295th BattleMech Division

295th BattleMech Division
Formed	2573
Disbanded	2785
Nickname	The Blue Star Division
Affiliation	Star League
Parent Command	XLIX Corps

Overview

The 295th BattleMech Division was a part of the Star League Defense Force Regular Army.

History

Originally named for a military decoration signifying relatives lost in combat service, the 295th BattleMech Division's history stretches as far back as the Western Alliance. Originally a Royal division for the first few decades of its existence, the 295th lost this vaunted status after lapses in security and was reassigned from Royal Command. Despite this stain on its reputation, following its demotion in status to a "mere" Regular division the 295th had several excellent tours of duty and just prior to the Amaris Coup was largely considered XLIX Corps' premier division.

Despite its reputation for excellence on the field of the battle, it was not enough for the 295th's CO General Leigh MacArthur. Assigned command of the Division in 2761, MacArthur made it her personal mission to win the Blue Star Division a place in Royal Command again. Unfortunately the best she was able to achieve was transferring non-Terran Hegemony citizens out of the 295th. In 2764, the unit was assigned, as a part of the XLIX Corps, Eleventh Army, to the world of Gallery in District 1 of the Lyran Commonwealth Military Region, before being transferred to District 2 by 2765. The 295th survived the Periphery Uprising and the Hegemony Campaign, but it would end up as one of a number of divisions that "vanished" in the period just before the First Succession War began.

After the liberation of Terra, the 295th returned to its duty station in the Rim Worlds Republic. When Aleksandr Kerensky issued the order for Exodus, the division tried to comply, but its departure was delayed by problems with its space transports. By the time the 295th could travel, Kerensky and the bulk of the SLDF had already left the rendezvous point at New Samarkand.

Although late, the 295th still tried to follow Kerensky. The division left the Rim Worlds Republic and vanished into the Periphery. Struggling with ongoing technical issues, in 2785, the 295th made landfall on a distant, uninhabited world called Buffalo Meadows, in the Draconian Drift periphery region. Unable to repair their ships, the SLDF soldiers established a number of settlements. These communities survived for almost 80 years, supporting themselves with fishing and farming. Their birth-rate never allowed for long-term survival, however, and by the late 2800s the last descendants of the 295th had perished.

The 295th BattleMech Division's fate remained a mystery until the mid-thirty-first century. In 2803 the Raymond's Redcoats mercenary unit claimed to have been formed from survivors of the 295th, but it was later discovered this was a ploy to mask their less palatable origins as an ex–Rim Worlds Republic unit that had initially turned to banditry.

ComStar's Explorer Corps found the remains of the failed colony on Buffalo Meadows in 3021, but kept the find secret. Later, a report stated that a ComStar Explorer Corps vessel operating out beyond the Circinus Federation surveyed an uncharted planet and discovered the remains of the 295th in 3043. The Explorer Corps report states that the 295th had left behind “only a few scattered ruins”. It makes no mention of the military equipment the BattleMech division had taken into exile. While the report substantially misplaces the unnamed system to nearly the opposite end of the Inner Sphere, the other information seems to be accurate.

A descendant of the original finders would sell the secret some 130 years later, precipitating a race to the vast treasure of stored BattleMechs on Buffalo Meadows in 3150 between Bartlett's Boxers, a mercenary unit working for the Republic of the Sphere, and another mercenary unit named La Grande Armée working for an unnamed party.

Officers

Rank	Name	Command
Commanding Officers of the 295th BattleMech Division
General	Leigh MacArthur	2761 - 2764
Major General	Jenna Romanov	2785

Tactics

Unknown.

Composition History

As an SLDF BattleMech division the 295th would have been formed from two Brigades of BattleMech regiments and a brigade of Mechanized Infantry regiments. As a quasi-elite unit that had been a Royal division and was on the verge of reattaining that status, the 295th would have been equipped with the finest equipment available to regular SLDF divisions, though presumably not Royal-grade equipment.

As of 2785, the Potemkin-class troop transport WarShip SLS Ulithi, the Essex-class SLS Cape Bon and the Lola III-class Protecteur were assigned to the 295th, as well as a number of transport JumpShips capable of transporting at least a dozen DropShips between them.

The equipment later found on Buffalo Meadows amounted to six regiments of pristine Star League era BattleMechs.

2764

• 2951st Brigade
• 2952nd Brigade
• 2953rd Brigade

Notes

• According to the preface to Requiem for a Blue Star, author Alex Kaempen felt the ending written for the 295th SLDF BattleMech Division (referring to the entry in The Periphery, 2nd Ed., p. 91) never made sense to him, so he took the opportunity to write a new ending. The purported location of the colony world beyond the Circinus Federation was indeed far from the division's last posting and farther yet from General Kerensky's Exodus route. It might thus be assumed that this was either deliberate obfuscation by ComStar, or otherwise that "Circinus Federation" was a mistake and should have read "Oberon Confederation".

Bibliography

• Field Manual: SLDF
• Final Stop (in: Requiem for a Blue Star)
• Mercenaries Supplemental Update
• Operation Knockdown (in: Requiem for a Blue Star)
• The Periphery, 2nd Edition
• Requiem for a Blue Star
• The Star League