20th Liao Lancers

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Twentieth Liao Lancers
Formed 2765[1] -2785[2]
Disbanded 2787[3]
Nickname Ramen II Lancers
Affiliation Capellan Confederation
Parent Command Liao Lancers


History

The last of four new regiments of Liao Lancers regiments to muster between 2765 and 2785,[2] the Twentieth Liao Lancers was intended to garrison Raman II. However, following the deployment of the garrison on Second Chance to the former Terran Hegemony region in 2785, the Twentieth was redeployed to the nearby Second Chance system.[3]

The Twentieth had the misfortune to be on Second Chance 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 first battle for Second Chance took place in space; the FWLM task for arrived at the nadir jump point, with the ground forces - led by the Nineteenth, Twentieth and Thirty-eighth Marik Militia regiments - being escorted by a substantial naval group that included the Atreus-class battleship FWLS Sorunda and the League-class destroyers FWLS Ospina and FWLS Otavalo, two squadrons of attack DropShips and three wings of aerospace fighters. In contrast with the other three systems hit in the opening wave, there was a substantial CCAF naval presence in the Second Chance system, as part of an ongoing patrol of the border. The Capellan naval presence was smaller than that of the FWLM task force, consisting of the Du Shi Wang-class battleship CCS Mica Liao and the Soyal-class heavy cruiser CCS Solstice, but both ships were at the zenith jump point when the FWLM task force arrived, and immediately began plotting an intercept jump.[3]

The Solstice managed to destroy the Ospina and a pair of DropShips before being destroyed, but both the Mica Liao and the Solstice were destroyed in short order by the League WarShips, which then advanced on Second Chance itself. The Twentieth was a new command with little combat experience; half of the Lancers were on exercises on Second Chance's northern continent when the FWLM task force appeared, and word of the swift destruction of the Capellan naval forces was a heavy blow to the Lancers' morale - and that of the planetary government, who had little faith in the Lancers.[3]

The planetary government ordered the Lancers' support formations to deploy to Sevarias and Sweethaven, two major port cities; the support regiments were vehicle and infantry regiments raised locally, and the government planned to use them to cover the evacuation of high-level officials from the government and the major corporations present on the planet. The discovery that their attempts to rally to defend the planet were being blocked by the planetary government to cover their own evacuation was the last straw for many of the Lancers; by the time the League task force arrived in orbit, a third of the Lancers had already deserted. The League task force detected a number of DropShips warming up for liftoff at Sweethaven; working on the assumption that the DropShips represented a possible attack being launched, the captain of the Sorunda initiated a seven-minute orbital bombardment of the spaceport. The hellish firestorm destroyed four Union-class DropShips belonging to the Lancers, two armor companies and a regiment of infantry - and also killed both the planetary governor, Duke Maynard Stott, and the Security Minister, Haley Fernando, along with the majority of the planetary elite. When League General Matias Rosenkov called for Second Chance to surrender an hour later, Colonel Mila Palmer, commanding officer of the remaining Lancers and the senior military officer left on Second Chance, had little choice but to acquiesce.[3]

Officers

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the 20th Liao Lancers
Colonel Mila Palmer 2787[3]

Tactics

Unknown.

Composition History

2786

  • Twentieth Liao Lancers (Regiment/Green/Questionable)[2]
- At this point in time the Twentieth was a light-weight regiment operating at full strength and was located on Second Chance.[2] The unit was destroyed during the war. [2]

References

  1. Field Report 2765: Capellan Confederation, p. 12, "Liao Lancers"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 First Succession War, p. 136, "Capellan Confederation Armed Forces (CCAF)"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 First Succession War, p. 53-54, "A Path to Sarna: The League-Confederation Front"

Bibliography