("Clan Snord")
![[Snord's Irregular's Logo]](si.gif)
Rhonda Snord's Irregulars
("Clan Snord")
Experience: Elite. Loyalty: fanatical. 3058 Employer: FC, but possibly Steiner.
Khan Kerlin Ward of Clan Wolf knew that the Clans would one day
move to fulfill what the Crusaders felt was their destiny, to
invade the Inner Sphere and re-establish the Star League. Khan
Ward felt that the timing was not right, and that the mission of
the Crusading Clans was not proper.
When the Great Debate came to a head within the Grand Council of
the Clans, Khan Ward offered a compromise. He proposed that five
regiments of warriors be sent into the Inner Sphere to gather
intelligence and to test the mettle of its forces. Equipped with
retro-fitted technology and posing as mercenaries, they would be
able to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the Inner Sphere
governments. For Khan Ward, it was a gamble, designed to buy the
Inner Sphere time. For the Inner Sphere, it was the birth of a
legend, the coming of Wolf's Dragoons.
For
the most part, the Dragoons were freebirth warriors, considered
inferior by the Clans to the genetically born truebirths. Clan
Wolf had a large number of freebirth warriors, more than enough
to form the five regiments of Wolf's Dragoons. It was a good way
to discard troublemakers and those freebirths who would not
conform to the rigid dictates of Clan society.
One
of these was Cranston, a warrior who took the surname of Snord as
part of his cover for the mission. A strong freebirth warrior of
exceptional fighting ability, Cranston clearly was uncomfortable
within Clan society. Born the only child of a Merchant Caste
family, he worked hard to earn a position in the Warrior Caste's
lower levels. He was vastly skilled in combat, yet he often
balked at Clan rules and traditions.
Snord
was fascinated with the Star League, and his constant study of
the government, military, and artifacts from that ear bothered
many of his fellow warriors. To the relief of many, Cranston was
given orders to accompany Jaime and Joshua Wolf on their mission.
Jaime Wolf both admired and disliked the misfit. He felt that the
warrior had great prowess in combat, but was sure that Cranston's
nonconforming attitude was destined to cause trouble.
Striking
a last blow for eccentricity, Cranston insisted that his young
daughter Rhonda be attached to the mission. Such father/child
relationships among the Warrior Caste were rare, and many
considered these relationships to be abominations. However,
despite her father's unorthodox approach to training and warfare,
Rhonda grew up to be a skilled MechWarrior in her own right.
After considerable deliberation, Jaime met with Cranston and
devised a plan to make use of his unique talents and abilities.
While Wolf's Dragoons would begin their Inner Sphere service with
House Davion, Cranston and a smaller team would approach House
Steiner and gain service there, forming their own mercenary unit.
This unit would be composed mostly of Inner Sphere natives, and
would act as additional eyes and ears for the Dragoons. In
particular, they were to search for buried treasure. The Star
League Defense Forces had left behind hundreds of hidden military
bases. The Exodus fleet had maintained records of where many
complexes and caches were hidden, but many other records had been
lost during the more violent years of the Clans' formation. Most
of these bases, known and unknown, had been discovered by the
warring houses, but the Wolf brothers were sure that others still
existed undiscovered.
After Wolf's Dragoons appeared in the Inner Sphere on 11 April
3005, Cranston Snord was with them, commanding a battalion of
BattleMechs in the Epsilon Regiment. Following Colonel Wolf's
orders, Cranston devised an excuse for Wolf to dismiss him from
the Dragoons. In Jaime Wolf's own words, "I'm giving you
enough rope to hang yourself, so do it right."
An opportunity presented itself in the raid on Halloran in early
3006. Cranston Snord ordered his battalion to attack a Liao
outpost for the sole purpose of recovering a rare meerschaum pipe
collection. His action infuriated the other warriors of the
Dragoons, and provided sufficient grounds for his ouster.
Jaime Wolf publicly berated the MechWarrior and angrily
discharged him from the Dragoons. With one strike, Cranston had
proven himself a skilled warrior, given birth to tales of his
eccentricity, and added to the reputation of Wolf's Dragoons as
an elite mercenary unit. Adopting the guise of a fanatical
collector, Snord began the meandering journey that would lead to
a bar on Crossing and the legendary poker game of 3007, where he
won his first independent unit.
This
time, Cranston continued to pursue the mission Colonel Wolf had
given him. His year's research indicated that several
undiscovered Star League caches were located near the Lyran
Commonwealth/Free Worlds League border. His transfer of the
Irregulars to this border gave him ready access to the scouting
and research information he was likely to need.
Over
the years, Cranston Snord's Irregulars continued actions against
the Free Worlds League, earning the hatred of that state, and
finding their share of rare antiques and Star League era
BattleMechs, which they cached under their museum on Clinton.
Weathering a Free Worlds League raid which destroyed their museum
and captured their treasures.
In
seeming contrast to his youthful energy, Cranston Snord suffered
a severe heart attack in the spring of 3034. Later that same
year, Jake Walmar, still suffering from wounds he received during
the Fourth Succession War, retired from active duty to become
librarian of the Irregulars' museum on Clinton. Winston Nearon
also stepped down from the ranks, devoting much of his time to
helping Cranston recover and to refinishing and repairing his
vast collection of weaponry. The heart attack forced Snord to use
a cane. His days in the cockpit of a BattleMech were slipping
away. Several other original Irregulars, including Clame McDonald
and John Malvinson, mustered out the following year. They were
replaced by MechWarriors Rhonda recruited through her contacts in
the LCAF. In keeping with the tradition her father established,
Rhonda enlisted only the boldest and most interesting warriors
for the ranks of the Irregulars.
Within
two weeks of the Clans' first verified contact with the Inner
Sphere, Jaime Wolf met with Cranston and Rhonda to discuss
whether the Dragoons and the Irregulars would help protect the
Inner Sphere or fulfill their mission. He personally conveyed to
them the recall order issued by the Grand Council of the Clans.
Both Cranston and Rhonda refused to acknowledge the order,
claiming more loyalty to the Inner Sphere than to their heritage
in the Clan. The location of lost Star League facilities and
other information Snord had uncovered in the past 40 years was
communicated across Wolfnet, and many of the old bunkers and
complexes were refitted and revitalized by Dragoon operatives for
use in the upcoming war.
As
the weeks passed, it became painfully clear that the Clans would
continue their push deep into the Federated Commonwealth,
Rasalhague, and the Draconis Combine, riding a wave of death and
destruction. As the Jade Falcons pressed forward into the
Commonwealth, the front line approached the Dark Nebula.
A
Star League naval base had for centuries been rumored to be
hidden in the Dark nebula. Cranston and Jake Walmar had found
several references to such a base, but had never uncovered
coordinates for the rumored facility. As Cranston continued to
study the maps, he realized that if the facility existed, it
would offer an excellent base for a counterattack against the
flank of the Clans' offensive. Cranston and Jake traveled to the
libraries on Derf and Wotan, known for their archives of Star
League atlases and star charts. Although they did not locate the
coordinates for the base, they did learn that the SLDF had set up
a special astronomical survey station on the northern continent
of the planet Apollo. After gaining the information they needed
on Apollo, the Irregulars set off to find Camelot Command in the
Dark Nebula.
As
Rhonda leaned over the reconnaissance tech's shoulder, the
Harrier arrived in a small system. A red dwarf star eerily
shrouded in a haze of flowing stellar dust, provided dim light.
The tech located a small, rotating planetoid with only a scant
atmosphere clinging to its surface. Magnifying a visual scan,
Rhonda saw it was black and pitted with the scars of time. Stark
white lines of concrete etched its surface. Aged turrets poked up
from the surface. On its eastern horizon she saw a massive port,
large enough to dry-dock one of the Clan's old Black Lion class
battleships. As the Harrier approached, she recognized a
100-meter-long Cameron Star painted on the concrete equator.
As
the Jade Falcon forces approached, following them from Apollo,
Rhonda prepared her defenses, whittling down the Clan forces
until Star Colonel Damon, bloody and beaten, conceded victory to
the Irregulars and turned over the remaining Jade Falcon warriors
and equipment, declared as isorla for the battle.
Following
the truce of Tukayyid, Colonel Rhonda Snord requested permission
from the Federated Commonwealth on several occasions to launch
raids into the Clan Jade Falcon occupation zone, but the
Commonwealth has so far refused. Instead, the Federated
Commonwealth asked the Irregulars to split their forces, leaving
half on Camelot and stationing one battalion on Edasich to defend
that world's fusion reactor manufacturing facility. Semi-retired
Cranston Snord also led a lance of Irregulars back to Clinton,
the unit's former base. Rhonda Snord finds the unit's current
status as garrison forces frustrating, but has so far managed to
wait patiently for a more exciting assignment.
Camelot
Command remains a fortified Inner Sphere outpost in the middle of
Clan territory, much like Wolcott in the Clan Smoke Jaguar
occupation zone. Though its small size limits anti-Clan activity
staged from it to minor raiding, the station resupplies countless
guerrilla activities in the Jade Falcon occupation zone. Recent,
widespread rumors claim that Snord's Irregulars are attempting to
recruit warriors among Clan solahma refugees and elements of the
Bandit Caste. Colonel Snord denies the rumors but admits to
making contacts in the Clan occupation zone on worlds controlled
by both Clans Jade Falcon and Steel Viper. Wolfnet believes that
this contact amounts to simple intelligence gathering for another
raid Colonel Snord intends to propose.
The
current political tensions threatening Federated Commonwealth
unity propose to sorely test the Irregular's strong,
long-established ties to the Lyran Commonwealth. Though both
Snords feel fiercely loyal to their long-time employers, Snord's
Irregulars possess a keen understanding of the Clan threat,
matched only by Wolf's Dragoons. Having renounced their Clan
ties, they may decide that their ultimate duty to protect the
entire Inner Sphere from that threat outweighs any debt they owe
to any given political faction.
Reorganized
after the Jade Falcon raid on Camelot Command in 3051, Snord's
Irregulars currently maintain a rotating troop assignment. In
order to more easily integrate her Jade Falcon bondsmen, Rhonda
Snord changed her unit's structure from Inner Sphere companies to
Clan Clusters and Trinaries. The First Cluster and Binary Bravo
of the Second Cluster, roughly equivalent to a battalion and a
company, are stationed on Camelot Command in the Dark Nebula. The
remaining three Trinaries of the Second Cluster, comprising the
original three companies of Irregulars and their support platoons
commanded by Colonel Rhonda Snord, protect Federated Commonwealth
assets on Edasich. Rhonda rotates her forces to coincide with the
irregularly scheduled Federated Commonwealth supply runs into the
Dark Nebula, making it impossible for the Clans to discover what
forces defend Camelot at any given time.
Command Star
5 BattleMechs
Trinary Alpha (Star Commander Harris)
Sweep Star (5 BattleMechs)
Strike Star (5 BattleMechs)
Attack Star (5 BattleMechs)
Trinary Bravo (Star Commander Marcos Shake)
Attack Star (5 BattleMechs)
Breaker Star (5 BattleMechs)
Anchor Star (5 BattleMechs)
Binary Alpha (Elemental Star Commander Holly)
Shield Star (5 Elemental Points)
Sky Star (5 Fighters)
Command Star
5 BattleMechs
Binary Alpha (Star Commander Darrell Lanst)
Fire Support Star (5 BattleMechs)
Streak Star (5 BattleMechs)
Binary Bravo (Star Commander Arian Malvinson)
Ranger Star (5 BattleMechs)
Stealth Star (5 BattleMechs)
Trinary Alpha (Star Commander Norris)
Crusher Supernova (5 BattleMechs, 5 Elemental Points)
Ground Assault Star (2 BattleMechs, 3 Infantry Points)
Barrage Star (5 BattleMechs)
2 Union Class DropShips: Scavenger I and II
1 Overlord Class DropShip: Graceland
5 Clan Broadsword Class DropShips (Captured):
Emerald Warrior, Hound Dog, Iron Honor, Snord's Anvil, Dispatcher
Rhonda Snord - Highlander - "Heavy Metal" painted on
Gauss Rifle, speakers on outside of mech
Arnold Ling - Kintaro - Front painted to look like the front of a
19th Century steam locomotive
Dennis Maltesta - Excalibur - red diamond painted on center torso
w/ Irregular's logo in the middle
Anthony Pryor - Lancelot - SLDF paint scheme w/ 146th Royal logo
Cyndos Thomlinson - Mercury - Jack of Spaides in the rught side
of the cockpit
Sharonus Wayne - Spartan - "Atomic Doll" in pink under
the cockpit winshield
Not much has changed for the Irregulars. With the Refusal War having sapped the strength of Clan Jade Falcon, that Clan's concerns are in rebuilding, not pursuing what it considers to be a band of pirates. Once that Clan has recovered, however, Rhonda Snord's Irregulars is bound to be at the top of Clan Jade Falcon and Marthe Pryde's hit list.
In the meantime, Rhonda Snord will be training her unit and continuing to make contacts in the Clan occupation zone on worlds controlled by both Clans Jade Falcon and Steel Viper. The Irregulars are eager to gain a chance to finally strike back at Clan Jade Falcon and commence raids on their possessions in the Inner Sphere. Again, we believe that this contact amounts to simple intelligence gathering for another raid Rhonda Snord intends to propose to her employer. With the current weakened state of the Jade Falcons, Snord is more likelier than ever to strike at the Clan.
1643 Rhonda's Irregulars (c)1991
HELP, HELP ME, RHONDA!
In 3007, Cranston Snord's Irregulars emerged from the winnings of
a poker game. Under the command of Cranston Snord, an officer
disgraced and discharged from Wolf's Dragoons, the Irregulars
gained a reputation for unorthodox tactics and a fetish for
collecting lost artifacts and treasures. Now, 43 years later,
Cranston has given his daughter Rhonda active command of the
Irregulars. Under her leadership, the Irregulars have grown in
size and reputation.
The Federated Commonwealth command used the Irregulars against
House Marik with satisfying results, and they looked the other
way when the Irregulars went collecting. Now, the battered
Federated Commonwealth wants the Irregulars to conduct raids into
Clan-held territory.
The Irregulars are willing to take on the Clans, but they have
another objective in mind; a Star League naval base believed to
be deep inside Clan-held territory.
Rhonda's Irregulars is a BattleTech scenario pack chronicling the
Irregulars' history from Cranston's discharge from Wolf's
Dragoons, to their actions in the Fourth Succession Wars, to
their battles, including Operation Merlin, the Irregulars' foray
into Clan territory. Also included are new 'Mechs and vehicles
used by the Irregulars, unit rosters, and personnel files.