Gozen’s Ghouls
Independent Company, Proserpina Hussars, DCMS
Command Lance
Name: Jiro Gozen Age: 30
Rank: Tai-i Home Planet: Kajikazawa
Decorations: Proserpina Bar
BattleMech: BattleMaster (1G) “Onikuma ”
Piloting: 2 Gunnery: 3
BattleMech Status:
Gozen’s centuries old family BattleMaster is showing its age, but has been well cared for and kept in repair. The SRM 6 feed mechanism, however is worn and occasionally jams. (After it is fired, roll 2D6. On a result of 11 or 12, it jams and cannot be fired for the rest of the battle.) Above the waist the ‘Mech is painted flat black except for insignia. Below the waist, it is painted in standard Proserpina Hussars blue, green and silver. The PPC has also been switched to the left hand to match Gozen’s handedness. Its name Onikuma means “demon bear.”
MechWarrior Data:
Jiro Gozen is a fit, average height man with strong Japanese ancestry evident. He keeps his head and face shaved except for a thin mustache. With superiors he maintains a cold, no-nonsense demeanor, giving proper respect, but nothing more, the exception being the commander of the Proserpina Hussars, Sho-sho Bruce Lee Bernstein, whom he reports to directly for assignment and personally respects. With his command, Gozen is stern, but allows his wry sense of humor some latitude and is open to unconventional suggestions from his MechWarriors.
Gozen was born on Kajikazawa, a beautiful prefecture capital in the Benjamin Military District devoted to tourism. He is the heir to an old MechWarrior family, his father Saito Gozen was a battalion commander in the 3rd Proserpina Hussars. His mother is a geisha known as American Beauty, famed for her dreamlike dancing skills. Jiro’s father did not acknowledge him until he was already 17. Suffering from terminal cancer and having no other direct heirs, the elder Gozen pulled the boy from his promising studies in music to enroll him in the University of Proserpina as a MechWarrior cadet.
Jiro excelled as a MechWarrior and tactician, graduating third in his class (an unauthorized ‘Mech dual may have lowered his standing). The ceremony was unattended by his father, who had passed away three years before, and his mother, who was not allowed an invitation and had returned to her home in Brocchi’s Cluster. However, waiting for him at the spaceport, being loaded on the dropship bound for his first assignment, was his father’s BattleMaster. He was promoted to Chu-i and posted to the 1st Proserpina Hussars.
Gozen spent his first years of service as a Lance commander on the Draconis Combine’s border with the Lyran Commonwealth, participating in hit and run raids against House Steiner worlds. His unit was on Alexandria in late 3020 when the Lyran Commonwealth made its bid to recapture the world. Its forces outnumbered by regiments from the 12th Star Guards and several other mercenary units, House Kurita was forced to relinquish control of the world. In the wild firefight at the capital spaceport, Chu-i Gozen’s Lance was the last to board its dropship due to an attack by several enemy ‘Mechs that had breached the port defenses and reached the tarmac. For this action he was awarded the Proserpina Bar.
In 3023 elements of the 1st Proserpina Hussars and the 5th Sun Zhang Academy Cadre were tasked to raid the mountainous world of Colmar to support the campaign taking place on Sevren. Split into company sized detachments, the units were scattered across the planet with the mission to destroy the supplies stockpiled by House Steiner for the Lyran regiments defending Sevren. The raid only met with limited success. Gozen’s Lance was assigned under the command of Cadet Roland Dumas, who was made acting commander for the mission.
The combined Cadre/Hussar company’s Union class dropship landed, per Commander Dumas’s orders and against Chu-i Gozen’s advice, right in the middle of the unit’s assigned target, a supply depot on the outskirts of a spaceport and small city. In the battle that ensued with the depot’s garrison, half of the company was lost to enemy fire and the dropship was severely damaged. It barely managed to lift off with the Kuritan survivors. Though the supply depot was destroyed, the assignment was considered a failure due to its cost. Cadet Dumas blamed the debacle on Gozen.
Because of Cadet Dumas’s family connections, Chu-i Gozen was brought before a board of inquiry to determine his level of fault in the matter. Gozen defended himself professionally, with witness testimony and communication transcripts, including his objections to Cadet Dumas’s plan of attack. The evidence also showed that it was Gozen’s orders and leadership that enabled the remnants of the company to escape aboard their dropship. The board ruled that though the decision to assault the supply depot directly from the landed dropship was Cadet Dumas’s, Chu-i Gozen, as the experienced subordinate officer, failed in his duty to properly advise his commander. Gozen contested the ruling by challenging Roland Dumas to a duel. The next morning the two faced each other with their sidearms, each loaded only with one shot. Gozen suffered a flesh wound to his right thigh. Young Dumas was killed by a shot to the chest. The ruling against Chu-i Jiro Gozen was put aside. The Dumas clan has petitioned House Kurita for the right of vendetta against clan Gozen, so far without success.
In early 3024, Chu-i Gozen was summoned by Sho-sho Bruce Lee Bernstein, the senior regimental commander of the Proserpina Hussars. Sho-sho Bernstein offered Gozen a promotion to Tai-i and a company command. The catch was that it was the Hussar’s disciplinary company, which had recently lost its commander and several MechWarriors. Bernstein informed him that though the promotion and command were overdue, it was the best he could do because of the recent unpleasantness with Dumas. Gozen accepted and met his new command on Proserpina, where he began the tasks of filling empty positions with new Hussar troublemakers and whipping the unit back into combat ready status.
By October 3024, Gozen’s Ghouls, as the new independent company had been dubbed, was ready for action. Its first mission was a raid on Galtor III, which had been recaptured by the Federated Suns from the Draconis Combine in 3022. The planet was littered with BattleMech wrecks and Gozen’s mission was to retrieve some of them for House Kurita. Landing undetected on the Wagnall Plain, Gozen’s scouts discovered a major recovery operation taking place near a large island in the Rutha River. Over a dozen ‘Mechs immersed in mud were being pulled from the muck.
Inspired by a joke made by MechWarrior Hogan, Gozen conceived a plan to seize some of them. The Ghouls appropriated four ‘Mech recovery vehicles, covered the Command Lance BattleMechs from head to foot in mud, loaded them on the vehicles and drove them into the Davion recovery operation’s staging area. Once in, Gozen and his Lancemates rose from the recovery vehicles and scattered the Davion techs. Gozen’s own support personnel then drove nine recovery vehicles bearing ‘Mechs to their waiting dropship while the Command Lance and the Fire and Attack Lances fended off the disorganized Davion forces responding to the raid. Gozen’s Ghouls returned to Proserpina without any casualties and a hold filled with BattleMech salvage.
For his audacity, Tai-i Gozen received a personal letter from the Coordinator himself. Through his leadership and command Tai-i Gozen has given the MechWarriors in his company, many of whom would otherwise have been shipped off to the Legion of Vega, a second chance to serve the Dragon with honor, if not orthodoxy. Many eyes within the Draconis Combine, and some without, are watching to see what becomes of the new company commander.