Wolf’s Dragoons. Their name is legend, even though their career has not been as long as so many others. Their name has brought reactions of fear, dread, revulsion, and hatred from their detractors, while others have given only their respect, admiration, and awe. They came to us cloaked in mystery, served the Great Houses as elite mercenaries, all the while spying for invaders yet to come. Yet when the invasion came, they sided with the Inner Sphere, their disguise becoming their reality, and their purpose irrevocably changed by the passage of time. And though some called them renegades, bandits, and traitors, they survived as one of the best fighting forces in the Inner Sphere—even the horrors of the Jihad could not destroy them utterly.

But what are the Wolf’s Dragoons of today, more than six decades after the terrible Siege of Outreach, where over half this legendary force died beneath the onslaught of the Blakist Jihad? To find the answer, I visited Zanderij, current baseworld of the Dragoons, and hooked up with members of the famous Black Cats battalion, as they prepared for operations on the disputed world of Great X. Following the exploits of this elite mercenary command in battle against the Jade Falcons, it quickly became clear that, for all the tragedy of the Jihad, Wolf’s Dragoons has lost none of its legendary bite….

“After [the Battle of] Luthien, we just weren’t the same,” says Major Donatello Lambert, executive officer of the Black Cats and my guide on this excursion. “Sure, the Dragoons took contracts and fought for other governments, but our focus had broadened. We were a guiding light to other mercenaries. Outreach, our home, was drawing in a lot more mercs for hire after Galatea had fallen from grace. To the Inner Sphere folks, now united against the Clans, we were the friendly experts on the enemy. Some folks figured we’d even form our own state one day; maybe quit professional soldiering for good.

“Of course, it didn’t quite work out that way….”

In the first volleys of the Jihad, Outreach was assaulted by a massive Word of Blake force. Harlech, the capital city of the mercenary trade, was reduced to ruins. The Dragoons’ industrial base, on the continent of Remus, was annihilated. Of the three regiments of gathered forces on Outreach the day the Jihad began, less than one, comprised of several shattered commands, got out. They found sanctuary among the Exiled Wolves on Arc-Royal for a time, coming home in a strange and different way, to rebuild, but the power the Dragoons once had was shattered for a very long time.

Today, the Dragoons are not far from the world that saved them from the abyss, serving under contract to House Steiner’s Lyran Commonwealth. From Zanderij, the Dragoons undertake missions against the Falcon forces that continue to claim five border worlds in a no-man’s land of conflict that ranges from Great X to Dustball. The fighting here has been bad in recent months, with repeated clashes all but destroying the planetary governments in contest. Every week seems to bring a change in the flags that fly over their capital buildings.

For the Black Cats Battalion, this day sees their first action against the Falcons for this contract. The target: a Falcon command and control center in the planet’s northern hinterlands, recently established after the Clan’s recent recapture of Great X. Though a straightforward mission, nothing is left to chance; the assault is expected to serve as the vanguard of a Steiner assault. Thus, with practiced professionalism and the efficiency that comes only from decades of experience, the battle plans are drawn up. Secondary objectives identified, troops are armed and outfitted for action. For most mercenary commands, the job might be done in transit, or delay their departure by as much as two weeks, but the Dragoons are prepared in three days. Just eight days later, the Black Cats arrive through a pirate point in the Great X system.

The assault on Great X is an exercise in precision. Dragoons’ aerospace, less than three hours ahead of the main strike force, advances and eliminates satellite networks and ground-based radar and comm centers, assuring their comrades a clear landing zone. Once down, the Dragoons DropShips deploy a full company of ’Mechs and twice as many armored units. A section of artillery also masses to guard the makeshift command center formed by a trio of grounded vessels. The Falcons, naturally, move quickly.

The Falcon warriors are fierce, but their support is minimal. Recognizing the opposition, they offer and grant no quarter. There are no rules of engagement, but the Dragoons have their foe at a disadvantage in numbers. Flanked by their armored units, with fast hovercraft making an end run to strike at the rear, the Dragoons’ ’Mechs slug it out with their Falcon counterparts on the rolling plains near the objective. Non-combatants were not allowed into the field, and I could only watch the action relayed back to the command center through the massive holotank on the DropShip Jaime Wolf. In less than a minute, the Falcons’ reinforced Trinary is broken, forced into retreat with only a Star of ’Mechs still mobile. The fight is costly, nonetheless, with four MechWarriors and five vehicle crews lost in exchange for this quick victory.

Even as the remaining, battle-worthy Dragoons advance to take out the objective itself, their recovery teams scramble to the field, picking over the wreckage to haul back choice salvage. Surviving warriors, from both sides, will receive medical care, and any prisoners taken stand a good chance of being “absorbed” by the Dragoons.

“We still hold to our roots,” Lambert says when asked about the absorption process. “In keeping with Clan custom, warriors captured in battle may be taken on board as bondsmen, able to earn a slot in the Dragoons later on, if they’re good enough. Mind you, most resist, and so we have to turn them over to our employers for eventual ransoming or repatriation, but a few—mostly Clan, of course—find the option of being a bondsman easier to swallow, since it allows the chance they may see combat again….”

Hard fought, well planned in advance, the battle ends almost anticlimactically, with the last pair of Dragoons ’Mechs arriving back at the base just before local sunset, sporting new scars from the recent fighting. Another mission is now complete, with enough salvage to make up for the loss in material, if not in men.

Tasked with holding their objective, the Dragoons remain on Great X another week, relieved only after the arrival of fresh Lyran troops, but by that point, the Black Cats can once more claim full readiness, having spent their days repairing their damages and eliminating other pockets of Falcon resistance in the region. For House Steiner, the gains are immeasurable, allowing the reclamation of Great X, if only for a short while, and for the Dragoons, it is further proof that they remain one of the Inner Sphere’s most fearsome and effective combat forces.

I’m Ravi Juro, INN special correspondent, Zanderij.