I was looking for that incident with critter detailed in my logs, don't see it yet. Lets start 3057, its in June where the infantry action is detailed.
January 3057 - With our training finished we set out on our first mission, the raid on Kiamba. We arrived very quickly and hit our drop zone apparently undetected. The march to the base took longer than expected because of the thick vegetation, which some one forgot to mention. We attacked the base with such a fury that we threw the defenders for a loop. What surprised me was that there was only two stars that defended the base. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth we proceeded with the attack. Eventually we destroyed all but two Clan Omnimechs and I demanded their surrender. They quickly agreed but neither one of the warriors ejected from their Mechs as I demanded. Instead they moved away heading toward the base. Since they were only Medium Mechs we could not prevent them from beating us to the base. Once they entered the huge draw bridge; that was the only entrance to the base, was closed. Infuriated by their lack of honor I ordered the unit forward to destroy them and their base. When we got within about 1000 feet from the base a trap was sprung on us. A trinary of fresh Clan Omnimechs, mostly Assault or Heavy, began coming up from elevators in the ground, plus new gun emplacements appeared, with about a star of Aerospace Fighters. We attempted to hold our positions but the Clan's superior firepower and numbers forced me to call retreat. We spent the rest of the first day in the woods, hidden from the Clan forces. When we woke up I decided to send out the Recon Squad to gather all available information. When Louis told me that the Clans were searching for us and had left the base under defended I decided to try another assault later that day. We had no communications do to some Clan jamming device so we synchronized our time to attack. The guys didn't like the idea but unlike my first group of mercenaries they did as I planned, although with a lot of reluctance. As Louis had told me and I predicted the Clans only left a small force at the base. In a ferocious attack we defeated the star of Mechs and some Elementals that had been left to guard the base. Yen's lance jumped the moat that protected the base and forced the remaining two Mechs to surrender. He lowered the draw bridge and we moved in. I ordered the men to grab as much as the could while I spoke with Yen. I offered the two remaining Clan warriors positions as bondsmen. They both thought about and one accepted. The other mechwarrior killed himself. In an effort to buy time I tried to set the self destruct system in his Mech. Unfortunately I failed. We did load up a lot of stuff and got out of there in time. We waited for two days then proceeded pass the pick up point to wait longer for our rescue. As we passed the pick up point we heard the loud boom of Aerospace Fighters, the rescue crew thank god. No one complained that they were a couple of days early so we all boarded the dropship and left the deep desolate forests of Kiamba. Although we gained no salvage, we did gain Ivan, the Samurai's Wrath first bondsman, and his Loki-B.
February 3057 - The group was glad to return to the Confederation as was I. The first Capellan guy I saw I punched out because of their shitty intelligence info. I authorized leave time for anyone who wanted it. Yen came to me and asked if I could bring the unit's best warriors for some kind of new mission. I took Yen, Donna, Brett, Donny, Ivan, and myself. When we arrived we were greeted by Amon Malone, a true millionaire socialite, and Smirinoff which Yen seemed to know about. I was very angry with Yen for not sharing this information with me. The mission was that we had was to play Mech football, a fun but challenging assignment. Yen suggested that I contact George because he would be perfect for this mission. I agreed and told him to come along. Vasquez tagged along also because she wanted to see what was going on. I was impressed with everyone's performance. We played the whole season which lasted thru March. Yen convinced me to offer Smirinoff a place in the unit. He agreed for twenty percent ownership. He brought with him Erica Ross, a talented LAM pilot, plus 7 BattleMechs and 1 LAM most with advanced weaponry.
March 3057 - After the football season I went to Amon and asked if he would like to invest in the Wrath. He declined saying that he didn't like to invest in mercenary units. I understood his answer and that one day his attitude might change. We recruited some of the mercs who participated in the Football League. We found 6 people who wanted to join the unit. We reorganized once again. Also we had to find a new Aerospace Pilot. We took ads out on Solaris, Sian, and Outreach. Eventually we found Omi Qwuan a very talented Aerospace Pilot. After the reorganization we had 4 BattleMech lances, 1 Aerospace lance, and the newly expanded Recon lance. We began to train our new personnel in the unit's tactics.
April 3057 - We received our second mission orders from the Capellan Confederation. We were to raid a compound on the planet Andro and to destroy a training facility. The intelligence report told us that there is about a battalion of garrison mechs and anywhere from 1 to 2 lances at the contact point. Do to their last "intelligence" report I didn't put much faith in this one. However, there was a generator at the base used for power. If we could destroy that we would cut off communications with the other garrison units on the planet. Also I tried to be a little more flexible in my planning. The Capellan's gave us one Union and two Leopard class dropships which would drop us off and come pick us up at the contact point. Our mission assignments were to destroy the power generator, attack the base and destroy as many buildings as possible, plus raid the base and take as much cargo from store house as possible. The attack, which included a previously unknown LAM the Charger II, was uneventful and we successfully raided the base's storehouse of some cargo boxes. The Capellan's gave us some of these cargo boxes for a job well done. To our surprise they contained Clan and advanced InnerSphere equipment. Ivan's Loki which was badly damaged had to be scrapped. We also modified several Mechs with this new equipment, including my Cerberus. The technicians who had done a great job time after time asked for and got a raise.
May 3057 - We received our third mission orders from the Capellan Confederation. The unit was ordered to investigate one of the Capellan's old colonized planets. The location of the colony is on the moon planet of Sumbaka located in the Rollis system on the edge of the periphery. We will be assisted by one troop transport which will hold three squads of Capellan marines. The colony consists of one fusion reactor, which is used to power the settlement and three main buildings that have twelve main levels, that branch to several sub-levels. There are no defensive installations and there should be no mech, aerospace, or marine support. The Capellan's have no LR satellite photograph because solar winds knocked the satellite out of orbit. But get this, they did have some old photos on document, though they are over ten years old. Another half ass intelligence report, although this is probably the worst one yet. It is very hard to sustain life outside because of the constant storms. There is never any day light in the sky of Sumbaka, there is little plant life and almost no animal life. A nice place to say the very least. Our mission objectives were to secure the settlement with as little force as possible, report all lifeforms (amount of people), report all salvageable equipment to the Confederation, check-up and fix fusion reactor, and repair any down systems. I took Donny, Brett, Ivan, and myself to pilot the four Mechs that we were taking on this mission. Yen and Erica piloted the two LAMs. Smirinoff commanded our infantry squad which was made up of George, Vasquez, Alex, Byran, Shannon, and Victor. When we landed I saw that this place was like something out of a bad horror novel. Also I noticed that our infantry platoon was pretty lame in comparison to the Capellan infantry. The entrances were big enough for Mechs but as we progressed it was became clear that only infantry could advance through the complex. I ordered the Mechs and the LAMs to explore the area while I stood guard at the main entrance. After this things went haywire Yen and Erica crashed landed near the main entrance, the Capellan infantry wouldn't cooperate, and the rest of the guys were lost. Later I found out that Donny and Brett were trapped inside another building. I found Brett outside being attacked by some kind of over grown lizard. He escaped and got in my Mech since his was still inside. Donny was still trapped inside the building somewhere. Smirinoff was inside with the Capellan infantry being attacked by these same lizard things. Ivan was next to signal in, he said he was near the infantry and so I new he was right next to the fusion reactor. I warned him not to fire but unfortunately he did causing the fusion reactor to breach. Everyone got out of the building in time except for Donny. The huge explosion blew up the 1st building. Shortly after the Capellans fled the planet, which confused me even more. Shortly after Donny signaled in and told me he had a broken leg and could not move. Luckily he had been in the 2nd building as had the Mechs. We rescued him and the Mechs and got out of there. We reported in to the Capellan authorities who were looked very stunned. Luckily no one was hurt and there was hardly any damage to the equipment.
June 3057 - After that very odd mission we were assigned to raid another Davion world. Do to the enormous increases of raids on the Capellan's planets by the House Davion the House Liao has decided to strike back. This assault is on the planet Kie-Chi in the Sarna system next to the capital planet Sarna. The planetary defense forces are about two lances with an aerospace lance for support. We are to raid Kie-Chi, while other Capellan forces are going to take care of Sarna. The Capellans want us to capture the city of Cha-Lou and do with city as we please until the Capellan forces come to pick us up, after the assault on Sarna is complete. An estimated two and half hours. All of our unit will be needed for this mission. The Aerospace lance will take out the enemies HPG station and then they will assist the ground units as they see fit. The 1st and 3rd BattleMech Lances will attack the planets military base. It is located on the north continent and holds the lance of aerospace fighters. I am hoping that we can destroy the aerospace lance on the ground before they launch, it will be an even battle at the city and will give Rogue Aerospace Lance air superiority. The BattleMech lances attacking the airfield will be picked up first. The 2nd and 4th BattleMech Lances plus the Recon Lance will destroy all military units defending the city.
The attack on the base and HPG went as planned with no problems. Unfortunately, the attack on the city did get bogged down. The 4th BattleMech Lance, which was commanded by Smirinoff, was totally confused by infantry leaving the 2nd out to dry. I ordered my lance the 1st to prepare for suborbital hop. The Mushai dropped us perfectly. And with help from Rogue Aerospace we completely destroyed the city's defenders.
July 3057 - After what seemed to be the longest jump of my career, we returned to our base on Sian. Everyone rested up and the next day Yen scheduled a tactical meeting to analyze our previous mission. Everyone attended and agreed that Smirinoff's Lance could have done better but Yen tried to deflect much of unit's attention from Smirinoff by taking some of the blame himself. Once again Yen proved he was a true warrior, taking the blame and thus helping to solidify the unit's feelings. His efforts were very noble to say the least bit and we all agreed that we all could do better. After the meeting Smirinoff came into my office babbling about the ownership of the group and not being informed of everything. Busy with work I told him that he should get more involved with unit if he wanted more info. He was instant on being informed of everything, after a short and very pointless discussion he left me alone telling me to "remember what I had said". Shortly there after Yen came in carrying our next mission orders. I thought the House Liao had finally gone nuts. They gave us a special forces mission to infiltrate the DEST Tactical Center on Pesht. Yen said that he had faith that we could pull the mission off. Not wanting to argue I said I suppose we could. We contacted Donna, Smirinoff and told them to get to the office as soon as possible. After waiting for Smirinoff we told them what the mission entailed. Smirinoff abruptly left the meeting saying something or other. We began to plan for the offensive. I didn't want to go on the special forces team itself because I felt that it would dishonor the Combine. Yen tried to convince me that I was the best man for the mission, which I was. I tried to convince him that my tactical knowledge was more valuable on board the Bug-Eye, which Liao had lent us to perform the mission. The planning continued for several days while we choose the personnel and the plan. One day with our plan almost complete Leon Nior opened the door to my office . He walked in dropped his bags and said "where's my one million C-bills". I immediately turned to Smirinoff, pointed, and said "Right there. Take it out of his ass." Everyone including Smirinoff was glad to see Leon and he soon began to say why he was there . I told him we would talk money latter and he agreed to get right down to business. He told us had raided Pesht before and knew what to do. We finally agreed on the team; Vasquez Estefan, Brett Jones, Donny, Leon Nior (the leader), Smirinoff (who was our Point Man), and myself who was to be the communications person. I still objected but I didn't want to seem like coward. Yen would coordinate the mission from the Bug-Eye. We left and arrived in-system in crates to disguise ourselves. After landing we busted out of the crates and quickly moved to a secure area while Smirinoff explored the area. Smirinoff contacted us and we moved. There was a tall (7 foot) deadly force field guarding the forest which contained the DEST facility. After a short debate Leon decided to go over; Smirinoff was first, with Leon's help he made it over easily. Vasquez went next, again with Leon's help she flipped over and headed for the forest. Smirinoff had been standing like an idiot took off after her. Brett was next, unfortunately he totally missed Leon and ran right into the fence. Amazingly he walked right through alarms began to sound and the field began to rise. I jumped over unassisted while Leon and Donny followed Brett and walked right threw. We proceeded to the crate with our equipment in it and suited up. We were on our way when Yen called to confirm our secure mobile uplink. We proceeded carefully but quickly to our destination. On the way there we got into a fierce fire fight with the large ferocious simian predators that inhabited the forest. Leon called retreat and we slowly began to fall back. I fell into a deep hole and was captured by Combine forces. I was to be executed but after the weirdest time I escaped with Leon's help. Of course the mission was a failure. After that all hell broke lose as the Capellans began to dick us over big time. First claiming that they would not pay for any of our equipment owned by individuals, then claiming poverty and thus giving us a severe pay cut. I appealed to the Wolf Dragoons but they claimed we were not an official mercenary group because of certain ethics violations. In addition people began leaving the group. Jason DiSolvo was the first packing up and leaving before we came back from our last mission. Victor Vou, Dwayne Brown, and Marc Terry all had the honor to come to me and resign in person. I finally call a meeting of the owners. Donna expressed her desire to leave and start a family, Smirinoff immediately tried to take her share of the company. I suggested we dissolve the unit citing lack of interest. Everyone agreed and we divided the money and equipment amongst ourselves. Yen talked to me about starting anew and after a while I agreed. Yen resigned from the Capellan Armed Services and we left the Confederation. The Samurai's Wrath adventure was officially ended.
August 3057 - After the break up of the Samurai's Wrath, Yen and I, formed a new unit that we named the Dark Legion. We agreed on setting up two stars of BattleMechs to start with. I was to hire the personnel and Yen was to acquire the necessary equipment. The first thing I did was to hire 7 very skilled technicians bringing our support up to full strength along with the technicians who came with us from the Wrath. Next I hired a Union class Dropship and her crew giving us full transportation. Next I had to hire 5 Mechwarriors who would pilot the remaining BattleMechs. I contacted all of the Samurai's Wrath Mechwarriors and asked if they would like to join the new unit. Alex Kraft was the first I contacted, he informed me that he was busy with his own problems and could not assist. Byran Kell had already been hired by the Kell Hounds. Dwayne Brown and Marc Terry could not be found but are probably stirring up trouble near the Capellan Confederation. Kevin Coon was killed in a bar fight just one week after leaving the unit. Janet Fuss was also busy and Vazquez was working with Leon somewhere. I did manage to hire Shannon Foyer and Erica Ross. Also I looked up Leslie Fox and she was on Solaris, working in a beauty parlor, to my surprise. She agreed to join the new group as a Mechwarrior. That left two open spots for new personnel. Finally I hired Dieon Brown and Arransaso Carran both excellent BattleMech pilots. Meanwhile Yen had acquired the following BattleMechs; DIA-01 Daikyu, AXM-1N Axman, CPTL-A1 Catapult, and a SHD-2H Shadow Hawk. The new unit had been assembled and we began to modify are BattleMechs as we saw fit.
September 3057 - We were almost ready to go when Brett Jones returned to the unit. Yen suggested that we hire him and so we did, in addition Arransaso tendered her resignation for personal reasons which I accepted. So everything worked out fine as Brett was accepted into Bravo Assault. I asked if anyone in the unit wanted to earn some money fighting in the Arenas on Solaris, Yen and party responded in the negative. I called the Wolf Dragoons' Mercenary Board to enter the Dark Legion on to the mercenary rating system. The Dragoons said that they would need to inspect are unit on Outreach. We agreed and left Solaris as soon as possible. We arrived on Outreach two days ahead of our scheduled inspection. I helped the technicians prep our BattleMechs for the inspection while the other guys hung around. Finally the inspection began and Yen and I were briefing the inspectors on our capabilities. Suddenly a yellow alert was sounded and all citizens were to report home at once. The inspectors left immediately and some Dragoon pilots moved our BattleMechs into a Mech Garage. We waited in the garage for three very uneventful hours. Then we spotted a lance from the Wolf Dragoons as they briefly took up positions outside. Within a minute they moved out. Also we heard the loud take-off of Dragoon aerospace fighters. I thought that the Capellan Confederation had foolishly launched an attack against Outreach. Suddenly about four or five lances ran past the garage. These BattleMechs had the insignias of Snord's Irregulars and McCarron's Armored Cavalry. At the suggestion of Brett Jones I signaled the Dragoons and asked if they needed assistance. To my surprise they said they could use us and said they would call back latter with our orders. We mounted up and moved out. Once outside we formed up, Alpha went to "X" form and Bravo went to "W" form. We looked up and saw that several rounds were dropping from orbit. I ordered my unit to Scatter, Bravo was not worried however and did not move. The rounds exploded on impact and sent up huge plums of smoke that filled Harlech. Alpha was again formed up but this time into "W" form. Next we began tracking 8 pods coming down from orbit. Obviously these were the enemy's ground troops coming in after the smoke cover. For some reason Brett Jones' Shadow Hawk broke Bravo's "W" form and ran. After some quick orders from Yen he was headed back but would not arrive in time. These eight enemy BattleMechs landed in the middle of our two Stars, quickly radioed the Dragoons and told them are position and situation. They quickly moved to envelop my Star and met Bravo Assault Star head on. Next I moved to counter their envelopment unfortunately my sensors did not detect that they had already moved to new positions in back of my BattleMech. Two lucky shots from an enemy Falconer (one to my head and one to my leg) managed to take out my BattleMech. I managed to make it back to the Mech Garage were I radioed Yen. He told me more enemy units were moving towards the building and so I had the technicians who worked there put on their gear and move out. We encountered other infantry forces as we left the building and opened fire. In this short firefight we were obliterated by a very good infantry unit. I was shot three times; once in the chest, the leg, and the arm. I was hand cuffed and thrown in van. Eventually I was taken to a make shift hospital and fixed up. I could not move and had to sit out the rest of the battle. Yen eventually found me and told me what happened. Four of our BattleMechs were disabled during the battle; the Cerberus, the Apocalypse, the Tempest, and the Berserker. The rest had taken heavy damage; however, we managed to take out 10 enemy BattleMechs (Alpha killed 3 and Bravo killed 7). Shannon Foyer and Dieon Brown had performed exceptional well. Shannon came up with maneuvers that blunted the enemy advance. While Dieon killed 2 or 3 BattleMechs himself. The enemy turned out to be the Golden Fist. A former mercenary company that had become a power on to itself. The Dragoons and the Fists have always shared a mutual hatred for each other. And evidently the Fists decided to pay the Dragoons an unexpected visit. Yen also told me that a member of the Dragoons hierarchy wanted to talk to me as soon as I was well enough. A day latter I went to see him and he thanked us for holding a key defensive position against 24 Golden Fists BattleMechs until reinforcements arrived. He invited us to a ceremony honoring those who fought in this huge battle and so we did. During this ceremony the Legion was honored for voluntarily defending Outreach. It was a very large and impressive ceremony. The Dragoons contacted me and asked if the Legion would like to be the first team in a new Dragoon farm system. We of course agreed and were given certain benefits. Such as having our BattleMechs repaired and modified for a fixed cost. Most of our equipment was then modified with Clan type weapons and equipment. At my polite suggestion the Dragoons assigned us a Liaison Officer; Alexander Wolf. He also became our Tactical Advisor which he is very skilled at. Brett Jones came to me and offered to sell the unit two BattleMechs; a modified Warhammer and a modified Hunchback. Also we rented out a military installation from the Wolf Dragoons on Outreach. This installation was modified for an additional 2 million C-bills. Yen still needs to find himself a new BattleMech because his Apocalypse literally fell apart during repairs but for now the Dark Legion possesses 11 BattleMechs. However our assets have been severely depleted, so we have to find a contract next month. Also I contacted everyone from the Samurai's Wrath to see how they were doing. All of them were still busy doing their own thing. Donna was doing nicely and I informed her of our business standings. All together an eventful month.
October 3057 - The first thing I did in October was to get a contract, fortunately with the Wolf Dragoons. It was simple enough they hired one of our stars to garrison key facilities on Outreach for one month. Alpha Assault Star took the assignment and it was relatively uneventful. the next thing I called an ownership meeting to discuss our financial situation. We resolved several issues chief amongst them was an investment by the owners to prop up the company. Dragoon technicians and Yen’s star continued to fit the base with standard equipment and by the end of the month the facility was fully operational. Also during the month of October Brett Jones came to me and asked if he could resign from active combat duty. I agreed but suggested he stay on with the unit as our Chief Technician. Plus Alexander Wolf contacted me and informed me that he would no longer be our Liaison and Tactical Officer. I managed to contact Alex Kraft and he agreed to join the Dark Legion filling the spot left open by Brett Jones. Next I met our new Liaison and Tactical Officer Craig Foster, a new guy from the Wolf Dragoons. Obviously a young inexperienced officer with quite a bit of skill in this area. Work continued on the base as we entered the next month.
November 3057 - The beginning of the month did not go so well which was a sign of things to come now that I think about it. Craig Foster informed me that we needed to acquire our own transportation. We had been renting the Union class Dropship the Larson and it’s crew. I informed them and the captain of the vessel said he did not want to be a part of it. He took his last payment and left; we attempted to find a new Dropship but were unsuccessful. As a result we had to find a contract that provided full transportation. We signed with Dragon’s Wings Mining on a garrison duty mission. We proceeded to our destination and upon arrival they asked us several questions. Then later asked if we would garrison a world from Clan attack. We agreed and were stationed on Dustbawl. We started to setup when Clan Diamond Shark attacked. The Clan commander Star Colonel __________ issued a batchall I responded by declaring the size of our forces accurately and requesting a Trail of Possession. At first there was no answer then he refused the Trail but then finally relented after about five minutes of jaw wagging. I chose the form of combat; 5 on 5 BattleMech combat. He chose the place of the Trail; a small moon in orbit of Dustbawl. We left for the Trail and another Trinary of Clan BattleMechs landed this (this was an entirely different Trinary then the one that was bid). Bravo Assault Star remained on planet till the outcome of the Trail. Alpha Assault Star landed on the moon and began to search for the Clan star. We were hit from behind and the Daikyu was disabled by a hull breach, the first of many. We turned and began to return fire. The battle was short and furious and despite inflicting some amount of damage on the Clan forces all of my BattleMechs were disabled by hull breaches. Now it was me versus the whole Clan star. I became very angry when I was fired on by two Mechs. Eventually my BattleMech was disiabled by a hull breach. The Cland commander then issued an insulting statement demeaning my unit and myself. I have to admit I went berserker. We were finally picked up by our dropship. We returnbed to the planet where Yen told me that the Trinary on planet destroyed as much as they could then left. I told Yen about the Star Colonel and the Trail’s outcome he to became very angry. Next the emoployer’s representative came to us and presented his side of the argument. I could have killed him for some of his “suggestions†but I controlled my anger. We mutually agreed to end our contract in January. We began to repair the unit’s equipment damaged during the Trail.
December 3057 - I finally found Craig and he was starving. The dropship captain said he was acting irrational and he had to lock him up during the battle. After telling me that he basically told me to go suck an egg. I later talked to Craig who said the Dropship ran when the outcome of the battle became apparent. And they locked him up to keep him quite about the ship’s cowardice. Taking into account both storied, I tend to believe Craig’s side a lot more then the Dropship’s captain, who was totally straight forward with me. Repairs to our equipment continued, as we drilled and waited for other attack, which never came. The planet regained it’s post attack status.