Steel Wolves

Steel Wolves logo.png
Steel Wolves
Faction Profile
Time period: Early 3130s – Present
Classification: Splinter faction Mercenary
Controlled systems: 1 (formerly)
Capital world: Tigress (formerly)
Ruler title: Galaxy Commander
Military: Steel Wolves Touman

Overview

Under the leadership of former Prefect of Prefecture IV, Kal Radick, the Steel Wolves were one of the factions to break away from the Republic of the Sphere in the early 3130s following the widespread collapse of the HPG network. They had been operating within the Republic's territories as opportunists (and some consider them pirates) up to the time leading up to and immediately following the Republic's partial collapse.[1] During that same time period, the Steel Wolves split up into several smaller factions following their new leader, Anastasia Kerensky's decision to reform them into a mercenary unit called the Wolf Hunters. However, the biggest faction retained the original name... but, ironically, also became a mercenary unit too.

History

Early history

Before Kerensky's assumption of the leadership of the Steel Wolves, their leader was a Clan Wolf trueborn by the name of Kal Radick. He had formed the Steel Wolves out of warriors from both Arc-Royal and the "Crusader" factions of the Clan, with the professed intention of reclaiming Terra for the Clans. However, Kal Radick for the most part merely conducted raids on backwater Republic worlds for the goal of gaining more war matériel for the expected drive on Terra. He also cultivated personal loyalty to himself, in an effort to cement his grip on the command of the Steel Wolves.

The first serious objectives of the Wolves were the planets Ronel and Achernar, the only ones in Prefecture IV with an operating HPG. Radick wanted to take both to use the HPG to build his own intelligence network, and to potentially obtain Achernar's 'Mech factories. But Ronel didn't fall, due not only to the opposition of Republic troops, but also the intervention there of Dragon's Fury forces, with the same objectives. On Achernar, the Wolves forces, led by Torrent Wolf, were outnumbered by the unlikely alliance of Republic's militia, the Swordsworn forces (also planning to take the planet) and even a Steel Wolf, named Tassa Kay. The Wolves forces were defeated; with Torrent killed and the perceived destruction the HPG, the Steel Wolves forces retreated, now under the command of Kay.

Kerensky's takeover

However, Kal Radick's authority would be shattered by the arrival of Anastasia Kerensky. A trueborn from Arc-Royal, she joined the Steel Wolves following a battle against them in which she took part as "Tassa Kay", a freelance MechWarrior. With the Wolves, she served (disgruntled) under Kal Radick alongside fellow Star Colonels Marks and Ulan, up until his announcement of a raid against the planet of Small World. Sensing an opportunity, she decried his failings as a leader and visionary, and challenged him to a Trial of Possession for the command of the Steel Wolves. Kerensky won easily, and immediately switched the intended target from Small World to the manufacturing and provincial capital of Northwind.

Northwind Campaign

Kerensky started her invasion of Northwind with an attack on an isolated part of the planet which happened to be the home of a large number of oil rigs. With the Wolves, she attacked one of them and took it over as her base of operations; the DropShips she brought landing underwater. From her secure base, she launched a full attack on the capital of Tara, against the rival leader Countess Tara Campbell.

The Steel Wolves, early in the campaign, avoided any large confrontations with the defending Northwind Highlanders, instead sending their units through a single mountain pass around the defenders to try to take the capital. However, their plan was discovered, and, at the Battle of Red Ledge Pass, the Highlanders destroyed a portion of Kerensky's tank forces. Kerensky, fuming over her defeat, retreated with the Wolves back to her headquarters on the oil rig.

The Highlanders, now on the offensive, began a campaign to try to find the Steel Wolves' base before Kerensky could launch a second offensive against them. Eventually, after weeks of searching, one of their patrols got a tip-off that a Clan fighter plane was seen flying out into the ocean towards the oil rig that Kerensky was on. Once they learned that their base was compromised, Kerensky and the Wolves fled in their DropShips and began to fly towards Tara once more. Once there, they proceeded to fight a bloody battle in which their total victory was only stopped by the blowing up of their symbolic prize, the ancestral castle of Tara Campbell, and the subsequent burial of many of the Steel Wolf combat units. The Wolves fled once more, this time to try to attack Terra.[2][3]

Assault on Terra

The Steel Wolves attacked Terra from a remote landing zone in what was Russia. Fighting was fierce, but the Steel Wolves were outclassed and forced to retreat; this time with less available war matériel than after the Northwind retreat. Fighting the Steel Wolves on Terra was Tara Campbell's Northwind Highlanders, Tenth Principes Guards, with the unexpected third-party antagonist of the ex-Paladin Ezekiel Crow.[4]

Chaffee

In 3134 a small task force of Clan Jade Falcon, escorted by the Emerald Talon, launched an attack against the Republic of the Sphere after traveling first through Commonwealth space. The task force, ostensibly aimed at destroying what the Falcons termed the false wolves, pledged not to attack the Lyran state, but then landed attack forces on Porrima and Chaffee. Chaffee, was completely overrun, and it was there that Falcon forces slaughtered 50,000 inhabitants in the city of Hamilton — a savage and heavy-handed action that has outraged billions across the Inner Sphere and prompted calls for war against Jade Falcon.

The Hamilton Massacre came to light soon after the liberation of Chaffee by the Stormhammers, a pro-Commonwealth faction within the Republic of the Sphere, who acted in conjunction with the Steel Wolves to rout Jade Falcon there last November. Whether the successful campaign was accomplished with the direct support of the Commonwealth government remains unclear at this time, but it has become a rallying cry for many who feel the current administration is failing to deal with the more immediate threat Jade Falcon represents, even as tensions mount on Republican and League borders.[5]

Battle of Skye

Following the attack on Terra, the Steel Wolves retreated to lick their wounds and rebuild the unit. Facing increasing dissatisfaction with her leadership, Anastasia Kerensky was forced to fend off numerous Trials of Grievance from disgruntled Steel Wolf warriors. However, with the Jade Falcons' approach towards the world they were hiding by, they assumed they were the subject of a Trial of Annihilation. They readied themselves for war, but the Falcons were actually attacking Skye. The Northwind Highlanders appeared to protect the world, and fought the invaders, but were losing ground. Anastasia demanded amnesty until she was out of system if she helped. Tara Campbell granted it, and got the help she was needed. The two warriors finally met after being rivals for so long. The Wolves chased the Falcons off planet, and the Wolves left the planet soon after.

Dissolution

In the aftermath of the failed Skye defense, Kerensky took the Wolves to Galatea. There she made the highly unorthodox change of turning the Steel Wolves into an elite mercenary unit to be known as the Wolf Hunters in 3135. This move was met with great hostility when it was discovered that she had registered the Wolves as a mercenary unit. Kerensky announced that all those who did not agree with the move may leave.

Over the course of a week, many warriors, Binaries, Stars, Novas, and entire Clusters, took her offer and left, many joining or forming their own mercenary units. The biggest of these last are the "Steel Wolf Corps", led by Star Colonel Nikola Demos. This force, a Cluster mainly composed by armor and infantry, with his own DropShips and JumpShips, was later fighting to crush a rebellion on Laiaka.

The largest portion of these perceived this as the destruction of the Clan way of life and formed a "loyalist" faction under the command of one of the Steel Wolves' high-ranking officers.

Steel Wolves after Kerensky

Star Colonel Varnoff Fetladral and Star Colonel Xera pulled together their two Clusters to reform the Steel Wolves. Varnoff declared himself as the Galaxy Commander.

The unit consisted of Varnoff's mostly 'Mech Cluster, limited infantry units, and Xera's aerospace Cluster, which consisted of two DropShip carriers, a number of JumpShips, and many fighters.

Varnoff began by launching raids, in a bid to build up the faction's strength, so they would be able to retake their former homeworld of Tigress. However, Xera began to be suspicious of his ways. Many times, Varnoff was not abiding by Clan ways and traditions. He began separating loyal people from Xera along the course of their campaign. After capturing a DropShip crew defending Wasat, they learned that Anastasia's Wolf Hunters would be going to New Canton.

Meeting Kerensky in October of 3136, she offered a Trial of Grievance between them to resolve their differences once and for all. Varnoff told her he agreed, but prepared to betray her and destroy the Wolf Hunters. After the sabotage and rescue of Kerensky's DropShip over New Canton, Xera learned of Varnoff's true intentions. Xera contacted him and confronted him with his agenda to betray Kerensky. Varnoff boasted that she was not worthy of a Trial and he was going to betray her anyway. Xera informed him that she had been broadcasting, openly, the entire conversation and declared that by Varnoff's own testimony, that all his Trials and oaths were based on treachery.

With Varnoff's treachery fully known publicly, Xera announced that the Steel Wolves would be leaving in a week's time and any warriors remaining on New Canton were declared not Wolves, including Varnoff. She became the new Galaxy Commander of the Steel Wolves. Although Xera purged Varnoff's loyalists, the group lacked direction: unable to reclaim Tigress, now controlled by the Federated Suns, they jumped back to Prefecture VII, expecting to find a world to reclaim. Unable to do so, for several years, fleeing from the Capellan advance in the region, they wandered from world to world, trrading or raiding for supplies.

The steel Wolves were catched in the region by Clan Wolf Operation HAMMERFALL. Some members of the group saw it as an opportunity to rejoin their original Clan, and attempted to do so... in vain: the Wolves saw them as dezgra, killing several of the Steel Woloves' Stars outright, making Xera realize they should find another way.[6]

Mercenary Unit

In 3145, the Wolves, a Cluster strong, have become a mercenary group. Still under the command of Galaxy Commander Xera, and were under contract of the reborn Free Worlds League, on Halt.[7] The year 3146 found the Steel Wolves in the reborn Free Worlds League, fighting the Regulan Fiefs invasion of Marik space, where they crushed the Regulans on Emris IV.[8] Ironically, the only stain on the Steel Wolves' performance happened when they were fighting alongside Purifier Cluster (Clan Protectorate). A duel between Angus Drummond and Kyria Wolf, herself a former Spirit Cat left both badly wounded, and their commanders had to segregate both units.[9]

In 3148, the Wolves took part on the League's invasion of the Regulan Fiefs, fighting alongside Clan Sea Fox on Avior, crushing the defenders, the Fourteenth Regulan Hussars, dividing the captured equipment between the groups.[10] On 2 April of the same year, the Wolves took part on the League's invasion of Regulus, but this time do not see any battle, as the Regulans negotiated surrendered peacefully.[11]

IlClan Era

The beginning of the IlClan Era found the Steel Wolves still in service to House Marik. In March of 3151, the LCCC rotated them to the planet New Hope, to free the Silver Hawks to launch raids against Wolf Empire territory.[12]

After the liberation by guerrillas of the planet Stewart, the Steel Wolves were redeployed there to protect it from Wolf counterattacks. On 23 February 3152, the attack arrived, but not from Wolf Clan forces; the Clan Protectorate's Purifier Cluster arrived to reclaim the world for Clan Wolf. They were expecting to find only the Steel Wolves, but the planet had been reinforced by the Thirtieth Regulan Hussars. Despite being former enemies, together, both units defended the New Edinburgh Palace. The Wolves defeated every thrust of the Purifiers toward the palace until March, when the Protectorate forces were forced to retreat offworld, defeated.[13]

Officers

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the Steel Wolves Galaxy
Galaxy Commander Kal Radick 3132 – 3133
Galaxy Commander Anastasia Kerensky 3133 – 3135
Galaxy Commander Varnoff Fetladral 3135 – 3136
Galaxy Commander Xera 3136 - Onward

Other Unit Officers

Tactics

Different per unit.

Units of the Steel Wolves

Color Scheme

The Steel Wolves employ silvery steel and brown. The silver is added to show the elite status among warriors. The more silver added, the more skilled the warrior is. Sometimes technicians add fur patterns to the brown portions to create the effect of prey animal skins.[15][16]

3145

Steel Wolves (Cluster/Veteran/Reliable)[17]

As of 3145 the Steel Wolves were an A-rated mercenary command operating at seventy-five percent of full Cluster strength and under contract to the Free Worlds League. The Steel Wolves were based on Holt.[17]

3151

Steel Wolves (Cluster/Veteran/Reliable)

  • CO: Galaxy Commander Xera.
As on 3151, the Steel Wolves fielded 2 BattleMech Trinaries, 1 Vehicle trinary, 1 Battle Armor/Infantry Trinary and full DropShip and JumpShip support.[18]

References

  1. ↑ Era Digest: Dark Age, pp. 18–19: Steel Wolves Profile - Basic setup of history
  2. ↑ Field Report: 3145, p. 23: Timeline 3132-3145 - Steel Wolves Invades attempts on Northwind and Terra in 3133-3134
  3. ↑ Era Digest: Dark Age, pp. 8–9: Breaking Point - Northwind campaign tidbits mentioned in 3134 section
  4. ↑ Era Digest: Dark Age, p. 8: 3134: Breaking Point - brief info on the Battle on Terra, which also included the Tenth Principes Guards
  5. ↑ Dark Age: 3135 PDA Journals, p. 193: "09 June 3135"
  6. ↑ Unit Digest: Steel Wolves p. 64
  7. ↑ Field Manual: 3145, p. 182
  8. ↑ Shattered Fortress, p. 21
  9. ↑ Unit Digest: Steel Wolves . 65
  10. ↑ Shattered Fortress, p. 53
  11. ↑ Shattered Fortress, p. 54
  12. ↑ Empire Alone, p. 28
  13. ↑ Empire Alone, pp. 66–67
  14. ↑ Service for the Dead, ch. 12
  15. ↑ MWDA: Miniatures
  16. ↑ Unit Digest: Steel Wolves
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Field Manual: 3145, p. 182: "Notable Mercenary Forces"
  18. ↑ Unit Digest: Steel Wolves p.63

Bibliography

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