This was a unit that my group ran for a number of years. It's canon inspired, but there are a few divergence points here and there. For the most part that was all just background noise for the campaign itself. (For example the unit was heavily involved in the Chaos March during the 3060's while ComStar and WoB were fighting it out over Terra and the surrounding systems. ComStar refused to surrender Terra and it was all out war between the two factions, while the AMC was formed much sooner).
Hawkins Heavy Cavalry - Tech Raiders
Hawkins Heavy Cavalry was formed in 3038 by 3rd Crucis Lancer veteran Bryant Hawkins. A native of Marlette, Bryant’s family had long been a supporter of House Davion and the Federated Suns. The family owned and operated the ‘Hawkins Rifles’ company on Marlette. With this they supplied and maintained contracts for infantry weapons and assorted gear to the Marlette March Militia. The Hawkins family also firmly believed in serving in the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns and had a tradition of attending the War College of Goshen. Bryant’s path was like many in his family before him. After graduating from Goshen, he was posted briefly as a leftenant in the Marlette March Militia, before being promoted to the 3rd Crucis Lancers as a captain when they expanded to four battlemech battalions in 3025. Bryant saw action on Ozawa and Markab, gaining valuable combat experience before the start of the 4th Succession War. Later, his actions on Tigress during the 4th War earned him the Federated Suns Star. After the 4th War was over and the 3rd Crucis relocated to Caph, Bryant headed up the executive protection detail for the planetary rulers.
Despite, or perhaps because, his family believing so strongly in the Federated Suns, Bryant felt the alliance with the Lyran Commonwealth was wrong. Believing there was better opportunity to work as a mercenary than stay within the coming Federated Commonwealth, Hawkins recruited heavily from his old command. This allowed him to create a combined arms battalion in relatively quick order. Being the heir to even a minor (at the time) military industrial concern also helped with recruiting, especially among the ranks of the infantry.
The unit got their first baptism of fire during the War of 3039. Again using his connections, and despite several commands already on world, Duke Ban Gustafason of Caph hired the new command to provide additional security for his world, as most of the regiments Davion had mustered on the world would be leaving for their planned assaults against the Combine. Since Bryant had overseen the Federated Suns VIP for the Gustafason’s, talk of favoritism was somewhat problematic. At the time the unit was composed of a single reinforced battlemech company, a short hover-tank company, and a reinforced infantry company.
When House Kurita counter-attacked using the Ryuken-ni and Ryuken-san regiments to assault Caph, they detached a small headhunter unit to strike at Caph’s duke while the bulk of the commands fought the Davion and Wolf’s Dragoons regiments on planet. The previous rumors about favoritism vanished during a running battle escorting the Duke between Cimmeron and Aswan, as the newly minted Hawkins Heavy Cavalry was able to beat back this unit and kept the duke and his family safe.
After the War of 3039, the unit alternated between high risk/high reward raids into the Capellan Confederation, targeting military industrial complexes and research stations. The raids were, by all accounts, highly successful and earned the command more than a few bonuses. These missions were followed by private security contracts with various military industries within the Federated Suns during the 3040’s. They would use the security contracts to help rebuild their machines and recruit new warriors. This allowed the unit to expand slowly, keep abreast of the latest military technology and ensured access to the FedSun military supply chain. One expansion of note came in 3046, when Hawkins met Penelope Jaffey, commander of a mercenary squadron of Lightning aerospace fighters, and the niece of Lycomb-Davion CEO Persephone Jaffey. Jaffey had hoped for more interest in her own command, but this was not the case. Hawkins convinced her to join his command after describing a few of the missions they had taken on. This also helped secure additional contacts to the military industry.
When the Clans arrived, the unit had the good fortune of being on one of their security contracts. Although information was initially sparse, they gathered what they could in preparation of possibly facing them. Their employer at the time, StarCorps’ Crofton factory, was not so keen on letting the unit go and deprive their facility and workers of security, as the FedSun was being stripped bare to reinforce the Lyran side. StarCorps offered up some additional incentives and were able to sign the unit to a second contract. When their contract finally expired, the Comguards had already won at Tukayyid, thereby giving the Inner Sphere a 15-year truce with the Clans. The unit decided to travel to Outreach to acquire more training and continue gathering information about the Clans. Commander Hawkins was able to attend the Tactics and Grand Strategy class taught by Jaime Wolf, earning class honors. His command also proved their mettle defeating a Dragoon battalion led by Major Kantov of Gamma Regiment.
Eventually the command returned to action, taking station along the Clan front for the Federated Commonwealth. Matched up with the 3rd Crucis Lancers on Babeski due to similar combat doctrine, the command assisted in raids all over the Jade Falcon and Steel Viper occupation zone, including several high-profile raids against Sudeten. This set the seeds for the next decade.
In late 3055, the unit had rescued Michael Olivetti from Sudeten, the former heir to the Olivetti Weaponry company. Olivetti offered the location of a Star League era cache to Hawkins if they could rescue the rest of his family and as many Olivetti Weaponry personnel as possible from Sudeten. This cache had been well hidden, and the Jade Falcons did not know about it.
Hawkins agreed to the contract – believing the chance of getting Star League era equipment to assist in fighting the Clans was worth the gamble. Using their knowledge of clan ways, the unit launched their raid in early 3056. Upon arriving in Sudeten, they declared a Trial of Possession for all the personnel and current equipment stores of Olivetti Weaponry and the Star League Cache. The Falcons accepted and granted them Safecon. The Jade Falcons had learned to respect the command based on the last few years of raids and were even more impressed when they arrived without the 3rd Crucis backing them up. The Falcons had the 8th Falcon Regulars to face the mercenaries, a unit that had smashed the 12th Deneb Light Cavalry back in 3053, however the Falcons had been slow to bring the 8th back up to strength.
The result of the raid set the Jade Falcons back in their efforts to upgrade the Olivetti factory to Clan standards, losing much of the work force. Not to mention tons of spare parts and the Star League era battlemechs from the cache were lost to the Falcons. A full star each of MechWarrior’s and Elementals from the 8th were also taken as bondsmen.
Upon their return to the Federated Commonwealth, examples of Clan technology and several captured OmniMechs were gifted to the 3rd Crucis, though due to it being a private contract Hawkins retained a good portion of their salvage.
The command spent the rest of the time on the Clan front rebuilding their machines and incorporating their bondsmen into their ranks, fending off a Steel Viper raid in 3057. When Operation Guerrero kicked off, the unit could only watch as the former Sarna March disintegrated and Katherine Steiner-Davion pulled the Lyran’s out of the alliance.
The unit responded to Duke Kell’s invitation to join the Arc Royal Defense Cordon; however, this was short lived. In early 3058, Duchess Raina Gustafason, daughter of Duke Ban Gustafason, had sent an HPG message to Bryant Hawkins, asking him to honor his one-time pledge to return when he was needed. The Duchess pleaded for help for Caph, having been attacked by Capellan mercenaries and Draconis paid “peacekeepers.”
After meeting with Grand Duke Kell (who had also received a copy of the message), the unit was released with orders from Duke Kell to “clean up that mess.”
Arriving on Caph the unit went after the Always Faithful regiment first. Bolstering Gustafason’s own battlemech battalion with their armor and infantry, Hawkins led a combat drop on the Faithful’s position, hammering them into the ground. Only the 7th Striker was able to effectively fight back, but Major Deng Xiao recognized the futility and surrendered.
The Stealthy Tigers were next. Hawkins ambushed several Tiger patrols around Aswan and launched several feints to draw out the remaining Tigers. Hawkins ended up using his heavy armor and Gustafason’s Grenadiers as the bait that finally drew the Tigers out of position. Although the Tiger mechs were faster, they were savaged by Hawkin’s aerospace forces. Meanwhile, Hawkins used his mechs and lighter armor as a quick striking hammer, while the infantry secured Aswan itself.
Setting their crosshairs next on the remnants of the Denebola Militia, Hawkins offered the unit terms of surrender, even allowing them to keep their equipment and returning prisoners and salvage. Hawkins pointed out that his unit had already savaged and defeated two larger commands, and the Denebola Militia was not near the strength of either of them. Hawkins also pointed out that Denebola itself was now defenseless on the front lines with Marik, and that the so-called Archon had left their unit to die on Caph while their home was ripe for the taking. Hauptmann Gould finally relented, and true to his word, Hawkins ensured all surviving members of the command were given fair treatment, their salvage returned, and passage booked off world.
Finally, Hawkins contacted Lindon’s Battalion and pointed out that Caph is now secure for the Federated Suns, and Lindon’s unit represented the only ‘outside’ presence. Lindon agreed to withdraw her command from the world, however she absorbed a number the remaining Tigers and nearly all the 7th Striker from Always Faithful into her command.
With Caph now secure and communications to the Federated Suns restored, Hawkins looked at other planets within the so-called Chaos March and began planning operations to secure these worlds for the Federated Suns.
In 3066, the unit was hired by the Federated Suns to raid Styk and the Tao Mechworks factory. Their mission was to carry off anything they could and destroy the rest. Garrison for the world was Kamakura’s Hussar’s. On paper, both units had roughly the same strength, with the Capellan unit having an edge with total battlemech numbers, while the Heavy Cavalry had an advantage in aerospace fighters and infantry forces. However, the Heavy Cavalry’s battlemech’s were heavily upgraded with Clan weapons.
As the Heavy Cavalry approached the Tao factories, they found Kamakura had left his armor and infantry dug in around the complex, while the Hussar battlemechs attacked from hidden positions in their typical charging attack. Hawkins countered by sending his own cavalry lances in a counterattack and shifted more of his heavy armor to hold the line and use their long-range weapons to pick off the Hussar mechs. Meanwhile the Hussar’s air support was outnumbered 3 to 1 and were quickly swept aside. This allowed the Heavy Cavalry’s aerospace fighters to begin strafing attacks on the Hussar’s.
In short order the Hussar’s lost nearly half their mech forces, forcing them to retreat. Hounded by the constant attacks from above, the Hussars were not able to re-group in time for the Heavy Cavalry to concentrate on the Tao factory in full. The Hussar’s conventional forces gave a tenacious defense taking nearly three days to dig them out completely.
With the entire complex now under the control off the Heavy Cavalry, Hawkins had his dropships land at the complex’s spaceport, and quickly began filling their cargo holds with spare parts and factory equipment. The Hussar’s attempted several attacks to re-claim the factory, but none of these were successful. Eventually the Heavy Cavalry lifted off, with a dozen brand new Victor class battlemechs, tons of spare parts and two entire production lines.
As part of their payment, Hawkins was allowed to keep the industrial equipment, and the Federated Suns signed an exclusive contract for Clan upgraded Victor battlemechs from the Olivetti-Hawkins factories.
By 3067, Bryant Hawkins and the Heavy Cavalry had spearheaded multiple planetary assaults for the Federated Suns within the Chaos March, resulting in Caph, Bryant, Epsilon Indi, Sheratan and Fletcher rejoining the Federated Suns. His family was instrumental in swinging Marlette strongly back in favor of First Prince Victor and building a new battlemech factory there, one equipped with Clan technology. For these actions and a lifetime of service to the Federated Suns, Bryant Hawkins was awarded the Diamond Sunburst and a barony on Marlette. Faced with running his command, the family business and an entire barony, Bryant stepped down from active command.
For the rest of the Heavy Cavalry, it meant they got a new commanding officer – Bryant’s oldest son, Alexander. Born in 3032, Alexander seemed to follow his father’s footsteps closely. Like his father and his family before him, he graduated from Goshen War College. However rather than serving in the 3rd Crucis Lancers, he joined the 1st Kathil Uhlans upon graduation. This choice saw him serve on the frontlines against the Clans during the 3050’s, and most importantly, serving with Task Force Serpent against Clan Smoke Jaguar and taking part in the Great Refusal alongside Victor Steiner-Davion.
For the rest of the unit several changes took place. Some simply retired, settling on Marlette. Nearly a quarter joined the Marlette Militia, while others joined the Olivetti-Hawkins security forces. A select few were invited to become part of the new baron’s Household Guard.
By May 3068, a much smaller Hawkins Heavy Cavalry – a combined arms battalion – notified the Hiring Halls on Outreach they were once again available for hire. Despite the reduced size, the unit has heavily upgraded and boasted veteran leadership and well-trained warriors.
