Annette Leyland

Annette Leyland
Personal
Also known as	Atomic Annie
Died	4 February, 3073
Affiliation	Federated Commonwealth
Profile
Rank	Leftenant General
Profession	MechWarrior
Family
Spouse	Mark Scar (lover)

Annette "Atomic Annie" Leyland served in the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth as the commanding officer of the Fifth FedCom RCT. She and her unit became infamous during their battles in the FedCom Civil War for using nuclear weapons.

History

Originally posted as the executive officer of the Fifth FedCom RCT, under the command of Hauptmann General James White, Annette Leyland was tapped by High Command to cover down on the day-to-day responsibilities of running the unit when her superior began to abuse prescription narcotics. When General White died during the ill-fated invasion of Axton in 3063, Leyland succeeded him in command, and led the unit into combat against the Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers and the First Bell Training Battalion.

Battle of Axton

Annette Leyland and the Fifth FedCom had already started off the invasion of Axton on the back foot, and things got progressively worse for the unit after their first contact with Allied forces. The survivors of the DropShip collisions barely numbered more than the training battalion they were sent to "convince" to stand down, and that battalion quickly launched a guerrilla campaign that served to harass and frustrate the Fifth. To make matters worse, the Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers arrived on Axton shortly after the Fifth FedCom did, and quickly drove the Loyalists into the rough terrain of the Keliant Mountains. Annette's request for reinforcements had gone unanswered for months and she was about to give up hope when she received a coded transmission from New Avalon. The message, obviously from someone highly placed in AFFC High Command, revealed the location of a weapons cache, one which contained atomic warheads.

Annette took the warheads but made a promise to herself that she would only use them if absolutely necessary. As it turned out, necessary would come much sooner than she expected. In June of 3064, she found herself and the Fifth encircled by the Fusiliers and in danger of being wiped out. She authorized the use of one warhead on the enemy forces. The resulting blast wiped out the entire training battalion and most of the Fusiliers' non-'Mech forces, forcing the Allies to retreat. Annette ordered the Fifth to immediately fall back to the planet's Wangker Aerospace factory, where she intended to secure transport off-world and escape. The Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers, now rallied and hungry for revenge, launched a ferocious attack against the Fifth FedCom RCT. Annette responded by deploying fourteen more warheads, which all but annihilated the Fusiliers, and quickly fled from Axton with her men and women.

Annette was haunted and guilt-ridden by the choices she had made. She anguished over whether she had made the right call in a personal journal, arguing with herself over whether she was a monster or a savior. Eventually she came to the conclusion that she had to have used the atomics in order to save the lives of her unit, and tried to lessen her horror by equating the deaths of the Fusiliers to casualties they would have sustained had she engaged in conventional war. She concluded her thoughts with the understanding that a military tribunal would eventually decide her fate.

Outlaw

Once they fled from Marlette, the remainder of the Fifth were immediately declared outlaws by both the Lyran Alliance and the Federated Suns. The unit had bounties placed on its collective head by many people, with Annette herself worth twenty million C-bills. In the wake of her use of nuclear weapons, she received the nickname "Atomic Annie" and was commonly referred to as such by LAAF and AFFS personnel. Presumably she and the Fifth sold their services as a mercenary BattleMech unit to whoever dared to hire them, as their history and whereabouts remain unknown from the conclusion of the Civil War to their sudden arrival on New Avalon. On the run, she formed a close bond with Marcus Cleveland, later known as Mark Scar, one of her senior staff officers.

Third Battle of New Avalon

In December 3072, Annette and the remnant of the Fifth FedCom RCT arrived on New Avalon to assist in lifting the Word of Blake siege of the planet. She ordered the use of five of her remaining six nuclear warheads and managed to destroy several Word of Blake ships that were in orbit, breaking through their blockade. When she reached the ground, she was greeted by Marshal of the Armies Jackson Davion, who still bore a grudge against her for what she had done during the Civil War. Despite his personal feelings, he allowed her and the Fifth FedCom to join in the war efforts as the Federated Suns forces on New Avalon were at the breaking point. She and her unit joined in several defensive and offensive operations in support of Jackson's resistance forces.

By February 3073, Annette realized that the situation was more dire than it had seemed. Seeing an opportunity to clear her name and redeem her and her unit's honor once and for all, she scouted out a stealthy route through the Blakist sensor net into the heart of their forces and then ordered the Fifth to launch a diversionary attack. Saying her goodbyes to her good friend and lover Colonel Mark Scar, Annette set off on her preplanned route in her Penetrator BattleMech, her very last atomic weapon strapped inside its frame. Her plan was to sacrifice herself, but in so doing annihilate the majority of the Blakist 'Mechs. Jackson, who had been keeping a close eye on Annette since her landing, quickly put the pieces of her plan together and moved to intercept her in his BattleMaster, accompanied by his bodyguards and Colonel Scar. The men were able to cut her off before she delivered her final payload, and between Jackson's arguments and Scar temporarily relieving her of her command, she was convinced to disarm the warhead and return to friendly lines.

Knowing that she could not have managed to get this far in her plan without secret assistance from someone in command, Jackson was already suspicious that the person who had supplied her with the location of the warheads on Axton was now trying to tie up their loose ends by allowing her to go to her death. Annette opened a private channel and confessed that she had finally learned the traitor's identity: General William Kossacks, the respected former commander of the Second Davion Guards. Shocked and enraged, Jackson recorded both her words and his statement authenticating them, detailing how Annette had been played from the start by Kossacks.

As the party made their way back to Davion lines, they were ambushed by enemy forces, including a Blakist Level II led by Precentor Avitue, who sought to destroy Jackson Davion. In the chaos that followed, he and Annette were separated from the rest of their party, but not before he was able to transmit his recorded statement. Avitue squared off against the two Federated Suns pilots, gunning for Jackson. Annette Leyland maneuvered her 'Mech between the Precentor and the Marshal, hoping to save him, and was killed when a PPC burst from Avitue's Grim Reaper shattered her 'Mech's cockpit.

BattleMechs

In the FedCom Civil War, Leyland piloted a Nightstar BattleMech in standard Fifth FedCom livery when she took to the field. During the events of the Jihad and the Fifth FedCom RCT's actions on New Avalon, Leyland utilized a Penetrator 'Mech, painted in standard camouflage with a black rat insignia painted on its left chest.

Bibliography

• FedCom Civil War
• Isle of the Blessed (novel)
• Technical Readout: 3058 Upgrade