Wolf's Dragoons

Wolf's Dragoons emblem

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. Formed to reconnoiter the Inner Sphere to prepare for 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Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere, Wolf's Dragoons were equipped with what the Clans believed to be a shabby lineup of outdated BattleMechs and spaceships adequate for a small mercenary force, supposed to make them appear as a wholly unconspicious small mercenary group. They were sent under the command of the freeborn brothers Jaime Wolf and Joshua Wolf. Their personnell was largely recruited from freeborn volunteers, mostly from Clan Wolf, and only relatively few trueborn Clan warriors. Among the latter, the mysterious Natasha Kerensky became the most famous.

Noteworthy sub-units of Wolf's Dragoons include their elite Black Widow Company (led by Natasha Kerensky), the powerful Zeta Battaillon of assault 'Mechs and the special forces of the Seventh Kommando. Enroute to the Inner Sphere Jaime Wolf decided to create a secondary mission of finding and examining lost Star League caches; this would eventually lead to the formation of the ostensibly independent mercenary group Snord's Irregulars.

Recon Mission

When the Dragoons first turned up in the Inner Sphere on April 11, 3005, 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 of Delos that they made first contact with. Contrary to what the Clan planners had believed, Wolf's Dragoons possessed far more and better equipment than other contemporary mercenary units could dream of: Five regiments of pristine BattleMechs, including designs that were either essentially extinct in the Inner Sphere (such as the Falcon) or had never before been seen there (such as the Imp or the Annihilator), complemented with support units, Dropships, and Jumpships. 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 first worked for House Davion. For 5 years they attacked worlds that belonged to House Liao, until their contract expired. Their successful operations included the detection and elimination of a Liao raider base on Halloran V early on, and the capture of New Aragon in 3008. During the battle for New Aragon, Dragoon BattleMechs killed the son of mercenary commander Wayne Waco, CO of the defending Waco Rangers, under dubious circumstances, alledgedly by stepping on the pilot after he had ejected from his destroyed 'Mech. Ever since, the Waco Rangers have been sworn enemies of Wolf's Dragoons.

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, the Dragoons initially fought with great success against House Marik forces on Wallacia, Scarborough and Shiro III. However in 3013, they were inexplicably assigned garrison duty on Carver V. This forced inactivity caused some unrest among the Dragoons and during this time they fell out with a fellow mercenary unit in Liao employ, McCarron's Armoured Cavalry on the planet Bithinia.

Chancellor Maximilian Liao then used the Dragoons to destabilize the Free Worlds League in a Liao-incited civil war, by placing Wolf's Dragoons 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. The coup started on May 22, 3014. After initial successes, Anton Marik's forces suffered a series of setbacks and eventually he ordered the Dragoons to divide up and merge into his inept regular forces to bolster them. In light of overdue payment and viewing the orders as suicidal, the Dragoons refused and Jaime Wolf stormed out of a meeting. This prompted the infuriated Anton Marik to take 28 remaining Dragoons including Joshua Wolf hostage, and execute them shortly afterwards. In retaliation, the Dragoons attacked his stronghold on New Delos. On October 22th, 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 base that he had hidden behind an infernal defense line of burning forests. Anton Marik was killed in the action, ending the Marik civil war.

A scenario from the CityTech rulebook recreates the assault of the Black Widow Company on Anton Marik's residence, which is defended by fixed gun turrets, heavy tanks, infantry and a handful of BattleMechs: A Stalker, two Warhammers and two Crusaders.

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

Instead of attacking the Dragoons in their entrenched position after the abortive coup, Janos Marik offered to hire the unit and the Dragoons went to work for the Free Worlds League proper. For their new employer they embarked on a remarkable deep strike mission against the Lyran Commonwealth that ultimately aimed for the heavily fortified BattleMech factories on Hesperus II. When Lyran intelligence learned of the mission objective they rushed reinforcements to Hesperus II, including the mercenary units Hsien's Hotheads and Hanson's Roughriders, who barely managed to fend off the Dragoon assault when it came. Following the costly defeat, the Dragoons regrouped their forces in 3019 and disappeared, only to reappear in early 3020 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. One of their first missions was a successful raid by the Black Widows against New Wessex where they narrowly evaded the wrath of the Waco Rangers who almost managed to intercept them at their dropzone. The Black Widows also raided the Davion world of Doneval II in 3021. The first large Dragoon operation was against the Kurita world of Dromini VI, where they encountered the elite Second Sword of Light regiment among the defenders. During the fighting, a light Kurita scout lance led by Tai-i Minobu Tetsuhara encountered Jaime Wolf himself, whose BattleMech (an Archer painted in blue and gold) was seriously damaged and overheated. Following the warrior code of Bushido, Tetsuhara allowed the respected enemy to withdraw instead of finishing him off in an uneven battle. This later earned him the wrath of his superiors.

Near the end of 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. Although Jaime Wolf himself later noted that the Steiner contract was only a short one, the exact reason behind the unusually short time of employment is unknown.

Fifth employer: The Draconis Combine/House Kurita (3023 - 3028)

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. The Dragoon's employment with House Kurita was initially a cordial relationship and they were used to raid the Federated Suns.

A scenario from the original BattleTech boardgame rulebook takes place during one such raid: During the battle for Coursadin (Remis III), elements of the Black Widow Company have withdrawn into an isolated valley to repair and regroup. Davion troops (elements of the 3rd Guards and from the mercenary unit Lindon's Company) attack them in an attempt to kill Natasha Kerensky herself.

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 to weaken their strength, and were then harassed by anti-Dragoon propaganda, sabotage and engineered riots; the unit was also framed for alleged war crimes. To put further pressure on the Dragoons, their space station orbiting their HQ world of An Ting was captured by Kurita special forces masquerading as freedom fighters, and later destroyed with all Dragoon personnel still aboard. Before long, Kurita BattleMechs attacked the Dragoons on An Ting in earnest on grounds of false accusations, but the mercenaries had entrenched themselves and managed to fend off the attack.

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. Following their orders, Wolf's Dragoons withdrew and regrouped on the ice planet Misery in 3028.

Misery was chosen as a rallying point for the Dragoon's combat units because it was within easy reach of all their scattered units, but also because it was far off the escape route of their civilians who fled elsewhere - and last but not least because Jaime Wolf felt the name was fitting.

He then issued a direct challenge to the Draconis Combine, knowing that House Kurita could not ignore it.

Misery

The Draconis Combine responded in force. Warlord Grieg Samsonov (on direct, albeit inofficial orders from the Coordinator himself) cruelly sent none other than the unlucky Minobu Tetsuhara, who was promoted to General for just this purpose, to Misery with explicit orders to destroy Wolf's Dragoons. For this mission Tetsuhara received command of the Ryuken regiments, augmented by several other line regiments. Additional regiments under Samsonov's direct orders were stationed on DropShips hidden on the far side of the moon with orders to drop behind the enemy lines if and when Tetsuhara managed to draw the entire Dragoon force into battle. Samsonov disliked Tetsuhara with a vengeance and was fully aware that he pitted friend against friend and students against their former teachers.

Torn between friendship and duty, Tetsuhara did his best to carry out his orders. When he noticed that the Dragoons concentrated their BattleMechs in one location but did not deploy conventional or AeroSpace units, he assumed that Wolf wanted a ritual 'Mech battle and felt compelled to comply. In fact, Jaime Wolf knew how to use the Bushido code of honour against him so that the Dragoons could dictate the terms of the engagement.

Both armies set up camp far away from each other. It was not until midnight some days later that Wolf's Dragoons finally moved out. Michi Noketsuna, Tetsuhara's aide and friend, reported this to him and oberved that they were obviously moving under the cover of the darkness. Tetsuhara could not help but note that there was perhaps another reason: It was just past midnight, and the formal contract between Wolf's Dragoons and the Draconis Combine had run out.

The two forces met at an ice field where, much to the surprise of the Kurita forces, the Dragoon BattleMechs began to challenge their counterparts to single combat one after another. After a while, a Kurita 'Mech that had just destroyed his Dragoon opponent was suddenly destroyed by renegade fire from the Dragoon lines. Enraged, the Kurita forces charged across the ice field while the Dragoons retreated. Tetsuhara could not stop his troops even when he realized the trap for what it was. Demolition charges broke up the ice and swallowed many Draconis Combine 'Mechs. The Dragoons then turned around to pick off their remaining pursuers who suddenly found themselves on breaking ground. Only the timely arrival of heavy reinforcements allowed Tetsuhara's troops to withdraw.

The losses from this first encounter already reduced the Draconis Combines' numerical superiority. Worse, it quickly became apparent that Warlord Samsonov had betrayed Tetsuhara and his troops. Twice, Tetsuhara called in his reinforcements when he had the Dragoons ready to be crushed between hammer and anvil. Twice, the reinforcements failed to appear and Tetsuhara barely managed to disengage in good order. In the weeks of vicious fighting that followed, much of the best blood of both Wolf's Dragoons and House Kurita was spilled in the icy wastes of aptly named Misery. While both sides suffered from an equally high rate of attrition from the harsh climate, the Dragoons continually outmaneuvered the Kurita troops and rapidly wore them down. Tetsuahara did not know that the snowstorms only blinded his own units. The Dragoons had deployed recon satellites in orbit and by avoiding AeroSpace combat, had prevented Tetsuhara from noticing them.

The fighting ended when both Minobu Tetsuhara and Michi Noketsuna were captured following the destruction of their 'Mechs, after an attack on the Kurita command post. Tetsuhara had been running from the damaged communication truck to his own BattleMech, a Dragon, when he had suddenly found himself standing before Jaime Wolf's blue-and-gold Archer. Wolf did not kill him, and the appearance of Kurita reinforcements led by Michi Noketsuna in his red Ostroc 'Mech drove the attackers away for the moment. With his command post destroyed, Tetsuhara tried to regroup his forces, who were hopelessly scattered in the snowstorm, but his makeshift command lance was soon brought to battle and destroyed by a Dragoon lance led by Dechan Frazer.

In the aftermath of the Misery debacle, Tetsuhara saw no other way than to commit seppuku (ritual suicide by thrusting his Wakizashi, his samurai short sword, into his own abdomen) for having failed to carry out his orders to destroy the Dragoons, even though Jaime Wolf desperately tried to dissuade his friend, explaining how he had been betrayed by his own superiors. Tetsuhara remained adamant, and asked Wolf to fulfill a certain role in the ceremony. Only after Wolf had accepted this request he learned that his role would be to kill Tetsuhara before he could show a sign of pain. Although at first shocked, Wolf did as he was asked and shot Tetsuhara with a laser pistol at the conclusion of the ceremony as a last gesture of mutual respect and friendship, in the presence of Natasha Kerensky and all Dragoon bataillon commanders who had assembled to show their respect. Although many were dismayed, similar rituals were not at all alien to those among them who were original Clansmen.

Fourth Succession War

Following the devastating battles on Misery, the remaining Dragoons made their way to the Federated Suns. 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 brought the ritual swords of the late Minobu Tetsuhara and threw them at the feet of Draconis Combine Coordinator Takashi Kurita. In fluent Japanese he publicly scorned the Coordinator for betraying and ruining a worthy and loyal underling, and pushing aside Takashi Kurita's claim that it had all been a misunderstanding, declared war between Wolf's Dragoons and House Kurita. It would be Takashi Kurita, and not Jaime Wolf, who would have to present the swords to the Samurai's widow and explain to her what had happened.

This may have been clever speculation on behalf of Jaime Wolf or his new employer, Hanse Davion. 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 that Hanse Davion launched on the very same evening. This channeled the actions of the irate House Kurita during the war in a predictable fashion, significantly reducing the threat it potentially posed, but the Dragoons paid a high price in blood on Glenmora, Harrow's Sun, Wapakoneta and Crossing. By 3031 they were reduced to a single provisional regiment of mixed troops. Many observed that the bitter losses had broken the spine of the unit, or at least cost them their edge.

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, which was ceded to them by Hanse Davion in 3030. Unbeknownst to all but Wolf's Dragoons, Outreach held a forgotten Star League industrial complex. The Dragoons had previously invested in several firms, most notably Blackwell Industries (originally a minor supplier of spare parts), and with their help they reactivated the Star League facilities on Outreach and before long used them to produce BattleMechs of their own. This also enabled them to provide maintenance and repair services as well as spare parts.

Outreach had been the site of the Star League Army Martial Olympics and was known as the "Warrior World". The Dragoons turned it into a mercenary center, opened a Hiring Hall in 3032 and offered repair, maintenance and training services. Within a few years Outreach rivalled, and eventually surpassed, legendary Galatea which had previously been known as the "Mercenary Star".

During this period, Dragoon agents were 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.

The Black Widow Company was the first Dragoon unit to hire out their services again, and went to action on Tsinghai following a contract signed November 7, 3031. Natasha Kerensky was promoted to Colonel and 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. The Black Widow Battaillon was recalled to Outreach in 3035 and served as training cadre for the Dragoons for the next seven years.

The Clan Invasion

In 3050, the whole of the Inner Sphere erupted into chaos when the Clan Invasion hit the worlds of the Oberon Confederation, Free Rasalhague Republic, Federated Commonwealth, and Draconis Combine. Wolf recalled all Dragoons to Outreach. 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. Until then, the Dragoons had not fought the Clans on the battlefield, having been held in reserve by House Davion who made good use of their expertise to gather intelligence on the Clans and their invasion.

In late late 3051 the Clans closed in on Luthien, the captial world of the Draconis Combine. Fearing that the Combine might collapse and thus allow the Clans to concentrate their onslaught on the Federated Commonwealth, Hanse Davion decided to help his arch enemy. Boldly, he sent both Wolf's Dragoons and the Kell Hounds, two elite mercenary units who were sworn enemies of the Draconis Combine, to save that very realm. Although both were less than happy, they carried out their orders and saved Luthien from Clan Smoke Jaguar and Clan Nova Cat; Takashi Kurita subsequently owed the survival of his realm to its most hated enemies.

Following the schism in 3052 after the the Battle of Tukayyid, ComStar had lost much of the trust previously placed in the order by many, and their Mercenary Review Board was dissolved. Its successor, the Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission, was established on Outreach, cementing the world's reputation as the new Mercenary Star.

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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