58th Brigade

Fifty-eighth Brigade
Formed	2571–2575
Affiliation	Star League
Parent Command	Twentieth Division

The Fifty-eighth Brigade was a part of the Star League Defense Force Regular Army.

History

The Brigade was originally formed during the creation of the SLDF between 2571 and 2575, and was a part of the Twentieth Division during the Reunification War, where it served in the Magistracy of Canopus campaign from 2577 to 2588.

As a part of the Magistracy of Canopus task force, the Fifty-eighth was stationed on Tellman's Mistake alongside the other elements of the Twentieth Division when military action against the Magistracy began. The Commanding Officer of VII Corps, Captain-General Marion Marik, would often assign a division or more of troops to the conquest of various worlds by drawing together brigades from across VII Corps. The Fifty-eighth often operated in conjunction with other brigades from VII Corps as well as fighting alongside units from the Free Worlds League Military assigned to the task force as auxiliary forces.

Cranston

The Fifty-eighth was assigned to the conquest of Cranston in one of the first campaigns of the war. Cranston was expected to be a tough battle; the Fifty-eighth had already been ordered to redeploy most of the brigade's fighters to the Fifty-seventh Brigade for their assault on the nearby world of Restitution. To bolster the Fifty-eighth, the Second Orloff Grenadiers and the First Marik Militia were deployed alongside them from the auxiliary FWLM contingent. Defending Cranston when the Fifty-eighth landed in October 2577 were the First Canopian Grenadiers, who the Fifty-eighth soon discovered were much better armed and equipped than SLDF intelligence had indicated. Although the Fifty-eighth and the FWLM units had the Canopian Grenadiers heavily outnumbered, the Canopians played to their own strengths by using maneuverability, speed and the local terrain to constantly harass the SLDF units, hitting hard and fading back before the Fifty-eighth or the Marik troops could bring their superior numbers to bear.

Hampered by a lack of aerospace forces to do any reconnaissance or gather intelligence and facing a foe that refused to engage in stand-up battles dragged the Fifty-eighth's campaign out into November; events then took a turn for the worse when, on the 9th of November, the SLDF WarShip picket line in the system reported an unidentified vessel arriving at a pirate point in the system. The new vessel was inside the picket, and successfully deployed DropShips onto the northern continent of Cranston, from which emerged the Third Canopian Light Horse, fresh and supposedly the garrison for Restitution according to SLDF intelligence. Suddenly faced with twice the number of enemy forces and completely outmatched in the air thanks to the significant aerospace forces accompanying the Third Light Horse, the Fifty-eighth Brigade commander decided to split his forces; General Michael Martinnson deployed two thirds of his forces against the First Canopian Grenadiers, while ordering the other third and both Marik regiments to prevent the Third Canopian Light Horse from linking up with the Canopian Grenadiers. The next three weeks were a brutal campaign, particularly for the scratch company of aerospace pilots and fighters that were all the Fifty-eighth and the Second Orloff Grenadiers could muster to defend them from the Canopian aerospace assets; by the time the MAF defenders had been forced to retreat from Cranston, three weeks after the Third Light Horse's arrival, the Fifty-eighth had been bloodied, the MAF had proved that the war was going to be fought in a fashion entirely different to that predicted by the SLDF planners, and the surviving SLDF aerospace pilots from the scratch company were the first recipients of the Star League Medal of Honor in the Canopian theater.

Ruschegg

In contrast with the difficult campaign to capture Cranston, the Fifty-eighth Brigade deployment to capture Ruschegg in 2578 was relatively easy; one of three former Free Worlds League which had defected to the Magistracy in the 2550s, all three were conquered through a display of overwhelming force and agile diplomacy by Captain-General Marik. The defenders of Ruschegg effectively offered no resistance to the SLDF landings, although it would have been difficult for any local militia to contest an invasion which saw the Fifty-eighth deploy alongside the 62nd Royal Brigade and no less than four regiments of FWLM regulars, including two regiments from the Marik Militia and two brigades from the Fusiliers of Oriente. Within a very short period of time the planetary leader of Ruschegg had not only surrendered but was actively petitioning for Ruschegg to be admitted into the Free Worlds League.

Aspropirgos & Borgan's Rift

The MAF had managed to surprise and outfox the SLDF task force several times in the opening years of the war, and as a result the SLDF timetable slowed as Captain-General Marik built up her forces for the next major invasions. In addition to refitting and rearming VII Corps and the FWLM regiments acting in support, Marik targeted two worlds each year for invasion, consolidating gains as part of a slow encirclement of the Magistracy capital world of Canopus IV. The Fifty-eighth was involved in two of these four campaigns; in September 2580, the Fifty-eighth landed on Aspropirgos alongside the Third Marik Militia and the Second Brigade of the Fusiliers of Oriente, clashing with the First Canopian Fusiliers and the Second Canopian Grenadiers. In what would be the standard pattern of warfare for the MAF when defending worlds during 2580–2581, the two Canopian regiments did their best to sting the Fifty-eighth and the supporting Marik regiments before retreating ahead of any effective retaliation, saving their strength for later battles. The same thing happened when the Fifty-eighth landed on Borgan's Rift in September-October 2581, accompanied again by the Third Marik Militia and with the 402nd Independent Regiment also providing support; this time the Fifty-eighth faced two of the mercenary units employed by the MAF, The Red Hand and Kincani's Dragoons, but the campaign was a repeat of the battle for Aspropirgos.

Tetski

Tetski was an important world to the Magistracy and to the MAF in particular; Tetski was not just an industrialized world, but more importantly it was the site of the largest BattleMech repair and refurbishment facilities outside of the Canopus IV. The MAF regularly moved regiments and battalions through Tetski for repair and refit, and capturing Tetski would deal a heavy blow to the MAF. As a result, Tetski was one of the few worlds to have a permanent naval picket in orbit in addition to any defending ground forces. The SLDF campaign to capture Tetski began with the insertion of two battalions of the First Marik Militia onto Tetski in early September 2582, a distraction intended to tie up the defending Third Canopian Light Horse. After five days of extended combat across the wilds of Tetski, the SLDF launched the second stage of the invasion, launching a surprise assault where a large WarShip contingent tore through the defending picket, destroying both vessels before dropping the Fifty-eighth Brigade onto the planet along with two more regiments of FWLM troops. The Third Light Horse made a high-speed run to the capital city of Tokhai and the vital BattleMech repair facilities there, arriving just minutes ahead of the Fifty-eighth. Refusing calls to surrender in the face of overwhelming numbers, the Third Light Horse fought to the last man, inflicting heavy losses on the Fifty-eighth and the Marik regiments before being destroyed.

Canopus IV

The battle for Canopus IV was the last major campaign for the Fifty-eighth Brigade during the war with the Magistracy. In battle from the first day of combat, the Fifty-eighth was responsible for the destruction of the First Canopian Grenadiers, the unit that the Fifty-eighth had battled several years before on Cranston. The Fifty-eighth pushed the First Grenadiers back against the Thetis River and then systematically reduced the Canopian regiment to a fraction of its former self, with just two companies of Canopian 'Mechs surviving to retreat across the river. After the defeat and surrender of the Magestrix and the defending Canopian forces on Canopus, the Fifty-eighth wouldn't fight another significant battle before the end of the war.

Officers

Rank	Name	Command
Commanding Officers of the 58th Brigade
General	Michael Martinnson	Outbreak of the Reunification War
General	Kossovich	2582

Notes

• General Kossovich had replaced General Michael Martinnson by the invasion of Tetski in 2582.

Tactics

Unknown.

Composition History

Despite the doctrine and organization originally defined during the creation of the SLDF, most SLDF brigades were a mélange of combined arms units. However, the Fifty-eighth appears to have been formed entirely from BattleMech regiments.

Notes

• The Fifty-eighth is described during the invasion of Cranston as being composed of nine BattleMech regiments. This is three times the number of regiments normally seen in an SLDF brigade, and has been queried at the Catalyst Game Labs forum.
• Special Rules for the Fifty-eighth Brigade can be found on Historical: Reunification War, p. 181.

Bibliography

• Historical: Reunification War