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.

Journal Extract 75323-Rho

[Honestly? Between them the kids are walking security leaks. If not for their parentage, they would have both been discharged long ago or otherwise ‘retired’. Then again, they’re far form the first idiot offspring of mercenary officers. At least one of them might not be a problem too much longer]

When (deleted) the Major first found out about the Ashburton government hiring mercs, she was furious. Then when she found out who they were, she was strangely okay with it, which is rather strange what with our past and all that. She figured that we would lie low for a while and get a read on the Irregulars, their full capabilities and what they were doing, and then make her move.  She was even okay with them taking out one of the pirate bands, though it ain’t like they’re exactly a big loss to begin with.

So the Major had the idea of luring out one of their lances into an ambush. The plan was to use recon lance to act as bait to draw them in and then have my lance to take them out. Seemed simple enough, right? We even had a fallback escape route into the canyons should things go bad. ‘course, none of it went even remotely right to begin with. (Deleted) (deleted) frig it, trying to keep this professional sounding Scout lance managed to bait one of the units looking for us all right, but it was a freaking heavy lance. So they weren’t just running towards us for the trap but also running for their lives, and Scout Lead was screaming like he allways does when he gets in over his head (happens a lot too).

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.

RAF Intel Intercept 3145-372812-Alpha

(I found this report while reviewing the recent action on Shasta. It says a lot about Mu Galaxy’s morale issues that an adoptee would openly question a trueborn, bloodnamed superior. It's something that could be very useful in the days to come)

From: Star Captain Velkon Wolf

To: Star Colonel Kendra Tutuola

Subject: After action report

Star Colonel,

I cannot describe what happened as anything other than a crushing failure. We have lost valuable warriors and equipment, and gained nothing for it. The fault does not lie in those warriors or their equipment, however, but in the decisions that led us to that battle.

With our efforts so far to contain the Mercenaries having failed, I had determined that the best course of action was to try and consolidate my Trinary rather than let it continue to be destroyed piecemeal. However, our contacts within one of the uplands tribes had reported that mercenaries had begun large scale movement of equipment into a remote jungle location, and were returning with heavily loaded VTOLs.

From the personal journal of Scientist Jeris

I can only imagine who it was I annoyed to get this assignment. Maybe it was Scientist Wallis After I proved his theory about 26th century Rasalhaguian influence on Tamar culture to be a load of hot air. I know he’s had it in for me ever since then. Regardless of who it was, this assignment is some sort of special level of hell, and I have no idea what I did to deserve it.

The Black Mountain people are not the fascinating study in neo-primitivist culture that I was hoping for. No, they’re a bunch of machismo savages who’s only real interest is proving their manliness by slaughtering hapless wildlife and occasionally wrestling each other. That their leader wears the skin of a Skatha Ape is not encouraging as to their sanity at all. Fortunately, I haven’t been here for one of their occasional wars with the Red Rock people, a nearby tribe of equally bloodthirsty lunatics.

From the personal journal of Bruce Wolf

Let’s be honest with ourselves for a minute. I was never anything more than a fake Wolf. Unlike the Trueborn Steel Wolves, I had no lineage, no claim to clan Bloodlines or Bloodnames or the like. And given when I came into the Steel Wolves, my claim to being a Wolf began and ended with Kal Bloody Radick. I look back on it now and the few Steel Wolves that wound up becoming Imperial Wolves, and I notice that almost all of them were Trueborns or had become warriors prior to the Blackout. It does make your feel a little bit cranky, specially given that Anna Bloody K is now an Empire Star Colonel.

I only mention this because Mu Galaxy’s warriors are real Wolves. They’re citizens of the Empire who have chosen to become warriors and, in doing such, do all the same bullcrap that I did; give up your name and identity and all that sort of buggery. But given that they’re actually a bunch of galahs who don’t know their arse from a stick, they’re pretty piss-poor warriors. And yet, I knew fake Wolves who were far better warriors then these real Wolves ever could be.

Incident at Red Hills

I know that I am breaking protocol by sending a runner back to you with this, but I think that it is important. There has been a very unexpected development at the Red Hills mining site, one that could either be very useful for us or have severe consequences.

To quickly fill you in, since their recent security problems, the Wolves had chosen to take up a more visible presence on the site. The Wolves had five BattleMechs present, all of them old Marik models they had salvaged. I had found out that all five of them were manned by Lowlander converts, rather than real Wolf warriors. They were clearly on alert, given our recent incursions into the area and sabotage of their mines. However, they weren’t ready for what happened next.

Mu Galaxy, Wolf Empire

MRBC Report 01-06-3145

Commanding Officer: Galaxy Commander Bradford Vickers

An entirely new formation, Mu Galaxy was raised in the 3140s from the populations of several worlds occupied by the Wolf Empire. An entropy volunteer force, Mu’s warriors were drawn from a stretch of independent worlds falling between the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth and The Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey before their incorporation into the Wolf Empire. Many of these worlds were either unwanted by others or had deliberately chosen to remain independent, and were bound only by common geography and prior affiliation to the Free Worlds League.

In creating Mu Galaxy, the Wolf Empire sought to overcome these limitations and give their warriors a common cause. In this effort, they were only partially successful. While Mu’s ranks did initially swell with volunteers, many of those who joined up found that the reality of Clan life was very different to their expectations, while chafing at the regimented and disciplined society that they had become a part of. Its warriors took very little interest in training, resulting in an overall low quality of readiness.

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.

RAF Intel Intetcept 3145-363749-Alpha

From: Star Colonel Marvin, 29th Wolf Garrison Cluster

To: Galaxy Commander Lois Fetladral, Green Keshik

Subject: Raid on Kalidasa

Galaxy Commander,

I am presenting my summary of the recent raid on Kalidasa in order to give you a more detailed picture of the events that occurred. A more full report of the losses incurred will be attached.

The mercenary raiders arrived via a pirate jump point and managed to remain undetected until they made planetfall. Once down, their company-sized BattleMech force split up into two demi-companies (With attached Battle Armour support), each headed to a different annex of the Kali-Yama factory complex. Both forces were engaged by stars from the 29th who attempted to stop them.

Unknown OmniMech sighted on Kalidasa

Irisz,

This is my final report on the 'Mech we encountered on Kalidasa during our last raid. I've put this together both from the lance's observations, BattleROMs and other material, as well as some analysis from Stanley. Obviously it's not meant to be conclusive, but rather a 'best-guess' at what we faced and what it's capable of. I'm going to start with the hard and known, then move towards the speculative as we go on.

To start with, let me recap the situation. Our augmented lance (Assault lance with Shona and a squad of Battle Armour) engaged a star from the 29th Wolf Garrison Cluster on the outskirts of one of the Kali Yama factory annexes. The Wolf star was entirely conventional in nature; a Tundra Wolf as the lead, almost certainly piloted by an actual Wolf warrior, and the rest of the star made up of AMSC salvage (Orion, Tempust. Griffin, Ghost) piloted by what were apparently adoptees. The enemy star were already damaged, with the Orion crippled and withdrawing while their other MechWarirors were showing only a questionable level of skill, suggesting that they may have even been raw recruits.

Theta Galaxy, Wolf Empire

MRBC Report 01-06-3145

The original Wolf Clan Theta Galaxy was one of the casualties of the unknown conflict that cut the Clans off from their homeworlds. Of the Galaxy’s five clusters, all but one of them simply vanished from sight and were not seen after 3068. Their fates, like so many other matters regarding the Clan Homeworlds, remain a mystery to this day. A single cluster, the 13th Wolf Regulars, remained in the Inner Sphere, only to be mauled by the Hells Horses during their war with the Wolves. By 3085, that Cluster had been transferred to Alpha Galaxy (and since disbanded), effectively removing Theta from the Wolves’ rolls.

The new Theta Galaxy was formed in the aftermath of the rise of the Wolf Empire. While named for the older formation, while also keeping its insignia and colours for the sake of continuity, the new Theta was comprised almost entirely of recruits from the former Marik-Stewart Commonwealth . A mixture of civilians and recent recruits from military academies, with a few AMSC veterans among them as well, Theta quickly became the most successful of the newly-raised Wolf Galaxies.

From the personal journal of Mechwarrior Isaak

Keystone city outskirts

I have never been so disgusted at dezgra Spheroids and their lies as I am now! It is not bad enough that they lack honour, but their efforts at twisting our traditions to their own ends show just how truly contemptible and barbarous they are!

Black Fang Binary were on Keystone on the orders of our Star Colonel; however, when a force of spheroid barbarians attacked our factories, we chose to intervene. It proved to be necessary; the inept sibko washouts of the 5^th Garrison Cluster were completely incapable of stopping them, showing just how worthless they truly were. Our star dropped in pursuit of one of the mercenary lances, swiftly catching up with them. My Lobo, the lightest and fastest of us, led the charge.

Mercenary Raid on Keystone

RAF Intel Intetcept 3145-215132-Alpha

To: Galaxy Commander Robert Magnus, Grey Keshik

From: Star Colonel Angela, 5^th Wolf Garrison Cluster

Subject: Mercenary Raid on Keystone

Galaxy Commander, this report is to update you on the status of our forces following the recent mercenary raid on Keystone, specifically targeting the Earthworks Complex.

The mercenary Force is believed to have jumped in-world from a pirate point, its position unknown but likely provided by Earthworks informants who were familiar with the system. The mercenaries proceeded in-system, using Ea (Keystone’s Moon – Editor) to shield their approach. By the time we were in position to properly respond to their approach, they were already making planetfall.

Once landed, the mercenaries divided into lance-sized forces, striking simultaneously at different Earthworks sites. Based on both their movements and their targets, it is apparent that the enemy forces were deliberately targeting specific objectives. The mercenaries, composed of BattleMech forces supported by VTOLs and Battle Armour, engaged elements of Bravo, Charlie (Vehicle Binaries – Editor) and Delta (Conventional Infantry Trinary – Editor) arrayed in defense of the facilities.

5th Wolf Garrison Cluster (Kappa Galaxy)

RAF Intel report; 01-01-3145

Wolf Empire Kappa Galaxy

Much like the rest of the Empire’s Kappa Galaxy, the 5^th Wolf Garrison Cluster has both spent years as a target for the Rasalhauge Dominion while also remaining near the bottom of the Empire’s supply chain. Even after the formation of the Wolf Empire, the Cluster has remained heavy with vehicles and conventional infantry, with very few BattleMechs or Battle Armour to speak of.

The 5^th has the added disadvantage of being at the bottom of Kappa's food chain for new recruits and replacement crews. It only receives the rawest of recruits and those that the other Clusters have allready rejected, leaving it both with poor quality and inexperienced warriors, but also mounting morale and discipline problems. Star Colonel Angela has repeatedly requested new transfers, but the simple fact that the 5th is the closest cluster to full strength in Kappa has undermined her case.

To compound these problems, the 5^th has been assigned to guard the vital factory world of Keystone, making them a prime target for potential raids, or any League efforts to reclaim their lost worlds. Despite the cease-fire between the Empire and the FWL, the result is a feeling of being in the crosshairs, one that has not helped the unit's morale situation any. Keystone’s polluted atmosphere also limits the unit’s effectiveness; its infantry are dependent on life-support equipment to operate outside, effectively tying them to either sealed structures or their transports. Similarly, its vehicles are vulnerable to hull breaches, making their commanders reluctant to commit to action.

Presently, intelligence suggests that the 5^th has been divided into Binary/Trinary-sized units to cover specific parts of the expansive and sprawling Earthworks facilities. Its few BattleMech forces are held as a quick reaction reserve force to bolster defences as needed or deal with the largest possible threats, but it is questionable how effective such a small force would be in the face of a full-scale invasion. For now, the 5^th’s greatest strength lies simply in the lack of an opponent who can readily threaten them.