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2024-10-11T16:08:17Z

Updated infobox.

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{{InfoBoxBattle
| conflict = Bromhead Massacre
| partof = [[Civil War Era]]
| image =
| startdate =
| enddate =
| planet = [[Bromhead]]
| place =
| result =
| territory =
| faction1 = [[Taurian Concordat]]
| commander1 = [[William Mouat]]
| command1 = [[Second Taurian Lancers]]
| faction2 = [[Federated Suns]]
| commander2 =
| command2 = [[Hansen's Roughriders]] (mercenary)
| faction3 =
| commander3 =
| command3 =
}}
The '''Bromhead Massacre''' took place on the [[Federated Suns]] planet of [[Bromhead]] by the [[Taurian Concordat]]' [[Taurian Defense Force|Defense Forces]] in [[3067]].

==The Attack==
The [[Second Taurian Lancers]], under the command of Colonel [[William Mouat|William "Stable Manager" Mouat]], attacked Bromhead in August 3067. Most of [[Hansen's Roughriders]] combat assets were in transit during this period and would not learn of the attack until later.<ref>''Sound and Fury''</ref><ref>''Mercenaries supplemental'' p.37</ref> However, the remaining Roughriders infantry on Bromhead managed to inflict several defeats against the attacking Second Lancers, delaying them for two entire days, before the incensed Taurians managed to overrun the Roughriders' main base.<ref>''Blood Rage'', ch. 9</ref><ref>''Jihad Secrets: the Blake Documents'' p.81</ref>

==The Massacre==
When the Taurians entered the mercenaries' base, they saw the Roughriders' civilian dependents loading vehicles to escape. It appears than the Lancers' [[Word of Blake]] advisor [[Fedlem Studdard]], which had tell Murant than the base only hold militia, not civilians, opened fire first with her ''[[Grand Titan]]'' and the rest of the Taurians followed suit. As a result, the Roughriders' dependents—thousands of civilians, including Colonel [[Wolfgang Hansen]]'s wife and three youngest children—were killed. The Lancers didn't realize the truth of the matter until after the Massacre had concluded, when they found that all of the slain were civilians.<ref>''Blood Rage'', chs. 9–10</ref>

The only Roughriders unit present to defend the dependents were [[The Old Guard]], an unofficial committee of retired [[MechWarriors]], tankers and infantry, who normally took care of small problems for the unit and handled disciplinary issues. While the Old Guard fought and died to protect the dependents against the Second Taurian Lancers and managed to save a small group of civilians, it came at the cost of their own families.<ref name=UD:OG>''Shrapnel Issue 12'', "Unit Digest: Old Guard (Hansen Roughriders)"</ref>

==The Reckoning==
While the Bromhead Massacre was occurring, the Roughriders were on [[Panpour]] and were in the midst of contract negotiations with [[Duke of New Syrtis|Duke]] [[George Hasek (31st c.)|George Hasek]].<ref>''Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents'' p.81</ref> Only after departing Panpour for [[Lindsay]] did the Roughriders learn of the Massacre and, while ignoring their contract with the Duke, single-handedly engaged and slaughtered both the [[Pleiades Lancers]] and Lindsay's TDF garrison force. The battle barely left two [[company|companies]] of Pleiades Lancers alive and most of those soldiers were said to be too broken to return to active service.<ref name=BRc1-2>''Blood Rage'', chs. 1–2</ref><ref>''Mercenaries Supplemental'' p.37</ref>

The Bromhead Massacre turned Hansen's Roughriders into a quiet, brooding, and bitter entity bent primarily on revenge against the Concordat. Hansen personally vowed to turn every battlefield into a Taurian mass grave and to take no prisoners, with the entire unit following suit. Only the fact that the Roughriders possessed no [[JumpShips]] of their own kept the mercenaries from going on a rampage into the Concordat immediately.<ref name=MSUp65>''Mercenaries Supplemental Update'', p. 65</ref><ref>''Blood Rage'', ch. 7</ref><ref>''Mercenaries Supplemental'' p.37</ref>

The Taurian government was informed of the Massacre by Colonel Mouat, but they covered it up and claimed that the supposed "massacre" was only a hoax. Mouat even hid the facts from his own family initially, although he began drinking heavily and would later admit to causing the deaths of a few mercenary dependents, not the thousands that had actually occurred. An unusual number of Second Lancers troops would commit suicide over the next three years but the Concordat's government once again covered these incidents up as accidents. While Colonel Mouat attempted to tender his resignation, it was refused by his superior officers.<ref>''Blood Rage'', chs. 5–9</ref>

On an unknown date, the [[pirates]] [[Dedrickson's Devils]] attempted to raid [[Midale]] under the guise of a Taurian unit. The Roughriders charged them with berserker fury, slaughtering them. Only after the unit's [[Armed Forces of the Federated Suns]] liaisons captured some pirates alive and uncovered the truth did the Roughriders allow the survivors, barely a third of the raiding force, to escape. It was subsequently suggested that the Devils had been hired by an unknown third party in order to test the Roughriders' resolve.<ref name=BRc1-2/><ref>''Mercenaries Supplemental Update'', p. 65</ref>

By February [[3070]], the Roughriders were still broken and bent on revenge. At this time, the bulk of the Second Taurian Lancers, apparently manipulated by a third party, raided Midale. The Roughriders were expecting them and first targeted the Lancers [[DropShips]], disabling or destroying all of them, before finally falling upon the Taurians' ground troops. The ensuing battle could easily be classified as a slaughter, with the Roughriders killing any Lancer they could find while ignoring the pleas of their AFFS liaisons. Said liaisons managed to capture a few of the Lancers alive while hiding them from the enraged Roughriders, while all of the other Taurians were killed.<ref>''Blood Rage'', ch. 2</ref>

==Pleiades Campaign==
Despite their revenge against the Second Lancers, the Roughriders remained obsessed with revenge despite not engaging any additional Taurians until [[3071]]. Then, the AFFS' [[Capellan March]] command allowed the mercenaries to launch their own offensive against the Concordat military, beginning on [[Electra]] in the [[Pleiades Cluster]], where they annihilated the local Taurian guerrillas and even used captured [[Alamo]] warheads against them. Any surviving insurgents were claimed by on-planet [[Department of Military Intelligence]] operatives, who feared they would otherwise be executed by the Roughriders.<ref name=MSUp65/>

During the Pleiades campaign, the surviving members of the Old Guard cobbled together a short company of [[Combat Vehicle|tanks]] salvaged from the earlier Second Lancers' attack. They proved to be so effective in combat that Colonel Hansen ultimately incorporated the Old Guard into the Roughriders as an all-volunteer armor company, making them into a permanent unit.<ref name=UD:OG/>

The Roughriders, even bent on revenge, avoided killing Taurian civilians... but there was an exception: Lieutenant [[Rindy Plover]], which, piloting a brand-new [[Marauder]], having lost all his family on the Massacre, on [[MacLeod's Land]], in [[3074]], specifically targeted civilians, killing at least fifteen thousand civilians and any militia unit which attempted to stop her, repeating the attacks on noncombatants on every Taurian world the Roughriders visited.<ref>''Technical Readout Clan Invasion'', p. 166</ref>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Blood Rage]]'' (short story)
* ''[[Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents]]''
* ''[[Mercenaries Supplemental]]'' (sourcebook)
* ''[[Mercenaries Supplemental Update]]'' (sourcebook)
* ''[[Shrapnel Issue 12]]'' (novella)
* ''[[Technical Readout Clan Invasion]]''

[[Category:Atrocities]]
[[Category:Civil War Era Military Operations|Bromhead]]

Bromhead Massacre - Revision history

imported>Dmon: Updated infobox.