Wolf’s Dragoons Headquarters
Abaddon Heights, Eden
February 8, 3004
General Jaime Wolf stood outside in the cool night air, and he surveyed all that he could see below him. The edge of the heights on which he stood dropped precipitously to the jungle floor below, but the rim stood high above even the tallest of the trees. He could hear the sounds of the creatures that filled that jungle quite clearly, however, and he sighed. This was the last time that he would cast his gaze upon Eden. The last time he would ever see with his own eyes the beauty of the Homeworlds.
A faint sound rose above the voices and cries of the night prowlers, a rhythmic thump, thump, thump; and Jaime sighed. He turned his back to the misty jungle far below and he walked towards the complex of buildings that served his Dragoons as their temporary headquarters. The source of the sound came into view and the VTOL slowed over the well-illuminated landing pad, its landing gears deploying as it settled down and the rotors wound down. The battle-armor clad Elementals of the Ebon Keshik—already deployed in advance of the ilKhan—snapped to attention as the side door opened and Nadia Winson descended the short steps, followed by her aides.
Jaime walked over and he nodded his head in greeting. “We are ready for the final briefing, ilKhan—if you would follow me?â€
She nodded, removing the helmet that she wore handing it off to an aide. Together the two of them entered the building and then a conference where nearly two dozen officers waited. “Attention!†bellowed Colonel John MacKenzie, the commander of Alpha Regiment and Jaime’s second-in-command. As one, the men and women snapped to their feet and saluted crisply. Most—but not all—wore the black and red uniforms of the Dragoons.
“As you were,†Nadia said as she took her seat at the head of the table; following her lead the others quickly resumed their own seats and Jaime took a chair. John sat to the right of Jaime, the Bloodnamed Ghost Bear Warrior calm and collected in the presence of his ilKhan. Jaime had been surprised, but he had developed a fondness for the man; his cautious personality perfectly offset the rashness that the General knew he had a tendency towards, and his skill in battle was considerable. He had also proved himself a keen administrator and leader, and under his tutelage Alpha Regiment—First Team—had become a finely honed sword, taking unanticipated changes in the battlefield in stride and possessing a tenacity and camaraderie which had impressed the Wolf.
To his right sat Joshua Wolf, Jaime’s own free-born younger brother, and Colonel of Beta Regiment—Second to None. Fiery and ready for the crucible that awaited them, Beta had been built as a fast-moving regiment of medium-weight designs, to complement the heavy Alpha. It was truly a Wolf unit, able to adapt in an instant and built to worry its opponents to death.
Aleisha Ross came next. Wolf smiled. They had to conceal the fact that the ilKhan had granted the use of surnames to his Dragoons from the Khans—had that little tidbit of information leaked out, there would have literal hell to pay in the Grand Council of Khans. Colonel of Gamma Regiment—The Iron Guard—Aleisha was a free-birth of Clan Burrock. And if her chosen Gamma was slower than Beta Regiment in speed, and lighter than Alpha Regiment in weight, it was a solid defensive unit that excelled at holding ground. A pursuit unit, no; that it was not. And the medium-weight units could not absorb as much damage as Alpha, but the Regiment under her leadership had settled down nicely and packed a measure of firepower all out of proportion to the size of its BattleMechs.
Colonel Travis King commanded Delta Regiment—The Hunters—which was the lightest of Wolf’s five regiments. An Ice Hellion by birth, the free-born Travis had volunteered for this assignment and built a Regiment that would have made Stephen Cage proud. It certainly satisfied him, Jaime thought with a wry grin. Even if Travis wouldn’t stop complaining about how sluggish and slow the old SLDF BattleMechs and hover vehicles were compared to modern Clan designs.
The Goliath Scorpion Baxter Arbuthnot was another free-born volunteer—but one who had earned his mother’s Bloodname in a Grand Melee. Tasked as the Colonel of Epsilon Regiment—the Harrowers—Baxter had built a combined arms regiment where all ten of his companies held a mixture of BattleMechs, combat vehicles, infantry troopers, and aerospace fighters. Although the volunteers from other Clans had protested, Jaime allowed him to build his Regiment in the Scorpion fashion—and the results had been outstanding. Lacking almost any light or assault-weight BattleMechs, Epsilon was second only to Alpha in the weight of its combat units, and the incorporation of vehicles and infantry in every company had given Baxter flexibility that no other Regiment of the Dragoons had demonstrated. Able to attack, defend, and pursue—if not specialized in any specific mission—the well-rounded nature of The Harrowers made Jaime grateful that Baxter had volunteered for this assignment.
Lieutenant Colonel Misha Lloyd took the next chair. A Star Adder, she had been awarded command of the Fire Support Group; a battalion of artillery vehicles designed to give any of the Regiments fire on demand.
To her side sat Lt. Colonel Jason Carmody, a Cloud Cobra in command of the Orbital/Aerospace Operations Group. Twenty-four aerospace fighters and four carrier DropShips formed the core of his command, supported by a pair of Assault DropShips. The Cobra fighter pilot had drilled his pilots mercilessly, and today Jaime would have bet his stars that they could take any pilot in the Clans—let alone the Inner Sphere.
Lt. Colonel Marian Griffin was a hard woman from a hard Clan. A Smoke Jaguar, the free-birth had served in the Jaguar Garrison Infantry, where she had made a name for herself in a field where those of the Elemental phenotype usually prevailed. Wolf had assigned her to command his Seventh Kommando, a unit of infantry and vehicles that Jaime intended to undertake so-called “special missionsâ€, where a small unit of elite soldiers could indeed make a difference. And Marian had built that unit, although her former Jaguar Khans would be shocked by the dishonorable (in their eyes) tactics she had chosen to train her command in.
The Special Recon Group of Lt. Colonel Hansen Brubaker was next. A mixed battalion of BattleMechs, fast VTOL gunships, and combat hovertanks, it was designed to scout for the Dragoons in all types of terrain, and these Warriors exceeded even the speed and mobility of Travis King’s Delta Regiment—a fact which the former Horse never allowed Travis to forget.
Zeta Battalion was the Hammer of the Dragoons. Commanded by the Jade Falcon Lt. Colonel Anson Howe, it was comprised of just heavy and assault-weight BattleMechs and Aerospace Fighters. Slow, ponderous, relatively immobile, Zeta carried an impressive amount for firepower—especially for such primitive BattleMechs as the Dragoons were using. And while Jaime might personally detest Anson Howe, the man knew well how to deploy his command and lead it.
Paul Vandenberg, the Colonel assigned to command the Home Guard Regiment of combat vehicles and infantry, had been a Blood Spirit. Which made him one of the few of that Clan in the Dragoons—the Spirit Khans had offered the bare minimum of troops, and most of those had been rejected. But not Paul. Paul was one of those rare Spirits who seemed to be able to let go of the past; he had built the Home Guard into a confident unit well able to keep the Dragoon’s rear secured.
Colonel Julia Kidd, a Snow Raven, was the commander of the transport JumpShips and DropShips assigned to carry his Dragoons. Although she lamented that the ilKhan had rejected WarShips, she had thrown herself into getting the ancient ships ready for deployment—her skill would prove invaluable in the coming days and long journey ahead, Jaime thought.
Lt. Colonel Martha Ryan was next; charged with the command of the Special Intelligence and Operations Group, she was the Warrior that the ilKhan had found to ride herd on her promised Watch analysts. And so far, she had proven very, very good at her job.
Wolf’s aide—Captain William Cameron was next, seated beside Captain Natasha Kerensky. William served as his aide and commanded the Timber Wolf Company of his command. Natasha—another rare true-born with a Bloodname in the Dragoons—had been assigned to the second company—the Black Widow Company. Between the two of them, he was as safe as any General on the battlefield had a right to expect.
And sitting between Natasha and Nadia was the final member of this meeting: Khan Gordon Myers of Clan Goliath Scorpion.
Nadia smiled at the men and women she had come to know so well. “First of all, my congratulations. You have raised a furor in the Homeworlds like we have not seen in ages. The Jaguars and Falcons and Vipers are calling for me to have you all declared as dezgra; apparently your defeat, in simulation, of their hand-picked front-line forces while using equipment we have considered obsolete has outraged them.†She grinned and slowly clapped. “Perhaps it will make them reconsider why they lost; perhaps not. But defeat them you did—and now you are ready to start your assignment. Khan Myers?â€
The Scorpion stood, and he nodded at the men and women trained with the texts and simulators his Clan had supplied—trained in the style of the old SLDF. “Warriors, next week you will depart the Pentagon and set course for Vannes, the closest world in the Chainelane Isles to the Inner Sphere. Clan Jade Falcon’s Rho Galaxy should have already seized the world by the time you arrive—they departed three months ago. There, you will refuel and have a few weeks to stretch your legs after your year-long journey. And then,†he picked up a remote and clicked it. A holographic map of the Inner Sphere appeared. “Contrary to what many Khans believe, we do have some information on the current situation in the Inner Sphere.â€
He smiled crookedly at the ilKhan, who glowered back at him. “Our Seekers, while never quite breaking the ruling of the Council, have made inroads into the near Periphery. There we have learned of the largest events of the day. As you can see, the Terran Hegemony no longer exists. Their territory has been divided amongst the Five Great Houses, and the borders have been rather fluid over the centuries, as you can plainly see. We have also confirmed that it is generally believed that WarShips are extinct—no one has them anymore or the means to produce them. Your BattleMechs and Aerospace Fighters are possibly in better condition than the majority of their forces—I anticipate that your arrival will cause quite a stir.â€
He chuckled, and then shook his head. “The original plan was to circumnavigate the Inner Sphere to disguise where the eventual Invasion would come from—but that would add at least a year to your journey. Instead, you will enter the Lyran Commonwealth once you depart Vannes. Your cover story will be that you have been exiled by the leadership of the Isles—a remnant of the Rim Worlds Republic—and that you are mercenaries looking for employment. I would suggest either Barcelona or Bone-Norman for your initial point of contact with Lyran forces. The files I have uploaded to your personal systems contain the story we are weaving—study it and learn it, and stick to it. Emphasize that the Isles are violently isolationist and that you were exiled for daring to question the status quo—it is the understanding of our Seekers that such reasons often lead to formed units going mercenary in the Inner Sphere of today. The distance between the Commonwealth and the Isles should prevent them from trying to confirm the story—and even if they do, our forces on station there will turn away any . . . inquisitive minds. All of the commanders on the ground will be informed—and if your names are mentioned, there are certain to be expletives as well.â€
Laughter circled the table, but Myers pressed on. “Beyond that, we know little. I would suggest trying to obtain five year contracts; that should be sufficient for gathering information. Once your contract with Steiner expires, you can either head for the League or Kurita space—your choice, General Wolf. We need a full assessment of the strength of each Great House, however. Once a complete circuit of the Inner Sphere has been accomplished—which should take approximately twenty-five years, we would also like assessments on the Outworlds Alliance, the Taurian Concordat, and the Magistracy of Canopus. While not strictly necessary, reports on those powers will be helpful in forming our final invasion plans.â€
Myers sat down without another word and Nadia nodded. “Expect that we will have a little chat about how far the Seekers are allowed to go in the future, Khan Myers. But that is for later. Warriors, this is the last time we will meet—in my lifetime, certainly.†She stood, followed by everyone seated at the table. “Your mission is of vital importance, and we are all counting on you and your people to succeed. Good hunting.â€
And turned on her heels and left the Dragoons behind her.
Jaime watched her go and he sighed. “Final preparations for embarkation begin at dawn. Make certain you have everything we need because we are not coming back if you forget some spare parts. Dismissed.â€
