8th Amaris Fusiliers

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Amaris Fusiliers.png
Eighth Amaris Fusiliers
Affiliation Rim Worlds Republic
Parent Command Amaris Fusiliers

A line regiment in the Rim Worlds Army, the Eighth Amaris Fusiliers were the second unit to defect to the Rift Republican Army Rim Provisional Government at the outset of the Rim Worlds Republic civil war in 2575.

History[edit]

Reunification War[edit]

Dissatisfaction at the rule of First Consul Gregory Amaris had been growing within the Rim Worlds Republic for some time prior to the civil war. Measures such as the Universal Act of Loyalty, which required citizens of the Republic to swear loyalty to House Amaris and, through House Amaris, the Star League,[1] were unpopular, as were Amaris' tax policies and economic governance, which favored industries and individuals from outside the Republic over domestic industries and citizens. Discontent grew sharply when Amaris passed the Manchester Directive in early 2575 that declared the Rim Republic Army to be an illegal body and gave the government powers to seize the assets and holdings of RRA members.[2] Extremist members of the RRA had been involved in incidents such as the seizure of the barracks at Efrimal Long in 2573 but in general the RRA was considered to be an honorable institution akin to a veterans association with many respected members.[1]

The tipping point that led to open civil war was Amaris' decision to attempt to use military force to end a workers strike at the Diplass Technologies BattleMech plant on Apollo. The workers in protest over Amaris' economic and tax policies, which were intended to boost the economy of the Republic and make the Republic a serious competitor to the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere, but which saw foreign business receive preferential treatment within the Republic and saw managerial and technical posts within industries such as the Diplass plant given to Star League citizens rather than Republic citizens. Gregory Amaris' decision to use military force to quash the strike was entirely in keeping with his character, but he didn't reckon on the character of Colonel Catherine Dormax, commander of the Seventh Amaris Legionnaires, when he ordered the Seventh to attack the strikers.[3]

Faced with direct orders to execute everyone at the Diplass plant, Dormax instead chose to refuse her orders and put her troops at the disposal of the Rim Provisional Government,[4] the provisional ruling body organized by the strikers and the RRA in response to the actions of Amaris and the Fourth Dragoons.[3]

A furious Gregory Amaris promptly ordered the Eighth Amaris Fusiliers to subdue the Seventh Legionnaires and the strikers, only to have Colonel Dean Shields and the Fusiliers also defect to the RPG.[5][6] With the unpleasant realization that fully half of the Rim Worlds Army forces on Apollo had sided with the RPG and with the Fourth Dragoons' loyalties unclear, Amaris felt he had no choice but to retreat to his island estates under the protection of the Republican Guards, his personal troops who could be counted on to be loyal to him. Amaris fled, ceding control of the capital and the spaceport to the RPG, while dispatching a courier to Terra requesting support from the SLDF; he would continue to issue directives and orders, but with the Provisional Government in control of both the capital city and spaceport, Amaris' actual direct influence and control extended little further than the waters around his estate.[3]

While Amaris' courier managed to leave for Terra before RPG forces could seize the spaceport, news of the formation of the RPG was a massive shock to the Republic; as the news rippled out from Apollo, the populations and local governments of other planets within the Republic began to split along partisan lines. Some chose to remain loyal to Amaris as First Consul, others sided with the RPG, some planets declared their independence, and some military units fractured internally with soldiers supporting different sides. That the factions would come into conflict was never in question, and by July 2575 a de facto civil war was being waged within the Republic.[3]

When forces from Task Force MAILED FIST landed on Apollo in 2596, the Eighth Fusiliers joined the Seventh Legionnaires in the defense of the capital city, Terra Prime. Fighting against the Star League Defense Force, Lyran Commonwealth, and Free Worlds League forces as well as Amaris loyalists, the Eighth were directly involved in the fateful battle against the Fourth Royal Guards that saw Archon Viola Steiner-Dinesen mortally wounded, and held out for several months after General Nathan Isaacson took command of the siege.[7]

Amaris Civil War[edit]

The Eighth Fusiliers were involved in the defense of Terra during Operation CHIEFTAIN, defending Beijing against seven SLDF divisions alongside the Third Hegemony Patriots and local militia. They put up a stiff defense outside Beijing, giving up less than twenty kilometers to the SLDF after nine days of assaults and deflecting flanking attacks. It was only after the SLDF divisions that took Harbin joined the battle in mid-April that the Amaris forces gave up the spaceport and suburbs.[8]

Staging a fighting withdrawal, the Fusiliers and other Amaris troops retreated southwest and then west into a valley, before vanishing into a previously unknown entrance of the T'ienchen Castle Brian. Over the course of four months, the SLDF assaulted the Castle Brian, paying a steep price as the Eighth Amaris Fusiliers and Third Hegemony Patriots refused to surrender, forcing the Sixteenth Army to clear hundreds of miles of tunnels by force.[9]

Officers[edit]

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the 8th Amaris Fusiliers
Colonel Dean Shields 2581[5]

Tactics[edit]

Unknown.

Composition History[edit]

Unknown.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 127: "Descent into Madness (2571-2580)"
  2. Historical: Reunification War, p. 130: "The Manchester Directive"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Historical: Reunification War, pp. 130–131: "The Spark"
  4. Historical: Reunification War, p. 61: "Catherine Dormax"
  5. 5.0 5.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 131: "The Rim Worlds Army Loyalties"
  6. The Star League, p. 51
  7. Historical: Reunification War, p. 139: "Bitter Harvests (2591-2596)"
  8. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, p. 82: "Harbin"
  9. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, p. 89: "Consolidation (July 2777-June 2778)"

Bibliography[edit]