Rudolf Schmidt
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Rudolf Schmidt | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Born | 3100[1][2][3] |
| Affiliation | Hanseatic League Scorpion Empire |
| Profile | |
| Rank | Captain-Marshal[2] (formerly), Star Colonel[4] |
| Profession | MechWarrior |
Rudolf Schmidt was a Hanseatic League officer and its last surviving leader before it’s absorption into the Scorpion Empire.
Contents
History[edit]
Early Career[edit]
Rudolf was born into a stonemason family on Riga. Later he joined the military and graduated first of his class into the Lübeck Military Academy in 3122. He quickly advanced through the ranks based on his own merits. In 3129, while battalion commander of the Regional Defense Force 7, he counterattacked the Sabertooths pirate band during their raid on the factory district of Visby. Besides routing them with a series of bold counter maneuvers, he was able to locate their secret base, wipe them out after chasing them down, and returned victorious with captured DropShips and JumpShips. In 3131, he was named commander of the RDF7 in recognition of his leadership skills.[5]
Captain-Marshal[edit]
After Helga Bauer retired as Captain-Marshal of the Hanseatic Defense Force in 3135, Schmidt would chosen by the Captain-Generals and Admirals to succeed her.[1] Like his predecessor, he was ill-inclined to rest on his laurels. Besides regular undertaking a grueling physical exercise regimen on his Dropship to stay physically fit, he sought to use constant and unannounced live-fire training exercises with hand-picked elite soldiers to push the HDF's units to improve their performance on his unique "inspection tours" across the League. Besides testing the JumpShip circuit's travel time for the HDF, this also served as a method for him to assign leaders and advisors with proven skills into each of the RDF's once said elites in the Schmidt's Petraries unit reached the end of their assignment tours. At the same time, the training exercises helped with finding potential protegees for him to induct for further training. Thanks to his work, by 3140, the HDF was an exceptionally well-drilled and skilled military forces.[6]
During the Hanseatic Crusade, he would lead the entirety of the Hanseatic Defense Force in defending their nation against the Imperio's conquest and would command them into effective delaying actions and counter feints that delayed the League's conquest. One of the most notable was the counterattack of Lübeck; one of the Hansa's few victories. However, all that only delayed the invaders and their steady progress. During the battle of Bremen, he managed to stall the Scorpion's advance, until the Merchant Council, captured, comitted an act of mass suicide which destroyed most of the capital city. Rudolf immediately ordered all HDF forces to surrender in the name of saving the lives of their civilians. With the Council's death, he became the last remaining authority figure within the League and sent orders to all HDF forces in the Hanseatic League to surrender to the Scorpions; though these orders not always were obeyed.[7]
Scorpion Empire[edit]
After the Hanseatic Crusade and the absorption of the Hanseatic League into the now called Scorpion Empire, he would be adopted as a warrior within the Clan touman. As tribute to the skills of his former adversary and in part to quell the insurrections across the former Hansa worlds, Khan Magon Scott declared the founding of the new Schmidt Bloodname in 3145; in much less time typically needed for BloodFoundings from other Freeborn ristars within the Empire. This succeeded in quelling a major portion of the unrest within the Hansa, though Rudolf didn't like being paraded and asked to give speeches as he was a soldier first and foremost. Soon after becoming a BloodFounder, he won his Trial of Position and became a Star Captain in Alpha Galaxy. Thereafter, he joined the newly created Eta Galaxy, now home of several clusters of former Hansa warriors, before rising to the rank of Star Colonel.
When the Empire's Hellion Galaxy needed to fill several vacancies in 3149, he transferred over, though his departure of Eta Galaxy impacted their moral. Upon doing so, he became the oldest member of the Hellion Keshik's history, and served as the executive officer of SaKhan Valentina Tazegül. Rudolf has encountered several enemies within Hellion Keshik; most notably Arabelle Sword, the commander of Keshik's Elementals, who coveted the role he took. However, any overt aggression has ceased once he defeated her into a Trial of Grievance in response to her challenges.[8] With SaKhan Tazegül badly wounded and in a coma after the Keshik's successful Trial in the Chaine Cluster, rumors persist that her position might go to Schmidt; a serious possibility that may partly pacify the more restive elements in the former Hanseatic League that have yet to be placated.[9]
Battlemech[edit]
As member of Hellion Keshik in 3151, Rudolf was allotted two 'Mechs of differing weight classes: An Adder E and an Awesome C.[10]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Spotlight On: Schmidt's Petraries, p. 6
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Operational Turning Points: Hanseatic Crusade, p. 19
- ↑ Spotlight On: Hellion Keshik, p. 7
- ↑ Spotlight on: Hellion Keshik p. 10
- ↑ Operational Turning Points Hanseatic Crusades p. 19
- ↑ Operational Turning Points Hanseatic Crusades p. 10
- ↑ Operational Turning Points Hanseatic Crusades p. 13
- ↑ Spotlight on: Hellion Keshik p. 7
- ↑ Spotlight On: Hellion Keshik, pp. 3–7
- ↑ Spotlight on: Hellion Keshik p. 10