5th Atrean Dragoons

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History

Early Years

The Fifth Atrean Dragoons were originally a part of the armed forces of the Marik Commonwealth, with the brigade being founded during the early days of the Free Worlds League. The Atrean Dragoons would continue to serve as the provincial forces of the Marik Commonwealth until the League had expanded to the point that the forces of the Free Worlds Guards were insufficient to garrison the League's borders; when that point was reached, the League Parliament applied pressure to the Marik Commonwealth to loan a portion of the Dragoons to the League to for the purposes of federal defense.[1]

Age of War

The relationship between the Atrean Dragoons and the Free Worlds League Military was formalized in 2528, when Captain-General Albert Marik made the loan permanent in response to the eruption of the Second Andurien War between the Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation. Albert Marik attached a single stipulation to the formal transfer; the Fifth and the other regiments of the Dragoons were required to honor their roots in the Marik Commonwealth by continuing the tradition of recruiting graduates from the military academies on Atreus.[1]

The Star League

While the Fifth remained federal troops the entire brigade was loyal to the office of the Captain-General, allowing whichever member of House Marik was holding the office at the time to employ the Dragoons for his or her own purposes. These purposes - officially all undertaken in the interest of federal security, but often either of a federal or personal nature - included those that might have caused other federal units to hesitate, and with the increased tension between the Free Worlds League and the Star League following the Marik Civil War Captain-General Ewan Marik wasn't above using the Dragoons as a martial extension of his belligerent and antagonistic policies towards the Lyran Commonwealth. Ewan Marik's son, Captain-General Kenyon Marik, continued to use the Atrean Dragoons to make life difficult for Star League Defense Force garrisons in the Free Worlds League.[1]

First Succession War

In March 2787 the Free Worlds League Military dispatched the Fifth Atrean Dragoons to annex New Dallas, alongside the Third Atrean Dragoons and the Seventh Marik Militia. New Dallas had been bypassed whilst a number of other nearby Terran Hegemony systems were annexed; the three regiments expected the capture of New Dallas to be easy, but instead found themselves facing the well-armed, well-trained and well-equipped New Dallas Militia as well as a population determined to resist. While the Third Atrean Dragoons found themselves bogged down by fierce resistance in and around Caddo City, the New Dallas Militia fought the Seventh Marik Militia throughout the Lake Galvez region, pushing the Seventh to the brink of destruction.[2] The Seventh had attempted to use the same landing zones that the SLDF had used during Operation CHIEFTAIN, unaware that the Militia was massing in the region due to poor intelligence gathering. The remnants of the Seventh managed to retreat to their DropShips, many of which were destroyed.[3] It was only a combat drop conducted by the Third's Second Battalion to reinforce the Seventh's drop zone that allowed any of the Seventh to survive to retreat into their DropShips.[4]

Shocked by the level of resistance, the commanders of the invasion force authorised the use of tactical atomics against the militia. The nuclear weapons wiped out the resistance, but also destroyed the bulk of the remaining planetary infrastructure and major population centers.[2] The bombardment of the planetary capital, Caddo City, caused three hundred thousand civilian fatalities alone, in exchange for destroying two battalions of the New Dallas Militia - and occurred after the Militia had surrendered in response to the broadcast threat of nuclear weapons being used. The nuclear weapons destroyed the will of the population to resist, other than die-hard survivors of the Militia, who were further enraged by the callous tactics of the FWLM units and the wanton destruction they had caused.[5] The surviving Militia forces constructed a fake firebase in the ruins of Fort Resolute and used it as an ambush, luring the Third Atrean Dragoons into an attack and killing those Dragoons who fell for the trick, in what proved to be the last major battle.[6]

Officers


Tactics


Composition History

2765

  • Fifth Atrean Dragoons (Regular/Fanatical)[7]
- At this point in time the Fifth was stationed on Keystone.[1]

2786

  • Fifth Atrean Dragoons (Regular/Fanatical)[8]
- At this point in time the Fifth was a heavy-weight unit operating at full strength and based on Castor.[8]

2821

  • Fifth Atrean Dragoons (Regular/Fanatical)[8]
- At this point in time the Fifth was a heavy-weight unit operating just above half-strength and based on Castor.[8]

Notes

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Field Report 2765: FWLM, p. 9, "Atrean Dragoons"
  2. 2.0 2.1 First Succession War, p. 30, "New Dallas: Terran to the Final, Fiery End"
  3. Historical Turning Points: New Dallas, p. 5, "The Hegemony Memory Core of New Dallas"
  4. Historical Turning Points: New Dallas, p. 12, "Songs of Freedom"
  5. Historical Turning Points: New Dallas, p. 13, "Beginning of the End"
  6. Historical Turning Points: New Dallas, p. 14, "Ranger Justice"
  7. Field Report 2765: FWLM, p. 9, "Regimental Status"
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 First Succession War, p. 138, "Free Worlds League Military (FWLM)"

Bibliography