At the end of the day here on Severn, we heard a surprise announcement that a mass surrender of Kuritan troops has occurred. We can confirm at the time of writing that one of the two regiments surrendering was the 5th Sun Zhang Cadre, one of the famed units from the MechWarrior School that shares its name. The surrender of such a unit with the sons and in some cases daughters of prominent Kuritan nobles and other officials, can only be seen as a massive loss of face for these nobles, the school and possibly the entire DCMS.
For a unit such as a Cadre to surrender, some sort of internal coup of some kind must have occurred, as the reputation for fanaticism and suicidal bravery is well known throughout the Successor States. LCAF PAOs have distributed a list of names of the dead, captured as per the requirements of the Ares Conventions and has asked ComStar to pass on this information to their families. However, as of this writing, ComStar has been unable to find anyone in the Combine government willing to take possession of the list, with some officials on Luthien even denying there was a 5th Cadre at all.
As for the Lone Star Regiment, rumours are the Combine terminated their contract immediately after the surrender and the unit was then released from Lyran custody after the ransom was paid. MercNet has downgraded the Lone Star’s fiduciary ratings, as the word is that the unit’s financial status, in the words of one Merc broker here on Galatea is “Grave, very grave.”