View source for Augustin Shapiro

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| name                = Augustin Shapiro
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| died                = [[2813]]
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| affiliation         = [[Taurian Concordat]]
| rank                = [[Comptroller]]
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'''Augustin Shapiro''' was an officer of the Taurian Concordat.<ref name=P-61>''The Periphery'', pp. 61–62: "First Succession War and the Periphery - Concordat-Magistracy War - A Separate War"</ref><ref name=FSW-101>''First Succession War'', pp. 101–103: "The Succession War (2786-2821) - Hard Times: The Decline of the Periphery - The Taurian-Canopian War (2813-2814)"</ref>

==History==
In [[2813]] he was involved in the [[Taurian-Canopian War]]. The Taurian offensive began with [[Taurian Defense Force]] commander in chief [[Marshal (rank)|Marshal]] [[Gertrude Blake-Andrews]] assigned to the two-world invasion's strategic command, seconded by Comptroller '''Augustin Shapiro'''.<ref name=P-61/><ref name=FSW-101/>

The Taurian invasion of [[Herotitus]] would be doomed from the very start thanks to the arrogance of Augustin Shapiro. With advance scouts indicating the [[Magistracy of Canopus|Canopian]] garrison on Herotitus lacked much in the way of [[BattleMech]]s, the [[Second Pleiades Hussars]] did not even attempt to conceal their arrival at the planet's zenith [[Jump Point]] and secured the local [[recharge station]] without even trying to interdict its communications. Comptroller Shapiro's decision was one of psychological warfare, in clearly announcing the superior might of his 'Mech regiment and its supporting [[Combat Vehicle|armor]] and [[infantry]], he hoped to demoralize the [[MAF]] troops into surrendering and avoid a protracted fight.<ref name=P-61/><ref name=FSW-101/>

In truth the intelligence reports Shapiro had received were flawed, while the MAF garrison indeed had a relatively small 'Mech element, the Taurian scouts had failed to uncover that this lack was compensated by a significant volume of aerospace assets. Thus with eight days to prepare, a large mix of Canopian [[aerospace fighter]]s, [[Small Craft]] and low-flying [[DropShip]]s swarmed the shocked Taurians as they entered planet's atmosphere, inflicting heavy losses including Comptroller Shapiro, whose command ship proudly entered the atmosphere first - and thus was the first to die in the maelstrom. Ultimately barely more than two [[company|companies]] of Concordat [[BattleMech]]s and half a mixed regiment of infantry and armor made landfall, with [[Subaltern]] [[Josiah Brandamas]] of the [[19th New Vandenberg BattleMech Company|Nineteenth New Vandenberg BattleMech Company]] the highest-ranking officer left. Recognizing the utter hopelessness of his situation, Brandamas chose to save the surviving Taurian troops by signaling his surrender before he even opened his DropShip's hatches, a decision that would earn him decorations after he and his troops eventually returned to Taurian space.<ref name=P-61/><ref name=FSW-101/>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[First Succession War (sourcebook)|First Succession War]]''
* ''[[The Periphery (sourcebook)|The Periphery, First Edition]]''


[[Category:Taurian Concordat Characters|Shapiro, Augustin]]