Attention Pioneers of Antares! Until November 23, all our patrons at the $10
tier or above will receive an embroidered patch featuring the insignia of the 1077th.
Those at the $25 tier or above will additionally receive a custom enamel pin
of the Confederacy’s emblem. You’ll find more information in the description.
It is difficult for any outsider to truly understand the significance of Tai-Kalnet
to the Banthurrian species. Outwardly, it is merely a small moon, hardly unique when compared
to the untold millions of similar such planetoids encountered across the galaxy. Yet at one time,
when on a primitive world in a distant part of the galaxy, the roman senate was debating on
whether they should abandon their capital, the interstellar Banthurrian Empire brought
their greatest treasures here, relics and trophies taken from their enemies. The Banthhurrian Warrior
Khans measured themselves by those they had fought against, and these objects were treated with such
reverence as to be almost holy. Statues of Ti-Zru gods taken during the siege of their Throne World,
Screk Obelisks captured during the battle of Vollonis and even the corpses of insectoid
drones, supposedly the vanguard of a vast swarm slowly approaching from dark space.
Even when their Empire collapsed into a chaotic storm of rival fiefdoms and petty despots,
the sanctity of Tai-Kalnet and the curates who held it, was universally respected. Many aspiring
warlords attempted to place their own trophies here, yet none were considered worthy. The
figure that would come to be known as the Great Khan was the first to triumph here in an age,
and while it remains unknown what item he offered that was accepted into the Tai-Kalnet,
the affirmation of the curates was enough to form the Baanthurian Khanate.
The victories of the Great Khan brought a renewed stream of trophies to the moon of Tai-Kalnet,
but his defeat transformed it entirely. While its significance has remained,
today it exists within the Commonwealth of Vi-Talas, a state created by its liberators.
As one of the largest collections of artifacts from across the galaxy, it has attracted every
manner of historian and enthusiast, and become infamous for the lengths they must go through to
enter even its outermost holds. The Prime Minister of Antares, the Archpriest of the Spirits, even
the High Chancellor of Vi-Talas itself, all have been, publicly and embarrassingly denied access.
Yet by the decree of the last Great Khan of the Banthurrians, there are
some permitted unrestricted entry, to walk among the collections as if they were his emissaries.
Among those free to enter the Tai-Kalnet are the descendants of Liliana Reyes
and the 99 Named of Melaka, all sailors assigned to any ship that bears the name
Pursuer, and every member, former and current of the 1077th Tank Regiment.
As one of the most decorated and renowned units in the Antares Armed Forces,
and its special status within many different cultures across the Commonwealth, the 1077th’s
history is a unique blend of verifiable fact overlaid with near-mythic significance.
The unit traces its lineage to the 65th Tank Battalion, activated in 265AL as part of the wider
military buildup and reorganization undertaken by the Confederate Army during the Vrul War.
The 65th quickly became known as the “Excellent Extracts” for the presence of officers and
soldiers from every republic within its ranks. It consisted at this time of three tank companies,
a service and headquarters company, and was assigned to the 7th Armoured Division.
The Battalion took part in the liberation of Torix but disintegrated as a functional unit during the
disastrous orbital landings across the planet, which scattered the 65th’s component elements
across the entire theater of operations. Nevertheless, at least one tank company
from the 65th Battalion fell under the command of Colonel Talik Salah al-Din and took part in
the legendary counter-attack and encirclement of the Vrul resistance. According to the unit’s
own internal history, Colonel Salah al-Din led the final attack from one of the 65th’s tanks,
after his own vehicle was rendered inoperable by enemy fire. Given every armored unit within
the modern Commonwealth Army, as a matter of tradition makes these same claims, modern
historians do not take these supposed accounts more seriously than those of any other unit.
The 65th Tank Battalion was inactivated three years after the Liberation of Torix in 271AL,
only to be then reactivated as the 65th Tank regiment at the outbreak of the First Beldross
War in 306AL. It deployed with the 24th Armored Division as part of the invasion of the Beldrossi
world of Thisac and remained there as part of the Confederate garrison until the war's conclusion
in 320AL. In one notable incident, soldiers from the unit were caught stealing a kind
of alien beehive, and the 65th adopted the nickname “The Honeysuckers” as a result.
Twelve years later in 332AL, the unit participated in Operation Chromatica:
the liberation of the homeworld of the Cloister of the Spirits from the Anthorian Empire.
Despite its participation in the major campaigns of the Antares Confederacy, it was during the
Banthurrian Invasion, also known as the War of the Great Khan, that the regiment would
earn its legendary status. At the time of the declaration of war, the 65th had been redesignated
the 304th Tank regiment and assigned to the 15th Infantry Division on the world of Ariane.
It had become known as the “Bird Catchers” in the intervening time, after its commanding officer was
apparently attacked by a rhumdaran cardinal during training maneuvers. It was made up at this time
of 4 tank companies, each equipped with 18 modern Salah al-Din main battle tanks,
and a Command and reconnaissance company with 12 Takoba armoured fighting vehicles.
The unit was hurriedly redeployed to the frontier colony of Melaka and again redesignated as the
1077th Tank regiment, initially intended as a temporary name, but the one it would be
permanently assigned thereafter. As the scale of the unfolding military disaster became
apparent to the Confederate units stationed on the planet, the 1077th was moved into the foothills
surrounding the capital city of Jost. Its intended role was to counter-attack the leading Banthurrian
landing elements before they could properly consolidate, but was left out of position
when the invasion finally began. It instead disrupted several smaller Banthurrian
landing zones and logistical elements, before withdrawing into the center of Jost itself.
Over the next six months the 1077th became a critical component of the city’s defense.
Its tanks became highly valuable for their use as mobile bunkers in a rapidly shifting
defensive line. Their crews developed a number of unorthodox tactics, including disguising their
tanks as inactive wecks and hiding them within the urban rubble. During one notable ambush,
the Regiment’s Charlie company managed to destroy an enemy frigate providing ultra-low fire support
over Yost’s spaceport. In another, vehicle elements from its Delta and Alpha companies
decimated a convoy of Banthurrian armoured walkers attempting to scale the besieged Liu-Banh Tower.
Over the course of the fighting, the 1077th began absorbing surviving personnel and vehicles from
destroyed Confederate units, maintaining and then exceeding its initial fighting strength.
The last major offensive action undertaken by the regiment as a whole
was the Battle of Gretchen Stein Park. With declining ammunition and fuel reserves,
a final charge was made into the Banthurian lines. The action destroyed several elite
enemy formations, including the so-called “Herald of the Khan”, but left the 1077th
with only a fraction of its vehicles and no means to transport them more than a few miles.
After the death of General Reyes, the 1077th led the last remnants of
the Confederate defenders in a final stand at Discovery Plaza. It was destroyed to a soldier
after 30 hours of intense fighting. Unaware of the colony’s continued resistance, the 1077th
had already been removed from the Confederate Army’s active units some four months earlier.
It was not until well after the war, when the archives of the fallen Khan began to be translated
that the role of the 1077th in the Fall of Melaka was understood by the wider Confederacy.
As a unit that had won the deep respect and admiration of both sides,
the reactivation of the 1077th Tank regiment in 400AL, became a symbolic point of reconciliation
between the Antares Confederacy and the newly founded Commonwealth of Vi Talas.
The 1077th participated in every major conflict for the next century.
It charged across plains of burning ash during the campaign to liberate the Anthonians,
and smashed through the walls of the Imperial Palace during the Second Battle of Xandaree.
In each campaign it acted with dignity and restraint,
and became a focus of Confederate propaganda efforts in the subsequent eras of rebuilding.
By the time the Antares Confederacy had rejected the demands of the Screk,
the empire that subjugated Earth, the 1077th had become an almost ceremonial unit.
While its soldiers were some of the most experienced in the armed forces,
there was some concern that such a prominent force might be destroyed in battle and its
loss might represent a significant moral defeat. It was the Baanthurian population
of Antares that assayed these reservations, and the 1077th would see action during the invasion
of the Font of Knowledge itself, serving again under the 24th Armoured Division.
The regiment’s famous attack through the ruined skyway of the Screk throneworld reinvigorated
public interest in the unit. But it was during the war against the Greater Terran Empire that
the 1077th again reached the heights it had first achieved on Melaka. According to popular legend,
in the days leading up to the invasion, the Regiment was invited to take part in a ceremony
on Tai-Kalnet. This was supposedly a final act of rapprochement between Antares and the
Banthurrian people, an offer extended only to the antecedent units from the Fall of the Melaka and
the War Against the Great Khan. While the Antares Armed forces have never commented on the matter,
leaks suggest that those in attendance promised to uphold a unique kind of Banthurrian chivalry,
swearing oaths before the recovered Throne of the Great Khan himself.
During the invasion of the UTE, the 1077th Tank Regiment again distinguished itself
during the landings across Sigma Draconis, Procyon
and Sirius. It fell at this time under the command of Colonel Chatri Boqor, described
by his contemporaries as “one of the most hated men in the Commonwealth Army”. Blunt, cold, and
often rude, Boqor had developed a reputation among outsiders for his seemingly xenophobic behavior,
he was frequently intolerant and suspicious of the Antares Commonwealth’s allies.
This however, was likely a misinterpretation of Boqor’s behavior towards everyone, and those that
served with him would later reveal that he was equally intolerant and suspicious of the
Antares military itself. A famous remark by a Vrul company commander that served under him alleged
that “Boqur is the most even-tempered person in the Commonwealth army: he is always in rage”.
Despite this notoriety, Boqor is considered today one of the most brilliant field officers
in Antares history, outmaneuvering and destroying Terran formations many times his own Regiment’s
size. His penchant for riding personally aboard his lead tank, directing the movements of the
Regiment through outlandish insults and colorful language, earned the deep respect of his soldiers.
It was during the climax of the Battle of Earth however, that Colonel Boqor entered into the
upper pantheon of the Antares Pantheon of military legends for his refusal to obey orders. Directed
to advance into a zone of questionable tactical value in which significant civilian casualties
would have been unavoidable, Boqor instead repeatedly refused to carry out the attack,
before riding into division headquarters, arresting at gunpoint the Major General who
had ordered the attack. His implementation of the Commonwealth Code of Values and Ethics is credited
with saving over 40,000 lives, including that of future United Nations of Earth General Secretary
Holly Clifford. It is still widely studied today in Commonwealth military academies.
In the modern Commonwealth Army, the 1077th is one of the few “permanent units”, never to be
disbanded under the direct order of the Office of the Prime Minister. While the equipment with
which it has been outfitted, the composition of its companies, and the names of its officers
has changed across the centuries, it has carried with it an unwavering record of professionalism
and dignity. Its legacy of service has granted the 1077th unique traditions both in its conduct
and uniform. It is the only unit not required to stand for the anthem of the Anthorian Republic,
the only unit allowed to wear the ceremonial crystal swords of the Cloister of the Spirits,
and most famously, one of the few to ever enter the archives of the Tai-Kalnet.
It maintains alliances not only with a myriad of other units across the Commonwealth Army,
Navy, and Pioneers, but also those of Earth and dozens of other nations.
And on all too many worlds can be found monuments dedicated to the soldiers that filled its ranks,
memorials ranging from simple markers to grand archways or plazas.
Reminders to the citizens of the galaxy that no matter how dire the circumstances,
how terrible the foe, there will always be those ready to confront tyranny
in all its forms, and the tanks of the 1077th will be at the forefront, leading the charge.