10th Ghost

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Tenth Ghost Regiment
Formed 3030s
Nickname Flames of Kindred Spirits
Affiliation Draconis Combine
Parent Command Ghost Regiments


Description[edit]

The Tenth Ghost was a BattleMech regiment, serving the Draconis Combine. This unit was resurrected twice in its history of service to the DCMS.

History[edit]

Formation[edit]

The original Tenth Ghost Regiment was formed by Draconis Combine phantom BattleMech Regiment created by Theodore Kurita just after the Fourth Succession War. The Tenth consisted principally of two Yakuza gangs which were the Jirigawa and Minitoma Empires.[1]

War of 3039[edit]

The unit was stationed on the Combine world of Hachiman with its sister regiment, the Ninth Ghost. The Tenth Ghost with the Ninth were deployed as part of Kurita's counterassault to the FedCom's invasion. They assaulted the recently taken world of Elidere IV in August 5th. They attacked its garrison, the First Screaming Eagles mercenary regiment, whose members were uncertain who the Ghost Regiments were prior to their landing. In the battle on the outskirts of Jasos City, the Eagle regiment realized that they were hopelessly outnumbered. Despite this fact, the Eagles attempted a risky plan. The Eagles used their LRM launchers to create smokescreens. Their plan was to use the smoke to cover a demi-battalion of BattleMechs, who would hit one of the Ghosts' wing in hopes of collapsing one of regiments and force the other to fall back.

However, the combined Tenth and Ninth Ghost force didn't give the Screaming Eagles a chance. The Ghosts took full advantage of their force being fitted with Star League technology. They used their force's extended range weaponry to pepper the Eagles beyond the mercs' long-range capabilities. The Ghosts continued to surprise the mercenaries by utilizing anti-missile systems. The mercs were startled by the near magical employment of lostech shooting down their smokescreen missiles. This cut holes in the Eagles' coverage, and allowed Ghosts destroy the flanking attack force. The devastation of half the mercenary force was too much for the Eagles. Its commander, Colonel Hokala, signaled his willingness to surrender and withdraw. While not speaking a word, the Combine's Task Force commander in his Hatamoto-Chi signaled his agreement by hold up one of his 'Mech's arms in the air. The Ghosts allowed the mercenaries to recover their MechWarriors, but Ghost troops destroyed the leading recovery vehicle attempting to salvage the Eagles' 'Mechs. Signaling their withdrawal to Davion forces, the Eagles boarded their DropShips and departed the planet.[2]

Clan Invasion[edit]

During the Clan Invasion, the Tenth Ghosts had deployed to raid Clan held worlds. The unit had only lost few companies of troops during the raid. By 3057, the Eighth Ghost's surviving battalion was merged with the Tenth Ghost. However, the Tenth's two yakuza gangs had been conducting shadow conflict between each other. The 8th Ghost's newcomers refused to join either side, which left the unit in state of unreliability. The unit was assigned a new commanding officer, Tai-sa Samual Noda, who was sent in to bring "peace" back to the regiment.[3]

Dominion War[edit]

The unit participated in the defense of Garstedt with the Second Sword of Light in opening parts of the Ghost Bear Invasion. The unit participated in the closing battle of the conflict on Courchevel.[4]

FedCom Civil War[edit]

3064[edit]

The Tenth Ghost deployed alongside the Fifteenth Dieron Regulars in late June of 3064 to recapture the world of Al Na'ir, which had been seized by Draconis March forces as part of an invasion of the Combine instigated by Duke James Sandoval. Defending Al Na'ir was the Twelfth Deneb Light Cavalry RCT under the command of Major General Ariel Zibler, who had destroyed the Twenty-fourth Dieron Regulars during their assault and then crushed a number of companies and battalions of forces who had attempted to recapture the world and gain glory. Zibler had learned from her battle with the Twenty-fourth and bitterly contested attempts by the Combine forces to land; in charge of the DCMS forces was Tai-sa Samual Noda of the Fifteenth Dieron Regulars and he began his assault with several attempts to land forces on the planet, only to have the first three landing attempts rebuffed in the first week by Zibler's aerospace fighters and supporting DropShips. Noda switched tactics after the first week and struck towards the asteroid known as Yori's Perdition, only to be opposed again by Zibler's aerospace forces and a battalion of ground troops.[5]

Noda's forces appeared to retreat from Yori's Perdition, covering the covert deployment of two battalions of ISF troops within the asteroid field. The ISF units closed in slowly on Yori's Perdition before mounting an assault on the 22nd of July, taking heavy losses against the dug-in defenders but ultimately seizing control of the facilities there through dint of their superior training and equipment. The AFFC marines put up a determined resistance that lasted more than six weeks, culminating in an increasingly large battle as both sides fed reinforcements in. Noda finally gained control of the key asteroid in mid-September, but the toll on his troops had been heavy and his MechWarriors were losing their edge as a result of all the zero-g combat. Noda made two more attempts to land on Al Na'ir in October before finally grounding his troops on the third world in the Al Na'ir system and waited for additional support.[5]

The commander of the Dieron Military District, Tai-shu Isoroku Kurita, responded to Noda's call for reinforcements by deploying the Twelfth Ghost to Al Na'ir along with support from a host of other units that included two special forces battalions equipped with battle armor, a wing of aerospace fighters and several more DEST units. These reinforcements arrived in-system on the 5th of November and linked up with Noda's forces before the combined DCMS task force launched another assault on Al Na'ir. The additional forces allowed Noda to ground his troops on the planet, striking directly at Homai-Zaki. The forces Zibler attempted to contest the landing with were easily swept aside while DEST and special forces units swept into the city from a half-dozen hidden underground access points, shocking Zibler with the speed with which they recaptured huge tracts of the city.[6]

The three DCMS regiments followed up on the openings generated by the battle armor to enter the city and begin a pitched battle, the 'Mech forces fighting each other even as DEST and MI-6 teams continued to battle. The Combine battle armor was able to run roughshod over the Twelfth Deneb, with the DCMS troops being far more familiar with Al Na'ir - an advantage that let them seize the underground tunnels essential to defense of the city. Zibler knew that she couldn't hold without reinforcements and that reinforcements would never come, so she opted to retreat after declaring the campaign a partial success. Even as her forces attempted to retreat under cover of her massed aerospace forces Noda led his troops on another attack, using his aerospace forces to attack the Twelfth Deneb's air support while DEST teams infiltrated the Twelfth Deneb's encampment and attacked the senior staff. Many officers were killed or wounded, including General Zibler herself, but one of Zibler's office - Kommandant Pietr Kusnetsoff was able to organize the retreat in Zibler's absence, and the Twelfth departed Al Na'ir on the 13th of January 3065.[6]

3065[edit]

During the FedCom Civil War the Tenth Ghost were involved in punishing the Draconis March forces that had attacked the Combine. Operating alongside the Fifteenth Dieron Regulars the Tenth Ghost attacked the world of Addicks, arriving in-system on the 24th of January 3065. Based on Addicks were two units loyal to Victor Steiner-Davion; the first of these was the Eighth Striker regiment of the Fighting Urukhai and the second was the Twelfth Deneb Light Cavalry, who had retreated to Addicks from Al Na'ir. The Eight Striker had responded to Victor's orders to protect the Federated Suns, but both Victor and Field Marshal Ardan Sortek had effectively abandoned the mercenaries on Addicks, designating them as being a "strategic reserve". In contrast, the Twelfth Deneb Light Cavalry had been battered during the war, and resented the Eighth Striker; almost as soon as they arrived on world General Zibler and her senior staff began berating the mercenaries for cowardice and a lack of commitment. The two units almost came to blows before the arrival of the Tenth and Fifteenth, and the campaign would be marked by the inability of the Twelfth and the Fighting Urukhai to work together or coordinate their actions.[7]

The first focus of resistance for the FedCom forces was the Loknar Military Complex, a military installation that had been levelled earlier in the Civil War and which was being rebuilt at the time. The FedCom forces were looking to minimize the potential number of civilian casualties, but the Twelfth Deneb took enough damage to bring it to the edge of ruin and the regiment only remained capable of combat because it was able to rebuild swiftly using captured DCMS war matériel seized on Al Na'ir. Operating under the overall command of Tai-sa Noda the two DCMS regiments struck at the Twelfth Deneb using waves of hit and run attacks, rotating various battalions into combat to keep the pressure on the defenders while keeping his own forces fresh and using battalions of fast armor to keep the Eighth Striker from providing assistance. Even with the combat going against them the Twelfth Deneb refused to work with the Fighting Urukhai, and after two weeks the Tenth and Fifteenth managed to break through in two different locations.[7]

To prevent the DCMS forces overrunning her troops General Zibler pulled the Twelfth Deneb back some forty kilometers in a fighting retreat, moving to another defensive position but leaving the Eight Striker in the wind. Tai-sa Noda responded immediately by taking advantage of the Twelfth Deneb's retreat to concentrate his forces on the Eight Striker, isolating the mercenaries and grinding them down in a two-week battle that nearly broke the regiment. Salvation for the mercenaries and the Twelfth Deneb arrived on the 13th of February when Marshal Stephan Cooper landed the Davion Assault Guards on Addicks having arrived covertly via a pirate point close to the planet after a double jump in-system. The Assault Guards inflicted two days of punishing combat on the Tenth and Fifteenth before Tai-sa Noda decided to withdraw his forces on the 16th.[7]

3066[edit]

The Tenth Ghost returned to Addicks in November, having spent the bulk of the year rebuilding. Led again by Tai-sa Noda, the DCMS deployed more forces this time - in addition to the Tenth, Noda brought his own Fifteenth Dieron Regulars - equipped in part with OmniMechs salvaged from fighting with Clan Ghost Bear - and Ryuken-ni for the assault. This time Noda chose the battlefield and selected the planetary capital city, St. Randall, as his target. St. Randall had been garrisoned by the Eighth Striker since the DCMS forces had retreated, with the mercenaries rebuilding and keeping their distance from the Twelfth Deneb. Landing on the 10th of November the DCMS forces swiftly surrounded St. Randall and crushed the mercenary forces before beginning a protracted campaign to capture the city that saw DCMS special forces and DEST strike teams leaping deep into the city to capture key government buildings and then holding those buildings for ten days while the remaining forces battled their way through the city's defending units.[8]

Marshal Cooper responded to the DCMS assault on St. Randall by deploying the Twelfth Deneb and his own Assault Guards RCT to strike directly at the Combine forces. Noda's troops managed to hold St. Randall for months despite taking heavy damage at the hands of the two FedCom regiments. Noda's tenacity in holding St. Randall led to Cooper calling in assistance in the forces of Alpha Regiment of the Twelfth Vegan Rangers who were stationed on Algol at the time.[8]

3067[edit]

Alpha Regiment responded to Cooper's orders and landed on Addicks on the 7th of February 3067.[8] The arrival of Alpha Regiment gave Cooper an overwhelming advantage in terms of numbers and he immediately responded by launching simultaneous strikes into St. Randall and at the DCMS positions outside the city. Alpha Regiment led the assault into the city and the strength of the combined assault pushed the defending DCMS forces out of the city and into the surrounding countryside. As the DCMS forces pulled back Cooper moved ahead of them with the Assault Guards and slammed his RCT into the Combine regiments while the Twelfth Deneb and the Vegan Rangers continued to push, splitting Noda's forces in two.[9]

With his forces divided Noda knew that defeat was inevitable and that he was under threat of losing all his units; on the 2nd of March he ordered a general retreat, and the remains of the three regiments lifted off from Addicks on the 4th of March.[9]

Jihad as the 10th Ghost[edit]

Dieron[edit]

The Yakuza staffed unit was dispatched to the besieged world of Dieron, to help fight off Word of Blake Forces in March, 3068. After retaking the main spaceport, one of their first acts on that world was to support the Third Dieron Regulars after the Word of Blake forces nearly destroyed that unit. The Tenth's assistance kept the Third Dieron in the fight far longer than would have been expected. The Blakist commander assigned Burr's Black Cobras mercenary unit to destroy the Tenth Ghost, and the Combine regiment took many casualties over the next four weeks. They gave as good as they got however, nearly destroying the mercenary unit completely when they were recalled to defend the spaceport. During that last engagement the Tenth Ghost's Commanding Officer, Tai-sa Samual Noda was killed, and the unit's remaining forces quickly rallied around the commander's wife and executive officer, Chu-sa Gretchen Noda. In June 3068 the unit received orders from DCMS High Command to rotate to Quentin rest and refit.[10]

Quentin[edit]

Gretchen took command of the unit, the unit remained on Quentin for two years. In 3070, received orders from DCMS High command to redeploy back to Dieron after not receiving enough supplies and with little repair, the unit believed it would be suicide if they returned. Gretchen by now was more than angry about the unit's treatment by DCMS and the death of her husband because of the high command's orders. Gretchen executed the ISF planted spies in the unit, and consolidated her power in 3071 and began conducting independent actions without the permission of the DCMS.[11]

Rezak's Hole and the Birth of the Ronin[edit]

The unit traveled to Rezak's Hole where the unit wiped out the last of that scorched world's pirates lurking in the system. While on planet, Unit incorporated some of the "saner" pirates into the unit to becoming known as mercenary unit known as Ronin. While on planet, they raided an Interstellar Expeditions base camp, where they helped themselves to two lances' worth of Star League era BattleMechs.[12] They managed to escape DCMS patrol that were summoned to the world by IE's distress calls. The League equipment allowed the unit to rebuild itself to a battalion. In October 7th 3072, the Draconis Combine Mustered Service officially label the Tenth Ghost as Ronin unit, with orders for the unit to be destroyed on sight.[13] The unit became unknowingly employed by Chandrasekhar Kurita through being hired by StarCorps Industries. In course of service with StarCorps, their Tai-sa Gretchen developed a reputation of being a hotheaded commander and a contract breaker.[14]

Brief Resurrection in the Dark Age[edit]

At some point after the Late Republic Era the Tenth Ghosts are re-formed to aid in the invasion of the Federated Suns. During the 3143 - 3145 Invasion the Federated Suns, the Tenth and Eleventh Ghost regiments assaulted Brookeland and faced off against the Davion Light Guards.[15] It and its sister units would get mauled during the fight with the Light Guards, but they manage to win Brookeland at a high cost. Due to a high amount of casualties taken, the Tenth Ghost Regiment merged with the Eleventh to bring that regiment to two battalions' worth of BattleMechs, with barely any conventional supporting forces able to support the merged unit.[16][17]

Officers[edit]

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the 10th Ghost
Tai-sa Samual Noda 3059 - June 3068[1][18]
Tai-sa Gretchen Noda 3068 - 3070[11]

Tactics[edit]

Unknown.

Composition History[edit]

3040[edit]

10th Ghost (Regiment/Regular/Questionable)[19]

Note: At this point in time the command was stationed on Hachiman.[19]

3050[edit]

10th Ghost (BattleMech Regiment) [Unknown - Skilled /Questionable - Loyalty)[20]

Note: Intelligence reports indicate that unit may have been stationed on Hachiman with the Ninth Ghost regiment.

3054[edit]

10th Ghost (BattleMech Regiment) [Regular - Skilled /Reliable - Loyalty)[21]

Notes[edit]

  • There are few details regarding the state of the reconstituted Tenth Ghosts during the late Dark Age era and who was in command of the unit.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Field Manual: Draconis Combine, p. 118: 10th Ghost - Regiment's first Yakuza gang consisted of the Jirigawa and Minitoma empires
  2. Historical: War of 3039, pp. 106–107: Elidere IV (July August) - 10th Ghost teamed with the 9th, destroy half of the 1st Screaming Eagles and recapture Elidere IV as part of the Kurita counterassault
  3. Field Manual: Draconis Combine, p. 118: Officers and Ghost BattleMech regiment info
  4. Field Manual: Updates, p. 114: Brief info on Dominion War
  5. 5.0 5.1 FedCom Civil War, pp. 105–106: "Al Na'ir"
  6. 6.0 6.1 FedCom Civil War, pp. 132–133: "Al Na'ir"
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 FedCom Civil War, p. 135: "Addicks"
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 FedCom Civil War, p. 150: "Addicks"
  9. 9.0 9.1 FedCom Civil War, p. 166: "Addicks"
  10. Jihad Turning Points: Dieron, p. 8: 10th Ghost
  11. 11.0 11.1 Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers, p. 23: Gretchen Noda - Clarification on unit's early history with Gretchen's bio
  12. Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers, p. 23: Former 10th Ghost raids research camp on scorched world which allowed to rebuild
  13. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 41: Betrayal of Ideals - Brief history of the unit early years
  14. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, pp. 61–62: Unit Profile described by Star Seeds commander
  15. Technical Readout: 3145 Federated Suns, p. 14
  16. Field Manual: 3145, p. 60: Ghost Regiments - 11th Ghost - 10th Ghost is noted for being rolled into the 11th to make up for losses
  17. Field Manual: 3145, p. 77: Davion Brigades of Guards / Davion Light Guard - Actions on Brookeland with the 10th Ghost noted. Light Guards info details info state of the Ghosts
  18. Jihad Turning Points: Dieron, p. 8: 10th Ghost
  19. 19.0 19.1 Historical: War of 3039, p. 139
  20. 20 Year Update, p. 41: Draconis Combine Deployment Tables - 10th Ghost listed, but no information on their skilled status or commanding officer
  21. Objective Raids, p. 27

Bibliography[edit]