Ronan Carlyle

Ronan Carlyle
Personal
Born	3125
Affiliation	House Carlyle
Profile
Rank	Hauptmann
Profession	Noble
Family
Parents	Gardner Carlyle (father)
Siblings	Isobel Carlyle

Ronan Carlyle was a Lyran Commonwealth noble, Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces officer and finally leader of the reborn Gray Death Legion mercenary unit.

History

Early Life

Ronan was the eldest child of Gardner Carlyle, Count of Odessa, and great-grandson of Grayson Death Carlyle, founder of the famed mercenary unit the Gray Death Legion, and grew up the future heir to his father's title. Ronan and his little sister Isobel decided to serve in the LCAF, unlike their forefathers.

LCAF Service

Ronan hoped to receive a posting in the Royal Guards Brigade upon graduation from the Coventry Military Academy in 3148. That same year he testified in favor of his sister during a disciplinary hearing, but the hearing was cut short by the arrival of Clan Jade Falcon forces and the resulting Battle of Coventry. Ronan fought in the battle, defending the Coventry Metal Works industriplex. He was threatened by Elementals but Isobel's arrival saved him, with her charging to his rescue.

After graduating, Ronan was assigned to the less prestigious Third Lyran Regulars which wounded his pride. After a few years in the service, during which he served in the specialized unit KSK 9, he fought at least one battle against the Falcons on Dustball. During the fighting he was ordered to leave his comrade Jennifer Kipping behind but refused, instead choosing to fight alone against two Clan OmniMechs in order to rescue her.

Sometime later, Ronan met General Sarah Regis at a war games conference. Recognizing the young officer's potential, Regis incorporated him into her 26th Arcturan Guards and soon Ronan commanded the Second Company, Third Battalion of the Twenty-sixth Guards. He arranged his sister's transfer to the unit when she graduated from the Coventry Military Academy in 3150.

Ronan and his sister followed the Twenty-sixth to Arcturus, believing they were on a legitimate mission. They only uncovered the truth on 13 August 3151, when they heard General Sarah Regis' announcement about the resurrection of the Tamar Pact. After discussing it with his sister, both Carlyles agreed to find out how many Lyran loyalists were in the unit's ranks. In a later meeting of the troops, General Kathleen McQuade announced the official defection of the Twenty-sixth; those who wanted to remain in the LCAF had to leave. Ronan and Isobel exited from the ranks, but only a handful of others followed them, much to Ronan's distress.

Ronan was the highest-ranking officer of the 216 loyalist Arcturan soldiers, so he took command of the departing troops. Once their commercial DropShip arrived in the Lyran system of Garrison, he sent a report about the Twenty-sixth Arcturans' defection to the planetary authorities. He was surprised to see Hauptmann-Kommandant Kipping as the receiving officer and was even more shocked when she arrested him and all of his subordinates. After a week of interrogation, Ronan was freed and dishonorably discharged from the LCAF along with all the other loyalists on orders from the garrison commander Hauptmann-General Timofey Bondayehr, who considered them possible defectors or Tamar spies.

Ronan sent a message to his parents and, while awaiting their response, his sister and most of his people followed him to a salvage yard belonging to the Carlyle family where the manager transferred control to them. Ronan's intentions were to obtain enough money to buy a ticket to Odessa by searching through the scrap but, on 14 September and after finding a Clan Gargoyle OmniMech, his sister told him that most of their people wanted to remain together and under his command. This inspired Ronan to take the first steps toward creating a mercenary unit.

Mercenary Career

On 26 October, Ronan's people already had a functional unit and received another visit from Kipping. The Twenty-sixth Scout Company had defected to try to free some Hinterlands planets from Jade Falcon control and all other Lyran military units were unavailable to stop them – leaving Ronan's fresh mercenary command in a position to help. Despite Ronan's objections to working with or for Kipping again, she contracted him and his still-unnamed unit. Ronan's unit had three working BattleMechs, several tanks, and both armored and unarmored infantry, but the defectors far outnumbered them.

At Isobel's suggestion, the newly formed unit took the name of the Gray Death Legion and then moved to intercept the Twenty-sixth Scout Company. Ronan proved his tactical genius during the encounter, using the Legion's three 'Mechs as an anvil – while the Scout Company attacked them head-on, the Legion's VTOL, infantry, and hoverbikes attacked them from the flanks and immobilized their support vehicles. Knowing that her mission was doomed without support vehicles, the Scout Company's leader Kommandant Liesl Wagner surrendered.

Two days later, Ronan presented himself to Hauptmann-General Bondayehr and, when the general attempted to pay the Legion less than promised and denied him all salvage from the defeated Scout Company, Ronan threatened to denounce him to the MRBC before leaving. The next day, Ronan met with Isobel in his hotel and she gave him a message from Odessa; it contained their father's congratulations for both their actions and more funds for their mercenary group. Ronan was also surprised to see his old commander General McQuade there, who informed the siblings of the Lyran plan to cashier all the Twenty-sixth Scout Company's members and an offer for the newly reborn Legion: a contract with the Tamar Pact in a few months, if they built up enough strength. After the general departed, Ronan and Isobel moved to receive the Scout Company's people and made sure they knew they weren't alone and had a place in the Legion if they wanted it.

After the legion recruited most of the Scout Company's members - growing to battalion strength in the process - they accepted the proposed contract from the Tamar Pact. Their first destination was the newly incorporated planet of Crimond where, on 2 February, Ronan and Isobel were present when a bomb destroyed a government building in the planetary capital of Sol City. Fortunately, Ronan escaped unscathed and Isobel received only a minor wound, although it was made evident they would have a lot of work to do in order to secure the planet for the Pact.

Two days later, Ronan and Isobel meet with their liaison officer - who was very hostile towards mercenaries - and Isobel quickly retaliated with hostile words of her own before Ronan managed to defuse the situation and obtain work assignations for the Legion. After reviewing them, Ronan asked his sister which of the two tasks would suit them better and she suggested accepting both at the same time, dividing the Legion. Reluctantly, Ronan agreed and took the Legion's main body to assist the local police forces in terrorist hunting, while Isobel took her group - which she called Carlyle's Commandos - to a neighboring continent to inspect and claim an old Star League fort.

Ronan's group didn't have much trouble completing their mission, nor did his sister's; Isobel only contacted him once during the operation. When both Carlyles regrouped on 7 February, it was to announce their success to their liaison officer. Additionally, Isobel had not only completed her mission but had also obtained new recruits: a MechWarrior of Clan origin named Curtain and several infantrymen and tankers. Ronan, while initially reluctant to accept the recruits, ultimately agreed with his sister and welcomed Curtain and his men into the Legion.

While still on Crimond, Ronan was contacted by Ta-heng Cai, the highest ranking officer of the mercenary unit Fitzroy's Fusiliers, which was recently shattered by partisan bombing. Unable to survive as unit on their own, Cai begged Ronan to accept his surviving men—consisting of half a company—into the Legion. Ronan accepted and named Cai captain of the Legion's new third company.

After finishing their work on Crimond, the Legion was relocated to Pandora for a garrison contract which was expected to last six months. Upon landing on Pandora, Ronan was contacted by a spaceport official who informed him that he had a BattleMech awaiting him in a warehouse. To Ronan's surprise, it was his ancestor Grayson Carlyle's Marauder, sent there as a present from his father.

After the Legion had settled into their new base, Ronan became determined to train the Legion nonstop in order to integrate the Fusiliers' survivors and to create an official Legion doctrine. On 3 May 3152, he received a visit from an envoy of the planetary Baron Elam Nobu but refused to talk her. Later, while participating in field exercises, Ronan was informed by Tamar Pact intelligence officer Zahara Khaled about a conspiracy led by Baron Nobu intended to seize control of Pandora from the Pact. This would entail blaming the Gray Death Legion for a major terrorist attack, with Ronan quickly accepting the situation before ordering his forces to prepare for imminent action.

Ronan laid a careful trap for the rebel forces attempting to destroy them, and they fell directly into it. He personally downed a BattleMaster, kiling one of the rebel officers, and teamed with Curtain to down a second one piloted by Hector Jurasco, the commander of the attackers.

Later, Ronan led the counterattack against the rebels, and the secesionists were crushed in two weeks. On 22 May, when the cleaning process was almost complete, he talked with his sister, needeing her to tell him to cease worrying so much. Ronan aso said than he was considering to don't renovate the Legion's contract with the Pact.

Personality

As a Lyran officer, Ronan was well aware of the reality of the Lyran social generals but simply didn't take them as role models. As the leader of the Legion, he led the unit with a strong sense of responsibility to those in his charge and a collaborative leadership role, slowly assuming a father-figure role within the Legion. He was very protective of his little sister.

A strong tactician himself, Ronan proved to be a master of combined-arms tactics, using infantry, tanks, and VTOLS as his main attack units while relegating BattleMechs to a decoy and distraction role. He was also very open to the ideas of others.

BattleMechs

Ronan piloted a Gauntlet OmniMech in his service to the LCAF. After being dispossessed by the Arcturan Guards' defection, he replaced it with a salvaged Gargoyle OmniMech.

After arriving on Pandora, Ronan replaced his Gargoyle with his ancestor's Marauder, which had been upgraded with Clan technology.

Bibliography

• BattleTech: Legends
• Decision at Pandora
• Mercenary's Honor (novella)
• The Price of Duty (novella)
• Tamar Rising