9th Division (Word of Blake)

Insignia of 9th Division
Ninth Division IV-Gamma
Formed Early 3060s
Disbanded 3077
Nickname Blinding Light
Affiliation Word of Blake
Parent Command Word of Blake Militia


History[edit]

Pre-Jihad[edit]

Alongside the Tenth Division, the Ninth Division was formed shortly after the election of Cameron St. Jamais as Precentor Martial. To give the new division a solid foundation, Jamais transferred the elite ranked Measure of Trust III-Beta in its entirety from the Sixth Division to serve as shepherds for a new green Level III of academy graduates. Transferring personnel between the two Level-IIIs until each consisted of roughly half elite and half green ranked troops, Jamais then appointed fellow Toyama Precentor Alice Phuong as the Ninth's commanding officer.[1]

As the new division refined and consolidated its disparate halves into a single whole and awaited additional personnel and equipment to expand, the Ninth was relegated to garrison duty on Terra, based out of the Gunnison, Colorado Castle Brian. Though barely a regiment in size, under Phuong's dedicated supervision by 3062 St. Jamais rated the Ninth as veteran.[1] While expanding with additional academy graduates, the addition of Com Guard troops defecting after Victor Steiner-Davion became the secular Precentor Martial allowed the Ninth to reach full strength by 3067 while retaining its veteran ranking. The "Blinding Light" was among the more elusive pre-Jihad Blake Divisions, with only scattered reports indicating it remained on garrison duty on the North American continent.[2][3]

Jihad[edit]

After the outbreak of war, the unit's size increased with the addition of more Level III units.[3]

Units Spreading Out & Scattered Reports[edit]

The Ninth Division was one of the Word of Blake's primary "shell game" units during the Jihad, using less than full units in order to appear to be in more places of action. During the Battle of Luthien, the unit (led by Precentor Alice Phuong) arrived on Luthien in January 3068 with only two Level III units, though they were reinforced by two ROM Level IIs (both destroyed by the end of 3068). The Ninth would receive additional reinforcements through March 3071, by which time there were four Level IIIs. Precentor William Nikoli replaced the recalled Phuong in February 3072.[4]

The Ninth was confirmed to be the leading assault force (ostensibly against the Black Dragon Society) on Luthien in January 3069,[3] with elements of the Ninth Division apparently landing and seizing the Kagashima Commercial District along with the planetary HPG and several arms complexes,[5][6] while contemporary intelligence placed the Measure of Trust III-Beta and newly-formed Call to the Faithful III-Delta on Demeter from the start of hostilities through October 3069, reportedly at the request of Vicore Industries. The Luthien presence may have been so reported as a propaganda exercise by possible ROM units present on that world (theorized to have been the Circle of the Holy II). Known Blakist propaganda had the Ninth on Terra in March 3068 (during Case White).[3]

In 3069 and 3070 elements of the Ninth Division were also active around Kittery; working alongside the mercenary Black Angus Boys the Heart of Stone III-beta effectively destroyed resistance on Atlas,[3][5] Royalston[3][5] and Scituate.[5] Then in late 3070 a lance of the Twentieth Hussars led by Leftenant David McKinnon had been stranded on the world of Beid by a DropShip malfunction along with a number of walking wounded being repatriated to rear areas of the Suns; they collectively found themselves suddenly in the middle of a raid on Beid launched by a company from the Black Angus Boys and a detachment from the Transfer of Faith III-lambda. The commander of the mercenary forces, Captain Rico Iglesias, expected an easy fight against the Beid planetary militia, who were poorly equipped and not expecting an attack. However, as the mercenaries struck at the city of Newport, they found themselves under attack from a short company of 'Mechs based around McKinnon's lance from the Twentieth Hussars and a contingent of walking wounded, many piloting already damaged 'Mechs. Fighting in and around Newport, the actions of the hastily assembled short company combined with opportunity sniping from the Beid Militia quickly mowed down the Blakist mercenaries.[5]

Battle for Luthien[edit]

In July 3069, a Ninth Division salvage team dispatched to the ruins of LAW City's Tokyo Island area was destroyed during a six-hour back-and-forth battle by First Genyosha elements fighting the Black Dragons' mercenary Sathen's Snipers, Kokuryu-kai faction of the Second Sword of Light and the Fortieth Dieron Regulars.[7]

The Ninth Division captured and then enlisted the Sathen's Snipers and in May 3071 received reinforcements in the form of the Forty-second Shadow Division (which provided support and security assistance).[8] It had also brought in two additional Level III units to replace the ROM Level IIIs that had accompanied the unit's two initial Level IIIs. The unit - fighting alongside its allies - fought the Black Dragon–controlled Thirty-second & Fortieth Dieron Regulars as well as combined forces of the First Genyosha and other loyalist Kurita forces.[citation needed]

The division's allied Forty-second was the target of Clan Nova Cat's 3072 invasion. The Ninth was spared the Cat's vengeance against the Forty-second. The Xi Galaxy was shattered by the heavily damaged Shadow Division's tactical nuclear weaponry.[9]

Continuous fighting between the three factions had exhausted the Ninth's mercenary unit, Sathen's Snipers, forcing it to withdraw in early 3073.[10] The Thirty-second Division arrived in February to replace the mercenaries and help the Ninth and heavily-damaged Forty-second garrison the Combine capital city.[11]

On March 14th, 3074, the Word of Blake ROM had leaked information regarding the presence of Buda Weapons Chief Researcher Hideoshi Yamika and his prototype Large X-Pulse Laser to the Kokuryu-kai as a means of wearing down Loyalist defenders in Skytower City. The resulting battle ended with Yamika and his prototypes being hustled aboard a Blakist DropShip.[12]

In December 3074, two Clan Ghost Bear Galaxies assaulted Luthien, with Ghost Bear's Alpha Galaxy focusing and reportedly wiping out all Word of Blake forces, leaving no survivors.[3]

3075[edit]

The remaining units of the Ninth Division not present on Luthien were reported to be present in the Federated Suns operating theater.[citation needed]

3077[edit]

The Demeter Free Press reported that Measure of Trust and Call to the Faithful were defending Demeter alongside the local Protectorate Militia when allied coalition forces attacked the world as a part of Operation SCOUR. If the report is accurate, the two Level IIIs initially held off the Fifth Crucis Lancers and the Fifteenth Arcturan Guards around the Vicore Industries complex before driving them back towards their drop zone, only to then have to fall back when the Third Free Worlds Legionnaires joined the battle via an orbital drop.[13]

Following the initial assaults, the campaign for Demeter evidently bogged down for some three weeks before the Federated Suns front task force commander called in WarShip support to break the stalemate. Directing the Protectorate Militia to defend New Demeter City, Measure of Trust and Call to the Faithful fell back to the Vicore Industries plant and were promptly encircled by the Third Legionnaires, but the Legionnaires were unable to force the two Blakist units out of the complex. As a result, the Vicore complex and the defending units were destroyed by orbital bombardment.[13]

Destruction[edit]

The Ninth was destroyed on Rio in 3077.[14]

Officers[edit]

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the Ninth Division
Precentor XII Alice Phuong 3062 - 3068[1][4]
Precentor William Nikoli February 3072.[4]

Tactics[edit]

As of 3062 the still relatively new division had no tactical specialties, busy integrating its disparate halves into a solid whole.[1]

Composition History[edit]

3062[edit]

3067[edit]

  • Measure of Trust III-beta - CO: Precentor XVII Alice Phuong[2]
  • Crushing Reality III-delta - CO: Precentor V Bruce Lenca[2]
  • Grand Illusion III-gamma - CO: Demi-Precentor (Adept IX) John Majors[2]
  • Transfer of Faith III-lambda - CO: Demi-Precentor (Precentor II) Victor Franks[2]

3072[edit]

  • Measure of Trust III-beta - CO: Precentor William Nikoli
  • Crushing Reality III-delta - CO: Precentor V Bruce Lenca
  • Grand Illusion III-gamma - CO: Demi-Precentor (Adept IX) John Majors
  • Transfer of Faith III-lambda - CO: Demi-Precentor (Precentor II) Victor Franks
  • Call to the Faithful III-Delta - CO: Unknown

Notes[edit]

  • The Ninth Division's insignia is an eight-pointed star surmounted by a crown.[1]
  • Information regarding the Ninth's activities as reported in Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents is not necessarily reliable.
  • Information provided in both Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents and Jihad Turning Points: Luthien regarding their presence and role on Luthien in the month of January of both 3068 and 3069 may appear to be contradictory, but as worded in the former title, the division was leading assault maneuvers in 3069, which does not preclude their arrival in 3068.
  • The inclusion of Sathan's Snipers in the "Bullet in the Blue Sky" scenario of Jihad Turning Points: Luthien may be in error, as the Snipers were not under a recognized Word contract until early 3071 (per their "Combatants" entry). At the time of this note, errata called for removing Sathen's Snipers from the "Defender/Recommended Forces" and removing the "including Sathen's Snipers, now under a Word contract" line from the Defender write-up; the suggestion has not yet been endorsed. (This is relevant to this Ninth Division article, due to their assumption of the Snipers' contract.)

Notes[edit]

Reference[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Field Manual: ComStar, p. 59: "Word of Blake - 9th Division: Blinding Light III-Gamma"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Field Manual: Updates, p. 90: "9th Division (Blinding Light IV-Gamma)"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 93: "9th Division (Blinding Light IV-Gamma)"
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Jihad Turning Points: Luthien, p. 6: "9th Division [Word of Blake]"
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Mercenaries Supplemental Update, p. 31: "Black Angus Boys"
  6. Eye of the Beholder
  7. Jihad Turning Points: Luthien, pp. 8–9: "Bullet in the Blue Sky"
  8. Jihad Turning Points: Luthien, p. 7: "42nd Division [Word of Blake]"
  9. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 104: "42nd Shadow Division"
  10. Jihad Turning Points: Luthien, p. 6: "Sathen's Snipers"
  11. Jihad Turning Points: Luthien, p. 7: "32nd Division [Word of Blake]"
  12. Jihad Turning Points: Luthien, pp. 10–11: "Light Machine"
  13. 13.0 13.1 Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 36: "Tragedy On Demeter"
  14. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 126: "Word Of Blake Militia"
  15. Field Manual: ComStar, p. 142

Bibliography[edit]