The Battle of Pinion Underpath

Overview
Many outsiders know little about the trogg invasion other then its aftermath, however the trogg invasion was an almost year long conflict which only culminated in the irradiation deployment. It is my hope that releasing the details of the Battle of Pinion Underpath will give readers some idea of what the Untold War of Gnomeregan was like.

Of the many battles in the War of Gnomeregan, The Battle of Pinion Underpath was amongst the most brutal and most pyrrhic. The Battle consists of a series of smaller assaults and skirmishes which culminated in the massive and pitched engagement at the Pinion Underpath, a branch line tram corridor connecting the Torque-sprocket Helical Habitat Zone to the Clockwerk main line. Occuring shortly after the first organized gnomish counterattack, which drove the troggs back to the lower levels, The Gnomeregan Army was extended and weakened when a force of troggs tunneled around the frontlines and attacked the middle levels directly. Though the troggs seemingly lacked any organization or direction, their overwhelming numbers gave them an undeniable advantage. With 21 battalions from the 1st, 3rd and 4th divisions, the Gnomeregan Army fought against the trogg invaders for several days before Commander Blastvalve's gambit ended the battle. Several prominent historians consider the Battle of Pinion Underpath to be the turning point in which High Tinker Mekkatorque made his decision to recall the Gnomeregan Army Divisions that had been operating abroad.



Day 0, Prelude to Battle
Before the battle actually began, it is important to know some of the circumstances that led to it. During the initial trogg invasion, several key facilities on the lower levels of the city were overrun by troggs and it was believed at the time that their recapture was critical to the defense on Gnomeregan. The Main Electrostatic Dynamo, the Healers Union, and the Sub Docks Tram line were all under trogg control at the time and the entire 1st Army, along with 2 regiments from the 2nd Paranormal Division and 5 regiments from the 4th Armored Division were deployed to retake the lower levels. This constituted the bulk of the Gnomeregan armed forces not already serving abroad in allied operations. All that remained to guard the upper levels were the reserve Regiments and a handful of newly formed Volunteer Irregular Battalions.

Marshal Isotherme remained at Gnomeregan Central Command along with his 3rd Infantry Division. It is important, geographically speaking, that the GCC was placed apart from the Majority of Gnomeregan due to the security concerns during its construction, and that Pinion Underpath lies between the GCC and the Central Gnomeregan Industrial District. While there are several other passages between the two locations, the tram line is the only corridor large enough for the movement of Gnomish Armor Rigs and Spider Tanks.

Day 1, Breakthrough and Chaos
The battle began in the early morning when the Trogg forces broke through a wall on the 12th level of the Torque-sprocket Helical Habitat Zone, damaging the express lift in the process, and began pouring into the street. The alarm quickly spread to the GCC and Marshal Isotherme deployed the 325th and 326th Infantry Battalions immediately to deal with the threat.

The 325th, led by Lieutenant Commander Fritz Undervolt was already active when the order came and arrived on the scene in minutes. By this time, most of the residents in front of the Trogg force had already evacuated, but over half of the Habitat's residents were trapped behind the growing waves of Trogg Invaders. In an attempt to quickly cut off the invasion at the breach, the 325th eagerly charged into battle and began pushing the Troggs back. However the advance came at a tremendous cost they were unable to secure the breach before being overwhelmed by the Trogg forces. When Undervolt signaled to fall back, many of the soldiers disobeyed the order and continued fighting on, leaving the 325th with 85% casualties in the first 10 minutes alone.

The remaining members of the 325th were in the process of setting up a barricade at Habitat's main entrance when the 326th arrived. Led by Lieutenant Commander Bruntwhistle, the 326th bolstered the barricade with two platoons and maneuvered around the Trogg swarm by rappelling down the Habitat's southern ventilation shaft in a desperate move to protect the survivors trapped behind the Troggs. More experienced then the 325th, Bruntwhistle's troops were able to hold a line on the Habitat's 15th level while they attempted to evacuate the remaining residents to the lower levels.

Realizing that this posed a larger threat then was originally presumed, a message was sent back to the GCC for reinforcements. Marshal Isotherme ordered the Lieutenant Commander Laina Heavyrig of the 427th Reserve Armor Battalion and Commander Loche Steelbind of the 38th Infantry Battalion to mobilize and aid at the Habitat Zone, but the order was soon rescinded when the Troggs broke through the 325th's barricade and began pouring into the tram lines. As the Troggs headed towards the GCC, Isotherme pulled the 427th and the 38th back to defend the Command Center.

Completely cut off, Bruntwhistle began fortifying a series of dwellings and community centers on the lower floors to house the remaining civilians while providing a tactical advantage for their defense. However, with most of the Troggs concentrating on advancing into the city, Bruntwhistle's forces were able to hold their original position throughout the first day. Lieutenant Commander Undervolt and his 325th were almost completely destroyed, only the single squad that left to call for reinforcements survived. To this day, the bravery and sacrifice of the 325th is remembered by their parent 32nd Regiment.

"Never forget, always remember the fighting three twenty fifth. Who gave their lives to lend us time, without regret to their very last member."

As Troggs began pouring into the rest of the city, the remaining reserve forces were mobilized as well as the newly formed 34th Irregulars, under the command of Commander Niall Blastvalve, the 34th was composed entirely of volunteers many of whom had lost friends and loved ones in the lower levels and swelled as Gnomes all over the city joined the fight to save their homes. Equipped with only the most basic gear and supplies, members of the 34th found themselves scavenging from the dead when they weren't fighting.

The events of the next eight hours may never be fully understood, as records are sketchy at best and hopelessly conflicting at worst. What is known is that for those eight hours, the Gnomish army was unable to rally an organized defense and ground was continuously lost, gained and lost again. Commander Loche Steelbind of the 38th Infantry Regiment wrote in his memoirs about the chaos.

"We pushed them back to the branch line, but they simply flanked us through the lift tunnels. Back and fourth and around in circles, it was like trying to cut a glass of water.  Everywhere we pushed they broke in our wake only to swarm around behind us.  What tactics can you use against an enemy that knows no fear, has no objectives, cannot be baited, feinted or tricked in any way?  An enemy that simply keeps pushing forward until you haven't the strength to lift your weapon."

Lieutenant Commander Sprockette Rumblewheel and her 355th Infantry Battalion employed hit and run tactics on the Trogg flanks pouring into the Central Industrial district, and managed to herd one wave into the Gearforge Refinery before releasing boiling oil on top of them. Partisans at the Gnomeregan Electric Steel Foundry employed a similar tactic using molten steel, stopping the invaders advance. The inexperienced 343rd Irregular Battalion under the command of Lieutenant Commander Ren Maglever was almost completely decimated when a Trogg swarm surrounded their position, Sergeant Osmia Undervolt recorded this account of the attack.

"The Troggs came upon us without warning and we had difficulties setting up a tactical perimeter and defensive buffer. Still we held admirably, but when the order to fall back to the Emergency Access Steamtunnel was given, the undisciplined troops panicked and scattered in disarray.  Running straight down the tramline they moved right into another Trogg swarm and got themselves completely surrounded.  I threatened and yelled at the squad under my command but most of them were already lost in the rout.  Out of those of us that maintained our equanimity, only nine of us made it to the Access Tunnel intact.  I can recall seeing Maglever running past the fleeing troops towards the Troggs, he looked right at me and yelled 'Pull them back Undervolt, thats an order.'  All I could say was 'Aye.'  I remember he had the look in his face of someone who knows they're about to die, let it never be said that the Lieutenant was unsound in his judgements."

The GCC was almost completely cut off from the rest of the city and Marshal Isotherme knew it was only a matter of time before the 427th ran out of supplies and ammunition. With the Trogg invaders held at bay by the narrowest of margins, Isotherme sent an elite squad of covert ops specialists out through the Trogg masses to attempt to contact Field Marshal Gyrotorque in the lower levels of Gnomeregan. Getting past the Troggs proved to be the easy part, it was coming back with help that proved more challenging. Gyrotorque immediately detached the 404th Armored Battalion, the 152nd Infantry Battalion and the 153nd Infantry Battalion to return to the midlevels and push back the invaders. Joining with the 341st and the 342nd, the battle hardened soldiers of the 1st Division with support from the 404th were able to push the Troggs back to the Pinion Underpath branch line.

Day 2, Blitz and Deep Defense
As the combined forces fought their way within sight of the Pinion Underpath branch line the Trogg attack suddenly and drastically intensified. This wave of trogg invaders proved more resilient then those previous and some of them displayed a disturbing control of elemental powers. The Gnomeregan Army held for several hours, but was once again forced to fall back under the weight of overwhelming numbers. Commander Niall Blastvalve ordered a fighting retreat back to one of the central supply caches and thats when the lights went out.

Trogg attacks on the lower levels managed to critically damage the Main Electrostatic Dynamo in such a way that, without a maintenance crew to operate the fail-safe mechanisms, the Dynamo overloaded and took out most of the city's Volt-o-matic Current Regulators in the process. The damage was so extensive that even though the secondary Electrostatic Dynamo was activated within seconds, they couldn't get electrical power to the majority of the city for over 15 hours, roughly the time it took maintenance crews to reach and repair the Current Regulators in the upper levels. Neon Emberspark, at the time a private in the 341st, wrote on the fighting that followed.

"When the lights went out, the emergency lights came on and we kept on fighting. Half of us in front would fight until we were in danger of being overrun, then we would break for cover that the half behind us had been busy preparing and the process would repeat.  It was a harrowing pursut and those Trogg sons of pigs were merciless.  We fought as a group until we reached the Central Industrial District and we were compelled to diverge.  The Troggs gained strength as our strength was diluted, our superior knowledge of the terrain our only advantage.  By the time the Emergency Power was failing we were down to fighting by squads.  When the emergency lights started to fail, we used flares, and when those ran out we fought hand to hand in the pitch black with only the maddening cries of our attackers to aim by.  Even if I should come face to face with the dark lord of the nether himself, I may never experience such terror naturally induced."

While the bulk of the army was being pushed back again into the city, Lieutenant Commander Bruntwhistle's 326th found themselves fighting an enemy that was suddenly doubly determined and capable. With little choice but to fall back and barricade themselves in their prepared shelters, their engineering platoon welded plate steel over the entrances in a constant effort to hold the barricades intact. Knowing his situation was desperate, Bruntwhistle led a squad to the disabled lift shaft in an attempt to retrieve supplies. They were never seen again. Knight Captain Quikseal assumed command of the Battalion and continued to fight. The only indication the rest of the Gnomeregan forces had of the 326th's continued struggle was the periodic tremors they felt as tunnels were collapsed in an effort to slow the attackers.

Marshal Isotherme fared little better, having been pushed back entirely into the GCC, the 427th was forced to abandon their Spiderwalkers and Rigs as they were overrun by Troggs. Holed up inside the Command Center, there was little they could do but sit and hope that the Troggs would be unable to break through the thorium cased outer blast doors or the reinforced defense grid woven into the stone around them. Knight Lieutenant Gavin Darkswitch recorded this account before his death.

"The Marshal's got us locked up in here and quite frankly I'm diametrically opposed to this course of action, of course Laina's got it worse. I saw her ambling down the corridor a while ago as though someone had a grip on her abdomen and was compressing with everything they had.  She built that rig of hers by herself you know?  It was her pride and joy, and only a few months before its first scheduled stress test, now its probably being ripped apart at the rivets by those monsters.  I can imagine it must have been hard for her to abandon it, I don't know what I'd do if those things ever got to my lab and smashed my life's work.  Heh, I guess thats why I'm getting kinda sick and tired of sitting around here on my posterior."

When word of the Trogg blitz reached Field Marshal Gyrotorque, he ordered the Army to pull out of the lower levels and defend the rest of the city while there was still a city left to defend. However, in practice the order proved more difficult to follow then in theory. Much of the attack force in the lower levels was already committed to defending key points and were cut off. The forces that were able to reach the upper levels arrived just as Commander Blastvalve and Commander Spindlewrench of the 15th Infantry Regiment were preparing to launch a counter offensive.

Day 3, Evacuation and Blastvalve's gambit
During the night, the 15th and the 34th had finally managed to fall back to a supply cache, however the 324th under the command of Lieutenant Commander Tam Reclasp had also been overrun and Troggs were swarming through the line and starting to attack the remaining defenses from the rear. Field Marshal Gyrotorque accepted the two Commander's plan, bolstering their numbers with elements from the elite 401st Armored Battalion under the command of Lieutenant Commander Blinn Anisotropy who was renowned for his guile during the last months of the Second War. Vowing to restore the breached defensive line and give Blastvalve and Spindlewrench's plan time to succeed, Gyrotorque took the remainder of his forces into the city to hunt down and destroy the infiltrating Troggs.

As power was restored to the mid levels, Blastvalve sent Isotherme's covert ops squad back to relay the details of the plan to the Marshal, as the plan would require a combined assault on the Pinion Underpath from both sides. Using a timed percussion emitter, the details were transmitted to Marshal Isotherme with a series of impacts, coded with precise duration and spacing. By the time the 15th had reached the vicinity of Pinion Underpath they had suffered heavy causalties, but it was planned that the 34th would relieve them when the reached the branch line and push into the tunnel with fresh troops.

When the signal was given, Marshal Isotherme threw open the blast doors to the GCC and the 38th and the 427th poured out into the tunnel, taking the Troggs as close to surprised as they could with their minimal intelligence. Commander Steelbind pushed the Troggs away from the GCC while the 427th's engineers attempted to repair as many of the abandoned Armored Vehicles as they could. The 38th Regiment suffered severe casualties in the opening minutes of the attack, with the 387th taking the heaviest losses at 71 percent. However, as the 427th started bringing their rigs online the 38th was able to use the armor to form a strategic wedge in the Trogg swarm and pushed on towards the Underpath.

As the Gnomeregan forces joined, they began advancing into the Pinion Underpath. The 401st and the 342nd led the charge into the branch line, but as they progressed they began encountering tougher and tougher resistance until eventually they stalled 160 meters from the the main entrance of the Torque-sprocket Helical Habitat Zone. The 341st advanced to help hold the line, but Commander Blastvalve recognized that in a matter of hours, they would be pushed back again and that this time there was no reserve force available to come to the rescue. Blastvalve ordered seaforium charges to be placed down the entire length of the Pinion Underpass and Commander Steelbind led the remainder of his forces in a desperate bid to evacuate the survivors still trapped behind the Trogg lines.

Fighting their way towards a maintenance access tunnel, the 38th fought their way around the bulk of the Trogg swarm and connected with Knight Captain Quikseal's 326th. With time running out, they started the evacuation of the lower three quarters of the Habitat Zone as soon as they were able to secure a relatively safe path to the maintenance tunnel. Kester Hydropress wrote in his journal about the evacuation.

"We had been confined for days, forty two of us in a three room apartment. On one hand I was jubilant to hear that we would be leaving, but on the other hand I was daunted by the prospect of risking death by Trogg in the open tunnels.  We escaped out the maintenance tunnel which had been overrun only minutes before.  I don't want to deliberate on what it cost the Commander to fight his way down there.  Those were frantic times though, and I don't believe it really connected with me at the time just how close I came to being trapped down there forever.  Later, of course, it hit me.  When they came in and exclaimed that the Underpath would be detonated in a matter of minutes and that we had to drop everything and follow them, well, I guess I just didn't consider it.  I just assumed that my good fortunes would carry me through.  However, not everyone was quite so numb to panic as myself."

The evacuation of the Habitat Zone was indeed a frantic race against time as the 341st and the 401st were slowly loosing ground in the branch line above. To make matters worse, as the survivors began reaching the top of the maintenance tunnel, their panicked stampede disrupted the defense's formations and expedited the retreat. Soon, Troggs and survivors alike were running through the defensive lines freely and the retreat turned to a rout. The 341st was reinforced by the remnants of the 152nd, but it was too late to stop the Trogg advance. They held their position as long as they could, even as the Troggs poured through the tunnel around them and attacked from all sides. But in the end, they had to fall back as the seaforium charges were detonated.

With the Trogg reinforcements cut off, the remaining Gnomeregan troops made short work of those that had broken through during the final confrontation. To this day nobody knows just how many survivors were trapped in the Habitat Zone when the tunnel collapsed. In Blastvalve's report he is quoted for saying, "We saved as many as we could."

Notable Divisions

 * 1st Infantry Divison
 * 15th Infantry Regiment - Commander Spindlewrench


 * 3rd Infantry Division - Marshal Isotherme
 * 32nd Infantry Regiment
 * 324th Battalion - Lieutenant Commander Tam Reclasp
 * 325th Battalion - Lieutenant Commander Fritz Undervolt
 * 326th Battalion - Lieutenant Commander Bruntwistle
 * 34th Infantry Regiment - Commander Niall Blastvalve
 * 341st Irregular Battalion
 * 342nd Irregular Battalion
 * 343rd Irregular Battalion - Lieutenant Commander Ren Maglever
 * 35th Infantry Regiment
 * 355th Battalion - Lieutenant Commander Sprockette Rumblewheel
 * 38th Infantry Regiment - Commander Loche Steelbind


 * 4th Armored Division
 * 40th Armor Regiment
 * 401st Armor Battalion - Lieutenant Commander Blinn Anisotropy
 * 42nd Armor Regiment
 * 427th Reserve Armor Battalion - Lieutenant Commander Laina Heavyrig