21st Marik Militia

(Redirected from Twenty-first Marik Militia)
Brigade Insignia of the Marik Militia
Twenty-first Marik Militia
Formed 2752-2765[1]
Disbanded By 2821[2]
3007[3]
Nickname Twenty-one Gun Salute[1]
Affiliation Free Worlds League
Parent Command Marik Militia

History[edit]

Formation[edit]

The Twenty-first Marik Militia was one of nine regiments of the Marik Militia to be reactivated or reconstituted after the Star League Council repealed the Council Edict of 2650 in 2752.[1]

First Succession War[edit]

When Captain-General Kenyon Marik launched his famous "ten parsec-wide" invasion of the Capellan and Sarna Commonalities of the Capellan Confederation in February 2787, the Twenty-first were one of the ten regiments from the Marik Militia assigned to the invasion. One of the four systems to be targeted in the first wave of attacks was Vanra; the FWLM task force assigned to the invasion of Vanra consisted of three regiments from the Marik Militia - the Third, Seventeenth and 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 garrison at the time, the First Capellan Chargers, were heavily outnumbered, but had been in place on Vanra for almost twenty-five years, and Colonel Juliano Papadakis was determined to lead a fierce resistance against the invaders.[4]

Papadakis made the most of the Chargers' familiarity with the terrain on Vanra; 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 By the time his aerospace fighters had withdrawn, the Militia had lost more than two squadrons of fighters, and an Overlord-class DropShip carrying a battalion from the Seventeenth Marik Militia had been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.[4]

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.[4]

The Twenty-first Marik Militia was one of eight regiments of the Marik Militia to be destroyed during the First Succession War.[2]

Third Succession War[edit]

The Twenty-first Marik Militia was on Danais in 3007 when the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces raided the world. The LCAF managed to capture the entire command staff of the Twenty-first, a truly ignominious defeat for the regiment. The Free Worlds League Military was forced to disband the Twenty-first, and the remaining personnel were redistributed among the other regiments of the Marik Militia brigade.[3] The Lyran forces responsible for capturing the command staff of the Twenty-first were the Thirty-second Lyran Guards and the mercenary unit Snord's Irregulars using a mission that had been devised a planning session involving Cranston Snord and Archon Katrina Steiner in mid-3007 already. Cranston Snord's interest in Danais was actually a DropShip carrying valuable musical instruments which had been shot down over the world's jungles during the fall of the Star League. What Snord didn't know was that the Free Worlds League was building an aerospace fighter production facility on Danais and had reinforced the local garrison accordingly. Worse still, the two derelict DropShips that the Irregulars had identified actually contained the FWLM garrison HQ. Snord's Irregulars prevailed, however, and captured both the FWL command staff and a collection of instruments for their museum on Clinton.[5]

Officers[edit]

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the 21st Marik Militia

Tactics[edit]

Unknown.

Composition History[edit]

2765[edit]

Twenty-first Marik Militia (Regiment/Green/Reliable)[6]

- At this point in time the Twenty-first was stationed on Mankova.[1]

2786[edit]

Twenty-first Marik Militia (Regiment/Green/Reliable)[2]

- At this point in time the Twenty-first was a medium-weight regiment operating at full strength and was stationed on Harmony.[2] The unit was destroyed during the war. [2]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Field Report 2765: FWLM, p.10, "Marik Militia"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 First Succession War, p. 138, "Free Worlds League Military (FWLM)"
  3. 3.0 3.1 House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 90, "Marik Militia"
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 First Succession War, p. 53-54, "A Path to Sarna: The League-Confederation Front"
  5. Cranston Snord's Irregulars, pp. 20-21 (Scenario "Amber Surprise")
  6. Field Report 2765: FWLM, p. 10, "Regimental Status"

Bibliography[edit]