Susie Morgraine-Ryan

Susie Morgraine-Ryan
Personal
Born	3018
Affiliation	Ryan's Rebels
Profile
Profession	Pirate
Family
Parents	Redjack Ryan (father) Maria Morgraine (mother)
Siblings	Kenny Ryan (half-brother)

Susie Morgraine-Ryan was a pirate "princess" and leader of the 31st century, in the Periphery.

History

Early Life

Susie Morgraine-Ryan, was the only daughter and legitimate heir of notorious pirates pirates Redjack Ryan and Maria Morgraine, the rulers of the Greater Valkyrate pirate kingdom. As the future queen of the Valkyrate, she soon exceed both her parents as a capable, cruel and ruthless leader. After taking the command of the Third Battalion of Ryan's Rebels at a young age, she quickly built a reputation as a brutal fighter, leading the Third in countless raids, enjoying an unbroken record of success... until the Clan Invasion.

Clan Invasion

The Clans arrival on 3049 had devastating consequences for the Valkyrate: in a very few battles, Clan Wolf and Clan Jade Falcon shattered the Rebels First Battalion on The Rock, and later, the last clan assaulted Valkyrate's capital, catching Susie and her battalion off guard.

However, after realizing that the enemy troops were vastly superior to them, Susie managed to retreat her unit with light losses, thanks to the fact the Falcons didn't take the pirates seriously. Thanks to that, and the sacrifice of Maria Morgraine and a few of her MechWarriors, they won enough time to let Susie and her men escape the planet. Susie and two companies of the rebels fled deeper into the Periphery, away from the Clan invasion corridors.

The Belt Pirates group, based in Star's End, began raiding Clan occupied planets. Their leader, Morgan Fletcher II, after Susie and her men settled in Star's End too, agreed to unite in raiding Clan space, giving birth to the New Belt Pirates pirate group. And her people must have had some success, as they managed to capture at least a full lance of fully operational Clan OmniMechs.

Mission to Kore

Somehow, Susie learned about the existance of a Clan Steel Viper supply cache hidden on the ice planet of Kore, and forged a plan to take both. The planet had been retaken, years ago, by the mercenary group Storm Riders, working for the company owning Kore, Alfin Corporation. Despite the fact the Riders only had a lance of medium and light BattleMechs on Kore, Susie don't take any chances: her people captured the DropShip Tammuz, carrying supplies to Kore, and boarded it with her lance of clan OmniMechs, Susie's Mad Cat, a Puma, an Uller and a Fenris (painted as Clan Jade Falcon 'Mechs to keep the Pirates identity secret) and an unknown number of infantry.

The 11th of April 3060, the pirate force landed on Kore, and the attack was a total surprise: the lance of Riders were on the landing site, awaiting to help unload the Tammuz, fell prey to the DropShip weapons and the lance of OmniMechs. Two of the Rider's Mechs were downed in no time, their pilots killed. Susie in person executed the lieutenant commanding the lance, with a Centurion. The other two Mechs attempted to escape to give the alarm, but they failed: one of them, with a Panther BattleMech, was damaged and surrendered. The other, with a light Thorn continued escaping, being pursued by the Puma.

The Thorn's pilot, a young native named Sturm Kintaro, didn't go too far: he ambushed the Puma in the mountains, trapping him, but the Uller attacked him from the rear. Sturm managed to eject before his 'Mech blew, and the pirates didn't find his body.

The Riders base fell easily under the pirate attack, and Susie interrogated the captured Panther pilot. He, named Lon Volker, identified her immediately. He was a young Kore native, ambitious, and was extremely cooperative, wanting to leave the planet more than anything else. The next target of the pirates was Niffelheim, the only city on Kore. Without mechs or armor, the Riders infantry could not even slow the pirates, and the city fell quickly. The next day Susie interrogated a local geologist Hidoshi Kintaro, Sturm's father, forcing him to help their forces to locate the Vipers Cache.

A short while later, two mysterious OmniMech with Steel Viper markings began attacking the Pirates searching for the cache. In the first attack, they killed the Uller's pilot, but their next attacks weren't so successful. Frustrated, Susie suspected the "Ghost of Winter" - the name the locals give to the attacker after a legend of a Viper ghost Mech - was Sturm Kintaro, who had found the cache. She interrogated Volker, and later slept with him. The same day the Ghost attacked the pirate's base, freeing all the Riders prisoners, including Volker. The pilot really was Sturm, and guided the freed prisoners to the Viper's cache.

Days later, the pirate's search for the escapees was a failure, and Susie broadcast a message to Sturm, ordering him to surrender at her base or she would execute Sturm's father. The boy infiltrated the pirate base alone... but it was a trap, and he was captured. Susie was amused by Sturm's defiance. Even when he informed her that the Viper's cache had an HPG, which had sent a message to the Vipers after he got inside, she wasn't impressed. But before she could interrogate him, she informed him that she already knew the cache's location and left.

Soon later, the pirates trapped all the Riders with Mechs in open ground: Lon Volker had join the pirates, betraying the Riders. But the young MechWarriors refused to surrender, putting up a fight. However, though the pirate's victory appeared assured, Sturm Kintaro arrived with his Goshawk BattleMech. He had managed to escape the base and recover his Mech. Sturm, with his father's help, located a magma pocket on the mountains, and shot it with his weapons. The magma flow badly burned Volker's BattleMech, and heavily damaged Susie's Mad Cat. Now undergunned, she agreed to cease the fight.

The pirates left Kore aboard the Tammuz, with their three remaining OmniMechs... and Lon Volker. Despite being badly burned, he was alive, and Susie planned to turn him into a living weapon, one she planned to use to make Sturm pay for the defeat.

After Kore

After returning to Star's End, Susie resumed the raids against clan space. Despite their continued successes, by 3064 both pirate leaders began questioning the wisdom of their partnership, as both began looking for ways to eliminate the other. Morgraine-Ryan, in particular, began launching independent raids against the Clans. Fletcher, for her part, soon began to have private dealings with the Word of Blake, who were cultivating contacts with pirate kings throughout the Periphery.

Facing the Wolves

In April 3064, Clan Wolf's Omega Galaxy finally launched a direct attack on the New Belt Pirates at Novo Cressidas on Star's End. The Wolves faced intense resistance both in orbit and on the ground, as the Loping Wolf, a Union-C-class DropShip was destroyed before making planet-fall. By all accounts, the pirates gave a good accounting of themselves, taking full advantage of their knowledge of the terrain to cost the Wolves up to a Cluster worth of troops, though they reportedly lost twenty 'Mechs in the process, along with much of their infantry. The New Belt Pirates were forced to abandon their main base, withdrawing into the local caverns. Satisfied with the damage they had inflicted and weary of further ambushes, the Wolves did not pursue them.

Group's destruction

Although they survived the Wolves' attack, the heavy losses led to irreparable divisions between Fletcher and Morgraine-Ryan. In 3066, Morgraine-Ryan, holding Fletcher responsible for the crackdown by the Wolf Clan, finally ousted the other pirate in an action that cost the New Belt Pirates another company. Susie Morgraine-Ryan now had sole command of the New Belt Pirates. The bandits now went to ground, keeping a low profile as they attempted to recover their strength. At this time, the New Belt Pirates were at 60 percent strength of their two battalions, with a veteran rating and fanatically loyalty to Morgraine-Ryan. One noteworthy member of the pirate band was Jason "The Clyde" Marshall, a company commander and Venom pilot who had previously supported Fletcher and had survived her fall from power, but whose own future was now in doubt.

During the early Jihad, Clans Hell's Horses and Ice Hellion were in perpetual conflict in the rimward Periphery. The New Belt Pirates attempted to take advantage of the chaos in a new series of raids against the Horses. Though they were initially distracted by the Hellions and the Wolves, Khan James Cobb never forgot about the New Belt Pirates, and in 3074 he sent Beta Galaxy to deal with the bandits once and for all. Although their asteroid field had long since proved an impressive defense against incoming DropShips, against crack Clan ProtoMechs and Elementals, they proved easier game. Realizing her vaunted orbital defenses were on the verge of failing, Morgraine-Ryan attempted to make a run for it. This led to a complete collapse of the New Belt Pirates' defenses, as the Horses secured the shipyards and Star's End.

A report in 3079 by David Lear for Devlin Stone confirmed the destruction of the New Belt Pirates. It is unknown if Susie perished with them or not.

BattleMech

On Kore, she piloted a Clan Omnimech Mad Cat. It is unknown what machine she piloted before capturing it.

Bibliography

• 20 Year Update
• Ghost of Winter (novel)
• The Periphery, 2nd Edition
• Lethal Heritage (novel)
• Field Manual: Periphery
• Field Manual: Updates
• The Price of Conviction
• Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers
• Handbook: Major Periphery States
• Technical Readout: 3055 Upgrade