Editing 1st Hesperus Guards

{{Cleanup|reason=review needed|date=September 2023}}
{{infoBoxMilitaryCommand
| image = [[File:Hesperus Guards 1st logo.png|150px|Insignia of the 1st Hesperus Guards]]
| Designation = First Hesperus Guards 
| Formed = [[3137]]
| Disbanded = 
| Previous Designation = 
| Nickname = First Guards
| Affiliation = [[Lyran Commonwealth]]<br/>[[Vesper Marches]]
| Parent Command = [[Hesperus Guards]]
| Sub-Command = 
}}
==History==
===Formation===
The '''First Hesperus Guard''' was a Lyran regiment formed by [[Vedet Brewer|Duke Vedet]] of [[Hesperus II]] in the spring of [[3137]]. The unit was created for the Lyran Commonwealth military campaign known as [[Operation HAMMERFALL]]. Duke Vedet staffed the unit with officers he had secretly "helped". The Guards had been equipped by the Duke as well, with the latest equipment Defiance Industries could manufacture. Vedet used the Guards as a counterbalance to [[Trillian Steiner]]'s creation of the [[Broken Swords]].<ref name=er3145p59>''Era Report: 3145'', p. 59</ref>

===Operation HAMMERFALL===
In July, 3137, Duke Vedet led the Guards as part of the Task Force known as "Gauntlet". They were part of the first wave of Operation HAMMERFALL, sent into the region of space labeled by the Lyran command as "The Wedge", located between the Free Worlds League's [[Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey]] and [[Marik-Stewart Commonwealth]].  

As part of the Task Force, they easily captured the worlds of [[Shasta]] and [[Millungera]] in the first months of the war.  The Guards were later relocated to reinforce the fight in Marik-Stewart space facing with the re-formed [[Silver_Hawk_Irregulars#Silver_Hawk_Irregulars|Silver Hawks Irregulars]] and local militia [[Bondurant Bombardiers|The Bondurant Bombardiers]] on [[Bondurant]].  The fight for Bondurant was a brutal campaign, exhausting both units thoroughly, but ultimately ending in victory for the weary Guards and [[3rd Lyran Regulars|Third Lyran Regulars]]. 

The Guards returned to Tamarind-Abbey space to invade [[Simpson Desert]] with most of the Third Lyrans Regulars on December 2.  The Guard later continued on to be deployed on [[Danais]] to aid the [[4th Royal Guards|4th Royals]] in their efforts to fight the Silver Hawks and a local militia unit called the "Daredevils of Danais".  The Duke and the Guard took the capital city of Breckenridge, thinking they could use the resources of the city to take over the "lightly" defended planet, not knowing the Hawks were planetside. However, the city had been stripped of vital resources and its facilities sabotaged, so the Duke ordered the Guards to raid the city's civilian stores for supplies.  The Hawks and the Daredevils made capturing the city a symbol of the resistance of Danais.  These forces continued to perform hit-and-run guerrilla attacks on the Guards and other Lyran forces for months. With relentless attacks by civilians and guerrilla forces of the militia alike, Duke Vedet ordered all the civilians in the city of Breckenridge be arrested and locked away by February [[3138]]. By this time, the invasion of the Free Worlds League space had come to a standstill by order of the Archon due to the arrival of [[Clan Wolf]].

In March [[3138]], Operation HAMMERFALL had finally resumed and the Guards had landed on the world of [[Helm]] in Marik-Stewart space. The landing arrived with the [[Clan Wolf]] Cluster led by [[Star Colonel]] [[Alaric Wolf]]. Clan forces proceeded without the Guards, and attempted to attack the capital city of Helmsdown.  The Wolves attack was called off after running into strong resistance from local forces, who were in fact the Silver Hawks.  The Guards were joined by the [[1st Steiner Strikers]] on April 24th in order to reinforce the Lyran forces and help resume battle. 

Two days later, the Lyran forces resumed the Battle for Helmdown.  The Guards' artillery began to rain fire down on the Silver Hawk positions within the city while the Guards troops had slow goings through the city. Some elements of the Silver Hawks that been battered by both Strikers, Wolves, and Guards contacted the Duke in order to surrender.  He accepted their surrender, only to be forced to fire upon them when Clan Wolf forces attacked the surrendering units, forcing the Hawks to resume firing on both the Guards.  The battle ended in the massacre of the remaining Silver Hawks.

Fed up with the barbaric ways of the Wolves, the Guards began preparations to leave the planet and hit the new capital of the commonwealth, [[Stewart]]. Unknowingly prompted by Trillian Steiner's rumors, both the Wolves and the Guards touched down on Stewart on June 5.<ref>''Era Report: 3145'', p. 24</ref>

Using intelligence discovered by [[Loki (Intelligence agency)|Loki]], Duke Vedet led the Guards into New Edinburgh with both Clan Wolf forces and 1st Steiner Strikers pushing forward from the south of the city.  The Duke dispatched the company to intercept what they believed was the motorcade of the [[Captain-General of the Free Worlds League|Captain-General]] [[Anson Marik]], but turned out to be a trap.

The Guards stormed the New Edinburgh Palace and its infantry units were forced to kill Anson Marik in a running gun battle through the palace, claiming Stewart as part of the Lyran Commonwealth and effectively destroying the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth.<ref name=er3145p59/>

===Brewer's Coup and after===
In [[3140]] the Guards were forced off of [[Kalidasa]]. Duke Vedet used the turmoil of the time to depose the Archon and take her place. At this time elements of the Hesperus Guards were used to protect the throne room. Two years later, Duke Vedet was forced off the throne and he and the Guards went to [[Alekseyevka]] in the Timbuktu Theater. As of [[3145]] the Guards have refused to obey Archon Trillian Steiner's orders to return to Tharkad.<ref name=er3145p59/><ref>''Field Manual: 3145'', pp. 123, 132</ref>

By [[3148]] the First Hesperus Guards were based on [[Rapla]] near the breakaway state of the [[Buena Collective]]. Despite the entreaties of Buena's ruler Warlord [[Diego Widmer]], Brewer refused to involve his personal unit in the defense of that realm. Two years later, when Trillian Steiner asked Brewer for assistance against the newly formed [[Timbuktu Collective]], Brewer instead moved the Guards towards the [[Melissia Theater]] for purposes unknown.<ref>''Shattered Fortress'', p. 48-49</ref> <ref>''Shattered Fortress'', p. 91</ref>

==Officers==
{| class="wikitable"
|- 
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Rank
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Name
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Command
|-
| colspan="4" style="background: #efefef;" | '''Commanding Officers of the First Hesperus Guards'''
|-
| [[Duke]]||[[Vedet Brewer]]||[[3137]]-[[3145]]<ref name=FM:3145p132>''Field Manual: 3145'', p. 132, "Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces - Timbuktu Theater"</ref>
|}

==Tactics==
Unknown.

==Composition History==
===3137===
'''First Hesperus Guards''' (Combined arms [[Regiment]])
* CO -- [[Duke]] [[Vedet Brewer]]
* Support Vessel: Command DropShip (class unknown) [[Defiance IV]]

===3145===
'''First Hesperus Guards''' (1 [[Battalion]]/Veteran/Questionable)<ref name=FM:3145p132/>
* CO: Duke Vedet Brewer

'''First Hesperus Guards Aerospace''' (Veteran/Questionable)<ref name=FM:3145p132/>
* CO: [[Kommandant]] [[Janelle LeSat]]

'''First Hesperus Armor Brigade''' (Regular/Questionable)<ref name=FM:3145p132/>
* CO: [[Colonel]] [[Denise Wilson]]

'''First Hesperus Infantry Brigade''' (Veteran/Questionable)<ref name=FM:3145p132/>
* CO: Colonel [[Clarence Peterson]]

==Notes==
The flagship of 1st Hesperus Guards is the ''[[Arm of Hesperus]]'', which is a [[DropShip]].

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Elements of Treason: Opportunity]]'' (novel)
* ''[[Era Report: 3145]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: 3145]]''
* ''[[Fire at Will]]'' (novel)
* ''[[The Last Charge]]'' (novel)
* ''[[Shattered Fortress]]''


[[Category:Lyran Commands|Hesperus Guards, 01st]]