Wolf's Dragoons

Wolf's Dragoons is a name that is synonymous with the best traditions of the mercenary profession operating within the Inner Sphere. They are considered to embody the ideals of honor, professionalism, and integrity that the less scrupulous members of the mercenary trade are sometimes portrayed in having.

They were initially of Clan origins, but have since integrated both Clan and Inner Sphere traditions and personnel.

Recon Mission

Formed to reconnoiter the Inner Sphere in the wake of a planned Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere, Wolf's Dragoons were equipped with what the Clans believed to be a shabby lineup of outdated BattleMechs and spaceships adequate for a small mercenary force, supposed to make them appear as a wholly unconspicious small mercenary group: Five regiments of pristine BattleMechs complemented with support units, Dropships, and Jumpships.

When the Dragoons first turned up in the Inner Sphere in 3005, led by Jaime Wolf and Joshua Wolf, with the mysterious Natasha Kerensky as their assistant, quite a bit of suspicion would fall on the group due to the forces that they had brought with them. Their initial appearance caused a panic for the Federated Suns planet that they made first contact with. Contrary to what the Clan planners had believed, Wolf's Dragoons possessed far more and better equipment than most other contemporary mercenary units could dream of. Especially their possession of adequate (by Star League standards) numbers of spacecraft and their superior maintenance capabilities marked them as special. Although their material wealth was generally attributed to the chance find of a lost Star League cache, this could not explain their unusually high level of professionalism and training, nor their sometimes peculiar tactics.

However, because their sheer size made them a force to be reckoned with they had little trouble in finding employers. Wolf's Dragoons chose to work for each of the five large Successor States in turn to study them.

First employer: The Federated Suns/House Davion (3005 - 3009)

The Dragoons would first work for House Davion. For 5 years they attacked worlds that had belonged to House Liao, until their contract expired. When the Federated Suns tried to renegotiate they were politely informed that this was not an option. The Dragoons moved on and served House Liao next. One stipulation in their contract was that the Dragoons would not be used to attack their former employer.

Second employer: The Capellan Confederation/House Liao (3010 - 3014)

During their employment with the Capellan Confederation, Chancellor Maximilian Liao used the Dragoons to destabilize the Free Worlds League in a Liao-incited civil war, by placing them under the command of Anton Marik in his attempt to to overthrow his half-brother Janos Marik, the Captain-General of the Free Worlds League. After initial successes, Anton Marik's forces suffered a series of setbacks and in 3014 he ordered the Dragoons to divide up an merge into his inept regular forces to bolster them. When the Dragoons refused in light of overdue payment and viewing the orders as suicidal, Marik executed 28 hostages including Joshua Wolf. In retaliation, the Dragoons attacked him on New Delos. While the rest of the Dragoons were fighting Anton Marik's house guard, a furious Natasha Kerensky led her infamous Black Widow Company in a direct assault against Anton Marik's stronghold that he had hidden behind an infernal defense line of burning forests. Anton Marik was killed in the action.

Third employer: The Free Worlds League/House Marik (3015 - 3019)

In 3015, the Dragoons left the employ of House Liao and went to work for the Free Worlds League proper. There they were given the mission of assaulting Hesperus and to harry forces of House Steiner. For the next 4 years they worked for House Marik. Then in 3019, the Dragoons regrouped their forces following particularly devastating losses and disappeared, only to reappear a few months later resupplied and back to full strength. At this time they also left the employ of House Marik and started to work for the Lyran Commonwealth.

Fourth employer: The Lyran Commonwealth/House Steiner (3020 - 3022)

Katrina Steiner used the Dragoons to launch attacks on the Draconis Combine, and for the next three years they did so without hesitation. Then in 3022, the Dragoons informed the Archon that they would be leaving her service to take up work with the Draconis Combine. As always, their contract forbid the Dragoons from being used against their former employer.

Fifth employer: The Draconis Combine/House Kurita (3023 - 3027)

The Dragoon's employment with House Kurita was initially a cordial relationship and they were used to raid the Federated Suns. For the next five years, they successfully worked alongside the DCMS and Jaime Wolf forged a fast friendship with their Kurita liaison officer, Minobu Tetsuhara. When the Draconis Combine realized their value, the Dragoons were assigned to assist in the creation of the Ryuken, a group of 5 regiments trained and organized the the fashion of the Dragoons instead of traditional DCMS doctrine. However, the relationship with House Kurita would eventually deteriorate. The Coordinator decided that either the Dragoons would join the DCMS fully or that they would be destroyed. To this end the Dragoons were ordered to deploy in several smaller units which were then harrassed by sabotage and framing for alledged war crimes. In an attempt to blackmail the Dragoons, a Dragoon space station was captured by Kurita special forces masquerading as freedom fighters, and later destroyed.

Finding themselves suddenly fighting an intense and taxing shadow war against their own employer for the second time, Jaime Wolf enacted a contingency plan that had been developed after the experience with Anton Marik. In a suicide mission, a small group of dedicated Dragoon soldiers and technicians fought their way into a HPG compound and sent a coded message to the scattered Dragoon forces throughout the Draconis Combine. The Dragoons subsequently withdrew and regrouped on the ice planet Misery. The Draconis Combine sent the Ryuken regiments under the command of none other than the unlucky Minobu Tetsuhara after them, thereby pitting friend against friend and students against their former teachers. Tetsuhara noted that the Dragoons did not move against the Combine until the day their contract had expired; but when that day had come Wolf's Dragoons finally launched a counter-attack and clashed with the Ryuken amidst the blinding snowstorms of Misery. The climactic battle severely mauled both sides, and spilled much of the best blood of both the Dragoons and the Draconis Combine. Tetsuhara and his aide Michi Noketsuna were captured by Dragoon forces, and Tetsuhara later committed seppuku (ritual suicide) for having failed to carry out his orders to destroy the Dragoons; on his request, Jaime Wolf personally beheaded him with his samurai sword as a last gesture of mutual respect and friendship. This scene shocked many Dragoon recruits from the Inner Sphere such as Dechan Frazer, but the Clan core personnell of Wolf's Dragoons including Jaime Wolf himself was accustomed to similar rituals among the Clans and respected and appreciated Tetsuhara's choice all the more.

Fourth Succession War

Following the devastating battles on Misery, the remaining Dragoons made their way to the Federated Suns in 3028. Unlike before, Jaime Wolf explicitly requested that the Dragoons be used to garrison worlds that would come under attack by the Draconis Combine. When the leaders of the Inner Sphere met on Terra for the wedding celebration of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner, Jaime Wolf threw the ritual swords of the late Minobu Tetsuhara at the feet of Draconis Combine Coordinator Takashi Kurita and publicly squandered him for betraying and ruining a worthy and loyal underling in the late Minobu Tetsuhara. The Fourth Succession War broke during the same wedding celebration. In what could almost be regarded as a war within a war, the Draconis Combine focused their efforts on the Dragoons during the initial phases of the Fourth Succession War. This may well have been clever speculation on behalf of Wolf's Dragoons or House Davion, as it channeled the actions of the irate House Kurita during the war in a predictable fashion, significantly reducing the threat it potentially posed.

Outreach

In the relative peace that followed the Fourth Succession War, the Dragoons were granted the right to settle upon the world of Outreach on their request. Unbeknownst to all but Wolf's Dragoons, Outreach held a forgotten Star League industrial complex which they reactivated and before long used to produce BattleMechs of their own.

During this period, Natasha Kerensky was sent throughout the Inner Sphere to recover war orphans and bring them back to Outreach. Once there, the orphans were given a home, educated, and eventually in most cases, joined the Dragoons. This process allowed the mercenary force to rebuild itself without becoming dependent upon any of the Inner Sphere nations.

In 3035, Natasha Kerensky restructured the Black Widow Company into a battalion strength unit organized with a unique configuration not seen before by the Inner Sphere. Each company, normally comprised of twelve mechs, were now comprised of fifteen mechs and were termed a "trinary". What was not revealed was that this type of configuration was a common element among the Clans, something that would only make sense much later. It would be another 15 years before its significance would be realized by the Inner Sphere.

Over the next 15 years, the Dragoons rebuilt their depleted resources by increasing their industrial base, forming alliances, and making additional preparations.

The Clan Invasion

In 3050, the whole of the Inner Sphere erupted into chaos when the Clan Invasion hit the worlds of the Free Rasalhague Republic, Federated Commonwealth, and Draconis Combine. In 3051, during a lull in the Invasion, Jaime Wolf called a conference on Outreach. All the heads of the various Inner Sphere houses and several mercenary leaders were invited. It was at the start of this conference that Jaime Wolf revealed the true origin of the Dragoons - they were originally a part of Clan Wolf and a scout force for the Clans, which were, in turn, revealed to be the descendants of the Star League Defense Force.

The Dragoons had never trusted ComStar or the Word of Blake, and this distrust escalated into open conflict in the late 3060s. During the subsequent Word of Blake Jihad, the Dragoons lost their homeworld and were reduced to a single regiment.

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