Formations and Ships of the EU Arm

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.

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.

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.

ZOCU

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.