Vincent Tanner

Vincent Tanner
Personal
Affiliation	Federated Commonwealth
Career
Rank	Marshal
Profession	MechWarrior

Vincent Tanner was the commanding officer of the Thirtieth Lyran Guards as of 3039.

History

During the War of 3039, General Tanner and the Thirtieth Lyran Guards were tasked with capturing the Draconis Combine world of Pike IV on behalf of the Lyran Commonwealth. Accompanied by the mercenary Hansen's Roughriders, Tanner's Guards assaulted the planet on 12 May amidst storm winds that scattered—and in some cases, destroyed—most of the Thirtieth Guards' BattleMechs. The men assigned with securing the invaders' landing zones were ultimately successful, although the last of the scattered soldiers only made their way back to headquarters three days after the invasion began. Most of the Thirtieth Guards became involved with the capture of the city of Stratopolis, which fell after its militia defenders retreated in the face of the Lyran's overwhelming firepower. The fighting for Pike IV's lowland territories proved more difficult, with the lowlanders using sabotage to destroy military supplies and life-support equipment crucial to the Lyran Guards' advance.

As the Thirtieth Guards and their Roughriders allies drew closer to the lowlands capital of Rolfshire, direct attacks against their troops became more prevalent. While the attacking forces quickly eliminated the few jury-rigged IndustrialMechs they encountered in open combat, the sight of an entire regiment of IndustrialMechs defending Rolfshire represented a tangible risk. Instead of jeopardizing his ground forces, Tanner ordered a combined artillery and aerospace attack that, in the span of fifteen minutes, reduced the city's defenders into disorganized stragglers. This dismantling of their defending forces intimidated the citizens of the lowlands into surrendering, although it did nothing to help them acclimate to Lyran rule.

The Draconis Combine eventually sent a counter-invasion force to liberate Pike IV on 19 July, comprised of the inexperienced Twenty-fourth Dieron Regulars and the fearsome Fifth Sword of Light. The counter-invaders' efforts to route Hansen's Roughriders occupied them for the rest of July and much of August, giving Tanner's troops time to dig in and to be reinforced by the Seventeenth Skye Rangers' arrival from Kervil. When the Fifth Sword's Second Battalion launched a direct offensive against Stratopolis, the combined ferocity of Tanner's Thirtieth Guards and the Seventeenth Skye Rangers forced the hostile unit to withdraw after only an hour and a half of fighting. Taking advantage of this victory, the Guards and Rangers counterattacked against the Fifth Sword, gaining three hundred kilometers of territory and obliterating the Combine's aerospace forces by mid-September.

As the Fifth Sword of Light was gradually demolished by the Lyrans' aerospace strikes and targeted ground attacks, victory for the occupying troops seemed to be assured. When recall orders arrived from the Lyran high command in October, Tanner was initially left in disbelief. He argued that his forces could gain victory on Pike IV if given enough time, which some senior officers believed, but Field Marshal Vanessa Bisla insisted that Combine victories elsewhere could lead to hostile reinforcements overwhelming the Pike task force. When Hansen's Roughriders' contract expired on 6 November and the mercenaries left the planet, Tanner acknowledged the dangerous position his men were in and finally withdrew to Dyev over the course of the next ten days.

By 3050, now-Marshal Tanner continued to lead the Thirtieth Lyran Guards as part of the Federated Commonwealth and was stationed on New Home, where he would remain as of 3054.

BattleMech

Then-General Vincent Tanner piloted a Charger Assault BattleMech, modified with state-of-the-art communications equipment, during the invasion of Pike IV.

Bibliography

• 20 Year Update
• Historical: War of 3039
• Objective Raids