MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries/Rasalhague Missions

Overview

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries Rasalhague Missions details the unique campaign featured in Rise of Rasalhague, which can be played in both Campaign and Career Modes.

At its base, the Rasalhague Missions are a series of multiple mission operations with extensively scripted events and unique map layouts on an exceedingly tight timetable. As the game itself warns, the player must maintain a stable of multiple pilots and 'Mechs with gaps between missions only long enough for minimal repairs or light injuries to be healed. Aside from the longer gaps when traveling between systems, extensive refits and lengthy pilot recovery can sideline a significant portion of your strength for multiple missions, requiring careful management of resources.

False Promises

Broken Promises

Date of Transmission: 1 January 3031

Transmission Expires: 31 May 3031

Following a mission on the Lyran Commonwealth world of Kelenfold, Commander of the First Tyr Regiment Colonel Christian Månsdottir approaches the reputable Cavaliers to secure their services for a secretive mission.

Note: Once Månsdottir's offer is accepted, the player is immediately locked into the first part of the Rasalhague campaign through July 15 and cannot take on additional contracts or travel freely. Ignoring the contract prevents the player from participating in any further Rasalhague missions.

Depart for Kirchbach

After accepting his offer, Månsdottir explains the Cavaliers will soon be travelling to Kirchbach, a world he helped to liberate during the Fourth Succession War but that is now a site of escalating tensions between the liberated Rasalhague population, promised greater administrative control of the world on which they've resided for generations, and Lyran nobles with historical ties to Kirchbach from its days in the Tamar Pact seeking to reclaim property lost for centuries. Månsdottir promises to explain further after the Cavaliers arrive.

Kirchbach

Date of Arrival: 1 July 3031

• Employer: Independents
• Targeting: House Steiner
• Mission Brief: Christian Månsdottir and his second-in-command Tor Miraborg have secretly hired the Cavaliers to strike the House Kelswa-employed Gotterdammerung Society who are openly assaulting and forcibly evicting the Rasalhague population to reclaim the ancestral properties of Lyran noble families, as the First Tyr is unable to stand idly by but equally unwilling to betray the Lyran Commonwealth they serve.
• Rewards: CRD-3R Crusader
• Mission 1: 260 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 60 Assassination-like Mission where the Cavaliers, hiding their identities behind the IFF codes of the Blankenburg Beaters pirate band, must cripple the Gotterdammerung Society. The situation becomes complicated when both parties come under attack from the forces of the Haakon Magnusson-led Tyr Resistance Movement also seeking to save the people of Kirchbach.
• Mission 2: 270 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 65 Demolition Mission to flatten the Kelswa Guards' Forward Operating Base supporting the Gotterdammerung Society. With the Cavaliers now serving under the banner and direction of Magnusson's Tyr forces to halt the Lyran efforts, Månsdottir is put in a difficult position when Nicole Kelswa, niece of the ruling duke, angrily orders him to capture the Tyr attackers.

Message from Haakon Magnusson

Magnusson thanks the Cavaliers for their assistance on Kirchbach, explaining though Månsdottir meant well, his divided loyalty to the Commonwealth and Rasalhague people blinded him to the fact the Archon would never truthfully have the Rasalhague people's interests at heart and that only full independence will ensure they are truly free. Though his funds are largely tied up with supporting the First Tyr following their breakaway from the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces in support of the Tyr Resistance Movement, Magnusson hopes the Cavaliers will assist the independence movement in the future.

Ronin War

Incoming Transmission from Haakon Magnusson

Date of Transmission: 1 March 3033

Reaching out to check up on them, Haakon Magnusson advises that he will soon be seeking to employ the Cavaliers for an important task in the next six months but unable to reveal what just yet. Magnusson recommends if they are at all interested to use the intervening time to finish up any existing commitments and prepare at least a company of BattleMechs and MechWarriors for combat.

Rasalhague Independence

Date of Transmission: 1 September 3033

Transmission Expires: 28 February 3034

Out of respect for their role on Kirchbach, Haakon Magnusson offers the Cavaliers an exclusive one-year contact as he hurriedly tries to hire as many mercenaries as he can to aid the Rasalhague cause, indicating something momentous is about to happen and that his sponsors have very deep pockets.

Note: The player has roughly six months to accept or ignore this contract, providing a limited window for further preparation. Once Magnusson's offer is accepted, the player is immediately locked into the Rasalhague campaign for the yearlong duration and cannot take on additional contracts or travel freely.

Depart for Rasalhague

With the Cavaliers accepting the contract, Magnusson reveals that he has signed a pact with Gunji-no-Kanrei Theodore Kurita and Primus of ComStar Myndo Waterly to give the majority of the Rasalhague Military District independence as the Free Rasalhague Republic with him as its Elected Prince. While both ComStar and the Draconis Combine have pledged to support the new realm, the newly born KungsArmé is massively outnumbered by the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery forces in the RMD and Magnusson fears Kurita and Lyran loyalists will not withdraw easily. This has prompted him to bolster the KungsArmé with as many mercenaries he can hire no matter their pedigree. If all is well, the Cavaliers would merely serve out boring garrison duties on the FRR's new capital of Rasalhague alongside Månsdottir and the First Tyr.

Employer: Free Rasalhague Republic

Targeting: Ronin (Subsidiary of Outlaws)

Rasalhague

Date of Arrival: 13 March 3034

• Mission Brief: With the public announcement of the Free Rasalhague Republic, the Eighth Rasalhague Regulars and Twelfth Sun Zhang Academy Cadre were ordered to aid the ISF and FRR forces in arresting former district warlord and independence opponent Marcus Kurita and return him to Luthien, only for both units to rescue and pledge their support to Marcus Kurita's refusal of Rasalhague independence.
• Rewards: 4,000,000 C-bills, 100 Reputation, four Tier 4 SRM-4, three Tier 4 AC/5-BF, four Tier 5 flamers
• Mission 1: 320 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 70 Warzone-like Mission with the Cavaliers ordered to fight through the rogue DCMS forces at all costs to prevent Marcus Kurita from reaching the Reykjavik Spaceport and fleeing off-world aboard a Union DropShip.
• Mission 2: 330 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 75 Defense Mission to capture and protect the Eight Rasalhague Regulars' former HQ. With Marcus Kurita successfully escaping and publicly proclaiming the withdrawal order a sham, the KungsArmé is desperate to track him down, the Cavaliers sent to secure and protect any intel in the departed Eighth's HQ from the trapped rogue DCMS forces unable to join their fellow ronin.

Depart for Predlitz

With ISF assistance, the datacores found in the Eighth Rasalhague Regulars' base reveal Marcus Kurita's forces have fled to Predlitz. With ronin forces on other Rasalhague worlds rising up to resist the withdraw, the longer Marcus Kurita remains at large the worst the situation will become. Haakon Magnusson orders the First Tyr and their mercenary support Cavaliers to make the sixty-six day journey to Predlitz to bring him to justice.

Predlitz

Date of Arrival: 1 June 3034

• Mission Brief: Though a vital breadbasket world gifted by the Combine to the new-born Republic, Christian Månsdottir indicates that Marcus Kurita was welcomed with open arms by the fanatically pro-Coordinator inhabitants of Predlitz. With almost the entire world violently opposed to independence, the First Tyr and Cavaliers will encounter stiff resistance in their mission to capture the ronin leader.
• Rewards: 5,000,000 C-bills, 100 Reputation, STK-4N Stalker, three Tier 4 LRM-10, three Tier 4 PPC, one Tier 4 AC/10-BF
• Mission 1: 340 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 75 Beachhead Mission with the Cavaliers acting as vanguard to secure the landing zone for the First Tyr.
• Mission 2: 350 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 80 Warzone Mission where the Cavaliers must provoke the ronin forces into attacking in order to triangulate Marcus Kurita's location, since the mercenaries are better suited to the task than the slower assault-focused First Tyr.
• Mission 3: 360 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 80 Assassination Mission to advance on Marcus Kurita's final redoubt and eliminate high-ranked ronin. The elite Second Sword of Light, pledged to assist the KungsArmé, has arrived in-system and Månsdottir orders the Cavaliers to keep the ronin from escaping until they make planetfall.

Depart for Gunzburg

Though Marcus Kurita was shockingly eliminated on Predlitz by a supposed Lyran Loki agent and Loyalist DCMS forces have entered the fray on the side the Free Rasalhague Republic, the ronin forces continue to foment discord across the Republic while mercenaries abuse loopholes in their contracts to avoid having to fight. On worlds like Gunzburg, Lyran loyalists cite the unstable situation as reason to refuse to cede control to what they view as a dead-on-arrival nation in the face of the ronin threat, forcing the KungsArmé into costly three-way battles. To get the lay of the land, Månsdottir sends in the Dragon's Breath for reconnaissance as the First Tyr and the Cavaliers make the fifty-three day journey to the system.

Gunzburg

Date of Arrival: 19 August 3034

• Employer: Free Rasalhague Republic
• Targeting: House Steiner
• Mission Brief: With control split between Månsdottir's old nemesis Nicole Kelswa and her pet mercs, the Gotterdammerung Society and the ronin 211th Mechanized Assault Command, the effort to recapture Gunzburg for the Republic is deeply personal as many members of the First Tyr hail from the world, including Tor Miraborg.
• Mission 1: 370 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 85 Demolition Mission to destroy the Gotterdammerung Society's main supply depot to lure the Lyrans out of their entrenched defenses, but tragedy results when Kelswa threatens the lives of First Tyr families on-world if the Rasalhague forces don't immediately surrender.
• Mission 2: 400 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 85 Warzone-like Mission to break the 211th Mechanized Assault Command. With morale shattered by the slaughter of the First Tyr's families and Kelswa's forces still too strong, the First Tyr switches focus to eliminating the scattered ronin forces, splitting into a northern group led by Miraborg and the Dragon's Breath and a southern group led by Månsdottir and Cavaliers. The situation spirals out of control when the battered Dragon's Breath desert the Republic forces, forcing the Cavaliers and Månsdottir to desperately fight through if they have any hope of saving the outnumbered and overwhelmed Miraborg.
• Mission 2 Rewards: 1,000,000 C-bills, CP-10-Z Cyclops (damaged)

• Mission 3: 400 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 90 Warzone-like Mission to defeat the Kelswa and ronin forces. With Tor Miraborg critically injured and the Dragon's Breath having abandoned the world, the weakened First Tyr and Cavaliers are on the verge of collapse and forced to make a perilous gamble to retake Gunzburg: strike Kelswa while she is preoccupied with an attack against the remaining forces of the ronin 211th Mechanized Assault Command in the Bavaria Mountains.
• Mission 3 Rewards: 5,000,000 C-bills, 100 Reputation, AS7-D Atlas (damaged), two Tier 5 AC/20-BF, three Tier 5 medium lasers, two Tier 4 LRM-20-ST

Depart for Radstadt

With Gunzburg now free for the first time in centuries, the so-called "Ronin War" draws to a conclusion as the loyalist DCMS and KungsArmé finally make increasing headway against the rogue forces. As the weakened ronin scatter into disorganized remnants, Elected Prince Magnusson fears they may yet coalesce behind Marcus Kurita's son Alexander, the last senior ronin officer left. With Alexander seeking to gather supplies on Radstadt before rallying others to his banner, the First Tyr and Cavaliers are ordered to make the twenty-eight day journey to Radstadt to join the First Kavalleri already on-world and put a definitive end to the conflict by defeating him.

Radstadt

Date of Arrival: 15 October 3034

• Employer: Free Rasalhague Republic
• Targeting: Ronin (Subsidiary of Outlaws)
• Mission Brief: With Radstadt the site of one of the Combine's largest facilities holding political prisoners and POWs prior to the defeat of the Ninth Pesht Regulars by the First Tyr during the Fourth Succession War, the world boasts considerable hidden stores of military material equally vital to the ronin forces as well as the Republic. The Vinson's Vigilantes refusal to assist against the ronin result in the First Kavalleri taking heavy losses and failing to prevent Kurita's arrival, making his defeat fall upon the shoulders of the First Tyr and Cavaliers.
• Rewards: 5,000,000 C-bills, 200 Reputation, one Tier 3 Gauss rifle, four Tier 4 medium pulse lasers, two Tier 3 LRM-20 with Artemis IV, four tons of Gauss ammo, four tons of LRM Artemis ammo, three double heat sinks
• Mission 1: 400 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 95 Beachhead Mission to secure the First Tyr's landing zone, the overwhelmed First Kavalleri able to assist only if relays to the ronin controlled satellite network are destroyed.
• Mission 2: 400 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 100 Assassination and Defense Mission to capture a supply depot and defeat the last ronin forces. The troops under Alexander Kurita's command have spent the last month excavating a Kurita weapons cache that will allow them to resupply and continue their crusade against the Republic. While Månsdottir offers a performance bonus to preserve as much of cache and its automated repair bays for the KungsArmé as possible, nothing is more important than eliminating the ronin and Alexander Kurita's unusual sword-wielding samurai 'Mech.

Message from Tor Miraborg

Date of Completion: 22 October 3034

Though the Cavaliers went above and beyond fulfilling their contract, Tor Miraborg, crippled and embittered due to the actions of the Dragon's Breath, tars them with the same brush as the other mercenaries that left the new-born Republic in the lurch. Insisting while they have pulled the wool over the eyes of both Magnusson and Månsdottir as to their true mercenary nature, the defiant Miraborg vows the Cavaliers will never be welcome on Gunzburg while he is in charge.