View source for 2nd Defenders of Andurien

{{infoBoxMilitaryCommand
| image = [[Image:2nd_Defenders_of_Andurien_2596.png|120px]]
| Designation = Second Defenders of Andurien
| Formed = [[2514]]<ref name="FR2765:FWLMp17"/>-2528<ref name="PAL"/>
| Disbanded = ca. [[2860]]<ref name=HMFWLp101>''House Marik (The Free Worlds League)'', p. 101</ref>
| Previous Designation = 
| Nickname = Eye of the Storm<ref name="FR2765:FWLMp17"/>
| Affiliation = [[Free Worlds League]]
| Parent Command = [[Defenders of Andurien]]
| Sub-Command = 
}}

==History==
=== Founding ===
The Defenders of Andurien brigade formed in [[2514]], a few years before the start of the [[Second Andurien War]] between the [[Capellan Confederation]] and the [[Free Worlds League]].<ref name="FR2765:FWLMp17"/> It is likely that the Second Defenders of Andurien were formed at the same time, and by the beginning of the Second Andurien War the Second Defenders were an active, [[BattleMech]]-equipped regiment - one of two to have been created by Duke Allard. When the Capellan forces invaded the Andurien worlds in [[2528]] an effort to seize [[Mesillia Allard]], the daughter of Duke Allard, as a bride for the mad [[Chancellor]] [[Kalvin Liao]] the Second Defenders were on the front lines, taking heavy damage on [[Sadurni]] and with a company deployed on [[Andurien]] itself, defending the capital city, Jojoken.<ref name="PAL">''Paladin''</ref>

Although it was a new formation, the Defenders performed well in battle, but soon found themselves in political hot water because of the Defenders loyalty to House Humphreys and the Duchy of Andurien, rather than to the [[Captain-General of the Free Worlds League|Captain-General]] of the Free Worlds League. With the loss of [[Andurien]] to the Confederation as a result of the [[Treaty of Geneva]] in [[2556]] the Defenders adopted a position of civil disobedience towards the federal government that would persist for centuries.<ref name="FR2765:FWLMp17">''Field Report 2765: FWLM'', p. 17: "Defenders of Andurien"</ref>

===Reunification War===
By the time of the [[Reunification War]] the '''Second Defenders of Andurien''' were a unit with no home; [[Andurien]] itself and a number of other worlds had been ceded to the [[Capellan Confederation]] as a condition of the Confederation's [[Andurien Commonality]] as a part of the peace agreement between the Confederation and the [[Free Worlds League]] that precipitated the end of the [[Age of War]] and the formation of the [[Star League]].<ref name="H:RWp38">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 38: "Second Defenders of Andurien"</ref>

The Second Defenders of Andurien was one of six regiments chosen to serve in the [[2nd Marik Auxiliary Corps]] formed in [[2581]]<ref name="H:RWp152">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 152: "Rim Worlds Republic Front (Jump-off - 2587)</ref> to support the [[Star League Defense Force]] when the Star League decided to intervene in the civil war that had been raging inside the Rim Worlds Republic since [[2575]].<ref name="H:RWp131">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 131: "False Starts (2579-81)</ref>

The 2nd Marik Auxiliary Corps incorporated the Second Defenders of Andurien along with the [[2nd Regulan Hussars|Second Regulan Hussars]], the [[2nd Marik Militia|Second]] and [[6th Marik Militia|Sixth Marik Militias]] and the [[1st Fusiliers of Oriente|First]] and [[2nd Fusiliers of Oriente|Second Brigades]] of the [[Fusiliers of Oriente]]. The 2nd Marik Auxiliary Corps was one of a number of Corps that made up [[Task Force MAILED FIST]], the military component of [[Operation MAILED FIST]], the Star League operation within the Rim Worlds Republic between [[2581]] and [[2596]] and would serve alongside the [[Draconis Auxiliary Corps]], the [[Lyran Auxiliary Corps]] and the [[SLDF]] [[IV Corps (Star League)|IV Corps]], [[VI Corps (Star League)|VI Corps]] and [[VIII Corps (Star League)|VIII Corps]].<ref name="H:RWp152"/><ref name="H:RWp153">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 153: "Rim Worlds Republic Front (2588-2596)"</ref>

The Second Defenders saw their participation against the [[Rift Republican Army]] and the [[Rim Provisional Government]] as an opportunity to prove that the reduced [[Duchy of Andurien]] remained a strong and vital part of the Free Worlds League.<ref name="H:RWp38"/> The Second Defenders spent the bulk of Operation MAILED FIST operating alongside the Regulan Hussars and the Second Brigade of the Fusiliers of Oriente. Together, the three regiments would fight campaigns on [[Urjala]] in [[2583]], [[Kitopler]] in [[2586]], [[New India]] in [[2587]], [[Slewis]] in [[2590]] and [[Toland]] in [[2593]]. The Defenders of Andurien and the Hussars went on to fight on [[Apollo (system)|Apollo]] in [[2596]], but the Fusiliers remained on Toland.<ref name="H:RWp152"/><ref name="H:RWp153"/>

====Urjala====
The campaign to secure Urjala saw the Defenders of Andurien fighting against the same battalion from the [[4th Amaris Fusiliers|Fourth Amaris Fusiliers]]<ref name="H:RWp134">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 134: "Helbrent to Nightwish (July 2582 - November 2584)"</ref> that had successfully conducted a very damaging raid on at the main spaceport facility on [[Alarion]] in 2581,<ref name="H:RWp132+">''Historical: Reunification War'', pp. 132–133: "Alarion (December 2581)"</ref> and while the Free Worlds League forces quickly crushed the Amaris Fusiliers they rapidly found themselves experiencing similar problems to Task Force MAILED FIST units on other worlds - they lacked the numbers to exercise sufficient control over the ground, and as a result found their hold on Urjala slipping away in the face of a rebellious population. Eventually, a portion of the garrison on the nearby world of [[Bolan]] was dispatched to Urjala to help secure the Star League grip on the world, but the Defenders of Andurien would remain on Urjala for another two years.<ref name="H:RWp134"/><ref name="H:RWp152"/>

====New India====
The Defenders of Andurien fought the Fourth Amaris Fusiliers for a second time on New India, which was the garrison posting of the other half of the Fourth; in contrast to many of the other planetary campaigns being fought at the time, the fight on New India was actually a stand-up fight, with the Fourth Amaris Fusiliers fighting hard and selling themselves dearly, but without resorting to the more desperate or savage guerrilla and resistance tactics the SLDF was facing on other worlds.<ref name="H:RWp135">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 135: "Arlina to Viborg (December 2584 - September 2588)"</ref>

====Slewis====
In contrast with the difficult occupation of Urjala and the fierce battle for New India, the campaign for Slewis was remarkably easy; an agricultural world with a large timber industry, Slewis was targeted by the Fusiliers, Defenders of Andurien and Regulan Hussars in May 2590 and was the last world in the [[Timbuktu Province]] to be captured, but the occupation consisted largely of the leaders of Slewis calmly acknowledging the arrival of the Free Worlds League forces before simply continuing their farming and logging operations.<ref name="H:RWp136">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 136: "Illium to Barcelona (March 2589 - August 2591)"</ref>

====Toland====
The Defenders of Andurien and their companion units from the 2nd Marik Auxiliary Corps operated largely independently of the other units within Task Force MAILED FIST; other than the large-scale operation to secure Apollo, the only exception to this was the campaign to secure Toland, where they fought alongside the SLDF [[18th Division (Star League)|Eighteenth Division]] against the local militia forces.<ref name="H:RWp152"/><ref name="H:RWp153"/>

====Apollo====
[[Duke]] [[Narinder Selaj]], the overall commander of the 2nd Marik Auxiliary Corps and the second-in-command of the ground component of the operation to secure Apollo led the Regulan Hussars and the Defenders of Andurien personally to liberate [[First Consul]] [[Gregory Amaris]] from the Rim Provisional Government forces besieging his island estates. Duke Selaj managed to easily defeat the forces besieging the Amaris' estates, only to find Amaris himself to be unpleasant, hostile, and thoroughly ungrateful for his rescue; Amaris regarded Selaj as a provincial minor lordling from the Free Worlds League, despite the far greater wealth and population of the [[Principality of Regulus]], and bitterly resented the time taken to rescue him and the poor conditions he considered himself to have lived in... conditions far more opulent than most of his citizens or the soldiers of the Task Force had endured. Despite the difficulties in dealing with Amaris, Duke Selaj was able to send his troops and liberated Amaris loyalists to join the forces outside Terra Prime.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

Following the injuries taken by [[Archon]] [[Viola Steiner-Dinesen]] in an attempted ambush that went wrong and saw the [[Lyran Commonwealth|Lyran]] [[4th Royal Guards|Fourth Royal Guards]] mauled by the [[7th Amaris Legionnaires|Seventh Amaris Legionnaires]] and the [[8th Amaris Fusiliers|Eighth Amaris Fusiliers]] command of the ground operations on Apollo passed to [[General]] [[Nathan Isaacson]] of the SLDF. Ignoring calls from Gregory Amaris for a highly destructive campaign to destroy the rebel forces, Isaacson directed the Defenders of Andurien and the other Task Force MAILED FIST units on Apollo to lay siege to the Rift Republican Army and RPG forces on Apollo, resulting in a campaign that limited the loss of life on both sides and saw the Provisional Government and their supporting forces surrender in September 2596.<ref name="H:RWp139">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 139: "Bitter Harvests (2591-2596)"</ref>

=== Star League Era ===
When the [[Marik Civil War (28th c.)|Marik Civil War]] erupted the Second Defenders chose to support [[Oliver Marik]]; their hope was that the usurper would allow the Defenders to go to war with the Confederation and recapture their homeworld, but those dreams vanished when Oliver was captured and executed. Following the attack on the ''[[Timothy Leary]]'' by the [[Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces]] in [[2745]],<ref name="FR:2765FWLMp3">''Field Report 2765: FWLM'', p. 4: "Strategic Update"</ref> the Second Defenders found themselves in troubled political waters once more. Captain-General [[Ewan Marik]] mustered a large contingent of federal and provincial forces on [[Solaris]] in the wake of the attack, and as a part of his buildup Marik demanded that a [[regiment]] from the Defenders join the task force. [[President]] [[Radford Humphreys]] refused to acknowledge the order, and as Humphreys was the brigade commanding officer Marik was forced to attempt to contact each of the regimental commanders directly, breaking the chain of command. Just as with the other regiments, the commanding officer of the Second Defenders refused the order, citing the twin problems of tension on the border with the Confederation and bandit raids as factors that would destabilize the Duchy if any of the Defenders of Andurien deployed outside the region. The standoff continued until the SLDF navy forced the Captain-General to disperse his gathered forces.<ref name="FR2765:FWLMp17"/>

Whereas most of the provincial forces received some degree of federal funding from the Free Worlds League during the Star League era the Defenders' role as secessionists left them in last place when it came to obtaining matériel from Free Worlds League industries and with no access to federal funding. Forced to rely solely on funding from the Duchy of Andurien the Defenders generally fielded equipment that was less advanced than both federally controlled forces and the provincial forces of the other League provinces, but the Second Defenders managed to maintain both high operational readiness and a remarkably high level of morale nevertheless. If anything, the lack of advanced equipment and federal funding served as a clarion call for the Second, highlighting for them yet another reason why the Duchy should seek further independence from the federal government.<ref name="FR2765:FWLMp17"/>

=== Second Succession War and Demise ===
During the [[Second Succession War]] the Second participated in [[Operation STOOP]] in [[2832]], as part of the FWLM forces tasked with retaking [[Sappho]] and [[Nam Dinh]] from the Capellan Confederation.<ref>''Second Succession War'', p. 41</ref> In [[2836]] the regiment attacked [[Aquagea]] during [[Operation ATTRACT]], eventually claiming that world after a lengthy resistance by the [[3rd Sian Dragoons|Third Sian Dragoons]], though the Second was later forced to quit Aquagea during the [[ComStar War]].<ref>''Second Succession War'', pp. 41–42</ref><ref>''Second Succession War'', p. 68: "A New Type of War"</ref>

The Second was among the FWLM units stationed on Andurien itself in October [[2838]] when a sizeable CCAF invasion force landed on the planet, leading to the [[Fifth Andurien War]]. After nine weeks of heavy fighting the Liao invaders were repulsed.<ref>''Second Succession War'', pp. 50–51: "The Battles for Andurien"</ref>

In the final years of the Second Succession War the regiment was disbanded after sustaining crippling losses three times in the space of a single decade. Unlike other damaged Defender regiments it was never rebuilt. According to legend a Capellan shaman named Cephas cursed the Second Defenders of Andurien after they razed his home village, leading to the so-called "Cephas's Jinx" being cited as an explanation for bad luck among Defender units.<ref name=HMFWLp101/>

==Officers==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Rank
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Name
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Command
|-
| colspan="4" style="background: #efefef;" | '''Commanding Officers of the 2nd Defenders of Andurien'''
|-
|}

==Tactics==
Unknown.

==Composition History==
=== 2528 ===
'''Second Defenders of Andurien'''<ref name="PAL"/>
:- At this point the Second was based on Sadurni.<ref name="PAL"/>

=== 2765 ===
'''Second Defenders of Andurien''' (Regiment/Regular/Questionable)<ref name="FR2765:FWLMp17A">''Field Report 2765: FWLM'', p. 17: "Regimental Status"</ref>
:- At this point the Second was based on [[Thurrock]].<ref name="FR2765:FWLMp17A"/>

=== 2786 - 2821===
'''2nd Defenders of Andurien ''' (Regiment/Regular/Questionable)<ref name=1SWp138>''First Succession War'', p. 138</ref>
: Note: At this point in time the light-weight unit was stationed on [[Thurrock]]. In 2821 the command was reduced to 37 of its strength and was deployed at [[Thurrock]].<ref name=1SWp138/>

=== 2830 ===
'''2nd Defenders of Andurien''' (Regiment/Veteran/Questionable)<ref name=2SWp98>''Second Succession War'', p. 98</ref>
: Note: At this point in time the medium-weight unit was stationed on [[Thurrock]] with an operational readiness of 58 percent.<ref name=2SWp98/> The unit was destroyed during the war.<ref name=2SWp98/>

== Notes ==
''[[Field Report 2765: FWLM]]'' gives the founding date of the Defenders of Andurien as 2514, two years before the [[First Andurien War]]. This contradicts with other sources which give the date of the First Andurien War as [[2398]] to [[2404]]<ref name=HM14>''House Marik (The Free Worlds League)'', pp. 14–15: "Andurien Crisis"</ref><ref>''House Liao (The Capellan Confederation)'', pp. 28–29: "Liao Against Marik"</ref><ref name=HBHM15>''Handbook: House Marik'', p. 15</ref><ref>''The Star League'', p. 35: "Fateful Andurien"</ref><ref name=HHLT>''Handbook: House Liao'', p. 24: "Timeline: The Age of War and the Star League"</ref><ref name="ED:AoWp7"/> and the dates of the Second Andurien War as [[2528]] to [[2531]].<ref name="ED:AoWp7">''Era Digest: Age of War'', p. 7: "The Age of War: A Brief Timeline"</ref>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Era Digest: Age of War]]''
* ''[[Field Report 2765: FWLM]]''
* ''[[First Succession War (sourcebook)|First Succession War]]''
* ''[[Handbook: House Liao]]''
* ''[[Handbook: House Marik]]''
* ''[[Historical: Reunification War]]''
* ''[[House Liao (The Capellan Confederation)]]''
* ''[[House Marik (The Free Worlds League)]]''
* ''[[Paladin (short story)|Paladin]]''
* ''[[Second Succession War (sourcebook)|Second Succession War]]''
* ''[[The Star League]]''


[[Category:Free Worlds League Commands|Defenders of Andurien, 02nd]]
[[Category:Andurien Commands|Defenders of Andurien, 02nd]]