Red Eagles

The Red Eagles were a mercenary unit operating in the early Succession Wars Era.

History

The future Red Eagles were a battalion from the Star League Defense Force's 225th Mechanized Infantry Division. At least two battalions from the 225th chose to remain in the Inner Sphere rather than join Operation EXODUS, each battalion choosing the mercenary life in 2775, becoming the Red Eagles and Simpson's Samurai respectively.

Accepting a contract with the Draconis Combine, at the outbreak of the First Succession War the Red Eagles were at 100% strength and stationed on Alleghe.

The Red Eagles eventually accepted a contract with Free Worlds League to raid Lyran Commonwealth-held Solaris VII in March 2820. Seeking revenge for the Game World transferring its loyalty to the Commonwealth earlier that same year, the Red Eagles and a reinforced battalion drawn from the Clinton's Cutthroats mercenary unit, supported by the Essex-class FWLS Despiser, emerged from a Pirate Point close to the planet's orbit. Without a Lyran naval presence to challenge the Despiser, the Cutthroats and Red Eagles landed without incident near the Bracken Swamps north of Solaris City. Facing the local Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces garrison, the Free Worlds League attackers were eventually forced to retreat after a three day long firefight, but not before they had destroyed a major water treatment planet and reduced a local industrial park to ash, the Despiser covering their escape from the system with an orbital bombardment of Solaris City that would become infamous.

The Red Eagles took heavy losses during the Solaris raid, with a number of Red Eagles MechWarriors and their Free Worlds League Military liaison Mackenzie Henkel being left behind and choosing to form the Red Knives stable. The surviving Red Eagles, reduced to 34% strength, returned to Draconis Combine service and took up station on The Edge.

Bibliography

• First Succession War (Source Book)