1st Outreach Fusiliers: Never Forgotten
Born on Outreach in 3067, the Fusiliers were Dragoons Home Guard units separated from the pack. Ruaraidh Dubghall led his lance of heavy ‘Mechs in an escort action seeing a CEO if Blackwell Industries safely to the spaceport as Colonel Waco launched his attack.
Lance Commander Mason Light was on his way back to Harlech after running a training mission with the Tiger Sharks when the unit powered up its weapons and launched a surprise attack against his unit. Both commands managed to retain integrity, suffering major damage to their machines but only minor casualties. Both participated in the cleansing of Outreach that occurred after the death of Jamie Wolf.
They and their troops remained behind when the attack was launched on Mars, and were still on Outreach when General Wolf returned with Alpha Regiment. They fought hard on the Day After, and were some of the last forces to leave the planet’s surface.
Lieutenant Dubghall led the holding action while Light and his unit finished loading the Overlord dropship Phoenix II. After the last ‘Mech was aboard, they boosted for orbit just ahead of General Wolf on Chieftain.
As Chieftain headed for one of the waiting jumpships, the Phoenix II headed for an unoccupied Merchant-class ship Swift Runner.
Harried by Blakist fighters, both ships took severe damage and were in danger of being cut off from their jumpships by Blakist warships when the Alexander began savaging the Blakist Warships. Even as Alexander was destroyed, Chieftain and Phoenix II managed to link up with their respective jumpships. As the last docking connections slid home, the command to jump was given throughout the fleet.
The jumpships scattered, making it more difficult for the Blakists to follow and finish the job. Swift Runner made its way toward Arc-Royal, but in the Mizar system their luck run out. Having gone to the Zenith point to recharge and avoid drawing the attention of the Nadir recharging station, a Blakist jumpship showed up just before Swift Runner had finished recharging. What was left of Phoenix II’s aerospace complement fought a delaying action while the Swift Runner’s captain pulled out all the stops to complete the recharge of the K-F drive.
The last of the Dragoons’ fighters were destroyed, but they had bought enough time for the beleaguered jumpship. The Captain executed the jump and brought the ship into the Galatea system.
The jump would prove to be Swift Runner’s last. The charging at Mizar had been too quick, and the jump fused the K-F drive. Lacking the resources to repair the ship, the crew joined those on Phoenix II and headed for the surface of the Mercenary’s Star. En route, sensors detected the arrival of the Blakist vessel, and shortly thereafter the destruction of Swift Runner.
Effectively stranded on Galatea, Light and Dubghall found themselves and their troops nearly crushed by the same sense of despair that would infect all the Dragoons on Outreach. Phoenix II had reached Galatea with only two lances of Battlemechs and no aerospace support. The rest of the refugees from Outreach consisted of family members and non-combatant personnel.
Together, the two lances met and made a plan to get the civilians reunited with the fleet if at all possible. They agreed to license themselves out for hire not as Dragoons, but as the 1st Outreach Fusiliers. The contract price would likely serve to pay the way for the civilians to get to Arc-Royal with the rest of the fleet, and with any luck, they would have a chance to strike back against the Blakists before they died.
Mason negotiated the contract, and by February the 1st Outreach Fusiliers had accepted a contract with Interstellar Expeditions babysitting a site of interest on Skye. Shortly after they arrived, House Marik forces landed on planet and Duke Robert Kelswa-Steiner co-opted all local mercenary units to help defend the world.
The Fusiliers acquitted themselves well; Lieutenant Dubghall’s lance led a deep probe into the FLWM lines which identified a Marik staging area. Lieutenant Light led the assault on the base, which proved struck a decisive blow against the Marik aerospace forces. Shortly thereafter, the FLWM retreated from the planet.
The IE contract next took them into Combine space. They were contracted to provide security for a cargo run on to Dieron. While on planet, they were approached by a DCMS officer who offered them a large sum of C-bills to help extract some property and intel. Dubghall’s lance, now officially dubbed the fire lance, punched its way through the trap the Blakists had laid for the Combine convoy, and managed to ensure that the Daimyo command vehicle, though slightly damaged, made it off world.
Phoenix II, accompanied by Combine fighters, managed to intercept the Blakist aerospace assets and hold them off long enough to ensure the Combine’s Condor-class dropship escaped the system with its precious cargo. Phoenix II made her own escape, rejoining the IE jumpship and fleeing the system.
Contracts on Tsingtao and then on Tomans followed. After facing down Capellan forces as well as Jade Falcons, the Fusiliers found themselves without a contract once again. The civilians’ passage had long since been paid, but Light and Dubghall agreed that it was not yet time to return to the Pack on Arc-Royal. It was the fight that kept them and their lances going, and the reports from Arc-Royal were disheartening.
Instead, they returned to Galatea, where they added to their forces. Hiring several Mechwarriors to fill out some of the salvaged machines they managed to repair, they now boast two full lances of Battlemechs.
They’ve just signed a contract with the Free Worlds League Militia to strike at the world of Giasaur. The pay is right, but the offense in the form of the One-Eyed Jacks is expected to be stiff.
