Army General Mathew Parker and Commander of the Coalition Fifth Army General Sh'Rreev in relocating their now stranded forces into a more defensible position in the nearby Broken Spine Mountains.

While this retreat was ordered, General Talas deployed seven warp-capable shuttles to act as emergency couriers, to run the Guardian blockade and to carry a distress call back to the Coalition. All seven shuttles managed to get outside the Guardian jamming fields, however all were destroyed before they could completely dispath their messages. However the amount of garbled sources transmitting the same message was enough to catch the attention of the ICS Enterprise A, prompting it to investigate.

In the mean time General Talas ordered her electronic warfare squads to scramble the Guardian's sensors, to keep them from finding the Coalition's exact postions. While Coalition used all the M1A Mako AFVs to quickly load their supplies and relocate it into the caves among the near by mountains, most heavy weaponry was abandoned to make room for all bodies.

The Guardians bypassed the use of nuclear weapons and air strikes in a attempt to capture Marauder unharmed, instead opting for deploying over 1,000,000 Centurions from their fleet to the icy surface of L462.

Reconnaissance
Once the Coalition had finished relocating from their base camp into the caves inside the Broken Spine Mountains, combat engineers quickly got to work establishing defenses and portable sensors. Due to the extreme cold weather at night, Talas sent Falcon Squad in their porotype Marauder Armour to locate enemy positions and determine their strength. The protection offer by being sealed inside in their armour allowed Falcon Squad to safely traverse the sub-arctic terrian at night. They used a Mako to transport them most of the way, before continuing the rest of the way on foot.

Along the way they detected a Guardian scout party of platoon strength marching in their direction. Before they could be spotted the squadron enacted radio silence and went dark. Falcon Squad took cover and using their suit's SquadCom, decided to use the element of surprise and prepared ambush postions at the approching hostile troops. Once the Guardian Centurions were in postion, Falcon squad volleyed plasma gernades into the group. The blasts destroyed over half the enemy force and heavily damage the rest. Before the surviving Centurions could act Falcon Squad rose from their cover, aimed for their heads, and open fire on the remaining units before they could bring their guns to bear. The Centurions were quickly defeated and Falcon suffer no casualties, who proceeded to continue on foot and located the Guardians staging area. Moving to get a better view, they used their suit camera to record enemy troop strength, disposition and movements, before packing up and heading back the Mako.

While on the way, Guardian Heavy Raiders looking for their missing recon team spot Falcon's position. The squad jumped for cover in time to avoid the Heavy Raider plasma pulse cannons. Being pinned down and lacking the heavy weaponry needed to knock out heavy air-strikes, the squad was pinned down.

No recognizing the Coalition forces in their Marauder armour, the Heavy Raiders painted the force as unknown and issued a support call to the Guardian command. The Guardians dispatch two more Heavy Raiders with troops to capture these unknown Coalition forces on their perimeter for study and dissection.

Pinned down and no hope, it was only with the surprise intervention of the Mako crew did the squad escape. The Mako charge in firing it's ventral mounted phase cannon turret at the hovering Raiders, destroying both.

The Mako retreated into the mountains as two more Heavy Raiders pursued, while the Guardians scrambled another squadron to intercept.

Concurrent to these events, the Coalition forces in the Broken Spine Mountains managed to break through some of the Guardian's sensor jamming. Only able to detect up to a certain range, they detected Falcon's Mako returning via southern perimeter and under fire. General Talas not wanting to risk compromising their new base location, but not wanting to leave her people in trouble, ordered General Parker to send two of the Makos under his command ahead of Falcon, while General Sh'Rreev was ordered to coordinate between the vehicles.

Falcon's Mako had driven into a thick forest of ice glacier for better cover, using it's phasers to clear a path through the thick ice. The Heavy Raiders attempted firing missiles at the Mako, only to hit a thick glacier of ice overhead, forcing them to slow but continue their pursuit.

Falcon's Mako successfully luring the pursing Heavy Raiders into the trap, quickly being downed after entering the kill-zone of the General Parker's waiting Makos. The Makos safely returned to base with the intelligence they'd obtained for analysis.