Samuel Macao
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Samuel Macao | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Died | 17 August 2604[1] |
| Affiliation | Rim Worlds Republic |
| Profile | |
| Rank | General[2] |
Samuel Macao was the commander of the Seventh Amaris Dragoons during the Reunification War before serving as a member of the military junta that toppled First Consul Gregory Amaris.
History[edit]
Reunification War[edit]
By 2581 of the Rim Worlds Republic Civil War, Macao held the rank of colonel with the Seventh Dragoons posted on Timbuktu, the provincial capital of the Rim Worlds Timbuktu Province. Colonel Macao and his command remained loyal to the isolated First Consul Amaris on Apollo against the Rift Republican Army.[3]
The Seventh Amaris Dragoons were still the main defensive force on-planet when Battlegroup Timbuktu arrived at the start of July 2588. The strategy of the Star League Defense Force's Task Force MAILED FIST shifted to reducing the Rim Worlds Army no matter their loyalties, and the SLDF commander Duke Narinder Selaj assigned the Eleventh Royal Division—the greater part of the SLDF IV Corps—to the conquest of Timbuktu. They were accompanied by all four regiments of the despised Draconis Auxiliary Corps, infamous for their brutal actions on Nightwish in mid-2584. The first week of the campaign saw the elite Eleventh Royal and the brutal Draconis regiments easily smash their way through the bulk of the defenses prepared by Macao's forces. This made Macao pull his troops back to the continent of Hades, which was lightly populated with a number of mining complexes that the Seventh could use as prebuilt defenses.[4]
While the Seventh Amaris Dragoons could have drawn the campaign out substantially by switching to guerrilla warfare, the harsh treatment the Timbuktu civilian population was enduring at the hands of the Draconis troops enraged Macao, provoking him into launching a number of retaliatory rash attacks that sorely weakened the Seventh. With the civilian population of Hades being small enough that it was effectively negligible for the SLDF to consider, Battlegroup Timbuktu forces resorted to wholesale bombardment of the Seventh's positions. After nineteen days, Macao surrendered the few surviving elements of the Dragoons, which ended major combat actions on the planet on the 29th of July.[4]
Military Coup and Death[edit]
As with many captured high-ranking Rim Worlds military officers, Samuel Macao was interned after his surrender before being repatriated and returning to active duty in the re-formed RWA after the conclusion of the conflict in 2596. He was also among those like Admiral Hakim Wbika who were increasingly dismayed that Gregory Amaris seemed even more arrogant and self-centered than before despite his nearly two decades of house arrest on Apollo. Deeming the First Counsul to be a threat to the future of the Rim Worlds Republic, Wbika gathered together a group of like-minded officers to remove Amaris, culminating in Wbika himself personally shooting him with a laser gun on 11 August 2599. In announcing the coup, Wbika made an impassioned speech that the time had come to overthrow the tyrant Gregory Amaris and to ensure a peaceful transition, his son Richard would be the Republic's president, albeit under Wbika's "guidance." Macao was promoted to the rank of general and served in the military junta as Wbika's chief aide.[1][2][5]
Richard Amaris had no intention of remaining a puppet of the junta, however. Though Amaris would dutifully carry out Wbika's "advice" on good government at first, he was merely biding his time while he studied the weaknesses of the junta members and established relationships both in and outside the Rim Worlds to launch a countercoup. Amaris would ultimately focus on Samuel Macao. While a highly capable officer, Macao was also notorious for his exceedingly petty nature and inability to control his violent temper. Seeing Macao's character flaws as the key, Richard slowly engineered obstructions and miscommunication among the members of the junta that ultimately triggered the stentorian-voiced Macao to angrily turn on Wbika in 2604. Macao was totally unaware that his ranting was the signal for the guards loyal to Amaris to purge the palace of junta members, with Amaris himself shooting both Wbika and Macao to avenge the death of his father.[5][6]