Red Corsair

This article is about the 3055 pirate band and its leader. For the identity of Katrina Steiner during her adventure in the Periphery, see Red Corsair (3004).

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The 'Red Corsair' refers to both a pirate band acting on behalf of the clans, and the leader of that same group.

Fact and Speculation

Very little is definitively known about this group, with much of what is concluded about them due to circumstantial evidence. What is known is that between 3054 and 3055, a large force of pirates equipped with Clan technology began raiding planets along the Federated Commonwealth's border with the Clan Occupation Zone. It was strongly suspected by both the Federated Commonwealth's Victor Ian Steiner-Davion and Khan Phelan Ward of Clan Wolf that the group was being used by the Crusader movement to try and destabilize the Truce of Tukayyid, and perhaps restart the Clan Invasion.

During a serious of engagements with Phelan's Wolves and the Kell Hounds, the pirates were eventually hunted down and eliminated, though not before Conal Ward of the Wolves was implicated in their activities. Their leader, a woman who only ever called herself the Red Corsair, was killed by her former prisoner, Nelson Geist.

Later during the Refusal War, the Jade Falcon Khans Elias Crichell and Vandervahn Chistu briefly discussed the Red Corsair in familiar terms, naming one Nekane Hazen as the leader of this secret operation, lending further credit that the pirates origins were with the Jade Falcons, since the name "Hazen" is a familiar one among the Jade Falcon bloodnames.

Targeted Worlds

• Kooken's Pleasure Pit
• Deia
• Arc-Royal

Battlemechs and other equipment

The Red Corsairs seemed to use Inner Sphere battlemech designs refitted with clan technology. Furthermore, it seems that the entire unit was using energy-based weapons exclusively. This gave them a significant logistical advantage during their campaign, as they had no need to replenish ammunition, and usually simply seized food and other mundane supplies from their targets. The units aerospace fighters seemed to be Star League-era designs, possibly also refitted with Clan weapons.

The Red Corsair herself piloted a Battlemaster that included a double cockpit, two ER PPCs and a Large Pulse Laser. It also retained the four forward-facing medium lasers, naturally also using clan versions of the weapons. An uncertain number of double heat sinks were remarkably successful in reducing the machine's heat buildup.

For transport, the Red Corsair's fleet of DropShips and JumpShips included a Black Lion-class WarShip. This, as much as anything, was conclusive evidence that the pirates were in fact, being supported by the Clans. (Ironically, the Black Lion class is known for using ammunition based weapon systems exclusively.)

Notes

• Katrina Steiner also used the "Red Corsair" alias during a stint in the Periphery in the early 3000s. Her adventure was referred to, but not detailed, in Michael A. Stackpole's Warrior Trilogy. His 1992 novel Natural Selection was initially meant to tell that story but the publisher wanted no flashback stories and so the story was rewritten, keeping only the "Red Corsair" nucleus and thereby introducing a new, distinct Red Corsair persona. Stackpole revisited Katrina Steiner's backstory almost 20 years later in the short story Vanish.

References

• Mercenary's Handbook 3055, p. 62

Bibliography

• Bred for War (novel)
• Natural Selection (novel)
• Mercenary's Handbook 3055