Stanzach

Stanzach
Stanzach 3151.svg
System Information
X:Y Coordinates14.464 : 315.833[e]

Political Affiliation[edit]


Stanzach[edit]

Stanzach

Planetary History[edit]

Star League Era[edit]

By 2765, the planet Stanzach had been suffering a local insurrection and associated terrorism for several years, despite the efforts of the Eighth Arcturan Guards to end the conflict. The insurrection intensified when a series of strikes by employees and lock-outs by employers brought the population into an active class war, simultaneously sending the planetary economy spiraling downhill.[48]

In 2784, the Lyran Commonwealth reclaimed the military outposts and administrative centers on Stanzach that had been operated by the Star League. Stanzach wasn't the only world where this happened; using a similar process on all three worlds, the Lyrans also reclaimed similar facilities on both Gram and Lovinac. In all three cases the non-Lyran personnel working within these facilities were offered jobs within the local government bureaucracy, a reflection of Archon Jennifer Steiner actively attempting to retaining the expertise possessed by those personnel left within the dwindling, isolated Terran Hegemony agencies that still existed through treating them with respect.[9]

First Succession War[edit]

Stanzach was conquered by the Draconis Combine between 2786 and 2790, one of seven worlds to be captured in attacks that had frequently begun as raids, as the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces began to crack under the pressure of continuing efforts to annex the Bolan Thumb while also attempting to maintain a defensive posture against both the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery and the Free Worlds League Military.[11]

Fourth Succession War[edit]

Stanzach was attacked as part of the wave of attacks launched during Operation GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG in October 3028 to exploit the successes of the first wave of attacks,[49] with the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces deploying the Twelfth Donegal Guards to capture the planet.[49] The Twelfth were still battling for control of the planet when the DCMS counterattacked in December, dropping the Ninth Pesht Regulars and the Thirteenth Rasalhague Regulars on the planet and nearly forcing the Twelfth to retreat offworld; only the arrival of the Eighth Donegal Guards to reinforce the Twelfth allowed the battle for Stanzach to continue.[50] The battle for control of Stanzach bogged down, and the planet was still contested when the lull between operations began in early 3029.[51]

When the LCAF went on the offensive again in 3029, Stanzach became the site of the most spectacular events to be seen in either the Tamar or Trellshire sections of the front. With the deployment of the Ninth Pesht Regulars and Thirteenth Rasalhague Regulars the LCAF task force found itself fighting both BattleMech regiments and twenty regiments of conventional forces. The Lyran task force mustered thirty conventional regiments in total, plus the Eighth and Twelfth Donegal Guards augmented by the Tyr regiment, an assault regiment formed in secret using personnel recruited from the Tyr resistance movement or those with strong links to the ancient Principality of Rasalhague. The DCMS forces had used the lull in offensive operations to fortify positions along the Lule River with their forces located to the south and east of the river, but the DCMS front still stretched for some 200 km.[22]

The Tyr regiment launched an offensive across the Lule on 1 June 3029, striking across the river at a point known as Cosognome Crossing, directly into a defending force consisting of two 'Mech companies from the Ninth, an infantry regiment and a battalion of armor. The Ninth fought bravely, but their poor equipment let them down, with the lead company of the Tyr pushing the Ninth's forces back while Lyran combat engineers frantically constructed a pontoon bridge behind them. Reinforcements for the DCMS forces were slow to move in response, with a battalion of the Pesht regulars leading a relief force to the bridgehead only to discover that the entire Tyr regiment had crossed along with a battalion of armor and two battalions of infantry, leaving the Ninth with little choice but to pull back.[22]

With the Tyr establishing its position on the other side of the Lule the Eighth and Twelfth Donegal Guards went on the offensive, attempting to seize other crossings; the Eighth attempted to capture the Fosol Bridge, but were rebuffed by the Thirteenth Rasalhague Regulars. The Twelfth was more successful, storming through the DCMS armor and infantry forces defending the Cadeska Bridge, losing half a company of 'Mechs but seizing the crossing. The senior DCMS officers on Stanzach met on the 30th of July to evaluate their position and decided that they should continue fighting, as the loss of their defensive positions on the Lule represented the loss of their strongest position, but still left the Lyran forces a long way from being able to capture the capital city, Kirund, or the valuable diamond mines located around Mount Adamant. Their determination to resist was thwarted by the DCMS High Command; even as the DCMS forces were fortifying new positions on the 31st of July Brigadier General Sven Johannsen, the second in command of the Rasalhague Military District, ordered both 'Mech regiments to withdraw. After requesting confirmation of the order the Ninth and Thirteenth abandoned Stanzach on the 9th of August; wary of a trap, the Lyran task force pressed forward cautiously, capturing Kirund on the 12th of August and the remainder of the planet on the 13th.[22]

General Nondi Steiner ordered the Lyran forces on Stanzach to consolidate their positions and await further orders, but by the 20th of August tensions within the Tyr regiment had reached a boiling point; eager to liberate the entire of the Rasalhague worlds the Tyr rebelled and lifted off for Radstadt, the Prefecture capital, in pursuit of the Ninth and Thirteenth.[22]

Clan Invasion[edit]

In October 3050, Stanzach, an important economic center of the Free Rasalhague Republic, was conquered by Clan Wolf as one of the final legs of Operation Revival's Fourth Wave. Major battles took place at Cosognome, Lule Valley, Mount Adament and Kirund between the Eleventh Battle Cluster and the First Stanzach Armored Division. While the Wolf invaders should have had a difficult time subduing the planet, the local populace's fear of the Clans had reawakened old racial prejudices between those of Scandinavian and Asian descent. While the tanks of the First Division were able to give good showings, the occasional "miscommunication" or outright mutiny between the two factions ultimately doomed their efforts.[52]

Jihad[edit]

On 2 January 3079, one of the leaders of the Motstånd terrorist group, Albert Gronvold-Minami, was killed by Clan Ghost Bear paramilitary police on Stanzach following a terrorist bombing on Alshain on 31 December 3078 that killed hundreds of Ghost Bear and Rasalhagian civilians as well as several Unity Council members and former First Prince Christian Månsdottir.[39][53]

The press coverage of the death of Gronvold-Minami reported that he and a number of other Motstånd members had holed up in a flat in the Hayden Arms estate block of Janetown, and that when the surrounding area had been cordoned off by the Ghost Bear paramilitary police the terrorists decided to try and fight their way out rather than surrender. The resulting combat devastated the block itself and damaged two other nearby blocks, with a total of fourteen terrorists and six paramilitary police killed. Gronvold-Minami was evidently apprehended while trying to escape in a car, and he and eight other terrorists who had attempted to surrender were summarily executed at the scene by the police. It was noted that while the summary execution of the terrorists attracted some criticism from legal activists, polls conducted across the Ghost Bear Dominion supported the action taken, something possibly influenced by Motstånd using explosives identified as being of Word of Blake origin.[39]

Military Deployment[edit]

2765[edit]

2786[edit]

  • Eighth Arcturan Guards[55]

2821[edit]

3029[edit]

3050[edit]

Planetary Locations[edit]

Map Gallery[edit]

Nearby Systems[edit]

Closest 40 systems (40 within 60 light-years)
Distance in light years, closest systems first:
Memmingen 10.8 Vorarlberg 15.6 Bushmill 17.7 Engadin 21.4
Kandis 21.8 Gunzburg 25.7 Radstadt 26.9 Tamar 29.9
Kempten 31.7 Thannhausen 33.1 Muswell 33.4 Goito 34.7
Kufstein 36.2 Weingarten 37.2 Ferleiten 39.5 Heiligendreuz 39.6
Kobe 45.3 Volders 45.4 Karston 46.0 Hohenems 46.2
Moritz 46.9 Predlitz 48.6 Kaesong 49.1 Lamar 49.2
Corfu 49.5 Christiania 50.3 Unzmarkt 51.2 Hyperion 51.5
Spittal 53.1 Hainfeld 54.9 Satalice 55.7 Bessarabia 55.9
Sheliak 56.2 Skokie 56.5 Maestu 56.6 Oyevaina 56.7
Alshain 57.4 Basiliano 57.4 Feltre 57.8 Sevren 59.0

References[edit]

  1. Handbook: House Kurita, p. 18
  2. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 13
  3. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 25
  4. Handbook: House Kurita, p. 31
  5. Historical: Reunification War, p. 159
  6. Era Report: 2750, p. 37
  7. Field Manual: SLDF, p. xi: "Inner Sphere - [2764] Map"
  8. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 11
  9. 9.0 9.1 First Succession War, p. 29: "Lyran Commonwealth Gains"
  10. First Succession War, p. 25
  11. 11.0 11.1 First Succession War, p. 61
  12. Handbook: House Kurita, p. 43
  13. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 36
  14. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, pp. 122–123
  15. First Succession War, p. 113
  16. Handbook: House Kurita, p. 53
  17. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 40
  18. House Kurita (The Draconis Combine), foldout: "Draconis Combine - Map"
  19. Handbook: House Kurita, p. 64
  20. House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth), foldout: "Lyran Commonwealth Map - [3025]"
  21. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 47
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 22.5 22.6 22.7 NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 2, pp. 65–66: "Stanzach"
  23. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 56
  24. Handbook: House Kurita, p. 66
  25. Historical: Brush Wars, p. 103
  26. Historical: War of 3039, p. 133
  27. Handbook: House Kurita, p. 68
  28. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 59
  29. Era Report: 3052, p. 11
  30. Era Report: 3052, p. 23
  31. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 61
  32. Handbook: House Kurita, p. 71
  33. Era Report: 3062, p. 11
  34. Era Report: 3062, p. 29
  35. Handbook: House Kurita, p. 74
  36. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 70
  37. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 43
  38. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 65
  39. 39.0 39.1 39.2 Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 60: "The Jihad in Review"
  40. Field Report: Clans, p. 25
  41. Field Report: DCMS, p. 21
  42. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 63
  43. Field Manual: 3085, p. 127
  44. Era Report: 3145, p. 11
  45. Era Report: 3145, p. 39
  46. Field Manual: 3145, p. VI: "Inner Sphere - [3145] Map"
  47. Shattered Fortress, pp. 102–103
  48. Field Report 2765: LCAF, pp. 8–9: "Arcturan Guards"
  49. 49.0 49.1 NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 1, pp. 44–45: "Operation GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG"
  50. NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 1, p. 61: "End of the Offensive"
  51. NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 2, p. 61: "Trellshire and Tamar Theaters"
  52. Wolf Clan Sourcebook, p. 63
  53. Jihad: Final Reckoning, pp. 11–12: "Terrorists Die In Firefight"
  54. Field Report 2765: LCAF, p. 9: "Regimental Status"
  55. First Succession War, p. 139: "First Succession War Deployment Table - LCAF"
  56. First Succession War, p. 137: "First Succession War Deployment Table - DCMS"
  57. 57.0 57.1 57.2 57.3 57.4 Wolf Clan Sourcebook, p. 63

Bibliography[edit]