Tuesday 17 December 2013

The history of Magyari's Irregulars

Part III – Feud

In late 3067, the Irregulars had cycled back to Campoleone as a part of their downtime following a successful pirate hunting expedition when disaster struck. In November, a terrorist bomb in the capitol killed Captain Jelek Magyari as well as his XO and several representatives of the Commonality military during a planning meeting. Within hours of the explosion, traffic control reported pirate dropships burning their way towards the capitol.

Command of the unit very suddenly and unexpectedly fell to Jelek’s only child, the then 22-year old Anika Magyari who had only just graduated to active duty from training. Nearly overwhelmed by the combination of her father’s death and the situation she had been thrust into, Anika turned to the best source of advice that she had available; her grandmother.

With Sel’s help, Anika was able to rally the irregulars and turn back the pirate force, stopping them outside the planetary capitol before they could do any significant damage. While the Irregulars had suffered losses, given the situation they were far less severe than they could have been with Anika showing a surprising amount of determination and confidence, given the situation. However, their greatest boon came in the form of a captured Pirate Mechwarrior, one who yielded a lot of useful information.

Based on what they’d gathered, the Irregulars were dispatched on a counter-strike into Marian space, aiming to hit the pirates at their base of operations. Instead, they found no trace of them and departed, but not before tangling with local militia forces and raiding a HAF storehouse for parts and ammunition. Dissatisfied with the outcome, the irregulars returned to Free Worlds space, only to be hit by Marian Forces not too long after their arrival. While the Marians were again driven off, it became apparent that they were retaliating for what was seen, by them, as being an unprovoked assault.

Rather than risk escalating the situation, the Rim Commonality chose to pull the Irregulars off the front, especially after further investigation revealed that the “Marian” captive was, in fact, a member of Redmond’s Roughnecks, the same unit that the Irreguars had been betrayed by over fifty years prior. The Roughnecks had been hired by the Circrinus Federation to deliberately provoke a war between the Commonality and the Marians while also having a chance to act on a generations-long grudge. (That none of those involved with the original dispute were still active members of either unit and several were dead didn’t seem to factor into it)

Attempts to track the Roughnecks down came to naught, especially given the rapidly disintegrating situation in the Free Worlds League. Unexpectedly, the situation was resolved when Alys Rousset-Marik’s resistance bought out the Irregular’s contract, deliberately bringing them off the chase and instead using them as a raiding force against the Word and allied FWLM forces. While there was some contention within the Irregulars, Anika took the opportunity to put her foot down and assert herself, stating that “fighting the Word was more important than something that happened half a century ago.”

By late 3075, the Irregulars had been transferred again, this time to the control of Devlin Stone’s coalition, and were now focused on raids against the Word of Blake Protectorate. Details of what happened during the next few years are surprisingly sparse, and it appears that a lot of the missions that they undertook are considered classified by the Republic. Details exist of battles on individual worlds, but the entire picture remains unknown to this day.

However, by the end of 3079, the Irregulars had been one of the lucky Mercenary units to have survived the Jihad. Left with two battered lances of ‘Mechs and a smattering of armour and infantry, they remained operational under the command of their now seasoned and determined leader. Anika took the step of allowing any remaining members of the Irregulars who wished to stand down to do such, but in the end only a few did. The rest continued, determined to rebuild and continue working in the brave new world.


(EDITOR’S NOTE: Redmond’s Roughnecks would disappear during the Jihad with few clues as to their final disposition. Some sources put them in the Circrinus Federation during the last days of the conflict, but the truth may never be known)

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