THE OPPOSING FORCES
Mindoir Defence Garrison
By 2170, the planetary defence forces of the border colonies had been bolstered considerably. This was primarily in response to the pirate attacks that had began five years earlier. Each individual nation also instituted its own colonial protection measures. American colonists were compelled by law to own firearms and drill on Sundays for the defence of their homes, while most of the other Earth powers had dedicated colonial taxes for the maintenance of automated defences and kinetic barriers.
Mindoir is a joint US-European colony, and as such its indigenous defence preparations were a compromise between the perspectives of its parent countries. Weapons ownership was not compulsory, but a large colonial militia was maintained via general taxation. Out of a population of approximately 1.2 million civilians, 2% were active militia and another 7-8% were part of the reserves. These were divided into eight infantry divisions, two active and six paramilitary, but only the active service personnel would participate in the battle as the paramilitaries were cut off from their weapons. The training of most of the troops was basic, and they were generally only suited for static defence or guerrilla operations. However, their leadership was competent and aware of their limitations, and some of the militia commanders were Alliance veterans of the First Contact War hired for their experience. The militia were to cause some trouble for the pirates during the abduction of the population, but at a huge cost in casualties. Some of the full-time militia units would be reduced to 5% of their paper strength due to the sheer numbers of soldiers dead or captured. The paramilitaries would not even get a chance to fight in most cases.
However, the backbone of the garrison was the 737th Infantry Division (SAF) under General De Santos, from the 36th Legion of the Alliance Army. The unit consisted of two infantry brigades and an armoured brigade, all from the South American Federation and its colonies, for a total strength of fifteen thousand men and women, two hundred and forty tanks, two hundred artillery pieces, sixty gunships, and one hundred and twenty assault walkers. These were all fully professional troops, equipped with some of the best weapons of the day and fully aware of what was expected of them. Morale in the force was good, mostly due to the notion that border duty was a relatively easy posting and combat pay was available even if no real combat happened. The pirate raids that had been encountered before tended to end in Alliance victories, albeit at the expense of civilians. Discipline had been lax until De Santos' arrival, at which point it was restored to a respectable level under the reforms instituted by the general. These troops would perform excellently in all regards, having the advantage of armour over both the militia and the enemy forces, but would be unable to prevent the atrocities about to be committed.
3rd Corps, Batarian External Forces
The Batarian External Forces was the overall organisation commanding the most elite of batarian units, containing the best ground forces and ships to transport them anywhere in the galaxy. They had fought as part of Citadel forces during several crisis moments in secondary fronts, and more recently had seen serious action in the Terminus Systems. Their duties also covered intelligence gathering, external propaganda and criminal activity for funding. Total deniability was at the heart of almost all operations conducted by the External Forces, a deliberate policy to avoid involvement of the Citadel Council in batarian affairs. Mindoir was to be one of the few operations carried out openly in the name of the unit.
The troops of the 3rd Corps were divided into three division sized units, each a quarter again as large as the largest Alliance unit on Mindoir. All of them were motorised infantry units, with each individual brigade-sized unit having large numbers of light vehicles mounting anti-personnel and anti-vehicle weaponry. The exact number of troops used in the Mindoir attack is uncertain due to losses of records, but it is estimated that close to eighty thousand were earmarked for the campaign, of which about fifty-four thousand were deployed in the attack itself. This number includes Blood Pack krogan "platoons" and batarian mercenary forces assigned for special tasks, but not pirates that rounded up the civilian population. The exact number of pirates involved is entirely unknown, but as many as eighty frigates or armed cargo vessels were in orbit over Mindoir when the Alliance Navy relief fleet arrived, and at least that number of slaver ships were involved in transporting civilians around the clock.
Selected in adolescence for physical capability, the recruits of the External Forces were subjected to brutality unmatched by any basic training regimen except for that of the Special Intervention Unit, itself the elite of the External Forces. Starting with hand-to-hand combat and working their way up through sidearms, assault weapons and heavy weapons, recruits were pitted against each other in vicious competition. Failures were sent to the regular batarian army as shock troops or NCOs, while about 25% of recruits were accepted. At this point, the ideological training began to compliment the physical and mental conditioning. The troops were drilled heavily in the chosen values of the Hegemony; to revere the Pillars of Strength, to protect the state and the caste system with their lives, and to act with cunning in doing so. Discipline both during and after training was brutal and absolute, with punishments ranging from loss of limbs to death for even minor infractions. Such punishments were rarely necessary past the training stage however, as recruits who failed to fit simply died. Lacking in heavy armour the force might have been, the External Forces more than made up for it in iron will and brutality, and Alliance forces would have reason to fear such units long after Mindoir.