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Revision as of 07:53, 28 April 2015

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The Northwind Highlanders are a storied unit, with the roots of their history in the ancient Terran nation of Scotland.[1]


History

Succession Wars

Led by Clan Stuart, a group of Scots that included the last vestiges of Scotland's military, the Highlanders colonized the planet of Northwind, largely due to its agreeable climate.[1] Throughout the centuries, the Highlanders earned a reputation as an elite unit with high standards and morals that were not for sale. During the Third Succession War they signed on with the Capellan Confederation, in what was essentially an exclusive contract, after the Federated Suns invaded Northwind and destroyed two Highlander regiments. The situation changed, however, when Prince Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns decided to invade the Capellan Confederation in what would become known as the Fourth Succession War.

A turning point in Highlanders history was when Davion contacted them and promised them a home on their ancestral homeworld, Northwind. The vast majority of the Highlanders chose to abandon the Capellan Confederation and took up station on Northwind. Some Highlanders chose to stay, however, creating rifts in some families. The Highlanders ably served the Federated Commonwealth, including service along the Clan front.

Clan Invasion Era and FedCom Civil War Era

Another turning point occurred in 3057, when Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao sent Loren Jaffray, a Death Commando whose grandfather was a Highlander who remained in the Confederation, to Northwind to offer the Highlanders their independence. Coinciding with the Marik-Liao invasion, the Highlanders were tied up as they fought a minor civil war, then debated whether or not to accept the Chancellor's proposal. Colonel William McLeod, the ranking Highlander on planet, was able to reunite his troops and ultimately they chose to fight for their independence, and with the arrival of Stirling's Fusiliers sent the Lyran 3rd Royal Guards packing. Though Jaffray's mission was supposedly to destroy the Highlanders for their betrayal of Sun-Tzu's grandfather, Liao seemed content to have deprived the Federated Commonwealth of them and accepted the Death Commando's defection to the Highlanders with nary a second thought.

Jaffray proved his loyalty to the Highlanders soon enough in a raid against Clan Smoke Jaguar. In the aftermath of this operation, Jaffray was put in command of the Northwind Hussars, a new unit formed specifically to counter Clan tactics.[2] (Interestingly, the same concept had been proposed much earlier to the Highlanders by Jeremiah Rose, who was rebuffed due to the objections of his own father.)[3]

In 3059, the Highlanders contributed forces to Task Force Serpent, a Star League force sent to destroy Clan Smoke Jaguar on their homeworld of Huntress.

In 3066, the Highlanders joined Jaime Wolf and Wolf's Dragoons in the Allied Mercenary Command, an alliance dedicated to stopping Word of Blake expansion in the Chaos March.

Jihad

The sudden, consecutive deaths of four Clan Elders forced the Highlanders to activate escape clauses in their contracts to return to Northwind, so they could participate in emergency elections.[4] The Word of Blake seized the opportunity to blockade the system on 15 December, 3067, and keep all of the Highlanders regiments isolated on Northwind.[5][6]

Later in the Jihad, when the Word of Blake debuted a new version of the Crab BattleMech, it was speculated by many that the Cosara Weaponries plant on Northwind had been captured by the Blakists. [7]

Northwind was liberated on the 8th of December 3077; allied coalition forces expected a battle, but instead found no Blakist presence in the system. The population of Northwind claimed to believe that the Word of Blake had an impenetrable blockade over the system; all of the local AeroSpace assets were missing, and the local satellite communications network had been destroyed. The planetary HPG had also been destroyed, but the Highlanders were otherwise intact after ten years of isolation.[8]

The Highlanders later joined the Coalition forces as part of Operation SCOUR. Assigned to the Draconis Combine front, the Highlanders mopped up resistance on Dieron after the Ghost Bears tore through the defenders.[8][9] Though many were unsure of their loyalty, the Highlanders joined the assault on Terra, assigned to take Sydney.[10] The combat drop went awry and the Sydney force took serious losses. The Seventh and Twenty-Sixth Divisions fought the mercenaries for every centimeter of land.[11]

Dark Age

Early Republic Era

By 3081 the Northwind Highlanders' programme to rebuild was well-advanced; the factories on Northwind assisted in bringing the strength of the Highlanders up quickly, and the Highlanders had already recruited enough replacements to man all of their equipment. The few Dispossessed within the Highlanders' ranks were used to teach within the Northwind Military Academy on the key subjects of combined arms warfare and what limited defences existed for protection against WMDs. The view among the Highlanders was that the nascent Republic Armed Forces may present a viable means to ensure that Northwind remained safe in the future, and it was widely anticipated that the Highlanders would join the Republic of the Sphere.[12]

When the Northwind Highlanders officially joined the Republic's Armed Forces, through negotiations, the entire brigade would end up being absorbed and mixed in with new born regiments of the Republic exception of the First Kearny. The First Kearny would be allow to soldier on as continuing legacy of Northwind Highlanders history. Four of the Regiments would fight in Republic's first military action, Operation Golden Dawn, where they would fight the Free Worlds League and be later absorbed in Republic Auxiliaries as they became too damaged function on their own. Elements of the Highlanders would be noted becoming later the Ninth and Tenth Hastati Sentinels. The First Kearny's rebuilding process would be hammered for years due actions taken the Golden Dawn, where one of one of it's battalions would be used to rebuild the Third Republic Auxiliaries.[13]

File:RotS - Highlanders.jpg
New emblem of the Northwind Highlanders under The Republic of the Sphere

In the early years of the Republic after the Brigade was reduced to the First Kearny, the regiment served as a garrison force defending the Northwind Military Academy. As time went on, the Highlander's lastt regiment would soon deploy offworld in a new role as a troubling shooting force for the Republic.[14]

Black Out and Chaos

By 3132, Highlander's leader, Countess Tara Campbell, Prefect of Prefecture III, had taken charge of the entire brigade. With the crash of the HPG Network, the Northwind Highlanders came to be perhaps one of only Republic loyal military forces left to ward off rebellion and invasions, which includes Campbell's former mentor and predecessor Katana Tormark, leadering her own splinter group for House Kurita. Campbell dispatched and dispersed the 1st Kearny across Prefecture III to quell rebellions and uprisings. Minigate thinning of her lone regiment, Campbell put a call to arms of loyal Republicans to aid her efforts fighting threats to the nation. In doing so, the Northwind Highlanders once again became a multi-regimental brigade and gained two additional regiments of troops, the Northwind Fusiliers and Republic Guards. The new brigade was made from memorial groups of the Northwind Highlanders past regiments and volunteers from across the Republic and beyond. With the later regiment forming as both the First Kearny and Fusiliers, coverage ran thin for trying to put off the Republic's troubles.

In 3133, elements of the Highlanders would face multiple invasions of Northwind by the Steel Wolves within nine months, which left Northwind with a considerable amount of damage. Despite this, Campbell redeployed the Northwind Highlanders to search for the Steel Wolves. By April, intelligence reports lead the regiment to Terra, where they would face off and repel a Clan force with aid of the Tenth Principes Guards.[15]

Prefect Campbell became a media darling and turned down a position as Paladin after her successful defense of Terra. The Highlanders were used within the Republic as a sort of troubleshooting unit, constantly heading to hotspots. 3134 saw them garrisoning Addicks and Small World in addition to their home world[16] .

Within two months of repelling the Steel Wolves, the Northwind Highlanders were called to Skye, where they would end up mounting defenses against Clan Jade Falcon's invasion of Prefecture IX, which would lead to the Highlanders beeing allied with the remaining Prefecture forces and splinter groups, including the Stormhammers and Steel Wolves. Jade Falcons Expedition would ultimately succeed in taking Skye in second battle.[17][18]

Absorption of the Northwind Highlanders and their Legacy

The First Kearny was within Prefecture X, when the Fortress's Walls was carried out in October 3135. The RAF ordered to organize its combat-units within Prefecture X, including the First Kearny, into other newly raised line regiments. This did not sit well with people of Northwind, and to appease the population, the newly formed Twelfth Hastatis Sentinels would be raised with a large percentage of soldiers, who had ancestry links to the Highlander´s regiments. The newly formed regiment maintained a close relationship with the Northwind Military Academy, rotating officers as instructors to the school and exercised with cadets as part of their training.[19]

Units of the Northwind Highlanders

These are the listings for all the regimental formations that have served or are currently serving Highlanders:

Gallery

Notes

  • The current publishers state, that in many of the earlier publications based in the 3025 era, the Highlanders had apparently been serving House Liao for so long they were no longer considered mercenary, but closer to regular House troops. CCAF Regular army recruits and academy graduates were frequently assigned to Highlander regiments, including a young Wayne Waco.[20][21] Actually, this is not correct, since several of the original Highlander regiments originated in the Capellan Confederation even before the Star League era. Marion's Highlanders originated from St. Ives Militia units, and McCormack's Fusiliers were bloodied in the defense of the Capellan planet Tikonov. The 1st Kearny Highlanders fought for House Liao during the First Andurien War. [22]
  • The Northwind Highlanders appear in the MechWarrior IV: Mercenaries computer game as a possible sponsor. Units sponsored by the Highlanders gain additional C-Bills per mission completed.
  • Field Manual: 3145 notes the First Kearny Highlander regiment being absorbed by the Republic Armed Forces behind the Republic wall. However, there is no mentions of the fates of the newly raised Northwind Fusiliers and Republic Guard regiments. Also, listed among the Armed Forces of the Republic Remnents, is a single Battalion listed simply as the "Highlander Battalion". It is not clear in the text of the Field Manual if this unit is related to the Northwind Highlanders.[23]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Northwind Highlanders, p. 6
  2. Northwind Highlanders
  3. Main Event
  4. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 44, "The Jihad In Review"
  5. Jihad Hot Spots: 3070, p. 11, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  6. Blake Ascending, p. 171, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  7. Technical Readout: 3050 Upgrade, p. 198
  8. 8.0 8.1 Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 58, "The Jihad in Review"
  9. Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 69
  10. Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 96
  11. Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, pp. 104-105
  12. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 120, "Northwind Highlanders"
  13. Field Manual: 3145, p. 180, 183 Hastati Sentinels & Independent Units - 1st Kearny survival and fate of the other regiments of the Northwind highlanders.
  14. Era Digest: Dark Age, pp. 15-16 - Northwind Highlanders - Info on intermediate years before Dark Age.
  15. Era Digest: Dark Age, p. 8-9 "Brief information of the Highlanders and Tara Campbell's efforts to fight off Steel Wolves on Northwind and Terra.
  16. Truth and Shadows, p. 108
  17. Era Report: 3145, p. 15 Falcon's Descent "Brief details of the Highlanders efforts to defense Prefecture IX in the two battle for Skye."
  18. Era Digest: Dark Age, p. 8-9 brief information of the Northwind Highlanders efforts to defended against the Falcons with unlikely allies.
  19. Field Manual: 3145, pp. 135, 140 - Hastatis Sentinels "Fate of the First Kearny Highlanders and perhaps the entire brigade and RAF response to appease unhappiness with newly raised Twelfth Hastatis Sentinels.".
  20. Mercenary's Handbook, p. 86
  21. Succession Wars
  22. House Liao: The Capellan Conferation, p. 81 - 83
  23. Field Manual: 3145, p. 145 Republic Remnents - Highlanders Battalion "Unit listed by Highlanders Battalion, not clear if these are related to the Northwind Highlanders."


Bibliography