| 5th Confederation Reserve Cavalry (The Apprentices of Warlock) |
| TOE as of 1 September 3067
Mech Regiment: Green/Reliable
CO: Sang-shao Rhi Song
Command Company
1st Battalion
2nd Battalion
3rd Battalion
4th Battalion
1st Independent Company
2nd Independent Company
5th Reserve Auxiliary Forces
5th Reserve Air Corps
5th Reserve Support Forces
5th Reserve Naval Detachment
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| Overview |
| Having spent the past two years repairing, refitting,
and relaxing after action against Shen-se Tian on Muridox and
Zanzibar, and before that against the 2nd St. Ives Janissaries on
Warlock, the 5th CRC is the best-equipped it has ever been.
Unfortunately, both morale and training lag behind. Part of this
problem is inherent to the Cavalry - with men and officers constantly
rotating out, Song-shao Rhi finds it very hard to keep both up.
Part of the problem, however, resides in the regiment's new command lance. Sang-wei Aliesha Ling is a recent transfer from the 2nd St. Ives Janissaries, the same unit the 5th fought on Warlock, and the same unit Song-shao Rhi modeled her own on. The Sang-wei's insights into combined arms doctrine have made her popular with her commander, but her and her lance's loyalty to the former St. Ives and distrust of her Capellan comrades has yet to endear the newcomers to anyone else. The 5th CRC has a rather non-standard organization, stemming from its reliance on augmented lances. On paper, the Cavalry is four units: the 5th CRC itself, the 5th Reserve Armor Corps, the 5th Reserve Air Corps, and the 5th Reserve Auxiliary Forces. In practice, only the latter two units are separate, with the mech and armored units deployed together as four mixed battalions, a command company, and a pair of independent companies. The First Battalion is the heaviest unit in the Cavalry, deploying lances of Thunderbolts, Cataphracts, and Manticores. It contains a pair of fire support lances, mostly Catapults, though each contains a single Minion Tactical Vehicle. These advanced units, out of place in the mostly low-tech Cavalry, are part of the luck of the Cavalry - tasked to capture the Ceres Metals facility on Warlock, the Cavalry hit upon a pair of prototypes, which it swiftly procured. In conjunction with the Minions, the Cavalry keeps a small supply of Marik-supplied semi-guided LRM munitions. The Second Battalion is one of the medium units of the Cavalry, primarily containing Phoenix Hawk/Cicada/Regulator lances. The Third Battalion is the other medium unit, containing a variety of units - Blackjacks, Vindicators, and a few Wasps, along with Po and Regulator tanks. The Fourth Battalion is commanded by the nominal commander of the armor regiment, Zhong-shao Dalia. It is the lightest unit in the 5th, utilizing a few Wasps, combined with a variety of hovertanks. The independent companies are an odd lot. The first contains an entire lance of 3R model Anubis mechs - one of the famed "Shadow Lances" of the Xin Sheng movement, though the 5th's is weaker than most. The company's third lance is the only recon element in the entire regiment - a 3L Raven matched with a Grasshopper and a pair of Warhammers; a heavy bodyguard to be sure, but the ECM and Beagle probe on the Raven are the most valuable electronics in the regiment. The second independent company is brand new, and the only thing allowing the 5th to reinstitute its command company. Made up of pirate salvage from the fight on Muridox, the "Ramshackles" as they term themselves are a hodgepodge of mechs, from Warhammers to Locusts, as well as a Davion Hatchetman and even a Brigand mech. Most of the Ramshackles are custom refits, rebuilt from the 5th's hoarded salvage piles. The 5th Reserve Auxiliary is mostly anti-battlemech trained jump infantry, carried into battle by modified Maxim hovercraft, and backed up by three batteries of artillery. |
| Tactics |
| On Warlock, Sang-shao Song gained an appreciation for
the combined arms fighting style of the St. Ives Janissaries, an
appreciation she has carried ever since. In the years since then, she
has passed this on to her troops, who have taken quite well to it.
As a unit, the 5th usually deploys in an ancient formation that puts the heavy First Battalion in the center, with the the lighter Battalions and the independent companies to the sides. While the First engages the enemy, the other units sweep around to the flanks and rear of the enemy. The 5th also enjoys employing both mines and artillery - the infantry are well-trained by Cavalry standards, and are excellent spotters as well as being anti-mech trained. Most LRM-equipped units also deploy with the Confederation's special mine munitions, though the fire support lances of First Battalion sometimes employ semi-guided LRMs as well. Rumors also abound of a few crates of Federated Suns issue advanced autocannon ammunition, presumably gained on Warlock, but if such stocks exist, the 5th is keeping them well-hidden. |
| Deployment |
| More or less fully refitted from their pirate-hunting, the 5th is ready and anxious to rotate out of their garrison on Bentley to more exciting duty. Rumors fly hot and heavy as to what said duty will be, from a renewed push into the Chaos March to Tikonov to another pirate-hunting tour. If Sang-shao Song knows anything, she has yet to reveal it to anyone. |
| Refits |
| The 5th has a number of custom mech jobs, some
custom, some simply an amalgamation of spare parts thrown together and
called a 'mech. Most of these serve with the Second Independent
Company, though the Sang-shao's personal lance is heavily customized,
as well as a few of the vehicles.
Maxim Equipped to carry jump troops instead of regular foot infantry, the Maxims used by the 5th Auxillary remove one of the turret LRM 5s for a ton of LRM 15 ammunition and some extra space. CP-10-Z Cyclops Sang-shao Song's personal mech has been highly modified, with the best the Cavalry has to offer. The engine is stripped out for a version with ten double heatsinks, while the autocannon is replaced by a Regulator's gauss rifle with two tons of ammunition. The SRM rack and lasers are replaced by quad ER mediums, and CASE is added to the left torso along with another ton of LRM ammunition. Two and a half tons of extra armor are spread over the mech. BNC-3E Banshee The second assault mech in the command lance, the Banshee of Sao-wei Jack Wei has been remodeled totally. Both the PPC and autocannon are removed and replaced with a pair of large lasers. Four ER medium lasers are also installed, along with another pair of heat sinks. The small laser is removed totally in favor of armor. ON1-V Orion The fourth mech of the command lance has been slightly refit, replacing both SRM 4 racks with a single LRM 10 rack and a ton of ammunition to provide greater firepower at range. WHM-7M Warhammer The first of the Ramshackles' Warhammers sustained relatively minor damage. It trades out the left arm ER PPC for a regular PPC, and replaces the SRM rack with an LRM 5 with a ton of ammunition, and adds a ton of armor. The second Warhammer is hardly a Warhammer at all. A Frankenstein mech, it lives on parts salvaged from a variety of sources - a Banshee autocannon, a Phoenix Hawk large laser, assorted mediums, a fabricated LRM rack... It drops all of the previous weapons, and adds a large laser to the right arm, an autocannon 5 with a ton of ammunition to the left arm, an LRM 15 with two tons of ammunition to the missile rack, and puts three medium lasers in the left torso and two in the right. GRF-1N Griffin The survivor of a pounding by a pair of Cataphracts and a Zukhov, the 2nd's Griffin drops three jump jets, replaces the PPC for a large laser, adds a medium laser to the left, right, and center torso, puts another below the large laser, and adds CASE to the right torso along with a half ton of armor. HCT-3F Hatchetman The Ramshackles' Hatchetman is a strange Hatchetman indeed, with only the stump where the hatchet once was before leaving itself embedded in the side of a Po. The Po took revenge on the Hatchetman, blowing off the mech's autocannon. When time came to refit the mech, the techs shrugged, pulled out the 20-class autocannon from Sao-shao Song's Cyclops, and installed it along with three tons of reloads. Along with that, they dropped a heat sink for another ton of armor. PXH-1D Phoenix Hawk The unfortunate loser of a fight with a Regulator, the Ramshackle's Phoenix Hawk lacks a pair of jump jets, but adds a half ton of armor, and puts another machine gun in the left arm. |