Editing Bernard Nordhoff

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| name                = Bernard Nordhoff
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| affiliation         = [[Lyran Commonwealth]]
| rank                = [[General]]<ref name=FAWc4>''Fire at Will'', ch. 4</ref>
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'''Bernard Nordhoff''' was a [[thirty-second century]] [[Lyran Commonwealth|Lyran]] officer turned [[mercenary]]. He comes from [[Hesperus II]], as part of a long line of family members who served Hesperus' Brewster family nobility for generations. 

He was the trusted military aide to Duke [[Vedet Brewster]], while serving as rank of [[Colonel]]. 

After his father's death from exposure to Defiance Industries' smelters, he has harbored great disdain for Duke Vedet.

Nordhoff feels the Duke controls him and tries to remind him of that fact. He has grown resentful and disgusted by the Dukes callous treatment of others. His anger for the Duke stems from his father's death, feeling his father died while loyally working for him.

Nordhoff secretly moved officers loyal to him into positions, so that when the Duke is killed during the military campaign he was heading, he could sweep in and take power for himself. Perhaps, righting some wrongs the Brewsters have caused for generations.

==History== 
===Lyran Service===
Bernard attended the [[Nagelring]] Academy on Tharkad. He was sponsored by Duke Vedet. 
Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces had assigned him as military aide to the Duke. 
He was later promoted in March of 3137 to command Anvil Task Force for [[Operation Hammerfall]]. He is in command of a Company with soldiers loyal to him. His unit was assigned to the invasion of the [[Marik-Stewart Commonwealth]], while the Duke served in [[Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey]]. 

Nordhoff led his military command "Anvil" when they landed on [[Gallatin]] in the Marik-Stewart space in July 30th, 3137. He had attached his command company to [[3rd Lyran Regulars]] for the first wave of Hammerfall. The 3rd met heavy resistance from local defenders.

Nordhoff took control of the situation as the "local defenders" turned out to be elements of the [[Silver Hawk Irregulars]]. When his regiment's sensors were disrupted by Silver Hawk traps, Nordhoff rallied the Third Lyrans and counterattacked.

In September 3137, on [[Bondurant]], General Nordhoff and his Third Lyrans faced more resistant Silver Hawks augmented by a militia unit known as the [[Bondurant Bombardiers]]. His aerospace assets discovered that the Silver Hawks were waiting for him at their planned Landing Zone (LZ). Forcing him to shift to another LZ, The Bombardiers led them into traps in swampy lowlands. The unit took heavy damage from the initial invasion and were forced to call on reinforcements. However, due to the Royal Guard regiments being called up to invade the Skye region, Duke Vedet's 1st Hesperus Guards were instead sent to assist him in conquest of Bondurant. 

On the scene, Vedet took command of the situation, but his lack of military training caused him to make tactical mistakes. Because of these mistakes, he lost the opportunity to quickly destroy the elements of the Silver Hawks. In an effort to save the Duke, as he was ordered to, General Nordhoff ordered his artillery batteries to fire on the area where the Duke was being ambushed. Inadvertently due to the quickness in responding to the Duke's situation, his artillery bombardment caused damage to the Guards and toppled the Duke's ''[[Atlas (BattleMech)|Atlas]]''.  This action caused Duke Vedet to be suspicious of Nordhoff's loyalty to him. 

On his deployment to [[Simpson Desert]], Nordhoff's forces fought the world's planetary militia forces known as "the Korps". The planetary militia put up a formidable defense against Third Lyran Regular's force, but was defeated by 2nd of December [[3137]]. 

Intelligence on Simpson Desert was wrong. Apparently the name of the planet was a mistake by early surveyors. The world, is in fact, full of beautiful thick forests, rolling hills and fields, and jagged rock formations that obscure movement and not a desert that world's name suggests.
His forces drove the Korps into the Wilderlands, to a loosely formed set of earthen fortifications known as [[Fort Verdun]].

The fort was the remains of an ancient 1st Star League fortification, which was of earthworks design using deep trenches and ferrocrete emplacements for artillery weaponry. It is noted that the Word of Blake considered the fortress unusable for their purposes.

Privately, Nordhoff was delaying the siege of [[Fort Verdun]] due to the Duke's secret plan to have Trillian Steiner and her Broken Sword battalion killed on Tamarind. With his elderly parents still on Hesperus II, he would have no choice or risk their lives as well his own.

The Duke was on planet with him, and ordered him to keep fighting for three more days, while he left with his Guards for Danais to reinforce his garrison forces there.

On 14th of December, Nordhoff's forces landed on Tamarind, However, the Third Battalion of Third Lyran Regulars had been assigned to [[Danais]] to reinforce the Duke's efforts with the Silver Hawks. He discovered, to his disbelief, that Hauptmann Frost's battalion was still active, though their battles with the 1st Tamarind Regulars had been brutal on Harvison Flats.  The 1st Tamarind Regulars assaulted his two battalions en masse, coming recklessly, making it difficult for him to tell if they were elite or green units.  Whatever the case, it was highly dangerous for his outnumbered forces.  Being overwhelmed, Nordhoff ordered his units to fall back.

He was then saved by the Broken Swords, led by Roderick Steiner.  The Swords proceeded to cut through the enemy's rear lines after deploying via DropShip.  Shocked that he had been saved by a Steiner he had left to die, Nordhoff decided to do what he can to save himself.  He ordered the Third Lyrans forward against the 1st Tamarind and cut through the center and meet up with the Broken Swords.  Nordhoff then fled to his DropShip ''[[Titanslayer]]'' with several loyal MechWarriors and used one of the JumpShips in-system to escape.

===Mercenary Service===

In February [[3138]], while waiting for their DropShip to recharge in the [[Westover]] system, General Nordhoff deployed his mercenary unit DropShip and landed his forces to intercept a pirate raid attempting to steal production runs of ''[[Riever]]'' aerospace fighters.

Westover's ruler, Duke Wesley, grateful of the General's efforts in assisting the planet, hires him as the planet's military commander.

He later meets with [[Force Commander]] [[Alethea Chowla II|Alethea Chowla]],  commanding officer, [[Rim Commonality]]'s elite rapid-strike battalion, ''the Defenders'' to discuss prospects of alliance between Westover and Rim Commonality.<ref name=TRtCc31>''To Ride the Chimera'', ch. 31</ref>

He participated with [[Operation HOMECOMING]] as the commander of Westover's four aerospace wings. First traveling to [[Loyalty]] in early April, [[3139]].

==BattleMechs==
Bernard Nordhoff is a noted pilot of a ''[[Xanthos (BattleMech)|Xanthos]]'' Class Quad BattleMech. He has used this 'Mech as his command vehicle to lead his forces while serving in the Lyran military during [[Operation HAMMERFALL]] in 3137.

==Notes== 
* Bernard's mercenary unit consisted of 4 staff officers and a mixed company of 'Mechs and Armor, which included his Dropship, ''[[Titanslayer]]''.  It is unknown if he retained control of the Jumpship as well.

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography== 
* ''[[Fire at Will]]'' (novel)
* ''[[To Ride the Chimera]]'' (novel)

[[Category: Lyran Commonwealth Characters|Nordhoff, Bernard]] 
[[Category: Mercenary Characters|Nordhoff, Bernard]]
[[Category: Nagelring Alumni|Nordhoff, Bernard]]