5th Amaris Fusiliers

History

Age of War

The Fifth Amaris Fusiliers were based on Apollo in 2573 and became embroiled in events that would become the flashpoint for the Rim Worlds Republic Civil War. The primary instigators of the conflict were the First Consul of the Republic, Gregory Amaris, and an organization known as the Rift Republican Army, formerly an operational military formation but by this point a society similar to a veteran's association through which like-minded individuals could socialise. While the RRA hadn't previously been known to be particularly political or militant in its outlook, in 2573 members of a militant fringe of the RRA whipped the citizens of the city of Eleazor into a frenzy over taxation imposed by Amaris. The result was a riot severe enough that it saw the Eighth Amaris Dragoons deployed to disperse the rioters. While the Eighth was occupied by the rioters, several hundred people in RRA uniforms stormed the Eighth's headquarters at the Efrimal Long barracks, which was co-located alongside a high-security prison within which Amaris had imprisoned dissidents against his regime.

The RRA force quickly captured the headquarters, executing captured personnel including the regimental command staff, and the RRA commander, Colonel Janissa DeCoe, used the Eighth's communications equipment to broadcast their own demands for foreign troops on Republic soil to be withdrawn, for the sovreignty of the Republic to be accepted, and for Amaris to cease imprisoning his political opponents. The RRA then jammed communications planetwide as Amaris reacted in a typically brutal fashion; the Fifth Amaris Fusiliers and the Amaris Republican Guards - the latter a part of Amaris' own household troops - were ordered into the city to suppress the RRA forces. The Fusiliers and the Guards expected a quick victory, as both were favoured units well-equipped with BattleMechs; instead, the two units faced stiff resistence from RRA personnel proficient in anti-'Mech tactics who quickly crippled a number of 'Mechs. The resulting setback drove a furious Amaris to order that the Efrimal Long site be bombarded by both artillery and air strikes, flattening the site and killing a third of the RRA personnel; yet more members of the RRA died as they came into contact with the loyalist units encircling the site, and in the wake of the battle Amaris imposed the Universal Act of Loyalty on the Republic, forcing citizens to either swear loyalty to the Amaris family and through them, the Star League.

Rim Worlds Republic Civil War

By 2581 the Fifth Fusiliers had been moved off Apollo, and had been split between the Persistence, Star's End and Steelton systems as the local garrison. (until May) Civil war had erupted in the Rim Worlds Republic in 2575 in response to Gregory Amaris' heavy-handed actions on Apollo, and Amaris was forced to retreat to his family estates on Apollo as a direct result of Rim Worlds Army units on Apollo defecting to the Rim Provisional Government, a new government of the people supported by the RRA and formed as a result of Amaris' attempted crackdown on workers at the Diplass Technologies BattleMech plant on Apollo. Amaris called on the Star League for assistance, and while the Star League was initially slow to respond, the massacre of the small SLDF garrison at Camp Cameron by extremists within the RRA in 2578 prompted First Lord Ian Cameron to decide to intervene in the civil war.

The result was Operation MAILED FIST, which called for a multinational force headed up by the SLDF named Task Force MAILED FIST to assemble and help secure Amaris' control over the Rim Worlds Republic. The first wave of attacks focused on securing significant worlds near Apollo began in 2581 and swept up two of the three planets across which the Fifth Fusiliers were stationed.

Star's End

Still considered a newly-colonised system in the late twenty-sixth century, the population of the Star's End system numbered less than five thousand but was considered a strategically significant system; as a result, it merited a strong garrison, and during the early years of the civil war within the Rim Worlds Republic that garrison was a battalion from the Fifth Amaris Fusiliers. The Fifth were considered to be loyal to Amaris but with no idea of how these loyalist forces would react, when the Star League finally attempted to intervene in the civil war the Star League Defense Force troops were forced to treat the Fusiliers with suspicion.

The 2nd Marik Auxiliary Corps was responsible for providing the forces for controlling the Star's End system, with the Second and Sixth Marik Militias and the Second Brigade of the Fusiliers of Oriente deploying into the system in May 2581. Unsure of what resistance to expect, if any, the Free Worlds League forces were surprised to find no visible military presence when they entered the system. The colonies were all established on various asteroids along with the military garrison, all of which had gone dark to evade detection; with no charts of the system to draw on, the SLDF forces were forced to survey the system for themselves, a long, laborious fourteen-month task. Despite the difficulties in surveying the system, the Star's End system was declared to be secure in June or July, and the SLDF began to establish a fleet base in the system that ironically became the single biggest customer for the local mining colonies. The SLDF also established a supply depot on Novo Cressidas, the one habitable world in the system.

Persistence

The SLDF campaign to secure Persistence was actively resisted by the battalion from the Fifth Fusiliers stationed on the world; unaware that the SLDF were notionally allies, the Fifth Fusiliers used their AeroSpace Fighter contingent to harass the inbound SLDF DropShips, while the surface to air batteries located around the Danderson City spaceport also exacted a toll. It wasn't until the Seventeenth Royal Division landed and managed to secure the spaceport via a ground assault that the remaining Star League units managed to successfully land on the planet. Even with control of the spaceport, the Star League forces still took three months to secure the world in the face of determined, aggressive resistance from the Fifth Fusiliers, while the SLDF was hampered by the need to try and minimise loss of life on the part of the Republicans. It wasn't until the last of the giant desalination plants essential to the survival of the local population was captured that the Fifth Fusiliers finally surrendered.

Steelton

The remaining contingent of the Fifth Fusiliers was stationed on Steelton, and would remain there for more than a decade after the loss of the other detachments from the Fifth on Persistence and Star's End. These last holdouts finally saw combat against the SLDF in one of the last engagements of Operation MAILED FIST. The Commanding Officer of the Task Force, General Nathan Isaacson, assigned two divisions to the assault on Steelton in mid-2595, a much larger force than the surviving elements of the Fifth Fusiliers; in one of the few actions where divisions from different corps fought alongside each other, the Eleventh Royal Division from IV Corps and the Sixteenth Mechanized Infantry Division from VI Corps landed on Steelton. With the defeat of the Fifth Fusiliers and the capture of Steelton Task Force MAILED FIST had secured the last world controlling the approaches to Apollo although military operations continued; the Sixteenth remained on Steelton until the end of Operation MAILED FIST in late 2596, but the Eleventh redeployed in 2596 to capture the Vulture's Nest system.

Star League Era

Re-formed in 2744 on Bone-Norman the Fifth Amaris Fusiliers were one of many light horse units used by the Rim Worlds Republic. They deployed to Icar when a battalion of bandits landed on the agricultural world. The planetary garrison unit kept track of the bandits and fed that information to the Fifth Fusiliers. The Fifth's airwing (supplemented by a company of Stinger LAMs) strafed and bombed the bandit base, destroying half their 'Mechs. The Fusiliers then executed a combat drop that put two battalions of 'Mechs on the bandit base. The Fifth then spent the next week tracking down the few survivors of their initial assault. During that time, the Fifth lost a single Stinger 'Mech.

Officers

The Commanding Officer (CO) of the Fifth Amaris Fusiliers in 2581 was Colonel Ivy Hassan.

Tactics

Typically the Fifth Amaris Fusiliers used light cavalry tactics.

Composition

2750

The Fifth Amaris Fusiliers made extensive use of Shadow Hawk and Phoenix Hawks, with Wasps and Stingers as recon units. The Fifth also had a full wing of AeroSpace Fighters and a company of Stinger LAMs.

Rules

Reunification War

• During the Reunification War the Fifth Fusiliers receive a -1 penalty to all repair rolls as a consequence of the disruption caused to the logistical infrastructure of the Rim Worlds Army during the Rim Worlds Republic civil war.

Star League Era

• The Fifth Amaris Fusiliers can use the Overrun Combat special ability.

Bibliography

• Era Report: 2750
• The Star League