5th FedCom RCT

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File:Fccorp5.jpg
5th FedCom RCT
Formed	3037
Nickname	The Black Rats
Affiliation	Federated Commonwealth
Parent Command	Federated Commonwealth Corps

The Fifth Federated Commonwealth RCT was a military unit of the Federated Commonwealth and, later, the Federated Suns. Contrary to their parent unit's ideal of being the best and brightest, the unit was accident prone, fatalistic, and generally looked down on by other units thanks to their reputation of cowardice and abuse of weapons of mass destruction.

History

Formation

The unit was officially established in 3037 and almost immediately began to earn its bad luck reputation. While in transit to a training operation on their homeworld of Tsitsang, before the unit had even seen combat, one of the Fifth FedCom's DropShips suffered a catastrophic propulsion failure. The resulting crash killed over a third of the unit's MechWarriors and sent the unit's morale plummeting. As they were still recouping their losses only six weeks later, a marauding Free Worlds League force attacked the planet. The raiders succeeding in inflicting further casualties and absolutely gutting the Fifth's morale before they were eventually beaten back. Murmurings about the unit's perpetual bad fortunes began to spread throughout its ranks after a freak accident completely destroyed one of the unit's repair bays while the unit was attempting to refit 'Mechs damaged during the raid. The resulting fire seriously injured or killed many personnel and led many to believe the unit was cursed.

War of 3039

This talk did not affect High Command's decision to send the unit to the Dieron Thrust during the War of 3039. The Fifth was ordered to secure the world of Halstead Station, which High Command saw as an easy victory that would boost the unit's faltering confidence. Though they were fairly confident the unit would redeem itself, the generals hedged their bets on the Fifth's success by assigning the Fighting Urukhai's Roman's Bar Hounds as an additional unit. The invasion was quite routine, as the mercenaries' early landing managed to wipe out all but the most token resistance. The Fifth FedCom merely had to mop up the few pockets of irregular fighters left in the mountains, which they did without much trouble. General Nial Slattery then turned his troops to fortifying the planet against the expected Draconis Combine counterassault.

When the counterattack arrived in August, it was not the expected Dieron Regulars but the First and Seventh Sword of Light regiments, elite and storied Draconis Combine units. The Sword of Light regiments immediately used a two pronged attack to fix and flank the Fifth FedCom, who attributed their initial successes in the defense to skill and not planned enemy concessions. While the First Sword of Light held the Fifth's attention at their fortified defensive line, the Seventh Sword of Light staged a daring orbital insertion directly to the rear of the unsuspecting FedCom unit. The Seventh landed square in the cached AFFS supplies and, bristling with Star League-era BattleMechs and weapons, immediately fell upon the hapless Fifth FedCom. Now surrounded on all sides, the Fifth panicked and broke. An entire battalion, led by Major Donald Trent, flat-out deserted their comrades, taking their DropShips, stealing one of the Fifth's JumpShips, and fleeing to the Free Rasalhague Republic to found a mercenary unit. Those who chose to stay fought desperately to survive and managed to hold until an assault by Roman's Bar Hounds broke the encirclement and allowed them to fall back to their remaining DropShips.

The dire circumstances of the Fifth's retreat forced them to abandon a large amount of BattleMechs, supplies, and equipment on Halstead Station. When they returned to their duty station on Tsitsang, they were reissued BattleMechs and assigned new personnel, but these replacements were second rate when compared to what had been used to found the unit. This was the final nail in the coffin for the unit's esprit-du-corps. After a series of horrific disasters, defeats, and setbacks, the perceived insult of receiving what amounted to surplus solidified the unit's perception of themselves as losers and led them to believe that even High Command considered them as such.

Interwar Years

In 3047, General Slattery's guilt over the loss of so many of his troops drove him to commit suicide. He was replaced by Hauptmann General James White, who helped the unit attain one of its few victories by crushing an uprising on Tsitsang led fomented by the Zhanzeng de Guang in 3055. At some point between 3050 and 3061 the Fifth FedCom would move from Tsitsang to Chesterton and take up station there. By this point the RCT's loyalties were firmly in the Katherine Steiner-Davion camp.

FedCom Civil War

Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field The Fifth FedCom's next campaign would start on a very unlucky note when the RCT was deployed to Axton in August 3063 to convince the First Bell Training Battalion to join the Civil War on Katherine Steiner-Davion's side, or disarm the unit. After arriving in system the RCT's bad luck was once again apparent when two DropShips collided and crashed with all personnel lost during entry to the planet's atmosphere. The remaining DropShips were scattered as well. After a few days various units of the RCT began to rally up under the command of Leftenant General Klaus von Ludendorf of the armor brigade. After a few days the First Bell Training Battalion, backed by two militia regiments were deployed to “lend assistance” to the Fifth FedCom, but shots were fired and fighting began between the Fifth FedCom and the Bell Training Battalion. After three weeks both sides called for reinforcements, with the Fifth FedCom's Executive Officer Annette Leyland the first to respond. Taking command of the Fifth FedCom from Leftenant General Klaus von Ludendor, Leftenant General Annette Leyland pushed the First Bell Training Battalion back to the planets rainforest filled subcontinent. At this point reinforcements arrived for the First Bell Training Battalion in the form of the Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers under the command of Major General Robert Koenig which made landing in October. Now the Fifth FedComs were the ones on the defensive. For the next few months the various units would play a game of cat and mouse in the planet's rainforests until February, 3064 when the Fifth FedCom broke contact during the Monsoon season and escaped over the Keliant Mountains onto the Kei-Den Plateau.

By June of 3064, Leftenant General Annette Leyland had given up on reinforcements from New Avalon and her command had taken heavy damage from the pursuing Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers. The only aid the Fifth FedCom would receive was the location of a hidden supply depot. When the Fifth FedCom raided the supply depot they discovered plenty of conventional munitions, as well as fifty atomic weapons, plus their delivery systems. Leyland took the weapons with her and decided to keep them “as a last resort”. On the 17th of June after the Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers and First Bell Training Battalion had cut off a large number of her troops, Annette Leyland authorized two of the nuclear weapons to be used. The First Bell Training Battalion was completely destroyed, as were a battalion of armor and a sizable number of the Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers infantry caught in the open. At this point the Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers backed off, but soon attacked again, intent on destroying the Fifth FedCom completely. Leftenant General Annette Leyland would use twelve more of the nuclear weapons over the next two weeks attempting to save her command from annihilation. On July 29th the Fifth FedCom fled the system after ransacking Chesterton's capitol and raiding Wangker Aerospace.

On the 24th of November the Fifth FedCom arrived at Marlette and joined the Loyalist forces there, though not without controversy. Some wanted the RCT arrested to a man and all senior officers executed, but calmer minds prevailed and the Fifth FedCom was given a place in the defense, soon after they would take the city of Argentan and later set up a static defense line against the Allied Forces. The Fifth Crucis Lancers received word the 20th Avalon Hussars had arrived in system and launched an attack on the loyalist forces. The 20th Avalon Hussars had not come to take the planet but to destroy the Fifth FedCom and as soon as they arrived set themselves opposite of the Fifth FedCom and attacked. One of these attacks was executed by the Fourth New Valencia Rangers infantry regiment, part of the 20th Avalon Hussars infantry brigade. This raid prevented the use of more nuclear weapons. After 25 days of fighting the the 20th Avalon Hussars were able to destroy a third of the remaining Fifth FedCom after separating it from the main group. By day 53 of the fighting the Fifth FedCom were on the verge of collapse so Leftenant General Annete Leyland chose to use one of the nuclear weapons as a warning, but the 20th Avalon Hussars ignored this warning and attacked. At this point, Leyland made the decision unleash further nuclear weapons against the 20th Avalon Hussars, who were closing in on her command post. She dispatched her fighter wing to drop the nuclear weapons, one succeeded in dropping its payload, but the nuclear weapon failed to function and the 20th Avalon Hussars shot down the rest of the attacking fighters and overran the Fifth FedCom's airfield soon after. At this point Leftenant General Annete Leyland and the Fifth FedCom withdrew on March 11th from Marlette with four BattleMech companies. The remaining Fifth FedCom were absorbed into the Marlette CMM. At this point the Fifth FedCom was considered effectively destroyed by the both sides, although elements had escaped and were still at large.

Jihad

During the Jihad the Fifth FedCom participated in the battle for New Avalon on the side of the Federated Suns, arriving in system on the 10th of December 3072 and using nuclear weapons to break through the Word of Blake naval blockade around the planet. Despite being depleted and mistrusted by the other Federation units, they helped push the Blakists off the planet. Redeployed to other continents in 3074, they kept the Blakists from fully destroying all of New Avalon's defense industries.

After the Jihad ended, survivors of the Fifth FedCom were allowed the chance to join the 12th Vegan Rangers while their unit was stricken from the AFFS roster of commands.

Officers

Rank	Name	Command
Commanding Officers of 5th FedCom RCT
General	Nial Slattery	3037 - 3047
Hauptmann General	James White	3047 - 3063
Leftenant General	Annette Leyland	3063 - 3072

Tactics

The Fifth FedCom are generalists, with no special skills, though they have a reputation for retreating if possible or, if not possible, fighting with everything at their disposal if pushed into a corner.

Composition History

3040

5th FedCom RCT (Regiment/Green/Reliable)

• CO: General Nial Slattery
• Base: Tsitsang

3050

5th FedCom RCT (Regiment/Green/Reliable)

• CO: Hauptmann-General James White
• Base: Tsitsang

3054

5th FedCom RCT (Regiment/Green/Reliable)

• CO: Hauptmann General James White
• Base: Tsitsang

3062

5th FedCom RCT (Regiment/Green/Reliable)

• CO: Hauptmann General James White
• Base: Chesterton

Notes

• Like other FedCom RCTs, the Fifth primarily used the FedCom Corps crest, and for its insignia a black rat on a white disk.
• The parade color scheme of the Fifth, is the same as other FedCom Corps units, which is navy blue with gold banding on the arms and legs of 'Mechs. Gold is also used to highlight panels on the upper torsos of 'Mechs and turrets of armor units, resulting in a checkerboard pattern. On many occasions it has been defaced with a yellow stripe painted on the 'Mechs' backs or vehicles turrets by other units who infiltrate the Fifth FedCom's bases.
• The Fifth FedCom is made up of primarily light and medium BattleMechs, usually older models with a handful of more modern ones. On paper, the Fifth FedCom has three battalions, but can field only eighty 'Mechs or so.

Bibliography

• 20 Year Update
• FedCom Civil War
• Field Manual: Federated Suns
• Jihad Hot Spots: 3072
• Jihad Turning Points: New Avalon
• Technical Readout: 3058 Upgrade