Timewalking Archive Trap: Gepanzerte Welle (Part 3 of 3)

Battletech is a universe set in the 31st century where giant robots called Battlemechs are kings of the battlefield and feudal realms fight for planets devastated by years of warfare. I'm also putting up a 'Green Box' entry with background for Battletech in general, and this write-up in particular. It's linked here, or it's just below if you're using an RSS feed.

A few years ago, I tried to convince my friends to participate in a Battletech email-based roleplaying game where each of them would play the ruler of one of these realms and play politics and manage war in one of the best universes for it. They didn't not decline, but participation was marginal and the fiction I had for the setting got shelved as I focused my work on storytelling and original settings.

"She told me all of the things that would happen to me when I was very young. The beatings, narco-interrogation, lies, and humiliation. As I child, the only real terror of being caught by the Clans was the beatings; humiliation and drugging were something that children tend not to understand as well. As a young man, after they captured me in New Hills Heights, I understood each of those things. They'd told me she was dead at least a half-dozen times before it really happened. For them, her actual death just meant they had more proof.

I never believed them though. Not the first time, and not the last. Later, when I was training with them, fighting with them, and bargaining with them, I always expected my 'mech to round a corner and find her Orion. I wonder constantly if it would be friend or foe."

Tavan Londeri, Memoirs of My Mother, discarded notes c.3080

Supplementary Reports

As has been noted, the information we have contests Ashlain as the location of the final defeat of the Gepanzerte Welle and the death of Blair Londeri.  None the less, a majority of the Ghost Bear information packet has been verified, and the following reports have been appended to the Gepanzerte Welle file for the sake of completeness.

Earlier actions on 'Ashlain' against The Gepanzerte Welle are fairly routine and easily summarized (though original copies are attached for your review), though the final report has been included in the main body of the profile for obvious reasons. Blair Londeri and her allies were on the receiving end of a brutally efficient, textbook takedown by Omega Galaxy that drug on for months. By many appearances, Omega Galaxy even began using the unsupported unit for counter-insurgency training. The handful of survivors were taken as bondsmen or absorbed into the lower castes, with many of the others being killed in combat or after capture.

Action 111-31

Office of the Loremaster, Clan Ghost Bear

Omega Galaxy, [CLASSIFIED] Cluster, [CLASSIFIED] Star

Star Commander Soth

Ashlain, Blue Mist Mountains (Region NW-1-BMM, Nav [CLASSIFIED])

Ghost Bear Dominion, August 11, 3064

1112: First contact was between [CLASSIFIED] star and three damaged 'mechs in Golf Whiskey paint scheme and Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Chola and Mikke engaged while I observed their first field performance. Both satisfactory.

1158: Pursuing surviving Assassin through the mountains (Heading: [CLASSIFIED]). Losing ground due target terrain familiarity and maneuverability.

1227: Target moved into a ravine. Deployed star in 2-2-1 split formation, with rendezvous point at Nav [CLASSIFIED].

1233: Contact with target. Target hesitated to disengage. Mikke made two affirmative shots before target retreated down ravine. Increased pace.

1251: Reached Nav [CLASSIFIED] at end of ravine. Sensor contact with target lost.  Tenah adequately demonstrated techniques for tracking jump-capable battlemechs to Chola and Mikke.

1256: Mikke demonstrated immediate tracking competence. Chola did not.

1319: Lost contact with Cluster Command. Chances of apprehension are slim. Threat level low. Will continue tracking for training purposes.

1329: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command.

1336: Found unmapped mine. Too small for battlemechs. Suggest investigation as an asset to the Clan. Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command.

1346: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command.

1356: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command.

1406: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command.

1415: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command. Chola spotted traces of battlemech movement across shallow slope of loose rock. Moved unit across slope to train Mikke and Chola on maneuvering on unstable terrain.

1422: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command. Tenah assisting with training. Mikke and Chola show continued improvement. Chances of apprehension are slim. Returning to base once trail fades.

1432: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command.

1442: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command.

1453: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command.

1503: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command.

1523: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command.

1531: Nav [CLASSIFIED]. Still no contact with cluster command. Trail led to a number of unpowered battlemechs with apparent Golf Whiskey paint scheme in a narrow crevasse. Made determination to clear crevasse before sunset. Tenah suggested wariness.

1535: Destroyed all unpowered battlemechs. Preparing to clear site unaugmented. Leaving Chola to continue calling cluster command and intercept any enemy action.

1554: Valley clear. Finished preliminary scouting. Searching caves.

1604: Cave facing northwest near far side of crevasse emanating smell of coolant, possibly occupants and other supplies.

1628: Area clear. Confirmed death of Blair Londeri and militarized citizenry in cave. Due to spillage, lack of maintenance, no recoverable material within.

1637: Still no contact with cluster command. Returning to base.

Part I
Part II
Part III

Timewalking Archive Trap: Gepanzerte Welle (Part 2 of 3)

Battletech is a universe set in the 31st century where giant robots called Battlemechs are kings of the battlefield and feudal realms fight for planets devastated by years of warfare. A few years ago, I tried to convince my friends to participate in a Battletech email-based roleplaying game. It didn't work out, but I am quite proud of much of the work I did on it, even on a peripheral write-up I did for a mercenary unit. It should be noted that as with most Battletech products, it's written from an in-universe perspective; that is, it represents a document published by one of the characters in the setting, which makes it subject to bias and omissions from characters who simply do not have perfect knowledge. This document itself is a compilation of two different sets of documents; a series of personal memoirs and a more standard unit report.

Green Box entry on Battletech is linked here, and Part 1 is here.
"She mentioned Courchevel once. Far less than Ray[mond Starling] and the others did. It was the last battle before I began riding in the Karnov during ops, and it always held the value of something that I had just missed; a mission where a thousand little things happened that seemed to define the company for me in those days. I never noticed all of the events I witnessed that had just as much effect, or the changes that the Armored Wave had undergone between Stemwerde and Ashlain. She glossed over just how her Orion got floored by a Star of Clanners and the fate of the rest of her lance (even now, I remain ignorant of the names of the three mechwarriors who accompanied her to the field that day.), stopping just long enough to establish the character of Star Commander Andery. As she lay there, her Orion with its ammo stores dramatically spent and missing a leg, Andery accuses her of fighting dishonorably, talks about the superiority of the Clans, and generally says all of the half-witted things Clanners in holovids monologue about while the hero prepares his cunning escape. And just as he's talking about how she might make a good bondsman for other purposes--moving ever so closer for the killing shot--she asks him for bondsref; an honorable mercy-killing by the Clans.

He could still kill her of course, no problem. After all, technically, she was never a bondsman, she had no honor, and his starmates probably wouldn't take issue with it. But, somehow, it would have seemed wrong to him. She had requested, illogically, bondsref, and pulling that trigger would only give her an honorable death. Predictably, her fast thinking and knowledge of Clan warfare saves her life and the Karnov picked her up an hour later, in just enough time for her to regroup and stage a fighting withdraw for the unit. Two years later, she was dead and I was an orphan ward of Clan Ghost Bear."
Tavan Londeri, Memoirs of My Mother, unpublished private collection [annotated], c.3083

[While Ashlain is written here, it isn't supported as the world where the GW met its final defeat. No planet does, and it suggests that Tavan Londeri and the Ghost Bears have kept the facts well-obfuscated for a reason.]

Unit History
3058: After a few years and a handful of deployments in support and harassment missions against the Smoke Jaguars and Jade Falcons, Gepanzerte Welle was given the opportunity to have a free hand against a Clan during The Coventry Invasion. During the early stages of the Jade Falcon incursion into Lyran space, they were deployed along the border. Their contract included a rarely-used clause allowing them to raid Clan targets as the opportunity arose. With a bulk of the Jade Falcon touman deployed on Coventry, Blair Londeri and her troops struck lightly defended Jade Falcon targets and scored two nominal victories before being lured into a trap and mauled by Jade Falcon garrison and salhoma troops. Clantech salvage traded to the Lyrans and regular pay helped the unit survive to finish their contract, and even upgrade and replace a handful of units lost.

The unit's first heavy contact with the Clans resulted in the loss of much of their support staff and the acquisition of a handful of upgrade packages. With a proven inimical attitude towards the Clans and decided antipathy towards ComStar, the desperate unit has miraculously found a cadre of technicians recently disaffected by ComStar's decidedly secular bent. Highly-motivated and battle-hardened from Tukayyid, they served to solidify the fanaticism of a unit whose more moderate elements had been chipped away by their first missions.
[We now believe these former ComGuard techs were either Blakist plants, or later became sympathetic towards The Word.]
3060: After Coventry, the unit saw little action, of note. Unsurprisingly, they were hired on by The Star League to fill gaps left by more experienced units due to the success of Operation Bulldog, selected from the lower ranks of mercenaries for their proven (if not spotless) track record against the Clans. Their habitual 'clan-hunting' clause was stricken from their contract and they have thus far participated in a number of raiding actions between The Ghost Bears and The Combine.

3062: According to rumors, Blair Londeri was considering retirement from the unit (perhaps even joining the new Star League Defense Forces). While actions against the Clans had been helpful for the morale of her ever-more-rabidly anti-Clan unit, reports indicate that they had not been as satisfying for her. Whatever the case, little has been said about it since the outbreak of the Combine/Bear War. The Gepanzerte Welle 'exercised' their now non-existent attack clause and has been operating at the edges of the larger conflict. In the span of a few months, their contract has been amenably canceled and they have begun operating somewhere between bounty hunter for the Combine and rogue unit, turning in Clan salvage and intelligence reports on worlds raided in exchange for repairs and munitions. While rumors of rogue actions aren't enough to cause a suspension of their MRBC inclusion, we should be ready to do so at a moment's notice.

3063: At the cessation of the war, the Gepanzerte Welle were nowhere to be found. Possibly destroyed behind Ghost Bear lines.

3064: Unit blacklisted by MRBC due to unhired raids against Draconis Combine, Nova Cat, and Ghost Bear bases. Initial reports indicated two battered lances of battlmechs with an irregular compliment of infantry and vehicle. Intelligence was confirmed during another strike in the Combine when sources also reported that the new Gepanzerte Welle is largely comprised of Combine citizens outraged by the outcome of the war. Early raids on The Combine and Nova Cats have been successful, netting them additional materials and intelligence on Ghost Bear deployments. The survival of Colonel Londeri is still uncertain, though an Orion model identical to hers has been confirmed at the raids.

July 3064: This file has been shared with The Draconis Combine embassy.

December 3064: According to a communique by Clan Ghost Bear, a unit with the insignia of The Gepanzerte Welle struck a Ghost Bear world during the construction of a new factory complex and ore processing center. The unit consisted of a full 'mech company with vehicular and infantry support. Collected intelligence by the Bears indicated that they expected to find a Cluster of Ghost Bear troops they could manipulate using the Bears' honor and conservative leanings. They confirmed Blair Londeri's body was recovered from a battle site.Our intelligence suggests that the Bear's Omega Galaxy might have been recently garrisoned on a construction project. If that information is correct, then Omega Galaxy, as it its practice, wouldn't have held to traditional Clan practices. The Gepanzerte Welle would have been swallowed up by superior tactics, superior warriors, and superior machines.

Part I
Part II
Part III

Timewalking Archive Trap: Gepanzerte Welle (Part 1 of 3)

Battletech is a universe set in the 31st century where giant robots called Battlemechs are kings of the battlefield and feudal realms fight for planets devastated by years of warfare. I'm also putting up a 'Green Box' entry with background for Battletech in general, and this write-up in particular. It's linked here, or it's just below if you're using an RSS feed.

A few years ago, I tried to convince my friends to participate in a Battletech email-based roleplaying game where each of them would play the ruler of one of these realms and play politics and manage war in one of the best universes for it. They didn't not decline, but participation was marginal and the fiction I had for the setting got shelved as I focused my work on storytelling and original settings.

However, I am quite proud of much of the work I did on it, even on a peripheral write-up I did for a mercenary unit connected with one of the 'NPC' factions, revised and presented below. It should be noted that as with most Battletech products, it's written from an in-universe perspective; that is, it represents a document published by one of the characters in the setting, which makes it subject to bias and omissions from characters who simply do not have perfect knowledge. This document itself is a compilation of two different sets of documents; a series of personal memoirs and a more standard unit report. The memoirs also serve to break up a massive document that's the centerpiece of TL;DR Week, which I am never doing again ever.

Gepanzerte Welle

"After her time as a bondswoman, my mother came to hate The Clans in a way I never could. Had I lived with her into adolescence, I think I would've taken to the Clans as a part of a teenage rebellious period. Looking back, every time she told me about winning a battle against them, or even recounted about how the company had lost in terms of victory or manpower, she'd always remark on how many of them she'd killed. I think to her, each one of them was my father."
Tavan Londeri, Memoirs of My Mother, unpublished private collection, c.3083

[This final section covers our least relevant data, but is included for completeness. It includes information from the old MRBC files as well as updates and pertinent pieces of the Ghost Bear information packet we received after the Entente Alliance raid on New Terra.]

Unit Type: Mercenary
Inception Date: 3054
Current Status: Terminated
Last Updated: 3064

Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission Membership Review Document, 3054
Founders
Colonel Blair Londeri-An unremarkable, loyal member of the Kungsarme, she was captured by the Ghost Bears during the initial phases of the Clan Invasion. She emerged over a year later, saved from bondship as a Smoke Jaguar tech during the battle for Luthien. She--and her newborn son--made her way back to the remains of the Free Rasalhague Republic where she continued to serve in the Kungsarme until earlier this year. Frustrated--like many of her acquaintances--with the Inner Sphere's dedication to playing defense against The Clans after The Treaty of Tukayyid, she departed with equipment and personnel on the Midnight Sally, a dropship with a captain and crew sympathetic to her cause. After a short swing through the Lyon's Thumb to pick up Xao Ollendorf and his followers(see below), they made their way towards Outreach, to form Gepanzerte Welle.
Year of Birth: 3023
Battlemech: Orion ON1
First Company, First Lance


Lt. Colonel Xao Ollendorf -A retired Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth (AFFC) General, he met Londeri during her first time at the KungsArme Warrior University where he was teaching. They became good friends, and kept in touch regularly both before her capture and after her emancipation. Sympathizing with the young warrior, he's allegedly come out of retirement to temper her enthusiasm and occasional recklessness. A father of three loyal AFFC mechwarriors, he also provides regular parenting advice for the first-time mother. He’s accompanied by a handful of survivor Commonwealth mechwarriors with no unit and deep a sense of betrayal over the Steiner family's inaction over the Clan threat.
Year of Birth: 2998
Battlemech: Zeus ZEU-6S
Second Company, First Lance

Major Adam Minisadler-Initially, Adam Minisadler was charged with helping Blair Londeri reintegrate into normal command after her capture. By all reports, the relationship between the two was antagonistic from the start. Minisadler gravitated towards administration and management rather than prowess in a 'mech (despite an apparent lifetime of training to the contrary), and Londeri preferred to take to the field over the requisitions and politicking of even the lowest Free Rasalhague Republic commands. Minisadler discovered her plan to desert and alerted their superiors, forcing her hasty departure from the KungsArme. He successfully jockeyed for the right to be the one to hunt her down. He requisitioned the 2nd Air Wing, the same one that hesitated to stop the departure of the Midnight Sally, and a handful of infantry and 'mechs to bring the errant officer to heel. Showing greater investigative skill than most had given him credit for, he was waiting planetside when Londeri arrived to gather her Lyran allies. Much to everyone's surprise, he, the 2nd Air Wing (now the 110th), and an up-and-coming mechwarrior named Quigley joined her fledgling mercenary unit. To fights the Clans wherever and whenever others would not. The 110th now deploys in support of the Gepanzerte Welle 1st Company.
Year of Birth: 3019
Battlemech: Spider SDR-5V
First Company, Second Lance

Captain Raymond Starling-A prodigy in the sciences and behind a 'mech, Raymond Starling was a celebrated entrant to the KungsArme Warrior University. There, he was mentored by Blair Londeri, before was redeployed to the periphery border for routine field training. Undisciplined and selfish, he washed out of the KAWU and fell in with the mercenary unit Deg's Black-Heart Warriors. When their command structure was shattered in late 3054, the almost-whole unit fell apart. Charismatic, if only moderately experienced, Starling led elements of their aerospace, vehicular, and 'mech forces to the banner of his old teacher. Both hope to develop both his leadership and warrior skills more fully. In the aftermath of The Clan Invasion, he's had to strike the old name of his Trebuchet, once named "Daishi." He has not yet thought of a new moniker for it.
Year of Birth: 3030
Battlemech: Trebuchet  TBT-5N
Second Company, Second Lance

Deployments
The Gepanzerte Welle intends to take contracts against the Clans, remembering their rather low upgrade status. Their roots make it unlikely they will be hired by FRR and ComStar employers and it's doubtful they'll take contracts against the FRR.

Assets
Gepanzerte Welle consists of two active field companies consisting of two battlemech lances and a wing of fighter support. First company also boasts a lance of vehicles while Second company has a motorized infantry unit. Their third 'company' consists of a collection of vehicles, fighters, and infantry who usually serve on base defense and emergency reserve forces.

Tactics
Because of their relatively light equipment and low upgrade status, The Gepanzerte Welle is looking for work in light raiding, fire support, and scouting missions. Colonel Londeri's tactics in the Dragoon simulators feature on-the-ground scouting with intense aerial attacks from a distance. Ground combat contingencies feature the larger, 'anchor' mechs and standoff vehicles of a company holding a center while lighter units seek to encircle and harass.

According to reports, they are searching for contracts that lean towards upgrade kits and salvaged technology over C-Bills.

Part I
Part II
Part III