Arboris Protectorate Militia

WoB Protectorate Militia Logo All.png
Arboris Protectorate Militia Division
Formed 3068
Disbanded 3077
Affiliation Word of Blake
Parent Command Word of Blake Protectorate Militia

The Acamar Protectorate Militia Division is one of the many militias raised by Word of Blake to defend the Word of Blake Protectorate. The unit was deployed in Arboris. As of 3075 it was the only unit raised from this planet.[1]

History[edit]

Arboris was annexed by the Word of Blake during the Jihad; in contrast with many of the worlds seized by the Blakists, the takeover of Arboris was peaceful, and Arboris had been incorporated into the Word of Blake Protectorate by August 1, 3068.[2] The population chose to side with the Word of Blake, a new invader, rather than a House that had attempted to conquer the world for centuries; when the Blakists hunted down the remains of the planetary militia and the Capellan forces, the population chose to help the Blakists,[3] and the Arboris Protectorate Militia was created soon after that.

After eight months of resistance on Arboris against the Word of Blake occupation, a resistance fighter cell calling themselves the Arboris Freedom Army has attacked the Gilden building which houses the government, killed at least thirty-two people, and took almost two hundred hostages including most of the planetary council and important administrators.[4]

Precentor Gazael, a Manei Domini troubleshooter, arrives at the Gilden building on 12 October 3069 with his aide Adept Nancy Madoc to take over from Precentor Bowman Franks who failed to make progress in the negotiations so far. Madoc enters the building for negotiations (in truth to survey it with her cybernetically enhanced senses, in cooperation with similarly cybernetically enhanced Adept Kenyon who is operating undercover as terrorist number Twelve), which seems to anger Colonel Roland Pike, the leader of the terrorists. To demonstrate his resolve, Pike shoots one hostage, Adept Gary King of the Protectorate Militia, before Madoc's eyes for firing on unarmed civilians and killing ten of them during a demonstration back in January. He then annonces that they will kill a hostage every hour after the twelfth from now until the Word of Blake have left Arboris. This action earns Gazael and Madoc the ire of Precentor Franks.[4]

Gazael and his team learn that Franks has close connections to Councilman Trellem, who was not present when the building was stormed. Franks evidently protected Trellem from corruption charges to the point of destroying evidence and making critics disappear.[4]

Faced with unreasonable demands on the part of the terrorists, Gazael resolves to have the building stormed. He enters the building with Madoc and confronts Pike with the information that Pike's daughter was among those killed in the January demonstration, so Pike isn't out to free Arboris, he wants revenge. While battle armor troops are already accessing the building, Gazael has the power cut and, using their cybernetic implants, he and Madoc decimate the terrorists while preventing them from detonating their bombs.[4]

On 14 October, Security Administrator Precentor Franks is debriefed. Gazael bruskly informs him that Pike's daughter was a collateral death in the January shootout, with a fake ID that would easily have been found out if Franks had bothered to check. Trellem apparently set Pike up to storm the Gilden building and wipe out the government so that Trellem could take over—and Gazael's team also found the account that Trellem had set up for Franks. As Franks pleads for one more chance, Gazael declares he intends to give him the same chance as Trellem once he finds him and crushes Franks' throat, killing him.[4]

On November 19, 3076, Arboris was rocked by the explosion of a dirty bomb during festive New Independence celebrations which killed several cabinet members and Arboris' popular Word of Blake Precentor, Sienna Asuncion. The bombing, conducted by Capellan agitators, prompted the polarization of Arboris' population into opposing pro-Blakist and pro-Capellan camps.[5][6] The Word of Blake news agency, Voice of Truth, reported that responsibility for the blast was claimed by a terrorist group known as "The Black Band", who detonated a second, larger device in a crowded shopping district a day later when their demands for the immediate dissolution of the government were not met. The Blakists implemented martial law on Arboris as a result of the bombing.[7]

Four days after the bombing, the Capellan Confederation government issued travel advisory notices through the media encouraging Capellans to avoid travel to Arboris if possible, claiming that Blakist sympathizers were creating unrest and instability intended to target those in the population of Arboris who wished to see Arboris reintegrated peacefully into the Confederation.[8] Acting independently of the allied coalition and Operation SCOUR, CCAF forces launched an assault on Arboris at the end of January 3077, less than three months after the bombing,[6] and took the planet.[9]

Officers[edit]

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the Arboris Protectorate Militia Division
Precentor Bowman Franks 3069[4]

Other Officers[edit]

Tactics[edit]

Unknown.

Composition History[edit]

During the 3069 crisis, it is confirmed that the unit at least one Level I of Nighthawk power armor and a Level II of other troops and counted with support of Blizzard combat vehicles.[4]

Protectorate Militia Divisions were equipped with enough DropShip capacity for transportation, but not JumpShips.[10]

Rules[edit]

As long as a Protectorate Militia force is fighting on its homeworld and is acting as the scenario's Defender, the Protectorate Militia force receives the Force the Initiative and Off-Map Movement special abilities. If deployed as the Attacker in a scenario, the Protectorate Militia force loses its Force the Initiative ability, but retains its Off-Map Movement capability.

If deployed on a world other than its homeworld (such as an Epsilon Eridani force being deployed on Genoa), the Protectorate Militia force not only loses all of its special abilities, but also suffers a –2 Initiative modifier.

Although Blakist-based, Protectorate Militia forces may use standard Inner Sphere force arrangements (Lances, Companies, and Battalions) rather than Word of Blake force arrangements.[11]

Reference[edit]

  1. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 103, "protectorate militia deployment
  2. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 45, "The Jihad In Review"
  3. Dark Age: Republic Worlds (3130), p. 98: "Arboris"
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Negotiation
  5. Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 23, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  6. 6.0 6.1 Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 56, "The Jihad In Review"
  7. Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 15, "Arboris: A World In Crisis"
  8. Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 40, "Travel Advisory: Arboris"
  9. Field Report: CCAF, p. 21, "Capellan Confederation Deployment Map"
  10. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 103
  11. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 103, "Rules Annex"

Bibliography[edit]