Formations and Ships of the PACT Arm

Famous Formations

European Union

74th Marine Regiment, "The Rose Knights"

Originally composed of deserters from the army and fleet of Heaven's Shore when the government was seized by the pro-ZOCU transgene minority Hogan's Company joined other anti-government forces in opposition to the "tyranny of the minority". Its second commander, after the much loved Captain Hogan was gunned down during an attempt to secure support from local settlements, proved to be the most farsighted of the anti-government forces in the region when the first ZOCU mobile suits appeared on the side of the "damned dictatorship". Leading a recce team, or suicide squad as they were called by the General Alberville, Captain Emile Baxton acquired combat data on ZOCU Peltast's operating against the rebels over a period of several weeks before discovering one of the staging bases for the Heaven Shore's Mobile Suit Volunteer Battallion.

In a daring raid Captain Baxton and twenty members of his command raided a relatively lightly defended base while its maneuver forces were deployed. The raid achieved outstanding success in terms of intelligence; several operating and technical manuals as well as close-up digital recordings of one or two damaged Peltast's were acquired before Baxton and his surviving men extracted. Notably amoung the survivors was Henrich von Palzer, the future first commander of the Rose Knights. This notable incident shored up morale for the anti-government forces and raised Baxton's prestige to the point of being promoted to take command of a region when the struggle was forced to become primarily a guerrilla war against the government and its off-world allies. The recovered intelligence was passed on to the military intelligence branch of the EU, but was ignored by the old guard until the Deep Space Fleet's losses attested to the importance of mobile suits in warfare.

During the ZOCU war the European Union endeavored to supply the guerrilla's with arms and supplies to undermine the war effort on Heaven's Shore. During one of the early supply drops Colonel Baxton leading a contingent of the Company in securing the supply transfer was surprised by a rapid attacked by a elite company. While managing to initially hold off the assault at the transfer zone, which was only part of a larger operation which devastated the guerrilla movement in the region for months, they were cut off from escape. Personally leading the rear-guard Baxton gave his life allowing the survivors (sans a good percentage of the rifles and medical kits intended for the rebels) under Henrich von Palzer to escape onboard the dropships and were later extracted from the system.

Deemed impractical to bring the few troops that managed to get off-world Henrich von Palzer and his motley band were hailed as heroes in the embattled Core for their daring raids and achievements in mobile suit development; the fact that the technical information they acquired years before had been ignored to the point where it did little good was something the media controllers had buried under the rug. With a reputation of being elite combined with the politically welcome bonus of being fiercely anti-ZOCU von Palzer was asked to head a unit of expatriates, loyalists and volunteers.

Von Palzer agreed. The Rose Knights were formed from volunteers originating from ZOCU colonies or colonies occupied by ZOCU troops with focus on specialized tactics. During the war the unit gained considerable fame or infamy dependent on which side you fought for as loyalists or traitors while achieving generally remarkable results when deployed. By 2186 the Knights became regiment sized with the formation of two battallions and participated in a false-flag operation that netted the freedom for a hundred future recruits liberated from a prison on Heaven's Shore. Operation Jailbust however proved to be the first and only time the unit would operate on Heaven's Shore as von Palzer was ordered to bring his unit into strategic reserve in light of Operation Beanstalk in 2187.

After von Palzer's untimely death at the end of 2187 on New Mercia the veteran 1st BN CO Adrain Felix was promoted as the regiment's Second Commander. 2188 was spent with the regiment serving in suppressing the anti-government insurgency on one of Outremonde-III's moons and then in various skirmishes and operations within Union territory. While in transport where Colonel Felix and first company where killed when their transport was sunk by raiders in the early part of the year. Tessa Striech, CO of second battallion, was promoted as the regiment's Third Commander and restored morale after the loss of its second CO in less than four months.

Initially held in fleet reserve for an planetary landing on Haraway, which was widely anticipated by the rank and file of the regiment, the war was brought to a close before Striech received the order. On top of that the regiment itself was close to being disbanded due to the issue that while it was an elite unit it had been formed largely, in the minds of certain of the high command, as a propaganda unit. Admiral Anton Zweiker's argument for keeping a unit with high esprit de corps and proven proficiency combined with the inherent value of a formation with a string of successes was key in the debate that followed in choosing to set the unit on a permanent footing.

In its existence the regiment has had a mixed group of soldiers. Originally made up of a handful of veterans from Heaven's Shore, a few Harawayian "Reds" whose defection were made more significant in the official broadcasts then any popular movement on Haraway itself, loyalist and defected transgenes from various worlds of various reliability, troops from New Mercia that escaped the atrocities on that planet, and then in good numbers volunteers of significant caliber from regular EU units.

War Time Commanders

Henrich von Palzer, First Commander (WIA June 2187)

Adrain Laap Felix, interim Commander

Henrich von Palzer, First Commander (Returned September 2187; KIA December 2187)

Adrain Laap Felix, Second Commander (KIA April 2188)

Tessa Striech, Third Commander (April 2188-End of War)

Quotes

"Its not the amount of men you have. Its the way you use what you got. Right now all I got are the sorriest bunch of slobs, slackers, and misfits the commander-in-chief can throw at me. The other troops in this man's army are fighting for their homes or to preserve the Union. But we all have something that's going to turn all of you greenhorns into the best damn soldiers in the army! We're fighting to go back home and don't you forget that." ---Attributed to Laap Felix, 2185.

PACT

The Special Service Force (The Devil's Brigade)

Spiritual successor to the joint American-Canadian commando unit of the Second World War, the Special Service Force was a multinational special operations command which would ironically grow to approximate a division in size.

Background: With the large-scale ground defeat on Kanon, the militaries of the North Pacific Group began to discuss and debate the necessity of a strategic pause to enable the rebuilding of the majority of the ground forces available to the NorPac belligerent states. Amidst the chaos of these discussions, a suggestion was made by the chief representative of the small, highly-trained Canadian Army - to carry on the war with attritional raids by small units of the assembling Joint Task Force 13 and the units of a proposed pan-NorPac special operations command. This suggestion was met with approval from both factions of the Joint Combat command; the cautious and conservative officers advocating a pause in large-scale operations approved of its' limited scale, and the headstrong and tenacious officers advocating a full-scale offensive approved of the plan's commitment to continued action.

Thus was the Devil's Brigade reborn.

It would go on to... (more goes here)

Fifth Special Service Group (The Dirty Deeds Battalion)

• Combat Record:
  • Choson
    • Choson Raid, 2186
  • Kanon
    • Kanon Raid, 2186
  • Theia
    • "Advisory" service under joint MAC-T/CTDF authority, 2187-88
    • Support of Operation Righteous Talon landings, 2188
    • Conventional combat operations, 2188-89

46th Tactical Mobile Suit Squadron, HSDF (The Night Witches)

One of three formed by the Horizonic Space Defense Force during third year of the war, this all-female unit of KS87 mobile suits proved devastatingly effective in combat against Combined Militia forces around Anchorage, Choson and Horizon, racking up one the highest kill ratios achieved by any PACT mecha unit of the war. They were later enlarged into a full three-squadron wing before being reduced to a squadron at the end of the war. Postwar, these highly-decorated women remained in service as instructors in the HSDF and JSDF.

PACT First Fleet

Overall command of all PACT memberstate forces posted at or around Horizon and the front line during the Zodiac War. First Fleet was responsible for all offensive operations in-theater for the majority of the war, until the majority of Second Fleet was retasked from rear-area defense against ZOCU raiders to facilitate more widespread and larger-scale operations during the 2188 counterattack and continuing operations through 2189.

Joint Task Forces 11 & 12

These conventional heavy striking forces conducted the large-scale operations of 2185 and, with the support of similar forces from Second Fleet, those of 2188/89. They otherwise simply stood their ground and looked just menacing enough to prevent ZOCU from making any sweeping offensives into PACT space.

Joint Task Force 13

One of several component formations of First Fleet, Joint Task Force 13 was the fleet detached-operations command from shortly after the evacuation from Kanonian space until the end of the war. Further subdivided into a number of independent, multinational task groups, the forces of JTF 13 conducted asymmetric warfare operations against ZOCU raiders and their bases in the Backwater, carrying out the most numerous and most bitter, grueling PACT operations of the war.

ZOCU

The Black Dogs

More formally designated the 8th Armoured Division, the Black Dogs were one of the new units raised to reconstitute a Royal Mercian Forces Ground Command that had been more than decimated in the first year of the civil war. They provided unremarkable service throughout the early years of the war, up until the launch of Operation Bluebell, the infamous attempt to drive FRA troops off of the Fuller Plateau and secure the three arcologies of Petershaven, New Weymouth and Killaloe. They distinguished themselves in the opening phases of the offensive, decisively defeating the FRAA's 167th Infantry Volunteers and 12th Mechanised Divison and allowing a successful breakout from the Sterling Pass.

They are more widely recognised, however, for their involvement in the Battles of New Weymouth and Killaloe. When Agent Black was released into the arcology and surrounding area in July of 2186, it was the Black Dogs, despite an almost total breakdown in command and control to higher command, a lack of proper equipment a continuing heavy engagement with FRAA units and a significant proportion of their own strength falling prey to the bioweapon, that managed to contain the infection inside the arcology long enough to save three million of the arcology's eight million inhabitants. When another outbreak occured in Killaloe, at the time under siege by the FRAA after RMFGC forces had been forced to withdraw following heavy losses at New Weymouth, it was the Black Dogs, acting without orders, who breached the Albionan siege lines against massive odds and extracted the uninfected civilian population before the FRAA likewise turned to nuclear weapons in order to stop the spread of Agent Black.

Famous Ships

European Union

EUS Hood

The EUS Hood's state of the art weapons include fourty-five gatling turrets, fifteen flak guns, twelve missile batteries and twelve rail cannons. The Hood wields more firepower than five Drake class battleships combined.

PACT

HDS Ryūhō

A variant of the Australian Melbourne-class carrier, the Ryūhō served throughout the war as first a conventional carrier and then a converted mobile suit carrier, operating as mothership for the first squadrons of mobile suits produced by the Anchorage Project. She later participated as flagship of local vessels during the defense of the facility in November 2186 against attacking ZOCU forces. Survived the war to become a training vessel for Horizonic and Japanese pilots.

USS Rutledge (aka "Rutridge")

Flagship of Task Group 13.1 throughout the war, the Antietam-class cruiser Rutledge and its' brood of cruisers, destroyers, and light carriers largely operated outside of the main PACT fleet areas of responsibility, participating in numerous small-scale engagements against ZOCU raiders and staging bases in the many systems between Horizon and the ZOCU worlds. The ship is famous for becoming the bane of Hampshiran and Ophenian raiders due to its' heavy armor and armament, allowing it to sustain the brunt of enemy surprise attacks and return heavy fire; it is infamous for being referred to throughout the war as the Rutridge due to a Chosonese mistake in translation.

NAeL Rio de Janeiro (A 19)

The NAeL Rio de Janeiro was the flagship of the Marinha Brasileira do Espaço from its commissioning ceremony at the EMGEPRON Orbital Shipyards above São Galvão in 2183 to the commissioning of the NAeL São Galvão(A20) in the same shipyard during 2193, the Rio was stationed above São Galvão at the onset of hostilities. While the Rio de Janeiro was smaller than the USASF Lincoln class Fleet Carriers and nowhere near as well armed as the JSDF Battlecarriers and Aviation ships, the ship was fast and stealthy, allowing it to launch strikes on unsuspecting ZCM ships and avoid major leapmissile reprisals. The Rio and its airwing saw action during the battle of Kanon, supported USMC landings on Kachin, and after obtaining a full squadron of the new Alce Mobile Suits, participated in the battle of Rapture alongside USASF and JSSDF forces. Following the end of the war and the Treaty of Sirius, the Rio's carrier battle group was stationed in orbit until the completion of the São Galvão, at which time it was reassigned to the Brazilian Home Fleet.

ZOCU

LS Boadacea

First-mark Pallada and Lord Lee Dorington's flagship at the Battle of Aldebaran. Lost with all hands at same.

LS Londenium

Late-mark Pallada and Lord Clarence Gladstone's divisional flagship at the Battle of Haraway's World. Lost with all hands securing the escape of a large portion of the Combined Militia Battle Fleet.

HS Landing

Late-mark Pallada and Admiral Saffron Kimmel's flagship at the Battle of Haraway's World. Formerly considered lost with all hands, now simply considered 'lost to enemy action' due to the discovery of the survival of Admiral Kimmel and a number of the ship's crewwomen.