From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

Dirty tricks are a part of the mercenary trade. No unit can stay ‘clean’ forever, and sooner or later you’re going to have to do something a little dubious to get your way. And sometimes, it actually ends up that you’re doing the right thing, even if you’re going about it in the least ethical ways possible.

Case in point, what we did to Devon Wainwright. We’d had concerns about him ever since we landed on Ashburton, based on the information we’d been provided on his family’s involvement with the pirates. He had a clear motivation too; overthrow the government and restore the planetary monarchy with his family at the top, and go back to how things had been for the last few hundred years before the Jihad.

Stalking the Wolf

From Mercenary Campaigns of the 32nd Century, Galatea Free Press

The arrival of a Wolf Empire unit on Ashburton in pursuit of Magyari’s Irregulars was not an entirely unexpected development. The mercenary unit had clashed with the Wolf Empire three times in the last year on worlds they occupied, and in each case come out victorious.

The first was on Keystone, where the Irregulars sized a considerable store of Clantech parts while disrupting production of the Tomahawk II OmniMech. Not only did the Irregulars brush aside a Kappa Galaxy tank force, but they also used the clans’ own honour rules against them to outmanoeuvre and escape a frontline unit from Beta Galaxy. The second of these saw them raid Kalidassa, again disrupting BattleMech production on-world. In the process they destroyed or disabled a number of Theta Galaxy BattleMechs; furthermore, unconfirmed reports claim that they destroyed a prototype OmniMech.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

The last twenty-four hours did a fantastic job of upending this entire campaign in a number of different ways. I shouldn’t be surprised that Assault Lance was in the middle of all of it either.

First of all, the Wolves. Okay, so we have done a good job of annoying them, granted, and I kind of understand why they would come after us. First we humiliated them on Keystone, stole a huge pile of parts and disrupted OmniMech production. Then we repeated the process on Kaldiassia, including destroying a prototype OmniMech. Finally, we started a rebellion on Shasta, destroyed half a cluster and sent the rest into a tailspin of crashing morale. I suspect that the Wolves that followed us here to Ashburton are the same ones that were burning towards Shasta as we left.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

We’re away from Shasta and not a moment too soon for a number of different reasons.

Things with the Red Mountain tribe (Clan, whatever) were not going well, to say the least. Ever since we armed them they had been pushing us for more action, but not against the Wolves. Rather, they wanted us to focus on their rivals, hoping that we’d stomp all over their villages with our BattleMechs. I’d managed to hold off on that for some time, but it reached the point where I was running out of excuses. That the chief was looking to hitch me up with his son didn’t help any, I mean, yes, he looked great without a shirt, but the last thing I want is to be tied to a specific planet’s ugly politics. Besides, I’m spoken for.

We found an exit after a fashion courtesy of a disaffected Wolf adoptee. Velkon Dumeitscu was a Shasta native who joined up with the Wolves. Only things didn’t work out as he’d hoped and, after two battles with us, he’d found himself locked up. We liberated him and a couple of other members of his Star during a raid, and he was willing to cut us a deal. If we gave him a ‘Mech and a place in our forces, even if only temporarily, he’d give us the location of Star Colonel Kendra Tutuola.

Audio Log File #75944-Rho

Nikola Kardos: So where do you want to start?

Velkon Dumeitscu: I would like to know how you knew about my men and I. We really did not expect to be rescued at all, or that anyone would even know about what was happening. I know that (Star Colonel) Tutola wanted to keep all that quiet as to not shatter the unit’s already fragile morale.

Kardos: We intercepted Wolf communications during a recon raid on a Wolf supply depot. It took us a bit to fish through the files, but once we found the message about you and your men, I figured that it would be worth out while to extract you.

Dumeitscu: And for that, I thank you. While i did not want to be locked up, the more I look at it, the more likely my being locked up was.

Kardos: So I’d like to know the string of events that led to you and your men being locked up.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

We’ve formed an alliance of sorts with the Red Rock people (They hate the use of the word ‘tribe” to describe them) aimed at expanding out campaign of harassment against the Wolves; I must admit that I’m in two minds about this; on one side, I appreciate all that they can give us. They serve as extra eyes on the ground, they know the planet and its terrain much better then we do, they can provide far more intel then we could gather on our own and they give us a useful weapon.

What I don’t like is some of what they’re asking for in reply. There’s nothing that’s immediately “wrong” about it, more of a general feeling of unease and wondering about the long-term consequences of our actions and what they are going to do.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

I haven’t really put my thoughts in order for a while given all that’s been going on; thus there’s a lot that I will cover here. I do feel bad about being so negligent about this. After all I learned from the journals of my predecessors (Especially Sel and Annika) it almost feels like a duty to collect my thoughts so that I can pass them on to whoever succeeds me.

First of all, things went well with the Tamarind government. We handed over Kaine to their custody and received out payment. They were pretty happy with our work, especially given how thoroughly we destroyed the Reapers. Kaine is going to stand trial for his cronies so that they can show that justice is being done and the like, but we all know that the outcome has been pre-determined. I’m not that bothered by it, really. Kaine was a horrible person, a pirate, raider and murderer who inflicted misery wherever he went. Whatever they chose to do to him is well deserved.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

With Stanley and her crew safely back in our hands, it was time to move on the Sanguine Reapers. They had to know that we were coming by now; after all, we’d just broken into their headquarters, rescued their hostages, attacked their men and crippled one of their ‘Mechs. Either the Reapers would be digging in and preparing for the worst, or they would be trying to make a quick escape. The former would mean that we’d have the chance to fulfill our contract, even if it would also mean a bloody fight in the process. And the latter would mean it was a huge waste of time on our part.

A quick sub-orbital hop put our ships down as close as we dare get without risking coming under fire or being swarmed straight out the door. The area around the spaceport presented its own hazards beyond just enemy fire, however; the air was still tainted with the fallout from the spaceport’s destruction. Added to that, there was every chance that the Reapers could have sown the area with mines or have spotters and remote sensors watching our advance.

Audio Log File #75887-Rho

Major Irisz Magyari: So tell me exactly what happened. Don't leave anything out.

Corporal Martin Levesque: I... I'm not in any trouble, am I?

Magyari: I just need to know what happened, that's all. These are my - our people we're talking about  here. I need to know as much as I can.

Levesque: Okay. [Deep breath] M... I was escorting Chief Technician Stanley and her crew back from the Union she was stripping down. My Centurion was leading the column, with her Savior right behind me and a couple more trucks behind that. They were all loaded down with parts taken from the ship.

Magyari: As was your assigned duty, yes.

Salvage

From: Cecelia Stanley

To: Irisz Magyari

Subject: Parts pillaging

I'm gonna be honest here, boss. The Chasseurs' situation could be best described as 'rooted'. I mean, first up they were crushed by the Elsies which is what drove them to flee out here to the arse end of the universe to begin with. And the next seven or so years after that didn't do them any favours either.

They were already a poor unit to begin with, and not exactly blessed with deep pockets. Having half their unit ripped up didn't help them any either, but then living off what they had out here in the middle of hell took its toll. There was next to nothing left in their spare parts pile, for starters. Just some armour, a bit of structure and a few other odds and sods that could be good for emergencies but that was about it.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

When we took the contract with the FWLM to wipe out the Sanguine Reapers, I was hoping for a quick and easy job. In an ideal world, we'd be able to hit Andiron, eliminate the Reapers on the ground and then be off in a day or two. Clearly I was being incredible naive.

Getting out here was easy enough, and we made planetfall without opposition. Our forward base is inside an abandoned industrial complex, which provides both a solid landing field for our dropships as well as allowing us to fortify the remaining buildings to add an extra layer of protection. That much went well, but it would be about the only thing that actually wound up going to plan.

Once we were down, our recon forces worked with the intel provided to us by the Eagles as well as Nikola's own research to scope out several locations where we believed the Reapers were based. From that, we found two probable locations based on both their location and some activity that we were able to discretely observe.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

Probably the single biggest problem the mercenary trade is suffering from at the moment is the lack of oversight and regulation. With the MRBC bankrupt, registration of commands has become little more than an empty formality, which means that a lot of unpleasantness has gotten through. There are plenty of commands now that are little more than pirates, or would have been banned years ago that now operate with impunity, simply because there's no real authority to stop them. As long as employers are willing to pay them, then they're free to do what they want.

Unfortunately, this problem goes both ways. As little oversight as there is of Mercenary commands, the employers are even better off. Questionable terms, withholding payment, out and lying to the Mercenaries they hire and so much more have become ever increasingly common occurrences as those employers know there's very little authority to hold them to account. An aggrieved mercenary command has little recourse for trying to deal with such breaches beyond word of mouth recounting of what happened. And even then, with the current state of the Inner Sphere's economy, there are plenty of commands willing to take a risk in order to simply survive.

Our last contract became a very good example of these sorts of problems in play. It's not that we didn't get paid or that the employer tried to twist things to their advantage or abandoned us in the field. It's that the Employer simply misrepresented themselves as to their actual identity and motivation, taking advantage of both the collapse of the MRBC and the inability to run thorough background checks that has come out of it.

Audio Log File #75819-Rho

Voice 1 [Female; 50s; accent suggests Capellan March or Taurian]: So following up from your last report, there's something that caught my eye, and I'd like to know more about it.

Voice 2 [Male; 40s; no discernable accent, native English speaker]: Go on.

Voice 1: You said that Magyari's date was from another Merc unit. I wanted to know more about that; who they were, who they're with and the like.

Voice 2: I figured you would, actually. I have a few things for already.

Voice 1: Such as?

Voice 2: As mentioned, the mystery date was Terry McKinnon, the possible heir to McKinnon's Marauders. It's complicated, but I can give you the short version of it.

Voice 1: I'm listening. Give me what you have, already

Scenes from a Mechbay

"So were there any interesting turn-ups in what we got?" Irisz asked. It seemed to always happen; a salvage lot would have something strange or out of place that nobody expected.

"One thing did crop up," Stanley replied as she glanced at her manifest. "A crate of factory-fresh Hercules components taken from Kalidassia when it was incorporated into the Republic way back when. I'd guess it was probably shuffled from one Republic garrison to another before winding up on Fletcher and sitting half-forgotten for decades." The senior technician shrugged. "Of course, there's very little value to us because we don't use any of them ourselves, and much of it wouldn't fit any of the other chassis we use."

"So in other words?" Irisz wondered, looking for the quick summary

"Herc parts. Useless."

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

First things first; I offered Takahashi the field second in command role and he accepted it. It's not that much of a good deal for him; added responsibilities with only a small bump in pay, but he seemed willing to take it on. I think he'll do a good job of it, given his experience and the talent he's shown so far. He's also very unlikely to run off and do something reckless and halfway to suicidal, which is why I picked him over Will Owens for the job. I think the only issue is that Dae-Hoon will not appreciate me promoting a relative newcomer over him, but there's a certain logic to it. After all, Takahashi's going to be there in the field, not dropping shells on the enemy form a couple of kilometers back.

Best case scenario is that he gets angry about it and quits. That would actually solve a lot of problems in one go, even if it does mean that I'd lose an experienced artillery commander in the process,

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

We're away from Fletcher; I’m writing this while we're accelerating, so my thoughts are probably not at their most rational. I'm tired, I'm worn from the battle and I've got g-forces adding to everything else that's on my mind.

That last fight was a mess, to put it bluntly. The First Liao were dug in hard and were willing to fight to the death to stop us from getting to our objective. They had hardened walls, TAG-guided Arrow missiles, gun turrets, Battle Armour and plenty of top of the line and Stealth armoured 'Mechs to make our lives miserable. We had a few tricks of our own; using Artillery to root our their units and demolish their fortifications, airdropping Battle Armour and the like, but it still hurt hard.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

I’ve mentioned before how much of an asset the journals of my predecessors have been. Getting their thoughts, their recollections and observations, their perspective on events and people and other matters at such an intimate level is very informative and had been of immense aid. Between them, Sel, Jelek and Annika left behind quite a lot for me to work from, even if each has their own way of recording those events and their own idiosyncrasies in their retellings. For all her self-absorbed flighty nature, Sel is surprisingly verbose her writing has an amazing depth to it.

Sadly, my own father was far less detailed and thorough in his own efforts. His journals have long periods between entries, and many of them are far from complete. A number of major events in the unit’s history receive only the briefest of notes, and often he just skips over things altogether. There’s times where they become almost frustrating, as I go to them looking for his thoughts on some matter, only to find a blank or a couple of hastily scrawled notes. While it’s tempting to also point out that his period as commander also included the golden age of the Republic and the greatest waning of the mercenary trade since the fall of the Star League, there’s also that wish that he’d written something.

With that brevity of course comes one great mystery. His journals yield no clues whatsoever as to why he took his leave from the unit in August 3135 or where he went to. All I know is that he was last seen heading into Prefecture X, and that I can assume that he is inside the walls of Fortress Republic.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

All things considered, today didn’t go that badly. If you wanted to be generous, then you could call our first day of operations on Fletcher a success. (My great-grandmother unquestionably would have, but that’s her for you)

AFFS intel had put two main units on Fletcher; the now-Cappelanised Planetary Guard, and the 1^st Liao Guards. The latter had been using the world as a staging ground for attacks into the FedSuns’ Terran corridor, which had left the Fletcher PG shouldering most of the ‘heavy lifting’ of defending the world and the assets we were targeting. As such, we were largely expecting to be facing a mix of vehicles and Battle Armour, with some second-rate ‘Mechs as support.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

Mount Sokol

I think the nicest thing that I can say about the Kamenez campaign is that it's over.

Okay, that’s not entirely true. The Royals being destroyed as a unit is a nice bonus, although given the circumstances that caused it to happen, it's a bit of a mixed blessing.

The fall of Pelzer's fortress was a bloody battle, but all things being considered, it could have gone a lot worse. We had a lot of 'Mechs battered to within an inch of their lives. My own Mad Cat was near-naked, and it was not the only one that was torn up. It's amazing that we didn't lose anyone, but again, there were a lot of things going for us.

Pelzer's army was down to its last gasps. His personal guard represented the only 'Mech force he had left under his control, and they lacked the skills, equipment and coordination to effectively stop us. Don't get me wrong, they were no pushovers, but they also were clearly basing their strategy on having the Carnivores or Incinerators (or the Royals) supporting them or, at least, having done more damage to us.

Audio Log File #75267-Rho

Major Irisz Magyari: So they’re off?

Nikola Kardos: Apparently so. Air defence command tracked the launch of a single dropship from somewhere north of us, headed into space. While there was no solid ID on it, given the timing I think it’s safe to assume that was Carson.

Magyari: Agreed. It’s also what I would have done if I was in his position. He got to leave with most of his unit intact before he was at the devastating, unrecoverable losses stage. And I have no doubt that he pillaged as many of their supply caches as he could find before he left as well. Again, what I’d do.

Kardos: Speaking of, Stanley had a look at the cache we found his men at. It’s the same stuff; high-quality parts of standard manufacture. And while most of it was your normal, open-market stuff, there was a quantity of the mysterious ‘OB1/OB3’ stuff there as well.

Magyari: Interesting. We’ll have to look into that further, but for now I think we should focus on more pressing matters.