3rd Marik Militia

Brigade Insignia of the Marik Militia
Third Marik Militia
Disbanded 3015[1]
Nickname The Cannoneers[2]
Affiliation Free Worlds League
Parent Command Marik Militia


Among the first Marik Militia regiments formed, the Third Marik Militia was struck from the rolls after they fought on the side of the rebels during Anton Marik's Revolt.


History[edit]

Formation[edit]

The Marik Militia brigade was formed in the early twenty-third century as the primary offensive and defensive brigade of the newly-formed Free Worlds League. The Third Marik Militia would serve the League for centuries. Like the other regiments of the brigade, the Third was dedicated to serving and defending the people of the League, rather than serving the Captain-General, a distinction that separated the Militia from other federal formations such as the Atrean Dragoons and Free Worlds Guards.[2]

Reunification War[edit]

The Third fought alongside the First, Fourth and Fifth Marik Militias in the Reunification War as a part of the Marik Auxiliary Corps assigned to support the Star League Defense Force VII Corps during the invasion of the Magistracy of Canopus. VII Corps was the largest of the corps at the time, and was commanded by Captain-General Marion Marik; the Marik Auxiliary Corps was commanded by General Ian Marik, and while VII Corps took the lead on many of the planetary campaigns, elements of the Marik Auxiliary Corps were present on almost every campaign of the war between the Star League and the Magistracy. The 3rd were no exception to this, seeing service in no less than six planetary conquests.[3][4][5]

Restitution[edit]

At the end of the military buildup prior to the official declaration of war between the Star League and the Magistracy, the Third Marik Militia were stationed on the Free Worlds League border world of Rohinjan alongside the First Marik Militia and the Second Fusiliers of Oriente Brigade. The First and the Third were each assigned to support SLDF brigades in the opening attacks of the war; in the case of the Third, they were deployed alongside the Second Fusiliers of Oriente Brigade in support of the Fifty-seventh Brigade for the invasion of Restitution. The SLDF task force would continue to deploy the Second Fusiliers and the Third Marik Militia together throughout the campaign against the Magistracy until the Second Fusiliers were redeployed to the Rim Worlds Republic theater.[3]

Restitution was a world famous for its media industry - particularly the producers of dubious pornography and low-brow dramas. Restitution's media industry had given the planet experts in communications, data delivery and image and video manipulation and a planetary communications network as advanced as any in the Inner Sphere. The attack on Restitution was expected to be a tough fight; intelligence showed that the defending garrison consisted of the Third Canopian Light Horse, one of the elite Chasseurs á Cheval regiments, and that the capital city of Magdeburg had been surrounded by massive defenses, augmenting the benefits of its location atop a narrow bluff.[6]

The Fifty-seventh Brigade were allocated the majority of the AeroSpace assets from the Fifty-eighth Brigade to assist them in achieving air superiority over Magdeburg so allow for the Fifty-seventh to make a direct assault on the city, bypassing the bulk of the prepared defenses. The plan was a complete success - in large part due to the fact that only token resistance was offered; the Fifty-seventh secured the city, only to discover that there was no sign of the Third Canopian Light Horse. While the SLDF had been preparing to conquer Restitution, the planetary defenders had redeployed and would appear two weeks later in the Cranston system, bloodying the Fifty-eighth Brigade badly.[3][6]

Ruschegg[edit]

The capture of Ruschegg in 2578 was relatively easy for the Third and the other units involved; one of three former Free Worlds League worlds which had defected to the Magistracy in the 2550s, all three were conquered through a display of overwhelming force and agile diplomacy by Captain-General Marik. The defenders of Ruschegg effectively offered no resistance to the SLDF landings, although it would have been difficult for any local militia to contest an invasion which saw the SLDF Fifty-eighth Brigade deploy alongside the Sixty-second Royal Brigade, the First and Third Marik Militia and the First and Second Fusiliers of Oriente Brigades. Within a very short period of time the planetary leader of Ruschegg had not only surrendered but was actively petitioning for Ruschegg to be admitted into the Free Worlds League. The relatively peaceful capture and annexation of Ruschegg, Payvand and Scheuerheck was a publicity coup for the Free Worlds League, one that the Captain-General's allies in the Parliament used extensively against opponents of the Star League.[3][7]

Aspropirgos & Borgan's Rift[edit]

Following the campaign for Ruschegg the Third spent several years supporting the Fifty-eighth Brigade directly, as did the 2nd Fusiliers of Oriente Brigade until the Fusiliers were deployed to the new front against the Rim Worlds Republic. The Magistracy Armed Forces had managed to surprise and outfox the SLDF task force several times in the opening years of the war, and as a result the SLDF timetable slowed as Captain-General Marik built up her forces for the next major invasions. In addition to refitting and rearming VII Corps and the FWLM regiments acting in support, Marik targeted two worlds each year for invasion, consolidating gains as part of a slow encirclement of the Magistracy capital world of Canopus IV. The Third was involved in two of these four campaigns; in September 2580, the Third landed on Aspropirgos alongside the Fifty-eighth Brigade and the Second Fusiliers, clashing with the First Canopian Fusiliers and the Second Canopian Grenadiers. In what would be the standard pattern of warfare for the MAF when defending worlds during 2580-2581, the two Canopian regiments did their best to sting the invaders before retreating ahead of any effective retaliation, saving their strength for later battles. The same thing happened when the Third Marik Militia and the Fifty-eighth Brigade landed on Borgan's Rift in September-October 2581, although as the Second Fusiliers had been redeployed, the 3rd found themselves operating alongside the VII Corps' 402nd Independent Regiment. This time the Third faced two of the mercenary units employed by the MAF, The Red Hand and Kincani's Dragoons, but the campaign was a repeat of the battle for Aspropirgos.[3][8][9]

Hastur[edit]

In mid-2583 the mood across the SLDF task force was buoyant; not only had the task force captured the important Magistracy world of Tetski, the SLDF naval contingent had managed to ambush and destroy the bulk of the Magistracy Navy in the Thurrock system, leaving many Canopian ground units pinned to their current worlds due to a lack of transport assets. After two years of slow and steady progress of like the campaigns for Aspropirgos and Borgan's Rift, the SLDF was finally able to strike across multiple worlds in strength. A sign of the growing confidence of the SLDF was that smaller units and formations were assigned to planetary invasions; the invasion of Hastur in late 2583 is a case in point. Just two regiments were assigned to attack and occupy Hastur; the Third Marik Militia and the 402nd Independent Regiment, fresh from the operation on Borgan's Rift. No line regiments from the MAF were present on Hastur when the two regiments arrived, and they quickly occupied the world in defiance of any resistance offered by the local home guard.[4][10][11]

Canopus[edit]

In 2584 the invasion of Canopus IV itself was ordered and landings began in early April; the defending Magistracy Armed Forces units put up a fierce resistance, and the Third saw heavy action from the very first day of combat operations - the 3rd Canopian Fusiliers struck at both the Third and the Thirty-fifth Royal CAAN Marine Regiment who were operating alongside them and pressed both regiments hard. The 35th Royal took the brunt of the damage before reinforcements arrived, and ended up having to be withdrawn from combat ops and placed in reserve for several weeks. The 3rd continued to fight alongside the numerous SLDF and FWLM regiments involved in the campaign as the Magistracy defenders were pushed back to the capital city of Delphi and finally defeated, although the final day of the campaign resembled a meat grinder with forces on both sides taking heavy damage before the MAF lines were broken.[12] The battle for Canopus was the last major battle the Third fought during the Reunification War, and along with the First Marik Militia, the Third had served with distinction throughout the campaign; more than that, the two regiments had managed to capture enough matériel to allow the construction of the Sixth Marik Militia.[13]

Star League Era[edit]

When the Star League Council issued the Council Edict of 2650 limiting the size of the military maintained by each Great House the Third was one of nineteen active regiments within the Marik Militia. Like the other regiments of the Militia, the Third remained a popular unit with both the commoners within the League and the peerage because of their public dedication to the people of the League, and like the other regiments of the Militia often acted as training grounds for troops across the League. A significant number of the personnel serving in other more prestigious federal units and various provincial forces within the League had actually begun their careers in the Third or another of the Marik Militia regiments.[2]

While the bulk of the Militia remained loyal to Captain-General Bertram Marik, the Third and Eighth Marik Militias chose to support the cause of Oliver Marik during his 2729 - 2734 revolt. In the peace settlement that ended the conflict, the Third was granted a full amnesty and returned to normal duty.[13] Following the amnesty, the Third and the Eighth both spent three decades doing everything possible to prove their loyalty to the ruling Captain-General.[2]

In 2764 the Third was deployed to the world of New Olympia on a peacekeeping mission by Captain-General Kenyon Marik because rivalry between the two governments who ruled the divided world had reached the point where tensions were spilling out into the open. Also located on New Olympia at the time was the SLDF Sixty-sixth Infantry Division, which had been ordered to remain on normal duties by the SLDF chain of command, which had declared the problems on the planet to be an internal matter. Resentment on the part of the Third towards the SLDF for the SLDF's refusal to intervene in the Marik Civil War led to a battalion of the Third apparently going rogue and firing on a patrol from the Sixty-sixth after the Third had taken casualties during their peacekeeping operations. The Sixty-sixth promptly retaliated, nearly destroying the complete battalion - a battalion subsequently claimed by Kenyon Marik to have been acting against orders from the Colonel commanding the regiment. After the event the SLDF Intelligence Command was suspicious that Kenyon Marik may have used the incident as an attempt to wage a hidden war against the SLDF.[14]

Succession Wars[edit]

Despite the best efforts of the Third and Eighth Marik Militia, the League Central Coordination and Command never fully trusted either regiments when the Succession Wars erupted. Thus both the Third and the Eighth was assigned to some of most difficult and dangerous missions during the early days of the Succession Wars, partly in the hope of eliminating potential troublemakers through attrition. Despite this, the Third would ultimately survive the meat grinders of the First and Second Succession Wars.[15]

First Succession War[edit]

When Captain-General Kenyon Marik launched his famous "ten parsec-wide" invasion of the Capellan and Sarna Commonalities of the Capellan Confederation in February 2787, intending to drive a wedge to the important world of Sarna, the Third were in the forefront of the invasion. The FWLM task force assigned to the invasion of Vanra, one of the four first-wave targets, consisted of three regiments from the Marik Militia - the Third, Seventeenth and Twenty-first Marik Militia regiments - escorted by a naval task force that included at least one battleship, the FWLS Agrippa, two destroyers, two squadrons of attack DropShips and three wings of aerospace fighters. The garrison at the time, the First Capellan Chargers, were heavily outnumbered, but had been in place on Vanra for almost twenty-five years, and Colonel Juliano Papadakis was determined to lead a fierce resistance against the invaders.[16]

Papadakis made the most of the Chargers' familiarity with the terrain on Vanra; as the Marik Militia DropShips began landing, he had his combat air group engage, hammering at the Militia forces. By the time his aerospace fighters had withdrawn, the Militia had lost more than two squadrons of fighters, and an Overlord-class DropShip carrying a battalion from the Seventeenth Marik Militia had been crippled, crash-landing in the forests almost twenty kilometers south of Utrecht, the planetary capital city. Familiar with the dense forest and the networks of transient riverbeds in the area, Papadakis knew that the terrain would be confusing and difficult to negotiate for any forces sent to rescue the downed forces. Papadakis' prediction proved correct; he deployed the entire Third Battalion of the Chargers to converge on the site, whilst the remaining elements of the Seventeenth diverted away from their intended positions near Utrecht to try and rescue their comrades, weakening the enemy plan. With much of the forest floor concealed from view from the air, the Chargers' Third Battalion was able to pick off and kill the survivors from the DropShip crash that they found, as well as ambushing and destroying almost a full battalion of rescue forces from the Seventeenth.[16]

Whilst the Third Battalion was tying up twice its own numbers in the forest, leaving the Seventeenth effectively out of the battle for Utrecht, Papadakis had his remaining forces disperse as lance and company sized formations and launch numerous ambushes and feints within Utrecht itself, the city's dense urban sprawl helping the heavier Chargers negate the speed advantage enjoyed by the generally lighter Marik Militia units. Papadakis' troops had destroyed another battalion of Marik Militia forces within Utrecht before the senior FWLM officer, Colonel Udel Melville, ordered the orbiting Agrippa to bombard regions of the city. Fires and huge explosions ensued, as one of the sectors targeted by the Agrippa contained a natural gas refinery, and the resulting refinery explosion engulfed half the city in flames due to the ongoing battle preventing efforts to contain the damage. Melville's forces were ultimately successful, but the Chargers fought to the last man before the planetary government finally surrendered, leaving Utrecht and the great forest to its south in ruins. Melville was forced to disband the remains of the Seventeenth Marik Militia, and use the survivors from the Seventeenth and a mix of salvaged Capellan and League equipment to rebuild the Third and Twenty-first Marik Militias.[16]

Second Succession War[edit]

During the Sixth Battle for Andurien in 2839 the Third Marik Militia arrived in August and was able to help fight the Capellan invaders to a standstill before they quit the world two months later[17]

Third Succession War[edit]

In 2952 during the Third Succession War, the Third Marik Militia received a new commanding officer who spearheaded the invasion of Cavanaugh II. This commander had a masterful grasp of LCAF tactics, capitalizing on many small errors made by the Lyran defenders. To counteract this, the LCAF High Command sent the 5th Striker Battalion of the Eridani Light Horse. The Light Horse unit was able to kill the commander, and postmortem identification showed that the Third's CO was Mikhail Tetren, a former LCAF officer who had defected to the Free Worlds League.[18]

Despite centuries of sterling service during the Succession Wars, the Third sided with their former commander Anton Marik during his revolt in 3014-15. In the fighting on Sophie's World the fighting between the Third and the Sixth Marik Militia was particularly savage, with the two units refusing to accept or give quarter.[19] Anton then dispatched the Third to Berenson, where they attacked the Fifteenth Marik Militia, a unit that had been starved of supplies for months.[20] This action wasn't successful, and the Third withdrew to Bernardo.[21] The Fifth and Thirty-first Marik Militia pursued the 3rd to Bernardo, inflicting heavy casualties.[22] The Third retreated again, but was eventually defeated on Park Place, where they surrendered after two weeks of heavy fighting.[23] Unlike the mercy shown by Bertram two centuries earlier, Janos Marik ordered the unit's officers executed or imprisoned, and the unit itself permanently disbanded and stricken from the Militia's history.[1]

Officers[edit]

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of 3rd Marik Militia
General Gerald Marik I 2678[24]
Colonel Udel Melville 2786[16]
Colonel Mikhail Tertren 2952[18] - 2957[25]
Colonel Anton Marik 2989[26] - 2999[27]
Colonel Gerald Marik III 3014 - 3015[citation needed]

Tactics[edit]

During the rebellion the Third was noted for its fanatical loyalty to Anton Marik, and would not retreat unless a battle turned dramatically against them.

Composition[edit]

2765[edit]

Third Marik Militia (Regiment/Green/Fanatical)[28]

- At this point in time the Third was stationed on Gibson.[28]

2786 - 2821[edit]

Third Marik Militia (Regiment/Green/Fanatical)[29]

- At this point in time the Third was a light-weight regiment operating at full strength and was stationed on New Olympia.[29]In 2821 the unit was operating at less than a third of full strength and was stationed on Corey.[29]

2830[edit]

3rd Marik Militia (Regiment/Green/Fanatical)[30]

Note: At this point in time the light-weight unit was stationed on Graham IV with an operational readiness of 98 percent.[30]

2864[edit]

3rd Marik Militia (Regiment/Regular/Fanatical)[30]

Note: At this point in time the medium-weight unit was stationed on Andurien with an operational readiness of 52 percent.[30]

Rules[edit]

First Succession War[edit]

  • As a Marik Militia regiment the Third receives no modifiers to die rolls when generating forces on RAT tables during the First Succession War.[31]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 93
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Field Report 2765: FWLM, p. 10: "Marik Militia"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Historical: Reunification War, p. 148: "Magistracy Of Canopus Front(Jump-Off - 2582)"
  4. 4.0 4.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 149: "Magistracy Of Canopus Front (2583-2588)"
  5. Historical: Reunification War, p. 95: "SLDF Task Force Canopus"
  6. 6.0 6.1 Historical: Reunification War, pp. 97–98: "Restitution and Cranston (October-November 2577)"
  7. Historical: Reunification War, p. 100: "Ruschegg, Payvand and Scheuerheck (August-October 2577)"
  8. Historical: Reunification War, p. 150: "Magistracy Of Canopus Front(Jump-Off - 2582)"
  9. Historical: Reunification War, p. 101: "Gallis, Aspropirgos, Fanardir and Borgan's Rift (January 2580-October 2581)"
  10. Historical: Reunification War, p. 151: "Magistracy Of Canopus Front (2583-2588)"
  11. Historical: Reunification War, p. 103: "Endgame (2583-2584)"
  12. Historical: Reunification War, pp. 103–105: "Canopus (March-April 2584)"
  13. 13.0 13.1 House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 92
  14. Field Report 2765: FWLM, pp. 4–5: "Goals of the State"
  15. Field Manual: Free Worlds League, p. 53: "FWLM Rosters - Marik Militia: Mailed Fist in a Velvet Glove"
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 First Succession War, pp. 53-54: "A Path to Sarna: The League-Confederation Front"
  17. Second Succession War, p. 51: "The Battles for Andurien"
  18. 18.0 18.1 House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth), p. 73
  19. Historical: Brush Wars, p. 23
  20. Godfather
  21. Historical: Brush Wars, p. 26
  22. Historical: Brush Wars, p. 31
  23. Historical: Brush Wars, p. 32
  24. House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 22
  25. House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 41
  26. House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 47
  27. House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 91
  28. 28.0 28.1 Field Report 2765: FWLM, p. 10: "Regimental Status"
  29. 29.0 29.1 29.2 First Succession War, p. 138: "Free Worlds League Military (FWLM)"
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 Second Succession War, p. 98
  31. First Succession War, p. 147: "RAT Die Roll Modifiers by Combat Command Table"

Bibliography[edit]