Siege of Vernia

The Siege of Vernia was a twelve hour siege on Vernia, the capital of Mars. The siege saw the destruction of the entire Fifth Section of the UNPM's Fifth Battalion and the fall of Mars to the insurrectionist group, The Order of the Black Lotus.

Prelude
The Black Lotus Rebellion began in 2118 when the group destroyed Octane, a small colony in the northern part of colonized Mars. Two years later the rebels had destroyed three more colonies as well as two major factories. In February of 2121, the Order of the Black Lotus made numerous threats to the United Nations of Planets' Government that they would rule Mars' capital. The UNP wasn't sure how credible these threats were as Vernia was relatively well protected and so they made no action in response to these threats. A few days later the largest spaceport of Mars at the time, Leahy Spaceport, was attacked by the Order of the Black Lotus. As the spaceport was close to Vernia and they had the largest garrison of soldiers, 1,010 soldiers left Vernia to repel the attack because if Leahy Spaceport was lost it would be very hard for the ground forces to get supplied. This attack, however, wasn't an attack at all. The OBL (Order of the Black Lotus) used a mole they had within the UNP Army at Mars, Captain Harvey Moss, make a fake radio call from the spaceport saying they were under assault and needed backup.

The Siege
Once the majority of Vernia's garrison had left to make the day-long journey to assist Leahy Spaceport Vernia was left with the Second Battalion's Fifth Section made up of 957 soldiers, 120 Colonial Administration Security Force officers, and Bravo Squadron of the Navy Marines with four Marines. 200 soldiers and 50 CASF officers made up the outer defenses, half a kilometer out of the main city and on the edge of the living dome.

At 12:02 A.M MCT (Mars Central Time) around 2,000 OBL soldiers entered Vernia's living dome. A company of UNP soldiers who were watching Vernia's entrance were unable to alert the city and its soldiers of the invading force as a forward OBL assault party entered the city disguised as civilians and killed the entire company. The rest of the invasion force was able to get into the dome and began marching towards the outer defenses. At 12:23 A.M MCT the force first made contact with Vernia's outer defenses.

The small 250 strong force defended against the huge 2,000 soldier invading force as they waited for reinforcements from the city. By the time reinforcements arrived at the battle, the outer defense force consisted of only 90 soldiers.