Jonas Were

Jonas Were
Character Profile
Affiliation Hanseatic League
Rank Captain-General[1]

Jonas Were was a member of the Were family of the Hanseatic League and a senior officer in the Hanseatic Security Force.[1]

History[edit]

A member of the Were family, by 3064 Jonas Were had reached the rank of Captain-General within the HSF and was serving as the Captain-General of the BattleMech regiment within the brigade known as Regional Defense Force 5 and senior Captain-General of the RDF. At the time, RDF 5 was assigned to the anti-spinward border of the League, a quiet posting, and was constantly undersupplied by the worlds in the region, who frequently refused to provide the full tithe owed to support the RDF because they simply saw little reason to do so.[1]

According to the traditions of the HSF, Jonas was personally responsible for making up the shortfall between the supply needs of RDF 5 and the tithe from his own resources; however, Jonas wasn't doing this—in fact, rumors circulated within RDF 5 at the time echoed the belief that Jonas wasn't even passing the full tithe onto the unit, and was instead lining his own pockets with some of the money. Jonas' aide, a renegade MechWarrior formerly of Clan Smoke Jaguar known simply as Aimee, found Jonas' conduct and poor performance to be abhorrent, but lacking political or financial influence was unable to change things or replace Jonas; in fact, Aimee had only been able to rise to the rank of major within the HSF because of the influence of the Were family, who had sponsored her recruitment and subsequent promotions.[1]

Jonas' days as senior Captain-General of RDF 5 were numbered, however. Between 3064 and 3067, Captain-General Albert Snow, commanding officer of RDF 1 and cousin of the head of the Council of Merchants, the ruling body of the Hanseatic League, was promoted to command the entire HSF. One of Snow's actions after taking up command was to replace Jonas Were with Eloise Grady; Grady was partly a political figurehead, but the replacement of Were made it clear to everyone that Snow wouldn't brook dissent against his authority.[2]

With Jonas gone and Grady in post, Aimee was effectively the true power in control of RDF 5, responsible for managing the brigade as Snow increased the tempo of training for the HSF and began reorganizing more of the commands.[2] However, as Snow became more concerned with the threat from the Clans—possibly due in part due to a Clan Ice Hellion raid on Antwerp in 3073 that was fought off by RDF 2 at significant cost—he became a leading voice in demands for the Hansa to cease activities within Nueva Castile and conducted a sweep through the HSF, removing all former Clan personnel from the rolls.[3]

The most high-profile person to be removed from the HSF was Aimee, and her removal significantly damaged the reputation of the Were family.[3]

Notes[edit]

Jonas Were's name was misspelled as Jona Were in Field Manual: Periphery.[1]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Field Manual: Periphery, p. 138: "Regional Defense Force 5"
  2. 2.0 2.1 Field Manual: Updates, p. 200: "Hanseatic League"
  3. 3.0 3.1 Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers, p. 231: "Albert Snow"

Bibliography[edit]