Syrtis Scourge
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| Syrtis Scoourge | |
| Formed | 3151 |
| Disbanded | 3152 |
| Affiliation | Federated Suns |
| Parent Command | |
The Syrtis Scourge was an understrength regiment created by the Capellan March's Duke Alexander Hasek and destroyed in the Pleiades War.
History[edit]
The Syrtis Scourge was created on New Syrtis in 3151 by the new Duke of the Capellan March as part of his rearmament program. The Syrtis Scourge drew its personnel from the Syrtis Fusiliers, drawing particularly heavily on the Sixth Syrtis Fusiliers. Membership was limited to the most elite and fanatical soldiers, who pledged personal loyalty to Alexander Hasak. As a household unit, it was outside the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns chain of command. [1]
At the time of its first deployment, the Scourge consisted of at least two battalions but had not reached its full size as a regiment. After an attempted assassination of the young duke failed, Alexander Hasek assumed the assassin was a Taurian Concordat agent. In response, he launched a personal war with the goal of conquering the Pleiades Cluster with the Scourge and the Sixth Fusiliers (who had not recovered their full strength after transferring personnel to the Scourge). Prior to the assassination attempt, Alexander had planned to harden the Scourge fighting pirates in the Periphery March, but believed the Taurians would prove easy prey for the green unit.
The campaign caught the Taurian Concordant off guard; the invasion force landed on Electra, taking the planet easily. Leaving the Sixth Fusiliers behind as a garrison, the duke took the Scourge with him to their next target, Merope. Here, the Scourge disguised their IFF and a boarding party managed to capture the system's recharge station. Another contingent was sent to Merope itself, where they surprised a company of the Taurians' Pleiades Hussars. Forewarned of their coming, the Hussars retreated in the wilds, but the Scourge managed to locate them and made a combat drop on their camp, quickly eliminating them. Afterwards, the Scourge armed the pro-Davion resistance leaders on the planet before departing for Maia, where they hoped to finish the remaining Hussars. [2]
On Maia, the Scourge repeated their trick of hiding their IFF codes and achieved total suprise against the Hussars. The Pleiades Hussars' commanding officer, Colonel Heathrow Gullarson, only knew they were under attack when the Scourge made a hot drop on Maia's capital of Subaru. Duke Alexander Hasek personally lead the Scourge in the attack and Colonel Gullarson was forced to lead his unit out of the city to regroup in the Theban foothills, sending couriers to warn Protector Doru of the invasion and plead for reinforcements while the Hussars began a guerrilla campaign.
Alexander was so sure of the imminent victory that he ignored Colonel Hallett, the Scourge's nominal commander, about the unit's vulnerability: while most of the unit's pilots came from the various veteran Syrtis Fusiliers' regiments, they had barely had time to train together.
After three weeks of Taurian harassment, Duke Hasek became impatient and mobilized the entire unit to hunt down the Hussars, engaging them in a forest. A Taurian counterattack nearly overwhelmed the Scourge and Colonel Hallett was forced to order his men to ignite the forest. The inferno created a no-man's land and, as neither unit had the force to dislodge the other, a week-long stalemate ensued.
At this point, Duke Alexander had also summoned reinforcements, but the Taurians' arrived sooner when the Third Taurian Lancers jumped into the system. Colonel Gullarson asked for the Scourge's surrender, but Duke Hasek ordered a nighttime attack against the Hussars, expecting to eliminate them. The attack failed and the Hussars counterattacked, forcing the Scourge to retreat while the Hussars remained in contact with them.
The next day, still unable to disengage, the Scourge was caught between both Taurian units and totally destroyed. The duke was taken prisoner—the only confirmed survivor of the Scourge.[3]
Officers[edit]
| Rank | Name | Command | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commanding Officers of the Syrtis Scourge | |||
| Colonel | Jill Hallett | 3151 - 3152[4] | |
Tactics[edit]
Unknown.
Composition History[edit]
Six companies strong.[4]
Support[edit]
Hasek mentioned once his intention to assign several newly built Colossus (DropShip class) to the Scourge before his first and last campaign, but its presence and numbers remain unconfirmed.[5]