Mieselsen's Marauders

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History

Mieselsen's Marauders was one of several Age of War-era mercenary units hired by the Magistracy Armed Forces as part of a crash military buildup in the years immediately before the Reunification War. The mercenary trade fluctuated heavily in the years around the birth of the Star League, with the peacekeeping efforts of the Terran Hegemony drastically reducing the market for mercenaries, shortly before the mass demobilization of House forces in the wake of the formation of the Star League glutted the market with former House troops.[1] The Magestrix of the Magistracy of Canopus at the time, Crystalla Centrella, knew that war between the Star League and the Magistracy was inevitable; as a part of her efforts to increase the strength of the MAF, Centrella hired half a dozen mercenary units, including Mieselsen's Marauders.[2]

Reunification War

When the phoney war became a real war in 2577, Mieselsen's Marauders were acting as garrison for the Magistracy world of Umka; as a part of the elaborate shell game played by the commander of the MAF, Colonel Adam Buquoy, Kincani's Dragoons were moved between worlds several times during the war, deployments intended to keep the SLDF task force guessing as to where MAF units were. Mieselsen's Marauders would garrison several worlds during the war, including Marantha and Megarez.[3][4]

Vakarel

The 59th Brigade assault on Vakarel was the last of the planetary invasions assigned by SLDF Task Force Canopus in the first year of the war. The 59th quickly forced the defending Marauders to retreat, but securing the various mining operations within the system's asteroid belts was another matter entirely; forced to navigate within the asteroid fields hampered sensor performance and maneuverability, and the bulk of the combat action fell to the marine detachments aboard the various SLDF WarShips while the majority of the 59th remained aboard their DropShips waiting for the rare call for them to deploy their firepower. Despite the asteroid clearance work being tedious and time-consuming, the 59th Brigade declared that the system had been occupied on the 11th of November 2577.[5][4]

It came as a great shock to the 59th and their WarShip escorts when the combined MAF 1st and 2nd Fleets jumped in-system to launch a counter-attack on the 14th of November. This was the first time the MAF navy had attacked an SLDF formation, and the two fleets represented every MAF capital ship not permanently assigned to guarding key worlds. The combined force pressed the SLDF forces hard, striking throughout the system. The SLDF naval flotilla had been operating in small formations to clear the system, and suffered significant losses at the hands of the Canopian navy; one detachment alone lost a corvette and five JumpShips as well as two battalions of embarked troops from the 59th. The SLDF WarShips, fighters and DropShips managed to drive the MAF ships off, but not before the Canopians had bloodied VII Corps and the 59th.[5]

Meadowvale & Hindmarsh

The raid on Meadowvale was a Mieselsen's Marauders. Buquoy had deduced that the SLDF supply lines were vulnerable, partly because the SLDF supply worlds were all located either in the Capellan Confederation or the Free Worlds League and Captain-General Marion Marik and her advisors assumed that the war would largely be fought on her terms - which meant inside Magistracy space. In early January 2578 Buquoy dispatched a sizeable portion of the Magistracy Armed Forces on missions inside the Free Worlds League; Buquoy led four of the mercenary units under contract to the MAF personally on a strike against the key world of Meadowvale. Buquoy's Bandits were accompanied by Mieselsen's Marauders, Kincani's Dragoons and Samuelson's Slaughterers. Buquoy led his Bandits directly at a huge supply camp named Camp Torrence, a legacy of the Second Andurien War and the principal supply base for the SLDF on the world. The Bandits struck the camp and then continued to fight, deliberately drawing the defending garrison to them; the Bandits then held the garrison in place for five hours while the other mercenary regiments struck at other SLDF supply camps across the world before all of the mercenary units lifted off the world and retreated back into Magistracy space. The Meadowvale strike and the others across Free Worlds League space were an almost total success, and not only slowed the SLDF offensive down significantly but would then be emulated several times in the future.[6]

The Marauders had the chance to conduct another raid in the same style as the Meadowvale raid in 2580, one of a series of raids that would continue to pull SLDF resources away from the front line.[4]

Marantha

With the MAF largely destroyed at the disastrous ambush on Thurrock and Canopus IV captured in May 2584, the surviving MAF units were largely pinned in place and the Star League conquest of the Magistracy seemed inevitable. The SLDF task force dispatched the 56th Brigade to conquer Marantha in the second half of 2584, with support from the 4th Marik Militia and the 3rd Regulan Hussars. The SLDF invasion was fiercely contested by the 1st Canopian Light Horse and Mieselsen's Marauders despite being outnumbered more than two to one, and the resulting battle saw the Marauders effectively destroyed as a combat unit although the 1st Light Horse managed to escape off-world.[7][8][9]

Officer

Tactic

Support

Mercenary Rating

Composition

Notes

References

  1. Historical: Reunification War, p. 59, "Adam Buquoy"
  2. Historical: Reunification War, p. 41, "Magistracy Armed Forces (MAF)"
  3. Historical: Reunification War, p. 94, "Reunification War: Magistracy of Canopus Front Deployments (2577)"
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Historical: Reunification War, p. 150, "Magistracy of Canopus Front (Jump Off-2583)" Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "H:RWp150" defined multiple times with different content
  5. 5.0 5.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 98, "Butzfleth and Vakarel (October-November 2577)"
  6. Historical: Reunification War, p. 99, "Meadowvale (January 2578)"
  7. Historical: Reunification War, p. 105, "Mopping Up (2584-2588)"
  8. Historical: Reunification War, p. 149, "Magistracy Of Canopus Front (2583-2588)"
  9. Historical: Reunification War, p. 151, "Magistracy Of Canopus Front (2583-2588)"

Bibliography