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.

Magyari's Irregulars' leaders

Sel Magyari

2990-3085
Commander Magyari’s Irregulars 3012-3049

Much of Sel Magyri’s early career is shrouded in mystery, thanks in no part to her own tendency to exaggerate the truth. She somehow managed to become a trained MechWarrior while never attending any formal military schooling, and also having a minor career as a swimsuit model on her homeworld of Lesnovo. At some point she managed to acquire a Thunderbolt from a group of pirates, but her own story of how it happened is doubtless exaggerated.

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.

The Battle of Fort Sokol and the fall of the Kamenz Archonette

(From Brush Conflicts of the Post-Republic Period; Galatean Free Press)

The desertion of Carson's Carnivores from the Kamenz Archonette had been a boon to the Lyrans on two fronts. First, and most obviously, it removed a large portion of the Archonette's force from play. The Carnivores' departure cost the Archonette an experienced, well-equipped battalion, drastically reducing their overall capacity at very little cost to the Lyran forces. While the Archonette still could boast several more units under their command, none of them had the capability to match up to Magyari's command.

The second was the intelligence that Major Carson provided as the ransom for his escape. Until this point, one of Landgrave Karl Pelzer's greatest assets had been the security in which he had been able to operate, with his headquarters unknown to Lyran intelligence and the on-world forces. Intelligence provided by Carson indicated that Pelzer was operating out of the ruins of fort Sokol in the largely deserted northern region of the Saxony continent. Pelzer's forces had excavated and renovated portions of the facility, allowing them to shelter their forces from detection.

Historical BattleMech Gallery

As a supplement to both the Irregulars BattleMech gallery and the NPC/OpFor gallery, this gallery represents "historical" BattleMechs that predate the current game.

Annika Magyari's TDR-9M Thunderbolt, circa 3075. This BattleMech was heavily customised, including both experimental and Clan-tech components

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

Calling the last few days hectic would be an understatement. Between salvage, prisoner roundup, battlefield clean-up, debriefings, negotiations, talking to more suits and analysts then I’ve seen in a long time and an unexpected contract offer that came out of nowhere from a rep that must have been flown in specifically to headhunt us once they knew we were on-world, I’ve had very little time to myself. I can barely keep my eye open as I write this, but there’s a lot I need to say and I might as well do it while I have the chance.

First up, I'll just say that I agree with Roxana Zayros and her assessment of the QLF. The whole thing being a Mask operation makes a lot of sense, and to my eye would explain a lot. Obviously it's out of my hands now, but I think we can call this one closed. They've lost their leadership, their political allies, their base of operations and the better part of two battalions worth of troops and equipment. That's pretty crushed right there and then.

The Battle of Red Sands City

(From Brush Conflicts of the Post Republic Era; Galatean Free Press)

The ruins of Red Sands City

Acting on this Intel, major Irisz Magyari launched an attack on the reported QLF stronghold, seeing an opportunity to not only strike a decisive blow against the terrorist group, but also to eliminate or capture a good portion of their leadership.

That information proved correct, the Irregulars discovering that the QLF had made their home in the ruins of the old Qizilquam capitol. Several of the abandoned buildings had been reconstructed to serve as both headquarters and command facilities, as well as storehouses for their equipment. Additionally, a large area of the capitol had been cleared and reinforced to act as a landing pad for cargo dropships; when the Irregulars arrived, they found a Mule (Later identified as the Hal Warren, a free trader) was present and in the process of unloading

The Irregulars had a company of BattleMechs, supported by a VTOL lance and a platoon of mixed battle armour. Arrayed against them were two companies of QLF Armour, mostly the older Zhukov and Scorpion thanks they preferred. Supplementing this force was an oversized lance of BatleMechs, again mostly older designs save for a Marauder II, as well as several converted IndustrialMechs and conventional infantry.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

"It was a seemingly inevitable part of a Mercenary's life. In every unit, it seemed that everyone had something in their past that they were not proud of, and eventually, whatever it was, would catch up to them one way or another."

I have a fondness for Sonya Brie's terrible pulp novels. They're not my "thing I'm not terribly proud of", but at the same time, for all the dross there's still the odd nugget of truth within them which makes me wonder. The quote above is one of the most that I've found to be the most poignant since I took command of the Irregulars. Everyone does have a past, and eventually it will come back to haunt them.

(God alone knows that Dad left me with plenty of that)

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

Reading my great-great grandmother's journals were rather helpful to me when I unexpectedly inherited command of the Irregulars. In some ways, her situation mirrored mine, and she was likely even less ready to lead than I was. However, in reading them, two other things also became apparent to me. The first was just how vain and self important Sel could be at times, and yet how well she did in spite of it.

The second was just how much trouble her men would manage to get into, and how difficult they could make her life. Even when the unit was on a quiet, low-key contract they could still cause trouble. Looking back at it, I'm beginning to wonder if the feud with the Roughnecks wasn't caused by some of them picking a fight or inadvertently insulting someone else.

Today's events reminded me a lot of some of her stories.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

We not only had out first engagement with the QLF today, but it was also the first time that the newcomers had seen actual combat as a lance. I’m going to say now that I was impressed, especially given the circumstances they found themselves in and the aftermath.

As per our agreement with the Hamilton Planetary Guard, we’d been running patrols around the perimeter of Kazan City, probing the regions were QLF forces were known to prowl. It’s a ‘show of force’ kind of thing, designed to impress the rebels with our ‘Mechs and discourage them from making any moves. So far, it had seemed to work; we’d had fleeting contacts and the like, but the QLF definitely didn’t want to pick a fight.

However, we were also following up leads, just in the off-chance that something turned up. As much as the Planetary Guard wanted us to stand around and look good, I could tell that Roxana really wanted a solid victory.

Well, I think we delivered one. And as I go over both the report and the BattleROMs, it makes for a rather interesting picture.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

The new recruits are now formally into the unit. I took them down to the MRBC for a simulator battle, less to test their skills and more to see how these three strangers would be able to gel as a team. I knew that it wouldn’t be easy, given that they had never met before, had come from completely different backgrounds and had ‘Mechs with rather radically different capabilities. (Of course, the potential fourth lance member backing out at the last minute only made things a that much harder for me)

I’d put them up against Mao’s Rifles. Mao owes me a favour, and I think that he was hoping to get a victory over some rookies that he could use to bump up his unit a little. From what I’ve gathered, he’s hurting financially and his unit’s been taking quality hits, two things that rarely end well in the mercenary world. Unfortunately, the battle didn’t go his way, a fact made even worse by Mao’s using himself, his XO and one of his lieutenants in the battle.

After Action Report

Simulator Battle Report

MRBC Area E266

01013145

Battlefield: Beach Hills

Time of Day: Midday

Weather: Clear

Scenario: Seek and Destroy

Outcome:  Blue Team Victory (Red Team surrender)

Magyari's Irregulars BattleMech Gallery

A collection of modified and colourised BattleMech images, reperesenting the members of Magyari's Irregulars.

Irisz Magyari's Mad Cat Mk IV

Personnel Files - Misc. NPCs

(EDITOR'S NOTE: These NPCs are other members of the unit that the PCs may encounter)

Personnel Files - Command Staff NPCs

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following NPCs are key commanders or officers in the Irregulars that the PCs will typically be reporting to)

Personnel Files - Player Characters

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following are the Player Characters of the campaign. At the start of the game, three of them are new hires, bought in to replace the recently lost Assault Lance. The fourth is a long-time ally of the unit who's player will be unable to regularly attend. The actual number of player characters present at any one given time is highly variable)

Magyari’s Irregulars Roster, January 3145

Magyari’s Irregulars Roster, January 3145

Alpha Company

Command Lance

Major Irisz “Invisible Space Fairy” Magyari, Mad Cat Mk IV

Lieutenant Charlie Bull, SCG-WF1 Scourge

Dimitri “Pythagoras” Matthias, ARC-9M Archer

Larry M. Lamont, SKW-2F Shockwave

Assault Lance

Lieutenant Takahashi Oda, AKU-1X Akuma

Nikola Kardos, CNR-7M Carronade
Lee Zheng, Vulture Mk IV

Randy R. Georges, UZL-8S Uziel

Recon “Peril” Lance

Lieutenant Will “Boof” Owens, HVC-P5 Havoc

GFN-4R Griffin

Bruce Wolf, SCB-9T Scarabus

OTT-9S Ostscout

Bravo Company

Support Lance

Captain Joon Dae-Ho, Sniper Artillery

Sniper Artillery

Sniper Artillery

Sniper Artillery

Air Cavalry Lance

Lieutenant Katrya Dernko, Lamprey Transport Helicopter

Lamprey Transport Helicopter

Hawk Moth II Gunship (MML)

Hawk Moth II Gunship (MML)

Battle Armour Platoon ("The Mexicans")

Lieutenant Maria Perez, Longinus (Magnetic)

Inner Sphere Standard (LRR)

Spectre

Grey Death Heavy

Air Wing

Lieutenant Alan “Sinker” Morrison, F-95 Stingray

F-95 Stingray

Miscellaneous/Support Units

Cecelia Stanley, Savour Repair Vehicle

Dr. Hadrian Cartwright, MIT 23 MASH

Transport

Trutzburg-class TBD

Gazelle-class Duchess Royston

Magyari's Irregulars, MRBC Report

Magyari’s Irregulars

MRBC Update 01-01-3145

Force Strength

At present, the Irregulars field two full companies of troops. Alpha Company is made up entirely of BattleMechs, and is commanded directly by Major Magyari. The recent replacement of the entire assault lance has left the company somewhat disorganised; while the new ‘Mechs in the lance would be better suited to other units then working together, Irisz is loathe to break up existing and proven lances at this stage.

Bravo company is something of a mixed bag of different units. Originally made up of an all-armour company and an all-infantry/Battle Armour one, a combination of battlefield attrition and Irisz’s restructuring of the unit to trim out the dead wood has seen it slimmed down to its current state. Bravo is rarely deployed as a whole unit but rather as needed in support of Alpha. Captain Joon sees this as an erosion of his position, but his loyalty to the unit as a whole has kept him in line.

An air lance rounds out the unit’s structure; primarily used for support of their ground forces, the Irregulars’ two fighters are both well-maintained but often see little use. As a result, while their pilots are capable, the quality of their performance is slipping due to a lack of activity.

The history of Magyari's Irregulars

Part V – New Age

The Blackout caught everyone unprepared, and in its aftermath the mercenary Market exploded as chaos set in across the Republic of the Sphere. Like many others, the Irregulars began casting about in the suddenly active market for work, while also trying to recoup their depleted strength with whatever assets they could find and procure.

By early 3133, the Irregulars were active in the Republic, working contracts for whatever faction would hire them. The Swordsworn proved to be an especially lucrative source of work, the Irregulars serving as a quick response unit while also raiding across several prefectures. While the unit scored several successes, it also became clear that Bors was not the best commander. More and more often he would be delegating command decisions to his subordinates while spending his time rubbing shoulders with his employers, and his actual battlefield value proved to be somewhat dubious.