Editing 4th Alliance Guards

{{infoBoxMilitaryCommand
| image          = [[Image:FedCom Corps -Brigade logo.png|150px]]
| Designation    = Fourth Alliance Guards RCT
| formed         = [[3049]]
| Disbanded      = [[3081]] (destroyed)
| Previous Designation = Twelfth FedCom RCT<br/>
(until 3057)
| Nickname       = Death Before Dishonor
| Affiliation    = [[Federated Commonwealth]]<br/>
(3049 - 3057)
----
[[Lyran Alliance]]<br/>
(3057 - 3081)
| Parent Command = [[Federated Commonwealth Corps]]<br/>
(3049 - 3057)
----
[[Alliance Guards]]<br/>
(3057 - 3081)
| Sub-Command    = 
}}
Prior to becoming the '''Fourth Alliance Guards RCT''', the unit was originally the '''Twelfth FedCom RCT''', the last of the brigades formed for the [[Federated Commonwealth Corps]].  While stationed on [[Marcus]], they defended the world from a Marik-Liao incursion during [[Operation GUERRERO]].  When the [[Lyran Alliance]] seceded from the [[Federated Commonwealth]] in [[3057]], they were rechristened and integrated into the [[Lyran Alliance Armed Forces]].

==History==
Formed in [[3049]], the Twelfth FedCom was stationed on the world of [[Marcus]] until the start of [[Operation GUERRERO]] in [[3057]], when the planet was attacked by the [[Free Worlds League]] forces in the form of the [[Seventh Free Worlds Legionnaires]], [[Atrean Dragoons]], and the [[Fifth Marik Militia]]. After six days of fighting, the RCT staged a suicidal charge in what was later named the Battle of Cabot's Stand.<ref name=FMFWLp42>''Field Manual: Free Worlds League'', p. 42</ref> This sacrificial assault bought time for DropShips containing members of the government and industry to escape offworld. The charge was a great success, inflicting crippling damage on the Seventh Free Worlds Legionnaires before the Twelfth FedCom was subsequently surrounded by the [[Atrean Dragoons]] and the [[Fifth Marik Militia]] and forced to surrender. The RCT remained prisoners for the rest of hostilities, but were treated well for their devotion and willingness to sacrifice themselves for others. After the hostilities ended, the Twelfth FedCom was released into the custody of the [[Lyran Alliance]].<ref name=FMLA46>''Field Manual: Lyran Alliance'', p. 46: "4th Alliance Guards: Death Before Dishonor"</ref>

[[Katherine Steiner-Davion]] ordered the [[Federated Commonwealth Corps]] units in her realm renamed the [[Alliance Guards]] after she seceded from the Federated Commonwealth to form the Lyran Alliance.  The Twelfth FedCom RCT was thus renamed the Fourth Alliance Guard<ref name=FMLA44>''Field Manual: Lyran Alliance'', p. 44: "Alliance Guards: Hope Reborn"</ref> and moved to garrison the world of [[Lipton]], where they could rebuild.  The unit did not reach full strength until just prior to [[3067]].  The Fourth had a variety of 'Mech designs from across the Inner Sphere in its ranks, including a lance of ''[[Apollo (BattleMech)|Apollo]]'' BattleMechs gifted to them by the Free Worlds League Military.<ref name=FMLA46/>

===FedCom Civil War===
As the [[FedCom Civil War]] broke out, the Fourth Alliance Guard initially remained neutral.

{{ApocryphalContentStart}}
In [[3063]], the Fourth Alliance Guard was sent to reinforce the Steiner command on [[Carver V]] against Davion and Liao forces on the planet. However, Davion-backed pro-independence forces ultimately prevailed in the conflict.<ref name="MC2>''[[MechCommander 2]]''</ref>
{{ApocryphalContentEnd}}

However, on 13 January 3065 the unit moved to block the [[Com Guards|Com Guard]] [[143rd Division (ComStar)|143rd Division]] during their annual field exercises. General Gregg, the Fourth's commander and a strong opponent of ComStar, believed that they would declare support for Victor and use the training exercises as a means to open a bridgehead for [[Victor Steiner-Davion]]'s troops. After [[Precentor]] Alder Reed stood his troops down, the Fourth Alliance Guard also stood down, though tensions remained high. By the summer [[3065]], most of the Fourth Alliance Guard were assigned to a taskforce bound for [[Thorin]], that Katherine hoped would find and kill [[Victor Steiner-Davion]].<ref name=FCCWp131>''FedCom Civil War'', p. 131</ref>

Joining five other units, the Fourth Alliance Guard made landing on [[Thorin]] on 7 August 3065 and attacked Ecol City, the planet's defensive hub. Fighting continued for several months, but the task force found no evidence that [[Victor Steiner-Davion]] was ever on-world. On 24 January [[3066]], [[Victor Steiner-Davion]] did make landfall but remained only two days before withdrawing with his forces and leaving [[Thorin]] in Loyalist hands.<ref name=FCCWp149>''FedCom Civil War'', p. 149</ref> The bulk of the Fourth Alliance Guard would remained on [[Thorin]] as that world's garrison until sometimes after the end of the Civil War.<ref name=FMUp46>''Field Manual: Updates'', p. 46</ref>

===The Jihad===
In [[3068]], as part of [[Operation ÜBERSCHATTEN]], the Fourth Alliance Guards landed on [[Thermopolis]] and attacked the [[Fifth Fusiliers of Oriente]], who were garrisoning the planet. After inflicting severe losses on the Free Worlds League unit and forcing them out of the spaceport they had occupied, they then briefly redeployed to [[Autumn Wind]] before being pulled back to a reserve position on [[Cavanaugh]] in the face of the Free Worlds League's counterattack. From this reserve position they fought against several small raiding units before a truce between the two powers was finally called in [[3069]]. They remained in this reserve position until late [[3079]]. While they had not seen the levels of combat in the Jihad as other [[LAAF]] units had, they still had suffered almost sixty percent losses — from both combat casualties and having men and matériel transferred by High Command to support other units — and needed to rebuild.<ref name=FRLAAFp8>''Field Report: LAAF'', p. 8</ref>

During the closing stages of the [[Jihad]], the Fourth Alliance Guards were one of the units involved in a campaign to snatch worlds from the disbanded [[Free Worlds League]] between August and September [[3079]]. The Fourth pushed the [[Thirty-fourth Marik Militia]] off [[Nockatunga]] in early September, seizing the planetary capital and primary spaceports in a battle fought entirely by conventional means. The Fourth's clash with the Thirty-fourth was one of only two battles during the campaign where [[LAAF]] and [[Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey]] forces would face each other directly.<ref name="J:FRp24+">''Jihad: Final Reckoning'', pp. 24–25: "Lyran Aggressors Press Into League Territory"</ref>

===Destruction===
The Fourth Alliance Guards had the misfortune to be present on [[Poulsbo]] on 13 February [[3081]] when a task force from the [[Principality of Regulus]], hot on the heels of the Word of Blake's [[The Master|Master]], subjected the world to a devastating nuclear bombardment. Despite the fact that the world was unoccupied by Blake forces and transmitting pleas to stop, the Regulans ignored all contact with forces on the planet and proceeded to drop atomic warheads on all major population centers. The Regulans later stated that destroying the entire world was the "only way to be sure" that [[Word of Blake]] influence on the world had been removed. The bombardment annihilated the Fourth Alliance Guards, along with the [[Heart of Blake]] mercenary unit, and was both a heavy blow to the morale of the Alliance and a source of outrage directed towards the Principality of Regulus, with calls for prompt and bloody retribution.<ref name="J:FRp84">''Jihad: Final Reckoning'', p. 84: "The Defensive Situation"</ref><ref>''Field Manual: 3085'', p. 99</ref>

==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 Twelfth FedCom RCT'''
|-
| [[Leutnant-General]]||[[Carl Bert-Gregg]]||[[3049]] - [[3057]]<ref name=FMLA46/>
|-
| colspan="4" style="background: #efefef;" | '''Commanding Officers of the Fourth Alliance Guards'''
|-
|[[Leutnant General]]||[[Carl Bert-Gregg]]||[[3057]] - [[3067]]<ref name=FMLA46/><ref name=FMUp177/>
|}

==Tactics==
The 4th Alliance Guard and before that the 12th FedCom both favored blitzing their enemies with the full strength of their BattleMechs while the Infantry and Armor flank and hit from the sides.<ref name=FMLA46/>

==Composition History==
===3050===
'''Twelfth FedCom RCT ''' (Regiment/Green/Reliable)<ref name=20yup27/>
:* CO: Hauptmann General Carl Bert-Gregg<ref name=20yup27/>
:* Base: [[Marcus]]<ref name=20yup27>''20 Year Update'', p. 27</ref>

===3054===
'''Twelfth FedCom RCT''' (Regiment/Green/Reliable)<ref name=ORp19/>
:* CO: Hauptmann General Carl Bert-Gregg<ref name=ORp19/>
:* Base: [[Marcus]]<ref name=ORp19>''Objective Raids'', p. 19</ref>

===3062===
'''Fourth Alliance Guards RCT''' (Regular/Reliable)<ref name=FMLA46/>
:* CO: Leutnant-General Carl Bert-Gregg
:* Base: [[Lipton]]

:'''Fourth Alliance Guards''' (Regiment/Regular/Questionable)<ref name=FMLA46/>
::* CO: Leutnant-General Carl Bert-Gregg<ref name=FMLA46/>
:::* Aide: Colonel [[Francesca Klinkhammer]]<ref name=FMLA46/>

:'''Fourth Alliance Aerospace Brigade''' (2 [[Wing (Military Unit)|Wing]]s)<ref name=FMLA46/>
::* CO: [[Kaptain]] [[Jan Lunquist]]
:::* First Alliance Wing
:::* Third Alliance Wing

:'''Fourth Alliance Guards Armor Brigade''' (3 Regiments/Regular/Questionable)<ref name=FMLA46/>
::* CO: Colonel [[Derek Hyatt]]
:::* Aide: [[Leutnant-Colonel]] [[Ibuki Kobayashi]]
:::* Twelfth Alliance Guards Heavy Armor Regiment
::::* CO: Colonel [[Antony Cleminson]]
:::* Twelfth Alliance Guards Light Armor Regiment
::::* CO: Colonel [[Caroline Coates-Brown]]
:::* Thirteenth Alliance Guards Light Armor Regiment
::::* CO: Colonel [[Jasia Reichart]]

:'''Fourth Alliance Guards Infantry Brigade''' (5 Regiments/Regular/Questionable)<ref name=FMLA46/>
::* CO: Colonel [[Thelma Speroni]]
:::* Aide: Leutnant-Colonel [[Gerald Morris]]
:::* Twenty-third Alliance Guards Infantry Regiment
::::* CO: Colonel [[Gueng Goan Kim]]
:::* Twenty-fourth Alliance Guards Infantry Regiment
::::* CO: Colonel [[Anja Glockel]]
:::* Twenty-third Alliance Guards Mechanized Infantry Regiment
::::* CO: Colonel [[Michael Hurst]]
:::* Twenty-fourth Alliance Guards Mechanized Infantry Regiment
::::* CO: Colonel [[James Chalcombe]]
:::* Twelfth Alliance Guards Jump Infantry Regiment
::::* CO: Colonel [[Angelo Parker]]

===3067===
'''Fourth Alliance Guards''' ([[Regiment]]/Veteran/Reliable)<ref name=FMUp177/>
:* CO: Leutnant-General Carl Bert-Gregg
:* Base: [[Thorin]]
:Note: Advanced IS technology: 35 percent '''|''' Omnis: 5 percent<ref name=FMUp177>''Field Manual: Updates'', p. 177</ref>

:'''Fourth Alliance Aerospace Brigade''' (2 [[Wing (Military Unit)|Wing]]s/Regular/Reliable)<ref name=FMUp177/>
::* CO: [[Kaptain]] Jan Lunquist
:Note: Clan technology: 5 percent '''|''' Advanced IS technology: 25 percent

:'''Fourth Alliance Armor Brigade''' (3 Regiments/Regular/Questionable)<ref name=FMUp177/>
::* CO: Colonel Derek Hyatt
:Note: Advanced IS technology: 25 percent

:'''Fourth Alliance Infantry Brigade''' (5 Regiments/Regular/Questionable)<ref name=FMUp177/>
::* CO: Colonel Thelma Speroni

===3079===
'''Fourth Alliance Guards ''' (Regiment/Veteran/Questionable)<ref name=FRFWLMp8>''Field Report: FWLM'', p. 8</ref>
: Note: At this time the unit was stationed on [[Cavanaugh II]].<ref name=FRFWLMp8/>

==Unit Colors and Insignia==
*Despite being renamed and falling under [[LAAF]] chain of command, the Fourth Alliance Guard still utilizes the Federated Commonwealth Corps crest as their insignia.  In addition, they still wear FedCom style uniforms and rank insignia.

* The parade colors of the Fourth Alliance Guard is the same as when it was a member of the FedCom Corps: navy blue with gold banding on the arms and legs of 'Mechs, and gold checkerboard patterned highlights on the upper torsos of 'Mechs and turrets of armor units.

==Reference==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[20 Year Update]]''
* ''[[FedCom Civil War]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: 3085]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: Free Worlds League]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: Lyran Alliance]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: Updates]]''
* ''[[Field Report: LAAF]]''
* ''[[Jihad: Final Reckoning]]''


[[Category:Lyran Commands|Alliance Guards RCT, 04th]]