2nd Canopian Grenadiers

Overview

One of the two regiments that made up the Canopian Grenadiers within the Magistracy Armed Forces, the Second Canopian Grenadiers were captured during the Reunification War, and later disbanded.

History

Formation

The 2nd Canopian Grenadiers were formed at some point either during the Age of War or as a part of the MAF build-up in the early years of the Reunification War prior to the invasion of the Magistracy by the Star League.

Reunification War

The 2nd Canopian Grenadiers spent several years during the Star League invasion moving from world to world within the Magistracy of Canopus, keeping the SLDF task force guessing as to where the various MAF regiments were, a form of warfare likened to an elaborate shell game. Some of the worlds garrisoned by the 1st Grenadiers included Nobel and the Magistracy capital world, Canopus IV. The 2nd Grenadiers would only be directly involved in two major engagements during the war.

Aspropirgos

The Star League Defense Force task force commanded by Captain-General Marion Marik launched their attack on Aspropirgos in September 2580, and while the planetary invasion force was smaller than those used during 2578 and 2579, it still consisted of a complete SLDF brigade - the 58th - supported by the 3rd Marik Militia and the 2nd Brigade of the Fusiliers of Oriente. Defending Aspropirgos were the 1st Canopian Fusiliers and the 2nd Canopian Grenadiers; despite being outnumbered by a large margin the Canopian forces still managed to contest the invasion, stinging the SLDF forces and then retreating before the SLDF could mount an effective pursuit, preserving their strength as the MAF rebuilt and rearmed.

Thurrock

The battle for Thurrock began as an attempt by the MAF to regain the initiative against the SLDF task force, and ended up being a decisive victory in favour of the invaders and the beginning of the end for the Magistracy campaign. Attempting to repeat the kind of victory achieved in earlier years on worlds like Meadowvale, the MAF acted on intelligence from the Magistracy Intelligence Ministry indicating that Thurrock was a supply and repair world important to the SLDF supply chain but only lightly armored, and dispatched a strike force consisting of the bulk of the Magistracy Navy and three complete regiments of troops, the 2nd Grenadiers, Kincani's Dragoons and Force Majoris. Unfortunately for the Magistracy, Thurrock was an elaborate ambush; the MAF troops arrived in system and seized the nadir cargo stations, only to find the system suspiciously empty of shipping. The ground units launched their DropShips for the attack on the various garrisons and depots on Thurrock, only to learn halfway through the transit to the planet that an SLDF naval flotilla five times the size of the MAF strike force had jumped in from the nearby Claybrooke system using information gathered by covert monitoring ships dotted throughout the Thurrock system. The SLDF WarShips arrived close enough to the MAF transport ships to prevent them jumping away and then used their superior numbers to hunt down and destroy the MAF WarShips before capturing the MAF ground troops.

Disbandment

All of the surviving MAF regiments from the Reunification War were forced to disband by 2588, and records indicate that the Grenadiers were wiped out as a formation during the war. The MAF rebuilt a number of regiments covertly in the buildup to the Amaris Civil War, but throughout the Succession Wars era the MAF would be unable to afford to rebuild regiments or create new units until the latter half of the 31st century; to date, there has been no sign of the Canopian Grenadiers being reformed, and it would seem more likely that other, more prestigious units such as the 4th Canopian Light Horse would be rebuilt ahead of the 2nd Grenadiers.

Bibliography

• Field Manual: Periphery
• Historical: Reunification War