WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Origins
Since the day Nicholas Kerensky formed the Clans there have been tensions. As willing to follow Kerensky’s
lead as the new Clan Khans were, some didn’t see the same vision of the future as Kerensky.. Others, while agreeing
in principal, saw a different timetable. From these differences grew the greatest rivalry within the Clans: the split
between Warders and Crusaders. Thus was Wolf’s Dragoons born of mixed parentage.
In 3000, Kerlin Ward, the Khan of Wolf Clan and a partisan of Warder politics, conceived a plan. He was aware
that Khan Nadia Winson of Ghost Bear’s growing leadership of the Crusader party and the increasing strength of that
party. He had no sympathy for the Crusaders. Afraid of being unable to block a call for invasion of the Inner Sphere,
he did what he could to forestall that invasion. Apparently siding with the Crusaders, he called for a scouting mission,
something even the most ardent of the Crusaders could not deny as prudent military wisdom. In spirited bidding Khan
Ward won the right to form the scouting party for his Clan.
Khan Ward planned to staff the chosen unit, the newly formed Wolf Dragoons, with officers securely loyal to his
beliefs, but Leo Showers, Khan of the Smoke Jaguars, suspected Ward’s motives. Cautious of his own position, Khan
Showers set his long time battle comrade and opponent of the Wolves, saKhan Sessu Katayama of the Nova Cats, to
seek out the dangers in Ward’s plan.
SaKhan Katayama spoke often and long in council. Claiming that Ward was using the finest of his Clan’s
warriors and thereby jeopardizing the mission since Clan mechwarriors of the latest generation were noticeable
superior the anything the Inner Sphere could have produced and likely physically different as well, Katayama pointed
out that the Dragoons would look out of place in the territories they were to scout. Katayama suggested that Wolf Clan
use freebirths, those closer in genetic stock to the original Inner Sphere breed. Katayama might have intended to
embarrass the Wolves by forcing them to use inferior warriors who would fail in their mission. If he was concerned that
such failure would jeopardize his own plan of invasion, he gave no outward sign. Khan Ward was forced to consider his
own Clan’s reaction to failure and concluded that freebirth warriors could be used and if they failed there would be no
stain on Wolf Clan’s honor. Following Katayama’s lead, a council eventually resolved that secrecy, one of Ward’s
original tenets, would be best maintained by using an inferior force. Ward agreed but was dismayed when the council
reserved to itself the right of approval on the expeditions leaders. Ward, still concerned that the members of the
expedition be of undoubted loyalty to his Clan and his ideal of putting off the invasion, was unhappy with the result.
Citing the chance to prove skill in combat, he asked for and received a concession that allowed him to offer slots in the
Wolf Dragoons to any bloodnamed or truebirth warrior, of any Clan, who wanted such a chance. He planned to make
sure those chosen would be warders. However, there were few takers, fewer still from outside Wolf Clan. Ward did
not feel his hold on the expeditionary force was strong enough.
The Wolf Dragoons needed commanders and Winson, Katayama, and others of the Crusader faction had
blocked Ward’s move to install two of his lineage in the top slots. Still desiring a secure, loyal leadership, he
considered his options and his thoughts turned to young men and women who he could trust, persons who would give
him their loyalty, or already had. He presented two of those before the council. Jaime and Joshua, upstart freebirths
who had earned their way in to the warriors and earned the Clan name Wolf. It was a dangerous ploy. The warriors
had technically gained honor by earning their names, but their manner of doing so had angered many among the
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Clans. Also, they were untried in command. Katayama, perhaps sensing that Ward was cutting his own throat,
approved the selection.
Surprisingly, even to Ward, the number of volunteers for the Dragoons among freeborn skyrocketed once Jaime
and Joshua were named as commanders for the expedition. More trueborn volunteered as well, including Natasha
Kerensky.
Preparations were made, ships readied, warriors trained, and all who were to go were prepared with the best
intelligence available to the Clans. The Wolf Dragoons were to pass as mercenaries, Inner Sphere mercenaries, and
the Clans did all they could to disguise the origins of these warriors. Naturally, the Clan planners made mistakes.
Their information was only fragmentary and their arrogance led them to underestimate those they had left behind.
Once they reached the Inner Sphere, the Dragoons began to litter clues all over the Inner Sphere. Our own
intelligence experts remained stymied for no one could put the whole picture together because parts were missing. We
knew the Dragoons were different. It is only recently that we have come to understand how different.
First Contract: Davion
Prince Ian: They want what?
Duke William: A planet, your highness, to serve as a home base.
PI: Any particular planet? new Avalon, perhaps?
DW: Colonel Wolf specifically excluded the capital, your highness.
PI: How kind. (deletion) Will they take anything we offer?
DW: There are some specific requests concerning climate, accessibility to standard jump routes, population
density, natural resources, and so on. The details are in my report. I can retrieve them for you, if you wish.
PI: That can wait. If we give them a planet, they’ll fight for us for five years. All five Battlemech regiments?
You’re sure that they will honor the contract?
DW: Colonel Wolf assured me that the contract will be completely binding. there are some small provisions to
be triggered by events of a most unlikely nature, but I do not believe that a deception is intended.
PI: This wolf impressed, William.
DW: Indeed your highness. He did. Colonel Wolf has a way about him.
PI: Yes. Five regiments for five years.
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
DW: Excuse me, your highness?
PI: Will New Valencia do for them?
--transcript of conversation discovered in
Prince Ian’s archives, House Davion Library
The appearance of Wolf’s Dragoons in the Delos system is the recorded beginning of their time as mercenaries
for the great Houses. Their JumpShips arrived at the system causing great consternation to the system’s defenders..
Greater still was their concern when the up-until-then-silent ships warned away the Davion Aerospace fighters sent to
investigate. Even when the Dropships took station in orbit over Delos and the first broadcast from Jaime Wolf
announced the newcomers intention to take service with House Davion, some feared a Kuritan trick. No mercenary unit
in the Inner Sphere could muster such a force as orbited the planet.
Word was at once relayed to Prince Ian Davion and negotiations began. The Dragoons were strange, somehow
out of touch with the latest in Inner Sphere politics. They showed no hint of classic rivalries that infected almost every
unit, House and merc, in the Inner Sphere. More than once, Duke William Schuler-Davion was heard to remark that
the Dragoons might have just as easily put in at a planet in the Combine. The Duke pressed his Prince to take these
mercenaries into service at once. Considering the price that Jaime Wolf asked and the obvious fighting ability of the
Dragoons, there was little chance that House Davion would refuse. Even Wolf’s demand for a Davion world to serve
as a home base only caused a short delay. Ian Davion already had plans for this stroke of good fortune.
Capellan incursions had long drawn troops from the Draconis Combine-Federated Suns border, a drain that
Prince Davion considered a dangerous waste. To him, Kurita always was the real enemy and he chafed at being
unable to silence the lesser threat so that he could turn his attention to the greater. Under great secrecy the Dragoons
were shuffled across the Federated Suns and positioned in the Capellan March. In short order the Dragoons supplied
the prince with vital information on the Cappellan raiders and a counterstrike was planned. Over the objections of
some of his advisors who still claimed that the Dragoons were some kind of enemy agents, the Prince determined that
they should lead the attack on Halloran, the raiders’ base.
The assault on Halloran was but the first in a long string of victories for Wolf’s Dragoons. Whether performing
an assault, a raid, or a planetary defense, the Dragoons showed they were more than a match for any Capellan forces
arrayed against them. Usually, Wolf’s forces outmaneuvered the enemy, but when it came to a stand up fight, the
Dragoons consistently showed themselves capable of defeated more than their number.
Early reports said that the Dragoons had Star League equipment. Said they had a lot of it, but I know better.
Sure a lot of what they had wasn’t around any more. Some of the mech designs serving in the regiments certainly
hadn’t been seen in a House unit for generations. I didn’t know where they got them then, but now I guess we all do. I
knew back then that those machines weren’t vintage stuff. I saw one of the Hoplites that they lost on New Aragon and
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
I’m telling you that the machine wasn’t built in a Star league factory. I know the marks, the metals, the composites. I
tried to tell the mandarins what I was seeing, but they didn’t want to hear it. Bootleg tech wasn’t supposed to be good
enough to beat their mechjocks. Chancellor Maximillian said that it to be Star League, said it in a lot of press releases.
Can’t contradict the Chancellor. Not in Liao space.
---Andy Chall, former Inspector of Recovered Technology for House Liao
The Dragoons were a secretive bunch, often display an amazing ability to gather intelligence both of the foes
and their friends. They let slip little concerning themselves. The rumor mill went crazy after the defense of New
Aragon in 3008 when Jaime Wolf, recipient of the Crucis Cross for his performance, recalled his troops to New
Valencia. rest and refit was the official Davion line, but something more was going on. Even Davion censors couldn’t
prevent work from leaking about the intense aerospace activity around New Valencia. It appeared that the Dragoons
were preparing to leave Davion service.
arrival, but the rumors were premature. It was only the first of the now-famed “supply runs.” For ten months, the
Dragoons were absent from the Inner Sphere and when they returned they had replaced all their losses with new
equipment and carried significant stockpiles of spare parts and expendables.
For two more years Wolf’s Dragoons served House Davion and never were any complaints lodged concerning
the quality of that service. During the five years of their contract, the Dragoons established themselves as one of the
premier mercenary units operating in the Inner Sphere. In 3010, contrary to all expectations, they declined to renew
their contract.
REPLY TO DAVION
It is with great regret that we inform His Highness that we cannot accept the generous offer of permanent
service. The Dragoons have been proud to serve as warriors for House Davion and fight under the banner of the
Federated Suns. We have accepted service with the Capellan Confederation. In deference to the respect that His
Highness has always shown to the Dragoons, our new contract specifies that Wolf’s Dragoons will not participate in
operations directed against the Federated Suns and your House. Good fortune to you and the blessings of Unity upon
your house.
--(signed)
Colonel Jaime Wolf
Colonel Joshua Wolf
Commanders, Wolf’s Dragoons
10 February, 3010
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Second Contract: Liao
The Death Commandos are elite, highly trained troops. they do not fail. Obviously, the assassin apprehended
at the mercenary Wolf’s villa was not a member of my unit.
--Public statement of Warren Po, commander of the Capellan Death Commandos
The deed will soon be done and the wolf’s lascivious howl shall be heard no more
--(signed) Po
a note on Death Commando unit letterhead found in the ruins of the place on Sian, 3029
The relationship between the Dragoon commanders and the hierarchy of House Liao and the Cappellan
Confederation was never as warm as that between the Wolf brothers and Davion, but it was never cold either. The
Dragoons went on to further there reputation. As a result of hard fought battles Wallachia and Scarborough, they
earned a fearsome reputation among the House Marik forces that they faced. Indeed on Shiro III several crucial
battles went to Liao forces when Marik troops retreated rather than face the Dragoons. Even with the losses taken in
months of steady combat, the dragoons managed to remain combat ready, astonishing the Liao quartermasters with the
lack of requests for spare parts and supplies.
Then, without explanation, the Dragoons were assigned to garrison duty. During the enforced inactivity, there
were many incidents of disorderly conduct and other civil infractions. Each of the Dragoon regiments formed lances
where they placed their “bad boys and girls.” In May of 3013, Candace Liao arrived at the Dragoon garrison on Carver,
beginning a series of intrigues that included an attempt by Maximilian’s eldest daughter to seduce Jaime Wolf and bring
the Dragoons under her sway. Rejected by Wolf, she left the planet in high dudgeon. Some reports say that she
vowed revenge for the insults she suffered on Carver. Indeed, there were two reported attempts on Jaime Wolf’s life in
the next several months.
A few months later, secret negotiations were concluded and Maximillian Liao turned his control of the Dragoons
over to Anton Marik, a show of support for Anton’s bid to depose his brother Janos.
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Third Contract: Anton Marik’s Rebellion
It was during the Anton Marik’s Rebellion that one of the most famous units of Wolf’s Dragoons received its
baptism of fire. That unit was, of course, the Black Widow battalion. Recruited from hardcases and discipline
problems, the mechwarriors of the battalion were as unlikely a bunch as ever was to make an effective unit, but they
became one, perhaps even the most effective unit in the history of the Inner Sphere. And why? The answer is obvious
to even the most casual scholar of military history.
Natasha Kerensky.
A blood descendent of Alexander Kerensky, Natasha took the Widows on as her first command, reluctantly it
was said at the time. How ever much she resisted, it is clear her feelings changed over time. But though she led them
into tight spots, she was always the last to leave. They came to love her as much as she loved them as she proved by
refusing promotions that would take her away from the Widows more times than most officers are offered advancement
in their entire career. She remade those misfits in her own image:
flashy, tenacious, stubborn, superior tacticians, and an superb mechwarriors. The Black Widow battalion became a
named as feared and respected on the battle field as Kerensky’s own name and black Warhammer were dreaded in
individual combat.
Much of Natasha Kerensky’s story remains shrouded in mystery. Some things will never be known, but I found
what we do know of her career and personal life to be fascinating. You will too.
--from the introduction to the tenth edition of Misha Auburn’s First Lady of Death, New Avalon Press 3051
The contract with the Dragoons was the final piece in Anton Marik’s preparations for revolt. Assured of Capellan
neutrality, armed with Liao promises of support, and encouraged by ComStar ROM agents, Anton issued a
proclamation on May 22, 3014 declaring himself Captain-General of the Free Worlds League in place of his brother and
calling for all of the provinces of the League to join together under his banner and overthrow the “tyrant.” His initial
support was surprisingly strong. The announcement that Wolf’s Dragoons were fighting for him brought even Regulan
Hussar units to declare themselves for the usurper.
Uncharacteristically, Jaime Wolf showed public distaste for his employer Anton Marik almost at once. In short
order, all liaison work fell to his co-commander Joshua. Despite the friction, Jaime led the Dragoons with his usual
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
fervor and efficiency. Dragoon success were most likely the only thing that kept the rebellion alive.
Janos Marik was neither the tyrant his brother painted him nor a fool. realizing that the dragoons were the
linchpin of his rebellious brother’s campaign, the Captain-General concentrated his forces against the Dragoons. Little
headway was made, but the constant pressure on the Dragoons left them unable to support Anton’s forces on other
fronts. Little by little the rebels gains were lost. Unsupported, the Dragoons had no choice but to pull back.
The deteriorating situation left a general air of gloom and despair in the rebel camp. Anton’s fits of temper
became more open, driving further wedges into his already disintegrating forces. Relations between Jaime Wolf and
Anton Marik worsened and Joshua was unable to soothe either party. Finally, Wolf stormed out of a strategy meeting
while Anton shouted after him, calling him a coward and a contract violator.
The stage was set.
Crisis and Change
TO: Colonel Jaime Wolf, Commander, Wolf’s Dragoons
FROM: Duke Anton Marik, Captain-General of the Free Worlds League
This is to inform you that Colonel Joshua Wolf and 27 members of your household staff have been arrested.
They will be held until such time as you comply with my orders and place your units at the disposal of my line officers.
Failure to obey these orders will result in the execution of all prisoners within 14 standard days of this transmission.
TO: Jaime Wolf
FROM: Stanford Blake, wolfnet
Jaime, they’ve taken the Edel Compound. Confirmation all, repeat all, persons present now in Marik’s hands.
Beyond Joshua, they don’t know who they’ve got.
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
TO: Duke Anton Marik, Captain-General of the Free Worlds League
FROM: Colonel Jaime Wolf, Commander, Wolf’s Dragoons
Message received. Standby.
The taking of the Dragoon hostages from the Edel Compound on New Delos sparked a short, savage battle.
For three days, the demoralized forces of the Duke held off the mercenaries, staving off defeat by the barest of
margins. When the end came the Marik forces were devastated.
Despite the fury of the Dragoon attacks, we now know that Wolf was mounting a diversionary attack. To be
sure, his troops gave no quarter and showed no mercy, but there was more to Wolf’s plan than preemptive vengeance
and wanton destruction. While the line regiments occupied Marik’s forces, a rescue mission was attempted.
Wolfnet had determined to location of the hostages. Marik had them near him in his heavily fortified manor
outside the capital. Natasha Kerensky, reported to be Joshua Wolf’s lover, led her battalion in a surprise attack on
the residence. Somehow, Marik learned they were coming. he ignited napalm charges in the woods screening the
Black Widows’ approach, raising a hell of flame. Undaunted, Kerensky’s mechwarriors advanced. The survivors of that
hellish march broke through into Marik’s compound and scattered the defenders.
But it was too late. The hostages had been executed.
Anton Marik was killed in the fighting, crushed beneath the wall of his palace. Vesar Kristofur, his advisor in the
plot, escaped to return to his ComStar masters. While Wolf and the bereaved Dragoons buried their dead, the rest of
the mercenaries raged through New Delos for the next two days. When they stooped no single civic building remained
standing and none of Duke Anton’s forces could any long be called a unit.
Janos Marik seized the opportunity to counterattack and seize back the few planets remaining in rebel hands.
Fourth Contract: Marik
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Of course we knew they were coming. How? That’s classified, sweetheart. Still, we were just damn lucky they
didn’t know we knew. Otherwise . . .
As it was they damn near took their objective.
They’re good. Damn good!
(pause)
Ya know if they’re hiring?
--Hermann Immig, Major in the Hanson’s Roughriders
in an interview conducted shortly after the Hesperus raid
Despite fears that Janos Marik was coming to eradicate the Dragoons, the Captain-General instead brought an
offer of employment. It is not known what motivated Wolf to accept the contract, but he did. The exhausted
mercenaries went work for their exhausted employers and for the next three years both sides were content to enjoy a
slow period in the struggles of the Successor Lords. Employed primarily for minor raids, border skirmishes, and limited
action campaigns, the Dragoon s came to refer to this period of time as their “cattle raiding” period.
As part of his New Year’s greeting for 3019, Janos Marik ordered the Dragoons to undertake one of the most
remarkable deep strikes in the history of Inner Sphere warfare. The entire Dragoon force was to penetrate deep into
the Lyran Commonwealth, striking targets of opportunity and harassing Lyran forces wherever met, but the true goal
was to be Hesperus, the heart of the Commonwealth’s battlemech production.
The Dragoons stepped up to the assignment with characteristic élan. After a few months devoted to planning
and preparation, they set out, skirting the frontier planets and avoiding the well traveled space lanes. For months the
carved an erratic path across Steiner space to the utter confusion of the Lyran commanders. Until the plan was leaked
to the Lyrans, their high command had failed to grasp the intent of the raid.
Once they knew, however, the Lyrans reacted quickly. They understand the depth of the threat. If the
Dragoons hit Hesperus hard enough, the Commonwealth’s military might could be crippled. They reinforced Hesperus
with their best available House and mercenary units. Unaware, the Dragoons dropped into the toughest fight of their
career to date.
Taking heavy casualties, the Dragoons pressed their attack. Lyran records show that Leftenant-Colonel
Orpheus Thomas was not content to rely on his numerically superior forces and continually sent demands for
reinforcements. Most critics find it amazing that Thomas was able to avoid committing his hole card, Hanson’s
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
roughriders, until the crucial moment, but he did. As the nearly exhausted Dragoons closed on the main mech
factories. Thomas unleashed the Roughriders. Hanson’s fresh mechwarriors hit the Dragoon leading elements like a
tsunami, knocking them back. lesser units would have broken, but the Dragoons only bent. Their retreat was
masterful, but costly. In the end, all of Wolf’s units escaped offplanet but none escaped unscathed.
Culminating in defeat as they had, the battles on Hesperus demoralized the Dragoons. Weakened, most of the
units limped home to Sterling, carrying Jaime Wolf’s message to Janos Marik that the mercenary colonel was invoking
the rest-and -refit clause of their contract. Wolf himself did not return to Sterling for another six months and when he
came, he brought with him more brand new battlemechs and dropships full of supplies. In his absence, the dragoon s
had been recruiting to fill the gaps in their ranks. they promoted their own first, making mechwarriors of tank drivers
and infantrymen. Then, carefully screening all applicants, they took in mechwarriors, tankers, aerospace pilots, and
infantrymen from the Inner Sphere. They showed no favorites, recruiting from all Successor States, great and small.
They even accepted several ComStar personnel although they managed to detect the three ROM agents among those
applying. Curiously, they accepted few mercenaries.
Fifth Contract: Steiner
“Warrior, I am Minobu Tetushara, Tai-i and samurai of House Kurita, my soldiers and I honor your prowess and
your courage. We shall not kill you. Return to your forces, now. Die in battle as a true warrior.”
Those were his words as best I remember them. They surprised me, so they stuck in my head. He had me
dead in the water; there wasn’t anything I could do. He could have just obliterated me, but he didn’t. I don’t think I
would of done the same for him.
But that was just the first of the lessons he taught me.
---from Jaime Wolf’s A Lifetime in the Trade: Reminiscences
of a Mercenary, New Avalon press, 3055
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Tired of the Game
Like Janos Marik before her, Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth Katrina Steiner had been vastly impressed by
the caliber of the Dragoons. And like the Captain-General, she offered her opponents a place in her service. As they
had before, the Dragoons accepted. Unlike their previous contracts, the arrangement with House Steiner contained a
new clause, allowing Wolf to summarily terminate the contract at any time.
The Dragoons shifted over to the Lyran Commonwealth in early 3020 and the Black Widow Battalion was in
action against Kuritan forces less than six months later. The successful action on New Wessex seemed to be the start
of a new period of Dragoon success. Feeling ran high as commanders on both sides of the Lyran-Draconis border
expected an upswing in hostilities.
The Dragoons first major action on the front was on Dromini VI and it was nearly Jaime Wolf’s last action. The
Dragoons were to lead the invasion force, striking against Kuritan forces and pinning them while Lyran House troops
exploited any gains. The taking of Dromini was to hamstring the Combine’s ability to launch an offensive in that sector.
A recon unit lead by Tai-i Minobu Tetsuhara caught Jaime Wolf’s Archer separated from his forces and
crippled. Most commanders would have simply ordered his men to finish off a wounded opponent, but the Tai-i was a
follower of Bushido and could the results of the valiant battle the, to him, unknown mechwarrior had conducted.
Tetsuhara saluted the warrior for his prowess and lead his company away to participate in the Second Sword of Light’s
doomed counterattack.
Dromini proved to be a success for the Dragoons, but it clearly caused Jaime Wolf to rethink matters. Further
matters came before him as well. The expected major offensives, both Lyran and Kuritan, never developed and the
Dragoons were relegated to cattle-raiding again. In mid-3022 Hanse Davion and Katrina Steiner signed the Federated
Commonwealth Alliance agreement, which called for the two states to be united following the joining in marriage of the
heirs to the two great houses. Four months later, the Capetyn Concord was announced, allying the remaining three
great Houses in opposition to the Davion-Steiner axis.
Sometime before this announcement, Takashi Kurita made an offer for the Dragoons’ services, offering the
highest price ever in a mercenary contract. The Lyrans learned of the offer and were concerned, but the emissaries
only cooled their heels. For most of the last quarter of 3022, Jaime Wolf was not to be seen in the Inner Sphere.
Interlude: Return to the Clans
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Colonel Wolf is posting R&R time. He will be informed of your inquiry upon his return..
--Official Dragoon statement
“Vacation? we’re not paying him to take vacations. We’re paying for him to fight. Where the hell is he?”
--Archon Steiner
--Overhead in the throne room on Tharkad
You Can’t Come Home Again
Jaime Wolf’s last visit to his Clan was mostly spent in seclusion. he attended many councils in the company of
the aging Khan Kerlin Ward. Those councils were often preceded and followed by long private sessions with the Khan
and his closest advisors, including the Khan’s soon-to-be successor Ulric Kerensky. It was clear that Khan Ward saw
that the Crusaders were gaining even more strength and Wolf’s reports were actually sparking some of the growing
fervor. the plan to forestall the invasion had worked for fifteen years but it didn’t seem likely to work much longer,
especially when the Clan Council ordered the Dragoons to switch employers and fight for House Kurita, completing the
circuit of the Great Houses.
Ward arranged for new mechs and equipment for the Dragoons for the last time. He also provided more
warriors, although there were no blood named among them. Indeed, there were few truebirths at all.
In private session he told Jaime Wolf of his fears and swore him to secrecy and absolute obedience of his
personal orders. Understanding the Khan’s reasons, Wolf took that oath. Ward died shortly thereafter and his orders
were the last Clan orders that Jaime Wolf followed.
When Wolf left the Clans that year, he carried with him a packet that included advanced technical data, Clan
operational reports, and old Star League records that revealed the secret of Outreach’s undiscovered factories and
caches of equipment.
Sixth Contract: Kurita
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
When Jaime Wolf reappeared, his first official act was to invoke the termination clause in the contract with
House Steiner and open formal negotiations with House Kurita. By April 3023, Dragoon units were raiding House
Davion, their first employers
The first years of the Dragoons’ employment with House Kurita went well. Under their liaison officer Minobu
Tetsuhara, they prospered, receiving better treatment than other mercenary units in the dragon’s employ. But there
was a canker. Warlord Grieg Samsonov conceived a personal hatred for Jaime Wolf and began machinations to
discredit Wolf and bring the Dragoons under control of House Kurita permanently.
Tensions increased between the Dragoons and their employers while friendship blossomed between Jaime Wolf
and the man who had spared his life on Dromini. The combination ultimately proved to have tragic consequences.
Samsonov’s machinations finally led to a breakdown of the contract and armed confrontation between Kuritan forces
and the Dragoons. On the planet Misery, Tetsuhara was ordered to eradicate the Dragoons with a combination of elite
Combine regulars and his own newly formed (in imitation of the Dragoons) Ryuken regiments. He almost succeeded.
In the end, however, he was captured. Wolf offered his friend a place in the dragoons, but Tetsuhara refused. He had
failed his lord and, for a follower of bushido, there was no excuse for failure. To atone, he committed seppuku.
In an emotional public scene at the wedding of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner, Wolf returned Tetsuhara’s
swords to Takashi Kurita and announced a feud between the Dragoons and House Kurita.
When I told him that from that day forward the Dragoons were at war with his House, Takashi Kurita didn’t bat
an eye. I wasn’t sure he believed me. He never was an easy man to read.
He believed me later, of course.
---from Jaime Wolf’s A Lifetime in the Trade: Reminiscences
of a Mercenary, New Avalon press, 3055
Seventh Contract: Davion
Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu)
13/42
WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Mauled by the fighting on Misery, the Dragoons needed rest and refit but they did not get it. The fourth
Succession War had begun, launched simultaneously with the marriage toast on terra. At Wolf’s request, Hanse
Davion immediately placed them into the line along the Kuritan border. Takashi, insulted by Wolf’s confrontation at the
wedding and embarrassed by the failure of his troops to destroy the Dragoons, focused on such tempting bait. As a
result, the Kuritan leader threw away his chance to cripple the Federated Suns when Davion left hat border lightly
defended in order to launch his full scale invasion of the Capellan Confederation. Certainly, the Combine was heavily
engaged along the Lyran front, but most historians agree that forces committed against the Dragoons could have been
used elsewhere to devastating effect against the Federated suns. At the very least, the steam roller against the
Capellans would have been slowed down. Had not Coordinator Takashi not been obsessed with Wolf’s Dragoons, the
Fourth Succession War might have ended very differently.
Through heroic action, the Dragoons held their own against the Combine forces out for their blood, but the cost
was high, terribly high. Glenmora. Harrow’s Sun. Wapakoneta. Crossing. All battlefields and burial grounds for the
Dragoons. As an entity Wolf’s Dragoons survived the Dragon’s fury, but most individual Dragoons did not.
Interlude: Outreach
The Fourth Succession war ended with the Dragoons at their weakest. To say that they were decimated would
be a cruel irony, for the old Roman punishment of decimation was the death of one in ten. The death toll among
Dragoons was far closer to the reverse. Once they had been five full battlemech regiments and a handful of
independent units that amounted to more than another regiment. By 3031, their organization was a single provisional
regiment of mixed troops. The survivors were loaded with medals and accolades, so not surprisingly, as the battered
ships limped to the planet a grateful Hanse Davion gifted them, many predicted that Wolf and his Dragoons were going
there to die.
Rebuilding
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14/42
WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
The Dragoons are not dead. Anyone who believes that they are is mistaken. Anyone who tries to capitalize on
our weakness will find out just how mistaken he is. We can, and will, fight.
A lot of people who don’t know what they’re talking about say that we’re finished. We’re not. We’re just getting
started. We warriors. and we’ve been tested, is all. And we’ve passed every test. We’re stronger now, and that’s
good. We need to be strong. This Fourth Succession War may be over, but it’s not the end of all war. Not by a long
shot.
It may take us a while, but we’ll be back.
--Jaime Wolf, in a statement on Galetea
Few believed Jamie Wolf’s vow to rebuild. The Dragoon losses were not completely indemnified by their
Davion contract and payments were notoriously late. mercenaries, even those with home bases, were renowned for
the difficulty they had in making ends meet. the Dragoons were once thought immune to that problem with their secret
source of men and materiel, but there was not exodus this time. Wolf and his people remained secluded on Outreach.
But most of those who predicted the Dragoons’ imminent demise were ignorant of, or ignored, one of Wolf’s
Dragoons greatest assets, a little publicized asset, their industrial and commercial interests. Since their first contract
with House Davion, the Dragoons had been investing in certain industrial firms, notably Blackwell Industries. Blackwell
had supplied the Dragoons with much materiel under exclusive license. Now, the Dragoons lifted much of that
exclusivity. Four great powers, war weary but ever cautious worked to rebuild their militaries. The orders rolled in.
Blackwell started new factories and, with the aid of Dragoon technicians, reopened some ancient facilities on
Outreach. Within by the fall, it was clear that Jaime Wolf was succeeding in rebuilding the machines the Dragoons
would need, but he did not have the warriors.
In the mean time, Wolf made a point. On 16 December 3031, holovids publicly announced the formation of the
Black Widow Battalion with Natasha Kerensky, newly promoted to colonel, in charge.. The battalion was the first of the
Dragoon units back on line and available for hire. At premium prices. In reality, the battalion was already under
contract and enroute to their first action on Tsinghai, a lengthy operation that they conducted successfully and with all of
the old élan of the original Black Widow Company.
With one unit out for hire, some pundits expected Wolf to begin open recruiting again as he had after the
Whispers deep raid or possibly to merge his troops with some other mercenary units in order to put more units on the
market. As the campaign on Tsinghai continued, it looked more and more likely that the Dragoons would need another
unit to put out for hire. Yet no announcements of such units came. However in March of 3032, the dragoons opened
the Hiring Hall on Outreach. The first posted opportunity was a recruitment notice for Wolf’s Dragoons
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Curiously the scale of recruitment was small. Indeed, many recruits were hired on in fixed term contracts rather
than open ended hirings. Jaime Wolf was looking to other sources for his troops and when his sources became public,
it was clear that he was thinking in the long term.
The Fourth Succession War created far too many orphans. Wolf began to take advantage of them. dragoon
agents scattered throughout the inner Sphere collecting these children of all ages. “We’re offering them a home and a
family. We’re offering them a road to honorable employment,” Wolf said. “Most of the states can only offer crowded
institutions, haphazard schooling and ultimately an unemployment dole. Where do you think they’ll be better off?”
Agencies and individuals protested this “dragooning” of children, and the Dragoons were dubbed a “boot camp for
toddlers,” but little came of the protests. The need to care for the children was great and the Dragoons were willing to
provide that care at no cost to any state. The children came under the dragoons care.
The recruitment of children and the industrial options were just part of wolf’s multi-faceted strategy for rebuilding
the Dragoons. As the months rolled on, new elements were announced. Training programs were offered on
Outreach. The Dragoons set up the hiring hall, recommending and advising on the hiring of mercenaries, and taking a
commission on any contracts obtained with their help. Dragoon techs hired out top facilities, both medical and
industrial, under contracts that specified their not insubstantial pay go directly to the dragoon coffers. But for all their
public displays, close observers could see that the Dragoons were as secretive as ever. new facilities were being
prepared on the larger of Outreach’s two continent and the Dragoons made that continent strictly off limits to outsiders.
In March of 3035, the second of the revitalized Dragoon units went on line. Beta Regiment went out for hire.
Simultaneously, the Black Widow battalion was recalled, prompting experts to predict that the warriors of the battalion
would form the core of Beta. but the Widows just came home to Outreach and they were posted as unavailable for
hire. Beta went out to earn the Dragoons’ keep. The Widows went to “the other side of the mountain.”
Organized in imitation of Clan practice and operating with the most advanced equipment available to the
Dragoons, the Widows lived on “the other side of the mountain” and turned that vast continent into a gigantic training
arena. Dragoon unit after unit was sent them to learn. All returned chastened. But the defeat at the hands of Black
Widow battalion was what those troops needed. They learned. Over the next seven years, Natasha Kerensky
supervised such vital education for the new Dragoons and one by one the regiments went operational and shipped out
to hire.
Eighth Contract: Federated Commonwealth
Justin Allard: “This just came in from Jaime Wolf. “Request Dragoons be released for action in Ride
[is this the right theater, Scott???]
Theater. Situation critical.”
Hanse Davion: “Again?”
Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu)
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
JA: “So far he’s been respecting your wisdom, your Highness, but things are getting worse in Ride
[should be same as other]
. He could be right that the situation is critical. He understands these Clanners far better than we do.”
HD: “His own intel sent us the reports on the progress of the invasion in Kuritan space. He knows the situation
there as well as I do. If Luthien falls, the Combine will go with it.”
JA: “Wolf’s man Blake says that isn’t likely. He has a lot of faith in Theodore.”
HD: “But Takashi’s still in charge.”
Silence.
JA: “How shall I respond to Wolf?”
HD: “Make it clear he’s under contract. He’ll fight where and when I tell him.”
JA: “He won’t like it.”
HD: “He doesn’t have to.”
--transcript of conversation discovered in
Prince Hanse’s archives, House Davion Library
The Truth as It Can Be Told
In 3048 the Clans raised the call for invasion under the newly elected ilKhan Leo Showers. IlKhan Showers
sent a recall for the Dragoons and announced to the council that their refusal proved that they had defected from the
Clans. The refusal almost cost Wolf Clan its place in the invasion force. When the reports of strange bandits started
to drift in from the Periphery, Jaime Wolf and his Dragoons knew the truth of it. The long awaited invasion had begun.
Wolf recalled his regiments to Outreach.
The death of ilKhan Leo Showers in the Radstadt system required a full council and the Clans issued a call to all
bloodnamed warriors. This time Natasha Kerensky couldn’t ignore the call. She left to return to the Clans where she
had to prove herself all over again, which she did in fine fashion. By the end of the invasion offensive she was Khan of
Printed from the Mech Factory (http://battletech.rpg.hu)
17/42
WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
the Wolf Clan. How this will affect relations with Wolf’s Dragoons remains to be seen.
In the lull of the war created by the clan call to council, Jaime Wolf sent a summons to the leaders of the Great
Houses: come to Outreach. I can tell you about the invaders.
The leaders came.
When they had gathered, Wolf revealed the Dragoons’ origin with the Clans. He told them who the Clans were
and what they were capable of. Not all believed him, or trusted him. Hadn’t he just told them that he himself was from
the Clans? But Wolf offered technical assistance, including omnimech technical specifications, and training for the
Inner Sphere Lords. Wolf told them that he would show them how to fight the Clans. The Dragoons stood ready to fight
the Clans themselves. And to prove their sincerity, the services of the Dragoons were available at bargain rates. It
was an offer the Successor Lords could not afford to refuse.
Wolf’s Dragoons conducted training and served as advisors, but no Dragoon battlemech fired upon a Clan mech
for first months after the resumption of the Clan invasion. The lack of combat fueled the general sentiment that the
Dragoons were playing some deeper game and were not really committed against the Clans. Some claimed that the
dragoons were holding back, ready to jump in on the winning side.
Hanse Davion was one of the Inner Sphere leaders who believed in Jaime Wolf’s commitment. When others
ignored Wolf after the retreat of the Clans and only accepted the obvious benefits of training and technical data, Davion
opened negotiations on an exclusive contract for the Dragoons’ combat units. But the Wolf was canny. He allowed
Davion to contract the regiments but left the independents units available for other work. Still, Jaime Wolf made one of
his rare mistakes in accepting the contract. In an effort to improve the Dragoons’ public image, he ceded strategic use
of the Dragoons to Davion. No doubt Wolf hoped to quiet cries that the Dragoons sought to be a power in and of
themselves. he succeeded, but at a cost.
Hanse Davion held the Dragoons as a strategic reserve during the renewed Clan invasion. As world after world
fell, the situation became desperate. Wolf continually applied for release, asking to use the Dragoons to stem the drive
toward the Steiner home world of Tharkad. But Davion had confidence that his own Federated Commonwealth troops
could hold that line. Limited in using the Dragoons in the central corridor by a secret restriction that the Dragoons could
not be set against Clan Wolf, Davion anxiously watched the progress of the thrust through the Draconis Combine.
While some of his advisors suggested that he let the Dragon fall, be rid of his ancient enemy, and gobble up his own
part of the Combine, Hanse feared for the survival of the whole Inner Sphere. “Better,” he is said to have remarked,
“the Dragon you know than the Viper, or whatever, that you don’t.” As the Clans closed on the Combine’s capital of
Luthien, Hanse Davion honored his promise to aid Theodore Kurita and sent Wolf’s Dragoons and the Kell Hounds to
defend Luthien.
Luthien was saved by the timely intervention, but neither Takashi Kurita or Jaime Wolf was pleased. For the
public, both put a good face on it, but both knew their feud remained.
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Open Contracts:
The Clan invasion as halted on Tukkayid and a 15 year cease fire imposed on the Clans. The post-Tukkayid
Inner Sphere was a new place and an old one as well. The Successor Lord unity fragmented and Houses began
sniping at each other again. The Clan unity fragmented in a more obvious faction as they began internal squabbling
over precedence and honor concerns. Although the Tukkayid contract forbade an advance toward Terra, it did not
preclude lateral; expansion of Clan Occupation Zones, nor did it forbid Inner Sphere forces from attempting to reduce
Clan holdings. Small skirmishes and raids with only the occasional invasions became the way of doing business, much
like the traditional Inner Sphere “cattle-raiding” warfare that had plagued the Successor States for centuries..
ComStar’s splintering nearly destroyed their mercenary bonding operation, a brutal blow to businessmen whose
business was war. Jaime Wolf stepped in and used the Dragoons influence to arrange a new Mercenary Review and
Bonding Commission and, to the surprise of many, left its running to ComStar.
It should not have been surprising. Once again the Dragoons had taken heavy losses and needed to rebuild.
This time though they had many resources to draw upon even though they were cut off from their original sources.
They increased the efforts that had helped them rebuild when they first came to Outreach. Their mercenary Hiring Hall
tripled its business and soon tripled that until Outreach eclipsed Galatea as the “mercenary star” where an aspiring,
hungry, or just out of work band could come and find employers.
Finding replacements was not as great a problem as it had once been. With some many Dragoon trained
warriors in House units and scattered among mercenary groups, there was a larger than ever pool of acceptable
recruits. The war orphans, both those truly adopted and those of the Dragoons’ secret sibkos, were coming of age by
the battalion. In the Clan fashion, bondsmen had been taken on Luthien, a ready source of experienced warriors. For
a change, the Dragoons had a greater problem obtaining enough equipment. The Blackwell factories couldn’t turn out
omnimechs and battlesuits fast enough.
But within all this fast growth, Wolf’s Dragoons nearly found the seeds of its own destruction.
Crucible
The Wolf was old, more than seventy years, maybe closer to eighty. He was older than any other commander
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
in the Dragoons. And now it seemed that he was finally succumbing to the cowardly leeching effects of age. I didn’t
know what this portended.
from Brian Cameron’s account of Elson’s Challenge,
privately published on Outreach
There was a great deal of turmoil within Wolf’s Dragoons as they struggled to integrate several generations of
new members and come to terms with their dual nature. The Clan influence remained strong; the old timers had grown
up within Clan culture and the new bondsmen were fresh form the same culture. Yet Inner Sphere ways were strong
as well. By this time, most Dragoons had grown up in the Inner Sphere and many had been born there. For all of the
dragoons preservation of Clan ways in their rituals and much of how they did business, training, and promotion,
Nothing was exactly like the Clans they had left.
Into this mixing pot came Elson NovaCat, an elemental captured on Luthien. Elson earned back his position as
a warrior. Due to his obvious ability and familiarity with a battlesuit combat operation, a skill rare in the Dragoons, he
rapidly advanced within the Dragoon command structure. He was ambitious, but that was not a failing in a Clan-bred
warrior. Like Jaime Wolf himself, Elson was a freebirth and had earned a warrior’s name. Unlike Jaime Wolf, he was
staunch in holding to his Clan beliefs. He did not like what he saw in the Dragoons and vowed to change it.
Having built a power base, he engineered a rebellion among the Dragoons, beginning with the possible murder
of Jaime’s son and designate heir to command, MacKensie Wolf. “Elson’s Challenge” as it has come to be known
among the Dragoons culminated in a protracted campaign on Outreach with Dragoon units taking sides in support of
Jaime Wolf or Elson’s puppet Alpin Wolf, Jaime’s estranged grandson. The final battle was characterized by Jaime
Wolf tactical brilliance and amazing displays of courage and prowess on both sides. Nothing less could be expected
from the Dragoons.
A key feature of the campaign was the emergence of another stellar Dragoon whose tactical genius and
personal fighting skills rivaled those of Jamie Wolf and Natasha Kerensky, respectively. Mechwarrior Maeve arrived on
Outreach in command of Spider’s Web Battalion and sided with Jaime Wolf. Implementing Wolf’s plans and often
improvising brilliantly, she came to command half of the forces loyal to Wolf, ultimately blunting the main thrust of the
rebel forces and killing Alpin Wolf in single battlemech combat.
The internecine struggle left Wolf’s Dragoons debilitated once again, but Jaime Wolf threw himself into the dual
tasks of healing the breaches and rebuilding. This time, however, he’s had a strong base than ever and the Dragoons
have regained their strength faster than ever. With their own planet and their firm roots in the Inner Sphere, the
Dragoons may have indeed become what some have said they want to be, an independent power; something between
a Clan and a mercenary unit. Perhaps that is why the new appellation, Wolf Pack, is gaining currency. Wolf’s
Dragoons may be small relative to one of the Clans or Great Houses, but what mercenary unit can claim to have had as
great an effect on the history of the Successor States?
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Wolf Pack is open for business
The Dragoons are stronger and tougher than ever. We started as the best the Inner Sphere has ever seen and
we’ve gotten better. We’re going to get better still.
Forget the rest. Hire the Wolf Pack and you hire the best.
--General Maeve Wolf in her first public address
on Outreach
Organization
While many mercenary units, maintain an support
capabilities, most barely carry enough to keep their
BattleMechs operable. Wolf’s Dragoons are maintain a full array of technical support and more. In truth, the
Dragoons’ population of non-combatants is greater than that of some planetary capitals. This unusual situation has
prompted many comparisons between the Dragoons organization and that of the Clans from which they came. Yet,
while parallel, Wolf’s dragoons are clearly no Clan, nor are they just another Inner Sphere mercenary unit. They are
unique.
The field forces of Wolf’s Dragoons are organized into a Commander’s lance, the General Command Company,
five augmented BattleMech regiments, four operational Commands, and two independent battalions. Rumors of a
third independent battalion, said to be operating clandestinely without flying Dragoon colors, remain unconfirmed at
this time.
Any of the regiments or independent battalions is fully capable of operating independently. Indeed, current
Dragoon hiring practice is to place a whole unit with an employer; they are not accepting either piecemeal subunits.
Examination of recent employment records also shows a preference for avoidance of multiple unit contracts; the
recent deployment of both Beta and Delta regiments of
[Scott - put them someplace useful]
being a notable exception.
The employment of subunits other than the regiments deserves a few notes of comment. The Commander’s
lance appears to be a purely ceremonial unit, serving as an honor guard for Jaime Wolf. The General’s Command
Company, while performing similar functions, is also a front line combat unit that has taken the field whenever General
Maeve Wolf has taken the field. The General’s Company, like units from the operational Commands, may wherever
Dragoons are in service. Unlike those other units, however, the Command Company is never a part of the forces
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
specified in a contract. Indeed, the units of the Commands are themselves rarely offered for separate hire; their
appearance being determined by the general according to the situation and allocated to contracted forces at the
general’s order. Once a unit of one of the operational Commands is assigned, it falls under the command of the
senior Dragoon commander in the assigned theater of operations. This system has proven very successful in allowing
the specialized capabilities of those units to be used to maximum effectiveness by the Dragoons.
The non-combatant structure of the Dragoons has strong
militaristic overtones and bears a strong
resemblance to Clan culture, although there is no overt class consciousness as is so prevalent among the Clans. At
least, no more than is common among the Inner Sphere.
The overall command of all Dragoon holdings and assets still belongs to Jaime Wolf in his role as Commander.
At the moment, his touch seems light on the reins. Day to day operations are handled by members of a Council
composed of senior military commanders (independent battalion commanders and above) as well as leaders from
support and technical services. Certain persons, such as
representatives of Blackwell Corporation, are regular
attendees of Dragoon Council sessions, but since sessions are closed to the public (including members of our order)
so it is not known if these apparent outsiders have an actual say in Dragoon policy or are merely favored advisors.
Policy decisions are broadcast over the planetary media net from the command center in Wolf Hall. There is no
indications that Wolf’s dragoons, even among their civilian population, show any signs of a healthy democracy and
the Order is advised to take this into account t in all dealings with members of the Dragoons.
MILITARY ORGANIZATION
COMMANDER’S LANCE
Commander
: Commander Jaime Wolf
Unit Composition
: 1 BattleMech lance, 1 Elemental point
Unit Status
: Elite
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Unit Nickname
: The Old Guard
Unit Insignia
: A voided golden wolf’s head
DropShip Assignments
: None
The Commander's lance serves primarily as an honor guard
short, but coveted.
for Commander Jaime Wolf. Tours of duty are
GENERAL’S COMMAND COMPANY
Commander
: General Maeve Wolf
Unit Composition
: 1 BattleMech company, 1 Elemental Star
Unit Status
: Elite
Unit Nickname
: None
Unit Insignia
: A golden wolf’s head
DropShip Assignments
: Chieftain (Overlord Class)
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Maeve Wolf personally approves all assignments to this company. Command lance and alpha lance are long
term assignments, the mechwarriors serving in it having been with Maeve since her promotion. The other lances and
the elemental star offer 12 month tours of duty and are eagerly sought after in competitions where applicants prove
their suitability for the post.
ALPHA REGIMENT
Commander
: Kelly Yukinov
Unit Composition
: Command BattleMech company, 3 BattleMech battalions, 1 Elemental battalion, 1 Armored battalion
Unit Status
: Elite
Unit Nickname
: First Team
Unit Insignia
: Greek letter Alpha
DropShip Assignments
: Talleyrand, Warchief (Overlord Class), Gloire, Preussen, Antiphone (Union Class)
Alpha regiment remains the foremost fighting force of Wolf’s Dragoons. It is composed of only of combat
veterans.
BETA REGIMENT
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Commander
: Colonel Anton Reed
Unit Composition
: 3 BattleMech battalions, 1 Elemental company, 1 Armored battalion
Unit Status
: Elite
Unit Nickname
: Second to None
Unit Insignia
: Greek letter Beta
DropShip Assignments
: Fitzlyon, Stalingrad, Duke Torgal (Overlord Class), Belfast, Cordova (Union Class)
The soldiers of Beta strongly espouse their motto of “second to none” and most of their opponents would have
to agree. Like Alpha, Beta is a generalist regiment capable of fighting anywhere, any time, and winning.
DELTA REGIMENT
Commander
: Colonel Shelly Brubaker
Unit Composition
: 3 BattleMech battalions, 1 Elemental battalion, 1 Aerospace company
Unit Status
: Elite
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Unit Nickname
: None
Unit Insignia
: Greek letter Delta
DropShip Assignments
: Utah Beach, Thermopylae Redux, Juan Carlos, Bayard, Los Diablos, Konga (Overlord Class), Lone Ranger, Strider
(Scout Class), Sudentenland (
[infantry type]
class), Simba, Croyd (Lion Class)
Delta regiment is the Dragoon’s’ fast response force.
They specialize in highly mobile operations, both
strategic and tactical. Delta maintains the highest portion of multiple jump capable ships in the Dragoons and
sufficient DropShips to land all of their forces at once.
GAMMA REGIMENT
Commander
: Colonel Irwin Tyrell
Unit Composition
: 3 BattleMech battalions, 1 Elemental company, 1 Armored battalion
Unit Status
: Elite
Unit Nickname
: None
Unit Insignia
: Greek letter Gamma
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
DropShip Assignments
: Phoenix II (Overlord Class), Cetawayo, Dunnigan, Bellatrix, Duke Paul, Graf Berek (Union Class), White Orca (Intruder
Class)
Gamma regiment are the Dragoons’ urban specialists. This
unit regularly receives intense training in
close-quarter combat and riot control and their performance in suitable assignments has resulted in an unblemished
record of successfully completed contracts since the reorganization of 3052.
EPSILON REGIMENT
Commander
: Colonel Elizabeth Nicole
Unit Composition
: 3 BattleMech battalions, 1 Elemental company, 1 Armored battalion
Unit Status
: Veteran
Unit Nickname
: Harrowers
Unit Insignia
: Greek letter Epsilon
DropShip Assignments
: Suniva, Hebrides (Union Class), Otsu (Fortress Class)
Epsilon regiment are sluggers, renowned for their dogged determination to achieve their objectives despite
opposition and their
own losses. Outside of Alpha Regiment and Zeta Battalion, this regiment has a higher
percentage of omnimechs among its units than any other.
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
ZETA BATTALION
Commander
: Colonel J. Elliot Jamison
Unit Composition
: Command star, 1 mech Cluster, Fire Star
Unit Status
: Elite
Unit Nickname
: None
Unit Insignia
: Greek letter Zeta
DropShip Assignments
: Hecate’s Tears, Persephone’s Lord (Union Class)
Zeta remains the Dragoons’ premier assault strike force. The unit is equipped exclusively with assault class
BattleMechs and omnimechs and organized, Clan-fashion, in a trinary.
WOLF SPIDER BATTALION
Commander
: Major John “Gentleman Johnny” Clavell
Unit Composition
: Command Star, 1 Cluster, Aerospace Company, Infantry Compnay
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Unit Status
: Elite
Unit Nickname
: The Spider’s Web
Unit Insignia
: a black wolf spider on a red disk
DropShip Assignments
: Widow’s Regards (Overlord Class)
Like its ancestral Black Widow Battalion, this unit retains a lean table of organization suitable to its primary
employment as a raiding force. When the jobs dirty and has to be done quick, the Wolf Spiders are an employers first
request.
AEROSPACE COMMAND
Aerospace command has the responsibility for orbital and deep space security of the Dragoon planet of
Outreach as well as responsibility for coordinating all aerospace military assets involved in contract operations.
Outreach Command
|-----JumpShip Operations
|-----DropShip Operations
|-----Fighter Group
|-----Warship Group
|-----Outreach System Defense Group
|-----Gobi, Cyclopes I
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
|-----Bataar, Cyclopes II
Commander
: Fleet Captain Issola Chandra
Unit Composition
: 1 warship Squadron, 1 Aerospace Fighter wing, 1 Transport wing
Unit Status
: Veteran
Unit Nickname
: None
Unit Insignia
: a red fighter silhouette against a silver spiral galaxy
DropShip Assignments
: Orion’s Sword (modified
[something good]
Class), Huscarl (Leopard Class), Akaga, Merlin, Swallow, Thane, Kestrel (Leopard CV Class)
The carrier DropShips of Aerospace Command remain under direct command of the Fighter Group, while
transport DropShips may be assigned to field forces for particular missions or contracts.
The ships recovered from the Dragoons recent visit to the Periphery are included in this command, primarily
within the ominously named Warship Group. As yet, the servants of our Blessed Order have been unsuccessful in
determining the assets of this most intriguing entry on the Dragoons table of organization. Given their origins, we
must assume they have control of some, presumably small, number of capital ships. That is to say, armed ships with
jump capability.
SUPPORT COMMAND
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Support Command maintains control of all ground deployed, non-BattleMech military assets. The forces of this
command are used to support mechs in the field providing additional combined arms capability to Dragoon fighting
units.
Support Command
|-----Armored Support Brigade
|-----Fire Support Brigade
|-----Elemental Strike Brigade
Armored Support Brigade
Commander
: Major Wallace “Wiley Wally” Winston
Unit Composition
: 4 battalions
Unit Status
: Elite
Unit Nickname
: Wiley’s Rogues
Unit Insignia
: White winged sword on blue hexagon
DropShip Assignments
: Jeb Stuart, Saladin (Gazelle Class), Jordan II (Fury Class), Blue Heron, Motherbird (Leopard CV Class)
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Fire Support Brigade
Commander
: Major Mona Cameron-ko
Unit Composition
: 3 battalions
Unit Status
: Elite
Unit Nickname
: Mayhem ex machina
Unit Insignia
: a silhouette of a catapult
DropShip Assignments
: Wexford (Fortress Class)
Elemental Strike Brigade
Commander
: Major Elson NovaCat
Unit Composition
: 1 Cluster
Unit Nickname
: Toads from Hell
Unit Insignia
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
: An armored wolf’s head
DropShip Assignments
: Hammer, Cat’s Claws (modified Leopard Class)
SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND
Special Operations Command encompasses the intelligence
assets of Wolf’s Dragoons. The three
subcommands cover tactical intelligence, covert action capability, and strategic intelligence. For all the reputation of
the Dragoons as a formidable fighting force, our Blessed order has good cause to know that their intelligence assets
are perhaps even more formidable, in some areas surpassing our own ROM.
Special Operations Command
|-----Special recon Group
|-----Seventh Commando
|-----Intelligence Group
Special Recon Group
Commander
: Major Regina Brubaker
Unit Composition
: 1 battalion
Unit Status
: Elite
Unit Nickname
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
: The All Seeing Eye
Unit Insignia
: A silhouette of a panther
DropShip Assignments
: Bowfin (Intruder Class), Silkie, Black Rose, Woebegone (Leopard Class)
Seventh Kommando
Commander
: Major Winston Shadd-ko
Unit Composition
: 1 augmented battalion
Unit Status
: Elite
Unit Nickname
: None known
Unit Insignia
: a red numeral “7”
DropShip Assignments
: Argent’s Gift, Quarrel, Rio Plata, Sheba (Fury Class)
Intelligence Group
Commander
: Michi Noketsune
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Unit Composition
: unknown
Unit Status
: Elite
Unit Nickname
: Wolf Net
Unit Insignia
: An outline of a snarling wolf in profile
DropShip Assignments
: Whisper, Shado (Scout Class)
OUTREACH COMMAND
Outreach Command is assigned the responsibility for home defense, training, contracts, and provisioning for
the Dragoons. The Command officer is also the commander of the Home Guard, a combined training/defense unit
made up in Clan fashion of older officers and young soldiers still in sibko training. In time of need, retired Dragoons
may be recalled to serve in the units.
Outreach Command
|-----Home Guard
|-----Contract Group
|-----BattleMech Operations
|-----Armored Operations
|-----Infantry Operations
|-----Outback training Operations
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
|-----Procurement Group
Home Guard
Commander
: Colonel Hamilton Atwyl
Unit Composition
: 1 BattleMech battalion (provisional), 4 armored brigades (prov.); 10 infantry brigades (prov.)
Unit Status
: Trained
Unit Nickname
: The Kids and Old Folks
Unit Insignia
: A white shield emblazoned with a black wolf’s head
DropShip Assignments
: None
OPERATIONS
Outreach
The planet of Outreach, ceded to Wolf’s Dragoons by Hanse Davion, has two major land masses. the smaller,
New Wales, is the population center and boasts the only major city on the planet. That city is Harlech, capital of the
planet and headquarters for the Dragoons. The greater continent, the Outback, is restricted territory by order of the
Dragoon Commander.
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
Harlech
As the capital of Outreach, Harlech is the planet’s premier city. The Dragoon command headquarters, Wolf
Hall, is here. The multiacre facility provides all the long distance communications facilities necessary to maintaining
links with far-flung operational units including a hyper-pulse generator.
Our ComStar Mercenary Bonding and Review Commission maintains its headquarters in Harlech. Offices are
located at the ComStar compound on Verban Avenue. We also operates a public HPG station at this location. Unlike
many of our facilities, we do not maintain any protective force, not even an honor guard of battlemechs.
This
demilitarization is at the insistence of the Dragoons and accepted by the Primus in her wisdom as necessary to
maintaining cordial relations with these powerful and influential mercenaries.
Most familiar to visitors to Harlech, especially mercenaries, is the Hiring Hall. The three towers surrounding its
central dome are visible from any point in the city. This facility is a Dragoons sponsored marketplace where employers
and potential employees may meet, post job or situation wanted notices, or otherwise conduct business. All hires of
Dragoon units go through the offices of the Hiring Hall as do the Dragoons’ own, now rare again, recruitment hirings.
The Hiring Hall also serves for several other militaristic functions. Dragoon training programs are offered here, both
those that take place in the Halls’ classrooms and simulators and those that are contracted for other locations.
Several of the most famous arms manufacturers, naturally including Blackwell Industries, maintain showrooms and
simulator demonstration facilities here as well. the Hiring Hall is a high tech, high polish world that gives a glittering
sheen to the dirty business of war.
The Free Hire Quarter, vulgarly know as tent city, occupies much of western Harlech. The area is something of
an eyesore and has a reputation as a combat zone. Here, mercenaries on the way up, or down, gather. All sorts may
be found; from those too poor to rent a place in the hiring Hall or nearby quarters to those so dishonorable that Wolf’s
Dragoons refuse them a place in the Hall. Persons having need to travel through the Quarter are advised to take
precautions to ensure their safety. Critics of the Dragoons, including some within our Order, claim that the open
marketplace sullies the reputation of the Dragoons and reflects badly on their capabilities as planetary administrators.
despite the occasional public outcry or deprecatory comment from a Successor Lord, Commander Wolf has initiated no
real efforts to clean the area up. Certainly, he has instituted weapons control laws and has ordered the boundaries of
the section patrolled by squads of Elementals but this response has done little more than confine the worse excesses
within the boundaries of the Quarter.
The Outback
The Outback is the greater of the two continents of Outreach. Among Dragoons it is also known as “the other
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
side of the mountain.” Mostly a harsh landscape of badlands and wide plans fringed with mountain ranges, the
Outback offers little to the comfort minded. The Outback is off limits to all but a very select few non-Dragoons. The
principal facility appears to be the Tetsuhara Proving Ground. The Dragoons do their own training here and their
facilities are rumored to be unrivaled in the Inner Sphere, and to include automated target ranges and simulated
fortresses as well simply open fields, much cratered through long and enthusiastic use. Though the details are a
closely held Dragoon secret, Blackwell Industries operates a factory there, producing omnimechs of several designs
as well as battlesuits and the Dragoons’ newly revealed elemental carrying “zoomers”
Cyclopes Stations
Gobi (Cyclopes I) orbital station is set in geosynchronous orbit over the east coast of the lesser continent. Its
position requires a long approach to Harlech space port during which an
incoming craft can be electronically
inspected. Two aerospace fighter bases are located athwart the principal flight lane allowing easy interception of
traffic. Since all in-system traffic is routed to Gobi, this makes any approach to the Outback immediately obvious and
subject to interception
The station offers docking facilities for a variety of Dropships and shuttles as well as recreational facilities for
crews. Additional facilities include conference and entertainment chambers for those disinclined to visit the surface of
Outreach.
Recently the Dragoons have just opened a new Cyclopes station near the primary jump point. This station,
Bataar, is touted as having a state of the art recharging system for K-F drives and offers Jumpships facilities
comparable to those offered for Dropships at Gobi.
Electronic monitoring and visual observation suggest that one or more of the still-unknown number of warships
which have recently entered Dragoon service are often be detected near each of the stations. Unfortunately, our
agents have been unable to gather sufficient data to determine the classes of any of the ships.
CUSTOMS AND PRACTICES
Honornames
The Dragoon practice of honornames is similar to the Clan’s use of bloodnames. In both cases, the use of the
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
name is restricted to those who have successfully completed a series of trials. Every indication we have gathered so
far tells us that the Dragoons have abandoned the barbaric death trials favored by the Clans. At least in so far as the
everything but the final trials and even then, the Dragoon hierarchy has issued official statement s that those deaths we
have confirmed were accidental or the result of equipment failures.
Only one member of a generation (defined as all persons born within a twenty year span) is allowed to hold a
particular honorname. Retesting allowed for members of that generation if holder of the name dies, but the Dragoons
hold no requirement that the slot be filled. While the first holder for a generation need only achieve the highest score
among the candidates, a prospective replacement must exceed the deceased holder’s scores in the trials in order to
qualify for the honorname.
The testing itself covers a wide range of abilities and characteristics. Emphasis is placed on categories in
which the founder of the line excelled. While genetic connection with the founder is highly valued, it is not a
requirement, especially if the candidate shows a high correspondence with the original honoree’s talents.
Current Honornames:
Wolf*
Kerensky
Shadd
Rand*
Dumont
Shostokovitch
Carmody
Novacat*
*Denotes a living founder.
Sibkos
ROM investigation has revealed that Wolf’s Dragoons have been involved in unethical genetic breeding,
producing sibkos in much the same way as their Clan forbears. Unlike the Clans, the Dragoons do not seem to have
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
an aversion to the children of these unnatural families knowing who their progenitors were. This is clearly seen in the
appellation “-ko” affixed to the end of a progenitors surname. This suffix is only used in confidential Dragoon
documents, suggesting that the Dragoons themselves are somewhat, and most properly, embarrassed by their
dabblings in unnatural selection.
The Dragoons use a variety of progenitor mixes with their sibkos. Some use the mixing of genetic components
from one parent (the primary donor) with a variety of genetic material from supplemental donors. The children of such
sibkos use the “-ko” suffix with the primary donor’s name. Other sibkos follow a more standard Clan pattern and are
created from material from two primary donors, relying on the normal mixing of genetic material for variation and
resulting in what amounts to a batch of fraternal twins. The children of such sibkos are allowed to select one of the
parent’s surnames, so long as it is not an honorname, or to go nameless. Still others appear to be comprised of
children of different parents who are simply raised in the sibko manner. In some cases, the names of the donors are
classified by the Dragoon hierarchy. Maeve Wolf is a product of one of those classified sibkos.
Sibko training follows Clan patterns but with far less harshness. All of the incidents of deaths among sibko
children that we have investigated so far have proven to have been true accidents in training scenarios of reasonable
danger for the participants. We have found no hard evidence of the bloodthirstiness that we have seen among the
Clans. In fact, there seems to be a real level of love and affection between the members of a sibko and their primary
caregivers, although the finest researchers of our Blessed Order assure us that there could be no real family bonding
in a sibko environment.
New sibko starts are down, suggesting that the Dragoons see no real need to continue an explosive population
growth among their people. Whether this means they are showing an awareness of the limits of their resources, or
they are showing arrogance about their survival in the post-truce world to come, or have some other, mysterious
reason is still debated among our scholars and researchers.
Hospitality
Outreach offers the hospitality of Harlech to all mercenaries. the result is that Outreach has eclipsed Galetea
as the “mercenary star,” THE place to hire or be hired. The result is a vast transient population in Harlech as varied
as the finely dressed emissaries that frequent the Hiring Hall and the barely literate scum haunting the dives of the
Free Hire Quarter.
Hospitality means holding the visitors to the laws under which the Dragoons themselves operate. Hospitality
also means no heavy weapons. Visitors are only allowed personal weapons; no battlesuits, battlemechs or armored
vehicles other than those belonging to the Dragoons are allowed on New Wales. The only heavy armaments allowed
on planet are those a unit is bringing in for a training exercise with the Dragoons and those must be brought in from
the jumppoint on Dragoon
dropships. The Dragoons operate under a standing order that
unidentified military
dropships are hostile and are to be treated as if they were attempting an invasion.
Already one ship, belonging to a new, untried, and very
broke merc unit, Wannamaker’s Widowmakers, was
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
intercepted and destroyed by a Dragoon warship. The flight recorder of the DropShip indicated that the transponder
and the ship-to-ship communications system were both off-line when the DropShip left its hired JumpShip at a pirate
point. Fleet Captain Chandra expressed condolences to the crew’s survivors but no regrets. “We’re serious about
protecting our home,” she told Inner Sphere Net reporters after the incident.
Blackwell Industries
For many years, there was a great deal of speculation about whether the Dragoons had influence with certain supplies
of military materiel. Much of that speculation has proven bootless, but one of the subjects of all those rumors has at
last been proven to be closely allied with the Dragoons. Blackwell Industries was once a minor supplier to the military
and is now one of the major arms corporations in the Inner Sphere. With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy now to see
how the growing influence of Blackwell coincided with their increasing cooperation with the dragoons.
Once Blackwell was presented as a simple supplier, providing the Dragoons with certain equipment under license, such
as BattleMechs like the Marauder II which were unavailable to other customers due to Dragoon demand accounting for
their full production capacity. Now, with Blackwell operating a factory on Outreach and providing second rate versions
of Dragoon mechs to Inner Sphere customers, it is quite clear that Blackwell is little more than the manufacturing arm of
Wolf’s Dragoons. Blackwell’s rebuff of ComStar orders may be take as a sign of the corporation’s exclusionary policy,
and as a sign of caution for all Inner Sphere customers.
The Dragoons have kept secrets for decades, not the least of which was their close involvement in the operation of this
corporation. Can the child not mirror the parent? How reliable can arms supplied by a company built by Clan derived
knowledge be when the Clans turn their attention once more to conquest?
Ignoring well founded cautionary advice from our Blessed Order, the lords and powers of the Inner Sphere continue to
patronize this firm, drawn by the lure of its technology and reputation of its products for battlefield reliability and
performance. Such patronage empowers this firm, allowing it to grow within our midst. Are we nurturing a viper?
Mercenary Bonding and Review Commission
The Mercenary Bonding and Review Commission is the successor to our Blessed Order’s Mercenary Review Board.
When first organized in 3042, the Commission lacked credibility. It was no longer in the direct control of ComStar and
therefore lacked our, admittedly weakened at the time, prestige. The Commission is primarily staffed by ComStar
acolytes and still has direct and unlimited access to ComStar facilities for interstellar communication, giving it a
communication ability unrivaled in the Inner Sphere. But still, there were problems in acceptance.
Shortly after its founding, word leaked to the general public that Wolf’s Dragoons were the driving force behind the
establishment of the Commission. There was much talk about the Commission being a protective front for
mercenaries, especially the dragoons. Some when so far as to suggest that mercenaries would use the Commission as
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WOLF`s DRAGOONS
By Galaxy Commander Phoenix Wolf (wolf,dragoons,history,mercenary)
a facade to gloss over acts of barbarism and give them the veneer of legality. In the decade that followed the
Commission’s organization, our Order has worked hard to build a reputation for impartiality.
While it is true that Jaime Wolf approached ComStar with the outline for the Commission, it was the hard work of our
Blessed Order by which it came to pass. Hard won recognition by three of the Great Houses and the fervent advocacy
of the commission by the heroic Precentor Martial Focht stilled much of the talk. A constant thorn in the Commissions
side during the early years was the near continual denunciation of it by the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine.
Finally in 3048, a statement from the Kanrei of the Combine reversed House Kurita’s position and the Combine joined
the rest of the Great Houses as a sponsor of the Commission.
The Commission is made up of ComStar officials, a selection of volunteer mercenary officers, and representatives from
each of the Inner Sphere’s formal political entities: (in order of their joining) the Capellan Confederation, the Federated
Commonwealth, the Free Rasselhague Republic, the Free Worlds League, the St. Ives Compact, the Magistracy of
Canopus, the Outworlds Alliance, the Taurian Concordat, and the Draconis Combine. The implications of a request
from Ryan Steiner that House Steiner be granted a place on the commission are still being considered.
When sitting in arbitration, a panel of four hear the arguments of the contending parties. In order to ensure fairness
each judging panel consists of one ComStar official who serves as the president of the panel, one mercenary officer
who is unaffiliated with either party, and two national representatives, neither of whom may be from the hiring state or
any state against which the mercenaries have fought during their contract. Either contending party may dismiss one
sitting judge if they believe that person will show unfair bias against them. In the case of a hung decision, the case is
submitted to an executive session of the entire Commission.
Despite its lack of an enforcement arm, the Commission has been a success and we may have every expectation that it
will continue to be so, for it exists to perform two functions vital in a military situation where mercenaries are employed
on a regular and continuing basis. First, it provides impartial arbitration in contract disputes between mercenaries and
their employers. Second, through its ComStar-bonded bank accounts, it provides a secure depository of payment
funds, thereby assuring both the mercenary unit and its employers with a reasonable expectation of good faith
performance.
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