228th Federation Infantry Battalion

Fluff

Commanding Officer: General Victor St. Clair

Appearance: Victor St. Clair is a large physically imposing man, a product of the WEREWOLF super soldier program approximately 40 years ago. He is close to seven feet tall, 350 lbs, and demonstrates impressive strength, durability, the ability to heal rapidly, combat aggression, pain inhibitors, augmented strength, and anti-personnel hyperedge 'claws' that can retract into his forearms. He has blond hair, pronounced sideburns, but no other facial hair. He projects a very strong very masculine aura which is augmented by his regular possession of contraband tobacco cigars, and a preference for taking trophies in the field.

Relevant Information: General St. Clair is close to retiring from military service, though if he were to chose so, it would not be difficult for him to move upwards in the ranks to reach the rank of Field Marshal of the Federation Army. St. Clair believes that the best way he can serve his nation is not as a military commander, but as a civilian leader, and has started making plans and inroads in making the jump to the public sector. As a native Quebecoise warhawk with a long and glorious military career, his chances of being elected are very good. He is the sort of face that the military wants, the propaganda machine wants, and he himself believes that the greatest threat to the Armed Forces of the Atlantic Federation isn't the Eurasians, or the ACPS, but the cowards, armchair generals and bureaucrats in the government.

Armor Assets

Chariot Mk. 3 Droid Combat Vehicle

The Chariot is a light duty military hovercraft with an open top, decent top speed, but light armor and light weaponry. The vehicle can carry 5-7 conventional infantry, or 3 power armor troopers. In the later case, the troopers are able to use their own weapons to fire out of the top of the droid vehicle (hence it's name).

The 228ths Chariot droids were in poor condition to start with, and given Amerikka Command's preference for electronic jamming, hacking and warfare in general, the vehicles were at best untrustworthy, and at worst were hacked and used to attack their own ground crews. The most impressive and destructive use of a Chariot was a damaged vehicle being shut down, packed full of high explosives (inside destroyed power armor suits) and then it was allowed to return to base. When the charges detonated, more than a dozen techs were killed, as well as a large amount of supplies and material.

OCP-IFV-57 'Yeti' Infantry Fighting Vehicle

A cold weather vehicle, the Yeti proved useful in the rough and cold terrain of the Rocky Mountain Republic. The six wheeled armored vehicle had a compact robot controlled turret, decent armor, and decent speed. It could accommodate a squad of conventional infantry, but no power armor units. The Yeti is considered an antique, and while almost a signature unit in the 228th, it is obsolete and almost completely phased out of service.

The 228ths Yetis proved to be the backbone around which the unit would do most of their seek and destroy missions and when things got back, it was the Yetis that held the line and discipline until there was nothing left moving. The primitive robot turret proved difficult to hack and was easily cut off by yeti crews and manned by crewmen as needed.

UAC Standard Multi-Role Power Armor Suit Mark 35

(excerpt from 30 Power Armor Suits)

The Mark 35 is the epitome of standard issue, designed for customization, ease of maintenance, and adaptation to a variety of roles. The armor hits 'medium' in almost every category from armor protection to mobility to firepower. It has configurations and 'backpack' kits that allow it to operate in space, underwater, in desert, urban, jungle, and arctic conditions. The suit lacks integrated weapons, but there are more guns, combo-guns, and weapons for the Mark 35 than there are dresses for Barbie.

The 228th had very few Mk. 35 power armors, with the bulk of it's forces being conventional infantry. Given the typical level of conflict with Amerikka Command in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountain Republic, it was deemed that a special forces heavy conventional infantry battalion would be able to handle the mission. This would prove to not be the case.

OCP-LIV 'Trailbreaker' Light Infantry Vehicle

The Trailbreaker infantry vehicle is a four wheeled conventional vehicle with limited crew capacity, very light armor, and a mounting point for a single infantry support weapon. Trailbreakers are outdated vehicles that remain in use with secondary and reservist units, and in conventional infantry battalions.

The Trailbreakers of the 228th proved to be very vulnerable to the 'Trouble Bubble' ground attack craft deployed by Amerikka Command. The reliance on the outdated vehicle left the unit vulnerable to being cut off from resupply and being demobilized in general. Once deprived of their transports and trucks, the infantry of the Mountain Lions were left to the mercy of Sidewinder Boom Buggies, Viper military bikes, and the aforementioned Trouble Bubble patrol pods.

Rothechilde Broadcaster

The Rothechilde Broadcaster is a mobile CogNet node generator and in addition to forming linkages to the Net, it has extensive systems for broadcasting specific information, often for the purpose of flooding decentralized networks, burying local data traffic under propaganda, white noise, or otherwise obnoxious media material. This form of non-lethal warfare is commonly used to force local groups to face what is going on, rather than retreating into the Net, or using the Net for insurgent purposes.

The 228ths Rothechilde Broadcaster was hacked by Amerikka Command Televipers who used the machine to further their own cyber warfare assault against the unit and it's base. Once the hacking was discovered, the Televipers activated the Rothechilde and filled Federation military bandwidths with electronic noise, classic American speeches and ethnic America rock and roll music.

UAC MA-114 Urban Fortress

The Urban Fortress is on paper nothing more than an up-armored, oversized infantry transport with suitable armor, gun ports for the infantry to shoot out of the vehicle and an assault mounted autocannon. In practice, the oversized vehicle is specifically designed to deploy Federation power armor troopers, and support them in the field with it's heavy armor, and heavy firepower. Urban Fortresses are a mixture of mobile weapon platform, mobile command center, and anti-armor vehicle. Originally designed as a police riot control vehicle, the military adopted the Urban Fortress after it demonstrated the ability to crush hostile vehicles under it's heavy treads, while relying less on expensive computers and exotic weapons, and rather used the often extensive firepower of the power armor troopers it carried.

The 228th had 2 Urban Fortresses, Fortress Prime was a HQ command model with enhanced communication equipment and data uplinks, and Fortress Vector was a bunker buster armed with plasma cannons. Fortress Prime was survived to the end of the battle, and was salvaged by Amerikka Command. Fortress Vector was destroyed by AC Rattlesnake ground attack jets dropping 1000 kg bombs on it until it stopped moving and then exploded.

Aerial Assets

VT-21 Aeromanche Large Helocraft

The Aeromanche is a large electrojet helocraft. The craft has a large payload capacity, and can carry either a Yeti IFV or a pair of Trailbreaker vehicles. It can also deploy up to 24 conventional troopers or an entire squad of power armor troopers. The craft is and older design, and is tried and true technology. The Aeromanche is no longer favored by the Federation military, but it's engine design makes it power efficient, and able to operate in mountain terrain.

The 228ths Aeromanche helocraft were destroyed in an initial sabotage attack. Of the 6 helocraft operated by the unit, three were destroyed, two were severely damaged, and the sixth flew almost constantly until it was shot down by a Command missile squad. This ended up severely limited the Mountain Lion's ability to move and resupply their units that were away from the immediate vicinity of the base.

VT-99 Starling Drone

The VT-99 Starling drone is a small military multi-role drone, primarily used for scouting and spotting missions for artillery and other heavy assets, but it can be fitted with a variety of semi-guided rockets and smartbombs for use as a light strike craft.

The 228th relied primarily on the Starling drone, fitted with radar guided missiles and a point laser, for their air operations. The unit traditionally relied on other aerial assets when they were needed, and when deployed it was assumed that the Amerikka Command forces in the region had negligible air assets. Between anti-aircraft missiles, Trouble Bubble patrol pods, and a pair of Rattlesnake ground attack jets, the Command quickly gained to upper hand in air to air operations.

AFS Terry Allen

Cleveland class destroyer

The Cleveland class destroyer was a second line warship, originally used for maritime patrol, and for sweep and destroy missions across large swaths of land. The ship is armed with a single turret mounted rail gun with a 25 mile range, four missile stations armed with radar guided missiles, and two forward firing anti-ship aeropedo launchers. These one ton projectiles mix a magnetic accelerator with an A-pod thrust system to deliver large powerful payloads into other warships, fixed installations and other slow moving targets.

The Allen was hemmed in fighting the in the mountainous terrain. It had limited anti-personnel and anti-material weaponry and while attempting to provide support to the 228th, it was seriously damaged. Rather than risk losing his ship, the captain of the Allen ordered a general retreat and fled the area. It was trailing smoke and listing badly due to severe damage to it's hull, engineering section, and powerplant. After the battle, the Allen was struck from the fleet and sent to scrap rather than being repaired.

Drawing heavily on the Federation military cloning program, the 228th is principally composed of clone infantry. Conventional infantry carry a variety of firearms, but typically carry magnetic rifles and high end conventional firearms. These units are expected to have high rates of attrition, and accordingly, the clones are programmed for extreme loyalty and to retain discipline even in the face of extreme odds and morale.

The clone infantry of the 228th suffered from a very rigid chain of command, and after the HQ of the unit was knocked out and the general vanished, the clone units continued fighting from their last ordered positions. Once Command officers realized that the clones were not receiving instructions, only holding their ground, this allowed for AC units to bring up artillery and suicide droids to wipe them out.

Commandos

Commandos are elite soldiers who are trained in improvised weapons, asymmetrical warfare and other skills ranging from cyber warfare to demolitions. The Federation maintains a large contingent of commandos, both for use in specialized warfare, such as underwater, mountainous, or space, and as support for supersoldier units.

The 228th was composed of approximately 30% commando infantry, with emphasis on mountain fighting and asymmetrical warfare. While this made it very strong in scattered out small scale operations, this has the converse action of limiting it's power in large scale operations.

Skeletrons

The Federation Skeletron is a main line fighting robot with a limited ability combat cortex, a large ability to absorb damage, and a mechanical inability to feel fear. Skeletrons carry heavier weaponry than conventional infantry, and often work as part of infantry squads, traditionally working point position, and heavy weapons support.

The skeletrons of the 228th have not been reprogrammed for mountain warfare and proved vulnerable to the tactics of the Amerikka Command mountain fighters. This would later prove to be disastrous as the Command's Battle Android Troopers proved vastly superior in capability and tactics when facing their Federation counterparts.

St. Clair and the 228th Mountain Lions had as their mission a six month sweep and destroy through the Rocky Mountain Republic hunting what were supposed to be the broken remnants of the Amerikka Command's 2nd Infantry Division. It was planned on being a homecoming tour for St. Clair, as the 2nd Division had been badly mauled by elements of the OCP 1st Grenadiers months before, and then had two of their bases had been destroyed with significant losses by the Federation 117th naval squadron. Three months into the sweep through the mountains, the 228th was in a relatively isolated valley and had only limited support from it's parent ship, the AFS Allen.

An unknown force assaulted the command structure, damaging the control and communication systems, and functionally paralyzing the 228th. Within hours of the terror attack, the Mountain Lions were set upon by the repaired and rearmed 2nd Division, which inflicted heavy damage on the AFS Allen, and destroying a large contingent of the Mountain Lion's skeletron assets. The battle would run another 12 hours in which AC cyborg commandos and renegade fighters would overrun the 228th's mobile base. A single mobile shroud generator was deployed, cutting off communications from the besieged 228th to the outside world.

The battle trailed off to an end, with the last elements of the 228th being hunted down and killed by cold prepped battle androids during the onset of a blizzard.