Mercenary Life: The Final Frontier? 09/16/3133
INN - Interstellar News Network
HARLECH RUINS, OUTREACH – A blasted wasteland is all that remains of a once
booming metropolis. Useless, corroded, poisoned hulks of great towers, low-slung
apartments, ruined DropShips, and industrial complexes now stand in eerie silence.
The atmosphere is toxic, the soil tainted by chemical and nuclear fallout. Long-
decayed remains of those who fell both on that fateful November day in 3067, and
those who came afterward, many scavenging derelict war machines that remain
visible all about, often lay unburied. The ruined city of Harlech, once-capital of
Outreach, once-capital world of the mercenary trade, is today a shadow of a bygone
era.
Or is it?
Just south of this ghost city stands the scattered domes, scaffolds, and bunkers of a
newer city, raised from the mangled suburbs of Harlech itself. New Kearny, named
for the dead sea of hard-baked clay that once was Outreach’s largest freshwater
body, is mostly underground, invisible to the surface observer. Yet below the tainted
earth, life goes on, a hub of commerce, of trade, and even of professional soldiering.
Perhaps it is sentimental attachment to the place, the same lure that has brought
lostech prospectors to brave the lethal badlands of Remus even now, seven decades
after the holocaust, that allows this world to carry on a tradition that, some say,
should have died with it. The Jihad burned life from more than this world, it ran home
the concept of total war to anyone enamored by the romance of the mercenary
profession. The horrors of the Blakists’ “Holy War” were such that entire generations
have grown up in an Inner Sphere sworn to put an end to war, in a Republic where
the average citizen is encouraged to live the pacifist’s life.
Why, then, do mercenaries still make their pilgrimages to this world? Why do empires
great and small still seek their help here? Why have the Wolf’s Dragoons and the
Spirit Cats jointly reclaimed a dominion over this cinder?
Since the fall of the HPG grid almost a year ago, the population of New Kearny has
swelled from its typical 90,000 inhabitants, most of them hydroponics farmers and
commercial laborers, to over 500,000, mostly visiting mercenaries. A similar
population boom has been seen on the world of Galatea, a much more hospitable
venue. So, why the renewed interest in professional soldiering? Why are so many
returning, to once more risk life and limb for the sake of money?
On Outreach, the answer varies with who you talk to:
“I don’t know about no mercenaries,” says Andrei Schuburt, a MiningMech mechanic
employed by New Kearny’s municipal Project Development Department. “Most of
what comes through here, year in and year out, are prospectors. They dig through the
old city [Harlech], or they hunt their fortunes in the old Outback [Remus continent].
Selling a ’Mech, even a bashed up one, can earn a body citizenship, or just a
DropShip-load of cash. Sad thing is, though, most of them don’t come back from the
wastes…”
“Sure, most of the Dragoons left when the planet was bombed, but a few stayed
behind, fought in the resistance, helped turn back the tide, just like old Jaime would've
done,” says Maria Worthington, a local entertainer. “Since then, [Outreach] has been
sort of the unadvertised center of the merc business. Sure, lots of wannabes go to
Galatea for contracts, but those in the know come here, the source of anything
anybody needs to know about anything.”
The rumors abound. A black market in anything from scavenged weapons and parts
to information and services, allegedly thrives here on Outreach. But if the rumors are
accurate, this market may not keep to the shadows any longer. The recent return of a
small contingent of Wolf’s Dragoons as guides for the Spirit Cats, whose mysterious
ways have led them here to forge the unlikeliest of new enclaves, signals that a new
dawn is coming for Outreach.
“The HPG grid is down, new armies are appearing all over, and the future looks
bleak,” says Brianna Wolf, legate of Outreach, who claims to be a proud descendant
of Meave Wolf herself. “Somehow, it seems only natural to assume the worst,
especially in these surroundings. This place, once the place to go during the height of
humanity’s wars, seems to still hold on to that mystique. Maybe it’s a bad sign, proof
that we are rolling into a new age of war, but what many of the people see here is
some old friends—and some new friends—coming home.
“Yeah, strange as it may sound, it’s actually a reassurance to me. I mean, if anyone
were to inherit the legacy of the Dragoons, shouldn’t it be their rightful heirs?”
Perhaps that is the answer, after all. With a return to dark times, people instinctively
reach for the familiar, the comfortable. For mankind as a whole, that familiar thing—
all too often—is an instrument of war, a tool for self-defense or conquest. For the
Wolf’s Dragoons, that thing is their once great home, Outreach. For the Spirit Cats,
who share the ties of an orphaned Clan, perhaps, this too can be home as well. How
does this bode for the rest of the Inner Sphere? Only time will tell.
Towne Log
+ Huh. Spirit Cats and Wolf’s Dragoons conquer Outreach and INN does a puff piece
on it! The wonder of it all! :- Noeticist
+ I don’t think I’d call it conquest, really. From what I heard the other day, the planet
“fell” without a shot being fired. :- Draco041
+ So much for patriotism, eh? Given the first chance offered, and Outreach goes
Clanner again. Stuff all that about “reaching for the old and the familiar”; I wanna
know why the Spirit Cats had to go there, and how far in advance they had it planned
if the Wolf’s Dragoons were just gonna give them the keys to the city. :- RepoMan
+ Would you rather they gave them to the Steel Wolves, RepoMan? If some of the
rumors I’ve been hearing are true and the Dragoons and Cats have discovered a
possible cache of lost Dragoons weapons and ’Mechs on Outreach, which of the
petty warlords scurrying about out there would you rather see get a hold of them? :-
GreasL
+ I’d RATHER they told the Dragoons and the Cats to malf off, actually. Outreach is
a REPUBLIC world, not a Clanner enclave, and any hypothetical weapons there
should go to The REPUBLIC, not an upstart bunch of Clanners with a fondness for
hallucinogenics! :- RepoMan
+ I dunno. I heard stories of what Outreach was like before the Jihad. Sounds to me
like the Dragoons did their best to keep mercenaries honest and honorable. A fair job
too, I might add. If anyone should claim Outreach again for that kind of end, I say it’s
a good thing that the Dragoons do it. :- HonkiTonki
+ We wouldn’t need mercenaries if these crackpots didn't go around forging armies
and fighting each other all over. They could all have banded together and helped hold
off the chaos swirling around us now. But did they? NO! It doesn't matter to me who
decides to make their own Mecca for MechWarriors. The concept itself is just plain
wrong! :- RepoMan
+ Ladies and gentlemen, I think we just found a topic that RepoMan is rather
passionate about. Everyone jot this date down; you’re watching history in the making
here! :- Noeticist
+ Malf off, Noeticist! :- RepoMan
INN - Interstellar News Network
HARLECH RUINS, OUTREACH – A blasted wasteland is all that remains of a once
booming metropolis. Useless, corroded, poisoned hulks of great towers, low-slung
apartments, ruined DropShips, and industrial complexes now stand in eerie silence.
The atmosphere is toxic, the soil tainted by chemical and nuclear fallout. Long-
decayed remains of those who fell both on that fateful November day in 3067, and
those who came afterward, many scavenging derelict war machines that remain
visible all about, often lay unburied. The ruined city of Harlech, once-capital of
Outreach, once-capital world of the mercenary trade, is today a shadow of a bygone
era.
Or is it?
Just south of this ghost city stands the scattered domes, scaffolds, and bunkers of a
newer city, raised from the mangled suburbs of Harlech itself. New Kearny, named
for the dead sea of hard-baked clay that once was Outreach’s largest freshwater
body, is mostly underground, invisible to the surface observer. Yet below the tainted
earth, life goes on, a hub of commerce, of trade, and even of professional soldiering.
Perhaps it is sentimental attachment to the place, the same lure that has brought
lostech prospectors to brave the lethal badlands of Remus even now, seven decades
after the holocaust, that allows this world to carry on a tradition that, some say,
should have died with it. The Jihad burned life from more than this world, it ran home
the concept of total war to anyone enamored by the romance of the mercenary
profession. The horrors of the Blakists’ “Holy War” were such that entire generations
have grown up in an Inner Sphere sworn to put an end to war, in a Republic where
the average citizen is encouraged to live the pacifist’s life.
Why, then, do mercenaries still make their pilgrimages to this world? Why do empires
great and small still seek their help here? Why have the Wolf’s Dragoons and the
Spirit Cats jointly reclaimed a dominion over this cinder?
Since the fall of the HPG grid almost a year ago, the population of New Kearny has
swelled from its typical 90,000 inhabitants, most of them hydroponics farmers and
commercial laborers, to over 500,000, mostly visiting mercenaries. A similar
population boom has been seen on the world of Galatea, a much more hospitable
venue. So, why the renewed interest in professional soldiering? Why are so many
returning, to once more risk life and limb for the sake of money?
On Outreach, the answer varies with who you talk to:
“I don’t know about no mercenaries,” says Andrei Schuburt, a MiningMech mechanic
employed by New Kearny’s municipal Project Development Department. “Most of
what comes through here, year in and year out, are prospectors. They dig through the
old city [Harlech], or they hunt their fortunes in the old Outback [Remus continent].
Selling a ’Mech, even a bashed up one, can earn a body citizenship, or just a
DropShip-load of cash. Sad thing is, though, most of them don’t come back from the
wastes…”
“Sure, most of the Dragoons left when the planet was bombed, but a few stayed
behind, fought in the resistance, helped turn back the tide, just like old Jaime would've
done,” says Maria Worthington, a local entertainer. “Since then, [Outreach] has been
sort of the unadvertised center of the merc business. Sure, lots of wannabes go to
Galatea for contracts, but those in the know come here, the source of anything
anybody needs to know about anything.”
The rumors abound. A black market in anything from scavenged weapons and parts
to information and services, allegedly thrives here on Outreach. But if the rumors are
accurate, this market may not keep to the shadows any longer. The recent return of a
small contingent of Wolf’s Dragoons as guides for the Spirit Cats, whose mysterious
ways have led them here to forge the unlikeliest of new enclaves, signals that a new
dawn is coming for Outreach.
“The HPG grid is down, new armies are appearing all over, and the future looks
bleak,” says Brianna Wolf, legate of Outreach, who claims to be a proud descendant
of Meave Wolf herself. “Somehow, it seems only natural to assume the worst,
especially in these surroundings. This place, once the place to go during the height of
humanity’s wars, seems to still hold on to that mystique. Maybe it’s a bad sign, proof
that we are rolling into a new age of war, but what many of the people see here is
some old friends—and some new friends—coming home.
“Yeah, strange as it may sound, it’s actually a reassurance to me. I mean, if anyone
were to inherit the legacy of the Dragoons, shouldn’t it be their rightful heirs?”
Perhaps that is the answer, after all. With a return to dark times, people instinctively
reach for the familiar, the comfortable. For mankind as a whole, that familiar thing—
all too often—is an instrument of war, a tool for self-defense or conquest. For the
Wolf’s Dragoons, that thing is their once great home, Outreach. For the Spirit Cats,
who share the ties of an orphaned Clan, perhaps, this too can be home as well. How
does this bode for the rest of the Inner Sphere? Only time will tell.
Towne Log
+ Huh. Spirit Cats and Wolf’s Dragoons conquer Outreach and INN does a puff piece
on it! The wonder of it all! :- Noeticist
+ I don’t think I’d call it conquest, really. From what I heard the other day, the planet
“fell” without a shot being fired. :- Draco041
+ So much for patriotism, eh? Given the first chance offered, and Outreach goes
Clanner again. Stuff all that about “reaching for the old and the familiar”; I wanna
know why the Spirit Cats had to go there, and how far in advance they had it planned
if the Wolf’s Dragoons were just gonna give them the keys to the city. :- RepoMan
+ Would you rather they gave them to the Steel Wolves, RepoMan? If some of the
rumors I’ve been hearing are true and the Dragoons and Cats have discovered a
possible cache of lost Dragoons weapons and ’Mechs on Outreach, which of the
petty warlords scurrying about out there would you rather see get a hold of them? :-
GreasL
+ I’d RATHER they told the Dragoons and the Cats to malf off, actually. Outreach is
a REPUBLIC world, not a Clanner enclave, and any hypothetical weapons there
should go to The REPUBLIC, not an upstart bunch of Clanners with a fondness for
hallucinogenics! :- RepoMan
+ I dunno. I heard stories of what Outreach was like before the Jihad. Sounds to me
like the Dragoons did their best to keep mercenaries honest and honorable. A fair job
too, I might add. If anyone should claim Outreach again for that kind of end, I say it’s
a good thing that the Dragoons do it. :- HonkiTonki
+ We wouldn’t need mercenaries if these crackpots didn't go around forging armies
and fighting each other all over. They could all have banded together and helped hold
off the chaos swirling around us now. But did they? NO! It doesn't matter to me who
decides to make their own Mecca for MechWarriors. The concept itself is just plain
wrong! :- RepoMan
+ Ladies and gentlemen, I think we just found a topic that RepoMan is rather
passionate about. Everyone jot this date down; you’re watching history in the making
here! :- Noeticist
+ Malf off, Noeticist! :- RepoMan
| September 16, 3133 |