Juliano Papadakis
Sarna News
Juliano Papadakis | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Died | 2787 (likely) |
| Affiliation | Capellan Confederation |
| Profile | |
| Rank | Colonel |
Juliano Papadakis was the commanding officer of the 1st Capellan Chargers between 2765 and 2787.[1][2]
History[edit]
The First Chargers were extensively restructured after the repeal of the Council Edict of 2650 by the Star League council in 2752. The CCAF began expanding the Capellan Chargers once more, and the commanding officer of the First, Colonel Juliano Papadakis, took the opportunity to transfer out those personnel who failed to keep up with the more intensive training regimen implemented to hone the First's already keen edge. Those transferred out of the First were rotated out along with the First's lighter equipment, moving into the various other Chargers regiments - particularly the Third Capellan Chargers - and to make up for the losses in personnel, a combination of CCAF MechWarriors with experience from the Chesterton and Periphery borders of the Confederation and top-quality graduates from the Capella War College were assigned as replacements.[1]
As a result of Colonel Papadakis' efforts, by 2765 the First Chargers were a muscular heavy BattleMech regiment with a level of skill that belied a lack of recent combat experience. As with the other regiments of Chargers the cavaliers of the First were heavily indoctrinated with the brigade mythos of the apparent-invincibility of the Chargers, an attitude that had the potential to become a critical flaw in combat.[1]
In February 2787 Captain-General Kenyon Marik launched his famous "ten parsec-wide" invasion of the Capellan and Sarna Commonalities of the Capellan Confederation. One of the first targets of his invasion was Vanra, which had been home to the First Capellan Chargers for almost twenty-five years. The FWLM task force assigned to the invasion of Vanra consisted of three regiments from the Marik Militia - the Third, the Seventeenth and the Twenty-first Marik Militia regiments - escorted by a naval task force that included at least one battleship, the FWLS Agrippa, two destroyers, two squadrons of attack DropShips and three wings of aerospace fighters. The Chargers were heavily outnumbered, but Colonel Juliano Papadakis was determined to lead a fierce resistance against the invaders.[2]
Papadakis made the most of the Chargers' familiarity with the terrain on Vanra, and as the Marik Militia DropShips began landing, he had his combat air group engage, hammering at the Militia forces. By the time his aerospace fighters had withdrawn, the Militia had lost more than two squadrons of fighters, and an Overlord-class DropShip carrying a battalion from the Seventeenth Marik Militia had been crippled, crash-landing in the forests almost twenty kilometers south of Utrecht, the planetary capital city. Familiar with the dense forest and the networks of transient riverbeds in the area, Papadakis knew that the terrain would be confusing and difficult to negotiate for any forces sent to rescue the downed forces. Papadakis' prediction proved correct; he deployed the entire Third Battalion of the Chargers to converge on the site, whilst the remaining elements of the Seventeenth diverted away from their intended positions near Utrecht to try and rescue their comrades, weakening the enemy plan. With much of the forest floor concealed from view from the air, the Chargers' Third Battalion was able to pick off and kill the survivors from the DropShip crash that they found, as well as ambushing and destroying almost a full battalion of rescue forces from the Seventeenth.[2]
Whilst the Third Battalion was tying up twice its own numbers in the forest, leaving the Seventeenth effectively out of the battle for Utrecht, Papadakis had his remaining forces disperse as lance and company sized formations and launch numerous ambushes and feints within Utrecht itself, the city's dense urban sprawl helping the heavier Chargers negate the speed advantage enjoyed by the generally lighter Marik Militia units. Papadakis' troops had destroyed another battalion of Marik Militia forces within Utrecht before the senior FWLM officer, Colonel Udel Melville, ordered the orbiting Agrippa to bombard regions of the city. Fires and huge explosions ensued, as one of the sectors targeted by the Agrippa contained a natural gas refinery, and the resulting refinery explosion engulfed half the city in flames due to the ongoing battle preventing efforts to contain the damage. Melville's forces were ultimately successful, but the Chargers fought to the last man before the planetary government finally surrendered, leaving Utrecht and the great forest to its south in ruins. Melville was forced to disband the remains of the Seventeenth Marik Militia, and use the survivors from the Seventeenth and a mix of salvaged Capellan and League equipment to rebuild the Third and Twenty-first Marik Militias.[2]