BRIEF HISTORY
TRELLWAN
The Gray
Death Legion was born on Trell I, a desert planet far from the Inner Sphere of
human-inhabited worlds. Known as Trellwan by its inhabitants, the planet
occupied a marginally strategic location on the periphery of Lyran Commonwealth
space. Nearby, within a few score light years, were worlds claimed by the
Draconis Combine. Farther out was the fledgling empire of Bandit King Hendrik
III. Trellwan was garrisoned by a single lance of Steiner regulars commanded by
Captain Durant Carlyle.
Though a
remote world, Trellwan's location gave it tremendous potential in the vicious,
inter-House intrigue of the Succession Wars. It was here that Steiner agents
laid the foundations for an alliance with Hendrik III of Oberon, the mercurial
Bandit King who had previously been negotiating openly with agents of House
Kurita. Hendrik's deal with Steiner gave him garrison and tax collection
privileges on Trell I in exchange for his fealty to Katrina Steiner and the
Commonwealth. This would have freed up Captain Carlyle's lance for duty
elsewhere in the Inner Sphere, where experienced 'Mech pilots were sorely
needed.
When he learned of House Steiner's negotiations with Hendrik, Duke Hassid Alexander Ricol, the notorious Red Duke of the Draconis Combine, evolved his own devious counter plan. He would seize Trellwan from the Commonwealth, but convince the planet's defenders that Hendrik III was their attacker. Then, to 'save' the Trells from Hendrik's raiders, the Duke would send in a second assault force. By the time the Steiner forces returned--if they returned- Duke Ricol would be firmly in control, and the planet's inhabitants would be loyal to him, their savior. Trellwan would become a dagger in the Commonwealth's back, a staging area for launching attacks toward Drune II, Sylven, and, ultimately, toward the Steiner capital, Tharkad itself.
Through his
agents within the confederation of Bandit Kings ruled by Hendrik, the Red Duke
managed to hire mercenaries from Hendrik's own forces.
These 'Mech
pilots participated in a sneak attack against Durant Carlyle's garrison on
Trellwan. With the help of a Trell traitor, the Red Duke's assault troops
secretly landed an unarmed Dropship freighter at the spaceport, and then
penetrated the garrison command base. Carlyle himself was killed in the attack,
and the base was captured. The garrison's survivors managed an orderly
withdrawal to their Dropship at the port and then escaped off world, leaving
behind their 'Mechs and most of their equipment.
One member of
Carlyle's Commandos did not escape. Grayson, Death Carlyle-his grim middle name
the legacy of an ancestor, the Victor of
Lysander - was the only son of Durant Carlyle. Though not yet a fully-rated'Mech
Pilot, he had already been in training half his life for the day he would
inherit his father's Shadow Hawk and the command of Carlyle's Commandos. Grayson showed
great promise, but his instructors frequently complained about his lack of
discipline.
Though he
survived the attack on the base, Grayson Carlyle was marooned on Trellwan, with
no way of getting off world. He managed to
attract the attention of Trellwan's rulers by using his special knowledge of,
BattleMech tactics to organize the rather ineffectual local troops in a
successful defense of the heart of Trellwan's capital. By capturing several
bandit 'Mechs -one by the rather startling expedient of facing it down,
unarmored, a man-portable inferno launcher he created the nucleus of
Trellwan's own BattleMech unit, the Trellwan Lancers.
Though
continuously outnumbered and beset by infighting and treachery within the Trell
bureaucracy and military commands, Carlyle managed to bloody the enemy force on
the planet, and to discover that the enemy was, in fact, not Hendrik of Oberon,
but the Draconis Combine. In the climactic Battle of Thunder Rift, Carlyle's men
battered the Red Duke's forces so severely that Duke Ricol chose to withdraw
from Trellwan now that his presence on the planet was no longer a secret. Fortunately
for Carlyle, the Duke remained unaware that the Lancers' strength had been
reduced in the fight to one relatively intact 'Mech and 30 unwounded troops.
Carlyle
decided to depart as well. He now had a ship, an aging freighter manned by Free
Worlds traders who had fought with him. Soured on Trellwan because of the
political intrigue raging in its capital, Grayson also had hopes of tracking
down the survivors of the old Carlyle's Commandos. The Lancers, refitted,
reorganized, and now named the Gray Death, left Trellwan to seek employment as
BattleMech mercenaries among the strife-ravaged worlds of the Inner Sphere.
VERTHANDI
Carlyle's
first move was to bolster his tiny force, which numbered five 'Mechs, two
Mechwarriors, and barely 150 troops. At Galatea, he recruited experienced 'Mech
pilots to man the unit's vacant machines, and expanded the Legion to eight 'Mechs
organized into Fire and Command Lances. Their first employer was Devic Erudin,
leader of a precarious rebellion on a world called Verthandi.
It was
desperate undertaking; the rebellion had scant chance of success. However, an,
untried, eight-'Mech mercenary company had an equally scant chance of
employment. Besides, Verthandi was across the border in Kurita space, and was,
in fact, part of Ricol's duchy. For Grayson Carlyle, the chance to strike back
at his father's murderers was too good to pass up.
They almost did not reach the planet.
Ricol's forces had it blockaded, and it’s Aerospace Fighters managed to
intercept the Legion's Dropship on its approach. Once down, they found
themselves in the middle of a vicious and unrelenting war that masked a policy
of cold and calculated genocide.
At Verthandi,
the Gray Death Legion learned a priceless lesson that many a freedom fighter
has: Even the largest military giant can be brought low -or at least driven off-
if his attacks can be made expensive enough. After a long campaign, the forces
of the Free Verthandian Republic emerged victorious, and the Gray Death returned
to the Galatean mercenary marketplace with three full lances and enough tanks,
armored vehicles, and recon craft captured on Verthandi to make the Legion a
creditable force. Their reputation preceded them. Almost immediately, a
representative from Duke Marik and the Free Worlds League signed the Gray Death
to its service.
AMONG THE FREE WORLDS
The Free
Worlds League of House Marik lies between the Lyran Commonwealth of House
Steiner and the Capellan Confederation of House Liao. At the time the Gray Death
was in his employ, Marik was seeking to create a special strike force for a
series of hitand- run raids aimed at keeping the Liao forces off balance. For
a period of over one standard year, the Gray Death Legion operated along the
Capellan border, striking deep into Liao space at communications centers, fleet
depots, 'Mech assembly plants, mines, and industrial worlds. They suffered heavy
losses, but the name of the Gray Death Legion was by now well known, a magnet
attracting Mechwarriors and loose mercenaries with the promise of glory, of
action, and of loot.
Unfortunately,
the arrangement could not last. As part of his contract with Marik, Carlyle's
unit was to have use of a planet named Helm as its home base between campaigns.
As it turned out, intrigue, corruption, and revolt within the Marik high command
led first to an attempt to destroy the Legion in combat against Liao, then to a
Free Worlds attack on the new home base on Helm. Barely escaping in one piece,
the Gray Death Legion fled.
BETRAYAL
It was a
military faction working against the government of Janos Marik within the Free
Worlds League that sought to discredit the Gray Death Legion in order to seize
Heim, his promised base and Landhold. The faction carried out the plot first by
accusing the Legion of atrocities in baffle, and then by seizing Helm
"while the matter was investigated". Second-line troops, trainees, and
even the support personnel at the Helm base resisted the invasion with ferocity
born of desperation. Though Carlyle returned too late to prevent the sack of
Helm, he arrived ready for combat and caught the Marik renegades on the ground
and unprepared. The baffle and subsequent pursuit provided one of the few
instances in modern warfare where one side was hunted down and exterminated to
the last machine.
The reason
behind the Marik faction's betrayal was discovered during the campaign: a
forgotten storehouse of old Star League 'Mechs and equipment on Helm. The Legion
fought a holding action against elements of Marik's 4th and 7th Light
Assault Groups and the 12th White Saber Legion while the colony
survivors and the uncovered treasure were loaded aboard ship and evacuated off
world.
AGAINST HOUSE KURITA
There were
others who could use the Gray Death's talents and experience. Refitted again
at Galatea, they were hired by a faction within the Lyran Commonwealth to
organize a series of raids against the Draconis Combine. Experience gained in
service to Liao now stood the Legion in good stead. The unit was largely
responsible for the successes of House Steiner's Orestian Campaign, conducting
search-andstrike missions deep inside Kurita space, creating diversions,
raiding supply dumps and staging areas, and forcing Kurita's generals to
redeploy and expose themselves to Hanley's fleet at Orestes. The Legion's baffle
honors included the savage fights at Caldrea and Otho, and the rear-guard
delaying action at Trolloc Prime.
At Baldur,
the Gray Death Legion landed secretly in advance of the main offensive. In a
series of unconventional, lightning strikes, Carlyle succeeded in blowing up a
critical fusion power plant and blacking out planetary defense radars across
Baldur's ice-capped southern hemisphere. Once Hansen's Roughriders and several
regular Steiner companies had formed a beachhead, Carlyle's continued attacks
distracted Kurita's commanders long enough to enable the 1st Lyran
Guards to make their breakout at Ko, and to complete the encirclement of the
Baldur port garrison.
By 3030, the
Commonwealth's advance had been slowed, as forces on both sides became bogged
down in a dead-end slugfest that engulfed a dozen systems. The Gray Death
continued in active service, however, enabling Steiner's forces to disengage on
Lothan, disrupting an enemy invasion fleet at Nox, and capturing a vast store of
'Mechs, supplies, and equipment on Darius. By this time, the Gray Death had
expanded to regimental size, and included elements of a number of former
disbanded or battle-broken units, including remnants of the old Carlyle's
Commandos.
What was
perhaps most unusual about the Legion was the moral quality of their fight. What
began as a desire for revenge against House Kurita became a virtual crusade
against the technological barbarism and inhumanity that Kurita's campaigns and
the Succession Wars themselves had come to represent. MechWarrior Grayson
Death Carlyle became known as one of a handful of men and women who fought to
hold the dark tides of savagery at bay for yet a little while longer.
That is a
distinction won by very few warriors in man's bloody history.
Though the unit became well known for its heroic stands against overwhelming odds and its uniquely effective tactics, the Gray Death Legion achieved its greatest fame and notoriety on the world of Helm, where it recovered a Star League-era computer memory core. Lord Garth of Irian and a team of ComStar adepts conspired to frame the Legion for a civilian massacre in order to force the unit off the world and so cover their search for the hidden Star League base. With its usual resourcefulness, the Gray Death Legion evaded the enemy forces and found the base first. They managed to copy the computer’s memory core, which contained a vast array of information ranging from JumpShip engine blueprints to files on the genetic manipulation of farm animals. The unit managed its escape from Helm only with the help of an unexpected ally—its old enemy, Duke Ricol, who most assuredly had his own reasons for ensuring the Legion’s survival. Copies of the Gray Death memory core, as it would come to be known, were distributed throughout the Successor States in an effort to promote a recovery of lost technology.
The Gray Death Legion first met the Clan juggernaut on Sudeten. Aware that they could not stand against the enemy’s superior technology, Grayson Carlyle led his unit in a fighting withdrawal that severely mauled the Jade Falcons’ 124th Striker Cluster. This strategy gave the Legion warriors a taste of what they would face in every encounter with the Clans, and kept the Legion from destroying itself by defending an untenable position.
Stationed on Pandora for rest and refit during the year of peace, the Legion received some of the first shipments of new technology being produced in the Inner Sphere and readied itself for the Clans’ return. When the Jade Falcons landed on Pandora, they faced the grinning skull insignia of the Gray Death Legion. The Legion fought a bloody battle, eventually driving off the Falcons through sheer skill and tenacity.
In April of 3056, Grayson Death Carlyle swore an oath of fealty to Victor Steiner-Davion, who in turn granted the Legion the world of Glengarry as a landhold. After more than thirty years of living from assignment to assignment, the Legion had found a home for the price of a few words of allegiance. Almost immediately, forces arrayed against Victor tried to deprive them of it. Skye separatists attacked Glengarry while the colonel was on Tharkad, and the burden of command fell to Carlyle’s young son Alexander. Alexander proved himself a worthy heir by leading the Legion against the rebels’ superior numbers and holding out for more than seven months until his father could bring reinforcements. The fighting cost the Legion dearly, but also proved that the mercenaries had adopted Glengarry as their home and would defend it at all costs.
In 3057, Colonel Carlyle was wounded on Caledonia, suffering severe damage to his ears that might prevent him from ever again piloting a ‘Mech in battle. Adding to the unit’s upheaval, Katherine Steiner-Davion of the newly formed Lyran Alliance declared the Legion in breach of contract for siding with those she named as Caledonian rebels, and divested them of Glengarry. Forced once again to defend its claim to Glengarry, the Legion again fought for its survival, this time led by Lori Kalmar-Carlyle. The Gray Death Legion won the war, but at a high cost in personnel and equipment. Katherine Steiner-Davion recognized Glengarry as the Legion’s landhold in return for its pledge of loyalty to the Alliance and Alexander Carlyle’s agreement to join the regular Lyran Forces.
Brief Personal History:
As of early
3030:
Colonel, Gray Death Legion
Awarded
the Order of the Crimson Star, with cluster
Awarded
the Order of Atreus
Awarded
the Lyran Harp
Awarded
the Verthandian Sunburst
Awarded
the Emerald Star
Though
records of the Successor States are fragmentary at best, it is believed that
Grayson Death Carlyle is one of the youngest regimental leaders serving in
combat. Certainly, his first campaigns were waged while he was barely out of his
teens, and he was commanding a full, company-strength, independent
mercenary unit by the time he was 22 standard years old.
Carlyle seems
to be one of those rare individuals who is a born military tactician. He learns
the weaknesses and strengths of his opponents, both unit commanders and the
individual Mechwarriors his own unit must confront, and stresses close
cooperation among his own men in combat. More than many older, more traditional
'Mech unit commanders, he has developed the cooperation between his 'Mechs and
conventional ground and air units to a precise science. Many of his most
brilliant victories made use of conventional armor, hovercraft, or AWCs
mounting missile launchers or beam weapons, of troops carrying man-portable
anti-armor weapons, and even of traps and concealed pits cunningly dug
into the battlefield in the path of an enemy's advance. It is widely agreed
among armchair strategists throughout the Successor States that Carlyle, if he lives, could become known as one of the greatest military leaders of all
time.
Carlyle
himself seems convinced that he will not live,
an attitude based less on numerous close brushes with death than a pessimistic
assessment of the future of human civilization. "We're living at the raw,
ragged edge of the Dark," Carlyle has been quoted as saying. "The Dark
is a vast and voracious monster rising up to swallow us and everything we have
built or thought or striven for in the last ten thousand years. A handful of us
prod that monster with sticks to keep it at bay ... not a very healthy situation
at all." He is careful, of course, not to allow this pessimism to infect
his command.
Carlyle is a strict disciplinarian with
his troops, but is known both for his fairness and for his willingness to share
the risks. He is also known for the moral stance he enforces both on and off the
battlefield. For example, he has, on several occasions, summarily shot rapists
or murderers in his own command. On Verthandi, he went to extraordinary lengths
to trap and wipe out a Kurita Merc company that had exterminated whole villages
and sold the survivors into slavery.
With the passing years and after many
battles, Carlyle's reputation has made his a highly sought-after unit.
However, he has spurned numerous offers of employment in a most unmercenary
fashion when it was agents of House Kurita or House Liao offering him contracts.
Since the betrayal of the Gray Death by a faction of House Marik, he has also
refused offers of work from the Free Worlds League, and seems content working
solely for the Lyran Commonwealth or House Davion's Federated Suns. It is
rumored that his stubbornness on this point has led to serious trouble within
the ranks of the Gray Death, to the point of attempted mutinies on at least two
separate occasions.
It is entirely possible that Carlyle is
correct in his assessment of his own future and the future of Mankind.
BRIEF REGIMENTAL HISTORY
THE REGIMENTAL BANNER
The unit
banner is a black-outlined gray skull against a scarlet background. It is
generally displayed on the left leg of the unit's 'Mechs, and as a unit badge
worn on uniforms of the troops and ground support personnel.
FORMATION
Carlyle's
headquarters unit began as the five 'Mechs taken by the Gray Death Legion from
Trell after the
Only two 'Mech pilots survived the
fires of the unit's birth on Trell I. These were Grayson himself and Lori Kalmar,
a former pilot-trainee from one of Hendrik of Oberon's planetary militias. The
unit recruited three additional pilots at Galatea, and the rest elsewhere at
various times. The Companions were officially so designated toward the
conclusion of the Verthandian Campaign, when the Gray Death could muster two
full lances.
THE GRAY DEATH MERCENARY COMPANY
By the time
of the offensive against House Liao in 3026 (Terran Calendar), the Gray Death
could muster an entire company of three lances, organized as Command, Fire, and
Recon Lances, plus an attached Air Lance. The unit suffered heavy losses during
the evacuation of Helm, but was filled out again during their return to Galatea
in the Lyran Commonwealth.
THE GRAY DEATH REGIMENT
Carlyle's
fame and the reputation of his unit attracted adventurers and Mechwarriors from
all over the Inner Sphere. Recruitment and training proceeded swiftly on
Galatea, and later on the new homeworld granted them by Katrina Steiner.
Carlyle's Gray Death Legion was designated a short mercenary regiment of five
companies and two air lances when House Steiner formally contracted with the
unit at the onset of the Orestian Campaign in 3029. The lead company was named
the Gray Death Companions, and was organized around a nucleus of the original
members of the old independent company.
The regiment suffered heavy casualties during the vicious fighting in the Orestes Cluster, where the battles at Baidur, Otho, and Trolloc Prime all took their toll. Nevertheless, the skilled leadership and expert tactics of Grayson Carlyle- now a full colonel was creating a legend being recounted from the Periphery to the Commonwealth to the halls of New Avalon. These stories were invariably tales of glory. Only the members of the Gray Death Legion would remember how those tales had first been written in blood.
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