2600-2760 (Cont)
The return from the reunification war brought many problems apart from the purely logistical. ARMD had been reinforced over the previous 20 years by the Star League Defence Force Logistical and Reinforcement Supply Depots, commonly known as "Reppledepples". The SLDF poor initial planning for replacements had a terrible effect on the general morale and unit cohesion of almost all of the units within the Army. Simply put, once a soldier was separated from his unit by wounds or illness, there was little chance of him returning to that unit. Instead, he was sent to a replacement depot, a repple-depple in Army slang. From the depot, he would then be reassigned as needed to whatever unit had a shortfall in his particular MOS (military occupation specialty). This meant that a soldier could spend months of training, forming close bonds with comrades, the basis for unit cohesion, and then in his first day of combat could be separated from them, never to fight with them again.
Within ARMD the impact of this was to immediately dilute the traditions and history of the unit. ARMD received reinforcements with differing levels of training from both the Terran hegemony and House units. Traditional rivalries, both ethnic and nationalist were brought into ARMD by these new replacements, resulting in events like the refusal of units in the 3/4th Artillery to fire in support of the 3/14th infantry under attack. The infantry was largely made up of Kuritans from the Davion borders, the artillery was largely made up of Davions.
Once the unit returned to New Rhodes III and began to rebuild, several programmes were put in place in an effort to rebuild the shattered morale of the men and women of ARMD.
Medical and Psychological testing was undertaken on all members of the Division. Anyone found medically and/or mentally unfit to serve was discharged from service with an Honourable discharge. Those deemed physiologically unfit had the opportunity to retire to ARMD hospitals where they would be looked after for the rest of their lives. For most of the next decade, ARMD would operate the largest Veterans hospitals in the sector.
Internal unit "Truth" commissions were held. All members of ARMD had the opportunity at this point to confess to their involvement in anything that could be considered a war crime. Anyone who confessed could not later be prosecuted and discharged for their actions. Many members of the unit resigned rather than discuss their actions, many mentally collapsed under gentle questioning and could not be made to recall any actions. Several men who confessed and appeared to be proud of the horrific actions they had undertaken were quietly retired.
The mental purge of the experiences of the last 20 years was a cathartic experience for all of the members of ARMD. The process took several years and when complete large numbers of men and women had quit, retired or been discharged. The Truth commissions were declared closed.
On May 20th, 2608 22 ARMD men and women were found dead in their beds. On top of each body was a folder. None of the 22 men and women had been part of the Truth commission process and none of them had confessed to anything. The contents of the folder provided detailed and exhaustive evidence of extensive, brutal and horrific war crimes. The selling of slaves, mass murder, systematic torture and rape, every crime on the military stature books and some they had to make up new laws for, had been perpetrated by these people.
On the front of each folder was the motto of the Internal Intelligence arm of the Chindits, Fidelis Ultra Nex. 8 of the names were added to the Black List, all of them were recorded as dishonorably discharged. It was never divulged whether the Divisional commanders were informed of the killings beforehand, but the message was clear, even after 20 years of constant war the Chindit Internal Intelligence service was still present and active within ARMD.
Over the next hundred years, ARMD rebuilt not only its TO&E but also its ethos, its morale and its deeply held beliefs of mateship and service. Although a lot of replacements would eventually return to their home states, many stayed within ARMD and settled on New Rhodes III, bringing new traditions and skills to the planet and the unit. Classes in the history of ARMD and its internal traditions and beliefs became mandatory for all new recruits, considered just as important as passing the physical training.
Many veterans of the war would be made part of the ARMD training schools, integrating their experience during the actions of the last 20 years into the training passed down to the new recruits. Several of these men and women who survived the reunification war, including the famous Captain Cristofer Galatidas, would serve from the age of 18 until they finally died of old age still in ARMD uniform.
Across the Star League, the problems of returning veterans were handled in many different ways, from efforts similar to that of ARMD through to the infamous Veterans Day massacres which occurred in Kuritan space. As crime rates spiked, membership of bandit mech groups increased as returning veterans attempted to find a home where they were accepted, an unknown bureaucrat in the little-known office of Star League Titles and Manors created a policy which was signed into Terran Hegemony policy on November 12th, 2670. The policy with the innocuous title of "Titles and Manor holdings, reformation" was a political knee-jerk attempt to deal with the ongoing problems posed by veterans. The policy was intended to force returning veterans who had caused issues to move on to new planets, it would have a huge impact on ARMD.
Unfortunately, it was a very poorly phrased policy and the massive Star League Defence Force bureaucracy got it completely wrong, interpreting it as an order to move any settled unit around within the Inner Sphere. On January 1st, 2698, ARMD Marshall Kimberley Kampstra received new orders from the SLDF. The Dukedom of New Rhodes, held by the ARMD Marshall was to be immediately transferred to New Home closer to Terra. ARMD were required to transfer all military members,
equipment and dependents to the bases that were being prepared for them on New Home by December 31st, 2698 under the authority of the SLDF and the "Titles and Manor holdings, reformation" policy.
Kampstra was stunned and not knowing what to do, put off calling her Colonels council for 4 days. ARMD had been stationed on New Rhodes III since 2338. They were a deeply integrated part of the economy and the government, ARMD owned and ran manufacturing facilities, hospitals, schools, universities, social and governmental services, to a large degree it could be said that ARMD was the government and economy of New Rhodes. Generations of ARMD members had been born,
raised, served, fought, died and been buried with honor on New Rhodes. Due to a petty bureaucrat's poorly worded policy that would all end. When she finally called her Colonels back from holiday she had a plan. The plan hinged around the phrase "and dependents."
ARMD would take as many of the people of New Rhodes who wished to come with them as they could jam into their fleet. Any civilian and their families who could be persuaded to join the ARMD exodus would be gladly welcomed.
Exodus
Kampstra ordered the engineers of the Division to get to New Home and scout out the ground. The initial reports were not encouraging. The SLDF bases that were "being prepared for them on New Home" didn’t exist. The SLDF had flattened some ground in preparation, put up a few disposable homes and left. There weren't enough beds to even house the members of the unit, let alone their families and the wave of dependents. There were no facilities for training, housing and maintenance of Mechs, vehicles or command. The SLDF in its usual grandiose monolithic way had ticked the "base built" bureaucratic box, refused to accept that the facilities provided were inadequate and would not help ARMD in any way.
The Great New Rhodes Fire Sale.
ARMD began the process of selling every asset it had managed to acquire nearly 400 years of history of New Rhodes. Everything that could not be picked up and moved to New Home would be sold. Land and buildings, businesses would all go on the chopping block. Merchant houses from across the Inner Sphere descended on New Rhodes in a feeding frenzy, buying everything as cheaply as they could.
Every credit that ARMD made was transferred to New Home and went into the building of new facilities to house the transferring regiments. Every ARMD soldier that landed on the new holding would immediately be put to work building the new homes and bases.
The civilian governments of New Rhodes and New Home were both similarly devastated. New Rhodes did not want to lose ARMD and the enormous amounts of credits it bought into the economy, political protests were mounted as far as the Terran Hegemony council and were all rejected by the bureaucracy. The New Home government had never had a major military unit housed on the planet, expecting a far more massive problem that the minor ones they had had with their own returning
veterans, they too fought the move and were rejected.
The last ARMD warrior left New Rhodes III at 11:58pm, 31 December 2698 and 360 years of ARMD history on New Rhodes III came to a close. Over 1 million men women and children elected to leave New Rhodes to follow the Division to New Home.
2700
Alexander Kerensky born.
ARMD continues to build and expand its facilities on New Home. ARMD rebuilds the same kind of facilities and services they operated on New Rhodes. The civilian government begins to realize what a golden opportunity they have been handed and co-operates enthusiastically, the average income of New Home quintuples over the next 20 years. New Home makes it on to the "best places to live" list of the Sector for the first time.
2720
Kerensky attends Tharkad University. His exploits there eventually land him a spot in the elite Nagelring.
2736
ARMD enters what was to become the last Martial Olympiad for 300 years. They finish 47th.
2738
Jerome Blake is born on Terra. ARMD units return to New Home after extended garrison duty on the periphery.
2751
The First Lord Simon Cameron dies, his eight-year-old son, Richard Cameron II, becomes First Lord of the Star League. The five House Lords gather on Terra and appoint General Aleksandr Kerensky as Commander-in-Chief of SLDF, and as Regent and Protector of the Star League for the remainder of Richard's minority.
Kerensky orders the SLDF to immediately undergo an extended refit period. ARMD factories on New Home are extensively upgraded and modified. ARMD begins training with its shiny new mechs.
2760
The Marian Hegemony border War begins. ARMD is sent as part of SLDF peacekeeping force. The Marians take it as a second invasion and a short but bloody war breaks out.
2762
Richard Cameron Comes of age and assumes the role of First Lord, Stefan Amaris is already a close confidant. Richard begins by ordering all house armies disbanded and forced to join the SLDF, with the issuance of Executive Order 156. When the Great House Lords refuse, Richard is forced to accept the refusal. Richard orders the disbanding of the Star League High Council, ruling the Human Sphere unilaterally.
2763
Richard issues the Taxation Edict of 2763, a steep increase in taxes throughout the Human Sphere, but especially onerous within the Periphery. As the tax increase was a clear infraction on the Reunification Treaties, the Periphery governments quickly became militarized and prepared for another Inner Sphere invasion.
The resulting New Vandenberg Uprising, started by the secession of 18 worlds within the Taurian Concordat in 2765, forced the SLDF and Aleksandr Kerensky to redeploy a significant number of units to fight in the Periphery.
2764
Richard Cameron signs a secret treaty with the Rim Worlds Republic.
2765
Over sixty percent of the units normally stationed within the Terran Hegemony had been relocated to other districts, leaving the heart of the Star League dangerously exposed. It is at this point that the First Lord reveals his secret treaty with Amaris, allowing for the deployment of Rim Worlds Republic Military units to take the place of the SLDF. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd RCT of ARMD are deployed to the Periphery. The 4th remains on New Home as the garrison.
Anger at this use of foreign troops on Hegemony soil is only placated by the Rim Republic's continued fervent and public loyalty to the Star League, Republican forces are allowed onto Hegemony worlds. However, the number of Republican units is secretly growing daily, with twice as many regiments arriving as officially listed, and under Richard's orders they were given complete access to the SLDF bureaucracy. Republican forces gain control of more than half of the Star Leagues Castles Brian
and are allowed to learn the workings of the Space Defence System.
2766
By December more than half of the Republican military have been redeployed to the Hegemony, equivalent to 16 divisions and twice as large as the remaining SLDF forces. With the pieces in place, Stefan Amaris is ready to act.
December 27, 2766
On December 27, Stefan Amaris has a nine o'clock appointment with the First Lord in his private Audience Chamber within the palace. Amaris moves unchallenged through the palace's security systems, accompanied by four bodyguards. He finds the First Lord eagerly awaiting his arrival, and after
exchanging pleasantries presents Richard with a wrapped box. After tearing through several layers of wrapped boxes, Richard finally uncovered a jewel-encrusted laser pistol bearing the crest of the Amaris family. Stefan held the pistol up to the light to reflect off the jewels, then leveled it at Richard's forehead.
The "Ayr" Chindit company were on rotation as personal security to the First Lord. Captain Jan Heyergaff's Delta team were the first to die. Armaris bodyguards had dropped flashbangs at their own feet as Armaris drew the pistol. The flash bangs went off and they opened fire with short controlled bursts, cutting the entire Delta team down in the first seconds. Heyergraff is the only soldier to actually get a shot off, creasing Armaris and killing a member of his bodyguard standing directly behind him.
Immediately Armaris seized control of the palace automated security systems. He used the control panel within the Audience Chamber which Richard himself had proudly shown the Usurper how to operate.
Armaris was unaware of the full extent of the security system. Sensors had picked up the gunfire and immediately sent alarms to the palace guard and Richard's personal regiment the Royal Black Watch. The palace guards attempting to enter the Audience Chamber found themselves cut down by hidden laser systems, while the Black Watch suffered heavy losses in traps which had been set for them by the 4th Amaris Dragoons.
Still, the coup was on the brink of failure: a platoon of jump pack-equipped guards, flying low across the palace's roofs to avoid anti-air laser turrets, were able to reach the roof of the Audience Chamber and two lances of Black Watch 'Mechs were able to escape the traps and confront the 4th Dragoons at Gorst Flats. The Black Watch was protected on one side by high forested hills on one side and Puget Sound on the other. This allowed the black Watch to draw out the Dragoons and forced them to engage the Watch individually. The efforts of Richards personal guards were ultimately doomed in the face of the well-organized coup.
After losing ten 'Mechs to the entrenched Black Watch soldiers, all of whom had been graduates of the infamous Gunslinger Program, the Dragoon's commander withdrew his forces and dealt with the Watch by using a tactical nuclear warhead. The Dragoons also sent reinforcements to the palace and the Republican infantry arrived just in time to confront the palace guards and destroy them moments before they were able to cut through the Audience Chamber roof. All across the Hegemony, similar dramas played out as the Republicans used surprise to wipe out Regular Army units, many before they could get out of their barracks or troop ships. The use of chemical and nuclear weapons was widespread with enormous corresponding civilian casualties on the densely populated core worlds.
A number of units were able to escape the initial onslaught on Terra, including elements of the 191st Royal BattleMech Division who proceeded to wage a guerrilla war against Amaris that lasted until the liberation of Terra in 2779.
At least five regiments were able to hold out within their Castles Brian against several Republican assaults until the Castles destruction by repeated nuclear bombardment. Most units, however, if not entirely destroyed, were so badly mauled in that opening day that they effectively ceased to exist or took heed of the ultimatum that Amaris broadcast, falsely declaring he would kill the First Lord if they did not surrender. Those who laid down their arms were forced to dig their own graves and summarily executed. By the end of the day, 95 of the Hegemony's 103 worlds were under Republican control, as well as many intact Castles Brian and the entire Space Defence System.
Gathering all 79 surviving members of House Cameron within the Palace Throne Room, Armaris gives them an ultimatum: swear allegiance to him or die. One by one the family members were brought before him as he sat on the Star League Throne. One by one they were asked to submit. The first twenty refused and were returned to the rest of the group, but the twenty-first, Jason Cameron Bashina, agreed to bow to Amaris.
Armaris shoots Jason with the laser pistol he had earlier used to murder Richard and ordered the remaining Cameron’s killed. He leaves the Throne Room, ordering it sealed forever.
2766
Stefan Amaris declares himself First Lord and orders Aleksander Kerensky to continue the attack on the Taurian Concordat. Kerensky refuses, to Kerensky’s Fury, the Star Lords refuse to get involved in an "Internal Matter" of the Terran Hegemony and hunker down with their Militaries at high alert. Kerensky
understands that with the removal of the Star Leagues economic support he needs a powerful economic base. He orders the withdrawal of all SLDF forces from the periphery and garrisons across the inner sphere and unleashes them on the now lightly defended Rim Worlds Republic.
2767 The Rim Worlds campaign
ARMD 1st Regimental Combat Team
Port Vail
The 1st and the 22nd Cardoman Lancers drop on Port Vail to very light opposition. Only infantry and small amounts of armor have been left to garrison the world. By order of Kerensky all members of the Armaris political police, Intelligence services, and military high command are rounded up and shot in front of the Government Palace. The people of Port Vail, deeply oppressed by the Armaris political machine welcome the SLDF forces as liberators.
2767 The Rim Worlds campaign
ARMD 1st Regimental Combat Team
Nyasa
The 1st RCT, again with the 22nd are ordered to drop on Nyasa in an attempt to cut the supply lines of the Rim Worlds Republic in half. The 51st Armaris Regulars defending Nyasa, have a plan to trick the SLDF forces into a trap, they allow the 1st to believe that it is facing the bulk of the 51st heavy mechs while the 22nd believes it is facing the lightly defended capital. The forces around Otomba will engage heavily to slow the 1st while making it appear they are pulling back in panic towards the Starport. The heavy units around the capital, Nassuma will remain hidden, engaging with only light resistance.
The initial campaign goes well with the 1st driving hard against light mechs of the 51st Armaris Regulars. Scout mechs of the 1/39th encounter fast-moving elements of the 51st, the skirmishes are designed to keep the 1RCT in place in order to allow the 51st to retreat. As the 1st continues its advance across the plains towards Omotoba, they capture several small towns and cities finding evidence of atrocities committed by Armaris forces. A police station known as a center for the Political police is captured with all the inmates hanging from the walls.
The 22nd, on the other side of the planet, appears to be facing much lighter opposition as they advance on the capital city, Nassuma.
At a signal, the regulars around Omotoba turn and flee from the 1st, racing back into the city and rapidly loading into drop ships. In an attempt to catch the 51st still on the ground the 1st charges into the city and moves to surround the Starport. As the last dropship lifts off the 51st launch a number of tactical nuclear warheads catching the 1st fully deployed.
The 1st RCT utterly ceases to exist.
The remaining troops of the 51st do a half orbit of the planet and drop directly on top of the 22nd. The hidden heavy units within Nyasa emerge as the drops ships are burning down catching the 22nd between two forces. The fighting is vicious, brutal and short-lived as the 22nd fight for their lives against the already depleted forces of the 51st. By the end of 2767 Nyasa is in the hands of the SLDF, the 22nd is so badly mauled it is not able to contribute further during the civil war and Omotoba is a nuclear wasteland.
2769
Terra Prime in the Rim World Republic is finally captured and the Rim is declared a protectorate of the SLDF. Kerensky turns the entire economy of the highly industrialized Republic to a war footing and begins preparing for what he knows has to come.
** Certain portions of this section of the history taken and rewritten from http://www.sarna.net**
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