OOC Note: Haven't actually done anything with this unit. Yet. The idea occurred to me one day and refused to go away, however, so I figured I'd write it down.
Crouching Dragon, Hidden Fox: The bandit-mercenaries that weren't.
Circa 3025
The nearly-open secret is that Isaac's Icers, as they are marketed currently, have ties to some great House. They showed up on Galatea with too much stuff in too good of a condition, with too many of the same spare parts - all carefully scrubbed of serial numbers - fat on cash, and knowing each other a little too well. They're very close-lipped about their past, and recruit carefully.
And occasionally Isaac Eis, as he styles himself, gets unusual messages in the mail. Meets with unusual strangers. Makes odd decisions on what contracts to pursue. It makes you wonder if maybe Isaac still has ties to a certain Successor State. Most of it is innocuous - since the Icers have a reputation for taking unusual jobs, unusual offers seek them out. They do recruit - but very cautiously - and their actions sometimes skirt the fringe of apparent outright banditry. Occasionally Isaac will claim to fulfilling a contract that his subordinates haven't heard of before. He plays his cards close to his chest.
In private meetings with the other officers, his older comrades sometimes address him as "Sho-sa" instead of "Major," when nobody but the electronic listening devices are eavesdropping. Isaac speaks fluent Arabic, English, Japanese, and Swedenese. And the BattleMechs, well, it's true that many of them can be found across the Inner Sphere, and Isaac did actually purchase his infamous "Jump Dragon" on Galatea as a replacement for a destroyed Archer, but they do seem to be configured in a rather particular fashion. Even his destroyed Archer carried a pair of large lasers and fifteen-racks rather than twenties. It's not hard to venture a guess as to what military Sho-sa Eis might have been associated with previously.
When asked why the BattleMechs are configured that way, Major Eis is blase about it. "Why, that's the best way anybody's ever figured out how to fit out a Shadow Hawk," he might say. His force is highly mobile, with nine jumping BattleMechs. The slowest (and heaviest) machine in the entire company is a Charger. It's a fast raiding crew - one that has carried out smash-and-grabs for hire with quite some success.
What is perhaps not obvious is that the company was put together in the Federated Suns. There are precisely two military machines in their TO&E that were manufactured in the DCMS itself - Isaac's Dragon and Luke Umbra's Slayer. Everything else has simply been refit to the Kuritan standards. Isaac's unusual fluency in Swedenese is a consequence of his love of languages - carefully studied, rather than native. Isaac keeps in occasional touch with the DMI, rather than the ISF or O5P.
The Icers do take real jobs, and not all of their odd raids and missions are DMI-related. And sometimes, as in the series of anonymous raids he launched on a series of Lyran worlds near the border with the Draconis Combine in 3020, his trusted subordinates aren't aware of any payment going into the unit's coffers other than the booty taken from the raids. Pirate, patriot, or perfect mercenary? Only Isaac Eis knows for sure.
Primary Units
(TO&E)
DropShip: Newton's Folly, Seeker-class DropShip, 6700 tons [reconfigured]
Aerospace assets: Slayer, 80 tons; Stingray, 60 tons; Sparrowhawk, 30 tons
BattleMech assets: 4 lances of 3 BattleMechs each;
Command lance: Grand Dragon, 60 tons; Quickdraw, 60 tons; Griffin, 55 tons
Assault lance: Charger, 80 tons; Wolverine, 55 tons; Phoenix Hawk, 45 tons
Fire lance: Shadow Hawk, 55 tons (x3)
Recon lance: Jenner, 35 tons; Spider, 30 tons; Wasp, 20 tons
Databank:
(P/G) Model Tonnage BV Unit Name
ASF:
(5/3) SL-15 80 1,546 Slayer Cpt. Luke Umbra
(4/3) SPR-H5K 30 701 Sparrowhawk Sgt. Nemo Utis
(4/4) F-90 60 1,458 Stingray Pilot Jessica Vasquez
Average ASF skills: (4.3/3.3)
Average ASF mass: 57 tons
ASF BV: 3,705
Battlemechs:
(4/3) DRG-1G-I 60 1,935 Grand Dragon Maj. Isaac Eis
(3/2) QKD-4G 60 2,169 Quickdraw Cpt. Eva Eisling
(4/3) GRF-1N 55 1,755 Griffin MechWarrior Hiro Ikine
(4/3) WVR-6K 55 1,248 Wolverine Lt. Carver Irons
(5/4) PHX-1K 45 1,073 Phoenix Hawk Sgt. Tara Mayhem
(4/5) CGR-1A1 80 1,020 Charger MechWarrior Grant Lee
(4/3) SHD-2K-I 55 1,634 Shadow Hawk Lt. Shade Feather
(5/3) SHD-2K-I 55 1,421 Shadow Hawk Sgt. Amanda Steele
(6/3) SHD-2K-I 55 1,350 Shadow Hawk MechWarrior Natalia Hawk
(4/3) JR7-F 35 1,395 Jenner Lt. Jeremaiah Bullfrog
(4/4) SDR-5K 30 578 Spider Sgt. Tom Smith
(5/4) WSP-1K 20 376 Wasp MechWarrior David Jones
Average MechWarrior skills: (4.3/3.3)
Average BM Mass: 50 tons
BM BV: 16,428The Icers have some light support, but this is largely non-combat and thus not included in this listing.
Custom Variants:
The DRG-1G-I "Jump Dragon" is a customized Grand Dragon. Delete LRM-10 and LRM-10 ammunition; add 5 jump jets (1 CT,2 LT,2 RT); 1 heat sink (CT); 1 ton armor (4 FLT,4 FRT,2 RA,2 LA,2 LL,2 RL). This spikes the base BV2 value to 1,402 (adjusted BV 1,935). If the optional Quirks rules are in place, recommended quirks are Stable, Command BattleMech, Difficult to Maintain, and Poor Performance (while installing jump jets and upgrading the computer systems, Isaac introduced some persistent problems). If restricted to canon units, use a stock Grand Dragon (Adjusted BV 1,794).
The SHD-2K-I is a near-copy of the SHD-2K. Delete 1 heat sink (LT); add 2 jump jets (1 LT, 1 CT). Base BV is 1,184 (adjusted BV 1,634/1,421/1,350). This reflects the fact that Eis did not, in fact, begin with actual -2K models, simply good descriptions of them. After enough descriptions of them as Griffin knockoffs, he attempted to reproduce the Griffin's performance more closely. As the model is externally indistinguishable from the SHD-2K, the extra jump can be a nasty surprise. If the optional Quirks rules are in place, recommended quirks are Unbalanced (due to the now-asymmetric jump jet layout) and Improved Life Support. If restricted to canon units, use stock SHD-2K (adjusted BV 1,583/1,376/1,308).
