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Heinrich Schwartzmann

Heinrich Schwartzmann
Character Profile
Affiliation Lyran Commonwealth
Rank Colonel
Profession MechWarrior

Heinrich Schwartzmann was the aide of Archon Viola Steiner-Dinesen in 2591.

History[edit]

Schwartzmann was with Archon Viola Steiner-Dinesen in June 2591—when she was commanding the Tamar Tigers, Twenty-fifth Skye Rangers, and Fourth Royal Guards in conjunction with the Star League Defense Force's Thirty-first Armor Division—in the campaign to liberate the Rim Worlds Republic world of Barcelona from Rim Royal Army partisans under the command of Franchetta Wong. A Loki agent, R. K. Jaishankar, brought news that the Archon's son Kevin had been kidnapped by rogue members of the Estates General, and inaccurate intel placed the blame on Duke Selvin Kelswa of Tamar and Duke Aldo Lestrade of Skye.

In unthinking rage, Viola mobilized the Fourth Royal Guards and, in her Warhammer, personally lead them in an assault against the Skye Rangers. Despite the protests of Heinrich Schwartzmann, Viola attacked the Skye Rangers' encampment, bringing her Guards into battle with the Skye and Tamar forces. Both Heinrich and the SLDF troops under Margaret Beck unsuccessfully tried to stop the Archon without hurting her, but the battle only ended when Tamar Tigers commander Sabine Petrov engaged Viola with her Commando, severely wounding the Archon with a direct hit to the cockpit and shattering her arm.

In late 2591 when Viola regained consciousness aboard the vessel Robert Dinesen (named for her late husband), her trusted aide Schwartzmann briefed her on the ongoing investigation into Kevin's kidnapping. He also informed her that her rampage on Barcelona had become known as the "Day of Rage," and that he hated her for making him fire on his brothers-in-arms in order to protect her. When she attempted to justify the attack as a necessary response to a revolt by her lords, he rebuked her with information that Kelswa and Lestrade had been exonerated, and that Jaishankar's report was only a rumor. Horrified by the realization that she caused hundreds of innocent deaths, Viola slipped back into oblivion.

Nevertheless, he was with her in January 2592 on Tharkad, when Estates General Speaker of the Assembly Henry Gram celebrated his pending success in manipulating the Lyran parliament into voting to secede from the Star League. His triumphant reverie was interrupted by his associate, Ichabod Blau, who informed him that the Lyran Intelligence Corps (LIC) was starting to arrest all the conspirators involved in the kidnapping of Archon-Designate Kevin Steiner-Dinesen. Gram tried to calm Blau, noting that his steering committee had the LIC tied in knots, while Archon Viola, at last report from his spies, was still in a coma on Barcelona. The two exited Government House through a secret corridor only to find the Fourth Royal Guards executing a combat drop on the Triad. Up above, Archon Viola oversaw Operation RIGHTEOUS FURY, coordinating efforts to seal off the roads around Government House, trapping the rogue members of the Estates General. LIC agents apprehended Gram and brought him out to where the Archon awaited in her one-armed Warhammer. Rage consumed her, and when he attempted to give a speech about patriotism, she crushed him beneath her 'Mech's heel.

Afterwards, when the Archon sought solitude in the Triad's 'Mech bays, and then solace in a flask of vodka, Schwartzmann confronted her, noting that she'd been drinking a lot in recent days. Then he took the blame for the entire tragedy, saying he failed to protect her from whatever game Loki was playing, the Commando's missiles, and the Archon from herself. He asked her, for the sake of her children and the realm, to remain on Archon and not return to the war. Viola hardened herself and told him she intended to finish what she'd started.

In 2596, as the Reunification War was winding down, Viola lead the Fourth Royal Guards in an assault on the Seventh Amaris Legionnaires, which were defending the capital city, Terra Prime. Schwartzmann attempted to ensure the Archon's safety, a difficult task given her apparent death wish. Massive monsoons impeded the Lyran advance, and in the confusion of the storm, the Archon ended up firing on her own troops, killing Fourth Guards battalion commander Aurelia Martinez.

The emotionally devastated Archon suggested a new plan to draw the Rim Worlds forces out of their fortifications, using herself as bait. The operation initially went off as planned, but the Republicans brought unexpectedly heavier firepower to ambush the Archon, using artillery to drop a canyon wall on the Lyran column. A communications failure at this crucial juncture prevented her from calling in the reserve forces to counter the ambushers. In defiance of his orders, Schwartzmann took his Striker to the ambush point and found that Archon Viola had suffered mortal injuries. She absolved Heinrich of responsibility, telling him "even the finest bodyguard can't shield his protectee from justice."[1]

BattleMechs[edit]

Heinrich Schwartzmann piloted a Striker.

References[edit]

  1. Memories of Rain

Bibliography[edit]