Franchetta Wong

Franchetta Wong
Character Profile
Affiliation House Wong
Rank Colonel
Position Commander of the Fifth Amaris Legionnaires[1]

Franchetta Wong was a distant cousin of First Consul Gregory Amaris and a military officer in the Rim Worlds Army during the late Age of War and the Rim Worlds Republic civil war.[2]

History[edit]

By 2581, Franchetta Wong had reached the rank of colonel and was the Commanding Officer of the Fifth Amaris Legionnaires, one of eight regiments within the Amaris Legionnaires. With the Rim Worlds Army dividing on partisan lines between those who remained loyal to First Consul Gregory Amaris and those who chose to support the Rift Republican Army and their Rim Provisional Government when the civil war erupted,[3] Franchetta Wong and the Fifth Legionnaires chose to support the RPG.[1]

The Fifth Amaris Legionnaires were stationed on the world of Barcelona throughout the civil war[4][5] as the Star League intervention in support of Gregory Amaris - a military operation named Operation MAILED FIST - saw Star League Defense Force troops supported by contingents from the Draconis Combine, Free Worlds League and Lyran Commonwealth occupy worlds throughout the Republic, neutralizing or containing military units as they attempted to restore Amaris' government.

The officer commanding Task Force MAILED FIST, General Nathan Isaacson, had dispatched a substantial force to seize Barcelona in 2591. Assigned to the campaign was an SLDF division from VIII Corps, the Thirty-First Armor Division under the command of Lieutenant-General Margaret Beck, along with three regiments from the Second Marik Auxiliary Corps commanded by Duke Narinder Selaj (the Second and Sixth Marik Militias and the First Brigade of the Fusiliers of Oriente) and the entire Lyran Auxiliary Corps - the Fourth Royal Guards, Twenty-Fifth Skye Rangers and the Tamar Tigers - commanded by Archon Viola Steiner-Dinesen. This meant that the Star League forces substantially outnumbered the Fifth Legionnaires and had a noticeable advantage in terms of equipment.[2][6]

Despite this, Colonel Wong attempted to use her familial connection to convince the three senior MAILED FIST officers that she was a representative of the ruling family. These claims were swiftly dismissed, although Duke Selaj recommended using Wong as a figurehead to try and stabilize the world; Selaj's recommendations were dismissed by the Archon, acting in the belief that to countenance such a charade would only create more political problems on Barcelona, and as a result Colonel Wong turned against the Star League forces and began to lead the Fifth Legionnaires in a campaign that proved her to be a skilled commander, using her numerically inferior forces in ways that stretched the Star League forces significantly over the next two months.[2]

Despite Wong's best efforts, the Star League advantage in numbers and equipment eventually swung the campaign back in their favor, and by early July the Fifth Legionnaires had been forced to fall back into the rugged terrain that dominated the northern continent of Barcelona, known as Norn. The Fifth Legionnaires would have been quickly defeated if not for events within the Lyran Commonwealth that led to the Day of Rage.[2]

The disruption caused by the Day of Rage and the resulting withdrawal of the LCAF units bought time for the Fifth Legionnaires, who managed to hold out against the Star League forces until mid-September before finally being defeated.[7] Whether Franchetta Wong survived the campaign to secure Barcelona and her final fate are unknown.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 131
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Historical: Reunification War, p. 136
  3. Historical: Reunification War, p. 130
  4. Historical: Reunification War, p. 154
  5. Historical: Reunification War, p. 155
  6. Historical: Reunification War, p. 153
  7. Historical: Reunification War, pp. 137-138

Bibliography[edit]