Wolf's Dragoons History

What do we really know about Wolf's Dragoons?
They say that they are renegades from the Clans. Their name came from Wolf Dragoons, dontcha know. A bloody Clan unit.
They say that they will fight the Clans. Sure they have. But you've heard of Natasha Kerensky haven't you? Biggest name in the Dragoons after Jaime Wolf himself. Where's she now? A bloody Khan of the bloody Wolf Clan.
They say they will stand by the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere. Impartial service, they say. You read Battletechnology, don't you?. Seen any reports on them working with House Kurita? The Combine's got half the bloody front with the invading Clans. Damn convenient to have your blood enemies ripped up by your friends, ain't it.
They say they have no further connections with the Clans. Seen how many omnimechs they field? What about toad suits? Think about that. If you've been looking, you've been seeing a lot of tech running around with their units that you ain't gonna see in House units. Stuff the New Avalon Institute ain't even got on the drawing board. So where is all that stuff coming from?
Me. I never trusted the Dragoons. Never will.

-- excerpt from an interview with Colonel Wayne Waco

Origins
Since the day Nicholas Kerensky formed the Clans there have been tensions. As willing to follow Kerensky's lead as the new Clan Khans were, some didn't see the same vision of the future as Kerensky.. Others, while agreeing in principal, saw a different timetable. From these differences grew the greatest rivalry within the Clans: the split between Warders and Crusaders. Thus was Wolf's Dragoons born of mixed parentage.
In 3000, Kerlin Ward, the Khan of Wolf Clan and a partisan of Warder politics, conceived a plan. He was aware that Khan Nadia Winson of Ghost Bear's growing leadership of the Crusader party and the increasing strength of that party. He had no sympathy for the Crusaders. Afraid of being unable to block a call for invasion of the Inner Sphere, he did what he could to forestall that invasion. Apparently siding with the Crusaders, he called for a scouting mission, something even the most ardent of the Crusaders could not deny as prudent military wisdom. In spirited bidding Khan Ward won the right to form the scouting party for his Clan.
Khan Ward planned to staff the chosen unit, the newly formed Wolf Dragoons, with officers securely loyal to his beliefs, but Leo Showers, Khan of the Smoke Jaguars, suspected Ward's motives. Cautious of his own position, Khan Showers set his long time battle comrade and opponent of the Wolves, saKhan Sessu Katayama of the Nova Cats, to seek out the dangers in Ward's plan.
SaKhan Katayama spoke often and long in council. Claiming that Ward was using the finest of his Clan's warriors and thereby jeopardizing the mission since Clan mechwarriors of the latest generation were noticeable superior the anything the Inner Sphere could have produced and likely physically different as well, Katayama pointed out that the Dragoons would look out of place in the territories they were to scout. Katayama suggested that Wolf Clan use freebirths, those closer in genetic stock to the original Inner Sphere breed. Katayama might have intended to embarrass the Wolves by forcing them to use inferior warriors who would fail in their mission. If he was concerned that such failure would jeopardize his own plan of invasion, he gave no outward sign. Khan Ward was forced to consider his own Clan's reaction to failure and concluded that freebirth warriors could be used and if they failed there would be no stain on Wolf Clan's honor. Following Katayama's lead, a council eventually resolved that secrecy, one of Ward's original tenets, would be best maintained by using an inferior force. Ward agreed but was dismayed when the council reserved to itself the right of approval on the expeditions leaders. Ward, still concerned that the members of the expedition be of undoubted loyalty to his Clan and his ideal of putting off the invasion, was unhappy with the result. Citing the chance to prove skill in combat, he asked for and received a concession that allowed him to offer slots in the Wolf Dragoons to any bloodnamed or truebirth warrior, of any Clan, who wanted such a chance. He planned to make sure those chosen would be warders. However, there were few takers, fewer still from outside Wolf Clan. Ward did not feel his hold on the expeditionary force was strong enough.
The Wolf Dragoons needed commanders and Winson, Katayama, and others of the Crusader faction had blocked Ward's move to install two of his lineage in the top slots. Still desiring a secure, loyal leadership, he considered his options and his thoughts turned to young men and women who he could trust, persons who would give him their loyalty, or already had. He presented two of those before the council. Jaime and Joshua, upstart freebirths who had earned their way in to the warriors and earned the Clan name Wolf. It was a dangerous ploy. The warriors had technically gained honor by earning their names, but their manner of doing so had angered many among the Clans. Also, they were untried in command. Katayama, perhaps sensing that Ward was cutting his own throat, approved the selection.
Surprisingly, even to Ward, the number of volunteers for the Dragoons among freeborn skyrocketed once Jaime and Joshua were named as commanders for the expedition. More trueborn volunteered as well, including Natasha Kerensky.
Preparations were made, ships readied, warriors trained, and all who were to go were prepared with the best intelligence available to the Clans. The Wolf Dragoons were to pass as mercenaries, Inner Sphere mercenaries, and the Clans did all they could to disguise the origins of these warriors. Naturally, the Clan planners made mistakes. Their information was only fragmentary and their arrogance led them to underestimate those they had left behind. Once they reached the Inner Sphere, the Dragoons began to litter clues all over the Inner Sphere. Our own intelligence experts remained stymied for no one could put the whole picture together because parts were missing. We knew the Dragoons were different. It is only recently that we have come to understand how different.

First Contract: Davion

Prince Ian: They want what?
Duke William: A planet, your highness, to serve as a home base.
PI: Any particular planet? new Avalon, perhaps?
DW: Colonel Wolf specifically excluded the capital, your highness.
PI: How kind. (deletion) Will they take anything we offer?
DW: There are some specific requests concerning climate, accessibility to standard jump routes, population density, natural resources, and so on. The details are in my report. I can retrieve them for you, if you wish.
PI: That can wait. If we give them a planet, they'll fight for us for five years. All five Battlemech regiments? You're sure that they will honor the contract?
DW: Colonel Wolf assured me that the contract will be completely binding. there are some small provisions to be triggered by events of a most unlikely nature, but I do not believe that a deception is intended.
PI: This wolf impressed, William.
DW: Indeed your highness. He did. Colonel Wolf has a way about him.
PI: Yes. Five regiments for five years.
DW: Excuse me, your highness?
PI: Will New Valencia do for them?
--transcript of conversation discovered in
Prince Ian's archives, House Davion Library

The appearance of Wolf's Dragoons in the Delos system is the recorded beginning of their time as mercenaries for the great Houses. Their JumpShips arrived at the system causing great consternation to the system's defenders.. Greater still was their concern when the up-until-then-silent ships warned away the Davion Aerospace fighters sent to investigate. Even when the Dropships took station in orbit over Delos and the first broadcast from Jaime Wolf announced the newcomers intention to take service with House Davion, some feared a Kuritan trick. No mercenary unit in the Inner Sphere could muster such a force as orbited the planet.
Word was at once relayed to Prince Ian Davion and negotiations began. The Dragoons were strange, somehow out of touch with the latest in Inner Sphere politics. They showed no hint of classic rivalries that infected almost every unit, House and merc, in the Inner Sphere. More than once, Duke William Schuler-Davion was heard to remark that the Dragoons might have just as easily put in at a planet in the Combine. The Duke pressed his Prince to take these mercenaries into service at once. Considering the price that Jaime Wolf asked and the obvious fighting ability of the Dragoons, there was little chance that House Davion would refuse. Even Wolf's demand for a Davion world to serve as a home base only caused a short delay. Ian Davion already had plans for this stroke of good fortune.
Capellan incursions had long drawn troops from the Draconis Combine-Federated Suns border, a drain that Prince Davion considered a dangerous waste. To him, Kurita always was the real enemy and he chafed at being unable to silence the lesser threat so that he could turn his attention to the greater. Under great secrecy the Dragoons were shuffled across the Federated Suns and positioned in the Capellan March. In short order the Dragoons supplied the prince with vital information on the Cappellan raiders and a counterstrike was planned. Over the objections of some of his advisors who still claimed that the Dragoons were some kind of enemy agents, the Prince determined that they should lead the attack on Halloran, the raiders' base.
The assault on Halloran was but the first in a long string of victories for Wolf's Dragoons. Whether performing an assault, a raid, or a planetary defense, the Dragoons showed they were more than a match for any Capellan forces arrayed against them. Usually, Wolf's forces outmaneuvered the enemy, but when it came to a stand up fight, the Dragoons consistently showed themselves capable of defeated more than their number.

Early reports said that the Dragoons had Star League equipment. Said they had a lot of it, but I know better. Sure a lot of what they had wasn't around any more. Some of the mech designs serving in the regiments certainly hadn't been seen in a House unit for generations. I didn't know where they got them then, but now I guess we all do. I knew back then that those machines weren't vintage stuff. I saw one of the Hoplites that they lost on New Aragon and I'm telling you that the machine wasn't built in a Star league factory. I know the marks, the metals, the composites. I tried to tell the mandarins what I was seeing, but they didn't want to hear it. Bootleg tech wasn't supposed to be good enough to beat their mechjocks. Chancellor Maximillian said that it to be Star League, said it in a lot of press releases. Can't contradict the Chancellor. Not in Liao space.
---Andy Chall, former Inspector of Recovered Technology for House Liao

The Dragoons were a secretive bunch, often display an amazing ability to gather intelligence both of the foes and their friends. They let slip little concerning themselves. The rumor mill went crazy after the defense of New Aragon in 3008 when Jaime Wolf, recipient of the Crucis Cross for his performance, recalled his troops to New Valencia. rest and refit was the official Davion line, but something more was going on. Even Davion censors couldn't prevent work from leaking about the intense aerospace activity around New Valencia. It appeared that the Dragoons were preparing to leave Davion service.
arrival, but the rumors were premature. It was only the first of the now-famed "supply runs." For ten months, the Dragoons were absent from the Inner Sphere and when they returned they had replaced all their losses with new equipment and carried significant stockpiles of spare parts and expendables.
For two more years Wolf's Dragoons served House Davion and never were any complaints lodged concerning the quality of that service. During the five years of their contract, the Dragoons established themselves as one of the premier mercenary units operating in the Inner Sphere. In 3010, contrary to all expectations, they declined to renew their contract.

****(note: this text deliberately differs from that in WD sourcebook to reflect the now know Clan nature of the Dragoons****

REPLY TO DAVION
It is with great regret that we inform His Highness that we cannot accept the generous offer of permanent service. The Dragoons have been proud to serve as warriors for House Davion and fight under the banner of the Federated Suns. We have accepted service with the Capellan Confederation. In deference to the respect that His Highness has always shown to the Dragoons, our new contract specifies that Wolf's Dragoons will not participate in operations directed against the Federated Suns and your House. Good fortune to you and the blessings of Unity upon your house.

--(signed) Colonel Jaime Wolf
Colonel Joshua Wolf
Commanders, Wolf's Dragoons
10 February, 3010

Second Contract: Liao

The Death Commandos are elite, highly trained troops. they do not fail. Obviously, the assassin apprehended at the mercenary Wolf's villa was not a member of my unit.
--Public statement of Warren Po, commander of the Capellan Death Commandos

The deed will soon be done and the wolf's lascivious howl shall be heard no more
--(signed) Po
a note on Death Commando unit letterhead found in the ruins of the place on Sian, 3029

The relationship between the Dragoon commanders and the hierarchy of House Liao and the Cappellan Confederation was never as warm as that between the Wolf brothers and Davion, but it was never cold either. The Dragoons went on to further there reputation. As a result of hard fought battles Wallachia and Scarborough, they earned a fearsome reputation among the House Marik forces that they faced. Indeed on Shiro III several crucial battles went to Liao forces when Marik troops retreated rather than face the Dragoons. Even with the losses taken in months of steady combat, the dragoons managed to remain combat ready, astonishing the Liao quartermasters with the lack of requests for spare parts and supplies.
Then, without explanation, the Dragoons were assigned to garrison duty. During the enforced inactivity, there were many incidents of disorderly conduct and other civil infractions. Each of the Dragoon regiments formed lances where they placed their "bad boys and girls." In May of 3013, Candace Liao arrived at the Dragoon garrison on Carver, beginning a series of intrigues that included an attempt by Maximilian's eldest daughter to seduce Jaime Wolf and bring the Dragoons under her sway. Rejected by Wolf, she left the planet in high dudgeon. Some reports say that she vowed revenge for the insults she suffered on Carver. Indeed, there were two reported attempts on Jaime Wolf's life in the next several months.
A few months later, secret negotiations were concluded and Maximillian Liao turned his control of the Dragoons over to Anton Marik, a show of support for Anton's bid to depose his brother Janos.

Third Contract: Anton Marik's Rebellion

It was during the Anton Marik's Rebellion that one of the most famous units of Wolf's Dragoons received its baptism of fire. That unit was, of course, the Black Widow battalion. Recruited from hardcases and discipline problems, the mechwarriors of the battalion were as unlikely a bunch as ever was to make an effective unit, but they became one, perhaps even the most effective unit in the history of the Inner Sphere. And why? The answer is obvious to even the most casual scholar of military history.
Natasha Kerensky.
A blood descendent of Alexander Kerensky, Natasha took the Widows on as her first command, reluctantly it was said at the time. How ever much she resisted, it is clear her feelings changed over time. But though she led them into tight spots, she was always the last to leave. They came to love her as much as she loved them as she proved by refusing promotions that would take her away from the Widows more times than most officers are offered advancement in their entire career. She remade those misfits in her own image:
flashy, tenacious, stubborn, superior tacticians, and an superb mechwarriors. The Black Widow battalion became a named as feared and respected on the battle field as Kerensky's own name and black Warhammer were dreaded in individual combat.
Much of Natasha Kerensky's story remains shrouded in mystery. Some things will never be known, but I found what we do know of her career and personal life to be fascinating. You will too.
--from the introduction to the tenth edition of Misha Auburn's First Lady of Death, New Avalon Press 3051

The contract with the Dragoons was the final piece in Anton Marik's preparations for revolt. Assured of Capellan neutrality, armed with Liao promises of support, and encouraged by ComStar ROM agents, Anton issued a proclamation on May 22, 3014 declaring himself Captain-General of the Free Worlds League in place of his brother and calling for all of the provinces of the League to join together under his banner and overthrow the "tyrant." His initial support was surprisingly strong. The announcement that Wolf's Dragoons were fighting for him brought even Regulan Hussar units to declare themselves for the usurper.
Uncharacteristically, Jaime Wolf showed public distaste for his employer Anton Marik almost at once. In short order, all liaison work fell to his co-commander Joshua. Despite the friction, Jaime led the Dragoons with his usual fervor and efficiency. Dragoon success were most likely the only thing that kept the rebellion alive.
Janos Marik was neither the tyrant his brother painted him nor a fool. realizing that the dragoons were the linchpin of his rebellious brother's campaign, the Captain-General concentrated his forces against the Dragoons. Little headway was made, but the constant pressure on the Dragoons left them unable to support Anton's forces on other fronts. Little by little the rebels gains were lost. Unsupported, the Dragoons had no choice but to pull back.
The deteriorating situation left a general air of gloom and despair in the rebel camp. Anton's fits of temper became more open, driving further wedges into his already disintegrating forces. Relations between Jaime Wolf and Anton Marik worsened and Joshua was unable to soothe either party. Finally, Wolf stormed out of a strategy meeting while Anton shouted after him, calling him a coward and a contract violator.
The stage was set.

Crisis and Change

TO: Colonel Jaime Wolf, Commander, Wolf's Dragoons
FROM: Duke Anton Marik, Captain-General of the Free Worlds League

This is to inform you that Colonel Joshua Wolf and 27 members of your household staff have been arrested. They will be held until such time as you comply with my orders and place your units at the disposal of my line officers. Failure to obey these orders will result in the execution of all prisoners within 14 standard days of this transmission.

TO: Jaime Wolf
FROM: Stanford Blake, wolfnet
Jaime, they've taken the Edel Compound. Confirmation all, repeat all, persons present now in Marik's hands. Beyond Joshua, they don't know who they've got.

TO: Duke Anton Marik, Captain-General of the Free Worlds League
FROM: Colonel Jaime Wolf, Commander, Wolf's Dragoons
Message received. Standby.

The taking of the Dragoon hostages from the Edel Compound on New Delos sparked a short, savage battle. For three days, the demoralized forces of the Duke held off the mercenaries, staving off defeat by the barest of margins. When the end came the Marik forces were devastated.
Despite the fury of the Dragoon attacks, we now know that Wolf was mounting a diversionary attack. To be sure, his troops gave no quarter and showed no mercy, but there was more to Wolf's plan than preemptive vengeance and wanton destruction. While the line regiments occupied Marik's forces, a rescue mission was attempted.
Wolfnet had determined to location of the hostages. Marik had them near him in his heavily fortified manor outside the capital. Natasha Kerensky, reported to be Joshua Wolf's lover, led her battalion in a surprise attack on the residence. Somehow, Marik learned they were coming. he ignited napalm charges in the woods screening the Black Widows' approach, raising a hell of flame. Undaunted, Kerensky's mechwarriors advanced. The survivors of that hellish march broke through into Marik's compound and scattered the defenders.
But it was too late. The hostages had been executed.
Anton Marik was killed in the fighting, crushed beneath the wall of his palace. Vesar Kristofur, his advisor in the plot, escaped to return to his ComStar masters. While Wolf and the bereaved Dragoons buried their dead, the rest of the mercenaries raged through New Delos for the next two days. When they stooped no single civic building remained standing and none of Duke Anton's forces could any long be called a unit.
Janos Marik seized the opportunity to counterattack and seize back the few planets remaining in rebel hands.

Fourth Contract: Marik

Of course we knew they were coming. How? That's classified, sweetheart. Still, we were just damn lucky they didn't know we knew. Otherwise . . .
As it was they damn near took their objective.
They're good. Damn good!
(pause)
Ya know if they're hiring?

--Hermann Immig, Major in the Hanson's Roughriders
in an interview conducted shortly after the Hesperus raid

Despite fears that Janos Marik was coming to eradicate the Dragoons, the Captain-General instead brought an offer of employment. It is not known what motivated Wolf to accept the contract, but he did. The exhausted mercenaries went work for their exhausted employers and for the next three years both sides were content to enjoy a slow period in the struggles of the Successor Lords. Employed primarily for minor raids, border skirmishes, and limited action campaigns, the Dragoon s came to refer to this period of time as their "cattle raiding" period.
As part of his New Year's greeting for 3019, Janos Marik ordered the Dragoons to undertake one of the most remarkable deep strikes in the history of Inner Sphere warfare. The entire Dragoon force was to penetrate deep into the Lyran Commonwealth, striking targets of opportunity and harassing Lyran forces wherever met, but the true goal was to be Hesperus, the heart of the Commonwealth's battlemech production.
The Dragoons stepped up to the assignment with characteristic Zlan. After a few months devoted to planning and preparation, they set out, skirting the frontier planets and avoiding the well traveled space lanes. For months the carved an erratic path across Steiner space to the utter confusion of the Lyran commanders. Until the plan was leaked to the Lyrans, their high command had failed to grasp the intent of the raid.
Once they knew, however, the Lyrans reacted quickly. They understand the depth of the threat. If the Dragoons hit Hesperus hard enough, the Commonwealth's military might could be crippled. They reinforced Hesperus with their best available House and mercenary units. Unaware, the Dragoons dropped into the toughest fight of their career to date.
Taking heavy casualties, the Dragoons pressed their attack. Lyran records show that Leftenant-Colonel Orpheus Thomas was not content to rely on his numerically superior forces and continually sent demands for reinforcements. Most critics find it amazing that Thomas was able to avoid committing his hole card, Hanson's roughriders, until the crucial moment, but he did. As the nearly exhausted Dragoons closed on the main mech factories. Thomas unleashed the Roughriders. Hanson's fresh mechwarriors hit the Dragoon leading elements like a tsunami, knocking them back. lesser units would have broken, but the Dragoons only bent. Their retreat was masterful, but costly. In the end, all of Wolf's units escaped offplanet but none escaped unscathed.
Culminating in defeat as they had, the battles on Hesperus demoralized the Dragoons. Weakened, most of the units limped home to Sterling, carrying Jaime Wolf's message to Janos Marik that the mercenary colonel was invoking the rest-and -refit clause of their contract. Wolf himself did not return to Sterling for another six months and when he came, he brought with him more brand new battlemechs and dropships full of supplies. In his absence, the dragoon s had been recruiting to fill the gaps in their ranks. they promoted their own first, making mechwarriors of tank drivers and infantrymen. Then, carefully screening all applicants, they took in mechwarriors, tankers, aerospace pilots, and infantrymen from the Inner Sphere. They showed no favorites, recruiting from all Successor States, great and small. They even accepted several ComStar personnel although they managed to detect the three ROM agents among those applying. Curiously, they accepted few mercenaries.

Fifth Contract: Steiner

"Warrior, I am Minobu Tetushara, Tai-i and samurai of House Kurita, my soldiers and I honor your prowess and your courage. We shall not kill you. Return to your forces, now. Die in battle as a true warrior."
Those were his words as best I remember them. They surprised me, so they stuck in my head. He had me dead in the water; there wasn't anything I could do. He could have just obliterated me, but he didn't. I don't think I would of done the same for him.
But that was just the first of the lessons he taught me.

---from Jaime Wolf's A Lifetime in the Trade: Reminiscences
of a Mercenary, New Avalon press, 3055

Tired of the Game
Like Janos Marik before her, Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth Katrina Steiner had been vastly impressed by the caliber of the Dragoons. And like the Captain-General, she offered her opponents a place in her service. As they had before, the Dragoons accepted. Unlike their previous contracts, the arrangement with House Steiner contained a new clause, allowing Wolf to summarily terminate the contract at any time.
The Dragoons shifted over to the Lyran Commonwealth in early 3020 and the Black Widow Battalion was in action against Kuritan forces less than six months later. The successful action on New Wessex seemed to be the start of a new period of Dragoon success. Feeling ran high as commanders on both sides of the Lyran-Draconis border expected an upswing in hostilities.
The Dragoons first major action on the front was on Dromini VI and it was nearly Jaime Wolf's last action. The Dragoons were to lead the invasion force, striking against Kuritan forces and pinning them while Lyran House troops exploited any gains. The taking of Dromini was to hamstring the Combine's ability to launch an offensive in that sector.
A recon unit lead by Tai-i Minobu Tetsuhara caught Jaime Wolf's Archer separated from his forces and crippled. Most commanders would have simply ordered his men to finish off a wounded opponent, but the Tai-i was a follower of Bushido and could the results of the valiant battle the, to him, unknown mechwarrior had conducted. Tetsuhara saluted the warrior for his prowess and lead his company away to participate in the Second Sword of Light's doomed counterattack.
Dromini proved to be a success for the Dragoons, but it clearly caused Jaime Wolf to rethink matters. Further matters came before him as well. The expected major offensives, both Lyran and Kuritan, never developed and the Dragoons were relegated to cattle-raiding again. In mid-3022 Hanse Davion and Katrina Steiner signed the Federated Commonwealth Alliance agreement, which called for the two states to be united following the joining in marriage of the heirs to the two great houses. Four months later, the Capetyn Concord was announced, allying the remaining three great Houses in opposition to the Davion-Steiner axis.
Sometime before this announcement, Takashi Kurita made an offer for the Dragoons' services, offering the highest price ever in a mercenary contract. The Lyrans learned of the offer and were concerned, but the emissaries only cooled their heels. For most of the last quarter of 3022, Jaime Wolf was not to be seen in the Inner Sphere.

Interlude: Return to the Clans

Colonel Wolf is posting R&R time. He will be informed of your inquiry upon his return..
--Official Dragoon statement

"Vacation? we're not paying him to take vacations. We're paying for him to fight. Where the hell is he?"
--Archon Steiner
--Overhead in the throne room on Tharkad

You Can't Come Home Again
Jaime Wolf's last visit to his Clan was mostly spent in seclusion. he attended many councils in the company of the aging Khan Kerlin Ward. Those councils were often preceded and followed by long private sessions with the Khan and his closest advisors, including the Khan's soon-to-be successor Ulric Kerensky. It was clear that Khan Ward saw that the Crusaders were gaining even more strength and Wolf's reports were actually sparking some of the growing fervor. the plan to forestall the invasion had worked for fifteen years but it didn't seem likely to work much longer, especially when the Clan Council ordered the Dragoons to switch employers and fight for House Kurita, completing the circuit of the Great Houses.
Ward arranged for new mechs and equipment for the Dragoons for the last time. He also provided more warriors, although there were no blood named among them. Indeed, there were few truebirths at all.
In private session he told Jaime Wolf of his fears and swore him to secrecy and absolute obedience of his personal orders. Understanding the Khan's reasons, Wolf took that oath. Ward died shortly thereafter and his orders were the last Clan orders that Jaime Wolf followed.
When Wolf left the Clans that year, he carried with him a packet that included advanced technical data, Clan operational reports, and old Star League records that revealed the secret of Outreach's undiscovered factories and caches of equipment.

Sixth Contract: Kurita

When Jaime Wolf reappeared, his first official act was to invoke the termination clause in the contract with House Steiner and open formal negotiations with House Kurita. By April 3023, Dragoon units were raiding House Davion, their first employers
The first years of the Dragoons' employment with House Kurita went well. Under their liaison officer Minobu Tetsuhara, they prospered, receiving better treatment than other mercenary units in the dragon's employ. But there was a canker. Warlord Grieg Samsonov conceived a personal hatred for Jaime Wolf and began machinations to discredit Wolf and bring the Dragoons under control of House Kurita permanently.
Tensions increased between the Dragoons and their employers while friendship blossomed between Jaime Wolf and the man who had spared his life on Dromini. The combination ultimately proved to have tragic consequences. Samsonov's machinations finally led to a breakdown of the contract and armed confrontation between Kuritan forces and the Dragoons. On the planet Misery, Tetsuhara was ordered to eradicate the Dragoons with a combination of elite Combine regulars and his own newly formed (in imitation of the Dragoons) Ryuken regiments. He almost succeeded. In the end, however, he was captured. Wolf offered his friend a place in the dragoons, but Tetsuhara refused. He had failed his lord and, for a follower of bushido, there was no excuse for failure. To atone, he committed seppuku.
In an emotional public scene at the wedding of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner, Wolf returned Tetsuhara's swords to Takashi Kurita and announced a feud between the Dragoons and House Kurita.

When I told him that from that day forward the Dragoons were at war with his House, Takashi Kurita didn't bat an eye. I wasn't sure he believed me. He never was an easy man to read.
He believed me later, of course.

---from Jaime Wolf's A Lifetime in the Trade: Reminiscences
of a Mercenary, New Avalon press, 3055

Seventh Contract: Davion

Mauled by the fighting on Misery, the Dragoons needed rest and refit but they did not get it. The fourth Succession War had begun, launched simultaneously with the marriage toast on terra. At Wolf's request, Hanse Davion immediately placed them into the line along the Kuritan border. Takashi, insulted by Wolf's confrontation at the wedding and embarrassed by the failure of his troops to destroy the Dragoons, focused on such tempting bait. As a result, the Kuritan leader threw away his chance to cripple the Federated Suns when Davion left hat border lightly defended in order to launch his full scale invasion of the Capellan Confederation. Certainly, the Combine was heavily engaged along the Lyran front, but most historians agree that forces committed against the Dragoons could have been used elsewhere to devastating effect against the Federated suns. At the very least, the steam roller against the Capellans would have been slowed down. Had not Coordinator Takashi not been obsessed with Wolf's Dragoons, the Fourth Succession War might have ended very differently.
Through heroic action, the Dragoons held their own against the Combine forces out for their blood, but the cost was high, terribly high. Glenmora. Harrow's Sun. Wapakoneta. Crossing. All battlefields and burial grounds for the Dragoons. As an entity Wolf's Dragoons survived the Dragon's fury, but most individual Dragoons did not.

Interlude: Outreach

The Fourth Succession war ended with the Dragoons at their weakest. To say that they were decimated would be a cruel irony, for the old Roman punishment of decimation was the death of one in ten. The death toll among Dragoons was far closer to the reverse. Once they had been five full battlemech regiments and a handful of independent units that amounted to more than another regiment. By 3031, their organization was a single provisional regiment of mixed troops. The survivors were loaded with medals and accolades, so not surprisingly, as the battered ships limped to the planet a grateful Hanse Davion gifted them, many predicted that Wolf and his Dragoons were going there to die.

Rebuilding

The Dragoons are not dead. Anyone who believes that they are is mistaken. Anyone who tries to capitalize on our weakness will find out just how mistaken he is. We can, and will, fight.
A lot of people who don't know what they're talking about say that we're finished. We're not. We're just getting started. We warriors. and we've been tested, is all. And we've passed every test. We're stronger now, and that's good. We need to be strong. This Fourth Succession War may be over, but it's not the end of all war. Not by a long shot.
It may take us a while, but we'll be back.

--Jaime Wolf, in a statement on Galetea

Few believed Jamie Wolf's vow to rebuild. The Dragoon losses were not completely indemnified by their Davion contract and payments were notoriously late. mercenaries, even those with home bases, were renowned for the difficulty they had in making ends meet. the Dragoons were once thought immune to that problem with their secret source of men and materiel, but there was not exodus this time. Wolf and his people remained secluded on Outreach.
But most of those who predicted the Dragoons' imminent demise were ignorant of, or ignored, one of Wolf's Dragoons greatest assets, a little publicized asset, their industrial and commercial interests. Since their first contract with House Davion, the Dragoons had been investing in certain industrial firms, notably Blackwell Industries. Blackwell had supplied the Dragoons with much materiel under exclusive license. Now, the Dragoons lifted much of that exclusivity. Four great powers, war weary but ever cautious worked to rebuild their militaries. The orders rolled in. Blackwell started new factories and, with the aid of Dragoon technicians, reopened some ancient facilities on Outreach. Within by the fall, it was clear that Jaime Wolf was succeeding in rebuilding the machines the Dragoons would need, but he did not have the warriors.
In the mean time, Wolf made a point. On 16 December 3031, holovids publicly announced the formation of the Black Widow Battalion with Natasha Kerensky, newly promoted to colonel, in charge.. The battalion was the first of the Dragoon units back on line and available for hire. At premium prices. In reality, the battalion was already under contract and enroute to their first action on Tsinghai, a lengthy operation that they conducted successfully and with all of the old Zlan of the original Black Widow Company.
With one unit out for hire, some pundits expected Wolf to begin open recruiting again as he had after the Whispers deep raid or possibly to merge his troops with some other mercenary units in order to put more units on the market. As the campaign on Tsinghai continued, it looked more and more likely that the Dragoons would need another unit to put out for hire. Yet no announcements of such units came. However in March of 3032, the dragoons opened the Hiring Hall on Outreach. The first posted opportunity was a recruitment notice for Wolf's Dragoons
Curiously the scale of recruitment was small. Indeed, many recruits were hired on in fixed term contracts rather than open ended hirings. Jaime Wolf was looking to other sources for his troops and when his sources became public, it was clear that he was thinking in the long term.
The Fourth Succession War created far too many orphans. Wolf began to take advantage of them. dragoon agents scattered throughout the inner Sphere collecting these children of all ages. "We're offering them a home and a family. We're offering them a road to honorable employment," Wolf said. "Most of the states can only offer crowded institutions, haphazard schooling and ultimately an unemployment dole. Where do you think they'll be better off?" Agencies and individuals protested this "dragooning" of children, and the Dragoons were dubbed a "boot camp for toddlers," but little came of the protests. The need to care for the children was great and the Dragoons were willing to provide that care at no cost to any state. The children came under the dragoons care.
The recruitment of children and the industrial options were just part of wolf's multi-faceted strategy for rebuilding the Dragoons. As the months rolled on, new elements were announced. Training programs were offered on Outreach. The Dragoons set up the hiring hall, recommending and advising on the hiring of mercenaries, and taking a commission on any contracts obtained with their help. Dragoon techs hired out top facilities, both medical and industrial, under contracts that specified their not insubstantial pay go directly to the dragoon coffers. But for all their public displays, close observers could see that the Dragoons were as secretive as ever. new facilities were being prepared on the larger of Outreach's two continent and the Dragoons made that continent strictly off limits to outsiders.
In March of 3035, the second of the revitalized Dragoon units went on line. Beta Regiment went out for hire. Simultaneously, the Black Widow battalion was recalled, prompting experts to predict that the warriors of the battalion would form the core of Beta. but the Widows just came home to Outreach and they were posted as unavailable for hire. Beta went out to earn the Dragoons' keep. The Widows went to "the other side of the mountain."
Organized in imitation of Clan practice and operating with the most advanced equipment available to the Dragoons, the Widows lived on "the other side of the mountain" and turned that vast continent into a gigantic training arena. Dragoon unit after unit was sent them to learn. All returned chastened. But the defeat at the hands of Black Widow battalion was what those troops needed. They learned. Over the next seven years, Natasha Kerensky supervised such vital education for the new Dragoons and one by one the regiments went operational and shipped out to hire.

Eighth Contract: Federated Commonwealth

Justin Allard: "This just came in from Jaime Wolf. "Request Dragoons be released for action in Ride [is this the right theater, Scott???] Theater. Situation critical."
Hanse Davion: "Again?"
JA: "So far he's been respecting your wisdom, your Highness, but things are getting worse in Ride [should be same as other]. He could be right that the situation is critical. He understands these Clanners far better than we do."
HD: "His own intel sent us the reports on the progress of the invasion in Kuritan space. He knows the situation there as well as I do. If Luthien falls, the Combine will go with it."
JA: "Wolf's man Blake says that isn't likely. He has a lot of faith in Theodore."
HD: "But Takashi's still in charge."
Silence.
JA: "How shall I respond to Wolf?"
HD: "Make it clear he's under contract. He'll fight where and when I tell him."
JA: "He won't like it."
HD: "He doesn't have to."

--transcript of conversation discovered in
Prince Hanse's archives, House Davion Library

The Truth as It Can Be Told

In 3048 the Clans raised the call for invasion under the newly elected ilKhan Leo Showers. IlKhan Showers sent a recall for the Dragoons and announced to the council that their refusal proved that they had defected from the Clans. The refusal almost cost Wolf Clan its place in the invasion force. When the reports of strange bandits started to drift in from the Periphery, Jaime Wolf and his Dragoons knew the truth of it. The long awaited invasion had begun. Wolf recalled his regiments to Outreach.
The death of ilKhan Leo Showers in the Radstadt system required a full council and the Clans issued a call to all bloodnamed warriors. This time Natasha Kerensky couldn't ignore the call. She left to return to the Clans where she had to prove herself all over again, which she did in fine fashion. By the end of the invasion offensive she was Khan of the Wolf Clan. How this will affect relations with Wolf's Dragoons remains to be seen.
In the lull of the war created by the clan call to council, Jaime Wolf sent a summons to the leaders of the Great Houses: come to Outreach. I can tell you about the invaders.
The leaders came.
When they had gathered, Wolf revealed the Dragoons' origin with the Clans. He told them who the Clans were and what they were capable of. Not all believed him, or trusted him. Hadn't he just told them that he himself was from the Clans? But Wolf offered technical assistance, including omnimech technical specifications, and training for the Inner Sphere Lords. Wolf told them that he would show them how to fight the Clans. The Dragoons stood ready to fight the Clans themselves. And to prove their sincerity, the services of the Dragoons were available at bargain rates. It was an offer the Successor Lords could not afford to refuse.
Wolf's Dragoons conducted training and served as advisors, but no Dragoon battlemech fired upon a Clan mech for first months after the resumption of the Clan invasion. The lack of combat fueled the general sentiment that the Dragoons were playing some deeper game and were not really committed against the Clans. Some claimed that the dragoons were holding back, ready to jump in on the winning side.
Hanse Davion was one of the Inner Sphere leaders who believed in Jaime Wolf's commitment. When others ignored Wolf after the retreat of the Clans and only accepted the obvious benefits of training and technical data, Davion opened negotiations on an exclusive contract for the Dragoons' combat units. But the Wolf was canny. He allowed Davion to contract the regiments but left the independents units available for other work. Still, Jaime Wolf made one of his rare mistakes in accepting the contract. In an effort to improve the Dragoons' public image, he ceded strategic use of the Dragoons to Davion. No doubt Wolf hoped to quiet cries that the Dragoons sought to be a power in and of themselves. he succeeded, but at a cost.
Hanse Davion held the Dragoons as a strategic reserve during the renewed Clan invasion. As world after world fell, the situation became desperate. Wolf continually applied for release, asking to use the Dragoons to stem the drive toward the Steiner home world of Tharkad. But Davion had confidence that his own Federated Commonwealth troops could hold that line. Limited in using the Dragoons in the central corridor by a secret restriction that the Dragoons could not be set against Clan Wolf, Davion anxiously watched the progress of the thrust through the Draconis Combine. While some of his advisors suggested that he let the Dragon fall, be rid of his ancient enemy, and gobble up his own part of the Combine, Hanse feared for the survival of the whole Inner Sphere. "Better," he is said to have remarked, "the Dragon you know than the Viper, or whatever, that you don't." As the Clans closed on the Combine's capital of Luthien, Hanse Davion honored his promise to aid Theodore Kurita and sent Wolf's Dragoons and the Kell Hounds to defend Luthien.
Luthien was saved by the timely intervention, but neither Takashi Kurita or Jaime Wolf was pleased. For the public, both put a good face on it, but both knew their feud remained.

Open Contracts:

The Clan invasion as halted on Tukkayid and a 15 year cease fire imposed on the Clans. The post-Tukkayid Inner Sphere was a new place and an old one as well. The Successor Lord unity fragmented and Houses began sniping at each other again. The Clan unity fragmented in a more obvious faction as they began internal squabbling over precedence and honor concerns. Although the Tukkayid contract forbade an advance toward Terra, it did not preclude lateral; expansion of Clan Occupation Zones, nor did it forbid Inner Sphere forces from attempting to reduce Clan holdings. Small skirmishes and raids with only the occasional invasions became the way of doing business, much like the traditional Inner Sphere "cattle-raiding" warfare that had plagued the Successor States for centuries.. ComStar's splintering nearly destroyed their mercenary bonding operation, a brutal blow to businessmen whose business was war. Jaime Wolf stepped in and used the Dragoons influence to arrange a new Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission and, to the surprise of many, left its running to ComStar.
It should not have been surprising. Once again the Dragoons had taken heavy losses and needed to rebuild. This time though they had many resources to draw upon even though they were cut off from their original sources. They increased the efforts that had helped them rebuild when they first came to Outreach. Their mercenary Hiring Hall tripled its business and soon tripled that until Outreach eclipsed Galatea as the "mercenary star" where an aspiring, hungry, or just out of work band could come and find employers.
Finding replacements was not as great a problem as it had once been. With some many Dragoon trained warriors in House units and scattered among mercenary groups, there was a larger than ever pool of acceptable recruits. The war orphans, both those truly adopted and those of the Dragoons' secret sibkos, were coming of age by the battalion. In the Clan fashion, bondsmen had been taken on Luthien, a ready source of experienced warriors. For a change, the Dragoons had a greater problem obtaining enough equipment. The Blackwell factories couldn't turn out omnimechs and battlesuits fast enough.
But within all this fast growth, Wolf's Dragoons nearly found the seeds of its own destruction.

Crucible

The Wolf was old, more than seventy years, maybe closer to eighty. He was older than any other commander in the Dragoons. And now it seemed that he was finally succumbing to the cowardly leeching effects of age. I didn't know what this portended.

from Brian Cameron's account of Elson's Challenge,
privately published on Outreach

There was a great deal of turmoil within Wolf's Dragoons as they struggled to integrate several generations of new members and come to terms with their dual nature. The Clan influence remained strong; the old timers had grown up within Clan culture and the new bondsmen were fresh form the same culture. Yet Inner Sphere ways were strong as well. By this time, most Dragoons had grown up in the Inner Sphere and many had been born there. For all of the dragoons preservation of Clan ways in their rituals and much of how they did business, training, and promotion, Nothing was exactly like the Clans they had left.
Into this mixing pot came Elson NovaCat, an elemental captured on Luthien. Elson earned back his position as a warrior. Due to his obvious ability and familiarity with a battlesuit combat operation, a skill rare in the Dragoons, he rapidly advanced within the Dragoon command structure. He was ambitious, but that was not a failing in a Clan-bred warrior. Like Jaime Wolf himself, Elson was a freebirth and had earned a warrior's name. Unlike Jaime Wolf, he was staunch in holding to his Clan beliefs. He did not like what he saw in the Dragoons and vowed to change it.
Having built a power base, he engineered a rebellion among the Dragoons, beginning with the possible murder of Jaime's son and designate heir to command, MacKensie Wolf. "Elson's Challenge" as it has come to be known among the Dragoons culminated in a protracted campaign on Outreach with Dragoon units taking sides in support of Jaime Wolf or Elson's puppet Alpin Wolf, Jaime's estranged grandson. The final battle was characterized by Jaime Wolf tactical brilliance and amazing displays of courage and prowess on both sides. Nothing less could be expected from the Dragoons.
A key feature of the campaign was the emergence of another stellar Dragoon whose tactical genius and personal fighting skills rivaled those of Jamie Wolf and Natasha Kerensky, respectively. Mechwarrior Maeve arrived on Outreach in command of Spider's Web Battalion and sided with Jaime Wolf. Implementing Wolf's plans and often improvising brilliantly, she came to command half of the forces loyal to Wolf, ultimately blunting the main thrust of the rebel forces and killing Alpin Wolf in single battlemech combat.
The internecine struggle left Wolf's Dragoons debilitated once again, but Jaime Wolf threw himself into the dual tasks of healing the breaches and rebuilding. This time, however, he's had a strong base than ever and the Dragoons have regained their strength faster than ever. With their own planet and their firm roots in the Inner Sphere, the Dragoons may have indeed become what some have said they want to be, an independent power; something between a Clan and a mercenary unit. Perhaps that is why the new appellation, Wolf Pack, is gaining currency. Wolf's Dragoons may be small relative to one of the Clans or Great Houses, but what mercenary unit can claim to have had as great an effect on the history of the Successor States?
Wolf Pack is open for business

The Dragoons are stronger and tougher than ever. We started as the best the Inner Sphere has ever seen and we've gotten better. We're going to get better still.
Forget the rest. Hire the Wolf Pack and you hire the best.

--General Maeve Wolf in her first public address
on Outreach