Alpha Galaxy (Clan Star Adder)

Revision as of 19:28, 4 January 2021 by Cache (talk | contribs) ("The" Wars of Reaving)

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History

Clan Star Adder's Alpha Galaxy was originally formed from the equipment and warriors of the 146th Royal BattleMech Division. The unit has fought in every major conflict that Clan Star Adder has been involved in. It is considered their show piece unit, receiving the best warriors and equipment as it is always the first into battle. [1] Alpha Galaxy was rebuilt after the Burrock Absorption by taking in warriors from the decommissioned Beta Galaxy. It made a strong showing in the Harvest Trials, and by 3067 was considered at full strength. [2]

Wars of Reaving

In late 3069 Clan Blood Spirit was expanding its holdings in the Homeworlds, looking in part to obtain additional resources for their hidden settlements on Honor and Haven. Khan Karianna Schmitt led the Blood Spirit Alpha and Iota Galaxies to Albion, intent on seizing the Star Adder holdings there. The Eighty-seventh Dragoons managed to hold the Star Adder enclave at Junction City until the end of the year before falling, outlasting the 343rd Adder Sentinels who had been defeated defending the nearby Chrysaor manufacturing facilities soon after the Blood Spirits landed.[3]

In early 3073 the Star Adder Khan, Stanislov N'Buta, took Alpha Galaxy to the Tanis system to respond to the discovery that Clan Burrock had resurrected itself and the lack of contact from Galaxy Commander Tristyn N'Buta of Upsilon Galaxy. Acting on intelligence from Clan Cloud Cobra,[4] Stanislov took Alpha and Beta Galaxy to Nouveaux Paris, escorted by the Lola III-class destroyer Warlock and the Nightlord-class battleship Absolute Truth in pursuit of the Burrock Zeta Galaxy.[5]

When N'Buta's forces arrived at Nouveaux Paris, he discovered Eta Galaxy of Clan Hell's Horses already in system, escorted by the Potemkin-class cruiser Blood Horse and the Lola III-class Black Knight, engaged in battle with the Burrock, Dark Caste and Society forces who had taken control of the waystation. N'Buta demanded that the Horses get out of the way, and had the Absolute Truth and Warlock escort the bulk of Alpha and Beta Galaxies in a planetary assault, with Alpha dropping onto the planet while Beta's aerospace forces provided combat air support. Despite being hampered by Hell's Horses troops and Watch agents on the planet, the Burrocks were still able to spend two days rearming and preparing for the Star Adder assault.[5]

The Eighty-fifth Adder Cavaliers scored first blood, evading an ambush by the Eighteenth Warren Cluster and pinning the Eighteenth in place for destruction via a bombing run conducted by aerospace fighters from the Tenth Armored Cavalry[6]. Battles and skirmishes continued for several days in and around Paris Prime, the support city and main barracks the Hell's Horses had constructed on the planet, and at one point N'Buta was believed to have been killed in an ambush that saw bandit forces drop a reinforced rail depot on top of his 'Mech. The Star Adders managed to find and badly damage a number of Burrock DropShips in the Seine Valley, at the cost of many of their aerospace fighters, but were left with little choice but to withdraw from the surface of the planet when the Ninety-eighth Tanis Dragoons attacked the grounded Star Adder DropShips and declared that they had an atomic weapon they would use, stranding the Adders in the system, if they refused to withdraw.[5]

Although N'Buta was forced to retreat, he struck a deal in secret with Galaxy Commander Unther Cooper of the Horses; despite the Horses being subject to reaving, N'Buta's personal respect for the Clan and his past dealings with him prompted him to propose a controversial bargain he knew wouldn't be acceptable to the more conservative Clan leaders within the Clan Homeworlds. The Star Adders had managed to plant homing devices on a number of the Burrock ships, allowing for Zeta Galaxy to be tracked. N'Buta proposed to "loan" two Clusters from Alpha Galaxy to the Horses - the Fifth Assault Cluster and the 191st Adder Guards - and the combined forces would hunt down Zeta Galaxy, while N'Buta returned to Sheridan with his remaining forces and declare victory. In addition, once the mission was complete, the Star Adder forces would return to the Homeworlds, and in the event of an invasion of the Inner Sphere, the Star Adders wouldn't attack through the Hell's Horses Occupation Zone. It was a bold plan, and Cooper agreed. The Fifth Assault Cluster and the 191st Adder Guards never returned.[5]

The Bandit forces still on Nouveaux Paris looted the Star Adder DropShips that N'Buta had been forced to leave behind, recovering almost two Trinaries of equipment abandoned by the Seventy-ninth Adder Dragoons before transferring the crews to their own vessels and scuttling the DropShips - unknowingly taking two Star Adder Watch operatives with them.[5]

In July 3074, the Star Adder Watch contacted Star Colonel Boyd Truscott of the 191st Adder Guards, alerting him of the Burrock Zeta Galaxy's plans to sow conflict between the Hell's Horses and the Ghost Bear Dominion by equipping themselves with Horses equipment taken from Nouveaux Paris and attacking a string of Ghost Bear worlds under false colors. Truscott passed the information to Cooper, who passed it to the Ghost Bears in turn via the Horses' Khan. Given permission to intercept the Burrocks by the Ghost Bears, the Hell's Horses dispatched the Thirty-ninth BattleMech Cluster alongside the Fifth Assault Cluster and 191st Adder Guards to engage the Burrock raiders at Thule. Following the descending Burrock DropShips, the combined forces hot-dropped near the city of Accotink City - the main industrial city on Thule, located on the shores of Lake Accotink - and engaged the Burrock forces, while observed by a Ghost Bear Trinary of solahma warriors. As the battle spilled over into the city, the Ghost Bear patrol was destroyed by the Burrocks, but the Fifth Assault Cluster successfully destroyed the Second Burrock Cavaliers. The remaining two Burrock Clusters evaded the 191st and the Thirty-ninth, although the destruction inflicted on the city during the three-way battle included the newly-completed Miraborg manufacturing facility. Engaged in the air by Ghost Bear aerospace fighters and harried by the Adder and Hell's Horses ground forces, one of the two escaping DropShips was successfully destroyed.[7]

Cooper kept Eta Galaxy, the Fifth Assault Cluster and the 191st on the border of Dominion space until October, waiting for the Burrocks to return. In October, he decided to take Eta Galaxy back to Hell's Horses space, formally adopting the surviving Star Adder warriors into the Horses in the process. While the attack on Thule had been rebuffed, the attack was linked to a virus later found to have been added to the Thule water table via Lake Accotink that was responsible for the deaths of almost three hundred thousand people within the Dominion and the near-extinction of two Ghost Bear bloodlines.[7]

Under saKhan Hannibal Banacek Alpha Galaxy worked with Delta Galaxy to cleanse the various Star Adder holdings on Brim, Homer and Tathis of taint from both the Dark Caste and Society, witnessing the tremendous loss of life that had occurred as a result of the Wars of Reaving and the actions of the Society.[8]

The Dark Age

In the aftermath of the Wars of Reaving, the Star Adders and Clan Cloud Cobra shifted from being staunch allies to respected rivals, with spirited debates in the Grand Council leading to resolution - or refutation - through battlefield Trials. The Star Adders tended to cycle Stars from Alpha Galaxy for these trials.[9]

Officers

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the Alpha Galaxy
Galaxy Commander Dante Truscott 3049 - 3059[1]
Galaxy Commander Hannibal Banacek 3067[10]
saKhan Hannibal Banacek 3071[11]
Khan Hannibal Banacek 3085[12]

Tactics

Alpha lacks speed and prefers longer campaigns. Adept at most terrain it employs its fighters to wear down an enemy before the heavy and assault units finish the task.[1]

Composition History

3059-3067

3085

Notes

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Field Manual: Crusader Clans, p. 123
  2. Field Manual: Updates, p. 51
  3. The Wars of Reaving, p. 43, "The Hellion Plan"
  4. The Wars of Reaving, p. 117-118, "Splitting the Snake"
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 The Wars of Reaving, p. 119-121, "Spreading Contagion"
  6. BattleCorps - Scenario: 'Mechs from Heaven
  7. 7.0 7.1 The Wars of Reaving, p. 136137, "Poking the Bear"
  8. The Wars of Reaving, p. 183, "Hannibal Banacek"
  9. The Wars of Reaving Supplemental, p. 11, "Clan Cloud Cobra"
  10. 10.0 10.1 Field Manual: Updates, p. 73
  11. The Wars of Reaving, p. 104
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 The Wars of Reaving, p. 168, "Alpha Galaxy"

Bibliography