Barcelona

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(References to Barcelona)

Note: X and Y are coordinates (light years on XY plane) relative to Terra at (0, 0)

Barcelona
← 3135
3151
240px
Barcelona nearby systems
(Map Legend)
System Information
X:Y Coordinates-204.78:411.47[e]

Political Affilation

Planetary History

Early History

Barcelona was one of four worlds acquired by the Rim Worlds Republic between 2347 and 2371 as an attempt by Arabella Rowe to expand the capabilities of the Republic armed forces; Barcelona was intended to be a "hedgehog", a giant fortified firebase that Republican forces could use to slow the advance of any invading force.[1]

Reunification War

By the end of the Age of War Barcelona was a member of the Apollo Province of the Rim Worlds Republic.[2] Civil war erupted in the Rim Worlds Republic in 2575, with the factions polarised around those loyal to First Consul Gregory Amaris and those loyal to the Rift Republican Army and the Rim Provisional Government.[33]

The Star League eventually decided to intervene in the civil war in support of Gregory Amaris, and in 2579 assembled Task Force MAILED FIST to help secure Amaris' control over the Rim Worlds Republic. A multinational force headed by the Star League Defense Force, Task Force MAILED FIST was responsible for executing Operation MAILED FIST, the name given to the military intervention. The first wave of attacks focused on securing significant worlds near Apollo,[34] until a destructive raid on Alarion by the Fourth Amaris Fusiliers in retaliation prompted the SLDF to alter its initial strategy for the campaign, the focus shifted to reducing Rim Worlds Army concentrations throughout the Republic and the capture of key worlds.[35]

In late 2584 the SLDF changed tactics again; a number of major RWA units had been destroyed or captured, and the focus for the campaign shifted to capturing worlds of strategic importance, but the campaign was slowed by the greatly increased resistance offered by the RWA and local civilian populations, prompted by atrocities performed by the Draconis Auxiliary Corps when they captured Nightwish in mid-2584.[36]

General Nathan Isaacson of Task Force MAILED FIST assigned the conquest of Barcelona to the Lyran Auxiliary Corps and the 2nd Marik Auxiliary Corps along with the Thirty-First Armor Division from the SLDF VIII Corps; Archon Viola Steiner-Dinesen led all three regiments from the Lyran Auxiliary Corps to Barcelona (the Fourth Royal Guards, Twenty-Fifth Skye Rangers and the Tamar Tigers) while Duke Narinder Selaj led the Second and Sixth Marik Militias and the First Brigade of the Fusiliers of Oriente to Barcelona. This left a triumverate of senior officers responsible for the operation - Duke Selaj, Archon Steiner-Dinesen and Lieutenant-General Margaret Beck - and when the MAILED FIST forces landed on Barcelona they found the Fifth Amaris Legionnaires in place on the world under the command of Colonel Franchetta Wong.[37][38]

Colonel Wong was a distant cousin of First Consul Gregory Amaris, and initially tried to use this familial connection to convince the three senior MAILED FIST officers that she was a representative of the ruling family. These claims were swiftly dismissed, although Duke Selaj recommended using Wong as a figurehead to try and stabilize the world; Selaj's recommendations were dismissed by the Archon, acting in the belief that to countenance such a charade would only create more political problems on Barcelona, and as a result Colonel Wong turned against the Star League forces and began to lead the Fifth Legionnaires in a campaign that proved her to be a skilled commander, using her numerically inferior forces in ways that stretched the Star League forces significantly over the next two months.[37]

Despite Wong's best efforts, the Star League advantages in numbers and equipment eventually swung the campaign back in their favour, and by early July the Fifth Legionnaires had been forced to fall back into the rugged terrain that dominated the northern continent of Barcelona, known as Norn. The Fifth Legionnaires would have been quickly defeated if not for events within the Lyran Commonwealth.[37]

Day of Rage

On the 19th of July 2591 courier ships brought news to Barcelona that the Archon-Designate, Viola Steiner-Dinesen's son Kevin Dinesen had gone missing in March and was presumed to have been kidnapped. Arriving along with the official news were rumors from the Commonwealth that the Duke of Skye and the Duke of Tamar - Aldo Lestrade and Simon Kelswa, respectively - were responsible for the abduction. The rumurs reached the Archon ahead of the official news, and the rumors combined with the frustration of years of campaigning in the Republic was enough to cause the Archon to snap; she led the Fourth Royal Guards personally to the cantonment within which the Twenty-Fifth Skye Rangers and Tamar Tigers were bivouaced where she promptly destroyed the 'Mechs performing sentry duty and began a rampage through the camp, attacking the Skye and Tamar forces.[39]

The results of the Archon's rampage scarred the psyches of those involved for decades afterwards; the Skye and Tamar regiments had been in the midst of rearming and resupplying when the Archon's rampage began, and faced the horrific dilemma of having to decide whether to defend themselves and their comrades by attacking the Archon. The warriors of the Fourth Royal Guards were equally horrified but attempted to protect the Archon as 'Mechs from the Skye and Tamar units began defending themselves. With many of the Skye and Tamar 'Mechs out of ammo because of the resupply effort going on when the Archon arrived, a large part of the battle was a chaotic and confused melee. Forces from the Thirty-First Armor Division[39] and the Fusiliers of Oriente[40] arrived to seperate the various combatants, but by that point the Archon was unconscious as a result of her cockpit being crushed, and was discovered to have lost her left arm and suffered serious injuries to her head and chest.[39]

Following the battle the Rangers and the Tigers both requested and received permission to withdraw from Operation MAILED FIST, as both units were unwilling to continue serving under the Archon. The Archon herself took weeks to heal to the point where she could travel again, having refused to be fitted with a prosthetic limb to replace her missing arm, by which time she had been briefed by both the Lyran Intelligence Corps and the Hegemony Central Intelligence Directorate that evidence pointed to a member of the Estates-General, not the Dukes of Tamar or Skye. Faced with a political crisis at home, the Archon also withdrew from Barcelona; the Star League forces had successfully completed the conquest of Barcelona in mid-September, a few weeks prior to the Archon leaving,[39] and the Thirty-First Armor Division would subsequently redeploy to Zertarum in 2592 while the forces from the Second Marik Auxiliary Corps were redeployed to Gotterdammerung.[38]

Star League Era

Barcelona was conquered by the Lyran Commonwealth during the 2773-2775 Republic-Commonwealth War.[9]

Clan Jade Falcon Invasion

Barcelona was one of the first worlds targeted in Clan Jade Falcon's first wave of Operation Revival. The world was defended by the 17th Skye Rangers and the Barcelona Militia when it was invaded in March 3050.

The Rangers were surprised by the Jade Falcon invasion, initially fighting against the 9th Talon Cluster of the Gamma Galaxy. After overcoming their initial shock, the Rangers retaliated against the Falcons from their defensive positions at Mariah’s Pinnacle, Su Filla, and Vacuum Ridge. The Rangers’ retaliation was enough to stop the Falcons’ advance on the planet’s industrial complexes and Star Colonel Devon Hazen was forced to call down his reserve force. The Falcon Guards helped by breaking through the defensive positions of the Rangers around the planetary capital. In the resulting onslaught the Falcons overcame the Ranger and militia positions and most of the defending units were destroyed with only a few managing to evacuate.[41]

In April 3052 the Federated Commonwealth sent Kommandant Adam Steiner to the world to liberate it from the Jade Falcons. Although Barcelona was only defended by Provisional Garrison Clusters the Falcons put up a serious fight; the Federated Commonwealth did eventually retake the world, but the fighting lasted for two weeks.[42]

Miltary Deployment

2591

2765

3025

3054

3061

3079

Notes

According to the deployment tables on p. 153-154 of Historical: Reunification War and the map on page 128, the 5th Amaris Legionnaires were deployed on Gotterdammerung from 2581 onwards until their destruction. This contradicts the text on page 136, which has the 5th Amaris Legionnaires on Barcelona. The writer of Historical: Reunification War has indicated that Barcelona was the correct deployment for the Fifth Amaris Legionnaires.

Nearby Systems

Systems within 60 light-years (distance in light years)
Closest systems first:
Bone-Norman 23.6 Ambrose 26.8 Renren 27.8 Illium 27.9
Newtown Square 29.8 Black Earth 30.2 Biegga 32.8 Mogyorod 35.6
Vulture's Nest 37.3 Erewhon 39.3 Anywhere 44.9 Kikuyu 45.0
Golandrinas 46.6 Roadside 47.0 Somerset 47.5 Ylemelke 49.9
Lackhove 50.6 Kolovraty 53.5 Hot Springs 55.5 Montsegur 56.0
Beta VII 56.9 Clermont 59.2 Gotterdammerung 59.7

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Periphery, 1st Edition, p. 19, "Mishka's Diplomacy"
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 18, "Rim Worlds Republic after Age of War [2571]" Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "HB:MPSp18" defined multiple times with different content
  3. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 25, "Lyran Commonwealth after Age of War [2571]"
  4. ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 158, "Inner Sphere Map - [2596]"
  5. ↑ Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 25, "Rim Worlds Republic At the Fall of the Star League [2750]"
  6. ↑ Era Report: 2750, p. 37, "Inner Sphere - [2750]"
  7. ↑ Field Manual: SLDF, Inner Sphere - [2764]
  8. ↑ Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, Inner Sphere - [2765]
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 37, "The Republic-Commonwealth War"
  10. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 36, "Lyran Commonwealth after First Succession War [2822]"
  11. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 40, "Lyran Commonwealth after Second Succession War [2822]"
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth), p. 118, "Unit Deployment Table"
  13. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 47, "Lyran Commonwealth after Third Succession War [3025]"
  14. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 56, "Lyran Commonwealth after Fourth Succession War [3030]"
  15. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 59, "Lyran Commonwealth after War of 39 [3040]"
  16. ↑ Historical: War of 3039, p. 132, "Inner Sphere - [3040]"
  17. ↑ Era Report: 3052, p. 10, "Inner Sphere - [3050]"
  18. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 61, "Lyran Commonwealth after Clan Invasion [3052]"
  19. ↑ Era Report: 3052, p. 22, "Inner Sphere - [3052]"
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Objective Raids, p. 53, "Note of Defending Unit"
  21. ↑ Era Report: 3062, p. 11, "Inner Sphere Map [3057]"
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Shattered Sphere, p. 50, "Lyran Alliance Deployment Table"
  23. ↑ Era Report: 3062, p. 29, "Inner Sphere Map [3063]"
  24. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 70, "Lyran Commonwealth after FedCom Civil War [3067]"
  25. ↑ Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 43, "Inner Sphere Map - [October 3067]"
  26. ↑ Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 64, "Inner Sphere - 3075"
  27. ↑ Field Report: LAAF, p. 19, "Lyran Alliance Deployment Table [3079]"
  28. ↑ Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 62, "Inner Sphere Map - [March 3081]"
  29. ↑ Field Manual: 3085, p. 126, "Inner Sphere Map - [October 3085]"
  30. ↑ Map of the Inner Sphere 3130
  31. ↑ Era Report: 3145, p. 10, "Inner Sphere Map - [3135]"
  32. ↑ Era Report: 3145, p. 38, "Inner Sphere Map - [3145]"
  33. ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 130, "The Spark"
  34. ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 132, "Case Apollo"
  35. ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 133, "Island Hopping (2582 - November 2590)"
  36. ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 134, "Arlina to Viborg (December 2584 - September 2588)"
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 Historical: Reunification War, p. 136, "Barcelona (April-September 2591)"
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 38.3 38.4 Historical: Reunification War, p. 153, "Rim Worlds Republic Front (2588-2596)"
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 39.2 39.3 Historical: Reunification War, p. 137-138, "Barcelona: The Day of Rage (19 June 2591)"
  40. ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 38, "First Fusiliers of Oriente"
  41. ↑ Jade Falcon Sourcebook, p. 36, "Barcelona" - Jade Falcon invasion of Barcelona and its details.
  42. ↑ Era Report: 3052, p. 18, Sidebar Timeline
  43. ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 136
  44. ↑ Field Report 2765: Periphery, p. 20, "Amaris Regulars - Divisional Status"
  45. ↑ NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 1, p.44, "Operation GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG"
  46. ↑ Field Report: Clans, p. 15, "Clan Jade Falcon Deployment Status"

Bibliography

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