Stephan Cooper

Stephan Cooper
Personal
Affiliation	Federated Suns
Profile
Rank	Field Marshal
Profession	MechWarrior

Stephan Cooper was the commanding officer of the Davion Brigade of Guards and the third Operations Command Officer of the Fox's Den as of 3067.

History

Marshal Cooper, serving with the Davion Assault Guards, was stationed on Frazer in 3050 and on Tigress in 3062. Cooper began his career at the helm of a Capellan March Militia Valkyrie and briefly commanded the Eighth Deneb Light Cavalry where he distinguished both himself and his unit in the War of 3039. Prince Hanse Davion was impressed with Cooper's performance and gave him command of the Assault Guards when the previous commander left to help form the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth. A light cavalry officer, Cooper was forced to adapt to the Assault Guards' heavier combat style, but he accomplished the feat in a very short amount of time.

Civil War

When the Federated Commonwealth Civil War broke out, Cooper and the Assault Guards declared themselves for Victor Steiner-Davion's cause and, along with the First NAIS Cadre, was tasked with taking the key world of Addicks from forces loyal to Archon Katherine Steiner-Davion. Preceded by a clandestine force that quietly took the system's recharge stations and listening posts, the core of Cooper's troops arrived at Addicks on 12 March 3063. Although his principle objective was the planet's massive Depratment of the Quartermaster complex on the continent of Loknar, Cooper decided that taking on the defending Sixth FedCom RCT with the neutral-leaning Addicks DMM still holding the planet's military headquarters would be a mistake. Cooper's attack on the DMM's Fort Lucien began on 23 March and lasted two days, after which the routed DMM were further demolished by the Addicks planetary militia (who's alignment with Victor's cause was heretofore unknown) and forced to surrender. With the arrival of the DMM's off-world units, Cooper was forced to spend the rest of April hunting down March Militia stragglers and securing the parts of the planet not held by the Sixth FedCom.

When Cooper surrounded the DQ logistics complex and began making headway negotiating a peaceful solution with the Sixth FedCom, he was forced to take a more direct strike when the Fifth Lyran Guards arrived in-system to destroy the First NAIS Cadre and incidentally became embroiled in the battle for the world. Aided by Victor-allied officers locking down half of the DQ complex as soon as Cooper's forces began their charge on 27 April, Cooper successfully took two of the Fifth Lyran's five landing zones and a significant portion of the complex while the Allied saboteurs continued their efforts to lock down the entirety of the facility. Sixteen days after the battle's start, Katherine's troops only held a quarter of the complex and had suffered severe casualties fighting against the elite Assault Guards and their decision to use JumpShip messengers to call for reinforcements instead of the planet's HPG prevented them from receiving help. Meanwhile, Cooper's troops unlocked the parts of the complex under their control and took advantage of the plentiful supplies to restock before resuming their attack on 15 May. On 5 July, half of the remaining Loyalists surrendered while the other half made a hasty run out off-world, leaving Addicks under the control of Cooper's task force.

Tikonov

Cooper and the Assault Guards' next assignment was the world of Tikonov, landing on 8 September and successfully taking the Earthwerks Limited factory before the arrival of hardened loyalist troops could stop them (although both Tikonov's capital Tikograd and the Ceres Metals Industries plant remained under the Katherine-loyal local militia's control). When the stronger Loyalist reinforcements arrived, Cooper was aided significantly by divisions within the enemy force, as the regional loyalties of the Tikonov Republican Guards prevented them from closely cooperating with the Fifteenth Deneb Light Cavalry. Cooper's Assault Guards and the newly-linked up First NAIS Cadre spent the rest of 3063 and the first month of 3064 under siege in the Earthwerks compound, although they did succeed in destroying an entire brigade of Tikonov troops when they fanatically threw themselves at Cooper's elite unit. By February 3064, the Tikonov miltia was in rough shape and Cooper had infiltrated Tikograd with commando teams who cut off power and communications and assassinated the Tikonov militia's commanding staff. With the disintegration of the Tikonov militia, Cooper began to move BattleMech forces into Tikograd proper, although a counter-attack from the off-world reinforcements stopped him from entirely investing the city.

The Fifteenth Deneb's counter-attacks continued for months, while the Republican Guards and Tikonov Martial Academy Training Group held Tikograd against Cooper's attempted assaults, although Cooper's skillful leadership and knowledge of the Deneb Cavalry's tactics from his time in that brigade prevented him from taking serious losses or from losing his toehold in the city. The Loyalist troops' usage of civilian buildings within Tikograd forced Cooper to destroy significant amounts of civilian property and images of the Assault Guards' actions were used by Archon Katherine to vilify Victor's actions and gain herself the support of the Federated Suns' civilians for just a bit longer. By August, Cooper had pushed more troops into the city but faced further complications when the Capellan Confederation turned the entire city against all "Davionist" interlopers, hampering Katherine's troops but greatly increasing the difficulty of Cooper's efforts at the same time. On 16 August, faced with the choice to either endure heightened casualties or level the hotly-resisting city, Cooper instead decided to strike the Fifteenth Deneb Cavalry head-on, dealing the enemy unit severe damage and giving his troops enough space to load onto their DropShips. The following combat drop against the city of New Moscow pushed the defending Tikonov Republican Guards out and Cooper was informed that reinforcements would soon arrive, leading to him garrisoning New Moscow in preparation for the help to come.

While he lost New Moscow before they arrived, Cooper's reinforcements dumbfounded him; Victor Steiner-Davion himself at the head of the 244th ComGuard Division, the Outland Legion, the Twenty-third Arcturan Guards, the Sixth Crucis Lancers, and the Valexa CMM. With this force, the Allies took the majority of the planet but were still unable to secure the major cities when a large group of Loyalist reinforcements arrived on 8 January 3065. Learning of an assault on Addicks by the Draconis Combine, Victor released Cooper and his Assault Guards to defend that world, although Cooper's troops forced the Tikonov Martial Academy Cadre to surrender before they departed on 27 January.

Return to Addicks

When Cooper's Assault Guards arrived on Addicks on 13 February, they did so just in time to prevent the Fighting Urukhai's Eighth Striker Regiment from being destroyed by the attacking Fifteenth Dieron Regulars and Tenth Ghost. Two days of fighting the most powerful unit in the AFFS was enough for the Combine commander, who withdrew back into Combine space on the 16th.

The Fifteenth Dieron and Tenth Ghost returned on 10 November, this time targeting the capital city of St. Randall which was defended by the barely-recovered Eighth Striker. The Eighth Striker was destroyed during this attack and the Combine's Draconis Elite Strike Teams and special forces troops fought hard to take the city's governmental buildings ahead of a larger armored assault. Cooper's response was to mobilize most of the Assault Guards and the Twelfth Deneb Light Cavalry but the combined force of the two units was not enough to dislodge the Combine from the city. When the Twelfth Vegan Rangers arrived to assist Cooper's force on 7 February 3066 it became apparent to both sides that the bloodiest phase of the battle was yet to come.

With the arrival of the Twelfth Vegan Rangers, Cooper finally had enough raw force to push the Combine out of St. Randall and into the countryside. Surprisingly, Cooper raced his heavy Assault Guards ahead of the Combine units and used the lighter Twelfth Deneb and Twelfth Vegan to push them forwards, splitting the Combine task force in two. When Cooper finalized the split of the Combine's two halves by linking up with the Twelfth Deneb and Twelfth Vegan in the gap they'd formed, the Combine commander realized the inevitability of defeat and gave the retreat order on 2 March, with the invaders leaving the planet only two days later. Cooper utilized the next few months of downtime to give his Assault Guards the chance to rest and resupply before they left Addicks on 10 June for New Avalon and the end of the war.

New Avalon and Post-Civil War

Cooper's Assault Guards arrived at New Avalon in time to join the battle for the continent of Albion, leading the charge on 10 February 3067. The Assault Guards took heavy casualties and were eventually forced off the line of combat but their efforts secured a beachhead for the rest of the Allies.

After Victor won the war, Cooper was promoted to field marshal and given command of the entire Davion Brigade of Guards, as well as the position of third Operations Command Officer in the heart of the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns, the Fox's Den.

Bibliography

• 20 Year Update
• FedCom Civil War
• Field Manual: Federated Suns
• Field Manual: Updates