Blade Legion

[Arkansas Warrior]

The Blade Legion was founded after the Marik-Liao Invasion by disaffected members of the AFFC who were disgusted by the Archon-Prince's failure to hit back against the invaders or stop his sister from seceding with half the realm.  Their CO, then-Hauptmann Ian Redwolf, was at the time a Guest Lecturer at the War College of Goshen.   No longer confident in Victor's leadership, he gathered to him a few other faculty and staff (including his mentor, Kommandant Marcus Taylor) a number of like-minded cadets, former classmates, and the like and formed a mercenary battalion.  A significant portion of their early yars were spent in the Marian Hegemony, which (combined with Redwolf's study of Ancient Rome during his time at Goshen) led to the non-standard organization and rank structure used by the Legion to this day.  Later on, they served St. Ives during the Capellan-St. Ives War, Victor's Allies during the FCCW (each time gaining a number of recruits who wished to leave their home nation's service) and the Federated Suns throughout the Jihad, serving in Operations Sovereign Justice and Matador.  Since the Jihad, the unit has mostly stayed in the vicinity of the shattered Free Worlds League splinter-states, working for most of them at on time or another, as well as the Marians, Canopians, and Lyrans.


The Legion takes its name from the tradition of never being unarmed while on duty; Legion regulations demand that all members carry a blade and a pistol at all times.  There is a noted, if informal, trend to be able to distinguish a member's branch by his or her arms; mechwarriors and pilots generally carry swords(replica gladii and spathae predominate, but other types are not unheard of) and laser pistols, while infantry primarily carry what they call "Practical blades" (IE machetes, hatchets, bowie knives etc) and slugthrowers.


Structure/Rank
The Legion follows an unusual organization that resembles that of the Marian Hegemony or Clans: rather than companies, the mech battalion is divided into "centuries" of ten mechs, further subdivided into lances of five.  They do deploy an independent command lance, and also attach an infantry century (100 men divided into 4 25-man platoons, with a pair of Karnovs for transport) and an aerospace squadron.


From the company level down, the unit uses Latin ranks derived from those of the historic Roman Legions:
Centurion: Captain, commands a Century
Optio: Lieutenant, commands a lance/platoon
Tesserarius: 1st Sergeant, senior enlisted man in a century
Aquilifer/Signifer: a unique post, the standard-bearer for a given century (signifer) or the legion as a whole (Aquilifer).  Each is the finest enlisted soldier in their century (or in the Legion, for the aquilifer).  In addition to being the standard-bearer, they are responsible for acting as the unit CO's bodyguard (in and out of a mech).
Legionnaire: Mechwarrior-Sergeant, the average rank and file mechwarrior
Decanus: Infantry Sergeant, commands an infantry squad/vehicle
Miles: Private, a simple infantry trooper or vehicle crewman


Support:
An ancient Overlord-class dropship (modified to add infantry accomodations and cargo in place of the 36th mech bay) provides transport.  They provide all their own tech support, as the Colonel demands that all mechwarriors and pilots either be capable of working on their own machines or provide some other useful second duty (staff officers mostly, the Battalion Intel officer, Chaplain, doctor, adjutant etc are all also mechwarriors or pilots).  Most mechs in the unit make use of recovered technology, though only a few of the 35 mechs were built after the year 3000.  The unit includes one omnimech, a Men Shen captured in an engagement with the Capellan Confederation, and no clantech (none in its vehicles anyway, there's the odd clantech sidearm here or there).


Tactics:
The unit generally uses 1st and 2nd Centuries as their primary combat elements, with Command Lance acting as a tactical reserve and 3rd Century being used to scout, flank enemy lines, or pursue fleeing foes.  4th (Infantry) Century are trained as combat engineers or scout-snipers, but spend the preponderance of their time serving as base/dropship security.  The aerospace squadron are especially adept at air superiority missions, but are capable of ground support as well.




(This is my first foray into fleshing out a unit in a while, mostly just as a sort of thought exercise.  Feel free to use it or any ideas contained therein in whole or in part if you like.)


Coming Soon: Writeups of some of the Legion's significant personalities.

[Arkansas Warrior]

Personalities/units:
Colonel Ian Redwolf: Colonel Redwolf is the scion of a minor noble family on Tecumseh in the Capellan March.  After graduating from Goshen in 3050 at age 20, he served two tours with the FedCom Corps before returning to Goshen as a Guest Lecturer while he pursued his doctorate in Military Ethics.  He is not a particularly skilled mechwarrior (regular, in game terms) but he leaves piloting to his protege (and lover) AJ Taylor, using his BattleMaster's command console to command the unit as a whole.  Likewise, he is an unimposing man, looking more the scholar than warrior.  He is, however, quite skilled at the tactical and strategic aspects of combat, and treats every man and woman under his command as extended family, he has been mostly successful at binding them together as a cohesive force, despite having warriors from the Lyran Comonwealth and St. Ives Compact in addition to the preponderance of Suns-born troops.  He carries a laser pistol and a Falchion, and is quite skilled with both.  Far more skilled than he is in the cockpit, ironically.


Optio Alexandra Josephine Taylor: Known as AJ to her friends, she was just 16 years old and a fresh cadet at the War College when her father left his teaching post to help Colonel Redwolf form the unit.  Already an acquaintance of Redwolf (he was a protege of her father's, and a family friend since his own academy days) the pair quickly bonded, and before long she was piloting his family BattleMaster.  At some point after that, their relationship evolved further.  Both are evasive about how long they have been "involved", but vigorously deny the suggestion that it was any point before the unit's foundation.  She is a capable enough pilot, but an above-average gunner.  In addition to a (fairly standard) laser pistol, she carries a xiphos given to her as a birthday present by the Colonel.


Major Sadie Schmidt: Sadie is a Goshen native, one of the Colonel's former pupils.  He describes her as one of the finest minds he ever taught.  Despite carrying the rank of Major, she primarily acts as the commander of 1st Century on the battlefield, leaving the big picture the Ian.  Even then, she is still growing into company-level command.  Off the battlefield, however, she truly comes into her own.  She ably manages the unit's staff, and is a superb logistician.  It is for this reason alone that she holds the rank of Major.  Her unit, 1st Century, is primarily composed of heavy mechs, with a few assaults and a medium sprinkled in, all capable of making at least 64 kph.  B Lance is fully jump-capable.


Centurion C.T. Castor: Thomas (as most know him) was another of Redwolf's former pupils.  He is a solid but unremarkable battlefield commander, more well known within the unit as a champion endurance runner.  No one is quite certain why he holds Centurion rank, beyond "the colonel said so".  Even so, he is well-liked by his century, and regularly works longer hours than any other officer in the unit to ensure his century will respond when called.  Unbeknownst to all, it is primarily this that led to his command.  Ian sees much of himself in Castor, including the tendency to take too much on himself.  While he realizes that this tendency needs to be watched, Redwolf sees Castor as a kid brother, and has great faith in him.  Castor's 2nd Century is the heaviest and slowest in the unit, made up of 70% assault mechs, one platoon of which is limited to a top speed of 54 kph.


Centurion Erin Halley: Erin was a classmate of Ian's at Goshen, and later went on to command a lance in a "Sprint Company" of the Davion Assault Guards.  She saw extensive action with the Guards in Operation Bulldog and the FedCom Civil War.  The only non-original company-grade officer, Halley joined the unit after the conclusion of the FedCom Civil War.  She is widely considered the best mechwarrior of the unit's officers, with more than one unit member saying that she would be 3rd Century's Signifer if she were not already its CO.  She carries a clan-made pulse laser pistol as her sidearm(taken from a Smoke Jaguar she defeated during Op Bulldog), and a vibrosword for her blade.  Her 3rd Century is the lightest in the unit, composed solely of medium and light mechs (and containing nearly the unit's entire complement of both), no mech in her force has a running speed slower than 97 kph, and all are jump capable.


Centurion Guinevere Lee: A lifelong friend and Goshen classmate of Redwolf's (her parents are his godparents and vice versa), Lee was a natural choice to command the Legion's Aerospace Squadron.  She once dreamed of following in her father's footsteps as a mechwarrior, but neurological issues put a n end to that dream, so she turned to aerospace fighters.  In addition to commanding the unit's air support, she is an ordained minister and serves as the unit's chaplain and counselor.  Uniquely, she eschews both lasers and slugthrowers for a gyrojet pistol.  Her Squadron is composed of six identical EST-R3 Eisensturm fighters acquired as partial payment for a garrison contract for Lockheed-CBM years ago.


Major Marcus Taylor: Colonel Redwolf's mentor at Goshen, Taylor is a veteran infantry officer who served in the War of 3039.  While he is well known to be the Colonel's enforcer, he is also the most charismatic and well-liked officer in the unit.  Colonel Redwolf has been quoted as saying that, if Taylor would hear anything of it, most of the unit (himself included) would "mutiny" and install Taylor as the unit's commander.  Taylor responded that he would execute any and all such "mutineers" (excepting only his daughter) if they tried it, and besides it would be unseemly for an infantry officer to command a battlemech unit.  He is none too pleased about Ian dating his daughter, but he acknowledges that AFFC regs don't apply to mercenary units, and she is too old for him to have veto power over her relationships anymore.  Though Taylor would never admit it to his face, he considers Colonel Redwolf one of the finest men he ever taught, and about as close as anyone is likely to come to getting his approval.  He mostly contents himself with occasional death threats should Ian ever hurt AJ.  While Ian (rightly) believes that he is quite serious, Marcus doesn't seem terribly worried about ever having to make good on his threats.  The only legionnaire to flout the unit's blade tradition, he carries an aluminum baseball bat (supposedly one he used in his college days playing baseball for Goshen) and a Sternsnacht Claymore.  His own A Platoon is a scout-sniper unit, while B through D platoons are combat engineer units.

Perhaps some of the lower ranking folks later when I get around to it.  I'm trying to keep the unit's precise composition vague (ie, not a "phonebook") to make it easier for any who are interested in playing them.  But at any rate, feel free to alter details as necessary if you want.