Delta Regiment (12th Vegan Rangers)

History

Fourth Succession War

In the employ of the Federated Suns during the Fourth Succession War, Delta Regiment of the Twelfth Vegan Rangers saw action in every wave of attacks launched as a part of Operation RAT, the Federated Suns offensive against the Capellan Confederation. Normally based on Edwards, Delta and the other regiments of the Vegan Rangers were deployed forward to New Aragon during the preparations for Operation RAT.

Poznan

The Fourth Succession War began with a fateful toast given by First Prince Hanse Davion on Terra on the 20th of August 3028. With orders for the First Wave of attacks having been given, Delta Regiment deployed alongside Gamma Regiment on Poznan, under the overall command of Gamma's Commanding Officer, Colonel Vella Delacroix. Poznan's garrison was normally based around the Third Battalion of the Second Ariana Fusiliers, but the Fusiliers had been redeployed to Tikonov in response to Operation GALAHAD, leaving Poznan defended by six lightly-armed regiments of planetary militia. The militia was quickly surrounded and subdued by the Rangers, and Colonel Delacroix capitalized on her Spanish ancestry to win the support of the Spanish minority on Poznan. The Spanish element of the population had suffered under the Chinese majority occupation of the planet, and Delacroix was able to convince the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns High Command to allow her to form a provisional government from the Spanish minority and to pass the seized militia equipment to the new government. This resulted in the formation of a local militia loyal to the Federated Suns, and freed up the Rangers for the Second Wave of Operation RAT.

Buchlau

Orders to launch the Second Wave of Operation RAT were given on the 15th of September 3028. Continuing to operate alongside Gamma Regiment, Delta was assigned to the invasion of Buchlau, part of a wave of assaults intended to try and separate Chancellor Maximilian Liao from his chief military strategist, Colonel Pavel Ridzik. The battle for Buchlau was relatively easy; supported by the First Garrison Forces the two mercenary regiments easily crushed the planetary militia.

Kansu

The Third Wave of Operation RAT began on the 12th of November 3028, with Delta Regiment receiving orders to deploy on the following day. Wave Three's targets were a mix of systems projecting into the Federated Suns, economically significant worlds and worlds with front-line Capellan Confederation Armed Forces units on them. Deploying without Gamma Regiment for the first time since Operation RAT began, Delta Regiment dropped onto Kansu and after three days of campaigning had demoralized the planetary militia so much that they surrendered, handing control of the system to the Federated Suns.

Shipka

The Fourth Wave of Operation RAT began in early 3029, and was focused on seizing a number of worlds that individually were not particularly significant, but which it was hoped would compound the problems suffered by the Confederation as it attempted to recover from the first three waves of attacks, and provide a springboard for securing worlds near to Terra that would allow for the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth to link up. Joined once more by Gamma Regiment, Delta Regiment quickly captured Shipka; dropping to the north and west of Shipka Commune, the planetary capital city, the two regiments quickly seized the capital, as well as capturing a valuable cache of spare parts for JumpShips.

Wei

After a lull in major operations the AFFS launched the Fifth Wave of Operation RAT in late April 3029.. During the Fifth Wave of Operation RAT Delta Regiment was involved in one of the most high-risk invasions of the campaign. Intent on capturing the planet Wei, the AFFS was particularly concerned about long-term rumors which talked of a Star League era chemical weapons stockpile or facility on the planet. MIIO operatives had been dispatched to Wei to obtain more information on possible locations for the rumored chemical weapons stockpile, but had only been able to identify three possible locations, rather than a definitive location. When the Fourth Succession War began three Rabid Foxes teams were dispatched to destroy the three locations identified, but two teams failed and the one team that did destroy its target was unable to confirm that chemical weapons had been stored there. Contracting mercenary forces to conquer Wei was a compromise within the AFFS High Command, and the AFFS was honest in detailing the likely hazards involved. The Twelfth Vegan Rangers accepted the contract - offered at triple their normal fee - along with the guarantees of the best AFFS mobile medical facilities to care for casualties.

Wei's defending forces were headed up by Sung's Cuirassiers, a heavy 'Mech regiment; the Vegan Rangers deployed Gamma and Delta Regiments for the invasion, under the overall command of Colonel Mitch Nelson, Delta's Commanding Officer. In addition to the promised medical personnel three armored regiments and four infantry regiments were assigned to support the Rangers. The Rangers deployed in scattered drop zones across the southern continent, surprising the defenders, who had anticipated an attack in Vandannis Valley. The defenders began using chemical weapons on the 3rd of July, initially inflicting heavy casualties on one of the mercenary regiments, the First Stygian Heavy Infantry Regiment, but giving the AFFS forces an opportunity to gather important information on the poison used and its treatment. The Rangers spent two weeks encircling Vandannis Valley and the capital city in the face of further chemical weapon attacks before meeting the heavy defenses near Boganville.

After taking casualties Colonel Nelson gathered his forces and launched an attack using all of the Ranger battalions, three regiments of infantry and two armored regiments. The defenders responded with artillery fire - including shells loaded with the chemical poison, which was later revealed to be the nerve agent UrbStyc-A - followed by a charge from Sung's Cuirassiers that gained momentum against the infantry and armor forces, only to be broken by a frenzied counter-charge from the Rangers, who knew that they had a limited window of time to defeat their opponents and have their equipment scrubbed down and air filters changed before the poison would claim more victims. After a ferocious half-hour battle Sung's Cuirassiers retreated, leaving Wei on the 19th of July. The planetary government surrendered shortly after the Cuirassiers left, leaving Wei in Federated Suns hands. In addition to the casualties among the conventional forces the Rangers had lost two battalions of troops.

Palos

Despite ComStar placing the Federated Suns under a communications interdiction after the invasion of Sarna in mid-3029, the Capellan Operations Command of the AFFS received enough positive reports from the fifth wave of Operation RAT to launch the sixth wave in the second week of August 3029. The decision to launch Wave Six was in part driven by contact from planetary governments in the unconquered region of the Sarna Commonality, indicating that the perceived threat of being annexed by the Free Worlds League was prompting a groundswell of opinion among those governments that being absorbed by the Federated Suns was a preferable alternative to being conquered by House Marik. The countless raids and invasions by the Free Worlds League Military over the centuries had embedded an intense hatred of House Marik among the planetary populations within the region, and confidence in the Capellan Confederation's ability to defend them was falling.

Palos was one of the targets of the sixth wave of attacks; defended by the Second Confederation Reserve Cavalry and twenty assorted veteran infantry and tank regiments, Palos had a large population but meager resources. The AFFS assigned Gamma and Delta Regiments for the attack,supported by a dozen conventional regiments. The landing zones chosen by the Rangers were in the Docarshon Valley, a barren region some two hundred kilometers south the of planetary capital city, Xer, and were contested by the Capellan forces. Capellan aerospace fighters managed to breach the Rangers' fighter screen and severely damaged two Ranger DropShips, the Union-class Vegan Thunder and the Leopard-class Ranger's Creed. Although both DropShips were able to unload their 'Mechs, the Ranger's Creed was destroyed when it tumbled in the atmosphere and crashed on the surface of the planet.

Having been chastised by the Capellan Operations Command for abusive behavior towards the population of Wei, the Rangers attempted to be conciliatory towards the population of Palos; the population complained volubly about damage to crops, prompting the Rangers to attempt to restrict their movement to roads and to limit damage to croplands, up until the 9th of September - when an ambush by the Second CRC inflicted damage on the Rangers by taking advantage of their constrained movement. Incensed by the ambush, Colonel Nelson ordered the Rangers to return to standard tactics, drew a battalion from the Second CRC out of hidden positions in the Xertian Hills and promptly destroyed it - after a publicly recorded refusal on the part of Major Aaron Derfick of the Cavalry to surrender. The recordings of the battle, which also saw damage inflicted on a regiment of infantry and a regiment of armor that had accompanied the Cavalry, were subsequently broadcast to Xer, and prompted the remainder of the Second CRC to withdraw from Palos, leaving the militia to surrender.

Tsinghai

The speech given by Hanse Davion on the 16th of November 3029, the official day of thanks in the Federated Suns, contained a number of revelations including the creation of the St. Ives Compact and was taken by many as an open sign that the Fourth Succession War was close to ending. The AFFS launched the Seventh Wave of Operation RAT shortly after, in a determined effort to secure as many systems as possible before an armistice was declared. The Seventh Wave capitalized on negotiations that had been conducted in secret between the Federated Suns and those planetary governments in the remnants of the Sarna Commonality who lacked defenses and were far more fearful of being annexed by the Free Worlds League than the Federated Suns. In the last week of November the AFFS occupied thirteen systems, encountering little resistance, and relatively few troops were needed to provide a garrison to maintain calm.

Tsinghai was the exception during the Seventh Wave; in contrast with the thirteen easily-annexed worlds, Tsinghai had a front-line garrison, consisting of a battalion from the Fifth Confederation Reserve Cavalry and the First Battalion of Preston's Lancers. Without much time to plan, the Capellan Operations Command of the AFFS attempted to use numbers to compensate for a lack of information and planning time, and deployed both Gamma and Delta Regiments and the complete Twentieth Avalon Hussars Regimental Combat Team to capture the planet. The task force landed on Tsinghai on the 8th of December, with the Vegan Rangers targeting the Fifth CRC while the Twentieth Hussars engaged Preston's Lancers. The Rangers were able to bracket the Fifth CRC troops in a long valley, using numbers to their advantage and outflanking the Cavalry; the Cavalry had luck on their side, and were able to fight through to their DropShips and abandon Tsinghai after losing only half their strength.

Preston's Lancers were able to avoid being encircled by the Hussars, breaking through the Hussars' line, but were soon being attacked by the Hussars' aerospace fighters and a regiment of hovertanks. The Lancers retreated into the Hornatio Valley, a twisting river valley, with the Hussars in close pursuit. The Lancers launched several ambushes against the more numerous Hussar forces, until the Hussars dispatched a 'Mech battalion and an armored regiment around to the river delta and used their other forces to drive the Lancers towards them. The Hussars' trap was successful, and after two days of combat in the river delta a single company of Lancers managed to escape, leaving the planet under Federated Suns control.

War of 3039

Delta Regiment was assigned to capture Nashira during the War of 3039. Nashira was anticipated to be a hard-fought campaign, given the association between Nashira and the regiments of the Genyosha, and the militia forces on the planet had a ferocious reputation. As a consequence of the challenge Nashira presented, the First FedCom RCT was assigned to support Delta Regiment; while the First, commanded by Marshal Mira Tran, was notionally the superior unit, it was expected that Colonel Nelson would be in overall command of the campaign strategy. Unfortunately for both commands, Tran didn't share that view.

Nelson's plan for Nashira called for a risky orbital drop against Logan City, a tactic supported by Tran's Executive Officer, Leftenant General Vonda de Greer; while Tran disagreed, she was willing to see the Rangers take risks ahead of his own troops. Delta landed roughly twenty kilometers west of Logan City, with the First Battalion landing first via an orbit-to-surface drop on the 1st of May. The First Battalion was attacked immediately by militia forces - a regiment of infantry and a battalion of armor - but the militia didn't represent a significant threat to the grounded 'Mechs, although they would have inflicted significantly heavier damage if they'd been able to catch the troops deploying from their DropShips on the ground.

The First FedCom landed outside Ogawa, a spaceport city some fifty kilometers south of Delta's landing zone, and landed on the 5th of May without securing their landing zone first. Assured of the superiority of his own troops, Tran was caught completely off-guard along with the rest of the First FedCom when the militia immediately attacked using both conventional and unconventional attacks. Even as the First was attempting to unload it was being targeted by kamikaze attacks using vehicles laden with explosives, while buildings were booby-trapped and FedCom troopers were being gunned down. It took five days for the First to secure Ogawa Port, and the First lost eight 'Mechs and more than two companies of armor and two hundred infantry. Tran was promptly recalled back to Errai, and the First continued to operate under the command of de Greer, who received a field promotion to command the entire RCT.

Delta and the First were plagued with guerrilla attacks during May and June, culminating when the task force occupied Logan City on the 21st of May. While none of the attacks was individually significant, the constant low-level attrition had a toxic effect on morale, and by July morale was a significant problem among both commands. engaged in the worst kind of police action on a world where the government was refusing to cooperate fully and with the designated occupation troops already late, Colonel Nelson and General de Greer were stuck trying to control a hostile population in an urban environment. Life soon got worse; on the 19th of July the First Genyosha arrived in-system, followed by the Second Genyosha on the 21st. Technically outnumbered, the Genyosha - operating under the command of Tai-sa Narimasa Asano - had both skill and determination in their favor, and were determined to free Nashira.

With the benefit of upgraded technology and a combination of skill and experience in their favor, the First Genyosha landed at Copenwald on the 22nd of JUly and quickly secured the area. The Second Genyosha monitored the battle reports from their sister regiment and opted not to land on Katiasha, but instead to go straight for the invaders' throat. The First FedCom were scattered in small redoubts across Nashira; individually, the redoubts were well-prepared positions ideal for attempting to police the world, but the high level of dispersion worked against the First FedCom. Individual redoubts were swept away by the skilled Genyosha warriors, while the Second Genyosha dropped directly into the Logan City spaceport in a daring avalanche drop that placed them directly in the First FedCom's rear area. After a chaotic twelve-hour battle the Second Genyosha firmly held the upper hand, and the surviving FedCom forces in the area retreated to Logan City, and Tai-sa Jürgen Miyabe confirmed via probing attacks that the FedCom positions in the city were well-prepared and fortified.

Asano's assessment that Miyabe's cautious approach to the city assessment was correct led him to deploy the Third Battalion of the First Genyosha to support the Second, while the remaining battalions of the First Genyosha secured New Anaheim, and industrial city. By the 8th of August Asano was happy that New Anaheim was secure, and he dispatched a second battalion to join the forces at Logan City. An attack launched by the combined forces on the 9th of August began reasonably well, but the First FedCom and Delta regiment put up a strong defense, slowing the Geyosha's progress. As Asano continued to push forward, he received news that the Seventh Donegal Guards had arrived in orbit, dispatched by Field Marshal Vanessa Bisla to reinforce the forces on Nashira.

Asano withdrew his troops from Logan City on the 10th of August, and a six-week campaign of raids and counter-raids ensued as Asano and Daniel Voss-Steiner matched wits and strategies against each other. Both commanders were skilled, and while Voss-Steiner retained the advantage in terms of numbers, Asano kept the initiative; the FedCom forces consistently found themselves recapturing one important facility only to find that the Genyosha had captured another at the same time. The militia forces on Nashira continued their campaign of guerrilla attacks, with the tempo of attacks steadily increasing; the damage from an individual attack was relatively minimal, but the attacks continued to inflict damage and sap resources from the occupying forces. The tempo of attacks and acts of civil disobedience increased sharply in September, reaching a fever pitch in the second week of October. The climax came with a chemical weapons attack at Raven Ridge that caused a massive loss of life amongst the FedCom forces, and which prompted Asano to launch the Genyosha in attacks against the militia.

The Raven Ridge attack disenchanted both the Genyosha and the FedCom forces, causing the campaign to drop markedly in intensity, with just a handful of clashes being fought in October. The FedCom forces were officially recalled by the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces later in October, a decision that many saw as a betrayal of those who'd lost their lives at Raven Ridge. Voss-Steiner actively argued against that perception of events, making it clear in public that he regarded the Genyosha as being in no way responsible for the attack; Voss-Steiner even went so far as to praise Asano's troops for the way in which they had quickly moved to crush the terrorist cells and provide aid to the victims of the attack. Despite Voss-Steiner's efforts, the Raven Ridge attack remained a cause of great resentment among the LCAF personnel, particularly after rumors of ISF involvement in the attack circulated.

Operation GUERRERO

When the Free Worlds League and Capellan Confederation launched Operation GUERRERO the Vegan Rangers were on the front lines. Each of the four regiments had been on a different world when the CCAF units and supporting mercenaries attacked, and each of the Ranger regiments were outnumbered three-to-one when all four worlds were attacked simultaneously. Forced to retreat or be destroyed through attrition the Rangers fell back, first to Corey and then to Second Try, attempting to form a coordinated defense. Unfortunately for the Rangers, both Corey and Second Try had already been captured when the Rangers arrived, forcing them to fall back further.

The Rangers split into two task groups, with Gamma and Delta Regiments jumping to Pleione; arriving at a pirate point near the planet, they discovered that Pleione had also been recaptured and was garrisoned by Brion's Legion, a mercenary unit that had earned a poor reputation in the Fourth Succession War and spent decades under contract to ComStar. Gamma and Delta launched an attack on Pleione, hoping to secure the world for the Federated Commonwealth again, but having already been weakened by the earlier battles and short on ammunition, the Rangers were unable to overcome the Legion. The two Ranger regiments withdrew to Algol, where they were finally able to rest and refit. It was at this point that General Tom Stancel, the overall Commanding Officer of the Rangers, chose to disband Delta Regiment and merged its survivors into Beta Regiment, bringing Beta back up to full strength.

Officers

Rank	Name	Command
Commanding Officers of Delta Regiment
Colonel	Mitch Nelson	3028-3039
Colonel	Alex Greene	3050 - 3054

Tactics

Unknown.

Support

Unknown.

Composition History

3025

Delta Regiment (Regiment/Regular/Reliable)

Note: At this point in time the unit was stationed on Edwards.

3039

Delta Regiment (Regular/Reliable)

3050

Delta Regiment (Regiment/Regular/Reliable)

• CO: Colonel Alex Greene

Note: At this point in time the unit was stationed on Chamdo.

3054

Delta Regiment (Regular/Reliable)

• CO: Colonel Alex Green

- At this point in time Delta Regiment was based on Chamdo.

Bibliography

• 20 Year Update
• Field Manual: Mercenaries
• Historical: War of 3039
• House Davion (The Federated Suns)
• NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 1
• NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 2
• Objective Raids