The Dragons Hand

Dragons Hand has its origins in the Ryuken of the Draconis Combine. After being trained as Samurai following the strict code of Bushido they were transferred to the planet Cerant to be trained in the unconventional guerilla tactics of the Wolfs Dragoons. Upon completion they were forced to fight their former trainers as part of a plot concocted by Tai-shu (Warlord) Samsonov to discredit the Dragoons.

After the battle had been lost & with their leader Sho-sa Chon dead, the head of his Dragon having been crushed by the Dragoons in an ambush, they had lost much face. They refused to be assigned to another commander & dishonor their leaders memory. They instead chose to go Ronin taking their personal mechs & form a mercenary unit named Dragons Hand in honor of Cho-sa Chon & the Red Dragon he had piloted so skillfully during his life.

To the present day the Dragons Hand is a collection of highly skilled pilots recruited for their skill & willingness to obey the code of Bushido. They will work for whatever house is the highest bidder but refuse any contract from the Draconis Combine.

We Are A New Unit..........

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............But With Old Traditions

Outreach
After the clan invasion of the Inner Sphere and the subsequent lack of danger to the Calderon family holdings in the Taurian Concordat, there was no reason to stay in the regular military. I had some c-bills saved up and bought my way out of the Taurian Lancers, 2nd regiment, 3rd battalion stationed on Argos. I had been in command of a scout lance, but 3rd battalion was a 'green' unit. We hadn't seen much action although I had a elementary grasp of small unit tactics. I hopped transport to Outreach and to try my luck as a warrior for hire, a mercenary.
Most communities had no use for mercs due to their less than sterling reputations, the usual debaucheries applied: looting, wanton killing, rapacious behavior and those were the good qualities. But the Inner Sphere had a legitimate use for mercs, not just the pointy end of the stick but "plausible deniability." Lack of knowledge and responsibility are not things you can buy, not up front, but when a Inner Sphere house can turn a blind eye while giving tacit approval to such behavior, well, let's call it a bonus.
Once we hit Outreach, the merc hub, I unloaded my cargo; a slightly used Raven 3L. She's not the fastest, I call her Queen Anne's Revenge, but has the full EW suite, Narc missile beacon and Target Acquisition Gear (TAG) laser. Small, fast but not well armed nor armored. Not an assault mech for sure but useful nonetheless. I checked the reader board just outside the spaceport for a scout billet...3 weeks later...
I was still looking, nothing was coming open and my stack of c-bills, badly bruised from the jumps from Argos to Outreach, was dwindling quickly. With any luck, I would soon be sleeping in the Revenge. A gloomy prospect at best with the limited sleeping, dining and laundry facilities on board... So I did the only logical thing, I went out on the town to live it up. I ended up in a sleaze bar, The Terran Armpit, where I met this smooth talker named Amatsukaze.
Guess he saw me scoping out the want-ads, I guess. I have no reputation except the name of course, after a pirate on Old Earth back in the 17th century no less, Blackbeard. Anyway, he wanted to sell me some spiel about a merc unit, "As long as you're buyin', I'll listen", I told him. As the barmaid brought the booze, the tale unfolded....
Seems he had this notion that mercenary outfits were going to become more and more commonplace. The big houses didn't have enough regular troops to go around and they cost a lot to maintain. By using a mercenary company to do the fighting, that company shoulders all the risks, pays their own damages and even has to buy goods from their employer if not part of the contract. No overhead, no widows and orphans fund, no disability and best of all, "plausible deniability." Then there was this whole thing like Wolfs Dragoons, do good and get your own planet. Seemed interesting but I needed some assurances that this was going to work. I mean, I guess hiring guns was no big deal but good guns? That's a whole 'nother Surat....
So he tells me he has a recruiter, guys pretty good at 'luring' 'em in to a unit. What he needs is a decent lance leader, someone to manage training and operations. "So, how many fighters are you talking about?, I ask him. "Hopefully", he says, "a company to start; get up to two companies and see what contracts will keep falling our way. Eventually expand to a regiment with our own equipment and techs and a world for supplies and parts."
Ok, the talk was good, he seemed genuine, so I took the plunge as it were. So, Shujin Edward "Blackbeard" Thatch strolled out into the Outreach sun to look for breakfast, on the Dragon's Hand tab naturally....and I already had some training ideas to flesh out and discuss with Chu-sa Amatsukaze. We were off and running, first order of business: get the troops assembled, kitted out, inspected and/or repaired then find a suitable employer.
The boss said he had some contacts in Capellan Confed space, that needed some pirates removed and a few border disputes to set right. Wasn't going to be an easy sell though, not to Liao. My understanding of Capellans is they don't trust mercs much. But that was the boss' issue with the Chancellor, the contracts, not mine. We have to be cautious though, in my opinion, we can't garrison worlds; just boot the bad guys off and the locals need to set up and form a militia. Rumor had it the Kell Hounds were the only outfit hiring outsiders for garrison duty, so it's probably not a problem. We had a few troops, a few mechs and a lot of bills. But, it was a start....
Looking for troopers isn't like buying a used aerocar, you can't find a lot with mechs and warriors standing around with a salesman. No, you send out 'smoke signals', drop a hint that a new unit is hiring, need 3 lances worth of freelancers and see what shakes out of the trees. And that was just what happened, a few apes dropped out of the trees and scampered out of the underbrush. Now I had to see if they could follow commands well enough to be used for something other than doorstops...
Well, surprise-surprise, some of the Lancers had made their way to Outreach and needed a billet. We had some, relatively, green troops to start with but it was a start. I had still to meet the "recruiting officer", Amatsukaze told me where to find him. Turned out I had no farther to look than the shed behind the Terran Armpit....
"WOW", I thought, " last time I had caught a whiff of that stench was a stockyard full of Neo-cows on Argos. Rank musty putrid stink and it was coming from the shed. I kicked open the door and out stumbled this creature. Trailing an empty bottle of booze in one hand, bloodshot eyes, razor stubble with what looked like greasy meat caught in it, filth smeared rumpled clothes. "say, buhhdy," he slurred ..."you got a lil drinky I could have?...." "Well, GREAT!", I said to myself, "the recruiter is on a bender after pulling into Outreach with the Chu-sa.
"No, I don't have more liquor for you, bub", I told him. "your boss told me where to find you. He thought I should meet you. I'm your new Lance Leader"... "Pleshed to meet ya," he said. "Sonny Black is the name; ropin' n branding 'em is the game." Somehow from the mechwarriors I had met, the first one this guy tries to brand will stick that iron places this guy might like to keep. "Right, well first off you need a bath, a shave and clean clothes. And you need to sober up, Mister", I told him. "Where are you staying?" He pointed into the dark interior of the shed... "Righ' here, sir", feigning a salute. "Christ! Come on, man. Follow me to the Outreach hiring hall, they have public facilities you can use." "Gods above", I thought, "the Dragon's Hand has a long way to go"......I stayed up wind on the way to the hall.
In the Capellan Confederation, House Liao exerts repressive power over its subjects, which has led Capellan leaders to view mercenaries, individualistic by nature, with suspicion. Consequently, mercenaries can expect a cool reception on Capellan worlds.
The Capellan Confederation has historically hired a large number of mercenary commands, but the Confederation's rigid caste structure can be both a blessing and curse to a mercenary unit. The average Combine citizen would not think to criticize his Chancellor's decisions, even indirectly, by protesting the arrival of a mercenary unit or suggesting that its services are not necessary. The upper castes, however, such as the military directorship and the regular Confederation MechWarriors, occupy higher social positions than mercenaries and do not hesitate to make hired soldiers aware of that fact. Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao has begun reforming the CAF upon his recent ascension to the position of First Lord of the New Star League, but it remains to be seen how these developments will affect mercenary employment in the Confederation.
Capellan headhunters and negotiators always travel in threes, selected for their rivalries as much as for their skills; the idea being that rivals (or outright enemies) will be unable to conspire against the Chancellor. Any negotiator suggesting a conspiracy would receive prompt denunciations from his fellows. Command rights and support are both hard points to deal on the former because of the CAF's rigid nature, the latter because of the lack of available support. Transportation and salvage rights are more negotiable. Pay is fair, having slipped in recent years because of the high number of mercenaries employed by the Confederation. At least I didn't have to negotiate contracts, that looked like a nightmare no matter who was being dealt with. I just had a lance to recruit, evaluate, train and improve before the boss took a stripe off my hide.
I made haste to the hiring hall and posted a notice on the reader board: "Looking for Adventure? Travel to Exotic places to meet Beautiful women and taste alien cultures? WELL…you won't find it in the Dragon's Hand Mercenary Company. We do have top notch tech support, the best leadership and good pay. Interested? Seek out Shujin Edward Thatch @ the hiring hall."

Edited by Edward Thatch, 02 August 2017 - 04:26 PM.

The Dragons Hand

#1 Sonny Black

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#3 Edward Thatch

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