Joan Brandt

Joan Brandt
Personal
Born	26 August 2712
Died	16 March 2799
Affiliation	Star League
Profile
Rank	Admiral
Title(s)	Director of Naval Command
Position(s)	Commander of Task Force Commonwealth
Profession	Aerospace pilot
Family
Spouse	Erik Peterson
Children	Carl Peterson Andrea Peterson Demitri Peterson

Joan Brandt was one of the three most senior Star League Defense Force commanders during Operation CHIEFTAIN.

History

Early Career

Joan Brandt was born on Outreach and learned to fly as early as she could. By the time she entered the Flight Academy of Graham, she had more than a dozen aerospace qualifications and logged nearly 1,000 flight hours. Upon graduation, Brandt was assigned to the Seventy-fifth Light Horse Regiment—considered an honor by many—though she felt their ground support operations were beneath her and not what she joined the SLDF to do. Her pride, ego, and poor attitude held up promotions and got her transferred several times within the Tenth Army.

In 2739, Brandt engaged in a reckless, unauthorized, and highly skilled mock combat exercise involving two fighters from the Free Worlds League and was nearly court-martialed, but Vice Admiral Lucien Peterson had witnessed her exploits from the bridge of the SLS Golden Hind and intervened in the disciplinary proceedings on her behalf, instead transferring her to the 711th Fleet Interceptor Squadron, one of the units within the Seventh Fleet's aerospace forces stationed aboard the Golden Hind.

Finally able to utilize her full skill set and potential, Brandt's career skyrocketed. During the Third Hidden War, she notched her fiftieth aerospace victory and was awarded the Geerson Flying Cross in 2741 as the 711th claimed the most bandit fighter kills that year. Brandt rose to the rank of commodore in 2747 and was put in charge of Fleet Aero Wing 73, and again promoted to rear admiral in 2750 to command the SLS Arkhangelsk, the flagship of the Seventh Fleet. For most of that decade, she alternated between WarShip and fighter groups in the Seventh and Fifth Fleets, ultimately being given command of the Second Fleet in 2759.

Periphery Uprising

Commanding General Aleksandr Kerensky promoted Joan Brandt to Director of Naval Command in 2762 but she stepped down two years later to oversee combat operations in the Magistracy of Canopus during the Periphery Uprising. Army Group Twelve consisted of five SLDF Armies and Brandt's initial efforts were focused on securing the border, with the Thirteenth Army securing the worlds around Lindenmarle and the Twelfth Army securing the worlds around Borgan's Rift. She then had the Ninth and Tenth Armies push deeper into Magistracy territory, isolating the capital, and plans were well underway for the capture of Canopus when Kerensky ordered a cessation of hostilities at the onset of the Amaris Civil War.

Amaris Civil War

Joan Brandt was the ideal officer to lead Task Force Commonwealth, one of Kerensky's three theaters during Operation CHIEFTAIN. Having occupied the Rim Worlds Republic for a couple years as a staging area to regroup and resupply at the beginning of the war, the SLDF forces departed in early 2772, with Brandt's task force leaving last, by 9 February, due to having the shortest distance to travel to the Terran Hegemony compared to the task forces commanded by Kerensky and Aaron DeChavilier. The total forces under her command included twenty-seven BattleMech divisions, seventy-three infantry divisions, and 101 independent regiments—the largest of the three task forces given it was responsible for the largest front, with target worlds ranging from Bordon along the FWL border, to Nashira on the Draconis Combine border.

Bibliography

• Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1
• Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2