4th Amaris Dragoons

4th Amaris Dragoons.png
Fourth Amaris Dragoons
Nickname The Far Guard
Affiliation Rim Worlds Republic
Parent Command Amaris Dragoons

The Fourth Amaris Dragoons was a unit of the Rim Worlds Army that fought both with and against the Star League Defense Force.

History[edit]

Rim Worlds Republic Civil War[edit]

On 23 April 2575, First Consul Gregory Amaris ordered the Fourth Amaris Dragoons to disrupt a massive worker's strike at the Diplass Technologies BattleMech plant on Apollo, a strike which had been sparked by Amaris' issuing the Manchester Directive and by his favoring of companies and employees from outside the Republic. The Fourth was unprepared for the order and for the scale of the strike; the small detachment sent was quickly overwhelmed, and the workers declared that Amaris' use of the military to try and prevent their strike constituted a breach of the public trust in his office. The failure of the Fourth to disrupt the strike led Amaris to then order the Seventh Amaris Legionnaires and Eighth Amaris Fusiliers to disrupt the strike where the Fourth had failed; both regiments promptly defected to the opposition, leaving Amaris isolated and uncertain of the loyalties of the Fourth, and Amaris led his surviving loyalist forces to take refuge in island estates while also sending couriers to Terra to request assistance from the Star League as the Republic descended into civil war.[1][2][3]

The striking workers formed the Rim Provisional Government with the support of the Rift Republican Army; the RRA was originally a military unit but had become a well-respected organization akin to a veteran's association prior to the Civil War. Amaris' decision to outlaw the RRA and seize the assets of its members had played a part in the general feeling of resentment amongst the citizens of the Republic, and the RRA became actively involved with the RPG when the war broke out.[1] With the Seventh Legionnaires and the Eighth Fusiliers both declaring their support for the RRA and RPG while the Republican Guards and other units on Apollo remained loyal to Amaris, the Fourth found itself stuck between two large forces, neither of whom trusted the Fourth.[4]

The Fourth initially tried to act as a neutral arbiter between the RRA and the Loyalist forces, while recovering from the losses taken at the Diplass plant; this changed after the first time a hardline faction within the RRA staged a coup and toppled the provisional government. The Fourth sided with Amaris in response to the coup, and over the next twenty years would play a key role in defending his estates from RRA forces. As a consequence of the Fourth's service, Amaris made them an unofficial part of the Amaris Household Guard and decorated the Fourth at the end of the civil war.[4] They would still be on Apollo in 2596, however, they were considered combat-ineffective by the SLDF[5] either after the liberation of Amaris' island estate by forces from the Second Marik Auxiliary Corps or the ensuing assault on the remaining rebel forces in the capital city of Terra Prime.[6]

Star League Era[edit]

In 2716, the Fourth Amaris Dragoons were assigned to the Star's End region of the Rim Worlds Republic and would be deployed on Gustrell alongside the Second Lyran Guards in the aftermath of the Gustrell Massacre in 2746.[7]

It was the first unit to arrive in the Terran Hegemony after Richard Cameron asked for Stefan Amaris' help in garrisoning the Hegemony, earning them their unit nickname: "The Far Guard."[8]

Amaris Civil War[edit]

The elite Fourth played a key role in Operation APOTHEOSIS. Deployed to a vacant SLDF base just north of Unity City, the regiment swiftly secured control of the Star League capital's environs as Amaris himself eliminated Richard Cameron. The use of tactical nuclear warheads and command of the airspace allowed the Dragoons to destroy the Black Watch as they sought to prevent the Dragoons from linking up with Amaris and his bodyguards who were barricaded in the palace. Once Dragoon forces had relieved their ruler, they next turned their efforts towards eliminating what remained of SLDF resistance in the area.[9] In this they were largely successful, though survivors from this opening battle continued to harass the Fourth Amaris Dragoons for several months afterward.[10]

When the SLDF liberated Terra in 2779, the Fourth was deployed in defense of the Amaris family's final redoubt, the Imperial Palace. A surprise drop directly into the Palace grounds by General Aaron DeChavilier and the SLDF's Twenty-sixth Royal BattleMech Division caught the Dragoons off guard. In the ensuing fighting, the regiment was swiftly defeated.[11]

Officers[edit]

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the 4th Amaris Dragoons
Colonel Charlse Svennsen 2581 - 2596[12]
Colonel Xatt Dague 2740 - 2775[13]
General Javier Park c. 2765[14]
Colonel Armstrong Duket 2766[15]

Tactics[edit]

Unknown.

Composition History[edit]

2751[edit]

The Dragoons had a least one company of Ignis Support Tanks.[16]

Notes[edit]

Xatt Dague's profile in Era Report: 2750 indicates he was the commander of the Fourth Amaris Dragoons until 2775,[13] but this is in conflict with Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, which states Colonel Armstrong Duket was the commander of the Fourth during the Coup in 2766[15] and that previously, General Javier Park had been its commander before being promoted at that time.[14]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Historical: Reunification War, pp. 130–131: "The Spark"
  2. The Star League, p. 51: "Rim Worlds War"
  3. Era Report: 2750, p. 16: "Preparations"
  4. 4.0 4.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 43: "Fourth Amaris Dragoons (RWA)"
  5. Historical: Reunification War, p. 155
  6. Historical: Reunification War, p. 139: "Bitter Harvests (2591-2596)"
  7. Era Report: 2750, pp. 51, 93
  8. The Star League, p. 80: "Setting the Trap"
  9. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, pp. 73–75: "Battle for Unity City"
  10. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 89: "Resisting Hell's Lord and Minions"
  11. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, pp. 106–107
  12. Historical: Reunification War, p. 131
  13. 13.0 13.1 Era Report: 2750, p. 93: "Xatt Dague"
  14. 14.0 14.1 Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 55: "Imperial Liberation Army"
  15. 15.0 15.1 Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 73: "Desperate Actions"
  16. Technical Readout: 3075, pp. 292–293: "Ignis Infantry Support Tank"

Bibliography[edit]