54th Lyran Guards

A green unit intended to emulate the famous Stealths and Tamar Tigers, the 54th Lyran Guards were one of the many LCAF units destroyed during the First Succession War.

History

With the heavier Lyran Commonwealth military suffering increasing losses to the more nimble Free Worlds League and Draconis Combine forces during the First Succession War, the Lyrans achieved few decisive victories save for those of the famed Tamar Tigers and the Stealths. One of the most notable in the final decades was when the Stealths' former CO Colonel Raymond Hempsted led the 12th and 14th Lyran Regulars in retaking Bella I from the FWLM in 2813.

Desperate to regain the lighting raid abilities of the Stealths and fuelled by the successful recapture of Bella I, the LCAF High Command set in motion an ambitious plan. Combining the nation's brightest academy graduates with the best equipment available, the newly formed 54th Lyran Guards then underwent advance training with Colonel Hempsted and the aging veterans of both the Stealths and the Tamar Tigers. After a year of near torturous training, Hempsted considered the 54th ready to see their first combat, preferably in concert with a veteran regiment.

Unfortunately the LCAF High Command had other ideas, ordering the newly dubbed "Hempsted's Greyhounds" to stage a raid unaided against the Draconis Combine world of Otho. The Lyran High Command was deaf to the strenuous objections of Colonel Hempsted and his aides who cited that no matter the training, the 54th were still an untried green unit. Despite Hempsted's pleas, the High Command refused to allow him to take command of the 54th, only agreeing to allow some of the other Stealths to accompany the unit as aides.

Just as Hempsted had feared, the green MechWarriors of the 54th cracked under the pressure of combat against a veteran DCMS BattleMech unit, the entire unit being annihilated in March 2821. Hearing of the disaster, Archon Richard Steiner court-martialed those directly responsible for the Otho raid, also promoting a now melancholy Hempsted to command both the Kurita front as well as overseeing the training of all recruits and cadets. Recognising that LCAF still desperately needed troops skilled in faster-paced operations yet unwilling to risk more inexperienced troops, the 54th's defeat prompted the Archon to increasingly court mercenary units skilled in such tactics.

The 54th was among the units added to the Commonwealth's List of Honored Missing, read out by the Archon on both Veteran's Day and the anniversary of the Commonwealth's founding.

Bibliography

• Handbook: House Steiner
• House Kurita (The Draconis Combine)
• House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth)