AN ILCLAN ERA SOURCEBOOK

FANGS ARE BARED!

From the new ilKhan on Terra comes word to the Wolf Empire of their Clan’s victory. With no further
communication from Alaric Ward, Star Colonel Othar takes the reins of the Empire, attempting to weather
the assaults of his neighbors, and ensure the ilKhan’s realm remains inviolate.
Hungrily eyeing their worlds lost to the Empire, now stripped of the Wolves’ best, factions within the
Free Worlds League launch offensives across the border and risk carrying Nikol Marik into a war she may
not be ready for. At her back, the Spirit Cats and Clan Sea Fox lair in their Clan Protectorate, eager to
pursue their own ends.
And out among the stars, the Wolf’s Dragoons and their new commander are on the hunt…
Empire Alone is a BattleTech sourcebook providing full details of the events around the Wolf Empire
and Free Worlds League from 3151 to mid-3152. Included are a full historical summary of events in those
regions of space, personality and unit profiles of key players—many appearing here for the first time, and
game information to bring it all to your BattleTech tabletop.
FOR USE WITH
Total Warfare and Alpha Strike

STAR LEAGUE ERA CLAN INVASION ERA JIHAD ERA ILCLAN ERA
$34.99
ISBN 978-1-63861-050-2
Used under license from
53499>
®

SUCCESSION WARS ERA CIVIL WAR ERA DARK AGE ERA

©2022 The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. BattleTech, Empire Alone, Alpha Strike,
BattleMech, ’Mech, and MechWarrior are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of The Topps
Company, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. Catalyst Game Labs and the Catalyst 9 781638 610502
Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Production, LLC. Printed in China. WEBSITE: STORE.CATALYSTGAMELABS.COM
EMPIRE ALONE
 EMPIRE ALONE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEEP CURRENTS . . . .
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK . . . . . . . 13
Suggested Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
BLOOD
IN THE WATER . . . . . 15
PRELUDES
TO WAR . . . . . . . . . 16
Rolling the Hard Six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Alone on an Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
We Will Fight Them on the Beaches . . . . . . . . 17
Dissension Among the Ranks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Pastor Kyria Stovard:
The Angel of Canopus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The War at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Regulan Rotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Border Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
What Coin Will Buy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A New Margrave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Popular Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Lancers on the Periphery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
A Knife in the Flank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
A Question of Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Taking the Credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
A Potential ilClan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Precautionary Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
INTO
FOREIGN WATERS . . 30
An Empire Alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Dragoons on the Border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
A Ballot Cast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Between a Rock and a Hard Place . . . . . . . . . 31
It Takes Two—or Three—to Trial . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5 Gladiators in the Streets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Into the Wolf’s Den . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Threat Assessment: Silver Hawks . . . . . . . . . . 44 Where is the ilClan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Parliamentary Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Broken Accord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
And the Winner is… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Unanimous Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Unexpected Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
True Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
A CHALLENGE TO THE
INTERSTELLAR
NATURAL ORDER . . . . 46
A Defensive Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
PLAYERS . . . . . . . . . 81
Tarnished Silver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
FACTIONS . . . . . . . . 82
A Rare Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
WOLF EMPIRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Racing the Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Den Keshik Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Religious Exemption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Expansion Attempts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 94th Wolf Battle Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Ghost Sightings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 106th Wolf Garrison Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
The Middle of Nowhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 FREE WORLDS LEAGUE . . . . . . . . . . 84
A Change in Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 First Free Worlds Guards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Family Reunions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Ninth Tamarind Regulars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Vigilance Along the Border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Gryphons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
A Glorified Battalion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Beta Strike Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Hic Sunt Dragoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
CAPELLAN CONFEDERATION . . . 88
A Private Contract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Eleventh Sian Dragoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
The Silver Hawks Linchpin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Dynasty Guards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Unauthorized Maneuvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Ghosts Coming to Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 DUCHY OF ANDURIEN . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Ilsa’s Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Second Andurien Rangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Gaps in the Fence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Seventh Andurien Guards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
The Ear of the ilKhan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 MAGISTRACY OF CANOPUS . . . . . 92
First Canopian Brigade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
THE RAGING
MARIAN HEGEMONY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
STORM . . . . . . . . . . 60
The Hammer Falls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Secunda Cohors, III Legio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Chain Lightning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 II Prima Auxila, II Legio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Inevitable Betrayal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
PERSONALITIES . . . . 96
Pump the Brakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
OTHAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
96
War to the Knife… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Read the Fine Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 JACINDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Restless Regulus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Just Deserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 PRAVINA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

A Goodwill Gesture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Playing by the Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
The Trouble at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Final Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Profound Sadness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Placation and Promises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
A Testament of Loyalty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
A Deafening Silence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
A New Coalition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
House of Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Changing of the Guard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Lambs Led to the Slaughter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Tools of the Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Competing Campaigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Divided Loyalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Unity Through Cooperation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Crossing the Rubicon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
A Hero Rises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Prelude to Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
In Recognition of Unwavering Service . . . . . 69
The Day the Guns Fell Silent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Warrior’s Luck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
NIKOL MARIK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
FONTAINE MARIK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
TRENTON MARIK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
HENRY "HACK" KINCAID . . . . . . . . . 99
ISAIAH ARMSTRONG . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
SAO YANG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
ARI HUMPHREYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
HECTOR HUMPHREYS . . . . . . . . . . . 101
ILSA CENTRELLA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
ISOLDE CENTRELLA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Public Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 A Noble Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 GABRIELLE MARTINO . . . . . . . . . . . 102

The Strength of the Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Knife to the Hilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 IGNATIUS O'REILLY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ATLAS . . . . . . . . . . 104 “The Old Man’s Brigade” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 MARIAN HEGEMONY . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
BOLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 106th Wolf Garrison Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Ignatius O’Reilly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
GIBRALTAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 FREE WORLDS LEAGUE . . . . . . . . . 118 Secunda Cohors, II Legio “Iratus Latrones” . 122
GIENAH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Nikol Marik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 II Prima Auxila Legio, II Legio “Ursa Major” . 122
JOPPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Fontaine Marik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 RANDOM ASSIGNMENT

KALIDASA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Trenton Marik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

MARIK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Henry “Hack” Kincaid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Assigning ’Mechs and Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . 123
NEW OLYMPIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Isaiah Armstrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Assigning Pilots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
SADURNI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 1st Free Worlds Guards “Eagles of Atreus” 118 RECORD SHEET

SCARBOROUGH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Gryphons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 SOURCE TABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

STEWART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 9th Tamarind Regulars “Granaderos” . . . . . 119 Assigning ’Mechs and Vehicles in a
Beta Strike Cluster “Blue Furies” . . . . . . . . . . 119 Roleplaying Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
RULES ANNEX . . . . 115 CAPELLAN CONFEDERATION . . 120 RANDOM ASSIGNMENT
Sao Yang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 TABLES - BATTLEMECHS . . . 124
CREATING EMPIRE 11th Sian Dragoons “Light Horse” . . . . . . . 120 RANDOM ASSIGNMENT
ALONE SCENARIOS . 116 Dynasty Guard “Long Wu” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 TABLES - VEHICLES . . . . . . . . . 130
Before You Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 RANDOM ASSIGNMENT
DUCHY OF ANDURIEN . . . . . . . . . . . 120
SPECIAL RULES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Ari Humphreys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 TABLES - BATTLE ARMOR . 134
Major Personalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 RANDOM ASSIGNMENT
Hector Humpreys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Combat Command Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 TABLES - AEROSPACE . . . . . . 135
2nd Andurien Rangers “The Monkeys” . . . 121
FORCE COMPOSITION
7th Andurien Guards “The Guan Dao” . . . . 121
ABBREVIATION TABLE . . . . . . . 116 MAGISTRACY OF CANOPUS . . . . 121 CAMPAIGN MAP
WOLF EMPIRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Ilsa Centrella-Liao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 RULES . . . . . . . . . . 140
Othar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Isolde Centrella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Jacinda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Gabrielle Martino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Pravina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
1st Canopian Brigade
Den Keshik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
“Farmers of the Outback” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
94th Wolf Battle Cluster
Gabrielle’s Pride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Project Development BattleTech Line Editor ©2021 the Topps Company Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Ray Arrastia Aaron Cahall BattleTech: Empire Alone, BattleTech, Classic BattleTech,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 3
 DEEP CURRENTS
BY RANDALL N. BILLS
STAR LEAGUE HIGH COUNCIL CHAMBER
UNITY CITY, PUGET SOUND
NORTH AMERICA
TERRA
26 MAY 3151
The gong of the massive clock in the hallway struck,
announcing the passing of midnight. It echoed down still-
ruined corridors now mostly silent; a benediction to a day
unlike any day in the history of the Clans.
SaKhan Petr Kalasa stood uncomfortably next to his Khan
on a balcony just outside the newly restored Star League
High Council chamber, the first small areas of Unity City to be
returned to their former glory. Gravity always feels so...wrong.
Oh, he paid the price to be groundside when needed: fighting
in his BattleMech, negotiations, and so on. But it didn’t change
that near such a large celestial body as a planet, gravity just
felt...wrong.
“Do you think the Founder really foresaw this day?” Petr
spoke, breaking the quiet reverie.
“What?” Khan Mori Hawker responded, still gazing out
into the wonder of dense woodlands that stretched for
hundreds of kilometers in nearly every direction.
“Did Nicholas Kerensky actually have a plan for what
happens when a Clan seizes Terra and becomes the ilClan? Did
he see beyond this day? Or was the act of striving for this day
all that mattered for his nascent Clans all those centuries ago?”
Khan Hawker slowly turned to look at him, his frumpy,
elderly features hiding a keen intelligence that had allowed
him to seize the Khanship decades earlier. And even survive
an insurrection and attempted assassination within the Clan.
“That sounds close to blasphemy.”
Petr snorted, running a hand across his head, the heavy
scars and bald pate on the right side now as natural to him as
breathing. “Please. We are not the Falcons, to stand on such
semantics. Besides, look where it got them? Their Clan nearly
5
 EMPIRE ALONE
annihilated. Malvina’s Mongol Doctrine in disgrace. No, I was
simply wondering. We have forged the ilClan and crowned the
ilKhan. Did our Founder ever really expect this day to come? Or
was it a vision that strengthened and drove us for all these years?”
The other man shrugged, turning back to the verdant
growth that settled the scenes of pine and fecundity throughout
the region. “Does it matter?”
“Not particularly.”
“Besides, we did not crown a Khan. He seized it by right of
combat.”
“Semantics again. For over three hundred years, nothing in
the Clans has been permanent. Always a new trial could change
the currents. Always one at the bottom could seize a rung up,
and those at the top could always misstep, falter. Until now. We
witnessed and affirmed the accession of Clan Wolf to ilClan. For…
all…time. Nothing can ever change that.” Or can it? He stretched
his neck uncomfortably as other thoughts swam in deep currents.
Silence greeted the statement as a cool wind redolent with
brine swept over the two men, ruffling hair and uniforms, while
the hoot of a hunting owl floated on the night air. Glancing up,
Petr noted a heavy cover of clouds, and wondered if it would
rain soon.
“And so you believe all is settled?” Khan Hawker finally
responded, turning to meet his eyes once more.
He waved his hand, shaking his head in annoyance. A
younger me would’ve snarled, even at my Khan, for missing my
meaning. He absently touched his scars. But not now. “Of course
not. Alaric has achieved the dream of a hundred generations of
warriors. But his perch is precarious. The rocks jagged. The current
deep and fast all around.”
“Exactly. He has conquered Terra, but he cannot leave so
many nearby worlds unconquered. He will need to quickly
swallow adjacent worlds to start creating a buffer. Regardless of
the damnable wall.”
Petr nodded. “And the RAF remnants will try and make him
choke on such ambitions.”
“Precisely. They will be out for revenge for the destruction
of their Republic of the Sphere and the death of their messiah.”
“And, of course, they pale next to the Draconis Combine and
Capellan Confederation.”
“Aff. If I was Alaric, I would be trying to carve out a full jump
cordon around Terra. Which means, what, five worlds from House
Liao?”
Petr brought up a mental interstellar map of the Terran
Corridor, endless years of travel and trade coming to the fore. “Six.”
Khan Hawker acknowledged the correction easily. “And
Daoshen will fanatically hold onto every crumb he has grubbed
back from a half-millennium of countless losses for his realm.”
Petr nodded, but a new thought surfaced. “If Danai were
to assume the throne, a more amicable resolution would likely
be found. House Liao is more powerful than they have been in
centuries. What are a few worlds ceded to an ascendant Wolf
Empire if it comes with some new and powerful strings attached?
Perhaps new trade status?”
6 Deep Currents
“Which you would be happy to ensure.”
“We are Sea Fox.”
Khan Hawker nodded. “After those Capellan worlds, there
are five Combine worlds.”
“Including Dieron.”
His Khan chuckled darkly. “Especially including Dieron. I
would loathe having that world on my doorstep. But kicking the
Combine back off that rock will prove exceedingly difficult.”
“Perhaps not as difficult as imagined,” Petr replied as he
pulled on strings of his own endless speculations, always
looking for new markets and possibilities. “Toranaga has
accomplished much. Nearly shattering the Armed Forces of
the Federated Suns with the help of the Unity Pact with House
Liao. But they are stretched thin. Perhaps they cannot hold onto
Dieron when they have such long supply lines pushed into the
Federated Suns?”
Khan Hawker slowly nodded, eyes hooded for his own
internal lists of ploys and counter-ploys. “Nova Cats,” he said softly.
Petr winced. While he had never held with their trappings of
visions, seeing a Clan fall—even an Abjured one—was never a
thing a Clansman could look upon without a shudder. But for luck
there go I. And made all the more tragic being at the hands of the
Combine, that had treated the Clan so terribly for decades. But
the threads his Khan saw wafted from the deep, and Petr nodded
at the audacity. “Alaric has made noises of punishing the Dragon
for daring to kill a Clan.”
“Exactly.”
“And even if he does not go through with it, the threat could
be enough to rattle the Dragon into blinking.”
“Especially if he is able to insinuate that as the ilKhan of the
ilClan, he now commands the loyalty of the Bears and the Ravens.”
“Correct. The remnants of the Wolves may be some of the
finest warriors currently in the Inner sphere after the cauldron
of Terra, but they are only a shadow army. But a stretched
Dragon between the might of the Rasalhague Dominion and
Raven Alliance? That might just be enough to back them off
and concede Dieron and a few other worlds. ‘To hold the peace’,
or whatever tripe they come up with to justify the concession.”
Ironic, Petr mused. That is essentially what Stone did when he
formed the Republic.
He pulled in another breath so filled with scents that nearly
overwhelmed the senses more than gravity. “That’s assuming
that either the Bears or Ravens would commit to such a massive
conflict.”
Khan Hawker’s lips twitched with humor as he glanced
at Petr. “Petr. SaKhan. Are you saying that two Clans would
immediately disobey the very vows of loyalty we just heard them
speak this night?”
Petr struggled to keep his own humor in check. “I believe
that no matter what the Ghost Bear Khans say, they cannot speak
for the entire Dominion. They answer to a civilian council: they
placed that harness on themselves! They are a wild card that
could play in a half-dozen gambits. Much less what the other
Khans might do if push comes to shove. As such, ilKhan Ward
 DEEP CURRENTS
is astute enough to not test the limits of such new loyalty. At
least, not for a while.”
Khan Hawker nodded. “Exactly. But the illusion is all that is
needed, not the reality. Can he convince the Combine of that?”
Petr cocked his head. “Perhaps, if the Dominion gave up
Yorii and even Imbros III, it would buy him that illusion.”
“Perhaps. But are the Bears willing to give him such cover?
You never know with them.”
Petr nodded. They always wait patiently, and then surge in
their own direction, as they have since the Founding. It paid to not
be in the Bears’ way when they moved.
“Alaric’s next move could be toward Tharkad,” Khan Hawker
spoke, words jerking Petr into interesting new currents. “His
Wolf Empire sits right on that doorstep. And he came so close
last time. His blood ties mean he has a claim to their throne,
despite any repudiations. And Trillian Steiner is a bauble that
will be seized soon enough by a Lyran noble tired of her
ineffectual rule.”
Petr nodded, reaching out a hand to touch the cold, metal
balustrade of the balcony, sending tiny shivers along his arms.
“The collapse of the Jade Falcon Occupation Zone will quickly
give rise to new powers and new opportunities. A noble that can
carve out a significant swath of territory can return to Tharkad a
person of action and strength.”
“Precisely.”
“It would be a very strong move,” Petr continued. “But also
perhaps the most expected. Especially since the conquest of the
Falcon worlds will take time. Too many powers feeding at the
same trough; wars there will be quick and vicious. Alaric needs
to be very careful to not do the expected if he wants to keep the
forces arrayed against him off balance.”
“Speaking of which, what of your pet Protectorate and the
League?”
Petr easily swam in his Khan’s rapidly shifting streams of
thought.
“There are so many factors at play in the League, as always,
my Khan. Nikol Marik continues her mother’s ambitions of
crafting a whole Free Worlds League once more. And while not
as bereft as the Jade Falcon worlds, the Wolf Empire is an empty
shell, ready to crack at the right provocation. Conflicts will also
be swift and brutal as opportunists seek to savage the Wolves in
their weakness. In fact, part of my purpose in coming here was
to inform you that I am departing for the Protectorate. Quickly.
Now that our primary tasks of ferrying supplies and enabling
better communications for the Wolves are in abeyance with the
conquest of Terra, I need to be hands on if I will impact future
developments in the League.”
“And will you help the Wolf Empire? I imagine Alaric would
expect such. Especially after I acknowledged my support for
his ascendance.”
Though Petr knew they were alone, he chose his words
as though Alaric were listening. You can never be too careful.
He absently brushed his scars in a habitual remembrance of
unintended consequences. “Clan Wolf is the ilClan. Clan Sea
Fox will ensure that the future sees their star is ultimately
ascendant.”
Khan Hawker’s lips settled into a small smile as he glanced
his way once more. “You are truly becoming the Sea Foxman I
knew you could be. Find the currents that will make us strong.”
Petr bowed his head in honest fealty. “Seyla, my Khan.
May the currents make you strong.” He swept off the balcony
and back down the corridor, feet anxious to be free of this
gravity well.
CLAN SEA FOX ARCSHIP POSEIDON
ZENITH JUMP POINT, TERRA
WOLF EMPIRE
3 JUNE 3151
Petr luxuriated in the weightlessness.
“SaKhan,” Kila spoke, crashing against his moment of
respite.
He managed to keep annoyance from his voice—he still
struggled now and then—and opened his eyes to find his aide
waiting patiently and attentive at the door of his office. He did
let a sigh go, then, accepting the weight of responsibility that
supplanted gravity as he reached down and grabbed the edge
of his desk. Expertly jackknifed down into the chair behind it,
the microfibers of his suit easily adhering to the seat and back.
“Yes?” he responded once he was situated and fully
reoriented away from the few moments he had taken for himself.
“You wanted to be informed when the ship is ready to
jump.”
He waved his hand across his desk, springing near space
to life in meticulous, 3D-projected detail. Terra’s zenith jump
point was still awash with JumpShips and some few WarShips,
the aftermath of such a massive invasion. But the numbers were
ebbing as resources were diverted and new commands given.
“You were there?”
He didn’t look up from the display, but her tone spoke of
her urgency. “Aff, I was there when Alaric was named the ilKhan.”
“Then you will support him, as we discussed?”
“Of course I will support him. As will Khan Hawker.”
Petr heard a long sigh, and just kept from gritting his
teeth. Especially as his emotions twisted from frustration to
melancholy. You wield your sighs as Jesup did his sarcasm. He still
felt the loss of his previous aide, despite the passing of more
than fifteen years since he’d been forced to kill him.
“You doubt my ability?” He did glance up then, taking in her
small stature, short hair—like most Sea Foxes, she didn’t wish
to mess with it during so much zero-gravity life—but eyes that
cut as sharp as Jesup’s tongue.
“I would never doubt your ability, my saKhan. In fact,
perhaps I doubt your inability to not use your full abilities.”
He shrugged at the back-handed compliment, leaning back
into the chair, feeling the microfibers bunch and move to keep
Deep Currents 7
 EMPIRE ALONE
him secured. “Why do all of my aides seem to tread the same
ground over and over?”
“Because your tracks are well worn in the circles you
navigate.”
He smiled, glad at how easy it was to not bristle at such
words, as it would have been for so much of his life…before. He
touched his scars. “Khan Hawker has formally given his support
for the ilClan.”
“But you believe he will lock-step too much with the ilKhan?”
“I have the utmost respect for Khan Hawker.” And he meant
it. “But you are right. If opportunities arise to empower Clan Sea
Fox, I will of course ensure those streams are forded.”
“Even if it costs Clan Wolf?”
He cocked his head. “I was very clear with Khan Hawker. I will
ensure their star is ultimately ascendant.”
Kila cocked her head in return. “Ultimately?”
He smiled larger. Despite her constant pushing, that she
instantly saw to the heart of the matter proved why she was his
aide. He would never tell her that he wanted that pushing.
“You have paid a terrible price for such nuanced thinking,”
she said.
His smile fell from his face and the ire ratcheted as his hand
brushed his scars. “Do not push too far, Kila. I brought much
glory to Delta Aimag, and now to Spina Khanate. And have paid
the price.”
“Others have paid more.”
He breathed deeply, wanting to lash out, realizing the
foolishness of not accepting that truth. An ovKhan can be so blind.
Not a saKhan. He nodded purposefully in her direction. “That is
why I have you at my side, Kila.”
The silence stretched as an electronic voice spoke the length
of the ship, announcing an imminent jump.
“I only hope I can keep up with you, my saKhan,” she finally
said.
His smile returned, wider than ever.
CLAN SEA FOX ARCSHIP POSEIDON
NADIR POINT, TALITHA
UNALIGNED WORLDS
12 JUNE 3151
The trader materialized in the holodeck of the massive bridge of
the Poseidon. Petr, floating in the chair just above the command
deck, took in the woman’s short red hair, strong chin and bold
eyes, along with the LFTA patch riding on her singlesuit’s
chest—as well as the details gleaned from a close fly-by of the
Merchant-class JumpShip—and seized the initiative.
“It is good to see a Lyran Free Trader expanding their options.
Though the deep can be filled with sharks, it can also bring
bounty.”
The woman nodded, her accent thick but intelligible. “If you
do not seize the moment, another will. The universe has changed
overnight, I hear.”
8 Deep Currents
He smiled. Even with so few operating HPGs and a paucity of
JumpShips, rumors would swirl. Rumors always find a way. Speaking
of which… “What rumors do you bring?”
“What rumors do you bring?” she shot back. Whether real
or feigned, her confidence shone brightly. Considering the size
of her JumpShip next to the massive bulk of his ArcShip, that
spoke volumes. Not to mention, he wanted the news flying, so
he conceded first.
“The rumors are true. There is an ilClan on Terra. I personally
witnessed the investiture. ilKhan Alaric Ward controls the cradle
of humanity.”
“And humanity as well?”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “We are but humble traders. That
is for others to decide.”
She laughed until she bent over, dashing tears from her eyes
that haloed her head lazily. “Clan Sea Fox. Just simple traders? Ha!
More like kingmakers.”
Exactly. “You have my rumors, what rumors from you?”
She nodded slowly as she regained control, as though to
say you didn’t disavow my statement. “League forces have struck
into the Wolf Empire.”
His pulse quickened, but Petr remained carefully relaxed.
“And you have come from League space? I thought you were
down from Steiner worlds.”
“I’ve come from Wolf Empire territory. Straight from Gienah.”
He raised an eyebrow, his estimation rising. “And you saw
this directly?”
She shook her head. “No. But a trader I’ve worked with for
decades saw it. I trust him implicitly.”
“Who? Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey? Covenant Worlds? The
League proper?”
She abashedly shook her head. “Unlike your morsel,
neither I nor he saw it directly. Only the aftermath. But his
instincts are always true. As war finishes with Terra, it comes
to the Empire.”
He instinctively knew it for truth. Quicker even than I imagined.
I will need to speed up my travel. Petr grimaced momentarily at
the thought of double gravities when traveling to planets, and
the dangers of redline charging of K-F drives. Regardless, she fell
slightly in his eyes for failing to verify the rumor personally. “I am
feeling generous this day. But note that the next time we meet,
the balance is shifted in my favor. I will collect.”
For the first time a shadow of trepidation wormed onto her
visage. She nodded gravely. “The next time we meet, you will be
repaid in full and more.”
He breathed the wonderfully stale scents of shipboard life
as he tapped a button on his chair to cancel the projection. He
turned, finding Kila at his elbow.
“I trust the rumor,” she immediately spoke, but softly to only
carry to his ears.
“I agree,” he muttered back, mulling over the possibilities. Of
course he would need to deal with Rikkard and Juliette in their
Clan Protectorate. But new options arose. “I believe we need to
visit the Covenant Worlds’ capital.”
 DEEP CURRENTS
She slowly nodded as she aptly leapt to keep up with him.
“You can find out if they are involved. Or see if they wish to be
involved.”
“Oh, they wish to be involved. I can smell it from thirty
light years away. But they are likely hesitant, as they have been
in the past. We need to ensure they are not so hesitant. In just
the right way.”
Though concern mirrored in her eyes, she nodded again,
seeing the opportunities too large to miss.
COURT OF PARLIAMENT
TESLA CITY, MIAPLACIDUS
COVENANT WORLDS
FREE WORLDS LEAGUE
24 JUNE 3151
The drumroll ceased, echoes bouncing around the spacious
chamber. The seneschal waited until the last sound faded, then
raised his staff high, striking the obsidian floor three times. The
metal-wrapped tip struck sparks as it shot out a surprisingly
large bang that announced his presence.
“The President of the Court of Parliament, Governor Tiago
Paragon, ruler of the Covenant Worlds of the Free Worlds
League,” the seneschal’s voice boomed, carrying up to the high
rafters covered in beautifully-painted scenes of bucolic life. “I
present saKhan Petr Kalasa of Spina Khanate, Clan Sea Fox.
Emissary of the ilKhan Alaric Ward, vanquisher of Clan Jade
Falcon, conqueror of Terra, khan of all Clans.”
The shocked look on the president’s face at his carefully
instructed words to the seneschal was worth the potential
danger of misrepresentation. Big sticks were best wielded
against an opponent’s imagination before words even begun.
As long as I do not totally bungle things, Alaric will not mind me
throwing his weight around a bit. Besides…more rumors. Rumors
are such good soil to bear future fruits.
Petr graced the seneschal with a firm nod for his
exemplary introduction, then stepped forward. Despite his
scars, and nearing six decades of life, he was still fit and trim
and moved with the alacrity of a warrior born.
“President Paragon,” he said as he drew close enough
to the man to talk casually without raising his voice. “It is so
gracious of you to accept my uninvited intrusion upon your
precious time.”
The middle-aged man still struggled to hide his shock at
the casual details spilled in the introduction. I always do love
seizing the initiative. “May I stand as we talk?” Petr said with
nonchalance.
The niceties of the situation snapped the other man from
his malaise as he surged to his feet. “Please, forgive me. My
seneschal is a wonderful man, but he would force my own
mother through such a presentation. He so does love such
protocols. I trust you were not intimidated?”
Petr smiled at the man trying to put him back on his heels
slightly. You control eleven worlds, Tiago. I have visited nobles
that control half a thousand systems. Whose entryway would
swallow your entire Court of Parliament building. “Of course
not. I understand when an aide needs to be given latitude
to exercise their prerogative, even if they trod on toes now
and then. Believe me, I know. It had taken years, but he’d finally
settled into a relationship with Kila that was almost the equal
of Jesup. Almost.
The other man smiled, and waved them to walk out past
a door demurely hidden behind the chair of the audience
chamber, that lead out into a private garden. Large flowers of
a wide range of colors sprouted in every corner, the buzz of
hungry insects still lively, despite the day being several weeks
past the prime spring of this part of Miaplacidus. He motioned
to twin chairs tucked among the abundance of flora. “Please,
take a chair.”
While perfectly capable of withstanding the higher-
than-normal gravity, Petr still allowed a moment of relief to
flourish. Ah, gravity, how I loathe thee. “Thank you, President.
This is most gracious.”
“Please,” the other man waved again, a more genuine
smile appearing amidst his well-trimmed, black beard, teeth
surprisingly white. “Call me Tiago. I am not your president. Nor
do I imagine I will ever be your president. So here, niceties
don’t apply.”
“Very gracious of you, Tiago.” After my big stick your seneschal
wielded, you want to distance yourself immediately from the
realities of your position. You realize you are frightfully close to
Alaric. The blood-covered war general standing over their spoils of
victory and starting to look around is always intimidating.
“How may I be of service to the vaunted Clan Sea Fox?” he
asked.
Striking to the heart. Good. I like that. “I have heard rumors
that League forces have struck into the Wolf Empire.”
“Not ours!” Tiago got out almost before Petr finished talking.
Nervous indeed. “Oh, I am sure that would not be you. You
have sworn to Captain-General Nikol Marik. I am sure she would
not appreciate you adding worlds for her to take care of in these
troubled times.”
Petr casually reached out and caressed a brilliant purple
flower petal—a variety he’d never encountered before—as he
watched the man struggle to understand if his comments were
in support or not of his inactions. He could see the seeds of
confusion grow in eyes and nervous fingers. Excellent.
“I have it on good authority it is the blasted Silver Hawk
Irregulars. They have struck Helm and Stewart, and I even heard
Adhafera.”
You play the hand too quick. Too scattershot. The Irregulars
are indeed loose cannons, but they are not idiots. He found it
inconceivable they would strike at three worlds simultaneously.
Especially when their overall goal would be better served by
targeting Stewart. After all, I have been to that world. I have tasted
the history there. No. It is likely the Irregulars, but currently with
Deep Currents 9
 EMPIRE ALONE
much smaller ambitions. In fact, too small. I need those ambitions
to be bigger. Much bigger.
“I know Kalidasa is a choice world. Something the League
would love to wrest away from the Wolf Empire. Much less the
other coreward worlds that straddle this end of the League
border. Despite the danger, I am sure Captain-General Marik
would welcome such additions. I guess it is a good thing the
Irregulars have begun that work on your anti-spinward side. I am
sure they will get to Kalidasa eventually.”
Petr turned away, leaning out of his chair to smell the purple
flower. “This really is an amazing flora. Wonderful smell. You are
truly blessed,” he said off-handedly as he looked back to find
confusion and avarice warring on Tiago’s face. Hook baited and
cast.
“Truthfully, I cannot imagine the Irregulars could bite off
such a large campaign. They are masterful warriors. And driven
for vengeance. But that is far too large.”
“Really?” Petr replied, glancing back to the flower as though it
were more important than any talk of geopolitics and interstellar
warfare. Always be sure your shadows do not fall on the fish when
you wiggle the hook. “They seem capable.”
“They are.”
“Then again,” he responded, still looking at the flower.
“Yes?”
He turned back to the man as though he’d forgotten the
discussion for a moment. “Oh. I was just thinking that as marvelous
as BattleMechs and their pilots are, without abundant supplies?
Well, they are very limited. If they were directly supported, far
beyond their obviously limited means, their ambitions could be
much larger. Could distract the Wolf Empire further. Perhaps even
give them time to build up to strike at Kalidasa.”
Petr turned again and deliberately plucked the flower,
spinning it around in his hand as he gazed into its depths. “Hm.
Perhaps my next port of call should be Stewart.”
“SaKhan!” Tiago spoke urgently.
He glanced up casually to find the man on the edge of his
seat, strained features speaking volumes. Tell a man he cannot
have the thing he plainly wants and can already have, and he will
desire it doubly. “Yes?”
“We’ve…been looking to establish a favored-partner
trading status with the Clan Protectorate. I’m sure you could
be instrumental in making that happen. And in ensuring that
favored status included your Spina Khanate?”
Meanwhile, you will contact the Irregulars and start funding
them so they can quickly expand operations. Which will distract the
Empire enough for you to strike first at Kalidasa. And perhaps even
the other worlds along the coreward side of your border. Hook set.
Almost too easy. And you were worried, Kila.
“Oh. Of course I would be most happy to accompany your
negotiator to Marik. I do need to be traveling there next.”
Petr stood up as relief washed over the president, and they
talked companionably about the flora of this part of Miaplacidus
before the Sea Fox saKhan left his side, immediately forgetting
about Tiago as he mentally prepared for the bluff.
10 Deep Currents
DORMUTH, MANDORIA
MARIK, CLAN PROTECTORATE
FREE WORLDS LEAGUE
27 JUNE 3151
“Are you insane?” Julietta Marik said calmly. Yet her dark mass of
hair cascading half-way down her back still moved slightly, as
though she’d mentally shook her head violently.
Petr eased shoulders bunched from the punishing gravities
to quickly reach Marik. Glanced at her, then back to Rikkard Nova
Cat to catch his response; his pale, almost violet eyes often hid
the warrior’s intentions too well. With a ten-meter stare into the
street from their secluded cafe table on a mostly deserted street
of the city of Dormuth, he looked back at Julietta. The intense
look in her eyes was so refreshing after his first experience with
the woman who had been the most timid member of the Marik
brood that had reforged a huge chunk of the Free Worlds League.
He sipped his hot lilac tea, noting the subtle tones of
cinnamon as he glanced around the streets. Then again, the
fighting that savaged this city some fifteen years back and brought
these two together was a forge for you as surely as it was for the
formation of the Clan Protectorate. He knew of her scars from the
assassination attempt; touched his own as he looked back at the
two sitting across from him.
“Some have assured me that I am insane. But they are dead
and I am not. Just as those who have opposed both of you are
dead and gone as well.”
A hint of that old timidity touched her face as a slight brush
of shame bloomed on her cheeks. Tough, but still with so much
empathy. An intriguing combination. His eyes skewed to Rikkard
for a moment. I can see the fascination.
“I don’t need to be reminded of the atrocities involved
in dynastic rule, saKhan,” she said, raising her chin. “What you
need to remind me of is why we should possibly allow you to
negotiate with the Wolf Empire on our behalf. If we are to support
the coming Star League—for surely we all know that is what is
coming—then we should simply go to the Empire’s defense.
Right now.”
He caught a flicker of doubt on Rikkard’s face at her words.
The two of you may be the leaders of the Protectorate by default, but
you are not on the same page here. Not by a long shot.
“You would protect the Empire from the League,” Petr said
casually, glancing around as though uncaring of this conversation.
Her eyes hardened as she pulled his attention back to her
with silence before responding. “Do not try your wiles with me,
Sea Fox. You are desperately interested in all of this. Beyond
the obvious implications of further preferred-trading statuses
you wish to secure, I see further opportunities for you. And
even murkier depths I’m not so sure of. But please do me the
courtesy of dropping your disinterred dissembling. I am in favor
of a coming Star League because I have personally lived with
the affront of dynastic squabbles. I am a dynastic squabble. The
original Star League had its faults. Many faults. But even the worst
detractors would herald it as a golden age of humanity. I would
 DEEP CURRENTS
gladly throw my support behind it. Even if it means directly
opposing my sister.”
Petr nodded slowly. Strength indeed. He sloughed off his
usual cloak of disinterest, sitting up straighter, voice firming.
“Straight talk? So be it. Rikkard? I believe you are against the
Star League?” he said, trying to pull the other leader from his
musings.
The man slowly shook his head before meeting his
eyes, fingers drumming the table as he glanced at Julietta
momentarily before returning to Petr. “Let us just say that just
as Julietta has traumatic memories of House machinations, I
have my own concerning the Clans. We have believed ourselves
different for so long. But in the end, our scars are the same. The
trauma identical. I do not believe Alaric has any more altruistic
motives in mind than Nikol. But the Free Worlds League, first
under Jessica, and now Nikol, has dealt well with us.”
Petr cocked his eyebrow as Julietta turned nearly a shocked
stare on him as well.
Rikkard actually managed a tired smile, waving a hand as
though to fend them off. “Okay, they have toed the letter-of-the
law several times. And yet, I find this is home. I find…” he trailed
off, gaze drifting as though he couldn’t articulate his thoughts.
“Better the enemy you know,” Petr hazarded a guess, and
got an affirming nod.
Petr took another sip of his now merely warm drink, the
cinnamon heavier for more steeping. “So, you would protect
the Free Worlds League from the Wolf Empire.” He nodded at
Julietta. “And you would protect the Wolf Empire because you
believe a new Star League is coming, and it will be a better shield
for the Protectorate?”
They both nodded as he slowly nodded in turn, mind racing
as he marshaled his thoughts. Petr pointed a finger at Rikkard.
“Whether you believe the Spirit Cats are better with the Free
Worlds League or not, you have too many in your command
that believe otherwise.”
Rikkard winced and glanced away. I hit the mark. “Both of
the First Nova Cat Provisionals and Beta Strike Cluster went
AWOL to strike at Stewart to try and defeat the Irregulars.” Petr
drew the moment out, taking another sip of his drink. “And they
lost. And neither has been seen since?”
Rikkard opened his mouth to respond, and slowly closed
it, shaking his head.
First hook. Petr turned to Julietta, raising a second finger that
he angled in her direction. “You are forgetting, my Lady Julietta,
though in dire straits, the Wolf Empire is still Clan. The Empire
may feel abandoned by Alaric, but they are still Clan. They will
not appreciate you simply handing them reinforcements. It will
undermine the belief of their own troops in their cause. It will
undermine the Spirit Cats as well.”
He caught Rikkard’s adamant nod. Hook two.
“Rushing to defense is not the answer. Instead, I can
negotiate that aid. As Clan Sea Fox has for generations, in the
Clan way. You will both receive what you desire. A fortification of
the Spirit Cats and the Protectorate and a fortification of the Wolf
Empire. And, of course, I will commit additional naval defenses,
along with significant transportation assets, needed once we
have forged an agreement with the Empire to appropriately
come to their aide.”
“You seem to have all of the answers,” Rikkard said, voice
tinged with bitterness. “Every time you pass through, you always
seem to have all of the answers. saKhan. It was not all that long
ago I called you ovKhan. How much have we elevated you?”
Petr shrugged casually. “I simply swim where the currents
take me. And have you not been elevated with me at each turn?”
Rikkard’s eyes heated and hardened. “We have. And yet,
you speak of being the Clans. Of the Clans. When so much of
what you do flies in the face of all that it has meant to be a
Clansman for centuries. But you forget, I think, that you are of
the Clans. If you mean to seize this right of negotiation for the
Clan Protectorate, then you will do so in a Trial. I challenge you
to a Trial of Possession for this right of negotiation. A Star versus
a Star. My second-in-command to face yours on the morrow.”
Petr leaned back into the chair, caught completely off
guard. He did not balk from combat. Never. But hated when the
fight came because he had been outmaneuvered. Smoky eyes
filled his vision, and a biting laugh echoed in his ears. If Snow
finds out how I blundered into this, I shall never hear the end of it.
He glanced at both of them, knowing he had no choice. Not
after laying out such a Clan-centered trap. And instead, he had
walked right into theirs. I am sorry, Kila.
“I accept.”
FIREHILL PLAINS, MANDORIA
MARIK, CLAN PROTECTORATE
FREE WORLDS LEAGUE
28 JUNE 3151
The sun peeked above the horizon as the ugly, twin moons still
rode high in the sky.
“I am sorry,” Petr said to Kila as she stood next to her beloved
Incubus that towered over the both of them. Its sleek, humanoid
shape evoked an armored knight, its right arm ending in a large
pulse laser.
The cool air—despite well into summer, this plain always
carried a touch of cool during the night that only bled off by
noon—prickled her arms as she stood in the vest and shorts of
a MechWarrior ready for the punishing heat of the cockpit. Her
eyes cut him as surely as any blade. “You can say you are sorry all
you want. But that does not remove the footprints on our backs.”
With the blow well-placed, Kila swarmed up the chain
ladder dangling from the Incubus’ chest, leaving Petr to take
a deep breath against the pain. That almost sounded like Jesup.
He turned to walk toward the command HQ as the rest of
the two Stars readied for the Trial. Her own footprint on his chest
tingled for long minutes.
Deep Currents 11
 EMPIRE ALONE
FIREHILL PLAINS, MANDORIA
MARIK, CLAN PROTECTORATE
FREE WORLDS LEAGUE
28 JUNE 3151
The thirty-ton Incubus sprinted through the knee-deep,
cinnamon-colored grass that undulated in the soft breeze. The
large plain spread out for long kilometers. In the sea-green of
Spina Khanate, Kila’s ’Mech stood out starkly against the vibrant
colors.
Petr watched her veer around a massive tree that towered
over the Incubus. A spread of missile fire hammered into the
footprints dug out by the rapid movement. Fire bloomed
amongst the dry grasses, joining several fitful fires already aglow
fifteen minutes into the Trial.
The aerial view skewed his perception. Especially with
the size of the grass and trees. He almost wondered if he were
watching Elementals fight in powered armor. Until a herd of
striped, deer-like creatures bounded into a small clearing and
then away just as swiftly, the grass towering over their heads.
Abruptly, the scene shifted, and he whistled at the sheer scale of
the trees. I have never seen any so tall.
Star Captain Roos Spirit Cat’s Jenner IIC bounded into
the display on jets of plasma, missiles slashing at the Incubus.
Explosions walked up and
down the light ’Mech,
12 Deep Currents
tearing chunks away that sent armor scything through the grass
like giant lawnmowers.
Petr winced, fingers slowly curling until his balled fists ached
with tension. You cannot lose this, Kila. We need this too much.
You need this. Her words seemed to echo in his mind, as
though she were standing beside him. She knows you too well. He
expected the internal monologue to carry a dry note of humor.
Instead, it came out as a frank appraisal, as though he were
inspecting himself naked in the mirror and seeing the ravages
of time, despite still being fit. It was all…unsettling.
He saw the readouts change as another Spirit Cat ’Mech
crashed to the ground, failing to rise. We have lost one, they are
down three. Just take down one more and they shall concede. Push,
Kila, Push.
After the first pass, the two ’Mechs lined up for another.
As they neared, the Incubus turned heavily, firing multiple laser
blasts in the hope of bracketing the Jenner IIC enough to catch
it off guard.
The pilot, as though sensing the move, once more ignited
jump jets and leapt into the air, fire sweeping into the grass as
the ignited waste plasma lofted the thirty-five-ton BattleMech
into a harsh ballistic arc; the pilot expertly feathered the jets in
the air, twisting its orientation toward the back of the Incubus as
it sped by its position.
Kila, sensing the move, immediately began to turn her
’Mech even tighter to the right to keep it out of the firing arc.
Adrenaline spiked in Petr until his head spun as the Incubus
abruptly stumbled, and then fell to its knees; a rock formation
now plainly seen as the ’Mech thrashed through the area, tearing
up dirt and grass as she planted the Incubus’ left arm to keep from
toppling completely to the ground.
It was a magnificent display of piloting that would be long
remembered. Especially as twin short-range six-pack missiles
unleashed directly into her back. With all twelve missiles striking
the rear armor, they easily punched through the paper-thin
protection, savaging the internal structure and components.
Secondary explosions thumped across the external speakers
of the drone capturing the fight as the Incubus flopped to
the ground, sliding headfirst—straight into another hidden
outcropping that crushed the cockpit.
Time dialed down until Petr convulsed, only staying upright
by desperatly holding onto the table. He watched in agony as the
rest of the Trial played out, his Sea Foxmen eventually carrying
the day. Giving him the victory that would carry him into the next
currents and opportunities.
But Kila, he simply knew, was dead.
Just like Jesup. Another one has paid the price. Paid my price.
Petr closed his eyes as the long seconds stretched into
longer minutes. He knew he would go on. Knew that, for his Clan,
he would always continue on.
But how many more scars will I take? Touching his head
without thought. How many more scars?
There was no answer.
B
 INTRODUCTION

Captain-General,
In any conflict, your allies are just as important as your own strength. This is something your mother understood, and you
watched her utilize the relationships with her allies to create a realm greater than the sum of its parts. A nation with strong
allies will remain strong by working together toward a common purpose. But the reverse is also true: a nation forced to walk
a path alone, without support, will eventually reveal weakness.
If the attached Sea Fox reports we intercepted can be taken at face value, then our own analysis of events is indeed accurate:
in the wake of the news from Terra, the Wolf Empire is well and truly on its own.
As expected, the Blackout continues to complicate efforts to piece together a full picture of our nation, the Wolf Empire,
and our neighbors in the Periphery, but the Sea Foxes have done a commendable job in preparing these reports. The intended
recipient remains unclear. My team cannot ascertain whether the documents represent an internal missive for their Khan’s
eyes—or to what end— or if the data are meant to show the ilKhan that matters within his realm are nearing a boiling point.
What matters is that the warrior remnant in the Wolf Empire has been fighting its own battles since Clan Wolf landed on Terra,
and thus far, no outside allies have yet come to the Empire’s aid. This blot on the map that spilled toward Terra is truly an island,
and no one is coming to save it; for us to survive what is coming, it is in our best interest to ensure the Empire remains that way.
—SAFE Director Torrian Dolcat, Atreus, 17 June 3152

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Empire Alone details the events which took place in the Wolf
Empire, the Free Worlds League and its neighbors during 3151
and the first half of 3152. The news that Alaric Ward had become
the ilkhan, countered with the slow revelation that his entire
war machine had vacated the Wolf Empire, allowed a border
conflict to erupt into a free-for-all, blunted only by the resolve
of the lone Star Colonel left behind…and the machinations
of Clan Sea Fox.
The first chapter, Blood in the Water, details the
dramatic changes which took place on the border of
the Wolf Empire and the Free Worlds League in the wake
of the Wolf Empire Touman’s departure. Interstellar Players
explores the nations, combat commands, notable personalities, and
star systems which played key roles in the conflicts in the area—many
all-new to the BattleTech universe. Finally, Rules Annex offers tools for
bringing the events of Empire Alone to your tabletop for a session of
BattleTech, Alpha Strike, A Time of War, or MechWarrior: Destiny.
Rules in this volume draw upon BattleMech Manual, Total
Warfare, Campaign Operations, and Tactical Operations: Advanced
Rules and Tactical Operations: Advanced Units and Equipment
for BattleTech games, as well as Alpha Strike: Commander’s
Edition, A Time of War, and MechWarrior: Destiny for games
in those systems.

The following novels and sourcebooks help set the stage for Empire Alone, and may prove useful in getting up
SUGGESTED
READING

to speed before reading this volume.

% A Bonfire of Worlds by Steven Mohan, Jr. % Shattered Fortress sourcebook

% Hunting Season by Philip A. Lee % ilClan sourcebook
% Hour of the Wolf by Blaine Lee Pardoe

How to Use This Book 13

 BLOOD
IN THE WATER

Pient, as aut ommodis samet porrore, iderit laborro Obis abor sae rempori berferro quis aut ere sit voluptas
molessitinim quatemp orerfera volupici raerum labore magnia velesequi diatiatus exerrovides as saestium
consequi od molorio idest, culluptatur am coriorrum as secto verumquam ipsandi ditis volupta tionse od mo enienihici
magnis dolorpos doluptatusa que veliquis eat. corionse as dolupta testio. Et pos re natatur, que rehendae
The decisions of today are often rooted deeply in the leadership and able warriors from the planets of the nation
Us il illore si sitatus, tem harum audandanda voloribus, elestem pelit, quias in con pa coria suntius et dolupta voluptat
past, and few such turning points had as deep of an impact that sought to become the ilClan.
que verferibus, esequi auda et ullit, net fugit quuntibus dipis oditior estior re plam, qui ut que conem sum cuptatur,
as Alaric Ward’s quest to claim Terra and become the ilKhan. As silence came from Terra and Khan Ward, those left
ratur sa amuste rempore ptatqui cusdam volupti isquias inctectias delescil maxim faccati nctotatempos conse offic to
Like most Clan warriors, Alaric dreamed from a young behind in the Wolf Empire continued on with their day to
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followingodicit, alibere
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by Captain-
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General Nikol Marik, shared the longest national border with idenisquist et
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centuries-old ashes. Butquisti si duciis
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the Wolves and maintained a nonaggression pact, the state of eiciet ab
anditias
Khan of Clan Wolf was different in that he saw this goalat
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and the Wolf Empire presented an attractivesus
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to those who eyed former League worlds. Also, the Capellan quidion seditat
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dared step in his path. This road led him to the pinnacle ofautatemporro ommolenimin eum ut fuga. Ut acestiorum acepedisquo
Terra itself and whoever would emerge as ilClan, but his nation’s tem
conesWolf’s
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leadership of theeat.
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allies, Magestrix Ilsa Liao’s Magistracy of Canopus and Duke aperiaeped
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15
 EMPIRE ALONE
PRELUDES
TO WAR
At the beginning of 3151, the borders and political
climate of the Free Worlds League had steadied to a relative
equilibrium, especially when compared to the trials and
travails of the previous decade-plus of the nation’s existence.
The border with the Wolf Empire remained at détente, the
heavy action against Periphery nations had largely been
quelled, and Captain-General Nikol Marik, who had filled into
her role as head of state after her mother’s assassination, was
coming into her own. The League’s largest victory, however,
had been against the Regulan Fiefs, an antagonistic former
League province that had rejoined the League after a war
of starvation and attrition; Regulus’ repatriation further
bolstered the ranks of the Free Worlds League Military with
Regulan regiments eager to prove their loyalty.
The first four months of 3151 saw the allied nations of
the Capellan Confederation, the Magistracy of Canopus, and
the Duchy of Andurien faced new troubles at home while
preparing to make their own moves. The Magistracy of
Canopus found growing discontent on its worlds, primarily
sponsored by groups such as the Magistracy First Movement,
due to the fact that they were being led by an absentee
Magestrix. The Capellan Confederation, traditionally in
lockstep with their Canopian allies, encountered discontent
on several worlds that had been traded between the two
nations, while loath to devote anything other than Home
Guard forces to deal with the rising unrest. Only the Duchy
of Andurien seemed to be on the rise, which led to building
up its own military strength, which was reassuring to many
Andurien citizens but deeply troubling to their neighbors.
ROLLING THE HARD SIX
January 3151 found the Wolf Empire in a bizarre limbo,
its only justification for its own existence being the reality that
it served to bring Clan Wolf to Terra’s doorstep. Khan Alaric
Ward, commander of the Wolf Empire, was certain that the
assault on the Republic of the Sphere capital would define a
new era. Toward that end, the Khan stripped the Wolf Empire
of nearly every combat-capable BattleMech, warrior, and
military asset that could jump on the assigned day, betting
everything on a single roll of the dice.
The Khan focused all of his considerable tactical and
strategic skills to the overarching goal of taking Terra at the
cost of everything else. It was a brilliant gamble. Knowing
Terra was the ultimate prize for any Clan and knowing that
failing to allocate every resource to the goal courted failure,
16 Preludes to War
the Khan strained every sinew to carry the entire touman,
and the balance of the technician caste to support it, into the
assault. He left no Clusters behind to guard the Empire worlds.
A handful of warriors, the huge mass of sibkos and academy
cadres, and the paramilitary Clan constabulary were all that
remained to hold the Empire in Alaric Ward’s name.
In any other era that might have been a fatal gamble,
but the cards fell in Alaric’s favor. Both Trillian Steiner and
Nikol Marik, learning of the Wolves’ departure in the spring,
decided against taking advantage of the undefended worlds.
Either nation could have launched a blitzkrieg campaign and
liberated scores of formerly Lyran and Free Worlds planets
almost without cost, had they only decided to. Instead, they
decided against it, and Alaric Ward’s supply lines back into the
Empire as he leapt at Terra remained secure.
In the Empire, life continued as it had been leading up
to the exodus of the warrior caste. Planets, still generally
isolated by the HPG Blackout and further starved for news and
collaboration by the dearth of available JumpShips, moved
along the paths set before the warriors departed. Factories
labored to build the replacement equipment the touman
would need no matter how Terra went. Sibkos trained day and
night to mature the warriors the Clan would need to reinforce
the Clusters shattered against the walls of Terra. Children were
born to the lower castes or decanted from the iron wombs.
Life went on. Because of the decision toward restraint by
the neighboring leaders, there was little to challenge this
status quo.
Alaric’s gamble ultimately paid off, as history would
show.
ALONE ON AN ISLAND
When 3151 dawned, the only active, exigent threat
to the Free Worlds League’s sovereignty lay in an island of
three worlds that invaders from the Marian Hegemony had
conquered along the League’s border with the Periphery.
Nikol Marik was confident that this threat could be easily
mitigated, so her attention focused toward Terra and the Wolf
Empire. Rumors spoke of one or more Clans having discovered
how to breach the Fortress Wall around Terra, so the League
braced for what it could mean for a Clan to conquer Terra and
declare itself ilClan. Though relations between the League
and the Wolf Empire remained calm, no one in the League’s
leadership could predict with any certainty what a Wolf-led
ilClan would do to change that dynamic. So, while monitoring
 PRELUDES TO WAR

the situation with the Clans, the Free Worlds League kept Armstrong, issued the Marians an ultimatum, offering them to
one eye on Terra while turning the other toward the threat leave the planet or be destroyed. None of III Secunda Auxilia
immediately in the League’s backyard. Legio’s accepted the terms, instead preferring to dig in around
One of the difficulties facing the League’s response the base they had established since claiming the world. The
to the Marian Hegemony incursion into the Duchy of PAG’s tank battalion stormed the Marians’ defenses while the
Tamarind-Abbey was that Duke Fontaine Marik’s personal,
unsanctioned war against the Lyran Commonwealth in the
late 3140s had weakened the province’s Periphery border,
which had resulted in the Marians altering their strategy from
judicious raiding to outright conquest. Parliament’s censure
of Fontaine’s counterattacks into the Marian Hegemony and
their denial of funds for continuing his campaign had resulted
in the Gibraltar Island in 3150, three Marian-held worlds inside
the League’s borders, including Gibraltar, the former capital
of the FWLM’s Gibraltar Military District. Tamarind-Abbey’s
seeming reluctance to remove this staging ground of invaders
stemmed from Parliament’s censure forcing Fontaine to
curtail the expenditures necessary to push the Marians back
behind their own borders. The duchy’s
hands were tied.
Fortunately for the League,
Fontaine Marik was not the only political
and military influence in the region.
Christopher Marik, the Captain-General’s
older brother, had been living in Tamarind-
Abbey for many years, first serving as
Fontaine’s protégé before coming into
his own as a commander during recent
conflicts with the Lyran Commonwealth.
Rather than employing the duchy’s forces,
Christopher found a means of circumventing t h e
Parliamentary measures that had handicapped Fontaine’s
troops. Instead of using FWLM troops to combat the Marians,
he advocated hiring mercenaries; this bought time for the
duchy’s line regiments to rebuild, recruit, and train for future
operations. Having come from a successful career in extreme
sports in his youth and inheriting considerable sums after
his mother’s assassination in 3148, Christopher leveraged
his own personal wealth to provide new troops for the
endeavor. These mercenaries reported to him rather than
the duchy’s military leadership, and Fontaine extended his
blessing to allow Christopher’s hired army to operate within
the duchy’s borders.

WE WILL FIGHT
THEM ON THE BEACHES
On 12 January, the Panther Assault Group (PAG)
mercenary regiment, under the command of Colonel
Isaiah Armstrong, touched down on Atzenbrugg
with the intent of dislodging all Marian forces
from the planet. Armstrong’s executive
officer, Lieutenant Colonel Karin

We Will Fight Them on the Beaches 17

 Novara York Svinngarn
Gillfillan's Gold Mercedes Eaton New Wessex Altais
Stanley Lancaster Smolnik Vega Rukbat
Gallery Colinas Enkoping Freedom Kimball II
Whittington Eltanin
Halmyre Deans Marfik
Aiguebelle Alya
Hinckley Jaumegarde Izar Konstance
Rijeka Turinge Nekkar Kaus Borealis Shitara Algedi
Zaprudy Laurieston Komephoros
Karkkila Rapla Ryde
Carlisle Chukchi III Zebeneschamali Kaus Australis Sh
Chiavenna Bjornlunda Kessel
Mezzana Kaus Media Albalii
Venaria Chaffee Carnwath Dabih
La Blon Alrakis
Viborg Florida Furillo Glengarry Unukalhai Piedmon

EMPIRE ALONE
Ciotat Gladius Ascella C
Dromini VI Moore
Enders Cluster (10) Urjala Alphecca Kuzuu
Trent Canonbie Ashio
Aristotle Seginus Kochab
Premana Czarvowo Sabik S
Aberystwyth Eidsfoss Skondia Lambrecht Yance I
Uzhgorod Laiaka Skye
Zvolen Clinton Alkaid Alkalurops Atria Kervil
Ayacucho Rosice Halstead
New India Sierpc Zebebelgenubi Ko Dyev
Medzev Kitzingen Soilihull Hesperus II Telos IV
Radostov Arganda Syrma Nusakan Biham
Drosendorf Pike IV
Valloire Acrux Carsphairn Nashira
Caledonia Galatea Lyons
Athenry Ancha
Buena Hollabrunn Lamon Summer Imbros III
Sarpsborg Al Na'ir
Herzberg Alcor Menkent Styx
Gypsum Vindemiatrix Mizar Deneb Algedi
Mariefred Zollikofen Asta
Cruz Alta Binyang Fianna Algorab Muphrid Yorii Nirasaki
Revivim Finsterwalde Eilenburg Dieron Murchiso
Danxian Cor Caroli Alioth Helen
Thorin Altair Saffel Quentin
Al Jafr Dar-es-Salaam Lipton
Loburg Bolan Zwenkau New Kyoto Gacrux Milton New EarthRigil Kentarus
Sarikavak Ellijay Senftenberg Rahne Alchiba Chara Towne
Inchicore Zaniah Denebola Fomalhaut Errai
Maisons Phecda Zavijava Caph
Ilzra Kamenz Hyde Alula Australis Terra Small World Addic
Arcadia Solaris Wyatt Sirius
Zosma Oliver Northwind
Shahr Kord Launam Shiloh Wing Graham IV Keid
Deneb Kaitos An
Bobruisk Devil's Rock New Home Epsilon Indi
Dubhe Procyon
Biloela Uhuru Rochelle Marcus Pollux Bryant Ingress H
Teyvareb Gienah Alhena Chertan Callison Sheratan
Zdice Castor Ruchbah
Kalidasa
Rajkot Dixie Liberty Epsilon Eridani Fletcher Kawich Basalt
Stantsiya Alkes Tig
Althastan Giausar Nestor Dieudonne Terra Firma
Abramkovo Concord Talitha
Ford Amity Bordon Woodstock Nopah Achern
Loric New Hope Connaught
Remulac Outreach
Son Hoa Madiun Capolla Bharat
Bella I Savannah Acamar Ya
Colfax Megrez Danais Nathan Van Diemen IV
Hall Elgin Hamal
Andiron Cavanaugh II Alula Borealis McAffe Bondurant Adhafera Azha
Khon Kaen Penobscot Cascade Acubens
Togwotee Stewart Alphard Hsien Slocum
Pencader Timbiqui Sheridan Tania Borealis Nanking Arboris
Nockatunga Trellisane Miaplacidus Irian Wasat Zurich Genoa Kansu New
Baltazar III Epsilon Thermopolis Helm
Pingree Gannett Tall Trees Aldebaran Algol
Diedre's Den Merak Berenson Saiph
Millungera Tania Australis Ningpo Buch
Labouchere Rexburg
New Canton Liao
Galisteo Promised Land Preston Sterling Augustine Pleione
Gallatin Menkalinan Hal
Griffith Zortman Marik
Saltillo Niihau Bedeque Gan Singh Poznan
Thadora's Land Clayborne II Cerillos Avellaneda Hamilton
Tamarind Bainsville Angell II Zion New A
Alorton Kosciusko Autumn Wind Bernardo Kyrkbacken
Schererville Lancaster Men
Rasalas Abadan Shensi
Ideyld Styk Hunan
Dalcour Simpson Desert Shasta Ariel
Ibstock Asuncion St. Andre
Zorn's Keep Edmondson Loongana Washburn Oceana Holt
. Andrews Keystone
Blantleff Mundrabilla Asellus Australis Park Place Suzano Tsitsang
Coriscana Sh
Sierra Maderas Midkiff Campbelton Dickinson Asellus Borealis Ling
Maxwell Ohrensen Second Try Wei New
Kilarney Drusibacken Palos
Merton Curaumilla Eromanga Laureles Kirkenlaard
Lungdo Yunnah
Sorunda Gomeisa Ventabren Zaurak
Kakada Escobas
Maximillian Manotick Elnath Menkib
Sackville Albert Falls Second Chance
Silver Conakry New Olympia Sophie's World McKenna Phact
Nova Roma Corey Matsu
Hammer
Ulan Bator
Gibraltar Ashburton Tongatapu New Delos Wazan Sakhalin
Aylmer Chalouba Emris IV Harsefeld Old Kentucky
Schiedam Loyalty Fuentes Quemoy Kaifeng
Tchamba Tiber Chamdo
Tormentine Kyeinnisan
Ionus Tsinghai
Valerius Cajamarca Alterf Sarna
Hazeldean Wolof Aitutaki Campertown Raballa Bora
Bowang Manihiki Vanra Hassad Truth
Semenyih Sarmaxa
Home Avior Lesalles
Atreus Ingersoll
Lepaterique M
San Nicolas Trinidad Harmony Matheran Randar
Lordinax Illyria Kiyev Capella
Carbonis Bithinia
Atzenbrugg Kogl Valil'yevskiy Bandora No Return N
Norfolk Newcastle Hellos Minor Regulus Muscida Daneshmand Les Halles
Panjang Ibarra Geifer
Trondheimal Elektrougli Eom Propus
Lothario Huntington Tuamotu Masterson
Aconcagua Salur Relevow
Kutludugun Futuna Wallis Cordiagr Aldertaine Gei-Fu
Trasjkis Boardwalk
Molokai Kashilla
Cameron Dayr Khuna
Landfall Karakiraz Mackenzie Ngake Calloway VI Brighto
Reykavis Faleolo
Kendall Stotzing Loeches Jasmine Exedor Kurragin
Lummatii Clipperton Ovan
Leximon Overton
Jubka Westover Calpaca Preston Glasgow
Tapachula Jouques Maritgues Oriente
Lindassa Lahti Vestallas
Anegasaki Shuen Wan
Hednesford Rzhishchev Ankolika Shenwan Krin Milos
Logan Prime Prato Chagos Fujidera Pella II Hexare Harloc
Corbeanca Atsugi Denbar G
Ghaziabad Dalton
Jiddah Hongqiao Milnerton Ipswich Bentley Sian
Camlann New Westin
Ellsworth Olafsvik Goodna Imalda
Isabela Fadiffolu Frondas Indicass
Goth Khakar Karachi Nullarbor Hustaing
Paulinus Chilung
Romita Hiratsuka Iknogoro Amb
Katlehong Cronulla Fronde Castrovia Decus
Lengkong Vosloorus Mansu-ri
Niops V Diass Vikindu
Niops VI Kwamashu Wallacia Kujari Purvo
Niops VII Tohelet Bismarck Cirebon Barlaston Altorra Claxton Ziliang Urav
Carmen
Lesnovo Tematagi Sendalor
Fieferana Antipolo
Mankova Hindmarsh El Giza Scarborough Imm
Negushevo Wilkes Kearny Ito
Guangzho Westerhand Housekarle
Howrah Velhas
Al Jubaylah Mauripur Mosiro Furud Palladaine
Yanchep Homestead
Hudeiba
Campoleone Bayindir Wisconsin Siendou
Addhara Sharqah Cole Harbour Wright
New Venice Shiro III Latice
Gatchina Ayn Tarma
Deschenes Betelgeuse Grand Base
Alphard Holloway
Stafford Glevakha Rohinjan
Astrokaszy Conquista Sigma Mare Nihal
Skvorec Cap Rouge Kanata Kasdach
Tellman's Mistake Raphael Xieng
Saonara
Suetonius Payvand Andurien
Pompey Ruschegg Ryerson Primus
Meadowvale
Dicon Madras
Scheuerheck Prix
Baccalieu Granera Xanthe III Lurgatan Shiba
Obrenovac Watermael Ingonish Decatur
Horatius Eleusis Niomede
Sadurni Columb
Leyda Barras
Bass Villanueva Cursa Principia
Vakarel Kurvasa Bellatrix
Marius's Tears Ballalaba Booker Gouderak Vard
Bethonolog Piriapolis Q
Umka Calseraigne
Fagerholm Borden
Marantha
Afarsin Turin
Islington Butzfleth Claybrooke Drozan Egress
Thraxa Pilpala Sax
Gallis Aspropirgos Thurrock
Algenib Gambilon
Lindenmarle Andarmax Jacomarle Gunthar Cavalor
Vixen
Royal Foxx Canopus IV Repulse
Tarol IV Fanardir Hu
Renown
New Roland Ward
Palladix
Megarez Borgan's Rift
Candiear Adherlwin Liu's Memory Wyeth's Glory
Jia Tian
Techne's Revenge
Early Dawn Herotitus
Lockton Cluff's Stand
Tincalunas
Wildwood Krimari Joppa

MAP KEY
Harminous Detroit
Joyz Mandalas
Brixtana New Abilene

Ballad II
Trznadel Cluster
(60) Capellan Confederation Appian
Palm
Hardcore Trip Cate's Hold
Kossandra's Memory Contested Worlds
Rockwe
Duchy of Andurien
Dainmar Majoris Spencer

THE FREE
Novo Tressida

LEGEND
Luxen
Free Worlds League
Dunianshire Cygnus

Independence

WORLDS LEAGUE
Lyran Commonwealth Fronc
Crawford's Delight Addasar
30 LIGHT YEARS Magistracy of Canopus McEvans' Sacrifice

AND ENVIRONS Marian hegemony

JANUARY 3151
90 LIGHT YEARS OR 27.6 PARSECS
Unaligned Worlds
MAXIMUM JUMP: APPROXIMATELY 30 LIGHT YEARS
Wolf Empire

18 We Will Fight Them on the Beaches

 PRELUDES TO WAR
regiment’s BattleMech battalion drove the Secunda Auxilia
out of their base and toward Tulln, the planetary capital. The
Marians quickly discovered that the PAG’s rules of engagement
would not allow them to cause destruction to the city, so the
Secunda Auxilia dug in and attacked the mercenaries from
the city’s outskirts. Colonel Armstrong directed his troops
to invest the city, strangling every thoroughfare leading in
or out. Left with no way out and no avenue for replenishing
their supplies, the Marians started ransacking the city to find
food, ammunition, and spare parts. Food remained plentiful,
but the PAG’s chokehold on the city forced the Marians to
accept the reality that attrition, equipment failure, and ammo
depletion would ultimately doom them in the face of the
mercenaries’ superior numbers. When the Secunda Auxilia
sortied from within Tulln’s city limits on 17 January, Lieutenant
Colonel Armstrong ordered her tank battalion to allow the
Marians through a deliberate gap in their defensive perimeter
and to limit engagement to opportunity fire only. The Marians
exploited the gap to reach their DropShips at the spaceport
outside the city and promptly departed the planet without
suffering further casualties. When asked why the Assault
Group did not pursue the withdrawing Marians, Colonel
Armstrong claimed that the Secunda Auxilia had indeed
left the planet as his XO had demanded, so their destruction
was no longer necessary. It also left the fleeing troops with a
message to bring back home: the Free Worlds League would
suffer these invaders no more.
A similar situation occurred on Lepaterique. On 7
February, the Maxwell’s Hammers mercenary battalion, also
hired by Christopher Marik, landed outside Puerto Cortes,
the coastal city where most of the II Prima Auxilia Legio
had taken up residence. Unlike the Panther Assault Group,
the Maxwell’s Hammers came out swinging and made
no attempt whatsoever to contact the defenders or offer
them an easy out. The Marians boldly met the mercenaries,
but the mercenaries inexorably pushed them, for all their
bravado, into Puerto Cortes itself. The Marians had caused
enough chaos and bloodshed in the city during their initial
invasion in 3147 that a large section of the city’s inhabitants
had evacuated to smaller towns, for fear that the Marians
would force them into slavery or servitude. Shortly after the
Marians’ conquest, whole neighborhoods had been leveled
to punish the unruly populace, so the Maxwell’s Hammers
had little worry of causing further destruction as they poured
into the city to hunt down the withdrawing units of the
Prima Auxilia. Pushed to the shoreline, the Marians found
themselves pinned and defeated in detail by the Hammers.
Many Marians were forced to abandon their vehicles and try
to swim away, but the known survivors of the engagement
eventually surrendered to the mercenary forces.
DISSENSION
AMONG THE REALMS
As the conflict to take the birthworld of humanity
rose to a crescendo, the Capellan Confederation and their
allied nations took a brief breather to consolidate their
military gains, prepare new positions, and revel in the
apparent imminent demise of the Republic of the Sphere.
The Capellan Confederation and the Magistracy of Canopus,
originally bonded by a mutual defense and non-aggression
pact in 3058, eventually grew even closer with the marriage
of Capellan Confederation Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao and
Magistracy of Canopus heir Naomi Centrella, later to become
the eighteenth Magestrix, in 3070. Nearly a century later, their
partnership still stood, having served the two nations well
throughout the Jihad and Republic eras.
With the marriage of Duke Ari Humphreys by Magestrix
Ilsa Centrella in 3137, however, the alliance gained a
surprising new third member in the form of the Duchy of
Andurien. While Andurien, a traditional foe to the Capellan
Confederation, made for an unlikely ally under most
circumstances, the bond between Chancellor Daoshen Liao
and his sister, Magestrix Ilsa Centrella, made the pairing more
palatable to the citizens of the three nations and created the
groundwork for a powerful new alliance.
With his own bid to seize Terra stalled following the
offensive on Northwind by his inability to penetrate the
Fortress Wall, Chancellor Liao adjusted his focus to secure
the former Fortress Republic worlds that the Republic of the
Sphere could not defend, at least for the time, while Clan Wolf
and Clan Jade Falcon battled over Terra. While few doubted
that the Chancellor would set his sights on whoever won the
battle, the momentary lull allowed the Confederation to sieze
other planets. Despite their outrage decrying the aggressive
actions of the Federated Suns, the Confederation seemed to
have written off their ancient enemy, allowing the Draconis
Combine to finish them off while they concentrated on the
greater threat.
While not directly menaced at the beginning of 3151, the
Magistracy of Canopus and their new Andurien allies carefully
watched both the quiescent Wolf Empire and the Free Worlds
League states, their most likely potential threats, seeing as
their other likely foe, the Marian Hegemony, had been beset
with its own troubles with the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey. To
the allied nations’ dismay, however, they were also beset with
a troubling discontent within their own realms, as the citizens
of both Canopus and Andurien questioned the benefit to
their alliance. With the Confederation distracted by its own
goals and the unpopular marriage causing dissension in both
realms, both the Duchy and Magistracy remained focused on
threats from both without and within.
Dissension Among the Realms 19
 EMPIRE ALONE
PASTOR KYRIA STOVARD:
THE ANGEL OF CANOPUS
In a time of rising unrest in the Magistracy, with an
absentee Magestrix, and rising discontent among the
citizenry and their neighbors, both foreign and domestic,
the Magistracy First Movement is just one of dozens of
anti-Magistrix and anti-government fronts that has popped
up of late. What makes this one different, however, is the
presence of Pastor Kyria Stovard.
Known as the Angel of Canopus, Pastor Stovard is
best known for her travels throughout the region, helping
to foster support for the Canopian pleasure circuses on
extra-Magistracy worlds. While the pleasure circuses are
often huge economic drivers wherever they go, there are
often those on the various planets who object on moral or
economic reasons. Whereas the circuses have the ability
to protect themselves, any resistance that they may put
forth might be counterproductive, causing them to lose
the ability to focus on their art or to be allowed to stay for
the length of their run.
That was true, at least, until Pastor Stovard began
traveling the worlds where there was the greatest uproar.
A reverend from the famously independent Universalists,
she is a former Magistracy officer from their notoriously
tiny Chaplain’s Corps. Respect for Pastor Stovard’s title is
usually enough to get her the opportunity to sit down
with any local official with whom she chooses, and her
ebullient nature, modest bearing, and ability for stirring
oratory have allowed her to sway many to at least consider
the artistic value of the circuses. While she is unable to
THE WAR AT HOME
Throughout the Republic era, the Magistracy of Canopus
had found itself to be a bastion of stability in a fractious
time. Despite the fact that they were allied with arguably
the most consistent enemy that the Republic of the Sphere
had known since its inception, the Capellan Confederation,
the Magistracy itself had remained relatively unthreatened.
Confident that their military strength and allies were enough
to keep the former Free Worlds League states, the Marian
Hegemony, and their independent Periphery neighbor
planets at bay, there seemed to be few threats to the
Magistracy proper. While the potential fall of the Fortress
Wall and an assault on the Republic would certainly have a
major effect upon the region, the Magestrix seemed focused
on her own objectives, splitting her time between the Duchy
of Andurien and the Magistracy.
20 The War at Home
convince everyone, her support is greatly appreciated by
the artists themselves. Between their own abilities and the
pastor’s pleasant mien, they have been highly successful
at spreading their message to worlds throughout the
Inner Sphere.
Unfortunately, something changed with the death of
Pastor Stovard’s sister, Elisa. Elisa, a member of the famed
Third Canopian Cuirassiers, was killed when raiders from
the Oriente Protectorate made a raid on the Confederation
world she was garrisoning. Following her death, the
pastor became far more critical of the alliance with the
Confederation. The pastor believed that her sister died
while protecting the interests of the Confederation, not
the Magistracy, and that the Confederation was using
Magistracy forces as cannon fodder for their own gains.
The Canopian pleasure circuses, which equate to a not-
insignificant percentage of the GDP for the Magistracy,
consider the pastor one of their own from all of her work
on their behalf, which has helped to swell support for the
Movement.
While she has not complained about the Magistracy
or the Magestrix directly, some of those in her inner circle
have not been so reticent, which has led to her stance
seeming more anti-Magistracy than it truly is. Still, while
she has not spoken up about the situation, it seems clear
that she is deeply troubled by the worsening situation
within the Magistracy.
As is often the case, the Magestrix left her aunt, Erde
Centrella, in place as her regent while she traveled, trusting her
mother’s sister as much as she trusted anyone. Unfortunately,
the Magestrix was unaware that Erde had been suffering from
an increasing series of transient ischaemic attacks, or mini-
strokes, that had begun affecting her overall health, as well as
her ability to handle her daily duties as regent. While that fact
was not well known beyond her inner circle, her senior aide,
Serin Pashton, had been taking up the slack for the regent and
assisting in keeping her illness from the wider world. While
the amount of control over the day to day running of the
Magistracy by an aide would be of great concern to many if
it were to be revealed, those that knew of the regent’s illness
also knew that Serin Pashton was in fact Serin Centrella, Erde’s
elder daughter. Like most of the Centrella royals, they would
not be acknowledged for safety and privacy reasons until
there was a vital need to do so.
 PRELUDES TO WAR
Having found a new advantage with two of their major
borders being more secure than they ever had been before,
the Magistracy found itself poised to be a major player in
the region. Not hesitating to begin showing off that power,
Magistracy troops underwent a series of training exercises,
often alongside some of their new Andurien allies, and began
redistributing units throughout the Magistracy based on the
new strategic realities.
Unfortunately, while these maneuvers allowed the
Magistracy and their allies to show a strong front to potential
external threats, each nation had found itself beset internally
by their own internal dissent. Various fringe groups in
each of the nations had spoken up against the focus upon
the external interests; the benefit of which did not always
coincide with the concerns of the common citizen.
Within the Magistracy, the primary source of dissent
came from a growing faction of Magistracy supremacists
known as the Magistracy First Movement. While the MFM
had been in existence since 3058 with the original signing of
the Trinity Alliance, a combination of the Magestrix’s frequent
absences from the Magistracy and the rise of a growing
number of citizens who believed that the Magistracy troops
were being unfairly used to secure Confederation gains
caused their numbers to swell. While either the Confederation
or the Magistracy could easily put down the movement,
the ascension of the popular Pastor Kyria Stovard as a
spokesperson kept them from taking too strong of a stance.
While the Pastor herself was on the more moderate
side of the movement, believing that the close ties with
the Confederation were diluting the unique nature of the
Magistracy, many of her fellow leaders in the movement were
not hesitant to use her notoriety to push their own agendas.
While Stovard herself had refrained from speaking out directly
against the Magestrix, many of her followers were becoming
significantly more vocal in their disapproval of Magistracy
policy. The Magistracy government had not taken any steps
to silence the group, as to not seem repressive to the social
freedoms that were an integral part of the Magistracy culture,
but it was only a matter of time before something would have
to be done.
REGULAN ROTATIONS
While the League’s struggle for the Gibraltar Island
continued, additional tremors shuddered along a different
part of the nation’s Periphery border. Throughout the first few
months of 3150, several worlds along the League’s rimward
edge, including Glevakha, Bayindir, and Howrah, reported
sightings of military JumpShips from the Magistracy of
Canopus at standard and nonstandard jump points. In all of
these instances, the Canopian JumpShips remained only long
enough to deploy their solar sails and recharge their jump
drives before departing without incident.
In late January, however, two small Magistracy Armed
Forces detachments made planetfall on Tellman’s Mistake and
Gatchina. The raiding forces traded negligible fire with the
militias on both planets, but neither task force fully committed
to battle. Within a week of maneuvering and cat-and-mouse
games, the MAF troops lifted off-planet and departed without
further incident.
When the League Central Coordination and Command
received word of these raids from Rim Commonality Prime
Minister Michael Cendar, Minister of Defense Wallace Stewart
advocated reassigning troops to protect a possible future
incursion from the Magistracy. To back up his assertion, he
referenced the devastation of Operation Triumvir in 3146, a
three-pronged attack from Canopus, the Regulan Fiefs, and
the Duchy of Andurien, which caught much of the League’s
military flatfooted. The Captain-General approved of the
motion, and her Regulan liaison on Atreus, Major Makeda Kay,
suggested employing Regulan Hussars regiments to bolster
the Rim Commonality’s defenses. Not only would this plan
give any Canopian task force a harder wall to run into, but
also Makeda argued that it would give the Regulan troops
much needed combat experience and a chance to prove their
loyalty to the Captain-General by fighting outside of the Fiefs’
borders. The Regulan Hussars regiments had been considered
the black sheep of the FWLM since Regulus consented to
join the League after the cessation of hostilities in 3148, so
the commanders of the regiments the LCCC tapped readily
accepted their assignment, with the begrudging blessings
of Prince Lester Cameron-Jones. Though more Regulan
regiments were earmarked for future rotation, the initial
round of reassignments saw the Sixth and Twenty-Sixth
Regulan Hussars sent to the Rim Commonality.
Once the Sixth settled in on Gatchina and the Twenty-
Sixth garrisoned Sharqah, the border had already quieted. The
FWLM commanders in the region lay in wait for any further
indication of Canopian aggression, but none was forthcoming.
In response, Prime Minister Cendar, his trepidation growing
at the quiescence along the border, authorized the Third
Rim Commonality Guards to undertake company-sized
intelligence-gathering raids on Payvand and Rohinjan. Both
raids encountered only expected concentrations of MAF
troops and not the invasion force the LCCC had suspected.
If the Canopians were indeed gearing up for an attack, it
seemed that attack would come on a different front.
BORDER GAMES
While the Free Worlds League dealt with the Marian
Hegemony, which was treating the League’s backyard like a
playground, minor shocks along the rimward border with the
Lyran Commonwealth bumped the seismic needle enough for
Tamarind-Abbey’s leadership to take notice. The border with
House Steiner had remained relatively quiet for a number of
Regulan Rotations 21
 PRELUDES TO WAR
years, due in part to the Commonwealth’s focus on stamping
out a secessionist movement in the region and bringing a
rogue province to heel. The Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey worlds
bordering the Commonwealth’s Buena Province and Florida
Theater were no strangers to the background radiation of
Lyran intelligence-gathering raids. Such missions ultimately
seemed toothless and perfunctory to the Free Worlders, and
with good reason. The Tamarind-Abbey regiments knew
that Clan Jade Falcon, the Wolf Empire of Khan Alaric Ward,
and rampant piracy along the Periphery border represented
the true existential threats to the Commonwealth. The
small border the League shared with the Commonwealth
amounted to very little concern, which allowed Fontaine
Marik to exercise his wrath on the Marian incursion and defeat
the Hegemony’s troops on their own turf.
Viewed through the lens of Lyran troops going through
the motions, the raid on the Tamarind-Abbey world of
Kamenz on 4 January 3151 was just another run-of-the-mill
mission, little more than a training exercise to give the First
Bolan Jaegers a modicum of combat experience to keep them
sharp before retreating back into Lyran space. Instead of
facing an easily cowed planetary militia, the First clashed with
forward elements of the Eighth Free Worlds Guards. Though
the FWLM troops prepared to defend against a campaign of
conquest, they anticipated yet another intelligence-gathering
raid and were not left disappointed. The First Bolan Jaegers’
First Battalion drew the lead elements of the Eighth’s Second
Battalion out of their base in the Lessing mountain range,
and after an exchange of fire that lasted less than two
hours, the First withdrew and returned to their DropShips
before departing the system entirely. Neither side sustained
significant casualties, and the raid was not marked as anything
out of the ordinary.
However, instead of withdrawing to the safety of the
Commonwealth’s borders, the First Bolan Jaegers moved
to Zdice, a neighboring Tamarind-Abbey system a single
jump distant, on 26 January. Here the pattern of raiding
repeated, albeit against conventional forces of a Static
Defense Unit instead of a full Free Worlds Guards battalion.
The Commonwealth raiders remained on-planet for less than
twenty-four hours before pulling up stakes and withdrawing.
Under normal circumstances, such actions by Lyran
troops would have seemed routine, but due to the lag in
interstellar communication during the continuing Blackout
of most of the hyperpulse generators in the Inner Sphere,
the troops of these neighboring planets did not immediately
recognize that the raids were conducted by the same
regiment rather than different units altogether. Fontaine
Marik’s military intelligence officers saw these two back-
to-back incidents as clear evidence that the Lyrans were
planning an operation in this region, in defiance of the
turmoil elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Although the
border had remained relatively calm since the cessation of
open hostilities in 3146, the Lyrans still had long memories,
and the identity of the raiding force on Kamenz and Zdice
suggested that the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces was
gearing up for a campaign to reclaim Bolan, the former capital
of the regiment’s home province.
Due to the unusual nature of these raids, Fontaine
Marik approved sending additional troops to the border to
reinforce the defenses against an invasion he was certain lay
on the horizon.
WHAT COIN WILL BUY
While the Magistracy of Canopus wrestled with its
internal discontent, its Magestrix was on Andurien, assisting
(or some less charitably saying, manipulating) her husband,
Duke Ari Humphreys. While the duke had previously made
his reign about maintaining the peace that had been
enjoyed during his mother’s, Duchess Evelyn Humphreys,
tenure, the marriage to the ambitious Magestrix seemed
to have changed his priorities in a significant way. Spurred
on by his wife’s offers of assistance from the Magistracy, yet
wishing to remain independent, Duke Ari Humphreys had
already been sending out representatives to Galatea and
other mercenary hotspots, seeking to begin the process of
acquiring mercenaries for future military operations. Duke
Humphrey’s actions, seemingly so out of character, had led
many in the duchy to speculate on the role that the duke saw
for the nation in the coming months.
Beyond payments from the duchy’s own coffers, the
duke was also rumored to be going so far as to offer titles
and landholds to potential mercenary commanders. While
the duke framed the project as a defensive precaution due to
the rising threats by the Wolf Empire and their fellow former
FWL states, no one abroad or at home truly believed it was
anything but preparations for the Magestrix’s plans for their
mutual expansion.
While many outside the Duchy considered the recent
focus as a natural reaction in the wake of the Clan threat to
Terra and the movements by the other Free Worlds League
states, others believed that the duke was far more focused on
their immediate neighbors, concerned that the other nations
of the Free Worlds League were ripe for the picking.
A NEW MARGRAVE
One of the potential litmus tests for whether the Lyran
Commonwealth would once more begin to beat the drums of
war against the League came on 27 March 3151, when Archon
Trillian Steiner named her distant cousin Ludwig Steiner
margrave of the Commonwealth’s Florida Theater (formerly
the Timbuktu Theater, due to Timbuktu’s secession from
the Commonwealth). The margrave position of that region
had remained deliberately vacant since 3148 as a message
What Coin Will Buy 23
 EMPIRE ALONE
of warning to the Lyran people, for the previous tenant of
that title had engineered and fostered a full-scale secession
of several key worlds from the Commonwealth in 3146
before being soundly defeated and executed for treason. The
notion of a new margrave perked the attention of Tamarind-
Abbey’s military leadership, and the appointee being a
relation to the Commonwealth throne further cemented
the notion of Ludwig’s appointment being another signal in
the Commonwealth’s run-up to invasion. Working in concert
with Margrave Detlev Hauer of the York Province (formerly the
Buena Province, due to Buena’s temporary secession), Ludwig
reorganized the Florida Theater to include all of the Lyran
systems immediately along the Free Worlds League border,
which gave him control of the disposition and deployment
of forces in that region.
One of Margrave Steiner’s first actions was to move the
Eighth Lyran Regulars toward the League border. When SAFE
agents reported the regiment’s appearance on Finsterwalde
in late April, it became clear which direction the winds were
blowing. An invasion into Tamarind-Abbey was imminent, and
LANCERS ON THE PERIPHERY
Y’know, ya live out in the Periphery long enough, and
you’ll see some really strange stuff. But this here—this
takes the proverbial cake.
This was, oh, February or so o’ last year, back when
I was still servin’ in the Second Magistracy Highlanders.
I can’t tell ya where we were—cos then I’d hafta kill
ya, y’know, OPSEC and all that—but we were running
maneuvers against this pirate band stupid enough to
land on the planet. “Chuck’s Chuckle-malfs” or whatever
the hell they called themselves. Stupid little laughin’-kid
insignia, looked like it was drawn in crayon. Anyways, they
were tryin’ to make a break for it, really hittin’ the powder
on this stretch o’ wasteland, and I had one of ’em in my
Eyleuka’s sights, some kinda ’Mech I never seen before. And,
honest to Christmas, this little Havoc malfer, with a green
body and black limbs, jumps right into the battle ahead
of me, like it had fallen right out of the malfin’ sky. It starts
tearin’ this Chuckle-malf pirate apart right when this Night
Stalker in the same colors rushes in to join and starts carvin’
away armor like the pirate’s a goddamn Christmas turkey.
’Mech goes down, easy as you please. Scary as hell, how
quick they took it out. And then off the two ’Mechs go,
disappearin’ off my scopes like they were never there, like
they fell down through some kinda trapdoor in the ground.
Then, through some dust devils, I see this green-and-
black ’Mech, a little medium thing—looked like a sleek,
24 Popular Opinion
the bulk of the Tamarind Regulars remained deployed too far
from the border to offer any timely relief.
POPULAR OPINION
Unrest in the Magistracy of Canopus came to a head
on the planet of Joppa on 2 March, when former Magistracy
citizens began a series of protests outside of the local Capellan
garrison of the Home Guard.
Joppa, a former Magistracy of Canopus world, was the
home of a former SLDF station on the moon of Specula.
While long since stripped of any beneficial technology, the
Magistracy had built up Specula Station into a thriving trading
hub to provide a transshipment point for supplies between
the local systems. To service the needs of the station, a large
colony had grown up on the nearby planet of Joppa, the sole
inhabitable planet in the system.
Unfortunately, the planet was transferred to the control
of the Capellan Confederation in 3130. While there was
some initial concern about the change in ownership of the
planet, the long-standing nature of the bond between the
juiced-up Raven—going toe to toe with Chuck’s biggest
’Mech, a beat-up Thunderbolt that prolly dates back to
the Succession Wars—likely was Chuck himself, I think. I
couldn’t see what all was goin’ on from the dust storm,
but it looked an awful lot like that pissant little 40-tonner
dropped Chuck himself with a single weapon salvo.
Later on, when I looked at the salvage records, there
was no mention of the unidentified pirate ’Mech or Chuck’s
T-bolt. And I don’t care how much cockpit smoke I inhaled
in that battle, I know I didn’t imagine that those two
went down.
Least a buddy o’ mine doesn’t think I’m crazy. Said
he’d heard about these malfers: mercs called the Gray
Gunny Lancers. Only he’d heard they worked in or near
the Republic o’ the Sphere. Magistracy’s a long ways away
from Stone’s stompin’ grounds, ain’t it? Makes ya wonder.
Thing is, if these Gray Gunny Lancers were actually on our
side—and I ain’t convinced they were—then we’d’a been
told about ’em by the brass, yeah?
Still, makes me shake my head just thinkin’ ’bout what
them Green Gunny ghosts—or whoever—were even doin’
out there if all they did was fight like hell to take down two
’Mechs and then skedaddle.
—Transcript of a bar patron’s story,
overheard on Borgan’s Rift, 19 January 3151
 PRELUDES TO WAR
two nations had helped to provide an orderly transition, at
least at first. Shortly following the transfer, the Confederation
began shipping in many of its citizens to begin upgrading
the station, while having their families and dependents sent
to Joppa due to space limitations. The sudden influx of new
colonists quickly overwhelmed the colony’s resources, and
all attempts to slow down the process were denied. While the
Confederation did begin sending additional food shipments
to the struggling planet, unrest grew, leading to protests in
the capitol by the former Magistracy citizens. Despite the
best efforts of the Capellan Broadcast Service to prevent the
news of the discontent from getting out, the sheer number
of independent JumpShips that stopped at Specula Station
virtually guaranteed that the news of the planet’s woes was
certain to get out.
On 19 March 3151, Pastor Kyria Stovard and many
members of the MFM arrived on Joppa with several
DropShips worth of food. The pastor’s largesse quickly
endeared her to the former Canopians and Capellan citizens
alike, and the number of her followers swelled. In a surprising
turn, even many of the new Capellan arrivals seemed willing
to listen to her speak, something that would be inconceivable
on many traditional Capellan worlds.
On 21 March, two days after the pastor’s arrival on
the planet, the first large-scale protest was held outside
of the Governmental building in the capital city of Gigli.
Over the course of hours, the number of protesters would
swell, eventually numbering in the thousands, a substantial
number for the relatively small colony. Concerned by
the growing unrest, the local Capellan diem, Lang Fao,
ordered the militia to oversee the protests, ensuring that
the situation would not spiral out of control. While many
in the diem’s cabinet would recommend stricter measures,
the diem heeded the counsel of Janice Lakada, the former
refrector under the previous Canopian administration, who
convinced him that a repressive stance would cause the
situation to only get worse.
While the Home Guard forces were brought in to
maintain security in the capitol, they restricted themselves to
ensuring the safety of the interior of the building themselves,
leaving the citizens outside to their own devices. That process
worked well for three days, until the diem began to listen to
his cabinet, who stated the lack of visible military presence
around the crowd made him look weak, and he ordered
the Home Guard to change their deployment, becoming
more visible.
While the protest initially remained a peaceful one, the
situation rapidly deteriorated on 24 March, when the actions
of several of the Home Guard troopers, attempting to set new
boundaries for the growing crowd, started using physical
force to enforce their orders. The troopers immediately found
themselves pelted with rocks, and it was only a matter of
A KNIFE
IN THE FLANK
To: Vendela Engman,
SAFE Subdirector, Tamarind Military District
From: Samuel Morgan,
Lead Intelligence Analyst,
Tamarind Military District
Date: 22 March 3151
Subdirector Engman,
I have been monitoring incoming reports on both
sides of the border, and the common conclusion my
team has reached is the same as others on the spinward
portion of the Tamarind-Abbey border: Lyran troops
massing at the border to attack Bolan. However—and
I note that I am in the minority here—I believe this
intel is intentionally misleading. Much as we like to cast
them as such, the Lyrans are not fools, so the January
raids pointing at a campaign for Bolan strike me as
a deliberate smokescreen to cover what the Lyrans
actually plan.
Based on comms chatter and reports gathered by
other members of my team, I believe the Lyrans plan to
attack the anti-spinward Tamarind-Abbey border, not
Bolan directly. From the intel of troop movements, it is
no stretch to predict strikes on Pencader, Galisteo, with
the Lyrans possibly using Khon Kaen as a staging area.
(It’s possible that the Lyrans may even have brought
Khon Kaen back into the Commonwealth’s fold within
the last three months, as all of our contacts on that world
have failed to report in all that time, but that is a wholly
different topic.)
I emphasize this possibility of an attack on our flank
because, unless Duke Marik has surreptitiously moved
more troops to the anti-spinward border or we have
not yet received word of troop rotations due to this
damnable Blackout, then we are vulnerable. The vast
majority of Tamarind-Abbey troops that were stationed
in that region were committed to Duke Marik’s invasion
of Illyria, so our flank is exposed and wide open to
anyone seeking to exploit it.
My recommendation is to urge Duke Marik to deploy
troops to at least two of those border planets to
discourage Lyran predation or blunt the force of a full
invasion task force long enough for us to counterattack.
If no regulars are available, then I would urge we seek out
and employ irregulars in the region instead. Otherwise
we could very well likely get a knife buried deep in our
flank and have a full-on war on our hands.
Popular Opinion 25
 EMPIRE ALONE
time before an improvised Molotov cocktail was thrown
at the government building. While no one was hurt in the
initial attack, the strike upon the diem’s building caused him
to panic, and he ordered the Home Guard to disperse the
crowd by any means necessary. His orders instantly caused a
rapid escalation, and the disgruntled protest quickly devolved
into a riot. Spokespeople for the MFM would be quick to state
that they were not to blame for the escalation to violence,
although they did admit to refusing to comply with the orders
to vacate the area until their pastor was safely away, providing
significant recorded footage of the brutal Capellan response.
26 Popular Opinion
In the wake of the protest, thirteen Canopians were
killed, along with nearly three dozen wounded. The Home
Guard and the planetary security control agents would take
twenty-three people under arrest, including Pastor Stovard,
who had refused to leave any members of her parish in the
hands of the constabulary without her.
The news of the riot and the arrest of the well-loved
pastor continued to inflame the local populace, causing riots
to be a nightly occurrence. While a general curfew had been
declared, violence continued to break out in several areas
of the city, and the news of the unrest soon spread to the
nearby planets.
 PRELUDES TO WAR
A QUESTION OF NUMBERS
In April 3151, the Wolf Empire found itself besieged by
a series of raids on their outlying worlds. Within two weeks,
unidentified forces struck at Trellisane, Niihau, and Shasta,
burning into the systems and landing nearly unopposed,
using a combination of speed and overwhelming force to
secure military materiel and supplies before burning back to
their JumpShips. A week later, a similar series of raids struck
Midkiff, Corsicana, and Ideyld.
The bulk of these raids were opposed by nothing more
than the Clan Wolf Constabulary, who rode out in their battle
armor and armored personnel carriers and were slaughtered
almost entirely, giving the police—many of whom were
former warrior caste down-testers anyway—the glorious
death they thought they’d be forever denied. Still, there were
several conflicts of note.
On Midkiff, the raiders were intercepted by a scratch-
built Star of hastily-graduated sibko MechWarriors. Midkiff’s
jump points are just under four days from the planet, and a
particularly watchful merchant factor informed the sibko’s
training officer, Point Commander Helene, that the DropShip
was not expected. Helene, a former Elemental crippled in
combat taking the Empire worlds, gathered her cadre and
put her ten top candidates into Trials of Position, with she
and her other cadre acting as opponents. Two of the sibko
children failed their Trial, but four others succeeded in earning
warrior’s rank and entry into the warrior caste before all the
cadre were killed in the Trials, leaving the remainder without
qualified opponents. These four MechWarriors, piloting the
ancient training ‘Mechs and what could be repaired from
the Trials, intercepted the raiders en route to a Wolf Clan
munitions factory.
Three of the four new warriors fell in combat, but
MechWarrior Kiley managed to survive long enough to force
the raiders to retreat. Together with an on-planet Wolf Watch
team, Kiley learned the raiders were mercenaries hired to
test the Wolf worlds’ defenses and return with information.
The raiding was merely a cover, an added incentive for
the mercenaries to complete their missions. Despite these
revelations, the mercenaries admitted to not knowing who
their employers were.
Kiley, now the lone warrior on Midkiff, set her meager
technician caste assets to repairing what ’Mechs and
equipment they could, and sent word on its way toward
Gienah, to let whoever the Khan had left in charge know that
the border was no longer quiet.
TAKING THE CREDIT
The mystery of who had sent the raiders into the Wolf
Empire came to light on 14 May, when Duke Fontaine
Marik of the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey announced that
he had sponsored the raiders, sending word to the rest of
the League’s member provinces that the Wolf Empire was
a paper tiger unable to hold onto their worlds. While Duke
Marik openly admitted to hiring the mercenaries that raided
Trellisane, Niihau, and Midkiff, reports from within Tamarind-
Abbey’s military structure claimed that Fontaine had not
authorized any of the other strikes on Wolf worlds. While
many speculated that the duke was merely covering for
the excesses of his own pay warriors (especially due to the
high levels of collateral damage on those particular worlds),
others believed that the strikes might have been authorized
and paid for by someone else, who might have sent their
own exploratory forces to take advantage of the Wolves’
momentary weakness.
Duke Marik’s raids, despite being against the wishes
of the Captain-General, demonstrated to every noble and
planetary government who learned of them that the Wolf
Empire worlds lay bare. Local rulers and military commanders
could not help but eye the map and their own tables of
organization, and wonder at the possibilities. As ever,
forgiveness was much easier to obtain than permission,
and centuries of warfare had taught them that a victorious
liberator was a difficult person to censure.
In the Empire, as messages began to wend their way
toward Gienah by JumpShip, the various worlds of the
Empire suddenly felt very much alone and unprotected.
Kiley’s successes notwithstanding, the large majority of the
Empire’s residents, those assimilated into castes or going
about their daily lives as putative members of the Free Guilds,
started remembering the old days, when the flags of the
Lyran Commonwealth or the Free Worlds League flew over
their worlds.
A POTENTIAL ILCLAN
Perhaps the most alarming news in the early part of
3151 arrived on the Free Worlds League’s capital of Atreus
on 4 February—a report so earthshaking that League agents
had employed a combination of functioning HPGs and
several command circuits of courier JumpShips in order to
inform the Captain-General of this development as soon as
possible. According to reports, back in early January, the vast
majority of Clan Wolf’s military assets had somehow jumped
beyond the Wall protecting Terra, the cradle of humankind
and the capital of the Republic of the Sphere, from invasion.
Subsequent rumors attached to this report claimed that a
second Clan, believed to be Clan Jade Falcon, was involved.
Nikol Marik knew that, should the Jade Falcons, Wolves, or
another would-be Clan conqueror successfully complete
their bid to seize Terra and declare themselves ilClan, the Clan
above all Clans, an entirely new order might spring forth from
the ashes of the Republic.
If an ilClan emerged from the conflict on Terra, Clan
law dictated that its leader would be ilKhan, who would
A Question of Numbers 27
 EMPIRE ALONE
command the loyalty of all of the Clans. An ilKhan from any
Clan could control an incredible amount of military strength,
which could threaten the stability of any nation that chose
to defy or challenge the ilClan’s authority. Nikol and the
LCCC did not fear the might of a single Clan alone, but the
combined might of multiple Clans, united beneath an ilKhan
intent on either conquest or retribution, could tear any one
nation apart.
The Captain-General’s immediate response to the news
was to exercise caution. If the Wolves emerged from behind
the Wall on Terra, she foresaw a potentially stable situation
along the League’s border with the Wolf Empire. Though the
Wolves had mercilessly scythed through the Marik-Stewart
Commonwealth in their drive to carve out enough space to
establish the Wolf Empire, destroying the former Free Worlds
League province in the process, Clan Wolf and the League
had largely maintained a state of peace in the interim.
Since the Empire’s founding, the only action between the
two nations involved typical small-scale raids in the form of
Clan Trials of Possession over supplies and other resources,
involving no more than a Binary or a company on either
side, not Trials for territory over planets or other attempts at
conquest. Nikol saw no reason to upset this balance unless
absolutely necessary.
Her advisors noted that the reports suggested that to
claim Terra, the Wolves had stripped the entirety of their front-
line forces and the vast majority of their second-line warriors
from the Empire’s worlds. Many in the FWLM’s leadership
believed that if there ever was a time to take advantage of
the Wolves’ absence from home, it was now. Nikol disagreed,
believing it foolhardy to needlessly antagonize a quiet
neighbor that could revisit vengeance upon them, should
they return victorious from Terra. However, she decided that,
should the Wolves be defeated, it would behoove the FWLM
to claim as many Wolf Empire worlds as possible before the
Wolves’ vanquisher arrived to claim them. Amid clamor from
the LCCC and Parliament to approve an unfettered invasion
into the Wolf Empire, the Captain-General ultimately chose
to wait for definitive news of the situation on Terra before
considering any aggressive military action against the Wolves.
PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES
The true danger of a declared ilClan, in Nikol Marik’s
estimation, was the ticking time bomb she foresaw within
her nation’s own borders: the Clan forces that had settled on
the Marik system and the other worlds of the League’s Clan
Protectorate province. If the Clan Protectorate renounced
its loyalty and commitment to the Free Worlds League and
28 Precautionary Measures
declared its support for an ilClan, then the ilKhan would
have a ready-made beachhead with an entire contingent
of troops situated inside the League’s borders. The only
outcome in which she would not fear the Clan Protectorate’s
actions would be the full defeat of all Clan challengers on
Terra—an event even her closest advisors declared unlikely
unless some outside influence saved the Republic from
destruction.
While awaiting news from Terra, Nikol opted to defuse
the situation by rotating the First Free Worlds Guards to Marik,
the capital of the Clan Protectorate, in late February. She told
the Clan Protectorate MPs and leadership that the move
was done to bolster the defenses of this vital planet against
potential Clan Wolf adventurism, but in reality, the First’s
orders were to keep an eye on the Clan Protectorate Military
in the region and discourage them from acting on behalf of
an ilKhan’s mandates. Should the CPM’s warriors declare for
the ilClan, the First was intended to stand in their way until
relief forces could arrive and either destroy any disloyal Clan
units or drive them out of the League entirely.
To further prepare for the worst possible outcome, the
LCCC rotated the Steel Wolves to New Hope in March, at the
request of Count Gavin Stewart. This move allowed the Silver
Hawk Irregulars regiments the capability of staging a more
robust defense of the Alkes salient while offering the capacity
to raid across the border if needed. While these troops’
movements occurred, Fontaine Marik authorized several
reconnaissance raids to probe the Wolf Empire’s border with
Tamarind-Abbey during late March and throughout April.
Rather than employing League regulars, these raids were
conducted by small mercenary units that could be disavowed
as needed. Although the LCCC was unsure of the goal behind
these probes, as long as Tamarind-Abbey took no openly
aggressive actions against the Wolf Empire, the duchy was
left to its own devices.
But Fontaine Marik would not be the one to break peace
with the Wolves. On 16 April 3151, Count Gavin Stewart
jumped the Gryphons—one of the two regiments created
from the Silver Hawk Irregulars—and a detachment of
conventional support to Stewart, on his own initiative, with
intent to conquer. Facing the Wolves’ diminished presence
in the region, Gavin sought to reclaim House Stewart’s
ancestral home, which had been lost to the Wolves during the
collapse of the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth. The Gryphons
encountered minimal resistance from Clan Wolf solahma
forces and militia and quickly claimed the planet. The peace
with Clan Wolf—and potentially with the ilClan—had finally
been shattered.
 EMPIRE ALONE
INTO FOREIGN
WATERS
Unbeknownst to the Free Worlds League at the time,
the middle of 3151 saw the declaration of an ilClan on Terra.
The repercussions of this radical paradigm shift in Inner
Sphere politics would have far-reaching consequences. When
the League did find out, the internal and external pressures
spurred by the ilClan announcement pushed the nation’s
leadership in directions it was loath to go. Meanwhile, the
distant parts of the League continued waging their own
private wars against the nation’s neighbors.
As the Capellan Confederation and the Duchy of
Andurien continued to focus on their plans for expansion, and
the Magistracy of Canopus wrestled with internal dissent, all
three neighboring nations were rocked with the knowledge
that the Republic had fallen. In an instant, the strategic reality
for all three nations changed, causing them to immediately
reevaluate their goals, their desires, and their timelines.
AN EMPIRE ALONE
On Gienah, the senior Wolf warrior caste member left
was Star Colonel Othar, of the Shaw Bloodhouse. Left behind
when the rest of the touman packed up and left for Terra,
Othar had become the de facto head of Gienah, and viceroy
of the entire Wolf Empire in all but name. There was no other
choice: aside from a handful of recovering warriors, those
unlucky enough to have missed transport, or those too old,
feeble, or crippled to do anything else but train sibkos, the
Empire was bereft of warrior caste leadership.
It was a situation almost without precedent. Clan culture
is ruled by the warrior caste, whose Bloodnamed Clan Council
makes nearly every important decision. But now, every living
Bloodname holder had taken ship for Terra with the Khan.
Though his lack of Bloodname would preclude his seating on
the Clan Council, Othar was still a Trueborn Clan warrior. Every
eye on Gienah, and eventually the Empire, would turn to him
for leadership. And that was not a role he was prepared for.
Othar’s career had been impressive at first, but ultimately
not noteworthy. An early Clan ristar, he had fought his way
to command of a provisional garrison Cluster at a young age
but then stalled. Soon his warriors began calling him Star
Colonel Other, and when it came time for the gathering for
Terra, his PGC was broken up for replacement warriors for
other Clusters. His command dismantled, he waited for the
orders that would put him aboard one of the Clan’s DropShips
leaving Gienah.
30 Into Foreign Waters
He was still waiting for those orders when the last ship
lifted and burned for the jump point, leaving him alone on the
Wolf Empire capital, exercising power he’d never asked for and
wondering why he’d been left behind. In May and June 3151,
however, events began to force him into action.
First, near the end of May, he received word of
MechWarrior Kiley’s fight against the mercenary raiders on
Midkiff, addressed to the senior Wolf officer on-planet. Then,
in early June, came the message every Clan warrior had
dreamed of for centuries: his Clan had taken Terra and become
the ilClan. The missive, delivered by the Wolves’ last remaining
command circuit of JumpShips from Terra, contained a wealth
of information about the battle, but no orders or word about
when the touman would be returning. And the JumpShips,
laboriously assembled to get the message back, retreated
back toward Terra once they recharged.
Othar was struck with a crisis of faith. His Clan had
achieved the impossible. Alaric Ward was ilKhan of the
Clans. Clan Wolf was ilClan, and from some of the recordings
sent, intended to found a new Star League. But none of that
mattered to him, because he was on Gienah, and the Empire
worlds still lay naked, as Kiley’s message showed him. He’d
squandered the months since the touman’s departure, doing
nothing, waiting for orders or a purpose. He decided to act,
using Point Commander Helene’s actions as a model. The
worlds of the Wolf Empire were the ilClan’s, and even if the
ilKhan had abandoned them he, Othar, would not.
Summoning the merchant factor of Gienah, Hilde, Othar
confirmed that the Wolf factories had continued to churn
out ’Mechs, tanks, and infantry battlesuits in the touman’s
absence. They had, but the touman had commandeered
almost every available JumpShip and DropShip to carry itself
to Terra; resources were available, but scattered, but Hilde had
anticipated the order and begun consolidating materiel on
Gienah. Much was already on its way.
He first raised a Trinary of warriors on Gienah, headed
by a new ristar, Star Captain Radu. Then he sent orders to
all the worlds of the Empire, as fast as could be arranged
with their few remaining HPGs and the scant JumpShip
resources available. Sibkos were ordered to graduate warriors
as they were able, though the dearth of qualified warriors
for opponents made that difficult. The former Marik military
academies, still in operation as oversized finishing sibkos,
received likewise orders.
 INTO FOREIGN WATERS

If no one else would defend the Empire’s worlds, he would. He only prayed
he had time to assemble the necessary forces. There were only so many
JumpShips and HPGs to spread the word. IT TAKES TWO—OR
THREE—TO TRIAL
DRAGOONS ON THE BORDER Not quite every world of the Wolf Clan
On 3 June, a Wolf’s Dragoons JumpShip convoy carrying Colonel Hack hosted a sibko, or several sibkos, devoted to
Kincaid, two of the Dragoon striker battalions, and the bulk of the Dragoons’ raising and training new warriors for the Clan,
dependents, jumped into the Savannah system. By this point, the news that but most did. The Clan, like all the others, had
the Dragoons had left the employ of the Draconis Combine had reached Marik centuries of institutional knowledge in how
space, but no one had expected the mercenaries to appear in the Free Worlds to raise warriors from newborns to deadly
League. A handful of days later an even larger Dragoons convoy arrived, MechWarriors, aerospace pilots, armor crews,
enough ships to carry the rest of the multi-regiment mercenary force. They or Elementals. Even as the touman fought for
spent a week and a few extra days recharging, before traveling on together the ultimate glory on Terra, new warriors were
out of the system. preparing to fight their way into the warrior
Observers on Savannah’s recharge station later reported that tensions caste and join the crusade.
appeared high among the Dragoons, and the few Dragoons who visited But the exodus of the fighting arm of the
the station appeared injured. Unconfirmed rumors of senior officers being Clan to Terra had unintended consequences
led back aboard Dragoon shuttles under guard circulated in the Savannah on the sibkos: no one remained for the new
planetary media for a few weeks after the Dragoons departed, but no chance candidates to fight their Trial of Position
to corroborate the rumors ever appeared. against. A Clan Wolf MechWarrior candidate,
for example, faces three warriors in ritual
combat to earn their place. They cannot
A BALLOT CAST fight each other. They cannot fight stand-
Due to Fontaine Marik’s quest to punish the Marian Hegemony for years
ins. The Clans believe each new generation
of constant raiding and the Marians’ eventual push for conquest of League
of custom-bred Trueborn warriors is superior
worlds, a large portion of the Tamarind Regulars had congregated on Illyria by
to the previous; a candidate must defeat a
the end of 3150. These regiments, constituting roughly seventy-five percent
blooded, qualified warrior to reinforce that
of Tamarind-Abbey’s native martial strength, had successfully conquered the
superiority. Across the Empire, dozens or even
capital of the Hegemony’s Illyria Province without sanction or funding from
hundreds of candidates waited fruitlessly for
Parliament. Parliament’s censure of Duke Marik for prosecuting unilateral
the scores or hundreds of warriors to return
war against the Hegemony without permission led to his formal order to
for them to test themselves against.
withdraw all Tamarind troops from Hegemony space, both regulars and
On Midkiff, for example, the cadre of
irregulars. Fortunately, Fontaine had never intended to hold onto Illyria. He
the sibkos—themselves still warriors, even
had sent his troops there on a punitive mission, to sojourn on the planet long
if aged and out of fighting trim—sacrificed
enough to devastate the Marian defenders and linger long enough to leave an
themselves as fodder for the qualifying
indelible mark on the Illyrians’ consciousness before withdrawing to League
warriors, due to the exigency of the situation.
space. Thus Fontaine “acquiesced” to Parliament’s demands only because he That was not a situation Othar could repeat
had already intended to do so. everywhere: sibkos would continue to
The official orders to withdraw arrived on Illyria in late May 3151, but need cadres.
the First, Seventh, and Eighth Tamarind Regulars deliberately tarried in their It was a problem without a clear solution.
preparations, using the intervening time between their orders and final
departure to torment the Illyrian natives and make their lives a living hell for —Excerpt from The Time of the Wolf,
as long as they could. The final insult before the Tamarind Regulars’ departure by Dr. K.R. Tharisberry
came in the form of a plebiscite, where the Illyrians were asked to hold a vote,
in which they could choose whether to officially join the Duchy of Tamarind-
Abbey and reap the riches the Free Worlds League could offer them or remain a
Marian world and fade back into the Periphery’s obscurity. The vote, tallied on 5 June, was far from unanimous: fifty-nine percent
of the eligible population voted to remain with the Hegemony, thus spitting on Fontaine Marik’s promises.

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

The Tamarind Regulars regiments left Illyria shortly after the failed vote and returned to Tamarind-Abbey space. The Seventh
Tamarind Regulars settled on Hazeldean to stare daggers at the Marian border while the First moved coreward along the Periphery’s
edge. On 18 July, however, the Eighth Tamarind Regulars linked up with the Panther Assault Group at a jump point in the Gibraltar

Dragoons on the Border 31

 EMPIRE ALONE
RESTLESS REGULUS
To: Anissa Garrett,
SAFE Subdirector, Lesnovo Military District
CC: Wu Chai, SAFE Subdirector, Oriente Military District
From: Agent 117-RF-B6
Date: 27 August 3151
Subdirector Garrett,
The attached article from the Regulan News Service shows
the Regulan media’s spin on current events, to add context to
what we are seeing in the Fiefs. The protests referenced are in
direct response to the Regulan Hussars regiments that were
rotated to fortify the Rim Commonality’s defenses against
Canopian adventurism.
Although some of the complaints lodged here are
legitimate—and there’s nothing we can do about them at
the moment—their severity is blown well out of proportion.
Investigation into the reporter and the sources quoted in
the article, in addition to investigations at the protest events
themselves, has led us to suspect that Canopian meddling is
involved here, specifically in the form of financing.
We will continue our investigation, but in the meantime,
we should keep doing what we’re doing, because if it’s got the
Canopians in a tizzy, that’s a sign that we’re doing the right
thing here.
—117-RF-B6
(2 July 3151)
Regulus [RNS]—Several public demonstrations were held in Regulus City
today, with protesters decrying political and social matters plaguing the Regulan
people. The assembled crowds bore picket signs speaking out against such issues
as the displacement of Regulan troops into other League provinces, the Fiefs’
unfavorable trade status within the League, and other injustices. No matter what
sign these protesters carry, all of them point to a common source: the Regulan
Fiefs’ continued status as a probationary member of the Free Worlds League.
Spokespeople for the largest demonstration, held at the minimum legal
distance from the Palace of Mirrors, claimed that their primary concern deals
with Regulan society as a whole. “Before we were forced to join the League,
Regulan citizens were all treated like royalty,” said Kadmos McIver, a power
plant engineer from Regulus City. “Even during the lean years, when the Sea
Foxes tried to starve us to death. The true mistreatment didn’t happen until the
Captain-General tricked our prince into hanging her millstone of a realm around
our necks. Now we’ve got Regulan boys and girls fighting and dying on someone
else’s land, and Regulan goods are being appropriated for rock-bottom prices, all
in the name of some obscure federal-emergency manufacturing measure that
only applies to us since we’re “probationary.” We can’t wait seven more years to
be granted full membership in the League. At this rate, I don’t even know if half
of us will be alive then.” […]
32 Dragoons on the Border
system, the remaining Gibraltar Island world still
under Marian control.
The Secunda Cohors of III Legio, since conquering
the world in 3147, had standing orders from Prefect
Kilgore to hold the planet at all costs due to its
importance as a League military district capital,
curtailing FWLM efforts in the region. The Marians
had initially intended to use this tactical advantage to
continue their invasion of Tamarind-Abbey; however
the fighting in the Hegemony’s Illyria Province in 3150
had not only stalled the Marians’ invasion plans, but it
also left the Island worlds cut off from communication
with their Legio’s leadership. Thus the Secunda Cohors
continued following their last orders, not knowing
until months later that Prefect Kilgore had been
killed in action on Illyria in December 3150, and no
further orders were forthcoming. This determination
saw the Secunda Cohors take up residence in Fort
Calpe, a refurbished Star League–era fortification
that had served as the primary headquarters for the
FWLM’s Gibraltar Military District. In the years since
the Marians’ conquest, the conquerors had added
to Fort Calpe’s defenses with crude but effective
berms, revetments, and a series of walls that funneled
attacking ground forces into areas that exposed
themselves to the defenders’ fire.
When the PAG made a textbook assault on
Fort Calpe in concert with a battalion of the Eighth
Tamarind Regulars, the Marians defended their
redoubt as though Prefect Kilgore himself was behind
them, threatening to lash them with a cat-o’-nine-
tails for any lapse in fighting. The Assault Group’s
armor battalion, often employed as the regiment’s
secret weapon, got bogged down in the labyrinthine
defenses and suffered moderate casualties, which
forced the Eighth to take up the primary assault
duties. The Eighth and the mercenaries fought for
every meter of ground, but the assault devolved into
a stalemate.
During a lull in battle, Colonel Isaiah Armstrong
announced on an open channel to the Marians that
Prefect Kilgore was dead, that Atzenbrugg had fallen
at the PAG’s own hands, and that Lepaterique had
fallen shortly thereafter. The Marians fought on for
another half hour after the announcement, but the fire
in them had already died, and Marian MechWarriors,
tankers, and infantry maniples began surrendering
one by one. When overseeing the processing of
prisoners, Colonel Joseph Ortiz of the Eighth admitted
that he had expected to see the enemy as defiant
and angry from losing their final foothold inside the
Free Worlds League border, but the Marians taken
 INTO FOREIGN WATERS
prisoner seemed almost relieved to surrender. Kilgore had
commanded the Legio from a place of fear, and the news
of his death and the disintegration of the Gibraltar Island
allowed the Secunda Cohors to surrender with confidence.
Stripped of their equipment as a condition of their
surrender, the Marians were permitted to leave Gibraltar
without further reprisal. Once the Secunda Cohors’ DropShips
left Gibraltar, Colonel Armstrong informed Christopher Marik
that the Gibraltar Island had fully reunited with the mainland,
and his contract with the Assault Group was now complete.
A GOODWILL GESTURE
The Lyran strike the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey had
braced for arrived with a quiet vengeance on 15 May 3151.
The Eighth Lyran Regulars, using Finsterwalde as a staging
ground, crossed the Free Worlds League border to strike at
Bolan. The regiment, seemingly unhurried in their operation,
made planetfall on 23 May after transit from a standard jump
point, and most of the troops landed on the continent of
Kashmir, within a day’s march from Bolan City and the Jeremy
Brett Martial Academy (formerly the Melissa Steiner Martial
Academy). Other DropShips, which did not unload Lyran
forces, landed near other smaller locales across the continent.
Upon identifying the incoming troops from their
DropShips’ IFF transponders, Bolan’s defenders, two bat-
talions of the Eighth Free Worlds Guards, initially expected
an objective raid. Over the past decade, the Eighth Lyran
Regulars had commonly been employed as a raiding force;
however, the entire regiment making planetfall told the Free
Worlds Guards that this was no mere raid. The Guards’ CO,
Colonel Winnie Garcia, quickly dispatched messages via cou-
rier: one to Kamenz, requesting aid from the Eighth’s Second
Battalion, despite knowing reinforcement likely would not
arrive in time, and one to Tamarind, to inform Duke Marik of
the attack. She then ordered her troops to man the defenses
and repel the Lyrans by any means necessary. While Third
Battalion occupied siege positions around Bolan City, First
Battalion and its attached conventional assets met the
Lyrans head-on.
The fighting in the Hazrat Foothills, the wasteland
between the Lyrans’ primary landing zone and Bolan City,
quickly saw the Lyrans gain the upper hand. The Eighth
Regulars’ expertise at raiding operations allowed them to
strike and fade with ease along the uneven landscape, and
their maneuverability thwarted the Eighth Guards’ attempts
to flank the invaders or circle around to attack their rear guard.
A Goodwill Gesture 33
 EMPIRE ALONE
The League defenders quickly learned that the Lyran
troops had more than a mere numerical advantage. The
Eighth Regulars possessed a deep familiarity with the planet,
both its terrain and its people, due to being stationed there
for a time after Operation Hammerfall in the late 3130s.
The terrain familiarity was readily apparent, as the Regulars
countered each of the Eighth Guards’ thrusts, but the
regiment’s knowledge of the people and the planet’s needs
was exhibited in an unanticipated way. The DropShips that
had not unloaded troops carried a surprising gift for the
Bolanese populace: an extensive reserve of clean, potable
water, as a peace offering to the natives.
Dedicating an entire JumpShip’s DropShip complement
to this endeavor, the Lyran Regulars ensured that this
significant resource made its way to water-poor regions
across the arid planet. The Regulars also provided high-
efficiency water-purification systems to ensure that their
goodwill gesture would offer a lasting reprieve to the most
desolate population centers on the planet. The League troops,
more concerned with defending the planet and its resources
from Lyran predation, had left the world’s often antagonistic
city-states to fight over important pockets of water on the
PLAYING BY THE RULES
++++Download from Dead Drop LIC-6179836++++
MSG BEGINS
Analysis: The attached report has a direct impact on our operations in the region.
Recommendation: Disrupt recruitment efforts via any available means.
(11 August 3151)
Tamarind—Duke Fontaine Marik, the commander-in-chief
of the military forces within the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey, has
formally submitted a petition to Parliament today, requesting
additional troops and funds for policing the duchy’s borders.
Duke Marik is known for having conducted combat
operations against both the Lyran Commonwealth and the
Marian Hegemony, both without authorization from the Captain-
General or Parliament, which resulted in a formal Parliamentary
censure in 3150 for overstepping the bounds of his authority.
This recent formal request for troops is a demonstration that the
rebuke from Atreus made its intended impact.
The most controversial aspect of the petition involved the
suggestion of the Captain-General deploying Regulan Fiefs
troops to the duchy. Due to the Free Worlds League’s current
laws, there is no longer a Home Defense Act that provincial
leaders can invoke to prevent their troops from being deployed
++++End of Download++++
34 A Goodwill Gesture
planet, and the Lyrans’ water offering put an end to many of
those struggles. In many cases, the locals assisted the Lyran
troops’ efforts while hampering or even outright interfering
with the League troops. Bolanese natives undertook efforts to
either steal or poison the Eighth Guards’ own water reserves,
and the people of Bolan City and other outlying settlements
turned openly belligerent to League sympathizers within
the populace.
With the people actively fighting against them in favor
of Lyran control, the Eighth Guards were forced to defend
their potables and other supplies in addition to holding off
the Lyran Regulars’ nickel-and-dime attacks. Colonel Garcia
held out in hopes that Second Battalion’s mobilization from
Kamenz would arrive in time to stem the Lyran tide, but no aid
was forthcoming. Faced with the decision to either sacrifice
her entire command or withdraw, regroup, and renew their
assault, Garcia opted to withdraw. On 16 June, the survivors of
the Eighth Free Worlds Guards abandoned Bolan and reunited
with their remaining ’Mech battalion on Kamenz. After a short
period of refit, Garcia moved Third Battalion, which had taken
fewer casualties than First Battalion, to Zdice, in anticipation
of further attacks from the Commonwealth.
in theaters outside a unit’s province of origin. Given that
the Captain-General approved the deployment of Regulan
Hussars regiments to the Rim Commonality earlier this year,
military analysts believe Atreus may authorize Duke Marik’s
request as well.
To supplement the requested troops, recruitment efforts
within the duchy have risen to all-time highs within the past
six months, with a substantial spike within the past three
months. The increase in recruitment levels within the past sixty
days is attributed to the conclusion of conflict with the Marian
Hegemony, which has swelled a rise in patriotism, both for the
Free Worlds League and the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey. The rise
in new provincial recruits has allowed for the formation of at
least one new provisional BattleMech regiment, with another
on the way […]
MSG ENDS
 INTO FOREIGN WATERS

To the Lyrans, the reclaiming of Bolan represented not only conquest but a moral victory as well. The system, noted for
its industrial resources, had been a Free Worlds League possession until the First Succession War, during which the Lyran
Commonwealth conquered Bolan and the remaining worlds in the Bolan Thumb, deflating the massive salient that had once
stretched deep into the Commonwealth. In the centuries since the Lyrans’ initial conquest of the planet, Bolan had remained far
away from House Marik’s reach until Fontaine Marik’s successful assault claimed it in 3146. The world’s long association with the
Commonwealth led the populace to see themselves as having ethnic Lyran ancestry despite the League’s prior claim. Thus, the
Eighth Lyran Regulars’ victory over Tamarind-Abbey’s occupation force let the Bolanese natives return to the nation they saw as
their true home.

THE TROUBLE AT HOME

May began with a bang for the Magistracy of Canopus, when the
JumpShip Industrious Mien jumped into the Canopus system on 3 May with
the news of the situation on Joppa. Within hours, outraged citizens had taken
PROFOUND SADNESS
to the streets of all of the major cities on Canopus IV, inflamed by the flagrant
It is our sad duty to announce that
disregard for the social freedoms that were the cornerstone of Magistracy
Erde Centrella, regent of Magestrix Ilsa
sensibilities, with everyone demanding that something be done about the
Liao-Centrella and beloved member of the
brutal murders of historically Canopian citizens by the Confederation military.
Centrella Royal Family, was struck down by a
On 4 May, Regent Erde Centrella would speak in an emergency meeting of
stroke today at the Royal Palace in Crimson.
the Canopian Central Committee, assuring them that she would immediately
The 109-year-old Erde, aunt to the reigning
attempt to reach out to the Magestrix about the heinous act. When the
Magestrix, has been a beloved figure in the
committee continued to demand that she do something about the situation,
Magistracy throughout her last century of
showing a surprisingly public lack of confidence in the ability of the Magestrix
service, and well-wishers from throughout the
to deal with the Confederation, the regent informed the committee that she
nation have descended on Crimson General
would send forces to protect the citizens of Joppa without delay. While not
in the hopes of providing support for the
the solution that they were hoping for, the Central Committee agreed to help
ailing Centrella regent. At this time, Regent
calm the populace, at least for the time being, a move that would help to
Centrella’s daughter, Serin Centrella, has been
reduce the frequency of the protests, if not stopping them.
confirmed as acting regent by the Canopian
Despite the efforts by the Confederation representatives to the Magistracy
Central Committee and the Crimson Council
to position the crisis as the overzealous actions of the planetary diem and
as the Magestrix herself returns home. The
the Home Guard commander, the entire incident would seriously damage
Royal Family has put out a plea for privacy
the perception of the Confederation by Magistracy citizens. In a Crimson
during this time and a reminder of the grand
University poll, nearly sixty-two percent of citizens would recommend the
service that Erde Centrella has done for the
immediate dissolution of the alliance with the Capellan Confederation with
Magistracy as a whole.
over seventy percent stating that the current acts by the Capellan forces were
an instrumental part of their response. Countess Rita Garcia, one of the most —Excerpt from the Canopian
strident voices for the dissolution of the alliance, would continue to make Information Ministry press release,
public appearances decrying the outrageous nature of the Confederation 8 June 3151
response and that no rapprochement could be made with a nation with values
so fundamentally different from their own.
Within forty-eight hours, Regent Erde Centrella sent orders to the First
Canopian Light Horse to jump to Joppa from their current station on Claybrooke. The
plan would be an inspired choice: the First Canopian Light Horse was one of the premier units of the Magistracy, as well as
previously being posted to Joppa in 3130. It was hoped that their arrival would help to diffuse the tensions, at least long enough
for the Magestrix to come up with an alternative solution.

FINAL SERVICE
Late in the evening on 8 June 3151, emergency units descended upon the Palace on Canopus, summoned by Serin Centrella,
who had found her mother unresponsive in her office. Paramedics quickly took her to Crimson General, where she was reported in
stable condition, the apparent victim of a stroke. Moving quickly, Serin Centrella announced her lineage to the Canopian Central
Committee and the Crimson Council, providing prepared instructions from her mother for just such an emergency naming her
the temporary regent. While both the Committee and the Council seemed hesitant at first, the announcement of a growing crowd
outside of Crimson General quickly incentivized them to agree to the temporary compromise, although they did insist to be able

The Trouble at Home 35

 EMPIRE ALONE
to send an immediate message to the Magestrix, letting her
know of the situation.
In a stunning turn of events, the tragic event did have at
least one other positive effect: on 10 June, anti-Confederation
protestors clashed with Magistracy supporters in downtown
Crimson. When an anti-Confederation protester attempted
to burn an effigy of Erde Centrella, the people went mad,
attacking the protestors and driving them from the city.
While Magistracy forces were quick to arrive, managing to
keep damage from being done to the city itself, they were
clearly content to allow the Centrella supporters to chase the
protestors away from the downtown area. Magistracy auxiliary
units would be stationed within the city to prevent a further
occurrence of violence, but there had been no protests in
Crimson since the tenth, with the entire Magistracy holding
its breath for the fate of the Erde Centrella.
Magestrix Ilsa Liao-Centrella, who had already been
en route to the Magistracy capital, arrived in mid-June and,
upon receiving the news rushed to the Crimson General,
forwent the usual celebrations at her arrival to see her sister.
Following her visit, the Magestrix returned to the capitol,
where she officially appointed Serin Centrella as her regent
and appointed a special regency council to provide her with
support. While this was the accepted procedure in such
a situation, the number of closed-door meetings and the
appointment of the regency council made many suspect
that the Magestrix planned on immediately departing again,
a possibility that did not sit well with the populace. Peaceful
protests in the city of Crimson, which had waned after the
announcement of Erde Centrella’s illness, began to pick
up again.
Erde Centrella, regent of the Magistracy of Canopus,
passed away in her sleep on 18 August 3151, at the age of 109.
PLACATION AND PROMISES
To address the growing concerns among worlds in the
Free Worlds League’s Clan Protectorate and Augustine Alliance
provinces, Captain-General Nikol Marik paid an official state
visit to the Marik system in May. Although the full breadth
and nature of her visit remained undisclosed, she treated with
the Clan Protectorate’s senior leadership, including Galaxy
Commander Rikkard Nova Cat of the Spirit Cats, ovKhan
Matthew Horn of Clan Sea Fox, and Nikol’s estranged sister,
Julietta of Marik. Although rumors speculated that there was
a more secretive purpose behind the visit, Nikol’s primary goal
was political. She sought to assuage the Clan Protectorate’s
vocal objection to non-Protectorate troops being stationed
on a Protectorate world.
One of the provisions for the Spirit Cats and Sea Foxes
holding membership in the Free Worlds League was that the
Clan Protectorate worlds were allowed to govern and defend
themselves without any outside interference from non-
36 Placation and Promises
Protectorate forces, even other FWLM units. However, Nikol
rationalized her decision by claiming that if Clan Wolf were to
be named ilClan, there was a chance that the Wolves might
attack the Free Worlds League, and if the Clan Protectorate
worlds lay in the path of that destruction, then the CPM would
benefit from additional support. The Protectorate leadership
agreed, albeit begrudgingly, and the First Free Worlds Guards
remained in place.
While Nikol was still on-planet, news arrived about Count
Gavin Stewart and the Gryphons crossing the Wolf Empire
border to assault Stewart with neither authorization nor
provocation. When Captain Trenton Marik, nephew of the
late Anson Marik, heard the report about the Gryphons, he
sought an audience with Nikol Marik and requested that his
unit be sent to Stewart. Trenton and Gavin had been close
friends since their days at the Princefield Military Academy,
and Trenton argued that he could convince Gavin to abandon
his conquest and withdraw from Stewart, in hopes that the
Wolves might ignore Gavin’s lapse in judgment and prevent
them from retaliating over the slight. Nikol agreed to Trenton’s
plan, but due to the situation in the Protectorate, she only
authorized sending Trenton’s company across the border,
and she admonished him to return with a quickness and with
Gavin and the Gryphons in tow.
A TESTAMENT OF LOYALTY
Trenton Marik’s ’Mech company jumped to the Stewart
system to discover that the Gryphons had already pacified
the planet. The resistance had amounted to little more than
a modest garrison of Wolf solahma, test-downs, and other
dezgra warriors that the main body of Clan Wolf’s military had
left behind—all of them deemed unworthy of participating
in the conquest of Terra. Though the defenders had made the
Gryphons hunt them down to the last warrior, Count Stewart
had claimed full victory in the name of House Stewart. Trenton
entreated Gavin to withdraw and thus avoid potential Clan
Wolf fury, but the count refused even his friend’s plea. By turns
over the years, the Lyran Commonwealth, Clan Sea Fox, and
then Clan Wolf had stolen the planet from House Stewart, and
Gavin scorned the idea of just handing it back after having
regained it. Also, he had won the support of the Silver Hawk
Irregulars by promising them that after Stewart was reclaimed,
he would lead them onward to take back former Silver Hawk
Coalition worlds and restore them to their rightful place in the
Free Worlds League. With Gavin clinging to his conquest and
the Gryphons itching to take their crusade deeper into the
Wolf Empire, Trenton failed to sway them from their course.
In June, news trickling in from Terra changed the
whole shape of this conflict. The Battle of Terra was over.
The Republic of the Sphere had been defeated by the joint
efforts of Clans Jade Falcon and Wolf, and the Wolves and
their Khan, Alaric Ward, had risen from the fires of battle as
 INTO FOREIGN WATERS

the ilClan, with Alaric as ilKhan. Word of

the ilClan’s ultimate triumph over the
Jade Falcons for the title of ilClan
struck the Clan Protectorate’s
leaders particularly hard, as this
new order to Clan society placed
the Protectorate in a difficult spot.
If they chose not to show fealty to
the ilClan, they would be branded
as traitors and would be hunted
down to extinction. However, if they
aligned with the ilClan, they would in all
likelihood be ordered to attack the very nation that had
given them a stable home for more than a decade.
The leadership in the Clan Protectorate was divided
on which avenue to approach. Some sought to follow the
ilClan’s direction, as Clan law and tradition would dictate,
while others railed against the idea, knowing that to follow
the ilClan could have disastrous repercussions for the nation
that had sheltered them, and betraying their home nation
could ultimately bring about their own destruction. Others
advocated a wait-and-see approach. As yet, the ilClan had
issued no direct orders to the Clan Protectorate aside from
soliciting a meeting with Clan Sea Fox’s seniormost leadership.
Also, there was no word of Clan Wolf forces having left Terra
after winning the ilClanship, which meant any potential
retribution visited on the Protectorate for noncompliance was
far in the offing—assuming the ilClan even retained enough
strength to carry out its justice.
On 18 June, as Trenton Marik was preparing to return
to his station on Marik and report that his mission to halt
the conquest of Stewart had failed, DropShips bearing two
Clusters of ilClan-loyal warriors appeared at a pirate point
in the Stewart system and made a hard burn planetside.
These two Clusters, swayed by remarks from the pro-ilClan
segment within the Protectorate, had taken the initiative
to end Gavin Stewart’s attack on the ilClan’s territory, thus
attempting to curry favor with the ilKhan. Even if the rest
of the Clan Protectorate turned its back on the ilClan, the
First Nova Cat Provisionals and the newly formed Beta Strike
Cluster could turn to the ilKhan and say that they stood by
the ilClan’s hegemony over the Clans and did what the rest grievously wounded, but Trenton, who had opted to remain
of the Clan Protectorate refused to do. on-planet to assist in repelling the Clan invaders, rallied the
Initial clashes on Stewart showed the two sides as
Gryphons long enough to medevac Gavin to safety before
evenly matched in both drive and morale, as the Gavin
withdrawing to regroup.
Stewart’s troops fought to protect their conquest, and the
The Gryphons’ withdrawal gave the pro-ilClan forces
Clan Protectorate warriors wished to give the ilKhan a good
and honorable demonstration of their loyalty and combat control of the facility, but it proved a poisoned apple: the
prowess. The turning point in the conflict occurred on 26 Wolves, when abandoning Stewart to move toward Terra,
June. The Gryphons’ First Battalion was defending the planet’s had stripped most of the vital components and machinery
Corean Enterprises facility from the Beta Strike Cluster when from the premises, rendering the prize a hollow and unusable
Gavin Stewart’s BattleMaster was shot down. The count was husk. Count Stewart had known of the manufactory’s offline

A Testament of Loyalty 37
 EMPIRE ALONE
status since the early stages of his campaign to conquer the
planet. He had known that the Sea Fox warriors of Beta Strike
Cluster would be unable to resist the lure of such an important
objective, so he had sold them that lie and nearly paid for it
with his own life. Furious over Stewart’s prevarication, the
Clan forces retaliated rashly. That, combined with the rallying
cry of Trenton Marik, allowed the Gryphons to gain the upper
hand at the mining complexes on the continent of Highland
and rout the Clan warriors.
Further highlighting the rift in the Clan Protectorate,
the two retreating Clusters went different ways upon
departing Stewart. The First Nova Cat Provisionals opted
to return to Angell II and salvage their relationship with
the Clan Protectorate, offering to perform whatever surkai
was demanded of them. The Beta Strike Cluster, however,
believed that the ilKhan might ultimately punish them for
failing to regain the planet, and the retribution against other
Clan Protectorate Clusters for siding against the ilClan would
prove even more devastating. When leaving Stewart on 30
June, the Beta Strike Cluster made no announcement of
their destination, and the Cluster did not reappear in Clan
Protectorate space.
A DEAFENING SILENCE
With the revelation that Clan Wolf had defeated both the
Republic of the Sphere and Clan Jade Falcon, Clan Wolf and
the Wolf Empire had achieved all that they had ever dreamed.
The Founder’s promise of the Clans returning to Terra fulfilled
and a new Star League on the cusp of being born, it seemed
that nothing stood in the ilKhan’s way.
Yet not all was peaceful even within the victorious Clan.
A clear division formed between the warriors that followed
the ilKhan to Terra and those left behind to maintain the
Wolf Empire. Through the BloodRibbon awards given only to
those Wolves, Jade Falcons, and Wolf’s Dragoons who fought
on Terra, the ilKhan himself had demonstrated the stark
difference he saw between the Wolves on Terra and those
he had left behind. This distinction caused a great deal of
dissension, with many in the Wolf Empire feeling abandoned
by the Wolves residing on Terra.
It was in this burgeoning environment of resentment, as
the glow of being named ilClan faded, that Othar leaned into
building his new Empire Clusters. As the word spread that he
sought new warriors, Othar and Radu, together with warriors
like Kiley and with the support of the merchants under Hilde,
continued to build up forces. Othar had an ambitious plan:
raise two new Galaxies to defend the Empire, Rufus and Lupus.
To that he had to pray the Free Worlds League, Fontaine Marik,
and the Lyran Commonwealth gave him time.
Early response to his call had been positive. Sibko trainers
had enthusiastically responded, putting candidates through
their Trials as quickly as opponents could be found to test
38 A Deafening Silence
them. Though each sibko could only contribute a handful
of warriors of all types, there were scores of sibkos. As soon
as hulls could be found to transport them, the warriors were
gathering on Gienah for assignment, but the farther the word
traveled, the longer the response time. Othar’s hope for the
largest bucket of trained warriors was the Allison MechWarrior
Institute on New Olympia, but that was not to be.
In mid-July, before news of Othar’s rearmament had
reached that far, the massive convoy of Wolf’s Dragoons
appeared in the New Olympia system, occupying both jump
points. The DropShips for the Tarantulas striker battalion
burned in-system, accompanied by an overwhelming
aerospace escort that awed the cadets the Lloyd-Marik
Stanley aerospace school from even attempting to contest
their landing. The Tarantulas DropShips grounded on 25 July,
outside Darienbad, not far from the Allison MechWarrior
Institute. Major Gamble of the Tarantulas challenged the
AMI cadet Cluster to combat, which the cadre accepted. The
two forces met on the Rodemal Plateau the next day, where
the Dragoons battalion crushed the cadet Cluster in short
order, using hovertanks with plasma weapons to overheat
and disable a large number of the Cluster’s outdated, mainly
Inner Sphere Mechs. The Dragoons claimed every living cadet
from the Cluster as isorla and salvaged what they could from
the battlefield before departing, two days later. By the first
week of August the paired Dragoon flotillas had departed.
Six days after the last JumpShip had departed, Star Colonel
Othar’s missive about need the cadets of the Allison cadet
Cluster arrived. The surviving cadre did their best, allowing
the next-most-senior cadets a handful of Trials of Position,
but none of the younger cadets succeeded. The Allison cadre
replied to the Star Colonel’s missive with regret and recordings
of the Dragoon assault, and set about rebuilding.
A NEW COALITION
The biggest initial consequence of the Gryphons’
unauthorized assault on Stewart and the reprisal from the
Clan Protectorate was the front this conflict opened into
the Wolf Empire. In planning the invasion of Stewart, Gavin
Stewart had shared with the Silver Hawk Irregulars his true
purpose for wanting to cross the Wolf Empire border. Stewart,
he claimed, was a means to an end and would serve as a base
of operations for further thrusts into Wolf territory. His true
goal was this: reclaiming as many Silver Hawks Coalition
worlds from Clan Wolf as possible.
The Silver Hawks were a small collection of micro
provinces along the League’s border with the Lyran
Commonwealth, and the coalition of these micro provinces
had a mutual-defense pact enforced by the Silver Hawk
Irregulars regiments, the Gryphons and the Falcons. Though
most of the Silver Hawks Coalition survived the ravages of
the Word of Blake Jihad, its provincial military forces did not,
 EMPIRE ALONE
and upon the Free Worlds League’s dissolution in 3079, the
Silver Hawks’ member worlds were absorbed into the Marik-
Stewart Commonwealth and the Republic of the Sphere.
In 3137, Anson Marik, then-Captain-General of the Marik-
Stewart Commonwealth, raised a new BattleMech regiment
and christened it the Silver Hawk Irregulars, in honor of
the original Irregulars regiments, to capture the spirit and
solidarity of the original Silver Hawks Coalition. However, by
3142, nearly all the Silver Hawks’ worlds had ultimately been
swallowed up by the tsunami of conquest that established
the Wolf Empire, and both Anson and the Marik-Stewart
Commonwealth died in those assaults.
A decade later, when Gavin Stewart first presented
his invasion plan for Stewart, he promised Colonel Lucas
Cameron-Witherspoon of the Gryphons that he intended to
use Stewart as a staging ground for a campaign to return the
Silver Hawks’ worlds to the League’s fold. Just as the original
Silver Hawks Coalition stood at the nation’s front gate to
prevent Lyran aggression, so this new collection of restored
Silver Hawks’ worlds would stand as a bastion against the
tide of an ilClan. Rumors maintained that Gavin’s sights only
extended to Stewart and that he had no real plan to pursue
further conquest. However, the injuries he sustained during
battle left him incapacitated, rendering his intent irrelevant,
allowing Colonel Cameron-Witherspoon to continue with
Gavin’s plan on his own.
With Stewart remaining under the control of League
troops, the LCCC had to choose between either recalling and
disciplining the Gryphons or bolstering the world’s defenses
and worrying about the fallout later, after the Wolves emerged
from Terra in force. The LCCC opted for the former and sent
the Steel Wolves mercenary Cluster to Stewart with orders
to arrest Gavin Stewart and the Gryphons’ senior officers.
However, when the mercenaries arrived on 29 July, they found
no sign of the Gryphons, only Count Stewart in a medically
induced coma and the company of MechWarriors serving as
his comital guard. Rather than arrest Gavin and depart, the
Steel Wolves remained on-planet and requested updated
orders for how to approach the situation.
Throughout June and July, the news of the Gryphons’
conquest of Stewart prompted an increase in support from
the neighboring Covenant Worlds’ province. Though the
Covenant Worlds could not openly order their troops to assist
in the Silver Hawk Irregulars’ revanchist quest without drawing
criticism from Parliament, the governments of Alkes and New
Hope—both former Silver Hawk worlds—offered financial
and materiel support to encourage the liberation of more
worlds from the Wolf Empire. They also hired mercenaries for
reasons that were not immediately disclosed.
Colonel Cameron-Witherspoon, utilizing intel gathered
during his regiment’s time on Stewart, marked some former
Silver Hawks’ worlds and nearby buffer systems as prime
40 A New Coalition
targets for the next phase of his operations. The campaign
for the two primary targets saw the Gryphons divide into two,
each component battalion bolstered by mercenaries either
loaned by the Covenant Worlds or hired by Gavin Stewart
before the Gryphons had jumped to Stewart.
The first target in this operation was Amity, chosen due
to being the home of Imstar Aerospace and for its one-jump
proximity from Stewart. Upon burning toward planetfall, the
Gryphons’ Second Battalion was surprised to discover no
indication of appreciable Clan Wolf military presence in the
system. No Wolf aerospace accosted their transit, and it was
not until the invaders attempted to secure the Imstar facility
in low orbit that the two Points of Wolf aerospace fighters
guarding the station revealed themselves, and all fighters
were crippled or destroyed by the Gryphons’ DropShip
batteries. On the ground, the Gryphons faced scattered
pockets of conventional solahma infantry that fought to the
last warrior to protect the ilClan’s assets. Amity’s populace,
which consisted of more Amity natives than transplanted
Wolf civilian caste members, largely welcomed the Gryphons’
arrival, greeting them as heroes rather than as invaders. Few
living Amitians recalled the days of the Silver Hawks Coalition,
but the history of the planet remained firm in their cultural
memory nevertheless. Thus, the planet’s liberation at the
hands of a Silver Hawk Irregulars regiment carried a significant
note of historical relevance and patriotism to the people.
For the second target of the operation, Cameron-
Witherspoon personally led his First Battalion to Helm on
7 August 3151. Helm was not historically a Silver Hawks
world, but the Gryphons targeted it for deliberate and
personal reasons. On 28 April 3138, during the joint Lyran
Commonwealth/Clan Wolf conquest of Helm, the Silver
Hawk Irregulars had surrendered to the Lyran forces under
the command of Duke Vedet Brewer; however, instead
of acknowledging the surrender, the Wolves under the
command of then-Star Colonel Alaric Wolf had simply
gunned most of them down, and the remaining Irregulars
had maintained a vendetta against Clan Wolf ever since. The
regiment’s survival and eventual revival stood as a testament
to their hatred of the Wolves, and Cameron-Witherspoon’s
preemptive strike on Helm focused the fire of that decade-
old rage into an acetylene torch. Though fortified by a mixed
battalion of mercenaries, the Gryphons took point on the
combat operations, reserving the mercenaries for security
and mop-up duties. Cameron-Witherspoon’s troops accosted
the minimal Wolf garrison head-on, with no pretext but killing
as many Wolf warriors as possible. The initial skirmishes in
Helmdown pushed the Wolves into withdrawing to Nagayan
Mountain, where the Gryphons spent a full week trying to
hunt them down amid the foothills and slopes. By 13 August,
the only Wolves remaining on Helm belonged to the Clan’s
civilian castes. Once the Gryphons declared victory, Cameron-
 INTO FOREIGN WATERS
Witherspoon commissioned a monument outside Helmdown,
which commemorated all of the Silver Hawk Irregulars who
were killed there in 3138.
Analysis of the news from merchant vessels arriving at
Helm strongly hinted that the neighboring systems of Uhuru,
Concord, and Danais had little Clan Wolf military presence.
After a period of rest and refit, Cameron-Witherspoon
dispatched an expeditionary force to Concord, a former
Silver Hawks member, to test the waters. A company of
Gryphons and company of mercenaries arrived in system
on 13 September. Transit and planetfall were eerily quiet
and without incident, and upon landing, the strike team
discovered that there were no Clan Wolf military assets
protecting the planet whatsoever. Concord had been left
without any form of official garrison or militia, and the few
Concord natives who took up personal arms against the
invaders immediately laid their arms down upon seeing the
Silver Hawk Irregulars insignia on the Gryphons’ DropShip.
The liberation of Amity and Concord meant that four
of the original ten Silver Hawks Coalition worlds now fell
under Free Worlds League control. After news of Concord
spread, dialogue opened between the governments of
Amity, Concord, Alkes, and New Hope, during which these
four systems explored the fiscal and political feasibility of
reinstating the Silver Hawks Coalition mutual-defense pact.
Proposals called for each member world to contribute recruits
and funds to the Gryphons and Falcons regiments, which
would act as the Silver Hawks’ first line of defense against Wolf
Empire reprisals or possible actions by the Clan Protectorate
Military. Though no agreement was initially reached, the idea
for the solidarity of a renewed Silver Hawks Coalition kindled
in the hearts of the people who recalled a time before the
Wolf Empire’s occupation.
HOUSE OF CARDS
July of 3151 would provide its own surprises when
members of a pro-Andurien group, Andurien Always Front,
captured the city of Pancho, the capital of the Capellan
Confederation world of Scarborough. A former Duchy of the
Andurien world that had been captured by the Confederation
in one of the interminable conflicts between the two nations,
the citizens of Scarborough had always hewed more closely to
their Andurien roots than that of their Capellan conquerors.
The fact that they remained docile and at least outwardly
respectful of the Confederation allowed the planetary
government to build up a level of complacency that would
lead to their downfall
Apparently, however, it was not only the government
that grew complacent, but also their defenders in the Home
Guard. On the night of 4 July 3151, members of the AAF
stormed the government house, the Home Guard armory, and
the local constabulary barracks in three simultaneous strikes,
seizing the governor, the Constabulary chief, and the bulk of
the Home Guard arms before anyone could raise the alarm.
While the death of a single Capellan Home Guard officer
at the armory prevented the coup from being completely
bloodless, the fact that they managed to accomplish so much
in a single night had a profound effect upon the populace of
Scarborough.
All through the night the local news agencies were silent
as to the situation, unable to get approval to say anything
from the governor’s office or the local Capellan Broadcasting
Service. It was only the next morning; when the governor’s
capture and reports of mass desertions from both the Home
Guard and the militia had been received, the news services
did feel comfortable enough to release the news. On the
morning of 5 July, Jonathan Zales, spokesperson for the AAF,
announced that his group intended to put forth a planetary-
wide plebiscite, in the hopes that the Duchy of Andurien
would annex the planet and return it to its previous status as
a full member of the duchy.
While there was no ambassador assigned to the planet,
Patrick Harris of the Duchy of Andurien Consulate put out a
press release informing the planet that, while he could not
speak for Duke Humphreys or the Andurien government, he
did pledge to pass along the results of the plebiscite when
it was complete.
The fact that the seizure of Scarborough occurred less
than twenty-four hours before the JumpShip Belarruz was
due to depart for the planet of Andurien is not seen as a
coincidence.
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
On 2 June 3151, the First Canopian Light Horse landed
on Joppa with a message from Regent Erde Centrella to the
commander of the Home Guard unit stationed there. The
regent informed the Home Guard commander that she had
been tasked by Magestrix Ilsa Centrella-Liao to have the First
Canopian Light Horse deal with the protestors, allowing it
to be seen as a purely internal problem of the Magistracy of
Canopus. Eager to lay down the burden of the constant siege
upon his people, the Home Guard commander would eagerly
release the prisoners into the custody of the Light Horse.
Stating that a gross injustice had been done against the
people of Joppa and Magistracy citizens, Colonel Jamey Vitale
of the First Canopian immediately released all the prisoners
back to their homes. While this did not go over well with
either the diem or the Home Guard, the resulting celebrations
were a welcome change from the constant unrest that had
plagued the planet for the last several weeks.
Taking a page from the Andurien Always Front
movement on Scarborough, the First Canopian Light Horse
waited until the celebrations on the night of 3 June for
Colonel Vitale to reach out to the Home Guard commander
House of Cards 41
 EMPIRE ALONE
and order his unit disarmed. Originally believing the order
to be a joke, the Home Guard commander was surprised to
find his warriors suddenly being picked up by Light Horse
infantry with battlesuit support. Colonel Vitale explained
that the Home Guard would be disarmed and placed under
house arrest in their barracks until the Magestrix appealed
to the Chancellor for justice for her dead countrymen. Until
that time, Joppa would temporarily be under the protection
of the First Canopian Light Horse.
The announcement the next day of the capture of the
Home Guard would be met by approbation, only outshined
by the news that the Light Horse had brought several
DropShips worth of food to briefly stave off hunger, plus
significant agricultural supplies and equipment, which they
would provide to both the Canopian and Capellan citizens.
Once again there was celebration in the streets.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
The New Olympia raid by Wolf’s Dragoons confirmed
that the Wolf Empire lacked the available forces to keep out
a determined invader. As the news spread among the Empire’s
worlds, reports of additional probes came in from along the
entirety of the Empire’s border.
To make matters worse, not all of those probes came
from outside the Empire. On 4 August 3151, unknown forces
conducted a raid on Solaris VII, striking at the makeshift
spaceport at the edge of Solaris City’s International Zone.
The BattleMech company smashed through the Clan Wolf
security cordon around the spaceport before looting the
transshipment warehouses. Wolf Empire constabulary forces
converged on the spaceport within minutes, only to find their
way blocked by individual BattleMechs that actively prevented
them from interfering. By the time the remaining Wolves
could consolidate and force their way to the spaceport, the
raiders had loaded up three DropShips and forced their crews
to launch. Clan Wolf aerospace fighters, based on a Carrier
DropShip in orbit, lost the DropShips shortly after launch,
although there was no sign that they left the Solaris system.
A Watch report later confirmed that no DropShips with the
carrying capacity for such a raiding force had entered the
system in three weeks. The Watch concluded that the raiders
were based on Solaris VII itself, potentially former Solaris
gladiators or those who could access their equipment, leaving
the possibility that a freshly equipped unit of trained fighters
could be waiting in the heart of the Empire.
News of the raid on Solaris reached Gienah before the
news of the Dragoons’ strike on New Olympia, which meant
the two strikes only reaffirmed the Wolf Empire’s inability to
protect itself. The fact that a world so close to Gienah could
be raided with impunity, and by the planet’s own citizens,
set Othar on edge, worried that he would not have time to
complete his rearmament plans.
42 Public Relations
Wolf’s Dragoons, having completed their sack of the
Allison MechWarrior Institute, jumped to the Campbelton
system, home of Fusigon Heavy Weaponry, and attempted
to repeat their success. Arriving in-system on 8 August,
the Dragoons again invested both jump points with
overwhelming aerospace superiority but sent only a single
striker battalion in-system. Campbelton’s Wolf Clan defenders
had only the one-week transit time to prepare their defenses,
and they had no idea of what happened on New Olympia. The
Dragoons had outrun news of their attack there.
Campbelton, as a world, had embraced the Wolf Clan. A
planet on the far side of the Wolf Empire from Terra, news of
the ilClan’s victory there hadn’t even reached them yet, but
the defenders had an asset the Allison MechWarrior Institute
cadre had lacked: Star Captain Jacinda. Jacinda, one of the
warriors left behind due to injury, had healed and found
herself trapped on Campbelton, waiting for a Wolf JumpShip
to come and deliver her orders to go somewhere else,
anywhere else. During the long months, Jacinda had toured
the on-planet sibkos, meeting the trainers and promising
candidates, as well as touring the Fusigon Weaponry PPC
production lines. When the Dragoons appeared at the jump
points, Jacinda’s instincts served her in good stead.
She summoned all the sibko cadre and formed them into
two Supernova Binaries, armed with training ’Mechs and the
“testbed machines” from Fusigon Heavy Weaponry. Because
Cambelton hosted a large number of infantry sibkos, she
was able to draw a large number of cadre. Rather than waste
her resources attempting to graduate sibko candidates, she
focused instead of integrating her forces. One late addition
was a Star of ancient crew-served Long Tom artillery pieces
from the Atholville city constabulary’s “museum.”
The Dragoons landed outside the city an announced
their challenge, but Jacinda ignored them. She had the
standard Clan disdain for mercenaries; her response was an
artillery barrage timed to fall on the Dragoon LZ, followed
immediately by a ’Mech and Elemental strike. The Tarantulas,
overconfident from New Olympia, advanced to meet the
Wolves, expecting untrained warriors. The sibko cadre, canny
with the experience of years, hit them like an unexpected
tide swell. Within minutes the Tarantulas had been hurt, with
Bravo Company suffering sixty percent losses. The Tarantulas
withdrew, hoping to rally, but the constabulary artillery
crews walked their fire closer and closer to the LZ, forcing
the Dragoons to withdraw and leave the system.
As with New Olympia, Othar’s missive to raise warriors
from the sibkos reached Campbelton just after the Dragoons
withdrew. Jacinda and the cadre did so, cycling promising
candidates through Trials for as long as the ’Mechs held out,
raising most of two Trinaries to board ship with Jacinda and
depart for Gienah.
 INTO FOREIGN WATERS

THE STRENGTH OF THE COVENANT

With little advance warning, a two-pronged attack from the Covenant Worlds province of the Free Worlds League launched into
the Wolf Empire’s Terran corridor in late August. The midyear revelation that Clan Wolf had claimed the ilClanship had left the people
and leadership of the Covenant Worlds in a collective despair that had not been felt
since the province’s champion Thaddeus Marik, the former Warden-General of the
League, was killed by Alaric on New Olympia in 3139. The citizens of the Covenant
Worlds longed to strike at the Wolves before the Wolves could attack first, but
the nonaggression pact between Alaric and the Captain-General prevented GLADIATORS
the Covenant’s troops from engaging. News of the Silver Hawk Irregulars’ IN THE STREETS
unsanctioned but successful attack on Stewart earlier in 3151 energized the
people of the Covenant Worlds, and they watched the fallout of Stewart with Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
keen eyes. When it became clear that no official Wolf Empire reprisals were This is Richard Steinman for INN with
forthcoming on Stewart and that Parliament had taken no action to chastise a special report. We have just received
the Irregulars’ campaign, the Covenant leaders prodded the commanders confirmation that the International Zone
of the Covenant Guards brigade to sally into the Wolf Empire, both to take spaceport in Solaris City has been attacked.
revenge for Thaddeus’ death and to reclaim former League worlds from the While we have not received an update from
ilClan before they could recover from the fighting on Terra and retaliate. the local Clan Wolf garrison forces, we have
The main thrust of the invasion reached Callison on 23 August. Recent exclusive footage of a series of black-painted
intel indicated a minimal Clan Wolf military presence on the planet, so General BattleMechs striking from the Wolves’ security
Jodene Tillens committed only one battalion of the First Covenant Guards and cordon, forcing their way into the makeshift
support elements to the campaign. The solahma warriors that held the planet spaceport…
fought in an unusual manner, running and hiding from the First, then fighting Just a moment… We are getting an
like cornered and wounded animals rather than employing the reckless, head- update. Yes, we are receiving footage of
on charges solahma units often favored. General Tillens soon discovered the additional BattleMechs engaging the Clan
reason for this seeming fear: for nearly a year, the Wolf garrison had been Wolf reinforcements. One of those ’Mechs
plagued by a guerrilla movement that would claim Wolf warriors in the middle appears to be none other than The Keeper,
of the night, either by whisking them away or killing them covertly one by the custom Gravedigger piloted by Solaris
one. Tillens learned that the mastermind behind these attacks was none other favorite Alicia Wei. While we cannot confirm
than Ariana Zou, a former Paladin of the Republic. Zou had been claimed as that it is Wei herself at the controls of her
a bondswoman in early 3150 after the Wolves conquered the planet, but Zou ’Mech, it appears that the arena fighters of
had slipped her leash and gone to ground. She had spent the intervening time Solaris are striking back at the Clan force
keeping the flame of the Republic alive by organizing and leading a resistance that has occupied the planet. Whether this
movement. Her tactics focused on demoralizing the Wolves via kidnapping is an isolated incident or the first step in a
and assassination rather than open attacks, which led to a constant paranoia coordinated response to the occupation
among the Wolf garrison. When Zou revealed herself to General Tillens, the remains to be seen…
pair joined forces, and Zou’s firsthand intel gave the Covenant troops enough
—Transcript from Interstellar News
ammunition to liberate the planet from Clan Wolf with minimal casualties.
Network broadcast,
Operations on Marcus, the second
4 August 3151
half of the Covenant Worlds’ campaign,
began on 26 August. One battalion
of the Second Covenant Guards
touched down near the
capital of Zotikos only to

The Strength of the Covenant 43

 EMPIRE ALONE

find very little resistance. As the Second began establishing
a forward operating base, Wolf elements that self-identified
as the 1286th Provisional Garrison Trinary attacked the
invading force with one mixed-composition Star at a time,
destroying as much equipment and supplies as possible
before withdrawing under the cover of artillery fire. Colonel
Mark Timur tasked his troops with finding the enemy and
tracked them to Kalamark, where the Wolves were operating
from the rebuilt remnants of a Jihad-era firebase. The Second
advanced on the firebase and gave no quarter to the Wolves.
Though the firebase ultimately fell and the defenders routed,
the cost was high: Colonel Timur’s XO and several of the
Second’s junior officers numbered among the slain.
The successes on Callison and Marcus, coupled with
Ariana Zou’s defection to the Free Worlds League, galvanized
the Covenant Worlds into continuing their operations
against the Wolves. As the outcome of Stewart had
predicted, September saw no reprisals against the Covenant
Guards from Wolf Empire forces, leaving the planets in the
League’s control.

THREAT ASSESSMENT: SILVER HAWKS

Wolf Watch Report #FW71A38F7

Filed: 12 October 3151

Overview
Recent attacks on Wolf Empire worlds have resulted in the loss of more systems to Free Worlds predation. Given the
current state of our touman within the Empire, our ability to counterattack remains diminished; thus we must utilize
our Clan’s assets efficiently to predict where further strikes from Free Worlds warriors may occur and take preventive
measures to stop or allay the threat. This attack on the ilClan’s sovereignty cannot go unpunished.

Analysis and Recommendation

The strikes on Amity, Concord, and neighboring systems indicate that the Free Worlds is likely attempting to secure
former-Silver Hawks Coalition worlds and exploit their shared history as a defensive buffer against our future
ascendance. The following threat assessment, based on this supposition, outlines the likelihood of the Free Worlds
military’s future targets, based on their political history.

• Amity Province (Amity, Concord): With both Amity and Concord already in Free Worlds hands, we believe the
enemy will seek to leverage this province by using it as a staging ground for campaigning on neighboring worlds,
namely Bondurant, Danais, or Kalidasa. As of this time, Bondurant boasts no active solahma presence, and the
sibko-graduate forces we have been forced to rely on may hand this planet over to the League without a fight.
Recommendation: if opportunity presents itself, counterattack Amity to isolate Concord.
• Callison Province (Callison, Marcus): Should the enemy attempt to assault this province, we believe that attack will
come at a later date. This is due to these systems’ proximity to Talitha, where former Republic troops have gathered.
The presence of RAF forces may halt any League plans for this region. Recommendation: no actions necessary.
• Danais Province (Bondurant, Danais): Both of these systems have minimal warrior-caste presence, but the cowardice
of League commanders may preclude them from striking this deep into our territory. Recommendation: monitor
situation, and prepare to redeploy as needed.
• Kalidasa Province (Alkes, Kalidasa, New Hope): The Free Worlds currently controls all worlds historically included
in this province except Kalidasa. Kalidasa’s industrial capacity and close proximity to worlds we have already
lost to the Irregulars means this system is where we foresee the next major attack to occur. Recommendation:
reinforce Kalidasa at first opportunity.
• Shiloh Province (Shiloh): Given its current garrison, the League would find this world an easy conquest, but our
analysis concludes that they are not prepared for such a strike. This system remains a candidate for a second wave
of invasion, as Alhena, Chertan, and Dubhe, though not former-Silver Hawks worlds, are more likely targets for
an initial first wave. Recommendation: monitor situation.

44 The Strength of the Covenant

 INTO FOREIGN WATERS
PARLIAMENTARY PRESSURE
The unexpectedly successful but unsanctioned invasion
of Stewart, followed by the subsequent reclamation of Amity,
sent a ripple of debate throughout the Free Worlds League,
particularly on Atreus, calling on the Captain-General to
either formally chastise the Silver Hawk Irregulars or endorse
a plan to officially declare war on the Wolf Empire. The court of
public opinion, however, supported these conquests despite
their illegal nature, especially in light of the knowledge of
these victories being won against the presumed might of the
newly declared ilClan. In an attempt to codify this sentiment,
on 23 August, Parliament passed a resolution drafted by Ellisia
Caphis, the MP of New Hope. Resolution 119A retroactively
recognized the legality of the Silver Hawk Irregulars’ actions
on Stewart and Amity and granted clemency to all involved,
but the Captain-General refused to sign the order.
Continued pressure from within both Parliament and the
LCCC leaned in favor of planning a full invasion of the Wolf
Empire, to take advantage of the ilClan’s perceived weakness
while they still had the chance. If the ilClan chose to retaliate
against the League’s adventurism in the near future, each
system the FWLM could regain in an open campaign against
the Wolves would serve as a buffer against Wolf reprisals.
When news of the Gryphons’ success on Helm reached
Atreus in September, Nikol Marik publicly acknowledged
that further action against the Wolf Empire might become
necessary in the near future. She then signed Resolution
119A and approached the LCCC with intel reports from an
undisclosed source behind the Wolf Empire’s lines. These
reports, along with the conquest of Helm, Callison, and
Marcus, paved the way for widening the front in the ilClan’s
exposed underbelly.
AND THE WINNER IS…
The promised plebiscite on Scarborough was held on
1 September 3151. All citizens of the planet were given a
single vote, and they came out in record numbers. When the
final numbers were announced two days later, a shocking
eighty-two percent of registered voters chose to make
their voices heard. Of that eighty-two percent, seventy-one
percent supported a return to Andurien and to reach out to
be annexed back into the duchy.
Following the announcement of the results, AAF
spokesperson Jonathan Zales released the following
statement: “We are thrilled to hear that our fellow citizens
share in our willingness to throw off the shackles that had
been placed upon us by the Capellan Confederation and to
return to our roots as loyal members of the Duchy of Andurien.”
Consul Harris, as the acting representative for the
Duchy of Andurien on-planet by order of Duke Humphreys,
had ratified the election results and would be returning
to Andurien to present them to the duke. While no steps
beyond that had been confirmed, the continuing troop
movements by the Andurien military forces hinted at a further
redeployment, including several units that had been placed
within a single jump of Scarborough. No word had come from
the Confederation as to a response, but well-regarded sources
confirmed that the Confederation was aware of the situation
and would be taking appropriate action.
UNEXPECTED RESPONSES
On 16 September 3151, the Magestrix, still in Crimson,
finally got a reply from the Confederation, but not in the way
that she expected. Instead of a personal message from her
brother, Sang-jiang-jung Isabelle Fisk reached out to her about
the “unfortunate situation” that the Magestrix had brought
to the Chancellor’s attention regarding the “Confederation
treatment of its citizens on Joppa.” Fisk agreed to order the
Home Guard back for “appropriate disciplinary action,” and
requested the Magistracy keep the First Canopian Light
Horse on planet to maintain the peace until a more suitable
Capellan unit could arrive to relieve them. The Magestrix was
immediately suspicious, believing that relief would never
arrive and that the Confederation seemed content to have
one of their allies’ elite units garrisoning a world surrounded
by other Capellan forces, instead of being available to be
posted closer to her husband’s realm. Fisk did request that
the Magistracy send a liaison to work directly with her on
stabilizing their mutual border, as the recent issues on worlds
such as Sadurni and Scarborough were providing distractions
from their stated goals within the Republic, forcing them to
divert forces that were desperately needed on the coreword
end of the Confederation.
For Ilsa Centrella-Liao, the message from one of her
brother’s subordinates in response to her personal entreaty
to him was a personal insult and confirmed her growing
concerns about the deterioration of her relationship with her
brother. Immediately following the receipt of the message, a
flurry of meetings followed in the Palace at the Magestrix’s
command, and preparations were made for her to travel
to see her brother at once, apparently intending to drop
off her liaison in person. DropShips would lift off from the
planet on 19 September, carrying the Magestrix, the Second
Andurien Rangers as her bodyguard unit, and two battalions
of Raventhir’s Iron Hand, ostensibly for training duty in
the Duchy.
Parliamentary Pressure 45
 EMPIRE ALONE
A CHALLENGE TO
THE NATURAL ORDER
As the Duchy of Andurien continued to build up
its military forces through the end of the year, causing
concern among their neighbors, things continued to heat
up between the Magistracy of Canopus and the Capellan
Confederation. With growing tensions in both realms and
the slow communication between even neighboring nations
causing unhelpful delays, it seemed there was growing cause
for concern. In both realms, there was a hope that a meeting
between the two leaders would help to diffuse tensions,
with both nations setting up a command circuit to hopefully
facilitate a meeting that would benefit both realms.
The latter portions of 3151 also saw tensions cool
somewhat between the Free Worlds League and its neighbors.
However, the lulls in action between these nations was not
peace but rather a time of preparation that hinted toward
future conflict, and it would be only a matter of time before
the quiet bugbear that was the ilClan’s nation chose to
strike back.
By the final stretch of 3151, Star Colonel Othar still had
received no official word from Terra aside from an impersonal
announcement declaring Clan Wolf as ilClan and the Wolf
Empire worlds as the ilClan’s territory. The ilKhan had issued
him no new orders or given him any direction regarding the
Empire’s prestigious and monumental change in status.
The message—or lack thereof—from Terra was clear: the
ilKhan cared about nothing beyond humanity’s cradle, at least
for the moment. Though the Wolf Empire worlds were still
part of Clan Wolf, they were the unkempt backyard compared
to the palatial estate that was Terra.
Faced with continued silence, Othar chose to maintain
his current course and operate with integrity until dictated
otherwise. If Terra were to remain steadfastly silent, he
resolved to use his own best judgment, and he would
ultimately either receive praise from the ilKhan for his actions
or petition the ilKhan for mercy, were he to fail.
A DEFENSIVE STRATEGY
Now that the Wolf Empire had two new Galaxies
operational, Star Colonel Othar possessed a much greater
degree of tactical flexibility. However, given the limited scope
of his authority, he opted to concentrate more on a defensive
strategy, which relied on an unusual deployment doctrine.
Pre-blackout, a Galaxy’s Clusters would be stationed on
worlds in close proximity, which would permit the Clusters to
46 A Defensive Strategy
unite and redeploy together as a Galaxy if necessary. Instead,
Othar paired each Cluster from Lupus Galaxy with a Cluster
from Rufus Galaxy.
Rufus Galaxy acted in a garrison role, while Lupus
Galaxy served as first-responders to any crises that troubled
Rufus Galaxy—at least, as best as they could considering
communication and transportation lag. The five Clusters
of Rufus Galaxy, which consisted of a preponderance of
combat vehicles, aerospace fighters, and both armored and
conventional infantry, were each assigned to worlds Othar
deemed vital to the success and future of the Wolf Empire.
Each of Lupus Galaxy’s five Clusters was stationed on a world
within one or two jumps of their Rufus Galaxy counterpart.
Thus Rufus Galaxy Clusters were the honeypots, and Lupus
Galaxy Clusters served as the flyswatters. The mission of each
Rufus Cluster was to pin the enemy in place long enough
for their Lupus companion to arrive and smash the enemy
into withdrawing. Although the companion Clusters had
little time to train together on this strategy before deploying,
Othar remained confident that the synergy between the two
Galaxies’ Clusters would bear fruit.
TARNISHED SILVER
One threat the Empire’s new Cluster deployment could
not readily solve, however, was open revolution. The planet
Sterling had become an independent world following the
dissolution of the Free Worlds League in 3079, and it had
maintained that independence until the Wolf Empire claimed
it in 3141. This spirit of self-governance never left the people,
and they bided their time, waiting for the right moment to
reassert their own authority against their Clan occupiers.
When news of the Wolves claiming the ilClanship reached
Sterling’s natives, the simmering plans for rebellion cooled, as
the resistance leaders on the planet worried that an ilClan with
the might and support of Terra and the other Clans would visit
a harsher punishment on a failed rebellion attempt than Clan
Wolf alone would. The pilot light of independence remained
burning, however, merely out of sight.
By November 3151, the planet’s meager Clan Wolf
constabulary had still received no direct communications
from Terra or the ilKhan. This led many to wonder whether the
ilClan even possessed sufficient military strength to stop or
even punish a revolution. The menacing shadow cast by the
ilClan threat had proven toothless, and Sterling’s resistance
 A CHALLENGE TO THE NATURAL ORDER
leaders concluded that, should the ilClan ever come to call, it
would be too late to stop the revolution.
The Sterling rebels’ first action on 7 November was to
activate all sympathetic trainees at the Hero Training Institute
and disrupt all training activities there. Though the HTI was
a poor program of study compared to a decade of Clan
sibko training, the Wolves had allowed the training facility to
continue. On the seventh, the suborned HTI trainees barred
the campus gates, killed all Wolf-affiliated instructors, and put
the campus to the torch.
While the HTI’s main facility burned, the trainees and
other resistance groups on the planet stormed the capital of
Pristine. Scattered firefights with the capital’s constabulary—
most of which were Sterling natives coerced into service—
ended with the city defenders either laying down their arms
or joining up with the insurgents. With forty-eight hours, the
resistance movement had gutted the Wolf-installed planetary
government, and Sterling became an independent world
once more.
Star Colonel Othar’s response to the Sterling revolt
was to let the populace’s independence stand for the time
being. Deploying a front-line Lupus Galaxy Cluster against a
scattering of rebels was a criminal waste of resources, and he
also needed the Rufus Galaxy Clusters to remain in place, to
protect systems of far greater strategic and logistical purpose.
A RARE ACQUISITION
Although Nikol Marik had retroactively approved the
Gryphons’ adventurism, she later received word that two
regiments from the Covenant Worlds were also conducting
unauthorized strikes into the Wolf Empire. Speculation ran
rampant as to whether she would grandfather the Covenant
Guards’ campaign into Resolution 119A or condemn the
attacks and punish the Covenant Worlds leadership for
supporting actions that could jeopardize national security.
Nikol acknowledged that actual sanctioned action
against the Wolf Empire might be warranted,
but such actions would require
planning and cooperation.
The first indications of the needle moving in the opposite
direction of détente came in October, when eyewitness
reports on Marik alleged that the First Free Worlds Guards
had a number of Ares superheavy ’Mechs in their possession,
enough to fill out a company. Questions immediately rose
regarding their provenance. These three-legged superheavies
were already rare machines before the Battle of Terra and
became rarer still following Clan Wolf’s conquest of the Ares’
Devil’s Rock factory. According to claims, half of the First’s Ares
company consisted of original-model Areses, presumed to be
battlefield salvage, and the balance were newly manufactured
BattleMechs, further calling into question where these ’Mechs
had originated from. Regardless of their origin, this company
of superheavies signified a marked change in the border
strategy, as Areses excelled in offensive pushes due to their
sheer mass and their potential to demoralize the enemy. Thus,
the FWLM’s premier regiment embracing more offensive
tactics was seen as a bellwether pointing toward a future
push into the Wolf Empire.
Throughout October and November, the First extensively
drilled with this company on Marik, often employing tandem
training exercises with the Purifier Cluster. Many saw these
exercises as training for the First’s eventual heavy assault into
Wolf Empire space, a notion that left many Clan Protectorate
warriors uneasy. Several Spirit Cats openly voiced this
discomfort, claiming that these exercises were not standard
military exercises but instead were “practice” for a future
attempt to forcibly eject all Clan Protectorate forces
from Marik.
A Rare Acquisition 47
 EMPIRE ALONE
RACING THE STORM
An unexpected opportunity for a nontraditional kind
of conquest arose for the Free Worlds League in November,
on a stretch of the Empire’s border closer to Atreus. On
Mundrabilla, crisis arrived in the form of a widespread
revolt against the planetary leadership. The planet’s civilian
castes, which consisted primarily of Mundrabillian natives,
petitioned the garrison’s warrior caste leaders to procure
food, supplies, parts, and other necessities that had not been
replenished in the time since most of Clan Wolf’s warriors
had abandoned the anti-spinward portion of the Wolf
Empire. The most important shortfalls were replacement
parts for the massive drainage pumps that kept the planet’s
capital, Meteor Falls, from catastrophic flooding during
monsoon season. The warrior caste refused to seek new
resources, claiming that the pumps were less important
than the garrison: as long as the warriors were fed, the Clan
would prevail. Seeing a well-fed and oversupplied garrison
force unconcerned about the possible destruction of a major
city, the civilian castes took up arms supplied by some of the
Free Guilds on the planet.
Though poorly equipped and lacking effective training,
the civilians greatly outnumbered the garrison’s few sibko
warriors. The warriors’ ’Mechs and armor wreaked tragedy
on the civilian rebellion at the outset, but a matter of days
after the initial outbreak of violence, the garrison’s ’Mechs and
tanks started suffering equipment failures. These incidents
were the result of sabotage or a lack of maintenance, both due
to the planet’s small contingent of technician caste members
refusing to work until the warrior caste caved to the civilian
castes’ demands. The garrison was left in a lose-lose situation.
It lacked the resources and manpower to comply with the
civilians’ terms, but without the civilians’ cooperation, the
whole garrison would cease to function, leaving the planet
wide open to the threats of flooding, piracy, or conquest by
the Free Worlds League. The warriors responded by issuing
an ultimatum, which led to the deliberate destruction of one
of Meteor Falls’ pumps, which would ensure the flooding and
destruction of the lowest portions of the city since monsoon
season would begin before the end of the year. The ensuing
riots culminated in thousands of armed civilians storming
the garrison’s base, which was located high above the flood
plain, and dragging the intractable warriors from their beds
to deliver judgment on them.
When the civilian leaders reached out for help during this
crisis, they sent out courier messages to anyone in the Free
Worlds League who might be able to acquire the supplies
they needed and offer them protection from possible Wolf
Empire reprisals. On 22 December, the League-contracted
mercenary regiment Griffin’s Pride arrived with enough
supplies and equipment to maintain all of the capital’s pumps
and begin reconstruction of the destroyed pump. They also
48 Racing the Storm
assisted in the evacuation of the rapidly flooding portions of
the city; this heroic action ultimately saved thousands of lives
and earned the civilians’ trust.
RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION
Further hints of insubordination against Clan Wolf’s rule
appeared in scattered pockets around the Wolf Empire as it
became clear that, without the Wolf warriors who remained
on Terra, the Empire lacked sufficient warriors to crack down
on these sentiments. Star Colonel Othar strived to suppress
any news of rebellions and successful enemy forays into the
Empire, in order to project the facade that the ilClan—and
by extension its Empire—was strong and infallible, but the
information managed to become public nevertheless. The
Silver Hawk Irregulars conquering Stewart, Amity, Helm, and
Concord proved a big wake-up call to many Wolf worlds in
the regions.
One of the hotbeds of anti-Wolf attitude was the former
Silver Hawks Coalition worlds, particularly Kalidasa, Danais,
and Shiloh. Clan Wolf’s local paramilitary constabulary
teams managed to crack down on demonstrations and riots
on Kalidasa and Danais with minimal effort and loss of life.
However, Shiloh proved a different challenge altogether.
The native Shiloans, many of them members of the
insular, technology-averse religious sect known as the
Exituri, had adapted well to Republic of the Sphere rule.
The Republic-established government had left the Exituri to
themselves and only intervened when necessary. Clan Wolf,
however, offered the religious sect no special considerations
upon conquering the planet in 3141: Exituri and non-Exituri
alike were pressed into the Clans’ rigid caste structure. This
resulted in many Exituri being coerced into roles that violated
the core tenets of their religious beliefs. The people of Shiloh
rebelled against Wolf rule as much as they could get away
with, such as sabotaging garrison materiel and triggering
equipment failures in the planet’s mining complexes, which
caused costly work stoppages. The Wolves responded to these
acts of rebellion by curtailing water rations across the water-
poor planet, which resulted in the populace falling in line.
Even the Exituri held their tongues, for they believed divine
judgment would one day absolve them of the sins forced on
them and punish their enemies for their unjust actions.
News regarding the fall of Amity and Concord provided
the spark the Shiloans had been waiting for. On 25 November,
riots across the planet overwhelmed the Clan paramilitary
forces, and the people of Shiloh exploited the chaos to liberate
the primary water sources—desalinization plants on the
shores of the exceptionally deep saltwater oceans—from Wolf
hands. Boycotts and strikes saw the planet’s economy freeze
to a standstill nearly overnight. The Wolves dealt harshly with
any riot leaders they could get their hands on. When Wolf
paramilitary troopers killed the daadi, the respected leader
 EMPIRE ALONE

of the largest Exituri sect, during a botched arrest attempt at
a riot, the rioters targeted and killed any Wolves they could
find, and the Wolves retaliated in kind.
Tensions ran hot on both sides, and by the time the
Wolves regained some semblance of control over the
situation, many lay dead on both sides. Rather than risk
further violence and economic disruption that could infect
neighboring systems, the Wolves offered all Exituri sectarians
exemption from the caste system and permitted them to
return to their isolated way of life. The sole concession the
Wolves demanded was to allow a small contingent of Wolf
paramilitaries to monitor the sects for future signs of seditious
behavior. The sect leaders bristled, but ultimately agreed that
it was a worthwhile tradeoff.
EXPANSION ATTEMPTS
Before official orders from Atreus could reach the front
lines of the Covenant Worlds and the reclaimed pockets
of Silver Hawk systems, the Silver Hawk Irregulars and
troops stationed in the Covenant Worlds capitalized on the
momentum of recent gains and ventured deeper into the
ilClan’s flank in October.

GHOST SIGHTINGS

Wolf Watch Report #WE87D49A9

Filed: 2 October 3151

Overview
We have received another reported sighting of a suspected Wolf’s Dragoons craft in the Keystone system. At 0712
hours local time, the Merchant-class JumpShip Raised Hackles, carrying one unidentified Union-class DropShip,
arrived at the nadir jump point. The vessel did not deploy its solar sail or request a jump-drive charge from the
recharge station. At 0725 hours, the DropShip decoupled, performed a close orbit around the Merchant vessel,
then recoupled at a different docking collar. At 0949 hours local, the Raised Hackles and its payload jumped out of
the system.

Analysis
Though the Raised Hackles’ transponder codes did not explicitly mark the craft as a Wolf’s Dragoons ship, signal
intelligence does match a Merchant-class vessel that carried Wolf’s Dragoons troops from the Draconis Combine
world of Parma to Terra. Aerospace security forces performing observatory flybys noted no Wolf’s Dragoons indicia
on either the Raised Hackles or its attached DropShip. Initial suppositions for the DropShip’s unusual behavior
suggested that the DropShip was looking for or assessing damage to the Merchant’s hull or the docking collar the
DropShip vacated; however, our observation flybys noted no damage to suspected regions. Hypotheses for the
DropShip’s unusual behavior are still being formulated. One fact remains clear: the Raised Hackles is equipped with
a lithium-fusion battery system, which allowed it to jump out of the system without recharging its jump drive. This
equipment is impossible on a Merchant-class vessel, further increasing suspicions about this incident.
These clues, along with the Wolf’s Dragoons raids on New Olympia and Campbelton in July and August, respectively,
strongly point to continued Dragoons activity within our borders. At this time, we suspect that the reported incident
was a reconnaissance attempt in advance of a future raid.

Recommendation
Due to the aforementioned raids, we have remained vigilant for any possible signs of Wolf’s Dragoons activity in this
region of the Empire. At this juncture, Keystone is particularly vulnerable to a future Wolf’s Dragoons raid-in-force,
as the current reality of our touman’s limited resources gives us less opportunity to respond with sufficient force to
repel any raiding force. Although the request is likely to be denied, a request should be sent to Star Colonel Kumar
to rotate the Ninety-Second Wolf Guards Cluster to Keystone ASAP.
If resources can be spared, a further effort should be made to locate and strike the Dragoons’ current base of
operations, to curtail these raids. Proactively assaulting the Dragoons would allow us to not only end this war of
attrition against us, but it will also afford us the chance to try eliminating these traitors to the Clan Way.

50 Expansion Attempts
 A CHALLENGE TO THE NATURAL ORDER
On the Covenant Worlds’ front, the Steel Guard moved on
Castor, intending to take that world as an additional buffer
system before Clan Wolf could reinforce it. The Steel Guard was
glad for the assignment, despite its unauthorized nature, as
the regiment had not seen any major action in several years,
and Colonel Dorothy Rivera and her troops were grateful for a
chance to defend the Free Worlds League. In addition, striking
Castor would put her regiment, the last surviving unit of the
original Protectorate Guard brigade, one step closer to worlds
that had once formed the Border Protectorate, which had been
lost to the Word of Blake Protectorate in 3070. The fighting on
Castor occurred around the city of Alfagemini, where a small
constabulary force composed largely of mechanized infantry and
armor was forced to retreat into the city when the Steel Guard cut
off all other escape routes. Colonel Rivera’s troops pursued, and
the police continued to fight until a building was accidentally
leveled, prompting the defenders to surrender. The building was
found to be a Clan Wolf crèche that had housed several dozen
Clan Wolf Trueborn children. Fortunately, a half dozen of the
children had survived the building’s collapse, and Rivera took
them all into custody, to use as future leverage against any Clan
Wolf forces that sought to take Castor from the Steel Guard.
For the assault on Dubhe, General Tillens sent Second
Battalion of the First Covenant Guards. Their populace was
unable to plan for any meaningful defense despite the Second
Battalion’s twenty-two-day transit time. Instead of defending
the planetary capital of Greenwich, the local constabulary
concentrated its numbers in defending the industrial mining
centers on the planet. During the battle, the police were joined
by IndustrialMechs piloted by laborer caste operators. The
sheer weight of these unexpected combatants cost the First
nearly a company of BattleMechs, but the Covenant Guards
ultimately prevailed. The rancor with which the laborers fought
surprised the First, as the laborer caste on this planet was largely
drawn from Dubhe natives absorbed into Clan Wolf rather
than transplanted native-Wolf laborers. When questioning the
survivors, the First learned that the Wolves had threatened to
punish the families of the native militia and laborers, should
the mining output of the planet be compromised in the warrior
caste’s absence. With the opposition defeated, the First secured
Dubhe’s mines before occupying Greenwich nearly unopposed.
On the anti-spinward front, Colonel Cameron-Witherspoon
utilized intel reports from neighboring systems to make a play
for the next two targets of his Gryphons’ campaign. After a short
period of refit and repair on Amity and Concord, both of the
Gryphons’ battalions were flush with new recruits, equipment,
and supplies from the liberated former-Silver Hawk worlds.
The operation on Bondurant began as a mere
reconnaissance mission. A single Gryphons company was
dispatched to survey the planet’s defenses, since reports
from incoming JumpShips proved inconclusive. The scouts
landed on 13 October to quickly discover that Bondurant
THE MIDDLE OF
NOWHERE
To: Star Colonel Othar, Den Keshik, Gienah
From: Star Commander Raya, First Wolf
Constabulary, Smolnik
Date: 7 November 3151
Subject: Additional Forces Requested
Esteemed and Honorable Star Colonel,
Given the silence from Terra, I first wish to commend
your adroitness and resilience in holding the Wolf Empire
together during the extended absence of our illustrious
ilKhan. Without your guidance and leadership, I firmly
believe that the Empire would have long fallen victim to
those who wish to see us destroyed. Not all of us were
deemed worthy of fighting on Blessed Terra, and we have
all made the most of what opportunities were given to us.
That said, I must make the most of my own oppor-
tunity and requisition the deployment of additional
forces to protect Smolnik against Lyran attacks. I fear
I already know the answer to this query, but I would be
derelict in my duties if I did not ask it and then allowed
this planet to be overrun. In the past six months we
have been targeted by two intelligence-gathering raids,
one by a company of the Eleventh Lyran Guards and
another by a band of lucrewarriors we have identified
as Gannon’s Cannons.
It is clear the Lyrans will seek to take advantage of
our situation. The warriors of the First Wolf Constabulary
are fierce and will go to war against line troops if
necessary; myself and my fellow testdowns have not
forgotten our days training to fight on true battlefields,
and we will fight as needed. However, we cannot stand
up to tanks and BattleMechs alone. And since we are
isolated here, more than two jumps away from the
nearest Wolf Empire systems, help will be a long time in
coming, if it will come at all.
I can put out a call for more advanced sibko recruits,
and I have the capacity to ensure they are trained in
infantry and armor tactics; however, I lack the ability
to equip them. If you cannot send more warriors or
equipment, then I will withdraw from the war chest and
negotiate with Sea Fox merchants to secure sufficient
equipment to remind the Lyrans that we are still
indeed Clan.
In the ilKhan’s name,
Star Commander Raya
Expansion Attempts 51
 EMPIRE ALONE
was completely undefended even though it lay only two
jumps from Gienah, the Wolf Empire’s original capital. The
Gryphons secured the system with little trouble, and the
inhabitants threw the Gryphons an official parade in honor
of the Silver Hawk Irregulars’ return.
A week later, a similar operation occurred on Danais,
where a First Battalion company was sent to get the lay of
the land and secure a beachhead to pave the way for the
balance of a battalion to arrive in two weeks’ time. The
Gryphons’ central mission on Danais involved securing
several major repair-and-refit centers, which would greatly
aid both the Silver Hawk Irregulars and their mercenary
allies. The Gryphons’ advance force marched on the city of
Aeschylus, which boasted the largest concentration of refit
centers. Unfortunately Aeschylus was already in control of
Beta Strike Cluster, which had used the facilities to recover
from its losses incurred on Stewart. The Clan Protectorate
Cluster, eager to give the invaders comeuppance for Beta’s
earlier defeat at their hands, tore into the Gryphons without
mercy. Initial losses among the Irregulars were high, but
the survivors withdrew and used their knowledge of the
system to avoid complete annihilation long enough to go
to ground and await reinforcements. The remainder of the
battalion made planetfall on 4 November, right on schedule.
Beta Strike Cluster weathered the new arrivals’ combat drops,
which landed in the middle of Aeschylus, but the introduction
of the original company’s survivors to the battle, in addition
to Danaisian natives recruited to the cause, led to the death
of Beta’s commander in combat. The Clan Protectorate force
withdrew, but in so doing, they targeted two refit depots with
aerospace sorties and destroyed the sites out of spite.
After securing Danais, Colonel Cameron-Witherspoon
took full advantage of the system’s repair and refit installations
to recover as many of his equipment losses as possible. Then
he finalized the timetable for a campaign on the next former
Silver Hawk system: Kalidasa,
Meanwhile, the Covenant Worlds’ coreward expansion
efforts continued into November. After leaving their recent
conquests in the hands of Covenant-backed mercenary
garrisons, the two Covenant Guards regiments moved on
their assigned targets. Elements of the Second Covenant
Guards landed on Chertan, whose economy also leaned
on industrial mining. However, unlike on Dubhe, the planet
lacked appreciable defenses, and the laborer caste workers
in the mines greeted the arriving troops with open arms.
However, native Clan Wolf leaders within the caste disrupted
the easy change of ownership by conducting sabotage
operations wherever possible. Many of these acts of sabotage
targeted the Covenant officers’ ’Mechs and vehicles, which
saw several junior officers hospitalized or killed due to “mine
accidents,” equipment failure, and in one case a bomb hidden
inside a ’Mech cockpit.
52 A Change in Plans
On Alhena, elements of the First Covenant Guards
landed to find an undefended world on the brink of tragedy.
The population of this desolate world relied on outside
shipments of food, water, and supplies to survive, but Alaric
appropriating and rerouting a considerable portion of the
Wolf Empire’s JumpShip fleet to ferry the Clan’s martial
assets to Terra had left Alhena to fend for itself. The lack of
incoming supplies due to drastically reduced JumpShip
traffic within the Empire had seen many Alhenians starve
despite the planetary leaders instituting severe rationing
measures. The First Covenant Guards had come expecting a
fight, but instead they faced millions of starving, listless, and
desperate people who had been abandoned by the Wolves
in the name of reaching Terra at any cost. Although it did little
to affect the overall situation on the planet, the First offered
some of their own supplies to the people of Focci’s Point and
immediately sent their JumpShip to relay the news of Alhena’s
situation and solicit merchants to bring necessary supplies
to the planet.
The remaining elements of the Second Covenant Guards
jumped to Rochelle in mid-November to find another world
abandoned by Clan Wolf. The mining concerns on the planet
had continued to stockpile ore during the warrior caste’s
absence, but none of it was being shipped off-planet. Since
the majority of the population consisted of natives rather
than transplanted civilian caste members, the Second faced
no opposition apart from a police detail assigned to defend
the stockpiles of mining output. Even that resistance ended
quickly as the Second greatly outnumbered the opposition.
The liberation of Alhena, Chertan, and Rochelle cost the
Covenant Worlds very little in terms of personnel and materiel
losses, but the true benefit of this leg of the campaign was
the position these regained worlds put the province in. Not
only had the Covenant Worlds gained a comfortable buffer
against what many saw as an inevitable counterattack by the
ilClan, but it had also paved the way to the Covenant Guards’
ultimate goal: Kalidasa.
In December, further expansions in the region resulted
from mercenary companies sent to assess potential Wolf
threats from systems neighboring Stewart. The intelligence-
gathering raids on Adhafera and Tania Borealis both reported
no Clan Wolf warriors on planet, so the raiding forces were
contracted for garrison duties until more permanent garrisons
could be put into place.
A CHANGE IN PLANS
En route to Liao, Magestrix Centrella-Liao-Humphreys
surprised everyone by disengaging her DropShips while
waiting for her JumpShips to recharge in Sadurni, choosing
not to continue directly to the Capellan Confederation.
Claiming a need to act for her brother to put down the recent
uprising on the planet, she sent the JumpShip Marianas
 A CHALLENGE TO THE NATURAL ORDER
onward with the chosen liaison, General Yara St. Lorraine, to
meet with Sang-jiang-jun Fisk, but the Magestrix chose to stay
behind to personally oversee the operation.
While surprised by her arrival, the Confederation garrison
welcomed her help, and the Magestrix’s force landed in the
capital city of Southerton. To the surprise of the people of
Sadurni, she used the Second Andurien Guards, rather than
her Iron Hands, to secure the city, a move which proved
extremely popular. While the Capellan Confederation’s
ownership of the planet continued to be a sticking point with
the people of Sadurni, the presence of the wife of the Duke
of Andurien, as well as Andurien troops, gave them hope that
the situation would soon be rectified.
To top off the highly unorthodox stopover, the Magestrix
made a public appearance in Southerton on 10 November
and spoke to the public at large. While the Magestrix declared
the uprising over and confirmed the current Confederation
ownership of the planet, she surprised everyone yet again by
going so far as to tout the “legitimate and historic” Andurien
interests in the planet, a point that she promised to bring up
to her husband and brother as soon as she saw them.
In the meantime, however, to ensure that the planet
remained at peace, the Magestrix left two battalions of the
Second Andurien Guards on the planet, to help keep the
peace until additional Magistracy or Confederation units
could be spared to protect the planet.
While the Magestrix’s solution seemed to solve the
immediate problem, political pundits rushed to comment
on her unique solution, which not only put Andurien troops
on a world that sought Andurien ownership, but also seemed
to be a direct challenge to her brother.
FAMILY REUNIONS
With the uprising on Sadurni put down, the Magestrix
resumed her journey to Liao, where her brother had taken
up residence to monitor developments on the Republic front.
She continued the pattern of disembarking her DropShips
and commandeering charged JumpShips when available
and was finally received on Liao on 30 December 3151 with
the public fanfare appropriate for a member of her family
returning to their ancestral homeworld—though a few locals
commented quietly that the reception events ended more
quickly than those held for other visiting nobles and noted
that Magestrix Ilsa was escorted to a private audience with
her brother immediately after the public celebration.
Together in the same room for the first time in several
months, the tension between brother and sister was palpable.
On top of their fraught personal relationship, the two each
commanded powerful interstellar nations and had affairs of
state to bring before the other. In their private meeting, that
tension boiled over.
The Magestrix questioned the actions of Daoshen’s
people on Joppa, as well as his use of MAF troops to protect
some of his most valuable worlds while the CCAF pushed
forward to capture undefended former Republic worlds.
Daoshen dismissed these issues, reminding his sister that
the Celestial Wisdom’s first duty is always to the state. To that
end, the reclaiming of traditionally Capellan worlds stolen
from the Confederation and the extension of protection to
their neighboring systems—whether previously Capellan or
not—would ensure they did not fall victim to the predations
of the new “ilClan.”
Daoshen said that he might be able to look past the
Magestrix’s undermining of the Confederation’s stewardship
of Sadurni, but Ilsa’s plotting with Duke Humphreys without
first consulting with the Chancellor was unacceptable.
Daoshen cast aside his sister’s claims of aiming to strengthen
both of their nations, jealously reminding her that it had been
his machinations that had first brought about the alliance,
and that her attempts to gain power over him were clumsy
and near traitorous. To Daoshen, the military buildup of
Andurien at Ilsa’s behest was a clear threat, and her actions
on Sadurni were an attempt to escape his influence.
In the direct presence of her brother the Chancellor, Ilsa
attempted to appease his anger. The “aging duke,” Ilsa said,
might soon meet his end. His death would throw Andurien’s
line of succession into disarray and make her a claimant to the
throne. The duchy would hotly contest her claim, but the joint
might of the MAF and the CCAF would make the outcome a
foregone conclusion. The two realms could divide the duchy
between them, solidifying their borders and profiting greatly.
Until then, she could use Andurien’s enlarged military to claim
more underdefended Free Worlds planets.
The Chancellor fell silent for a long moment before
delivering his answer: “You have forgotten where your
obligation lies.” The Magestrix’s focus on growing their
realms had blinded her to her first duty as a Liao, he said.
The threat to the Confederation lay at the core of the
Inner Sphere, on Terra, and it was the responsibility of
the Celestial Wisdom to meet the threat of the ilClan by
reclaiming Confederation worlds and preparing to take
humanity’s homeworld from the Wolves. All other concerns
were secondary, Daoshen said, his gaze falling upon Ilsa—
especially hers.
What then of their sister, Ilsa challenged. Danai’s
appointment as Duchess of Castrovia—the title traditionally
given to the heir to the Chancellorship—was a clear sign that
Daoshen intended her to rule the Confederation one day. As
Ilsa had also named Danai as her own heir, did Daoshen not
want their younger sister to inherit two ascendant nations?
“Danai will serve the Confederation, as she always has,”
Daoshen sneered in response. “The Magistracy’s succession
issues are its own. And yours.”
Enraged and humiliated by her brother’s spiteful rebukes,
and certain that his obsession with Terra had brought her
influence over him to an end, Ilsa Centrella-Liao stormed from
Family Reunions 53
 EMPIRE ALONE
A GLORIFIED
BATTALION
Were I to ever get a face-to-face
audience with our duke, the first question
I’d ask him would be “Where are the troops,
Fontaine?”
Here on Tamarind, we’ve got less than
a full regiment of defenders, with the rest
having gone off to do god-knows-what
along the Lyran Commonwealth border, and
the rest of our troops are off elsewhere in
the duchy, having fun putting their boots on
Marian necks instead of doing what’s truly
important.
And don’t get me started on these “new
troops” we’ve been “recruiting.” The newest
unit in the Tamarind Regulars brigade, the
Ninth, though a regiment on paper, is little
more than a glorified battalion, and the only
BattleMechs it sports are charity cases piloted
by IndustrialMech drivers with delusions of
grandeur. There’s also been talk of other
so-called regiments being raised, but who’s
joining them, and how in god’s name are we
going to equip them?
We need to stop fiddling around with
the Marians so Parliament can give us
funding to buy actual ’Mechs, not whatever
hand-me-downs we’ve convinced Regulus to
give us, not whatever theoretical new ’Mechs
that Ceres Metals promised to build at the
factory they recently broke ground for on
Loongana. (How many years will it take to get
that operation up and running, I wonder?)
We need to move some troops here, so we’re
not caught with our knickers down when the
Wolf Empire tries to take a bite out of us. We
need to reinforce this whole border.
And if we can’t recruit, equip, and
train actual troops, then for the love of
Santa María, we need to start hiring more
mercenaries. Fontaine, if you ever read this,
I’ve got a whole host of old friends that need
work, and I’d be happy to vouch for them if
you want to loosen your purse strings.
Signed,
A Retired MechWarrior
—Anonymous letter to the editor,
Tamarind Daily, 15 December 3151
54 Vigilance Along the Border
Chang-An and Liao itself. Hours after her arrival on planet, she stunned
locals when the Magistracy’s DropShips departed for their JumpShips
and set course back to Canopian space.
VIGILANCE
ALONG THE BORDER
After the Lyran Commonwealth’s successful assault on Bolan, the
military of Tamarind-Abbey braced for deeper strikes into the duchy.
Fontaine Marik, still reveling in his success against the Marian Hegemony,
had routed some of his returning forces toward the Commonwealth
border to plan for either a counterattack or to stem the Lyran flood, but
knowing these troops would take too long to reach effective positions in
time, he sent the newly raised Ninth Tamarind Regulars and a battalion of
the Fourth Tamarind Regulars toward the border to assist the Eighth Free
Worlds Guards in holding the line. Some of Fontaine’s advisors cautioned
him against having only two battalions of line troops on Tamarind in
the event of a possible Wolf Empire attack but brushed those concerns
aside. Not only had intel shown a lack of movement within the Empire,
Fontaine assured his detractors that he had hedged insurance against
such a possibility.
News of Christopher Marik accompanying the Ninth Tamarind
Regulars as Fontaine’s official military liaison reached the troops that had
been defeated on Bolan, and ultimately the Captain-General’s brother
arriving on Zdice on 21 October created a beneficial spike in morale for
the border’s defenses. The Ninth, eager to prove themselves in combat,
rallied behind Christopher and geared up to strike back at Bolan. However,
Christopher’s orders from Tamarind did not involve immediate invasion.
Their primary goal was the defense of the realm. Fontaine still harbored
memories of House Steiner troops occupying his duchy’s capital between
3138 and 3142, and he had no desire for that aspect of history to repeat
itself. Due to those fears, he had braced for a renewed flood of Lyran troops
plowing a deep furrow into the Free Worlds League.
Raids conducted by the Ninth across November and December did
ease some of Fontaine’s fears. Reconnaissance raids, each involving a
company of the Ninth, probed Bolan, Finsterwalde, and Loburg to see how
the border’s status had changed since the Eighth Guards’ defeat on Bolan.
The Bolan raid learned that the Eighth Lyran Regulars had withdrawn
from the planet and the First Bolan Jaegers had rotated in to assume
garrison duties on their brigade’s homeworld. There was no evidence
of the First ramping up for offensive operations in the near future, and
certain measures, such as restoring and establishing fortifications and
bringing in more water reserves for the planet’s populace, suggested
that the First intended to remain in place. The Finsterwalde raid found
a similar situation, as the Eighth Regulars were still licking their wounds
from the Bolan conquest while undergoing a period of rest and refit.
Only the Loburg raid showed any possible evidence of Lyran aggression,
as the Second Bolan Guards garrisoning the planet seemed capable of
deployment at any time.
As 3151 came to a close, none of the Lyran border regiments made
hostile movements. Though the border remained calm, Fontaine Marik
continued his recruiting efforts and rotated some additional troops
coreward, while ensuring a sufficient garrison kept watch on the
Marian border.
 A CHALLENGE TO THE NATURAL ORDER
HIC SUNT DRAGOONS
Leda Mendoza, Host: Here with us today is self-
proclaimed Wolf’s Dragoons expert, Dr. Ardam
de Campos, author of the new book, Hic Sunt
Dragoons: The Secret History of Wolf’s Dragoons.
Dr. Ardam de Campos: Thanks for having me.
Mendoza: Dr. de Campos, your book talks a lot about
the past 150 years of Dragoons’ history, from
inception to modern day, and I’m sure we’ll talk a
little about that here in a minute. But the question
everyone is dying to know is, what are Wolf’s
Dragoons doing right at this exact moment?
De Campos: Starting with the easy questions, I see?
[laughs] Well, the short answer is, no one really
knows, but there’s a lot of good, educated guesses.
There are a few things we definitively know. First
off, the Dragoons were working for the Draconis
Combine until late 3150, when the majority of
them up and vanished from the Dragon’s Tongue
worlds. We know there was a training accident
on Parma shortly before their departure, but the
reports of that are vague. We also know that every
available Dragoon in the Tongue went to Terra to
fight alongside Clan Wolf. And that fight cost them
dearly. So where have they been since?
You’d think that would be simple to answer,
but it’s not. Now, bear in mind that I’ve been
following the Dragoons’ career for decades. I’ve
got countless Dragoons artifacts, some of them
dating all the way back to the Third Succession
War. And I pay good money for verifiable
information on what they’re doing, where they’ve
been, where they’re going next, who they’ll be
fighting. But everything between Parma and
Terra and where the Dragoons recently resurfaced
near Tamarind—well, it’s just a black hole, no
matter how much money I’ve flashed around. The
Dragoons have been trying to stay out of sight,
and it looks like they’ve done a damn good job of
it so far.
Mendoza: So you think they’ve just been licking their
wounds from Terra?
De Campos: Oh, goodness no. The Dragoons can’t
simply sit and do nothing. Sitting and doing
nothing is a big part of why they ditched the
Combine’s employ. No, I think the Dragoons have
been behind the raids on the Wolf Empire.
There’s been rumors the past seven or
eight months about someone hitting Empire
worlds, but that’s all they are—rumors. Getting
information—real, verifiable information—out
of the Wolf Empire since the news of the ilClan
broke has been like trying to win the Manassas
Run with just a metal detector and an old pickup
truck, if you know what I mean. It’s like the
Empire is trying to hide something, and that tells
me there’s some truth to the rumor. If I was the
ilClan, and the Dragoons, my new enemies, were
digging under my backyard fence and tearing up
my vegetable garden, I wouldn’t be going out on
my porch to crow about it to the neighbors. The
ilClan has to maintain a position of strength, and
if the Dragoons have got them over a barrel, that’d
be mighty embarrassing, wouldn’t it? So of course
they’d be going out of their way to quash any
news that puts its vaunted status into question.
—Mendoza’s Minutes segment,
airdate 6 December 3151
Hic Sunt Dragoons 55
 EMPIRE ALONE
A PRIVATE
CONTRACT
In November, a surprising development regarding
mercenary hires arose from within the Duchy of
Tamarind-Abbey. Though reporters learned that the
duchy had hired more mercenaries to supplement
the Tamarind Regulars brigade, one such unit was not
publicly announced: Wolf’s Dragoons.
Several aspects about this private contract with
Wolf’s Dragoons were immediately deemed unusual,
as the full nature and conditions of this arrangement
were undisclosed, and the hiring was done without any
of the usual fanfare that this prestigious outfit usually
received. First, it was unclear whether the Dragoons’
client was the duchy’s government or Fontaine Marik
himself; further clues indicate that the Dragoons report
solely to Duke Marik. Second, the type of contract was
unspecified, meaning the Dragoons could be employed
for a number of different roles, including assault or
cadre duty for new Tamarind Regulars regiments.
Third, analysts could not determine which of the
specific Dragoons units had been hired. Rumors hinted
at the entirety of the multi-regiment command being
employed, but the disposition of the Dragoons who did
not make the rendezvous with the rest of the command
on Terra remained unknown.
The most unusual aspect of this contract was
not the private nature but the mere fact that Wolf’s
Dragoons had largely vanished from the public eye
since they had exercised their escape clause with the
Draconis Combine in late 3150 and departed Combine
space. News from the Battle of Terra claimed that the
legendary unit, whose historical roots entwined with
the Clans, had chosen to fight alongside Clan Wolf
against Clan Jade Falcon and help the Wolves win
the ilClanship. However, in so doing, the Dragoons
had suffered nearly ninety percent casualties before
being scorned by the ilKhan, and the Dragoons had
left Terra for parts unknown. Wolf’s Dragoons entering
a contract with Fontaine Marik shined a spotlight on
the legendary mercenaries once more, and both Free
Worlds and Lyran Commonwealth troops waited to see
what the Dragoons would do under Tamarind’s employ.
Wolf’s Dragoons excelled at being the tip of the spear
in an attacking force, so Lyran commanders saw their
presence as a potential tipping point in a League
reprisal on the Commonwealth border.
—Fredrika Mwangi,
La Voz de Escobas, 27 December 3151
56 The Silver Hawks Linchpin
THE SILVER HAWKS LINCHPIN
When Colonel Cameron-Witherspoon initially announced his intention
to liberate Kalidasa and its industrial centers from the Wolf Empire, he
received no official backing from Atreus; however, neither did he receive
open condemnation, likely due to the precedent set by Nikol Marik signing
Resolution 119A. Instead, support that manifested as increased recruits and
financial backing came from two major sources: former Silver Hawk systems
and a collection of corporations with interests tied to Kalidasa. Foremost
among these companies were Quikscell and Irian Technologies. Quikscell
controlled manufacturing concerns on Kalidasa when the Wolf Empire
conquered the planet and sought to regain full control of those assets under
a non-Clan government by offering financial aid and a company of ’Mechs
from their security division. IrTech, by contrast, had no direct interests on
Kalidasa, but they supplied the Gryphons and Falcons regiments with new
IrTech-manufactured BattleMechs, which fueled speculation that this largesse
was part of a campaign to drive up sales by showcasing the effectiveness of
their equipment in regaining an important world from the ilClan. Rumors also
claimed that StarCorps Industries, which also did not possess any assets on
Kalidasa, had provided financial aid, the company’s ultimate motives unknown.
The Gryphons took this silence from Atreus and the outpouring of support
as a mandate to continue with their plan to assault what they considered the
linchpin that would secure the future of a new Silver Hawks Coalition, so
Colonel Cameron-Witherspoon, the Quikscell security company, and several
small mercenary units that championed the Silver Hawks’ cause rendezvoused
at Kalidasa on 11 December. The reconnaissance elements of the initial assault
force landed far enough from the capital city of Sakuntalem to gauge the
planet’s defenses without revealing their strategy. Traditional assault doctrine
for a world with important military-industrial manufacturing concerns
called for concentrating on securing the most important manufactories
before attempting to hold major cities, but Cameron-Witherspoon operated
from the assumption that the Wolves had stripped or dismantled Kalidasa’s
manufacturing centers before heading to Terra, similar to what had happened
on Stewart. Thus, the Gryphons’ ground campaign deliberately did not center
on either the Kali-Yama or Quikscell facilities.
The Quikscell security commander, Captain Darnell Borden, argued that
if the Quikscell plant was indeed abandoned, now was the best time for his
company to occupy it, for his troops did not fall under the Gryphons’ chain of
command. Cameron-Witherspoon cautioned against such action until they
had a clearer picture on the situation. Borden, under no obligation to heed the
advice, marched on the Quikscell facility at Port Royal only to find it defended
by a full Trinary of the 101st Wolf Garrison Cluster, a never-before-seen unit.
Borden’s troops withdrew after taking moderate losses during their approach,
and the Gryphons only responded to Borden’s call for aid when Cameron-
Witherspoon realized the Trinary pursuing them was in danger of crushing his
rear guard. The Gryphons, at risk for being under attack from two directions,
mobilized their mercenary assets to cover the Quikscell troops’ retreat while
the bulk of the Gryphons concentrated on the foremost elements of the
101st holding Sakuntalem. Upon reaching safety, Borden agreed to defer to
Cameron-Witherspoon’s advice in operations moving forward.
The unexpected level of opposition forced the Gryphons to adjust
their tactics, which included landing and deploying the remainder of the
regiment as soon as possible. By the year’s end, the Gryphons and Wolves
 A CHALLENGE TO THE NATURAL ORDER
had reached a stalemate, particularly around the Quikscell and Kali-
Yama facilities. Neither side wanted to risk damaging these important
factories, especially the 101st, who would press newly manufactured
Quikscell tanks into service the moment they rolled off the assembly
line. Cameron-Witherspoon sent out requests for aid via JumpShip, but
he knew that, without direct orders from the Captain-General, few FWLM
commanders would risk wading into this fight.
UNAUTHORIZED MANEUVERS
In light of the Gryphons and Covenant Worlds’ successes in
reclaiming former Silver Hawk systems and other buffer planets, the
Captain-General continued forming plans for supporting and reinforcing
as many liberated border planets as possible. This plan also weighed the
necessity and feasibility of striking further systems in the Wolf Empire’s
Terran corridor. Since these campaigns focused on troops stationed in
the Covenant Worlds and Augustine Alliance provinces, in addition to
the recently liberated Silver Hawk planets, troop movements within
the Clan Protectorate forces in December would eventually take Atreus
by surprise.
On 6 December, the First Nova Cat Provisionals arrived on the Wolf
Empire world of Ariel. Subsequent weeks saw the First Protectorate
Guardians land on Lancaster, and elements of Beta Aimag relocated to
Bedeque. Beta Strike Cluster, having disappeared into the Wolf Empire
after their withdrawal from Danais in October, reappeared on Merak.
Reports from all four of these worlds showed no signs of combat
operations, which indicated a complete lack of Wolf defenses or militia.
However, the coordination with which these units had deployed evenly
on undefended worlds, coupled with the reappearance of the rogue Beta
Strike Cluster, led the Captain-General to speculate that there was more
to this unsanctioned move than it seemed.
The LCCC considered deploying the First Free Worlds Guards to one
or more of these newly claimed systems, to not only backstop the Clan
Protectorate forces but guarantee the FWLM would not see a repeat of
the debacle on Stewart in June. Ultimately, the Captain-General opted
to leave the First on Marik for the time being but kept them on standby
in the event of potential escalation. If the Clan Protectorate did indeed
seek to betray the League’s trust, Nikol would maintain a stranglehold
on their capital world.
GHOSTS COMING TO CALL
The first real test of Star Colonel Othar’s defensive strategy for
Lupus and Rufus Galaxies occurred in November, with a raid on Oliver,
home to both the Quikscell industriplex and the Brigadier Corporation.
Not only was Quickscell an important former-Republic manufactory,
but it also produced various combat vehicles and other important
components. Initially, Star Colonel Othar had needed to strip some of
the planet’s defenders to plug other holes in the Empire’s defenses, but
the establishment of two new Galaxies let him station the 102nd Wolf
Garrison Cluster on Oliver to bolster the planet’s defenses.
The battalion of invaders that arrived on 13 November piloted a
hodgepodge of BattleMechs painted in rocky-terrain camouflage or flat
gray primer, bearing no insignias. Had the 102nd not been present, the
Unauthorized Maneuvers
ILSA’S GAME
Right now, one of the most important questions in the
Inner Sphere is what sort of game Ilsa Centrella, Magestrix of
the Magistracy of Canopus, is playing. While the majority of
the Inner Sphere has watched the final capture of Terra by Clan
Wolf, a different drama is being played out within the Capellan
Confederation, the Magistracy of Canopus, and the Duchy of
Andurien. As the leader of one of the largest Periphery nations
and a potential heir to one of the Great Houses of the Inner
Sphere, Magestrix Centrella has made some incredible strides,
positioning her to be a major player in the next evolution of
the Inner Sphere. Both of these items, however, could better
be placed upon her parents, Sun-Tzu Liao of the Capellan
Confederation and Naomi Centrella, the former Magestrix of
the Magistracy of Canopus.
Growing up as the child of two of the most cunning
leaders known to humanity is certain to make one a master of
the long game, and Ilsa has been playing it for some time. While
her brother, Daoshen, and she each gained control of one of the
two realms, they have always been incredibly close, leading to
many thoughts that the two were nearly inseparable. Despite
the failure of the Trinity Alliance, the familial bonds between
the two nations have remained incredibly strong, with the
Confederation and the Magistracy making the most of the deal.
Everything changed in 3137, however, when Magestrix
Centrella married Duke Ari Humphreys of the Duchy of
Andurien. A strange dynastic match on an abundance of levels,
the possibility of a new alliance between the Confederation,
the Magistracy, and the notoriously independent Anduriens
was met with concern in all three realms. Coupled with the
fact that the Magestrix was a poor choice to provide children for
the childless Humphreys heir, as well as the inherent logistical
problems of the two nations working on any major project of
importance when distances were considered, few inklings
of her thought process were apparent, unless she intended
to strike at her brother’s nation. The most prevalent theory,
which many also considered the least likely, was that a rift
had formed between the two siblings, Daoshen and Ilsa, and
her marriage to the duchy was the first step in a longer game
to gain allies against any actions by her brother. While the
traditional closeness that the family has held does not lean
too far in that direction, it is important to note that if open
conflict were to occur between the various nations, it would
affect the leadership of the Confederation, the Magistracy,
and the duchy. Few have forgotten that aside from the throne
she currently owns, she is a legitimate claimant to both the
Capellan Confederation and Duchy of Andurien thrones as well,
by parentage or marriage.
—Excerpt of an op-ed from
the Oriente Free Press, 22 December 3151
57
 EMPIRE ALONE

enemy force likely could have claimed the planet; however the invaders’ early maneuvers and seeming reluctance to engage with
the garrison made it clear that the enemy had no interest in conquest. The raiders avoided most of the terrain features where the
102nd had hoped to trap them, and they reached the Quikscell warehouses where the factory’s output was stored before being
put into service. The enemy’s intimate knowledge of the terrain and the specific location of the warehouses lent strong evidence
to the hypothesis that these raiders were former RAF troops.
The 102nd attempted to hold the enemy in place long enough to orchestrate a trap for them, but the intruders had no
intention on staying long enough to fall for what the outnumbered Wolves were planning. A daring push on the Quikscell
warehouses resulted in the raiders collapsing the building that housed them, burying several platoons’ worth of equipment
beneath the rubble. As the 102nd tried to dig out these buildings, the intruders absconded with output from a different warehouse.
The 102nd’s conventional fighter complement accosted the raiders’ fleeing DropShips shortly after takeoff. After a short but
vicious dogfight, one of the DropShips was destroyed, but at the cost of all of the 102nd’s fighters. The two remaining vessels
reached their JumpShip unscathed and departed with their stolen goods.
Careful analysis of the downed ’Mechs and the destroyed DropShip wreckage failed to identify the raiders’ identities. They
confirmed the deployment of Republic-manufactured equipment; however, such hardware was commonplace among even
Clan Wolf’s ranks due to battlefield salvage and the capture of so many former-Republic worlds. No other evidence was found.
Transponders had been scrubbed, and even the killed and captured MechWarriors had worn no insignias. All signs pointed to
ex-RAF soldiers acting of their own accord.

GAPS IN THE FENCE

Though the Wolves’ repulsion of the raid on
Oliver was far from perfect, the incident proved
that Othar’s defensive doctrine was sound strategy.
Unfortunately, realities within the Wolf Empire
meant that unless the Wolves on Terra returned to
positions within the rest of the Empire, most of the
ilClan’s territory would remain unguarded and ripe for
conquest. Of the more than 100 worlds under Othar’s
current supervision, more than one-third of those, the
worlds closest to Gienah, lacked any sort of military
presence whatsoever, beyond basic constabulary law
enforcement officers. The remaining systems could
deploy, at best, a handful of solahma MechWarriors
or infantry. The formation of Lupus and Rufus Galaxies
had been intended to address this shortfall, but any
serious attacks on Empire worlds ran the risk of being
too far removed for either Galaxy to respond to in a
timely fashion.
The manner in which the billets in Lupus and
Rufus Galaxies had been filled was not repeatable,
as Othar could not hasten the maturation of sibkos
or produce more washed-up Wolf veterans from thin
air. Othar knew even the safety net of his two Galaxies
would be insufficient to deter a truly determined
enemy like Wolf ’s Dragoons. Othar knew the
Empire’s only guaranteed method of defense would
be the ilKhan’s triumphal return from Terra, but the
JumpShip courier network continued to bring no
tidings from Terra.
Though he couldn’t know, the Star Colonel’s fears
about invasion were made manifest on 31 December,
when a battalion of Wolf’s Dragoons arrived at
Labouchere and burned hard for planetfall.
THE EAR OF THE ILKHAN
If you leave a crèche child unattended and neglect to tell
them that they are not allowed to make a mess while you are
away, you cannot get angry with them when you come back to
learn that they made a mess while you were away. And what if
you return to find that some mess had occurred while you were
away, but the child had cleaned up most of it already, and
had even improved on the cleaning process?
I am the unattended child. And I must break some rules.
But the mess is not my own. This is where the metaphor
breaks down.
Perhaps the ilKhan will never return. Perhaps he will
sit atop his golden throne in Unity City on Terra for
the remainder of his rule, and we will never again meet
face to face.
But there is a saying among the Spheroid peoples: “If
the mountain will not go to you, then you must go to the
mountain.” Some would argue that it is impossible to move a
mountain. They are wrong.
To move a mountain, you must carry it one pebble at a
time, which requires the patience of a stone.
I will move this mountain.
I will gain the ilKhan’s ear.
—Private journal of Star Colonel Othar,
27 December 3151

58 Gaps in the Fence

 EMPIRE ALONE
THE
RAGING STORM
As 3152 began, the Duchy of Andurien struck into the
Sian Commonality, home of the Capellan Confederation’s
capital and several of the nation’s most productive worlds.
Similarly, the Magistracy of Canopus, while not causing active
hostilities on Confederation worlds, failed to volunteer its
forces to hold back Andurien’s troops.
During the remainder of the first full year of the ilClan’s
reign, the anticipated assault Star Colonel Othar foresaw
against the Wolf Empire’s sovereignty began in earnest.
Othar strove to rally his forces against these incursions, but
the attacks from Wolf’s Dragoons and the Free Worlds League
hit faster than the Wolves could adequately respond. Othar
sought to stave off these attacks with every resource at his
disposal and petitioned the ilKhan for assistance to defend
their territory.
But from Terra, there came nothing but silence. The
warriors and the people of the Wolf Empire were left to face
threats from multiple directions without any aid from the
seat of the Clans’ greatest conquest. For now, the Empire truly
stood alone, to live or die by its own merits.
THE HAMMER FALLS
Wolf’s Dragoons’ New Year’s Eve assault on Labouchere
caught the defending garrison by surprise during a riotous
year-end celebration where the on-planet Wolves heralded
the end of the first year in which they had been declared
ilClan. The attacking force arrived at a pirate point that gave
the defending forces mere hours of preparation before
planetfall near the garrison’s cantonment outside the
planetary capital of Martingale.
Hasty as the defenses were, they would have, in theory,
been adequate for holding off a mere battalion of Tamarind-
Abbey troops long enough to secure reinforcements from off-
world. The senior Labouchere warrior, inspired by Jacinda’s
efforts on Campbelton, had also raided his sibkos for warriors
and built a bare-bones Cluster with a solid BattleMech
core. But the invaders were not Tamarind Regulars: the
Wolf warriors faced a battalion of elite and vengeful Wolf’s
Dragoons. The Wolves braced for the attack as best they
could, given how quickly they needed to sober up in the face
of the Dragoons’ blitzkrieg.
The Dragoons came at the Wolves in force, moving with
the precision of professionalism and the fire of revenge for
their mistreatment on Terra. To their credit, the Wolf solahma,
veterans of many campaigns, did not flinch in the face of
60 The Hammer Falls
the Dragoons relentless charge and sold themselves dearly
before ultimately breaking and being overrun. Few of the
defenders survived the initial charge, and by 3 January, the
Dragoons had control of the system and had claimed most
of the surviving Wolves as bondsmen.
Debate raged among the populace as to who the
Dragoons answered to. Had their orders come from Tamarind-
Abbey or the Lyran Commonwealth? Or were they operating
without a contract, on their own volition? Confirmation
arrived in the form of a battalion of the Seventh Tamarind
Regulars making planetfall without facing any resistance, days
after the Dragoons had already departed.
CHAIN LIGHTNING
A similar blitzkrieg struck Alula Borealis on 24 January:
Wolf’s Dragoons forces arrived and stormed the planet’s
meager Clan Wolf defenses. Not protected by one of Othar’s
new Clusters, the local Wolf warriors had fewer resources and
had managed to raise only a Trinary of forces, with only two
’Mechs. The Dragoons landed and, rather than annihilating
the defenders, the Dragoon CO challenged the Star Captain
to a Trial of Possession for the planet, with the entire Trinary
on balance as isorla.
It was everything the solahma Star Captain Embry
could hope for. She accepted, and the combat was swift
and conclusive: the Dragoon CO’s Spartan annihilated the
Wolf commander’s ’Mech with such violence that it erupted
into a conflagration. As before, the battalion packed up their
DropShips and burned for orbit on 28 January, with a Trinary’s
worth of Wolf equipment and bondsmen on board.
Three weeks later, the Dragoons’ storm continued on
Trellisane. The 17 February landing saw the attack conducted
by the same suspected battalion as the two prior invasions.
A notable difference on Trellisane, however, was that Rufus
Galaxy’s 106th Wolf Garrison Cluster anchored the defenses.
The Cluster feinted a charge headlong into the Dragoons’
landing zone. Even in the face of a more robust defense, the
Dragoons fought with the same tireless verve and drive as
before. Constant airstrikes from the Grumman Amalgamated
and Gutierrez Aerospace test pilots took a toll on the
Dragoons before their own air cover drove them off, but the
defenders fought on with resolve for almost a month, leading
the Dragoons on frustrating chases across the planet.
No matter how tenaciously the Dragoons performed,
the 106th accomplished their ultimate mission before
 THE RAGING STORM
withdrawing: hold the enemy on Trellisane for as long as
possible, thus putting a stop to the Dragoons’ rampage while
preserving the bulk of their forces.
INEVITABLE BETRAYAL
Following nearly a year of building up Andurien’s military
forces and using his considerable personal wealth to secure
some of the best mercenaries available for hire, Duke Ari
Humphreys shocked the entire sphere by striking out at the
Capellan Confederation, rather than one of the other Free
Worlds states that surround his nation on January 6, 3152.
Striking at a swath of Capellan worlds running from Wallacia
to Palladaine, the duchy would show off its newfound taste
for expansion by securing three Capellan worlds in the course
PUMP THE BRAKES
To: COL Margret Goodwin,
Seventh Tamarind Regulars
From: GEN Flórián Halász,
Tamarind Military District
Date: 19 November 3151
Subject: New Orders
Colonel Goodwin:
Due to your regiment’s commendable actions
in the campaign to remove the Marian stain from
Illyria, your next assignment will afford you
considerable prestige.
Duke Marik has hired Wolf’s Dragoons for a
number of duties. However, only one of these duties
concerns your regiment. Beginning on New Year’s
Day, the Dragoons’ Zeta Battalion will act as the
vanguard in a series of raids-in-force against the
anti-spinward border of the Wolf’s Empire. These
raids are designed either to drive a spearpoint
through the defenses on each target world or, in
the absence of appreciable military presence, to
claim that world for the Free Worlds League.
The Seventh’s mission aligns closely with Zeta
Battalion’s. Your regiment’s task is to follow Zeta
and engage in appropriate action depending on
Zeta’s disposition at the time of your arrival.
I know you are more than capable of providing
relief, mopping-up, or acting in coordination with
irregulars, as the situation dictates.
The full disclosure of your orders will arrive
once you reach your staging ground on Tamarind.
General Flórián Halász
of a month to “protect the interests of the people.”
Scarborough was the first planet to fall, nearly without
any fighting whatsoever. Two battalions of the Second
Andurien Rangers, having been left there by Magestrix
Liao-Centrella on her previous visit to the planet, were
already on the planet, seriously outnumbering the Home
Guard and militia forces that had been left there to protect
Confederation interests. When the Home Guard heard that
the nearby systems of Westerhand and Palladaine had also
been struck by Andurien-backed mercenaries (ironically from
the JumpShip that brought the rest of the Second Andurien
Rangers with them, as well as the Eighth Andurien Guards),
they were quick to take up Colonel O’Donell on his offer to
allow them to leave the planet unmolested, assuming they
To: GEN Flórián Halász,
Tamarind Military District
From: COL Margret Goodwin,
Seventh Tamarind Regulars
Date: 30 January 3152
Subject: AAR, Alula Borealis
General Halász:
I will send a full after-action report soon,
but I must remark on one simple fact: I have yet
to see Zeta Battalion in action or meet their CO.
Twice now—on Labouchere and on Alula Borealis—
we have arrived in-system to learn that the
Dragoons have already smashed up the planet’s
defenses and departed for the next target. Twice
our DropShips have passed like ships in the night.
Zeta is certainly accomplishing the mission it was
hired for—their frightening effectiveness is not
in doubt here—but my troops would appreciate the
chance to shake the Dragoons’ hands and thank
them for making our jobs all that much easier.
Would it be out of the question to ask if Zeta
could pump the brakes a little so we can catch up?
Colonel Goodwin
Inevitable Betrayal 61
 EMPIRE ALONE
did so immediately. Realizing that their regiment had little
chance to defeat the elite Andurien troops, they arranged for
a JumpShip to Altorra, one of the few neighbors not already
under assault. Following the departure of the Capellan
forces, the citizenry of Scarborough rejoiced, pleased to be
considered part of the Duchy of Andurien again. The Eighth
proceeded to take over garrison duties from the Second,
allowing the Second to begin training as a single unit again,
prepared to move forward for the second wave.
On Palladaine, the assembled Andurien forces, which
included the Sixth Andurien Rangers and the Conquista
Corsairs mercenary company, expected to find elements
of the Eleventh Sian Dragoons and the Home Guard but
were surprised to find the Dragoons gone, leaving only the
Home Guard and militia to deal with. The Andurien forces
landed without contest but found themselves under attack
by the Home Guard as soon as their DropShips had touched
down. The fighting was brutal, causing moderate losses to
the Corsairs mercenaries when they made a combat drop to
clear out the landing zone, but the Home Guard regiment was
completely destroyed.
On Wallacia, the Andurien forces ran into the opposite
problem. The JumpShips that were scheduled to redeploy
the First Liao Dragoons were late, and the mercenary unit
Purple Thunder had already arrived, hired by the local nobility
to defend the planet. When the Andurien forces, consisting
of the Ninth Andurien Rangers and Third Andurien Guards,
landed on the planet, they found themselves engaged with a
roughly equivalent set of enemy forces that had the defensive
advantage and knowledge of the terrain. Following a series of
attempts to try to dislodge the Liao forces, the battle on the
planet developed into a series of moves and countermoves,
while both sides awaited reinforcements from home.
WAR TO THE KNIFE...
As February began, news of the Andurien strikes began
to slowly filter through the Confederation, with worlds in
the Sian Commonality beginning to show significant unease
due to the apparent lack of the CCAF response. Made up
of some of the most profitable manufacturing worlds in
the Confederation, as well as the capital of the nation, the
Commonality was not used to being under threat, and with
three of its worlds already invaded, the Sheng cried out for
support from the Chancellor.
Unfortunately, the reinforcements were not to be had. To
protect the Chancellor, who had originally moved in secret to
Liao to be closer to the front against the Republic, Daoshen
had brought several of the units that would have regularly
been present for his protection, including the Red Lancers.
With two of the Capellan Hussars regiments out of the region,
the other two regiments were hard pressed to spare any units
beyond Home Guard reserves to allay the fears of the various
62 War to the Knife...
Sheng nobles, each of whom was terrified that their holdings
would be next.
Unrest built among the various castes on several worlds,
only heightened by word of Andurien-backed mercenaries
dropping on Shiba and Sigma Mare, although the Maskirovka
and Capellan Broadcasting System worked to keep the
situation bottled up. Their zang shu cheng division, better
known as the Chancellor’s eyes, worked tirelessly to observe
the dissent, but the Maskirovka had few assets to spare in
the face of the Andurien aggression. On Turin and Jacomarle,
strikes would break out across the planets, overwhelming the
Home Guard’s ability to respond, despite being away from the
current Andurien thrust.
CCAF militias were forced to quell the unrest as best they
could, though many had to call on their local Home Guards
for support, limiting their ability to redeploy to eject the
Anduriens. The Confederation attempted to bridge the gap
using short-term contracts with local mercenary units but
found many of the units out of position to assist in a timely
manner or already in the employ of the Duchy of Andurien.
READ THE FINE PRINT
In January, an intel report from SAFE agents detailed
irregular Lyran troop activity on Finsterwalde. To confirm the
report, an intelligence-gathering raid conducted by the Ninth
Tamarind Regulars discovered that at least one battalion
of the Eighth Lyran Regulars was no longer on-planet, its
whereabouts unaccounted for. Efforts to locate the missing
troops stretched to Free Worlds assets on several neighboring
planets, in fear of a potential strike on Zdice, Abramkovo or
Cavanaugh II. The battalion was ultimately located on Bolan,
after allegedly having undertaken a probe on the Wolf Empire
world of Dixie during their absence.
This news was cause for concern among Tamarind’s
military leadership. If House Steiner troops were eying Dixie
for conquest, Lyran occupation of the planet would put them
that much closer to Tamarind itself. Fontaine Marik had no
desire to lose his duchy’s capital to the Lyrans again, so he
encouraged SAFE to put out their own feelers in the region.
With a negligible Clan Wolf garrison force, Dixie proved
ripe for a possible Lyran takeover, but the duchy’s military
analysts could not determine whether the Lyrans intended
to take Dixie in order to hurt the Wolf Empire or to use it as a
stepping-stone toward further action against the League or
if they even intended to claim the planet at all.
To quell these concerns, Fontaine quietly sent a
detachment of mercenaries to Dixie in February, to see
whether they could beat the Lyrans to the punch. After the
two companies of Hooke’s Billmen failed to report in by the
end of March, Tamarind considered the unit lost. However,
subsequent reports from a SAFE agent on Dixie reported that
the Billmen had claimed the planet for House Steiner instead,
 THE RAGING STORM
citing a loophole in their contract language. Livid
at the situation, Fontaine mobilized a battalion of
the Fourth Tamarind Regulars troops to hunt down
the Billmen for betraying their contract. However,
the mercenaries were nowhere to be found on Dixie.
Instead, a battalion of the First Buena Jaegers had
taken up residence.
Initial clashes between these two equally
matched forces leaned in favor of the Jaegers,
prompting the Fourth to cut their losses and return
to Tamarind with most of their number still intact.
The Fourth’s after-action report drove Fontaine
to put a bounty on Hooke’s Billmen. The damage,
however, was already done: Lyran troops were now
one step closer to subjugating the seat of the duchy.
JUST DESERTS
By February, Star Colonel Othar had grown
tired of Wolf’s Dragoons marauding and conquering
worlds along the Empire’s anti-spinward edge, and
he strove to send the Dragoons and the FWLM a
message that might halt their offensive incursion
efforts. Reacting to the news of the attack on
Labouchere, because word of the Alula Borealis and
Trellisane attacks was still traveling slowly toward
Gienah, Othar ordered the Ninety-Fifth Wolf Assault
Cluster to Simpson Desert.
Othar intended the Simpson Desert assault
either to draw the Dragoons’ attention or to
demonstrate his resolve to expand the Empire when
circumstances warranted it. Between the Simpson
Desert attack now and a future recon-in-force raid
on Kosciusko, the League’s leaders would assume
the Empire was attempting either to surround and
conquer Tamarind or to continue in an anti-spinward
line across the duchy and isolate the whole region
from the rest of the League before strangling it.
The Ninety-Fifth easily wrested control of the
planet from local militia forces after a brief firefight
on 29 February. While the Ninety-Fifth prepared one
of its three component Trinaries for the planned
strike at Kosciusko two weeks later, a JumpShip
with League defenders arrived at the system’s zenith
jump point. However, the new arrivals were not the
anticipated Wolf’s Dragoons. Instead, the Second
Battalion of the Seventh Tamarind Regulars had
jumped in-system. The battalion had jumped in from
Tamarind, where the unit had been undergoing refit
while backstopping the Dragoons’ conquests.
Tired of “pretending to not be Clan anymore,”
the Ninety-Fifth refused to dig in at Fort Verdun, a
crumbling Star League-era fortification, and wait for
LAMBS LED TO THE
SLAUGHTER
I’m Johnathan Rambeaux, bringing you all of the military news
that matters. Tonight I want to talk about the Wolf Empire. The ilClan,
if you can believe the news from Terra. But the so-called Empire of
the ilClan seems anything but at the moment. Its borders have been
quiet for more than a year now, with no signs of the usual Trials of
Possession that used to be common since the Empire’s founding. What,
people wonder, has been going on inside the Empire? Are they truly
stretched as thin as the Monday-morning general thinks? Has their
attention truly shifted toward the all-or-nothing contest of claiming the
ilClanship, to the point that they’re treating the rest of their “Empire”
like a redheaded freebirth?
The short answer is no.
All of this back and forth along our border with House Steiner—us
taking Steiner worlds, them taking Marik worlds—it’s just a sideshow
to what we should truly be worried about. Duke Fontaine Marik would
have every single citizen in the whole of Tamarind-Abbey believe that
the worst possible outcome for the entire nation would be a great
royal-blue tide pouring rimward, devouring everything, subsuming the
worlds this duchy’s troops have fought hard and sacrificed so much to
protect. But he and his entire war council—and even the whole League
Central Coordination and Command, for that matter—are looking the
wrong direction.
I think the Wolves are taking us all for fools.
I think they are waiting for the right moment to sweep in across
the duchy as smooth as they please, and cut off the coreward portion
from the rest of the League.
[A political map of the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey appears in an inset.
A brown line is drawn just below Simpson Desert and stretches to the left
until it is below Cerillos. A brown hue matching the Wolf Empire’s color
flows into everything from the line upward, until it reaches the blue Lyran
Commonwealth border.]
This is what the Wolves are planning. The silence on the border,
the lack of trials and raids, the increase in merchant activity in the
region—all of the signs are there, if you know what to look for. Unless
we convince Duke Marik to do something, and soon, the Wolves
are going to attack us in force, yet our troops are all sitting on the
wrong border.
You’re worried of being conquered by the Commonwealth
because you don’t know German, but how would you fare being
given an unchangeable Clan caste assignment that’s little better than
slave labor? Do you have the wherewithal to make it in one of the
Free Guilds, or survive in a group of Dark Caste bandits, to be hunted
with prejudice by the ilClan’s elite troops? Most of us don’t. Most of us,
including me, would prefer to keep living the life of freedom the duchy
has afforded us. And if you want that, then get up off your duff and let
your voice be heard. Storm the palace at Tamarind if you have to. But
don’t just sit there and let the ilClan tear us all in half.
—Military Matters with Johnathan Rambeaux,
airdate 20 February 3152
Just Deserts 63
 EMPIRE ALONE
THE TOOLS
OF THE ENEMY
To: Star Colonel Othar, Den Keshik, Gienah
From: Star Captain Firuza,
93rd Wolf Striker Cluster, Solaris VII
Date: 3 January 3152
Subject: Sea Fox activity
Star Colonel,
Some of my warriors brought to my attention
that Sea Fox merchants here on Solaris VII have put
up a curious selection of merchandise for sale: military
hardware that has been manufactured by Clan Wolf.
BattleMechs, tanks, battle armor—all of it stamped with
the marks of Clan Wolf manufactory tooling.
In other words, the Foxes are attempting to sell us
back our own materiel, at a markup. This is unacceptable.
I would challenge them to Trials of Possession were I
not worried that the cost in destroyed equipment and
human casualties to win back what is ours would be
steeper than simply paying the cost they are asking.
Another aspect of this troubles me even further. I
have yet to see evidence of it with my own eyes, but
anecdotes claim that some of this equipment was
manufactured by Clan Wolf-controlled factories on Terra,
using the tools and factories of the fallen Republic. If this
is indeed true, I worry about the many implications this
raises. Is our Clan now so rich in Terra’s industrial might
that we can manufacture enough materiel to equip our
whole touman and still have enough remaining for the
Sea Foxes to resell? And if we, the ilClan, are so rich that
we can sell off our surplus, then why are our Clusters in
the greater Wolf Empire forced to scrounge and scrape to
find enough equipment to outfit two on-paper Galaxies
of sibs and solahma?
Part of me worries that we can sell so much to the
Sea Foxes because so few of our warrior caste survived
the crucible of Terra, and thus it takes fewer units to
fully arm and equip our touman. Did we sell ourselves
so dearly on Terra that we out here, the broken and
disparate dregs of the Wolf Empire’s defenses, must sell
the newest and best of our new industrial output in order
to save our Clan from extinction?
Regardless of the answer, this is a situation that
warrants investigation.
In the ilKhan’s name,
Star Captain Firuza
64 Competing Campaigns
the enemy to come to them. They craved a straight fight,
so they assaulted the Seventh’s LZ instead, where the
battalion’s DropShips had grounded in the thick forest near
Fort Verdun. The Wolves’ initial attack damaged enough
of the Seventh’s DropShips that most of them required
significant repair work before they would be spaceworthy
again; this effectively trapped the Seventh on-planet for
the time being. The two forces chased each other around
the forests, although the Seventh always remained a step
ahead due to their familiarity with the planet.
The Seventh used this tactical advantage to surround
the Ninety-Fifth’s DropShips and steal them for themselves.
Although the Seventh left Simpson Desert in Wolf Empire
hands for the moment, the Ninety-Fifth would remain
stranded until they either repaired the Seventh’s damaged
DropShips or deigned to use civilian DropShips that were
not designed or rated for transporting military assets
off-planet.
Shortly after the Seventh’s Second Battalion
abandoned Simpson Desert, the regiment’s First Battalion
arrived at Trellisane on 26 March. The Dragoons departed
two days later, on yet another undisclosed mission, leaving
the Seventh to garrison the planet.
COMPETING CAMPAIGNS
Throughout January, the Gryphons and their allied
forces on Kalidasa continued waging a battle of attrition
against the 101st Wolf Garrison Cluster; however, the Wolves
could easily repair and replace more of their equipment
than the attackers, due to their continued control of
Quikscell’s manufacturing and storehouses. Colonel
Cameron-Witherspoon refused to abandon this vital planet
until he knew for certain that the cause was lost. By the
end of the month, it became clear that no official FWLM
reinforcements were coming, and the Gryphons considered
pulling out to preserve as much of their force as possible.
On 5 February, a JumpShip bearing military DropShips
arrived at a pirate point around the moon Deons. The new
arrivals announced themselves as the Ninety-Third Wolf
Striker Cluster, Lupus Galaxy, and the Gryphons braced for
their imminent arrival in a battle that had already tipped
toward the Wolves. The Gryphons scrambled to face this
new threat, but the numbers were stacked against them.
The Ninety-Third tore into the Gryphons’ prepared defenses,
driving the invaders back toward their DropShips. To the
Gryphons’ surprise, it was Captain Borden of the Quikscell
security company who advocated that their assault force
should consider departing the planet, despite that route
leaving the Quikscell facility in Wolf hands for the time
being. Cameron-Witherspoon begrudgingly agreed, and
the Gryphons began pulling back to prepare for withdrawal
from the planet.
 THE RAGING STORM
However, on 11 February, a small fleet of JumpShips
arrived at the zenith point and a clutch of DropShips burned
hard for planetfall. The IFF transponders marked them
as Free Worlds troops, but when Cameron-Witherspoon
attempted contacting the new arrivals to thank them for
responding to his request for reinforcements, he received no
reply. These new arrivals gave the Gryphons and their allies
renewed vigor, spurring them to withstand Wolf aggression
until the incoming DropShips could make planetfall. On 15
February, the DropShips landed within striking distance of
the Quikscell facility, and First Battalion of the Falcons, the
Gryphons’ sister regiment, moved in to secure the facility.
When Borden’s troops and a company of the Pike’s Partisans
mercenaries attempted to link up with the Falcons to assist
in dislodging the defending Trinary of the 101st, the Falcons
fired on them instead, treating them no differently than the
Wolves. Repeated entreaties to cease fire as Borden and
the Partisans fell back went unacknowledged, prompting
Cameron-Witherspoon to mobilize into the field himself in
order to get the Falcons’ attention.
The colonel’s command company moved into place
ahead of the Falcons’ advance. Though the Gryphons
exchanged some shots with the Falcons in self-defense,
Cameron-Witherspoon ultimately ordered his ’Mechs to
root in place and stand down, right in the Falcons’ path. The
Falcons’ attacks slowed and then stopped when Cameron-
Witherspoon’s Crusader marched out ahead of his troops,
alone, with weapons powered down, and the Falcons opened
a channel with the colonel.
Communications between the two units indicated that
the Falcons had been operating on radio silence. Contrary
to the Gryphons’ initial belief, the Falcons were not the
reinforcements Cameron-Witherspoon had requested. The
Covenant Worlds troops had possessed no operational
knowledge of another attack force besides their own
Covenant-backed one, so they had no reason to believe that
the Gryphons and their mercenary and corporate allies were
legitimate League troops and not a Clan Wolf smokescreen.
Even after sorting out their misunderstanding, further
confusion arose over which attack force had been sanctioned
and thus could claim operational control. The Gryphons
were operating under the conceit of revitalizing the Silver
Hawks Coalition, but the Falcons had come in support of
the Covenant Guards, intending to bring Kalidasa into the
Covenant Worlds fold. Without official orders from above, the
Gryphons and the Covenant Guards refused to join forces,
leaving the Falcons torn between both camps. The Gryphons
beseeched the Falcons, as a fellow Silver Hawk Irregulars unit,
to back the growing support for a new Silver Hawks Coalition.
Tensions ran high as the two groups of League troops
fought their own separate battles against the 101st and
Ninety-Third. This refusal to cooperate led to a stalemate
between the Wolves and League troops. Fighting continued
into March, with little end in sight, as neither the Wolf
warriors nor the League troops wished to commit to large,
risky maneuvers that would spell doom for their cause on
this important planet.
DIVIDED LOYALTIES
February saw a major paradigm shift along the Wolf
Empire’s border with the Covenant Worlds province. On
13 February, elements of the First Nova Cat Provisionals
departed Lancaster and made planetfall on Tania Borealis.
The mercenary company holding the system on behalf of
the Covenant Worlds sent a message of welcome to their
Clan Protectorate allies, but the message went unanswered.
The Provisionals’ initial communications claimed that Tania
Borealis “belonged to the Wolf Empire,” and the mercenaries
should stand down and leave the planet. The mercenary
commander, unwilling to break their contract with the
Covenant Worlds, stood their ground, so the Provisionals
met the garrison force on the battlefield. The resulting battle
broke and scattered the mercenaries and their conventional
support; those who survived the Provisionals’ initial no-holds-
barred charge went to ground and disappeared within the
civilian population of the city of North Kodiak.
A similar attack occurred on Adhafera on 15 February: the
First Protectorate Guardians landed without acknowledging
incoming transmissions and proclaimed the planet as a
possession of the Wolf Empire. The vastly outnumbered
mercenary company garrisoning the planet was unwilling
to roll over and surrender and convinced the Guardians’
commander to bid for the planet in a fair and honorable
contest. The Guardians agreed and bid two Stars against the
mercenaries’ company and conventional support. The battle
was fought in a twisted series of forested foothills called the
Braid, whose unusual terrain confused the Guardians’ warriors
and allowed the mercenaries to exploit the somewhat familiar
terrain to their advantage. The Guardians quickly adjusted
their tactics and unleashed their full fury on their opposition,
forcing the mercenaries out of the Braid, where they were
defeated and captured.
The proximity and timing of these two assaults
demonstrated a coordinated plan, but the Covenant Worlds
leaders could not fathom why Clan Protectorate troops were
attacking FWLM-allied troops on League-controlled planets.
Additional Clan Protectorate attacks targeting the region
confirmed that the Clan Protectorate Military was indeed
acting on behalf of the Wolf Empire, not the Free Worlds
League, and were using the planets they had “claimed” from
the Wolf Empire in December as staging grounds for these
assaults. The impetus for the strikes had come in July 3151,
when the Sea Foxes approached Star Colonel Othar with
a proposal to deploy Clan Protectorate forces that would
Divided Loyalties 65
 EMPIRE ALONE
prevent the Wolf Empire from losing further systems to Free
Worlds adventurism. The agreement was finalized in January
3152: in exchange for control of the Empire’s HPGs and other
concessions, the Clan Protectorate Military would reclaim
Wolf Empire systems lost to the Silver Hawk Irregulars and
Covenant Worlds, and they would also react to new League
invasions in the same region.
The second wave of coordinated Clan Protectorate
attacks came in late February. On Helm, Beta Strike Cluster
clashed with the mixed-mercenary battalion, codenamed
Combat Group Morion. Beta arrived at the height of the
harvest season, and their careless advance trampled through
ripened fields while en route to Helmdown. Combat against
Morion damaged crops further, as unchecked weapons
fire set several fields ablaze and prevailing winds spread
the fires before they could be brought under control. Beta
Strike Cluster’s callous disregard for Helm’s agrarian nature
turned the people against them, as not even Clan Wolf
had threatened or disrupted agriculture during their initial
conquest in 3138. The natives’ rancor against Beta gave
Combat Group Morion a much-needed morale boost,
allowing them to repulse Beta’s initial attacks well enough for
the invaders to break off and reevaluate their strategy.
Combat continued off and on into March, as Beta
continually probed Morion’s lines for weak spots
but failed to find any perceivable weaknesses
due to false-flag operations undertaken by
66 Divided Loyalties
native volunteers equipped with field guns. On 18 March,
Beta broke through Morion’s smokescreens and drove the
mercenaries into retreat, and the survivors of Combat Group
Morion departed the planet.
The Purifier Cluster and elements of Spina Khanate’s
Beta Aimag landed on Stewart on 23 February, expecting to
find a garrison force composed of the Steel Wolves. However,
their message of intent during planetfall also reached the
Thirtieth Regulan Hussars, who had only been on-planet
for less than three weeks. Like the Fourth Regulan Hussars,
the Thirtieth had volunteered for front-line combat duty,
and the unit was relocated to Stewart, with an eye toward
future operations. The Purifier Cluster, though surprised to
see Regulan troops this far from the Regulan Fiefs, reveled
in the opportunity for payback, as the Thirtieth had whittled
away at the outnumbered Cluster during Operation Hunger
Strike, Regulus’ attack on the Marik system in 3147. Star
Colonel Kaiza’s warriors concentrated on striking and hunting
 THE RAGING STORM
down the Regulans instead of pursuing
their assigned mission objectives, which
forced Beta Aimag to contend with the
Steel Wolves alone in their quest to
control the New Edinburgh Palace. This
split focus bled off the invasion force’s
momentum, and although the Purifier
Cluster defeated many Regulans, the
Steel Wolves bit through Beta Aimag’s
every thrust toward the palace. As the
stalemate continued on into March,
far longer than the invasion force had
anticipated, the Clan Protectorate units
were running low on expendables. To
resupply, ovKhan Matthew Horn loaded one
of his Union C DropShips with a number of ’Mechs
requiring repairs and sent it up to rendezvous with the
Aimag’s CargoShip, the CSF Talismantia. Upon learning of this
mission, the Regulans’ commander, Colonel Hayden Colon,
took advantage of Beta’s vulnerability by sending most of
her available aerospace fighters after the DropShip before it
could reach the Talismantia. After a pitched battle that cost
seventy percent of the Thirtieth’s fighter complement, the
Union C was shot down and broke up during reentry. This
setback, coupled with dwindling supplies and the Purifier
Cluster’s mounting losses, prodded Horn to withdraw and
leave Stewart in League hands.
UNITY THROUGH
COOPERATION
Although the Free Worlds League’s timetable for an
offensive campaign against the Wolf Empire was already
under consideration in the final months of 3151, the rebellion
on Mundrabilla acted as a gauge on the overall climate of the
Empire. The fanfare with which the Griffin’s Pride regiment
was greeted during Mundrabilla’s rebellion, along with the
Silver Hawk Irregulars’ success with the former Silver Hawks
Coalition worlds, prompted the LCCC’s planning strategy to
shift from potential invasion to organizing a recon-in-force
into the rimward portion of the Wolf Empire. The goal for
this exploratory mission was to test just how vulnerable the
underbelly of the ilClan’s territory truly was and, depending
on that response, to liberate an initial few worlds in that
region from Clan rule.
The Tongatapu system was chosen for this first phase
campaign for three primary reasons. First, Technicron
Manufacturing had a facility on-planet, and there was reason
to believe that the Wolves hadn’t gutted it like they had the
factories on Stewart. Second, a successful recon-in-force on
Tongatapu would pave the way for future strikes on targets
such as New Olympia or Campbelton. Finally, the system’s
two-jump proximity from the Regulan Fiefs facilitated the
secondary goal for this mission: to include
troops from the Regulan Hussars brigade
in an operation alongside other FWLM
regiments.
Though the Regulan Fiefs had
joined the League as a probationary
member in 3148, the Regulan Hussars
units that had survived the war against
the Free Worlds League found it difficult
to deploy alongside FWLM regiments
they had fought before the union. Since
3148, the Hussars had remained within
the borders of their province, largely due
to there being no need to deploy them
elsewhere, and their familiarity with the
Regulan Fiefs made them the perfect choices to
defend the province’s worlds from piracy and military
adventurism. However, the knife cut two ways: while Regulan
commanders had little desire to conduct joint operations with
non-Regulan units, several non-Regulan commanders openly
voiced an unwillingness to deploy alongside “traitorous”
Regulan regiments. However, the Regulan troops who
remembered the punishment the Fiefs had undergone before
joining the League had no desire to see their probationary
status revoked. Thus, the premier Regulan Hussars regiments
volunteered for deployment wherever the Captain-General
had need of them.
For the Tongatapu operation, code named Task Force
Accord, the LCCC assigned the Third Free Worlds Guards and
paired them with the Fourth Regulan Hussars. This pairing
was a deliberate stress test for future planning, as these two
regiments had fought each other on Aitutaki in 3140. The war
council reasoned that, if these two rivals could find a means
to bury their differences and work toward a mutual goal for
the nation, then similar joint operations employing Regulan
troops would likely see similar or even improved results.
In preparation, Regulan liaison Major Makeda Kay
oversaw the two regiments engaging in several weeks of
joint exercises on Aitutaki, the site of the Fourth’s defeat at
the hands of the Third, during which the old hatreds flared
to the surface. Fistfights broke out in shared mess halls, and
a few instances of live fire being exchanged between ’Mechs
on training grounds saw injuries and a few courts-martial.
The Fourth’s commander, Colonel Jintara Damri, gave her
soldiers an ultimatum: either cooperate with the Third or face
the full measure of her wrath. Though fistfights still broke
out on occasion, the enmity between both units was pushed
far enough below the surface to instill confidence in their
commanders.
Both regiments made planetfall on Tongatapu on 22
February, with the Third Free Worlds Guards and Fourth
Regulan Hussars grounding within striking distance of the
Unity Through Cooperation 67
 EMPIRE ALONE
planetary capital of Nuku’alofa and the Technicron facility,
respectively. The units had expected minimal resistance
but the 103rd Wolf Garrison Cluster accosted the Fourth’s
landing zone near Lake Kanatea. The Wolves conducted
hit-and-run attacks against both the Third and Fourth,
refusing to stand and fight. According to Colonel Damri, the
103rd fought as though they were waiting for something,
such as reinforcements from off-planet. However, no
such reinforcements arrived, and both FWLM regiments
coordinated their attacks until the shattered remnant of the
103rd withdrew deeper into the Wolf Empire on 11 March.
Faced with a common cause against Clan Wolf forces,
the strife between these two regiments remained buried,
and Makeda sent word to Atreus that the next phase of the
operation would proceed as planned.
CROSSING THE RUBICON
With the Magistracy’s Andurien allies having invaded
their former partners in the Capellan Confederation, Canopian
forces redeployed toward their spinward border, putting them
in an ideal position to defend their nation if any fighting were
to spill onto their worlds.
However, while the redeployment reassured the
Anduriens that their Magistracy allies were not planning on
striking at their worlds, it provided a complication for the
regent and the MAF. Due to communications difficulties
and the suddenness of the need to redeploy, all of the
redeployment orders would go out simultaneously but would
take different speeds to get to the various commands. The
nearby units were quickly on the move, but others were
PRELUDE TO EXPANSION
Speaking of the Capellan Confederation and their
current family feud with the Magistracy of Canopus and
the Duchy of Andurien, I want to raise an interesting
question: We have devoted a lot of time to the potential
machinations of Magestrix Ilsa Liao-Centrella, but might
this all be part of a larger Confederation plan?
Let’s look at that timeline, folks: In December, Ilsa
Liao-Centrella meets with her brother, the Chancellor of
the Confederation, at his war camp on Liao. She doesn’t
even stay a week, and then starts jumping back toward
the Magistracy, where she would never arrive. Soon
after, however, units from her husband’s nation strike at
the heartworlds of the Confederation, which are more
vulnerable than they have ever been in decades.
All of that points toward a fairly significant falling
out around the Liao dinner table to me, but that seems
68 Crossing the Rubicon
still getting their orders. So it was completely unexpected
when cohorts from the IV and VI Legios struck back at the
Magistracy worlds of Gambilon, Marantha, and Booker in
February. The three worlds were only protected by units of
the First Magistracy Highlanders, as many Magistracy troops
were still vainly attempting to pacify the conquered Marian
planets of Ballalaba and Islington. Marantha and Gambilon fell
quickly, as the Highlanders had not been expecting a serious
threat to either planet and were completely overwhelmed
by the arrival of the Marian forces. On Marantha, the Second
Battalion of the Highlanders was able to disengage with
heavy losses but eventually surrendered to Prefect Hurley
to end the slaughter of their people. On Gambilon, the VI
Secunda struck the command company of the Third Battalion
in the opening battle, decapitating the command structure
and turning the battle into a rout.
Fighting on Booker was hotly contested, but the
Highlanders’ First Battalion were unable to hold fast against
the overwhelming forces of VI Prima and Tertia Cohors.
The battalion were destroyed to the last machine, leaving
the Marian invaders with a wealth of salvage from which
to rebuild.
A HERO RISES
When the news of the Marian invasion reached Canopus
IV, the uproar over how unprepared the nation was for the
Marian strike made the earlier uprising over Joppa seem like a
birthday party. The Magistracy of Canopus had been invaded
by one of their historic enemies for the second time in as
many years, and the Magestrix was once again not present
obvious. What I find even more fascinating, however, is
that while the Duchy of Andurien and the Magistracy of
Canopus are focused on the Capellan Confederation, forces
from the Marian Hegemony find the time, JumpShips,
and resources for a strike into the Magistracy, despite the
incredible distance between the two?
Does anyone else find that a little suspicious? Yes, the
Confederation has taken some body blows, but none of the
worlds taken so far have actually diminished the Capellan
war effort. Now, with the Magistracy having to split its focus
on two opposite fronts, they are hard-pressed to support
the Duchy of Andurien, which leaves them dangerously
exposed. With the Chancellor nearly finished consolidating
his gains on the Republic front, is this all just a prelude to
expansion on a new front for the Confederation?
—Excerpt from Secrets of the Sphere, 3 June 3152
 THE RAGING STORM
IN RECOGNITION OF UNWAVERING SERVICE
My fellow countrymen:
On this day of remembrance for our nation’s initial
founding in 2271, I would like to reflect on its first troop
regiments, the Marik Militia.
During the Word of Blake Jihad, our nation suffered
many losses, but one of the most significant was the
devastation of the Marik Militia brigade, the backbone of the
Free Worlds League Military. At the dawn of that conflict,
the brigade boasted a total of seventeen BattleMech
regiments, but when the fires of the Jihad abated, only
a handful remained on the rolls. By the time my mother
reforged our nation from its fragments, no unit in the Inner
Sphere bore “Marik Militia” in their name.
But today I am proud to announce that the Marik Militia
lives on within our borders once more.
For the past six and a half decades, the officers and
enlisted of the Fourth Marik Protectors regiment have
to lead the defense or calm her people. Rioting erupted in
Crimson and several other of the major cities, and the MAF
was forced to support the local constabulary to keep order.
To make matters worse, the redeployment of the
Magistracy forces made the situation even more difficult.
With most units already in motion, new orders would need to
reach the various units, and then they would have to arrange
transport to get them to where they could do the most good.
While no one in the MAF truly thought that they would be in
time to rescue the Magistracy Highlanders or reclaim the lost
Magistracy worlds, the ease in which the Marians were able
to take the first three worlds would surely encourage them
to try to see how deeply they might be able to cut into the
Magistracy. With their Andurien allies all stretched to their
limit, it seemed like only a matter of time before the Marian
second wave would attack, with the Magistracy on its own.
The solution wound up being Colonel Isolde Centrella,
the daughter of Regent Serrin Centrella. A skilled warrior,
Isolde approached her mother with a daring plan to strike
back at the Marians. A new mercenary unit, Gabrielle’s
Pride, was currently training on Canopus IV, and Isolde
had happened to have met their commander. Using the
Magestrix’s own JumpShip, the Kossandra Centrella, which had
returned to the Canopus system, Isolde proposed to take the
Pride mercenaries to Lindenmarle and then onward to Booker.
Concerned for her daughter, Serrin reminded her it was
madness to take a single, untested regiment of mercenaries to
the outskirts of the Magistracy, but Isolde’s plan was twofold.
Using another of their precious JumpShips, she intended
to send it to Ballalaba, the last known location of the Third
carried the torch of the Marik Militia by adhering to the
longstanding traditions of their origins. For six and a half
decades, the Fourth and its sister regiments have striven
to defend the defenseless and uphold the principles that
the Marik Militia stood for. Today, in recognition for their
unwavering service to the nation and in honor of their history
and traditions, I have formally inducted the Fourth into the
Free Worlds League Military’s rolls as the Eighteenth Marik
Militia, and all members of the Eighteenth will be awarded
the Crest of the Eagle for their formidable endurance and
devotion to the people of this nation. It is my hope that the
Eighteenth Marik Militia will inspire others to stand up and
safeguard this nation against all of our enemies.
Please join me in celebrating the rebirth of this
esteemed brigade!
—Speech given by Captain-General Nikol Marik,
Atreus, 14 March 3152
Canopian Cuirassiers and Second Canopian Light Horse. Her
intention was to send a message to either unit, ordering them
to return to Marantha, while she rendezvoused with the First
Canopian Brigade and brought them to Booker. While leading
two regiments to battle seemed far too dangerous, Isolde
convinced her mother it would be far more dangerous not to
act. With the morale of the people at perilous depths, allowing
the Marians to cut too deeply into the Magistracy was a recipe
for disaster. A warrior, a Centrella, needed to lead them, and
Serrin was no warrior. On 22 March, JumpShips carrying Isolde
Centrella and the Gabrielle’s Pride jumped for Lindenmarle.
THE DAY
THE GUNS FELL SILENT
As combat on Kalidasa between the Wolves and FWLM
forces continued into April with no end in sight, Sea Fox
saKhan Petr Kalasa reached out to the Silver Hawk and
Covenant Worlds leaders. Kalasa’s mandate from Othar was to
stop the hemorrhaging of Wolf Empire worlds by any means
necessary and retake lost systems if possible. To stabilize the
border and gain concessions from the Free Worlds League,
Kalasa offered the Silver Hawks and Covenant Worlds a way
to end the conflict and gain a vital resource as a good-faith
gesture of his sincerity. If the deal was rejected, the Clan
Protectorate Military would continue to target former Wolf
Empire worlds, and the Sea Foxes would reject all League
communications traffic that routed to any of the functioning
HPGs the Foxes controlled. However, if the League provinces
accepted the deal, Kalasa promised to rebuild a number of
their malfunctioning or damaged HPGs.
The Day the Guns Fell Silent 69
 EMPIRE ALONE
Although the evidence was anecdotal, the Sea Foxes
claimed to have discovered a complex but viable means
of constructing new HPGs unaffected by the Blackout
that began nearly two decades ago, and they were in the
process of building a brand-new fully functioning HPG on
Twycross that would be impervious to what had caused
the Blackout. Project Sunlight, the think tank run by Devlin
Stone’s aide Tucker Harwell to find a solution to the Blackout,
had produced no actionable results. This had forced Sea Fox
scientists to research their own solution, using a markedly
different path than Project Sunlight’s doomed efforts had
pursued. The League representatives remained wary of the
promised new HPGs, calling the technology potential snake
oil, but the promise of restoring interstellar communications,
even in a small section of the League’s border provinces,
remained too tempting of a prospect to pass up.
On 26 April, representatives from the Clan Protectorate,
the Silver Hawk Coalition, and the Covenant Worlds met on
Amity to formalize the terms of their agreement. In exchange
for a cessation of hostilities from the Silver Hawk Irregulars,
the Covenant Guards, and all associated mercenary forces,
the Clan Protectorate would also down elsewhere, and the
Sea Foxes would administer HPG technology to many of
the Silver Hawk and Covenant Worlds systems. In addition,
the agreement officially acknowledged a number of other
concessions. First, the Covenant Worlds would cede Alkes and
New Hope to the reemergent Silver Hawks Coalition. Second,
the Wolves would cease ongoing operations on Kalidasa and
leave it under control of the Covenant Worlds, much to the
Gryphons’ dismay. Third, the Clan Protectorate would, on
behalf of the Wolf Empire, retain peacekeeping troops on
Adhafera, Tania Borealis, Helm, and their four Wolf Empire
staging worlds, to ensure the Silver Hawks and Covenant
Worlds would uphold their half of the bargain.
As a result of this agreement, the governments of Alkes,
Amity, Bondurant, Concord, Danais, and New Hope formally
announced the reestablishment of the Silver Hawks Coalition
as a mutual-defense pact. The Coalition petitioned the
governments of Callison, Kalidasa, and Marcus to join their
pact, but being under the Covenant Worlds’ aegis caused
the three planets to demur for the time being. Despite the
Covenant Worlds’ unwillingness to relinquish claim to these
planets, the Falcons regiment announced its intentions to
honor and defend the Silver Hawks pact, regardless of any
other factors.
WARRIOR’S LUCK
Upon reaching Lindenmarle, the Kossandra Centrella
and the other JumpShips recharged their jump drives, while
waiting for the rendezvous, fearing that the battle would be
over by the time they arrived. On 19 April, thirteen days after
having arrived, the JumpShip Desmostrenes jumped into the
70 Warrior's Luck
system, bearing two battalions of the First Canopian Brigade.
Having received Isolde’s message, the First Canopian had
decamped and jumped immediately, making it just in time.
Their third battalion would be traveling directly to Booker
as soon as it could be spared but would not abrogate
its responsibilities by leaving Candiear unguarded in
the face of Marian aggression. Quickly transferring the
Brigade DropShips to Isolde’s JumpShip, they jumped out
the next day.
On 27 April, the Kossandra Centrella arrived in the
Booker system. Immediately releasing her DropShips,
Isolde dropped with the First and Second Battalions of the
Pride, along with the Second Battalion of the First Canopian
Brigade. While Colonel Gorman had questioned her plan,
Isolde had revealed that they would be leading the second
force to Marantha as soon as the JumpShip recharged. The
Pride, with its better technology, would be vital to taking
Booker, while the guerilla tactics that had been perfected
by the First Canopian would be needed on Marantha.
Acknowledging the logic of the plan, they agreed, despite
its risky nature.
Prefect Dominic Brinkman, however, had tracked
Isolde’s movements towards the planet and was prepared
when her DropShips touched down on the plains outside
of the capital city of Hamilton. Ordering VI Tertia and Quinta
out of the city, the cohort attempted to storm the landing
zone before Magistracy troops could fully disembark. The
Canopian Brigade command company, equipped with Clan
equipment, exited first and opened fire on Prefect Oswaldo
Jude’s BattleMechs at ranges they could not match. Fearing
the rest of the approaching forces were similarly equipped,
Prefect Jude ignored Prefect Brinkman’s orders to pull back,
taking damage from the DropShip-supported ’Mechs as
he rushed his troops into the dropzone. Although the
headstrong charge destroyed most of the ClanTech-equipped
command company, slowing Canopian deployment, VI Tertia
took heavy damage.
Isolde had expected this landing to be contested and
put phase two of her plan into action. With VI Tertia and
Quinta clear of the city, her remaining battalions dropped
behind them, striking the retreating Marian forces from
behind. Crushed between a rock and a hard place, Prefect
Jude pulled his forces north, taking heavy losses and
allowing the two Magistracy salients to link up. Isolde was
determined not to waste any time, however. Sending her
battalion of the First Brigade to harry the fleeing cohorts,
Isolde moved the Pride towards the city. Prefect Brinkman
immediately moved his VI Prima to engage the larger
Magistracy force. While the firepower of his individual
’Mechs was greater than those of the quicker Canopian
machines, Isolde outmaneuvered Prefect Brinkman’s forces
in the tight confines of the city, instead swinging past to
 THE RAGING STORM
directly threaten the grounded Marian DropShips. While
some DropShips opened fire at the Canopian ’Mechs, the
destruction of two of his vessels convinced Prefect Brinkman
to order his captains to stand down.
With the Marians’ only means of departure from the
planet now pinned, Colonel Centrella pulled her own
DropShips back to the spaceport, securing the city with roving
patrols from the First Brigade. Knowing that reinforcement
was unlikely, Prefect Brinkman joined together the remains of
his three cohorts to strike at the spaceport on 9 May, believing
the Magistracy colonel would not risk Magistracy citizens in
a running city battle.
Prefect Brinkman would be correct. Ordering the First
Brigade to protect the city itself, Isolde moved her Pride
battalions into the DropPort itself. Focused on breaking
the stalemate, Prefect Brinkman attempted to shatter
the Canopian ’Mechs as they danced around the large
DropShips of both forces. Even as the DropShip captains
nervously watched on, First Brigade forces slipped in behind
the Marians, immediately threatening their rear. Once more
finding his troops pinned between Brigade and the Pride
units, Prefect Brinkman surrendered.
With the fighting now over, Isolde sent her confirmation
to the JumpShips, and on 12 May, Task Force Two jumped
out to Marantha.
As Isolde consolidated her forces on Booker, she noted
that the JumpShips that had brought the Hegemony forces
were still waiting at the zenith jump point. Upon interrogating
her Legio prisoners, she found that due to the sudden nature
of the strike they had been forced to rely upon trading cartel
JumpShips, rather than Hegemony ones.
With a glimmer of a plan in mind, she reached out to
the captain of the independent JumpShip, sending him a
proposition: if he took her forces to Marantha, she would pay
him for his time, as well as ensure that the Magistracy thought
well of him. Seeing that traveling empty would do no good for
him, he agreed, and Isolde made arrangements to secure the
planet. Leaving the First Canopian Brigade’s Second Battalion
behind, she left them the Marian DropShips and enough
salvage to begin to rebuild before lifting off to the jump point.
Upon arriving in the Marantha system, she found Task
Force Two’s DropShips preparing to land, but managed to
stop them before they could touch down, having them
take a high orbit to wait for the remaining DropShips. While
Colonel Gorman was not pleased to have to delay her landing,
Isolde had the Centrella diplomatic abilities in spades. Citing
the colonel’s preparation for the mission and a need to not
change the game plan at the last moment, she placed the First
Canopian Brigade colonel in overall tactical command, just
with a far stronger force than they had originally expected. Any
objections the Colonel might have had vanished immediately,
and on 25 May, they began a combat drop on the planet.
Unlike on Booker, the Second Battalion of the First
Magistracy Highlanders had been undergoing rest and
repairs and was completely unprepared for the arrival of
the Marian invaders. While the active units tried to do what
they could to repel Prefect Ferdinand Hurley’s forces, the
two undamaged companies were quickly overwhelmed and
destroyed. Unable to resist, the remaining Highlanders were
captured or hid among the civilian population. Focused upon
the bevy of equipment that he had just acquired, as well as
the lack of active resistance from the citizens of Marantha,
Prefect Hurley left most of the citizens alone. He created a
staging area well away from any cities, trusting in the lack of
opposition and their strength to keep his forces safe. While
he did send raiding parties to various local industries for food
and valuable supplies, Prefect Hurley saw his mission as being
a long-term one, and he attempted to keep things peaceful
with the local citizenry. Having been a party to a similar raid
in the past, the local government pledged cooperation and
encouraged the citizenry to do the same.
Thinking more quickly than his Booker counterpart, the
Prefect Hurley sent a message to his JumpShips, preparing
them to leave the system. He ordered his troops to gather
whatever equipment they could in commandeered
DropShips and sent them off towards Gambilon, where the
rest of IV Legio were stationed. Confident that his troops
could delay Magistracy forces until reinforcements could
arrive, the Prefect set up defensive positions in the extensive
cave system of a nearby mountain range, counting on the
high mineral content and defensible position to allow them
to resist all comers.
Colonel Gorman landed their force outside of the capital
of Dixonderoga and quickly moved to secure the city. Pleased
to not have to fight Marian forces near the civilians, the
colonel’s heavy units maintained a siege over the mountain,
while the lighter Brigade units attempted to find a way to
break through their defensive positions. The Magistracy forces
managed to maintain the siege for over a week until Prefect
Hurley attempted a breakout on 31 May, having seriously
underestimated the supplies needed to maintain their
defensive position. The Prefect sent the bulk of his cohorts into
the right flank of the siege line, where the natural topography
forced a break between the Magistracy units.
The battle was intense, with the Second Battalion of the
First Canopian Brigade taking severe damage. Only the timely
intervention of the Pride’s Third Battalion allowed them to
survive. Knowing that Prefect Hurley was likely uncertain of
their exact strength and the condition of the Marian troops
off-world, Isolde reached out for a parley. The Canopian
colonel showed Prefect Hurley proof of the total defeat
of the Marian forces on Booker and suggested that more
Canopians would reach Marantha within days. The Prefect,
having no intelligence of his own to counter these claims, was
Warrior's Luck 71
 EMPIRE ALONE
secure in the knowledge that he had already done his part
for the Hegemony. Given free passage to his DropShips and
JumpShips, Prefect Hurley left the world with his DropShip
bays overflowing in equipment and salvage. Having secured
a second world, the combined Canopian task forces began
planning their next assault on Gambilon.
A NOBLE SOLUTION
The Dragoons’ continuous raids on the Wolf Empire led
Star Colonel Othar to believe that the attacks represented
adventurism from the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey, not a full-
scale invasion force from the Free Worlds League in general.
This led him to rearrange his forces to concentrate on further
attacks from Tamarind. However, in late February through
early April, FWLM attacks on Tongatapu and New Olympia
forced him to rethink his strategy. Between the Silver Hawk
Irregulars and Covenant Worlds attacking along the spinward
border, the Dragoons action along the anti-spinward edge,
and the League’s prodding on the Empire’s rimward flank,
these new attacks cemented the notion that the Wolf Empire
was under attack from all quarters. And Terra remained silent.
On 9 May, an aligned group of Free Guild leaders
approached Othar on Gienah, with a proposal that they
believed would help combat the Empire’s shortage of able
warriors in a unique way. Most of these guildmasters were
former nobles from conquered Lyran Commonwealth or Free
Worlds League worlds. Unable or unwilling to conform to the
caste system of the Clans, they sought to better their lot by
leveraging their affiliation with the ilClan, thus leading to their
proposal. This coterie of former nobles understood the psyche
of the neighboring nations better than any Clan Wolf warrior
or Wolf civilian caste member, so their proposal banked on
the psychology of the plan rather than any military merits.
This cabal, led by Guildmaster Pravina of the Yellow
Sun Free Guild, petitioned Othar to allow them to form and
equip official militias on the planets on which their Free Guilds
operated. The difference between these new militias and
the extant ones was that the Free Guild-backed units would
muster under a Star League banner instead of a Clan Wolf
banner. The goal behind this distinction was threefold, and
two of these rationales played to the psychological angle that
Pravina championed.
The first rationale was internal. A Star League banner
would draw more recruits from Inner Sphere natives on Wolf
Empire worlds. Though many non-Clan inhabitants on Wolf
Empire worlds actively rankled at Clan Wolf’s control and
would refuse to join a Clan-led militia unless coerced, the Star
League concept was still seen as a unifying force, and those
who would refuse to fight for a Clan might have more pride
in fighting for a Star League.
The second reason was external. An enemy force that
encountered a Clan Wolf militia would not hesitate to attack
72 A Noble Solution
and destroy them with impunity, but if that same force
realized they were going up against a unit bearing Star League
colors and insignia, it might give them pause. An Inner Sphere
nation would see Clan Wolf as a single entity, but they would
see the Star League as something larger than a single Clan, an
entity not worth making an enemy of until they knew what
that entity truly represented. And due to the deficiencies
in interstellar communications during the Blackout, enemy
nations had no way of swiftly corroborating the state of any
Star League—how many member-states it had, how large
the new Star League Defense Force was, and so forth. Given
that not even Terra had sent Othar any roadmap outlining
the form and structure of a Star League or a new SLDF, these
Star League banners would work as an effective deterrent.
The third rationale was a practical matter: these Star
League militias, if officially approved by the ilKhan once
communications with Terra resumed, could easily form the
foundation of the new SLDF. If the Clans’ toumans would be
absorbed into the SLDF structure in some capacity, Pravina
argued that the SLDF would one day need to expand to
incorporate freeborn Inner Sphere natives, and these new
militias would serve as an easily expandable proof of concept
to the ilKhan.
Othar weighed the pros and cons of the guildmasters’
arguments. Though the benefits seemed to exceed the
detriments, he saw three obstacles. First, according to Clan
law, the Free Guilds fell under the control of the ilClan, and
though Othar was the viceroy of the Wolf Empire, enacting
such a monumental program without the ilKhan’s approval
would likely result in, at best, a disciplinary action. Second,
militia insinuates that they’d recruit from civilian castes, which
would break the caste lines and would, by nature, be chalcas.
Third, Othar saw through the cabal’s true goal: not only
would equipping these militias line the Free Guilds’ coffers,
it would also allow these nobles to regain a good measure
of the power and affluence that Clan Wolf’s conquests had
taken from them, and this new power would be derived from
the ilClan.
Othar denied the request, but he sent the proposal
to Terra regardless. While he awaited an answer—or any
answer—from the ilKhan, he tasked his Watch agents with
increasing their scrutiny of the Free Guild leaders. The
guildmasters could be a valuable asset to the Empire, but if
their power went unchallenged, Othar feared that they could
eventually become a threat.
KNIFE TO THE HILT
By the time Isolde Centrella’s forces left Marantha,
additional forces, namely the Third Canopian Cuirassiers, the
Second Canopian Light Horse, and the mercenary Markson’s
Marauders, had arrived. On 9 June, Isolde’s force jumped
into the Gambilon system and on the next day so would her
 EMPIRE ALONE
reinforcements. The arrival of four regiments of troops quickly
dispelled any notion of holding the system, and Prefect
McNeill ordered his forces to escape the system, suffering
no casualties.
Isolde was quick to redeploy her forces. Using the
Second Light Horse, she had them assist the First Highlanders’
survivors in rebuilding and protecting the recently recaptured
worlds. Using their JumpShip assets, Magistracy forces would
jump into the Marian Hegemony, taking the battle to them
and finally putting an end to their predations.
On 18 June, the newly named Task Force Alpha,
composed of the reformed First Canopian Brigade and
Gabrielle’s Pride, jumped for Ballalaba, with Task Force Beta,
made up of the Third Canopian Cuirassiers and Markson’s
Marauders, moved to return to Islington. While Isolde was
certain that the independent world of Thraxa had been
the staging point for these attacks on the Magistracy,
she suspected that retreating Marian forces might have
retaken the two traditionally Marian worlds. By moving MAF
regiments to attack both Marian planets once more, Isolde’s
troops would cut off Thraxa, which could be dealt with in
time. Before departure, Isolde Centrella sent a personally
recorded tri-vid communication to Canopus.
74 Into the Wolf's Den
By mid-June, the news of her first victory had reached
Canopus IV, and the Magistracy public relations machine
could not spend enough time on focusing on her victories.
Her relationship to the current and former regent seemed
to be mentioned in every broadcast, and she was already
being touted in some circles as a potential successor to
the Magestrix. Upon the revelation that Isolde had driven
the Marians off of a second planet, the Canopian citizenry
went wild, all displeasure at the ruling line seeming to
evaporate overnight. While displeasure with their absentee
Magestrix was high, the fact that a Centrella was leading their
government and a Centrella was on the front lines, driving the
Marian invaders back against all odds, made for impressive
news. A wealthy citizen, who wished to remain nameless,
promptly offered up the money to make Isolde a general,
and she was quickly confirmed by the MAF and the regent,
her mother, which also helped to confirm her as theater
commander for the defense against the Magistracy.
In late July, word of the Marians’ flight from Gambilon
reached Canopus, along with Isolde Centrella’s recording. Her
message, eventually shared countless times throughout the
Magistracy, explained her task force’s planned offensive into
the Marian Hegemony and their ultimate destination.
Alphard.
INTO THE WOLF’S DEN
The true challenge of Star Colonel Othar’s
stewardship of the Wolf Empire arrived on 6 June 3152.
With no prior warning, a familiar Wolf’s Dragoons
battalion arrived on Gienah, capital of the
Wolf Empire.
This feat stunned Othar and his
officers, as such a deep strike would have
required the Dragoons to make multiple
jumps through uninhabited systems to
avoid detection, which ran the risk of
stranding the entire unit if its JumpShip
had experienced mechanical failures. Othar
expressed his admiration for the Dragoons’ audacity and
courage and offered them a proper batchall, to bid for
the defense of the planet. The Dragoons ignored his offer,
however, and began combat operations without further
communications.
While the mercenaries’ DropShips made planetfall, their
heavy aerospace wing cleared low orbit of surveillance and
communications satellites to hamper the Wolves’ operations.
The Dragoons’ DropShips then grounded on Alliago Major and
deployed an inexorable wave of assault ’Mechs that advanced
on the Wolf Empire’s capital of Alliago City. During
their march they engaged Othar’s Den Keshik
and the Ninety-First Wolf Guards
Cluster in brutal combat.

WHERE IS THE
ILCLAN?
To all of you out there listening, I just want
to say that you are seen and heard, and the
time to take action is now.
It doesn’t matter that New Olympia has
Clan Wolf flags planted everywhere you look.
It doesn’t matter that Clan Wolf warriors patrol
the halls of the Allison MechWarrior Institute
or the Lloyd Marik-Stanley Aerospace School
to ensure we all stay in line and learn what
they tell us to learn. The allegiance of a planet
belongs in the hearts and minds of its people
and not in the flags and patches of its occupiers
and oppressors. They claim to have honor, but
we all have heart.
They have controlled this planet long
enough to know that mere threats have lost
their impact on us, so now they browbeat us
with different, larger threats. They speak of an
ilClan, the Clan above all Clans, on Terra, of an
ilKhan whose vengeance upon rebellious and
recalcitrant populations of his new Star League
will be swift and merciless.
And yet where are they? Where, I ask,
is this vaunted ilClan? Nothing, except the
bloviating announcement of Clan Wolf allegedly
triumphing over Stone’s Republic, has come
from Terra in nearly a year. The only thing
oppressing us is a lie and our shared belief in
that lie.
Have you seen these Wolves patrolling
our campuses and cities? Most of them aren’t
truly Wolves to begin with. They’re Inner Sphere
recruits with Clan Wolf patches slapped on their
shoulders. Most of them don’t even have ’Mechs,
which is a grand irony, considering the Allison
school once had more trainer ’Mechs than our
so-called protectors did.
The real truth is that there is no ilClan
coming to visit holy retribution down on us. No
ilKhan will come marauding out of Terra on a
golden chariot. We must take our future into
our own hands and erase this shared lie from
our planet.
—Pirate media broadcast from
Darienbad, New Olympia, 8 March 3152
76 Broken Accord
EMPIRE ALONE
By 11 June, the remaining ’Mechs of Othar’s Den Keshik had withdrawn into
the center of Alliago City to regroup. The Dragoons followed and caught the Star
Colonel’s command Star in a pincer attack. After a blistering firefight, Othar’s
Blood Reaper fell to Dragoons fire, but his Starmates shielded him and escorted
him to safety outside the city limits. Though many Wolves still remained to fight,
the capital city of the Wolf Empire’s capital belonged to the Dragoons.
But the invaders seemingly had no interest in staying.
On 12 June, after six days of unrelenting combat, the survivors of the Wolf’s
Dragoons battalion returned to their DropShips. Within hours, they lifted off and
returned to their JumpShip, leaving behind a broken and shattered garrison force
commanded by a humbled Star Colonel Othar.
The Dragoons had stolen more than just the Wolf Empire’s pride. They had
proven that the realm of the ilClan could be hurt. And still the silence from Terra
persisted.
BROKEN ACCORD
The FWLM’s success on Tongatapu was a double-edged sword. Although the
attack had proven successful and demonstrated the reliability and patriotism of
Regulan troops, the unexpected strength of the Wolf Empire garrison gave Makeda
Kay cause for concern. Instead of recommending a fresh garrison force be assigned
to the planet, Makeda advocated for a battalion of the Third Free Worlds Guards to
remain while the rest of Task Force Accord moved on to their next target.
New Olympia, home of the prestigious Allison MechWarrior Institute and
the Lloyd Marik-Stanley Aerospace School, represented a major source of trained
Wolf warriors. The LCCC knew that any blow struck on New Olympia would deny
further warriors to the ilClan and curtail the Empire’s capability to endanger the
Free Worlds League.
On 5 April, the remaining elements of Task Force Accord grounded on the
island continent of Olympica, intent on besieging the Allison school. Not only
did the Wolf cadets pilot ’Mechs to defend the academy, the 105th Wolf Garrison
Cluster was also lying in wait. Though the cadets fought from prepared defenses,
the 105th ran a similar campaign of strike-and-fade attacks that the 103rd had
employed on Tongatapu.
This time, however, the 105th’s stalling tactics reaped dividends. On 15
April, the Ninety-Fourth Wolf Battle Cluster arrived at a pirate point near New
Olympia’s moon and performed orbital drops into the middle of the Fourth
Regulan Hussars’ cantonment. Makeda and Colonel Damri’s command company
were surrounded.
Colonel Damri contacted the Colonel Natalia Hensley of the Third Free
Worlds Guards for assistance, but the Third sent no aid. As Regulan troops were
being destroyed left and right, the Fourth believed the Third had finally decided
to let their anti-Regulus prejudice rise to the surface, and in a moment, that
could spell the Fourth’s destruction. On 16 April, two companies of the Third
Guards finally arrived to assist the Fourth—but it was too little, too late: the
Fourth blamed the Third for deliberately letting so many of their number die.
However, Colonel Damri quickly learned that the Third’s delay was of necessity,
not enmity: Wolf aerospace strikes had shot down the Third Free Worlds Guards’
DropShip bearing the intended relief force—all hands lost—so it took Colonel
Hensley time to arrange another.
Foremost among the Fourth’s losses was Makeda Kay. She had been killed
when one of the Wolves’ recon Stars had slipped the Fourth’s perimeter and
destroyed their temporary HQ in hopes of blinding them. Makeda’s death
 THE RAGING STORM
left a noticeable void among the task force. The Third had
appreciated her invaluable insight into the Regulans’ tactics
and traditions, and the Fourth knew she had advocated
for the entire Regulan Hussars brigade when no one
else would.
UNANIMOUS SUPPORT
By the end of April, neither Task Force Accord nor the Wolf
Empire forces had gained the upper hand on New Olympia.
Both sides had dug in and refused to budge. While the FWLM
troops saw this potential conquest as a decisive blow to Clan
Wolf, the Ninety-Fourth and 103rd saw this battle as a fight
for securing the future of the Wolf Empire.
News of Makeda Kay’s death reached Atreus in early
June. Nikol Marik mourned her friend’s passing, and in a
TRUE PURPOSE
>>>GIEN/LABOR-CHAT/CW-PUB#912<<27members>>
>Canid685: I must have missed something, but what
was the point of Wolf’s Dragoons attacking us
last week?
>LoboCaste: Aff, it’s like they picked a fight and
left when they were winning
>FangAndPaw: Were they actually winning though…?
>Canid685: I mean, we’re here in the middle of the
Empire. Seems like an awful long way for the
Dragoons to go for a simple smash-and-grab
>Howler17: @Canid685, this is another of your half-
baked conspiracy theories, quiaff?
>MisLycanthrope: The Dragoons are mad though. They
don’t need another reason
>LoboCaste: Neg, @Canid685. This was done as an
insult, to prove the Dragoons can beard the lion—
er, wolf—inside its den. That was their only goal
>Canid685: But the Dragoons do nothing haphazardly.
They know exactly what they are doing.
>Howler17: I don’t care what they came for. I’m just
glad they didn’t hit Warehouse B-20. Team spent
about twenty hours fixing the hydraulics on the
jammed-up main doors the week before the ’Goons
showed up, and I do not want to do that again…
>FangAndPaw: @Canid685 Why are we talking about
military matters? They’re not our concern. Leave
warrior-ing to the warrior caste. Instead tell me
if you know anything about why I keep hearing
about changes to our rationing schedules
rousing speech before Parliament, she held Makeda up as
an example, highlighting her patriotism and the lengths to
which Regulans would go to prove that they belonged in
the FWLM. Moved by Makeda’s sacrifice, Parliament held an
emergency vote on a quickly drafted measure to approve
funding for continuing the fight against the Wolf Empire,
despite the ceasefire brokered with the Clan Protectorate
forces. Where so far the thrusts by the Silver Hawk Irregulars,
the Covenant Guards, and Task Force Accord had been as
knife wounds to the Empire, a widened conflict would act
as a spear. The vote passed, with nearly unanimous support;
only the MPs from the Clan Protectorate openly opposed
its passage.
On 28 June 3152, the FWLM launched its first wave of
open assault on the Wolf Empire.
>Canid685: @LoboCaste I agree. This was a calculated
strike. I think we just disagree on the reason
>Canid685: I think we need to look deeper at what
the Dragoons did. Otherwise the risk-to-reward
ratio makes no sense
>Loader1178: the dragoons got mauled, and they blame
us, so it’s no wonder they are attacking us
>FangAndPaw: But their defeat on Terra was their own
fault, not ours
>Loader1178: maybe, maybe not
>Loader1178: none of us were on terra *shrug*
>FangAndPaw: [Reply: @Loader1178: “none of us were
on terra”] Are you insinuating that we’ve been
lied to about how the Dragoons were defeated
on Terra?!
>Loader1178: neg, @FangAndPaw, i think we just don’t
have the whole story
>FangAndPaw: @Loader1178 Traitorous surat! I should
report you for treason against the ilKhan!!!
>Loader1178: <<Message deleted by moderator>>
>LoboCaste: Cool it, trothkin. This isn’t a bandit
caste Chatterweb
>FangAndPaw: <<Message deleted by moderator>>
>Loader1178: <<Message deleted by moderator>>
>FangAndPaw: <<Message deleted by moderator>>
<<User @Loader1178 banned from CW-PUB#912>>
<<User @FangAndPaw muted for 30 minutes>>
—Gienah Chatterweb download, 14 June 3152
Unanimous Support 77
 Jatznik Lyndon Surcin
Ormstown Pobeda Meacham Caldr
Upano
Triesting Kerensky's Blue Diamond Shirotori
Tapihue Saravan Alma Alta Odessa Vision Grumium
Alekseyevka
Reese Station Richvale Vorzel Garrison Al Hillah
Westerstede Arcturus Fatima
Akfata Virtue
Horneburg Cameron
Morningside Orestes Camlann Trollo
Pherkad
Pocologan Ciampino Ganshoren
Tiruppur Greenlaw Ginestra Lucianca Port Moseby

EMPIRE ALONE
Ferihegy Vermezzo Forkas Crevedia Leganes Dalkeith
Timbuktu Kostinbrod Quilino Gibbs Donegal
Minderoo Apostica Sakhalin Buckminster
Dawn Sapienza Kvistgard Eutin Tharkad Kockengen Breukelen Symington Accrington
Vihtijarvi Noisiel
Duran Tetersen Aubisson
Wiltshire Kaumberg
Firenze Nuneaton Hillerod Eaglesham
Porrima Carstairs Auldhouse
Aur Phalan Shionoha Sh
Halifax Kladnitsa Calafell Veckholm Yed Prior
Kirkcaldy Corridan IV
Enzesfled Abejorral
Coldbrook Vendrell Cebalrai
Batajnica Callisto V Edasich
Mesa Verde Alexandria
Yed Posterior Baxter Tsukude
Thuban Alnasi
Novara York Svinngarn
Mercedes Eaton New Wessex Altais
Stanley Lancaster Smolnik Vega
Gallery Colinas Enkoping Freedom Kimball II
Whittington Eltanin
Halmyre Deans Marfik
Aiguebelle Alya
Hinckley Jaumegarde Izar Konstance
Rijeka Turinge Nekkar Kaus Borealis S
Zaprudy Laurieston Komephoros
Karkkila Rapla Ryde
Carlisle Chukchi III Zebeneschamali Kaus Australis
Chiavenna Bjornlunda Kessel
Venaria Mezzana Chaffee Carnwath Kaus Media
La Blon Alrakis
borg Florida Furillo Glengarry Unukalhai
Ciotat Gladius Ascella
Dromini VI Moore
Enders Cluster (10) Urjala Alphecca Kuzuu
Trent Canonbie
Aristotle Seginus Kochab
Premana Czarvowo Skondia Sabik
Aberystwyth Eidsfoss Skye Lambrecht
Uzhgorod Laiaka
Zvolen Clinton Alkaid Alkalurops Atria Kervil
Ayacucho Rosice
New India Sierpc Zebebelgenubi Ko Dyev
Medzev Kitzingen Soilihull Hesperus II
Radostov Arganda Nusakan
Drosendorf Syrma Imbros III Pike IV
Valloire Acrux Carsphairn
Caledonia Galatea Lyons
Athenry
Buena Hollabrunn Sarpsborg Lamon Summer
Herzberg Alcor Mizar Styx
Gypsum Vindemiatrix D
Mariefred Zollikofen Asta
Algorab Menkent Nir
Cruz Alta Binyang Fianna Muphrid Yorii Dieron
Revivim Finsterwalde Eilenburg
Danxian Cor Caroli Alioth Thorin
Al Jafr Dar-es-Salaam Altair Saffel Q
Bolan New Kyoto Gacrux Lipton New EarthRigil Kentarus
Loburg Zwenkau Rahne Alchiba Milton
Sarikavak Inchicore Ellijay Senftenberg Zaniah Chara Fomalhaut
Maisons Denebola Zavijava
Ilzra Hyde Phecda Alula Australis Caph
Arcadia Terra
Solaris Wyatt Sirius
Zosma Oliver Northwind
Shahr Kord Kamenz Launam Shiloh Wing Graham IV Keid
Bobruisk Devil's Rock New Home Epsilon
Procyon
Biloela Uhuru Rochelle Alhena Bryant
Teyvareb Gienah Marcus Castor Pollux Shera
Zdice Chertan Dubhe
Kalidasa Liberty
Rajkot Dixie Amity Alkes Epsilon Eridani Fle
Stantsiya Dieudonne Callison
Althastan Giausar Nestor Talitha Terra Firma
Abramkovo Ford Concord Bordon Woo
Loric New Hope Remulac Connaught
Son Hoa Outreach
Madiun Capolla
Bella I Savannah Acama
Colfax Megrez Danais Stewart Van Diemen IV
Andiron Cavanaugh II Alula Borealis McAffe Bondurant Adhafera Acubens Hall Elgin
Khon Kaen Penobscot Cascade Nathan
Togwotee Irian Hsien
Timbiqui Tania Borealis Alphard Nanking
Pencader
Nockatunga Trellisane Sheridan Miaplacidus Wasat Zurich
Baltazar III Epsilon Thermopolis Gannett Helm
Pingree Tall Trees Aldebara
Diedre's Den Merak Berenson Saiph
Millungera Tania Australis
Labouchere Rexburg
Menkalinan Liao
Galisteo Promised Land Preston Sterling Augustine
New Canton
Gallatin
Griffith Zortman Bedeque Marik
Saltillo Tamarind Niihau Gan S
Thadora's Land Clayborne II Cerillos Avellaneda Hamilton
Bainsville Angell II Zion
Alorton Kosciusko Autumn Wind Bernardo Kyrkbacken
Schererville Lancaster
Rasalas Abadan
Simpson Desert
Ideyld Ariel
Dalcour Shasta Oceana
Edmondson Holt Ibstock Asuncion
Zorn's Keep Loongana Washburn Keystone
ntleff Mundrabilla Asellus Australis Park Place Suzano
Coriscana
Sierra Maderas Midkiff Campbelton Dickinson Asellus Borealis Ling
Maxwell Ohrensen Second Try
Kilarney Drusibacken
Merton Curaumilla Eromanga Laureles Kirkenlaard
Lungdo Yunnah
Sorunda Gomeisa Ventabren
Kakada Escobas
Maximillian Manotick Elnath
Sackville Albert Falls Second Chance
Silver Conakry New Olympia Sophie's World McKenna Phact
Hammer Nova Roma Corey
Ula
Gibraltar Ashburton Tongatapu New Delos Harsefeld Wazan
Aylmer Chalouba Emris IV Old Kentucky
Schiedam Loyalty Fuentes Q
Tchamba Tiber Chamdo
Tormentine Kyeinnisan
Ionus Tsinghai
Valerius Cajamarca Alterf
Wolof Aitutaki Campertown Raballa Bo
Hazeldean Bowang Vanra Hassad
Manihiki Semenyih
Home Avior Lesalles
Atreus Ingersoll
Lepaterique
San Nicolas Trinidad Harmony Matheran
Illyria Kiyev Ca
Carbonis Bithinia
Atzenbrugg Kogl Valil'yevskiy Cielo Bandora
Norfolk Newcastle Hellos Minor Regulus Muscida Daneshmand Les Halles
Panjang Ibarra G
Trondheimal Elektrougli Eom Propus
ario Huntington Tuamotu Masterson
Aconcagua Salur
Kutludugun Futuna Wallis Cordiagr Aldert
Trasjkis Boardwalk
Molokai Kashilla
Cameron Dayr Khuna
Karakiraz Ngake
Reykavis Landfall Kendall Stotzing
Mackenzie Faleolo Loeches Calloway VI Jasmine Exedor Kurragin
Clipperton Ovan
Leximon
The Institute Jubka Westover Calpaca Preston Glasgo
Tapachula Jouques Maritgues Oriente
ssa Lahti Anegasaki Shuen Wan
Hednesford Rzhishchev Ankolika Shenwan Krin
Prato Chagos Fujidera Pella II Hexare H
Corbeanca Ghaziabad Dalton Sian
Jiddah Hongqiao Camlann Milnerton Ipswich Bentley Ne
Ellsworth Olafsvik Goodna Imalda
Isabela Fadiffolu Dalrymple Frondas
Goth Khakar Karachi Nullarbor
Romita Hiratsuka Chilung Iknogoro
Katlehong Cronulla Fronde Castrovia
Lengkong Vosloorus Mansu-ri
Niops V Diass Vikindu
Niops VI Kwamashu Kujari
Niops VII Tohelet Bismarck Fieferana Cirebon Altorra Claxton Carmen
Lesnovo Tematagi Barlaston Wallacia
Antipolo
Mankova El Giza Scarborough
Negushevo Wilkes Kearny Ito
Guangzho Westerhand Hous
Howrah Mauripur
Al Jubaylah Mosiro Furud Palladaine
Yanchep
Hudeiba

MAP KEY
Latice
Campoleone Bayindir Wisconsin Siendou
Addhara Sharqah Cole Harbour Wright
w Venice Shiro III
Gatchina Ayn Tarma
Deschenes Gra
Betelgeuse
Stafford
Alphard Glevakha Rohinjan Skvorec Capellan Confederation
Astrokaszy Tellman's Mistake Cap Rouge Kanata Conquista
Kasdach

Payvand
Saonara Clan Protectorate Sigma Mare
Suetonius Andurien
Pompey Ruschegg P
Meadowvale Ryerson
Duchy of Andurien Shiba Dicon

THE FREE LEGEND

Scheuerheck Pr
Baccalieu Granera Xanthe III Lurgatan
Obrenovac Watermael Ingonish Free Worlds League

WORLDS
Horatius Eleusis Niomede
Lyran Commonwealth
Leyda
Villanueva Cursa
Sadurni
Barras
Bass Principia Kurva
Vakarel
Marius's Tears Ballalaba 30 LIGHT YEARS
Booker Gouderak
Magistracy of Canopus Calseraigne
LEAGUE
Bethonolog Piriapolis
Umka Fagerholm
Islington
Marantha
Afarsin Marian hegemony
Butzfleth Claybrooke Turin
Drozan

JUNE 3152
Thraxa 60 LIGHT YEARS OR 18.4 PARSECS Pilpala Sax
Algenib Gambilon
Gallis Aspropirgos Unaligned Worlds
Thurrock
MAXIMUM JUMP: APPROXIMATELY 30 LIGHT YEARS
Lindenmarle Zathras Andarmax Jacomarle Gun
Vixen
Royal Foxx Canopus IV
Wolf Empire Repulse
Tarol IV Fanardir
Re
New Roland
Palladix
Megarez Borgan's Rift
Candiear Adherlwin Liu's Memory Wyeth's Glory
Jia Tian
Techne's Revenge
Early Dawn
Lockton Cluff's Stand
T
Wildwood Krimari Joppa
Harminous Detroit
78
Joyz
The Free Worlds League June 3152 Brixtana New Abilene
 Angell II
Autumn Wind Lancaster Bernardo Kyrkbacken

Rasalas Abadan Shensi

Ideyld Ariel Styk
Shasta Oceana St. And
Holt Ibstock Asuncion
Washburn Keystone
Midkiff
Coriscana
Campbelton Dickinson THE RAGING
Asellus Australis
Asellus Borealis
STORM
Ling
Park Place
Ohrensen
Suzano Tsitsang
W
Drusibacken Second Try
Kirkenlaard Palos
Laureles Yunnah
Lungdo Sorunda Gomeisa Ventabren Zaura
Escobas Elnath Men
New Olympia Sophie's World McKenna Second Chance
Nova Roma Phact M
Corey
Ulan Bator
Tongatapu New Delos Harsefeld Wazan Sa
Emris IV Old Kentucky
Loyalty Fuentes Quemoy Ka
Tiber Chamdo
Kyeinnisan
Ionus Tsinghai
Alterf Sarna
Aitutaki Vanra Campertown Raballa Bora
Manihiki Semenyih Hassad Sarmaxa
Avior Lesalles
Atreus Ingersoll
Harmony Matheran Randa
Kiyev Capella
Carbonis Bithinia
Bandora No Return
Norfolk Newcastle Hellos Minor Regulus Daneshmand Les Halles
Muscida Elektrougli Propus Geifer
otu Eom
Salur Masterson Rele
Futuna Wallis Cordiagr Aldertaine Gei-Fu
Boardwalk Kashilla
Cameron Dayr Khuna
Ngake
Faleolo Loeches Calloway VI Jasmine Exedor Kurragin
Ovan
Overton
Calpaca Preston
Jouques Maritgues Oriente Glasgow
Anegasaki Ve
Shuen Wan
Ankolika Shenwan Krin Milos
Fujidera Pella II Hexare Harloc
Den
Dalton Sian
Hongqiao Camlann Milnerton Ipswich Bentley New Westin
Ellsworth Olafsvik Goodna Imalda
Dalrymple Frondas
Nullarbor Hustaing
Chilung Iknogoro
Katlehong Cronulla Fronde Castrovia Decus
Vosloorus Mansu-ri
Diass Vikindu
Kwamashu Kujari Purvo
Fieferana Cirebon Altorra Claxton Zilia
Carmen
Barlaston Wallacia Sendalor
Antipolo
El Giza Scarborough
Wilkes Kearny Ito
Guangzho Westerhand Housekarle
Howrah Mauripur
Al Jubaylah Mosiro Furud Palladaine
Yanchep Homestead
Hudeiba Latice
Wisconsin Siendou Wright
Sharqah Cole Harbour Shiro III
Ayn Tarma
Deschenes Grand Base
Betelgeuse
Glevakha Rohinjan Ho
Skvorec Nihal
Cap Rouge Kanata Conquista
Kasdach
Saonara Raphael
Sigma Mare
Payvand Andurien
Ruschegg Ryerson Primus
Meadowvale Shiba Dicon
Scheuerheck Prix
Granera Xanthe III Lurgatan
Obrenovac Watermael Ingonish Decatur
Eleusis Niomede
Sadurni
Leyda Barras
Bass Villanueva Cursa Principia
Vakarel Kurvasa Bellatrix
er Gouderak
Bethonolog Piriapolis
Umka Calseraigne
Fagerholm Borden
Afarsin Turin
Butzfleth Claybrooke Drozan E
Pilpala Sax
Gallis Aspropirgos Thurrock

Lindenmarle Zathras Andarmax Jacomarle Gunthar Ca

Royal Foxx Canopus IV Repulse

Fanardir MAP KEY
LEGEND
Tarol IV Renown

THE DUCHY New Roland

Capellan Confederation

OF ANDURIEN
x
Megarez Borgan's Rift
30 LIGHT YEARS Duchy of Andurien
Candiear Adherlwin Wyeth's Glory
Free Worlds League
JUNE 3152
Liu's Memory
Jia Tian Magistracy of Canopus
echne's Revenge 60 LIGHT YEARS OR 18.4 PARSECS

Early Dawn Unaligned Worlds Her

Lockton
MAXIMUM JUMP: APPROXIMATELY 30 LIGHT YEARS
Cluff's Stand
Tincalunas
Wildwood Krimari Joppa
Harminous Detroit
Joyz Ma
Brixtana New Abilene

Trznadel Cluster
(60) The Duchy of Andurien June 3152 79
Appian
 INTERSTELLAR
PLAYERS

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to maintain the status quo resulted in a monumental their support behind an ilKhan.
nulla conestibus dolore impelit atecto et accullacest qui in recum idernate laccuptaquo volessimet quidion seditat
responsibility that fell on the shoulders of a single Star As the Capellan Confederation poised to strike Terra,
culparum fuga. Nempor asped ut vellis et dolum qui ut dit ius enima quaerum fugiant, se vel mo molupta ipidit,
Colonel, a leader forced to carry forth the will of the absent turmoil and the harbingers of betrayal cast a shadow over the
ad eos ipsapere pro maionet exerfer oresed mi, autatemporro ommolenimin eum ut fuga. Ut acestiorum acepedisquo tem
ilKhan. If he was to have any hope of living up to the ilClan’s Confederation and its allies. Duke Ari Humphreys of Andurien
cones et dolent, unt exerios eat. ad molorum aut rat vellant iumquia sequiae nem aperiaeped
ideals, he must navigate through unforeseen political chafed at his ties to the Confederation, and his wife, Magestrix
Xerunt.and
minefields At fugia inventoknives
the hidden magnim a cus pa that
of enemies ne consequam
beset him est,
Ilsa conseque
Centrella, modi dollorepero
nursed her own elecestrum
rivalry withfugia sima nullum
her brother, the
on every side—including a powerful enemy whoexceptam,
volesed itatiusantia sam everferrum del iur, sim declared etur
Chancellor of the Confederation. Could a single misstepquibus
aut velictor sam, nist laborepel imolupicimi, omnis in the
nulparum
him guilty conseque laborepudam
by association faccati sinciis cum accae
with the ilKhan. maximi, nullibu ignite
wrong direction sdamus therest occumquo
tinderbox totae.
of this Idersperrum
tenuous alliance?
si accupta temporum
In the Free Worldseum ideliti
League, ntionsero
a lone blaccum
count fueled repedit
by the loss reperi quam vollab is perupti nctio. Ut
The following chapter describes the powersaut estiae la que veliae.
and
quae ne illiquatem diosam incium fuga. Pore
of his ancestral homeworld gathered many to his cause, yet vel modicitae Cuptamus
personalitiessinctur?
that played pivotal roles in shaping the future
iuntiant
the parunt
only one with aut
anyvolupta
hope ofvoluptatio.
swaying him Ut from
la sam, nus simus
a destructive Vid ut
of these enemped ut dolupta tquaerunt, sumet eium ius ad
nations.
descide llibus eaquiditiam re volut ratiat. expliciuntem faccus dolorae venimin ped maximag nimagnat

81
 EMPIRE ALONE
FACTIONS
WOLF EMPIRE
History, as is often
said, repeats itself, and
Clan Wolf’s last decade
serves as a tangible
example. The Clan Wolf
nation that Seth Ward
established in 3142—a
true Inner Sphere nation,
not a Clan occupation
Zone—had been formed
by the Clan uprooting in its entirety from
worlds it had held since the Clan Invasion
nearly a century earlier and carving out a
giant swath of space close enough to pounce
on Terra itself. Then, to make that pounce on the
Clans’ ultimate prize, the Wolves seemingly abandoned
their entire nation again, in order to send every worthy Wolf
warrior to Terra. In the context of history, the Wolf Empire
seemed to appear in Lyran space nearly overnight, and many
observers expected it to disappear almost as quickly—much
like the balkanization of the Hinterlands, the former Jade
Falcon Occupation Zone—as a consequence of the events
that happened on Terra in the first half of 3151.
But the Wolf Empire was not as abandoned or empty
as assumed. To facilitate the movement on Terra, Alaric
had stripped all but a handful of his warrior caste from the
Empire and brought along enough technician and laborer
caste members to maintain successful combat operations
during the months-long battle against the Republic of the
Sphere and Clan Jade Falcon. However the bulk of those left
behind consisted of the entire scientist and merchant caste,
the vast majority of the laborer caste, and a tiny percentage
of technicians and warriors.
The warriors left behind represented those deemed
unfit or unable for the glory of fighting and dying on Terra—
solahma cannon fodder, sibko cadets, and paramilitary
police—but this represented a far more significant number
of potential combatants than many realized. Although Star
Colonel Othar felt the deck was stacked against him when he
assumed command of the Empire in Alaric’s absence, he took
the warriors and cadets he had, paired them with military
output from the Empire’s manufactories, and forged them
into new units capable of mounting an effective defense
where there was none before. This move had led to only a
minor contraction of the Empire’s post-Battle of Terra territory
rather than the anticipated catastrophic collapse.
82 Wolf Empire
The biggest chal-
lenge confronting
the Empire itself was
social, not military.
The nation’s people,
from the laborer
caste all the way up,
expressed two justi-
fied fears. The first
was that the ilKhan
deliberately abandoned the Empire to
fend for itself, and whatever worlds were
conquered during his absence could be
eventually retaken at leisure. The second fear was that
the ilKhan saw the true ilClan as being on Terra and the
rest of the Wolf Empire merely serving as a colony; that is,
the Empire was still Clan Wolf but was not truly ilClan. The
palpable silence from Terra itself since Alaric declared him-
self ilKhan had only reinforced this notion. Fortunately, the
Free Guilds operating within the Empire had not embraced
this philosophy: according to Clan law, the Free Guilds, even
those operating in Clan nations that had not yet bent the
knee to Alaric, fell under the legal jurisdiction and command
of the ilClan, which afforded Free Guilders greater social and
economic influence than they held before. This influence
could potentially be the rising tide that might lift all of the
Empire’s boats.
But the Empire was not without military concerns. An
alarming lack of military activity in the corridor of Empire
worlds stretching toward Terra had put that region on
high alert, for fear that the silence was prelude to invasion.
A concentrated attack from the Free Worlds League, the
Rasalhague Dominion, or even former Republic troops
could potentially cut Terra off from the rest of the Empire,
and the distance of these worlds from the Empire’s capital
of Gienah, compounded with the continuing HPG Blackout,
would preclude Othar’s ability to reinforce the region. The
true national-defense concern involved the devastating
raids and assaults by Wolf’s Dragoons along the Empire’s
vulnerable rear. The Dragoons had proven that, despite
the casualties they suffered on Terra, their campaign of
vengeance magnified their effectiveness. Fortunately, Star
Colonel Jacinda proved that they were not an unbeatable
force of nature.
 FACTIONS
DEN KESHIK
COMMAND
The Den Keshik is the com-
mand and bodyguard Supernova
Trinary of Star Colonel Othar. The
Keshik’s MechWarriors and Elementals
were all mostly solahma, with a few notable
exceptions. As the first unit raised in Othar’s
new Wolf Empire Touman, the Keshik took its responsibilities
quite seriously.
The Den Keshik is led by Star Captain Radu, the young
warrior who often acted as Othar’s second. Radu, one of the
first to test into the warrior caste after word of the victory
on Terra, was often held up as an exemplar of the new Wolf
units’ purpose: to fulfill the duty of Clan Wolf warriors, even
as the ilClan. At the other end was the Den Keshik’s senior
Elemental, Star Colonel Ricard. A former sibko instructor, the
horribly-scarred Ricard represented the solahma warriors
in the Empire’s ranks. Ricard was a fiercely loyal and proud
servant of the Clan Wolf. Disabled in the capture of Gienah
when the Wolf Empire was won, Ricard underwent risky and
experimental medical treatment to allow him to pilot an
ungainly assault battle armor suit and return to active duty.
Together, these two warriors were used as examples of the
success of Othar’s new units.
The Den Keshik deployed the best ’Mechs, battle
armor, and combat vehicles that could still be obtained or
manufactured in the Wolf Empire, and painted its equipment
in standard Wolf gray with crimson highlights.
94TH WOLF
94
BATTLE CLUSTER
The Ninety-Fourth Wolf
Battle Cluster arose from
Star Colonel Othar’s Lupus
Galaxy initiative, which
formed functional front-line
Clusters from the disparate warriors
and sibko cadets remaining in the Wolf
Empire. Though not the premier Cluster of Lupus Galaxy,
the Ninety-Fourth was the first of the so-called Gray Wolves
Clusters to fully muster, and thus had more time to train and
prepare for combat duty than other Clusters.
Affectionately called the “Old Man’s Brigade,” the Ninety-
Fourth boasted more former-MechWarrior solahma among its
ranks than any other Cluster in the Galaxy. Many of them were
drawn from conventional solahma infantry units that were
disbanded to repurpose them for the initiative. This required
most of these reinstated MechWarriors to retrain on their
equipment to reach a desired proficiency, but many fell into
their new role with ease, as though they had not been out of
a ’Mech cockpit for several years.
The Ninety-Fourth had no specific tactical specialty,
as was evidenced on their first major deployment on New
Olympia in April 3152. The varied backgrounds of the Cluster’s
warriors allowed them to exercise a number of differing and
chameleonic approaches to the battle, including orbital drops,
headhunting missions, and both offensive and defensive
postures. This flexibility kept the attacking Free Worlds
League forces guessing and ultimately was responsible for
safeguarding the planet’s initial defenders, the 105th Wolf
Garrison Cluster, from complete destruction.
Lupus Galaxy paints its equipment dark gray with
standard Wolf gray highlights. MechWarriors who had
been roused out of solahma-infantry retirement add a
crimson stripe on their ’Mech’s left torso, which many
deem uncomfortably close to the rendering of a Clan Wolf
BloodRibbon. Star Colonel Jacinda officially discourages this
practice but thus far has not enforced it.
106TH WOLF
GARRISON CLUSTER
The 106th Wolf Garrison Cluster is
106
lucky to exist. When Star Colonel Othar
directed the creation of a
Galaxy to act as garrison troops
for important objectives in the
Wolf Empire, he had planned
Rufus Galaxy to include only
five Clusters. Due to scheduling and
logistics issues, the 104th Wolf Garrison
Cluster only had a single Trinary formed when
two separate catastrophic DropShip accidents claimed the
lives of the Trinary’s entire technician group in one event and
half of its warriors in another. Othar saw this as an ill omen
and struck the 104th from the rolls, then transferred all of
the surviving personnel to a new Cluster, dubbed the 106th.
By the time Rufus Galaxy was activated, the 106th was
still forming and thus was last in line to receive personnel and
equipment, all of dubious quality. Thus the 106th was initially
seen as the dregs of the dregs of the Red Wolves. However,
with the leadership of Star Colonel Kamilla, a survivor of the
104th’s untimely demise, the Cluster learned to push the best
performance out of the hand they were dealt. Their resilience
and tenacity in their first major combat action surprised
even Othar, as they held their ground against the fearsome
presence of Wolf’s Dragoons’ Zeta Battalion on Trellisane.
Though the Dragoons mauled the 106th, Kamilla’s warriors
held out long enough to fulfill their mission and withdraw
from the planet.
Rufus Galaxy’s equipment is painted a rust red, and
the 106th adds crimson highlights. Survivors from the
stillborn 104th feature a black band on the right forearm
of their ’Mech.
Wolf Empire 83
 EMPIRE ALONE
FREE WORLDS LEAGUE
The recent history of the Free Worlds League had been
plagued with trials and tribulations. Between the assas-
sination of the nation’s head of state in 3148, the endless
raiding from the Marian Hegemony, the back-and-forth
with the Lyran Commonwealth, and open conflict with
the Duchy of Andurien, the Regulan Fiefs, and the
Magistracy of Canopus, the League was recently
at war with nearly all of its neighbors, save
the Republic of the Sphere, the
Capellan Confederation, and
the Wolf Empire.
Under Captain-
General Nikol
Marik’s direction,
the worst of these
wars and skirmishes had
quieted, with the Marians
humbled, the Regulans repa-
triated, and the Anduriens placat-
ed. However, the rise of an ilClan had
turned the Free Worlds League into a
pressure cooker of uncertainty.
The Clan Protectorate province,
which had thus far maintained its loyalty
to the League, harbored a considerable Clan
population, and the axe could fall either toward
the League or the new ilClan. Non-Clan League citizens
expected the Galaxy Commander Rikkard Nova Cat and the
rest of the Protectorate’s leaders to ultimately bow to the
ilClan’s will and use their position within the League’s heart
to conquer vulnerable worlds. The other half of the pressure
cooker involved the nation’s relationship with the Wolf
Empire. Nikol Marik’s mother made a nonaggression deal
with Wolf Khan Alaric Ward, and Alaric, now the ilKhan, likely
expected that deal to continue. But the League’s leadership
anticipated that, if left alone, the ilClan would break that
deal first and strike the League where it was vulnerable.
With the Empire largely denuded of troops due to relocating
most of their number for their conquest of Terra, Minister of
Defense Wallace Stewart and other military advisors argued
that the time to strike first was at hand, and the League
would never get a better chance to stop the Wolves cold,
before they could effectively react.
This uncertainty had led to the Free Worlds League
Military mustering new troops for its roster. Thus far these
included the Ninth and Tenth Tamarind Regulars, the Clan
Protectorate’s Beta Strike Cluster, and an expanded Silver
Hawk Irregulars brigade of two regiments, the Gryphons
and the Falcons. Other FWLM units were expected to be
commissioned in the next few years.
84 Free Worlds League
House Stewart’s unsanctioned adventurism across
the Wolf Empire borders had further compounded mat-
ters regarding the Wolves. This led to Nikol and Parliament
publicly disavowing the actions of Count Gavin Stewart and
his troops. Regardless, House Stewart’s impatience opened
a floodgate of conflict along the Wolf Empire border,
which the Covenant Worlds and Clan Protectorate
also participated in before receiving official
orders from the Captain-General.
This unsanctioned adventurism
prompted Nikol
to capitalize on
their conquests
instead of dis-
avowing them.
On the opposite
side of the nation, Duke
Fontaine Marik’s Duchy of
Tamarind-Abbey was forced to fight
micro-wars on two separate fronts,
against a Marian beachhead and Lyran
conquest. Fortunately Fontaine had
help—both in terms of personal wealth and
command presence—from Christopher Marik,
the Captain-General’s older brother, who rose
to prominence in the League’s affairs. Though many
assume the contrary, Christopher had no designs on his
younger sister’s role and was content to retain Fontaine as
his patron.
Prince Lester Cameron-Jones, leader of the Regulan Fiefs
province, was reluctant to contribute his Regulan Hussars to
the war effort, but his province’s probationary status left him
little choice. Six years remained until Regulus could regain its
full membership in the League. Thus far, Lester’s attempts to
bargain this down due to good behavior had gone ignored.
Regulus’ troops still served, but those stationed beyond the
Fiefs’ borders saw the arrangement for what it was: Regulan
troops were simply more grist for the mill of combat.
In the Rim Commonality province, Prime Minister
Michael Cendar was grateful for the additional security that
Regulus’ troops provided. Marian and Canopian raids on the
Commonality had grown infrequent in recent years, especially
since the fall of the Hegemony’s Illyria province, but like the
natives of Tamarind-Abbey, the Commonality’s people had
a long memory regarding the Marians’ vicious raids. Both
Cendar and his wife—Elis Marik, the Captain-General’s older
sister—believed Fontaine’s war against the Marians didn’t go
far enough. Had he the troops, Cendar would likely launch his
own campaign against the Hegemony, to erase this threat to
his people.
 FACTIONS
FIRST FREE
WORLDS
GUARDS
First formed in 2426,
the First Free Worlds Guards
remained one of the premier
front-line regiments of the FWLM.
The regiment was not without
some tarnish, however. In its pre-3079
incarnation, each soldier assigned to the
Free Worlds Guards brigade was required to give an oath of
loyalty to the Captain-General, and following the League’s
dissolution in 3079, the First Free Worlds Guards fell under
the banner of the Army of the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth,
which fought against former League realms. After the League
re-formed and the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth was
destroyed by Clan Wolf, the First was repatriated to the Free
Worlds League. The First maintained the traditional oath of
loyalty even while serving as part of the Army of the Marik-
Stewart Commonwealth, and then swore oaths to then-
Captain-General Jessica Marik after repatriation. The First’s
unshakable devotion to the Captain-Generalcy had ensured
that the regiment’s centuries-long traditions continued
despite the change in management.
As a first-rate regiment capable of tackling any mission
or adopting any tactic, the First wanted for nothing from the
Quartermaster General and received the best and most well-
maintained equipment in the FWLM.
In recent years, the First had been employed in a largely
defensive capacity on Ionus or as an honor guard for the
Captain-General on Atreus; both postings had often been
criticized as a misuse of the FWLM’s resources.
The stirrings of renewed conflict with Clan
Wolf and the declaration of an ilClan on
Terra had seen the regiment redeployed to
the Clan Protectorate to act as peacekeep-
ing troops or troubleshooters, in case vio-
lence broke out in the region, but
these remained reactive assign-
ments, not proactive. Colonel
Emerson Vincent had made
it no secret that he wished
to participate in an offen-
sive engagement in the
near future, regardless of
which of the Captain-
General’s enemies
the regiment might
be pointed toward.
NINTH TAMARIND
REGULARS
The newest regiment in the
Tamarind Regulars brigade,
the Ninth was formed due to
the influx of recruits following
the groundswell of public support
for Tamarind-Abbey’s successful
offensive campaign against the
Marian Hegemony’s Illyrian province
in 3150. Though a regiment on paper,
the unit began as a reinforced battalion, largely due to the
immediate lack of equipment when Fontaine Marik initially
commissioned the regiment. By the end of 3151, the Ninth
had filled out to two full battalions, and it was expected to
fill out to a full three battalions by the end of 3152 since
Parliament approved funding for additional Tamarind-
Abbey troops.
Though the regiment was still in its infancy, it had thus
far embraced mobile warfare, its commanders preferring
a strike-and-fade maneuver over a stand-and-fight battle.
However, as the unit was still stretching its legs among
the brigade, its tactics continued to evolve. The disparate
and dubious quality of its equipment also had a bearing
on the regiment’s battlefield effectiveness, which required
battalion and company commanders to adjust depending
on what the Quartermaster-General of the Tamarind Military
District could procure. The Ninth remained on the lowest
priority for replacement BattleMechs, resulting in older and
less reliable war materiel, but the influence of Christopher
Halas-Hughes Marik had slowly changed the
general opinion of the regiment.
This undersupplied and understaffed
status had led many to question why
Christopher, the Captain-General’s older
brother, had chosen to attach him-
self to this unit, acting as a military
advisor to the Ninth’s
CO, Colonel Thalea
Nicolaides. To date
he had directed the
Ninth and Colonel
Nicolaides on several suc-
cessful intelligence-gathering raids
into Lyran Commonwealth space. These
raids had demonstrated that the Ninth
remained a vital part of Tamarind-
Abbey’s defense against the Lyran
Commonwealth and the Wolf Empire.
Free Worlds League 85
 EMPIRE ALONE
GRYPHONS
The modern-day Gryphons’
short history had been mired in
both defiance and tragedy. The
two original Silver Hawk Irregulars
regiments, the Gryphons and the
Falcons, were destroyed in combat
with the Republic of the Sphere during
Operation Golden Dawn in 3081, and
the Republic declared that if the Marik-
Stewart Commonwealth re-formed either
regiment, it would be viewed as an act of war.
Captain-General Anson Marik waited until 3135 to defy this
prohibition, by commissioning a new regiment named the
Silver Hawk Irregulars to combat Lyran aggression. The new
Irregulars faced Duke Vedet Brewer in combat on Helm in
3138, and after suffering defeat, they surrendered to the
Lyran forces; however, Vedet’s allied Clan Wolf forces refused
to acknowledge the surrender and tore into the Irregulars,
inflicting scars that would take a while to heal.
Under the reunited Free Worlds League’s stewardship, the
regiment returned to strength, and the Irregulars’ CO, Colonel
Lucas Cameron-Witherspoon, used that strength to lobby for
the expansion of the Silver Hawk Irregulars in 3146. The colo-
nel was a native of Amity, a Silver Hawks Coalition planet that
had been conquered by the Wolf Empire, and he sought to
reignite patriotism among the League’s remaining former-
Silver Hawk systems. With financial support from the people
of Alkes and New Hope and additional funding
from the Covenant Worlds and House Stewart,
Cameron-Witherspoon’s Silver
Hawk Irregulars spun off
a single battalion as the
basis of a new regi-
ment. The original
regiment rechris-
tened itself the
Gryphons, and
the new unit took on the
Falcons designation.
The new Gryphons fielded heavier
equipment than the Falcons, which lent
to their focus on assault tactics. This
specialty, along with the regiment’s goal
of rekindling the spirit of the Silver Hawks
Coalition of old, led them to find a friend
in Count Gavin Stewart, who shared the
Gryphons’ goals.
86 Free Worlds League
BETA
STRIKE
CLUSTER
The Beta Strike
Cluster of Clan Sea Fox
was the newest unit in the
Clan Protectorate Military,
although its actual pedigree
stretched back farther than
its official inception in 3150. Faced
with potential encroachment by Clans
Jade Falcon and Wolf, the Protectorate
leadership proposed an official initiative to increase the
Clan Protectorate’s military strength. This plan called for
each of Spina Khanate’s aimags to contribute one Cluster
of warriors to the CPM’s roster. This measure resulted in the
cannibalization of part of a ground-based Shoal Cluster
associated with Beta Aimag. The Shoal Cluster’s seniormost
officers and most promising ristars were reassigned to the
Beta Strike Cluster, and freeborns and non-Clan volunteers
from Clan Protectorate worlds filled out the rest of the
roster. Beta Strike Cluster was the first such unit mustered,
but the other aimags of Spina Khanate backed out of the
arrangement with no explanation given, and no further Strike
Clusters have yet been formed.
Since Beta was a Cluster staffed mostly by younger war-
riors seeking to prove their mettle in battle, it was no surprise
that the unit’s tactics leaned toward swift frontal assaults that
relied on fast OmniMechs that mount heavy-
hitting weapon configurations. This tendency
for hotheaded action had
placed the Cluster firmly on
the pro-ilClan side of Clan
Protectorate politics,
much to the Spirit Cats’
dismay. The sole holdout,
Star Colonel Vero, the most
even-tempered warrior in
the Cluster, remained on the fence
about whether to throw her lot in
with the ilClan or remain loyal to the
Free Worlds League.
Beta Strike Cluster painted its equipment
Sea Fox blue, but with a purple stripe that
signified its connection to the Free Worlds
League. By May 3151, many of Beta’s warriors
had chosen to replace the purple stripe with
a brown stripe.
 EMPIRE ALONE
CAPELLAN CONFEDERATION
3151 would be a year of change for the Capellan
Confederation, marking another of the abrupt changes in
fortune that would define one of the most influential of
the Great Houses. With the arrival of two Clans on Terra,
the birthworld of humanity, Chancellor Daoshen Liao was
faced with the reality that he was potentially watching the
end of Exarch Devlin Stone’s grand experiment, but that he
would not be the one to provide the final blow as he had
wanted. While the invasion of the Republic led to significant
gains to the Confederation, signaling the end to a slight that
had been consuming the thoughts of the Chancellor since
the Capellan Crusades, it also made the Confederation into
a target. Not only had the Confederation traded a border
with the Republic for one with whichever Clan would be
victorious, but whatever faction finally seized Terra would
have to recognize the Capellan Confederation as one of
the primary threats to their position. The early months
of 3151 would see a major redeployment of the
Capellan Confederation Armed Forces, with the
CCAF consolidating their gains against their
neighbors and preparing
what was considered the
inevitable counterattack.
Despite the CCAF’s
maneuvering to consolidate
their gains, they still found
an abundance of conflict as
the Chancellor continued to
order them to move outward,
attempting to gather as many
of the former Liao worlds
as possible while the Republic and the
Federated Suns were consumed with their
own battles for survival. Unfortunately, while the
Confederation had come through the Dark Age in
an extremely strong position due to their hidden
stockpiles of BattleMechs and war material, several
decades of hard fighting had eaten away at a significant
portion of that warfighting capability. Even when one
considered the technological and economic advances
that defined its alliance with the Magistracy of Canopus and
the military support of the Draconis Combine against their
mutual enemy of the Federated Suns, the Capellan nation
had stretched itself to the breaking point to maintain its new
position, stretching its military to the utmost and coming to
rely heavily upon the assistance of its allies and neighbors to
help maintain the status quo.
88 Capellan Confederation
Beyond the Confederation’s military goals, the
Confederation also suffered from a number of issues on both
the diplomatic and domestic fronts.
On a diplomatic level, the Chancellor found rela-
tions beginning to strain with his allies. The Unity Pact
between the Confederation and the Draconis Combine
had been stretched almost to the breaking point by their
conflict over the planet Northwind, and a rising tide of
anti-Alliance sentiment in the
Magistracy of Canopus, tradi-
tionally the most stalwart of
the Confederation’s allies, had
forced the Chancellor to have to split
his focus at the worst time for his own
expansion plans.
The domestic situation was proving to be
even more concerning, especially as it related to the
Confederation’s relations with their allies. With the Sian
Commonality reeling from the departure of the Chancellor
and some of their most renowned units to the Republic
front, the growing military
strength of the Duchy of
Andurien was of great
concern, as were the recent
actions of the Magistracy of
Canopus. Despite the leaders
of the two nations being brother
and sister (and uncommonly
close at that), the uncharacteristic
actions by his sister, Magestrix Ilsa
Centrella, had Daoshen in the process
of reexamining some of his assumptions
about their current relationship.
Despite all of the difficulties besetting
the Confederation, however, it was important
to remember that they remained one of the
strongest of the Great Houses. While they would
eventually come to take third place in the race
to seize Terra from the Republic of the Sphere,
their consolation prize was potentially the best: the
opportunity to seize many former Republic worlds
and assets while the final fate of the Republic was being
played out on Terra. With the majority of their neighbors
either on good terms with the Confederation or too weak
to threaten it, the Chancellor was readying his nation for
the next move. Regardless of which faction won on Terra,
the Confederation was determined to be prepared to take
advantage of whatever came next.
 FACTIONS
ELEVENTH
SIAN
DRAGOONS
Some units seem to work
best in the shadows. In few
areas of the CCAF was this more
apparent than with the Eleventh
Sian Dragoons. Formerly the
largest BattleMech unit in the
history of the Capellan Confederation, it was destroyed during
the Second Succession War. Reformed in secret as a part of
Chancellor Daoshen Liao’s Hidden Lion initiative around 3130,
it was instrumental in throwing the Republic of the Sphere
off balance during Operation Great Flood, paving the way for
Confederation victories on worlds such as Liao and Genoa.
Unlike many traditional CCAF regiments, the Eleventh
Sian Dragoons rarely worked together as a single unit, instead
being broken up into multiple smaller formations to confuse
Republic intelligence efforts. The CCAF quickly noted the
skill in which the various Eleventh Sian elements succeeded
in their missions and would then use the various Eleventh
Sian forces to fill gaps in other units that had a need,
making them the Swiss Army knife of the CCAF and
ensuring that few major battles occurred during
the Republic era where the Dragoons were not
involved.
As the Capellan Confederation took steps
to secure their borders and new trainees
and equipment were brought to the front-
lines to replace losses in earlier actions, the
Eleventh Sian was being pulled back to
reform and rearm, prepared to assist
again when needed. Curiously,
the unit was being reformed
under the temporary command
of Zhong-shao Evelyn Choffee,
the Eleventh Sian’s executive
officer. A significant portion of
the Dragoons, including Sang-
shao Suo Yang, had not reported
back, causing several members
of the CCAF to wonder what
missions they might still have
been undertaking.
DYNASTY GUARD
The traditional watchdogs of
the Sheng nobility, the Dynasty
Guard was one of the famed
Capellan Hussars, composed
of some of the best that the
Confederation could provide.
While not used as a front-line
unit in several decades, the
Dynasty Guard was occasionally
seconded to CCAF units in combat
zones to keep their training sharp.
Most recently, the Dynasty Guard had been assigned
to support the Second McCarron’s Armored Cavalry, a unit
they fought with in 3134 during the liberation of Liao from
the Republic of the Sphere. As one of the few regiments as
well-trained and equipped as the Second MAC, they should
make a good fit; however their traditional training and
their noted weakness with working with irregular forces
occasionally clashed with the unorthodox maneuvers
undertaken by Jiang-jun Danai Liao-Centrella, causing
them to seem to be constantly playing catch up with the
Second MAC commander. With the rising tensions between
the Capellan Confederation and the Magistracy of
Canopus, however—her two nations—it seemed only
reasonable to ensure that a potential heir to both
nations would have the best security available. Still,
many wondered whether the Dynasty Guard was in
place to protect Sang-shao Liao-Centrella or to keep
tabs on her, ensuring that she did not use her well-
known independent streak to do something
unexpected, potentially affecting the
taut domestic situation between her
two nations.
Whatever the Chancellor was doing
with the Dynasty Guard, it was
clearly meant to send a message.
What that message was and
whether the recipient had
understood it remained
a mystery.
Capellan Confederation 89
 EMPIRE ALONE

DUCHY OF ANDURIEN
When Andurien was captured by the Free Worlds between the former allies, the duchy managed to increase
League in the late 2300s, the planet and its neighbors its own strength while ensuring that one of its potential
became a dagger poised against the heart of the Capellan rivals was no longer in any position to threaten it. With the
Confederation. A threat made more ominous by the duchy’s duchy now surrounded on two sides by allies, they were
proximity to the Capellan capital and the unrest within the able to re-deploy their forces to
former Free Worlds League, the Duchy of Andurien had been keep a watchful eye on the Duchy
a considerable concern for the Chancellor in his plans for of Oriente, quickly building up a
expanding his nation’s growth. defensive position that would help
All of that seemed to change with the Duke to focus his energies on
the marriage of Duke Ari Humphreys growing his nation’s military strength.
to Magestrix Ilsa Centrella of the Unfortunately, despite its
Magistracy of Canopus. With the newfound defensive strength, the
marriage of the Chancellor’s sister Duchy of Andurien seemed to be
to the duchy leader, it seemed as plagued by the same internal
if the Capellan Confederation discord that had been affecting
and its allies were in the the other realms affiliated
process of expanding with the Magestrix. While
their power bloc into the average citizens
the former Free Worlds on the street would
League states, while recognize some of the
also removing a major benefits of the duchy
potential threat to the being wed to the
Confederation. Magistracy, the Andurien
Following the conflict passion for independence
between the various former had put it at odds with its
Free Worlds League states allies in the past, and the
following the death of Captain- majority of the duchy’s citizens
General Jessica Marik, the Duchy resented the possibility of being
of Andurien had gained several pawns in whatever games the Liao
worlds from the League, using their family was playing. With the concern
new allies and their recent alliance with that their leader had been tainted by
the Regulan fiefs to solidify their own his marriage with a member of the Liao
independence. Unfortunately, their family, several prominent members of the
move to capture several unallied duchy had begun championing the rise of other Humphreys
worlds between their border and that of Regulus as a possible successor for Duke Ari. While the Duke had so
would wind up assisting an FWL military campaign already far managed to continue moving forward without naming
in motion. an heir, it was only a matter of time before he was forced to
Seeing the sheer strength of the forces being sent against make a choice. If the Chancellor and the Magestrix had made
the Fiefs, the Andurien Defense Force did not choose to move an error, it was believing that the independent Anduriens
forward with its annexation campaign, clearly concerned would ever allow themselves to be bound back to the Liao
that the loss of their former allies would cause them to lose throne, and that his wife potentially taking control of the
their buffer with the rest of the League, potentially leading duchy would be enough to cause rioting in the streets, and
to further conflict. Still, despite the ill will that had occurred that the Duke’s political opponents had not missed.

90 Duchy of Andurien
 FACTIONS
SECOND
ANDURIEN
RANGERS
Formed from the former
Fifth Free Worlds Legionnaires
during the Word of Blake Jihad,
the Second Andurien Rangers were
originally designed to be a cadre
unit for the other Andurien
Ranger commands, allowing
the duchy to cycle warriors through
their unit, while freeing up the First
for offensive operations. However, thanks to the notable
skill of many of their warriors, the Second quickly began to
outshine the other commands, prompting the Duke to look
into alternate duties for the new unit. Due to their service,
they earned a prestigious posting as the bodyguard unit for
Duke Ari Humphreys and would later act as a point of contact
and liaison unit with both the Magistracy of Canopus and the
Capellan Confederation, helping to show the esteem in which
the duchy held their new alliance.
In a sharp turnaround from their historical roots, where
they were considered the “poor relations” of the other FW
Legionnaire units and a potential security risk due to their
commanding officer’s historical ties to another duchy, the
Rangers had been used to further the goals of all three
nations, and their commander, Colonel Darrell O’Donell,
was often sought after to ensure smooth working between
the military units of the various allied nations. The Second
remained able to excel at combined arms actions, especially
when working in tandem with armor and infantry, to not only
provide a static defense but also to maintain the Andurien
Rangers tradition of mobile warfare to great effect. Coupled
with their extensive training abilities and their experience as
bodyguards to some of the duchy’s elite, as well as their
allies, they were considered one of the foremost of
the duchy’s BattleMech units.
SEVENTH
ANDURIEN GUARDS
Unlike the other Andurien Guards units, the Seventh
Andurien Guards were a deliberate experiment on the part
of the Duchy of Andurien and the Capellan Confederation.
Utilizing CCAF retirees (many of them former educators at the
Humphreys Military Academy) as cadre officers, the Seventh
Guards were trained with Capellan-style discipline, leading
towards the creation of a powerful Andurien unit with strong
ties to their new allies in the Confederation.
In contrast to the aggressive nature of the Andurien
Rangers units, the Guards were focused upon a defensive
posture, often utilizing aerospace assets to demoralize enemy
forces with strafing runs, bombing attacks, and ground
support missions. Like their fellow Guards units, the Seventh
was primarily made up of heavy and assault BattleMech units
that were not suitable for the highly mobile style of warfare
used by the other Andurien units, using their heavy firepower
and armor to take on all comers.
Aside from their military duties, the Seventh was meant
to be seen as a bridge between the two nations, focused on
an attempt at rapprochement for the two former enemies. To
that end, the Seventh Guards were often paired with
Andurien Ranger and Cavalry units, showing by
example how officers from the two nations
could work together towards common
goals. While the Cavalry units might have
been swayed by their example, tensions
between the Guards and the Rangers
(especially the First Rangers) were
brought to the brink of open conflict.
Colonel Alisa McDonald had her
hands full between achieving the
multitude of goals expected of her
command, while also fighting off the
rising tide of anti-Alliance sentiment
from many corners of the duchy.
Duchy of Andurien 91
 EMPIRE ALONE

MAGISTRACY OF CANOPUS
Of all of the nations to make it through the affecting her husband and her brother’s realms,
Dark Age, the Magistracy of Canopus could many Canopian citizens had grown skep-
and should be considered one of the tical about how Magistracy military
winners of the interstellar lottery. forces had been stationed to
Having survived the Word of defend the rimward border of
Blake Jihad and the subse- the Confederation. Coupled
quent Republic era thanks with the reality that their
to their alliance with the Capellan allies seemed
Capellan Confederation, completely focused on
they managed to main- objectives towards
tain their independence the core of the
and grow their realm, Inner Sphere, many
while also forming believed that the
strong bonds with Magistracy would
many of their neigh- do better concen-
bors. While no less trating on domestic
affected by the loss of issues closer to home.
the HPG network than Peaceful disagree-
any of the other nations, ment quickly moved
they managed to come forward into protests
through the Dark Age not and later, rioting, setting
only stronger than they had citizen against citizen over
begun but also able to project how the Magistracy would
their power all along the length move forward.
of the alliance, solidifying their Unfortunately, due to the
position as one of the strongest of the government’s preoccupation with
Periphery nations. allied concerns and the worsening domestic
Following her marriage to Duke Ari Humphreys situation at home, the Magistracy was in a poor
of the Duchy of Andurien in March of 3137, the Magistracy position when the Marian Hegemony, one of its major
found its coreward and spinward fronts secured through ties Periphery rivals, invaded the Magistracy, attempting to once
of blood or marriage, while its rimward border hosted no again seize and hold Canopian worlds. While the Magistracy
threats but the occasional raider or failing mercenary group. was able to repel the invasion, the fact that its long-time
The timing seemed especially convenient for the Magestrix, enemies had felt that it was weak enough to be a valid target
as questions as to the future leadership of three nations (the had only served to highlight how far the Magistracy had
Confederation, the Duchy, and the Magistracy) had begun to strayed from its goals.
arise, and she seemed content to weave whatever plans she Although the fact that the Magistracy had been invaded
had been considering from there. Traveling between the three shook many citizens of the Magistracy to the core, the rise
nations, the Magestrix had left the day-to-day running of the of a leader, then-Force Major Isolde Centrella, raised a new
Magistracy to her Aunt Erde, who had been acting as Regent faith in the Centrella family and their continued ability to
on her behalf while keeping control in the Centrella family. lead the nation. With the announcement that Isolde was the
Moving into 3151, the primary threat to the Magistracy granddaughter of Erde Centrella and thus a member of the
would lay within their own borders. Concerned by the reigning royal line, the possibility of her rise to the position
Magestrix’s apparent preoccupation with the realities as new Magestrix was very possible.

92 Magistracy of Canopus
 FACTIONS
FIRST CANOPIAN
BRIGADE
Of all of the units in the Magistracy
Armed Forces, the independent
BattleMech regiment known as the
First Canopian Brigade was one
of the most notorious units in the
famously notorious Magistracy Armed
Forces. Deployed to the outskirts
of the Magistracy as a punishment
for their traditionally lax command
structure and adherence to orders,
they used their distance from the
Magistracy High Command (MHC) to
redeploy as necessary for actual and
perceived threats.
Knowing that the unit tradition-
ally held greater autonomy than other units
closer to Canopus, the First Canopian was
Colonel Isolde Centrella’s first choice when
seeking a rapid response force to the Marian threat, send-
ing a personal message to Candiear to reach out personally
to Colonel Ashley Gorman. While the notoriously obstinate
Gorman would probably have gone along with her plan to
strike back at the Marians regardless, the chance to do so as
the primary combatant under the command of a member of
the Centrella family was more than she could have hoped for.
While not equipped with the most cutting-edge
equipment or technology, the First Canopian’s skill with
guerilla warfare and unexpected tactics served it exceedingly
well against the Marian forces, whose Legio’s traditional
adherence to standard tactics was less responsive to the
First’s methods of warfare. The near-destruction of IV Legio on
Booker was enough to cement their legacy in the conflict, and
Isolde had taken advantage of the support that her campaign
had garnered to begin upgrading the equipment available to
the First Canopian, turning an appreciation for their campaign
leader into near devotion. The First was eager to be the first
to set foot on the Marian capital of Alphard under Centrella’s
command but seemed just as ready to storm hell for her if
she asked it of them.
Magistracy of Canopus 93
 EMPIRE ALONE
MARIAN HEGEMONY
The Marian Hegemony’s current woes began with a
series of raids during the late 3140s, when Caesar Ignatius
O’Reilly afforded his prefects free rein to expand the
Hegemony’s interests. The occasional smash-and-grab raid
on the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey, the Rim Commonality, or
Magistracy of Canopus, often considered an unavoidable
reality in worlds bordering the Periphery, turned into a more
common occurrence, increasing in frequency and size until
some of the attacks ultimately mutated into attempts at
conquest. The patricians and plebeians of the Hegemony
lauded these new conquests, particularly the ones in the Free
Worlds League, which provided the nation a doorway out of
the Periphery.
Unfortunately, that doorway closed in 3150, when
Tamarind-Abbey forces stormed the Illyria province and
slammed the door shut, trapping Marian legions outside the
Hegemony’s borders. The subsequent loss of the Gibraltar
Island and the defeat of their stranded troops in early 3151
heralded the beginnings of change within the Hegemony.
The first major shift occurred within the Marian
Hegemony Armed Forces. Their campaigns of conquest,
followed by the counterinvasions from Tamarind-Abbey and
Canopus, had decimated the Legiones Marianes everywhere
except in the heart of the Hegemony. Though the League’s
forces ultimately withdrew in 3151, they left behind legions
that had suffered enough losses to see mass desertions. This
in turn led to increased piracy in the region due to insufficient
troops to deter marauders.
Recruitment drives to fill out holes in the MHAF’s ranks
found few qualified recruits, although the recently besieged
Illyria churned out a record number
of enlistees hoping for revenge.
The overall stagnation of new
recruits among both patricians
and the general populace
elsewhere in the Hegemony
prompted Caesar O’Reilly to
enact conscription among
plebeians and demand that each
slaveholding patrician household
surrender at least one slave
to serve in the MHAF.
Caesar promised these
slaves their freedom and entry
into plebeian society if they served
with good conduct for a period of five
years. Although these measures paved
the way for an influx of new Marian
soldiers, they required time to train,
especially new officers.
94 Marian Hegemony
Caesar O’Reilly’s relationship with the public represented
another major shift in the Hegemony. Since the Illyria crisis
and the Gibraltar Island debacle, O’Reilly had avoided the
public eye, doubly so since the sudden passing of his wife,
Adrijana Vouk, under mysterious circumstances in September
3151. Gone were the rousing speeches to the Senate, the
regular addresses to the plebeians, and the one-on-one
meetings with the patricians of Alphard. Instead only rare
appearances via holovid recordings had offered any proof
that he was alive. Rumor maintained that O’Reilly was more
deeply affected by Prefect Mohamed Kilgore’s death on Illyria
in 3150 than he was by the suspected murder of his wife.
Whether this suggested some as-yet unknown connection
between O’Reilly and Kilgore remained to be seen.
The Marian Hegemony also saw changes in the nation’s
foreign policy. Imperator Kesi Aldrich suggested that assaults
pushing deep into neighboring nations for the purpose of
conquest be removed from the MHAF’s playbook for the near
future; the sole exceptions were a short campaign to reclaim
the Marian worlds Tamarind and Canopus had conquered
in recent years as punitive actions against the Hegemony.
Prefect Kilgore’s invasion of Tamarind-Abbey had been so
ill-planned and costly in terms of casualties and desertions
that it would take quite some time before Imperator Aldrich
might attempt to sell the Caesar on another such campaign.
This limited the still-recovering MHAF to raiding operations,
largely intelligence gathering and larceny. Most of the Marian
raids in the past two years had been confined to the Rim
Commonality, as O’Reilly had no wish to rekindle Tamarind-
Abbey’s wrath until he was ready to invade. The people of
the Illyrian province harbored no
such compunction, however, and
clamored for retribution against
Tamarind for the destruction
wrought on their planet.
Relations with other
nations remained cool, par-
ticularly with the Magistracy
of Canopus and the Lothian
League. Caesar O’Reilly
renouncing his claim to
the Lothian system of
Logan Prime in 3128 had
since extended to other
Lothian worlds, at least for the
moment. O’Reilly had sworn off any
ambitions for subjugating the Lothian
League until his borders with other
nations were secure.
 FACTIONS
SECUNDA COHORS,
III LEGIO
The Secunda Cohors of III Legio
represented the most promi-
nent concentration of Marian
Hegemony forces behind
enemy lines inside the Free
Worlds League borders.
Though Secunda Cohors did
not conquer Gibraltar alone, it
was tasked with holding it while the remainder of III Legio
returned to the Illyria Province to combat the Free Worlds
League’s counterinvasion there.
The cohorts’ commander, Prefect Douglas Hook, was
killed in action during the campaign to conquer Gibraltar in
3147, which left the legati of the unit to decide who would
take up the mantle of command. Legatus Rosella Dexter
championed her cause for leadership, and the matter was
ultimately settled by an arm-wrestling contest in which
Dexter broke her main challenger’s wrist.
Due to the FWLM’s invasion of Illyria, brevet-Prefect
Dexter knew reinforcements would be long in coming and
ordered her legati to plan accordingly. This resulted in the
cohort conscripting laborers and techs from among the
planet’s population. Dexter commanded her cohort with
a ruthlessness designed to combat the disorganization
common throughout III Legio and ensured they remain
sharp due to their precarious situation. Despite the pressure
to maintain a hold on a former FWLM military district capital,
morale remained high.
III Legio had long prided itself on intelligence gathering,
and Secunda Cohors’ position on Gibraltar made it the
perfect nexus for military intelligence in the region. Brevet-
Prefect Dexter’s main obstacle was ensuring that gathered
intelligence sent back across the Marian Hegemony’s border
arrived without being intercepted. To this end she would send
one of her miles gregarius to accompany each dispatched
courier package.
When not training for an inevitable invasion, Secunda
Cohors took the time to remind the people of their
current station and that they remained under the Caesar’s
protection. These demonstrations
included regular military parades
down main city thoroughfares and
nape-of-the-earth aerospace flybys
by III Caleum Wing over major
population centers.
II PRIMA
AUXILIA
LEGIO,
II LEGIO
The II Prima Auxilia Legio
of II Legio was not a unit
bathed in the same honor and
glory as other Marian Hegemony
legions. It was intended to operate
in concert with Quarta Cohors, not
to hold a planet territory on its own, but Legatus Eldon
Woodworth found his unit doing so regardless. When
Woodworth was assigned to the Lepaterique assault in 3147,
the II Prima Auxilia served in its standard role; however, the
Free Worlds League attack on Illyria left Woodworth’s troops
abandoned on a planet that did not want them there. He
believed remaining there to be tantamount to a suicide
mission, but he could not defy Prefect Pritchard’s orders.
Since the population already resented the Marians’
presence, and he felt it was his right as a leader on a Marian-
occupied planet, Woodworth harbored no qualms in taking
slaves from the local populace. These slaves were forced to
perform manual labor that the Auxilia required, freeing up
his soldiers and support staff to undertake more important
duties. When the people of Puerto Cortes rioted about slavery
occurring on their planet, Woodworth’s senior principes was
killed and dismembered by an angry mob on a live news
broadcast. As a concession, Woodworth freed his slaves and
offered them token wages for their work.
After four years of garrison duty, with minimal contact
with the Hegemony’s mainland and no regular supply
shipments, the Prima Auxilia saw several desertions. Deserters
were hunted down and subjected to public corporal
punishment before being stripped of their rank, but a few
were never recovered and remained at large. Petitions to II
Legio’s CO, Prefect Kilgore, for reinforcement and resupply
went unanswered, forcing Woodworth to rely
on conscripts and equipment of local
provenance.
Marian Hegemony 95
 EMPIRE ALONE
OTHAR
Title/Rank: Star Colonel, Den Keshik/viceroy of the
Wolf Empire
Born: 3114 (38 in 3152)
The warrior caste career of Othar, of Bloodhouse Shaw,
began with an auspicious omen. Just prior to taking his Trial
of Position to graduate from sibko, planetwide broadcasts
indicated the hyperpulse generator on Tamar had gone offline,
with no estimate of when service would be restored. Although
Othar fought under the pall of what would become known as
Gray Monday, he defeated three combatants in his Linebacker
Prime, instantly earning him the rank of Star Captain.
Holders of the Shaw Bloodname marveled at his
performance and expected him to shoot up through the
ranks, toward an early Bloodname, a Galaxy Commander
rank, and beyond. Much to Bloodhouse Shaw’s dismay,
Othar remained frustratingly mediocre, never rising higher
than Star Colonel despite his codex demonstrating a solid but
unimpressive combat record, and he had an odd tendency of
being courteous to his rivals and even to freeborn warriors.
Inevitably, the Bloodname nominations never came, and
Othar was relegated to command of a provisional garrison
Cluster, one that Alaric broke up to provide replacement
warriors in the lead-up to the assault on Terra.
During the khan’s absence, Othar assumed command of
the Empire, as he was the highest ranked warrior left behind.
Othar resolved to turn his touman of solahma, paramilitary
police, ungraduated sibko cadets, and undesirables into a
force capable of defending the Empire until Alaric reclaims
the mantle of leadership. Othar remains steadfastly loyal to
the ilKhan and would defend the Empire to his last breath.
96 Wolf Empire
JACINDA
Title/Rank: Star Colonel, Ninety-Fourth Wolf Battle Cluster
Born: 3111 (41 in 3152)
Jacinda’s sibko instructors told her during training that
she would never amount to anything. Her test scores were
middling, her field exercises mediocre. She always hovered
one step above washing out, and when her Trial of Position
arrived, she claimed a single kill before her most critical
instructor managed to defeat her ’Mech in a fair duel. Though
she had won a place in Clan Wolf’s warrior caste, MechWarrior
Jacinda was shuffled from one garrison command to another,
passed around by commanders who reminded her that she
was little more than a ’Mech’s seat warmer to them. But each
yearly retest she passed and proved her naysayers wrong,
demonstrating that the pilot light of her desire to be a Clan
Wolf warrior remained lit.
When the bulk of the Wolf Touman jumped to Terra,
Jacinda had reached the rank of Star Captain, which proved
that, despite her four decades of age, she wasn’t yet fit to be
retired to a solahma unit. She was left behind regardless and
was told to defend the Wolf Empire while her peers sought
the Clans’ ultimate glory on Terra without her.
Jacinda’s rage at being denied the right to fight on Terra
evidenced itself in her rapacious defense against the Wolf’s
Dragoons raid on Campbelton, during which she rallied her
unit and forced the Dragoons to withdraw. Star Colonel Othar
saw something of himself in her, and that led him to reward
her fire by appointing her as Star Colonel of the newly formed
Ninety-Fourth Wolf Battle Cluster.
 PERSONALITIES
PRAVINA
Title/Rank: Guildmaster, Yellow Sun Free Guild
Born: 3107 (45 in 3152)
Those who met Guildmaster Pravina, leader of the
Yellow Sun Free Guild, likely assumed that this worldly,
no-nonsense woman came from humble origins within
the Clans’ Free Guilds. However, in her former life, she was
Pravina Albern, Duchess of Loric—at least until Clan Wolf
conquered her planet and established the Wolf Empire.
Refusing to be assigned to a civilian caste, Pravina fled to the
Clans’ Free Guilds, which had a much less rigid social structure.
Regardless, the Wolves’ conquest forced her to forfeit the
duchy that had been in her family for generations.
A savvy politician with a head for business, Pravina used
her skills and wealth to work her way high enough into the
Free Guilds to establish her own guild. Though a legitimate
mercantile enterprise on the surface, the Yellow Sun Free
Guild truly specialized in smuggling and gun-running, though
thus far the Wolves had ignored her actions. Now that the Free
Guilds were controlled by the ilClan, however, Pravina feared
a crackdown on such frowned-on activities would likely come
in the near future.
Her true goals and motivations remained a mystery, even
to close associates. Many theorized that she was attempting
to use Yellow Sun to create a grassroots campaign for the
ultimate liberation of Loric. Others believed she was using
her assets to track down family members who were lost into
the caste system years ago. Regardless of her reasons, she
kept a concealed knife to protect herself against anyone who
dared get too close, both literally and figuratively.
NIKOL MARIK
Title/Rank: Captain-General of the Free Worlds League
Born: 3110 (42 in 3152)
The youngest child of Captain-General Jessica Marik,
Nikol Marik was her mother’s best student when it came
to the political arena, but she leaned more toward military
matters as she matured, fully expecting to serve the nation in
martial pursuits. She began her military career as commander
of the Eagle’s Talons battalion. Her political career began a
short time thereafter, with an appointment as the League’s
Minister-General, a created position that allowed her to tap
into the connection she had formed with the people of the
nation her mother was seeking to build.
The death of her stepfather Thaddeus Marik in 3139
paved the way for her rise to Warden-General, Jessica’s liaison
to the League’s war council, and Nikol was catapulted into the
very forefront of League politics after Jessica was assassinated
in 3148. Having been named Jessica’s successor, Nikol was
installed as Captain-General, and she spearheaded the war
effort against the Regulan Fiefs, which ultimately led to
Regulus’ surrender and the Fiefs returning to the League’s
fold as a probationary province.
Nikol never anticipated being Captain-General at
her age, but she had borne the mantle with grace and
conscientiousness despite her mother’s absence. Though
she was a warrior at heart and wished she could solve all
arguments political and martial while at the controls of her
BattleMaster, Nikol remained even-tempered and willing to
negotiate with her enemies instead of firing first.
Free Worlds League 97
 EMPIRE ALONE
FONTAINE MARIK
Title/Rank: Duke of Tamarind
Born: 3089 (63 in 3152)
A descendant of Therese Brett-Marik, Duchess of Tamarind
during the Jihad, Fontaine Marik grew up in a universe without
a Free Worlds League, as the original League had dissolved a
decade before he was born. By the time he inherited control
over the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey, the shattered and often
hostile pieces of the League had no desire to unite, and Fontaine
was content to rule his duchy with an even hand, occasionally
warring with the Lyran Commonwealth rather than his
ex-League neighbors who all claimed the old League title of
Captain-General. Despite having one of the strongest claims to
the House Marik legacy, Fontaine had no desire for a loftier title
than duke and no ambition beyond ruling his corner of space.
This attitude shifted in 3134, when Fontaine’s wife, Karli
Marik, passed away suddenly, leaving him adrift and without
an anchor or an heir in an increasingly uncertain future. He
grew more isolationist than before, but when Christopher
Marik, Jessica Marik’s youngest son, asked to visit the duchy,
Fontaine’s walls fell, and he took Christopher under his wing
as his protégé. Christopher in turn used his relationship with
Fontaine to secure Tamarind’s support for Jessica reforging
the League, which resulted in a strong alliance between
Fontaine’s court and Jessica’s family.
The Duke of Tamarind is a shrewd and calculating man.
Unlike the often hot-tempered leaders of other former-
League provinces, he exercises patience before committing
to any decision, especially those that might lead to war.
98 Free Worlds League
TRENTON MARIK
Title/Rank: Captain, First Free Worlds Guards
Born: 3119 (33 in 3152)
Trenton Marik had never intended on becoming a
MechWarrior or capitalizing on his family’s name. He had his
sights set on a law career from a young age, but he bowed
to familial pressure and enrolled at the Allison MechWarrior
Institute on New Olympia at the behest of his uncle, Captain-
General Anson Marik of the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth.
His only condition for agreeing to matriculate was that he
attend under an assumed name, to avoid the unwanted
burden associated with being a scion of the Great House
responsible for fracturing the Free Worlds League. Thus
“Trenton Johns” was born, and his academy peers treated him
no differently than any other cadet of low birth.
When Clan Wolf killed Anson in 3138 and attacked
New Olympia a year later, “Johns” refused the academy
commandant’s orders to evacuate along with the remaining
cadets. Instead he threw himself into the fight, piloting a
newly manufactured Rifleman that was an enrollment gift
from his late uncle. Together, he and the academy’s instructors
covered the escape of a number of cadets before Trenton was
forced to board a DropShip to escape. He then took refuge in
the Free Worlds League, where Captain-General Jessica Marik
allowed him to finish his schooling. At the Princefield Military
Academy on Oriente, “Johns” became inseparable friends with
House Stewart heir Gavin Stewart.
As a company commander in the First Free Worlds Guards,
Trenton serves openly as a descendant of House Marik. He is
an affable commander with good humor, and relies more on
quick wit and alacrity than untamed brute force.
 PERSONALITIES
HENRY “HACK” KINCAID
Title/Rank: Colonel, Wolf’s Dragoons
Born: 3095 (57 in 3152)
Henry “Hack” Kincaid was a Dragoons’ Dragoon. He
was born just Henry in a Dragoon crèche on Arc-Royal and,
like all Dragoons ironborn, steeped in the traditions of the
mercenaries who had come before him. His first posting was
in the Spider’s Web Battalion, where he quickly climbed the
ranks. Promoted to major and command of the battalion
in 3128, Hack was directly responsible for reshaping the
striker battalions into the fine weapons they had become
by the time the Dragoons departed Steiner space for the
Draconis Rift.
Hack was away with the Wolfsbane when the Dragoons
went to Terra, leaving him to police up the Dragoons’
dependents as the regiments disappeared. He had no word
from the Dragoon leadership until the horrifying emergency
rendezvous at Savannah. With Dragoon faith in General
Brubaker shattered and all the other surviving colonels
tainted by Terra, Hack had no choice but to assume command
of all Dragoons.
As a leader Hack, like most Dragoon officers, commands
from the cockpit of his Guillotine IIC. He studied warfare and
Dragoon history his entire life; he is fiercely loyal to his troops
and his mission and to the heritage he was born into. He is
a taciturn, stern man who keeps himself in good shape and
would do anything to protect the Dragoons in his care.
ISAIAH ARMSTRONG
Title/Rank: Colonel, Panther Assault Group
Born: 3098 (54 in 3152)
Colonel Armstrong hailed from a long tradition of
mercenary excellence. Like most members of his family
going back to the Third Succession War, he started serving
in the Panther Assault Group when he was still in his teens,
beginning as a gofer for one of the ’Mech battalion’s company
commanders. In his youth he saw himself as commanding that
battalion someday. However, he chose to cross-train with the
Assault Group’s tank battalion and gained an understanding
of both aspects of the Assault Group’s operations. This
knowledge gave him a deep appreciation for combined-arms
tactics, which allowed him to effectively utilize his ’Mechs and
tanks in concert to tear through an enemy’s defenses.
In 3142, Isaiah and his wife, Lieutenant Colonel Karin
Armstrong, shepherded the Assault Group through a tragedy
that stole a third of their numbers. A pirate-hunting mission
on Khon Kaen saw the Assault Group become the prey. Pirate
aerospace destroyed two of the Assault Group’s DropShips
during transit, and one of the vessels carried not only a
company of tanks but also Lieutenant Doris Armstrong, Isaiah
and Karin's daughter. Their ongoing contract with Christopher
Marik had allowed them to recoup some of their losses, but
the scars still remained.
Isaiah is a no-nonsense, zero tolerance commander.
He exhibits no patience for tomfoolery but would defend
a member of the PAG to the death if necessary. His
professionalism often sees him and his troops mistaken for
House regulars, and he expects nothing less than immaculate
perfection both on and off the battlefield.
Mercernaries 99
 EMPIRE ALONE
SAO YANG
Title/Rank: Sang-shao, 11th Sian Dragoons
Born: 3094 (58 in 3152)
Originally tasked to build the Eleventh Sian Dragoons
during Chancellor Daoshen Liao’s Hidden Lion initiative,
Sao Yang succeeded in his mission beyond the Chancellor’s
wildest expectations. Having built up his unit in secret at
the Chancellor’s behest, he ruthlessly trained them in the
methods of small-unit tactics, using his own training as a Death
Commando. They soon found they were considered invaluable
by the CCAF units they were working beside to cover for losses
or gaps in coverage. In one particular battle on Gan Singh, a
lance of Dragoons held off a company of Republic BattleMechs
when the left flank of the Liao offensive collapsed, allowing
the unit to reform in good order and eventually carry the day.
Due to the sang-shao’s recent successes, it was commonly
believed that he would be elevated to a new position now
that his unit was once again reforming in the momentary lull
before the Confederation continued offensive action against
the former worlds of the Republic of the Sphere. While the
Eleventh Sian Dragoons had begun reforming at the capitol
under the command of the Eleventh’s executive officer, Janis
Barrow, there was no sign of the unit’s commander. Knowing
the commander’s background, it was widely believed that
he had taken a portion of the Dragoons for a special mission
for the Chancellor, but such a mission, if it existed, had
been classified at the highest levels. While some had noted
secured messages being sent to Barrow from the Magistracy
of Canopus, it was best not to speculate what members of the
Dragoons would be doing clandestinely in an allied nation.
100 Capellan Confederation
ARI HUMPHREYS
Title/Rank: Duke, Duchy of Andurien
Born: 3083 (69 in 3152)
The only son of Evelyn Humphreys, the Duke took his
mother’s place upon her abdication, beginning a reign that
was assumed to be notable only for how closely he adhered
to his mother’s previously held positions, mostly through
attempts to keep the duchy out of any major conflicts or from
any entanglements. All preconceptions of the reign of “Evelyn
the Second,” as he was mocked in some quarters, would come
crashing down when Duke Humphreys would shock the
Inner Sphere by marrying Ilsa Centrella, the Magestrix of the
Magistracy of Canopus.
Nearly overnight, the quiet, assuming reign of Duke
Humphreys would move the duchy from a small independent
nation to a major player in the future affairs of the former Free
Worlds League states.
Supported on two sides by his new wife’s nation and
the nation of her brother, the duchy suddenly found itself
in a far more secure position, able to redeploy forces that
had previously been needed to secure their border with the
Confederation, rendered even more impressive by his wife’s
offer to provide Magistracy troops to help secure his planets.
The Duke has not yet taken up his wife on her generous
offer, potentially out of concerns for the perceptions of how
having Magistracy troops in his nation might be perceived
by his famously independent people. It is unknown what the
Magistracy believed it was getting out of the deal, but no one
doubts that the wily Ilsa has her own plans for any eventuality.
 PERSONALITIES
HECTOR HUMPHREYS
Title/Rank: Baron of Shiro III
Born: 3114 (38 in 3152)
The eldest son of Edmond and Esaya Humphreys, of a
distaff line of the Humphreys family, Baron Hector was at
once both the most likely and least likely heir to the Duchy
of Andurien when his uncle passed on the mantle. With
no children in his future and an unlikely chance that the
throne would pass down through his wife's family, Duke Ari
Humphreys had not yet named a successor. Unfortunately,
concern about the future succession had been growing
steadily as the duke aged, and rising domestic tensions in
neighboring nations raised many concerns about being
embroiled in a rapidly-expanding conflict.
Seeing the potential crisis forming, several of the baron's
patrons and family members took the time to quietly garner
support for Baron Hector’s confirmation as heir, although
no one has yet raised the point with the duke. While few
expected dissension from Duke Humphreys, as he was as
aware of the dynastic requirements of the family as anyone
else, his thoughts on his successor were not clear.
The most interesting thing, however, was that no one
asked what the quiet, thoughtful baron had to say about the
subject, and more than a few of the duchy elite were curious
where he stood. Unlike his family members, he has never been
a part of the military, priding himself on his education and
his work as a scholar and economist. While there is no doubt
that the baron was eminently capable of leading the duchy
forward into success, the greater question is whether he is the
war leader that they need as they move forward as a nation.
ILSA CENTRELLA
Title/Rank: Magestrix of the Magistracy of Canopus
Born: 3068 (84 in 3152)
Being the eldest child of Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao of the
Capellan Confederation and Naomi Centrella, Eighteenth
Magestrix of the Magistracy of Canopus, Ilsa Centrella was
always destined for great things. Formally adopted by her
father on the date of his engagement to Naomi in 3068, she
was briefly the heir to the Capellan Confederation before
the birth of her brother Daoshen in 3071. A childhood in the
Capellan court, with frequent visits to the Canopian Court at
Crimson, made Ilsa into a calculating, Byzantine woman who
recognized and sought power wherever she could find it.
Unlike her mother, who spent her time often in Canopus
directly wielding power as the Magestrix, Ilsa spent the lion’s
share of her life in the Confederation, trusting her aunt Erde
Centrella to act as regent in her stead. She remained close to
her father and her brother Daoshen, instead, learning from
the way they directed the affairs of the Capellan state. The
death of her father in 3113 shook Ilsa, but it also appeared
to free her from the constraints of “daddy wouldn’t like that.”
Many of Ilsa’s past actions demonstrated a calculus
that only she knew, her marriage to Duke Ari Humphreys
of Andurien most of all. Joining the Confederation’s ancient
enemy to the Canopian realm put incredible stress on the
alliance between Canopus and Sian. Indeed, most observers
believed that only Daoshen’s obsession with the Republic of
the Sphere and Terra had kept him from forcing the issue with
his independent sister. That, and perhaps his fear of what such
a push would force Ilsa to do.
Duchy of Andurien 101
 EMPIRE ALONE
ISOLDE CENTRELLA
Title/Rank: Colonel, Magistracy Armed Forces
Born: 3110 (42 in 3152)
Little was known about her early life, prior to her
attendance of the Canopian Institute of War, graduating at
the top of her class. Following her graduation, Isolde served
with Raventhir’s Iron Hand as a MechWarrior before being
posted to the Magestrix Command Center as an aide to
Senior General Talia Kessa. Following her tour with the senior
general, Isolde leveraged her experience into a position with
the Third Canopian Light Horse, where she eventually bought
her way into command rank, which returned her to Canopus.
As one of the few command-rank officers with experience
available when forces from the Marian Hegemony invaded the
Magistracy of Canopus, Isolde quickly appealed to the Regent,
Serin Centrella, to allow her to select forces to respond to
the invasion. Following her initial victories, Isolde was hailed
as the savior of the nation by many, and the announcement
that she was also the granddaughter of Erde Centrella, former
regent of the Magistracy of Canopus, and the daughter of
the current regent, Serin Centrella, had caused the people
of the Magistracy to go wild. Anger and frustration with the
Centrella ruling family had seemed to evaporate overnight,
with the focus shifting from the current Magestrix to the hero
of the hour, Isolde. While Colonel Centrella had been vocally
supportive of the current Magestrix and quickly shut down
any insinuation that she might be seen as a potential heir to
the throne, there were many who wondered if her sense of
duty extended beyond her military aspirations and whether
she was exactly the Centrella that might lead the Magistracy
forward in these uncertain times.
102 Magistracy of Canopus
GABRIELLE MARTINO
Title/Rank: Colonel, Gabrielle’s Pride Mercenary Regiment
Born: 3110 (42 in 3152)
The former executive officer for Emory’s Evicerators, a
mercenary company that was decimated in an attack by Clan
Wolf, Major Gabrielle Martino pulled the remnants of her unit
to the Periphery, the burial grounds for many unsuccessful
mercenary commands, to find work.
Choosing to head toward the Magistracy of Canopus,
Martino quickly caught the attention of Countess Skyla
Abbett-Centrella. Building a fast friendship and supposedly an
even closer relationship with the Magistracy noble, Martino
prevailed upon the well-connected Centrella to help her find
contracts to help rebuild her former unit and return to the
Inner Sphere. Sensing an opportunity, the countess began
assisting Martino in building a whole new unit, primarily
focusing on warriors with experience fighting the Clans.
Although some of the countess’ detractors had written
off their relationship as a fling by a flighty noble, Abbett-
Centrella’s more cunning political opponents were watching
closely as she allied herself with a proven military commander
who had shown a keen eye for small-unit tactics.
When her cousin, Colonel Isolde Centrella, was seeking
warriors to repel the Hegemony invasion of the Magistracy,
Skyla instantly recommended the Pride, who jumped at the
chance to support their new home. Their early victories had
tied their star to their new commander, and the friendship
between Isolde and Gabrielle was only further cementing the
bond of the mercenaries towards their new nation.
PERSONALITIES

IGNATIUS O’REILLY
Title/Rank: Caesar of the Marian Hegemony
Born: 3108 (44 in 3152)
While his predecessors obsessed with conquering and
maintaining order in the Lothian League, Ignatius chose
a different fixation as the hallmark of his reign: the Free
Worlds League. Long thought too big for the Marian legions
to effectively touch, the League saw itself distracted long
enough by Lyran and Canopian raids that Ignatius decided
cárpere diem by ordering a widespread raid-in-force into the
Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey. His goal was to claim and hold
worlds outside the Periphery and ultimately evolve into a
true Inner Sphere power. His ambition got the better of him,
and after securing a few worlds around Gibraltar, a full-scale
counterinvasion from the duchy’s troops conquered Illyria,
forcing him to admit defeat and recall his troops.
On 9 September 3151, Ignatius’ wife, the Lady Adrijana
Vouk, with whom he had a tempestuous relationship, was
found dead in her bedroom. A tabella defixionis—a lead curse
tablet inscribed with her name and stabbed with a nail—was
found beneath her bed. Ignatius openly mourned her passing,
and although many suspected him of the murder, nothing
could be proven, and he offered a bounty to anyone who
could bring her killer to justice.
Ignatius is seen as a just and beneficent ruler given to
odd fits of whimsy and caprice, but among his inner circle, he
is known for being rash, impulsive, and at times cruel. Since
the failed invasion of the Free Worlds League, his outbursts
and punishments against those who anger him have only
worsened in frequency and intensity.

Marian Hegemony 103

 EMPIRE ALONE
Bolan was not anyone’s first choice as a colony world thanks
to low water coverage and near-record equatorial temperatures.
After being inexpensively purchased in 2157 by the corporation
“Weir Worlds,” Bolan was unoccupied for decades. Typical of
low-water planets, Bolan has several supercontinents: Sakété,
mostly in the northern hemisphere; Kashmir, mostly in the
southern hemisphere (and hosts the capital, Bolan City); and
the northern island-continent of Sabari. The supercontinents
are seamed by numerous mountain ranges where constituent
crustal plates have collided and have been largely covered in
deserts. The hypersaline oceans separating the supercontinents
might be small compared to Terra’s (and five times as saline)
but are vital for habitability. Native life, particularly that living
outside arctic regions, utilize unusual, temperature-resistant
proteins somewhat poisonous to humans. Equatorial oceans
easily exceed 60⁰C surface temperatures, and equatorial
continental interiors can approach 80⁰C.
Unusually, the Outer Reaches Rebellion allowed Weir to
profitably colonize the world. A sudden glut of JumpShips
and throngs of Terrans trying to escape the Alliance allowed
Bolan to be settled in 2244. Weir’s clients were emigrants from
around the Indian subcontinent, all unemployed by the recent
collapse of Terra’s aerospace industry: Afghani miners, Pakistani
electronic workers, and Indian colonial service providers.
Weir was thoughtless in its settlement, initially dumping
colonists with ancient ethnic, nationalist, and religious
rivalries into mixed cities. The colonists soon began fighting
among themselves. The quick fix by Weir was to deliver later
colonists into separate regions, but this “Great Division” only
turned neighborhood brawls into wars between city-states. The
world’s central government collapsed into a set of feuding city-
states circa 2250 that did not rebuild a planetary government
for several decades. Even then, planetary districts still feud (as
recently as the Quetta Land War of 3060).
While raucous, Bolan’s hard-working people built a wealthy
world and declined to join the burgeoning superpowers until
104 Bolan
BOLAN
Star Type (Recharge Time): G4V (185 hours)
Position in System: 2 (of 13)
Time to Jump Point: 7.96 days
Number of Satellites: None
Surface Gravity: 0.78
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Equatorial Temperature: 54°C (Desert)
Surface Water: 44%
Recharge Station: Zenith
HPG Class: B
Highest Native Life: Birds
Population: 4,553,000,000 (3150)
Socio-Industrial Levels: B-C-B-C-C
Landmasses (Capital City): Sakété, Kashmir (Bolan City),
Sabari
the Age of War, when it sought the Free World’s protection in
2414. Ironically, this attracted the Lyrans who seized the world
in 2427 using a textbook, near-bloodless campaign fought by
the Ares Conventions. The League decisively reclaimed Bolan
in 2441 and held onto it for another 300 years until the First
Succession War.
Centuries of prosperity ended during the Succession
Wars. Both the League and Commonwealth formally
renounced the Conventions in 2786 and fought savagely
over the “Bolan Thumb.” Bolan “only” lost about five million
inhabitants and its original capital Mumbai, but nuclear
carpet bombing to eliminate forces hiding in the wilderness
and the “Overwatch” fortress caused a decade-long nuclear
winter. The radioactivity faded centuries ago, but the winter
collapsed the polar current that cooled subtropical Sabari,
rendering the continent uninhabitable. During the Succession
Wars Bolan found Lyran rule preferable to the League’s, with
steady investment making the world a provincial capital,
albeit the subject of raids like most border worlds. Only in
the thirty-second century did the reformed League recover
Bolan, but they were more concerned with defending the
world from Lyran predation than looking after its population,
which did not improve Bolan’s attitude towards its former
ruler. The Lyrans readily liberated Bolan in 3151 with help
from its population, whose loyalty was swayed with public
relation gestures like offering emergency water supplies and
purification systems across the arid world.
The sizable planetary population clusters near the oceans
in polar regions have hot ocean currents meeting temperate
air to produce rain vital for agriculture. A polar current keeps
Bolan City (at forty degrees latitude south) relatively cool and
dry, rarely exceeding 40⁰C.
The divided population is very culturally rich in a way rarely
seen beyond Terra, with numerous sects and regional cultures.
The natives are often multilingual, speaking German, Urdu,
Punjabi, and sometimes English.
 ATLAS
GIBRALTAR
Star Type (Recharge Time): M0V (201 hours)
Position in System: 1 (of 7)
Time to Jump Point: 3.14 days
Number of Satellites: None
Surface Gravity: 1.1
Atm. Pressure: Low (Breathable)
Equatorial Temperature: 25°C (Temperate)
Surface Water: 81%
Recharge Station: Zenith, Nadir
HPG Class: A
Highest Native Life: Reptile
Population: 77,452,000
Socio-Industrial Levels: B-C-B-B-A
Landmasses (Capital City): Argleton, Middlemarch
(Mountweasel), Royston, Scarfolk, Sodor, Walmington, Weatherfield
Gibraltar is rich in water, of moderate temperature, and
not outright poisonous, but the world still lay unsettled until
2351 because of its unusual day-night cycle. It rotated once
every thirty days in its forty-five-day, somewhat eccentric orbit
around its primary (“Britannia”). The rotation/orbital resonance
appears to make a day last two years, giving it forty-five days of
sunlight (during which Britannia briefly reverses to move west
to east) and forty-five days of night.
The equatorial average temperature, very close to Terra’s,
encompasses extremes from daytime peaks of 70°C over
continental interiors to nighttime lows of -60°C, diurnal swings
enabled by a thin atmosphere. The large, deep oceans greatly
moderate coastal temperatures, and the long days drive huge
amounts of moisture into the air, which precipitate during the
long dusk (“the dusk deluge” to locals) and makes it hard for
soils to get established. Humidity gets very low during the night
inland but fogs and rains around coasts are common. There are
permanent polar ice caps anchored by islands (and Sodor), but
elsewhere the nightside cold rarely has time to produce more
than nilas and grease ice before the long days melt it.
Gibraltar is big, 15,880 kilometers in diameter, though a
low density keeps the gravity tolerable. Substantial internal
heat drives energetic plate tectonics, creating the numerous
mountains that help the modest continents (named after
fictious locations in Terra’s British region) stay above the
oceans. Throughout the Succession Wars, abundant geothermal
heating was also used during nighttime to keep homes and
greenhouses warm.
Native plant life is a vibrant purple-black like that of many
red dwarf stars. Gibraltar’s life is adapted to the long periods of
light and dark and to high temperature swings. The so-called
reptiles of Gibraltar are quite warm-blooded and quickly build
fat and sugar reserves during the day to stay active at night.
(Unfortunately for the reptiles and fish, they are quite palatable
to humans.)
The extremes of the planet kept its population low. Food
from its fisheries and greenhouses is plentiful and diverse,
but otherwise Gibraltar’s modest population has prevented it
from developing a diverse industry or exploiting its average
mineral resources.
Gibraltar, settled by an isolationist group from Europe, was
independent until after the Reunification War. An extended
economic recession drove it into the Free Worlds League in
2610. Beginning in the twenty-seventh century, the planetary
government courted assorted militaries for revenue. Its terrain
and weather do make it highly defensible, and a fortress nearly
as robust as a Castle Brian lurks under “The Rock,” a 9,100-meter
mountain just one hundred kilometers from the coastal capital
of Mountweasel. (Visitors often misunderstand “Mountweasel”
as the formal name of “The Rock” and that the capital is named
after the mountain, but the city is actually named for a famous
twentieth-century photographer.) At various times, Gibraltar
has hosted a Free Worlds fleet anchorage, the Star League
Ninth Army, and even the Tamarind-Abbey capitol-in-exile in
the thirty-second century.
Despite its fearsome terrain, Gibraltar was never turned
into a planetary fortress. When its defenders grew thin in the
thirty-second century, the Marian Hegemony was able to
seize the world. Since 3147, Gibraltar had been occupied by
the Hegemony. It is a restive occupation, and the traditional
Marian enforcement techniques failed to cow the locals. The
warrior-monks of the Brotherhood of the Rock organized
resistance against the Hegemony, aiming to make the
occupation too expensive to sustain. This resistance kept the
Hegemony occupation forces demoralized, another factor
leading to their eventual surrender during the Free Worlds
League’s mid-3151 liberation.
Gibraltar 105
 EMPIRE ALONE
Gienah was officially settled in 2220 by a group of Israelis,
soon joined by Scots and Indians. However, “squatters” had
been on the beautiful, water-rich world since 2159, ignoring
the powerful colonial development corporations who claimed
it. (The ill-equipped squatters from Separatist nations were
quickly subsumed by later colonies.) All colonies avoided
tropical regions of the planet, which were significantly hotter
than Terra.
The world’s landmasses, somewhat smaller than Terra’s,
are clustered into three supercontinents: the sprawling,
lightly populated northerly Carrabesto, the heavily populated,
equatorial Alliago Major, and the south polar Alliago Minor.
Alliago Minor is nearly uninhabitable under the south polar
icecap and is only occupied by a militia training facility. Alliago
Major has Gienah’s two capitals, the Wolf Empire’s capital of
Alliago City (destroyed and rebuilt by the Wolves in the thirty-
second century and later mauled by Wolf’s Dragoons in 3152)
and the planetary capital of Ooessay.
The planetary government focused on exports from
an early point. The Federation of Skye was a natural partner,
which Gienah joined in 2310. The industrialization programs
of Skye helped Gienah become a major export center and
drew additional settlers from across Skye. This export-oriented
economic policy continued throughout the Star League and
even the Succession Wars. Gienah Automotive, one of the largest
military exporters, lost some of its largest sub-component
assembly lines during the Dragoons’ raid. Though devastating,
most suppliers scattered elsewhere on the planet were
unharmed and the company should resume exports by 3153.
Gienah worked particularly hard to stay neutral during
the Succession Wars. It endured forced embargoes during
the First Succession War, but by the Second, its government
and corporations were reaching out to trade partners in the
Free Worlds League. While some of the bloodiest conflicts of
106 Gienah
GIENAH
Star Type (Recharge Time): K0V (191 hours)
Position in System: 2 (of 9)
Time to Jump Point: 5.48 days
Number of Satellites: 4 (Corvis, Dobry, Mazel, Nando)
Surface Gravity: 1.08
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Equatorial Temperature: 41°C (Tropical)
Surface Water: 77%
Recharge Station: Zenith
HPG Class: B
Highest Native Life: Birds
Population: 1,120,000,000
Socio-Industrial Levels: B-B-B-B-B
Landmasses (Capital City): Alliago Major (Ooessay), Alliago
Minor, Carrabesto
the Succession Wars, such as the battle for the Bolan Thumb,
took place around Gienah, both the Free Worlds and Lyran
Commonwealth recognized the value of trade at the nearly
neutral world.
Previously notorious for its negative attitude toward higher
education, which left Gienah with substandard technology and
industry even long after the recovery of the Helm Memory Core,
Gienah eventually allowed a seed planted by Melissa Steiner-
Davion to bear fruit. The Melissa Steiner-Davion “Scholars Fund”
stimulated educational spending on Gienah throughout the
late thirty-first century. In 3107, an advisory team from El
Dorado was hired to oversee a top-down overhaul of school
organization and curricula. It took over a generation for the
effects to manifest, but Gienah’s technological and industrial
sophistication have improved markedly since the late thirty-first
century. This also impacts the quality of healthcare available on
the planet; average lifespans are now over 110, a twenty-year
increase in just fifty years.
The world’s long, relative peace came to an end when
invaded by the Wolf Empire. The Empire made Gienah its capital
without exactly getting a vote from the locals. However, the
instability and weakness of the Lyran Alliance has helped keep
anti-Wolf unrest to a minimum. The Wolves, unlike some Clans,
were also careful not to trod heavily on locals. The Clan caste
system was not imposed, and, generally, the Wolves have acted
like a federal government on Gienah, addressing interstellar
matters while leaving the planetary government to its own
devices (so long as the Empire’s activities are not disturbed).
Gienah hosts a number of factories that produce military
vehicles ranging from the Packrat to the Aesir AA vehicle and
common APCs. While the exports are necessarily a small part of
the planetary economy, numerous militaries purchase Gienah’s
vehicles, giving it substantial amounts of hard currency from
the interstellar economy.
 ATLAS
JOPPA
Star Type (Recharge Time): M0V (201 hours)
Position in System: 2 and 4 (of 5)
Time to Jump Point: 3.14 and 3.17 days
Number of Satellites: None
Surface Gravity: 0.9 and 0.62
Atm. Pressure: Low (Breathable) and Vacuum
Equatorial Temperature: 27°C (Temperate) and -28°C (Arctic)
Surface Water: 88% and 0%
Recharge Station: None
HPG Class: B
Highest Native Life: Fish and None
Population: 745,000 (Joppa) and 25,000 (Specula)
Socio-Industrial Levels: C-D-C-D-C
Landmasses (Capital City): Thorain, Strings, Temrous, Reeds (Gigli)
(Specula: no isolated landmass)
An insignificant waystation set up by the SLDF to
support their Periphery Uprising campaign, Joppa survived
the League’s fall due to its location and unimportance. The
SLDF focused its resources on Specula, the airless moon of the
gas giant Joppa IV, where it built a substantial naval support
facility and put a repair slip in orbit around the moon. To
support the base, the borderline habitable Joppa II (usually
just “Joppa”) was settled.
Joppa is a beautiful, water-rich world with small
continents. The moderate temperatures, similar to Terra,
would seem to make it an ideal colony. However, the
atmosphere is thin, producing strong diurnal temperature
shifts during its forty-eight-hour day, which solar tides are
lengthening. Worse, native life is incompatible with human
digestion and has left the world’s waters polluted with
organic toxins. Farmers depend on greenhouses and carefully
filtered precipitation to produce clean, human-compatible
foods. However, the low air pressure does make precipitation
common in the temperate, human-settled region around the
capital. The filtration process, while energy intensive, does
not require advanced technology, allowing Joppa to include
fresh water in its exports to passing merchants and pirates.
Otherwise, Joppa is of little interest to visitors and invaders—
the base on Specula and its orbiting repair slip tend to garner
the most attention.
Like many Periphery planets, Joppa is virtually a city-state,
with its entire population concentrated close to the capital
city of Gigli. Local industry is limited, but Joppa has worked
hard to support the Specula base throughout its history. It
thus has more advanced technology than might be expected.
That population was never large, just some thousands of
SLDF dependents who later invited their families to flee the
madness of the early Succession Wars. These grew to just a half
million by the time the Trinity Alliance began developing the
region. Joppa wasn’t even on ComStar maps until the 3060s.
There has been a recent population boom due to immigration:
when the system was turned over to Capellan control in 3130,
the Capellans sought to develop the repair slip and Specula
Station. They shipped in thousands of skilled workers and their
families. While this stressed local supplies, it stands to greatly
improve the world in the long run. Not all residents are thrilled
with the recent immigrants, which has led to growing unrest
and protests around Gigli.
Specula, meanwhile, is a planet-sized moon of Joppa IV.
Despite temperature swings from -173°C during the eight-day
night to 117°C during the long day (for a misleading average
of -28°C), Specula hosts a facility with numerous shops,
warehouses, and hydrogen bunkers for visiting spacecraft.
Some 25,000 personnel make the moon a home, shuttling
to the orbiting repair slip on chemical rockets and rotating
to Joppa on precious fusion rocket DropShips. Magistracy
and Capellan investment is gradually phasing out the archaic
chemical rockets, but they are easily maintained by local
fabricators and shops.
Since the Star League’s collapse, Joppa used a series of
desperate ploys to survive. Mostly, it invited customers to its
repair slip. This unfortunately meant dealing with pirates in
the region, who used Joppa’s reputation as a trading site to
move their loot. While modern Joppans are shamed at the
slaves who passed through their port, this did get them a
steady supply of vital technology to avoid collapsing into
just another agrarian Periphery system. The Magistracy’s and
Confederation’s investments give Joppa hope that trade will
expand and its yard will develop into a lucrative facility.
Joppa 107
 EMPIRE ALONE
KALIDASA
Amongst the hottest worlds settled by humans, Kalidasa
is only currently habitable to humans because two of its
three continents are near the equator, increasing the world’s
albedo and lowering temperatures. When continental drift
moves more oceans to the equator, the planet will become
too hot to inhabit. The fossil record indicates that native
plant life seems to survive such hothouse periods, but
humans and their imports would not. (Wags in the planetary
government have started a terraforming fund with several
eagles, estimating that interest should be sufficient to fund
a terraforming project when it becomes necessary in several
hundred million years.)
The only inhabitable landmass, Kalima, is at the south
pole. It is iceless, and its interior regions experience months
of darkness and light due to planetary tilt. That dry, polar
interior generates inconvenient dust storms for the coastal
regions, which have often hindered invaders. However, the
temperatures are tolerable, and the hypercanes generated
in the hot tropical oceans dissipate before reaching Kalima.
Accordingly, most of the population lives here; only a few are
found at mining sites on the other continents and the north
polar islands. The capital, Sakuntalem, is in a particularly mild
and rainy coastal region.
Kalidasa is a storied world, being a major military
manufacturing site for the Free Worlds, often contested by
the nearby House Steiner, and a trade crossroads even in
the depths of the Succession Wars. A dozen spaceports on
Kalima shuffle trade through bonded warehouses and free
trade zones and receive the output of manufacturers like Kali-
Yama and Quikscell. The trade zones around spaceports have
deliberately under-regulated bazaars that sell Lyran goods
ranging from companionable mannequins of dubious moral
value to XL fusion engines and the latest computer processors.
108 Kalidasa
Star Type (Recharge Time): G1V (182 hours)
Position in System: 4 (of 9)
Time to Jump Point: 9.75 days
Number of Satellites: 2 (Carbons, Deons)
Surface Gravity: 1.1
Atm. Pressure: Low (Breathable)
Equatorial Temperature: 56°C (Arid)
Surface Water: 67%
Recharge Station: Zenith, Nadir
HPG Class: A
Highest Native Life: Plant
Population: 2,520,000,000
Socio-Industrial Levels: A-A-C-B-C
Landmasses (Capital City): Kaleen, Kalima (Sakuntalem),
Kumar
Trade is vital to the world. While famous for its military
production, domestic industry is primarily light industry for
consumers, plus associated mining and forestry. Industrial
tooling and other sophisticated civilian products are imported.
Kalidasa was coerced into the Word of Blake’s Protectorate
during the Jihad but, unlike Stewart, was not an enthusiastic
member. Its resistance forces were in the process of
overthrowing the Word when Allied forces arrived to liberate
Kalidasa. Their independence would not last long as they were
soon forcibly integrated into the Republic. A half century of
peace and growth—which suited Kalidasa well—came to an
end in 3135 when it left the collapsing Republic to become
an independent world once more. In the uncertain times,
Kalidasa sought the protection of the reformed League only
to be promptly conquered by the Lyrans during Operation
Hammerfall. This only lasted briefly before the Wolf Empire
seized the world as their own.
While the Wolf Empire generally ran its worlds including
Kalidasa with a light hand, and the factories did benefit
from Clan technology, the people of Kalidasa had been fairly
emphatic about rejoining the League after the lengthy turmoil
at the end of the Republic. Wolf solahma and civilian caste
enforcers were kept busy by the low-key resistance movements,
which were happy to cause problems like work slowdowns,
food poisoning in Wolf barracks, and stink bombs in Clan
council meetings. Silver Hawks forces attempted to liberate
Kalidasa in 3151, but the battle soon devolved into a stalemate
as more and more factions vied to control the world. Clan Sea
Fox successfully mediated a ceasefire in April 3152, with control
of Kalidasa being awarded to the Covenant Worlds.
 ATLAS
MARIK
Star Type (Recharge Time): K0V (191 hours)
Position in System: 2 (of 8)
Time to Jump Point: 5.48 days
Number of Satellites: 2 (Hradcany, Malla Strana)
Surface Gravity: 1.1
Atm. Pressure: High (Breathable)
Equatorial Temperature: 40°C (Arid)
Surface Water: 55%
Recharge Station: Zenith, Nadir
HPG Class: A
Highest Native Life: Mammal
Population: 4,915,000,000 (3150)
Socio-Industrial Levels: A-A-C-A-B
Landmasses (Capital City): Chavalet, Modaria (Dormuth)
Marik typified the early Terran Alliance interstellar
settlement policy: being rich in freshwater (if not so covered
in oceans as Terra), rich in resources, and endowed with an
ecosystem compatible with humans and their imported
species. The world’s settlement was driven by Antonin Marik,
who lobbied and cajoled the Terran Alliance into releasing the
world into his governance. Unlike New Earth and Rigil Kentarus
twenty years earlier, by 2139, Terra was no longer so crazed for
interstellar colonies that they had to be shared among the many
nations of the Alliance.
The world is rather arid, its two large continental masses
each substantially larger than Terra’s Eurasia, and their
interiors are thousands of kilometers from any large body
of water. Modaria is notorious for generating dust storms
and tornados with katabatic winds rolling off its interior
highlands during the short summer. (Marik’s year is only
about half of Terra’s.)
This inland aridity was not a hindrance in 2139 for there
were many water-rich locations near the oceans for early
settlements. Since then, most cities remain close to the coasts
(and, as possible, away from the equator that is so much
hotter than Terra’s). Even if they lack substantial rain or rivers,
desalination on the advanced world is easy. Understandably
avoiding the arid interior, agriculture is bountiful, and
aquaculture (particularly in the shallow Azman sea between
Chavalet and Modaria) has not had trouble meeting the needs
of the world’s sizable population.
Originally noted for plentiful mineral resources, Marik has
seen most of these mined out and replaced with extensive
recycling or mining less convenient ores. (Firestones, prized
gems, are the only noteworthy mineral export today.) It also
shifted and adapted its industry, seeking high value, low cost
exports like aerospace vehicles and stimulating the domestic
service industry. After the economic warfare of the First
Succession War took its toll, Marik worked hard to become self-
sufficient. It could not replace the most advanced imported
systems, not with the population of just one world, but it could
maintain its peoples’ quality of life and produce vital aerospace
vehicles and systems for the Free Worlds League. After the Clan
invasion, this even reached the point of producing Agamemnon-
class WarShips.
Marik offered shelter to refugee Spirit Cats and Sea Foxes
emerging from the Republic, seeing them as useful defenders
after the world was the focus of so much feuding between
the Marik Commonwealth and the Oriente Protectorate. Later
crises led the Clan defenders, their toumans growing with
Marik’s military output, to offer protection to other nearby
worlds, which were formalized as the Clan Protectorate in 3138.
When the Free Worlds League was restored, the Protectorate
was accepted as a formal member of the League with normal
parliamentary representation.
The Clan Protectorate and heavy fortifications of the
planet worked as hoped when the Regulan Fiefs struck in 3147.
“Operation Hunger Strike,” a deep strike into Clan Protectorate
space brought on by the Sea Fox embargo of the Fiefs, was
a debacle for the Regulans. While the Regulan worlds were
necessarily independent of foodstuffs (planets dependent on
imports had died off in the Succession Wars), the affront of the
embargo prompted this Regulan attack.
This use of Clan forces as defenders may have backfired
when Clan Wolf seized Terra and became ilClan. While the
Wolves were nearly a broken force after the bloody conflict,
the Free Worlds is understandably concerned that the leaders
of the Clan Protectorate might shift loyalties to the Wolves. This
would cost the League valuable worlds like Marik and put a Clan
force deeper into the League space.
Marik 109
 EMPIRE ALONE
NEW OLYMPIA
New Olympia was a near-perfect colony world: water-rich,
temperatures only slightly higher than Terra’s, and filled with sea
life. From orbit, the continents were green and well-watered.
The oceans were soon stocked with fish from numerous worlds,
which thrived. If there was a drawback, it was that the two
mountainous continents had not yet developed good soils
due to a lack of advanced plants and animals on land, which
always hindered agriculture. At the height of the Terran Alliance,
though, such problems were trivial and easily addressed with
technology like agricultural domes.
While technology fixed some issues, the poorly-conducted
survey of New Olympia and vague colonization charter
left the six groups of colonists feuding over water rights on
badly-divided rivers, mineral rights of continental shelves,
and fisheries. In 2196 and 2220, Terran Colonial Marines
intervened to halt violence between colonies. When the Terran
Alliance shed New Olympia (and numerous other worlds) via
the Demarcation Declaration, the feuding colonies formed
three republics: Olympica, Kasnov, and New Greenland. The
withdrawal of Alliance marines removed any checks and
balances on their behavior, leading to immediate war.
In 2265, New Greenland and Kasnov joined the Marik
Commonwealth. However, the “first among equals” d’Andres,
who formed a de facto ruling clique on Olympica, instead
courted Regulus. Olympica adroitly exploited rivalries between
Marik and Regulus to remain independent. Nearly nine hundred
years later, Olympica remains an independent province within
the Free Worlds League.
As a sheltered interior world of the Free Worlds League,
New Olympia was spared much direct damage during the
Age of War or later conflicts. The First Succession War did see
its zenith-point JumpShip yard destroyed by raiding Lyran
WarShips, but most damage was indirect. Located in the heart
of the Free Worlds and possessing a tourist-oriented economy,
New Olympia’s industry had been heavily dependent on imports
110 New Olympia
Star Type (Recharge Time): G1V (182 hours)
Position in System: 3 (of 7)
Time to Jump Point: 9.75 days
Number of Satellites: 1 (Delphi)
Surface Gravity: 0.95
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Equatorial Temperature: 35°C (Temperate)
Surface Water: 82%
Recharge Station: Zenith
HPG Class: A
Highest Native Life: Plant
Population: 2,635,000,000
Socio-Industrial Levels: B-B-B-A-B
Landmasses (Capital City): New Greenland (Kasnov),
Olympica (Darienbad)
for (with some exaggeration) anything more advanced than a
combustion-engined fishing boat. Even after the Helm Memory
Core revolutionized civilian industry across the Inner Sphere,
New Olympia remained relatively underdeveloped, though
its planetary industry was diverse and able to give residents a
good standard of living. The thirty-first-century collapse of the
Free Worlds League prompted some industrial investment by
the two planetary governments, which has borne fruit.
New Olympia was the site of some conflicts during Anton’s
Revolt, and Blakists used a tactical nuclear weapon on the
Olympia capital of Darienbad during the Jihad. Neither conflict
produced lasting damage. Darienbad was never fully evacuated
and hosted major post-Jihad financial conferences a few years
later, partly thanks to the engineers of the Second Free Worlds
League Legionnaires.
The two nations on New Olympia have long focused on
different export industries. Kasnov-Greenland hosts the famous
Lloyd Marik-Stanley Aerospace School, which trains many of
the Free Worlds’ finest fighter pilots among the stunning
natural beauty of the “Garden of the Gods” mountain range.
Olympica, meanwhile, is a tax shelter for the Free Worlds’ ultra-
wealthy. Those who claim residence in Olympica avoid many
of the taxes of other provinces but, of course, end up spending
extravagantly in Olympica’s many luxury-oriented businesses.
The Allison MechWarrior Institute is another draw. Both nations
are involved in sport-fishing tourism, which brings in a few
thousand wealthy tourists annually, and exporting luxury foods
throughout the Marik Commonwealth.
New Olympia’s mostly-peaceful history was shattered
when Clan Wolf’s Beta Galaxy invaded in 3139, killing Thaddeus
Marik in the process. The twin academies represented a major
source of warriors for the Wolf Empire, which the League
sought to deny them. Task Force Accord invaded in early
3152, but with reinforcements from both sides the battle
soon stalemated.
 ATLAS
SADURNI
Star Type (Recharge Time): G9V (190 hours)
Position in System: 4 (of 10)
Time to Jump Point: 5.82 days
Number of Satellites: 1 (Radlan)
Surface Gravity: 1.1
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Equatorial Temperature: 35°C (Temperate)
Surface Water: 65%
Recharge Station: None
HPG Class: B
Highest Native Life: Mammals
Population: 75,500,000
Socio-Industrial Levels: C-D-C-C-C
Landmasses (Capital City): Katerini, Patra (Southerton), Xanthi
Superficially, descriptions of Sadurni suggest a pleasant
world with nearly Terran-like water coverage, a breathable
atmosphere, and temperatures only slightly worse than late
Western Alliance pollution-induced warming. However,
Sadurni is a posterchild for planetary water supply problems.
Between organic byproducts and native microbes, most water
is challenging to filter and dangerous to drink. Metals utilized
by some organisms have, over time, produced famously colorful
and attractive marbles but also left native soils dangerously
polluted. Sadurni’s population has thus grown slowly and
was endangered by the failure of Star League-era water filter
supplies during the Second and Third Succession Wars.
These environmental poisons complicated the settlement
of Sadurni. Most farming requires greenhouses, careful
monitoring for accidental contamination by native microbes,
and careful sterilization of water supplies. Households are
meticulously sealed for dust resistance. Native culture is
exacting in its cleanliness habits such as hand washing,
shedding shoes and robes upon entering a home, and
sterilizing food preparation areas. Some interior regions of
continents have been carefully sterilized, spread with artificial
soils, and benefited from pollutant-free precipitation, allowing
some outdoor sports, agriculture, and ranching. However, much
like Euclid in the Federated Suns, Sadurni suffered high levels
of birth defects and chronic health problems throughout the
Third Succession War until the Helm Memory Core delivered
improved water filters and soil purification systems. Because
low technology greenhouses, fish farms, “vertical ranches,” and
partial terraforming did not benefit from automation, a sizable
part of Sadurni’s population was rural and agricultural. (The
Anduriens did site a secret chemical weapons facility here in
the late thirty-first century, exploiting some native toxins to
produce lingering area-denial weapons.)
Sadurni was originally settled as an independent colony
in 2320, funded by a group from the United States of America
attempting to flee the new “tyrannical” Hegemony. After
struggling for several decades, Sadurni joined the Capellan
Confederation at its founding as an independent member-
world but was soon assigned to the Andurien Commonality.
The new Andurien rulers directed numerous new settlers
to bolster the colony, drawing from other Confederation’s
worlds, resulting in large Indian and Korean populations
on Sadurni.
The union with Andurien helped Sadurni thrive. Prior to
the Reunification War, its marble and stonemasons became
renowned across human space. Sadurni’s most famous work
was the Court of the Star League, where its beautiful marble
clad the floors and walls and formed soaring columns. During
the growing wealth of the Star League, nobles across the Inner
Sphere purchased Sadurni marble and its stonemasons. While
interstellar trade is still orders of magnitude below the Star
League’s peak, Sadurni continues to find interstellar markets.
After the Andurien Civil War, Jojoken’s government buildings
were rebuilt by Sadurni stonemasons. Domestically, Sadurni’s
industry is relatively limited both in terms of advancement and
breadth thanks to the small population and large amount of
effort dedicated to agriculture.
Like much of Andurien space, Sadurni is more loyal
to the duchy than to the Free Worlds League or Capellan
Confederation. It has traded hands between the two houses
multiple times. Most recently, the Capellans seized Sadurni
in 3104 and have held it to the present day. This is not a
popular situation with the people of Sadurni who have been
prone to protesting. Most recently, the Capellan garrison
was hard-pressed to contain the protests until Magestrix Ilsa
Centrella-Liao-Humphreys arrived and deployed the Second
Andurien Guards. With the wife of the Duke of Andurien and
Andurien troops present, Sadurni has quieted in the hope
that they might soon be transferred back to the League-
controlled duchy.
Sadurni 111
 EMPIRE ALONE
SCARBOROUGH
Scarborough was identified by Western Alliance telescopes,
which noted its abundant water and modest atmospheric
oxygen. Even in the mid-twenty-first century the world did not
look palatable. Scarborough was, however, fascinating because
its red dwarf primary (York) was in a distant, 200-astronomical
unit orbit around one of the closest neutron stars to Terra
(“Egg” for obscure reasons). It was immediately obvious from
orbital details that York had formed with Egg and thus suffered
through its supernova; Terran Alliance scientific missions to
Scarborough discovered that the unusually massive Egg (two
solar masses) was actually a product of a neutron star merger,
which had left its mark in the form of heavy elements scattered
across the system. York had thus once orbited two massive stars,
which both died by supernova, and then suffered through a
neutron star collision. These debacles were all billions of years
in the past, time for Scarborough to develop a pre-terrestrial,
watery, low-oxygen environment.
Scarborough hosted astronomical bases from the late
twenty-second century, allowing visiting astronomers to
stretch their legs with nothing more than an oxygen mask. The
Terran Hegemony, Capellan Confederation, and Free Worlds
League all expressed interest in Scarborough. Or, rather, in Egg’s
“Brood,” a collection of ultra-dense, metal-rich asteroids and
moon-sized planets formed from supernova and merger debris.
However, the caustic radiation environment near Egg coupled
with low gravity, vacuum conditions made mining operations
unprofitable despite the wealth.
Eventually, the Confederation claimed Scarborough and
settled it in the early twenty-seventh century with the hopes
of sharing with the Hegemony, benefiting from the associated
technology exchange and real estate sales. Even better, it
got the Hegemony to fund the mild terraforming required
to make it habitable, which was largely completed by 2700.
A conventional red dwarf ecosystem was installed, though
112 Scarborough
Star Type (Recharge Time): M0V (201 hours)
Position in System: 4 (of 5)
Time to Jump Point: 3.14 days
Number of Satellites: None
Surface Gravity: 0.8
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Equatorial Temperature: 27°C (Temperate)
Surface Water: 85%
Recharge Station: Zenith
HPG Class: B
Highest Native Life: Plant
Population: 122,000,000
Socio-Industrial Levels: C-B-C-C-C
Landmasses (Capital City): Falsgrave, Throxenby, Crossgates,
Eastfield, Osgodby (Pancho), Ayton, Suffield, Everly, Silpho
adaptations were required for the metal-rich oceans. (The
distant Egg does not endanger Scarborough’s environment,
though every few decades Egg’s north polar jet stimulates vivid
auroras across the world.)
The Confederation didn’t profit as hoped, but it did find
numerous rich veins of heavy metals and exotic transition
elements, a result of the small planet’s limited plate tectonics
and being at ground zero for two supernovae and a neutron
star collision. They were plentiful enough that some relatively
common metals, the so-called rare earth elements, could be
exported profitably. Hegemony companies did invest in the
world, if not in real estate then in industries that exploited the
unusual elements. Unusual optics, dyes, and industrial catalysts
vital for Star League-era technology were manufactured here,
increasing the value of the rare elements such that they
delivered very high profits on the interstellar market.
Scarborough suffered badly from the collapse of the Star
League, losing Hegemony suppliers and markets. Its industrial
base was shattered during the First Succession War—costing
the Confederation their endosteel feedstock and shutting
down several zero-G facilities in other systems as a result—
and similarly shutdown the Confederation’s ability to maintain
extended-range lasers, which required novel optics.
Reduced to a modest mining colony with scattered light
industries, Scarborough was abruptly seized by the Free Worlds
League in 3011, then traded hands several times until 3104
when the Capellans retook the world during the so-called
Victoria War. Capellan rule was not popular on Scarborough as
the Free Worlds League had introduced popular economic and
social liberalization policies that the Capellans attempted to
roll back. After a near-bloodless coup in 3151 by the “Andurien
Always Front,” a referendum was held to rejoin the Duchy of
Andurien. Scarborough was formally annexed in 3152, but the
Capellan forces were allowed to leave unmolested.
 ATLAS
STEWART
Star Type (Recharge Time): G8V (198 hours)
Position in System: 4 (of 6)
Time to Jump Point: 6.19 days
Number of Satellites: 4 (Argyle, Leon, Carthage, Clyde)
Surface Gravity: 1.0
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Equatorial Temperature: 45°C (Arid)
Surface Water: 81%
Recharge Station: Zenith, Nadir
HPG Class: A
Highest Native Life: Mammals
Population: 3,210,000,000
Socio-Industrial Levels: A-A-B-B-B
Landmasses (Capital City): Aberdeenshire, Angus, Highland (Glencoe),
Lanarkshire, Lothian
Despite its high temperatures, Stewart was otherwise an
ideal, water-rich colony world and hence settled early in 2172.
Typical of early colony worlds, the settlers were from a wealthy
Terran nation, the United Kingdom. The moons and planetary
placenames reflect the settlers’ origins.
The world is currently in an interglacial, thermal maximum
caused by its Milankovitch cycle, though its ocean-moderated
equatorial lands are (almost) bearable to humans. Early settlers’
proposals to trigger an ice age, lower sea levels, and hence
get both free air conditioning and more real estate to sell to
subsequent colonists were shelved as they grew used to the
world. Like many warm worlds, the sizable population lives
closer to the poles than on Terra, favoring temperate but near-
polar continents like Highland and Lanarkshire.
The native plant life was not directly compatible with
humans and terrestrial animals, but the settlers learned to tame
and utilize the native plants in the form of hybrid ecosystems.
Reminiscent of “Three Sisters” companion planting, careful
mixes of native plants and imports could deter pests, enrich
the soil, and aide growth. Despite a large population, Stewart
has never had a shortage of food and produces a very diverse,
meat-rich diet for residents.
With very good funding from the original colony
backers, excellent mineral resources, inexpensive costs of
living (abundant water and food), Stewart thrived. Less
than a century after the colony was founded, it formed the
Stewart Commonality. This short-lived proto-state rivaled the
neighboring Marik Commonwealth. Unfortunately, the bellicose
leader of Stewart, David Genovese, was less competent and
had less military might than he imagined when he derided the
nascent Free Worlds League. The League, unwilling to have an
aggressive neighbor on its border, designated Juliano Marik as
its first Captain-General and unleashed the Free Worlds League
Military on the Commonality. All six worlds fell in just weeks.
The subjugated Stewart Confederation (née Commonality)
found itself thriving within the League and rapidly recovered
its claim through mercantile efforts rather than conflict.
With Genovese out of office, the Free Worlds recognized the
eponymous founders of Stewart, House Stewart, who had roots
stretching back into the depths of Scottish history. The Stewarts
helped their world and Confederation prosper within the
League. Through the Age of War, Star League, and Succession
Wars, Stewart developed a fearsome export-oriented industry,
hosting such noteworthy corporations as Corean and Magna
Metal. (Corean’s and Magna’s sizable plants are located on
Highland, close to the capital of Glencoe.)
After its conquest by the League, Stewart remained in
the League for an unbroken eight hundred years. In the Jihad,
Stewart—which had widely embraced the teachings of Blake
during the Succession Wars—switched allegiance to the Word’s
Protectorate. Nobles and industrialists favored closer ties to
Terra, while the people largely embraced the Blakist vision. The
lightly-defended Stewart was easily liberated during Operation
Scour, though civilians resorted to kamikaze attacks with
aircraft to attempt to drive their heavy-handed liberators away.
The collapse of the League left Stewart briefly independent in
the Stewart Commonality, but it was soon forcibly taken by the
Republic of the Sphere.
The collapse of the Republic led to Stewart being torn in
multiple directions by the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth, Lyran
Commonwealth, and Clan forces, even seeing Anson Marik die
in the battles. By 3140, Stewart was firmly in the Wolf Empire’s
hands, though they were one of the less popular conquerors.
Stewart’s people whole-heartedly embraced Count Gavin
Stewart’s recapture of his ancestral homeland from the Empire
in 3151, the consequences be damned. Subsequent efforts by
rogue forces from the Clan Protectorate attempting to reclaim
Stewart in the name of the ilClan failed.
Stewart 113
 RULES ANNEX
Pient, as aut ommodis samet porrore, iderit laborro
molessitinim quatemp orerfera volupici raerum labore
consequi od molorio idest, culluptatur am coriorrum as secto
magnis dolorpos doluptatusa que veliquis eat.
The ilClan era was a time of great change in the BattleTech
Us il illore si sitatus, tem harum audandanda voloribus,
universe. The Wolf Empire projected an aura of invincibility
que verferibus, esequi auda et ullit, net fugit quuntibus dipis
and power, but its leaders feared they were a paper tiger
ratur sa amuste rempore ptatqui cusdam volupti isquias
abandoned by their Khan. The Empire would have to secure its
sunturi osandip santiam eos es voluptatur, odicit, alibere
own future. The reformed Free Worlds League had inherited
perio. Et volore reribus audam, as earum am doluptur?
a heritage of tolerance and division. Its neighbors pulled the
Quiatia speriae. Nam net volluptas arionem quisti si duciis
League in different directions, with any attempt to focus on
anditias rest occus, quam in nonseque voloreruntis at odi
an enemy threatening to pull the League apart. Daoshen
occullaut magnam sitatiasi aliciuntem simet quatur re nis
Liao pushed his Confederation forward to face his destiny.
nulla conestibus dolore impelit atecto et accullacest qui
But would his plans keep his allies and enemies off-balance
culparum fuga. Nempor asped ut vellis et dolum qui ut dit
long enough to fulfill his dreams of conquest?
ad eos ipsapere pro maionet exerfer oresed mi, autatemporro
The following special rules allow players to add the feel of
cones et dolent, unt exerios eat.
the Wolf Empire and the Free Worlds League during the ilClan
Xerunt. At fugia invento magnim a cus pa ne consequam
era to their BattleTech games and role-playing campaigns.
volesed itatiusantia sam everferrum del iur, sim exceptam,
All of these rules are considered optional, and players and
nulparum conseque laborepudam faccati sinciis cum accae
gamemasters should agree to their use before play begins. For
si accupta temporum eum ideliti ntionsero blaccum repedit
the players’ convenience, the rules presented in this section
quae ne illiquatem diosam incium fuga. Pore vel modicitae
are divided into two broad sections. The first—BattleTech
iuntiant parunt aut volupta voluptatio. Ut la sam, nus simus
Rules—covers rules most appropriate for Total Warfare
descide llibus eaquiditiam re volut ratiat.
Obis abor sae rempori berferro quis aut ere sit voluptas
magnia velesequi diatiatus exerrovides as saestium
verumquam ipsandi ditis volupta tionse od mo enienihici
corionse as dolupta testio. Et pos re natatur, que rehendae
(TW), BattleMech Manual (BMM), Alpha Strike: Commander’s
elestem pelit, quias in con pa coria suntius et dolupta voluptat
Edition (AS:CE), Tactical Operations: Advanced Rules (TO:AR),
oditior estior re plam, qui ut que conem sum cuptatur,
Tactical Operations: Advanced Units & Equipment (TO:AUE), and
inctectias delescil maxim faccati nctotatempos conse offic to
Campaign Operations (CO), as well as for the role-playing rules
volent abor atem andusamus milita vel et as se nonet rerciet
presented in A Time of War (ATOW), or MechWarrior: Destiny
erem dolo in entur, optasimint incit verchic idenisquist et
(MW:D). The second—Random Assignment Tables (RATs)—
et ullacera arum rem atin peruptatem quis evelles eiciet ab
addresses how to build the forces described in this book.
int doluptati offic to id que voluptiunt et volo exerehenessi
Players creating forces using these rules should note
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that the ilClan era saw deployment of the following era-
in recum idernate laccuptaquo volessimet quidion seditat
unique units, equipment, and rules featured in Interstellar
ius enima quaerum fugiant, se vel mo molupta ipidit,
Operations (IO):
ommolenimin eum ut fuga. Ut acestiorum acepedisquo tem
ad molorum aut rat vellant iumquia sequiae nem aperiaeped
% Additional new armors and weaponry (see Dark Age
est, conseque modi dollorepero elecestrum fugia sima nullum
Equipment, pp. 86-91)
etur aut velictor sam, nist laborepel imolupicimi, omnis quibus
% Mixed Technology is common (see p. 189, TO:AUE)
maximi, nullibu sdamus rest occumquo totae. Idersperrum
reperi quam vollab is perupti nctio. Ut aut estiae la que veliae.
Additionally, players may find that The Late Dark
Cuptamus sinctur?
Age Sub-Era rules (see pp. 29-30, IO) add another layer of
Vid ut enemped ut dolupta tquaerunt, sumet eium ius ad
immersion into this tumultuous place and time.
expliciuntem faccus dolorae venimin ped maximag nimagnat
115
 EMPIRE ALONE

CREATING
EMPIRE ALONE
SCENARIOS
BEFORE YOU START COMBAT COMMAND PROFILES
The events that took place in and around the Free Worlds These rules are designed for compatibility with the
League during 3151 and 3152 encompass a wide variety of Special Command Abilities found in Campaign Operations
battles and campaigns, and the following pages present a and Alpha Strike: Commander’s Edition. References to Special
basic framework for generating forces and unit abilities. With Command Abilities such as Banking Initiative, Forcing the
these, gamemasters and players can create their own battles Initiative, Off-Map Movement, and Overrun Combat are found
based on those described in the previous chapters. in the same section (see pp. 83-87, CO and pp. 102-109, AS:CE).
Gamemasters and players should use the information in The force composition of the units profiled below use
those chapters to create a general framework for any battles the following shorthand form of Weight/Type/Organization.
or campaigns, and then use these rules as well as common In some cases, the Weight may be left out of the list if the unit
sense to generate the specifics. Prior to the start of any games has a wide variety.
or campaigns, all players should agree on the setup and any
special rules that will be included.
Finally, remember the two “prime directives” of playing
BattleTech: FORCE COMPOSITION
HAVE FUN. ABBREVIATION TABLE
DON’T LET YOURSELF GET SO CAUGHT UP IN THE RULES
Weight Type Organization
THAT YOU STOP HAVING FUN.
L Light BM BattleMech L Lance
SPECIAL RULES M Medium AF Aerospace Fighter C Company
The following special rules cover the use of the major
personalities and combat commands featured in Empire H Heavy CV Combat Vehicle B Battalion
Alone, the leaders, warriors, and forces that helped shape A Assault CI Conventional Infantry R Regiment
the region. MI Motorized Infantry F Flight

MAJOR PERSONALITIES BA Battle Armor S Squadron

As it is beyond the scope of this sourcebook to fully detail AR Artillery W Wing
these characters’ statistics for use in A Time of War (ATOW)
MC Cohort
or MechWarrior: Destiny (MW:D) games, should the need
arise, gamemasters are encouraged to provide any relevant S(c) Star
game stats to complement these special rules and abilities B(c) Binary
described below.
T(c) Trinary
Modifiers and Skill Levels: When a general Skill level
(Green, Regular, Veteran, or Elite) is used to describe a C(c) Cluster
character’s capabilities in a given field (MechWarrior, infantry, N(c) Nova
and so forth), a rating of Green means an average Skill level of
0 to 1 for the relevant Skills, while a rating of Regular indicates SN(c) Supernova
Skill levels of 2 to 4; 5 to 6 is the Skill level for Veterans, and
7+ describes an Elite level of Skill. Remember that these are
average Skill level values that apply across the entire relevant
Skill Field; for variety, the gamemaster may opt to raise one of
the Skills at the expense of another in the same Field.

116 Creating Empire Alone Scenarios

 RULES ANNEX
WOLF EMPIRE
OTHAR
A capable warrior with an aversion to foolhardiness,
Othar is an Elite-level MechWarrior with Elite-level Leadership
and Negotiation Skills and possesses one point in Float like a
Butterfly (see p. 96, AS:CE) as well as the Combat Intuition (see
p. 73 CO, or p. 93 AS:CE) Special Pilot Abilities. Othar prefers to
pilot a Blood Reaper BattleMech. Any force led by Othar gains
the Banking Initiative (see p. 83, CO or p. 102, AS:CE) Special
Command Ability.
Othar has a reluctance to deal with non-military matters
and suffers a −2 roll modifier on any situations that are not
directly related to the military or maintaining the security of
the Wolf Empire.
FLOAT LIKE A
SPECIAL PILOT ABILITY
BUTTERFLY
Unit Type: Any
SPA Cost: 1 to 4 points
For every point spent on purchasing this
special pilot ability, this unit may force an
opponent to reroll one attack per scenario with
this unit as the target. This unit may force a
reroll of the attack roll, the hit location roll, or
the critical hit effects roll. The second roll result
stands, even if it fails or is worse than the first.
This special pilot ability may not be used to
change the outcome of other roll types, such as
the unit’s own attack rolls, hull breach checks,
Initiative, or Morale rolls.
JACINDA
Jacinda is a Veteran-level MechWarrior with the Iron Will
(see p. 76, CO or p. 97, AS:CE) and Range Master (Long) (see p.
78, CO or p. 98, AS:CE) Special Pilot Abilities. Jacinda’s limited
time in command has given her a Regular rated Leadership
Skill. She prefers to pilot a Sun Cobra 2 BattleMech. When in
command, she grants a +1 Initiative roll modifier and can
choose two units at the beginning of each Combat Phase to
gain the Hot Dog (see p. 76, CO or p. 97, AS:CE) Special Pilot
Ability for that turn.
PRAVINA
The Guildmaster of the Yellow Sun Free Guild has a
Heroic-level Politician Skill as well as Elite-level Negotiator
and Merchant Skills. She has a +1-TP Reputation (Good
Reputation in MW:D) with other Free Guild members as well
as underworld or criminal organizations.
Creating Empire Alone Scenarios
DEN KESHIK
CO: Star Colonel Othar
Average Experience: Elite/Fanatical
Force Composition: 2xM/BM/T(c), BA/T(c), 2xM/CV/T(c)
Random Assignment Table: Clan Wolf
Special Command Abilities: Esprit de Corps (see p. 84, CO or
p. 104, AS:CE), Overrun Combat (see p. 86, CO or p. 107,
AS:CE), Tactical Specialization/Defense (see p. 87, CO or
p. 108, AS:CE)
Notes: The Den Keshik receives a +2 Initiative modifier if
Othar’s ’Mech fulfills the conditions of Crippling Damage
(see p. 258, TW or p. 127, AS:CE) or has been destroyed.
Receiving first choice of the production of the Wolf
Empire, the Den Keshik may reroll any random unit
assignment once per unit.
94TH WOLF BATTLE CLUSTER
“THE OLD MAN’S BRIGADE”
CO: Star Colonel Jacinda
Average Experience: Veteran/Reliable
Force Composition: 2xH/BM/T(c), BA/T(c), M/CV/T(c),
AF/B(c), CI/B(c)
Random Assignment Table: Clan Wolf
Special Command Abilities: Tactical Adjustments (see p. 87,
CO or p. 108, AS:CE)
INFANTRY
SPECIAL COMMAND ABILITY
CROSS-TRAINING
This force routinely trains its infantry to use
the BattleMechs of its force. If a BattleMech in
this force has been destroyed solely by damage
to the MechWarrior, a conventional infantry unit
in the same hex may take over the BattleMech.
The BattleMech has its MechWarrior damage
track reset with no damage and is no longer
destroyed after the End Phase of this turn. Mark
one trooper off the conventional infantry unit.
The new MechWarrior has one higher (worse)
Piloting and Gunnery skills.
Alpha Strike: If a BattleMech unit is
destroyed by a Unit Destroyed critical hit, a
conventional infantry unit in base-to-base
contact with that BattleMech may roll 2D6 with a
target number of 7. If successful, the BattleMech
may remove the Unit Destroyed critical hit.
Assuming no other damage has destroyed
the BattleMech, the BattleMech is no longer
destroyed. The BattleMech’s Skill is one higher
(worse) with the replacement MechWarrior.
117
 EMPIRE ALONE
Notes: The Ninety-Fourth’s conventional infantry Binary is
training to form another ’Mech trinary when supplies are
available. Their regular live training with the ’Mechs of
the Ninety-Fourth allow one of them to take the controls
if a MechWarrior were to fall in battle (see Infantry Cross-
Training, p. 117).
106TH WOLF GARRISON CLUSTER
CO: Star Colonel Kamilla
Average Experience: Regular/Reliable
Force Composition: L/BM/T(c), BA/T(c), 2xM/CV/T(c), AF/B(c)
Random Assignment Table: Clan Wolf
Special Command Abilities: Banking Initiative (see p. 83, CO
or p. 102, AS:CE)
Notes: The 106th has had to accept the scraps of the Wolf
Empire. The 106th Wolf Garrison Cluster must roll twice
for each unit, accepting the lower cost (Battle Value, Point
Value, or C-bill cost depending on how the force is being
built) unit from the two options. In case of a tie, take the
first result rolled.
FREE WORLDS LEAGUE
NIKOL MARIK
Nikol Marik is a Veteran-level MechWarrior with an Elite-
level rating in the Officer Field Skills, whose presence on
the battlefield grants the troops under her direct command
the ability to use Off-Map Movement and a +3 Initiative
roll modifier. She is still learning the role of politician with
Regular-level ratings in Politician Skills.
FONTAINE MARIK
Years of being surrounded by enemies has given
Fontaine Marik plenty of practice in diplomacy. He has Elite-
level Negotiation and Politician Skills as well as +3 to Protocol/
Lyran Commonwealth and Protocol/Free Worlds League.
TRENTON MARIK
Trenton’s wit and charm have proven useful in battle,
giving this Veteran-level MechWarrior the Antagonizer (see p.
73, CO or p. 92, AS:CE) and two points of Inspiring Commander
(see below) Special Pilot Abilities.
HENRY “HACK” KINCAID
Hack Kincaid is an Elite-level MechWarrior and Officer.
Kincaid is a crack shot and natural pilot, with the Sniper (see
p. 80, CO and p. 99, AS:CE) and Natural Grace (see p. 78, CO
and p. 98, AS:CE) Special Pilot Abilities. When in command,
Kincaid grants the force a +2 Initiative roll modifier, and the
force gains the Focus/Speed Demon (see p. 80, CO or p. 105,
AS:CE) Special Command or Pilot Ability.
118 Creating Empire Alone Scenarios
SPECIAL PILOT ABILITY
INSPIRING
COMMANDER
Unit Type: Any
SPA Cost: 1 to 4 points
For every point spent on purchasing
this special pilot ability, this unit may grant a
friendly unit the ability to reroll one attack per
scenario. The second roll result stands, even if
it fails or is worse than the first.
ISAIAH ARMSTRONG
Isaiah Armstrong is a Veteran-level MechWarrior and
Elite-level Officer. He studies his opponents well, giving him
the Human TRO (see p. 76, CO and p. 97, AS:CE) and Tactical
Genius (see p. 80, CO and p. 100, AS:CE) Special Pilot Abilities.
He keeps his command on alert and focused; any force he
commands composed of both ’Mechs and vehicles can
replace any Initiative die roll of less than 6 as a 6.
1ST FREE WORLDS GUARDS
“EAGLES OF ATREUS”
CO: Colonel Emerson Vincent
Average Experience: Elite/Fanatical
Force Composition: H/BM/R, L/AF/W, H/CV/R, M/CV/R,
2xCI/R, BA/R, AR/B
Random Assignment Table: Free Worlds League
Special Command Abilities: Assault Operations (see sidebar),
Tactical Adjustments (see p. 87, CO or p. 108, AS:CE)
Notes: The Free Worlds League Military prioritizes the First
Free Worlds Guards; they may reroll any random unit
assignment once per unit. After September 3151, the First
Free Worlds Guards may decide one to three lances are
composed of Ares superheavy ’Mechs. This choice must
be made before rolling for random unit assignments for
the force. These must be assigned as full lances of Ares
superheavy ’Mechs.
GRYPHONS
CO: Colonel Lucas Cameron-Witherspoon
Average Experience: Veteran/Questionable
Force Composition: H/BM/R, M/AF/W, 2xM/CV/R, 2xCI/R,
BA/R, AR/B
Random Assignment Table: Free Worlds League
(Silver Hawk Irregulars sub-table)
Special Command Abilities: Forcing the Initiative (see p. 85
CO, or p. 105 AS:CE), Tactical Specialization/Attack (see p.
87, CO or p. 108, AS:CE)
 RULES ANNEX

ASSAULT
SPECIAL COMMAND ABILITY

OPERATIONS
Any BattleMech unit in this force reduces the
attacker movement modifier using Running or
Jumping MP by 1 (for a net +1 for Running and +2
for Jumping).
Alpha Strike: Weapon attacks receive a −1
Target Number modifier if the unit used jumping
movement mode (not ground, sprinting, standing
still, etc.). BattleMech units may move an additional
2” above their normal MV value when using ground
movement mode.

9TH TAMARIND REGULARS

“GRANADEROS”
CO: Colonel Thalea Nicolaides
Average Experience: Regular/Reliable
Force Composition: M/BM/R, M/AF/W,
3xM/CV/R, 3xCI/R, BA/R, AR/B
Random Assignment Table:
Free Worlds League
(Tamarind sub-table)
Special Command Abilities: Hit
and Run (see p. 85, CO or p.
106, AS:CE)
Notes: The Ninth has had difficulty
scrounging up supplies and
pays 20 percent extra on all support points or
C-bill costs for resupply or repair. If Christopher Marik is
in system with the Ninth, any rolls for game setup may
be rerolled. This includes any rolls for track options, who
selects home edge first, what mapsheets to use, who
deploys first, etc.

BETA STRIKE CLUSTER

“BLUE FURIES”
CO: Star Colonel Veto
Average Experience: Veteran/Questionable
Force Composition: 3xM/BM/T(c), BA/T(c), AF/T(c)
Random Assignment Table: Clan Protectorate
Special Command Abilities: Sharp Shooters (see p. 86, CO
or p. 107, AS:CE)
Notes: The Beta Striker Cluster has a preference for the
Cauldron-Born OmniMech. They may replace one ’Mech
per Star with a Cauldron-Born (Ebon Jaguar) of any
configuration.

Creating Empire Alone Scenarios 119

 EMPIRE ALONE
CAPELLAN CONFEDERATION
SAO YANG
Sao Yang is believed to be an Elite-level MechWarrior,
Officer, and Special Forces. In a ’Mech, Yang has the Sharp
Shooter (see p. 86, CO or p. 107, AS:CE) and Terrain Master/
Forest Ranger (see p. 81, CO or p. 100, AS:CE) Special Pilot
Abilities. His use of intelligence operatives and training in
surprise attacks gives any force he commands the Rapid Strike
(see p. 86, CO or p. 107, AS:CE) Special Command Ability.
11TH SIAN DRAGOONS
“LIGHT HORSE”
CO: Sang-shao Suo Yang
Average Experience: Veteran/Reliable
Force Composition: H/BM/R, M/AF/W, M/CV/R, BA/R, AR/B
Random Assignment Table: Capellan Confederation
Special Command Abilities: Tactical Specialization/
Combined Arms (see p. 87, CO or p. 108, AS:CE),
Infiltrators/2 (see p. 106, AS:CE)
COMMAND ABILITY
TACTICAL
SPECIALIZATION
SPECIAL
(COMBINED ARMS)
If the Force contains at least one of each ground
Unit type (’Mech, vehicle, and infantry), the force has
a +1 modifier to Initiative.
COMMAND ABILITY
INFILTRATORS
SPECIAL
When fighting as the Attacker, these commands
are able to sneak forces close to (or into) the
Defender’s deployment zone before the battle begins.
Before the Defender places units, the Infiltrating
units are deployed as Hidden units in the Defender’s
deployment zone, or if the Defender enters via their
home edge, the Infiltrating units must deploy within
2 hexes (or 4”) of the Defender’s home edge. The type
of units depends on how many times this Special
Command Ability is chosen.
1: Infantry and light (Size 1) Vehicles (Combat
or Support)
2: Medium (Size 2) vehicles and light (Size 1) ’Mechs
(in addition to the above)
3: Heavy (Size 3) vehicles and medium (Size 2) ’Mechs
(in addition to the above)
120 Creating Empire Alone Scenarios
Notes: The Eleventh Sian Dragoons are experienced in
working in conjunction with other commands. Any
detachment of the Eleventh serving with another
Capellan command may utilize that force’s Special
Command Abilities instead, as if it were part of
that command.
DYNASTY GUARD “LONG WU”
CO: Sang-shao Carlotta Zhao
Average Experience: Elite/Fanatical
Force Composition: H/BM/R, M/AF/W, H/CV/R, BA/R, AR/B
Random Assignment Table: Capellan Confederation
Special Command Abilities: Esprit de Corps (see p. 84, CO or
p. 104, AS:CE), Overrun Combat (see p. 86, CO or p. 107,
AS:CE), Rapid Strike (see p. 86, CO or p. 107, AS:CE)
Notes: The Dynasty Guard does not get along with “lesser”
commands. They receive a −2 Initiative modifier if they
must share the field of battle with Home Guard, militia,
or civilian forces. They receive a −1 Initiative modifier if
they are on the field with other Capellan forces but not
in command. This is for their entire side if using standard
one Initiative roll per side or just to their own force if each
command is given its own Initiative roll.
DUCHY OF ANDURIEN
ARI HUMPHREYS
Ari Humphreys has made an art form of projecting a
far less threatening persona than he is truly capable of and
thus suffers the social effects of the Introvert Trait in public
dealings between himself and the ruling families of other
realms—but it is all an act. In fact, Humphreys possesses
Elite-level ratings in the Politician and Lawyer Skill Fields, as
well as a +8 Skill modifier in Strategy, which he keeps “under
wraps” through generous use of his Natural Aptitude/Acting
Trait. When dealing with his new allies in the Magistracy of
Canopus and (by extension) Capellan Confederation, the
Introvert modifiers disappear.
Humphrey’s fascination with botany and outdoor life
is reflected by a +6 Skill modifier in Science/Botany and
Survival/Woods, and it is when discussing such subjects that
he seems to come out of his shell most.
HECTOR HUMPHREYS
Hector shares his uncle’s seeming recalcitrance from
politics and suffers the social effects of the Introvert Trait in
public dealings between himself and the ruling families of
his own or other realms. Hector is a highly trained scholar,
with Elite-level Skills in Career/Economics, Interest/History,
and Science/Social. When needed, he is a capable Veteran-
level Politician.
 RULES ANNEX

2ND ANDURIEN RANGERS
“THE MONKEYS”
CO: Colonel Darrell O’Donell
Average Experience: Elite/Fanatical
Force Composition: M/BM/B, M/AF/S, M/CV/B, BA/B, AR/C
Random Assignment Table: Duchy of Andurien
Special Command Abilities: Tactical Specialization/
Combined Arms (see p. 87, CO or p. 108, AS:CE), Hit and
Run (see p. 85, CO or p. 106, AS:CE)
Notes: The Andurien Rangers prioritize their combined arms.
The Rangers may reroll any random unit assignment for
a combat vehicle or battle armor once per unit.
7TH ANDURIEN GUARDS
“THE GUAN DAO”
CO: Colonel Alisa McDonald
Average Experience: Regular/Questionable
Force Composition: 2xA/BM/B, H/AF/W, H/CV/B, 2xBA/R, AR/C
Random Assignment Table: Duchy of Andurien
Special Command Abilities: Ground Attack Specialists (see
p. 85, CO or p. 105, AS:CE), Tactical Specialization/Defense
(see p. 87, CO or p. 108, AS:CE)
Notes: The Seventh Andurien Guards may roll one ’Mech per
lance on the Capellan Confederation RAT.
MAGISTRACY OF CANOPUS
ILSA CENTRELLA-LIAO
Danai Centrella-Liao is not Ilsa’s sister, but her daughter
via an incestuous relationship with Daoshen Liao. This fact
is a −4-TP Dark Secret Trait that Ilsa shares with her brother
(and Danai) and that she actively keeps secret with help from
the Capellan Maskirovka (as Daoshen’s delusions of godhood
make him far less discreet).
Ilsa is an Elite-rated Politician, with a +7 Skill roll modifier
in Strategy and Protocol/Capellan and a +6 Skill roll modifier
in Protocol/Andurien. She also possesses the Exceptional
Attribute/INT and Natural Aptitude/Acting Traits. Though
trained as a MechWarrior, she is only Regular-rated in that
regard (but Veteran-rated as an Officer). Ilsa has inherited
her father’s belief in the importance of the state over
the individual good, and in her reckoning, the welfare of
Magistracy of Canopus comes before that of the Capellan
Confederation—and both come before her own well-being.
101, AS:CE) Special Pilot Abilities. Isolde grants a +2 Initiative
modifier to a force under her command.
GABRIELLE MARTINO
Gabrielle Martino is a Veteran-level MechWarrior in her
captured Crossbow OmniMech and leads as an Elite-level
Officer. She is well versed in fighting the Clans, with a Veteran-
level Protocol/Clans that grants her force a +2 Initiative roll
modifier against a Clan force, and she possesses the Blood
Stalker (see p. 73, CO or p. 93, AS:CE) Special Pilot Ability.
1ST CANOPIAN BRIGADE
“FARMERS OF THE OUTBACK”
CO: Colonel Ashley Gorman
Average Experience: Veteran/Fanatical
Force Composition: M/BM/R
Random Assignment Table: Magistracy of Canopus
Special Command Abilities: Camouflage (see p. 84, CO or
p. 103, AS:CE), Off-Map Movement (see p. 85, CO or p.
106, AS:CE)
GABRIELLE'S PRIDE
CO: Colonel Gabrielle Martino
Average Experience: Regular/Reliable
Force Composition:
L/BM/B, M/BM/B, H/BM/C, L/AF/W, M/CV/B, AR/C
Random Assignment Table: Mercenary
Special Command Abilities: Off-Map Movement (see p. 85,
CO or p. 106, AS:CE), Tactical Specialization/Attack (see p.
87, CO or p. 108, AS:CE)
Notes: Gabrielle's Pride is replete with salvage from their
time fighting against the Clans. They may replace one
unit per company with any unit of a lower weight class
from the Wolf Empire RAT. In addition, on any RAT rolls of
18, they may choose any unit from the Wolf Empire RAT,
regardless of weight class.

ISOLDE CENTRELLA
Isolde Centrella is a Veteran-level MechWarrior and
Officer and has a Natural Aptitude with Negotiation. Piloting
a customized Marauder MAD-7R and replacing the original
large lasers and PPC with Clan extended range large lasers,
Isolde possesses the Hot Dog (see p. 76 CO, and p. 97, AS:CE)
and Weapon Specialist/ER Large Laser (see p. 82, CO and p.

Creating Empire Alone Scenarios 121

 EMPIRE ALONE

MARIAN HEGEMONY

IGNATIUS O’REILLY
Ignatius O’Reilly suffers from the Impatient Trait and a −3-TP
Compulsion/Bipolar Disorder Trait. He is a Regular-rated MechWarrior
and Officer and a Veteran-rated Politician whose battlefield presence
provides a +1 Initiative roll modifier for the Marian forces. A recent
infatuation with the Marauder battle armor has given him Regular-
rated skills with Pilot/Battlesuit as well. He has a +5 Skill roll modifier
in Art/Poetry and Interest/Horticulture. Catching O’Reilly on a bad day
(or mood swing) can result in swift and violent reactions but catching
him on a good day can prove rewarding to whoever crosses his path.
To reflect this uncertainty, the gamemaster should make a “mood roll”
in the form of a WIL Attribute Check, using a +3 Attribute modifier
(which also incorporates the −3-TP value of his Compulsion). If O’Reilly
fails, his mood that day is sour, and the severity of his reactions may
be decided based on the Margin of Failure.

SECUNDA COHORS,
III LEGIO
“IRATUS LATRONES”
CO: Prefect Rosella Dexter
Average Experience: Veteran/Reliable
Force Composition: H/BM/MC
Random Assignment Table: Marian Hegemony
Special Command Abilities: Enemy Specialization/Free Worlds
League (see p. 84, CO or p. 103, AS:CE), Focus/Blood Stalker (see
p. 73, CO or p. 105, AS:CE)
Notes: The III Legio may roll one ’Mech per lance on the Free Worlds
League RAT. If a second unit from the III Legio attacks the target
of the Blood Stalker SPA from another III Legio unit, the unit with
the Blood Stalker SPA loses the benefits of the SPA.

II PRIMA AUXILIA LEGIO,

II LEGIO
“URSA MAJOR”
CO: Legatus Eldon Woodworth
Average Experience: Regular/Reliable
Force Composition: M/CV/MC
Random Assignment Table: Marian Hegemony
Special Command Abilities: Overrun Combat (see p. 86, CO or p.
107, AS:CE)
Notes: Having been deployed as an independent force, the Auxilia
Legio has recruited foot infantry to fill out its transport bays. Any
vehicle with an infantry transport bay may add a single Green
or Regular foot infantry unit that can fit in its bay. This merely
allows the force to ignore the combat vehicle force composition
limitation in this specific case, the foot infantry unit must still
follow any other availability, Battle Value or Point Value costs, or
other force building rules to acquire the unit.

122 Creating Empire Alone Scenarios

 RULES ANNEX

RANDOM
RECORD SHEET SOURCE ASSIGNMENT
TABLE
TABLES
Abbreviation SKU Source The Random Unit Assignment Tables in this
section should be used instead of those provided
SW CAT35RS220 Record Sheets: Succession Wars
in Total Warfare and A Time of War (pp. 267-271,
CI CAT35RS221 Record Sheets: Clan Invasion TW or pp. 130-135, ATOW) to generate era-specific
3039 BC212p Record Sheets: 3039 Unabridged unit choices. The Random Unit Assignment Tables
in this book are designed specifically for the
Record Sheets: 3050
3050U-C BC205 composition of Empire Alone forces.
Upgrade, Clan & Star League

3050U-I BC204
Record Sheets: 3050 Upgrade, ASSIGNING ’MECHS
Inner Sphere
AND VEHICLES
3055U BC209 Record Sheets: 3055 Upgrade Unabridged First determine the weight of the formation
Record Sheets: 3058 (lance/Star) you’ll be generating. There are
3058U-C BC-203Ap two options: find the weight class of the
Upgrade, Clan and Star League
combat command you’re building (see Combat
Record Sheets: 3058 Upgrade,
3058U-I BC-203Bp Command Profiles, pp. 117-122; or roll randomly
Inner Sphere
on the Random Lance Type or Random Star Type
3060 BC-211p Record Sheets: 3060 Upgrade Unabridged tables (see p. 265, TW).
3067 CAT35RS216 Record Sheets: 3067 Upgrade Unabridged After determining the formation weight, roll
3D6 on the corresponding weight column on
3075 CAT35167p Record Sheets: 3075
Lance or Star Weight Composition Tables (see p.
3085-CE CAT35168p Record Sheets: 3085: Cutting Edge 265, TW).
3085-ONN BC-215p Record Sheets: 3085: Old is the New New Finally, determine the specific designs to be
used in each formation by rolling on the appropri-
3085-PP BC-214p Record Sheets: 3085: Project Phoenix ate faction and weight column from the Random
3145 CAT35133 Record Sheets: 3145 Unit Assignment Tables (see pp. 124-139.)
3150 CAT35RS218 Record Sheets: 3150
OMNI UNITS
Record Sheets: Vehicle Annex, Whenever a RAT result indicates an Omni
VA-IE CAT35RS220A
IndustrialMechs & Exoskeletons Unit (including battle armor equipped with
Klondike CAT35230ap Record Sheets: Operation Klondike modular weapons), the controlling player can
GC CAT35TRO10 Technical Readout: Golden Century select any desired configuration available.
Omni units are marked on the RATs with an
Irregulars CAT35TR011 Technical Readout: Irregulars asterisk (*).
TR3057 FPR35007p Technical Readout: 3057 Revised
Proto CAT35132 Technical Readout: Prototypes RECORD SHEETS
Record Sheets for these units may be found
XTRLiao CAT35XT003 Experimental Technical Readout: Liao in their respective Record Sheet books (be
Experimental Technical Readout: they in PDF-exclusive format or print). A list of
XTRRepI CAT35XT025
Republic I these sources (as abbreviated in each Random
Assignment Table presented here) is given in the
XTRRetro CAT35XT008p Experimental Technical Readout: RetroTech
Record Sheet Source Table.
BattleMech Recognition Guide:
RG# CAT35TR1#
ilClan, Volume # ASSIGNING PILOTS
TP:Irian CAT35TP016 Turning Points: Irian Once the players have determined the
’Mechs and other battlefield units they will
Stotzing E-CAT35SN225 Touring the Stars: Stotzing
use, they should assign pilots to each using
EDDA CAT35ED003 Era Digest: Dark Age the Random Experience Rating Table and the
Random Skills Table (Expanded) (see p. 273, TW).

Random Assignment Tables 123

 EMPIRE ALONE

If playing an Elite force, the controlling player should add
a +5 modifier to the Random Experience Rating roll and a +2
modifier to the Random Skill Rating roll. If playing a Veteran
force, add +2 to the Random Experience Rating Roll and +1 to
the Random Skill Rating Roll. If playing a Regular force, apply
no modifiers, and if playing a Green force, apply a −2 modifier
to the Random Experience Rating Roll and −1 modifier to the
Random Skill Rating Roll.
ASSIGNING ’MECHS AND VEHICLES
IN A ROLEPLAYING CAMPAIGN
The Random Unit Assignment Tables can also be used
to assign the starting ’Mech or vehicle for A Time of War or
MechWarrior: Destiny characters created for an Empire Alone
campaign. Players may roll directly on the RATs in this book
rather than those in ATOW (see pp. 130-135, ATOW). MW:D
players roll on the appropriate table based on the amount of
Hardware Points spent (see p. 76, MW:D).
For every one of the following ATOW traits the character
possesses, increase the die roll result by one: Property,
Title, Connections, or a Leadership Skill level of 7 or higher.
Decrease the roll by one for every one of the following traits
they possess: negative-TP Reputation (any level), negative-
TP Wealth (any level), negative-TP Extra Income (any level),
Bloodmark (any level), or use of the Ne’er-Do-Well Life Module
during character generation.
For every one of the following MW:D traits the character
possesses, increase the die roll result by two: Connections,
Rank, or Wealthy. Decrease the roll by two for every one
of the following traits they possess: Bad Reputation,
Bloodmark, or Poor.

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - BATTLEMECHS

Roll Light BattleMechs
3 EGL-2M Eagle [25] (3060)
4 HMR-3C Hammer [30] (3055U)
5 FNHK-9K Falcon Hawk [35] (3058U-I)
6 FLE-19 Flea [20] (3050U-I)
7 See FWL States Sub-table
8 LCT-1Vb Locust [20] (RG16)
9 SDR-8M Spider [30] (3050U-I)
10 STG-6R Stinger [20] (RG13)
11 WSP-5A Wasp [20] (RG4)
12 See FWL States Sub-table
13 SDR-9M Spider [30] (RG19)
14 GBT-1G Gambit [25] (3145)
15 See FWL States Sub-table
16 Crimson Hawk [25] (3075)
17 Locust IIC 3 [25] (RG16)
18 Vixen (Incubus) [30] (RG7)
FREE WORLDS LEAGUE
Medium BattleMechs
HER-5Sr Hermes II [40] (3085-ONN)
VT-6M Vulcan [40] (3050U-I)
GST-11 Ghost [50] (3085-CE)
BJ2-O* Blackjack [50] (3058U-I)
See FWL States Sub-table
PXH-9 Phoenix Hawk [45] (RG11)
SHD-7H Shadow Hawk [55] (RG12)
WVR-11M Wolverine [55] (RG18)
GRF-3N Griffin [55] (RG1)
See FWL States Sub-table
TBT-9N Trebuchet [50] (RG4)
SRTH-O* Sarath [50] (3145)
See FWL States Sub-table
ERS-2H Eris [50] (RG18)
Mad Cat III 3 [55] (3145)
Wendigo* [50] (3150)
Heavy BattleMechs
TMP-3M2 Tempest [65] (3055U)
ON2-M Orion [75] (3050U-I)
SCG-WF1 Scourge [65] (3145)
HRC-LS-9004 Hercules [70] (3150)
See FWL States Sub-table
GLT-7M Guillotine [70] (RG23)
RFL-7N Rifleman [60] (RG8)
ARC-4M2 Archer [70] (RG10)
WHM-8R Warhammer [70] (RG7)
See FWL States Sub-table
CRD-7M Crusader [65] (RG17)
CRN-7M Carronade [70] (3145)
See FWL States Sub-table
GU-60 Anzu [60] (3150)
PRF-3R Prefect [75] (3145)
BL-18-KNT Black Knight [75] (RG12)
Assault BattleMechs
AWS-9M Awesome [80] (3050U-I)
SRC-3C Sirocco [95] (3060)
ALB-3Ur Albatross [95] (3085-ONN)
GOL-7M Goliath [80] (RG22)
See FWL States Sub-table
THG-11Eb Thug [80] (3075)
BLR-6C BattleMaster [85] (RG3)
AWS-11H Awesome [80] (RG4)
LGB-10C Longbow [85] (RG20)
See FWL States Sub-table
AS8-KE Atlas [100] (RG24)
STK-9A Stalker II [85] (3145)
See FWL States Sub-table
TR-XH Trebaruna [95] (3145)
JLN-5A Juliano [90] (3150)
Supernova 5 [90] (RG13)

124 Random Assignment Tables

 RULES ANNEX

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - BATTLEMECHS

FREE WORLDS LEAGUE STATES SUB-TABLE
Roll Light BattleMechs Medium BattleMechs Heavy BattleMechs Assault BattleMechs
Silver Hawk Irregulars (FWL general)
7 WSP-3M Wasp [20] (RG4) SCP-1BR Scorpion [55] (RG19) TMP-4M Tempest [70] (3150) EMP-6A Emperor [90] (SW)
12 STG-6M Stinger [20] (RG13) WVR-7M2 Wolverine [55] (RG18) GLT-6WB3 Guillotine [70] (3050U-C) BLR-1Gc BattleMaster [85] (3075)
15 JLP-BD Jackalope [30] (3145) SKW-8X Shockwave [50] (3145) BLK-NT-2Y Black Knight [75] (3145) T-IT-N13M Grand Titan [100] (3145)
Covenant Worlds
7 NX-80 Nyx [30] (3085-CE) HBK-6N Hunchback [50] (3050U-I) GU-70 Anzu [60] (3150) GOL-7C Goliath [80] (RG22)
12 VLK-QD4 Valkyrie [30] (3085-PP) PXH-4M Phoenix Hawk [45] (RG11) OSR-6R Ostroc [60] (RG21) BLR-1Gb BattleMaster [85] (3075)
15 OST-12R Ostscout [35] (RG2) OSR-6R Ostroc [60] (RG21) TS-1A Mortis [70] (3145) Regent* [90] (RG21)
Tamarind
7 EGL-3M Eagle [25] (3060) ICR-2S Icarus II [40] (3075) YMN-6Y Yeoman [65] (3060) AWS-10KM Awesome [80] (3050U-I)
12 WLF-3M Wolfhound [35] (3085-CE) HCT-6M Hatchetman [45] (3085-CE) ON3-M Orion [75] (Proto) LGB-14C Longbow [85] (RG20)
15 BLD-7R Blade [35] (3145) QSM-3D Quasimodo [55] (3150) KSC-5I Koschei [65] (3075) TR-XB Trebaruna [95] (3145)
Regulan Fiefs
7 RZK-9S Razorback [30] (3067) VT-U1 Violator [45] (3145) OWR-3M Ostwar [65] (3085-CE) BRZ-C3 Berserker [100] (CI)
12 SCB-9T Scarabus [30] (3055U) TBT-9R Trebuchet [50] (3145) WHM-8M Warhammer [70] (3085-PP) BNC-9S2 Banshee [95] (3050U-I)
15 TLN-6W Talon [35] (3085-ONN) STY-3Dr Starslayer [50] (3085-ONN) MNL-4S Mangonel [70] (3145) NTL-AG Neanderthal [80] (3145)

DUCHY OF ANDURIEN
Roll Light BattleMechs Medium BattleMechs Heavy BattleMechs Assault BattleMechs
3 DG-G9 Duan Gung [25] (3060) HER-5SA Hermes II [40] (3050U-I) THR-1L Thunder [70] (3055U) AWS-9Q Awesome [80] (3050U-I)
4 ABS-3R Anubis [30] (3067) ASN-99 Assassin [40] (3050U-I) ANV-3M Anvil [60] (CI) ALB-3U Albatross [95] (CI)
5 HMR-3S Hammer [30] (3055U) HER-5Sr Hermes II [40] (3085-ONN) QKD-5Mr Quickdraw [60] (3085-ONN) MR-5M Cerberus [95] (CI)
6 EGL-2M Eagle [25] (3060) SR1-O* Strider [40] (CI) TMP-3M2 Tempest [65] (3055U) EMP-6A Emperor [90] (SW)
7 FLE-20 Flea [20] (3050U-I) SNK-2B Snake [45] (3055U) YMN-10-OR Yeoman [60] (3060) T-IT-10M Grand Titan [100] (3055U)
8 MON-76 Mongoose [25] (3050U-C) HBK-5P Hunchback [50] (3050U-I) ON1-MB Orion [75] (3050U-I) BNC-3Mr Banshee [95] (3085-ONN)
9 LCT-7V Locust [20] (RG16) GRF-3M Griffin [55] (RG1) CPLT-C4C Catapult [65] (3050U-I) BLR-3M BattleMaster [85] (RG3)
10 STG-6G Stinger [20] (RG13) TBT-7M Trebuchet [50] (SW) CRD-5M Crusader [65] (RG17) STK-6M Stalker [85] (3050U-I)
11 WSP-5A Wasp [20] (RG4) WVR-9M Wolverine [55] (3085-PP) TDR-8M Thunderbolt [65] (RG15) HGN-732b Highlander [90] (3075)
12 STG-6M Stinger [20] (RG13) SHD-4H Shadow Hawk [55] (RG12) CTF-4L Cataphract [70] (3050U-I) VTR-10L Victor [80] (3050U-I)
13 OTT-12R Ostscout [35] (RG2) PXH-1c Phoenix Hawk [45] (3075) MAD-7M Marauder [70] (RG6) MAD-6A Marauder II [100] (RG5)
14 RVN-4L Raven [35] (3050U-I) BJ2-O* Blackjack [50] (CI) QKD-9M Quickdraw [60] (3145) XNT-6O Xanthos [100] (3145)
15 OW-1* Owens [35] (CI) AGT-1A Agrotera [50] (3145) CPLT-L7 Catapult II [70] (3150) STK-9A Stalker II [85] (3145)
16 FS9-M4 Firestarter [35] (3145) CAL-1MAF Calliope [40] (3150) RFL-7N2 Rifleman [65] (RG8) STK-9F Stalker [85] (3150)
17 Vixen (Incubus) [30] (RG7) VND-5L Vindicator [45] (3050U-I) MS-1P Mortis [75] (3145) Warhammer IIC [80] (RG4)
18 GN-2O* Gun [20] (3145) ERS-3R Eris [50] (RG18) Vulture (Mad Dog) Mk IV* [75] (3145) Mad Cat Mk II [90] (3067)

Random Assignment Tables 125

 EMPIRE ALONE

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - BATTLEMECHS

CLAN PROTECTORATE
Roll Light BattleMechs Medium BattleMechs Heavy BattleMechs Assault BattleMechs
3 Firestarter FS9-M2 [35] (3145) Hatchetman HCT-5D [45] (3050U-I) Thunderbolt TDR-8M [65] (RG15) Marauder II MAD-6S [100] (TP:Irian)
4 Spider SDR-9M [30] (RG19) Hunchback HBK-6N [50] (3050U-I) Marauder MAD-7R [75] (RG6) Emperor EMP-6M2 [90] (3058U-C)
5 Locust LCT-7V2 [20] (RG16) Hermes II HER-5Sr [40] (3085-ONN) Gallant GLT-7-0 [70] (3085-CE) Highlander HGN-732b [90] (3075)
6 Stinger STG-6M [20] (RG13) Ghost GST-50 [50] (3145) Rifleman RFL-7N2 [60] (RG8) Stalker STK-6M [80] (3050U-I)
7 Gambit GBT-1L [25] (3145) Griffin GRF-3N [55] (RG1) Warhammer WHM-8R [70] (RG7) Goliath GOL-7C [80] (RG22)
8 Havoc HVC-P6 [35] (3145) Phoenix Hawk PXH-9 [45] (RG11) Archer ARC-4M2 [70] (RG10) Longbow LGC-10C [85] (RG20)
9 Wasp WSP-5A [20] (RG4) Hammerhead [45] (RG5) Orion ON3-M [70] (Proto) Awesome AWS-11H [80] (RG4)
10 Crimson Hawk 4 [25] (3145) Shadow Hawk IIC 9 [45] (3145) Crusader CRD-8R [65] (RG17) BattleMaster C 3 [85] (RG3)
11 Koshi (Standard) [25] (3150) Griffin IIC [40] (RG14) Tempest C [65] (3150) Supernova 5 [90] (RG13)
12 Piranha 5 [20] (RG13) Black Hawk (Standard) [50] (3150) Sphinx [75] (3085-CE) Juliano JLN-5C [90] (3150)
13 Vixen (Incubus) [30] (RG7) Firestorm [50] (RG13) Warhammer C 3 [70] (RG7) Mad Cat Mk II Enhanced [90] (Proto)
14 Arbalest [25] (3085-CE) Mad Cat III [55] (Proto) Guillotine IIC [70] (3060) Phoenix Hawk IIC 9 [80] (RG15)
15 Solitaire [25] (3067) Shadow Cat* [45] (RG9) Cave Lion [75] (3145) Mad Cat Mk II 5 [90] (3145)
16 Jackalope JLP-BD [30] (3145) Grendel (Mongrel)* [45] (RG2) Lupus* [60] (GC) Shogun C 2 [85] (3150)
17 Tiburon [35] (3145) Nobori-nin (Huntsman)* [50] (RG12) Vulture Mk IV (Mad Dog Mk IV)* [65] (3145) Warhammer IIC 10 [80] (3085-PP)
18 Koshi* [25] (RG7) Coyotl* [40] (GC) Mad Cat Mk IV (Savage Wolf)* [75] (3145) Regent* [90] (RG21)

WOLF EMPIRE
Roll Light BattleMechs Medium BattleMechs Heavy BattleMechs Assault BattleMechs
3 Valiant V4-LNT-K7 [30] (3075) Apollo APL-4M [55] (Proto) Archer ARC-2Rb [70] (RG10) Albatross ALB-3Ur [95] (3085-ONN)
4 Gambit GBT-1G [25] (3145) Hunchback HBK-7R [50] (Proto) Thunderbolt TDR-7S [65] (RG15) Trebaruna TR-XB [95] (3085-CE)
5 Stinger STG-3Gb [20] (RG13) Shockwave SKW-6G [50] (3085-CE) Crusader CRD-9R [65] (RG17) Awesome AWS-10KM [80] (3050U-I)
6 Locust C [20] (RG16) Trebuchet TBT-3C [50] (3050U-I) Blood Reaper [70] (3085-CE) BattleMaster BLR-1Gb [85] (3075)
7 Stinger C 2 [20] (RG13) Bloodhound B2-HND [45] (3067) Galahad (Glass Spider) [60] (RG13) Highlander IIC [90] (CI)
8 Valkyrie C [30] (RG9) Hellhound (Conjurer) 8 [50] (RG5) Tundra Wolf 5 [75] (3145) Phoenix Hawk IIC [80] (RG15)
9 Locust IIC [30] (RG16) Phoenix Hawk C 2 [45] (RG11) Rifleman C 3 [60] (RG8) Crucible [100] (RG10)
10 Wasp C [20] (RG4) Hunchback C [50] (RG21) Orion C 2 [75] (RG19) Goliath GOL-7M [80] (RG22)
11 Stinger C [20] (RG13) Griffin C [55] (RG1) Dominator [65] (RG1) BattleMaster C 2 [85] (3150)
12 Pack Hunter 5 [30] (RG1) Hellhound (Conjurer) [50] (RG5) Galahad (Glass Spider) 4 [60] (RG13) Amarok [100] (RG17)
13 Peregrine (Horned Owl) [35] (RG11) Scorpion C [55] (RG19) Orion C [75] (3150) Goliath C [80] (RG1)
14 Locust IIC 10 [30] (RG16) Goshawk (Vapor Eagle) [55] (RG9) Dominator 2 [65] (RG1) Amarok 2 [100] (RG17)
15 Vixen (Incubus) [30] (RG7) Firestorm [50] (RG13) Woodsman* [75] (GC) Crucible 2 [100] (RG10)
16 Piranha 5 [20] (RG13) Stormwolf* [50] (RG16) Linebacker* [65] (RG6) Alpha Wolf* [90] (RG24)
17 Wulfen* [30] (3145) Stormwolf* [50] (RG16) Mad Cat (Timber Wolf)* [75] (RG5) Tomahawk II* [100] (3145)
18 Wulfen* [30] (3145) Ryoken III (Skinwalker)* [55] (RG24) Warwolf* [75] (3145) Tomahawk II* [100] (3145)

126 Random Assignment Tables


RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - BATTLEMECHS
Roll Light BattleMechs
3 RVN-4L Raven [35] (3050U-I)
4 STG-5G Stinger [20] (3085-PP)
5 LCT-7V Locust [20] (RG16)
6 ABS-3T Anubis [30] (3067)
7 UM-R96 UrbanMech [30] (RG2)
8 DOL-1A1 Dola [30] (Proto)
9 D9-G9 Duan Gung [25] (3060)
10 STG-6L Stinger [20] (3085-PP)
11 ABS-5Y Anubis [30] (3145)
12 RVN-4Lr Raven [35] (3085-ONN)
13 MEB-13 Ebony [25] (3145)
14 DOL-1A2 Dola [30] (Proto)
15 GUN-2 Gùn* [20] (3145)
16 HVC-P6 Havoc [35] (3145)
17 YHC-3E Yinghuochong [35] (3145)
18 Piranha 5 [20] (RG13)
Roll Light BattleMechs
3 STG-3R Stinger [20] (3039)
4 WSP-3L Wasp [20] (3085-CE)
5 LCT-7V Locust [20] (RG16)
6 D9-G9 Duan Gung [25] (3060)
7 WSP-7MAF Wasp [20] (3085-PP)
8 ABS-3T Anubis [30] (3067)
9 RVN-4L Raven [35] (3050U-I)
10 ABS-4C Anubis [30] (3067)
11 STG-6L Stinger [20] (3085-PP)
12 MEB-9 Ebony [35] (3085-CE)
13 D9-G10 Duan Gung [25] (3060)
14 DOL-1A1 Dola [30] (Proto)
15 MEB-13 Ebony [35] (3145)
16 ABS-5Y Anubis [30] (3145)
17 RVN-5X Raven [35] (3145)
18 Koshi [25] (3145)
RULES ANNEX
CAPELLAN CONFEDERATION
Medium BattleMechs
CAL-1MAF Calliope [40] (3145)
HUR-WO-R4O Huron Warrior [50] (3055U)
SKW-2F Shockwave [50] (3085-CE)
SYU-6B Sha Yu [45] (3067)
WVR-10R Wolverine [55] (RG18)
VND-4L Vindicator [45] (3050U-I)
SHD-8L Shadow Hawk [55] (3085-PP)
VND-6L Vindicator [45] (3050U-I)
GRF-5L Griffin [55] (3085-PP)
OSP-26 Osprey [55] (3085-CE)
TBT-9N Trebuchet [50] (RG4)
EYL-45A Eyleuka [55] (3075)
RVN-5X Raven II [40] (3145)
MS1-O Men Shen* [55] (3060)
YOL-4C Yao Lien [55] (3085-CE)
AGT-1A Agrotera [50] (3145)
MAGISTRACY OF CANOPUS
Medium BattleMechs
GRF-1N Griffin [55] (SW)
SHD-2H Shadow Hawk [55] (SW)
HUR-W0-R4O Huron Warrior [50] (3055U)
SNK-2Br Snake [45] (3085-ONN)
SYU-2B Sha Yu [40] (3067)
PXH-4W Phoenix Hawk [45] (3085-PP)
VND-3Lr Vindicator [45] (3085-ONN)
SHD-2Hb Shadow Hawk [55] (Klondike)
CAL-1MAF Calliope [40] (3145)
MHL-6MC Marshal [55] (3060)
EYK-45A Eyleuka [55] (3075)
SHD-7H Shadow Hawk [55] (RG12)
AGT-1A Agrotera [50] (3145)
EYK-45B Eyleuka [55] (3075)
OSP-26 Osprey [55] (3085-CE)
MS1-O Men Shen* [55] (3060)
Heavy BattleMechs
KSC-6L Koschei [65] (3145)
OSR-4L Ostroc [60] (3085-PP)
WHM-5L Warhammer [70] (3085-PP)
CTF-3LL Cataphract [70] (3050U-I)
CPLT-K6 Catapult [65] (RG5)
TSG-9H Ti Ts’ang [60] (3060)
THR-2L Thunder [70] (3055U)
SHY-3B Shen Yi [65] (3085-CE)
CTF-4L Cataphract [70] (3050U-I)
LHU-4E Lao Hu [75] (3067)
CRD-9BR Crusader [65] (RG17)
THR-C4 Thunder [70] (Proto)
CTF-5L Cataphract [70] (RG6)
TNZ-N3 Tian-Zong [75] (3145)
LI-O Vandal* [65] (3145)
BL-18-KNT Black Knight [75] (RG12)
Heavy BattleMechs
ARC-2R Archer [70] (3039)
MAD-3R Marauder [75] (3039)
WHM-4L Warhammer [70] (3085-PP)
TSG-9H Ti Ts’ang [60] (3060)
PEN-2MAF Penthesilea [75] (3085-CE)
KSC-5MC Koschei [65] (3075)
MAD-5L Marauder [75] (3085-PP)
CPLT-C5A Catapult [65] (3085-ONN)
CRD-8L Crusader [65] (3085-PP)
CTF-3LL Cataphract [70] (3050U-I)
PEN-2H Penthesilea [75] (3085-CE)
LHU-3L Lao Hu [75] (3067)
TSG-9J Ti Ts’ang [60] (3060)
THR-C4 Thunder [70] (Proto)
CTF-4L Cataphract [70] (3050U-I)
ARC-9M Archer [70] (3085-PP)
Random Assignment Tables
Assault BattleMechs
CP-11-B Cyclops [90] (3085-ONN)
STK-3Fb Stalker [85] (Klondike)
Y-H9GB Yu Huang [90] (3060)
LGB-12C Longbow [85] (3085-PP)
EMP-6L Emperor [90] (3058U-C)
GOL-3L Goliath [80] (3085-PP)
Y-H10G Yu Huang [90] (3060)
EMP-7L Emperor [90] (3058U-C)
BLR-4L BattleMaster [85] (3085-PP)
XNT-4O Xanthos [100] (3075)
TR-XL Trebaruna [95] (3085-CE)
LW-4B Lu Wei Bing [85] (3145)
PLG-5Z Pillager [100] (3058U-C)
LGB-14V Longbow [85] (RG20)
XNT-7O Xanthos [100] (3145)
Phoenix Hawk IIC 3 [80] (3085-PP)
Assault BattleMechs
LGB-7Q Longbow [85] (3058U-I)
STK-3F Stalker [85] (SW)
BNC-3Mr Banshee [95] (3085-ONN)
GOL-3L Goliath [80] (3085-CE)
VTR-10L Victor [80] (3050U-I)
LGB-12C Longbow [85] (3085-PP)
Y-H9GB Yu Huang [90] (3060)
BLR-4L BattleMaster [85] (3085-PP)
XNT-4O Xanthos [100] (3075)
LGB-14C Longbow [85] (3085-PP)
TR-XL Trebaruna [95] (3085-CE)
EMP-6A Emperor [90] (3058U-C)
Y-H11G Yu Huang [90] (3060)
XNT-5O Xanthos [100] (3075)
STK-9F Stalker [85] (RG24)
PLG-5Z Pillager [100] (3058U-C)
127

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - BATTLEMECHS
Roll Light BattleMechs
3 ED-X4M-E Crosscut MOD [30] (Irregulars)
4 STG-3R Stinger [20] (3039)
5 WSP-1A Wasp [20] (3039)
6 LCT-1V Locust [20] (SW)
7 UM-R60 UrbanMech [30] (3039)
8 FLE-19 Flea [20] (3050U-I)
9 LCT-1V2 Locust [20] (3085-CE)
10 STG-3P Stinger [20] (3085-CE)
11 COM-2D Commando [25] (SW)
12 JVN-10N Javelin [30] (SW)
13 COM-4H Commando [25] (3050U-I)
14 JA-KL-1532 Jackal [30] (3055U)
15 FS9-M3 Firestarter [35] (3145)
16 STM-R3 Storm Raider [35] (3145)
17 BZK-D1 Hollander III [35] (3145)
18 SDR-9M Spider [30] (RG19)
Roll Light BattleMechs
3 ALM-10D Fireball [20] (3055U)
4 STG-6R Stinger [20] (RG13)
5 LCT-7V2 Locust [20] (RG16)
6 MON-96 Mongoose [25] (RG10)
7 HMC-13 Hermit Crab [25] (RG10)
8 NXS1-C Nexus [25] (RG23)
9 VLK-QDD Valkyrie [30] (RG9)
10 GRM-01B Garm [30] (3060)
11 EGL-2M Eagle [25] (3060)
12 V4-LNT-K7 Valiant [30] (3075)
13 NX-80 Nyx [30] (3085-CE)
14 SDR-9M Spider [30] (RG13)
15 PNT-13K Panther [35] (3085-CE)
16 WLF-6S Wolfhound [35] (RG17)
17 Piranha 5 [20] (RG13)
18 Jenner IIC 5 [35] (RG18)
128 Random Assignment Tables
EMPIRE ALONE
MARIAN HEGEMONY
Medium BattleMechs
BC XXI-M Buster MOD [50] (Irregulars)
CN9-H2H Centurion [50] (Irregulars)
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk [45] (3039)
TBT-5N Trebuchet [50] (SW)
HBK-4H Hunchback [50] (3050U-I)
GRF-1N Griffin [55] (SW)
WHT-2 Whitworth [40] (3050U-I)
WHT-2H Whitworth [40] (RG27)
CN9-Ar Centurion [50] (3085-CE)
ICR-2S Icarus II [40] (3075)
SHD-7H Shadow Hawk [55] (RG12)
GLD-5R Gladiator [55] (3075)
CNS-5M Cronus [55] (3067)
WVR-11M Wolverine [55] (RG18)
GST-11 Ghost [50] (3085-CE)
SCP-10M Scorpion [55] (3085-PP)
MERCENARY
Medium BattleMechs
B3-HND Bloodhound [45] (3067)
ICR-2S Icarus II [40] (3075)
PXH-9 Phoenix Hawk [45] (RG11)
BJ-5 Blackjack [45] (RG4)
WVR-9R Wolverine [55] (RG18)
DV-6Mr Dervish [55] (3085-ONN)
ENF-6M Enforcer III [50] (CI)
LGN-2D Legionnaire [50] (3075)
CMA-2K Chimera [40] (3067)
GDR-1C Gravedigger [50] (3145)
RWD-R1 Rawhide [55] (RG15)
BSW-X4 Bushwacker [55] (RG2)
ERS-2H Eris [50] (RG18)
SCP-1BR Scorpion [55] (RG19)
Dasher II 2 [40] (3085-CE)
Black Hawk* [50] (CI)
Heavy BattleMechs
GLT-4L Guillotine [70] (SW)
TDR-5S Thunderbolt [65] (SW)
ON1-K Orion [75] (SW)
STK-4P Stalker [75] (SW)
MLN-1C Merlin [60] (3058)
RFL-5M Rifleman [60] (3085-CE)
QKD-5M Quickdraw [60] (3050U-I)
WHM-6R Warhammer [70] (3039)
JM6-H JagerMech [65] (3050U-I)
ARC-2R Archer [70] (3039)
TDR-7M Thunderbolt [65] (3085-CE)
CPLT-H2 Catapult [65] (3050U-I)
CTF-3D Cataphract [70] (3050U-I)
ARC-4M2 Archer [70] (RG10)
TDR-9T Thunderbolt [65] (3085-PP)
MAD-2R Marauder [75] (3075)
Heavy BattleMechs
ANV-3M Anvil [60] (CI)
CPLT-C5A Catapult [65] (3085-ONN)
CRD-9R Crusader [65] (RG17)
AGS-4D Argus [60] (CI)
GHR-8K Grasshopper [70] (RG1)
OTL-8E Ostsol [60] (RG14)
HD-2F Hound [70] (3145)
RFL-7N Rifleman [60] (RG8)
ON2-M Orion [75] (3050U-I)
FLC-8R Falconer [75] (CI)
TDR-7S Thunderbolt [65] (RG15)
WHD-8R Warhammer [70] (RG7)
CRN-7M Carronade [70] (3145)
MAD-7R Marauder [75] (RG6)
Ha Otoko 3 [65] (3060)
Mad Cat Mk IV [75] (3145)
Assault BattleMechs
VTR-9A Victor [80] (SW)
LGB-0W2 Longbow [85] (RG20)
AWS-8Q Awesome [80] (SW)
STK-3F Stalker [85] (SW)
CGR-2A2 Charger [80] (3050U-I)
LGB-13C Longbow [85] (3085-CE)
CP-11-H Cyclops [90] (3050U-I)
EMP-6A Emperor [90] (SW)
LGB-0H Longbow [85] (RG20)
AWS-9M Awesome [80] (3050U-I)
GOL-6H Goliath [80] (3085-CE)
BLR-3M BattleMaster [85] (3085-CE)
MR-V2 Cerberus [95] (3055U)
HGN-740 Highlander [90] (RG10)
MAD-4H Marauder II [100] (CI)
AS7-Dr Atlas [100] (3085-CE)
Assault BattleMechs
CP-11-B Cyclops [90] (3085-ONN)
VTR-9K Victor [80] (3050U-I)
GOL-4S Goliath [80] (3085-PP)
THG-11E Thug [80] (SW)
BKW-9R Black Watch [85] (3060)
AWS-9Q Awesome [80] (3050U-I)
GUN-1ERD Gunslinger [85] (CI)
LGB-12R Longbow [85] (3085-PP)
STK-6M Stalker [85] (3050U-I)
CRK-5006-1 Katana [85] (RG23)
TR-XB Trebaruna [95] (3085-CE)
NTL-AG Neanderthal [80] (3145)
AS8-KE Atlas [100] (RG24)
MAD-6A Marauder II [100] (RG5)
Phoenix Hawk IIC 10 [80] (RG15)
Mad Cat Mk. II [90] (3067)
 EMPIRE ALONE

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - VEHICLES

FREE WORLDS LEAGUE
Roll Light Vehicles Medium Vehicles Heavy Vehicles Assault Vehicles
3 Warrior H-8 [20] (3058U-I) Hetzer (LB-X) [40] (3058U-I) LRM Carrier [60] (3039) Ontos [95] (3039)
4 Hawk Moth Gunship [25] (3060) Maxim (SRM4) [50] (3039) SRM Carrier (3054 Upgrade) [60] (3058U-I) Schrek [80] (3039)
5 Main Gauche [30] (3067) Regulator [45] (3058U-I) Manticore (3055 Upgrade) [60] (3058U-I) Rhino [80] (3050U-C)
6 Pegasus (3058 Upgrade) [35] (3058U-I) Vedette (LB-X) [50] (3058U-I) Marsden II-A (LB-X) [60] (3075) Bulwark (Original) [85] (3145)
7 See FWL States Sub-table See FWL States Sub-table See FWL States Sub-table See FWL States Sub-table
8 GAL-102 Galleon [30] (3058U-I) Ranger VV1 [45] (3085-CE) Po [60] (3058U-I) DI Morgan [100] (3075)
9 Cavalry [25] (3058U-I) Condor (Upgrade) [50] (3075) Manticore (HPPC) [60] (3058U-I) Ontos (MML) [95] (3085-ONN)
10 Harasser (MML) [25] (3145) Stygian [40] (3067) M1 Moltke [75] (3085-CE) Behemoth II [100] (3145)
11 Main Gauche (XL) [30] (3067) Partisan AA Vehicle [50] (3150) Bardiche [70] (3150) Partisan (LRM) [80] (3085-ONN)
12 See FWL States Sub-table See FWL States Sub-table See FWL States Sub-table See FWL States Sub-table
13 Karnov UR (BA) [30] (3058U-I) Predator [45] (3150) Thumper (Angel) [60] (Proto) Fortune (Thunderbolt) [80] (3067)
14 Yellow Jacket (PPC) [30] (3085-ONN) Swallow Attack WiGE [45] (3150) Rommel (Gauss) [65] (3058U-I) Schiltron* [80] (3060)
15 See FWL States Sub-table See FWL States Sub-table See FWL States Sub-table See FWL States Sub-table
16 Hawk Moth II [25] (3145) JES I (3082 Upgrade) [50] (3075) Kinnol (PPC) [70] (3085-CE) Arrow IV Assault Vehicle [80] (3150)
17 Skanda [35] (3150) SM1 Tank Destroyer [50] (3075) Kokou (XL) [70] (GC) Kelswa [95] (3150)
18 Balac (LRM) [25] (3085-CE) Zibler* [50] (3150) Sekhmet Assault Vehicle [65] (3150) JES II [95] (3085-CE)

FREE WORLDS LEAGUE STATES SUB-TABLE

Roll Light BattleMechs Medium BattleMechs Heavy BattleMechs Assault BattleMechs
Silver Hawk Irregulars (FWL general)
7 Cavalry (TAG) [25] (3058U-I) Musketeer (3080 Upgrade) [50] (3067) Bardiche (Minesweeper) [70] (3150) Heavy LRM Carrier [80] (3060)
12 Hawk Moth (Thunderbolt) [25] (3060) Ranger VV2 [45] (3085-CE) Po (Light Gauss) [60] (3058U-I) Ontos (Light Gauss) [95] (3058U-I)
15 Harasser (Thunderbolt) [25] (3145) R10 Mechanized ICV* [45] (3145) SM2 (LTC) [75] (3150) Sniper Artillery [80] (3150)
Covenant Worlds
7 Main Gauche (IFV) [30] (3067) Stygian (Armor) [40] (3067) LRM Carrier [60] (3039) Demolisher (Gauss) [80] (3058U-I)
12 Red Kite [25] (3150) Phalanx [40] (Proto) Patton (Ultra) [65] (3058U-I) Partisan (Cell) [80] (3085-CE)
15 GAL-105 Galleon [30] (3150) Cizin [45] (3145) Thumper TAV-1 [60] (3075) Carnivore [80] (3085-CE)
Tamarind
7 Mantis [15] (3060) Glaive [45] (3067) Winston [70] (3085-CE) Paladin Defense System [130] (3145)
12 Desert Scorpion [25] (TtS:Stotzing) Myrmidon [40] (3060) Typhoon [70] (3075) Ontos HEAT [95] (Proto)
15 Minion (TAG) [20] (3067) Vedette V9 [50] (3145) Testudo Siege Tank [75] (3150) Bulwark [85] (3145)
Regulan Fiefs
7 Thang-Ta APC [10] (3150) Hetzer (LB-X) [40] (3058U-I) Merkava IX [75] (3075) Demolisher II [100] (3060)
12 Tufana [35] (3085-CE) Drillson (Streak) [50] (3058U-I) SM2 [75] (3150) Fortune [80] (3067)
15 Tufana (iNarc) [35] (3085-CE) Fulcrum II [50] (3058U-I) M3 Moltke [75] (3085-CE) DI Schmitt [80] (3145)

130 Random Assignment Tables

 RULES ANNEX

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - VEHICLES

DUCHY OF ANDURIEN
Roll Light Vehicles Medium Vehicles Heavy Vehicles Assault Vehicles
3 GAL-100 Galleon [30] (3058U-I) Hetzer (AC10) [40] (3039) SRM Carrier (3054 Upgrade) [60] (3058U-I) Ontos [95] (3039)
4 Striker [35] (3039) Maxim (SRM4) [50] (3039) Bulldog [60] (3039) Demolisher (Standard, Mk. II) [80] (3039)
5 Scorpion (MRM) [25] (3058U-I) Condor [50] (3039) AC/2 Carrier (LB-X) [60] (3058U-I) Schrek [80] (3039)
6 Harasser [25] (3039) Maxim (3052 Upgrade) [50] (3058U-I) M1 Moltke [75] (3085-CE) Ontos (Fusion) [95] (3039)
7 Warrior H-10 [20] (3058U-I) Vedette (Cell) [50] (3085-ONN) LRM Carrier (3055 Upgrade) [60] (3050U-I) Heavy LRM Carrier [80] (3060)
8 Hunter (3054 Upgrade) [35] (3058U-I) Condor (Upgrade) [50] (3075) Zhukov [75] (3058U-I) Ontos (3053 Upgrade) [95] (3058U-I)
9 Main Gauche [30] (3067) Vedette (LB-X) [50] (3058U-I) Manticore [60] (3039) Bulwark (Original) [85] (3145)
10 Harasser (MML) [25] (3145) Regulator [45] (3058U-I) M2 Moltke [75] (3085-CE) Ontos (Light Gauss) [95] (3058U-I)
11 Main Gauche (XL) [30] (3067) Stygian [40] (3067) Po (LB-X) [60] (3058U-I) Partisan [80] (3058U-I)
12 Scimitar Mk II [35] (3145) Predator [45] (3150) Po (Light Gauss) [60] 3058U-I) Ontos (MML) [95] (3085-ONN)
13 Aeron [25] (3085-CE) Prowler [55] (3085-CE) Pike (Clan) [60] (3058U-I) Bulwark [85] (3145)
14 Aeron (BAP) [25] (3085-CE) Ranger VV1 [45] (3085-CE) JES III [60] (3145) Behemoth II [100] (3145)
15 Harasser (Thunderbolt) [25] (3145) JES I (3082 Upgrade) [50] (3085-ONN) Thumper TAV-1 [60] (3075) Marksman M1 [95] (3085-CE)
16 Pandion [20] (3085-CE) Swallow [45] (3150) M3 Moltke [75] (3085-CE) Demolisher (Clan) [80] (3058U-I)
17 Nisos [35] (3150) Joust BE701 [40] (3085-CE) Kinnol [70] (3085-CE) DI Morgan (LRM) [100] (3075)
18 Gossamer [25] (3145) R10 ICV* [45] (3145) Brutus (HPPC) [75] (3085-ONN) Morrigu [80] (3067)

CLAN PROTECTORATE
Roll Light Vehicles Medium Vehicles Heavy Vehicles Assault Vehicles
3 Cavalry [25] (3058U-I) Ranger VV1 [45] (3085-CE) Brutus [75] (3058U-I) Ontos [95] (3039)
4 Heavy Wheeled APC [20] (3060) Stygian [40] (3067) Bardiche [70] (3150) Marksman M1J [95] (3145)
5 Main Gauche [30] (3067) Myrmidon [40] (3060) Bulldog (Cell) [60] (3145) DI Morgan [100] (3075)
6 Heavy Tracked APC [20] (3060) Padilla Tube Artillery [55] (3085-CE) Thumper (Angel) [60] (Proto) Ontos (MML) [95] (3085-ONN)
7 Hawk Moth II [25] (3145) Chevalier (MML) [35] (3060) LRM Carrier [60] (3039) Heavy LRM Carrier [80] (3060)
8 Harasser (MML) [25] (3145) R10 ICV* [40] (3145) Kinnol [70] (3085-CE) Marksman M1 [95] (3085-CE)
9 Galleon GAL-105 [30] (3150) Partisan AA [50] (3150) LRM Carrier [60] (3039) Behemoth II [100] (3145)
10 Red Kite [25] (3150) Phalanx [30] (Proto) Zhukov (Liao) [75] (3085-ONN) Partisan Air Defense (Cell) [80] (3085-CE)
11 Balac (LRM) [25] (3085-CE) Cardinal [50] (3145) Brutus (HPPC) [75] (3085-ONN) Bulwark [85] (3145)
12 Kite [30] (3150) SM1 Tank Destroyer [50] (3075) Pike (Clan) [60] (3058U-I) Morrígú [80] (3067)
13 Balac [25] (3085-CE) Joust BE701 [40] (3085-CE) SM2 Heavy Artillery [75] (3150) Huitzolopochtli [85] (3060)
14 Shamash [11] (3060) SM1A Tank Destroyer [50] (3075) Sekhmet [65] (3150) Morrígú (Laser) [80] (3067)
15 Asshur Artillery Spotter [20] (3060) Cizin [45] (3145) SM2 Heavy Artillery (LTC) [75] (3150) Carnivore [80] (3085-CE)
16 Kite (Fusion) [30] (3150) Joust BE700 [40] (3085-CE) Kokou (XL) [70] (GC) Mars [100] (3060)
17 Skanda [35] (3150) Cizin (Support) [45] (3145) Athena [75] (3060) Demolisher (Clan) [80] (3058U-I)
18 Strix [25] (3150) SM3 Tank Destroyer [50] (3075) Axel IIC [65] (3058U-I) Morrígú (HAG) [80] (3067)

Random Assignment Tables 131

 EMPIRE ALONE

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - VEHICLES

WOLF EMPIRE
Roll Light Vehicles Medium Vehicles Heavy Vehicles Assault Vehicles
3 Shandra [25] (3145) Vedette [50] (3039) Mortar Carrier [60] (3145) Behemoth [100] (3039)
4 Tribune [35] (EDDA) Demon Medium Tank [45] (3085-CE) Laser Carrier [60] (3039) Ontos [95] (3039)
5 Scorpion (MRM) [25] (3058U-I) Condor Multi-Purpose [50] (XTRRepI) LRM Carrier [60] (3039) SturmFeur [85] (3039)
6 Saxon [25] (3075) JES I (3082 Upgrade) [50] (3085-ONN) Laser Carrier [60] (3039) Partisan [80] (3039)
7 Scorpion (SRM) [25] (3039) Glaive [45] (3067) SRM Carrier [60] (3039) Demolisher Mk II [80] (3039)
8 Heavy Wheeled APC [20] (3060) Fulcrum [50] (3058U-I) JES III (MML) [60] (3145) Rhino [80] (3050U-C)
9 Scorpion (LRM) [25] (3039) Hetzer [40] (3039) SRM Carrier [60] (3039) Sniper Artillery [80] (3150)
10 Heavy Tracked APC [20] (3060) Maxim Mk II [50] (3085-CE) LRM Carrier [60] (3039) JES II [95] (3085-CE)
11 Scorpion [25] (3039) Fulcrum II [50] (3058U-I) AC/2 Carrier (LB-X) [60] (3058U-I) Sniper Artillery [80] (3150)
12 Heavy Hover APC [20] (3060) Drillson (Streak) [50] (3058U-I) JES III [60] (3145) JES II (Support) [95] (3085-CE)
13 Scorpion (LAC) [25] (3085-ONN) Hetzer [40] (3039) AC/2 Carrier (LB-X) [60] (3058U-I) Ontos (3053 Upgrade) [95] (3058U-I)
14 Pegasus (3058 Ugr) [35] (3058U-I) Drillson (Sealed) [50] (3085-ONN) Bardiche (Minesweeper) [70] (3150) DI Schmitt [80] (3145)
15 Pegasus (Sealed) [35] (3085-ONN) Aesir [55] (3145) Kinnol [70] (3085-CE) Kelswa [95] (3150)
16 Red Kite [25] (3150) R10 ICV* [40] (3145) Bardiche C [70] (3150) Demolisher (Clan) [80] (3058U-I)
17 Red Kite [25] (3150) Aesir (HAG) [55] (3145) JES III (Thunderbolt) [60] (3145) DI Morgan [100] (3075)
18 Red Kite [25] (3150) R10 ICV* [40] (3145) Bardiche C [70] (3150) Morrígú [80] (3067)

CAPELLAN CONFEDERATION
Roll Light Vehicles Medium Vehicles Heavy Vehicles Assault Vehicles
3 Cavalry [25] (3058U-I) Sheriff [50] (3145) Brutus (HPPC) [75] (3085-ONN) Schrek PPC Carrier (Armor) [80] (3085-ONN)
4 Minion (TAG) [20] (3067) Maxim [50] (3039) LRM Carrier [60] (3039) Demolisher [80] (3039)
5 Scorpion [25] (3039) Hetzer [40] (3039) Bulldog [60] (3039) Demolisher [80] (3039)
6 Crow (Export) [15] (3075) Hetzer (LB-X) [40] (3058U-I) Po [60] (3058U-I) Ontos (3053) [95] (3058U-I)
7 Pegasus (3058) [35] (3058U-I) Danai [45] (3075) Zhukov (Liao) [75] (3085-ONN) Partisan (Cell) [80] (3085-ONN)
8 Sprint [10] (3058U-I) Vedette (Cell) [50] (3085-ONN) Po HV [60] (Proto) Behemoth II [100] (3145)
9 Tamerlane [20] (3075) Shun [40] (3145) Zahn [65] (3145) Heavy LRM Carrier [80] (3060)
10 Tufana (iNarc) [35] (3085-CE) Regulator [45] (3058U-I) Po II [60] (3085-CE) Demolisher (Gauss) [80] (3058U-I)
11 Warrior S-9 [21] (Proto) Regulator (Arrow IV) [45] (3058U-I) Pixiu [70] (3145) Heavy MML Carrier [80] (3060)
12 Luduan [25] (3145) Predator [45] (3145) Pike (RAC) [60] (3058U-I) Behemoth II (Fire Support) [100] (3145)
13 Yasha [30] (3085-CE) Myrmidon Type 2 [40] (3060) Manticore (HPPC) [60] (3085-ONN) Demolisher (Arrow IV) [80] (3058U-I)
14 Nisos Attack WiGE [35] (3145) Regulator II (Stealth) [50] (3085-CE) Po II (Arrow IV) [60] (3085-CE) Arrow IV Assault Vehicle [80] (3145)
15 Asshur [20] (3060) R10 ICV* [45] (3145) Moltke M1 [75] (3085-CE) Kelswa [95] (3145)
16 Kite [30] (3145) Joust BE701[40] (3085-CE) Pike (Clan) [60] (3058U-I) Morrigu [80] (3067)
17 Anat APC [25] (3145) Bellona [45] (3075) Axel IIC [65] (3058U-I) Paladin [80] (3145)
18 Skadi [30] (3145) Ku [50] (3060) Athena [75] (3060) Mars [100] (3060)

132 Random Assignment Tables

 RULES ANNEX

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - VEHICLES

MAGISTRACY OF CANOPUS
Roll Light Vehicles Medium Vehicles Heavy Vehicles Assault Vehicles
3 Sprint [10] (3058U-I) Regulator (RAC) [45] (3058U-I) SRM Carrier [60] (3039) Partisan [80] (3039)
4 Scorpion (ML) [25] (3039) Vedette [50] (3039) Manticore [60] (3039) Demolisher (Defensive) [80] (3039)
5 Centipede (SRM) [20] (3058U-I) Hetzer (LB-X) [40] (3058U-I) LRM Carrier (3055 Upgrade) [60] (3058U-I) Ontos [95] (3039)
6 Sprint (Laser) [10] (3058U-I) Light SRM Carrier [40] (3060) Po [60] (3058U-I) Partisan (LRM) [80] (3085-ONN)
7 Scorpion (ML) [25] (3039) Maxim [50] (3039) Pike [60] (3039) Behemoth [100] (3039)
8 Tamerlane [20] (3075) Regulator [45] (3058U-I) Po (LB-X) [60] (3058U-I) Heavy LRM Carrier [80] (3060)
9 Scorpion [25] (3039) Vedette (Ultra) [50] (3058U-I) Zhukov (Liao) [75] (3085-ONN) Schrek PPC Carrier (Armor) [80] (3085-ONN)
10 Tamerlane (Flamer) [20] (3075) Light SRM Carrier [40] (3060) Po (Light Gauss) [60] (3058U-I) Ontos (Light Gauss) [95] (3058U-I)
11 Hunter [35] (3039) Vedette (Cell) [50] (3085-ONN) Pike (RAC) [60] (3058U-I) Demolisher (Gauss) [80] (3058U-I)
12 Pegasus (3058 Upgrade) [35] (3058U-I) Sheriff [50] (3145) Po II [60] (3085-CE) JES II [95] (3085-CE)
13 Galleon GAL-102 [30] (3058U-I) Regulator II [50] (3085-CE) SRM Carrier [60] (3039) Heavy MML Carrier [80] (3060)
14 Aeron (BAP) [25] (3085-CE) Danai [45] (3075) Po II (Arrow IV) [60] (3085-CE) Heavy NLRM Carrier [80] (Proto)
15 Main Gauche [30] (3067) Sheriff [50] (3145) Manticore (HPPC) [60] (3085-ONN) Arrow IV Assault Vehicle [80] (3145)
16 Luduan [25] (3145) Predator [45] (3145) Pixiu [70] (3145) Behemoth II [100] (3145)
17 Nisos [35] (3145) Regulator II (Stealth) [50] (3085-CE) Zahn [65] (3145) Demolisher (Arrow IV) [80] (3058U-I)
18 Warrior S-9 [21] (Proto) Shun [40] (3145) Pike (Clan) [60] (3058U-I) Behemoth II [100] (3145)

MARIAN HEGEMONY
Roll Light Vehicles Medium Vehicles Heavy Vehicles Assault Vehicles
3 Centipede (SRM) [20] (3058U-I) Hetzer (AC/10) [40] (3039) AC/2 Carrier [60] (3039) Partisan [80] (3039)
4 Maultier [15] (3058U-I) Maxim [50] (3039) Bulldog [60] (3039) Ontos [95] (3039)
5 Sprint [10] (3058U-I) Prowler (Succession Wars) [55] (3085-CE) Po [60] (3058U-I) SturmFeur [85] (3039)
6 Harasser Missile Platform [25] (3039) Gladius [40] (3060) SRM Carrier [60] (3039) Heavy LRM Carrier [80] (3060)
7 Galleon GAL-100 [30] (3058U-I) Vedette [50] (3039) Pike [60] (3039) Demolisher [80] (3039)
8 J. Edgar [25] (3039) Light SRM Carrier [40] (3060) Mortar Carrier [60] (3145) Behemoth [100] (3039)
9 Harasser (Thunderbolt) [25] (3145) JES I [50] (3075) Manticore [60] (3039) Demolisher (Gauss) [80] (3058U-I)
10 Hunter [35] (3039) Gladius (Mk. II) [40] (3060) LRM Carrier [60] (3039) Schrek PPC Carrier [80] (3039)
11 Scorpion (LAC) [25] (3085-CE) Goblin [45] (3058U-I) AC/2 Carrier (LB-X) [60] (3058U-I) Heavy NLRM Carrier [80] (Proto)
12 Plainsman [35] (3058U-I) Hetzer (LB-X) [40] (3058U-I) Manticore (3055 Upgrade) [60] (3058U-I) JES II [95] (3085-CE)
13 Pegasus (3058 Upgrade) [35] (3058U-I) JES I (3082 Upgrade) [50] (3085-ONN) Zhukov (Liao) [75] (3085-ONN) Fortune [80] (3067)
14 Main Gauche [30] (3067) Fulcrum [50] (3058U-I) LRM Carrier (3055 Upgrade) [60] (3058U-I) Partisan (Cell) [80] (3085-ONN)
15 Cyrano (ML) [30] (3050U-C) Vedette (Cell) [50] (3085-ONN) Po (LB-X) [60] (3058U-I) Alacorn Mk VI [90] (3058U-I)
16 Plainsman (Streak) [35] (3058U-I) Goblin II [45] (3058U-I) Testudo [75] (3058U-I) Ontos (3053 Upgrade) [95] (3058U-I)
17 Lamprey [30] (3145) Myrmidon [40] (3060) Patton (Ultra) [65] (3058U-I) Demolisher II [100] (3060)
18 Main Gauche (XL) [30] (3067) Swallow [45] (3145) Kinnol [70] (3085-CE) Behemoth II [100] (3145)

Random Assignment Tables 133

 EMPIRE ALONE

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - VEHICLES

MERCENARY
Roll Light Vehicles Medium Vehicles Heavy Vehicles Assault Vehicles
3 Crow (Export) [15] (3075) Light SRM Carrier [40] (3060) Laser Carrier [60] (3039) SturmFeur [85] (3039)
4 Warrior H-7 [21] (3039) Maxim [50] (3039) Pike [60] (3039) Demolisher [80] (3039)
5 Tamerlane (RL) [20] (3075) Hetzer (LB-X) [40] (3058U-I) LRM Carrier (3055 Upgrade) [60] (3058U-I) Heavy LRM Carrier [80] (3060)
6 Hunter (3054 Upgrade) [35] (3058U-I) Myrmidon [40] (3060) Brutus [75] (3058U-I) Fortune [80] (3067)
7 Scorpion [25] (3039) Vedette [50] (3039) Manticore [60] (3039) Ontos (Fusion) [95] (3039)
8 Cavalry [25] (3058U-I) Musketeer [50] (3067) Manticore (3055 Upgrade) [60] (3058U-I) Glory [85] (3067)
9 Tamerlane 2 [20] (3075) JES I (3082 Upgrade) [45] (3085-ONN) Patton (Ultra) [65] (3058U-I) Partisan (Cell) [80] (3085-ONN)
10 Warrior H-8 [21] (3058U-I) Stygian (Armor) [40] (3067) Pilum [70] (3058U-I) Challenger Mk. XV [90] (Proto)
11 Hunter (ERLL) [35] (3058U-I) Maxim Mk. II [50] (3085-CE) Rommel (Gauss) [65] (3058U-I) Demolisher II (Thunderbolt) [100] (3060)
12 Winterhawk APC [20] (3145) Zephyr [40] (3050U-C) Tokugawa [60] (3058U-I) JES II [95] (3085-CE)
13 Striker (3061 Upgrade) [35] (3058U-I) Predator [45] (3145) Brutus (PPC 2) [75] (3058U-I) DI Morgan [100] (3075)
14 Main Gauche (XL) [30] (3067) Hasek MCV [40] (3145) Kinnol [70] (3085-CE) DI Schmitt [80] (3145)
15 Pegasus (3058 Upgrade) [35] (3058U-I) Condor (Upgrade Laser) [50] (3058U-I) Marksman (Light PPC) [65] (3050U-C) Puma PAT-005b [95] (3075)
16 Nisos [35] (3145) Cardinal [50] (3145) Manticore (HPPC) [60] (3085-ONN) DI Morgan (Gauss) [100] (3075)
17 Yellow Jacket (PPC) [30] (3058U-I) Fulcrum III [50] (3085-ONN) Hanse [75] (3145) Behemoth II (Support) [100] (3145)
18 JI2A1 Attack APC [25] (3145) R10 ICV* [45] (3145) Burke (Royal) [75] (Klondike) Bulwark [85] (3145)

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - BATTLE ARMOR

Roll FREE WORLDS LEAGUE DUCHY OF ANDURIEN CLAN PROTECTORATE WOLF EMPIRE
3 IS Standard* (3058U-I) IS Standard* (3058U-I) Gorilla “Falcata” (VA-IE) Centaur (3145)
4 Longinus* (3058U-I) IS Standard* (3058U-I) Achileus* (3058U-C) IS Standard* (3058U-C)
5 Achileus* (3058U-I) Amazon* (3145) Leonidas* (3150) Achileus* (3058U-C)
6 Longinus* (3058U-I) Achileus* (3058U-I) Leonidas* (3150) IS Standard* (3058U-C)
7 Achileus* (3058U-I) Amazon* (3145) Longinus* (3058U-C) Achileus* (3058U-C)
8 Kopis (3085-CE) Achileus* (3058U-I) Longinus (Magnetic) (3085-ONN) Simian* (3145)
9 Leonidas* (3150) Longinus* (3058U-I) Clan Medium “Rabid” (3075) Longinus (Magnetic) (3085-ONN)
10 Quirinus (3145) Longinus* (3058U-I) Elemental* (RG25) Longinus C (3150)
11 Leonidas* (3150) Trinity (Ying Long)* (3075) Clan Medium “Rache” (3085-CE) Longinus (Magnetic) (3085-ONN)
12 Xiphos* (3150) Shen Long* (3145) Elemental* (RG25) Black Wolf* (3145)
13 Kopis (3085-CE) Fa Shih "Fa Sure" (3150) Phalanx A (3075) Longinus C (3150)
14 Ogre (3145) Kopis (3085-CE) Phalanx D (3145) Xiphos* (3150)
15 Phalanx-A (3075) Ogre (3145) Xiphos* (3150) Phalanx A (3075)
16 Phalanx-D (3075) Phalanx-A (3075) Kopis (3075) Warg (3085-CE)
17 Phalanx-A (3075) Phalanx-D (3075) Kopis (Mortar) (3145) Warg (Reactive) (3145)
18 Ogre (3145) Ogre (3145) Thunderbird (3085-CE) Warg (Reactive) (3145)

134 Random Assignment Tables


RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - BATTLE ARMOR
Roll MERCENARY
3 Salrilla* (VA-IE)
4 IS Standard* (3058U-I)
5 Theseus (Support)* (3085-ONN)
6 Longinus* (3058U-I)
7 Theseus* (3075)
8 Theseus (RL)* (3075)
9 Amazon* (3145)
10 Fa Shih* (3058U-I)
11 Fa Shih (Support)* (3085-ONN)
12 Ying Long* (3075)
13 Shen Long* (3145)
14 Fa Shih (Support)* (3085-ONN)
15 Shen Long* (3145)
16 Achileus* (3058U-I)
17 Fa Shih (Support)* (3085-ONN)
18 Ying Long BC3 (XTRLiao)
RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - AEROSPACE
Roll Light Fighters
3 F-11 Cheetah [25] (3039)
4 F-14-S Cheetah [25] (3039)
5 F-11-RR Cheetah [25] (3039)
6 PGD-R3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
7 See FWL States Sub-table
8 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
9 PGD-L3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
10 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
11 PGD-Y3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
12 See FWL States Sub-table
13 OF-17A-R Cheetah [25] (Proto)
14 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
15 See FWL States Sub-table
16 PGD-Y3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
17 CSR-100F Picaroon [35] (3145)
18 CSR-100F Picaroon [35] (3145)
RULES ANNEX
MAGISTRACY OF CANOPUS
Salrilla* (Vehicle)
IS Standard* (3058U-I)
IS Standard (Flamer)* (3058U-I)
IS Standard (Laser)* (3058U-I)
Theseus (Support)* (3085-ONN)
Theseus* (3075)
Theseus (RL)* (3075)
IS Standard* (3058U-I)
IS Standard* (3058U-I)
Theseus* (3075)
Shen Long* (3145)
Amazon* (3145)
Shen Long (David)* (3145)
Shen Long (MRM)* (3145)
Leonidas (Sensor)* (3145)
Amazon (PPC)* (3145)
FREE WORLDS LEAGUE
Medium Fighters
BAM-1A1 Malaika [65] (XTRRetro)
F-94 Stingray [60] (3039)
LX-2 Lancer [50] (3067)
F-92 Stingray [60] (3039)
See FWL States Sub-table
LX-3 Lancer [50] (3067)
F-92 Stingray [60] (3039)
F-95 Stingray [60] (3039)
F-92 Stingray [60] (3039)
See FWL States Sub-table
F-92 Stingray [60] (3039)
AQA-1M Aquila [55] (3145)
See FWL States Sub-table
LX-3 Lancer [50] (3067)
LCR-3 Lucifer III [65] (Proto)
AQA-1M Aquila [55] (3145)
Ailette (Vehicle)
Gorilla “Falcata” (Vehicle)
Tunnel Rat IV* (Vehicle)
Infiltrator Mk. I (3058U-I)
IS Standard* (3058U-I)
Ravager (3085-CE)
Asterion* (3075)
Ravager (3085-CE)
Marauder (3145)
Ravager (3085-CE)
Marauder (3145)
TinStar (OTP:FR)
Marauder (3145)
Theseus (RL)* (3075)
Asterion (Upgrade)* (3085-ONN)
Spectre (3145)
Heavy Fighters
F-700a Riever [100] (3039)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
TRB-D46 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
F-700b Riever [100] (3039)
See FWL States Sub-table
F-700b Riever [100] (3039)
EGL-R6b Eagle [75] (Klondike)
F-700b Riever [100] (3039)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
See FWL States Sub-table
SHK-4M Shikra [90] (3145)
SHV-O Shiva* [85] (3067)
See FWL States Sub-table
EGL-R6b Eagle [75] (Klondike)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
EGL-R6b Eagle [75] (Klondike)
Random Assignment Tables
MARIAN HEGEMONY
Gladiator* (VA-IE)
Smoothdavid III (VA-IE)
Tunnel Rat IV* (VA-IE)
Infiltrator Mk. I (3058U-IS)
Gladiator-S (Proto)
Sloth (Interdictor) (3085-ONN)
Gray Death Scout (3058U-IS)
IS Standard* (3058U-IS)
Gray Death Standard (3058U-I)
Spectre (3145)
Longinus (Magnetic) (3085-ONN)
Marauder (3145)
Infiltrator Mk. II (Magnetic) (3085-ONN)
Gray Death Infiltrator* (3145)
Cuchulainn (3145)
Black Wolf* (3145)
DropShips
Intruder (3056) (3057)
Condor (3054) (3057)
Gazelle (2531) (3057)
Kuan Ti (3057)
See FWL States Sub-table
Hamilcar (3057)
Leopard CV (3056) (3057)
Union (3055) (3057)
Seleucus (3145)
See FWL States Sub-table
Vengeance (3056) (3057)
Model 97 “Octopus” (3057)
See FWL States Sub-table
Merlin R1 (Proto)
Leopard PWS (3075)
Union PWS (3075)
135

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - AEROSPACE
Roll Light Fighters
Silver Hawks Irregulars (FWL general)
7 PGD-L3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
12 OF-17A-R Cheetah [25] (Proto)
15 F-11-RR Cheetah [25] (3039)
Covenant Worlds
7 STM-O Sternensturm [40] (3145)
12 WKT-1S Wildkatze [45] (Proto)
15 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
Tamarind
7 SB-27b Sabre [25] (Klondike)
12 SYD-Z1 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
15 WKT-1S Wildkatze [45] (Proto)
Regulan Fiefs
7 CSR-100F Picaroon [35] (3145)
12 CSR-100F Picaroon [35] (3145)
15 CSR-100F Picaroon [35] (3145)
Roll Light Fighters
3 SPR-6D Sparrowhawk [30] (3039)
4 F-14-S Cheetah [25] (3039)
5 F-11-RR Cheetah [25] (3039)
6 SB-27b Sabre [25] (Klondike)
7 PGD-Y3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
8 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
9 TR-8 Thrush [25] (3039)
10 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
11 PGD-L3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
12 SB-27b Sabre [25] (Klondike)
13 OF-17A-R Cheetah [25] (Proto)
14 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
15 Y-2 Yùn [40] (3145)
16 PGD-Y3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
17 CSR-100F Picaroon [35] (3145)
18 Y-2 Yùn [40] (3145)
136 Random Assignment Tables
EMPIRE ALONE
FREE WORLDS LEAGUE STATES SUB-TABLE
Medium Fighters
LCR-3 Lucifer III [65] (Proto)
Ammon [65] (3067)
Ammon-XR [65] (XTRClans)
LX-3 Lancer [50] (3067)
LCR-3 Lucifer III [65] (Proto)
MR-1S Morgenstern* [70] (3085-CE)
LTN-G16S Lightning [50] (3075)
LTN-G15 Lightning [50] (3075)
LX-2 Lancer [50] (3067)
LCR-3 Lucifer III [65] (Proto)
LX-3 Lancer [50] (3067)
LX-3 Lancer [50] (3067)
DUCHY OF ANDURIEN
Medium Fighters
LTN-G16L Lightning [50] (3075)
F-94 Stingray [60] (3039)
LX-2 Lancer [50] (3067)
TR-13G Transit [50] (Proto)
F-92 Stingray [60] (3039)
BAM-1A1 Malaika [65] (XTRRetro)
TR-12 Transit [50] (3039)
F-95 Stingray [60] (3039)
F-96R Stingray [60] (3145)
CMT-3T Troika [65] (3067)
F-92 Stingray [60] (3039)
AQA-1M Aquila [55] (3145)
LTN-G16L Lightning [50] (3075)
LX-3 Lancer [50] (3067)
LCR-3 Lucifer III [65] (Proto)
CMT-3T Troika [65] (3067)
Heavy Fighters
F-700a Riever [100] (3039)
STU-D7 Stuka [100] (3039)
Hydaspes [95] (3067)
RPR-300 Rapier [85] (3050U-C)
TRB-D56 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
EST-O Eisensturm* [95] (3067)
TRB-D56 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
EGL-R6 Eagle [75] (3075)
SL-15R Slayer [80] (3039)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
TR-15 Transgressor [75] (3039)
HSCL-1-O Huscarl* [75] (3067)
Heavy Fighters
F-700a Riever [100] (3039)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
TRB-D46 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
TR-16 Transgressor [75] (3039)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
F-700b Riever [100] (3039)
MNG-8L Mĕngqín [95] (3085-CE)
F-700b Riever [100] (3039)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
F-700a Riever [100] (3039)
EGL-R6b Eagle [75] (Klondike)
SHK-4M Shikra [90] (3145)
TRB-D46 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
F-700 Riever [100] (3039)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
TR-15 Transgressor [75] (3039)
DropShips
Aurora (3075)
Hannibal (3057)
Gorgon Carrier (3145)
Intruder (3056) (3057)
Aurora (3075)
Trutzburg (3145)
Merlin (3067)
Condor (3054) (3057)
Avenger (3048) (3057)
Merlin (3067)
Hannibal (3057)
Leopard CV (3054) (3057)
DropShips
Intruder (3056) (3057)
Condor (3054) (3057)
Gazelle (2531) (3057)
Kuan Ti (3057)
Merlin (3067)
Hamilcar (3057)
Gorgon Carrier (3145)
Union (3055) (3057)
Seleucus (3145)
Hannibal (3057)
Vengeance (3056) (3057)
Model 97 “Octopus” (3057)
Intruder (3056) (3057)
Merlin R1 (Proto)
Leopard PWS (3075)
Union PWS (3075)
 RULES ANNEX

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - AEROSPACE

CLAN PROTECTORATE
Roll Light Fighters Medium Fighters Heavy Fighters DropShips
3 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039) BAM-1A1 Malaika [65] (XTRRetro) F-700a Riever [100] (3039) Seleucus (3145)
4 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039) GTHA-500b Gotha [60] (3075) F-77A Deathstalker [80] Merlin (3067)
5 F-14-S Cheetah [25] (3039) LX-2 Lancer [50] (3067) TRB-D46 Thunderbird [100] (3075) Hannibal (3057)
6 F-14-S Cheetah [25] (3039) CMT-3T Troika [65] (3067) F-700b Riever [100] (3039) Overlord-C (3057)
7 DARO-1 Dagger* [45] (3067) F-92 Stingray [60] (3039) F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075) Seleucus (3145)
8 SGT-2R Sagittarii [45] (3085-CE) Ammon [65] (3067) Hydaspes [95] (3067) Broadsword (3057)
9 PGD-L3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE) F-92 Stingray [60] (3039) EGL-R6b Eagle [75] (Klondike) Union-C (3057)
10 Chaeronea [25] (3067) Tyre [55] (3067) Hydaspes 3 [95] (Proto) Nagasawa Assault DropShip (3145)
11 PGD-Y3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE) LX-3 Lancer [50] (3067) Xerxes [85] (3067) (3075) Broadsword (3057)
12 CRX-O Corax* [30] (3067) MIK-O Tatsu* [70] (3067) Hydaspes [95] (3067) Leopard CV (3054) (3057)
13 OF-17A-R Cheetah [25] (Proto) F-92 Stingray [60] (3039) EGL-R6b Eagle [75] (Klondike) Broadsword (3057)
14 S-4C Sai [40] (3039) Ammon [65] (3067) HSCL-1-O Huscarl* [75] (3067) Model 97 “Octopus” (3057)
15 Issedone* [30] (GC) AQA-1M Aquila [55] (3145) SHV-O Shiva* [85] (3067) Mule (3057)
16 Avar* [35] (3055U) Ammon-XR [65] (XTRClans) EST-O Eisensturm* [95] (3067) Union (3055) (3057)
17 CSR-100F Picaroon [35] (3145) LCR-3 Lucifer III [65] (Proto) SHK-4M Shikra [90] (3145) Gorgon Carrier (3145)
18 Batu* [40] (3055U) Jagatai* [70] (3055U) Jengiz* [80] (3055U) Merlin (3067)

Roll Light Fighters
3 TRN-3Tb Trident [20] (3075)
4 ZRO-116b Zero [35] (Klondike)
5 SGT-2R Sagittarii [45] (3085-CE)
6 S-4C Sai [40] (3039)
7 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
8 F-11-RR Cheetah [25] (3039)
9 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
10 WKT-1S Wildkatze [45] (Proto)
11 Issedone* [30] (GC)
12 Cheetah IIC [25] (3150)
13 Seydlitz C [20] (3150)
14 Cheetah IIC [25] (3150)
15 Cheetah IIC [25] (3150)
16 PGD-Y3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
17 Seydlitz C [20] (3150)
18 Issedone* [30] (GC)
WOLF EMPIRE
Medium Fighters
LCF-R16 Lucifer [65] (3039)
LX-3 Lancer [50] (3067)
MR-1S Morgenstern* [70] (3085-CE)
Ammon-XR [65] (XTRClans)
GTHA-500b Gotha [60] (3075)
LTN-G16S Lightning [50] (3075)
LX-2 Lancer [50] (3067)
Goth C [60] (GC)
Lucifer III C [65] (3150)
LX-3 Lancer [50] (3067)
Goth C [60] (GC)
Ammon [65] (3067)
Tyre [55] (3067)
F-96R Stingray [60] (3145)
Ammon [65] (3067)
F-95 Stingray [60] (3039)
Heavy Fighters DropShips
HSCL-1-O Huscarl* [75] (3067) Lion (Clan) (3057)
Xerxes [85] (3067) Broadsword (3057)
HSCL-1-O Huscarl* [75] (3067) Union-C (3057)
Hydaspes [95] (3067) Aurora (3075)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075) Overlord (3056) (3057)
SL-15R Slayer [80] (3039) Claymore V3 (Proto)
F-700b Riever [100] (3039) Broadsword (3057)
TRB-D56 Thunderbird [100] (3075) Aurora (3075)
RPR-100b Rapier [85] (3075) Overlord (3056) (3057)
STU-D7 Stuka [100] (3039) Aurora (3075)
SL-15K Slayer [80] (3039) Claymore (3057)
EGL-R6b Eagle [75] (Klondike) Overlord-C (3057)
Xerxes [85] (3067) Broadsword (3057)
Hydaspes 3 [95] (Proto) Overlord-A3 (3067)
RPR-200 Rapier [85] (3050U-C) Lion (Clan) (3057)
EST-O Eisensturm* [95] (3067) Overlord-C (3057)

Random Assignment Tables 137


RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - AEROSPACE
Roll Light Fighters
3 SPR-6D Sparrowhawk [30] (3039)
4 F-11 Cheetah [25] (3039)
5 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
6 SB-27b Sabre [25] (Klondike)
7 TR-8 Thrush [25] (3039)
8 SB-27b Sabre [25] (Klondike)
9 TR-8 Thrush [25] (3039)
10 F-11 Cheetah [25] (3039)
11 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
12 SB-27b Sabre [25] (Klondike)
13 TR-9 Thrush [25] (3150)
14 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
15 Y-2 Yùn [40] (3145)
16 PGD-Y3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
17 Y-2 Yùn [40] (3145)
18 Y-2 Yùn [40] (3145)
Roll Light Fighters
3 TR-7 Thrush [25] (3039)
4 SYD-Z1 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
5 F-10 Cheetah [25] (3039)
6 TR-7 Thrush [25] (3039)
7 SB-27b Sabre [25] (Klondike)
8 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
9 SB-27b Sabre [25] (Klondike)
10 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
11 F-11 Cheetah [25] (3039)
12 TR-8 Thrush [25] (3039)
13 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
14 TR-8 Thrush [25] (3039)
15 SB-27b Sabre [25] (Klondike)
16 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
17 Issedone* [30] (GC)
18 Avar* [35] (3055U)
138 Random Assignment Tables
EMPIRE ALONE
CAPELLAN CONFEDERATION
Medium Fighters
LTN-G16L Lightning [50] (3075)
F-92 Stingray [60] (3039)
LTN-G15b Lightning [50] (Klondike)
TR-13G Transit [50] (Proto)
CMT-4U Troika [65] (3067)
LTN-G16L Lightning [50] (3075)
TR-12 Transit [50] (3039)
LTN-G15b Lightning [50] (Klondike)
TR-13G Transit [50] (Proto)
CMT-3T Troika [65] (3067)
DFC-O Defiance* [55] (3067)
CMT-7T Troika [65] (3145)
LTN-G16L Lightning [50] (3075)
DFC-O Defiance* [55] (3067)
F-95 Stingray [60] (3039)
CMT-3T Troika [65] (3067)
MAGISTRACY OF CANOPUS
Medium Fighters
HCT-213 Hellcat [60] (3075)
SL-17 Shilone [65] (3039)
LTN-G15 Lightning [50] (3075)
TR-12 Transit [50] (3039)
F-95 Stingray [60] (3039)
LTN-G16L Lightning [50] (3075)
CMT-3T Troika [65] (3067)
F-92 Stingray [60] (3039)
CMT-4U Troika [65] (3067)
TR-13G Transit [50] (Proto)
CMT-3T Troika [65] (3067)
SL-18 Shilone [65] (3039)
DFC-O Defiance* [55] (3067)
TR-13G Transit [50] (Proto)
DFC-O Defiance* [55] (3067)
Tyre [55] (3067)
Heavy Fighters
VLC-8N Vulcan [80] (3075)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
TR-13A Transgressor [75] (3039)
TR-16 Transgressor [75] (3039)
MNG-8L Mĕngqín [95] (3085-CE)
TR-15 Transgressor [75] (3039)
MNG-8L Mĕngqín [95] (3085-CE)
F-700b Riever [100] (3039)
TR-15 Transgressor [75] (3039)
MNG-8L Mĕngqín [95] (3085-CE)
TRB-D46 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
TR-15 Transgressor [75] (3039)
TRB-D46 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
MNG-8L Mĕngqín [95] (3085-CE)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
TR-15 Transgressor [75] (3039)
Heavy Fighters
F-100 Riever [100] (3039)
TR-14 Transgressor [75] (3039)
TR-16 Transgressor [75] (3039)
F-700b Riever [100] (3039)
TRB-D46 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
TR-15 Transgressor [75] (3039)
F-700b Riever [100] (3039)
TRB-D46 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
TR-15 Transgressor [75] (3039)
TRB-D46 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
F-700b Riever [100] (3039)
MNG-8L Mĕngqín [95] (3085-CE)
CHP-W7T Chippewa [90] (3039)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
MNG-8L Mĕngqín [95] (3085-CE)
MNG-8L Mĕngqín [95] (3085-CE)
DropShips
Kuan Ti (3057)
Lung Wang (3057)
Seleucus (3145)
Union (3055) (3057)
Achilles (3055) (3057)
Leopard CV (3054) (3057)
Overlord (3056) (3057)
Achilles (3055) (3057)
Lung Wang (3057)
Kuan Ti (3057)
Lung Wang P2 (Proto)
Union (3055) (3057)
Vengeance-DC (Proto)
Gorgon Carrier (3145)
Overlord-A3 (3067)
Seeker (3054) (3057)
DropShips
Dictator (3075)
Seleucus (3145)
Avenger (2816) (3057)
Overlord (3056) (3057)
Leopard (PPC) (3057)
Condor (3054) (3057)
Seeker (3054) (3057)
Lung Wang (3057)
Triumph (2593) (3057)
Union (3055) (3057)
Achilles (3055) (3057)
Kuan Ti (3057)
Overlord-A3 (3067)
Vengeance-DC (Proto)
Gorgon Carrier (3145)
Lung Wang P2 (Proto)

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TABLES - AEROSPACE
Roll Light Fighters
3 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
4 F-10 Cheetah [25] (3039)
5 S-2 Star Dagger [30] (XTRRetro)
6 S-2 Star Dagger [30] (XTRRetro)
7 SYD-Z2 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
8 F-11 Cheetah [25] (3039)
9 SB-27 Sabre [25] (3075)
10 TR-7 Thrush [25] (3039)
11 SYD-Z1 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
12 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
13 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
14 F-11 Cheetah [25] (3039)
15 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
16 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
17 TR-8 Thrush [25] (3039)
18 Issedone* [30] (GC)
Roll Light Fighters
3 SPR-6D Sparrowhawk [30] (3039)
4 SB-27b Sabre [25] (Klondike)
5 TR-8 Thrush [25] (3039)
6 SYD-Z3A Seydlitz [20] (3039)
7 F-11 Cheetah [25] (3039)
8 THK-63CS Tomahawk [45] (3050U-C)
9 SB-27b Sabre [25] (Klondike)
10 SYD-Z4 Seydlitz [20] (3039)
11 SB-29 Sabre [25] (3075)
12 SL-22 Sholagar [35] (3039)
13 PGD-Y3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
14 F-13 Cheetah [25] (3039)
15 PGD-R3 Poignard [35] (3085-CE)
16 WKT-1S Wildkatze [45] (Proto)
17 SB-31D Sabre [25] (Proto)
18 SGT-2R Sagittarii [45] (3085-CE)
RULES ANNEX
MARIAN HEGEMONY
Medium Fighters
SL-17 Shilone [65] (3039)
BAM-1A1 Malaika [65] (XTRRetro)
HCT-213 Hellcat [60] (3075)
F-90 Stingray [60] (3039)
LX-2 Lancer [50] (3067)
LTN-G15 Lightning [50] (3075)
SL-17 Shilone [65] (3039)
F-90 Stingray [60] (3039)
LTN-G15 Lightning [50] (3075)
LCF-R16 Lucifer [65] (3039)
F-92 Stingray [60] (3039)
SL-17 Shilone [65] (3039)
HCT-313 Hellcat [60] (3075)
CMT-3T Troika [65] (3067)
LX-2 Lancer [50] (3067)
DFC-O Defiance* [55] (3067)
MERCENARY
Medium Fighters
BAM-1A1 Malaika [65] (XTRRetro)
LCF-R16 Lucifer [65] (3039)
LTN-G15b Lightning [50] (Klondike)
F-92 Stingray [60] (3039)
CSR-V14 Corsair [50] (3039)
LCF-R16 Lucifer [65] (3039)
SL-17R Shilone [65] (3039)
LTN-G16S Lightning [50] (3075)
SL-18 Shilone [65] (3039)
CMT-3T Troika [65] (3067)
LTN-G16D Lightning [50] (3075)
F-95 Stingray [60] (3039)
LX-3 Lancer [50] (3067)
SL-27 Samurai [50] (3039)
MR-1S Morgenstern* [70] (3085-CE)
MIK-O Tatsu* [70] (3067)
Heavy Fighters
F-700a Riever [100] (3039)
STU-K5 Stuka [100] (3039)
F-100 Riever [100] (3039)
CHP-W5 Chippewa [90] (3039)
TRB-D36 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
EGL-R6 Eagle [75] (3075)
SL-15 Slayer [80] (3039)
TR-13 Transgressor [75] (3039)
EGL-R6 Eagle [75] (3075)
SL-15R Slayer [80] (3039)
F-700a Riever [100] (3039)
SL-15R Slayer [80] (3039)
CHP-W7 Chippewa [90] (3039)
F-700b Riever [100] (3039)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
TRB-D46 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
Heavy Fighters
TRB-D36b Thunderbird [100] (Klondike)
STU-K5b Stuka [100] (Klondike)
VLC-8N Vulcan [80] (3075)
RPR-300 Rapier [85] (3050U-C)
F-700b Riever [100] (3039)
STU-D6 Stuka [100] (3039)
EST-O Eisensturm* [95] (3067)
TR-15 Transgressor [75] (3039)
CHP-W7T Chippewa [90] (3039)
SL-15K Slayer [80] (3039)
STU-D7 Stuka [100] (3039)
TRB-D56 Thunderbird [100] (3075)
HSCL-1-O Huscarl* [75] (3067)
SHV-O Shiva* [85] (3067)
F-77A Deathstalker [80] (3075)
EGL-R11 Eagle [75] (3075)
Random Assignment Tables
DropShips
Leopard PWS (3075)
Union (3055) (3057)
Aurora (3075)
Overlord (2762) (3057)
Leopard (2537) (3057)
Union (2708) (3057)
Triumph (2593) (3057)
Leopard CV (2581) (3057)
Danais (Jihad Secrets)
Condor (2801) (3057)
Avenger (3048) (3057)
Vengeance (2682) (3057)
Achilles (3055) (3057)
Gazelle (2531) (3057)
Mule PWS (3075)
Union PWS (3075)
DropShips
Overlord (3056) (3057)
Condor (3054) (3057)
Union (3055) (3057)
Avenger (3048) (3057)
Triumph (3057) (3057)
Aurora (3075)
Intruder (3056) (3057)
Aurora (3075)
Aurora (3075)
Achilles (3055) (3057)
Gorgon Carrier (3145)
Seleucus (3145)
Vengeance (3056) (3057)
Union (3055) (3057)
Overlord-A3 (3067)
Excalibur (3056) (3057)
139
 • 100% of the attack
• Headhunter, Gaun

Cavanaugh II
• Tangled Forest, Su

• 1.96 days / Zenith

• 0.99 / Standard (Breathable)
Bella I
EMPIRE ALONE
• B-B-C-B-C
• Duke / +1 / B Class
• 100% of the attacking force
C
• Hold, Identify the Opposition
Penobscot • Flankers, Dusk/Dawn
Alula Borealis
Trellisane
Pencader • 6.50 days / None

EMPIRE
Timbiqui Epsilon ALONE
Nockatunga • 0.92 / Standard (Breathabl
• A-B-B-B-B
• Count / +0 / B Class
• 110% of the attacking force
• Run Them Down, Denial

CAMPAIGN MAP
• Aerospace Incoming, Reinf

Millungera
Labouchere
Galisteo Promiseda Land
BattleTech is an open sandbox of immense possibilities, variety of primary planets
and the various rules published over the years give players of numerous solar systems,
Griffith
a huge toolbox to go along with such expansive options. Saltillo
based on existing canon and Tamarind
Cerillos
However, there are times when the toolbox is so large that the rules from the Solar System
• 4.85 days / Nadir
• 1.0 / Standard (Breathable)
N
• B-C-B-B-B
players are unsure where to start and how to proceed to get Generation section of Campaign
Alorton
to the fun of linked adventures that tell a compelling story Kosciusko
• Duke / +1 / A Class
• 120% of the attacking force

on their tabletop.
Schererville Operations.
The first three bullet points
• Get the Intel, Justice
• Bad Intel, Excessive Force

This poster map is not a new set of rules, nor does it of expanded details on the
codify a campaign for players. Instead, it’s an effort to provide Edmondson
planets are covered in the corre- Simpson Desert
a framework for storytelling possibilities, along
• 4.12 days / Nadir, Zenith with signposts sponding section of Campaign Operations. Of particular note
• 0.95 / Standard (Breathable)
that make creating your own campaign
• C-C-C-C-D just a little easier, all are the Universal Socio-Industrial Level Rating codes, which
• Count / –1 / B Class
while crafting an immersive experience that
• 95% of the attacking
Loongana
force BattleTech has enable players to bring to life a planet they are visiting, raid-
• Training Day, Professionals
never before provided to its players.
• Lousy Weather, No Cover ing, or perhaps even invading: Technological Sophistication, Eromanga Mundra
Industrial Output, Industrial Development, Agricultural •• 10.43
• 12.89 days / None
/ Zenith
1.10 / Standard (Bre
• 1.2 / Thin (Breathable)
• D-C-C-D-B
• D-C-D-C-D Dependence (see p. 126, CO).
Dependence, and Raw Material
axwell Maderas • Count / -3 / B Class
• Baron / –3 / B Class
• 100% of the attackin
CANON
• 100% of the attacking force
KilarneyTRANSIT
TIMES
• Interdiction, Hammer
• Strong Gale, Flankers
• Tangled Forest, Hea
• Pick Up, Containme

BattleTech has one Curaumilla of the longest running and

The transit paths on the front side of the map, along
largest canon universes ever created for science
with the recharge times indicated as hours within the colored
fiction. This is a wonderful boon that creates a living
circles (star spectral Kakada classes) at each system, help you map
setting that communities around the world have
Manotick embraced for decades. That very canonicity, however,
Silver Tchamba
out how your combat command—be it a House, Clan, or
mercenary force—can travel from one system to the Albert
next to Falls
can also be problematic Conakry
as we strive to adhere to • 17.36 days / Nadir, Zenith
reach
• 1.02 / Standard your
(Breathable)destination. The recharge times are the standard
canon while continuing to deliver new, compelling • B-B-B-B-B
• Count /number
–3 / B Class of hours a jump drive must be charged after arriving
stories. Gibraltar
We have a wonderful team of fact checkers • 100% of the attacking force

that work with the developers, writers, and artists to

in aAcquired
• POW, Target system—based upon the star spectral class—before
• Fanatics, Mushy Ground
Chalouba Ashburton
Hammer ensure we adhere to that canon as much as possible.
another jump can occur.
However, for this project, Schiedam
that simply doesn’t
If your target world for your raid enters a winter season
in four months, but it takes you three and a half months to
LEGENDwork, as we are delving too far C
into details that can COREWARD

travel there, you might make it before the snows fall. Or if a

hamstring Lyran
Clan Protectorate future authors and developers. As such,
Commonwealth
jump drive malfunctions or you lose a few weeks to a raid as
you cross a border, you could end up hitting them with winterCajamarc Home
Free Worlds League
while a huge
Wolf Empire effort
Unaligned Worlds was undertaken to ensure all of

these
SPECTRAL CLASS details
: are bound
National capital
A S
by extant canonicity, these ANTI
Wolof SPINWARD

well on its way, which directly impacts

• 8.53 days / Nadir
gameplay, as playing in
Bowang
SPINWARD

Region capital • 0.83 / Standard (Breathable)

M K details
G F AareB part of the toolbox for players, so they are
District capital • D-C-C-D-C
23.6 R snow can be a tough scenario. This can
• Lord / –3 / B Class also affect how long
not considered canon.
Wotan 176 195176Derf Wotan
• 90% of the attacking force
your contract will be if you’re• Frugal a mercenary and how much
RIMWARD

JUMP ROUTE & DISTANCE IN LIGHT YEARS JUMP DRIVE CHARGE TIMES IN HOURS (STANDARD) is the Word, Get Physical

Lepaterique Kogl time you have to complete it• Bullrush, Blizzard

because of how long it might
take you to arrive at your target.
CAMPAIGN OPERATIONS Additionally, if you’re directly antagonistic with a given
Trini
While you can use this campaign map in whatever faction, even crossing their border may cause you issues.
Cielo
g
EMPIRE ALONE
fashion you choose, it’s been designed specifically
with the Campaign Operations (CO) rulebook (page numbers
Valil'yevskiyfor use
CHAOS
Panjang CAMPAIGN
As mentioned, there are a host of different rulesIbarra
JUNE 3152
reference the vintage-cover printing).
Kutludugun could be employed with this map, but we’re directly focusing
that

SOLAR SYSTEM DETAILS

©2022 The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
on the Chaos Campaign Aconcagua (see pp. 160–186, CO), as it is one Molokai
of
Both sides of the map contain details of the solar systems Karakiraz the most flexible rulesets available. Specifically, let’s take a
surrounding the events in this book. The back side also covers look on the back side of the map, which showcases dozens

140 Empire Alone Campaign Map

 25
.9 27 190
sons

.9
2 3 .1
.6

21 .9
26.
2 Hyde
Arcadia

.7
2
23 .3 27

28.

1 5 .8

27
183 25
.9 .7
2.2

2 7.4
Kamenz 177 19 .6 Launam 1 7 .6
Bobruisk 15.9
184
28.1
176
RULES ANNEX
191 25 .5

20.0
177
2 5 .8
28
.3
Gienah 29
.5
Uhuru

2 9 .6
25

1 3 .9
.2

2
6. 28 .8
Zdice

17.

21
0
210 18

2 2 .0
14.

.0

.0
.5
3

185

18
Dixie

2 9 .3
1 9 .4 179
187
201 16 .8 21 .0
24. 1
201 17 .9 Amity
29
.3 .7 Giausar 186 Nestor 203
Abramkovo
25 26
Concord

2 3 .6
Ford .8

12 .5
.5
Loric

1 5 .9
23 .4

.1

20.
21

.1

22
.0

18
28 .6

26
17 .2

9
30

2 0 .1
199

.7

EXAMPLE
19 .4

25

.8
and their gaming group are playing
29 .4
Jaydan a186

23
.2
Bella I 196
1 5 .6

11
They just197completedDanais

1 0 .7
22.9
mercenary
194 outfit, Jaydan’s Jagers.

.4
188 Colfax Megrez 26 .8 26
. 5
1 5 .7
173
18.3

.6
Cavanaugh II 209 26.7
St

26
2 6 .7
Penobscot Alula Borealis 175 a contract on Mundrabilla 171 and have
McAffe .8
aBondurant
tempting

9.8
3

23
13
9.9 . 19
26 .5 28

16.8

.0
Cascade

.5

11 .9

2 5 .4
.1
210 18 .2 21
. 7 contract offer for an extraction raid on Togwotee .9 Alula Borealis.

15 .5
13.5

1 9 .3 21 2

24
19

13
173 176 7.8 188 2 9 .1
9 .5 1

.5

.1
0 2 7 .4

1 6 .8
.4 27 .0
Time to figure out how long it’ll take
183 to get there, ensure 25

24.

6
11 1 4 .0
Nockatunga 205 .6
195

27.
Trellisane

23.8
17.6
173 1

2 2 .5
205 Sheridan

9
1 5.3 4
181 6
.7
they
Thermopolis have enough supplies, and figure out the total
Gannett time 9.
Helm
20 .1

29 2 4 .1 25 .1
Timbiqui Epsilon

19 .5
27
1 9 .2

182 Pingree
1
.9

9. .0 25
if.3 the pay rate is 22.4 194 2
23

2 1 .2

.5
7 21
for said contract, so they can determine

19 .3
1

.8
28.

28

15

18
.5

14.
28 .7

17

Millungera

21.
.3
24 2 3 .1 11
Tania Australis 5

.7
17.3

0.
.6

.7
2 3 .6

173appropriate. Looking 205 8.1 at 205 the back side of the map, they

7
Rexburg

16

2
198
21.7
196 29. 3 Labouchere 29.6 24.4

2 6 .3
12 .2
29 .7
know the Time
.8 15
to JumpSterling Point for Mundrabilla is 10.43

18.6
. 3 Preston
171 209

27. 0
208 Promised Land 17
.6
1 6 .7
16 178 2 2 .1 29
2 3 .7 .9 25 .0
days. They then look at the front of the mapGallatin to track21.2
.0

.0 17 .2
3 0 .0 1 7 .9
Griffith 205
12

6
Zortman

.6
.
.2

27

14
Saltillo Tamarind jump routes and add up recharge times: Mundrabilla
12

182 193 190

Niihau

2 8 .4
29 .1 26 .4 26 .1

27. 7
11
18 .7

.7
to Simpson Desert (190 hours of charge 1 8time), to Bainsville 29.9

23
29.

196 180

21
.1

29 .7
3

26 .0
.0

.8
180 Kosciusko

.1
hererville Tamarind (193), and Labouchere Autumn (171), for Wind thirty-four
16 .2

14
29

.7
24
.9
194
days of travel time. One of those jumps is into the Wolf
2 6 .8

27
20
15.5

Rasalas

.6
.4
188 28.
190 Simpson Desert

.8

10.8
.6 2
Empire—Simpson 7
Desert—and the players will need

24.7
29
1
20.

Ideyld
6

182

1 9 .3
Shasta
27.

196 2 2 9 .3 1
25
.
to consider 2 1 . how much of an issue this border crossings
7.
8 174

.4
14 .7

25
Edmondson Loongana 181 might cause them. If they
7
wish to19avoid the Wolf Empire, Washburn
12
.5
.8

181 195 2 2 .7 Keysto

22

28
.5 11.0 .7

1 8 .6
Mundrabilla
18

198 route. From Mundrabilla

they have a longer Coriscana 187 to Albert
.2
28.0

20 14
179 2

2 9 .4
.3

.1
1

23. 8
0 . 5 .
16
175 Falls (194),23.to Midkiff (178), to6 Loongana
Eromanga Campbelton (181), to Dickinson
7
1 5 .9

17 .0 12

17 .1
4
194 178 22
. .8
6.1

2 7 .1
Kilarney .7 Drusi

17 .1
.4

18
9 2 1
4
Kosciusko (180), and Millungera (196). Forty-nine days
.7

.9
8.9 Eromanga
205 Kirkenlaard
26

Curaumilla 1 173 Laureles 26

.5
25
15 .5

8. 27 of travel. Jaydan debates 176if saving two weeks time 1 .8

is
.6

9 .7 173 3. 2 7 .7
14

2 6 .5 0
Kakada

29. 4
worth
Escobas a stop within the Empire’s borders. A quick-
29

182

.6
23.0
210
.6

22
176 194
21

Albert Falls charge of the KF drive may be in order… New Olympia

21
26. 2

Silver
.1

.2
Conakry
.6
3

8.4

.4
20
25.

20
3.8 2
17

26. 7
.6

22
14 .6 181
18
.8

.1
200 210
203 27.9
2 3 .8
Chalouba Ashburton 193 Tongatapu
.8
174 16
Schiedam1 Tchamba Loyalty 24.9

.9
.7
27. 7

.5

.4 25

29
9.
9 .3

28

197
.7

18
22.3

6 27 20. 5
24

COREWARD

2 6 .1
C
of worlds with197expanded.7
details (you can reference the
However, unlike 179 the above details, which are more
16 .5 21. Ionus 23
on the previous page as well). EachCajamarca Alterf
5

.3
.3

.4
27.7

15
planetary callout
200
Wolof contains
flavor-oriented and optional (with the exception of the Time

29
13

A S .7
1 3 .6
2 6 .3

Aitutaki
ANTI SPINWARD

.8
28.2

theBowang
SPINWARD

R
following bullet points (along184 with the color-coded193star 18
to Jump 28
Point),
Manihiki the final
1 6 .8 four
175 bullet26.points6 for each planetary 2 5 .9
.7 199
spectral class and the charge timesHomefrom the front side):
detail 2directly 206 ties into the Chaos Campaign system.
23 .4
They
RIMWARD
.8

Atreus
25.1

HOURS (STANDARD)
0 .2 27 .4
23

IN

24
2 4 .2

.4 189
28

187provide 29
. 2 1 3 those signposts 2 5 for building
. 3your own tracks. 6within
.1 29
.5
.3

1 8 .1

26 .2
21

20

18
Trinidad 25
Harmony
12. 8
22 .9
25 .9

.0

.4
% Time to Jump Point / Recharge 192 Station
.4
that campaign, bringing the details of Empire Alone, and the
14
25

11.9
9.3

.5

184 2 7 .9
2 7 .0
.8

% Gravity /183Atmospheric Pressure 201 181 straight to your table.197

15

Cielo 4 . 6 BattleTech universe as a whole,

23.2 12 .7

LONE
172
Valil'yevskiy 193 190
25

1 2
1 8 1 26.
% Socio-Industrial
.2
Norfolk Regulus
PanjangLevels
.5

2 4 .1
Ibarra Un-detailed
2 6.8
NewcastleWorlds: .4 TheHellos rules Minor below will include this
2 194 Kutludugun Muscida
174
10.2

2 3 .3 27 .0 16 8
.4 1
16

26 .1
1 2 .6

% Planetary Ruler Title / Base 191 Government Table22/.7

2 8 .7

section, as appropriate, to expand on any needs

21
Tuamotu when players
.2

19
2

.0
19.

1 9 .4 185 11.2 Wallis 28

.6

2 7 .6
HPG Station Aconcagua Futuna
.3
.4 Faleolo
Ngake
Karakiraz 175 Molokai are building their own tracks on 206
1 2 .6 un-detailed worlds and do
25 Dayr
% Likely Defending Forces not wish to fully flesh that world out. 171
2 3 .4 14. 4 183
194
% Sample Objectives
% Sample Options PLANETARY RULER TITLE
There are two rank structures, based on the faction
The first three bullet points on each of those worlds can
that controls the world in question: Inner Sphere (which
be useful in bringing the system to life (especially transit times
is always a noble title) and Clan. The Free Worlds League,
to and from the planet), but how that is done is left up to
Capellan Confederation, Marian Hegemony, and Magistracy
you. What color is the sun bathing your battlefield? Are you
of Canopus are Inner Sphere, while the Wolf Empire and Clan
crushed under heavy gravity? Can you breathe the air, or if you
Protectorate are Clan. The title ranks listed below range from
take damage to your life support, will you have to worry about
T1 through T11 (see Title/Bloodname (Expanded), A Time of
that tainted atmosphere? What about the technology level
War Companion, p. 40); Clan military ranks are listed with their
of the defenders and their cities you might encounter? Each
equivalent title rank (see Rank-to-Title Equivalency, A Time of
of these small details, when combined, can bring wonderful
War Companion, pp. 45-46).
verisimilitude to any game.

Empire Alone Campaign Map 141

 EMPIRE ALONE

WARCHEST/SUPPORT ADDITIONAL FORCES

POINT ACTIVITY COSTS TABLE
TABLE
Rank Modifier
Rank Modifier 1–3 +5%
1–3 0% 4–5 +10%
4–6 +3% 6 +15%
7–9 +4%
10+ +5% WARCHEST POINTS
REWARD
INNER SPHERE NOBLE Rank Modifier
RULER TABLE
1–3 −5%
1D6 Result 4 −8%
2–3 Lord/Lady 5 −10%
4–5 Baron/Baroness 6 −15%
6–7 Viscount/Viscountess
8 Count (Earl)/Countess CLAN PLANETARY
9–10 Marquis/Marquise RULER TABLE
11–12 Duke 2D6 Modifier
2–3 Senior Laborer
Modifiers
4–5 Master Technician
Uncontrolled −2
6–8 Merchant Factor
Magistracy of Canopus −1
9 Star Commander
Independent Free Worlds
−1
League System 10 Star Captain
Marian Hegemony −2 11 Star Colonel
12 Galaxy Commander

Inner Sphere: House Liao uses the following feudalistic
titles, in progression of rank from least to most powerful: T1.
Lord/Lady/Honored Citizen, T4. Madrinn/Madrissa, T6. Shonso/
Shanna, T7. Lama/Lamia, T8. Duke/Duchess, T10. Prefect, and
T11. Chancellor. House Marik uses the following feudalistic
titles, in progression of rank from least to most powerful:
T1. Lord/Lady, T4. Baron/Baroness, T5. Viscount/Viscountess,
T6. Count (Earl)/Countess, T7. Marquis/Marquise, T8. Duke/
Duchess, T9. Grand Duke/Grand Duchess and T11. Captain-
General. For simplicity, you can assume other Inner Sphere
Houses use the same rank and titles as House Marik, up to T6.
Count and the ruler of the sovereign realm as rank T8.
The Marian Hegemony prefers to call all nobles
Patrician, but they vary widely in power. For the purposes of
determining their power within these rules, they will use the
following ranks: T3. Tribunate Member, T4-T7. Patrician, T8.
Senator, T11. Caesar.
Other Modifiers
Wolf Empire −2
To showcase a planetary ruler’s power to marshal
elements to affect an attacker in adverse ways, once a track
has been fully built and is ready to play, roll 2D6 to determine
which effect a Noble Ruler’s rank level will apply for the track:
2–7: The Noble Ruler provides the Battlefield Support
Points as indicated on the Battlefield Support Table to the
OpFor for that game (see p. 78, BMM)
8–12: All Warchest or Support Point Activity Costs after
the game are increased as indicated on the Warchest/Support
Point Activity Costs table (see pp. 164–167, CO).
Un-detailed Worlds: For an un-detailed world held by
an Inner Sphere faction, roll on the Inner Sphere Noble Ruler
Table, applying appropriate modifiers.

142 Empire Alone Campaign Map

 RULES ANNEX
Clan: As in all things, the Clans are
incredibly spartan with their rank structure
for governing worlds. For simplicity’s sake,
regardless of the faction, the following is the
progression of rank from least to most powerful: T1.
Senior Laborer, T1. Master Technician, T1. Merchant
Factor, T2. Star Commander, T4. Star Captain. T5. Star
Colonel, T7. Galaxy Commander.
To showcase a planetary ruler’s power to marshal
elements to affect an attacker in adverse ways, once a track
has been fully built and is ready to play, roll 2D6 to determine
which effect a Planetary Ruler’s rank level will apply for
the track:
2–7: The Planetary Ruler conscripts additional forces, so
apply the modifiers indicated on the Additional Forces Table
(see p. 142) to the total percentage of the OpFor; in all cases,
round down (see p. 169, CO).
8–12: The WP Rewards of achieved objectives are
decreased as indicated on the Warchest Points Reward table
(see p. 142).
Un-detailed Worlds: For an un-detailed world held by a
Clan faction, roll on the Clan Planetary Ruler Table, applying
appropriate modifiers.
BASE GOVERNMENT
The type of government on a planet can impact how
players interact with all aspects of the world, from defending
forces to supplies and more. This modifier is added to the
2D6 roll on the Base Government Table (see p. 129, CO) when
determining what local government holds sway.
HPG STATION
In the ilClan era, interstellar communications are still
slow, with most HPGs still not operational. Whenever you
attempt to use an HPG station on a planet, roll 2D6: on an
BATTLEFIELD
SUPPORT POINTS
TABLE
Rank Result
1–3 0 BSPs
4–6 3 BSPs
7–9 4 BSPs
10+ 5 BSPs
11 or 12 it is active; any other roll means you cannot use
that HPG station. (If the system is within the Wolf Empire, it
is run by Clan Wolf lower castes, otherwise the HPG is run by
Clan Sea Fox.)
Un-detailed Worlds: Roll on the HPG Table (see p. 133,
CO) to determine what type of HPG is on a planet, before
determining if it is operational. (Use the Inner Sphere column,
regardless of faction.)
LIKELY DEFENDING FORCES
As usual for a Chaos Campaign track, Likely Defending
Forces is given as a percentage of the player’s deployed force
(see pp. 161-164, CO).
Un-detailed Worlds: As detailed on pages 169–170 of
CO, determining OpFor sizes on un-detailed worlds will entail
multiple factors.
SAMPLES OBJECTIVES
Based on the canon of the planet in question, these
are appropriate Sample Objectives for a track (see pp.
170-172, CO).
SAMPLE OPTIONS
Based on the canon of the planet, these are appropriate
Sample Options for a track (see pp. 173-177, CO).
MAKE IT YOUR OWN
This spread of details allows players to quickly build
scenarios and flesh them into an interconnected campaign.
However, the vast majority of the systems on the poster map
only have their star type and recharge times noted. This is
done specifically so you can use the details on the map,
along with the Solar System Generation rules of Campaign
Operations, to craft whole new systems that only you and
your players will explore!
Empire Alone Campaign Map 143
Saravan

Richvale

Minderoo

Duran