Some allies! These guys have also been hired by the New Cantonese as part of their defensive campaign.
The Jotunns' Bastards Mercenary Collective
Formed from a collection of shattered mercenary commands in the late 2990s the Jotunns' Bastards maintain an eclectic command and staffing style.
New recruits are required to purchase their spot in the unit - with most new members deferring the "dues" to be taken from their salary in a series of payments throughout their probationary period.
These dues are based on a sliding scale determined by the recruit's experience, possession of equipment and other variables.
A complex system of points and dues determine a soldier's eligibility for command positions, new equipment and even seating position in the mess.
Points are acquired from kills, experience, time in grade and even direct purchase.
Once a full member, each unit member can vote on nearly every decision - ranging from election of officers to contract choices and even combat orders.
This equality extends from the CO down to astechs, as long as they're full members.
New employees spend anywhere between three months to a year on probation before they're accepted by a vote.
Corporal Hal Glitzkin holds the record for longest probationary period of five years and one month. Still an astech, he somehow managed to annoy almost every other unit member and has repeatedly been stripped of his accumulated points.
While this sense of Liberty is popular to mercenaries it has resulted in some poor battlefield performance. On Spica in 3025 one lance after another voted to not engage the enemy, leading to a critical defeat for their Capellan paymasters.
Initially starting with a surplus of dispossessed mechwarriors (this would be repeated following the Bastards string of Clan Border contracts in the mid to late 3050s) the unit places a great emphasis on getting dispossessed warriors back on their feet. Unless owning a mech on arrival recruits will spend a year or two with the Bastards' infantry or tank elements while they work up enough points to buy into the mech ranks.
It's not unknown for teams of soldiers to pool their resources to get a mech assignment - resulting in three or four warriors rotating through the cockpit.
FORCE STRENGTH:
The Bastards boast a full Battlemech company plus an independent command lance.
This is supplemented by a full armoured company (two hover tank lances and lance of assault tanks with attached mobile artillery) and an infantry company.
While the mech company is rated as veteran, the support elements are a real hodgepodge - most members see it as just marking time until they get their points up. A handful of dedicated tankers and footsloggers round out these units but they've never been able to develop any special abilities.
The mech company's core is its command lance and assault lance - all veteran Bastards who have a large wealth of points and as such can sway most of their comrades.
The recon lance is an obvious weak point however - every mech is shared between three and six pilots, meaning none have developed a real rapport and typically act alone.
The fire lance tries to remain aloof but suffers from two experienced warriors who control a major voting bloc. Their green lieutenant appears to have been voted in purely for them to exploit.
SUPPORT:
The Bastards boast an efficient tech corps under Lieutenant Angella Rizzo, a former Wolf's Dragoon tech who split from that command after learning of their Clan origins.
Experienced techs do most of the actual work while prospective members and full members building up their points perform the astech grunt work.
Most prospects prefer to apprentice with a combat unit, knowing kills can help them work off their debt quicker. But the more in the know embrace a tech role knowing it's a lot safer and easier.
TRANSPORT:
The Bastards do not posses their own transport, forcing them to rely entirely on their employers. They do however have several good contacts among independent captains since arriving in the Chaos March in 3059.
COLOURS AND INSIGNIA:
Harkening to their namesakes - the Giants of Norse mythology - Jotunns' Bastards paint their machines in electric blue with ice blue/white highlights.
Their insignia depicts the Norse fire giant Surtr sitting cross legged, a massive great sword laying across his lap.
The black Titan appears to be sitting on an icy landscape, picked out in dark blue.
Office holders typically paint their position - Commander, Treasurer, Sergeant at Arms, etc - under the unit patch in gothic black lettering on their machines.
COMMAND:
Commander Gillian LeSabre has run the Bastards for 15 years, since joining just prior to the Clan Invasion. A canny fighter who possess the ability to fight down and dirty, the former FRR Kapten is also a skilled negotiator and administrator who has mastered the art of getting the various power blocs inside the unit to work together.
She's become increasingly frustrated with having to work with those blocs however and there's rumour she would like to see the end of the whole system.
She pilots a modern Charger, purchased during the Bastards tenure in Kuritan space during operation Bulldog.
Captain Ansel Leroux was once a mechwarrior in the FWL but made the mistake of backing the wrong Marik during the 3030s civil war. Dispossessed he joined the Bastards as a crewman in a Manticore, but despite racking up enough points, choose to stay with the armoured company. Now commanding the entire armour company, he's realised his voice means much more than it would have as a simple mechwarrior.
He's a harsh disciplinary and has personally executed several crewmen for being drunk on duty, talking back and other infractions.
He thinks it's high time a tanker ran the unit.
Karen Wei is just a mechwarrior in fire lance driving a Hunchback but is one of the unit's most powerful people. A career Bastard she has is well know for "leasing out" her points to more junior members to allow them to easily make full member or buy equipment. Provided they can pay back her high interest loans.
Wei controls a powerful voting bloc that can get you elected or kick you back to infantry depending on how mouth you've sucked up to her.
Wei really runs the Fire Lance, everyone knows that - apart from her LT who doesn't appear to realise she got him voted in. He's also heavily in debt to her.
She's nominally allied with the commander. For now.
Lieutenant Angella Rizzo served throughout the Crucis March Militia as a tech before joining the Dragoons in the early 3040s. When they revealed their origins she fled in horror and was quickly snapped up by the Bastards. A short time ago the chief tech was also elected as unit treasurer, a thankless task doing the books that she's actually thrived at.
Her only issue is her tech pool's occasional "stop work" vote that occasionally gets in the way of critical work.