The Inner Sphere is used to seeing mercenary units formed out of the remnants of two or three old units, seasoned with discharged veterans from Successor House units or merchant security forces. Black Thorns in Training near Wolf City To form a unit of MechWarriors, you need to get the MechWarriors from somewhere as well as the BattleMechs, the Techs to maintain them, the support personnel, the money to pay training costs for two to six months, command staff, and a place to train. Most of these factors have been affected by the war with the Clans, as has the last ingredient in a mercenary unit's success, its employers. More MechWarriors than 'Mechs have survived the invasion. In most engagements, the Clans allowed refugee ships to leave the system as long as their essential weapons systems had been disabled. Regular troops were allowed to retain their 'Mechs in retreat. Mercenary BattleMechs were confiscated. Mercenary DropShips and JumpShips which were not crammed to the bulkheads with escaping refugees were often confiscated as well. So we have Dispossession on an unprecedented scale. As system after system was taken over by the Clans, more and more 'Mechs were lost - and almost none were salvaged from the Clans. The Clans took over many of the factories thatwould have been making new 'Mechs (see the true account Table of Organization, this issue). Indeed, Rasalhague has no BattleMech factories left at all. So it's a seller's market for BattleMechs - high prices and low availability. Regular House units purchase the majority of the new-production 'Mechs, while mercenaries scrabble for the salvage. Solaris continues to do a brisk trade as the novelty-crazy arena forces second rank fighters to change 'Mechs again and again. Outreach BattleMech brokers offer a continual supply. Yet even here, the cost of BattleMechs is up by an average of 10% over 3050. Of the other factors, techs don't work cheap; money is as scarce as ever. Command staff -- now there's a brighter picture. If a unit has a nucleus of trained officers and MechWarriors, the number of units fragmented after the Clans invasions gives a wide selection of candidates to fill in any specialist vacancy. Places to train? If you've got money, you can rent field facilities; if you have less, it's the simulators for you. Some units forming on backwater planets just head for the boonies where they can practice with blanks and zero-charged weapons. Units forming at the mercenary hiring hall on Outreach have several grades of training facilities available to them: the five Simulator Halls, the mountain courses behind Harlech, and the CityScape just outside Wolf City. BattleTechnology decided to follow three of such units as they attempt to become viable in the changing economic climate of 3054. Three Units The Black Thorns have suffered more foul ups than most. The mere fact that they have survived as long as they have makes them look like a lucky unit after all. Three Northwind MechWarriors, forbidden to form their own unit, decided to buy 'Mechs on Solaris and recruit MechWarriors on Outreach. A Jump Coil failure made the ship buyer arrive on Solaris almost too late to buy anything at all, while an encounter with inebriated Dragoon troops almost destroyed the unit before it had formed in a lance-to-lance duel. The Black Thorns have accepted a contract for garrison duty on Borghese. Signs of our times! The Black Thorns' CO, Jeremiah Rose, is a former ComStar MechWarrior who chose to join neither side in the ComStar split. BattleTechnolgy wishes the unit well. By contrast, Balanon's Brawlers, a unit formed from the remnants of Las Calaveras, mercenaries formerly attached to the Albiero planetary garrison and the Yamataro security force, fell into a seeming sweetheart contract. The MechWarriors had landed on Macksburg as refugees just after the worst outbreak of Elloran Fever in half a century. The planetary garrison had rejoiced in the possession of four BattleMechs found in a Star League cache: a Highlander, a Titan, a Ventilator, and a Rifleman. Together with the recon and fire lances the Brawlers had already assembled, these 'Mechs would make a strong company. Two Yamataro Shillone fighters, badly battered in the Clan's takeover of Albiero, completed the unit. Macksburg could supply maintenance, battle repairs and salvage, and a well- built training ground at the site of a former munitions test facility whose owners went broke when the family-kin suppliers who hadgiven them such low prices were trapped behind Clans lines. The problem was money. Pay is in kind for the first three years. The unit will not own the Star League 'Mechs for fifteen years. They are locked into a fifteen year contract. Thirteen years from now, Macksburg is quite possibly on the Nova Cats' invasion path. A promising newcomer, the Doomsayers, an overstrength company, made up exclusively of MechWarriors born in the Free Worlds League, disbanded in November, at the end of their preliminary two year contract in the Dixie system. Ten of the fifteen MechWarriors of the company cited 'family reasons' and a need to return home to the Free Worlds League. The other five did not part friends with their mates, but looked around quickly for a way to keep their contract. That contract was snapped up by the Down & Dirty, the remains of a security force who had pooled their funds to go mercenary. The decision was made during R&R on Kooken's Pleasure Pit; the unit's funds were just about exhausted, but they'd kept in training by staging mock battles and charging admission to the jaded pleasure seekers who flock to The Pit. Just in time to pay their repair bill before BattleTechnic sold their 'Mechs, the D&Ders got the contract from the Dixie system, who needed a garrison at a month's notice. The fact that Jenner pilot Armando Cabreras, former Doomsayer, was a schoolmate of Julius Ostrocsky, XO of the D&D, has nothing to do with it, of course. Yet the D&Ders' strength was increased by five before the contract was signed... One unit down, three new ones formed. Which of these will be the next generation's legendary heroes, which will fall to financial trouble or bandit raids, and which will end in obscurity? Back to BattleTechnology 21 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1994 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com