Multinational Combined Arms Battlegroup 'Anna'

A nomadic fleet that sustains itself through asteroid-mining, ship-breaking, and, most famously, mercenary work. Battlegroup Anna was originally founded by refugees and military units fleeing Earth in the aftermath of the Lombardic League's victory over the Trienter Security Organization, and is technically a group of military units guarding the various governments in exile of the Trienter Security Organization.

Ultimately, the Battlegroup's de-jure goal is the reclamation of it's homeworld and the reestablishment of it's precursor-nations, with all other activities meant to further this.

## History

202X: MT PPC

2170 - Sudden, immense rise in the population of highly gifted but mentally unstable thaumaturges('supers') causes widespread destabilization and political upheaval, with most states falling into anarchy and civil war.

222X - Rebuilding and proper states begin to appear again. Spaceflight resumes; rudimentary albecurrie drive invented.

2234 - Last supers hunted down and killed.

2240-230X: Space colonization programs proposed, explored, and begun. Seedships begin to be sent out.

230X - Albecurrie drive improved vastly, Wormhole drive perfected, space colonization begins in earnest.

2355 - WW3 between the two largest alliances in Eurasia – the Lombardic League and the Trienter Security Organization

2364 - WW3 ends, forces of the former Trienter Security Organization flee into space. Genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign by Lombardic League against former states of the TSO begins and continues for the next few centuries.

2365 - BGA forms and begins mercenary work. Over the next few centuries they build up a name for themselves by backing separatists against larger empires with a consistent record of success.

2584-2590: Persean Sector campaign.

2589: Onslaught-class battleship 'Tears of Chicomoztoc' captured after raid, inducted as 'A1-class Onslaught-subclass Arsenal Ship 'Tears of Chicomoztoc''

2602-2615: Intervention against the Chekbrian Empire and establishment of the Free Republic of Aztlan.

2634-2640: Intervention in Zagreban Commonwealth, a single-system polity with a large naval base and shipyard left over from its precursor empire. First encounter with Interstellar Commonwealth, Shirai Empire, and clanfleets. Battlegroup Anna becomes the guarantor of the Commonwealth, fighting off multiple clanfleet raids and waging a hybrid campaign against both the Shirai Empire and the Interstellar Commonwealth, eventually forcing a treaty wherein both the IC and Shirai Empire recognize the sovereignty of the Commonwealth. A permanent garrison is left within the Commonwealth thereafter and remains until 3010, and BGA continued checking in with the occasional patrol until around 3013.

2956 - Various interstellar polities that have lost territory and have had their political systems destabilized by Battlegroup Anna form the Jovian Pact for Pirate Suppression, with the intent of hunting down and destroying the Battlegroup. The formation of JP-PS was orchestrated by the Lombardic League.

3000 - Early 3009: BGA offered, and settled on, the Terran world of Tianjin, in exchange for protecting the Lantian Empire. The reformist Emperor, as well as some of the generals that answer him, begin a massive public relations campaign to bill the Battlegroup as close allies, with joint exercises, public announcements, and vessels of the Battlegroup showing the flag when possible.

Conservative factions within the Imperial Court who are either wary of the Battlegroup's immense firepower or oppose the Emperor's overhaul of the military and economy(which would eliminate their own fiefdoms and private armies/navies) begin to plot a coup, with backing from the Jovian Pact and it's puppetmaster, the Lombardic League.

Late 3009: The coup is sprung perfectly, with the Emperor and many of his generals killed. Battlegroup Anna makes preparations to support the Emperor's cause in the coming civil war. However, the local Duke, having aligned himself with the Conservatives, had already given a Jovian Task Force the navigational data needed to exit hyperspace exactly around the area of the Battlegroup, and prepares his own navy under the guise of joint operations alongside of the Battlegroup, with the intent of destroying the Battlegroup before it can move to support the Reformist factions.

The gambit is successful and only the sacrifice of Task Force 'Blauwalder', as well as individual stands by other ships during the retreat, prevents the complete destruction of the Battlegroup as a nation, with various splinter groups wormholing haphazardly to various locations. The general chaos prevents any proper regrouping of the Battlegroup, with returning patrols and fleet elements in various charges making matters worse. In the confusion, elements of the Battlegroup earn the ire of all sides of the civil war by fighting their way out of either envelopments by the Conservative faction, or by attempts at cajoling fleeing elements of the Battlegroup into providing support by the Reform faction. Friendly fire is also common.

3009-3015: Some splinter-fleets regroup -- the largest of them,  numbering around 10 million, finds it's way into World Machine, and begins to conduct something resembling an organized campaign against what remains of the Lantian Empire. Several worlds completely decivilized or effectively destroyed, naval bases damaged or entirely demolished, scouts, patrols, and smaller task-forces are picked off, minefields strangle several trade routes of the former Empire, and a ringworld is destroyed by a cornered patrol, which also destroys the major world it orbits. This turns an already horrendous civil war into a bloody, endless meatgrinder. A smaller splinter-fleet, numbering 5 million, comes under the protection of the Interstellar Concordat.

3015 - Joint Task Force Columbia/World Machine Garrison established. Lantian Civil War ends with the kingdom collapsing utterly into warring statelets.

3030-3034 - Octavian Conflict. Large amounts of industrial capacity looted postwar fuels the first rebuilding of Battlegroup Anna.

3034: Democritus-class cruiser RCNA-15 'Adm. Andries V. Straaten' recovered and inducted as 'A1-class Democritus-subclass Arsenal Ship 'Adm. Andries V. Straaten’’

3036-3040 - Drechan Conflict. BGA loots massive amounts of orbital industrial capacity and integrates it with their existing mobile shipyards, massively improving efficiency, quality, and output. It also recovers several long-lost ships during the war as well as reestablishing and reincorporating splinter-fleets that disappeared during the chaos after the Tianjin Genocide. Production of new cruiser-sized vessels and complete overhauls of recovered capital ships, once a distant dream, is now within reach.

3037: Guided Missile Battleship ‘Saybrook’ recovered and quickly brought back into service.

3042: Guided Missile Battleship ‘Cascadia’ recovered and partially repaired after reunification with various splinter-fleets, swelling Battlegroup Anna’s population back to 20 million. Full contact established with the Interstellar Concordat. Awaiting full refit pending completion of the current shipbuilding program. Projected date of return to service is 3045. Contact reestablished with the Free Republic of Aztlan.

304X - Current year by BGA's reckoning. Operation Sea Hawk. Return to Zagreban Commonwealth, which is once again being pressured by the Interstellar Commonwealth and the Shirai Empire, as well facing constant raids by clanfleets.

## Military

Main article: Military of Battlegroup Anna

There is technically no *legal* dividing line between Battlegroup Anna's military and it's population, and 'civilians' may find themselves transferred with little warning to frontline combat. However, in practice, a certain seperation does exist -- the Battlegroup requires men to man the shipyards, to handle the algae-vats and fish-farms, and to pilot the steamers and transport-shuttles that keep the Battlegroup running. And though all citizens undergo a few rotations between the military and civilian sides of the Battlegroup, there tend to be those who stay far longer, in order to maintain institutional knowledge and to pass down that knowledge to the next generation.

Even taking this into account, however, Battlegroup Anna still maintains a disproporationately large and unusually well-equipped military for it's size, both out of well-founded paranoia and it's nature as a quasi-mercenary group.

## Politics

Battlegroup Anna is a military unit and as such does not have standard electoral politics. It is instead governed by a group of major officers, collectively known as the 'Battlegroup Anna Command Element', or simply 'Command'/'High Command'.

Notable members of Battlegroup Anna's Command include:

* Admiral Henrietta Augusta Lutzow, Commanding Officer Task Element 'Anna Karenina'
* General William Westmoreland, Commanding Officer Task Element 'Reforger'
* CBGS Visby, Chief Historian, Historian Corps
* Major General Garreth Vronsky, Commanding Officer, Historian Corps.

## See Also

List of Battlegroup Anna Citizens and Associates