During the early months of the Fourth Succession War Coordinator Takashi Kurita was focused on his conflict with the Wolf's Dragoons mercenary brigade, but following pleas for help from Chancellor Maximilian Liao the DCMS planned and launched additional offensives against perceived weak spots on the Federated Suns border. The planetary militia on Marduk consisted of aging 'Mechs piloted by old pilots and a few regiments of conventional forces, which were swiftly defeated by the LAG. Despite the militia being easily beaten, an extensive guerrilla resistance campaign began on Marduk that would continue to dog the DCMS forces on the planet, even though the Combine officially considered the planet to have been annexed in 3029. Marduk was a priority targeted of Duke James Sandoval unauthorized invasion of the Draconis Combine in the midst of the FedCom Civil War, Sandoval sending the green First Chisholm's Raiders to take the important BattleMech manufacturing world from the equally green Twenty-second Benjamin Regulars. Landing on the planet on the 22nd of December 3062, the Raiders initial plan on striking the capital of New Pontiac was set aside when they realized that while the 22nd Benjamin defended the whole world, the sole defenders in proximity to the Victory Industries BattleMech plant was the

company's own security forces, a combined arms regiment with a battalion of OmniMechs.